#ryan sprinting onto the field!!

[archie-gray]

look at how they jump over & out of their seats!!!!!!

[krakenbait]

olympic update: weekend edition

Hi everyone, sorry for the lack of update yesterday and the supreme delay today. But on the bright side, this is a two-for-one, so enjoy this Olympics weekend update!

olympic update: 2/12

Age is just a number, but so is 2! That’s the amount of gold medals snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis now has, 16 years after she missed out on her chance for gold in Torino. Jacobellis, 36, won the mixed team snowboard cross event with Nick Baumgartner, 40, giving Baumgartner his first Olympic medal and proving that these two veterans can keep up with their younger competitors.

Ice dance’s short program, the rhythm dance, was Friday night. Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France, four-time world champions, broke their own world record for score in rhythm dance with a 90.83. They held a comfortable lead of almost two points over their nearest opponents, Russia’s Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov. Americans Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue were in third and Madison Chock and Evan Bates were in fourth.

Johannes Boe of Norway won gold in the men’s 15km  biathlon sprint.

ROC won cross country skiing gold in the women’s 4x5km relay.

In curling, the American men defeated Norway, while the American women lost to Great Britain.

Hannah Neise of Germany won gold in women’s skeleton, because the Germans are damn good at sliding sports. Seriously! They have gold in all six skeleton and luge events. But Jaclyn Narracott of Australia, a country not really known for being icy, snagged a silver medal.

Marius Lindvik of Norway won gold in men’s large hill ski jumping. Because the Norwegians are good at anything on skis.

Gao Tingyu of China defeated South Korean rival Min-Kyu Cha in the men’s 500m speedskating.

With a slow sports night, some other fun stories emerged, like that of the band of bagpipers who give a soundtrack to the curling matches. I have my own personal gripes about bagpipes (runs back to a high school marching band rivalry with an obnoxious, kilt-wearing, bagpipe-playing band), but the Chinese amateurs who “just like bagpipes” playing at Olympic curling matches is pretty fun.

olympic update: 2/13

Erin Jackson won gold in the women’s 500m speedskating this morning, becoming the first African American woman to medal and winning Team USA’s first speed skating medal in Beijing, as well as the first individual speedskating medal won by an American since the 2010 Vancouver Games.

After handily defeating China and streaking past the Canadians in a 4-2 game, the US men’s hockey team beat Germany 3-2 to finish out a perfect preliminary round. And for the young American team without any NHL players, that’s about as good as they could ask for. We’ll have to see if it takes them to the podium or not.

Who would’ve thought that snow during the Winter Olympics would be weird? Beijing is cold, but it doesn’t get much snow. Suddenly, a snowstorm came in on Saturday and Sunday that dropped fresh powder onto the ski and snowboard slopes in Zhangjiakou, plus some flurries in Beijing and Yanqing, that disrupted some events, like the women’s freestyle skiing big air, but others, like alpine skiing and biathlon went on.

Let’s talk about that alpine skiing, with the men’s giant slalom. If you watched it on TV last night, you know how terrible visibility was. The skiers said it hampered their speed and technique, and nearly half of the field skied out in the first run, including American Ryan Cochran-Siegle. But some still made it through with their speed intact. Marco Odermatt of Switzerland finished with a combined time of 2:9.35, 22 hundredths of a second faster than the silver medalist, Zan Kranjec of Slovenia. Mathieu Faivre of France took the bronze.

Similar deal with biathlon in the snow. Some athletes seemed to thrive. Marte Olsbu Roeiseland of Norway won her third gold medal of the Beijing Olympics, and fourth medal overall, in the women’s biathlon 10-kilometer pursuit race. And Quentin Fillon Maillet of France won his second gold of the Games in the corresponding men’s race, the 12.5-kilometer pursuit, by hitting all 20 of his targets despite howling wind.

ROC won the men’s 4x10km cross-country skiing relay.

In curling, the American women lost to Sweden and the American men defeated China.

The Netherlands won gold in the women’s 3000m short track speedskating relay, because the Dutch are damn good at speedskating.

Shaoang Liu of Hungary won gold in men’s 500m short-track speedskating.

Canadian-turned-American Kailie Humphries is in the lead after two runs in monobob, the essentially-DIY one-woman bobsled competition. The other, actual American, Elana Meyers Taylor, was in fourth. They’ll finish up their runs tonight.

Kamila Valiyeva’s case with the Court of Arbitration for Sport is currently underway. The result of this hearing will determine whether or not she can compete in the women’s singles event, and potentially if there are any consequences for Russia and the ROC, who can’t seem to remember not to do drugs.

Here’s tonight’s watch list, for in between and after the Super Bowl (times in EST as usual): 

Women’s curling- USA vs South Korea (8:05 pm)

Figure skating: ice dance- free dance (starts 8:15 pm)

Monobob bobsled runs 3 & 4 (8:30 & 10 pm)

Snowboarding- women’s big air qualifiers (8:30 pm)

Freestyle skiing- women’s slopestyle qualifiers (9 pm)

Women’s hockey- Canada vs. Switzerland (11:10 pm)

Snowboarding- men’s big air qualifiers (12:30 am)

Friday’s funny photo of the day was of skier Sarah Schleper, competing for Mexico, rejoicing after completing her super-G run. Best captions were:

“Camel pose in yoga finally paid off”

“Praying to the turnip gods”

“me getting ready to sacrifice a lamb to jupiter and ready the entrails for omens”

Here’s today’s funny photo. Send in a caption for a chance to get a shoutout in tomorrow’s update!

Medal count as of this morning is below. Apologies if I missed anything from this weekend, we’ll be back on our regular schedule of morning updates starting tomorrow. Have a great rest of your day everyone!

tag list: @washyourdamnhands @sonnymilano @18minutemajor @ethan-bears @cadopan @howsimplemyheart​ 

and a thank you to everyone who’s been reading and enjoying these!

[bergarachan]

Maid | Chapter 03

chapter 1 |  chapter 2 | read on ao3

Ship: Shyan Rating: M Trigger Warnings: talk about dead relatives and pets, Ryan saying no(?) (but not meaning no). tell me if i missed anything! Chapter Summary: Ryan’s first full day on the job. co-written with the lovely @the-mad-glitterempress!

Ryan’s alarm rung loud and clear at 6am sharp. He groaned for a moment, slapping the top of the alarm clock with his hand.Opening his eyes, instead of seeing his bedroom back home, he saw silk curtains and old paintings, and immediately realized where he was. He gasped in excitement. This was his first full day on the job! 

Suddenly wide awake, Ryan practically sprung out of bed, rushing to the closet to put something on. He suddenly remembered the attire he had to wear, and put it on, this time without hesitation. Looking in the mirror, he flushed. He wasn’t used to wearing feminine clothing every day, but, even though he didn’t want to admit it, he’d wear it every day if it meant seeing Shane and getting well-paid. 

After fixing and straightening his hair, brushing his teeth and slipping on some shoes, he dashed down to the kitchen in a hurried frenzy, messing up his hair anyways, his dark, soft bangs falling back onto his forehead.

Steven was there waiting for him, preparing what smelled like waffles and eggs. He smiled, a tired smile since he most likely had to get up earlier than Ryan.

“Good morning, Ryan.”

Ryan smiled back at Steven. “Good morning.”

“Shane usually wakes up around seven. Right now, it’s…” Steven checked the clock above the kitchen window, “six-thirty. Shane is free to do whatever he wants until lunchtime, and after lunchtime he has a tutoring session.”

“When is lunchtime?” Ryan asked, coming up to stand next to Steven, watching him mix batter for the waffles.

“At around 12:30. Can you keep him occupied until then?”

“That I can do, Steven.” Ryan smiled to himself, remembering last night and the things Shane told him he wanted to do. “Would you like me to set the table?”

Steven nodded, “That would be lovely, thank you. The plates and cups are in there,” He pointed to a cupboard in the corner of the kitchen.

Ryan said, “Thank you, sir,” and went to fetch two plates and two glasses, rushing over to the dining room table and setting the table for him and Shane. The sun was shining through the windows and he was humming a jolly tune, this would be his first breakfast with Shane. He wasn't yet sure what to make of the other boy, he seemed awfully bored in his house but Ryan was sure that he could change that. 

After setting the table, Ryan found himself perfecting the centerpieces a  pretty bouquet of pink flowers and a few candles,  and making sure everything looked nice and orderly. Just like that, seven rolled around and he heard a “Ryan?” coming from the door to the dining room. Ryan looked up,(from where he was leaning over the table to reach a stray petal) and it was Shane, looking handsome if a bit red in a navy button-down and black slacks. Ryan had to physically keep himself from staring as Shane sat down. Ryan sat down beside him, and they shared a small smile.

“Good morning, sir,” Ryan greeted him, “how was your night?”

Shane sniffed. “It was fine,” He said simply. Ryan was about to ask a bit more, but Steven entered the room with two plates of waffles and strawberries.

“Good morning, sir. I made waffles today.” Steven said to Shane, setting the plates in front of Ryan and Shane, as well as a coffee pitcher and two off-white mugs. It smelled amazing, and judging by the way Shane’s eyes lit up at the food in front of him, he thought so too.

“Thank you, Steven,” The boys said in unison, and Steven smiled at them.

“No problem,” He replied, “You boys enjoy your breakfast!”

“We will,” said Shane, already stuffing his face with waffle, “Thanks!” And with that, Steven exited the room, leaving the maid and his master alone.

“So…” Ryan tried to start a conversation, “We’ll be going outside today after breakfast.” He took a bite of the waffle before he said anything additional and stupid. Oh, wow, that’s a good fucking waffle. Steven knew what he was doing. He let out a slight moan at the delightful taste. He noticed Shane staring at him with an unreadable expression on his face. “What?” Ryan asked, feeling embarrassed. “It’s good!”

The beginnings of a small chuckle escaped from Shane’s mouth. “I’m not blaming you. Steven’s good.”

The rest of breakfast passed by delightfully, and Shane and Ryan cleared their plates. Finally, it was time to go outside. 

“Is there any specific place you’d like to go?” Ryan asked. Last night in his room, he’d noticed his window revealed the expanse of the Madej property. It was… really big. It looked like a dream. An abandoned shed or two, ponds, creeks, forestland, fields. He understood then why Shane liked to go outside so much. 

At Ryan’s words, Shane’s eyes brightened. “There’s a shed where I keep all my art supplies out on the field in the backyard. Can we go there?”

“We can go wherever you want to, sir.” Ryan reminded him, and Shane smiled brightly. Something tightened in Ryan’s chest. That lop-sided, catlike smile would get to him every damn time.

“Then what the hell are we waiting for? Let’s go!” Shane grabbed Ryan’s hand, and he led him out the door. Ryan blushed at the contact; Shane’s hand was large (very, very large) and warm. As soon as the two reached the back door, Shane started into a sprint.

“Sha-? Woah!” Ryan yelped as they took off, running past fields of pretty white baby’s breath, pink begonias, and violets. Past the soothing sound of a shallow creek running over pebbles. Past magnificent, grand trees with branches the inner kid in Ryan ached to climb on, and large, tall grass. Past birds nests, rabbit holes, and Ryan swore he saw a doe or two.

After what felt like a century of running, Shane finally stopped, and let go of Ryan’s hand. “Here we are,” Shane announced proudly, and once Ryan caught his breath he looked up and his eyes widened.

The shed was fairly small, but built sturdily with light oak wood. It was surrounded by trees and grass and moss lined the ground surrounding the wooden structure. Ryan was positive that if fairies existed, they’d make their home in Shane’s backyard. It was absolutely lovely. 

“Do you like it?” Shane asked, and Ryan immediately nodded.

“Shane,” He whispered, and then cleared his throat to speak louder, “This is gorgeous. This whole place, I mean.” He gestured to the forestry around them. Birds chirped happily in the distance as Ryan admired the scene one more time. Shane looked pleased at Ryan’s reaction.

“Let’s go in the shed, I can bring out my easel and paints.” He said, and Ryan followed him as he unlocked a lock (most likely to keep out trespassers, although they were fairly far back into the property so he doubted anybody would even find the shed) and opened the door to the inside. He turned on a switch, making a lightbulb hanging from the roof flicker a couple times before finally lighting up into a dim glow.

It seemed to feel bigger on the inside. There were boxes labeled “paints”, “pastels”, “brushes”, “paper”, and more. There was an old-looking easel, the wood of it splattered with different colors of dried paint from past use. There were multiple beautiful paintings taped onto the walls.

“Ryan,” Shane asked, “Could you please bring the box that says ‘paints’ outside, please?”

“Yes, sir.” Ryan answered obediently, and went to pick up the box. He carefully brought the box outside, setting it down on the grass as Shane tried to maneuver the easel out the door. Ryan watched for a couple moments; he felt awkward just watching Shane do the work for him. He dashed to the door to help him out, “Sir, let me help you.” He grabbed ahold of the easel, his hands brushing Shane’s as he did so. 

���No, I, that’s okay-”

“It's fine, Sir, I can help-”

Ryan and Shane stared at each other for a moment, the awkward tension building, before Ryan sighed and dropped the easel on his master’s orders. “You can do it,” He mumbled, embarrassed, and Shane flashed him a smug smile as he carried the easel the rest of the way out the door. He set it down next to the box of paints, and put his hands on his hips.

“I think I’m going to paint the shed surrounded by all the trees and flowers,” Shane said. He thought for a moment. “Oh, Ryan, do you want to be in my painting?”

Ryan blinked, surprised at his request. “Oh, would you mind?”

Shane shook his head. “Nope. I want to paint you.”

Ryan blushed. “I’m bad at staying still for an extended period of time,” He said bashfully, running a hand through his dark hair, “So I don’t know if you’ll be able to paint me.”

Shane shrugged. “That’s fine. I can just get a feel for how you look. Can you come here for a moment?”

“Yes, sir,” Ryan obeyed, waking closer to Shane so they were about two feet apart.”

“Closer. I have to be able to see you. I forgot my glasses.” Shane laughed, and Ryan giggled a little too before taking a small step closer. “Closer.” Ryan was hesitant, but he obeyed. “Closer.”  Ryan wanted to say something, but he didn’t want to make anything awkward, so he obeyed once again. Shane and Ryan were now only a couple inches apart. Ryan really hoped Shane couldn’t hear his heart practically thrumming out of his chest.

Shane stared at him intently for a few moments, before his large hands came up to hold Ryan’s face. Ryan gasped. “S-sir? What’re you doing?” He asked, trying his best to not make his own voice shake. 

“I need to… look at your face. Feel it. To get a feel for its structure. If you don’t want me to touch you, i’ll stop right now ?” Ryan shook his head  and with that, Shane started to rub his thumbs along Ryan’s cheeks, running his fingers along Ryan’s forehead, his eyelids, his jawline, and Ryan softly gasped, his lips parting ever so slightly at the soft touch. Shane took that as an invitation to sweep his thumb over Ryan’s bottom lip, making him turn beet red. He hoped Shane didn’t notice. He seemed very interested in Ryan’s face, as if he was a book with several layers, and he was trying to figure out the hidden metaphors. He was touching him as if he was precious, and delicate. All Ryan could do was whimper as Shane’s deep eyes met Ryan’s. Ryan was vaguely aware he was gazing up at Shane doe-eyed and nervous, and it kind of embarrassed him.

And just like that, the moment went away. Shane’s hands left Ryan’s face, and it took all the power within Ryan to not whimper at the lost contact.

“Alright,” Shane said, clearing his throat, “I’m going to paint now.”

Ryan nodded, rubbing his own cheek and trying to recompose himself, “Okay, Sir. Is there anything you’d like me to do?”

Shane shrugged. “We can just talk,” He offered, starting to mix a couple shades of green on his palette and lightly stroking them onto the page.

“Talk? About what?” Ryan asked. He came and sat by a stump next to Shane’s easel.

Shane shrugged. Ryan decided he’d have to start the conversation himself.

“Did you build that shed?” Ryan asked.

“Yeah, I did.” Shane’s voice was dreamy, like he was reminiscing. “I built it with my mom. We finished it a couple months before she passed away.”

Ryan frowned. “I’m so sorry, Shane.”

Shane shook his head. “Don’t apologize. It’s okay. She… It was when I was 10 years old. A long time ago. She had cancer, and by the time we found out it was too late. Nothing we could do.” He continued to paint.

“What was she like?” Ryan asked, resting his chin on his hand, watching Shane’s face concentrate on the painting. He resisted the urge to sigh dreamily, like a swooning high school girl.

“She was… always looking on the bright side of things. Whenever I was upset, she’d always find something to look forward to or make me feel better. Making her laugh was one of the best feelings in the world. She was so brave, she’d always put herself in situations she didn’t want to be in for the good of me and my brothers, Scott and Finn.” Shane smiled to himself as he painted, his brush moving fluently across the page. “He was kinda like you,” He said, and Ryan almost didn’t hear it because it was so quiet.

Ryan was taken aback by that statement. “What? Why?”

Shane shrugged once again. “You always seem positive. You give off this energetic and eager vibe whenever I’m around you. It’s nice.” He flashes a sweet smile at Ryan, and Ryan wants to die and/or ask Shane to marry him. Ryan flushes, and manages a shaky but wide smile back. This was going amazingly.

The two continued to talk. Ryan felt quite content talking with Shane, all alone, with no Stevens or Mr. Madejs or manors. Just him, his master who he was kinda infatuated with, and the beautiful scenery straight out of a fairytale.

After a little while, Shane sighed wearily and put his brushes on top of the box. “I’ll finish this later. I have someplace I want to show you! I think you’d like it.” He ran a hand through his hair as Ryan stood up.

“Where are we going?” Ryan asked, as the two started to walk. 

“You’ll see!” Shane singsonged. Ryan noticed Shane looked considerably happier than he was yesterday. Being outside must put him in a better mood, Ryan thought to himself. Shane had already started walking in another direction, and Ryan realized he was just standing there like an idiot.

“Are there any animals you can see here?” Ryan asked, catching up to Shane and walking beside him. Shane was so tall, Ryan had to look way, way up to lock eyes with him.

“Actually, yes,” said Shane. “We used to have a dog… Her name was Allie. She was so happy, and she never ran out of energy. I was never really a dog person, but… you know. She made me happy, she made our whole family happy. Her death was… kinda a turning point. Mom started getting sick, there was more fighting, dad was locking himself away more often...” He trailed off, looking down at his feet.

Ryan nodded, frowning. 

“But!” Shane added, “There are a couple stray cats that roam around here. I named one Obi. He’s ginger.” That smile was back on Shane’s face again, and Ryan couldn’t seem to look away. Shane continued to talk about the other cats, birds, chipmunks, and even the two deer he named Butterfly and Tinsley. His eyes sparkled as he spoke, and Ryan was so caught up in his words that he didn’t notice when he tripped on a rock and fell.

Right into the pond.

The cold splash of the pond water awoke him out of his lovesick daze, and Ryan sputtered as he reached the surface, gasping in oxygen. “Fuck!” He cursed himself.

“Ryan!” Shane shouted, and before Ryan knew it Shane’s hands were lifting him up out of the pond. Ryan started to shiver, that water was fucking cold. He squeaked as Shane lifted him up bridal-style and started to carry him back towards the manor. “Sha-Sir, put me down, I’m okay, I’m okay!” He protested, although it was kinda hard to talk through his chattering teeth.

“Nope, no.” Shane shut him down. “We’re going back to the house to dry you off.” Ryan could do nothing but sigh as Shane continued to carry him back.

Ryan was still shivering even after Shane had dragged him into his warm bedroom. The taller boy went into his bathroom and Ryan was left alone to be cold in his wet dress. The fabric was clinging to his skin and the white folds of his dress were turning a light gray from the pond water. Shane came back with a few fluffy white towels in his arms. Ryan took off his dress and Shane offered him one of his hoodies to change into. The soft grey hoodie fits him like a dress and he tugs on the too long sleeves so they wouldn't dangle around.

Shane stepped behind his wet maid and carefully made him sit on the gigantic bed. He kneeled between the boys legs and lifted one up. Slowly his finger wandered up the wet stocking till he finally grasped the lacy top and his fingers grazed the soft warm skin of Ryan's thigh. He stripped Ryan of the stocking, making sure to softly caress Ryans wet skin. Ryan was staring down at his master kneeling before him, Shane was completely focused on his task, “You don't have to do this sir,” but the taller boy ignored him and picked up his other leg, repeating the same process but getting bolder with his ministrations. 

“Nonsense, you’ll freeze to death by yourself” He motioned for Ryan to stand up and turn around, he takes one of the towels on starts drying Ryan's legs.

Ryan wasn’t sure what to think of this: on one hand, it’s his job to take care of Shane. On the other hand, those strong hands massaging his skin felt too good to give up, still he tried to protest. “Sir, you really shouldn't do this,” he whined out, just as Shane’s fingers started massaging his thighs. 

“I really don’t mind.” Shane shushed him, “In fact,” his fingers trailed even higher, “I rather enjoy this. Don’t you?” Shane whispered huskily against Ryan’s golden skin and Ryan can only moan a weak “N-no” as a reply. He flushed bright red as he just realized the downright obscene noise he had just let out. Shane’s fingers clamp into Ryans thighs and the maid almost falls to his knees. He barely manages to stay upright with Shane now massaging the swell of his ass. He was about to finally give in and ask for something, he wasn’t sure what, he just knew he didn't want Shane to stop touching him. He was so focused on Shane’s hands, his touch, his eyes, his fingers, that he almost didn’t notice when Steven barged straight into the room. Ryan gasped loudly, and Shane gripped Ryan’s thighs one last time before getting off of Ryan and looking innocently at Steven, as if he hadn’t just rocked Ryan’s world.

“Uh…” Steven stared for a moment, before blinking and recomposing himself. “Lunch is ready, Mister Shane.”

“Oh, yes,” Shane said. “Thanks, Steven. I’ll be down in a moment.”

Steven nodded, still looking somewhat uncomfortable. He left, shutting the door behind him. Ryan felt like he and Steven were going to have to have a talk about this later.

[neotrinitythinker]

prompt for dr whomst've'yain't've: ryan, yasmin, graham and 13 + late night dinners and bonding

Surprisingly, the cure for escaping the clutches of galactic evil on their own planet; a thousand glares from the embrace of their own time, Ryan finds, is rubbish, unhealthy amounts of fast food.

When he was younger; and back when his mum was still around, and his dad was more reliable, and his nan was... well... -

Whatever Nando's had was always good. Even when Nan had taken him in after everything, she always stopped somewhere for him when she was running errands.

Comfort food seemed to transcend countless timelines. And he wasn't sure what they were eating, but it had come from what looked to be the space version of a bad idea for food.

Compared to other trips with the woman, the day had been tame for them. Having traveled back to somewhere in the 19th century, by Graham's request, having a soft spot it seemed for Victorian England. Or; at least the clothing. Ryan took every chance to half heartedly restrain his chuckles at the ridiculous hat the older man had worn when they found the wardrobe of the TARDIS; taking the piss whenever he could - though, his outfit wasn't any better.

The Doctor hadn't been sure of the exact time they had gone to - Yaz had a few choice words to say to the box that apparently had a mind of its own, and for whatever reason the big blue time machine had, was angry at its - her? - Occupants. But the alien was sure that it was in, as she had called it, a "very cross, and unhelpful mood." With little more explanation.

Though, if he had to wager a guess for the reason behind it - he did drink something, and spill some of it (very small amounts!) onto the console. Ryan mused sheepishly.

But he had cleaned it up!

Wherever and whoever the thing was bought from, he thinks, should give her a refund for the moody machine. Even if The Doctor sometimes stared at it with some kind of timeless devotion.

It could think now. It thinks. It was annoyed. According to The Doctor, it always thought. How bonkers.

What he did know, was, that when each of them had left the (sentient, apparently. how wicked.) TARDIS, the four of them dressed to the nines in dark, period fitting clothing, it hadn't materialized somewhere discreet, not that it ever did, he reckoned.

It hadn't landed in some back alleyway; nor in grassy fields - nor empty plains.

It landed in bloody Kensington Palace.

As they stumbled out of the TARDIS, they also so happened to bump into a freckled, full mooned face girl with clothing that made Ryan think she was some kind of servant.

He's never been in a palace before.

Whoever the startled girl had been, they don't really find out, as she scatters away with urgency in her features. But Graham is already in shambles over their circumstance to begin with.

("Oh - I don't even think the TARDIS is worth as much as that painting - Doctor, will you look at that!")

Despite the worry that they might be considered trespassing - which Ryan hasn't properly expressed yet, mainly due to how in awe he is that he was in Kensington Palace in the 19th century to begin with, The Doctor had taken them on a stroll, avoiding any guards - there weren't that many to begin with; hardly any, and it had not been lost on her.

It had been odd - he certainly noticed her piqued interest over it - heard her think out loud over it, and asked a few wandering people about it in her cheery casualness. But it hadn't been cause for concern.

And then, had come trouble. Because of course, there was always that.

When they had turned the fourth consecutive hallway - the forth one that had zero people in it, (though Ryan had personally thought, that maybe - and this was perfectly reasonable to think when you were in the home of fancy privileged white people - that they were all off, somewhere, in a meeting or crowning or something to that degree) they had managed to finally be greeted by another soul.

More specifically; the soul in question had been Queen Bloody Victoria.

He thinks its her. He's definitely googled her before for enough school projects. Even if she looked older than what normally came up. Maybe a decade older than Graham.

Even more specifically; her full on sprinting form, careful to pick up her flowing silk dress, as she ran from something with green tentacles.

Naturally; even though this is definitely something to book it over - The Doctor springs headfirst into the fire.

The thing - he's never seen it before, he's seen plenty of aliens, plenty of monsters, and he's never seen this, was a creature in between a circular shape; and a square - if that was possible. It was an awkward, kind of horrifying, mix of shapes. It was green - snot kind of green, almost translucent - there was definitely an outline of a crumpled body in it.

Its eyes - entirely and completely plural - there were three dozen from its head (he thinks its a head?) down to its waist (again, probably one) dark, like unforgiving coal that had been broken into harsh bits to where all that it really was, was simply just... color. And like a terror beyond comprehension, it had tentacles screaming out and spread out on its body - it didn't have legs; it seemed to get by on them alone.

Its mouth - he was certain it was a mouth, was unhinged - near a trio of eyes on its now probable face. It looked... like a fog. A ghost of something. There was sharpness - pointy, very pointy - but it was almost hidden.

"Uh - Doc..." Graham had walked backwards - standing his ground but very clearly ready to hear the word "run" from anyone. There was apprehension on his face - like Ryan's and Yaz's, but masked by nervousness and wonder at whatever the hell they were looking at. His hat had inexplicably fallen off his head and sunk pathetically to the lavish spiral carpet.

"Doctor - what's the plan?!" Yasmin had bellowed through the inhuman noise - the thing was making noises now - darting her gaze to the sponge color haired traveler next to her - whose gaze was equally taken aback by the scene - but with an awe.

By now Victoria - should he call her something else? She was - is? in this moment - rich and a product of the 19th century, his morals say no - Victoria has gotten closer to them - enough to bolt past them with a survival instinct he didn't think he'd see from someone who seems to be quite old. The Doctor had instinctively made herself seem bigger; using the hand that didn't have her sonic in it, to shield the five against... the alien, (?) and stare down the creature.

"OI! Oh no you don't Flubber! Get back!" Yelled The Doctor, eyeing the thing. She had briefly glanced back at the four; who hadn't made any new reaction at her statement. She frowned.

"Oh come on fam!" She tried. "Flubber? I'm an alien, I can't be the only one who understands it."

From behind Yaz, Graham had hesitantly raised his hand. "I understood it." He admitted, still watching the steadily approaching creature.

The Doctor's face lit up. "Wasn't it a laugh then? Flubber?" It fell again. "Get it, cause it's green and..." She trailed off at their expressions. "You didn't laugh."

"God Almighty!" The Queen had made herself known again, hysterical in tone, but still firmly with them. "Cease your babbling, you failed jester! Destroy the monster! Get rid of it now!"

The Doctor turned back. "Right! No worries, just my wounded hearts - anyways -"

The Doctor once more lifted her sonic, the other alien having only gotten worrying closer - by now, its jaw had lowered, to where it obscured several of its facial eyes. It let out a screech - distorted, almost electrical, like a bad game in a console; and a pulsing noise filled the air as she pointed it in its direction.

For a second, it seemed like the result was nothing. The pulsing continued and continued. The thing crept closer.

And then it stopped - right in its tracks.

There was a noise; a scream, almost. But it was too distorted to really tell.

And then - whatever it was - had combusted. Totally - and utterly; a symphony of destruction, all at once showering the palace with waves of unknown emerald green goo - splattering against the pristine walls, the portraits and furniture. All of its eyes had not suffered the same fate; they simply vanished. A lone tentacle had landed at Ryan's feet, and he had jumped backwards in shocked disgust.

Despite this it didn't connect with them - all of them; that this had ended right then. Yaz still stared at nothingness - eyebrows furrowed and breaths heard and heavy. Graham was still backing away, and The Doctor still clutched firmly to her screwdriver - as if, waiting. And Ryan kept looking at the intact tentacle.

And, Then.

"Good Lord!" Victoria had stirred beside them. "What in the world was that... that... that thing?!"

This thawed the rest of them. The Doctor swirled on her feet - her bewildered - yet eager expression was present as she kneeled beside Ryan's left foot. Wordlessly, she grabbed the tentacle, keeping it distant as she used her sonic and waved it around every inch of it. She brought it back to her face, and had observed whatever the sonic had said. Afterwards, she retraced her steps, bending down to stuff a finger into one of the piles of goo.

And then she... she licked it.

"Ugh! Doctor!" He groaned, eyes squinting. "That's going to get you the alien equivalent of food poisoning."

"Alien?!" Victoria squealed.

"Huh. Can't tell what this is - or was." The Doctor rose again, the goo still on her finger, dripping. "It's not anything i've seen before. Doesn't taste familiar." Mused The Doctor.

"Lick a lot of aliens then, have you Doc?" Remarked Graham, tired.

"Would someone please tell me what is happening - who are you people - where are my guards, and what is that thing!" Yelled Victoria, again.

The Doctor glanced at her, suddenly beaming as she walked over. "Hi! It beats me!" She said cheerfully. "But you're safe now - I think that thing got to your men, and was looking at you for a nice appetizer. Also, hello! You can't recognize me, but we've met! I think? Depends on what year it is. I don't want to assume, you have just been chased down fearing for your saftey. Are you a werewolf yet?" She finished, not stopping for breath as she smiled pleasantly, stretching her hand out for a shake.

Victoria looked like she swallowed a toad.

"A... wolf..." She began. Her eyes looked to the screwdriver. "Did you say your name... was The Doctor?" Victoria finished slowly.

"Nope! But my friends did." Said The Doctor, who looked suddenly sheepish. "I know I look a bit different since we last met; I got an upgrade! But..."

It all felt surreal after that, Although he couldn't understand why, and even though they had just saved her life, Victoria had threatened, with some bad blood directed mysteriously towards the blonde, to get whatever remaining guards she could find and had, and send the four of them to the Tower of London permanently.

