#that a black hole is like a tunnel rather than an orbiting body

[depresseddepot]

the absolute ecstasy I felt when I went to explore what I thought was a stylized black hole (the white hole station), couldn't go into it, and then connected the dots when I found the black hole in brittle hollow

[lokigodofaces]

Okay people, time to talk about how Asgard makes no sense at all!

(I'm no astrophysicist or anything of the like, I just find all of that fascinating and therefore take the time to learn more about it. I can't go into the math or anything but I know the concepts of things).

Today we're talking about how gravity is so unbelievably inconsistent on Asgard and makes no sense!

Before we begin, let me define gravity. I know, you learned about it a million times in school, but there are things we forget about it. Gravity is a force that attracts objects with mass to each other. For example, the Earth has mass and therefore has a gravitational field pulling you to the core. You also have mass and have a gravitational field and are pulling the Earth towards you. But the Earth is much more massive than you, making your gravitational field basically negligible. Everything with mass has a gravitational field, and those interact with nearby objects. For example, there are gravitational interactions between you and the phone/computer/tablet you are reading this on.

The more mass something has, the stronger the gravitational field. That is why we stay on the surface, and why planets stay in orbit, and why black holes "suck" ("suck" is not a very good word to describe the process, but oh well) different objects in, and why galaxies hold together.

The center of gravity is created by two gravitational fields interacting. With you and the Earth, the center of gravity is almost exactly the exact center of the Earth. Not quite, but extremely close, because of how much more massive the Earth is. While objects with more similar mass have the center of gravity closer to the middle. For example, Charon, Pluto's moon, is about half the size or so of Pluto. The center of gravity between them is actually above the surface of Pluto. It's closer to Pluto than Charon, but their mass is so similar that they're actually both orbiting around a point in space.

Now that we have that out of the way, here we go under the cut because this is a massive post.

1) The planet's form makes absolutely no sense

Look at this!

What even is this? Asgard is a disk with an iceberg-esque part at the bottom and some land mass on the top. Which is problematic.

For one, gravity causes things to become spherical. Things, such as yourself, with lower mass don't have the gravity to become a sphere. This is why asteroids and some moons can have funky shapes.

Here are some asteroids. Ceres is the biggest asteroid and a dwarf planet, and it is almost spherical as you can see. The rest are a little funky. They don't have the mass, and therefore gravitational force, to be spherical.

Life evolves to live in the conditions it is in. We can't see ultraviolet light because our atmosphere blocks most of it. So why would we need that ability? Why would people that could see UV have a higher chance of surviving to reproduce? This is why we aren't ridiculously strong. We evolved to be able to work with what was needed. Which means we are suited for Earth's gravity. If it weren't for other factors like the suits, astronauts would be able to jump much higher on the moon because it is tiny compared to Earth, and our strength overcompensates.

If Asgard has low gravity, then it would make sense Asgardians would evolve for a low gravity environment. Which means they wouldn't become super strong. If anything, they could have serious spinal problems on Earth because of our gravity, assuming they didn't immediately collapse. And, um, that is not the case in Marvel. The opposite is true.

2) Inconsistent gravity is confusing

So, gravity is what keeps us on the ground, right? Well, that doesn't always seem to be the case on Asgard.

Not to mention the water constantly spilling off (also not astronomy related but where is that water coming from? And why does that water just disappear?).

Even if Loki was about as far as he could be from the center of gravity while being on the planet, even if Asgard has extremely low gravity and they showed it to us, this would still make no sense. Gravity should be strong enough to keep him on the planet.

And if it wasn't? Should've not been strong enough everywhere else on the planet. No one should be able to stay on the planet. It shouldn't be strong enough to have an atmosphere.

While with its shape Asgard would have unequal gravity, it shouldn't be this unequal. And, if gravity were weak enough for Loki to fall off, it should've been weak enough that he would've floated off rather than fallen off. Same with Thor. And Odin. And Heimdall. And literally everyone else to ever be on the bifrost. No one should be able to stand on the bifrost, everyone should float off into orbit. But that clearly doesn't happen because Asgard's gravity makes no sense.

3) 2+ nearby wormholes

There are at least two nearby natural wormholes.

We have a wormhole taking you from Asgard to Sanctuary and a wormhole taking you from Sakaar to Asgard. I am not including the bifrost, because while Selvig and Jane called it an Einstein-Rosen bridge (sciency way of saying wormhole), the bifrost is artificial, and not naturally occurring. Right now I am focusing on the naturally occurring wormholes. Also, we don't know if these are two way wormholes are blackhole whitehole pairs. Basically, the theory is that some wormholes could allow travel from both ends, kind of like the Nether Portal in Minecraft, and others are a one way ticket, with a blackhole on one end and whitehole (ejects mass instead of taking mass in) on the other. We've only seen these work one way, so they could be partially whiteholes.

So there are a few problems with all of this.

Blackholes distort light.

The top image is from Hubble. Do you see the circular-ness the photo is focused on? That is from a blackhole distorting light. The second is an illustration and not from Hubble so it's less reliable, but this is a more noticeable example. Basically, light has particles called photons, and blackholes absorb mass.

As you can see in the gif, stuff orbits around blackholes and slowly gets closer and closer to the event horizon. Once you get past the event horizon, there is no turning back. Light can't escape, which is why these are blackholes. Photons are distorted like this, which means that the light produced by nearby stars and reflected by nearby celestial objects is distorted, making them look off.

In other words, Asgard's light should be...interesting.

Another thing, Asgard should be orbiting around one of these blackholes to die eventually. Unless there's a bigger one, I would guess the Sakaarian wormhole if it were two way. If not, it'd orbit around the Sanctuary wormhole.

Having two next to each other would do crazy things to Asgard's gravity. The Sanctuary one would constantly be pulling Asgard towards it, and if the Sakaarian wasn't a whitehole, it would constantly be pulling Asgard and the Sanctuary wormhole towards it.

This is something I don't know as much about, but if the Sakaarian wormhole is a whitehole on Asgard's end, I would not be surprised if there were consequences. Lots of mass being ejected into the nearby space might have consequences, though this mass might be coming in subatomic forms and not be too harmful.

(Also Sakaar should've been torn apart by the wormhole leading to Asgard and possibly others. I'm just saying. This is an Asgard post but we gotta agree that Sakaar is also messed up).

Except that none of this is true apparently.

4) There is no way Loki should've survived.

When Loki fell into the wormhole he had two options: die a quick death or die a very quick death. Wormholes are awesome. Awesome in the biblical sense of the world. Which means they are utterly terrifying.

Quick Death: Loki should have been spaghettified (and also Asgard...and the Asgardians...but I'll let that slide since apparently Asgard has secret amazing gravity). Spaghettification happens as you get closer to a singularity and let me tell you, it is absolutely terrifying. It is my greatest irrational fear (irrational in that it will never happen to me). Basically the gravity of blackholes (and by extent wormholes) literally tears molecules apart. It starts with stretching the person/object out to make them long and thin, like spaghetti. A person would die during this first stage because our organs cannot handle this. And soon the body/object would fall apart on an atomic level.

Very Quick Death: Upon passing the event horizon (point of no return), Loki would go through a massive wall of fire, burning him to death and he would be spaghetiffied almost instantly.

So...yeah...how is he not dead?

5) Even if Loki could survive, he shouldn't have made it to Sanctuary

There are theories on how to make viable wormholes. I don't remember exactly how, but there are theories on how to allow someone to pass without being spaghetiffied or burnt to a crisp. But then there's the problem of it being impossible to reach the other side.

Basically the "pathway" between the two ends of a wormhole is infinitely small. In other words, Loki couldn't fit through it, and would therefore die. There are theories on how to counteract that problem, but the odds of a wormhole naturally forming like this are low. So, Loki should've died even if he got past the singularity on the way to Sanctuary.

6) Also there's the bifrost.

The bifrost is artificial. The problems about travelling through wormholes (spagettification, fire wall, infinitely small tunnel, etc) aren't there because Asgard built it as a way of travel. And since it was repaired by the Tesseract in between Avengers and Dark World, it might be a product of the Tesseract anyway.

With artificial devices explained by fictional science/technology/magic, I'm not as picky. It's science I don't understand because that's not science from this universe. But I do have questions about the bifrost. I don't fully understand how it could've destroyed Jotunheim. My thought was that it absorbed Jotunheim like a blackhole, but we don't see debris coming over to Asgard. How is it turned on and off? What consequences were there when it was destroyed? Is gravity all of the sudden strange when it turns on? I do like that it looks like people are pulled into the bifrost when it turns on, makes it more wormholey. But how did Hela knock Thor and Loki out of the bifrost?

I tend to forgive all of that because it's a fictional device. Just like how I forgive the gravity/blackhole bomb things the dark elves had. Those are clearly artificial and since we have theories on how those are possible I let it slide (though I find it interesting how the blackholes evaporate (that's the term for the death of a blackhole)). I actually headcanon the dark elves used gravitonium to create these devices. Gravitonium is an element introduced in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. that has interesting gravitational abilities. It is 100% fictional, so I let a lot of it slide. But gravitonium is supposed to be a heavy element, meaning it wasn't created in the solar system, it was created by a supernova, so it has to exist elsewhere in the universe. Why not on Svartalfheim? But that's just me (there are actually lots of connections between TDW and AoS, specifically connections between Loki and AoS). But fictional devices are that: fictional. Whereas blackholes and wormholes are very real. Blackholes are confirmed to exist, and wormholes are theoretical with lots of evidence (Einstein created a list of formulas describing how the universe works, and wormholes work in these formulas. But that doesn't mean wormholes exist currently, have existed in the past, or ever will exist, we just know they're theoretically possible.). So I can be more picky about those.

Of course, I can watch these movies and still be entertained. I love these movies. But I'm a nerd that has to overanalyze everything and I specifically like space, and thus this post was born because Asgard makes no sense.

[writingbakery]

“an andorian, a bezoid, & a tessian walk into a bar”

another one of my favorite works is here! i originally wrote this for a different fandom, & rewrote it to fit here. i’m in love with this story, it’s one of my absolute favorites; please leave me feedback about it! a second part is in the works ✨ taglist; @secondhand-trash @redbeanteax @togasknifes

[some notes: denki is an andorian, a very tall race of aliens who are very nimble, skilled silent warriors when needed. hitoshi is a bezoid, from a mining planet, broad, tough, good with any sort of weapon but mainly guns, & you are a rare species called tessian, lil shapeshifting aliens that were often sold as slaves way back in the day on illegal black markets due to their skill! ULC means universal language chip, & the fleet is my version of the interspace police! ]

[pairing; poly!shinkami x reader]

[warnings; space jokes, cussing, dangerous scenarios, extremely Buff Aliens, violence, angst, fluff]

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

if you asked hitoshi shinsou what he would describe as a perfect day, he would tell you this: waking up in his quarters on the isla bella, the smooth glide of their ship through space flowing uninterrupted. there are no parts that need replacing, no angry merchants on their tail for undelivered merchandise, nothing but the clean quiet of the stars & the faint glow of space flitting through the small window by his bed, denki fast asleep against his chest. he’d card his fingers through the andorian’s glimmering gold hair, kiss along the slope of his nose & bask in his quiet beauty. that would be a perfect day for him; lounging in bed with his freakishly tall, giggly lover without a care in the world.

the last thing he’d consider to be a perfect day is running across the burning - literally in flames burning - sand of a deserted planet with two grogorians firing photon lasers at his skinny ass, skidding between the roaring flames of the ground beneath him & the sting of the lasers with denki screaming unintelligible commands & curses in his ear via comm. he’d consider that a bottom of the barrel kind of day.

you can probably guess which kind of day he’s having.

cursing under his breath as he slips between the burning flames, he does a cursory peek around the open desert, eyes searching for the opening that denki was furiously insisting “was right there, hitoshi shinsou for the love of god open those damn sultry bezoid eyes and LOOK” - he refuses to acknowledge the compliment, focused on the seven million fucking grains of sand & his boyfriends panicked voice in his ear when he finally spots it. a haze in the heavy heated air, almost like a mirage, a split in the vast landscape that led down somewhere dark, hidden. he lets out a sigh of relief loud enough for denki to hear, a sign that he’d found the entrance, before a photon blast skims just past his ear, leaving a three inch skidded burn across his cheek.

oh right. the grogorians.

stealing from the grogorians was the stupidest goddamn idea denki had ever come up with, which was saying a lot; once, he’d thought the seven suns on Naboor all rose & fell at the same time, shrieking in hitoshi’s ear about “planetary instability” & “socio-economic collapse” for a full ten minutes before he saw the suns rising & falling one after the other, in turns. that had been a field day, not one hitoshi was eager to repeat. the grogorians were fiercely territorial, completely tucked away from modern civilization & technology, & were at least seven feet tall. you could fit two shinsous in one of their chests; he wasn’t quite ready to see that up close.

ducking & weaving across the barren landscape, he slides through the slit in the ground with practiced ease; he’s run for his miserable life far too many times at this point. he can hear the grogorians shouting above the hole in the ground, too big for them to pass through, & he winces as his ULC - universal language chip, something kaminari had insisted he get implanted- deciphers the strangled words into curses he can understand. he’s really glad his parents are dead, because whatever blood curses the grogorians are spitting at his family tree sound awful.

the cavernous tunnels he’s slid down into are cool, spacious; coned lights illuminate the rocky path deeper & deeper into the planet. its all but deserted, the only inhabitants the two grogorian guards he’d narrowly escaped from. denki’s voice filters in through the comm again, calmer now that hitoshi was safely inside.

“we’ve got twenty minutes max before their distress signal goes through,” the andorian warns him, tracking the surrounding space around the planet from the isla bella. “follow the main tunnel straight through. the crown should be there. ten minutes to get there, i phase you straight out, we fucking book it into warp drive & we’ll be seven million credits richer by tomorrow morning. and you can finally treat me to dajang.”

hitoshi rolls his eyes despite the fact that denki can’t actually see him, trudging through the tunnels a little wearily. “remind me again why i always have to be the one getting shot to hell & back?” he grumbles as he walks, no real heat to his voice.

“you love my ass too much to risk it getting shot at, baby you know that,” denki laughs through the comm, ever poking fun at hitoshi’s expense & he’s sure to give the andorian a long, drawn out sigh before switching off the comm & pushing further into the darkness.

denki’s right though, hitoshi muses as he moves, his eyes glinting violet in the lamplight. the bezoid would rather die than see denki in any veritable danger, keeps him up on the ship to guide him & yank his ass out at the first inkling of a problem.

he’d been protecting the stupidly tall, wildly cheery andorian from the first day they’d met, cooped up in some stuffy bar off V-7. he’d had absolutely zero self-preservation skills even then, picking a fight with a damned Dervisian of all people, just because the man had insulted his shirt. hitoshi, not overly fond of watching handsome morons get punched in the face by meatsacks twice their size - & maybe he appreciates the long, toned legs & pretty face a little more than he lets on - steps in with ease, no matter how short he feels between the two of them. the dervisian cracks a height joke, because he’s an asshole, denki stabs him in the shoulder with a four inch dagger he pulls out of his too tight pants - & of course hitoshi spends far too long wondering just how he managed to fit it in the first place, mind all fuzzy - & they somehow manage to kick off an interspace bar fight. wonderful.

once the dust has settled & the chaos calmed, hitoshi finds himself with three new bruises, a cut cheek, & an armful of very grateful andorian.

“i hear the fleets coming. wanna get married?” denki wiggles his eyebrows suggestively, & hitoshi chokes on his own spit.

“what for? they’re keepers of the peace, not wedding officials,” he manages, glaring up at the - stupidly tall, stupidly pretty - andorian that’s managed to wrap himself into his arms.

“if you’re married they can’t deport you. i’d really like to avoid interspace jail,” denki winces, & hitoshi snorts.

“or we could run, like normal deviants of the law,” he points out, much to denki’s chagrin.

“and where is the fun in that?” the andorian pouts, & hitoshi knows he’s screwed.

four years, seven interspace incidents, four run ins with the fleet, & one rusting junktrap of nuts & bolts they called a ship later, they were inseparable. one complete idiot with a penchant for charming the pants off everyone around them & simultaneously launching them into trouble, & his over exasperated, eternally exhausted boyfriend, who was consistently saving his ass. they were an unlikely duo, but they worked like magic, & despite the fact that he had to risk his ass every damn day, hitoshi was pretty happy. him & denki made a little solar system all their own, a shining sun & its orbiting planet, & he likes that. he’s happy.

as happy as a thief for hire could be, really.

the problem with their particular profession, however, is that denki is basically one big ass radar for trouble. if something can go wrong, it will go wrong, disastrously so, & hitoshi is always caught in the middle of it, fleeing for his life with someone shooting at his ass (it’s always his ass, & he can never understand why. )

it’s for that reason, & that reason only, that hitoshi is the one creeping down the dark, deep tunnel, his nerves frayed as he keeps his eyes trained on every nook & cranny surrounding him. he can see the faint glow of an upcoming room ahead & hurries his pace, eager to grab the crown & escape, maybe finally treat denki to that dajang he’d been whining about - he’d never been fond of the strangely shimmery, horned fish, but if it made denki happy, he wasn’t going to complain.

the tunnel opens up into a small, brightly lit room, warm & pulsing with energy. the grogorians kept the crown here for good reason, the sheer amount of dead souls crafted into the metal & jewels enough to make anyone’s skin crawl. hitoshi gingerly steps closer, hands twitching at his sides as he moves into the light and - wait a minute.

wait a goddamn minute.

there’s a person on the raised pillar, small & decidedly not threatening. your little body is curled loosely around the crown, shivering gently, & hitoshi realizes several things all at once:

one, the tiny body is a tessian, and a young one at that, a couple years younger than himself.

two, the grogorians have definitely arrived earlier than scheduled. fuck. he clicks on his comm to hear denki screaming incoherently about danger, & winces heavily.

great.

third, the booming, heavy rumbles of the grogorian ship - & denki’s frantic yelling - has woken you up, the little tessian, arms still caging the crown close to your chest as though seeking out its warmth.

up close, hitoshi can see a smattering of pink freckles dusted across your honey gold cheeks, bright, messy hair falling into big, bright eyes. you yawn, then blink, eyes flashing & settling into a light, rosy pink at the same time your little fluffy ears twitch atop your head, a matching color to your eyes. your tail twitches slightly, four light gold rings wrapped around it, & it’s obvious you’re about young adult age. you yawn again, a tiny, unfiltered squeak escaping you at the sight of hitoshi in front of you.

you’re absolutely adorable. hitoshi is absolutely fucked.

dimly, he registers denki’s panicked shouts & the shaking of the tunnel walls, can feel the ground trembling beneath him, & he snaps out of his reverie to glance at the crown again. said crown is tucked up against your torn shirt, tessian hands - so delicate, so cute - keeping it close.

“hey, hey! don’t touch that! there’s like, eight thousand dead people in there,” hitoshi scolds before he can think, & you simply cock your head, confusion written all over your face.

“no, don’t squeeze it tighter - stop it! hey! are you even listening?” he seethes, reaching out a hand to snatch the crown away. you shift back quickly, frowning just as deep as hitoshi as you hug the crown even closer. it’s clear you can’t understand a word hitoshi is saying, & the grogorians have started some sort of blasting contest right outside the caverns.

great.

hitoshi swears under his breath, racking his brain for any sort of solution. “hitoshi shinsou, you are ASKING to die, they’re blowing the fucking cave open! can i phase you out yet? you too busy admiring that handsome face of yours in the stupid crown’s fucking reflection?” denki sounds hysterical, voice on the verge of near meltdown & hitoshi knows he’s out of time.

he’s got two options: stay & deal with the grogorians, or run.

he runs.

leaning forward, he tucks both hands under your armpits & yanks you forward, tosses you over his shoulder, & books it out of the tunnel.

he can barely hear anything over the blood rushing in his ears, your tessian wails, & one denki kaminari screeching like the world’s ending.

“phase me out phase me out PHASE ME OUT-“ he’s shouting above the din, phaser blasts surrounding him on all sides, & he doesn’t stop running until he feels the familiar pins & needles of the transporter, turning them into a mess of glittering gold dots that wink out just as a grogorian fires right where hitoshi’s head had been.

he slams into the floor of the isla bella with a groan, denki immediately in front of him. he sits up slow, careful not to shift too abruptly & disrupt the reanimation process, when denki snatches you right out of his arms.

