#throwing myself into the nearest lake <3< /div> Explore tagged Tumblr posts

[batmanshole]

i love saying "im gonna throw myself into lake ontario" its so funny to me. guy who travels 3 hours to throw himself into the nearest Big Lake

[nanoland]

new chapter (lucifer fic)

(earlier parts are here; whole thing is here) 

Ponder on the Narrow House, part 3 

Mazikeen + Eve + Michael, gen fic (for now), warning for gun violence 

0   

Along the California coastline, the cruise ship Illustrious Voyager bore four thousand three hundred and ten passengers, one thousand two hundred and ninety-six crewmembers, and two guide dogs.

Five thousand six hundred and eight souls, in total.

At around 4pm, without anyone noticing, that number became five thousand six hundred and nine.

Hands clasped behind her back, Eve strolled down the promenade, admiring the vessel’s size and beauty. This fresh new millennium’s wealth astonished her. Sickened, sometimes. Entranced, sometimes. But always astonished.

Back in the garden, they’d slept on and under rocks. When it rained, they got wet. When large animals came by, they hid. No weapons. No shelter. No blankets. The only resource they’d had in abundance was food. Good grief – so much food. God had been so proud of all the different fruits and nuts and mushrooms he’d made available to them, and Adam had been so grateful. Eve supposed she had been, too.

It hadn’t stopped her from one day approaching her husband and the plump rabbits resting in his lap – two of several dozen pets – and asking if he didn’t think the cold nights would be much more endurable if they each had a warm pair of fur slippers.

Then she’d met Lucifer. Fallen in love. Bitten the apple. Learned how powerful he and his Father truly were. That was when the real questions, the sticky, prickly questions, had come bubbling up.

If Lucifer has such a vast family, with so many siblings, why can’t I have even one? she’d asked the sky. Why is Adam all I get?

And later: If You can simply bring people into existence, why must I scream and bleed and shit myself in order to have children? Am I doing it wrong? Is there another way? If there isn’t, why not?

And later: Why is nothing fair?

And, most recently, after meeting Mazikeen: Why isn’t everything at least equally unfair? Why do humans get a world of options while Maze and her family are expected to serve angels from birth to death? Why isn’t Maze allowed into Heaven, even after an eternity of loyalty and hard work?

“Sorry,” she said, flashing white teeth at a passing crewmember. “I’m trying to find a friend of mine. Can you tell me how to get to Room 835?”

Half an hour later, there was a splash and the ship’s population dropped to five thousand six hundred and seven.

Before binding his arms and legs, Eve had secured Andrew Bismarck’s lifejacket and gagged him. Furious and helpless, he bobbed alongside her as the ship moved on and Mazikeen rowed up in her inflatable raft, wearing a sunset-orange swimsuit.

“Should I be worried about those, babe?” she asked as she gripped Bismarck’s lifejacket and hauled him out of the water.

Eve smiled at the dolphin pod swimming in playful loops around her, and patted the nearest one’s nose. “No. They’re my friends.”

The inflatable wasn’t big enough for three people, so Eve held on to a friend’s dorsal fin and let him drag her back to The Choronzon.

Michael stood on the deck, looking bored. As they climbed aboard, their prisoner slung over Mazikeen’s shoulder, he drawled, “Seriously? This sad specimen’s worth two million dollars?”

“Actually, his net worth is eight hundred million,” said Mazikeen, dumping him down. “Two million is just what his ex-wife is willing and able to pay.”

Wringing out her hair, Eve added, “She took half his money in the divorce but she gave almost all of it to a chimpanzee shelter. I really like her!”

His lip curled. “How delightfully sordid. Isn’t this all a little beneath you, Ms Mazikeen? I mean, you’re a big deal in Hell. High Commander of Lucifer’s legions, head advisor to the king himself. Aren’t you worried taking jobs like this diminishes you?”

Busy handcuffing Bismarck to the railing, Mazikeen said, “Eve, honey? Do me a favour?”

“Boop!” Eve chirped, having already snuck up behind Michael, and pushed him overboard.

“I know it’s your whole gimmick,” Mazikeen called down as he splashed and spluttered, his face red with princely indignation. “And I know you don’t have a lot else going for you. But the next time you try that on me, I will stop being nice. Kapish?”

“Kapish,” he muttered.

The Choronzon had barely travelled a mile before Eve spotted Bismarck’s henchmen coming after them.

“Someone gimme details!” shouted Mazikeen, busy putting a bulletproof vest on over her bikini and opening up the box she’d told Dan contained a fishing rod, not a halberd.

Eve peered through her binoculars. “Two speedboats. Twelve guys on jet skis. Guns everywhere.”

“Heh. Awesome. Mickey – move that tight ass to the front and make like a nice juicy target.”

“Wait, what about-…” Michael began, trailing off as Mazikeen dove gracefully into the sea.

Bouncing from foot to foot, Eve shot him a grin. “Don’t look so glum, sourpuss. This is the fun part.”

She’d never spoken to Michael in Heaven, despite the millennia they’d both resided only two miles apart, her in a lakeside cottage on the outskirts of the Silver City, him in the crystal palace in its centre.

Granted, she’d not exactly had a warm and fuzzy relationship with any of Lucifer’s siblings. They all knew what had happened in the garden. Some had been nice – Amenadiel had visited often, even though he’d never had much to say and they’d spent their time together skipping stones across the lake’s surface. But the others had kept her at a distance. She was a bad influence.

Michael, however, was the only angel she’d not ever said one word to.

She’d seen him, now and then, in the early days, when she was the only human in Heaven and, as such, grudgingly invited to divine family get-togethers. On those occasions, she’d spent too much time feeling awkward and out-of-place to pay attention to the sullen figure lurking in whatever shadows were available. The one time she’d glanced his way, it had been to marvel at the stories of people getting the twins mixed up; beyond the raw basics of bone structure, Michael couldn’t have looked less like her old lover.

Bullets sprayed across the hull. Humming, Eve stepped daintily into Michael’s shadow, seconds before they started bouncing off his shoulders and chest.

“It is beneath her,” he muttered.

She made an ambiguous noise. “How d’you figure?”

There came a shout and a splash from the nearest jet ski. The bullets stopped.

“C’mon. She’s Mazikeen. Everyone in the Silver City knows about Mazikeen. Ordinarily, we couldn’t give two dry shits about Lucifer’s minions, but her? She’s a minor celebrity. The power behind Hell’s throne. Christ, it’s no secret my beloved twin couldn’t govern his way out of a paper bag.”

“Yeah,” she said, smiling fondly. “He’s kind of bad at everything. Except music. He’s a great musician.”

More shouting. More shooting. More bullets bouncing off Michael’s torso. Mazikeen rode by, one hand gripping her newly-acquired jet ski’s throttle lever, the other clutching her bloodstained halberd. Watching her circle the enemy, Eve was reminded of a sheep dog.

Michael went on: “And then there’s the fact that for a while, everyone thought Lucifer was going to marry her. It was all anyone could talk about. Jophiel was taking bets on when the proposal would happen. She’d have been High Commander and the Queen of Hell. Instead? All of a sudden, Lucifer takes an indefinite vacay to the mortal realm, drags her with him, and next thing anyone knows, she’s working behind a bar.”

The remaining jet skis and their terrified, wounded riders had been neatly rounded up, which meant it was time for Eve to open her purse.

“Um – how long have those been in there?” asked Michael, watching her take out three grenades.

“You want one?” she offered. “Don’t forget to take the pin out before you throw it. I did that my first time.”  

One thing to be said for millions of dull, dull years spent sitting next to God’s Greatest Warrior, skipping stones across a lake; your aim got good.

The first blast was a warning, not close enough to actually kill any of Bismarck’s men, though the resultant waves did knock several into the water. They tried to retreat, turning their vehicles around, only to remember Mazikeen, corralling them single-handed and now armed with machine guns she’d confiscated from those already bested.

When they saw the second and third grenade incoming, they gave up and abandoned the jet skis, jumping into the sea and swimming for their lives.

“Fuck!” Michael yelped, blocking his ears at the concomitant explosions.

Gazing past the debris and smoke, Eve saw Mazikeen head for the nearest of the two speedboats. Its occupants, preoccupied with aiming a rocket launcher at The Choronzon, saw her coming far too late.

“I get your point,” said Eve, as her girlfriend and her halberd made short work of the crew. “But that’s a really… how can I put this? It’s a really angelic way of looking at things. Maze doesn’t consider anything ‘beneath her’.”

“Wow. Sick burn. You’re basically admitting she has no pride.”

“Oh, she’s got pride. Tons of pride. Her pride’s just dependant on how well she does a job, not on the type of job she has. She wasn’t happy working at Lux, but that wasn’t because she thought bartending was ‘beneath her’; it was because she prefers doing things she’s good at. Customer service isn’t really one of her strengths.”

The second speedboat was abandoned by its crew mere seconds before Mazikeen rammed the first speedboat into it, cackling victoriously.

“Actually,” Eve said, moving from Michael’s shadow to where Mazikeen had earlier set a crate of peach soda – her favourite – out on the deck, “now that you mention it, I guess I’m the one with no pride. Haven’t really ever had anything to be proud of. Your Dad never gave me the chance. I was never meant to do things. I was just meant to be.”

Michael snorted. “Lucky you. Trust me; he may have softened in his later years, but back in the day he never, ever stopped riding our asses. You think Lucy really rebelled because he had better plans for how the universe should be run? Because he was an innovator? Nope. Lazy dick just hated being told to do his chores.”

By the time Mazikeen swam back to them, saltwater had washed off the blood and her ponytail had come loose.

“Oh, hey,” said Eve, gripping her hand and pulling her up. “A mermaid.”

After pressing a rough kiss to her cheek and taking a swig of peach soda, Mazikeen asked, “You okay? He did his job?”

Eve patted the angel’s shoulder – the one that wouldn’t hurt. “He was terrific! Awesome addition to the team.”

“I didn’t do anything,” Michael mumbled.

Ignoring him, Mazikeen snatched up a towel to dry her hair. “Glad to hear it. Alright! Let’s get Bismarck back to shore, get paid, and find a place to have dinner so we can toast Team Hellrazor’s first successful mission.”

