#there was one point i think it took me a solid 2 minutes to equip a gun

[roaringheat]

Finally going to bed but rdr2 is fun and very confusing

[ashenberry]

ashen. ashen i hope you know. i really want to know metal gear lore and the story please if youre ever bored and wanna talk about it talk at me about it !!!!!!!!!

HEHEHE >:3c i was gonna ask if u wanted like a specific game or in an specific order (game vs timeline) but i decided im just gonna talk at nasuem. for fun.

future ashen voice this ended up being long as shit. a read more. for ur sake

ANYWAYSSSS metal gear is about snake. which snake? fuck you that one but specifically these two

The metal gear games can basically bit split into the Solid Snake Games [MGS1/2/4] and the Big Boss (Naked Snake) Games [MGS3/PW/V]

The timeline for the games go

MGS3 -> ***MGS:Peacewalker -> MGSV* -> MG1/MG2SS** -> MGS1 -> MGS2 -> MGS4 -> MGRR

*(which is 2 games in 1 but not actually? konami wanted a game released in 2014 so they took one of the missions from V and called it ground zero. and then the rest is called the phantom pain. tpp. the peepee)

** these are msx2 games which was a home computer back in the 80s it was basically slightly more powerful then a NES. its very funny its such a. interesting part of the timeline and they never remade them so theyre just 35 year old games that are like the biggest twist is that big boss. is a bitch !

*** Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops is here but its not mainline saga. Metal Gear Rising Revengence is also not mainline saga but people have heard of it so it gets a mention. its the one with the brazillian guy sammy.

---

our timeline begins in the humble year 1964. the cold war is cold-ing and we meet our protagonist for the game john metal gear jumping out of a plane and into Russia to get some scientist past the iron curtain and into the states bc he decided he fucking hates developing nukes. Our cast for this game includes [Naked] Snake. The guy who will become, by the time of metal gear 2, the guy running the War Orphan Economy. they call him naked bc zero is mean and also bc they didnt give him shit in way of supplies

Zero. Also known as David Oh but who gives a shiiit. Hes your main point of contact for mission information he will tell you your current objective he'll tell you where to go what to do etc etc.

Para-Medic. She is here to tell you fun facts about the food you pick up, she is the one you call to save the game (in which she will then tell you about the movie ^-^) and she helps you when it comes to tending to wounds but i think that only comes up twice

The Boss. The most important character in the series given the impact she has on others, everyone whos met her talk about her in the highest regard and after this game Snake and Zero (and others) will tear the world apart for her.

Sigint. He's your main contact for weapons and equipment in this game. He and Para medic might end up being the character you talk the least to if you dont go out of your way to but honestly i really like their banter :]

EVA. Shes your intel on the inside for being the only other mother fucker on your side* thats actually here. in the russian jungle. Shes also propped as the love interest but snake and her at best have a one night stand and then. well you can argue they stayed friends. I do. i like that they dont get together it goes with the side thread that like. sometimes meaningful relationships cant be described as romantic or platonic WHATEVER!!!! next guy

Ocelot. fuck ass. bitch. he meows. he gets his ass kicked by snake and watches him hit his famous "i shit my pants" stance and then is just. [textually. stated in game] obsessed with him. for the next 50 years. and makes him everyone elses problem. my beloved mutuals could give u a more sincere read on ocelot i just. hes funny to me check this shit out

he does that for like 2 minutes. and for what. fuck him

Volgin. this guy is terrible he stinks which is great for a villian but hes fucking terrible. he also grabs snakes dick. he nuked a science facility hes trying to start mass produce the shagohod which is basically the precursor to metal gears. the metal gears are the nuke launching metal dinosaur

*theres some double tripple agent bullshit but. shes on your side like 90% theres like some side thing she crosses on you but snake i dont think gave a shit

---

SO SO SOSO SO. game starts out snake jumps out of plane into russia etc etc etc. This is called the Virtuous Mission. His Radio team consist of Zero, The Boss, and Para-medic. And this is the first time hes talked to the boss in like. 5 years? and she is like. the most important person to him shes like basically raised him since he was 15 he is often described as 'her most beloved disciple" anyways snakes like why did you leave >;| and the boss is like snake what is loyalty. who do you answer to? the goverment? the goverment changes who are you loyal to. for no reason. btw u dont need me anymore ive taught you everything now go forth and go save that russian scientist guy. so you go and pick up sokolov and then ocelot shows up and shoots the shit out of everyone and then snake shoots the shit outta ocelot and his boys but he doesnt kill ocelot becauses hes a fuck ass 20 something and snakes like ahh hes a fuck ass 20 something i cant kill him.

so he and the russian scientist walk towards the pickup point and the boss is like hi snake :> and snakes like shouldnt you be in a submarine ? and then the boss is like send the bees. Snake and Sokolov (Scientist guy) get swarmed with bees, sokolov gets yoinked by The Cobra Unit which is just. the boss squad for the game they have silly powers and theyre the boss's group from WW2 and the boss is like hey snake. im defecting to russia and volgins like hiiii we should kill the fuck outta this guy and snake hits his famous i shit my pants pose

and then the boss breaks his arm and throws him off the bridge* and then snake washes up on shore and calls in to zero and paramedic and is like hey chat. all my bones hurt so then the boss and volgin fly off in their helicopter and volgins like thank you The Boss for these davey crockets (which are nuclear warheads u can launch by hand) im gonna use them :> and ocelot (whos there) is like you cant just nuke the shit outta people????? and volgins like i can do whatever the fuck i want the blames gonna be put on the american who just defected and snakes like. hey zero i think something down the road got nuked to shit. the send snake a balloon and thats the end of the virtuous mission

*the boss has been wearing a bandana, and when snake gets thrown off he grabs at it and then from this point on untiiiilll. end of peacewalker he is seen wearing this bandana. idk if its the same one solid snake wears it might be im no bandana doctor

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One week later, snakes in the hospital healing up from getting his bones broken and zero is like hey. theyre sending you back to russia. to kill the fuck outta the boss bc yknow that building that got nuked? well it was an american nuke on russian soil and if we cant prove that the boss was rouge this cold war is gonna go hot and theyre gonna kill the fuck out of us. So begins Operation Snake Eater, called that because the objective is to take out The Boss, Leader of the cobra unit (though the cobras will also die bc they are loyal to da boss L)

To begin snake has to meet up with his guy on the inside ADAM at the same shack sokolov was rescued from. On his way there he meets up with the boss on her horse and shes like snake. Go Home. horse stomps on his hand she breaks his gun. L. Snake heads to the shack. When snake arrives he is not greeted by ADAM however but by the motorcycle riding EVA who gets him supplies including a disguise for getting to the research facility sokolov is chilling at and a gun and shes like youuu should fucking sleep its like midnight and snakes like >:| fine. and he does. and when he wakes up in the morning theyre surrounded by the ocelot unit that snake has to take out and Ocelot, the main guy, has eva held at gunpoint and is like SNAKE. YOU. LOOK I GOT A REVOLVER LIKE YOU MENTIONED. YOURE GONNA HIT TTHE CLASSIC "i shit my pants pose" SO I CAN DEFEAT YOU FOR REAL and snakes like ok buddy & snake and eva 1-2 combo him, eva does a wheelie off his face, and they head towards the research sokolov is behind held at.

on the way there snake meets alligators and you can grab the alligator cap and some leeches and then you get to a ravine and oh fuck its ocelot again. that gif earlier? this is when he does it Snake and Ocelot have a good ol duel before they are RUDELY. interrupted by a shit ton of bees in which they are both. terrible at dealing with? snake tries to cut them with his knife and ocelot spins his guns at them and to avoid the bees snake jumps into the ravine at the end of which is our first cobra fight with

THE PAIN - each cobra brings an emotion into battle. The unit includes, The Pain, The Fear, The End, The Fury, The Joy, and The Sorrow. you fight each of them in this game. The way the Pain's fight works is that he has a shit ton of bees and you have the power of water. he uses his bees as a shield, fake clones, bullets and you can go. under water to not get stung. you defeat him he explodes yay

and off to the research facilityyyyyy. on the way you see The Boss and Volgin and Sokolov and Ocelot chit chatting and if u have a sniper rifle you can kill The End here but theyre just giving exposition about this girl tatyana and how sad it is that the pain died. off to the research facilittyyyyyyy

sokolov isnt there. some other guy is i think his name is granin? he has nice shoes and he was the guy who design shagohod and hes druunk and hes like shits fucked. heres a key card so u can go to grazny grod which is where theyre keeping sokolov and also shagohod and snakes like thanks. nice shoes. and heads out to encounter the secound cobra fight with...

THE FEAR - this guys a BITCH to do when youre doing a no kill run bc the way to take down foes non lethally is to take out their stamina and he will recharge back to full once hes hit half. his fight is him chilling. invisible in the trees until he gets hungry enough to come on the ground and start eating. i found when going non lethally just handing him a bunch of poison frogs works really well. you defeat him he explodes with a shit ton of arrows cause he used a crossbow and off you gooo.

Eva calls in and goes wdym he gave you that key card theres. mountain there. ill meet you there get you supplies. snake continues on towards their meeting location when he encounters....

THE END - honestly metal gear, aside from sniper wolf in mgs1, has reallly fun sniper fights in this youre basically hunting him down and augh its good. you can also put the game down for an irl 5 days and he will die of old age cause hes old as shit. he also has a parrot that u can eat after the fight but like. bro? dont? anyways you defeat him he explodes and then snake continues on in which he encounters. the ladder

ANYWAYS you make it past the ladder and my least favorite sneaking section of the game and then you meet up with eva and shes got you some food and a way into grozny grad BUT !! she also is trying too yknow. seduce snake shes very upfront about this tbh shes like most of my missions is to fall in love w/ who the mission says anyways snake got any deets about da boss while shes just wearing her underwear and snakes like :| yknow eva. im not feeling the whole vibe your bringing to the conversation but i will talk about the boss cause this whole things got me conflicted why would she do that to me :| and evas like oh were u lovers and snakes like some things cant be explained w/ the lovers friends dichotomy but she was like. stupidly important to me and evas like damn. i need to get going ocelots getitng suspicious of me and she heads back to gronzy grad on her motorcycle and doesnt bring us we need to go. a different way through the sewers where we have our next cobra fight with...

THE FURY - this guy is decked out like an astronaut with a flame thrower and my favorite vocal performance AND THE FIGHT IS ANNOYING AS HELL I DONT LIKE ITTT HES A BITCH whateverr u defeat him he explodes and youre in gronzy grad

Once in grazny grad snakes next objective is to get into the weapons lab. find raikovich and impersonate him and meet of with sokolov. Raikovish isss. raiden mgs2 hes very clearly made to look like him raikovich vaugely sounds like if you took raiden and tried to make it sound more russian, they made him a little bitch to reflect the fact that gamers of 2002 did nootttt like raiden bc he was a little bitch with hips you could make out as oppose to solid square. I like raiden. anyways. you locate raikovich, knock him out drag him to a locker room and steal his close and now youre raikovich so now you can just walk around without anyone instantly smiting you.

you walk into the room where sokolov is being held and there you find him getting interrogated by tatyana (who is EVA. btw. idk how much of a twist this was suppose to be bc on one hand of course but on the other aaaa it was a ps2 game i just went like waow. the third blond blue eyed women in this game bc thats just what metal gear does theres a lot of blond bitches ANYWAYS) tatyana leaves you talk to sokolov hes like we gotta blow of shagohod and snakes like im getting you outta here. this time. for sure. surely nothing bad will happen and volgin walks in and was like raikovich. i was waiting for u in my room what the hell man and snake. cant say anything he doesnt sound raikovich at all so he just stands at attention and then volgin grabs his dick. Volgin's then like hah. an imposter. and then is about to beat the shit outta him and then the boss walks in and beats the shit outta snake and then volgin beats the shit outta him to unconsciousness.

snake wakes up with a bag over his head and his arms tied up above his head for beat-the-shit-outta-him 2: electric boogaloo. Ocelot, The Boss, and tatyana eventually are watching. its an interrogation scene theyre "trying" to get information out of him but we're shown earlier that volgin is very good at the beating the shit outta someone part and very bad at the getting information part. Granin (nice shoes) guy died. very sad. ANYWAYS. volgins like i hate this cia dog dipshit are you here for the philosophers legacy and snakes like ? cause he doesnt know shit about that and volgins like the philosophers legacy. yknow. the big pile of money that The Philosophers, a group that worked behind the scenes to pull the strings on events around the world that eventually broke into the US, Russian, and China branch after the cold war started? and snake looks at him like he just got the shit beat outta him.

Tatyana is like this is fucked up and The Boss is like your ass at this and Ocelot is like tatyana can u stop wearing that perfume (this haas been mentioned everytime their on screen together I just Forgot to mention it) and volgins like ok ignoring tatyana and ocelot. Da Boss. why dont youuuuu prove your loyalty and stab both of this dipshits eyes out and the boss is like 🧍‍♂️ yeah ok hand me that knife and then we get a scene of snake looking at the boss sad puppy style while theres a blade inches from his eyes and tatyana is like this is FUUCKKED and grabs attt. volgin or the boss i forget its been a hot minute. it goes to chaos a little bit but the scene ends with Ocelot shooting out Snakes (his right, looking at him the one on the left) eye and at long last. now people who havent played the games have their shorthand for which one is big boss and which one is solid snake (the eye patch. tho we still gotta wait a minute for him to get one theyre not just gonna. give him one yet they still gotta beat the shit outta him more). eventually volgins like thats IT. we're done for now send him to the cell and tatayana (EVA) whispers to snake when she has a moment hey i got an escape route for u w/ supplies all you need to do is to get outta the cell.

So now snake is in gay baby jail. theres a couple ways to get out one is that if you went in 1st person view mode earlier you would have saw a Ghost (whos shown up a couple times, uh mostly when the boss is like Are you there The Sorrow? the ghost is the Sorrow) and the ghost wouldve held up a sign that had a radio frequency if you call it it opens the door. you can leave when the guard uses the bathroom sounds like dinner didnt agree with him. you can also make friends with the guard by giving him food hes like waow :3 my names johnny my dads name was johnny my sons name is johnny and snakes like thats crazy can you open the door and hes like yeah and you scram presumably after putting him to sleep. ANYWAYS you run off to the sewers and eva is like bad news they got dogs you gotta get going and snakes running through this sewer getting chased by dogs n guys until he gets to the end and oh fuck a cliff drop into the river and he looks behind him and FUCK ITS OCELOT AGAIN goddamit hes like SNAKE. LETS DUEL AGAIN and snakes like fuck it T-poses and falls into the river jesus style where because he was barely hanging on takes him too the next boss fight with…

THE SORROW. yeah. the ghost from earlier. snake is in a realm between life and death. The fight takes place in a monochrome version of an earlier section where you are walking through waist through water. the sorrow is like its fucked up to kill people snake. heres everyone you killed and then you have to walk through this river past the ghost of everyone youve killed up until that point. no kill runs still have a couple ocelot unit members bc snake kills them in a cutscene. and once you wade past all of them you see a body floating in the water. The sorrows body. touching it kills you instantly and to progress you need to take a revival pill you have earlier bc u also have a death pill you can use whatveer but it wasnt important.

I will mention it here. This jungle is where the sorrow died years earlier. He and the Boss were put in a situation where one of them had to kill the other and they decided the sorrow will die and the boss will live. which is great for the sorrow honestly he already had ghost powers im. being a cryptid is his calling truly.

Snake wakes up under water and starts swimming upwards for air. he gets ashore and EVA's like heres the meet up spot and he heads over there where he gets his gear back and a nice roasted snake for the time being. They Chill before Eva is like OK!! i got some C3 youre gonna head back and blow the fuck outta the shagohod i need to get back before ocelot gets sus and snakes like o7 ok AND WE HEAD BACK. TO GRANZY GROD. to BLOW UP. THE SHAGOHOD. we set up a bunch of c3 which was c4 but a little lamer but they didnt know that at the time but before the explosives can go off volgins like HIIII and hes got tatyana (EVA) corned because they found out about the spy shit. Remember how ocelot kept getting annoyed by her perfume? he finally placed the smell it was the smell of gasoline from her motorcycle and evas like your a bitch ass motherfucker and volgins like lol. lmao. strikes you with lightning. and the boss is like hey. let me finish her off and volgins like ok :thumbs_up: and turns his attention to snake where the 1v1 in a pit. Ocelots miffed because HEEE wanted to 1v1 snake so he just watches from above. and throws items for snake which pisses off volgin oh yeah next boss fight

Volgin - he has electric powers he can zap the shit outta you so for the most part you cant really use ru guns bc theyre metal you gotta use C! Q! C! close quaters combat a fighting form in universe created by The Boss and Snake. you have. 10? maybe minutes to defeat volgin b4 everything blows up. at some point phase 2 beings where volgin is like OCELOT. KILL HIS ASS> and ocelots like fuck you. does his gay little hand gesture and leaves cause he aint getting blwon the fuck up.

you finish up the volgin fight and get the hell outta dodge where you see Eva outside on her bike and snake is like ? i thought da boss killed you and evas like noooo she wanted me to tell u that we gotta go meet her at the lake where im keeping a plane and snakes like awesome ok. and then the c3 goes off and theyre like yay and then the shagohod starts coming for them and theyre like D: and volgins like IM COMING FOR YOUR ASS and ocelot who hates being left out also gets on his own motorcycle and also starts chasing after eva and snake hijinks ensue ocelot gets knocked off his bike early you blow up a bridge trying to take out the shogod it works for most of it but theres still the front half you 2v1 it in some field you kill the fuck outta volgin god strikes him with lightning. snake and eva are like x_^ YAY ^_^

then all of volgins men keeps chasing them to kill em and theyre like ah fuck. eva's like snake ill drive u shoot the fuck outta them and so u go through this driving section and then you get out nice n good and then eva n snake notice the gas tank got shot and while theyre looking at that they drive into a tree and off a cliff and eva gets like. stabbed all the way through her abdomin with a stick and shes like aug i cant go on and snakes like you have to. i cant fly a plane. i need u and shes like well when u put it like that so u get eva off the stick and then perform surgery with snakes first aid kit which includes. ointment. bandages. a cigar? SHES PATCHED UP. she aint shmooving tho so we have some slower paced stealth before we get to the lake! yay! snakes like i need. to go talk to the boss and evas like ok. ill get the plane started so snake walks over to the flower field the boss is in and then we have our final boss fight with…

THE BOSS - also known as The Joy.

Life's end... Isn't it beautiful? It's almost tragic. When life ends, it gives off a final lingering aroma. Light is but a farewell gift from the darkness to those on their way to die. I've been waiting, Snake, for a long time. Waiting for your birth, your growth, and the finality of today.

Joy recounts to snake parts of her life. How she went to space and saw the world whole. with no division no borders no west vs east capitalism vs communism us vs russia. how she went to fucking dday and gave birth on the field (??!) and how her kid n womb were taken by the powers that be. uh in this case those powers are the Philosophers. She talks about how this. shouldnt be happening. They shouldnt be going face to face. How the winds chance and how someone you fought along one day will be ur enemy the next. iiii have opinionsss but those are stored in the boss ppt uh. ask if you want those send an ask im not going tooo incredibly deep here bc im just writing this all off the top of my head but she thanks snake for letting her talk about her self, calls in a bomber jet, and says snake. we have 10 minutes before everything gets blown to shit. lets have the best fight of our lives.

I have found that this fight is far easier when using a non lethal method and also this is like the only part of the game that lags the flower field has hands. The games theme snake eater plays for the second half of the fight and you can find 3 snakes around named Solid Liquid and Solidus. buuut im stalling. At the end of the fight The boss hands snake her half of the philosophers legacy that she stole from volgin. She tells him that he is a wonderful guy. That their can only be One Boss. and One Snake. the camera pans out and this is when you the player are suppose to pull the trigger. if you wait long enough the game will do it for you but this is where Joy dies.

the while flower field turns red and snake heads towards the plane with a petal he took with him that as they take of get stolen by the wind. as the gain win who shows up but MOTHERFUCKING OCELOT BABYYY HE WANTS THAT 1 ON 1 HE HAS SOME LIKE HOVER CRAFT BULLSHIT THATS SHOWN UP A COUPLE TIME AND HES LIKE FUCK YOU SNAKEE AND THEY HAVE A 1-1 IN THE BACK OF THE PLANE AND THEN OCELOTS LIKE WAIT wwai twaitwait. russian roulette my friend here here. 1 bullet. 2 guns. he starts juggling them u take them and theres like a lot of outcomes here but its either snake gets it and shoots past him and either no bullet or its a blank or ocelot shots him and its no bullet or blank and hes like. "im not an ocelot and ur not a snake what ur name" to which snake responds john metal gear. thanks john metal gear. ocelot jumps out of the plane and we're off. out of russia. thank god.

They arrive back to the states Snake and Eva have a night to themselves :smirk: and then snake wakes up alone with a message from eva thats like hey snake. i took the philosophers legacy. i wouldve killed you too but god. The Boss is really based wow. Her ORIGINAL Mission was just to get the philosophers legacy off of volgin but the dipshit nuked a building so to prevent the cold war from going hot she had to die but she couldnt kill herself cause the states needed to prove their innocence so they made YOU do it and while this tape is playing we see snake getting his medals and honors for operation snake eater and. the president whats his fuck Lindon B Johnson i think is like. youve surpassed even the boss. we give you the title big boss. people go shake snakes hand and he just fucking leaves and goes to an unmarked* grave and just cries bc da boss is dead. *its like a MIA gravestone i think. yknow. the gravestone "here lies a hero" but theres no name.

AND THATS METAL GEAR SOLID 3. Ill be fucking honest i didnt expect this to be as long as it is holy shit. and mgs3 isnt even my favorite game i just honestly sincerely just recounted the events to you off the top of my head bwhadwaiwfjiwf. ill do the other games but later hehe

[goldenchocobo]

Time for another wall!

Earlier in the day I, myself caught up to them and played through until just passed the Roxas fight, just so I knew what to do freshly; since well... Roxas has a reputation.

The mood for tonight.

-

We started, and since we rushed the mansion, I asked if Isopod and Dog if they wanted to get the little treasures they missed. They both explored, fought the Nobodies there... and got lost. lol

I told them to take their time. I felt like a dog owner allowing their pet one last look at the sun light before the inevitable. I HOPE beyond hope that they clear Roxas easy, but... I'm worried they won't.

For some reason Isopod sent me this.

"Siax. Our enemy. Siax. Your next boss. Siax." -Dog making fun of Axel. Oh you sweet summer child, how you think that.

One faded Axel later, and it was onto The World that Never Was.

"His voice doesn't match that character, but his Voice actor FUCKS" -Dog talking about Xemnas' voice actor. I agree with the latter half, I would be satisfied hearing that man read the dictionary.

"Fragment's crossing...?"-Isopod. "Yeah, all the names are pretentious, and I blame Xemnas because he's pretentious."-Me "Ahh... yeah..."-Isopod

Then there was a solid 5 minutes of non stop shadow-heartless and chest-collecting action... in near silence.

Meanwhile I sent them this (with Isopod's reaction);

Roxas Time

Both near insta-died to him; which is the industry standard. Then I kept a tally of deaths;

Roxas vs Isopod: IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII I Roxas vs Dog: IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII II

Dog became angry. Isopod became desperate.

"It's a fun fight. Difficult, but fun- I just don't like the walk back."-Isopod "In my panic I almost threw up"-Isopod

Dog told me that he wanted to play his way- that the game does not tell you anything (it does, he just neglected to read through the entire playthrough), and that he did not want to grind, which was also why he refused my help. It's just frustrating to see your friend trash your favourite game, because they're bad at it, you know?

half way through, Isopod took a break to level up their forms, wile Dog kept bashing his head against a wall- then quit entirely...

Dog quit, and complained when I showed him my footage; not understanding why I'm taking less damage than him, even though I'm on crit. I explained that it's probably because I equipped higher level gear, Used a different Keyblade (Kingdom Key), and took my time grinding forms for better mobility- something he has adamantly refused in the past. I told them both that I saw their improvement through the fights, and while Isopod smiled, Dog was just... brick wall silent.

Isopod limit grinded some more, and still, Dog did not say a word.

After a while, Isopod went back to Roxas. Dog played Monster Hunter.

Roxas vs Isopod 2: IIIII IIIII IIII

Me and Isopod strategized and I coached the best I could, even with the delay in footage between our machines, I felt like Isopod was improving in their strategy more each time, and although she messed up against him a few times; Roxas was becoming a routine dance rather than a panic. It was noticed that Isopod had survived getting hit by Roxas' DM twice, which boosted her confidence more.

