#the longing look he gives her up until the plane flies over their heads drawing everyone's attention?

[fedoraxcrowned]

I also feel that the way Red apologizes for pointing a gun at Liz is an important detail worth mentioning because it's obvious that he's not threatening her with it ( and it's obvious to Liz most of all, which is why she's not scared or angry at him for it... to think of it, she almost looks as if this type of behavior – the gun pulling to make her less suspicious in the officials' eyes AND the apology – from him is kind of expected by her at this point ), and yet he still feels the need to apologize.

[one-boring-person]

I would love you forever if you wrote something for Iceman where the reader is Viper's daughter and also in the Navy

Of course, I hope you like this! 💛❤ (sorry if it's a bit rushed!) I actually really enjoyed writing this, so thank you for requesting it!!

We Are More Than Dead.

Tom "Iceman" Kazansky x reader

Warnings: implied sexual themes, inflight violence (mild)

Note: The reader's call sign is Cobra (seeing as her dad is Viper😅)

Masterlist

"Hey Cobra? Please warn me next time you wanna pull a stunt like that!" My RIO, Wasp, instructs me in resignation, her voice laced with exasperation as she tries to recover from the tight spiralling loop I just took the jet around, the pressure having been a little too strong for the average human body to deal with.

"Sorry," I apologise, laughing to myself as I check the surroundings again, before radioing our wingmen, "Are there any more bogeys around?"

It takes a few seconds, but the other pilots and their RIOs are quick to respond, their voices slightly distorted thanks to the distance between us, though they are coherent enough to understand.

"Nothing over here." Goose, Maverick's RIO, replies, cheerful voice decisive but strained, as if he is looking around.

"Likewise, sweet cheeks." Iceman teases, the pilot chuckling at my protest. Behind me, Wasp makes a noise of disgust, the RIO being the only one who knows of Iceman and my relationship, the others only hinting at it, her fist coming round to tap against my helmet, her way of telling me to keep it PG.

"Roger." I finally retort, guiding the jet into a gentle turn, the left wing tipping so it's in line with the ocean below me, giving us a clear view of the horizon.

"Hang on, I think I see something!" Wasp suddenly speaks up, hands grabbing at the clear canopy, helmet knocking against it as she cranes her head back, "Yeah, there's a bogey on our six! They're following us around."

"Great." I mutter, checking the radar and swiftly finding the correlating dot pursuing us, a plan forming in my head.

Clenching my jaw, I pull out of the turn and level off, keeping the jet as straight as possible as I cruise just above cloud level, my pulse picking up as the familiar beeping sound of the missile lock radar begins, the enemy pilot responding to my ploy. I slow the plane, keeping the bogey interested as Wasp starts to question me, only to keep quiet when I tell her I know what I'm doing, her trust in me a great relief but well earned. As the aircraft behind us nears, the high pitched beeping increases in volume and frequency, becoming one long droning sound that assaults our ears, before quickly cutting off as I sharply roll the jet into a tight barrel roll, out of range of missile lock. The other jet flies right by, the pilot turning their head in our direction in surprise, not quite realising what I'm up to.

Rolling out again, I smirk to myself as I give chase, switching on missile lock and swiftly finding my target, allowing it to focus before pressing the trigger. Seconds later, the jet ahead goes up in smoke, debris erupting into the sky with a flash of orange flames, illuminating our cockpit as I fly past, avoiding any large pieces with practiced ease.

"Last one down." I report to the others, whoops of relief and triumph following a moment or so later.

"Nice one, Cobra!" Slider congratulates, cheering through the mics much louder than the others.

A minute or so passes before the tower radios back, giving us permission to land, to which we all respond with relief, seeing as we've all been out for hours already. One at a time, we all return to the aircraft carrier, our two wingmen landing before me, giving me time to loop round the ship itself, until it's our turn. Bracing myself for the impact, I manage to land the jet pretty smoothly, only drawing a small grunt from Wasp as opposed to the usual yelp l, her helmet only tapping lightly against the back of my seat. Once we've come to a halt, I taxi the jet into a safe stationary position, carefully unclasping the canopy so that we can climb out. Unclipping myself from my seat, I heave myself out and onto the open deck, stretching as ground staff rush to check over the aircraft, ignoring me and Wasp as we start walking over to where the boys are waiting.

"Well done for catching that last bogey, Cobra. We never even saw it." Maverick congratulates me, smiling at me gratefully.

"Thank you, but I wouldn't have seen it without Wasp. It very nearly killed us." I brush off, blushing at the attention.

"It wasn't just the bogey that nearly killed us. You fly with a suicide wish, (Y/n)!" My RIO huffs, rolling her shoulders.

At this, Iceman let's out a sharp laugh, the sound making butterflies spring to life within me.

"Damn, the commander's daughter flies dangerously, who'd have thought?" The blonde pilot smirks at me, gesturing with his helmet, referring to my father, Viper.

"Shut up." I mutter, grinning bashfully at him, letting him loop a strictly friendly arm around my shoulders, pulling me subtly against his muscular body.

As a group, we walk towards the changing rooms, Wasp and I splitting off into the female ones, where we quickly get showered. As always, Wasp finishes before me, sitting on the bench in the centre as she watches me change (in a non creepy way), our attention drawn to the door as it suddenly opens, a tall figure stepping in. A smirk crosses her face as she catches sight of him, swiftly getting up and leaving the room with a suggestive wave.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" I whisper-yell at Iceman, watching as he comes closer, holding my shirt up to my chest to hide myself from view.

"What? I can't come and admire my girlfriend?" The pilot asks in mock offense, continuing to approach me, grin widening as I remain in place, eyeing him.

"Not when we can be caught! You know what the rules are, and you know what my dad is like!" I protest, my voice faltering a little as he reaches out his hands to skim up my sides, one coming up to lower my shirt, revealing my clothed chest to him.

"Relax, no one will catch us." He hums, pulling me towards him, pressing his body against mine using his toned arms, grinning as my breath hitches, my own palms coming up to rest against his chest.

"If anyone does, we're more than dead-" I go to say, only to he cut off by the sensation of Tom's lips against mine, one of his hands coming up to cup my jaw and hold me against him, though there is no need, as I hesitantly reciprocate the gesture, carding my fingers through his hair. Deepening the kiss, Tom briefly pulls away as he sits on the bench behind him, encouraging me to sit on his lap, which I do, his lips instantly returning to my skin, sucking and biting their way up the column of my neck, small gasps and moans escaping me as he reaches my sensitive points. He grins against my skin, marking my sweet spot with a deep purple hickey, despite my protest, kissing back up to my jaw, where he licks a line straight back to my lips, capturing them again. His hands move to my hips, pulling me closer to him as they smooth down over my ass, a squeak leaving me as he abruptly squeezes, the sensation unexpected, drawing a throaty chuckle from him which resonates in my ears, goosebumps rising along my skin.

A loud knock on the door interrupts us, snapping me back to reality with a horrified jolt, though it is accompanied by disappointment as Tom rests his head against my chest, clearly as frustrated as I am, but not nearly as panicked. Hastily, I scramble upright and pull on my shirt, fixing my hair and making myself look neat and presentable, thinking it to be Wasp at the door. In my hurry, I forget to cover up my neck, leaving the dark spots clearly visible to anyone who looks close enough, Iceman and I quickly going to the door. Opening it, I step out into the corridor, only to stop dead when I see who it is, Iceman bumping into me before he realise this, too.

Nervously, I swallow down the lump in my throat, cowering under his stern gaze.

"Hey, dad."

[kinglazrus]

Not Your Danny – Ch 5. Fresh Air

Previous | First | Next | FFN | AO3

Word count: 3075

Dani hesitates at the top of the stairs. The lab door, when closed, looks comically when compared to the rest of the house. Set halfway down the hall that bisects the house, from either end, the doorway appears normal. When you get closer, however, and the door itself comes into view, a smattering of warning signs greets your eyes. The yellow and black stripes, the deep red biohazard symbol, one bright green sign that just reads GHOSTS AHEAD!, are the only pops of colour against the off-white walls.

The signs draw the eye to a comical degree. They remind Dani of cheap Halloween decorations, slapped on the nearest empty surface in the hopes that more signs equal more scares.

It's not as funny when the door is open. Metal plating gleams along the walls, some of the seams between them crusted with dried ectoplasm. More stains litter the stairs, left by careless, unclean feet. Far below, the pristine white tiles of the lab floor are lit by a soft green glow.

She hasn't even entered the lab, but just a glimpse of the room below transports her back to Vlad's place in Wisconsin and that cold room where she spent hours alone. It was the worst before she learned how to go intangible, when she was stuck with nowhere to go. Vlad didn't have the time to go down to the lab every day, but when he could, he worked feverishly on making newer, better clones than her.

"Siblings for you," Vlad called them, but Dani knows the truth now. Replacements, since she hadn't been good enough for him.

So many times, Vlad made a clone that was almost stable, almost life-like, but they would die overnight. Dani could never take her eyes away from it, no matter how much it horrified her. Seeing other clones melt away to nothing, their skin sloughing off, muscle dripping from their bones until those, too, liquified into nothing.

If Vlad had known Danny was transgender, maybe he wouldn't have seen Dani as such a failure. He might have loved her properly—or at all.

She doesn't want to go down the stairs, not when such horrible memories are already clamouring for attention. But Maddie is down there, and it might be hours before she comes upstairs. Bracing herself against the wall, Dani leans forward on her toes and calls down. "Maddie?"

Although she can hear shuffling coming from below, she gets no answer.

"Maddie?" she says again, a little louder.

Still no answer.

Swallowing her nerves, Dani goes down the steps. She keeps her arms in, even as her legs shake and threaten to give out on her, she doesn't want to touch the walls. Her gaze doesn't stray from her feet, either, fixed firmly on where she is stepping. When she reaches the last stair, she squeezes her eyes shut.

It's fine. This isn't Vlad's lab. There might be some similarities, they aren't the same. Like her and Danny.

I am at Fenton Works. I am at home. I am at Fenton Works. She repeats the mantra over and over. Her heart doesn't stop pounding, but eventually, she has to look up or turn back around, and she doesn't want to give up now. Steeling herself, she looks up and opens her eyes.

It's not Vlad's lab.

Of course, it isn't. Dani knew that the whole time. Actually seeing it, however, fills her with relief. Instead of bubbling vats full of half-formed bodies, they have long counters full of inventions. Although the floors have a few scuffs and some noticeable burn marks, there are no dubious stains of questionable origin.

The only true similarity Dani can find is the specimen cabinet. Its glass doors reveal the rows upon rows of ectoplasmic samples hidden inside. The vials sit on labelled racks, sorted through some mysterious method Dan is not privy to.

One rack, near the front of the cabinet, is labelled PHANTOM, DANI. Out of the four vials, two are empty, the third is missing, and the fourth—her blood sample— is half-full. Looking around at all the weapons down here, Dani hopes her samples went to good use. The last thing she wants is one of these guns firing at her without warning.

Dani finds the missing vial with Maddie on the other side of the lab. Maddie sits at one of two desks, hers far neater than the other. The vial of ectoplasm, still capped, rests by Maddie's elbow. In front of her, a gun sprawls out in pieces. Maddie's head is lowered over the gun as she works on it.

"Maddie?" Dani asks.

Maddie takes a deep breath before looking up. She can't hide the slight widening of her eyes when she sees Dani's human face, but she doesn't flee, which is a vast improvement from last time. "Yes, dear?"

"Is it okay if I go out somewhere?"

"Of course. Where do you want to go?"

"Nowhere in particular. I haven't left the house since I got here."

"Really? That can't be right."

"It is." To be completely honest, Dani hadn't been sure if she was allowed to leave. The Fentons never laid out any ground rules for staying with them. Nor did they let her in on what a usual household day is like. After a week and a half, Dani has figured out more or less how things go, but only now does she realize that the Fentons never did anything to accommodate her.

Not that she knows what accommodations she needs, but it's odd, isn't it? Someone new moves in and they keep doing what they have always done.

"I didn't even notice," Maddie admits. "I'm so used to D—the kids doing whatever they want as long as they aren't out late. You don't need to ask us if you want to go somewhere." She leans back over the dismantled gun, grabbing a core piece with a dozen little wires sticking out of it. "Don't forget to text. And be home by curfew, young man."

—

Depends on when that is.

Maddie's mind fills in the automatic response, a perfect copy of Danny's usual snark. Several seconds pass before she realizes no one said it out loud. She glances up from her work and finds herself alone in the lab. Dani left without saying anything. The discovery cuts her deeper than it has any right to.

Maddie's parting remark runs through her head again. She gasps, finally registering what she said, and drops the barrel component in her hand.

She goes over her parting remark in her head and gasps. She didn't mean to say that. The words rose instinctively to her lips, spoken without any consideration of who she had been talking to. It was such a small thing, too; a meaningless ritual built between Danny and Maddie over the years.

"Be home by curfew," she would say.

"Depends on when that is," he would answer.

When was the last time she and Danny had this exchange? It only happened when he told her he was going out, which wasn't very often in recent years, but the instinct was still there. Maddie presses a hand against her eyes.

Danny's absence resonated throughout Fenton Works, but little moments like this cut deeper than they should. All their little rituals. Backwash soda. Small things Maddie didn't realize she would miss until they were gone. And at the centre of it all was Dani, subject to Maddie's moments of weakness, filling in that piece of her Danny took when he died, but not quite fitting.

Maybe this was a mistake.

"I'm sorry, Dani," she tells the empty lab.

—

It feels good to fly again. Sitting in the house with nothing to do, Dani was starting to get stir crazy. Finally getting some fresh air in her lungs and some wind in her hair does wonders to alleviate her mood. Not even Maddie's slip up in the lab can bring Dani down now, no matter how much thinking about it makes her skin prickle.

She soars far over the city, letting her instincts take over as the people below get smaller and smaller.

Amity Park airspace is perfect for flying. It sees so little traffic from planes, drones, or anything else like that. People in the area know to steer clear of the skies in case a ghost is about. Danny once told her that the airport actually diverts planes around the city if they're flying too low.

Not even birds like to be up here.

Dani relishes the feeling of wind buffeting her body. She lets her control slip, plummeting through the air. Spreading her arms, she guides her fall without the use of her powers, grinning wide against the roaring wind. She and Danny might not have liked all the same things, but they could certainly agree on this: there is nothing more amazing than flying.

A good hour passes with Dani in the air. She dips down toward the city a few times, swooping through the streets. The tall downtown buildings and fast-moving cars make a great obstacle course, especially when she flies at top speed.

"Is that Phantom?" someone shouts.

Dani has to stop and backtrack, flying by the voice so fast she almost doesn't hear it. Lounging in the air, she peers down at the sidewalk. "Someone called?"

A kid holding his mother's hand scowls. "You're not Phantom."

Dani sticks her tongue out at the brat. "Dani-with-an-I Phantom, thank you very much."

"I don't care. You're not Danny Phantom."

Dani's smile freezes in place. The brat, who can't be more than eight, makes a rude gesture over his shoulder as his mom pulls him away.

"Charming kid!" Dani shouts after them. The woman pulls her son along faster. Dani's expression goes flat. The brief exchange leaves a sour taste in her mouth and an ache in her chest. Flying right now doesn't seem fun anymore. She lowers herself to the street, ignoring the whispers around her, and transforms.

A few people gasp, but she ignores that, too. Who cares if they see her? The whole city already knows the truth about Danny. It wouldn't take a genius to reach the same conclusions about her.

Her hands go to the front of her shirt, seeking out her hoodie pocket. Belatedly, she remembers that she hasn't worn the hoodie in days. At night, she puts on the pyjamas Maddie bought for her, and in the morning she dons her new favourite shirt along with one of the several skirts Jazz gave her.

The first time Dani transformed from human to ghost wearing these clothes, she was worried they might disappear, or her hoodie and shorts would reappear. To her utter delight, no such thing happened. The skirt she wears now is a little long for her. She has it pulled up to her waist, with the star shirt tucked underneath, and rolled the waistband several times until the skirt rested around her knees. The soft fabric swishes about her legs, so much lighter than what she is used to.

Taking in her surroundings, Dani notes the big box stores around her. She recognizes the area, although she has only seen it from the air. The Amity Par Mall should be somewhere close by. Although Dani doesn't have any money for clothes, she could window shop and look at what's available. That should help lift her spirits.

—

The usual chatter blankets the mall food court. Beyond the tables, a kiosk for a local store advertises unique Danny Phantom merch. T-shirts, phone cases, and hats bearing Danny's iconic logo sit out on display. From her seat facing the kiosk, Sam can see water bottles shaped like the Fenton Thermos, plushies that vaguely resemble the local haunts, and even a few fake ecto-guns.

But the centrepiece of the display is a poster, unmistakably new. It features Danny twice over, as Phantom and Fenton, standing back-to-back with himself. The sight of it fills her with rage.

"How dare they." Sam seethes.

Seated across from her, Tucker nods. The soda cup in his hand crumples as his grip tightens. "Isn't that illegal, too? Using his likeness and all?"

"Absolutely. Especially since he's a minor."

"Was," Tucker corrects her, his voice soft.

"Right. Was." The memory of Danny's last moments flashes through her mind. Sam flinches, closing her eyes in an attempt to shut the image out. It doesn't work. The moment is all too vivid in her mind and she doesn't think it will ever fade.

Movies like to give heroes slow deaths, dramatic last words spoken with a final breath, the warmth of a loved one nearby. They make it so easy to forget that most of the time people don't get anything like that. Most of the time they drop, and they're gone.

Her hands feel sticky and warm, her throat hoarse.

The stunned silence of the street after it happened presses down on her.

"Looks like they have a website. I take care of that and you take care of the lawyers?" Tuck says.

Sam opens her eyes. She has to rub her hands together to remind her they're dry now, have been for weeks. Still, that doesn't stop her from picturing dried blood beneath her nails.

"Yeah," she says after a moment. "Sounds like a plan."

Whoever owns that kiosk is going to regret using their dead best friend for profit. Sam and Tucker will make them burn.

Sam's glare turns from the man working the kiosk to the shoppers browsing its wares. Her anger stretches to them, too, though not as much. She can't blame a child for wanting merch of their hero. Three of the five shoppers lingering around the stand are children, the oldest in her teens. Except instead of happily perusing the merch like her younger counterparts, this girl glares at the stand with nearly as much hatred as Sam.

Something about her is familiar, too. Sam can't see her profile in full, since the girl is angled away, but she can't shake the feeling that she's seen this girl before.

"Holy shit, is that Danielle?" Tucker asks.

Sam's eyes widen. He's right. Without the signature red and blue, Sam didn't recognize her. Dani's new outfit suits her, though. "Jazz said she saw Dani before the funeral. Where has she been?"

Sam stands up. Tucker rises with her, having the same idea. They dump their food trays at the garbage station and make a beeline for Dani.

"Danielle!" Tucker waves to the halfa, who turns at his shout.

Dani smiles when she sees them. "Hey!"

"Nice shirt." Tucker flicks Dani's collar. "About time someone put it to good use."

"Are you staying at Fenton Works?" Sam asks. Like Tucker, she recognizes the shirt and knows there's only one place Dani could have gotten it.

Dani kicks the floor with her heel, the sole of her shoes squeaking against the tiles. "Yeah. Jazz invited me to move in. It's... okay."

Over Dani's head, Sam and Tucker share a concerned look. They recognize that tone. It's one of the few things Dani and Danny have in common, at least that Sam has seen. Dani's voice dips at the end of her sentence, going low and flat. Jazz does it, too, sometimes. It's probably a Fenton thing more than it is a Danny and Dani thing.

"What's wrong?" Sam asks.

"Trouble adjusting, that's all. It's not a big deal." Dani shrugs.

Sam wants to question her further but lets the subject drop. It's fine if Dani wants to keep it to herself, although Sam prefers if she didn't. Either way, they aren't going to leave her like this.

"Doing some shopping?" Sam already knows the answer, though. Dani doesn't have a purse, or a wallet, or any money with her by the looks of it.

Dani confirms her suspicions. "Just looking."

"Cool. Can we look with you?" Tucker rests an arm on Dani's head, using her as a post for leaning. It works like a charm, drawing a half-hearted grumble and a small smile out of Dani. "We're here to people watch. And take care of assholes like this." Tucker nods toward the Phantom kiosk.

This time, Dani giggles. "Yeah, sure. We can take you to all the girl stores."

Tucker pales. "Wait, no. I change my mind."

"Too late!" Dani latches onto the arm resting on her head.

Sam quickly grabs Tucker's other arm until he's squished between the two girls, growing rapidly more distressed as they steer toward the closest store with a bright pink sign. These kinds of stores aren't Sam's thing, and she normally wouldn't be caught dead in one, but she can put up with it for a while if it keeps the smile on Dani's face.

—

Dani takes her bag from the store clerk with nothing short of reverence lighting her face. Even though she just watched the clerk pack it, Dani can't help but open the bag and peer inside at her new purchases: a skirt, a pair of shorts, and a handful of button-ups like the one she already wears.

Beside her, Sam slips her wallet back into her pocket.

"Have a nice day!" the clerk says.

"Thanks. You, too!" Tucker's hand settles on Dani's back, nudging her out of the store.

As soon as they exit, Dani spins and jumps at Sam. "Thank you so much!" When they went into the store, she didn't expect to find anything she liked, but everything inside was so different from what she found in Danny's closet. Especially the pastel colours.

"Consider it a welcome home present," Sam says. Her arm curls around Dani's back, squeezing her tightly.

"Group hug!" Tucker says before draping himself over both of them.

Dani's breath catches in her throat. When was the last time she touched someone like this? Sam and Tucker's arms surrounded her, their warmth making her skin tingle. For a second, she can't breathe, so overwhelmed by the contact that everything else ceases to exist.

Against her will, her shoulders start to shake. She clings to Sam and Tucker tighter, fists gripping the back of their shirts as she draws them closer. Tears welled in her eyes, rising from somewhere deep within her that she had been pushing down. Now, though, in the warmth of Sam and Tucker's embrace, Dani cries for the first time since Danny died.

Previous | Next

[spooky-luvur]

So I feel like these characters have never been in a fic before- Can you do something with Arthur and his male partner during the scene at the Aberdeen pig farm (the weird asf incest couple) and Arthur getting really over protective

Sorry if this is super late anon I didn’t get the notification :(

I only just recently played that mission and the whole time I was just as stiff and uncomfortable as Arthur was I genuinely thought they were cannibals and we’re gonna eat me. Well, eat Arthur.

