#slid a couple of my friends in there (in modified form)

[queenlucythevaliant]

1 Chronicles of Narnia

Now these are the generations of Frank I, King of Narnia, and of Helen his Queen:

After Frank had lived twenty-seven years and Helen his wife twenty-four, they begat a son after their own likenesses and called his name Frank, after his father. A daughter also they begat, and her name was Sarah; for they said, “Aslan gave this land to us and to our descendants.”

They were the first of all rulers of Narnia and to them all the Beasts and Creatures of the world were given in stewardship. They made the rough places level that structures might be built and tamed the wilds a little that the people of Narnia might dwell in them. For their line the cornerstone of Cair Paravel was laid, so that Frank and Helen might have a dwelling place worthy of the calling to which Aslan had called them. They guided the people of Narnia and instructed them in uprightness; and in all things they were Aslan’s servants.

And all the days of Frank I were eighty-two: and having reigned fifty-six years, he died and was buried at Lantern Waste in the place where Aslan first called him. And Queen Helen’s days were ninety, and she lay beside him.

-

Frank II lived sixty-three years and by his wife, the nymph Hespera, he begat sons Frank III and Isaac, and a daughter Rebecca; for he remembered the ways of his parents. Frank II did all that Aslan had commanded his father, and he wrote down all the songs and stories that his parents had taught him.

And Isaac his son went to the pasturelands in the south and established his father’s rule there even as he worked the land among the Beasts. But Rebecca remained in her father’s house, for she loved the sea.

And having ruled Narnia eight years, Frank II died, and Frank III ruled in his place.

-

Frank III lived fifty-four years and by his wife, Liriope the naiad, he begat only Rachel, his daughter. Now Frank III was thirty-three when he began to reign, and he was the first king of Narnia to rule at Cair Paravel. Under his dominion, the boarders of Narnia were drawn: north at the River Shribble as far as Lantern Waste and south at the mountains beyond Glasswater. He ruled twenty-eight years in peace: and after he died, Rachel ruled Narnia.

-

Now Rachel was twenty years old when she began to reign. She remembered her fathers’ instruction and she walked in uprightness; yet she feared the evil that had gone into north and so devoted herself to Narnia’s fortification. It was said among some of the people that Queen Rachel did not close her eyes even to sleep.

In her first year, she ordered the forging of 5,000 iron swords from the Red Dwarves, and from the Black Dwarves 2,000 shields and 12,000 arrow tips. From the dryads she ordered 1,500 bows such as could be made of sturdy, flexible wood. She built up walls and armaments around the Tree of Protection and appointed farsighted Eagles to guard it by day and Owls by night. She established watchtowers in the Northern March; and the first armies of Narnia assembled under her general, Gripfast the centaur.

Rachel lived seventy-seven years and she begat Frank IV and daughters Lea and Dina: and having reigned fifty-seven years, she died. And she and all her descendants were buried beneath the third hill of Cair Paravel, just within the outermost fortifications.

-

Frank IV was fifty-three years old when he began to reign. He lived sixty-nine years and begat Frank V and Cainan. But Frank IV was the first Narnian king to die in battle, for in his day a wer-wolf made its den by Cauldron Pool and was terrorizing all those who came there. So the king went out alone and called the wer-wolf out to combat, and the wer-wolf tore his body apart.

When his son Cainan heard what had happened, he rode out to Cauldron Pool with twenty warriors and they vanquished the wer-wolf; and after he had done this, Cainan sailed east and became the first ruling Prince of Galma.

Having reigned sixteen years, Frank IV died, and his son Frank V ruled Narnia in his place.

-

Now Frank V was forty-three years old when he began to reign. His mother’s name was Neda, a river goddess. And he did right in the ways of Aslan, but not with his whole heart. For Frank V was a proud man and he put his own seal, not the Lion’s, on all that he did. He established the first Narnian exploratory corps, an assembly of 3,000 Birds, Antelope, and other nimble creatures sent into the wastes to report back what they saw. In this way, the lands to the south of the mountains were first discovered.

By his wife, a woman of Galma, Frank V begat Frank VI, Colin, and Col, and daughters Ellen, Nia, and Genive. And because his son Frank V was his heir, the king greatly favored him; but his other sons and daughters, the king left to their own devices.

And in that day, Aslan was seen again in Narnia's lands: for when they were young women the princesses Ellen, Nia, and Genive stood together on the eastern shore of Galma and called to him. They spoke the words of reverence and supplication which had come from the writings of Frank II, saying, "We long to see thy glory, O Aslan; Lord, shine your countenance upon us." And as they waited, behold, Aslan came to them out of the east and spoke unto the princesses face to face. Yet it is not written in this or any other book what he said to them.

Having reigned thirty-eight years, Frank V died. But Frank VI lived twenty-six years only and did not wed, for he was feeble from birth. Colin, his brother, ruled in his place.

-

Now Colin and his brother Col were much intrigued by all that lay to Narnia’s south and in youth they made a pact to establish a kingdom there together. But when Frank VI died and Colin became heir, he told his brother Col, “You must go south now so that when I am king, we may begin to build an empire together.” So Col went south into the mountains and there established Archenland.

And Colin became king when he was thirty-one years old. On the day of his coronation, he sent a dispatch of 700 Narnians to Archenland, telling them, “Build my brother a nation fit to stand beside Narnia.”

Thus Archenland grew and prospered; and travel to and from Narnia was established across the mountains. Each year, Col and his queen would winter in Narnia; and Colin and his queen, who was Ida the mountain nymph, oft summered in Archenland. In this way, the great alliance between the two nations was born.

And by Queen Ida, Colin begat Colin II and daughters Salla and Saria: and having reigned forty years, he died.

-

Now Colin II was forty years old when he began to rule. Colin II did what was right in Aslan’s eyes. In the first year of his reign, he formally dedicated Stone Table Hill to the Emperor-beyond-the-Sea. Likewise, he established days of feasting in the Lion’s honor and on those days the gates of Cair Paravel were flung wide to all who would enter. And he begat a son Cal and daughter Joianna: and having reigned nineteen years, he died. But Cal lived only nine years and his sister Joianna ruled Narnia after her father’s death.

-

Joianna was thirty-two years old when she began to rule, and her mother’s name was Sharra. Joianna was called the Dancing Queen, for she was the first ruler of Narnia to partake in the summer frolics on the Dancing Lawn. Lords came from the south and the east to beg her hand for a dance; but she married a Narnian Elm-spirit.

Yet in spite of her cognomen, Joianna loved all the arts: she was a painter and she established a school of painting which met at Lantern Waste, for she said, “It is the place of all creation.” And in her day, many masterful artworks were made, and some adorned the halls of Cair Paravel.

Joianna was patron to many of the finest artists that Narnia has yet known: she gifted fine materials to Caulkin the dwarf, who made statues of gold and bronze so lifelike that many mistook them for living creatures, and to Gleamcast the centaur she gave lengths of blue and black velvet for her tapestries.

In her last days, Joianna also established the Narnian Library at Cair Paravel, that all the histories of the world might be put to paper. And she lived for seventy-six years and with her husband begat Cal II, Caden, and a daughter Marianna: and having reigned forty-four years, she died.

-

And Cal, second of that name but the first to rule Narnia as king, lived sixty-six years. He begat Jonan, Julan, and Joianna II: and having reigned ten years, he died.

But it was during Cal’s reign that outlaws from another world appeared in the south of Archenland and began to build themselves a kingdom, which today is called Calormen. They brought laws and customs from their own place and did not pay Aslan any due. Rather, they cursed him as a demon and a false god; and when he heard news of this, King Cal’s heart stopped and his life ended.

-

Jonan was thirty-nine when he began to rule and he begat only daughters: Ira and Lyra by his wife Helin of Archenland, and Birchsilver, whose mother was a dryad: and having reigned six years, he died.

-

Now Ira lived seventy-nine years and begat Garlen, Galad, Seabreak, and a daughter Joianna III. She did not acknowledge Aslan or the ways of her fathers, but did wickedness in the Emperor’s sight. When Ira heard of the fine perfumes being sold in the new southern country, she sent an envoy south and arranged to purchase them. And when she heard that some Calormene ladies had slaves to carry them about in litters, she ordered six centaurs and two unicorns to live at the Cair and bear her astride wherever she went.

Queen Ira greatly prized her own beauty, and when she began to think that her daughter Joianna had surpassed her, Ira had a tower built at the westernmost wall of Cair Paravel, and there imprisoned her. But though her tower was not windowless, Joianna wasted away because the Eastern Sea was beyond her sight, and her beauty quickly faded. Only then did her mother the queen release her.

Having reigned fifty-two years, Ira died and was buried with her fathers.  

-

Now Garlen, Ira’s first son, lived sixty-one years; but he received a wound in his youth and could not sire children. Thus, his brother Galad ruled Narnia after Queen Ira’s death.

Galad was fifty-three years old when he began to reign, but after his half-sister’s imprisonment he began to lose his senses; and by the time he became king, he was altogether mad. Yet in spite of this impediment, he made a favorable marriage to Larin, princess of Archenland, and she bore him Cassadon and Carradon and daughters Raina, Joia, and Ellan. Because of Galad’s infirmity, his wife Larin and son Cassadon ruled Narnia in truth: and having been king thirty-eight years, Galad died.

-

Now Cassadon was instructed in the ways of wise rulership from the time he began to speak, and he walked upright before the Lion. But when his brother Carradon saw that Cassadon ruled while their father still lived, he bribed a certain satyr to kill him while he was out riding. But Cassadon dodged the blow and arrested the satyr, who told him at once what Caradon had done: and because Cassadon trusted Aslan and was forgiving in nature, he pardoned his brother and did not raise a hand against him.

But resentment still simmered in the heart of Carradon, so he went to some of the royal guards at Cair Paravel and said, “If one of you kills my brother Cassadon, I will give him his own dutchy; and if he fails, he will be pardoned, for my brother is a soft-hearted man.”

But the guards were loyal to Cassadon because he was a good and upright man, so they went before him together and told him what Carradon had asked them to do. And when he heard this, Cassadon was greatly distressed; but because he loved his brother, he placed him under house arrest and did not raise a hand against him.

Yet Carradon hated his brother all the more for his kindness, so he wrote to his brother-in-law Prodit, the husband of his sister Ellan, saying, “If you arrange to have Cassadon killed the next time he is in your house, I will make your wife my heir when I am king, and then your children will sit on the throne of Narnia.” So, the next time that Cassadon visited the house of his sister Ellan, he was given a chalice full with poison and drank it, and at once he began to spasm in his chair. But Cassadon cried out to Aslan, and the Lion preserved his life until a healer arrived. And when Ellan found out what had happened, she questioned all the members of her household until Carradon’s treachery was unveiled.

Then, after long consultation with his advisors and with Larin his mother, Cassadon brought Carradon before the Stone Table and said, “Though you are my brother, you have thrice betrayed me and sought my death. Therefore, let the Emperor-beyond-the-Sea be judge between us.” And after he had said these things, Cassadon put his brother to death on the Stone Table, and his blood ran down its surface and pooled in the letters that were graven there.

And Cassadon lived sixty years and by his wife, the maenad Lucizia, he begat a son named Gale, most famous of all the kings of Frank’s dynasty, and daughters Allia and Lightfall: and having reigned less that a year in his own name, he died.

-

Now Gale was thirty-nine years old when he began to reign. From a child, his father taught him all the histories of Narnia to instruct him in uprightness; and as a youth Gale vowed that when he ruled Narnia, he would serve Aslan with his whole heart. He was a just judge and a valiant warrior, and all the people of Narnia loved him. He reinstituted the High Festivals which Colin II had begun and invited envoys from Archenland, Galma, and even Calormen to partake in them. And a few Calormenes came to know Aslan in this way.

But Gale’s greatest deeds, it is told, took place on a series of sea-voyages to the lands to the East of Narnia. Terebinthia he discovered uninhabited, and when some of his people asked to form a colony there, Gale told them, “Go with Aslan’s blessing and devote yourselves to his service there.” But Gale remained high king over Terebinthia in those days.

The Lone Islands he found peopled with men whose ancestry traced back to that other world from which Frank and the Calormenes had first come; and the people of the Lone Islands were at great need, for a dragon had made its habitation on Doorn and was besieging the people there. But Gale mustered his Narnian forces and by Aslan’s gift defeated the dragon. In gratitude, the Lone Islands made Gale and his line their emperor forever. But even as he accepted, Gale said, “There is only one Emperor, and all the kings of the world are in his hand.”

Gale reigned forty-one years and by his wife Josephine, a shepherdess of Felimath, he begat Gale II: and when he was eighty years old, he sailed east without any crew and his likeness was never seen in Narnia again.

-

Gale II lived one hundred and thirteen years and his wife Lis begat only daughters: Galia, Raia, Lia, Blushsky, and Bee. Gale II was the richest of all Narnian kings, for under his reign the Narnia prospered and the land was abundant. The king gathered riches from the four corners of the world: musical instruments and precious gems from the north, carved decorations of coral and bone from the east, golden statues and stonework from the south, and rich wine and fruit from the west. His daughters were famous for their beauty and wit, and all made good matches: and when they married, they took heaping chests of treasure with them. But Gale retained the bulk of his wealth, and beneath Cair Paravel he caused there to be built a great Treasure House.

During the reign of Gale II, a strange people emerged west of Narnia in the land of Telmar: and the king sent them rich gifts of gold and silver and many jewels, but they were turned away. Yet the inhabitants of Telmar showed no signs of hostility against Narnia, and so the king did not prevent them from making their habitations in the west.

When the Calormenes finished building the great temple of Tash in the thirty-fifth year of his reign, the king said, “Let me go and see this great thing which has been built in the south.” So he journeyed to Tashbaan and partook in the dedication of the temple, and there he paid a great tribute in rich rubies and emeralds at Tash’s alter.  

Yet while he was in Calormen, a few Marsh-wiggles began to rebel in the north of Narnia, and the Black Dwarves, and some of the Beasts in those parts soon joined them. But Gale II ordered the rebellion crushed and the wigwams of those who had begun it were destroyed utterly.

And when they saw what the king had done to his own people, the men of Terebinthia rejected Gale II as their high king; and Gale did not oppose them, for his army was discontented.

And having reigned seventy-five years, Gale II died, and his daughter Galia reigned in his place.

-

And Galia lived ninety years, but most of her life she spent in the western dutchy of Lantern Waste with her husband, who was duke: and with her husband she begat Gale III and Carlisle, and having reigned five years, she died.

-

Gale III lived eighty-one years and like his mother did not begin to reign until he was old: for the splendor of his grandfather’s rule still hung over all Narnia. But while he ruled, the people of Narnia were free and unencumbered; but the lights of Cair Paravel were dark while Gale III reigned. And by two women he begat Gale IV and Ele: and having reigned seventeen years, he died.

-

But Gale IV lived thirty-six years only and his daughter Rosebriar, whose mother was Zehra Tarkheena, ruled Narnia in his place.

Rosebriar was thirty-eight old when she began to reign. She lived eighty-nine years and with her husband, Lord Eleon of Terebinthia, she begat Gale V, Ebeneezer (whose name came from one of Narnia’s oldest songs), and Umit. Now Queen Rosebriar was a prophet, and while dreaming Aslan gave her visions of things to come.

From a child she dreamed snow and ice, howling winds and howling wolves; but then she saw Aslan, whose radiance filled the sea, and he promised her that he would one day return to the land he had created and give four children of Frank’s root rule over Narnia.

Having dreamed all these things, Rosebriar caused four thrones to be built in the royal hall of Cair Paravel. Marble they were, graven with images from Rosebriar’s dreams, and she decreed that none should sit in those thrones until all that Aslan had promised had come to pass. And as to the rest of Queen Rosebriar’s prophecies, are they not written in her book which is stored in the Library of Cair Paravel?

Having reigned fifty-one years, Rosebriar died and her son Gale V ruled Narnia.

-

And Gale V lived seventy-seven years and begat Gale VI: and having reigned ten years, he died.

-

Gale VI was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and his mother was Ell of Archenland. Gale VI honored Aslan, and he waged wars in the north in the hope of rooting out the evil concerning which Queen Rosebriar had prophesied. But in the northern moors, no sign of the witch could be found. Yet Gale VI pushed Narnia’s northern boundary across the whole of Ettinsmoor to the foothills of the mountains, where they have remain to this very day. And Gale VI lived fifty-nine years and with his wife begat Gale VII, Galian, and Calvin: and having reigned forty-three years, he died.

-

And Gale VII lived forty-two years and married the hammadryad Greyleaf, by whom he begat twin daughters: Stonegrey and Cloudgrey. And having reigned seven years, he died.

-

Stonegrey and Cloudgrey were twenty-two years old when their father died, and because they were twins, they said to one another, “Why should one of us rule over the other?” So they reigned over Narnia jointly. They were not wicked in nature, but neither did they remember the name of Aslan, nor even the prophecies of Rosebriar their recent mother. They sat together in two of the four thrones which she had built for Aslan’s anointed, and so defiled them. When they did this, the grass began to wither across the land.

At this time, a faun named Salus came out of the west by Lantern Waste; and he visited the sister-queens at Cair Paravel. “The line of Frank is withering,” he said to them. “Return, return to the Lion, O Narnia! You will be torn from the ground as a withered tree and flung into the fire.”

Queen Stonegrey and Queen Cloudgrey heard Salus’s words, but they did not listen. Instead, they laughed and said, “Return, mad-faun, to your own place.” And the grass continued to wither, as though bitten by frost.

Stonegrey lived ninety-nine years and Cloudgrey lived sixty-six. Each of them bore a son in the same year, and the names they gave them were Fallstone and Stormsky: but they nursed their sons together, and kept them in the same nursery, and one of the children died in the night. No one was ever certain whose son had died, so they called the surviving child Stormstone, and he inherited their thrones. And having reigned with her sister forty-four years and alone thirty-three, Stonegrey died.  

-

Stormstone was seventy-one years old when he became king, and he saw no reason why he should not seat himself in one of the four thrones as his mother had done. But when he did this, the rivers and springs of Narnia began to run dry. And Stormstone knew then that he had done evil, or else he was frightened; so he cordoned off the thrones with a net of enchanted thread, that none might sit in them for a hundred years.

And insodoing it came to pass that King Stormstone became greatly learned in the magical arts and thus he went out to the Tree of Protection hoping to strengthen the protective spell that Aslan had laid on Narnia at creation. But when he inspected it, he found that the Tree sick, for only a few of its apples were sweet. But Stormstone was fearful of what the Narnians’ response would be if ever this became known, so he hid it from all but his closest advisors.

And by his wife Stormstone begat two sons, Shale and Micah: and having reigned for thirty years, he died.

-

And Shale lived eighty-eight years and by two wives he begat four sons, Calis, Tinan, Rush, and Ash, and two daughters, Deereye and Cornflax. In Shale’s day, the dwarves delved deeper into the earth than ever before, and discovered such wonders as no one had ever seen; and some of the Beasts began to live among their wild kindred and became as dumb beasts. The revelries at Dancing Lawn honored Aslan no longer, and after a while they went on day and night unceasing. Wine there was, and rich food from Calormen and the Lone Islands. And King Shale spoke Aslan’s name not once in the forty-four years he reigned.  

But the weeping willow dryad Fleba came before the king and she spoke the name of Aslan in a reedy voice. “The winter draws near,” she wept. “Aslan, the Light in the East, loves you still; but his glory will not suffer wickedness to endure.” And though the king heeded her not, she returned to his court again and again, weeping loudly.

In his old age, King Shale hosted a tourney to which he invited all the lords and ladies, kings of queens, Tarkaans and Tarkheens, and every person of beauty or skill from across the known world. And after the festivities began, the king became drunk, and when he tried to mount his horse, he fell backwards and died. And because few of his children survived him, his youngest son Ash ruled in his place.

-

Now Ash lived forty-seven years and begat Emberred and daughters Eca and Eleen. He was thirty-eight years old when he became king, but as soon as he was crowned, he indulged in all the vices of his father: and having reigned nine years, he died.

-

Emberred lived eighty-one years and begat Felfrost and a daughter Silksheen. In the thirty-sixth year of his reign, the Bear Snaggletooth appeared at the Stone Table and began to prophecy concerning the Deep Magic: “The Lion will not forget his Pride. What he has said to me, I will tell you: the Deep Magic from before the Dawn of Time was given form and word that his beloved might be redeemed. He will breathe into the remnant of his faithful ones, and not one will be lost.” All the words of that Bear were written down, for a few Narnians believed his words, and having believed they went unto the Stone Table and cleansed it, and there began be murmurings against the king.

When Emberred heard this, he ordered that Snaggletooth be put to death: so a Narnian executioner bound and muzzled him and cut him open on the Stone Table, and the his followers dispersed in fear.

Having reigned fifty-two years, Emberred died. But Silksheen spread rumors that her brother Felfrost was not his father’s trueborn son, so she ruled Narnia after Emberred’s death.

-

Silksheen lived seventy-three years and begat Firmfoot and Stronghilt: and while she was queen, there were rumors of a Marsh-wiggle who prophesied in the north. Yet when Silksheen heard of this, she said, “What news is it to hear a Marsh-wiggle proclaiming doom? Let him alone.”  And after she had reigned fourteen years, Silksheen died. And though Firmfoot was her elder son, the queen favored Stronghilt; so he ruled Narnia in his brother’s place.

-

Stronghilt was forty-nine years old when he began to reign, and he begat three sons, Goldbrow, Silverbrow, and Bronzebrow. All three were tall warriors, strongly built and with power in their arms. And once his sons were grown, the king said to himself, “Since the gods have blessed me with three such fine sons, surely I must put them to some mighty use.” So he assembled a great army not of Narnians, but of cruels, hags, incubuses, wraiths, efreets, wer-wolves, Ettin-giants, and all manner of other evil creatures from the wild lands to the north. And with that army, he marched against Archenland; and his sons were with him. But Aslan caused a great wall of cloud to come down in the mountains where Narnia’s southern boarder was, and nothing could pass through it.

So Stronghilt turned east and set his sights on the Seven Isles, but when the king and his armies set sail, Aslan caused a wall of fire to rise above the waters and encircle the Narnian coast as far as could be measured, and nothing could pass through it.

Then, in despair, Stronghilt turned his gaze west to Telmar, but before his armies could advance, his son Goldbrow slit his throat while he slept, and thus, having reigned twelve years, Stronghilt died.

-

And Goldbrow lived forty years and begat no children: and having reigned seven years, he died. And his brother Silverbrow ruled Narnia.

-

And Silverbrow lived forty years and begat no children: and having reigned seven years, he died. And his brother Bronzebrow ruled Narnia.

-

And Bronzebrow lived forty years and begat only a daughter, born in midwinter, whom he called Swanwhite: and having reigned seven years, he died.

-

Now Swanwhite was fifteen years old when she began to reign, and her beauty was so great that any pool into which she gazed held her reflection for a year and a day. And as she grew, the people of Narnia said of her, “Here, at last, is another great ruler from the line of kings.”

On the day she was crowned, a winged horse came before Swanwhite weeping great, horsey tears. It was a lovely summer day, perfectly befitting the beauty of the young queen. Yet the horse wept and spoke the Lion’s words: “Judgement comes like a sledge through snow. O my cold and lonely one, the King’s heart breaks for you.”

The queen laughed and heeded her not. It was a beautiful, gentle day and she did not think herself cold or lonely. She replied, “Be merry, fair friend; today I would have joy in all the land.”

And Swanwhite reigned in joy for a time, but in the sixth year of her reign the White Witch came out of the north at last, and at her command were all the armies of evil creatures that King Stronghilt had assembled. She began her conquest in the far northwest, and when rumors of it reached the queen she laughed and heeded them not.

But in the final days of Swanwhite’s reign over Narnia, the White Witch tore down Queen Rachel’s walls which had stood for seven hundred years around the Tree of Protection. The Tree itself she turned to stone with her wand; and her armies trampled it to pieces.

When word of the Tree’s destruction reached Swanwhite at Cair Paravel, she mustered fifty Narnian warriors and led them to Stone Table Hill, hoping to take the Witch by surprise while she was performing dark rituals there unguarded. In this, Swanwhite failed. The Witch turned her warriors into stone and had the statues carried away; but Swanwhite herself was bound and gagged and the White Witch slew her on the Stone Table.

Swanwhite lived twenty-five years and begat no children: and having reigned nine years, she died. And the White Witch ruled over Narnia.

[saninthebuilding]

love kills. or does it? - xavier thorpe

summary: crackstone has been brought back from the dead, and it seems that along with mass destruction, there are also some other forms of chaos to be dealt with. feelings, so to speak.

(inspired by the last episode of wednesday)

word count: 2.1k (i got excited)

warnings: potential spoilers for wednesday, modified plot, swearing, emotions, mention of injury & blood, L-bombs, confession, xavier & reader being idiots in love

a/n: recently finished wednesday and i cannot tell you how bad i have wanted to write something for xavier since then. and i finally did!

hope you enjoy it! <3

~

there was chaos everywhere.

students were screaming as they ran out the front gates of nevermore, grabbing their friend's sleeves to drag each other away from the large fire sparking in the center of the quad. people collided and stumbled as they shoved past in an attempt to get away.

crackstone was back.

ms.thornhill- or should i say laurel, had been successful in resurrecting the century-old outcast-hater in his crypt because i was unable to stop her in time.

and now he was wrecking havoc all throughout the nevermore campus.

crackstone was back.

and it was all my fault.

gritting my teeth, i forced a path through the crowd of panicked students, attempting to reach the quad before any real damage could be brought about.

this is my fault.

the fact that it had come to crackstone actually being able to fulfill the prophecy of destruction was on my hands.

maybe xavier was right-

no.

rowan's mother had painted that based on a vision, and they only gave the seer half the story. i had learned that countless times based on my own experiences.

i can fix this.

anger rising at the chaos surrounding me, i managed to find an opening between the students and pushed forward, ignoring the shouts of protest from my peers as they tried to piece together why i was going in the opposite direction.

i rushed into the quad and headed straight to the staircase. from what i could recall, there was a sword set on display on the upper floor of the building.

if i can get that, i can finish this.

halfway up the stairs, i heard a scream and whirled around, peering over the railing to see crackstone entering the quad, staff glowing green.

"i have arrived to rid the world of thy kind!" he roared, energy pulsating through the air.

shit.

taking the stairs two at a time, i slid into the hall of the second floor and instantly spotted the blade. spirits rising, i ran towards the case and swiped it off the stand, giving it a quick once over before turning back towards the staircase.

running down the steps, i went over what goody had told me back in the crypt.

through his black heart, huh?

when you put it like that, his teeth and his heart seemed to be twins.

clearing the final step, i rushed into the quad, and saw crackstone raise his staff at a couple huddled together in front of him.

seriously, did she really step in to protect him? ridiculous.

"howdy, pilgrim." i called to the walking-dead man before he could blast the two of them to ash.

he whirled around, shock etched across his rotting face, and the pair of love-struck fools took the chance to rush out of the main gates to safety.

no wonder there's that saying about love and death.

"how canst thy heart still beat?" crackstone spits, his eyes wide and filled with rage.

"the real question here is how can yours? you look like a walking corpse. oh wait- that's exactly what you are." i adjust my grip on the blade in my hand, before looking the man up and down.

"quite an ugly walking corpse as well."

his face twisted inhumanely, and he let out a seething roar as he raised his staff, moving to charge at me.

suddenly, there were thuds echoing behind me, and a voice yelled out-

"stay away from her!"

xavier.

i spun around, eyes wide and breathing ragged, just in time to see him shoot the arrow lodged into his bow at crackstone. it sped through the air straight at the space between the man's eyes, directly on target-

but it didn't hit its mark.

i watched in horror as crackstone raised his staff, and it glowed green as the arrow simply...froze in place. he twisted his fingers, and the arrow turned in midair, aiming for xavier.

no.

crackstone spread his palm, and the energy his staff released compelled the arrow toward xavier.

no.

i lunged forward, throwing myself into the arrow's path. it struck me straight in the chest, and the sheer force of it threw me off balance. the sword i was holding flew out of my hand as i rolled across the wet grass beneath me, before landing hard on my back.

"no!" xavier cried out, and within seconds he was at my side.

"y/n! what the fuck- would you do that!" he snapped, but instead of anger, there was fear in his voice. his eyes fell on the arrow sticking out of my chest, before meeting my own.

he's scared.

"go, xavier" i winced, struggling to keep my breaths even. i gripped the arrow at the base, before clenching my teeth down and breaking the shaft from as low as possible. i let out a scream as my vision blurred, and my body jerked upward at the sudden pressure being applied to the wound.

"y/n!" xavier's voice was full of panic, and he instantly moved to help me, but i pushed him away with my free arm, exhaling sharply at the pinpricks of pain shooting through my sternum.

"i'll be fine, but you need to help the others."

he stayed crouched next to me, shifting slightly to take the other half of the arrow from me and throwing it away, showing no sign of moving. grimacing, i reached over to grip the hand he had placed on my shoulder and squeezed.

"go, xavier."

his eyes locked on mine, and he hesitated for a moment. suddenly there was a scream echoing from somewhere behind him, and he shook his head, before squeezing back and forcing himself to stand.

he ran.

i watched him go and pull the last few students who were standing around with him out the gates of nevermore, before i turned over and pulled myself up.

ah, that's what the saying is. "love kills."

i stomped down on the handle of the blade, and it shot into the air.

but is this love?

ignoring the thoughts rushing through my mind and pangs of protest from the arrowhead that was still lodged into my skin, i turned to face crackstone.

whatever. at least if i die tonight, it'll be in a swordfight and not of blood loss.

"i suppose you seek an honourable death by my hands" he sneered, before swinging at me with his staff.

"oh please, as if a dead man attacking innocent civilians has any honour" i bit back as i ducked out of the way, before jabbing at his side. he sputtered angrily, deflecting my blade and swiped low, aiming for my feet.

i jumped backwards, slashing the sword up at his face, but rather than nicking skin i ended up knocking his hat off his head.

it hit the floor with a light thump, and crackstone stared at it for a second, frozen in place, before looking up me and letting out a snarl.

"you seem to be taking the revelation of your thinning hair a bit too personally" i smirked, but was quickly overwhelmed by the sudden blast of energy his staff let out. it hit me with more force than the arrow, and i was thrown into the building wall behind me. my sword shattered upon impact, metal bits flying everywhere.

"or a lot too personally" i wheezed, struggling to breathe under the pressure of his magic. a metallic scent filled the atmosphere, and i could feel goosebumps rising on my skin.

