#that THIS time i might be able to dodge the incoming attack i can clearly see coming (i can't)

[maliro-t]

some game design thinky thoughts.

[emilyhufflepufftlk]

The Blind Monk

TLK x Daredevil Crossover

MASTERLIST

A/N: This was posted on AO3 back in March, I re-read it recently and decided to post it here as well. This is a crossover with the Netflix/Marvel show, Daredevil, however no prior knowledge is needed.

Brother Matthew is blind but can see better than any man. God has given him a gift and he uses it to protect his monastery from raiding Danes. Uhtred, Finan, Sihtric and Osferth come across Matthew's monastery after a Dane attack, but are surprised what they find.

Word Count: 1,518

Warnings: some violence

Read on AO3 if you prefer

Shafts of early morning light poured from the windows of the dark chapel as the group of monks knelt for their morning prayers. One monk sat away from the others, his eyes covered with a cloth bound around his head, his staff positioned beside him. He was a strange kind of monk, young and fit with the body of a warrior rather than a man of God. Indeed, he had once been a soldier in the great King Alfred’s army, before his injury at Beamfleot had put his fighting days to an end. Despite losing his eyes at the hands of the Danes, the monk could see better than any of his fellow brothers. He had a gift from God, or so the monks said. Many said that he had the gift of prophesy, able to warn of incoming riders before they came into view and able to pre-empt the movements and decisions of others. Although they believed he saw the future, the monk knew that his gift was entirely different in nature. He was able to warn of riders because he could hear the hooves of their horses trampling the earth from a mile away. He could tell when a man was lying or anticipating an attack from his heart rate that he was able to hear as clear as his own. He knew how long men had been on the road from the way they smelt and could react to a man’s movements due to the tiny tremors in the ground underneath his feet and in the air around him. God had indeed given him a gift, one that allowed him to observe the world in far more detail than any seeing man.

The blind monk tilted his head, a low rumble far off in the distance drawing his attention away from his prayers. Slowly he got to his feet. ‘Brother Matthew, what is it?’ one of his fellow brothers asked.

‘Danes,’ he replied calmly, ‘they are coming.’ The monks rose to their feet, crossing themselves and bowing their heads to the cross before leaving the chapel. Brother Matthew had been correct in his predictions too many times for them to doubt him. They gathered all the valuables they could carry and headed to the woods. No doubt the Danes would tear their monastery apart, taking anything they found of value, and possibly burn it to the ground, but with God’s mercy they should live.

---

‘Lord!’ Sihtric called from just behind them, ‘Look! Smoke!’

Uhtred looked to where his friend was pointing. Dark clouds of smoke were rising above the treeline, an ominous sign that the land was still not at peace.

‘Danes, Lord?’ asked Finan.

‘I would not be surprised,’ answered Uhtred. They were in an area of Mercia not far from Danelaw, the villages and churches would no doubt provide easy pickings for Danish raiding parties. ‘Let’s go and see if there are still any Danes to kill.’

---

‘I see no one, Lord,’ Osferth observed, walking between the burning remains of the monastery.

‘Perhaps they took them as slaves?’ Finan offered, but Uhtred shook his head.

‘Danes do not make priests slaves. They kill them, and they enjoy it.’

‘Lord,’ Sihtric said in a low voice, barely above a whisper. ‘We are being watched.’

Uhtred gave a silent order to Sihtric with a simple nod, they had been fighting together long enough not to have to communicate with words. He walked away from the others and circled round behind the building where he had spotted the figure who watched them. Several minutes of silence followed.

‘It’s alright, Lord,’ Sihtric called to them, ‘it is only a monk.’ He returned moments later, half dragging the monk along beside him.

‘Are you going to kill me?’ the monk asked, clearly terrified. ‘We have nothing to give you. Danes have already taken everything we have.’

‘We are not here to harm you,’ Uhtred reassured him, ‘we serve the Lady Aethelflaed of Mercia. We wish to help you.’ The monk relaxed a little but continued to be uneasy, looking from Uhtred and to Sihtric and back again, obviously weary of men who looked so much like Danes.

‘It is alright, brother,’ a voice came from behind one of the buildings, ‘he is Lord Uhtred of Bebbenburg. He is a friend, and he will not harm us.’ A blind monk walked out towards them, using his staff to guide himself.

‘Do I know you?’

‘Before I was a monk, I was a warrior. I fought at Beamfleot, Lord. I recognised your voice,’ the blind monk explained. ‘My name is Brother Matthew, please come with me, you must be hungry after your long journey.’

---

‘Here, eat this, lord.’ One of the monks handed Uhtred a bowl of hot stew. They sat in a small clearing in the woods next to a small river. It appeared that the monks had hidden provisions in the woods for just this situation.

‘How did you escape? We saw no bodies at the monastery?’

‘We were forewarned, lord. We were able to run to the woods before they arrived.’

‘Who warned you?’

‘God is great. He guides us.’ The monk’s answer made Uhtred roll his eyes. He was about to make some sarcastic comment when he was interrupted.

‘Everyone be quiet,’ Brother Matthew ordered. Uhtred frowned, not liking taking orders from a monk. ‘Danes, they are here in the woods.’

‘And how the hell do you know that?’ Finan asked, a sceptical look on his face.

‘How I know is not relevant. They are coming and my guess is that they wish to kill us,’ Matthew snapped.

‘How many men? From which direction?’ Uhtred demanded.

The blind monk stayed incredibly still for a moment, slightly cocking his head to one side as if listening intently. ‘Twelve, lord. They come from all directions; they mean to surround us.’

‘Lord, what do we do?’ Sihtric asked, his eyes darting from tree to tree trying to spot the imminent danger.

There was only four of them, plus the monks who he doubted could fight. That meant they would have to take three each; they had faced worse odds in the past and survived. If the monk was to be believed, Uhtred had few choices available to him. He turned to face his men. ‘We fight.’

---

The Danes came from all sides, pinning them against the river. There were twelve of them, just like the monk had said. Uhtred and his men were the better fighters, but they were outnumbered one to three and had the monks to protect. It was a fight that they seemed unlikely to win. Uhtred swung his sword with all his might, fighting two Danes at once. Finan and Sihtric fought back to back beside him, taking on five men between them. He couldn’t see Osferth but heard the clash of his sword behind him, defending the monks that had retreated to the river. They had dispatched several of the Danes to Valhalla already but there were still too many left standing.

Suddenly one of the Danes he was fighting was no longer on his feet, instead he was bent double in pain. Uhtred did not see who had cast the blow to the man’s stomach, too focused on the other men that attacked him from all sides. He rammed his sword through a large Dane’s throat, blood pouring down his neck and flooding his mouth as he fell to the floor. He turned to where Finan and Sihtric fought, ready to run to his friends’ aid but found he was not needed.

Over half the Danes lay dead or wounded on the ground. Finan and Sihtric stood over the two they had just killed and Uhtred watched as Osferth slit open the belly of another. That left only three fighting, and yet none of them were fighting Uhtred or his men. Instead they stood and watched as the blind monk fought them, using his staff as a club. He hit with great precision, dodging and swerving attacks better than most able sighted men. He twirled the staff around and landed a blow to one of the Dane’s head, knocking him to the ground. The monk then knocked the legs from under the other two men, causing them to stumble to the ground. With two strong wielded blows of his staff they lay unconscious on the ground.

They all stood dumbfounded. It would have been a shock to see a monk fight like that even without him also being blind. Uhtred could not understand how a warrior could fight without eyesight, your other senses were important in battle, but they could never compensate for the loss of sight completely.

‘God has granted me a gift, Lord Uhtred,’ the blind monk explained. ‘He works in the most mysterious of ways. Wouldn’t you agree?’ And with that he left them, walking over to where the other monks stood, shaken but unharmed. Uhtred looked at Finan, his friend as confused and shocked as he was. It seemed neither of them were sure what they had just witnessed.

@morosemagick @magravenwrites @solinarimoon @lauwrite1225 @thebohemianpenguin @93xdiagonxalley

[candyopala]

Stuck in his ways, chapter 2

Chapter summary: Y/N has to prove herself to her new mentor, will she be able to beat Obito Uchiha in battle? Can she get over her annoyance with him and concentrate enough to do so?

Words: 1.4k

AO3

Please reblog or leave a like if you enjoy <3 

“What?!”

“Take these from me until noon and I’ll train you, fail to do so and you might as well leave Konoha.” He reaffirmed while dangling the pair of little bells in front of her. 

“Huh, like you have the power to get me kicked off-“

“You can either find out about that the easy or the hard way.”

“…”

Obito distances himself from her and shouts: 

“Begin!”

Y/N stands in place confused. She does not know if he is bluffing or not and at this point, after everything she went through to join the village, her best option is to entertain her rude mentor in this challenge. He also could use a beating to put him back in his place, no one should be so rude without any repercussions. 

She also starts thinking about how to approach this. He is an Uchiha and has one of those eyes, so any jutsu she tries he will copy instantly, not that she can do any jutsu that could be relevant in a fight, thanks to her low chakra level. Y/N also has heard about the clan’s proficiency with fire, but that is all she got, since the Uchihas tend to hide their clan secrets very well from any prying eyes.

“Hey dumbass! Are you going to be standing there until the time goes out? Come on, I’ll make sure to not use genjutsu on you to make things more fun” And again that smirk appears on his face. 

Fuck it, my blade it is. He is going to pay for this. 

“Kai!”

Y/N lunges at Obito at an incredible speed pointing her long blade at him, barely visible to any normal eyes. The man does not even flinch or move. When she thinks that she might have got him unprepared, her blade goes right through his abdomen without perforating anything or dealing any damage, as if he is a mere illusion. 

Is this genjutsu? No, I just did the release sign, it can’t be! A clone? No, not a clone…

She strikes again and is surprised to see her attack go right through Obito, who is still standing there with his hands on his hips. She strikes again, and again, and again for about four minutes straight… but to no avail. 

“Come on, stop playing with me Uchiha creep!”

A small noise is heard behind her, and as she shifts her eyes in that direction, she is surprised with a kick in the gut by Obito, who has not left his position yet. The kick throws her a couple meters back, making her hit a nearby tree with full force, not enough to take the air out of her lungs, but enough to surprise her. 

At first, she thinks her eyes might be tricking her, but she is sure she saw the man teleport himself away in a weird spiral. She will never admit it, but she has not been scared shitless like this in a while.

Retreating to a secure location and masking her chakra, she tries again to analyze the situation, but she still cannot fully comprehend this ability of his. His sharingan is active, so it has to have something to do with it. A hunch comes to her mind, more of a wild guess, but it’s all she has: if it has something to do with his eyes, it’s tied to his chakra, so it might run out eventually… right? The problem is: her reserves are already naturally low and the Uchiha are also famous for having loads of chakra, can she even compete with something like this? 

Fuck, you have defeated hundreds of nukenin worse than this, you have to try, for him. 

“Giving up already, Y/N?” he says while emerging again in the middle of the field. 

And with this, she emerges out of the bushes she was hiding in at rapid speed, throwing a fully charged chakra punch to the ground, which makes large chunks of rock fly out. In a matter of milliseconds, she uses each chunk as a platform to run around the Uchiha, swinging her sword at him in the expectation of catching the Uchiha off guard, but to no avail again. Every single attack go through him again and she is met with huge fireballs dancing around her, which cost even more stamina to dodge through. As she tries to manage to run away from the fire surrounding her, Y/N sees something interesting: dust accumulating in his vest while he performs his attack. 

She approaches Obito again and begins swinging her sword again, each attack useless one more time. 

 ~”~  

 I can’t believe she still insists on the same thing again and again, hasn’t she noticed that kamui makes me immune to this? What’s wrong with her?

 Obito has to give credit to Y/N though, she might be comparable to Minato sensei in speed, even faster if only raw speed is considered, since she does not seem to be using any teleportation techniques or jutsus to achieve this. Her ability with a sword is also not bad though, not bad for someone who never had any formal training. 

However, no natural talent can be enough if used by someone so… stubborn and irrational. He knows he might have went in a little bit too far with the dumbass, but he did not expect her to have such a reaction. Not to mention her clear problem with authority, she was able to disrespect him as a superior in so little time. 

The Uchiha decides to stop his reflection when he remembers that she is still lunging at him with full force and that his kamui is reaching, once again, its limit of five consecutive minutes, besides his chakra reserve that is getting dangerously low after using the dancing fireball jutsu so much. 

He notices that her left side defense is open during one more of her attacks, so he decides to go for it, trying to kick her away from him again so that he can recover himself. To be honest he is still quite lost in his thoughts, too distracted and bored, so much so that he is surprised when a leg meets his side and a hand touches one of the bells, so quickly that he is barely able to throw himself back and to prevent her from getting the bells. 

What the fuck?! Is the only thing that comes to mind. 

Time is almost over, since it is already 11:30 am. Obito considers teleporting away from her but is surprised again, by her approaching him at a great speed, and with her standing so close, she would be teleported with him making the whole thing useless. 

When he thinks that she might start her completely crazy restless attacks again he is once more caught off guard when she just stands near him, close enough that he can hear her labored breathing. The close proximity scares him and makes him insanely uncomfortable, so much that he forgets about attacking her in any way. He has not allowed anyone so close since… since… her. The sheer intensity in Y/N’s eyes also amaze him, it’s nothing like his old friend, but at the same time he can’t help to feel something in his stomach that reminds him of her. 

His back touches a tree, bringing him back to reality. He activates kamui again to dodge an incoming attack, but she just stands there completely still with her blade going through his stomach. 

She figured it out

Obito is once again stumped. She someway, somehow figured out how kamui works and is waiting for it to run out. He tries to dodge and run away in every possible way, but he is always met, once again, with her blade insistently on his stomach, not giving him enough time to recover himself. 

As the five minutes mark comes up, he once again tries to lunge himself away, as to not get himself stabbed. When he tries to move to the right, her blade makes a small cut on the side of his right arm and she kicks him away, finally reaching for the bells. 

While he gets himself off the ground all embarrassed, the newbie approaches him with the bells in hand, stumbling onto her own feet, clearly exhausted. It is true that he has become too reliant on kamui like Kakashi said, after all. He ended up underestimating her far too much. She reaches him with a smile on her face, one so big and genuine… he is even more embarrassed for being so mean to her. 

“Wh-Who’s the dumbass now, huh?” is all she says before collapsing beside him. 

Well, never mind. 

[fishfingersandjellybabies]

Still a Little Bit Yours (Part 2) - fic

Characters: Jon Kent, Damian Wayne, various Batfam Pairing: jondami Summary: If there was one thing the world needed to learn, it was that you don’t hurt those Jonathan Kent loves. A/N: This is just basic smoop sprinkled with angst. Bruce gave Cass and Duke special permission to be extra rough on those who kidnapped Damian/hurt them in the first place. Jon and Damian wake up to Bruce on the chair and like half the fam sleeping on the end of the bed. Damian gets so mad at them. Let him sleep with his boyfriend in peace, dammit! Jon ends up now never leaving the bed and basically becomes Damian’s personal pillow as his recovery continues.

Part One | Part Two

~~

That call. That was all they needed, it turned out. The call that shattered Jon’s whole world was the one thing that might help piece it back together.

Even though it’d been over a month, the Bat-tech was able to hone in on the signal easily, and they were in the air and on their way back to France within three hours of Jon and Tim’s arrival to the Batcave.

Bruce wasn’t thrilled. He’d told Jon to go home at least seven times, that they’d contact him when Damian was safe. But at this point, Jon couldn’t believe that, not when they didn’t tell him he was missing in the first place.

He was even less thrilled when Jon grabbed the Justice League communicator out of his hand and smashed it, when Bruce said he was going to call Clark to take him back to Metropolis.

“I’m not ten anymore, Bruce.” Jon reminded with a dark giddiness as he dropped the shattered pieces onto the table. “And Damian is my boyfriend.”

“Is he still?” Jason quipped from nearby, hooking guns to his holsters. Tim had caught them all up with Jon’s side of things. “I mean…you just spent the last month thinking you were broken up and getting over him, right?”

“As part of the family that went to Apokolips to collect his dead body and resurrect him, I don’t think I have to tell you, Jason.” Jon grinned widely. “You don’t just get over Damian Wayne.”

Jason thought a moment, then snorted a laugh and clapped a hand on Jon’s shoulder.

“Okay. I get why he fell in love with Boy Scout Jr. now.” He chuckled.

“…For what it’s worth.” Jon added sheepishly, though, as Jason moved away, and Cassandra and Stephanie approached, moving towards their jet. “…Even if the breakup was real, I…I still wasn’t coping very well with it.”

The women both just smiled knowingly, and Steph jumped up to ruffle at his hair. And for a moment, Jon remembered that, for as much as he missed Damian the last month, he missed seeing the other Bats almost as much.

Bruce grumbled the rest of the time they spent gathering supplies and weapons about how Jon shouldn’t be there, and he didn’t want him nor his help. It was eventually Dick and Duke who took Bruce to the side and had him see the light. Begrudgingly allow Jon to come along.

“On one condition.” Bruce demanded, stomping up to him near the jet’s door. It’d already been decided that Jon would fly alongside the plane. “You do not engage. This is still an open investigation, and I don’t need you accidentally destroying any evidence.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it. I’m only there for Damian anyway.” Jon returned just as gruffly. “You guys be offense, I’ll be defense and extraction. No problem.”

Bruce glared at him for a moment more before raising his cowl and disappearing into the ship. Dick sighed from nearby, following after.

“He’s just worried.” He promised. “About you and Damian. And after already losing Damian like this, the thought of what might happen to you, he…”

Dick trailed off, and Jon was suddenly reminded that he was a lot closer to fifty than thirty these days, and had already lost a lot. Had already lost Damian a lot. And, clearly, it never got easier. Not for Dick or Bruce, or anyone in their family.

“…He’s still alive, Dick.” Jon whispered with what he hoped was an encouraging smile. “I can still hear his heartbeat. He’s still here, just…waiting for us.”

Dick nodded absently, before he met Jon’s gaze and let his mask of cautious hope fall across his face. “Then let’s go get him, Jonno.”

The flight was long. Too long. And even alone outside the ship, Jon listened through the communicator as the Bats planned their attack, outlined the known schematics of the compound that they found, and any potential hidden areas they might have missed.

At least every ten minutes, Bruce was reminding Jon that he was to not get involved. That he was there for Damian’s defense and safety only.

Jon only rolled his eyes, muttered an exasperated, “Yes, sir.” And focus on the heartbeat that got closer every second.

(Closer…and slower. But he didn’t share that part with the rest of the rescue party.)

The compound wasn’t far from where Duke and Cassandra had been beaten and abandoned, but the reason they couldn’t find it afterwards was because it was underground, and seemingly cloaked with tech none of them had ever seen before.

“Alien?” Duke had asked as they neared it.

“Or bankrolled by some selfish rich fuck.” Jason countered. “We’ll find out if Bruce Wayne does a hostile takeover of any companies here in the next week or so, I bet.”

“Hm.” Bruce grunted. But it wasn’t a no, so they all shared one last pre-battle laugh anyway.

They circled the area for a moment, doing some last minute recognizance. “I hear at least twenty-five heartbeats besides Damian’s, Batman.” Jon called. He flicked to his x-ray vision. “And they’re spread between what looks like two rooms.”

“Evenly?” Tim asked.

“Mmm, it doesn’t look like it.” Jon decided. “Looks like a 70-30 split.”

“Damian?” Cassandra asked softly.

“Can’t tell for sure.” Jon scanned the space again, just in case. “One body looks like it could be him, and it’s in the room with less people.”

“Remember, Superman-” Bruce started, but Jon, suddenly out of patience, cut him off.

“I’m defense. You’re offense. I’m there to get Damian out and that’s it.” He rolled his eyes. “I know, Batman.” He curled his hands into fists. “Now are we just going to hover up here all day or are we finally going to go get him?”

There was a moment of silence. Then Bruce calmly, emotionlessly, stoically announced:

“On my mark.”

For as grouchy, bossy, and by-the-book Batman always acted – he was still just a big kid with big toys. And his mark wasn’t a word, but an action. And that action was turning the nose of the jet towards the ground, so he could crash land into the underground bunker of the freaks who’d kidnapped his son.

Jon grinned, and suddenly remembered why Batman was a lot of people’s favorite superhero.

He stayed off to the ship’s side, just in case. In case Bruce actually lost control of the ship, if any of the other Bats ended up hurt in the process. So he listened as the nose slammed into the earth for any screams of pain.

But all he heard was the screeching of metal, and the crashing of ceiling materials as the jet lodged itself into the roof of the compound. There were screams now, of surprise from the building’s inhabitants, and shouts for some to grab weapons.

One last shout from Stephanie as Bruce opened the cockpit, and the Bats began to file out like ants. “Oh fuck yeah, was that fun!”

Everyone was fine. Everyone was safe.

So time to do his job and find the one that wasn’t.

He dove through the lingering smoke, dodging bodies being thrown by the mini-army of vigilantes that had just arrived. Dodged weapons from the incoming henchmen as they raced into the room to help their colleagues.

Jon didn’t pay them much mind other than to notice that their clothing was a little off. There wasn’t any body armor or helmets. Just dark maroon robes, sashed belts. They almost looked like priests.

You know, if they weren’t running at him with guns and knives and…was that one carrying an unlidded jar of acid?

He didn’t care. The Bats could handle them.

He tried to remember what he saw with his x-ray vision as he weaved through the halls. Bruce had crashed into the room with the most people, so that stood to reason that the pseudo-priests Jon had seen were coming from the room with less people. The smaller room, the room where he thought Damian was.

Well, if those priests came from where Damian was, that was even less people to take out than he was originally planning.

He let Damian’s heartbeat guide him. And for a moment, he remembered when he listened for it after the ‘breakup.’ How he thought the slowness of it meant Damian was calm, relaxed.

God, how could he be so stupid? It didn’t mean he was calm. It meant he was fucking dying. How could Jon be so dense? How could he not notice?

He reached a closed door and could hear panicked voices behind it, could hear Damian’s heartbeat at the loudest it’d been so far.

The door didn’t stand a goddamn chance.

He recognized that Damian wasn’t near it, so kicked the door as hard as he could without a care. It practically disintegrated under the heel of his boot. He heard the other people in the room scream as they were showered with splinters but didn’t care. Didn’t care about anything else right now.

He let his heat vision take over his vision as he stepped into the room. There were three people in here, each holding crude weapons – a stick, a shattered bottle and a chair.

“Leave.” Jon ordered. The people cowered only slightly, but stood their ground. And Jon didn’t have time for that. “Or I’ll make you.”

They gave it one last moment to try and be brave, and any other time Jon might commend them for it. Try to talk them down, be more like his dad.

But this wasn’t any other time.

So he turned to the chair and used his heat vision to turn it to ash.

And that was enough. The other two dropped their weapons and held up their hands. Jon shifted out of the doorframe and watched them as they ran for safety.

He stared after them until they turned a corner, going away from the sanctuary Bruce and the others were in, a bonus of course, though he knew the Bats could have handled them. Then he quickly turned back, scanning the room.

It wasn’t a jail cell, or a dungeon. Just an empty, ugly, dark room. There was a table in the corner, and a TV that showed the field outside, acting almost like a window.

There was a closed curtain in the corner, that clearly hid an alcove of some sort. Damian’s heartbeat was coming from there.

Jon doesn’t know how he crossed the room. One second he was by the door, and the next he was at the curtain, slowly pulling it back. Did he float? Did he run? He didn’t know.

“Damian?” He whispered as he tugged the sheet away. “Can you hear…?”

The question died on his lips at the sight in front of him. It was Damian all right, half naked and huddled against the corner of this makeshift pantry. He was thin, so thin, like he hadn’t eaten in the month since he’d been taken. His hair was longer, past his ears, and dirty. The grease shone in the dim light.

There were bruises and cuts all over his body, some of them looked infected. His eyes were black and swollen, his lip split in multiple places. Dried blood caked along his nostrils.

But that might not have even been the worst part.

Though, really, was there just one single worst part? Were the heavy chains around Damian’s neck, wrists and ankles that latched him to the wall the worst part? Or was it the barrage of needle marks that twisted up his inner arms all the way up to his jaw?

Jon’s eyes filled with tears. But not from pain, like they usually did. Not from hurt or emotions.

From utter, blinding fury.

They did this to him. Those fucking fake priests that he’d just showed mercy to did this to him. To Damian. To the love of his fucking life.

He’d kill them. He’d go snap all their necks right now. Break every bone in each of their bodies and let them die slowly and painfully. Then burn them into ash and throw their remains in a dumpster.

He even felt himself take a step back, to do just that. But stopped when he heard Damian let out a wheezing exhale.

“Damian?” He asked again. Damian had never answered the first time. Was he even conscious? Was he aware of what was happening? He took the last few steps forward and kneeled, putting a hand on Damian’s shoulder. “D, can you hear me?”

Damian tensed at his touch and tried to jerk away, but just ended up bouncing his shoulder painfully against the stone wall behind him. When he looked up, his eyes looked almost feral, but them immediately softened as recognition took hold.

He blinked once. Twice. “…Jonathan?”

Jon swallowed the lump in his throat and nodded with a sad smile.

“What are you doing here?” Damian asked, even as Jon shifted his hand from Damian’s shoulder to his face. Damian’s skin was cold. “They…” Damian’s eyes were suddenly angry. “If they’ve laid a hand on you, I swear I’ll-”

“Nothing of the sort.” Jon promised. “We’re here to get you out of here. Take you home.”

Damian blinked and slumped back. “We?”

“Your family.” Jon explained vaguely as he let his hand fall, run gently over a scab along Damian’s chest. “God, I’m so glad I found you.”

“…I’m sorry.” Damian murmured, and Jon looked up at him in confusion. “I…I lost track of the days some time ago, but you must have been worried sick. I’m sorry for causing you any distress.”

Jon’s stomach twirled in guilt. Because he wasn’t worried, not at all. And was now the time to say that? To say ‘Oh, no, I wasn’t worried, because it turns out the psychopaths who kidnapped you pretended to be you and broke up with me.’?

No. No it absolutely fucking wasn’t.

“…Nothing is your fault.” Jon decided on. He reached forward and grabbed the collar around Damian’s neck, snapping it with a quick jerk of his hands. He followed suite with the chains around his arms and legs too. “Can you walk? Your family is taking care of the others, my only job is to get you safe.”

“…I don’t know.” Damian hummed honestly, eyes fluttering slightly. “And I don’t know if my body is strong enough to try right now.”

Jon looked back up at him with another smile. Less sad this time, more genuine. Let it reach his eyes. “No problem.” He returned his hand to Damian’s face, gently pushed his long hair out of the way. Without thinking, he leaned forward and kissed Damian as gently as he could, then pressed their foreheads together. “Jesus, I’m just…just so glad you’re alive.”

Damian scoffed a quiet laugh, and opened his mouth to retort, but suddenly there was a noise from the room behind them. They both looked back to see Batman storming in through the door.

“Superboy?” He asked as he stopped, glanced around Jon. “We…all good here? You found him?”