Glad I got to blow their heads off with a shotgun

Also fun fact! I’m writing this on a plane

-

“Arthur, you sure this tip is good?”

“Well, I did get it from a feller who just got out of jail.”

You shoot him a look.

“I ain’t sayin nothing, but relax. Farmers usually got lots o’ money anyway. If they ain’t good, shoot ‘em and run.”

“If you say so..”

-

Probably the last thing you expected to see from the house you were gonna rob was a very fat man in nothing but overalls reclining on the front porch. You and Arthur stop in your tracks, glancing at each other. Should you go back? And leave all the money behind?

Before you can decide what to do, the fat man notices the both of you awkwardly standing there.

“Well hey there friends!”

You swallow, moving your hand slightly to brush your wrist against the handle of your gun.

“Don’t be shy, partners! No such thing as strangers here!” His eyes trail over both of you, staying on you for a little longer than necessary. He grins.

“Yeah, you two look like you need to take a load off...”

The door suddenly opens, drawing yours and Arthur’s attention. A thin yet busty woman steps into the porch, a light smile on her pale face.

“Well...” she drawls, “ain’t this a rare treat?” She goes to stand beside the man, placing a hand on his chest. So it was a couple. “Why did you tell me we had guests comin’? I’da fixed myself up nice...”

Couple of lunatics.

“Aw, now, you know you look perfect princess...” fatty laughs.

“Erm, we ain’t no guests, Miss,” Arthur glances at you. “Just passin’ through.”

The man waves his hand. “Oh, nonsense, come on in, rest a while. We got food on the stove, and a bottle of the good stuff we been savin.”

“It’s decided then,” the woman steps back into the house. “I’m gonna go freshen up...” her voice is light, seductive as she winks at you.

Arthur’s jaw tightens. “We appreciate the offer but we best be on our way.”

“Oh, come on now!” Spreading his arms wide, he grins at Arthur. “Are you gonna turn down a hot meal and good company? Ha! I’ll go open that bottle!”

Arthur sighs heavily. “I don’t like this.”

You place a hand on his arm, frowning. “Me neither. But think about the money, Arthur. We could really use it. And like you said, thing go south, we hightail outta there.”

He shakes his head, thinking it over. Eventually, he nods.

“Okay.”

“Hey there they are!”

Fat Man (sorry if that’s offensive idk what else to call him other than man and besides- outlaws were mean) is already sitting at the rickety-looking table. “Come on in! Come on!” He gestures for you to sit.

Arthur makes you sit in the seat further away, giving you a look once you open your mouth to question him.

“I hope she ain’t preppin’ for hours up there or we’ll never eat!” He turns his attention to you, a weird smile on his face.

“Hey, tiny, go check on her, will ya?”

You begin to stand, but Arthur’s firm hand on your shoulder stops you.

“No...I’ll do it. He can stay here.”

Fat Man shrugs. “Fine by me! I just wanna eat!”

Yeah, you could tell.

After a few moments Arthur and the woman come back down, an odd look on Arthur’s face. You try questioning him, but he quickly shakes his head, taking a seat while she goes to the stove.

“Well ain’t this just about perfect!” Fatty says in a weird voice. “Just one of them moments you wish could last forever.”

“Like we said, we can’t stay long,” you give him a fake smile.

“Just look at us,” the man waves a hand at you and Arthur. “Like a couple of old friends.” He laughs as the woman sets plates down on the table. “It’s a short life, but a merry one.”

You look up from the food to see the woman looking at you with dark eyes. She’s bent over in such a way you could tell she’s purposely trying to show you as much cleavage as possible. Her husband doesn’t even seem to notice, or if he did, he doesn’t care. She giggles as you quickly avert your eyes. Right after, there’s a strong hand on your thigh, gripping tightly just above your knee. You glance over at Arthur, but he’s looking at the man.

“All the fixens. I hope you boys left some room in your trousers.” She looks between you and Arthur, a smirk on her face. “I can tell there ain’t much.”

Fatty inhales deeply and moans, opening his eyes to look at his wife. “That smells delicious.” He takes her hand. “Food don’t smell too bad neither.” They both laugh as he pulls her to sit on his lap.

“Oh, stop it, you!”

The continue to laugh, turning their attention to Arthur and you who’d been trying the food.

“How do you like it?” The woman asks.

Arthur nods. “Mm, it’s good. Different.”

The woman goes to get another chair from the side of the room as Fatty eats the food, moaning.

“That meat is so tender...” he glances at you, an unreadable look in his eyes.

You pause from eating another piece. “Yes, it’s uhm, good...”

“And you know what? This place it used to be a pig farm- when we was-“ he picks at his teeth. “when we was kids?”

Wha- oh...oh dear...oh dear...

It hits you before it hits Arthur. You place down your fork slowly, loosing your appetite.

He continues. “Before we lost our Ma and Pa...horrible business.”

The woman’s mouth tightens into a thin line as she shakes her head. “Horrible.”

“But we still got each other ain’t that right honey pie?”

That’s when it hits Arthur.

“And we still know how to have a hog killin’ time.” (someone told me what she said ty)

You meet his eyes. He glances at the door before glancing back at you. You shrug, shoulders stiff.

“Here, here, that’s for you...”

They both feed each other food with their forks, eyes locked in a intimate moment, both moaning once they taste the others food. They don’t seem to remember you and Arthur were there until they slowly turned their heads. An awkward moment of silence passes before the woman puts down her forks abruptly.

“Where are my manners? Drinks!”

“Yeah, I could defiantly use a drink.” Arthur shakes just head, making you quietly snort.

“And you, sugar?” The woman smiles at you, holding a bottle.

“Yeah.” You really needed to forget all this in the morning.

She laughs, pouring you and Arthur each a small glass.

Arthur downs his in one gulp, and he immediately recoils at the taste. He clears his throat, looking at you.

‘Fucking strong’ are what his eyes tell you.

You down yours too, coughing. It burns your trait and stings your eyes. It’s strong that’s for damn sure. Stronger than any whiskey you’ve ever had. Doesn’t taste like anything you’ve ever had neither. It leaves an unpleasant feeling in your mouth and your gut.

“Ha! That stuff’ll put hair on your chest!”

“Oh, I doubt the big one needs that,” the woman rounds the table with the bottle, passing Arthur as she says that. But she stops at you, putting a hand on your shoulder and slowly sliding it down your partly open shirt and across your chest. You tense, holding your breath.

Oh, you can feel Arthur’s anger.

“But this one here needs some more. Whadda ya say, hun? Let’s loosen the both of you up some more.” She removes your hand, much to yours and Arthur’s relief, and goes back around the table to sit on her *brothers* lap.

Neither of you say anything, only looking at each other. You can tell Arthur doesn’t want to stay.

But the money is the main thing on your mind at the moment.

You just barely nod your head, and Arthur understands. He clenches his jaw, and begrudgingly takes another shot of the strange alcohol. The siblings laugh gleefully, looking at you for your turn.

You’re way lighter on alcohol than Arthur. Only your second shot and your head is already swirling.

The three are talking, laughing, but you don’t hear anything. You sway in your seat, pain flowing throughout your entire body. The last thing you feel is someone picking you up before everything goes black.

-

“Woo wee, we done and got ourselves a real nice one here!”

“We sure did!”

Ugh, what in the hell did you drink?

Your bleary eyes blink open. You’re standing, but your eyes are tied above your head and around a high railing of the stairs. You’re on your feet but barley. For a moment nothing is clear before you focus on the large figure of the Fat Man and his sister not two feet away from you.

“Oh, you sons of bitches,” you groan, hanging your head. Just listen to Arthur next time you moron.

They both laugh.

“Mama would be real proud of us wouldn’t she sugar?”

“She sure would honeybun!”

The woman turns back to you, getting on her knees. You struggle against the bonds, pushing your self as far away from the crazy woman as possible.

“Oh, don’t be shy, sugar, I only wanna taste you!” She giggles and puts one hand on your crotch and the other on your hip.

“You crazy bastards! Where’s Arthur!”

“Oh he won’t be back for a while, now hold still darlin’-“

Right as she reaches to unbuckle your belt, the front door flies open and a gun immediately goes off. The woman gasps in horror, rising to her feet. The large body of her brother crumples to the ground.

”NO!!!”

She screams, rushing at- thank the heavens- Arthur. Before she can reach him another shot goes off and she crumples right on top of Fatty.

You take a deep breath, head rolling back in relief.

“(M/n)? (M/n)!”

Arthur catches you once he cuts your bonds, holding you to his chest in a crushing grip.

“Goddamn, you alright?! The hell did they do to you?!”

“Nothin’ thanks to you.” You give him a long kiss, holding his face in your hands. He pulls away to put his forehead against yours and you can see the unshed tears in his eyes.

“Thought I damn near lost you...”

“It’s okay, Arthur. I’m alive, and they aren’t. Now, where is that money?”

——

[voltrontranscript]

VLD S8E9: Knights of Light, Part 1

Season 8 Episode 9: Knights of Light, Part 1

Transcript by @dragonofyang

Summary: After taking the dark entity within herself, Allura discovers she’s now mentally linked to Honerva. Using this connection to reach into Honerva’s mind with the help of the other paladins, they discover that there are more ghosts haunting her than they realized.

[Google Doc]

Honerva’s Voice: Allura. Allura. Allura. Allura… Allura!

Lance: Allura, are you okay?

Allura: What’s going on? Where am I?

Coran: You’re in the medical bay.

Lance: When we got back from Clear Day, we found you collapsed on the ground.

Coran: You’ve been asleep for two quintants. The entity, it’s missing. Did you…?

Allura: I did what needed to be done.

Coran: No.

Lance: What needed to be done? What are you talking about?

Allura: This entity, it is connected to Honerva in some way. I believe we can use it.

Lance: Use it? I…

Coran: I swore to your father that I would look after you, but I fear I may have let him down. This is the path of darkness.

Allura: It is the path toward defeating Honerva.

[Scene change to Shiro approaching a door, where he is greeted by the paladins.]

Shiro: You wanted to see me?

Pidge: We’ve been working on something, and we thought we’d run it by you.

Keith: We think we might have a way to find Honerva.

Allura: The entity has bonded me to Honerva. The link is there whether we utilize it or not. I believe that if the Paladins connect using the shared consciousness of Voltron, we may be able to travel through the void and into Honerva’s mind.

Pidge: That could, in theory, give us access to her physical location, as well as key information on how to defeat her.

Hunk: Which, after what happened the last time we faced her, could be super useful.

Keith: Honerva is capable of creating galactic Komars, wormholes, robeasts, and now Lotor and his mech are out there somewhere. She is the single greatest threat the universe has ever faced, and we don’t have any other leads. It might take lifetimes for another opportunity like this to come around. We think this is worth the risk.

Shiro: I spent a lot of time in the infinite void. It took all my strength not to lose my sanity. And if you face Honerva in the void, she will win. But, if you can find a clue that leads to defeating Honerva and Lotor, it could give us the upper hand in this fight.

Lance: I don’t like the idea of using Allura like this. We’re messing with powers we don’t fully understand that have ruined countless lives. It’s… it’s dangerous.

Allura: Lance, we’re the Paladins of Voltron. There’s no one more capable of taking this on. It has to be us.

Lance: Let’s do it.

Allura: Besides, the team will have our sharpshooter there to keep us safe.

Lance: I knew that nickname was gonna catch on one of these days.

Coran: It’s been a long time since it was only the seven of us in a room together.

Keith: Let’s make sure it’s not the last.

[Cut to Keith in Black Lion as Voltron powers up.]

Lance: Allura, are you okay?

Allura: I’m fine.

[Scene change to Veronica on the bridge.]

Veronica: It doesn’t seem fair that he won with a robot arm.

Iverson: Ah, almost everyone had a robot arm. The last guy had two robot arms.

Shiro: The lions are launching. Put the Atlas on high alert. Iverson, power up the Atlas’ weapons. Veronica, make sure the shield system is go.

Veronica: High alert? What’s going on?

Shiro: We’re just being careful. The Atlas needs to be prepared for any eventuality.

[Cut to Allura in Blue Lion.]

Allura: It is time to begin.

[Scene change to the astral plane.]

Hunk: Now what?

Keith: Allura, do you feel anything?

Allura: We must travel through that light!

Hunk: It looks so far away. How do you know?

Allura: The entity draws me toward it!

Lance: What is this place? It’s like… it’s like I can hear what the universe is thinking.

Pidge: Remember how the Olkari told me that everything is made of the same energy? I think it has something to do with that.

Hunk: So, thoughts are linked across some kind of, what, cosmic connection?

Keith: Yeah, but I think we are the thoughts inside a network of other people’s thoughts.

Lance: Oh, this is making my head hurt.

Hunk: Yeah, I’m actually with Lance on this one.

Allura: If we are to--[screams]

[Cut to the Atlas bridge.]

Coran: I’m detecting fluctuations in Voltron’s energy signature. Should we do anything?

Shiro: Hold.

[Cut back to the Paladins in the astral plane.]

Lance: What was that?

Hunk: It felt like cold water running down my spine.

Allura: That was Honerva.

Lance: What?

Allura: The entity inside of me is connected to her.

Hunk: Wait, then why did we feel it?

Keith: It must be because we’re all connected through Voltron.

Allura: Yes. The psychic link between us is now shared with Honerva. The closer we are to her, the stronger that link.

Lance: This is too dangerous. Honerva is gonna use the connection to find us, to find you.

Allura: No, this is how we are going to find her, but first, I must learn how to utilize this energy to do so.

Keith: This isn’t just on you now, Princess. We’re all in this together. Maybe if we concentrate, we’ll be able to feel her energy. Then we can track it back to its source. Let’s all focus.

Hunk: This is awesome!

[Scene change to a wide starry scape with two planets visible as Voltron flies by.]

Hunk: I can feel something, like an energy inside me.

Allura: It’s the entity.

Lance: This feeling, it’s like…

Keith: Like a dark realization washing over.

Pidge: It’s like we’re being pulled by a tether connected to our souls.

Allura: We’re getting closer. This way.

Hunk: Is this Honerva’s mind?

Allura: It’s on the other side of this wall.

Pidge: What is this?

Allura: It feels like… like these are the souls that Honerva has defeated and corrupted. It’s terrible.

Hunk: Of course we’re gonna have to get on the other side of the--what?

Pidge: Allura!

Keith: Come on! No! Come on!

[Scene change to Pidge inside Honerva’s mind, a green and black plain lit by stars.]

Pidge: Guys? Where am I? Guys, do you copy? Guys?! Team, can you hear me?

[Cut to Hunk inside Honerva’s mind, a yellow and black plain lit by stars.]

Hunk: Hello! Anyone?

[Cut to Lance in a red and black plain lit by stars.]

Lance: Team! Something severed our connection!

[Cut to Allura in a blue and black plain lit by stars.]

Allura: Paladins, respond! Why can you not hear me?

[Cut to Keith, on the black plain that shields Honerva’s mind.]

Keith: There has to be a way in. I can’t feel them.

[Cut to Pidge.]

Pidge: I can’t even feel my lion!

[Cut to Hunk, then Allura.]

Allura: Paladins! I will not let you hurt us any longer! This is some kind of horrible ruse and you will pay dearly for it. Time to end this!

[Flash back to the Castle of Lions armory.]

Alfor: Your suits of armor.

Trigel: They’re incredible.

Zarkon: We will be a force to be reckoned with in these armaments.

Gyrgan: They stretch, right?

Alfor: Yes, Gyrgan, they mold to fit their paladin.

Trigel: When will your wonders end, Alfor?

Alfor: Interesting you should mention that. I have one more piece of equipment for all of you.

Zarkon: What are they?

Alfor: I call them bayards. Now, each bayard is crafted with a small fragment of the comet’s ore.

Zarkon: With this much power, we will be unstoppable.

Alfor: They can create powerful weapons, but they can also act as a key bridging a paladin’s essence with their lion. Only so long as we fight together as a single unit. To defend the universe.

All: To defend the universe!

[Flash forward to return to Allura and Blaytz in the blue and black plain of Honerva’s mind.]

Allura: It’s really you.

[Cut to Pidge and Trigel in the green and black plain.]

Pidge: Your soul! Honerva must have--

[Cut to Hunk and Gyrgan in the yellow and black plain.]

Hunk: --trapped you here somehow! Please, I don’t want to fight you!

[Cut to Lance and Alfor in the red and black plain.]

Lance: Please! Remember who you are!

[Cut to Allura and Blaytz in the blue and black plain again.]

Allura: Blaytz, please.

[Flash back to the Castle of Lions on Altea.]

Alfor: Make no mistake, Zarkon is coming.

Trigel: Then we use the lions, fight him until our last breath.

Alfor: I am not certain we can win this fight. We cannot risk Voltron falling into his hands. We will utilize our lions to seal the Black Lion. Once we are done, we will send our lions as far away as possible. Coran, you and the Castle of Lions will take the Black Lion away.

Coran: You would have me leave your side at the very end?

Alfor: No. I would have you stand by my daughter’s. I am entrusting you with what is most precious to me in this entire universe, Coran.

Coran: It will be my greatest honor.

Gyrgan: Then it is decided. We go into battle together, one last time.

Alfor: To defend the universe.

All: To defend the universe.

[Flash forward to Trigel and Pidge in the green and black plain.]

Trigel: What… Where am I?

[Cut to Hunk and Gyrgan in the yellow and black plain.]

Hunk: You’re in the void just outside of Honerva’s mind. I know it sounds crazy, but it’s true.

[Cut to Blaytz and Allura in the blue and black plain.]

Blaytz: Are the visions from the lions true?

[Cut to Alfor and Lance in the red and black plain.]

Alfor: Has it really been ten thousand years?

Lance: It has.

[Cut to Hunk and Gyrgan in the yellow and black plain.]

Gyrgan: It saddens me greatly to learn that Zarkon wreaked such destruction in our absence.

Hunk: But not completely. Voltron was reformed and the Paladins fly together again.

Gyrgan: I have always believed that unity is where true power comes from, and true unity can only be born of love.

[Cut to Trigel and Pidge in the green and black plain.]

Trigel: I can’t tell you how much it warms my heart to know that someone so connected to the world around her is piloting the Green Lion. My race believes observation to be the most revered attribute. It is where intelligence is born. And for you, it is where it has thrived. The infinite abilities of your mind dwarf the smallness of your size. The Green Lion could not have found a more perfect Paladin.

[Cut to Blaytz and Allura in the blue and black plain.]

Blaytz: People often overlooked me because I was different, but the Blue Lion recognized something in me, something others couldn’t see. It saw the greatness within that even I did not. You, Allura, have greatness within you, as well. You’re so much like your father, and yet so different. You’re a remarkable person. Thank you for saving us.

[Cut to Alfor and Lance in the red and black plain.]

Alfor: Through the lion’s bond, I could feel your love for my daughter.

Lance: I could feel yours, as well.

Alfor: As Paladins, we face many quests throughout the cosmos, but the most amazing journey is that of life. And the biggest question you face is who to go on that journey with. I’m glad my daughter chose you.

[Cut to Keith on the black plain at the boundary of Honerva’s mind.]

Keith: Please. You’re back. You guys are alright. Wait, are they the…

Pidge: Yep, the original paladins.

Alfor: Allura! It is fitting that I would find what is brightest to me in the darkest place.

Allura: All that I have done, I have done to make you proud.

Hunk: Their souls were trapped by Honerva’s dark magic. When we came near Honvera’s consciousness, our connection attracted them to us. Crazy, right?

Pidge: But we used that connection to free them. The lions created a bridge, sharing old memories with new.

Alfor: What’s going on?

Allura: Honerva’s connection grows. We are very close to her now.

Alfor: You hold a dark entity within you. Don’t you know how dangerous that is? That’s what led to Honerva and Zarkon’s end.

Allura: I know the danger, but now I have the power to stop Honerva. You had to make a difficult choice in war by sending the lions away. I also had to make a difficult choice. I’m not going to be afraid to use the power I have. We need to continue.

Lance: But how do we get past the wall?

Allura: It’s… it’s like I can feel her thoughts. The way through is with the darkness.

Alfor: Honerva went mad, obsessed with darkness and power.

Allura: And now, we must enter her mind.

End.

[bananapie99]

Stained Skin

Steve Rogers x Reader

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It’s been three weeks since Steve and a couple other teammates of his left on their current mission. While you loved your boyfriend’s heroism, it was hard for you to spend that much time away from him. Luckily, you still had your two closest friends, Natasha and Bucky to keep you company until Steve’s arrival home. After the first five days of the mission had come and gone, you began sulking around the compound, barely leaving Steve’s room, which you had just moved into. After two weeks of him being gone, Natasha and Bucky decided they couldn’t watch you in this state anymore and planed a fun night in for the three of you. Being your best friends, they knew exactly what you needed…pizza, gummy bears, and a movie night.

It was 5 o’clock in the evening on Friday when you heard a knock on the door to Steve’s room. You put your book down and stood up, readjusting Steve’s shirt you had been wearing, and walk to the door. Opening it up, you see your two friends, dressed in pajamas, hands full of dinner, snacks and DVDs. You looked at the two of them, slightly confused.

“Did I forget about plans we made…?”

“No silly,” Nat replied. “Bucky and I are tired of seeing you mope around, so we decided a night in is exactly what you need to cheer you up a bit.”

Your heart swelled with love for your two friends, and you stepped out of the way so they could enter. You all made a beeline for the bed, Bucky stopping to put in one of the movies. You all found your spot on the bed and dug into the pizza.

After three movies, you guys decided to call it quits. Your stomachs hurt from all the food and your faces hurt from all the laughing. Bucky and Natasha stood up to leave, but you asked Natasha if she’d stay and sleep with you tonight. She agreed, settling back on the bed. Bucky leaned down and kissed both of you on the cheek, wishing you sweet dreams, before heading back to his own room.

As soon as the door closed behind Bucky, you felt a tear fall down your face. You hoped you had wiped it away before Natasha could notice, but no such luck.

“Babe what’s wrong?” Concern was clear in her voice.

“I just miss him,” you squeak out, voice barely above a whisper. “I know he’s out there being the amazing man he is, working hard to save the world. And don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love him for it…I just…I miss him. I need him to save me too.” Natasha’s face softens, a small smile on her lips.