"silence, you wretched piece of filth!" crackstone roared, and i felt the strain on my body increase as his magic surged, trapping me. i gasped, fighting for air as my lungs were crushed by the invisible force he had over me.

crackstone grinned at me, his face scrunching up to reveal numerous scars and missing teeth. "finally, thy voice will be silenced forev-"

he didn't get to finish his sentence because there was a blade pointing through his stomach. from behind.

the attacker pulled the sword out of crackstones chest, and it distracted the man enough to weaken his hold on his powers. i slid down the wall and landed on my side, letting out a hiss of pain.

"be gone, you vile creature!" crackstone roared, and i looked up to see him hit xavier in the head with his staff, sending him stumbling back into the fountain.

"no!" i yelled, pulling myself up once again, except this time everything was drowned out. the pain from the arrow wound, the exhaustion from being thrown up against the wall, everything.

except xavier.

i grabbed one of the blade shards that were littered across the grass, and as crackstone turned his attention back to me, stabbed him straight through the heart.

he let out a sputtering sound, looking down at the metal lodged into his flesh. i pushed it deeper, twisting it for good measure, before looking up at him.

"you be gone, you fucking waste of space."

as if on cue, he burst into ashes, and the magic he had both within and around him flooded the quad. i held my ground, and when the air was clear, rushed to xavier's side.

"xavier!" i breathed, dropping down next to him. cringing at the pain that was resurfacing from my arrow wound, i gently pulled his head into my lap, before brushing his hair out of his face to get a look at his head.

"you're a fool, you know that? why the hell would you come back?"

trying hard not to panic, i cut off a strip of my skirt to wrap around the wound, only to stop as i felt him shifting in my grip. looking down, i saw him staring up at me with an unbelieving look on his face.

"are you serious right now?" he breathed, and i raised my eyebrows in question as i proceeded to wrap his head. pushing my hands away, he exhaled sharply as he pushed himself to sit up.

"stop moving!" i snapped, gripping the side of his face with one hand to keep him in place. using the other, i finished tying the cloth together. "you might have a concussion."

"'why would i come back?'" he ignored my protests and pointed at my chest. "you took a goddamn arrow for me and you're telling me i can't try to save you?"

"you could have died!"

"so could you!"

"but i didn't!" i said, gesturing at my completely alive self.

"what if you did? huh? then what?" xavier was getting increasingly irritated, and i couldn't figure out why.

there's no way-

"what do you care?" i tsked, and was about to tell xavier to drop it but he was faster.

"because i love you!" he yelled, "i love you, y/n! for fucks sake, i love you, and that's why i care!"

i froze in place, my heart pounding in my chest.

i suppose that love does not actually kill, which means that whoever said that line was terribly wrong.

"what?"

"did you not hear me? i said i-"

i cut him off before he could finish his sentence, grabbing the sides of his face to pull him down to mine.

and kissed him.

xavier let out a startled sound, before letting one hand rest on my hip as he gripped my collar with the other. i could feel the sweat and blood coating his skin, but it was nothing compared to the feeling of him.

despite the chaos, his hands were steady and he was sure of himself as he kissed me back. i let my hands wander, tangling them into the hair at his nape, tugging gently. he groaned slightly before letting out a surprised laugh, and i laughed as well, savouring the fact that he was here and he was safe and he was alive.

ironically, i seem to have become the very fool i was unimpressed by not so long ago.

i pulled away, breaths coming out in short gasps as i gazed up at him, clutching onto the front of his sweater.

xavier opened his eyes and gazed down at me, breathless. his eyes were blown wide, and there was a small smile playing on his lips.

then again, you don't fall in love every day.

and he was just so, so, beautiful.

"be mine" i whispered.

he stared at me, before sighing.

"y/n, i have always been yours. you just had to ask."

my heart sped up- "will you?"

"of course."

i smiled, wrapping my arms around his torso and resting my head against his chest. i could feel my wound protesting, but for now i focused on him and only him.

"i love you, xavier"

xavier placed a hand on the back of my head, carefully drawing me close and placed a soft kiss on the top of my head.

"i love you, y/n."

[kittydemon9000]

The Beginning of Heatstroke, aka Red's Villain Origin

* crashes down from the ceiling * I HAVE FINALLY FINISHED ONE OF MY 5+ CURRENT WRITING PROJECTS! BEHOLD, A WRITTEN VERSION OF THE 'Red's Villain Origin AU', also known as RVO / Heatstroke AU

To summarize the AU for SPBNR for those that don't now it: 

“Who'd be the biggest conspiracy theorist out of the M!Ninja? The one who drinks 5 hour energy at 3am and spits off the craziest theories and then actually gets it right but nobody gives the theory any merit because the rest of the theories are too crazy?”

The answer: Red / M!Kai

Red: Okay hear me out: Smith is actually an alternative version of one of us sent here from another dimension.

The other M!Ninja: You’re just saying that because Smith’s cool and you want him to be your counterpart

Based on the M!ninja making red cork boards trying to figure out ‘What Is Up With Smith’: Red gets increasingly accurate and nobody will believe him (all pre shogun reveal) and he eventually snaps and takes up a secret villain persona to fight Shogun like 'if they won't believe me I'll do it myself' and it gets awkward when he accidentally does too much damage and catches not only Shogun's attention like planned, but also the rest of the Ninjaforce, and now he has to keep his own identity a secret

So, without further ado, I present... Heatstroke

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

Red blamed the 5-hour energy coffee blend at 3:00am for this.

It was no surprise that between ‘Operation: What’s Going on with Smith’ & the sudden appearance of Shogun that the resident Bounty red-stringed ‘joke’ cork-board doubled in size and seriousness. It also was no surprise that Red had a corner all to himself and that his theories were… in the words of the others, ‘wildly inaccurate and implausible’.

But this time, he was sure he’d gotten it right.

Smith is Shogun sent here from another continent/planet/dimension with the goal of protecting Ninjago City.

The latest string of laughs and scoffs at his theory was the last straw. He’d show them. He’d prove it!

Which was why he was currently standing on the roof of a noodle house, awkwardly adjusting the spare motorcycle helmet he’d ‘borrowed’ from Nya and painted black and orangey-yellow (red had seemed too obvious). He’d exchanged his Ninjaforce outfit for a soot-burned cross between a bomber jacket and a leather jacket. Down his back jutted a row of flames like the spines of a monster, courtesy of one of Nya & Jay’s unfinished inventions Red had modified- surely nothing bad would come of that!

For tonight, the Red Ninja was off-duty. For tonight, it was Heatstroke’s turn.

He fiddled with one of the weapons he’d ‘lent out’ from Master Wu. It resembled a small arm canon, like a smaller version of the Ultimate Weapon. The plaque under its post had read ‘Elemental Focuser’, which, in cryptic Wu speak, probably translated to ‘you can use an elemental power like something out of Avatar: The Last Airbender’. So far he’d only figured out how to activate a focused jet of fire. Well, at least it was on brand. He hoped it would help him catch Shogun’s attention so he could unmask him.

He’d tried confronting Smith at school, of course. But there were only so many ways of saying ‘are you the new vigilante helping the ninjas’, and Smith has a genuine talent for dancing around the topic. Red could confront him with the name Shogun to get a proper reaction, but that would mean explaining how he knew the name and outing himself as the Red Ninja.

So fake villainy really was the only way.

His plan was to use the Elemental Focuser to cause some minor petty damage, just enough to attract the new vigilante. Perhaps set a trash can on fire, block an alleyway with rocks (if he figured out how to change the setting from fire to earth), small things that could easily be repaired.

Of course, plans were never actually stuck to. One way or another, something was always improvised.

Red’s improvisation just happened to involve him accidentally setting the entire alleyway on fire.

He’d only been aiming for one dumpster, honest! And maybe he’d spotted a couple fliers for a SoG meeting on the ground and happened to burn those too. And a newspaper article blaming Lloyd for the recent Garmadon attack, again. And an article about those ‘Damn Ninja Menaces’ by a S. Sonah Sameson. And-

Okay, so maybe Red had aimed the fire at a few small targets. But just a few! And with good reason and good care, but…

Well, fire liked to burn. Give it enough kindle and it’ll continue to grow, stretching like reaching branches towards each other to join in a massive bonfire. 

So now the entire alleyway was on fire, and Red was panicking. 

He’d luckily chosen an abandoned part of town near the beaches where Shogun sightings seemed most frequent, but with the stupid Elemental Focuser not switching from fire mode to water mode or ice mode or something that didn’t have the potential to burn Ninjago City to the ground, Red had no way of stopping the flames.

And more flames meant more destruction which meant a bigger audience.

Which was why his previously muted comm suddenly flared to life, the only warning Red had before Nya’s water strider mech slid around the corner.

Red scrambled onto a roof as the mech drove past, spraying water at the bonfire to dose it. His sigh of relief was just as quickly dosed as Lloyd’s voice came over the comms; “Status, Grey?”

“Flames are out,” Nya replied. “Pursing the joker that set it ablaze.”

Uh oh. Red took off across the roof, leaping from building to building. Tiles creaked, pebbled and dust scattering underfoot. The sounds of the mech’s engine roaring behind him echoed through alleyways below to create the illusion the mech was everywhere at once. 

As the chase grew on, more mechs started to join in. Red ducked into a narrow avenue to avoid Zane’s tank, then under a cafe overhang to throw off Jay and Lloyd. His heart hammered in his chest and he groaned, filling the inside of the motorcycle helmet with steam. Saying this was going ‘bad’ would be the understatement of the century. 

What had he been thinking? Oh wait: he hadn’t. Seriously? ‘Oh I’ll just pretend to be a villain real quick, that should get Shogun’s attention and not the attention of literally my entire team of fellow ninjas!’ Stupid, impulsive, this was why everyone was always calling the red ninja the ‘hothead’ when he really tried not to be- Lloyd’s voice over the comms snapped him from his thoughts. “I can’t catch them! It’s like they know our every move!”

Red winced as he climbed up a banister and leapt from balcony to balcony. Sorry, Lloyd. 

He didn’t miss how the others asked Nya where Red was. And how she made up excuses the others bought so easily- granted, he’d told those excuses to his sister before setting his plan into motion, but still, ouch. They acted like he was simply being at best too busy and at worst lazy and selfish.

He just wanted them to know the truth! Why couldn’t they at least try to believe him when-

Of course, that was when Shogun dropped out of the sky and tackled him.

Red shouted with surprise as he tumbled down from the second floor, slamming into a few softer bags of garbage to break his fall before rolling and slamming into the unforgiving concrete. A crack formed in his vision as the visor of his motorbike helmet smacked into the concrete ground. One of the fire jets on his back sputtered and sparked, sending a thin wisp of smoke into the air.

Shogun pinned his wrists to the ground and growled. “Who are you?”

Red tried to break free, agony turning his muscles and bones to fire with the movement after his fall, but the vigilante was too strong. Damn, how often did this guy train?

“Who am I?” Red said, a nervous tinge to his voice. He quickly smoothed it over with faked confidence. “Who are you? Who are all of us, really?”

Shogun narrowed his eyes behind his hood. “Did Garmadon send you? Or someone else?”

Red sputtered. Really, the nerve! Garmadon? The thought turned his insides to disgusting mud. “Nobody sent me!”

“Then why are you here?” Shogun spat.

“Why am I here?” Why was he here again? Oh right, the bright idea on how to reveal that Shogun was Smith. “It’s, uh… a valid reason! That I don’t have to tell you!” He tried for a villainous laugh. Stay in character, don’t blow your cover, you got this!

Shogun was unimpressed. “Nearly burning down my home was a valid reason?”

“Well, I wasn’t trying to set everything on- wait, WHAT?” Uh oh. “You LIVE here?”

Now it was Shogun’s turn to look uncomfortable, though the expression was quickly wiped from his face. “Nothing wrong with this district.” 

Red nodded. “‘Course not. Uh, sorry about that… wasn’t my intention, I swear.”

Shoot, he could hear Jay’s jet getting closer. He had to get out of here, but Shogun, annoyingly, didn’t seem to be in the mood to simply let him go. “Then what is your intention?”

“Well, for starters, it’s getting out of here. This really isn’t going to plan and I’d rather just be home right now, or even inventing a time machine like in that book ‘Hands of Time’ to slap my past self in the face for even thinking about this stupid idea in the first place-“

Jay wasn’t the only one that could ramble under pressure, it seemed.

Shogun leaned closer. “What idea?”

Red shrugged as best he could with how he was pinned to the ground. “Well, for starters, I just wanted to prove to my friends that you’re Smith, and things just kinda escalated from-”

The words were out of his mouth before he realized what he said. 

Shogun lurched back, letting go of him. His eyes betrayed a kaleidoscope of emotions; surprise, worry, suspicious, hurt, fear, realization. 

“…Kai?”

Well, f!ck.

“I-“

Red was about to badly attempt to bullsh!t his way out of his identity reveal before it suddenly dawned on him that Shogun had not denied his theory. 

Which meant Shogun was Smith.

And it also meant Smith instantly recognized him as Kai, which, considering his disguise, was aptly concerning. Sure, he was the first one in his group of friends people would think to do something this extreme but give him some credit! Zane was a regular detective, he’d do the same if it meant answers! Or, well, at least something similar. And Nya could be an adrenaline seeker. And Lloyd- well, maybe not Lloyd. Or Jay, either. Cole had his head just enough on his shoulders that he probably wouldn’t do this either.

But come on, instantly guessing it?

Well, at least Smith/Shogun didn’t know Kai was the Red Ninja. That would be a catastrophe.

Right. Back to the current catastrophe at hand.

Shogun- Smith- still had a look as if he’d been slapped, and Red hated it. He hadn’t meant to hurt his friend. Shogun… Shogun hadn’t wanted them to find out his identity. And then Red had gone and done it, just to prove that he could be the smart one, or a leader, or the protector so they didn’t get hurt, or literally anything but just the ‘hotheaded one’. 

…And he’d done it in the most hotheaded, impulsive way possible.

He really was an idiot.

The cracked helmet hid the look on his face, a twisted mess of distraught and shame. But it didn’t help hide how he took stumbled to his feet and away from Smith, nervous that any second he’d spill another mistake and mess up again, like how he always freaking messed up on everything. Don’t pick this fight, interject there instead, no, not there, idiot, there, FMS why are you so useless-

Focus, focus.

Lloyd’s voice, sharp in the intercom and full of static from his tumble, snapped him from his thoughts. “Anyone got eyes on the arsonist?”

Red caught Smith’s eye as he raised his hand to his own communicator. He was so screwed, so busted, so doomed… Smith would report it, and the others would know, and they’d think he was just messing around in an alleyway with some stolen devices and weapons out of curiosity or rage, - and-

“None yet, still looking.”

…What?

Smith stared at him, gaze searching. He looked shaken, more so than Red- who’d just taken a fall from a second story, mind you, it was a miracle he wasn’t more injured than a couple small scrapes and some future bruises-, yet everything from the set of his jaw to the softening of his furrowed brows suggested a change in emotions. Well, not quite change; more like repress and replace.

“You wanted to prove yourself, didn’t you.”

Red flushed, hand instinctually clamping into a tight fist at his side. The still-working fire jets on his back ignited without him pressing any buttons; faulty activation from the fall or something. 

Palms up and hands raised, Smith silently asked to defuse the situation. “Didn’t mean it as an insult. This wasn’t about venting some anger, was it.”

Red’s lack of response only confirmed it. Smith continued. “I won’t say anything about this if you don’t tell anyone my identity. Deal? I know finding it out was important to you, but-“

“Deal,” Red interrupted. Guilt ate away at his core, like a wave of water dousing a candle. “Smith, I-“ He swallowed hard and stared at the alley floor. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to… to…”

Smith’s hand was suddenly on his shoulder and he flinched before relaxing as Smith didn’t move further, nor did the grip tighten. “I’m a little hurt, you’re right. But I’m not mad. And I won’t tell the others, so you can relax. But you better get out of here and get yourself an alibi. We can talk at school or something.”

Wow, he was handling this rather calmly. Red was struck by the sudden memory of- what did Jay call the word? Right. Compartmentalizing. That… wasn’t healthy. But at the roar of Lloyd’s mech somewhere nearby, he didn’t comment further. Instead, he shot Smith a grateful nod and ran down the alley, sticking to the shadows and blind spots of the flying mechs and the tight alleyways where the land mechs couldn’t reach him. 

When he got home, miraculously without further incident (though Shogun leading the others on a wild goose chase over the comms certainly helped there), he ditched the outfit in a bag hidden beneath a loose floorboard in the shed. He’d return the weapon to Master Wu’s ship later, and… well, hope Nya never searched for the missing supplies. There wasn’t a way of fixing it without involving her or Jay, and neither was an option.

Heatstroke was back off duty, and so was the Red Ninja.

For now, he could just be Kai Smith. And there wasn’t any issue with that.

…

Right?

—————

yooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

THIS IS AMAZING REHJJGFHDESFXJVZ

and ah yes, good ol trauma and compartmentalizing, we love to see it

[kavikaslana]

S/O catching Setsuno, Chronostasis, Overhaul, Shigaraki, Denki, and/or Dabi cheating on them with their friend

Gotcha darling <3

My heart broke with shiggy’s with me being the simp I am, so I had to modify his a little bit.

I can’t think with overhaul right now, so you’re only getting 5 of them until I can clear my head. They also seem to get shorter as you go down the list, so sorry!

Angst | GN! reader | SFW

Shigaraki, Setsuno, Denki, Chrono (Hari), and Dabi getting caught cheating

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Dabi

He was gone for days at a time, and he never told you where he was going. His phone was always faced down when he set it down, and he changed his password. You just thought it was private information for the league. Slowly, he started to get cocky, leaving his notifications open for you to see. On the screen flashed your friend’s name and phone number.

Waiting until night, you silently followed him out the door, waiting an extra few minutes to make sure he wasn’t coming back. 

Standing only a few feet away, was your boyfriend who you loved so dearly, holding your friend like she’d disappear if he let go.

“Do you think they’ll find out?” she asked, her eyes locking with his.

“Don’t worry, I made sure they wouldn’t know. Besides, even if they did, I’d rather have you. I’m only with them for ranks.” he said. Your heart shattered like glass. Was that really why?

“I’m right here, assholes.” you said, making sure they could hear you loud and clear. Their heads instantly snapped back in your direction. “I thought I could trust both of you... I guess I thought wrong” you said quietly, trying to hold back your tears.

“Baby wait-” Dabi tried to speak, but unfortunately for him, all he got from it was a hard punch to his stomach. 

You ran away, immediately getting rid of any evidence that either of them had been in your life. The only thing you could do now was watch, leaving you to question what else in your life was fake...

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Shigaraki 

Eyes focused only on his figure as he held someone else in his arms. He promised to change the world for you, he promised you he’d do anything to make you happy. Was that all a lie?

“Shig- please tell me its a prank...” you said quietly.

He knew what he was doing, he knew it’d break your heart if you found out. He tried his best to hide it, but his “new lover” had found your number in his phone and messaged you to meet them somewhere. He didn’t care about them, he just needed the information they had. 

They spoke up. “Sorry sweetheart, guess your luck ran out! Oh well, you could always try again with someone else. Better luck next time!” they mocked, holding his hand tighter as he lowered his head in defeat. 

Your tears spilled from your eyes, soaking into the fabric of your clothes and the concrete below you. “I thought... I thought you loved me...” you said in defeat, your voice cracking as you lowered your head, refusing to met their glare. 

He let go of them and approached you, holding you like his life depended on it. “I didn’t mean it, let me explain... please! I’ll do anything! I did it for us, Y/N, I swear! Please... don’t leave me, I don’t want to be alone again.” he whispered in your ear as the person behind him glared daggers at you. His tears soaked into your shirt as his grip only tightened. 

He picked you up and carried you back to your shared apartment, setting you down on the counter as he kissed your cheek, trying to fix his mistake. He shouldn’t have taken the offer, not if it meant there’d be a chance you’d leave him. His tears mixed with your own as you stayed silent, an occasional sob falling from your lips as he tried to show you that he didn’t mean it.

“It was for you, I’ll explain later if you wish. Just please don’t go, I can’t handle that...” he said softly, “I promise I’ll fix it, I promise I’ll be a better boyfriend, I swear on my life I’ll make it alright, I’ll do anything you want, just don’t leave. I need you, Y/N. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, just don’t go... please. We’ll go wherever you want, you can keep me locked up in a room for all I care, I just want you, no one else! I’ll make it up to you, I swear.” 

He went back to kissing you, stopping to wipe yours tears and his as he pulled you against him. For the rest of the night, you stood there with him, trying to process what had happened, and what he promised you. 

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

Denki

You knew Denki was a flirt, you knew what you had gotten yourself into when you agreed to go on a date with him. You never thought he’d take it this far though.

He promised you that he never meant anything he said to them, he promised you that you were the only one for him, and that everyone else was just entertaining, nothing else.

Yet here he was, kissing your childhood friend, the two people you would trust with your life, had torn you apart atom by atom. 

“Why... What’d I do wrong! If you weren’t happy, you could’ve just been honest...” you said, tears already forming in your eyes as only your “friend” turned to look at you. 

“I’m sorry, Y/N. I didn’t think we were serious.” he said, his tone casual and energetic, like he didn’t even care. 

You ran down the block, only your friend went after you.

“Y/N! I’m so sorry! He told me he was single, I didn’t know anything, I promise! If I had known, I would’ve declined his offer...” she said, tears going down her face as well. She seemed more apologetic than Denki ever was. 

“I-... I can’t just forgive you, y’know? I’m sorry, you can have him, I don’t care anymore. Just don’t talk to me again, I just need time to think...” 

All she did in response was nod her head.

You slid down the wall of a bookstore, watching people across the street, specifically couples, trying to imagine that was you and Denki instead of two unfamiliar faces.

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Chronostasis 

Hari Kurono, a respected thug, in a relationship with Y/N L/N. You knew it was too good to be true. He was pretty, he had some power, and he was a respected yakuza member, second only to Overhaul. 

You were taking care of Eri for the day, you were going to take her to an amusement park, but you came back to grab your bag. In your shared room, was Hari with another woman. His mask was off, and the girl was swooning over him. She even kissed him, and he didn’t do anything, You stood there in silence, slowly backing out, but a floorboard creaked. 

“Y/N?! It’s not what it looks like!” He frantically shouted, pushing the girl off of him and running to you. 

“Really? Then tell me, why are there lipstick marks on you? I don’t even use makeup, jerk!” You yelled back, trying not to curse since Eri was in the next room over. 

You ran out before a big scene could form. You’d deal with it later, but you didn’t want to cry in front of Eri. You picked her up and ran out, not even bothering to look back as he called out for you. 

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Setsuno

He left his mask on your bed. You thought it was a mistake, since Overhaul always made him wear his mask. After about an hour of searching for him, you decided to track his phone. Overhaul would kill him if he found out he didn’t take his mask. 

As you approached the spot he was supposed to be at, it led you straight to a restaurant, one that he would always take you to for date nights. You saw the familiar green shirt and yellow hair, but there was someone else. He noticed you right away as you dropped his mask, taking the knife that was in it. 

He chased you out of the restaurant, frantically calling out your name. “Y/N! Wait! Slow down, I can explain! Please just listen to me!” he yelled, but you continued to sprint down the street, his knife still in your hand. 

He caught up with you and grabbed your wrist. You turned back to face him as he took the knife from you, throwing it across the road. 

“Y/N, please listen to me! I-” he started, only to be cut off by a hard slap to his face.

“Toya! I trusted you! You always said how much you hated cheaters, and here you are, cheating on me with some slut! I’m fucking done with this! Tell Overhaul I quit, I don’t ever want to see you again!’“ You yelled back. His heart broke as he realized what you said, that you were right.

The thing that had broke him had broke you, and it was all his fault. He watched as you walked away, your tears dropping onto the sidewalk. When he got back, your things were already gone, and you had already blocked him on every platform you could think of. He sank to the floor as he cried, his hair covering his face. 

You had forgotten something.

Under the bed, was a box he had given you. It was filled with pictures of you two, gifts he had given you, jewelry, plushies, knives with your names engraved in them, everything. He started picking out object from the box, until he had found a small black box. Inside was ring.

The same ring he has proposed to you with, the very thing he had sworn to love you forever with, was in his hand. He had covered the box with small hearts and even put a picture of you two inside of it. It was the exact same ring, and it was still in perfect condition. He picked it out for you, and you had taken great pride in it, showing it off to the other precepts as you dragged him around with you. His heart broke into a million pieces. The only difference now, was that you were gone. 

There were so many things he wanted to do with you, so many things he wanted to experience with you. He would’ve loved to start a family with you, and don’t get him started on marrying you. He could’ve died peacefully knowing you were his partner for life. Now, he would never get to do that.

 All he had left of you was a small box, flashing memories that he wished he could have back. A constant reminder of you, the perfect lover in his eyes, were now out of his reach, all because of him.

[goldenworldsabound]

The Onsen Episode

This is technically for the “Misty” samhain selfship prompt which I KNOW is a stretch but let me have this lol. I want to say that this fic falls completely outside any semblance of canon. But I couldn’t resist writing this down once Set-chan and I discussed the idea :p

Word count: 1295

Content warning: mention of (but no description of) non-sexual nudity

All Auron had wanted was a relaxing break in the onsen. The rising steam of the hot water as it mixed with the brisk day made him feel at ease despite missing his usual shades and collar. It was peaceful.

Or at least, it would have been, had he not been stuck with Tidus and Wakka. The two couldn't seem to sit still in the hot water, pushing each other and generally making a nuisance of themselves. Kimahri chose not to partake in the hot water, sitting cross legged on a nearby rock, quietly observing.

Auron closed his eye, resting his arms on the edge of the pool. Perhaps he could block them out.

"Hey Auron!"

Auron groaned at Tidus' loud voice. He cracked his eye open, shooting daggers at Tidus, who was directly in front of him, with a grin on his face. A mischievous, boyish grin. Auron could already tell he wasn't going to like this. And there was Wakka beside him, a similar boyish expression on his face.

"Yes, Tidus?" Auron asked, trying to keep his tone even.

"So you and Wendy, huh..." Tidus said slyly, waggling his brows.

"You two seem close, ya?" Wakka asked. Both of them watched for Auron's reaction.

"...that is none of your concern." Auron replied. At least his face was already flushed from the hot water. He looked to the side, willing them to leave him alone.

"Don't be like that!" Tidus responded with a pout, crossing his arms. It became a smile soon enough. "It's obvious, so there's no point in hiding it!"

"I'm not being like anything." Auron shot back, looking clearly annoyed. "I'm not hiding anything."

"That's good ya, cause if you were trying to hide it you've been doing a terrible job." Wakka added.

"Hide. What." Auron asked through gritted teeth, despite himself.

"That you're in love with Wendy!" Tidus blurted out.

"I-" Auron flushed darker. He wasn't sure what he'd expected but he found himself at a loss. "I am not!"

"Dunno, seems like she's the only person you get a little tender and soft around, ya?" Wakka smirked. "It's real easy to see you know."

"You must be imagining things." Auron snapped, scowling. "I don't get tender or soft for anyone-"

"Kimahri thinks that you are in denial." Kimahri interjected, crossing his arms and staring directly at Auron, who looked back with barely masked surprise. "And Kimahri is certain that Wendy cares for you, too."

Everyone stared at Kimahri for a moment.

"If even Kimahri knows, it sounds like you're just gonna have to accept it, Auron." Tidus continued smugly, raising a thumbs up at Kimahri, who stared at him for a moment before looking away.

"..." Auron closed his eye, pressing his lips together into a thin line. He opened his eye again, and suddenly shifted to send a wave of water at Tidus and Wakka with his arm. The two boys yelped in surprise before the water hit them. "Just let me rest in peace." He grumbled, settling back into his spot on the side of the spring.

"Oh no, it is ON now, right Wakka?!" Tidus said, glancing at Wakka.

"It sure is!" Wakka agreed. They both looked at Auron, and began violently splashing water at him.

"I'm going to make sure you both regret that."

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

Meanwhile, in the other bath, Yuna, Lulu, Rikku, and Wendy were having an animated conversation about battle tactics.

"Wow, mechs are so cool! I'm so grateful the Al-Bhed didn't let our knowledge of them die out." Wendy said, smiling at Rikku.

"YEAH! It's too important to just let it go!" Rikku replied with a passionate punch to the air. "Magic is really cool and all, but I don't see why we can't have both."

"It's certainly something I hadn't questioned much, until this journey." Lulu added thoughtfully.

"I hadn't either. Wendy did her best to keep her secret mech projects away from us." Yuna said with a giggle.

"Aha, clearly not good enough, I didn't realize you'd seen any of them." Wendy laughed a little.

"You had secret mech projects?!" Rikku asked, slapping her hands onto her face, before flailing them in the air. "Tell me tell me!"

"They weren't very impressive! Most of them were failures. And out on Besaid I didn't have much access to tech anyway." Wendy pouted a bit. "I was just...curious if I could make...well, I tried to make something that would respond to magic and put it on the television. Like, the...the form of the energy, I guess. But I think that was rather ambitious for someone with my level of knowledge."

"Ooh, that sounds cool though!" Rikku's eyes were sparkling.

"I had no idea. Was there some application you had in mind?" Lulu asked.

Wendy shook her head. "No, not really. I guess I was curious if different types of magic showed up differently. Especially if my modifications to spells like Blizzaga actually made a difference in strength or structure or if it was...pointless?"

"Oh but Wendy, it's so clear that your modified spells are different than other peoples'!" Yuna chimed in. "Using Blizzaga to make a defensive move is...simply unheard of!"

"She's right." Lulu nodded in agreement.

"Well yeah, but with spells like Shell and Protect and even the Nul Element spells it seems...superfluous. Like, sure it lets me create somewhat equivalent effects without learning white magic, but I do know white magic, and I'm not sure if there would even really be a time savings..." Wendy sighed.

"Things can be cool without serving a purpose." Rikku added, shrugging. "Not everything has to be the most important thing ever."

"Ha, okay, fair." Wendy smiled. "Thanks, everyone." The group went quiet for a moment. It was then that they heard splashing and yelling coming from the other bath.

Lulu shook her head. "Why in Spira are they yelling?" She asked, looking up at the sky with disbelief and a hint of a scowl.

"Uh, I hope everything is okay over there...what if there's a fiend or something?" Yuna gasped, putting her hands over her mouth.

"I think they'd probably let us know. But they're big boys anyway they can handle it!" Rikku giggled. "Even if it'd look a little funny fighting naked."