It was after this, that, with Graham staring at her with his mouth open, that The Doctor felt it was best to leave. Quickly. Surprisingly; it was only then that they ran.

[lover-of-many-things]

scoring points on and off the field

Here is a self indulgent soccer Au that I wanted to read, so I wrote it. 

read it on ao3

Word Count: 5.9k

Summary: Hope is the captain of the soccer team. Amy is her nerdy and activist obsessed self. She and Amy just kind of fall into each other--literally.

A small cute Amy x Hope soccer au

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

Hope does lunges down the sideline of the field with the rest of her teammates, warming up before the game. Usually they’d play on the main turf field with the bleachers, but the football team also has a game tonight so their game was moved to one of the support grass fields. Admittedly Hope isn’t too disappointed by this mainly because sliding on turf hurts like a bitch and she’s spent enough of her high school career with turf burn. The only downside is they probably wouldn’t have too many people supporting them, even with it being a home game, since people always seemed to pick football over soccer. It’s not even like the school football team is good either, they have only made it into the playoffs once in Hope’s four years, while the soccer team has made it into the playoffs every year, and last year they were even state runners up. 

Hope adjusts the captain band around her arm pulling it up and letting it slap back against her arm as she leads the team in their warm-up laps, sprints, and stretches. She knows she’s not the most popular person on the team since she can be a bit stand-offish and sometimes a little too focused on the sport, but it’s what makes her a good captain. As long as the team does well, she doesn’t really care if she’s no one’s favorite person. 

They’re on the field doing practice shots when the other team arrives and starts warming up. They’re playing their rivals today, so Hope is a bit nervous--not that she shows it at all. She has to be completely confident in the team as captain. They’ve already played against each other once this season and while they did win, it was only off of a penalty kick. They’re a strong team not to be taken lightly and Hope reminds her team of that in the huddle before the coin toss. She quickly changes from her warm-ups into her jersey, smoothing out the small seventeen on the front.

She jogs out to center field to participate in the coin toss and surveys the crowd as she does. She sees her parents and her teammates’ parents in their usual group. She looks down the sideline to where it’s mostly the opposition sitting and does a double take at a familiar face in the crowd. There, standing in the back of the crowd is Amy Antsler, nerd extraordinaire, standing next to her best friend and class president, Molly Davidson. Hope has English with the duo, though she never interacts with them, and she might have the tiniest crush on Amy. Really you can’t blame her, Amy is cute and she is but a mere lesbian. Hope really is just shocked since she’s never seen Amy at one of their games before, or at any after school activity that she isn’t a part of. 

The captain of the other team calls tails on the toss and gets it wrong, so Hope chooses to start with the ball while the other team picks the side. Hope jogs back to her team huddle where her coach is talking and glances at Amy again. Amy is beet red and looking away from the bench, slapping Molly’s shoulder as the other girl laughs. Hope looks to where Amy was looking and sees Ryan—one of the defenders—has just changed into her jersey. Hope rolls her eyes and stamps down those small tendrils of jealousy to focus on the game. 

“Okay, we all know the deal, just keep focused, calm, and communicate. We’ve beaten them before, we can do it again.” Hope says as the ref calls them onto the field. Hope jogs onto the field with the rest of her teammates and takes her position at center mid. 

The ref blows the whistle and the game kicks off with the Crockets in possession of the ball. Being center mid, Hope is all over the field throughout the entire game helping the strikers connect the ball with the back of the net and going to help the defense to make sure the other team doesn’t score. 

As teams they are pretty evenly matched and seem to be keeping each other at bay. Whenever they have a run with the ball the other team’s defense protects and gets the ball back, and vice versa. 

After 45 minutes the score is still 0-0, half time is called, and Hope is in need of a rest. She jogs over the bench and grabs her water bottle, squirting the water into her mouth. She brings her jersey up to wipe the sweat away from her face, and when she drops it back down she finds Amy’s eyes on her with her jaw slightly slack. Amy quickly moves her gaze to continue surveying the crowd of players, but Hope sees her cheeks blush. Interesting. Hope tilts her head but then joins the huddle of her teammates, continuing get to drink water and stretching to stay warm.

Coach tells them they need to be more aggressive and capitalize on opportunities. Hope can tell a lot of the girls are exhausted; she’s getting there too. There will definitely be subs in the second half but Hope doesn’t hedge her bets in being subbed out unless she’s injured—not that she wants to be. She’s learned to make the most of half-time since that’s one of the only breaks she usually gets in 90 minutes. 

Soon enough, half time is over and they’re walking back out to the switched sides. Hope glances to the crowd and sees the Amy and Molly have made their way to stand along the sideline to watch instead of at the back of the crowd. She gives a small wave of acknowledgement to her parents who cheer loudly as soon as she steps back onto the field. The whistle blows and the game is right back on. They take their coach’s direction and get more aggressive, keeping possession of the ball and making runs whenever possible, and it seems like they’re wearing the rivals down.

Hope is running down the sideline, making herself open for Samantha who currently has possession of the ball. Samantha must see Hope making her run and chips the ball over to her but it’s slightly too high. Hope runs directly toward the sideline in a last ditch effort and jumps, heading the ball and keeping it in, hopefully getting it to one of the strikers.

Hope isn’t too sure where the ball goes though since she has too much momentum and collides with someone on the sideline, taking them both down. Hope pauses for a moment, taking stock of everything, making sure she’s not hurt—and she’s not, beyond some probable bruising. Then Hope focuses on the body below her and realizes she is sprawled on top of a wide-eyed Amy. 

“Sorry Amy,” Hope says knowing she should get to her feet since play definitely did not stop. Hope sees Amy gulp and her eyes flick down to Hope’s lips; she blames that action for what comes out of her mouth next. “We should try this again sometime under different circumstances.” She barely hears the beginning of Amy fumbling for words before she is up on her feet and back on the field, waving away her coach’s concern. 

Her team still has possession—somehow—but they are back in their own half. Hope jogs back enough to be back where the play is and tries to get open. Finally, she gets some space to get open and Amanda passes her the ball. She quick turns, throwing off the player marking her and makes a run back down the field. She feels a defender bearing down on her and glances up, seeing Meghan, and crosses the ball up to her. 

Hope continues running toward the box, and watches as Meghan takes a few steps, setting herself up, and then takes the shot. The ball rockets into the top right corner of the net past the other team’s goalie and Hope jumps into the air, pumping her first. “Let’s go!!” She runs over, clapping Meghan on the shoulder. “Nice shot.” Others come to congratulate Meghan quickly before returning to their spots, and Hope jogs down the field. She spares a glance at Amy to see the girl standing there, watching her, with a very confused look on her face. Hope just barely hides a smirk.

The game isn’t over yet though, so Hope refocuses. The other team kicks off and makes their way down the Crockets’ side of the field. Hope quickly runs in and makes a mostly clean tackle—enough that it won’t be called—and clears the ball away. Number 11 on the other team throws the ball in and it passes player to player until a shot is taken. Luckily, it goes wide and Courtney, the goalie, gets a goal kick. 

The clock continues to count down as Courtney kicks the ball down the field and back into play, it landing at the other striker, Naomi’s, feet. Hope follows them up the field, catching up with her long stride, and Naomi sends the ball back to her once she no longer has any space. Hope moves over to the other side of the field a bit, looking for someone who is open, when her feet are taken out from under her.

She falls into a heap and the wind is knocked out of her. She barely registers the ref blowing the whistle and giving a yellow card to the player on the other team for that dirty tackle—really, she didn’t even make contact with the ball. Hope gasps for air, stretching her arms above her head. No wait, her coach is pulling her arms above her head while squatting over her and telling her to take deep breaths. 

After a moment, she can finally breathe again normally, but then she registers the pain in her knee. She curls in on herself and pushes her face into the side of her arm. She hears her coach call for someone, and then the school trainer is beside her asking some questions. The trainer holds the leg that she didn’t realize she had moved to hold with one hand and stretches it out slowly.

“Hope, does this hurt?” Hope shakes her head, starting to breathe through the pain.

“No--no more than before.”

“Okay, well that’s good. Did you hear anything snap?” 

“No.” Hope feels the trainer poke, prod, and rub around her knee.

“Good. You might’ve just hyperextended it in the fall. Do you wanna see how it feels walking?” Hope nods and sits up. She hears everyone clap as soon as she does, and then she gets up, testing her weight on her left leg. It stings a little, but it’s manageable at least for the last five minutes of this game. She pulls her leg behind her in a quad stretch and nods at the trainer. 

“I’m good.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yeah.” The trainer eyes her up and down before nodding.

“Okay, but you come to me as soon as this game is over to ice up.” 

“Absolutely.” In no way would Hope argue about that, she knows she will definitely need ice and probably some Advil later. But that’s later, this is now. Hope has a foul kick to make. The trainer walks off the field and Meghan brings the ball over.

“You good?” She asks as she sets the ball down where the ref indicates. 

“Good enough.” Hope adjusts the placement and Meghan jogs back towards her teammates. Hope backs up, shaking her leg out and looks at everyone’s positioning. A little clumped up, but Hope can still send it in. 

The ref blows the whistle indicating the start of play and Hope sends the ball up to Meghan at the near end of the field. She jogs into the play, making sure her knee really is okay enough to finish up this game—it is—before running up the middle. Meghan tries to cross it into the box, but the shot is body blocked. Luckily, it goes out on the goal line, so they get a corner kick.

Meghan takes the kick, she’s always been pretty good at corners. She sends the ball in, and Hope is just waiting in the line. She runs forward and jumps, making just enough contact with the ball to deflect it into the upper left corner of the net. As soon as she sees the ball hit the back of the net she runs toward the corner, jumping up and throwing her fist out in celebration. 

Her teammates come and congratulate her as they all jog back to set up at mid field. Hope has never been happier to be as tall as she is; had she been any shorter she definitely would’ve missed it.

It seems like it’s right after play starts again that the ref says there’s four minutes of stoppage time. The other team has possession and makes their way once again into their half of the field. Thankfully, the defense is on their game and Ryan clears a could-be dangerous ball. It’s thrown in, but cleared once again. 

This time the throw in is handled with a heavy touch and Ryan is able to send the ball up the field to Naomi. Naomi makes a run with it but heads to the corner, happy to let time run out. One of the other team’s defenders manages to kick the ball out but it’s a throw in. 

Naomi goes to take it, and as soon as the ball is put into play the whistle blows—game over. Hope smiles and heads to mid field for post-game handshakes. She lines up with the other players and shakes hands with the other team, a “good game” on her lips with each one. 

Once that is over she walks back over to the bench, or rather limps slightly, and drinks her water. She sits down on the bench with the rest of her teammates and Coach goes over the game’s goods and bads. Coach manages to keep the talk to five minutes and then congratulated them on the win and sends them on their way. 

Hope lumps over to the trainer’s golf cart when she’s already waiting with a large ice bag. She waves away her parents’ worried looks and hops onto the back of the golf cart. The trainer, Sherry, places the ice bag on Hope’s knee and then wraps it in plastic wrap. “How’s it feel?”

“It hurts, but it’s not the worst thing that’s ever happened to me.” Hope says, fiddling with her shinguard. 

“Alright, but that doesn’t mean you don’t ice this the next couple of days. 20 minutes on—“

“20 minutes off. I know the drill.”

“Alright. You want a ride back to the locker room?” Hope is already shaking her head and getting off the cart.

“I’ll be fine.” She awkwardly walks back to the bench, not really able to bend her leg all too well with the big bag of ice on it. 

“Hope, we’ll see you at home, okay?” Her dad calls out as she makes her way back to the bench and she throws her parents a thumbs up in answer. Her parents wave goodbye before heading to the parking lot, and Hope sits back down on the bench, collecting her things. Most of her teammates are already on the walk back to the locker room, only a few are still at the bench and they’re finishing up. 

Hope takes another swig of water and then closes her eyes, squirting herself in the face with some. She runs her hand down her face, wiping it off, and then bends over, pulling her socks down to her cleat and undoing the top of her shinguards on both legs. The sensation of relief at action is instant and Hope lets out a deep breath. That’s when she notices the shadow of a person stopped in front of her. 

Hope sits upright and finds Amy standing in front of her, fidgeting and shuffling slightly. Hope does some quick glances around to find that the rest of her teammates have packed up to head inside and the other spectators have left or have gone to join the football game. “Hey?” Hope doesn’t mean for it to, but it comes out as a question. 

“Hey, um, that looked like a really rough tumble.” Amy glances down at Hope’s knee sealed in ice and Hope shrugs. 

“I guess. It hurt, but it could’ve been way worse.” Amy nods and hums at the answer. Hope nods at Amy’s nodding. All in all, it’s extremely awkward. That is, until Amy blurts out a question.

“What did you mean?” Hope tilts her head. Amy and Hope have never really talked long enough for her to have anything to mean to Amy.

“Huh?”

“You know...when you ran into me on the sideline. You said something. What did you mean by it?” That jogs Hope’s memory just fine. Now that the haze of adrenaline has worn off, Hope curses what it does to her. She didn’t think Amy would ever confront her about what she said flirtingly while sprawled on top of her.

“Oh. Um...well, speaking of that. Are you okay? I’m kind of a giant.”

“I’m fine, you might be tall, but you’re lean and light as a feather. It was like colliding with a gazelle...and don’t avoid the question.” Hope quirks an eyebrow and smirks, both at Amy’s description of her and also with calling her out.

“What do you think I meant by it?” Amy flushes and crosses her arms.

“I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking!” Hope finishes putting her things together and lifts her bag into her back. She stands and leans down to speak into Amy’s ear.

“By the state of you blush, I think you know exactly what I meant by it.” Hope pulls back and smiles, starting her walk back to the locker room. 

“Aaaaahhh….” she hears Amy say from behind her and she worries for a moment that she’s broken the poor nerd. She’s only walked maybe fifteen feet before she hears the sound of running on grass and then Amy is walking beside her. “Wait. Earlier you called me by my name, I didn’t think you even knew who I was.”

“We’ve been in classes together since freshman year, how could I not know who you are? I thought you were smarter than this, nerd.”

“Well it’s just we’ve never talked or anything…” Hope glances at Amy who is rubbing her hands together and looking at the ground. Hope chuckles.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you and Molly don’t really leave any space for anyone else. Plus I didn’t know you were even interested in talking to me since I’m not a certain defender.” Amy sputters for a moment, pausing in her walking.

“That is—I don’t even know what—shut up.” Hope laughs and slows as they reach the locker room, leaning against the door to look at Amy.

“Y’know, if you ever decide that—I don’t know—midfield is suddenly more interesting to you than defense...my offer still stands.” Hope winks at Amy and pushes the door open with her back. “See ya around, nerd.”

Hope only sees Amy’s mouth drop open in shock before the locker room door is between them. Hope quickly gathers her things and changes, keeping her shorts on though because she doesn’t feel like maneuvering pants over the ice packs. She collects all her bags and heads out to her car, putting everything in the back. She drives home, ready to spend the rest of the night relaxing and resting her knee.

———//———

The next morning, Hope shuffles through her locker, taking out the right books that she needs for Physics, shifting her weight from one leg to the other. Her knee feels a little sore, but overall fine despite the pretty bad bruising, though she’s hiding all of that bruising under a pair of jeans, at least until practice. 

She shuts her locker and makes her way down the hall to class. About halfway there, she feels like someone is staring at her. She looks around her and glances over her shoulder until she makes eye contact with Amy who is looking at her in a way that Hope can’t quite determine. Her eyes widen when she realizes she’s been caught, but Hope just raises an eyebrow at her and walks into her class.

The rest of the day passes similarly with Hope going about her day as usual, but she notices Amy often looking at her in confusion or maybe contemplation. It’s interesting to say the least, and not at all unwelcome.

Finally, the period that Hope has been most anticipating comes along, and Hope walks into Ms. Fine’s English class. Amy and Molly are already seated front and center—as usual—and Hope walks past them to get to her usual seat, one over and back from Amy. She might not be the most enthusiastic about school, but Hope knows to get into most D1 schools you have to be a good student as well as player.

She sees Molly give Amy a weird look as she walks by. She takes her seat and pulls the current book she’s reading out onto her desk. From the corner of her eye she sees Molly slap Amy’s arm as Ryan walks into the room.

“Hey Ryan!” Molly calls out, gaining the other girl’s attention and making her walk over. Hope pretends to read her book but watches from the corner of her eye.

“Hey Molly, Amy, ‘sup?”

“We went to the game yesterday. You did great! Right, Amy?” Molly really isn’t the queen of subtlety and honestly neither is Amy, so Hope is doubly intrigued as to how this will go.

“Oh...Yeah! You really, um, protected the goal well.” Hope thinks she sees Amy look over to her quickly from the corner of her eye but she’s pretending not to watch too hard to be sure. 

“Thanks! And thanks for coming out, dude. I’d love to see you at more games. I know the whole team really appreciates the support.” Ryan smiles and then heads to her seat towards the back of the room as the bell rings. 

Hope glances up to catch Amy with her head in her hands groaning. She hears Molly mutter a “What was that?” to Amy before Ms. Fine starts class. 

Class passes mostly uneventfully until Hope gets an idea towards the end of class. She quietly tears a piece of paper out of her notebook and writes her phone number on it with the message In case you ever change your mind about positions. She folds the piece of paper up nicely and waits for the bell to ring. 

She packs up extremely slowly considering she only has a single notebook and book on her desk. She waits for Molly and Amy to head out of the classroom before leaving. She catches them a few doors down and tugs on Amy’s jacket sleeve to get her attention.

She turns, a questioning look on her face, which then morphs to surprise when she sees who it is. “Hey nerd, I think you dropped this while you were packing up.” She sees Molly’s eyes narrow into a glare but she just holds the folded piece of paper out to Amy.

“Oh! Um...no I don’t think that’s mine.”

“Trust me. It is.” She continues to hold the paper out until Amy tentatively lifts a hand and takes it from Hope. “See ya.” As soon as Amy takes it, Hope turns on her heel and heads to her last class of the day before practice.

Her phone remains quiet for the whole of last period but Hope isn’t discouraged. She knows this might be a long shot, but she feels like there’s something there. She heads to the locker rooms after the final bell rings and quickly changes into her practice gear. She grimaces as she glances at the massive bruise on her knee, but the trainer gives her the okay so she’s good to practice.

There are no other games today, so they’re able to practice on the large turf field. Hope leads the team in warmups when they get out onto the field, which on practice days includes four laps around the track enclosing the turf field. Hope can do a mile run in her sleep, and as weird as it might be she actually enjoys them. They give her time to look inward and think. 

She’s so caught up in her own thoughts that she doesn’t even notice Amy sitting in the bleachers, presumably doing homework, until the start of the fourth lap. That’s definitely a development. Sure, people have watched them practice before or even come just to do homework on the bleachers on a nice day, but never Amy. The team finishes out the last lap and they walk over to Coach to find out what is on the schedule for practice today. 

Since they had a pretty tough game yesterday, practice today is pretty light. No heavy cardio and no suicides across the football field. Mostly they just go over formations, drills, and practice shooting. All in all, it actually is a pretty lax practice.

By the time they’re wrapping up at 5:30, Hope is a good level of tired but not exhausted. She glances up to the stands and Amy is still there, shifting her focus between reading a textbook and writing something down in a notebook. Hope drinks water as she listens to Coach wrap up the practice and tell them to get ready for the next game. 

As they do at the end of every practice, they all put their hands in and say “Crockets!” on three. After, they separate again and head to their own things. Hope takes off her shinguards and switches over from her cleats to her slip ons. She packs all of her things up and tosses her bag over her shoulders.

She looks up in the stands and feels a little disappointed when she doesn’t see Amy sitting there anymore. That disappoint changes to something else when she sees Amy talking to Ryan at the fence. Well, it was a long shot—or at least, that’s what Hope tells herself in order to stamp down on the sadness she feels creeping up. She drinks more water as she walks past Amy and Ryan and off the field. She’s looking forward to icing her knee again, even if it’s just something to do instead of being on the field right now.

She’s a quarter of the way to the locker room when she hears someone call her name and she stops—mostly due to surprise. “Hope! Wait up!” She turns to see Amy lightly jogging toward her. She raises an eyebrow and waits until Amy’s within talking distance to speak.

“Yeah?” Amy stops a couple feet away from her and suddenly looks shy, reaching her hand in her pocket. Hope watches the motion and sees Amy pull out the slip of paper that she had given to Amy earlier. God, Hope really doesn’t want to get turned down face to face; she’d honestly rather be ghosted. 

“I just—what is this?” Hope knows she must make some kind of face at the question because Amy looks down at the ground once they make eye contact. Hope lets out a breath and looks at the sky. She rubs the back of her neck with her hand.

“Geez, do you actually need me to spell it out for you, nerd? That’s kind of embarrassing.”

“Yeah, actually...you’re, um, kind of confusing.” Any scratches her head and Hope almost groans at how adorable she looks. Hope also sees her teammates starting to walk off the field and this isn’t really a conversation she wants to have with them nearby. 

“Fine. Just...walk with me, okay?” Hope starts walking and Amy nods, walking beside her. After a few moments Hope takes another deep breath and glances to her side at Amy. “Okay. I think you’re really cute and I’d like to go out sometime. That,” she motions to the paper with her number written on it, “is my number. In case you’re interested.”

“Oh.” Hope sees Amy’s cheeks turn red and she can almost see the gears in her head whirring at the new information. “Aaahhh. Um...I think I am. Interested that is.”

Hope blinks in surprise. “Oh,” she smiles, “cool.”

“Yeah,” Amy says, almost to herself in confirmation, “so I’ll, um, I’ll text you later, okay?”

“Sounds good to me.” Amy nods and walks off toward the parking lot for a few steps before pausing, walking back, and lifting up on her toes to kiss Hope on her cheek towards the corner of her mouth. Amy nods again to herself and then walks off, leaving Hope stunned for a few seconds. She definitely did not expect that. 

Hope smiles all the way into the locker room and even when she’s getting ice wrapped onto her knee. She even has a smile, though it is a small one, all throughout the traffic on her drive home. 

When she gets home her phone vibrates with a message from an unknown number. 

hi :) Immediately followed by, oh, sorry. This is Amy. Amy Antsler…from English. 

Hey nerd. Hope sends back and saves the number. And if she’s still smiling a little bit by the time she goes to bed, then what about it?

———//———

Hope and Amy have been texting pretty frequently for the past couple of weeks. Pretty much every chance Hope gets she’s texting Amy about something or other, and Hope is just really enjoying all of their conversations. One of Hope’s favorite pastimes has rapidly become flustering Amy. It’s fun, easy, and Amy looks adorable when she’s flustered. Hope’s realized that she really likes Amy, and while that does scare her a little bit, it’s also pretty exhilarating. 

Amy has come to all of their games as well, dragging along a minimally reluctant Molly to cheer on the team (and her, Hope thinks). Amy reciprocates Hope’s flirting and whenever they do talk in person in the halls or after a game, Hope just feels something there. Something that she really wants to see where it goes. Hope also notices that Ryan is no longer the subject of Amy’s glances and knows that has to mean something at the very least.

They have another game tomorrow, it’s one of the last of the regular season. It’s already looking like they’ll easily make play offs, but every game counts so they will still play as seriously as they always do. As much as Hope is focused on the game, there is a part of her that remains distracted. Specifically by a certain small red-head. Hope has spent the last week thinking about asking Amy out officially. Finally after putting it off for days, she figures there’s no better time than the present, especially if it will clear her mind for the game tomorrow. She doesn’t want anything to affect her performance poorly this close to the playoffs. 

Hey, do u wanna go out tomorrow? There, short, sweet, and to the point. Hope places her phone down as she waits for a response, not wanting to just look at the ‘typing’ bubble. Her phone vibrates and she picks it up again looking at the message. 

I’m already going out somewhere tomorrow. Hope feels her heart sink in disappointment. 

Oh.

Yeah, I’m going to your game. Hope stares at the message, her heart returning to its place faster than fireworks being set off. God, she’s in trouble with this girl. She steels herself and makes her fingers type out words. 

Oh...well, I kinda meant after the game. Just the two of us. Like a date. This time Hope watches as the bubble pops up and disappears many times; she must like torturing herself. Finally, not being able to take it and worrying about rejection she amends her statement slightly. Only if you want to though. It’s whatever. She rolls her eyes at herself and almost facepalms at how lame she sounds. Her phone vibrates almost immediately after her messages. 

NO!

No! I want to! 

Just so we’re clear though. A date like a girlfriend date? Hope smiles a bit at the messages. 

Yeah. If you want to be my girlfriend that is. 

I do. 

Cool.

Cool.

Nerd ;)

rude. Hope laughs at Amy’s reply, but then bites her lip as she has a sudden thought. She types out her question and hits send before she can second guess herself. 

Do you wanna wear my jersey to tomorrow’s game?

———//———

Hope is warming up along the sidelines with the rest of her team when she feels a whack on her shoulder. She turns to look at the offender—Meghan—and quirks an eyebrow in question.

“No way. You and Amy? How’d that happen?” Meghan nods over to the bleachers and Hope follows her motion to see Amy sitting next to Molly wearing her away jersey. It fills Hope with an unexpected warmth and she stamps down on the urge to smile stupidly in front of the rest of her teammates. Hope just shrugs instead, continuing her stretches. 

“It just kinda happened.” Meghan levels her with a look, before smiling and clapping her on the shoulder. 

“Well, I’m happy for you.” Hope rolls her eyes and mumbles a thanks while Meghan laughs. 

They win the game 4-1 and Hope actually scores in the second half, sinking the ball into the back of the net with her right foot. Hope is still on a bit of an adrenaline rush from scoring and winning even by the time the after game huddle is over and people are clearing out of the stands. 

She spots Amy climbing down the bleachers and she jogs over to the fence to meet her. 

“Hey, you were awesome out there! That goal was—“ As soon as Amy is close enough, Hope bends down and kisses Amy, cradling Amy’s face in her hands. After a few seconds she pulls away and drops her hands to rest on the fence. She ignores the whistles and some excited cheers from her teammates.

“Hi.” She smiles and Amy still looks a bit surprised.

“Hey,” Amy says again, a bit breathless. 

“You already said that.” Amy licks her lips and then her eyes flicker back to Hope’s lips. 

“It deserves being said twice...I’ll, um, I’ll wait for you in the parking lot.” Hope nods her assent.

“Okay.” Amy turns to leave, but immediately turns back around and pulls Hope in for another kiss by the back of her neck. Amy pulls back a few moments later and nods.

“Okay, now I’ll go wait for you in the parking lot.” Amy turns and walks off toward the parking lot and Hope smiles briefly before masking her expression. She goes back to the bench and packs her things away. 

Meghan bumps into her shoulder to shoulder. “You’re cute together.” Hope rolls her eyes but mumbles out a thanks which makes Meghan laugh.

They walk to the locker room with the rest of their team, and then Hope takes her girlfriend out on a date.

———//———

Hope thinks the only thing better than being a state champion is hopping the fence after the game to kiss her girlfriend in celebration. 

[bards-witcher]

Based on delirious' latest video picture thing, cheerleader delirious and football player cartoonz as cute boyfriends who go out for a night on the town with some adorable fluff? Toss in smut or angst if you want

I’m sorry this took so long but I hope you enjoy it :D

This is pretty much just fluff so I hope you like it :)

For those of you wondering this is the thumbnail/video in question.

.

It was Ryans’ idea to begin with, one of the only people who knew about his relationship with Jon, who knew about their constant trips to supply closets and bathroom stalls to sneak a quick moment with the other.

He supposes it’s silly to worry about what other people would think about them being together, people already knew they were practically joined at the hip anyway, but whenever he thought about making their relationship public he always got that familiar knot in his stomach.

It’s both a blessing and a curse that Jon felt the same way, they both want to be themselves and not have to worry about being caught and outed, and whilst he knew his friends would be accepting, he wasn’t so sure on everyone else, something Jon didn’t want to threaten since he was currently on track for scholarships to a college of his choosing.

Yet when Ryan suggested to them to go public with their relationship based on their next game, all it takes is a quick glance at one another to agree to it.

The three weeks go by in a blur, Jon is busy more often than not, and whilst he’d normally be put out about it, he throws himself into training instead.

Despite his previous nerves about coming out with their relationship, he can’t help but feel like the deal is an excuse to go through with it, an excuse he wants to succeed at.

**********

It’s now three weeks since they made that fateful decision and the game is currently in half time and they’re 9 points down.

He can’t help the sinking pit of defeat already settling within him, barely listening to the coach’s motivational talk, he only cheers along with everyone else when it’s finally done.

He casts a glance around at the stands in an attempt to find Jon, hoping to get some form of support or reassurance just by knowing the other man was there, however, when he looked at the usual spot where he would stand he, couldn’t find him.

He felt a slight spike of panic as he quickly scanned over the rest of the stands but there was still no sight of him, that feeling of defeat only getting stronger as he sat back with a sigh.

It was when he heard the cheerleaders run out and begin their chants that he finally looked up, although not as uplifting as Jon, seeing Ryan cheering for him and the team always did put a little faith back in himself.

What he doesn’t expect to see is Jon standing beside Ryan in a full cheerleading outfit as he joins in on their routine, their eyes quick to find each other across the field.

It’s clear that Jon has almost no rhythm to him, always just out of sync with everyone else, but the sight still brings a smile to his face, that small flicker of hope now a fire kindled inside of him.

As the routine ends and the group give their final cheer for the team, he hears Jons’ shout of ‘Go Luke’, brightening the smile on his face, and when he feels Mark jab his elbow suggestively into his side, he can’t help the small blush that covers his face.

As the cheerleaders head back towards the sidelines he has to fight the urge not to join them, to not pull Jon into his arms and kiss him right then and there, everyone else be damned, but then Mark’s giving him a final pat on the back and then they’re heading back onto the field.

After Jons’ show, he feels rejuvenated, invincible almost, and with a final look, he spots Jon still cheering him on, pom poms in hand, with Ryan by his side. He can’t help but smile at the sight but it’s quick to go when he finally gets into position, waiting once more in anticipation.

The next 15 minutes go by far too fast, but they’ve leveled out the score somewhat with a touchdown, and whilst it’s a relief to narrow the gap, he can feel his heart beating a mile a minute, not just from exertion, as they enter the last quarter.

The final 15 minutes goes by in a sea of bodies all scrambling for the ball, unable to stop himself from periodically glancing up at the clock as he watched the time slowly tick away.

Whenever he felt tired, accepting that they’d have to take the loss, he’d somehow manage to pick out Jons’ voice in the screaming crowd, always cheering him on and never losing faith.

As they hit the final two minutes he feels a sudden burst of energy, and when he gets the ball he makes a mad dash for the line, barely noting his team protecting his sides as he sprints forward.

He can hear the crowd around him getting louder, and spurred on he moves faster, but as was typical he could see himself begin to be surrounded. A quick glance shows him there’s no one he could easily pass to, so he makes the hasty decision to try for a field goal.

