#she has been spiritually and possibly physically run over by a train

[dxppercxdxver]

day four!! of bweirdOCtober!! underappreciated oc day!!! wrote a little ficlet about gertrude, our favorite kittycat who is the worst in the world to look at and touch and be in the presence of generally

steep road, high and weary

The foul creature enters their lives when his incorrigibly curious sister pulls it from a bag of grain in the train car they’ve stowed away in.

When Aoife first presents the thing to him, Brendan thinks she’s somehow caught and plucked a chicken from a nearby farm, if not for the fact that the train hasn’t slowed for hours and he simply cannot fathom why in the world she would do such a thing. Upon closer inspection, however, the wretch wriggling about in Aoife’s iron grip is some sort of cat. It blinks up at him with big, watery eyes, set in wrinkled pink skin stretched over the protruding bones of its tiny skull.

“María,” he says gently, watching the mangy kitten squirm and mewl pathetically, “what have you got there?”

“Kitty!”

Brendan forces a smile that he fears Aoife will recognize as a grimace, and turns to Isaiah for help. Of course, he’s buried in whatever book he’s read cover to cover since they left Louisiana, hardly batting an eye when Aoife runs up to him and plops her finding in his lap. The poor animal merely turns its nose up, disgruntled, before burrowing into the lining of Isaiah’s waistcoat, sticking its sniffly nose out into the dusty air.

Despite the sudden intrusion, Isaiah merely sniffs, turning the page. The gargoyle tucked in his clothing hisses.

Sighing, Brendan pinches his nose, desperately looking for a place to gently usher the kitten out of the train car (and presumably to its death) whenever Aoife isn’t looking. Of course, his sister is coddling it, prodding at its paws and tail and whatever else of it doesn’t fit inside the folds of Isaiah’s clothing. She coos at it like it’s her own child, dropping whatever detritus she can find on the floor in front of it, coaxing it out. Isaiah raises an eyebrow at the dead plants and rocks piled up on his stomach, but when Aoife looks up at him, he ruffles her hair and goes back to his book.

“Darling,” Brendan says quietly, settling in on the other side of Isaiah, “we can’t take it with us. We barely have enough to feed ourselves, let alone a… kitten.”

At his words, the creature pokes its nose out of its hiding place, expression somehow reproachful. Needle-thin kitten teeth are bared, and its abnormally large pupils are blown wide. For a moment, Brendan has half a mind to snatch the thing from its nest and hurl it from the train in one fell swoop, but he could hardly bear to see Aoife heartbroken, and as much as the miserable critter sends a chill down his spine, needless cruelty has never suited him. Instead, he waves at the kitten, hesitant, and it snarls.

“Let the girl have her,” Isaiah murmurs, turning another page.

“But—”

“Oh, please?” Aoife is pleading now, clutching Isaiah’s leg, and both she and the cat turn their owlish gazes on Brendan. He knows Aoife well, knows that expression means tears are soon to follow, and after ripping her from their home for strange horizons, he doesn’t have it in him to take this one thing away from her.

“Alright,” he relents, and Aoife cheers, scooping up her new charge and twirling it over her head.

“Did you hear that, Gertie?” she beams. “You’re going to be my best friend forever and ever!”

Brendan cocks his head.

“Gertie?”

“This is Gertrude,” Aoife explains in a way that doesn’t really explain anything, too busy affixing a ribbon from her dress around the creature’s–Gertrude’s–neck. Gertrude looks none too happy to be dressed up as she is, but from what little Brendan has seen of her, he doubts Gertrude looks happy about much of anything.

Leaning against Isaiah’s shoulder, Brendan watches Aoife dote on Gertrude, dragging a piece of straw across the floor that Gertrude bats at with bony paws. The creature looks rather more like roadkill than something flesh and blood, but Aoife is laughing for the first time he’s seen since they left the coast. He closes his eyes, rubbing his cheek against the coarse cotton of Isaiah’s shirt.

“She’ll be alright.” Isaiah’s words are hushed, spoken to the crown of Brendan’s head. And with the rattle of the train beneath them and Aoife’s giggles filling the air, Isaiah’s chest rising and falling against his shoulder, Brendan can almost believe it.

[revelale]

SUNRISE AT CALVARY.

venalier: 

it's not just her! or at least she can say — it's at least one other person. as it turns out, this guy, pandreo, is more keen than he'd let on. ( though, a stink eye from a baby? she has to admit she finds that hard to believe. ) "with the monastery?" caeldori parrots, a contemplative shadow crossing her brow and fingers coming to curl against her mouth in an unconscious mirror of pandreo's posture, though she remains standing despite the invitation. sitting still's never been one of her strong suits, particularly when something nags. her leg would start tapping a hundred heartbeats a second, and then she'd really be drawing attention.

"but that doesn't make any sense. the area around the monastery is supposed to be some of the most devout." but her voice trails even as she speaks it, like she isn't completely sure — but that is the case, isn't it? at least from what she remembers of her previous stays. fódlan was pretty devout in general, and differently from the way people back home worshipped the dragons; they believed their goddess had walked spiritually and almost even physically among them, something — well, at least until the journey into valla had shattered just about everything — not exactly commonplace, at least beyond the blessing of royals' blood. which, now that she thought about it, was kind of interesting since they also had the business with the crests in the noble lines, didn't they?

was there something in there? there was that saying about highest places and longest falls.

a swift headshake dismisses pandreo's theory, which caeldori feels isn't enough to warrant such an exaggerated reaction. "i... can't imagine that's the case either. we came as quick as we could, and the order was given not even a full day had passed after the first mudslides." so expediency couldn't possibly be the issue, right? ( and if it was even with how fast they'd acted, the uncharitable part of her mind offers, then that wasn't their problem, was it. )

back to the tension with the church line of reasoning.

"... i don't mean to presume, but," a cursory look over the other's robes returns to the earlier train of thought, "you're a man of faith too, aren't you? you've never run into anything like this?"

pandreo replies with a plain nod. it was the only sensible conclusion he could arrive at, but she was right to acknowledge that being late couldn't have been it. he strokes his chin thoughtfully as she colors in the parts of fódlan that he still doesn't know. it mirrored what he understood. the people here were born into devotion, invoking their god and saintess's name at next to every opportunity. it looks different in different people and in different places, but he had seen none of that here. no clutched beads or whispered prayers or bowed heads and pandreo has to wonder if it's a lack of reverence.

was proximity really enough to turn people into believers? or was it that—he offers, politely, with a gesture of his hand another thought: "it could be because we're so close by that they're upset."

it wasn't a generous line of thinking. "you're right; this was the quickest that we could come, but we were close by and the signs were there that it'd rain," priest glances in the direction of the monastery, then back to the student standing beside him. it wasn't as though they were so far from remire village that they had completely different weather patterns that they wouldn't have been able to notice. he could hear how it must've sounded to the villagers, that it'd taken until after the mudslides for them to respond when it already happened. "i don't agree with it, but i could see how they'd make the connection," he holds up two individual fingers, connecting them then drawing them away for visual explanation.

"we could've prepared them."

it wasn't as though gods could see all.

but, humans knew some things too, didn't they? he thinks of the paths, thinks of the weather and of the season and wonders if it was that this was a hundred-year storm or if it was always like this and their reception was just unmitigated resentment. gods couldn't possibly know everything, but he'd be lying if he said that their messengers didn't have a tendency to dally here and there. just thinking about the sheer amount of paperwork he had to submit some days to do anything was enough to give him a tension headache when he compared it with what duties he had as a retainer and sentinel compared to now.

pandreo gave a noncommittal shrug then, watching her for any other offerings as she shot down his half-hearted theories about everything and turns her attention back to the church. he adjusts his robes in instinctive response, nodding again, as he smiled. 

"having people stare at me skeptically? wouldn't be the first time, no."

"it's easier if you have time to earn their trust, so that they can see you as a person," his eyes soften, as he uncomfortably laces his fingers together in front of him. "other times, all you can do is offer your help and understand if they don't take it. not anything most people wouldn't know to do in this situation, though, if that was what you were hoping for."

[alia-ocside-layer]

Nekrara

Pampered, daring, smug

-------+-------+---------

Deuteronomy had always been a different cat from the rest. The insightfulness and spirituality that made him so loved by the tribe in his latter days was the reason he didn't fit with the rest when he was a kitten.

Back then, they valued strength over wisdom. While Deuteronomy was a corpulent cat, he couldn't hurt a fly, so many kittens his age excluded him.

Nekrara, on the other hand, was stoic and admired. Being the granddaughter of the Leader at the time, she was extremely respected. Unconditional respect which, eventually, got into her head.

Her mother rejected her when she was born, seeing uncontrollable powers in her. Her grandmother, and Leader of the tribe, gave her a chance nonetheless, pampering her in every way possible. She admired, rather than fearing, her abilities, and she even made the impulsive mistake of promising Nekrara the spot as a Leader once she was gone.

While the Leader blindly lover her protegee with all of her heart, she could see Nekrara didn't excel in the decision making area. As a matter of fact, all the kittens seemed very wild. All except one: Deuteronomy.

And so, she made Nekrara start hanging out with Deuteronomy, expecting he would help her go towards the right path. Only that, of course, Deuteronomy wasn't used to talking to other people his age (he mostly conversated with adults and elders, who did like his philosophical nature) and Nekrara was kind of a brat who preferred engaging in shenanigans (even tho she had recently lost her eye in one of those shenanigans).

Eventually, hours in silence with only uncomfortable glances between them were transformed into casual words and, then, into actual conversations. The Leader was right, Deuteronomy did make Nekrara reconsider what she did and thought. In return, Nekrara protected Deuteronomy and helped him engage with the rest of the kittens, tho they only tolerated his presence rather than accepting him.

They grew up with each others' company and, as in many "opposites attract" stories, they developed feelings. They met Gus, the theatre cat. Deuteronomy was closer to him than Nekrara was, and they started hanging out more without her. Without his friend by his side, she started to go back to her old questionable habits. Searching for attention in any way possible.

Adulthood was right around the corner, and Nekrara chose Deuteronomy as a mate. Nekrara's grandmother was got ill decided to announce her successor prematurely, guessing that she wouldn't be fit for the position soon and that she would need help.

She had promised Nekrara she would be the Leader throughout all of her life, but she realised Deuteronomy was more fit for the job. He was more mature, more spiritual and more calm.

So when the day of the announcement arrived and out of her mouth the world "Deuteronomy" came, Nekrara felt childishly betrayed, but also angry. Angry at herself for not proving she was worth it. Angry at Deuteronomy for being the right decision at the end of the day. Angry at her grandmother for giving her false hopes during all of her life and never letting her feel disappointment before.

Swallowing her pride, she took the position of "the leader in training wife". While the leader's mate has a good position and functions currently, in those days that title was more of a "you're sitting so high because of your spouse" and had no relevance to the tribe.

And that burned Nekrara inside. She aspired higher, but she felt like people looked down to her because "she almost got there". She had been spoiled all of her life,and she didn't know how to deal with being in someone's shadows and feeling forgotten.

She felt many emotions at once. She loved Deuteronomy, but also felt jealous and angry. Not only jealous of his position, also of the new kind of attention he was getting from other cats. And most know what happens when a magical cat losses control of their emotions, they also lose control of their magic.

Her magic had never been physical, but every time she wished something would happen to someone, weather it was good or bad, it would happen.

And then, her grandmother died and Deuteronomy became the official Leader. She was her only stable emotional support, so she felt destroyed.

One day, while she was at her emotional lowest, they had a fight and Deuteronomy said they probably needed space. That was her last staw; Nekrara decided to run away, not without first saying "I hope you never find love, and if you do I hope they don't last long".

Little did she know her magic acted upon those words and she essentially threw an accidental curse on him. Ever since that moment, Deuteronomy romantical partners never lasted for long. They either left, died or strated hating him.

Very shortly after leaving the tribe, Nekrara discovered she was pregnant with Deuteronomy's child. That son was heavily affected by her mother negative emotions during early gestation and he was born, in the lack of a better word, a cryptic. She regretted what she said and did, so she got taken in a smaller tribe in the opposite side of town. There she tried to change her ways.

After a while, other magical cats figured out that Deuteronomy had a curse that would last until Nakrara died. They considered that, from that moment, she was good as dead for them, since they weren't aware it was accidental.

Nonetheless, Deuteronomy decided to slightly change the system and give the Leader's mate more opportunities in the tribe (almost letting them being in the same position as the leader), following what Nekrara told him during that fight and taking in consideration her feelings.

(( @storyweaverofgondor @the-rum-tum-hatter @theimpossiblescheme I hope you don't mind tagging y'all, but it seemed like you guys expressed interest for my Deuteronomy's wives OCs.))

[anastasiaskywalker4]

MisterLuu

That is actually the best pairing DC can make out of Trinity aside Lois and Clark. Or Bruce

and Clark for that matter. They both fit Bruce well, though Diana is even more matched with

him. In fact she's the best match romantically for him out there. At least so far. Though

number of fanfiction and arts on the net would suggest that that spot is reserved for

Superman not Wonder Woman :D

Except maybe for Silver and Julie - all Batman's love interest are abusive and downright

toxic. Selina, Talia, Adrea, Jet. Because in terms of comics and not relationships it fits

Gotham mold. People just tend to forget it after rebirth run. Yeah the one that made Batman

impotent and unable to do anything without the Cat around. Exactly that one. And tend to

forget how terrible as human beings his lovers really are.

Going back to the point. Both Talia and Selina tried to kill him multiple times in the past, or

those close to him. Whatever right? Who wouldn't like a lover that tried to end you few times

over. Both assaulted him physically and emotionally. Repeatedly. Both scared his body and

his mind. Repeatedly. Both tried to seduce his wards (adopted sons if u like), just to get to

him. In Talia's case that was basically pedophilia. That's just sick and makes you want to

puke. Both are possessive bitches, Cat threatening his flings while they are in bed while

Talia, well Talia can even go as far as beheading (to her credit she was right with this one).

Both makes him a goddamn hypocrite. Both face no repercussions after a cold blooded

murder while at the same time he berates Diana like a dick when she came to look for his

friendship and support after Max incident. Difference is she had no choice while Selina or

Talia most certainly had. Great move Bats, hypocrite much? And most importantly they both

lie and betray him, and leave him. Over and over again. Again, that's a constant with Cat

and miss Al Ghul. Diana never showed any of those traits with any of her lovers.

Get any counselor or psychiatrist to read actual Bat love history throughout the decades

and they would be writing books on how disfuncional they are. For a love-hate dynamics

they work fine. Or for some adrenaline fueled sex, but that's it. Hell, he even banged Dinah

when they were on adrenaline high. It all has a clinical term. Trauma bonding. As opposed

to authentic bonding. Which he could have with WW, had even one of them tried.

They did not though. Out of fear of ruining their mutual respect and deep bond. In

pre-flashpoint it may have been a thing if Diana acted on it. Again, Diana, not Bruce, so cut

the crap on how he was deflecting her. He was in doubt, yeah, but clearly was ready to give

it a go. She was the one that got scared even though she was clearly had over bat hills in

love with him. Even Martian stated this to Supes. Pre Crisis ? Not really. Some flirting and

kissing, nothing more. Post-flashpoint, New 52 and Rebirth ? Also not, though DC like to

tease those two. Forever Evil gets a hint that Bruce feels more than friendship towards her,

much to Selina's dismay. And that goddamn tension when they got to spends decades

together in another realm. Mostly from Diana side again. But no. The real canon love that Diana had for Bruce was during pre-flashpoint, not counting alternative universes. And it

was so strong that it showed her loving him more than her mother and sisters. And her

lasso forced her to admit it when facing Mera. But Bruce was "dead" at that point. So yeah,

never acted upon this. Pity. You could see she regretted it.

Aside their comics history in canon universe, realistically speaking Diana is way more

similar to Bruce than Selina will ever be (or Talia for that matter). Even though at a the first

glance they are nothing alike. She's the light , he's the darkness. She believes in love and

trust, tries to see the good in everyone. He's cunning, distrustful and downright realistic to

her idealistic approach. She's honest and straight while he will not hesitate to lie or to use

violence to get results. And you know what? It makes for great couple chemistry and

tension. It may be a cliche, yeah, but Yin and Yang dynamics work. That's why Clark ends

up with Lois all the freaking time. Even on elseworlds he and Diana are a thing only after

Lois is out of the picture. But that's not the most important thing. Yin and Yang provides for

a tension yes, but it would never last in the long run. For a relationship you need also

something in common. And Bruce has that in spades with Diana.

They might be on opposite side of the spectrum but than you realize how much alike they

really are. They are both kindred spirits. Both born fighters, warriors at heart. Arguably two

of the best in the world. At least Diana is according to Batman. And judging by Wonder

Woman's choices in man that is a highly important trait to her. Both endlessly fighting for

others. Both have utmost respect and admiration for each other. Both tirelessly train to

make themselves physically and spiritually better. Constantly. And to make the other better.

Their sparring sessions are legendary. And heated. Both with a great heart and

compassion. I would argue that Bruce's compassion is even bigger than Diana's. Even

though their methods might differ they share the same goal, which he has with no other

woman. Both have the heart of a warrior and are pushed by the circumstances of their

upbringing to reach for impossible dreams. They are also two of the most stubborn and

obstinate people in DC universe. Both perfectly capable of operating solo, and yet both

performing the best in a team. And yes, Bats is a great team player. Both natural leaders

that other heroes follow without hesitation. Both selfless and able to sacrifice for those they

value, trust and love. None of the other Bat trollups have any of those traits. Not to mention

they emotionally and physically find the other highly attractive. One being a literal goddess

and the other perfect male specimen. As for Batman, his relationships tend to collapse due

to a lack of trust. He's either unwilling to bring his romantic partner fully into his world or he

can't bring himself to trust completely. While Selina got his trust now, it's recent

development. And a mistake judging by latest issues. Again. One would think he's smarter.

When it comes to Diana, he trusts her. Fully. She's not privy like BatClan is to his world, but

they aren't that close in mainstream DC. She's not a psycho with daddy issues or a violent

narcissist. List can go on. Selina on the other hand doesn't have that much in common with

Bruce than she has. Not even close. He loves her, yes. But I don't see Di leaving him

countless times over the choices he makes. Or lying, or betraying, or trying to sleep with

Dick to spite him or... you get the point. Though there is one thing that gives Kyle an edge.

Immortality. Diana won't die unless killed. It doesn't make for a great long term relationship

prospect. But then again, those are comics, and he's a goddamn Batman. He would find a

way :)

The thing is - there is no other woman that fits his world as much as Diana does. And Bat is

capable to loving deeply and going to great commitments with a special woman. He showed

it with Andrea, he showed it with Silver. Problem is he always got burned. Every time he let

his guard down and opened himself. And he would have to do it when it comes to Wonder

Woman. She deserves that. It's hard to imagine with current Bruce, but it is most definitely

possible. It would be harder than with an ex criminal or an assassin though. Because there

would be much more on the line. The other two would crawl back anyway if he messed it

up, Di wouldn't.

There is also another aspect to this outside comic universe. His partners tend to be minor

characters compared to WW. She has her own series, JL, JL dark and every major

crossover/event happening in DC. They don't. And so does Batman. Both are one of the

most popular DC characters.

Besides changes to Bruce writing that are needed to make this work (cough.. pre flashpoint

Bats... cough), it would require fitting it to their distinctive titles. And frankly Diana can easily

function without any love interest and generate money. It's even easier that way. It fits her

as an independent, strong female character. Arguably most iconic of them all. And It's most

certainly easier for DC with a tease here and there than an actual WonderBat in mainstream.

Maisterluu wrote this is a comment on a YouTube video which is dow in the comments. They make really good points for ww and bats. No hate to other DC ships with ww and bats.

[softyoongiionly]

Portraits of a Tiger || 03

Legends of a great and equally terrifying warrior nicknamed the Tiger have been emerging from your fellow villagers for quite sometime. Stories of his skill, his stealth and his supposed wickedness have been passed around to the point where he is more prophecy than person. You have lived your life with a strong sense of conviction, rarely letting gossip influence your opinion. However, you would be lying if you said that his legacy didn’t intrigue you. When the Tiger and his infamous army arrive in your village to refuel, you come face to face with the man behind the myth.

And no amount of marketplace gossip would ever be enough to capture the true complexity of his nature.

Pairing: Merchant! Reader x Warrior! Yoongi

Genre: Adventure, Romance, Smut (later), Fluff, Angst

Word Count: 6k

Warnings: language, depictions of violence both verbal and physical however they are fairly mild, mentions of war and power dynamics, there will be smut in future parts so, (18+ only please).

A/N: They are back and realer than ever I AM ACTUALLY NOT OK RIGHT NOW PLEASE CRY WITH ME IN MY ASK BOX. OK LOVE YOUUUU!!!

@bulletproofbirdy​ my sweet and beautiful friend! I owe this all to you. Never doubt your brain because, its freaking genius. I love you.

“What did they say?” Yoongi asks, his lips resting on the back of his hand as he leans onto the wooden table.

Seokjin sighs, “They said that they have observed these groups using similar tactics. Rachel has noticed that they encircle the perimeter of the village first and slowly work their way in, Y/N agreed with her observation.”

“Usually raiders blitz their way into a territory, right? We’re obviously dealing with something else here...” Hoseok interjects, looking to his General for answers.

Yoongi’s features tense up, his hand moving to settle onto the table, “I don’t understand what invaders would want with this territory-” He seems to grow irritated, his eyes transfixed upon a map of their current region, “it’s several miles from any meaningful trade route, the port is at least 20 hours by horseback; it makes absolutely no sense.”

Before anyone else can intervene, Yoongi turns his attention to Namjoon, who sits at the other end of the table, his brows furrowed in concentration as he scribbles furiously in his journal.

“What do you think of this?” Yoongi murmurs.

Namjoon doesn’t look up, he just continues his current task as he responds, “I think it’s time I pay the Meddleways a visit...”

Immediately, tension spreads amongst the group.

Yoongi shakes his head, “I don’t think that’s necessary Namjoon, they-”

Namjoon looks up, pointing his gaze directly at Yoongi, “They are still a threat, hyung. Vengeance is a messy motive sure but, it’s extremely powerful. If they are influenced solely by their desire to harm you for what you did with their leader, they will stop at nothing until their objective is complete.”

The Meddleways were an extremist group that had a nasty habit of weaseling their way into vulnerable villages and, attempting to coax the inhabitants into joining what is essentially a cult. The Queens got wind of their practices and immediately tasked Yoongi’s fleet with understanding more of what they were capable of. Enter Namjoon, posing as a medicine man from the East port who sought after a spiritual awakening. Namjoon lived with the group for just under two weeks before he realized the true nature of the group. Their mission was simple: infiltrate the target village, strip the surrounding area of natural resources and, dismantle their leadership and, infiltrate their religious systems.

They were essentially, a very deadly gang of power-hungry miscreants whose true objective was to expand their influence and take over the Queens territory, which would inevitably lead to the fall of the royal family.

It’s no surprise that once Namjoon reported his findings, the Queens were understandably horrified and moved them all the way up Yoongi’s watchlist.

Due to the trust Namjoon had built with them, they didn’t think twice when he suggested that they accelerate their course to get to the village due to the oncoming storm. He led them right into the trap of the Tiger himself; well, the Tiger and his 22,000 men.  

Namjoon also made a carefully crafted choice to avoid revealing himself as a traitor, should any of the remaining members (those who weren’t slain or arrested) decide to regroup and continue their leader’s mission.  

“Do you really think their motive to settle the score is enough for them to endanger their own lives over? I told them that if they continued their work, they would meet the same fate as their brethren.” Yoongi’s voice is tired but he tries to remain alert for the sake of his fleet.

Namjoon nods, “I do. That is the way they operate. I don’t doubt that they reconvened after the fall of Xansa. They have likely moved on to someone else.”

Xansa.

At the sound of his name, Yoongi sighs uneasily and shakes his head as the scar along his eye ignites with the memory of its inception.

Xansa was the leader of the Meddleways: the brains, the heart and the soul.

Namjoon warned Yoongi of his cruelty after witnessing the way he treated his followers. His charisma was as deadly as his blade and his need for power dripped from his aura like coagulated blood.  

He was ruthless.

From what Namjoon could gather, he alone had hundreds of deaths upon his hands. His plan wasn’t just to expand his influence; he sought after total domination.

Yoongi fought him during their capture of the Meddleways and it’s one of the few times throughout Yoongi’s career that he genuinely thought he was going to die.  

He survived and killed Xansa in the middle of a thunderstorm, in front of all of his followers, just as the local stories have told.

Xansa left his mark on Yoongi however and ensured that he never forgot the time his life was almost ripped from him.  

“As of now, I don’t think we have enough evidence to prove this theory Namjoon but, I will consider your input and ask that you alert me of any other ideas you might have. For the time being, I don’t want anyone of you away from the fleet. If there truly is a new group of invaders on the horizon, they will look for any excuse to shed blood and prove their power. Understood?”

The six of them nod, lips tight with concentration as they listen intently to their General.

Yoongi values the opinions of his men very much and they know that they are free to speak as often as they see fit. At the end of the day however, Yoongi has the final say. He is their leader and his word is gold. They trust him enough to follow his orders without question, even if they don’t always understand his intentions.

Yoongi lets out another breath before nodding towards the exit of the tent, “Eat well tonight and turn in early. Training will get harder tomorrow as we will be teaching the recruits how to disarm their opponent. Jungkook-ah,” He turns to his younger brother, “I need you awake before dawn to assist me with the morning briefing.”

Jungkooks smiles, his head bobbing with an eager nod, “Yes hyung.”

