#some serious fate sh*t

[myfriendscallmeraba]

HoFaS spoilers

So you’re telling me that in another world

AELINS FREAKING BLOODLINE AND RHYSAND FREAKING BLOODLINE

mated

The two bloodlines that gave the universe two of the most powerful beings run years and years gave us Ruhn and Lidia AND THEYRE MATES

Daaaaaaamn I do not know how to process

Tho I do wanna comment that it fees like al the fanfics and head canons of shipping the feysand and rowaelin kids😂

[multishipper33]

Hi we could be like best friends or something because I also am queer, autistic and a girl who likes mcyt, rarepairs, multishipping, (poly shipping), and music (I love music).

Also I voted flower ranchers in that one poll you really wanted to win, didn’t even see your begging for it until after I’d voted I just prefer flower ranchers. You can write me a Drabble if you want I don’t mind, maybe some hurt/comfort 👀

Haha you seem awesome, I’m happy to befriend you- it;s nice to meet you, Pear!! I hope we become better friends over the course of time :]]]

Thanks for the prompt dude- I tried, angst isn’t my strong suit

This won;t be that good if you’re looking for some quality hurt/comfort just go to ao3 or something

I made this while listening to Joel’s neck kisses playlist you’re welcome

CW: SWEARING, TERRIBLE JOKES, SH!TTY FORMATTING

—

Against his communicator, a small ‘ding!’ sound alerted him to the session’s end.

He cheered near valiantly as his timer was put on pause again, as his sword became unusable for combat, and as the anxiety was lifted from his shoulders at once.

Just as he was about to collapse on his bed and sleep for a solid thirteen hours, there was a knock at the door.

He grumbled to himself as he got up, opening the door to-

A very injured Etho, is what.

Etho opened his mouth to speak.

“…nope.” Joel mumbled, closing the door. Not today, fate!!

"Waitwaitwaitwaitwait-" Etho shouted, pushing the door with what seemed to be a more than slightly injured arm.

He sighed. “Just… just this once. I didn’t know where else to go.”

Joel opens his mouth to say something, hesitates, then closes it again.

“…fine, just get in before you catch a cold or something.”

He practically pulled Etho inside then, grumbling to himself about it being the end of session or something.

Joel led Etho to a small side room, one of those that used to be inhabited by pillagers, probably.

“Sit.” He said, “I’ll be back with some bandages and stuff. Don’t burn this place down or whatever.”

So he walks downstairs, grabs a first aid kit (the kinda thing the Watchers gave them for post-session), and walks back up the stairs.

Etho is in more or less the same position as he was before. Joel tosses the first aid kit in his general direction, missing completely.

As per usual.

He sighs and walks over to it, grabbing things like gauze and bandages.

“You do what you can reach yourself, I’ll do your back.”

Etho nods, yet he didn’t move an inch.

“…I can’t reach your back unless I have access to it, Eefo. You don’t need to take your shirt off or anything, but at least unzip the vest.”

He hesitates, before unzipping it and pulling his sweater down enough where Joel could see some sorta nasty burn.

Ouch, probably lava. Brutal.

“Have you put it under cold water yet?” Joel asked, voice barely a whisper.

Etho nods, wordless yet again.

Joel bites his lip. Cold water, next to clean it… who knows what was in that lava?

“Okay, just… hold still, I’m gonna clean it and it’s gonna hurt like a bitch.” He said, grabbing one of those alcohol wipes. That’s how you clean burns, right?

He sure fucking hoped so.

He watched as Etho’s face contorted in pain, watched as he fisted a hand into the sheets he was under, and wanted to make it to he’d never have to see that again.

“Okay, just- I think that’s clean, it looks fairly good to me…” Joel mumbles, rummaging around in the bag once again for some of that…

What was it called again? Polyamory???

Yeah, probably.

“I’m just gonna rub some of this… poly-something on the thing. Apparently that does something? I dunno, but it won’t sting as much.” He rambled, putting it on in the process.

Joel looked down at the first aid kit once again. Gauze or bandage?

Bandage, right?

He put it on the burn, and as he looked up at Etho, Joel felt a surge of something pained and familiar and all-wrong.

“Well. There you go. I don’t think there’s anything all too serious anywhere else, and now you have a slightly more functioning shoulder to do everything else with. You’re welcome.”

“…thanks.” Etho muttered, pulling his shirt collar back up and zipping his vest back up.

And wordlessly, with a piece of Joel’s heart in his hands, Etho left.

—

I love what tumblr did to the formatting it’s all wrong

[palaxy27]

Where is she?

(What do you think? )

"And sashi?"

He stops in his tracks

"This is a bad sign" thinks boone as he feels the room become heavier. Seconds pass and nothing, not a muscle moves, no sound comes out of it only the noises produced by the screen in front of them are heard.

"What?" The young adult finally after seconds says something but still without turning to look at the dream team.

"W-where is she?" Penn asks with a slight tone of concern as he senses how the atmosphere was even more tense than before. "She was kidnapped too?"

This time adult penn is quick to respond "No" he says quietly, penn still not turning around and without any hint of any feeling.

Boone from the behavior of the fawning version of his friend knew something wasn't right, he recognized that.same attitude from a while ago....

Ever since his parents had been trapped in-

.

.

.

He understood the situation

(No)

Boone, who was already in sheer terror upon learning of the kidnapping of his future self, feels a pressure in his chest

(No no no no no no no no no no.)

He turned to see his best friend almost next door, who had his worried face on, however he didn't grasp the magnitude of his adult version's attitude, unlike him.

(NO!,she didn't be-)

"Penn."

A firm but calm voice pulls him out of his trance as well as his friend turning to see the owner of the voice, but the young adult did not move from his place still watching the screen showing the dimension map. There was still sashi behind them who most of the time had been more than a spectator of all the information thrown by the adult penn, in her face was a neutral look but somehow at the same time it shows something penetrating, that same look she has when she analyzes the situation before launching into action in a mission or when in the middle of a conflict or serious discussion like now, mostly she stays quiet and neutral (or at least she disguised it) to these situations. this time it was different.

"Penn" she repeats, staring at the man. The two boys look up at him.

No answer

"Where is he?"

The hands make slight movements, but he still says nothing.

Penn was starting to get scared seeing his adult version not saying anything about his girlfriend, Boone could only put his hand on his shoulder as conformation to his friend, he didn't think it would do much for him he was also scared for his friend's fate.

This eternity manages to end with the man's mouth having a trembling sigh come out.

"D-do... (gasp) you..really want t-to kn-know?"

In the girl's mind her answer was a no, but softening her expression slightly with concern and pleads in a soft voice comes out "please".She needed to know, maybe so they would go home or maybe try whatever had happened to her adult self hebitarlo.

The girl's response only make the young adult his hand logero movement spreads to a tremor that he tries to control. He takes another sigh before speaking.

"Sh-e...e (gasp) ..she..."

The broken voice of the adult penn only makes the.situation worse, panicking all the juniors.

"She?" asks their younger version.

S-she...(gasp)...t-t-two years ago she....

w-who (gasp) was ...

(No...) sashi's strong expression slowly changes to shock

...trapped and-and w-w-without... com... communication

(It was... true)boone's fear grows as his suspicions are confirmed

at .... (sniff) w-world's mo..most dangerous un...(sniff) imaginable."

.

.

.

"What?"

Just some practice, I'm trying to improve, what do you think? :)

Full fic idea and/context here

[smokeybrandreviews]

Fallen Dynasty

This sh*t with Jonathan Majors is getting real serious, man. Dude is getting dropped by his representation left and right, more cats are alleging brutality, and Disney might have already fired the dude from the Kang role. This sh*t is wild to see, man. Majors was finally, deservedly, on the upswing with his career. Dude had some stellar performances under his belt, both Lovecraft Country and The Harder They Fall come to mind, but was poised to have his signature role, this far, really leave a mark. I was a little hesitant to give this man the nod as Kang the Conqueror when Marvel announced his casting, not because of his performance or his race, but because Kang is just a goofy ass villain. But then Majors sauntered through as He Who Remains and I was sold. That one episode we got of his, was more than enough for me to get behind what Feige had planned. Dude was so nonchalant about the destruction of an entire timeline, so smarmy with is inevitable fate. I loved it! I haven’t personally seen Ant-Man III but I’ve heard that Major’s performance as the Conqueror proper, is the best thing about that film. I was looking forward to The Kang Dynasty but all of that is up in the air now because of this chick’s allegations.

It must be stated that Majors has steadfastly denied the allegations and that his primary accuser has basically recanted her initial claims but, goddamn, does this sh*t look grim. His lawyer finally released the evidence she had and, while I think it reads clearly as someone who has come to their senses and wants to try to mitigate the damage they have done to a person’s life, I can see how it can be interpreted as another abuse victim kowtowing to their abuser. As one Twatter reaction stated, “This ain’t the flex you think it is.” I get that. I also get that Majors removed himself from the situation and it was he who called the cops that night. I also understand that the cabbie gave a statement and even handed over the video of the ride where the incident took place. For my money, Majors is being wrongfully accused because, you know, giant, rich, black man. Wouldn’t be the first time. Definitely won’t be the last. But this time is wild to me because of the worms coming out from under their years long hibernation on this subject to make their own claims. If Jonathan Majors abused this many people, if he was violent to all of these alleged victims, where the f*ck have they been? Major’s has been in the spotlight for some time and not a word. But now that he’s on the cusp of super stardom, there’s a line of bodies in his wake? Make it make sense.

I already addressed the stuff about the cats claiming battery from back in his college days but these new “victims” are nuts to me. I get that the case against him was floundering because of the recantation and the cabbie’s statement so now the cops needed way more, which they got. Sh*t just seems real fishy to me, especially considering that there are rumblings of coaching being caught on the body cam footage of the initial response. I imagine it’s not a coincidence that the strangulation charge was dropped but I digress. If that sh*t is sus, how am I supposed to take the sudden influx of other victims seriously? Obviously, I could be wrong and Jonathan Majors could be a decades long violent psychopath but that doesn’t feel real to me. It doesn’t feel accurate. It feels made up. It feels like a false claim. It feels like the systemic lynching of a another rich, famous, black man. But that remains to be seen. I want to believe Majors is innocent in all of this because I want him to be Kang. I want him to get that Marvel shine. I want him to be that superstar. We already lost Chadwick, we need Majors. Time will tell how history sees this situation but, so far, these optics are real bad.

[smokeybrand]

Sextuplets

Last year, Azur Lane was on fire. All year, there was hitter after hitter. New events, rerun events; It didn’t matter, the content was top tier. As a KMS main, i was eating really good. This year hasn't been as embarrassing in it’s riches, and not just because there has only been a single Iron Blood event. My Kraut dock is brimming with ships so I'm okay with that. Give the Ruskies and the Itais some love, they need it. No, I'm speaking more on the fact that new Events are few and far in between. The content this year, just isn’t as good as last, and it’s glaringly so. Don’t misunderstand me, i am very glad we got what we got. I was able to pick up New Jersey on a Rerun and Confluence of Nothingness added another UR option to my Kraut dock, bringing the grand total of my Rainbow options to four, so, even with this significant step back with the overall content being released this year, i am more than content. And then they dropped the new Priority Ships. Two of which are Iron Blood. One of which, is another Rainbow.

I am, as we speak, in the process of grinding out Hindenburg. She is one of the two Decisive ships available in Priority Six. The other is an Eagle Union entry, Kearsarge. I’m not going to lie, i might make a run at her, too. I rarely, if ever, use Eagle Union ships but it’s hard not to want Kearsarge. Her design is dope and she’s a beast. However, my Deutsch girls come first and Hindenburg takes priority. If she ends up being anything like her other Decisive kin, she’s going to be a real goddamn problem for my enemies. Fried, Otto, and Agir are mainstays in my first Fleet. Their damage and leadership perks make for a really intimidating, and daunting to battle against, Iron Blood contingent. More than that, Hindenburg appears to be a Vanguard ship and i am in dire need of Vanguard Rainbow options. I only have San Diego to fill that spot and, again, she’s an Eagle Union who i never use, not since actual, natural, Ultra Rares have been introduced. The grind to Hindenburg is as grueling as ever but i am nearing it’s end. I’m sitting on sixty-three percent of that ludicrous twenty-four million Experience; Just the last bit to go and then she will be mine. Then i can move on to the second Iron Blood option in this Priority, Felix Schultz.

Schultz is an interesting ship to me. I love her design, it smacks of Meltryllis from Fate/Grand Order and we all know how much i simp for that entire franchise, so it’s a forgone conclusion i was going to become a fan but i have no idea what I'm going to do with her. She’s another Destroyer in a dock lousy with Destroyers. Hell, we JUST got Otto in the last KMS event! That sh*t ended a month ago! AND she's one of the best in the game! Never mind Otto, we have Z46, Z1, Z16, Z2, Z24, Z25, Z26, Z28, Z35, Z36, Z20, and Z21. Then there's the Starter for Iron Blood, Z23 who, to this day, is still a top tier ship after her Retrofit. Which i obviously completed. Admittedly, there are only two Super Rare Destroyers, Otto and Z23, so Schultz is a welcome addition in that regard but, come on? Thirteen f*cking options BEFORE Felix is released?? Are you serious? Listen, my KMS choices are fruitful but, like, how about giving me a Rainbow Carrier or something? Sakura got two, Hakuryuu and Shinano. Eagle Union is sitting on Yorktown II and Enterprise. Hell, Implacable is one of the best Ships in the entire game. Slide some of that Air Superiority the German way. I understand that there is a certain amount of historical accuracy in this game so it makes sense that the Japanese and the US have all the jets while the Germans dominate with their torpedoes and U-Boats but, come on? Bismarck Zwei exists and that is a made-up boat! Make up a goddamn Rainbow Carrier then! Felix does look to be a pretty solid ship, though. I’m sure I'll find a way to incorporate her into a Primary Deployment or whatever. I just wish she was a Carrier.

Priority Six is an impressive lot, no doubt. I still think the best season was Four, just in terms of sheer diversity and power, but six is nice in it’s own right. I mean, it’s really hard to argue against a class which includes Anchorage, Hakuryuu, Agir, and August von Parseval, as the strongest. There’s a great mix of diverse strength in this new class and i find myself kind of wanting all of them for one reason or another. We’ll see how that goes after i finish developing Hindenburg and Felix Schultz. Obviously, i have an eye toward Kearsarge but I'm not sure i want to invest the resources, and time, into the other two. I just don’t care enough about the Vichya Dominion and already have ship that does what Shimanto does, ready for deployment as we speak. There is a decent chance I'll end up making a run at these other boats, though, if I'm honest with myself. Like i mentioned above, Azur Lane has been pretty light on the content this year. I have ample time to do other things. Like, I've already constructed and maxed out Hakuryuu, something i never really expected to do, so why not throw two more ships i have no real interest in, into that lot, too?

[impulsivefanwriter]

A Tiny Spark Leads to a Roaring Flame (But Flames Can Always be Doused by Water)

Heeyyyyy so y’all know the Reverse Thanos Snap AU for SPBNR? Basically everyone but Smith/S!Kai gets sent to the M!verse. Everyone. The entire population of S!verse Ninjago City & a few surrounding areas. Except poor Smith. Essentially it happens because S!Garmadon tries to send Smith to a place where he can't mess with his plans, and ends up sending everyone away from Smith to take him out of the equation. 

The second part to this AU is that the S!Ninja end up searching for Kai in the chaos and grab the Red Ninja before jetting out of there with the Bounty. Except... they didn’t grab Smith (who’s still home), but rather Red (M!Kai).

Red thinks the S!Ninja are babysitter clones created by Garmadon after he somehow turned Lloyd younger without his memories & is trying to raise him to be his new General #1. With this in mind, he pretends to be S!Kai, and waits for the moment he can rescue Lloyd.

What would happen in the S!Ninja discovered his deception/their mistake of grabbing a wrong Kai and mistake Red for a recreated Aki (aka Bizarro Evil Clone Kai) before he could enact his plan?

Well, this is that idea. (Title inspired by how a crack AU spiralled into a beautiful angst-fest)

Enjoy. :3

-----*-----

Red was going to get Lloyd out of here tonight. 

Away from these Not-Friends made by Garmadon to emulate the Ninjaforce. Away from this flying ship built to emulate Master Wu's ship, so familiar and yet so off. Away from this false reality and back to the real everything where they could hopefully get his memories back and his age back and everything back to the way it was before the city descended into chaos.

He just had to... bide his time. Be patient. 

FSM, he was bad at being patient. 

His hands itched to grab Lloyd and run now, but he was horribly outnumbered and without his mech. No matter how badly he wanted to, he couldn't rush this. If he did, he would make everything worse. Like he always did.

But fate- or rather, Lloyd- had other plans.

The little version of his younger brother- yes, they were roughly the same age normally, shut up, Lloyd was still his younger brother- had been... eying him weird all morning. Not like Not-Jay and Not-Cole and Not-Zane, but like Not-Nya. Like he actually knew instead of suspected. These babysitter clones seemed to think he was the Not-Kai, and if that was the opportunity the universe was going to give him, then by the flames of the departed world was he going to skip this chance to save Lloyd.

Currently he stood on the deck of the ship as they parked in the sky a few meters above the docks on the outskirts of the city. It wasn't the docks with the Bounty warehouse, curse his luck, but it wasn't the endless sky or the empty ocean (though it was still too close to that murky, haunting water for his liking. Water was his sister's domain for a reason). At least he could sneak Lloyd off in the cover of night, maybe find someone in the city who wouldn't recognize the Son of Garmadon this way and would be willing to help them hide until they could make it back to the real ninja.

"Kai," Not-Zane spoke suddenly next to him. 

Red would never get used to the way his voice... lacked the same effect the real Zane's had. The effect that Kai and the rest of his team had assured their friend over and over was unique, special, but in a good way. To embrace it. That it wasn't noticeable, but when it was, that it was so Zane that his friends didn't care that it was different. 

This 'Zane' sounded much too different than his own. He hadn't recognized Kai's tested line of 'road work ahead' when they passed one of the many construction signs littering the city (even more so since the chaos happened a week ago), and instead had responded with 'a great deal of work to fix in the city'. 

Seriously, Garmadon, do better research on your clones.

Not-Zane was also much too... calm. Too 'wise' compared to the wild teen that was Zane. And he walked without heelies or whatever Zane used to slide around like a boss, though he was still silent. And that meant, like now, he snuck up on Red fairly often- and Red was training to be a Ninja, so that took serious talent. 

"Kai," Not-Zane said again, and Red finally broke his gaze from where he'd been staring over the railing, planning tonight's escape route. "Lunch has been made for over an hour. Are you alright?"

Red forced his brightest smile. "Course I'm alright! Just trying to figure out what happened, as usual."

Why Lloyd was suddenly like, 8, and without his memories. Why the Not-Friends were on this Not-Ship and had mistaken him for Not-Kai. Why the city was in a state of disarray and chaos. 

Not-Zane studied him, then turned to give the city a sad look. "I'm not sure myself. My scanners can't seem to figure out what is happening. It is as if... blocked by some force."

Red winced, then expertly disguised the move by leaning against the rail. Zane never would use 'my scanners', despite how often Red and the others assured him it was okay. Yet another reason why this wasn't his friend.

"You know Ninjago City," Red said with a weak laugh. "Always one crisis or another. Always those annoying Garmadon Attacks"

This seemed to satisfy Not-Zane, who nodded thoughtfully. "This event definitely seems to have Garmadon's hand in the mess."

He patted Red on the back. "Well, don't worry yourself ragged, Kai. Come in for lunch soon, alright? We have training for Lloyd later."

Ah, right. Training. AKA what Red assumed was how Garmadon was planning to shape this impressionable version of his friend into his new General #1.  

"I'm ready for training now, Zane!"

Speaking of Lloyd- 

The little gremlin came up from the hull with the rest of the Not-Ninja. Red hated when the entire group was together; it was way more difficult to act as Not-Kai around them, especially around Not-Nya. 

For starters, Not-Jay had a notch in his eyebrow that the real Jay never had. He was missing the iconic freckles, and the scarf, and the fluffy hair, though you could always say it was just a wardrobe change. What you couldn't change was the personality differences. This couldn’t be Jay. Jay was anxious and quiet, his jokes (while plentiful) said more timidly and his newest ideas shared with hesitance that only shrank after years of encouragement. He would never be this loud, ever. 

Not-Cole was the leader, probably because Lloyd was so young. But even then, in Red's team, Nya would probably take second-command. Cole was their sturdy support, yes, but he was chill, laid-back. Ready to follow and support his friends to the ends of the earth with his tunes and occasional sarcastic wit, but not lead. Not like Not-Cole, who was more serious and commanding and didn't. listen. to. music. Red hadn't spotted a single record or boombox in the room in the hull. That was a tragic oversight on Garmadon's part. The members of his research team should be Fired.

And then there was Not-Nya. Who wore a dress with confidence that his sister would love but never publicly wear. Who had short hair- Nya had tried that style once, and decided it itched around her neck too much- and jewelry, and a giant flying Samurai mech suit. His sister had the Water Strider Mech, and Not-Nya had a flying combat suit. Sure. Close enough. Personality-wise they were similar. 

Similar at first glance. Nya was fluid and adaptable to whatever role she needed filling. She was spunky, and as fiery as him when it came to tempers, though she knew how to keep hers in check (she had to, right? No one called her hot-headed and impulsive and reckless and blamed her temper for mistakes or damage or whatever the news comments liked to say about the Fire Mech). Not-Nya was also adaptable and independent-minded, but she seemed more rigid. More doing her own thing. 

Point was, everyone wasn't actually his friends, despite how much they tried to prove they were. And they kept acting like he was this Not-Kai, who was just as hot-headed but apparently more mature and training-oriented and basically the better, cooler (or hotter, perhaps, for the fire theme of the red ninja) him, since his acting never seemed to fully convince them. Trying to impersonate a standard he couldn't seem to reach, some legendary hero he wasn't- er, wasn't yet! Yeah! He just needed to prove himself, be better, and he'd be fine. Just... fine. Yeah.

Mini-Lloyd (Red was tempted to call him L'ilyod in his head, but that felt wrong somehow, like he was infringing on some kind of copyright law) stared at him like a goddamn falcon, and he wasn't talking about the bird that circled the ship. He had this bowl-cut Red would tease him about endlessly after all this was over- seriously, how had Mr. Fabulous Hair started with this mess? Garmadon probably didn't even have hair, so there was no way the guy knew how to style it, and it was very evident based on Mini-Lloyd's hairdo. 