“I understand, (y/n). Of course you miss him and need him to be with you. I also know he wants nothing more than to come home to you as soon as he can. He hates leaving you. That’s part of the reason he asked you to move in here, this way if he isn’t gone on a mission and you aren’t working, he’ll always have you close by.”

You remember being surprised by Steve’s proposal of you moving in, not only to the Avengers compound, but into his room. With most of his life experience coming from the 1930s and 40s, he’s a pretty traditional man. It’s something you find so endearing about him but makes questions like this one a little more surprising. Of course you had said yes, throwing yourself into his arms as he lifted you off the ground into a tight hug.

Natasha noticed you lost in your thoughts. Snapping you back to reality, she said “I have an idea, I’ll be right back.”

She slipped out of your room, returning a few minutes later. She pulled a small cone out of a bag and you looked at it curiously.

“It’s henna,” she explained. “It stains your skin, just for a couple weeks, and fades off. Want me to give you a tattoo? Something pretty to look at?”

You nodded your head and extended your right arm out towards her on the bed, palm facing up. Natasha got to work on your forearm. While she drew away, the two of you talked about everything. To be fair, the conversation heavily lingered on the topic of Steve. She wanted to know everything about your relationship. It was funny being questioned by her, because as your best friend, you already told her everything. She just wanted to make sure there weren’t any details you might have forgotten to share. Thirty minutes later, she stops drawing and examines her artwork. Satisfied, she smiled and asked you what you thought.

“Oh Nat, it’s beautiful!” Your eyes scanned over the henna on your skin. She drew a beautiful peony design, your favorite flowers. You’d always had a liking for the flowers, but your love for them became stronger when Steve gave you peonies on your first date, unaware they were your favorites.

You hugged Natasha with your other arm, careful to not bump the design. After the henna had started to really dry, she helped you wrap it up do you could sleep without messing anything up.

In the morning, you unwrapped your forearm and peeled off the hardened pieces, revealing the orange-ish brown stain on your skin. Natasha told you for the next couple days it would darken a little more into a deeper brown. You ran your fingers over the stain, a smile on your lips.

Another excruciating week passed by. You were once again laying on Steve’s bed, wearing your favorite shirt of his and reading a book, when the door to the room flies open. Bucky is standing there, smile on his face.

“Get up doll, the jet just landed.”

You wasted no time jumping off the bed and running down the hallway, following Bucky. Even after living there for three weeks the compound was confusing to navigate. A few twists in and you already were unsure of where you were, happy Bucky was your guide. After what felt like ages you finally came to a halt and you saw him. He was turned away from you, hanging up his tactical gear. It’s been three weeks since you’ve seen him, since you’ve heard his voice. You couldn’t wait any longer. You ran towards Steve full speed. He must have heard your footsteps because he turned towards you, grin on his face, arms open wide. You jumped into his arms as they wrapped around your waist, pulling you tight against his chest. You buried your face into his neck, breathing in his scent you had missed so much. Steve felt your body start to shake and grew concerned.

“Sweetheart, what’s wrong?” Your heart nearly broke at the tone of his voice.

“N-Nothing Steve…I just…I missed you, and you were gone so long I was starting to worry…”

His grip around your waist tightened in a reassuring way.

“I’m right here now (y/n). I’m okay, everyone is safe,” he cooed in your ear while using one hand to rub small circles on your back.

You pulled back just enough to look at his face. Those beautiful blue eyes melted your heart. Steve took the opportunity to close the distance, kissing you. The kiss was desperate and needy, but filled with more love than any you had shared before. You could have lived in that moment forever.

Bucky didn’t want to interrupt your reunion, but he was anxious to greet his friend as well. He slowly walked over and patted Steve on the shoulder.

“I’m glad you’re home, punk.”

Steve’s smile grew and he awkwardly tried to hug Bucky while still holding onto you.

Finally, Steve set you back down. Ever the gentleman, he tugged his shirt back down on you to make sure you were covered. The gesture was small, but the tenderness of it made you blush. He placed his hands ever so softly on your arms and looked down at you. He had nothing but love in his eyes, but you felt your blush deepen under his intense gaze. As much as you had missed Steve, he missed you just as much and wanted to take in every inch of you. The grip of his left hand tightened, holding on your right elbow. Confused, you look up at his face and see his eyebrows furrowed together. Following his gaze, you see he is staring at the henna on your forearm.

“Steve?”

“What’s this?” His confusion came through in his voice.

“It’s nothing Steve,” you said, letting out a light laugh.

“You got a tattoo while I was gone?”

“Steve, honey, no it’s not a tattoo.” Your voice grew soft and gentle.

As well as Steve was becoming accustomed to the modern world after being back for close to a decade, his core beliefs still stood built in the past. Tattoos were not something women had, let alone displayed so prominently on their arms. His fingers ran feather-light over the stain on your skin. You shivered at the touch.

“It’s henna Steve, it fades off in a couple weeks.”

You hadn’t anticipated the possibility of this bothering Steve. Sometimes it was easy to forget that he wasn’t just a man with traditional values.

His grip on your elbow loosened and his face relaxed.

“It’s beautiful, (y/n),” Steve said barely above a whisper. “Are those peonies?”

You felt your own body relax at his gentle voice. He continued to trace the design.

“I’m glad you like it.” You couldn’t help the smile that took over your face. “Yes, they are. Natasha drew it the other night. I got pretty mopey while you were gone, and she and Bucky made it their jobs to keep my spirits up.”

Steve grinned at Bucky, silently thanking him, before focusing back on you.

“As happy as I am to be back with you sweetheart, I’m exhausted. How about we head back to my room?”

You smiled and silently nodded, entwining your fingers with his, following behind him back through the twists and turns of the compound. After what felt like ages, you were back in front of Steve’s door. He looked back at you smiling, placing a soft kiss on your forehead as he opened the door.

As much as you didn’t want to leave his side, you made a beeline for his bed as he headed for the bathroom. A warm shower would help him wash off the stress of the past three weeks. You not so patiently waited for him, laying down and twiddling your thumbs, imagining him cuddled up against you.  

Suddenly the door to the bathroom opened and Steve emerged in his favorite sweatpants and damp hair. The sight sent butterflies flying in your stomach. Even after three years together he made you feel giddy and shy at times. You loved seeing him like this, when it was just him, just Steve. Obviously you love his heroic side too, but let’s be honest, his heroism wasn’t just Captain America, it was Steve.

Steve’s voice snapped you back to reality. “You’re staring sweetheart.”

You caught the smirk on his lips before dropping your gaze to your hands, a deep blush heating your cheeks.

You felt the mattress dip as Steve laid down, ultimately causing your body to roll towards the dip and tuck you into his side. As soon as your head touched his chest, his arms snaked around your waist and he pulled you onto his chest. You felt your own body relax as his heartbeat became clear through his chest. Laying with your head right over his heart was your favorite way to be, and it usually meant his arms were snugly wrapped around your waist. You never felt safer than in moments like these. The two of you laid there silent for a while, just soaking each other in. He unwrapped one of his hands from your waist, moving to lightly brush his fingers up and down your forearm. It tickled just slightly, and Steve knew how much you loved the feeling. It was his go-to to calm you down. Tonight, his fingers danced over the stained flowers.

You broke the silence first. “Do you really like the flowers?”

“Of course I do (y/n). It really is beautiful. Natasha is quite the artist.”

You started to speak again, wanting to ask a question that’s been nagging you since he first grabbed at your arm, but part of you didn’t want to know. After a moment, you found your courage and blurted it out before you could stop yourself.

“What if it was a tattoo?”

Steve’s hand stopped moving and you felt his body tense slightly. He wasn’t sure how to answer.

“I…uh…I don’t know. I guess I never really thought about you having a tattoo.”

You shifted your body so you could see his face. His eyes looked conflicted and unsure.

“When I was growing up, tattoos had a very different connotation than they do now. Most men didn’t have tattoos, at least not on display. Women really didn’t get tattoos, so I guess it isn’t really something I thought about.”

A new question rose in your mind and a knot grew in your stomach. You started chewing on your lip. Steve noticed and sat up, a look of concern growing on his face. He pulled you into his lap and hugged you to his chest.

“Sweetheart, what’s wrong?” His voice was gentle, comforting.

Taking a deep breath, the words came out barely above a whisper. “Would you have broken up with me if it was?”

“What?” Steve sounded genuinely shocked, and maybe slightly hurt, by your question.

“Would you have?”

“Of course not (y/n)! I would never let something like that end our relationship. I love you so much. Everything about you.” With those words he hugged you tighter. “I was just surprised to see it. It was shocking to think you would get a tattoo without even mentioning it to me, that’s all. You know I don’t want to control you, and I would never try to, but I like to think we talk about everything.” Now it was your turn to hug him. “I do talk to you about everything. I appreciate your input, especially when it comes to big decisions. I would never get a tattoo without even mentioning it to you.”

The room fell silent again for a few minutes, then you spoke up again, feeling more confident about the situation.

“What would you think about me getting this as a real tattoo?” You stared into his eyes, searching for any feeling he might be trying to hide.

Seeing nothing but honesty and love you relaxed as Steve answered.

“I think it would look beautiful.”

A grin spread across both of your faces, and Steve craned his head down to kiss you.

Giving in to the tiredness creeping up on both of you, Steve laid back down, pulling you with him. You were back on his chest, listening to his heartbeat. He had one arm wrapped around your waist, the other hand tracing the flowers once again. That night, you and Steve slept better than you have in a long time.

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[ducktracy]

173. a sunbonnet blue (1937)

release date: august 21st, 1937

series: merrie melodies

director: tex avery

starring: berneice hansell (girl mouse), mel blanc (sheriff, george washington, various), billy bletcher (villain)

the second entry in his mice trilogy (that is, ain’t we got fun, this, and the mice will play), tex avery revisits the roots of earlier merrie melodies to give us this cutesy tale about mice running rampant in a hat shop at night.

akin to the countless of other “come to life at night” cartoons of both the past and future, we open to the facade of a hat shop -- snobby hatte shoppe, that is. the streamlined, art deco exterior feels straight out of a frank tashlin cartoon. truck inside with a multi-plane pan across the dark, empty, vast shop. very moody and eye-catching.

a mouse hole in the wall is now the focus of the camera, where a trepidatious mouse pokes his head out warily. he tiptoes furtively along--the foreshortening and perspective on the backgrounds is very nice, again quite tashlin-esque--the shop, pausing right out in the open. silence except for the music score... until, in an unmistakably avery move, the mouse bellows “HEY! ANYBODY HERE!?” without waiting for an answer, he darts back into his hole.

the coast is clear. delighted, the mouse hops into his conveniently placed elevator, leading right towards a light switch. this cartoon does take extra steps to make lighting a priority, but some cases are more successful than others: as the elevator doors open, revealing a pool of light, the mouse momentarily becomes transparent as he passes the open door, thanks to difficulty with the double-exposure. nevertheless, mr. mouse turns on the lights, prompting the black button above the on/off switch to ram right into his face, sending him falling to the ground and landing safely on top of a top hat.

mr. mouse asserts that he and his mice friends have no company: they’re free to party. after all of the mice have swarmed the place from their hole, the mouse proves himself to be a casanova as he chews the shape of a heart into the wood to impress his sweetie, voiced by the giggly berneice hansell. his efforts pay off as his girl croons “oh george, you’re so cute!” i’ll never get tired of hearing hansell’s squeaky voice for as long as i live. the love-birds run to join their friends, but have unexpected company: a nefarious, billy bletcher voiced mouse. yes, folks! it’s a kidnapping picture! the kind that dominated the first 5 years of warner bros cartoons all too prominently!

 in preparation for the song number, both mice coyly pose with the hats mentioned in the song, with villain mouse crawling under a nefarious looking cap of his own to keep a keen eye out on the missus. the pans from the lovebirds to the villain is well executed. it’s not as blindingly fast as frank tashlin’s transitions, but it doesn’t need to be, either. there’s definitely a level of control present, which works to the cartoon’s advantage and disadvantage. primarily the latter. 

a mouse turns off the light-switch, another turning on a headlamp to use as a spotlight, which segues us into our song number. the song number is cute, but that’s about all it is. it’s surprisingly prominent, calling back to the earlier days of the merrie melodies where the songs were full-on songs, not sharp, witty, tongue-in-cheek quips as was becoming the norm for 1937. another pan demonstrates that the sunbonnet blue and the yellow straw hat getting wedded. the song sequence is unremarkable, but there is a bit of that avery bite as we get a rather dismal view of married life: sunbonnet mama is doing all of the housework while straw hat dad reads the paper, paying no mind to their plethora of children running around.

we’re treated with more lighting effects as the mouse operating the headlamp now uses colored visors as a substitute for lighting gels. some of the colors certainly translate better than others (that last red color in the sequence muddies up the drawings an awful bit.) nevertheless, the happy couple are greeted with cheers and applause after their cutesy little number is complete. 

thankfully, irv spence swoops in to save the day from monotony, adding some much-needed zest and fervor with his animation of “the three ratz brothers”. the clumsy brothers perform a vaudeville routine after breaking out of a dunce cap, singing “i haven’t got a hat”, the merrie melody that marks the debut of porky, beans and co. just 2 years prior. the entire ratz bros. sequence is very well done and difficult to capture in photos and words: one of those scenes that you need to see for yourself. irv’s poses are strong, defined yet loose and rubbery, and his facial expressions are satisfyingly goofy. 

the rats burst into a medley of songs, the mood drastically changing as the engineer mouse from before switches out gels. green lighting sparks a mournful dirge of “i haven’t got a hat” (with one of the brothers even crying hysterically), yellow lighting prompts one of the brothers to recite ted lewis’ catchphrase of “is everybody happy?” lighting turns blue to reflect the unanimous outcry of “NO!” again, this is a great sequence--THIS is what tex avery is about. it’s strikingly noticeable that his heart wasn’t quite in this short, but for just a minute, he’s allowed to get a word in. song numbers change, as do moods, as do colors, the rapid pace transitions once again tashlin-esque in their execution. the three brothers end the number in a lively rendition of “the lady in red”, staring at the audience with crossed eyes and big grins. gone too soon!

with the festivities over and done with, the peace now serves as the perfect transition for some prime kidnapping. the villain mouse sneaks up to the girl using his hat as a cover, and, predictably, snatches her away. george does a bit of an avery take as his ears elongate in shock--he rushes to bang a spoon against a nearby military hat. they’d have plenty of military gags to work with in the coming years, as we’ll most definitely see once WWII breaks out. for now, george summons his army of mice to go after the villain and save the day.

memories of harman and ising past revisit us once again as we get a taste of a tried and true--well, mainly tried--gag: mouse blows trumpet, prompting his pants to fall down. more hat gags, such as a line of mice marching beneath band leader’s hats with merely their legs exposed, until irv spence breaks up the monotony by animating a rat sheriff resting beneath a sheriff's hat. george hurriedly alerts him to his dilemma, prompting the sheriff to exclaim “WHY DOESN’T SOMEBODY TELL ME THESE THINGS!?”, a catchphrase whose origin is a bit muddy--some attribute it to radio show personality fred allen, others to a listerine commercial, it’s even the name of a song. it bubbled up in a number of 1937 warner bros cartoons (porky’s badtime story being one example.) nevertheless, spence’s animation is lively like always, his zest not taken for granted.

after the sheriff blows on his whistle, summoning a police and fire brigade (all spawning from police hats and fireman hats respectively), a mouse hiding beneath a cowboy hat bellows “BUCK BENNY RIDES AGAIN!”, prompting a slack-jawed, hayseed mouse to respond “hello, buck!” both are a reference to jack benny’s radio show, particularly jack benny’s cowboy persona, (as you can guess) buck benny. elsewhere, we get some more gags of the mice and their “factions”, including football playing mice and their respective cheerleaders. finally, we get a distance shot of all of the hats running together. it’s a nice bit of animation, and the lively underscore of “i haven’t got a hat” does contribute an air of jolliness to the sequence.

elsewhere, george darts through rows of hats, the sounds coming out of his mouth being the unmistakable laugh of daffy duck’s. in the midst of his franting HOOHOO!ing, george stumbles upon another george: washington. once again, irv spence animates the exchange between both mice, the Regular George asking “which way did they go?”, prompting washington to arbitrarily tack on “i cannot tell a lie: they went that way.” the scene has potential to be funny--i would have loved to have seen the washington mouse act all uppity and snooty--but falls rather flat instead.

we’re treated with a blind mouse gag (because that’s a knee-slapper, huh?) who points george in the direction of the chase. kidnapper and victim dash over a staircase of meticulously placed hats, pursued by george. george jumps onto a top hat, flattening it, and then swings the hat around like a frisbee. the frisbee effectively slides beneath the villain, sending him sliding. again, another spence scene, with some rather intriguing animation, especially that of george winding up the hat to throw.

the villain loses the girl in the process, and now flies empty handed into a knight’s helmet after the top hat springs up and launches him across the room. george closes the helmet, placing the villain in “jail”, prompting him to grumble the ever popular fibber mcgee and molly catchphrase “t’ain’t funny, mcgee!” mel blanc voices the line instead of billy bletcher for reasons unbeknownst to me. meanwhile, the mouse sweethearts reunite. george excitedly whispers into his sweetie’s ear--she nods, prompting george to do a dance of excitement while the audience waits with bated breath.

their grand secret? a wedding. the happy couple march down the aisle lined with hats, complete to a rather jazzy rendition of “here comes the bride” (which makes me think of a similar scene in a gandy goose and sourpuss terrytoon, animated by the great carlo vinci.) the officiator reflects a burst of avery humor as he gives a hilariously abbreviated ceremony: “do you.... dododododdododododo... do you?” “i do!”

with weddings come wedding gifts, and our mice are no exception. the bride does the honors of opening the box, and husband soon follows. wife peers inside and grows rather bashful, a flurry of giggles. she encourages her husband to peer in--he does so, giving another daffy-esque “WOOHOO!” of shock as he stares at the camera in befuddlement. we iris out on the big reveal, which also has the honors of being tex avery’s first use of live action in a cartoon:

this is a rather frustrating entry. i don’t like to hold tex avery up as if he’s some monolith--his cartoons aren’t perfect, as we see here. he has weaknesses and faults like everybody else. but the fact that we’ve seen what he’s capable of, it’s hard not to compare it to works like these: the letdown is inevitable. it’s clear his heart was not at all in this one. it instead feels like a merrie melody from the 1934-1935 season--the art style is the only thing boosting it from comparisons to harman and ising. it’s just not a strong entry at all. there’s hardly any bite to it, it plays the game much too safe. irv spence’s scenes are the shining stars of the cartoon, especially that interlude with the ratz brothers. that is true avery, that is what he is capable of, but the rest of the cartoon just doesn’t follow through. painfully formulaic, unremarkable, forgettable. you’re better than this, tex! i will give it points for artistic experimentation: the lighting effects, while not executed perfectly, were certainly ambitious, and some of the backgrounds are very tasteful. but, as a whole, this is a very forgettable cartoon that you can easily skip. but, for you curious types such as myself, link!

[harrysbbby]

Anne of Green Gables!AU - Peter Parker x Stark!Reader - Part 1

AN: i hope you all enjoy the first part! hopefully the second part will be up soon! but please let me know what you think, but it looks like a fair few people were keen based on the preview i posted a few days ago!

Summary: Peter and stark!reader are competitive. They both want to be top of their class and form a rivalry, much like characters Anne Shirley-Cuthbert and Gilbert Blythe from Anne with an E.

You walked into your chem lab on your first Monday back at school. The year had begun about a month prior, but you had been at your summer home in Monte Carlo. You had vacationed there every year for as long as you can remember. And what about school you ask? Well as the daughter of the infamous Tony Stark (who happened to donate heavily to the Midtown School’s science fund), you had fame and fortune on your side.

You were popular, but not overly by choice- your family was famous, and your dad was Iron Man , so people were constantly trying to be your friend. The only person who was your true friend was MJ. She wasn’t faced by the lack of anonymity or star-struck by your father, and that made you feel humble, and normal.

You took your seat next to her for your first class of the day, giving her a sideways hug in greeting (which she pretended to hate, but secretly loved.)

“Welcome back,” she said, not looking up from her textbook. You could see she was already onto chapter 11 (and you knew today you would only be covering chapter 7). “How was your summer?”

“Why thank you,” you smiled as you shifted through your bag for your things. “You know, the usual, we go with every intention of doing family shit, but alas, the world needs saving, Dad flies off, and then I just chill until he comes to bring me home.” You said, flicking to chapter 11 of your textbook, “Also, I read this on the plane home, did you think it was kinda simple?”

MJ rolls her eyes at your ability to be ahead of the class despite lounging in the sun for months on end, “Yeah, it is a little. Did you dye your hair?”

“Oh yeah,” you said, spreading your once dark auburn hair out in front of you. “Dad finally let me go lighter, I was so sick of it being such a terrible red!”

“Don’t you think she’s amazing?” Ned asked aloud. He was staring at the back of Y/N Stark’s head as she was flicking through her textbook. Peter shrugged. He has only started at Midtown that year, finally gaining a scholarship and ready to pursue his academic dreams. He met Ned on the first day, and soon discovered his deeeeep infatuation with the infamous Y/N. Ned had been anticipating her return for weeks.

“She always goes on vacation somewhere exotic, and she comes back looking like the sun-kissed goddess she is,” Ned had eagerly told him.

Peter, however, did not get the hype. She skipped school, barely tried, yet seemed to be on some kind of pedestal because she was famous? It rubbed Peter the wrong way. He had worked so hard to get where he needed to be- he lost his parents, helped May at work, and he studied hard to get where he needs to be... he didn’t buy his way in.

Later that day Peter was walking towards his English class. One hand clasped his second hand laptop, in the other was his glasses. As he rounded the corner, he bumped into someone.

“Sorry…” he began to say but his words were cut off.

“Watch where you’re going,” the boy growled. He looked from Peter’s face down to his hand which carried his glasses, “Maybe if you put these on,” he snatched the glasses from his grip, “you’d actually be able to see.” He chuckled cruelly as he tossed Peter’s glasses over his shoulder. As Peter moved to collect his glasses from the floor, the boy put a hand to his chest to stop him.

“Cut it out Flash,” a voice cut through the air,” Peter turned to see Y/N Stark walking towards them, bag tossed lazily over her shoulder.

“Y/N,” Flash stuttered, “you’re back.”

“I am,” she said crossing her arms as she glared at Flash, “Is there a problem here?” she asked icily.