After a while, Isopod too, grew weary. At this point, Dog left the VC to play another game and we decided to end for the day. We discussed the fight, and I commended Isopod on their progress; that they're learning and hopefully next time they'll beat Roxas.

Total deaths against Roxas: Isopod: 35 Dog: 22

So me and two of my friends have started a Gaming Culture Exchange. It’s where we give one game that means a lot to us, or embodies us as a person for the other two to play. I, of course- picked Kingdom Hearts.

It took a bit of thought to whittle it down, but in the end, I chose to get my friends to play KHII.  Because 1) it’s a fan favourite, 2) It has MUCH better combat and fluidity of controls than KHI, and 3) While yeah- you should play KHII and CoM, you can still glean the story; which is what I wanted them to play for. And if they don't understand anything- I'm here.

We meet up every Saturday night, and they play for 2-3 hours whilst I watch and act as a guide/tip-giver.

I wanted to document their experiences because they’re (mostly) fresh eyes in ‘24. This took so long to do because I kept forgetting to ask their permission to do this. How long? When we devised this, the KH series was announced that it was coming to steam during the VC call. I kind of laughed at the irony.

For now, let me introduce you to my friends! I’m not using any of their real names/what I call them due to identity.

Isopod: She/They: We get along really well and often watch shows together, play games or hang out. They’re more of a slow-paced gamer, liking farming sims and the less action-heavy Minecraft parts, but overall she loves genetic sims/ family tree games (wobbledogs, niece etc…). She’s seen little bits of KH, but doesn’t know a whole bunch. Their game for this exchange is Rainworld.

Dog: He/Him: We’re good friends that can get on each other's nerves and argue over pedantic stuff. He likes grimdark things and was the one who introduced me to Berserk. We, along with Isopod, watched Dungeon Meshi together, and I got him to watch Demon Slayer, which he’s enjoying. He actively dislikes/is uninterested in KH, not liking the style clash. His game for this exchange is Eldenring.

Due to the lag with getting permissions, each new entry will be each day until I've caught up, then every Sunday. Each day will be a reblog of this post with a Keep reading spoiler tag so that it doesn't clutter, but can be read in order.

Now that the stage is set, the journey starts below;

-

The game starts, and we jam out to Sanctuary. Isopod already kind of remembers who Roxas is and why he's here, but Dog doesn't- instead, he comments on the 'Gaming Rig' Roxas has got set up (the weird contraption with the light up star in his room) while Isopod laments that they'll never own a lamp as cool as his fish one.

'oh no, our ___ are gone!' "Your WHAT" -Dog

"I thought my audio glitched for a second" -Isopod

We then have to wait because Dog needed to eat dinner because his timing with that is impeccable, let me tell you. This let Isopod explore a bit and examine Roxas' outfit- which she concludes is a 'disaster'(lovingly).

It's then noted that Isopod is playing with Keyboard and mouse, and I m horrified. Dog is playing with an X-box controller and I lovingly refer to him as a heathen.

When Dog came back, the tutorial was completed, but I noticed that Dog... never really read the text. "I read it when Isopod has it up on her stream" he says. This'll bean important fact later.

During the Siefer fight, Isopod picks magic and Dog picks defence.

"woah whatda-" "Demon! actual demon!" Isopod and Dog during their first sighting of a Dusk. Quickly followed up with Isopod saying "why's he got cheeks though???"

The Dusk fight was quickly finished, and they both liked the reaction command (important for later).

"Why are they not calling for an adult. This (strange man) had pictures of children. That's VERY concerning" -Isopod "Yeah, the adults in this aren't very reliable" -Me, all knowing.

"COUNT DOOKU WHAT'RE YOU DOING HERE?!" -Dog upon hearing DiZ.

I then let the two do a few chores for munny. Dog does the Cargo Climb, and Isopod the Mail Delivery.

After a short while, I could hear them bemoan doing the same thing over and over; then I say 'yeah- you don't have to collect the full amount, you can go now', which fills the conversation with relief.

"Oh my god Roxas is hallucinating now" - Isopod "I think his friends are gaslighting him" -Dog upon the Pickpocket scene.

The Namine scenes had some interesting reactions:

"Why is there a GIRL braking into his room?!" -Isopod "Puberty is sometimes like that" -Dog

"That is a note an adult leaves when they want to kidnap children." -Dog upon reading Hayner's note "Yeah, I wouldn't trust it" -Isopod. "is she a Jojo???" -Isopod Dog then imitates Dio -during Namine's meeting with Roxas where she freezes time.

Then, in the Dive to the Heart, Isopod picks Attack, and Dog picks Defence. Isopod is able to beat Twilight Thorn straight away, but Dog takes two attempts.

The Fourth day is where everything fell apart. The tournament was easy, and neither struggled against Hayner or Vivi. Then came along Axel.

Isopod beat Axel fairly quickly. I thought they'd struggle, but they didn't. Dog, however struggled. I noticed that when he attacked Axel after parrying or blocking, Axel would retaliate- I told him what I saw, but Dog complained 'I can't attack him otherwise'. It took Dog going from Crit to Proud to beat Axel. "Wow Golden, you're cruel to put a new player on the hardest difficulty" you say, and you would be right, but Dog typically loves very hard games, and boasts that it took him 8 solid hours to beat a boss in Eldren Ring and that 'it was awesome', so I suggested Crit to him.

When Axel was beaten, Dog was VERY tired of Kingdom Hearts, and actively tried his best to dislike it, talking bad about the combat and how 'you're locked into an action'. Isopod did not share this, and was enjoying her time. I could tell that Dog wanted this done, but I urged them forward because they were nearing the finale of the prologue.

They did the wonders, made fun of Roxas' friends gaslighting him into thinking he didn't fall off the clocktower, and they both beat Axel fairly easily second go around. They then made fun of Sora's shoes for 5 minutes straight, and ended the session.

-

It was fun seeing people's first reactions to KHII. Dog's reaction was nothing new to me, as I knew this wouldn't be his favourite, and is only playing so me and Isopod play Eldenring. I'm hoping in the future, he'll warm up to it. Isopod is enjoying her time with the game, which is good to hear.

[lokilickedme]

Somebody help me chill, this is insane.

(under the cut because long and also pretty traumatic, for me at least)

Crazy neighbor, remember her?  Her son destroyed a piece of equipment we had attached to one of our trees at the fenceline last week, she denied it and called us insane liars - that’s the most recent craziness in the ongoing saga of the neighbor from hell.  I was sitting here reading my dash tonight and happened to glance over at the monitor for the surveillance camera husband got me the other day to watch that exact spot (where the equipment was smashed) and guess who I see bent over looking through the fence peering very closely at that exact spot?  Neighbor’s equally insane son, who we know did the actual dirty work.  And I, stupid like I am, took a screenshot of him and then immediately jumped up and ran outside in the dark in my pajamas (nearly 9pm, pitch black, their porch light is off because obviously they’re doing something they don’t want to be seen doing) and I ask “Excuse me, what are you doing?”

This lunatic immediately starts SCREAMING at me - I mean top of his lungs SCREAMING abusive threats, calling me a stupid psycho whore bitch, yelling at me to get my ass back in my house and generally just acting completely off his rocker unhinged nuts - and then his mother comes out and comes over to the fence and gets in my face while I’m just standing there and tells me to mind my own business.  I say I am minding my business, I saw him looking through the fence at my property right where we had vandalism happen last week so I came out to find out why he’s interested in my property.  She laughed in my face and said “No he wasn’t, he was standing right here looking at his phone like this” and she does this little pantomine of someone looking at their phone, which is funny because she wasn’t out there when he was doing it and there are no windows on that side of her house at all.  I ignored her and asked “What are you looking for?”  He kept screaming incoherent animal noises and insults from behind her so I asked again, “What are you looking for?”  And that crazy woman grinned at me and said “We’re just looking to see what kind of new devices you’ve installed!”

OMG.  She didn’t even take a breath in between lying and then contradicting her own lie.  And she’s grinning smugly at me the entire time, gesturing around pointing at our property cams and mosquito light (it flashes and apparently she thinks it’s watching her) and my bedroom window - which means she’s been snooping.  There is a cam sitting in my windowsill, aimed at the spot where the device was smashed.  Every bit of this equipment is on our property, some of it behind a privacy fence.  I tell her it’s none of her business what kind of devices we’ve got on our property, but she just yammers over me, and of course numbskull is still ranting like a psycho behind her, screaming at me to mind my own business and get back in my house and leave them alone.  At this point he’s pulled out his phone and shoved it over her shoulder toward my face and is recording me, which is just...fucking hilarious...because I’m literally doing nothing but standing there in shock and awe at how nuts these people are, and he’s still screaming abusive curses and names at me while he’s recording.

Anyway, for about 4.5 minutes we stood there with them shouting over me (I know the exact time because it was later discovered that our doorbell cam recorded audio of the entire event) and a little ways into it he screams “I WILL TEAR YOUR FUCKING HEAD OFF!!”

At this point psycho woman finally turns around and says “Addison Case!” and pushes him back.  He lunges at me and she tells him to go call the police (??what??  I mean...I wish he had...my phone was in my hand frozen solid, locked up because of the glitchy surveillance app I had to install to see the camera, or else I would have called them myself - but my god they really thought I was the one the cops needed to come for??).  Meanwhile I’m just standing there on my own property in the dark in my pajamas, all 5 feet and 120 lbs of me, while this rabid animal - he’s a 21 year old college boy - is lunging at me and screaming nonstop, calling me a fucking whore bitch loud enough for the entire neighborhood to hear it while his phone’s camera light is in my face blinding me.  Crazy lady smiles that smug shit eating grin of hers and tells me to get back in my house, leave her alone, and move the hell away so she can live in peace.

Wow.  Just...holy shit.

This is the person who has allowed her dog to attack my very small 8 year old son on our property and send him to the hospital with injuries last year, then attempt to attack him again 2 weeks ago (he is now 9 at the time of the second attack) - again on our own property (in our back yard this time, in our front yard the first time), has allowed her dogs (multiple) to bark all night long and keep us awake (she leaves them outside and then goes away for the weekend and they bark the entire time she’s gone), then she had her crazy violent son destroy the BarkBox we put in our tree on our side of the fence last week (we put it up as a humane way to get the barking to stop without having to listen to her call us insane liars every time we complain about it).  Yet...she kept repeating over and over and over for us to leave her alone and stop harassing her.

All I could even do was stand there shaking my head.  It was surreal.  And frustrating, because they wouldn’t even let me get a word out without screaming over me, and she was doing that infuriating Karen thing where they shove their hand at your face and grin smugly while they’re telling you what you better do or they’ll call someone to make you.

I actually started laughing, it was so ludicrous.  She’s committed all those vile offenses against us and we’re the ones that need to leave her alone.  We’ve had to file four police reports against her and we’re the ones that are making her life miserable.  I just can’t stop thinking about that Liar Liar movie where the repeat offender keeps calling his lawyer to complain that the cops won’t stop arresting him and the lawyer finally yells THEN STOP BREAKING THE LAW ASSHOLE!!

It’s just like that.  My god.

SO -

She tells him to call the police again, and this limp dick shoves that phone light right up to my face and says “You think she’s worth calling the cops over?  Look at her, she don’t look worth it to me.”  And bitch starts laughing.  My god, these people are subhuman, I swear.  I’ve never seen anyone act like this in my life, over a person doing literally nothing to them.

So she finally orders her rabid son (who is just about foaming at the mouth, I swear he’s making these barking animal noises at me, it’s weird as hell) into the house and they walk away, with him still ranting like a madman until the door closes behind them.  I immediately go inside my own house and call my husband, who was way out at the back of our property in our camper (he self quarantines each day after work out there to protect us because there have been a lot of covid cases at his workplace) and he didn’t know anything was happening.  He immediately runs up to the house and I tell him I caught neighbor’s thug son messing around at our fence and that when I went out he threatened to kill me.

Tom grabs something - I don’t even know what it was, I think it was this piece of board that was sitting by the door, we’ve done a shelving project recently and a couple of leftover pieces have been there for a few days - and he stalks outside toward neighbor’s house.  I hear him yell COME OUT HERE BOY!!! and I stg you guys, if I wasn’t on the phone calling 911 I might have thought about getting naked right there and then because damn.

So anyway, let’s not go there.  This is serious by god lol (look for this to show up in a fic soon though because material like this doesn’t get handed to you for free every day).

I call 911 and say the neighbor’s son just threatened my life and for them to come quick because he’s still over there but I know he’s going to leave any second (this is his mom’s M.O, the two times the police have tried to go talk to her she gets in her car and leaves before they can get from my house to hers, and I know he’ll do the same because COWARDS).  Tom comes back and says the little pussywillow wouldn’t come out of the house.  He’s breathing fire, you guys.  Pure fucking fire.  I tell 911 to get somebody out quick before the kid leaves, and just about 2 minutes after I hang up he does just that - we see him blast past our house in his truck and he’s gone, and then the police arrive about 3 minutes after.  I’m so mad I can’t see straight.  If they’d been able to see him in the state he was in, they’d have arrested him on sight.

Two squad cars (big SUV’s) pull up and block her driveway with full lights flashing, which makes me laugh because suddenly we’ve got neighbors coming outside to see what’s going on.  I meet the officers outside, and the crazy bitch next door does the same, yelling “Hello Officer!” and waving to them as they’re coming up to my porch.

They talk to me and Tom for a long time, I tell them everything that happened, they interview Big (he and Little were inside the open door and heard it all), we fill out our statements and talk with them more until one officer goes next door to talk to neighbor.  We can hear her dripping her fake sugar and spice while they’re talking on her porch and my husband loses his shit - he heads toward her house and yells “We got the entire thing on recording, don’t even try to lie!  Your kid, threatening to kill my wife?!?”  (he’s referring to the camera in my bedroom window, which actually only recorded about 2 minutes because I don’t have it set up correctly yet, but they don’t know that). The officer yells at him to get back, which, yeah - he shouldn’t have done that, but for god’s sake the woman’s peckerhead son just literally threatened murder on a member of his family, this is the final fucking straw and he’s mad.  And as he’s coming back across the yard the officer that stayed with me points at our new doorbell camera, just freshly installed as of about two weeks ago, and asks if it’s on.  We haven’t even really figured out how to use it yet, but yes, as far as we know it’s on.  The incident happened around the side of the house, but the doorbell records audio.

God bless technology.

I invite the officer inside the house and Tom gets his phone, pulls up the app for the doorbell, and starts skipping through the recording looking for the right timestamp.  Up till this point all they have is me saying the guy screamed a lot of abusive profanities at me and threatened to tear my head off, and they’re taking me serious but probably not that serious, you know?  Neighbors fight all the time, wars start over barking dogs, things get exaggerated, we’ve all seen the TV dramas.

Until Tom finds the segment on the footage and starts playing it to them on his phone.  It’s kind of quiet because we were a good distance away, but you can hear the guy screaming just like I said he was.  The officer asks if we have a speaker we can play it through so he can hear the words more clearly, because he needs proof of threat and that’s entirely in the words.

You guys, I’m tellin’ ya, sometimes you get a chance to fucking SHINE.  My husband is a musician and this cop is asking him if he’s got a good speaker.  So within minutes Tom’s got this huge venue-style amplifier designed for broadcasting music to the back wall of a freaking stadium pulled out into the livingroom and he’s hooking his phone up to it, and then he hits play and the other officer comes back from next door to join us and I can tell by the annoyed look on his face that neighbor bitch has likely charmed him and shed a plethora of persecuted tears and spewed her lies about how we’ve been harassing her forEVER and I think for a second that it’s a total loss now, he’s made his mind up in her favor.

And then...away we go.  Tom cranks the volume on the speaker and they both lean in to listen closely.

Just about a minute into the recording they have their proof - thugnuts screaming I WILL TEAR YOUR FUCKING HEAD OFF!!!

Both officers nod, close their notebooks, and the second officer makes a phonecall while the first one turns to me and says “That’s terroristic threatening and it’s a class C felony.  You’re going to need to go to the PA’s office with all the reports you’ve filed against them so far and all your evidence from tonight including that recording and hand it all to them.  They’re likely going to issue a no-contact so that he can’t interact with you ever again.”

This is a victory, but it’s just the first step, and I feel sickeningly disheartened that it’s all in my lap to do everything.  I want them to go demand his whereabouts from his mother and just go get his ass and haul him in.  But no, I have a ton of legwork to do now because these horrible people won’t fucking stop.

After several more minutes of me asking questions about what exactly we need to do and where we need to go, etc etc (I’m competent but I’m also fucking rattled, someone threatened to kill me tonight and I’m blanking hard on the instructions he’s giving me) they finally wrap it up and leave.  They’ve been in my house for a half hour waiting for me to finish filling out the report (I had to ask for more paper because honey I’m getting ALL the details in there) and I can just imagine how freaked out neighbor is when she sees what time they finally move their cars from in front of her driveway.

And now I’m coming down from the weird calm that I had through the entire event, and my heart feels like it’s going to EXPLODE.  I had heart surgery two months ago, do I need this??  The pathetic part is that I know now just how stupid those people are, and I know this won’t be the end from their side by any means.  We’ll start finding more stuff broken, or he’ll start climbing over the fence back at the back of the property to steal stuff from husband’s tool shed, or my tires will get slashed.  These people are that dumb and hateful, they proved it tonight.  He said if we had animals he would kill them, and then he made the same threat against me.  How stupid does a person have to be to stand there with his phone out recording himself ranting and making threats against a woman standing in her own yard in her pajamas?  Big tough man there.  And his mama grinning at me the whole time, telling me I’m crazy and she’s concerned for her own safety because of me, while her son is standing right behind her threatening my life.

I’m just...my god, I don’t even know what to think.  I thought people only acted like this in TV dramas, seriously.  I’ve seen some shit in my life but this particular brand of stupid has up till now evaded me, but now it’s been in my face and I’m sort of in shock.

I don’t like guns.  At ALL.  Tom has always had at least one hidden carefully away, safely locked up away from the house, but now there are two inside my house in immediate grabbing range.  He insisted that I let him show me how to use them.  Rules were laid down for the boys - never touch, never, don’t even get close to them - and now there is a box of shotgun shells on my fireplace mantel and a singleshot rifle by the door.  I hate this so damn much.

Don’t pick it up unless you’re ready to use it, he told me.  Without even thinking, I said back, “If I touch it it’s getting used.”

I HATE THIS SO FUCKING MUCH

My god.  I told the cops that the drug lord that lived over there four years ago was a better neighbor than this woman.  They didn’t even laugh.

I guess they’re right, now that I think about it...it isn’t funny.

[uglypastels]

To the Beat // drummer!Tom 1/2

(a/n) here it is!!! it took about a decade of my life but i think it was worth it  also shoutout to @duskholland​ for hearing out my ideas when i was brainstorming and together with @captainpeggy40​  for getting me through my breakdowns while writing. i got it finished!! <3 I really went all out with this fic, so i hope you guys enjoy it!! part 2 will come... sometime this week ;)

word count: 7939 (unnecessary content GALORE) 

warning: drinking, swearing, crowded spaces, part 2 contains smut 

you can find the band’s setlist here

not all songs are mentioned in the fic but it’s songs that i would really love to see them play haha. if anyone would be interested, i can make a seperate post on how i imagine them playing it (who sings and stuff idk)

Read part 2 here <---> extra headcanons here

With the right stranger, one night can feel like a lifetime.

“Will you please come?” your friend begged you over the phone. “It’s gonna be really fun!” 

“You know, you say that a lot, yet I never have as much fun as you promise.” You sat down on your bed, looking out the window as the rain hit every surface outside. It was not exactly the weather you felt like going out in. 

“Then that’s on your extremely high expectations, not on me.” She stated, “But pleeease.” She kept on whining, and you knew she wouldn’t stop until you gave in. It always went like this. Always. 

“Ugh, fine.” you fell back on the soft mattress, your head only missing the pillow by an inch. “Where is it actually?” There was the question you both dreaded. You, because you knew you wouldn’t like the answer. Her, because she knew you wouldn’t either. 

“It’s at Suki’s,” she mumbled, but you could still hear her just fine. 

“That’s where you work right- please don’t tell me you’re working tonight?!” you groaned into the phone. 

“I am, but I’ll be done around 9.30 I think, so there’s still plenty of time for us to hang out! Besides, you already said yes, and NO TAKE BACKSIES!” she said this all extremely fast and screamed the last two words into your ear. Then, on top of that, hung up as soon as she finished, not giving you even a second to fight back. Not sure what happened, you stared at the black screen of your phone in confusion. 

She said the concert started at nine o’clock. Did she really expect you to go to this thing and spend half an hour by yourself? Or did she want you to sit at the bar while she poured drinks for everyone? Either way, none of those options felt appealing. For a solid minute, you contemplated just not going, just… not showing up. Turning off your phone and watching a movie or something at home. 

But at the same time, you hadn’t left the house for a long time. And it was Friday night. Why not go out and see some obscure little band. What was their name again? Your friend had mentioned it, but you already forgot. Maybe it was for the better too. That way, you couldn’t look them up beforehand, and if they were shit, you would just find out there and not have another thing to be dreading as you got ready. Or maybe they would be good. Then it would be a pleasant surprise on the spot. 

You checked the time. 7:27pm. That gave you about an hour to get ready and then some time to actually get to the bar. Should be doable. 

So, you hopped in the shower to get all fresh again. Even if it would all get ruined later on in the night by standing in a sweaty crowd. It’s the effort to look presentable that counts. Then, you picked out an outfit that would be comfortable in the before mentioned crowd. You could never go wrong with the simple jeans and a t-shirt combo. 

Looking in the mirror, the thought of Not Going popped up in your mind again. There was nothing really obliging you to go. And the idea of standing there listening to the loud music, whether it was good or not, sounded slightly exhausting. 

No, you reminded yourself, it would do you good to leave the house once in a while. Have “fun”. You checked the time once more, 8:14. You had done everything a bit quicker than you expected. The Uber you had arranged for yourself would be there in a few minutes. So, you were stuck in that kind of waiting limbo, sitting on your couch, not sure what to do. Eventually, you put on your shoes and got your keys and were ready to head out. 

The drive was quick and thankfully, mostly quiet. It was only a minute or two before you reached your destination that the driver decided to ask you where you were headed. 

“Concert,” you said hesitantly. Why did these people always want to know your business? Thankfully, the man didn’t ask much more. And then it was time for you to get out of the car. The drive actually took much less time than you had expected and there was still some time left before the band would start to perform. 

Suki’s was a bar downtown, in the basement of some kind of law firm. Their whole thing was that they let new bands and artists play each week so they could get some of the public’s interest going. Make themselves known to the world. It was literally and figuratively, an underground following that it had. Many, but at the same time, nobody knew about it. It was a secret amongst music lovers. Considering the bar wanted to stay its own secret, you never understood the bright neon lights above the entrance, going down the staircase all the way to the actual hall. 

The bar itself wasn’t too big. Enough space for a small stage along one wall, a bar on the opposite side, and the rest was space for the crowd to either enjoy or hate the music being played. When you walked in the room was still relatively empty. You saw two guys setting up equipment on stage, you assumed it was the band. Behind them was a black banner with “Winter Solstice” written in scratchy white letters. Between the words, a star that was drawn on in precisely the same rough manner. You had to admit, it was a cool name. 

Considering there weren’t many people there yet, you headed for the bar to get yourself a drink before it would be too crowded to even reach the counter. And there stood your friend, behind the bar talking to some guy. They were both laughing at something as you walked up. 

“y/n! You came!” you squealed out, “what can I get ya?” 

“A beer?” you said it more like a question. 

“Coming right up.” And with that, your friend walked off to the tap to pour you your drink. It was more out of reflex when you sat down on the stool, you leaned your head on your hand, but you understood the question from the stranger when he spoke up. 

“Not looking forward to it?”

Still with your chin on your knuckles, you turned to face him. 

“Huh? Oh no, I mean… she kind of made me come here, but-” you tried not to sound too pessimistic, but the guy saw right through you.

“So, I guess the answer is yes.” He chuckled. Right then, your friend came holding your drink and put it in front of you. 

“I’ll put it on your tap.” She was going to join the conversation but right then a group of tonight’s spectators walked up in need of drinks, so she was soon off again. 

“I’m not not looking forward to it?” nothing in your voice made it sound like you were sure of yourself, but it was enough for him. You took a sip of your beer, which you could feel helping the situation. While doing that you looked over the brim of the tall glass to look at your conversation partner. Like you, he was drinking a beer himself and considering it was almost empty, he had done that either very fast, or he had been there for a while already. 