Jon squeezed Damian’s face just slightly before standing and turning back. “Yes, sir. Alive and well.”

Bruce nodded. “And the rest are taken care of. So let’s get the hell out of here.”

Jon nodded. “Can you help me get him up? I don’t think he can walk real well right now.”

Bruce seemed to hesitate, glancing past Jon’s shoulder again, but nodded, and took a step towards him.

And as soon as he was close, Jon grabbed the side of his head and slammed it through the closest wall.

“…That’s twice now you’ve gotten my name wrong.” Jon spit, looming over the man as he groaned in pain. “And that’s twice you’ve done a piss poor imitation of someone I care about.”

Batman looked up at Jon in confusion, borderline hurt. But then the eyes widened in realization, and instantly shifted from Bruce’s icy blue to a sickly yellow. “You.”

“Me.” Jon grinned wildly. “And I’ll admit it – you got me the first time. Because I had no idea what had happened, so of course, why wouldn’t I believe the phone call I was getting?”

Batman began to shift now, lose his muscle mass, his uniform began to change to a deep maroon.

“But then I was told the truth, and all the clues that didn’t make sense before suddenly began to piece together.” Jon hummed, picking the man up by his collar. He was much smaller than Bruce. Much thinner. Much older. “So when they said they were coming to kick your ass, I knew there was nowhere else I’d rather be.”

He slammed the man into the wall again, but held him there. Used his other hand to grab the man’s throat.

“Why.” He hissed. “Tell me why.”

The man choked slightly, feet scrabbling for floor, hands grabbing at Jon’s. “Lazarus.” He wheezed. “He…he carries the waters of Lazarus in his blood. I saw it in his eyes. The green of his eyes. In the field. I knew.” A cough. “I knew it was fate that we found him. He was the one who was going to make us immortal.”

Jon’s eyes widened. The needle marks. The acid the other man was carrying from this room. Experiments, no doubt. To get the magical Lazarus waters out of Damian’s blood that they believed was there.

But Damian was stubborn, and probably put up a fight. So they beat him into submission, tortured him, stabbed him with needles to drain him dry. But they couldn’t kill him, oh no. Because if Damian died they’d lose their chance at the power of the Lazarus Pit.

They were using him, like he was no more than a thing.

Jon’s nostrils flared. “I’m going to fucking kill you, you bastard.”

“…Beloved.” Damian whispered, and Jon found himself turning towards him without thinking. Damian looked tired, still slumped against that wall, head leaning against the stone. “Don’t.” He closed his eyes. “Just…leave him for Batman.”

Batman’s demands came rushing back. They were offense. Jon was defense.

Jon’s only job was to get Damian safe.

Silently, Jon nodded, but instead of dropping the man, gave himself one last piece of revenge, and threw the man across the room into the table and fake-window TV. The man gave a low moan, and it sounded like music to Jon’s ears as he walked back over to Damian, and gathered him into his arms.

Damian didn’t complain about being held, didn’t complain about being coddled. Just wrapped an arm around Jon’s neck and leaned against his shoulder.

“Thank you.” He whispered, and Jon just kissed his forehead, trying to ignore the mere fact of how much pain Damian must have been in. How exhausted.

But as he crossed the room, he stopped near the door, just once, and turned to the man.

He didn’t care who he was. What his name was. But he did care about one thing.

“Why did you call me?”

The man didn’t uncurl from his fetal position, didn’t even open his eyes. “Because we knew you would come for him.” He hissed. “The lovers always do.”

Jon blinked, and watched the man for a moment, before turning and walking out of the room, Damian a calming weight in his arms.

~~

It was a cult in that underground bunker, Jon learned later. One obsessed with becoming immortal so they could be gods. They’d kidnapped, tortured and killed at least ten people over the years before they took Damian, all for the same reason.

Jon honestly couldn’t care less.

After escaping the compound, Jon flew to a previously agreed upon spot in Geneva, where Batman had a safe house that Alfred had flown ahead to. He radioed onto the open line as he did so, and Duke, mid-battle, shouted an affirmative, and promise that they’d meet him there.

Damian could barely hold onto consciousness during the flight, and it only made Jon fly faster, to an almost dangerous speed.

Alfred met them on the balcony, and motioned for Jon to follow him after he landed. A penthouse in Geneva wasn’t exactly a hospital, so instead of a medical cot, Jon carefully laid Damian in an extravagant king-sized bed.

Jon helped where he could, which, admittedly, wasn’t in very many places. The thing he was best at, he found, was getting in the way. But, bless him, Alfred never chastised him. Never told him to move.

“This is almost a luxury.” Alfred had quipped at one point as he checked Damian’s IV bag. “Normally I’m trying to work around at least five anxious persons, not one calm one.”

Jon had tried to smile, but it didn’t come out right. Alfred seemed to understand, though, and just gave Jon’s shoulder a quick squeeze as he passed him.

Finally, Alfred proclaimed himself finished, having done all he could. He’d disinfected and wrapped wounds, given Damian painkillers and set up the IVs to replenish Damian’s fluids. The rest of his healing would come in time. For now, he’d be in the kitchen fixing Damian something gentle to eat, before preparing food for the rest of the rescue party’s eventual arrival.

Jon nodded, and sat at Damian’s bedside.

It was almost midnight by the time the rest of the Bats arrived. They explained to Jon and Alfred their investigation, and what the cult had told them. Got checked out by Alfred, came and checked on Damian, and then one by one, they each went off to another room to settle down for the rest of the night.

Jon remained at Damian’s side.

And he didn’t move. Not to sleep, he just laid his head on the mattress. Not to eat breakfast or any meal, just balanced it on his lap. He didn’t even get up to offer his seat when anyone came in to visit their brother.

He just sat there, staring at Damian’s battered face and holding his cold hand.

Damian didn’t wake up that day, or even the day after. He could tell the others were starting to get antsy about it, and agitated. What if Damian didn’t wake up? What if that cult had actually killed him, and he’d survived just long enough to see them all again? To get taken to safety?

So the Bats threw themselves into the investigation to distract themselves. Who was cult? Who funded them? Who had they killed?

Jon just stayed on his stool at Damian’s side.

It was the morning of the third day, some time before dawn. Jon had his head pillowed against his arm on the mattress next to Damian’s elbow, half turned to watch the moon reflect off the clouds through the balcony doors.

He listened as Damian inhaled, but paid it no mind. Not until: “…What are you doing?”

Jon sat up so fast he made himself dizzy. In the dim light, Damian’s half-lidded sea foam eyes almost glowed.

“W-what?”

“What are you doing?” Damian repeated groggily.

“I…I couldn’t sleep, so I was just watching the stars…” He started, but trailed off when Damian lazily waved a hand.

“I mean, why are you sitting on that stool?” Damian asked. He flopped his hand out to the open side of the bed. “There’s clearly space here. Even if you can’t sleep, at least let yourself be comfortable.”

Jon instantly dropped his gaze to his knees, and even half conscious, Damian noticed.

“Beloved, what’s wrong?” He asked sleepily, weakly reaching his hand towards Jon.

Jon pulled his hand away.

This time, Damian’s inhale was sharp. He pulled his hand back and dropped it onto his own stomach. “…Alright.”

“No, it’s not…!” Jon suddenly realized how that looked. Knew how Damian would take it. “I don’t…You didn’t…” He sighed, dropped his face into his hands. “I don’t deserve it.”

“What?” Damian asked. “Deserve what?”

“To hold your hand. To lay in your bed.” Jon groaned. “You.”

Damian hesitated, grunted softly as he shifted. “I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

“The day you went missing, they…that shapeshifter guy, he stole your phone and he called me. As you.” Jon closed his eyes, trying to hide even further. “He…he broke up with me as you. And I…it didn’t make any sense, it never made any sense to me, but I believed him.”

Another moment of quiet. “…Oh.”

“I know. I’m an idiot.” Jon lamented. “Because how could I not know my own boyfriend? How could I believe you would break up with me over the phone?”

“Or…ever.” Damian agreed. “Unless you want…”

“Or ever!” Jon cut off dramatically, curling his covered face to his knees. “How could I believe you’d do that, and not question it! Not question that you never answered your phone after that, never told anyone, never came back to Metropolis for any reason! Even dream you tried to tell me and I just…”

“Dream me?” Damian asked. Suddenly there were fingers stroking at Jon’s hair, and he held his breath. “You dreamed about me?”

“I thought about you every second of every day.” Jon admitted glumly. “I felt like such a loser, not being able to get over you.” He paused, curled into himself more. “For believing it all in the first place.” He shook his head. “I don’t even deserve to be sitting here next to you, Damian. I don’t.”

He felt Damian’s fingers stroke for a few more seconds, then heard Damian scoff a laugh.

“Jonathan, you’re so funny.”

Those fingers in his hair were instantly at his chin, tilting his face up and out of his hands. Damian, looking beyond exhausted, was smiling at him.

“Come lay with me.” Damian asked softly.

Jon stared up at him for a moment, let his eyes wander down the bandages and new scars, then back up. “You shouldn’t want me to.” He breathed. “In fact, you should break up with me for real, because I’m such a fucking-”

“Do you want me to?” Damian asked seriously. “Do you want me to break up with you? Would you like us to remain apart? Because if after this past month that’s what you’ve decided is best for you, then I will do my best to give it to-”

“No.” Jon said instantly. “No, I…” His breath trembled. “No, I don’t want us to be apart anymore.”

“Nor do I.” Damian agreed with a gentle smile. He laid his arm across the bed. “…Please.”

Jon stared at him for a moment, then sighed and stood, carefully floating over Damian to drop onto his other side.

Damian weakly reached up to pull Jon into his arms, like a child grabbing for a balloon, and Jon let himself be dragged into Damian’s side. Latched onto Damian’s waist and hid his face against Damian’s chest.

His heartbeat was loud now. Still slow, a little too slow for Jon’s liking, but loud, and right under Jon’s ear, right where it was supposed to be.

“I’m sorry.” Jon whispered, as he felt Damian kiss at his hair, gently run his fingers along Jon’s shoulders. “I’m so sorry, Damian.”

“You have nothing to apologize for. If anything, I should apologize to you, for what that shifting bastard did.” Damian hummed, and already Jon could sense he was falling back into unconsciousness.

Because he feels safe, Jon didn’t let himself think. He feels safe here with me.

“…I love you.” Jon breathed, closing his eyes, squeezing Damian as tightly as he dared. “I love you so much, Damian.”

“I love you as well, Jonathan.” Damian answered just as softly. “For as long as I live. No matter what anyone tells you, please always remember that.” He carefully laid his hand over the one Jon had on his hip. “…Thank you for finding me. For saving me.”

“Always.” Jon smiled, looking up at Damian. Damian’s eyes were already closed once more, his breathing evening out. “Always and forever.”

“Forever and ever.” Damian mumbled as he drifted off. Jon watched him for a few more moments, until he was sure Damian was asleep again. Then he leaned up and left a careful kiss to Damian’s cheek. Lingered for a moment, then curled up under Damian’s chin, clung to him like he was a giant teddy bear.

He let his boyfriend’s heartbeat lull him to sleep.

[theshatteredrose]

The Dark Guardian (Chapter 3) - Etrian Odyssey 2 Fanfiction

AN: I know; so much for my hiatus! Ah, it doesn’t matter. Writing helps anyhow. Also, there was a particular scene in this chapter that I was DYING to write. Can you guess which one~? Anyway, enjoy reading!

Ao3 | Wattpad | FFNet | Inkitt

-

Chapter 3:

Cold eyes, filled with only malice stared down at Gerald, and all he could do was to stare back. Only a quiet whimper was able to shake Gerald out of his shock. There was no time for staring.

He immediately snatched little Ghali with his left arm, pulling him toward his chest as he simultaneously unholstered his gun from his coat. He sprung up to his feet, firing several times directly at the man, aiming for his chest.

That wicked smirk only grew as he somehow deftly dodged and deflected the bullets with his blade.

He was clearly no ordinary war magus.

The rapid attacks did allow Gerald to put some distance between them, however. He knew that the bastard would close the gap quickly, but it was better than nothing. It should allow him to reload.

Gerald ducked behind a wall and crouched to his knees. He momentarily set Ghali down on the ground, on his feet as he reached into his coat to pull out more ammo. It took him only seconds to rearm his weapon. He then opened his coat, and gathered the silent child against his chest, wrapping his coat around him to offer him a small form of protection.

“It’ll be ok,” he told the child gently, his heart breaking when a pair of vivid green eyes peered back at him. “I’ll take care of you, I promise.”

“Aww, bleeding heart Gerald,” that bastard suddenly crooned, as if he had heard him. “Have a thing for strays, don’t you? But if you keep protecting that kid, you might not be able to return to poor ol’ Shiki, and his precious little son, hm? Sandra would be disappointed with you.”

Gerald gritted his teeth. How the hell did he know so much about him?

The bricks of the wall next to Gerald unexpectedly exploded into dust and he instinctively hunched forward to shelter Ghali further. A sharp pain erupted from his right shoulder. Instead of stilling, waiting for the pain to pass, he sprung forward in an attempt to put distance between him and the cause of the pain. He somehow managed to stay on his feet as he spun around, raising his weapon to release several more shots.

A wicked smirk was all his saw as the bastard casually slipped behind the wall.

The structure was only a feature wall, and Gerald assumed that the bastard was slipping around to the other side.

Tightening his arm around Ghali, keeping him wrapped up in his coat, Gerald walked backwards as he skittishly moved the sight of his gun between two possible routes of attack. His heart was thundering so loud in his ears that he didn’t hear an attack coming from a third.

Gerald tried to counter the incoming assault, only for another sharp pain to erupted from his leg. The pain lingered for a moment before unexpectedly turning into a dull, numbing ache. And it caused him to fall back onto the ground.

Damn it, Leg Cut?

Gerald raised his gun and kept it aimed on the bastard before him, only to have the man use his own sword to deftly angle the gun away from him. His grin somehow growing in malice as the gun sounded, sending a bullet into the air. Away from him.

“Hmmm, what shall I do now?” he purred. He actually purred.

Psychotic. He was completely deranged.

He had to find a way to fight back. Little Ghali…But, how could he fight against something like that…?

The sheer wickedness of the man’s expression changed suddenly as his eyes darted to his left. Only to have something strike him on that side of his face. It was a fist, covered in thick leather, and it struck him on the cheek, contorting his entire face into something seemingly inhuman. But clearly all too painful.

Red hair and a giant axe.

Axel?

The man used the momentum from the punch to whirl around, swinging his sword around with him. Only for Axel to somehow anticipate his attempt to fight back; deflecting the blade with the harden steel of his gauntlet and countered with a powerful upper jab right to his stomach. So strong that it lifted the guy off of his feet for a few seconds.

Gerald couldn’t help but wince. Swear to God, he heard the guy’s bones grate and crack from the sheer pressure of the attack.

The man immediately dropped back, falling to the ground, only to instinctively curl into a rolling dodge, moving out of range of Axel’s attacks. With several feet of distance between them, the guy rested on his knees as he coughed loudly, gurgling as large drops of blood splattered across the dirt. With one hand slammed on the ground to keep him from falling face first, the other hand clutched his stomach. He was clearly in agony.

Good.

Axel stayed positioned in front of Gerald, axe on his back and his posture defensive.

Gerald breathed a sigh of relief and allow his arm to drop to his side, his gun lying haphazardly in his palm. Hah, that kid. Honestly, he never, ever wanted to receive a punch from him. No wonder the violent trouble-makers of the city were terrified of him.

He was grateful for him, though. No, grateful didn’t seem strong enough to described how relieved he felt to know that the redhead was there to protect Ghali. And him.

It seemed that the only way to fight someone so deranged was with brute force.

The man pulled his hand from his stomach to grasp his jaw. He uttered something under his breath as he rolled and adjusted his jaw. A small magic circle appeared under his hand, indicating that he had used a form of war magic to heal the injuries Axel had inflicted upon him.

From the strength of the light, he needed a lot of healing.

Spitting out a large clot of blood, the guy raised his head to peer angrily through a steely cold eye. His face then dropped into an expression of unadulterated surprise when he finally took in the sight of the redheaded landsknecht.

“…Haha,” he suddenly laughed in sheer sadistic pleasure. “…you have that bitch’s eyes.”

Axel raised a hand to grip the handle of his axe as he pulled himself into a battle stance. “I don’t have a fucking clue what you’re going on about. And I don’t care.”

The guy continued to grin, though made no attempt to ready himself for battle. “This place may prove more entertaining than first thought.”

He then leapt to his feet, and despite still clutching his stomach, he fled toward the stand of trees and rocky outcrops, moving out of sight quickly. Axel remained tense until he was sure the guy was gone before he slowly eased his stance.

Gerald released his hold on his weapon entirely and carefully peeled back a corner of his jacket, once again greeted by a pair of teary green eyes. The child didn’t utter a word, however. Had remained silent throughout the entire ordeal, like a good boy.

But…

“What the hell is going on?” Axel asked as he turned and crouched in front of him. His eyes then widen when he saw the kid grasping the front of Gerald’s shirt. And the copious amounts of blood that was seeping from his injuries.

“Make sure Ghali is taken care of, ok…?”

… … … … …

Rahas followed closely behind Shiki as he stormed through the hospital front doors and through the patient waiting room. His face was stoic in silent anger and worry. Which was unsurprising.

To think that someone had the sheer audacity, and stupidity, to attack Gerald in broad daylight!

Thankfully, Lynus was the first person they encountered, he appearing to have been waiting for them in fact. With the protectiveness Shiki was feeling, any other medic would not have been able to reassure him. Never in the way that Lynus could.

Rahas stepped back, allowing for Simmons and Shiki to encircle Lynus, letting him be the one to offer comfort he gives so willingly and freely. He reached out to the two men, letting Simmons take his hand as he rested his other on Shiki’s arm.

“Gerald is fine. He’s sleeping off the mild anaesthetic. He has a few stitches, but they won’t leave any scars. I’ve taken care of him.”

It wasn’t even remotely surprising to learn that Lynus had been the one to take care of Gerald’s injuries. How he got to the hospital so quickly was a mystery, but knowing him, he was there to simply ‘speak with Dr Stiles’ and not to check in on things, no of course not.

Lynus seemed to tighten his hold on the two men as a light frown sat upon his lips. He turned his head slightly to look over his shoulder, his movements prompting Rahas (along with Simmons and Shiki) to follow his gaze. And their own gazes fell upon a young, blond-headed child. He was sat at a table, a blanket tucked in around him as nurse Angie sat next to him, speaking quietly to him.

“That child is Ghali,” Lynus went on to say as he turned to look directly at Shiki. “Gerald had been protecting him when he was attacked.”  

He released his hold on Shiki’s arm and reached into the pocket of his medical coat. He pulled out an envelope, mostly white but with red smears that had to be blood. And he handed it straight to Shiki. As he did so, he looked up at the older man with sympathy and worry.

“Here. There was no name on the envelop, so I had read it. But…its clearly addressed to you and Gerald.”

Shiki hid much of his confusion as he received the letter from him. He noted the blood smears, but ignored it as he flipped it open. A tense silence fell over the small group as Shiki read the letter. Simmons looked at his father with expectation while Rahas couldn’t help but inwardly bristle from the absolutely solemn expression on Lynus’ face. And from the barely restrained trembling of Shiki’s hands.

What the hell was going on? What was with that letter? And that kid?

Lynus suddenly perked his head up, prompting Rahas to instinctively inspect their surroundings. He first believed that he was simply reacting to the sudden appearance of Tiffany and Kerri, the loud-mouthed gunner and ditzy hexer had finally learn of what happened to Gerald.

Instead of greeting the two, Lynus turned his head toward the half open door of a nearby room. “He’s waking up.”

Shiki hastily closed the letter and rushed into the room, pushing the door aside roughly. Simmons instinctively moved to follow, but Lynus tightened his hold on his hand. While Simmons was more than capable of pulling his hand free, or simply dragging him along, he stood stock still.

“Not yet,” Lynus told him softly. “We can’t overwhelm him yet. I promise you can fuss over him all you want in a few minutes.”

It was pretty clear that Simmons still wanted to rush to Gerald’s side, but he did as Lynus requested and held back. He turned his attention toward the door, paying no mind to the questions that Tiffany was demanding.

In fact, pretty much everyone ignored Tiffany. Rahas certainly did as he focused his own upon that open doorway, and toward the single bed inside.

He watched as Gerald sat upright with a jolt, violently pulling himself out of his sleep-filled daze. Shiki was instantly by his side, arms around him as he attempted to comfort and reassure. The words were hushed between them, Gerald’s voice more muffled with his face pressed against the nook of Shiki’s shoulder. But Rahas did make out a few words.

“…he killed him.”

Rahas wasn’t expecting that.

Getting fed up with being kept out of the loop, Rahas turned to give Lynus a pointed look. Thankfully, he didn’t need to voice his frustrations.

Lynus sighed as he idly patted the back of Simmons’ hand. He clearly didn’t want to be the bearer of bad news, but from his solemn expression alone, what he had to reveal was serious. “The reason why Gerald was at the outskirts of town. Someone lured him there. Where Lewis, a…former member of Nova was. He found his way to Lagaard, only to be attacked. He’s…gone. Taken by the same man who attacked Gerald. Ghali is Lewis’ son.”

There was a collective sharp intake of air as everyone allowed the information to set in.

Oh, shit.

Shiki’s and Gerald’s old teammate had been found murdered on the outskirts of town? No, did Gerald witness it? What-?

“Who was it?” Simmons practically demanded. “Who hurt Gerald?”

Lynus shook his head. “I don’t know. Ghali is too young to truly understand what happened. Only Gerald and Axel saw the man.”

“Axel?”

“He was the one who stepped in and protected Gerald and Ghali during the attack,” Lynus went on to explain. “He also brought Gerald here. He’s currently speaking with the guards about what happened to the assailant.”

Rahas couldn’t help but feel a bile of jealousy settle in the back of his throat when Simmons seemed relieved. Of course, it was Axel who raced to the rescue. He was the first guy everyone turned to should there ever be a potentially dangerous situation raising its ugly head.

He knew he shouldn’t be bitter. The guy had saved Gerald’s life, and the kid’s as well. It was just…frustrating that Rahas could never, ever compete with him.

“There you are.”

Rahas suppressed a frown. Speaking of the guy…

With his axe still resting on his back, and smears of dark red on his still dirty clothes, Axel strode over to join the small group. He noted that Lynus had a comforting hold on Simmons’ hand, and the fact that Shiki was in the room with Gerald. His gaze lingered on the room, no doubt noting the way that Shiki was comforting Gerald.

“How is he?” he asked, his gaze flickering over to Lynus.

“Injuries will linger, but the emotional scars will last longer,” he replied sadly.

Simmons turned toward Axel and looked at him with earnest relief. “Thank you, for saving Gerald.”

Rahas found himself biting back yet another bile of jealousy at the way Simmons gazed upon Axel. In a way that was far greater than hero worship, which would be frustrating enough…

Axel shook his head, his expression serious. “No. I wish I was there earlier. You need to thank Cass. If he hadn’t told me about the note and asked me to follow, I don’t know what would have happened.”

Oh yes, he did. He just didn’t want to say it.

“Who was it? Do you know?”

Again, Axel shook his head. “Never seen him before. Pale, most of head shaved saved for a few black dreadlocks. But what was most prominent was an open eye tattoo in the middle of his forehead.”

A violent chill raced down Rahas’ spine, simultaneous with Lynus growing alarmingly pale. Their gazes instinctively sought each other’s out and they shared a silent conversation.

It couldn’t be…

Axel took note of Lynus growing alarmed and pale, and instinctively reached out to rest his hand on his back. “What’s wrong?”

Lynus managed to give a shaky smile as he patted the back of Simmons’ hand skittishly. “I…just remembered something. Simmons, could you take Tiffany and Kerri to visit Dr Stiles for me? I really need to get a hold of Form A.”

It took Rahas a second to realise that Lynus was attempting to do and he began to quickly muse whether he should say anything to add onto that request. Simmons had a slight frown on his lips, undeniably confused by the request.

Before Rahas could formulate any kind of reassurance, Kerri floated over to Lynus and stood before him. She tilted her head to the side as she stared unblinkingly at him. After a moment, she righted herself and nodded her head.

“Yes.” She unfurled a strand of her robes and wound it around Simmons’ wrist, the hand that Lynus had been holding. “Come. Form is important.”

Simmons was naturally hesitant, not wanting to leave Gerald and his father. But he relented, allowing Kerri to lead the way. And thankfully, Tiffany followed silently, which was something of a surprise for the blonde.

Rahas watched the trio until they were out of sight before he turned his attention back to Lynus. Whom of which was pressed against Axel’s side, totally uncaring of the smears of blood, finding comfort in his arms once again.

“What’s wrong?” Axel asked again, most pointily than before.

“Ahimoth. That guy was one of Taksony’s best assassin,” Rahas revealed through a hiss. “And a complete psychopath.”

Axel snapped his head in Rahas’ direction, a surprised expression lingering for a moment before his face creased into a protective anger. “What?” he also uttered through a hiss.

“He also killed Sandra.”

Shiki’s voice, low and gruff momentarily startled Rahas. Thankfully, he didn’t jump and squeak out a noise of surprise (unlike Lynus, heh), but it did take a second or two for the words to sink into his overworking mind. And his eyes widen with realisation.

Sandra…Simmons’ mother.

Ahimoth took Simmons’ mother?

…That bastard!

“God damn it,” Axel uttered as he ran a hand over his face. “If I had known…”

“Gerald told me what happened,” Shiki said, a soft expression of gratitude on his face as well. “You saved his life. There is no doubt about that. You managed to land a couple of blows on Ahimoth. You may not have been using your full strength, but it should be enough to have him lying low, licking his wounds.”

Rahas gritted his teeth, inwardly fuming. No. Damn it, Shiki was being too optimistic. Lying low was not in the bastard’s modus operandi. He could heal himself. He was a war magus. Cared for no one but himself. He was only in the shadows to plot something. Plot something heinous no doubt. Something he would unleash fairly soon.

Worse of all, he couldn’t even speculate what it could be.

He didn’t know much else about the guy, unfortunately. Only that he was deranged, so much so that many of the other sadistic soldiers and loyalists of Taksony actively feared and avoided the guy. That was sure to tell you something about his methods.

“I’ve given my description to the guards.” Axel tugged Lynus closer to his side. “But I’ll probably be on patrol. Shen, Jhon, and Tobyn would want to get involved, too.”

Hamza would likely be lurking about, too. Though, maybe Jhon should sit this one out. He was protective, but honourable. Ahimoth’s favourite victims. Now, Shen wouldn’t hesitate to attack, and Tobyn knew how to play dirty. Those two might cause some trouble for Ahimoth.

But Axel…was likely the guy who could take on Ahimoth headfirst, despite the bastard’s dirty tactics. He could defeat the guy easily, probably.

…Defeat, but could he stop him? For good?

Like the karmic balance of Dark Hunters of legend?