“R-A-Z-O-R,” Eve informed Michael. “To make it cooler.”

[trinimalfoyyy]

Hii!! can i request one where draco and his hufflepuff halfblood girlfriend are walking to class and people pick on her and make her feel bad so later on she sits at the astronomy tower crying and her asks her what’s wrong and she thinks she’s not worth it and then the next day she’s like super depressed but the guy that was picking on her was beat up bc draco taught him his lesson and then yeah :3 you can make the ending however.

Worth Getting in Trouble For- D.M Request

{As a note to everyone. I keep my pronouns like they/them until I get a request for a specific one. Enjoy!   DRACO X HUFFLEPUFF!READER}

I laid my head on Draco’s shoulder as we stared at the lake in front of us. The breeze just gently swaying but Draco’s jacket kept me warm. We’ve just gotten together after flirting in Potion’s class all the time. He wasn’t what people said he was. He was kind and gentle to me. “What’s going through your head Y/N?”

He looked at me as a smile grew on my face. “Oh just thinking how you're the best boyfriends ever.” I sat up and looked him in the face; smiling even wider now. He placed his hand on my cheek before I snuggled my face into his palm. It was these kind gestures that made me love him more. “You know I try my hardest Y/N...I’m not all that great at this.” 

“Hey no need to think like that, you're doing great Draco.” He grabbed my hand before kissing my fingertips. I blushed and turned my head at the gesture. “Now come love, it’s getting late. I'll walk you back.” He stood up before wiping his robes then extending his hand to help me up. Gently tucking a piece of hair behind my ear and grabbing my hand. He leads me through the corridors quietly without getting caught

Stopping in front of the painting. He looked at me like I could break. I don’t know how I could get so lucky to be with someone so kind. Who didn’t care for my status, my reputation, or my house. He leaned over and kissed my forehead; perks of being taller than me. “Goodnight my love. See you at breakfast.” I gave him a peck on his cheek before bidding him goodnight as well. 

Watching him walk away, I turned towards the painting tapping on the barrels in the picture, causing it to open. I tiptoed to my room trying not to wake my friends, Y/F/N. Throwing myself on my bed, I smiled bigger than the Cheshire Cat and I soon fell into a deep slumber.

*****

I quickly woke up from my dream with tears threatening to fall at any second. It was always the same dream. Draco would leave me because our status did not mix well together. I hugged the nearest pillow as the tears soon fell. I knew that I wasn’t enough for him. I was a Hufflepuff, let alone being a Half-Blood. I looked at the clock beside me. When did so much time pass? I quickly shot out of bed and got dressed quickly.

“It’s not like you to be late, is everything alright?” I knew that Draco would be worried. I tried to speak but someone had to beat me first. “Well if I were a Half-Blood with that face I would be sad too.” Pansy Parkinson, always getting into my business. making me feel less of a person every day. I just sat down barely touching the food in front of me. “Oh sod off Pansy,” Draco yelled back before turning back to me.

“Don’t listen to her Y/N she’s just jealous.” I gave Draco a small smile. He knew that hurt my feelings. He knew I was already upset about not being good enough. Pansy left the hall early, who knows where. She just walks around and bullies everyone. It was her job, and she was good at it.

I bid Draco goodbye after breakfast heading to my class on the other side of the school. I often liked walking to this class. Helped me think and clear my mind. Things were quiet like they always were. Before I suddenly got tripped and my books landed everyone on the cold floor. “Watch where you’re going Half-Blood.” I tried to reach for my books not wanting to fight with Pansy. She stomped her foot in front of my face causing me to jerk upright.

“Oh? Are you going to cry?” She started to laugh in my face before some of her friends walked up. “Oh looky here?~ A Half-Blood all alone? How refreshing!” I just wanted to run and hide. I never wanted to fight. It was against my nature. “I just want to head to class if you don’t mind. Thank you.” I started to stand up before one of Pansy’s boy toys kicked the book I was about to pick up.

“I don’t think so. You need to know your place. A person like you can’t be with Draco. You're a disgrace. Imagine being a Half-Blood. You think Draco wants to be with you?” Pansy began to laugh and soon the others joined it. “Now listen here Y/N, Draco is only with you to seem like a hero. He’s playing with your feelings. Why would anyone want to be with you?” I could feel the tears begin to form in the corner of my eyes. “You aren’t smart nor are you even pretty. He wants to be with Pansy! Not you!” Pansy just watched as her boy toy was dogging me.

“P-Pansy having one of your boy toys speak up because you can’t?” I could see Pansy's face go red as she started to walk towards; her wand drawn out. The guy who was talking bad to me grabbed her forearm. “Stop Pansy, they aren’t worth it.” She looked mad as I quickly grabbed my items and fled from the scene. “That’s right, run away you baby!” 

I ran to class just in time before I got in trouble, taking my seat trying to hold my tears back. The entire class went by as slow as possible as I thought about how Pansy and her boy were right. I wasn’t smart or pretty. Why would Draco want to be with me? Oh god! He was in it for something. There was no way he could be in it for me. 

I ran out of class as fast as my legs could carry me. Heading to one of my safe spaces. The astronomy tower was the place I went to when things got rough. It was harder to see this time since my tears made everything blurry. I grabbed my knees and pulled them to my chest crying as the tears flowed out like a stream. I cried for what seemed like hours. The sun had set fast as my tears started to dry up. I didn’t have enough strength to pick myself up and just curled into a tight ball before falling into a deep slumber.

*****

“Y/N? Y/N where are you” awoken to the sound of my name I realized that I fell asleep in the tower. “Y/N where are you?!” I gently spoke ‘here; as Draco came running up and towards me. He grabbed me quickly and held me like I was a broken toy. “You never came to dinner last night and then your friends said you never made it to the dorms last night. I was worried sick! I started to go to Professors!” I started to apologize but the tears beat me to it. He looked at me worried as he cradled me.

I won’t lie it made me feel safe. However, that sense of comfort left quickly. I could feel the thoughts come back. I started to gently shake as the tears ran down my pink cheeks. “Y/N? What’s wrong love...please tell me.” His voice cracked at the end and it made the tears fall faster and harder. “They said I wasn’t good enough for you. They were right. I’m not worth it! Not worth your l-love.” 

Draco grabbed my wet damp cheeks in his hands and made me look him in the eyes. Gently whipping my tears with his thumb. “You are worth everything. You are amazing! Nobody can make me laugh when I’m sad. Nobody can comfort me as you can!” A tear started to run down his cheek as he kept talking to me. “I know that I don't tell you a lot but I love you. You are my sun to my moon. The yin to my yang. You are my everything. I’m so sorry I don’t tell you enough.”

We held each other for a long time. Just basking in each other’s embrace and that sun that swept through the windows of the tower. He kissed my forehead before looking at me again. “Y/N who said these things to you?” I could feel the anger radiating off him. His face got stern and his eyes cold. “I-It’s not important Dray.” He spoke up louder this time. ‘Who said this Y/N?!” I told him about Pansy and his boy toy. He grew angrier as he stood up and walked ou the tower.

I followed suit yelling his name and begging him it wasn’t worth it... He walked fast and went into the courtyard where Pansy sat on the lap of her boy. “How dare you say these things to Y/N!” The guys only stood up before walking over. He got close to Draco before saying, “It’s not liked I’m lying about the little disgrace the-” Draco threw a punch.

It was a hard punch. They stumble back before blood started to fall from his nose. He looked at Draco and started yelling at him. Pulling out his wand before Draco disarmed him. Sending the Knockback Jinx, the guy fell over before Draco lunged at him. They went at each other punching before Draco got on top and was beating the hell out of him. The poor guy’s nose started to poor red that his shirt was no longer white. Draco stood up before and staggered back. 

I caught him as he almost fell on the grass. Yelling was heard as Mrs. McGonagall and Snap walked up pushing students out of the way. They both looked at Draco who had a cut on his lip that only bleed a little. The other guy’s eye started to swell and change to a dark plum color. His nose was even worse as he staggered to stand up. “You’ll regret this Malfoy mark my words!”

*****

“Luckily, Malfoy because you stood up for Y/N that helps your case but only just a little!” Snape sounded irritated, but I never knew when he wasn’t. “Yes, that does help but still 50 points from Slytherin.” He spoke in his low monotoned voice, showing less expression than he did before. Draco nodded and said that he was sorry but if he had to do it again he would. Don’t tell him but that was my favorite part.

I waited outside eavesdropping on the conversation. I heard the doors started to open, so I acted like I was pacing. “Draco! Are you okay?” He started to laugh a little. “I’m fine love. He hardly left a mark.” I ran up to hug him and he hugged me back. “You can’t get in trouble because of me again!” He just hugged me harder, pulling back to put his hand on my cheek again.

He put his forehead against mine and stayed like that for a bit. Just before he whispered, “You are worth getting in trouble for.”

[mudstoneabyss]

3 eden or 16 sylvia !!

  3. What is your favorite childhood memory?

  "I... can't say I've thought about my childhood in a... long time. Or have I? I don't really know where the line of childhood is drawn. I still think about being a teenager a lot. It was a hell of a lot less stressful of a time. Less horrifying. Kevin and I would go out to the park, he'd find a nice hill- maybe with some dry grass and dead flowers poking out from under the sand- and strum on his guitar while I sat and watched. And that's what we'd do for hours on end. I'd stare up at Kevin as the warm sun shone down on him and he idly smiled this genuine, content smile as he played no song in particular. There was no need between us to fill our time there with anything but that aimless melody. The radio song, the one he opens every broadcast with? He crafted it from that melody. Not that I think he remembers it anymore. I don't know if this answers your question?"

16. Describe your perfect day

  "Well, I suppose it would start like any other old day. I wake up naked, presumably covered in some poor man's blood and viscera- I can be such the messy eater- and arise from bed, throwing on that robe a paramour from years ago gifted to me. It's not a particularly lavish garment, but it looks nice for the price. He also splurged quite a bit purchasing it. After everything else, the least I could do was... the cheaper kind of fabric just has a charm that finer ones can't replicate. Anyway, I pour myself a glass of chardonnay to nurse.