Red noticed that all of them were staring, actually. Despite his relaxed rest against the rails, his fingers behind his back clutched the cool bar with a dull shake. He didn't notice how the metal seemed to glow red under his touch. 

"Training, right, we should get onto that," Red tried. "What do you want to start with, Lloyd?" 

"How about a little game?" Lloyd asked with complete innocence. "What we were playing last week before we got interrupted."

Oh sh!t. 

"I-I don't know, shouldn't we start with stretches? Or how about some sparring, that's always more fun than a game!"

"But I wanted to continue our game..." Mini Lloyd said, and FSM's sake, he couldn't deal with that pouting look.

Okay. Okay, don't panic. Think logically. What kind of game would an 8-year-old Lloyd like to play with him? Something physical, so no board games- he liked to test his mettle against Zane on those, and sometimes he would almost not-lose. Logic puzzles also fell more on Jay's area. Trivia, especially music trivia, was a bubble between the anxious motormouth and Cole. Video games fell on team building, and wouldn't classify as a training warmup.

"Well," Red said, taking a hopeful stab in the dark. "There's not too much space on the deck for... tag..."

Lloyd nodded, looking satisfied. The Not-Ninja looked- well, their expressions were hard to read because of how different it was compared to his friends. But Red was a master of deception (well, fire, but eh, technicalities), and he had them fooled, and he just had to keep it up until nightfall so he could rescue Lloyd and explain in a safe location-

"HE'S NOT KAI!"

Orrrrr improvise. Okay, yep, he could improvise. 

Red lunged forward and grabbed Mini Lloyd's wrist from where he had his hand extended in an accusatory point. He ducked under Not-Jay's attempts to grab him- fast, but not as fast as his Jay, his Jay who could disappear from an awkward social interaction in the span of a flickering lightbulb- and dragged his younger brother with him as he vaulted over the railing. Not-Zane almost managed to yank him back onto the Not-ship, but his icy grip caught only empty air as Red pulled Lloyd into a tight hold and ducked.

He hit the dock below with a stumble, rolling back onto his feet and taking off with a very stubborn green ninja in tow. It took all his strength to drag Lloyd (kicking and screaming like he was being kidnapped or something when Red was just trying to rescue him, for FSM's sake. Lloyd didn't know that, but he could still try to be at least a little more considerate.)

The wooden docks creaked and shuddered underfoot and Red grimaced; whoever rebuilt them after the latest Garmadon attack had shredded them like newspaper clearly hadn't wasted any unnecessary change. It certainly didn't help that Lloyd packed quite the punch for someone so small. Red definitely would come out of this with bruised shins and arms from where Mini Lloyd tried to push him away, but it would be worth it to keep his teammate, his younger brother, safe.

Then green filled his vision and broke his hold on Lloyd's wrist, sending him skidding across the dock planks as he was sent flying. When he finally rolled to a stop, neck and shoulder stinging from where the blast had caught him (no burns, just jitters like he'd been shocked), he had to take a few seconds to re-orient himself. Did the Not-Ship have cannons or something? What hit him from behind, so close it could have hit Lloyd?

Lloyd. Was Lloyd okay?

Red pushed himself to his feet, ignoring the bleeding scrapes on his hands and legs from where he'd gotten banged up by the splintered docks. His gaze, sharp and frantic, searched for signs of green. The warning of more blasts, the flash of the fabric of a gi, anything.

He spotted his brother in the arms of Not-Cole. No, no, no-

And suddenly Not-Nya was there, given a boost by Not-Jay. Her grip was as if she were wearing the robotic mech suit, harsh and powerful and near in-human. She threw Red back to the dock floor as her face twisted with the fury of a storming ocean. A resounding crack rang out over the harbour.

Red couldn't tell if it came from the planks under him or his own shoulder.

She pinned him to the wood, barking accusations and threats in his face faster than Not-Jay could talk. Red blinked through a haze of pain, trying to focus on her face and words. She was missing the beauty mark on her face, he noticed. Yet another tell she wasn't his sister.

"-scar on the wrong side-" And it was hard to hear again over the ringing in his ears. He tried to throw her off, get back to Lloyd, anything, but he was-

Useless. 

Her hands suddenly got in his face, slamming his left cheek to the wood. She was close- close to his face, close to his eye, close to his scar- pushing and prying as she tried to do something. Red picked up in his struggling, his attempts to free himself turning to desperate shoves and wild clawing like a trapped animal. He wouldn't let this creation of Garmadon's finish the job that teen had started all those years ago. 

"Or better yet, he needs to shut his damn mouth."

The flash of a knife. His vision half-blurry. Blood- so much blood- and a lasting scar.

"-contacts-" "-red-" "-struggling-" "-we know what he- it- is already-" "-not the real Kai-" "-wish-" "-Garmadon-"

He had to get away. Get Lloyd away from them now.

In one surge of strength- and yep, his shoulder definitely wasn't okay after that move, as if he'd ripped it not just from its socket but from its very attachment to his body- he knocked Not-Nya aside. If he could’ve seen through the red haze, he might have noticed red embers dancing around his fingertips as his desperation and fear tapped into something deep in his soul.

He tried to shoot to his feet, tried to run for Lloyd (held so tight in Not-Cole's grip, surely they were hurting him, he couldn't let that happen-). He roared, "LEAVE MY BROTHER ALONE!", but before he could take another step through Not-Jay and Not-Zane in his path, the docks gave one last ominous shudder  before deciding it had finally had enough.

The planks crumbled underfoot like charred firewood in a crackling campfire, and Red was sent tumbling into the frigid ocean water below.

[practicalmagicintuitions]

“The fates lead the willing and drag the unwilling”

I was thinking about that last MT podcast HC had when he mentioned stoicism and a book I have but I haven’t read yet. So I decided to deep dive in a little bit because I studied philosophy at the university at a very basic level but I always wanted to know more, so this seems a good occasion. I am also interested in what HC could see in this philosophy school. I think we all know at this point he is interested in things that interest his people, not necessarily him or he is dropping ideas, new things fast. So one part of this will be a summary of stoicism because I feel many people have misconceptions or don’t know what is this just saying this is sh*t even don’t have the slightest idea about it. The other part will be a little HC armchair analysis by me throughout this topic. And I also decided to read the book he mentioned - Viktor E. Frankl Man's Search for Meaning - and maybe I will walk through it or give you a summary if you interested. 

Bare with me, because this turned out to be long, but I had to get out his from my system.

Not soon after the pandemic and the lockdown started in 2020 Penguin Random House said the print sales of Marcus Antonius’s Meditations are up 28% for the first quarter of 2020 vs 2019, while print sales of Letters from a Stoic are up 42% for the same period. The ebook sales rose by 356% . This boom was because of the pandemic but the popularity of modern stoicism has been an upcoming thing for a while especially since people like Bill Gates or Warren Buffet allegedly used stoicism in their business and Thomas Kaplan is supporting a Stoicism Course at Brown University. But unfortunately, modern stoicism has become kind of a ready-made lifehack, a self-helping method, that’s why books like Ryan Holiday’s one could be published and becomes a success. This is where I see modern stoicism’s faults. 

Stoicism seems a good school to support or to follow in the pandemic because this is about we have to accept the things we have no control over. Probably that’s why the sales went up. This is about don’t letting uncontrollable things or events messing with your judgment and clarity. Fear, screams, panic, rages don’t help. And I think we can agree this is true. Aurelius wrote his Meditations in the middle of a battle when his men were dying not just because of the fights but because of a pox epidemic and top of that he was an Emperor. So to maintain his sanity he had become a stoic. He didn’t have an influence on the epidemic so he just accept it and didn’t spend his energy raging about it. 

Stoicism was founded by Zenon around 300 BC. And it was a thriving and popular school without huge wars or pandemics or anything. Back then it was not a reaction to something but a preparation for something. More directly prepare yourself the thing you cannot be prepared for. And probably this is the OG stoicism most valuable teaching that there are events in this world we simply cannot control. What we can control however how we react to those events. Are we remain calm or think this is a catastrophe. Let see a very basic example. We are mortals, we will die no matter what. This is a sure event we have no control over. What we can control that our view on this. Will we panic? Refuse to even talk about death or refuse to make a will because “OMG I will die then!!” Like spoiler alert, it will happen, will or no will. Or we understand our time is limited and try to enjoy it and not see smaller inconveniences are tragedies. I am sure we all know people who think if they spill themselves over with coffee or the handle of the grocery’s bag comes off it’s a pure tragedy and they are capable of thinking about this all day as something it is happening with them always an exclusively. 

Until this, I think it’s all good we can use this in our daily life. What is dangerous in the OG stoicism is that the stricter wing of it thought emotions as a whole or almost all of it cause confusion so you basically should eliminate emotions to have that clarity on life. That’s why Diogenes wrote that the wise is emotionless. And this is the main and very valid criticism again stoics, that with taking away the emotions they basically ripping of humans from something very unique valuable, important, because our emotions make us humans. And because living totally emotionless is kinda impossible this goal is not realistic, so it causes many frustrations ( oh my... even more emotions!) Because think about it, who are described as emotionless? Psychopaths. 

You have cases, events, when your emotions, even overflowing ones are right and acceptable and suppressing them, could be dangerous. Because realistic or not Marcus Aurelius and Seneca and the other stoics idea was not just watching the world and letting things happen, shrugging a shoulder and say nothing, no! Their philosophy and aim were to eliminate the bothering things which not let you think calmly. And since we are talking about philosophy the reality of this in practice is secondary. Critics also think ( and maybe the modern stoicism is going in this direction) that a hardcore stoics care only about themself and their egos while Seneca says friendships are important and in general most stoics accepted positive feelings (to a certain extent).

Stoicism comes back to life mostly in psychotherapy around 1900 by Paul Dubois ( before him there was another new wave of stoicism in the 16th century) and that’s where Victor E Frankle is connected to this topic. I haven’t read his book yet but I know his method is called logotherapy (logos= meaning) and this was born in the deepest existential crisis when his whole family was killed in a concentration camp and he felt he had remained only one personal freedom, the way how he reacts to the circumstances. Frankle invented his own method so he is not just planted some ancient in the modern world but he in fact thought Socrates and his philosophy is his inspiration. I won’t talk about this more until I read his book. 

* I wanted to listen to the whole podcast again, but I couldn’t so I just went to the part we care about now.

So they are talking about morning routines and he mention that one of his teachers in primary school said to him “Always expect the unexpected” This is pure stoicism and while I am not suggesting he is lying I noticed he likes to blend his current interest with his childhood memories like when he said at the WitcherCon how they had to build a fantasy castle in the school (or something) and this was such good preparation for him because he has a fantasy series now. Convenient right?

So he mentioned the teacher and a little later hinting that he is into stoicism lately. Question is, which comes first? The teacher with the stoic idea or the stoicism as a new interest somehow repainted his childhood memories? 

Then he again is talking about the stoic’s way of control. Or does he? 

“ focusing on the thing you can control and make yourself better to control them” 

This was never part of the OG philosophy because that is not about being a control freak. It is actually the opposite. If you cannot control something let it go, not force things to go on your way and if you failed then you let go. 

The next part it’s not about this topic but I have to mention it because I kinda overlooked it when I listed this at the first time.

He is asked about the fitness industry’s mistakes and he said

“I wouldn’t be the kinda person to point my finger at anyone and say there is a big mistake there…. I wouldn’t ever want to point to finger at anyone saying there is a mistake “

So… should I insert the FO post here? And I know the question and the answer was about fitness but he clearly has no problem pointing fingers at people. 

This leads to us again to the control topic. His FO post is creaming about controlling. “ You don’t like the way I am dating? You don’t like I have a covid romance? Then I will tell you what to do and how to behave because I need to have control over my fandom”

When the host asked him about overcoming obstacles he mention the book - Victor E. Frankl Man's Search for Meaning. (he also said it’s difficult to give advice…)

While he is talking about the book (and for me, it’s clear that the host doesn’t give a damn about this) so HC’s whole tone is changed. Just compare when he is talking about MT and training and so on, he is so irritating and unlistenable but here he is calmer, doesn’t use his voice so expressively, doesn’t emphasise that much in a sentence etc. This to me shows he is actually craving after something more, something deeper, something serious. Not just talking about his ties and blueberry smoothies. I don’t think is dumb (I think he has dumb choices thought) I think he could be more both as an actor both as an individual because when he was talking about the book I felt he has a true, genuine interest and it was a one-second opportunity to talk about something interesting not just fart powder.  

I feel his interest in stoicism is an attempt to validate why he is oppressing his feelings. I am sure he does this because he is uncomfortable with his feelings, past and present. For example, I think instead of the bullying his main trauma is being sent away from home to a boarding school and experiencing cold treatment from his mom (the infamous stop calling story). But he oppressing this because I guess all of his brothers he is looking up to loves their mom and he feels he needs to be a good son but questioning his mom means he is a bad one. So instead of admitting that he is hurt and damaged by it he is saying the bullying was his worst experience. 

This means to me he doesn’t understand stoicism, ancient or modern he just wants and moreover, he needs something he can hold and cling to, something that gave himself meaning. As a book’s title says: Man’s search for meaning. And I feel HC does this maybe a little bit desperately. Searching for the answers and this moment he thinks stoicism is the key to finding what he is looking for while in reality, the main problem is he doesn’t ask the right questions. And without them, he won’t find any answer. Or meaning. 

Title quote from Seneca

[orphicidiot09]

A mini Obito Uchiha x oc drabble

Warnings: mention of anxiety attacks

°

°

°

In a small orphanage somewhere in the corner a little girl not more than 5 or 6 was sitting clutching to a small piece of shredded scarf to her chest, silently sobbing with her head between her knees.

"Hey are you ok?!"

A loud voice startled her. Slowly looking up she saw a boy around her age with black hair and onyx eyes.A purple scarf was wrapped around his neck, a pair of orange glasses on his forehead.

"Y-yes i-im fine"

"Then why are you crying."

I-I'm not c-crying"

Her cheeks heat up with embarrassment, quickly wiping her tears, she asked in a small voice

"W-Why are you h-here, M-Miss Yua told e-everyone to go back to t-their r-rooms already"

"Huh, I can ask you the same"

Pouting at his response she just turned her head head away

"Hey don't hmph me, what's your name?"

"I-Itsuk-ki Aya.."

"Oh I'm Uchiha Obito, and I'm gonna be a great Hokage some day"

A small smile formed on her face on hearing his enthusiastic response

"I w-will be l-looking forward f-for that d-day t-then"

A wide grin etched up on Obito's face

This was the first time someone of his age group did not make fun of him. Only the third Hokage or sometimes when the that grumpy Uchiha Guy and his wife would come they'd tell him that anyone can become the Hokage if they work hard for it.

"YAtaa Let's be friends Aya chann :))"

"F-Friends?"

This was the first time someone kept the patience to talk to the girl, usually people would turn away when she wasn't able to keep up the conversation. You see the girl had Anthropophobia, it wasn't serious but it sure did contribute to her shy nature. She'd always stutter and stumble upon her words and embarrass herself in front of others.

"Now when we are friends, tell me why were you crying

"I-I don't w-want to attend t-the a-academy t-tomorrow"

Ah yes the Konoha academy was starting from tomorrow. Aya did not want to attend the academy not because she didn't want to be a shinobi her social anxiety was a big negative factor behind this. The mere thought of facing so many new people gave her mini anxiety attacks.

The sad truth was she didn't really have a choice, there was a tension between all the nations and the third ninja world war was sure to be declared in the future

Orphan kids like her who had no one to seek shelter or protection from, were raised as war kids, trained to kill and die like some mere pawns.

She was definitely not ready for this.

"E-Eh?!, isn't that exciting we'll finally be ninja and I'll be one step closer to become a Hokage."

"B-But I don't l-like p-people....I d-don't w-want to b-be a sh-shinobi", she said in a small and meek voice

Oh

Obito may not be best in academics but the harsh treatment he received from the people around him sure did him teach him about the cruel world and it's ways more than a six year old should know. Everything was clear to him now, this girl was just like him in a way or another.

The girl just looked down, avoiding his eyes, she looked ashamed of herself?.Her eyes widened when she felt something warm being wrapped around her shoulders and face.

A scarf, but why?

She silently questioned.

"Here now this scarf will be a mark of our friendship Aya chan and don't worry I'll be by your side all the time, I promise"

A sheepish grin on his face, he didn't even realise when his cheeks started to heat up.

The girl on the under hand could not help but pull the scarf closer to her and cry silently, luckily Obito didn't miss the small smile that formed on her face. She was not alone now. She felt pure ecstasy for the first time.

And that's when the stars aligned and the fate set their story in place

Sorry if it's cringe. If you like it leave a heart.

[allstarsstorymode867]

ALL-STARS -STORY MODE- CHAPTER 19

Heya everyone!

Sorry for the absence of chapters, there are things good and bad in my life but that is not important right now.

The OC belongs to @mortal-kombattore-115

I like to thank @this-person-is-slowly-dying and her friend, AlphaKing and @sampoststuff for providing me artwork for this so give them credit guys. ^^

That being said, enjoy reading the chapter you are waiting for while I work on the 20th chapter.

-Chapter 19-

-Back to the All-Stars Group…-

“So there will be a great conflict in the future, eh?” Bruno had asked this while he fed the fire with the wood leftover after others had barricaded the house. “To hell and back it will be to your dimension eventually.” Dempsey said as he helped a captive Helghast making a grate to hang the skinned bear over the fire.

“Still, too much hell for what the Germans had done to us.”

“Can you explain what had happened in that war?” as the large Frenchman helps out Heavy with the creature over to the fire to tie it on a grate.

“To make a long ass story short,” Dempsey apperaded, as he and the Helghast managed to get the grate made from scrapped metal and pipes from the shed with the help of Ratchet who set it in the ground with rocks. “Blame the Germans.” with Ultimis Richtofen giving him a glare from the background with Primis Jin shaking her head.

Demoman walked over with a knife from a kitchen as the smell of sizzling meat and hearing bubbles erupting from the flames crisping on the skinned bear creature. Soldier had to pull the Scottish man back and whispered “You think you can prepare dinner for us?” with a little concern for him. “I mean, Engie and Pyro can cook good meals…”

“I can cook, Jane, I have cooked a lot of food for me ma, remember?” Tavlish smiled with his one good brown eye, looked at it, and the Soldier patted his back and said “Just remember to put spice on each piece if someone wants one.” and Demo nodded.

The meat was grilled by the fire on a grate, was curved and cut onto a plate and served to the people around the bonfire. Spice and salt was provided to several others who wanted it and they ate it with ease.

Some laughed and made jokes, others were keeping watch for any familiar or the unfamiliar threats as Demoman looked a little proud of himself, an friendly atmosphere with little laughter and he thought “All of this needs to have a piano music.” rather joking in his head with a chuckle.

Door opened slightly from beyond the group and they jumped a little as Bruno looked at the door better than anyone and said “Erron is awake.”

Frisk had led the patched up Erron to the bonfire and had him rested at a spot with Mugman looking at them, “Thanks, kiddo.” Erron muttered under his breath as Cuphead looked at Erron and said “Amazing that you had survived that-”

“A Panzer Soldat,” Erron interrupted, “That’s what I learned from an ugly ass octo-” he noticed Jin finally who was looking at him with an eyebrow, “...pus, hello.” he greeted, he seemingly… looked similar to a marine in the group but Jin simply shrugged it off as she then introduced herself “My name is Jin Huang, you’re Erron, if I am correct.”

“Erron Black, Jin.” Erron confirmed, holding his newly bandaged side, “I see you’re here in a tournament too?”

This confused everyone around him as Primis Dempsey asked “What tournament? What’s it about?”

“To think you would know about it by now,” Erron begins to explain, “from where I am from, there was a battle-to-the-death tournament event known as Mortal Kombat. The winner will be the last one standing to decide the fate of the earth realm. But in order to win, is to off the other.``

Others were confused but Frisk looked fairly worried and Primis Dempsey figured it out what it meant as he said “Do we have to…” to Erron who is dead serious about this.

“Yep.” he responded, as Jin was perplexed with a thought of the tournament, “Mortal Kombat…” as Erron looked at her with little interest. “I had heard from Frisk that you are a damned good fighter, right? In the earth- In my universe, we had those there in the other realm. But they are not the only ones, there are tough-ass fighters out there as well and I won’t be surprised that we are meeting one of them from the realms I belong to.”

“I am not but I have been taught to defend myself.” Jin said as she looked at him, “Yet, I can’t die without a fight if it does happen.”

“Oi reckon that and the reason our own had been kidnapped.” Sniper added with a nod, “Yet, so far, it worked for a while so far?”

“Fighting a giant flower, then extraterrisory soldiers, our teammates taken to another world and now this.” P!Dempsey recounted the events from before, “So that could be the theory for this shitshow happening.”

“Could be…” Radec had remained silent until this point, “A strange entity had somewhat cause us to be here, our leader had sent us here to investigate the power and to harness it-”

“Before the shitshow hits the fan with war following suit!” Soldier jabbed, pointing a finger at him as if he was the only one who has authority over their captives. “You pushed first and we pushed back!”

“Stand down, son.” Dempsey said loudly as the Soldier looked at him, grumbling something under his breath as he sat down. “Yet,” Erron broke the ice as he looked at him, “You guys are going to leave me to die here once you guys leave.” in an accusatory tone. Radec nodded and said “But it all went wrong and no hope of leaving this planet as the carrier was destroyed, we are all trapped here together all thanks to you.” as Everyone looked at him until Mugman piped up.

“Not entirely.” he said, Cuphead and Frisk looked at him and said “What do you mean, Mugs?” with an eyebrow.

“Rachet, Clank.” he called to them, “You had said you two came here by a ship of your own, right?”

“Of course, we did but why did you ask?” Clank asked as Ratchet simply tilted his head to this. “You must have a radio on it, you can contact anyone far away from here, does it still work?”

“It does,” Ratchet answered as he simply shrugged but had a disappointed look on his face, “But the galaxy we are from is too far away from here, this is a Milky Way Galaxy afterall, there's a bunch of other galaxies in the universe.” as he stretched his arms.

“Or the next,” Clank added as he stood up and then chuckled when Ratchet turned to glare at him, “Mr. Masaki and Erron had said that this realm is what we are currently living in right now.” he further explained. “As for our ship, we can overlook the city, be your eyes and ears for any zombie coming your way.” Ratchet offered as Clank sat back on three bricks stacked on top of another.