Yoongi resists the fondness that blooms in his chest, patting a hand on back, “Very good. Namjoon- please continue exploring further theories and prepare for a possible journey to your connections when I deem it safe to do so. Hoseok, you can take the morning off but I will need you out here by midday to continue your classes. Jin hyung, I need you to enter the village and gather more information on their recent raids. The village leaders are located near the market plaza. Jimin and Taehyung, you will be with me most of the day as I will need to use you in my demonstrations.”

“Should I tell Y/N to halt her deliveries then? Since we will all be preoccupied?” Jin inquires hesitantly.

The bread supply is already depleted, and he is unhappy at the thought of going without it, particularly after a hard day’s work.

“I doubt Hyung would refuse a visit from her. Even on such a busy day...” Jimin smirks, wrapping an arm around Taehyung who chuckles warmly.

Yoongi rolls his eyes, “It makes no difference to me whether or not she does her delivery.”

Jin throws an incredulous look his way, “Yoongi. You aren’t seriously going to pretend she hasn’t caught your attention are you?”

Namjoon is scribbling in his journal again but he doesn’t miss a beat as he murmurs his input, “Hyung is worried that getting involved with a civilian will be complicated so, he is concealing his emotions for her because it’s easier that way. However, he will probably leave during our meal tonight to go see her because, he is captivated. According to the shift in his body language, he also has strong sexual urges for her as well but, fears that getting involved with her in such a way would be irresponsible as he still has time left in the Queens Army.”

He doesn’t even look up from his journal as he psychoanalyzes his hyung. His tone is cool and almost detached but his lips twitch with a smile as soon as Jimin and Taehyung begin laughing.

Yoongi is unable to help the shock that colors his features, his cheeks reddening with the heat of embarrassment as he watches the rest of his fleet begin to laugh at his expense.

“Did I miss anything?” Namjoon looks up finally, smirking across the table.

They expect Yoongi to rush out of the tent in a fit of denial but, instead he slumps back in his chair, his own smirk decorating his features as he stares at Namjoon across the table, “Just one thing...”

Namjoon’s brows raise, “Oh? Enlighten me please...”

Yoongi chuckles, moving his finger in a come hither motion to prompt the rest of his fleet to lean in eagerly.

They aren’t used to their leader sharing his emotions so, they are besides themselves at the thought of hearing more.

“That I would feel an immense amount of displeasure when being psychoanalyzed by my own solider which would then result in the punishment of the entire fleet in the form of hmm-” Yoongi places a finger on his chin in thought, “running drills for 2 hours after training tomorrow? Does that sound about right to you Namjoon?”

The group groans, Jin’s eyes widening in horror, “Namjoon-ah! Look what you’ve done!”

Namjoon however doesn’t flinch though, he just chuckles as him and Yoongi exchange conversation through shared eye contact.

“Hyung, please...” Jimin whines, reaching for Yoongi’s hand, “Don't make us do that, I hate running- it's not even in my job description.”

Yoongi just quirks a brow, a smirk still on his lips, “If you’d like me to stay out of your plans for the day, I suggest you stay out of mine. Is that something you think you all could manage?”

“Oh yes, absolutely hyung- no problem.”

“Who’s y/n? Never heard of her...”

“Hyung you are always right; that’s why we trust you, you know? You are the world’s greatest general.”

“We won't say anything, we promise.”

Yoongi chuckles, his eyes glinting with a bit of fondness, “Namjoon?”

Namjoon nods, lifting his hands to concede despite the grin still on his mouth, “Your words are divine my General.”

A phrase very often said in the fleet’s initial training with Yoongi.

It was a psychological tactic he used to build trust between him and his trainees but now, so many years later, it’s looked upon with humor.

“Good.” He stands, a look of complete satisfaction on his face, “Eat your meal and then it’s straight to bed. I better not see any empty cots when I return...”

There is quite a bit of movement in the tent as Yoongi makes his way to the exit, with the rest of his fleet (sans Namjoon) quickly abiding by his orders.  

As Yoongi pushes aside the cloth door of the tent, the light from the full moon hanging over their camp causes him to turn around.

“Yah-” He nods to Namjoon, his finger pointing through the opening of the tent, “it’s a full moon.”

Namjoon perks up, shoving his journal aside hastily and practically tripping over his own feet as he stumbles eagerly towards Yoongi.

Before Namjoon brushes past him, he looks at Yoongi with a sheepish smile and bows his head,

“Thank you hyung...”

Yoongi smirks fondly, tipping his head in return, “Send her my best.”

Namjoon’s smile broadens, nodding eagerly before rushing out towards the moon.

As cold as Namjoon may seem, he too has a lover on his mind.

Danielle.

Childhood sweetheart who became his wife as soon they were 18.

Through various aspects of Namjoon’s personal faith, he believes that the fastest way to communicate with her is through the moon. The moon has the strongest gravitational pull when it’s at its fullest so Namjoon usually spends most of those nights, speaking with her until sunrise.

He sends letters too but, the moon brings him comfort.

Just as she does.  

Yoongi chuckles at his eagerness, watching him until he finds a place near the edge of their camp to sit and begin.

Speaking of lovers on the mind...

As much as Yoongi hates to be predictable, he would be lying if he said that Namjoon’s assumptions of him had been incorrect.  

He will be going to see you tonight.  

Even though he isn’t certain of where things might be headed between the two of you, he can’t help but wish to be near you again.  

Captivated was the word Namjoon had used and as Yoongi starts on the path towards the river, he grins to himself; captivated truly was the perfect word.  

You weren’t exactly sure if Yoongi would show up at the River tonight.

It’s not like the two of you had an agreement to meet.

In fact, the last time you saw him, he was doing his nightly walk and rather than stopping to say hello to you, he merely smiled and bowed his head in your direction.

The two of you had held hands the night before so, you figured that maybe something were to happen between you but, then again, maybe he was just looking for comfort.

Or attention.

You don’t imagine he experiences the physical touch of another person unless it’s during battle, which can’t be a very pleasurable experience.  

As you slip your shoes off near the entrance of the river, your heart flutters at the association of Yoongi and pleasure in the same sentence. You know you’re likely only causing your own suffering to think of him this way but, you can’t help it.

You want him.  

You really do and with everything you have, you hope he wants you too.

The stickiness on the back of your neck pulls you out of your thinking as it reminds you of the incredibly hot day you’ve just worked through.  

Towards the end of summer, the sun decides to give an encore of what has been an already sweltering and humid season. The week before it begins to cool down, the temperature comfortable and breezy before your region is hit with one final heat wave. Today, in the marketplace you quite literally salivated over the thought of cooling down in the river that evening.  

The river is often packed during days like today but once the sun sets, everyone heads back to their homes.  

That is when you choose to come by.  

It’s quite peaceful in the evening, the heat is still present but bearable and the slight breeze that whistles through the trees provides solace on your flushed skin.  

You don’t plan on fully submerging yourself because, you aren’t entirely fond of the idea of your feet being suspended in the deep and dark waters of the river.

Instead, you opt to wear a blue linen set that you often wearing during warmer months which will allow you to wade in the water without getting your clothes wet.

The river runs cold all year round, freezing over during the winter time but the cool sensation is welcome against the tips of your toes. You step further in, letting out a deep sigh and allow yourself to shut your eyes as you wade further into the water.

The water surrounds your ankles and just as it begins to slowly surround your calves, you hear the low melody of a voice you have waited for all day.

“Y/N?” Yoongi calls gently and it makes you grin because, you can sense he is actively trying not to scare you again.

Turning around, you are met with the sight of him; hair pulled back, white linen pants and a tighter fitting black shirt. It’s the first time you're seeing his arms and immediately, you’re able to recognize the symbols of both his strength and his experience. His skin looks beautiful in the moonlight, the sinewy dips of his muscles travelling alongside the colors of his veins, various scars littering the surface of his arms.  

He truly is something else entirely.

“Thank you for warning me this time instead of sneaking up on me.” You tease, the water sloshing as you turn your back to the river.

His lips twitch, “I’ve never snuck up on you before, you just aren’t as prepared as you should be, especially for someone who likes to wander out into the forest by themselves...”

“The forest is technically that way.” You quip, pointing through the trees.

Finally, his lips crack with a grin as he shakes his head at you, “Technically it is but, danger can lurk around every corner.”

You can’t but giggle, feeling rather giddy in his presence, “You make a good point- the fluffy squirrels and chirping birds are truly vicious creatures...”

He rolls his eyes then and shakes his head once more, a light chuckle leaving his lips as he steps towards you.

But as he’s opening his mouth to speak, you drop the bit of sarcasm in your tone.

“How was your day?”

Yoongi feels a bit of warmth in his chest as he genuinely can’t remember the last time someone asked him that question.

Immediately however, he is hit with a pang of anxiety, the conversation he had with his men coming back into his mind.

Looking upon your warm expression, he fully appreciates your beauty.

The curves of your face, the sincerity in your gaze, the small smile on your lips...

He knows you’re capable of holding your own but, after hearing of a possible threat, he is infected with the need to protect you.  

“It was fine. How was your day?” He attempts to reign in the worry in his tone, feeling very confident in his ability to conceal his true emotions.

He should know better...

“What’s wrong?” You ignore his inquiry regarding your day, stepping towards him once more, unsure of how close you should get.

He chuckles and shakes his head, “Nothing. Why do you think something is wrong?

“You look troubled-” Pointing a finger towards his face, you soften your tone, “Is something bothering you?”

Yoongi feels strangely emotional at your concern, still not fully understanding your interest in his feelings.  

He doesn’t want to lie to you but, he also doesn’t want to spend his time with you talking about potential danger.

Besides, he really would like to hear about your day.

“It’s nothing. Just had a meeting with my men earlier, things got a little tense that’s all.” He assures you before extending a hand your way, “I’m off-duty now though and I’d really like to hear about your day if that’s alright...”

The sight of his hand sends butterflies down your throat and into your stomach before you interlock your fingers with his a little too eagerly.

He chuckles warmly, noticing your excitement and gently pulls you closer to him.  

Being near Yoongi feels almost familiar.

It’s comforting and slightly intoxicating as the skin of his forearm brushes along the inside of yours.

The two of you begin following the length of the river, your plans and shoes suddenly forgotten.

“My day was ok...” You begin, tilting your head, “the heat was unbearable though. I thought I was going to faint in the middle of the plaza today. Ugh and then Jane kept going on about how I needed to find a husband and start a family, ‘ You aren’t getting any younger you know? Sooner or later you’re going to end up a spinster peddling night shade for a decent meal’ “ Your face scrunches up as you imitate the very unique tone of Jane’s voice and it causes Yoongi to chuckle warmly beside you, amusement coloring his features.

“Don’t laugh!” You whine, leaning into him but, your mouth is already pulling up into a smile, “She’s relentless!”

Yoongi continues laughing, using his finger to flick a tear from the corner of his eye, “She is quite abrasive. I actually like that about her but-” He points at you, “She shouldn’t be harassing you about your marital status. I assume that you’re unmarried by choice...”

There go the butterflies again.

“Why do you assume that?”

Yoongi glances at you before returning his gaze on the path you two are on. The corner of his mouth is pulled up into a smile as he lets out a breath, “I’m mainly assuming that there have been other suitors you’ve crossed paths with. You don’t seem like the type of person to settle or the type of person who makes decisions based on the opinions of others.”

As flattered as you are by his statement, there is one particular thing that captures your attention.

“Other suitors?” You raise your brows, stealing a glance his way in time to see him fully grin.

“Yes,” He nods, tightening his features with sincerity, “other.”

You feel your stomach doing back flips, the giddiness bubbling inside you threatening to explode but instead of jumping for joy like you want to, you merely squeeze his hand and offer him a grin in return.  

The moment is over as soon as it begins as Yoongi looks down at your feet before frowning and turning back towards where the two of you had first met tonight.

“Where are your shoes? Why did you take them off?”

You giggle, “I was about to wade into the river to cool off, I don’t normally keep my shoes on while I do that.”

His frown falters a bit when you giggle but, he halts your movements none the less, “You could step on something, it’s dark out here...”

“It’s not that dark.” You insist, turning your body so you are face to face with him, “I walk through this area all the time.”

Yoongi feels his breath hitch as the proximity between the two of you lessens. He isn’t prepared for the feelings swirling inside of him or the ease of access he now has to your forehead, your cheeks, the tip of your nose, your lips...

He would love nothing more than to place his mouth on every feature.

On every inch.

He clears his throat, “Fine. We’ll walk slower then so, at least if you step on something- it won’t be so hard.”

His solution makes you laugh again but it also pleases you.

You like that he doesn’t try to force his opinion on you and that he trusts your judgement.

“Fair enough.” You concede, reluctantly turning so the walk can continue, “How was the bread today by the way? I added a bit more garlic this time...”

He nods immediately, patting his stomach, “It was delicious. This batch was completely mauled by my fleet- my little brother in particular shoved at least 10 pieces into his mouth.” He chuckles, shaking his head, “I’m convinced that boy is part animal or something, he certainly behaves like one.”

Giggling, you mimic him and shake your head as well, “Or he just really likes bread. I would probably behave like an animal if I were deprived of carbs of 6 months out of the year.”

“It’s more like 10 months out of the year.” He corrects, “We only return to the kingdom during blizzard season or if one of us is injured.”

Your eyes widen, “Really? I thought members of the Queen’s army rotate every six months. You only take a break for two months out of the year?”

Yoongi chuckles at your surprise, “Yes-” He nods, “We are considered uh- special forces. The Queens employ us full time. The fleet I oversee of the Royal Army- they rotate quite often but the seven of us operate March through December.”

Kissing your teeth, you can’t help the genuine look of concern on your face, “How long have you been doing this?”

His eyes narrow, “Hm- I think I’m going on ten years now...yeah. I joined when I was 18.” He nods in agreement with himself, “This is my last year of service.”

Your heart jumps to your throat, “Really?!” The volume of your voice climbs dangerously high and it causes Yoongi to laugh, his eyes widening.

“Does that excite you?”

“I mean-” You bite your lip, trying to figure out if his retirement is something you should celebrate, “is it something you’re looking forward to?”

He smirks, eyes glinting with amusement, “It is.”

“Then yes,” You decide, stopping the pace of your walk so you can turn towards him, “it does excite me.”

His smirk never falters, whilst his free hand moves to trace down the length of your arm, seeking the grasp of your fingers. His touch leaves a trail of fire on your flesh, your other hand eagerly intertwining with his.  

“Oh? Why does it excite you?”  

The tone of his voice lightens; it’s playful and almost a little taunting as he leans in towards your face.

“Um-” You clear your throat, stepping closer to him so that your toes are almost touching his, “Because maybe, I would get to see you more. If you were retired...”

Yoongi’s eyes soften, the back of his thumb brushing over your knuckles, “Hm. So, she’d like to see me more...”

“I really would.” You confirm, the look in his eye offering you some confidence in your next move.  

Swallowing back your nerves, you take the hand you’re currently holding and guide them to your hips.

Without a word, you place your freed hands on the ball of his shoulders, sliding them inwards towards the base of his neck. As the two of you make eye contact, you feel his grip on your hips tighten, his big hands feeling the flesh there for the first time. The movement of your fingers causes him swallow, the Adams apple bobbing in his throat whilst his tongue pokes out to wet his lips, only making them more inviting.  

The seam of your top would make it so easy for him to slip his fingers beneath it to feel your skin for real but, instead he merely flexes his fingers just enough for the tips of them to press into your body.  

In your own attempt to explore his skin, your fingertips brush the soft skin at the junction between the base of his throat and his shoulder, your palms lying flat on his collar bones.

He lets out a shaky breath, a small chuckle leaving his lips as he forces his eyes away from yours.

“You’re making this very difficult...” Yoongi murmurs.

You slow your motions on him, “I’m making what difficult?”

He’s still looking away, but his hands squeeze your hips, anchoring them in place to stop them from wandering as he wishes to.

“I’m trying to court you properly but, now you’ve gone and put my hands on you...” He smirks, his feline-like eyes darting back to yours, “you aren’t even giving me a chance here.”

His accusatory tone causes you to giggle, your fingers inching closer to brush against the hair at the nape of his neck, “Who’s to say what’s proper?”

“Societal decorum, your parents, my parents, our friends- “ He chuckles, glancing up towards the sky, “whatever god is in my head right now, shaming me for the thoughts I’m having.”

“Any god who shames you for your desires is no god of mine...and besides,” You breathe, leaning up towards his lips, “we’re the only ones who get to decide what’s proper for us.”

He sighs, his breath close enough to wisp across your mouth, the proximity intoxicating.

“I should have known the day I met you that you make your own rules...” He smirks, the need to press his lips against yours nearly unbearable. He nods to you then, raising his brows, “What do you think is proper for us in this moment? Since we’ve already disregarded decency.”  

Another giggle leaves your lips and without thinking you move the rest of the way so that your mouth lingers just in front of his own, “I think it’s proper for you to kiss me- for the first time, underneath the full moon.”

At your boldness his heavy gaze widens slightly as a sharp breath leaves his lips before pushes them onto you.

Immediately, lightening shoots through the center of your spine, exploding into your heart, your hands on his shoulders tightening significantly, his own grip on your hips following suit.

Your bodies press together as your lips tuck in and move against each other. The tip of your nose rubs unceremoniously on the bridge of his own, the kiss deepening with a mutual sigh between the two of you.  

Your chest is pushing against the linen of his shirt, your body coming to life as he begins walking you backwards towards the large willow tree standing proudly near the river. When your back presses against the rough bark, you take the opportunity to slide your nails up his neck and into his hair, careful not to ruin the state of his ponytail too much. Your touch elicits a very faint groan from him, his teeth nibbling against your bottom lip.

With the increase of your breathing, you press him closer to you, pushing your breasts into him, hoping that he will take the hint and continue touching you. His hands merely squeeze at your hips, holding you steady against his body whilst his tongue brushes your bottom lip.

He’s requesting entrance into your mouth, which you gladly grant, parting your lips and sliding your own tongue along his. The two of you play in each others mouths, it’s slow and almost messy and it causes your fingers to tighten in his hair, wishing desperately that you could run your fingers through it properly.

Yoongi’s heart feels as though it's going to give out from all the sensations he’s feeling, his resolve weakening by the second, all thoughts of decorum leaving his conscious.  

The bark of the tree is digging into your back, but you can barely feel it; your mind is too full of Yoongi. His hands begin inching up your torso, almost massaging his way up, his grasp tightening further as he resists the urge to move his hips.  

But he can already feel the blood pooling between his legs, and he knows that things are already going too far so when you slide your leg up to hitch it around his waist, he finally pulls away.  

Breathing heavily, the two of you rest your foreheads on one another, lust swirling in the air around you.

“Why did you stop?” You pout, pecking at his lips.

Yoongi chuckles into your lips, leaning away slightly to press a kiss to your nose and then your forehead and as his mouth lingers there, he responds, “I have to maintain some level of decency- I am a man of the royal family.”

Like a spoiled child, you slump back against the tree, your lips still pouted as your hands return to his shoulders, “The royal family is miles away...besides, we were just kissing.”

Yoongi’s raspy laugh makes you want to kiss him even more while the fondness in his gaze makes you want to grin like an idiot.

“Your little suggestion to kiss me was turning into something else entirely and you know that.” He accuses playfully, bringing a thumb over your cheek.

“Were you not enjoying it?” You point out, dancing your fingers over his chest and he rolls his eyes, catching your hand in his own.

“You know very well that I was enjoying it.” He smirks, glancing down between the two of you at his semi-hard length pushing against his linen pants, “I am a man of my word however and I meant what I said about courting you properly.”

The sight of his length removes all moisture from your mouth, most of it seeming to reallocate between your legs.

“But you’re-!” You almost whine, wanting nothing more than to resume your earlier encounter.

He chuckles once more, bringing your fingers to his lips, “I am.” He concedes, dragging his lips over the back of your knuckles, “your lips are lethal.”

Your focus hones in on the wet lips currently pressing kisses against your hand but, your stubborn nature wishes to press the issue further.

“Then why did you stop?”

Yoongi smirks, “Because it’s not proper to have each other now, even when I want you as bad as I do-” He kisses between the junction of your pointer and middle finger, brows raising at the sight of your pouted lips, “Why are you still pouting?”

“Because...” You sigh, licking your lips, “I already told you I didn’t care what others thought I-”

Yoongi chuckles again but this time, the sound is darker, “Y/N, when I tell you that we should wait, it isn’t because of the opinions of others it’s because...” He pauses, licking his tongue between your fingers, sending a shock wave between your thighs, “I couldn’t possibly pleasure you properly against this tree...”

You let out shaky breath, leaning into him once more, “I believe you could.”

He grins, kissing over the spot he just licked, returning your hand to his shoulder, “Oh do you now?”

“Mhm.” You hum, giggling as he pinches your hips, your fingers clasping behind his neck.

He leans over, kissing your lips gently before pulling back to secure your gaze, “Be patient my sweet girl...” His voice drops to a whisper, “...and let our fairytale develop a little longer.”

You can’t help but embrace him then, tucking your face into his neck, “I’m sorry if I’m so eager...I’ve just never felt this way before.”

He chuckles warmly, easing you away from the trees so he can rub your back, “Please don’t be sorry. This is new territory for me as well. We can navigate it together ok? My fleet has to move on in a few weeks but, it will only be a few months until I can make it back to you. After that- we'll have all the time in the world.”

Nodding, you press a kiss to his neck, tightening the embrace, not wanting to let go, “Why do you have to be such an accomplished solider General Min? Mediocrity could have really worked in your favor...”

He laughs again, the sound warming you from the inside out, “Terribly sorry mam. I had no anticipation of being captivated by a smart-mouthed apothecary during a refuel stop.”

“Oh so I’ve captivated you have I?” You tease, your fingers walking slowly across his back.

He smiles, turning his head to kiss the side of your head, “To put it very lightly yes- yes you have.”

Captivated was the word Namjoon had used and it truly was the perfect word.  

Absolutely perfect.

[multi-obsessed-fanfic-writer]

Force Bond

Author’s Note: So I usually write my fics with female readers in mind, but I checked as much as I could in this fic and I don’t think any she/her pronouns are used, so I think it can be read as gender neutral! I hope you enjoy this, anon! I tried to keep it as close to your request as possible. And, as always, requests and open and feedback is much appreciated! Thank you guys, I love you all~

Requested?: Yes, by anon- “For Anakin requests, maybe a fellow Jedi who was a sith at one point but ran away from the master and turned to the light? Strong, confident but quiet person, but full of surprises 👀“

Summary: You sense the darkness in Anakin and help him overcome it.

Force Bond

Anakin Skywalker x reader

Word Count: 3.7k

Warnings: angst & canon-typical violence, also this definitely diverts from canon (like storyline) sooo yeah (and lmk if I ever miss any warnings pls!)

“I’ll be in the training room if you need me,” You tell your friend, Obi-Wan. He gives you a short nod before returning to his previous conversation with another Jedi Master.

You’re technically a new recruit to the Jedi Order, but you had already earned yourself the title of Jedi Knight. Although you had the skills and prowess to be a Jedi Master, you weren’t quite sure the Jedi Order trusted you fully yet. You see, you used to be their enemy. You were the Sith leader’s apprentice for years before you changed your ways and turned to the light. The Order had been skeptical of your arrival at first, but they eventually welcomed you and trained you in the ways of the light. Obi-Wan has been your friend, as he sees the difference in you, having known how you were on the dark side. Otherwise, you rarely speak to anyone. 

So far, you’ve managed to keep a low profile. While you are serious about being on the light side now, you know better than to cause any accidental trouble and hurt your chances of ever being trusted here. So you stay quiet and to yourself, hoping that no one will try to get their revenge because you have definitely fought many of them before on the other side. But, luckily, revenge is not the Jedi way. 

“When are you not training, (Y/n)?” A voice to your right laughs, snapping you out of your trance. You freeze, clicking your lightsaber off and attaching it to your hip again.

You look to your right to see Anakin Skywalker standing there, a small smirk tugging at his lips. You had never really talked to Anakin before, preferring to stay away from the troublemaker seeing as you were trying your hardest not to get in trouble here.

“Not one for talking?” He asks, and you realize that you had just been staring at him, immersed in your own thoughts.

You shrug at him, going to sit down on the side of the training room, done for now. He can have his training time, you just want to be alone.

“How about we duel, huh? We could use some combat training with other people, and I’ve heard that we are two of the most powerful here.” Anakin offers, going to stand next to you.

You look up at him, quirking one eyebrow up as if to say ‘really?’

“Oh come on, it’ll be fun.” He pleads. You stand up and make your way toward the door.

“Hey, listen, I didn’t mean to offend you or anything-” Before he can finish, you’ve shut the door with the force and readied your lightsaber. You step onto the training mat, ready to duel. Anakin jumps into action, not realizing that you were accepting his offer.

“One match.” You finally say, twirling the saber in your hand. He nods.

“One match. That’s all I ask for.” He agrees, a grin lighting up his features. It makes the corner of your lips tug up as well.

Once you’re both ready, you immediately lunge to the side of him. He does the expected, reaching out his saber so that you’ll run straight into it. However, you flip over the saber at the last moment and land on your feet, slicing your saber toward his back as you land. He quickly reacts, meeting your saber at his back with his own pointed down over his shoulder. The two of you make eye contact and you smirk, immediately swiping his feet out from under him and meeting his saber in front of him that slashes down. He’s now on his back on the ground as you stand above him, lightsabers locked in a fight for dominance. You take out your second lightsaber and lock onto his, providing double the force against him.

“Not fair!” He growls. After a few seconds, Anakin still manages to win the brute force battle and knocks you back a little bit, hopping up to his feet. You huff.

Fine. If you can’t win this with brute strength, you’ll just have to out-battle him with your agility and force-use.

The fight goes on for who knows how long, the two of you matching each other almost perfectly in your fighting ability and the force. No one has the upper-hand long enough to win, so it’s just a constant back and forth battle. Neither of you has tired out yet.