Next, you took a look at him. From the profile, he looked pretty good. He was wearing a loose tank, showing off his arms. His dark curly hair was held back with a black cap that he wore backwards. What definitely stood out to you was his jawline. It looked like you could cut yourself on it just with the slightest of touches. For everyone’s sake, you quickly turned your gaze over to the extensive liquor collection in front of you. But you could see in the reflection behind the bottles how he was smiling to himself. He definitely saw you stare. This was awkward, and you only got here two minutes ago.

“So, do you know the band?” you asked in the hopes to weed out this weird situation you had created. For some reason, your question made him smile. In that type of way as if you had just mentioned an inside joke. Except you weren’t in on it, so you couldn’t laugh along. 

“Yeah, they’re alright.” He shrugged. Then, as if he suddenly remembered something, he shot up straight in his seat. “I’m Tom, by the way.” 

“y/n.” Then you remembered how your friend practically screamed out your name when you walked in, “but you already knew that.” Your phone vibrated with a text, so you took it out and immediately saw the time, it was already past nine. You looked over at the stage where the two guys were trying to untangle some chords. Clearly, it wasn’t starting anytime soon. 

“What kind of music do they play?” You asked Tom while still looking at the band trying to get ready. 

“A bit of everything, I suppose.” 

You bit your cheek not to say anything that might come off rude, but he could still read you. 

“I guess that wasn’t the right answer?” He raised an eyebrow. 

“I just hoped to get something more specific, but as long as they’re good, I’ll enjoy it.” You took another sip of your beer as an excuse to shut up. He must think you’re such a bitch at this point. You saw him glance over your shoulder at the stage and then smile at you. 

“I like you.” there was that chuckle of his again, “I’ll see you later, then.” And he got up. You were gonna ask why later? Why couldn’t you hang out now? You didn’t like to admit it, but you enjoyed his company, even though it was only brief and most of the time you spent it making yourself look like a moron. As superficial it made you sound, you simply enjoyed the presents of a good looking guy like him.

You were going to ask him, but he quickly disappeared into the crowd that started to form along the foot of the stage. More and more people were coming and joining in. The two guys from the band had finally untangled their chords and were placing their guitars over their shoulders, and plugged them into the amplifiers. That’s when you noticed that a spot was empty on the stage. The big drum set had no occupant yet. 

So, while everyone waited for the drummer to show up, you took this time to look at the other two band members, trying to decide which one was the cuter one. 

That turned out to be slightly more difficult of a task, you quickly realised. Though they were both very different, they were both also extremely good looking. There was the blonde, strumming a few simple chords on his guitar to warm up. Even in the dim light, you could see how perfectly chiselled his face was. He was wearing a slightly oversized button-up shirt with about half of the buttons open. The skinny jeans didn’t seem comfortable to you, but he made them work. The rings on his fingers reflected in the lights as he kept on strumming. 

The other had a bit more of a playful vibe around him. His curly mop of hair bounced with every move he made. You could hear his loud and contagious laugh all the way from the other side of the room without the need for a microphone. His outfit was something completely different compared to the blonde. It consisted of a baggy t-shirt (that you could read the band logo on), with ripped dungarees that were only attached on one side. He had rolled them up, showing off his bright converse. His bass guitar was currently hanging behind his back as he adjusted the mic stand one last time. There was something familiar about him, though you were sure had never seen him before. 

Then finally, a third person joined them. People cheered since it meant that they could finally start playing. You tried to get a good look at him before he hid behind the drum set. Hair was hiding beneath a cap, tank top… wait… was it-

You got up and walked through the audience. There weren’t that many people, so it was reasonably easy to get to the front. Or, almost at the front row, standing right in front of them felt a bit intimidating. Now you could see all three of them much better, and there was no denying it. Your new acquaintance Tom was the drummer. And when you looked over at the curly bassist again, you realised why he looked so familiar. It was not an identical resemblance, but there was enough that made you think they were related somehow. 

You watched Tom spin one of his drumsticks in his hand. He had the biggest smile on his face, then he caught your eye and winked. The cheeky bastard knew exactly what he was doing, you were sure of it. He was waiting for your surprised reaction, and you fell for it completely—hook, line and sinker. 

The curly one got up to his microphone. “Hey everybody, we’re Winter Solstice,” his voice was much deeper than you had expected. Especially, considering that he actually looked younger than the other two, you noticed. “We thought you’d appreciate some more known songs tonight, so join in whenever.” 

Alright, they were gonna do covers. That was not a wrong move at all. A lot of bands want to show off their own music, but most of the time that leaves the audience just swaying awkwardly because they don’t know the lyrics or what to expect. 

“Here’s one you all should know.” 

The blonde started playing his guitar, and it only took a second or two before everyone realised what song it was. Mr Brightside. It sounded a bit different, as their attempt to make the song their own, but the riff was unmistakably Mr Brightside. Everyone around you immediately cheered and started to dance along, waiting to sing the lyrics. You were too, of course, but all you could think about was Tom playing in the back. He looked so focused, but still didn’t let it sit in the way of enjoying the song. 

In the song, the drums probably only started a beat before the lyrics, so you missed out on the first few words, but quickly you were singing too. 

“But she’s touching his chest now, he takes off her dress now. Let me gooo,” the blonde guitarist sang. His voice wasn’t perfect, it was rough, some might have called it cursive, but in that right sort of way. It fit well with the rest of the band and how they played. In just a minute, they had gotten the entire room hyped up. Everyone was into it. Maybe it was because of the song choice, but you doubted it. A song like that can be tricky to sing to a new crowd. If you screwed it up, they’d hate you forever.  

That was definitely not the case here, they had the crowd in the palms of their hands. With each beat, you were pulled in…or, was that just you? 

The second verse started, and it was the bassist that began to sing: “I'm coming out of my cage, and I've been doing just fine-” There was no clear description of his voice. At least you couldn’t really pinpoint it. There was definitely that playfulness in it that he had been showing through everything he did. He couldn’t stay still, jumping in place, making his curls bump up and down as he went. 

“It was only a kiss” 

It was Tom that said the little interjection in the song. You had only looked his way at the end, while the other was already singing, but you felt as if he had been looking at you directly. No, he wasn’t. Why would he? You shook the thought off and continued enjoying the performance of the three men. You sang along just like everyone else. 

And then the song ended. It was almost unbelievable that it had only been one song that they played, but they moved on to the next quickly. 

The guitar faded out but came straight back, accompanied by a heavy bass line. Some people around you recognised the melody, but it took you a moment or two. Then it went quiet. The blonde leaned into his microphone, whispering the words. 

“I’m the invisible man,” guitar riff “I’m the invisible man,” guitar, “Incredible how you can- see right through me!” His voice got louder as Tom joined in with the drums. Then those few seconds of bass followed which actually sent shivers up your spine. To put it simply, you were a sucker for good bass and beat. But what was it about them that sounded so good? You couldn’t think of anything particular that would have set them apart from all the other artists you had seen perform in the club through the years… 

Still, seeing them have so much fun on stage, it was truly intoxicating, you wanted to join them. You couldn’t remember the last time you had seen someone jump around on that little stage while playing bass. You couldn’t wait to find out what their names were, but for now, “the curly bassist” didn’t take a second to stand still. The only time he stood in one spot was when he had to sing, and even then he moved around a lot. 

The others didn’t have that same luxury. Of course, Tom did not have a lot of options, sitting behind his drum set. Yet still, he managed to light up the stage with his bright smile and the passion he put into his drumming. Any time you looked at him, you didn’t want to look away- which was hard, considering that the other two were also a great joy to watch. 

The blonde, in his turn, stayed on his side of the stage, being somewhat stuck with his microphone since he had the most vocals. But he still had a great connection with the audience, you felt like. 

Before you knew it, the second song had also come to an end. Cheers and applause erupted in front of the band, with you contributing to it as well, of course. 

“Thank you, thank you,” the bassist took a little bow. Even though they weren’t playing any song, he still slapped one of the strings mindlessly. “Like I said, we’re Winter Solstice. My name’s Harry.” He introduced himself. Finally, you could call him something else than the curly bassist. Even though it was a very catchy nickname, you thought yourself. 

“Here on the guitar,” Harry pointed out, “Is my good friend Harrison.” Harrison waved to the crowd, receiving screams from the audience as if it was filled with banshees. 

“In the back,” Tom immediately started a soft drum roll, but Harry didn’t wait that long, “that’s Tom.” Tom reacted with a face that could only be described as “bruh”, making several people around you laugh. You wondered if it was rehearsed or if this was just how they were. Either way, it was cute. 

Harry talked some more about how they were excited to play tonight, but you were looking at Tom. You watched him grab a water bottle and drink half of it in almost one chug. When he pulled it away from his mouth, you saw that he caught you staring. Even though you were between dozens of people, even though the light that was shining in his face- he saw you. And he winked again. In the next moment, you had to think if the heat burning through your body was an effect of that little gesture or because of how warm it was in the room. For your own sake, you went with the second option. 

“Alright, here’s another song for you all,” it was a voice you hadn’t heard speak before. Harrison. “Here’s: You Oughta Know.” There was a mixed reaction from the audience, including you. Of course, you knew the Alanis Morisette song, but you had never heard it be played by men.  It was definitely an interesting choice for them to play, especially after the Killers and Queen. 

“I want you to know that I am happy for you,” it was Tom that started singing, as he drummed softly. You tried to control your thoughts as he kept on singing. Then the pre-chorus began, and you were shocked at how well they harmonised. 

“Cause the love that you gave that we made wasn't able to make it enough for you to be open wide.” It actually gave you chills. How were you so excited about listening to three strangers sing? 

At the chorus itself, everyone in the room went wild, singing along loudly. It was clear that the people were sold on this new version of the song. It was all fine. You were enjoying the show. It was actually fun. And then, Tom sang the next line- 

“It was a slap in the face. How quickly I was replaced. And are you thinking of me when you fuck her?” It sure was a slap in the face. You had to remind yourself that it was just the lyrics of the song. And he was just a guy on stage that you had only exchanged a few words with prior. Yet, you couldn’t focus on anything from that moment on. You could barely comprehend their version of “Are You Gonna Be My Girl”, not even really understanding that they were playing a different song. It was just a big blur. But maybe it was for the better, because could you really cope with Tom singing the titular phrase of the song in that husky way that he did... debatable. 

When you woke up from your daze, Tom had stood up to show the crowd the beat to clap to. You joined in before anyone noticed how far out of it you indeed were. Harrison finished the song off with a falsetto and then it was already time for the next song. 

This time you knew what to do. You wanted to record at least some part of the show. And when harry started a bass solo, you made sure to get at least a bit of it and continued filming from there, ready to post it on your Instagram later on. Harrison joined in with the guitar, and you actually had no idea what song they were playing. More people didn’t seem to recognise the song immediately, which visibly amused the musicians. They couldn’t hide their grins even behind the microphones. Once again, the harmonies… how did they sound so good? 

As the song continued, the more sure you were that you had heard it before, but it must have been very different from the original. No, actually… How did you not recognise Dua Lipa? It was not hard to forget about the original when you got to listen to this version. How had each song so far been this good, you still didn’t understand. You didn’t want it to end. 

But unfortunately, right after that, they took another break from singing. 

“Alright!” Harrison cheered (more squeals from his side of the audience followed. Apparently he had started to gain quite the following). “The next song is another classic, I like to think.” People whooed. “So we’d like some help from you guys if that’s okay.” The crowd seemed to be into it, so Tom followed with the instructions. 

“Okay, so we’re gonna start playing in a sec, and Harry will sing a little melody. Just copy that, and we’ll be on our way.” In the meantime, Harry had gone off stage to grab a bottle of water, so everyone had to wait for a second. This gave Tom the opportunity to freestyle on his drum set. It was a simple beat, but it progressed into a more complex set. He, however, did it effortlessly. 

Finally, Harry came back running, he threw bottles to the other two, which they both caught without a problem. Tom started to press the bass drum steadily, layering more on top of it. Then Harry joined with the bass, and ultimately, Harrison’s guitar finished it off. Harry leaned into the microphone. 

“Ooooo-ooo-oo-oo, ooooo-ooo-oo-oo, oooo-oo-oo,” he almost whistled, but not quite. He continued a few times, together with Tom and Harrison until everyone in the room was singing along. Then made that kind of gesture to show you had to stop. Harrison sang the verse. Anytime it was your turn, you’d just follow Harry. 

You had been to many concerts, but not many new bands had much luck in getting a full crowd to participate in the song. But by the way they played, everyone just wished they could be in the band, playing along with them. Even if it was just dangling the triangle. You, however, didn’t want that, necessarily. You assumed that it was the fact that you hadn’t been out of the house in so long, that now that you had the chance, everything felt hundred times more great. So a concert that was already amazing, suddenly felt like a euphoric, once in a lifetime, experience… though that might go a bit too far. And it for sure helped that all three band members were hot. Like, really really hot. 

Literally, too, the room was getting really warm at this point, and the guys were visibly hot also. It didn’t stop them from performing at 110% though. A few songs more passed by and Harry was still jumping around the stage. Harrison sang every note perfectly as he slew that guitar of his and Tom… 

You could barely look at Tom. Playing the drums as hectically (in the good sense) as he did, you thought he would be exhausted by now. But he still had that big perfect smile on his face. The sweat was dripping down his arms, but it just highlighted his biceps, making it very hard for you to concentrate on the music. And then, no matter what he was doing, he would find you in the crowd and smirk or wink, making you even more flustered than you were before. The first time, you thought he was doing it to someone else. But then it happened again, and again. And the beat of drums led your heart. You could feel it in your throat as it kept pumping with the loud music. 

It was during their little break which they used to goof around and play the intro of “Chelsea Dagger”, that you decided to go back to the bar. Your friend had said she wouldn’t leave you alone for the entirety of the concert, but you were already quite some songs in and there was still no sign of her. And you quickly realised why that was. Since the show had started, the entire room had filled up with people. You had never seen it be so crowded, in fact. And then the bar was packed with people asking for their drinks. 

Your friend was indeed there, with another bartender, doing her best to pour the drinks quickly. But more and more people got thirsty, so it was easy to assume you would have to spend the rest of the night alone as well.

By that time, the band started on the next song of their setlist, and you really thought they were playing one big joke on you. Or at least this Tom guy was. As he loudly sang Sex on Fire, by Kings of Leon, you decided to sit this one song out from the front row and stay back, near the bar. It actually did you well, because it was much less hot than upfront. You could just stay there for the rest of the show. They had been through around ten songs already, so they must be done soon, either way, you thought. 

And you were right. Ending with Come Together, the applause was bigger than through the entire night. The boys finished with extended solo’s of their respective instruments and a bow, and it was really over. Harry came up to the microphone one last time as the other two were already getting off stage. 

“Thank you! We are Winter Solstice! Buy our merch at the door! GOODNIGHT!” 

The idea of buying a t-shirt was pretty fun. And apparently, you weren’t the only one who thought that. Far from it, actually, The line at the little merch booth quickly exceeded the length of the small concert hall. You wondered if they even had enough things to sell. Would it even be worth it to stand in line? You just waited for the stream of new fans to cool down.

Eventually, it did. Slowly, but surely, the line got shorter. You also noticed that there were a few people that had the exact same idea as you had, so you joined the queue before the rest could. You didn’t even have to wait that long. Before you knew it, you were standing at the little table. There were piles of t-shirts and cd’s, and there were more boxes behind the table too. They really came prepared. Harrison had just been folding up an empty box when you walked up. 

“Hi. Can I get a (your size)” you asked, already pulling out your card to pay, “and a CD?” 

“Yeah, of course,” Harry grabbed a shirt for you with a smile. Tom had been talking to the girl that had been in line in front of you, but he quickly turned to look at you when he heard your voice. 

“y/n!” He finished the conversation with the other girl before moving over to join his bandmate. 

“Hey,” you wish it hadn’t been so, but a lot changed since the first time you spoke to him, let it only have been about an hour. There was something about him being in the band you just watched perform and buying his merch, that made you feel like a little school girl standing next to him. 

“I thought you had left.” He noticed you leave? Not the point. 

“No, I just went to the back. It was getting a bit hot for me upfront.” 

“Ah,” he nodded. “Did you enjoy the show then?” 

“Yes!” you said, a bit too loud, “You guys were great.” You looked at the CD that Harry had just handed you and smiled. “And I was wondering if you could maybe sign this for me?” Out of nowhere, Harrison appeared behind Tom, grabbing the CD from your hands and putting his signature right at the centre of the packaging. Just as quickly as he appeared, he went back to whatever he was doing before. But not without sending you a wink first. What was it with these guys and winking? Not that you really minded it. 

Harry took the slightly more polite approach, waiting for you to hand him the CD and he signed it above Harrison’s signature. Then he handed it over, together with the marker, to Tom. 

“So, we got ourselves a number one fan, huh?” 

“No, I’ll just wait ‘til you guys get famous so I can sell it on the internet and get rich.” That was probably not the response Tom had expected, which you immensely enjoyed. Next to him, Harry erupted in a fit of laughter. 

“Haz, did you hear that? She thinks we’ll be famous.” His laugh was even better close up. While Harry and Harrison kept on laughing, you used the moment to speak to Tom, one on one. 

“So why didn’t you tell me you were in the band?” you asked. 

“What does it matter,” he chuckled.

“You let me ask all those questions about the band, it’s fucking embarrassing, man.” you couldn’t help but laugh yourself. 

“Heh, sorry.” he took off his cap to rearrange his hair since some of it had fallen in his eyes through the night. You didn’t know what else to say, so the conversation died down. Then you remembered that there was still a bit of a line behind you of people that wanted to buy the merch as well. 

“Let me just pay for these, and I’ll be off.” 

“No, it’s fine, on the house,” Tom said. You looked at him with wide eyes. 

“Are you sure? It’s really no problem.” 

“Yeah, just promise me one thing.” 

“What?” You raised an eyebrow, not sure what to expect. You didn’t want to jump onto that wagon too quickly. 

“Will you stay? I’d really like to hang out.” 

You weren’t sure what to answer at first. You did want to stay and talk to him, but it was getting late, and you had been standing for a long time, and you were kinda gross from how warm it was during the concert… but Tom was really hot. And he asked so nicely. 

“Sure.” you gave in. “I’ll hang out with my friend at the bar and let ya get back to-” you pointed around the table to make your point across. He nodded and waved you goodbye as you walked away, clutching on to your newly bought merchandise.

Just like you thought, your friend was indeed still at the bar, cleaning up leftover glasses from the counter. She saw you walk over and you could tell she saw something different in you. 

“Look at you beaming, girl! What happened?” she put away the half-dried glass to listen to you. 

“Nothing?” you said casually. She saw right through you though, so you just decided to give up the little act. “Tom asked me to wait behind for him.” You bit your lip, expecting to get a lecture from her. But none of that happened. Instead, she squealed out in, what seemed like, excitement. 

“Ooh, Tom is such a great guy!” 

“You know him?” you asked, surprised. 

“Well, he was the one that got their band the gig here, so we talked here and there, mostly planning,” she explained. “And I mean, look at him.” she sighed and her eyes glazed over a bit when she looked in the direction of the merch table. Not sure what else to do, you followed her action and glanced over. Of course, right at that time, Tom decided to look in your direction as well. He smiled and waved lightly, making your cheeks heat up and quickly look away. Your friend, however, waved back enthusiastically. 

“So you think it’s safe for me-” what were you even gonna ask her? 

“Go have fun, I say. But if anything does happen, remember the codeword?” Her tone changed to a more serious one, which you appreciated. You had agreed ages ago on a codeword to use. In case a date turned for the worst, or generally if something felt off. 

“Broccoli, baby. I know.” 

“Broccoli.” She held up her hand for a high five, which you gladly accepted. 

You chatted for a little bit longer. Every few minutes tho, you’d be sure to glance over your shoulder to see if the merch line was getting any shorter. It didn’t seem like it. There was simply no end to it. You felt yourself getting frustrated. To the point that your friend actually pointed it out, snorting from holding in her laughter. 

“He has got you whipped, hasn’t he?” she bumped your shoulder playfully. All you did was roll your eyes. Which, actually, said everything she needed to know. He did, didn’t he? You always had a soft spot for musicians, dated a few. But comparing them to Tom now… it felt like a joke. There was something about this guy that made you want to know more about him. You wanted to see him play and sing again. You wanted- do a lot of things. But you had to get that out of your head. Let the night speak for itself, see where it leads you. If it would be his bedroom… that would be fine. Just fine. 

You knew you were crazy for thinking all of this, but a girl can dream, right? 

You looked across the room and were glad to see that there were only a few people left. Harry had already started packing everything up that would most likely not be sold that night. You watched the three of them make some small chat with the people walking by, but all your real focus was on Tom and his deep stare right at you. It made your heart beat faster. With his arms across his chest, the muscles seemed even more prominent. 

He was suddenly pulled back into the conversation, and it was as if he changed into a different person. All bubbly, none of that- what even was it that he looked at you? You decided to not think about it too much. One does not do well when dwelling about anything. 

Finally, the last person bought their shirt, and they were done. Hoping it didn’t make you look too desperate, you didn’t waste a second to walk over to them. Harrison and Tom were helping Harry pack up the rest of the things that were left on the table. 

“Hey,” you said awkwardly. Tom almost dropped the stack of shirts he was holding. Again, the attention fell to his arms. You had to force yourself to look up at his face, which didn’t help much either, but it made it easier to think thoughts that would not mean a one-way ticket to Hell. 

“Hi! I’m so glad you stayed,” he said after putting those shirts in the box. “I thought we could go grab something to eat. I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.” He spoke really fast, just showing how excited he was to talk to you again. To be honest, you weren’t necessarily hungry, but going out to eat with Tom didn’t sound too bad. 

“Don’t you have to pack up?” You pointed back to the stage that still counted all of their equipment. 

“No, we’re playing here tomorrow, again,” Harrison explained. 

“Oh, cool.” Was all you said. It was cool, you just didn’t know how to say anything without sounding dumb. 

“Well, shall we? There’s a diner on the way to my flat. It has the best burgers.” Tom exclaimed. You ignored the little mention of his apartment and focused on the burgers. He wasn’t suggesting for you to come over to his place. It was just a fact… right? 

“Lead the way,” you told him, but before you left, you turned to the other two members of Winter Solstice. “It was nice meeting you guys.” Everyone waved, and so on, and you were off to eat. 

It was almost midnight by the time you got there, but the diner Tom had mentioned did advertise as a 24/7. And it held up. When you walked in, you were practically hit in the face with the delicious smell of pie. You sat down in a booth next to the large window and very soon after a waitress walked up. 

“What can I get ya?” she asked, flipping her little notebook open.  

“I’ll have a cheeseburger and fries, thanks,” Tom asked. Then it was your turn. 

“Just large fries for me, thank you.” The waitress wrote it all down, then continued to ask if you wanted anything to drink. 

“Ooh, do you have milkshakes?” The woman smiled and nodded. “So a chocolate milkshake then.” You ordered. 

“Make it two,” Tom added. Then the waitress went off, Tom leaned on the table toward you, with his hands in front of him. “So, just fries, huh?”

“I’m not super hungry, and I wasn’t going to steal your fries,” you explained, making Tom laugh and shake his head. 

“You’re interesting, you know that?” 

“I like to think so, yeah,” you answered straightforwardly. It was a pity you had not gotten your drinks yet, or you would have taken a very nonchalant sip. You leaned your chin on your hand, just like you did at the bar before the show. Except for this time, there was a smile hiking up the corners of your mouth. Tom mirrored your position. 

“So how did you guys come up with the name?” you had been wondering that ever since you saw that banner hanging on the stage. It was always interesting to find out the thinking process like. 

“You gotta ask Harry, he came up with it one day, and we just went along. He’s the more artistic one of the bunch.” Of course he is. Well, that didn’t answer anything then. But another question popped up in your mind.

“Are you guys related?” 

Tom smiled at that question. “Yeah, Harry is my younger brother. Harrison has been my best mate ever since I can remember. We’ve always been close and messing around. Then one day we decided to grab some old instruments from the attic and- sorry, I’m probably boring you, aren’t I?” He took off his cap again and ruffled his hair. You thought he would put it back on, but he left it on the table. There was pretty good lighting at Suki’s, but the colourful spotlights were no match to the bright LEDs of the diner. 