  Time doesn't exist in interdimensional planes, so it wasn't too early. They also only have Golden Girls reruns and HSN playing when you flip through the television channels, so I'd lounge with my glass and make ominous and threatening phone calls to the shopping channel hosts. That's always a fun game, especially once your voice starts to make mercury fill in their lungs. Have you ever heard anyone speak through lungs full of mercury? Hilarious.

  Next I'd pay a visit to, oh, any reality my wims take me to. Give myself a personalized tour of the nearest town in the day, do a little window shopping. Then once night falls, I linger around in a woodland clearing, or the bank of a shimmering lake, or the moonlit center of a graveyard. I'll stare up at the star-spotted sky knowing that I know much, but I know far from all. The stars whisper questions to me- questions to which I have answers but not the wisdom to know if they are the correct ones, if such answers even exist. Soon enough I am approached, drawing my attention from the universe's interrogations to whoever now has made their last mistake. It is always a delight when I get to hunt."

[amlovelies]

17. a teasing / sensual kiss for Serena! (or any pairing you might prefer!) :3

random kiss prompts

okay I know you sent this to me months ago, and I’m sorry it took me so long. Writing has been rough in 2021, but hopefully I’ll get it together soon!

This is the first thing I’ve been able to write in weeks, and it’s a bit jumbled and I’m not even sure if it makes sense, but I’m posting it anyway because progress!

This would take place after chapter 5 of Just another liability

Tempered

pairing: Mason/f!oc (Serena Willis)

warnings: lightly nsft and vague mention of past abuse and cursing

words: 1.5k

              I always liked sitting by water. Even when I was young, I’d often wander out to the nearest creek or stream and just let the melody of the water sooth me.  It had been one of the hardest adjustments when I’d moved away. I couldn’t find the solitude I was used to. There were always barking dogs and screaming children. I couldn’t hear the music of the water.

               I’d missed it. A fucking lot. There were recordings and shit I could listen to, but it wasn’t the same. It wasn’t same when I couldn’t dip my fingers in the water and feel the pull of the current. It wasn’t the same when I couldn’t throw in a leaf or a twig and watch it disappear, and pretend I could go with it.

               Wayhaven is more like home. It’s not hard to find a spot around its banks where I can pretend, I’m the only person for miles. I might actually be.

               It’s a good place to watch the sunset; the colors reflecting off the waters and painting the whole horizon in watercolors. It’s a good place to just be. To let the lap of the lake on its banks and the chorus of birds quiet all the swirling thoughts in my mind.

               It’s his cigarette that gives him away. The acrid smell of smoke interrupting my otherwise idyllic afternoon. I turn to the source and see Mason stepping out from the dim underbrush. He tosses his cigarette to the ground and grinds it under his boot.

               “You better pick that up.” I tell him before turning back to the vista.

               “Or what?” he asks with a smirk in his voice.

               I tap my finger against my bottom lip as I try and think of a fitting punishment. From his tone I can tell what type of answer he wants. At this point it doesn’t take much for Mason to get what he wants from me. Mostly because it’s what I want to. I would have thought the sexual tension would fizzle and die once we actually started to mess around, but if anything, it feels stronger than before.

               I’m sure our conversation will descend into innuendo soon enough, but I’ll try to keep it PG at least at little longer. It may feel like no one is around for miles, but we are still in a public place; a fact I’m sure I will conveniently forget the second Mason touches me. It is also fun just to mess with him, “I can think of a few new artists Farah might like. Really intense stuff, lots of bass.”

               He only grumbles in response, but from the corner of my eye I see him bend down to pick the butt our of the dirt.

               The log rocks a little as he sits next to me. I glance over as he settles into place, his long legs stretched out in front of him and his shoulder brushing against mine. Golden light bathes his features and I can’t look away. I should be used to it by now, but I’m not. A light breeze rustles his hair. I have to suppress the urge to reach out and tuck the strands back into place. Sure, I’d seen him naked and undone, but this feels too intimate, a tenderness that hasn’t been present in our exchanges before. I don’t know what would be the worse outcome, if he would stop me and pull away or if he would let me.

               “I thought you came out here to watch the sunset, sweetheart. If you wanted to stare at me, we could go back to the warehouse and I’ll give you the full view.”

               Warmth blooms in my cheeks at being caught staring. “I’m not actually here for the sunset,” I say as if that is some sort of defense.

               “Its about the water and the quiet more than it’s about the sunset.” I begin to explain. “It’s something I used to do when I was younger. Everything felt a little easier after I’d sat by the water for a while.”

               He nods, “I get it.”

               I thought he might. I figure he goes out to sit on the roof for much the same reason I got to sit by the water.

               “Though maybe I should stop. It’s actually how I got stuck here. I was hiking out to sit by the river, and then there was a light, and everything went diagonal.”

               “So, are you out here hoping to find a way home?” he asks his voice soft. Softer than I’m used to and it causes a twinge in my chest, the same one that’s been happening more and more. The same one I’ve been trying to ignore.

               “Oh, I couldn’t do that. Adam would miss me too much.” I make a joke because of course I do. It’s better to make a joke about it that to let myself wonder if he would miss me.

               He doesn’t laugh. Not that I really expected him to. Only a tiny sliver of sun still hangs over the horizon. I should probably head back to the Warehouse if I don’t want to be stumbling in the dark. I shift my weight as a I get ready to stand.

               “Do you miss it?” Mason asks and I know he means home.

               “Less than I thought I would.” I saw with a shrug as I rise from the log. The things I miss I lost long before I passed through the portal, or they never really existed at all.

               I can feel his eyes on me, studying me, and I wonder if he is putting his interrogation skills to use. It’s not a lie, but it’s not the full truth either. It’s hard to miss a place where I always felt alone and unwanted. Being here, being in Wayhaven is the happiest I can remember being in a long time. And that terrifies me.

               Whatever he sees he seems to be satisfied, or at least he doesn’t push the issue. If it was a few months ago I would say it was just indifference, that he doesn’t care about anything but his smokes and chasing tail, but I’m not so sure anymore. It would be easier to put him in that box. Yet, his silence never feels dismissive, but rather accepting. I guess that must be easier when you effectively a walking lie detector.

               “I should head back to the warehouse before it gets too dark,” I say as I rise from the log.

               “Don’t worry I won’t let any monsters get you,” Mason says with a toothy smirk.

               I just roll my eyes. I half want to make a joke about the irony of a vampire saying that, but the vamp jokes got old a month ago.   Little pieces of bark have dislodged from the log and now cover my backside, and I begin to brush it away.

               “You missed a spot,” Mason has his hand outstretched but waiting.

               I’m sure it’s just an excuse to grab my ass, so I slap his hand away. “I’m not going to fall for that.”

               “You’ve fallen for less,” he says with a shrug.

               “Don’t remind me.”

               Then he is standing, so close that only a breath separates us and I can feel the heat rolling of his body. Between that and the scent of smoke I feel like I’m standing too close to a bonfire, and if I don’t move back soon it’ll consume me. I don’t care.

               “Oh?” he asks, his voice gruff and sending a shiver down my spine. “Are you sure you don’t want me to remind you?”

               There is a part of me that wants to be petulant, to tease and coax, but then his hand is on my lower back, and our bodies are pressed together. It’s still not close enough.

               “Well, a refresher wouldn’t hurt.”

               The words are hardly out of my mouth before his lips are on mine. Kissing Mason is always an all-consuming experience. I am used to how quickly my body responds to his attentions, like a spark to tinder.

               But today he holds back, never quiet breaking the kiss he pulls back. His lips move over mine slower and more deliberately than I can remember. This is no flash bang, no explosion of leaping flames, but rather a slow stoking. A building heat until I feel like I have been placed in a furnace, and I am melting.

               When he pulls back, I can still feel the ghost of the kiss dancing over my nerves.

               “Should I continue? Or was that enough of a reminder?”

               “We both already know the answer.”

               “Still like to hear you say it, sweetheart.”

               And I do.

tagging (let me know if you would like to be added or removed 💜): @lord-king-saint, @lilyoffandoms, @tracing-freckled-constellations, @vienocalledmebuddy, @whippedforethanfreakingramsey, @utterlyinevitable

[prettywordsyouleft]

Forsaken | Part 5

Summary: As one of the Forsaken, Jinyoung had no right to covet anything as his own. When he stumbles across you standing in the middle of the village he had plundered, the memories of old make him risk it all, clutching at the past in hopes for a better future.

Pairing: Park Jinyoung x reader

Genre: warrior au / star crossed lovers / angst / romance

Warnings: death, kidnapping, cursing, a myriad of emotions - this is a really sad love story.

Index: Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 

“You’re a fool.”

Looking at the young man strung up beside him facing the same miserable fate as he now held, Jinyoung couldn’t help but scoff. “You are aware we’re both in this together, right?”

“I knew they would come for me one day. You, however, think you’re still protecting that girl and all those townspeople,” he mentioned with a hollow laugh. “You’re a fool, like I said.”

“Have you no hope in this world?”

“Why should I? No one has ever looked out for me once.”

Jinyoung glanced down at his clothing and then that of the young man beside him. There was a stark difference between the worn, tattered pants and shirt he wore to Jinyoung’s cleaner, newer outfit. Sighing, he wondered if you hadn’t saved him years back if he would be in a similar situation to the fellow prisoner, or worse off.

Jinyoung nodded sadly. “Is it bad to be a fool?”

“Only if you don’t wisen up to the way people use you. That girl really made you forget who you are, didn’t she?”

“Do you have a name?” Jinyoung asked and the man shrugged. “Mine’s Jinyoung. I was gifted my name by the person who led me to have hope.”

“And now you’re here and she’s back there. Doesn’t that anger you?”

Jinyoung shook his head. “Not if it keeps her safe.”

The man mumbled under his breath incoherently and then turned to look at Jinyoung. “How did she give you a name?”

“Part of it was from where she found me. The rest she gave me. Do you want one too?”

Thinking for only a moment, the man gave a short nod. Glancing around the surroundings as they trudged towards the closest camp for their kind, Jinyoung spotted a circus wagon abandoned in the nearest field. He then looked to the sign outside the farmstead they passed. He grinned. “Jaebum.”

“What does it mean?”