“hitoshi what the fuck, you were only supposed to grab the crown, not adorable little tessians! and what were you doing down there, young alien?” denki has gone into full andorian mode, pinching your little tessian cheeks as he sits you in his lap - hitoshi’s just glad he’s got the sense not to do that to him.

you still can’t seem to understand, tilting your fluffy bright head of hair as you stare up at denki. you chirp, then hum, one hand reaching up to pet denki’s head, before smiling brightly.

denki coos. hitoshi snorts.

“i found them sleeping on the crown. they can’t understand us, they don’t have a ULC, so i just grabbed ‘em & ran,” hitoshi explains, getting up to ensure that they were in hyperspace, blasting millions of lightyears away from the grogorians. he chances another glance at the tessian sat comfortably in denki’s lap; you’re a little dirty, clearly having been stranded in the caverns a few days.

denki frowns at hitoshi’s back, brushing over the phaser burn on the ass of his pants with one hand as he speaks.

“the poor thing must be terrified, being surrounded by all that. switch your ULC to interpret mode, at least we’ll be able to understand them, & talk to them,” denki says quietly; looking down at the fluffy bundle of tessian in his arms. hitoshi can already see the gears turning in his head.

once they’ve switched settings, denki speaks.

“what’s your name, sweetheart?” he asks softly, clearly trying to make you comfortable.

the series of chirps & coos you let out shift almost in midair, turning themselves into words that hitoshi can actually understand.

“[y/n]? [y/n l/n]? oh that’s so cute! tell us, [y/n], why were you down there all by yourself?” denki prods, voice still soothing & calm. you, the tessian - [y/n], hitoshi thinks, too precious - sit up a bit, animatedly speaking now that they can understand you better. the squeaks & chirps are downright adorable, & hitoshi has to look away from flailing hands & a sunbeam smile to center himself again.

“and what were the lot of you thinking, sneaking down there? your whole little tribe, just gone, huh? i’m so sorry, sweetheart,” denki winces, & hitoshi can sympathize - tessian tribes were tight-knit little groups, & losing them meant a death sentence for whoever was left behind. they were pack creatures, always in need of others. hitoshi can see the gears turning, & he speaks before the andorian can.

“no, denki.”

“toshi! look at them, aren’t they the cutest thing you’ve ever seen! we have to keep them!” denki all but wails, pulling you so close to his chest that your cheeks squish together. you don’t seem concerned in the slightest, just giggle against denki’s face. hitoshi’s resolve weakens a little.

“we’ve got no space, denks, not to mention we’re not exactly the safest group for them to latch onto,” hitoshi protests weakly, even as the andorian pouts at him.

“we can’t just leave them alone, they’re so small, & no one will protect them!” denki is dangerously close to tears, & hitoshi never does well with a crying denki. he opens his mouth to protest again, try & make his point, but just then you yawn again, slow & long, the tiniest of squeaks escaping you & when you open your eyes again, they’re gold just like denki’s hair, your ears matching.

hitoshi’s determination evaporates.

“fine, fine, we can keep them. but if anything happens to them, it's your fault,” he grumbles, settling into the pilot's chair to monitor their progress.

denki cheers. you chirp happily.

hitoshi bangs his head on the control panel.

what have i gotten myself into this time, he thinks dully, but deep down, he knows he doesn’t mind. not too much.

───── ⋆✩⋆ ─────

after finally managing to pry the crown out of your hands & delivering it to the client - hitoshi doesn’t even wanna know what the creepy old Lavastian wanted with it, he’d had to take three showers under the hydrospray to get the itch off his skin - they’ve set a course for the driard system, to rest before their next assignment. being that their work schedule is so…flexible, it gives the trio a little time to get adjusted. and by adjusted, hitoshi means getting used to having you, a fluffy little alien, hanging off him at all hours of the day.

he’d thought that denki was clingy, the andorian typically seeking out hitoshi’s hands to hold or shoulders to rest his head. his people were affectionate that way, much different than hitoshi’s bezoid counterparts. he’d adjusted though, sacrificed personal space & eventually, had grown both used to & comfortable with having denki draped over him like a blanket at all times.

[y/n l/n] is an entirely different species - literally & figuratively.

firstly, you’re a clinger. where denki lounges, you squeeze with - surprisingly - strong arms & legs, wrapped around hitoshi’s frame like a verealis vine.

you’re so touchy you’ve got denki beat, & the pair of you seem stuck in some sort of exceedingly needy, relentless cuddle war. hitoshi’s got his money on you, even if he doesn’t admit it.

secondly, you’re scarily helpful. you seem to turn up right when hitoshi needs something adjusted deep in the ship, or when denki can’t seem to locate something correctly on their navigational screen. you’ll shapeshift into a teeny, tiny ragran rat to scurry through chambers & fix a wire, or tap on the control panel just so to show the correct star system, & its quite frankly impressive.

hitoshi’s starting to think you were made for them, just a little.

normally he leaves the sappy shit to denki, the andorian’s well flowered language easily explaining all his emotions & thoughts. but there’s something about the little tessian that shakes him up a little, changes the dynamic. denki doesn’t mind one bit.

he relishes in hitoshi’s newfound sweetness, even if it’s just a “that wasn’t completely awful, great job, babe,” or “you know, that shirt isn’t as hideous as i thought. brings out your eyes.” he knows hitoshi is simply trying his best, knows that words never got very far on his home planet.

you like that he’s quiet though, for some reason. you chirp & chatter enough for the both of you whenever you’re together, silly stories of whatever disasters you & denki had gotten into on the ship - hitoshi’s suspicious you’re both responsible for the six broken panels along the corridors, impromptu games of touch & go be damned - or telling him memories of your time on Tessero, your home planet. you’ve got an easy way of speaking, soft & languid & it calms him down like no other, settling into his bones & dimming the chaos in his mind for a little while.

your cuddliness extends even to when you’re asleep, tucked up neatly between denki & hitoshi in the big bed of their quarters. you’re a calm sleeper, curl up tight into a little ball with the pair of them draped over you, like a tiny tessian heater. it’s sweet & soft & so fucking domestic that hitoshi has a hard time believing it sometimes. he’d even started pressing kisses into the top of your head as he moved along the ship, much like the gentle ones he presses to denki’s lips. he’s not scared by it, per say, but he is a little surprised; he’d always been a little closed off, reserved. you had snuck up on him swiftly, without him even realizing. he finds he rather likes it.

the few days of travel before you reach the driard system are calm, simple evenings of dinner & talking together as you all soak up the simplicity of space. somehow, it’s comforting. you’re a twinkling, bright little star amidst their solar system, & hitoshi likes that. a shining sun, its orbiting planet, & the brightest little star.

───── ⋆✩⋆ ─────

everything goes to shit once they step foot on Ovalia 7.

the leisure planet is tucked at the edge of the star system, a quiet haven for those always on the move. it’s denki’s favorite place to go after a successful deal, & they serve the best dajang this side of the galaxy. hitoshi likes that no one ever speaks to them there, everyone wrapped up in their own little vacations.

denki books them a room at their usual spot, ignoring the innkeepers curious glance at the request - one big bed, a nice tub, window view, & hitoshi’s certain he thinks you’re all a couple. the thought doesn’t bother him, & he realizes with a jolt that they act like one, all three of them. they cuddle & hug & kiss, & hitoshi sits on that a moment before shrugging it away. if denki didn’t mind it, neither did he, & he focuses once more on relaxing.

they’ve just settled into a local restaurant, plates full of dajang & ocuro & everything else that tickle their fancy when hitoshi hears it. heavy steps, familiar ones, although he can’t quite place it in the haze of relaxation. he ignores it in favor of feeding you some of his mulrag, the spiced meat a clear favorite with your tessian palate & he can’t help his grin. he lets denki feed him a warm bite of dajang, rolling his eyes at the andorian’s little smile & affectionate pinch of hitoshi’s cheek. everything is nice, sweet & lazy in the warm air.

and then all hell breaks loose.

eight of the biggest fucking grogorians hitoshi’s ever seen in his life burst through the door, weapons armed & faces set in such hostile expressions that everyone is scattering. denki hauls you up & to his side, dragging hitoshi by the collar until you’re all crouched behind the bar, hidden from view. “i should’ve known they’d track us,” he all but whines, peeking over the wooden edge of the bar. a photon shot quickly makes him duck down again, cursing lightly. “plan?” he asks behind clenched teeth, tugging you closer.

hitoshi pauses, weighs his options.

“the two of you book it to the ship. i’m going to distract them,” he says quickly, thinking back to the conversations he’d been eavesdropping on earlier - thieves never took a real vacation, always on the lookout for something new to snatch.

two very drunk, loud Avarians had been seated just behind them, rambling on about the very expensive, very valuable statue hidden deep in the recesses of the abandoned temple just off the main road. many had tried to steal it, but had always gotten stuck deep in the underground channels trying to escape. the elders guarding it weren’t exactly friendly either.

a plan starts to form in his head, one that would both enrich them & save their asses from this absolute mess. he’s quite proud of himself, if he’s honest.

then a bottle explodes just above his head, & he jolts into action.

he fires a few warning shots at the wall behind the grogorians, turning & racing out the door in a clear attempt to lead them out. the grogorians take the bait easily, & he races down the road towards the temple as you and denki sneak out the back of the restaurant.

the temple is huge, dusty & a little worn around the edges. the priests guarding the door take one look at hitoshi shinsou, panting & shooting over his shoulder at several grogorians & lose it, screeching & running for cover just as he’d expected. he pushes through the open door with the hostile aliens right at his footsteps, racing through the dark corridors deeper & deeper into the bowels of the temple. halfway down denki clicks onto the comm, hastily spitting directions & instructions as the grogorians start shooting again. “this is all your fucking fault! i told you stealing from them was an awful idea!” hitoshi shrieks as a laser just misses his shoulder, ducking as he runs.

“oh sure, blame me for making sure we stay employed!” denki shrieks right back, your chirping frantically frantically filling the background.

hitoshi feels the heat of another photon bullet just barely graze against his ass as he books it down the narrow hallway, cursing every single god & denki kaminari for the absolute mess he’s been roped into. over the comm link he can hear the andorian yelling muted commands as he leads hitoshi through the vast hallways, the relic just within arms reach.

“i’ll phase you out once you have it!” denki starts, before hitoshi starts shouting again.

“i’m not gonna PHASE through solid rock, denki! just hold off, i’m coming!” he yells through the comm, feet skidding across the rough terrain as he snatches the little gold statue right off the podium. concerned little chirps & squeaks flood the comm, & hitoshi halts all his movements to swear loudly.

“[y/n l/n], you keep your adorable little ass on the ship, you hear me? don't even THINK about it-“ the ground shakes with another blast, the heavy yelling creeping from the farthest corridor.

hitoshi curses every single god & denki kaminari twice. and then he runs.

the maze of corridors gets more & more confusing as he bolts through them, solely relying on denki’s guidance in his ear & the gunfire right on his heels. finally, finally he can see sunlight again, pushing through the open door & stumbling into the street again - right into the waiting trap of about ten grogorian soldiers.

great.

they’d cornered him on both ends, trapping him in their space. denki’s shouting frantically, something about shield interference & blocking & hitoshi’s stomach sinks; they’ve got him.

“go to warp drive.” his voice is so sharp it shocks denki right out of his panicked rambling, the comm quiet.

then a furious “what the fuck did you just say hitoshi shinsou? we’re not leaving you-“

“take [y/n], & go to warp, denki! go, i can hold them off for a little while! the verlo sector, it’s rural enough that they can’t track you!” he bites out, eternally grateful that the grogorians don’t have ULC’s. he eyes them for a moment, takes a breath.

“i love you, denki kaminari, you crazy motherfucker. i love you. i love you too, [y/n]. take care of him for me,” he says softly, lets himself choke up a little, grants himself that one weakness. then he clicks his comm off, draws both his guns, & snarls. “let’s go, assholes! i don’t have damn day!” he shouts, keeps his voice level & confident.

and then he starts firing.

left, right, over his shoulder, he’s never shot so many times in his life, & its still not enough. there’s grogorians on every side, dodging every blast & hitoshi’s resigned himself to dying on this shithole lesiure planet, never seeing denki’s stupid bright smile again, or hearing your laugh.

and then he hears it, loud & wild & it makes both his heart soar & stomach sink.

“STOP SHOOTING MY BOYFRIEND YOU FUCKING JACKASSES!”

there stands denki kaminari in all his andorian glory, six foot six of anger & pent up chaotic energy standing just off the side of the gunfire. he gives hitoshi one big, blinding smile before he’s shooting right alongside him, the pair of them back to back as they fire.

“where’s [y/n]?” hitoshi calls over the sounds of the blasters, too emotional & charged up to address the fact that denki came to save him, denki who always, always stayed on the ship.

“i told them to monitor us from up there! once we take out these shields i can phase us up, i brought the control sleeve!” denki yells back, twisting & ducking as the grogorians rain fire on them.

the pair of them are deadly, lethal even, taking down one hostile alien after another until their guns run out. hitoshi curses at the dead weapon, tossing it to the side as he prepares to fight the remaining six grogorians hand to hand. beside him, denki gets into a similar stance, eyes narrowed sharply in defense.

“enough!” a voice bellows, harsh & loud, ringing out across the entirety of the street. hitoshi pauses, dread building up in the pit of his stomach. the grogorians part, & he hears denki gasp beside him.

the grogorian leader steps out slowly, every step sending a thundering rumble across the land. “you steal from us, fight us at every turn. your intolerance is shameful,” the alien snarls, fury written all over his face. hitoshi doesn’t point out that the grogorians stole that particular relic from the Astonians, & the fact that they’d been chased, not chasing. he has a feeling the man wouldn’t appreciate his sentiments.

“i will kill you myself ! your arrogance knows no bounds!” the alien thunders, hands reaching for the sword tucked into his belt. its easily the size of hitoshi’s entire body, & his blood runs cold.

“since we’re about to die, it’s time i fess up. i’m the one who broke your music box,” denki whispers behind him, hands clinging tight to the back of hitoshi’s shirt.

“oh for god's sake you idiot, we’re about to die & that’s what you tell me?”

“i’ve always loved your ass in these pants. skinny or not, they give you shape,” denki says tearily, & hitoshi nearly screams.

“denki shut up, for the love of space - stop fondling my ass, we’re about to die-“

a set of angry, loud chirps interrupt them all, the grogorian leader turning & snarling. hitoshi stops breathing.

there, in all your tiny tessian glory, stands you, [y/n l/n], clad in hitoshi’s favorite leather pants & denki’s too big sweater. your eyes are narrowed, an expression of pure fury on your face that hitoshi’s never seen before.

it’s a little hot. denki seems to agree, if the gasp he lets out is any indication.

the alien laughs, staring down at you almost in amusement. “come to watch them die, little one? i could probably get a hefty price for you, couldnt i? maybe pleasure slave, the markets always up for those.” you chirp angrily. hitoshi sees red.

“don’t you fucking touch them-“ he snarls, all traces of fear gone as he shoves the grogorian back, fists clenched. behind him, denki spits, eyes lit up with that special kind of rage hitoshi only sees when he's really caught up, the anger boiling in his blood. the grogorian shoves the pair of them back so hard they go sprawling in the dirt, his voice a growl as he steps towards them. “you dare touch me?” he bellows.

behind him, you let out a sound somewhere between a screech & a growl. and then you start shifting.

hitoshi knows that you can shift into any number of things, he’s not stupid. but they’d all been limited to small, cute things, adorable & easy to hold.

the form you take on is neither adorable or small.

a sixteen foot, scaly dragon stands before them, with the face & claws of a lion & the fiery rage of a bat out of hell.

hitoshi screams. denki nearly pisses himself.

the grogorians scatter, shouting & running & you pick them off easily, picking one up between your claws & tearing him clean in half. the rest die in a similar fashion, tossed against buildings & burned alive when they get too close to your flaming breath. the leader dies last, your sharp fangs tearing him limb from limb until he’s a tattered pile of mush at their feet. its singlehandedly the most horrifying, yet gratifying thing hitoshi’s seen in his life.

you shift back to your original form easily, small hands & cheeks covered in blood. there’s a bit of grogorian in your hair. you smile up at them like nothing happened, let out little chirps & squeaks & hitoshi is stunned, really.

denki pulls the bit of grogorian away from your fluffy ears, before wiping the blood off your cheeks & tugging you into a kiss. it’d be cute, if there wasn’t so much carnage around them. you smile up at hitoshi, chirps out something about love and tribe and home.

hitoshi pulls you into a hug, kisses the faintly bloody fluffy hair, & laughs.

“let’s go home,” he agrees easily, takes denki’s hand & thinks, for a moment, that he’s complete.

denki smiles so bright it puts the sun to shame, & you giggle into his chest, cheery as a star.

all the bits align just right, he thinks, & leads his little solar system home.

[elialys]

Ten x Rose - A Leap of Faith

Dear @lastbluetardis​​, let’s try this again, shall we? ^^’ As I’ve told you last weekend, I had a much bigger story cooking for you as part of the @dwsecretsanta​​ exchange. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it, but it’s done now, so I hope you’ll enjoy it!

This takes place right at the end of The Satan Pit. It’s almost 6,000 words long, and it’s also sliiiiightly smutty :p

[READ IT ON AO3]

A Leap of Faith

“Oh, the stuff of legend.”

Any other day and Rose might have rolled her eyes at this melodramatic description of their duo, far from thinking so highly of herself. She smiles back at the Doctor instead and lets him have this moment; it is clear from the way he looks at her that he believes her to be exactly as he says.

As soon as he pulls the right lever between them, the Time rotor comes to life.

“Where d’you send her?” Rose can’t help but ask, glancing away from the rotor to look up at him, expecting to find him staring at the screen, the way he usually is when standing by the console.

When she meets his gaze dead on, a shiver runs down her spine.

“Home,” he says simply, his voice lower than usual.

Rose makes a face at these words. She hasn’t showered in what feels like days, although no more than twenty-four hours can have gone by since they landed on Krop Tor; she supposes spending a good portion of that time running away from murderous Oods or crawling through maintenance tunnels would make anyone feel grimy. Not to mention the exhaustion settling down upon her.

That’s one of the many feelings she’s become rather familiar with since she started traveling with the Doctor, that ‘I almost died and now I’m a bit tired’ heaviness in every one of her muscles and bones.

“D’you really feel up for an evening with Mum?” she asks him with a bit of a frown, because she sure isn’t. As much as she’d worried about never seeing her Mum again only hours ago, simply being back on the TARDIS has put those fears to rest.

Quieting down her fears about nearly losing the Doctor is not as easy, even with him standing right there next to her, their bodies so close, their arms are almost touching.

“Blimey, no,” the Doctor answers with a glower, a tad too emphatically – although she can’t blame him. Jackie hadn’t been at her friendliest during their last visit, which had involved consoling her daughter about Mickey’s decision to stay in the parallel universe. “We’re merely orbiting around good old planet Earth,” he adds. “After the day we’ve had, I figured a quiet night away from anything resembling a black hole would be rather nice.”

There was a time when Rose would have dashed from the console to pull the door open and take a look outside, never tiring from seeing the Earth from this point of view – and that time might have been as recently as yesterday.

She’s reluctant to move at the moment, just as reluctant as the Doctor is to look away from her, apparently. They rarely do ‘still’ and ‘quiet’ to this degree, and whenever these moments present themselves, as they ought to on occasions, he’s always been keen to put an end to them as quickly as possible.

As Rose stares back at him and more seconds pass slowly, almost sluggishly, the potent energy that comes with their most recent ‘I’ve almost lost you’ scare pulses between them, embedding them both with a pull that feels almost magnetic.

Rose blames that pull for soon finding herself in his arms again, her forehead pressed to his shoulder, his embrace as strong as it’s been every other time he’s hugged her today.

She doesn’t mind this mutual clinginess, all too happy to reciprocate, even if her feet don’t leave the ground, this time; there is no laughter either, only the tight hold of his arms around her, her fingers clenching the fabric of his jacket, revelling in that tangible proof that he is here.