“Nope,” Flash said, leaning down to pick Peter’s glasses up. He shoved them back into his hands, and Peter fumbled to clasp them in his fingers.

“Good,” Y/N raised her eyebrow at him, “we’ll see you later then.”

Flash nodded and retreated, hands raised in truce. As he disappeared around the corner, Y/N turned to Peter, but he focused forward.

You followed him down the hall, “are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” he answered shortly. His answer took you aback, but you took three large strides to catch up with the boy.

“I wouldn’t worry about Flash,” you said, “he’s just a bully, always has been.”

Peter nodded in slight acknowledgement but continue to train forward towards his class. Taking no social cues, you continued,

“It’s really because his mother and father don’t have much do to with him, but he would never admit that,” you said, “so what’s your name?”

Peter didn’t answer, he only picked up his pace as he dodged other students within the halls.

Your brow furrowed as you struggled against the crowd to stay apace, “oh, um, what’s your name?” you asked again, but to no avail.

As you reached the classroom, he abruptly stopped. You skidded to a halt behind him as he turned around.

“Look,” he started, “I’m sorry if I was rude. I’m Peter.” He eventually caved. You smiled at him, as the two of you entered through the doorway into the English classroom.

“Hello, Peter, I’m…”

“Y/N!” You heard multiple names holler at you. You turned from him to see Betty, Gwen and countless other students rushing toward you. They grabbed both your arms, as they ushered you into the room, bombarding you with questions about your summer, and bout Iron Man’s latest mission.

As Peter went to step into the room further, he was stopped by a body.

“What were you doing walking with Y/N?” the boy asked him. Peter looked up at the boy, he was tall and strapping and looked as if he had taken one too many footballs to the head.

“Excuse me?” Peter asked incredulously.

“You better stay away from her. Harry Osborn’s claimed her, so you better not try anything.” The boy said threatening, gesturing over his shoulder to a blonde boy sitting on one of the desks. He was showering a few admiring girls a very expensive looking watch.

“Claimed her?” Peter asked again. The boy rolled his eyes and shoved Peter, but before he could say anything else, a voice interrupted him.

“Brad, just leave it,” it was the Harry boy who had spoken. Peter looked over Brad’s shoulder to see him traipsing towards them. He clasped his hand onto Brad’s shoulder before glaring down at Peter.

“We have no need to fraternise with ugly orphans,” he let out a witch-like cackle, before he and Brad made their way back to their table. Peter shuffled quietly to a seat near the front of the room. He timidly brought out his binder and looked around the room. He saw Y/N sitting a few rows behind him, intently reading the class text.

You could feel eyes watching you, and as you looked up from Jane Eyre, you could see a pair of brown eyes staring back at you.

Y/N happened to look up as Peter was staring. He felt a blush creep up his neck, embarrassed he’d been caught, but he felt at ease as she slightly lifted her fingers off the side of the book in a small wave.

And smiled at him across the room.

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[bolddeducktionneverfails]

Launchpad’s Association With Della Duck: If Walls Could Talk

Part 1 | Part 2 || Part 3 | Part 4| Part 5 || Part 6 | Continued from Part 7

Sometimes in art, the composition of a scene gives away more information than the foreground is willing to tell us. The musical score and the colors can also be used to do this by invoking certain emotions. When Scrooge orders Launchpad to hand him the parachute in “Last Crash of the Sunchaser!”, Launchpad stalls and a brassy instrument buzzes in the background. Combined with his look of concern and Scrooge covering up his vague mention of Della with the kids, this musical cue seems to imply that something stung about Scrooge’s slip-up. Or that maybe he knew something was wrong and wanted to know who Scrooge was really referring to. Also, during the most intense portion of the episode, the sun begins to set, causing many warm colors to be present. Having this setting while the emotions are high, further invokes feelings of fear and suspense.

With that being said, let's see what additional information Della and Launchpad’s first meeting could be telling us.

Della's mystery theme begins to play as she descends from the stairs. She brushes her hand against a picture of Donald sitting on HDL’s eggs. The sound of a violin intensifies and subsides as she does this. 

Della looks at another photo of Donald taking care of the boys, then fixes her gaze on the family photo as she continues to walk. The violin comes in. She stops in front of Launchpad's photo with her head covering up most of it. The score briefly stops along with her. 

Della takes out her own copy of the family photo; the same one she’s been holding on to since the moment she first entered the Spear. After sadly staring at the drawings on the back of it, she places it over her side of Donald's copy. This gesture makes me wonder if this was her way of inserting the father into the picture. The boys are already being represented by their eggs, so why would she need to place them into the picture if they’re already there? I guess it can be argued that she was excluding herself because she wasn't present during most of HDL’s childhood, but a little afterwards, she says “I’ll take it from here.” She’s still optimistic about her role as a parent and belonging in the family so why would she block herself out as to think she didn’t deserve to be on the wall?

Pᴇʀʜᴀᴘs Dᴇʟʟᴀ ʜᴀᴅ ᴏʀɪɢɪɴᴀʟʟʏ ɪɴᴛᴇɴᴅᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ɢɪᴠᴇ ᴏʀ sʜᴏᴡ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘʜᴏᴛᴏ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ғᴀᴛʜᴇʀ ᴀғᴛᴇʀ sʜᴇ sᴀᴠᴇᴅ ʜɪᴍ.

Remember how Scrooge was comparing the Spear incident to the situation happening in “Last Crash”? He was trying to protect Dewey, but the triplet continued to chase after a missing piece of a photo. 

When the piece gets stuck at the front of the plane, Dewey activates the parachute to launch himself up there. When the piece flies out the window, he goes right after it, putting himself in a dangerous area full of clouds. 

The main objective of the trip was to go to an event called E.X.C.E.S.S, which included the phrase "Fun for Dad!" on its flyer.

Tʜᴇ ᴘʜʀᴀsᴇ ɪs ʜᴀʀᴅᴇʀ ᴛᴏ sᴇᴇ ɪɴ ᴄᴏᴍᴘᴀʀɪsᴏɴ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ ᴛᴇxᴛ ᴏɴ ᴛʜᴇ ғʟʏᴇʀ, sᴏʀᴛ ᴏғ ᴍᴀᴋɪɴɢ ɪᴛ ʜɪᴅᴅᴇɴ ɪɴ ᴘʟᴀɪɴ sɪɢʜᴛ.

There were also plans to find a lost heirloom but neither got accomplished because the plane gets stuck on a peak, much like Della getting stuck on the Moon. 

When Dewey and Scrooge are speeding through the plane, Scrooge has a rope tied to his waist and Launchpad holds on to the other end that’s tied to the parachute. The pilot is connected to what’s happening, but he’s very perplexed about it. 

Earlier, as Scrooge instructs everyone to stay put, Dewey inches over to the second pilot chair where the missing piece is stuck onto the base. When Dewey causes the plane to shake, Launchpad is suddenly placed in that chair after we’re given a shot of it being empty. 

Perhaps this was some sort of error, but this scene does follow a moment where Launchpad needs to be saved after a bunch of cargo traps him in the jeep. 

There also seems to be another error where Launchpad suddenly appears in the jeep when the driver’s seat was empty in the previous shot.

We see the missing piece stuck to the jeep before this happens.

Scrooge’s comparison can serve as an explanation to why Della had the photo of herself climbing into the rocket  in “The Golden Spear”. It might be a meta thing to express that connection. Otherwise, it would be very strange for Della to be hanging up an regretful moment without destroying the photo in some way.

Aʟsᴏ ᴘɪᴄᴛᴜʀᴇᴅ ᴏɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴀʟʟ ɪs ᴀ ʙʟᴜᴇᴘʀɪɴᴛ ғᴏʀ ᴛʜᴇ Sᴘᴇᴀʀ, ʜᴇʀ ᴅʀᴀᴡɪɴɢs ᴏɴ ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴀᴄᴋ ᴏғ ʜᴇʀ ғᴀᴍɪʟʏ ᴘʜᴏᴛᴏ ᴀɴᴅ  ᴘᴏssɪʙʟʏ ᴛʜᴇ ʙʟᴜᴇᴘʀɪɴᴛs ғᴏʀ ʜᴇʀ ʀᴏʙᴏᴛ ʟᴇɢ.

After quietly commending Donald on his parenting, Della notices Launchpad’s photo and shifts into a more sour demeanor as she wonders why this stranger is up on the wall. When the picture first appeared in “Storkules in Duckburg!”, I had a strong feeling that it was supposed to be Launchpad depicted in it. He’s looking a lot more like himself as opposed to the messy, white-haired individual wearing a teal scarf and no boots. He’s still kneeling on the ground, smiling and giving a thumbs up, but now it’s much easier to tell that there’s a plane in the background. We’re shown that the Sunchaser caught on fire when it crashed. Donald is in the photo now, panicking and running away with the back of his shirt on fire. Launchpad is a bit singed from the fire, but he’s not fazed at all.

Lᴀᴜɴᴄʜᴘᴀᴅ's ᴘʜᴏᴛᴏ ɪɴ "Nᴏᴛʜɪɴɢ Cᴀɴ" ᴄᴏᴍᴘᴀʀᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ "Sᴛᴏʀᴋᴜʟᴇs" ᴠᴇʀsɪᴏɴ ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘʀᴏᴅᴜᴄᴛɪᴏɴ ᴀʀᴛ ʙᴏᴛʜ ᴍᴀʏ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ʙᴇᴇɴ ɪɴsᴘɪʀᴇᴅ ʙʏ.

When I realized it was Launchpad in the “Storkules” version, I thought they were obscuring him in a similar way that they did with Duckworth before they officially revealed him. Even though the wall wasn’t as detailed as it became in “Nothing Can”, everyone else was very easy to recognize right off the bat. They could have easily made Launchpad look closer to himself. Giving him red hair would have been a huge clue, but instead, they left that detail out and gave him different clothes. Because of my new theory, I think this was alluding to Launchpad looking notably different in the past. Later in the episode, the photo disappears and the wall reverts to what it used to look like in “Shadow War”. It came off as something we weren’t supposed to see for very long, but this could be representing Launchpad going missing. When the wall changes again in “Nothing Can”, it could be hinting how LP changed after his disappearance.

Tᴏᴘ: Tʜᴇ ғᴀᴍɪʟʏ ᴘʜᴏᴛᴏ ᴡᴀʟʟ ɪɴ “Tʜᴇ Sʜᴀᴅᴏᴡ Wᴀʀ!”

Mɪᴅᴅʟᴇ: Tʜᴇ ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇᴅ ᴠᴇʀsɪᴏɴ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴀʟʟ ᴛᴏᴡᴀʀᴅs ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴇɢɪɴɴɪɴɢ ᴏғ “Sᴛᴏʀᴋᴜʟᴇs ɪɴ Dᴜᴄᴋʙᴜʀɢ!” ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴀʟʟ ʀᴇᴠᴇʀᴛɪɴɢ ʟᴀᴛᴇʀ ᴏɴ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴇᴘɪᴅsᴏᴅᴇ

Bᴏᴛᴛᴏᴍ: Tʜᴇ ᴡᴀʟʟ ɪɴ "Nᴏᴛʜɪɴɢ Cᴀɴ" ᴡɪᴛʜ Dᴇʟʟᴀ ᴇᴅɪᴛᴇᴅ ᴏᴜᴛ.

While I’m glad that LP was confirmed for the mysterious photo, I still don’t understand why Donald has is up. They’re not exactly friends...they hardly ever interact with each other and Donald’s not enjoying himself in the picture at all. Maybe Dewey took the picture and put it up there, but still...the fact that a picture of Launchpad is included while Webby and Mrs. Beakley are excluded, is extremely peculiar...all three of them are supposed to be honorary family members, yet Launchpad is the only one surrounded by blood relatives.

Oғғɪᴄɪᴀʟ ᴍᴀᴛᴇʀɪᴀʟ ᴡʜᴇʀᴇ ‘87’s Lᴀᴜɴᴄʜᴘᴀᴅ ɪs ɢɪᴠᴇɴ ᴡʜɪᴛᴇ ʜᴀɪʀ ᴇɪᴛʜᴇʀ ʙʏ ᴄᴏʟᴏʀɪɴɢ ᴇʀʀᴏʀ ᴏʀ ɪᴛ ᴡᴀs ᴏɴᴄᴇ ᴄᴏɴsɪᴅᴇʀᴇᴅ ғᴏʀ ʜɪᴍ ᴛᴏ ʟᴏᴏᴋ ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴛʜɪs.

Tᴏᴘ, Lᴇғᴛ ᴛᴏ Rɪɢʜᴛ: Bɪʀᴅɪᴇ sʜᴏᴡɪɴɢ Lᴀᴜɴᴄʜᴘᴀᴅ’s ʙᴀʙʏ ᴘʜᴏᴛᴏ ғʀᴏᴍ “Tᴏᴘ Dᴜᴄᴋ” ᴀɴᴅ ᴘᴀʀᴛ ᴏғ ᴀ Dɪsɴᴇʏ Aᴅᴠᴇɴᴛᴜʀᴇs ᴍᴀɢᴀᴢɪɴᴇ ᴄᴏᴠᴇʀ.

Bᴏᴛᴛᴏᴍ, Lᴇғᴛ: Lᴀᴜɴᴄʜᴘᴀᴅ ᴀs ʜᴇ ᴀᴘᴘᴇᴀʀᴇᴅ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ Vɪʟʟᴀ Dᴏɴᴀʟᴅᴏ Hᴏᴍᴇ Sʜᴏᴘ ᴘᴀɪɴᴛɪɴɢ ᴀᴛ Tᴏᴋʏᴏ DɪsɴᴇʏSᴇᴀ. Dᴇʟʟᴀ ɪs ᴘʟᴀᴄᴇᴅ ɴᴇxᴛ ᴛᴏ ʜɪᴍ ᴡɪᴛʜ ʜᴇʀ sᴏɴs ɪɴ ғʀᴏɴᴛ. 

Bᴏᴛᴛᴏᴍ, Rɪɢʜᴛ: A ᴄʟᴏsᴇ-ᴜᴘ  ᴏғ Lᴀᴜɴᴄʜᴘᴀᴅ ғʀᴏᴍ Tʜᴇ Gʀᴇᴀᴛ Lᴏsᴛ Tʀᴇᴀsᴜʀᴇ Hᴜɴᴛ ʙᴏᴏᴋ  

Tʜᴇ "Sᴛᴏʀᴋᴜʟᴇs" ᴠᴇʀsɪᴏɴ sᴇᴇᴍs ᴛᴏ ʀᴇsᴇᴍʙʟᴇ LP's ᴅᴇsɪɢɴ ғʀᴏᴍ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴀɢᴀᴢɪɴᴇ ᴄᴏᴠᴇʀ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴏsᴛ. Cᴏᴜʟᴅ ᴛʜɪs ʜᴀᴠᴇ ʙᴇᴇɴ ɪɴᴛᴇɴᴛɪᴏɴᴀʟ?

Right on cue, Launchpad enters the houseboat to introduce himself to Della. He stands in front of Donald’s parenting side of the wall. The placement of the photos become inconsistent for the next two shots: 

Della starts off in front of Huey and Louie’s portraits but when she begins to confront Launchpad about being replaced, the pictures have shifted to the left; putting her in between Launchpad’s photo and the original family photo. This shot hides the faces of Della’s first two drawings, but the third one is left visible until she stops in front of him.   

When Della grabs Launchpad by the collar, the photos have shifted to the right. The original family photo is suddenly hanging around their heads. LP slumps forward when he realizes that Della isn’t happy with him and that causes his head to point towards the drawings.

She brings LP down to her line of sight to glare at him as she makes it clear that she’s the pilot around here. This brings their heads together below the family photo with Launchpad being even more in line with the direction of the drawings. The third drawing is peeking from behind LP’s head and the way LP is scrunched down makes him resemble it more. Unlike most shots the third drawing appears in, the lower half of the body is missing.

Della loosens her grip as she marches up the stairs. Launchpad seems to press himself against the wall to get out of Della’s way (or did she force him to move over?), causing his head to be placed in the family photo, his right arm to be in his own photo, his left arm to be in the photo of Donald with the triplets in the inflatable raft, leaving the rest of his body in the photo of Donald and the boys fishing. Having Launchpad put in front of the family photo seems to support the idea of Della wanting to have the father “in the picture”.

It also reminded me of one occurrence after another: It made me think of how the Launch light in the Spear was in the same direction of the family photo during the beginning of “Whatever Happened”. There may have even been some subtle wordplay going on with the “Emergency Launch” being activated in “Golden Spear”.

That made me think of Launchpad’s dialogue when he was talking to Scrooge over the intercom in “Shadow War”. The scene briefly gives us a look at Magica-Possesed Lena eavesdropping on the conversation. Then the camera immediately goes back to LP the moment he says “launching their mom into Space and orphaning them”. The way he recaps the situation makes it sound like this is the first time Launchpad is checking on Scrooge. The episode takes place three days after “Last Crash”. Why did it take him so long? He doesn’t even appear at the end of that episode when everyone, including Duckworth, is leaving.  We’re left wondering where Launchpad is during Scrooge’s time of need. In spite of hearing Scrooge’s side of the Spear incident, Launchpad never takes the time to blame Della. Wouldn’t he want to defend Scrooge? 

Looking back at “Last Crash” made me think about the scene where the plane is about to fall off the peak. As the children pile the blame onto Scrooge, the Sunchaser leans forward where Launchpad and the hula girl bobble figure are. I’ve noted in the past how the figure could have been placed there by Launchpad and how it could be representing Della since it wears some of her colors. The plane leaning on their side rather than the back could definitely be an indicator that Scrooge wasn’t the reason why Della went missing. Launchpad isn’t able to respond to the flashback because of the plane, but he draws attention to himself in general as he tries to interrupt the argument.

Speaking of which, something else that’s worth noticing about Launchpad’s placement on the wall is that his head is right next to Della’s third drawing. When he lands there, his hair bang seems to be bring attention to it by keeping it visible while having the other two drawings hidden. 

This drawing seems to be getting a lot of attention in general: When we first see the back of the family photo in “Last Christmas!”, we're given zero indication of what the third drawing looks like. It's hidden... like Della’s lower half. Then in “Whatever Happened to Della Duck?!”, we find out why her lower half was hidden and what the third drawing looks like. 

As Lunaris talks about the sacrifices the moon mite made for her child, Della looks at the front of the family photo. The top two drawings are visible, but the third is not. 

When Della shows her kids to Penumbra in “The Golden Spear!”, she isolates the third drawing by noting that their heads aren’t really shaped like eggplants.. It's the only one with a head-shape that closely resembles the fruit. 

For a while, I've been thinking that there could be some foreshadowing going on with the entire back of the photo. As soon as I saw the second drawing, I immediately thought of Gladstone due to the eyebrows and curly hair bang. I couldn't figure out who the first one could have represented but then I saw suggestions about it possibly having to do with Fethry; the cone shape on top of the head could be like a hat. It would make a lot of sense for these two drawings to be referring to them since they're both Duck Cousins with debut episodes that follow the same formula and shared similarities to Della's situation on the Moon.

One of those formula components included “being heavily compared to one of the triplets". Gladstone had his episode with Louie on land. Fethry had his episode under the sea with Huey. Dewey has yet to have an episode that follows the special formula and Space definitely seems like it could be the next environment to be featured. 

Donald's on the Moon now, so the third drawing could be hinting to something involving him, but I don't think he's being depicted here and they don’t share a lot in common. Dewey is often compared to Della, but he’s similar to Launchpad too. The fact that Della let Penumbra know that her children didn't really have eggplant-shaped heads in spite of what she drew, could coincide with the idea that Launchpad didn’t always look the way that he currently does.

“Depths” compared Launchpad to Dewey when he rose out of the water with a serious expression on his face, that was similar to the beginning of the episode when Huey disrupted Dewey from his bath. Dewey was expressing how he wanted to see something exciting happen and Launchpad ends up coming from something exciting. If the first two drawings truly did represent Fethry and Gladstone and if Huey and Louie had episodes with them where they were compared to their cousins, that means Dewey will be compared to another family member. If it’s the father, that means he’s still alive and will accompany him in that episode.

Towards the end of “Nothing Can”, after the Gilded Man fight, Della states "Man, Donald sure is missing out on some quality family bonding." He's not the only one; Launchpad was completely absent during the family’s time of need. (Well, and Duckworth.) He was just seen in the houseboat and we’re led to believe he lives somewhere in a separate area of the mansion’s garage. If he was still on the premises, he should have heard what was going on. Where could he have gone?  Because Launchpad has had other unexplained absences, this is feeling very deliberate. Aside from remarking about Launchpad being immortal in “Game Night”, Louie did mention how Launchpad leaves for “non-suspicious reasons”. I’m convinced they're saving Launchpad for another important family moment.

---

In a couple of other posts I’ve made, I discussed the set-up of Launchpad’s room in the garage and how he sleeps hanging suspended in a starry atmosphere. 

But as I observed it some more, I came to realize that not only is this area made up of string lights and glow-in-the-dark celestial objects, but it also includes a red hammock, a blue pillow and a green cover. 

On the ground level of the garage, he has a red couch, a green-ish teal curtain and an area of blue to indigo-colored posters on his wall below the string lights. There’s also large areas of gold and brown, much like the chauffeur outfit he wears. 

Whenever red, blue and green are grouped together on this show, it more than likely has something to do with HDL and whenever anything is reminiscent of stars or the Moon, it’s hard not to think of Della.

Webby’s room is pretty interesting too. Last August, I wondered if some of Webby’s belongings could have been hand-me-downs from Della’s childhood or that maybe the items were originally intended for HDL’s nursery. There are two pairs of aircrafts hanging down from the ceiling as well as moons, stars and hearts throughout the main section of her room and the bathroom.

Tᴏᴘ: Wᴇʙʙʏ's ʀᴏᴏᴍ ғʀᴏᴍ "Tʜᴇ Gʀᴇᴀᴛ Dɪᴍᴇ Cʜᴀsᴇ!"

Bᴏᴛᴛᴏᴍ: Wᴇʙʙʏ's ʙᴀᴛʜʀᴏᴏᴍ ғʀᴏᴍ "Jᴀᴡ$!"

It’s also possible that this was originally Della’s room after she moved out of the one she shared with Donald and then later wanted to re-purpose it for a nursery. Another thing that could be indicating that Della could have been involved with the room is how Webby’s sleeping area has a blue bunny, a green-ish teal pillow and a red cover. There’s also a telescope to look out the window over the bed.