You can see the growing frustration in Anakin as the fight draws on. I mean, how could he not be frustrated? All of his life here at the temple he has been told that he’s the best there will ever be, that he’s the Chosen One. How can he not beat you, a simple Jedi Knight, if he’s the supposed Chosen One? You try not to dwell on his frustration as it isn’t your problem to deal with, but there’s something off about his frustration that you can’t quite place. It bothers you.

Mid-battle, as you slice at his feet, you feel a strange disturbance in the force. You reach out with the force, shoving Anakin back physically with the force and brushing against his force signature at the same time. As you do this, you feel a darkness in him that you hadn’t felt in a long time. This shocks you, causing you to gasp and pause in your movements for a moment, chilled to your very core.

As you’re paused, Anakin takes this moment to grab the upper hand and win. He uses the dark force inside of him to shove you with brutal force into the training wall, knocking the breath out of you.

You fall to your knees, gasping for breath as your lightsabers turn off and clatter out of your hands. You grasp at your throat, trying to breathe. There seems to be something invisible choking you. Then, the pressure is gone and you take a gulp of fresh air, sputtering and choking from your previous lack of air. You look up to Anakin a few feet in front of you who looks at his hands, fear evident in his eyes. 

“I’m...so sorry, (Y/n), please forgive me-” He rushes to you, reaching out to help you up. You hold a hand out in front of you to stop him, getting up yourself and recalling your lightsabers to your waistband. 

“Just...stay away from me.” You force out, calling your bag to you and swiftly making your exit from the training chamber. 

You’re scared of Anakin. And you’re scared of who he might become.

~+~

It’s a few days later, and you have tried your best to avoid Anakin at all costs. He’s tried to apologize or talk to you, but you always find ways to get out of the situation. You’re sure Obi-Wan is starting to get suspicious of why you’re avoiding Anakin, but you don’t have the heart to tell him of the darkness manifesting in the so-called Chosen One. A darkness you had sworn to never interact with again unless it was getting rid of it.

This time, however, you seem stuck in the situation. 

“(Y/n)!” Anakin force-closes the doors in front of you and to your right, leaving you no way to escape. You try to pry open the doors with your own force, but it’s no use because he makes it to you before you can even get the chance. He backs you into the corner, making every alarm in your head be on high alert.

“(Y/n), please, let me apologize.” His arms brace the wall on either side of your head, trapping you between the wall and his body.

“Get away from me.” You push him off you with surprising force. He seems surprised at your actions, as this could be considered an ‘outburst’ since you’re so quiet usually. You walk away from him in the direction he came from.

“What happened? I’m confused even by my own actions, please, you...you seem to know more than I do.” He calls out. You stop in your tracks, mentally cursing yourself for gaining empathy when you turned to the light side.

“You force choked me. That’s...typically known as a dark side power. I used to do it. Besides, I...I felt the darkness in you at that moment.” You murmur, voice barely above a whisper as Anakin approaches you again.

“The darkness...you felt it?” He asks, eyes searching your face for the truth. You refuse to look at him, but you nod instead.

“Then help me get rid of it.”

“What?” You ask, finally looking up at him. His eyes seem pleading.

“Help me get rid of the darkness in me. You know better than anyone else how to do that. Help me, please. You’re the only one I trust with this.” He takes your hand in his, making your eyes widen in surprise.

“I don’t know…” You sigh, glancing around.

“Please. You’ve dedicated yourself to eradicating darkness, now help me do the same.” He begs, keeping a tight hold on your hand. You sigh.

“Fine,” you concede, “meet me in the training room tomorrow after lunch.”

“Thank you, (Y/n). I won’t let you down.” He promises, a smile finding its way back to his face.

“You’d better not.” You scoff lowly before turning around and making your way back to your quarters.

What have you gotten yourself into?

~+~

It’s been a few months since you started training Anakin, getting rid of the darkness in him. With your help, you can confidently say that he’s almost completely back to the light again. There’s just a little bit more you have to work on, which is his aggression. He feels very deeply and that can lead to much anger in his life, which you’re trying to get rid of. 

You’re currently meditating in the training room with Anakin, the two of you sitting across from each other physically even though you’re worlds above mentally and spiritually.

“Thank you for all of your help these past few months, (Y/n), you...you’re amazing. I couldn’t ask for a better teacher in the ways of the light. You’re truly a beacon of hope in the Jedi and...I’m so sorry for what you went through.” Anakin tells you through the force. You smile.

“Anakin, I’m simply helping you be the best version of yourself. Everything I’ve helped you with has already been inside you, I just taught you how to enhance the light in every situation instead of letting yourself succumb to darkness.” You tell him. You had gotten more comfortable with Anakin recently and had started opening up to him more. He knows of your past in the dark side, what you did, and how you overcame everything. He also knows the guilt you carry from that time in your life, too.

“You’ve also...helped me with new feelings, (Y/n). I’m happier now because of you,” He admits, smiling bashfully at you. You tilt your head to the side, not quite sure what he means. Before you can ask him, you’re both broken out of your meditation trance by Obi-Wan.

“(Y/n), Anakin, we know who Darth Sidious is. It’s Palpatine. He’s been controlling both sides of the war- hurry, we need your help. We’re going to engage now.” Obi-Wan explains in a hurry, causing both you and Anakin to jump into action immediately. You grab both of your lightsabers and the three of you run down the hall as fast as possible to Palpatine’s office.

The information rocks you to your core more than you would like others to know. The fact that you escaped from the dark side and joined the Jedi Order to get away from the exact same man. The exact same man that was the leader of the Republic. You never escaped after all. You fell right back into his hands.

“Should we have a planned attack to execute instead of a thrown-together group of Jedi Masters and Knights?” You ask Obi-Wan as the three of you are running.

“There’s no time. He’s at his weakest point now, Master Windu almost killed him but he was thwarted. We need to strike quickly or he will become too powerful.” Obi-Wan tells you in a hushed voice. You nod solemnly.

You were hoping this moment wouldn’t come so soon. You were hoping you wouldn’t have to face your former master until you were ready. Funny how the galaxy plays tricks like this sometimes.

“Hey, it’ll be okay,” Anakin whispers to you, secretly grabbing your hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze as the two of you run behind Obi-Wan. You look at him and smile gratefully. He must be able to sense the nerves radiating off of you through the force because on the outside you look calm and composed.

“Thanks.” You smile back at him, squeezing his hand then dropping it before anyone might see the two of you and misunderstand the situation. However...you must say, your feelings toward the Skywalker boy were more than just friendly now. You’re not sure how to tell him, though, because of the Jedi rules. Maybe if you just ignore it, it’ll go away.

Sooner than you wish, you’ve reached Palpatine’s office and the doors are sliding open. You see your old Sith Master engaging in an intense duel with Master Windu, the sight striking fear into your heart. Darth Sidious is on the ground, using his force lightning that Mace is blocking with his lightsaber. Your breathing quickens slightly, and you feel your palms get sweaty as you unlatch both of your lightsabers from your belt. Anakin stands next to you, and Obi-Wan on the other side of you.

“Sith Lord Darth Sidious...you are under arrest in the name of the Galactic Senate of the Republic.” You say, surprising both Anakin and Obi-Wan that you spoke first. You ignite your lightsabers, watching the light color crackle to life in your hands. 

“Ah, (Y/n)...my old apprentice,” Sidious cackles, stopping his lightning and looking over at you. Mace lowers his lightsaber, looking over at the three of you.

“Thank you for coming to my aid, we must-”

Before Mace can continue, Sidious uses his force lightning again and catches him off guard. You gasp as Master Windu is sent flying out of the window, feeling you, Anakin, and Obi-Wan jumping into action. Obi-Wan attacks first and is eventually defeated and knocked out cold.

Next is Anakin. He runs at Sidious, and you watch the intense battle with fearful awe. You feel stuck to the ground where you are, the sheer power of the dark force in the room overwhelming you. Now that you’re faced with your former master, you’re not sure you can do it anymore. You love the light. You want the light. 

You need the light.

“You won’t get away with this torture anymore!” You yell, jumping into the fight beside Anakin. The two of you move together flawlessly, backing Darth Sidious up against a wall purely from the sheer power the two of you are exerting. He has a hard time blocking both you and Anakin’s attacks, especially because you have two sabers.

As you lose yourself in the fight, you see Anakin get force shoved into a wall and knocked out. You watch his body sink to the floor unconscious, causing an aching pain to seize hold of your heart. You look back to Sidious, seeing the hideous smirk growing on his face.

“Now the battle is balanced. Do what you’re supposed to do, my apprentice. Use everything I have taught you to finally kill me and fulfill your destiny of becoming the new Sith Lord. Take Anakin as your new apprentice. I know you can feel the darkness in him...and I know you want to succumb to your own darkness again.” Sidious tries to entice you. You feel sweat start to form on your forehead as you continue your unending onslaught of attacks. You’re starting to get tired after exerting so much force on holding back one being. One being that you know the strengths of. Sidious is much stronger than you, and he’s more than right. You won’t be able to beat him if you don’t succumb to the darkness, but if you do, you’ve still done what he wants. 

There is no win in the situation for you.

“I’m...not your apprentice.” You grunt, finally landing a blow on his side. He cries out in pain but it turns into a malicious cackle. 

“You’re on the edge, my dear. Just jump. Embrace the dark side as you once did.” Your sabers and his lock together, once again a fight for dominance. You push hard against his saber, hoping for him to give some slack. You feel a guttural scream rip out of your throat as you continue to press your hardest into his saber. He pulls back and pushes out again, knocking you onto the ground. You back up as he presses forward, disappointment in his hideous yellow eyes. You feel the same fear grip your heart, knowing this might be your end. Hopefully, Anakin and Obi-Wan will be able to defeat him together once you’re gone.

“If you can’t defeat me, (Y/n), then I guess you never deserved to be my apprentice. Maybe I’ll just kill you and then take Anakin as my own apprentice…” Sidious plots, stalking forward slowly. 

The thought of him even trying to turn Anakin to the dark side again stirs you into action. In a dash, you’re back on your feet and charging him again. He’s surprised, and you take this moment to slice across his stomach, gaining a scream from his lips. You smirk in satisfaction.

“I may have come from the depths of the dark...but I can assure you, Anakin will never head down the same path I once did. Through our bond, the dark side will be defeated.” You promise, watching him turn around. His eyes lock onto your form and you twirl your lightsabers in your hands.

“Through our bond...the dark side will be defeated.” You hear your words echoed from behind Sidious. You both look to see Anakin propping himself up against the wall, eyes closed as he shakily reaches out a hand to you. You feel his force signature sending power to you, strengthening you. You smile.

The smile is gone when Sidious charges at Anakin, deciding that he’ll have to get rid of at least one of you in order to escape.

“No!” You scream, pure terror ripping the instinctive noise from your throat as you rush forward and sink both of your sabers into Sidious’ neck. He lets out a screech and falls to the ground, dead.

Your breath comes out raggedly as you turn off both your lightsabers, letting them fall to the ground. You sink to your knees next to Sidious’s dead body, in front of Anakin. Your head is down and you don’t notice that you’re crying until you see the tears drip onto your knees.

There’s a hand on your shoulder, and you look up to see a smiling Anakin. You pull him forward and embrace him, exchanging no words as the two of you just bask in each other’s presence.

“You did it.” Anakin praises you.

“I did it.” You say, although yours is much more fearful. Anakin notices the tone.

“What’s wrong? He’s dead. You saved us all.” Anakin pulls away, looking into your eyes. You feel him reach up and wipe the tears from your cheeks.

“I-I killed him...I did exactly what he wanted,” You cry, meeting Anakin’s eyes with your tear-filled ones. Anakin’s gaze softens.

“No, (Y/n), you didn’t. He wanted you to kill him out of malice and darkness. You killed him out of righteous anger and light,” Anakin tells you, pulling you back into the hug. You grip tightly at his tunic, pulling him impossibly closer to you.

He’s right. You did the right thing. 

“You did it too, Anakin. You emanated the light. You helped me. You strengthened me.” You murmur, digging your head into the crook of his neck.

“Through our bond, the dark side will be defeated. You said it yourself, (Y/n). We’re beacons of light to each other.” He strokes your hair, and you feel your breathing start to reach a normal pace again. 

The two of you pull out of your embrace. Anakin looks into your eyes and you realize now the close proximity between the two of you.

His eyes flicker to your lips, and for a second you think you’re just seeing things. But then he leans forward and presses his lips to yours and you know that you’re dreaming.

“I-I think I love you, Anakin,” You whisper once the kiss has been broken. Anakin chuckles.

“I think I love you, too, (Y/n).” He whispers back, capturing your lips in a kiss once more.

“This has been a turn of events I can’t quite say I wasn’t expecting.” You hear a grunt from behind you. You break away from Anakin and see Obi-Wan propping himself up against the wall, a hand clutching his side as he does so.

“Master!” You hurriedly help him up, looking over to see Anakin standing up himself. You can tell they’re both hurt, and maybe concussed, but they’ll be okay. And so will you.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. Maybe...after what happened today, we can get the relationship approved. After all, I sense the force bond the two of you have developed. If this relationship is something the force wills, then who are we to deny the force of what it needs?” Obi-Wan chuckles, although it’s pained. You help him to the medic bay.

“And we will defeat the dark side, (Y/n). Sidious was the first step and the biggest obstacle. We will eradicate the dark from the galaxy.” Anakin promises you, holding your hand in his. You smile.

“Through our bond.” You nod in agreement.