Her remark seemed to shut up Wendy, who had been just about to speak. Her face flushed, as did Yuna's.

"Fighting...naked." Wendy mumbled, staring down at the water. She slid herself in deeper, as if to hide. She considered the image of muscled Auron, swinging that huge sword around while she could see every ripple of muscle across his body. The thought got her heart pounding. Oh, dear.

"That is...certainly an image." Yuna laughed, covering up her own response to the thought of seeing Tidus naked. "Are you thinking about Sir Auron, Wendy?" She asked, deflecting any attention she may have been about to receive.

"Huh?" Wendy blinked, suddenly aware of everyone smirking at her.

"Oh yeah! Are you, are you?" Rikku asked.

"That would be quite a sight, wouldn't it, Wendy?" Lulu piled on as well, smirking knowingly.

Wendy stammered in vain before snapping her mouth shut to collect her thoughts.

"It's not very nice to gang up on me." She squeaked out. "Auron is, Auron is just an old friend of mine." She was screaming internally as her voice cracked - she hardly sounded convincing. "B-but surely anyone could appreciate his, er, his physique, no?"

"Seems like you were stricken by the thought," Lulu pushed. She shrugged. "Just an observation."

"Yeah! Just saying!" Rikku added.

"You two would be a wonderful couple, though." Yuna said, going the extra mile.

"YUNA!" Wendy put her face in her hands. "Can we please discuss something else?!"

[thebiasrekkers]

Shadow’s Birthright | MYG

Chapter 02: World Change

Plot: Riding in on thunder and lightning, two princes are born. But a crown cannot be shared. It can only be worn by one and one alone. The hands of man have separated the brothers, allowing one to live in wealth and comfort inside the palace while the other grows up among commoners. But Fate cannot be destroyed by the hands of man. A shared destiny reunites the brothers; one to become a king who descends into madness and the other will rise as a dragon whose journey has only just begun in order to claim a crown he does not desire to have.

Rating: NC-17 // NSFW

Genre: series | historical!au | fantasy!au | angst | romance | drama | tragedy

Pairing: Min Yoongi (Lee Yoon) x Female OC (Kalina Shuri)

Warnings: Historical setting, caste system, magic/sorcery, graphic violence, disturbing graphic images, religious tones, angst, slow burn, eventual smut

Previous Chapters: Prologue 01

Links: FAQ || BTS Masterlist || Admin E’s AO3 || [ REQUESTS ARE OPEN ]

Word Count: 2,297

Tag List: @luxekook​, @pinkpjmin​, @btsaudge​, @flowerwrites06​, @stillcopingxx​, @taevkimchi​, @aroseforyoongi​, @vivpurple7​, @happilystrongthroughthedark​, @sw33tnight​, @nikkitane​,

AN: I hope everyone is enjoying the series so far. I know I’m getting these chapters out slowly, but I am also updating multiple fics at a time (as I’m sure you’re all aware). Please be patient with me. It will be worth the wait, I promise! If you would like to be added to the tag list, feel free to drop me a line!

P.S. Please bear in mind that while the historical accuracy will be mostly correct, I am setting this in a time period in Joseon history where there was no such thing as a king who had a twin brother. Obviously that’s where the fiction/creative freedom is going to come in. Everything else will be period accurate, trust and believe.

© thebiasrekkers (Admin E). All rights reserved. Reposting/modifying our work is prohibited. Translations are not allowed. Plagiarism/stealing is not tolerated by any means. Legal action will be taken in instances of theft.

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” - Mahatma Gandhi

Yoon glanced over his shoulder, giving both Namgil and Bidam a look for them to remain in the hall with the other servants. They bowed their heads low as two attendants slid open the door to the King’s study, allowing the Crown Prince to enter. Once he crossed the threshold, the door slid closed and his eyes quickly adjusted to the various beams of light that slipped into the room. His father was seated at his dark oak wood desk, multi-colored scrolls and other documents stacked off to one side. He was in deep discussion with a man kneeling at his side. They didn’t appear to notice Yoon - at least not outwardly. But from all his training, the Crown Prince could sense how alert the stranger was despite his relaxed posture.

His eyes narrowed sharply at the man. He looks like a mountain brigand, but clearly he isn’t. Yoon pursed his lips together into a thin line. There is not a single vulnerable opening circling his entire person.

“Seja,” cut his father’s voice through his thoughts. Looking up, he saw the serious expression vacant from the King’s face as he motioned for Yoon to come forward. “Come, Crown Prince. There is someone I want you to meet.”

Bowing his head, he approached his father’s desk. He swiped the front of his robes to the side so he could sit properly. The other man shifted his position so that he was now facing Yoon, though still kneeling on the ground. Yoon trained his eyes on the stranger, denoting the scars on his arms and one near the jaw by his left ear. 

“This is my former bodyguard, Min Dojin,” explained the King as he rounded the desk to stand before Yoon, “and also a dear friend of mine. Dojin-ah, this is my son, Crown Prince Injong.”

Raising his brows, Yoon took another look at the man and everything made sense as to why his demeanor seemingly held no weaknesses. He’d heard stories about Dojin from his parents and even the Queen Dowager. There were servants that lived in the palace halls before his birth that also knew his name. The reasons circling his departure from the palace were surrounded in mystery. Bidam whispered tales of Dojin’s accomplishments, swearing that he would become as strong and well-known as the warrior upon his installment to becoming Yoon’s bodyguard. 

There were dozens of questions that flooded the Crown Prince’s mind, but he abstained from giving them a voice. Instead, he waited for Dojin to bow his head low to him and, out of general respect, Yoon gave a half bow to the warrior.

“It is an honor, Crown Prince Injong. I was there on the night of your birth and I’m pleased to see how well you have grown up.” Dojin’s voice was deep, rich, and full of sincerity. 

Yoon was immediately suspicious. “And I have heard many stories of your heroic exploits, Sir Min.” He smiled. “You will have to take a moment to share them with me while you are in the Capital.”

Dojin’s head remained lowered. “Of course, Your Highness.”

“Abba Mama,” Yoon lifted his face up to peer into the King’s eyes, “you have never summoned me to your study. I can only surmise that the reason is urgent?”

The King chuckled, leaning down to place a hand on his shoulder. “Not so much urgent as it is personal.”

I guessed as much, Yoon thought, mentally restraining his smirk from forming into a sneer. He waited for his father to visually motion toward him before standing. “Is everything alright, Father?”

“Everything is fine, Seja. Fret not.” He unfurled one of the silk scrolls, his eyes roving the parchment, before handing it to Yoon. “It’s time for you to involve yourself with public relations. Are you alright with this, Crown Prince?”

Taking the scroll, he quickly read over the decree before lifting his gaze to meet his father’s eyes. “But Father, this is--”

“Indeed, my Prince, it is.” There was something dancing behind the King’s eyes and Yoon was unsure of what that something was. “You are to depart as soon as a caravan has been formed. I assume you will only need a couple of days to prepare?”

Yoon’s eyes lingered on the scroll for a moment longer before he rolled it up and held it at his side. He bowed his head low. “That is more than enough time, Your Majesty.”

“I’m glad to hear it, Seja,” his father responded. When Yoon lifted his head again, he saw a warm smile decorating his father’s visage. “I am counting on you to do well with this.”

This time, Yoon bowed deeply at the waist, his arm pressed gently against his stomach. “Your Majesty’s grace is immeasurable.”

He waited to be dismissed before pivoting on his heels just as the servants slid the doors open to allow him to enter the hall. Casting a sidelong glance to both his attendant and bodyguard, they lowered their heads. “Let’s go. We have much to prepare.”

They strode through the halls, exiting the main palace and traveling the stone path toward his own palace. Yoon pulled out the scroll and looked over it again, shifting only slightly as he felt Namgil and Bidam pressing against him on both sides. He grunted, speeding up his pace so they didn’t overcrowd him. It took them less than five seconds to do it all over again. Yoon gave up eventually.

“What is your assignment, Crown Prince?” Bidam peered over his shoulder. “And when do we leave?”

“We leave in two days and start preparations immediately.” Yoon rolled the scroll closed and stuffed it back into the confines of his sleeve. “We will depart between the hours of the Tiger and the Rabbit.”

Namgil grimaced. “Heavens above, that early?!”

Yoon was already mentally preparing himself for the journey. “The sooner we begin our journey, the sooner we can handle any obstacles that may impede our path.”

Bidam clutched the sheath of his sword. “Do you anticipate trouble, my Prince?”

A smirk tugged at the corners of his lips. “I always anticipate a problem to arise, Bidam-ah.” 

While his bodyguard smirked with the idea of traveling and potential excitement being thrown their way, it was Namgil who issued a whine that caused Yoon to loft a brow. “What troubles you, Namgil-ah?”

“Nothing, Your Highness,” he murmured, rubbing at the back of his neck; his dark green robes fluttering as they walked, “I simply worry of what an arduous journey this will be. I have never traveled this far from home.”

“Well, we shall have our fortunes read before we depart,” Yoon replied, pressing a hand to his attendant’s shoulder, “she’s never steered us wrong before.”

“A foreign sorceress only breeds unrest, Your Highness.” The eunuch frowned. “I worry that she will one day take advantage of your trust and kindness.”

Scoffing, Bidam shrugged as he folded his arms across his chest. “It’s almost harrowing how accurate she is.” He looked to Yoon as they entered the archway of the Crown Prince’s palace. “Foresight aside, is she as powerful as the rumors say she is?”

“My father has always followed her guidance and has never been wrong. She’s been sincere with me and her affections are genuine.” Yoon paused, staring into the lake where the koi fish swam beneath the lotus blossoms. His eyes narrowed a fraction. “Kalina would never betray me.”

There was a distinct tension in the air that placed all of his entourage into silence. Some of the servants in the back were afraid to even breathe. After what felt like a handful of minutes, Yoon moved toward the entrance of his palace, stepping out of his shoes as two servant girls slid open the doors for him immediately. Crossing the room, he flung his robes back before falling into a seated position on the silk cushion situated behind his desk.

“Have a messenger fetch Kalina immediately.” Yoon rested his hands on his knees. “I believe she is due back from her travels any day now.”

“Yes, Crown Prince. Right away!” Namgil motioned to another young eunuch who immediately departed to do as he was told.

Yoon placed the scroll on his desk, unfurling it so that he could see the assignment given to him by his father. He would be traveling to Ming to speak with the Emperor himself. As he surmised, tensions between Ming and Japan were escalating. His duty was to play the liaison, creating a compromise that would benefit Joseon in the midst of an impending crisis.

A dark smirk played on his lips. He would give him no quarter.

Pulling out one of the drawers in his desk, he picked up the handcrafted pearl hairpin that he commissioned to have made from one of the palace’s royal artisans. The end was carved to look like a lotus blossom, the iridescent shine to the ornament granting it an otherworldly glow. 

Kalina, he thought, curling his fingers over the rod of the hairpin, how I long to have you in my arms again…

“I wish you would cease your squirming, Young Master. You are only making this ordeal take longer than it should.”

Yoongi frowned as he felt Kali’s slender fingers combing through his hair. He waited for her to finish taking measurements, then watched her remove a set of shears from her bag. He glared back at his reflection in the mirror as she began cutting his hair. 

“I have to be the only man in all of Joseon whose hair is this short.” He saw Kali toss him a pointed look into the mirror as he gazed into it. “You know it to be true.”

She sighed and shook her head, part of her raven hair falling about her shoulders in waves while the rest remained pinned up to the side. “I am simply doing what I have been told, Young Master. You are only delaying the inevitable.”

Groaning, he could only watch as his hair fell in small clumps around his knees. Before Kali entered their lives, his own father would cut his hair - ensuring that it was short, around his ears, and never long enough to be pulled into any kind of braid or top knot. As if the scar on Yoongi’s face wasn’t jarring enough, his own hairstyle stood out among the crowds in even their small village.

“I wish you would stop calling me that.” Kali paused her motions, her malachite eyes gazing back at Yoongi’s reflection. “I am no noble. There’s no need to call me Young Master, Kali-ssi.”

For a moment, all she did was stare at him through the mirror’s reflection. Her green eyes were a stark contrast to his own darker brown tones, but that wasn’t the only thing entrancing about her. Kali’s skin was brown, like fresh earth kissed by the rays of morning, and her heart-shaped face was perfectly symmetrical. Yoongi studied face reading for a time and he knew that everything from the arch of her brows to the cupid’s bow lips needled at perfection. Kali was a foreigner from the West, her homeland spanning deserts and forests and wild animals. Nestled beneath her exotic perfection was a wealth of power that Yoongi could never hope to begin to understand.

Kali was a foreigner. She was also a sorceress. 

Yoongi loved every single square inch of her and beyond.

The troubling part was how he never had the heart to voice his feelings aloud. To himself or to her. Because he was a nobody and while Kali rarely spoke of her own personal affairs, he knew that he was far beneath her.

Suddenly, he felt Kali’s cheek press against his temple, her nails gently gliding along the back of his head and down the column of his neck. His heart thundered in his chest immediately.

“K-Kali-ssi,” he stammered, her hands gliding through his cropped hair to rid it of loose tendrils, “what’s wrong?” She was only ever this hands on when she felt she had to tell him something.

“Sweet Yoongi,” she gently framed his face with her hands, “sometimes I think you are too good for this world.”

Yoongi blinked into her green eyes, entranced by them. “What do you mean?”

“When I think about the road you will travel, it hurts my heart so terribly.” Kali’s brows furrowed and a soft sheen appeared in her eyes. “You are the shadow that deserves the light. It is your destiny and I wish that I could take you far away from it.”

He felt confusion swirling inside of his chest. Kali often spoke like this from time to time. But in all the years he’d known her, he could not remember a time when it sounded so ominous. Yoongi learned, however, never to press her too hard in her cryptic words. The response was almost always damaging, both to her and the area around her.

Feeling his body moving, he gasped when his cheek was pressed against her chest. Kali’s arms wrapped themselves around him, as if protecting him from some unknown force. He felt her chin fall atop the crown of his head and all he could do was cradle her elbow as the sound of her heartbeat reverberated in his ears.

Something is troubling her greatly, he thought, his fingers pressing into the silk sleeves of her robe, and there is nothing I can do to ease her mind.

Her arms pulled him just a little bit closer to her and Yoongi reminded himself to breathe.

“The tiger walks proudly in the sunlight. His ambition and arrogance will harm those whom he is meant to protect. But his unquenchable thirst will place him on the path to madness.” Kali’s voice sounded so far away. “When the tiger loses itself to madness is when you will step out from the shadows.” 

Yoongi swallowed the lump in his throat. She was in that place she often went to. That place he didn’t understand. The Veil was what she called it. 

Her voice made his ears ring and he closed his eyes tightly. “Kali-ssi, I don’t understand what--”

“This tiger is you, but not you. You will face him and be forced to make a choice. Whichever choice you make will cause you great pain. You cannot avoid it.” She pulled back, once again framing his face in her palms and forcing him to look into her hypnotic eyes. “But you, Young Master, the one raised in the ditch, will soar from the earth as a grand dragon.”

His eyes widened as all moisture vacated his mouth. What she was insinuating was madness by itself. The tiger’s insanity was a minor thing compared to the heresy spilling from Kali’s lips. She may have been a foreigner and a sorceress, but if anyone else heard her utter such prophecies, she would be killed immediately.

“You mustn’t say such things,” desperation seeped from Yoongi’s throat. His hands trembled as he gripped onto her wrists. “Your words are outrageous and will get you beheaded!”

Kali’s eyes narrowed and she peered deep into his own umber tones. “I speak only the truth, Young Master. Those who fear the truth merely delude themselves into believing they can escape it. The paths of destiny were forged long before you or I were born into this world.”

Yoongi shook his head roughly back and forth. Tears leaked from his eyes as he all but threw himself into Kali’s arms. If what she spoke was, indeed, the truth, then he wanted to live a lie. He wanted to find a way to escape that truth and bask in the greatest lie that could ever be told. 

Again, the sorceress placed comforting arms around his shoulders, rubbing soothing circles on his back. She hummed softly, a tune he was unfamiliar with but one that calmed his rattling nerves. He felt like a child being comforted by a mother, but also like a man who was receiving a lover’s caress to chase the darkness away.

“Have no fear, my gentle Young Master.” Kali smiled and petted the back of his head. “You will not have to face this mad tiger. Not yet. When the people cry tears of blood, when they wail to the heavens for salvation? That will be the time when you must face this tiger.”

He was confused. He didn’t understand why it had to be him. He was nothing. He was nobody. All Yoongi could do was pray that Kali was seeing a possible future. One that would never come to pass. 

“I will protect you. I, Shuri Kalina, will protect you with everything that I am.” She pressed a kiss to his temple and he breathed in her scent of nutmeg and jasmines. “I promise you, sweet dragon.”

Yoongi sobbed. It was a sob that he could no longer suppress. Because he understood the weight of her words; the true meaning behind them. Kali, the woman who seemingly never aged in all the years he’d known her, was making a declaration to him. A bold one, at that. One that he could not even pray to have been a lie. There was so much truth in her words that it hurt to listen to them. But he had no choice but to hear her proclamation to him. 

Not as a woman to a man. But as a servant to their master.

AN: For those who are curious, a couple of things to note. Crown Princes have the name they are born with and a "rank/title" name. This is considered a "disciple" name that is acknowledged and referenced by others in historical records. In this case, Lee Yoon's Crown Prince "name" is Injong. Also, it was also common for "time" to be labeled using the Zodiac Calendar or the Chinese Calendar. So each zodiac animal is used for the twelve hour marks - 2 hours for every hour.

[theswiftarmy]

#32 – THE QUADRAPHONIC FOUR (And The Lish Lish Wishlist)

No artist lives in a vacuum.  Every artist is influenced by every possible work of art they have ever encountered.  If the art you take, is equal to the art you make, one must be careful which art they consume, every book you've ever read, movie you've ever watched, song you've ever heard, painting you've stared at, every Broadway play you’ve ever sat through, that art could be the art of war, or perhaps, nothing more than art for art's sake.  But that’s the thing, you just never know what’s at stake.

If we’re all under the influence of influencers, who’s influencing the influencers?

           The best way to describe what happened after Lizzo’s flute song collided with that sweet Swiftie sound is that moment on a dance floor when one song ends and another begins.  The shuffle of a playlist controlling the dancefloor, two songs adjacent to one another, but the changeover wasn’t smooth, it didn’t flow, it didn’t sync with the tempo.  Ask anyone who was there, they’ll agree.  Someone hit the skip button mid-song on a shuffled playlist.  It completely interrupted the entire dancefloor right in the middle of the groove.  And… well, here we are…

           The interior of the Westin Bonaventure stood brightly lit.  Day time.  Business as usual, so it seemed. Guests coming and going.  According to several very vague signs some sort of big important conference was on the verge of taking place.  A bag guy bellhop walked by Billie Eilish pushing some bags on a cart.  ‘I’m the baaaaaaaaag guy.’  He sang out.

           “Uh.”  Billie Eilish wasn’t sure what else to say.  “What just happened?”

           The group stood facing one lone standing Swifite.  The large group of Swifites were nowhere to be seen.  Just one, single Swiftie remained from the gaggle of Swifties that had just chased them down the street and cornered them on the walkway above South Figueroa Street.

“Not so tough without your friends, are you?”  Kymmie smiled at the one remaining cardigan.  He wore it as though it were a size or two too big, a hand-me-down of some sort.

The Swiftie backed up slightly.  He lifted his hands to form a heart shape.

The group looked to one another then back to the lone Swifite, a heart shaped Flavor Flav Bluetooth speaker locket hanging on his neck.  The Swiftie lowered his hands.  His eyes narrowed.  Ready for attack.  A couple walked by, touristy looking, they gawked for a moment then continued on their way.

The lone Swiftie stepped back again now just inches from being completely backed against a wall.  “Looks like the tables have turned!”  Stan stepped forward.  The Swiftie touched a few buttons and knobs on his Bluetooth locket and the sweet sounds of Taylor Swift blared back.  He lifted his hands again in a heart shape.

Stan wobbled slightly and fell back a few steps.

The Swiftie stepped forward holding his hands out again in the shape of Lover hands.  The fingers forming the top of a heart and then thumbs forming the bottom.  He directed it directly at Stan’s heart.  Stan’s eyes grew soft, complacent, relaxed… ‘Prepare to be Swifted!’  The lone Swiftie thought with glee.  ‘PREPARE TO BE SWIFTED!!!’  He grinned.

Oak Felder reached for his headphones holstered on his belt.  He hovered his hand just over the headphones and wiggled his fingers in the air inches away from the holster… ready for action.  He narrowed his eyes and focused on the Swiftie—the Swiftie narrowed his eyes and focused his attention back to Oak.  Oak pulled the headphones out like a gunslinger in an old western movie and powered them up.  The others nodded at him and reached for their over ear noise canceling headphones unfastening them from their holsters and powering them up—that is, everyone but Stan, since he didn’t have a pair of Oak Felder’s special headphones, modified with a Swiftie sound silencer.  The bag guy from before whistled The Good, the Bad and the Ugly theme song off in the distance.  They should have been wearing Swiftie silencers earlier but sometimes you get caught up in the moment.  Maybe they would regret it later on, and maybe nothing would come of it.  One never knows with these types of things.

Just then a sound like batteries dying, or an old school tape deck winding down could be heard from the High-Fi Swiftified Flavor Flav fashion accessory.

           Stan shook his head with closed eyes then opened them again.  Shake it off, shake it off.  “Whoa.  Weird.  I felt like something was just trying to take over my thoughts!”  He stopped speaking for a moment, “Cool.  Do it again!  I want more!  DO THAT AGAIN!!!”  Stan reached out for the Bluetooth heart shaped locket, ravenous, like he was mad for it.  Like he couldn’t stop himself.  “I WANT MORE!”  The Swiftie guarded the locket as Stan clawed at the air around it.

           “No.  Don’t do that again.”  Carl Lyle Lawyer, Kymmie’s dad and legal advisor advised against it as he stepped in front of Stan and the rest of the group.  They pulled Stan back, holding on to him, keeping him from nearly ripping the Flavor Flav locket off of the Swiftie’s neck.

           “Stan!”  Kanye yelled over to him, Stan turned around to face Kanye West.  Kanye snapped his fingers three times and Stan snapped out of a spell.  The scene was like a hypnotist waking someone up after hypnosis.

           “Whoa.  Ye… thanks.”  Stan moved like he had just been reunited with his body again after having some sort of out of body experience.

           Kanye nodded at his stan.  “I got ya man.  Stay woke… Stay woke.”

           The Swiftie began banging on the Bluetooth heart shaped speaker locket in a panic to get it operational again.  The device was dead.  ‘THEY MUST BE SWIFTED!’ He repeated in his head.  He pulled out his phone and fumbled with the device encased in a cool new Taylor Swift phone case.  Bluetooth connection lost.  The phone was also dead, or at least not allowing him to do whatever he was trying to do with it.  Presumably resume Taylor Swift playback though the internal built-in phone speaker.  The Swiftie looked up eyes full of panic, his heart pounding, hands trembling, as he realized he had been disarmed somehow, he stepped a few feet back until he was completely back against the wall. “Where are all my Swiftie friends!  They were right here with me and then there was a flash of light and now they’re all gone!  What’s going on!?  WHO ARE YOU!?!?”  The Swiftie demanded to know of Lizzo and the rest of the group, just moments ago, the veloci-swiftie-raptors had been ready to Swiftify.

           No one replied.  They had no answer for the Swiftie.  How else do you explain time skipping, a scene transition without any link between the two.  The DJ suddenly spinning down one tune mid song and spinning up another.  Switching from one DJ deck to another without any sort of transition that made sense.  It was the equivalent to a party guest going over to the playlist, picking up the Bluetooth connected phone or tablet or laptop and deciding to pick a new song, and everyone at the party turns to that person and screams, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!!!  DON’T CHANGE THE SONG!!!”  And the person screams back, “THIS NEW SONG IS WAY BETTER!”  Party Playlist ADHD.  Too many hands skipping and shuffling and controlling the music at the party. That’s exactly what it had been like.

Will had his secret keys in hand and ready to let them into The Westin Bonaventure to escape the Swiftie chaos in the streets when Lizzo began to play her pied piper flute tune.  It had been night, and it was now inexplicably the middle of the day.  How do you go from Swifties in the streets to hotel check-in’s and complimentary eats?  Carl looked over at a large buffet setup in the lobby, it seemed quite lavish.  A large table full of fancy eats and treats.  And bottled water with a sign that read “Drink water.”

“We don’t entirely know.”  Carl responded to him matter-of-factly.

           The Lonestar Swiftie tossed a loose lock of his relatively neatly kept jet black hair to one side.  “Yeah well, you’d all be Swifties if it weren’t for HER!”  The Swiftie pointed to Lizzo.  Who was in the process of trying to tuck the flute back into her tiny purse.

           “Go IN the purse!”  She mumbled to herself trying to figure out a way to jam the flute back inside the purse.

           “I don’t think you’re going to get it back in there…”  Kymmie pointed at the flute, “That flute is like ten times the size of that purse.  I don’t understand how it even fit in there in the first place.”

           “Oh I’ll make it fit, I just need to move some things around.”  She peered into purse and then shook it up and down, then reach a finger in appearing to nudge things aside.  The sound of the contents rattling around was obnoxiously loud for such a teeny tiny itsy-bitsy handbag.  Like the sound of pots and pans banging loudly  after being dropped to a ceramic kitchen floor.  Everyone covered their ears with their hands.  “Sorry.”  Lizzo apologized.  Finally, she slid the flute in with ease and it disappeared from sight.  “There it goes.”

           The group clapped like a magician performing the final act of a show.  Lizzo took a bow.

           “Oh no!  NO!!!  NO NO NO!!!!”  The lone Swiftie suddenly screamed out.

           A few people in the lobby standing around the lavishly long table filled with food turned their heads, then went back to business as usual.

“What?”  Kymmie asked the Swiftie peering around her dad.

“My cardigan ripped!”  He replied inspecting a tear in his cardigan.

“That’s the worst.  Well, you can always get a new one.  Right?”

“No.  I mean, it’s just not the same.  Taylor gave me this one herself.  My sister is one of her backup singers… well, she was one of her backup singers.  This was supposed to be for my older sister.  She was going to wear it on tour.  But Taylor gave it to me instead.”

“What happened?  Did they have like a falling out?”  Kymmie inquired.

“She died.”

“Oh.”  Kymmie said after a moment of silence, then she stepped closer.  “I’m soooo sorry.”

“I’ll never stop being a Swiftie!  I love Taylor SO MUCH!  Taylor was EVERYTHING to my sister.  My sister loved Taylor and her music more than anything in this world.  She was her backup singer on tour and she was supposed to be on tour with her for the Lover tour.  They were best of friends.  Taylor gave her the opportunity to live out her dream… at least… before she got sick….”  The Swiftie trailed off and looked away.  He poked a finger through the tear in the cardigan.

He inspected the tear, his sister wouldn’t be upset, she’d tell him it was just ‘personalized’ now.  He missed her so much.  So.  Damn.  Much.  She was everything to him.  His older sister had been there for him his whole life, her dream was his dream.  He remembered her singing songs to him when he was younger.  He remembered her singing early Taylor, classic Taylor… it’s those songs, those early songs the first six albums that reminded him of his sister.  When he heard those songs his sister came back to life.  Through Taylor Swift, his sister could live forever.  As long as he had her songs, those old songs, the same songs his sister knew, loved, and sang to him, sang to the world… she would live forever.  All those years of practicing.  When she auditioned to be Taylor’s backup singer.  When she got the part.  All of it intertwined, time on rewind.  As long as he had those old songs… he had her.  If anything were to happen to those songs, he’d lose his sister all over again.  And it would be for good.

“Cancer sucks.”  He wiped a single tear from his eye.  He looked up at the others then looked back down to the tear in the cardigan… it seemed like a giant hole.  A hole in the cardigan just like the hole in his heart.  “And now I can’t even listen to Taylor’s old music.”  He wiped another tear away, holding up his broken phone.

Kymmie wanted to give him a hug.  She thought of an idea and pulled out her phone.  “Well, my phone’s broken too.”  She hesitated.  “See…”  She held up the phone and tapped the screen.  “So, we both have something broken…”  Kymmie stopped talking.  She knew it wasn’t a close comparison in the least.

Stan abruptly stepped forward, pushing everyone out of the way, “What did you do to my friend!”  Stan pointed a finger at the lone Swiftie.

“Stan!”  Kymmie rebuked

“Oh, so you’re taking his side.”  Stan moved his gaze to Kymmie but keeping his finger pointed at the Swiftie.

“I’m not taking anyone’s side.”  She looked at the Swiftie then to Stan, “ I’m looking at the facts and making decisions based on what I see.  It’s called empathy.”  She replied back in a lawyerly voice.  Her father smiled and nodded, that’s my girl he thought.  “Oh my gosh, I’m turning into my dad.”  She blurted out.

“Empathy.  Then what about my friend!  Dan was my best friend!  I want to know what happened to him.  Where is he now?  So, you don’t care about my feelings or care what happened to my friend?”  Stan looked Kymmie square in the eyes.

“Awwwww, they’re having their first fight.”

“Billie!  We’re not fighting, we’re just—”  Kymmie and Stan continued to glare at one another for a long moment.  “—we’re just having a disagreement.”  Kymmie turned to the Swiftie.  “Where’s his friend?  Where’s Stan’s friend?”

The Lonestar Han Solo Swiftie shrugged.  “I don’t know.  I don’t know where his friend is.  He’s probably with the rest of my friends, with the rest of the Swifties.  But… I don’t know.”  Stan sized up the Swiftie, like he was ready to start a fight.  Kymmie stepped forward in front of Stan.  The Swiftie would have been stylishly dressed if he didn’t look like he’d been dragged through the fabric of time and space unwillingly.  His shoes were hip, pants not square and a cardigan with a tiny tear in the cloth.  He kind of looked like Elvis—A teenage Elvis—At least the few photos she’d seen of Elvis, anyway.  And, yes, she did actually know who Elvis was.  “You look like Elvis.”  She said to him.  “But you’ve got slightly longer hair in the front, I like it though.”  She was trying to make conversation, defuse the situation between the Swiftie and Stan.

“I’ve been told that.”

“I think he looks a little more like Draco Malfoy but with an Elvis haircut.”  Stan added, contemptuously, still angry that he had no answers about what happened to his friend.

“That would make sense, Swiftie is Slytherin.” Justin said and looked at Kanye.  Kanye nodded.  Kanye looked at his stan Stan.  Stan nodded back.