“I don’t see how you thought that was boring,” you assured him. You truly enjoyed his little story, talking about his friend and brother. You had doubted the choice of going out to eat so late at night with a stranger, but now the reason was apparent. He didn’t want to be strangers-he wanted to get to know you. And you wanted to get to know him.

The waitress came back with two large milkshakes, topped with whipped cream and syrup. She said that the food would be ready in a few more minutes and left you to continue your conversation. You nudged Tom on to go on where he stopped previously. 

 “So yeah,” he cleared his throat, “we played and thought, hey that doesn’t sound shit, and we practised for a few months and decided some time ago, why not try and play.”

“Was this your first gig?” you asked in disbelief. He shook his head, though. 

“We’ve performed a few times, but this was the first one that felt… real, you know. Maybe it was just me, but I felt this great connection with the crowd, and it felt great.” You nodded along with every word, without realising that you had been getting lost in his eyes. He had been looking into yours as he spoke about that connection, and it made you feel that maybe, just maybe, he meant you specifically. 

“y/n?” He eventually asked, waking you up. You almost spilt your milkshake from the abrupt movement you made as you tried to sit up.

“What? Sorry.” You held the glass until it didn’t shake. 

“I asked if you enjoyed it? The show?” 

“Didn’t you ask that already?” Stupid way to answer! “But yeah, I loved it. You were really great- I mean, all of you.” but especially you, you wanted to add on, but that felt like going too far. As you were trying to come up with a normal-sounding answer there, Tom sipped from his milkshake. Something in his eyes told you that he could tell what you wanted to say, and that thought scared you a little bit. All you wanted to do was to give this hot guy a good impression of yourself, was that really that hard? 

But he didn’t say anything about it. Just continued the conversation as you hoped he would.

“Well, I’m glad. Honestly, you had scared me a bit back then, when you left,” he admitted. And there were the heart palpitations again, beating faster and faster. You grabbed the cold milkshake because you could feel yourself getting hotter. 

“How so?” you choked out. 

“Just because I could tell you weren’t exactly looking forward to the show, and then I saw you leave and didn’t come back. I thought you didn’t like us.” Us. He said “us”. Then we did it feel like he just wanted to say “me”? 

“I wanted to check up on my friend, and then I realised that it was much colder in the back, so I stayed there.” you explained again, “But why be worried about me, there were plenty of other people enjoying themselves.” 

He was about to answer when the waitress walked up with two large plates. She put them on the table with a smile, which you noticed was more directed towards Tom than you. He responded with a tight smile himself, but only shortly, turning back to you quickly to respond to your question. 

“No one there was as cute as you.” 

“What?” This time you made sure not to make any sudden movements to save your food and drink on the table. Did he really say that? But he didn’t clarify himself, he just smirked, enjoying your flushed expression a little too much. He put a fry in his mouth and still ate it with that smug smirk. You just went and ate some of your own fries, avoiding eye contact with him. You just needed a second to sort your thoughts. 

That second lasted a little longer, but at least you had the food to use as an excuse to avoid “awkward silence”. 

“So do you play any instruments?” he asked. You looked up to see that he had almost finished his burger. When you saw the dish being brought up, you thanked yourself and any god watching out there that you didn’t choose to order one. It was absolutely massive, meaning you would make a complete mess out of yourself—a sight for no one to see but your tv screen on a lonely night. 

“Uh, I can play a few notes on the piano but all very beginner's level.” You dipped a fry in your milkshake. 

“Like what?” He seemed genuinely interested. 

“Uhm.. the Flintstones theme song, for one. There was more, but I haven’t played in ages, so I doubt I remember anything.” 

“Flintstones, huh, nice.” He took the last bite of his burger. Knowing how weird it is to look at someone when they’re eating, you looked out the window for a second. It was dark outside, and the rain had come back, letting all the street lights reflect in the asphalt. 

You both finished the remains of your fries and milkshakes while making some more small talk. You got up simultaneously from the booth. Was it over now? You hoped not. You didn’t want to say goodbye. 

You grabbed your things while Tom paid for the food. Then you realised he had left his cap on the table so grabbed it too. But your hands were already full, so you decided to just put it on. Backwards, just like he had been wearing it through the evening.

“It looks good on you,” he commented when you met at the door. 

“Thanks,” there was the heat up your cheeks again. “And thank you for everything else, I had a really great night.” you were about to take the hat off to give it back, but he stopped you.

“It doesn’t have to end here, darling.”

To be continued...

> Thank you for reading!! I hope you enjoyed

> please leave a comment or ask with your thoughts. i love reading them and let me know if you want to be tagged in part 2! 

>masterlist and link to taglist in bio 

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[stillness-in-green]

I felt like the plf war was rushed

1.Plf advisors getting hype but no payoff

2.Only miruko, Momo, and Kirishma got time to shine

3.Machia got defeated to easily

4.The war felt more like a raid

I don't know if I feel like it was rushed, per se--it's by far the longest arc in the story so far by number of chapters, and would be even if you cut off the Tartarus jailbreak and the entirety of the hospital aftermath. What it absolutely does feel like to me is unbalanced.

You note that the "war" feels more like a raid, and you're right. As a caveat, it's worth keeping in mind that "Paranormal Liberation War" as a name for the arc in question is entirely an invention of the fanbase. To the best of my knowledge, the reasoning for the name was that big action shonen series like BNHA (Naruto, Bleach, Hunter x Hunter, etc) always have a war arc, so what we were seeing in the lengthy, mass combat confrontation with the PLF had to be HeroAca's equivalent. It's not a term that's in the manga itself, however, not called as such by the characters, not referred to as such by Horikoshi or his editors, not even namedropped in chapter or volume titles. If it feels like a raid, that's probably because that's what it was intended to be.

And that's the problem, really. This arc shouldn't have been about a couple of raids; it should have been about a war.

(Below the cut: a bunch of fired-up complaining. Uses some harsh language, and talks about both injuries and deaths we did see and some we logically should have.)

From the outset, we were told that the resources Shigaraki had amassed were "on par with, or even stronger than" the resources of the hero-saturated society. Yet, we're expected to believe that a force that strong is so easily taken down by a single coordinated set of raids? Yes, the heroes had the benefit of surprise, but there's just so much that doesn't work for me.

First off, and to get this out of the way, it's ridiculous that the heroes even had the benefit of surprise. The MLA had an unknown number of hero double agents. They had people in the government; they had people in the infrastructure. This is an organization that had been living undercover completely unsuspected for multiple generations--how did the HPSC ever manage to carry out a massive, country-wide investigation on such a secretive group and coordinate multiple simultaneous, comprehensive raids without a single person finding out and alerting the higher-ups over a period of only three and a half months?

When exactly did Hawks have time to go and revive Best Jeanist--which he tells us he did personally--such that none of the bugs and micro-cameras he was covered with picked up on it, and both he and BJ could be back in the positions they needed to be in for the raid to begin?

How did Skeptic find out about the raid such that he only discovered it at the last possible second and not minutes, even hours, before it kicked off? How did hundreds of heroes (and even "hundreds" is being conservative, given the fact that they had seventeen thousand people to detain) close in on the villa without anyone from the PLF noticing, either Skeptic with his information network or mundane precautions like people on watch?

Even granting the heroes their surprise advantage--which I don't want to--if the advisors were all supposedly "stronger than the average hero," why didn't we see any of them winning? Okay, yes, Hose Face beat Midnight, but he had every possible advantage in that "fight"; I hardly count it as some big impressive defeat that shows us that the villains were holding their own.

Here's another thing: the MLA styled themselves as an army--they were demonstrably trained in troop tactics. When we saw them in Deika, even their nameless on-the-ground people were capable of coordinating with each other on the fly in response to the movements of the enemy, as we saw come up repeatedly:

Yeah, they were off-guard at first, but as soon as the advisors made the front line (which, you'll note, was immediately), that disadvantage really should have begun eroding. Certainly once Geten--Geten! The number one MLA member most willing to disregard collateral damage! And there he was being a proper leader!--got to the front and started yelling orders, we should have seen the PLF rallying, and I can't imagine any sensible justification for the tides not turning when a) Re-Destro showed up to occupy the highest-ranked hero on the field, b) a bunch of heroes peeled off to try to stop Machia only to get trampled for their efforts, and c) Trumpet got dug out.

You know who don't style themselves as an army, though? Heroes. Oh, they get some basic lessons in cooperation as students, but the extent of such lessons we see is stuff like "why it's important for heroes to have signature moves"--so that on group missions, their reputations will precede them and fellow heroes will already know their shtick. U.A. teaches the odd lesson plan that involves the kids fighting in groups, but there's a huge difference between you and 3 to 6 of your buddies fighting a similarly-sized group in a practice fight, or a handful of heroes teaming up to take down some criminal low-lives, and the mass combat scenario that was the raid. For heaven's sake, look at our closest other equivalent: the raid on the Hassaikai base. At every turn in that encounter, the heroes let themselves get split up and picked off, winnowing down their numbers. It's even explicit in the narrative that hero team-ups were, in the age of All Might, uncommon, and heroes are only just beginning to adjust to fighting in teams. The erstwhile MLA should have had the advantage there.

As to Machia's defeat, I think the big problem with it is not how it happened, per se, but the timescale involved. The plan itself was sound enough, and even with all the kids' efforts, it still took Machia reaching Shigaraki and not getting any new orders to follow to really do him in. Given what we can extrapolate about his movement speed, though, I just don't think the kids should have had time to set all those traps, especially given how much of that equipment would have had to be fabricated by Momo on the fly. I know she's gotten stronger and all, and good for her, but you're telling me that in the four months between Joint Training and the raid, she went from passing out because she created a bag of goodies and one (1) cannon to being totally fine and still able to coordinate her fellow students while cranking out 23 jars of sedative, dozens of feet of rope/cable, multiple fire-resistant coats, explosives they somehow had time to bury, and three cannons?

For fuck's sake, Jirou gave Machia's ETA as under ten seconds. Yeah, Mount Lady slowed him down, but "only a little"--how much time could she possibly have bought them, that the kids were able to to coordinate and enact everything that plan involved?

You guys, go read this post by @codenamesazanka. Machia is so fast. So unbelievably, incredibly fast. "Twice as fast as the fastest train in the world" fast. "Horikoshi clearly did not stop to think about the distances involved here" fast. Three miles in ten seconds fast. It would have been hard enough to square with the needs of the plot that the kids were sufficiently far from the villa to have the kind of time they needed to swing Momo's plan at all, but Horikoshi explicitly letting Machia get right on top of them before the kids even start just makes it completely impossible for me to credit. Machia clearly being slower aboveground than he is when burrowing does not make that much difference to my suspension of disbelief.

My other big complaint? More people should have died, for real. The PLF warriors would not have been holding back. They were ready and willing to kill anyone they came up against. The heroes did have to hold back, because heroes, as we're told over and over again, are not supposed to kill, no matter how dire the circumstances. That difference in ability to exercise force should have been yet another significant advantage for the PLF. I could write an entire list of characters that I think could have reasonably been killed during the raids. That wouldn't be to say that I think any individual, specific character on that list should have died, just that, based on the parameters as they were presented to audience, some number of them should have.

I mean, honestly. How did Horikoshi wanna show us Gang Orca's unmoving claw in the wake of Machia's passage and not have Gang Orca on the list of the dead? How did Fat Gun run right into a mass melee and still have enough fat left over afterward to survive getting trampled by a walking mountain? How did Thirteen survive not getting pulled out of the hospital basement when Shigaraki's Decay hit? How did Trumpet survive getting a staircase dropped on top of him? How did Gran Torino survive a fist through his tiny old man chest cavity?

I could go on and on, but it's not just about the deaths, either. I'm not saying that Kamui Woods necessarily should have died by swinging himself face-first into a blast of blue fire, but I am saying that he should have been out of commission for longer than three goddamn days. You bet your ass I'm saying that after telling us that Hawks' weak point is fire, making us watch him spend at a solid minute or more with his wings wholly enveloped in Dabi's 2000 degree flames, and having Dark Shadow exclaim that his back is completely burned away, Hawks should never have grown his wings back, much less so quickly that they were already visible under his shirt a single day later.

More deaths, more maiming--heck, even more retirements. I'm not saying I love that kind of thing in my fiction--I don't, actually. I think an overreliance on it is a sign of edgelordy nonsense. But the scenario that we had demanded to be treated with the kind of gravity that would have led to such an outcome. To set up a conflict like the raid and have the villains only barely be able to scrape a partial escape, to try to tell us that Shigaraki's victory in Deika granted him such a terrifyingly powerful force only to have them lose every battle they got into, to tell us this was a blow that shook Hero Society to its core, only to be so unwilling to kill or retire any heroes the audience cares about that Midnight is literally the only significant loss… It doesn't work. None of it works.

I don't have much to say on which characters did or didn't get a highlight. I think there were a few more people than you listed that got some good scenes--Tokoyami and Uraraka both got material I liked quite a bit; Dabi famously out-trended the U.S. presidential election on Twitter when he (literally) came clean, and Mr. Compress gave us some wonderfully interesting and characteristically opaque material to chew on. On the whole, though, adding more character moments would only have been dragging out the problem: the scale of the PLF's threat and the HPSC's chosen method of dealing with it are simply incompatible with the feeble "neither side truly won or lost" resolution we got.

And that's my rant on that--thanks for the ask!

[gumnut-logic]

The Cane (Part 4)

@flyboytracy​​​ asked:

Steampunk AU: five uses for a cane and one time Scott used it for its intended purpose 😘

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Aaargh, those migraines messed with my muse on this one. Had to fight it the entire way and the cane reference is tiny. Hope you enjoy it anyway ::hugs to all::

Many thanks to @janetm74​​​ @tsarinatorment​​​ and @scribbles97​​​ for all their help and amazing support of my crazy. And to @flyboytracy​​​ for asking in the first place.

This be Steampunk AU with a mix of John snark, a little bit of wee!Tracys in a little bit of peril, some selfless Scott, and a reason you don’t want to mess with Five or her pilot.

-o-o-o-

4.

“This is very inconvenient.”

Scott stared at his brother in the dim light. “Is that an attempt at impersonating Lady Penelope?”

John stared back, dust drifting haphazardly off his hard helmet and goggles. “As you’ve said many times yourself, there is no use in panicking.”

He had to give his brother that. A sigh and he assessed their situation yet again, shining his torch about the space they found themselves in.

They were in a basement. It was likely that they were lucky, as all indications were that if they had been in any other part of the building, they would not be having this conversation or any other any time in the future. The basement had a wall of solid bedrock on one side, the building having been constructed with that in mind with half the plumbing bolted into the rock. Unfortunately, the rest of the structure had been built on sand, which promptly liquified when the earthquake hit.

Speaking of earthquake. “How long do you think before the next aftershock?”

John pulled out his notebook, took a note of the time on the watch he had strapped to his wrist, and scribbled down some math. “They are very unpredictable, but I’m hoping this last big one will give us some time. Or at least, Virgil some time to dig us out.”

Scott fiddled with his transmitter unit. There was no response on any frequency he attempted. Either the equipment was broken or something was stopping the signal from reaching his brothers. John had already pulled his apart and attempted a signal boost with no success.

They were both covered in dust, but fortunately uninjured.

But, for the moment, they were stuck.

Scott was not very good at sitting still.

“We may as well rest so we can be ready when needed.”

Scott grunted.

His brother ignored him and wiped off a large chunk of masonry with one leather-gloved hand and sat down. “You know Virgil will find us.”

Another grunt.

“Sit down, Scott. You can afford to take a minute to rest.”

He let out a breath and bit his lip, but with a sigh, he did as his brother asked.

There was silence for a moment, broken only by the sound of dust and rock settling.

“Why did you come back in?” John’s voice was crisp, clear and calm.

“You were in here.” Obviously.

“But now both of us are trapped, whereas if you had run like you should have, you could be assisting Virgil to dig me out.”

Scott’s lips thinned. What had been his line of thinking? Had there been a line of thinking? To be honest, all he could recall was the thought that John was under a building that was about to collapse and he needed saving.

His voice was a little rough. “Virgil will get us out.”

“Hmm.” John was not looking at him.

“What did you expect me to do? Leave you here to die?”

Aquamarine turned calmly to catch his eyes. “Better than both of us.”

“We’re not dead.”

“Pure chance.”

John was always ever so direct.

“But important nonetheless.”

John sighed. “Reminds me of the well.”

Scott eyed him. “Really? You’re going to bring that up again?”

“Eternally, my dear brother.” John’s smirk was exceedingly annoying. “Besides, it passes the time.”

“I would rather spend time finding a way out of here.” Scott shot to his feet and began pacing around the space they were stuck in.

“If you disturb something that brings the rest of the building down on us, I’m haunting you until the end of time.”

Scott slumped a little. His brother was right. Messing with the fragile pile was just asking for trouble. They were lucky to have room to breathe, much less walk around.

“This is the reason why you ended up in the well, Scott. You haven’t changed in twenty odd years.”

Scott glared at him. His little brother had been six at the time, Scott only ten. The two of them had gone beyond the borders of the Tracy farm in Kansas and into land they shouldn’t have. They were exploring. John, as always, was a little more cautious, but Scott was ever running ahead.

It was rather ironic that it was John who fell in the well.

It wasn’t long dug, but the planks covering it were flimsy and the winds from the previous day had obscured them. John had gone through them as if the planet had eaten him.

“John!”

Scott found his little brother clutching his leg at the bottom of the hole.

It wasn’t a very deep well, but it was deep enough to put his brother out of the reach of a ten-year-old.

“Scotty, my leg hurts.”

“I’ll get you out.” He looked around for something to help John.

Perhaps he knew in some part of his mind that this could be the wrong decision. He had no rope and no real way to reach his little brother. He should get help.

But he couldn’t leave Johnny here on his own.

The thought was terrifying from both of their perspectives.

Perhaps he would have thought it a little less terrifying if he realised what could happen if he didn’t fetch help. Because once he found a long enough stick, he reached over the edge and while doing his best to add to the length John couldn’t quite reach, he fell in the hole on top of his brother.

There were groans and tears after that.

Scott didn’t hurt himself. John had been heard to comment on multiple occasions thereafter that it was because he landed on a cushion he called brother.

Scott countered that by saying he was lucky he hadn’t been impaled by a bony limb of said scrawny brother.

In any case, they huddled together for warmth for thirty-six freezing hours until someone finally found them.

By then, both brothers were dehydrated and starving.

The lecture from their father was almost as long as their time in the well.

Their mother, pregnant with Gordon at the time, took ill with the fright and there was some seriously scary time until the little fish was born a month later…a touch early.

Virgil wouldn’t let either of his brothers out of his sight for a good year after the incident. The nine-year-old obviously terrified they would disappear again.

It became legendary in the Tracy household for good or bad.

“So, you’re saying, I should have gone for help?”

Something clunked in the pile of rubble.

John arched an eyebrow. “As I said, you haven’t learnt. Yes, Scott, you should not have dashed back into the collapsing building. When Virgil finds out, he’s going to scalp you.”

“I’m sorry that my first instinct is to protect my brothers.”

John rolled his eyes, both original and artificial. “Your first instinct should be to protect yourself so you can protect your brothers.”

Folding his arms across his chest, Scott shifted his weight onto one foot, cocking his hip. “Fine. Then explain Bermuda.”

“That was different. That was saving lives.”

“You rammed a twenty-eight gunned frigate with Five!”

“It was firing on a sinking civilian target full of over two hundred passengers, including my four brothers. Grandma was not aboard. It was a fair decision.”

Scott had to admit it had been spectacular, the huge, blue-grey, manta-ray-shaped Five had reared out of the ocean and sliced the pirate vessel in half.

International Rescue had fished the survivors out of the water and there had been minimal casualties, considering.

Five had taken damage, but her cahelium superstructure was designed to withstand something as simple as a mostly wooden hull. Some gentle care from Virgil, an assessment from Hiram, and she was declared fit and well.

They had disappeared for a while after that as the rumours ran riot. Lady Penelope managed to smooth any ruffled feathers at government level.

Scott had both commended and roasted John alive.

“You could have been killed.”

“So could have you, and Virgil and Gordon and little Allie. Was I supposed to sit back and watch?”

Another clunk from somewhere in the rubble.

Scott arched an eyebrow. “Perhaps, you know how I feel.”

“Of course, I know how you feel. We all do.”

“Then what is the problem?”

“Scott-“

But John was interrupted by another clank, this time clearly from one of the pipes against the wall.

“Virgil?” They both said it at once and hurried over to the rock face.

The clunk repeated itself and then started on a very familiar dot dot dot…

S C O T T

He reached behind and pulled his folded cane out of its sleeve on his back. Its metal tip shone dull brass in the yellow light.

He only had to tap one letter. Dot dot dot dash.

V.

Three letters came back in a hurried jumble of excited hammering. F A B.

Then…S T A T U S?

J  A N D  S   W E L L  A N D  M O B I L E.

S T A N D  B A C K ?

F A B.

Assuming Virgil was referring to the rock wall as the point of origin, the two brothers stepped as far back from it as they could.

Moments later a rumble and hiss of gears, the crash of breaking masonry and daylight suddenly shot through part of the rubble. This was quickly followed by a massive but familiar brass claw reaching in and grabbing a large chunk of rock, disappearing with it. A crunch of gravel, shove of rock…a shout. “Scott, are you in here? John?” Their goggled and fully armour-suited brother pushed the rest of the way through the pile of broken building, both claws fully extended.

“Over here, Virgil.”

Their brother’s head turned in their direction and metal shoulders sank in relief. “Oh, thank god.”

Something shifted in the rubble pile and Virgil reacted, his right claw slamming into the chunk of masonry threatening to fall. “Let’s get you out of here.”

Scott didn’t need to be told twice as the remains of the building creaked around them in warning. Grabbing John’s arm, he hustled his brother out through the gap past Virgil.

The engineer’s eyes on the both of them.

No doubt there would be a medical examination in their near future.

Shoving John gently ahead of him, Scott turned to keep an eye on Virgil.

His metal clad brother stepped back carefully, letting rock fall in his wake.

Then, as if the final domino had been tipped, the entire pile began collapsing in on itself.

Scott took a step towards Virgil only to have his arm yanked on from behind.

“Damnit, Scott protect yourself!” John dragged him through the remains of the rubble as a cloud of dust roared behind them.

“Virgil!” He dug his heels in, fighting John’s hold.

“He’s wearing his armour, Scott. You are not! Move!”

It went against everything. He had to protect his brothers first. But John was right. Neither of them was wearing enough protection. Virgil was.

He had to trust.

Trust that Virgil knew what he was doing.

When put in those terms the answer was simple. Of course, he trusted Virgil.

Perhaps it was fate he had issues with.

John dragged him clear of the building and the cloud of dust. Two, nestled on her landing struts, was a wonderful sight.

And then Gordon was grabbing at him. Alan was yelling his name and there were dusty hugs and clunking helmets.

But still the cloud…

“Virgil?”

As if summoned, his brother strode out of the haze, cogs whirring and pneumatic systems hissing, metal glinting in the sun. His goggled eyes searching until they latched onto his brothers.

Thank god.

A matter of strides and he enveloped his engineer brother in a hug, metal suit and all. “Thanks, Virg.”

His brother exhaled in a huff. “What on Earth were you thinking?” And so began the rant about worrying about a brother encased in metal when a building is falling when he wasn’t and could have been killed with a single rock. You idiot.

It went on for some time.

John smirked at him for the entire tirade.

-o-o-o-

Next

[loveissupernatural]

                                         To Love in a Foreign Land

                                            Draco Malfoy x reader                                 

Chapter One: The Letter

[ Read Part 2 here ] 

The day had finally come.

It came in the flurry of an owl’s wings, in the nervous vibration of your sweaty palms.

A delicious breakfast had just been served by your mother that sunny summer morning in suburban America, your fourth term at Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry only recently finished. Loud, impatient tapping on the kitchen window glass made you choke on your coffee.

“Mom! Ch-check if it’s from H-Hogwarts!” you managed to cough, pointing frantically at the window. Your mother bolted out of her chair at the kitchen table so you can recover.

She squealed for you, letting the gorgeous but exhausted-looking owl into your kitchen as quickly as she could. It landed in front of you on the table, holding out its leg with what could only be described as relief. Your shaking hands untied the cream-colored envelope from the owl’s ankle, and as soon as you did, it fluttered to the large cage in the corner of the room. Your silver-grey owl, Cinna, hooted indignantly at the unexpected visitor that was gulping from her water bowl.

“Now, Cinna, be nice. He’s had a long journey,” your mother said, wagging her finger. Cinna would have rolled her eyes if she could.