He doesn’t know why he does it, he’s one of the worst kickers on the team and he’s confident he’s ensuring their defeat and the ire of his teammates later on, but with the crowd behind him and adrenaline pumping through him he makes the kick.

He can feel everyone hold their breaths as the ball travels through the air, he swears he’s about to choke when he sees it hit the post, but the angle means that it goes through anyway, and then it’s like thunder erupts around him.

The whistle blows indicating that he’s scored, and suddenly he’s being picked up by Tyler who’s now cheering with the crowd. It’s only when he sees the board change, showing that they’re now one point ahead that he finally celebrates, letting out a shout as he’s quickly swarmed by the rest of the team.

His eyes quickly spot Jon who’s screaming overly enthusiastically given by Ryans’ face, and he gives a final shout of celebration towards the two before they’re moving back to their starting positions.

The tension is thick on the pitch, hastily trying to prepare himself for the challenge of defending their lead for the last one minute something left of the game.

For the last portion of the game, he swears he’s on the verge of throwing up due to how much pressure they’re under to keep their lead, but nevertheless, they persevere, and when the final whistle blows he lets out the breath he’d been holding seemingly the whole game.

He saw people begin to approach him, eager to celebrate his score once again, but he quickly ran past them in favor of moving towards Jon.

He was surprised to see him partaking in the celebratory routine the cheerleaders did, but eagerly he watched with a smile on his face, eager for him to finish.

As soon as they were done he quickly found himself with an armful of Jon, neither of them wasting any time to press their lips together. The crowd melts away around him and with Jons’ lips pressed against his, hands cupping his face, he feels as if a weight is finally being lifted off of his chest.

When they pull away he can’t keep the grin off of his face as he stares into Jons’ eyes, seeing only love and adoration reflected back at him. He can only enjoy the moment for a handful of seconds before he’s reminded of their environment and the whole situation hits him like a ton of bricks.

He quickly looks past Jon and back at the crowd full of their peers, but all he sees are shouts and cheers of support, and he becomes somewhat awed by the sight.

Ryan’s the first one to come and congratulate them, offering them both a hug before he heads off, and he’s quickly followed by the rest of the team, each of them teasing them in their own way but he couldn’t mistake the acceptance from all of them.

Eventually they headed towards the locker room hand in hand, where he quickly made Jon swear to keep his cheerleading costume and to try to snag a female version if he could for later, causing the other man to laugh somewhat maniacally at him, but nevertheless, he agreed to it.

It wasn’t much longer that they were showered and clothed, both filled with far too much energy than they knew what to do with.

Despite their best efforts to keep to themselves, they ended up making out against the side of his truck, the feeling of Jon shuddering beneath him as he pressed a knee between his legs had him attempted to abandon their plans for the evening, but Ryan shouting at them quickly had them breaking apart.

“You guys coming out tonight?”

“Well-“ Before he could say anything however, Jon was quick to interrupt him.

“You guys headin’ to the diner?”

“As sure as Luke scored the winning goal” He heard a couple of whoops as he then saw Tyler and Brian come up alongside Ryan, all three of them now looking at him and Jon as they opened the doors to the car they were sharing as they awaited an answer.

“What the fuck you talkin’ ‘bout Ryan?” Jons’ remark had him snorting, earning a small jab in his side from the smaller man as Ryan just rolled his eyes as he headed towards the passenger side of Tylers’ car.

“Yeah, we’re heading to the diner” He could hear the hint of laughter in the other man’s tone at the sentence “You guys better be coming, Tylers’ paying”

He chuckled as he heard the shout of indignation from Tyler and Ryans’ own giggle could be heard as he finally got into the car.

“Tyler actually bein’ nice for once? We can’t miss out on that; we’ll follow you guys ‘kay?” Tyler simply sounded his horn to show he’d heard him before the three of them were driving off into the growing dusk.

Once alone, he quickly pressed his lips against Jons’ again, the only feeling was that of being on cloud nine, at least until Jon pulled away, the other man only rolling his eyes and laughing when he frowned as the kiss was cut short.

“You heard Ryan, we’re gettin’ free food and I’m fuckin’ starving, waving balls around ain’t as easy as it looks”

“I dunno, you wave my balls around pretty well” He couldn’t help but laugh at the noise of indignation that came from Jon, but soon the other man was joining him in his laughter.

“You shush the hell up Luke, you wish you could handle balls as well as me”

“Who’s the football player here again?”

“Whatever man just take me to food” He just laughed as he pressed a final kiss to the corner of Jons’ mouth before reaching behind the other man and opening the passenger side door for him, making sure to smack Jons’ ass as he got in, causing the other man to somewhat squawk in surprise.

“How fuckin’ dare you, you keep your hands to yourself, you hear me”

“Quit your bitchin’ Jon, you ain’t ever complained before” Jon simply shut his door in retaliation, giving him the finger whilst he laughed before heading to the driver’s side.

*********

By the time they reach the diner it’s already packed with students out celebrating the nights’ events, with a firm hold on Jons’ hand they easily weave their way through the tables until they reach the booth their friends were at, and it’s Brian that’s first to greet them.

“Ah, the man o’ the hour finally shows up, what took you guys so long? You guys stop for a little…” Brian then proceeded to make a gesture of sucking a dick, earning laughs from everyone around the table as he half-heartedly slapped at the Irishman before taking a seat on the end of the booth, Jon quickly squeezing in beside him.

“Trust me, we would’ve been a lot longer if we were fuckin’” Everyone around the table groaned at the comment, except for Jon who happily laughed with him.

“And now you made things awkward, thanks guys”

“You’re the one who started it, I can go into more detail about us fuckin’ if you want?” He laughed at the grimace on Brians’ face as he wrapped an arm around Jons’ shoulder.

“Nah, I think I’m good thanks” He just chuckled as he reached beside him to grab Ryans’ drink, taking a large gulp of it before offering it to Jon, ignoring the sound of protest beside him.

The next couple of hours carried on in much the same way, their friends constantly teasing him and Jon about their relationship, which they quickly put to rest, at least for a little while, when they’d begin to make out in front of them.

It’s from them he learns that Jon had been secretly training with Ryan and the rest of the cheerleading squad to try and perfect a routine in his limited time, and whilst not perfect everyone couldn’t deny how well Jon had done for his first try, quickly putting a blush on the other man’s face.

Half his meal is spent trying to keep Jon away from his food, despite the other man having his own in front of him, whilst the other half is trying to take Jon’s, eventually leading to an all-out food war between them, only conceding defeat when Jon threatened to put half chewed up food on him.

“You’re fuckin’ disgustin’ dude” Even as he said it he couldn’t hide his smile as he went back to eating what was left of his food, Jon laughing maniacally beside him.

“Let that be a lesson, ain’t nobody takin’ food from Delirious” Everyone just rolled their eyes at the nickname, one that was given to the crazier side of Jon. Yet he paid no heed to it as he quickly reached forward and grabbed the remainder of Jons’ fries, quickly shoving them into his mouth even as Jon began screaming beside him “What the hell man, that’s it, no coochie for you tonight”

There seemed to be a collective groan from around the table, but that still didn’t deter him as he pulled Jon closer and began nosing along his jaw up to his ear to prove how far from the truth the smaller man’s statement had been.

“Right, and I think that’s my cue to leave” He turned to see Evan trying to look anywhere but at them as he tried to shove Brian and Marcel of his side of the booth to make his escape. “Brian, you want a ride?”

“Fock yes” the three of them then gave them rushed goodbyes, once again congratulating him on his kick before hastily leaving the diner.

“I think we’re gonna go too, got a party to plan now and you two ain’t bailing on us this time. C’mon Ryan” Him and Jon quickly got out and moved to now vacant side of the booth but couldn’t hold back their snorts as Ryan made no move to leave, instead shoveling the rest of his burger into his mouth.

“ ‘m not finished yet”

“For fuck’s sake, just finish it in the car” Tyler then began shoving Ryan along the seat, and the smaller man never really stood a chance, quickly grabbing his remaining food and sliding out of the booth himself before Tyler could have a chance to shove him on the floor.

Ryan gave them both a wave and a wink towards Jon he didn’t want to decipher as he quickly stood to clasp hands with Tyler in goodbye, swearing that they’d come to his party tomorrow before the two of them left, leaving only him and Jon in the diner still.

“C’mon, we should probably go as well” Jon eyed him suspiciously for a moment before answering.

“Where we gonna go?”

“Someplace special” Jon just snorted at the comment before he started laughing.

“Last time you said you’d take me somewhere special we ended up makin’ out behind a dumpster”

“So you don’t wanna go somewhere then?” He couldn’t help his teasing smirk as he saw the backtrack on Jons’ face.

“Just fuckin’ go before I hit you” He laughed as he slid out of the booth, lowering a hand for Jon to take hold of before pulling the other man beside him, quickly moving his arm around the other man’s waist and putting a hand into his back pocket.

Despite Tyler having already paid for their food he still put a reasonable tip on the table before bidding the woman behind the counter goodbye as they left the diner.

Once again he walked Jon to the passenger side of his truck and opened the door for him, only this time Jon made sure he wouldn’t have the chance to smack his ass again before he was making his way to the drivers’ side.

As soon as he was seated hands were on him, and he quickly found himself with Jons’ lips on his, letting out a small chuckle as he brought a hand up to cup the other man’s face, but a tongue probing at his bottom lip had him pulling away, a smug smile on his face.

“We got plenty of time for that later” He laughed again as Jon began to murmur to himself in disdain, sure he picks up the word ‘cockblock’ and ‘bitch’ as he starts the engine and begins to drive off.

It’s not much further and he’s parking outside of the local corner shop and he’s quick to get out of the truck, Jon hot on his heels as they enter, giving a warm welcome to the shop owner who saw them practically every other day.

Straight away he grabbed some fizzy drinks, even though Jon was hoping for something stronger despite them being underage, as well as grabbing a few candy bars, pocketing a couple of them before heading to the counter.

He was all southern charm when paying for his items, talking all about the game and his winning kick, earning a cheer of congratulations from the man behind the counter.

He’s given a can of beer for Jon in celebration, with the promise not to tell his parents, and he graciously accepts it with a wide smile before leaving the shop, Jon quick to follow after him.

He feels somewhat guilty stealing from the guy, especially as he’d given him free alcohol, no questions asked, but he also can’t deny the slight thrill he gets from the act, and it’s not like they’ve ever been caught before.

He pulls out the couple of bars he grabbed, chucking one at Jon whilst he quickly unwraps the other, not caring what it was as he passed the drinks over to the man beside him who quickly opened his can of beer.

He couldn’t help but throw a judgemental look towards Jon who just gave him the finger as he drank, and with a roll of his eyes he was starting the engine and they were once again on the move.

He can’t help his smile when Jon begins to sing along to the radio, and like his dancing, he’s slightly out of time and definitely off-key, but he can’t help but feel his heart practically melt at the sight.

He’d join in every now and then, Jon quickly getting excited when he did as he would turn the radio up louder so that he could shout out his lyrics, but it’s not long before they quickly derail into laughter.

Eventually, they arrived in a field just at the edge of town, woods skimming the outer edge, a place they’d always come to when they needed to clear their heads, to just talk with one another, and was where they had shared their first kiss.

He gives a nervous smile to Jon, feeling vulnerable in this moment, and for a moment he’s worried as he sees the unreadable expression on the other man’s face, but then he’s met with a bright smile and he’s quickly leaning in to press their lips together.

“Told you I’d take you somewhere nice” Jon just hummed before they kissed again, this time when he felt Jons’ tongue probing his bottom lip he happily opened his mouth to give him access, their tongues quickly entwining as they strained to reach each other from their seats. “You get that cheerleadin’ costume?”

“Am I just a piece of meat to you? The disrespect-“ He quickly leaned forward to cut off whatever else Jon planned to say, earning a huff from the other man when they pulled away.

He quirked an eyebrow at him as if daring him to say something else, but Jon just grabbed their drinks before leaving the truck, already hearing him begin to climb into the bed, and he was quick to follow.

He sat beside Jon, their bodies pressed together in an effort to keep warm and he gratefully accepted the drink offered to him, only when he opened the can coke came spraying out and spilled not just on his face, but onto his clothes and the bed of his truck as well.

“WHAT THE FUCK” Beside him, Jon was doubled over, his maniacal laugh filling the nights’ silence around them whilst he just glared heatedly at the other man, but even still he had to suppress his own grin at the contagious laugh.

“Serves you fuckin’ right bitch, got that cheerleadin’ costume in my bag if you need a change of clothes” Jon could barely get the sentence out without falling into another fit of giggles, but the sound was quickly replaced by a shriek when he launched himself at the other man.

They began to wrestle each other, each of them trying to use every trick in the handbook to try and get the upper hand until they finally both gave up, tired and defeated.

They lay back down in the truck bed, ignoring how sticky he felt from the drink to instead focus on the blush coloring Jons’ cheeks that could just about be seen in the moonlight, helpless but to admire the beauty in front of him.

Their hands quickly found each other and laced together, easily separating the gap between them to kiss each other, just a quick peck on the lips that was reminiscent of the first kiss they’d shared together, before they turned to the stars, easily reciting the silly stories they’d made up about them when they were kids.

It was in this moment that he felt on top of the world, invincible almost, that he could do anything with his cheerleader by his side.

[neqeyam]

Forgotten Myth; Chapter One.

Word Count - 2746

Warnings - possible trigger for fears of heights, and falling, and mean hall monitors.

Summary - When fourteen year old Ruby Moore is chased down the hallway at school by a character out of one of her fever dreams, she gets thrown into a world of tales and myths that society has ruled out to be fake. Befriending a Pegasus that hates everyone, and gathering friends strong enough to be considered a small army, she has to embark on a journey that will change her life forever.

POV- Ruby

Chapter Two- https://rqmcuwdwpjo.tumblr.com/post/188483698489/forgotten-myth-chapter-two

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking; ‘wow, demigods are so cool! That must be so much fun! I bet they get lasers!’ Well, it’s not that fun; it actually gets old after like two days. I’m not trying to die every ten minutes. As for the lasers, unless they’re made by the senior counselor of the Hephaestus cabin Leo Valdez, they’re not going to be on your side.

My name is Ruby Moore, but I’m sure you’re more concerned with how I know all this. One word; experience. Example one of why the life of a demigod isn’t fun, ever witness your best friend and favorite teacher fight off Echidna in the middle of the hallway? Didn’t think so. Imagine my surprise when freshman Ruby was trying to run away from Echidna during fifth period and my best friend pulled out two daggers to fight the thing. That’s where this story starts, me sprinting down the hall while a character from one of my fever dreams slithers after me.

I twirled the hall pass around my index finger, leisurely strolling down the hall toward the bathroom. The hall monitor, Mrs. Johansson stopped me, her yellow eyes narrowed as she scrutinized me silently.

“Pass,” she demanded, holding out a hand for it. Now, Johansson sounds like a nice name; most people associate it with Scarlett Johansson from Iron Man, but Mrs. Johansson of Marbur Academy in Columbus, Ohio (In the schools presentation they say that they’re the best for your ADHD children, and let me just say; ehe, that is not correct.) is exactly the opposite. Take Sirus Snape from Harry Potter; genderbend him, add a few pounds at the hips then give him a lisp and the voice of Roz from Monsters Inc. That’s Mrs. Johansson.

I held up the pass for her to see, she studied it for a few minutes; looking between me and the pass. She always spent extra time looking at my passes since Jackson Ryans accused me of faking a pass to get out of class early (not that’d I’d so such a thing, wink wink, hint hint).

“You don’t look very great… no, definitely no threat here,” she murmured, handing me the pass back.

“I’m sorry? I-I feel fine,” I said, confused. Mrs. Johansson waved me off, I started to walk away when she hissed. Not like the weird girl from third grade that thought she was a cat, no, like a snake hissing in warning. I turned back towards her just in time to see her legs fuse together into a tail- no wait, the bottom half of a snake. Her eyes slit and a long snake tongue slipped in and out of her mouth.

“A-Actually… on second thought-” I took a few steps backwards, trying to put some space between the snake lady thing and I. She hissed again and looked down at me, sneering as our eyes met.

“Whatssss the matter? Ssscared?” The snake lady hissed, swiping a hand at me.

“Uh- Yeah…” I squeaked, taking off down the hallway. The snake lady yelled and slithered after me, throwing rocks and other various objects at me. How she got these items was beyond me.

My legs carried me faster than I’d ever run before, burning when I skidded around corners. I felt like I’d been running for forever when I finally came across Ayla Weber; my best friend, talking to her architecture 1 teacher Miss Chase. They noticed me sprinting down the hallway before I could call out, breaking the distance by jogging toward me. Ayla looked more worried than I’d ever seen her look before.

“Ruby, why are you running?” she asked, looking over her shoulder as I slumped over, trying to catch my breath.

“Mrs. Johansson… snake thing- chasing- me…” I panted as I sat down on the floor hard. Miss Chase knelt down next to me, her gray eyes filled with worry.

“Snake lady? Like Echidna?”

“Yeah, sure, whatever that is.” I mumbled, putting my arms over my head to open my airways. Just as I was about to lay down, the snake lady thing came barreling around the corner and down the hallway, yelling in another language. Although, I realized, I could understand her. This was definitely a fever dream.

Miss Chase and Ayla looked at each other and nodded. Ayla reached into her backpack and pulled out two eighteen inch long daggers, while Miss Chase pulled a shorter dagger out of a sheath under her shirt. Together they ran at the snake lady, cutting and slashing at it. The snake lady pulled out a sword to fend them off. Miss Chase got in behind the snake lady thing while Ayla distracted it from the front. She yelled in agony and flaked away, a dark dust that reminded me of coal. They turned back to me, assessing me I guess. I stared at them in awe, mouth hanging open, eyes wide.

“That was awesome!” I yelled, standing up so quickly my vision spotted, (stupid iron deficiency). “When and where did you learn to fight like that Ayla? You’ve been holding out on me girl!” I said, flailing my arms in exaggeration.

“We need to go, there’ll be more if we stay.” Miss Chase said, pocketing her phone and jogging to get her computer bag out of her classroom. Ayla put her daggers back in her backpack, perfectly hidden behind the straps.

“Where?”

Ayla pulled a necklace out from under her shirt. “To camp of course,” she said, I looked at them, her first bead had a painting of a tiny centaur in a dress, another was all black except for a turquoise trident in the middle of it.

Miss Chase -who told me to call her Annabeth- hurried us outside and across the parking lot to the football practice fields. As we got closer I noticed two chariots waiting for us. (I only knew that because of a mythology class I failed out of last semester). Each chariot had two Pegasi reined to it, waiting for takeoff. One of the Pegasi had its wings stretched out and it had to have had a twenty foot wingspan.

Ayla hopped into the closest chariot, pulling me in after her. We stood on either side of a semi scrawny kid with bright blond hair like mine, and a medical bag slung across his body. Annabeth hopped into the chariot in front of us, taking up position next to a really buff guy. The Pegasi unfolded their wings and with one flap we were in the sky.

“Brace yourselves.” the blond kid said. Ayla grabbed into the handles on either side of the chariot, blocking the path in case I fell. I grabbed the handle next to the scrawny kid as he whipped the reins. Our chariot lurched forwards, the wind pushing me back so hard I almost fell… again. It felt like how you would imagine going into hyperspeed in Star Wars, or how the Flash feels when he runs really fast. The wind was hitting my face so hard I couldn’t breathe, and I felt bad for Ayla; who was probably swallowing my hair. Suddenly, the blond kid tightened the reins and the Pegasi went straight up. He was smart enough to put a hand on my back. He whipped the reins again and the Pegasi nose dived, tucking their wings at their sides completely. Ayla slammed into my back, smashing me against the front of the chariot.

“Will! What in Hades!” Ayla gasped over the wind. He looked back over his shoulder, I followed his gaze to see two concentrated storms following us. Lightning flew at us, horizontal across the sky. The blond kid, whom I’m assuming to be Will; jerked the reins to the left, just barely dodging the lightning. It curved toward us, and Will kept trying to dodge it.

“Get on the Pegasi!” he yelled, shoving me over the edge of the chariot. I lost my balance and fell face first onto the back of the first Pegasus. Ayla came flying over to the second one, her shoes had sprouted wings. I was too confused to do or say anything.

“What about you?” I called back, turning to see him cutting the ropes attached to him and the Pegasi. He didn’t say anything and cut the final rope, the chariot fell at an angle. Going with the lost momentum of the Pegasi. Ayla and I looked at each other in horror as we watched him fall. The chariot gained more speed than he did.

“Dive!” I yelled, grabbing the broken rein and whipping it. I had no idea what I was doing but it felt right. The Pegasus folded its wings and we hurdled toward the ground. It took all the leg and stomach muscles I didn’t have to keep from falling over the front of the Pegasus. We’re not gonna make it, I thought. Blonde hair was whipping around in the wind so hard I thought it was going to rip right off my head while my mind went into overdrive as I tried to think of a way to speed up.

“Fly toward him!” I yelled over the wind, the Pegasus obeyed. Flapping its wings propelling us toward the Earth faster than I would like to. When I could make out Will’s facial expression I reached out my hand, snatching his flailing arm on a luck shot. With one hand, I tightened the rein like Will did. The Pegasus flattened its wings and we seemed to float for a moment before it pushed them down. Throwing us upward before all three of us crashed into the ground. With that momentum I pulled Will onto the back of the Pegasus.

“Well that didn’t go according to plan…” he murmured. Sitting upright as I tried to tell the Pegasus to straighten and fly forwards.

“What was your plan exactly?” I asked breathlessly, holding the reins tightly. Will slowly wrapped his arms around my waist, sending shivers down my legs. I wasn’t used to such close contact with a boy. Especially a boy that looked to be five years older than me.

“To grab the rope and pull myself up on Sandblast here, even though she would’ve hated it.” He said, patting the Pegasus’s back. I nodded, trying to keep my nerves from making me throw up. “But it seems like you’re a natural! Sandblast hates everyone except Butch.” he added, earning an annoyed whiny from Sandblast. She had an all white coat, except for blonde specs near her hooves and on her wings, which I guess is where the ‘sand’ part in her name comes from. I’d hate to find out where the ‘blast’ part came from.

We flew in silence other than Will giving me directions to wherever we were going. When we passed over a cluster of trees he told me how to land. Our landing was a little rough, but Sandblast didn’t break any bones and neither did Will or I so to me, it was a win. Ayla ran up to me and scooped me up in a hug, then examined me.

“Oh my gods you’re okay! That was so scary but also really cool how you dove after Will.” she said, using her hands for emphasis. A centaur and a pudgy man with a bottle of diet coke in his hand came walking over.

“So this is our new recruit?” the centaur asked, looking down at me. Now, I was average height-wise for a girl, but this centaur guy made me feel short. Will dusted himself off and nodded, lightly punching me in the arm.

“You should’ve seen her! She’s a natural Chiron, Sandblast listened to every command she gave with no pull back. And she actually knew Pegasi commands.” Will exclaimed, making me blush. The centaur looked at me, his expression shocked.

“Is that so?” he asked, as if I knew.

“In my defense, I was left alone in the sky. I panicked.” I said, hoping they’d look away from me. I hated being the center of attention. Annabeth laughed, and I saw Ayla grinning.

“I want to see this girl fly then.” the pudgy guy said, taking a swig of his coke and belching loudly. They all looked at me and I felt a hot breath on my head. I looked up to see a horse head. Sandblast towered over me, her eyes screamed pick me.

We walked to a clearing that overlooked a lake. Out over the lake there were more Pegasi flying around, some with riders and others that were just out for a joyride. I mounted Sandblast and looked to Will, who smiled at me and gave me a double thumbs up. I nodded to Chiron, who held out a hand as if to say the skies yours. With that, I slouched over, getting into what Will called my ‘riding position’.

I tugged on the rein once and Sandblast unfolded her wings, giant, ten foot long, white with blonde speckled beauties. She galloped a few times and right at the edge of the cliff she jumped, flapped her wings once and soared. We’d gotten over the middle of the lake when a water spout just about blasted Sandblast and I out of the sky. She whinnied and I yanked her reins to the right. Another spout, yanked to the left. Another spout up ahead of us this time, we went over it. One arching right at me, I moved the rein slightly again and Sandblast dove. We dodged water spout after water spout, only getting sprayed with the mist that came off them. She rolled over something that whizzed passed from the trees, I realized that there were people in the trees. Their clothes reflected white light and silvery glows followed them. A water blast that I didn’t even see knocked into me, throwing me off Sandblast. She kept flying for a moment then dove, but it was too late. I was falling toward the water too fast for her to catch me. I mean, sure, Pegasi are fast, but she’d have to get under me without diving into the water. I closed my eyes and accepted my fate, falling three hundred feet into water? Might as well just fall onto concrete. A warm feeling fell over me and I felt like I was being dipped into the water, like someone had grabbed me right before I smacked into the lake. I do not wish you the same fate as Icarus, a voice in my head said. It sounded vaguely familiar.

When I resurfaced, I saw Sandblast hovering in a circle above my impact point. I held my hands up to say c’mon man. She whinnied and flew off. A soft current grabbed me and pulled me toward the cliff. I braced myself -yet again- to ram right into the side of the cliff, but instead of face planting into solid rock, the water propelled me up and I landed face first on the grass. There was applause, and there were whispers. I looked up to see a crowd gathered, Ayla and Will leading the applause. A black haired kid stood next to Annabeth and Chiron, a slight smile on his face.

“That was some great flying.” he said when I walked over.

“There is something wrong with your lake. Normal lakes don’t try to kill people.” I said, wringing out my shirt. They laughed a little, then gasped. I looked at Annabeth who seemed to be glowing golden, no wait- something was illuminating her face. I slowly turned my head up and above me a golden Lyre- wait, how did that? Bigger question, why was a golden Lyre floating above my head? Will screeched and scooped me up into a hug, his face dangerously close to mine.

“We’re siblings!” he yelled as he swung me in a circle.

“We’re what!?” At this point, I figured that I had too many questions to ask. They wouldn’t be able to keep up. Will set me down but then took me by the arm and started leading me down the hill, Sandblast landed behind me and trotted happily close at my heels. “Wait- where are we going?” I asked, looking back to see the crowd snickering. Will just kept walking and rambling about who knew what.

[mypinkchapter]

Processing vs. the process.

​"But we must not forget His presence in the midst of the process." (p.98) -- Lysa Terkeurst, It's Not Supposed to Be This Way It's with lots of happiness that I am writing today on the other side of the dose dense AC chemo​ treatments​, aka "the hard stuff​." ​So, w​e're past the harder chemo & onto the maintenance chemo, plus the big surgery is well behind me & I'm a good ways into reconstruction -- one might think how easy it must be to relish in all these great things going for myself... but that's not been entirely true.

The past few weeks​ for me​ have been filled with finally, really, truly starting to process this whole process. It's been tough on me when the "whys" & "what ifs" start to sneak in & settle in my mind. I think that's fairly natural & normal for anyone who has stood in this place or a similar circumstance, because our flesh is our flesh. We can become a little self-centered pretty quickly. I think that ​ov​​er the last few weeks I have been a little harder on myself, completely lacking any grace or giving myself room for imperfection.​​ I feel like ​while ​watching other friends walk this journey, I give them way more grace than I give myself. As I said in my last post a few weeks ago, suffering isn't always pretty. Lysa Terkeurst discusses in her book mentioned above that sometimes we just have to sit in the seat of suffering. I guess at times I think that should be like a day or two & then I'm back to ​"​normal,​"​ but this journey entails more of a longsuffering. "Longsuffering is long because you can't sprint through it." (p.101) 

I feel like I have tried staying so composed at times that I haven't given myself room to struggle, but thank heavens God's grace is way better than my own! So with these realizations, I am doing my best to remember the grace that God shows me daily, practically minute by minute, & that I should show that same grace to myself ​(and oftentimes others) ​to accept that sometimes it's okay to struggle & it's okay to be tired, because God wants me to trust & rest in Him. There is a song that I started clinging to right before my diagnosis, which has been a staple for me since, and it has the lyrics, "I will rest in the Father's hands. Leave the rest in the Father's hands." I can't say I'm doing the best at this always, but I'm learning & I'm trying. The best part has been that I have been swept up by those at the heart of my support system, showing me grace & picking me up in the same way that Jesus picks us up when we need it the most!

I know I have mentioned this a few times here in my posts, but ​sweet ​friends, the Lord's timing... ​it's ​so good! In the midst of this season, our lives have resumed as normal as possible, including Ryan's & Elly's. Ryan has been working as a medical sales rep for about three years; he has had some of the nicest bosses who have allowed him to focus on me & my recovery or my treatments whenever needed. It's been the biggest blessing​​. But as we've spent lots of time with doctors, nurses, etc., Ryan felt a tugging at his heart to move back into direct patient care. His degree is in Interventional Radiology & jobs rarely open within that area, thus he had tossed the idea around of applying for nursing school. This summer, in between treatments, we had worked on him applying & trying to get some prerequisites going, but we kept getting frustrated with the process. It had become a headache & things were not playing out like they really should have in terms of timing. It makes me laugh when I think back now because it really should have been simple, but we fully believe the Lord threw a few road blocks in there in order for him to stumble upon a job opening in his degree field, & now several interviews & weeks later, he has landed a job back in patient care at our favorite place of care, St. Bernards. We are so excited & so grateful that God was perfect in His timing!​ He now gets to show the same love & compassion to others that we have been shown -- how neat!​ It works out perfectly that he'll be starting ​in the coming weeks​ as, like I mentioned earlier, I'm essentially starting on the downhill slide to this journey. It was a neat reminder to us that we have to fully trust in the Lord's timing & know that He places us in the right place at the right times for the right length of time. 

So, onto other topics, like hair... and how I have none! It's wild to me how this has all worked itself out for the better. Per my previous posts, I was obviously doing my best to save my hair through chemo, but it simply wasn't in the cards. I feel like I summed it up best in my post on social media ​on the​ evening of my decision, "Sometimes we step out & try things, but they don’t always work out in our favor... and guess what, IT’S OKAY! I didn’t want to seem like a 'quitter' but I had developed some major scalp pain & was continuously losing mass amounts of hair, so it was time to tell myself, 'It’s okay.'" 

Well I am happy to report that now, almost ​one​ month after choosing to be rid of what hair I had left, I feel honestly such freedom! That was a weight lifted from my shoulders that I didn't realize I was putting on myself. Hair grows back & it became so stress-inducing for me to worry over, that it was robbing me of joy. Joy that I am now embracing, just with a fuzzy head because it's already starting to come back in! Elly thinks it's great & funny enough, wants her hair cut like Mommy -- which is a big fat ​no​ because of those perfect curls, of course! But Ryan told me afterward that maybe a bald head is what I needed to add as an outward ​piece of my ​testimony ​on​ this journey. A dear friend that has battled cancer &  had to embrace losing her hair told me that she found that people tend to be nicer to someone with a bald head; I think she is right!