Jinyoung frowned, gesturing his head in one direction and the next. “Jae and Sons from the wagon. And Eunbum Estate. That’s how it works.”

“That’s how those people name one another?”

Jinyoung nodded. “That’s how I got my name.”

“Jaebum,” he repeated, looking at Jinyoung, smiling for the first time along their journey. “It looks like I might become a fool much like you.”

“Being a fool paid off,” Jaebum mentioned the following morning as he stopped at Jinyoung’s side, the pair watching as you helped with hanging out the washing. His friend’s sentence irked him, Jinyoung clenching his jaw momentarily. Jaebum noticed and clapped him on the back. “You need to relax. We both know they played us over the safety of that town. We stupidly did as they told us, mere puppets on a string, when their promises were as empty as our pockets remained. By some sort twist of fate, she lived. Isn’t that something to celebrate?”

“At the cost of all she knows and this wretched Rebellion. Doesn’t that bother you?”

Jaebum shook his head. “Not while I’m here. It just feels like a peaceful settlement.”

“Except all the men here are owned by the Rebellion.”

“We’re going to break free,” Jaebum proposed and Jinyoung looked at the man smiling at Youngjae running with the stray dog that had chosen this place as its home recently. “We’ll take the ones we care for the most and we’ll leave to someplace else entirely.”

“Nowhere,” Jinyoung murmured. He chuckled before nudging Jaebum. “Now who sounds like a fool?”

“Someone told me a long time ago being a fool isn’t a bad thing if you remain wise about your situation.”

“Wait, wasn’t that you who told me that?” Jinyoung corrected as Jaebum started towards the gathering of people.

He glanced over his shoulder, grinning mischievously. “Sounds like I’ve always been wise then!”

“And I’m still a fool?!” Jinyoung griped, dashing off towards Jaebum and shoving him playfully.

As his longest friend in this world, Jinyoung knew he could count on Jaebum to do anything with him. After hearing about your parents and the tragedy he had fooled himself not to believe could have happened all this time, he had gone to Jaebum to announce the need to leave the Rebellion. Dead or alive, he wanted out and wondered if Jaebum was along for the ride.

He needn’t question it; Jinyoung knew all of the names that came to mind would follow him into the depths of hell if he requested it.

Staring over at you now laughing at something Jackson said, Jinyoung chewed on his bottom lip. Would you follow him as well? He was used to leading his men all these years, but there was once a time where it was you who motivated his actions.

You still held that power over him too.

“You’re here,” you commented when you noticed his arrival in the back field, waving lightly. Jinyoung raised his hand in greeting, feeling shy when the others teased him for it. Taking his hand, you led Jinyoung away from the jeers and sat him down at one of the communal tables. You didn’t let go of him, instead played with yet another of his scars on the palm of his hand.

“Don’t do that,” he mumbled and you stopped to examine his expression. He could feel his ears growing hotter and ducked his head away. “Don’t trace my battle scars. I deserve each one of them.”

“You probably do,” you agreed softly and he glanced at you again. “Did they hurt?”

“Some.”

“Do they still hurt now?” He shook his head and you let out a shaky breath. “Some of them look like they would have been painful to receive so I worried that you-”

“You’re adapting to this world too easily, you know,” he blurted out, blinking with some of the sudden emotion he felt. You dropped your hand away and made no effort to respond. “It scares me.”

“Why?”

“You should hate it here. This isn’t a life I wanted for you.”

“Do you think I wanted this for you as well? It’s out of our hands.”

“Is it?”

“Jinyoung, you became a soldier of the Rebellion because of that day, didn’t you?” you questioned and he grew tense, pulling his arm back. You reached over to stop his retreat entirely, gripping at his hand for answers. “You seemed so surprised over my parents and the townspeople. I put it together with some of the information I sourced from Jackson and-”

“Jackson talks too much,” he grumbled and you tilted your head to the side exasperatedly. “What he does!”

“Well, at least one of you talks! It’s refreshing to have someone who isn’t afraid to tell me what this world is like and not treat me as if I’m a fragile doll who might break!”

Jinyoung went to respond, opening his mouth, only to close it again when he thought better of it.

It made you smile smugly. “See, you can’t even tell me the-”

“I had to steal a crown from the castle. Jaebum and I. If we got the crown, we’d be able to save the town and you. This was done three months after I left, which means they played us entirely.”

You gasped noisily. “You stole a crown?!”

“That’s the least of my sins, Y/N.”

“What else have you done that…” Your voice trailed off then, finally looking up at him, a sombre expression shifting away from your surprise. “Right, you’ve done a lot.”

“It’s not protecting you from a vicious truth that I don’t talk about it,” he replied, sighing a little. “I just don’t like to think of what I’ve done. One foot in front of the other. Until you returned to my life, I didn’t let myself think of the past, not even once.”

“You’re lying,” you whispered, tears welling within your eyes. “Tell me you’re lying.”

“Would it ease you if I had? Why think of a world full of hope when the one I live in had nothing of the sort within it?”

“I thought of you every day. I talked to you as I did the most mundane of daily chores. I wished for you to be beside me like today, putting out washing on the line to dry in the sun. To make a living together, eat together, and fall asleep together. Every day I thought of how doing that with you would make it worth living on. You’re lying, you have to be! You’ve thought of me over the years, Jinyoung. It’s why you’re still alive. Hope? You had it all along. If you had lost it, you wouldn’t be on this Earth. You wouldn’t kill anyone but yourself had you lost it.”

“Enough,” he stated, getting up from the table. “I don’t want to think about it.”

“Scared you might share more with me than you want to?” you countered and Jinyoung paused in his retreat to stare at you.

He disliked how easily you were unravelling all the sections within him he had worked hard over the years to pack away into the corner of his mind, allowing him to focus on the task at hand. If you continued to pull at the strings and loosen off each part of him, it would become dangerous.

He was already born reckless; he didn’t need to have you encouraging it.

Deciding he had spoken with you long enough, he walked away hastily, heading to his home to escape the sunny world you had brought into this camp.

“Do you think if you walk away from me that I’ll stop talking?!” you exclaimed, stalking after his retreating back. Jinyoung groaned loudly. He needed space from you right now.

You weren’t prepared to give it, however.

“Jinyoung, Jinyoung, Jinyoung!”

“Y/N, please!” he implored, turning to face you and throwing his hands up in defeat. “You’re never going to stop are you?!”

“No, because when people fight they ought to resolve it!”

“Can’t you see I’m mad with you and need time to cool off first?”

“I’m mad with you also!” you proclaimed, marching past him, and taking the path around the back of the house towards the lake.

Cursing under his breath, he jogged after you, finding you stripping off your outer garments with vigour. He stopped at your side and let out another curse. “Put your clothes back on!”

“Why? I’m mad with you and need to cool off!”

“That water is far too cold right now for you to enter.”

“Then I shall cool off faster!” you snapped back, kicking off your skirt.

“You’re impossible!”

“That’s what I think of you right now!”

“Don’t enter that water.”

You smirked darkly, stepping back towards it. “Why should I listen, you wouldn’t when I said don’t walk away.”

“Y/N, come on, stop!”

You took another step towards it, your heels now within the muddy entrance. You grimaced at the cold surface yet made no attempt to back down. Jinyoung ran a hand through his hair in frustration and as you went to take another step backwards, he lurched towards you, pulling you firmly into his embrace.

“What are you doing?” you mumbled, now less brazen in tone. “This isn’t cooling me down any.”

“You’re like ice to touch,” he pointed out just as softly, holding you as close as he could to his body. “I need to warm you up.”

You stared back at him before crashing your lips upon his, kissing one another until the argument was all forgotten.

You approached him a few hours later, surprising Jinyoung with how long you had managed to wait. A wry smile attached to his lips then, waiting for your reaction.

He wasn’t as prepared as he expected himself to be.

Your arms wound around his back from the stool he sat upon, nestling into him. The book he held fell to the desk with a thud.

Jinyoung was certain his heart was beating just as loudly in his chest. “W-What are you doing?”

“You’re all I have left,” you stated in a voice barely louder than a whisper and Jinyoung swallowed roughly. “It amazes me that I can touch you now after all these years and you don’t turn into dust within my grasp.”

“One day I-”

“Together,” you mentioned firmly and Jinyoung turned around to face you. You blinked back your tears. “We’re not parting again, okay? We either live or die together.”

_________________

Part 6

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[rwby-sk]

Pieces of my Fic, Part 3: Date

“What are you doing?” Cinder leaned over Neo’s shoulder as she was applying makeup from her scroll’s camera. “Can’t you just make yourself look however you want with your semblance? It’d be so much easier.” 

Neo opened a blank message and typed her response. *I felt like doing it myself.*

Cinder scoffed. “Where are you going that even needs makeup?” 

She typed up the next message after finishing her eyeliner. *I have a contact in Mantle that might be able to get us more supplies.*

“Fine. Just do it fast. We need to stay ready in case Ironwood slips up. He nearly doubled his patrols, he must be getting paranoid.” The witch went back to pacing around the room. 

Neo turned away to roll her eyes and leave. She turned herself into a maintenance worker and hid Hush as a toolbox. She might need it today. 

Finding transport to mantle wasn’t that difficult. Cargo came up to Atlas at all hours of the day, which meant empty shipping containers were taken back to Mantle regularly as well. She snuck aboard a cargo ship and enjoyed the ride, staying on her feat without a safety harness wasn’t all that difficult for her. When they were low enough to the ground, she opened a side hatch and landed gracefully onto a rooftop. 

She waited for Jaune at their usual booth in the diner. It had been just over a week since their movie date.  Date. 

She was still conflicted on the idea. Being around Jaune made her feel lighter and happier than she had been in a long time. But everyone she gets close to have a way of leaving her all alone. She wondered what Roman would have thought about it. 

She rested Hush across her lap as she sipped her tea. 

Jaune arrived right on time, like he always did. He was wearing his armor again with his sword sheathed at his side. And his hair was styled up. Otherwise he looked rather dashing. She would have to do something about that. 

“Hey! What’s that side-eye for?” He asked as he sat down across from her. 

*Your hair. It’s better down.*

“The stylist said it was a popular way to do it.” 

She stuck her tongue out at him. *They were wrong.* 

“Hey, I don’t say mean things about your hair!” 