“I agree with the strange talking cat lion alien,” Ultimis Nikolai interjected with a little sober voice even as it was slurred, “On the bright side, they can find Nikolai more vodka in this sh!t hole!” He raised the bottle and then drank it as the scarf Mugman was holding to patch the crack glowed cyan softly as he looked at him before looking away.

*You had no idea why this scarf was connected to Ultimis Nikolai…

A text hangs below his head as he looked at it before he looked at Frisk, who patted his shoulder in comfort. The look they had as if they knew whatever the newer text will explain, they would tell them about it.

Demoman yawned as he looked up the nighttime skies, the stars could hardly be seen because of the city’s lights but in this one, electricity that powered the city was all but gone after something had happened to it and the beauty of the stars and dust sparkled and smudged to regin the skies once more.

The moon is glowing softly with a few stars around it, a night silver ring of rainbow around it as the nearly glassy clouds covering it. “Demo?” Scout asked as he looked at him who got up and said “We should all get sleep, we can talk more in the morning, Lads.”

“I will take the first shift, then Bendy soon Richtofen.” Bruno had stated as he raised the hammer and placed onto his shoulder, resting it in place. “That’s a good idea,” Bendy walked with him to the captive Helghasts, “in case they had any funny ideas.”

“Oh ja,” Ultimis Richtofen said this with rather a sinister venom as he looked at the Helshasts with a wicked smile, “I vill gut zhem if zhey tried to escape.”

As the moon slowly sails in the clouded skies, everyone has made the parts of the backyard and the house itself as their spots for them to live temporarily. Half of them had set up tents in the backyard while U!Richtofen already had the shed to call his ‘cottage’ of his own.

Rest are resting in each rooms of the house 1145, Ratchet and Clank has the couch, Erron and Scout has the room with a bunk bed at the end of the hall in the upstairs, corporal had the master bedroom, Frisk had the side room with two bunk beds as it seemingly possible and sharing it with Cuphead and Mugman and lastly, the rest of the RED Team had the downstairs family room with one room but not the rest of them at the least, Sniper is at on the roof with a lantern on watch duty.

“Do you think that we have to fight each other?” It was Mugman who asked Jin that with a worried look on his face while Jin helped him onto the top bunk, with a blanket he had caught and wrapped himself with.

“Erron had said that as a theory, we don’t know about it yet.” Jin said as she adjusted the blanket he had and tried to be careful not to press the cracks and make them worse. “We need to know the reasons why we are here for a tournament.”

“And if it was the way to-”

“Mugman,” Jin had insisted, looking at him as she had a bit of a parental tone in her voice. “I will not let it happen if it is the only way, I promise you that I will protect you.”

“Really?”

“Do I ever lie to you? I am a fighter afterall.” she softly smiled as she lifted his chin up to face her, “Please get some sleep, Mugman, tomorrow will be better.”

Mugman slightly nodded and then laid down to get comfortable as Jin exited the room to find something to lay down to rest when she noticed something from the master bedroom that caught her eye before she could.

It was Primis Dempsey, he wasn’t wearing his coat and the boiler as they rested on a folding table close to him, sitting on a chair and holding a colt revolver in his hand as he stared at it. He looked at the window and then he rested his forehead on the cylinder and the rear sight with his eyes closed.

Something about this scene had her worried for the marine. She watched him raise his head back up to the window and he appeared to notice something on the window. Then he looked at the doorway, raised an eyebrow at the fortune sight before him.

“Jin? What are you doing over there?”

“I…” She said shyly as she walked in, “I wanted to make sure that you are alright, Dempsey.” she excused as she made her way to the dirty yet faintly clean mattress with a few blankets on it. He sighed as he walked over to the bed to sit down beside him.

“Thanks for doing that,” he said as he looked at the colt in his hand, “But ya really don’t have too, Jin, I am fine.” it was a lie and he and Jin knew that just the way he was holding the weapon. She reached out and then held the hand holding the gun, making him look at her.

“Mind if I ask why are you holding a revolver?” she asked as she and him looked at each other.

Dempsey knew that he wanted to do it with a weapon such as a colt revolver, that one thought, an idea, just swimming in the back of his mind for quite a little while but he couldn't let that side of himself show, not by a long shot and too stubborn to admit it. He simply shrugged and said “Just wanted to make sure those Lickers don't eat us in our sleep,” he excused, “You could never be safer than being ripped to shreds.”

Jin looked at him a bit more now and then she said softly, “I’ll stay.”

“Run that by me again, Jin?”

“I’ll stay with you.” in repeated herself, letting go him hand, she intended to stay with him to make sure that he doesn’t do anything too stupid, possibly to his own life, “I will let you be on watch if you want, do wake me up if you do see something.”

Tank looked down to face the revolver from Jin, looking a bit confused yet vacated from the conversion they had before he looked at her and nodded “Yeah, sure.”

Jin nodded as Dempsey got up to let Jin get into bed, she stretched her arms to prepare for the night as she pulled the sheets over her with P!Dempsey sat down on the bed again as he looked at her. She does have a nice…

“Not now, Tank.” his subconscious told him as he shook his head, “No time for feelings, lover boy.”

Jin fell asleep quickly after finding comfort in the blankets as Dempsey watched, letting out a soft sigh as he looked at the revolver again. He wasn’t the one to admit it but she had stopped him, he’ll give her that but he is a little worried about the Lickers he encountered however so it is a reason for him to keep watch.

He looked at the window again as the fire in the backyard had dimmed and smoke rising from where the bear was cooked. He has watched the window like a hawk for anything with a long tongue and teeth for an hour or two when Jin woke up with a sketch and got out of bed.

“Sleep well?” he asked as she sat down beside him, “Yes I have.” she answered as she immediately prepared to take the night watch, “It’s now your turn to get some rest and me taking watch.”

Dempsey looked at her and then looked at the revolver in his hands, he then looked at her again and said “Do you know how to use it?”

Jin simply nodded as she took it from his hand gently before he had got up to lay down the bed with the blanket over her, she looked over to the corporal and responded nicely “Sleep well, Dempsey.”

Dempsey softly smiled with tired eyes and then started to fight his way to get some sleep. A few minutes of this, his eyelids closed tightly, soon softened and he fell asleep soon...

The sound of gunfire and chains flying through the air, his boots were dusted in dirt as his two feet crashed onto the ground as he ran away from whoever it was he was running from.

“Sh!t sh!t Sh!t SH!T….!” he cursed loudly under his breath as he was losing air from his lungs, the sounds of the gun firing and chains flying in the air are consent; whenever he had to stop to catch his breath, the sounds returned and making him turn tail and running through an old western town that seemed abandoned since the 1800’s or after that century.

He skidded on the ground to turn the corner and then made it inside an nearby building that seemed like a shack. He hid inside the shack, on the wall and remained silent and watched a figure walking by: the one with a cowboy hat, a trench coat and weiding what appears to be a gun of a strange kind.

The pursuer walked by the marine without even noticing him being inside, Tank had sighed in relief softly and he got off the wall. “Thank god…”

He then walked towards the way he came in but chains suddenly appeared and stretched across the doorless frame, wrapping and blocking off his exit as he yelled out a curse word.

He feared that the man chasing had heard it happened too so he had to find another way out of the building as he turned to notice something that he didn’t see in this shack before he entered. A staircase that leads down, he softly breathed in and out before looking at the blocked off exit, then he shook his head at this.

With no other choice on the matter, he descends downstairs with slow steps on the steps as the setting sunlight creeps through the walls made from wood boards. He then turned to see what was in the basement itself of the shack. He muttered “Oh no…” as he got a look of what was in the room.

It was a stake in the center of the basement and on it were four rusted hooks, but they looked like they were sharpened to a fine point and crusted with blood, like it was used countless times with an animal of kind that had been hoisted onto it.

He had stood there to take in what he was seeing until the chains upstairs had been taken down and someone walked in. He cursed under his breath and looked for a way to hide which he eventually did through a hole wide enough for him to fit inside.

Footsteps were descending down the stairs and came upon the landing as he could see through the cracks to see who it was: The man with the gun came inside the basement and began to look around, finding someone inside.

“Where are you…?” an old voice called out from the man, banging on the creaking walls and pounding, “I know you’re in here!” He said as he used the bunt of the rifle to bash through the wall on the right of the basement, the sound had revirabated to Tank as he flinched but didn’t make noise, he was not going to give away his location.

After a long time, the man seemed to give up as he said “Well said… Have it your way then.” as Dempsey sees him going back upstairs with the shadow stretching out on the wall where the sun was shining before it had settled over the entrance.

Dempsey carefully slid out of the hole and looked around as he saw the hole the man in the trench coat had made with his coat. The chips and splinters were on the inside of the wall and some of it was hanging off the craves.

He slowly had put his hand into the hole his purser had made, feeling another wall from within, feeling cobwebs and wood from inside. The bunt of the rifle had made a bend on the wooden plank wall when he had his fingers to feel the bump the man had made out of anger and frustration.

“Jesus…” he muttered as he placed his hand through it, “at least have an therapist…” he sarcastically jabbed as he pulled his hand out of the hole but then jumped when an one claw wrenched out of the hole the man had made, it was pitch black and it had a tinge of orange on the tip as it had a bit of fur of the same color when it came out and made him yell in shock.

The claw happened to try to slash at him but he missed it just in time just narrowingly avoiding its attack, then he witnessed its shell cracked and then crumbed away, transforming it into… Chains.

It was a flash as the chains behaved like snakes controlled by their master and it shot forward towards as he turned to try to run but these metal linked strings had latched onto his right arm and coiled around it in a tight grip. “What the hell…?!” He pulled at the chains as he tried to break it but then he spotted another same claw came out of the first hole he was hiding in and it, like the claw, changed into chains and lashed out.

His left arm was grabbed and coiled by the chains behaving like a predatory snake and the next thing he knew, they pulled and his arms were stretched about as he screamed. The footsteps returned and there was the cowboy on the landing. Dempsey pulled desperately to get them to let go his arms but their grip was death-like as they were rattled and clacked.

“So that’s where you were boy,” the man then lifted his head up to reveal the rest of his face, Caleb the Deathslinger, his white and black eyes locked onto his target as he had lifted his jawbone upward, reconnected it to his skull with a crack that made Tank cringed at the sound of it. “Nowhere to run this time.” he muttered as he stood where he was as he lifted his rifle upwards him as he gotten a good look at it:

[Digitally drawn by Meaghan “Icefir” Halter]

The rifle had a reel with chains attached to it, with a lever to pull it and lastly, it had a very defining feature to it as the chains are connected to it: Some type of harpoon or a spear and it was aimed at him.

The hammer was heard smashing onto the barrel and the next thing he felt was a spear piercing through his abdomen and out his back as the pain was unbearable-

He jumped out of his sleep with a yell, eyes wide open and panting as if he was seeing hell far beyond him. He quickly checked his abdomen with his eyes locked onto it as he placed his hand on where the spear surpassingly made its mark.

No blood, no sign of t-shirt torn or penetrated the skin, flesh and bone. “Dempsey?” a soft voice had questioned worryingly, he turned to face Jin, she was looking at him with an unsettled yet concerned look in her eyes.

He looked at her for a good minute before closing his eyes and placing his hand on his forehead as sweat trailed down. “Are you okay, Dempsey?”

“I’m alright, it’s just a nightmare… that’s gotten worse.” he muttered as he looked in the other direction, Jin was a bit puzzled of what she could understand him saying under his breath. “Nightmare?” she said as she lowered her hand as he looked at something else in the room, an old pile of junk that is drawers filled with beads, strings, scissors and paint brushes with painting of any kind and other things. Like he had never said that but he did say “What time is it?”

“It was only 3 o’clock in the morning, Dempsey.” Jin responded as she looked at him a bit more, studying his movements, “Damn…” he sighed, “Just when I was getting some good night sleep too.” as he rubbed his eyes with his shaking hand with a soft groan.

Jin was worried for his mental health as she continued to look at him for a bit longer and said “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m feeling fine, Jin.” he lied as he looked at her now with tired eyes as he let out a dry chuckle. But she refused to believe him as she saw through that sentence; a lie. A lie to keep his pride up.

“Are you sure about that?” she responded as she crawled onto Dempsey’s side, sitting next to him as he had his hands on the bed, planted onto the sheets as he was baffled by this. “I can see it in your eyes that you are… Distressed.”

Tank looked at the window to avoid but then in defeat, he let go of the breath from his mouth. “Like I had said, it’s a nightmare.” he confessed finally, Jin listened closely to what he had to say more. “It was me being chased and eventually being killed by a creepy-ass cowboy that looked like a zombie but smarter than that.” he then looked down from the window. “And he had a gun with a spear that killed me with…”

“If it’s connected to the war,” Jin rationalized as she had placed her hand on his cheek and had him turn to look at her, “If so, it could be understandable.”

His eyebrows furrowed upward and as he had his arm rested on one of his knees, “But something about it felt so real.” he mumbled softly to himself. Jin then said “There is no need to worry.” before wrapping her arms around the American. He was a little flustered when she did this but he found comfort in this and held her arm with one hand as he closed his eyes.

“Thanks.” he said, showing gratitude.

“No worries.” Jin replied with a gentle smile.

He was smiling softly himself but then they both flinched when they heard the door open, they were both ready to face whatever it was until they saw who it was: It was Erron who yawned as he rubbed his eyes.

“Hey Erron,” Dempsey sneered tiredly, “You almost scared us.”

“Evenin’, Tank,” Erron stopped to see Jin with him, he had dark circles around his eyes like he hadn't slept for a while but he had brushed it off and asked “Mind if I ask you two what you are talking about?”

“Nothing important, Erron.” Dempsey responded as he looked at him carefully, “Speaking of which, ya’ll looked like crap, Erron.”

“It was Scout’s fault for talking.” Erron complained as he had his thumb pointed at the closed door on his left as it left him and the Shaolin woman confused by what Erron meant by that. “But wasn’t Scout asleep on the top bunk above you?” Jin responded with a raised brow as Erron looked like he had run out of many cares to give anyway.

“Oh, don’t worry, he is asleep,” he answered as he grabbed the doorknob, opened it just a crack and what they were hearing was kinda humorous. “Heeeey, Pauling…. Do ya want to go on a date?” Scout murmured from the darkened bedroom with Erron holding the door open just a small wedge as he concluded “But he’s like a radio that can’t shut up.”

Jin giggled and face palmed as Dempsey smirked “Poor you” he joked as the Outworlder glared at them as he pulled the door close just as Scout mumbled out “Oh no, the dog has wings….!”

“Anyway, I was going to take a leak in the middle of the night anyway.” Erron explained as he let go of the knob and waved this off with his hand before he wrapped his arms together, trying to warm up as he walked into the darkened hallways.

“You should’ve got a blanket with you, dumba$$.” Dempsey sassily remarks as the man was fading into darkness as he replied “Yeah, whatever.” his response echoing in the halls.

The corporal smiled as he shook his head while Jin looked sighed and held her forehead, but then he looked solemn again as he looked down again as she noticed.

He looked aloof with himself, “Dempsey,” she responded as she placed her hand on her shoulder. He looked at her again then responded “It’s only a nightmare, I know-” but he was cut off.

“If you want more sleep then you would,” she offered, Dempsey’s mouth was aigbe a little bit upon hearing that, “if you had another nightmare, I’m here, understand?'' She sounded like a mother figure for someone that’s broken, broken nearly beyond repair but he had said nothing but nodded. “We have to do work at sunrise, try to get some sleep.” she said as Dempsey laid back down and fell asleep with Jin beside him, sitting upright on the bed.

Yet, Erron had lied about going to the restroom but instead had his hand over his mouth as his eyes locked onto the ground with furrowed brows. What he had overheard, he hardly ignored what Tank experienced in that nightmare.

He muttered “That can’t be Caleb…”

-In the morning light.-

Sun rose over the mountains that seemed to be close to the neighborhood in ruins and dominated by the forest trees as dawn bleeds anew with colors of purple, orange and sky blue dancing in the sky.

Primis Takeo placed the pieces of firewood into the dying campfire to warm up Heavy, and Sniper.

Bendy had to share a blanket with seemingly tired Bruno who was barely awake as they had been watching their prisoners, the Ink Demon looked concerned for the giant Frenchman as he had him wrapped in the blanket to get him warmth.

Scout was on look out of Ultimis Richtofen’s “Cottage” with Ultimis Nikolai was slubbed down, back on it and drunk as ever, vodka in hand as he hiccup. Ratchet and Clank are with Frank West, Raiden and Erron with the digitized map of Salt Lake City in ruins but it is now named Fallen City due to it’s population of the undead roaming in its streets.

“Hard to believe that they could do this much damage.” Erron muttered under his breath as he looked at the map, Raiden interjected “In most cases, an outbreak like this is common since the COVID-19 pandemic.” as he looked at him while pointing at where they were right now on the map.

“Actually, Raiden,” Clank intervened, “It’s only Utah that’s populated with the infected.” as the cyborg and kombatiant were confused by what the small robot had said. “How is that?” Raiden responds in confusion, “It should be an epidemic by now.”

“It could be but the place where I am from, something similar happened to Willamette is that the national guard had roped and blocked off every road leading into the town where the outbreak started.” Frank rationized, motioning Rachet to zoom out the city and they watched as the city was zoomed out to view the state.

It was Utah in nearly red color but it remained in its shape of that state, not once are any signs of the infection leaving it. “But this was unheard off, they said that it could stay in one city but not the whole state itself.”

“No sh!t, Frank.” Erron said as he looked closer at the map, small red dots were going close to the border of Utah but they disappeared upon reaching the line, “Whatever’s keeping the dead inside the state is not going to let them out.”

“Almost like a force field.” Raiden added. Clank nodded as Ratchet added “Still, it’s something to think about but keep in mind though…” as he pointed at a few blue dots leaving the state and a couple more dots entering it. “I am guessing those who are not infected are allowed to leave and go inside Utah as much as they want.”

“Almost like it was a strange type of spell quarantining the state.” Erron said as he watched the two different colored circles moving around in a few cities of the Beehive state. “With us survivors, it’s good that we don't have to worry about the dead coming out but if you’re a zombie, being trapped here will suck so much.”

“Frank,” Raiden said as he looked at him, “Do you remember how you got here?”

“Not too sure but I was outside the city before I met you guys, plus the way out of it was blocked off but there are other roads out of it if you’re asking.” he replied as he looked at the map once again. Having Ratchet zoom in again on the city.

[Map of Utah, from Google Search]

Raiden looked at the one lone black dot on Orem and pointed at it with a sharp metalized index finger, “That’s where we are right now but if we go along the line,” he said as he had his finger follow the line towards Cedar city. “It could have a road leading out of the state, then we could get out of this hellhole.”

Erron looked at Raiden and insisted “But to travel that far, we need supplies to last us about three days to get there. We need to find as much as we can carry on us.”

Frank West internally groans, again with the three day mark like the same scenes before. He face-plamed at this and said “Is there a train that can get us there?”

Erron looked at Frank West and said “There is one, but it’s in Provo and there’s all of them all over the place.” he then looked at Raiden, “Do you think you can clean that town up?”

Raiden remained silent for a moment but then he responded “You’ll leave them to me.” as he turned away and said “Find anyone that will scout the area, we’ll be leaving at sunset.”

“With pleasure, Raiden.” Erron nodded as he turned to walk away from the map as well with Raiden, leaving Frank West with the lombax and a small robot companion.

“Mr. West.”

“Hm?” he turned to face Clank as he was looking back at him. “You wanted to scout the area as well?” Clank offered as well, “You are a reporter-”

“As well as a freelance photojournalist and a teacher in a local college, Clank.” Frank added as he pointed at the camera, hanging around by an landrid around his neck and hasn’t been used in a while since he met the group of people from different worlds.

“Yeah, that, something like that is useful.” Ratchet said this as he crossed his arms, “Dempsey did say that there are mutations of those zombies like Lickers. If there are more, we need pictures of them.”

“Sounds like a scoop you wanted me to look into.” Frank smiled, liking this idea already but then he said “What if I accidentally ran into one of them if they heard me?”

“Hey Frank, that’s what our arteries are for.” Ratchet responded, “Most of us are armed to the teeth and neck deep in these infected people.”

“As for Lickers,” Clank added as he justered his finger upward, “Mr. Dempsey had said on the note he found that they will attack anything that makes noise so best to remain quiet when they are in an area with you.”

“Gotcha, Clank.” Frank said as he nodded, he then looked at the barbed-wire bat he had rested on an overgrown oak tree with vines draggling off the branches. He walked over to it and then picked it up and threw it over his shoulder and landed. “Right, I’m heading out first before anyone could scout out. Make sure they will bring back any stuff and food we could need.” Frank responded as he headed to the east gate that leads out of the backyard, opened it and then went out of it as it closed behind him.

Erron then turned to Ratchet and Clank then said “As for you guys, best to find the best scouts that can do this.”

They nodded as the map was turned off and then he helped Clank onto his back with a click before walking off as he placed his hands on his hips.

-Later on that morning-

There are a few willing volunteers willing to savage the area; Scout of course, Erron, Gordon Freeman, Soldier, Demoman, and Jin Huang. They are given a brief rundown on how they will be leaving soon but warn them about the mutations.

“So, we will have to find other resources for the journey ahead,” Erron explained to the group, Scout had swung his bat onto his shoulder and asked “And where are we going?”

“Cedar City is far from this city,” Erron answered, “Hopefully less zombies, the better.”

“Aren’t we going to wait for the others?” Soldier asked as he adjusted his helmet a little as Demoman looked at the Outworlder. “The Knight said that they are in another world,” as he places his hat back on and it is shadowed over his eyes, “Besides, he has an artifact that allows him to go from one realm to the next so they will be able to catch up to us.”

“Seems possible?” Jin commented as she raised a brow, “And I had to ask, what artifact is it?”

“I don’t know to be truthful,” Erron responded, “Most of us don't tell me about it but best have good faith that he still has it.”

“Plus, we are armed to the teeth,” Scout strugged, “we can take on those lickers.”

“I didn’t say there will just be Lickers, they could have other mutations.” Erron interjected that poke a hole in the young man’s bubble. “The science experts had said that zombies with parasites or viruses can mutate overtime, judging on how long this city had gone through over the years or so.”

Scout gulped with the thought, Erron then shook his hand to dismiss the conversion as he said “Very well, then, we haven’t got time to waste away. We gotta find something to survive on for the next few days or die stravin’.”

“Understood, Erron.” Jin nodded as Demoman looked at her but then nodded. Soldier then salutes this, “Remember before you're a$$es left; be careful out there.”