“Swiftie is not Slytherin!”  The Lonestar Swiftie shouted back.

“I mean, it is a little.  Right Scotty?”  Justin looked at Scotty too hottie B Borchetta and he too nodded back.

“But, would that make you Lord Voldemort?”  Carl Lyle Lawyer, legal advisor to Scotty B asked Scott.  “Because you discovered Taylor.”

“In this example?  Well, one might say that if he’s Draco Malfoy, then wouldn’t that make Taylor Lord Voldemort?”

“TAYLOR IS NOT VOLDEMORT!!!!  YOU ARE!” The Swiftie screamed back.  “TAYLOR IS THE MAN!  TAYLOR IS MY HERO!  TAYOR IS THE HERO!  TAYLOR IS ALWAYS THE HERO!  TAYLOR IS EVERYONE’S HEROINE.  SHE IS WONDER WOMAN!”

“Okay, okay.  Everyone just chill.  Soo… ummm… how old are you?”  Kymmie asked changing the conversation trying again to diffuse things.

“Well, since I don’t really know you, I’m not going to say my actual age.  But, I’m a teenager.”

“Me too!”  Kymmie said with a smile.  “And Stan here is too.”  Stan waved back, deciding that impressing Kymmie was more important than the whereabouts of his friend Dan.  “I do that all the time, especially if I want someone to think I’m cooler than I really am and need to be younger or older than I really am.  I just say I’m between the ages of 13 and 17.”  Kymmie looked at her dad, “Why did I just say that in front of my dad.”

“We’ll discuss what you just said later.”  He said in a very serious lawyery voice.  “I didn’t raise my daughter to be untruthful.”

“It’s not that I’m being untruthful, I’m just not disclosing the full truth.”

Her dad didn’t reply.  He simply crossed his arms in front of his chest.

“Ooooooooooooooooo…” Everyone murmured.  “Someone’s in trouble.”  Billie Eilish whispered to Justin Bieber.  He smirked slightly.

An awkward moment of silence ensued.

“So…. what’s your name?”  Stan asked breaking the silence.  Trying to impress Kymmie by following her earlier lead.  The things we do when we start to like someone.  Kymmie smiled at him.  He kind of looked like a youthful Kanye, a young Kanye when Kanye worked at The Gap in the 90s.

“My name’s Sashy.  Well, Sasha, but friends call me Sashy.  I can get a little sassy.  Sashy the sassy Swiftie.”

“Are you, umm?  Do you, uh… like… You know…”  Stan narrowed his eyes slightly.  “Like, you’re a dude, but your name is sassy Sashy.  It just seems a little…”

“Are you trying to ask if I’m gay?  Is that what you’re trying to ask?”  The Swiftie replied sassily.

“Stan!”  Kymmie yelled.

“Well…” Stan shifted his stance his tall teen frame bobbling around.  “Kinda, yeah.”  Impressing Kymmie was turning out to be more difficult than expected.  It’s okay, just keep your head in the game don’t let a small setback get in the way, he thought to himself.

“I’m pansexual, actually, I don’t love by gender.”  The Swiftie replied confidently.

“See, I like that.  That’s really cool.  That’s just really beautiful.”  Kymmie tilted her head slightly and stepped one foot towards Sashy.

Stan moved his eyes between Kymmie and Sashy.  He could feel a hint of jealousy hitting him.  “Yeah, that’s cool.  I… uh… I think that’s cool too!”  He said in a tone vying for Kymmie’s affection but trying to stay chill. “Sorry Sashy, I didn’t mean to offend you or anything, I was just asking.”  He looked back at Kymmie for her approval.  She seemed peeved.  He looked over at Kanye tried to mentally convey his thoughts to him ‘Kymmie is so hard to figure out, like I’m trying really hard but I say the wrong thing’.  Kanye mentally thought back at his stan ‘tell me about it, I know exactly what you’re talking about, I’ve got Kim problems of my own’.  Stan thought back to his idol, ‘you just get me, ye, this is why I stan you so hardcore.’  Kanye replied again with his mind, ‘of course I get it, Stan, I get it.  You’re my favorite fan.’

Billie Eilish leaned over to whisper to Justin Bieber standing beside her “Great, now she’s going to have to choose between two boys, like in Twilight. “

“You read Twilight?”

“Finneas and I watched the movies. You?”

“I audio booked it while I was at the gym.”  Justin made a flexing muscle motion.

“Nice.”  Billie rocked her head back and forth in agreement as though she were standing in the crowd at a My Chemical Romance concert… no that’d be way too intense… more like watching The Smiths, or some sort of Brit pop indie shoegaze band.

“Okay well, it’s nice to meet you Sashy, my name is Kymmie… Kymmie Lawyer.  Kymmie is spelled with an ie at the end and a y after the K.  Okay?  And this is Stan.”

Sashy The Sassy Swiftie made an unsure half smile that lasted for a brief moment.  Stan smiled at the sound of Kymmie mentioning his name.  He felt some sort of strange new feeling he’d never felt before.  Like, he just wanted to be around her, all the time.  He could hear Ye in his thoughts, ‘play it cool, play it cool.’

“I don’t mean to interrupt miss Katniss Everdeen Chatness and her little lover triangle between Peta Mellark and Gale Hawthorne but I’m going to head over to the front desk and see if I can find out what day it is since we seem to be back in some sort of world that resembles normalcy—”  She pointed to the hustle and bustle of the interior atrium of the hotel lobby.  Life appeared to be as normal as could be at the moment inside the walls of the Westin Bonaventure Hotel.  Things were certainly vastly different from what they had just experienced in the previous street like a scene from the Westside Story.  “—at least, I think we’re back, something still feels… off—Like the world’s a little blurry.”

“Wait.”  Kymmie shouted as Billie started to walk away.  “We should introduce everyone to our new friend!”

Billie made an annoyed face.  These stans!  She thought.  “I’m Billie Eilish, okay gotta go!”

“No!  You have to wait until everyone has been introduced.”

Billie rolled her eyes.  “Okay.  Fine.”

Kymmie smiled.  “So, I’m Kymmie Lawyer, and that’s my dad Carl Lyle Lawyer.  He does Lawyery things for that guy, Scott Borchetta, who discovered Taylor Swift—”

“I love Taylor!  I stan her so much.  I stan Taylor!”

“Yes, Sashy, we know.  Of course, you do.  You’re a Swiftie.  We went over this already.  Anyway, my dad also works for like some guy named Scooter I don’t know, and he works for some guy who likes the ocean, or water, his name is The Whale, or Mr. Whale, or something along those lines.”

The Switie looked confused for a moment and then tried to pretend like he was following along.

“I stan Taylor!!!”  Sashy repeated, just to make sure it was clear.

“Yes, Sashy, you said that.  You said that like a million times already.  Taylor reminds you of your big sister, I understand.  You miss your sister.”  Kymmie smiled compassionately at the nodding Swiftie, then continued her introductions, “Okay, and that’s Lizzo, and Kanye West.”  They waved back.  “And that’s Oak Felder, he’s Ariana Grandes music producer.  Well, Ariana works with a lot of people, but he’s one of her favs.  And that’s his sidekick Pop Wansel.”

“Sidekick?”  Pop was going to object but decided he was okay with that.  “Sidekick, eh?  Yeah, alright.”

“And that’s Justin Bieber.”  Justin gave a thumbs up.

“And this is Stan, he’s Kanye’s biggest fan.  And I’m Ariana Grande’s stan and biggest fan.  And then there’s this mystery guy who helped us to escape the Tunnel of Sound.”

“I still think it was The Wall of Sound.”  Billie corrected.

“Whatever…”  Kymmie waved her away.  “Anyway, Will Way has these magic keys…”  She looked around trying to find Will. “Wait… where’d Will go?  He’s gone!”  Kymmie blurted out to the group.

“Yeah!  Where’s WILL?  That dude was cool.”  Stan craned his neck in every direction.

“Wait…” Kymmie pointed to something on the floor by Sashy’s feet.  “Aren’t those the keys he had?”

Sashy swiftly scooped up the keys and held them up.  They sparkled in the light, every color of the rainbow represented, one color for each key, the translucent material reflecting light in every direction—a rainbow disco ball.  He held them out to Kymmie.

“How about you hang on to those until we find Will and then you can give them back to him.”

Sasha smiled and then he hooked them on to his broken Flavor Flav locket speaker.  “They’ll be right here.”  He was still upset about his torn treasured Taylor cardigan, but felt proud to be responsible for these cool looking keys.  Kymmie was going to make it her new mission to befriend this Swiftie.  Not only did he lose his older sister, but he lost all his Swiftie friends.  And who knows, perhaps in time, she might be able to convince him to join team Ariana Grande.  Baby steps.

           Just then a young lady darted across the hotel lobby yelling out to them.  Her blonde pigtails bobbed.  Her roots died green to match Billie’s iconic look.

“LISH LISH!!!  CAN I HAVE YOUR AUTOGRAPH?!?!  LISH LISH!!!!!  I STAN YOU SO MUCH!!!!!  I LOVE YOU LISHY!”

“Incoming.”  Scott said to the group.

The excited young one nearly ran right into Billie Eilish.  “LISH LISH!!!!”  She held out a pen and paper and a sticker covered small notebook.  Billie’s face was plastered across the front.

“Are you calling me Lish Lish?”  Billie asked.  The girl nodded so fast her head looked like it would fall off.  The pigtails flailed about.  She smiled and blinked.  “That’s not my name.”  Billie replied.

“LISHY!!!!  Listen, I’m your number one fan, I’m your stan!!!!”

“Lishy?  Okay… um… That’s not my name either.  You can have an autograph, but… just call me Billie.  I don’t go by Lish Lish, or Lishy.”

“Thanks Lish!”  She held out the autograph journal.

Billie made an Aubrey Plaza look with her eyes, let out a sigh, then took the autograph book from her stan and signed her name on a blank page in the journal.

“Who do I make it out to?”

“Jillie Jean.”

“Your name is Jillie Jean?”

“Jillian Jean.  But I go by Jillie Jean, friends call me Mean Jillie Jean because sometimes I can be mean.  Or my full nicky is Mean Green Jillie Jean Bean because I get jealous and mean and I like Jellybeans.  Also green is my favorite color.  Like the color of your hair… and also my hair, I dyed it just like yours!  Seeeeeee.”  She pointed to the green part of her hair.  “We match!”

“Riiiiiiiight.”  Billie signed the book and handed it back to her along with the pen.

“So what’s going on?  What are we doing?  Where are we going?”  Jillie asked, excitedly.

“Ummm… we’re not doing anything.  Where are your parents?  You’re a small child of some sort.”

“Eh, they’re around here somewhere, they said I could go anywhere that didn’t require a drivers license.”

“How old are you?”

“I’m older than I look.  I’m a teenager.”

“US TOO!!!”  Kymmie, Stan, and Sashy yelled out.  “We’re trying to be influencers.”  Kymmie said and pointed at Stan and herself.

“ME TOO!”  Jillie and Sashy yelled at the same time.

“NO WAY!!!!”  All four of the teens yelled at the same time.

“Great.  This is exactly what I wanted to do with my day.”  Scott Borchetta said in an exasperated voice, a Professor Severus Snape voice, complete contrast to the excited aspiring teen influencer stans with the energy of a million suns.

“Does anyone else suddenly feel really old right now?”  Justin said to the non-teens.  Kanye, Lizzo, Oak, Pop, Scott, and Carl all nodded back.  

Billie shrugged.  “Not really.”

“Oh, don’t worry, one day… you’ll get it.”  Carl said with a smile.  “No one can stay young forever.”

“THIS IS SO AMAZING!!!  I get to hang out with other teenagers who are also aspiring to be influencers and of course, my idol, Billie, LISH LISH!”

“Whoa… hang out?  No no no… and don’t Lish Lish me.  I already said that’s not my name.  My name is—”

“LISHY!!!!!”

“I gave you an autograph.”

Jillie stared blankly.

“That means you go back to wherever you were before.”

Jillie stared blankly more.  She blinked a few times.  “Lishy lish!”

“Wow.  You are incredibly annoying.  And also very persistent.  I’m not getting rid of you am I?”

“We’re a team!  Billie and Jillie!  Lishy house for life!”  She did a little dance.

“ARIANATORS!”  Kymmie joined in.

“YE!”  Stan also began to dance.  Kanye nodded approvingly.

“SWIFTIE HOUSE!!!!”  Sashy joined the dance party.

The four teen wanabe influencers began to dance together in an imaginary dance party in the middle of the Westin Bonaventure hotel lobby, like a mini-Coachella were taking place and only the teens could hear the music.

Carl and Scott sighed as they watched the four teen stans dance.  “I feel like I’m chaperoning a high school dance at Hogwarts, but instead of houses, they’re stanning pop music icons.”  Carl said to Oak Felder and Pop Wansel.  They made a face like dads agreeing from the sideline of their kid’s sporting event.

“This is great.”  Scott added, sarcastically, implying that it was in fact, anything but great.  “It’s like I’m stuck in detention with the brat pack of aspiring social media influencers.  We’re gonna have to save the world with a bunch of Tik Toking teens.”

“SAVE THE WORLD!!!!  YES!  THAT SOUNDS AWESOME!!!  Wait, we need like a name for us…”  Jillie proclaimed.  “If we’re gonna save the world, we need a name.”

“Oohhhhhh… I LOVE THAT!”  Kymmie beamed.

“SO COOL!  Yes!”  Stan also smiled… mostly at Kymmie but also at the others, but mostly at Kymmie.  And then he kind of tried to stand cool, like Ye had said in his head, stand cool, superhero cool.

Sashy danced on his own with the group, but also apart from the group.  He appeared to be doing some dance no one had ever seen before… it must be some kind of secret Swiftie dance that Taylor made up and posted to Tik Tok and only her Swifties could see and learn the dance.  It was probably part of some sort of worldwide Swiftie dance that allowed them to speak to one another in Swiftie dance code lingo.

We can dance if we want to,

We can leave your friends behind

'Cause your friends don't dance

And if they don't dance

Well, they're no friends of mine

It's the Swiftie dance

Well, it's the Swiftie dance

Well, it's the Swiftie dance

Oh, it's the Swiftie dance

Oh, it's the Swiftie dance

“Well there’s 4 of you, how about the Quadraphonic Four.”  Billie suggested.  “Although, that’s kind of redundant since Quadra—”

“Ooooo, LISH… that’s delish!  I don’t know what a quadraphonic is, but it sounds amaaaaaaaze.”

“Can I trade my stan?”  Billie asked.  “That’s a serious question.”

“TRADE?!?!?! Noooooooo.  You’re stuck with me Lishy!”

“She’s sooooo annoying.  Why is my stan so annoying?”  Billie complained.  “How come I got the annoying one?  This isn’t fair.”

“They’re all annoying.  That’s what stans are.  Better than strangies.  Just be glad you don’t have strangies following you.”  A passerby-er said back to her in a low voice.  Billie turned around to see someone walking quickly away.  What’s a strangie?  She couldn’t quite tell who it was, the silhouette looked a little like Brendon Urie… but, maybe not… the person was already too far away and just his outline was visible.  He walked quickly by a peculiar sign that read “THE CINAMATOGRAPHER’S ANOMALY DISCOVERY EMERGENCY MEETING REGISTRATION: RED CAMERA, ARRI, PANAVISION & EQUIVILENT” he then walked by another printed sign “SCREENWRITER’S ANOMALY DISCOVERY EMERGENCY MEETING REGISTRATION: FINAL DRAFT, CELTX, WRITERDUET, TRELBY & EQUIVILENT”  Finally the man walked by a third printed sign, “AUDIO ENGINEER’S ANOMALY DISCOVERY EMERGENCY MEETING REGISTRATION: PRO-TOOLS, CUBASE, LOGIC, ABLETON, FL STUDIO & EQUIVILENT”  and a fourth one “EDITORS ANOMALY DISCOVERY MEETING REGISTRATION: AVID, PREMIERE, FINAL CUT, DAVINCI RESOLVE & EQUIVILENT”

Anomaly discovery… emergency meeting?  She thought, as he walked by a sign at the very far end, “FOLEY ART FINDING”.  None of it made any sense.  There were other signs designating various meeting signups: COLOR CORRECTION FADE FINDING, DIRECTORS DEBREIFING DISCUSSION GROUP, ACTORS DEBRIEFING DISCUSSION GROUP, CREATIVE CLOUD STORMS, NEGATIVE+ SERVICES INFORMATION SESSION

Negative+?  What is all this for?  What is all this?  There’s something going on, but WHAT?  If only Finneas were here… She needed to find Finneas.  He’d be able to make since of all of this madness.

She turned her attention back from the labeled conference sign-up tables to the stans, Billie pointed at Justin.  “How come you don’t have one?  Can you take her?  Please?”  Billie pleaded in his direction then turned to Jillie, “How do you feel about being Justin’s stan?  Justin is REALLY cool, he’s REALLY cool.  And his music is AWESOME.  Jillie… you don’t want to pass up this opportunity.  I mean, it’s JUSTIN BIEBER!”

Justin and Jillie both simultaneously shrugged back and replied, “Nah, I’m good.”

“Jinx!”  Jillie shouted out.

“What?”  Justin asked.

“I just jinxed you.  You said the same thing I said at the same time.  That means you can’t talk until I say you can talk.”

Justin leaned in and whispered to Billie, “Billie… a definite pass on this one.”

“I said no talking!  You’re Jinxed.”

“Well, fortunately for me, I can only be Jinxed by my Beliebers.  So unless you want to become a belieber, you can’t Jinx me.”

“Well, that’s not gonna happen.  I’m with Lishy.”  She stared down Justin.  “Okay fine.  But I’m going to double check the rules to make sure that’s true.”  Jillie Jean opened her notebook and made a note to check cross stan Jinxing.  She wrote it in all caps, CHECK RULES ON CROSS STAN JINXING.

“I’m redirecting your Jinx to Billie.” Justin said to Jillie.

“Can’t do that.  Can’t redirect your Jinx to me.”  Billie shook her head no at Justin.

“Jillie, check your rulebook on that.”  Justin replied trying not to laugh.

“I don’t think you can redirect a Jinx.”  Jillie was dead serious and deep in thought.

Billie and Justin made Parks and Rec Aubrey Plaza/April Ludgate eyes at one another.

“Lizzo!  Please… Just take her.  Do that little magic flute thing you did earlier and lure her over!”

“Oh, I… uh, I lost the flute.”  Lizzo pretended to check a watch she didn’t have. “And, I um, have to be somewhere soon.”

“No you didn’t and no you don’t.  You PUT THE FLUTE BACK IN YOUR PURSE!  We all saw you put it back in your purse.  And then we gave you a standing ovation, and you bowed.  Although, we were already standing when we started clapping, so I don’t know if it technically counts as a standing ovation.”

“Well… I have a lot of stuff in there, it would take me a while to find it again.”

Billie rolled her eyes.

Jillie began to sing, “I don’t want anybody else, when I think about you I—”

“Okaaaaay!  That’s enough of that song.  How about if you don’t sing the rest of that song, you can be my stan.  Okay Jillie?  I feel like the rest of those lyrics to that song aren’t appropriate for someone your age to be singing.  I’m trying to be the responsible role model here.”

“LISHY!!!!!!!!!  Listen, Lishy.  It’s me and you baby!  I’ll be the best stan you’ve ever had.  I won’t let you down!  I promise.”

“Seriously.  One last chance… anyone want to trade?”  Billie asked.

“Lish, don’t be ridiculish.”  Jillie smiled at her idol.

“Okay that was kind of funny, I’ll give you that…  You’re still annoying though.  I mean you’re funny, but you’re annoying.”

“I’ll take it!”  Jillie grinned.  She opened her autograph book.  “Okay, so now that I got your autograph, I can cross that off my Lish Lish Wishlist.”

“Your what?”

“My Lish Lish Wishlist!  It’s all things you!  Like, get your autograph, which I just did, interview you on my influencer socials, go on a road trip together—”

“That’ll never happen.”

“We’ll get there, Lishy.  Anyway, some of the other things on my list include…”

It was then that Billie noticed The Whale, she tuned out her stan, Jillie, as she yammered on about all the items on her Lish Lish Wishlist.  He was standing on the other side of the lobby talking to someone, standing near one of the registration tables for the ‘Anomaly Discovery Emergency Meeting’.  He seemed almost like he was selling something to them.  He was very animated, his hands waving about in an excited manner, and every so often he would point to the signs.  His guest’s eyes would fill with wonder.  There’s definitely something going on.  The Whale is up to something.  He’s behind all of this.  Taylor’s warning about The Whale echoed inside Billie’s thoughts.  She flashed back to the meeting in his office not far away from where they currently were in downtown LA.  She recalled what Taylor and Taylor’s attorney Sara with her Siri like voice had said about The Whale and what his intentions were.  She recalled the fabled celebrity suicide notebook/journal currently being held for safekeeping from the world presumably by Emma Watson—hidden within her own journal collection—and how The Whale and his friends had a trick up their sleeve to leverage Emma’s own secrets against her by pulling off a Mean Girls/Regina George movie ending using Emma’s journals to expose her Hogwarts Burn Book, if it existed at all.  If it didn’t exist then Emma had nothing to sweat about.  But if it did… she’d have no choice but to go along with The Whale, despite what Taylor and Halsey and Taylor’s attorney Sara told her earlier.  If she wrote personal things about Tom Felton and her other co-stars, and it were published, who knows what outcome that may lead to, and there’s no way Emma wanted that on her conscious.  And if Emma made a Hollywood Burn Book of everyone she’s ever been in a movie with, that would be even more useful to The Whale.  It’s possible Emma handed the notebook of celebrity suicide notes to someone else.  If she wanted out, if she wanted out of Hollywood for good, could she even get out?  Would The Whales of Hollywood let her?  Just trade in her fame?  Just like that?  Emma Watson becomes Emma the person without the Hollywood image.  Take off her fame, like a dress she no longer wants to wear—Fame as a fashion accessory that one can simply remove at the end of the day and discard as they please.  Would it be as easy as handing the secret celebrity suicides journal off to someone else?  Perhaps.  But who?  Who would she know and trust who also journals?  They would have to journal in order to hide the devilish book amongst their own journals.  Who else could hide that book, stashed between journals?  Who else would be able to hold such a notebook and never be so curious as to peek at it even once?  That is, after all, what The Whale is after.  The Whale had one agenda and that’s leverage because leverage, leads to control.

You see, The Whale wanted something big… and perhaps, it’s to control this massive fragmentation occurring before our very eye, perhaps not.  No one can deny the winds of change are upon us.  New Streaming+ services galore popping up almost every day and influencer generated content on every corner.  Any kid with a computer and enough knowhow would create the next number one viral music sensation and disrupt the charts.  The old-world entertainment aristocracy on the verge of crumbling.  Like Steven Spielberg warned, Hollywood was headed for an implosion, and The Whales of Hollywood knew it.  Maybe the bankrolling days were numbered.  Or, maybe the art itself just didn’t want to be part and parcel in this profiteering game any longer, it wanted to break free, Art For Art’s Sake l'art pour l'art.  For all anyone knew these Tik Tok teens really were superheroes saving the art world one video at a time.  The Whale and his entertainment business cronies had everything to lose.  When you universally control an entire group of music or movies and a new generation threatens to pull that rug out from under you, what else can you do?  The biggest threat to a Hollywood whale is an artist that can still make new content and make it on their own terms.  Afterall Michael Jackson won’t be rerecording his music catalog any time soon.  Billie Jean will live on indefinitely.  Art that lives on seemingly forever is the name of the game.  Old movies, old TV shows, Just like books and paintings from the past.  But new content is a wildcard in this “Classic Art” pawn shop world of wheel and deal.  I’ll trade you this “Classic Taylor” music, an old catalog of “Vintage Swift” for this brand-new mystery gift, let’s make a deal, you know it’s a steal!  The Whale and his leverage, his fabled suicide note journal, melancholy mixed with infinite sadness, minor key melody, and of course, his trusts.  His grip on Hollywood, the man no one knew even existed, ruled it all in plain sight from an unmarked office building in downtown Los Angeles.  The man and his associates trying to fight off that inevitable Spielberg implosion of Hollywood, rolling bigger and bigger dice until finally, they pay the final price.  But if The Whale can get his way those dice can roll forever, and that implosion will never come.  The Whale song will sing on and we all sing along.

“What?”  Jillie watched as Billie’s face went pale like a ghost.  “What’s wrong?”

“The Whale…”  She said in a low whisper to her stan Jillie, not taking her eyes off of The Whale.  She glanced quickly over at the others then back to The Whale.  Carl wore a poker face while he watched The Whale.  The rest of them hadn’t noticed his presence inside the hotel, at least as far as Billie could tell no one else had noticed.  There was no telling what Carl was thinking.  She didn’t trust him, even though Kymmie was cool, but that’s because Kymmie most likely had no idea what line of work her dad was really in.  He’s a Hollywood entertainment lawyer, an intellectual property specialist and he worked directly for The Whale, one of the most dangerous men in the business.  But maybe even Carl didn’t know what Taylor knew, maybe he was just doing his job, he did have a daughter to provide for after all, and she seemed to have a habit of breaking her phones, and those things aren’t cheap!  But something told Billie he knew way more than he was letting on.

“The Whale?”  Jillie Jean craned her neck looking around.  “Oh, him?  The old guy over there?”  Billie slowly shook her head yes.  “My parents and I were talking to him earlier.  He said if I ever made it big to contact him.”  Jillie continued.

Billie leaned in closer to Jillie.  “Jillie, listen to me, don’t ever talk to him again, ever again.  He’s a VERY dangerous man.”

She furrowed her brow.  “I don’t know Lish, he seemed nice.  What’s so wrong with him?”  She asked innocently.

“Just don’t, okay?  Just… trust me.  He’s not what he seems.”  

“Really?”  Jillie looked over at him again then back to Billie.  She looked down at her autograph book then back up to Billie.  “He said he’s here for the same conference my parents are here for about some new finding… my parents are here specifically for something called Foley Art or something.  Some Foley Art ‘finding’, I don’t know, really, that’s what I know from what I overheard between him and my parents.  My parents received some notification about it a while back. I looked it up, Foley Art is the art of making sound effects for movies… apparently all the big movie directors are going to show up too, it’s all part of some big conference.  Something about a pattern.  To quote my dad, ‘it’s happening across all the creative mediums…’”

“A pattern?  And the pattern has to do with the finding?”

“Yeah, I don’t know… To be honest, Lish, I wasn’t paying attention.  They started to discuss it in the other room and I was just like, I’m gonna put on some Lishy Lish while I do my homesworks”

“Your homesworks?”  Billie asked, completely confused.

“That’s what I call homework.”

“Why not just call it homework?”

“Because Lish, no one wants to watch me do homework on livestream.  But if I call it homesworks, they tune in!  They tune in like a TON!”

Billie put her hands on her hips and looked down at her stan, “Wait a minute, you’re telling me that you livestream yourself doing homework and no one watches it, but you changed the name to homesworks, even though it’s still just homework, and people watch your livestream?”

“Uh, yeah.  I mean, I listen to your music while I do my homesworks, also I’ve got 8 different camera angles that I switch between too, and I dazzle them with effects.  The other night I had over 7500 viewers!  I even had the chat box open and everything!  They were asking ME questions, I wasn’t asking them, in case you were wondering if I was cheating on my homesworks.”

“I wasn’t.  Wait, hold on, you play my music while you livestream?”

“Of course.  Always.  I was listening to your music for like the 7000th time.”

“Are you paying royalties on my music use—"

“Lish, I don’t know how any of that works, all I know is people like homesworks.  And if people like it, I’m gonna keep doing it.  And if they think I’m royalty, great.”

“Royalties, not royalty—you know what, never mind.  I’m pretty sure they’re just tuning in to listen to MY music.”

“Yeah, okay Lish, I’m sure they are, if it makes you feel better, you keep telling yourself that.  Enough about my homesworks, I’ll send you the link next time I’m homesworksing.  B-Lish, let’s get back on subject.  Anyway, I heard Spielberg is supposed to be here!  Which really sucks because I wanted to get a selfie and post it to my socials but now my phone is broken.  It just says SMPTE error, I tried to take the SIM card out and put it back in but it’s not that.  Anyway, The Whale gave me his business card and everything, it’s got a funny picture of a whale on it, see!”  She pulled the card from her pocket and held it out for Billie to see.

Billie looked at the business card in Jillie’s hand.  “Can I see that?”

“LISH!  For you, anything.”

“Thanks…”  She took the card and inspected it.  ‘The Whale’ was printed in fancy font and along with it a cute drawing of a cartoonified whale, a Disney looking whale, but vintage looking, like something Disney would have drawn in the olden days before the name Disney was anything to anyone.  The card had additional peculiar properties, it contained optical illusions.  If you tilted the card one way and back another, the cartoon whale appeared to move back and forth.  You could also see bits of text change to form a sentence that could only be read as you tilted the card to reveal each word.  The card contained no phone number or identifying information, no street address, simply a QR code.  Or rather a series of codes depending on which way you held the card.  The QR code changed as you tilted the card, an infinite number of possible QR codes, again, depending on which way you held the card when you scanned it.  It seemed like something you’d find in a 1980s cereal box as a prize with a secret message.  The sentence read, “You can trust me.”

Jillie pointed to the QR code beside the cartoonified Whale.  “I tried to scan the QR code with my phone, Lish, no dice.  He gave me his card right after this SMPTE error appeared.  Or maybe it happened when he gave me the card.  I know I used my phone just before my parents started chatting with him, I was live on all the socials showing off that crazy food table over there, not as many viewers as homesworks, but not bad.  My parents told me not to post anything online about this conference, but, whatever, like I’m NOT going to post stuff online.  Parents, am I right?”

“Listen, Jillie, that man is not what he seems.  He’s a very bad man, okay?  Just remember that.  He works at a bank his name is Banksy, but not THAT Banksy, not the one that makes art, he’s a money guy… but they don’t talk about money.  I know, you’re gonna say what kind of bank doesn’t talk about money?”

“That’s easy, Lishy.  A blood bank!”

“Ohhhh, funny.  Funny.  Hey, Jillie Bean, you’re not so bad.”

“And you wanted to trade me!”  Jillie tossed her hands up in the air.