“Our force bond.”

~~~~~

Tags: @anakinlove @official-hitmxn @rowley-with-ackerman

[dragonrajafanfiction]

Genji Heavy Industries (End) Turning Point

After all this way, we finally see the MC reach the turning point in her life.

If you’ve read this far, I thank you very much. I hope this has made you love the world of Dragon Raja

You could no longer see Caesar or Chu Zihang, but at this point, you weren’t looking. Your eyes were locked on Chisei Gen. Caesar’s final orders rang in your head like a command from Heaven. Your hands were caked in dried black blood. You were trembling with pain and fatigue, but that last brief surge of Blood Rage had revived your senses enough to stare at him, much like a cat would, eyes dilated and your body flexed. If he moved a muscle, you would draw your weapon.

Chisei watched the flames with resigned calmness however. He was tied firmly and his life was in Caesar and Chu Zihang’s hands just as much as yours was. “MC.” He said. “Where did you learn how to fight like that?”

He’s looking at you now, with the fire reflected in his eyes. His stare was confident. Even though he was asking a question, there was no question in those eyes. No curiosity. It was as if he were asking a question he already knew the answer to.

But how could he know the answer? The hairs on the back of your neck stood up. You’d learned how to shoot and hand-to-hand combat from your training in Black Swan Bay. Your training in Black Swan Bay was mostly centered however on your Yanling, focusing your spiritual energy into the ground, learning the limits of your power, how much you could manipulate the earth without suffering physical effects… This was all ingrained into you in a way that bordered on lab experiments with each result meticulously recorded and logged. It was just constant testing and while you were being tested, you learned your power and how to control it.

But Chisei hadn’t seen you use any of that. What he had seen from his vantage point in the mural hall rafters was you, walking out after Caesar and Chu Zihang armed with nothing but the laser sight of a Soviet era rifle and a pistol which you used to bait a member of the Deadpool into attacking their own kind. He observed how closely you could read the actions of the deadpool and how you picked her targets to attack. He heard your giddy laughter echoing on the mural hall walls.

After that, he would have seen clearly how you fearlessly approached that deadpool after she was exhausted, shot her in the head and then used her severed claw as a knife. How you used the non-lethal bullets from your pistol like a fist. How you were using that claw as your only weapon to render these A-ranked super monsters as weak as worms. It was no wonder that he looked at you when he was using Majesty to subdue the deadly and left a few living ones in his trail of mass destruction for you to kill. He had wanted to observe you close up.

When you don’t answer immediately he turns back to observe the fire. “Among the Hydra we have a name for that fighting technique you’re using. It’s called “God’s Eyes”. The heart of God’s Eyes is to subdue the enemy by your understanding of their movements and by your complete control of the battlefield. According to those that describe it, it takes at least a decade to approach mastery of elements of this technique. But you have mastered all of it and you’re so young. I’ve never seen anyone use God’s Eyes like you. You had to have learned from a master… but there are no masters of this technique. Only a few books that reference it or reference other works that describe it. It’s a technique that’s lost to history.”

“There’s only one man I know who can use God’s Eye on your level. And that’s Hilbert Ron Anjou. But you two just met a few weeks ago. Right?”

His eyes watch your face, but you nod, completely innocent, and his eyes narrowed to slits. You just stare back at him. He finally sighs. Whatever theory he may have had about where you learned your technique collapsed.

“Anjou can clear a room with just his pocket knife. Just like you. I don’t know anyone else who can do that.”

You do, of course, but disclosing that involves your deepest secrets and given the huge deadpool tank you found at the bottom of Genji Heavy Industry, you can be excused for not exactly trusting this man with secrets about your past. “Perhaps after this is over, we can talk more. Over sake?” You ask, taking a page from Caesar’s book.

“I would like that.” He sighed again. “I would also like to know how someone like you ended up with these people from Cassell?”

“I ask myself that every day.” Your lips quirk upward.

This was the first time you actually had a moment to sit and talk with Chisei Gen one on one and it actually wasn’t that hard. It took your mind off your pain enough for you to crack a little joke. Chisei lowers his eyes and, much to your delight, he chuckles and your smile grows.

“For my last moments, if these are my last moments… I suppose I could have worse company then these weirdos. My only regret is that Lu Mingfei isn’t here. But knowing him…” You roll your eyes to the ceiling, imagining him flapping his arms and squawking about how much danger you were in. “...nah, I'll take that back. What I really regret is that if we don't make it out of here, he’ll have lost all his friends. I know how that feels. I don’t want him to feel that.” 

You rest your head against the wall of the elevator and gaze out into the flames. “Looking back, my life is very odd. Even if you ask me a thousand questions about myself, I wonder if I would even be able to answer a single one. Simple things like… where were you born… Who are your parents? Where did you go to school…?” Your voice trails off. After a moment's thought, you shrug.

Chisei looks at you, silent.

A burst of gunfire and a sudden sharp explosion made you squeak and flinch! This was it, you think, this was the end. Was it really going to end this way? Caesar’s last order was to make sure that Chisei Gen did not touch the elevator door, but he also told you to stop seeking death! You only had your miserable little peashooter pistols, your miserable little claw and your miserable little knife and your miserable laser pointer.

You were suddenly struck with a sudden and intense desperation like nothing you’d ever felt.

You force yourself up to your feet while Chisei Gen sits there astounded.  “What are you doing?” Chisei shouts. 

Your voice is choked off as you stagger toward the elevator door, groaning with intense pain, but this fierce determination drives you forward. Chisei can now see the full view of your ruined back, your skin-tight combat suit is torn to ribbons where the Deadpool’s claws sank deep into muscle tissue.

Caesar and Chu Zihang were visible again! Caesar held two Sten submachine guns with both hands and Chu Zihang had one. The two back to back were using the bullet screen to suppress the group of deadpool while moving slowly in the direction of the elevator shaft. The group of deadpool that had been overturned by the shockwave of the explosion regrouped, their hideous golden eyes surrounding Caesar and Chu Zihang, the bullets repeatedly knocking them to the ground as they repeatedly straightened up and charged forward. The only thing that protects them is the bullet screen in front of them, and once the screen disappears the group of deadpool will pounce and bite.

You stand in the door, a silhouette in the light of the flame, shoving a magazine into your pistol. Your black hair is being pulled by the intense flaming winds like you were standing right in the breath of a massive creature. You finally relent. You finally gave in. You finally believe the last words of your friend. You finally believe the words of Caesar and the eyes of Chu Zihang.

You have to live!

The pale red columns collapsed one by one. The hot wind and black smoke rampaged through the hall, the frescoes curled in the fire, and the painted dragons and snakes finally flew away in the black ash.

The two rival men were fighting back to back, and the group of deadpool were getting closer and closer, so close that Caesar once passed the barrel of his gun into the deadpool’s open mouth before shooting it out. Chu Zihang stuck his sword and Onimaru in front of him, so if a deadpool got too close he would draw his blade and force it back, and then pick up his gun and fire.  But sooner or later the bullets will run out, just like a man holding a torch to scare the wolves would eventually see that torch go out. 

So you wait, watching them, hand on your pistol, observing the battlefield with God’s Eyes! You knew how many pieces of ammunition you had and, from your observation of Caesar’s reloading, you could make an estimate of how much he had left. When you determined that they were close to being out of ammo, you raised your pistols and opened fire!

The staccato rhythm of your pistols is like the rhythmic hits of a boxer’s gloves. The bullets strike the sensitive areas of the beasts, their eyes, their open wounds, their burns. They hiss and flinch as though being stung by a sudden swarm of bees. You drop the empty magazine and reload and shoot again and again and again, cursing them with the deepest and blackest of words. 

Each bullet was precious, like a drop of life’s blood. You couldn’t waste a single one. You watched the behavior of these monsters. If they reached for your friends, your bullets stung them like the whip of a ringmaster before vicious tigers. If there was even a possibility that they might think twice about doing it again, your quick and painful punishment gave them pause. If they hesitated, you rewarded them by not shooting them. But if they looked ready to pounce you shot them where it hurt.

Your support is just enough to turn the tide. The resistance of the deadpool falters and this time it doesn’t recover. If they rise up they’re either hit by the two men and if they’re not hit by the two men, they’re hit by the pistol fire.

A strange noise like the pop and snap of firewood shifts your focus and your pistol swivels and points at Chisei. “Stay Down!” You roar.

Chisei’s face is a mask of pain. His body was writhing strangely, his joints were all dislocated, and the bones moved independently of each other. It was like his arms had turned into spaghetti!

“I said stay down!” You lower your pistol to his ankle and pull the trigger. 

Click. Your eyes widen.

Chisei smirks. “You’re out of bullets. It’s okay…” He grunts. “I’m not going to run. If they want blood…” He gasped. “I’ll give them blood.” Before you could comprehend what was happening, he suddenly freed himself from his restraints by wiggling out of his shirt. His bare chest looks like an ugly bag of broken bones! He cut himself across the wrist with Dojigiri, staining the white fabric of his shirt red. He stood up and walked to the elevator entrance and threw the shirt into the fire.

With that last act, Chisei Gen completely collapsed. You tried to catch him but the action pulled at your wounds and you both went down to the floor. Both you and he had given your all.  You let him fall to the floor and just tried to annoy them with your laser pointer while you grit your teeth, but the Deadpool had a far more tantalizing target in mind already. You realize what’s happening, but you can’t pull the unconscious Chisei back into the elevator. You’re so choked with smoke and exhaustion you can’t even call for help.

"What's going on?" Caesar couldn't believe his eyes, the smoking muzzle points to the ground. The guns in his right and left hands stopped firing, but still no monsters pounced on him. 

They were about to run out of bullets when the swarm of deadpool suddenly withdrew from them and scrambled to slither up to a corner of the hall. A minute ago they were still a seasoned suckling pig roasting in the fire, and now they suddenly turned into a disgusting slop, and the whole group just left.

"Hurry! Run!" Chu Zihang yelled. 

Caesar suddenly woke up. Tight now they do not have time to think about the rationality of this miracle. The fire burning C4 explosives may explode at any time. It was still too early to celebrate. They simultaneously took off running. They shed off every entangling weight, taking off their heavy windbreakers, which still had scattered firearms and bullets in them. There was a loud bang and a searing wind behind them. It was some piece of C4 explosive behind the shaded wall that had exploded. It was so powerful that it completely took the wall down.

The first thing he saw when he cleared the smoke was you struggling with Chisei in the elevator door. His fury spurred him faster. He was coming at you like a raging bull. You couldn’t even begin to explain! Caesar didn't hesitate to pull the trigger, and blood exploded from Chisei’s calf. 

“Caesar!” Your voice is a useless squeak. Caesar had grabbed Chisei and unceremoniously tossed him like luggage back into the car.

Chu Zihang picked you up and hit the door close button on his way in.

The pain woke up Chisei  and he was just about to struggle to sit up when Caesar rushed into the elevator and threw a straight punch at his face.

“Stop…” Your voice is just a hiss, and you realized that you’ve completely lost your voice. Perhaps the heat, the dry air, and your screaming in pain had ruined your vocal cords.

The chain of explosions had already begun. Blinding sun-like lights are lighting up the corners of the hall as waves of hot air swept through at speeds that exceeded those of a hurricane, setting other blocks of explosives ablaze. The old freight elevator squeaked and closed with difficulty, and with a few centimeters left in the doorway, a hot air stream a few centimeters wide burrowed into the elevator, a bright red that ignited the remaining files in the car. But the elevator door finally closed. 

It slowly sank into the elevator shaft, and a few seconds later there was a heavenly explosion from above, and a bright wave of air rushed into the elevator shaft, throwing the burning corpses of the deadpool into the void. The snake shadows burned in the fire, their fat dissolved, until gradually  the bronze skeletons were revealed. These tyrannical creatures finally were cut off from life, and as they died they gathered around a shirt and shredded it.. 

As the freight elevator rumbled down, Caesar stomped hard on the burning documents, and then lay down exhausted on the file box, and kicked at Chisei’s face.

“Stop it!” You hiss. But Chu Zihang held you tight and you were far worse off than he was. Turned out that weird period style armor had actually protected him quite a bit. You dug your nails into him but he didn’t even flinch.

Chisei said nothing, powerlessly wrapping a cloth band around the wrist wound. He had cut an artery, and soaked at least a fifth of the blood in his body into the shirt. He made his shirt irresistible to the monsters. The result was that he couldn't even stand up. Caesar wasted no time, tying him up even tighter.

You’re breathing a bit easier now. Instinctively, you take deeper breaths. As your adrenaline lowers, fatigue crashes again like a weighted blanket. Breathing now became agony, but with no voice, no one could hear you moaning. There’s just the strange whistling noise, like the soft whine of a little dog.

"What do we do with this guy?" Caesar pointed at Chisei with the Desert Eagle.

You don’t even lift your head.  

"It's naturally best if we can take him prisoner. But it's hard to leave Genji Heavy Industries by ourselves in this situation, and it's even harder to take him away." Chu Zihang said. He tilts his head down to look at you. “She doesn’t seem to want any harm to come to him.”

"How about using him as a hostage threat? There is no way the Yakuza would give up the precious Emperor, right?" 

"It's hard to make sure we're not followed, Tokyo is the Hydra Yakuza's home turf, and we won’t be able to escape it no matter how much we run.”

"It seems the best way is to shoot this guy. Sooner or later the Academy and the Hydra family will have to go to war, such a precious weapon can not be left in the hands of the other side. Anyway, his body is flowing with dragon blood, I have to kill him as a dragon slayer!" Caesar pulled the bolt and loaded the gun. 

No way! Caesar hadn’t killed anyone this whole time! And now that you’ve come this far and you had fought beside Chisei and he’d saved all your lives, he was going to kill him?

You jerk against Chu Zihang and try to sink your teeth into him. His strong arm tightens. He whispers so softly you can barely hear it. “It’s a bluff.”

In a moment of silence, you hear something else sigh.

There were only four people in the elevator, and you heard a fifth breath! 

The side wall of the elevator car suddenly caves in! Before Caesar had time to react, the monstrous bony claws penetrated the sidewall and plunged into Chisei’s ribs from behind! Blood rained down like a fountain on the sneak attacker's face as it let out an ear-piercing scream of joy! 

Even Caesar was stunned when he saw the Deadpool, even though they had just stepped out of the hordes of Deadpool that were trying to kill him. This Deadpool was so amazing. It was more than twice the size of the others! The longest of them  was over five meters, the shortest was only about three meters, and their upper bodies were about the same size as a human, gradually getting thinner and longer below the waist, before finally taking on the shape of a snake. But this monstrosity is more than eight meters long. Its abdomen is bloated, like a pregnant queen ant. It dragged this overly deformed lower body upward but fell down, so it had just arrived at the mural hall. It became the only survivor. It was attracted by the smell of Chisei's blood and recklessly tore through the elevator car.. 

This deadpool had the face of a middle-aged woman, and her face was not as pale as the other deadpool.  Instead, it was rosy and lustrous, like a woman who had become rounded in pregnancy. Caesar took a glance at its abdomen and suddenly understood. Its snow-white, scaleless abdomen had snake tail-like traces shining through. This was really a pregnant Deadpool  and a pregnant deadpool could only give birth to those more fearsome than itself, because the fetal dragon blood would be purer. The fetuses also seem to have felt the freshness of the blood of Chisei and are stirring in the mother's body. 

What had been suspected all along was confirmed, the Deadpool was capable of producing offspring, and this bloated, deformed mother's womb was breeding devils! 

The Deadpool clung to Chisei, licking the blood excitedly. Chisei clung on to the handrail to keep from being dragged into the elevator shaft. Deadpool's bloated body weighing hundreds of kilograms hangs below the elevator by that single grip.

Chu Zihang presses his hand firmly on your mouth. You wanted to scream in rage, pure frustration and despair. But the monster hadn’t noticed you at all yet. You were too weak to fight this thing. You all were. You said ‘no more sacrifices’ but now you really had no more to give but yourselves, and this monster wanted Chisei. You could get away scot free if you left him behind. 

Caesar tried to aim several times in the process of raising his gun, but he had no chance of hitting Deadpool, who was hiding behind Chisei. If he fired, he would first have to injure him, and it was unknown whether the force of the bullet could do that and injure the deadpool. He just fired a shot at Chisei but now he needs to shoot him again. But Chisei is extremely pale from blood loss. He originally had a feminine beauty, and now he looks like a dying girl. His soul is leaving his pale body. If he suffered another gunshot wound, Chisei could certainly die. 

This world was so black, so dark, that the minute you started to believe that perhaps Caesar could be right and you could live and you could live with all your friends, that scythe of death came to collect its taxes on your happiness. You hated this world, you hated this life!

Deadpool licked the back of Chisei’s neck with her long tongue. Her sharp teeth are seeking the veins in his neck as she begins to give birth to her babies.  The green and white snake-like fetuses fell one by one. 

At this time there was a "thump" sound above the elevator, and the speed of the elevator's descent suddenly increased. The elevator filled with boxes of documents was close to the upper limit of the load. The weight of the giant deadpool plus the four of you exceeded the limits of the elevator, not to mention that it was running in the fragile track after the earthquake. It was slamming into the depths of the elevator shaft at an accelerating rate, at which point the Deadpool would of course be smashed to death, and the four of you would invariably be buried with her. 

"Shoot!" Chisei yelled with his last strength. 

You watched Caesar look into the eyes of Chisei in surprise. 

"Shoot me! Hit me in the neck! Its head is right back there!" Chisei spurted out a mouthful of blood. 

Caesar gritted his teeth fiercely. He was ready to shoot. 

But his fingers were trembling, it was as if the blackness of the world had surrounded him and was pressing in on him, closing in and laughing, mocking him. You stood in that darkness and you could offer no answer. After all, what mercy had the world ever offered you?

A mere few days ago, you wouldn’t hesitate to reasonably make the judgment that sacrificing one person can save everyone, and it's worth doing. But now you stared at Caesar and shook your head. You didn’t want to live in a world without his justice.

You take your bronze claw dagger and stab it into Chu Zihang’s side! Caesar turns at his gasp of pain. You rise up like a lioness to seize Caesar’s wrist and push it upward, pointing the Desert Eagle in the air. You’re face to face with him and bare your teeth.

"’Never leave a friend’ is your justice.” You force the words through your dead vocal cords. Your eyes stare into his eyes and they’re cold and black as the ice sea. “I live for your justice and I will die for your justice!" 

Caesar stares for a moment and, for that moment, the cheeks on either side of his face grow gradually pink.

Chisei suddenly smiled. He rarely smiles. His smile is surprisingly beautiful. 

"Gattuso-kun, in fact, I have thought about being ...... friend of justice." Chisei let go of the handrail and was instantly sucked into the void outside the elevator car.

Caesar barely prevented you from plunging out there with him in your effort to stop him. He threw you back against the door of the elevator. Your vision exploded into sparks and for a moment you couldn’t move. 

“Chu Zihang!”

The elevator suddenly stopped, pressing you to the floor. You blink your eyes open. Caesar and Chu Zihang are gathered by the hole in the elevator wall, shoulder to shoulder. They weren't moving, in fact, they were grunting with great effort. They were backing up from the gap and in their hands was the rope. The rope that he’d tied Chisei up in was being pulled up back into the elevator and attached to that rope was Chisei!

You gasp and crawl forward. He was unconscious, pale like death. His sword was stuck through him, front to back, but he was alive. He was still alive. Caesar looks down at you, but oddly doesn’t meet your eyes. He looks shy, almost embarrassed?

“We need to find a way out of here.” Chu Zihang, ever practical, hands you the claw dagger back. You stare at it a moment and then tuck it in your belt to let Caesar carry you out.

Together, you climb out of the elevator and into the darkness of the shaft, until you take a rest on the beam. Caesar is puffing on a cigar. You’re sitting in Caesar’s lap like a child. Exhausted, you’re turning the bronze colored claw dagger over and over in your hands, watching the play of light on it.

You all sit in silence like this for an hour.

Your head was burning and you felt numb and yet, deep down, the arctic ice that had held onto your soul since waking up at Cassell was starting to fracture and the summer sun was beginning to rise. You rest your head against Caesar’s chest and look up into his eyes.

He lets out a puff of smoke. “You’re not going to fall for me, are you?”

Your eyes narrow and then you huff. “No. I was just thinking…You weren’t going to let me die from the moment we met, right? You stinker.”

Caesar tapped the ash over the edge of the beam. “So you finally get it.”

“Uh huh. I’ll always miss my friends.” Your lip trembles a bit but you once again control it. “But… I think… with you… That’s okay.”

Caesar bit his cigar and grinned. “Glad to hear it.” 

You lower your eyes to Chu Zihang who had been tending to his own injuries and was now working on Chisei’s many wounds, while he rested on the beam. “Sorry, I stabbed you.”

“It was impressive.”

You laugh, unsure of how to respond to that.

The building was chock full of Hydra operatives now. You couldn’t leave the elevator shaft yet. They were probably all looking for Chisei so you had to wait for him to wake up.

Chisei started to stir under Chu Zihang’s medical care. Caesar carefully settled you against the wall of the shaft and catwalked over to stare down into Chisei’s eyes. He pulled the last cigarette from his pocket, stuck it in Chisei’s mouth and lit it, the fire illuminating the man’s pupils. Chisei struggled for a moment but he was still in pain and tightly bound.

"The emperor hybrid is really different, huh. A serious wound like harakiri only took an hour to heal. I want to have such a good body.." Caesar moved the lighter closer to his face and illuminated it to Chisei, showing his healing injury. In the next moment, he’d kicked Chisei off the beam. The rope pulled taut where the end was tied and Chisei Gen hung from it.

"Won't you consider untying me?" Gen Chisei smiled bitterly, "It's a little inconvenient to smoke and hang from a rope." 

"Not quite.  With someone of your low integrity, I still can't believe you. The minute I untie you, you’ll assault us again.." Caesar gripped his cigar, "Let’s just have a good conversation." 

"Is the family style of the famous hybrid Gattuso family that shameless?" Chisei exhaled a puff of smoke. 

"You call this shameless?" Caesar shrugged, "If you think this is shameless, you haven't met my studly old man." After a few seconds of silence Caesar mumbled.  "Sorry." 

"There's nothing to apologize for. At the time I really wanted to escape and leave all you behind. I'm not a friend of justice. I've done a lot of bad things, I've killed people." 

"Ghosts?" Chu Zihang asked. 

"We call them Ghosts, but they are actually the same hybrid species as us, only more likely to become deadly." Chisei whispered, "To some extent all of us are ghosts." 

"The mural is ruined, but we took pictures. Although you do not want us to, we have to take these pictures. The Academy and the Hydra are now in a hostile relationship, and now that the Deadpool group is also finished, your cooperation with us is over, and we all revert to hostile relations." Caesar took a drag on his cigar.

You listen to the conversation and your heart is surprisingly calm when you hear that you won’t be seeing Chisei any time soon. Chisei looks up at you. “I guess we’ll have to make plans for sake later?”

Caesar gives you a look of sharp disbelief.

You stick your tongue out at him. “I meant it as a lady.” But you offer no further explanation. It wasn’t his business.

"Then you have to leave quickly, with my recovery speed, this rope won’t hold me for long.." Chisei smiled again. 

"You can’t fool me. This rope can tether an elephant. I also tied it with a sailor knot, so the more you struggle, the tighter it will get.  Your body is not as strong as we thought. You super hybrids are slightly stronger than us, but your bones and muscles can not be compared with a real dragon. You might be worse than those deadpool but the minute you release your Yanling you’re defenseless. In short, you're strong, but not necessarily without flaws." Caesar sneered. 

"Well, well you guys see through me. What do you want to do with me?" 

"It was too difficult to take you away, and, in the end, I decided to leave you here. Your men are looking all over the building for you, but they didn't expect you to be hanging in the middle of the elevator shaft just yet. Seriously, I think that Assistant Sakura likes you a lot, don't you?" Caesar waved his cigar. 

"I'm not getting a girlfriend until I leave Japan, and isn't it a bit much to ask a woman like her to give up her life to go to France with me to sell sunscreen?" 

"Isn’t that exactly like leaving behind your status as the head of the big family to go to France?" 

"I am a person who has done a lot of evil. My hands are stained with the blood of many ghosts, fleeing to France to settle down would be good, I am not going to France, I’m trying to escape." Chisei said leisurely. 

"You said you also want to be a friend of justice?" Caesar raised an eyebrow. 

"Everyone wants to be a friend of justice when they are children." Chisei said faintly. 

"Are you mocking me for still being stuck in a child's state?" Caesar gave Chisei a poke and sent him spinning. 

You giggle. It hurt but that struck you as funny.

“What are you laughing at?” Caesar smiles at you.

You reply "Friends of Justice are the words from Ultraman, a cartoon for kids." 

"Ultraman?" 

"Superman who came to Earth from the universe to help Earthlings fight alien monsters. The heir of the Gattuso family should not have seen that kind of thing. We all watched it when we were kids. In elementary school, kids could be seen discussing which Ultraman was more powerful and saving their lunch money to buy plastic models of Ultraman. Did you do this MC?”

“No,” you chuckle. “I was a Sailor Moon fan. And James Bond fan.”

“Ah…” Chisei sighs. “Ultraman said his fans are friends of justice. We are friends of Ultraman, so we are also friends of justice. The more powerful monsters will be defeated by the friends of justice. Every episode they say that, so as children, we are convinced." Chisei mumbled slyly, "One year school performance, I went on stage to sing the theme song of Ultraman, I still remember the tune ......" 

"Beep beep beep, 

lots of monsters. 

Look behind you, 

beasts through the street there, 

just to your left and right. 

Can't get enough, can't get enough. 

Fly one foot and hit three low, 

don't presume to fly away. 

Who comes from  the universe to fight for freedom? 

Who will be faithful to defend the world? 

It is you, the great friend of justice!" 

You clap your hands. “You have a good voice, Chisei.”

This scene is really weird. The big head of the Japanese yakuza and the only emperor hybrid hanging in mid-air singing the theme song of "Ultraman". The heir of the Gattuso family, Caesar Gattuso and A+ blood Chu Zihang, and you, the S-ranked young woman, are his audience. Everyone should have laughed, but no one did. All of you had childhoods that were long gone, and you paid respects to them the same as you would a long dead ancestor.

The song ended and Caesar clapped his hands. 

"But I didn't become a friend of justice, I became the bad guy." Chisei said softly, "My friends are bad people. Yasha turned out to be a street fighter. Crow is a loan shark organization's strong man. Sakura is a killer. And I have done a lot more bad things than you can imagine. You might think the Japanese executive bureau is here to maintain order. But more often, it all just ends in bloodshed.. The mob is like this. In this business only violence speaks. The ones who are the most violent are the loudest. We live by doing evil. We belong to a family. We must be loyal to it. For the benefit of the family, we may strike at the innocent. For the benefit of the family we can sacrifice our companions or ourselves. Everyone can be sacrificed so that more people can live a good life. This world is so cruel. I am not Hikari Ultraman.I can not save everyone. If doing evil can make my people live a better life, then I am willing to become a bad guy." 

"Bad people can become good, but bad things will never become right." Caesar said. 

Chisei made the effort to give Caesar a look, "At your age you can still say such things, Gattuso-kun. I envy you." 

"Is that another Japanese style taunt?" 

"No, people who strongly believe in justice are happy people." Chisei said softly. 

Caesar was silent for a long time and raised his eyebrows: "What a bitter thing to say. But there's no time for your bitterness, I hear footsteps approaching, it's your people looking for you, right?" 

"Goodbye then, have a good trip." Chisei said. 

"The next time we meet, we'll be enemies again. Can't we say some warm and fuzzy goodbyes?" 

"Don't get involved in this. Leave Japan if you can, this is not something you can get involved in." 

"That kind of bullshit might as well be Saying Sayonara.”

"Sayonara." Chisei said softly. 

"Sayonara." Caesar said, "People who could have been friends end up like this. The world isn't cruel. It’s Bullshit.”

You stare down at Chisei. You want to say something, but you feel like you and Chisei were strangely similar. You were both violent people and trained to be so from an early age. You both felt similarly when Caesar spouted on about justice and being right and good in a world that was cruel. 

“Chisei… please don’t give up…” You whisper, but your voice is still hoarse.