The treatment process continues tomorrow & I begin the new weekly drug in the morning. To be truthful, I'm anxious. I dove in headfirst to my first rounds simply because I had nothing to compare it to & I was so ready to get going. Now I'm still ready (because I'm ready to be done!), but I'm ready in a nervous way because I think of how this will compare. Will it actually be easier? Will I suffer the side effects my oncologist has discussed? ​Will even more normalcy be able to return?​ Again, it's simply that I have started to process this whole process & I now know how to question it compared to earlier in the journey. 

So I would really appreciate prayers over the next few weeks as we kick off this maintenance drug. Prayers that side effects are minimal & that I can easily function on this drug, because hello, SCHOOL is around the corner! :) And I want to be as normal of a teacher as possible. Just a teacher that goes one afternoon a week for a bit to get some chemo​...​ no big deal, right?! 

We are so appreciative​​ for the prayers, kind words, & sweet gestures that continue to come our way​ -- thank you​! 

All my love from my pink chapter,  Erin 

[raisingsupergirl]

The Value of Value

Kids these days. AmIright? No respect. No appreciation for how good they've got it. Take my daughter… please! Okay, sorry. I think Rodney Dangerfield possessed me there for a minute. But anyway, back to my daughter. I lamented last summer (and again in the winter) about her demeanor on the soccer field. She' was a jogger. She was a walker. She was a half-hearted gawker. In short, she had zero competitive spirit, but she loved being there with her friends (#facepalm). We made it through both outdoor and indoor soccer without much progress, but I was hopeful that t-ball would be different because it's not a contact sport. Maybe she wouldn't be intimidated so much, and thus she would get into it a little more. Wrooong. She's had two games so far, and both times she's been the kid throwing dirt on everyone else the whole time. And her daddy has never been closer to having a stroke. I'll finish that story in a minute, but I should really get on with the point of this blog first: self-therapy. That's all it is. God's showing me things from a different angle. My daughter loved soccer, and now she loves t-ball. But she refuses to actually play either of them when she's there. Everyone assigns value differently, and it's time that I learned that. So here goes.

Hard work and dedication. If a thing is worth doing, it's worth doing right. Life is so awesome that it's a crime to waste a single moment. These are the things that define me. I'm not a perfectionist, but I try to be. I love creating and learning new things. And I love the payoff—the sense of accomplishment from completing a challenge or goal—and I'm a huge fan of the reward system. As I've said before, 2019 has been an insane year for me. I put way too much on my plate. There hasn't been a week yet that I didn't work at least sixty hours between my "day job" (physical therapy), my editorial jobs (both at Havok Publishing and with freelance editing), and my writing career. There have been times when I've wanted to quit or at least just take a weekend off, but one thing (aside from the thrill of the challenge) has kept me going: the payoff. July 21st. That's the day when it will all be worth it. It's the day after my last writing conference of the summer, and everything's leading up to it. I've edited dozens of stories and hundreds of thousands of words so far this year, and I have many more to go. But by that day, I'll be done with my own book, as well as with the culmination of six months of stories for Havok. I'll be able to sit back and take a breath… an entire weekend away from any real work. And most importantly, I'll be able to enjoy the ultimate guilty pleasures prize package that I've amassed for myself:

1 bottle of Ole Nassau Dark (rum that can only be purchased in the Bahamas)

1 bottle of Tawny Port wine (aged ten years)

1 Romeo y Juliette Churchill cigar (Cuban)

1 farm-raised sirloin steak literally the size of my head

So here's the thing. Everything on my reward list is bad for me. If I enjoyed them for every little occasion, they would turn to ash in my mouth (some more literally than others), and they would eventually kill me. But as a one-time reward for a seven-month sprint, they'll be heavenly. I put value in working hard and enjoying all of what life has to offer, but some people would call me naïve. Where I say life is too short to waste a day, others say it's too short to work all the time (and honestly, they'd be right… until stopping to smell the roses becomes a permanent nap in the poppies). Some four year olds place value on training to be the next Nolan Ryan (you know who you are, kid), and some just like to fill their shoes with as much of the infield as possible before the inning is over.

"If you keep playing in the dirt, you're getting a spanking when we get home."

 Quite a dugout pep talk, right? Well, hear me out. Before the game, my daughter had promised me that she wouldn't play in the dirt. Before she walked onto the field, I made her promise again. But within a minute, she was already throwing the stuff everywhere. She was piling it up and packing it in her shoes. I tried to get her to stop. Her coaches tried to get her to stop. Even one of the other kids told her to stop. But apparently she puts some serious value in dirt (I can only assume that she's going to make an amazing excavator someday). And after my dugout threat, she went right back to the dirt. On the way home, I informed her that she would be getting the aforementioned spanking (not because she misbehaved but because she lied. She only gets spankings for lying, though, in this case, there was definitely some interpretation of the law needed to justify the punishment), and I took it one further.

"If you even look at the dirt during your next game, you're never playing t-ball again."

"Okay…" she said in her sweet little voice. "But why?"

$#@&#*$!!! Are you kidding me?! "Because it's t-ball, not dirt-ball!"

And that's when I realized that she really didn't get it. She was playing t-ball. She was out there with all the other kids having a blast. She's even a great hitter (about a .250 batting average with the coach pitching and 100% off the T) even though her mother and I haven't practiced with her nearly as much as we should. Maybe she'll eventually develop a love for some actual sport, or maybe she'll always be a butterfly chaser. Either way, these experiences (and her memories) will go one of two ways, and I'm sure as heck not going to be the father who ruins them. If that means chewing a hole through my lip at every game to keep from yelling at her, so be it. If she throws dirt on other kids or doesn't listen to her coaches, there will be repercussions, but if she's intent on digging her own infield grave, I'm going to have to be okay with that. At least for now. Why? Because she's assigning value in her own way. She's growing and learning where she fits in. And in the end, she's still four years old, and it's just intermural t-ball, not the World Series.

And hey, if I need to uncork that Ole Nassau rum a little early to get me through this season, I don't think anyone would blame me.

[hysterialevi]

When the Devil Cries pt. 5

Author’s note: Some more moments between Arthur and Eddie in this part! Hope you enjoy :)

From Arthur’s POV

THE BASTILLE

Letting ourselves into the lazy saloon, Eddie and I made a beeline straight for the back as the same bartender greeted us, recognizing our faces while he cleaned the bar with a rag.

The saloon was still full of the same pretentious pricks from the last time I was here, and the further I made my way into the fancy building, the more their eyes seemed to be stuck on me and my sad attempt of putting together an outfit that was actually decent.

Heh, still looked better than them, though.

“Welcome back, Eddie!” The bartender exclaimed. “And you too, mister. What’ll it be for you folks today?”

The pianist slid some money across the surface. “Two beers, please.”

“Comin’ right up.” He reached under the bar and popped two caps off with a soft hiss, placing a pair of bottles in front of us as we enjoyed our drinks.

“Say, Mister Ryan,” the man continued, “how’s your work at the theater going?”

Eddie took a sip. “It’s going well, thankfully. At the moment, I’m preparing for a show.”

“That’s good.” The bartender tugged his head towards the saloon’s piano. “Y’know, if you’re ever lookin’ for more work, our pianist’s thinking of quittin’ his job soon. He’s planning to move out somewhere in the country. Wants a more...‘laid-back’ lifestyle, he said.”

I let out a boisterous laugh at that. “Hah! Laid-back...”

Eddie considered the offer. “If I ever find the time to do it, I’d certainly love to play here. Lord knows I could use the money.”

The bartender smiled. “Excellent. Well, I’ll leave you boys to your drinks. Have a fine day now, y’hear?”

“Thanks, mister,” Eddie replied. “You too.”

Turning to face me now that the man was gone, the young musician took a breath and barely opened his mouth to say somethin’ before someone else was calling out his name, interrupting us for a second time. Jesus. And people wondered why I weren’t much of a social butterfly.

“Eddie Ryan?” A woman asked. “Mister Ryan, is that you, darling?”

Peeking behind the boy’s figure to see who was talking to him, I spotted none other than Lillian Powell herself sitting in the same place as before, comfortable as always while makin’ sure the rest of the saloon wasn’t.

“Oh, Miss Powell,” Eddie greeted, clearly not particularly pleased to see her. “Starting the day off with a drink, eh?”

She let out a puff of smoke from her mouth. “Indeed. Same as you, evidently.” Lillian moved her gaze to me, her eyes narrowing. “And I see you brought the cowboy with you.”

Eddie glanced at me. “Oh, him? He’s just a friend of mine. We met recently.”

“Is that so?” She said with an...almost jealous expression. “Are you planning on taking him to the gala later this week?”

The young man quirked a brow, turning to me. “I don’t know. What do you think, Arthur? Would you like to come with me?”

Well, finding a way into that gala was certainly easier than I anticipated. I gave Eddie a nod.

“...Sure,” I answered with a shrug. “Why not?”

Lillian took a drag, huffing out another cloud. Though I couldn’t tell if the smoke comin’ out of her nose was due to the cigarette or annoyance.

“I suppose I’ll make an invitation for your friend, then. I look forward to seeing you there, Eddie. The gala will certainly be a night to remember with your piano-playing skills.”

The musician chuckled gently. “Thank you, Miss Powell. I look forward to attending.”

She smirked in a flirtatious manner. “You should, darling. It’s going to be quite the ball. There will be tons of people as well as music, drinks, and of course the chance of witnessing a drunken brawl. Mister Daniels and Robinson still aren’t over the fight they had at the last gala. I’m sure you remember that, yes?”

Eddie laughed at the memory. “How could I forget?”

Practically chugging the rest of his beer down in an attempt to escape the endless conversations, the pianist placed the empty bottle down and stood back from the bar, straightening his coat.

“Well, it was nice to see you again, Miss Powell,” he lied, “but I’m afraid I must get going. I’m on a...rather tight schedule today.”

“Oh, okay,” she said with a pout. “Take care of yourself, Eddie. Alright? Don’t stress yourself too much. I know how hard you work.”

Eddie sighed. “I wish I had the option. Anyways, good day, Lillian. I hope to bump into you at the gala. Until then, farewell.”

The boy brought his attention back to me with an expression on his face that screamed “help,” beckoning me out the saloon as I finished my own drink.

“Ready to go, Arthur?” He asked. I set down the bottle, walking next to him.

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Good,” he replied in a relieved tone. “Then let’s get going.”

Shoving me out of the Bastille, Eddie and I took a huge breath of fresh air the minute we stepped outside, both of us glad to be away from the grandiose atmosphere of the saloon. And also to distance ourselves from that wretched woman.

“You are quite the popular feller, ain’t you?” I joked.

“Sadly, yes,” he said. “But in Saint Denis, fame brings you money. And right now, I need it. Still, it was kind of you to join me for a drink...even if it did last for about two seconds. Will you be heading off now?”

I whistled for my horse, watching the streets as my companion steadily trotted her way towards me.

“Yeah. As you know, I ain’t really much for big cities, and...I’ve got a few things I need to take care of.”

“Ah, I see,” Eddie responded, sounding a tad disappointed. “Well, it was fun running into you again, Arthur. Sometimes it feels like you’re the only man not wearing a mask in this city.”

Oh, if only he knew.

Giving my horse a welcoming pat on the neck, I mounted the majestic creature and secured my feet in the stirrups before taking hold of the reins, admittedly somewhat sad to leave Eddie behind as I reminded myself I had a job to do.

Then again...it was still rather early in the morning, and I had already completed my task of finding a way inside the gala, which was more luck than skill, to be honest...but maybe there wasn’t any need to part ways just yet.

I glanced down at the lonely pianist, coming up with a last-minute idea.

“Y’know what, Eddie,” I proposed, “you’ve been showin’ me around Saint Denis these past couple o’ days. Why don’t I give you a peek of the world outside the city? Show you what else is out there.”

The boy looked up at me with a hint of hope in his big eyes.

“...You’d do that?”

I shrugged in a relaxed manner. “Sure. Everyone needs to get out once in a while, and I’ve spent enough time here, I think. Why don’t you come with me? Explore the country for a bit? We won’t be gone for long. Just enough to catch our breaths.”

Eddie was obviously excited, but displayed some hesitance.

“...I-I’d...love to.”

“Heh. Don’t be shy,” I reassured him, patting my horse. “She can be a little skittish ‘round strangers, but she’ll warm up to you soon enough. C’mon.”

I reached a firm hand out, helping Eddie onto the mount as he tried to get used to the height.

“You good?” I checked.

“Yeah...” he answered, his voice soft with uncertainty. I didn’t think Eddie realized he had wrapped his arms around my waist. But I didn’t mind.

“Alright,” I tightened my grip on the reins, “I’d suggest you hold on, then. This girl can go fast. Hyah!”

OUTSIDE SAINT DENIS

A WHILE LATER

Galloping as if there was no tomorrow, I bolted through the open fields hugging the city as Eddie held onto me for dear life, the force of the breeze ruffling his hair up a bit.

Out here, I felt so free. I didn’t have to endure the irritating chaos of Saint Denis’ coal-driven factories, greedy merchants, whistle-blowing lawmen, or the constant chatter of a thousand strangers.

Out here, it was just me...and Eddie. Ridin’ our way through endless miles of meadows and smooth hills as we glided towards the mountains towering in the distance. It made me feel so small -- so insignificant...and I loved every minute of it.

Snapping the reins out of excitement, I urged my horse to run faster as her heavy breath quickened and Eddie’s grasp strengthened around me, making me laugh on the inside. The boy certainly knew his way around the city -- I’d give him that -- but it looked like this was his first time ever settin’ foot into nature.

Well, I guessed it was my turn to show him the ropes, for once.

Sprinting across a small stream, I began heading for one of my favorite spots in this area as droplets of cool water splashed onto us, giving me a much-needed sense of refreshment. There wasn’t a single person in sight, and the only company we had at the moment was the dozens of different species scrambling through the untouched land, including groups of rabbits that would always scramble underneath me every once in a while.

I had to admit...I was enjoying myself with Eddie. It wasn’t too often that I got to travel with a friend like this, and it was even more rare that I actually had a friend in the first place.

But spending time with Eddie...it made me feel at peace. I never experienced the same sort of tension with him as I did when speaking to others -- even Dutch -- and it was always so exhilarating to be around him. He passed no judgements. Made no assumptions. Cared nothin’ for where I came from, or who I was. All that mattered to him...was what I did.

Taking a sharp turn into the woods, I led Eddie through a thick grove of trees as spots of sunlight danced on the dirt road beneath us, and leaves rained from the canopy of branches above. There were all sorts of insects and birds flyin’ along with us, and the further I rode, the more Eddie’s arms relaxed around me.

The boy no longer seemed tense or held back by fear. Instead, he looked just as content as I was and brought his gaze to the sky, unable to hide the blissful smile that shined on his face as he watched the deer prancing at our side.

I was...I was happy that I brought him out here. It had been so long since I had someone like this in my life, and I sure as hell didn’t expect to find another in Saint Denis.

At first glance, that city looked like nothing but a dreadful, cramped cesspit to me, and I remembered being annoyed at Dutch for makin’ me search through the place.

But after meeting a man such as Eddie, it only made me wonder what else Saint Denis was hiding beneath its surface. I always assumed it was the same as any other city, and had it pegged for a nest of corruption...but I guessed it weren’t all bad. Not if Eddie was there.

Finally reaching the spot I had been searching for, my horse suddenly slowed down to a halt once we found ourselves at a section of the Kansas River. We were surrounded by tall, beautiful trees, a seemingly never ending stretch of clear water, and the early sun hovered above us as its beams broke through the white clouds. To me, it was paradise.

“Here we are,” I announced, turning around to pat Eddie’s shoulder. “Ain’t it just the prettiest thing you’ve ever seen?”

The boy slowly gazed around in awe, his mouth dropping open with wonder as he took in the world around him. There was a look of inspiration in his emerald eyes, and the longer he stared at the view in front of him, the less he knew what to say.

“...Oh my...God...” he whispered. “I...I may never go back home.”

I chuckled lightly at his response, a little amazed myself at how gorgeous this place was. I had wasted so much time worrying and stressing and constantly thinking about the gang that...I forgot to just stop for a minute, and take a damn breath. It was...a nice change of pace.

“I come here a lot,” I explained. “It’s just...one of those places, y’know. Makes you feel separated from...the rest of the world. I like it here.”

Eddie agreed. “I can see why. I almost feel as if Saint Denis doesn’t even exist anymore. That city seems like it’s an eternity away now.”

Slipping my feet out of the stirrups, I turned around to face the pianist.

“Here,” I said, “lemme help you down.”

Preparing to hop off, my horse suddenly let out an alarmed neigh before I could do anything and began rearing wildly, causing both me and Eddie to tumble onto the ground as I rolled around in the dirt, whirling in confusion.

“What the--?” Eddie blurted out, somewhat dazed from what just happened. “What’s going on?”

A nearby growl answered the question for me.

Prowling towards us with a hungry glare in its eyes, a lone wolf stealthily approached me and Eddie, its paws just barely kissing the ground as if it were getting ready to jump. It didn’t look like there were any others around, and this one was still relatively far away.  I raised a calming hand, attempting to make sure neither the wolf nor Eddie made any sudden moves.

“...Whoa, there...” I warned, subtly reaching for my gun, “...easy, boy...”

The wolf continued to creep in my direction, showing no signs of leaving. The last thing I wanted to go trigger-happy in the middle of the wilderness where god-knows-what was roamin’ around, but I also didn’t wanna see my newest friend get eaten alive.

Whipping out my revolver, I fired a few warning shots just next to the beast and scared it off while Eddie stayed back.

“Go on!” I shouted. “Get! Leave us alone!”

The wolf instantly turned on its heel and let out a frightened whimper, scurrying away before it disappeared into the distant forests. I didn’t hear any other howls or see any signs of other beasts lurking in the area, and so far, no one seemed hurt.

I let out a sigh of relief, checking on Eddie.

“There it goes. You alright?”

The boy rose up from the gravelled ground, patting dirt off him.

“Yeah...I’m okay,” he confirmed, slightly shaken. “You look like you’ve dealt with your fair share of wolves before.”

I holstered my gun, scoffing. “Too many times. I had to save one of my idiot friends from an entire pack of ‘em once. Bastard got more than a few scars to remind him to stay the hell away. Just glad I could save you, too. Oh, and uh...sorry ‘bout the clothes.”

Eddie looked down at his stained coat, chuckling in amusement. “Yes, it seems every time we cross paths, I always end up covered in mud. No worries, though. At least they aren’t blood stains. Thank you, by the way. I’d probably be dead now if you hadn’t been here.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Walking over to my horse, I carefully approached the spooked animal before giving her a comforting rub on the neck, attempting to calm her nerves as she whinnied nervously.

“Shhh...” I whispered softly. “Easy, girl. You’re alright. There ain’t nothin’ can hurt you now. You’re okay.”

I reached into my satchel to feed her a quick snack, only to realize the accessory was missing from my person when my hand touched air.

I backed away from the horse, glancing around as I searched for the damned thing.

“The hell? Where’s my satchel? Agh...it must’ve dropped somewhere when we were bucked off.”

Eddie pointed to a bag on the ground along with a number of items scattered next to it and knelt down, closely examining them. They must’ve fallen out when the satchel’s flap came loose.

“Is this it?” He asked, taking an open book into his hands. “Here, let me...help...”

The boy’s voice faltered out of nowhere and he paused mid-sentence, causing me to cock my head in curiosity as he took a sudden interest in the book.

“...What is it?” I urged, throwing a casual glance in his direction, only to damn-near have a heart attack.

Eddie had found my journal.

...And he was now staring at the portrait I made of him.

Christ, out of all the drawings, it had to open on that page?

Slowly standing up from the ground, Eddie mindlessly continued to examine the quick sketch as his eyes nailed themselves to the drawing, his face covered with amazement.

“...Arthur...” he breathed out, “...did you...did you draw this?”

I waved a dismissive hand, trying to change the subject.

“Ah, it’s nothing. I just...make doodles sometimes. Of places I’ve been to, things I’ve seen...people I’ve met.”

Eddie chuckled in an impressed manner. “What do you mean, it’s nothing? Arthur, this is incredible. I had a feeling you were an artist, but I didn’t expect this. It looks...just like me.”

I scratched the back of my head, my cheeks startin’ to feel a bit heated. Oh, good lord-- was I actually blushin’ like some flustered adolescent? I couldn’t believe it. What a goddamned fool I was.

Clearing his throat, the boy hurriedly closed the journal when he noticed my awkward behavior and handed it back to me, averting his gaze out of embarrassment.

“Erm -- I’m sorry,” Eddie apologized. “I didn’t mean to be intrusive. It’s just, you have a lot of skill, and I’ve...well, I’ve never known anyone who could draw like that.”

Calming down slightly, I stared at the portrait for a moment before peering at the musician, biting my lip in thought.

“...You wanna keep it?” I offered. His expression lit up with gratitude.

“...Could I?”

“Sure,” I replied, carefully tearing the sheet out. “I can always make another.”

Eddie gently took the drawing into his grasp, holding it as if it would break at any moment.

“I...thank you, Arthur. I really appreciate this. I’ll keep it close, I promise.”

The young man slipped the piece of paper into his coat, making sure it was secure before giving me a little smirk.

“What?” I said, chuckling.

“Oh, nothing...” he teased. “I just knew you weren’t as rough as you acted. Though I suppose it’s good that you least know how to act in the first place. Many other people -- like myself -- are clueless in the wilderness. You must think me quite the city buffoon.”

I laughed with a shrug, leaning against a nearby tree.

“Well...that’s the thing,” I said. “You don’t have to act out here. This is all nature. There are no pretenses, no masks, no guessing. Just one rule: treat the Earth right, and she’ll treat you right back. Most o’ the time, anyway...”

Eddie gazed into the woods, looking at where the wolf from before ran off to.

“I can see why people say it’s dangerous now. We haven’t even been out here for an hour yet, and already we’ve been attacked by something.”

“It’s really not so bad,” I reassured, patting my holster, “so long as you know how to defend yourself.”

An idea struck me. “Um...do you?”

The boy shook his head. “I can throw a punch well enough, but...I’m useless with a gun.”

I pushed myself off the tree. “Well then, lemme show you how to use one. I’d sleep better knowing you could. But first, we’ll need somethin’ to aim at...”

Searching the place for a target, I suddenly remembered that I had some empty bottles of Guarma Rum in my saddlebag and began digging through the seemingly bottomless pit, fumbling for them before yanking them out.

“Here,” I presented. “These’ll do.”

Pacing around while Eddie watched me, I decided to put the bottles on a tall-enough boulder just by the water as I set them down next to each other, stepping backwards once they were in position.

I unholstered my gun, beckoning the other man to come closer to me.

“Alright,” I said, “I ain’t much of a teacher, but I’ll shoot one, show you what I know...and then we’ll see if you can hit the other. Sound good?”

Eddie gulped. “Sure...I guess. You’re the expert here.”

“Don’t worry. You’ll do fine.”

I aimed the revolver at one of the bottles. “Okay, so what you wanna do is...just make sure you got a firm grip on the gun, but don’t lock your arms. Keep your hands steady, align the sights with whatever it is you’re tryin’ to shoot, take a breath...and...” I fired the gun, instantly shattering the bottle into a pile of shards, “...shoot on the exhale. Got all that?”

The pianist still appeared a tad uneasy. “...I think so.”

“Good,” I handed the gun to him. “Now you try it.”

Hesitantly taking the revolver from me, Eddie gripped the weapon with both hands and took aim, his brows furrowed in concentration. I sauntered behind the boy, doing my best to guide him.

“Steady...” I reminded him. “And brace yourself. The recoil has more of a kick than you’d expect. Takes beginners by surprise sometimes, heh.”

Following my instructions, Eddie breathed in like I told him to and fired on the exhale, only to end up shooting the rock below the bottle.

“Okay...not too bad for a first try,” I encouraged. “Why don’t you give it another shot? See if you can hit the bottle.”

Pulling the hammer down, Eddie prepared another bullet and readied himself before pointing the gun once more, doing the same as he did before. The man seemed less afraid of the weapon this time, and the sense of uncertainty was gone from his determined stare.

Perhaps I’d make a gunslinger outta him yet.

“Alright...let’s try this again.”

I decided to give him a little more help on the second attempt and used my hands to position his own, pushing his arms out so they were extended farther.

“Try aiming a bit lower...” I suggested, gently holding him in place. I couldn’t deny that my heart was beating faster than before.

“Now, remember...relax. Don’t think too much about it. Just aim, breathe in, and...”

Eddie fired a second bullet with a thunderous bang, causing the bottle to blast into a dozen broken pieces. He gasped in surprise.

“Oh!” He exclaimed happily, his voice energized with disbelief. “I...I did it! I actually did it! I hit the bottle!”

I laughed along with him, proudly patting his back.

“See? You ain’t such a buffoon, after all.” I rested my elbow on his shoulder, giving him a wink. “Well...maybe a bit.”

Eddie tittered, returning the gun to me as he looked in my eyes. “Fair enough. Thank you, Arthur. I mean it. You’ve...you’ve shown me so much already within these past two days. I’m glad I met you.”

I smiled at him. “Me too. How’s about we get you back to Saint Denis first, pay a visit to the gunsmith...and buy you your very own weapon? You shouldn’t need it in the city, but it never hurts to be armed.”

He nodded in acceptance. “I’d like that. But...could we spend some more time out here first? The day is still young and, well, to be frank...I don’t want to go back.”

“The country’s growin’ on you, is it?”

Eddie grinned. “It might just be. Even with the wolves.”

“Ohh, don’t you worry. Saint Denis has plenty of its own wolves. They just ain’t as cute.”

“That’s true,” he agreed. “Just wish I could skin them as well.”

A chortle escaped me. “I knew I liked you for a reason. Now c’mon.” I mounted my horse, gesturing for Eddie to join me. “There’s still a lot for you to see out there. You ever been to the Elysian Pool?”

The musician grabbed my hand and lifted himself up, wrapping his arm around my waist again. “No, I don’t believe I have.”

I tapped my spurs into the horse’s side. “Well, you will have now. It’s just north of here. I think you’ll like that area. The people there ain’t the friendliest, but the waterfall is somethin’ to behold. Now, let’s get going.”

Breaking into a sprint, Eddie and I continued our journey across the vibrant land as the sun finally reached its peak in the sky, warming up the world below with a cozy embrace.

I honestly wasn’t expecting to be out here this long, and Dutch was probably wondering where I had gone by now, but the more time I spent with Eddie, the less I wanted to return to camp or Saint Denis.

Being with that boy was like shuttin’ the rest of the universe out, and at the moment, that was exactly what I needed. So much shit was always happening with the gang whether it involved the O’Driscolls, the Pinkertons, or just arguing within the camp. Barely anyone there could stand each other now, and even Dutch and Hosea seemed to be drifting apart.

I just...couldn’t stay there. It always left me in such a sour mood. Gave me this constant sense of anger -- even more so than usual.

It...it just felt nice to finally have someone I could relax with. Someone who wasn’t part of the mess that I called my family. Who hadn’t been damaged by the world yet.

I only hoped I could protect him.

After all, I was probably the least safe person to be around in these parts, considering all the people hunting me down...but I just couldn’t bring myself to push Eddie away. He was the best thing I’d found out here so far, and...I was actually starting to like him a bit too much. The same way I used to like Mary.

It was a foolish dream to pursue, I knew. Eddie deserved someone far better than me, and I wasn’t meant for a life like that.

Though, I also couldn’t deny the feeling of joy I experienced around him. Just seein’ his face alone was enough to wipe away my worries. ...He did that unlike anyone else I knew.

I supposed, for right now, I’d just flow along with it and see what happened. Our current relationship seemed harmless enough, and I certainly didn’t mind being friends with Eddie...but the minute Dutch finished robbing Saint Denis of all its money, I’d have to let him go. Whether I liked it or not.

It was the last thing I wanted, and I wished I could just stay with him, but I couldn’t put Eddie’s life in danger. Not like that. Being close to me was too much of a risk, and he didn’t deserve to live with that kind of fear.

He deserved happiness.

Something that I was, and would forever be incapable of giving.

[ceesbb]

Loyalty updated

It was about midnight when the cell-phone rang. At first, I ignored the call because it was late. Around this time, my lights are shut and I’m usually surfing the web, or playing some PVP games with friends. This night was no exception, slowly scrolling through the tireless Tumblr pages searching for the next scary story to read. Then I found one, Seeing Sally’s Sorrow. Again, the phone buzzing on the burgundy computer desk. The house was eerily still but, the consistent vibrations from the call made me more irritated. Everyone who knows me understands knows that I do not care to be bothered in the night. I began reading and was immediately immersed upon the horror story when suddenly. -Buzz- I glance over to my cell-phone to three missed calls from my best friend Greg. As soon as I was about to call him back, Greg calls. “Hello?”, I said annoyed. “Hey Chris, I’m so sorry I really need your help. Something really bad happened”, he said shakily. Knowing that Greg isn’t the person to fuck around this late, my body jolted with adrenaline. “What’s wrong bud? You never call this late”. Greg greatly sighed, “Chris. I don’t know what to do. I’m so afraid right now”. Hearing my best friend so distraught, I thought of the best thing at that moment. “Come over. We can talk about it in person.”

It had only been a few minutes after I had hung up the phone, when a car had pulled up. From looking outside the dusty window, it was Greg’s car. Although, Greg’s car has seen its days it appeared more battered than usual. It was a 1995 Toyota Corolla that he had been gifted to from his father. He called it a beauty, even though it was the total opposite of it. His car was an aged burgundy, you could practically see the rust from down the street. His car was as like a diseased horse ready to be put down of its misery. There was a limited time on his mature car. The rusty clunking muffler could wake up the entire neighborhood. It was surprising that he didn’t wake up anyone with how fast he arrived. I had then noticed staring from the window that there were more dents in the car than usual.

I carefully walked downstairs, moving as slow as seconds on a long minute. Maneuvering through the pitch black basement. Ensuring that I move as little as possible to avoid waking my parents and my dog. Before I closed the door, the air was heavy like as if an elephant sat on your chest. I couldn’t understand why I was feeling that way. I looked up towards the cloudy night sky and wondered. “What is this sensation that is making me uncomfortable?” I shook it off and proceeded to leave my house. While walking out of the narrow driveway I could see a figure pacing around. It was quite cold out and I couldn’t tell but, looking at Greg’s cheeks they were red. Suddenly the clouds dissipated, the moonlight revealed his sobbing eyes and his puffed cheeks. Upon closer inspection his clothes were stained, there was a lingering stench coming from him and he was constantly looking out as if he was followed by a deranged stalker. “Hey Chris, let’s go and drive somewhere please”, expressed Greg. I humbly obliged.