Wᴇʙʙʏ's sʟᴇᴇᴘɪɴɢ ᴀʀᴇᴀ ғʀᴏᴍ "Jᴀᴡ$!"

___

At the end of “The Shadow War!” where Della was watching the news report, I was convinced that she acknowledged Launchpad when she put her hand on his side of the screen. Now that we know they don’t know each other, I believe this was meant to be a meta hint. Dewey and Louie are also on this side, but her hand covers their faces while leaving Launchpad’s easy for us to see. 

Maybe it was Scrooge she was acknowledging at that moment, but this isn't exactly made clear; perhaps because of the camera's angle. When you acknowledge someone you care about on screen, and you haven't seen them in forever, you're gonna want to place your hand on their body a leave their face open to look at. Completely blocking their face or put your hand next to them, is a strange impulse.

 Wʜᴀᴛ ᴛʜᴇ sᴄᴇɴᴇ ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ʟᴏᴏᴋᴇᴅ ʟɪᴋᴇ ɪғ ᴛʜᴇ sᴄʀᴇᴇɴ ᴡᴀs ᴄʟᴇᴀʀᴇʀ ᴡʜᴇɴ sʜᴇ ʀᴇsᴛᴇᴅ ʜᴇʀ ʜᴀɴᴅ. I ᴏᴠᴇʀʟᴀʏᴇᴅ ᴛʜᴇ sᴇᴄᴏɴᴅ sᴄʀᴇᴇɴsʜᴏᴛ ᴏɴ ᴛᴏᴘ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ ғɪʀsᴛ ᴀɴᴅ ᴇʀᴀsᴇᴅ ᴛʜᴇ sᴛᴀᴛɪᴄ.

I had thought the screen was clear enough for a moment for her to see where she was putting her hand, but I suppose the static and goggles made the scene hard for her to read. That would explain why she failed to notice HDL until the screen changed to focus on them. Still...the screen could have been more distorted to give us a better idea of how she was looking at it, but we're able to recognize everyone and where they're placed. Launchpad didn't have to be on that side, he could have easily been placed where Mrs. Beakley was put.

 Another reason why this could be some meta stuff going on is Donald's absence. There was an empty spot where he could have gone and he was present before Della's scene, yet he was excluded from the news report. Now that Donald is the one stuck on the Moon, this could have been foreshadowing his disappearance.

___

Back in March, the official DuckTales social media accounts changed their profile pictures and banners to be themed around new artwork of the family skydiving. Launchpad is the only one left on the plane, carrying what seems to be a jetpack at the doorway of the hatch. After the May episodes were released, video on demand services such as iTunes and Amazon Video set this artwork as the image for their Volume 4 pages.

Tᴏᴘ: Tʜᴇ Fᴀᴄᴇʙᴏᴏᴋ ᴠᴇʀsɪᴏɴ

Lᴇғᴛ: Tʜᴇ ɪTᴜɴᴇs ᴠᴇʀsɪᴏɴ

Rɪɢʜᴛ: Tʜᴇ Aᴍᴀᴢᴏɴ ᴠᴇʀsɪᴏɴ

In every variation of this artwork, the Sunchaser is always facing the Moon; which is peeking behind a cloud. This reminds me a lot of the second cover for Issue 18, where this also could have been used to represent Della. 

The fact that this element remains consistent in each version of the artwork, seems to imply significance. The composition of the first version also seems to hint at Donald's imprisonment on the Moon.

Alright, time to conclude this update with some later-in-the-season speculation!

 Continue here.

[scribescribe]

Exciting news, guys! You know that infamous Mistworld blooper reel that’s turned up at a couple of cons but seems to be on really tight lockdown until the DVDs come out? Well, they had it at ShiftCon this year, and although they were being really intense about no A/V recording, they didn’t say anything about frantic scribbling...so here’s as good a transcript as I could come up with! I’m sure a missed a bunch of stuff- in the way of blooper reels, there were a LOT of short clips, and I didn’t bother recording things like “everyone making silly faces” because, well, that’s not particularly exciting to read about and also those went by suuuuper fast, but here’s what I have! Enjoy!

Mistworld Bloopers:

-Danai Gurira attempting to dramatically raise the visor on her helmet, but it’s stuck. “On second thought, I prefer to remain mysterious,” she says, as everyone around her cracks up.

-Lupita Nyong'o utterly failing to gracefully draw her very large sword

-Natalie Portman hissing at the camera to show off her vampire fangs

-Karen David, Nicki Minaj, and Sara Bareilles singing a beautifully harmonized “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” for some reason

-Gina Carano and G-Dragon in craft services. G-Dragon says something slowly and exaggeratedly in Korean (subtitles: “please give me a coffee”) [ETA: thanks to the anon in my inbox who gave the Korean: 커피 좀 주세요], then holds up a cup. Gina attempts to repeat it and ends up with something that sounds similar to my ears but the subtitles are “give me a bloody nose” [코피 좀 주세요]. G-Dragon shrugs, puts down the coffee, and instead tries to punch her in the face, but she blocks it, twists his arm around, and punches him showily- he flies off his feet and collapses dramatically on the ground. She looks around guiltily, takes the coffee, and backs out of the frame.

-People milling around setting up for a shot. Someone in a big heavy cloak/coat thing approaches the camera and pulls back their hood to reveal- it’s Dessa. “Guess who’s back!”, she whispers, and winks.

-Montage of Rosario Dawson forgetting that Leila’s horns give her over a foot of extra height and walking into doorframes, tree branches, awnings, etc.

-Jim Rash trying to stand up dramatically in his rowboat and falling over

-G-dragon flailing around trying to get untangled from Alokas’s silks

-A take of the intense conversation between Rai and Nyka outside of a falling Ellsmere on the Ba Sing Se timeline. Santiago Cabrera does the line “...but it was worth it, to see you again,” and Gina Carano nods very seriously and then does the slowwwww lean-in as if to kiss him thing. He immediately catches on and also leans in; they don’t actually get there before someone yells CUT and they break apart laughing, but they get very close. This got an INTENSE scream from the audience, you guys, I’m pretty sure they know what we’re into and are trolling us.

-Rodrigo Santoro concentrating deeply on a magic book. After a very long moment of making a serious doing magic face he says, without ever opening his eyes, “this isn’t a practical effect, is it”. Someone offscreen: “nope!” RS: “you guys are doing it in post”. Offscreen: “yup!” RS: “and everyone’s just waiting for me to get on with this scene” Offscreen: “yeah that’s pretty much it!”

-Tyrese Gibson in the middle of a line addressing Toya, then stopping and going “nope, she’s on the other shoulder, isn’t she. You can just fix that with the CG, right, make her fly around?”

-Montage of the Tymora robot being generally terrible: getting stuck on cracks between floorboards, falling off tables and out of pockets, often followed by laughter, swearing, and apologies off-camera, presumably from the crewmember operating it. A lot of the scene where Rai, Merenith, and Toya “follow” Tymora down the hallways of the mages’ guild in which the robot was apparently having some hard times. Gina Carano has several takes of her monologue to Toya like “I’ve never seen it do anything like this before, it just started walking toward the Mages Guild this morning and it won’t stop….except, uh, now….I see it’s stopped...perhaps the middle of this hallway was very important to Asmun?” or “I’ve never seen it do anything like this before...yes, the slightly eerie twitching and whine of dying batteries is definitely new…”

-everyone who gets caught in the explosion where Rai is possessed by undead!Cord standing around in bathrobes, doing a little dance and chant “Na-ked ep-i-sode! Na-ked ep-i-sode!”

-Tom Hiddleston tripping on his shadowy robes, stumbling, managing to stay upright, and doing jazz hands

-Bex Taylor-Klaus attempting to drink something and having way too much trouble getting figuring out how to get a straw through the dragon prosthetic

-Santiago Cabrera and the double who was standing in for the other Nyka slowly mirroring each other’s movements and then turning to the camera in mock-astonished horror

-Several takes of Rosario Dawson waving her arms dramatically at a monster that presumably will be CGI’d in later and then turning to her companions and declaring: “it’s okay, for the next five minutes it…

-”will think it’s a beagle puppy named Patches”

-”will have to pee really really bad”

-”will sincerely believe that it’s just a tennis ball on a stick”

-”will only want to jam to this beat” (she begins beatboxing)

-”will think Athol is its mommy”

-Manu Bennett dangling from strings in front of a green screen and making dramatic fighter plane noises and he pretends to steer Athol’s glider

-Jim Rash rowing in his boat suspended in the air against a greenscreen, singing sweetly “row row row your boat, gently down the stream...merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily” then turning to look directly into camera and whispering creepily “life is but a dream”

-A montage of fighters dropping their weapons or otherwise messing up their fight choreography, including Lupita Nyong'o whacking Rosario Dawson with her shield, Natalie Portman slicing aggressively with the glaive and accidentally flinging it across the room, Dichen Lachman falling down while trying to heroically charge up a hill, Gina Carano trying to crack her whip and it just flopping around awkwardly, Amandla Stenberg turning the wrong way and dramatically stabbing a place where no one is standing, Manu Bennett throwing an axe and having the head go flying and the handle just plop down at his feet

-Bex Taylor-Klaus pointing at Rodgrigo Santoro and going “and THAT’S a WRAP!” with a cheesy grin, while Rodrigo Santoro shakes his head in extreme judgment. 

[timetrickster]

Aloha Oe X Edith Nox Crossover Episode 1: World’s Collide

So after drawing up @cometworks OC’s. I thought to have fun and collab with her characters and my main character and make a crossover. In the form of episodes. Sooo I hope ye enjoy it.

FADE IN

EXT. THE DEPTHS OF SPACE

Space. Literally space. The darkest depths of the unknown, holding what many couldn’t even anticipate. Asteroids shooting from different ends of the galaxy. Ships from different worlds traveling, fighting, floating. Even a planet that’s lost its gravity axis and floats like a pinball in a vast universe.

But right now… a space battle between two ships. The Eternity… the time ship piloted by the time-traveling alien hero of Universe Designation: 727 Justin Oras. He chases down an alien threat… a Vis, known as Imperium. An energy absorber who had recently stolen a supply of Quasar Energy Fuel. When used by someone dangerous it could destroy half a world.

The Eternity chases after the ship that Imperium flies.

INT. ETERNITY COMMAND DECK

JUSTIN

Enoch! How are we looking with the fuel?

ENOCH’S voice only appears.

ENOCH

We have enough fuel captain.

JUSTIN

Good. Fire photon cannons now.

EXT. SPACE

The Eternity fires blasts off light hit the right wing of Imperium’s ship. All of a sudden a wave of cosmic energy comes toward both ships. Making Imperium’s ship disappear first.

INT. ETERNITY COMMAND DECK

Justin looks on as he realizes the wave of cosmic energy come at him.

JUSTIN

Oh, shi-

The wave of cosmic energy grabs onto the Eternity too and disappears.

CUT TO

EXT. UNIVERSE 528

It’s a lovely day on this Universe’s Earth. A lovely girl named Edith Nox who loves gardening is planting some new flowers in her garden. Enjoying a rather sunshine filled day. When all of a sudden, something shining in the sky lands near her home. Sensing the emotional distress of a specific person. She rushes over immediately only to find a huge but damaged plane parked near her home.

A door on its side opens up and JUSTIN ORAS, dizzy and tired from the cosmic energy wave walks out. The ship turns invisible immediately in the sight of EDITH appearing. JUSTIN falls into the ground and EDITH rushes over to help this stranger in a long coat, holding him up by carrying his arms around her.

EDITH

Are you, okay mister?

JUSTIN instantly knocks out as his head drops and his body becomes heavy.

EDITH (cont’d)

You’re really heavy mister!

EDITH drags him to her home and sets him on her couch.

EDITH (cont’d)

You’re very very heavy mister.

EDITH pulls out her phone, this sleek and thin and clear rectangle and makes a call.

CUT TO

INT. EDITH’S LIVING ROOM. AFTERNOON

JUSTIN wakes up instantly, finding himself shirtless with bandages wrapped around his wounds. His stomach wrapped in bandage wrap as well as his right wrist. He looks to his left and sees EDITH coming in and two other people. One with long hair and also wearing a long coat. Another with curly hair and wearing sports clothing.

EDITH

Hello, are you okay?

She rushes over with a cup full of water. Still dizzy he nods then shakes his head real quick.

JUSTIN

Hello… um, my name is Justin Oras.

EDITH

Hello Justin, my name is Edith. These are my friends Noemi and Violet.

JUSTIN

Hello. Uh. Where am I?

EDITH

You’re in my home.

JUSTIN

No… I mean what planet am I on?

EDITH chuckles a bit.

EDITH

You must’ve hit your head really hard. Um… we’re on Earth.

JUSTIN

The year?

EDITH

3006

JUSTIN

WHAT?!

ENOCH’S hologram form appears as Justin’s phone on the table projects her.

ENOCH

Captain.

VIOLET responds with a fighting stance and what appeared to be ice sharpened to form weapons. NOEMI’S wings sprout open as a sign of surprise. EDITH looks at ENOCH with fear and curiosity.

JUSTIN

Enoch. Where are we?

ENOCH

We are in Universe Designation 528.

VIOLET

What is that thing? An Energy being?

JUSTIN

She’s an AI.

They all looked confused.

VIOLET

She’s a computer’s brain?

JUSTIN

She’s a living computer.

VIOLET

That’s impossible.

JUSTIN

Not where I’m from.

ENOCH

To repeat, we are in Universe designation 528.

JUSTIN

Any known information?

ENOCH

From what I am able to find in the nearest databanks. This universe’s Earth was ravaged by an apocalyptic event. The survivors had mutated and are now capable of magical abilities.

JUSTIN looks at the three of them.

JUSTIN

Cool. Another magic universe.

EDITH

What did she mean “this universe”?

JUSTIN not knowing how to explain this, his face holds anxiousness.

JUSTIN

Uh… I’m from a different universe.

EDITH & NOEMI

What?!

VIOLET

Impossible!

JUSTIN

It’s true and to add on to the shock. I’m also an alien.

EDITH & NOEMI WHAT?!

EDITH

An… alien?

JUSTIN

Yeah.

EDITH

Like… from space and stuff?

JUSTIN

Yeah.

EDITH takes a big breath in.

EDITH

THAT’S SO COOL! Oh my Eden! You have to tell me more about yourself! What’s your home like?! How often do you travel in space?! IS THERE A PLANET FULL OF FLOWERS?!

EDITH’S face shows surprise while NOEMI was about to have a nervous breakdown. VIOLET stood there believing this all was lies.

VIOLET

You guys seriously don’t believe this right?

EDITH zooms past VIOLET and sit’s face to face with JUSTIN.

JUSTIN

You’re pretty excitable aren’t you?

He laughs a little and smiles.

But to answer your questions. It’s an amazing place. A sun shaped like an “X”, midnight blue grass. Leaves made out of gemstones. It’s a lovely place.

EDITH

YES! Ooh! THAT SOUNDS AMAZING! CAN WE GO THERE RIGHT NOW?!

JUSTIN

Um…

He falls silent. Through Edith’s POV, she feels a wave of tragedy suddenly hit her.

EDITH

Oh my… I’m sorry.

JUSTIN

No. No. Don’t be sorry. It’s alright.

He reassures her. JUSTIN gets up and puts on his shirt and grabs his phone.

JUSTIN

Is there a place you guys like to eat? I’m actually starving… jumping universes has some effects and hunger is one of them.

EDITH

There’s Mapple Brew Coffee Shop nearby. They could have so foods and deserts.

JUSTIN sees his long coat and puts it on.

JUSTIN

Lead the way, Edith.

EDITH does a salute and walks out the door. JUSTIN motions NOEMI and VIOLET to go first. NOEMI gives him a smile and walks out the door. VIOLET confronts him for a bit.

VIOLET

I don’t know who you are… or whatever this alien and different universe crap is. But if you hurt my friends I will kill you. You get one warning.

JUSTIN

Got it.

VIOLET exits the door and JUSTIN follows and closes the door to the house.

NOEMI

Any Transports at this time?

EDITH

Nope. Dang.

JUSTIN

We can take my ship.

They all turn to look at him. He nods his head to the right as a motion to follow him. With a snap of his finger, the Eternity reveals itself from its a hidden veil. JUSTIN stands like a showman with his arms up.

JUSTIN (cont’d)

Say hello to The Eternity.

EDITH’S eyes are widened as if gigantic stars took place of her pupils. NOEMI surprised by the reveal, his wings unfurled. VIOLET holds a serious face but shocked at the reveal.

EDITH

An alien ship! It’s an alien ship! Oooooh!

NOEMI

Oh my goodness.

VIOLET grabs him by the coat collar.

VIOLET

How did you do that?!

JUSTIN was scared of her anger authority. EDITH tries to pull JUSTIN off from VIOLET’S grip of death.

EDITH

Violet!

She lets go of him. JUSTIN fixes his collar and the side door to the cargo bay opens.

JUSTIN

Come in, guys.

They all walk into the ship. As they walk throughout the ship, EDITH & NOEMI look around every corner and scrutinize every detail. Meanwhile VIOLET looks unimpressed with the ship. They arrive at the command deck. ENOCH’S hologram appears and greets them all.

ENOCH

Hello, Captin. Ms. Nox, Mr. Sol, Highness Choi.

EDITH

Hello… Enoch right?

ENOCH

Yes, Ms. Nox. Hello to you too.

JUSTIN sits on the “Captain’s Chair” and starts pressing buttons.

JUSTIN

Has the self-repairs, repaired the ship?

ENOCH

The ship is at full capacity and up and running. Where to then?

EDITH

Ooh! Maple Brews Coffee House.

ENOCH

Alright then. Plotting a course to Maple Brew Coffee House. You three might want to sit down for this.

EDITH, NOEMI, & VIOLET do so and put on the strap that holds them in place. The Eternity rises into the sky slowly and JUSTIN holding onto a lever pushes it forward and the ship zooms instantly. The rush pushes back EDITH, NOEMI, & VIOLET as it was there first time riding in an alien spaceship. JUSTIN parks the ship near large park’s field. He turns around in his chair to find the three having a headache.

JUSTIN

Dammit, I should have warned you of the effects of flying on a time ship for first timers.

JUSTIN takes off the strap of EDITH first to which she falls on the ground like a blob.

JUSTIN

Jelly bones…

He helps EDITH up into her seat. NOEMI screams, and VIOLET speech is mismatched.

NOEMI

I can’t see!

VIOLET

WHAT US YOU DID DO TO?!

JUSTIN

Temporary blindness and Speech impairment. Should last for a couple of minutes.

CUT TO:

INT. MAPLE BREW COFFEE HOUSE.

The three friends and their newly found alien friend enjoying their mini cafe drinks. EDITH & NOEMI enjoying Rasberry Teas and VIOLET enjoying an iced coffee. JUSTIN enjoying a random drink with milk and cookies times seven.

EDITH

Can you tell us more about you?

JUSTIN

Uh… I was born on the planet of Chronos. I lived with my family until my 115th birthday.

EDITH

YOU’RE OVER A HUNDRED YEARS OLD?! You look like our age!

JUSTIN

Well… I’m currently 117. I’m technically a teenager in my years. So I’m still pretty young.

NOEMI

Do you know anyone different looking where you’re from?

JUSTIN

Of course dude. I come from space. Everyone comes in different shapes and sizes. One of my adopted brother’s is a Volantigar. They’re basically humans with wings.

NOEMI

Did you say wings?

JUSTIN

Yeah, dude. You remind me of Icarus a lot. Those wings are apart of that. Love the jet black feathers too.

NOEMI

Thank you, that means a lot.

JUSTIN

No, problem Nomei.

VIOLET

What are you doing here? In our “Universe”?

EDITH

Violet… don’t be mean.

VIOLET

He should explain his presence here.

JUSTIN

It’s fine. Um, I’m considered a hero in my universe. A legendary hero named The Time Trickster. I was after a wanted mad man, who had stolen a supply of Quasar Fuel. He’s also an energy absorber and with that supply he has… he could level a city. I shot his ship down before the cosmic wave threw me and the ship into this universe. It was a simple mistake really, I didn’t expect the cosmic wave to appear.

VIOLET

That is quite understandable. It is a pleasure to meet a warrior of your status. This Energy Absorber his name?

JUSTIN

Imperium of the Vis.

VIOLET

He sounds easy to defeat.

JUSTIN worried for his friend’s new safety warns her of IMPERIUM.

JUSTIN

He is no simple villain, Violet. He is an energy absorber.

VIOLET

I am one of the greatest fighters of the kingdom. As well as a renowned Cryomancer of my generation. I can beat someone from another universe.

EDITH

Sorry about, Violet. She’s a sorta… headstrong?

JUSTIN

Don’t worry… I understand what it’s like to be that way. My adopted mom from Gaia knows I tend to be that way.

EDITH

Oh my Eden!  Did you say Gaia?! TELL ME! TELL ME!

JUSTIN chuckles a bit.

JUSTIN

Oh, yeah haha. My adopted family comes from called Gaia.  And yes it’s a planet full flowers. It is known as the Everlasting Garden or the Planet of Nature.

EDITH froze for a few seconds as her heart had dropped hearing the words “Garden” & “Nature”.

JUSTIN

Is Edith okay?

NOEMI

She loves gardening… she tends to be like this.

EDITH

TELL ME MORE!

She smiles forever.

JUSTIN

After I was banished from my homeworld.

VIOLET

Banished?!

JUSTIN

I landed on the nearest planet in a nearby galaxy with humanoid looks. I was then adopted by High Queen Angelique The Rose and well I became a prince along with my 7 other adopted siblings.

EDITH

Please take me there one day! Please! Oh, I never asked, what are you? Since you’re an alien an all… what are you specifically?

JUSTIN

I’m a Time Walker. I already mentioned I’m a hundred years old and come from Chronos. I’m also a time traveler.

EDITH

No way!

NOEMI

You can travel in time?!

VIOLET

Hm.

JUSTIN

What?

VIOLET

I’ll believe it when I see it.

JUSTIN

I’ll prove it to you all.

Suddenly out of nowhere IMPERIUM shows up destroying whatever he sees in sight. A large featureless being with glowing red color and white eyes shaped to be evil.

JUSTIN

Imperium!

JUSTIN reaches near the right side of his head but grabs air instead.

JUSTIN

Crap I forgot my weapons

VIOLET

I true warrior needs no weapons.