The sound of footsteps jolted Rahas from his thoughts, and he returned to consciousness in time to watch as Simmons, along with Kerri and Tiffany, re-joined them. And in Simmons’ hands was a few pieces of official looking papers.

“Here,” Simmons said simply as he handed the papers toward Lynus.

“Oh good, thank you.” Lynus immediately smiled and retrieved the papers. He took a moment he flipped through and nodded his head, somewhat pleased by what he found. He then turned his attention toward Shiki, offering said papers toward him. “These are for you. They’re adoption papers.”

Rahas immediately looked over to where Ghali was, sat at the table with some crayons and papers. Angie was still with him, chatting with him in an attempt to keep the small child from…realising what had happened.

He was…all alone now, wasn’t he?

Ahimoth took his parents. Just like what he had done with Simmons. What he tried to do with Simmons.

Rahas turned back to Shiki, finding the older man also gazing silently, with soft eyes, toward Ghali. He couldn’t even imagine what was going through his head. To know that the same man that brutally took his wife’s life, did so with absolutely glee, was responsible for the death of an old teammate had to be…just incomprehensible.

“It’s just a formality,” Lynus continued. “Derek has already signed it.”

Shiki turned his attention toward Lynus and gave him a small, sad smile. “Hm? No objection from some snot-nosed official?”

“Forms have already been signed, so they can complain all they want. They’ll just have to take it up with Derek. And with me.”

The corner of Rahas’ mouth twitched into a half smirk. As intimidating as Dr Stiles was, he was pretty sure that Lynus was the one that others were afraid to go against. He was skittish toward others in regards to himself, but when he fought for another, he fought protectively.

It was also considered blasphemy to upset him.

Lynus sent Shiki a reassuring smile before he turned his attention toward the silently confused Simmons. “Go on, now,” he urged. “Gerald will be relieved to see you. Afterwards, I’ll introduce you to your new little brother. Alright?”

Simmons perked up at the mentioning of a new sibling. “Ok.”

With Simmons quickly slipping into Gerald’s room, Lynus turned to give Axel a small smile as he slipped out of his arms. He turned and headed to where Ghali sat with Angie. Axel watched as he walked away, his face stoic but it was clear his gaze was protective.

After a moment, he finally tore his gaze away from Lynus to look over at Shiki. And to grant him a purely sympathetic look. “The guards have been sent to…retrieve your friend. And to bring them here. Dr Stiles will conduct the examination. We’ll also prepare the funeral for you. So, just focus on Ghali and yourselves for now.”

“We…appreciate it,” Shiki managed to utter out, his voice gruff. Clearly, a lump of maddening emotion had lodged itself in his throat. “Thank you.”

He then returned to the room, papers in hands.

Rahas stood out in the hallway with Axel, the two of them silent as they stared into the room. Gerald was sat up in bed, Simmons on one side as Tiffany and Kerri occupied the other. Shiki moved to stand by his son as he handed Gerald the papers. He seemed to take a moment to explain to them what they were before Gerald nodded his head without hesitation.

It made perfect sense that the son of an old teammate would be placed in their care. Gerald himself has risked his life to protect the little guy. There was no one better.

And no one had better say anything negative about it, either!

“What are you going to do?” Axel suddenly asked him, breaking the silence.

“I’ll stay with them,” Rahas immediately replied.

“Yeah, Lynus figured you would.” Was Axel’s unexpected response. “It would be for the best, though. Just be sure to keep your charm on hand, and have Simmons use that ointment that Lynus gave him.”

Rahas reached into his pocket and trailed a fingertip over a charm that Lynus had crafted for him just moments before the climax of the Hex Plague. One that would have been useful. A charm that should expel most curses.

Curses that war magus bastard no doubt knew.

“Sure,” was all he said as he silently stepped into the room to join Guild Cosmos.

[batarella]

I Don’t Hate You - Part 10 MID-SERIES FINALE (Jason Todd x Reader)

I COULDN’T BE HAPPIER ABOUT THIS CHAPTER. I CAN’T TELL YOU GUYS ENOUGH HOW MUCH IT MEANS TO ME THAT YOU LOVE THIS SERIES. 

After this, a few smutty one shots are on the way ;) Then after a break, I will continue this series with PART 11!!! love you all from the bottom of my heart.

WORDS: 7431 WARNINGS: enjoy the fluff while it lasts 

Masterlist

I DON’T HATE YOU - MASTERLIST

------

It just had to be tonight.

Two hours, he said. It will be fine, he said.

Son of a bitch, it wasn’t fine. It wasn’t even close to being fine.

Robin had been at this since three in the afternoon and only now did they manage to reach the last layer of Falcone’s latest shipment. He didn’t want to come. Not tonight. But no, Batman insisted that he come and that he’d make it to the dance by six.

But it just had to be that one night that they deal with the largest drug raid they’ve had to deal with in his whole fucking career. Mother fucker, he was so late. He wanted to scream.

It didn’t just have to be a warehouse by the port. No. Falcone had these all sent with a jet from Mexico to a warehouse big enough to be Ace fucking Chemicals. Room after room with three sets of reinforcements every minute.

Seven o’ clock. He only had so much time.

Robin busted the door open with nothing else but his foot and threw four batarangs locked onto the muzzles of the shotguns. Five of them in the room. He rolled on the floor, kicking a table below the surface and slammed it right on top of a thug’s body. Feeling something come from behind, Robin backflipped in the air, let the man run right past him, so his boot would land right on the back of his neck.

One of them grabbed him from behind. Robin thrashed about, then kicked any incoming attack while his arms desperately pried their hold on him open. Throwing his head behind him, he headbutted the man and elbowed his shoulder.

She was gonna kill him. She was so gonna kill him.

He used a batclaw to grab one of them, hold him right against his chest and slam his head right into his friend’s skull. Faster. Even faster. He kept moving without sparing a second. Robin launched himself up the ceiling, grabbed a beam and jumped right an armed thug’s shoulders. “Wanna dance, pretty boy?!” one of them screamed.

“Love to.”

A batarang landed on his shoulder. Robin launched at him, landed a punch right to his gut and backed away before he could swing back. His knee landed on his groin, sending him to the ground only to be taken down by his elbow to the chest.

His speed helped with dodging the gunshots. But really. That was the least in his mind right now. Grabbing a man by the collar, Robin landed punch after punch right at his face, not stopping until he was unconscious. “I REALLY. HAVE TO. GO NOW.”

Even more reinforcements came in. “OH, COME ON!!!” he screamed.

Throwing a smoke bomb to the ground, Robin grappled to the ceiling, taking them out one by one and leaving them to hang on the metal beams. He jumped and landed right into an armed man’s back. His batclaw grabbed onto a steel table, and with his immense strength, he dragged it across the room to concuss everyone in its way. He was moving so fast that if he worked like this all the time, he might actually have a good night’s rest on the daily.

“Batman!” he screamed into his comms. “How much longer!?”

“This should be the last one.”

“Can't I just go?”

“No,” Batman sternly said before turning off his communicator. Grunting as he ducked from an incoming hit, Robin kicked the man by his legs, grabbed his shoulder then hauled him over his back and onto the ground with a large slam.

He grappled back up to the ceiling and moved through the pipes to avoid the gun shots. With a large enough kick, Robin dismantled one of the pipes, gripped on it tightly with his gloves, then jumped back to the ground and started hitting his opponents with it right to the head. “ROBIN,” Batman screamed into his ear.

He was almost killing these guys with just that pipe. Throwing it against the wall with a loud, frustrated groan, Robin went back to just his fists, moving even faster than he already was. He kicked every crotch that wasn’t guarded, punched every face he could see, repeatedly.

He ended up missing a giant hit to the face with the butt of a machine gun. “FUCK,” he yelled.

He had to do this quick. There was no way he’ll make it if he wastes more time.

Rolling on the floor to narrowly miss the bullets, he jumped up the boxes, taunting and annoying the hell out of the armed men aiming for him. At the corner, there were gas tanks piled up on top of each other, barely enough to blow up the whole room.

So he grabbed each of them, and with his bare hands, threw them all the way across the room to the center. It missed the targets, but that wasn’t what he was going for.

Robin started jumping around again, leaping from the beams and jumping from one crate to another. He waited until they crowded, until they were close enough to each other to take up just enough space.

Then when they were just the right distances away from the tanks, he threw three very explosive batarangs.

They exploded upon contact, blowing up everyone around to different parts of the room.

It was followed by the silence that made him want to leap for joy. Robin pressed on his communicator. “Batman. This room’s clear.”

“A car is waiting for you at school. Have fun”

“FUCKING FINALLY!”

One last foot to a body he saw twitching, Robin practically skipped out of the warehouse, grappling up the skylight and jumping from the top of the roof onto the snowy fields. He was running to the batmobile, barely able to catch his breath when he pressed on his wrist to call on his bike.

Fifteen minutes. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.

Speeding into the wide open road at the highest speed possible, he ignored the cold that seeped through his suit, how his face had basically frozen like uncooked meat in a freezer. He pulled the throttle, driving as fast as he could and slowing down only when he saw a number of cars at the edges of the city.

He squeezed through every empty space he could find and almost broke every traffic law imaginable. He regained his speed when there weren’t any cars, slowed down when there were and almost drove through the sidewalk when the time desperately called for it.

The school was all the way on the other side of town. And just as he turned at an intersection, three lanes of cars were honking and had taken up every space he could find from that distance. Screaming into his helmet, he looked up at the rooftops.

Ten minutes. Fuck.

“Alfred. I know Batman would never approve of this, but-“

“On its way, sir. Let’s not tell Master Bruce about this.”

Though he definitely would find out eventually, he didn’t exactly have much of a choice. Robin drove to an alley, grappling up the rooftop with his legs gripping around the motorcycle so it would drive all the way up the wall, he skidded on the roof, panting as he anxiously waited. Nine minutes.

He couldn’t possibly miss this. Not even if his life depended on it. Everything was going so well with you, he couldn’t just mess this up with a simple turn of events against his favor. If he could, he never would’ve gone with Batman at all, never mind the scolding he’d get afterwards.

Feeling the air around him shift and move faster than any wind could push, he looked up. The Batwing, in all its glory, lowered itself down and opened up for him. “Thanks, Alfred.”

“She must be some girl, sir.”

“Oh, she is.”

The Batwing sped above the traffic he otherwise never would’ve went past through. In the air, he looked through the cockpit windows, since the jet flew on autopilot, and collected himself. He can make it. He was so going to make it.

He was nervous. It wasn’t even about the dance or the fact that it was the first one he’s ever had to go to in his life. He couldn’t care less about any of that. But he did care about you.

And you were about to go on stage and sing for the whole school.

The Batwing dropped Robin off at a nearby alleyway. And after two short minutes, a handsome Jason Todd fixing the buttons of his suit came out.

He puffed up his collar, left the first button of his dress shirt open with his tie loosely around his neck. He kept moving while he was at it, pushing the school’s entry doors open. Thank God for the cold, otherwise he’d be swimming in his sweat. Jason combed down his hair with his fingers, despite it staying unruly, fixed the cuffs of his sleeve and walked straight into the gym.

Two minutes to spare.

Did he look okay? He must have looked okay. His suit wasn’t that bad. It fit him pretty good, in fact. He’s worn it to a few of Bruce’s parties but only now did he actually care about what he looked like. Pulling on his jacket, he surveyed the heavily crowded gym, looking past the balloons and falling snowflakes. You had to be here somewhere. He could see the band on stage still fixing their instruments. Good.

“Alright, people! Let’s give it up for Y/FN! Come on!”

The audience roared in applause, hands in the air. He could hear Penny’s voice scream your name from the front. He had to be up there. He couldn’t possibly miss this being blocked by some heads.

Jason pushed through the crowd, murmuring ‘excuse me’ every second and pushing the shoulders of people giving him dirty looks. His heart was beating so fiercely, it wasn’t nearly like beating up almost a hundred thugs in a single night.

He had to make sure you could see him. He wanted to let you know he was there, supporting and cheering for you just in case you needed a bit of a boost. He knew you weren’t nervous. But the thought of making you happy just from seeing him in the crowd, it made him want to do it alone.

Jason reached the front, but he was at the far left. He could see the stage clearly, though. That was what mattered.

Then you came out on stage.

A black dress, with a leather jacket over your shoulders and dark, thin tights that went all the way down your combat boots. Your make up looked perfect, and your movements so graceful and confident it wasn’t as if you were facing such a crowd at all. Your head was held high, and your smile so subtle, yet so charming that the crowd couldn’t help but cheer for you. You held the mic at the stand, looking around the room.

Jason’s hands stopped fidgeting and his legs stopped shaking. He calmed. So easily, he did. And when you turned to meet his eyes, you gave him that soft smirk that practically made the whole crowd of people around him disappear.

You were so perfect.

The guitar started playing and you held the mic. You faced the crowd, heaved your chest to breathe in, then sang.

“It's been a long time since I came around

Been a long time but I'm back in town

And this time I'm not leaving without you

You taste like whiskey when you kiss me oh

I'd give anything again to be your baby doll

This time I'm not leaving without you”

Jason’s eyes were so wideset, still in an apparent shock like it was the first time he’s ever heard you. Often, when you sung, you’d hesitate and keep it on the low. You blended your voice in a perfect falsetto on the higher side and kept your voice low, too low for him to even hear properly. You weren’t hiding it, but it was so different now.

Now, it practically ripped his chest and stole every bit of his heart like the song was made precisely for him. The crowd went wild. You were singing your heart out, belting notes so high the hairs at the back of his neck and basically everywhere else in his body stood up and froze him in his place on the ground.

You threw your head back, eyes closed, then you caught his eye.

“Something, something about this place

Something, something about lonely nights

And my lipstick on your face

Something, something, something about my cool Nebraska guy

Yeah something about baby you and I!

It's been two years since I let you go

I couldn't listen to a joke or Rock and Roll

Muscle cars drove a truck right through my heart

On my birthday you sang me a heart of gold

With a guitar humming and no clothes

This time I'm not leaving without you!”

You felt the song like it came right from your soul. Your hair thrown back, your occasional glances right into his eyes. Jason’s breath had basically stopped by now. So did his heartbeat. He walked closer to you, despite the onlooking crowd. He just couldn’t look away.

You definitely looked mean. Terrifying. Dangerous. Basically everything anyone would describe you at first glance. You weren’t smiling when you sang. In fact, you sung with the anger you had stored inside, the anger he understood more than anyone else. And if this was your outlet, if this was how you show to the world and make it so mesmerizing to see, by god, it was beautiful.

You were beautiful, in almost every possibly way he could describe. He’s never looked at anyone the way he was looking at you right now. Mouth to the floor, his chest hurting like it was twisted, his stomach leaping across the room, and his hands sweating like he was facing the sun.

And if it wasn’t you, it was the song. It had to be meant for him. It just had to be.

“You and I

You you and I

Nebraska

I'd rather die

Without you and I!”

The guitar’s shrieks matched your belts, and you sang with so much emotion even he was moved just from the sight of you. The song ended, and you bowed with a light smile on your face before waving at the crowd cheering for you like you were a star.

Jesus.

Jesus.

He’s never felt so aware of the flush on his face, his eyes looking up at you like you were a deity, his throat clenching every second, and his sweat pouring out of his hairline despite the obvious cold.

This was the feeling? This was what Dick was talking about when he mentions all the women he’s ever been with and coo over them like he was insane? Fuck, was he insane? Does all this have to do with sanity? Because it totally fucking felt like it did.

It was nothing compared to the rush he felt on patrol when his actual life was on the line, when he’d face the Joker head on or Cobblepot or even fucking Nygma. Even in the middle of the fight, when his mind is at its pinnacle, thinking fast and acting just as fast, the rapid beating in his chest still was incomparable to how he felt just looking at you.

He never had so many things race to his mind all at the same time, but couldn’t even bring up any complete thought like the idiot he definitely was. The host was back on stage, and you walked down, heading to his direction. The moment you turned and found him, walking to him with a knowing smirk on your face, he couldn’t think of a single fucking word to say.

“I-I…” he stuttered.

But your eyes brought that comfort. The same from the day before, and the day before that. When he’d grow so nervous but the moment you looked at him like he was the absolute best thing in the world, the throbbing in his whole body would come to an eventual calm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Ace was right. The fucking dog was right.

Jason was in love with you.

Undeniably, immensely, exceedingly, excessively, wonderfully, remarkably, absolutely, without a doubt, in love with you.

-----

You stood in front of him, gawking at you so much it was adorable. You had to bite into your gums. You were gawking at him as well. Maybe even more. God, the sight of him in a suit. His tie barely fixed, his button open and his hands stuck to his pockets in the most laid back, effortless way but still extremely handsome to look at. You could stare and drool over him all day.

It took a bit of time before he could actually say anything. He was nervous, his head craning down and his hand scratching the back of his head more than he probably should. Jason was adorable like this. And if you could, you’d pull out your phone right now and take as many pictures of him as you could. But you wanted to enjoy the moment with your own eyes, a moment no picture could possibly recreate. Taking another step towards him, you started to fix his tie.

“You’re looking real good,” you teased. The moment you touched him with your fingers lightly grazing his chest, you felt him stiffen like a pole. But you kept your eyes on him, silently telling him to relax. He smiled with his teeth so bright and cleared his throat. “You look beautiful.”

“Thank you,” you said, brushing the sleeves of your jacket. “How’d I do?”

He bit on both his lips, looking at the ground. You couldn’t help but laugh. “Earth to Todd.”

He shook his head and squinted at you, but after a moment of gathering his thoughts, admiring the details on your face like he wanted to memorize you, he finally spoke.

“You were… uhm. I just… I… wow…”

He was vigorously rubbing the back of his neck, and you just felt embarrassed at this point. But you wanted to take another step tonight. With him. You took his hand, holding it tight and encasing your fingers with his. His nerves mellowed down, and he stepped towards you. Your chest was touching his now, and with a smile on your faces, you whispered, “Wanna get out of here?”

“After you,” he winked. Then with his hand on your back, he led you out towards the exit of the gym, past the crowding people dancing to the blaring music. You hated every bit of it. The dance itself repulsed you. Thank God, Jason was here.

Turning to the side, you saw a girl looking at him, biting her lip and her eyes so wide you were sure she would’ve come up to him if he didn’t have you by his side. Pursing your lips, flaring your nostrils, and glaring at her with your eyes narrowed and focused, she caught your look and immediately stepped back, drinking from her punch and looking around the room pretending she wasn’t caught.

Then as if nothing happened, you looked back at Jason and smiled. “Saw that,” Jason said.

Grunting, you stepped closer to him. “Get used to it, Todd.”

And your heart jumped when he kissed your hair, his hand now around your shoulders. Your arm went around his waist and you both walked out of the campus.

Outside at the driveway, Jason led you to his car.

The man brought a fucking Ferrari to the dance.

“Jesus Christ, Jason. You really didn’t have to-“

“Bruce has a lot of them. Trust me.” He held your chin and craned your head up to look at him. “It would help to impress you, too.”

You stuck your tongue to the side of your mouth as Jason opened the car door for you. “You don’t seem so nervous anymore.”

“Trust me. I’m sweating like a madman.”

He walked over to the other side of the car and started the ignition. You felt excited. A whole night just with him. A whole night with no end in sight. Every night should be like this. And it should never, ever end.

He drove smoothly out into the road. “I’m in the mood for some tacos.”

“Taco Bell, it is.”

“You know exactly how to charm a girl, Todd.”

“Thanks,” he grinned at you and turned up the music.

“I didn’t see you before the performance. I thought you wouldn’t make it.”

“Sorry. Something came up. I went in just before you started, thank fuck. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

Your smile was undeniable. “I haven’t exactly performed in front of a crowd for a while. I’m just glad it’s over.”

He looked at you. “Well, now that I’ve caught my breath, I can tell you exactly what I think.”

“Which is?”

“You were amazing. And perfect. And beautiful. The song was great, but you made it even better. I never thought you’d go so well with Lady Gaga, but shit, you sung it better than everyone else on this fucking planet,” he smiled. “I couldn’t tear my eyes away from you.”

Your mouth parted and you looked at him with the most glistening eyes. He kept his eyes on the road, so with nothing else to say back, you looked onwards and pretend that didn’t just make you want to scream.

“You know what,” you pulled out your phone, connecting it to the speakers in the car and scrolled through the songs. “I’ve done my part. You're next, Todd. Sing for me.”

“No way.”

“Yes. It’s only fair.”

“There’s no way I can sing right after you and keep a straight face.”

“Just sing, you dickhead.”

The song started to play.

“There are places I'll remember

All my life, though some have changed. Come on, Jay. Sing!”

Jason turned his head to you for a moment, and when he saw you swaying in your seat, singing along like it was the most fun thing to do, he started.

“All these places had their moments.

With lovers and friends, I still can recall.

Some are dead, and some are living

In my life, I've loved them all”

You cheered and laughed along with him, singing along with him. He definitely could carry a tune. He was good, even.

So at the next verse, you stopped singing and let him go on his own.

“Though I know I'll never lose affection

For people and things that went before

I know I'll often stop and think about them

In my life I'll love you more”

You wanted to scream from the giddiness that made you feel. He gave you a dirty look, but eventually laughed when he saw you clapping for him. You and Jason kept singing, finishing the song until the next one played. You had an entire playlist of The Beatles on your phone, and you listen to them constantly.

But you’ve never quite enjoyed them the way you are now.

You got to the drive thru, ordered enough tacos to feed five people, then Jason drove over to a Walmart parking lot, where not many cars were around at this time, the lamp posts were bright, and there was absolutely no one else around but you.

It was cold, but manageable. You and Jason walked out from the front seats of the car, opened the trunk at the back so you could sit there, legs hanging off the edge and have the view of the highway with speeding cars.

You set your food in between, then you swung your legs around as you took the first bite out of your taco. Jason’s bite practically finished half of the whole thing, so you watched his jaw, clenching the way you just loved watching.

You still hadn’t gotten over the view of him in a suit. With your eyes still stuck to him, you took a bite with your mouth wide open.

“Hold on,” he said, taking out his phone. “I gotta do this.”

With food still in your mouth, Jason snapped a picture of you. “DUDE.”

He laughed and you took his phone from his hands, shaking your head. You didn’t look so bad. But your mouth was all full and you looked at him all clueless and annoyed. You nudged his shoulder, then his phone accidently went into his home screen.

His wallpaper was of you. At the football field. You were looking away so you didn’t notice he’d taken a picture at all. Stopping, Jason snatched his phone back and stuffed it into his pocket awkwardly silent.

Damn the fluttering. It was back again. You looked away, watching a car speed by as you continued to eat your taco.

“I hope that doesn’t freak you out.”

You bit on your tongue, reluctant, but he was looking away from you all embarrassed and adorable, you didn’t want him to feel uncomfortable.

So with a sigh, you took out your own phone and showed him your own wallpaper.

It was of him, his shoulder leaned against the shelf of the library while he read his book. His shirt was thin, and with the angle, you could perfectly see his arms and the details of his face. Fighting back a grin, Jason blushed and looked back away so you wouldn’t be able to see how much he was smiling.

“Uhm,” he cleared his throat. “When did you take that?”

“A few weeks ago. Right after that trip to the house.”

He licked his lips. “This is awkward. But can I take another picture of you? Right now?”

You quirked up an eyebrow.

“You just look so… you know…”

“Dork,” you teased. Then he happily took out his phone, pointed it at you, then you faced him and smirked.

He took a second to look at you outside of his camera, then he took a whole lot of pictures even at the same angle. Rolling your eyes, you then took out your own phone. “Your turn.”

With a shy grin, you didn’t wait for him to look at the camera. You took pictures of him smiling at you, smiling at the ground, biting his lips, him just being him.

“You know what,” you said, breaking the silence. “Let’s have another round of truth or dare.”

“I don’t see much grass for me to make you eat, but let’s do it.”

“You make me eat grass one more time I’ll make you lick that lamppost.”

He stood back. “Fine.”

“You start,” you said, leaning back and swinging your legs in the air.

“Truth.”

“Did you listen to me sing that night at the library?”

Jason chuckled, rubbing his chin. “I thought you didn’t notice.”

“I saw your smile, Todd.”

“Alright. Fine. You got me. I did. It was the first time and I wasn’t exactly sure what to do.”

You playfully hit his shoulder with your fist.

“I can't believe you fucking knew.”

“Oh I did,” you winked. “I also know about those times when you turned off your music and pretended to listen with your earphones when I was humming and shit.”

“Fuck.”

He pushed you to the side with his shoulder. “Your turn. Say truth.”

“Why?”

“’Cuz I got a question for you.”

“Fine. Truth.”

Jason said, “I asked you about what you hated. Now tell me about the things you love.”

You¸ you wanted to say.

“Wow,” you sighed. “I love coffee. Obviously. I love it when it rains. I love the color black. I love singing. I love movies a lot. Aaand I guess I love Edgar Allan Poe’s stories now.”

You tilted your head to him. “That’s it?” he said.

“Eh,” you shrugged. “Maybe a bunch of other things as well.”

Keeping your eyes on the highway, you breathed hard. “Okay. Say dare.”

“Dare.”

You liked how he trusted you. “Tell me something you never wanted me to know.”

“Fucking hell.”

He laid back, his weight on his arms, then thought for a moment.

“Well. I guess I never would’ve wanted to let you know at that time. But when we started at the library, I was actually kind of excited it was with you.” He scratched the back of his head. “I thought you were… you know… hot. You were really mean-still are-and I wanted to kill you a lot of times. But gosh, you’re really pretty.”

“Jesus,” you blushingly looked away. “You’re a huge nerd, Todd.”

“Shut up.” He smiled. “Your turn.”

“Dare.”

“Show me all the pictures you have of me on your phone.”

“Oh my GOD,” you screamed.

He watched you close your eyes, flinching when he nudged your shoulder. “Come on.”

“Fine. Here.”

You gave him your phone unlocked, then he went to the photo albums. You leaned your chin against his shoulder, which made him stop, look at you for a while, before scrolling again.

“I look good in that,” he said, opening a picture of him reading at the table across from you. He went past even more. Some of him from the house, some saved from his social media account. You had quite a number in your albums. Embarrassed, you snatched the phone back and dug it into your pocket. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be,” he held your hand. “My turn now. Truth.”

You didn’t know if you should be asking this, but you really wanted to. Sighing, you spoke, “When did you start to… you know…”

“What?”

You looked shyly at him, letting your hair fall down to your face as if you were purposely hiding it. You pushed it behind your ear, then looked at him.

“Oh,” Jason returned your expression and looked at the ground.

“I don’t think I can point out the exact moment. Since it came so gradually. It just grew on me. You grew on me… But I think I can tell you when I realized that all these feelings were there in the first place. I figured it all out one day at the library. After we went to the house. You were on the other side of the shelf and you didn’t know I was there. I was just minding my own business with the shelves.

But then I saw you through the books. Between the spaces. I could only see so much of your face, but when you moved, I got to see more of you. You were silent, reading that Poe collection book. Your hair was pulled back and I could just watch how your face moved and how your eyes trailed along the words. I saw you being so invested in something I showed you. Something that I loved, too. And I found myself staring at you for… I don’t even know how long… I think that’s when I knew.”