They nod to acknowledge before heading toward two different gates and going out back into the woodland neighbor and into the infested busy streets.

Jin, however, still struggled to comprehend how different characters could coexist with each other but she had to push aside her new questions and continued on forward. As they go on, she learns more about Gordon, Demoman and Soldier.

Gorden Freeman is truly a man with a few words, he had helped people in an accident as he had referred to as The Black Mesa Incident and led a rebellion against an enemy known as the Combine.

Demoman and Soldier are quite good friends and teammates actually, despite the American being obsessed with wars and bloodshed while the latter is working two jobs, one being a house cleaner and a flipping demolitions expert as a mercenary for hire.

They are quite smart to stay in groups as new breeds of infection are now more presentable, not just 115 zombies.

One infection had visible black veins, rarely ones without injuries but others are most bitemarks and scratches where the virus had spread. Another was riddled with worms, strange worms of alien origin and mutated into special types as their green vomiting counterparts had different yet same parts when it came to mutating.

The zombies, the non-eyes-glowing ones had eyes almost white yet they stumbled slowly, they will be resistant towards being shot in the head surprisingly but it will take 4 or more bullets or even stabs to bring it down.

They had gotten into stores and located non perishable items that strangely haven’t yet been perished yet despite how much time had passed by since what happened to this state in the U.S.

To cover more ground and to get more, they split up and told to keep an eye out for threats around the corners. Jin entered a community hospital and she had found modern medical equipment with an umbrella logo on each of them. The scene seemed to have a group of people researching brain samples before they were interrupted by something that she already knew what it was.

“We better need medicine for our journey ahead of us.” she whispered as she had a sack to stuff them in but when she’s all done doing so, Jin had found notes on a pharmacy desk, curious on what they would say, she picked them up and read them.

Umbrella Corps. Research Notes

The T-Virus had appeared when we had gotten here, it was thought to be destroyed yet we are trying to come up with the theory for its continued existence.

The virus that mutated white and red blood cells causing them to go black colored, the origin is unknown but it is referred to as The Black Plague Virus.

The parasitic worms, a neurological alien of unknown origin, can take over the host and control it. These “Devil Worms” as we call it and it is rather shocking they can merge together as they mutate.

The victims had similar symptoms to the rabies yet it appears that it had been weaponized, the virus of this type had been nicknamed the Green Flu due to it showing signs of a flu but soon they will become rapid overtime.

The unknown element had reanimated dead cells in the human body, making them, like the four other deadly pathogens, into literal zombies, finding documents of the same thing happening in the late 40’s as this element is referred to as 115 discovered by an organization called Group 935.

They were theories on how they are contained inside the state of Utah due to them unable to go outside as something is keeping them inside. It is unknown what is happening could be good or bad yet we could not know for now.

Further research is needed.

Jin was confused by the notes provided such similar information yet it is useful that it showed strange yet same symptoms of the zombification process. Violet behavior, headaches, sensitive to light and such more.

“This is strange…” she muttered as she folds the notes and placed them in her pocket for later, to show the others of her discovery. She was about to leave when she noticed something that caught her eye.

A mysterious hooded figure walked away from the mirror hanging above and walked out of the door calmly like it was a normal day. She turned to see the backdoor closing in time. “Wait…!” she said as she walked fastly towards it and then pushed it open and she found herself in an alley away that’s rotten away and nature crawling upward on the walls.

She looked on the left side, the end of the alley way leading towards the more heavily woods and on the right she saw the Ridden and Black Plague zombies, they were not looking in her direction but hissing and screeched at one another over a kill the other claimed. Similar to a pack of wolves when the alpha is defending its meal.

Jin covered her mouth to prevent the sound from coming out, deciding that she needs to leave and leave now. Moving slowly, she walked back to the door and tried pulling it open but it wouldn't bulge. She tried again but harder yet it still couldn't open from the second attempt. She was locked outside.

She turned to pay attention in the right direction, one of the Plagues seemed to sniff the air and then turned to the alley, its face was half-way ripped off, flesh and teeth showing as black veins sprawled across its features. It snurled upon seeing her as her thoughts were racing but she remained calm, not showing fear from what her masters taught her. “Looks like I am taking an alternate route…” she thought as she turned on her heels and then ran as she heard the screeches from the damned reined in the air. She ran into the forested area to lose them as both Ridden and Black Plague are flooding in the alley and making their way to the heavily wooded area but not without killing each other to get to it first.

They bite and scratch each other as some of them are overwhelming them and then devouring their flesh and organs that have been tainted with the virus or a parasite as the rest had managed to make it through the alley way and proceeded to chase her.

She was like a monkey on the loose upon release, she ran and avoided logs and used branches to swing over the terrain to outrun the dead. The sound of something else is hopping with her at the same pace as her but she was confused when she heard at least six pairs of feet on the ground or the branches.

Before she could turn her head to face whatever it was, that couplet had hopped into her vision, right in front of her. It was human but it lacked of hair on it’s head, it had four arms, two small as the other limbs are longer and it had a red pulsating organ on the bottom of its throat and collarbone as it has been missing a jaw to begin with and replaced with a lower part of the mouth with small sharp teeth.

Red eyes glowed as it snarled and crawled like an animal one side to the left then to the right a little. A worm with mandible spurts out of it’s one eye socket and into another as they bleed crimson tears down from its eyes as Jin cringed at that sight when she looked at the creature in the eye.

“Did the worms do that?” she thought as she pulled her hair ornament out, prepared to fight what this monstrosity is but it seems to know what it is doing. Getting on two feet and then doing something peculiar with it’s four hands as if it was a normal day of folding clothes but something was slimy and drooling in them then suddenly, it tossed the “ball” at her and it exploded.

She exclaimed as she tried to get away but her legs were caught in the mucky projectile and it climbed up to her stomach, pinning her in place while she stood. “What the hell…?!” she tried to pull at the clammy slime but it was like rubber and it stood on her while the screeching had reached her ears.

She looked up just in time to find the worm-ridden creature leaping at her, the two hands wrapped around her throat and neck as the other two are holding on her shoulders as she is doing the same with her own arms to push or try to push it away from her as she was choking, fighting for air.

It roared at her as worms fell out of it’s eye sockets and onto the ground, missing her face as she was losing consciousness but then, its side of its head had exploded with blood and brain matter spewed out. It stopped then fell with Jin in its arms as by now the slime had expired.

She gasped in for air as she heard a familiar voice calling out to her, “Jin!” and feet running over to her and then her arm was grabbed and being pulled up onto her feet. It was P!Dempsey.

“Are ya alright!?”

“Yeah, I am fine…” she rubbed her bruised neck as she looked at the creature, “It’s true what Erron has said about the mutations.”

The marine was looking at the corpse then shrugged a little, “A stinger like this one must be Licker’s second cousin, an ugly b@#$ too.” he sass-talked before the ��Stinger” was slowly getting back up but was quickly shot down with another bullet with a gun.

Head was clearly devastated from the second bullet discharge, several worms crawled out and went into the ground as they groaned in disgust. “F*#$ing gross…”

Jin thought back about the notes she found and then worried that the others might catch up from the alley after their fight with each other. “Corporal,” she spoke up as he was going to leave, P!Dempsey looked at Jin with a raised eyebrow as she held up the papers and landed them on him. “I had found this from the hospital before I fled, I think there are not just two viruses here in this state.” she explained.

“Could be worth the trouble you’ve gotten yourself into.” he said softly but then he heard faint growls from the tree lines. He gestures with his hand to get her moving as he muttered “We have to get the f#$% out of here…”

They turned and fled the area where the Stinger had appeared as the Ridden and the Plague were coming in.

-Suncrest-

From a frying pan and into an oven, that is what Jin could hear him mutter under his breath as he read one page after another. Apparently the deadly pathogens that can create the dead walked this earth and had each section separately after research on them.

“What is the matter, Tank?” she asked softly as the corporal placed the notes in his pouch and said “First 115 and now four more?” sounded angry, “Talk about dinner for the worms after they can…” he then shook his head. He wasn’t sure if this was even more worse than the previous universe they belonged in.

“Dempsey,”

“Yeah, Jin?” he asked, annoyed as he looked at her now.

“That Stinger, it had..” she was interrupted with the marine’s hand placed onto her shoulder and said “I know…” softly, “It’s one hell of a way to die.” and Jin looked down with her brows furrowed. She then looked at him and nodded wordlessly. He smiled softly and then looked around.

Yet, she can’t let go of the feeling peculiarly on how he was at the wrong place yet the right time, so she needs to ask while they are now continuing to walk down the street that is now halfway covered by dirt forming a path.

“Dempsey?”

“What’s up?”

“I like to know, how did you find me in trouble?”

He was usually loud enough to verbally question Richtofen or someone else loudly but he was oddly quiet but then he answered “Don’t like to copy Tak but I had a stinking feeling when you left. " as he scratched the back of his head."

Jin cocked her head to the side with little confusion yet interested, “You had sensed that I’d be in danger.” she said as she and him continued walking down the path. “You could say that.” he nodded as he looked at the tall trees, pine trees and oak trees that grew to climb the skies upon the ground and dirt.

“I like to call it a “gut feeling” in situations like that one back at the house.”

“Well, I am glad you listened to that “gut” feeling.”

Dempsey chuckled softly as he closed his eyes and turned his head away from the trees, “Yeah, this tank sure did.”

Jin softly smiled at this man as she had a tint of pink on her cheeks as birds above them chirped above them. This is a peaceful walk in the woods that is once a town before the walking dead of all five kinds showed up.

Yet, the feeling hasn’t shown up until when they are deeper into the forest and the air has gotten… colder?

Jin had felt the familiar temperature and held her arms together as Dempsey looked around as soon as he felt the wind had gotten colder than usual, “What the hell?” he muttered as they walked along but more aware of their surroundings.

Their feet crunched onto something soft, they looked down and saw they had walked into a bed of snow. “Why is there snow in the middle of summer?”

“The hell I know,” Dempsey had spoken the thought out loud, those the only thoughts he could think to say as he was caught off guard with what appears to be the change of the session. “Whatever’s happening is not a part of mother nature’s to-do list.”

He continued onward into the slowly falling snowflakes before a blizzard hit them both, “Holy sh!t!”

“Tank!”

The snowstorm had come along and the environment had transformed into a winter hell, Dempsey calls out to Jin ``Jin! Are you there?!”

He felt a hand grabbing hold of his own, he flinched and was going to get a knife out, believing it was another zombie but then heard her voice “Wait, I have you!”

He felt himself relaxed a little when he heard Jin, they sheided their eyes from the shooting snowflakes as they continued forward, “It is almost like that winter from the 1900’s!” he bellowed out as he was trying to find a sight or a road for them to go on. “It was colder than Northern France!”

“And it still is!” Jin stated as she too was trying as the corporal marine, “Do you think what might cause this, Tank?!”

“How the hell should I know-” they then bumped into something that caused them to fell backwards from, they looked up and saw a buff towering figure over them, it was frozen but it’s features are still visible; it was missing a jawbone and a tongue dangling out, its fists are too big for the normal human fingers to curl into one.

They both yelled and Dempsey got out his revolver to fire but then noticed the big hulk-like zombie was indeed turned into an icy statue as it appeared it was about to smash onto something or someone it was targeted.

“Hold on…” he got up on his feet as Jin stumbled onto hers as well, and as they looked around the area, they were barely able to see what else was around them; a horde of zombies, frozen into light blue statues as they appeared to have green vomit leaking from their lips. They way they are posed as if they were after something or someone they were chasing.

More of them are several common yet some are special, one of them had a long tongue as it looked like a frog trying to catch a fly almost similar trait to the Lickers, the other had claws and bleeding from the eyes as the hood had covered its head but its face where it was features shown and it was even being hold up by the ice sickle attached to a nearby building as if it was jumping towards something.

The other looked like it had been crying for a long time judging by the trail of tears on a creature’s features with long nails, long blooded sharp claw-like nails up into the air, ready to strike and like others around her, it was also frozen solid.

“They are…” Jin is finding the courage to speak up in silence besides the noise of the snowstorm, “They are all frozen.”

“You said it, Jin.” Dempsey nodded, zombies frozen in places that reminded him of the time that Nikolai had tried out the Staff of Ice for the first time back in France and it had frozen one of the 115 zombies. “It’s like back in Northern France, Jin.”

“Shh… Something is coming.” footsteps crunching in the snow from the south direction, they turned and ready to confront whatever’s the one responsible. The crunching snow made by two pairs of feet came closer as the figure had formed a shadow from the blizzard. It was the shape of a man and this human had glowing icy blue eyes peering from the hail of snow before stopping in front of them.

Dempsey said “Whoever you are, f*#$er, show yourself.'' With a threatening tone in his voice, the figure responded by raising his hand and then in one smooth motion, his hand traveled to the right shoulder and then washed it back down.

As if on command, the storm driddled and hastily stopped as light from the sun shined through once more, revealing the figure that dwindled in the blizzard. As the snow settles around them, the sun reveals this stranger quickly, he is wearing a blue zukin mask, a hooded cowl with a hat and blue ribbon flowing in the wind yet soon slowly handing it as it dies down. The jacket he was wearing had no sleeves and both of his arms are ice colored unnaturally but they moved just fine with no issue as blue and silver arm guards are strapped to them as well with fingerless gloves, blue wrap around his torso and black boots buried in the snow.

Jin looked at this man as he was staring at them with one scar over one of the eyes, his breath breathed through the mask as it provided four retringle holes as it was seen in the frost.

She walked beside the tensed man before her and then gently rested her hand over the barrel of the revolver then lowered it slowly down as he looked at her in confusion. Jin was certain that the situation would continue negatively.

“We mean no harm, sir, we are not one of them.” She spoke in a calm yet professional manner as she looked him in the eye as they changed colors; from icy blue to normal brown as their glow was lost.

“State your business then.” a deep male voice responded from the man as he stood down as a sign of being less of a threat. “We are only salvagers, looking for supplies to get the hell out of this sh!t.” Dempsey responded with his eyebrow raised.

The man responded “Then we are in the same scerno.” as he had his hand reached his zukin mask and then with little work, he removed it, revealing a beard that is black as a raven’s feathers. “I am Sub-Zero.”

“Sub-Zero, huh?” Dempsey is a little intrigued by the name this man had, “Mind saying why they call ya that?” Yet before anyone could say anything, a loud screech was heard and the couple spotted one of the zombies frozen running towards Sub-Zero. It was one of those hooded special zombies as its teeth are sharped and bared like a rabid dog.

“Watch out!”

Sub-Zero said nothing as the screeching zombie acting like a wild animal was running towards him and ready to strike but they seemed aware of what was happening as he turned and then grabbed this “Hunter” by the head.

It attempted to scratch his arm to break free but very quickly, the frost and ice spread all over it as it stopped moving due to cryo-hibernation the Shinobi had performed upon it as P!Dempsey and P!Jin watched on with astonishment.

And then in one go, Sub-Zero threw it onto the snow-covered road, upon impact, its body, head, arms, legs, hands, and feet had exploded into pieces all over. The head rolled over to Dempsey’s feet as he said “Holy sh!t…!”

Jin was a little shocked to see this happen but they now know why he is called “Sub-Zero.”

“Is this why, Sub-Zero?”

The man only nodded before putting his mask back on, and saying “There are much more things than this.”

“Still freezing the crap out of that freakbag!” Dempsey finally laughed a little, “How did you do that?”

Sub-Zero looked at him and answered “I and my brother were born with these,” as he shook his head at the marine, but then took a moment to examine the duo. They are from a different realm, in a past somewhere from what he could think of.

“Do you two know where you are from?”

“From ours?”

Sub-Zero nodded as he crossed his arms as he looked at them both while the two were standing there, recovering from what had transpired.

“We are from…” P!Dempsey wanted to say what dimension they are from, “1918. We’re from the first world war.”

He looked a little surprised, “We are from different realms, whoever did this must have a purpose for us being here..” he stated, Jin looked at Sub-Zero as her eyes narrowed, “Do you believe this might be a Mortal Kombat tournament?”

“Yes, I do.” Sub-Zero nodded as he turned around then walked away, Dempsey then followed behind him with Jin doing the same. “Hey, we have theories about this bullsh!t too.” he said as their feet were crunching upon the snow passing by the horde of frozen statues with the Green Flu.

“And they might be?”

“It could be the octopus-things called Apothicons that Doc called them, or that some kind of an experiment gone wrong the worst way possible.”

“Or could be Shao Khan or Shang Tsung.” Sub-Zero poked the holes, as he looked down at the ground slowly changing from snow to the dirt ground. “The latter could have done this.”

“What makes you think that?”

“Time to count the suffering.”

“I am sorry, Sub-Zero.” Jin apologized as Dempsey looked ahead as he asked “So, you stated you are born like this, is there any training for that?”

Sub-Zero slowed down a minute and turned his head facing the corporal, “If you are ever born a cryomancer, the clan, Lin Kuei, will train you yet I train you how to use winter’s power, and to control and tame it.”

Jin nodded understandingly, as a shaolin monk, she understood the warrior.

Sub-Zero then stopped himself, which made others stop in their tracks, “Stay quiet.” Sub-Zero’s instincts were quite right, Jin took note and got her hairpin out as Dempsey looked at them in confusion but soon heard voices faintly as he muttered “What the hell is that?” as he held up the revolver once more.

Sub-Zero shushed him and they slowly stepped over to the source of the voices and then kneeled down into the tall grass with P!Dempsey and Jin behind him. The tall grass are yellowish green and the height of grass itself goes up to an average human’s wrist but it was tall enough for an animal to hide, the grass was parted halfway for them to see who was talking, much to Tank’s confusion, and Sub-Zero’s surprise, there were Hyenas standing on their hind legs, holding sharpen boomerangs, bows and arrows, and other weapons that the humans would use. They are dressed in tribal african clothing that seemed to be a mix of 1920’s and medieval age.

They are speaking in an unknown language, a mix of Zulu and strange gibberish pouring from their mouths as they surround carcasses with arrows in them, bleeding from the open wounds. Upon closer look, Dempsey and Jin had realized that those were the strange bears Takeo had slain, faces that looked like tigers but had bodies of normal bears with long tails. patterns of tiger stripes placed upon their dark brown and white fur they bore. Then the other spoke in english “Do you think she will approve of the fest of living Tears?”

“The queen will,” the other Hyena responded as he gently kicked the tiger-bear’s head that had been called Tear. “She had said this once and not twice, the Untotens’ flesh is far too rotten and unsafe to eat.”

“Due to the five plagues they had within.” the other one said with a female voice as she had taken a rag that was used too many times to the point it was just a dark crimson fabric. “Humans weren’t prepared for the All-Five Outbreak 500 years ago.”

“Neither the same with Monsters.” their leader added as gotten a knife out, the one that appears to be made from bone and wood, walking over to one of the Tears’ corpses, “Yet, all five Untoten Hordes were stopped by the Tree of Life.” He spoke as he kneeled down and then stabbed the carcass.

Tree of Life?

Primis Dempsey had heard them wrong or… he had recalled a myth that his mother had recalled when he was a boy, he showed a little interest in his Irish heritage and Celtic religion his mother had tried to force upon.

Crann Bethadn is referred to as the Tree of Life by the Celtics in Ancient Times as they believed that the trees on Earth had several powers and were sources of all life we breathed into our lungs.

The symbol is preserved well for so many centuries by our people of Ireland.

We carry our deep roots of our heritage.

Primis Dempsey had averted his eyes away from the Hyenas to focus fighting that memory in his mind, bad timing to recall the past, bad timing he thought.

“Still, do you remember what our elders had told us over and over?” as several other Hyenas looked at the female hunter in their group, “About the forbidden water that was left behind after Humans and Monsters ascended.”

“Ah yes, Femina, we remembered.” the pack leader answered as he pulled out meat and muscle from a Tear and put it into a sack as blood dripped from the bottom. “Gods of the Old World had accidentally let the forbidden water fall down from the skies, our past elders drank from it and soon, knowledge had changed them the way we are now.”

The trio listened to them as the story behind the ordeal was unfolding, yet it was sickening: an zombie outbreak had happened with all five dangerous biohazards and it had been 500 years later afterwards but what caused it to happen? Then a thought came in Dempsey’s head: Broken, the one that Knight had talked about, might have something to do with it.

Something had done something unforgiving and appealing towards humanity and monsters had made his blood boil but he can’t let it burst out of him, not here, not now.

“The day that world has fallen, the Incident, Humans, Monsters, fled into the stars to flee the terrors.” the other Hyena nodded to the conversion, “Yet, from the previous animal kingdom, Gods of The Old World had given birth to us, Furthers, to watch over the world to wait for their return.”

“Yet, the queen is here so we will have no fear if they will attack or not.”

“I agree now, help me skin them.”

They watched in silence as Hyena Furthers had gotten out similar knives and started skinning the Tears, taking organs and flesh covered in blood as they were placed in sacks as blood dripped and poured from the bottom of the sacks and onto the ground.

All that is left of the Tears now were skinless, fleshly yet bones exposing carcasses. They then got up on their hind legs again like they were human beings and then walked away from the bloody scene.

They waited until the voices and footsteps had vanished in the distance, “We are safe now.” Sub-Zero was the first one to speak up as he and others got up from the grass as Dempsey looked to where the hunter Furthers had gone.

“What the f#$% is a Further?” P!Dempsey asked as he is now the one questioning this reality as Jin seems hinged by this discovery. “Do you remember that I said I had woken up in a house with talking animals, Dempsey?” she asked as he placed her hand on his shoulder, making him look at her with doubt for his sanity and Jin knew it.

“Those talking animals were Furthers as well,” she responded, “They had the bare intelligence of a regular human being yet they had developed their own language and cultures. They had worshipped the ‘’Gods of the Old World'' as their religion.” she explained as P!Dempsey stared at her.

“Holy sh!t..” he said with disdain, “Richtofen wasn’t kidding about different realities, wasn’t he?”

“Who?” Sub-Zero was confused about who Dempsey was talking about.

Jin looked at Dempsey and then rubbed his shoulder a little, he loosened up a little when he felt it with comfort. “Thanks, Jin.” he sputtered nervously aas he looked at her with comfort in his eyes.

Jin smiled softly but then heard Sub-Zero calling out softly to them, “You two, come over here.” as they turned to notice that he was kneeling on the ground, picking something from it, something glowing faintly of soft blue.