*That’s because you like my hair, remember?* 

They couldn’t keep up their fake argument and broke into smiles. 

“You look really nice today. Are you trying something new with your semblance?” 

Neo pulled an eyeliner pen from her pocket. *Makeup, actually.* 

“My sisters did my makeup once. I looked like I belonged in a boy band.” 

Neo tried but just couldn’t imagine it. She put away her pen and went back to her tea, smiling into her mug at the thought of it. *Are you ready for today?* she asked. 

“I brought my gear with me, if that’s what you mean. Where are we going?” 

*It’s a surprise!*

They finished their meals and this time Neo lead Jaune through the city. They eventually came to stop at a line of warehouses. She counted the metal panels on the side of a building and knocked on the seventh one. 

A voice on the other side of the wall called out. “Who’s there?” 

Neo made a sour face and knocked again. 

A panel shifted so the person on the other side could look out. “Oh, its you! Sorry about that. Who’s this with you?” 

She gave him a condescending stare. 

“Alright I guess it’s fine if he’s with you. Just don’t let him break anything alright?” The guard opened another side panel like a door. 

Neo lead Jaune through the warehouse and down into a storage basement. *This is a smuggling warehouse. That guy back there is a fence I used to work with a lot. I just needed to borrow his exit,* she explained to Jaune as they followed a hand-dug tunnel out of the basement. 

He had to slouch in the low ceiling. “Where are we going? And why do we need our weapons?” 

*You’ll see! Now stop asking, we’re almost there!*

 --- 

She pulled him through the rest of the tunnel and out into the open tundra of Solitas. The air was brisk, but their auras would keep them warm. They ran across to the nearest hill and looked out past its peak. A frozen lake opened into a valley before them. The morning light glistened off the snow like the whole world was made of light. 

“Oh! Yeah it is pretty hard to get out here without going through a military checkpoint.” He looked out onto the pristine landscape, then stared back at her. “The view is worth it though.” 

She blushed and pushed him over into the snow. 

Jaune laughed as he picked himself up and brushed himself off. He collected the snow from his armor and formed it into a ball. He tried to hit her with it, but she was too fast. 

Neo bit her lip and stared him down. “I hope you know this means war,” she signed before scooping up a large clump of snow into a massive ball. 

Jaune pulled Crocea Mors from his waist and extended the shield. “I’d have it no other way.” 

Neo tossed the clump of snow and he smashed it against his shield. He tried throwing a few more balls but she dived out of the way before they could hit. Neo attempted to run around Jaune to get behind him, but he was too fast with his guard. The two of them were locked in a stalemate neither could break. 

He resorted to taunting her. “You’ll have to do better than that if you want to win! I heard you were quick but I guess Yang was wrong.” He dug his shield into the snow in front of him, pointing its flat surface at Neo. They stared each other down as she made more snowballs and he smugly leaned against his weapons. Suddenly he activated the gravity dust in his shield and launched a wall of snow at her. 

When the powder settled, he found her hidden behind her parasol, not a single snowflake on her outfit. She covered her mouth in mock surprise. 

Jaune grinned, impressed and speechless. 

He had been too good at protecting himself from a distance. So, Neo decided to get in close. She ran straight towards him as he scrambled to make another snowball. Just as she approached his shield in the snow, she used an illusion to make him think she was running around it. Jaune pivoted and threw his hastily made snowball at the fake image. It shattered apart. He had just enough time to turn back as the real her leapt off of his shield and tackled him into the snow. They wrestled down the hillside before she pinned him to the ground, straddling his waist. 

Jaune closed his eyes as he braced for her to pelt him in the face with a final snowball. Instead, she smeared it onto his hair in an attempt to wash out the gel. They both smiled as they tried to catch their breath. 

“Okay,” Jaune finally panted, “I lost.” 

Neo smirked. *What do I win?* 

Jaune looked up at her, secluded in the pink and brown curtain falling around them as she leaned over him. He slowly sat up to meet her. 

She froze and gave him a concerned stare. She didn’t want to repeat what happened the last time. 

He stopped short and gave her a slight, silent nod before drifting closer. 

She trusted him. More than anyone in Remnant; she trusted him. If he thought he would be alright, then she was all too happy to oblige. 

His lips were warm and soothing in the tundra air. Every muscle in her body relaxed as she sank into their kiss. He cupped her face with one hand and pulled her closer by her waist with the other, all without breaking their lips. She wasn’t willing to be the first to break it either. It was too special, too delicate. If she pulled away it could all disappear in that instant like none of it had ever happened. So, she clutched him closer and was resolved to never let go. 

Of course eventually they had to. 

Jaune laid back down into the snow. “That’s what you win.” 

She held his hand against her cheek; savored the feeling before falling into the snow beside him. Her face burned as she realized what she had just let happen. How far she let herself go. She tried to ignore the fear growing in her stomach. 

Jaune rolled to his side to face her. There was something enchanting about his eyes. Something in their deep blue that eased her fear; made the knot in her stomach relax. 

She suddenly wanted to give him something more of herself. *I’ve always loved the snow,* she started.  *Winters on the farm were hard. We didn’t have the money to buy food, so we mostly ate what we had canned and jarred over the fall. But every night we’d sit around the fireplace in the main house and tell stories. And every day I would play out in the snow with the Putnam’s son, Basil. We’d build snowmen and ice forts. We didn’t have our auras yet, so, of course our mothers were always so upset with us. But we didn’t care. Those were my favorite things in the world, back then.* She let out a long breath. 

“Everyone kind of avoids talking about the people we’ve lost. If you ever want to talk more about them, I’ll listen. It’s good to remember them.” 

Neo buried her head into his chest and nodded. She didn’t know how to reply to that. 

He brushed a few clumps of snow out of her hair. “We should probably get out of the cold soon.” 

She curled closer to him. 

He moved his hand to wrap around her shoulders. “Okay. We can stay here a bit longer.”

[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 Part 17/? - A Miracle Part 18/? - A Matter of Circumstance Part 19/? - Nome Part 20/? - The Future Part 21/? - A Hero’s Welcome Part 22/? - Up to Speed Part 23/? - Expect Further Delays Part 24/? - The Welcome Wagon Part 25/? - Fugitives

Alone and on the run from the law, Peggy and Kay have to decide what to do next.

-

ince Kay’s bunker was a no-go, they ended up spending the night in an abandoned farmhouse on the edge of the Pine Barrens.  This was exactly as creepy as it sounded, with no electricity, and rats and raccoons nesting in it.  It started to rain around midnight, drumming on the roof and coming in through the long-broken windows.  Peggy and Kay broke up some pieces of the stair bannister and used them to light a fire in the fireplace, and by that flickering light, they tried to figure out what to do next.

“I don’t suppose you can go back in time again and start over,” Peggy said.

Kay shook her head.  “This was a one-shot thing.”

“I see.”  Peggy thought for a moment.  “When we’re caught, I’m going to tell them you kidnapped me.”

“Cool,” said Kay.  She sighed heavily, hugging her knees to her chest she stared into the flames.  Peggy noticed that her root were growing out, coming in darker than the blonde, although by the firelight it was impossible to say quite what colour they were.

“Everything was supposed to be better,” Kay said.  “Steve was supposed to get the happy ending he wanted, with you and James.  HYDRA would be rooted out once and for all before they could really get their claws into the government.”  She reached up to scrub at her eyes with her fingers.  “The Red Room would be destroyed.  I don’t know if I’d be able to force Howard to hug his son once in a while but I was going to try.  I don’t know if I’d be able to do anything for Clint or for Bruce… I’m not going to live that long.”  She shrugged.  “And after that… I don’t know if we can destroy the Infinity Stones with the technology of this decade, but if anybody could figure it out, it’s Howard Stark.”

She hadn’t been joking when she said she had an extensive to-do list, Peggy thought.  Most of the items on it meant absolutely nothing to Peggy, but she could tell they were things Kay cared about very much.

Which made for one odd omission.  “What about you?”

“The Red Room,” said Kay.  “That’s the code name for the place where they raise girls into spies.  If that doesn’t exist, then I won’t be drafted into it when my parents abandon me.  I don’t know what will happen to me, but even starving on the streets of Volgograd would be better than that.”

Peggy thought of some of the things she’d seen at that facility in Siberia, and shuddered.

“The thing is,” Kay added, “I know I can’t do it alone.  I need you guys.  If you’re in prison and Ste… and Captain America’s off shaking hands with his fans, then I can’t do it.  I might be able to do it myself in the twenty-first century, but not now, I don’t know enough.  Even if I did, it would be so much easier with help.  I had one shot, and I ruined it.”

She fell silent then, and Peggy wondered what it was she wanted.  Reassurance that everything would be okay?  Peggy couldn’t give her that.  “Well, you certainly didn’t improve things by taking us both on the run,” she said.

“Probably not,” Kay agreed.

Peggy wrapped her coat around herself to use as a blanket, and lay down with her own elbow for a pillow.  “In the morning,” she said, “we should head to the nearest town and turn ourselves in.”

“Then what happens to Steve?” asked Kay.  “And to James?”

“At the moment I’m primarily worried about what happens to me,” said Peggy.  Steve was doubtless worried about her, and about Sergeant Barnes, and if Kay said was true, Barnes did need help, but Peggy was not in a position to do anything about that right now.  Her focus had to be on her own survival, both physical and political.  “If I wasn’t going to end up in prison before I certainly am now.”

“I know,” said Kay.  “I’m sorry.”

“Apologies don’t do a lot of good at this point,” Peggy told her.

“Apologies never do a lot of good for me,” said Kay.  “I’ve always been the one who throws the other guy over a cliff.  Looks like nothing’s changed.”

- 

Peggy woke up early, stiff and cold from sleeping on the floor.  The fire had burned itself down to a smolder, and Kay was gone.  For a moment Peggy was furious, thinking the other woman had abandoned her, but then she rolled over and discovered Kay’s red purse, still sitting there on the floor.  Had she simply left that behind, or was it intended to tell Peggy she was coming back?

She got up, stretched the kinks out of her neck as best she could, and went to look out front.  The car was still there, and Kay was sitting in the driver’s seat.  When Peggy came closer, picking her way between the puddles and the rotten boards of the front steps, she found that the radio was on.