His eyes trailed back to you, and you were as frozen as he was when he watched you on stage. “That was the night I tore the library apart to find you the other Poe collection. I just thought you’d want to read it.”

Your breaths were slow, and you glanced at his lips when he tightened his hand around yours. “How bout you? When did you realize?”

“Uhm,” you cleared your throat. “This might sound stupid-“

“Try me.”

You shook your head. You knew the moment. You knew exactly when it was. It played on your mind so much you thought you went insane right after that.

“You were taking me home. I really didn’t want to go home yet. But I had to. I think you knew about that, so you decided to go around town for a few blocks and take as much time as you needed.”

“Yeah,” he said. “I remember that.”

“I was at the back of your motorcycle. A bunch of cars stuck in traffic. I had my arms around you the same way I usually do, but after the light went green, I didn’t notice I started to lose my grip. So at the next stop, you took both my hands.” You cleared your throat. “And pulled them tighter around your waist so I wouldn’t fall off...”

You were about to cry. You couldn’t believe you were about to cry. But you fought it and kept going.

“Your hands held me for a while, and you made sure I kept them there until you sped off again. You told me to be careful. And I did. I never lost my grip after that…”

You could recall that night for every second you were awake. And you did. Every day, you thought back on how warm his hands were, how delicately he touched you, how much it seemed that he thought about what you felt, made sure you were calm and safe and secure. There was not a single selfish bone in his body.

“You have no idea how much that hit me…”

Jason must have had the same face as you had on, because his hand went over to cup the side of your cheek, running his thumb across your skin.

A car furiously sped through the highway, skidding across the road. It was then followed by two other police cars driving just as fast. The noise made you both jump. Clearing your throats, you pulled away and looked straight forward to catch your breaths.

Jason coughed and placed all the wrappers in a bag. “Come on. I saw a skateboard out in the parking lot.”

“A skateboard?”

He smiled at you. “Don’t know how to ride one?”

“No, and I don’t plan to.”

“Just come on.” He grabbed your hand, pulling you away to the empty parking lot after he’d locked the door on the car.

It was standing against the lamp post. And it didn’t look broken. Jason took it, placed it on the ground, then balanced himself on top of it. Crossing your arms, you watched him as he slowly skateboarded around the driveway making circles around you. You took pictures of him, but after a while, you just wanted to enjoy the moment as it was.

Jason, in a suit, his loose tie in the air while he skated around an empty lot, it was quite the sight to see. He was so fucking handsome and cute and hot, you just wanted to scream at the sight of him like a little girl. You watched his hair bounce, his hands skillfully balancing himself in the air, his suit fitting his muscles so perfectly. His skin glistened under the single bulb of the lamppost and he occasionally glanced at you with that cheeky grin. There was that fluttering again. Jeez.

He jumped and the board flipped under him. “Damn,” you said. Then he skated his way closer to you.

“Hold on,” you said. You went to a lamppost, where you saw a bit of junk placed around it so carelessly, then you took a traffic cone and placed it on the center.

“Jump over that.”

“What do I get?”

You tilted your head. “If you ollie over that, you get to teach me how to skate.”

“I accept that challenge.”

Jason went over to the far side of the parking lot, looking at you and bending his knees. You saw him take a deep breath, looking right in front of him, then with his hooded eyes, he raced to the cone.

You could hear the wheels skid when he sped through the cement grounds, then with his feet skillfully pushing the back of the board, he leapt up in the air with a decent formation, a proud, yet focused look on his face.

Then he landed right on the cone’s head, smushing it flat just as he hit the ground.

“Jealous?”

“Not really. I told you to jump over that, not mutilate its guts out.”

He built up his pace, going around you and letting his jacket flow with the wind.

“Come on. Deal’s a deal,” he said, stopping in front of you and almost slamming against you in the front. You shook your head, but he took both your hands, walked over to the other side of the board, and you slowly placed one foot on top of it.

“Good. Now use your other foot to push yourself.”

You did just that, then you started to move. You struggled to balance yourself but his hold on you was strong and secure. You lost your focus on the ground once when you glanced at him laughing as he gripped on your arms tight, and you almost fell on your feet.

“Just put both your feet on the board. I’ll move you around.”

“Don’t you dare let me fall.”

He looked up at you then winked.

You kept laughing and tumbling over your balance, but Jason held onto your elbows, and you on his, and he moved you around. “JASON!” you screamed when you almost shook.

“I got you.” Under the lamppost, and then into the darker shades, you and Jason laughed your hearts out. He started building up the pace, and you screamed and held onto him with your life, but he was practically running across the parking lot until you jumped off the board on your feet.

“Again,” you coughed, still catching your breath.  You stepped back onto the board, held onto his large arms, then went back to running you around the lot with your shrieks filling the empty air.

Then Jason held your waist, and you on his shoulder. You smiled at him before he pushed you around on the board, now smoother than the first time. Your body felt more secure, more at home. His hands were so warm on you, holding you under your jacket. You just wanted to lean into him.

Something cold pierced your skin. So cold, in fact. Then it went to your hair, your jacket, Jason’s face.

It was fucking raining.

And it looked like it was only gonna get so much stronger. You shrieked playfully as you shielded your head, grabbing Jason’s arm so you could pull him back to the car. He ran with you, laughing and covering his own head.

But then he pulled away and, so suddenly, grabbed your body to haul you up over his shoulder. “JASON, DON’T YOU DARE-“

He laughed and stopped running, holding you up with your legs kicking in the air, your hands tapping on his back.

“DON’T BE AFRAID OF A LITTLE RAIN, Y/N.”

It wasn’t a little rain. It was starting to really pour down onto you. You kept laughing, Jason twirling you around up in the air. And you never felt so cold with the freezing temperature mixed with the droplets landing onto your exposed skin. But you weren’t shivering. You never felt so alive. Jason put you down, but kept on holding onto you when you tried to get away. He held you from behind, nuzzling his face into your neck. Your laughter was so beautiful when mixed with his own.

Your hair was absolutely drenched by now. So were the rest of your clothes. Your face was freezing. Jason’s suit was soaked and his hair had stuck to his forehead, flat on his head in a cute mess.

“HOLY SHIT, IT’S FREEZING.” You screamed.

“I KNOW.”

So you freed yourself from Jason’s grasp, holding both his hands and swaying them around. You didn’t run away. You just enjoyed the rain. The cold. The breeze. You looked up at the sky and felt the muscles on your face being pierced by the prickling needles of the cold. Jason looked up with you.

Then your eyes caught each other, and your bright smiles started to mellow down.

Jason held your waist, pulled you so close to him that his chest gave you the warmth you needed not to shiver so much. And you returned with your arms around his neck, your feet stepping so close to him. The rain kept pouring, onto your faces, onto your bodies. But you stopped moving.

His eyes. His eyes. The way they looked down at you. The way they made you want to leap to the sky. Your other hand went up to his hair, entangling the wet strands within your fingers. Your foreheads touched, then your eyes closed.

You both leaned in at the same time.

Your first kiss had a slow, steady beat of a song playing at the background, and you couldn’t possibly have asked for anything better to pull together a moment so beautiful, something that never truly left your mind. The song stuck to you like an ear worm, but in the best possible way. Because every time it was played, or when you thought of the song unconsciously muttering the lyrics, you could remember the feel of his lips, the feel of his body on top of you, the feel of the grass beneath you and basically everything about that night.

Now, there didn’t have to be music. You’d easily remember this moment each time it rained, or each time you felt cold, or each time you were in a parking lot or each time you saw a fucking skateboard. His lips, cold from the rain, warmed up at the first touch against yours and moved so lovingly gentle, so perfectly in sync, that it was just as magical as the first time.

You pulled on his head, biting on his lip, letting his tongue passionately play with yours the tighter he held onto your waist. You pulled back to catch your breath, but he leaned back in to pull you back before you had the chance.

His lips were still so gentle, growing more numb overtime the more you moved, the more you placed your hands around him. Jason held the sides of your face and you pulled on his waist, beneath his jacket where you could feel the ripples of his strong body with his dress shirt so wet.  

Slowly, reluctantly, he stopped, his forehead still pressing closely against yours as you saw him gulp. He opened his eyes and looked into yours like he was about to cry. Holding the side of his face, he whispered.

“I think I’m in love with you…”

Your chest rising, your ears ringing and the sound of the rain so painfully roaring into the night, your hold on him tightened.

“I’m sorry,” he breathed. “Th-that’s not too soon, is it? I understand if you-“

You smashed his lips back against yours and kissed him harder than you ever had. You held his neck, his shoulders, then down his arms until you held his waist. No, it wasn’t too soon. It was perfect. And it was the best thing anyone has ever said to you your whole life.

He kissed you back, but then you pulled away.

“I think…” you whispered back. “I think I’m in love with you, too.”

Soft. Like a slow, beautiful dance. Your heart raced before settling into a comfortable warmth. Jason’s grin was one you’d have to remember for the rest of your days. You pulled him back for another kiss, ignoring the rain, ignoring the speeding cars in the highway. You were practically arching your back from the way he held onto your waist, leaning in like he just wanted to be one with you.

You loved Jason. You wanted to protect him. You wanted him to be happy for all the days so long as you were alive. You wanted him at your side every second you were awake. you wanted his beautiful smile to be at your cause. You wanted the world to be in favor of him.

You never wanted him to get hurt. And with your distrust towards the world, how your cynicism might never go away, a torch in the darkest night has given you a purpose to go on with hope.

You loved him.

One of these days, maybe you’d have to thank that Maxwell guy for spilling his coffee onto your project. Maybe you’d have to thank the Vice Principal for being so hard on you with the punishments. Maybe even Ms. Peterson, for giving you and Jason more reasons to have fun in the library.

So yeah. Maybe it wasn’t so bad being sentence to being library assistance for the longest, most eventful, and eventually the best ten weeks of your life.

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I DON’T HATE YOU - MASTERLIST

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Taglist: everyartistwas-firstanamateur  @sarcasmismyfirstlove @damned-queen-of-gotham @idkmanicantenglish @wunderstell @birdy-bat-riya @get-loki@everyday-imfangirling @comic-nerd-dc @multifandoms916 @icequeen208@offendedfishnoises @egdolan @xemiefx @arkhamtoddler @elsenthal@mythicbitchx @supremehaunter @ burning-alive  @lucy-roo  roseangel013bf @ loxbbg  reclusive-chicken-nuggethttp-cherries shadowsndaisiesriver9noble zphilophobiaz annoylinglyaries

[elsanna-shenanigans]

August Contest Submission #15: Jupiter’s Moon

Words: ca. 2,000 Setting: Takes place in one of Jupiter’s Moon Lemon: No CW: Hunting, implied character death, reincarnation

Anna’s POV

  There was a very noticeable tint of magenta in the plants today, it might have rained methane last night as per usual. Around this time, she usually comes out. The woman of winter, she is said to attack warriors after rain.

  But I have to go out to hunt. I have duty to my mother, Iduna, and my younger brother, Kristof.

  They depend on me to bring back food. I looked up and saw Jupiter and prayed to him. May he give me strength for my hunt tonight.

  I scoured the forest for signs of life. There was a faint smell of meat and I saw a dear Elfien. It’s ears twitched at the slightest of sounds. I gentled my steps, moving barely louder than an intake of breath. It moves, I freeze in my position. Unseen as I blend into the purple leaves of the Bashens.

  I was about to attack when it suddenly walked towards something, it walks into its nest, full of its masenowa. I was stricken with such empathy for this endearing creature that I decided to leave it alone.

  But it is when the most unexpected happened. A Frucknigh leapt in to attack the poor Elfien. It was luckily alert, protecting its masenowa and was able to dodge the early attack.

  This was my only opportunity to both take a kill and protect the Elfien and its bunch so I took out my spear, aimed and threw.

  Luckily, the spear fatally wounded the Frucknigh and I was able to easily wrestle it to the ground, where it bled out. The Elfien had long moved its masenowas away, so I went to work and carried the Frucknigh home.

  It was just my luck that I met her.

  It’s her.

  Third POV

  Before her is the woman from my dreams. She had the same hair, the same shape, the same face. She wore a weird expression, perhaps she was just as shocked, terrified and horrified as Anna was. Afterall, who would look for a kill around this time?

  “This is…” the strange woman started. “Very peculiar, you look just like her.”

  “Are you the woman of winter?” she asked.

  With that the woman let out a hearty laugh. “So you know who I am?” she said.

   “Of course.” Anna smiled knowingly. “You’re not here to kill me are you?”

  “No, don’t worry,” the woman of winter replied, and she joined Anna on her way back home.

  As they were deep in the journey, the woman started to talk to Anna. “How do you talk to me like I’m just another?”

  “Me, your Aetherness? This wasn’t my first meeting with a spirit. I have in fact already met an oracle.”

  “Oh, an Oracle,” the woman parroted, holding such expressive curious eyes. “And who might this be?”

  “Your Aetherness, her name is Yelena.” Anna reveals.

  “Oh, so she is here?” Elsa asked again to which Anna replied with “You two have met in the scape?”

“We go a long way back, yes.”

  “Well this is Jupiter’s moon after all,” Anna said. Her house came into view, they were close. “The harborer of dreams.”

  They talked for more while inside while Anna went about preserving the meat for whole winter, and checked the stockpile to gauge if it would last them until the Yelsian Circle.

  When Anna was making her way to the Phosian’s trickles, used to keep the recently killed frucknigh fresh within their house inventory. The woman had already disappeared, it’s unclear to her how long she has been talking all by herself.

  Elsa’s POV

  But it couldn’t be! Elsa thought again and again… This just couldn’t be. If it was then everything I knew as a reality isn’t as real as I once believed.

  There was no way her own eyes were lying to her though, so she went and looked for Yelena, she had asked the hunter woman where Yelena was and she had pointed the way.

  Yelena lived in a very dense forest-like place in this new planet. Unsurprising.

  “Before you say anything,” Yelena said as she saw her approach. “I knew you were coming here. You would sooner or later. Sit down, I will answer your questions.”

  And so Elsa asked why this woman looked like Anna, her Anna.

  Yelena gave her simple yet vague answer “Yes, it is her. This is Jupiter’s moon. The harborer of dreams.”

  Frustrated, Elsa went back to see Anna again, but her projection to the planet got weaker and she was pulled back to Earth. Her heart ached.

  “Was it lies?” Elsa asked herself for a hundredth time since she had seen the woman who looked like Anna. “Or was I just too dumb to see it for myself.”

  Anna waited the next day, hoping she might see the winter woman again, but she reckoned that the winter woman can only travel after a methane rain when the dreams are the strongest. Anna waited for its next pouring.

  “Do you know?” Elsa asked her friend, “when it rains here, it also rains in Earth.”

  Anna stared incredulously to her. “Do you mean Nirim, your Aetherness?” she asked the woman.

  “Please, call me Elsa.” The woman gave her name.

“Elsa.” Anna repeated, testing the name on her tongue. “I didn’t know Aethers named themselves. They had always only held titles in the gathered tongues.”

“Names are important from where I came from and I had one before I became the fifth spirit,” Elsa replied. “Why do they call you Anna?”

“It means Redhaired woman.” Anna answered which shocked Elsa a bit.

  It was eons before it rained methane again and this time Elsa came back with Jupiter’s moonflower. It is a very important flower that meant a lot on the moon. This one was for courtships.

  “Are those for me? Do you know what that flower means?” Anna asked Elsa, and she received a smile as an answer.

  “This is Jupiter’s moon? The harborer of dreams?”

  Earlier, Elsa has Yelena again to ask for advice.

“How do I get her back?” she asked Yelena, “How do I get my Anna back?”

  “Do what you were too cowardly to do before.”

  “This isn’t fair!” Elsa yelled. “Ahtohallan was… I had a great responsibility.”

  “You had something more important, Elsa, and you let it slip because you were tempted by power or by a delusion that you must shoulder everything. Thus the need to push your sister away. A bridge with its sides apart is a useless bridge, Fifth Spirit.”

  Elsa threw away a stash of something at Yelena’s table. Was it important? She can’t seem to care, already on the brink of breaking down. “How will I do it?”

  “Take this.”

  “This? What is…this?”  Elsa stared at the flower in her hand. It looked the same as the crocus flower that used to symbolize their kingdom… and her Anna. She hated seeing it now that Anna was gone. When she looked closer there were notable differences.

  “It’s a very important flower here. Source of life in the great dark when there’s no sun in view of the sky. When given to someone, it’s a sign of courtship.”

  Elsa blushed but she took it anyway, resolving to finally give it to Anna.

  Whenever it rained, the woman of winter visited anna as usual as the Licors narling, always a Jupiter’s moon in tow. This clued Anna in with the woman’s motivation.

    “If I may ask, Elsa.” Elsa looked at her and Anna posed the question: “Why?”

“What do you mean, why?”

“You can’t just join with someone you just met.” Anna pointed out.

“Our time together is too short to be asking questions.”

“That’s very hypocritical of you Elsa, ever since we met you’ve been asking me questions. I want answers too.” Anna spat out, annoyed.

“You remind me of someone very important to me.”

“There, it isn’t hard, is it?” Anna said. Elsa grumbled but Anna continued her questioning. “This someone, what happened between you too. Why aren’t you together?”

  “She…” Elsa started, “We were in predicament.”

“Did you love her?” Anna asked.

“Yes, I did but at that time…” Elsa sighs, clearly thinking about something important. “She recovered something, a letter of mine from when I was still a young, naive woman. She took it to heart and ran off despite warnings of an incoming Blizzard.”

  “Must have been an important letter,” Anna remarked.

“She was in a hurry, to leave. Some says she had a letter in hand but no one found her. This story is very hard for me to tell. Let’s not…speak about it anymore.”

“You were of winter, if anyone could have found her even if she was…you would have if you really loved her. You must have seen the letter. You did, didn’t you?”

“I didn’t” Elsa told Anna.

“I don’t believe it.” Anna replied.

“It doesn’t matter to me. Why are you so hang up about MY past.” Elsa pointed out, emphasizing the words.

“There must be a reason you brought this up. It’s important and I want to know about it.” Anna prodded at Elsa. “Please Elsa I’m so confused. I need to know something.”

“That’s enough, we’re not talking about this anymore.” Elsa remarked, her tone absolute.

“Why are you shutting me out. You’re like this whenever it’s about your past. Tell me, what are you so afraid of?” Anna said, as what she does when she’s panicked and quite fed up about being kept in the dark.

“I said enough!” Elsa exclaimed, the methane around them turned into hard crystals. “I’m leaving.”

  “Were you like this to her too? You care for people, you want to be closer to them, yet you push them away? And you leave them? Are you going to abandon me too?” Anna stood her ground and glared. Elsa remained silent. The great dark is on its way and she couldn’t just stand here and wait.

  There were only three rains left before the great darkening of the sky when there would be less living things in the planet, less food to it and silver to drink, the oracle informed Anna as she approached. If Elsa does not visit her before this, then she may never see her again for spirits cannot come here when life is barren.

  Two rains passed and Elsa didn’t show and Anna was heartbroken until she saw her brother playing with a Jupiter’s moon. The flower was hard to get around this time and he was fairly young to have gotten it himself.

  “Where did you get this flower Kris?”

“The silver haired woman gave it to me.”

“When?”

“After the oracle trip?”

  This gave Anna some semblance of hope, she just hoped it didn’t break her further.

  Elsa appeared in the last rain, the strongest. When Anna saw her, she was soaked in silver and dazzling under the gaze of the other moon, like it was her witness.

  “You’re right,” Elsa admitted. “I saw what was in the letter.”

Anna was surprised that Elsa admitted it and she waited for her to say more.

“She was returning my feelings and I…I was so scared to face her so I didn’t show myself until it was too late.”

Elsa started crying and Anna hugs her, shedding a tear too.

“It’s okay, Elsa,” Anna whispered softly as she lightly rubbed Elsa’s back.

  Elsa soon recovered.

“I fucked up and I don’t want to fuck it up again anymore. Anna I…I love you,” Elsa confessed.

“Is your love for her the same as your love for me?” Anna asked Elsa, her face serious.

“I think my love for her was real, as is my love for you right now. If you’ll accept it.”

  “Of course I do!” Anna jumped up and down. “My love for you is real too.”

“I’m happy.” Elsa smiled at her, this was the brightest one yet. “I have one final question.”

Anna looked at her wondering what it was, “I’ve been wondering, do you remember?” Elsa fidgeted. “Are you her?”

  Anna’s POV

  Jupiter’s Moon, the harborer of dreams. The flower shines in the dark to give light to other creatures, to the extent of using all its lifeforce to provide sufficient light, especially if it’s winter. It was a wonder how such species of a flower survived, the nature of its existence is so counter-productive to its chances of survival but it withstood and remained in its harsh environment.

  It’s said that consuming the plant in the time of the great lunar cycle will provide memories, from another life or another plane.

  The Oracle, as she calls herself, told me of my previous life. How I was a princess of a great kingdom and that I saved all the people I loved but that it was what killed me too.

    I didn’t understand it at first, but I held onto those memories until I met her.

  In that moment, I knew I was her.

[mewmedic]

An Offering, Chapter 3

Read it on AO3 here.

Summary: “Never, not even a killer deserves that.” Claudette replied, with genuine disgust on her face. She may be unable to hurt a fly, but she wouldn't hurt a murderer? Meg could understand the fear of retaliation from them, but if she could get away with attacking a killer, she would totally do it. Claudette was just too sweet, and the strong must protect the sweet. Claudette’s face was wrought with worry, like she wanted to say something but was afraid. “Meg, have you ever thought that maybe they don’t want to hunt us down?”

Warnings: None.

Notes: So this Chapter is technically shorter than chapter two but it is way longer than I expected. Whoops.

    Meg sat on a log, hugging her knees, while staring into the red-hot abyss that was the campfire. She couldn’t help but let her mind wonder over Claudette’s gentleness she experienced just a few hours ago. She really hoped Claudette wasn’t creeped out by all the hand holding and that hug. She didn’t want to rush Claudette into something she wasn’t comfortable with, but unfortunately speed was kind of Meg’s whole thing. Was she just being nice to her because she didn’t want to rock the boat? Claudette seemed like the type of person who would do that.

    The girl was torn from her thoughts when she felt another trial was incoming so she uncurled her body. It was only a matter of minutes before the other three were present at the campfire as well. She spotted the satchel of herbs in Claudette’s palms and decided to take an initiative with the conversation. Meg figured Claudette wasn’t the best at commanding attention through dialog. There was nothing wrong with that of course, she was clearly just an introvert.

    “Claudette and I found a plant called crispleaf amaranth. She thinks it might help us survive longer in a trial.” Meg tried to speak in a very series and concise tone, so the boys would take her seriously.

    “Well, it’s not a bag of weed so I doubt it will do much.” Jake snorted, like he though what he said was just so clever. This fucking guy. Always had to be a contrarian. Well Meg had something coming for him.

    “I saw you unhook and heal Dwight last trial. So maybe you secretly think these offerings work too! Or maybe you’re too scared to admit some flowers manipulated you into being nice for once!” Meg’s whole face had scrunched tight in frustration. With each word she said, she stepped closer to the man and then punctuated her anger with a finger pushing at his chest.

    “It’s true. Even if it’s a placebo effect we still had decent results.” Dwight added to the discussion with what seemed like reluctance, his eyes shifted and he rubbed his knuckles awkwardly. Meg being an extrovert, Dwight and Claudette being introverts, and Jake being whatever the hell he was sure lead to some interesting dynamics. Jake shot his view from Dwight to Meg rapidly, looking like a cornered animal ready to bounce back. He was clearly trying to come up with something to say, but then Claudette began to speak.

    “Meg told me about the trial. If Dwight had been injured when Meg was opening the gate, he wouldn’t have been able to take a hit for her. You did the right thing Jake, thank you.” Claudette’s kind tone quickly washed away the tension. Meg stepped back from Jake while he deflated his chest in embarrassment. She was dumbfounded by Claudette’s never-ending patience towards Jake’s petty quips. Meg was aware she wasn’t blameless either with her snapping at him, but goddammit, someone needs to make him be a team player. The fog began to creep in on the four survivors so Claudette quickly tossed the satchel into the flames.

    ***

The exit gates had been powered on and Meg was being chased by a killer they all call ‘The Wraith.’ He had been chasing her since the final generator had lit up so someone had to be close to opening a gate by now. She was injured and had been hooked twice, so she just had to find a gate and fast. Relief blessed her when she saw the three glowing red bulbs of an exit gate in the distance, with Claudette manning the switch.

    “Open it, open it, open it!” Meg panicked, narrowly dodging an attack from the monster’s disgusting blade.

    “It’s almost there- It’s- It’s done!” Claudette was just as stressed as Meg; she could see an injury on her arm now that she had rounded the corner of a wooden wall. The door of the gate began to move swiftly but Claudette was transfixed to the switch. “Wha-What about Dwight and Jake?!”

    “They can leave through the other gate! He’s gonna have to chase us out!” Meg had finally reached Claudette and grabbed her by the hand, ushering her past the opened gate. The two ducked together as the beast swung one last time and tumbled over the threshold into the fog. They were safe, for now, all they could do now is wait for the boys. It only took about a minute for the two to emerge into the fog, both of them leaning on each other for support as they stumbled.

    “Aha! Now you can’t deny that offering worked. I bet none of us can even recall the last time we all got out alive.” Meg proudly boasted.

    “We won’t know for sure until we test it more.” Jake stated, trying to sound calm and collected under the pain of his bleeding. Claudette approached Jake and looked like she was going to start dressing his wounds but was stopped by Dwight.

    “J-Jake and I can tend to our wounds. You two can get more off-offerings.” Dwight added, his teeth nearly clattering as he talked. Claudette curled her index finger as if to beckon Meg to her tent and the walk together. She quickly entered her tent and returned with her trowel, a satchel, and some medical supplies. The two sat down cross legged in front of each other.

    “I want to show you how I heal myself without a med kit. I take this gauze out of a kit and stuff as much I can in my pockets. I also keep a wipe on me to clean the blood off wounds first. It’s not as clean a kit heal so it takes a longer.” Claudette explained matter-of-factually. Meg was dumbfounded, she had no idea Claudette even did this.

    There were periods in trials where Meg wouldn’t see her, this is what she must be doing during those times. Meg was aware that Claudette could heal herself better than her own teammates could, or maybe she just didn’t want to burden them? She needed to improve her healing skills either way. Claudette cleansed the blood running across the gash on the outside of her wrist. “Okay, so after you clean the blood off your skin… You can pin the beginning of the unrolled side of gauze in place with the thumb of your injured hand, then wrap it around your arm upwards.”

    As Claudette instructed, she began to cover her slashed arm in gauze. Meg’s eyes were glued to her actions. “If the gauze bleeds through on placement, you don’t want to take it off. That can do more harm than good. It’s better just to wrap around that area with another layer. After that, tie up the ends and wiggle your finger to check the circulation.” Claudette did exactly what she described and handed Meg her supplies.