“That was before we… we bonded.” She said not really paying attention to her stan but inspecting the business card more.  She turned it over and tilted it slowly back and forth to reveal an animation of a stream that appeared to flow out of the QR box… flowing down the stream were musical notes.  She handed the card back to Jillie. And whispered to her.  “Don’t tell anyone what I said to you about The Whale.  That guy over there works for him.”  She pointed at Carl Lyle Lawyer/Kymmie Lawyer’s dad/Legal advisor to those fighting Taylor to keep her old masters from her.

“Lish, listen, I stan you so much right now.”  Jillie Jean beamed back at her.  Then lowered her voice so that Carl and Scott and Justin and the others couldn’t tell what she was saying, “I won’t say a word.  I trust you.  If you say The Whale is smelly fish in a pail, I believe you.”

“Jillie…”

“Billie…”  She smiled and blinked.

“Listen…”

“Lish… I’m listening.”  She smiled wider.

Billie smiled ever so slightly for just a moment, then attempted to conceal it.  She shot a quixotic look at her stan, then thought for a moment, “You said that your parents were talking to The Whale about how there’s a bunch of movie directors showing up for a conference and about Foley Art?”

“Yeah.”

“Did he say what it’s about?”  Billie motioned to Oak Felder and he walked over to stand near her.  “Like, any other details about the ‘Foley Art Finding’ that you mentioned earlier, or… anything else at all?”

“Nope.  I just know there’s more, that’s just the part of the conference my parents had an interest in more than anything else.  Something about sound effects in movies and old samples.  I don’t know.  Did you know, that in Harry Potter the sound of Buck Beak is actually some sound from like a million years ago.  It’s like that in a ton of movies… old sounds.  Like Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Whale said he plans to get a meeting with Spielberg about something, discuss business proposals related to the finding, apparently, they used old bird sounds from Cornell University along with something called Movietone and blah blah blah… I don’t know, I wasn’t paying attention.”  She returned her voice to normal volume,  “They lost me at Cornell, I plan to attend Brown University so what do I care about Cornell.”

Billie looked to Oak.  Oak looked back, thinking what Billie was thinking.  Australian Crosswalk sound, the sound map.  There’s more to it, to the mysterious subsonic frequencies.  The adaptive sounds they saw on his computer screen.

“Brown?  ME TOO!”  Sashy yelled.

“Cooooooool.  OMG if we both get in, you wanna be study buddies?”  Jillie screamed at Sashy.

“Deal!”  Sashy screamed back.

“Brown?”  Kymmie stated flatly.  “I’ve got my heart set on UCLA.  That’s where my dad went.”

“I’m not going to college.  I’m gonna be a college dropout.”  Stan added.

“You have to go to college to be a dropout.”  Sashy said sassily.

“No you are NOT going to be a dropout!”  Kanye said to his stan.  “You’re going to college and you’re going to graduate.”

“Okay fine.  I want to go to UCLA then.”

“You just want to go because she wants to go there.”  Justin pointed at Kymmie.

“No, whatever… I was thinking about going there anyway.”  Stan said defensively.  Kymmie smiled slightly at Stan then looked away.

Why the interest in Spielberg, Billie thought for a moment turning her attention away from the stans bickering about which colleges they wanted to attend.  Why would The Whale want a meeting with Spielberg?  Then, it suddenly clicked… Sasha, might have the journal.  Not Sasha the Swiftie stan… Sasha Spielberg.  She went to Brown with Emma Watson… didn’t she?  Billie remembered it being mentioned in conversation at some party after a show she played a couple of years ago.  And they’re both into journaling.  I bet Emma’s backup plan is to hand it off to Sasha.  The Whale is trying to get an in, he’s trying to cover his bases.  He’s manipulating, calculating, trying to stay one step ahead.  It’s all tables turned… one would think most people might want to befriend Sasha Spielberg to get an “in” with her dad… Steven himself… and here The Whale is befriending her dad to try and get an “in” with Sasha.  He knows Emma Watson wants out of Hollywood and he’s trying to stay one step ahead of her Hollywood exit strategy, her plan to escape—escape the constant control over her life, the constant worry that The Strangies will come crawling through her bedroom window in the middle of the night.  But just like Princess Sheikha Latifa, why does Emma Watson even need an escape plan in the first place?  Why does anyone need an exit plan from unhappiness?  Maybe The Whale needed Emma to stay in Hollywood, just like Princess Latifa isn’t free to simply go her own way… but why?  How exactly did everything piece together?  Billie wasn’t sure and what shew knew was mostly based on scrolling through sites and reading random stuff on the internet on her phone when she couldn’t sleep at night, like we all do, or staring at the bedroom window expecting The Strangies to press their face against the glass.  The things you read right before you drift off to sleep, and then when you wake you think, maybe I didn’t really read that?  Or maybe what I read wasn’t real?  Maybe she had it all wrong, and maybe not.  Perhaps, Jillie Jean might prove useful in all of this after all.  Jillie jean is not just another fan, another stan, Jillie Jean might be a useful one.

Billie waved Kymmie aside and broke back into the conversation between the two potential future roomies, provided they were both accepted at Brown University.

“Who are your parents? Are they in the conference?”  She asked her stan really seriously, Billie seriously.

“Eh, they’re in the movie industry.  They do, like, important stuff… It’s not important—”

“Listen, Jillie… I need to know as much as you can tell me… ”  

Jillie thought for a moment, “I just know they got some invite and got all excited.  I’ll be honest, I don’t really know exactly what it is they do, I just know it’s important, like, really important, they meet with a lot of big time behind the scenes industry people—Listen, Lish, I didn’t come over here to talk about my parents, or that creepy old man and the sea, I came here to hang out with you.  I’m not trying to be my parents, I’m trying to be me.  I’m trying to make my own way in this world, so who cares who my parents are.  Yes, they’re kind of a big deal, but I want to do things on my own without their help.  Okay Lish?”

Billie looked at The Whale once more.  “Okay.  You can hang out with me.  It’s totally cool, and we can even work on that Lish Lish Wishlist of yours.”  Billie didn’t want to think of it as using her stan so much as protecting her stan.  She kind of felt obligated to make sure she didn’t end up going down a devilish path, as annoying as she was, she actually liked her—

“LISHY!  I knew you’d come around.”  Jillie Jean made a high-pitched squealing noise.

—Well… maybe.  Maybe Billie liked her number one stan.  Billie Eilish smiled at the wannabe mini-me version of her.  “Alright, Mini-Lish, just stick with me.”  Billie joked.

Jillie stepped back, “Don’t call me Mini-Lish.”  Jillie said in a mean green jelly bean voice.

“Whoa.  What?  Why not?”  Billie replied, caught off guard, “Well, that’s kind of a double STAN-dard.  Don’t you think?  Eh, eh??”

“Ohhhhhh.  Lish, you’re funny.  I call you Lish, you call me Jillie… But don’t call me Mini-Lish.  Don’t ever call me Mini-Lish, ever.”

These stans are out of control, am I right?  I take back my thought about liking my stan… maybe.

@taylorswift

[littlemissyina]

The Perfect Fit - Chapter 1

So I started writing a backstory for my OC Ichika, and I’ve finally stopped staring at my google doc and got over my anxiety to post this. Not sure how long it will be but I hope you all enjoy!

The Perfect Fit

Chapter 1

Ikemen Sengoku - OC - Ichika Saito

The morning sun was just peeking over as Ichika walked through the castle gates with Hisanori and their father. The evening chill still hung in the air, goosebumps forming on her skin as she stayed close to her dad.

“It’s weird coming through the normal way,” she mumbled, crossing her arms in an effort to keep the warmth in.

Akitoshi chuckled. “Get used to it, no need to jump the walls anymore,” he said, leading them towards the training grounds. “You will meet with Takeshi in the mornings, then do basic training with the rest. There is a specialized training for the ninjas that is at night that you will also be doing.”

“Sounds like a lot of work,” Ichika groaned.

Hisanori grinned, ruffling her hair. “Right up your alley then, isn’t it?”

Akitoshi led them down the last corridor, opening up to a large open field, a lone man standing in the center. He had his hands clasped behind his back, his white hair also tied back neatly. He nodded to Akitoshi as he came closer. “Akitoshi, I see you’ve brought just about everyone.”

Akitoshi grinned widely as he stepped into the training grounds, his children in tow. He clapped Takeshi on the shoulder. “Yes, Hisanori is starting his training today with the soldiers as well. I am dropping off Ichi first with you.” He smiles as he turned towards Ichika, kissing her on the forehead. “Be a good girl, and do your best,” he said.

Ichika grinned. “Yes, dad. Good luck on your training today too, Aniki.”

“Thanks, Chii-kun,” Hisanori smiled.

Takeshi frowned. “Only call each other by your names when in Lord Nobunaga’s castle. Save your nicknames for when you’re at home.”

Hisanori and Ichika gave each other a look before looking at their dad.

“They’ll be fine, Takeshi. Now,” Akitoshi clapped his friend on the shoulder before waving for Hisanori to follow him. “We must be going. We will see you after training.”

Ichika waved as they left before turning to Takeshi. She bowed to him in thanks.

He waited until she stood straight again before taking a step towards her, looking straight into her crystal blue eyes. “Training will be hard, but your father said you would make the perfect fit as one of the kunoichi. As much as I trust your father, you will still have to prove to me that you are worthy of being called one of Lord Nobunaga’s ninjas, and then prove to me again that you deserve to be in the Elite Five. It will be a long and hard journey, I don’t want you taking this lightly. I am not here to babysit you, do you understand?”

Ichika looked up, her eyes determined. “Of course I do. I won’t let my dad down.”

“The correct answer is ‘Yes, sir’, but we’ll work on that.” He turned into his heel and walked towards the other side of the training grounds and through the corridor. “First stop is the seamstresses. You need to get fitted into a modified Hakama that you can wear for training. Do not wear any of your nicer clothes, they’ll get dirty or destroyed. Always tie your hair up, and make sure you do your stretches before starting your training.”

Ichika jogged to try and stay in pace with him, huffing. “Yes, sir,” she said through gritted teeth.

Takeshi stopped abruptly at a door, Ichika running straight into his back. He barely budged as he looked over his shoulder.

“Rule number one. Ninja are always aware of their surroundings. They know what is going on around them, even things that are happening that are not in their field of vision. You must stay constantly vigilant and reassess your surroundings as often as you need to.” He slid open the door, the seamstresses smiling and nodding their greeting. He gave a soft smile and nod in return. “I have Ichika Saito with me. She will need to get fitted for the modified hakama.”

One of the seamstresses nodded and bowed, offering her hand to Ichika and inviting her in.

“I will be back later to collect her,” Takeshi said, bowing before leaving the seamstresses to do their work.

Ichika heard the door snap shut behind her as a few of the women started measuring her, turning her this way and that, wrapping various fabrics around her and talking to themselves. They walked around her in a blur as she tried to keep up with them.

They were just about done when the door slid open again, revealing Takeshi. “All done?” he asked, stepping in.

“Um, yeah, I think so,” she responded, moving to start making her way out of the room.

Takeshi sighed, bowing to the seamstresses in thanks.

“Every morning before basic training we will meet to meditate. You need a clear mind and need to train yourself to clear it quickly if you want to survive.” He walked in front of her, leading them towards the gardens. “We will meditate for an hour each morning-“

“An hour? That’s so long!” Ichika groaned.

“Which is why I am choosing to start with one hour. Not only will you learn to calm that head of yours, but you’ll learn to have patience, too. I have been told by your father that you take up after your mom in that aspect,” he said, looking back at her blushing face. “You will need to learn patience. Some things that we do take time, and if you can’t wait, it could mean your inevitable and untimely death.”

Ichika gasped, stopping momentarily in the corridor. She bit her lip as she quickly followed him again, turning into the gardens. Takeshi guided them to a patch of grass, and motioned for her to sit in front of him.

“Hands on the tops of your thighs, relax your shoulders, back straight, and close your eyes,” he listed off.

She tucked her legs under her and did as he instructed. “Okay, now what?” she asked, furrowing her brow.

Takeshi sighed, rolling his eyes. “Stop talking, take a deep breath.”

She pouted for a second before inhaling deeply through her nose and exhaling.

“Good. Again,” he said, watching her.

She took a few more breaths, Takeshi watching as he noticed the subtle changes in her, indicating that she was indeed relaxing and beginning to enter into a peaceful state.

“Good. Continue as you are for the hour,” he said, closing his own eyes.

Sixty minutes had come and gone when Ichika felt a tap on her shoulder. She opened her eyes and Takeshi was already waiting for her in the corridor. She scrambled to her feet, dirt kicking up around her as she ran to meet him.

Takeshi gave her a look. “It probably should go without saying, but ninjas never leave a trail. I can clearly see where you came from.” He eyed the cloud of dust that was slowly floating away. “You must be light on your feet and swift as the wind. If you can’t at least understand how to do both, you won’t stand a chance being in this unit.”

Ichika pouted, following behind him. It had barely been a couple of hours and she already wanted to quit. It seemed like everything she was doing was wrong. She wiped away an angry tear, telling herself just to finish today’s hell session, then she can tell her dad she can’t handle it, and will work at the tea house. Luckily, their next stop was the basic training with the rest of the unit. Takeshi disappeared again, leaving her in the back of the ranks as they started the morning session.

Although the basic training was tough, it was a welcome distraction from Takeshi’s strict ways. Her face was red from exertion, sweat dripping down the side of her face as she gulped down some water. Lunch was spent with the other trainees, and more physical training was done afterwards. The sun was beginning to set by the time Takeshi had come by, Akitoshi with him.

“Dad!” Ichika said, jogging up to them as training ended.

Takeshi frowned. “Meet me in the garden after dinner,” he said before nodding to Akitoshi and leaving.

Akitoshi shook his head, smiling at Ichika. “So, how was training?”

“It was…”

She paused, her thoughts wandering back to when she was following Takeshi in the corridor. She looked down, fiddling with her fingers, not wanting to finish her sentence.

“Let me guess, it was great, but it wasn’t, right?” Akitoshi said, smirking. “Think you can’t handle it, and want to quit?”

Her head snapped up, looking at her father with wide blue eyes. “How did you know?”

He chuckled. “Takeshi told me. Now,” he said as he slung his arm over her shoulder, guiding her out of the castle. “Why do you feel that way?”

“It’s hard! I felt like I could barely keep up, I was falling asleep during meditation, and I was one of the slowest in training.” She turned away from Akitoshi, wiping her tears. “I’m not fit to be a ninja. I’m not something that you’ll be proud of.”

Akitoshi sighed, pulling them into a secluded corridor close to the castle gates. “Ichika, my beautiful daughter,” he said, pulling her into a hug.

“Dad..” she sobbed, trying to push him away.

“I would not have let you go through today if I knew you couldn’t handle it. Takeshi wouldn’t have agreed to being your mentor had he thought you couldn’t handle it. We both knew you would react like this, and we both agreed we’re not going to let you off that easy.” He pulled her away and held her shoulders at arms length, blue eyes looking into blue eyes. “It may not look it, but Takeshi really cares about you, like one of his own. He thinks you have what it takes to be the perfect fit in the Elite Five.”

Her eyes grew wide. “He does?!”

“He does. He thinks that highly of you. You are a special girl, Ichika. You’re destined for great things,” Akitoshi said, smiling proudly.

“I am not, but okay,” she snorted, walking them back out into the main corridor and out the gates. Akitoshi continued to beam at her all the way until they entered their home in town.

Hisanori was already there, freshly bathed and excitedly waiting for Akitoshi and Ichika to get home. He grinned widely as they came in. “Welcome home!” he said, standing to hug Ichika. “I see you survived Takeshi-san.”

Ichika snorted. “Barely. I’m still not done yet,” she groaned. “After dinner I have to go back for more specialized training.”

“Really?” he asked, sounding a bit disappointed. “I was hoping we would be able to go out to the market after dinner, celebrate our first day of training.”

Akitoshi chuckled, moving to kiss Chiyoko on the cheek. “This is all part of her training. Even the part where she will be gone for most of the day. You will have to get used to seeing her less.”

Hisanori frowned. “Then we should start making the best of our time together, won’t we, Chii-Kun?”

Ichika giggled, taking his hand and running out of the house. “We’ll be back for dinner!”

[darknytemare]

Way To You

For the @btswriterscorner​ - Amor Fabula Launch Project in celebration of the month of Valentine’s Day!

Plot: Taehyung is happy with his life because that’s how he’s supposed to feel. He lives his life by routine to the minute. In the new world order, love is a dangerous emotion - and therefore illegal. That’s perfectly fine - until the lingering ‘dreams’ of a strange woman throw him out of sync. Mostly because that woman isn’t his wife.

Rating: M // NSFW

Genre: dystopian! au/dystopian themes | angst |  smut | fluff if you squint

Pairing: Kim Taehyung x Female OC (Tempest Estrellado)

Warnings: Strong language, interracial relationship, mentions of drugs, blood, main character injury, implied smut

Word Count: 2,886

AN: This hot mess has 3 parts. Please enjoy and thank you for loving all that we do © thebiasrekkers/darknytemare . All rights reserved. Reposting/modifying our work is prohibited. Translations are not allowed. Plagiarism/stealing is not tolerated by any means. Legal action will be taken in instances of theft.

Links:

FAQ || BTS Masterlist || [ REQUESTS ARE OPEN ]

--

“Can we stay like this forever?” She always asked him this after. Their bodies drying in a cool summer breeze through an open window. Their limbs tangled and he could feel her breath against the skin of his neck. The gentle rise and fall of her shoulders. Taehyung kept his eyes closed, living within the sounds and sensations around him. His fingers could trace the colony of goosebumps on her skin. He could smell the heat of her so close. The faint sweet, salty mix of their love lingered on his lips turning upward into a dreamy smile. The rumble of his laugh deep and sensual caused her to smile.

He could always remember her eyes - they were unique. Leonine. A golden-amber concoction, a genetic mutation that added something wild to the already fierce attitude within that petite form.

His mouth formed her name, but he could never hear it. She tilted her gaze to his face as his fingers slid along her jaw.

He’d always say something - it was something that he knew he shouldn’t be saying. But, they said it to each other. They said it freely.

Then there was always pain that seared his mind.

Then the alarm would ring and it would be forgotten again.

5:30 am.

Wake up.

5:45 am.

Shower.

6 am.

Coffee. Toast. Protein bar.

6:15 am

Run 4 miles.

7 am.

Shower again. Protein bar. Protein Shake.

7:15 am.

Lock the door.

7:55 am

Arrive at work. Clock in.

8 am.

To say that Taehyung was methodical was to point out the obvious. He always showed up minutes early to work, making sure the office was lit and inviting. As inviting as their line of work was, anyway. He stared at a stack of folders on his desk. They never seemed to shrink, these stacks. Names, faces, and pertinent information lined flimsy manila folders.

It was time to gather candidates to increase the population.

He sipped a cup of coffee as the voices began to filter into the office. Taehyung carried the stack of folders to the meeting room nearby. A presentation loaded as he stood in the corner.

“Good morning, everyone. We’ve compiled the candidates for this year.” Everyone settled in their seats.

He talked numbers and statistics for almost 3 hours.

“Any other questions?” The room was silent as the lights brightened. “Alright, you know what to do.” They all stood with a nod in his direction before they filed out of the room.

12 pm.

Lunch and coffee in his office.

5 pm.

Debriefing with The Council liaison.

7 pm.

Lock up and head home.

8 pm.

Late Dinner.

“Taehyung, dinner is in the oven. I have to report to R&D tonight.” A female voice spoke softly as he walked into his home.

“I suppose it cannot be helped. Do be careful, April. Things have been slightly tense in the riot zone.” He hung up his jacket as his ‘Wife’ slid hers on. She offered a slight smile as she grabbed her badge.

“Rest well, Taehyung.” A brief touch on his shoulder. Like a dear friend wishing another friend well.

10 pm.

Sleep.

“Taehyung! Seriously! You’re slow as molasses.” A voice taunted him, a petite figure outlined in front of him. He could feel himself licking his lips. An eagerness, an urgency to get his hands on her.

She was teasing him. She knew better than to tease him. He felt heat fire through his veins. The world was so bright and vibrant. There was the crash of water, the air salty like the...sea?

The ocean - the moon was full. Full like he hadn’t seen it in ages. When was the last time the sky looked like this?

He called her name and she turned around, her full lips tilted upward in a smile. She reached behind her back tugging at the string of a bikini top. Turning away from him as it fell down her arms. He heard a sound, like an animal nearby.

He realized it was him. He growled as the sight of skin glowing under the moonlight fueled him further. It was like time sped forward and he saw her face beneath him. Their bodies intertwined, her face scrunched in orgasmic bliss as she purred. He was losing his mind, he could swear he felt her around him.

The sound of the ocean was like a lullaby as their voices crescendoed and they cried out freely. She dug her fingers into his back and dragged them across his shoulder blades. He roared as he exploded inside of her.

Time went funny as they lay together, again, on the sands. Her face obscured as she leaned over him. She smiled down at him, saying something. She called him...something. The world began to fizzle as exhaustion washed over him.

“We could stay like this forever, querido.”

The pain was stronger this time.

5:31 am

Turn the alarm off.

Taehyung clawed at the throbbing pain in his skull. He stumbled to the bathroom, reaching for the vitamins April reminded him constantly not to forget. He swallowed them down with a glass of water.

He winced as the pain throbbed behind his eye. His hands gripped the sink until his knuckles were white.

It took ten minutes for the pain to subside.

Taehyung saw the reflection in the mirror and hardly recognized it. There were bags under bloodshot eyes. He splashed cold water on his face. He stripped down to jump into a hot spray of water. He stood there for fifteen minutes letting the water loosen his muscles.

“What the hell was that?”

Flashes of dreams kept creeping into his mind, the pain increased each time he tried to access them.

7:27 am

Hasty breakfast.

7:58 am

Barely makes it ‘early’.

8:05 am

Two cups of coffee as he grabs the stack of folders for today’s patients.

“Good morning, everyone. We’ve compiled the candidates for today.” Everyone settled in their seats.

There was a new face today. It was scary how all heads turned in her direction. She adjusted the glasses on her face as she stood.

“I’ll be working with your department as the liaison from the Medical Division starting today.” She approached Taehyung with a hand extended. “My name is Tempest Estrellado.”

She looked up at him ...leonine eyes. Taehyung’s brow twitched momentarily as he accepted her hand. “Ms. Estrellado, a pleasure. I look forward to our continued success.” He held her hand for one second more than he should have. “If you please take your seat?” She offered a curt nod before settling in her seat. Tae cleared his throat, clapped for the lights to dim.

Taehyung paced around the table slowly as he flipped between screens. Numbers, percentages, and her eyes are so bright even in the low light. He shook his head as he found himself staring at the top of her head.

The peek of collarbone caused his lips to part as two people spoke on some extra bit of information just made available. His thoughts suddenly wandered to the delicate fingers tapping on the keypad of her tablet.

“Mr. Kim…” Someone calling him had his gaze snapping upward. The young tech from R&D tilted her head. “...your thoughts, sir?”

“Ah, right. If we run into the same rabid sequences as last year? Protocol as normal unless we get clearance to combine genetic materials. It is still a curious matter for The Council if proper citizens can come from Rebel couplings.” He waved a hand moving toward the front of the room.

“Any other questions?” The room was silent as the lights brightened. “Alright, you know what to do.” They all stood with a nod in his direction before they filed out of the room.

1 pm

Lunch.

1:30 pm

“Mr. Kim.” A voice caused him to look up from his desk.

“Yes, Ms. Estrellado?” He wiped his mouth, cleared his hands and stood. An arm spread to offer her the seat in front of his desk.

She wore her hair in a ponytail, slicked back. Its length easily the middle of her back. She was petite - even for what he was used to. She was maybe 5’5 outside of the two-inch heels she wore, that is.

“...so I’m going to need a space to work. I hope you don’t mind?” She arched a brow as he shook his head again.

“Uh, n-no. That’s not a problem. The office next to me is quite large. I’ll have it ready for you tomorrow, should that suffice?” He maintained his professionalism as she offered that slight smile.

“Splendid.” She stood offering her hand once more. “I’ll be heading to collect my things - I’ll be here bright and early.”

They shook hands.

She left his office, and he found himself sagging against his desk.

The pain ringing like a bell in his ears.

Promise me, Taehyung. No matter what. Promise.

He shook his head violently as he settled back at his desk. It seemed like he stared at nothing until his phone rang.

“This is Mr. Kim.” A receptionist pleasantly announced his Wife calling.

“Taehyung.” April spoke, that pleasant friendly tone, “...are you alright?” His brow furrowed as she asked.

“Of course, why wouldn’t I be?”

“You didn’t eat your protein bar this morning. That’s unlike you.” He could detect the stirring of worry.

“Ah, I had a bit of a headache this morning.” He sighed quietly.

That worry seemed to turn into something...else. “Did you take your vitamins, Taehyung? You know how important it is for you to take your vitamins.”

There was something almost cold, ominous in her tone. His brow furrowed deeply as he answered her, making sure the hesitation was absent from his voice. “Of course, April. I took them immediately when I woke up. I was quite fine after a shower. I think I was just alarmed at the one minute tardy. I assure you, I’m fine.”

There was a long, thick silence before she spoke again. Her tone was light and friendly once more. “I’m sure it was jarring, Taehyung. Just let me know if you feel strange, alright?”

He forced himself to smile, so it filtered through into his voice. “Of course, April. I need to stay late tonight. We have a new colleague who’ll be using the empty office. I’d like to have it ready for her use.”

“Of course, Taeyung. You’re not the only ones busy. I will leave dinner for you. Have a good night, Taehyung.”

“Of course, April. You do the same.” The line goes dead but he still holds the phone aloft. It’s almost a full minute before he placed the handset onto its base. There was that bothersome echo in the back of his mind again.

It was exhaustion - wasn’t it?

10:37 pm

Nails on a chalkboard. That was the sound of the heavy furniture sliding across the floor. Tae had removed his jacket and dress shirt. His white t-shirt had slightly grayed from cleaning the other office. He worked quietly adjusting the office to spec. There was a certain placement for all of the furniture in the office. They all looked the same, even when facing different directions.

11: 32 pm

Taehyung grunted as he dropped a box onto the floor. He rotated his shoulder to work out the strange soreness. It was unusual for him to suffer such strains. “Mm, I didn’t have much to eat today.” He sighed. That conversation with April caused his brow to furrow. He glanced at his watch with a deeper sigh. He didn’t understand that sudden change in her demeanor. He didn’t understand why he felt the need to keep up appearances. There had been no reason to be dishonest with her.

She was his wife. She was also a medical researcher. She would have understood his symptoms, right? April would have offered some kind of solution, right?

Why am I thinking about this so hard? Taehyung pushed to stand. One more cup of coffee would give him the energy he needed to push through. That’s what he believed. The office was a strange place at night. There were a few occasions that warranted his presence in the office so late. He shouldered into the break room, pulling the fridge open in the darkness. The light seemed eerie as perfectly situated rows of water and milk lined the shelves. There were fruits and vegetables in the drawers. Small bags of freshly cooked proteins.

He reached for one of each, plus a bottle of water. He waited those few extra minutes to brew a small pot of coffee. His hand scrunched over the tops of the bags holding the food. The other held a hot cup of caffeine against his face.

1:48 am

Exhausted.

Taehyung was exhausted and he couldn’t explain why this sensation caused something to spark inside of him. He sprawled on the floor, making sure not to disturb the exact precision of his work. His eyes closed as he paid attention to the thundering in his ears. The tightness in his chest as he fought for more air.

Why did this interest him so? Why did it seem suddenly...familiar?

“I shouldn’t have had that extra coffee.” His voice was gruff as he drifted into sleep. Just a small nap, just a moment to close his eyes and rest.

The sky was bright, fiery - hot.

“Taehyung!” She called him her hand extended as he pulled himself up from the ground. “We have to get out of here.” Those leonine eyes were hard and filled with determination. He could feel his heart thundering in his chest.

The coppery taste of blood filled his mouth causing him to spit. The sound of gunfire echoed above their heads. They returned to fire on opposite sides hiding behind the shattered pieces of building near them.

“We have to make a run for it.” He told her. She frowned but hardened her gaze with a nod. They were sitting ducks this way. Taehyung reached out and grabbed her hand - there was a break in the fire. Then they ran - hard.

“We have to find a way to meet up with the resistance, Tae!” The female’s voice was loud over the sound of violence around them.

“We have to live through this first!” He growled pulling her in front of him as he spun around a corner. “Listen to me, we …” His hands framed a set of tiny shoulders, holding them firm. “...we need to split up.”

And as he anticipated, “No. NO! Fuck no, Tae! Tae that’s madness! We can’t!”

“LISTEN TO ME.” He shook her harder feeling his brow crease. He didn’t like it. He abhorred the idea of being away from her. But this new world order gave them no option. They had to find their way to the Rebels that would help them. “Please, I beg you. Please, we have to split here. I’ll draw their fire. You have to run. I promise you, I’ll find you.”

He hated it. He hated seeing those rare eyes filled with tears. He hated seeing that strength seep from her. “Please.” He framed her face as their foreheads touched. She grabbed his wrists squeezing her eyes shut.

“Don’t you die, Taehyung.” The female took a shuddering breath as her tears fell over his fingers. “Do you hear me? Don’t you fucking die. I will find you.” She dug half-moon indentations into his arm as their lips smashed together for the last time. He could feel his tears burning hot craters against his cheeks.

“Go ____..” He croaked as she sobbed quietly. She finally pulled away running toward a thicket of bushes. Taehyung felt himself hyperventilating as he held his weapon tight. He wanted to run after her. He wanted to scream for her to stay where she was. He swallowed his cowardice as he moved beyond the cover to open fire on the enemy.

I won’t die.

He pushed toward the open field, drawing their attention to him. Searing pain radiated on his left side, causing him to take a knee. The world was silent as the sky seemed to come to meet him - or he met it?

The weightlessness of the world was apparent as the blue of the sky filled his eyes. The fiery blast sent him, others, and debris hurtling to the sky. He heard the crack of his body as he landed on his spine.

The tears filled his eyes as the world crumbled around him. He made a promise. “I’m sorry…” Taehyung coughed blood in spurts as his world began to fade to black.

Taehyung. He could hear her voice even as his body pulled him into the darkness.

Taehyung, wake up! It was her. He was sure of it.

I want to go back to her. I want to go back to her!

Taehyung!

He sat up grabbing the arm that shook him from his slumber. His eyes wide as their close proximity gave them both pause. “T-Tempest?” There was worry etched across her face. He could feel her pulse racing under his hand.

They both glanced at their connected skin - and Taehyung saw the time.