“Mom,” you squeaked, “this is it, this has to be it. I’m finally gonna know.”

You’d decided halfway through your fourth year at Ilvermorny that you wanted to take part in the International Wizarding Student Exchange Program, or I.W.S.E.P. It was a decision that you didn’t make lightly – you’d discussed it at length with your teachers and with your mom. You loved Ilvermorny with all of your heart and soul, after all, it was your home. But you also knew that the world was much bigger, that there was so much in the wizarding world that you hadn’t seen and hadn’t experienced. As a newly 15 year-old, you felt somehow ready for things to change.

Of course, you didn’t want too much change, which is why Hogwarts was at the top of your list. Ilvermorny was modeled after it, and you didn’t have to worry about a language barrier. Hogwarts contained four houses, just like your school, and was a large castle in the middle of the mountains, just like yours. You were ready to experience new things and new people, in a new (but somewhat similar) place. You had roots there.

The Headmistress of Ilvermorny, Celestia Pukwould, had one final meeting with all prospective exchange students before the end of term. The day exams ended, you and a small group of upcoming fifth years were invited to her large study. She pressed the importance of upholding your school’s good reputation as you traveled, to be a shining example of what it was to learn magic from America’s impressive magical education system. Only one of your peers was requesting Hogwarts as their first choice too, a quiet girl that you hadn’t spoken to much over the years named Eleanor.

After the other potential exchange students left her office, Headmistress Pukwould requested for you and Eleanor to stay behind for a bit.

“Ladies, I have sent an owl to Professor Dumbledore himself expressing my full confidence in you two,” she had said, standing from her ornate high-back chair that sat in front of her fireplace. She twirled her wand between her long fingers absentmindedly, fixing you and Eleanor with a kind yet serious stare. “You two are some of the brightest witches in your class. I told him so. I have known Albus Dumbledore for many years, and he is by far one of the most talented wizards alive today. You would be very lucky to learn magic at his school.”

You and Eleanor nodded profusely, eyes wide. While Headmistress Pukwould was a kind woman, she was also not to be trifled with, and her word backing your acceptance at Hogwarts held much weight.

“Don’t disappoint me, ladies,” she said, the smile fading from her face. She tapped her wand on her nails once, sighed, then turned back to the fireplace. “Have a wonderful summer. Owls containing your acceptance or rejection should arrive to your homes within the next few weeks.”  Her tone was final. You were dismissed.

You flashed back to your bright kitchen, took a deep breath and let it back out in a shaking sigh. Your fingers gently traced the refined emerald green writing. You flipped the envelope over and touched the blood-red wax seal, the crest of Hogwarts. Your hands paused.

“Mom, what if I don’t get in?” You’d spoken your greatest fear aloud.

She smiled at you, almost a little sadly, and came to rest a hand on your shoulder and a kiss on your head. “They’d be idiots not to accept you, Y/N.”

“What do you think Dad would say? If they said no?” you all but whispered, a familiar ache rising in the back of your throat. Your father had attended Hogwarts over two decades ago before he moved to America and met your No-Maj mother.

Your mother wrapped her arms around you from behind, pressing her cheek to yours and rocking you gently.

“He would think they’re idiots, too, honey,” she said, a grin in her voice. Your father loved his alma mater, so to imagine him saying anything negative about the school was enough to make you laugh. But you knew she was right, your father had been your biggest fan.

“I miss him,” you said quietly. Your thumb ran over the wax seal again.

“I know, baby. I do too,” she whispered, kissing your cheek. “But he’d be so proud of you, no matter what that letter says. Okay?”

You nodded. You’d lost your father two years ago, but the wound still felt fresh most days. You’d be lying if you said that going to Hogwarts wasn’t an attempt to feel him again, in some form or fashion.

“Here goes nothing,” you breathed, slipping your finger underneath the sturdy paper and ripping it away from the seal. Your heart pounded in your ears like a bass drum as you pulled out the parchment, catching a glimpse of the neat scroll in the same dark green ink. Your mother’s hands tightened on your shoulders.

Dear Miss Y/N Y/L/N,

           We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

           All students accepted to our institution through the I.W.S.E.P. (International Wizarding Student Exchange Program) will be required to travel via portkey on the evening of 29 July. Upon arrival to London, arrangements will be made for you to stay in the Leaky Cauldron before gathering your supplies on 30 July. A representative from the school will assist you in procuring the necessary books and equipment for term, beginning 1 September. You will be expected to arrive at King’s Cross Station, Platform 9 ¾, no later than 09:00 AM on 31 July. Bring all necessary luggage and equipment.

           You will find an enclosed list of all required literature and materials for Year Five.

           We will expect an owl containing your confirmation no later than 20 July. We are honored to invite you into our sacred halls of magical learning.

Yours Sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

 You lowered the letter, disbelief coursing through your veins. It was real, truly real. You were now officially a Hogwarts student.

After at least a solid 20 minutes of dancing around the kitchen with your mother, you scribbled a quick confirmation and laid it by the feet of the tired Hogwarts owl.

“Don’t worry, you won’t have to leave for another few days,” you said, answering the owl’s accusatory glare. He hooted ruefully and tucked his head underneath his large wing, ignoring Cinna’s still wary stare.

Your mother excused herself from the kitchen shortly after, attempting and failing to hide the proud tears in her eyes. You hugged the Hogwarts letter to your chest, breathing in the scent of the still stiff parchment. Slowly, you walked out to the empty living room and paced to the fireplace mantle that contained family portraits of all shapes and sizes, some moving in their frames and others standing still.

With tears tickling the corner of your eyes, you picked up your favorite picture of you and your dad. You were six years old, missing a tooth and laughing hysterically, while your father conjured glowing butterflies that danced around your head. The glow of his happy smile outshined those butterflies any day, you thought. You gently stroked his smiling face.

“Well, it’s official, Dad,” you whispered, a single tear sliding down your cheek. “I’m going to Hogwarts.”

                     ______________________________________

That summer passed more quickly than you would have ever expected. Your friends from Ilvermorny came to visit as often as possible, taking advantage of every moment they could grab with you before you left for an entire year. Many days were spent wandering nearby cities and towns, No-Maj and magical alike, with your school friends. You ate as many cliché American meals as you could and soaked up every drop of sunshine possible by the pool. You always looked better with a bit of a tan, and you doubted that you’d be getting much strong sun at Hogwarts.

“So, what House do you think you’ll be sorted into?” Eleanor asked you one afternoon. You’d invited her to stay a week with you and your mother in early July. You two would be the only Americans at Hogwarts in the upcoming year, and you both thought that building a friendship with one another would be nothing but beneficial. Being so far from home, you needed to have each other’s backs.

You were both sitting on the edge of the pool, drinking fresh lemonade and dangling your feet in the water. You took a long sip through your brightly colored straw.

“Good question,” you said, staring at the rippling blue water in thought. “I’ve heard rumors of what each house represents, but how true is it really? I mean, we know at Ilvermorny that more than one House can pick you, and that you can make the decision for yourself. Do you ever wonder if people pick the right one? Think it’s like that at Hogwarts?”

“I don’t know,” Eleanor said quietly. She seemed a little nervous at the thought. “What if we don’t get sorted at all? What if we’re too old?”

“I mean, surely that wouldn’t happen,” you tried to say confidently. “They wouldn’t subject us to public sorting if there was a chance of us getting rejected, right? Talk about embarrassing.”

“I’m sure you’ll get sorted,” she said with an admiring tone. “Everyone remembers what happened when you stepped up to the Knot on our first day.”

You remembered that day with a strange and heady combination of pride and trepidation. When you stepped up to the large Gordian Knot engraved into the shining marble floor of the circular sorting chamber, everything changed for you. For the first time in over a decade, all four large wooden carvings came to life, and the room went dead silent. You’d never felt so many eyes on you, boring into the back of your skull, wondering what made you so special and what House you would choose.

The gem set into the head of the Horned Serpent glowed, the Thunderbird beat its large wings, the Wampus roared and the Pukwudgie raised its arrow into the air. The carvings themselves seemed to stare a hole through you.

The four Ilvermorny Houses have been described as each representing a different part of the human being; Horned Serpent represents the mind and favors scholars; Wampus represents the body and favors warriors; Thunderbird represents the soul and favors adventurers; Pukwudgie represents the heart and favors healers.

You were overwhelmed in every sense of the word. At the small and awkward age of 11, you truly didn’t feel that well-rounded. You were certain that, somehow, these magical carvings had made a mistake.

“What made you choose Thunderbird, by the way?” Eleanor asked curiously, breaking you from your reverie.

“Honestly… I’m not totally sure,” you shrugged bashfully. Talking about this always made you uncomfortable. “Thunderbird is supposed to represent the soul, right? I guess I think that everything is rooted in the soul. We wouldn’t be human without them.”

Eleanor had been chosen by Horned Serpent, but nodded in agreement. “I guess that makes sense. I don’t know what I would have done if I were you.” She laughed a bit uneasily. “At least my choice was easy – I didn’t have one.”

In many ways, you found yourself wishing that only one carving had chosen you. Sure, it’s a bit less flattering, but much less stressful. The pressure of being that student, the once-in-a-decade student that was supposed to accomplish amazing things, was almost suffocating. As a child, you had a mountain of expectations piled on top of you from the moment those four carvings came to life. You couldn’t make a mistake.

In your second year, when your father died, so many of those expectations crushed you in a way that they never had before. His death weighed on you more than anything ever had, and the strength of his support was gone and left you breaking underneath the heavy cinderblocks of watchful eyes. Your grades suffered, and so did your relationships. You shut down.

Only when a year passed after your father’s death did you begin to find yourself again. With the help of your understanding teachers and a loving group of friends, you were able to establish a better academic standing within Ilvermorny. Not that anyone held your lapse against you – after all, you were a 12 year-old that had lost a parent. But you were still that kid, the one that all four Houses wanted, and you’d proven that you were far from perfect.

“What House do you want to be in at Hogwarts?” you asked Eleanor. She smiled, quiet in thought as she threw her brown hair into a messy ponytail.

“Really, I’d be happy with anything. But I’ve heard Ravenclaw is similar to Horned Serpent, academically focused and stuff.” She took a gulp of cold lemonade and wiped the sweat from her forehead. “What about you?”

“My dad was a Hufflepuff, so that would be nice I guess. I don’t know. Let’s just hope the Sorting Hat doesn’t explode,” you joked, setting aside your now empty glass. With that, you jumped into the chilly crystal water, letting it soothe your hot skin. Eleanor quickly followed.

You enjoyed the last inklings of summer vacation together before your new adventure began. You talked about missing friends and family, what Hogwarts would be like, whether or not you liked hot tea and what classes you would be taking. True to teen girl form, you were both excited to meet cute guys with foreign accents. And with a mix of thrill and nerves, you both realized that you two would be the foreign ones to them, and hoped that it would play in your favor.

“I wonder if British guys will think American girls are hot?” you asked her after the sun went down. You’d both climbed out of the pool at this point, your sun-kissed skin beginning to prune.

Eleanor laughed. “Geez, I hope so. Could you imagine getting a handsome British boyfriend? Talk about the adventure of a lifetime.”

You couldn’t deny that the thought of kissing a handsome boy with an attractive accent at the top of a castle turret excited you, but your mind always went back to connecting with the spirit of your father. Maybe you could feel closer to him there at Hogwarts, and would a boy distract you from getting that closure? You knew a boy would distract you from schoolwork, and you were determined to make such outstanding grades that Professor Dumbledore would have no choice but to write back to your Headmistress. After the academic crash and burn that was your second year, any and all glowing recommendations were not only welcome, but needed.

“It would be fun,” you giggled, wrapping yourself in your pool towel and squeezing the water out of your hair. “But wouldn’t it kinda suck when it’s all said and done? I mean, what if you got close to someone and then you have to leave to come back here?”

“I didn’t say we had to fall in love,” Eleanor shrugged. “I just want a hot piece of British ass.”

You busted out laughing. Eleanor always seemed so quiet at school, but once she got comfortable with you, she really came out of her shell.

“Come on, girls!” your mother called, sticking her head out of the back patio door. “Dinner is ready. I’ve got your salads on the table.”

You both trotted inside, whispering and giggling about the possibility of a grand foreign romance. After a pleasant dinner with your mother, you both went to bed, smelling of chlorine and sunlight.

Eleanor fell asleep before you did. You laid awake for a while, watching the shadows of swaying tree limbs dance across your ceiling. Your mind wandered back to the possibility of finding romance at Hogwarts. You doubted it would happen for you, especially since your priorities were elsewhere, but it wouldn’t be so bad to just dream about it, right?

You drifted into a deep sleep, flashes of colorful magic and the shadow of a boy dancing through your head.

[ Read Part 2 here ]

[the-broken-truth]

The Cousins' Meeting

Broken Truth: Imagine like a Lords' Meeting, but...pint-sized. (Starts laughing before I attacked by an unkindness of ravens) OW!! HEY, I'M SORRY! MERCY!!! (Runs off)

Enjoy @snowflakestree

[Location - In the Heart of the Village Forest]

[The forest was vast and thick with trees but also dangerous, no one was really willing to travel into the forest in fear of death. On the edge of the forest rested a lake where the light of the full moon shined upon the water like a mirror. Standing on solid ground was a young girl with long black hair with black eyes and pale skin, clothed in a black dress and upon her shoulder...was a raven with eyes made of glass. She looked at the water and waited until ripples in the water made her smile as another figure smiled - a taller male with dark red hair and red eyes with pale skin, he wasn't wearing a shirt but he did wear long black pants that were soaked as he walked out of the water and closed the gills on the sides of his neck as he walked to the ground.]

Diedre (Looking at her cousin with a smirk): About time you got here, Sebastian; Eliza is waiting for us. (Took a step to the side and pointed at the light brown satchel that bore the crest of House Moreau on the flip) Your possessions are over there.

Sebastian (Walked over to the satchel and lifted it in his hands as he looked at his younger cousin): Sorry for being late. I had to make sure Father was asleep or he was going to know something was up. Thanks for holding on to this.

Diedre (Strokes under her raven's beak with one finger): It's fine, Cousin. Just get dressed and let's get a move on - the only one who hasn't shown up yet is that loudmouth, Heisenberg.

Sebastian (Groans): Of course he hasn't.

[Diedre turned her attention back to the water as Sebastian went into the darkness of the forest and proceeded to dry off with the towel in his satchel before getting dressed in the foggy green shirt with a dark green collar, another pair of black pants, black boots, and his trademark - the dark green cloak-jacket with the House of Moreau Crest on his back.]

Sebastian: I'm done. Let's get a move on.

[Without words - the Young Heirs of Beneviento & Moreau walked down the dark forest path until they reached a large cave that opened up at the side of the mountain.]

[A Few Years Ago - The Cousins found this cave and discovered an entire war room - a large round stone table with maps and cabinets, there were barracks and other rooms where old guns have well rusted, there was even a training room; some of the equipment was useless but there were some Kaleb and Sebastian could salvage and make new. They decided this was going to be their base - their Meeting Location. They rebuilt or bought what they needed to and cleaned the place up so it was more presentable for the Young Lords of the Village and - while it was unspoken - since Kaleb was the strongest out of them, he was considered the leader with Eliza as second in command; that left Diedre was the Surveillance Specialist for new targets while Sebastian kept any tabs their location being discovered by the villagers or their parents. When the disappearances, they agreed to meet once a month on the full moon so that their parents didn't get suspicious.]

[The Children of the 2nd and 3rd Lords walked into the cave and opened the gate with their custom keys - Kaleb made them with his powers - and walked down the hall to the meeting room. Eliza was already there, sitting in her chair with her journal before her on the table, resting on the Dimitrescu Crest on the table; using his artistic skills, Sebastian carved the House Crests in the table so everyone had a place at the table.]

Eliza (Looks at her cousins): About time you both got here, I've been waiting for 30 minutes at most.

Diedre (Sits in her chair - her raven jumping off her shoulder and onto the table): Do forgive us, Eldest Cousin; Sebastian was late because he was waiting for his father to go to sleep.

Sebastian (Sits in his chair): Yes, sorry.

Eliza (Waves her hand in a dismissive gesture): It's nothing.

Broken Truth: Oh, I forgot: Eliza is the Oldest of the Cousins, Followed by Kaleb, then Sebastian, and lastly is Diedre. Sorry for not explaining that...AHH! (Runs from the unkindness of ravens coming for me)

Sebastian (Opening his satchel and pulls out his journal): Where is Heisenberg? Shouldn't he be here by now?

[Just then - Kaleb Heisenberg comes in with his hat and his jacket over his shoulders.]

Kaleb: Hello, peasants! Your King has arrived! (Sits in his chair with a smirk)

Eliza (Eyebrow twitching): You may be the so-called leader and the strongest out of all of us but that doesn't make you a King, you metal-brained fool.

Sebastian (Nods): Praise Mother Miranda on that.

Kaleb (Stands up and points at them): You're just haters!

Eliza (Stands up and glaring at him): No, you're just an idiot!

Diedre & Sebastian (Watching them & thinks the same thing): 'They are just like aunt and uncle...'

Diedre (Clearing her throat): Can we please get to the purpose of this meeting? We've already wasted enough time and there is much to cover.

[The air got dense and the children of the 1st and 4th Lords silenced themselves and sat down. Kaleb removed his hat and glasses, showing the seriousness on his face, placing them both before him on the table before reaching into the inside of his jacket and pulled out his own journal.]

Kaleb: Who wants to go first?

Eliza: I'll start. (Opens her journal and gives her report) The rumors of multiple male deaths have reached the ears of my older sisters, thus the ears of my mother at Castle Dimitrescu. The problem is that Mother and my sisters ask me if I know anything about the murders, I deny knowing anything but mother gives me that look when she knows I'm hiding something. I think she's starting to suspect me of something.

Diedre: The same with me - I used mother's veil to masquerade as her, I took Angie along to. I found some rather...distasteful things that were being said about my mother; this is the day I was in the company of Eliza.

Kaleb (Looks at them): What's the damage report?

Diedre: There were 4 - the one male Eliza killed for disrespecting her mother, the one female whose body I broke to make an example of those who disrespect House Beneviento's Head, and the other two got away threatened but scarred for life, I'm sure.

Kaleb (Nods): Understood. (Looks at Sebastian) What about you, Sebastian?

Sebastian: I took on 2 casualties - both male. They spoke ill of my father and they paid the price for it.

Kaleb: Understood - I took one 3 but I haven't killed them, not yet; I'm currently using them to make a Lycan Serum that is stronger than my father's.

Sebastian: You mean My Father - He is the one who made the Lycan Serum and Uncle Heisenberg took it from him.

Kaleb: As wise as he is, Uncle Moreau was not a capable master for the lycans. He wouldn't know what to do with the Lycans; he couldn't even control them. I'm not speaking down on him, Sebastian, but even our parents have limits; you know this.

Sebastian (Opened his mouth to speak but closed it and nodded): Yes, I am aware of this.

Eliza: Speaking of the Lycans - did you send any to deal with the bodies at the disposal site?

Kaleb: Yes, I have a group of 5 there; the bodies should be taken care of in 3 days if they are hungry enough.

Diedre: There's also something I need to mention - Angie almost outed me to mother as to why I took her with me into town.

Sebastian: That could be a problem.

Kaleb: Indeed, Diedre, it would be best if you left Angie with Aunt Donna from now on - we can't risk our parents or even Mother Miranda knowing about this.

Diedre: Understood. It's with pleasure that I announce my project is ready. (Gestures at the raven)

Kaleb: A Fake Raven?

Diedre: Not just that. I was able to use a bit of my own power to create an unkindness of ravens that can keep an eye on things for us and let us know when there are those we need to be taken care of. With the cameras and microphones Kaleb supplied me with, we shall know if someone disrespects our parents without being there.

Eliza: Sound good - the most horrible things are said when they think they are safe.

Kaleb: Okay, this project is perfect for surveillance but try to keep any interactions with the ravens out of sight.

Diedre: Understood.

Kaleb: Now, onto other matters.

[The Cousins talked for a few hours until Sebastian and Kaleb decided to blow off some steam and began fighting in the training room with Eliza and Diedre watching from the sidelines.]

Eliza (Uncaring): Do you think they can ever get along?

Diedre (Unsure): Well...

Kaleb (Dodging Sebastian's punches): Is that all you've got, Moreau?! Are you sure you're worthy of the House Name?

Sebastian (Getting angrier and faster with his strikes): Shut it! Shut up!!!

Diedre: Let's just hope they get along...

[imjustthemechanic]

The Price of a Soul

Part 1/? - Agent Russel Part 2/? - The Letter Part 3/? - Miss Lake Part 4/? - The Stewardess Part 5/? - An Assassination Part 6/? - Fallout Part 7/? - Face to Face Part 8/? - Deals, Details, and Other Devils Part 9/? - Baggage Part 10/? - Private Funding Part 11/? - Just Passing Through Part 12/? - Party of Four Part 13/? - Resolute Part 14/? - The Wreck Part 15/? - Body Snatchers Part 16/? - Out of the Frying Pan

Out of the frying pan, but into the fire would be a worse mistake than Peggy knows.

-

Part of Peggy’s mind was flying.  How had Masters found out about this?  Thompson would have let him know when Kay escaped, but wouldn’t have had any idea where they were going because Peggy hadn’t told anyone about the coordinates except Daniel and… well, there was Russel, who could probably guess the significance of them but would not have known that Peggy was planning to actually investigate.  She’d only mentioned them to him once.  Had Kay left a note?  Or was her initial theory correct, and he’d just overheard Jason’s radio message to Stark Industries?  What had Jason actually said?

Another part was doing its level best to clamp down on the urge to punch him in the face.

“Agent Carter,” he said.  “Fleeing the country upon finding out you’re under investigation doesn’t look good at all.”

“I had every intention of returning, which you would know if you’d asked my landlord or my employer,” Peggy replied.

He was not impressed.  “And what’s your explanation for assisting in the escape of a known Soviet agent – again – and attempted theft of US Government property?”

“Don’t insult me,” said Kay.  “I escaped by myself.”

Masters glanced at her.  “From full-security police lockup under the noses of the entire East Coast SSR and the CIA?”

“What?  Like it’s hard?” asked Kay, in a mock ‘dimwit’ voice, wiggling her head and shoulders to cement the implication that any floozy could have done it.

“What government property are you referring to, Mr. Masters?” Peggy asked.  She had a feeling she knew the answer, and she didn’t like it a bit.

Masters turned to her again.  “You know damn well I’m referring to Captain America and his equipment.  The shield is the world’s entire known stock of Vibranium, and his body is the only hope we or anybody else have of recreating Erskine’s serum.  And you were about to sell both of them to the Russians!”  He looked her over in disgust.  “Were you already planning that when he was alive, or is it that now he’s dead his wishes don’t matter anymore?”

This time Peggy very nearly did punch him – she actually raised an arm before she managed to get herself under control, leading Kay to grab her around the shoulders to stop her, and several of the soldiers surrounding them to aim their guns at her face.

“They certainly don’t seem to matter to you,” she said through her teeth, shrugging Kay off of her.  “Steve would not have wanted to be an object of study after his death.”

“Captain Rogers wanted us to win the war,” Masters replied.  “We’re fighting a new war now and he’s gonna be our key to winning it.”  He stepped back.  “I want these two put in the brig, Captain Lewis – and don’t take eyes off them for a moment.  They’re slippery.”

The man who must’ve been Lewis nodded.  “Do it,” he told the men.  “And get the Captain straight down to the morgue to thaw out. The scientists are waiting.”

Peggy and Kay were taken unceremoniously by the shoulders and frog-marched inside.

It took a few minutes for the red haze at the edge of Peggy’s vision to fade away and her fists to unclench before she could think about this logically, and when she did, she began to realize she was in very serious trouble indeed.  All this time Masters had nothing on her but suspicions and circumstances, but now she’d been caught with her hand in the cookie jar, so to speak.  Who would believe her story that she and Howard were just bringing Steve back for burial when they’d been so secretive about the whole thing?  Perhaps Kay would testify in her defense… but who would believe her when she was an admitted spy and a murderess?

The soldiers put them in a cell in the brig, far down in the belly of the ship, and left two very large and imposing men to watch over them. Peggy and Kay sat down on the little cot in the cell, and their guards sat down on either side of a small table outside, and dealt themselves a hand of cards.  How ironic, Peggy thought with a barely-suppressed sneer.

Kay had said nothing since mocking the SSR’s security out on the deck.  She did not look particularly inclined to say anything now.  She merely sat looking at her watch.