The duo walked over to the Cryomancer as he stood back on his feet while looking at the object in his hand. Without a word, he showed them both of what he had found on the ground. They looked to see that it’s a gem, an ocean blue crystal that is about the size of a quarter.

“I had found this crystal on the ground.” Sub-Zero said as he was looking at the crystal with wariness in his voice. “It was glowing faintly, I am sensing strange energy coming out of it.”

“Do you think this is nuts, Sub-Zero?” Dempsey asked out of disbelief and ignorance at first but the look in Sub-Zero’s eyes had told the different answer. “Oh, right.” he responded under his breath as he looked back down at the crystal once again.

Jin was looking at the inscallfincent crystal, resting in Sub-Zero’s palm as she felt like she needed to take a closer look, as if it was holding a secret that none of them don’t know yet. “Sub-Zero,” she spoke softly as her hand had started to lift upwards and going towards a crystal slowly, “Can I see it please?”

Sub-Zero was weary of what she was doing and was trying to get his hand from hers but she had managed to get the crystal away from the palm of his hand and it was a bit fuzzy soon afterwards.

One moment, she was with the two men in a forest with a small crystal in her hands but the other minute later, she was somewhere else entirely and laying on the ground. The day was nighttime as a hand came into her line of sight yet this hand is not her own.

This hand was wearing a violet purple glove with metallic claw armor on it as it was placed onto her forehead, it took a moment to realize that what is happening is that she is in a memory of someone and she is watching this from their point of view.

Flashback of Blood

The person she was witnessing had then got onto their feet as she had gotten a look of their attire. The ninja yoroi was pink colored with slight cleavage showing as this person is a female.

“Hmmm…” a woman’s voice groaned as it sounded like it was an echo, and looked around “The earthrealm is different now, must to find a few souls…~” she purred that made Jin feel on edge just by hearing this from her as she walked ahead from where she has woken up.

As the moon floated over the bloodbath and nearing those hours of sunlight rising, this woman had performed onto the undead yet she often let out a groan or a moan of disdain when she sniffed or looked at them as if they were not the one that she was hoping to find. What was she trying to find?

“Most of these mortals are undead… I wonder if this realm has warriors left?” she purred in strange interest as she dropped the Black Plague zombie onto the ground as a dark red pool formed from its devastated head.

She then heard twig snapped and she turned to see a Hyena Further with an arrow pointed at her, the moment she saw him and the next thing she heard was a dark giggle coming from the woman, the type was feral but with ill-intent and sounded like her prayer had been answered.

“You dare to raise your weapon to your ruler of Outworld?”

The Hyena Further looked a bit shock at first but didn’t have time to react when the woman lunged out at the helpless hunter with her claws out and Jin haven’t seen what had happened next but she did heard the hunter screaming that soon heard a gurgle as well as with crunching of teeth and flesh tearing apart that made her recoiled.

Soon afterwards, she saw two more Hyena hunters with bows and arrows on their person. One of them is a man and a woman hyenas as the female hunter looked concerned.

“Juju?” she asked, “What is wrong, we heard screaming.”

[Two comic strips are drawn by SamPostStuff on Tumblr]

A crunch only answered them, Jin turned to see what it was as they stopped and the other readied the arrow, willing to fight but they both froze in horror. Jin cringed at the sight before her.

The same hand was holding the corpse of their comrade before dropping it onto the ground with blood on its palm as Jin had gotten a good look at the woman’s face; it looked like something that any child would scream in terror in their dreams.

Her face was drizzled in blood as sharp needle teeth were on the outside of her lips and cheeks, forming a mouth, her eyes a golden yellow with short black hair flowing freely.

“She really is real…” she heard a male hyena mumble to his friend in pure shock, “Our queen.” is the only thing that he finished the sentence with.

The woman- no, this creature smiled grisly, “Ah yes, I am your ruler.” she spoke with such atrocious tempting bliss, “Your Queen Mileena.” as Hyenas are trembling in fear.

“W-We…” the lady hyena began to explain themselves with a catch of breath, “We are so sorry, we… We have no idea it’s you.”

“Or even say that it’s-” the lady hyena immediately covered her friend’s mouth before he could finish.

“It is only a shock,” She said as she understood yet the look of her eyes can seem like they would hold potential, “I will let this mistake go for now.�� Mileena responded as she lifted up what looked like a windpipe and with one chomb, she ate it, blood flowed through her mouth and dropped onto the ground.

“But for now, I have something for you to do.”

That was the last thing she heard before everything around her had gone into white.

“Jin? Jin!”

A familiar voice had ringed in her eyes, Jin was on the ground and being held by a man wearing a familiar jacket, it’s Dempsey.

She was being held in his arms as she, Primis Tank and Sub-Zero as the sun was over them and in noon time. “T-Tank?” she spoke up in pure confusion as she placed a hand on her forehead, “What happened?”

“After ya took that crystal,” Dempsey started to explain the situation, “you just collapsed when it glowed for a little bit.” as Sub-Zero had removed his mask once again and held the crystal yet he’s making sure that it's as far from her as possible this time.

Jin seemed lost for a moment when she looked at them both, but then remembered back the dream she had for a short time with the woman, Mileena, and Hyena Furthers worshipped her as their ruler- a goddess even. As if she was the one they were waiting for god only knows how long.

But she has to know how long she was out like a light, how long was she dreaming exactly before that first, she turned over to Sub-Zero and questioned him, “how long was I out?”

“Only nearly an hour, Jin,” he answered.

“Yeah, while you were asleep. We had to pray it out of your hand since you were holding onto it tight.” P!Dempsey added further.

“I see…” she muttered softly as she looked at the ground again, the two men looked concerned now for Jin as the birds were chirping sweetly in the green and yellow trees around them as the wind danced smooth as butter.

“Let me guess for you,” Dempsey responded a bit more gently than usual, “You had a hell of a dream when you passed out.”

Jin looked at him with a slight jump from her stupor yet nodded, “How did you see?” Sub-Zero questioned her, “From the start of it, how much did this crystal have foretold to you?”

Jin with what little strength she had in her gut, she told them about it in little detail of the dream regarding the comprehensiveness of itself to them but she had noticed that Sub-Zero looked troubled when she had mentioned Mileena’s name, in fact, he looked like he never wanted to hear this name from someone else, ever.

Dempsey took notice of them as well as Sub-Zero had stood up and then walked from them a bit, giving them some space between himself and the two. “Hey, ya alright there?”

“I am fine, marine.” was Sub-Zero’s response.

“Ya sure, you seemed like you know this Mileena chick.”

Sub-Zero turned to look at them with his eyes glowing again but calmed down right away when he drew in a breath and exhaled it. “She was the creation of Shang Tsung, who was an ally to the former Emperor of Outworld itself.”

“Outworld? The one where Erron was from?”

“Erron Black?” Sub-Zero was surprised to hear that, “He was here as well?”

“Of course.”

Sub-Zero looks down for a moment, thinking of what is happening and how much of this revelation has unraveled itself. “There is going to be another tournament,” he thought without doubt but he is quite skeptical of what Mileena’s intentions are. He doubts she could be capable of doing this; kidnapping people from their own realms and into this one, unknown as uncharted.

“...Does anyone but us here?”

“I dunno.” Dempsey said uncertianingly, “All we know, that there most of us are from our universes alone or in a group that’s brought in this hellhole, Sub-Zero.”

Sub-Zero then turned his body to them both and responded “Mileena will be my responsibility to take care of, you two need to get back to your camp right away.” he then started to travel to the direction where he believed the Hyenas had gone too.

“Hey, where the f$%^ are you going?” he yelled after the shinobi who doesn't stopped walking, “I’m going to find their queen.’” as his arms are covered in frost.

Primis Dempsey was watching him go when he noticed that Jin was trying to stand up, “Ya think you can still walk?” he asked while he stood up, helping her onto her feet. “I think so, Tank.” she simply answered from her dizziness from the crystal's influence, legs wobbling like jelly.

She stumbled but she was grabbed by Dempsey when she nearly fell over, “Hey,” he said, “Don’t push yourself too much.”

“I wasn’t trying too.” she replied, holding on her arm while she’s trying to adjust her balance. When she got hold of her footing, she let go of the marine and then tried walking again but this time, one step at a time.

Still, Dempsey is walking beside her in case of her falling again while she was walking as they went through the way they came in, they walked past the tree line and back to the frozen graveyard of the green flu zombies.

They kept an eye out for anything that moved as they carefully walked past them as Dempsey noticed something that made him realize; the sun was hot enough to melt the ice on a hot summer day and the ones that had been turned into frozen statues were dripping water.

“They’re melting…” he muttered, catching Jin’s attention. “What?”

“These freakbags.”

Jin looked around and saw the ice that jailed them was melting into slush, even the big one, a hulking muscle with normal human legs and big arms that nearly overgrown its fingers. They noticed it was moving a bit by the minute soon afterwards a second.

They walked fastly past the major zombie as the ice was cracking as its arms were vibrating, it was going to break away from the ice in a moment and they both knew it just by looking at it. The popping and snapping of the cryogenic ice getting louder, before they knew it, Tank had said “MOVE!”

He pushed Jin forward as the ice finally gave way, soon afterwards a roar from the creature as its hands, now freed, smashes onto the ground, making the ground rumble under them and they stumble from the impact.

P!Dempsey got out his assault rifle and then immediately opened fire on the giant thing but as blood sprayed off of it’s pale too-much built body, it had no effect and that seemed to enraged the creature.

[Drawn by This-Person-is-slowly-dying and AlphaKing]

“Dempsey, get away from that thing!” Jin yelled as the big fella began to charge at the two on it’s knuckles and feet, similar to an angry gorilla ready to destroy whatever had tried to kill its mate and his kid.

He let out a curse and then turned to run from the beast, while they heard it growling. Soon, they heard the ground rumble behind them, Tank turned to see what was going on but soon regretted doing so because this thing had pulled a rock from the ground, hanging it over its head.

“Jin, incoming!” He ran faster and tackled Jin to the ground just as the big boulder was thrown and went over them, smashing onto a nearby car, even though it had aged over 500 years but it is shocking part of this is that its siren had sounded as they looked up. As if it does it despite the age of time.

Soon afterwards, the screeching of the damned was heard from a distance faintly but grew louder as they got back up and soon after he aimed at the incoming horde infected by the Green Flu Virus as he asked Jin “Run or fight?”

She looked at him confused but soon she was brought back by the big creature’s roaring as it was powering through the horde to get to them first before they did.

Dempsey repeated himself loudly.

“Run or fight?”

Jin has already decided on the answer already; she responded “Both.”

He had no time to argue with her so he and she turned to run towards a road, heading towards a hospital while an army of Green Flu zombies closed in the gap as they ran while Tank turned to open fire on them, splitting their heads open, painting the ground in red before turning to keep running.

“F#%^ off, you maggot-asses! Along with that Tank too!” He taunted them, but he is mostly taunting towards the now nicknamed big beast that’s catching up to them more than the horde.

Jin shook her head with raised brow as they reached the hospital, the glass of the doors was long since broken down long ago so they are able to get through them with no trouble but with each answers, it has pros and cons to solve any problems; the con was that there is no barricade to keep the riff-raff out.

Jin had got out her hair ornament from her hair but then she felt a nudge on her arm, she turned to see Dempsey holding a revolver, “Take this!” he ordered her as Jin used her other hand to take it.

“Ever use that gun?”

“I had never used it on a person!”

He fired on a couple of zombies coming closer, he turned his head to her and responded “Well, the best thing to do is to aim for the head.” he then looked at them, he had often felt safe with barricades but he knew that this time it's the opposite, the doors without wood boards and he does not like it.

“Sh!t… What should we do now?”

“I am working on it…”

Just when the horde and the Tank are coming closer, the intercom had rung to life and a new voice came through, it was a different male Australian accent like Sniper’s.

“Oi!” the voice called out, making them look at the intercom with shock and confusion, “Ya two are not one of the Green Flu bastards, are ya?” Then they heard a ding, they turned to look at an elevator opening up with the dimmed light glowing from its ceiling. “Come in the elevator if ya want to live!”

They looked at each other, then they turned to look at the incoming horde and the Tank that is posing through it like a runaway bull attacking anything that has red all over a group of people.

The choices were: Either be killed by the rabid horde and eaten or get in the elevator to where this voice is in one of the five floors.

They looked at each other again and then at the horde before they decided the latter: they ran in the elevator and Dempsey slammed the filth floor button and they readied themselves as the common infected ran inside as the doors hastily closed in.

They are watching them heading towards them as the moving doors closed up and hearing them banging on the doors as they go upward. They ascended upwards as the arrow slowly moved towards and crossed each number as the little moment of relief washed over them, “Holy sh!t….” he muttered, “Never seen anything like that…”

“The horde of the undead or that big creature that could rival a Panzer Soldat?”

“The big guy.” he answered, placing the revolver back in his Back-Pit device and holding his head a little.

“Still, do ya see what it has been doing?”

Jin nodded as she looked down at the ground. “It had thrown the zombies out of the way to get to us,” she softly said, “I can not imagine what it will do if it got to us.”

“Properly literally crush us with those arms,” he halfry joked, crossing his arms as he looks at the arrow going over to the number five, indeciting they are getting closer to the floor he selected. “Besides, we’re gonna be alright now.” he said it too soon the moment the elevator dings upon their arrival on the filth floor.

The elevator doors opened up to reveal their “savor”; a cyborg Carcassian man with device over his right eye or at least acted as his eye, a beard, wore no shirt but a strap that form an X across his chest with the device with glowing red glass, army green cargo pants and boots as he appears to be holding something behind his back.

With a smug smirk, he said in the same accent “Ya made the right choice.” before they heard what sounded like a pin being pulled and then he threw a container at them in the elevator before he had put on a gas mask.

The container they were looking at had exploded and a pretuid smell came from before them as they were trying to get away. “Dempsey watch...ou…” Jin had started to say but the smell had gotten to her that caused her to slur her speech and she fell onto the floor.

“Jin!” He ran over to her but his body started to get heavy but his mind was ordering it to keep going as he stumbled towards her as he was trying not to inhale the stench before he too fell down just inches to her.

The world around him had begun to spin as hearing had started to rung in his ears as the man walked over to them then knelt down while Dempsey watched. He chuckled while he looked at the marine as his eyelids were getting more and more heavy and soon, the world had been drowned in darkness.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

A soft moan left his lips as he suffered a suffocating headache, he felt like he had drunk too many beers while he had his hand stretched the back of his head as he muttered “Argh…. My head…”

He groggily turned his head over to look around as his mind wondered where he was right now and he saw Jin sleeping by his side, sleeping softly with her head on his shoulder. “J-Jin…?” he mumbled as his mind was swimming from whatever happened to him.

Inspecting her closer, her coat was missing as well with her hair pin and her hair was let down and flowed down her back.

As he tried to remember what had been transferred, he looked down to see that his coat and boiler were missing, as he was in his gray t-shirt.

The feeling had come back to him and came with it was metal and rust, at the base of his neck as he raised an eyebrow at this and had his hand reached to what it was and whatever it was it was around his neck.

He then had another hand on it as it dawned on him with distress; he had a collar around his neck. He turned his head at the wall and saw that he was chained to a wall before he looked at Jin and saw that she was collared as well.

He was on his knees and then grabbed her shoulders. “Jin! Jin! Wake up!” he said as he shook her by the shoulders as her sleep was disturbed, her head swayed as she groaned in strained breath as she opened her eyes and looked at Dempsey in confusion.

“Dempsey?” she groaned as her head was throbbing in pain as she held her head, “What happened?”

“I don’t know,” he said as he noticed that her coat was gone as well. “But it has something to do with that guy, I think we have been ambushed.”

“What?”

“We have been ambushed.” he repeated himself, “Have we been captured?” she asked to which he nodded.

They looked around the room they are in, it was dark but the light is peering through the bars above them and only them, but it did luminated what room it is; the ceiling, the walls and floor are made from stone, with reddish brown and moss on the wall but they hardly could see through the darkness.

“I believe we were in a cell.” Jin stated as she looked at Dempsey. He said nothing but then he sat down beside her again and looked down, “In all honesty,” he started to say, “I had gotten myself into worse sh!t like this.”

“You’d been captured?”

“That and many things that I wished could be a nightmare.”

Jin sighed lightly as she lowered her head, “So do I.” as she held her forehead. “I wished the same as you.” while Dempsey looked at her again. He said nothing but looked at her. He looked at the chains and by the look of them, they haven’t been properly clean for a good long while.

There is something moving from in front of them, the peek through hole opened up and the eyes are peering inside looking at them with a contented look in their eyes.

“They’re awake.” The voice echoed softly in the chamber, those familiar, different eyes of a hyena is no mistake for the two to recognize, they heard the clanking of boots is heard from outside the cell and a voice, a distorted woman’s voice speaking to the Further as he looked at whoever she was. “Open the door please.”

“Yes, your highness.” the hyena complied as he hopped down from the hole, letting a bit of light flowing in for a moment as they heard something unlatching on the other side of the door.

The metal door scraped across the stone floor as the rusted yellow light poured in the room as a figure entered and the cell door closed behind her. The clicking of heels returned once more but this time towards them.

Soon, Mileena came into the light of the barred off hole in the ceiling yet she was noticeably different with a zukin mask as Jin had noticed. The corporal sighed and said “Let me guess, you must be Mileena, right?”

“Of course, you had it right.” she confirmed as he and Jin had backed up to the wall a little bit, leaving space between them and her. “Do you know where you are now, kombatants?”

[Drawn by Meaghan “Icefir” Halter]

“Your boyfriend, Mileena?” he answered sarcastically, as the chains rattled a little bit behind him with his hand fumbling on the floor for a stone piece that he could use as a weapon in case things could get messy once she got closer.

“Not quite.”

“Hyenas are your army now?”

A giggle as two out of five of her fingers rested on her mask, it was not a good sign as she continued.

“Much so, fair lady.” Mileena responded, “In fact, I am really joyful that they made me their ruler yet honored to have you both here. Even though what I am going to do next may seem… horrible.” she sounded a bit sad when she said this, the marine could mentally roll his eyes at this.

“Must’ve been one hell of an honor to be here, mind telling us what are you about to do to us?”

“Kano had brought this up, I figured that I could at least try-” Mileena had stopped herself when she looked over to him, hesitancy in her eyes when she noticed quite prequitrity.

“Hold a minute,” she started to say, “You looked familiar to me.” She leaned closer to him as he tried to back up but he went into a wall so he was trapped between it and her. “Did I see you before?”

Jin looked over in confusion towards Dempsey as he muttered “I am just one of those faces that just don't like being in a sh!t hole situation like this…!”

Mileena didn't seem to believe but she pulled herself away from him as she shook that thought away, “It doesn’t matter,” she simply replied to his statement, even if it’s barely audible from a man.

“In the next few hours, one will be taken and the other to the tournament.” Mileena explained, “One out of two of you here.”

Dempsey spat out “Like hell that we are going to,” as he gritted his teeth, keeping his eyes trained on Mileena, “You’re stuck here the same as us in this world.”

Another giggle from the deranged woman before this, he had enough of this and he said loudly “What’s so god damned funny?”

“Not too familiar with Mortal Kombat, have you yet?” she asked as her hands reached the back of her head and then began to untie the straps that are holding the zukin mask itself.

“Yeah, someone had told us about it.”

“Oh.” she said as she managed to untie the straps and then took it off. Tank’s eyes grew in shock and disgust but his voice didn’t go out of his mouth as usual, only silence rained down on him as he looked at Mileena before himself and Jin.

“Then you knew how it would end, didn't you?~” she spoke coldly as a tongue slithered out similar to a snake’s as the door opened once again behind her.

-Back at the camp-

Erron glanced over his shoulder for the group of savagers as they are arriving back but yet, he was a little concerned that Jin isn’t with them.

“Where’s-”

“It was a nightmare!” Soldier cuts Erron off, “Gordon had scared off all of the strange-looking deer!” as Gordon had an annoyed expression on his face along with Demoman as the Outworlder can clearly see.

Erron lets out a sigh, “What exactly happened?” to the only two men of the hunting group that are sanerer than this man with low intelligence.

“Gordon was being a quiet boy the whole time when he was hunting the deer. That's clearly different from normal but Soldier is the one who scared them off.” Demoman explained briefly while Gordon Freeman nodded at the end of it.

Another sigh, “I thought so.”

“But cowboy, have you seen Jin anywhere?” Soldier asked as he looked around the front yard, Erron was going to ask them that question in all honesty before he was interrupted.

“I thought that she was with you boys.”

“The lass was with us but we couldn’t find her.”

“Do you know where you last saw her?” Erron asked more.

“We had split up to salvage more items,” Gordon once again said, “I think she went inside a local pharmacy.”

Erron crosses his arms as Ultimis Richtofen came out of the background with Frisk in tow and loudly asked “Have you all seen zhe marine anyvhere?!”

“Wasn’t he here?” he asked with his hand on his forehead once again.

“I had sent Frisk to go find him but zhey couldn’t find him.” he informed them.

“Two people had gone missing.” Erron groaned in frustration, “Last thing anyone wants.”

“Zhen ve have to find zhem!” Ultimis Richtofen announced with pride, sounded less concerned, “Ve can’t leave zhis city of zhe undead vithout zhem, I cannot imagine zhe fates zhey are going through.”

“And we are coming too!” Cuphead said this as he ran out but was stopped at the last minute by Demoman as he picked him up by the handle of his head and turned him around towards the house as he said “No more getting into troubles, and more staying put where it is safe.” as he points at the opened door as Cuphead moaned in disappointment and walked back while Demoman and others watched.

Soldier looked over to his friend and said “You are much more different than you usually are.”

Demoman only chuckled as he shook his head.

No one had failed to notice but the air had gotten cold all of suddenly as they felt it. “Hm?” U!Richtofen muttered as he looked around, “Zhe air is getting colder all of sudden?”

“Doc, it’s impossible,” Demoman stated, “This city was once a desert, ya know.”

“Oh blah blah blah, zhis place can have winters as vell.”

Erron somewhat remained quiet as he was staring something before them, “Frisk, get behind me and into the house.” he commanded, as he shushered them to go inside as others had begun to notice.

“Kuai Liang.” Erron said as he watched Sub-Zero walk over to the group as his eyes were trained on Erron Black. “Erron Black.”

They both stare at each other, Erron had his hand on the handle of his revolver, ready to pull it out of the hoister as frost is visible on the shinobi's hands. “You do understand that I didn’t come here to fight, Erron.”