“Come on, girl, he’s not worth your time.” Caesar once again lifts you up on his shoulders like a child and starts to climb. But you look over his shoulder. You and Chisei lock eyes as he hangs there in the void and you keep looking at each other until you’re both out of sight.

[pi-cat000]

Premise: Everyone in the world is born with a Curse (part 2)

Part 1: here

Curse-AU world-building thing: Based of this post by writing-prompt-s

Fandom: Mystery Skulls Animated

Pairings: Lewvithur

... 

“Oh, there he is,” Vivi bumps him, nodding towards a nervous Arthur who slips out from around the makeshift barrier. Lewis frowns, noting how the other man has his arms crossed, body language closed off.  A member of the security catches Arthur before he can head over to them, handing him an official-looking envelope.

“That doesn’t look like it was good news,” He mutters to Vivi and he gets a small nod of agreement. No one else had been given an envelope. Several other bystanders are also eyeing it with undisguised unease. Arthur shuffles up, eyes downcast, fiddling with his wrist band. His other, free hand is holding a semi crumpled piece of paper. Probably containing his Curse description. 

“I got an Orange danger rating…I’m, apparently, a high risk to bystanders,” Arthur mutters, motioning to the envelope, “Or I will be in a year or so…I have a travel pass until then…then ah…travel restrictions and isolation protocols….”

Lewis immediately reaches out, wrapping his arm around the smaller man’s shoulder so he is standing between Arthur and the judgmental eyes following him. With all the attention Vivi had attracted earlier and now this, their group has been given a wide berth so there is an empty circle around it.

“Bullshit.” Vivi snaps, “Uncle Lance has a Yellow rating. Your curse can’t be that different? Right?”

Arthur grimaces and looks conflicted, leaning into him for physical support in a mirror of how he had been leaning into Vivi earlier.

“It’s a variant of it,” Arthur starts, “You know how my Uncle has a higher chance of running into dangerous situations. Well, mine is the same except the situations will involve unnatural, monstrous or spiritual entities…” He trails off, the last few words sounding like a quote probably read off his Curse Certificate.  He sounds both fearful and resigned. Lewis frowns, glancing at Vivi.  Going off her renewed expression of interest, he can see that the relevance of Arthur’s curse hasn’t escaped her.

"Arthur!" She speaks as evenly as possible but her enthusiasm is poorly contained, "You know what this means right?" Arthur, to his credit, does seem somewhat aware of Vivi’s keenness and he waits patiently for her to continue.

"A destiny of hunting monsters and someone who has a higher than average chance of running into monsters? Our Curses are compatible. You know how rare that is!” She slows, “Sure, the danger rating sucks. But, hey, you can get it reassessed later. I know for a fact that they do the initial ratings higher to cover their asses.  Mine was classed as Yellow but I know that’s wrong because both my dad and gran have a Blue rating and it’s the exact same Curse. Hey, we can put in our reassessment forms together. Also, even if you can’t get it lowered, I bet I get you permission to travel once I’m a registered Hunter.”

"It's illegal to hire based on a person’s Curse and Nullification tech is always improving. You could probably get away with asking for off-site or long-distance employment. If the monster hunting thing doesn't work out," Lewis adds just to give some other options, though, going of Arthur’s relieved smile, it’s not needed.

Vivi blushes, calming herself, "Yeah, I mean, the monster-hunting is just one option. I'll get dad to give you some training...and I'll help too,"

Arthur relaxes more against him, "Thanks, guys..."

"I wonder if your Curse type had an effect on my Curse type." Arthur wonders out loud after a brief silence.

Lewis hums, “It is very convenient.” He isn’t too surprised, despite being around for almost 100 years now, Curses still weren’t entirely understood.

"Oh, I wouldn't be surprised,” Vivi elaborates,  “A Curse’s main effect doesn’t hit till your mid-20s but there is plenty of speculation that the more powerful ones are active before that. Destiny Curses are stronger than most. Or maybe it's an effect of your probability curse…I mean, you're more likely to run into a monster if you're dating someone who hunts them."

Arthur and Vivi throw a few more theories around and Lewis relaxes, listening to the two of them become increasingly animated. Now the band-aids off, so to speak, Arthur has calmed considerably. Sure, he is still a bit fidgety and his grip on the envelope is painfully tight, but that’s nothing a home-cooked diner and night relaxing together on the couch won’t go a long way to soothe. Lewis knows the road ahead of them wouldn’t be easy, not by a long shot, but it would be manageable.  Now all he needs is get some mundane Innocuous shoe-lace Curse to finish off the whole experience.

’Lot 65’ The metallic voice is back, calling them to attention again.  Vivi and Arthur glance towards him, Vivi quickly wrapping both him and Arthur in a hug. “Go on. You’ll be fine,” She encourages, pulling away just a quickly.

“Whatever you get we’ll work it out,” Arthur reiterates the advice he had given earlier also pulling back. Lewis can’t but smile at their affection as he turns away.

...

WORLD BUILDING: 

Curse threat ratings:

- Black (Catastrophic Risk): Life threatening to the bearer and catastrophic risk to bystanders. Full travel ban effective immediately. Isolations protocols apply.

- Red (Extreme Risk): Life threatening to the curse bearer, extreme risks to bystanders. Travel restrictions apply. Some isolations protocols apply.

- Orange (High Risk): Extreme risks to curse bearer and high risk to bystanders. Some travel restrictions apply. 

- Yellow (Considerable Risk): High risks to curse bearer and a considerable risk to  bystanders. Some travel restrictions apply. 

- Blue (Moderate Risk):  Considerable risk to the curse bearer and moderate risk to bystanders.  

- Green (Low Risk): Moderate risk to the curse bearer and low risk to bystanders.

- White (Very low Risk): Low risk to curse bearer low or zero risk to bystanders.

- Grey (No Risk): Danger level null. 

(Notes: Ratings are based primarily on the risk Curses pose to bystanders with the Curse bearer being a secondary consideration. The more bystanders considered at risk, the higher the rating. 

Statistics: Percentage approximations. Amount of populous with specific Curse ratings:

- Grey 2% (a rating usually reserved for the rare Curseless individual)

- Green- 40% Blue- 30% White- 10% (most Innocuous Curses would have these ratings) 

- Yellow -10%, Orange - 6%, Red- 2% (Restricted and dangerous Curses. Bad Luck curses would usually get this sort of rating)  

- Black .001% (astronomically rare)

[honibee-arts]

ship prompts: nielan ageswapped with their brothers?

The first time Nie Mingjue met Lan Xichen, he was a tiny boy holding tight to his stone faced older brothers hand. His tiny arm was almost swallowed by Lan Wangji's enormous, flowing sleeves. He stood at his brothers side, his honey eyes wide and curious as they peered at Mingjue, studying him curiously.

"Come on didi, say hello to Xichen." His da ge urged quietly, a gentle hand on his back as he clung to the olive and grey silk of his skirts, trying not to pick at the glittering gold embroidered into the fabric.

"H-Hello..." He mumbled.

"Introduce yourself." Huaisang said softly, gently patting his head.

"M... Don't want to."

"Forgive me, Wangji, he's very shy. A moment?"

"Mn. Of course."

Mingjue felt his ears burn in embarrassment as his da ge kneeled down in front of him. He looked away from his brother as Huaisang gently took his hands, softly nudging the slight pudge of his cheek with his fan to turn his head back to face him.

"Didi..." He sighed.

"Mm."

"What's wrong, didi? You can talk to your da ge."

Mingjue said nothing, only stared at the ground, tiny fiat's clenched and cheeks puffed.

"Are you nervous?"

"Keeps looking at me..." Mingjue mumbled.

"Hm?"

"He keeps looking at me like I'm weird..."

"Xichen has never really seen anyone outside his sect before, let alone someone outside his sect who his own age. He's just curious."

"Why can't I be with you and Wangji-ge?" Mingjue mumbled.

"Because Wangji-ge and I have boring things to do. Last time that happened you were lonely, so Wangji-ge brought his didi so you two could play together and make friends." Huaisang said gently. "Can you do that for me? Can you play with Xichen today?"

"Mm... Okay. For da ge."

"For da ge? Okay. Can you introduce yourself to Xichen?" Mingjue nodded hesitantly. "Do you still want da ge to hold your hand?" Mingjue nodded again and Huaisang stood up, taking his small hand in his, squeezing lightly.

"Mm... I'm... I'm Nie Mingjue..."

Xichen let go of his brothers hand and held his short arms out in a small bow.

"I am Lan Xichen. It is nice to meet you. I am sorry for upsetting you."

Mingjues brow furrowed as he reached to stop the boy, holding his arms. The white fabric of his robes was soft and warm in Mingjues hands.

"Why are you bowing?"

"For respect. You are the Second Young Master of the Nie sect. Shushu says I must bow to show respect."

"You don't have to bow to me if we're friends. Da ge says friends don't need to how to each other because they respect each other already."

"Oh... Are we...?"

"Friends?"

"Mn."

"Yeah. You're my friend."

".... I've never had a friend before." the little boy looked down, his sad, honeyed eyes staring at his little white boots.

"Well I'm your friend now."

They had played all day, albeit with some encouragement. Mingjue had learned that day that the Lan sect had many rules, and to him they made life sound miserable. What child could be happy if they weren't allowed to run and laugh and climb and fight?

As the evening began to come in, the boys found themselves growing tired. The last thing Mingjue remembered of that day was his da ge draping his outer robe over them as they curled up in his room on one of his large pillows, Xichens head resting on his chest.

Mingjue had been right about the Gusu Lan Sect rules. Studying here was miserable. He missed his home, the comfort of his own bed. He missed his own rules, his own routine. He missed being able to run, train and fight whenever he wanted. If his days were filled with study back in the Unclean Realm then he would practice the saber until the sun had long since set.

The cursed curfew had banned him from such things.

The lectures were long and dull, his only reprive in this nightmare was Xichen. Mingjue rested his cheek on his fist as he huffed, glaring a hole through the row of Jiang disciples blocking Xichen from his view. He never glared at Jiang Yanli, though. The girl was too kind and gentle for that.

Beside his uncle, Lan Wangji stood tall, the newly minted Hanguang Jun a jade pillar of discipline, the picture of the perfect Lan disciple in modest, flowing white and sky blue robes. His hawk-like eyes bore into Mingjue, silently demanding he sit up straight and pay attention, lest he had to punish him.

Mingjue glanced at the soon-to-be sect leader apologetically. The long lectures made him restless and it was easy for his mind to wander. God's, he couldn't wait to get out of here. He checked to see if Lan Wangji was watching him, but his attention had turned to Jin Zixun and his snickering gaggle of Jin disciples, his bright gold eyes burning as he glared at them.

Taking advantage of Lan Wangji's divided attention, he took a small piece of paperman talisman paper and scribbled a message onto it. His da ge was right. It was a good idea to keep some on him during his studies.

He activated it with a thread of qi and checked if anyone was watching before he sent it in Xichens direction. He hid his smile behind his fist as he watched the red paperman dance toward Xichen in the air, perching playfully on his elegant shoulder.

He felt his fingers twitch as its little arm played with his hair, seeing how Xichens lips twitched into a smile as the paperman relayed Mingjues message. Was he... Jealous of his talisman?

No, no, that couldn't be possible-

Xichen laughed softly, smiling at Mingjue so brilliantly it made his cheeks grow hot.

Okay.

Maybe he was jealous of his talisman but... Xichen was so... So... Pretty. He put everyone around him to shame with his radiance. Since they had been reunited here in Gusu after so long, Xichen had grown almost a full head taller than him and had begun to fill out as he entered the later half of adolescence. His shoulders appeared broader under the countless layers of his blue and white robes, tapering at his waist. His face had lost its child-like softness, giving way to the sharp angled features of a man.

Oh.

Oh no.

He was in love with Lan Xichen.

"Nie Mingjue!" Lan Wangji said sharply. Mingjue startled, turning his attention to the glaring First Jade who was crumpling the paperman in his fist.

Mingjue swallowed thickly, looking up at the glaring first jade nervously.

"Yes, Hanguang Jun?"

"You're in for it now." Snorted Nie Zonghui behind him.

"You were passing notes during a lecture. Go to the library pavilion after this lecture and transcribe the disciplines twenty times. I will supervise you myself."

Twenty? That's a little harsh...

Ignoring the whispers around him, Mingjue stood up and brought his arms out to bow to the First Jade.

"Yes Hanguang Jun. My apologies. It will not happen again."

"It better not." Lan Qiren said sharply, narrowing his eyes at Mingjue. "You may be seated."

Mingjue swallowed thickly, nodding as he sat back down. He felt countless eyes on him as he straightened his spine and squared his shoulders, trying to ignore the snickers of the Jin disciples.

"Try not to take it too personally, Nie-Xiong." Jiang Yanli said quietly, looking over at him sympathetically. "Hanguang Jun has always been harsh with his punishments. A-Xian got punished a lot while he was here."

He gave her a grateful nod, turning his attention back to the lecture.

3000 - appreciate the good people.

Mingjues wrist ached after painstakingly coping all 3000 rules twenty times. He withheld a groan as he pit his brush back into the water, grimacing at ink on his hands, unable to wipe it off onto his white robes. He missed his familiar dark grey robes, comfortable and functional rather than the white guest robes he was ordered to wear.

He checked his ink was dry one last time before collecting the copied rules into a pile. He steeled himself as he stood up and walked over to Hanguang Jun.

"Ah... Hanguang Jun..." Mingjue said awkwardly. He felt his blood turn to ice in his veins as he was met with the First Jades cool gold eyes. "I have finished... I hope these are to your satisfaction."

He plucked the copies from his hand, deathly silent as Mingjue bowed, scanning the copies diligently.

"Nie Mingjue."

"Yes, Hanguang Jun?"

"What are your intentions with my didi?"

"E-Excuse me?"

"You heard me."

"Xichens just my friend..."

"Lying is forbidden in Cloud Recesses." Lan Wangji fixed him with a blank stare. Mingjue was beginning to feel an anxious cold sweat run down his spine. "I care very little for things in this world. My didi is one of the things I do care about. If you hurt him, if you even consider an action that may harm him emotionally, physically, mentally or spiritually, I will not hesitate to flay you down to your bones in front of your sect, do you understand me?"

"Y-yes Hanguang Jun." Mingjue mumbled, terrified and bewildered at the monotone delivery of such a violent threat.

"Begone. I have other more pressing matters to attend to than your lacking discipline."

Since the day in the library, Mingjue hadn't exactly avoided Xichen per se, but tried not to linger too closely, out of fear of his brother. Jiang Yanli walked beside him, chatting brightly about her family back in Yunmeng as he nodded and listened. Da ge was quite fond of Jiang Yanli's own gege, and spoke of their times in Gusu often. The Jiang sect heir had been something of a role model to Mingjue growing up, as he was admittedly more disciplined than his da ge and a much stronger cultivator.

He smiled politely as she tittered on brightly, laughing happily as she recounted the memories of her summers back at home. The mention of such things made him miss Qinghe too.

A gaggle of Jin disciples walked by, snickering about something.

"- too plain for the Young Master. I heard she's willing to kiss up to anyone at this rate. Who would want her? It's a pity really, considering how strong her brothers are." a boy from the Jin sect sighed.

"Is Wei Wuxian really her brother though? From what I've heard they seem... Close." another sneered. "She might be like her father... Unfaithful. Impure."

Mingjue shot a glare at the disciples, gritting his teeth and clenching his fists. The small group bunched together and made a startled sound.

"Nie-Xiong, please, its not worth it. It is nothing to worry about. " Jiang Yanli said softly, but the tears collecting in her eyes said otherwise.

"Keep walking you brute." one of the braver disciples snickered. "She knows what she's worth. She doesn't have her precious brothers to protect her now." behind him, Jiang Yanli sniffled softly. "Especially not her precious A-Xi-"

"Jin Zixun, was it?" Lan Xichen interjected, the polite smile ever present on his face but something dark and enraged behind it.

"You should know who you're sitting next to instead of gazing over at that Nie brute like a cut sleeve."

Oh, that was the last straw.

Baxia pulsed on his back, itching to strike and stain the Jin disciples robes with his crimson blood. The blade twitched, rattling in its holster as Mingjue reached for it.

"A-Jue, don't." Xichen urged, stepping between Mingjue and the Jins. "Fighting is forbidden, please. If you let this de-escalate and calm down then I can get Gege and he can punsih them, alright?" Mingjue grit his teeth, glaring at the cowering disciples. "Please."

".... Fine."

"Report to Hanguang Jun for your punishments. You have broken three rules: no gossiping, no use of frivolous words and no arrogance. You are aware of the rules and yet you have broken them, therefore you must be punished." He said firmly, towering over the Jin disciples who quickly ran off. "Anyway. Gege has heard reports of water ghouls in Biling Lake. He was wondering if you would accompany us on a night hunt, Mingjue-Xiong."

"Water ghouls? A-Xian and A-Cheng could be of help. They're not too far from Gusu and they have lots of experience with water ghouls. They're very common in Yunmeng."

Xichen grinned, laughing softly to himself.

"Yes, I'm sure they'll be of much assistance." He said lightly. Jiang Yanli laughed gently.

"I feel as though I am missing something here."

"You'll see, Mingjue-Xiong. You'll see."

"LAN ZHAAAAAN!" Wei Wuxian screeched as he launched himself at Lan Wangji, throwing his arms around the First Jade.

He had heard tales of the Yunmeng Jiang first Disciple endlessly teasing Lan Wangji, but this happened to be something else... Something more personal as he watched Wei Wuxian wind himself around the statuesque form of Xichens Gege.

"Wei Ying. We are on a night hunt. Behave accordingly."

"He's never behaved accordingly in his life." Jiang Wanyin snorted, folding his arms. "Why is he here? There's no rivers or lakes in Qinghe. I doubt he can swim. His brother couldn't."

"I invited Mingjue-Xiong along so he could gain experience in things like this. Its important to have a broad scope of abilities as a cultivator." Xichen said brightly, humming as he twirled his xiao between his fingers.

Mingjue felt his cheeks burn as Xichen beamed at him. He inhaled deeply and hoped he didn't screw up this whole night hunt.

The water finally settled as the vortex closed, the boats rocking under his feet, causing his stance to waver. He gasped as he stumbled back, colliding with Xichens chest as his arms wrapped around him, steadying him.

"Mingjue-Xiong, are you alright?" Xichen asked, holding him by his waist.

"Hm? Yes, yes I..." I'm trying not to focus on the way you're holding me. Or how beautiful you look when you're a little wet. You're just beautiful. I think I love you.

"You're all wet. Let's get out of here so we can stop to change at the tavern, alright?"

"A-alright."

"Didi." His da ge called from the shade of his seat on the deck surrounding the courtyard, watching diligently as Mingjue moved through sword forms.

"Yes, da ge?" Mingjue replied, flicking his hair off his bare shoulder as the sun bore down on his skin while he trained.

"When were you going to tell me you had a crush on Lan Xichen?" He asked slowly.

"I-I don't!" Mingjue said too quickly, his face flushing rapidly as he whirled around at his brother.

"Your lips say one thing, your body, heart and mind say another. Even your core yearns for him, didi."

"Aiya... Leave me alone... There's no point. I can't have him." He sighed, pointing his blade down into the stone beneath his feet, leaning against the rounded pommel.

"Why not?" Huaisang asked, gently fluttering his fan.

"He's Lan Xichen." Mingjue replied, stating the obvious.

"And you are Nie Mingjue. You are not sect leaders. He is not a sect heir. Union between two men is uncommon but not unheard of."

"So you're, what, asking me to march to Cloud Recesses and demand Lan Xichens hand in marriage from his uncle and gege because of some childish crush?"

"Didi. I brushed off my feelings about Jiang-Xiong like this. Did I love him? Yes. I called it a childish crush to protect myself. When Ba... Joined Mama and A-Niang... I knew not only could I take another sect leader as my husband, but I could not have any weakness. That is why I pushed you to be as strong as you are. You are my weakness, but you can protect yourself. I have my regrets... All I wish is to ensure you do not have to live with yours."

[tanoraqui]

Grave dirt baby... 🥺✨

me, procrastinating my actual fic? no... GRAVE DIRT BABY A-YUAN

HEY TUMBLR FUCKED UP ALL MY BULLET POINTS ON THIS THE SECOND I HIT POST BUT IT’S 4AM SO I’M LEAVING IT UP ANYWAY. STUPID GODDAMN WEBSITE.

Wei Wuxian has been in the Burial Mounds for like 2.5 months out of what he doesn’t yet know will be about 3. He’s not even sure he’s going to survive yet. But he has managed to manifest an evil sword - the evil sword - out of the aether/ambient resentful energy/an attunement set with an unwise touch in the belly of an evil turtle

and he does know that he’s not going to survive if he doesn’t get the power of the Burial Mounds under some sort of control

so he cuts his arm and with blood running down the blade, draws something adjacent to the first demon-summoning flag but as an array in the dirt. He stands in the middle and - keep in mind that he more or less hasn’t slept in 2.5 months - plunges the sword into the center, still coated in his blood, and draws in all the resentful energy of the Burial Mounds

was it supposed to go into the sword? Into himself? Into just the single 4ft diameter array area, a column of bound death? who knows, not Wei Wuxian! it’s pure gut instinct

u know what else works on gut instinct, thought? Fairy tales.

And in a fairy tale, why, clay of the earth plus iron enough for a blade plus still-warm blood to show the way...

There’s an implosion and Wei Wuxian is standing - somehow still standing - in a small crater where the array used to be, and his evil sword is plunged into the belly of a baby

He yanks it out in horrified reflex, and realizes a moment later that the baby seems unfazed by this. If there was even a wound, it closes before his eyes, and the glimpse he had showed something more bloody clay than flesh beneath the skin

the iron sword crumbles as he pulls it away, as though rusted a thousand years. the baby turns its head from the iron shavings that falls on it, but then reaches up for Wei Wuxian with a cheerfully demanding cry

he picks it up, of course. (he’d think he was hallucinating if he wasn’t absolutely and utterly aware that he’s not)

it is, as far as he can tell, with physical and spiritual resentful inspection, an absolutely normal baby

oh, except when he looks really closely. Then he can sense the neutron star–dense knot of resentful energy where a golden core might (but will definitely not have room to) form. Also, it can command the dead, and when he holds it, so can he. He’s not sure if it’s a proximity-based power share or if he’s passing his desires through the baby, but even Wei Wuxian, at about 3 months with no food save the rage of the dead and no rest save the promise of final release, has to stop investigating at some point. He has things to do!

specifically, he has Wens to kill

so instead of the iconic shot of the dark flautist in the moonlight, we get the dark, uh...man singing a very spooky lullaby to his baby in the moonlight. It is still deeply creepy. It’s a making-it-up-as-he-goes tune based on a Yunmengi lullaby that he certainly learned from neither of his foster parents, and the lyrics are along the lines of, “let them remember what they did, sweet little potato, let them remember why they’re dying”

yeah he’s been calling this child “Little Potato” for 2 weeks 

why

is that not how you name a child

sometimes when he’s more annoyed at it, he calls it “Little Radish”, or even less appetizing root vegetables

by the time he walks in, the baby is asleep in his arms and he’s not singing anymore, just letting the dead do his will. This is what Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji see. The subsequent conversation, Wen Chao and Wen Zhuliu at their feet, goes like this:

LWJ: Wei Ying. You have a baby.

WWX: Oh, uh...

PLAY DUMB!

WWX: What baby?

NOT THAT DUMB!

WWX: Oh, this baby! Haha yeah. I...found it.

JC: What the fuck

WWX: Yeah, weird, right? Right near the, uh...

LWJ: They said you were in the Burial Mounds

WWX: Yyyyup. Yes that is. I found this baby by the side of the road after I walked out of the Burial Mounds.

JC, briefly too morbidly fascinated to think about either the demonic cultivation they just watched or the fact that he wants to hug his brother like he’s never wanted to hug another being in his life: What did you name it?

WWX: ....

JC, desire to hug intensifying together with exasperation: oh my god

Sometime in the next couple days - after sleeping a bit, maybe - it occurs to Wei Wuxian that his raw instincts were right and things will go very badly for little A-Yuan (his siblings insisted he name it) if anyone finds out that he’s a not-yet-walking, not-yet-talking little neuron star of resentful energy. So he takes the iron shavings that are all that remain of the Stygian Turtle Sword and forges them into a Tiger-shaped Seal. He also carves a bamboo flute, like he’d been thinking about before the whole...baby thing. He loudly proclaims both to be dark and terrible weapons

(it really is helpful. The sword was...kind of A-Yuan’s other parent, after all, in addition to their third partner, the Burial Mounds. Chenqing gives him finer control of whatever stray resentful energy he chooses to pick up, and the Stygian Seal lets him channel A-Yuan’s power at need, even when not touching him. Which is good - a battlefield is no place for a baby)

even if that baby thinks ghosts and ghouls exist to pick him up and rock him or toss him around (babies like to be tossed)

Wei Wuxian puts so many goddamn spirit-repelling charms on that child, and lets it be marked down to the paranoia of a survivor

using whatever resentful energy he picks up is generally more effective, actually. Less strong, but it quickly becomes clear that the way this works does, in fact, involve Wei Wuxian communicating his desires through A-Yuan, or at least A-Yuan has to put up with the loan of power. There’s nothing quite like abruptly losing control of a field of corpses because the baby got abruptly uncooperative with anything that wasn’t barfing

the baby does eat, for the record. As far as Wei Wuxian can tell, he doesn’t actually need to, but once WWX fed him once, when they first left the Mounds, he wanted it all the time

he still takes A-Yuan with him when he can. That is the paranoia of a survivor. A-Yuan is...

“A battlefield is no place for a baby, A-Xian,” Jiang Yanli says gently, as he sets out from Carp Tower after another stolen visit, another failed attempt to convince Jin Guangshan off his ass. “And you are...so busy. LanlingJin takes in orphans, you know...”

“A-Yuan...he’s my blood,” Wei Wuxian says quietly. He’s never been good at lying to his shijie

Whatwherewhenhowwho, he’d see on her face if he was looking at it. But he isn’t. It’s not shame, though, she can see (it really never is, with Wei Wuxian). Fear of disappointing her, slight resignation...but mostly acceptance. Determination. Something almost like contentment.

(When Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangj first took him back to whatever resembled a base camp - somewhere in Qinghe, probably, or maybe Lanling - he had to let a trained healer look at A-Yuan, physical and spiritual examination, and he held his breath and calculated how many people he’d have to kill to get out of here, how fast he’d have to move to not hurt his brother or any particular friends; thought, oh, he’s mine, in a way he hadn’t before - as a child, a son, not just a very strange weapon - 

“He’s quite healthy,” said the doctor, mildly surprised, bouncing A-Yuan on one knee. A-Yuan gurgled happily. “About three months old?”

the longer Wei Wuxian took to answer, the more disapproving her stare got. But that did make sense)

Then all else can be dealt with later. “You should still leave him here,” Jiang Yanli says firmly. “You need to look after yourself and A-Cheng out there. I can look after A-Yuan.”

It takes a bit under two years to win back the lost and burnt territories, scour the Wens out of every crevice, corner Wen Ruohan in his precious Nightless City and bring it tumbling down. Nobody will know the timing but A-Yuan sleeps through the final battle, smiling at dreams that would make a grown man weep in horror. Somewhere, his father is playing a lullaby

About a week later, Jiang Cheng stalks into Wei Wuxian’s bedroom, which he shares with A-Yuan. One of the first rooms rebuilt in the new Lotus Pier. A-Yuan is there, too, playing with blocks while Wei Wuxian idly drafts talismans

“A-jie said the kid is yours,” he says, crossed arms. “Like, yours-yours. When the fuck did you do that?”

(Wei Wuxian has thought about this, by now; gone over the pros and cons of every possibility, the politics and potentials and maybe even the giddy possibility of telling something like the truth)

(the guiding principle is: he has no interest in drawing on the “Stygian Tiger Seal” ever again. The Sunshot Campaign is over. His loved ones are safe, and he sees no reason why they shouldn’t all live long, happy, normal lives)

(also/though, he will burn Jin Sect, Carp Tower, and all of Lanling to the ground before the new Chief Cultivator should touch his son)

“In Caiyi,” he lies. “Right before I got kicked out. I, uh, snuck out a lot more often than you noticed.”

His brother squints at him suspiciously. But Wei Wuxian can also watch him do the math in his head and reluctantly admit that it works.

“So are you claiming him or what?” he challenges. “’Wei Yuan’? You have a courtesy name - wait, no, you are not naming that kid again. You’re going to make his courtesy name be Carrothead or something.” 

“Should I let you pick it, oh wise and noble shidi - no, shushu?!” Wei Wuxian teases, as A-Yuan gets tired of his blocks and starts climbing up him like a jungle gym

Jiang Cheng sighs like the north wind - gusting long and hard, with just the faintest chill to suggest that the skies will be weeping, soon

But...

Despite some evidence to the contrary, Wei Wuxian is generally fully aware of when he’s about to cross a line that cannot be backtracked over. So he meets Wen Qing in the city, and before going to Lanling, he nips into Lotus Pier and picks up A-Yuan

He might leave A-Yuan with Wen Qing in the city when he goes to Glamour Hall, but Qiongqi Pass happens with a toddler watching silently from Wei Wuxian’s hip. Does Wei Wuxian tell him to look away, bury his face in baba’s shirt, or does he not bother, knowing the sort of song that makes up A-Yuan’s sweet dreams?

The Wens become the second through 51st or so people who learn what A-Yuan is. Wei Wuxian briefly considers trying to hide it, but, honestly, there are dead things everywhere on the Burial Mounds, and despite his genuine efforts, he cannot convince A-Yuan that a fierce corpse is anything but the ideal patty-cake companion. (They’ll play with him for hours! It’s a two-nearly-three-year-old’s dream!)

(he doesn’t want to convince him, not really. The last thing he wants to do ever is give A-Yuan anything to be scared of)

nor could he possibly wish that A-Yuan not be...obviously hale and hearty, running rosy-cheeked and strong around these hills of death that slowly seep the energy from any humans, animals, or even sturdy root crops

“So, uh, this is actually my demon baby,” said Wei Wuxian as they all settled in

“this day has been so weird already, this might as well goddamn happen”, said the Wens collectively