“They haven’t said anything about us yet,” said Kay, “but I’ve only been here about ten minutes.  Weather’s supposed to be nice today.”

Peggy climbed in the passenger seat to listen for herself.  There was a weather report, and then it began talking about Captain America.

New York Senator Elect Vernon Masters brought the Captain home to Brooklyn last night to tremendous fanfare, the announcer said.  Captain America will be embarking on a tour of the state capitals, along with the Senator Elect and industrialist Howard Stark, who was instrumental in locating the wreck of the German bomber.

“Of course they don’t mention Jason,” grumbled Peggy.  If anything, he had more trouble getting recognition for his achievements than she did.

“They don’t mention us, either,” Kay mused.  “That means they don’t want people knowing we’ve escaped.”

“Specifically, Thompson doesn’t want people knowing,” said Peggy.  “He must be dreadfully tired of people escaping from him.”

“He ought to take better care of them, then,” snorted Kay.  “You still want to turn yourself in?”

Peggy had to think about it.  “I think we’d better,” she said.  “But not to Thompson.  We need to find a pay telephone, and I’ll speak to Daniel.”

They drove into the nearest town, where they found a little diner to order breakfast.  Kay clearly had no appetite, nibbling at her toast and forcing herself to eat her scrambled eggs.  Peggy didn’t feel very hungry, either, despite some grumbling from her stomach.  She got through about half of it, and then pushed her plate away and checked her watch, which was still on Los Angeles time.

The moment it reached eight-thirty AM, she went outside and picked up the pay telephone.  “Hello,” she said, “I’d like to make a long-distance call.”

She gave the number for the storefront in Los Angeles, and waited while switchboard operators across the country made connections.  Finally, the line picked up, and Rose’s somewhat staticky but familiar voice said, “good morning, Auerbach Theatrical Agency.”

“Good morning,” said Peggy.  “May I speak to Mr. Auerbach, please?”

“Peggy?” Rose asked.  “Where are you?”

“I can’t say,” Peggy replied.  “I just need to speak with Daniel right away.”

Rose lowered her voice.  “You can’t,” she said.  “He was arrested yesterday, just after you left!  What’s going on?”

Peggy’s insides turned to ice.  Daniel had been arrested… because of course, Dottie had told Thompson that Daniel had colluded with Peggy in letting her out of jail.  She’d probably implicated Mr. Jarvis, too.  This wasn’t just about what would happen to Peggy anymore, not at all.  This was about what was going to happen to all of them.

“I… can’t say,” Peggy repeated.  “Listen, please don’t tell anybody I spoke to you.  We’re all in a lot of trouble.”

“All right,” said Rose.  “What are you going to do?”

“I’m not sure yet,” said Peggy.  She hung up the phone and stood there a moment, digesting what she’d just heard.  ‘Borrowing’ Dottie to get the sample of Zero Matter had been Peggy’s idea.  Daniel and Mr. Jarvis had helped, but none of it would have happened without Peggy, and now they were possibly all going to hang for it.  Would pleading that they’d done it to save the world do any good?  Not likely.  Masters’ lawyers would argue that there must have been other options.  It was just that in the hurry of the moment, Peggy hadn’t been able to think of any.

Kay was waiting for her outside the phone booth.  When Peggy opened the door, her eyes went wide.

“Sit down,” she ordered.  “Put your head between your knees.”

“I am not going to faint!” Peggy snapped.  “Daniel has been arrested as well, and Mr. Jarvis.  I don’t know if she’s implicated Howard and Jason or not.”

“Oh.”  Kay covered her mouth.  “This is… this is all my fault…”

“No, it isn’t,” Peggy said.  “It’s mine.”

“If I hadn’t been here…”

“Even with you here, we wouldn’t be in trouble if I hadn’t had the blindingly stupid idea to break Dottie out of jail to begin with!” Peggy informed her.  This sensation of crushing weight on her chest, as her bad decisions rained down like bricks to bruise and bury her… this must be what Kay had felt last night when Thompson had tried to arrest them for treason.  If so, Peggy found herself reacting to it in what had to be a very similar way.

“Bugger it,” she said.  “You are a bad influence.”

“I know,” said Kay.

“Do you have any more change?”

Kay dug into her purse for some coins, and Peggy lifted the receiver again.  “Hello, operator.  I would like to make a long-distance call.  Can you get me the California FBI office in Sacramento?”

She didn’t actually know if the FBI opened as early as the SSR, though it seemed likely, so it was a relief when she heard a receptionist pick up and greet her.  “FBI, can I help you?”

“Good morning,” said Peggy, affecting an American accent.  “May I please speak to Agent Ned Russel?  This is his wife, Alice.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” the woman replied.  “He’s still in New York, working on a case.”

“I thought he’d been taken off that case,” Peggy said.

“I don’t know the details,” said the receptionist.  “I think he was reinstated as a favour for somebody from another agency.  Would you like to speak to the chief?”

“No, no thank you,” Peggy said.  “I’ll see if I can call him there.  Goodbye.”

She hung up, and turned to Kay again.  “I have an idea.”

The black SSR vehicle they’d been driving so far was far too recognizable to take back into the city, so the women left it behind and stole a green Ford coupe they found parked beside the diner.  Peggy drove this time, as they headed north back towards the city.

“What’s your plan?” asked Kay.

Peggy took a deep breath.  “The easiest, although perhaps not the most legal, way to get everybody I know and love out of trouble is to make sure Dottie cannot testify,” she said.  “Masters and Thompson didn’t make their move until they had her, so she must be the cornerstone of their case.  We remove Dottie again, and they have nothing.”

“Makes sense,” said Kay in a deadpan.  It was impossible to tell what she thought.

“Unfortunately, we cannot get in to see her,” Peggy went on.  “Last time I got her out by wearing a disguise, but that’s not going to work again.  The police guarding her know me now, because I was in there to see you, and there’s the possibility that Dottie herself will raise the alarm.  And you certainly can’t go in because they know you as well.  However, we know somebody who probably has every right to be there, we know that he is slightly terrified of both of us, and we possibly know where he eats lunch.”

It was with that in mind that they parked their stolen car behind the Automat up the street from the telephone company building.  The lunch rush had just ended, and Peggy could see Pearl standing by the back door on a cigarette break.  She approached.

“Hi, Peggy,” said Pearl.  “What are you doing back here?”

“I need to see Angie right away, privately,” said Peggy.  “It’s very important.  Don’t tell anybody else I’m here… and tell her it’s Phone Company Business.”

“Ah… all right,” said Pearl.  She dropped the remains of her cigarette on the pavement and went inside to get her co-worker.  Angie appeared a few minutes later, looking concerned – she knew very well what Peggy meant by Phone Company Business.

“What’s wrong, English?” she asked.

“Angela Martinelli!” Kay exclaimed.

Angie blinked.  “Do we know each other?”

“You’re going to be in Stark Pictures’ Captain America movies,” said Kay, “opposite Burt Lancaster!”

“Ignore her, she thinks she can see the future,” said Peggy.  “Listen to me, Angie… did we frighten Agent Russel away permanently?”

“No, he had his lunch here today,” Angie said.  “He didn’t sit in my section.”

Peggy smiled.  “Excellent,” she said.  “Here’s what we need you to do.”

[alarawriting]

52 Project #3: Graduation Day

Science fiction, superpowers, inspired by cyberpunk and also anime. Contains violence, gore, lots of made-up future slang.

***

               Teal waited silently in her cell, trying to control the vicious excitement that coursed through her. Today is my final exam. I'll see Essell again. They had promised her that if she survived today, she would see her brother again, for the first time in five years-- for the first time since both their lives had been destroyed. Of course, one could not necessarily believe their promises, but they themselves had trained Teal as a killer, and they had to know that if they lied, she'd turn her skills on them. So she expected that they wouldn’t lie, not this time.

               The door opened, and a Drone entered. "Teal A-3ß. Come with me."

               Teal nodded once, sharply, and stood. She was a tall, androgynous 15-year-old, with short white hair crowning a pale face. She wore black today, a bodysuit made of a tough polymer fabric, somewhat resistant to bullets and knives and with lines of silver shot through it to diffuse lasers. They had offered her body armor, but she'd refused. Teal needed to be as light as possible, especially now that she'd gotten her growth.

               She followed the drone down the corridor to the battle chamber. The door opened, and momentarily, Teal was blinded by what looked like sunlight, before the artificial film on her retina darkened enough to let her see. She stepped forward, staring about her in surprise. The simulation today was a replica of the Grove, where she and Essell had grown up. Why? Are they trying to remind me why I want to win? Or of what happened, the last day I saw this place? Do they want to throw me off my guard somehow? I can probably expect a trap of some kind. She breathed the air in deeply. They didn't have the smells exactly right, but close. Very close.

               Standing, drinking in the air and the scenery, she showed every sign of fatal distraction. But the moment the door opened and the men with guns charged in, Teal was in the air. She'd been too heavy to fly for some years now-- her teek rating was 5, and she'd long been over 50 kilos-- but she could still boost. From a starting position she leapt, boosting, and flipped out of visibility into tree cover before the gunmen could track her.

               Ten men fanned out slowly throughout the grove. All carried jectors, some machine, some sniper rifles. Some packed lasers or knives as well. Teal checked her weapons-- razor claws strapped to her fingers, blades on the edge and tip of her footgear-- and then leapt down on two men, backboosting to control her fall. The first saw her and swiveled to fire. Not near fast enough-- Teal slashed his throat open with her footblades on the way down, landed, and brought her hand down in a chop on the other man's neck, crushing his artery and dropping him.

               The other men saw her. They turned and fired, but Teal was gone again.

               She crept through the trees, using teek to bootstrap, lightening her own weight so that she could crawl along branches far too thin to take her full 62 kilos. She stayed high in the trees, on the thin branches, hidden by meters of foliage, and reached a point where she could peer down over the Grove. With her lens implants, controlled by her eye muscles rather than any kind of cybernetics, she could compensate for vision that was naturally not very good. She scanned the Grove, looking for the hunters to make them her prey.