“Have you anything to say for yourself?” Peggy asked her.

There was no reply.  Of course there wasn’t.  Kay had never explained anything and there was no reason for her to start now. Instead of trying to talk, Peggy decided to try to think.

What were their options at this point?  They could sit here and be taken back to the States for trial – that would most likely end in a guilty verdict and imprisonment, if not hanging, for both of them.  They could try to escape.  Peggy could probably pick the lock on the door but the guards would see and hear her doing it, and she doubted she could take both of them.  Perhaps Kay could take one, but that would just be further evidence that the two were in cahoots.  What a silly-sounding word cahoots was.  Where on Earth had it come from?

If they did escape, where would they go?  They were on a ship.  Peggy could not fly a plane or a helicopter, although she wondered whether Kay might be able to.  Their only options would be to take a lifeboat or to jump into the water.  The former would be easily pursued, and the latter meant death by hypothermia.  The same fate Steve himself had suffered… also nicely ironic.

They could try to escape long enough to go get Steve’s body back, but what would they do with it?  The options seemed to be destroying it or dumping it overboard.  The second was not a good idea – it might still be retrieved.  But the former was deeply distasteful.  Peggy couldn’t imagine cutting him up or… or burning him?  The ship would have huge furnaces to keep the crew warm and provide steam for the propellers.  Those would certainly make a fine crematorium… could she bring herself to do it herself?

Maybe she could, if she were desperate enough.  At the moment Peggy had nothing to lose… but that still left the question of how to get out of this cell…

“You stupid bitch,” said Kay suddenly.

Peggy’s head snapped up.  “Excuse me?” she said.  Her companion had said nothing at all for what must have been ten minutes at least, and now was offering insults out of nowhere?

Kay shot a glance at the guards, then glared at Peggy. “You had no plan, did you? Here I thought you were coming out here knowing what you were doing, but you had no idea and now we’re in here!”

Ah.  “Why should I have a plan?” Peggy demanded.  “I didn’t think we were going to find a bloody thing up here except ice and snow!  Did you really think I was taking your word for something so important?  How can you be smart enough to escape from Thompson and yet stupid enough to think I would trust you?”

“You didn’t need to trust me!  You just needed to have a backup plan!”  Kay gave Peggy a shove.

“Don’t you dare touch me, you daft Russian whore!” Peggy shoved her back, and the two of them rolled off the cot to grapple on the floor.   Having fought with Dottie more than once, Peggy knew the Russian women were ruthless and skilled, but now Kay wrestled like a child who’d never been in a fight in her life, grabbing and pinching and pulling hair.  Peggy did likewise.  If this were going where she thought it was going…

“That’s enough, you two!” a male voice announced. Keys jingled.  Peggy didn’t dare look up as two pairs of heavy boots approached – the men were going to try to separate her.  For an instant she caught Kay’s eye, and saw a smile on the other woman’s face.

Then a pair of hands grabbed Peggy’s shoulders.  She wrapped her legs around the man’s boots and twisted – he fell against the cot.  Before he could right himself, Peggy was on her feet and grabbed him by the hair to smash his face against the wall repeatedly.  By the second impact his nose was bloody, and by the fourth he was limp in her hands.  She let him drop and turned around.  Kay had gotten a hold of the second man’s tags and twisted them tight around his neck. Peggy was just in time to see him turn blue and pass out.

“Well done,” Peggy said, as the soldier collapsed at Kay’s feet.

“Letting them think you’re stupid and emotional is always your best weapon,” Kay told her, brushing off her hands.

“I have some experience with that myself,” said Peggy. “To the morgue?”

“Obviously.”

They helped themselves to the unconscious soldiers’ guns, and Peggy took the keys off one of their belts and locked the cell door on them.

The ship they were on was a Casablanca-class escort carrier.  Peggy had never been on one, but she knew that on large military ships both the brig and the morgue were deep in the interior, far from anywhere the rank and file sailors would normally go.  Left to her own devices, it probably wouldn’t have taken her very long to find the one from the other, but she didn’t have to.  Kay appeared to know exactly where she was going.  She headed down a flight of steps, and then paused in the stairwell, putting an ear to the doors.  Peggy crept up next to her.

“How’s he doing?” a male voice asked.

“He’s free of most of the ice,” a woman replied, “but still pretty solid.”

Peggy put her eye to the gap between the two doors. Two doctors in white coats were talking to a brunette nurse, just to the right of a solid door labeled MORGUE. The door was closed and apparently locked.

“We can’t wait too long, or the blood will start to clot,” said the shorter of the doctors.

“We’ll still have the bone marrow,” the first man reassured him.  “Can you give me an estimate, Miss Harper?”

“They’re saying at least another hour,” the nurse said, and turned to unlock the door.  All three people headed through.

Peggy and Kay exchanged a glance to make sure they were still agreed as to the plan.  It seemed they were, so they both burst out of the stairwell and took the trio from behind. Peggy clocked the taller one on the back of the head with the gun she’d taken off her jailer.  He dropped to his knees, holding his bleeding scalp.  Kay vaulted onto the shorter one’s back and knocked him forward into Miss Harper, spilling both of them onto the floor. Miss Harper tried to scream, but Kay kicked her in the face, and then drove her knee into the second doctor’s jaw. He fell.

Inside the morgue room, two more doctors and three nurses were standing around the gurney where Steve’s body was now lying.  They were, for the moment, too shocked by this sudden and violent intrusion to react to it, which gave Peggy and Kay the advantage. Peggy grabbed the nearest equipment tray and hit one of the doctors in the face with it.  The first blow appeared to merely stun him and he just stood there blinking at her.  She hit him three more times, until he fell.  One of the nurses tried to flee, and Peggy pushed the doctor’s body into her.

While Peggy was occupied with that, Kay had shoved the other doctor into the open drawer that had been waiting to receive Steve’s body. She shut it and turned the lock, then she and Peggy both pulled out their guns and trained them on the two nurses still standing.  Both women put their hands up.

Kay twitched her chin towards the first two doctors and Miss Harper, all lying on the floor in various states of unconsciousness. “Get them out of the way,” she ordered the nurses.

The women didn’t move.

“We have had a very upsetting day,” Peggy warned them.

Terrified, the nurses went to start rolling the bodies of their co-workers away from the door.  Kay kept her eyes and a gun on them, while Peggy took the brakes off the gurney.  There was a white drop cloth over the corpse.  Peggy knew it would be a terrible idea to look beneath it, but she told herself that after all this trouble they had better make sure they had the right body, and lifted it for a peek.

There he was.  They’d cut his uniform off him, leaving him quite naked.  Bruises and scrapes he’d gotten on his last mission were still there.  Peggy recognized one on his arm where a bullet had grazed him.  She’d bandaged that herself, because he’d been too sunken in depression from the death of his friend to do it.  And the cut on his cheek, just beneath his left earlobe. She’d kissed that.  The memory, buried for three years, was suddenly as fresh as if it had happened moments ago.

She reached to touch the place, and quickly drew her hand back upon finding his skin was wet and still icy cold, feeling more like frozen meat than human tissue.  How was he still pink?  As he thawed the blood ought to start pooling in his back and buttocks, like it always did on dead bodies.  Maybe those parts were still frozen.

“Peggy!” Kay barked.  “Is that him?”

Peggy quickly dropped the cloth and wiped her wet fingers on her coat.  “It’s him,” she said.

“Follow me,” said Kay.

“Where are we going?” Peggy asked, as she wheeled the gurney out of the room.

Kay led the way up the hall with the longest strides she could take.  “The boiler room,” she said.

“Oh, good,” Peggy nodded.  Had Kay’s mission perhaps been to either secure Captain America’s body for her own people or, failing that, to see to it the Americans didn’t get a hold of him either?  Peggy decided she didn’t care anymore.  Whatever the reasons, they were going to do right by Steve, and after that, if Masters wanted to hang her, she would go to the gallows with her head held high.

[jennsmischievousmind]

Fucks not Found

Die Hard

Ch1 Ghosts | Ch2 Florence | Ch3 A Matter of Seconds | Ch4 I need a Backdoor | Ch5 Die Hard | Ch6 White Flag | Ch7 Haunt the Living | Ch8 One, but not done [end]

“I’m not mean, I’m brutally honest. Five you got any band-aids?”

“Here we go sarcasm, can’t you communicate like a normal person.” One turned to you

“He’s kidding me, right? you look at the others - You’re kidding me, you’re the master of sarcasm, prendila in culo da un ciuccio imbizzarrito!”

“And Italian now, see, no communication skills,”

“Stop bickering like an old couple!” Five argued 

“How many times do we have left?” Two asked Seven in the cockpit “About 3 hours.” She rolled her eyes.

“Green lantern sucks that’s all I’m saying,” You sat back, hands up defensively.

“Seven hold me back!” One feigned to stood up

“Ok you two, TIME OUT!” Five threatened you with her index, you mimed zipping your lips.

Two hours later you were finally on solid earth, you met up in a market to eat something and review details about the extraction. 

Three and Two were acting weird, when Seven implied something happened between them in Vegas, you carefully looked at Four. One intervened, you gulped, he could kick you out the team in a second. He asked them if it was a matter of love, or just sex. Two insisted it was only sex. One approved her answered. Four gently kicked your foot under the table in a reassuring gesture.

The night fell slowly on Asia's World City, you geared up for Murat’s extraction. The plan was to use the sky’s crane to go from building to building, gas masks for a grand entry on the main hall, and a zip line for extraction. You look at yourself in the mirror, wearing all black and suit up like a spy, you kinda liked it, damn you were far from Italy and your barista job.

Before that you met Four in his room.

“You be careful up there, okay!”

“Yes m’am,” he cockily smiled, while packing his abseiling equipment. “By the way .. about what One asked Two and Three...,” you let the question hanging.

Four’s lips closed in a thin line, his green eyes searching yours “We…,“ loud knocks on the door scared the shit out of you two, followed by Three’s voice telling Four to move his ass. 

 Your post was at the end of the zip line, laptop on top of a barrel, One was supposed to meet you there later to pick up the target.

Four and Seven on the cranes, Five in the lobby, Two and Three waiting for their go-to.

“Team set – Target set – it’s your call One.” You announced on the comm. You felt like a fucking MI:6 agent or something.

“Hit it, guys!” One spoke.

Five launched the laughing gas, Two and Three entered the lobby a minute later, heading for the lift.

“Five, I got a transmission, someone is calling the police from the security post!” you heard her groaned preceded by a loud bang.

“We’ve got 13 minutes from now!” She cursed , you launched a chrono on your laptop.  

Four secured the zip line on his side, One arrived to secure it not far from you. Murat’s bodyguards became agitated because of the crane overhanging the penthouse.

Two and Three were on their way up. While Four decided to take a dip to avoid the bodyguards. One ran to the other side of the building.

“Skinny dipping” you let out snorting.

Focusing on the chrono you realized 60 seconds had passed and Four was still underwater.

“One … have you ever seen Le Grand Bleu? Four ain’t the main role!” you stated with a warning tone.

“That’s a good movie.” Two intervened shortly

Seven insisted Four was going to drown, but One stayed radio silent. Biting your lip, you became agitated; until Seven took over and shoot in the pool glass near Four, allowing him to breathe through the bullet hole. You let out the breath you were holding; shit One what the fuck man, you thought!

Police Sirens were being heard in the distance, the bodyguards left the pool area, you gave Four the go-to.

“How you doing over there? You having fun yet?” One asked Four on the comm, whom was abseiling and installing high intensity speakers on the windows’ penthouse. “Anyone ever asked you dumb questions when you’re ninety stories up?”

You sighed “Don’t distract him please, he has already lost time,”

“Yeah mom” One sighed “You care way too much for the boy, Eight,”

“Mate, Four cut One, you’re really ruining my flow right now, you know that?”

Neither of you came up with a smart answer, fortunately One moved on pretty quickly. 

Time came for the second hit. One launched the audio in the speakers, the THX synthesized crescendo, you saw the glass shattered because of the high frequency. And then it was the 4th of July without the pretty colors. Gunshots were fired from the entire penthouse. At some point you wondered if from where you stood you could receive a bullet, so you curled up a bit behind your laptop and the barrel. 

Apart from Three being under nitrous, everything was going as planned. Four had the target in no time.

“Bad news, I got a lift with 3-armed douchebags coming up. And more guys that were on the floor below, coming up the stairs, also armed .. for whatever that’s worth.” Switching the view cams, you saw Two and Three stuck at the stairs.

“15 minutes, time’s out” Five called out.

“Shit, police are crowding in the lobby,” You look around for One for direct advice, but he was nowhere to be seen until you look above “One, what the hell are you doing on the crane!?” you asked over the comm. “That’s ..that’s high,” was all he said.

They were surrounded and Seven for the second time tonight ended up saving their ass, maybe he wasn’t that bad after all you thought. They obviously got so mad at Seven for exploding the pool and drowning the all penthouse, almost killing Two.

You heard some screaming, looking above your screen like a meerkat you saw Murat Alimov sliding down the zip line. You detached him at his arrival, but he started running away, leaving you wondering but seeing Three hot on his tail you understood, this latter tackled the target to the ground. You groaned flinging your arms up “And now you’re hitting him, really!?!” Two landed next to you, followed by One.

“Your toy boy is stupid” you grabbed Two’s carabiner

“Tell me about it.” She sighed, reloading her gun

“Can’t one of you stop this dumbass!?!” One pointed at Three still beating up Rovach’s brother

You both shrugged.

“You've picked this dumbass.” Two said

One excused Three’s behavior to Murat Alimov, he asked you to take him quickly to the elevator.

“Sir, this way” you held his arm urging him forward the lift.

“Come on Four. We’re moving,” One came running behind

“Just go, I can’t get across. They cut the zip line,”

You stop dead in your tracks, still holding Murat.

“Four ...,” your voice was low even though everyone could hear you in the comm.

You heard gun shots and Four cursed.

One stopped behind, talking to Four, you were processing your next move. Shoving Murat to Two, you grabbed the pearl handle-gun Three stole and ran the opposite direction.

“Hey that's mine chiquita!”

One swirled on himself seeing you run “We're not waiting for you just so you know.” One voice echoed; you heard the elevator’s door closing.

“Four what’s your location?” you asked while running.

“Eight, go!”

“Where the fuck are you?!”

He sighed “I’m going for the crane!”

“Meet you there,”

You arrived at the crane’s feet, hardly breathing, “Shit I need to work on my cardio,”

“Eight!” you heard from above, Four jumped down next to you.

“See, you got out!” you slapped his chest for worrying you. Voices from the crane distracted you.

“Run!”

Four started running followed by you, but it wasn’t just a run, it was full parkour shit and you had no choice but to follow him.

Soon your charger was empty, 2 guys were down, 1 got thrown over the edge by Four, meaning only 3 left.

“Why are we climbing!?” You yelled at Four as he started running up the ledge.

One of the assholes started throwing grenades at you, like it wasn’t enough. Then you look ahead, Four jumped on 4 pylons and turned to you.

“Shit, Shit, Shit!!”

“COME ON!” The adrenaline took over, your legs jumped, feet joining on the 5 square foot platforms on top of the pylons. Four got a hold on you when you reached him.

“Shit!” you let out nervous laugh. “I’m a newbie in parkour remember?” But immediately you felt trapped, the douchebags were shooting at you. Suddenly a loud explosion had you two look up, your eyes widened as a bunch of I-beams fell from the sky crane.

“WHOA!!” Four yelled, shoving you inside the pylons corner, shielding you with his body, you grabbed onto him as hard as you could, trying to shield him as well. You tried focusing on something else than the heavy metallic sound the I-beams were making. Directing your attention on Four’s deep voice cursing and breathing loudly.

Screwing your eyes shot, you felt Four’s arms tightening at each thunder like sound. All of sudden the rattles sounded far away, a white silence filling your ears except for your heavy breathing. Locking eyes with Four, he pressed his forehead on yours. “Let’s go,”.

You resumed your escape, climbing down the pylons, without being seen, calling out the squad to give your position. Four was leading the way, but a shadow caught your eye. Before you could say anything, Four had been ran into by the biggest bodyguard, propelling the both of them into the empty. You froze, an image of your brother dead at the wheel flashed in your mind - not again - Until you heard a loud bang and Four cried out, he was alive, you ran to the edge, and saw them like 6 stories under, on a net, fighting.

"No, no, no" you look around, trying to come up with something until you saw a rolled fire hose.

"Big Mclane energy" grabbing the hose you tied it up to your waist, not thinking any longer in fear your brain you’d stop you, you jumped. Screaming like hell on your down, until the hose came to an abrupt stop, the knot immediately untying under the pressure letting you free fall 2 meters. Slamming on the metal net, the shocked knocked your airway for a second.

You groaned "..Never again!" propelling yourself up with difficulty. The adrenaline kicking in you ran to the big guy, jumping on his back and tightening his neck. It didn’t last long till he threw you off him with one arm, going on with punching Four. Between Four’s grunts breaking your heart, you heard the team arguing on the comm’. Seven yelling he’ll not let the both of you behind. Crawling back to Four, the big guy pushed him over the edge, himself falling a bit backward, a gasp escaped your dry throat. Fortunately, Four’s foot got stuck in the orange plastic net, you no longer cared that the big guy was still there, you had to go for Four. The big guy was determined to catch Four to crush him himself. 

“GRAB MY HAND!” you extended your arm over the edge, facing the void, his left hand grazed yours, but a foreign hand slide around your neck.

“NO!!” Four yelled, writhing trying to reach the ledge. 

The fall had already knock out your lungs so it didn’t take long before your vision became fuzzy. As the guy chocked you, your eyes rolled to the back of your head. Your mind drifted to your brother, his warm hug before he got on that green car, his cheeky smile never leaving his face, his hand in yours at your mother’s grave.

“It’s only the two of us now.” A tear rolled down your face.

Sixth chapter White Flag

A/N: don’t forget to double tap if you liked it 🙏 

[metalgearkong]

The Falcon & The Winter Soldier - TV Review

5/1/21 ***spoilers***

Created by Malcomb Spellman, directed by Kari Skogland

Out of all the announced Disney+ MCU shows, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier seemed to be the most out of left field. Two sidekicks from the later 2 Captain America movies pair up and get their own show? What made their bormance so special? I mean, I like them well enough, but what is it that warrants a show? With all of it now said and done, this show is not what I expected, in a good way, but I can't say it lived up to its own potential. It brings up a lot of controversial subjects--stuff I really found interesting and progressive, but it doesn't fully commit. That being said, I'm glad it exists, and it takes many steps in the right direction.

6 months after Avengers Endgame, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) are returning to every day life, and the problems that come along with it. Bucky in particular is attending strict therapy to repair mental damage from decades of being Hydra's Winter Soldier. Sam is working with his sister and her boating shrimp business. As it turns out, the Avengers didn't technically receive a salary. Strange beings who they worked with, and i assumed Tony Stark or government funding supported the Avengers. Who built their base, made their suits, equipment, and how have the Avengers gotten by so far? The idea is brought up, but the show never comes around and fully explores this interesting point.

The Falcon the the Winter Soldier is only 6 episodes long, compared to WandaVision at 8. I feel like this show needed to be as longer for the numerous ideas it brings up and doesn't have time to flesh out. The main conflict of this series is the fight against the Flag Smashers. A revolutionary group, they want to return the world to what it was during the "blip." They want a worldwide policy of nations without borders. This is a really cool concept and something I could get behind, but yet again it's an interesting idea that is never sufficiently fleshed out. What (according to the Flash Smashers) was so great about the state of the world during the blip? What did nations do around the world that makes the Flag Smashers want to return to the way of life? Did people receive more finances and property? Did socialism thrive? None of this is ever expanded upon.

I also didn't care much for Karli Morgenthau, the leader of the Flag Smashers. Apparently their whole side story had to be changed last minute due to the covid-19 pandemic, and their inconsistent dialog and motivation shows this fact. I never bought actress Erin Kellyman as a revolutionary which thousands of people would follow and kill for, nor did I buy her as a juiced-up super soldier. The best character to come out of this show is John Walker as the government approved new Captain America. Wyatt Russell plays the character extremely well, and it's engaging to see a villain which so easily could have been one-dimensional develop into a more rounded person. He did however get a stupid small redemption in the final episode, but this "good guy" moment is wedged between him brutally killing an unarmed person in public, and joining what looks to be a "Dark Avengers" squad. For a show with progressive ideas, John Walker killing a civilian in a fit of rage should have been a point of no return.

My favorite aspect of The Falcon & the Winter Solider are the racial aspects it brings up. Finally we have a big mainstream company and mainstream show directly making light of the unfair bias and poorer treatment of minorities, especially black men. To see it happen even to an Avenger (Sam) was really cool, and fourth-wall breaking. Sam also discovers a man named Izayah who was a test subject, along with other black men, for the original super soldier serum in WWII. Izayah's mistreatment and his disenfranchised view of the United States is some of the best stuff in the entire show. Everything is all about living up to the legacy of Steve Rogers, but Izayah thinks no black man should even want to bear the stars and stripes. I hope this trend continues as it hangs a lampshade on something broad entertainment should address.

The action and cinematography also evoke my favorite corner of the MCU: everything directed by the Russo Brothers. The fight choreography is visceral without having to be flashy or larger than life (until the end). It was also great to see Sam Wilson reject the shield at the beginning of the show, thinking he would never live up to the mantle. His humility and growth throughout the show is also some of the best stuff to see. He truly is a man of the people, and the next best person besides Steve Rogers who truly can be and deserves to be the new Captain America. Zemo (Daniel Bruhl) also reemerges from Captain America: Civil War, but his character is totally retconned into being a Baron (comics accurate) with huge amounts of wealth and resources. I didn't like his character as much as I did in Civil War, as an everyday soldier tearing the Avengers apart is more compelling than a rich and powerful supervillain doing the same thing. He also had a dumb moment where he wore his purple ski mask for literally one action scene (less than a minute or two) and took it off never to be seen again.

Sharon Carter also makes an appearance, but I don't think the character, nor her twist being the Power Broker meant anything to me. It could be this show going a bit too far with its story threads. Carter has never been a charismatic character to me, and I'm wondering how they'll keep her interesting in the MCU going forward. She is the icing on the cake for too numerous and too weak of villains in this series. I also didn't think it was consistent of honorable of her character to go down a bad path especially knowing the lineage of Peggy Carter. I'm curious where this aspect of the story will go, but I'm not holding my breath. I wish this show cut out some of its threads in order to focus on some of its very good core ideas, especially only at 6 episodes.

The Falcon & The Winter Soldier has a lot of interesting ideas and brings up a lot of important ideas. I didn't expect this show to be critical of racial treatment, police brutality, and government overreach. To eventually see Sam evolve into the new Captain America and believing it down to the atom is the best thing to witness about this story. Bucky gets the short end of the stick, and while he does go through healing, I wish he had more great action or dialog scenes. The Falcon & the Winter soldier sets up future stuff, as the MCU does best. Sharon Carter might be some kind of bad guy going forward, the Dark Avengers seem to be forming, and Sam Wilson as Captain America may go on to lead a new generation of Avengers. The show is far from perfect, and sadly doesn't commit to some of its best ideas. I would watch another season, but hope it would have a slightly sharper script.

7/10

[tsarisfanfiction]

Hollow VI

Fandom: Thunderbirds Rating: Teen Genre: Hurt/Comfort/Angst Characters: Virgil Tracy, Kayo Kyrano, Gordon Tracy, Kyrano, Jeff Tracy

Part 6 of my contribution @gumnut-logic‘s SensorySunday: Sixth Sense. Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

This was not supposed to happen.  I had plans, but since when does Virgil listen to me?  Certainly not since he realised I like to pick on Scott.

Virgil had some experience being the eldest; with both Scott and John firmly ensconced at university, corralling his two younger brothers was a skill he had been forced to master.

He’d never had to do it while his older brothers were in the house, though.  Alan without fail always ran to Scott or John over him, and even though Gordon was trying to pretend he was all grown up and didn’t need his biggest brothers, he still sought them on occasion.  Like tonight, and Virgil had never been more pleased to be passed over in favour of Scott.  If Gordon had come to him, as he normally did, they wouldn’t have realised he’d gone out, and-

Scott had looked almost dead when Dad had carried him in.  John, limp in a jaggedly way that screamed broken bones, hadn’t looked much better in Kyrano’s arms.  Virgil knew that if they hadn’t been found until morning, it could have been so much worse.