VIOLET runs out of the cafe with EDITH & NOEMI following leaving JUSTIN.

VIOLET

Hey, Imperium!

IMPERIUM turns around to see VIOLET.

IMPERIUM

Oh a brave little girl, come to fight me?

VIOLET smirks,

VIOLET

Yes.

She raises both arms up, with palms open instantly firing her ice-cold powers. EDITH jumps in, waving her hands like making a sphere and creating this orb of green energy and blasting it toward him. NOEMI flies into battle and summons vapors of skull beings of death at his side to fight. Flying while firing what he could at IMPERIUS. IMPERIUS having absorbed their magic as energy.

IMPERIUM

Delicious… what do you call that? Magic, am I correct? You just gave me a boost of energy, children.

IMPERIUM’S body began to mutate from the magic absorbed. His right arm froze with ice, his aura of red mixed in with the green emotional energy. The left side of his face developed what appeared to be a skull. Shocked by this reveal of power displayed, IMPERIUM raises his frozen right arm about to blast all three mages. When suddenly he is frozen himself.

JUSTIN appears behind them, his right arm raised and hand clenched into a fist holding a shining blue orb of sorts.

JUSTIN

Hey guys. You didn’t have to ditch me.

VIOLET

How are you doing that?!

JUSTIN

My people can control the flow of time.

EDITH Awesome!

JUSTIN waves his hand and IMPERIUM disappears.

NOEMI

Where’d he go?

JUSTIN

I was thinking about the bottom of the ocean.

EDITH

You sent him there?!

JUSTIN

Yup.

EDITH

We won!

JUSTIN

We may have, but my ship isn’t fully repaired I can make a Dimensional Jump till she’s fully repaired. I can still fly her, I just can’t jump anywhere yet.

EDITH

So that means you’re stuck here?

JUSTIN

For a while yeah…

EDITH

Awesome!

JUSTIN looks at her confused.

EDITH (cont’d)

Awesome as in you’re staying for a while… sorry…

JUSTIN smiles

JUSTIN

I’m kidding, I guess I can crash at your place, Edith?

EDITH

Of course! We can show you around this universe too! That will be fun!

JUSTIN

I’d love that.

The four friends return to the ship and fly back to EDITH’S home where they had a small party to themselves.

CUT TO

EXT. BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN

IMPERIUM’S body still frozen is rescued by a figure in a dark cloak. With a snap of his finger, IMPERIUM is unfrozen and fires the ice blast and looks around for a moment.

IMPERIUM

Where are they?!

DARK FIGURE

One of them froze you. Not literally but figuratively.

He shows IMPERIUM a photo taken of EDITH, NOEMI, VIOLET, & JUSTIN. Recognizing JUSTIN immediately he scrutinizes the photo.

IMPERIUS

The Time Trickster! He is here too?!

DARK FIGURE

Yes, and I have a proposal to make you. Being from another world.

IMPERIUS despite being featureless his right eyebrow raises with intrigue.

IMPERIUM

I’m listening.

FADE TO BLACK

END OF EPISODE 1

[btswishes]

The heart of the forest

BTS AU

Part1 / ...

A/N: I was excited about this story. I don’t know how long it will be, but I hope all of you will have as much fun readying it as I have writing it.

Word count:  1,702

Warnings: nothing 

Gender: Female main character 

  He was a young researcher, in love with nature, earth and the myths lost in time. He sat in his office learning old langues forgotten by time, known only by the lands in which they were born. His name, ...

“Jimin what are you doing?” asked a young boy

“hey Jungkook, come in.” he leaned into his chair and gently pulled his glasses off his nose and into his night black hair “I was reading an old myth again.Sit down.”

“Oh.”the boy looked at the pieces of paper, as he sat down “What is it about?”

“You know this one actually.”Jimin lifted the book up and Jungkook almost immediately recognized the stone in the middle of the dark leather cover.

“The heart of the forest!”he gasped with a smile on his lips “I love this myth. I used to reread it over and over again like a fairy tail.”

“I know.”Jimin chuckled “I was the one who introduced you to it and read it to you for the first time. You were 9 back them, time sure flies.” 

“But, what made you pull this out again?”

“I had a dream last night.”he started talking slowly 

“About the book?”

“Yes. I realized that all these years we have been readying it like a children’s story, but in reality the people that created this loved to hide keys in each word they wrote. I wanted to see if there actually was a clue to the nation that lived so long ago ,that we even don’t know.”he swung his chair towards the window behind his back “Do you even understand how many unknown to us secrets lay on that dormant earth.”

“So...did you find anything?” Jimin lowered his arms and sighed. “I will take that as a no.”

“I don’t understand.”his body crashed back down “I checked everything.The book just ends with empty pages.”he handed it to Jungkook and the body started looking around it, examining each and every part. 

*knock knock*

“Come in.”Jimin said

“Hey guys, Hobi is calling for us. He said that he needs help with something.Oh! What are you looking at?” he reached to grab the book

“Don’t drop it.You are pretty clum-”

*bang*

“Namjoon!” Jimin jumped “What did I tell you!”

“Sorry. You startled me! I will pick it up, it’s fine. It fell on the carpet.”

 Namjoon reached for the book, but Jungkook slapped his hand away “Ow!What was that for?”

“Look.”the young boy said “The stone.”

 The place where the book hand landed was exactly where a ray of sunlight was hitting the gem on top of it. Even thought it was dark blue, the light coming out of it was forming the silhouette of trees in a green light ,all over the walls of the room. The three boys were stunned by the discovery. No one could move or even say anything. After a bit, Namjoon’s eyes wandered over to the light and back at the book.

“Hey Jimin....”he only nodded “What if those blank pages are there for a reason.”he turned around towards him and grabbed his shoulders “What if the stone on top was the key all along. The nation was knows for their love towards the sun and the water. They believed that both combined were the energy giving the earth life.The stone is blue like the water and the sunlight together created trees!”

 Since no one else could move from their spot, Jungkook picked up the book, gently pulled out the stone from its bed in the cover and opened to the first blank page.He quickly ran over to the window and the other two followed. They took a deep breath before Jungkook proceeded with placing the stone in the path of the light.Almost immediately they saw letters so beautifully written with in a majestic green color.

 It took them days before they were able to understand what the hidden meaning was, but one fateful night, Jimin screamed  at the top of his lungs.

“I GOT IT!!!”

 He grabbed his notes and kicked the door down, just to be met with the 6 shocked gazes of his friends and comrades.

“I FOUND COORDINATES IN THE BOOK!” 

 In just a matter of minutes everyone started running in different directions.

“Hobi grab the all the bags!” said Namjoon “Jin get some food.”

 Without even having time to realize what was happening Jimin was already on a small plane flying to an unknown destination based on the knowledge he had from a book older than time itself.

 Two days and two nights they were all checking maps, making sure everything was going as planned.Yes, some did find this a stupid idea, but a great adventure is always spontaneous.

 “GUYS!” the voice of the youngest shook up the plane and woke them up at the middle of the night.

“Don’t yell so late!”Jin scolded the young one 

“I think...I think we are here....”

“WHAT!”

 They jumped up, running over to the nearest window, just to find a gigantic piece of land under them.It was flourishing in all kinds of plants and animals.If one didn’t know he would think it was heaven. The moment the plane touched the ground and the door opened, a gentle breeze welcomed them.

 The night had enveloped the land in its cool arms as a mother swaying her child to sleep in her protective embrace. Yet it wasn’t dark and scary, on the contrary-the light coming from luminescent plants and small creatures was existing hand in hand with the black color of the night.What land was this? What world were they in? No one knew.

 “Guys...” Jin broke the silence “I-I think we should set up a camp before we start researching around. We need to make a space for the files.” the boys nodded and slowly removed their gaze from the land around them, picking up a bag and helping each other. What seemed like 3 long hours was enough for everything to find its place. 

 It was late, they could sleep, but didn’t and couldn’t. Tae started running his hand through the bushes and over the trees.His head snapped back to look at the camp behind himself.

“I have never seen such plants. The light they emit is stronger than most of out industrial bulbs.”

“Not to mention the insects that roam around the air.”added Yoongi scratching a small bite he got on is arm

 Jimin grabbed some paper and a pen “I think we should start by describing the night.I am sure that the institute would like for us to document everything. “

“Jimin is right.” Namjoon stood up “Everyone grab a pen and paper and lets start.There is no way for us to sleep right now even if we tried. This place is just....amazing.”

 Not even a second had passed since Namjoon had stopped talking and everyone was running around looking, touching, smelling anything and everything. Taehyung was hanging with his head down from a branch  looking at the underside of the trees. Jin was examining the plants searching for herbs and potential new foods. Namjoon was mesmerized by the florescent flies that looked nothing like the fireflies he knew oh so well. Yoongi was listening to the sounds trying to explain and describe them as he was holding a small recorder. Hoseok was marveling the sky, trying to figure out which constellations were above him.And Jungkook, well he was letting all of his senses feel the world around him. He smelled all kinds of new flowers that he wanted to write a book about.

 Jimin on the other hand slowly wandered around the camp, trying to find something that reminded him of a moment in the book or a lead to where or what the heart of the forest was. He kept looking down at the stone and walked in circles as many times as he could. 

“Jimin watch out!”Tae screamed before falling on top of him “I told you to be careful man. Didn’t you see me hanging from the tree?”

“Look here gorillaman, keep yourself on the tree at least if you are going to climb it.”Jimin looked at the stone as it was rolling off “Look what you made me do.” he pushed Tae off of himself and ran after it. 

 Their camp was apparently on a hill because the stone suddenly started rolling down and down until Jimin lost it from his sight. For a split second he thought he had lost it when a small splash sound entered his ear.He stopped Water? and thought to himself. The direction the gem went in was illuminated and the light started getting stronger and stronger with every step he took.A couple of bushes popped up in front of him, but that couldn’t stop a strong man as him.With just one move of his hand he pushed them back and immediately laid eyes on the small stone glistening in a river as wide as a chess board. He bent down to pull it out and proceeded with standing, when half way he heard something move. His head gently and slowly followed the rustle.

 The small river was curling around a bed of jade green grass that looked as comfortable as a cloud.There on it ...was a girl.Her hair as blue as the cold river water. As his eyes gently wondered down her body he saw drawings almost like tattoos in a dark brown color with green spots. Her skin looked smooth and soft, her lips pink like cherries.

“Jimin where did you wonder off to!”Jin pulled his shoulder “Tell us when you leave like that.”

“Jin is right.”nodded Namjoon with his arms on his waist, yet Jimin wasn’t looking at them. His eyes were wide, their dark color reflecting the light, his lips parted slightly

“What has gotten in to you?” Jungkook shook him

 Jimin lifted his arm up slowly and pointed with his finger towards the river

“What is i-OH MY GOD!”Namjoon let go of everything he was holding, Hoseok dropped to his knees as his eyes weren’t able to comprehend the situation. Jimin’s hand almost slapped Namjoon as he tried to close his mouth.

“Who is she?” asked Yoongi

“You mean what is she...”Jungkook whispered

[archteriorbd]

A Brief Description of 3D Rendering

3D rendering is perhaps the most loved and quickest developing mechanical skill legitimate now on the planet. However, there are people out there who are unquestionably almost no respected to this time span in picture chart or inside arrangement industry. Along these lines, here's the inner shy of this mechanical skill and why this tech is very tons imperative and arranged to use in the inside outline industry.

On the off chance that we see through human species history, we can see the caverns are brimming with drawings that had been drawn via our precursors. Through the channel of advancement, the pc has arisen as our cavern and photo format programming program has become our canvas.

3D rendering is the present-day evolutional baby of contemporary design. Even though we are considering it a youngster, this science was once begun to hoist three quite a while past. From these 30 years as of recently, 3D rendering has purchased developed sufficiently to work with it consistently. Furthermore, this tech has demonstrated to us that glims have been accepted as unrealistic during the 80s.

3D rendering is presently not just sure to the photos graph undertaking as it were. For its significant practicable stages, this science has long past one industry. It is just an awesome designing miracle that is utilized in the logical business, video industry, entertainment world, structural industry, etc. Also, this article objectives to deliver you a message of why and how this 3D rendering tech is ought to be utilized for future innovative advancement.

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So what 3D rendering genuinely is? 3D rendering is a delineation of a two-dimensional electronic wireframe. What's more, this wireframe is given basically the ideal shadow, lighting, surfaces as appropriately the same number of times utilized gear and substances into the edge. The charming angle is, looking at a board or a magazine's graphical picture, we don't fathom that these are utilized 3D engineering rendering. Love to see Tony Stark donning his enormous metallic automated constitution battle with the terrible folks and blazing them with a hand-connected weapon in Iron Man film?

We as a whole love it anyway what a number of us perceive that all the activities are made utilizing 3D rendering? This mechanical ability is basically all over the place, in the magazine, on the TV, on the cowl of our books, in the notice, and numerous extra computerized media. This innovative ability is moving rapidly to such an extent that even we can't protect and adapt to it.

The Post-mortem of 3D rendering.

There are two kinds of programming program needed to entire a 3D rendering mission and they are

Modelers and

Renderers.

Rendering begins advanced with just an intense 3D model. That life-sized model is comprised of a succession of mathematical shapes in a which are connected in a third-dimensional manner. These mathematical shapes are alluded to as 'Polygons'. These mathematical shapes or Polygons are the spine of any advanced 3D demonstration. The 3D life-sized model is made and controlled by the utilization of PC programming programs like 3DStudio Max, SketchUp, or Rhinoceros 3D.

The designs that come from this product program are a crude model of the leftover model. The designs are demonstrated as a RAW wireframe scene or item. Crude styles need to be inconspicuous via giving them conceals, surfaces, manufactured gentle sources, and various channels. The stop item is just refined and appropriately shaped using 3D rendering.

There is also some additional product program wished after the demonstrating and rendering undertakings. In any case, these are not, at this point obligatory. It is known as the after creation measure. Programming like Photoshop offers a definitive item a closure contact which makes the chart look alive.

To do this time-taking and convoluted programming, a 3D rendering craftsman should need to have this product program expertise in his/at the tip of her finger. Something else, a definitive item will presently don't be of the best quality.

The Birth of 3D Rendering.

The airplane is marvelous. It flies us bunches of ft over the mists and crosses us the Atlantic sea in a check number of certain hours. However, the experience of the aircraft is no longer as easy as we might suspect. It experienced issues. Also, these challenges furnished us with a response alluded to as 3D rendering. You can likewise ask me that, what is the connection between plane and 3D rendering. Indeed, there is a relationship. Furthermore, the relationship lies in an airplane's cockpit. Back in nowadays, no plane had whatever was alluded to as autopilot. In 1990, a pc pix dressmaker named William Fetter used to be given a dare to utilize the place of an airplane's cockpit.

There was once a need for an autopilot gadget because of the reality of the pilot's exhausting hours-long excursion. William Fetter was once wound up with a PC created an orthographic outline of the human structure. He named it 'PC Graphic' and after that the entire thing is history

Strolling in the strides of William Fetter, Dr. Ivan Sutherland tested stage above and beyond. He concocted a sketchpad and the world previously saw an entire 3D PC displaying program. This product program empowered a man or lady to work with or make a photo on a PC screen. It was previously the primary stride of Graphical User Interface (GUI).

From that point forward, we as a whole perceive what occurred. All happened sooner than our eyes. A PC purchased quicker, programming program got more intelligent and the hardware that needs to control all the muddled works of 3D, end up refined.

3D Rendering Software/Tools

Possibly you are wanting to be a rendering trained professional and can't find the quality programming system to do it! Alright, venture out. Begin picking up information on what 3d rendering is and why you should break down it. On the off chance that you are not, at this point a style designer from the base, at that point research the basics first. Something else, it is highly unlikely left to dissect to deliver.

3D structural rendering is the present innovative heading to design an inside or outside shape in a photographic picture. That is the reason the world over 3d building rendering contributions are getting parcels celebrated and a standard calling.For more information click here

you are a specialist?

At that point, this article is bearing for you. We've assembled 22 incredible and most predominant rendering programming. These are the lovely option for movement motion pictures, results then again then just doing 3d rendering. 3d rendering is a definitive phase of 3d liveliness or 3d model. Since 3d rendering is a muddled system and an important part of the film or structure industry, there is so a terrible parcel of programming programs available today. In this way, it needs to end up being extra testing to find the ideal and suitable programming system to accomplish exact work. To help you to find the appropriate 3d rendering programming, we've assembled the solution for your task.

3D Rendering in Films

Possibly this Film venture (the alleged Show Biz) is the undertaking that has gotten the most impact on 3D rendering. Every yr an impressive amount of energized films is dispatched proposing a Raccoon or a Panda or boundless characters. We can see them in the top-notch attainable pragmatic manner. Their body development, their mouth development, their looks appear to be nothing anyway genuine! Studios like Pixar, DreamWorks have changed the complete direction of vivified delight which incorporates the movement media canvas.

In those days during the 70s, PC produced symbolism was once now not viable like these days by any means. Yet, again at that point, in the wake of seeing the 'Star Wars', individuals got dumbfounded. Their jaw dropped to their toes thinking, 'How the damnation did they do it!' It was previously the first run through when 3D rendering used to be utilized in a film. It was at one time the innovative ability that nobody had considered previously.

And afterward, the development occurred. Still one of the quality no-nonsense heads named Mr. Spielberg conveyed us ' Jurassic Park' in 1993. What's more, it developed to be an elite hit. Individuals initiated adapting to the association of mechanical expertise in a business film. At that point, Hollywood arrived up with the ' T2: Judgment Day'. What's more, we know about what passed off with that film. Up until this point, 3D rendering is taking care of its responsibility. It has nothing anyway the incredible to the film venture so some distance and will go on superbus!

Architecture and Design

Architecture has procured a sentimental contact with the help of 3D rendering. Presumably about that. The impressive contact of it made the incredible make genuine. We are talking about architecture, right? Not a sentimental story! Apologies, I lost the tune (quink)!

Alright, photograph a 50 celebrated development comprehensive of its inside and outside. Picture the divider, the furnishings, the passage, the bed, and numerous different things. Impractical? It is plausible via outlining an arrangement of each fundamental issue that development can hold. However, presently not in envisioned mode, right? Before the inclusion of 3D rendering in the structure business, planners, designers, and specialists arrived up with paper sketch-based considerations sooner than their customers.

In any case, with the sentimental contact (!once more) of 3D rendering administrations, designers can make that paper arrangement into a photorealistic shock that can be without issues analyzed through the customers. What's more, if the shopper doesn't want or like anything, basically put off it and substitute it with various pre-made material. 3D rendering is the charming buddy of a draftsman and designer. It makes them display the venture, presently not advise them.

Need a 3D Visualization Specialist? Visit our site- 3d model render architectural visualization

[hekate1308]

As We Go On

Yes, a Crowley survival story about the Empty. Enjoy!

He was convinced he had given up when he raised the blade to kill himself. After all, his son is dead (and that still hurts much more than he’d thought it would, since they hated each other when he’d been human), his mother is dead (he still stands by the fact that he’d have ended up killing her eventually, but it hurts nonetheless), and probably the only people he’d ever call his friends hate him, Dean punching him in the face the second he appeared in the bunker.

So, yes, suicide in a noble act of self-sacrifice to rid the world of the devil seemed a good way to go. Certainly not a shabby end to his story.

Crowley only forgot to take one thing into account, and that’ the fact that he’s a stubborn bastard, always has been, always will be, and so he wakes up in the Empty.

It doesn’t make any sense. He always assumed angels and demons simply stopped to exist when they were killed, but no, here he is in the never-ending darkness, walking because he has nothing else to do.

Can’t the Empty at least have a one decent bar? Considering he just rid his universe of Lucifer, he is of the opinion that he is entitled to more than this big.... nothing in his afterlife.

“No, I refuse. Not another one.”

He stands still. He knows that voice.

He turns around and sees... himself. Or at least the meat suit he’s been wearing for so long now that he considers it part of his identity.

“Another one?” he asks because frankly, any company in this place that doesn’t study him like they want to kill him all over again is good enough for him at this point.

The thing with his face rolls his eyes. “I had to send that annoying angel back to earth after he started whining about these Winchesters...”

There’s only one angel who would face an ancient entity to get back to the boys.

Castiel.

Crowley’s heart sinks even as he realizes this means Cas is back on earth because it also means he died. How? Why? This was exactly the sort of thing his own death was supposed to prevent.

“You know what” it decides, “If you don’t go back to sleep on your own you can stay here I have my methods to keep far away from you vermin at least”.

In the next moment it’s gone.

There’s nothing but darkness around him again. Crowley sighs. The least this thing could do is to give him some more answers.

At least Cas made it back to earth. He’ll look after the boys.

He could just go back to sleep, but the idea seems so... pathetic for someone who ruled Hell and faced Satan, God, God’s sister, Death, and whatever else the Winchester fought in the years since they met.

It’s almost a matter of pride to keep walking.

And maybe, if he finds the entity again, he will get the answers he’s looking for.

So he starts searching.

Crowley soon realizes the Empty is not solid. Despite the fact he can see and hear nothing, the darkness around him keeps changing, swirling around. It’s all bloody confusing.

But he’s got work to do.

Really, if this pathetic wannabe has nothing to tell him after all, he might just take over. The powers of millions of dead angels and demons must linger here somewhere.

What he could do with that...

“Jesus, you have literally been moving around here for months” the Empty version of himself complains, appearing in front of him. “Aren’t you tired?”

He is. Mentally, at least – he highly doubts a non-physical body can be exhausted. Furthermore, he knows that any tiredness he experiences is part of the Empty, trying to lull him back to rest. But he refuses to give in. He’s come too far.

“I assure you, I have no intention of stopping.”

“First the angel, now you – what is it about the Winchesters?”

“They are denim-wrapped nightmares, but they’re very efficient” he answers.

It grins. Crowley can’t help but think that if that is the expression he usually wears when he goes after his victims, he’s a rather unsettling sight.

“But that’s not all, is it?” It steps up to him, but he refuses to move away. “You’re just like the angel. You care about them. You think they’re your friends. And perhaps... there is even more.”

He chooses not to answer. He’s not here to play infantile games.

“Oh, just go back to sleep” it says. “There’s nothing for you anywhere, either here or back there. I have been in your head; I have seen every pathetic piece of your demon mind. He doesn’t care about you. He’s glad you’re dead.”

Crowley refuses to think about the older Winchester. That is all in the past, and furthermore it’s complicated.