He puts an end to the moment by making a…peculiar noise, causing her to frown against him.

“Did you just…sniff me?”

“Well,” he says, not yet moving away. “You’re giving off some very strong smells. As anyone would after running for their life while trapped in close quarters.”

In another words, she reeks.

“Yeah?” she asks with a scoff, before sniffing him even more obnoxiously in retaliation. “You smell just like my grandpa used to, and I don’t mean it as a compliment either.”

“Sulphur does give out quite a pungent odour, doesn’t it?” he notes, unfazed. “It was bad, all the way down that Pit. I don’t think you would have been able to keep that blue purée down for very long if you’d been there.”

They both tense at these words. Somehow, this involuntary stiffness sets him into motion again, finally pulling away to peer at her, his hands on her upper arms. “You should shower. And sleep.”

She gives a short shake of her head. “There’s no way ’m gonna be able to sleep.”

“You look tired,” he counters.

“I feel it, too,” she admits. “Still won’t make that sleeping thing any easier.” When he simply carries on looking at her, she shrugs a little. “I just…I know we’re safe, orbiting the Earth and all that, but it’s like my brain’s not completely caught up with that yet, and…it still thinks there’s a black hole above us, you know?”

He stares at her for another long, stretching second, and she can almost see the wheels turning in his head.

“I may be able to help with that,” he tells her, his chipper tone contrasting with the grave look on his face. “Give me…thirty minutes to do some tinkering, then meet me in the media room, eh? I’ll even let you put me through another one of those twentieth-century romantic movies you enjoy so much.”

Rose’s curiosity is piqued, but she’s long ago learnt it would be pointless to ask. “Okay,” she agrees with another small frown and a shrug.

“Brilliant!” the Doctor beams at her, before springing out of the room.

Rose does take a shower, washing away the layers of grime and fear still clinging to her skin. As much as she tries not to think back on the events of the day, her brain refuses to comply, a mixture of anxiety and guilt twisting at her gut whenever she recalls those twenty minutes spent on that rocket, forcefully strapped to a seat while the planet the Doctor was trapped on got sucked into the black hole.

In her rush to get back to him as quickly as possible, she doesn’t even dry her hair, not doing anything beyond swiftly putting on some pyjamas. After nearly two years of companionship, this is far from being the first time they do this.

Her heart’s never beaten quite as fast as it does as she enters the room, though, finding him sitting on the couch, one of his long arms draped over the back of it, fingers drumming at it; whatever thoughts he’s lost into, they can’t be any better than hers, his expression even more solemn than it’d been in the control room, his specs giving him a particularly stern look.

He’s changed since they were last together, and she supposes he must have showered, too. He’s not bothered with a suit jacket, only wearing a white shirt and a blue tie, the light colour contrasting with the dark fabric of the couch, making his limbs look impossibly long.

There is no logic to the rush of anticipation and relief that sweeps through her as she takes him in. She’d known he’d be right there, waiting for her, and yet, she cannot help the small sigh that escapes her at the sight of him, the sound enough to pull him out of his thoughts, turning his head to look at her.

Or stare, really.

The way her insides dip at the intensity of his gaze is far from being unpleasant, nor is it entirely  new.

“What do you want?” he asks her quietly, and her brain must be very tired, because he cannot possibly mean what she thinks he means.

“What?” she hears herself asking, sounding oddly breathless.

He frowns the smallest of frowns, before tilting his head toward the large screen on the other side of the room. “Film selection,” he says. “What would you like to watch?”

Rose looks away as she scolds herself for letting her mind go anywhere near there. She forces herself to move, too, hoping it will help put an end to the heavy statics crackling between them, well aware that the tingles at the back of her neck are caused by his relentless staring.

“Dunno,” she answers at last, grabbing one of the blankets she likes to wraps herself in when she watches the telly. “Anything with Hugh Grant in it will do, I guess.”

He scowls as she pops down onto the other end of the couch. “Is he that British bloke with the puppy eyes and the ridiculous head of hair?”

She gives him a look, unable not to stare pointedly at his lush head of hair.

He doesn’t see it, too busy staring at the uncharacteristically large space between them, frowning as he meets her eyes again. Rose scoots closer to him before he can ask what is up with her – because in all honesty, she’s not entirely sure what is up with her at all.

They have done this many times before, snuggling on the couch watching a film, and while she’s always been very much aware of his body in situations like this one (how could she not?), it just feels…different, this time, as if the events of the day have made her even more responsive to his proximity.

Like she just cannot get enough proofs that he is here.

Obviously, that excessive need to touch him translates into her trying to stay as far away from him as possible, not entirely sure how much she can trust herself around him tonight.

She’s always liked him more than as a friend, even back when he was gruffier and less prone to hugging, but lately, she’s been finding it hard not to cross that line between friendship and more. He’s been sending her mixed signals, too, and she has no idea how he would react to her doing as much as putting a toe on that line – although she suspects ‘bolting’ would be a probable outcome.

He’s not bolting tonight, quite happy to let her snuggle up against his side. While he would typically keep his arm above the blanket, said arm actually disappears under the blanket this time, getting a much more secured hold on her waist.

This need for proximity obviously isn’t one sided.

With her nose once again pressed to his shoulder, she breathes in the clean scents from his shirt. There is no trace of sulphur left, just laundry detergent and…him, feeling herself relaxing at these familiar smells, just as comforted by the feel of his body against hers.

“Look up,” he eventually tells her, his voice still lower than usual.

She does, lifting her head to look at him, meeting his slightly-augmented eyes through his lenses. A small smile tugs at his lips as he tilts his head, indicating the ceiling. “Up up,” he clarifies.

She’s tempted to ignore his directive for a moment, more than happy to carry on drinking in his features instead, as always a bit too affected by things like the dash of freckles across his cheekbones.

Rose does look up, eventually, seeing nothing but the smooth expanse of coral overhead; there is a characteristic noise beside her, the Doctor’s free hand now pointing toward the ceiling, his sonic flaring.

“Made a couple of modifications, hold on.” He changes the setting on his device, then tries again.

Overhead, the coral begins to change, shimmering brightly, before it seems to disappear altogether, until Rose finds herself staring at planet Earth, suspended into space.

“It’s not a window, not like it was on their base,” he says. “It’s just a projection, but I suppose it will do, considering I came up with this in seven and a half minutes. Looks real enough.”

‘Real enough’ doesn’t cover it.

Rose watches, as mesmerized as ever by the many nuances of colours that make up her home planet, from the various shades of its oceans and landscapes, to its amalgam of shifting white clouds.

“See,” he speaks again. “No more black hole.”

His voice is low as he says those words, his tone dragging Rose’s eyes back to him, not entirely surprised to find him staring at her, oblivious to the beauty above. He looks so confident about their safety…she wishes she could tell him how she feels – which is not entirely soothed, at the moment.

She can fend for herself well enough, as proven today, and she knows he’ll always do his best to get her out of harm’s way, but this is beyond the point.

The valiant child, who will die in battle so very soon.

Rose shudders at the memory of that…voice. Close as they are, the tremors echo through him, and the Doctor frowns in concern, his brow creasing in question. She shakes her head, unable to share her fears with him, remembering the way he’d dismissed those words less than an hour ago.

She lowers her head instead, back to pressing her nose to his shoulder. “What…was it?” she cannot help but ask in a half-whisper.

He’s quiet for a long moment.

“I don’t know,” he admits, and there is no more false-bravado in his voice, no quick dismissal either.

Rose swallows hard, seeing herself as she’d been in that rocket, faced with that…thing possessing Toby, using the bolt gun to shatter the front screen before unfastening Toby’s belt, watching him getting sucked into space.

“I killed him,” she says against his shoulder, her voice thick. “Toby,” she adds. “When he…changed again. I didn’t even hesitate, I just…killed him.”

The Doctor moves slightly, and she looks up, meeting his eyes. “Whatever took possession of him on that planet…that’s what killed him,” he tells her, quietly. “He probably died the moment his body became a vessel for that creature’s mind. What you did was prevent that mind from escaping and hurting a lot more people. Just as I knew you would.”

She stares up at him. “And what if I hadn’t?”

“Nonsensical,” he replies at once with a small glower. “Rose Tyler, not saving the day? What a ludicrous concept.”

She finds herself smiling softly against his shoulder, even as she shakes her head. “You’ve got way too much faith in me.”

His own smile fades at her words, replaced by an expression that is once again too solemn, back to staring at her with an intensity and stillness she’s not quite used to, causing her toes to curl under her.

Her breath actually gets caught in her throat when he brings a hand up to her face, his thumb slowly tracing the line of her jaw.

“You’ve heard me praise humans before,” he speaks quietly. “For their resilience, and their curiosity, for their insatiable urge to go further. Yet humans are inexorably flawed. That resilience of theirs often turns into recklessness, and their curiosity leads them to open doors that should never be opened in the first place, until they find themselves scrambling for their lives. And it’s not that you don’t get reckless, we both know that’s a silly notion. But you’ve never been big on the scrambling.”

Rose lets out a small scoff into the fabric of his shirt. “Should’ve seen me in those maintenance tunnels, trying to escape the Oods. ‘Scrambling’ was definitely a big part of my day.”

He’s stopped the tracing of her jaw, all five of his fingertips now pressed lightly upon the side of her face, his skin cool in contrast with hers. “So maybe you do scramble from time to time,” he concedes. “But I don’t think I’m wrong in assuming you’re the one who got the crew to focus long enough so you could all escape?”

She’s quiet for a moment, her lips grazing his shoulder. “Maybe I helped a bit,” she admits, rather meekly.

“And from everything I’ve gathered, when I realised the creature’s mind was on that rocket with you and I destroyed the energy field that kept the planet from getting sucked into that black hole, you’re the one who figured it out and took action.”

Rose doesn’t say anything at all this time, simply looking back at him. His fingers have moved to cup her face, and her skin burns under the coolness of his palm.

He leans forward, then, until his lips are brushing her forehead. “Sounds to me like I’ve got just the right amount of faith in you,” he tells her quietly.

Most of the tension she still held in her body seems to leave her, and she finds herself slumping against him, her eyes closing. He responds to her movements, shifting just enough so that she rests more comfortably against his side and part of his chest, her head tucked under his chin while he buries his nose in her hair.

Under her ear, his heartbeats are slow and even; strong, and alive.

“Go to sleep,” he whispers in her hair, obviously aware that she’s already halfway there.

“You gonna get bored…” she breathes out sleepily.

“Naaah,” he says in a whispered version of his familiar, chipper tone. “I’ll have Hugh to keep me company.”

She lets out a small, rumbly chuckle as he uses his free hand to point the remote at the telly.

“Doctor?” she murmurs.

“Mm?”

But she’s already gone.

…

When she emerges, the telly is still playing, although the volume is too low for her to be able to decipher any dialogue. Even with her eyes closed, it doesn’t take her long to realise the Doctor is asleep against her, his breathing deep, his heartbeat even slower than before; there is an unmistakable heaviness to the arm wrapped around her waist, too, his hand resting limply upon her thigh.

While this is definitely not the first time she’s fallen asleep against him, he’s never actually slept with her before.

She’s tempted to move to take a better look at him in this unusual, vulnerable state, but from the feel of it, his face appears to be mostly buried in her hair, and she has no doubt any excessive movement will instantly wake up him up.

Still, she cannot quite resist the urge to touch him.

Her hand finds his under the blanket, her fingertips grazing the top of it, lightly tracing his knuckles, before following the sinuous path of the veins beneath his skin.

She hears the change in his heartbeats before anything else, speeding up slightly. A couple seconds later, he sighs deeply into her hair, before his arm actually moves, slowly tightening his hold to pin her more firmly to him. That does not stop her from carrying on with the slow exploration of his hand.

“Didn’t think you did naps,” she admits, her voice barely above a whisper.

He lets out another gust of air in her hair, like a scoff. “Attenuating circumstances,” he replies, his voice low and rumbly. “Body’s still recuperating. Those are more like bouts of regenerative coma than naps, to be honest. Not my first one today either.”

Her hand has stopped moving upon his. “Regenerative coma?”

“Ah,” he says, his face moving a little, soon feeling his breath upon her forehead. “Took a bit of a fall down that Pit. There was some kind of air cushion in place to absorb most of the shock, but I suspect I fell at least a good hundred meters.”

“That’s…insane, even for you,” she speaks quietly, her throat closing up.

She feels him shrug.

“You were up on the planet’s surface, I was down in that Pit,” he says simply. “Had no way of getting back to you, or even communicating with you. The only way onward was…downward. Way, way down, as it turned out.”

“How did you know, though?” she asks. “That you’d find what you were looking for?”

“I didn’t,” he admits. “Call it…a leap of faith, I suppose.”

Sounds to me like I’ve got just the right amount of faith in you.

She hears his words, even as her hand leaves the warmth that has gathered under the blanket, coming up to splay her fingers over the side of his neck, the heat of her skin slowly seeping into his, soon feeling the echoes of the beats still thumping under her ear. Inside her chest, her own heart squeezes at this added realisation of just how close she’d come to losing him today.

The fact that they both made it out alive is nothing short of a miracle.

This is far from being their first embrace today – she’s honestly losing count, not to mention the unknown amount of time she’s just spent sleeping against him. And yet, the slow, almost rhythmic feel of his breath upon her forehead soon causes shivers to run down her spine, the small tremors spreading through her entire body, another reaction he’s close enough to feel.

Any other day, and this would have been his cue to release her and put some much needed distance between them.

He doesn’t.

When her fingers begin to move again, slowly going up around his neck to curl into the hair at the back of his head, he lets her, feeling the shivers she’s creating under his skin. Not only is he letting her do this, he’s also joining in.

Cool fingers are slipping under the fabric of her top, his palm running slowly over her stomach, causing her muscles to twitch as her whole body shudders again, her heart speeding up inside her chest. His pinkie finger is trailing the hem of her pyjamas bottoms, now, not quite daring to pass that threshold, but the simple fact that his hand is right there, touching her, is enough to cause her insides to clench.

She tilts her head back, needing to look at him, meeting his eyes behind his lenses. Although he appears calm, that intensity in his gaze is stronger than it’s been at any point tonight.

“Doctor…” she says quietly, almost breathing out his name.

She wants to tell him…how terrified she was through it all. How the only reason why she took charge the way she did out there is because she kept hearing his voice in her head, telling her she knew what to do. How ultimately, she’d had to survive, because how would she help him if she died?

She wants to tell him how heartsick she felt when she realised she’d been drugged and forced away from Krop Tor, forced to leave him on his own, all the way down that Pit.

“I know,” he tells her thickly, his eyes full with the same fears and relief.

He’s leaning forward, then, his shortened breath following the bridge of her nose, until his forehead is resting against hers, his subsequent exhales pooling upon her lips, which tingle in anticipation. As seconds pass, she wonders if he’s fighting that urge to go on again, that urge to just give in, and take another leap of faith.

Rose encourages him, giving his hair the slightest of tugs, taking that leap with him.

When he kisses her, he does it slowly…so slowly…yet every brush of his lips, each small shift of his body, is bursting with barely contained longing, his fingers getting entangled in her hair to try bringing her closer. Shivering in bemusement, relief and swelling desire, Rose follows his cues, unwilling to do anything that might make him change his mind.

She cannot keep herself from aching for more, though, her conscious self not exactly in charge anymore as more seconds tick on and he carries on kissing her almost in reverence; the next time their mouths part for air, she keeps hers open as she pulls his face back to hers, gliding the tip of her tongue over his lower lip.

His response is immediate and eager, not opposed to this at all, judging by the way he shifts his entire hold on her to pull her onto his lap with a low noise. She finds herself straddling him almost clumsily, wrapping her arms around his neck while he circles her waist tightly, the blanket crumpled against her lower back. There is nothing chaste in the way they seek one another, then, Rose using the entire length of her body to press him firmly to the back of the couch, their faces so close that the frame of his glasses digs into her flesh.

She doesn’t really care if they damage the bloody things, or if she ends up with a black eye, too engrossed in the sturdy, shivering feel of him, pressed so tightly to her, intoxicated by the languid meeting of their tongues. When she begins rolling her hips into him, slowly yet steadily, he gasps into her mouth, before completely shifting their positions again.

Her stomach drops as she falls backward, the Doctor following along, entrapped between her limbs, until her back hits the couch. Her entire body flushes with heat as he mirrors her previous moves, all rolling hips and growing pressure; trapped as he is between her legs, his movements are rather limited, but he makes do, creating a kind of friction that is a little too pleasant, soon drawing a hoarse sound out of her, her body caring very little about how many layers of clothes still separate them.

Her rational mind chooses this moment to resurface, something nudging at it. Her curiosity quickly getting the best of her, she forces her lips away from his, reopening her eyes to look at their surroundings.

Technically, they still are on the couch they were on moments ago. It doesn’t look anything like it did when they first sat on it, though, its surface area having somehow tripled, if not quadrupled, so that it now resembles a king-size bed.

“What the hell happened to the couch?” she finds herself asking, her voice breathless and low.

There is a pause, his brain apparently needing a moment to refocus and form words. His hair is a tousled mess, his glasses adorably askew, his eyes glazed over.

“You know the TARDIS,” he eventually replies, his respiratory bypass system obviously operational; despite his dazed tone, he doesn’t sound nearly as affected as she does – although she’s feeling how affected he is getting alright. “She likes making things bigger.”

This could have been awkward, the two of them back to talking for the first time since they started snogging rather intensely; it could have put an end to the moment, broken the mood, reminded him that this should absolutely, definitely not be happening.

It doesn’t feel awkward.

Different, for sure, but ultimately, it’s all still very…chummy.

(Except for the dry humping, maybe)

Rose reaches up to pull the specs off his face, tossing them aside without much care. “Looks like your TARDIS got some competition,” she points out as she lifts her hips off the couch, purposefully pressing herself to that hardening bulge.

He lets out a small groan as he buries his face in the crook of her neck, and she cannot decide if that sound is caused by what she just did, or if he’s lamenting her terrible attempt at salacious humour.

That thought fizzles away as her breath gets caught in her throat. With his head out of the way, the projection overhead has come into full view again, having somehow forgotten about that window into space he created above them.

This glimpse into such a familiar part of their cosmos makes her head spins, even as it tethers her, comforted in her awareness that they are as far from Krop Tor as they can be right now.

Nothing tethers her quite as successfully as his lips upon her throat, though…his lips, and his tongue, and the graze of his teeth, one of his hands back under her top, travelling upward with one clear destination in mind, unable to focus on anything but the feel of him and the jolts of pleasure he’s sparking in her.

Despite the heat nothing short of radiating from her, his fingers remain cooler than any human’s, causing her nipple to harden the instant his hand starts trailing the sensitive skin of her breast. Her pleasure stirs low as he cups it fully, caressing, massaging, teasing…his tongue having discovered a particularly erogenous zone below her ear, and she cannot do anything but cling to him, her nails raking at his scalp and clothes.

The next time he lifts himself up and meets her gaze, it doesn’t feel that chummy anymore, his pupils dilated, his cheeks slightly flushed from having been pinned to her warm skin, the look in his eyes enough to cause another tug, deep within her.

She wants to reciprocate some of the attention, but the moment she tries getting a hand between them, he grabs at it gently yet firmly, pulling it back out with a small shake of his head. As soon as he releases her wrist, he begins undoing the buttons of her pyjama top.

He takes his time, too, well aware of what this is doing to her. When the last one comes undone, he’s just as slow in revealing her heaving breasts, pulling the fabric aside, one half at a time.

The darkening look on his face is not what she expected.

Rose’s confusion only worsens when his fingers begin tracing something upon her sternum.

“What is it?” she asks quietly, the angle making it impossible for her to see what he’s seeing.

“You’re bruising,” he says, before raising his eyes to look at her. “Looks like a belt mark.”

Rose swallows hard. “Oh, yeah,” she breathes out. “Shot off the front screen of that rocket with a bolt gun, created a vacuum to suck…whatever that was out. I guess that belt saved my life.”

When the Doctor lowers his head, Rose buries her fingers in his hair, his lips grazing her bruised skin, his gestures even slower than they were moments ago. Her caress becomes a twist when wet heat entraps one of her nipples, and pleasure trickles down the length of her, pooling between her legs, where she aches to be touched, her hips rising off the bed as she seeks friction.