There was eerie silence in the car for a few minutes. I sat in silence as both of us starred ahead. The silence started to echo and sound of my heartbeat became overbearing. Suddenly, Greg aggressively punched the steering wheel. I have never seen this side of Greg before. Greg let out a depressing sigh and said, “Chris. I’m not one to hide things from you and I’m always honest”. “Yes, I know. You’ve done almost everything for me”, I exclaimed. He turned his head slowly, starred with his bloodshot eyes and said, “I need you to not question anything that we’re doing tonight”. I reluctantly accepted. There were too many times where Greg has had my back without question. There was that time when he fought that bully Ryan for me when he made fun of my brother being in the hospital. Brave Greg gave troublesome Ryan a black eye, it was as if Ryan had been stung by bees. Or that time when Greg stole some money from his parents to help me purchase a ticket for prom. He had patiently waited for his father to pass out to pull out as much money as possible from his mother’s Prada purse. Since he’s usually watching some dumb show while drinking, it was a cinch. Regardless if it was right or wrong, he did everything for me. It was time I repaid him back for once.

“Hey let’s listen to some music!”, Greg said perturbed. He swiftly pressed the radio button and started to awkwardly sing. Hitting the off note keys and with a quavering voice. I sat in silence confused, wondering what was going on. I understood that I wasn’t the smartest cookie and that’s why I loved Greg. He protected me from all those bullies, everyone who made fun of me because I was slow. “Greg, what’s going on”, I said nervously.  He didn’t reply and became silent the rest of the way. Meanwhile listening to music and questioning silently where we were going, Greg had drove onto an unmarked street. I had not been paying attention to where we were due to all the mysterious events taking place. Greg stopped the car and handed me some gloves. We both had a pair, put them on and proceeded to head outside of the car. Greg opened the trunk and inside was an object rolled in black garbage bags. Right there, at the corner of my eye I had seen a hand poking out of the bag. A fucking bloodied hand. Then Greg turned to me, and said coldly, “Pick up one side and I got the other”.

I couldn’t comprehend what was going on. With a blank expression starring at Greg, my heart sank. Instantly, Greg’s words became inaudible and my stomach started to wince. I bolted to towards the nearest trash can and hurled. “Are you done?”, Greg said obnoxiously. I recalled upon what I promised myself. “Yeah, let me just catch my breath”. I swiftly jogged towards the car. Greg and I picked up this obvious body bag and started walking towards a field. This grassy field was baron, not a car in sight around us and the dim city lights couldn’t shine upon the field. We started blindly walking into the darkness with the body bag. My foot unexpectedly started touching mud. The gross sticky substance on my shoes while continuing through the field. “This should be far enough”, said Greg sternly. I dropped the side I was carrying, and sprinted towards the car. Running wasn’t going to do erase what I had just done but, for the time being it did.

There were no words spoken for the rest of the car ride. I sat expressionless while Greg started to hum along to the music. From the looks of it Greg was singing smoothly while in my perspective I was looking at a demon singing menacingly. Once arriving in front of my house Greg finally uttered the words, “Thank you”. I stepped out of the car after expressing my sarcastic thanks as well. I heard the window of the driver’s seat roll down before opening my front door. I had turned and saw a terrifying expression on his face. His face was smiling and in a cheerful tone said, “Make sure not to tell anyone”. I had sat down inside and turned on the TV. That’s when I saw the headline, “Breaking News. Body of Sixteen year old female youth found”. I perked up off the couch. “Surveillance footage shows two men stopping at a local parking stop appearing to carry this body to drop into the field. Police are currently looking for the suspects at large”. My face turned pale, my stomach sank deeply. Immediately there’s a mysterious knock on the door. I can hear my mother opening the front door. My ears are pressed against my bedroom door; two voices, sirens and police radios.  Footsteps creaking on the hardwood floors directed towards my room. “Shit. I’m Fucked.” I mumbled.

[silver-ninja-of-the-tides]

Silver and Gold 4--Not Just a Tournament

Chapter 10--The Matches

Summary

Fractured once, then fractured again. Four of the heroes of Ninjago have hung up their ninja gear and vainly started anew. And they’ve convinced themselves that they’re not going back.

But as Lloyd and Janet try to piece their team back together, a mysterious invitation to a massive tournament tells them that Zane is alive.

Bonds will be tested. Suspicions of everything they know and don’t know will arise. It all goes down at the Tournament of Elements.

(First chapter)

3rd person POV

The first arena was situated outside near a mountain, and a drummer pounded against his instrument. The stands overlooked a cliff bearing a tree bursting with pink blossoms. And there was where the competitors would fight for a Jadeblade that was tucked into the highest branch.

“Turner, Master of Speed, versus Gravis, Master of Gravity,” Chen introduced. “Fight!”

Griffin instantly darted for the tree, and Gravis used his powers to float to the coveted prize.

“Anyone else have the thought that we’re basically watching Chen get more powerful?” Janet asked from next to Cole.

“How can I not?” Jay hissed, watching a streak of white and red sprint up and across the branches.

“We have to keep playing along,” Lloyd said.

“But somehow we have to figure out why Chen’s doing all of this,” Kai said.

At the tree, Gravis was flying to the top only for Griffin to smack him back. The white clad master’s laugh was short-lived when Gravis smacked him right back with a branch.

Although momentarily stunned, Griffin bounced right back. “What? Can’t keep up? I’m over here!” He bolted up a couple branches. “Can’t catch me!”

Determined, Gravis soared forward, but Griffin kicked him back before whacking him with a branch. Furious, Gravis levitated hundreds of blossoms and surrounded the duo.

“This . . . doesn’t look good.”

The Master of Gravity then hurled the flowers at him with a mocking laugh.

“What if we tried looking underground again tonight?” Destiny suggested, seated next to Kai.

“It’s too much of a risk,” Cole said. “With the close call we had before, I don’t wanna know what might happen a second time.”

“And it probably won’t be a missing piece of fabric,” Jay commented.

Suddenly the crowd erupted into cheers, and the Jadeblade was seen in the hands of Griffin Turner.

“Winner!” Chen exclaimed. “Loser!” Pressing a button, a trap door opened at the ground, and Gravis laughed at the effort. Chen, however, merely pressed another button to drop a heavy bag on top of the master, who fell right into the hole.

“Woah,” Griffin said. “How many buttons does that man have?”

“Master of Speed, move on. Now, on to the next match!”

The stands began to clear out, and the other masters were guided to the next arena.

“On second thought maybe another look wouldn’t hurt,” Jay said.

“But we’ll have to be careful,” Lloyd warned. “No doubt Chen’s heightened security around here.”

                                                         * * * *

The cheetah watched Blake attentively as he listened to the other end of the line. His hand curled with every word that was spoken to him, and he wanted to strongly protest against the old man. He was more than ready to get back on his feet again, especially if Destiny was missing. But he held his tongue.

". . . Fine. We'll leave it at that," Blake said, and he irritatingly hung up the phone before handing it to the green-eyed woman.

The silence that followed warranted the wolf in the room to glance between Blake and the woman, and it eventually plopped its head back onto its paws with a huff. Blake was fed up with being cooped up at the monastery the Ninjas and company had come to call home. His condition was fine so long as he didn't fight. And he was sure Emma would rather join the search than watch over him.

“If Wu says they’re on the case, then you need to trust him,” Emma said.

“You’re not the least bit worried?” Blake questioned, shifting on the bed.

“My girls are missing. Of course I’m worried. But I know that Nya and Ryan will find them and the others.”

The blonde ran a hand down his face, wincing as he passed over his eye patch. “And you’re sure you entirely trust this Ryan Grand I’ve heard so much about?”

Emma stayed quiet. “I think we should start pitching in.”

“Wonderful suggestion, Mrs. Stone.”

The second match was about to take place outside during the evening, but this time the Jadeblade was stabbed into the top of a giant boulder. The open field had swirling designs in the dirt, and the next pair of fighters were awaiting Chen’s signal.

“Neuro, Master of Mind, versus Bolobo, Master of Nature,” Chen announced. “Fight!”

Instead of lunging for the blade, Neuro focused his element on his opponent, who readied his staff.

“They call this a fight?” Lloyd argued.

“Wait for it,” Garmadon said.

To an outsider, Neuro hardly looked like he was trying, but to the master, he was actually reading Bolobo’s mind. And just as he saw, the bearded man directed vines at Neuro to block him only for Neuro to jump onto one and latch onto the boulder.

Angered, Bolobo pounded his staff into the ground to summon another vine to carry him toward the blade. He then shot a vine at Neuro that wrapped around him and lowered him away from the blade. Neuro, however, quickly jerked around and forced Bolobo to the ground with his mind.

“That was pretty impressive, actually,” Janet complimented, seated next to the sensei.

“Never underestimate the power of the mind,” Garmadon said, but as Neuro fired again, Bolobo rolled away and had more vines tie themselves around Neuro.

“I—didn’t—see that—coming,” Neuro grunted.

“In man versus nature, nature usually wins,” Lloyd replied.

With the Master of Mind tied up at the moment, Bolobo seized the opportunity to have a vine bring the Jadeblade to him. Refusing to give up, Neuro used his powers once again to give Bolobo what looked to be a massive headache. He nimbly jumped off of the Master of Nature’s back, climbed the vine, and claimed the Jadeblade.

“You were saying?” Janet teased.

“Winner!” Chen announced. “Loser!” One button press from him and Bolobo was eliminated from the match. “Master of Mind moves on.”

“This is it,” Destiny said. “Kai’s match is next.” The team glanced to the Master of Fire.

“Don’t worry,” he reassured. “I’ve got this in the bag.”

“Don’t let your arrogance be your downfall,” Garmadon warned. “If we’re going to stop Chen, it’s going to take all of us. We can’t afford to lose each other.”

The Ninjas stood around Kai at the base of an escalating staircase of rock. Even from where they were, the temperature emitting from the lava was close to boiling.

“Go get ‘em, Kai,” Lloyd encouraged.

“Show ‘em whose boss!” Jay said.

“You got this,” Cole said.

“And don’t get cocky,” Janet warned firmly.

“Especially that,” Garmadon agreed. Kai nodded sternly, and the team walked off to the stands.

“Hey Spike!” Destiny called as Kai marched up the stairs. “Be careful out there!”

“I will, Water Girl,” he called back, sliding in a wink before hurrying up the stairs. Waiting for him in the middle of a wooden bridge was the Jadeblade, and on the other side of the bridge was his opponent looking as eager as ever. Maybe even too eager.

Both contestants stopped at their end of the bridge that hung above boiling lava, and Kai glanced over to his team now sitting down. A figure of orange stole his attention, and Skylor smiled at him.

“Kai, Master of Fire, versus Ash, Master of Smoke,” Chen introduced. “Fight!”

The Red Ninja ran across the bridge as Ash swung around by the rope and whipped the bridge. The ripple effect lurched Kai off, and he latched onto the edge of the bridge to see the Jadeblade secure itself head first into a rock pillar.

Kai swung from one board to the next as Ash rushed after him, determined to not let him win.

“Come on, Kai, you can do it!” Lloyd egged on.

Throwing his legs forward, Kai burst through the boards and came in for a kick. Or at least, that’s what he hoped to accomplish. Instead he passed right through a cloud of smoke, and Ash materialized in front of him with a mocking smile.

He fired a ball of smoke at Kai, who powered through to deal another kick to Ash. Once again Ash vanished into smoke and reappeared, but Kai wasn’t about to give up. With every attack he made Ash constantly appeared and reappeared to deal an attack of his own, before he ultimately knocked Kai back hard enough to sent him through several boards. Luckily he wasn’t stunned enough to not grab onto the bridge again.

The move warranted cheers from everyone in the crowd except for the Ninjas and Skylor.

“Don’t quit now, don’t quit now,” Janet muttered.

Kai swung from side to side to avoid balls of smoke, but the board he was on shattered, and he grappled onto another broken half of a board. Swallowing his panic, he threw himself into the air and . . .

“Ninjaaa-GO!” With his fiery Spinjitzu he finally made it back onto the bridge and forced Ash back.

The whirlwind was dismissed, and both competitors lunged forward. Ash, however, dematerialized, but Kai was quick to make sure he landed on his feet.

“Come on, Kai,” Lloyd said. “Use your power!”

Igniting his hands, Kai shouted his element as he shot at Ash three times, and each time Ash narrowly avoided the fireballs. And since Kai kept firing, Ash kept fading into smoke, until the Master of Fire shot with both hands. Ash faded away once again, but the bridge wasn’t so lucky. And Clouse wasn’t about to let the Ninja win.

“Ah! No magic!” Chen ordered. “I’m enjoying this.”

Ash hopped from one steaming board to another and appeared behind Kai to strangle him. With a free arm, Kai set the bridge on fire and caused it to collapse, and he managed to land on a platform next to the Jadeblade. Unfortunately for him, so did Ash.

They lunged for the blade and became a flurry of attacks, before they eventually shoved each other back to a platform. The two darted for the blade again, and Kai back flipped to kick Ash, who still sent punch after punch his way. Suddenly they were both on the same platform and pushing against one another. And it was anybody’s game now.

Ash vanished once again while jumping back toward the Jadeblade, and that’s when Kai had him pinned.

The Master of Fire sent two balls of fire as he jumped for the blade, and just like before, Ash disappeared into smoke to avoid it. Kai’s hand wrapped around the smooth hilt of the blade, and with his momentum he yanked the prize free.

“Winner!” Chen exclaimed as the stands erupted into cheers.

“Yes!” Destiny exclaimed, nearly louder than her standing team.

“Loser! Master of Fire moves on.” With the third button press of the night, Ash plummeted through the trap door. “That will be all for tonight! Time to rest up!”

Chatter buzzed amongst the remaining masters as the Ninjas hurried off to where Kai was headed. He was already halfway down the stairs before they even reached him, and one of Chen’s men held his hand out to receive the Jadeblade.

“That was amazing!” Cole exclaimed. “You really had me back there.”

“I knew you’d pull through,” Lloyd said.

“Excellent work,” Garmadon complimented.

“At this rate we might actually beat this thing,” Jay said.

“Remember we’re here for Zane? And we still have things to uncover from Chen?” Janet reminded.

“Aw come on! Aren’t you the least bit excited?”

“He was pretty impressive,” Destiny said, playfully elbowing Kai.

“Of course you’d say he was,” Janet teased.

The evening was idling by, and Master Chen and his right-hand man were watching the Kabuki perform. Chen was clearly enjoying the performance, but Clouse had his mind on more pressing matters.

“Master, it was the Ninjas who snuck into our ceremony,” Clouse explained with a hint of bitterness. “Yet we allow them to move forward.” His hand began to glow with dark magic. “I beg you, let me use my sorcery and put an end to this.”

“We’ll use your magic in time. But not now,” Chen reassured. “Not when there are . . . other ways to whittle them down. Perhaps it’s time to switch things up!”

(First chapter) (Next chapter) (Previous chapter)

[lillaxtrigger]

Young Hope: Chapter 34

The southern side of a mountain left blanket in snow of pure white bellows down along its incline a chilling wind, one that sends shivers down the spines of three figures that attempt the daring climb to the top. All of them come bundled in the warmth of their thick coats, warm hoods, and flapping scarves that mercifully shield them all from the harsh temperatures of the ascending peaks. While the trio continue to trail up through the snowy mountain face, the taller of these figures flips his hood right off to let his rust red hair flow in the cooling breeze; the young boy looking to one of his others that lead their way and question: “So, any particular reason why you up and decided to drag both of our asses towards the top of a giant fuck off snowy mountain? Or did you just wanna see our tits freeze off for shits and giggles?” Upon being given this question, the leader exposes her own orange head to the chilling elements and turns her gaze towards the boy; explaining the situation with: “Ryan, didn’t I tell you two before we up and head out here? We’re here going by the inscription I found in those caves, whatever might be at this mountain could be the next clue we need here.” “Let me try and reiterate here. Why the hell you decide to drag “our” asses through a giant fucking mountain.” “You insisted on coming with since Vivi wanted to.”

The last of the trio finally flips off her own fur hood and lets the cold air beat against her partially skeletal face; turning to the boy and claiming to him how: “Well, I sure as hell ain’t gonna leave a girl hanging. The fuck we got each other for if we ain’t gonna go through this kinda shit together?” “But to the top of a fucking ice cold mountain, really Vivi!?” the boy slightly exclaims to her. “Why your sorry ass bitch so much about it for, anyway? You just worried that all this cold’s gonna make ya dick shrink too much?” “I-bitch? None of us would have to climb through this snow ridden hell hole if you’d stopped being one and just use yer damn scythe to warp us to the top. I seen what that reaper of yours can do with it.” “Hell no! I ain’t usin that damn thing just cause yer fucking sorry dick’s freezing in the cold.” the skull girl harshly retaliates with. “If you don’t like using it that much, then why’d you bother bringing it with you?” Mally then questions. “The hell you on about, Mal? I ain’t got it with-” Vivi’s suddenly cuts herself short when peeking to one of her hands, frightened to find the very scythe in question resting in her palm; its unexpected appearance shocking her enough to toss the weapon into the thick sheet of snow. “Th-the-Holy shit! Why was it on me!?”

Waltzing past the frightened young lass, the red head picks mystical scythe right out from the thick white and brushes off the clinging snow off its blade; the face of the blade reflecting Ryan’s face as he asks the girl: “The hell you so bent up about this thing for? Mally couldn’t stop going on how much ass you were kicking back when the whole town threw a shit show.” “Don’t care. Holding it just don’t sit right with me. We don’t need that fucking garden tool anyway. We got us a whole bunch of other ways we can climb up to the top. Rough it up like a trio of fuckin hikers, go through some of the caves to keep from freezing our anus’s off, even could go back down and get some snowmobiles; all sorts of ways we could up without that fuckin scythe.” Its in that moment that the orange girl that led them swiftly get between the bickering duo, holding her arms out to both of them as she calms them with: “Alright, alright there. Ain’t no need to start with all this. We don’t gotta use the scythe if you don’t wanna Viv. We’ll just let Ryan hold onto it til you want to.” “Thank you there, Mal.” the skeletal lass says. “Why the hell do I gotta be the fuckin pack mule for?” Ryan barks. “Cause you were the one who wanted to bring it with us; so your gonna onto it for her.” “Hells yeah, bitches! Lets conquer this oversized snow cone and make it out dirty little hoe!” the skull girl excitedly shouts; wailing on as she darts further on up ahead towards the peak. Worried that her constant yelping may cause an avalanche to slide right down onto them, both of the skeletal young lady’s friends chase right after her; failing to see the darkening clouds that start to close in towards the mountain.

Both Mally and Ryan trudge through the thick blanket of pure white as they pursue their overly excited pal; the two thankful to see Vivian having stopped right behind a set of snow covered boulders. Once the two return to the skull girls side, the red head to her right starts to warn her how: “Jesus, Vivi. Don’t run off like that. Ya coul’ve gotten lost up here if you didn’t stop.” “Why did you up and stopped?” Mally then wanders. “Just look over and you’ll get yer answer.” she tells them. Like their friend had suggested they do, the two gaze out over the very cluster of snowy rocks that they conceal themselves behind; what they discover beyond the boulders making their muscles tense up alongside their glares. Prowling along the snow covered field up ahead could they all see what was a massive mountain lion; its fur and mane as pure white as the very snow beneath its paws. “Holy shit. That lions borderline giant. I didn’t even know they could grow that big.” Mally whispers out. “Why the hell is a cat this damn big out here for?” Ryan whispers back. “We might’ve just wandered into its territory that it patrolling. Anybody got some idea’s on how we could get through it?” Vivi asks. “Not too sure if we really have to. The oversized bastard doesn’t seem like it knows all of us are here yet. If we just lay low here and not make any loud sounds, it might just decide to fuck off” “I see what your thinking. But I’m pretty sure we need to be ready to run if it finds us, you hear me Viv...Vivi?” When hearing not even a single word from her friend, the two of them look back to find their skeletal friend no longer standing between them. Taking another look beyond the very rocks they hide behind, Ryan lets out a snarling growl upon discovering where their friend is; the skull girl racing out towards the lion while its back was still turned. “God fucking dammit!” he curses out as Mally leaps over the boulders and sprints off after their strawberry blonde pal runs to.

As Vivian approaches the back of the snowy beast, the skull girl dislodges her bone arm right out of the socket and wields her own limb as a makeshift club; ready to swing the blunt end of her own arm the closer she nears the feline. Once right behind the unsuspecting lion, Vivian smacks her own dislodged limb right into the back of the beast as hard as she possibly can; her eager rush nearly causing her to fall flat onto the frosty snow. Saving herself from tumbling onto the blanket of white, the girls eager bravado swiftly shrinks when gazing back and discovering her little sneaky strike leaving next to nothing along the back of its head; not even so much as a nick or dent along its neck. The giant mountain line slowly lifts its head from the ineffective blow to aim its furious icy glare towards its newly found prey; the girl before it helpless to only watch as it swipes its frosty claw towards her very flesh.

The icy beasts lethal claws are suddenly stopped by the blunt wood of a lone hockey stick; Mally holds the ferocious feline back from moving even another inch closer to her friend. “Vivi...Get back!” Complying with her friends urgent demands, Vivian retreats away from the two of them as she watches her hockey stick wielding friend keep the snow covered beast away. After seeing the skull girl get back far enough, the orange skater pushes the massive cat away from her hard enough to send it tumbling through the snowy blanket. “Bad ass Mal! Show that mother fucker who’s the leader of the pack!” the skull girl behind her compliments. Swiftly turning towards her friend, Mally immediately barks at her with: “What the hell were you thinking, Vivi!? You seriously expected to fight that beast just by hitting in the back of the head!?” “I thought it’d be enough to knock the damn cat out, okay!” Coming off of her skeletal pals excuse, the orange skater looks back in the direction she had knocked the deadly apex predator out to, only to find not a single trace of the lion seen among the field of pure white snow. “Where did it...” she ponders to herself as she gauges her surroundings.

Remaining hidden behind the mess of icy rocks, the red head peers out to the very back of the field to witness something emerging out from the snow behind the young strawberry blonde; Ryan leaping to the top of the rocky mound and screaming out: “Vivi, behind you!” Hearing her red headed friends warning, the skull girl starts turning back just in time to see the dangerous feline leap out from the blanket of white; the beast threatening to pounce upon her with its merciless icy claws reaching out for her flesh. Moments before the monstrous cat could dig its fangs right into the girls skin, a metal yo yo encircles Vivi’s very waste and hugs her tight; the girl jerked away from the approaching beast before she could feel the cold sting of its claws. Mally pulls her beloved pal away from the pursuing beast and tosses the strawberry blonde back as the feline lunges right towards her; rapidly swinging its icy claws out to the orange lass. Every attempt to swipe its paws out to the skater is blocked by the durable wood of her weapon; not a single claw able to reach the girls skin. Feeling her grapple yo returning to her side, Mally casts its hard metal shell straight into the beast head growling before her; the force of the blow powerful enough to knock the ferocious feline away. She watches the beast far more closely this time around to keep it from slipping out of her site; discovering an astonishing discover as she stares upon the rising lion. Beneath the monster snowy coat lied a thick layer of solid, transparent ice protecting numerous organs and stringing veins; piece of its face breaking off from where the girl had smack her gadget into it. “Fucking wot?”

Before the girl could comprehend what exactly she had been fighting, the frosty feline suddenly charges out swiftly to the shocked skater; Mally shaking off her confusing and bracing herself for the beasts oncoming charge. Right as overgrown cat was on the verge of pouncing upon her, Mally suddenly thrusts her back into the blanket of snow beneath her feet and tucks her legs in; evading the monstrous beast icy white bite as it glides right over her. Mally then takes the opportunity she had planned out and thrusts both of her feet straight into the icy predators very stomach; the white lion tumbling back from the stunning blow. The young skater leaps right off her back and lands back her own two feet; Mally suddenly feeling an incredibly stinging pain surge along the side of her leg. She looks along where she feels this horrible pain and discovers a ghastly vertical scratch left along the edge of her left calf; the scarlet of her blood leaking out and staining her denim pants. Shit! Hurts like hell here. Need to end this fast.

Ignoring the pain coursing through her leg, Mally limps over just in time to find the frosty predator taking chance to lunge right at her; the lass digging the end of her hockey stick into the snow as it approaches. Once the icy terror was right before her, the skater tosses out a flurry of powder snow straight into the beasts open wound; some of the snow leaking straight onto the monsters organs. Left utterly stunned by the pack of snow tossed into its face, the orange girl takes the time she had bought for herself to wack the oversize ice cat away from her; tossing her grapple yo out to the icy feline as its hurdled back. Her gadgets string entangles itself around the apex predators snow white leg, Mally taking that queue to jerk the horrible ice lion back and begins twirling the beast trapped in her grasps around the flat snowy field. Both Ryan and Vivi’s head spin about as they watch Mally spin the beast round and around; the frosty feline letting out a pained roar as the skater twirls it faster and faster. At last does Mally unravel her gadgets string from the lions leg and lobs the predator that had once troubled then out towards the mountain peak neighboring them.

The sky above them all starts to cast out its darkness as the orange skater drops onto the snow beneath her; kneeling on the blanket of white as both of her friends race to her side to attempt and aid her woes. Vivi’s eyes are drawn by the blood red that stain the snow at her friends feet; an audible hiss seeping through her teeth when finding how deep Mally’s cut was, the lions claw tearing through her pants and exposing her very muscle tissue. “Damn, girl. That don’t look too good.” “It’ll only get worse if we don’t do something. Viv, I’m gonna need one of your coat sleeves to tie around the leg to stop the bleeding. Least you can do after all that.” Ryan claims. Clutching the shoulder of one of her coat sleeves, the skull girl tears the fabric of her coat right off its very stitching; Vivi slinking the torn sleeve right off her skeletal limb and handing it over to the red head. “The hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Come on, Viv; that shit should be obvious. The fact that you just blindly went in and wacked a fucking mountain lion in the back of the head expecting it to just go down in one swing should be enough to tell you what the hell your problem is.” As Ryan starts to wrap his friends torn sleeve around the wounded skaters bleeding gash, the strawberry blonde barks back with: “Gimme a fuckin break here, man. It was the best I could think of then. Figured I try something since I didn’t hear you guys coming up with a plan.” The red head finishes wrapping Vivi’s sleeve around their fallen friends bleeding wound, the fabric of the sleeve soaking up the blood as Ryan finally ties it with a tight knot. “That's cause you didn’t even bother sticking around long enough to hear us out; you seriously just ran in swinging your bone arm to bonk it with. Least you could’ve done was try slashing yer scythe through it. Figure a single slash to the neck would decapitate it with one stroke.” The darkened clouds start to gather right above the mountain, flakes of pure white fluttering down from the very heavens.

As these tiny flakes of ice brush along the strawberry blondes face, her stare begins to embitter upon her friends very words; responding in kind with: “Like hell I need that piece of shit scythe! I can get by hella plenty without having to deal with its bullshit.” “What bullshit you even gotta put up with? Its the scythe of death for god sake.” Attempting to prying herself off the blanket of red stained snow, Mally meekly utters out from her painful groans: “Guys, hang on a sec...” Yet despite her weak little plead, both of her friends continue to argue among themselves; Vivi remarking to the red head on how: “Son of a bitch, you don’t even know what the hell yer talking about. Like you even got a single clue what its like for me to hold that thing. I...I fucking hate it!” “Hate it? You wanna bitch about hate? I hate the fact that your stubborn crap nearly got us all torn apart by a mountain lion, Why can’t you just get over yourself already and just take the damn garden tool?” “At least both of us did something back there. All I seen you do was piss behind a rock while both of us were bustin our asses off.” Ryan can’t help but let out a deeply frustrated growl upon his skeletal friends response, arguing how: “You come up with all these ideas on how to climb this mountain, but you never bother to think any of them through. Did you for once question how the hell were supposed to make a snowmobile go uphill?” “You say that same sort of shit about everything I think of; when the hell you think your gonna quit your bitching and listen to any of my plans for once?” “Like you have any idea’s that anybody supposed to take seriously. I’d wish for once you take just one minute to listen to the bizarre bullshit that comes out of your mouth; you just sound like some kind of fucking weirdo!” The falling snow around them grows ever more dense dark as the air between all three is robbed of any voice; the rage upon Ryan’s face swiftly fading away as he beholds the stream of tears welling in Vivi’s eyes. Before another word could be spoken between any of them, Vivian turns her back to both of them and races off in the opposite direction; every inch of her body disappearing in the growing blizzard’s fog.

The red head lumbers over to where his skeletal friend had once stood before him, his regret gradually transforming into anger as he lifts the scythe in his hands; throwing the weapon down into the snow as he screams out: “Fuck!… Out of everything that had to come out of my god damn mouth, it had to be weirdo, didn’t it? The hell is wrong with me?” Finally standing on her own two legs, Mally limps out from the pile of scarlet stained snow and wonders towards the upset red head; the first thing she asks of him is: “Why were you pushing her to use the scythe so much?” “You’re fucking joking, right? This whole trip through this oversized vanilla dipped snow cone wouldn’t be such a bitch if she just get over herself and use it. What you should asking is what the hell her problem is.” “Well, whatever it may be. Up and calling her names like that didn’t seem like the brightest idea. Wonder why she took so much offense to that anyway? Both my brothers and I have always been called weird ever since we hit middle school, never bothered us even a smidgen.” “Ah...It’s nothing...” the red head grumbles out. “All that didn’t sound like nothing.” “Fucki- Wil you quit bitching at me and help me catch up to her before she winds up getting herself lost?” Watching as the young red head race off into the direction their friend had sprinted off down, the orange skater lets out a little growl as she limps off in the same direction; skipping through the snow while keeping her cut leg off the ground as much as possible.

The constant snowfall beating against the mountain starts to grow heavy and dense as Vivian continues to race through the thick of it all; her footprints beginning to fading behind her as she sprints through the tundra. Ryan’s very voice proclaiming her to be a weirdo rings through her head as she rushes through the darkening blizzard, the insult causing numerous haunting memories to erupt from the back of her mind. “What’s the matter with you?” “What happened to your face?” “Is all that just a costume or what?” “Oh god, why did your arm come off?” “Look at you, you’re a fucking freak!” “Hey, look at what crawled out from the cemetery; just in time for Halloween.” “That bitch ain’t gonna have much of a social life scaring everyone like that.” “Lo and behold, the daughter of Jack Skelington.” “This is Halloween, Halloween, Halloween, Halloween!” “Jeez, just look at her. She missing an eye.” These painful memories only urge her to race faster through the thick blanket of snow; the blizzard that bellows around her growing stronger as she blindly continues forth.

A further ways back from where the strawberry blonde had trudged, both Ryan and Mally hurry through the snow before the growing blizzard covers the girls tracks; the orange skater remaining steadfast despite feeling the stinging cold along her wounded leg. “Vivi! Vivi!” the red head shouts out to the fog ahead, his pleading cry failing to pierce through the bellowing winds. “Shit. Of all the times she’s run out, she takes off to an approaching blizzard?” “I’m sure she’s smarter than that Ryan. Betting that she’s just looking for a cave to wait out the storm in.” Mally claims as she limps to his backside. “And why the hell are you still sticking around? Figure the smart thing you could do is head down and get it patched up.” “Their ain’t no way in hell I’m climbing down this mountain without Vivi by our side. Say all the mean shit you want, I ain’t budging til we find her.” The girls resolve calms the young man down from his frustration and turns over to the skater with a collected gaze; stating how: “Whatever then, its your funeral. Just don’t expect me to carry ya when you’re leg freeze off.” “Wouldn’t dream off it.”