7:52 am

[varietywritings]

PROTEGO

Sirius Black x OC!Arden Walker 

CHAPTER ONE: BEGIN AGAIN

September 1, 1976

CRACK! A burst of crimson deflected off an invisible force field. The girl inside had a white-knuckle grip on her wand. She stood rigidly as her chest heaved with quick breaths. Her hands shook. The rush of her own blood sounded loudly in her ears. The mass of faceless witches and wizards closed in on her. She could not let them get to her. 

The girl flung every jinx and hex that she could think of at her adversaries, but nothing slowed them. Something pierced the translucent shield she had conjured, making it dissolve. She was vulnerable. A wave of curses crashed down on her. The girl flung herself over something, but not before a flash of emerald light covered her eyes.

✧✧✧

“Arden!” 

Arden Walker rapidly blinked her eyes, coming back to her senses. The bustling of Hogwarts students and their families filled the air with tearful goodbyes and grumbling teenagers. Arden shook her head. All thoughts about the dream she had last night were pushed to the back of her mind as she regarded her mother.

“Are you alright?” Gwyneth, her mother, looked at her warily. Arden smiled tightly. She could still hear the cracks of curses in her head. 

“I’m fine, mom,” she laughed, “You worry too much, you know?” 

“I have to.”

“Not really.”

“Arden May!”

Arden snickered to herself. Gwyneth attempted to give her an appraising look, but couldn’t help herself from smirking. 

“Torian would not approve of your snark.” she half-teased and all humor was snatched from Arden’s demeanor. The mention of her stepfather made her want to hex herself.

“He doesn’t approve of anything, mama,” she grumbled, tucking her caramel hair behind her ear, “You and I both know that.” 

“I know.” Her mother admitted quietly. “He’s not Ray—” Arden visibly tensed; she hated talking about her real father. “—but he’s also not the worst, either.” She knew her mother was trying to make light of the situation (a trait she did not inherit from her), so she suppressed any and all comments she had formulated about his too-handsome face or his absurdly expensive dress robes. 

“Of course, mom. I’m sorry.” Arden apologized. Her mother smiled sadly at her daughter, who was a near-spitting image of her father. Not including the slightly hooked nose and sea green eyes, those were Gwyneth’s. 

Gwyneth smoothed out the line that had creased between Arden’s eyebrows. She tilted her head upwards to give a swift kiss to her forehead as Arden hunched over a bit.

“Now, don’t grow on me even more while you’re gone, Arden.” Gwyneth playfully scolded, causing Arden’s lips to quirk up into a smile.

“Yes, ma’am.” Arden gave her mother a one-armed hug, the shorter woman only coming up to brush under Arden’s nose. She began to trudge away to the Hogwarts Express. 

“Don’t forget to write! I know you have enough ink and quills to spare.” Gwyneth playfully scolded. Arden chuckled to herself. She gave a half-hearted wave over her shoulder and stepped onto the Hogwarts Express. 

Arden briskly walked down the narrow corridor of the train car. She pushed past students idly standing, slipping her jet black robes over her t-shirt and jeans. She made sure her prefect badge was pinned directly above the Ravenclaw crest. Looking in the reflection of a compartment window, she straightened out her robes and ran a quick hand through her hair, making sure the shoulder-length strands weren’t too askew. Giving herself a half smile, Arden entered the almost-full prefects’ train car. 

“How nice of you to join us!” Lily quipped, snapping the book she was reading shut. “You’re late.” Arden closed the door behind her, giving Lily a sickly sweet smile. 

“I’m right on time.” Arden tapped the knicked face of her watch and plopped down next to Lily. “And that’s no way to greet the best friend you haven’t seen in—what—three months?” 

“Oh, shove it.” Lily murmured. Arden snickered but quieted down as soon as the Head Boy started the same prefect speech that was given last year. The gist of it to Arden was, “Don’t let anyone hurt each other and don’t get hurt in the process.” She thought she succeeded at being a prefect last year. How hard could it be this year?

✧✧✧

Much to Arden’s delight, things were running immensely smooth on the train car she was monitoring. No fights had broken out. Most compartments were at a manageable noise level. The hardest thing she’s encountered so far was a nervous first-year. 

“But what if I get lost?” The glassy eyes of the first-year boy made Arden feel sorry for him. 

“Then ask for directions. The professors are willing to help each student get to where they need to go.” She tried reasoning, but the poor kid still fiddled nervously with the hem of his pristine robes.

“What if I don’t fit in, though?” The boy squeaked out. Sitting down across from him, Arden smiled fondly at him. 

“What’s your name?”

“Michael.” 

“Well, Michael, that’s exactly what I thought when I transferred from Ilvermorny the beginning of my third year.” She crossed her legs at the ankle. “Turns out I worried for nothing; I met my best friend on the train ride to Hogwarts and Ravenclaw welcomed me with open arms.” 

“Really?” Michael looked at Arden hopefully. 

“Of course! You have nothing to worry about.” 

BOOM!

A sudden explosion rattled the train car. Pinching the bridge of her nose, Arden heaved a great sigh.

“What was that?” He asked frantically. 

“It seems your fellow students are really excited about testing their luck with me again.” Sarcasm coated Arden’s words. “Just stay here, okay? I’ll be right back.” 

She stepped out into the hallway, the smell of smoke immediately assaulting her senses. Coughing into her elbow, she maneuvered her way past the heads of students peeking out to see what all the commotion was about. “Everybody back in your compartments! Nothing to worry about here.” She shouted. The students grumbled as she made her way to the compartment that was clearly the source of the ruckus; wisps of smoke were easing their way out of the cracked door. “Merlin, give me strength.” Arden pleaded. She composed herself and slid open the door. 

James Potter and Sirius Black were stood at the windows, desperately trying to waft the smoke out of the compartment as Peter Pettigrew wildly pat himself down to smolder the embers on his clothes. With his mousy brown hair sticking up in all different directions and his eyebrows smoking slightly, Peter looked like he had poked a dragon one too many times. Arden crossed her arms and steeled her expressions. She cleared her throat. All three boys’ heads snapped in her direction. 

“It’s kind of hard to convince a nervous first-year that everything’s going to be fine when an actual explosion happens on the train.” She looked at each boy pointedly. 

“Jus’ a bit of Exploding Snap, Walker. Nothing to get your robes in a twist over.” Sirius said, shutting the window behind him. He gave Arden the most charming smirk he could muster, but that only made her jaw tick. 

“Exploding Snap shouldn’t shake the entire train car.” 

“So, we modified the deck a little bit.” James shrugged her comment off, cleaning his glasses with his shirt. “No harm was done.”

“Then why does Peter look like he lost a fight with a fireball?” Arden jerked her head in Peter’s direction, who was now trying to make himself the least bit presentable. 

“He’s fine! Right?” Sirius nudged Peter with his elbow. Peter nodded aggressively. He patted out another ember that appeared on his shoulder. 

If Arden was being truthful with herself, she felt bad for Peter. He seemed to follow James and Sirius around like a lost dog, but she couldn’t judge; she bet that’s how she looked with Lily. 

“Just, please don’t cause any more trouble, at least until we get to Hogwarts,” Arden asked as nice as she could. 

“Yes, Professor Walker.” James mocked. She bit her cheek to keep her from saying anything too rude. She didn’t want to feel the wrath of her mother across the UK.

Arden shut the Marauders’ door, not before silently performing the Mending Charm on Peter’s clothes. She checked in on everybody else and resumed her position across from Michael. 

✧✧✧

The Hogwarts Express screeched to a halt. The dark brick and mortar of Hogsmeade Station basked in the evening sunset, the ivory base of the station’s sign tinted a pale tangerine. Closing her eyes, Arden inhaled a deep breath. The crisp scent of pine and the chatter of the students embraced her. She was home. 

An easy smile bloomed on her face, the dimple on her left cheek becoming noticeable; she really hated that thing. Begrudgingly, she pulled herself back to reality to make sure all the first-years made their way to the prefects escorting them to the Great Lake. Making one more pass through the train car she had been monitoring, Arden stepped off the train. She stuffed her hands in the pockets of her uniform pants and made her way to the carriages. Looking up she noticed the tall, lanky form of Remus Lupin a couple of paces ahead of her. 

“I would ask if you knew who caused that deafening explosion on my train car, but I think you’ve already got a good idea.” She called after him. He stopped in his tracks, waiting for her to catch up to him. 

“You should know by now that they’re never one for subtlety.” Remus lightly defended his friends, looking more than slightly amused by their antics. 

“Yeah, but making an already pretty high stakes game even higher stakes? That’s just asking for somebody to get hurt.” Arden justified. Remus nodded along. “I mean, c’mon, who’s idea was it?” 

“Oh, that was all James—” 

“Should’ve known.”

“—but I helped—” Remus hummed in thought, searching for the right word, “—enhance the deck.” Arden looked at him incredulously. 

“Why? That could’ve done some serious damage!” Arden gestured wildly with her hands. 

“But did it?” Remus proposed and Arden grew quiet.

“Well . . . no.” She mumbled. Remus chuckled. 

“I’ll still talk to them about pulling pranks like that if you want me to. Dunno how much it’ll help if I’m being honest.” He offered, but she waved off his offer.

“Thanks, but I think it will make them want to cause more trouble, not deter them from doing so.” Arden tucked her hair behind her ear.

“Arden, let’s go! You move slower than Marlene in the morning!” Lily shouted to Arden from her seat on the carriage. 

“Hey!” Marlene exclaimed, shoving a giggling Lily. 

“See you around, Lupin.” Arden bid him goodbye. “And tell Potter to stop staring at my best friend like that; it’s weird.” She heard Remus bite back a laugh from behind her.

“I think Sirius has that covered for me.” Arden looked over at the trio waiting for Remus. 

“Honestly, Prongs, you look like the Giant Squid. You aren’t gonna win Evans over if you look like a big fish all the time.” Sirius lectured James frankly. Arden huffed a laugh out her nose and shook her head as James mussed up Sirius’ hair for the comment he just made. 

She climbed onto the horseless carriage, gaining a “Finally” from Lily. The carriage jolted forward, bringing the girls to the doors of Hogwarts. Jumping out, Lily and Arden walked swiftly to the Great Hall, ready to fill their grumbling stomachs. Arden made her way to the Ravenclaw table and sat down beside a couple of her quidditch teammates from last year. They greeted her and made polite conversation as the hoard of first-years filed in behind Professor McGonagall. 

The Sorting Ceremony breezed by pretty uneventfully. Each house gained a decent amount of new members and the boy that Arden had comforted on the train got sorted into Gryffindor. The excited chatter at each of the house tables ceased as Professor Dumbledore took his place at the golden podium. 

“Students, new and returning! Welcome to Hogwarts. I’m sure you all are pretty famished, but before we begin the Feast, I would like to first introduce your new Charms Master, Professor Filius Flitwick.” Professor Dumbledore gestured behind him, his half-moon glasses glinting in the light. At the table where all the professors resided, a dwarfish man stood up in his seat. His eyes crinkled behind his circular glasses as he smiled, a large mustache taking up residence on his upper lip. Professor Flitwick nodded courteously to the hall filled with students. He sat back down, taking his place between Madame Pomfrey and Professor McGonagall. 

“I would also like to welcome Professor Bernard Janus, who will be the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.” A tall man stood up at the Professors’ table, clasping his hands in front of him. His chocolate brown hair was expertly coiffed and his navy blue waistcoat was tailored perfectly to his broad chest. With a sharp jawline, Grecian nose, and well-defined cheekbones, he captured the attention of everybody in the room. Professor Janus surveyed the Great Hall, as Arden took him in. He was handsome, that much she knew for sure, but she couldn’t help the sinking feeling that plagued her stomach. Their eyes met. His eyes were heterochromatic; one the color of nickels and the other resembling tree bark. The hair stood up on the back of her neck as he held her gaze for a couple more seconds and then moved on. 

“Good luck to you both, Professor Flitwick and Professor Janus,” Dumbledore said, earning the applause of the students and professors. “Now, dig in!”

Arden eagerly filled her plate with mashed potatoes, roast chicken, peas, and carrots. She dowsed her mashed potatoes in gravy and dug in, momentarily forgetting all the table manners her mother drilled into her and pushing the uneasy feeling to the back of her mind. She would worry about Professor Janus later. Now, she had a wonderful banquet to devour. 

✧✧✧

Arden trudged up the spiral staircase towards her dorm. Her hair dripped excess water from her shower onto her gray sleep shirt, but she couldn’t care less. All she wanted right now was to go to sleep. 

The Ravenclaw first-years, while rather endearing, were also tiresome. Arden had never encountered such a curious bunch before. They bombarded her with questions and part of her admired their inquisitiveness, however, the other, sleep-deprived part of her wanted them to direct their questions to the paintings that covered the stone walls. 

Rubbing her eyes, Arden crawled into bed. The soft navy sheets blanketed her in warmth. As she hunkered down into her covers, the clinking of the dog tags around her neck caught Arden’s attention. She lifted them up and read the debossed lettering for what seemed like the trillionth time: 

WALKER

RAY N,

113-07-2360

A POS

BAPTIST

Arden smiled sadly, her father’s name glinting in the moonlight. Her father passed away four years earlier, but to her, it only felt like four days. With a heavy heart, she tucked the dog tags back under her shirt. She always kept them hidden to stop any unwanted questions. 

✧✧✧

TAGS

@virgiill @yourfriendly-neighborhoodfuckup

A/N: Don’t be afraid to ask to be tagged!!

-Red

[roxywashere]

No Rest for the Wicked

Karen Reis gets introduced to true evil

Retired United States General of the Army Karen Reis teleported back to her home, deep in the Rocky Mountains. She teleported into her training room, and unbuckled her sword belt and shoulder holsters, and set them on their equipment dummy.

She teleported to her washing machine, and took her clothes off and threw them in.

She teleported into the shower, and turned the hot water on all the way. She stood in the stream and scrubbed most of her skin raw, and then let her skin heal before washing her hair.

She turned the water off, and teleported to the nearest towel.

She dried herself off, and teleported to the washing machine again to throw the towel in.

She teleported to her closet, and picked a new wardrobe. Jeans, T-shirt, and a short leather jacket.

She teleported back to her training room, and buckled her shoulder holsters back on.

She teleported to her kitchen and pulled a bottle of water out of her fridge.

She teleported to her bedroom, and grabbed her sunhat and sunglasses from her bed stand.

She teleported to Venice Beach.

It was early morning there. She sat in her usual spot, a bench at the southern edge of the beach. She watched the waves roll in and out, sipping her water, while she waited for her contact to arrive.

“You’re early,” the contact said when he sat down five minutes after Karen arrived.

“I wanted to enjoy the view,” Karen answered.

“That’s your prerogative, I guess.” He handed her a file in a manila envelope. “Usual payment. Delivered upon confirmation of kill.”

“It’ll get done,” Karen said before standing up and teleported back home.

She opened the envelope, and saw the contract. Some Saudi businessman. She didn’t recognise him, so he must have only been a bit player in the Caliphate cold war. Nobody anyone would miss.

She teleported to her bedroom and left her briefly worn clothes in a folded stack at the foot of her bed. She teleported to her training room, and geared up. Lycra catsuit, body armor, and ballistic face mask. She strapped her sword belt on, and then teleported to Dubai.

She appeared on the beach, facing the city. It was late evening. The contract said that the target lived in the Burj Khalifa, 150th floor.

She teleported up to the 150th floor. The room she teleported into had 3 armed guards, who scrambled to take out the intruder. She drew her swords and quickly dispatched them, and then pulled a couple of bullets out of herself, putting them in her pocket when she had retrieved them. She noticed that she had bled on the floor, and dragged one of the guardsman's bleeding corpses through her droplets to obscure them. A door burst open, and another 3 guards opened fire.

Karen teleported behind them and took them out. There were even more guards rushing into the room Karen had teleported into. They all raised their guns and took aim, stupidly waiting for Karen to make the first move.

She rolled her eyes, and swiftly drew her dual modified Berettas. Ten targets, 30 rounds. Too easy. They all hit the ground within half a second of one another. She slid the pistols back into their holsters, and then retrieved her bullets from her targets, and put them in her pocket.

She examined the penthouse, now that the guards had been taken care of. Fairly expansive, taking up a slice of two floors of the tower. No sign of the target, but evidence suggested that he had been home very recently. She closely examined the walls...

“Bingo.” She spotted the seam of a secret door, cleverly hidden by some carved paneling. She searched the area for the requisite hidden switch, and found it, hidden in the very same paneling. She pressed it and it revealed the safe room behind it. There was a biometric lock on the thick steel door.

It would be risky teleporting in without having an idea what’s on the other side, but she wasn’t seeing any other way.

She teleported into the small room, and was greeted by her target.

“AHHH!” the target yelled.

She grabbed him by the neck, and opened the safe room from the inside. “Hello.”

“What does the US military want with me?!”

A bit presumptuous, Karen thought, him assuming that the only people who would bother to assassinate him were the USA. “Oh, the military doesn’t want anything to do with you. This is a private hit.” She dragged the target out of the safe room, and to a window.

“What are you doing!?”

She shot the window, facing out towards the sea, and the window shattered. “I’m gonna see how big a mess I can make out of you. See if you turn into world news. Now, if you wouldn’t mind screaming on your way down...”

Karen tossed him out the window, and he obliged. A considerable while later, he hit the ground.

“I’ll give him nine out of ten. Bad form, but he really stuck the landing,” Karen commented as she started unbuckling her ballistic mask.

She teleported up to the peak of the tower, and looked out over the Persian Gulf, just barely being able to see the coast of what used to be Iran. Her facade of sociopathy melted away in the cool breeze.

She sighed, and teleported to her prayer spot, a hundred or so miles north of Baghdad. A cave, in the side of a mountain, in a region that she had been told once had previously been named Eden. She sat, on her simple prayer mat, and prayed. Prayed that the Celestial Warrior was real. Prayed to the god that the Celestial Warrior represented, to send her along, and usher in the Revelation and the Second Coming.

Karen was a very religious woman, but that fact was a sacredly kept secret. Only Alice Prince, whom Karen liked to think of as her closest friend, however distant that may be, knew.

She finished her prayer, and stood up again. She left her secret cave, and looked upon the Holy Land. It was a beautiful sight, marred by the corruption of the Caliphate. The Caliphate that had spawned from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, and taken the entire Middle East, while she had been forced by the restrictive United States Government to sit by and let it happen while they tried non-superhuman measures. And now, it was far too late. Far too established to do anything about. A poison, corrupting the cradle of civilization, and the Garden of Eden. It disgusted her.

Alice Prince’s ghost of a sister, her Celestial Warrior, she was the solution to the problem of the Caliphate. The solution that would come from Paradise to smite the false prophets that had established the Islamic State and liberate the Holy Lands... Or, on the off chance that the Jihadists had been in the right all along, lay waste to the nonbelievers who had resisted the rise of the Caliphate.

It was a depressing non-zero possibility.

There was a crack of thunder, and a flash of light in the sky, and an object appeared, falling from it.

“What the hell...” Karen muttered. “And of all the possible places, it had to be my special spot.”

She watched as the object fell to the Earth, and then teleported to the crater it made.

It was a man: tall, brown hair, blue eyes, handsome features, wearing a raggy t-shirt and jeans, and smoking slightly. He was still conscious somehow, and glanced upon Karen with a look of... Familiarity. He laughed. “Imagine, of all the places I could have ended up, I get one with you in it.” He bolted upright, with a speedster’s quickness, and grabbed Karen by the neck.

She teleported behind him and drew her blades. “Alright, asshole. You’re gonna have to try harder than that.”

He looked at his now empty hand, and chuckled. “No, you are not the Karen that I know...” He turned and faced Karen. “You have her face and speak with her voice, but you are not her. You are something so very much greater. Forgive my undue aggression.”

“Who the hell are you?”

He smiled. “What a question. Who, the Hell, am I? Who is a person, truly. Who are you? Are you Karen Reis?”

“I am. What does it matter?”

“So brusque, Karen. I might prefer mine after all.”

“Where are you from that there is another me, another Karen Reis?”

“Another world, Karen. Another universe. And if I’m honest, likely a much better, more fun one.”

Alice and Karen had once discussed Multiverse Theory, when they were younger, and closer. The idea that there were other universes where alternate versions of them might live. Alice had ruled out the possibility of travel between them, saying that creating a portal from one to another was impossible by mortal science or magic. So, if this man was speaking the truth, and had come from another universe, then Alice would very much like to speak to him.

“I assume we are on an Earth, of some manner?” he said.

“We are. You didn’t answer my first question.”

“Is there, in this universe, a man by the name of Jeremy Ryan, that you are aware of?”

“Not on my radar.”

“Well, now I am on your radar. Also, may I ask, is there a woman by the name of Roxanne Furst?”

“There was a Roxanne Prince, with a mother last named Furst. But she’s been dead almost...” Karen was reminded how old she was. “Eighty five years, now.” Alice’s dead twin sister. The Celestial Warrior. “A rare, hereditary lung cancer. She was 15.”

“So she did succumb to it, in this world.” Jeremy sighed. “A shame. This world is truly lacking of a Paragon. Where on this Earth are we?”

“The dead center of the Holy Caliphate of Mesopotamia, the Levant, and Arabia. 100 miles north of Baghdad.”

He examined the landscape around them, and the look of familiarity appeared again. “Eden...” Jeremy chuckled. “It was no coincidence that I have landed here, then. Your blink, can you carry others with you when you use it?”

“I can. I assume you want a ride?”

“If you would be so kind.”

“Got a destination in mind?”

“Anywhere.”

Karen held out her hand, and Jeremy took it. They teleported to her home, and she let his hand go so she could teleport to the bedroom and quickly change back into the civilian outfit she had worn earlier. She left her catsuit, mask, and swords on the floor. She teleported back to Jeremy. “Are you hungry?”

“Famished.”

“I know just where to take you.”

They teleported to New York City, Times Square, right next to Karen’s favourite pizza cart in the world.

“Evening, Tino.”

“You’ve got a date? I thought you were, uh...” Tino started.

“He’s just a friend, Tino. Wanted to get him one of your world famous slices. Sausage and ‘roni, for me, and...” she turned to Jeremy.

“As the buddhist said, ‘make me one with everything’,” Jeremy said, looking away from the massive skyscrapers above him. “How tall is that one?” he asked, pointing to the FurstTech building, the tallest tower he could see.

“2500 meters exactly. One of a set of Quadruplets, in New York, Detroit, Danesville, and San Francisco, all sharing the title of tallest in the world.”

He smiled. “The more things change, the more they stay the same. We’ve got one just like it at home. I helped build it, as did our Roxanne Furst. Your Roxanne died young, so who built this one?”

“Her brother David and her sister Alice built it in her memory. Do they exist in your world?” Tino handed over their slices, and Karen paid.

“They do. I never met her brother in person, but her sister and I have met many times. ”

“From what it sounds like, your version of Roxanne got to grow up. What was she like?”

“She is one of the greatest superhumans my world ever managed to forge from the fires of a bloody Revelation. Boundless strength and tenacity, matched only by myself in those regards, as well as a heart with more than enough room to love every creature on every Earth, and a mind with room to hold all their knowledge.”

“She sounds like a spectacular woman.”

“And you know that more than anybody, in my world. You and her are quite famously an item.”

“Are we? Now I wish I’d gotten to meet ours.”

“I’m sure you would have hit it off.” Jeremy continued watching the tower. “Who runs FurstTech now?” he asked after enjoying his pizza for a while.

“It was passed down to David’s daughter, Aradia, after he died. But, she’s not nearly as much a scientist as she is an occulist.” Karen watched a news ticker while she spoke, and smiled as it reported that a saudi businessman had been thrown from his penthouse less than an hour ago. Job well done.

“Aradia, you say?”

“You have one of her, too?”

“Could I meet her?”

“I suppose, if she isn’t busy.” Karen grabbed his hand again and blinked into the science lab lobby in the 300th floor, but not of the tower they had been examining, instead one if it's twins, in Danesville, WI. “Is Aradia in?” she asked the secretary.

“Miss Furst is in her workshop with her sister,” the secretary replied.

“Sister?” Jeremy wondered. “Ashley?”

“What?” Karen replied, perplexed. “No, Thrud.” She blinked them into the big workshop at the peak of the tower. In the middle of the room were two women, both of them middle aged in appearances. One of them, Aradia, was wearing ornate gold and black robes, holding her hands over the other and muttering incantations. The other, Thrud, was wearing robes, body armour, and a body suit covering her torso. Her limbs were long ago amputated, replaced with black and gold, but organic-looking, metal.

Without looking, Aradia snapped her finger and flicked her wrist, and a dense patchwork of runes was revealed on the floor. “Do you even understand the great evil you have brought into my sanctum?”

“What?” Karen replied. “Jeremy, what is she...” She looked to him for an answer, and she saw him straining against some invisible force. But, slowly, he was advancing.

“This is the greatest evil to have ever appeared in this realm, and you led him straight to me.”

“You are even more skilled in this universe, Aradia, and even more alike to your namesakes,” Jeremy said. “But you are no Sorcerer Supreme. You do not possess the strength to stop me alone.” As he slowly took steps forward, his eyes shimmered to a deep crimson red.

“I may not, but I know of the one who does.”

“You won't be able to summon her and hold me back at the same time.”

“If I slay you, I will have the requisite time.”

“But then you will release me upon the citizens of Danesville. And you're not that foolish.”

“There are risks and costs for every action. You do not know me well enough to balance mine in my stead.”

“What the FUCK are you guys talking about,” Karen interrupted. “What is going on? Aradia, what are you saying?”

“This ‘Man’ you have brought here is the Greatest Demon in this Multiverse. A wretched soul that craves no more than the sowing of Chaos and the suffering of the innocent. I present to you, Therion, The Beast From The Pit, The Seven Headed Dragon, The King of Demons.” Aradia’s voice boomed as she announced the full title of her guest.

“My reputation precedes me,” Jeremy said.

“Thrud, take him out.”

“With pleasure,” Thrud said, her voice heavily synthesized. She dashed forward, drawing a sword from literally nowhere, and holding it out so it would pass through Jeremy’s neck as she flashed past him.

He smiled, and laughed, and then his head slid cleanly to the floor, his body following closely after.

Aradia collapsed to her knees. “Archangel, Paragon of Light! Hear my calling! I am summoning you from beyond the void to return this evil to its proper place. Bless us with your strength, and deliver us from the Beast!”

The room reverberated with the sound of the plea, and a moment later a portal opened in the ceiling. Out of it fell a woman, who landed on one knee and with a fist slammed into the ground. She stood up, quickly, and yelled “Jeremy!” The portal slammed shut barely after Karen had even registered that it was there.

She was wearing a full-body blue super suit with silver streaks of lightning wrapping around it, knee-high black boots, a golden metallic backpack, and huge golden wrist gauntlets, with three meter-long golden spikes sticking out the elbow of each of them, parallel with the forearm. Her face was slender, her chin was pointed, her cheekbones were sharp, and her eyes were bright green. She was short, at 4’9”, and she had paper-white hair, in a short bob. She looked exactly like Alice, but 70 or 80 years younger.

She quickly approached the body of Jeremy, and flicked her wrists. The elbow spikes of the Gauntlets slid forward and became enormous claws, now protruding out the back of the wrist area instead of the elbow, with a loud snikt. She stuck his head with one set of claws, and raised it closer to her face. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you, you son of a bitch.” She impaled the torso with the other set of claws, and lifted it up off the ground. “Aradia, take me somewhere far away from people. I can’t risk the fight spilling out to populated areas.”

“I know just the place,” Aradia said.

“He’s already dead!” Karen interrupted. “What is there to fight?!”

Aradia opened a portal to a familiar desert, and the Archangel stepped up to the threshold, the body she carried beginning to writhe. “You don’t want to know.” She stepped through, and the portal closed.

Karen stood there, dumbfounded. Had that truly been Alice’s twin, the Celestial Warrior? She seemed so... Vulgar, human, nothing special. ‘You son of a bitch’? She was certainly no angel. But... Karen couldn’t let her get away. “Where did she go?” She asked Aradia.

“You know very well where,” she answered.

Karen blinked to her home, and hastily buckled her sword belt back on. She had a bad feeling she would need it.

She swallowed, crossed herself, and blinked back to Eden.

She appeared in the middle of the desert, and stumbled from the earth shaking. She slowly spun around, and was met with a terrifying sight.

A massive, red-scaled dragon, 200 meters long from tail to head. And concerning the head, it had seven of them, vaguely feline but lizard at the same time, at the end of seven snake-like necks, all sprouting from its crimson-maned shoulders. Distributed across the heads were ten horns, one on every one but the middle-most, which held the remaining four. It had two enormous wings, large enough to block out the sun, beating down, causing a dust storm with every motion. Its four massive legs, each as thick as a stand of redwoods, stomped on the desert sands, causing earthquakes. It roared with all its mouths, spitting napalm into the air.

Therion. The Beast from the Pit. The Seven Headed Dragon. The King of Demons.

The Celestial Warrior, the Archangel, stood with her back to Karen, bracing herself against the repulsive force of evil exuded by The Beast. “You wanted to know?” She yelled, without taking her eyes off The Beast. “Well, now you know! The greatest evil I have the displeasure of being my immortal enemy. Now get away from here, it isn’t safe for anybody to be within miles of this.”

“I want to help you!” Karen yelled back.

“No! I won't let him get to you again!” the Archangel outburst.

While she did, The Beast surrounded the two of them with it’s heads. “An interversal lover’s quarrel,” it growled, in Jeremy’s voice. “Poor little Karen, oblivious to how she makes the Paragon feel, ignorant to what they are in another world. She doesn’t know what she is to you, or what I did to her.”

“JEREMY! This ends now!” The Archangel leapt into the air and impaled one of the heads with her golden claws, and then slid around the neck and landed on The Beast’s shoulders, and started hacking away at it.

“Karen!” The Beast said, fighting off the Archangel with three of it’s heads, and focusing on Karen with the other four. “Come on, FIGHT ME! Share the glory!”

“Don’t listen to him!” The Archangel rebutted. “You’ll only get yourself killed!”

“I’m not weak!” Karen said in response. “I know how to fight!”

“YES!” The Beast cried. “Prove yourself! Prove that you are an equal of the Paragon! Slay me as she has done hundreds of times!” He wound his four heads focusing on Karen back, and pounced.

As four steam-engine-sized sets of jaws with razor-sharp teeth the size of tower shields rapidly approached her, Karen drew her swords. Right before they hit her, she teleported out of their way, they rammed into each other, and she chopped at The Beast’s necks.