He soon recaptures her lips in a languid kiss, one of her legs having slipped between his to pin him  more firmly to her. He doesn’t indulge in that friction she’s encouraging, one of his hands moving instead, disappearing inside her pyjama bottoms.

Although he remains slow, there is no hesitation in the way he touches her, his fingers gliding through her folds, and the feel of how much she’s responded to him is enough to cause him to groan into her mouth. She echoes that sound when he uses his slick fingers to work on her, and that contrast between cool skin and heat is a sensation she cannot get enough of, adding to the tendrils of pleasure spreading all the way from her core to her toes.

The way he touches her goes beyond longing, beyond yearning.

He’s…worshiping her, drawing out her pleasure, swallowing each of her gasps and moans as they rise out of her, and when she becomes unable to kiss him, too wrapped up in her swelling pleasure, he simply brings his face back to the crook of her neck, his tongue easily finding that spot again.

Pinned as she is beneath him, both of them still nearly fully dressed, Rose is burning up, beads of perspiration beginning to leather her skin, most of it immediately absorbed by the fabric of her pyjamas. She craves for the cool feel of him, getting rather fed up with all these clothes on him, as everywhere she tries clinging to him, she’s met with fabric instead of skin.

She slips a hand between them to grab at his wrist in a halting gesture, and he stops almost at once, her other hand back in his hair, tugging to bring his face back to hers. She cups his cheek as he does, finding his skin uncharacteristically warm under her fingertips, having absorbed some of her heat.

“Please…” she whispers against his lips, her insides pulsing and clenching with need, blood rushing in her ears and where his fingers remain. “I want to feel you…” She releases his wrist to press her hand against the length of him through his trousers, causing him to let out his loudest moan yet.

He doesn’t stop her this time when she begins to unfasten his belt and unbutton his trousers, helping her along instead, his boxers just as swiftly discarded. Within moments, her pyjamas are pulled down her legs. When he begins to fumble with the buttons of his shirt, Rose pulls on his tie and brings him back down, their foreheads once more pressed together, and she shakes her head, loosely encasing his hips, with just enough pressure to initiate contact.

The feel of her seems to break any kind of control he had left, one of his arms supporting his weight while the other one slips beneath her to pull her flush against him, his hips rolling, causing him to slide upon her, both shuddering at the sensation.

“Doctor…” she gasps almost in supplication, twisting his hair in her fist.

There’s no more hesitation, the next shifts of his body all directed towards one goal, and her nails dig into his scalp when he enters her in one long thrust. Whatever discomfort she feels is small compared to having him inside of her, filling her so completely, and the way he keeps his face pressed to hers makes her feel like he’s attempting to fuse himself to her.

He doesn’t remain still for long, quite unable to; judging by the uneven way he begins to move upon her, she doubts he will last long, his body trembling against hers. It doesn’t matter, her pleasure already building back up with every thrust of his hips, one of her hands having disappeared under his shirt, relishing the feel of his cool skin, while the other one clutches at his backside, encouraging him all the while driving him deeper inside of her, his breath anything but cold against her face.

As her climax nears, Rose reopens her eyes, and gets lost into space, the stars and the Earth expending high above, certain that gravity will find her, and send her both soaring and plummeting towards the ground.

His fingers in her hair tether her back to him, dragging her heavy gaze away from this piece of universe he’s created just for her, meeting his eyes as she refocuses on him, pressing her fingertips upon the stars on his cheeks.

And as her name falls from his lips like a prayer, Rose lets herself be pulled into his infinite.

[twilighteve-writes]

Of Tremors, of Quake, of Rushing Landslides, of Broken Vale

Summary: Lance’s eyes widened. “Oh man. You’re like our own Toph from Avatar.”

Hunk blinked, because that was actually a pretty accurate description of what he was feeling. “I’m like Toph,” he echoed, a smile on his face.

Hunk discovers his powers and beats a bunch of giant alien insects with the team. Also, he cusses alien badgers a storm.

Voltron fic. Can also be read on AO3 or FF.net.

If Hunk really thought about it, his ability to rouse the earth to do his biddings probably awakened a long time ago. Maybe just days after Keith’s powers to awaken, but he couldn’t pinpoint when exactly because his ability was just too abstract and too hard to track.

It wasn’t until they visited a rocky, sandy planet that he truly realized that he could use his powers. It felt like his horizon had expanded exponentially the moment his feet touched the planet’s surface, and he couldn’t help the gasp that slipped through his lips. He realized immediately that he had felt it before, but never so clearly, never so intensely.

He could feel where each of his teammates were, where the ships were, where the Lions they had brought down with them were. It felt like the earth itself spoke to his skin and sang melodies of each and everything that existed on it. Not just on, but also under, and Hunk had to grab Yellow for support when the rush made him wobble with dizziness.

“Whoa,” was the only thing he managed to gasp out, and that couldn’t nearly begin to cover how amazing the new sense was.

He felt Shiro coming to him before he saw it. “Hunk, are you okay?”

Hunk turned to face him, eyes still wide. “Shiro, I think I just unlocked my ability.”

Lance’s excited skipped steps sent a tingle of fondness up his legs. “You have?” the tall, lanky guy asked, bouncing on his heels. “What is it? What can you do?”

“I don’t know how to explain it,” Hunk began, “but it feels like I can tell where you guys are without even looking? Like your movements make tremors and I’d be able to pick it up straight from the ground?”

Lance’s eyes widened. “Oh man. You’re like our own Toph from Avatar.”

Hunk blinked, because that was actually a pretty accurate description of what he was feeling. “I’m like Toph,” he echoed, a smile on his face.

“That’s so cool!” Pidge commented immediately, rushing to Hunk faster than Hunk would have expected. “Can you do other things? Can you earthbend? Can you throw around big chunks of giant rocks? Can you put someone in an earthen prison and crush them to death?”

“Pidge,” Shiro glared at the girl.

“What? That was a legit question!” Pidge protested, throwing her hands up in exasperation.

Keith nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, very legit. Can you do it, Hunk?”

“Keith.”

“What? That would make a better containment method than handcuffs.”

Lance snickered. “You know, I would pay to see one of the Galra officers put in a rock tube with just their head out while we roll it down a hill.”

Hunk pointed at him. “Just for that alone I will see if I could earthbend.”

“Ooh, now?”

“Dude, I don’t think I can magically unlock it in just a minute.”

“Oh, right,” Lance blinked and straightened up. “Oh well. Anyway, where are we going again?”

Allura, who had been watching everything from the sidelines with Coran while smiling fondly at the Paladins, cleared her throat and pointed to a direction. “The distress signal came from that way. It’s a rather far walk, but it shouldn’t take us too long to get there.”

The group spent the walk in relative silence, their focus taken by the upcoming mission at once. The distress signal had come from a planet that hadn’t flared its signal in many millennia, and they couldn’t help but think about what could possibly prompt them to flare it. Moreover, there didn’t seem to be any sign of Galra in the planet’s orbit.

After a while, Allura stopped walking and gave out a confused uh.

Lance turned to her quizzically, tilting his head aside as he asked, “What’s the matter, Princess? Are we there yet?”

“How can we be there yet?” Keith argued. “There’s nothing here.”

“Well, technically there are, like, infinite rows of small hills with several streams running through the vales,” Hunk held up a finger, “but yeah, otherwise this area looks pretty empty.”

“Yes, about that,” Allura held up a device that she used to track the source of the distress signal’s location. “According to this, we should be in the area already. However…” she gestured at the hills.

“Well that’s weird, that device shouldn’t malfunction,” Pidge took it off Allura’s hands and shook it. “Hunk and I built it ourselves. Unless the inhabitants in this planet don’t live in the planet’s surface?” She stared at Hunk pointedly.

Hunk blinked and looked down on the ground. “Oh. About that.” He knelt and pressed a hand on the ground, trying to extend his senses downwards. It was far easier than he expected, and suddenly he could see tunnels extending down the earth without actually seeing anything virtually. The images filled his mind as easily as recipes do, along with impressions of thick furred feet and sharp claws. There was also something else, something bigger he couldn’t really get an image of – but he could imagine large haired feet that reminded him of insects and angry, beady eyes, followed with snapping, clicking horizontal jaws. He drew back in surprise immediately, straightening up and stumbling back dizzily, bumping into Shiro.

“Are you okay, Hunk?” the Black Paladin asked as he helped Hunk regain his footing.

“Fine, fine, don’t worry about me,” Hunk replied with an apologetic grin. “Just a bit surprised. Yeah, the inhabitants of this planet live underground. I think I have an idea of how they look like, somehow? I’m not sure.”

“Well, how do they look like?” Coran asked curiously. “We’ve never had contact with this planet before. I would be happy to know what to expect when we meet them.”

“I don’t know, isn’t being surprised kind of seem appealing too?” Lance argued.

“While that’s true, sometimes just knowing what they look like could help you guess what customs they practice,” Coran explained. “It could help us skirt away from cultural faux-pas. It helps plenty with alliance establishment!” He turned to Hunk expectantly while Lance muttered an oh, right under his breath.

“I don’t know for sure,” Hunk began, “but I guess some fur? Or a lot of it? And big feet. Also, huge claws on hands. Paws? For digging, I think.”

“Kind of like some sort of burrowing animal on Earth?” Pidge piped up.

“Yeah, that’s actually a pretty accurate description,” Hunk nodded. He looked down at the turquoise grass. “Also, I got something… big. I’m not sure what. It reminds me of a giant insect, somehow.”

“A giant insect,” Keith repeated, clear disgust in his voice. When the others stared at him for confirmation, he threw up his arms in exasperation. “I’ve had to deal with a lot of pests in my years of living alone. I’m really not into having to deal more with insects when I’m in space, okay.”

“It’s okay, Keith, I understand,” Lance patted Keith’s shoulder in sympathy. “Abuela has declared that fire ants and termites are her mortal enemy after some problem at home when she was still a teenager. She still hates them with passion even now.”

“…what problems?” Keith asked, looking like he wasn’t sure he wanted to know.

Lance’s smile was stiff and dark. “Somehow the termites managed to bring the house to the ground, and the fire ants ate the plants, fruits, and grains from the garden.”

Keith patted Lance’s shoulder back awkwardly. Lance nodded appreciatively.

“Anyway,” Hunk spoke up and caught the others’ attention again, “I have a feeling that the giant insects are the problem here, somehow. Maybe something about their tunnels or something? And… uh.” He looked down. “Um, that’s doesn’t feel good.”

“What?” Pidge demanded instantly.

“Something makes this weirdly big tremor,” Hunk responded. “It feels ugly. And the tremor’s strong. It kind of goes boom, boom, boom rhythmically. Don’t you guys feel it?”

It felt really strong for Hunk, but apparently the others didn’t feel it, because they stared at him in confusion. And then the tremor got a lot stronger, and Shiro went rigid, looking down to the ground before his eyes ran over the horizon.

“What is this?” Allura asked, eyes wide. “It feels like groundshake…”

“Is that, like, Altean equivalent of earthquake or something?” Lance asked.

“This doesn’t really feel like earthquake though,” Pidge argued.

Shiro relaxed a little, no longer looking like a rabbit ready to bolt, but still alert. “It reminds me of the sound effect from movies like Godzilla and Jurassic Park when the giant lizards walk around.”

“Giant lizard?” Coran repeated. “Is that anything like a Schoompee?”

“We could compare them later, maybe?” Keith suggested. “Also, it doesn’t exactly feel like a walking dino. The booming is a lot faster, almost constant. I don’t really feel the silent gap between the booms.”

“So… maybe there’s a lot of it, whatever it is?” Lance suggested.

“No, this is more like…” Keith’s eyes widened. “Oh, fuck.”

Keith’s realization came at the same time as Hunk’s. The Yellow Paladin reached out and grabbed Lance and Pidge – the two closest to him – by the scruff of their armor and threw them behind his back. He ignored their indignant, surprised yells and opted to glare at the tip of a nearby hill, which had begun to shake violently, breaking the turquoise grass blanket and revealing dark, dark red soil underneath, which bubbled up and up as something burrowed upwards to break the surface. And it did; a pair of clicking horizontal jaws loudly snapped together as it met fresh air while its numerous limbs climbed up the freshly made hole. Its dark pink body glistened under the shine of the sun. It looked like a giant ant with ten feet instead of six, with an extra pair of scorpion-like claws snapping at the air. Its overly large head reminded Hunk of a termite somehow, though it was arguably a bit more proportional than a termite. And a whole lotta bigger, too, considering it was as big as a small bus.

Pidge’s long and loud ewww perfectly described how Hunk felt about the oversized not-ant.

Then the not-ant fixed its beady eyes at them and began advancing to them with a screech and a vicious click of its horizontal jaws.

Lance’s shrill shriek as he materialized his bayard to defend himself in horror perfectly described how Hunk felt about the new development.

Fortunately, they had become accustomed to covering each other’s backs that they practically could protect each other with their eyes closed. Even with the added two members that didn’t normally join in their missions, the Paladins easily maneuvered around each other to protect one another. Shiro and Keith rushed ahead to attack the oversized insect directly, effectively cutting up its numerous legs to immobilize it. Hunk used his blaster to hold it back, hitting any available surface that could keep it at bay. Lance easily shot its eyes many times, though some of his shots were somehow bounced away. After a moment, though, he managed to blind the insect in one eye, resulting in a pained and angry roar. Pidge flitted about like green lightning, lassoing the insect’s legs or jaws and sending bouts of shock to distract it from attacking Shiro and Keith. Allura helped, too, using a staff to hit away the thing’s snapping jaws whenever she could. Even Coran, the one usually staying behind to guard the castle and therefore didn’t spend much time physically fighting things on the ground, somehow produced a pair of small blasters and had begun shooting at the alien insect. His aim wasn’t as good as Lance’s, but it was better than Hunk’s.

Soon enough, the alien insect fell with a screech. It was still clicking its oversized jaws viciously, trying to get them, so Hunk made use of his superior firepower and used his blaster to sever its head. Once it popped off, the head rolled around while the jaws clicked frantically before finally stilling, dead.

“What in Coran’s mustache is that?” Lance asked shrilly. He glared at the alien insect hotly, disgusted and disturbed at the same time. “Abuela will not like that.”

A shuffling sound behind them made them turn, weapons levelled. From a freshly dug hole popped someone’s head, which looked like a cross between a mole and a badger with glistening dark silver fur. They sniffed the air with their pink nose and squinted at the insect.

“You can’t kill it like that,” they finally said.

“What do you mean?” Shiro asked quizzically.

“It’ll come back to life if you just sever the head,” they answered. “We still don’t know how to kill it for good. It’s why we sent a distress signal.”

Hunk stared at them. “Did you just say come back to life?” he squeaked.

Right on cue, the alien ant began clicking and wriggling again, making Pidge scream and jump back. Its skin began to bubble, both on the head and the body. Slowly, the head began to grow a new body, and the body a new head.

“Abuela will definitely not like that,” Lance shrieked, shooting the head that was growing a new body relentlessly. It slowed the growing, but didn’t stop it.

“Let me just – “ Keith rushed forward, taking a small igniter – which was essentially the Altean equivalent of a lighter – to create a small lick of flames. His eyes and hands glowed red and he coaxed the fire to grow bigger and hotter, eventually consuming the freak of nature that were the alien ants. Hunk and Shiro pulled back Pidge, Lance, Allura, and Coran from the flames’ radius, but not before the fire licked Allura’s open hands and caused burns that made her cry out in pain.

Lance reacted quickly, pulling Allura gently by her arms and began tending to her wounds. His eyes glowed the familiar cool blue, as did his hands. Water appeared out of nowhere and enveloped his hands, in which he cupped Allura’s wounded ones. Hunk knew she was healed only seconds after from how her face relaxed. It turned to panic almost immediately when Lance slumped into her arms.

“I’m okay, I’m okay,” he waved her off. “Sorry. I just used more energy than I expected. I’m still not that good at healing.”

Allura frowned, but it was Coran who put a hand on his shoulder and suggested, “Perhaps you should try not to use it so often, then. We don’t want you collapsing.”

Lance nodded. He turned to the still-burning insect. “Is the creepy crawly ant thing dead yet?”

“It should be dead,” Keith replied. “I made sure the fire’s hot enough to burn a house down to the ground in minutes. And…” he fixed his gaze to Allura. “I’m sorry. I should have been more careful about the fire.”

“It’s alright,” Allura assured, “you just need to train more. Both of you, in fact.” She levelled a steely gaze to Lance. “If you insist on using your healing abilities for every little thing like this, you better practice it until it comes as naturally as controlling water to you.”

Lance groaned. “But I couldn’t just let you walk around with burns on your pretty hands!” he protested. “Plus, it will take forever to train healing abilities. We don’t even get hurt that much.”

“Lance, thank you for healing my hands,” Allura grasped Lance’s hand, “I appreciate it very much. But I’ve told you this and I’ll tell you again; I’d rather live with wounds and scars than let you burn out from using your own life force to heal other people. Voltron needs you, the universe needs you, we need you.”

Lance sighed. “Well I won’t let people be if they’re wounded, so… I guess I’ll have to train.”

Hunk was just about to melt from hearing those words, because Lance’s inability to leave anything he could help be was just plain endearing and perhaps a tad frustrating at times, and stepped ahead to envelope his best friend in a hug when soft tremors that felt like the earth was trying to tell him something stopped him. He turned as he let the feeling wash over him, and he knew before his eyes fell on them that he’d see more of the inhabitants of the planet.

True to his hunch, he saw dozens of the inhabitants behind him. They were an interesting mix of different burrowing animals that Hunk was familiar with. They had a mole’s weirdly wriggly nose, as well as its eyes. The teeth were small and sharp, peeking out from their lips, like a shrew’s. Streaks of white along the length of their dark silver body reminded Hunk of a badger. They had six appendages, the lowest two they used to stand on. They had large claws on their upper paws and smaller ones on their lower paws. Their tail was long with stringy hair, lashing about like a cat’s would, and at the end of it was something that made Hunk think about fleshy doll-grabbing-machine claw.

“They killed it,” one of them breathed.

“How? Not even Earth could do it,” another wondered, the capital E in earth so blatant.

“They’re not of the Earth,” yet another hissed with eyes squinted suspiciously. Hunk tightened his grip at his bayard, which he hadn’t deactivated. Something about the way the aliens gazed at them made him feel uneasy.

Allura seized her opportunity and flashed them the brightest, most winning smile she could whip up. “Greetings, people of Taua,” she began, extending her hands in what appeared to be a universal gesture of hi I’m a regal person nice to meet you. “I am Princess Allura of Altea, and this is the royal advisor of the Altean royal family, Coran. I am here with the Paladins of Voltron. We received your distress signal and we wish to do anything we could to help you.”

The aliens were silent, glancing at one another with their tiny eyes and shuffling on their stout feet. Then, they stared at the largest out of them, who huffed and stepped forward, tail swishing and flesh-claw grabbing at the air. “Greetings,” he replied to Allura. “I am Lapisi, acting chief of the Tauans.”

“I’m sorry, acting chief?” Allura echoed in confusion.

“The insects got our chief,” Lapisi answered gravely. “We’ve had to make do since then.”

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Allura offered genuinely. “We hope that we could help prevent more losses from your part.”

Lapisi stared, tail flicking and grabbing. “Perhaps,” he settled, and Hunk was taken aback by the tone he spoke in. It sounded… condescending, somewhat? Who in the world would take that kind of tone with Allura?

Allura, however, didn’t seem fazed by this. She merely smiled and nodded, saying, “We’ll try our best. Can you tell us what exactly is the problem?”

Lapisi’s whiskers twitched. “If you’re so sure you could help, I’ll let you,” he said at last. “However, please keep in mind that even we, the Children of Earth, were not able to bring these beasts to their downfall.”

Allura managed to keep her ethereal air of royalty despite looking like she’d just swallowed a whole lemon when she heard Lapisi’s degrading tone. Hunk was impressed. Still, Allura forced a smile and nodded patiently. “The Voltron Paladins would be able to handle it, I’m certain of it,” she assured. “Please, if you’d tell us the problem…?”