This island was supposed to be their new home.  Home was supposed to be safe.  This wasn’t safe.  Dad had warned them, but part of Virgil hadn’t taken that too seriously – just stay nearby, don’t wander off when Dad’s watching, and they’d be fine.  He knew Scott had been sneaking out, but he’d always come back perfectly fine.

Until now.

Virgil wouldn’t be getting the white face of his brother, nor the worry in Dad’s eyes, in a hurry.

“Virgil?”

He was still standing in the kitchen, staring blankly at where the adults had disappeared with his big brothers.  A hand curled around his, wide, warm amber eyes staring up at him, but it wasn’t Gordon that had spoken.  Virgil blinked, tearing his eyes away from the empty space to meet the cool green of the only girl in the group.  Alan was clinging to her tightly, and she was returning the grip in kind.  Scott and John might not be her brothers by blood, but the Kyranos were still family, and Virgil was unsurprised to see that she was shaking, eyes just a little too wide.

“Den,” he managed, his voice cracking.  Dad wanted them to go to the den.  Virgil wanted to see his brothers, wanted to reassure himself that it wasn’t as bad as it looked, but he had three younger siblings looking up to him right now.  It was time to be the big brother and with jerking limbs he forced himself to leave the kitchen and climb the stairs, Gordon’s hand still clenched firmly around his.  He gripped it back tightly and the little brother that was too old for that sort of treatment any more pressed against his side.

They all piled onto a single sofa, Virgil shoulder to shoulder with Tanusha while Gordon and Alan scrabbled into their laps.  He should do something, turn on the television, the radio, anything to stop the silence encroaching, but he couldn’t bring himself to move.  They should maybe turn the lights on, too, rather than sitting in the dark, huddled together against the big bad world, but now that Virgil was sat down with a brother on his lap and a sister under his arm he didn’t want to move.  Didn’t think he could, even if he tried.

“Are they going to be okay?” It was Alan who broke the silence, his voice barely above a whisper as though he was afraid to hear the answer. Virgil didn’t reply – how could he, when all he could see were white faces etched with pain?  He wanted them to be okay, needed them to be fine when the sun rose, but he wasn’t a child anymore.  Dad and Kyrano had both looked terrified, and that scared Virgil more than anything else.

He’d never seen that look on their faces before, and he never wanted to see it again.

“It’s Scott and John,” Gordon said after several long minutes, clearly realising that Virgil had nothing he wanted to say.  “They’re our big brothers.”  That wasn’t an answer, not when the world had already stripped them of their mother, but Alan was still young enough to take it as one regardless.  One day he’d realise the world didn’t care about their family, would take and take and take no matter who they were, but Virgil wasn’t going to let it be today.

He shared a look with Tanusha, who shook her head minutely.  She understood the cruelty of the world, too, but for all her brashness even she wouldn’t ruin Alan’s naivety.  Not like this.  Virgil hoped the world wouldn’t force him to face it anyway.

It was still dark sometime later – Virgil didn’t know how long, hadn’t been counting the minutes - when Kyrano appeared in front of them, emerging from the darkness to crouch before their huddle.  Alan had fallen asleep again, too young to maintain a night time vigil, and Gordon was drowsily tucked beneath Virgil’s chin.  Kyrano took all of that in with a single glance.

“How are they?” Virgil asked, his voice cracking again.  “What happened?”

“They fell off a ledge,” Kyrano informed him quietly.  Gordon shifted, but Alan didn’t stir.  “John has a bad concussion.  Both his legs are broken, as is his left arm, and his ribs are cracked, but that is nothing rest and time will not cure.”

“And Scott?”

“Battered and bruised but only one rib broke in the fall,” Kyrano began.  Virgil knew that wasn’t all – he’d seen the blood dripping to the floor.  “At some point he was bitten by a snake, but the antivenom is working well so that is no longer a concern.”  He sighed, looking older than Virgil had ever seen him. “However, he landed on a solid piece of tree which ran him through.  He was fortunate that it didn’t impact any of his internal organs, but the blood loss is severe.  Your grandmother will be here by dawn.”

Virgil was grateful that the man knew better than to sugar coat or evade the topic.  He’d been in enough hospitals with one accident prone brother or other to know that even as a teenager he was more likely to be humoured by the medical staff than given any straight answers.  That didn’t make it any easier to hear – both his brothers were severely injured and if Grandma had been called, Dad and Kyrano didn’t think they could handle it by themselves – but Virgil was glad for the information anyway.

“Can we see them?” he asked. Kyrano frowned.

“Mr Tracy did not say you could not,” he began slowly.  “But it will not be easy for you to see.”

“Alan can stay-”

“Any of you,” he clarified.  Virgil glared at him.  “However, a disregard of adult advice is a dominant trait in the Tracy family, so I do not doubt that you will head there as soon as my back is turned.  Therefore, I will accompany you on the condition that you do not stay long.”

“I’ll stay here with Alan,” Tanusha said when Virgil nudged Gordon, getting the blond to slip off of his lap before standing up himself.  Alan slumbered on, clinging to the girl.  Kyrano nodded at her, and Virgil grabbed Gordon’s hand before making his way towards the medical room.

He was scared of what he’d find inside, but he had to see them for his own eyes.  Had to know.  Next to him, Gordon let out a quiet whimper and pressed against him.

“Not for long,” Kyrano reminded them, and they both nodded.  The door slid open, revealing two occupied beds with their Dad sat between them.

The first thing Virgil noticed was that they looked peaceful, no doubt largely thanks to the thin tubes attaching them to drips.  Painkillers, as well as nutrients and, in Scott’s case, a second tube leading from a bag filled with red liquid.

Gordon pulled away from him and made a beeline for their Dad, who retracted his hand from where it had been stroking John’s hair to envelope him in a hug.  Virgil followed more slowly, unable to tear his eyes from Scott. He loved John, of course he did, but Scott was always the brother he’d been closest to, the one that had been there for all of his nightmares when the world got too much.

Scott’s door was always open to him, and when he walked in, his brother was somehow always awake and waiting.  Even that time he’d ended up in hospital, all drugged up on painkillers after he’d been knocked off his bicycle by a car and broke his arm in two places, he’d always been awake whenever Virgil had visited.

The fact that he wasn’t awake now, that Virgil’s entrance hadn’t woken him up, was the final confirmation that Scott really wasn’t okay.  He stumbled over to the bed, barely evading the equipment surrounding it, and almost crashed into his father.

“Scott…”

Dad pulled him into the embrace with Gordon, holding both of them tightly, but Virgil couldn’t look away from the still, unconscious, form of his eldest brother, even when his vision began to swim with tears he couldn’t stop.

“Scott’s a fighter,” his father reminded him.  Virgil nodded blindly.  “He’ll pull through.”

A sob escaped his lips and he reached out, linking his fingers lightly with the tips of Scott’s bandaged ones.

“Please wake up, Scotty,” he begged.  Behind him, he felt Gordon shift and knew that he was facing John.  “We need you.  I need you.”

Scott didn’t react.

Part VII

[crackimagines]

Take Over (FE: Three Houses Short Fic)

Persona 5 AU (Crimson Flower)

P5 AU Masterlist Here

—

With the Adrestian Empire declaring war on the church and moving to invade Garreg Mach, the Phantom Thieves move to steal the heart of Archbishop Rhea.

The clock is ticking for the Phantom Thieves, because if the invasion fails, then all their classmates are doomed to perish from the might of the Church.

—

Akira made sure that the Black Eagles and the Imperial forces were moving far ahead of them, as his team slowed down.

(Morgana) “I don’t think they’ll realize we’re gone in time.”

(Ryuji) “Alright, then let’s hurry this shit up! If we can take down Rhea and her lackies, then we can stop this war before it even begins!”

(Makoto) “As much as I would like for that to happen, we need to be extra careful. Something’s been acting up with the MetaNAV as of late!”

When Akira pulled out his phone, their Phantom Thief outfits began flashing onto them before fading away.

(Futaba) “This has happened everytime we’re preparing to enter it, what’s going on?”

(Yusuke) “I’m afraid we do not have the luxury of time to be asking that. We must hurry before the Imperials reach Garreg Mach!”

(Ann) “Yeah, and Rhea’s palace is on full alert. We gotta get going.”

(Haru) “Akira, if you would!”

Akira nodded and pressed the button.

(Phone) Transformation successful. Now merging Metaverse and the Real World.

(Everyone) ?!

The world around them began to distort as normal, but when it was finished, they noticed the world had not even changed in the slightest.

Even Garreg Mach in the distance had no visible effect. Edelgard and the others kept marching.

(Ryuji) “The shit is this?!”

(Makoto) “How is this even possible, we shouldn’t be able to access our Personas in the real world!”

(Haru) “This is bad! Everyone might be walking into a palace! They aren’t equipped to deal with shadows!”

(Futaba) “No, I’m not detecting anything different except...Holy crap, there’s one super strong reading in Garreg Mach!”

(Ann) “Rhea!”

(Yusuke) “They’re going to get massacred!”

(Morgana) “Joker, what’s our orders?!”

(Akira) “We need to get there before they do as fast as possible! Our identities might get compromised, but that doesn’t matter right now! Futaba, take Yusuke and Haru on your Persona and head over right now! Makoto, you break through that front gate and make a way for us! Morgana, Ryuji, Ann! With me! Our mission objective remains the same, STOP RHEA!”

[Life Will Change - Persona 5]

Wasting no time, Makoto rode Johanna straight down the road, pulling out her revolver.

Futaba’s Persona beamed the three of them up and flew around the sides.

Morgana transformed into his bus as Akira got on the wheel and stepped on the gas pedal.

...

(Edelgard) “THIS IS EMPEROR EDELGARD! BEGIN YOUR ASSAULT!”

All the soldiers charged the gates, ready to break it down until everyone heard a strange noise coming up behind them.

BANG BANG!

(???) “OUT OF THE WAY!”

Several squads’ advances were halted when a woman on a strange vehicle flew past them and crashed through the gate doors, making several of the church soldiers fly off from the impact.

(Soldier) “Who was that?!”

(Soldier 2) “Was that one of ours?!”

(Hubert) “Doesn’t matter. If they’re helping us then we cannot refuse their help! EVERYONE, CHARGE!”

The Black Eagles charged in with the rest of the soldiers, not noticing the flying saucer soaring above them.

Driving up the middle, Makoto used the front wheels to stop her, turning the back wheels up and hit away a squad of Church soldiers, sending them onto the concrete.

Getting off, Makoto quickly got her mask back on as Johanna disappeared, clenching her fists.

Another squad of soldiers rushed her, swiping their swords at her.

Swiftly dodging the first strike, she counterattacked with a fist going into his stomach, and a kick to the face hurling him back onto two other soldiers.

Grabbing her revolver, she quickly spun around and shot a soldier’s spear, making it fly out of his hand.

Elbowing his head, she ran to the sides of the nearby buildings and found a nearby ballista.

(Soldier) “Take out that thing that’s flying in the sky!”

(Makoto) “Oracle! Tch, NO YOU WON’T!”

...

Futaba beamed down Haru near the ballista Makoto was fighting at, and flew towards the other one.

(Futaba) “Fox and I will get the other ballista! Help Queen!”

Needing no further instruction, Haru held her axe firmly and hit a soldier in the back with the hilt.

(Soldier) “Huh?! BEHIND US-!”

Seizing the opportunity, Makoto used her legs and swept underneath several soldiers, tipping them all over.

(Haru) “MILADY!”

Summoning her Persona, it used a psychokinesis attack and distorted the soldiers, making them unable to get up.

(Makoto) “Thanks for that, Noir!”

(Haru) “No problem, now get back!”

Haru had a devilish smile as she pulled out her grenade launcher and pointed it at the ballista.

(Haru) “It’s going to go boom!”

Makoto smiled and saw other soldiers coming towards them.

After firing a single shot, it completely blew apart, scaring the others.

(Soldier) “W-What kinda weapon is that?!”

(Haru) “WHY DON’T YOU FIND OUT!?”

...

(Futaba) “BEHIND YOU, AIM DOWNWARDS!”

A soldier came for his back, and Yusuke aimed his rifle downwards and shot the sword, the reflection making the soldier recoil in surprise.

His Persona appeared behind him and froze the soldier solid.

(Yusuke) “And now!-”

Turning right around, he used his katana to break the wires and gears, and his Persona slammed its sword downwards, crushing it completely.

(Futaba) “Good job, Fox!”

(Yusuke) “Thank you. Come, we must infiltrate the main room without being seen!”

As they rushed off, the Death Knight and several other Imperial forces took notice of them.

(Death Knight) “The Phantom Thieves are here...? You, send a report to the Emperor!”

...

Once Edelgard and her company took out the squad in the middle, an Imperial soldier ran to her.

(Soldier) “Milady, the ballistae have already been completely wiped out, and enemy forces are dealing with a third group inside! Reports indicate its the Phantom Thieves!”

(Edelgard) “What?!”

Byleth came in from behind and shook his head.

(Byleth) “I couldn’t find Akira and the others, they just disappeared!”

(Edelgard) “Where-...wait a minute, could they?-”

Her thoughts were interrupted when a bus came barreling through.

(Familiar Girl’s Voice) “S-SORRY EVERYONE!”

(Familiar Punk’s Voice) “SHIT MAN!”

Spinning around, the bus exploded into a cloud of smoke, revealing 3 figures and a cat.

(Byleth) “Identify yourselves!”

Looking up, they all had masks that was hard to make out their faces, but their hair...

No one had time to get a good luck and recognize them when 2 golems headed their way.

(Soldier) “INCOMING!”

The 3 figures and cat turned around, reaching for their masks.

(Everyone) “PERSONA!”

4 shadows emerged from them and flew towards the golem, using a combination of slicing and spells to wipe them out, with a fireball and tornado wiping out one while a bolt of lightning wiped out the others.

The wings of the boy in black’s shadow blew an incoming squad away and straight into the walls.

The boy made sure not to say a word and moved through the main gate of the Monastery.

(Byleth) “I’m going after them!”

(Edelgard) “Professor, wait!”

Before she could follow, Edelgard heard someone’s voice scream out.

(Dimitri) “EDELGAAAAARD!”

Slamming his lance against her shield, she knew that he wasn’t going to stop until either of them were dead.

She quietly muttered to herself.

(Byleth) “...Akira, Byleth, please be careful...”

Finally making it to the final room, Catherine was blown back by an explosion while Cyril fell to the floor, covered in frost.

[Blood of Villain - Persona 5]

(Rhea) “They’re still alive...You play an interesting game, Phantom Thieves.”

Everyone noticed that her eyes were yellow instead of green.

(Futaba) “D-Did her shadow merge with her real self?!”

(Ryuji) “Tch, she was already powerful enough!”

Byleth ran in, and stood beside Akira, drawing his sword.

(Rhea) “YOU, I WILL MAKE SURE YOU DIE BY MY HANDS! I WILL RIP YOUR HEART OUT OF YOUR CHEST!”

(Byleth) “Heh, kinda upset I didn’t realize you all were the Phantom Thieves beforehand...”

(Akira) “Little slow there, teach! But hope that isn’t true when it comes to this fight! As for you, you have anything to say Rhea?! For all the lives you’ve taken?!”

(Rhea) “THOSE WHO OPPOSE THE CHURCH WILL BE CRUSHED WITHOUT MERCY. I CARE NOT FOR YOUR OPINIONS...No matter...Thanks to your appearances, I can now get rid of all my problems at once! Phantom Thieves, the Empire, Byleth...Your crimes will not go unpunished!”

(Ann) “That’s our line, you psychotic bitch! Enforcing your law on everyone and killing them as soon as they disagree?! You’re the one in the wrong!”

(Rhea) “You have NO idea what I’ve suffered! THE EMPIRE WORKS WITH THOSE WHO SLITHER IN THE DARK, AND I WILL NEVER FORGIVE ANY WHO WORK WITH THEM.”

(Yusuke) “So, it would seem that she refuses to admit the fault in her logic.”

(Haru) “I can’t say that I’m surprised!”

(Makoto) “Words are meaningless, we gotta let our fists do the talking!”

[Blooming Villain - Persona 5]

(Rhea) “THEN ALL OF YOU WILL DIE!”

(Akira) “EVERYONE, LET’S FINISH THIS!”

Byleth rushed first, slamming the Sword of the Creator against Rhea's dagger.

She kicked him away, her strike hurting far more than he anticipated and flew back near the stairs.

(Akira) "ARSENE, TAKE HER DOWN!"

(Ann) "DANCE, CARMEN!"

Both of them took off their masks and summoned their Personas, Carmen igniting the area around Rhea as Arsene used its foot blade to cut her.

Wounded from the cut and bits of cloth and skin on fire, she ran through it and fired a spell at Arsene, making it stagger back.

Akira clenched his teeth as he felt the pain Arsene did, the spell hitting the shoulder hard.

Ann used her whip and swung it at Rhean which wrapped around Rhea's dagger.

Yanking it back, the whip flew out of her hand and into the floor.

Before Rhea rushed forward, she noticed that the rest of the Phantom Thieves were nowhere to be seen.

She leaped onto the air as bullets flew and hit the wall where she was, everyone pointing their guns at her.

Yusuke kept the pressure on her with his assault rifle, the bullets coming too rapidly for her to try anything.

When Rhea landed, she used her dagger to deflect a bullet, seeing Makoto attempting to make precise shots.

Rhea dashed towards Makoto and threw a fist out, which was caught by Makoto's arm, and whiffed to the side of her head.

Makoto kept her in place as she took off her mask, and a blinding blue light was underneath them.

Headbutting Makoto away, Rhea dodged the explosion by rolling away as she was barely caught by it.

Looking upwards, Ryuji, Morgana, and Haru had their Personas out, and Rhea was blinded by a psychokinesis spell.

Morgana's persona thrusted its rapier at her, but managed to dodge every single strike.

(Ryuji) "CAPTAIN KIDD!"

A cannon shot out of its arm, and hit Rhea in the stomach, making her crash through a wall.

Quickly getting up, Rhea tried to anticipate the next attack and barely managed to catch Yusuke's katana with her hand.

Joker came from behind and had Arsene grab her by the neck and slam her against the floor, sliding her and tossing her up onto the ceiling, making it crack with the impact.

Byleth jumped in and used the whip function of his sword to strike her midair, leaving a nasty wound across her chest.

Despite such a harsh assault, she managed to land on both her feet, looking at the Phantom Thieves.

Seeing her hands covered in blood, she clenched her teeth and her eyes widened with rage.

(Akira) "Surrender Rhea, you have lost!"

(Rhea) "No...NO! I WILL NEVER SURRENDER!"

(Futaba) "She's weak guys, LET'S FINISH THIS!"

(Akira) "ON ME!”

All of them hopped back and prepared for a final assault.

Drawing their weapons they all rushed her at once, striking at her weak and wounded spots in the blink of an eye.

Joker landed in front of Byleth, adjusting his gloves as Rhea’s body started shaking.

[Song End]

Rhea collapsed to the ground, not being able to stand up after that onslaught. 

Byleth nodded in thanks, and moved towards Rhea, pointing his sword at her.

Edelgard and the other Black Eagles moved in, surrounding her with the Phantom Thieves.

(Edelgard) “So, it really is you guys.”

(Akira) “Surprised?”

(Edelgard) “Not particularly. But, that’s for another time. Rhea. By the order of the Adrestian Empire, you will be imprisoned. This fight is over, you have lost.”

(Rhea) “No...”

Her body shook violently again, with her looking straight at Edelgard.

(Rhea) “NO! YOU WILL DIE! GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH-”

The pressure she exerted pushed everyone back.

With her shape changing form, she towered over everyone.

(Edelgard) “Damn it! EVERYONE, RETREAT!”

Everyone started running out, with Byleth and the Phantom Thieves keeping her occupied.

(Edelgard) “EVERYONE, COME ON!”

(Akira) “Oracle, escape route for us? If she chases us, then everyone outside’s done for!”

(Futaba) “I can’t find any! Dang it, come on!”

(Ryuji) “Tch...I think there’s only one way out of here for them.”

Everyone turned to Ryuji, but realized what he meant.

There was no other way.

(Akira) “Professor, go. They need you!”

(Byleth) “What?! What about you all?!”

(Akira) “Don’t worry about that, you just gotta-”

Rhea began charging up a beam from her mouth, and Byleth spun around and activated the whip function, slicing at a massive pile of debris above them, cutting off the Black Eagles from them.

(Akira) “...I see.”

(Edelgard) “Everyone, what the hell are you doing?!”

(Byleth) “Hah...It’s all right. Now, get out of here!”

(Edelgard) “No, I won’t accept this! WE’RE NOT LEAVING YOU ALL BEHIND!”

(Akira) “Then we have to make you. ARSENE!”

Appearing outside the rubble, it closed its wings, using the pressure of the wind to send them flying away.

(Edelgard) “NO! LET ME STAY! BYLETH, AKIRA! NO!”

Byleth and Akira had a self-mocking smile, as they turned around.

(Akira) “Everyone, it’s been a good run.”

(Ryuji) “I don’t wanna die but...Hah, I’m glad I’m at least dying together with you all.”

(Ann) “You idiots were the best thing that happened to me, you know that?”

(Yusuke) “I concur...with you all, my life found its meaning.”

(Makoto) “I’m proud to have fought for justice with everyone.”

(Haru) “May we all meet again in a better life...”

(Morgana) “I guess this is goodbye then...Hey, Byleth...Thanks for everything too.”

(Byleth) “All of you...”

The Phantom Thieves turned around to Byleth.

(Byleth) “I’m proud to have been your teacher.”

Rhea fired the beam at them, everyone accepting their fate.

However, the beam reflected onto the ground from an unknown force, shattering the ground around them.

Rhea managed to fly away from it, albeit heavily injured but the rest of the Phantom Thieves and Byleth were surprised.

(Ryuji) “You gotta be effin’ kidding me! IS THIS FOR REAL?! AFTER ALL WE SAID, WE DIE TO SOME GOD DAMN RO-”

Before everyone could process that they were still alive, the ground beneath them collapsed, sending them into the bottomless canyon below.

(Everyone) “AAAAAAAH!” “SHIIIIIIT-” “WOAAAAH!? “GAAAAAAAAAH-”

...

...

...

[ckret2]

Violet/Violent

Part 1, Hybrid Cultivar: Jonah’s got a Ghidorah head and he’s not afraid to clone it. Or, failing that, whatever stray biological matter his reluctant team of scientists finds inside of it.

Part 2, Violet/Violent: Dr. Shiragami and his fellow scientists are the proud accidental creators of an impossibility: a fusion between a rose, a human, and Godzilla. But Jonah doesn’t want a miracle. He wants a monster.

(KOTM one-shot, part 2 of 3. Stay tuned for part 3... *checks writing to-do list* ...eventually! If you want to read my other fics set in this KOTM ‘verse, click here.)

###

The pet rose/titan/human hybrid of Alan Jonah's gang of variously bribed and blackmailed scientists was growing faster than any of them had ever anticipated.

Her height had been holding steady for the last week, although she was still accruing foliage that spread her out sideways: an ever-spreading tangle of vines and branches. A matted mass of leaves enveloped the majority of her body like crocodilian scales or like great flakey layers of skin. They told themselves it was a mass of leaves, anyway. It was easier to look at her when they thought of the curtain of mass that made up her "hide" as "plant mimicking flesh" rather than as "flesh mutated to resembled plant," but in truth it was, by all measures—genetically, chemically, cellularly—a fusion of both plant and flesh into something entirely unprecedented and entirely new, in the same way that a mix of blue paint and yellow paint was neither "blue imitating yellow" nor "yellow imitating blue" but simply "green."

At most times, she was about seven feet tall, and typically she moved by undulating across the ground on vines and roots with motions like something between a millipede and a beached octopus. Other times, she pulled the thicket of her body in tight, weaving vines together like muscles and branches like bones, reshaping herself into something hunched but clearly bipedal, with stocky legs and a long thick tail and an array of grasping vines like undersized arms; and like that she stood just over ten feet tall. Most rarely, she would pull her vines and branches even tighter together into an even more solid form, stretching her legs long, straightening her back, lifting her head, sacrificing stability for height—until she stood fifteen feet tall, eerily humanoid, tottering like a toddler learning to walk. But a thick, crude, simple approximation of a human, like a golem made of trees rather than clay.

Back when she'd been about the size of a basketball, they'd started testing her for human intelligence—speaking to her, showing her books for children, seeing whether she could be taught to read and write. Within minutes of being shown a thick cardboard picture book meant to teach the alphabet, she'd seized up a marker and began scribbling letters on every surface she could reach—including letters she hadn't yet been shown. They still wondered if she'd observed them in the lab, if she'd perhaps picked them up from the scientists through some sort of as yet unidentified telepathic sense, or if she remembered them.