    Meg’s injury was also on her arm, so she was at least able to imitate the other’s actions easily. She cleaned her wound, unraveled the gauze upward, and tied it off. Claudette leaned in and inspected the bandages as Meg stretched her fingers. Meg privately enjoyed the brief moment of closeness but anxiously waited to hear the other’s judgment. “You did well.” She said kindly. Meg pumped her fist in the air victoriously.

    The two girls stood and clasped each other’s hands, leaving the campsite for the fog. Meg looked over her shoulder and watched the twinkling of the fire get smaller and smaller. The only sound now was the thuds of their footsteps and their quiet breathing. The foggy expanse ahead of them eventually revealed a small array of flowers in the short distance. Meg and Claudette shot each other amused glances as they quickly approached the blooms. The petals were ruffled with pink edges that changed to a vibrant red in the center. The burst of color shocked Meg, she never imagined something so bright could be out here in the void. The primrose they originally found was quite nice, but whatever flower this was really knocked it out of the park.

    “This is sweet william, it is often used a symbol for passion and courage. The Roman goddess of the hunt, Diana, once plucked out the eyes of a man who had angered her. This flower grew from the dirt where his eyes fell.” Claudette enthusiastically explained.

    “Wow, she sounds like a badass. Maybe we can channel some of that boldness with these?” Meg suggested, jovially posing her free hand like a claw.

    “What?! I don’t want to rip anybody’s eyes out!” Claudette gasped and winced at the gruesome thought.

    “C’mon, not even a killer?” Meg tilted her head, intrigued by the other’s reaction.

    “Never, not even a killer deserves that.” Claudette replied, with genuine disgust on her face. She may be unable to hurt a fly, but she wouldn't hurt a murderer? Meg could understand the fear of retaliation from them, but if she could get away with attacking a killer, she would totally do it. Claudette was just too sweet, and the strong must protect the sweet. Claudette’s face was wrought with worry, like she wanted to say something but was afraid. “Meg, have you ever thought that maybe they don’t want to hunt us down?”

    “I… No, I haven’t.” Meg was aghast, she did her best to hold back a gaping jaw. She wanted to hear her out.

    “It’s possible someone hurt them too. Both Trapper and Hillbilly’s are covered in scars, and Wraith… When I look at him, I see anger, but I also see fear.” Claudette just sounded so somber with her words. Meg was astounded that Claudette could notice something like that and felt ashamed that she couldn’t. “I think if something is keeping us here, it also must be have trapped them somewhere.”

    Meg actually had considered there had been some sort of higher power controlling their new world. How else do could she explain the freaky claws that take them away when they die? Who teleports them to the trials? Who even brought them here in the first place? She assumed maybe this being worked for the killers or maybe were equals with them. Never could she imagine these murderers worked for whatever had abducted her. Was there truly something more dangerous than them? Her head was spinning and she need to stop thinking about this right now.

    She knelt down to the flowers and the other followed suit. Claudette seemed to take the hint that Meg was overwhelmed with existential dread as she moved on to digging with her trowel. The sweet william was neatly planted in her satchel. She then plucked one of the flowers and gently placed it above Meg’s ear. She revealed a coy smile as Meg’s face turned red from the gesture. Meg was frozen for a moment; all her thoughts were gone. All she could come up with was to swiftly mirror Claudette’s actions, she ripped a flower out and awkwardly set it on her ear too.

    Claudette giggled at the action and Meg just realized they were leaning towards each other gradually. They were intimately close now so she could study Claudette’s features. Her eyes were endlessly dark, she felt like she could dive into them and never return, and she would never want to either. Her brown lips looked warm and inviting, and they were getting larger as they continued to close the distance.

    “Can I… Can I kiss you?” Meg quietly asked.

    “I thought you’d never ask.” Claudette tenderly answered.

    Their lips brushed together and embraced the softness. The quiet of the fog was disrupted by fireworks exploding in Meg’s mind. She closed her eyes and the fear of killers their cruel god evaporated like they were nothing. Even if Meg were trapped in hell, at least Claudette could be her angel in this moment. The world was just Meg Thomas and Claudette Morel now. However, this peace could never last so the two retreated their lips. Meg knew they had to return to the camp eventually, and by the way Claudette was gripping her hand tightly, she must have known too. The two stood up together and began to walk back in the direction they came from.

    “So… Are we dating now?” Claudette blurted out. Meg’s breath hitched in her throat and she choked a little.

    “Erm, we can be if you want.” Meg nervously scratched at her neck and glanced away.

    “I do want to be dating you.” Claudette playfully declared with a bashful smile.

    “You do? Cool. ‘Cause I do too.” Meg responded casually, trying to act like it was no big deal.

    Dating? In this nightmare? The only thing stranger than being trapped in a realm where monsters kill you over and over again would be finding love in said realm. Love? Is that what this is? Was it too soon to tell? Meg had a habit of jumping to conclusions, after all, that was what brought her to follow Claudette into the fog in the first place. Maybe this was more of a leap of faith? Oh god, she’s letting her mind go wild again.

    The obscured glow of the campfire reaching her view snapped her out of those thoughts. The light got brighter and brighter until finally they were home. She didn’t want to think of this place as her home, but with Claudette by her side, it would be okay for now. Meg didn’t want them to go back to their tents like they normally would, she wanted this date to last a little bit longer. As if Claudette could read her mind, she guided her to sit on a log near the flames. So together they sat in silence, still holding hands, under the eternal night.

[afoxysunny]

I've been thinking of so much more for my Lazybug AU but stress at work and my contused hand made it impossible to write anything down or try to draw any more

So, to give you at least a little content you didn't ask for while my hand only hurts a little:

I present to you

The different fighting styles of each Miraculous Holder

Lil explanation: though it's never directly stated in Miraculous Ladybug canon i see it ad heavily implied that, when a Kwami powers up a human, they somewhat fuse. Not like the fusion Ha dance. But a human will display not only physical but character traits from the Kwami of their Miraculous. They're still clearly the same person! Just with a few tweaks to their priorities most of the time. So yes, pointing this out so clearly brings this close to theory or headcanon territory but shhh it's my au, i make the rules

Trixie as Lucky Bug

Lucky Bug has a strong instinct to fight, there are only very few things that could stop her from heading into battle.

Trixie is always set for confrontation and Tikki has the unwavering urge to always do whatever is possible to help. The combination of these two working together as one gives Lucky Bug her strength to take on everything that stands in her way.

When in battle She will make sure to keep her opponents attention fully on herself. She holds the strong belief that while she bears the brunt of attacks she can make sure nobody else gets hurt and that's how she fights. Thanks to the weapon her Miraculous grants her she can exceed in close combat as well as having quite ranged attacks. The lather she will mostly use to pull someone's attention away from others if necessary. Closer ranged combat is definitely her preference though. Here she can use her magical yo-yo like a morningstar and really hammer down in fight. A yo-yo with endlessly extendable cord is incredibly versatile and Lucky Bug is smart enough to always find new ways to mobilize this weapon but good old brute force shouldn't be underrated.

Stephanie as Pitch Serval

Pitch Serval always has an urge to move and that definitely includes battle. Once she gets going there is nothing that'll get her standing still again.

Stephanie will literally jump at any opportunity to start moving and help others, Plagg has deep confidence in his abilities and will let everyone know. In combination that makes Pitch Serval a little bit of a show off. While well able to quietly observe a situation, once she gets into action she will not stop until the job is done.

Watching Pitch Serval fight looks more like watching a professional dancer who just so happens to beat people up while performing. The extendable pole she got as a weapon seems almost to become part of her body. In fluid motions she is capable of a variety of attacks that are both unpredictable without the music only she must hear and so natural that it becomes mesmerizing to watch. Whether she actually fights with the pole for proper hits or uses it to propel herself around, it will be effective and beautiful.

Sportacus as Álfurildi

Álfurildi is not a fan of fighting in a confrontational sense, however, practiced as a sport he finds great enjoyment in it. To him the only reason to actually fight is to protect others.

Sportacus was already a locally famous hero before receiving a Miraculous and brings all the best qualities this encompasses to the table. Nooroo however is a hurt soul, as a surviver of horrible abuse by a past master it took him a long time to extend enough trust to willingly give his powers to someone else again. The combination of these two makes Álfurildi appear a lot more calm or even reserved compared to the Sportacus we all know and love. It makes him worry more and more careful but he's still very energetic, confident and capable in basically anything he tries.

This of cause reflects in his style of battle. Until he's made sure his opponent cannot be swayed without it he won't go in for an attack so most of his battles he spends dodging his opponents attacks while making sure to stay close enough to keep tge encounter from breaking off. He encompasses the phrase "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee" as watching him avoid the incoming attacks looks almost supernatural at times, like gravity just doesn't apply to him the same way it does to others. His in depth mastery of most sports in existence surely help with that. Once he switches lanes to actually attacking himself he will use the cane that is his assigned weapon almost exclusively like a bat or racket or other similar sport equipment. You surely can image the punch that packs.

Robbie as Bullock

Bullock is not one to start a fight but he sure is great at ending them, by winning obviously.

Robbie has efficiency, wit and persistence on his side. Stompp, caring and deterninted, speaks his mind without hesitation. These two together give Bullock a reserved and stubborn appearance but when fending for what is right those are strong attributes to have.

Bullock operates best when following a plan so he will mostly be seen as a detached observer which can be accurately described as the calm before the storm. The phrase "mess with the bull, you get the horns" might as well have been coined just to describe him. Once he starts fighting he is quite literally going to bulldoze his opponent. With the ease from a Kwami's powers elaborate movements require no effort anymore do the usually so lazy man can now go all out, but old habits die hard so he aims to be done fighting as quickly as possible. This results in his attacks coming in rapid fire blasts of assaults. Using his armored fists and legs for precise hits, the chain of his tail like a whip and even his horns make him an overwhelming opponent in close combat. At distance, any distance, his miraculous granted weapon, his darts, never miss a target he locked on to and can only be removed by him so no fight will stay at distance for long.

Pixel as Spectra

Spectra needs a good overview of the ongoing battle to unleash the modt effective Amok but that surely doesn't stop him from getting physically involved once the chance arises.

Pixel follows his strong intuition and always has a quick and effective solution to help others out, Duusu is straight forward about everything and easily get enthusiastic. With this passionate combination Spectra often jumps into battle with his friends despite that not being the most logical step. His powers and costume lend themselves a lot easier to defensive fighting, more blocking, enduring, studying and only then striking. Thanks to his extensive theoretical knowledge from video games he knows an expansive array of moves only someone fighting with a fan as their weapon can use so once he gets his chance to actually fight he is far more effective than he would expect from himself.

Jives as Grinder Turtle

Grinder Turtle is really not much of a fighter. But there will never be anything in his way when he has someone to protect.

Jives is a very calm guy, the human embodiment of the gentle giant trope. Wayzz has persistence, patience and a deep respect for everybody. This combination makes Grinder Turtle incredibly passive in battle. He will use his shield only to push people away, which works great because as someone who is much taller than almost everyone he always has the high ground; but for the most part he finds his spot in the back of the team to set up his Shell-ter for them and be content holding up a safe space for everyone.

This style of fighting unfortunately takes a lot of energy out of him, leading to him quickly losing the turtle miraculous to Stingy.

Jives as High Duke

High Duke finds his flow in fighting. Here he can let lose and push himself to his limits.

Again, Jives is calm and unshakable, always too passive to not get along eith everybody. Now, Xuppu playful and mischievous, holding enjoyment to high value. Their combination makes High Duke a force to be reckoned with. They fuse in perfect addition to each other, making him a well confident, experimental fighter who does exactly what feels right in the moment. His wish to protect everyone around him, now fueled with confidence from a new perspective, allows him to move swiftly during battles like he never did anything else.

Thanks to the flexibility this transformation gifts him with he doesn't just stand back and wait anymore, he jumps head first into the fight. His favorite ways of attack is to duck down all the way to the ground and use his weapon, his staff, or the rope he has as a tail to trip his opponents, and to use the dtaff as leverage to jumo high in the air and strike from up above with great force.

Stingy as Vault

Vault is a presence that demands attention, with powerful attacks to back it up he is a heavy hitter even though he isn't so prone to charge to front line.

Stingy's determination and confidence elevate his sharp focus even more while Wayzz is anchored, calm and has a great sense of duty. The combination they create gives Vault a presence of security everyone can feel. He is strong and unwavering in what he does and knows it full well.

There is a weight in his stance like nothing can make him falter, even when not creating a Shell-ter around himself he is undeniable at the center of something powerful. With this mass of confidence he doesn't just hold on to his shield to push intruders back but it also becomes a projectile weapon to knock opponents out from afar. Though he isn't as animated as others on the team each move he makes carries weight and purpose everyone can see.

Ziggy as Mouse the Mighty

Mouse the Mighty looks harmless compared to what he is capable of. He will fight with all he has for what he believes in.

Ziggy is a simple guy, excited by the best qualities of a hero and deterninted to work as hard as possible to achieve whatever goal he has. Mullo has an optimistic approach to everything and shies away from no challenge. Together they make Mouse the Mighty eager to show everyone the qualities of a true superhero

Fueled with so much excitement he could overflow he sonetines bites off more than he can chew. When he rushes into battle, blinded by the chance to prove himself his flight response is a little too strong and he uses his Miraculous power to split into many tiny versions of himself to run away, halfway through running he remembers who he id though, how powerful he now is and that his friends need him and he comes back with even more confidence and determination than he started with.

He has all it takes to be an outstanding hero and once he gets going he shows all he got. Armed with the knowledge of pop culture and the brain of a suorrhero obsessed boy he can quickly switch styles drastically mid movement. This unpredictability together with his size varying from one bear to many mice makes him practically unstoppable. Not only does he have brute force at his disposal but also he uses his weapon, a jumprope, like nunchucks or to trip people or any other way he once saw and thought looked cool.

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I hope you enjoyed this. I was just hoping i could breath a little more life into the characters I've been playing around with for a while now but you so far only got one still image of each (also hoping to change that soon, I'm really working on that story)

For some of the Kwami's there's just barely any info about them, i hope it doesn't show too much where i was just winging it

[bltngames]

SAGE 2020: Fan Games

I’d hoped to have this article out a little bit sooner, but I overestimated how long it would take to write about some of these games. Whoops! Like I said when I outlined the posting “schedule” on the first day, we’re playing it fast and loose, so this is just what you get.

Today is the day I talk about fan games! And even though SAGE has “Sonic” right there in the acronym, it’s always hosted fan games from all types, so today we’ve got Mega Man, Mario, Rayman, and even fan games of fan games, if you can believe it.

Sonic Pinball Panic!

Pinball is one of those things where I’ve always been obsessed with it, but never very good at it. And now, with access to digital pinball collections like Pinball Arcade and Pinball FX, I don’t actually find myself playing as much pinball as I thought I would when I was 14 years old. Still, I find myself fascinated by a good pinball table, and this honestly caught me off guard. This could very easily be an official DLC release for one of those aforementioned pinball collections and I wouldn’t even bat an eyelash (in fact, if you ask me, this is better than Pinball FX, which has always had weird ball physics). This looks, sounds, and functions exactly like a real pinball table should. My complaints are minor: for starters, the table feels kind of easy. I’ve never been a pinball wizard, but I was losing balls left and right here and it still took a good 15 minutes before I finally got a game over. Score accumulation is also pretty slow; most pinball tables will dump millions and millions of points on you, but here, it felt like a struggle just to reach the 379k I finished with. Both contribute to the fact that the table feels a little flat, like it’s missing a spark to really put it over the top. And, third, it would be nice if it had controller support. The keyboard works just fine, here (it’s just pinball, after all) but I find that the triggers on a controller feel really good with pinball flippers, and mapping the plunger to the right stick is great, too. This is a Unity game, so I wouldn’t think it’d be that hard to hook it up to the controller mapper. Still, I came away impressed.

Mega Man: Perfect Blue

There are two things out there that always give me pause: fan-made Doom level packs, and Mega Man fan games. Fan made gaming content generally has problems when it comes to difficulty balancing anyway, but these games have earned a certain reputation for their difficulty, which creates a problem when you have content made by fans, for fans. This insularity means these things are usually way too hard for what I would consider “normal” people (read: casual fans and outsiders). Add on to the fact that I’d even say that there are official Mega Man games with bad difficulty balancing, and you have a recipe for frustration. Sadly, this is how I’d characterize Perfect Blue: though this introductory level isn’t impossibly hard, it’s definitely pushing that edge where it’s not very accommodating to someone who hasn’t played and finished every Classic Mega Man game ever made. It almost immediately throws you into scenarios where you have jumps you can barely reach, insta-kill spikes, and enemies that not only actively dodge your shots, but invincible enemies that launch counter attack homing missiles. And then it starts making you juggle all of this stuff, together, at the same time. None of this is insurmountable as long as you’re paying attention, but as a very casual Mega Man fan, it’s an unfriendly first impression and makes me worried about what the rest of the game is going to be like as the challenge naturally ramps up. For those hardcore Mega Man fans among you, the rest of this is solid, at least. The presentation and controls are excellent, and the new sprites are beautiful. It’s a game I’d love to enjoy when it’s done… but I’m assuming I’ll be left out in the cold. A shame, really, because there’s so much promise here.

Sonic and the Mayhem Master

There’s a lot to like about this game, but there’s a part of me that really wonders if this should even be considered a Sonic fan game. Mayhem Master’s depictions of Sonic and Amy Rose are atypical to put it mildly. Here, Sonic seems to be a bookish nerd of sorts, a sidekick to Amy Rose, who has been turned into a burnt out, cigar-smoking detective. Most of the game plays out as half an adventure game, half an RPG, where you roam around the world talking to NPCs and gather clues while being assaulted by random battles. The battle system is super off-the-wall, too, perhaps taking inspirations from games like Mario & Luigi and Undertale. This means that battles aren’t passive -- you spend most of each fight dodging or nullifying incoming attacks with simplistic action-based commands. It’s weird, and different, and occasionally even a little bit overwhelming. That’s kind of the whole game, really. It’s the sort of thing that really doesn’t feel like a Sonic game at all, but it also doesn’t feel bad. The artwork is very charming, I’m interested in seeing the characters develop, and there’s plenty of worldbuilding and mystery. Would this still be as intriguing if you removed the Sonic connection, even if it’s so threadbare? That’s a hard question to answer. I know that some of my interest in this game is seeing how it spins more familiar Sonic elements into something that’s completely different. Worth checking out, for curiosity’s sake if nothing else.

Sonic and the Dreamcatcher

This is a fairly brilliant little game with two unfortunate quirks. If you didn’t know, the special stages in the original Sonic the Hedgehog were inspired by an arcade game of the era called Cameltry, published by Taito in 1989. Now, Sonic’s special stages were different enough from Cameltry that it wasn’t a case of Sega outright stealing the gameplay, but there’s a clear lineage there, and it only becomes clearer when you compare the special stages in Sonic 4 Episode 1 to Cameltry (spoilers: in that game, they’re nearly identical). Dreamcatcher is also from this lineage, but is infinitely more charming than either Sonic 4 and maybe even Cameltry itself. The idea is that you must collect a specific number of blue spheres in order to reveal the Chaos Emerald, after which you have a limited amount of time to find and collect it. It’s very simple, but the presentation really sells the game’s charm. It’s just a game that looks good and sounds good, with an interesting premise executed very well. Also, you get a dedicated “& Knuckles” button to spawn infinite Knuckles to help you collect blue spheres and bash enemies. Being able to have unlimited numbers of these guys sounds like it would break the game, but once that countdown clock begins, the last thing you need is 20+ echidnas clogging up the route back to the emerald. The first quirk this game suffers from is that there’s only two levels. Parts of this have a very “game jam made in a weekend” vibe to it despite the rock-solid music, sound, and gameplay, and only having two levels contributes to that. Hopefully more are coming in the future. The other quirk? You can’t actually download this game -- it’s embedded in a webpage. I’m sure this is to make it easy to play on any platform with a web browser (phones, PCs, etc.) but I find myself greatly desiring a hard copy of this game that can live on my computer forever.

Sonic Galactic

Now here’s just a good old fashioned Sonic fan game. Though it clearly takes inspiration from Sonic Mania’s aesthetics in some places, it’s clearly doing its own thing, featuring not just the core cast of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, but also Fang the Sniper, and even a brand new character named Tunnel the Mole. Unlike a lot of Sonic fan games at SAGE, this appears to be using something besides Clickteam Fusion, Game Maker, or Unity. Here, it’s the “Hatch Game Engine,” whatever that is. Whatever the case may be, the game runs very well and is basically indistinguishable from just playing Sonic Mania. Visuals are sharp, music’s good, the two included boss fights are surprisingly fun to fight -- everything seems to be in order. As a result, there’s not really a lot to say. This is just a good, fun game. Anything else I’d say would come off sounding like nitpicks. For example, there’s no way to set graphics options yet, so the game is stuck in 2x Windowed mode. Fang and Tunnel are cute additions, but I wonder how much utility they have as characters. Unless I missed something, Fang’s pop gun is mainly for a weak double-jump ability, and Tunnel’s ability to dig and ricochet off floors, walls and ceilings is cool, but it doesn’t have quite the universal utility of Tails’ flight or Knuckles climbing and gliding. It’ll be interesting to see how or maybe even if their abilities have a chance to grow into something special. Anyway, like I said, those are nitpicks, so try to give this a shot if you can.

Sonic Robo-Blast!

Remasters seem to be a bit of a theme this SAGE, between Sonic Triple Trouble 16-bit, Sonic 2 SMS, Sonic 1 Revisited, but this is perhaps the most surprising of them all: a loving remaster of the original Sonic Robo-Blast. SRB1 was perhaps one of the first true “landmark” fan games, given that it was basically a whole entire game that people could play. It's not a stretch to say that SRB1 probably helped kickstart the fan gaming community that still survives to this day -- I certainly owe my involvement in the community to seeing SRB1 for the first time. The problem is, as historically significant as the game might be, it’s nearly impossible to go back to nowadays -- it’s much, much too dated to be any fun. This remaster completely re-envisions SRB1 as a regular Sonic game, while also pulling in gameplay elements from Sonic Robo-Blast 2. It’s a bit of a time paradox mindwarp, but it helps give it a bit more personality than just making a bog-standard 2D Sonic. It works, aided by the fact the sprites, music and overall presentation are fantastic. The only downside is the Act 2 boss, which commits the cardinal sin of taking away player agency and making you wait around far too much. Here’s hoping this gets finished, because it’s definitely on my radar now.

Super Mario Flashback

This has been floating around for a few years now and I’m glad to see it’s finally starting to get some more substantial content as it moves towards becoming an actual game. That being said, this is also one of those games that’s kind of hard to talk about because it’s just… really polished. The art is incredible, it controls exactly like a Mario game, and there’s already a decent mixture of ideas at play in the demo. Anything else I’d say would sound like nitpicking -- like, for example, the backseat game designer in me wonders if maybe the game is prioritizing aesthetics a little too much. This is a wonderfully animated game, absolutely gorgeous, but some actions, like the butt-stomp and the wall kick, feel a bit sluggish, and I think it’s because they show off fancy animations. Even if it’s a split second, waiting for Mario to attach to a wall to kick off of it feels slow. Really, though, that’s an insignificant complaint. This demo is still well worth checking out.

Sonic Advance 4 Advanced

This game seems like a greatest-hits of Dimps best ideas, spanning the first Sonic Advance all the way to Sonic Rush. There’s just one problem: the game seems broken. Now, my desktop PC is starting to show its age. I built it four and a half years ago, and though it can handle game like Gears of War 5 on high settings at 60fps, slowly, newer games seem to be leaving it behind. That being said, I don’t think a game like Sonic Advance 4 here should be running at what appears to be half its intended speed. It also originally launched in a teeny-tiny window (we’re talking, like, smaller than a postage stamp) and even though the options menu has a toggle for full screen mode, it doesn’t want to work. Something about this game under the hood seems to be struggling very, very, VERY hard. It’s a shame, because if this actually played at the proper speed, it seems like it might actually be an alright game, if a bit complex and busy.

Sonic 2 SMS Remake

Here’s a game I was all buckled in expecting to enjoy. Like it says on the tin, this is a remake of Sonic 2 for the Master System (and Game Gear), but with wide screen visuals and huge expansions to the mechanics, roster of playable characters, and levels. On the outside it seems really impressive, and to a certain degree it is, but something about the controls feel a little off. Sonic’s heavier here than he is on the Master System, perhaps to simulate “real” Sonic physics a little more accurately, but you can also pretty much stop on a dime, and the combination of the two feels awkward. The camera also needs a lot of work, as it’s basic at best and does a poor job of letting you see what’s below (to the dev if you’re reading this: there’s actually video tutorials out there on how 2D scrolling cameras work, it might be worth looking a couple of them up). It also leans into some of the tech limitations of the Master System, like how you aren’t given any rings for boss fights (and even hiding the HUD, a move done to save on resources for the large enemy sprites). I could be picky on a bunch of other little stuff, too, like how the flight mechanics feel, but there are other games to play at SAGE and I’ve got at least two more articles to write. Needless to say, this is a solid (impressive, even) foundation but it’s missing a lot of late-stage polish to clean up the tiny little rough edges.

Rayman Redemption

I tell this story every so often, but it was about three quarters of the way through Rayman 2 on the Sega Dreamcast when it struck me, suddenly: I love this game. I was being chased by a pirate ship through some rickety bridges and even though I was dying over and over and over again, I realized I had been enjoying Rayman 2 enough that I might put it in my top ten Dreamcast games. But that was 2002, and the years haven’t been so kind to ol’ Rayman. From the strangely celebrity-infused Rayman 3, to the tragedy of Rayman 4 (eventually becoming Raving Rabbids) to the endless, careless ports of Rayman 2 to every platform under the sun, one gets the impression Ubisoft maybe didn’t know what to do with Rayman. Especially now, when most of Ubisoft’s games are some form of online live service or cookie cutter open world experience (or increasingly both). But the fans know what they want. Rayman Redemption takes the original 1995 Rayman game and lovingly gives it a fresh coat of paint. The results are akin to what Taxman and Stealth did for Sonic CD in 2011, with wide screen visuals, improved controls, touched up level design, but gameplay that still feels faithful and accurate to the original experience. Except that Sega charged money for that, and here, fans have released this for free. Ubisoft’s loss, I guess. I didn’t play Rayman 1 until well after I’d finished Rayman 2, and I’ll admit, I kind of bounced off of it back then. It felt slow, and awkward, and when the difficulty ramped up, it got very hard, very quickly. Now, admittedly, I’ve only put about 30 minutes into Redemption here, but just the addition of a run button is incredibly welcome, and the retooled level design and powerup mechanics helps the game feel way less obtuse overall. It’s just a cleaner, tighter, more accessible and more polished version of Rayman.

Stay tuned for the next article: Indie games.