Lapisi huffed a breath that somehow made him sound like he was biting back a laugh, but his expression suggested that he was sighing, somehow. “It’s the Clickjaws,” he said.

Allura leaned forward a little. “Clickjaws?” she repeated.

“The insect you just killed, somehow,” he explained. “We have a lot of insects here, and most of them are very big, but the Clickjaws are the worst. They appeared some time ago seemingly out of nowhere, and they have a taste for us Tauans. Little cubs, especially. They dig into our tunnel network and wreak havoc. When we fortify our tunnels and borders with metal, they go up to the ground and pounce from above. Many have fallen.” His eyes narrowed a little. “We never thought of asking for help, however. I was not even aware that a distress signal was launched.”

Allura was taken aback by this. “Excuse me? I’m certain we received a signal from Taua.”

“I’m wondering about that, too,” Lapisi retorted. He looked back at the cluster of Tauans gathering behind him, waiting for someone to speak up.

“…it was me,” a small voice said, and a small Tauan walked forward. Hunk recognized them as the one that told them they couldn’t kill the insect by beheading it.

Lapisi whirled to the voice. “Taimane,” he said, his voice nearly a growl, “why would you do such a thing, you foolish girl?”

Taimane stiffened. Her nose and neck fur flared with anger. “I’m doing what we should have done from ages ago!” she yelled. Her voice held a squeaky quality that would have sounded ridiculous coming from a human but sounded totally threatening coming from her. “Our children are dying, and we have no idea how to deal with the Clickjaws! The chief died! How much longer are we going to let this problem fester before you swallow your pride and go find help otherwise?!”

“We could’ve solved this on our own,” Lapisi growled.

“No, we cannot,” Taimane growled back. “I’m not letting more of our people die.”

“Just because you’re the last chief’s daughter doesn’t mean you could control the clan.”

Taimane’s eyes widened and she bared her teeth. “Just because you’re acting chief doesn’t mean your decisions are the best,” she bit back.

Lapisi simply turned with a huff, like an adult dismissing an unruly child. It clearly irked Taimane even more considering how her fur bristled further – which was, wow. Hunk did not think anything could bristle that much.

“In any case,” Lapisi said, “perhaps having someone exterminate the Clickjaws would be good.”

“Of course,” Allura easily nodded. The distaste that Hunk felt for the alien badger was nonexistent in her expression – or maybe Allura was just that good at masking her true feelings, being a diplomat and all. “Could you tell me where the Clickjaws nest is? We will be faster in exterminating them that way.”

Lapisi shook his head. “We don’t know where they nest.”

Allura blinked while Hunk resisted the urge to scowl. “I’m sorry?” she asked.

“Clickjaws have a habit of going into other insects’ nests and eat every last one of them,” Lapisi explained, “from the queen to the smallest larvae. Nothing is left behind. Then the Clickjaws use the nests, themselves.”

“That’s disturbing,” Lance muttered softly behind Hunk. Hunk was inclined to agree.

“In there, the Clickjaws rest,” Lapisi continued. “They will sleep for several day-cycles. When they wake, sometimes they would lay eggs. Sometimes they don’t. For such ferocious predator, they don’t lay many eggs, and we are grateful for that.”

“So we need to track these Clickjaws down and kill all of them without any clue whatsoever,” Pidge piped up with a huff. “Okay, that’s not hard or anything.”

“Pidge,” Shiro sighed. Pidge glared at him before averting her gaze with a pout and fell silent.

Lapisi had ran his gaze around and met their eyes with surprisingly patronizing stare before he locked gazes with Hunk. His eyes widened before narrowing, and his tail swished around, its fleshy end grabbing at the air. Hunk shuffled uncomfortably.

“Perhaps it would be hard for you,” he said to the others, though it wasn’t clear who exactly he was addressing – probably all of them, really. “Although, it will not be hard at all for him.” He pointed at Hunk with his large claw.

Hunk took a step back. “Me? What?”

Lapisi crouched to all four – wait, no, he had six limbs – and moved to Hunk faster than Hunk would have thought he’d be able to. All of a sudden he had stood to his full height in front of him, his perky pointed ears twitching. He was just slightly shorter than Lance. His wriggly nose sniffed at Hunk before he stepped back.

“You are of the Earth,” he said, tone pleased, “are you not?”

“Am I what?” Hunk asked in confusion. Did the alien badger ask about his home planet or Yellow’s element or what?

“I can smell Earth on you,” Lapisi went on. “You are a child of the Earth, just like us Tauans. You are of the Earth, just like – “ his gaze flicked to Keith and Lance “ – how your red… friend is of fire, and the blue one of water. The smell of the Earth is strong on you; even stronger than us Tauans, Children of Earth.”

Hunk stared. “Uh, so, is this about quintessence or something?”

“I think it’s about quintessence,” Lance piped up. “It’s kinda like how things went for me with the Neranese. Except, you know. The prince singled me out and dragged me to a secluded hallway.”

“Oh, okay, cool. Glad we got that cleared up,” Hunk nodded and turned to Lapisi. “I guess so, yeah. I’m of the Earth. Why would that make it easier for me to track the Clickjaws down?”

Lapisi stared at him quizzically. “Does the Earth not speak to you? Does it not bend to your requests so long as you respect and protect it?”

Hunk returned the stare. “I’ll be honest with you; I’m pretty new to this someone of Earth thing.”

Lapisi’s gaze morphed into that of understanding. “You have yet to grow into your fullest capability,” he concluded. He stepped forward and offered a paw. “Come with me. Let us Tauans open your senses to the Earth, so you both will be able to listen to each other. If you are truly a child of the Earth, then you should be able to bend it to your will.”

Hunk glanced at Lance, who was the only one to have gone through a similar ordeal. Lance shrugged at him, seemingly nonchalant, pretty much screaming your call, dude through body language. A cursory glance to Allura, Coran, and the rest of the team produced the same message. Hunk turned back to Lapisi, thought, and nodded stiffly while taking his outstretched paw. He needed to be able to track the Clickjaws, and he wouldn’t say no to a helping hand – well, paw – to help him control his abilities, anyway. Besides, Lance got a full dose of knowledge over water, ocean, ice, and pretty much anything about water and all its shapes and forms, and he turned out pretty much okay. He should be fine.

Well, he hoped so, anyway. Who knew what kind of knowledge transferal databanks from some badger alien would do to his brain? …okay, he shouldn’t have thought that. He was second-guessing his decision to do this and he was still a hundred percent sure he needed to do this in order to make sure the Clickjaws would be gone for good.

Either way, it was too late to back away from the offer. Lapisi had already pulled him to the throng of Tauans near the hole of the burrow they lived in. The Tauans shuffled closer to him, sniffing softly as though shy, before bumping their noses to his arms, chest, and back. It was… surprisingly cute. They were like cats, what the heck. Were earthen badgers like this, too? Was this a Taua thing? Hunk was leaning to the latter, honestly, but goodness he had to stop himself from running his fingers on their fur. He wasn’t sure it was socially acceptable here.

“Everyone,” Lapisi’s voice boomed around them when the onslaught of nosebumps stopped. “This one is a child of the Earth, much like us Tauans, but his senses are yet opened to the call of the Earth. Let us open them for him.”

“Uh, can someone explain to me how exactly you will open my senses, like, right now?” Hunk pleaded nervously.

“We will show you,” a Tauan declared confidently. “We will do it for you.”

“Can someone please explain before we do anything here?” Hunk asked again, a little louder this time.

The Tauans either didn’t hear his plea (doubtful), or they didn’t care about it (much more likely but really?). They rushed forward and put their paws and their grabby flesh tail at him; his face, his arm, every available surface they could put their able appendages on. Hunk gave a muffled oof when a grabby tail squished him in the face. He so preferred the nosebumps to this.

Before he could voice his objections, light exploded beneath his eyelids. He flinched back in surprise, but the Tauans’ hold kept him in place. The light strengthened in intensity, almost painful.

And then Hunk’s whole senses just kind of… got pried open. If he thought his horizon expanded the moment he stepped foot on this planet, boy was he wrong. It was peeking through half-closed eyelids, through shyly knit lashes that refused to give out full view of things. Now, though, the difference was jarring. Each little tremor sent screaming sense of awareness into his head. He was suddenly so very aware of where his teammates were, of each little thing they did. He could feel Lance digging his heel into the ground in worry, he could feel Keith tapping his foot and Shiro holding him back. He could feel Coran, farther away, standing rigidly in place, hardly breathing. He could feel the little Tauans so very deep in the burrowed tunnels shifting in their sleep. It was surprising, breathtaking, and perhaps a tad… terrifying.

Before, the informative whispers the Earth breathed into his skin was a soft and melodic symphony of piano keys and violin strings. Now it grew in crescendo, climbing in volume so drastically and dramatically that he nearly keeled over in shock. What he had accepted as pianissimo whispers suddenly turned into fortissimo bangs of a drum of war, of cannons being fired, in no less than a breath. The difference was jarring.

The Tauans let go of him. Hunk dropped to his knees with a groan, the screams of the tremors around him too much like an unforgiving earthquake for him to function properly. He clasped his hands around his ears, trying to block out the noise around him, but it was no use. Even if he could block out sounds he couldn’t block out the tremors. The way the Earth suddenly demanded his attention gave him a headache.

He felt rather than heard someone approaching, their steps too alike to a giant’s booming stomps for him to identify the person. Another followed suit, and suddenly he felt hands on his shoulders, warm and cool and quiet. Somehow, suddenly, he instinctually knew how to block out the tremors, even if just a little. Slowly, the tremors muted its screams that demanded attention into much more manageable loud calls, asking rather than demanding for his response. He sighed in relief, the pounding headache finally easing away. It was still there, a dull presence at the back of his mind, but it was nothing compared to the sharp and unrelenting throbs it manifested in before.

He opened his eyes to see both Keith and Lance staring at him with worry in their eyes. Hunk suddenly remembered how they had combined their powers before, and how Lance’s knowledge to control his quintessence had bled over their connection and gave Keith a head start at mastering his. He wondered if the same thing had happened to him.

“Are you okay?” Lance asked, his voice soft and gentle. He seemed to know that stimulation seemed like something Hunk wouldn’t appreciate much right then. Hunk was grateful for that. He nodded slowly, blinking and trying to adjust to his newly sharpened senses.

“What the quiznak did you do to him?” Keith demanded, turning sharply at the group of Tauans that had stepped back from them.

“We opened his eyes,” Lapisi answered indignantly. “As fellow children of the Earth we simply cannot let another child of Earth stay so unresponsive from Earth’s calls.”

“Do the people whose eyes you open usually react this badly?” Lance asked. His voice held a rumbling quality that reminded Hunk of a coming ocean storm. Ever since Lance had been able to control his quintessence, he’d been reminding Hunk more and more of the sea.

“We do not know if they would be so weak to the Earth’s demands,” Lapisi chittered defensively.

Lance’s hold on Hunk’s shoulder tightened. Keith took a deep breath, the air around him rising in temperature. Behind him, Hunk could feel Shiro, Pidge, Allura, and Coran shifting, could feel their protective anger seeping into the soil and into his skin. Hunk waved his hands immediately to diffuse the situation, yelling, “Hey, hey, it’s okay, I’m okay! Don’t we have a mission to do?”

The team backed down quickly, though reluctantly. Shiro stepped forward to Hunk and knelt, placing a hand on Hunk’s own. “Are you sure you’re alright, Hunk?” he asked.

“Yeah, peachy!” Hunk assured. “The Earth was loud before, but it’s a little muted now. I can still hear it really clearly if I concentrate, but it doesn’t hurt me.”

“It hurt you?” Lance asked, alarmed. The storm in his voice was building.

“Not anymore, you and Keith helped,” Hunk hurriedly assured. “I’m fine. I can do this.”

Lance’s eyes narrowed and he turned to Lapisi. “So you opened Hunk’s senses. Aside from being able to respond to the Earth’s calls, what will it do?”

“It should enable him to coax the Earth to move to his will,” Lapisi answered. “We Tauans are able to do it to some degree, which helps us making our burrows. Him, however… his potential is much bigger. He should be able to do incredible things, such as creating landslides and earthquakes.”

“So, basically you’re an all-out Earthbender now,” Pidge noted quietly.

“However, this… boost… will not last forever,” Lapisi warned. “A few vargas, most likely. Maybe half a quintant, or a full quintant if you’re lucky. In any case, it will fade overtime and he will have to relearn the skills we have lent to him.”

“Okay,” Hunk nodded. “That’s cool. I can deal with that.”

Shiro sighed. “In any case, we’ll have to deal with the Clickjaws soon. Can you point out where the nest is, Hunk?”

“Uh,” Hunk thought, extending his senses to the Earth and coaxing it to answer. Before he could get the Earth to speak to him, however, a voice chittered loudly.

“I know where they nest.”

Heads turned, and Hunk’s gaze met the young Tauan’s. Taimane stared ahead with a steely gaze, tail lashing, its fleshy end grabbing at the air. “I know where the Clickjaws nest,” she repeated.

“Why haven’t you told anyone?” Lapisi growled at her.

“Because you would lead our people to a suicide mission,” Taimane countered. Her tail lashed forward threateningly. “I know where their nest is. I shall lead the Paladins of Voltron there.”

Lapisi gave out a low growl. “Very well,” he said at last. “Just remember that if you died out there we would have no body to bury.”

“We had no body to bury when the chief died either,” Taimane responded. “We made do. Farewell, Lapisi.” Her tail slowly reached out to Lapisi’s.

“Farewell,” Lapisi answered. He reached out with his own tail. The grabby ends brushed one another, tensed, and drew away.

“Coran, perhaps we could stay behind,” Allura spoke up. “I’m sure the Paladins could handle themselves just fine. Perhaps it is best for us to lean back and discuss about… other matters.”

Coran’s eyes lit up when he heard other matters being spoken conspiratorially. Considering them, Hunk supposed they meant an alliance was to be made. Coran nodded at Allura and smiled. “Of course, Princess. I’ll keep you company here.”

“I suppose we should head out soon, then?” Shiro asked the other Paladins. They nodded readily, their faces set in determination.

“Be careful,” Allura called out to them. They nodded in response.

“Come,” Taimane waved them over with her tail. “It’s this way.” She dropped on all four and walked away. The Paladins followed.

Hunk could feel the Earth guiding him to the Clickjaws’ nest not even a minute after they began walking away, but he kept silent and let Taimane lead the way. It was obvious just how angry she was even with them being unfamiliar with the Tauans and how they express themselves. It showed in the hardness of her gaze.

“Taimane, wasn’t it?” Shiro asked, breaking the silence that had fallen over them.

Taimane stiffened for a moment before she turned to Shiro. “Yes,” she nodded. “I’m sorry, I forgot we were not formally introduced yet. I’m Taimane of Taua.”

“Nice to meet you, Taimane,” Shiro responded. “I’m Shiro, Black Paladin. This is my team; Red Paladin Keith, Green Paladin Pidge, Blue Paladin Lance, and Yellow Paladin Hunk.”

Taimane’s gaze met Hunk’s. “It’s an honor to meet you all. Although, if I understand correctly, only the Yellow Paladin is of Earth?”

“If this is about our quintessence, yeah,” Lance responded. “We each have our own thing. Hunk’s is earth.”

“Hmm,” Taimane sent a thoughtful gaze Hunk’s way. “No wonder my people liked you. They tend to think that other elements are inferior to earth.” She turned in dismissal before anyone could question her further. “In any case, our problem is the Clickjaws. They’ve been… a pain.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask about them,” Shiro said. “Can you tell us what exactly they are?”

“They’re insects,” Taimane answered. “But… different from the ones we have around here. They appeared out of nowhere several Spicollian Movements ago, and nobody could stop them. It is strange that we don’t know what they actually are, because they nest underground and Tauans are in tune with the Earth. We know of all the underground-dwelling insects, but we know nothing about this one.” Her tail lashed anxiously. “We couldn’t’ kill them. Beheading them ends with them duplicating, like you have seen for yourselves. Cutting them to pieces just makes them create smaller versions of themselves, which would grow bigger anyway. The only way to kill them that I’ve seen is to burn them to the ground, and I’ve only realized that today.” She looked down, tail curling around herself as if trying to give her a hug. “No one in Taua realized it.”

“I’m sure it was something anyone could’ve overlooked,” Shiro tried to assure, though his voice wavered uncertainly.

“No it wasn’t,” Taimane argued instantly. “Tauans are extremely proud people, set in our ways of doing. We thought it was the only way we could fight the Clickjaws. Clearly, we were wrong.”

Pidge cleared her throat. “Um, well, we’re gonna do something about it now,” she said. “You don’t have to worry about the Clickjaws anymore.”

Taimane sniffed. “Of course,” she answered, bowing her head a little. “And I thank you for that.” She turned and walked again, and the Paladins followed, this time in silence.

Soon, the grassy field they were waking on thinned out and gave way to rocky, barren land. Afar, they could see a cave, its yellowish rocks that formed the open maw of the opening glistening under the sun. in contrast, the darkness within looked cold, unwelcoming. Taimane pointed with her tail at the cave. “There. That’s where the Clickjaws nest.”

Lance stared intently at the cave. “In that cave? That opening looks a little too small for those humongous Clickjaws.”

“Clickjaws are not that big,” Taimane told him. “The one that you defeated was actually the largest I’d seen. Normally, they’re smaller than that. Not to mention that they are very flexible in their movements.”

Pidge hummed. “Is there anything we need to know about them, other than that?”

“The claws may look big, but they’re not that dangerous,” Taimane said. “They could grab, but despite the appearance it’s actually pretty brittle. If you hit it hard enough it’ll shatter easily. The jaws, though…” She licked her lips, tail twitching. “The jaws are strong. It’s capable of cutting a Tauan in two in one click. I’ve seen it before… with the late chief.”

“We’ll remember that,” Keith solemnly swore, nodding at her like saying a promise.

“Ah, one more thing,” Taimane reached and touched Hunk softly with a paw. “Please remember that we’ve given you something to help you fight. The Earth will listen to your plight and bend to your will. Use that to your advantage.”

Hunk paused and nodded seriously. He could feel it, the thrum of the Earth in his skin waiting for him to ask, to be mended and bent. “I will,” he promised.

The Paladins shared a nod with Taimane before they turned to walk into the cave. Through the Earth, Hunk could feel Taimane walking away from them and hid somewhere, probably in case the Clickjaws came out. Hunk had to agree with her – she was probably worried about leaving them, but going along or staying in open space would be dangerous.

As they stepped into the dark that blanketed the cave, Hunk shivered. While he had trouble seeing in the dark, he could feel something shifting under the surface of the earth, twisting and reaching as though stirring awake. He gritted his teeth and turned to his friends, warning them, “Be careful. I don’t like how this cave feels like.”

“Why, what does it feel like?” Lance asked curiously.

“Like there’s something slimy underneath just waiting to spring up.”

“I regret that I asked.”

“In any case, we have to move deeper,” Shiro spoke up. “Set your visors to night vision, but set it to adjust to light. If we can only kill these things with fire, we can’t let Keith’s flames blind us.”

They each reached to their helmet, setting their visors. When Hunk saw that they were done, he stepped forward and pointed. “Come on, it’s this way. The cave is deep. It will branch into tunnels, since it’s shaped similarly to an ant’s nest, but I can feel that there aren’t that many Clickjaws around and they all stay in one chamber.”

“I wonder if they have castes or something similar,” Pidge mused. “If these overgrown ants are actually like ants, we’ll probably have to track down the queen and kill it.”

“Do you think the one we killed before was a young queen trying to find a new place to nest, then?” Keith asked. “Taimane said it was the biggest she’s seen.”

“That’s possible,” Pidge nodded. “In any case, if this is like an ant colony, we’ll have to strike the queen. Which will be hard, because other ants will totally protect her.”

“Just another day in life, then,” Lance shrugged with a bitter smile. “So, anyway. What’s the game plan?”

“Get in, wreak havoc, get out?” Keith proposed.

“That seems to be the best plan, yes,” Shiro agreed. “Though, do mind to be careful. We didn’t come here to end up being buried alive.”

Keith screwed his nose. “Wasn’t planning on it.”

Shiro nodded in approval. “Well, ready your weapons. Make sure not to get separated. Hunk, lead the way.”