Dr. Shiragami suspected she remembered. He had no objective proof of this. Just a feeling, an uneasy feeling, that there was something observing them through the hybrid's strange small eyes; something that, although not human, once had been—and could recall that past life. An ex-human staring out at her former peers from the other side of death.

The letter she wrote most often was V.

She'd write it on a wall and stand beneath it, or on the floor and stand before it, as if using its tip to point at herself. Dr. Shiragami wondered what had been the name of the human whom Monster Zero had devoured and whose DNA had been used for their accidental cloning project.

He had nicknamed their rose/titan/human hybrid "Violet"—he thought that perhaps her name had once started with V, and without any idea what it was, the name of a flower seemed fitting. In his accent, when he wasn't careful, it came out as "Bioretto," which was how it caught on with the other scientists working with her; and the name drifted over the days to "Biorante" until her official name in their documentation on here was changed at last to "unknown Godzilla genetic sample" to "Biollante."

Dr. Shiragami thought the name sounded too much like "violent."

A true golem, made of clay, had two letters written on its head that meant "death." Writing a third letter changed the word to "truth" and brought the inanimate figure to life; removing the letter changed it back to "death" and put the figure back to sleep.

He hoped that, unlike a true golem, adding a letter to her name wouldn't change her nature.

###

"Dr. Shiragami, I did not bring you on to work with Monster Zero so that you could play with a walking plant."

"I work in genetics, sir. Genetics with a specialization in botany. You brought me on to gene sequence an alien that doesn't have genes."

"Hm." Jonah was staring through the observation window into the room they'd set up for Biollante. It was little more than a large room with a soft dirt floor and a skylight, with a water pipe she could work herself, a board to write on, and plastic playground equipment for lack of a better idea of what kind of enrichment a titan-plant-human needed. It was apparently insufficient entertainment; she was currently amusing herself by struggling to lift up and tip over a plastic playhouse designed to look like a castle. She'd fit in the play castle just a few weeks ago, but now it came up to her thighs when she was humanoid.

Dr. Shiragami said, "There's nothing I can do with an alien head without DNA in it, but there's—there's plenty I can do with a plant. A remarkable plant that consists of a genetic splice between three unspliceable species. I'm helping in what way I can—"

"Except you're not helping, doctor, are you? Because my objective is not to create novel freaks of nature; it's to get back on track with unleashing something that can combat the biggest extinction level event in this planet's history, i.e., us. So unless this creature you're wasting my time and resources on can do that—" Jonah suddenly fell silent. He watched wordlessly as the miniature titan knocked over a miniature castle. "Can this creature do that, doctor?"

"I'm sorry?"

"How tall is it going to get? Do you know?"

Dr. Shiragami's throat went dry.

"Has it displayed any violent tendencies?" Jonah went on. "Or are we going to have to train them into it?"

"You can't—"

"Can't I? Will you stop me?" Jonah asked. "What have you got, a doctorate? I've got men with guns."

"This is a living creature! Possibly a person—"

"You know how I feel about people."

"—A child. And a completely new form of life on top of that! I won't help you turn her into a monster."

"Fine," Jonah said. "You're welcome to resign at any time. I wish you the best of luck finding another way to fund your daughter's medical treatment."

Shiragami's blood ran cold.

"I'll leave you alone to think it over, shall I?" Jonah nodded to him and walked away.

Shiragami stared through the window at Biollante.

###

Biollante sprayed spores when she was upset, a thin sickly yellow haze of pollen. It made the scientists' and soldiers' eyes burn and throats close up. They now approached Biollante with pollen-filtering masks and goggles.

The facility hadn't been airtight when they made the discovery. Now it was, but not soon enough to prevent the spores from spreading for miles around them in every direction, settling into the sand, nearly invisible.

The desert was blooming. Trees and shrubs and vines shot into the sky, every species in the Rosaceae family they had ever tried to feed Biollante: roses and rowans and hawthorns, apples and almonds and peaches, more and more and more.

Somewhere in the Sahara, such an immediate reversal to desertification might have been a miracle.

If not for the fact that Biollante's spawn consisted of uncontrolled invasive species.

And at any rate—Jonah had not decided to hide his facility in that part of the Sahara.

Over five thousand years ago, the Sahara had been green. In fifteen thousand years, as the Earth's axis tilted, it would become green again. But even a green Sahara was mostly savannah, covered in shrubs and grasses, able to support clusters of trees only near deep water. The Sahara had never been jungles, never been rainforests. And some portions of the desert, even at the Sahara's wettest, remained desert still—such as the sea of sand dunes shared by Egypt and Libya.

Here, deep in the Sahara's heart, its truth, its natural, its healthy, its correct was desert. This was the part of the Sahara where there always had been, always would be, and always should be desert. A forest—a dry jungle of woody shrubby plants—would choke out the native species, destroy the local ecology, disrupt the weather patterns, displace the nomadic people that called the desert home. Everything about this part of the Sahara, from the temperature to the complete lack of precipitation to the nutrients in the loose sand, was unable to support a single one of the trees now growing there, much less so many.

Nevertheless, the forest spitefully flourished.

Like a fungus in a sack of flour, like a tumor in a heart.

And Biollante grew as well.

The scientists, even under Jonah's blackmail, were reluctant to harm her; so it was Jonah's soldiers who had learned via experimentation what could force her to fight. Fire—first only when it was thrust directly into her vines, but soon they trained her to lash out at the mere sight of it. Weedkiller, but only certain kinds—they'd tried so many different ones, seeing how she took each poison. Flashing blue lights. Recordings of the cries of MUTOs. Being presented with the dead head of Ghidorah, the monster that had devoured the things she was made from.

Dr. Shiragami was sure that Biollante must remember her past lives. Remember being Godzilla. Remember being human. Perhaps even remember being a rose—what did they know of the memories of flowers? Shiragami suspected plants remembered far more than humans gave them credit for.

The sight of Ghidorah made her struggle the hardest and roar the loudest. Once she'd been forced into the room with the dead head, she never cooperated with her keepers again. Now, the mere sight of humans was enough to enrage her.

She fought with spores, with choking vines, with cutting thornlike teeth. She fought with screams that they thought might have been an instinctive attempt to use Godzilla's atomic breath. These roars were horrible things, like Godzilla bellowing in rage and a woman wailing in pain and a tree splintering and falling all at once; they suspected she was twisting and snapping branches inside of her own body to make the sounds. She would no longer let anyone close enough to her to check.

Shiragami was only one remaining out of the original scientists that had been working with Biollante. All of the others either had been killed or else left—some in fear for their lives, but most in protest against what they were doing to a creature they knew deserved better. Shiragami now had new coworkers who cared much less. He would have left too—if not for his daughter, and if not for the fact that he thought someone should be working with Biollante who cared about what happened to her.

Even if he knew he wasn't doing anything to help.

They expanded her containment room when they could, but there was only so much they could do so fast when a facility that had been designed to camouflage into sand dunes was still trying to remain hidden now that it was in the center of a desiccated forest that it seemed the whole world was watching. She was too large to relocate without anyone noticing. Jonah ordered her nutrients be cut off—water only—in an attempt to slow her growth; in return, she began killing and devouring any humans that entered her enclosure. When they stopped entering, she burrowed her roots straight through the concrete foundation of the facility and deep down, they suspected perhaps even into the bedrock below.

As she grew so tall her head brushed the fifty foot skylights over her prison, she stopped using her humanoid form; as she kept growing still, she stopped using her bipedal form. Her prison cell was nothing but a mass of tangled vines, filling the room, brushing the walls. Vines—and sometimes teeth, gnashing between leaves and within blooms as she crashed branches through doors and felt her way down the halls.

Inside Jonah's facility, Biollante threatened to push them all out. Outside the unnatural forest, Monarch exploration crews backed by Egyptian and Libyan forces ventured into freakishly tall trees, as did curious or annoyed locals who wanted to know what strange forest had just appeared in the middle of their desert; it wouldn't be long until someone found the hidden facility.

Between Biollante and the investigating humans, Shiragami hoped Jonah was going to be pinched in the middle.

Jonah had what he wanted now that Biollante had been changed from a docile child into a wild animal. Shiragami wondered if Jonah had any idea how to tame her again. Surely he didn't.

For his daughter's sake, Shiragami would stay until the end, whether that end came from Biollante or Monarch; but for his other daughter's sake, he hoped she crushed Jonah beneath her roots when she escaped.

In the past couple of days, the bud of a rose ten feet long had emerged where her head had once been, up near the skylights.

Shiragami was sure it wouldn't be long now until she broke free. As soon as the rose bloomed.

###

(Click here for my masterlist of fics set in this KOTM verse, as well as my AO3 and Ko-fi links. If you enjoyed the fic, I’d appreciate a reblog or comment!)

[nitewrighter]

A Second Opinion Pt. 5

(Previously Titled “Villains want a Valkyrie)

Previous Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4

Read it on AO3 Here

-----

Reaper was lying on his side in a hospital gown on an examination table as several labtechs fussed over him while Moira looked on. Beneath the too-cold fluorescent lights of Talon’s med-bay, it was the sort of image that would make you laugh, not because it was funny, but rather because it was uncomfortable with the unnerving vulnerability of it all, but no one was laughing. One of the labtechs handed Moira the syringe and she quietly took it.

“You know this whole mess started with me having one ass cheek out,” said Reaper.

“Ventrogluteal injections and pelvic bone marrow samples are very normal medical procedures, Gabriel,” said Moira, holding the syringe up to the light and squinting at it.

“Are you sure taking more bits out of me is going to help?” said Reaper.

“Bone marrow extraction takes its toll, but it wasn’t as if you were mission ready anyway,” said Moira. One corner of her mouth twisted up with her focus, “I am seeing some nanite particulates in your marrow, which is to be expected... obviously...” she trailed off slightly and huffed, knowing there wasn’t much she could observe just holding it up to the light, “I’ll examine it more closely and run more tests. See if there’s anything I missed since the last time.” 

“See what the Doc says about it,” said Reaper.

“That’s why she’s here, isn’t it?” said Moira, no bitterness leaving her voice.

“How is she?” said Reaper.

“Stubborn and passive aggressive as ever,” said Moira.

“I mean do you think she can help?” said Reaper.

“I believe you had my opinion before we brought her her here,” said Moira.

“Moira,” said Reaper.

“That remains to be seen,” said Moira, “If she can’t, well there’s always a bullet and the canals. And if she can... there’s a bullet and the canals.”

----

“No, it should only take a few minutes--” McCree was talking into his comm, pacing back and forth in front of Athena’s monitor. Some irritated chatter could be heard on the other side. “No, I don’t only call you when I need a teleporter! That’s ridiculous! We’re buddies, right?”

McCree seemed to wince a little as he received what could only be Satya’s eviscerating assessments of his character on the other end of the comm.

“Tell you what--Do me this solid and I’ll get that weird blotch out of the orca’s couch that you’re always complaining about,” said McCree.

A monosyllabic response was heard on the other end.

“You hate that blotch!” said McCree. McCree was chewing his lip as he paced back and forth in the room, Satya continuing to admonish and verbally cut him to ribbons on the other side of the comm. He could feel Hanzo’s steady gaze tracking him back and forth, but even worse was Baptiste’s eyes on him through the vid-com.

 Genji himself seemed to have gotten into the habit of repeatedly fidgeting with his prosthetic arm’s shuriken loading mechanism to try and stave off his maelstrom of worries about Angela, sliding his wrist plate back and forth and clicking the shuriken out of place and back in. We should be going now, he thought, What if they’re hurting her? She’s fighting back. She has to. And they’ll hurt her for fighting back. They’re hurting her right now and you’re here and you’re a useless useless useless stupid pile of nuts and bolts with a handful of organs slapped on there who should have gone with her to that conference. This wouldn’t have happened if you were at that conference but nooooo you didn’t want to sit through a few 3 hour lectures and now---

“...is it always like this?” Baptiste spoke a little softly to Hanzo.

“I’m still getting used to it myself,” said Hanzo with a chuckle.

They’ve been talking for five minutes and he’s got a chuckle? It took me weeks to get Hanzo to crack a smile! Okay. Shut up brain. The Doc. This is about the doc. The thought flinched through McCree’s mind and blanked out Satya’s voice on the comm only briefly before he snapped back to attention and blurted out, “Dagnabbit, Satya, lives are on the line!”

There was a pause on Satya’s end and then an, “Understood.”

“...Seriously?” said McCree.

“Lives are on the line, as you say,” said Satya, “I’ll be there with the necessary equipment for a teleporter in a few minutes.”

“Th..thanks...” said McCree, honestly amazed he managed to convince her. Then again she was . He clicked out of the comm. 

“A few minutes,” he said, looking back at the Shimada brothers and Baptiste on the Vid-com, “Then we can have you over here like that.” He snapped his fingers before turning to Genji, “I can still call it off--so I want you to be sure about this---”

“I’m sure---” Genji started.

“You’re not sure, you’re scared, and that’s fine,” said McCree, “But we shouldn’t trust this guy just because you’re desperate to get the Doc back. You can’t just go on Hanzo’s word.”

Genji straightened his shoulders, “You’re right,” he said, before turning to Baptiste on the screen, “You said you worked with Doctor Ziegler in Venezuela, right?”

“Right,” said Baptiste, a little hesitantly.

“Do you have anything on you that might... verify that work together?”

“I’ve tried to leave as little a trail as possible, you understand,” said Baptiste, “Doctor Ziegler was pretty intense and secretive as well at the time, so we weren’t exactly best friends.”

“Hm...” Genji looked thoughtful.

“She was... pretty set on having no one recognize her from her posters,” Baptiste let out a hapless chuckle, “And she couldn’t stand being called ‘Mercy.’” 

Genji seemed to perk up at this.

“We did take a photo or two together, but... those are back at my clinic...” said Baptiste trailing off, “I’m sorry. I don’t know what to tell you. We were both very focused on helping our patients at the time.”

“You said she leaves an impression,” said Genji.

“She does!” said Baptiste, “Smart, tough, focused---But I’m pretty sure what I saw of her is what anyone would see of her.” He paused, “I will say, she brews the absolute worst pot of coffee I have ever tasted.”

Genji’s visor brightened. “What did you say?”

“Well I wouldn’t expect her to be a barista or culinary genius--” Baptiste went on.

“But did you say it was the worst?” said Genji, the lights on his shoulders practically blazing with excitement.

“Oh, by far, the worst,” said Baptiste, hardly paying attention, “It was honestly impressive how bad this coffee was--like I’m pretty sure we were only a mile north of a coffee farm. You could not have gotten more premium, locally sourced beans, and it still tasted like she filtered the grounds through the devil’s asshole.”

“They did work together...” Genji said, a breathless awe in his voice.

The door slid open and Genji, Hanzo, and McCree, all turned around to see Satya standing in the doorway.

“Satya!” McCree’s face lit up, “I can’t tell you how much it means that you’re--”

Satya stepped aside with her usual curt grace and Jack marched into the doorway. “Care telling me what you wanted a teleporter for?”

“You narc’d?” said McCree, looking at Satya. She gave him a sharp sidelong glance through her visor. His shoulders slumped. “Of course you narc’d. You’re dating the only narc bigger than you on this watchpoint.”

“Of course. You must admit that your whole situation was highly dubious,” said Satya.

Both Genji and Hanzo gave a distressed look to McCree and McCree’s stomach lurched at the thought of having to play the advocate for someone Hanzo seemed a bit too excited to bring to the Watchpoint, but he remembered Mercy still in Talon’s clutches and straightened his shoulders. They needed Baptiste. As much as McCree hated to admit it, they needed whatever help they could get.

“Well look, Jack,” McCree started, “You’re not strike commander anymore, and we handled ourselves fine for a few months without--”

McCree’s shoulders slumped at the sound of Winston clearing his throat. Winston leaned into the doorway behind Jack and Satya with an awkward-but-endearing wave.

“Hanzo,” Winston tented his thick fingers, “I do appreciate you being proactive in recruiting other members but--”

Jack pointed a finger at the screen, “Can he hear us?”

“Yes he can,” said Baptiste, flatly.

Winston cleared his throat again and Jack lowered his finger. 

“As I was saying, Hanzo, I appreciate bringing in extra help, but you’ve only recently gone off probation. If anyone’s going to be doing any vetting around here, it’s going to be--”

“Satya?” Baptiste spoke up.

Symmetra suddenly perked up, “Lieutenant Augustin?”

“Oh come on, you know her, too?” said McCree.

“Only briefly--You got away from Vishkar?” Baptiste’s eyes were wide from amazement.

Satya cleared her throat, “Well--um--yes,” she said, curling the fingers of her prosthetic hand tentatively.

Baptiste huffed with some relief. “I can’t tell you how relieved I am to hear that. And you’re fighting alongside Overwatch?”

“Well.. they saved my life, and I should hate to see other people manipulated and taken advantage of like I was. So... here I am,” said Satya.

“Can we maybe not spill entire agent dossiers to unverified free agents?” Jack muttered.

“No-no, let them talk,” said Winton.

“Winston--” Jack’s teeth were gritted as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

“This life suits you, Satya. I like the new look,” said Baptiste.

“Oh--it’s not a new look, the hair-is--is--it’s just down,” said Satya, fidgeting with her hair a bit, “You look well, also. The beard suits you.”

Baptiste chuckled.

McCree was slack-jawed. ‘What the hell is happening’ was lined out in every crease and whisker on his face. Baptiste knew Satya. Satya, who may as well have grown up in a hyperbaric sensory deprivation chamber for all Vishkar did to cut her off from the world. And, even more baffling, Satya seemed to like him. Satya, who didn’t like anybody. Except Pharah. And Ana. And Hanzo. And Zenyatta.  And Genji. And Mei. And Mercy. Okay, all things considered McCree probably just took it personally that Satya didn’t seem terribly keen on him.

“So you do know him?” said Winston.

“It... it was back when I was in Vishkar,” said Satya, turning to Winston, “So I am not sure how... legitimate my attestation may be, but I can assure you that he’s an excellent medic.”

“And with Ana and Lúcio deployed we are short on Medics...” said Winston, thoughtfully.

“I have biotic fields,” said Jack, stiffly.

Both Winston and Symmetra gave Jack an almost pitying sidelong glance, and Jack just huffed and folded his arms.

“Respectfully speaking, from what these three have told me, I don’t believe Doctor Ziegler has a lot of time for deliberation on our end,” said Baptiste, “If it helps, I can take the pulse rounds out of my biotic launcher. No offense, all medicine.”

“Biotic launcher?” said Genji.

“Modified from a standard Caribbean Coalition pulse rifle,” said Baptiste, hauling up a somewhat clunky-looking gun.

“Sure, let’s just let the guy who seems to magically know Hanzo and Satya and the Doc splash us with god-knows-what,” said McCree, rolling his eyes.

“I know what,” said Hanzo, giving a sharp look to McCree, “He’s saved many lives with that launcher. He’s saved mine with it, too.”

“...Ah,” said McCree.

“So both of you are willing to vouch for him?” said Winston, looking between Hanzo and Symmetra.

“I understand my standing in this organization isn’t as established as others--” said Symmetra.

“And mine far less so,” said Hanzo, “But yes.”

“Yes, we can trust him,” said Symmetra.

“And he did know Angela. I’m sure of it,” said Genji.

“Winston, if you’re sure about this...” said Jack.

“I’m not,” said Winston, “But losing Doctor Ziegler would not only devastate this organization, but biotic research all over the world. It’s a risk we have to take. Athena--you have a lock on his coordinates?”

“Yes,” chimed Athena.

“Satya?” said Winston.

Satya stepped forward and made a sweeping gesture with her prosthetic, “Now, this may be jarring if you’ve never teleported before.”

“I can handle it,” said Baptiste, smiling, “And... thank you. I’ll do my best to earn your trust.” 

“Winston--” Genji put a hand on Winston’s shoulder, “Thank you.”

“You can thank him when we get the Doc back,” said McCree.

“Let’s just hope Lynx Seventeen has those schematics ready,” said Winston.

----

“As I suspected... no avascular necrosis...” said Mercy, pushing past several x-rays on a computer screen in her swivel chair before swiveling to face the microscope. It annoyed Moira to see Mercy working as if she wasn’t completely at Talon’s, for lack of a better word, mercy, but then again, lab work could be a comfort in and of itself. The one thing she could have control over. “He remained stable when you were taking the bone marrow sample?” said Mercy, looking through the microscope.

“He did,” said Moira, “What were your observations on the samples I gave you?”

“His white blood cell count is unnervingly low, and there doesn’t seem to be any particular spike in toxins in his urine,” said Mercy, “But from what other data you gave me, in theory the nanites should be picking up the slack with his immune system.”

“’In theory,’” said Moira, folding her arms, “His lack of any significant bacterial infections is proof enough that they are picking up the slack.”

“They’re also destroying his body. I’m going to need a clearer timetable on how fast his deterioration is going if I’m going to help him,” said Mercy.

“If I knew, I would tell you,” said Moira, pushing her red hair back, “That’s the thing about nanites--they’re meant to keep the body going even in the event of catastrophic organ failure. In theory his heart could stop and he could keep... keep...” she closed her eyes, “The nervous system and skeletal systems are probably the final threshold.” She remembered Reaper’s finger falling off and her stomach lurched, “There’s already structural failure in his extremities, but no loss of coordination yet.”

“This is what happens when you push the human body far past what it’s supposed to do...” Mercy said mostly to herself in a sigh.

Something stung in the pit of Moira’s stomach at those words. She could have just shrugged it off and called Mercy a coward with regards to science as she always did. The human body was a mess, after all--the spine and knees structural nightmares, the brain a complete mess of chemicals whose imbalances were nigh impossible to decipher save through the crapshoot of behavioral observation, and of course there was the whole matter of cells that sometimes simply forgot how to properly propagate and then ended up killing the whole damn body. The human body could be improved. The human body had to be improved. But, and in later reflections she would suppose this was probably her own distress over Gabriel wanting Mercy to feel that same guilt and fury, instead of saying any of this, she said, “Of course you feel that way, if you had your way, Genji would probably still be in crutches now.”

Mercy bristled and swiveled around in her chair. “Excuse me?” 

“It was easier to ignore his true nature when he was rolling around in a wheelchair or looking up at you from those infirmary beds,” said Moira, perfectly calm.

“The cybernetics Blackwatch gave him were abhorrent,” Mercy seethed, “The damage to his mental health was--”

“What he needed. No one liked looking at what Blackwatch was doing. Not Jack, and not you. But he needed it. You have no idea how dearly he needed it. What was done to him put a hunger in him no coddling therapy could sate.  You didn’t see what I saw in the Venice incident,” a chuckle rippled out of her, “And then of course Overwatch puts him in shining armor as soon as they put him on Oxton’s ever-so-marketable strike team. I suppose I can’t blame him for eventually believing he was what they told him he was.”

Mercy stood up so fast she knocked the chair back and it thudded against the table. “You have the gall to assume you know his true nature from seeing him at his lowest point?” Moira only needed to raise her withered hand, the node of her biotic rig glowing faintly purple, and Mercy drew back slightly.

“Is that not our true nature?” said Moira, she flicked her hand slightly, and Mercy flinched a little, knowing what would happen with contact, “Do what we must to survive? Do what we can to avoid pain?” She looked back at the screens displaying Reaper’s cells in their endless battle and dance. “The Americans launch the Soldier Enhancement Program so that we might survive the Omnics. I inject Gabriel with nanites so he might survive the SEP serum. You help us stabilize him in the hopes of your own survival. That’s all we ever do. That’s all we ever are,” she looked back at the nanites on the screen, “Right down to our most basic parts.”

“The world is a lot less lonely when you assume everyone is as monstrous as you, isn’t it?” the words slipped out of Mercy.

Moira didn’t want to think of what she did next as impulsive or a reaction of anger. Instinctive, maybe, a fulfillment of her word. As her hand clamped down on Mercy’s shoulder and Mercy screamed with the biotic rig sucking the energy out of her, Moira reminded herself that she had told Mercy at the start of all this that failure to comply would result in pain. But it’s not as if she’s not complying, is she? Moira’s own inner critic spoke up, You brought her here to help Gabriel. You were the one who brought up Genji--It’s almost funny how fast just bringing him up upsets her. It would be funny if it weren’t so sad. Moira didn’t release until Mercy’s knees buckled. She was gripping the edge of the desk, gasping for breath.

“The world is as monstrous as me,” said Moira, “Get that through your head and maybe you might live a little longer.”