By now, her opponents apparently had no idea where she was. In pairs and threes, they roamed, searching behind bushes and in the trees, far lower than she was. Perhaps they didn't realize she could stay up so high. Boosting was an obvious application of teek-- teek rating referred to how many kilos you could lift for a sustained period of five minutes, and anyone could figure out that you could carry more in short bursts of effort. But bootstrapping-- where you used sustained teek on your own body to lighten your weight-- was less evident to non-teeks. They might assume she couldn't be as high as she was, because the branches wouldn't hold her.

               Should have done their research.

               Three men in a small clump. Teal leapt from the top and waited until she was two meters over one man's head before backboosting to slow her fall. Even still, her momentum drove her into him, crushing his skull and collarbone. She boosted off him for a split second, landed on the ground, and took out the other two's guns with a circle kick. One of them grabbed for her, but Teal wasn't there-- boosting up and over his head, and flipping in back of him, where an elbow smashed down into his collarbone dropped him. The other lunged forward, swinging. She dodged back and kicked, ripping out his throat with the blades on her foot. Then she bent and drove her claws into the neck of the one on the ground. She got no points for disabling-- they all had to die.

               Stupid waste.

               The remaining men ran at her. Teal boosted up and hid in the trees again. Now they had wised up-- four of them were together, and she couldn't take four at once, especially since they were watching the air. Where was the fifth? Teal started to look for him, and her eye was caught by the ladder trees.

               She and Essell had called them that because they were close enough together that you could string ropes around them, to make ladder runs. They'd been constructing a treehouse between the two-- had been working on it for weeks when the black day came. The treehouse had never been finished.

               The black day... They'd been playing Air Tag. Teal had weighed twenty kilos less, but she'd had her full teek already, so she could fly and have teek to spare. Essell, also, had been smaller but at full power, able to make a wingspan large enough to fly with. They'd been flying through the trees, chasing each other, laughing...

               "There she is!"

               Machine gun fire sprayed at Teal's perch. Startled, she boosted up, out of the guns' range. There was the trap she’d expected. Everywhere in the Grove simulacrum brought back memories she hadn’t dared focus on for five years, and now, they were flooding in, distracting her.

               I won't let myself think about it. If I win today, I'll be with Essell again... and we can avenge the black day, together. I can't let myself think about it until then.

               From a higher vantage point, she searched again for the fifth man. He didn't appear to be anywhere. Maybe she had counted wrong, and there had only been nine to begin with? Unlikely – she wasn’t that careless. She checked the places in a direct line from where she intended to come down. He wasn't in any of them that she could see, which meant she could land and he wouldn't have a clear shot. Good enough.

               She threw a broken tree limb down some distance away from her. All the men turned as it landed with a thud. Then she leapt down among them, hands and feet knocking guns out of the way. She inflicted bloody score wounds, but didn't manage to kill any with the first blows. That was all right-- without their guns, they were no match for her. She moved in‑‑

               --and from hiding, the fifth fired a sniper rifle at her head.

               Teal sensed it before it was really moving. That still didn't give her much time, though. Throwing up the full force of her teek, she caught it, in a split-second burst of power. The recoil threw her backwards onto her butt, as the bullet dropped to the ground.

               A big blond man, closer to Teal than his companions, threw himself on top of her and pinned her down with his body, wrapping his legs around hers and holding down her wrists with his hands. He was close to 140 kilos, a big heavy man, and he was tangled with her tightly enough that a teek lift wouldn't work unless she could sustain it, and pry him loose. And of course he was far too heavy for sustained lift. And she had no leverage to use her physical strength. She battered at him with short bursts, trying to force him off her, but she couldn't pry his arms and legs loose-- she hadn't that kind of fine control-- and catching the bullet had exhausted her. She simply couldn't manage a burst of more than 120 kilos lift, max, and that for no longer than a few seconds.

               He pulled out a Bowie knife, while she was still struggling to force him off her, and brought it around to cut her throat open. In desperation, Teal focused all her teek on the knife, and knocked it from his hand. He shifted himself slightly, trying to grab for the knife as it went flying, and with a burst of physical force and telekinetic panic, Teal threw him off in a violent spasm. She couldn't throw him far-- he fell off her to the side, a hairsbreath from pinning her again, and so she jerked away and rolled frantically, just evading his grasping hands. She got up and leapt from a crouching position, with no time to stand, boosting up. The force she could muster was almost not enough to reach the nearest tree branch, and when she pulled herself up, she found herself achy and weak, and so overheated she was close to feverish, with a savage headache. She'd overused the TK.

               That was the simulacrum's second trap, she thought dizzily. The sniper had been hidden someplace that he shouldn't have been able to hide, that he wouldn't have fit in if this were truly the Grove. There would be subtle, minor differences that could kill her because she didn't expect them. Now she had five men to take out still, and she was weakened from overusing TK.

               Teal climbed the tree with hands and legs, not bootstrapping at all. She was drastically overheated-- it was a warm day anyway, and overusing TK generated more heat than she could easily get rid of. There used to be a small lake in the Grove, she remembered, and prayed that it was in the simulacrum as well-- yes. There it was. If she lured them over there and dragged them into the water, she could cool off and recover more quickly from overteeking. Assuming there wasn't a hidden trap in the lake, too.

               Teal crawled along treebranches, until she was near the lake, then dropped and began to run. The men, hearing her, pursued. She plunged into the water, letting its coolness close over her head, soothing her fever.

               Gunfire sprayed the surface of the water. Teal went down, into the murky bottom of the lake, where she couldn't be seen. It was far easier to teek through water than land-- a relatively minor push could produce as much effect underwater as a big push on land, because of the way water buoyed flesh and clung to itself, and because of the fact that, being a denser medium than air, it was easier to push against. Push on water, and you could see the effects. Teal opened her eyes, trying to look up through the water to find the men on the shore, but no luck. She couldn't see them any more than they could her.

               She rose to the surface at the center of the lake and sucked in air. The machine jectors that fired at her hadn't quite the range to reach her, and the man with the sniper rifle wasn't apparently by the lakeshore with the others. One of the men holstered his machine gun and pulled out a laser. Laser range was effectively limitless, but the refractive index of water made it almost impossible to aim one at a person underwater. Teal dove, with the men's positions fixed in her mind.

               She needed a low-hanging tree. Her overteek headache was almost gone, soothed by the balm of the water. Once she got out and took her nutrient mix, she should be fine. It was time to finish up here. Fortunately, she knew of a low-hanging tree. She swam over to it, staying deep under, then boosted from the middle of the lake. Water was a better medium for teeking through, but didn't provide the support for leaps that hard land did-- she needed to boost against water for three meters of lake before she had the momentum to shoot up and grab the branch a meter over her head. That took an effort. Once she was up and in the trees, though, she quickly vanished into them.

               The men were ranged along the shore, looking for her. None of them were close enough to each other for her to take two at once. The one with the laser, however, was under a tree, and all the trees linked to each other if you could bootstrap along high branches and jump across gaps. Teal reached the proper tree, leapt down on the man, and knocked him into the water.

               Momentum and surprise gave her the overwhelming advantage. He barely had time to struggle before she'd slid her hand through the water and sliced open his throat. Blood flowed around her, crimson plumes in the water. She left the body to rise to the surface, as she herself dove for the deep water, heading back for her tree.

               Same drill this time. She rose up from the bottom of the lake, six meters deep, and boosted all the way, up to the low-hanging tree, shooting out of the water--

               --and a gunshot rang out from the hidden sniper.

               Teal pushed against the bullet, but the fact that she was airborne meant she had no leverage. The speed of the bullet made it much more effectively massive than she was. It was Teal's trajectory that changed violently. The bullet went on its way, barely deflected in its course, but it missed Teal because she had knocked herself back into the water with all the force she possessed. She fell on her back, so the impact with the water didn't knock too much of her wind from her-- but she hadn't had time to get a breath, and now she was tired from overteeking again.

               Stupid, stupid, going for that tree again-- you know better! Teal snarled at herself. Twisting her body and cupping her hands, kicking and stroking her way up, she broke her downward plunge and headed back up. She broke surface for a second, long enough to gasp a spoonful of air, before gunfire forced her to dive again. Lungs burned, and arms and legs turned to leaden weights, as she forced herself back to the middle of the lake. This time when she surfaced, she was able to get all the air she needed. None of the men left had lasers. The sniper made no attempt to hit her-- which made sense, as being in the middle of the lake she was on the lowest ground in the Grove. If the sniper was hidden in a bush, or on low ground himself, shrubbery and the contours of the land might block him. But he could move, and probably was doing so now. She dove again before he could get a clear shot at her, and swam to the shore, staying deep under. Then she let herself drift upward.

               There was one man standing far closer to the lake than he ought to be. Teal let herself float to the surface near him, tucking herself so that her white hair and skin was hidden by her black-clad body, almost upside down. She controlled her ascent, coming up slowly enough that he wouldn't necessarily register the movement if he wasn't looking for it. Then she twisted upright and shot both hands out, grabbing her opponent and dragging him into the water. He screamed and tried to orient his gun, but she had only to yank him hard enough that he fell on his butt, messing up his aim. He couldn't get the gun positioned in time before she'd pulled him all the way into the lake. Teal slashed his throat, grabbed his gun, and leapt out of the water, aiming the jector at the one man within range to hit her.

               She and he fired at the same time. Teal used teek to slingshot the bullets away from her, rather than trying to stop them. The other man, with no teek, died quickly.

               Two left-- the sniper, and a man on the shore some distance away. The sniper fired again, but Teal was already boosting up, leaping into the trees above the lake.

               Once safely hidden, she undid the velcro fastener on the inner thigh of her left leg and took out the packet of concentrates there. The packet was semi-permeable to water, so the lake water had gotten in and turned it to sludge-- but better sludge than powder. It might almost be palatable now. She opened it and dumped the contents into her mouth, gulping them down, trying not to notice how much the concentrates tasted like chalk. There were simple carbohydrates for energy, minerals and nutrients to replaced what she depleted through overteeking, and specialized painkillers for overteek headache. The stuff wouldn't take effect for several minutes, and so she might be overly optimistic in taking it-- several minutes from now, she could be dead. But if she lived, and if she won, she would suffer a terrible reaction to the overteek unless she took the packet now. And she had plans, for what to do after she won. She and Essell had things to do. She couldn't afford a reaction, later.