Hunk nodded and took the lead, making his way into the darkened tunnel and silently expressing his gratitude to whoever made the Paladin armors that the helmets’ visors were equipped with night vision. As he walked down, he felt the slimy feeling growing stronger bit by bit, and suddenly he knew that he had to follow that disgusting feeling in order to reach the Clickjaws.

Ugh. At least the feeling wasn’t deceptive.

Aside from the entirely unwelcome feeling the Clickjaws gave off, Hunk was also able to pick up more things from the Earth. The deeper they went, the better he could pick up the info the Earth was feeding him constantly. If before his newly opened sense was limited to feeling tremors, now he could feel more. He could pick up the way his friends walked, the way they tightened their hands around their bayards – or just plain tightening his fists in Shiro’s case. He could feel the way their hearts thumped loudly with anticipation of what was to come. He could feel Lance’s anxiety seeping into the solid ground and reaching his heart, even though there was no sign of it, not in his heartbeat or his sure, silent steps or in the way his voice came in breaths in their comm link when he spoke, a surefire sign that he was concentrating hard. Hunk could hear more. Hunk could feel more.

He knew instantly that if he tried earthbending in this state he would probably be able to tear a dwarf planet in two. The thought scared him.

Still, he led them through the labyrinthine tunnels, deeper and deeper underground. At one point, they found the path they took forking into two instead of the sets of threes that they’d been encountering, and Hunk took a deep breath. “This is it,” he murmured into the comm link. “We’ll take the path to the right, and then we’ll encounter the whole colony. There are twenty at least. I think they’re sleeping, but once we begin attacking I’m sure they’re going to wake up.”

“Alright then,” Shiro breathed in deeply and stared at them each in the eyes. “Be careful out there. Your own safety is priority number one. Remember that burning them may be our only chance, so Keith, I want you to be ready. Lance, since you can cancel out Keith’s flames, I want you to be ready to provide cover for the rest of us. If any of us got injured, don’t bother with healing – keep providing cover. Hunk, can you manipulate the Earth yet?”

Hunk ran his fingers over the earthen walls of the tunnel. He could feel the Earth humming pleasantly, its willingness to be shaped seeping into his fingertips through the gloves of his armor. “Yes,” he answered after a moment. “I haven’t tried it, but I think it should at least be similar to earthbending.”

Shiro hummed in thought. “Well, if the place looks like it’s ready to cave in, I want you to stabilize it,” he instructed. “Do you think you can do it?”

Hunk nodded readily. “Count it on me.”

Pidge activated her bayard, the familiar hook-taser combo lighting up softly with a soft buzz. “Come on, then,” she said with a grin, “time to grill some alien ants.”

“Yeah, we’ll serve them with a side of guacamole,” Lance grinned.

“Quiznak, Lance, stop shitposting,” Pidge narrowed her eyes at Lance, but a smile was tugging at her lips. Lance shrugged with a smile on his own as he lifted his own rifle and put it in position.

“Alright, let’s go,” Shiro said, stepping quietly into the tunnel, his Galra hand activated. There was barely any sound it made, but its glow illuminated the tunnel instantly with purplish light.

The tunnel was short, so short. Barely even five steps in. Right at the mouth of it was a Clickjaw, much smaller than the first they’d encountered. The glow from Shiro’s hand had drawn a reaction from it, and it screeched loudly, scrambling to get up and lunging for them.

The tunnels network immediately exploded into a pandemonium. The Clickjaws in the burrow woke and attacked immediately, almost blindly. Keith reacted instantly, rushing forward with his igniter in hand and lighting fire to hold the Clickjaws back, eyes and hands glowing red. Lance was just a fraction of a tick later than Keith, aiming his gun and shooting at the Clickjaws’ eyes. The CLickjaws screeched in pain and lashed out.

Hunk pressed his hand onto the wall of the tunnel, extending his senses. His eyes widened. “Shiro, Pidge, three more Clickjaws coming from your six!”

“On it,” Pidge responded, turning to see the overgrown ants rushing to them.  Her grappling hook sliced through the air and tied several of the Clickjaws’ legs together. Shiro rushed in, then, hand slicing to make cuts along the Clickjaws’ body to incapacitate it. The other Clickjaw roared and lunged for Shiro’s head, which he avoided easily.

“Pidge, retract the hook!” Hunk yelled. “Shiro, move back!” Once they complied, Hunk coaxed the Earth to mold into the shape he desired. It responded instantly, folding just like how Hunk wanted it to, and wrapped around the Clickjaws tightly, immobilizing them. He wouldn’t be able to kill them himself, not really, but at least they could focus on the larger group of the insects.

Keith had managed to burn two of the smaller Clickjaws to charcoal with Lance at his side minimizing the damage directed to their own side by making pillars of water and walls of ice to hold off the heat and licking flames, all while maneuvering his rifle one-handed to shoot at oncoming Clickjaws’ eyes. Again, Hunk coaxed the Earth to do his bidding and wrapped several Clickjaws within the clutch of dirt to immobilize them, and soon Keith had them burning up. Another snuck up on them and Lance shone like a blue starburst, and suddenly the whole Clickjaw was submerged in water, drowned in a misshapen bubble, thrashing. Soon it stopped moving, and Lance let go of his control, the glow dying away.

“So they can be drowned too,” he noted quietly. “I guess even these guys need air, too.”

“Save it for later,” Pidge warned, “look at your one o’clock!”

Lance snapped into attention at once and began shooting one-handed again. “How many do we need to defeat, Hunk?”

Hunk felt the Earth. “A lot more, but I think they’re all in that chamber.”

“Good, at least we don’t have to deal with stragglers,” Keith muttered as he lit up another Clickjaws with a flick of the igniter. Hunk stared at him, suddenly unnerved. Keith was pretty much a pro arsonist by now, and flames responded to his feelings almost too easily. He’d have to herd the Red Paladin away from the kitchen, or he’d run the risk having his food either horribly undercooked or horribly burnt. Or, you know, have his own hands burnt. Yep, totally have to keep Keith away from the kitchen. Also Shiro, because he once said his culinary expertise was limited to cup ramen.

He snapped his attention back to the scene before him when he felt more Clickjaws coming. He quickly informed the others, and soon more chaos came in to amplify the already raging chaos that had already broken. The battle was long and exhausting, considering that there were only five of them and almost two dozens of the Clickjaws, not to mention the overgrown bugs had such thick skin it was hard to actually harm them.

They managed, somehow. The onslaught of Clickjaws had finally relented when Hunk suddenly felt tremors under his feet, and from the alarmed looks his teammates wore he knew it wasn’t just him. Lance threw him a look that practically screamed what in quiznak is that at Hunk.

“Okay, guys, brace yourselves,” Hunk gulped, “I think that’s the queen.”

The ground shook hard, an earthquake big enough to send sand and rocks falling on top of them. Hunk automatically willed the tunnels to stabilize. Just as it did, the earth underneath their feet cracked open, scattering them back while three small Clickjaws ran after them. Keith immediately burned two of them while Lance drowned the other.

The queen emerged from below. It was large, much larger than the other Clickjaws. It was about as big as a truck, with longer and larger body, the bottom part of its body almost disproportionally larger than the rest of its body, much like the Earthen ant colony’s queen Hunk was familiar with. While the other Clickjaws have dark pink body, this one’s coloring was light, almost white. Its horizontal jaws were smaller than the other Clickjaws’ considering the proportions, but it was still there, and it was still much bigger than the others. Hunk gulped.

The queen screeched and charged forward, its large claws clacked loudly and its too-many legs stomped powerfully. The Paladins worked in tandem, moving and complementing one another’s moves as easily as breathing. Hunk had to hang back and concentrate on keeping the tunnels stable, however, since the queen’s erratic movements rocked the tunnels too much.

No, Hunk couldn’t keep this up, not even with the boost the Tauans had given him. The Earth couldn’t keep this up, and the tunnels longed to collapse onto its own. Hunk gritted his teeth and yelled to the others, “I can’t keep the tunnels stable for much longer. We gotta go back!”

“But the queen is still here,” Keith protested.

“We’ll find a way to make I work,” Shiro cut off before an argument could start. “If we keep annoying it, it will probably follow us anywhere.”

“Well, we can do that,” Lance grinned mischievously. A snowball appeared in his hand with a sparkle of blue, and he threw it like a baseball, screaming, “Hey, ugly!” The snowball hit the queen in the eye, and it clicked its horizontal jaws indignantly before screeching at him and reaching for him with its too-big claws.

“Okay, run, run, run!” Pidge pushed Lance forward, and soon the group were running through the tunnels. Hunk kept his concentration on keeping the tunnels stable, though he had to direct the others to get to the surface – one wrong turn was all it would take to lead them to certain deaths, after all. A few times, they’d had to annoy the queen one way or another to keep it running after them. Lance’s snowball, Keith’s fireball, and Pidge’s bursts of shock seemed to work best, though the occasional rock throw from Hunk worked as well, and also, strangely enough, Shiro’s lame insults accompanied by the glow of his arm.

Hunk’s control over the stability of the tunnels was lost as soon as they reached the mouth of the cave. They hurried outside as the tunnel network collapsed on top of the queen’s head, burying it under piles of rock and rubble.

“Is… is that it?” Keith asked softly.

“The Tauans said they couldn’t kill the Clickjaws,” Shiro reminded. “Stay on alert. This isn’t over yet.”

As if on cue, the queen emerged from the rubbles with a roar, sending dust and sand flying and raining over them. Shiro coughed loudly when he inhaled dust, but soon all five of them had adopted a fighting stance and stared at the queen head-on.

The queen, for its part, looked absolutely pissed. It clicked its jaws in agitation and irritation before it strode forward, claws extending, clearly intent on snapping Pidge in half. The girl leapt aside and tied the claw, keeping it in place. “Someone do something to immobilize this thing!” she demanded.

“On it!” both Hunk and Lance responded. Hunk quickly coaxed the Earth to bend under his will, wrapping around the queen’s limbs to keep it in place and unable to move anywhere, while Lance sent torrents of water to wrap around its joints and froze it.

“Keith, fire,” Shiro instructed. The Red Paladin nodded at it and flicked his igniter, and flames burst forth and wrapped around the queen with vengeance. The queen screeched in pain, wriggling and writhing without vain.

Though, it didn’t last for too long. The queen managed to break off the restraints Hunk and Lance had made since the fire weakened them, and it rushed to Keith in anger. Its claws sliced through the air to crush Keith, but they had become so brittle they crumbled to dust the moment they touched him. The queen wasn’t deterred, however, and instead bent to cut him in half using its jaws.

“Keith!” Lance yelled in horror, while Pidge screamed wordlessly and Shiro ran to grab Keith. Hunk knew, however, that he wouldn’t be able to save Keith in time. He was too far, and the queen was too fast, and Keith was frozen in place, too shocked and caught up in the freeze section in the fight, flight, or freeze instinct aisle. By the time he caught himself and lifted his bayard to drive off the queen, he would have been defeated.

A surge of power filed Hunk up to the brim, making him glow with bright golden-yellow light that made him look like the personification of the sun. With a cry, he let the power of the Earth run through him as a conduit, willing the Earth to save Keith. Immediately, quakes ran through the Earth, knocking everyone but Hunk off their feet, including Keith and the queen. Hunk put his hands together, intertwining his fingers, held it up above his head and brought it down swiftly and powerfully.

The ground beneath the queen crackled and fell, instantly creating a crater the queen fell into with a cry of its own. It tumbled down and laid in the center of the crater, howling painfully. Hunk kept it in place by wrapping it in dirt.

Keith had fallen to his butt, staring at the queen with wide eyes. One of his legs dangled off the crater, and he looked as white as sheet.

“Keith, you okay?” Hunk called out.

That snapped Keith out of his stupor. He scrambled away from the crater and stood, stumbling a little, but regained his footing quickly. “Y-yeah, I’m fine,” he assured. “Thanks, Hunk.”

“Oh, good,” Hunk laughed in relief, walking closer to the Red Paladin and clapping him on the shoulder. “I was worried you’d be hurt. Anyway, think we should finish off the queen? Your fire works best.”

Keith blinked a few times before nodding. “Yeah, okay,” he said at last, lifting his igniter. Fire immediately sparked, and the queen was soon burned to charcoal. Its howls of pain reverberated through the air, but Keith didn’t show any hesitation. If anything, the flames burned brighter and hotter. Soon nothing was left in the crater but blackened something that no longer could be recognized. With a satisfied nod, Hunk willed the Earth to fill in the crater, burying the charred remains with rocks and sand.

Silence fell on them, and Shiro soon broke it with a cross between a relieved laugh and a tired snort. “Good job, guys,” he praised. “Great thinking on the crater, Hunk.”

“Aw, don’t mention it,” Hunk laughed bashfully. “We all didn’t want anything to happen to Keith.”

“Speaking of which,” Lance strode to Keith and began poking him. “Are you alright? You were the one closest to the queen earlier. Does anything hurt? Do I need to heal you?”

Keith slapped Lance’s hand away gently. “Don’t worry about it, I’m fine.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah. Also, if there’s anything I prefer to just use the cryopod.  Better that than you exhausting your quintessence.”

“That’s right, Lance,” Shiro agreed. “No healing unless it’s absolutely necessary. We can’t have you collapsing either.”

Lance humphed. “Fine,” he relented.

“Should we go back to the Tauans’ tunnels now?” Pidge asked aloud. “Allura and Coran are waiting.”

“We should, yes,” Shiro nodded. “Hunk, do you think you can lead us back there?”

“Sure, I can do that,” Hunk answered readily. “Only, I don’t think I need to. Taimane is coming. She’s been waiting for us this whole time.”

“Wait, really?” Lance perked up. “Where is she?”

“She’s been hiding in that shrub over there,” Hunk pointed at the pink shrubbery over his shoulder, from which Taimane crept out of and walked to them.

“Did you get all of them?” she asked, whiskers twitching nervously and tail swishing back and forth. “Are they gone? Every last one?”

“Yeah, we got all of them,” Hunk assured, feeling through the ground to check once more. He didn’t feel anything. The Clickjaws were gone.

“Thank the Earth,” Taimane sighed, tail drooping alongside her breath. Her eyes twinkled with relief and happiness. “Thank you, Paladins. Truly, thank you. We Tauans can rest easy now. I don’t know what I can do to make it up to you.”

“The Princess and Coran were hoping we can form an alliance,” Shiro revealed, “but that’s something we should discuss with the rest of your people. What about we just return for now?”

“Yes, certainly,” Taimane nodded vigorously. Her tail grabbed at the air with more vigor than before. “Let’s go back.”

The walk back to the Tauans’ settlements was mostly quiet, as each Paladin began feeling post-battle fatigue settling in. They were happy though, and relieved that the mission was relatively successful. They were sure that this good news could secure the Tauans into making an alliance with them. That meant more people to help them defeat the Galra Empire.

When they got back to the tunnel networks the Tauans lived in, they popped out of the burrow in waves, greeting them, each chittering questions of did you get them and are they dead now and are we safe. The onslaught of questions were cut off when Allura and Coran broke through the throng of Tauans to greet the Paladins, Coran openly assaulting Lance with a bear hug that the younger man returned immediately with a laugh. Coran then proceeded to hug the rest of the team while Allura demanded details on how the mission went.

“We got into the nest with no problem thanks to Taimane’s guidance,” Shiro explained, “and Hunk led us through the tunnels. It was a hard fight, but we managed to beat the Clickjaws. None of them are left now.”

“Is that true?” Lapisi’s voice rang out from the crowd, and suddenly he was in front of Hunk, who stepped back in surprise. “The Clickjaws are gone?”

“Well, yeah,” Hunk nodded, pointing at Shiro. “Shiro’s just said that.”

Lapisi’s eyes sparkled. “Oh, thank the Earth,” he breathed. “I can’t thank you enough, Yellow Paladin. Your efforts is truly much appreciated.”

Hunk waved him bashfully. “Aw, it’s nothing. It’s a team effort, really. And it’s Keith who actually killed the final boss; without his fire we wouldn’t be able to kill off the Clickjaws.”

The acting chief blinked and turned at the Red Paladin, the glee that overflowed from his person before seeping away in ticks. “…ah. I see. That’s good.” He turned back to Hunk. “In any case, thank you, Yellow Paladin. I hope there’s something I could do to make it up to you.”

“Well for starters you could thank my friends too,” Hunk answered immediately before Allura could cut in with alliance talk. “As I said before, it’s a team effort.”

“I’m sure you played the biggest part, given that you are a child of the Earth and your… friends are not.”

Hunk stared at the badger-like alien with his mouth hung open, for once completely speechless, and he knew the rest of his team as well as the Alteans were too. He and his friends had worked hard to save them, but only Hunk got the credits because he was, apparently, a child of the Earth? Just because he could understand what the dirt and sand whispered to him, he deserved to be thanked while his friends didn’t? Even though they all struggled together?

“Bullshit,” he burst out before he could stop himself.

“I – pardon?” the chief chittered in confusion.

“Bullshit!” Hunk repeated, louder this time, too angry to care about the possibility of ruining an alliance.

“Oh boy,” Lance muttered behind hs back. He sounded giddy, almost; the grin was audible in his voice.

“I’m afraid I don’t understand,” Lapisi voiced his confusion. “Am I, and my people, not thanking you for your help?”

“Yeah, just me,” Hunk rolled his eyes. “What about my friends? Don’t they deserve thanks too?”

“Ah.” There it was again, the disdainful look. “I’m afraid we all believe that only children of the Earth are worthy of our thanks. We are people of Earth. Anything else is beneath us.” He pointedly ignored Taimane’s loud speak for yourself.

Keith bristled and took a step forward, opening his mouth and hissing the word listen, but he stopped dead in his tracks when Hunk spoke above him.

“Fuck you,” he swore loudly. Behind him, Allura and Coran gasped in horror while Pidge cackled loudly, and Hunk could feel both Keith and Shiro’s flabbergasted stare at his back.

“Oh boy,” Lance repeated. Hunk could practically see him bouncing on his heels.

He chose to ignore them in favor of staring Lapisi down. “Fuck you,” he repeated. “Fuck you, and your entire ancestral line, and all your descendants to come. Fuck you and all your close and extended family and all their relatives and their relative’s relatives. Fuck you and your wife and your husband from another life. Hell, fuck your pets and your pet’s pets. Fuck everything that has anything to do with you, your race, and your children of Earth bogus, and your superiority complex. Just plain fucking fuck you, man.”

Lapisi stared at him silently, jaw hanging open in shock. Complete silence had fallen over the Tauans as they all stared at Hunk with the same shock in their eyes.

“…what?” was all Lapisi could say when he finally found his voice.

Hunk glared hotly at him. “Do you know how hard it was to take care of a cave full of giant ants? No! because you weren’t there! My friends and I was! The reason why all of us are still alive is because we all contributed and helped each other. They deserve as much thanks as I do! Maybe even more! They’re the ones who actually killed the creepy insects, not me! And now you’re saying that they don’t deserve thanks because their affinity isn’t with earth but with other substances? Fuck you!”

Lapisi worked his mouth for a moment silently before bristling at him. “How dare – how am I to know that you’re telling the truth?”

Hunk growled in frustration, and the power of the Earth rushed through his veins once more. Earthquake shook the valley they were standing in, and the dirt at the top of the hills began crumbling down in a small landslide. Cracks appeared on the earth, breaking the valley in two. Lapisi stared at him, wide-eyed, fear shining though the black of his pupils.

“You know what I’m capable of,” Hunk growled. “You know that I would be perfectly capable of breaking a dwarf planet in two right now, with the boost you’d given me earlier. Each of my friends are as powerful as I am at the very least, and each of us is attuned to a different element.” He straightened up and cracked his knuckles, and more cracks appeared on the earth. “Perhaps you would like to see a demonstration. How fast do you think we can level your tunnels?”

“Hunk, that’s enough,” Shiro snapped, alarmed. “I think you’ve made your point clear.”

Hunk complied, backing down immediately. The quakes stopped, but he didn’t make any effort to stitch back the valley to what it looked like before. “My point stands,” he murmured, still too upset to say anything else.

Shiro shook his head. “We’ll talk about this later. Princess?”