[godestof3worlds]

I Won’t Leave You Behind

It was supposed to be an easy mission. Apparently, the universe loves making things very complicated because through all my time defending the universe, there was never an ‘easy mission’. We were just getting some material when Lotor, who I thought we left at the quintessence field, came out of nowhere and started to attack us.  

It was only the princess and I on this mission, the others completing other tasks. The blue and black lions, other than yellow, were the biggest of the lions, meaning they could hold more items, which is exactly what we needed for the mission. Sadly, we parked them farther away from us since they wouldn’t be able to fit, and now we’re paying the price, by running through the canyons of planet  Suphater .  

“Keith! How much farther from the lions are we?” Allura asked as we continue to run, and dodge the lasers that Lotor were firing at us.  

I looked down at the  holo  map on my right arm, “4.6 miles left,” I shouted as I veer to the left to dodge an incoming laser.  

“You can run!” Lotor shouts, “But you won’t survive,” and then I hear his steps slow to a stop.  

I look behind just as Allura did and see him take out an explosive.  

“Allura look out!” I shout as Lotor throws it, the explosive aiming clearly for Allura. I throw myself at her, covering her as we roll away from the explosive itself, but when it hits the ground, the power of the explosive makes us fly into the canyon wall, I took the brunt of the impact, my back hitting the rock wall while Allura was pressed  against  my front.  

We slumped down, falling on our sides that resulted in our twin groans of pain. I took in a deep breath, hearing something what sounded like steps coming closer to us. I opened my eyes, squinting through the light that seemed to be beaming down on us, and raised my head that felt like it was filled with led. I looked around until my eyes landed on a silhouette.  

I squinted, trying to make my vision clearer, but all I saw was a purple blob that seemed to be coming closer. Purple blob. The only thing purple could have been...  

Lotor.  

I raise my head again, and this time, I see Lotor coming closer with a wicked smirk. I looked to my left and saw that Allura was trying to get up, but she was failing. The explosive must have taken a lot out us, because my body feels like it’s been filled with led. My head falls back to the ground.  

I close my eyes and take a deep breath, before I start to push up from the ground. Everything burns. Not like a fire is erupting throughout my body, but instead the burn that you feel when you work out too much and you’re about to collapse. The problem is that I can’t collapse, I can’t give up because our lives on the line. So, with all my might, I push up until I'm in a squat like position.  

I summon my paladin blade, and I grab my Marmora blade and extend it to all its glory. I take a quick glance over to Allura who’s only an arm’s length away from me and see that she is laying on the ground on her stomach, but she still seems aware, and she’s staring right at me.  

“ Ke’th ?” she croaks.  

“Yeah Allura?” I  quickly  look over to Lotor before I return my gaze back to the princess.  

“I  th’nk  there was  po’son  ‘n the gas,” she concludes, and I nod my head. It will make the most sense.  

“yeah, but I'm pretty sure it’s affects doesn’t last too long or it’s weak, I'm already up, kind of,” I murmur the last two words to myself before I push myself onto the balls of feet and stand. I bend my knees a little, lean a little to the canyon wall, and glare at Lotor who evilly smirks at me.  

“Well, the half breed paladin, the one who left his team, then comes back to become a hero,” Lotor then claps as he snickers. I just glare harder at him.  

“How did you come back?” I growl out my question, making sure I watch his every move.  

“ Oh  you know, I was there, then I was someplace else, and now I'm here to kill  you ,” Lotor then grabbed a sword from his side and turned it on, making it look like a laser sword, “If you would have stayed away, stayed with your mother and that  Altean , I could have been able to stay with Allura, stayed with Voltron and still be the emperor of the  Galran  Empire,” the white haired man just shook his head before he looked up at me with pure hatred glaring at me, “Now, I must kill you and take back what you stolen,” and he lunged.  

I pushed myself away from the canyon wall, away from Allura, and into a roll before I jumped up and got into a fighting stance. Lotor hit the spot where my head was before there was a low growl and the prince looked at me. His yellow eyes were glaring at me, his eyes glowing into a harsh orange color that seemed to have quintessence dancing from the corner of his eyes.  

“You heal fast from the poison,” Lotor smirks as he turns around and gets in position again, “It must be your Galran blood,”  

“What does the poison attack?” I ask as we start circling each other.  

“ Altean  blood mostly, but it does effect humans a little as well,” he shrugs.  

“Why isn’t it effecting you?” I quirk an eyebrow at the prince. We stopped moving, just staring at each other across the six feet difference between us.  

“Because I am already corrupted with the strongest substance in the universe, that poison is nothing compared to what I am filled with already,” and he lunges and starts to attack,  immediately  putting me on defense.  

My body is still feeling a little heavy, but it does seem that the poison is leaving my body. The prince raises his sword above his head and tries to force it down where my neck is, but I put my swords in an ‘X’ shape and grunt under the force of it. I hear a grunt from Lotor, and when I look at his face, his eyes are bright orange now and more quintessence seems to be sparking from his eyes. That's when I start to feel more pressure, almost too much for my weakening body to handle.  

“You are strong,” Lotor comments, “it will be fun killing you and seeing your strength leave your body slowly,” Lotor sneers as I feel more weight above me.  

I can feel my arms shaking. I know I won’t be able to handle much more of this, I know I can’t unless I do something. So, I grunt a little before I find the right positioning of my feet, feeling the heat from the sword only a  little way  away from my head, making me think of the cloning facility...  

And I spring up and throw back the stumbling prince away from me. I see my sight narrow onto the white haired  Galran  before I start to take the offensive. I run up to him and slash down with my paladin sword, using the momentum to allow me to spin and do a reverse jump round kick, hitting him in the head. I stand straight as I take a quick breath before I attack down as the prince still seemed a little shocked.  

This time I swing with my Marmora blade, not doing it so drastic that it spins me, but enough to attempt to slice Lotor. I only grazed his hand before he stepped back. With the way my Marmora sword was positioned, I threw a little bit up before catching it with the blade almost touching my forearm, and try to stab the prince in the neck, using my paladin sword to try and make Lotor duck.  

The prince did duck, but he used his sword to block the Marmora blade, and with his free hand, grabbed my wrist and twisted. I yelped at the pain, the attack surprising me that I drop the blade, making it turn back to the dagger form. I leaned a little back and  side kicked  him in the stomach, making him stumbling back and grasping for air.  

“Well...” the prince gasped, “you’re not so bad of a fighter, I must have misjudged you a little,” he smirked before he took a deep breath and stood up straight, wiping a drop of blood from the corner of his mouth, “I guess I'm going to have to power up,” and with that statement he glowed an orange color.  

I stepped back, feeling the heat from the raging prince from where I was standing. I hear a low growl before a booming laughter that echoed among the canyon walls erupted from the Halfbreed prince only a few feet away. I looked around, almost having to turn my body, to find the princess who was on her hands and knees with wide eyes. I look over to Lotor when I hear a snarl.  

The heat has died down now, the orange glow that the prince had emitted is now vanished, and ahead of me I see the prince. He seems more vicious, something in his eyes that just scream ‘rabid animal’ bore into mine. He's heaving, like he just ran a marathon, but he’s smiling, like he won something, and that makes a shiver run down my spine. I sense something from him too. Almost like when I sense the druids, but this one is uglier, more menacing as it seems that the  energy  comes from him in wave.  

“When you left me in the quintessence field, it felt like everything was burning, flames licking my skin and insides slowly, until I felt like I was in an inferno, then, there was nothing,” he sneered as he raised his sword to look at his hand, almost like he was in a trance, “I felt numb, like I was swimming in nothingness,” he shook his head as he looked up at me.  

“How did you get out?” I growl, “I want an actual answer this time,”  

He smirked, “Once I was numb, my thoughts wandered, and I got to connect to my machine, and then, I came out, feeling more powerful, like something inside was trying to get out,” he  shrugs  his shoulders as he crouched, “And now I'm here, ready to end you, and take the princess,” he launched with such speed that I almost couldn’t see him.  

But I saw, and I sidestepped as I brought my sword to stop the prince for trying to cut me. He just grinned as I snarled back. He attacked, and I dodged and blocked. It was going like this for a while it felt like, until he kicked at my head and I brought my guard toward my head...  

And left myself vulnerable for him to slash me. From my right shoulder, to a couple of inches above my left hip. It burned.  

I staggered back as I hit my back to the canyon wall, not knowing how close I was to it to begin with while I was gasping for breath. My blood was rushing, but I heard two distinctive noises. A raspy laugh that seemed to echo, and a war cry. I looked up in time to see the princess throw her rope at the prince and throw him a good several feet from us.  

She then ran up to me as I feel forward. I was able to catch myself on my hands and feet, but once she was near, I felt all my energy leave my body and I fell to the side. Luckily the princess was there and caught me, but it hurt like a bitch. I groaned in pain as I clenched both my eyes and teeth, not having the energy nor the breath to scream. The wound was burning. I was lied down on my back as my head was pillowed by the princess’ lap. I felt a hand run through my hair and her voice, but everything seemed so far away.  

I fought to stay awake. I did truly try, but everything was turning into darkness. I felt pressure on my chest, but I couldn’t fight it, couldn’t get it off of me despite the pain that sparked through my whole body.  

Then, all of a sudden, I felt energy run through me. I gasped, clenched my eyes shut as I took a shuddering deep breath, but it hurt and I started to cough.  

“I’m sorry, but I don’t have enough energy to heal your wound...” but I heard something in the background, my  galra  senses must have momentarily gotten better because I hear rocks being shifted from the area Lotor was at.  

I turn my head away from Allura, ignoring the pain I felt throughout my body as I strained my neck to look. There, I see him standing up, and he looks pissed. I look back at Allura as she stares at me with concern in her eyes.  

“Allura, you need to go, Lotor is coming back and he looks pissed,” I exclaim as I try to get up but I just feel fire burn across my torso.  

She looks over to where Lotor is and her eyes widen as I feel her tighten her hold around me. There’s a flash and I turn my head to look, and I see Lotor doing that powering up thing he did early.  

“Allura,” I wait until I get her attention before I continue, “You need to leave, he was more powerful when he did that the first time. He’s going to be more powerful now, and you need to leave and warn the team and Atlas,” I plead with her.  

“ I won’t leave you behind ,” she tightens her hold around me as if to prove her point.  

I just shake my head, mostly to say no without actually speaking, but also to try and clear my head. It was getting a little fuzzy.  

“Allura he wants you-”  

“And he wants to kill you,” she cuts me off, “I cannot leave you behind for him to only kill you.”  

“Well, well, well,” there was clap close to us, making both of us jump at the  closeness  of the noise, “isn’t this just lovely. Are you trying to play the hero again paladin,” Lotor  sneered.  

I look above toward the voice and see Lotor only a few feet away. I feel Allura shift me off her lap, making me groan in discomfort. I try to stop her from standing, but my body just felt heavy. The princess stood as she let out her Bayard and made it extend into a staff as she got in position.  

“Well princess, it seems that the poison has run  it’s  course, and I must now finish you before I take care of the black paladin,” I could just hear the disdain in his voice.  

Allura steps in front of me, blocking me from Lotor’s vision as she raised her staff. There was silence for a split second before they attacked. They were moving fast, almost graceful like. The princess would strike down with her staff, and Lotor would slide under the attack, and try to hit her with his sword, but then she would duck out of the way and they would continue trading hits back and forth.  

Then, Allura was able to hit Lotor’s hand that was holding onto the sword, resulting in Lotor letting let it go and dropping it. Allura took advantage of the prince’s surprise and brought an onslaught of attacks, but Lotor would dodge every attack she threw at him. Until, Lotor caught the staff with his left hand, and used his right hand to punch her in the face, making her lose her grip on the staff.  

Lotor took the staff from her, making the weapon turn back to  it’s   bayard  form, and threw it far from her. Allura still had a hand on her temple from where she got hit at when Lotor got into a fighting position. Allura shook her head a little, and got into position. Now Allura is an amazing fighter, but hand-to-hand is not her strongest way of fighting. Sure, she’s good, but from what I saw of Lotor fighting, he had the  upperhand , and I'm not surprised. He's been alive for at least 10,000 years and it showed in his skills.  

I had to get up. I had to go against every demand from body that wanted me to keep still, ignore the protest that my body gave when I sat up. By the time I was just sitting up, my back on against the canyon, I felt dizzy, out of breath, and everything burned. I growled through clenched teeth, not wanting to distract the princess from the fight if she heard me yell in pain. I took a few deep breaths before I started to stand. I leaned against the canyon wall the entire time I tried to get up. Everything just hurt, but I had to push up. When I was finally standing, I was shaking, and leaning heavily on the large rock wall.  

I looked up in time to see Allura get thrown the same way she thrown him when she learned of what he did. She didn’t bounce as much, only once before she skidded across the ground, but it still  looked  like it hurt.  

I heard Lotor’s laugh from here as it seemed to echo, “How do you like it princess,” and he charged toward her while she was still on the ground.  

“Allura!” I shout out, feeling my chest expand stretch the gash across my torso, but I didn’t care because he was coming.  

She looked up in time to see him kick her, first in the gut, and then the head, knocking her out. I growled, feeling the vibration throughout my body. I summoned my black Bayard, wherever it fell during our fight as it materialized in my hand. I need something that has range, knowing I won’t be able to get to where Lotor was at, let alone fight to protect her. I then saw Lotor grab something from his boot.  

I squinted, trying to find out what it was until the sun, that has been setting throughout the chase and fight, glinted off of the weapon, and my eyes widen in fear.  

It was a small dagger. Smaller than my own, being able to barely be concealed in his boot. I have to do something, anything. I growl as I try to summon a ranged weapon, anything. I know you can get different weapons, lance did it, and so did Allura. Now I really need a new weapon upgrade. I growl as I close my eyes and try to summon something other than a sword.  

Patience yields focus.  I haven't needed to say those words a long time, but I need them now. Then, I felt the Bayard transform, but I know it didn’t transform into a sword. It was heavier. I snap my eyes open and look down and found a black canon that seemed to engulf my entire arm. I look up in time to see Lotor have the dagger above his head, and I shout his name.  

“Lotor!” he looks over to me, and glares at me until he catches notice of my weapon.  

I don’t say anything else; I'm already breathing hard as it is, and raise the canon so it aims for the Garlan prince. I just smirk as I push a button, and a large ball of Atlean blue comes shooting out of the weapon, and hits him square in the chest, making him fly through the canyon walls, leaving a hole that fits his size like a cartoon. I breathe a sigh of relief as I slump down to the ground and let my canon disappear back to its normal form. I lean my head back and squeeze my eyes shut as I feel the adrenaline finally leave my body, and start to feel the toll my body has taken through this fight. I just clench my fist and groan in my pain.  

I open my eyes, and slowly look down at my wound and grimace at it. It looks horrible. It looks like a regular sword slashed through me, then someone else part way burned the outer edges of the skin, but it didn’t help stop the blood flow. Might be the reason why I'm starting to feel a little dizzy. I squeeze my eyes close as what feels like another wave of pain engrosses me, as I feel every wound, and bruise. My back is killing me, my whole torso is burning, and my arms feel heavy. Everything just burns.  

I lean back my head and try to get comfortable while we wait for help. Then my eyes snap back open as I left my head away from the wall and look over to the other body hear in this canyon.  

Allura.  

I try to stand. I push all my weight on my two feet and try to get up, but all that happens is that I just fall back, and aggravate my wounds, making me whine pitifully in pain. I take a deep breath, ignoring how just simply breathing hurts more than anything else. I look back over to Allura. She's still down.  

I don’t know how hard she was hit, and she might have a concussion, though if she didn’t have one earlier from that bomb then she most likely will have one now. I deeply exhale, before I shout her name, hoping that she at least twitches her head so I know she isn’t dead.  

“Allura!” there’s nothing to the yell that seems to echo and disturb some bird like things, “Allura!”  

This time there is a groan that I have to strain to hear, but it’s there and I sigh in relief knowing that she is still alive. It doesn’t take it long before I see her lift her head. And that’s all I need to know that she’s fine, maybe a little roughed, but other than that fine. I start seeing blackness at the edges of my vision start to spread, and I don’t fight it. I slip into darkness as all my pain disappears with it.  

[speedybooksandcreativeheaven]

Only Sinners are Repentance Series

Chapter 12 - Unleash the Truth

Story Summary: The gangs in New York have not been getting along as the control of the city is falling apart. Here we follow the story of Viper and Vemon as these girl’s experience heartbreak, drama and death.  

Chapter Summary: Joe get rudely awakened by Mika to notice her fear they run into Kayla and Sam fighting. He knew that this day was coming, so he was going to be prepared for anything. Sam finally realizes that he can’t be the hero anymore, so he tries to convince Joe with a sneaky deal. He refuses and now Sam is left broken while the sisters prepare for the battle of a lifetime.  

Word Count: 1,706

Joe’s POV

I woke up to someone frankly pushing me awake as I slowly open my eyes to see Mika standing before me with a nervous expression. If I wasn’t wide awake I am now as I could hear distance shouting in Kayla’s office. I look at her as we bolt towards her office as the shouting is getting louder and more aggressive. Without any warning, I slam open the door to see my older daughter nose to nose with Sam as none of them were holding back. They haven’t even noticed that we are in the room as the fight went on. It was like we were not even there.

“Why won’t you accept my help, Doofus! You clearly need it and you need me here!” Sam’s hands turn into a fist as he glares into her soft scared brown eyes.

“Sam,” Kayla takes a deep breath before she heard the door slam open and whipped her head to notice myself who is standing tall and proud with my arms crossed and my blue eyes scanning the situation. and a confused Mika.  

“I need you to go back to work and to forget that this has ever happened.” She tries to calm Sam down but that just sent him into a panic.

“What! Why!? You need to be protected!” He bolts back as he scans his green eyes to my blue ones.  

“What do you mean I ‘need to be protected’ what does that mean Sam?” Kayla questions him as she starts to cross her arms.

I see Sam’s green eyes of rage turn into a look of regret as he looks towards me with an ‘oh shit face’

“I-uh-didn’t mean- “he started but Kayla already uncrossed her arms as she ambushed him with her spit fire attitude. You think that I need a prince in shinning armor to come in on a white fucking horse to protect me! I have spent my whole life protecting myself that I don’t know what it feels like to be protected!” She screams at him as she backs him up into a corner. “I have people to protect me Samuel” She points to us around the room as she mentions our names, “I have my father, Joe, my loving sister Mika and every man and women I employ here. They would gladly die for me if we finally stop the King Jacks gang!”  Sam’s face finally turns to me with a confused gaze.

“But he’s not even your father! I mean come on it has to be adoption! You look nothing alike!” He points out as Mika is trying her hardest not to laugh.

“Don’t you think I know that dumb ass Our parents died in a car crash when I was four! Vicino told Joe to be our parent since he was the one that Vic trusted with his life. Joe gave us a better life than our dead parents could! My real father didn’t like what Vic was doing so we never got to see him.” She sighs as a quick memory rushes back, but she turns it away as she has a situation to handle. “Out of all the ‘father’ figures in my life, Joe and Vicino were always there for us! “She stalks up to Sam as he backs up to have his body pressed against the clear widows.

“I don’t need your help!” she spites back, as she turns around for a split second before she grabs his shirt and pins him against the same widow, “You have no right to come in here and order me around like some cop! This line of work is very dangerous.” She leans right in his ear to whisper something that made his green eyes dull as she smirks and stands back up. We all see Sam slide down the window with his hands over his face.

“I’m perfectly able to take care of this myself and my team to back me up.” She gloats as she turns to meet her sisters gaze, “Well, I would love to stay and chat, but I have some men I need to train. Come on, Mika lets go!” She walks up and grabs her wrist as they walk out. Before they leave completely she turns to whisper in my ear. “Take care of him, would you Joe?” she winks at me as she leaves the room.

I know what she is planning, and she needs Sam to go back to work since knowing William he might be bugged. I think as the door slowly closes. As soon as I hear the doors click I smirk as I stalk right up to Sam bundled up in the corner. As I slowly make my way towards him he tries to attack me.

‘Children’ I muse as I dodged his incoming attack to hold him without causing any more damages. A couple of minutes went by, so I released my hold to allow him to stand as he stood his ground eyeing the new threat.

“What the hell man! What was that for!” he shouts at me as his eyebrows narrow in confusion.

“Look, I understand that you may be hurt about this boy, but you don’t need to understand why my daughter is giving you the boot-and thank god not in a body bag.” I mummer the last part to myself.

“Boy? Daughter?” he turns his head looking at the nickname before his green eyes narrow back, “I don’t give a shit about any of this!  I’m here to protect her! From him, from you! My men are coming to put you all in jail for your crimes against the city” he smirked as he walked closer, “You should just all surrender now, and I’ll make sure that your sentence is less painful. I know you want to save the girls from that mess right?” he rubs his hands together before holding out a hand to shake on.

I turn around to see his outreached hand and sigh as rub my eyebrows in irritation. “Boy, do you know that you are starting to become your boss. I’d be worried if I were you, he has more demons than you would ever know “If I know your boss right, which I do. We are not your enemy, he is. You don’t understand. Look at yourself in the mirror next time and tell me what you see. Cause I see William right in front of me.”

I hear Sam scoff at my words as he gives them no attention. I’m finally fed up at this situation, besides I have a job to do. I ignore his outburst as I turned to throw him some stuff that I picked up around the complex. He catches it as he looks up at me like a lost child.

I point to the door as I spoke, “There is the door. Put yourself together and then leave. Don’t you say anything to your boss about our plans. You can still be a use to me yet boy.” I hear him grumble at the nickname as he shoves past me towards the door.

TIME SKIP

It’s been two months since Kayla kicked my ass out of the Royal Serpents Headquarters. It was embarrassing when I arrived home, carrying my items back and Joe’s death glare still fresh in my memory. I took a deep breath before I knocked on the door to see James give me a wide-eyed look of concern as I pushed through to stumble in the lobby. I was still fuming as I dropped my stuff on the ground as you could hear a loud thud throughout the house. My fists were still balled up as my breathing got rapid and I didn’t have time to think before I had James pinned towards the back of the door.

“Sam! What has gotten into you!” James shrieked as his golden eyes narrowed into my blazing ones to see some tears threatening to spill. My jaw tightened as I thought about my conversation with Joe a couple of hours ago.  

James POV

After I have gotten those words out at Sam I found myself pinned towards the back of our door with Sam yelling at me.

“How dare you tell me that I’m slowly turning into my corrupt boss! Who does that guy think he is! All I did was to make their sentence less painful, but he turns this shit on me! I know, he’s scared because we are getting closer to them and he wants to protect his family. How sweet! Barf.” keep I should have known about what’s going on! You don’t get to hide in the shadows and then pretend that everything is okay.”

As he was yelling at me I could tell that this was serious as I could see that he had a look that could kill. Sam had some pent-up anger from whatever he saw, and with him being gone for two months I was prepared for the worse. After he spoke aloud he turned around to see Erik, Matthew, and Damien coming down to hear the commotion. His whole face went blank as he stared into my collective form. I gave him a look of sadness but before he broke his grip completely I pulled him in for a hug.

“Ah- James, let me go!” I heard him protest but I only pressed harder around him as he needed comfort in this moment.

“Sam,” I gave him a half smile as he looked up at me, “Even the strongest people need help once in a while.”

I let go of Sam as he turned around to meet Matthew with a sad smile. “Sam,” he started, “What the hell has happened to you.” He squeaked out as he silently walked past pushing him aside I nodded to my brothers to leave Sam alone as they filed out towards the living room. Before I left I put my hand on Sam’s shoulder as he glared at me.

“When you are ready, I’m here to listen.” Sam brushed off my arm as he saw me leave the room. I shook my head sighing as I went back towards the library to finish reading.

[theangriestpea]

In the Shadows : Five

Summary: Jughead Jones, resident werewolf, just wants to protect his family and his pack from the incoming doom of The Red Circle. Sweet Pea and Lily join him to help keep the Southside safe from human tyranny. Meanwhile a demon princess named Myra and succubus named Lavender had a plan to bring on the apocalypse. <ao3> <masterlist> <playlist>

Rating: Mature // Explicit

Pairings: Jughead Jones x OC, Sweet Pea x OC, Kurtz x OC

Warnings: Smut, Mentions of forced pregnancy, Rough sex, Hair pulling, Intense choking, Fingering, Oral, Anal, Degradation/Humiliation, Dirty talk??? , NO AFTERCARE

Word Count: 6.3k+

A/N:  This chapter has a very serious warning. At the end there is a very graphic and violent, CONSENSUAL sex scene. If you are not comfortable reading about rough, violent sex then you might want to skip it because it gets a little brutal imo. If you're not in a good headspace for that, then please come back and read at a time when you are.

Part Five: Alone

A few quiet days passed. Lavender spent her days lounging with Charlie, enjoying the fighter’s company more than loneliness. During the night was when Lav hunted as Charlie could only see her partner after the sun had set. Charlie’s relationship was open and Lav’s was nonexistent.

As it turned out, Charlie was the newest member to the Jones pack. She had been an outsider from Greendale that escaped a desperate situation to what she thought would be safe in Riverdale. Once she arrived and found the plague that was The Red Circle, she realized that she had been gravely mistaken.

However, having a strong pack to back her up and support her was better than the broken home she had been barely surviving in. She also struggled with loneliness and did not quite fit in with her packmates yet. Despite her fierce loyalty to the Joneses for taking her in, it was said that she had yet to prove herself.

She was a champion in the ring. Charlie had never lost a fair fight. In Greendale she was forced to fight for scraps. She excelled and it was used to bind her into servitude. Now it was her greatest strength as it earned her enough respect on the Southside to not get messed with. Everyone knew there was a bite to back up her loud bark.

Seeing their blossoming friendship, Jughead decided to give Charlie a job to do. He wanted her to keep an eye on the succubus for the time being to make sure that she was trustworthy. The only reason he had to distrust her was that it was the very nature of a demon to be dishonest and conniving.

There was still two weeks until the next full moon and Jughead wanted everyone to meet together. Lavender was dreading this as it meant she’d have to see her baby daddy. While she wasn’t showing yet and didn’t really have any symptoms of pregnancy, she had a feeling he would know. Most likely because of Jughead’s big fucking mouth.

But she could always deny that it was his. She pondered this and eventually found that it would be the most beneficial tactic for her. The last thing she wanted was there to be strings attached to her in any way. Her forced commitment to Myra was bad enough. Her fling with Charlie was hardly anything more than friends with benefits.

Jughead had not probed any further about who the father was. Though he routinely asked her how she was doing in regards to pregnancy. Lav kept telling him that her human symptoms weren’t bound to start for another two weeks or so while her demonic ones were already in full swing. Never in her entire demonic life had she been so hungry, so insatiable that she thought she might go insane.

Myra even brought her supplemented souls to feed her. She could always tell when the succubus was starving. The demoness asked Lav why she didn’t take Charlie’s soul as often it was during the day that she needed more sustenance. Lav always dodged the question.

Presently the demon was on the back of Jug’s motorcycle as he drove through a large beaten path in the woods to the cottage where the witches lived. Her grip was tight but she was not nearly as pressed against him as she had been against Sweet Pea that fateful night. Her clothing choice was also a bit more modest since she knew there would be a toddler present.