The Beast laughed as the fight began in earnest. He darted his heads back and forth at lightning speed, far faster than a creature that large should be able to move. Karen blinked out of the way with ease, coming to and from the immediate area of the fight to recover when she required brief respite. The Archangel opted to tank the attacks, her suit showing the damage and bloodstains this approach incurred. Fortunately she healed at an incredibly rapid pace, even faster than Karen’s own healing factor.

Karen blinked away from the fight, and watched as The Beast grabbed one of The Archangel’s limbs, and threw her up into the air. She responded by firing a grappling hook, which she had been concealing in her gauntlets, back towards The Beast. It quickly retracted, propelling her claws-first into The Beast’s side.

The Beast recoiled as if he had been hit by a high-power howitzer round when The Archangel slammed into him. The Beast laughed as it stumbled.

Another of Aradia’s portals opened behind Karen. Before she could turn and look, she heard a familiar man’s gruff voice.

“Lo, behold the Angel of the World Tree,” Alice Prince’s father, and Aradia’s grandfather, Robert Prince said.

“And lo, behold her immortal foe,” Aradia said.

“And lo, behold Merlin and the Enchantress...” Karen muttered.

“And lo, behold!” Aradia said, coming to stand by Karen’s side. She was still wearing her gold and black robes.

“The woman who broke my daughter's heart,” Robert said, standing on Karen’s other side. He, too, was wearing ornate robes, his gold, blue, and brown. He was native american, Ho-Chunk specifically. Supposedly his great-grandfather was Welsh, providing the sliver of european ancestry required for his magic to work. He looked no older than Aradia was, but was obviously two full generations her elder. Karen assumed that for mystical folk immortality began whenever they reached peak regality, somewhere around 45.

“It was mutual,” Karen said, quietly, pointedly, and sadly.

“Hmm. Well then, let's put the past behind us.” Robert flicked his wrists and assumed a martial pose, and constrained bolts of multicolored energy condensed in his palms, writhing across his skin. Aradia did similarly, assuming a more dance-like pose than her grandfather. They strode forwards towards the battle in unison, and let loose their spells at The Beast.

“HAHA!” The Beast responded as one of his legs collapsed out from beneath him. “A family reunion!” One of his heads pounced at the duo of magicians, and the head was deflected by a quickly-summoned shield. Robert held the shield up, and Aradia fired an energy bolt at it.

The shield’s natural magic capacitance absorbed the energy, and when the shield was dissipated, the energy was released outwards at The Beast. The energy struck The Beast on one of his necks, and exploded the flesh, causing that head and half of the associated neck to drop away, dead.

The Archangel, covered in not only The Beast’s blood but also her own, landed roughly on her knees behind the magicians. She retracted her claws with a snikt.

She stood and stretched as her ravaged flesh regrew. Her bodysuit was barely there anymore, covering her chest only via a thin ribbon of fabric around one shoulder, the other shoulder having been sliced through and hanging free, revealing some of the flesh of her breast.

“Take a picture,” the Archangel said. “It'll last longer.”

Karen realized she had been staring at the half-revealed breast and her face went flush. “Oh, I... Uh...”

“You really are just like her.” The Archangel wiped some of the copious blood from the area around her mouth. “There’s something about Roxanne Furst that always trips the ‘bumbling’ switch in Karen Reis.”

“Roxanne. So you are Alice’s sister.”

“Technically. And please, call me Roxy. Now, this has been fun, but I think it’s about time I got Jeremy home.” She prodded at her gauntlet, and then spoke to it. “Groom Lake, I’ve got Therion at my location. Open the portal and prepare the Kingslayers, we’re coming in hot. My position Z-minus 1 meter, Radius... let’s say, 500 meters. T-minus 30 seconds. Me and Jay, plus one. Oh, and make it an airdrop.” She dropped her arm back to her side. “Aradia, Robert, you can head off now. I’d suggest looking into strengthening your Demon wards even further.”

Aradia summoned a portal back to FursTech headquarters. While Aradia quickly stepped back through it, Robert instead approached Roxy and gently cupped his daughter's face.

“I’ll talk to you later, Dad,” Roxy promised. “I have to deal with Jay first.”

Robert smirked, chuckled, and released her face, before dropping the shield and stepping through the portal. It closed behind him.

“I’d suggest bracing yourself,” Roxy said as soon as it did.

“What?” Karen asked.

The ground disappeared out from beneath them, revealing an expanse of sky where there should by all rights have been earth. Karen, Roxy, and the Beast dropped into the hole, stretching across the desert a kilometer wide.

The location they were in was alien to Karen, but strangely familiar to her at the same time. Three kilometers below them was a desert, sand and dirt stretching off in every direction. Nearby was a lake, and a fortified military base of some kind, every building ostentatiously build out of pure gold, it appeared. While the design was different from the one she knew, the relative locations of landmarks meant it could only be one place: Groom Lake, Nevada, AKA Area 51. Off in the distance, on the horizon, she saw the glittering of a gold-plated city. Again, based on the relative locations, it would have had to have been Las Vegas.

Roxy grabbed Karen by the collar of her shirt and jacket, and when the portal they had fallen through closed, stopped falling. Karen craned her neck to look up at Roxy, and saw the faint outline of wings emanating from her shoulders, and stretching hundreds of meters in either direction.

She is an angel, after all, Karen thought.

“Meet you at the bottom,” Roxy said, releasing Karen and letting her continue her fall.

Karen teleported towards the distant ground, landing on her feet at the peak of Bald Mountain, just to the north of Groom Lake.

Compared to the one she was familiar with, this Groom Lake region looked like it had been been dug up and redistributed, and hit with a couple million artillery impacts, or something of similar nature. It was a superhuman warzone, Karen realized, having seen many in her life. A battleground where powerful beings often opposed one another.

And now she was watching an instance of such a fight before her very eyes. She looked up and saw Roxy stretching her arms and shoulders, and saw the ethereal wings flutter and flap, and then, suddenly, she disappeared.

No, she hadn’t disappeared. Where she had previously been, there was now a stack of sonic vapor rings, pointing downwards towards the still-falling Beast. Below the rings, descending at a meteoric pace and surrounded by a vapor cone, was Roxy, claws pointed downwards.

Roxy intercepted the Beast in the air, and without slowing drove it into the Earth, creating an additional great crater with the impact.

A group of figures emerged from Groom Lake, flying with jet boots and packs the like Karen had seen many times before. The swarm of them flew around the Beast, with swords and guns of various types drawn.

Karen teleported closer, and watched the soldiers as they surrounded The Beast. Whenever the Beast struck out at one of them, they would strike back at him.

Roxy all the while was hacking away at the Beast, carving him ever smaller. After 15 more minutes, the Beast was lying limp, in thousands of pieces of various sizes, none larger than a car.

The largest piece started shrinking, and slowly reverted to the form of Jeremy, and Roxy quickly snatched it up and flew off towards Groom Lake with it.

Karen blinked after her. She flew into a massive excavated shaft in the center of the base, and down a few miles until they hit the bowels of the facility, a maze of corridors.

Karen had difficulty teleporting fast enough to follow Roxy’s angel wings’ speed, but was able to keep up until she flew into a cell and slammed a set of golden chains onto all of Jeremy's extremities, head and neck included.

Jeremy stirred to life after a moment. “Which number was this? 1305? It has to have been whereabouts of that.”

“Including the Fall of Babel, 1306,” Roxy answered.

“Ah, to think I almost forgot our first time.”

“I’ll never forget.”

“Don’t try to make what I do special by pretending you could do anything but remember every second of your long, miserable existence.”

“I’m not the one spending most of mine in a cage.”

Jeremy looked past Roxy and saw Karen. “Is that one yours, or the other one?”

“You know the difference. You haven’t had a chance to mutilate this one.”

“This one’s tougher than yours. You should trade up.”

Roxy visibly strained not to smack him so hard his neck snapped. “We’re done here.” Roxy flew out of the cell, and Karen followed her. Roxy shut the cell door, and then crushed the lock so the door would be unopenable by anyone else but her. “Let’s get you home,” she told Karen. She led her through the hallways, and into an elevator. The Elevator took them up to the near-surface, and opened into another hallway. That hallway led to a control room, filled with technicians.

When Karen entered the room, they all stopped and stared.

“Open a portal back to the Astraverse,” Roxy commanded. “This one doesn’t belong here.”

The technicians got to work, and a handful of seconds later the far wall of the room was replaced by a view out into the desert of Eden.

“Go on,” Roxy said to Karen.

Karen blinked to the threshold of the portal, and felt the warm desert breeze on her face. She stepped through the portal, and as she did she heard the door to the control room open. She looked back and saw...

Herself, except, not. She had the same short black hair, and the same heterochromatic eyes: grey-blue in the left and grey-green in the right. But aside from that, they couldn’t have been more different. Her left arm was gone, replaced by an advanced magitech prosthesis, as were both of her legs. Her face was covered in small, faded scars, excepting the two on her cheeks, which visibly stretched from the corners of her lips to her ears. On her throat was another large faded scar, across the left jugular vein. Though she was wearing a tight t-shirt, more scars on her chest peeked across the neckline. The arm that was still flesh and blood had scars up and down it, with a tightly packed row of them on the wrist under all the rest.

Karen stared at herself, and the other her stared back, until the portal closed and separated them.

Karen stood in the Iraqi desert for a long moment.

She blinked to her home, the edge of her bed. She stumbled back into it, and slumped onto it. After a while she brought her right arm up to be examined. Her skin was superhumanly flawless, but if she was still capable of scarring, her wrists would be just as crisscrossed as the other hers’ had been.

That was the only evidence that Karen needed to be convinced that the other one really was her. Karen Reis, at her core, was a depressive girl who cut herself when she was low. No amount of degrees of Multiversal separation would change that.

Karen’s mind raced, reflecting over what she’d seen today.

[klatukattdreams]

Vaughn/August reverse bang

My fic for @pastelyanpan fabulous drawing for the @borderlandsbigbang reverse bang!

“Uh, boss? You got an echo message.”

“Thanks, Sam,” said Vaughn, still focused on his rewiring project. “Who’s it from? Rhys? Sasha?”

“Someone named August.”

Vaughn looked up into Sam’s nervous face. Sam was one of the older generation of Hyperions who functioned better in a corporate setting and hadn’t adjusted well to life planet-side, so she had gotten the job of assistant. Vaughn thought her nervousness was a holdover from former bosses and their misplaced anger, but there was more to it.

“Yeah, it wasn’t in code or anything and it addresses you directly and it was sent over a wide band so it is really suspicious—” Sam was rambling and Vaughn put up a hand to stop her.

“Just play me the message.”

The speaker in Sam’s hand screeched with static before a familiar voice resolved itself. “…know you’re out there Vaughn, I know where you hide out, but this time you need to come to me. It’s August, by the way, and I got in some stupid trouble. I’m only asking for a place to stay. I know you hate me as much as I hate you but,” August’s voice suddenly became labored, “if you save this fake I’ll owe you one. Hell, I’ll owe you ten million. I’m at Howe’s Pit. You better come find me before anyone ELSE can.”

“It is strangely straightforward,” Sam commented.

“No no, there is one little code in there, meant just for me.” Vaughn kept talking but only to himself. “Which means it’s not a trap. Howe’s Pit is pretty close so he could have just come straight here which he only wouldn’t do if he was being tracked and didn’t want them following, then he contacted me because he knows I’m the only person with empathy on this planet – arrgh! Why me?” He looked back at Sam. “When did we receive this?”

“About five minutes ago.”

Vaughn sighed. “Then I’d better suit up quick if I’m gonna rescue this guy.”

Howe’s Pit was named for two reasons: because it was a pit stop for fixing and modifying any shitty vehicle you could scrape up, and also it was located in a large, deep crater. The high walls gave excellent protection from Pandora’s harsh climate as well as low visibility for the native predators. There were even a few buildings, though most of the crater was open, aside from canopies, to accommodate the ever shifting piles of car parts and equipment.

Vaughn had been to this place before and his team’s heavily modded car zig-zagged through the assembly without incident. It was a generally safe town as the population was more obsessed with cars than money. Glancing around he could see a few shrines to Scooter, the famed mechanic, who Fiona and Rhys had talked about with great feeling.

If August was injured, which was more than likely, he wouldn’t be out here in the grease, he’d be in one of the two buildings, probably one where he could get privacy and a drink. They parked outside a building marked simply BAR and Vaughn hopped down.

“Sweet rig you got there. Looking for more upgrades?” This salesman had appeared out of nowhere and loomed over Vaughn in a manner that was friendly, for now. Almost everyone on this planet was taller than Vaughn and he gave his usual comeback of the Silent Staredown, which would not have menacing except for the expressionless helmet that covered Vaughn’s face specifically for this purpose. “Okay, okay, I get it, but if you ever are looking come find Eugene, that’s me.”

Vaughn shrugged a shoulder and two of his crew followed him inside. He got his sights on who looked like they were running the place and hoped his voice modulator wouldn’t fail.

“I’m looking for August.”

“That guy?” The owner jerked his head to the side. “Bathroom. That way. Do me a favor and take the corpse with you. I got enough to clean up. This isn’t a bandit camp.”

Vaughn nodded and signaled that the other two should go wait by the car. He headed down the hall cautiously hoping the August wouldn’t shoot him first. Easing the door open with his foot he saw August quickly raise a gun from his slumped position against the sink. Slowly Vaughn raised his empty hand and formed it into the shape of a finger gun.

August relaxed. “I knew you would find me, nerd.” He tried to laugh but instead doubled over in pain.

Vaughn closed the door and took off his helmet. “What happened to you?” He helped August up to a seated position on the toilet and sat next to him on the edge of the tub. August’s midsection was poorly wrapped with bandages, probably self-applied, and while this room wasn’t the cleanest it was better than a lot of places for cleaning out wounds.

“A couple bastards wanted my organs, all because of a stupid bet.” August threw a couple more bloody rags in the sink in an attempt to clean up. “They tried to cut me open like a pair of freeking psychos. I thought this was supposed to be a calm town.” He groaned in pain again.

“Have you had any medical training?” Vaughn sighed. “Here, let me try and fix up your wound because that whole thing looks like a mess.”

“Ooh, you got a healing kit you can just stab in me?”

“No, but I do have an old school first aid kit.” Vaughn slid the slender pack out from its holster in his vest. “You may have missed it last time you were there, but the Children of Helios don’t have a lot of money.”

“Fine, sorry. Do what you gotta do.”

Vaughn opened the pack, slipped on some gloves and started working on cutting away the mass of blood-soaked bandages. “What happened to you? You had a pretty good thing going last time we met.”

“Yeah, well, after Vallory— after my mom died the gang split apart into different factions, as what normally happens here on Pandora, and all alliances went out the window. I thought I’d be all right. I had my bar and my business, but some of the old crew thought they could run it better and kicked me out of my own place. They could have done worse— ow! What the hell was that?”

“I’m sterilizing it. I need you to hold still for this next part.” Vaughn pulled out a tube of what was basically thick glue.

“Dang, when did you become a fancy frontier doctor?”

“College.”

“What?”

“Well… you know Rhys. Back in college he really tried to do the tough guy thing. He came back to the dorm beat up and bleeding more times than I can count. So, I got good at patching him up.”

“Heh, sounds like true love.”

“Yeah, well, it was only one sided,” Vaughn said bluntly.

“Huh. You gay for the guy?”

“Rhys is my best friend, and I learned a long time ago it was never going to be anything more than that.”

“That’s rough, especially since he treats you more like a lackey than a friend.”

Vaughn stopped, not expecting empathy from a guy like August. “Well, yeah, he does tend to do his own thing…” He didn’t want to think about Rhys and instead focused on smoothing down the medical tape on the abdomen of this rugged, muscular bandit.

“Okay!” Vaughn pulled away suddenly and started quickly packing up the first aid kit. “I saved your life like you asked. You can pay me back next time, whenever the hell that will be.”

“Vaughn wait,” August’s voice was pleading, “take me with you. I don’t have anywhere else to go.”

“August, I’m running a new kind of city. Believe me when I say there is no place for someone like you there.”

“Oh because you know me so well? You sure you don’t want to get to know me a little better?” August stood up slowly, partially because of his injury, partially to show off his well-maintained body.

“Are you seriously flirting with me right now?”

“Hey, I don’t have anything else to bargain with.” He gave a subtle shrug and Vaughn could tell exactly what he was doing.

“Urrg, why do I keep picking up strays?” Vaughn buried his face in his hands for a couple seconds before looking up. “Okay. But only because you look pathetic right now, AND you have to do exactly what I say.”

As Vaughn strapped the first aid kit back into his vest August collected his few items that he owned.

“Okay, we’re gonna walk you out of here like a prisoner. Tie your shirt around your head.”

“What? No! Why would that even be an option?”

“I don’t want anyone seeing your face,” said Vaughn sternly. “Look, you’re gonna have to trust me, okay?”

August grumbled but did as he was told. Vaughn put on his helmet and carefully grabbed August’s arms, pulling them behind his back. August barely flinched at the touch and played a good captive as Vaughn marched him out the front and into the back of his car. They sped off quickly and easily out of the crater and back to their secret hideout while Vaughn pondered what to do with this new asset.

"Can you get this thing off my head now?"

"Oh yeah, sure." Vaughn untied the makeshift bag and August squeezed back into his shirt, somewhat painfully in the cramped vehicle.

"So, you taking me on board? Making me part of the commune?"

" I haven't decided yet. By the way, can I see your Echo?"

"Sure."

"Thanks." Vaughn through the communication device straight out the window.

"What'd you do that for!"

"Technically, you are a prisoner, and we are really touchy about outside tech. That's how we stay hidden."

August folded his arms but was not nearly as grumpy as Vaughn suspected he would be.

Back at camp Vaughn hustled August back to his office before too many people could see the newcomer and start to worry.

Unfortunately, waiting for Vaughn was the most worrisome person he could have run into.

"Oh good, you're back." Sam had a stack of papers with her. "I was worried -- IS THAT A BANDIT?"

"Yes and no." Vaughn had given up hope of keeping this on the down low. "For now he is a friend."

"More like boyfriend." August draped his arm over Vaughn's shoulders and stared at Sam with a slightly menacing smile. Sam looked appropriately aghast.

Vaughn kept his voice calm. "Sam, could you excuse us for a moment." Once his assistant was gone he drew in a deep breath for a very short question: "Why?"

"I gotta establish a foothold somehow, since this place don't run on money or violence. She looked like the type to spread rumors and since these people worship you I should be a juicy piece of gossip."

"First of all, they don't worship me, they worship Rhys. I'm more of an administrative... leader... person-- and SECOND of all, you are a lying, manipulative bastard!"

“Yep. That’s how I survive. Since I am already seriously indebted to you I need at least one little bargaining chip.”

“So this is how it’s gonna be?”

“Well, this is how it starts. Who knows how our relationship will progress from here.”

Vaughn had to stop and switch gears. “You are flirting with me again, aren’t you?”

“Hey, I got nothing to lose and no one to impress except this little cult of yours.”

“It’s not a cult— Look. It’s not going to happen. I could never trust you enough to have a ‘relationship’ of any kind except hostage.”

August opened his mouth to object and then closed it.

“I have all the power here which means I also have all the responsibility, so while I try to find someplace for you to fit could you please just keep your mouth shut and not create any new problems for me? Please?”

“Whatever you say, boss.” August managed to hide his smirk. Authority looked good on Vaughn, really good.

[kdfrqqg]

French Perfume Part 12

Crowley x reader Summary: Reader receives a gift from a secret admirer. Reader learns about her special gifts. This part of the story Crowley and the reader have been dating for a bit with some complications. Warnings: language, angst, fluff, Destiel fun Word count: 2.8K Catch up here: French Perfume series

“And we will.” He kissed your forehead.

You held him tight and thought of your bedroom and all the research you needed to do.  When you opened your eyes, both of you were lying your bed.

“Love, why are we back here so soon? I was hoping to take you out tonight.”

You moved from the bed, “I told you I need to get back to my research.” you threw on a tank top over your head and slid on a comfy pair of jeans, you continued, “I’m not stopping until I find a way for us to be together all the time without me hurting you.”

“Ok then. I’ll get dressed and make you some coffee.” He was not about to argue with you when he wanted a solution to your problem just as badly.

He grabbed the flannel shirt and jeans that you bought for him for when he hung out at the bunker and you both walked out to the kitchen.  You greeted Sam and Dean, who were eating dinner at the table.  

“How was Court?” Dean asked.

“It was wonderful, Jarrell set up flowers and candles for me and Crowley bought me new dresses.” You gushed.

Dean rolled his eyes, “No, I mean how was the fight.”

“You told him. Why would you tell him that?” You looked at Crowley like he betrayed you.

“(Y/N), when it comes to your safety Dean needs to know everything.” Crowley explained.

“So what happened?” Sam questioned.

“A demon challenged me, he said if I could beat him he would bow to me.  So I beat him, hand to hand but then he thought he could stab me in the back and that is when I killed him.” You sighed.

“Now all the demons will bow to her.” Crowley said with such pride.

“You’re ok, right?” Dean inquired.

“Of course Deano.” You told him.  “Baby, I’ll be in the library. Three sugars lots of cream.” you pect him on the lips.

Everyone followed you into the library, “what exactly are we looking for?” Dean asked knowing you wanted to find a solution to your siphoning.

“Anything really, a spell, incantation, talisman whatever just something that can prevent his love from activating my powers.” You set up all your journals in front of you, each one was specializing in one form of magic or other.  You had been accumulating so much magical knowledge, you had to find a way to organize it and these journals were helping you with that.

A few hours past before, the handsome Castiel joined you all in the library, he sat alone in a leather chair.  You could still feel his lips on yours from the other week when you had been testing out your powers.  It was definitely the best kind of test you had ever taken. His bright blue eyes caught yours, they always captivated you, but he was Dean’s whether either one of them wanted to admit it.  

You smiled at Dean but he wasn’t paying attention to you so you kicked his shin, and gestured with your head for him to go and talk to Cas.  You mouthed, “Go! Go!” you were emphatic with you eyes.  This was the perfect time to have this conversation, there was no crazy big bad trying to kill everyone, everything was actually calm and going well.

Dean got up and walked over to Cas, “hey buddy, can I talk to you?”

“Yes, Dean. What would you like to talk about?” Cas asked back.

“Umm… can we talk in private?”

The two gorgeous tall men walked down the hall, Dean looked back at you, with two thumbs up you gave him the cheesiest grin ever.  You waited until they closed the door, “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!” You squealed.   “I can’t believe he is finally going to tell Cas how he feels.  This is amazing!” Both Crowley and Sam just laughed at your excitement. Dean was like your brother, father, best friend all rolled into one person.  You wanted him to be happy, and Cas was that one person for him.   

You ran down the hall and put your ear to door.  You could hear him stutter as he said how he felt but once started he couldn’t stop.  He said ‘I love you’ almost five times before Cas spoke up.  You were concerned that Cas wouldn’t express his feelings. Then you heard Cas’ deep voice say, ‘I love you too, Dean.’ Their feet shuffled on the hardwood as they came closer together.  You could hear a gentle sigh and moan come from the room, you of course knew they were having their first kiss.  

You giggled as you ran back down the hall, “Yes!” You yelled out in the library. You had never been so happy for another couple before.

“That means they are?” Sam asked cautiously.

“Yes, that means your brother is finally going to get it on with the Angel.” You danced around the library while Crowley and Sam just looked at you with a WTF face. You were also honestly sick of all the sexual tension that was always around them and it was finally over. This brought you new hope that if a hunter and an angel could find love then maybe just maybe a siphon and a demon could actually make it.  

The next three days were mostly spent researching, you found a ton of great spells that you could modify but it was getting them to work that was going to be tricky.  The boys had gone off to put down a vampire nest, you knew they could handle it so you opted to stay and continue researching, especially since Dean had planned a first date with Cas for when the hunt was over.  Even your boyfriend had left you alone for almost 24 hours, he was off doing some of his kingly duties and you didn’t questioned it.

Your eyes were glued to your journals, you had written down one name over and over again but she would never help you.  You closed your journals trying not to think about her, she wouldn’t understand.  Finally, you said her name out loud, “Rowena.” Just that simple act you knew you had to find her.  She would know what to do, she would have an answer for you.  The two of you had become not exactly friends but at least mutual allies and she had shown you so much.  This was her son and even though they hated each other maybe she would be the mom you always wanted her to be for her son.

You closed your eyes and thought of her dark red hair, those beautiful gowns she wore and her thick Irish accent, you didn’t know if it would work but you heard a bunch of people talking so you opened your eyes.  You found yourself in the back of a nice restaurant near the bathrooms, you could see the back of her head in a booth. What were you going to say? Do you lie or tell the truth maybe just a half truth would work?

You stood there for what seemed like an eternity, trying to find the nerve to actually speak.  One foot in front of the other, you made your way to the bar, turning your head you caught her attention making direct eye contact.  

“Whiskey neat.” You ordered sitting on the bar stool. Swiveling around you smiled back at her.  

Rowena stood and sauntered over to you, “How did you find me?”

“I’m a hunter, remember.” She nodded at your answer. You kept looking at the doors in away to make it look like you weren’t alone. “I need your help. We need to talk in private.” You downed your drink in an attempt to muster up some courage.

Adjacent to the restaurant was a hotel that Rowena had been staying at for the last week. You two exchanged cordial pleasantries as you made your way up the elevator to the fifth floor.  

“What can I help you with, my dear?” Rowena asked with a coy smile, closing the door to the hotel room.

“I need a spell or something that will protect magic from love.” You explained.

“So you finally learned what you are.” Your jaw dropped when she said those words. “Who is the lucky fellow? Is it Cas? I always thought him and Dean would be together.”

“No, it’s definitely not Cas and yes, they’re together now.  How did you know about me?” You asked.

“Oh deary, I cast a spell a long time ago that lets me see the magic within one’s soul. You’re a siphon, aren’t ya?” You gulped at her accusations even though it was true.

“Yes, yes I am.” You admitted.

“Well then spill it, who is he? He must be really special if you tracked me down for help.” She looked at you like she was was your best friend.

You were nervous to tell her, “Do you think you can help?”

“Of course, you aren’t the first siphon to fall in love with a magical creature.” She took your hand.

“it’s um… um… Crowley.” You finally spoke.

“My Fergus! You are in love with Fergus.” She took a few steps back.

“Yes, I am and he loves me back.”

“(Y/N), I respect you but I can’t help you.” She told you as your heart sank.

“Can’t or won’t help?” Her face said it all. She wasn’t going to be of any use.  “What I don’t get is why you hate him so much? You left him when he was eight years old. He was eight, yeah, he told me all about that.” You cried then you started yell. “You are probably the reason he’s a demon in the first place.  What the hell did your eight year old son ever do to you?  I can’t believe you, this is his one shot at love and I feel it every time we’re together. I don’t want to hurt him.” She let you rant.  “You are an awful mother.  You know I now have the full power of Hell to back me up.  I could have ten demons here in seconds then you would help us only to save your own skin.” You were angry as hate spill from you. You quickly touched your pearl necklace and remembered how he made you feel. “I just want us to be in love without fear of me killing him. But I guess that would be too much to ask.”

She didn’t respond instead she turned away from you, hiding her face.  You hear a small sniffle from her. Was she crying? Good, she should cry. “You know my number if you change your mind.” You cleared your mind and thought of your room, in seconds you were there throwing yourself in the bed and crying into a pillow.

You had cried yourself asleep, Crowley found you laying on top of sheets and blankets and were bundled up. “Love, I have brought you a little something to eat.” He announced as he walked into your room.  

You woke up still upset that Rowena wouldn’t help you.  He noticed that your eyes were puffy and your mascara had run down your cheek.  “Have you been crying?” He asked so tenderly, placing the warm body of food in your hands.

You opened the box to find a large burger and fries, you smiled at him because he was being so sweet. “Yeah I have been.” You took a bite, “you’re going to hate me.”

“I would never hate you.  Please tell me what is going on.” He asked as you stuffed your face, hoping he would just drop it.

“I went to go visit your mother.” You said shyly.

“Why in hell would you go see her?” He raised his voice.

“I just thought she would have answers and if she knew that you were happy she might try and help us.” You sobbed, hanging your head low almost touching your food in the styrofoam container.

His warm arms surrounded you, “It’s ok. My Love! It’ll be ok.” He tilted your head up, “I’m proud of you.  I would have never gone to my mother for help.”

“Yeah and now she won’t help us.  And… and she knows what will work.” You felt defeated. “What if I never figured this out.”

“No, no. We, Love, we will figure this out.  You will learn how to control your powers. Don’t you worry.” His embrace made every better.

“I just want to be fully with you, no holding back.”

“I know my Love.  I am still happy with what we have.” He placed a chaste kiss on your lips.

“Me too.”

“Now finish your food then we can go to sleep.” He knew that this was emotionally draining for you and rest would make you feel better.  You nodded, shoving a couple of french fries in your piehole.

Crowley had held you all night even when you protested that you were taking his powers.  Your phone rang, it was late and the number was unknown.  You of course panicked assuming something was wrong with the boys, and the hunt went bad answering the phone, “(Y/N)” a slurred Irish accent said at 3 am, “I’ve been thinking and the solution to your problem is quite simple.” Rowena hiccuped.

“Who is it Love?” Crowley whispered.

Your didn’t say anything just turned the phone so both of you could hear.

“To protect your magic from his love, you will need a Hamsa.” Rowena explained.

“You mean like an evil eye?” You questioned.

“Yes, deary, very good.  Umm… where was I? Oh yes, not just any old dime store Hamsa, you’re going to need one that is made of silver and has been blessed by a priest or rabbi.  This shouldn’t be hard for my son to find.”

“No that should be easy.  Anything else?” You knew in her drunken state she might forget to tell you something.

“You will need to cast a very special spell over the Hamsa. I’ll send you the spell and ingredients. I would recommend wearing the Hamsa to make it work so I would choose one that is small enough to wear on a chain.” She continued.

“Rowena, thank you.” You said trying not to cry because you were overwhelmed with emotions.

“Tell Fergus, I never hated him.” She confessed. “It was never him.  I thought love was weakness but I guess I was wrong.  Tell him I’m glad that the two of you are together. Will you tell him?”

“Yes, Rowena I’ll tell him. Thank you, thank you again.” You hung up the phone.  Tears of joy streamed down your cheek.  “Baby!” You kissed his lips repeatedly tackling him into the bed. “Did you hear that she is going to help us?  And the best part she doesn’t hate you.  Isn’t that great news?!?” You squealed.