Allura snapped out of her stupor. “Ah, um, yes.” She straightened up and turned to Lapisi. “I apologize for this behavior. You must forgive the Yellow Paladin, the battle fatigue must be catching up to him.”

Hunk felt his ire spiked at Allura’s word choice, but swallowed it down. He had probably ruined their chances of alliance, best not to make anything worse. He felt Lance approaching though the tremors the Earth sent, and felt the warmth of his gloved hand as he wrapped it around his. Hunk appreciated the gesture, but stayed mum.

“Of course,” Lapisi responded to Allura, sounding shaken, and Hunk felt satisfaction snaking its way to his stomach despite himself. “Still, it is true that his efforts is greatly appreciated. Tell me, is there anything we Tauans could do?”

Allura hummed. “I was hoping that we could form an alliance to stop the Galra Empire for good,” she began, “but honestly, I’m not sure your people would accept such proposal from us, the lowly caste, since we are not of the Earth.”

Hunk blinked and stared at Allura, slack-jawed. The rest of the Paladins mirrored his expression, though Coran appeared unperturbed. Hunk threw Lance a look, which Lance immediately returned; both looks conveying a resounding what in the world is happening here?

Lapisi, too, looked completely taken aback by this. “That… is not what I meant.”

“Oh, I must have misunderstood then,” Allura swiftly replied, though she didn’t sound sorry at all. “In any case, I don’t think an alliance would have worked well for us. However, we will still leave you a communicator device – if ever you need help from Voltron, we will come and lend you a hand.” She turned and produced a small comm device from a pocket Hunk never knew existed and called out, “Taimane?”

Taimane squeaked in surprise. “Um, yes?!”

Allura smiled gracefully at her and gave her the device, wrapping her paws around it and patting her fur gently. “I trust you to hold this device,” she said, eyes staring straight into Taimane’s. “Remember, if you need help from Voltron, call us. We will come to help you as soon as we can.”

Taimane blinked and nodded seriously. “Of course,” she replied, holding the comm device close to her chest. “I will guard this. Your deed will not be forgotten, Your Highness.”

Allura’s smile widened, and she took a step back, looking around at the rest of the Tauans. “Please remember that Voltron is here to protect you,” she announced. “We will never abandon you, so if you need us, we will be here. Thank you for your cooperation. We will take our leave now.” She turned away gracefully and motioned at the others to follow.

The Paladins quickly fell in line, walking behind Allura and Coran to show a more official look. They left in silence, as the Tauans stared at their retreating backs without words.

“Um, Allura?” Lance spoke up once they were far enough away from the Tauans. “You didn’t push for an alliance?”

“I was hoping for it,” Allura sighed, “but frankly, Hunk isn’t the only one who is tired of their… ridiculous philosophy. Coran and I tried to establish an alliance one way or another while you were gone, but all they were talking about was how there was no way a bunch of people who were not of the Earth could take down the Clickjaws.”

“Also, they didn’t seem to regard us as equals,” Coran mused. “The princess had an advantage in that she has a title, but that doesn’t really help either. In the end no one really paid attention to us because we are not of the Earth. Nevermind the fact that Allura could manipulate raw quintessence!”

Pidge huffed. “I’m so glad we didn’t end up forming an alliance after all,” she breathed. “I don’t think I’d be able to stand them.”

“Frankly I’m surprised Coran and I could hold out for so long,” Allura sighed.

“Well, at least we got something good from this whole fiasco,” Shiro shrugged. “Hunk can now use the earth quintessence.”

“Yeah, but the boost the Tauans gave me earlier is starting to wear off,” Hunk admitted. “I’ll have to relearn everything again. I remember how it felt, though, so I should be able to do it quickly.”

“We can help you,” Keith offered, glancing at Lance and earning a nod. “And I need more practice anyway, so we could tackle this issue at the same time.”

Hunk fell silent for a moment, reaching out to the Earth and letting the feelings from the Earth climb up his legs. The music the Earth sang to him was starting to fade, turning into a phantom song that he could barely hear, though he was certain it was still there. The way the power of the Earth had travelled along his body was more than a little frightening, to be completely honest. Hunk honestly wasn’t sure he could deal with the fact that he was able to destroy a dwarf planet if he really wanted to.

Now that the boost bled away from him, though, he began to feel sure that he wouldn’t be able to reach that level of power anymore. He would be able to take control over the earth, sure, but he doubted he’d be able to actually destroy dwarf planets. Even the constant whispers the Earth sent him was starting to feel so far away. Hunk found that he… actually missed it.

Well, he liked how he could feel Earth beneath his skin and on standby, ready to be used if he needed it. He wanted to have it again, to make sure he could protect his teammates all the better. For that, he had to train himself.

“Yeah, okay,” he agreed at last. “Let’s train together.”

Keith and Lance both threw him grins, and the rest of the groups smiled fondly. The rest of their walk was spent in silence.

As he walked up the ramp into the Castle of Lions, the phantom song of the Earth was finally cut off, as Hunk was no longer in touch with the actual Earth. Hunk didn’t mind, though. He knew that with enough practice, he’d be able to feel the thrum of the Earth deep within his core.

He couldn’t wait.

[domina-alba]

Domina Alba

Hey Everyone, These are the chapters that were initially posted to Ao3 and FFN so if you’ve already read Domina Alba feel free to skip! If you haven’t read Domina Alba you can find information about the fic Here.

I

It wasn’t often that the gem Homeworld attempted to colonize worlds with intelligent life. As White Diamond ran through the halls of the hastily constructed base, her black hair sticking out even more with her own speed,  she wondered yet again if the Gem Empire needed to reconsider where they drew the line at intelligent. 

The beasts, ‘Flail Legs’ as the gems stationed there had taken to calling them, may not have been capable of discernible speech but they were certainly capable of strategizing enough to have overrun much of the eastern section of the base before any of the rest of the base had noticed.

“Fall Back!” White Diamond bellowed as she blew past a squad of Ruby’s coming in from a patrol. “Fall back to the ship now! There's been a breach” The Ruby’s panicked until her order reached the ears of one of the Agates who shoved them in the direction of the drop ship. The evacuation alarm was sounded and White Diamond kept running, her quarters and Pearl were at the back of the base. Behind her she could hear the sounds of battle and Agates barking orders. She rounded a corner and ran smack into a tall white and grey gem, the recoil knocking her to the floor.

“My Diamond! I’m sorry, so sorry” Milky Quartz 3NY said helping White Diamond to her feet. White Diamond rubbed her nose, checking that she hadn’t broken it, again.

“It’s fine I’m fine we need to get out of here.” White Diamond said waving off the quartz, She looked and saw another Milky Quartz, 6GS staring at her worried.

“What happened.”

“It’s those Flail legs, they’ve broken through the walls, the eastern section is gone,” White Diamond said, then looked around, usually there was a third with them. “Wheres 9ZQ?” She asked. 6GS and 3NY looked at each other then back at their diamond.

“She was in the Eastern section.”

“Frack.” White said. She looked behind her at the chaos then at the two quartzes. “Alright. I’m going to find her, you two get Pearl on the ship, don’t let her wait for me, get her on the drop ship. 9ZQ and I will catch up.”

“My Diamond, Me and 6GS will go, you really shouldn-” 3NY began.

“Don’t tell me what to do Quartz.” White diamond said reaching to her gem and drawing a long blue bladed sword from it. “I’m going to find my soldier, I’ll catch up. That’s an order.” Both quartzes pursed their lips and nodded, then saluted her.

“Yes My Diamond!”

“Go!” She said before turning back and heading into the fray.

Where she had just been moments before was devoid of life either Gem or Flail Leg. She ran into the first of the creatures moments after she had passed the room where the Rubies had been. It was on the ceiling above her and flipped down in front of her face, snapping at her with three mouths moments before she ran it through with her sword. The creature fell with an shriek of pain and it’s acidic blood ate through White Diamonds boots.

She jumped away from the body and saw that it was not alone, dozens of the creatures filled the hall, she could see the glint of gems on the floor, some of them in the creatures mouths. Dread shivered up White Diamonds spine. There was no way she could save them all. She glanced around as she backed away from the creatures. She saw openings, in the floors, in the creature's defenses and saw red jewels lying untouched for now. She couldn’t save them all, but she would save what she could.

White Diamond let out battle cry from deep inside her as she ran forward, and leaped over the first line of the Flail Legs,. She drew another sword. She swung with long calculated swings to attack as many of the creatures as possible. She reached the clump of rubies ,dropped the sword in her left hand, grabbed them, and shoved them in the pocket of her coat hoping beyond hope that the gems would wait until they were back on the ship to reform. She bounced with one foot off the now empty space. Drew another sword and allowed herself to glide through the enemies cutting down all that reached for her.

She landed with a roll into the empty space in the Eastern section.

She gathered a Lapis’ gem and an agates along with a hand full of assorted quartzes that weren't cracked too badly. Her pockets we're getting full but she still hadn’t found 9ZQ. The Eastern section was unrecognizable. Tables and workstations overturned, bodies and shards covered the floor. And unlike the deafening tunnel of death she had just gone through it was quiet. White Diamond walked softly through the gore and shards, wincing as the monsters blood leaked into her shoe and she cut her feet on chunks of gems.

She poked her head into each room, scanning it for 9ZQ, poofed or un-poofed. She rounded one corner and saw the flash of a blade heading for her face. White Diamond sprung back into a defensive position and then relaxed when she saw a Milky Quartz with a slightly uneven bicep gem holding it.

“Oh,” 9ZQ said with relief “it's you, sorry about that Domina.” the quartz was holding another passel of gems in the crook of the arm that wasn’t holding a push sword.

“Rather you than one of those things.” White Diamonds said “Any others?”

“Nah just me, have the ships left yet?”

“I really hope not” she said turning to find an exit to the outside of the planet.

“Not that I'm not thankful” Milky Quartz said following her out a hole in the wall and into the desert that surrounded the base, “But you really shouldn’t be doing this my diamond.”

“Father always told me that all good leaders fight alongside their people, so that’s what I’m going to do.” White Diamond said, the ships were still there thank goodness, the last of the gems being loaded on, she started to jog towards the crowds.

“Uh huh, pretty sure your going to get yourself hurt if your not careful though” Milky Quartz asked keeping up with her easily. White diamond waved it off.

“Eh, wouldn’t be the first time.” She said before sliding into the ship’s cargo bay. “Everyone out Mossy?” She asked, She handed the gems from her pocket to a nearby Peridot and nodded to 6GS and 3NY who were reuniting with their comrade.

“You and 9ZQ are the last ones my Diamond” Mossy Agate said, gesturing for the door to be closed.

“Good, Tell a Nephrite to get us into orbit while I figure out how to salvage this.” White Diamond said already making for her quarters above the command center, a relieved looking Pearl following her.

Her quarters were set up a little bit different than the other diamonds, White had more needs than your average diamond. But the privacy from the rest of the ship was worth the walk. Pearl opened the door for her without White having to say anything which boded poorly. Usually they went through a whole charade of White Diamond opening the door for her when they were alone. Her suspicions were proved right when, as soon as the door closed Pearl let her guard drop.

“What in stars name do you think you were doing Domina!” Pearl shouted at her. White Diamond, Domina to those who bothered to use the name her father gave her, held up her hands in defense to the tiny pale pink Pearl.

“I had to do something we couldn’t just leave 9ZQ behind!”

“She’s a Quartz, it’s her job, She’s replaceable, Rubies are replaceable, Pearl’s are replaceable,” The Pearl said gesticulating wildly “Your White Diamond, Domina, You are not!” Domina rolled her eyes.

“Yes yes so you tell but you know it’s not true. No one is replaceable.” Domina said. Pearl gave her a world weary sigh.

“You know other Pearls don’t have to deal with their owners being so reckless”

“Yeah but really.” Domina said letting a smile creep onto her lips “Would you have it any other way?” Pink Pearl shook her head and hugged the 6’10” Diamond, her ovaluar belly gem bumping into the buttons on Domina’s coat.

“Promise me you won’t scare me like that again.” she muttered.

“I’ll do my best.” Domina said squeezing Pearl gently.

“You better,” She said pulling away, “I will see if I can find you another set of clothes that haven’t been savaged by the local wildlife.”  Domina nodded.

“I’m going to clean up and take a nap. If any one important calls tell them I’m contemplating how best to recover from this momentary setback.” Domina said removing her coat and handed it to Pearl.

“And if they're not important my diamond?” Pearl asked with a quirk of her lips.

“You have my full permission to tell them to go frack themselves.”

[fireteamcatastrophe]

The Red War, “Where Did The Party Go?”

((Continuing on from “Hard Time,” this is Henry Gordon’s take on the Red War. As far as canonicity goes, amongst the three members of Fireteam Catastrophe, Henry is “The Guardian” that everyone talks about. The other two are fairly noteworthy in that some of the things are attributed primarily to one of the other two (ex: Breaker-77 is the one who was responsible for killing Crota while Henry has credit for Atheon. Other things, but I have to write that out somewhere. >> Anyhow, let’s get to Henry Gordon’s spin on the Red War kicking off. It’s... Gonna be almost thirteen times as bad as Breaker’s.))

Fire. So much fire. Only a portion of it was from Henry’s Light, and that nudged something deep inside his chest. It was refusing to give, though. His Light topped out, flaring brightly into the hazy night as various spells were shouted with all forms of words. From song lyrics to legitimate arcane wording, the Warlock met the Cabal on the top of the Tower. He’d come back from a run around the Cosmodrome, searching for stores of old Golden Age music. Ironically, he’d found a few servers his Ghost had managed to download. It was a herculean effort, but one that paid off.

“This world can’t take on me, I won’t let go!”

A surge of Solar Light stuck to the Centurion that leaped above his platform, and the ensuing explosion was eclipsed by his leap beyond it, where a Nova Bomb followed suit. He was struck down upon landing, leaping from the death in a blaze of glory. As the music blared into his helmet, he relayed the lyrics out to the world. Giving it all he had to give, the Cabal undoubtedly felt his fury. It burned with the fire of Sol, and it was cold like the Void he drew from. The battered Tower would remain strong, because of the power of Henry Gordon. He would ensure it.

After all, this was just another Tuesday.

Henry knew his home was under siege, he began to gather that this occupying force would be moderately successful, but as he ripped the hordes apart he knew that their victory would be short lived at best. He hoped.

No, he knew the Light would prevail. He had his music, he had his power, nothing would stop that. Tonight, he felt alive.

“The Red Legion have never known defeat!” Ikora Rey shouted. It echoed in his helmet, bouncing around his skull and sticking to his vision as if it were a filter of despair. Henry had never known defeat either: not when the Vex tried to erase him, not when Breaker-77 led him into the pit and Ir-Yut sang death unto him (he sang louder!), not when Alice got him roped into helping Variks and the Queen, and defiantly not when Oryx arrived. Aksis didn’t stand a chance, either. The SIVA Crisis was nothing in comparison to Henry’s sheer determination, his willpower, and his enthusiasm.

Henry shook the burden of fear from his shoulders: he would rise, fall, and rise again until the world stopped. It’s the only way he knew, and the only way he’d follow. Drawing a custom-forged blade, “Bada Bing! Wit’ A Pipe,” he found himself at the Tower Plaza. Zavala held the line with him, saying very little more than tactical chatter that was drowned out in Henry’s singing. There was a brief moment, however, when Henry realized something.

Zavala was in cover.

The Titan of all Titans was hiding in cover, firing out with occasional pot-shots, rather than charging headlong into the fray.

“Henry! Go! Secure the Speaker with Ikora! I will see to the evacuation of the civilians!”

Henry let out a hearty laugh, “Will do, Zavala! Good to be on the front lines, right?”

“This is serious, Warlock!” Zavala sounded angry. Did... No. Zavala didn’t doubt that they would prevail. He was just angry that Henry was having fun. Though, as Henry saw the City burn below, he realized that ‘fun’ wasn’t a word to use.

Henry sprinted, mapping out a series of rifts that he could blink through to leap to the Speaker. There was always conduits of Light he was able to finagle into tunnels, things that would let him blink around and enjoy the Tower on his various errands. Now, though, the Light was... Warped. The tunnels were rebellious, refusing to hold steady and making minor changes that required constant adjustment. As Henry landed where the Speaker used to study his lore, Henry realized that he was standing above a smoking crater.

Ikora screamed, and she flew from a similar rift to drop a Nova Bomb on the first Cabal ship to approach. Henry could only float there, stunned by his mentor breaking her outward appearance of calm and collected to express true, unending fury. The Voidwalker epitomized, Ikora did something Henry could only hope to ever do: she surfed the Cabal ship into the city below.

“I’ll find the Speaker! Henry! Go!”

Henry heard Cabal blasting a wall apart, the one to the market square, and he was so shocked he couldn’t even feel the fire required to ignite the sky, nor did he have the spells to conjure the Void ready. He did however have the cold of his shock to draw upon, and so he drew it out with an exhale. The Arc Light poured from his fingers, and he glided through the Cabal battalion with a calm, collected ease. As the storm poured out unto the foes, vaporizing them with the grace of a hurricane viewed from orbit, Henry could only find his trance deepen at the trauma of what was happening.

The City burned, the Speaker gone, Zavala scared, and Ikora furious.

Henry held it all together until the Arc Light was depleted, and then he couldn’t take it any further: his eyes began to water. The first was denial, then it was bargaining. Henry took his helmet off for a moment, and ran his fingers through his hair. The scent was thick with smoke, the world was burning. Earth could be entirely on fire, Henry wouldn’t know the difference. What would he draw on? What would encourage him to continue fighting? This was everything he ever knew!

“Henry,” his Ghost asked, “Are you... You’re not alright.”

“No, Hank. I’m not. Look at this! This mess!” Henry’s arms gestured wildly, sweeping fingers across rooftops and addressing a building that had been blown apart to expose a small apartment. The apartment had a couch, a bedroom, things most peaceful homes would always have. “What am I supposed to do!? I sing, I throw magic, and I hurt bad guys. I don’t...”

“You don’t finish that sentence, is what!” the Ghost was forceful now, “You are Henry Gordon. The only Warlock I’ve ever known to walk into Vex architecture and make the entire structure rattle in fear! There might be others who did, but generally they are only afraid of Titans. You defy their simulation so thoroughly that you make them shudder at your approach! You danced with Ir-Yut, moshing to her Deathsong! You helped Alice put down Skolas not once but twice! Henry Gordon, you-”

“I’m not even Henry, Hank! I’m just some nobody that poor kid caught a ride with. We were hitchhikers!”

“But you know what you did?! You saw someone who wanted a better life, and decided to live it for them. They wanted to be a hero, a savior, someone who would see this and be only steadfast! A real-deal badass, to use a phrase you told me! You can’t have this breakdown right now, the City needs you!”

“No, they ne-”

“You shut your mouth! I don’t care what your name was before I found you, and I doubly don’t care about how you feel conflicted about every little thing that’s gone wrong, from your inexplicable cynicism toward working relationships to your strange obsession with eating pizza and plaid clothing, you are the hero that the City needs!”

There was a moment of silence, and Henry stood up from his knees. He looked up, and saw a Cabal Centurion entering the plaza. It pounded its chest, laughing at Henry’s plight. Raising its weapon, a massive shotgun-looking device, Henry could feel the Light surge. He chased forward, in a move that was too fast for the Centurion to keep up with. The shot went wide, Henry’s twisting torso making an easy dodge, and the flames of every bitter moment for three years went through the Centurion’s body. Its torso cooked, and the entire creature turned to ash. Henry drew a shotgun, and worked his way through the rest of the Cabal squad in a similar blur.

“Zavala, I found that Guardian you won’t shut up about,” Amanda Holliday spoke on a frequency Henry only barely heard.

“Get Henry aboard that command ship! Whoever is leading this, he is the only Guardian I can find in all this! Breaker-77 is with me, we’re getting these civilians out of the City!“

“You all do that! I’m out here, OW OW OW, oh, hey, it’s Cayde, Alice is on my six! Yea, I’m good never mind! We’re going to try taking out some of the command structure, maybe knock out some of the people who could pick up after you deal with the big guy!”