Continuing a little further ways through the growing blizzard, the skeletal strawberry blonde finally finds somewhere to shield herself from the creeping cold storm; Vivi racing right through the snow and into the safe walls of a cave entrance. Finally having made it out of the harsh downpour of bellowing snow, the skull girl leans right along the chilling rocky side of the tunnel and holds herself tight to warm up; the hole left by her ripped off sleeve letting the cold seep its way into her coat. God dammit, why the hell he had to say all that shit!? It could’ve worked too; just needed a running start to pick up some real speed. The hell does Ryan know about that scythe anyway; like hell this bad bitch needs something like that. Mally doesn’t; she took that fun sized murder snow cat head on and made it her bitch. Bet even Cayenne wouldn’t have any problems with it either. Some eye lasers to its face and it’d go running out like the pure white prick it is. It’s just...Why can’t I be like that!? Why can’t I be a bad bitch too without having to use that fucking scythe!? Try so much shit to be better, but it’s never enough! There’s always someone better than me! Left utterly frustrated by all this running through her head, Vivian fiercely and repeatedly beats her bone arm into the rocky wall she rests upon; little chips of stone falling out from the wall with each hit. Then all at once does her burning rage quell when feeling the very cave she dwells in start to quake; the caverns trembling far too much to let the skull girl stand back up.

Back out in the middle of the harsh blizzard,  both the red head and the orange skater feel the entire mountain tremble beneath their very feet; the blanket of snow sliding off the incline they stand upon. “The hell is up with this earthquake!?” Ryan shouts. “I don’t know.” Mally exclaims. “Vivian! Where the hell are you!?” The young man’s cry proves loud enough to pierce straight through the quaking earth and howling winds, traveling through the fog blizzard and echoing straight into the caverns that the young lady in question dwells in. “Ryan!?” she yells out beyond the rocky cavern. Her voice sounds off through the winds and snow and reaches the young man’s ear, urging Ryan to race over to the source of the call; the skater behind him standing still as her own ears catch a distinct rumble growing closer. Aiming her gaze up towards the very top of the mountain, her pupils shrink upon discover an avalanche of pure white sliding right towards both of them; the snowy slide swallowing whatever dare stood in its way.

As the wounded skater cast her metal gadget out towards the running red head, she looks back to the few tree’s nearby to see which one of them was tall enough to spare them from the wrath of the avalanche; quickly eyeing one of the pine tree’s in question. Ryan’s race towards the cave comes to a sudden snag when feeling something wrap around his very waist, glancing down to find his friends gadget enveloping his lower torso. “What the fuck is goi-” Before the boy could question what the hell was going on, Ryan is jerked back towards the orange girl and ends up landing right into Mally’s very shoulder; the red heads anger shattered when discovering the avalanche about to it them. “Holy shit!” he screams, the young girl carrying her throwing her grapple yo towards the very tree she had eyed. “Hold on tight.” “But-” Moments before their skeletal pal could step out of the very depths of the caverns, an entire wall of pure white snow descends down on the way she came in; the bellowing winds thrusting her deeper into the caves.

The orange girls trusty gadget tangles itself along the very top of the lone pine tree, Mally jerking herself over to the top of the wood while carrying the red head on her shoulder; both of them pulled away from the ground moments before it could be swallowed by the avalanche. The two of them land right at the very tip of the tree and hold tight onto its bark as the avalanche crashes right onto the very base of the pine; Ryan shouting through the raging snow to the girl: “What the hell were you thinking!? She was close to us!” “Both of us ain’t gonna see her again if were dead!”

The tree that they cling onto among the avalanche fails to stay rooted to the ground for very long, the two kids feeling the pine tree being uprooted by the tumbling snow. Feeling the tree threatening to be pushed off the mountain, Mally warns the young man under her to: “Hold on Ryan. I think were about to go for one hell of a ride.” Its then that the tree they stand upon is finally pulled out from the earth and falls along the sliding snow, the two tightly holding onto the bark as they tree they sit on surfs along the avalanche. “Vivi could be buried under a shit ton of snow for all we know!” the red head adds. “Don’t worry. If she stayed in that cave, then I’m sure that she’s fine. Right now we need to find another way into the mountain so we can meet up with her.”

The two soon see themselves riding the avalanche towards an upcoming rocky ramp, suddenly feeling the very ground leave them as the pine is launched right out of the descending snow and glides through the cold mountain air; both of them clinging to the tree bark as he starts dropping back down and brace for impact. The pine needles and branches break apart from the tree upon its trembling landing, Mally and Ryan keeping a tight hold of the bark as the wood calms itself into sliding along the snow. Once the pine they ride on remains stable once more, the red head’s stare grows panicked as he looks out through the broken off branches; warning his orange haired partner that: “I’m not sure we’ll be as alright as her though!”

Peering in the same direction that the boy stares out towards, Mally’s pupils shrink upon staring out towards a wide, long, and deep chasm that swallows the snow and debris that are swept along the avalanche. Gazing out along both sides, the skater fails to find any sort of solid ground left along the chasm, practically slicing apart any options for an alternative escape; especially with a wounded leg weighing her down. Dammit. We’re not going fast enough to make it over the gap. Can’t jump over it with this gash in the way either. Guess there’s really only one thing left to do. Mally stands herself up onto the bark with her single uncut leg as she takes a tight hold of the red heads coat, Ryan looking to the orange skater and demands to know: “Hey, with the hell are you doi-” Before he could even finish questioning what the skaters plan was, Mally lifts Ryan’s ass right off the pine bark and catapults him out towards the side; the red head feeling the cold air blow through his body as he careens through the air with the scythe tight in his hand. “Go and find Vivi! Make things up!” she orders the red head to do moments before the tree she stands upon slides straight down into the fissure, swallowed by the darkness alongside the snow and shattering remains of the pine tree.

Reawakening back within the darkened mountain caverns, Vivi shutters from the cold as she pries herself off the snowy rocky ground of the cave; shaking off the grips that the sudden bellowing wind had knocked her down with. Raising her head right off the cold stone floor, the very first thing her eyes behold is the site of where she had entered this dark and lonely cavern; a surging concern coursing through her as she finds the exit densely packed with piles of snow left from that frightening avalanche. Dammit, dammit, dammit! The skull girl races to the mounds of snow and attempts to thrust through the powdery white with but her hands; her fingers barely able to claw through even an inch of the dense snow pile. Fuck! They were right there! God dammit, Why’d I have to run away like some pussy!? Should’ve just kicked Ryan in the testies and it all be over with… Shit...there ain’t no point in bitching about it now. There has to be another way out of this frozen shit hole. Seeing only one way to proceed onward, Vivian digs through her pants pocket to pull out her trusty mobile phone; sliding her finger through the menu’s until coming to the phones flashlight. Upon switching it on does a powerful bright light cut right through the darkness looming in front of the skeletal lass; illuminating the path deeper into these mysterious mountain caves.

The resulting avalanche has left the slopes of the mountains from top to bottom in a thick blanket of pure white; the pine tree’s and boulders that had littered the face hidden underneath the thicket of snow, with not another sound passing through but the howls of the mountain air. These winds chilling song is soon joined by the sound of shuffling snow, made by a pair of hands bursting out from the blanket with the scythe of death held in its palms; the red head these limbs belong to pulling the rest of his body out from the snowy depths for the winds to beat their cold sonata into his ears. Ryan lets puffs of his breath escape into the open cold air as his eyes wander out through the mountain fog; a wondering confusion stewing within him as he stares to the mystical weapon in his hands. Fucking hell...What was her problem back there? Why couldn’t she just take this damn scythe? What is it about this thing that she’s so afraid of?...Well, since it’s here somebody’s gotta use it.

Clutching the neck of the scythe with both hands, Ryan tucks the weapon back as far as he can before swinging its blade out to the dense fog before him; left ultimately perplexed when finding nothing happening as a result. The fuck? Though the young red head repeatedly flails the head of the scythe through the cold mountain air flowing before him, each and every swing that he takes yields next to no results in the slightest; nothing strange or weird happening before him. The hell his up with this damn thing!? Seen it cut through the air and open up rifts with just one swing. Why ain’t it working now? Is it just being used wrong? How does anybody even use it? Maybe… Lifting the scythe up as high as he can, the young red head thrusts its blade down through the very snow beneath his feet and drags the sharp edge along the white blanket; the weapon cutting cleanly through the powdery snow to make a single straight line. He pulls the mystical blade out from the snow to await for any sort of reaction, witnessing only the falling snow covering up the line he had made; a deep growl escaping between his teeth as the line vanishes in the snow. Why won’t this fucking thing just get me to Vivi already! Left utterly frustrated by the weapons lack of results, Ryan furiously tosses the mystical scythe out through the cold air and watches it as he vanishes into the dense fog. Staring out to where he had thrown the weapon away, his anger is slowly replaced with alight tinge of regret; a tiring groan escaping from his breath as he trudges off to the direction it flew. Son of a fucking bitch…

The red head braves through the bellowing winds that beat against his coated body, peering through the fog in hopes of making out the pure black neck contrasting against the pale white air. Eventually does he come to discover a strange light piercing through the void, the boy following the bright emerald green glow through the fog until coming to the very source of the light; discovering the scythe he had tossed away dug into the snow. Uprooting the weapon from the chilling white blanket, Ryan finds the eerie green light to be shining out from the weapons very blade; its emerald light cutting through the fog surrounding them both. Is it working now? Pulling the weapon back, Ryan swipes the scythe through the air like he had done before; his attempts to invoke a reaction failing like the last time. Ain’t doing shit. So why is it- Before the young man could ponder on what exactly was happening with the weapon in his hand, he feels itself jerking over towards the side and points its tip out towards a part of the snowy fog looming before him. The hell is it doing? What’s it pointing to? The thick void of white set in front of the boy finally starts to part away, the red head staring out beyond its shroud to discover another cavern whose entrance sat along the neighboring mound; the boy letting out a little sigh as he starts to trek towards the way in. Alright, ya damn outdated garden tool, lead the way.

Down along the very bottom of the ice cold chasm, the all the snow that had fallen down into its depths rests in a messy mound of broken tree’s shattered rocks, and plenty of white powder. The very tip of this pile suddenly erupts to uncover a single figure covered in snow clawing themselves out from its depths, shaking off the snow littering their body as they pull the rest of themselves out from the mess of snow tree’s and rocks. As the figure starts to shake off the powder around their body, they tilt off to the edge and start to tumble down the side of the pile; the snow coming off to reveal the figure to be the orange skater herself as she falls straight along the ice cold wall of the chasm. After stopping right at the side of the chasm, Mally pulls herself out from the snow and sits herself along the protruding rock next to her, the lass pulling her pants up to take a look at her wound. The torn sleeve that had mercifully covered the gash was gone, leaving the cut to sting in the cold open air. Need to take care of this…

The wounded girl slips her backpack right off and pops open the lid to dig through the numerous stuff she brought along for the trip; some strands of her blood staining the rock she sits on as she searches. Snacks, heating pads, clothes, water...here! Reaching right into the depths of her snow covered backpack, Mally pulls out a box with a red cross painted along the front; unlocking the seal and opening the first aid kit to reveal numerous tools used to treat life threatening injuries. Gauze, antibiotics, ointment, pills, some base medical tools, and a miniature defibrillator. Pulling one of her snowy mittens off her hand, the orange skater uses it to dust off what snow was still lingering along her wounded leg; a slight hiss escaping from between her teeth as she cleans the cut. Alright, now for the painful part.

Having cleaned her gash free from any pieces of snow, Mally then takes the mitten she brushes it off with and pours a bit of antibiotics onto its cloth; the girl taking a moment to breath before dabbing the cut with her mitten. Painful hisses and agonizing grunts constantly escape from her mouth as she continues to dabble her gash in the much needed medicine; working through the stinging pain as she lathers every bit of the wound. God...Glad to get that over with. Only thing left to do is wrap it up. Reaching right into the first aid kit, the orange skater pulls out a long strand of gauze and starts to wrap it all around her cut calf; the bandages absorbing the blood that is left as she ties it tight to her wound with a well tied knot. That should about do it. Now to put it to the test. The young girl pulls her pants leg back down to cover up the bandaged wound, slowly standing off the rock and onto her own two legs; Mally letting out small huffs and hisses as she applies more and more weight upon it. Finally after standing on her cut leg for a moment more, the pain coursing through it starts to fade and numb; the skater relieved to feel it finally beginning to heal. Least it doesn’t hurt as bad as it did a few minutes ago. Hopefully it’ll stay that way as we get back to business.

Having tended to her cut calf, Mally lifts her eyes up towards the top of the chasm she had fallen in from and finds small pieces of light and snow fluttering down from the fissure overhead. Gotta be a way to get back up. The few bits of light that mercifully shines down from the sky above let the skater see how it shimmers off the surrounding chasm walls; the lass looking closer to find every inch of the rock covered in thin ice. Can’t climb up, the walls are too slick. Lowering her site down to the very caves she stands within, Mally glimpses along the walls for any sort of opening she could enter into; all with nothing but solid rocky walls making up the walls of the chasm. Ain’t seeing any...But maybe. Left unsatisfied with what she finds around her, Mally takes out her metal grapple yo as she wanders over to the icy rock walls that make up the cave she stands in; putting her ear against its cold surface and taps the stone with the shell of her gadget. Pretty solid here. The skater starts to inch along the frozen cave side while continuing to knock along the rock, listening in for any sign the stone could give her. No…No...Come on...Gimme something…

The young orange girl continues to tap her yoyo’s shell along every inch of the icy wall for as far as five yards; a smile creeping out from her as soon as she hears the rock let a hollow clonk. There! Pulling her metal gadget back as far as she can, the skater thrusts her grapple yo straight into the icy wall and punches straight through the rock with but one single strike. The rest of the hollow wall crumbles from the lass’s punch, letting what sunlight their was pour straight into a chilling tunnel lead further down into the cavernous mountain. Finally starting to get somewhere here. Just hope that Ryan and Vivi can take care of themselves long enough til we’re all reunited.

With the light of her phone illuminating her way through the darkness looming ahead, Vivi continues forth through the cold mountain tunnels for any sign of a way out; unfortunately finding nothing but more rocks and darkness ahead of her. How fuckin long is this damn mountain, just been walking through nothing but darkness for around fifteen minutes now; the parts that aren’t just bone are starting to go numb here. Wish’d took the chance to ask Mally for a couple of those heat packets; feels like trudging through the worlds natural cold ass freezer in here. Making fucking popsicles in this freezing hellhole would just ruin them. First lick you try and take of them and your tongue just gets glued on the icy flavoring, with no way of pulling it right off. Just forever doomed to taste whatever piss flavoring you went and put in the mix. Imagine if you had to live with the taste of raspberry in your mouth til your tongue rotted off, You’d get sick of the shit pretty quick.

As the skull girl’s mind could wander any more of the near unbearable temperatures of the caverns that she traverses through, she suddenly slips right off the rocky floor and falls down right on her ass; feeling the chilling ground radiate its cold on her coated bottom. Bitch! God damn...Why the hell is the ground so slick here? Slowly rising off the slippery floor, Vivi aims her phone’s light down to the very ground where she had slipped off and discovers the very stone itself coated in a thin layer of ice; the surface glistening from her flashlight. Even the rocks here are frozen solid. There practically just ice at this point; like damn, its fuckin freezing down here. It can’t just be from how cold it is outside right?

Gazing out through the ice coating the caverns side, the light of her phone catch something peculiarly strange left underneath some of the frost she sees. Is that…? Vivian’s light shines past the surface of the ice to let her behold what lies encased within its cold shell; strands of veins, walls of muscle tissue, even dozens of vital and intact organs, all seemingly still left alive and working. The fuck? Slowly backing away does her light illuminate more of the strange ice that stands before her; the skeletal teen left utterly astonished to discover the icy shell to hold the very form of a lone wolf, devoid of any fur or skin along its frozen surface with only ice glistening along its moving body. The hell...what the hell is it? Its skin...Is it undead? Before Vivi could ponder any further on what sort of bizarre creature stood before her, the icy canine aims its cold gaze to the skull girl before it and lets out a snarling growl on site; its sharp icy fangs shimmering from her phones light. Whatever this transparent thing is, it looks hungry as hell. And it don’t look like it’s not gonna let anything pass without chewing off a chunk of meat. And this girl can’t afford to lose anymore.

Hoping to outrun the frosty wolf snarling before her, Vivi hastily dashes deeper down into the cold cavern tunnels; the icy beast pouncing forth after as its potential prey hurries away. The strawberry blonde keeps herself steady as she races along the ice coated grounds so not to fall on her boney ass again; the girl peeking back to discover the wolf pursuing her skating right towards her, beginning to close the distance between them. This thing is closing in fast. Fine, if this damn ice mutt wants to play that badly, then lets fucking go, ya overgrown animal ice pop! Turning an 180 back to the approaching frosty beast, Vivi witnesses the wolf pounce right towards her with its icy fangs bared; the skull girl holding her exposed skeletal arm out towards the dog as it nears. The frosty canine lands upon the girl and bites down hard upon her skeletal limb with its ice solid jaw, squeezing the arm trapped within its mouth as hard as it could. But no matter how much it tightens its jaw, Vivi‘s calcium bone arm remains strong and intact. A damn good thing that this arm doesn’t have any feeling. But lets see if this frosty motherfucka can feel this.

As the ice wolf keeps its icy jaw locked upon the skull girls bare bone limb, Vivian jerks the beasts transparent head off to the side and slams its head straight into the solid frosty wall; a loud yelp escapes from the dogs maw as it lets go of its prey’s limb. Both the strawberry blonde and the vicious wolf back away from one another, Vivi letting a smile crack between her cheeks when seeing the numerous cracks left along its head; the skull girl letting out a mocking laugh as she taunts the beast with: “Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Bet you ain’t feeling so cool with yerself now huh, ya fuckin excuse for an ice sculpture? Seems all that hard ice keeping ya insides from fallin out ain’t worth shit with how easy it cracks. One swing straight into a wall and you lookin like you on the verge of cracking up on me. The hell you expect to chew off my ass when you can barely keep yours together?” As the young skull girl continues to mock and laugh at the cracked canine, the frosty wolf lifts its broken head up high and lets an ear piercing howl escape from its broken maw; Vivi stopping her taunting laugh and covering her ears from the cry as it echoes through the cave. As she covers her ears from the howl, the skull girl looks over to find the ice that coats the walls surrounding them both to break off the rocky sides and gather right onto the cracked parts of the wolfs head; the ice patching up the broken pieces of the wolf until its icy shell looked good as new. “Oh...shit...” Upon realizing that this fight is one that she herself cannot hope to win, Vivi does the next best course of action she could take and darts right past the reformed wolf; the cold canine resuming its pursuit once back in full form.

Trudging through the blanket of pure white covering the mountains surface, the young red head finally makes it to the entrance of the cave that his friends mystical scythe points him towards; the weapons emerald glow illuminating the way as he proceeds in. This piece of haunted garden equipment better know where the hell it’s going. Ain’t like there are any other leads to follow here. Phone receptions practically dead all this way up. Neither of them are just gonna call out of nowhere and ring up where they’re at. Only thing left to do is hope that those two can hold out through here long enough so they can be found.

As he continues through the mountainous caverns, Ryan is blinded from the floor he walks on by the scythes bright emerald light; failing to see a single speck of the ground. He then feels the rock that he walks on suddenly give out on him and starts plummeting down the depths of a dark icy pit beneath him; the boy loosing grip of the glowing green scythe as he falls down into the void. The mystical weapons tings could be heard alongside the red heads grunts as both tumble deeper down into the pits cold darkness Soon enough does the red head’s body slide along an icy incline that carries him safely down to solid ground until bonking his head right against a block of solid ice; Ryan rubbing his head as she starts to pry himself off the ice. Its in dragging his legs off the icy floor that the scythe suddenly sticks its sharp tip right into the ice between the boys legs; seeing the blade left mere inches away from his crotch makes him panic and back away against the icy wall. Dammit, fucking piece of shit garden hoe! If it does shit like this all the damn time, then its pretty easy to see why Vivi doesn’t want anything to do with it… But that isn’t really what’s up with her, is it? From what that skater said, she was unbelievable with it in her hands; practically unstoppable. So why then? What’s it about this damn thing that she hates?

Shaking off the pain from the rough fall he had, the red head grabs the neck of the eerie weapon and pulls it right out from the floor; the bright light the tip shines growing a wee bit brighter and revealing where exactly Ryan landed himself in. He brings the light over to the very wall of ice he had his back against to finds its surface holding strange carvings all along its body; the carvings seeming to take the uncanny but familiar shape of oakwood bark. What is… Trailing the light towards the top of this piece of ice does he find the top splintering off into countless upward directions; these spikes twisting themselves to splinter off into more lines of ice left decorated by thin shards of frost. Fucking...What? Wh-why is...Why is there a god damn tree made of ice down here? Dropping both his light and his eyes down to the very ground around his feet, the boy makes another strange and startling discovery; countless pieces of ice shaped as flora and fauna all made from carefully crafted solid ice. Every flower, every bush, every bristle, every grassy weed, and every single icy tree he could see reflects the glimmering glow of the weapon in his hand. My god...It’s like a whole forest made from solid ice. All the details in these trees and flowers are insane and complex. Who exactly took the time to sculpt and carve all of this, and all right down underneath this random rocky mountain of all places? Guess it makes sense to put it all down here though. The blistering cold keeps the whole thing from melting into a giant underground lake.

The curious young boy approaches one of the carefully carved tree and brushes his gloved palm against its bark, touching every rough groove and pieces that feels as if he was brushing against an actual tree. This shits crazy man...Not even a single chip out of place. Fucking bizarre. Left wondering what exactly lies beyond the tree’s icy surface, Ryan puts his ear up against hits face and knocks a good couple of times; left surprised to hear something actually scuttling inside the block of ice. The boy follows the sound up towards the top of the frosty tree and witnesses something rather weird and nearly disturbing. Ryan finds what seemed to be pieces of free moving ice taking the shape of blue icy squirrels; the light of the scythe piercing through their bodies and letting him see the colorful and running organs running beneath their transparent shells. What the fuck…

As he stares out to the mess of frosty rodents climbing along the branches of the tree, the sharp sound of shattering ice than sounds off right behind him; the red head quickly peering back to find a terrible monster approaching. Ryan starts to back away in the opposite direction as the scythes light reveals this beasts form; the boy shocked to see before him a giant bear formed from hard rough ice and icicles, with dozens of sharp cold spikes protruding out from its frosty shell and protecting the muscles and veins within. Finding the beast black beady eyes glaring right at him, the red head swiftly takes off deeper into ice sculpted forest with the frosty ursa pursing after; the glow from the mystical weapon reflecting off all the ice as he races on ahead.

Mally’s own spelunking expedition leads her to find dozens upon dozens of strange tunnels and pits all made from carved pure frosty ice; all with no more traces of rock anywhere left among them. Hollowed human and animal heads, melded together bodies of various creatures, hundreds of numerous limbs all holding one another in a chain of arms all connected and congealed; numerous holes leading deeper into their depths made along the eyes and mouths of the heads with some in the chests, backs, and the behinds of the bodies. What even is all this messed background art? What exactly took the time to make them all, and why? All of it looks like something out of hellish art novel from the medieval era, except it all froze over in some sort of nuclear winter just to solidify the borderline existential dread it all gives off. And the detail given to all of them. Jesus. Getting the impression here that they’ve been frozen over and hollowed out. All that from their eyes. Borderline nightmarish stuff right here. Kinda looks pretty cool, not gonna lie. But who the hell took the time to sculpt it all out, and deep down in the middle of a mountain too? Could...Could this be what the Kybr have made for people who passed the trial? Why send them all down here then?

While the orange skater takes in the surrounding ice sculptures that surround her, he ears manage to catch the sound of clopping footsteps echoing down from one of these carved tunnels; Mally brandishing her hockey stick for whatever may come out from the depths of these cold shadows. Emerging out from the icy darkness, the young lass witnesses those very steps belong to what seemed to be a piece of living ice; its shell sculpted in the form of a human baring a pair of goat legs. From where she stands, Mally could see some chunks of the frosty satyr broken off its head, body, and limbs; the muscles and organs held within its icy body work properly despite being exposed to the cold air. Its face remains utterly stiff and frozen as it stares blankly to the prepped and careful girl; the strange frosty creature taking not another step as it instead waves to the young girl before it; Mally lowering her guard upon the unexpected gesture. It’s waving...What’s this things deal? She watches closely as the satyr turns back towards the shadows it emerged from, glancing back to the girl behind it and waving in the direction its icy body faces. ...Alright...Guess we’re doing this now...Ain’t got anything else to go off of. Might as well. Having next to no other leads to follow for finding either of her friends, the orange skater withdraws her weapon and starts to follow the bizarre creature as it whimsically skips through the carved human headed tunnel; taking out her phone and using its light to illuminate the way.

Even with the caverns she passes replacing its jagged rocks with more complexly carved ice in the shape of animals all melded together, Vivi pays little attention to any of them as she continues to sprint away from the frosty canine nipping at her very tail; the skull girl glances back to see the icy beast starting to close the distance. Her racing sprint away from her frosty pursuer soon comes to an unexpected halt as she slips on the icy floor beneath her feet and lands right onto her stomach; the strawberry blonde flipping herself over and helpless to watch as ice cold dog right behind her lunges forth and prepares to dig its icy claws straight into what flesh she has to spare. When just mere feet away from its skeletal prey, a near invisible force bounces the beast away from the girl; Vivian curiously watch as the frosted wolf continues to fruitless beat itself against this very wall between them, like the very space itself was keeping them separated. “The fuck…?”

The young skull girl starts to rise back on her feet as she continues watching the monster that had pursued her clawing the invisible wall between them; a devious smile stretching across her face as she flips the dog right off and jeers it with: “Ha, suck a flaccid dick, ya shitty carved piece of piss ice! Can’t even tear through whatever the fucks keeping ya from chewing on my sweet ass with those stupid icy teeth. They ain’t even tough enough to chew through my fuckin bone. Just crawl back out from the frozen shithole that ya cam-” Before she could continue to pester and taunt the rabid beast any further, the spacial wall that keeps her safe suddenly pushes her away with an odd force of gravity; the push back strong enough to knock the girl on her bottom. “God, fine! I get the memo, alright! God damn, a girl can’t savor her lucky break, can she?” the skull girl shouts as she gets back on her boots. Left with no other way to travel, Vivi starts to trek deeper down into the rest of the carved ice tunnels set out before her; the wolf that was chasing after giving up its pursuit and roaming back where it had came.

While continuing to stroll through the depths of countless icy melded bodies of animals and people, Vivi keeps her eyes to the road ahead as her mind wonders what exactly might’ve saved her ass back there; what had stopped that frosted hellhound from tearing her throat right out. What the fuck even was that? It felt like the space itself was blocking that son of a bitch from tearing straight right through. But where the hell did it come from? These questions swirling through her head, the wondering young lass looks down to both of her own two hands and closely gazes upon her own bare bone limb. Was that shit from me? Did I do that somehow?...Fucking perfect, more strange and weird things to deal with here. As if all the skeleton parts didn’t already make me a fucking freak already. Thought just staying away from that damn scythe would be enough, but with this kind of shit happening...the hell’s even the point. God dammit, why can’t all this just stop!? Why can’t...Why can’t I just be a normal kid?…

Left lost in these saddening self reflecting thoughts, the strawberry blonde fails to find herself walking right towards an ice cold incline; her pitiable stare shattered when falling right on her bum and sliding down the cold slope of ice. Her screams echo through the icy tunnel as her body slides along the cold slick slide, Vivi suddenly taking tight turn after turn through the slope as she witnesses several other things encased in the frost that makes up the tunnel. Despite sliding down at dizzying speeds, she seems to recognize a couple of these things as assortments of mystical and mythic creatures from numerous origins. Hell’s very own demons, mystical elves and wood people, sea monsters and merfolk, ancient dragons and drakes; all of them left with their last moments utterly frozen in terror, sorrow, and despair. As fast as she leaves behind these numerous frozen corpses, the skull girl starts seeing the faint glow of an emerald light shinning out along the other end of this slide; the light bringing with her a feeling of creeping dread.

Coming to the very end of this icy tunnel, she coasts straight towards the light and goes right off a ramp melded along the very end of the slide; Vivi is practically launched out of the tunnel and careens through the ice cold air. In her little unwilling flight through the caverns, the skull girl catches what lies along the very bottom of these newfound caverns and discovers an entire dense forest of solid ice trees and frosty foliage lining the bottom of this chilling opening. Her eyes are then drawn to the very source of the emerald light that reflects off their reflective icy surface; finding one of her friends holding the mystical scythe in his hands as he stares out to the hurdling young girl. “Ryan!” she yells out to him.

“Vivi!?” the young red head exclaims. His eyes remain glued to his skeletal pal as she shoots through the air above him and is lobbed along the other end of this forest chasm, the boy helpless to only watch as she’s then swept straight into another tunnel left along the frosty solid wall. Having witnessed the girl that he had been looking for glide right above his very head, Ryan darts deeper through the ice made forest; weaving around tree after carefully carved tree in his hurry to find a way out of these frosty woods. No mistaking it, that was her alright. From the looks of things, she wasn’t exactly in control of where she was heading. Where the hell’s she even going anyway?

Before he could even ponder on any sort of guesses of where his friend could be going, the emerald glow of his scythe suddenly reveals a coated figure waltzing right in front of him. Though he attempts to stop before running right into the mysterious person, the ice beneath his feet remains too slick to stop his overall momentum in time and sends him running right into them. As quick as both of them had ran right into one another, Ryan and the coated figure stop right into an icy tree set along the wayside; the figure slamming right into the young red heads torso. “Get the hell off me!” he rudely demands while shoving the figure off him. “I-I can’t apologize enough for getting in front of you like that. I heard a couple of people screaming and thought it might have been some of my friends.” the hooded figure claims in a soft spoken tone. “Your friends?” The figure then unfurls their hood and lets her red and orange striped hair flow in the cold air, with a black head band keeping it all from hanging over her eyes. “I rushed over here thinking that I might’ve found them.”

Shaking his head from the encounter, the red headed boy starts to stroll of in the direction he was heading; his departing words to the lass simply being: “Aight then, see ya.” “Hang on a minute! Do you even know where your going down here?” the girl requests as she follows after the boy. “You ain’t the only one who has people to find in this frozen hell hole, and I ain’t gonna have some random girl I ran into just drag me down. I got things to do dammit.” “So you’re just planning on leaving me behind?” “That’s the idea.” “All four of my friends are scrambling through this giant mountain trying to find one another. Maybe theirs a chance that your friends might find mine and try and stick together. Think we might have better luck finding them if we do the same?” A small groan escapes from Ryan’s lungs, partially giving in to the girl’s request with: “If you wanna stick to me, then you better keep up. I ain’t waiting on you for your slow ass to catch up.” “Gee, how very chivalrous of you, how lucky am I to have come across such a gentleman.” “Hey, its the best ya got now. Either me or nothing, girl.” “The name is Roxanne.”