The wolf had to assure Lily that Lav would not harm her child. It took a few lengthy conversations before the white witch that smelled of sunshine finally gave in. He pulled up into the smooth driveway and parked as Lav hopped off and threaded her fingers through her messy hair.

Jughead swung his leg around and stood as Lily came out to greet them. Lav watched her with curious eyes as she seemed to beam at the werewolf. She wondered what had happened the night he saved her from Kurtz when he took her home.

It was clear to Lavender that he was enamored with her and she suspected that Lily felt the same for him. It was cute in some way. Their energy was radiant when they were close to one another. She even suspected that they might be soulmates. It was incredibly difficult to take the soul of someone who had met their cosmic match. She always avoided those who gave off that aura.

Then, Lily looked at Lav with distrust. “Come on, Sweet Pea is already inside.”: The witch’s eyes flickered to the demon’s stomach that showed no sign of a child growing within. She shook her head before turning and walking back into the small home.

The succubus said nothing as she kept a blank look on her face. Once inside she noticed that all of their gazes were trained on her, specifically her abdomen. She put a hand on her hip, “if you have something to say, then say it.”

Sweet Pea was enraged with her, feeling as if she had deceived him. If he had known she could get pregnant then he would have worn a god damn condom. His anger was boiling, threatening to bubble over. The only thing that stopped him was the thought that if either of them were dead then those that remained alive wouldn’t have the necessary power to protect Daisy. Daisy was the only thing keeping him sane.

“You’re pregnant.” Lily said in a tone that showed just how much faith she currently had in their newest partner. It was very little. “Were you pregnant before you stole his soul or was that part of the packaged deal?”

Lav felt like she didn’t have to explain herself to mortals. Not when they were being this aggressive towards her. She kept her feelings calm. Any alarm would summon Myra or worse, Kurtz. That was the last thing she needed right now. She truly did want to help Jughead as the Southside had quickly become her new home.

“Before.” She lied, wanting to ease the tension. “I killed the father and ate him like any good demon would do.” It was so easy to let the deceit roll off her tongue. So easy to just pretend that she wasn’t in this complicated situation.

The air seemed to have left the room as all three of the others sighed with great relief. She felt herself irked that the thought of Sweet Pea being the father was such a bad idea that it caused them that much distress. Clearly she could never let the truth be known. It almost hurt her. But then, she never expected him to be in her daughter’s life in the first place.

“I don’t understand all of this hostility after I saved you for the vargulf the other night.” The succubus said, displaying her annoyance openly now.

Lily’s face dropped while Sweet Pea looked completely confused. “You saved her? When?!” He was snapping at the both of them. Neither woman appreciated it.

“When the vargulf attacked her. You didn’t think you got him off of you all by yourself, did you, little witch? Your magic was so weak that night that you couldn’t stop him from bruising your throat, don’t think I can’t see it under your charms. It was right in front of my trailer. I flung him off you and pinned him down. Jughead took you back to his home before I let him go again.” She hadn’t planned on ever admitting this but obviously earning their trust was something she was going to have to do.

“I could have let him tear you apart,” She continued, “because he would have had I not intervened. Jughead wouldn’t have been able to save you without getting himself killed in the process. My child has nothing to do with any of you.”

Jughead’s eyes softened. He had questions about what had happened that night himself, but didn’t think that it had been his neighbor who had saved his crush. The distrust in him was quickly fading. He did have one very important question though, whether or not she would answer him he did not know.

“I don’t understand, why did you save me?” Lily asked, her own voice light now instead of harsh. “He would have killed me. You are right, I wasn’t strong enough that night. My head was in a bad place for magic.” Her gratefulness was overcoming her doubt. This demon was the reason she could still hold her little girl every day. The reason she could still hold Jughead….A blush quickly crossed her cheeks but she hid it well.

Lav shook her head. The real reason was that Lily was important to Sweet Pea and he was important to her. She didn’t know why the prick was important but more often than not she believed that Charlie was just a distracting substitute for him. They did have some frank similarities that she really couldn’t ignore.

All eyes were still on her. She shifted uncomfortably. Normally she felt quite starved for attention but this was too much to take it at once. “You have a young daughter. I know what it’s like to grow up without a mother. I do not wish that on anyone.” She said, telling a half truth this time.

The white witch seemed to connect with her on a deeper level then. She was abandoned at a young age by her own mother so she also knew what it was like. “Thank you.” She said with great sincerity. “I truly appreciate it. If there’s anything I can...we can do to repay you, then let us know.”

“We? She took my soul! It was the least she could do to save your ass!” Sweet Pea said loudly in a voice edged with fury for being volunteered.

“Because you’d be lost as a single parent, Sweet Pea.” Lily replied harshly. “You’re a good dad but you couldn’t do it all by yourself and you know it.”

He backed down a small bit, knowing what she was saying was ultimately true. He couldn’t do it by himself and he didn’t have any disillusion that he could. “Fine.” He bit back, clearly not happy. “If she’d like another orgasm, I’ll happily give her one.”

Jughead couldn’t help but roll his eyes before sitting down on the couch. Lavender just stared at him with the same blank expression as before. “Believe it or not, witch, your dick is not the gods’ gift to womankind. If I want an orgasm then I already have someone in my care who will gladly oblige and I can assure that her head is much better than yours.”

His neck turned red with rage, eyes aflame despite the immediate arousal he felt from the mental image of her with another woman. One seemed to be fueling the other. “No girl can fuck like I can.”

“I suppose you’re right. Women don’t just pound into you until you have a mediocre climax. So no, she can’t fuck exactly like you can. She’s much, much better.” Lav said, a smirk on her burgundy lips now with pride in the fact that she knew she would win this argument, even if she was lying.

Lily was standing there awkwardly, not knowing exactly what to say. She only had experience with sex with one person and that was Sweet Pea. She was unsure what it was like with other people. Her eyes darted to Jughead as the thought ran through her as to what he would be like between the sheets. Her cheeks were instantly pink again.

Jughead saw her looking at him and smiled before motioning for her to take a seat. She returned the smile before sitting down beside him. Close but not too close. Sweet Pea noticed this and frowned, jealousy twinging in his empty heart. He huffed and sat down in his old tattered recliner, crossing his large arms across his chest in a masculine pout.

“So, you’re asking for my help because you need another boost of power.” Lav said, successfully changing the subject. “I’m not concerned with my levels or Sweet Pea’s as having no soul means there’s no longer a barrier on how much he can hold. Sex with a demon will give you more than one witch can possibly handle. I’m sure you’ve noticed his lack of control.” Lily nodded, she had noticed but she hadn’t said anything. Sweet Pea scoffed, wanting to protest but decided not to.

Lav took a seat in a nearby chair, crossing her legs clothed in tight black denim pants. “Which is fine for what we’re doing, but a bigger concern of mine is that your level is relatively low, Lily.” She looked at her, hazel and green eyes meeting. “Not to say that you don’t have great magical strength, because I sense that you are quite powerful in white magic. Protection and healing mainly. Which is why you will need to lead the spell and why you need to be stronger. I suggest you have sex. Anyone will do. I will gladly have sex with you if you want, I love taking beautiful women to bed. Although, I understand if you do not want to partake in the risk.”

Lily was quiet, her entire face red. Sweet Pea was smirking, “Lily, I’d happily show you another good time. For old time’s sake?”

Her eyes cut and narrowed at him, “no thank you, Pea. And no thank you, Lavender. I’ll handle it on my own.”

Lav shrugged, not offended in the slightest. She wouldn’t have taken Lily’s soul but she knew that Lily did not trust her enough yet to understand that. Her cutting Sweet Pea down was extremely entertaining as the male witch’s face went from smug to enraged. If she didn’t know any better than she thought there may have been some hurt in between.

Jughead cleared his throat, wanting to throw his name into the hat but also not being confident enough to quite do that. “We have a few weeks before that’s necessary, I think. Fourteen more nights until the next full moon. What else will we need?”

“I have all the other ingredients, Jug.” Lily said with a confident smile, “As long as everyone is at their best then this will work. We just have to make sure everyone is inside the woods or some other safe place during that night.”

The wolf’s eyes moved to Lavender, his question from earlier finally coming to fruition. “Why didn’t you kill the vargulf the other night? You had the chance but you let him go.”

Lavender shifted, pretending to be simply adjusting herself to be more comfortable. In actuality she had been nervous of this being asked. Did she tell them the truth or simply add more to her ever growing web of lies? “It would be against the orders from my master.” Was the best way she could put it.

“Master?” Jughead asked, eyebrows rising at the word. “You have a master?”

The purple haired hybrid sighed. This was not something she ever liked admitting to anyone. “I am indebted to someone. Another demon. She has a hold on me.” She pointed at the faint pentacle on her pulse point of her neck, “She has marked me. And she is the one that I warned you about. She forced me to become pregnant to use my child. If anything were to happen to me or it. She would literally raise hell.”

They all fell silent. The pause was nearly as pregnant as Lavender was. This was more embarrassing for her than not. Admitting she didn’t have much free will was not something any demon wanted to talk about….ever.

Lily looked at her with a doleful expression. “She forced you? She’s going to take them after you have it? Will you ever see them again?”

Lavender did not want to think about that. Her attachment to the growing fetus was getting stronger each day. The thought of Myra taking her daughter from her filled her with despair. She attempted to hide it, and perhaps the two boys didn’t notice, but Lily sure did. After all, she was a mother herself. She knew .

“Yes. She made me drink a potion that made me fertile enough for conception to be possible. My daughter will not belong to me when she is born. As I do not even belong to myself…” The last part came out more sadly that she had meant it to. Even Sweet Pea felt a small spark of sorrow for the demon. It quickly faded and was never thought of again.

Jug bit the inside of his cheek, “I know we made an agreement before about payment, but what if we help you keep your child and gain your freedom? Would you want that?” Lily nodded her head eagerly, wanting nothing more than to keep mother and child together.

The succubus did not like the sound of this. “She will kill you for even thinking that, Jughead Jones. Do not ever say that aloud again. I will not even consider it.” She snapped harshly, her voice extremely stern. “When she is born, my master will take her and will do whatever she so desires. Are we clear? You are not to help me in this matter in any way.”

The wolf sighed, his determination squashed for the time being. “Alright. I won’t. You said daughter? You’re having a girl?”

Lav smiled, taking a small exhale of relief, “yes. I’m destined to have a girl.”

One witch practically squealed with excitement while the other looked bored to tears. Lily was about to say how much fun girls were, but then stopped herself. Lav would probably never know. She nearly started to cry from the rush of despair.

“If that’s all for now.” Lavender said, standing up, “I need to leave. I have an appointment. You have my number.”

Jughead stood, “let me drive you home. I’ll text you later, Lils.” He shot the little witch a toothy grin and a wink before turning to leave with the demon. Sweet Pea’s eyes were but slits as he examined the blush on Lily’s face at the pet name. This was not good. This was not good at all .

Later that night, Lavender and Charlie were visiting the Whyte Wyrm. This was not entirely usual for them as they normally went separate ways after sundown. It just so happened that tonight they had the same destination. Lav needed to feed but Myra had given her a soul late that afternoon. She would be fine for several more hours.

She was at the bar, wearing a black mini dress and stiletto heels. She stirred her Shirley Temple slowly. The red of the grenadine swirling around in the ginger ale. She still had a cheery bobbing on top of the ice.

A familiarly large figure sat down next to her and ordered a beer from the pink haired demon slayer. His dark eyes looked at the demoness through a sideways glance. He eyed her form, the fabric of the dress was skin tight. Again she left nothing to the imagination and he believed she must be there hunting.

“Why did you lie earlier?” He asked as a fresh bottle of beer was set in front of him. He nodded a thank you to the slayer before taking a sip.

Her spine went rigid, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” The warlock made a sound of annoyance, something between a scoff and a huff.

“The night we met you were drinking alcohol.” He said. “You said you were pregnant before we were together but now you’re drinking a virgin cocktail. Tell me the fucking truth, am I the father?”

His tone was extremely dangerous and she was worried what a fight with him would cause. It wasn’t often that Lavender feared for her safety, but the mere thought had Myra suddenly appeared in the back of the room, eyeing the situation. The demon princess was quiet and hiding in the shadows. Only Lavender could feel her presence.

“You are.” She confessed. “I thought I’d spare you the trouble of another child.”

There was a dull ache in Sweet Pea’s chest. The fact he was having another kid on top of the fact that he’d never get to see her. He thought he was a boiling kettle about to scream instead of whistle. Lavender forced her nerves to quiet as to not raise attention to herself. “So you thought that I shouldn't know that you’re having my kid? And you’re not even keeping her?!”

“It’s not my choice.” Lavender hissed angrily, her eyes turning black for a moment. “I would not even be in the situation if I had any choice, don’t you fucking understand that?”

The dark witch backed down at the sound of pain in her voice. She thought she had hidden it with anger, but not well enough. Not for him. He knew the feeling all too well. “Where’s your girlfriend?”

Lav’s head turned to look at the stage. Charlie was dancing provocatively on it, showing off to her lover. “She’s with her boyfriend tonight. She wanted a nice ride.”

“So she needs dick but you don’t?” He asked, eyes flashing dangerously as he turned to face her completely.

The succubus shrugged, “dick is abundant and incredibly low in value, witch. When a woman wants it, she simply needs to ask for it. That’s it. Me? I don’t even have to ask. I just have think about it.” She proved her point by flushing the room with her hormones. Almost everyone’s attention then tuned in on her and she smiled with triumph.

Sweet Pea felt the pull stronger than everyone else due to his close proximity. His cock started to harden and he had to bite his tongue for a moment to control himself. He leaned in to whisper to her, voice low. “You won’t be so cocky when I’m making you scream.”

A thrill ran through her and Lavender was almost disgusted with herself. One minute he was borderline scaring her and the next he was trying to seduce her. She felt herself getting whiplash. Myra backed off, understanding that this was some weird courtship ritual she did not understand and that her sex demon was not in any actual duress.

“Is that a promise or a threat?” Lav asked, eyebrow quirked with a matching expression of a curious cat. “Because if I remember correctly, it’s an awful long drive back to Fox Forrest. I don’t think you can hold out that long.”

She put a manicured hand on his knee, thumb rubbing in small circles as she let her influence seep into him. His arousal surged almost painfully through him as he grit his teeth. He didn’t like anyone having this kind of effect on him, much less a demon.

“You don’t deserve to sleep in my bed again, not after what you’ve done.” He said darkly. Her smooth skin was suddenly replaced with gooseflesh. She bit into her lower lip so that she was pouting at him, pretending that what he was saying wasn’t fair when in all honesty it was.

“No?” She countered before taking a sip of her drink and setting it back down. “Then where do you suggest, daddy?” She cooed to him so that only he could hear her voice. “Did Lily ever call you that? Or was she too innocent to let you do the things you really love to do?”

Sweet Pea stiffened. Lily didn’t have much experience with sex so he had to be more...generic than he would have liked. They could have worked up to the kinkier stuff if things had worked out. He wondered if they ever would...Certainly not with the way she was pining over Jughead.

His heart sank for a moment before turning icy. “No.” He replied flatly, “She was boring as shit.”

Lavender giggled, hand creeping up his thigh. She squeezed playfully. “You don’t ever have to hold back with me, Pea. I can take it.”

He stood up abruptly and grabbed her wrist with a bruising grip. As he yanked her past the spot Myra had been spying in, she noticed that the demon princess was gone. Lav let out a sigh of relief, not wanting Myra to witness what was about to go down. She was certain to disapprove.

The demon slayer, Toni, yelled something at Sweet Pea as he stormed past her with his demon in tow. The witch ignored her as he went into the supply closet, forcing Lav inside before slamming the door and locking it from the inside.

He spun her around and grabbed a fist full of hair as he leaned down and kissed her lips so hard that it was almost painful. He forced her against the door, pinning her there as his knee went between her legs. He pulled away abruptly, panting with heated anger. “You think you can come into my town and talk to me this way? Talk about how much you don’t need my dick when I know you’re dripping already from the thought of it?”

He reached down, yanking her dress up and grabbing her crotch to prove his point. She was wet, her lacy panties practically soaked. No one in existence had ever turned her on the way he had. It made her full of want and she absolutely hated him for it. She found herself wishing he was dead.

Life would be much simpler if he was gone.

Sweet Pea wasted no time in ripping off her underwear. The fabric was so thin that it was as simple as opening a can of beer. She kept her weight against the door, unable to speak, fearing for what needy whine might come out of her mouth. Christ, all she wanted in this moment was for him to be inside of her.

His finger was within her core in an instant, “does your master have your tongue too?” He hissed at her before biting her earlobe. “Or can you not concentrate when I’m fingering you? Oh baby girl, you have no idea what you’ve started. I don’t care if you’re pregnant with my kid. I don’t care if you were ordered to take my soul. I’m going to fucking ruin you.”

She knew this was his darkness talking. If he had a soul then she imagined he’d care a little more. However, this wouldn’t be nearly as fun. Her breaths were staccato puffs through her nose as she held onto his denim vest. Her only response was the moan she let out when he added a second finger and started pumping at an insanely fast pace. She could feel the ring around it’s base against her walls.

“That’s it, take my fingers like the whore that you are.” He growled at her, “You just couldn’t wait to get me alone again, could you? You talk such a big game about how you don’t need my cock but as soon as I make the proposition you fall right into my lap. I’m not as stupid as you think I am.”

He bit at her neck next as she pulled him closer to her. She couldn’t help the sounds that started to come out of her. Small whines of pleasure as she felt herself climbing higher. Release was imminent and it felt so damn good. The succubus was somehow at a loss for words. Mostly because he had a valid point that sent her into a pit of self loathing. He did have some bizarre effect on her and it was possibly the worst thing to have ever happened to her yet.

A third finger went in and her head lulled onto his shoulder pitifully. She could feel him using magic to enhance her pleasure. It was a dirty cheat. A trick she often used herself but she had never had it used on her . She grabbed at the hair on the nape of his neck, desperate to inflict some kind of pain. She tugged the locks twirled around her fingers aggressively. “You’re….fighting...dirty…” She managed to say between whimpers. Her eyes were screwed tightly shut.

“Telling me the big bad sex demon can’t even take my fingers?” He asked condescendingly. “Are you going to come already? What a fucking slut.”

She pulled his hair again but it had little to no effect on him. He was winning and she could try to grapple for control but the battle was lost and deep down she knew that. By bringing up Lily she had crossed a line that she shouldn’t have crossed and now he was going to make her pay dearly for it.

Lav clenched her teeth together tightly to keep from crying out as her climax was in fact building rather rapidly. His pace seemed inhuman. She’d never lost herself during just foreplay before. This was so humiliating... and she liked it.

“You’re going to come on my fingers and then I’m going to shove them down your throat.” His thumb brushed against her clit for a split second but it was enough to send her crashing over the edge. Volume control was thrown to the wind as she moaned loud enough for Toni outside to hear. The door was rattling on its hinges and she was sure it would break when he finally fucked her.

Sweet Pea did not let her ride it out. He yanked his digits out and just as he said, they were forced into her open mouth. She sucked on them hard, eyes rolling back as she felt like she could no longer stand. He held her up by pinning her hips with his own.

He gagged her with the pads of his fingers and she could feel the anger rolling off of his touch. The witch was full of it. Her lies. Her deception. Her taking his child from him despite the fact that he wasn’t sure if he even wanted it. Not having a choice in being in his second daughter’s life had him so full of rage that he could barely see straight. He was determined to take it all out of her because this was entirely her doing in his eyes. Master or not. Certainly she still had free will. She was a demon after all.

“If you think I’m done with you, slut, then you have another thing coming. Get on your fucking knees.” He released his grip from her, pulling away so that she fell forward, landing onto her knees so hard that pain shook her patellae. Lav cursed under her breath, enjoying this more than she knew she ought to.

He unbuckled his belt and tore it off of him before wrapping it around her throat, threading the end through the buckle and tightening it under she gasped for air. He kept it in one hand while he unbuttoned his pants with the other. He shoved his pants and underwear down so that his cock flopped out, hard and ready. He’d choke her with it too and she’d fucking like it.

Lavender opened her mouth without him even forcing her to. Her gaze was eager and he found himself almost wishing she wasn’t such a willing participant in his torture. He grabbed her hair with his now free hand and knotted it into his fist. He inserted himself inside of her mouth, groaning as the feeling of her tongue against the belly of his shaft. It seemed longer than before, nearly wrapping around him and he realized she was shifting the appendage with her power to make it more serpentine.

She pushed her demonic magic into him, just as he had done her a moment before. He tugged on the edge of the belt and she abruptly halted. Sweet Pea glared down at her hatefully, taking away any last ounce of control she had. Lav, who almost always dominated in sexual situations was suddenly on the bottom of the food chain.

His hips bucked hard into her mouth and she nearly threw up on him from the force of him hitting her gag reflex. The warlock didn’t care and he didn’t stop, thrusting hard into her mouth so that his scrotum smacked her defined chin. Tears streamed out the corners of her eyes as her tongue moved in sync with him. He loosened his grip ever so slightly as he lost an ounce of the control he had. The pleasure he was feeling clouding his aggression.

Lav put her hands on his thighs to keep herself a little more steady although he was holding her in place with his own grip. Between the belt and his dick she could barely breathe. Her heart beat fast and hard in her chest with excitement as she moaned around him.

He suddenly pushed her away and forced her to stand by tugging on the belt. He didn’t want to come just yet and he knew if he continued like that then he would. Plus, he didn’t want to wait any longer before he showed her what he could really do when he put his mind and skill into his favorite pastime.

In the next instant, he had her face pressed against the door and was lining his tip with her ass. “What the fuck-” She breathed out, knowing he was going to go in raw and that it would probably hurt more than she’d like.

“Shut the fuck up.” He ordered before pushing into her. Lav cried out at the sharp pain of him entering her rectum. It wasn’t totally unpleasant, just unexpected. She didn’t mind anal when the guy was small but Sweet Pea definitely wasn’t small. “Fuck your ass is so tight. Guess no one has been in there in a while. Good.”

She wanted to roll her eyes at the stupidity of his statement. While it was true, the amount of anal one had didn’t have anything to do with tightness. He knew that, of course, it was just something to say to her to degrade her further.

“Your cunt is so used out, I don’t want to fuck that anymore.” Lav growled at him lowly, threatening to turn on him if he insulted her much further. He was hip deep inside her but she’d castrate him if he started doing something she truly didn’t want him to.

Sweet Pea understood what she was trying to say. He didn’t apologize for he didn’t care if he offended her or not. She was just some sex crazed whore to him now and that was how he planned on treating her. His hips ploughed into her and the door began to shake again. She swore she heard the wood splinter for a moment after one particularly hard thrust.

Despite the initial pain, Lavender was almost fully immersed into a pool of pleasure now. Her moans had returned, vibrating the door with the echoing sound as her nails dug trails into the old wood. He yanked the belt back, causing her head to be forced back with it.

He reached around and pulled down the top of her sleeveless dress so that her bare breasts were exposed. He grabbed one nipple, fiddled with the hardware of her barbel before pulling roughly. The sensitive spot made her sounds go up an octave as he was effectively breaking her, just as he planned to.

Lav managed to turn her head to the side enough to look at him. His eyes seemed almost pitch black as he was looking down with concentration. He reminded her of a demon almost. Only a demon would not have let her feel any pleasure at all.

He was slamming into her without a shred of care for her well-being. If she had been human then he would have been causing a massive amount of damage not only to her orifice but also to her throat. She was lucky she didn’t need to breathe to survive.

Sweet Pea was lost in his own dark mind, giving into his carnal desires as he moved without a care in the entire world. He’d never been this rough with anyone before. He found himself enjoying it way too much and he had the sudden worry that sex with anyone else just wouldn’t compare.

He was cursing madly as he released into her, Lav was strictly being held up by him at this point and after his orgasm ceased he promptly dropped her to the floor. She collapsed into a muddle of skin, muscle, and bone. “You’re mine now.” He hissed as he redressed. “Don’t ever fucking forget that.” He put his belt back on and moved her out the way before leaving and slamming the door behind him.

Myra appeared, looking down at her little demon with an inspecting gaze. She eyed the bruising around Lavender's throat and tutted. “Just when I thought you couldn’t get any more pathetic, you let a human walk all over you. Pull yourself together, we’re going home.”

Lav was so numb that she couldn’t feel anything. She sat up, collecting herself and the shards of her dignity that had been laying on the floor there with her. She pulled her dress back up over her chest before pulling it down over her naked genitals. She had to use the nearby shelving unit to pick herself up off the floor. She couldn’t look at Myra, not with the amount of shame she had in her heart for what had just happened.

When she left the room her head was high as if nothing out of the ordinary had just happened. The demon slayer was starting at her and Myra, weary of their presence and the whirlwind that was Sweet Pea now storming through the bar. 

Once home everything was as it was before and Lavender was alone. 

Tags: @the-gargoyle-queen​, @southside-vixen​, @princesweetpea​, @lilhemmo​, @wayward-river​, @redhairdontcare732​  (comment/ask/message if you want to be added or subscribe to AO3)

[nomolosk]

Snapshots (AU Yeah August 2020)

read on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25655623/chapters/62452285

Day 4- Bender

Adrien had barely a few moments to recover from the strange experience of being dislodged from his own time- and being rescued by Ladybug no less! An older, much hotter Ladybug…- before a Corrupted Earth-bender started tearing everything apart around him. His image of Ladybug- even her name- morphed into a different configuration in his mind, even as he cursed his luck and ran off, trying to find somewhere marginally safe where he could change into his alternate persona. With an Earth-bender, even a building built with metal wasn’t necessarily safe. By report it was wickedly hard to bend metal, but you never knew who had the will-power, and a Corrupted Bender was typically more powerful than an Uncorrupted one. Adrien was once again thankful he’d made his messenger bag part of his usual “look,” and always stood his ground when Gabriel questioned his constant reliance on it.

Technically, he was supposed to go straight home when a Corrupted Bender attacked the city- his father insisted on it. But who else could help Cricketbird when someone’s spirit was overtaken, if not her steadfast partner Sir Pontichat Noir? Even now, dodging dislodged bricks and uprooted sections of asphalt and cement, Adrien felt himself smirk at his alter ego's name. He was proud of that one. He spotted a plastic waste bin and made for it. With all the rogue benders lately attacking the city, the mayor had decreed (along with many other reforms) that as many metal dumpsters and waste bins as possible be replaced with fiberglass or plastic, reasoning that it was the only material still safe from manipulation by benders. While it was a decent idea, Adrien privately wondered how long that state of affairs would last.

Either way, he opened the lid and jumped in just as the rogue bender swept past. A few more jolts and rumbles, and then the worst was over. Adrien pulled the tightly rolled suit out of the special concealed pocket in his messenger bag. He unrolled it only to have a moment of deep disconnect. The suit didn’t look right, didn’t feel right all of a sudden. For an instant he had a vision of… of something. Somewhere else. Almost like a memory, but he had the impression it was very recent. A woman in a Cricketbird suit, only… only it wasn’t the Cricketbird he was familiar with. She was older, and Paris looked… different. Very different. Yet, still familiar somehow... 