“You created a living child out of dead earth, so I’m going to take that as a yes that you can bring my brother back,” said Wen Qing specifically

“...fuck. I mean, yes. I mean - fuck,” said Wei Wuxian. “I- of course I will.”

(it doesn’t work like that, though)

The 52nd person to find out what A-Yuan is is Lan Wangji. Wei Wuxian very much does not tell him. They have a pleasant toy-shopping trip and lunch in town, and then the alarm talisman goes off and Wei Wuxian grabs A-Yuan and Lan Wangji tugs them both onto Bichen and when they arrive, Wen Ning is roaring. Lan Wangji knows what’s important; he takes A-Yuan so Wei Wuxian’s hands are free and he doesn’t have to worry about his son

except Wen Ning, black-eyed with rage, throws Wei Wuxian into a tree hard enough to crack a rib, and even as Lan Wangji raises Bichen, A-Yuan shouts,

“Uncle Ning, stop!”

and Wen Ning stops

(as a rule, Wei Wuxian can’t take over with himself and Chenqing anything A-Yuan is controlling, unless A-Yuan lets him, and vice versa. To eliminate variables, Wei Wuxian had made sure that any reins on Wen Ning were his (Wei Wuxian’s) alone. But in that moment, before Wen Ning came fully back to himself, his reins were swinging free - and they were back within the bounds of the Burial Mounds, where A-Yuan was always strong)

and Lan Wangji puts several pieces together at once and prays to every single god in heaven and every ancestor he’s disappointing right now that this was a miracle of love and a very cute child piercing through a fierce corpse’s mindless rampage. That he simply...hallucinated the burst of resentful energy he just felt from the child in his arms

but he’s absolutely, utterly aware that he didn’t

Wei Wuxian explains, stilted and awkward at the bottom of the hill. Challenging and terrified. Holding on to A-Yuan. 

Lan Wangji promises to keep the secret. 

Wei Wuxian takes Hanguang-jun’s word

Remember, oh, remember, that Wei Wuxian walks A-Yuan back up the hill until A-Yuan gets tired and Wei Wuxian picks him up, on their one-and-a-half–man plank bridge through the dark. Remember remember remember that before he can finish speaking that line, there is light - the clearing is lit with lanterns and secret-keepers 2 through 51, and I suppose 53 now that Wen Ning is awake, are waiting with dinner and warmth and welcome. Reader, remember this.

But then...

Aunt Qing and Uncle Ning had gone, and then, with a terrible expression on his face, so had A-Yuan’s baba. Now his baba’s anger and sadness is so strong that the weight of it makes A-Yuan cry from hundreds of miles away, and he curls into Granny’s arms and sends his baba everything he can. Will everything be okay, then? Will everyone come home; will they be able to smile again?

(oh, A-Yuan...)

(No.)

A-Yuan - Wei Yuan, Little Potato (when he’s good for baba or bad for Aunt Qing) or Little Radish (inverse); one day to be Lan Yuan, Lan Sizhui - was born in the good old fairy tale way of earth and iron and blood. It’s a hard thing for any child to lose even a single parent - in one day, in one minute, A-Yuan loses two of three, as the father of his blood burns away in hand the last shreds of Stygian iron, and promptly loses control of his own resentful energy

(the Tiger Seal does nothing like explode, in this world. It was never more than a prop - but a vital one. the benefit of proving it destroyed would be worth the loss of a parent, if only a second didn’t follow on its heels)

A-Yuan has been a dead thing (or close enough) come to life all his life, and both dead and living have been his friends and family. But he’s never felt the transition the other way: from life to death

It’s no wonder, really, that he can’t remember it afterward. No wonder that even on the land that was the last part of him, he was feverish and barely conscious when Lan Wangji stumbled, bleeding, off of Bichen, and took in his arms. No wonder that he remembered very little at all, including the dead. 

But he would be okay. Under physical and spiritual inspection, he’s a perfectly normal boy. He may not be able to form a golden core (there's something in the way), but there are...workarounds. He’ll grow up in one of the most heavily spiritually warded enclaves in the world, safe and loved as he relearns (mostly in secret) what he can do

(For the sake of this story, and A-Yuan’s survival as something close to canon, let’s say there are some truly dark things in the forbidden section of the Lan Library, that could only be used for nefarious purposes - though, I suppose we already knew that. Let’s say there are talismans that will disguise the very nature of qi, so resentful energy may appear spiritual. Let’s say, Lan Xichen becomes the 53rd to know the truth, because his brother needs help - and it’s Wei Wuxian’s child, okay? It’s just Wei Wuxian’s child, quiet and unsure rather than laughing as he always was. If you were in the inner circle of leaders of the Sunshot Campaign, you have absolutely met this child, probably held him and bounced him on one knee)

(What keeps Lan Xichen up at night isn’t the concealing amulet he helped his brother make, which Lan Yuan wears at all times around his neck. It’s the silence he keeps every time he meets Jiang Wanyin’s eyes over a diplomatic table. If anyone had the right to know Wei Yuan survived... But Sandu Sengshou killed Wei Wuxian, everyone knows that, and now he hunts demonic cultivators - what might his pride drive him to do to his nephew, if he ever learned the truth? (Selfishly, Lan Xichen know that if Lan Wangji lost A-Yuan, even just to living at Lotus Pier, Lan Xichen might lose his brother. That fear ebbs with time passing, but the the longer he hasn’t spoken, the worse it would be to do so...))

They don’t restrict Lan Yuan to the Cloud Recesses, no more than any other novice. For memory of their mother, neither of them could bear that. Jiang Cheng does eventually see him at a conference, and stops dead. Years have passed, but that is an entire goddamn nephew, right there. But - how? No, it can’t be. That’s...everyone knows Lan Wangji hated Wei Wuxian. It’s just...and someone would have told him. The Lans value propriety above all, after all.

Anything that can be done with spiritual cultivation can be done with demonic cultivation, save heal. Lan Sizhui makes up for it with an encyclopedic knowledge of undead and monsters, and a prodigal talent for Inquiry

On their first night hunt, the young juniors face ghosts. Unfortunately, this is when Lan Jingyi learns that he’s terrified of ghosts. He’s hiding behind Lan Sizhui and panic is contagious, and the senior accompanying them is in a different room of the abandoned house, and Lan Sizhui forgets that he’s holding a sword and just shouts, “Stop! Go away!” 

the ghost, of course, obeys

Lan Jingyi peeks out form behind him. “Did- did you do that?”

“I don’t know,” Lan Sizhui admits (except that he’s absolutely sure he did)

There’s another flicker of movement, just the wind blowing ashes but Jingyi whips around with wild eyes. “Can you do it again?”

[friendship. my point is, he’s a demon baby but he has family and friends who love and accept him.]

And one day, some absolute fucking morons are going to bring him back home, where he can never be anything but strong, and threaten his friends and family? And the threat is an army of his old playmates, commanded by an attempt at recreating some combination of Chenqing and the Tiger Seal? He couldn’t manage it in Yi City, but now A-Yuan, Wei Yuan, Lan Sizhui stands on earth that has never stopped being part of him, or maybe he’s never stopped being part of it. If he closed his eyes he could feel every foot on it, living and restless dead. And they’re threatening his baba - who he remembers, as the earth remembers its old partner, even though the blood is changed - and his father Hanguang-jun, and his extended family and friends?

No.

[adaodinson]

Would she?

Here´s the fourth and final part of this story, it’s a bit shorter that the others but I think it’s okay. I´m sorry it took me a bit longer to upload it, I was having exams and didn´t have time. I´m happy about this ending.

In the story there is a song that´s in Spanish, but I put it in English directly, it is still beautiful. If you speak Spanish I recommend it, it´s called La cosa más bella by Eros Ramazzotti.

Relationship: Marcus Moreno x Fem Mexican reader (it is in English and most of the dialogues are too, her being Mexican is more about the story).

Summary: Missy is tired, even Miracle Guy is tired, so instead of waiting, they take matters into their own hands.

Warnings: Age gap, reader is Mexican, a bit of swearing.

Part 4

Today, today was the day you would ask Marcus on a date. After all, he liked you enough to have kissed you, you knew that. Then, why the hell were you so freaking nervous? You had been trying for a week to ask him out and you were always either interrupted, or you chickened out. You had also been waiting for him to take that step, but he was just as nervous as you were. The both of you had been feeling like teenagers since you met each other, but it all grew after the kiss you shared.

Missy had been in the middle of everything. She was really getting tired of your bullshit. She had seen both her father and neighbor practice in front of the mirror how to ask the other out, and it was getting more and more frustrating.

The girl reached her limit one day that you went to pick her up at the Heroics building, you were taking her home because Marcus had to go to a mission. As the fool he was, her father insisted on waiting for you with Missy, and she actually thought he was finally gonna say something, but what happened made her scream to her pillow the second she got home.

It was a pretty hot day, so you were wearing a short-sleeve shirt and a couple of loose pants that happened to highlight your ass amazingly (of course this Missy didn´t notice like her father did). As you walked from your car to the pair, you dropped your keys and bent over to pick them up. On that second Marcus´ words disappeared. He wasn´t the type to care at all about the physical aspect of the people he felt attracted to, of course there were things that drove him crazy, but they were never “necessary” for him to be with someone. The thing with you was, that you had everything he had ever dreamed of, physically, spiritually, mentally, just everything, and that happened to include your ass.

You genuinely didn´t notice his reaction, you were too busy looking at his own ass. He was standing next to Missy, she was facing you but he was facing his side, as if he wanted to look at you and make sure his daughter wouldn´t notice. The pair of black jeans he was wearing fit him perfectly and you wanted time to freeze just so that you could stare for as long as you wanted to.

Both of you tried to erase those thoughts, but it was impossible. The thing that upset Missy so much was that, the whole time you two were together you were occasionally looking into each other´s eyes, immediately looked away, blushed like crazy and repeated. Not one word was said by either of you and the romantic tension between you was so big, even a lady that was walking by started laughing at the scene. The lady and Miracle Guy.

He had met you before, he liked you. He really thought you would be great for Marcus and so did the rest of the Heroics, but they also knew how weird Marcus was when it came to this type of things, so after that particular scene, him and Missy created a plan to get you two together.

You woke up from your afternoon nap by the sound of your ringing phone. You quickly stood up and felt yourself get dizzy by the action. You walked over to where your phone was and checked it, it was Missy.

-Hey, listen, I need your help- she said with a worried tone. All the sleepiness you had disappeared.

-What happened? Are you okay?- you asked worried.

-Yes, yes, I´m fine, I just have a small problem. My period just started and I forgot to pack pads so my jeans are stained. Do you think you could go to my house and bring me a new pair? I´m in the Heroics´ building in the bathrooms next to the main training room-

-Yes, of course, don´t worry, I´m on my way- You said and hung up. You questioned if the Heroics would have extra jeans, you thought they would, but if Missy felt uncomfortable asking someone from there knowing she would have to explain why she needed them, you weren´t one to question her.

You drove fast, not wanting to leave her waiting for too long stuck in the bathroom. The moment you arrived you went looking for the training room. Some of the guards there knew you from the other times you went to pick Missy up, so there was no problem.

You bumped into Miracle Guy, and after saying hi you asked him where that specific room was, saying you needed to talk to Missy and she had told you she was there. He walked you over to the place you were looking for and happened to find Marcus on the way. He seemed a bit nervous and was carrying a bag of something, so you immediately thought Missy had probably asked him to get her some stuff too, or you were too lost in his eyes to really question the girl´s reasons.

-Missy?- You asked. He just nodded.

Miracle Guy smiled for himself, but neither of you noticed. You both walked into the room and immediately heard someone locking the door behind you causing you two to turn your face to said door, not noticing what was behind you.

-Wait, this isn´t a bathroom, what´s going on?- You spoke out loud to no one in particular. Marcus just looked at you with a confused gaze.

-No, this isn´t a bathroom- He said in between giggles- But I do wonder what´s going on.

Shortly after, you jumped at a voice that came out of nowhere.

-Listen you two, Marcus you were told Missy was here at the office -Miracle Guy said your name- you were told Missy needed you at the bathroom-

You looked at each other and saw the same lost look in the other one´s eyes. That was when you saw it. Your jaw dropped at the sight of what was behind you. You couldn´t believe it.

-It will take forever for you to accept how you feel about each other- now it was Missy speaking- so, we are just showing that you do share your feelings.

Now it was Marcus´ turn to look around and freeze. In the middle of what was supposed to be an office, there was a small squared table with two chairs, candles, white rose petals (Missy knew you didn´t like red roses), two covered plates, a CD player with the music you both loved ready to be played and a smaller plate in the middle of the table.

You felt your heart jump in both excitement and fear. You didn´t want to look at Marcus and see disgust or disappointment, but you forced yourself to look for his face and what you saw was the look someone gives to the most precious thing they have ever seen, and he was looking at you. His beautiful brown eyes were staring at you with such a love you never imagined possible, and to your surprise, you didn´t even have to command your brain to do the same thing, you were already looking at him just like that.

He slowly walked over to the table, his eyes never leaving yours. He opened one of the chairs for you and once you were seated, he chose a CD and played it. When you realized what song he had chosen you felt tears running down your cheeks, and before he could seat down himself, you took his hand and led him to the middle of the room, asking with your eyes for a dance.

I don't know how we started, the story that has no end, or how you came to be the woman I asked for all my life. With you what´s needed is passion, and a touch of poetry, and wisdom because I work with fantasies. And if I can tell you that there will never be anything more beautiful than you, something more beautiful than you, unique as you are, immense when you want, thank you for existing.

You danced to the slow beat, both of you singing the song softly while staring into each other´s eyes. You had never been this happy, once more you felt tears running down your cheeks, and even saw one racing down Marcus´ face.

At the same time, you both got closer and in the blink of an eye, your lips were perfectly connected. Your breaths mixed once again and became one. You felt his strong big hands holding your waist, and you settled your own on his broad shoulders. It wasn´t needy, or fast, it was everything you needed. You could have stayed like that forever, feeling his soft lips covering yours and then returning him the favor. You kept kissing as you danced until you were out of breath. He pressed his nose against yours and the two of you had the biggest smiles the world had ever seen. You wanted to stay like this, in his arms. He wanted to stay like this, with you. It was perfect, just perfect. Not even your wildest dreams could compare to this moment, and the more you thought about it the wider your smile got. This isn´t a dream, not anymore.

Taglist

@ravennight41

[mischief-mage]

Absolutely love the gifts the bird of paradise awarded to the Xiaolin monks. It follows the concept that your greatest strength is your greatest weakness, and it’s all connected to the yin-yang theory of maintaining balance. 

When the Xiaolin monks start rejecting their finest qualities, the opposite effects them and those consequences can harm themselves and everyone around them. 

Kimiko: courage/cowardice. Kimiko will always be the first to charge into battle and although Clay is seen as the brawn of the group he’s rather reserved in comparison, choosing defence over offence. Kimiko on the other hand is quick to strike an enemy in combat and has no problem giving opponents a verbal lashing too. Kimiko’s cowardice doesn’t necessarily mean being afraid and running away from danger, not physically for her anyway. Kimiko’s problem is established at the very beginning as an internal struggle. She stays on the offence in social interactions like she does in combat, covering her fear and insecurity with anger to keep up appearances. Her cowardice is the inability to be emotionally open with others and communicate her vulnerabilities. Kimiko would rather struggle on her own instead of asking for support, she considers emotional honesty as something negative, thus refusing to admit when things go wrong until it’s too late. The moments where Kimiko can’t deny that things have escalated her fears take over. Kimiko is scared of the results of her own actions the most, from hacking and accidentally giving information away to Hannibal and the incident with Sibini. Kimiko hides the evidence of breaking a Shen gong wu in Clay’s room instead of confronting what she had done. This causes Clay to be possessed and she finally manages to communicate with the group, knowing it will put Clay in danger if she doesn’t. Showing that Kimiko is able to overcome her inner fears if she uses her courage for protecting others.

Omi: loyalty/disloyalty. Loyalty is a quality that Omi admires and aspires to have, viewing it as a noble trait. Being the youngest of the Xiaolin he ends up naive about people’s intentions, and often falls into trickery since he wants to believe everyone is capable of good and loyalty. There’s a limit to this in the moments where he cannot deny deception. Omi will become hostile towards anyone that displays treachery and he finds it hard to forgive with his black and white view on the world. Its Omi’s high standards that cause him to turn on his friends easily and he starts to view people as inferior to him in order to avoid betrayal. He was the last to believe that Raimundo went to the Heylin side and also the last to believe Raimundo is truly Xiaolin again. He still does not forgive Raimundo afterwards, casting doubt that the other Xiaolin monks agree with, Omi convinced everyone to go as far as trusting Jack over Raimundo and falling into a trap in “pandatown.” Omi continues to mock Raimundo for being the last to reach apprentice. He attacks Jermaine out of jealousy, and starts to believe Kimiko is less for being a girl, he lastly feels betrayed by Jack Spicer. Omi tries to rationalise his own disloyalty by believing the other person must not have been worth his loyalty in some way. When Omi returns to Xiaolin side he becomes aware his of actions, less aggressive about perceived betrayals and improves on seeing that everyone has value and for that reason the bird of paradise says his gift is loyalty.

Clay: strength/weakness. The greatest strength for Clay is being able to face an adversity head on and also by how he can think outside the box to take down an enemy or get out of conflict when necessary. Clay unlike the other monks can see an easier way of rescuing the toy dog in training, figured out le mime’s weakness is replicating the others actions and creating a way out of the canyon trap by Chase Young. Strength for Clay is defined as both physical and mental because the bird of paradise saw his strength by avoiding unnecessary conflict. Clay’s weakness is how he’ll behave around others, he has a weak will and can be manipulated by people if they want something out of him. Clay doesn’t know how to act on his inner strength when it comes down to his family who pushes him around and unintentionally the friends he tries to protect. Out of all the monks he’s the most likely to put himself last and prefers to remain quiet and simply follow orders, he is nervous when he gets any of the spotlight put on him. The element Earth represents the steady rock of the group and the monks will expect more from Clay because of his dependability. Sibini possessed Clay without any issue which is different from every other encounter that happens to the rest of the Xiaolin monks when someone attempts to take control of their lives, showing internally he’s weak to spiritual manipulation. The gift of strength is Clay nurturing the ability to trust himself and his own inner resolve to forge new paths.

Raimundo: kindness/cruelty. Raimundo has a lot of compassion and is the empathic one of the group, ranging from saving a village from an active volcano, worrying for Omi when he went missing in the city and rescuing the drowning old woman who was the bird of paradise. Raimundo has good reason to avoid his good trait, his compassion for others often gets him into trouble. Raimundo went against Master Fung’s orders and tried to save the Xiaolin temple from Wuya. Instead of staying hidden with the other monks and he accidentally reveals the hidden location of the SGW. The other time is when Raimundo rescued the village and the Shen gong take control of his body as a result. Raimundo likes to do what he perceives to be the right thing without thinking of the consequences of his actions first. Without kindness though, Raimundo is at his worst, acting selfish and serving his own interests. Raimundo at the beginning was eager to bully the other monks, from making fun of Omi, laughing at Kimiko’s struggles, and picking at Clay’s mannerisms. On the Heylin side, the ways he mocked the monks had gained a malicious intent in hopes of pressuring them to join him. It is only after Raimundo rejoins the Xiaolin that he tries to be better behaved by being reserved around the team, and stops himself from lashing out when Omi is demeaning him and learns to take criticism. Raimundo still has rough edges as he continues to attack the Heylin side with too much bravado in order to look good rather than thinking about the longterm outcome that unnecessary violence creates. In spite of this Raimundo definitely makes vast improvements on knowing the limit and understanding the needs of others.

Jack: honesty/deception.   Given from what happens to the Xiaolin monks when they reject their best attributes and how the opposite of their inner strength will inevitably turn against themselves, it’s possible that Jack’s gift would have been along the lines of reliability and honesty. “The bird of paradise” episode makes it clear that Jack got more things right when he would attempt to be truthful. The mystical leaf gives directions when he admits he needs help, and again the monks rescued him when he told them he was captured. Afterwards he quickly reverted back to trickery in order to mask his own feelings. Jack convinces himself that ‘sneakiness’ is the best way to go about things and will ultimately lose in showdowns by using deception as a go to tactic. He does this because he doesn’t believe in achieving victory the moral way, and to disguise his vulnerabilities. Though he’s certainly not ashamed to pretend to be defenceless to get his own way. The Xiaolin monks typically protect Jack and listen to him if he’s honest with them about a situation from the start. Or at least begrudgingly come to Jack’s aid if he confesses about a situation when it’s convenient to save himself from danger. In comparison Good Jack is overall more accomplished and better at problem solving unlike regular Jack, the only noticeable difference between the two of them is honesty. His counterpart Good Jack is ridiculously honest about what he wants and his own feelings, from being happy that Omi came back and commenting on how he will miss being good. Good Jack can figure out a challenge quickly and not draw out the situation by lying to himself and being upfront to those around him. 

[missingartist]

The Witcher’s Mate Chapter 18 Part 2

Ciri paced, cogs turning in her mind as she did so ‘And you had no idea she was Geralt mate.’ She repeats the question slowly as if she was hearing the fact for the first time. Her brain still could comprehend the gravity of the situation. Never in her entire life did she ever think there would be a person that would come between the weird relationship Geralt and Yennefer had.

‘Yes...I mean no… Geralt was acting strange. Possessive maybe, I do not know I mean he has been really moody and bear-like so normal Geralt just more…. I thought he was finally getting over Yennefer and found Adva. Triss put in place the whole tavern thing to get them together, but I didn’t know anything about the whole soul mate thing...Is that even real?’ Jaskier asked, scratching his head.

‘Apparently…. I remember Vesemir making me read something about it...’ Cersi spoke in a clear, crisp tone, ever the princess as she marched back and forth.

Soulmates where serious. A bond locked a pair together, even though unclaimed the bond was still powerful enough to cause major complication and anomalies, proven by the Jinn’s spell being broken and Yennefer unable to track Geralt down using any magic. It was certain the air around the house was far more potent than anything she had encountered in a village such as this. Adva as well as unusual, on first glimpse she seemed perfectly ordinary, pretty, perhaps a little more ethereal than most but nothing strikingly different. But on second inspection her eyes were vividly blue, not the kind of blue human had, they were almost neon in their brightness, threads of silver and green woven through the limpid pools. Her skin was the next; it was pale and creamy like buttermilk, but it shine to it, like the drops Yennefer put on her cheekbones to gives them a luminous quality, it gave Adva features depth, highlight the gentle sweep of her cheeks and brow, the arch around soft, plump lips and the incline of her throat and collar bone as it slipped below into one of Geralt’s blouses. Ciri medallion that hung between her breast did not vibrate but gave out a gentle warmth, indicating something unnatural about the girl, not evil, if it was it would be pulsing harshly against her skin just different. Triss and Geralt were right when they though her otherworldly.

Triss popped her head over around the door; corkscrew curls bounced from side to side as she glanced around the room. ‘Where is she?’

‘She is using my bath.’ Jaskier jerked his head back in the direction of his room.

‘Triss is happening?’ Ciri asked as the mage stepped fully into her room.

Signing, Triss leaned heavily against the dresser ‘Geralt has a soul bond with Adva. They are very rare, only ever seen one and not this powerful. I thought last night would have given Geralt the kick he needed to explain to Adva before Yennefer turned up and the bonding would have started. But that damn stubborn fool didn’t. God knows what is going through her head right now.’

The aggravated mage paced as the young Witcher had before her. Shoulders hunched and head bowed she move from one side to the other, her skirts gracefully sweeping the floor as she did. Even as elegant as she looked, it was funny to see how ruffled the other mage got when Yennefer appeared, Triss always seemed to get frazzled when either friends disturbed her peace. The woman who held together the lodge of sorceress from complete decline, withstood the torture of the Witch Hunters and even the blame for the assassination of her King still could manage the chaos that Geralt and Yennefer created.

‘What will happen if he doesn’t? Knowing Yennefer, she won't make this easy of Adva.’ Ciri folded her arms at her friend.

‘Thanks to Yennefer destroying the only copy of The Witcher’s Mate, I don’t know. The book glosses over most of it. It gives various accounts of 2 confirmed cases and four other possible causes. They clash and confirm each other. All I can say for certain is that if Geralt doesn’t bond with her soon, I dread to think what will happen.’

‘And how do we get them to bond?’ Ciri, felt a queasiness wash over was she asked. In honesty she didn’t want to know what or how Geralt was gonna bond, it would be disgusting, and she had seen enough of that between the two of them to last her several lifetimes.

‘The accounts detail the different ways, some very graphic. That why we needed to find out what Adva was before…but at the minute they can both bloody go on instinct. Both souls must be combined spiritually and physically to ensure completion. We must ensure they do or Geralt will lose grip on all control.’

The three looked at each other in a silent agreement, nodding as they did so. ‘If what your saying is true, why is Geralt so much more effected? How can we trust that this isn’t some sort of enchantment?’ Ciri questioned, carefully. She was ready to believe it all but still there were doubts, niggling little things that crept into her mind.

‘I did the soul bond spell myself; you can’t fake that sort of reaction to a spell. But I have been wondering that myself. Geralt reaction has been…unpredictable, to say the least with buying her and parading her around as his wife just among the very un-Geralt things he has done lately. It's possible whatever creature she descends from has a different reaction then that of a Witcher. Witchers, after all, have acute senses, so it is likely that they would be more sensitive to a bond like this.’ Triss offered as she pulled back her impenetrable mane of thick hair that flopped in her eyes.

Ciri nodded vigorously as she began to pace back and forth again, her mind whirling with questions and problems. If this was true, then they have a very complicated mess to deal with, and Yennefer was not going to be easy to distract from making trouble.

‘There you are.’ Triss smiled slightly as the woman appeared hesitantly in the doorway.

The shivering woman nodded slightly and pulled the flimsy robe tighter around her body, allowing the female Witcher to appreciate the other woman’s form. Carefully, Adva moved deep into the room, eyes trained on the floor, searching for anything to wear that didn’t look like it had been shredded. With a sigh, she relented, she had tried before her bath, and nothing had miraculously recovered from the attack. What few pieces of clothing she had where now rags, fit for nothing but cleaning the stove.

Wincing as she sat, Adva run the towel through her drenched locks, grimacing as her ribs protested violently as she stretched. The pain was of a dull intenseness, like a burn that rapped its way around her black and sides. The muscles strained to move with ever ruffle of the towel. Triss frowned tightly as she moved to seat beside her tentatively taking the towel from her and finishing drying the end of her frizzy mane before placing the towel to the side and gently poked and prodded at her. Just from her probing digit she could feel the blood seep under her skin and through her tissue, the fraction ribs girding painfully against each other as she moved. The force has fractured several bones and broken and few others. The bruise had started to develop, a stain of yellow, purple, and brown, a nasty thing but it could have been a lot worse. It should have been a lot worse. Triss knew Yennefer long enough to know that she had meant to kill Adva, slam her through the floor so hard it would snap her in two. Yet, Adva remained relatively unharmed, nothing that would heal soon. A human would have died on impact or soon after from their injuries, Adva’s physical resilience was only to further prove her inhumanity.

‘Drink this… You have some internal bleeding and a few cracked ribs.’ Triss commanded slowly as she quickly placed the red phial to the girl's lips and poured its contents down her throat as she continued to speak. ‘Adva, I know everything is very confusing right now, but everything will be explained. I promised. Do you need anything now?’ Adva pulled her head away as she swallowed the sour contents.

‘Can I borrow some clothes, mine have all been destroyed.’ Adva asked, is a strangely even tone, refusing to look at her tutor.