“I do know that fact,” Erron said as he had his hand up to stop the others from advancing further, “And let me guess this, you don’t remember how you got here too?

“Yes.” Kuai bows as Frisk, Cuphead, Mugman and Bendy are watching the encounter from inside the house, looking worried and concerned of what’s to come.

“Hallo uh, Kuai Liang, is it?” Ultimis Richtofen had spoke up as he walked to stand by Erron for a moment as he looked at Sub-Zero, “You must’ve seen a man und woman by zhis point before you came here, am I right?” he questioned, “One vith brown hair und jacket, zhe other with black hair, fairly pretty skin?”

“You must be speaking of Dempsey and Jin.” Kuai Liang answered as he looked at the German, “I assume they are with you?”

“Oh ja!~” he happily said, “Zhose two teammates of ours, do you seen them?”

“I had left them behind in Suncrest when I had to follow a group of Further Hyenas to see if Mileena was truly here.”

“Mileena is here too?” Erron looked at Sub-Zero who had dropped that bombshell on him, hoping this was just a joke but it’s true as he nodded. “And she leads the what?”

“Further Hyenas.” Kuai answered, “And appearty, it's not just hyenas that are affected by this “Forbidden Water.” they spoke off. They became somewhat an intelligent animal humanoid species after something horrible befell onto the earthrealm or this earthrealm is what they had made their home now.”

“Do they know what caused this?”

“The Incident, involving all five different plagues that includes the one you are currently facing and an entity they called “The Broken.””

“Oh!” U!Richtofen chimed in, “A woman had told about zhis lady but not in full detail about her.” as Sub-Zero looked at him once again. “Has she said anything about the Broken.”

“If she had- Haha!” the Doctor triumphed with delight, “She had taken at least 12 of us avay into another plane of existence or in your vords, another “Earthrealm '' you called it. Und zhis Broken vould drive zhem into insanity or death if I had to put in more details.”

“I will share what I have learned later,” Sub-Zero looked at Erron once again “Are there other warriors here?”

“A bunch,” Erron shrugged, “All of them are different worlds and timelines but it could be enough to bring this bloodthirsty daughter of Shao Kahn down.”

“Und most of us were from our own universes ve called home,” Ultimis Richtofen as Erron raised the revolver a little threateningly but it does seem to silence the Doctor by this much.

“I see.” Kuai nodded, “we must need a plan before we could jump into battle.”

“Ya know, for once, you could be right.”

As being said, Kuai was led into the backyard as others were getting ready to leave the city as the kids were peeking outside to watch others meeting the newcomer. “So, you had met them after encountering a different infection type?”

“But of course,” Kuai answered Bruno’s question, “But I wanted them to be out of harm's way when I did find her.”

“Can you take us to the last spot you left them at, at least?” Scout said with chagrin, “We just lost enough already.”

Sub-Zero made an ickle in response and spoke in a threatening tone “We are getting to that point, young man. Show patience.”

“Are you saying that one of your- their own were captured?” Radec asked as he and his remaining men were being watched over by Takeo while he was keeping a close eye on them while he was cleaning his sword.

“I fear so.” Kuai responded as he crushed the ickle into small pieces, “And you must be Mael Radec from what I am told of.”

“Colonel Mael Radec,” Radec corrected, as he stood up and he was a little bit intrigued that this ninja could barely reached his height, “Our homeworld is Helghan and as off right now-”

“They are trapped here with us,” Takeo interrupted as he had a rag that seemed to be used multiple times to count as he cleaned off the blood crusted onto the blade. Sub-Zero looked at the samurai and he somewhat resembled Hanzo in a way but in World War I form.

Takeo continued “And yet, we had a solution to escape this hell together, uninfected and unharmed.”

“Tak’s right about that.” Frank added “Since for some reason, these zombies can’t literally get out of the state of Utah, as if something is keeping them inside.”

“A tree’s spell…” Sub-Zero muttered as he looked down at the ground and yet, it was audible barely for Frank West to hear.

“What’s that?”

“It is nothing.” he shook his head, as Ultimis Richtofen walked over to him, “I am zhe most curious of you, Mr. Liang,” he said as he looked at the man of ice as he looked at him with an raised brow.

“From vhat I see from you, zhe frost on your arms und hands vithout any trouble at all!” he exclaimed as he took a hold of his arm to get a better look as if he was inspecting a snore or something else that could be intriguing.

“How do your arms vere at normal temperatures instead of breaking apart?” Ultimis Richtofen squeezed his bicep a little to feel the difference, the muscle felt soft yet it is the normal type of soft when you could feel when you squeeze the skin and muscle on your forearm.

“It is only magic, Doctor Richtofen.” Sub-Zero only answered as he pulled his arm away, “I am a cryomancer as I had trained to control the ice magic.”

“I see.” Ultimis Richtofen placed a finger under his chin, he now looked more fascinated by this fact. “Und how do you train?”

“I was the student before I became the grandmaster of the Lin Kuei.” he replied as he turned away and then walked away from the German as he felt like he needed to get a healthy distance away from that man as far as possible.

Something about him was.. Unhinged, he thought.

Others had gathered, talking about something to do after they rescued their allies and escaping Fallen City as they are getting their weapons while Erron is discussing the plan as Kuai will lead them to where he had met Dempsey and Jin.

Sniper and Demoman are talking about what they should do with their prisoners if they make it out of the city infested with the walking dead, then something else that caught his attention however.

“Did ya notice that one of them was missing, laddie?”

“One was missing?” Sniper looked up to have his eyes facing Demo’s only one with stupefaction.

“There were seven of them last night when Bruno took over Bendy’s nightwatch.”

Sniper raised a brow and looked over the Demolimation’s Expert to look at the giant Frenchman and then looked back to Demoman.

“Did one of them escape while on his watch, Talvish?”

“I doubt that, Snipe.” Demoman answered, “Jin had said that she found him slowly regaining consciousness when she found this.”

“Regaining his nongs?” Sniper quizzed, as he tilted his hat a little to rub his fingers on his forehead, “Was his noggin hit by one of them?”

“Ah no,” Talvish shook his head no, “No bruise or a cut on his head whatsoever when she checked on him. Whatever happened to him must’ve been slippery like Spy was.”

“Mate, that is impossible,” the Australian refused to believe his teammate. “If he was knocked out, there could be a-”

“No no no, Sniper,” Demo shook his hand to halt him from speaking his thoughts out, “He had recalled he felt something plunging into his back before he blacked out.”

Kuai Liang didn’t hear the rest as he was already going to find Bruno as he is peculiar about it. He didn’t have to waste time to find him to see if it is true, he may not be with them on the night it happened but he needs to check on what he believed to be an injury. It didn't take him too long to find him when he checked at the withering apple tree and found him sharpening the knife.

“Bruno.” he got his attention as the large man looked at him, the carasian raised a brow and said “Oui, Kuai Liang?”

“Please understand that I am only curious but I heard you’re knocked out while on watch but you were not hit in the head.”

Bruno said nothing but he did nod that confirmed Sub-Zero’s suspicion, the cryomancer walked over to the giant with the understanding look on his face and went behind him as the Frenchman looked at him with further confusion.

“What are you doing-?”

“Do you remember what you felt before you passed out?”

Bruno only responded by looking down, “It felt like something had stabbed me in the back. Like a bee sting.”

“A bee sting, you say?” he said as he pulled the collar of his shirt down a bit as the Frenchman tried to look over his shoulder.

“I do not give you permission to search me.” Bruno interjects but Sub-Zero relents as he pulls it down a bit more and he sees something on the bottom of his neck, near the right shoulder on the tanned skin: It’s a small red dot. It was small enough as if a syringe had poked through and into the flesh.

“What are you looking at?”

“A sting dot,” Kauai answered as he looked at him, “A stab wound small enough to be an injection.”

“I was injected?” Bruno turned to look at him, “With what, exactly, Kauai Liang?”

“Possibly a drug enough to knock a person out yet only someone could be quiet and quick enough to plunge a syringe into you without ease.”

Kuai then had his fingers on his chin, the stable hair brushing against them gingerly, “It could be one of these ‘’Helghast” prisoners you captured.”

“It’s impossible, Kauai Liang.” Bruno denied, “All of them were asleep when I took a watch after the dinner last night.”

Kuai raised an eyebrow at this, looking at the giant before him and asked “If it is not one of them, then who?”

A raven cawed from behind them as they turned to see it flew over to a shed with the old wooden double doors as they were opened just a crack yet the raven was able to wedge between and go inside with no trouble.

Kuai signed Bruno into staying quiet as they unhurriedly walked over the shed on alert as each step drew them closer before they could know it but they stopped when a smell of death hit them both.

Bruno reinched from it, he knew what he was smelling, he was too familiar with the death before and after his time with a gang of thugs and this was a smell of the recently deceased, not the rotting decayed corpse of a zombie.

Kuai knew what Bruno believed to be too as he saw his hand stretched out and then grabbed one of the doors and then pulled it towards them, letting light flood inside the interior of the shed and the sight that greeted them was desolate and horrid.

It was one of the prisoners but what happened is just a grim death. Nothing to say but they noticed the man was stripped of the chest plate and cut open in the chest. Bruno gagged from the sight and turned from it as Kuai did the same with his eyes closed in uncanny disgust.

Bruno looked at him with hairs on the back of his neck raised and said “I think we now know what happened to him.”

Kuai nodded as he said nothing, something like this had the part of him believing it could be one of a Tarkatan or Mileena would do but the other part of himself had believed it could be someone else. Before the latter would say anything, U!Richtofen yelled for anyone to hear.

“Come on now! Ve are now going to get zhem!”

The two men looked at each other, not saying anything but exchanged looks before they walked away from the shed, silent after what they found. It’s going to take a good courage to tell others what they have discovered yet they are worried whoever disembowled him will be still with them as they know.

[callmeblake]

Frank Iero, New York, NY, June 2019 (X)

Aug 29, 2019, 09:10am

Frank Iero May Just Be His Own Puppet Master

Photo Credit: Audrey Lew

Interview below the cut

Derek Scancarelli

Contributor

Hollywood & Entertainment

I am a music journalist living in New York City.

Frank Iero is breathing deeply and fighting off nausea. This isn’t uncommon for the 37-year-old guitarist and vocalist, given his predilection for debilitating anxiety. But on this occasion, it isn’t pre-show jitters.

“Oh my god, I hate this f*cking boat,” Iero says, as the docked vessel on which he sits knocks against a pier in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Iero and his band, The Future Violents, just finished an intimate Saturday matinee show as fans sweat, sang and caught a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty.

It had been about 16 years since Iero and his now defunct band, My Chemical Romance (the band broke up in 2013), first performed on water. In July of 2002, the band released its debut album, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love. In October of 2003, the soon-to-be emo heroes performed alongside New York Hardcore legends Sick Of It All at an aquatic gig booked by New Jersey college radio station WSOU. And in June of 2004, My Chemical Romance released Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, the band’s platinum-selling breakthrough record. In a matter of two years, Iero’s life changed dramatically.

In 2019, Iero still hasn’t found his sea legs, but a lot more has changed. He’s fathered three children, released three full-length solo records (including 2019’s Barriers), and survived a near-death experience. And as he gets older, he finds truth in life’s greatest clichés.

“Time flies, it just screams by,” Iero says. “You think you’re appreciating the time, but it’s easy to take it for granted. It’s a shame.”

But Iero is trying his hardest to pay attention to the little things, especially when it comes to family. He and his wife, Jamia, have three children together: nine-year-old twin daughters, Cherry and Lily, and a seven-year-old son named Miles.

“It’s wonderful to see them evolve and come into their own,” Iero says. “But it’s funny how personalities are innate. We shape the way they experience things or teach them the ropes, but for the most part, I’ve found that we are who we are when we’re born.”

From the start, Iero has seen an even split in the twins’ personalities. Cherry, he says, most behaves like her mother, whereas Lily possesses her father’s attitude.

“Some of the sh*t I hear coming out of my daughter's mouth,” Iero says laughing. “My God! It’s stuff I think but never say — they don't know to be ashamed yet! It's amazing and honest and pure. And I know exactly where she's coming from because I feel the same way.”

As part of fostering a relationship of trust and honesty, Iero has been age-appropriately transparent with his kids about the 2016 accident that almost killed him, his brother-in-law and guitarist Evan Nestor and his manager Paul Clegg.

While unloading gear from their van in Sydney, Australia, a city bus crashed into the group and their vehicle. In a 2017 interview with MTV, Iero recounted, in vivid detail, the moment he was dragged underneath the bumper of the bus, the screams of his brother-in-law, and the blood pooling from his manager.

Although Iero was able to walk into an ambulance carrying one of his friends, the scene was a spectacle overrun with emergency personnel — they even landed a rescue helicopter in nearby Hyde Park. Despite serious injuries, amazingly, there were no fatalities.

When Iero returned home from the hospital, he explained to his children that he was in a car accident, but that it was a singular freak incident.

“You don't want to lie,” he says. “They're getting older. Their friends and their parents are on the internet. They're asking questions. It does get back to them.”

Iero was as honest as possible, but avoided any gory details. He was also conscious that it wouldn’t be long before he would travel for work again — and he didn’t want to scare his kids any further.

Almost four years later, residual damage from the crash is impossible to ignore. Nestor has nerve damage in his leg that may never be corrected. Clegg’s leg and knee have undergone multiple surgeries, but are in poor shape. And Iero still has a tear in his shoulder that hurts every time he plays the guitar. Despite the pain, he’s afraid to undergo surgery.

“I was lucky enough to walk away and still play,” Iero says. “If I were to test fate again and go under the knife, if something were to go wrong… to let that be taken from me … no, I can't.”

On some days, the emotional toll of surviving such a traumatic accident weighs more heavily. Iero describes his recovery as non-linear: some days he feels collected and in control, other days the memory rushes back into his mind.

After his new band finished recording Barriers, Iero and his team went back to Australia for appointments pertaining to the accident and corresponding litigation. As soon as he exited the plane, Iero felt like he’d returned to the horrific scene. For the following week, he was barraged by an unending state of panic.

“You go through these instances of PTSD,” he says. “You never know what's going to trigger and send you all the way back to the beginning with recovery.”

Iero greatly underestimated how difficult his return to Australia would be. When navigating to a doctor’s office near where the accident occurred, he couldn’t bring himself to walk down the street. And suddenly, he felt surrounded by buses.

“I don't know if this is true,” he says. “But it felt like every other car on the street was one of these f*cking buses. They were everywhere. It was frightening. I couldn't do anything. I was shaking like a leaf.”

Despite the traumatic flashbacks, Iero continues to reflect on that day. In the promotional run for Barriers, he discussed the accident at length. And on the record itself, he addresses the complicated ripple effect it’s had on his entire sense of self.

“I don't think it needs to define me,” Iero says. “But it was something I needed to talk about on this record. It's not something I could sweep under the rug. But do I want to dwell on it every day and relive it? No. But I think about it constantly. I feel the pain constantly. It's on my mind.”

In recent interviews, Iero has tended to frame a few philosophical takeaways from his ordeal. In simple terms, the first idea is that he’s found a new lease on life — that everything happens for a reason and he’s been given an opportunity to seize the day. The second philosophy is much darker, a sort of survivor’s guilt compounded with fear and existential dread. The third and most abstract consideration is closest to Simulation Theory — where Iero has the ability to control his own artificial timeline.

Sometimes, Iero questions if actually died that day. He wonders: Is this all real?

“It’s hard. No one can tell you what to believe,” he says. “But you come to this realization, ‘Well, this is real to me, the hand I was dealt, so I have to make the best of it!’”

Through the acceptance of uncertainty, Iero surmises that he just may be his own puppet master.

“If this is a figment of my imagination,” Iero says. “If this is all in my head, then I am the master of my own destiny. If I want to do something, I can manufacture it. And if it's not the case, then at least it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Maybe putting positive vibes out into the universe is beneficial. If we didn't make it and we're just going through this weird labyrinth in my mind, I can do anything I want.”

And lately, he’s been doing just that. Call it sorcery or the power of positive thinking, but Iero is motivated. For Barriers, he was able to assemble a dream band, The Future Violents (different lineups of his backing band have previously gone by The Cellabration and The Patience), featuring his brother-in-law Nestor on guitar, Thursday’s Tucker Rule on drums, Murder by Death’s Matt Armstrong on bass, and Kayleigh Goldsworthy on keyboard.

The theme of the album — and his own internal dialogue — mostly relates to tragedy and timing. Did the universe have a course set out for him? Or was he just some random victim?

“The crazy thing is that you didn't do anything wrong,” Iero says of the accident. “Yet, all of this stuff was taken from you and you have to make these decisions. You get angry a lot.”

He continues: “These random, abrupt, violent actions. Do they happen to us? Or for us? I wouldn't have been able to make this record if it didn't happen. And it made me realize a lot of things about myself. Am I happy it happened? No. But I'm happy where I am right now.”

Iero views Barriers as an exercise in vulnerability. If the aftermath of his accident taught him anything, it’s that success was meaningless to his character, but adversity helped him grow. For the first time, addressing childhood trauma helped Iero expose himself in a way that felt freeing.

“When you put something to song, it gives that memory weight,” Iero explains. “If you never talk about it, it's almost like it didn't happen. There's a fine line between relinquishing that power to this memory, situation or trauma, or holding that power over it and creating your own narrative from it.”

Barriers also intertwines Iero’s childhood experiences with his current perspective as a father. This go around, he felt comfortable writing about his parents’ divorce — the couple split when he was three and divorced when he was seven.

He looks back on the unpleasantness of the process and his consequential understanding of his mother’s issues with addiction, depression and mental illness. On his 2016 record, Parachutes, Iero first referenced his mother’s struggles and his own liability to inherit her traits. He’s still horrified by the idea of predeterminism.

“When you're a young kid being surrounded with it, it doesn't feel right,” Iero says. “You're not happy. You're scared. You're constantly concerned for your parent. It’s almost as if you become the caregiver.”

He continues: “Then you see yourself falling into these patterns that you were witness to and maybe in a roundabout way were taught. That addiction, that depression, runs through you. It's easy to fall off that cliff. I don't want that for my kids and I need to stop this cycle. Like this sh*t stops with me. Whether it be I get okay, or I f*cking turn my lights out.”

It’s this sort of tongue-in-cheek use of concerning language that keeps Iero’s fanbase enthralled, yet somewhat on edge. Take for example, in the comment section for his video “Young & Doomed,” some diehard fans are troubled by his repeated use of the words “hurt myself again.” While he’s surprised to hear about the response, he counters that the record is ultimately meant to feel uplifting and positive, even if addressing dark topics.

“I don't think that we should strive for perfection,” Iero says. “This idea that we should all have this perfect life and be pretty and purse our lips to post a picture on social media is bullsh*t. The things that make us unique are important.”

He continues: “Sometimes we're our own worst enemies and we hurt ourselves. Those scars, though, are important. They're beautiful. ‘Young And Doomed’ is a call to arms to celebrate the things people think are wrong with us.”

Now, Iero just hopes his story and music inspire fans to try, fail and try again.

“You don't find out who you are unless you get a scar and get hurt,” Iero says. “You should be hurt, hurt other people, and learn that it feels terrible to hurt someone else. You should feel sorry for it and make amends for it. These are important lessons to be a better person. You find out who you truly are by attacking things that scare you the most.”

Frank Iero is currently touring Europe with Laura Jane Grace & The Devouring Mothers.

[almostscrumptiouspeanut]

Don't leave me alone

Spencer Reid x Y/N

Fluff!

That morning, when she opened her eyes, she knew exactly what was going to happen. The pounding pain in her temples, the dizziness, the discomfort caused by smells and bright lights, she knew it all led to one thing and one thing only: migraine with aura. She moved slowly, stepping out of the covers and trying to focus the room despite the urgent need to close her eyes and not open them again. Looking down and squinting to avoid too much pain, she blindly searched for the clothes she had picked out the night before. A habit that didn’t particularly belong to her, but one she had allowed herself to convert to after meeting Spencer. She got out of her pajamas calmly, movements slow and calculated: the risk of ending up on the floor because of vertigo was more than present.

Once dressed – grateful to her past self for having decided to organize her clothes for work – she decided it was time to take her medicine. She slowly made her way to the bathroom where she kept her medications, grabbed the bottle of painkillers specific to her migraine, and pulled out a tablet. She took a short time to swallow it, more bothered by the burning she felt at her temples than by the tablet going down her esophagus. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes to gather what little strength she had left to face those hours of work. She knew she could stay at home and ask for days off – being a journalist gave her the opportunity to work from home – but she knew that there, in the dark, alone, she would simply feel worse. If only she’d had someone to keep her company…

If getting out of the covers had seemed like a daunting task, facing the outside world was a suicide mission. Every noise, smell, even the light itself seemed to pierce her skull and plant itself firmly in her brain. She had greeted her colleagues with a small smile, avoiding speaking as much as possible. At that point, she didn’t even know how her voice would come out. Sh just wanted to get through those hours, hold out as long as she could, and then go home and curl up under the covers, patiently waiting for Spencer to return. It wasn’t a habit of hers, waiting for Reid to come home. It was one of her favorite aspects of their relationship: they both had the opportunity to be able to spend time alone.

Of course, Spencer’s motives were more than justified; it wasn’t everyone’s thing to go around psychologically profiling serial killers and arresting them. She understood how demanding and heavy his job was, which is why she had never tried to confront him with the choice: it was either the job or her. Also because she loved her independence, independence that vanished when she was sick. She was aware that hers might seem like quite childish behavior, most likely it was, but she couldn’t help but want so much small attention when she wasn’t at her best, especially when it seemed like her brain was organizing itself to suck out all her lifeblood. She took a few moments to gather her thoughts and return her focus to the present, not rambling off into imaginary worlds. She worked calmly, aware that she had no upcoming deadline, happy to be able to focus her attention on something other than her brain that seemed to be crushed at the inversion. Every once in a while she would hear her mother’s voice booming in her head, “you should have taken your medication earlier,” and she knew that – even if that voice was only in her mind – she was right. She had recognized the warnings the night before. The slightly blurred vision, the unusual tiredness and exhaustion, but she had taken the situation lightly, deciding that instead a few hours of sleep would be more than fine. Result? She felt her head on fire. Bad, very bad sign. In the end she even managed to work for three continuous hours, occasionally taking moments to recover and concentrate. Only during her lunch break – which she had completely forgotten and had been mended by one of her colleagues – did she pick up the phone, having previously decided to use it as little as possible, already forced to focus her gaze on the computer screen. She had unread messages, all of them fairly ignorable, except for the one from Spencer, which as always had caught her attention.