He’d rather think of a way out. Because it has become rather clear to him that whatever stubborn streak refuses to allow him to give up is not going anywhere.

“I don’t think so” he says casually.

Its eyes narrow. “What do you think – “

“Listen to me. The one thing I can say you have is good taste, but that won’t save you. Because I’m here, and I’m not going to sleep. In fact, I’m going nowhere –“

“Well then, enjoy it! I already made one exception – I am not going to make another.”

And Crowley’s flung all across the Empty.

It’s only the second time he’s picked himself up from what he would have called the floor here, and he already had enough of it.

But now he’s furious as well. How dare this little scumbag.

He’s definitely going to get out of here.

Time to get active. Just walking will do him no good. What about those powers?

All these demons and angels, fast asleep. He can’t see them; they might as well be on another plane of existence all together, but if so, there has to be a way to get to them. After all, he woke up.

Not that he wants that. He’d rather not meet any of the angels and demons he ganked again. But he needs the power.

He doesn’t know how long it takes him. Time is of no essence here in the Empty, and at least it doesn’t show up to annoy him anymore.

He suspects it has to do with him having sat down and closed his eyes. It probably thinks he went back to sleep.

It couldn’t be further from the truth. He’s slowly working through the layers that surround him, searching, biding his time...

He stumbles across the solution quite unexpectedly. He was following a pattern hoping it would lead him to something like a door or a hint where he should be focusing his attention, but instead, some unknown power touched his.

And then it wasn’t unknown anymore.

“You may rule Hell, but don’t interfere with Heaven. Otherwise I will smite you.”

“I understood the first ten times you explained it. So, do we have a deal or don’t we? Clock’s ticking.”

Raphael.

Thankfully there does appear to be no consciousness attached to the powers. The archangel is as deeply asleep as everyone else in this place except for Crowley.

It is tempting to try and draw the power to himself, but the risk of ending up like Cassie when he absorbed the souls from Purgatory is too back. Much as he doesn’t want to admit it, an archangel simply has too much mojo for a demon.

No, he needs other demons, normal ones, whose powers he can channel for as long as he needs to get out of here.

Crowley decides to be especially careful and ignore any demon he knows or even killed. Chances are they would wake up and still have a bone to pick with him.

He chooses the low-key powers of many simple, black-eyed demons, knowing he can take them any day; but put together...

He can feel himself growing stronger and grins into the Darkness.

Realizing he’s not alone anymore, he opens his eyes. The mockery of himself is standing in front of him, fuming. “What are you doing? This is not – you aren’t – this shouldn’t be possible!”

But it doesn’t attack. That can only mean he’s already strong enough to take it, or it’s unsure how powerful he is. Either way, he has to take his chance.

He gets up, swaying a little. His newfound capabilities are making him feel a little giddy and uncertain on his feet, almost as he remembers being drunk was like so long ago, but he still strolls up to the Empty confidently.

“Hello again.”

It’s glaring at him. “Look at what you’ve done! You’ve made a mess out of everything, and once you have gone back to sleep I’ll have to fix – “

“You still didn’t get the memo, I see. So I will tell you once again: I am not going back to sleep. Ever.”

He raises his hand and punches himself in the face with all his might. It feels better than he’d like it to. The Empty flies across the waste space, coming down with a loud thud. “That hurt.”

“Oh yes it did. You bet it did. And this is just the beginning.”

He slowly makes his way over to the whiny ancient entity. “I am going to build this place up according to my tastes, not yours. Don’t worry, you can stay. I’ll need something to torture in order to relax...”

He could actually do it, he’s aware, but what would be the point? He’s technically dead, for God’s sake, he night as well admit to himself that just like Feathers he has been hopelessly winchestered and will always end up near the boys again, no matter what he does.

No. Better to annoy this thing until it sends him away.

To prove a point, he punches it again, smiling as it sails through the air. He really could have used those powers when he was still trying to cling unto his throne.

That’s the moment the Empty finally snaps however, getting up and throwing his hands in the air. “I am not dealing with this. You won’t change a thing! You want to have a world so badly, take your old one, you horned menace!”

And with that, Crowley is thrown back to earth rather violently.

He wakes up at night in a field in the middle of nowhere. But at least it is earth, and he soon finds that it’s America, too. Jackpot.

It’s not too difficult to figure out where the boys are. Just find the nearest supernatural occurrence and they’re sure to look into it.

Soon enough, he’s standing in a small town that’s currently being prayed on by a lamia, if he’s correct, and why shouldn’t he be. It’s still night – not yet one am – and he could look for the motel the boys are sure to use or –

Seems like there’s only one bar in town.

Well then.

Sure enough, Dean’s right there, nursing a beer.

He could of course take a subtle approach, but he has just escaped the Empty, he is still brimming with the unfamiliar demon powers, and quite frankly, he needs a drink.

So in the end, he simply strolls up to the hunter and sits down next to him. “Squirrel.”

Dean, to his credit, doesn’t even jump. He simply turns to look at him, his eyes narrowing the only sign that he’s processing the sight in front of him. “Crowley?”

“In the flesh.”

Dean shifts a little in his seat, allowing him to bump into Crowley. “Hm. Not a hallucination or a ghost, at least.”

“Correct. The Empty...”

“Let me guess: you annoyed it into letting you go, too?”

“Sort of.”

Dean nods, then turns to the bartender. “One glass of Craig for my friend here, please.”

“That’s it?” he asks, a little surprised. After all the last time they met, Dean immediately went in for the punch.

“If you want. I mean – wait, just to be clear, you’re still glad you’re not king anymore, and you’re on our side for now, right?”

“I – I guess so” he says slowly. Look at that. Crowley on the good side. And with no real reason for it, this time.

“Well then.”

His glass of Craig arrives and Dean raises his beer. “Here’s to another win, I say.”

Crowley chooses to take a sip instead of answering.

Because Dean just made it clear that he’s glad he’s back, and for tonight, it is enough.

@dmsilvisart

@wholita

@shaonharryandpannisim

@treefrogie84

[praydastles]

Title: Think you can hack it? Yes this is a bad pun Fandom: BAP Member: Jongup Genre/Warning: Smut, Sir!Jongup, skydive!au, SNAKES THIS ONE IS FILLED WITH SNAKES, death (sorry guise blame the snakes), this is very smutty, EXTREMELY EXPLICIT (this will not be everyone's cup of tea) and very rough; includes slapping (not of the face), spit play, foul language and more.  Summary/Request: Jongup smut with sir would be p coolio. Maybe smth like a gang!au and jongup being the boss and the reader smth like a hacker/tech worker for the team?? A/N: Have a sir!Jongup gif x On his merry way to get him some pum Sorry this took so long me long to finish and I’m sorry that you have to read this x_x ALSO!!! MASSIVE THANK YOU TO @jongup-is-an-enigma FOR BEING AN ENCOURAGING AND SUPPORTIVE BABE! (follow her guys!) Word Count: 5751 (fml)

You chew lazily on the now stale popcorn, monitoring the activity on your computer screen as you had been doing for the last six hours. Today was the day and if you fucked this up then you may as well be dead.

You had to rely purely on your skills, following the boy’s movements through traffic cameras, security surveillance, street cameras, anything that allowed you to track them.

The car they used, black through and through weaved through back roads, trying to avoid traffic, trying to keep to schedule. You briefly wondered how each of them were feeling. You especially wondered about the feelings of a particular person and felt your lips twitch to the tiniest of smirks knowing that he was just anticipating the downfall, the surprise when it comes to an end. You knew he would get off on the fact that they were so unaware, so unprepared, unsuspecting of a single thing, you knew this, because that’s how you felt too.

It was harder to track them now, the car meeting the dust roads of abandoned Seoul, old cars and other rubbish building up in the dirt. The roads were more open, no clear marks of roads and rarely any cameras. When they reached more open space you were cut completely from their view and instead looked down at your watch.

They were give or take a few minutes behind schedule, but that didn’t matter. You only cared that they reached their destination. From the cut off point they should be there in about 15 minutes, especially if the heavy footed Himchan was driving.  And so, you waited patiently, slowly chewing more stale popcorn as you switched to the cameras you had personally installed in the warehouse.

Inside was empty, or so it appeared. Dark corners held worthless money seeking thugs, lives that could be disregarded easily. They were nobodies. You smile, remembering the reward you had got for finding them, for fitting them into this little plan that had taken over your being for the past 6 months. You bit your lips, shifting in your seat as the heat surged through you at the mere thought of what your reward tonight would be. You were even tempted to give yourself a little pre celebratory reward, knowing he wouldn’t like it,  but much too excited to wait.

Too bad you were much too focused on your task. One thing that all the boys liked about you was that you put your work - no matter that it was illegal - first.

The time passed slowly, with your eyes burning as you focused on the monitor until eventually you saw the dust clouds when their car had pulled up.

They piled out and you licked your lips looking at one particular delight, but quickly focused again to watch them briefly speak and then head toward the opening of the warehouse.

You switched to the cameras inside. Your heart rate suddenly picked up; a number of emotions ran through you as you memorised their faces. A sliver of something foreign ran through you; it wrapped around the contents of your stomach and stirred till you were left with a sick feeling. You briefly pondered your actions, briefly debated with yourself: Does it have to be this way? But the moment your eyes landed on his face, sweet eyes soft and calm, you knew your answer: Yes.

It was rather comical. To watch the great leaders face slowly morph into an expression of confusion. The other boys taking glances around the nearly bare warehouse. You grinned, already knowing their thoughts: Where the fuck is the stuff?

But the answer was clear. Nowhere. There never was anything in that shitty abandoned warehouse. And Guk probably had a feeling that would be the case too. God, that man asked too many fucking questions and you were even surprised with yourself that you were able to convince him to go for it. It was all worth it. This was the main event after all.

And in that moment your trusted thugs, clad in police wear appeared from the cracks to surround your precious boys. Your boys were quick and obviously would not go down without a fight.

Guns were drawn and with a sickening smile you watched the beautiful scene unfold. Bullets ripped through the air and you could only imagine the surprise of your little army of lowlifes when they began to drop one by one like flies. Oops, I guess the uniforms aren’t bulletproof.   

Another twinge was felt however, when Jongup was shot. But that’s not what got to you. It was the way you saw the shout leave Youngjae’s mouth when his arm wrapped around a dying Jongup, shooting haphazardly.

The way the blood splattered on the camera had you shooting up in your seat. You were momentarily worried that the bullet hit Jongup in a soft spot, but when Youngjae fell atop of Jongup unmoving you realised he was fine.

It was quite the show. To watch the boys, to watch the anguish as their brotherhood was broken. It was just so typical for them to put themselves in the line of fire together. Maybe if they thought to themselves to pull out, they’d be alive.

It was a bloody mess, something resembling a Shakespeare play. Everyone was dead. Well, nearly everyone.

Youngjae, a cold carcass, useless for anything now, was pushed without a care to the side and you watched with glee as Jongup slowly rose to stand. You checked your watch, already counting down the minutes for the building to be demolished. Everything had happened on time and now Jongup could come home to you and celebrate and what the fuck is he doing?

There were times Jongup reminded you of a sloth. He could be slow and unbothered, taking his time with no care in the world. So when you saw him lazily stumble toward a person you couldn’t help to grind your teeth in irritation.

Upon closer look you could see Jongup crouching down to someone. Daehyun.

You nervously checked your watch again, but you knew this was the cherry on the top for Jongup. To personally watch Daehyun suffer and die. But still, was he really that stupid?

Jongup reminded you of a sloth. So when you saw the 2 minute mark as you counted down on your watch you couldn’t help but panic, suddenly shooting out of your seat causing it to fall backward. You slammed your hands down on your desk, face drawing closer to the screen as you watched a weak Daehyun pointlessly lift his gun toward Jongup. You zoomed in, catching the smirk on Jongup’s face. You could tell he enjoyed watching the pointless efforts of this dying man. Jongup gripped the gun easily, leaning forward while he turned the gun onto Daehyun and you could only imagine how cold Daehyun must’ve felt to see such empty eyes up close. Only imagine the question in his eyes when Jongup, his brother pulled the trigger so easily.

You breathes harshened, the timer under a minute when a splay of blood left Daehyun’s mouth in his final moment. “GET THE FUCK OUT OF THERE YOU SHIT!” You couldn’t help to voice your displeasure. This was not the plan. He should have gotten out of there with enough time to be clear of the explosion. But there he was with fucking seconds!

The monitor cut off and you realised why. Your eyes widen. Rage bubbling to the surface as hands shoved at whatever was on your desk, including your monitor as your anger got the best of you. You in destruction mode was not the best so when you calmed down just a little, sweat coating your forehead and empty space filled with your rough breathes, you realised you had no chance to find out if Jongup was alive.

Your monitor was effectively destroyed and anything else was useless. The thought suddenly had your chest aching, your heart violently clenching as the thought materialised within you, twined itself into your reality and you just wanted to cry. But you couldn’t. You refuse to cry for that idiot.

Kicking and flipping chairs and destroying what you could was your only solution for the time being so when you heard the slow clap of applause and turn to see none other than Jongup, you’re wrapped in a new kind of anger, frozen with narrowed eyes aimed at the smirking man.

“Miss me baby?”

Your heels never turned so fast, your strides angry as you approach the bane of your life, Moon Jongup. “What the fuck?”  Jongup is barely surprised by you snarling at him, nor is he surprised to find you fired up and in the middle of destroying your little room. He’s taking enjoyment in watching the way your eyes ink out into a colour so dark, it nearly blends in with your pupils. You’re pissed and that was an understatement.

You’re in his face breathing heavily and your hands come up to shove at his padded chest with a snarl, “What the ACTUAL FUCK YOU BASTARD?” Jongup is smirking, titling his head slightly as specks of spit fly onto his face. He’s never seen you so angry. Eye’s wide and face marred with lines of your anger.

Jongup side steps you, slowly walking around as he states in a bored tone. “I’m not sure what you’re pissed about, but the job is done. The plane to Russia is boo-” Your hand roughly grabs his arm to swing him around to face you and neither of you have time to register your actions when Jongup's head snaps to the side, cheek already reddening; the aftermath of you slapping Moon Jongup.

You’re breathing heavily, hand deadweight at your side as you stare back at an impassive Jongup. He’s silent and just as still as you, actually it seems like he isn’t even breathing and as the realisation of your actions wash over you, it's your turn to freeze, blood seeming to slow to a stop as each cell, nerve, organ shut down.

It happens in a blur. Jongup’s fingers press into the back of your neck, holding your face down onto the cool surface of your work desk. “It seems you were worried baby girl?” His voice was light and playful, but you knew better as you struggle beneath him, trying to push yourself up. “I’m not in the fucking mood. You could have died, do you rea-” His fingers tighten, nails pinching your skin. “But, I didn’t baby girl. I’m here. So don’t you think you were a little out of order for your actions back there?” You harshly swallowed, thinking your answer through, knowing it would determine your punishment. “I’m sorry… sir. I just got scared.” Jongup shifted so his crotch pressed into your behind, bringing his other hand up to stroke your hair. “Aw baby girl I know,” he cooed, “But, you shouldn’t have doubted me.” He spat. You immediately shook your head, which was difficult under his grip, denying his accusations. “No Jong- sir! You were on the screen and then the explosions went off and I, AH!” Your bottom stung, his palm coming down harshly on your arse cheek that rippled with the force. “Baby girl I really wanted us to celebrate our victory today.” He told you, hand tightly gripping an arse cheek till his nails dug in. His breath fanned against your ears, the tips hot and red. “I really did want us to but, I think we’re going to have to put that on hold hm?” You inhale sharply, heart speeding as the anticipation fills you. “Is that okay baby?” You whimper, not trusting yourself to talk, because the possibilities are running through your mind and it nearly has you salivating. You yelp when Jongup’s hand on your neck quickly shifts to fist into your hair and drags you upwards, twisting you till you're facing him. “Let’s see how pretty we can get you baby.” Your vest top was pulled down beneath your bra, breasts pulled out shortly after, jutting over the material. You braced yourself, the sting still making you whimper when Jongup slapped a breast. “Back straight and legs apart… please.” He added, a sickly sweet smile on his face. You straightened up, back arching just slightly and Jongup licked his lips. “Like that sir?” You asked quietly, looking straight ahead as you voluntarily placed your arms behind your back, eager to please. Jongup chuckled lowly, his hand shifting your head back by the hair so your neck was more exposed to him. This close you could smell the strong odour of industrial site on his clothes.

“Just like that baby girl.” His mouth sucked the skin of your neck into his mouth, coating you with saliva as his tongue drew patterns against skin. He bit where he could, teeth sinking in to elicit your little whimpers of pain. Your hands resisted the urge to push him away as his own came up to pull and twist your breast. Your neck was a pretty painting of dark blues and reddening skin and Jongup was determined to paint you all over.

His lips left your neck, mouth immediately lowering to your sore breasts to bite. He was slow and enjoyed watching your expression change the more his teeth sunk in. He enjoyed how you tried to hold your noises in, tried to act unaffected and to be honest he admired your tolerance for pain, especially when he was the one dishing it out.

Your nipples were sore and slick with his saliva and Jongup pulled back to admire the shine of spit and discoloured skin before he released a long trail of saliva from his mouth. A hand came up to rub his fluid over your breasts before he was slapping your breast again, dick hardening as he watched the way they bounced and sprung back to their position. He alternated between your mounds, slapping at times and harshly pulling your nipples till your skin stretched at others. Your breast fitted comfortably in his hand and you nearly jerked away feeling how uncomfortably tight he was gripping. His nails made dents in your skin, little white crescents that stood out against the deep red.

One last slap and then his hands were on your hips pushing you back till you met the desk. You were lifted and shifted around in quick succession, Jongup wasting no time in positioning you to his liking. Your head hung off the table, blood rushing to your head while Jongup's fingers rushed to unbutton your shorts.

“Let me fuck that mouth of yours baby girl.” Your mouth dropped open, throat relaxing even when you felt Jongup shove a hand through your unbuttoned shorts. “Thats a good girl.” he whispered as his other hand guided his semi hard cock toward your mouth.

The feeling of him sliding against your tongue and slowly filling your mouth, the thickness of his cock stretching your lips had you moaning.

He wasn’t gentle or caring as his rough fingers parted your slit for his fingers to find your clit. The harsh circling immediately had you moaning; his fingers slid to your hole to find your wetness seeping out.

“Just how I like you baby.” You release a long and deep groan around his dick feeling his fingers work you. Your mouth clamps around his cock when he slips one, then two fingers inside of you, immediately setting a fast pace, his fingers scissoring into you till you felt the heat building upside of you. Jongup looked down at you as he pulled out of your mouth; he saw the way your throat was taught as your scream remained trapped, your mouth wide open, drool slipping past your lips, your eyes frantic, just a little bit crazy and it was all because of him.

“Keep that mouth open.” His voice was rough but soft and Jongup grinned when he felt you tighten around his fingers, slick with your wetness. He pushed his hips forward again, slowly filling your mouth as much as he could before he slowly pulled back. He continued this pace, rocking steadily into you, each time going just a bit deeper. He enjoyed watching his cock disappear into your mouth, he enjoyed the way you would try to take a quick breath when he pulled back. “You take me in so well don’t you baby? I’m sure you can take some more.” Jongup thrusted his hips, his cock gagging you as it slipped into your throat. He looked down in amazement at how he could see the bulge of his cock in your throat. “Fuck baby, you look so good.” Jongup resumed scissoring your pussy just as he began to throat fuck you, your eyes watering from the effort. In your position it was hard to properly breathe and you choked around his cock, drool spilling copiously.

The sound of your wetness around his fingers and the sound of you gagging as you took his cock into your mouth heated your body impossibly and you knew you wouldn't last long. He shoved his hips against your mouth, leaving himself buried inside your deep cavern, circling his hips so his balls rubbed on your face while he almost violently shook his fingers inside you. You tensed, legs raising in the air and upper body twisting as the heat in your stomach broke, a mass wave of pleasure twisting your body as you screamed around his cock, eyes bulging out. Jongup thrusted into your overly sensitive hole before pulling out to land slaps against your clit. Your legs jumped and you squeal. “There,there that’s a good girl.” He pulls his cock from your mouth, your chest burning as your lungs fought to take in air. Jongup watches you struggle, thinking how adorable it was that you could barely breathe because of his cock. “Aw baby, struggling a bit there?” He questioned with a cute smirk. Before you could think to retort his words with some colourful language, he was manhandling your body again, pulling your legs back toward him so he could pull your shorts and underwear off of you. Then he was lifting you easily so you hung upside down. “Hmm, your pussy smells especially delicious after I’ve made you cum baby.” Jongup doesn’t struggle at all to hold your body, despite your weight, his arms wrap around you easily and shuffle’s your split legs closer to his face so his mouth can dive for your pussy. He licks long stripes, not giving you those usual kitten licks and slurps up your juices. He mouths your folds and clit messily while your cry out, feeling the blood rush to your head way too quickly. “Sir, please.” You find yourself saying as your hips try to twist away from his mouth.

Jongup wasn't into denying, he thought it was a waste, he much rather enjoy fucking your oversensitized body until you were crying and crawling away from him, barely able to speak or move.

His fingers dug into your hips as he lifted your body so he could drag your pussy up and down against his tongue. Your toes curled and your muscles tightened as Jongup lifted you up and down against his tongue. He held you to his mouth and shook his mouth against your wet cunt with a groan.

You were groaning and you felt your wetness spread to your inner thighs, more and more seeping from your hole even when Jongup was there to slurp it up. You didn't know how Jongup didn't drop you when your body convulsed with each stroke of his tongue but somehow he managed and as he messily ate you, you felt the pleasure push the scream from your throat when you came again, just as hard as the last, thighs squeezing and your ankles crossing as Jongup wiggled his tongue into you, catching every delicious drop till you stained his tongue with your juices.

You had barely caught your breath when Jongup had quickly, yet carefully turned your body the right way up and placed you on the floor. The blood rushed to your head and your weak limbs gave out as you fell tiredly against Jongup's clothed chest.

“Not tired already, are you baby?” It wasn't a question. Behind his words was an order: you better not be tired yet.  Forcing yourself to put space between you two and stand on your own two feet, you shook your head looking at him with big eyes. “No sir, I can take what you give me sir.”

Jongup smirked. Fingers stroking your cheek and then playing with the rough strands of your hair. “You can take what I give you?” You nodded immediately, stepping a little closer to him as you eagerly told him, “Yes sir, I will always take whatever you give me.”