Triss frowned across at the two others, who in turn frown back at her.

‘Here…you a bit bigger than me, but these should fit.’ Ciri smiled and pulled a skirt and blouse from her bindle.

They were not like the ones Geralt had given her; these were similar to what Ciri wore now. A white blouse and a brown skirt with some sort of blue braided leather belt that held the two pieces of clothing together. Ciri was a lot slimmer than her, but the clothing was untailored and basic, it would be a squeeze, but these would do. Smiling, she mumbled a quick thank you. The white-haired girl smiled back at her. Sincerely, it was a warm, kind smile, unlike the cruel smile of Yennefer.

‘We will be downstairs, come down when you are dressed.’ Triss gently sighed as she left, pulling Ciri with her.

Jaskier hung back for the briefest moment, his eyes danced along with her feature, his eyes swimming with emotion as he leaned down to press a short kiss to her forehead before leaving her to dress.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

As soon as Ciri stepped foot in the room, Geralt clambered to his feet, push Yennefer away as she reapplied the paste to the markings. ‘How is she?’

‘Hurt and confused.’ Ciri puffed out, folding her arms, casting an annoyed look in Yennefer direction.

‘Fuck’ Geralt snarled, grabbing the edge of the mahogany table and with little effort threw it clear across the room. Glass smashed and metal clangoured against the marble floor that sent out a piecing rattle throughout the house.

‘There goes my 500-year-old table from the halls of Vintcorn. Thank you. Geralt…this is why I can't have nice things.’ Triss sighed as a furious bard barged past her and towards the stair well.

‘You! Have you seen what you did to her? Throwing Geralt away and then when he has found someone better, you come in screaming and kicking like a toddler who has found something else with their toy. Why can’t you just leave him alone.’ Jaskier raged, a red hue descending across his face as he prodded a finger at the puple eyes mage

‘Me? I have done nothing but push an upstart down a few pegs.’ Yennefer snapped, slapping his hands away.

‘She has broken ribs Yennefer’Ciri counted, coming to Jaskier side as she glared Yennefer down.

‘Please like she won't heal.’ Yennefer rolled her eyes as she scooped up another glob of goo and reapplied it to the writing across his skin, letting her hands wander inside of his tunic as she drew more magical etching against his pec.

The long shallow breathes she took keeping the bile from rising her throat caught in her windpipe as her eyes fell against the scene before her. Yennefer in all her beauty had herself pressed up against Geralt, hand burrowing deep in her chest, writing in some strange language. Every visible inch of his skin was covered in blue signs. The purple-eyed mages smirked across at her as she scooped up and a dollop of slim and smeared it on a mark near his shoulder. The shoulder that she had gripped when he brought her to the peak of ecstasy the night before. Had he told her? Had they laughed together? Swallowing back bile, she fought the urge to flee, her promised herself to endure and survive. Adva quickly moved to stand behind the bard, her eyes slide from the tender scene in front of her and suddenly found the wooden floorboard in front of her captivating, ignoring the five pairs of eyes that followed her every move.

Geralt eyes frowned at her, brows furrowing as he took in her form, dejected and cowardly. ‘Fuck! Adva, please. Let me …’ Geralt urged forward but halted as Adva flinched away, gripping Jaskier arm tightly as she looked away.

‘Maybe Adva can show me around the Garden...’ Ciri suggested through gritted teeth at Yennefer, who smirked triumphantly as the girl was pushed through the door and into the garden, leaving a desperate Witcher behind.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The garden was bigger than what Ciri had expected. It was like the garden of the palace in Cintra, the one in her keep. It was filled with blue and yellow roses, that gave off sweet scents and attracted the bees and songbirds. Triss’s garden however had thick slabs of bush that were carefully woven into a maze, the entrance of which was guarded by glisten fountain that gushed out sparkling clear water. Squirrels squeak and frogs leapt as they perched themselves on the edge of the fountains wall. The house could just be made out in the distance sounds of shouting, and smashing could be heard. Geralt growls were distinct against the sound of screams and breaking furniture. Triss could just be heard over the noise appealing for calm why a shrill scream had to be Jaskier, attempting to dodge the flying rages of the group.

‘I think maybe I should leave before….’Adva started but was cut of by Triss.

‘Before Yennefer pushes you through the wall again? Don’t worry, Geralt wouldn’t let that happen. Should have seen him after, though he was gonna slice Yennefer in two.’ Ciri laughed as lounged on the wall of the fountain, gazing about her.

Adva stared at the apprehensively at the water; fingers brushed the rubbery leaves of the lily pads, as they floated on the top of the calm water. Ciri could positively see the cogs turning in her head as she stared into the water, gnawing on the bottom of her lip. Curls frizzed in the gentle heat of the noon sun, the skirt and blouse she wore made her look paler, almost haunted but the way Yennefer had acted this morning and then how she draped herself over Geralt would be enough to make anyone look haunted. Especially after what they had done the night before.

‘Where are you from originally?’ Ciri found herself asking as she settled herself on the border of the fountain. Elbows were resting on the knees as she gazed across as the woman.

‘Brightwater.’

‘Yes… I remember Jaskier saying Geralt brought you from the whorehouse there… remind her to have a word with him about buying people later.’ Ciri muttered darkly. ‘Where you are a whore?’

A strained laugh fell from her lips. Nothing that interesting. Just a kitchen maid….I make really good roast lamb.’

‘You will have to make it for me one time.’ Ciri smiled across at her, but the smile turned into a frown as the woman once again retreated into herself.

The silver wolf vibrated against her breast as a surge of water rose from the fountain and whirl behind the blue eye’s woman. The mass rippled and swirled in a globe of tinted blue water. Ciri fingers inched towards her blade but watched in fascination as the woman began to curl the water up from the fountain.

‘How do you do that?’ Ciri gasped.

‘Do what? ’Adva blinked up in confusion.

‘That…the water crafting. Did Triss teach you.’ Ciri gushed with childish glee.

Water control was something Ciri never had the time or patient to master. It requires skill and patience, harmony with one's self and the element around them. Of all the element, water was the most prestigious for a mage to have control over. Vesemir has once tried to explain that fire magic was the easiest, the simplest mage could conjure a fireball, but it took skill to master the other 3. Air is the second easiest, then earth and water. Ciri ear still burnt from her old teacher boiling retort when she had attempted to argue that surely the earth element was harder to control as with water was need for the earth. However, she still remembers is speech. ‘Foolish child, you have proved me right. Water is at the centre of everything; without water, there would be nothing.’ Being the Lady of Time and Space, she merely rolled her eyes and left Vesemir to grumble away, determined to prove him wrong. Fire had been easy. Wind slightly harder. Earth was complex, and the weaker charm had been hard work, the more complex charms had been a struggle. Water was near impossible; she had managed to conjure a limp wave of stagnant water that dropped mid-air and left her hand numb for a week. Yennefer was an expert in fire and air, somewhat compliant at the earth, she had seen the flowers bloom and wither under her control but water she had never seen Yennefer attempt.

‘Oh, I…I have always been able to this. I am sure your much better at it than me. Triss is teaching me other stuff though, she is really good at teaching.’ Adva smiled and rolled the water in the air.

For a moment they both watched as the water bent to the will its master, transforming from one shape to the next. The shining mass of liquid rippled and squirmed as it was pulled this way and that, at moments it appeared to billow into a thick mist before becoming solid again.

‘Who was your teaching before Triss?’ Ciri asked, once again breaking the silence.

Adva paused for a moment, she was hesitant. Before leaving Brightwater, no one asked her anything. The questions made her uncomfortable and exposed, but she did not want to lie or ignore the question. ‘I didn’t really have a teacher…. I learnt what I could from books. Cersi sort of gave me the odd bit of help when she was not at court. I think that why Lord Brightwater let me do some healer work, she was too busy.’ Adva snorted lightly as the ball of water churned harder and faster.

‘Cersi of White Orchard? Yennefer talks about her some time, a brilliant woman, a mother figure to all.’ Ciri did not need her Witcher senses to see the sadness that flicked in the girl's eyes.

‘You must miss your family and friends badly.’ Ciri muttered slowly, watching the woman with great interest.

‘I am an orphan and didn’t have any friends. I thought I had the girls in the Brothel and Cersi, but they ended up selling me to Geralt for 550 coins…. Nesta tried to help, she was lovely. I do miss her. I hope she okay.’ The water crafter choked out, turning her head away to gaze at the billowing water, frizzy curly obscuring her from the other woman view.

‘I’m an orphan too.’

Adva smiled sadly toward her ‘I am sorry but least you have people who care about you.’

‘You have them too…I haven’t seen Jaskier yell at Yennefer before. You must be special otherwise Jaskier would have hidden behind Geralt’ Ciri laughed, throwing her head back, body shaking in a belly laugh.

‘She won't try and turn him into a frog will she.’ Adva cracked a rueful smile, across at the blonde woman.

‘No’ Ciri laughed. ‘Geralt and Triss have got his back. Well…she turned Jaskier into a Donkey a while back. Geralt got her to turn him back…after a few days.’ Ciri laughed louder than she had in a while remember the sullen mule that wanders around for a day, who Geralt had tried to ride after inhaling two barrels of wine.

‘Adva.’ A rough growl echoed against the trees, sending a flock of nearby birds into the air.

Geralt matched out from behind a rose of bushes, closely followed by a pleading Triss. Adva had never seen her tutor for flustered that she almost tripped over her skirts. With a huff, the mage raced ahead as the Witcher was tugged back by a fierce-looking Yennefer who growled something into his ear as her purple eyes fixated on her. Geralt was, as always, a tower of muscles, pulsating with power and rage. Features stern, determined on his current path. Turning her attention back to the pulsating ball of water Adva gazed determinately at it, not even moving when Triss huddle around her, calling her name.

‘Listen Adva; I don’t know how much longer Geralt can stay in control, his body has taken a fever. I think it’s something to do with the bond and what happened last night. Don’t antagonise him; I don’t know what he will do.’ Triss pleaded to lay a tentative head on her friend shoulder.

‘How could you not tell me about the soul bond. I thought you were my friend.’ Adva flinched back, pulling her shoulder away.

‘Adva, please. We need to travel to Kaer Morhen to try and find out what you are then…from there, we can figure out what to do about the soul bond.’ Triss pleaded as she peak tentatively at the arguing Witcher.                                                                                                                                                                            

Yennefer was growing more and more agitated. Geralt would not listen to reason, he refused to listen to her concerns, her pleadings, her thoughts, Instead, he remained moon eyed at the girl in front of him, pushing her away as she tried to help him. Jaskier as usually was no help, but he prattled on and snapped like a little princess. Pain surged through her as he pushed her harshly away, disgust etching his chiselled feature, as she fell into the dirt of the path.

Fury. Fury was the only thing Yennefer felt. She wanted to hurt the snivelling girl they way she had hurt her, break her heart, and toss her in the dirt where she belongs before, she crawled back into whichever hole Geralt had found her. Standing she brushed the dust from her dress, ignoring the sniggering from the bard as she focused on Triss who tended and mothered the girl. A girl who wielded water. Interesting, it would seem her prognosis was accurate, the little maid had no idea. She was disappointed in Geralt and Triss, they could see what stood right in front of their eyes, whatever spell she had cast obscured their logic.

‘Well, I can help you with the first thing. This little… creature is Mermaid. Did you never wonder what that funny little writing is in your book? Its sonic script…it what they talk and write in. And it obvious by the control you have on the water. Seriously Geralt calls yourself a Witcher.’ Yennefer scoffed, as she examined her nails with great interest. In the corner of her eye she saw it the girl curl into herself as she glanced from person to person.

‘That not possible, Merpeople can’t live well on land.’ Triss countered. ‘Not to mention she doesn’t have green skin or a tail.’ The mage snapped, pulling the girl towards her tighter.

‘I didn’t say she was a full mermaid. Maybe part mermaid part something else. Merpeople have a turbulent relationship with humans; she might have been rejecting by her pod. Then again, Merfolk is very protective over family; they only use banishment as punishment for the worst kinds of crimes. Besides, they are fiercely secretive, they wouldn’t cast a child into the human land, especially with such an important book. But then again, they could have gotten sick of her and cast her off onto the land, hoping she would die or get killed by the townsfolk.’ Yennefer said with such glee, Adva practically felt her word piece through her, causing her to shrink back in hurt.

‘Why are you being so horrid.’ Ciri yapped, wrapping her arms around her the shivering girl as Triss stood and advance upon her friend.

‘I am not the one who jumped onto the bed of someone who brought her from a whore house.’ Yennefer quipped, raising a perfectly plucked eyebrow and removing a golden cylinder from her press and reapplying her crimson smile.

‘I seem to remember you jumping on Geralt about an hour after you met him. Adva has known Geralt for three months and is a far more decent person that you will ever dream of being.’ Jaskier snapped as she sat the other side of the shivering woman and wrapped his own arms around her, replacing where Triss had previously sat.

‘What was that you are ageing, talentless hack.’ Yennefer sneered at the young bard.

‘Aging! I have been told I could pass for a youth of eighteen. Your just bitter because you have been cast aside for someone more beautiful, intelligence and kinder than you could ever be.’ Jaskier all but spat at her.

‘What did you say wretch?’ Yennefer growled slowly advancing toward the bard, but despite his fearful eyes, he remained unmoving at Adva’s side, but the strong Witchers arms held her from her death march.

‘Oh, I see, the little fish playing both sides. What was it bedding the bard before the Witcher? Well, that proves it…they do say Mermaids are oversexed.’ Yennefer spat, a cruel smile as she prodded and goaded the poor girl who, stared wide eyes at the pair. Eyes shining as silent tears escaped her eyes.

Yennefer smiled as she turned in the Witchers arms ‘If I had of known you wanted something to share with Jaskier I would have offered gladly…his mouth must be good at something.’ She purred stocking his chest affectionately.

‘Yennefer stop! Kaer Morhen has the most extensive collection of lore on creatures. We might be able to find something that could help us determine whether Adva is a Mermaid on not.’ Triss offered, conjuring a green portal in the base of some bushes.

‘Sounds good to me.’ Jaskier proclaimed standing. Anything that gets me away from her. Ciri and I will take Adva by a portal; you can do whatever you damn well want.’ Jaskier waved a hand dismissively and flounced of pulling Adva with him.

Adva stumbling to keep up with the singer’s long strides. For a moment, her eyes latched on to Geralt’s, whose eyes oozed feeling and emotion, brimming with a…. sadness and pain. They were so intense she had to look away and curled in the singer hold. Memories of last night flashed through her mind, the grunt and groans as I moved over her. They way he manipulated her body into a puddle of pleasure. It angered her that she wanted to run back into her arms and beg, for what she wasn’t sure but she wanted to beg to stay, plead with him that she was human and shouldn’t be sent away. But she forced herself to look into the portal but not before she caught the glimpse of something. On the edge of the gardens board she though she saw a hooded figure cloaked the shadow of the tree smirking at her.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

This was supposed to come to yesterday, but Yennefer is annoying! Out of curiosity, what do people think of Yennefer overall? I have had some interesting discussion about her as a character with a few people on here. I have read the books, watched the tv show and played the game, and I can't shake my dislike her character. I really want to like her, I sympathise with what she went through and understand why she is the way she is but she so unpleasant and aggressive and I can’t work my head around her and Geralt relationship. I always think Triss is a better match then Yennefer. Yennefer is an amazingly strong character but sometimes really needs to understand the world doesn’t revolve around her, and people won’t always do as she wants. I do see a chink of amazing personality before she reverts to her normal self.

I would love to know what you think. I know there is a lot of dialogue but I felt like it needed it with the introduction of Ciri/Yennefer and the Mermaid story line.

https://missingartist95.tumblr.com/post/620733176788189184/the-witchers-mate-chapter-18-part-one

@fandom-lover-4  @sageandberries-png @wastingmypotential @luxyash @whitespring21 @ayamenimthiriel @crazynocturnalkiki @wonderlandfandomkingdom @shesthelastjedi @broco8 @introvertedmouse @threepupsinapuddle @pastelblogsposts 

[mylordshesacactus]

[cracks back] well I just finished the ATLA rewatch so hey, have some further thoughts on that pre-Kyoshi Avatar plotline I’ve been tossing around. Specifically, since you guys appreciated my boy Black Lotus: I had some expanded thoughts about his rescue mission.

Obviously Our Hero--okay this is getting confusing, I gotta give this girl a name. Anyway. She’s had to go on the run after some kind of dramatic event revealed her face to the Firelord’s son as the true Avatar, stole a Fire Nation komodo rhino to get away, etc. Would have had to somehow barter passage on a ship--whatever ship was leaving first--because this girl does NOT have a flying bison.

When she gets there, she...does not exactly march up to the Chieftain of the Northern Water Tribe and announce the return of the true Avatar. She’s hiding. She has to, in order to protect her girl and the baby sister she left behind.

The Firelord’s son knows her face; but at best he has a hazy memory of her being with a random shepherd girl and a kid last time he saw her, and that’s if he remembers their faces at all. She has to trust to the community not to expose the loved ones left behind.

Her trust is not misplaced. No one gives them up.

Water is fire’s natural opposite; she’s not gonna pick up waterbending just be being around waterbenders, I’m afraid. But she’s also probably in pretty bad shape. She had time to heal a bit from whatever confrontation she fled, on the voyage up; but eventually some well-meaning stranger directs her to the local healer���s training school, where she can get healed properly for free.

Team Avatar grows when she meets a young--male--healing student. He’s the one who earns her undying love by casually healing Red and her stolen rhino as well, and they get to talking. Eventually, over the course of several weeks, they talk enough that...Hero catches herself in a lie. 

She speaks a little too freely, or mixes up her cover stories, and her new friend realizes she’s not quite who she claimed to be.

What it is, is she’s trying to simplify her story. She was going to make it out that she had to flee the Fire Nation after she panicked and used bending to defend herself from the Firelord’s son--

(Her waterbender friend picked up on that. She always calls him “the Firelord’s son” when literally everyone else on the planet calls him ‘the Avatar”.)

Anyway, she told the accurate story about earthbending a barrier to interrupt his punishment...to a young man who knows her as a firebender.

He’s also a nerd with access to a library via his healing training. He becomes the research guy. The one who helps her find legends about how previous Avatars discovered powers, contacted spirits, mastered bending in nontraditional ways...the one who proposes that maybe what she’s missing is an animal guide, who explains to her about dragons.

Hero is not out here planning to “master all four elements, defeat the false Avatar, save the world”. She wants to protect the loved ones left behind; she’s nineteen, she’s scared...no one ever asks to be the Avatar. And she doesn’t even know if her partner and little sister are alive.

Bender guy finds a way. She doesn’t know how to enter the spirit world, where she could find out whether her family is safe--but he’s a healer in the Northern Water Tribe. He knows where they can go to find out.

The koi fish help her bridge the gap, and she enters the spirit world and starts looking. That’s when, drawn by powerful energy and discord, she finds the dragon. She had actually been warned by her friend to avoid dragons at all costs while in the spirit world; they’re powerful creatures with spiritual connections to Avatars and he’s not sure whether or not one might be able to see her.

Something about it is...wrong. She approaches anyway.

She learns then why he hasn’t abandoned the false Avatar--and why the Firelord’s son never rides his “animal guide”.

Black Lotus is bound, chains invisible in the physical world--spirit bonds, pulsing and liquid with horrific, powerful corrupted spirit energy. They’re mostly in the spirit world, where no amount of struggling by the black dragon will do any good; but “phased” just enough into the physical world to hold him. He can’t spread his wings. His tail is pinioned. He can’t stand fully. He can open his mouth, barely, enough to drink.

She came here to locate her family, not declare war on the false Avatar.

The spirits--and her waterbender friend, when she drops back to her own body briefly to report--are sickened but tell her that this abomination can’t be destroyed, even by the ones who created the chains. They can’t be reached fully from the spirit world, because they’re half in the physical realm; but from the physical realm they can’t be detected, because they’re half in the spirit world.

If she even tries, and trying will do no good, there is no way the monster who created these chains won’t sense it. She cannot try to help without revealing herself, and if she’s attacked in the spirit world, she can’t bend.

Of course she frees him. Of course she sacrifices the chance to see her family in order to do it. And of course it works--she’s the Avatar. She’s the bridge. She can touch both worlds.

She pulls Black Lotus into the spirit world via that connection. She tries to talk to him, assumes he’s her animal guide, not understanding--through a brief, regretful contact, a momentary brush of his nose against her forehead, he communicates only that he’s grateful--but she means nothing to him.

They are, in fact, attacked in the spirit world. Lotus hesitates, clearly bound to stay--and she gives him permission to save himself. 

He takes it. She does not blame him; he’s weak, traumatized, terrified, and he never intended to bind himself to the Avatar. He was taken unwilling because he was strong and scary, and all he ever wanted was to be free.

Healer buddy I think is able to realize, through fluctuations in her body’s energy, that she’s being attacked; we get commentary from him, cutting back and forth with the battle in the spirit world. Finally the rapid-fire cuts culminate in him noting that she can’t bend, but--she’s used to not being able to bend properly. She had to hide while she was in the Fire Nation; this isn’t so different. Come on, Hero. You can do this--

(He knows she can’t hear him. That’s not the point.)

Come on, Hero. You can do this. What would you normally do, if you were attacked and you couldn’t bend? You can take this guy. If you couldn’t risk bending--

In the spirit world, Our Hero, pinned and helpless, reflexive: “Red, take him!”

It is not physically possible for her dog to hear her, let alone follow. Love doesn’t work that way. Red has never in her life failed to come when her Avatar called.

Black Lotus will come back someday--in his own time, when he’s healed, when it’s a decision he makes freely. Not in payment of a debt, and not out of guilt.

There was....a bit of a light show, when Our Hero and Red the roosterdog supercharged their spirit bond to a degree that will become a legend in and of itself on the shores of the most spiritually powerful location in the world. 

Hiding the fact that the Avatar’s possibly not actually sitting in the Royal Palace just got a lot harder.

But there’s still Reasons to hide it. In all likelihood--throughout this first season with the spyjinks in the Fire Nation capital, there’s evidence of a massive conspiracy. The team of highly-specialized bodyguards the Firelord’s son keeps around him, two of each kind of bender and all capable of bending at a distance and with minimal movements, to sell the illusion, is damning enough--but that level of horrific spirit work is not bought. That was not a mercenary. This is big.

I think I accidentally set up a plot where the endgame is the formation of the White Lotus, specifically to ensure the Avatar’s identity is never coopted like this again.

Anyway, the point is, they need to Fucking Skedaddle. Bender kid absolutely is not supposed to be at the spirit pool either, let alone fucking around in a manner that causes massive beams of energy to light up the goddamn hemisphere. So he can’t stay behind and make her excuses.

They escape together, and head for the Earth Kingdom. End of Book 1.

[shirlleycoyle]

Found: Page 25 of the CIA’s Gateway Report on Astral Projection

Page 25 of the CIA’s “Analysis and Assessment of The Gateway Process” hitched a ride with an email one evening and landed in my inbox. A digital attachment felt like an unceremonious entrance for a document that was produced 38 years ago and has been missing and highly sought after since it was declassified in 2003. For years, people had been filing FOIA requests and speculating about what was on this missing page in the middle of a mind-bending report about military research into astral projection and other dimensions. And then, there it was, just downloaded on to my desktop quietly looking back at me. My immediate reaction was frenetic; I couldn’t chill out long enough to properly read the rogue text. I called a few friends to ensure my reality was synched properly—a telephonic pinch to verify I was awake. All signs pointed to mostly. I double clicked the file.

Let’s get into it.

Screengrab: CIA

A Whirlwind Backstory 

I published a breakdown of the CIA’s Gateway Report in February. The classified 1983 document was produced by US Army Lieutenant Colonel Wayne M. McDonnell, with a technical power-assist from mastermind Israeli-American biomedical engineer Itzhak Bentov. The report was declassified in 2003. It packs a tour-de-force investigation into the potential achievability of astral projection into 28 hyper-dense pages. A spectre has hung over the report since. The version released by the CIA was missing what seems to be an extremely crucial page. 

IMAGE: SPECTRAL-DESIGN VIA GETTY IMAGES]

For the uninitiated, astral projection is mostly interchangeable with the psycho-physical phenomena of out-of-body experiences and remote viewing. With the right guidance and technologies, astral projectors believe, we can train our consciousness to move beyond the confines of the space-time dimension. This super-ability frees our human minds to travel through the universe, exploring an endless array of normally imperceptible realities and dimensions. 

McDonnell states early in the report that his goal was to "construct a scientifically valid and reasonably lucid model of how consciousness functions" in order to put "out-of-body states into the language of physical science to remove the stigma of its occult connotations."

The Department of Defense's ambitions are made clear in the report's conclusion: McDonnell suggests that if the military were to experiment with astral projection, it could find "practical application," but also noted that it should "be intellectually prepared to react to possible encounters with intelligent, non-corporeal energy forms when time-space boundaries are exceeded." It kicked off years of attempts by the US Army to train psychic soldiers to conduct “remote viewing” missions to regions across the world. 

Image: CIA

A Cosmic Mystery

The report is a vicious mind labyrinth. For 24 pages, it winds its way through the spiritual and scientific underpinnings, techniques to achieve and potential applications of space-time transcendence. It introduces methodological frames of reference like hypnosis, transcendental meditation, spiritual belief systems, biofeedback, quantum physics, and universal holograms only so that its intended audience—CIA top brass—might merely begin to grasp its (and our) bigger reason for being. By the bottom of page 24, McDonnell reaches a full existential crescendo, broaching the very nature of reality itself. It’s a cliff-hanger:

Image: CIA

And then … the report skips to page 26. 

As if he hadn’t just side-stepped revealing the secrets of the heavens, McDonnell is on to a set of pragmatic “Motivational Aspects” for why the CIA might employ the Gateway as opposed to other methods of achieving astral projection.

Image: CIA

Expediency Wayne? Really?

Since the report's declassification, countless FOIA requests have been filed demanding page 25’s release. In every instance, the CIA has denied they ever had it in the first place. Page 25, then, has been the holy grail not just for would-be astral projectors, but also for conspiracy theorists, government transparency activists, and people who have simply read the report and found themselves maddened by this missing information.

Image: CIA Foia response

One fantastic internet theory maintains that McDonnell omitted the page intentionally. If someone could successfully astral project they’d be able to tell him what’s on it. 

Contact

The CIA did not invent the Gateway Report and the Gateway Experience on its own. It used teachings from a man named Robert Monroe, who later founded an organization called The Monroe Institute.  

Four days after we published the first article about the Gateway Report, I received a note from The Monroe Institute. They had some ideas for a follow-up piece. Drowning in responses to the article though, I failed to return their email. They reached out again. This time their message was more concrete: Sitting buried in the Monroe Institute archives in Faber, Virginia, was page 25 of The Gateway Report. But it didn't come to us easily.

Our first scheduled phone call included The Monroe Institute’s CEO, COO and marketing division. Motherboard Editor-in-Chief Jason Koebler and I got on a Google Hangout. 

In that call, the Institute said that they had Page 25. People had been trying to obtain the report from the CIA and had repeatedly failed. But no one had bothered to ask them for the report; they'd had it all along. At one point, they described the report as having been "in a barn," unexamined, for all of these years. Otherwise, the call was uninspired. The CEO didn’t show. After an hour run-around it became evident that The Institute wasn’t going to part with Page 25 without some carefully orchestrated marketing plan. The words of COO Lori Jacobwith made their purpose clear, “We’re attempting to capitalize on some of the enthusiasm by a market that isn’t our normal age group.” 

The institute was hoping to tap into the popularity of our first article, as well as some viral TikToks about the report.

The call ended with “You’ve touched on some things we are not talking about right now.” 

The Institute then went quiet. Time passed. 