Thankfully the vision didn’t last long. Everything snapped back into focus and his sudden unease with the suit faded. As much as it shook him a little, he tried to ignore it, quickly putting the suit on over his regular clothes and swaddling his shoes in special coverings. He reached up to muss his hair before putting on the mask. He checked to make sure everything was secure before stashing the bag in the small slit between the plastic waste bin and the wall of the building behind it.

He wasn’t the only one who fought against the spirit controlled benders, and all of them wore disguises, usually choosing an animal of some kind. He felt his own- the snake-cat- gave him considerable intimidation factor. He had sharp plastic claws on the ends of his gloves, and of course his fire-bending imitated the destructive quality of snake venom. Cricketbird, on the other hand, was the luckiest person he’d ever met. In most fights, she’d snatch up a piece of trash, trinket, or random bit of scenery just lying around, declare it her “lucky charm,” and somehow find a way to use it to disable the bender and get in close so she could purge their spirit of the corrupting influence. Of all of them, she was the only one who knew the technique. 

Sometimes, Adrien wondered if she were the Avatar in disguise. But no one had seen an Avatar for at least 200 years, and most thought the cycle had ended or been interrupted somehow. Adrien wasn’t sure about that, especially since he’d been fighting with Cricketbird. But she’d never shown any indication that she could control anything but her own element of Air.

Either way, Avatar or not, she needed his help right now. They were the first two to rise against the Corrupted, so their partnership was on another level, even though they’d allowed and even asked others to join the fight. 

Sir Pontichat Noir clambered as quickly as he could over the rubble, tracking the Corrupted bender through the easy medium of following the path of destruction. It was a good thing one of the members of their team was also an Earth-bender. Caraquack would help put everything to rights after the battle was over. 

It wasn’t long before Sir Pontichat caught up to the fight in progress. Cricketbird and Caraquack were already on the scene, Caraquack trying to suppress and deflect the Corrupted bender’s projectiles, shielding the surrounding buildings, and doing just fine holding his own. Sir Pontichat joined them, circling around to Cricketbird’s position. She was glancing around in a way he recognized and he knew it wouldn’t be long before she found something to help her- to help them- win the fight.

“Where do you need me, bugaboo?” he said, sidling up to her. Cricketbird acknowledged him with a nod and a roll of her eyes for the nickname.

“Sorry, scaly-cat, but what we really need to do is get him off the ground, and that calls for Air, more than fire. Can you hold down this position so I can get up there?” she asked, nodding toward a fairly intact building slightly behind the Corrupted’s position. “Try to keep her distracted so she doesn’t tear the building down under my feet, okay?”

“Done, and done,” Sir Pontichat said, giving her a two-finger salute. Again, there was a strange sense of deja-vu about the simple action, but he shook it off. He needed all his wits about him if he was going to get through this fight without significant injuries. Rena Belette knew some Healing, but she was still learning, and it took time- time Pontichat usually didn’t have. And he couldn’t go home with injuries he couldn’t explain when he was supposed to be avoiding the Corrupted fights.

Cricketbird leaped away, her jumping enhanced by the springs attached to her calves. Sir Pontichat remembered their first few fights, when she’d still be learning to use them. She’d launched herself into him, walls, the pavement… but now, she moved in them with the grace of a leopard-deer. In a few moments she was out of sight. Sir Pontichat started zig-zagging around the area, drawing the Corrupted’s attention with fire bursts. Caraquack proved just as quick on the uptake as usual and started pelting the Corrupted from wherever Pontichat wasn’t attacking. Pontichat used every bit of his parkour skills to dodge, run, and leap over the torn-up street without getting hit or boxed in. Even so, he had to use fire-blasts to deflect incoming rocks and break out of a potential trap several times before a whirlwind descended on the Corrupted. It swept her up, breaking her connection with the earth, and bore her over to where Cricketbird stood on the roof of her chosen building. She reached into the whirlwind and grasped an arm, using it to stabilize the Corrupted so she could reach up and touch her head as well.

Sir Pontichat and Caraquack watched in their usual awe as the Corrupted started glowing in two different colors- her body a neon green that they’d seen from other Earth-benders, but with a virulent orange head. The orange clearly didn’t belong, and was creeping slowly down the neck as well. Cricketbird, in turn, glowed a warm yellow. Slowly, her color invaded the other’s, though only up the arm she grasped, and spreading out from her hand on her head. The yellow overcame the orange, then receded, leaving healthy green in its wake.

Sir Pontichat often felt guilty for his own Fire-bending during this process. The one time Cricketbird had had trouble purging a Corrupted was when it was also a Fire-bender- that time it had taken nearly half an hour for her to find the invading spirit and overcome it, and she’d been exhausted afterwards. It was clearly a Fire-bender who was corrupting people, and everytime Sir Pontichat watched Cricketbird purge someone, it made him that much more determined to find the culprit and make sure they wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone else ever again.

Fire-benders were already looked at sideways by many, since their powers were almost always destructive and could quickly run out of control. It was one of the reasons Gabriel insisted Adrien Agreste was a non-bender, and forbade him to bend in public, or even very much at home, beyond honing his ability to suppress the power. It had taken Sir Pontichat Noir almost a year of fighting the Corrupted to really gain power and confidence in his Fire-bending.

After making sure Cricketbird didn’t need him for anything else, Sir Pontichat Noir slipped off. Caraquack was busy restoring the road and buildings, joined after a while by other Earth-benders if the increased sounds of thumping and bumping behind him were any indication. It was another thing Sir Pontichat felt guilty about. He might be able to provide support during a fight, but he had never yet been able to help clean up afterwards. Fire was a good bending ability- it could keep people warm and clear a path, but in the end, it was destructive in its very nature. About the only way it could be said to help create anything was to refine other materials, to make earth even harder in the form of brick and ceramics, or to power machines that created other things.

Fortunately, the Earth-bending crew was working from the end of the rampaging zone backward, which meant that the area where Sir Pontichat Noir had first appeared was still relatively deserted. It made it much easier for him to creep back into the original alley, retrieve his messenger bag, and turn back into Adrien Agreste. Even then, Adrien took some back alleys away from the location so he could rejoin the crowds in a busier part of town. 

He didn’t perceive the nearly invisible wave that swept over him and his surroundings, morphing the buildings and people into new shapes and forms. His memories were subtly edited, removing all reference to elemental bending and Corrupted Benders, and replacing those with references to akumas and Miraculous powers. It was so swift and subtle that once again, neither Adrien nor anyone around him noticed.

@auyeahaugust

[hanbeihood]

A D&D 5e Build: Ron Stoppable

I did one of these sometime last year for Halloween and just wanted to do another, so here it is. First up: Why am I attempting to build Ron and /not/ KP? Simply put, Kim is a fairly straight forward build in 5e terms. She’s an Inquisitive Rogue with a single dip into Monk. You could give her some Fighter levels (that UA Unarmed Fighting Style is so tempting) to keep up with Shego’s combat prowess, but her brain is honestly her key feature, making those Rogue levels very valuable (11 at minimum as far as I’m concerned). She’s you’re basic, average girl, and she’s here to save the world. Ronald, on the other hand, is remarkable by just how unremarkable he is while still somehow keeping up with Kim. Barely. For those who didn’t watch Kim Possible when they were younger or don’t have Disney+, he might not even seem like an adventurer. But Ron’s amazing in game terms; he’s at that level of naco cheesiness I just love to play. Plus, he has Rufus, and everyone loves Rufus. Spoilers may appear.

Let’s get into it:

I’m going to be using the standard point array from the PHB. If you would like to roll for stats, just keep in mind where to put your higher and lower rolls.

Ron’s 15 is going into Wisdom. He may seem like a totally inept doof, but he’s incredibly insightful and holds onto his own philosophies. Also, his best friend aside from KP is a naked mole rat (a very smart one at that, but that’s cartoon logic). I’m going to put 14 in Charisma. Ron isn’t intended on being conventionally attractive, but Charisma =/= being hot. It’s all about your presence and ability to get people to listen to you and consider what you’re saying. Ron is somehow able to casually talk with so many villains, so his CHA must be high. Also, he’s an honorary Pixie Scout. 13 is going straight into Constitution. He is R-unstoppable after all... He can take a real beating from even the more threatening foes and eats so many nacos that an above average CON is the only reason he hasn’t been hospitalized for his diet. I’ll give 12 to his Dexterity. He’s dodged lasers, booby traps, and incoming fire from all sorts of things. An adolescence of fighting robots and super-humans will leave you light on your feet and your hands. This may sound weird, but I’m giving his Strength the 10. He’s worked in retail and has lugged around some pretty heavy looking things. And that leaves Intelligence with 8. Ron isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. He says good stuff, but don’t ask him to tutor you for the upcoming exam unless it’s a subject he excels at without question. I know he was kind of a genius when he became evil that one time, but I’m going to rationalize that as his INT & WIS swapping places when his alignment got shifted. Ron’s a Neutral Good guy with Chaotic leanings, so going Evil is bound to mess with your brain in more ways than one.

STR 10 || DEX 12 || CON 13 || INT 8 || WIS 15 || CHA 14

Ron’s a Human of the Variant variety, but if you want to play him as a Bugbear, that’s cool I guess. I’m not your dad. I’m going to bump up his WIS to 16 and CON to 14. And I’m going to give him the Magic Initiate (Wizard) feat. Prestidigitation & Mending can reflect parts of his Movie Makeup Magic Kit, but I’m really taking this feat for Find Familiar so we can have Rufus right off the bat. He’ll also get the Animal Handling skill because Rufus loves him.

For his Background, I’m going with Entertainer for proficiency with Acrobatics, Performance, Disguise Kits, & a musical instrument of your choice. This solidifies his place as the Middleton Mad Dog mascot, the costume of which he made using his MMMK, and he has disguised himself as Mr. Dr. Possible & The Fearless Ferret. However, if you feel that the By Popular Demand feature doesn’t fit Ron quite right, go with the Rustic Hospitality feature from the Folk Hero background.

Oh boy, time for the class.

Ron is a Monk, first and foremost. Despite his clumsy, slacker nature, he’s incredible capable when it comes to dodging blows from Shego & Kim even with his hands behind his back. In addition to Martial Arts & Unarmored Defense, he’ll receive proficiency in Cooking Utensils, Insight, Stealth. He will continue down this class for some time, but what kind of Monk would he be? In the show, he eventually becomes the Supreme Monkey Master as recognized by Master Sensei (I know what you’re thinking.), so we should probably begin with looking for which subclass could best emulate Monkey Kung Fu.

There is a lot of history when it comes to Kung Fu, more than I’m going to type out. That’s not even to mention the 5 variations of the Tai Shing system. I bring this up because Ron’s arch-nemesis, Monkey Fist, is a pracitioner of Tai Shing Pek Kwar and probably would be best described as a user of Wooden Monkey. However, the beauty of 5e is that many different martial art styles can be emulated based on how you use your action economy and describe your attacks & movements. Flavor is everything.

If I were to put all the Monkey magic from the show aside, I would guess Ron could pass as a user of various styles due to him not being nearly trained as much as Monkey Fist in a particular discipline. For D&D 5e, he could be seen as a Drunken Master or Open Hand Monk, but he does have that Monkey magic, putting Four Elements on the table even if we want to say the more mystical side of his simian abilities are due to multiclassing.

At 2nd level, Ron gets access to Ki Points that he can use for Flurry of Blows, Step of the Wind, or Patient Defense. PD is especially handy for the sidekick who would rather avoid danger. He also gets Unarmored Movement which is incredibly useful for a guy like Ron. His running ability landed him a spot on the Middleton High School American football team. Crazy right?

With all that out of the way, I’m going to say once he reaches 3rd level of Monk, Ron will adopt the Way of the Four Elements, learning Elemental Attunement (a more elemental version of Prestidigitation that we can swap out later) & one other viable Four Elements Discipline of your choice. Fist of Unbroken Air is a great option for pushing a foe back while dealing damage. He also gets the ability to Deflect Missiles which is always good.

4th level Monks get the option for an Ability Score Increase or a feat. Take the Lucky feat. It’s honestly super impressive that Ron survived so long fighting baddies before he started his martial arts training. Remember, Kim Possible is one of those shows that has stuff going on off-screen, so there have been many missions between the episodes we see. Monks get Slow Fall here too; Ron falls a lot and this may be how he’s avoided concussions when he should clearly get one.

5th level gives Ron an Extra Attack and Stunning Strike. The best way to avoid a punch is to insure your opponent can’t even throw one. Also, your Martial Arts die is now a d6.

At 6th level, Ron can gain a new 4EleDis as well as swap one out for another. Drop Elemental Attument like I mentioned earlier for Gong of the Summit. This allows you to cast Shatter, and we can flavor this to be a sort of mystical monkey screech. Pick up Clench of the North Wind so you can cast Hold Person; KP will have an easier time boppin’ bad guys when they aren’t moving. Also, your unarmed strikes are now magical when it comes to overcoming resistance and immunity against non-magical attacks & damage. Talk about that Ron factor.

7th level Monks get Evasion for even more ways to avoid danger & Stillness of Mind; he may seem like a coward, but Ron Stoppable won’t be swayed into abandoning his friends.

8th level gives Ron another chance for an ASI/feat. Bump up DEX by 2 to 14 so you can start dealing more damage and have a higher AC. 15 isn’t great but PD has probably served you well if you’ve survived this long.

At 9th level, Ron’s Unarmored Movement is improved so you can have him run along walls or over liquids as long as you keep moving. This isn’t super in-character, but it’s useful.

10th level of Monk gives our boy Purity of Body, making him immune to disease and poison. Looks like he won’t be able to miss school unless he fakes being sick.

11th level is really what we wanted from the Four Elements because now Ron can use Ride the Wind to cast Fly on himself like the Supreme Monkey Master he is. Plus, his Martial Arts die is a d8 now.

For 12th level, we have another ASI/feat opportunity, so that’s another +2 to Ron’s Dexterity for a 16. This gives him an AC of 16 with the ability to take the Dodge action as a bonus action with PD.

I’m going stop here with this build because I think this is a solid place that could potentially coincide with the show, but if you want to take Ron to 20th level, Monks do get two more ASI/feat opportunities at 16th & 19th level. Use these chances to bump up your DEX & WIS to 18 each, or make one of those a 20. Four Elements Monks also get one more Discipline they can take at 17th level; Ron would probably take the Fist of Four Thunders in order to cast Thunderwave. However, if you don’t want to continue levels in Monk, almost any subclass of Fighter or Thief/Swashbuckler Rogue (if your DM is cool with Martial Arts counting towards Sneak Attack) could be viable.

If you decided to opt out of the Magic Initiate feat I took at 1st level, you could easily just take the pet mouse from the Urchin background equipment. Or you could make Rufus a player character with an Awakened Rat as the race if you want him to be more involved.

[imaginetonyandbucky]

The Hitman Bodyguard: Chapter 2

Read on AO3

Hours later, Bucky closed the door on the last of the police, SHIELD, FBI, and whatever other members of the federal alphabet soup that had turned up when Stark had reported the helicopter attack.  Turning, he sighed when he saw Stark studying him as if he could see the metal arm under Bucky’s long sleeves and gloves.  “You gonna tell me about that fancy arm of yours now?”  Stark said.

“Nope,” Bucky said, lips popping on the “p,” as he walked around Stark to get to the pot of coffee in the kitchen, praying that there was still some left.

“Please?” Stark said as he followed.

"No." 

"Why not?"

"I don't talk about it for the same reason you don’t like to talk about the arc reactor,” Bucky said bluntly.  Coffee in hand, he went to the living room to grab his laptop.  He was going to have to write up an incident report about last night for Ms. Potts, so he might as well start now. “Because it’s personal.”

“So you were gravely injured in a terrorist attack, were kidnapped by said terrorists, had that arm grafted onto your body without your permission while you were unconscious, and then were kept prisoner for months to build weapons?” Stark said sarcastically.

Bucky stared at him for a long moment, blinking, and said, “Pretty much.” Stark’s jaw tightened and he looked like he thought Bucky was mocking him.   “Did you figure out anything useful about the Mandarin last night?” Bucky asked, offering the change of topic like an olive branch and trying to refocus that razor sharp intellect where it belonged.  “I noticed you didn’t say much about it to the agents when you told them about the helicopters.”

For a moment, Stark looked like he still wanted to argue, but then he relented. “Yeah, I did find something.  Rose Hill, Tennessee.”

As he explained his line of reasoning about Tennessee, Bucky’s frowned deepened.  He rubbed his temples and knew that Stark wasn’t going to let this go.  His next thought was how to kidnap Stark and take him to someplace where he would be hidden and safe, but the whole world knew what happened to people who held him against his will, so.  Short of somehow disabling all of the Iron Man suits, Bucky only saw one way forward.

“Dammit,” Bucky said aloud, right in the middle of Stark’s theory regarding some dog tags recovered from the blast.

“What?”

Bucky sighed.  “I’m going to have to help you superhero this goddamn situation.”

For a moment, Stark blinked at him blankly. Then he smiled widely. “Yeah? Alright, Rambo. It’s on.”

(More after the break!)

                                                            ***

“So much for that property damage bonus,” Stark said, staring at the ruins of the water tower, water still eddying a little around the boots of the Iron Man suit.

“Yeah.” Bucky slung his rifle over his back and kicked at a piece of debris.  At least the fallen water tower had put out all the fires.  “Technically the bad guys were responsible for this one, though.”

“We’ll add it to their tab.  Come on, we’re not finished yet.”  Stark climbed out of his suit and blew on his hands to warm them up as it folded in on itself.  “Clearly someone doesn’t want anyone to know more about what happened here.  Got that file?”

Bucky tapped his chest where the manila folder was tucked behind his bulletproof vest.  “Yep.  I grabbed it while you were busy with that hot chick.”

“Busy?” Stark scowled as he picked up his suit, now easily portable, and headed for the main road.  “You mean running for my life? I thought you were supposed to be my bodyguard.”

“Hey, I put three bullets in her, center mass.  I don’t think anyone expected that she’d be able to walk that off.” Bucky followed him, checking each car until he found the one that matched the keys they’d swiped off the hot chick’s partner. “Where are we headed now?”

“Given what just happened, I think ‘out of town’ would be a good direction to start with.”  Stark made grabby hands at Bucky’s chest until he handed over the file. He flipped through the file, reading everything with more thoroughness than he’d had earlier when they'd acquired the file.  Bucky glanced over at him as one page in particular caught his interest.

 “AIM?” Bucky said, reading the big letters off the corner of the page.  “Aren’t they one of those big defense contractors? Like BAE and SAIC?”

“Not quite on that scale, but they did score a big contract just recently,” Stark said, reaching for his phone.  “Hey Rhodey, whatcha doing?” 

               “Are you sure you’re going to be able to access the systems from here?” Bucky whispered dubiously as they made their way to an unguarded news van.  “I thought you’d need a secure system.”

“Look who you are talking to,” Stark said as they climbed inside.  “All I need is a satellite link and bandwidth.”

As Stark muttered to himself, frowning at the screens and grumbling at the results of an internet speed test, Bucky held his pistol at the ready, more than a little concerned about the fact that they were basically trapped in this van if another one of those fire people had followed them. He kept his ears tuned to listen for anyone coming and sure enough, after a few minutes, there was the sound of feet crunching on gravel.   "Incoming," Bucky had time to warn before the door to the van swung open.

To his relief, it was just some local yokel in a baseball cap, who held his hands up in surprise when he saw Bucky's pistol.  Bucky quickly lowered it and half-gestured, half-pulled him into the van.  “What the hell-" the man started, then Stark turned around in his chair and put his finger to his lips. "I-I know you!” The man said excitedly, pulling his baseball cap off his head and wringing it between his hands.  “Oh my God, Tony Stark is in my van! I knew you were still alive!”

“Is this your van? Is anyone else going to come in?”  Stark asked urgently, gesturing for the man to keep his voice down.

“No, it’s just us,” the man said, eyes still glowing with idol worship.  Bucky covered his mouth with his hand to hide his grin.  “Can I just say, I’m your biggest fan.”

“What’s your name?” Apparently resigned to his fate, Stark stood and held his hand out, pointedly ignoring Bucky's amusement.

“Gary,” he said, taking Stark’s hand and shaking it for way too long. Bucky coughed to hide a laugh and the man finally took his eyes away from Tony.  “I don’t know you,” the man said.  “Are you-”

“I’m just the help,” Bucky said hurriedly.  “No one important.”

“Don’t tell anyone, Gary, but I have a sidekick now,” Stark said, automatically dodging Bucky’s retaliatory smack.  He put his hands on the man’s arms and squeezed them, face getting serious. “Look, buddy, I’m going to need your help, ok?”  Bucky didn’t understand Stark’s instructions, but the man must have because he was nodding like his head was going to fall off and then he was climbing back out of the van, glancing in at Stark one more time before shut the door.

“I think he wants to wear your skin,” Bucky said in a stage whisper.  Loud pongs echoed inside the van as Gary climbed on top to soup up Stark's internet.

“Yeah, me too.  Is that kind of thing covered in the bodyguard contract?” Stark said as he obsessively refreshed the internet speed counter.

“No, just terrorists.  I mean, you don’t need a bodyguard, for crying out loud, you’re Iron Man,” Bucky said in a creditable impression of Stark.  Stark opened his mouth to respond just as the red lights on the screen in front of him turned green.  Windows flashed almost faster than Bucky could read them until Stark found an index of personnel files; then a video started playing of an interview.  Bucky recognized the young man in the video as the kid from the alleged suicide here in Rose Hill.  Stark flipped to a different interview and it was the hot chick from earlier, but in this video her left arm ended right before the elbow and that had definitely not been the case earlier.  The next video he put on was titled “Injection Test” and in it some smarmy-looking asshole with a ponytail said, “Misfits, cripples…you are the next phase in human evolution,” which made Bucky little queasy.  He clenched his jaw as he pushed away the bad memories, rolling his shoulders as he felt tension gathering there.

"Aldrich Killian," Stark said with a rude snort, not noticing Bucky’s reaction. Stark dismissed that video and moved to another one titled “Phase_One.”  As he watched the people being strapped in to the medical gurneys and injected with a clear fluid, Bucky started feeling lightheaded; absently he realized that his heart was pounding and his breathing was shallow.

Stop it, he told himself, trying to take a deep breath and slow his pulse.  It’s not you.  It’s not going to be you.  Then the people on the screen started moaning with pain as they started glowing from the inside out; when one of them screamed, sharp and sudden, both Bucky and Stark flinched.  Bucky stood up suddenly and turned away from the screen, putting his hands over his ears and closing his eyes tight.  It didn’t help much, because he could still hear the screams but now they were his own screams as he struggled against his restraints –

He jerked violently away from the hand that touched his shoulder, banging into the wall of the van.  Stark took a step back, hands in the air; Bucky’s eyes flicked between him and the screen behind him, paused in mid-explosion, for long, disoriented seconds before he remembered where he was.

“Holy shit, you were serious, weren’t you?” Stark said.  “About being held by terrorists. Was it them?” he asked, tilting his head at the screen behind them.

“No, not them,” Bucky said roughly.  “And I still don’t want to talk about it.” He crossed his arms over his chest to hide that his flesh hand was shaking. “Well? What did you find out?”

Stark eyed him for a long moment, gaze sharp and concerned.  “Are you ok?”

“I’m fine.”  Bucky knew he was being curt, but embarrassment was starting to bleed in as the adrenaline faded.

“Ok,” Stark said, sounding unconvinced as he reluctantly turned back to the screen. “I found out that these guys aren’t the bombers, they’re the bombs.” Tony reversed the footage and played it again, showing one of the glowing test experiments as he went nuclear.

“The Mandarin is turning these people into weapons?” Bucky’s stomach turned over.

“Not the Mandarin. AIM.” Stark flipped through the screens until he found Smarmy Ponytail and tapped the monitor. “This guy, Killian.”  He closed all the screens and wiped the computer, giving Gary an awkward smile and wave as they made their way back to the car.

“So where are we going now?” Bucky said as they got in, grateful to be away from the screams that still seemed to echo inside that cramped van.

“Hold on,” Stark said, distracted as he looked at his phone.  “I’m having JARVIS do a query of available AIM downlink facilities in order to pinpoint the Mandarin’s broadcast signal.”

“Ok.”  Bucky drove as far as he could while Stark worked, until he pulled up to an intersection with a major highway.  “Well?” he asked as the car idled. “North or south?”

“South,” Stark said in surprise. “Apparently we’re going to Miami.”      

“Miami?” Bucky repeated, curling his lip.  He still hated being hot, and beaches were a particular pet peeve – it wasn't socially acceptable wear long sleeves and his arm would get hot as fuck if it sat out in the sun for too long.  And the sand got everywhere.

“Yeah, looks like we get to have a road trip.” At Bucky’s unexcited face, Stark elbowed him.  “Come on, it’ll be fun.”

“Fine. But I get to pick the music,” he said, pulling onto the onramp for the southbound lane.  The first few hours of the drive went by fast because Stark’s love of classic rock was well known and Bucky had plenty of that on his music player, but when they were halfway through Georgia Stark started pestering him about his arm again, so Bucky got revenge by playing the most obnoxious music he could find.

“Oh my god, is that klezmer?” Stark said, sitting up as the first wailing notes of a clarinet started.  To Bucky’s surprise, he leaned forward and actually turned the volume up.

“How in the hell do you know klezmer?” Bucky demanded, glancing over to see Stark tapping his hands to the beat.

“How in the hell do you know klezmer?” he countered.  “I grew up listening to this stuff whenever my parents left me with our butler, Jarvis.  His wife was Jewish, came over here from Hungary.”

“Huh. I spent some time in Bucharest.”  Five years, to be precise, five years of hiding in the ghettos, Jewish and otherwise, from Hydra and the world in general.  

After that, Stark seemed interested in listening to all the music Bucky had accumulated on his music player, playing the songs that he had funny or interesting stories about.  The only exception was when he accidentally hit a Glenn Miller song; his lips went flat and face blank as he turned it off. “My dad used to listen to this kind of stuff when he was drinking,” was his only explanation.  Bucky didn’t comment as Stark put AC/DC back on, because that music didn’t exactly have great memories for him either.

Stark eventually fell asleep somewhere around Orlando, with his jacket bunched up under his head and Bucky’s coat draped over his shoulders.  As the yellow sodium lights flashed over his face, he looked deceptively vulnerable; awake, he was a force of nature, every inch a super hero, a decisive strength and intellect that barely seemed contained by his physical form.  But like this, features slack with sleep, his breathing deep and slow, he was an all-too-human Tony.  Bucky could see why he inspired so much awe in so many and why Ms. Potts was so desperate to keep him safe.  

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, resisting the urge to pull the blanket up higher around Tony's shoulders.  Getting too attached to this man, of all the people on the planet, would end in nothing but disaster.