Along another part of these mysterious mountainous caverns, Mally continues to follow the lead of the frosty satyr through hollow ice made remains of dozens of giant creatures; the orange girl staring to their bodies to find veins coursing through them. Damn, this place is...pretty damn sweet. Just all the weird ass ice sculptures around here look really out there and detailed. Just beautiful. As chill as this tour through these icy pieces and frosty caverns rocks is, its still not really that clear where this guy is leading to. Hasn’t hinted or said anything since we first met...not that he could say anything really. Kind sus, but ain’t there’s anywhere else to go down here.

Soon enough does the young skater find her guide skipping right to the very edge of an icy cliff, peering out to what lies beyond the exit of the cavern. As Mally stops aside the icy mystical creature, she glares up to the top of the cave they stand within to find the icicles hanging of the roof of the exit taking on a far more square shape; each of them lined together in a curving line. Is this… Gazing down beneath the curved edge of the cliff, the skater discovers the incline of the cliff to take the shape of a giant curving tongue; the lass putting the pieces together and figuring out that both of them stand within the mouth of a giant frosty head. On the cusp of that very discovery, the icy satyr beside her taps the girls shoulder to nab her attention; Mally looking to her frosty guide to find it pointing out at what lies ahead. Peering out in this very direction, the skaters eyes widen as she stares out to a grand collection of slides and tubes made from transparent ice spread out through an incredibly wide chasm; all of it hanging overhead an endless field of deep darkness. Hot damn, all this looks hella fun to go through. It make one hell of a skate park, that’s for sure.

While looking through the whole collection of whirling slides and looping tunnels does the girl discover something slipping through one of them; her naked eyes failing to see what exactly could be gliding inside. Mally pulls out her phone from the depths of her pocket and quickly turns on its camera; zooming into what could be sliding within these very tunnels and tracking them as the resolution grows. Once the pixels finally smooth themselves out, the skater lets out a sharp gasp upon discovering who it is, recognizing her from her boney arm and strawberry blonde hair. Vivi! Having found her friends careening through out the network of icy tunnels before her, the orange skater wastes not another moment to delve straight down the head’s tongue; the girl looking back to the satyr that had guided her to find it waving her goodbye, Mally waving back in kind.

Coming towards the very end of the head’s tongue, the skater takes off its ramping tip and glides straight towards the nearest slide; landing right along its icy surface and racing into the rest of the frosty network of tunnels. Coming finding the shaft ahead to curve sideways, Mally kicks off to gain as much speed as possible; using her sliding momentum to trail right along the wall of the bottomless shaft until making it to the other end of the tunnel. Ain’t no big difference here? Just like rolling down steep inclines and hills on roller blades. Would’ve brought ice skates if all this was down here. Ahead could she find the open slide before her twisting all around, with the bottom shifting along the side, up the very roof, and returning to the bottom of the shaft. Leaning right in the very direction that the floor twists to, Mally twirls all through the twisted tunnel; keeping her feet to the icy surface of the shaft as it spins all around.

After making out of the corkscrewing tunnel, Mally glances over to find her skeletal pal still sliding right along; the skater taking a deep breath and shouting to her: “Hang on, Viv. I’m coming to get ya!” Upon promising this to the skull girl, the orange lass leaps right off the slide and jumps out into the cold open air; quickly taking out her trusty grapple yo and casting it out towards one of the icy shafts that hang right above her. The metal gadget sticks right to the bottom of the frozen tunnel and lets Mally swing across the abyss below and out to a closed icy tunnel; the young lass sliding across the tunnels roof and right down the steepening decline. Gazing up ahead could the skater find the tunnel ascending upwards, realizing how its way too steep for the girl to make it up with how fast she’s going. So rather than attempting to climb up the steep shaft, Mally looks over to discover another tunnel not too far away; the skater leaping right off and tossing her gadget towards the roof of the other tunnel. She swings through the cold air and lobs herself up to the very top of the frosty shaft, where she lands right on the roof of the tunnel as it starts to make its descent. As she shreds down the face of the dropping shaft, Mally starts to gradually pick of way more speed and momentum; the girl going as fast as 40 mph through the top of the tunnel and speeding straight towards an icy loop de loop. Racing right to the beginning of the loop, the blood almost immediately starts rushing right to her head as she runs right through the loop; Mally keeping herself conscious and focused and as she carries her momentum through towards the very end of the loop.

Out of nowhere does the entire cavern start to furiously tremble as both girls slide along the numerous stretches of ice; Mally keeping her balance along the top of one of these shafts as she fights against the sudden quakes. Aiming her sight up towards the very ceiling of the icy caves, the skater discovers the numerous boulders and icicles that make up its roof breaking off and tumbling down towards the network of frosty slides and shaft. One of these massive rocks winds up crashing straight into the very tunnel that Mally slides right on top of; the orange skater leaping right off the broken slide and out towards a whole pack of giant icicles descending before her. She whips her trusty metal yoyo out to one of these pieces of solid ice and wraps its string around the dropping icicle, swinging through the air and towards a whole set of descending boulders. When landing on one of these giant rocks, the orange lass skips along right towards the next, leaping from boulder to descending boulder until coming to another dropping icicle. After wrapping her trusty gadget around the solid ice and swings her way out towards the very slide that her skeletal friend slides through. The metal shell of the yoyo unwraps around the dropping piece of ice and is swung right towards the very tunnel that the skull girl slides through; Vivi herself reaching out form her friends very gadget as it comes right to her. But a few measly inches are all that keep her from catching the skaters gadget; Vivian left helpless as she continues sliding down the open shaft, watching as Mally plummets down towards the dark abyss beneath her. “Mally!” she calls out for her in desperate dread. Left with only a few precious moments to speak to her, the orange skater takes the moment to shout to her friend on how: “I’ll be fine! Just find Ryan! He wants to talk things out!”

The skull girl hears these words from her plummeting pal as she watches the skater vanish into the void below; the ice she slides through takes her at the very edge of the chasm and hurls her straight into a dark cold hole left along the rock. Among the shadows could Vivian feel nothing but the cold ice freezing her sliding bottom as she tumbles in the darkness; the skeletal teen eventually finding light once more as she drops down upon the bottom of a frost ridden chamber, slamming her ass down upon the hard sheet of ice coating the ground. Vivi swiftly rises from the icy floor beneath her and turns back towards the tunnel she slide down, clawing the steep and slippy incline with both of her own two hands; the strawberry blonde failing to climb up even an inch no matter how much she swipes at the ice. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! Why, why do I have to be so fucking useless at times like this!? Why can’t I spring into action like she does!? Mally did just that to try and reach me and look at what that got her? Just...fuck...Why am I so shitty at everything!?

While fruitlessly attempting to scale the icy incline back up, the skull girls ears suddenly catch something letting out a soft moaning breath behind her; the deep pitch of the sigh suggesting it belonging to something massive. Slowly does Vivian turn away from the steep frosty wall and ultimately discovers the very source of the almost leviathan breathing. Lying before the small strawberry blonde be a bulking giant made from thick frosty ice; its transparent skin giving the girl a view of the numerous organs and muscle tissue that lay sprawling within its very body. When the skull girls soft footsteps echo along the walls of the icy chamber, the monstrous frosty giant aims its glare to the young lady standing before it; Vivi left paralyzed as it stares to her with its cold black eyes. Oh shit…

Along the very edge of the ice made forest, both Ryan and Roxanne waltz out from the depths of the woods to discover what lies out beyond the icy foliage; the two peering out to find countless pieces of twisted floating ice blocks, their swirling and twisted ends connecting to one another as they span out through the cold open void up ahead. After letting a frustrated breath escape him, Ryan starts to carefully trudge along the long strands of ice as slowly as he could; the red headed girl behind him following him and matching his slow and careful pace. Deciding to finally break the drawn out silence between them, Roxanne starts off by claiming that: “You’ve been awfully quiet lately. You seem like you have something on your mind.” “Nope, ain’t nothing worth talking about.” he deflects with. The girl lets out her own little sigh before remarking how: “Guess I’m stuck having to deal with this again?” Peering back from the icy path they walk through, Ryan asks the girl: “The hell is that meant to mean?” “Can ya tell that your not the first person I dealt with who tries and bottle themselves up?” “Maybe that’s cause they wanna keep their shit to themselves and don’t want people prying in their lives.”

The two of them then come to a swirling fork in the road, where both Roxanne follows Ryan straight down the branching right; the red headed girl realizing the distance growing between her and her guide. “Hey uh, mind slowing down a bit, please?” “I warned ya if you were gonna follow me, then you had to keep up. Might as well fuck off if that’s too much for ya.” “Seriously, is their something weighing on your mind that bad that ya can’t even bother to stop for me?” “Really, the only thing here weighing me down is you.” “Ya know, this sort of defensive abrasiveness isn’t new to me. Only reason people act like this is cause they feel guilty about something.” Looking along the boys body could she see Ryan’s limbs slightly twitch upon hearing her state this; this being all too clear sign of her guess being right on the mark. “Well...whatever it might be, their ain’t anything wrong with talking through it all.” “Oh yeah, cause there ain’t any reason I wouldn’t wanna bring it up with some girl I’d just met.” the red headed boy defends with. “Sheesh. With that kinda attitude, I can sure as heck tell you that you aren’t gonna get anything sorted out.” “Do I need to remind you again of the fact that we just met? Just what the hell could you know about me in the half an hour we’ve known each other?” “Well I know that your pretty upset at something, that’s already abundantly clear.” “Upset is my default, woman. This is who I am.” “But...nobody wants to be.”

Distracted with arguing with the young red headed girl, Ryan fails to see path he walks through take a sharp dip and starts tumbling right down; Roxanne watching in worry as the young boy fumbles down the icy slide. The red headed boy soon finds himself careening right towards a curved wall of solid ice; the incline almost immediately bending upwards towards the very top of the icy slope. Ryan tries to break with both of his boots, their heels scraping against the hard solid ice beneath him; the young man however slides way too fast to break in time and continues heading straight towards the frosty wall. The boy’s entire body slams straight into the hard incline on solid ice; the mystical scythe slipping out of his hands and runs the sharp edge of its blade along his arm, cutting right through his coat and through his very skin.

Sliding down the very ramp that the boy had tumbles down, Roxanne manages to stop herself right as his side as she hears him let out a painful hiss; finding his wound bleeding down his arm. The lass kneels down before the young man and attempts to take a closer look at the boys fresh cut, Ryan scooting away from the approaching girl and demanding that she: “Get away from me!” “Just relax, okay. I’ve dealt with plenty of nasty cuts like this in my line of work.” “The hell are you, some kind of nurse?” “Something along those lines.” “Ugh, fine. Just make it quick.” Ryan then tells her, scooting back to her and presenting his open cut.

Roxanne then kneels down to the boys bleeding wound, staring at the cut as the blood stains the boys sleeve and recommending that he: “Just sit back and close your eyes.” The cold air still left stinging his cut, Ryan complies with the girl and does what she instructs; leaning his back against the icy wall and closing his eyes. As soon as he shuts his eyes, he feels Roxanne soft hands brush along his open wound with a sensational warmth replacing the painful sting; the euphoric heat calming whatever sort of painful agony he had felt before hand. “Damn girl, this feels like fucking bliss. The hell kinda good shit you got that’s doing this.” Ryan wonders, opening his eyes and gazing over to his arm. Almost immediately does his relaxation break away when witnessing the girl engulf his arm in a light violet flame, swiftly rising off the icy floor as he smacks the young girl away. “Ah!” Roxanne utters, rubbing the part of her face that the boy had hit. Looking back to the young man, she could see the panicking anger in his eyes as he points his weapons tip towards her; Ryan demanding to know: “What the hell do you think you’re doing!?” “I was trying to heal your arm!” “By lighting it on fucking fire!?” “Just look at it!” Like the girl suggests him to do, the red headed by peeks over to his arms to witness the pyre that had engulfed his cut beginning to quickly fade away; left taken aback by how fast they had made his nasty gash vanish and had healed his arm like new.

Hearing a pained hiss reach his ears, the young man looks back to find Roxanne rubbing the cheek that he had smacked; a sense of terrible guilt left welling within him as he watches the girl groan. The young man waltzes over to the woman’s side and hold his hand out for her to take, looking away as he claims that he’s: “Sorry...about that.” Roxanne takes the boy’s hand and is helped off the cold icy floor, the red headed woman claiming that: “It’s not like this hasn’t happened to me before. But it ain’t nothing, look how fast I can fix it.” The girl then slaps the part of her bruised face with her own hand and ignites a light violet flame along the skin of her cheek; Ryan watching as the mark he had left evaporates before his very eyes. “See, I’m fine. Don’t need to apologize for anything here.” “It ain’t just that. The way I treated you...and you still helped me...I...god I-” Moving over to the stuttering young man’s side, Roxanne puts a single hand on Ryan’s side and comforts him with: “Hey, don’t beat yourself up about it. I know you got a lot going through your head right now and are just on edge.” “I-I practically told you to fuck off and smacked you in the face, how can you not be pissed at me right now?” “I’m not, because I know that you were just panicking. It just comes with the profession of having to keep everyone from falling apart.” The young woman sees the boy taking another look to the arm that she had just freshly healed, the guilt in his eyes clear to see as the ice they stand upon. Moving in front of the young man, Roxanne then offers her hand to him and suggest that: “Why don’t we just keep looking for our friends. I’m sure we can both find them if we stick togeth-” Her words fall apart as the young man simply walks right past without talking her hand, Roxanne glaring to the boy with a sense of worry as she follows him out deeper through the swirling frosty path ahead them both.

The orange skater meanwhile continues to plummet down through the icy dark abyss, feeling the chilling winds bellow beneath her body as she constantly drops deeper down into the shadows. Gonna crash straight into the icy bottom at this rate! Need to do something! Something fast! Taking an urgent gander to her surroundings, Mally discovers a good couple of sizable cracks left decorating the sides of the pit she plummets down; their very presence giving her the idea she needs to save her ass. Swiftly does the young skater pull out both her trusty grapple yo and hockey stick, starting off by wrapping her gadget around her well worn weapon right around the sticks very neck. Once wrapping her weapon around tight enough, the young skater takes her hockey stick and tosses it out towards the crack like an Olympic javelin; the tip of the weapon piercing through the cold air as it travels forth. The head of the hockey stick manages to jam itself straight into the crack, the orange girl swinging out towards the wall and landing feet first onto its icy surface; her gadgets string stopping her from further plummeting down. Once coming to a full stop along the wall, the girl takes a look down and finds the bottom of the pit among the dark shadows; a relieved breath escaping her lips upon seeing the floor. Looks like this drop came to a stop just in the nick of time. While remaining hanging off the frosty wall of ice, her eyes catch something waltzing along the very bottom of the pit; a single figure bundled in a warm coat of white traveling silently traveling through the dark. Nobody in our group came in a white coat. Their way too tall to be Vivi, and they’re build is too bulky to be Ryan either. Who else could be down here with us? Who else knows that all this lies underneath this snowy mountain? Could it be...It can’t...can it?

Curious of who this mysterious newcomer could possibly be, Mally jerks her weapon right out of the crevice along the icy wall and drops down the rest of the way to the bottom beneath her; the coated figure stopping dead in their tracks upon hearing her land upon the icy grounds behind them. Slowly rising off the frosty floor, Mally keeps her eyes glued to the figure in the white coat as she utters out to them: “Tore...is that you?” The figure before her starts to turn in her direction; the details of their face hard to figure out among the misty darkness. Mally nonetheless keeps her eyes to the coated individual as they reach to their back. Mally’s alarms begin to sound off as she sees the very thing the figure pulls from their back taking the shape of fire arms; the orange skater preparing herself as they pull out the pistol and fire a beam of green right at her. The girl slides right onto the ice and glides right underneath the oncoming ray, Mally feeling the beams heat as it skirts right above her and reflects off the ice beneath her body. While continuing to slide along the ice, Mally lunges out towards the mysterious coated figure and swings her hockey stick right to the side of their neck; her strike thwarted when the figure blocks her hockey stick with the side of her green smoking pistol. The orange girl leaps away from the armed figure and gains some distance, finally coming to a stop points the end of her weapon out to them; shouting to them: “Alright, spit it out! Who the hell are you?”

Continuing to stare out the young girl before them, the mysterious figure decides to answer her demanding question by grasping her hood and pulling back; Mally making out their ghostly pale skin and purple eyes among the dim light. Finally goes the figure fully take off their hood and lets their ghastly green locks flow in the cold air like open flames. Oh my god… Baring the figures face in full, Mally’s faces starts glowing a shade of beat red the more she glazes through the flaming haired woman’s body; the skater blushing bright upon getting a full look at the woman before her. Holy shit… Before the young girl could become entranced by her own quivering infatuation struck by the ghostly pale woman standing before her, she starts to shake off her little boiling thirst and brings herself back down to reality; all the red that was on her face flushing away. Dammit, Mally! Don’t do this now. She just went and tried to shoot you! Gotta focus! Go-gotta… Peering back toward the armed woman, Mally manages to catch the green haired woman aiming a particularly piercing gaze; one that seems to stare upon her like the very eyes of a threatening presence. The very stare causes images of her brothers, her mentor, even herself to flash in her mind; the skater realizing what those eyes meant. Those eyes…This woman knows what she’s doing. Willing to bet she’s definitely killed before. She isn’t just some random mountain hiking teen. Might have to go into this way more carefully, she might have anything waiting up those coat sleeves of hers.

Keeping an eye over to the woman’s other side does she see the green haired hunstwoman reaching her hand out along her backside; Mally takes the moment to dash out towards her foe before the woman could pull anything out. Despite getting caught off guard by the young skaters sudden lunge out towards her, the green hunter takes her hand out from behind and tosses out whatever she had in her grip; a small steel ball lobs out to the approaching girl with its surface blinking a bright red color. Seeing the light blink faster and faster, the orange skater realizes exactly what the huntswoman had tossed right at her, ready to swing her hockey stick as she nears the flashing pellet. Gotta get this just right. Right as the blinking ball is just a few inches away from her, Mally thwacks the ticking pellet back like an incoming baseball; the flashing ball now set on a speeding course back towards its very sender. Seeing her own blinking pellet coming right back, the green hunter rolls right off to the side before it could smack right into her; the pellet exploding in a plume of emerald green. The green hunter rolls back on her own two feet and glances up to find her orange foe descending down towards her, threatening to hammer her hockey stick right down on her. Rather than attempting to evade the young girls descending assault, the huntress leaps out to the orange skater and rams her knee straight into the girls stomach; the ascending blow shaking Mally’s entire body and knocking the breath right out of her.

The green huntress’s beefy blow to her stomach sends Mally sliding along the icy floor of the caverns and slams her right into the frosty wall right behind her; the entire cavern quaking upon the girls impact against the caverns side. Recovering back up from this strike straight to her stomach, the orange skater glares up to the green haired huntress and finds her aiming the barrel of her pistol right at her head; ready to pull the trigger at any moment. Taking a look at the woman’s feet however does she see her little distraction having worked, finding her gadgets string wrapped all around her foe’s ankle. Hesitating not another moment longer, Mally jerks her grapple yo’s string back and pulls the huntress’s leg right out from under her; the green haired woman pulling the trigger just as her leg is tugged out and causing the beam to fire right out towards the wall hanging over the orange skater. The laser breaks apart the icy wall hanging over the young girl in an explosion of ice shavings; the snow fluttering down from the explosion smoking a faint green.

As Mally arises back on her own two feet, her green haired foe shakes off the metal yo yo wrapped around her ankle while reaching down in her coat; the orange skater withdrawing her gadget back as she witnesses the huntress pull out a bigger gun and aims its barrel out to the young skater. Seeing the green huntress ready to pull on the trigger, Mally skates off along the icy wall of the cave as the woman shoots out a constant volley of green beams from the tip of her firearms; the orange skater racing across the icy chamber with a whole barrage of deadly rays chasing right after. Continuing to unload every piece of ammo within her rapid fire rifle; the light from her guns green beams reveals something peculiar about her speedy orange foe; the hunter’s eyes squinting upon noticing some red stained bandages wrapped around the girls leg that peek out from her pants.

Eventually does the huntress’s gun finally run out of ammunition, the clicking of the guns barrel being Mally’s queue to kick herself right off the frosty ice wall and towards the flaming haired hunter; ready to swing her hockey stick right into her foe’s head. Witnessing the young skater incoming, the ghostly hunter quickly draws her pistol from her coat pocket; the orange lass proving faster however and swats the fire arms out from the huntress’s hand before she could even take aim. Having left the armswoman wide open, Mally pulls out her trusty grapple yo and clutches the gadget in her hand as she swings her own arm right up to her head; the tools thick metal shell thrusting right into the huntress jaw. The young skaters uppercut sends the green hunter tumbling through the chilling cavern air, the woman reaching in her coat as she careens and suddenly pulling out what seemed to be a hi tech bazooka; the flaming haired woman aiming its glass head right down to the skater below and firing out a big ball of green power. With the ball of deadly green plasma hurdling itself at her like a descending meteor, all Mally could do was attempt to block the oncoming blast with nothing but her metal gadget in a desperate bid to soften the blow; Mally closing her eyes as the crystal gadget letting out a sparkling glow the closer the plasma ball approaches.

The giant sphere of deadly plasma suddenly stops before the blast could collide with the young skater, Mally gazing back to the ball to witness her gadget absorbing the very blast that threatened to vaporize her. Once every part of the deadly ball of green is drawn within the metal yoyo, the orange girl gazes on the crystal embedded with the face of the gadget to find it glowing a brilliant bright green; Mally peering over to her flaming haired foe standing across the cave to find her just as confused as to what transpired. That crystal, did it do this? It just seemed to...eat that green ball. Look like it still has it inside too. Is that what those crystals under the town do? No! No time to think to deep about this. Since this thing caught it, wonder if it can…

Wishing to test what she could do with this newfound ability, Mally takes her gadget and swings out in front of the green haired huntress; the powerful plasma that her yoyo had absorbed expelling out from the crystal in a wave of bright green power. Seeing the powerful wave of bright green careening towards her way, the flaming haired huntress takes a daring leap out to the wave and vaults right over the deadly green plasma; the woman pulling out another pistol and rapidly firing both of them out towards her orange foe. The volley of green beams quickly approaching, the skater swings her yoyo around and catches almost every shot with her wondrous metal gadget; continuing to twirl the invention around in a circle as she sends the barrage back to their sender. The huntress tucks in her arms and legs as she descends down towards the returning barrage, a lot of the green pieces of plasma skirting right past her tucked in body; though a good couple of them manage to scrape past her coat and along her very skin. Despite the stinging pain of her own plasma shot, the green flaming haired huntress manages to land back down on her feet; both girls keeping their gaze to one another for whatever move the other has planned next.

Left to face the frosty giant laying before her, Vivi is left utterly paralyzed by the behemoths sheer size; the bulk of the giant blocking any sort of escape roots she could take around the monstrous piece of living ice. A quiet groan escapes from the hulking ice giants chiseled maw as that gently echoes along the chambers chilling walls; the skull girl attempting to put on a brave face as its glowing eyes continue to stare right at her. “What’s a matter, you oversize piece of frosted shit? All that ice give ya blue balls just facin this bad bitch here!” Upon these taunting words does the freezing golem attempt to push itself off the icy floor, Vivi swiftly backing herself against the dead end that it faces; the frost ogre struggling to lifts its whole body inches off the floor before it drops back down on its stomach. Watching the giant drop back down onto the floor, the strawberry blonde calms herself when finding the ogre missing chunks of its icy shell; the organs and muscle tissue being held within its body on the verge of spilling out at any moment. This pitiable site combined with the ogre’s painful groaning is more than enough to effectively replace Vivi’s paralyzing fright with a sympathetic concern.

Damn. That ain’t looking too good. All those muscles and organs just spilling out like goopy jello. That kinda shit would make anyone painfully pissed off. Just what the hell did this chill giant run into to take a hole that big in its side. It don’t even look bit through either, seems like something just bashed right through its side. This giant bastards entire body is blocking every single way through too. Long as its got that hole along its side, it ain’t gonna move a single inch. But who knows what this massive bitch might try if it does get moving… Well shit, guess the only thing that can be done is try and patch up that chunk of lice and get the fuck outta there as fast as hell. That wolf from earlier got smacked straight in the head hard enough to crack its skull, then the damn doggy bastard patched itself back up with the ice off the walls. This guy seems in way too much pain to reach for any of it. What if…

When an idea starts to ring out in her head, the skull girl takes grasp of her boney limb and uproots it right out from her very own socket; Vivi ready to swing her bone arm out like a makeshift club. The strawberry blonde begins bashing the blunt end of her own arm against the wall of solid ice beside her; each strike from her bone limb echoing along the walls and chipping off small pieces of ice that scatter themselves across the floor. After repeatedly beating the chilling wall of the cave several times, Vivian looks down to how much ice she had managed to beat off the side; the small chips of frost she broke off no bigger than her eye. A frustrated growl escapes from her teeth as she continues to bash the side of the cave with her hard bone limb; the giant lying before her staring to the girl as she works to chip away pieces of the ice. Its then that the icy ogre lifts its solid icy arm off the floor and hammers its giant fist out to the side, the sheer impact of the punch causing the cavern to quake and make the skull girl before it slip down on her ass. A boulder of ice then drops down from the roof of the icy chamber between the two of them; Vivi crawling back as she watches the frosty behemoth grasp the chunk of solid and break it to pieces with its incredible vice grip. The skeletal teen remaining frozen stiff from the giant display of strength, her fright starting to calm when watching the icy ogre point to some of the ice chuck and then to the wounds left along its shell. Uh...O-Oh. Oh! That’s what it was doing. Glad to see we’re both on the same page here.

Having realized what the giant wants her to do, Vivi thrusts her bone limb right back into her socket while rising off the icy floor; the skull girl strolling over to one of the ice chunks that the ogre had broken off for her and hugging the piece of solid frost with both arms. Struggling grunts leak out from the skull girls as she carries the heavy chunk of solid ice over to the ogre’s side, setting the piece of frost down when coming to the broken part of the giants icy shell. Vivi takes a moment to prep herself as she stares to the organs and muscle hanging out from the scar, her fingers nervously trembling before she finally grasps hold of the giants exposed inside. The frosty ogre lets out a pained groan as Vivi attempts to shove its organs right back into its transparent shell; the skull girl pushing the muscles back in as she tells the giant to: “Just bare with it, dammit. Almost got all of it in.” Finally does the skeletal teen get all of the loose organs right back into the behemoths body, Vivian taking the chunk of ice she sat beside her and covers the giants fractured side. While holding the piece of ice over the behemoths wounds, a soft white glow start to shine out from the chunk of frost that Vivi holds down; the strawberry blonde watching as it as the piece of ice merges with the golem’s transparent skin.

The illuminating glow finally fades to reveal the wound that once plagued its body now having fully vanished; Vivian backing away from the behemoth as it slowly rises off the frost covered floor and stands staring down upon her. As the hulking beast towers over the small skeleton, she witnesses the ogre lift its arm from its side and tightly shuts her eyes; left to nervously await for whatever the giant attempts to do to her. Several moments pass as Vivi feels next to nothing, the strawberry blonde opens her eyes to find the towering golem having lowered its hand to her very feet; keeping its icy palm wide open as it waits for the girl to step right up. Vivi hesitates for a moment before finally leaping right upon the behemoths offering hand, the icy ogre lifting its palm right up to its solid icy shoulder as soon as she stands upon its hand. The skull girl jumps right atop the chilling giants side and sits comfortably next to the ogre’s very head; the giant turns back towards the rest of the cavern lumbers forth with the strawberry blond holding on tight. “Hell yeah! Lets go wreck some shit!”

Treading lightly along the narrow path that hovers out through the chilling abyss, Ryan and Roxanne continue to practice caution as they balance themselves along the frosty walkway. Soon do their careful travels lead them to the path they stand on splintering off in several directions; each road presented before them branching off all through the icy chasm. The red headed boy decides to points the tip of the mystical scythe out towards each of the roads stretching out before them, paying close attention to how strong the emerald light of the weapon glows when pointing out to them. Finding the scythe letting out a nearly blinding light upon pointing to one of them, Ryan lowers the weapon to his side and claims that they should go: “This way.” The young girl behind him follows close as Ryan proceeds down the very path that the weapon in his hands had illuminated towards; Roxanne gazing upon the glowing green weapon as she asks: “Does that scythe belong to your friend?” “Yep.” “Is it why you two got separated?”

Rather than giving any sort of answer to the red headed girls question, Ryan remains utterly silence; refusing to even give her a glance of any kind. “Its not too late, you know.” she then claim. “The hell does that mean?” the boy asks as he then peers over to her. “Its not to late to try and patch things up with them. I’m sure that whatever made you all split apart can still be fixed if you just talk it out.” “Oh yeah, I’m sure as hell eager to show all my problems to some random girl I just met in the middle of a cavernous mountain. Haven’t we’ve been over this shit already?” “Listen, you can keep it a secret to me all you want; I’m not a part of whatever is going on with you guys. But I think you all should say something to each other; cause I’m willing to bet that whatever you might’ve said then might not just be weighing you down.” The girls very words leave the boy almost utterly silence, with nothing but a breath escaping him as he points his site back to the path they walk through.

The jagged icy walkway that they careful balance themselves on finally starts to widen out, giving both red heads a little bit more room to fidget around and spread their legs; something that starts to ease their woes as they continue down the icy path deeper into the abyss. This comforting change is suddenly pushed aside when their ears catch the rapid sound of clanging ice growing louder and louder from behind them; almost as if something was quickly scuttling right their way. The two teens glance back towards the very icy road that they had once walked and discover something horridly monstrous crawling towards them; a long strand made from several pieces of solid ice swirling along the top and bottom of the road. Its head aims its beady eyes straight to the pair of potential prey, its icy mouth dribbling out between its icicle like pincers as the two teens take off away from the frosted centipede.

Their race away from the pursuing icy insect leads them to the very edge of what seemed to be a frosty cliff, Ryan peering down to discover the rest of their escape route awaiting down below the steep chilling incline. “Come on!” he demands, grasping the girls hand as he drops down the frosty slide. As both of the red heads descend down the frosty slope, Ryan peers over to the side to find the very ice beside them sporting strange and peculiar carvings; some in the shape of horns, eyes, and a split tongue, all of it coming together to form the head of a chilling demonic creature. Sliding right down the hellishly icy heads very chin, both of the teens plummet down through a dizzying swirl that descends down towards a hole left in the very center. Gliding right down into this hole, the duo start to slow down when the incline starts to ease up; their sliding trip eventually crawling to a stop.