One evening, the Monroe Institute’s Director of Marketing & Communications Jenny Whedbee emailed again. She'd been silent on our last call. The email contained the full Gateway Report including the missing page. She wrote that they’d just “went through a major org change.” The CEO and COO were no longer with the company. She was now down to talk, after we had read page 25.

The Missing Page

In the true spirit of discovery, I am pleased to present the full uninterrupted report in all its glory.  

The page opens with the word “Absolute.” It sits there authoritatively, as if guarding the gate to the rest of the text. In the broader context of the report the term is applied to both spiritual belief systems and quantum physics alike. It's an important word. 

Physicists define time as a measurement of energy in motion. In this way, time is really a measurement of change. In order for that motion to occur though, it must be limited inside a larger vibratory pattern. Inside this framework it is limited, contained at a specific location. That confinement then makes it distinguishable from other locations in space. Uncontained energy is force without limit. Imagine a formless entity speeding through the galaxy with no friction to hold it back from being everywhere. As McDonnell puts it “There is no 'here' to differentiate it from 'there.'” And this, my friends, is an absolute state or “The Absolute.” 

According to the report, the Absolute is essentially the governing energy of the Universe en masse. It powers the universal hologram that is all of entirety. The report makes multiple attempts to visualize this universal hologram or “cosmic egg” as one big constantly flowing spiral. 

Screengrab: CIA

Between the reality we know and The Absolute are countless intervening dimensions, McDonnell writes, which is pretty trippy stuff for a government report. Absolute is the ceiling (as far as we know it). End of the line, and a hell of a way to open a missing page.

McDonnell observes that a “stylized representation” of this spiral is present in every religious system in history. He cites the specific examples of Christianity’s Holy Spirit, the Hellenic world’s labyrinth, the Hebrew Tree of Life, its Hindu counterpart, and the Chinese Spiral Through the Four Powers. This thinking has found its way into each systems’ teachings. 

The crucial distinction between the breakthroughs in modern physics and the epiphanies of religious thinkers is the way they all found The Absolute. Whereas physics leans on quantitative research, religions relied on intuition. The Gateway then sort of showed up just in time—a holistic mainline for “interfacing” with the universal hologram, freeing us from the limitations of a left brain logic-based culture. 

The page’s third section takes a slant which should feel familiar to adherents of modern psychology. The universe, the Absolute, the cosmic egg. All of it is irrelevant, and certainly unreachable, until we possess knowledge of ourselves. My eyes, upon first glance of page 25, picked up “The Absolute” first, then darted swiftly to the aphorism McDonnell trots out here— “Know Thyself.” What hits even harder than achieving a psychological self-understanding, according to McDonnell, is the sense of self-perception achieved when one can manage to alter their state of consciousness to the point where the universal hologram itself can be perceived. 

And it’s The Gateway Experience, McDonnell says, that promises this possibility. 

Images: The Monroe Institute

Achieving Hemi-Sync

Key to the report and technique for achieving astral projection is an audio technology developed by Robert Monroe, a radio broadcasting executive who, in the 1970s, built an R&D division inside his company solely to study the effects of sound on human consciousness. 

In a series of self-experiments in which he exposed himself to carefully calibrated audio frequencies while sleeping, Monroe repeatedly achieved elevated mind-body states. His 1971 book Journeys Out of The Body documents those early investigations and officially coined the term “out-of-body experience.”

Books by Robert Monroe

Monroe’s corporate R&D division eventually became The Monroe Institute, which produces tapes containing audio techniques to stimulate brain functions and achieve “Hemi-Sync.” Hemi-Sync is short for hemispheric synchronization, and is instrumental in achieving a state of consciousness in which the electrical brain patterns of both left and right hemispheres are equal in amplitude and frequency. 

It does so by combining two techniques. The first is Frequency Following Response—a recognized external frequency is introduced by headphones, which causes the brain “to try to mimic the same frequency by adjusting its brainwave output.” For instance, a resting brain that hears a Theta level will shift out of its Beta level. The second technique is beat frequency. Contrasting frequencies are introduced to each ear. The brain then “chooses to “hear” the difference between them.” A brain receiving 100hz through the right ear and 104hz through the left, can then detect the delta, in this case a 4hz frequency. The technique then opens the brain to “a variety of frequencies which are played at a virtually subliminal, marginally audible level.”

With the left brain relaxed and the body in a virtual sleep state, according to the report, the conditions are ideal to promote brainwave outputs of higher and higher amplitude and frequency. When the wave pattern of a consciousness drops below an oscillation frequency of 10 to the power of -33 centimeters per second, for a brief instant it “clicks out” of space-time and joins infinity. Monroe’s theories maintain that if that “click-out” can achieve continuity you can begin dialoguing with other dimensions. 

Image: CIA

The Monroe Institutes’s chief engineer today is Bob Holbrook. A former events producer, Holbrook believes the Monroe Institute's audio offerings helped him rehab from head trauma sustained in a brutal car accident. The Hemi-Sync technology featured in The Gateway Report was sold to a company now called Hemi-Sync®. The audio technology stack The Institute now produces—collectively called Monroe Audio Support (MAS)—is a hugely evolved version of the original binaural beats-based technique. As Bob puts it, “Binaural beats was just one technology, now we have 50.” This widens and populates the spectrum of experience for participants. “MAS takes the idea of binaural beats and utilizes many other “colors” and technologies to create more intense experiences in different levels of consciousness.” A key MAS ingredient is gamma synchrony. “It allows us to connect much more easily to 'all that is,'” he said. Two additional innovations play a central role—Phase Modulation and Amplitude Modulation. Phase Modulation changes the direction from which a sound feels like it’s coming from. Bob shared an audio-visual animation illustrating sound source oscillation. 

Amplitude Modulation gives technicians the capability to drop into the soundscape live and manipulate specific aspects of the volume. 

The Institute shared a 30-minute sample of their newer programming for this article. Headphones are essential for full results. 

The Monroe Institute’s tapes combined these frequencies with subliminal suggestions from Monroe himself. An archive titled “The Explorer Series” contains recordings of the Monroe Institute Research Division’s experiments, in which subjects “report from these non-physical environments.”

Up until COVID, all meditators physically travelled to The Monroe Institute’s palatial headquarters in Faber, Virginia to work through a series of increasingly challenging levels. The 7-day course offers the possibility for one’s consciousness to navigate space, time, and beyond. That is, if you’ve got what it takes. 

It’s these tapes and their potential applications that caught the attention of the CIA and prompted the commission of the report. 

The Monroe Institute Today

After I read page 25, I called Jenny Whedbee back up.

She said Monroe is an organization that was trying to find its way in an ever-shifting world. “There’s a part of this organization that definitely needs to grow, but it needs to grow at a pace that keeps with the tenets of who we are,” she said. The importance of listening to where an organization comes from before deciding on a future was a theme. “If you don’t have the input from people who have been here a while, then you’re not really staying true to what the Institute is.”

Paramount to staying that course is the guiding light of its influential founder Robert Monroe. “We’ve had a lot of executives come and go. I know Robert Monroe is still here and still trying to run things,” she said. 

It’s this pioneering energy that powers her enthusiasm. In reference to their newer classes, she explained, “Gateway Voyage is primarily the same exact program that Robert Monroe developed. And so is Lifeline, Exploration 27, Guidelines. Those core programs, he actually worked on and developed.” 

“It puts you into direct experience with expanded states of consciousness where you can explore and ask questions and receive answers and visit past lives," she said. "You can astral travel.”

These programs are grueling. Participants go through five or six exercises a day for five straight days. “It’s like running a marathon,” she said. 

Jenny joined the company without much experience in consciousness elevation but swiftly got the feel for things. “It did exactly what the course said it was going to do," she said. "I experienced past lives. It gave me this 20,000-foot view of my life. Not just this one, but previous and future.” 

“If you want the rocket ship where your life is forever enlightened, you’re not going to get that any other way than coming here,” she said. 

The conversation with Jenny eventually turned to page 25. 

“I have my own interpretation," she said. "Whether it was accidentally or intentionally left out I don’t know. Like I said there are people that work in this place that are on another plane and not here in the physical.”

For Jenny, the page appeared at the right time and place. “I feel like 20 years ago the world wasn’t ready to hear. But this generation is ready.” She says the institute changed her life.

“You grow up, you go to school, you get married, you have kids, you go to church, you die," she said. "And your life lives on through your family. There is value there. But on a much deeper level it’s the relationships and the memories you create. Not all this stuff we’re collecting. So what if that page was released 20 years ago? Could it have backlashed? Cause it talks about religion and that all religions are equal. And what if people feel really powerfully that not all religions are equal. I feel like the generations nowadays, they’re not so wrapped up in that anymore."

Jenny said that young people today are pushing for social justice and are more open to different perceptions of consciousness and different ways of living. "There’s this whole thing going on where people are awakening," she said. "People become more conscious, people become more awakened—tearing down the monuments in Richmond. Enough’s enough. This has come about at a time when your generation has questions and they want to know and they’re ready to hear the answers without judgment.”

“TikTok happened, you happened, all this happened for a very important reason that’s not of this physical plane,” she said. 

Jenny concluded our hour-long conversation with a suggestion for how to handle page 25. “Do something with it. You know even if it’s you just saying what it means to you.”

[Hold my beer]

A Consciousness Feedback Loop 

The Gateway Report is so dense in parts, it compromises its own accessibility. The goal of my initial synthesis was to create a written and visual experience (including, ahem, some premium custom graphics) that might help folks without a PHD in quantum physics benefit from its huge thinking. 

It struck a nerve. 

Over the course of a 3-week period, millions of readers made their way through an admittedly arduous editorial obstacle course. Studios reached out. 

Two days after the article’s release, we inserted an invitation: 

“Have you had an experience with The Monroe Institute, Hemi-Sync or had an out-of-body experience? Get in touch: ex0gene5i5@substack.com” 

Thousands of emails came in from folks all over the world who described their out-of-body experiences. To me, it signaled the possibility that many of us are searching for something more than what seems currently available. To describe my experience in telling this story and the search in many senses, I produced a visual reinterpretation of page 25.

The Gateway. Image: Thobey Campion

'The Gateway' is a high-resolution digital image of a print of the missing page 25 of the CIA's Gateway Report. It contains 659 digital micro-inscriptions of out-of-body experience accounts, that only become visible at 300%+ magnification.

Just look closer.

Thobey Campion is the former Publisher of Motherboard. You can subscribe to his Substack here. 

The Gateway is an NFT. Part of the proceeds go to Mind Science, a foundation that explores the mystery of human consciousness by funding the work of early-career neuroscientists.

Found: Page 25 of the CIA’s Gateway Report on Astral Projection syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[ruddcatha]

Guardian Chapter 12

Thank you again to @heavenin–hell for your inspiration, I hope this story does your work justice.

posted on Ao3: Here

Posted on FFN: Here

Guardian has been Nominated for the Feudal Connection  2020 3rd Quarterly Inuyasha Fandom Awards!  Thank you to all the supporters of this story!!  Voting will begin on July 29 and run through August 12, 2020.

Nominated for: Best AU/AR

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Kagome quickly realized that the first months of training had been nothing but child’s play.  The last few weeks were, quite frankly, kicking her ass, and kicking it hard.  

Kagome was no longer learning pure defensive moves; she was being taught throws and holds and attacks… which usually meant she was the one getting tossed.  She just… could not get it.  She had never been very coordinated, and that was becoming a huge hinderance.  Often, she would practice a move and trip over her own two feet. At least target practice had been going better, she was getting more consistent with a pistol, maybe she didn’t have perfect aim but at least the bullets were usually closer together than when she started.

But it was the training with Miroku that was really draining her.  He was trying to train her to use spiritual energy that three months ago she hadn’t even known she had.  And patience was not something she was entirely known for.  Sesshomaru led the training sessions, demonstrating physical attacks to be practiced and drilled under Inuyasha. He had turned into an extremely strict task master, drilling yokai and humans alike

And then there was Inuyasha. Their first date had been special, magical.  For the past three weeks he would do little things to make her feel special.  He walked her to and from her from classes, often bringing her a Mocha Latte on her longer class days, hold her a little longer than was needed during training, or steal a kiss when he thought no one was looking.  If she had to study for class, he would bring dinner over and sit with her in her room as she studied.  She smiled, one evening she had turned to ask him a question and found him curled up on her bed, dead to the world asleep.  The moment she had touched his shoulder to wake him up his arm had reached out to pull her close to him, his nose buried in her hair as he fell back into sleep.  It was the first and so far, only night she had spent in his arms.

He was slowly driving her insane. He made her feel like she was the most precious object in the world to him yet backed away when things got too heated. He was content to hold her in his arms, to kiss her, but would go no further.  A part of her appreciated the respect that it showed, the reverence, but at the same time…

Her boyfriend was fucking hot. And watching him on the training mat, demonstrating a hold, a throw, how to hold a sword… she wasn’t the only one who appreciated his form as she had seen more than a few admiring glances from some of the women… and a few of the men, who were with them for training. She had found out that this was one of seven training areas across Japan, and each facility could train up to 100 at a time.  

Inuyasha and Sesshomaru had taken over leading the trainings as if they had been born for it, and in a way, she guessed they had been.  They had certainly changed the focus of the trainings from what she had overheard others say, but it only made sense.  Inuyasha, Toga and Sesshomaru were the ones most familiar with Ryukotsusei and his tactics, Koga had only gone against him a few times in the past.

Kagome was quickly learning the downside of having your boyfriend as one of your trainers.  She couldn’t keep up with him.  One moment his eyes were so heated on her that she felt her bones would melt, and the next he would snap out an order or a correction for the umpteenth time, and she would hear the obvious frustration in his voice.  When a training session ended, and they were walking back to her apartment building he held her to him as if he wanted to protect her forever.  In training though, when it didn’t go well, she couldn’t help but feel he was disappointed in her.

He never said anything, but she heard it in his tone, see the flash in his eyes that he would quickly ide.

That had been happening a lot in all her training sessions.  She watched Kikyo excel in creating barriers and manifesting her spiritual powers into her hands, while Kagome could maybe, just maybe, get her skin to glow.  Kikyo kept telling her she should not feel bad, Kikyo had been training ever since her spiritual powers had manifested and had been practicing for thirteen years, while Kagome’s had only appeared three months ago. Kagome heard the logic of that, but emotionally could not help feeling that she was disappointing her cousin and Miroku, who spent hours every week walking her through meditation and channeling just to watch her crumble.  

Inuyasha watched Kagome going through the drills for the day’s session, they were working on how to roll the body out of a toss to reduce physical injuries.  He had paired Kagome with Jaken, he knew they would both need to train with more advanced partners, but they needed to wait until they had mastered the moves.  He winced and had to force himself to stay still and not run to Kagome every time she landed wrong, even though every muscle in his body was fighting to scoop her up and run from the room.  

Kagome moved to toss Jaken, but her hand placement was wrong, instead of grabbing his arm and using her shoulder to force his momentum forward, she placed both hands on his chest, stopping his movement.  Before she could try and correct it Jaken had used her own inertia against her and she went flying, landing flat on her back with a loud “oof.”

“ENOUGH.” He roared.  He couldn’t watch any more.  He didn’t want to indirectly be the cause of her pain and bruising, but he knew it was necessary.

He had been speaking with Sesshomaru and Toga, they had no clue when the actual fighting would begin, and that concerned him.  But the thought that Kagome wouldn’t be ready, that she could be vulnerable? That fucking terrified him.  He wasn’t sure when she had become so important to him, he had gone from wanting to spend time around her and get to know her to wanting to hold her in his arms and protect her from any possible danger, but he knew that he couldn’t.  

The thought of her being hurt was bad enough, but the thought of her fucking dying?  Of not being able to see her, smell her, hold her in his arms ever again? Kami, he had woken up in a cold sweat several nights at the thought. He closed his eyes, holding back a groan.  He had seen the flash of hurt in her eyes when he had snapped before, but he could not coddle her, as much as he wanted to.

Toga stood at the edge of the training room next to Totosai and just watched his youngest son with a look of concern.  Something was troubling him, and Toga had started to see signs of instability in his son’s yokai.  That needed to be addressed sooner rather than later.  He knew what was causing it, he had been the same when he met Izayoi.

Kagome was a puzzle to him. He had caught flashes of power from her, and if she had been able to break their seals she had to be very powerful, but it was untrained, and she did not know how to call it out.  The brief flashes he had felt seemed… familiar… to him, he had felt that power for almost a thousand years, and if it was what he thought… no, he wouldn’t consider that without more than just an inkling of an idea.

Sesshomaru walked away from the floor to join Toga and Totosai.

“What do you think?” Toga asked.

Sesshomaru raised an eyebrow at his father. “I think if we had more yokai to train, it would be much better.”

Toga saw Inuyasha finally move towards Kagome, reaching out a hand to help her up from the floor. Inuyasha tugged a little longer than he knew he needed to, just enough to throw Kagome off balance towards him, and his arms quickly closed around her, holding her tightly to him.  Kagome stiffened for a moment before wrapping her hands around his waist with a sigh, nuzzling her cheek against his chest.  

Toga watched the exchange, a haunted expression in his eyes.

“Kagome.” Inuyasha’s voice had deepened as he held her, sending shivers down her spine.  “I … I have something I need to show you something tonight.”

“Tonight?”  He nodded slightly.

“It... it has to be tonight Kagome, just… just come meet me here just before sundown.”

Kagome was surprised, he seemed almost nervous.  When she nodded, she watched his face visibly relax.  She reached up to touch his cheek, a soft smile forming when he nuzzled her hand before placing a kiss into her palm.  

She felt the tension that had formed around her heart ease a little.  

“How about I cook dinner for us?” She asked.  “You’ve been bringing dinner to me, how about I make you one of my favorite dishes?” He had left his glamor ring off that morning, and she giggled as his ears perked straight up and started twitching with excitement.  Her hand left his cheek to slide up and stroke the soft fur of his ear. He twitched it away from her hand as he pulled her closer.

“Not here woman.” He growled against her hair.  

And just like that, all was right in her world.  At least for a moment.

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

Later that day Kagome stepped out of the elevator to Inuyasha’s level to find him pacing anxiously.  As soon as he saw her, he darted forward to take the bags she carried from her and grabbed her hand.  

“Inu?” His behavior was confusing her.  

“Keh.” Was the only response as he pulled her away from the elevator and towards the kitchen area, he seemed anxious to get away from an open area and towards the living quarters.  She could feel the tension growing around him as they moved, even in trainings she had never seen him quite so agitated.

“Inuyasha stop.” She pulled back on her hand, forcing him to turn and look at her.  “What is going on?”

He sighed.  “I wan… gah… well, you are about to see anyway but I wanted to… keh.”  

He let go of her hand and pulled away, standing in front of her.  He looked at the clock on the wall then looked her square in the eye.  

“I don’t understand Inuyasha, what is…oh… oh my…”  As she watched Inuyasha’s hair began to darken, first to gray then deepening into black.  His eyes began to swirl, a blend of gold and deep purple and his puppy ears seemed to shrink as human ears appeared.  His eyes never left hers as he stood before her completely human, a look of worry in his now purple eyes.

Kagome stepped closer to him, her hand reaching out to trace the lobe of one ear. Inuyasha stilled, as if waiting for … something.  She ran her hand through his raven locks before standing on her toes to press a soft kiss to the underside of his chin.  With a release of his breath he grabbed her against him with arm not carrying a bag, holding her to him in a crushing grip.  She pulled back slightly and pushed back his banges.  

“Want to tell me about this while I make dinner?”  He let out a choked laugh before releasing his hold on her waist to capture her hand in his and lead her to the kitchen.  He watched as she rinsed vegetables and set them on the counter.  He watched as she chopped ginger and garlic before adding them to a pot on the stove.  As she stirred the mixture, she gave him a pointed look, smiling as he dodged her gaze.

“Sooooo.   Is this what you wanted to show me?” She teased.  

“Keh.” His soft grunt was answer enough.    He watched her pour a mixture of chicken broth, mirin, and soy sauce into the pot before she lowered the temperature.  

“How about you chop these for me and tell me about it?”  She handed him a bunch of scallions, showing him how she wanted him to chop them before handing him the knife and pushing the cutting board towards him.  As he chopped, she took out another pan and began to cook pieces of chicken.

“Well, I’m a half yokai, half human.  So, one night a month, on the night of the new moon like tonight, I lose all my yokai and turn into a human.”

“Why is that?” She asked as she flipped the chicken over.  Even with his dulled senses the combination of the cooking broth and chicken smelled amazing.  He walked up behind her at the stove and wrapped his arms around her waist as he rested his chin on her shoulder and watched her movements.

“You would have to ask dad on that, I’m not quite sure.  I am pretty sure it was a shock to him and mom the first time it happened, I don’t really like my human night now, I can’t even imagine how bad it must have been when I was a baby.”  

He reluctantly loosened his hold when Kagome pushed back with a shoulder before taking the skillet of the chicken off the stove to it to the oven that she had pre-heated before adding a container of dried mushrooms and added it to the broth.

When she stopped adding spices to the broth, he gently pulled her into his embrace again, holding her against his chest, her head tucked under his chin.  He told her stories of his human nights growing up, playing hide and seek with his mother and the other children when there were no features to distinguish him. One hand absentmindedly caressed her back as he told her about the first time he had disobeyed his parents and snuck out of the village on the night of a new moon, his terror when he realized he couldn’t fight back against a yokai that had stalked him.  His hold on her tightened as he told her how Toga and Sesshomaru had found him backed against a rock formation, a snake yokai about to strike and how his father had physically shielded him with his body as Sesshomaru had removed the head of the snake mid strike.  

Inuyasha was pulled out of his thoughts by Kagome’s thumb stroking his cheek.

“You are ok Yash.” She whispered. “You are safe.”

He looked down at her, his eyes intense.

“But you aren’t.”  His voice trembled as he said it.

Inuyasha abruptly loosened his embrace and stepped away from her, his hands running though his hair before he turned and stalked away and towards the fridge.  Kagome watched as he pulled out a bottle of water and drank half of it, never turning back around.  A sizzling sound behind her pulled her attention to the stove, and she quickly added blocks of dried noodles to the broth and pulled the chicken out of the oven to cool.

“Yash.” She said softly, waiting for him to turn to her before she continued. “Do you want to help me get the food together?”  

Inuyasha let out a shuddering breath before he nodded and moved to join her.  Soon they were seated next to each other at the counter with steaming bowls of homemade ramen.  The scent of the dish was amazing, even to his human senses, and he could only imagine how much better it would be on any other night.  He tentatively took the first bite but knew that no matter what it would be amazing because Kagome had made it for him.

The first bite made his mouth sing.

“This is quite possibly the best thing I have ever tasted in my life!” Kagome’s cheeks flushed with pleasure at his words and she nudged him with her leg softly.  

Inuyasha felt like he was in food heaven.  The flavor of the chicken had seeped into the noodles with a salty broth that made him want to lick the bowl clean.  Kagome giggled at his obvious enjoyment of the dish.  She brought him a second helping and watched with a smile as he devoured that as well.

When he realized his bowl was empty a second time he looked to the stove and realized that there was no more available, he released a slight whimper.  Kagome leaned over to nuzzle his shoulder and slid the rest of her bowl to him.

“Here, have the rest of mine.”

Inuyasha reached out to place his hand over hers, but she continued to offer him the bowl.  Her eyes turned puzzled as he grabbed a piece of chicken out of the bowl and held it out to her.  

“Keh, did you think I hadn’t noticed that you didn’t eat much today Kagome?” He gave her a soft smile as she opened her mouth and accepted the food.  He seemed to get as much enjoyment out of feeding her the ramen as he had eating it, and who was she to tell him no.  She knew he was right; she hadn’t been eating much lately, but she hadn’t realized he had noticed.

Inuyasha helped her clean the kitchen and place the dishes in the dishwasher after they had finished.  Well, helped wasn’t exactly accurate as he was more distracting than helpful Kagome found.  He seemed to find every reason to touch her hand, to kiss her head, to nuzzle her cheek.  She didn’t mind, not in the slightest, but it made it harder to focus on cleaning when all she wanted to do was kiss him.   It was strange, he looked so different, but his actions were purely her Inuyasha.  It was one more layer to the hanyou she was quickly beginning to…

She shook her head; it was way too early to think that.  ‘Wasn’t it?’

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

Kagome looked at the limited selection of movies in the living room, noting that clearly Miroku had been lacking in providing decent entertainment options.   They were usually at her and Sango’s apartment, so she hadn’t realized just how few options they had.  She finally settled on Robin Hood Men in Tights, one of her favorite comedy films.  When she went to sit on the couch Inuyasha promptly snuck his arms around her and cuddled her close.  

“Inuyasha?” Kagome asked softly halfway through the movie.  “Why did you want to meet here instead of at my apartment tonight?”

He leaned his cheek against her head and thought for a minute before answering.

“I’m vulnerable on these nights.  After the snake yokai I never left our house on my human night.  So now it’s… I guess you would call it a safety measure.  I don’t heal on these nights until the sun comes back up, so I stay home and don’t let myself sleep until the sun comes back up.”

He leaned down to place a soft kiss on her lips.

“Other than dad and Sesshomaru, you are the only other to know about this.”

Her eyes went wide at the confession before filling with tears.

“Then… wh… why tell me?”

A single finger titled her face upwards towards his.

“You know why.” He said softly before he touched his lips to hers.  He drew back and amethyst eyes met chocolate.

“Y..Yash.” she whispered as she raised her hand to his hair.  She gently took a lock and pulled him back down towards her. His lips brushed hers softly once, twice.  As he moved to place a third soft kiss, she captured his lower lip with her teeth and tugged it playfully.  She giggled as she saw him raise an eyebrow in exacerbation as she waited for the smirk she knew was coming.  She crinkled her nose at him before burrowing her face against his neck.  His arms pulled her close as he lay back on the couch, Kagome tucked onto his chest above him.      

“I... Wou…” She began, unsure how to ask. “Would you want me to keep you company tonight?”

He kissed her forehead as she looked up at him.

“I was hoping you would.”

Inuyasha held her close for the remainder of the night, as he told her stories of his childhood, pranks he had played on Sesshomaru, and how he felt when his mother passed.   One of his hands stroked her hair as she snuggled against him, a loving smile teasing his lips as he watched her struggle to keep her eyes open.  A quick glance at the clock told him there were still a few hours until dawn, she had surprised him, he had been positive she would have fallen asleep before then given how hard she had been training that day.

Kagome felt the comforting feeling of his hand on her hair luring her into sleep, she tried to fight it, but it was a losing battle.  His arms felt like home, the sound of his voice, slightly softer than she was used to hearing, soothed her.  

“It’s ok to sleep baby.” He whispered to her.

“Nnnn… I wanta stay up with you.” She murmured back. She could feel his chuckle before she heard it, and she shifted her head so she could hear his heartbeat.

“I get to hold you Kagome, that’s enough.”

She felt him place a series of kisses on her forehead as she drifted off.  In the moment before she slid into slumber, she thought she heard a softly spoken vow.

“I promise I will protect you with my life.”

The smile on her lips faded as the world around her slipped away.