You can see the devious look clouding those brown eyes, much like a sandstorm in the desert and traced the permanent smirk on his face as he took in your words.  

“What can you give yourself?” Your brows drew together, frown lines forming when you became confused by his question. “I don't understand sir… What… what you mean?”

He grinned, enjoying how naive you could be even in this situation. His large hands found your hips and you felt goosebumps erupt from the soft and slow strokes of his thumb against your skin.  He tilted his head at you with a little smile and leaned forward, his warm breath tickling your skin as they brushed your ear. “How hard can you fuck yourself for me?” Your cheeks burned, his erotic words and the mere thought both turning you on and making you feel shy, because although this was for him, it was strange when you were bringing yourself to orgasm for someone else.

You stuttered. Which was unusual for you and you found your eyes fluttering downward in embarrassment. “Show me baby girl.”

“But sir-”

“Now.”

His voice was slightly sharper and his cat eyes  were predatory as they dared you to do anything but what he commanded. Swallowing harshly you turned and walked back over to your desk.

“Let's get these off first baby girl.” You shivered feeling the little kiss on your neck and his warmth behind you as his arms rounded to pull up your vest top. He unclasped your bra and you let it fall to the floor. You didn't turn to look at him as your took the few steps toward your desk and then sat on the table, meeting his eyes.

“Touch yourself for me baby.” your eyes fluttered shut when you heard the softness in voice, it was almost affectionate and affectionate Jongup made you weak. Almost in a trance, your hands drifted over your body. One hand trailed up your stomach to your breast, a thumb stroking your nipple. Your other was brought up to your lips. You sucked your digits one by one into your mouth and then lowered your hand toward your pussy.

You spread your legs wider and when a finger grazed against your clit you gasped with a jump.

You heard a little chuckle and knew Jongup loved the fact that you were over sensitised from your last two orgasms.

With light pressure you made slow circles over your clit and your hips jerked at the sensation. You bit your lip as breathy moans escaped, brows scrunching together as your mind focused on the sensation.

You gasped, eyes shooting open when you felt the light touch of fingers pulling your fingers away from your clit. Your eyes were locked with Jongup; his were dark and swallowed you whole, a whimper escaping at the look in his eyes. He used both hands to pull your index finger lower to your hole and he pressed. You redden, feeling just how wet you are and let out something close to a sob when Jongup pushes your finger inside yourself.

“You can do it baby.” And again that spell like voice has you captivated, another finger already joining as you stretch yourself out. Jongup leans forward, a hand on either side of you and tilts his head to bring you into a soft and warm kiss that has you gushing around your soaked fingers. His lips move slow and sensual, tilting his head to capture your lips with his at different angles and when his tongue comes into the mix you're whining into his mouth, fingers speeding up while he slowly strokes his tongue against yours. Your wetness is a mess over your pussy lips, thighs and your desk, but you pay no mind as you speed up just a bit more when you bite Jongup's thick lip.

“I think we can get another one in that sweet cunt.” He says, pulling back from you. The warmth he exudes has your body nearly melting and without thought you're pulling your fingers just slightly out before you're pushing back in with a third. Your eyes roll back till they close, mouth dropping open as the feel of the stretch has you quaking.

“Eyes on me baby girl.”

No matter how difficult, his wish is your command and your force your eyes open swallowing and then taking a stuttered breath as you moan out to him. “You like this sir? You like me fucking myself like this?” your movements are more erratic, your orgasm so close yet unable to reach it.

Jongup is silent, watching you grit your teeth as your other hand comes up to rub and tap your clit. “Cmon, cmon,” you whine just wanting to cum. “Sir, please I want to cum.”

Jongup's lips are by your ear and with the whisper of “cum then baby girl,” your fingers are mechanical as they thrust in and out while your hips lift from the table. You moan brokenly into the air as your third orgasm has you coating your fingers thickly.

You're still shaking and breathing heavily when your orgasm eventually dies down. And you whimper when you pull your fingers from yourself. Jongup is quick to grab your hand and you watch as he pulls them to his lips and into his mouth. He holds your gaze as he sucks with the most satisfied groan that has you quivering and when he released your fingers from his warm mouth with a pop you're hands are reaching out to pull him closer. Begs leaving your lips. “please fuck me sir, please fuck me now. Please please please I need your cock inside me please fucking ruin me.”  

You were face down again. As soon as those filthy words left your lips Jongup had dragged you off the table by your ankle and bent over your desk.

“You want me to fucking ruin you baby girl?”

“Please.” you gasp, drool spilling over your lips and cheek to gather at the table when you felt the pads of his fingers dip lightly in and out of your hole.

He growled as he leant over you, hands slamming down on either side of your head making you jump. “you beg so well don't you? You want my cock that badly?” you nodded against the desk, repeated yes leaving your lips as you sobbed.

“yes sir, please just fuck me already.” Jongup growls again, rough hands coming up to spread your arse cheeks apart and releasing them with a jiggle. He began to spank you again, slapping your arse cheeks and thighs and you felt how your wetness escaped with each delicious slap on your reddening skin. He leans over your back, hand fisting your hair to pull your head up, his voice rough by your ear when he growls out, “baby girl you're such a whore for my cock. You want it so bad, put the fucking work in.” then he shoves your head away from him, watching as you are already reaching behind for his cock, stroking it quickly before guiding it to your awaiting hole.

Just the feel of his tip brushing your cunt has your eyes squeezing shut with a broken breath leaving your mouth when you push back to take him in. Your pussy sucks him in, walls clenching in search for more and finally you shove your hips back quicker, a loud moan leaving your lips as he is finally buried in you. You still, feeling his cock awaken nerves deep inside of you, your body alight in immense pleasure.

When you're ready, you set a fast pace for yourself. Forearms on the table as you push yourself backwards and forwards as quick as you could manage. Your lower back working in circular movements, spine allowing you to round your hips when he was buried inside of you.

“Does it feel good sir?” you choke around your cries. “Does it feel good when my pussy uses your cock?” His hands are in your hair again, pulling you back so much your back arches uncomfortably. His other hand comes up just beneath your chin so he can pull your head back, using your hair as extra leverage to stare you down.

You clench around him, eyes desperate as you see the dark look in his eye. “AH!” Jongup suddenly shoves his hips into you, cock reaching as far as it could as his balls pressed against you. “I always” he pulls back only to give you another hard thrust that has your moaning loudly. “Love.” another deep thrust. “How well.” again. “your pussy” again. “takes me” he rasps, thrusting so harshly your hips hit against the table.

You can barely register anything except the feel of his cock driving into you at a speed that has you quaking. Jongup continues to stare you down, keeping your head stretched back so he can watch you lose it around his cock. His teeth clench together and an almost animalistic growl leaves his lips as his sharp eyes intensify just as his hips are bruisingly hitting against yours as he fucks into you impossibly quicker.

Your screams are stuck in your throat and the wild, begging look in your eye’s drive Jongup into a frenzy as he pushes the thick muscles of his thighs against you more. “That’s it, take this cock.” Jongup’s has to hold you up when your orgasm has you spasming wildly, body flailing of the desk and if it weren’t for him gripping your hair you would have feel. Your twitching, face shining with your drool and slightly dizzy as you remember how to intake a breath again. Your harsh pant’s fill the room as you lay spent on the desk and you nearly forget about Jongup until you feel his cock pull out of you with a squelch. “Umpphh…” Your lower body quakes, hips uncontrollably shaking and you realise just how sensitive you’ve become.

A hand drags your body up by your arms and you whine, sensitive and tired body just wanting to stay still. Jongup turns you around toward him and then his hands are gruffly lifting you by your thighs till your legs are wrapped around him.

When he sink’s you onto him you scream. Your nails clawing at him back and legs tightening around his hips and his large hands take a hold of your arse cheeks. He lifts you and down onto him, you impossibly deep on his cock and Jongup groans feeling how you clench so tightly around him.

A chorus of cries leave your lips and you’re already shaking in his arms, even at his slow pace. But when he speeds up your voice is hoarse from the screaming, your pussy constantly being dropped onto his dick harshly and then Jongup’s fingers are tightly holding your arse cheeks and he’s drilling up, knees slightly bent as he fucks into you. He starts pushing down on your arse and you’re feeling the sensations overwhelm you as your pussy meets the thrusts of his cock. In no time you’re screaming again, cumming harshly as you leave bloody scratches on Jongup’s back. You’re breathing quickly, trying to take as much air as possible as Jongup thrusts a few more times, pushing you over the edge and then he’s lifted you off his cock.

Your weak body sinks to the floor. Knees harshly connecting with concrete and you’ve no time to prepare when Jongup’s fingers slide into your hair, pulling so harshly your scalp burns. His cock pushes past your lips and you're choking as he fucks your mouth. “Good girl, good girl, good girl~” He holds his cock in your throat and your nails are scratching at his thighs, tears slipping down your cheeks as you struggle. You being to feel light headed and when Jongup pulls off, your chest burns are air rushes in making you cough repeatedly. Your head is tilted back and you feel the thick warm spurts of cum as Jongup fists his cock till he’s cumming on your face. You blink, feeling it land on your lids. “Well done.” Jongup finally say when he’s finished cumming. Your voice is hoarse and broken as you reply, “Thank you sir.”

It’s quiet for a moment. Breathes settled and a moment to yourselves to relax and not have to think of anything, but the bliss you felt. Jongup had helped you up and used your vest to clean your face. You would shower when you had the strength to walk again. Now you were resting with your legs over his lap and head against his chest.

“I’m sorry.” He whispers and you feel his fingers begin to stroke through your hair - a habit of his that he did absentmindedly when he needed to get his thoughts together. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I should have thought about you more… But, when I saw him there… I just had to see that look in his eyes and remember it…” He’s quiet again and you hear the little frustration in his voice. “But, it’s just you and me against the world now, okay?” His fingers stop their calming movements and the light kiss on your head prompts you to turn to look up at him and he can read the look in your eyes when with the faintest of smiles he leans forward and places a sweet, almost innocent kiss on your lips.

“I’ll forgive you this time you crazy bastard.”

[cupnoodle-queen]

CHASING SUNS: Chapter 15 Lead by Example

2,564 words

I’m gonna have to quit it with the word vomit chapters if I have any hope of finishing this soon lol.

WARNING: Graphic violence

Tagging the ever wonderful @themissimmortal, @nifwrites and @blindbae

The following night after her shift, Cam pulled into Lestallum to pick up Iris for her first hunt. 

She drove Greyson’s truck, of whom she was eternally thankful for considering he also offered to turn in their hunts for payment since she was temporarily banned from collecting bounties. Cam explained the process to Iris, who listened attentively with eagerness to get started. She fidgeted with her seatbelt en route to the Coernix bypass. “Thanks again, Cam. I really mean it, if there’s anything I can do to make it up to you, just name it.”

Cam nodded, the gist of a smile on her chapped lips. “Don’t thank me yet, gotta kill something first. Also um,” she looked away from the road for a moment and gave the girl an earnest look, “maybe let’s keep this between us until you’ve developed your skillset. I know your brother will be less than ecstatic that I’m doing this...”

“You didn’t tell him?” an air of concern toned Iris’s voice as they pulled over to the side of the road at their destination, the hunt a short trek away from the pavement. “I thought you guys were...I-I mean-”

“Oh, no no,” Cam shook her head a little faster than she’d intended. “We’ll approach him once you’ve already got a killcount going, hard for him to deny you once you’ve already proven your worth.” 

“Good idea.”

They hopped out of the truck and Cam came around to Iris’s side, but not before stopping to grab something in the back cab. “I have something for you.” 

She presented the teenager with two handguns, the very same ones she’d began hunting with. Iris turned them back and forth in her hands, testing the weight of them, her face a jumble of emotions. Cam explained, “These were mine, before Gladio moved me up to swords. It’s not much, but it will kill stuff and that’s what we need to do for now, at least until you can afford to-”

Iris set the guns on the hood of the truck and pulled Cam into a sudden, unexpected and wordless hug, overcome with gratitude. Cam sighed, returning the gesture. After she showed Iris how to tighten the holsters around her belt, Cam shrugged her swords into place behind her back and they headed into the fray.

The bounty was on a small gang of hobgoblins, something slightly more intermediate than Cam had hoped to offer on a first-timer hunt as they could hit hard; she’d have to ensure they couldn’t get a blow in otherwise things would go south, and fast. She pondered about sparring later down the road and surmised it would be required, remarking that the majority of her quick reflexes were honed through duelling. First Iris had to gather enough gil to get some armor, before moving onto close-quarters combat with melee weapons. Cam could sense the deja-vu with her own progress, but she thought it better to stick with what she knew.

They followed the ungroomed path down the hillside, carving through the overgrown brush and rerouting themselves at impassable areas. “Feels good to get out of the city,” Iris spoke from behind Cam, who was following the map on her phone, “like I can finally breathe or something. It’s so crowded there, even on the best of days.”

“I know the feeling,” Cam replied, keeping her voice low so as to not draw attention to themselves, “Like your thoughts aren’t even your own there, huh?”

“Yes, exactly!” Iris checked behind them periodically. “Like I barely have room to breathe some days. Out here, at least I can move without feeling like I’m about to bump into someone…” 

Just as Cam stepped out from around a large boulder her eyes landed on a swatch of purple-grey skin and she stepped back, certain they hadn’t spotted her. She held a hand up to halt Iris, instead motioning her to slowly peek around the side and get a closer look at them. “There’s three, maybe four total. That’s a lot of fists, fists that will easily knock you out cold with one hit.” She turned back, narrowing her eyes at the brunette. “I have a plan, but how confident are you in your aiming abilities, would you say?”

Iris pursed her lips, considering. “A bit, but not much.” 

At least she’s being honest, Cam thought. “Okay, don’t worry, it comes with experience. For now try to aim at their limbs. Avoid shots to their torsos, all that muscle will just eat your bullets. If you can manage head shots they’ll drop like flies.” In a slinking motion Cam reached back and unsheathed both swords, eliciting a hushed woah from Iris. She glanced around the corner once more, plotting her plan of attack before turning back. “Okay, I’ll head in to get them started. Can probably take one out with a couple quick blows myself, but I’ll need you to start firing as soon as you can get a good line of sight on ‘em. Feel free to start with just one, too, if both guns are overwhelming,” Cam nodded. “Ready?”

Iris gave a brave nod in return, flicking the safety off the gun in her grasp. “Ready.”

With that, Cam all but leaped from behind the rock and the hobgoblins reacted in surprise, animalistic growls as they beat their chests with massive bludgeoning fists. Sure enough Cam could detect a wide opening for one of the daemons and made quick work of it, arms windmilling through the air as she launched herself into a devastating whirlwind attack. Her blades sliced at it’s flesh like a hot knife through butter, the skin ripping to expose planes of flayed muscles, it’s anguished yelps only pushed her bloodlust into overdrive, and with one fell swoop she separated it’s right arm from it’s body. The enemy swayed and dropped, blackened-purple daemon blood spurting in all directions as it bled out, staying down for good.

Cam swivelled just in time to dodge a fist, countering with a well timed blow to the back of the daemon’s neck, the edge of her sword almost getting lodged in between the links of its spinal column. Just then she heard a gunshot ring out, and the hobgoblin occupying her blade fell limp, the telltale black hole that blossomed on its temple the culprit. Beginner’s luck, Cam thought and grinned, though it was short-lived as a hobgoblin unsurprisingly barrelled towards Iris, who had begun running around the perimeter of the action. Good girl, Cam thought, keep moving…

Cam had another near miss that moment, one of the daemons catching her off guard and trying to swipe her legs out from below her. Dammit, where was her honed composure and focus all of a sudden? She reeled back, her elbow connected with it’s jaw, giving with the force of impact and going slack. It howled in pain but attempted to swing at her once more, just glancing Cam’s wrist and causing her blade to slip from her grasp. It flung through the air with a boomerang effect before smacking into a tree. 

She was down a weapon, and there were two daemons left. Iris was firing at one of them, though missing or just grazing for the most part due to the distance and the fact that she was moving. But then the petite girl did something that gave Cam a surge of pride: she withdrew the second gun from its holster, jammed the safety off, and started firing at both enemies at once.

One dropped, still reeling in it’s death throes but Cam ignored it, chasing after the last one until she was in range to attack. She slashed at it’s back, causing it to slow and whip around just in time for her sword to slash its neck. It swayed drunkenly before dropping at her feet, dead. 

“Excellent!” Cam breathed, catching her breath. “All clear.”

Iris panted as well, but movement caught her eye and she approached the last hobgoblin that wasn’t quite dead yet, thrashing around in agony. “Not yet!”

She swung her leg up and with a cleaving slam brought her boot down on it’s face.

  “That was AWESOME!” Iris was positively beaming on the drive back to HQ. “I feel like I could take on an Astral!”

Cam snickered. “Let’s save that one for another day. But you did great, girl. For your first time, you really stood your ground.” She offered her a supportive grin, a rare teeth-baring one, and Iris all but jumped out of her skin with adrenaline-fuelled glee.

“So, when’s the next one?” she asked eagerly as the truck entered the tunnel. “I really like bashing daemon heads in.”

“I don’t see why we can’t get another one out before the day is done,” Cam checked the time, surmising she could grab a blue hunt or two for them to quickly scrape off the docket and earn the girl some extra gil. Oddly though, she was feeling rather beat after that green level hunt, something she hadn’t felt since her earlier training days…

Passing it off as a long day of repetitively sharpening blades, she pulled out of the tunnel and into hunter HQ. The blood puddle at the entrance had dried, the behemoth corpse now gone as several hunters had driven up and around the rock shelf earlier in the day to tow the body a few miles away. 

As she found a spot to park, Cam asked, “Have you ever been here before?”

“Just once,” Iris replied, checking her face in the visor mirror for any spots of blood. She was surprisingly clean for just having committed daemoncide. “I came here with Gladio...right after Noctis went into the crystal.” 

“Oh,” Cam coughed, the prince’s -no, king’s name causing ripe goosebumps to pepper her skin. Gladio had told her many moons ago of his relation to the Lucis family, how his family was responsible to act as the shield of the king, how the scar over his left eye was caused by a bully attacking him and he came between them...She’d asked him to share more about their travels together but he brushed it off, said he “wasn’t ready” to revisit the good times so soon, that he’d need to hold onto them for when he truly lost hope that light would never be restored to Eos… 

Cam slinked out of the vehicle and Iris followed, unbuckling the holsters from her belt loops and setting it on the back of the truck. They spotted Greyson chatting with someone near the western guard post and he waved them down, meeting them halfway. “So,” He hummed, adjusting his bandana around his neck. “How’d it go?” 

“She’ll be a certified hunter in no time,” Cam replied, much to Iris’s delight as she held back a laugh. She handed Greyson the completed hunt flyer and pulled her phone out to send him the kill shots so he could collect their bounty. “We’ll stick with guns for a bit, as my first trainer did with me,” she continued, nodding at the husky man, “but if you want we can switch to something pointy and sharp later on.”

“That’s what I’m looking forward to,” Iris replied, and Cam could swear she puffed her chest out a bit. It was inspiring. “Eventually, I want to have a greatsword, like my big brother.” Cam’s eyebrows bounced a bit. “Wow, ambition girl. I can respect that-”

“IRIS?!” 

Cam’s heart leaped up her throat as Gladio’s voice bellowed from behind them, echoing off the natural stone walls of HQ. Her and Iris turned simultaneously to find Gladio, coated in a layer of sweat, blood and something mucus-like, hands balled into tight fists as he approached. He looked ripe to kill whatever he’d already offed previously. “Why are you here??”

Iris shrunk her shoulders, her mouth opening to respond but the words wouldn’t come. She looked at Cam for help, at a complete loss for words. Gladio’s eyes fixated onto her as well; her soulmate marking indicated so, the outline tingling slightly. 

Cam considered herself an honest person. She’d barely told anything above a fib before and thought herself not great at being dishonest. It always left a bad taste on her mouth at just the thought of bending the truth, yet in the two seconds it took for her to reply to Gladio, her soulmate and one of only a couple people left in the world she could trust…”She needed to get out of the city, so I brought her here to visit you.”

She lied. 

Iris followed suit like a well thought-out plan they’d discussed. “Yeah, I missed you big bro. Plus I had to see what the commotion was about over this behemoth-”

“Dammit, Iris,” Gladio growled, “It’s not safe here for you-”

“It’s not safe anywhere, Gladdy!” Iris’s shrill yelp in response cut the air around them, people staring. “When will you get that? One of these days something bad is going to happen and you won’t be there to protect me-” 

Gladio turned on his heel and walked away from them, calling over his shoulder. “I’ll drive you back to Lestallum myself. Cam, we’ll talk about this when I get back.”

Cam’s brain was throbbing. Why did she have to complicate things… She offered an apologetic look to the younger girl. “Sorry, Iris. I-I don’t know why-” 

“No, thank you for covering my butt,” Iris replied as they trudged behind the messy man, steam almost radiating from him as he made for his Jeep, passing the hunt posting board on the way. Iris’s eyes lit up at the sight, and she trailed behind to get a look at it. “Woah...There’s so many…” she mumbled to herself.

When Gladio reached his vehicle and noticed Iris was still behind, he turned around and found her stopped in her tracks, fixated on the hunt postings. His teeth mashed together. “Iris, what the hell?”

She jolted and ran over. “Sorry! I saw something…”

Without another remark, Gladio backed out of the parking spot and drove off into the darkness of the tunnel. Cam watched his taillights dim as his Jeep faded into the distance.

She wanted to throw up, the lie she’d told had burned her tongue like a fresh cup of Ebony. She regretted it immensely, but at least now she had time to plan her next move, determine when the best time to take Iris out would be. He’d texted her about his new patrolling gig, conveniently provided her with a schedule, suggesting they could spend time together or go on a drive when he wasn’t on duty. She liked the idea very much, though realized now just how thinly stretched her time would be…

Her phone buzzed in her pocket, an incoming text message. She pulled it out and opened it. It was from Prompto: So I see you outside without a beer in your hand. Come inside and I’ll change that. 

Cam’s eyebrows scrunched in confusion, before she realized she was standing just outside the bar. She peered into the window and sure enough, a familiar chocobo-butt hairstyle was visible in the dim bar lighting. He flicked his hand in a casual wave to her and she returned the gesture.

She couldn’t deny it; a cold one sounded damn fine right about now.