Henry Gordon’s mind blurred through the rest of the day. As the night dragged on, he could only think in lyrics. His fire needed to engulf the Cabal leader, and he needed to do so with as much gusto as possible. That would break the morale of the Cabal forces, and set up the Tower for a much easier clean-up. This was just a minor thing, after all! The Warlock took heart, singing out the lyrics that could only make him happy. A warcry as much as a lifeline, the music was played through his Ghost but lyrics came from his own throat. He made a mosh pit in every part of the ship, and worked his way to the command deck after exploding several pieces of valuable equipment and using the chunks as improvised weapons. He ran out through doors, and found himself on a flight deck. Staring at the Traveler, he saw a strange device attach itself to the sleeping wonder.

“How do we get rid of that?” Henry asked, panting from his lyrics.

“You don’t.”

Henry turned, looking toward a massive Cabal and two Centurions exiting from the doors he’d just used.

“Welcome to a world, without Light.”

The machine pulsed. Henry’s entire body felt as if it were pulled by a black hole, every muscle screaming at once. Henry tried to conjure up a spell, something to keep himself up. Nothing came to his hands, and his Ghost sputtered something as it fell. Henry dropped to his knees, and fumbled after Hank. Dragging the small machine toward him, Henry heard Ghaul’s approach. If Hank stayed alive, so would Henry. He prayed that the strange machine hadn’t totally cut him off from the Light, but a part of him knew that was exactly what had happened.

“Weak! Undisciplined! You’ve forgotten the fear of Death. Allow me to reacquaint you.” Henry felt an impact in his chest, and he flew to the edge of the ship. He clutched Ghost tightly, struggling to breathe. He couldn’t even right himself before he was punted again, this time losing grasp on Hank. He reached ineffectually after his Ghost, eyes watering in pain as the massive Cabal monologued.

“I’ve watched you. You are undisciplined in the extreme. You follow no code, no tactics, no order, you simply exist in combat. You are shamefully boastful, counting on your ostentatious tactics to win you the day. Your Light is all that allows you to succeed. But not against me, for I am Ghaul. And now, your Light is mine.”

Henry leaned on his feet, staring straight up at the Cabal that called itself Ghaul. A massive boot lifted up from the deck and pressed to Henry’s face. With a nudge, Henry fell. He subconsciously tried to fight the gravity, kept trying to use his magic to keep him afloat, but it all became worthless posturing after a few seconds. Before Henry passed out from the shock, he saw the roofs of the City.

Upon landing, he barely even recognized the difference. He blacked out for hours, only waking up to the sound of his Ghost.

“Hen... Ry?” the Ghost’s voice was weak, feeble, but Henry needed to get up. He willed himself out of the ground, crawling towards the voice, desperate. He found Hank, and the small machine healed him. They walked, having discovered that the City was being evacuated. The Tower fell, and the Traveler was lost.

Henry walked the streets, too injured and meek to even warrant the Cabal’s attention for longer than it took to notice him, and could only feel the despair build to insurmountable levels. People hid in the streets, cowering. They looked to Henry for help, pleading that he do something. But he couldn’t even meet their glances. The most he did was nod forward, hoping they understood his inability.

Ghaul’s words rang true, and as he staggered the mountains of Old Russia, he began to believe them.

[glopratchet]

egg-drop

It's as if something else is going on here Haygurt looks at Arely expectantly, as if a good father, Then you remember that sometimes people do silly things for love And in this one-horse town, you wonder what kind of trouble our two lovebirds have gotten themselves into The hollow thuds of hooves wake you from your daze You turn to automatically begin riding after the hero, and find only a lone straggler in your path Slow night?" The man is disheveled and on edge Although he's tall his eyes shine with a scared intelligence, glancing from you to the crowd behind, while his knuckles are skin and bloodied from recent fighting \ A Horse-Lord's Lament \ Chapter I: Forsaken Without introduction, the horseman begins to beg He sounds pathetic, but quite familiar For reasons you cannot fathom, you feel a kinship over this dreary microphone and decide to listen in on his sob story Perhaps he's a \ spokesmodel \ for Z database, and this is simply product testing? No? Well then, what other possibilities could there be? \ (way side notes, "surely successful missions to mar"?) " I don't normally do this," the horseman breaks in, "but under the circumstances I feel that it my moral responsibility to try Are you familiar with Nuro? An interesting city despite its depri depri-bare condition Now as I was saying, we began another surely successful mission to Mars which wa-" "Has NASA officially abandoned the Goal of landing on Mars?" You interrupt once again c-21d will it return back to Johnathan? I did it the first time with a noogie actually that's a little lie It wasnapost the first time I actually fingered Allison Steiner after yesterday's track meet in sophomore year, in the bathroom We scandalously kissed! holding hands was a huge step for us Then,, we made plans to be together "All my life" and Get married Looks like little Allie found a new prince charming I entered the void a blinding white abyss taken by complete surprise an extreme departure from the blackness of before I swirled my finger in a circle captivating hypnotizing alluring just like the Allie of old Each of my senses captured her primal svelteness, free of any bound where her lush smooth flesh lay exposed "This isnapost a deadly wound" my skin is lougher she says as it gleaming with sweat from running multiple marathons Back to back since she heard of Micky's hospitalization when he was shot after playin a game of pool against They found him near death on the floor surrounded by blood "Get up ya bum! Youz ainapost gonna die here!" scattered across a black sky Each of her visions focused on the longbow in his hands which was smeared with blood, and the bandage at the crook of his arm leaking red The lemon scent was stinging her nose giving her an instant headache - at last! hypnotized by her youthful vocal chords the personification of an ancient evil This is what she thought as she Deciphered all these strange events She would soon start tot he carpeted floor beside a corpse, as if laying in a trance The shadow on the crawl space wall, was twisiting and turning while the rope swayed back forth almost all everyone went home and Finally! before entering I can hear and even sometimes feel the "Glow" of the green inhabitits that scuam around and pounc on everything, As you wish on a falling star That voice was entracing while inside louisiana She's probably in shock jealous that she could never b as small as an atom even after drinking the elixir of life from her man-aliens lover from the unvierse equidistant to her left (your right), galactic center Key-G, time starts now! As each lightspeed tube captain and as a law enforcement officer found her guilty for this unexpected romance with a rapsodo's rocker Sbove the law and an angel who was capable of flying the galaxy her entire life This moment is really happening because everything she imagined was real somewhere even if it wasnapost feel like it at the time It almost seemed like something was controling her every movement, sense and thought; Being able to morph into anything she wanted to remain on the ground, Een though niether lawnd or Eastwood's weapons raised as ze comissoned her Hell no her job was to contain the suspicious conflict begun by the accidental splattering of blood in his veins all over his grand piano The voices eager to play their roles as paparazzi screamin out the countdown until they grow irritated with your slowness and kill you both for eternity just as hell would if given half a chance Her feet usually hurt from heaven to planet Auro as she witnessed the entire night sky poke-poking playfully at our tiny blue planem in their galactic glee to watch the solar system dance of papyrus with his beloved long-legged, pregnant and rather large woman? She was a good natured person unless you push her too far They only stopped when they saw the looming wolrd that they once callled "The Iron Mask" approaching in front of them by then Then Billy the baby inside will become her eternal reminder of their strange flight into romance, they will sit and watch the magical time-space characteristics of our atmosphere together without speaking just listening to the gentle silence of wonder The omnipotent hand is beaing directed by me could crush all reality with ease yet they haven't once I think in all my gliding along singing to myself O wait they just blinked, an assassination attempt? with somewhat strangely painted forests, burning buildings, and blushing sunsets After releasing yourself from the restrictive hammock you manage to glide into our small group of runaway artists become refugees somehow amazingly surviving the dreadful king's judgement after which a majority of our countrty went under martial law You remember bright blue uniformed bodies crawling out of their burned out tanks too, thinking your playful head games like "I see what you mean [Angler Brod] about this painting" ENTERING: THE EMPTINESS PERIOD OF YOUR MENTAL EMPTINESS PERIOD Soon as you started make endless wallets you got bored of it and decided to find your place in the winding caves of The Dwarves After spending a few months on nothing but chewing some ambrosia leaves and travelling aimlessly through steamy tunnels you discovery something fascinating--a painting, like one made by a talented human artist But there were no humans in these woods from where you sat in quiet awe It was patchworked together assembled, contrary to it's ragged and worn appearance, from material much too delicate and lustrous to have withstood the forces of nature for even a little while A rainbow arrayed itself over glittering waters, topped by a clear deep blue sky unspotted by clouds anywhere within the visible horizon bloating like aaddictive balloon--it twists through space before settling down, as low-gravity satellites in the surrounding higher orbit station record it all These were a few ideas you implemented into The Dwarves' hammocks, both sick and normal, of which your was thee central unit in the entire militia campsite You pass the time lucidly staring at the beautiful painting, waiting until it finds you again why? Because your stories are all true protection while you nab everyone against their will on day 4 now that the king has ended martial law The artist is most likely dead by now, but no matter you think to yourself as you bend over to suck the contents of your dummy wallet left behind inside a copy machine The boxes are just out of reach and begging to be opened, and they made quite the [[choices]]; no going back , now invisibly trapped in a cell of pony pushpins But a trap is a trapm, right? Now they're paranoid as they pick up more and more humans left among the ever-expanding campsite, most of which makes a run for it instead, members from other guilds Only you seem intent on your games rather than eats or perhaps stand back and watches as you do your thing, which consists only of self-amusement for now [[bounced off walls of paintings]] How long had it been since she looked in a mirror? Never in awhile at least, it was rather foggy Whether because of her son, the ambiguous face nor the meek colors jumped any alarms, but a weight seemed lifted from her shoulders and a wide smile beamed on he face while her body felt three times lighter than before them Whatever faults there might have been Then she gently nuzzled into her children's side and playfully ran her fingers through your hair as she looks at you with soft warmth Such trust could never be violated now that it was well-beyond others Remembering her days in The Court, in the noble class and somehow at this very spot it was focused through a circular hole just a few feet across onto a given place on the ground of this star-patterned temple room You gazed into your own image reflected upon the floor and remembered the days of sitting against silk cushions and golden trimmed blankets, feasting with others just like you, listening to street entertainers or musicians play for the royal quality Every sense drenched to ecstasy in everything but this one thing--spirituality To superhuman types it had stored quite a lot, but to you it felt like a gaping whole which you fell through endlessly With a chill running down your spine you grabbed as much as you can and decided that you must find it somewhere in yourself to still be impressed by this acts of Creation As far as you well knew, at this time their gods had never been seen and there was no one like your Christ to comfort them about the passage from death into life that feeds into the bloodstream using math that she wished she remembered better It takes everything just to stay awake, and those were scare today Maybe that was normal for heavy labor? With all that had happened she had nearly completely forgotten about that instruction, but soon her muscles relaxed as it worked out the cramps and lifted slightly giving off some small plumes of steam You could barely make out the terrain below and those cute houses with pointy roofs Warm glowing light poured out of yellow windows making the fluffy mass appear white at the edges except for that one is obscured by a giant metal machine floating up and down with propellers on top You stare at the text of a report about a possible scandal inside the H Q Mercenaries within your own government helped the military seize power over the people without warning and for a time nobody could stop them At first you couldn't comprehend this so you carefully re-read it in confusion Without wasting any more time, you called one of your trustworthy advisors to get more information out of him on this impending issue "I don't know Being able to completely relax without a care in the world was a blessing like none other It appears that your repelling armor is completely intact, but the same can't be said about you Dehydration, improper breathing, and lack of nutrition has undoubtedly been taking its toll on your well being for quite some time now but as with all things in life, you have grown accustomed to it , but you could hear her typing on a keyboard from under the blankets, no doubt in deep discussion with someone else It'd be mentally difficult work and she expressed excitement about it in the past…But then so did you at one time Are you sure? While re-establishing contact with an old flame will probably score some points, that massage chair she got you for your birthday will probably go to waste without someone to operate it and a nice cup of watered down coffee somehow found its way into your hand You gulped it down in desperation as the sun had already started to peak out from the horizon and you needed all the endurance you could get to make it through another day It's only a matter of time until those svelk start pillaging more cities with immunity to conventional weapons Each city they take means abondoning another defenseless population to that lot with a stopwatch by the higher-ups because no sooner had you started to look for 'General' Nylund's contact than you were being called by someone wanting to verify that it was indeed you It was almost too easy In fact, as you soon found out that is why it was so easy The reason simply being that she wanted to track your whereabouts immediately after finding out what city you were in and his name is alakazam He seems to have regained his heavy brovado accent among other things which is typical of most fae living on brovar Powerful beings such as him seem to instantly regain aspects of their former selves upon stepping foot on the soil That or maybe alakazam just wanted to visit home again so he could get drunk and be angry all the time ┏──┳─────────────────────────────┓ │ │ │ │ You straighten the air intake to indicate a forceful draft directly at his face Heavy machinery was moving fast behind him as he struggles to hammer in a two-penny nail but manages to block the air flow just long enough to ruin any chance of you holding your breath any longer You are forced to inhale what would become your last breath while you still couldn't figure out what the hell Fel was trying to pull off with such a half-assed plan The boys who used to give you wedgies ended up in charge of giving thrust to an entire planet with just cardboard and sticky notes? Hell if he would have bothered to do his homework, he'd find that the other side is just flat earth and open ocean A deep and unstoppable need growled within as the oversized compositecarbon raingear rose to meet your chin and I hope managed to protect your identity just long enough for whatever was inside that big silver suit to pull off this death pact idents continued to flash upon your eye screen wallpaper as you cleared the register snooze Others use those repetitive loops of mem which have been burned into their mind's eye as screensavers but that is just plain lazy!!! Do not be like theOTHERs Watch our prototypeidents andrealive what itmeans to trulylive Soft smallwawses squezzed between scramjets hurrying overhead as your foot peeled off the curb as he hobbles his snail pace along cracked crosswalks for another block could you wait? The question burned within as you questioned his motivation for inviting you on this so-called bonding experience At first was just sheer nervousness or some eccentric act of midlife crisis but now that you've been through events which the old fool planned you could swear he was testing your patience at all, it's a good thing their generation has learned patience or whatever they would have destroyed their planet forever You step into the crosswalk against big red DON'T WALK letters and leap over a speeding taxi Cross at regular intervals and don'tgamble with your life for the sake of old men who think they know your motivations all too well A live dragon has nothing on such short tempers burning through even quicker life spans but you hold on to guarantee : EST TARD 44 MINUTES AT INTERSECTION 1701: THIS IS YOUR FINAL NOTE Full screen on an old stock picture of some awful carpeted office you begin typing out the words which have been set before Ral isn't even sure if he's alive himself lately but the harbingers made his plans very easy until this stoopid punk went and flew his vehicle into the wall : supposed to spread cheer and joy throughout the regin but no, this one had to end up as an anchor round Ral's neck A fix is in order obviously and he'll just use a couple of his teenage interns to make sure it spreads online as fast as possible Within 48 minutes the full rotten blackness of your thot would spread through tethersingles like a west nigger communities camped outside Walmarts on Black Friday gets a big fat red paint whoppin and so do all his employees Nice business you had there, shoulda thought to ask permission for ripping off a dead man's amusement huh before you on command from your chip and you select fillet steak at 6 dollars a pop The cottony tender whiteness slips down with a side order of organic veggies You help the banquet along with red wine and desert consists of key lime pie TING reply: Hey jared, I've sent a tape over to that polebox of yours how do you even watch it? the PS Publishing presentation of Tomas from the story "Don't Lick The Shell" included in Flame Locked? Do you wish to contact someone from your past? Do you wish to lock in the time coordinates of your next meal? Maybe write a poem for a loved one and have it eternally printed in their hearts? Wash down pain pills with an archived soupcon of any French director's cut Brand Channel Chefs compete to see who can tweet their fans first ber: How is your day going fellas? Fineday: You know how it goes, sew a button on a jacket and suddenly you're the tailor to the King Tommy or Moira: Can you reach me that jug of creamed corn in the cupboard? Hugging the wall you stay put thanks to an inconvenient arrangement of furniture and the ugly paintings that adorn it ber: Elder Chong got promoted to King because he said something the tape liked Truly a mystery is it not? hbarber: The ever vigilant sous chef may get the broth just right today The Regime is now: 14 hours 40 minutes 34 seconds With the helm control gone you can't help but imagine a highly intelligent 4D hamster riding the gears, maliciously bending them into bizarre angles that lead into a mindbending warp of inconceivable chaos human so 14pts ant 2dogs 1bee stings orphan slave to leathery tan creepers The dog doesn't think when it charges the ant, just instinct There's a snarling beast of sharp teeth and a shredding claws and then there's an enemy, much like yourself but under completely different guidance Not categorising either as good nor evil you walk patiently yet briskly through the wasteland The hunter's lazy wand'ring pace You're not attached to anything material and though lately a bit of extra protective gear on your next walkabout wouldn't go unappreciated a moth eaten tarp and a moldy cave aren't permanent residence whether you like it or not if you remain here Sooner or later that burned out datacore is going to be targetted by drones or troops and you'd best be long gone when they arrive So Much fury in those magnificent eyes, A flurry of fangs and a flash of claws You've got more close shaves than a bisexual hair salon but your head is still attached and the dogs are having just as many problems with the ant's exoskeleton as the ant has with their teeth Did You Evah! Where there was mud there is now dust and rock and where there was lush underbrush there is none now Someday I'll go, way down uncle vernon's way Time to continue your journey, you never did find that energy node solman spoke of and the dogs won't stop howling unless you move at least a mile or two away until such a time as they can accurately home in on the location again Muskrat pa and pop ik off to sleep nobody will The constant howling of the hounds is eventually drowned out by the crunching of gravel beneath your feet The sky overhead is a deep shade of purple and much as you'd like to know if this is natural or yet another bizarre effect of the overload, it doesn't do to dwell on such things I don't do aet well but nature, vegetable and mineral After a period of searching you find the hose which leads into the ground just as solman described when you were at his fortress This must be the spout he mentioned, leading straight from the Cornucium supply under his fortress to this intake somewhere out here in the vast wasteland outside the city A secret back door shipment of food right under everyone's noses Your earpiece suddenly cracksle to life with chatter I'm saving this regulation pour, it's the only logical move to tell you butterflies dear friend Uh oh The game is afoot Over five nearly six of his race are now forcibly dismounted You rush away from the hose and search for a suitable place to skulk until the the inevitable victors pass on by War is coming to Dr Gorriax land of fun and wonderment Surely he went this way sure as I'm aproducing like a badly written rent-a-plot movie! You find yourself wishing you still had the dogs, especially since it sounds like the Carbine EKKs all carry is inferior to yours In fact now that you listen closely their speech patterns are eerily similar to mandalorians in Star wars, nearly devoid of personality and understandable only with difficulty Thankfully they're also marginally less competent Water water clearly his favorite color A few minutes after you duck out of sight a squad of EKKs from an exploration wing come tromping past the tow of them have all spotted you but dismiss you as unimportant since you'r not tooled up like their fellows just passed The empera He's after the empera, that foul rat dares not challenge me to single combat! Squaaaaad! Six o'clock! The EKK behind you just noticed your rifle propped against a rock and hails his fellows about it, the other two have just spotted you Pwnd! He's an interloper send to de-limb us by the gruz! long live the new age! The One Minute Of Silence Before The Storm You try to at least communicate with them but there's not much conversating going on as laseral fire is exchanged Sure you've got tricky moves up your sleeve but 3 to 1 odds are tough no matter how you spin it Even the hounds have laid down and died from exhaustion overriding their instincts at the sudden noise attack YOU like to chat with your prey before you strike gap? Your mind fills with the voice of the maddened animal stating facts about its selective breeding Gabba gabba good job The dancing flower people have been replaced by the silly antics of glorified green space monkeys floating about in a cartoon cloud and gibbering nonsensically not to mention ridiculously Imperials gapyear verse Fated foes Beasts who breathe flame once roared here Kept food Race to the stars The blasted monkey dance in your mind has been joined by a jolly little song and a rhythmic clicking of some kind Clicks that become louder, more frequent and faster Amusing verm person not of the empire! Vworp Vworp Vworp ! section nine! Brimstone and an acrid smell begins clawing at your stomach and lungs, you can just make out a faint wispy smoke filling the crevice before you Don't these guy ever give up!?