Pulling themselves right off the slippery frozen floor, the two of them peer out ahead to find the path once more splitting out in multiple directions; some of them heading straight up while others drop down into the dark void below. Before either of them could decide which of the roads before them to take, the crackling sound of ice roars out behind them; the red head glancing back to witness the icy centipede crawling down from the hole and approaching fast. Moments before the frosty insect nears, Ryan gets between it and the young girl; the boy ordering her to: “I’ll hold this bug bastard off. Just pick a path and hurry down.” “You really think I’m just gonna leave you behind to face that thing?” “I ain’t giving you much of a choice!” Declaring this does the young man aggressively shove Roxanne away and sends her sliding down one of the slopes descending down into the darkness; her screams echoing through out the wide caverns.

With the young woman sliding right out of site, Ryan turns back to find the deadly icy insect towering over him with its long frosty body; clutching the neck of the scythe in his hands as it starts to thrust its head down towards the boy. Alright, ya damn scythe. This is the last chance to prove your not some shitty gardening tool and live up to the reputation of the grim reapers personal weapon. The very souls stealer used by death himself.

A wave of confidence flowing through his veins, the young red head swings the emerald green glowing scythe right down towards the head of the monstrous insect; the sharp tip of the weapon digging straight into the bugs icy skull. Aiming to strike the leviathan centipede once more, Ryan climbs right on top of the beast itself and attempts to pull the mystical weapon out from the depths of the bugs head; the scythe refusing to move even an inch out from the ice of the insect. Just before he could try and pull it out once more, the frosty centipede lifts its head up high in the chilling cavern air; the red head holding onto the neck of the weapon as he’s left dangling beside the monstrous insects head. Whelp, gave you one more chance and you just fuck it up...And to think that there might’ve been any hope for this damn oversized hoe.

The giant centipede starts flailing its solid icy head about the cold air in a frenzied effort to shake the boy hanging on his head right off; the red head keeping a tight grip of is friends scythe no matter how much he’s flailed around. All the chaotic and frantic shaking about dislodges the scythe right out from the depths of the icy centipedes solid cold skull; the weapon and its wielder are sent careening through the cold air of the icy chasm. His flight through the chilling open air has him crashing right into a wall of solid frost, Ryan falling from the wall for the frost behind him to break apart; revealing the remnants of several numerous remains hidden among the frost. Descending along the side of the chasm, the red head discovers himself plummeting straight down towards an open hole left leading into the wall; the young man acting fast and thrusting the tip of the scythe right toward the wall. But the mystical weapon fails to pierce straight through the ice, the red head falling far too fast to shove the blade deep into the frosty wall and continues to drop down straight into the hole; his screams ringing out from the hole as he plummets right on in.

The orange skater meanwhile continues to evade the explosives thrown at her by the mysterious green huntress; the arms woman drawing her pistol as Mally leaps out from one of the exploding grenades. Witnessing her flaming haired foe fire out a green beam from her pistol, the skater quickly draws her own weapon as the emerald green ray nears; shielding herself from the laser with the crystals set along the face of her grapple yo. Once every bit of the pistol’s green shot is drawn straight into the metal yoyo, the orange lass casts her gadget down towards the mysterious huntress; the grapple yoyo descending down towards the arms woman in sparks of green like a descending meteor. The green haired woman rolls out of the way of the gadgets way as it hammers itself down upon the ice that was once beneath her feet; letting out an explosion of sparking green plasma.

After rolling right back on her own feet, the huntress aims the barrel of her pistol out to one of the falling skaters legs and fires out a single beam of green plasma; the lone shot hitting the mark as it strikes the bandage section of Mally’s leg. Feeling the stinging pain surging through her wounded leg once more, the orange skater fumbles right onto the solid floor; the blood from her reopened wound dripping down upon the chilling ice. “Dammit!” she curses out while grasping her bleeding calf, the bandages that had once closed the wound left sprawling along the floor. Just as she was suffering from this reintroduced pain, Mally gazes up to discover the mysterious green haired woman aiming towering above her; aiming her pistols barrel right to her head. Mally could see the green huntress’s finger ready to pull the trigger at any moment; her reopened wound from her calf making almost next to impossible to dodge her shot at point blank. Shit…

Meager moments before the flaming haired arms woman could finally pop a plasma cap straight into the wounded young girl’s head; both of them catch the growing screams of somebody approaching fast, the two girls gazing around the cave for wherever it could be coming from. Taking a look behind the very woman holding her down at gunpoint, Mally finds where the screaming echoes out from; a hole left hanging along the wall right behind them that spews out what seemed to be a random red headed girl right out from its depths. Witnessing the newcomer drop from the hole and sliding across the ice right towards them, the orange skater quickly rolls right off to the side; the huntress snapping her attention back towards her orange foe and fixes the barrel of her pistol back at her. Just before the green arms woman had the chance to pull the trigger, the red headed newcomer sweeps right through the huntress’s legs and trips her right onto the solid cold floor.

Arising right off the icy cold ground, the huntress glares out towards what had tripped her right off the floor, her near cold and merciless gaze warming up upon finding the young red head before her rubbing her butt as she gets herself up. “Roxanne?” she finally speaks. “A-Artemis! Thank god that you’re still okay. I thought that the avalanche had-” “Wait! Where did that girl go?” “That girl? I didn’t see a girl when I got here.” The green haired huntress then aims her eyes down the cavern behind her and finds the orange skater she was just about to finish off skating away into its chilling depths; Artemis quickly pulling herself off the floor as she demands that Roxanne to: “Come on, we can’t lose her!” “Wait! Lose who?” the red head questions as she follows after.

Along a nearby part of these very icy tunnels, the sound of screaming could be heard echoing out from a hole from the top of the chilling hall; the red head with the mystical scythe dropping right down from the dark recesses of the pit and flopping right onto the hard cold ground. “Ah...fuck...” he utters while slowly pulling himself off the floor. Just as he stands back on his own two feet, Ryan’s pissed attitude suddenly shatters when his ears catching a familiar icy clinking; the boy staring up to the hole he had plummeted down from in a cold sweat as the scuttling grows louder. Fucking hell! This frosty bug bastard just won’t quit, will it? Ain’t got any other choice. Gotta run like hell and hope to lose this giant icy dildo. Almost immediately does the young red head sprint off in the opposite direction of the hole, the young man glancing back just in time to witness the cold centipede that had terrorized him before squeezing itself right out.

The threat of the pursuing icy insect looming over him, the red head races along the icy tunnels as fast as his legs could carry him as he skips across all the cold veins left running along the cold floor; Ryan peeking back to find the cold and nasty bug quickly beginning to close the distance. Among his ever growing panicking, he finally notices the scythe in his hands growing brighter than it ever had before; the red head averting his site away from its intense emerald glow. Agh! The fuck’s going on with this thing? Its practically as bright as a solar light. Can’t even see what ahead-

Failing to see what he races towards, Ryan smacks himself right into what felt like a cold wall of hard solid ice and fumbles right onto the bumpy veiny floor beneath him; the boy opening his eyes from the impact to discover a cold gaze staring right back. Towering right over the laying young man be what seemed to be a colossal giant made from solid frost; its entire transparent body letting him peer into the working organs and muscles underneath its icy shell. Witnessing the ogre reach its massive arm right toward him, the boy braces himself for whatever the giant attempts to do to him; suddenly hearing the beast let out a furious roar alongside the blunt sound of ice hitting each other. Opening his eyes, Ryan discovers the icy sharp pincers of the centipede hovering just mere inches right over his head, the arms of the frosty behemoth keeping the bug from chomping upon his very flesh; the solid icy insect struggling to free itself from its grip as the ogre pushes the monstrous bug away from the young man. Once both of the giant pieces of living ice walk right over him, the young red head pries himself off the cold veiny floor to see a person hanging along the giants very shoulder; a soft hopeful smile cracking along his face as he hears the familiar girl cheer the monster she rides upon with: “Yeah, waste that icy son of a bitch! Break it in pieces like the horribly misshapen cock it is!” “Vivi?” the red head shouts out. Despite the boys voice being as clear as the ice he stands on, the strawberry blonde only pays him a small glance before turning her attention back to the fight. Shit. Guess she’s still pissed about what happened above the surface. Really anybody would hearing all that. Need to say something to her.

In just the short few moments that they fight one another, the frosty ogre pulls the icy insect apart with nothing but its brute strength; the remains of the centipede falling to the floor before scattering away from the victor. As the victorious giant lets out a prideful roar, Vivi joins in with a resounding cheer and shouts: “Hell yeah! That icy piece of long shit ain’t got nothin on this motherfucker! Fuck the rest, this bastards the best! Lets keep this kick ass train rolling!” Upon that request does the ogre start to lumber out to the icy tunnel stretching out ahead, neither of them acknowledging the red head right behind them as they continue forth. “Hang on a fuckin sec!” Ryan requests as he chases after.

Utterly determined to get through to his skeletal pal, the young man runs right behind the lumbering frosty ogre and leaps up to the behemoths unoccupied shoulder, hooking his weapon atop the giants side and pulling himself right up. After taking a seat right next to the frosty behemoths head, the young man peers over to the girl resting along the other shoulder; the way Vivi averts her own site away from his being a clear sign of her still remaining rather upset with him. The young red head takes in deep breath of cavernous cold air before starting off with: “Listen, about-about what happened...above. When I called you...that...I-it-I just had no excuse to call you that, especially with what kind of history you...have. It’s just seeing you race right in to fight that lion with almost nothing, it just...it just...god! You could’ve at least…” After forcing himself to stop mid sentence, he lets out a calming sigh and continues with: “About the scythe...I don’t get what your deal might be with it, not wanting to use something so insanely powerful and strong...but I really don’t gotta, do I. If ya don’t wanna use it, then fine. Have it your way. I don’t need a reason.”

Upon finishing his little attempt to apologize, Ryan finally hear the girl respond to him after letting out a little chuckle; jesting to him how: “Was that really meant to be an apology? I can practically hear ya forcing the words outta your mouth.” While the young skull girl continues to snicker, the red head shouts back how: “I’m tryin to make up for being an asshole here and you’re just being one right back; gimme some fuckin credit here!” Despite his yelling complaints though, the cheeky smile across his friends face is more than enough to bring some comfort to the boy; left happy that she’s at least talking to him.

Her cheeky laughter finally starts to die down, Vivi taking in a needed breath before reluctantly explaining how: “That scythe ya got in yer hands right there, the reason I ain’t so eager to use it…It’s cause it’s just a reminder that I ain’t like everyone else; that I’m just another freak that people expect to wind up becoming a horrible monster. Out of fear or just cause they a bitch, all the other kids just gimme all these glares whatever I do; like they’re all saying that you don’t belong with us, you monster. Some don’t even bother looking at me like that and just say it right to my face. Course I shove my boot in their testies when they do, but that ain’t the point. That scythe ya got there, Ryan, is just another reminder that at the end of the day, all of them are right. That one day, all their hate and jeering will be justified and that I’ll be the horrible monster they see me as now.”

Its in letting out all this remorse and pain for her friend to see in full, her guilt is swiftly replaced with a snapping anger as she hears Ryan start to let out his own kind of laughing. “Now you’re the one being a sappy piece of shit. Never thought I’d here that kind of moping bull come outta yer mouth.” Though his remark leaves the skull girl pissed, she starts to calm when hearing him continue with: “I mean, why the hell should you care what a bunch of fucking assholes think about ya. I never gave a single fuck about any of that and look how I turned out.” “Jeez, you saying that ain’t much of a motivator.” “You know what the hell I mean!” he barks back, causing a big smile to stretch out along the girls face.

Its that a rather loud grunt pierces suddenly pierces through their moment of making up, the two gazing out ahead to where the struggling had echoed from. “The hell was that?” Vivi wonders. “Sounds kinda familiar…That might just be-” “Mally! Hang on, yer home girl’s coming! Time to pick up the pace, my icy motherfucka! Vamoose!” “Wait, hang o-” Before Ryan could even finish, the frosty ogre they ride upon takes off further down towards the caves ahead; the young red head struggling to keep himself from falling off the behemoths shoulder.

The cut on her calf ripped right open, Mally skates herself across the bumpy frosty floor with just a single leg while constantly peeking back for any sign of her pair of pursuers; finding next to nothing but the droplets of blood that stain the ice that she skates past. This isn’t good. Its not good at all. That woman definitely knew where exactly to shoot, opened the wound along the leg of a midair target back up with just one shot. With one leg up short and bleeding out, there could be some serious trouble if she manages to catch up now. No other choice but to try and loose that huntswoman.

In that very moment does she peer back to find a big ball of bright light come zipping out towards her, letting out a sharp yelp from seeing the ball speed right her way; the orange girl instinctively getting down onto the icy cold floor as the glowing light flies right over her head. What...What the heck was that?- “Who the hell is this?” she then hears somebody wonder aloud. When the young skater hears this question being asked, Mally lifts herself up off the solid veiny ground to discover three more newcomers confronting her: A tall young man with slick hair, glasses, and strangely baby blue skin, a girl with green blotches who seems on the verge of melting, and another girl with a blonde bowl cut dressed in a salmon pink coat. “Probably with that asshole who ran off with the treasure.” the girl with the melting face accuses. Wait, treasure?

“Whoever she may be...” another voice then chimes in from behind, Mally snapping back to see both the huntress and red head having caught up with her. The green haired woman fixes her pistols barrel right at the wounded skater as she continues with: “We can’t let her escape.” “Artemis, she just a little girl. Why can’t we just let her go?” Roxanne questions. “She tried to strike me in the neck. She was attempting to kill me!” “Whoa, really?” the girl with the bowl cut exclaims. “Damn, she wasn’t playin then.” the melting girl states. “You tried to shoot me in the head!” Mally then reminds her. “Whatever, if we haveta show back up to Drake empty handed, we can at least blame it on her. Willing to bet that guy who took off with the treasure might be willing to trade if we take her with us.” the man with the baby blue skin suggests. “Ain’t like she can fight back all of us in the shitty state she’s in. Don’t even look like she can even stand up straight.” Dammit. They’re right. Their isn’t any other way around them. Can’t fight all of them at once with a bleeding leg. Gotta think of something, someway out of this mess.

Just as the five of them were ready to pounce out to the near helpless girl set before them all, an incredibly powerful roar echoes out from behind the trio; the roar loud enough to cause the very tunnel they stand in to quake. The veiny ground continues to tremble as loud crashing stomps could be heard approaching, the two girls and baby blue guy turn back in utter terror to witness a massive frosty behemoth charging right towards them all. “Not again!” the girl with the bowl cut utters. “What the hell is that!?” the man with the blue skin frantically asks. “Who fucking care, just run!” the melting lass exclaims. Upon very site of the nearing giant, the four girls follow the blue guy as they race off in the opposite direction; the trio passing right by Mally as she’s left behind to face the monstrous living piece of ice. With the cut left along her calf having been reopened, Mally could do little but sit and brace herself with icy ogre on the verge of ramming straight into her. Right as the giant was running right in front of her, it cleanly leaps right over the wounded young skater; the orange girl opening her eyes to look back and see the behemoth continue to chase after the group of girls. She’s even left further astonished when discovering who rides upon both of the icy beasts very shoulders; both Ryan and Vivi holding onto the monsters sides as it continues charging forth. “Yeaaaah! It’s showtiiiiiiiiiime!” the skull girl excitedly screeches. “Hold the fuck on, I think one of those girls might-” the red head attempts to explain, though his warning is abruptly cut off when he hits his head right on a chunk of hanging ice; the blow causing him to tumble off the giant’s side and fall right to the icy floor. “Ah, shit.”

Mally limps over to the unconscious boys side as their skeletal pal leaps off the beastly piece of ice’s shoulder; Vivi wearing a big smile on her face as she greets the orange girl with: “Nice to see ya in one piece, Mal.” “Uh, same here Vivi. But do you think Ryan will be okay?” “Oh yeah, the jackass will be fine; this ain’t the first time he’s been knocked out. This one time, I accidentally pushed him off my roof while we were looking for my left boot and he hit his head on the ground coming down. He was out for hours after that.” “Huh...guessing from your tone that you two worked things out?” “Yeah, we all good. He gave me his shitty little apology and I forgave the poor bastard. Can’t stay mad at him forever.” “Glad to hear that. But can I one more thing…What the hell did you guys just ride on!?” “Oh ho, man. You won’t believe the kinda crazy shit I’ve been through when we split.”

As the skull girl discusses the events that lead them right to here, the icy ogre continues its lumbering pursuit after the group of girls swinging its arms out towards the blonde with the bowl cut and the partially melting girl closest to it. Seeing her teammates dodging the giants swings by the skin of their teeth, Artemis aims her pistol right at the behemoth behind them and fires out a ray of green plasma right to the giants icy head; the shot failing to slow the beast down even a tad as the beam simply bounces right off its face. “Artemis! Quit fooling around and just use one of yer bombs!” the baby blue man orders out of her. “Can’t. I used them all up.” “What! How!?” “Ain’t gotta worry fam, I got this.” the gooey girl among them claims. From the palms of her arms, the slimy lass casts out a glob of dark violet goo down to where the pursuing beasts steps; the giant stomping right onto the slippery batch of ooze and falling right onto the floor with a thunderous slam. “How you like that, bitch!” the goo girl taunts. Have fun getting yer ass off the floor.” the girl with the bowlcut joins in. “Just shut up and keep running!” the blue man among them demands. Having knocked the icy giant off their tail, the group of girls continue racing down the icy tunnel; all six of them disappearing in the caves icy shadows.

Once pulling itself right off the floor, the frosty behemoth lets out a raging snarl readies to continue pursuing after them all; stopping just before it could take off when it hears the skull girl say to: “Just let em get lost. We still need yer help here.” As the icy ogre starts to lumber back to the trio, Vivi can’t help but ask: “Wonder what the hell their problem was?” “They mentioned how they though I knew a guy who ran away with some kind of treasure.” “In this mountain? The fuck were they on about?” “I ain’t too sure to be honest.” Amidst their confusion that the giant finally stands before them and lets out a low moan as it leans right in; the behemoth pointing its frosty finger out to the tunnels that stand behind them all. “I’m thinkin he’s wanting to show us.” Vivian claims.

Staring out towards where the giant points out towards, Mally then notices something glistening along the vieny frost floor ahead of them; the wounded skater rising off the ground and limping over towards where she sees the glimmering sheen. “Mally?” the skull girl utters. Limping out to the glow does she discover the scythe of death itself dug into the ice, the young skater grasping the weapons neck and pulling it out with just a single hand. “What’s this doing here?” she wonders “Oh, Ryan might’ve just dropped that while we were coming to kick ass.” the skull girl guess. “Hmm. You...want me to hold onto it?” “Ehh, yeah...for a bit.”

The frosty giant lumbers through the solid cold tunnels with the trio sitting atop the behemoths very shoulders; both of girls gazing through the ice making up these shafts to find the veins and that run along the inside growing more numerous and thick as they continue forth. Soon do all of them come to the very end of this long and winding tunnel to behold the site of a massive blue heart hanging right above a giant empty pedestal; the heart continuing to beat the rhythm of life despite being completely encased in a shell of solid ice. “Wow.” the skater awes. “Hot damn!” the skull girl exclaims. Its in the midst of their amazement that the behemoth they all ride suddenly lunges out to the empty pedestal as it lets out a panicked yelp, all three of them falling to the icy floor below; Vivi holding her unconscious friend in her arms as they drop down. Gazing back to the massive hulk of living ice, they find it searching over every side of the lavishly carved pedestal; its glowing eyes growing more panicked as it continues to search. “Jeez. What you think his problem might be.” Vivian wonders. “I think that whatever this treasure might’ve been, must’ve been helluva important.”

With the frosty behemoths search entailing nothing to find, it stands before the front of the pedestal and falls to its knees in defeat; the loud crash of the giants knee’s proving loud enough to snap Ryan right awake. Awakening back to reality, the red head looks over to find both girls wondering over to the pillar that the ogre had inspected; the boy question: “What the hell are you two doing?” “Rise and shine mother fucka, we lookin for clues on who might’ve took what was here.” Vivi states to him. “Gotta be some sort of clue they left behind around here that can...” Mally mutters as she continues to search, her voice petering out when taking a look at what lies behind the pedestal.

Both the skull girl and red head come around from the sides of the icy pillar, Vivi questioning her if: “You find something, Mal?” The two then stand aside the young skater to discover the remains of what seemed to be a withered piece of wood below an entire set of numbers all carved within the surface of the stone. “The hell is that?” Vivian wonders. “Not to sure; but whatever it might’ve been, they were eager to leave these numbers etched here.” “Let me look.” Ryan demands as he gently shoves the two of them aside. The young red head takes a long careful look to the numerous numbers left carved along the rock of the pedestal; informing the girls of how: “These...kinda look like some sort of coordinates. Coordinates that were carved on here really recently.” “You think that whatever might’ve left them here was trying to warn somebody?” Vivi ponders aloud. Staring upon the set of numbers, Mally claims to the two of them how that: “Whatever they were trying to tell us, seems that we’ll have to go and see what it might be ourselves.”

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

I wanted to try something a little different this time around with story structure. This chapter of the story is but one half of a complete whole sequence that happens around the same time, the next chapter coming up filling in the blanks and explaining the events and seemingly convenient events that happen throughout this one. The pieces will connect together for you all in the next chapter.

[meghvnmvrkles]

“Heels make me feel powerful.” kryan

“Mhm,” Kingsley replied, his eyes trailing towards the blonde whose height barely reached past his chin. Since being assigned partners, Ryan and Kingsley have yet to go out into the field until today. Which is why, sitting inside a brutally cold car, he had even asked his partner about her shoe choice. “All I am saying is that ice, heels, and running do not seem to make a smart com-..” His words were abruptly interrupted as their suspect waltzed their way into the alley. Both he and Ryan had barely stepped out of the car before the suspect changed from a cool stride to a sprint in the opposite direction. Running after them, Kingsley slipped on a patch of ice and twisted onto his shoulder as he fell onto the ground. Ryan on the other hand had been able to keep up, tackling the perp and successfully arresting them. Using his other arm to prop himself up, Kingsley stared in awe at his new partner as she dragged the unwilling suspect towards their car. “Well,” he chuckled, taking her other hand to hoist himself up, “looks like you were right. Heels are powerful.” Clutching his now swollen shoulder, he followed Ryan to the car. He sent a smile of pride in her direction as they slid inside. “Nice job out there. Would have lost them if you weren’t there to cover my ass,” he mumbled bashfully. “I’m starting to think we’re going to make one hell of a team.” 

[vagrantblvrd]

Continents (1/1)

Summary: On paper this is a training exercise.

Notes: Takes place some time after Begin to Howl

AO3

On paper this is a training exercise. Ryan booking a weekend at one of the agency's training facilities for his team to whip them into shape, but in reality -

“I'm gonna fucking kill you, Gavin!”

There's a squawk and then Gavin's ridiculous giggling as he sprints past Ryan, sunglasses flying off his head as he tries to escape Michael who's growling as he chases after him.

Ryan sighs, shoulder twinging as he turns to watch them. Apparently Gavin seems to think he can make it to the rock formation a hundred yards out in the water before Michael gives up the chase.

A little further down the sandy beach he hears a plaintive, “Hey, guys? Guys?”

Jeremy, buried up to his neck in sand with a little bucket hat plopped down on his head for protection from the sun.

Gavin's trying to reason with Michael in between insulting him as he makes his desperate bid for safety, and Michael's gone frighteningly silent behind him. Determined and focused and all the more terrifying for it.

“Crack team you've got here, Ryan.”

Ran slides a look to Geoff, sprawled out on a bleach towel beside him, this little smile on his face as he watches the idiots running amok.

“Oh, the best,” Ryan agrees, watching a crab sidling up to Jeremy who hasn't noticed yet. “Total professionals.”

Geoff hmms, like Michael hasn't reached Gavin and is in the process of trying to drown him.

Jack's off somewhere nearby tying up loose ends concerning the idiots responsible for this mess over the phone. Voice rising and falling as he tries to keep his calm with the people who fed Ryan's team faulty information that almost got them killed. Left Ryan with a bullet fragment in his shoulder and Jeremy with a nasty concussion. Rattled Michael and Gavin, everyone antsy and snappish and starting to break down after months under scrutiny from people who've never been in the field.

Who sit back and read reports that don't mean anything past results achieved, and can't be bothered to read between the lines. Think of their agents as living breathing human beings. The ones who come to the wrong conclusions. Think Ryan's team isn't working together as a cohesive unit the way they should be, that reassignments are in order if they don't shape up.

So.

Weekend training at one of the agency's more remote training facilities to keep those idiots happy.  Think Ryan's running his team into the ground until they learn to work together as a well-oiled machine. Turning them out onto the mile-long obstacle course setup on a sandy beach for hours as he observes, snapping out orders with Geoff and Jack arriving uninvited to check in on them. Little clipboards in hand and a cooler in the trunk of their car.

“Looks like Jeremy could use some back up, there buddy.”

Jeremy seems to have realized his teammates have royally fucked him over as the crab inches closer, and starts yelling at the two idiots in the water.

“Probably,” Ryan says, watching Jeremy struggling to get free of his sand prison. “But I think this will be a good learning experience for him.”

Teach him not to go along with every idea Gavin comes up with - or it should - but Ryan knows better.

Knows that Jeremy and Michael let Gavin talk them into doing the stupidest shit imaginable all the damn time, even though they're smarter than that. Have enough common sense between them to recognize a bad idea when they see one, but they do it anyway.

The same way Ryan let Geoff talk him into taking charge of these idiots. Nothing but trouble and heartache in the making with the shit they get thrown at time and again by people who don't know what they have in them. Who see the three of them as valuable resources and nothing more.

There's a yell, Michael and Gavin running to Jeremy's rescue at long last.

Well, Michael's running to Jeremy's rescue at any rate. Gavin's too busy laughing to be much help as Michael throws a rock towards the crab that lands just short of it, managing to scare it off.

Jeremy's still half-buried, Michael's looking down at him with the kind of look on his face you'd see from a disappointed parent, and Gavin's making his way over to them still chuckling.

“The best and brightest the agency has to offer, huh?” Geoff asks, stupidly fond.

“Unfortunately for us, yes,” Ryan says, but there's nothing like regret in it. Something more worryingly like that fondness and affection in Geoff's voice, actually.

“God save us all,” Geoff chuckles, like it's not a serious problem.

Ryan sighs, watching Michael and Gavin digging Jeremy free. Michael lecturing Jeremy on not being a complete idiot, while Jeremy pretends to listen attentively.

Three highly trained agents, all of them unbelievably stupid, and somehow Ryan's in charge of them.

Has watched them go from being prickly little bastards to where they are now. Still wary, like they're waiting for him to show his true colors, turn out like all the other assholes who came after Geoff. Took over and expected them to fall into line like obedient little agents, and honestly he can't blame them for it.

He'd had something like a rebellion on his hands when Gavin found out about this weekend before he had the chance to talk to them about it. Running into them all hard-eyed and cold, Michael and Gavin keeping Jeremy behind them like they were expecting a fight and Jesus Christ, he really is too old for this.

Shouldn't have listened to Geoff all those months ago, agreed to take command of these morons, because look where it's gotten him.

But.

There's Jeremy making to lunge at Gavin even though his legs are still buried with Michael standing off to the side watching as Gavin skips back a step, this little curl to his mouth. Shoulders loose and relaxed, that worried frown he's had since that clusterfuck of a mission nowhere to be seen. Gavin laughing as he - stupidly - taunts Jeremy, forgetting how damn devious he is.

"We should be so lucky," Ryan murmurs, seeing Jack walking towards them.

There's something distinctly satisfied in the set of his shoulders, which means there's one less problem to worry about.

Progress?

“Yeah,” and Geoff's grinning as they watch Jeremy finally break free with Michael's help to tackle Gavin. “We're fucked.”

Leave the Ruins Behind

[transmascfrankiero]

okay so this should actually say convention center HILTON lobby sorry my bad

i was 14, attending comic con with my mom, my best friend at the time, and her mom. bestie and i were both balls deep in our mach one emo phase and while we both LOVED mcr they were more my band than hers. (she was more into patd and wanted ryan ross to raw her in the WORST way.) anyway after a long day or getting body checked by unwashed adult male nerds in the convention halls, we snuck out of our room after our moms fell asleep and got up to Shenanigans because we were unsupervised in a hotel for the first time in our sheltered lives. we got wired on coke zero and sour skittles purchased from the hall vending machine and just ran around the hotel, which was not out of place behavior because there were all sorts of people also just kinda wandering, in and out of cosplay, drinking and playing nintendo and stuff

eventually we had to pee but we didn’t want to go back to our room because our moms would wake up and we’d be Busted because we probably weren’t supposed to galavant around in the wee hours of the morning by ourselves lmao so we went to the lobby instead, walked around a corner and WHAM there was my biggest hero and adolescent object of affection, holding a disposable coffee cup and sitting cross-legged in an armchair, talking to a small group of other people sitting normally on other padded fancy hotel furnishings about i can’t even remember what because my entire nervous system was busy shutting down (probably comic books if i had to take a stab)

literally froze in place. i think i stopped breathing. my best friend didn’t see him at first and thought i was having a caffeine induced panic attack until i sort of mutely gestured and she finally spotted him and dragged me back around the corner to have a Mutual Silent Meltdown. it never occurred to us that he might be just around??? hanging out??? especially not at Fucking Three in the Morning or whatever stupid time. i was like. adamant that i didn’t want to go out there because i was so Mortified by the possibility Gerard Arthur Way would acknowledge my unworthy existence somehow. but the bathrooms were on the other side of the lobby and my bladder was about to explode so it was either Traverse the Unknown or pee my pants right there, and the only thing worse than gerard seeing me at all was gerard seeing me Post Pants Pissing, so we psyched each other up like we were gonna run out on the field at homecoming or something and went back out

i was so hyper aware of where he was sitting that the instant i rounded the corner again my focus locked onto that spot like a guided fuckin missile, and at that same moment he happened to look up, and we made Full Eye Contact. i panicked even more than previously. you could have roasted a marshmallow on my face. my pleas for death on the spot went unanswered by god or any other deity. gerard, no doubt accepting the Starstruck and Terrified look on my face as par for the course when spotted by teenage girls dressed for a funeral despite it being at least 80 degrees out, did the thing where he widened his eyes and raised his eyebrows but didn’t actually smile, and gave a sort of awkward little wave with his coffee cup. i waved back. he returned to his conversation, and i all but sprinted into the bathroom with my best friend, where we Flipped the Fuck Out complete with hushed screaming and jumping around grabbing each other

when we came out again he and the people he was talking to were walking off to the patio. idk if he left after that night but we didn’t see him again the rest of the weekend and i rode that high for WEEKS, the end

OH THESE ASKS REMIND ME I GOTTA TELL YOU many moons ago i ran into gerard in the lobby of the san diego convention center comic con at like. three in the morning and it was Weird for both of us

HELLO??? did you throw up i would have Fully Puked like WHY was he up that late at comicon?? why were YOU?? did you talk to him?? i would have like turned around and Bolted idk if i could handle actually seeing him in a context where i'm not like Prepared and had time to psych myself up what the FUCK dude