Spence💼

Hi honey, I hope everything is going well at work. I’m going to be late tonight, so many files to fill out.

Part of herself couldn’t deny feeling bad about it. Well, actually she had been completely dejected by that news, but as she always promised herself she would not put pressure on her partner. She answered him quickly, disguising her sadness and mentally thanking her for the opportunity to send messages, knowing that in a few seconds Reid would understand what was going on. The downside of profilers she told himself. She sighed, knowing that when she got home she would collapse on the bed, also because of the medication she had to take.

Maybe she had made a mistake in going to work that day, but in her defense she could say that she was sure Spencer would be there when she returned. On the other hand, she wouldn’t hold it against him, she didn’t want at all that Spencer put her first, ahead of his own work. Rather than blame him, she decided to blame her fate, which often played tricks on her.

She spent her lunch break sitting at her station, munching on some whole grain pretzels that happened to still be in her purse. She wasn’t hungry, hell she didn’t even feel like staying with her eyes open. When her cell phone vibrated on her desk, she jumped in fright, all too used to the silence in the office. When she read the name of the person calling her, she let a tender smile form on her lips: it was her best friend.

“Hey,” she replied, trying to use the most cheerful tone possible.

“Hi sweetie. Are you okay?” she asked immediately, her friend recognizing the forced tone she had used. She took a few moments to clear her throat and try to put the words together to formulate as convincing a sentence as possible. “Sure, everything’s fine. How are you?” diverting attention to another person – Spencer’s voice boomed in her mind – is a sign that highlights an attempt to hide something. She knew it, he knew it well, and her best friend unfortunately knew her better than herself. “Hmm. Did you have a fight with the little genius?” she giggled at the question, more because of the astonished tone her friend had used. She was well aware that she and Reid rarely fought – most of the time it was a silly argument.

“No honey, everything’s fine with my little genius” moments of silence on the other end of the line, so much so that she wondered if she had ended the call.

“You have a migraine, don’t you?” and, heck, how could s even think of hiding anything from her? She sighed, admitting her own defeat. “And okay, yes, I have a migraine attack. But it’s nothing serious, I can handle it,” she repeated, more to convince herself than her friend. “Did you take your meds?” she asked, in an apprehensive mom tone.

“Yes.”

“Have you eaten?”

“Yes…” was a little more hesitant answer this time, but she decided to let it go.

“Are you in the dark in your room?” now that was a question she didn’t want to answer. She decided rather to remain silent, thankful that she was on the phone and not in person, otherwise she would have seen her guilty look. For a moment she seemed to convince himself that well, it’s true that he who is silent consents. Here, it wasn’t working in that case. “…Tell me you didn’t go to work” the tone of reproach was definitely similar to his mother’s, who for a moment wondered if it wasn’t really her on the other side of the line. “Are you fucking serious? You know you have to rest when you’re like this!” then she took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. “I know, but sitting at home doing nothing drives me crazy. I feel… incapable,” she admitted, with an edge to her voice, because she was so ashamed.

Her friend sighed, softening the tone of her voice. “I know, I know honey, I understand. But aren’t you in danger of feeling worse this way?”

“Don’t worry, I can handle it. Besides, it’s only a couple of hours away and I’ll be home,” she tried to reassure her, though the idea of coming home and having to be alone….

“Is Spencer at work?” pretty stupid question, that guy never took days off. “Yes. He…um, he’s going to be late today.”

“He doesn’t know you’re sick” wasn’t a question, it was an observation. “No, but I’m sure when he gets home it will all be gone. I just need the tablets and some rest” hopefully she added mentally.

The conversation closed shortly after, leaving her alone with her own thoughts.

The rest of the working hours passed quickly, or maybe it was just her impression, as she had the urge to go home and curl up under the covers. Which, indeed, she did as soon as she returned. First she turned off her cell phone, exhausted by the hours of constant contact with the computer screen. She quickly undressed, pulling off her skirt and shirt as fast as she could, and then went to fish out what she called “lonely clothes” from her closet.

They were essentially one of her old sweatpants and a shirt that Spencer no longer wore and that she had appropriated. Tucked away in a corner of the closet, she would pull them out when Spencer was away and particularly missed them. She had been careful to hide them, too embarrassed at the idea that Reid might see them. She would never admit it out loud, but she loved wearing that old t-shirt, because in her opinion it still held Spencer’s scent. After taking her own medication-which would also knock out a horse-she snuggled under the covers, hugging the pillow

Spencer used to sleep on.

Another extremely childish habit, but one that gave her a vague sense of companionship. Couldn’t she have her own boyfriend to cuddle her? Then she would simply imagine him, surrounded by his scent. The painkillers took effect in a short time, leaving her finally pain-free and definitely sleepy. In a few moments, she closed her eyes and slipped into a peaceful sleep, where nothing could disturb her. She had always loved her ability to sleep deeply for so many hours, which is why she did not hear the front door open, close, the footsteps of someone approaching the bedroom and reaching her.

She opened her eyes only when she felt a hand resting on her own shoulder, gently shaking her. Still quite foggy from the painkillers, it took her a while to focus on the image of Spencer, probably also due to the darkness that reigned throughout the house.

“Hey,” the voice low and arched from sleep and hours of stubborn silence. In response s had a sweet smile and a tender kiss on his forehead. “Hi honey” whispered, shortly after Spencer, making her smile. She had always enjoyed Spencer’s voice, but when he whispered it literally made her melt with sweetness. What are you doing here? She wanted to ask, but merely enjoyed his company as he slipped under the covers at her side to replace the pillow and hug her tightly. She didn’t ask any questions, just snuggled into his chest and closed her eyes, simply thinking it was all a figment of her own imagination.

She stayed sound asleep for the next few hours, and when she woke up she assumed she had really only dreamed of Spencer at home, because her side of the bed was empty and cold. No one had laid down on that side, at her side. She took a few moments to get out of the stupor brought by the sleep induced by the medicines, then she sat up and reached for the bottle of water she had previously placed on the bedside table, near the bottles of medicines.

“You’re awake” locked in her own world of silence, she jerked when she heard Spencer’s voice, then began to cough violently. Of course, so did the water sideways. Heck, she felt more and more like a silly little girl. She was joined within seconds by her own boyfriend, who knelt down to be at her height and looked at her apprehensively. She lifted a hand to let him know it was okay, as the last few coughs shook her chest. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” he began, Spencer, but was soon stopped. “But what time is it? Shouldn’t you still be at work?” she asked, confused. That she had slept all that time?

“What are you talking about? I came back early, I even woke you up and you fell asleep hugging me,” he reminded her, his brows furrowed and a confused look in his eyes. She took a few moments to connect everything. “I… I thought it was a dream,” she admitted, then smiled shyly at him. Spencer then decided to get up and sit by her side, resting an arm around her shoulders again and letting her rest her head in the crook of his neck. He stayed there stroking her back for a few minutes, cradling her gently. “You should have told me,” he said, then, catching her attention. She lifted her head a few inches to look into his eyes and give him a questioning look.

“That you were having one of your migraine attacks, you should have told me,” she specified, using a tone of mock reproach. “I didn’t want to worry you. By the way, what are you doing home already?”

“I came back early, I can tell. I couldn’t leave you alone in this condition.”

“But who-“ then she paused, realizing that her own best friend had probably spilled the beans to her boyfriend. She collapsed her head against Reid’s chest, sighing. “I was ashamed,” she admitted, after a while. “Of being sick?”

“No. Well, not really. It’s just that when I don’t feel well, especially when I have my migraine attacks I-“ and she paused again, trying to find the right words and not sound like a pathetic child. “You…?” he encouraged her, tightening his grip on her a bit. “When I’m hurting… I just… I like attention.”

“Attention…?”

“Cuddles” she spat out, then hid against Spencer’s chest so he wouldn’t notice the blush on her face. “Hey,” he said, gently lifting her face with his index finger. “There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be cuddled when you’re sick,” he reassured her, and then brought her fully seated on his lap and hugged her.

He gently kissed her cheeks, first one and then the other, then the tip of her nose – making her giggle – then her forehead, her temples, and finally kissed her full on the lips. “You should have told me sooner,” he whispered softly against her ear, continuing to caress her arms, her back, and kiss her face tenderly. “I felt stupid,” she confessed, clinging to her shirt, crumpling it in her hands.

Spencer immediately raised his head, looking at her as if he had a heresy. “Never. Never say that. You’re the sweetest, smartest person I’ve ever met,” he probably noticed her eyebrow arched, as if to say, “are you sure, Mr. 187 IQ?” Spencer chuckled at her skeptical look, then continued. “You don’t have to be a genius to be smart. I love the way you are, the sweetness with which you welcome me home every time. I couldn’t live without you,” he said, still whispering, and then kissed her softly. A slow kiss, not dictated by passion. “New rule,” he said, when they separated to breathe. She nodded, as if to incentivize him to continue. “Anytime you want to be cuddled, no matter if you’re ashamed, just tell me,” he continued, and then lifted his right hand and raised his little finger. “Promise?” she giggled, then nodded and linked her pinky with his. “Promise.”

[xiumin-on-this-shit]

A Few Good Men Ch 4: I Got Her

Hope you guys enjoy this update! I’ll be posting I Am An Alpha I a couple hours! I’m just finishing it up!🥰

Baekhyun POV

My body is buzzing. I have her. After weeks of aching to hold her again she just falls into my lap, this has to be fate. I know I should keep my eyes on the road in front of me but I cant help but glance over at the pretty little thing now passed out in my passenger's seat.I want to touch her, hold her, never let her go but not right now. She's bleeding out, I need to get her to Yixing before anything else. After that, I can love on her all that I want. I can wait. Part of me wishes she was awake, I want to hear her voice, but this is much easier with her resting.

I pull out my phone an call my brother. He doesn't answer the first few times I call, I just keep calling and calling until he finally answers, annoyed as ever, "What?"

"I got her."

He silent for a moment, "You got who Baekhyun?"

"I got her! The girl from Haneul's club!" I'm almost yelling, I can barely contain my excitement.

"What the fuck? Let her go! What the hell do you think you are doing?"

His reaction isn't what I expected, "What do you mean? I can't let her go! Sh not even conscious and she's loosing a lot of blood. You need to help her!"

"What did you do to her?"

"I saved her!" I snarl, "Some asshole was shooting at her and I saved her life! Now are you going to help or not?"

"Where are you?"

"Almost home, we need to sneak her in. I don't want anyone else seeing her."

"Why not?"

"Do you want to deal with everyone freaking out about her? We could barely keep ourselves together when we first saw her."

He scoffs, "Speak for yourself."

"As I remember you were holding on to her all night just like me."

"Shut up. I'll see you in a few minutes."

I hang up, already upset that I have to involve him but it's either that or a hospital where police would be called and they would try to take her away from me. No one is taking her away from me again. My hand reaches out to find hers' limp in her lap, her palms are rough but warm. Just the feeling of holding her hand in mine is more than enough to calm the anxiety buzzing though me, bringing both the nervousness and excitement down in a single touch. I've missed this calming feeling for so long now, she feels the same as my baby, so perfect.

We reach the house to find Yixing waiting outside in a sweats and a t-shirt. I pull up in the driveway, he surprises me by ripping her door open as soon as I park. "How bad is she hurt?"

"I haven't really had time to catalog her injuries while speeding here," The snarky comment is out before I can stop myself.

He glares at me, "You wanted my help and now you're going to act like this? Fuck you!"

"Stop with high and mighty bullshit! You didn't rush out here just because I asked for your help. Now lets get her inside before someone notices." I can see in his eyes that he wants to argue back but he says nothing, he scoops her up in his arms and turns to carry her inside. I shut off the car and rush to join him.

"Everyone is in their rooms." Together we make our way through the house, dreading the idea of running into our brothers even more than usual, as usual though we don't see a soul. "Go to my room," He directs at the top of the stairs.

"Why your room?"

He rolls his eyes, "Because you are asking for my help."

"Fine." I trail behind my brother to his room, jealous of how he is able to cradle her to his chest. Her blonde curls lay across his shoulder while her dirty boots hang over his other arm. I used to be able to carry my baby like that, I don't think I could anymore, I can barely carry myself from room to room. I can work on that. I want to hold her.

When we reach his room he immediately lays her down on his bed and gets to work. “Help me get her clothes off so we can see where she’s bleeding from.”

“Hyung,” I freeze when he takes a step back. His shoulder is covered in blood, “I think I know where the blood is coming from.”

“Fuck!”

“What? Fuck what?”

"She must have hit her head, You better pray she doesn't have a brain bleed."

My hopefulness is soon replaced with anxiety sitting heavy on my chest, "You have to do something! What can we do? Hyung she can't die!" I can't hold back the tears streaming down my face, this can't be happening. I just got her back, I can't loose her already.

Yixing sighs, "Baekhyun you gotta get a hold of yourself, you barely know this girl."

I run my fingers through my hair, barely keeping myself from pulling it all, "We need to save her. She needs our help, how are you not going to help her?"

"There might me nothing I can do."

"No!" I pull her out of his grasp and into my own, my arms wrap around my sweet baby, "It's going to be okay," I tell her. "We are going to fix you up and make sure nothing like this ever happens to you again. I'll keep you nice and safe." I rock us back and forth, my face buried in the crook of her neck.

My brother mumbles something under his breath before sighing loudly, "I'll see what I can do but you have to go get me some things."

I perk up, "What? I'll do whatever I have to do."

"I need some warm water from the kitchen and a few rags from the bathroom. I have to grab a few things from my medical area. We will meet back here in a couple of minutes, okay?"

"What if she wakes up? I don't want her to think she is alone."

"Okay, I'll go first, I'll be right back," He steps out of the room to go down stairs to the unused dungeon where the medical room is also located. I keep my sweet girl close to my chest, I murmur sweet words into her ear, hopping she can hear them and that they offer her a small amount of comfort. Yixing comes back a few moments later with a container filled with medical supplies. "You can go grab the water now, I grabbed some rags. I'm going to start looking her over."

I nod, it takes a moment for me to pull away but with one stern look from my brother I can force myself to let go. “I’ll be right back,” I promise her as I leave the room. My feet can’t move fast enough, I rush down the stairs to find a bowl in the kitchen. The longest part is me struggling to find the right temperature for the water, not wanting it to be too hot or too cold. I’m gone for five minutes at most, I go back up stairs trying not to spill the water and find Yixing looking her over with a soft look in his eyes.

He is sitting on the edge of the bed, one hand positioned by her head, propping him up while his other hand is caressing her face. He is supposed to be looking for her injuries, not checking her out! I’m ready to scream at him but I stop myself, he might take back helping her if I do. Plus I don’t need him telling the rest of our brothers about her. I’m not sharing her with all of them again. The younger ones are so fucking needy and the older ones are still so angry, none of them would react well. But Yixing, he isn’t the worst of them. I watch him with her a moment longer, his fingers tracing over her features once again, I could share with him.

“I’m back,” I announce in a soft voice, Yixing jumps off the bed, nervous to be caught. “I won’t judge you, you know. She is so beautiful.”

He scoffs, “I’m not like you Baekhyun. I’m not going to try that shit again with all of us.”

“It doesn’t have to be all of us, maybe just us. I wouldn’t mind sharing her with just you.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“I am,” I confirm confidently. “We don’t have to talk it all through right now but you look at her the same way I do so don’t act all high and mighty.” I come closer and place the bowl on the bedside table on his side before climbing back in bed with her. “Did you find what was wrong?”

He is silent for a moment before mumbling something under his breath. With gentle hands he urges me to take off her leather jacket and the t shirt that is underneath. “From what I can see she was grazed on her arm and the bump on the head, nothing else too crazy. It’s only the head wound we have to worry about.” I hear him talking but it all goes in one ear and out the other as I stare at her.

She is covered in scars, much like how are baby was after we got her back but this is worse. There are about a dozen circular burns on her chest alone, there seems to be a trail of them leading over her shoulder to her back. Her left arm is the one that is bleeding but it doesn’t appear to be it’s first time in a shoot out, there is a healed bullet wound on her shoulder, I find more and more the longer I look. At least seven from what I can see of her, including a few other questioning scars.

Before I can reach out and touch, my brother beats me to it, his fingers glide across her collarbone to her shoulder and down her uninjured arm, “What the hell happened to you?” He mumbles out loud. He pulls his hand back to reach for the wet rag. “The least we can do is fix you up as much as we can.”

I want to scoff at his sudden eager change in helpfulness but I know better than to press my luck with him. With gentle hands he wipes her arm down before holding it to the wound. Even unconscious she flinches from the pain, making me reach out for her. Yixing looks tempted to stop me but the small whimper that comes from her only encourages me. I lift her head to let it rest in my lap, her curls spread across my thighs. The ombré of her hair from natural dark roots to the brassy blonde tips reminds me of a sunflower. My brother continues cleaning her while I stroke her full cheeks and mumble soft words to comfort her.

Her full cheeks are so smooth beneath my finger tips, there are slight bumps here and there from the few beauty marks that grace her face. She has one like Marilyn Monroe to the right side of her plump rosy lips, two more beneath her left eye. I close my eyes to get myself to remember the color of her eyes, they were different this time, a dark brown but they glimmered under the street light when I first found her. I want to see them again, so bad. I just need her to wake up so I can see how she moves, I want to hear her voice again too. And her smile, I need it more than anything else right now. It’s probably so beautiful.

I find myself whispering the last bit out loud, “So beautiful.”

Yixing pauses, his eyes flick up to meet mine, then down to her face before focusing back on the job at hand. “She is,” He agrees. “Take this is hold it to the back of her head while I bandage this,” he thrusts the rag into my hands. I take it and does as he commands, cradling the rag against the back of her head. He makes quick work of her arm, wrapping her upper arm securely yet gentle at the same time.

“I wonder what her name is, Haneul called her little bird, didn’t she?” I ask the room. “Until we can ask you we can just call you that! Little bird,” I curl down so our faces are closer together.

“I’m surprised you even care to know her name. I thought she was just our baby’s replacement.”

I glare at him, “She isn’t a replacement! No one can replace her! This girl, our little bird, is our second chance.”

“She ran from us once already, what makes you think she won’t do it again?”

“Because we saved her! She’ll be grateful! Who runs away from the people who saved their life?”

Yixing scoffs, “People run away from us because of what we do and who we are. We aren’t some kind of heroes.”

“I guess we will see when she wakes up!”

“If she wakes up,” He quips to just be a dick. We turn her on to her side so he can look at the back of her head, “She should, just looking at it. She’s going to have a bump but she should be fine. Go grab an ice pack from the freezer.”

I just nod. I’m out of the room and rushing down the stairs faster than I’ve moved in awhile, not wanting to leave her for longer than I have to. I find the ice pack, grabbing a few water bottles and snacks as I sprint back the way I came. Outside the door I decided to go past it to my own room to collect something else. Back at Yixing’s door I’m surprised to find our bird in an oversized t shirt that obviously belongs to my brother. He’s sitting on the edge of the bed watching her again.

“She’s wearing your shirt.”

He looks to me, “So what? Her other one is ruined.”

“That’s why I brought her one of mine.”

“I already changed her, just give me the ice pack and get out. I’ll let you know if she wakes up.”

I laugh, “This is a fucking joke right? I want her to wear mine. And if she is sleeping anywhere in this house she will be sleeping in my room!”

“Stop being so dramatic. If you cause a scene someone is going to come see what’s going on.”

“You want me to stop being dramatic?” I nearly scream, “Fuck you! You said you didn’t want her! I want her with every part of me so either be honest with me and join me on this or get the fuck away from my bird!”

[smokeybrandreviews]

Sextuplets

Last year, Azur Lane was on fire. All year, there was hitter after hitter. New events, rerun events; It didn’t matter, the content was top tier. As a KMS main, i was eating really good. This year hasn't been as embarrassing in it’s riches, and not just because there has only been a single Iron Blood event. My Kraut dock is brimming with ships so I'm okay with that. Give the Ruskies and the Itais some love, they need it. No, I'm speaking more on the fact that new Events are few and far in between. The content this year, just isn’t as good as last, and it’s glaringly so. Don’t misunderstand me, i am very glad we got what we got. I was able to pick up New Jersey on a Rerun and Confluence of Nothingness added another UR option to my Kraut dock, bringing the grand total of my Rainbow options to four, so, even with this significant step back with the overall content being released this year, i am more than content. And then they dropped the new Priority Ships. Two of which are Iron Blood. One of which, is another Rainbow.

I am, as we speak, in the process of grinding out Hindenburg. She is one of the two Decisive ships available in Priority Six. The other is an Eagle Union entry, Kearsarge. I’m not going to lie, i might make a run at her, too. I rarely, if ever, use Eagle Union ships but it’s hard not to want Kearsarge. Her design is dope and she’s a beast. However, my Deutsch girls come first and Hindenburg takes priority. If she ends up being anything like her other Decisive kin, she’s going to be a real goddamn problem for my enemies. Fried, Otto, and Agir are mainstays in my first Fleet. Their damage and leadership perks make for a really intimidating, and daunting to battle against, Iron Blood contingent. More than that, Hindenburg appears to be a Vanguard ship and i am in dire need of Vanguard Rainbow options. I only have San Diego to fill that spot and, again, she’s an Eagle Union who i never use, not since actual, natural, Ultra Rares have been introduced. The grind to Hindenburg is as grueling as ever but i am nearing it’s end. I’m sitting on sixty-three percent of that ludicrous twenty-four million Experience; Just the last bit to go and then she will be mine. Then i can move on to the second Iron Blood option in this Priority, Felix Schultz.

Schultz is an interesting ship to me. I love her design, it smacks of Meltryllis from Fate/Grand Order and we all know how much i simp for that entire franchise, so it’s a forgone conclusion i was going to become a fan but i have no idea what I'm going to do with her. She’s another Destroyer in a dock lousy with Destroyers. Hell, we JUST got Otto in the last KMS event! That sh*t ended a month ago! AND she's one of the best in the game! Never mind Otto, we have Z46, Z1, Z16, Z2, Z24, Z25, Z26, Z28, Z35, Z36, Z20, and Z21. Then there's the Starter for Iron Blood, Z23 who, to this day, is still a top tier ship after her Retrofit. Which i obviously completed. Admittedly, there are only two Super Rare Destroyers, Otto and Z23, so Schultz is a welcome addition in that regard but, come on? Thirteen f*cking options BEFORE Felix is released?? Are you serious? Listen, my KMS choices are fruitful but, like, how about giving me a Rainbow Carrier or something? Sakura got two, Hakuryuu and Shinano. Eagle Union is sitting on Yorktown II and Enterprise. Hell, Implacable is one of the best Ships in the entire game. Slide some of that Air Superiority the German way. I understand that there is a certain amount of historical accuracy in this game so it makes sense that the Japanese and the US have all the jets while the Germans dominate with their torpedoes and U-Boats but, come on? Bismarck Zwei exists and that is a made-up boat! Make up a goddamn Rainbow Carrier then! Felix does look to be a pretty solid ship, though. I’m sure I'll find a way to incorporate her into a Primary Deployment or whatever. I just wish she was a Carrier.