“Love that is wonderful news.” He was still a little surprised and confused at his mother’s actions.  He wasn’t sure if she could be trusted or what her possible end game was but he was thrilled that you were smiling again.  

I love all the likes and reblogs but I really do want your feedback. Please leave me a comment; let me know what worked or what didn’t. If you hated it let me know what I could do different. It may determine how I write my next fic.

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@kitten-undercover @sclerafantrash

[poems-for-oldest-daughters]

Aftertaste

Pairings/characters: Sam x Reader, Dean briefly

Warnings: It’s just angsty tbh. I totally didn’t mean to make it angsty it just.... like came out lmao. There’s fluff, don’t worry.

Word count: It’s around 1100

A/N: @ravenangel33‘s Hell’s Writing Challenge. My prompt was prompt 16 “People say they understand. They don’t.” which I modified slightly to fit into the dialogue and it will be bolded. I’m sorry this was so late and I want to thank you so much for understanding! It’s probably a bit rough, but I like it just the way it is and I hope y’all do as well.

If you would like to be added or removed from a tag list or would like to make a request, please send me an ask!

“Life just isn’t for everyone,” the lady sighed gently, crossing her legs in a proper manner.

At first it took me a moment to recognize what she was saying, but afterward, silence consumed us.

“Well, that’s all the time we have,” she smiled, glancing down at her watch.

Perhaps she was tired of me and couldn’t wait to get out of there.

I gave her what small smile I could muster up and left. I mean, what the hell is that suppose to mean, life isn’t for everyone? I was really starting to rethink coming to these anymore.

I arrived back at the bunker within thirty minutes and headed straight to my room without saying a word to the boys. Sam thought I had gone out to lunch with my best friend who wasn’t actually in town, but I’ve been going to therapy. Dean suggested it, so I thought I would try it. I dunno why I thought that. It’s not like any regular person has ever been to Hell and Dean sure as hell didn’t go to therapy, he drank and murdered.

So, I sat on my bed with my noise canceling headphones over my ears, my knees pulled to my chest, and music playing as loud as my ears could handle. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, allowing the music to drown out any sign of reality because I didn’t want to exist.

Suddenly I was jolted back to reality with a horrified gasp and the feeling of a hand tapping my shoulder. My headphones crashed to the floor, almost followed by me if it weren’t for the hands firmly grabbing my waist. I glanced up and I realized it was Sam. I swallowed hard and clutching my heaving chest.

“Oh my god, you scared me,” I breathed, blinking at him as he sat down at my feet and handed me a mug of tea. He looked concerned.

I settled myself, staring at him, waiting for him to say something, but he couldn’t seem to form the words he wanted. He sighed a couple times and stared at the ground, occasionally glancing up at me.

“What’s wrong, Sam?” I asked, pulling my legs into a crisscrossed position and taking a sip of my tea.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were going to therapy?” he spoke softly.

I choked slightly, but he stared at me with the most empathetic and hurt expression on his face, I just melted.

“Sam I...I just,” I stammered.

Then, he took my tea to set it on the table next to his and pulled me into his arms where he just held me. He didn’t say anything, he just hugged me. So, I hugged him too.

“Does it work?” he mumbled against my collarbone, his arms still wrapped around my waist.

I shook my head enough for him to feel it.

“You can talk to me, y’know,” he whispered.

“I know,” I whispered back, pressing my cheek comfortably into the crook of his neck.

After a couple more minutes of comfortable silence, I sat up and looked at him

“Do you wanna talk about it?” he offered with a small smile.

I nodded, so he rolled over onto the bed with me still secure in his arms and we laid there while we talked.

“You didn’t have to lie to me about all of it, Y/N,” he spoke gently, his breath ghosting my lips.

“I know, I just, I didn’t want to bother you with it. I know you and Dean have had a lot going on. Dean was the one who suggested it and I just--”

“Since when do you listen to Dean?” he asked in a bit of a joking tone. I smiled and huffed softly.

“I dunno, I just… I didn’t know what else to do, y’know? I went to Hell. They don’t have many cures for the aftertaste of that,” my voice faded to a whisper as my fingers fiddled with the buttons of his shirt.

“Yeah, but you live in a bunker with two people who have been there too, Y/N. Why didn’t you come to me?”

“I wanted to deal with it on my own without actually having to talk about it, I thought I could. The only thing I did was learn how much of a waste of time therapy is. Today, my therapist told me that she doesn’t think life is for everyone. I’m too depressed for my therapist. Doesn’t that defeat the whole purpose of therapy?”

“Yeah… that’s the thing about people. They want to get it, they think they get it, but they don’t. People say they understand... they don’t. Not really,” he shook his head slightly, zoning out for a moment.

I nodded, gazing up at his careful expression and then we laid there for a while, engulfed in silence.

We must have fallen asleep because the next thing I knew, I woke up to the sun shining through my window and Sam was no longer next to me. So, I got up and started to wander into the kitchen, wrapping my Maroon cardigan tightly under my crossed arms.

I emerged into the kitchen to find Sam shuffling around and shaking a bunch of pans on the stove while Dean sat at the breakfast bar with a cup of coffee and a newspaper.

“Mornin’ sleepy head,” Dean glanced at me as I sat down next to him. I smiled in return, but briefly, as I was too eager to figure out what Sam was making.

Sam slid a plate consisting of a waffle, strawberries, and maple syrup over to me from across the counter.

“I made your favorite,” he beamed, pouring a cup of coffee and pushing it towards me as well.

I stared at it for a moment. “Why?” I frowned slightly.

“Because Sam and I wanted to do something nice for you. We know you’ve had a rough few weeks, y’know, fresh outta Hell and all. Besides, you deserve it,” Dean replied.

“Yeah,” Sam huffed a chuckle. ”When we came back from Hell, I shared a headspace with fake Lucifer and Dean cried. As far as we’re concerned, you’re doing amazing Y/N/N.”

“I thought we agreed not to talk that,” Dean growled, glaring at Sam.

I giggled softly, taking a sip of my coffee and looking back up at them,”thank you, both of you. This means a lot.”

They smiled back at me and we ate and talked the rest of the morning. It was light and joke-filled, and for the first time in a long time, the load I was carrying was lightened.

Forever Tags: @assbutt-still-in-hell, @shotgunintheimpala, @wishedworld, @aquabrie, @pie-not-cake-you-assbutt, @cas-loves-dean-and-i-love-him, @imaginesforthose-wholovefandoms, @the--blackdahlia

[sithhoplite]

Velodrome, Chapter Three

The day was here, the day Lakadimos had counted down to for four years. This was her shot at redemption, at least in her own eyes. A chance at glory and becoming a legend were hers to grasp. However her nerves were betraying her as she was doubled over the toilet hurling her breakfast into it and glory was the last thing on her mind. She sat back hoping that was the last of it and her nerves. The cool, calm exterior she projected to the outside was anything but on the inside. She heard the door to her room open but another bout of dry heaves hit her. Darth Gravus walked in, concern etched on his face. Walking over he rubbed her back as she sat back on her heels hoping this was finally it. After waiting a few minutes to be sure the last of her stomach had been expelled she got up and washed her face and brushed her teeth.

Looking over at a concerned Gravus, “ I’m fine Master, nerves.”

“Do you need another minute before we head to arena?”

“No, I think I got everything out. First day jitters always get me.”

Running his finger down her cheek, “Then shall we go my dear. I have no doubts you will crush your opponents today.”

Her eyes closed and she leaned into his hand enjoying the feeling of his touch. He noticed her reaction and smiled. It was only a matter of time before he took her to bed and made her his in every way. Opening her eyes she reached up and cupped his cheek smiling.

“If all goes according to plan Master, I foresee tonight being very interesting.” She turned and walked out the door

Darth Gravus stood there in stunned silence. His apprentice had surprised him for the time in 10 years with her parting comment. There was no pause, no awkward silence, just pure and total confidence in her words.

Veledrome Arena

The first two challengers Lakadimos faced were pushed aside with relative ease. They were young, fresh out of the Academy and far too eager to go on the offensive.She simply bided her time until they made a mistake and pounced. Apprentice Malchus was good and in the coming years she could see him making a deep run into the tournament but for him, today was not that day.  One thing about these two matches that did trouble her coach was not the ease of how she won but the dropping form of her back shoulder block. While she waited to find out her Quarterfinal opponent Darth Septum worked with her to correct that slight defect. Sitting back in the locker room she watched a highly entertaining duel between Lord Shaythin and Ashara Zavros, the apprentice of Darth Nox. It was a whirlwind of colors as they parried one another moves, driving each other back then turning the tide of the duel. Shaythins footwork kept Ashara at bay for a bit but she was relentless. Shaythin went to spin around her but Ashara blocked his move and her lightsaber was at his throat. He nodded his head in surrender to her. It was a great duel with both on par with each other skill wise. The crowd was involved and animated. Lakadimos was impressed with both and slightly saddened Shaythin lost. Part of her was happy she didn’t have to be the one who sent him packing from the tournament. She readied herself for her match while the duel saber matches were fought.

Taking a deep breath she focused her energy into an unbreakable will to win. She would not lose to Ashara come hell or high water. This was her destiny and all who stood in her way would be cast by the wayside. As she walked out to the dueling circle she could feel the energy of the crowd and fed on it. Darth Gravus sat next to Darth Mortis in his box watching the action. Gravus was annoyed that Lord Shaytin had lost to an alien who was apprenticed to an alien (Darth Nox)  that he felt polluted the Dark Council. Seeing Lakadimos dispatch this alien would please him to no end.

“I am sure your apprentice will have no issues dispatching this Torgruta Gravus.”

“I know she will not. She is of a single mind here, win. I have no doubts she will dispatch this...alien in short order.”

“I have to ask, how close are you two? Before you ask why I’m curious and you want too, I watched you two hold hands last night and you seemed very cozy.” Mortis informed him looking rather smug

“Yes well, we are close I will admit. “ his thoughts drifting to her comment earlier in the day

“Close?? Is that what you are calling it my friend. Far be it for me to guess but seeing how look at her, talk about her and favor her I would say you my friend might be in love?”

“You are enjoying this far too much.” Gravus shot back

“Yes, yes I am. How long have I known you Julian? Over 30 years and not once have you spoken about someone like you do when it comes to her. I am happy for you although Vowrawn might be a little disappointed as you are off the market for the occasional fling”

“Oh we are using my name now, “ Gravus laughed,” Yes you are right so enjoy your smugness while you can, I am in love with her. I haven’t told her yet but I am sure she has picked up on it. I have no doubts about her feelings.”

Both Darth’s settled into their chairs to watch the duel that was just beginning. Lakadimos eyes were yellow as she tapped into the dark side to guide her. She circled Ashara like a predator waiting to pounce. Leaping at her she forced Ashara back with a series of blows and stabs to keep her guessing. Ashara took a defensive stance and absorbed the blows easily. Ducking under a slash from Lakadimos, Ashara used her saber to try and turn Lak and attack from behind. The over the shoulder block she had modified earlier deflected the strike but pushed her backwards. She force lept back to get space between them.

Snarling at Ashara, “Come get me you alien filth.”

She could feel Ashara’s anger rise at the comment and knew she was getting under her skin. Deflecting a vicious strike from a now very angry Ashara, Lakadimos slid under the lunge directed at her and put her saber inches from the back of the Torgruta’s neck.

“Drop your saber or you die false Sith.” Every fiber in her being wanted to run this Sith imposter through, the desire to rid the Empire of the impure coursed through her veins

Ashara dropped her saber. Lakadimos looked at the box Darth Nox was sitting in and her lip curled towards her. Nox stood up and the arena went silent. On the other end Mortis and Gravus stood up not sure what was about to happen next.

// Let her go Lak, she isn’t worth your life. Nox could strike you down if you kill her.//

// She is a false Sith, she should not be allowed to live//

// Sheath your saber NOW//

//Damn you Master//

Lakadimos deactivated her saber and walked off the dueling circle to the locker room. No one came near her as she sat down. She was seething and she could tell Gravus was angry with her as well. Her momentary loss of control could have cost her her life and she knew it. Grabbing her gear she stood up and walked out of the locker room. In a tunnel underneath the Veledrome she felt her body being lifted and slammed into a cold, hard concrete wall. She was paralyzed and fear hit her as she had no idea who was doing this too her.

“Is some alien filth worth you life apprentice? Is being a disrespectful child to a Council member in public not grounds for punishment?” Gravus spat at her, anger rolling off him in waves,” Your loss of control tonight is unacceptable and you are lucky to be alive. That...Torgruta was not worth it but you had to let your bloodlust get in the way. I have warned you time and again about your temper apprentice. Have you learned NOTHING at my feet?”

Lakadimos could feel the force tighten around her throat, her vision began to get hazy as she started to lose consciousness.  Gravus let her go and she tumbled to the floor gasping for air. As he approached her she fell to all fours, her head on the ground in total submission to him hoping he wouldn’t kill her.

“I tolerate a great deal more from you then my other acolytes because I love you, but you can not act that way in the presence of Council members. You KNOW this. Do not do it again. Go get showered then meet me in my room in an hour.”

“Yes Master.” She bowed lower than usual and left quickly

After a long hot shower, Lakadimos gathered herself for the mandatory meeting with Gravus. She had no idea how it was going to go and she was nervous. On top of it all she still had two more matches tomorrow to fight. She knocked on the door and waited for him to open in. The door opened and she turned her eyes downward to show her submission to him.

“Come in Lak.”

Closing the door behind her he walked over to her and lifted her chin up. “You have no reason to fear me Lak as long as we don’t have a repeat of earlier today. I am not angry with you.”

“I am sorry for my actions today Master, and I expect some type of retribution from Darth Nox at some point. I still maintain she is a false Sith but I handled it wrong.”

“You will be fine, and yes I agree about that Torgruta but you have a title to win tomorrow and that should be what concerns you.  I spoke to Darth  Mortis and you have his backing and the backing of his Sphere. I am guessing you have not had dinner yet?”

“Nope, I hadn’t even thought about it.”

“Thought as much, join me for dinner. It will be delivered shortly. You fought well today, I’m proud.I expect nothing short of you winning it all tomorrow.”

“Of course Master, I have the same expectations.”

Lakadimos walked over to the window and looked out at the expanse of Dromund Kass. She never realized how big Kass City was until this past week. Gravus came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. They stood there for a few minutes savoring the feelings of one another and the peace and quiet of the moment. A knock on the door broke the spell.

“Sit my dear and let us eat.”

For a few moments they sat in silence and enjoyed the meal and bottle of wine, one would never guess they were not a couple by the small touches and smiles they gave each other.

“You are worried, is it about the duels tomorrow or Nox?”

“Mostly about Nox. I can’t imagine she will take well to the slight to her apprentice and I am sure Ashara ran off and told her. She is powerful and if what Darth Mortis is saying, going to marry Darth Marr, the retribution could be bad. Rumors have it she will be at the final and when I win that will be interesting.”

“Yes she is powerful and I don’t doubt Mortis since he was drawing up the marriage contracts. That being said you have my protection, the protection of Mortis and his entire Sphere. You have shown you can best Ashara in the dueling circle. Do not let it bother you too much, you need to concentrate on winning and nothing else my dear.” He told her as he refilled her glass

“You realize I could face Eton in the final? It would be sweet to beat him again in front of the Empire entire.”

“Yes I remember that well, the day I made you my apprentice. Who would have seen where we would have ended up ten years later. Stay with me tonight Lak, as much as I want you I would rather you get sleep in my arms then pacing all night.”

“I would love to Master,” she yawned,” I might be getting a little tired and my right knee might be hurting slightly.”

He pulled her into his arms and guided her to the bed.

“I need to shower but I will join you soon.”

The thought of him in the shower brought more than a few images into her head and desire spiked through her. Her head fell against the pillow in frustration and she let out a low growl. A few minutes later he emerged in his sweats and t-shirt. Sliding into bed he settled behind her wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her close. It wasn’t long until both of them drifted off to sleep awaiting a new day.   

[thebiasrekkers]

Way To You

For the @btswriterscorner​ - Amor Fabula Launch Project in celebration of the month of Valentine’s Day! 

Plot: Taehyung is happy with his life because that’s how he’s supposed to feel. He lives his life by routine to the minute. In the new world order, love is a dangerous emotion - and therefore illegal.  That’s perfectly fine - until the lingering ‘dreams’ of a strange woman throw him out of sync. Mostly because that woman isn’t his wife. 

Rating: M // NSFW

Genre: dystopian! au/dystopian themes | angst |  smut | fluff if you squint

Pairing: Kim Taehyung x Female OC (Tempest Estrellado)

Warnings: Strong language, interracial relationship, mentions of drugs, blood, main character injury, implied smut 

Word Count: 2,886 

AN: This hot mess has 3 parts. Please enjoy and thank you for loving all that we do © thebiasrekkers (Admin T). All rights reserved. Reposting/modifying our work is prohibited. Translations are not allowed. Plagiarism/stealing is not tolerated by any means. Legal action will be taken in instances of theft.

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[ REQUESTS ARE OPEN ]

--

“Can we stay like this forever?” She always asked him this after. Their bodies drying in a cool summer breeze through an open window. Their limbs tangled and he could feel her breath against the skin of his neck. The gentle rise and fall of her shoulders. Taehyung kept his eyes closed, living within the sounds and sensations around him. His fingers could trace the colony of goosebumps on her skin. He could smell the heat of her so close. The faint sweet, salty mix of their love lingered on his lips turning upward into a dreamy smile. The rumble of his laugh deep and sensual caused her to smile. 

He could always remember her eyes - they were unique. Leonine. A golden-amber concoction, a genetic mutation that added something wild to the already fierce attitude within that petite form. 

His mouth formed her name, but he could never hear it. She tilted her gaze to his face as his fingers slid along her jaw. 

He’d always say something - it was something that he knew he shouldn’t be saying. But, they said it to each other. They said it freely. 

Then there was always pain that seared his mind. 

Then the alarm would ring and it would be forgotten again.

5:30 am. 

Wake up.

5:45 am.

Shower.

6 am.

Coffee. Toast. Protein bar.

6:15 am

Run 4 miles. 

7 am.

Shower again. Protein bar. Protein Shake.

7:15 am.

Lock the door.

7:55 am

Arrive at work. Clock in. 

8 am.

To say that Taehyung was methodical was to point out the obvious. He always showed up minutes early to work, making sure the office was lit and inviting. As inviting as their line of work was, anyway. He stared at a stack of folders on his desk. They never seemed to shrink, these stacks. Names, faces, and pertinent information lined flimsy manila folders.

It was time to gather candidates to increase the population. 

He sipped a cup of coffee as the voices began to filter into the office. Taehyung carried the stack of folders to the meeting room nearby. A presentation loaded as he stood in the corner. 

“Good morning, everyone. We’ve compiled the candidates for this year.” Everyone settled in their seats. 

He talked numbers and statistics for almost 3 hours. 

“Any other questions?” The room was silent as the lights brightened. “Alright, you know what to do.” They all stood with a nod in his direction before they filed out of the room. 

12 pm.

Lunch and coffee in his office. 

5 pm. 

Debriefing with The Council liaison. 

7 pm.

Lock up and head home. 

8 pm. 

Late Dinner.

“Taehyung, dinner is in the oven. I have to report to R&D tonight.” A female voice spoke softly as he walked into his home.

“I suppose it cannot be helped. Do be careful, April. Things have been slightly tense in the riot zone.” He hung up his jacket as his ‘Wife’ slid hers on. She offered a slight smile as she grabbed her badge. 

“Rest well, Taehyung.” A brief touch on his shoulder. Like a dear friend wishing another friend well. 

10 pm.

Sleep. 

“Taehyung! Seriously! You’re slow as molasses.” A voice taunted him, a petite figure outlined in front of him. He could feel himself licking his lips. An eagerness, an urgency to get his hands on her. 

She was teasing him. She knew better than to tease him. He felt heat fire through his veins. The world was so bright and vibrant. There was the crash of water, the air salty like the...sea? 

The ocean - the moon was full. Full like he hadn’t seen it in ages. When was the last time the sky looked like this? 

He called her name and she turned around, her full lips tilted upward in a smile. She reached behind her back tugging at the string of a bikini top. Turning away from him as it fell down her arms. He heard a sound, like an animal nearby. 

He realized it was him. He growled as the sight of skin glowing under the moonlight fueled him further. It was like time sped forward and he saw her face beneath him. Their bodies intertwined, her face scrunched in orgasmic bliss as she purred. He was losing his mind, he could swear he felt her around him. 

The sound of the ocean was like a lullaby as their voices crescendoed and they cried out freely. She dug her fingers into his back and dragged them across his shoulder blades. He roared as he exploded inside of her. 

Time went funny as they lay together, again, on the sands. Her face obscured as she leaned over him. She smiled down at him, saying something. She called him...something. The world began to fizzle as exhaustion washed over him. 

“We could stay like this forever, querido.” 

The pain was stronger this time. 

5:31 am

Turn the alarm off.

Taehyung clawed at the throbbing pain in his skull. He stumbled to the bathroom, reaching for the vitamins April reminded him constantly not to forget. He swallowed them down with a glass of water. 

He winced as the pain throbbed behind his eye. His hands gripped the sink until his knuckles were white. 

It took ten minutes for the pain to subside. 

Taehyung saw the reflection in the mirror and hardly recognized it. There were bags under bloodshot eyes. He splashed cold water on his face. He stripped down to jump into a hot spray of water. He stood there for fifteen minutes letting the water loosen his muscles. 

“What the hell was that?” 

Flashes of dreams kept creeping into his mind, the pain increased each time he tried to access them. 

7:27 am

Hasty breakfast. 

7:58 am

Barely makes it ‘early’. 

8:05 am

Two cups of coffee as he grabs the stack of folders for today’s patients.

“Good morning, everyone. We’ve compiled the candidates for today.” Everyone settled in their seats. 

There was a new face today. It was scary how all heads turned in her direction. She adjusted the glasses on her face as she stood. 

“I’ll be working with your department as the liaison from the Medical Division starting today.” She approached Taehyung with a hand extended. “My name is Tempest Estrellado.”

She looked up at him ...leonine eyes. Taehyung’s brow twitched momentarily as he accepted her hand. “Ms. Estrellado, a pleasure. I look forward to our continued success.” He held her hand for one second more than he should have. “If you please take your seat?” She offered a curt nod before settling in her seat. Tae cleared his throat, clapped for the lights to dim. 

Taehyung paced around the table slowly as he flipped between screens. Numbers, percentages, and her eyes are so bright even in the low light. He shook his head as he found himself staring at the top of her head. 

The peek of collarbone caused his lips to part as two people spoke on some extra bit of information just made available. His thoughts suddenly wandered to the delicate fingers tapping on the keypad of her tablet. 

“Mr. Kim…” Someone calling him had his gaze snapping upward. The young tech from R&D tilted her head. “...your thoughts, sir?” 

“Ah, right. If we run into the same rabid sequences as last year? Protocol as normal unless we get clearance to combine genetic materials. It is still a curious matter for The Council if proper citizens can come from Rebel couplings.” He waved a hand moving toward the front of the room. 

“Any other questions?” The room was silent as the lights brightened. “Alright, you know what to do.” They all stood with a nod in his direction before they filed out of the room.

1 pm 

Lunch.

1:30 pm

“Mr. Kim.” A voice caused him to look up from his desk. 

“Yes, Ms. Estrellado?” He wiped his mouth, cleared his hands and stood. An arm spread to offer her the seat in front of his desk. 

She wore her hair in a ponytail, slicked back. Its length easily the middle of her back. She was petite - even for what he was used to. She was maybe 5’5 outside of the two-inch heels she wore, that is. 

“...so I’m going to need a space to work. I hope you don’t mind?” She arched a brow as he shook his head again. 

“Uh, n-no. That’s not a problem. The office next to me is quite large. I’ll have it ready for you tomorrow, should that suffice?” He maintained his professionalism as she offered that slight smile. 

“Splendid.” She stood offering her hand once more. “I’ll be heading to collect my things - I’ll be here bright and early.” 

They shook hands.

She left his office, and he found himself sagging against his desk. 

The pain ringing like a bell in his ears. 

Promise me, Taehyung. No matter what. Promise. 

He shook his head violently as he settled back at his desk. It seemed like he stared at nothing until his phone rang. 

“This is Mr. Kim.” A receptionist pleasantly announced his Wife calling.

“Taehyung.” April spoke, that pleasant friendly tone, “...are you alright?” His brow furrowed as she asked.

“Of course, why wouldn’t I be?” 

“You didn’t eat your protein bar this morning. That’s unlike you.” He could detect the stirring of worry. 

“Ah, I had a bit of a headache this morning.” He sighed quietly.

That worry seemed to turn into something...else. “Did you take your vitamins, Taehyung? You know how important it is for you to take your vitamins.” 

There was something almost cold, ominous in her tone. His brow furrowed deeply as he answered her, making sure the hesitation was absent from his voice. “Of course, April. I took them immediately when I woke up. I was quite fine after a shower. I think I was just alarmed at the one minute tardy. I assure you, I’m fine.”

There was a long, thick silence before she spoke again. Her tone was light and friendly once more. “I’m sure it was jarring, Taehyung. Just let me know if you feel strange, alright?” 

He forced himself to smile, so it filtered through into his voice. “Of course, April. I need to stay late tonight. We have a new colleague who’ll be using the empty office. I’d like to have it ready for her use.”

“Of course, Taeyung. You’re not the only ones busy. I will leave dinner for you. Have a good night, Taehyung.” 

“Of course, April. You do the same.” The line goes dead but he still holds the phone aloft. It’s almost a full minute before he placed the handset onto its base. There was that bothersome echo in the back of his mind again.

It was exhaustion - wasn’t it?

10:37 pm

Nails on a chalkboard. That was the sound of the heavy furniture sliding across the floor. Tae had removed his jacket and dress shirt. His white t-shirt had slightly grayed from cleaning the other office. He worked quietly adjusting the office to spec. There was a certain placement for all of the furniture in the office. They all looked the same, even when facing different directions. 

11: 32 pm

Taehyung grunted as he dropped a box onto the floor. He rotated his shoulder to work out the strange soreness. It was unusual for him to suffer such strains. “Mm, I didn’t have much to eat today.” He sighed. That conversation with April caused his brow to furrow. He glanced at his watch with a deeper sigh. He didn’t understand that sudden change in her demeanor. He didn’t understand why he felt the need to keep up appearances. There had been no reason to be dishonest with her. 

She was his wife. She was also a medical researcher. She would have understood his symptoms, right? April would have offered some kind of solution, right? 

Why am I thinking about this so hard? Taehyung pushed to stand. One more cup of coffee would give him the energy he needed to push through. That’s what he believed. The office was a strange place at night. There were a few occasions that warranted his presence in the office so late. He shouldered into the break room, pulling the fridge open in the darkness. The light seemed eerie as perfectly situated rows of water and milk lined the shelves. There were fruits and vegetables in the drawers. Small bags of freshly cooked proteins. 

He reached for one of each, plus a bottle of water. He waited those few extra minutes to brew a small pot of coffee. His hand scrunched over the tops of the bags holding the food. The other held a hot cup of caffeine against his face. 

1:48 am

Exhausted. 

Taehyung was exhausted and he couldn’t explain why this sensation caused something to spark inside of him. He sprawled on the floor, making sure not to disturb the exact precision of his work. His eyes closed as he paid attention to the thundering in his ears. The tightness in his chest as he fought for more air. 

Why did this interest him so? Why did it seem suddenly...familiar?

“I shouldn’t have had that extra coffee.” His voice was gruff as he drifted into sleep. Just a small nap, just a moment to close his eyes and rest.

The sky was bright, fiery - hot. 

“Taehyung!” She called him her hand extended as he pulled himself up from the ground. “We have to get out of here.” Those leonine eyes were hard and filled with determination. He could feel his heart thundering in his chest. 

The coppery taste of blood filled his mouth causing him to spit. The sound of gunfire echoed above their heads. They returned to fire on opposite sides hiding behind the shattered pieces of building near them. 

“We have to make a run for it.” He told her. She frowned but hardened her gaze with a nod. They were sitting ducks this way. Taehyung reached out and grabbed her hand - there was a break in the fire. Then they ran - hard. 

“We have to find a way to meet up with the resistance, Tae!” The female’s voice was loud over the sound of violence around them.

“We have to live through this first!” He growled pulling her in front of him as he spun around a corner. “Listen to me, we …” His hands framed a set of tiny shoulders, holding them firm. “...we need to split up.” 

And as he anticipated, “No. NO! Fuck no, Tae! Tae that’s madness! We can’t!” 

“LISTEN TO ME.” He shook her harder feeling his brow crease. He didn’t like it. He abhorred the idea of being away from her. But this new world order gave them no option. They had to find their way to the Rebels that would help them. “Please, I beg you. Please, we have to split here. I’ll draw their fire. You have to run. I promise you, I’ll find you.” 

He hated it. He hated seeing those rare eyes filled with tears. He hated seeing that strength seep from her. “Please.” He framed her face as their foreheads touched. She grabbed his wrists squeezing her eyes shut. 

“Don’t you die, Taehyung.” The female took a shuddering breath as her tears fell over his fingers. “Do you hear me? Don’t you fucking die. I will find you.” She dug half-moon indentations into his arm as their lips smashed together for the last time. He could feel his tears burning hot craters against his cheeks. 

“Go ____..” He croaked as she sobbed quietly. She finally pulled away running toward a thicket of bushes. Taehyung felt himself hyperventilating as he held his weapon tight. He wanted to run after her. He wanted to scream for her to stay where she was. He swallowed his cowardice as he moved beyond the cover to open fire on the enemy.

I won’t die. 

He pushed toward the open field, drawing their attention to him. Searing pain radiated on his left side, causing him to take a knee. The world was silent as the sky seemed to come to meet him - or he met it?

The weightlessness of the world was apparent as the blue of the sky filled his eyes. The fiery blast sent him, others, and debris hurtling to the sky. He heard the crack of his body as he landed on his spine. 

The tears filled his eyes as the world crumbled around him. He made a promise. “I’m sorry…” Taehyung coughed blood in spurts as his world began to fade to black. 

Taehyung. He could hear her voice even as his body pulled him into the darkness.

Taehyung, wake up! It was her. He was sure of it. 

I want to go back to her. I want to go back to her!

Taehyung! 

He sat up grabbing the arm that shook him from his slumber. His eyes wide as their close proximity gave them both pause. “T-Tempest?” There was worry etched across her face. He could feel her pulse racing under his hand. 

They both glanced at their connected skin - and Taehyung saw the time.

7:52 am