Priority Six is an impressive lot, no doubt. I still think the best season was Four, just in terms of sheer diversity and power, but six is nice in it’s own right. I mean, it’s really hard to argue against a class which includes Anchorage, Hakuryuu, Agir, and August von Parseval, as the strongest. There’s a great mix of diverse strength in this new class and i find myself kind of wanting all of them for one reason or another. We’ll see how that goes after i finish developing Hindenburg and Felix Schultz. Obviously, i have an eye toward Kearsarge but I'm not sure i want to invest the resources, and time, into the other two. I just don’t care enough about the Vichya Dominion and already have ship that does what Shimanto does, ready for deployment as we speak. There is a decent chance I'll end up making a run at these other boats, though, if I'm honest with myself. Like i mentioned above, Azur Lane has been pretty light on the content this year. I have ample time to do other things. Like, I've already constructed and maxed out Hakuryuu, something i never really expected to do, so why not throw two more ships i have no real interest in, into that lot, too?

[smokeybrand]

Fallen Dynasty

This sh*t with Jonathan Majors is getting real serious, man. Dude is getting dropped by his representation left and right, more cats are alleging brutality, and Disney might have already fired the dude from the Kang role. This sh*t is wild to see, man. Majors was finally, deservedly, on the upswing with his career. Dude had some stellar performances under his belt, both Lovecraft Country and The Harder They Fall come to mind, but was poised to have his signature role, this far, really leave a mark. I was a little hesitant to give this man the nod as Kang the Conqueror when Marvel announced his casting, not because of his performance or his race, but because Kang is just a goofy ass villain. But then Majors sauntered through as He Who Remains and I was sold. That one episode we got of his, was more than enough for me to get behind what Feige had planned. Dude was so nonchalant about the destruction of an entire timeline, so smarmy with is inevitable fate. I loved it! I haven’t personally seen Ant-Man III but I’ve heard that Major’s performance as the Conqueror proper, is the best thing about that film. I was looking forward to The Kang Dynasty but all of that is up in the air now because of this chick’s allegations.

It must be stated that Majors has steadfastly denied the allegations and that his primary accuser has basically recanted her initial claims but, goddamn, does this sh*t look grim. His lawyer finally released the evidence she had and, while I think it reads clearly as someone who has come to their senses and wants to try to mitigate the damage they have done to a person’s life, I can see how it can be interpreted as another abuse victim kowtowing to their abuser. As one Twatter reaction stated, “This ain’t the flex you think it is.” I get that. I also get that Majors removed himself from the situation and it was he who called the cops that night. I also understand that the cabbie gave a statement and even handed over the video of the ride where the incident took place. For my money, Majors is being wrongfully accused because, you know, giant, rich, black man. Wouldn’t be the first time. Definitely won’t be the last. But this time is wild to me because of the worms coming out from under their years long hibernation on this subject to make their own claims. If Jonathan Majors abused this many people, if he was violent to all of these alleged victims, where the f*ck have they been? Major’s has been in the spotlight for some time and not a word. But now that he’s on the cusp of super stardom, there’s a line of bodies in his wake? Make it make sense.

I already addressed the stuff about the cats claiming battery from back in his college days but these new “victims” are nuts to me. I get that the case against him was floundering because of the recantation and the cabbie’s statement so now the cops needed way more, which they got. Sh*t just seems real fishy to me, especially considering that there are rumblings of coaching being caught on the body cam footage of the initial response. I imagine it’s not a coincidence that the strangulation charge was dropped but I digress. If that sh*t is sus, how am I supposed to take the sudden influx of other victims seriously? Obviously, I could be wrong and Jonathan Majors could be a decades long violent psychopath but that doesn’t feel real to me. It doesn’t feel accurate. It feels made up. It feels like a false claim. It feels like the systemic lynching of a another rich, famous, black man. But that remains to be seen. I want to believe Majors is innocent in all of this because I want him to be Kang. I want him to get that Marvel shine. I want him to be that superstar. We already lost Chadwick, we need Majors. Time will tell how history sees this situation but, so far, these optics are real bad.

[ravnicaforgoblins]

Ravnica for Goblins

8 Interesting Places

Welcome back to another look at the sprawling chaotic cityscape that is Ravnica! Are you tired of the usual taverns and back alleyways common to all D&D campaigns? Are there buildings and locations a normal city would have that just seem to be missing from the limited maps available in the GGtR? Do you not have time to scour through Ravnican lore on a Wiki? Well fret no more! Here today we have 8 interesting, exciting, and possibly extremely dangerous locations for your Ravnica campaign! As with most lore in this campaign setting transferred over from a trading card game, details are very scarce about these locations; where they are, what goes on there, what they look like, etc. You’re going to be filling in the holes with your own details. As you’re probably getting used to doing by now, when in doubt, make sh*t up.

#1 Udzec Maximum Security Prison

This is the Big House. You don’t end up here for a drunken brawl at the bar, kicking an Azorius Lawmage in the nuts, or being exposed as a Dimir operative in the Orzhov Syndicate. This is where the Azorius put away individuals who have proven themselves to be serious threats to Ravnican society. Such acts range from smashing up Tin Street to disintegrating an entire building to threatening the existence of the entire city of Ravnica!

Udzec is located in the Second Precinct of the 10th District (aka, the map you have to work from). Most of the Second Precinct is firmly Azorius territory. Their Guildhall is there, their offices, their courts, their prisons, their officers and officials. To this degree, the greatest defense measure for Udzec is the fact that breaking out of the prison itself doesn’t mean anything if you can’t get out of the whole precinct before every available Azorius arrester is on you.

#2 The Moon Market

Held only once in every 5 full moons, the pretty obviously named “Moon Market” is the mecca of forbidden wares and contraband. Anything guaranteed to get you arrested for possession of will be in there, as well as other potential buyers who, by the very fact that they are in this blackest of Black Markets, should not be messed with. This is where the nastiest, scariest, and most dangerous individuals come to shop. Rakdos Blood Witches, Golgari Lich Lords, Dimir Assassins, Orzhov Tithe Drinkers, and unaffiliated psychopaths just trying to make the voices happy. Good news, you don’t have to worry about law enforcement here! Bad news, anyone here may try to kill you and your body would never be found.

The market is held in the Sixth Precinct, run predominantly by the Orzhov and the Golgari. It’s a safe bet that half the population here is undead, making wandering around the precinct at night at best a death wish and at worst an undeath wish. This means anyone in your group who is a cleric, paladin, or specializes against undead should stay home. They are not welcome in this market and the very act of showing up is likely enough to cause a TPK.

That said, if you need to find something or someone extremely dangerous, this market is, ironically, a safe bet. And if you don’t find the exact evil you’re looking for, you’ll certainly find others.

#3 Duskmantle

There are two Duskmantles. Like with many Ravnican Guildhalls, the old one has fallen into disrepair and become lost to the passage of time. The original Duskmantle was founded by the Dimir Parun, Szadek, and was among the most well-kept secrets in Ravnica throughout his reign. It is now an even more well-kept secret, being forgotten by all, except perhaps Lazav, the current Dimir Guildmaster. While the Dimir are not the type to be swayed by such things as “nostalgia”, “sentimentality”, or “great history”, they are the type to value information no one else knows. Whose to say what might remain in this former headquarters of espionage and scheming? If you wanted to hide something, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better spot than a hidden underground fortress that literally erases your memories of it when you leave.

As to where it resides, that’s anyone’s guess. The Undercity is as big as (and in some cases even bigger than) the sprawling cityscape on the surface. Compounding this is the fact that the whole Undercity is effectively a deadly labyrinth that even citizens who spend their entire lives (or afterlives) residing in will never fully master. I suppose one could ask Lazav, but several things would need to happen first:

1. Find Lazav, who is specifically designed never to be found unless he wants to be.

2. Confront the ultimate spymaster without him escaping or killing you.

3. Convince an individual who is immune to being charmed, frightened, or scryed to give you one of his most cherished(?) secrets.

4. Trust the word of someone who is incapable of being caught in a lie.

5. Traverse the Undercity’s darkest, most dangerous passages and find one of the most heavily-warded constructions in history.

6. Leave with all the memories you entered with.

So yeah, if you’ve already done six impossible things today, why not take a trip to a gloomy underground cathedral for some treasure hunting?

#4 Catacombs of the Obzedat

Within Orzhova, the opulent Guildhall of the Orzhov Syndicate, there are bejeweled catacombs wherein past & present members of the Ghost Council are interred alongside the wealth and riches they accumulated in their lives. This is where the oldest records and dealings made by the Syndicate are kept, hidden away from all but the Guildmasters. This is the heart of Orzhov power. But even beyond the riches, something even more valuable also exists.

Ancient magic predating even the Guildpact lies within these walls, making it one of the only locations on the plane where the magically binding laws hold no sway. There really is no understating the value of such a place. In a city where the laws are the single most powerful magic in existence, immunity to such magic has value beyond measure. This room is one of the biggest secrets in all of Ravnica.

No matter what sort of campaign or story you’re running, this place is a game-changer. Whether a party is intending to rob it for treasure, use it for acts that break Guildpact laws, break free from an ancient debt, borrow some of its power to take elsewhere, hit the scheming Orzhov where it hurts, or have a climactic showdown without outside interference; this is the place to do it. Getting there is the hard part, and getting out again almost impossible if you raise alarms, but there’s no denying the possible rewards if you succeed.

#5 The Jester’s Crypt

Depending on where one lives, one can occasionally forget that a 30-foot-tall Giant Demon Lord of Chaos roams the streets. Under normal circumstances, this would be cause for great alarm in citizens. However, this is Ravnica, and a living embodiment of mayhem & hedonism is not the worst thing you have to deal with on a regular basis. Odds are you have more to fear from your tax collector than Rakdos the Defiler. The Demon Guildmaster of the cult named for him does whatever he wants, and if nothing going on in the city interests him, he may well stay in his lava pit for months or even years at a time, just sleeping.

Having the demon lord’s attention can be a blessing and a curse. Having his ire, however, is pretty much the worst fate one can suffer on Ravnica. Rakdos does not tolerate anyone stealing his spotlight. If you are the poor soul who does thus, he brings you to the Jester’s Crypt to torture you forever. There are no appeals, no one is coming to rescue you, and the only people you will ever see again are similar individuals to be tortured....and Rakdos himself. It’s a door everyone knows but no one ever asks what’s inside. To do so invites suffering beyond measure.

If you are a player, you do not want to ever see this place. If someone you love/care about is sent here, any rescue is going to take preparation out the wazoo. If you’re looking for a breeding ground for tortured souls and individuals capable of challenging Rakdos the Showstopper, there’s no better place to pull one out of. It’s basically a Big Bad breeding ground for demons and malcontents. Considering the spectrum of sins to get one sentenced here ranges from talking sh*t about Rakdos when you don’t think he can hear, to openly challenging him to a deathmatch for control of the Guild, you can conceivably pull NPCs of any & every CR rating from out of here.

#6 The Red Wastes

The Rubblebelt is Gruul territory that makes up the borders around the entire city. Most of it is composed of broken buildings, smashed pavement, and, predictably, rubble. Beyond the Rubblebelt, however, lie the Red Wastes. These are the true untamed wilds of Ravnica, the last in existence. Meaning this is where the beasties too big for the Gruul to wrangle would roam. Wurms, hydras, elementals, and any other giant monsters one can have in a D&D campaign. Out here there is no law, no Guilds, no backup, no nothing. Forest, desert, grasslands, maybe even some tundra; but that’s it.

If your party needs a break from the city or needs to go hunting for rare animals/plants, this is the place they’d go. Pure, undiscovered wilderness savage enough to withstand any attempts at colonizing for over 10,000 years. Anything could be out here.

#7 The Overgrown Tomb

Deep in the Undercity, sparingly touched by rare beams of outside light, lies the lair of Vraska the Unseen. What may have once been a fountain in a plaza is now an underground mausoleum covered in moss and the petrified remains of Vraska’s victims. Given Vraska can range from an urban legend told around campfires to the deadliest assassin in Ravnica or even the Golgari Guildmaster, this, her most private of secret lairs, is one of the most well-kept secrets in all of Ravnica (lot of those, aren’t there?)

If you’ve found the Overgrown Tomb, Vraska will be seeing you shortly. If she’s in the tomb already, prepare for high tension and a strong possibility of certain death and/or petrification. If she isn’t, that’s possibly worse. Anything stolen from her lair will guarantee you a spot on her “Everyone Should Die the Death They Deserve” List. Odds are, if you stole something, she’ll steal an organ or two in return. Which means either you stay awake for the next month straight and die from exhaustion waiting for her to slither out of the shadows to murder you, or you wait around for her and try to appeal to the better nature of a Gorgon Pirate Assassin Planeswalker to hear you out and not kill you on the spot for invading her lair. If your campaign involves eliminating Vraska, this is likely where the final battle will take place. Plus side, there’s nowhere for the assassin to run, which is what assassins typically try to do. Minus side, you are fighting the deadliest individual in Ravnica in her home.

Regardless of the circumstances that might lead one to the Overgrown Tomb, this is one of the coolest places to see from a player perspective. From a character perspective, it’s one of the most terrifying places to be.

#8 The Implicit Maze

Central to The Dragon’s Maze TCG set from Magic the Gathering’s sequel release to Ravnica is the Implicit Maze, aka the Dragon’s Maze, aka Azor’s Labyrinth, aka the Ravnican Mega Dungeon. The Implicit Maze was designed by the Azorius Parun Azor I, a Sphinx, in the unlikely event the Guildpact was ever broken. Like it was. The maze itself winds and navigates its way through the territory of every Guild, hitting each of the wonderfully drawn Guildgates whose art you can post for your players to admire. It goes underground, above ground, through markets, up buildings, and in & out of the entire city. In short, it goes everywhere.

Given the size of the city and therefore the size of any puzzle path snaking its way throughout, the Implicit Maze is truly gargantuan. One could feasibly set an entire campaign around just navigating it. As far as the actual design of the maze/dungeon, there is none, or at least none that’s been released thus far. Which means one can either design their own labyrinth, or find a maze generator, or even steal layouts from other D&D modules/campaigns and just replace with Ravnican NPCs and features. Whatever floats your boat.

If you need a dungeon or even a mega dungeon, this is it. Plus, it’s designed by a Sphinx, who are notorious for being way too smart for anyone’s good (even their own), so it could conceivably have or do anything. It can be whatever sort of puzzle you need for whatever sort of character is tackling it. After all, every Guild’s champion navigated it successfully, from the brilliant mental magic planeswalker Jace Beleren to Ruric Thar the two-headed giant who negotiates corrupt authorities by smashing them with a big club.

[awakening-girl]

Bloody Tears

(Author’s note. This was inspired by @teatitty and their awesome HCs, specifically the one about Diarmuid crying blood, but a lot of their HCs are mentioned.

Quick notes:

I love Fate, but I haven’t actually watched/read anything. Sorry if anything is OOC. Think of it as an AU if it helps.

Slight DiarCu, but it’s mostly at the end.

I’m using Ritsuka as the Master’s name. They/them pronouns.

Diarmuid here has not completely forgiven Fionn yet, he truly wants to though.

I’m also operating under the assumption that slight is the biggest contribution to Dia not getting that Holy Water(TM), even if Fionn regretted it instantly. Fionn is also not summoned yet, so they haven’t talked anything out yet.

Dia has had a bad day in general here, lots of self-loathing before the mission, bad memories + command seal trigger. I don’t touch on that, but that was my frame of mind when I wrote this.

This is like, the first thing I have ever posted. Constructive Criticism VERY appreciated.)

Diarmuid knows they'll be fine he knows it, but right now he can't believe it. They'll be fine, they'll be fine, they'll be fine. A mantra repeated wherever he goes in this godforsaken place. He hates it, he hates it, he hates it. All he wanted was to protect and serve his master like he couldn't do the last (two) times, he failed that too. He's a knight and he couldn't even protect the ones he holds so dear. Every time he closes his eyes he can see their body with that fresh, deep, red, lethal cut. Not that now is much better. The doctors are running diagnostics, so many things made of iron he gets migraines just being there but he stayed as long as he could, he had to be near his Master. He got kicked out after some time, no explanation given. Now he wanders the halls, listening to the pity of fellow spirits and staff. He can't do it anymore. 

He bolts as fast as he can down the hallway, down down down. Corridor 5 flashes by, as do 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. He stops at 10, hides in a little nook and climbs up on a crate. No one will find him here. This place hasn't been touched since they fixed the hole Beowulf made. Curling around himself, dog tags clinking slightly as they collide together he fights back a sob. He did everything perfectly! He was loyal, brave, just... he did everything perfectly and finally got his reward. A master to serve who never held him in contempt, who understood what he'd been through and didn't blame him. Didn't abandon him. And then, they were at death's door because he couldn't spot something so obvious!

Diramuid grabs his tags and chokes back another sob. He's shaking, and he hates it, he hates crying. He runs through everything he can think of to calm himself down, but he always comes back to one memory. His dear foster father Aenghus telling him that his tears are unnatural. That he cries as if his eyes bleed. In hindsight, Diarmuid understands that his father was simply warning him not to cry in front of human strangers, but as a child it imprinted. He became scared of letting anyone see him cry, to let anyone see his face as it dried. Vulnerability was a concept he didn't allow himself to personify. His father’s face flashes again and the first drops fall. Green stains red as he tries his best to stop it. To stop crying blood. He can't even hear anything until he sees a flash of blue. 

Diarmuid wipes his eyes again and looks down. A lancer stares up at him. "Hey, you okay Dia?" A soft voice asks. F*ck. Of all the people to see him, it had to be Cú. Handsome, cool, confident, amazing Cú. Just his luck. Diarmuid lowers his face into his knees. "I'm fine." He hoped it wouldn't come out chocked, but fate never seems to take him into account. Cú doesn't seem to notice. "Are you sure? Everyone is shaken up by Ritsuka’s injury. I thought you might take it worse than some other people." Of course. This is just Cú showing pity- "I know you were there when it happened. Those guys are tough as nails. All your focus was on the front or you, and Ritsuka would have been killed. You did your best, who knew that there was an assassin hiding in the woods? You did your absolute best, and that's all that matters." Another sob escapes from Diarmuid’s grasp. That gets Cú's attention. "Hey, are you crying?" Sh*t sh*t sh*t. "No... You're just imagining things." Diarmuid hugs himself a little closer, barley looking at Cú. He does manage to catch how Cú's expression softens. "You are, aren't you? Damn, I should have noticed it earlier."

The blue-haired lancer climbed up on the crate, perching himself right next to Diarmuid. He places a gentle hand on Diarmuid's back and Diarmuid can't choose between flinching away or leaning into the heat, so he freezes in place instead. Cú moves closer, closer, too close. If he wasn't focusing everything on not crying in front of his childhood crush he might have squealed. He doesn't know what would be worse, crying or squealing. "C'mon Diarmuid. It's okay, it's not your fault. Ritsuka is gonna be okay, they're strong." Diarmuid wants to believe him, to agree, instead, he turns his head away. Cú just gently turns his head towards him, a soft gracing the Ulster warriors features. "You know I'm always here for you right?" You know I'm always here for you right? That was all that was needed to break any defense Diarmuid could muster. His resolve crumbled to pieces in seconds. He started sobbing without remorse, choking from the power of an opened floodgate. Blood flowed freely from his eyes now. "Oh..." Diarmuid can feel himself being pulled into a hug, any thought of putting up resistance had vanished since long, instead, he complies and lets his head rest against Cú's chest.  His bloody tears stains every surface it touches, but the curly-haired lancer isn't in the right mind to notice. He cries and cries and cries, letting himself cry for all those times he hed it in, for his masters' betrayals and deaths, for everything and nothing, for the sake of crying. It's a strange feeling, pure relief washing over him. Cú sits there, whispering comforting words in Irish while stroking his back. The Child of Lights natural heat comforting for a lancer with skin so cold.

They sit there for what feels like hours, Diarmuid's sobs weakening to small hiccups. "You know, it's kinda cool how you cry blood." Diarmuid scoffs. "Yeah right." The blood on his face has dried, making two large streaks down to his chin. It almost looks like warpaint, nicely contrasted with skin paler than usual. The personal guard dog of Ulster simply smiles a toothy grin. "I'm serious! It looks cool, like your main character in one of those video games." The fae-raised child laughed at that. "You and I have seen very different video games." "Alright, a violent video game then. Happy?" Diarmuid nods. "Yeah. Thanks. And... I'm sorry, you really shouldn't have seen me in such a state. That was... not proper of me." Cú just shakes his head. "Nah, that's what friends are for. Besides, you looked like you needed that." Right, they're friends, Diarmuid smiles at that. "Right," he looks down on the blue lancer's shirt and chuckles, "I think I owe you a new shirt though." "Hm?" Cú looks down. Two big splotches of dried blood reside near the middle of Cú's chest. "Oh, that's nothing a good wash and some hydrogen peroxide can fix." The older of the pair climb down, motioning for the other to follow. "C'mon Dia, everyone is worried about you. Let's go back, I'll make you some honeyed toast." That got the other man's attention. He jumps down from the crate and lands next to Cú. "Pff- You do love that stuff." Diarmuid playfully jabs the other man. "Yeah, it's delicious, not that you would ever know, you refuse to try it." Cú begins to walk away, grabbing Diarmuid by the hand. "Well, I'll try it after my shirt is washed. Promise." Diarmuid suddenly laughs. "Hahaha! You realized that you made a promise to a fae right?" Said promise maker just turns back with a smile. "And I am in the habit of keeping my promises. Not going to break that one just yet."

"Hey..." Cú stops and turns towards Diarmuid. "Hm? What is it, Dia?" Diarmuid just smiled, the most sincere one the Ulster child has seen from the other. "Thank you for everything... Sétanta."

Cú Chulainn's brain shortcircuited that day.

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