               Only two more, and she would see Essell again... Teal searched for them. The one by the lakeshore had hidden too well-- she couldn't see him. She couldn't see the sniper, either, but him she had clues for. She replayed in her mind the two most recent shots he'd fired at her, and triangulated back from them. Right there, yes.

               He'd moved, but not far. Once Teal knew where to look, she found him fairly quickly. Silently she crept through the trees, along branches, until she was directly above him. Then she leapt down.

               He jerked with surprise, turning and trying to move back from her. Teal didn't give him a chance. Her claws dug into the sides of his neck and dragged down, slashing both carotid arteries. The sniper died instantly, pitching forward, with blood fountaining from the sides of his neck.

               One more. She climbed back into the trees, to look for the last man.

               Now that there was only one left, and the test almost finished, she had the time to allow herself to wonder who these men were. They weren't captured Corpsmen, since they weren't psi, obviously. They could be captured mercs from the minics or mils from some nash or another, or they could be Hands of the Bright goons who had failed and were given this as a last chance. They could even be desperate freelancers, gambling their lives on their skill for a huge sum of money. Some people would do that, though Teal couldn't understand how-- money wasn't enough for her to risk her life.

               She rather hoped they were gamblers, or at least that they'd been given some sort of choice. That this was the lesser of two evils, for them. It hurt to think she might be killing people who were as trapped as she was. But it couldn't make a difference. They could be sole caretaking parents of six dependent babies, they could be world-renowned philanthropists, they could be saints and she would still need to kill them. It was her life or theirs, and the death she gave them was far easier than the one she'd suffer if she spared them.

               Of course, she had some degree of a choice, now. She was skilled enough to run away. She didn't need to be here, committing murder. Except that if she ran, she'd never see her twin again. And she had been punished for Essell's transgressions, enough in the first days of their captivity, that she suspected he would be tortured and killed if she ran. No, she had to stay here, obey her hated trainers, until she saw Essell again. And then the two of them would escape together, and kill those that deserved it, for once.

               I'm sorry, she thought to the one remaining man. She wasn't a teeper, but that was all right, since she didn't really want to speak to him. It was an abstract concept she was talking to. I'm sorry, but you have to die. It's my life and Essell's, or yours. I have no choice.

               There he was, crouching with machine gun in hand. Teal crept up on him, the same way she'd gone for the sniper, and leapt down.

               This one was faster than the sniper. He dodged back, rolled, and came up, aiming the jector. Teal flung herself at him, trying to knock the jector out of his from his hand before he could point it at her. He dropped it, caught her wrists, and flung her, fast and hard, making her smash into a tree before she had time to brake. Then he grabbed the gun again and aimed it at her before she could get up.

               There was no time. Teal threw all the force of her teek against the gun, pushing it sideways, but she couldn't seem to knock it from his hands. His grip on it was like iron, and she was still weakened from overteek, her drugs not yet in effect. That didn't matter, though. Now that it was pointed away from her, she had a chance to get up and lunge at him.

               He dropped the gun and grabbed her wrists again. Teal focused her strength and her teek on his hands, trying to break her wrists free. For a minute, at least, they were deadlocked-- him trying to flip her, her trying to break away. Then she attempted to bring her knee up into his crotch, but he used his legs to block hers. This changed both their balances. He started to flip her up. She boosted, so she could control the flip. As she went up over his head, she locked the serrated blades on the side of her footgear against the sides of his neck.

               He screamed, released her wrists, and tried to pull her legs free. Teal's head fell as the wrists came free. She put out her hands, caught the ground before her head could slam into it, and braced herself, holding her legs tightly against the neck. She began to scissor slightly, trying to reach the carotids. The skin of the man's neck was broken and bleeding, but she hadn't yet hit the vital spots. The enemy managed to pry her legs free, pull them hard over his shoulders, and yank them down, pulling Teal up. What he intended was unclear; what he accomplished was to get Teal's hands in range of his neck, with his own hands locked around her legs. She dug her claws into the vital points and ripped.

               As he toppled, releasing her legs, she kicked free of him and fell on the ground in an undignified heap. Quickly she righted herself. Her opponent was still not dead-- dropped to his knees, clutching the sides of his neck as blood seeped around his fingers. Teal walked over to him. He looked up at her with terror and hatred in his eyes.

               She wanted to apologize. But apologies were worse than useless, when you were killing someone. Teal drove her claws into his jugular vein and killed him instantly.

               Ten dead. How long had it been? She tried to think. About half an hour, and she'd used a gun, and they'd gotten the drop on her several times-- probably a B, possibly a C. But she'd passed. That was all that mattered. She'd passed. She was alive.

               Jaxson unlocked the doors and came into the simulator. "Good work, Teal," he told her. His hawklike features were actually somewhat animated for once, though it didn't show in his dead flat voice. "You did well there. I think the evaluators will probably give you an A."

               Yeah, and I'm the King of Quebec. She didn't deserve an A, and she almost certainly would not get one. But she didn't say this to Jaxson-- she'd learned to talk as little as possible to her trainers. "Where's my brother?"

               "He'll be here in a few minutes. Relax, calm yourself down after your fight."

               As if she could be calm. A few minutes! Teal was tired, but the excitement that surged through her dumped out the aches of the past half hour. She turned and ran for the lake-- she was sweaty and overheated, and if she was going to see Essell she would rather drip than stink.

               The cool water closed over her head, and Teal fell back into it, relaxing taut muscles and letting the heat and smell wash away from her. Five years...

               Five years ago was the black day, when her parents were gunned down by Hands of the Bright, when she and Essell had been dragged away and separated. They had tortured Teal until she learned to stop openly resisting, to accept their training and work to be the best possible assassin she could be. To hide her hatred, pretend she was loyal to those who tormented her. But she'd never given up her hopes for escape, for revenge. Since they'd completed her training, there was no force that could hold her here anymore. She'd mapped out an escape route already. All she was waiting for was to take Essell with her when she ran.

               She surfaced and climbed ashore, where she lay on the grass to let herself dry in the artificial sun. Teal forced herself not to tense with anticipation, making a conscious effort to keep each muscle relaxed. She needed to rest, to get back her strength, to force down the waves of excitement that raced through her. Trying to stay calm. 

               Then the door to the simulator opened.

               Teal jumped to her feet and faced the door. The young man who entered... was a stranger, a tall young man with broad shoulders and bronzed skin and a mane of beautiful golden hair. Nothing she remembered. But she knew the blue-green eyes, the color of the sea; and in his face, there were still shadows of the Essell that had been, five years ago.

               "Essell..."

               He was a golden lion. The sun to her moon, shining and gold where she was pale and white. He always had been.

               She ran toward him, and threw her arms around him. "Essell!" she cried, being careful to keep the razor claws on her gloves away from his flesh. "Oh, Essell!"

               "Teal,” he said in an amused tone, as he ruffled his hand through her short hair. “You're so emotional. When did that happen?"

               His voice was strangely cool. Teal looked up at him. "Well, aren't you? It's been five years!" Urgently and softly she murmured in their private language, the twinspeech of their childhood, "Essell, let’s get out of here, now. I've made a plan--"

               "What are you talking about?" Essell asked in English.

               Teal blinked. "Essell? Don't you remember Mooganooga?"

               Essell shook his head. "You're such a child, Teal. You mean you've been cluttering your brain by hanging onto all that crazy stuff from when we were kids?"

               "Crazy stuff?" Teal whispered. She stepped back from him and looked at him, hard.

               "Teal, we're Children of the Bright. We're adults now. Why would we need to cling on to things from when we were little kids?" He snorted. “You’d think that after you’d passed your final exam, you’d be mature.”

               Children of the Bright. The Children of the Bright were the most loyal, most skilled servants of the Bright, verified by telepathic probe. Teal was a blockpath, and never could be so verified, therefore could never be so trusted. But Essell-- for Essell to be a Child of the Bright meant that he would have to be loyal in truth, no part of him hidden from the Bright. "You're-- a Child of the Bright?"

               "Aren't you?"

               Five years she had learned to bend without breaking. Five years she had borne everything, plotting secretly to escape and get revenge. Five years, she had only been waiting for Essell... but he was not here. They had killed her brother's mind. It was his voice, his face, but it wasn’t him anymore. Some impostor looked out from behind his eyes now.

               Oh, she should have guessed. She should have expected this; she shouldn’t have allowed herself hope. Shapechangers were highly adaptable, and therefore easy to brainwash. And she would never get him back. Essell was a Child of the Bright, loyal and beloved servant of the creature that had killed their parents, stolen their childhoods, mutilated his sister and killed all the children she might ever have. That was not the Essell she remembered. Her beloved brother was dead. This creature only used the same name.

               Tears blurred her vision. “It doesn’t matter,” she said, even though it was the only thing that mattered. “I love you, Essell, you know that?”

               He shrugged, elaborately embarrassed, but he didn’t try to stop her from hugging him tightly. “I guess I—"

               The sentence never finished. Teal drove her claws into his back, turning whatever he would have said into a scream. She slashed through his spine, cutting it in pieces, and continued to rip until she'd torn through his kidneys. Essell's scream cut off, and his body folded. She stepped away with bloody claws.

               "Teal!" For once, Jaxson had some emotion in his voice. Teal flung herself at him, boosting, slashing out. He dodged back from her once, but her second swing took his face off, and the third ripped out his throat. Then she ran for the simulator doors and charged through.

               She had very little time. They had to have been monitoring her. There were probably guards mobilizing to stop her right now. But she still remembered the escape route she'd plotted. Essell, why? Why did they brainwash you, destroy you? How could you have let it happen?

               The Hands of the Bright murdered you. All I did was lay your corpse to rest. I'll avenge you and our parents both, Essell.

               I swear.

               There would be guards to kill and traps to evade on her way out, but Teal didn't care. They'd trained her to be unstoppable. They wouldn't be able to stop her themselves.

               She ran for the exit and freedom, tears drying on her face.

[popculturebuffet]

Comics Corner: Child’s Play #1 “Night of the Living Doll”

S

Happy days before Halloween everybody. While I have an X-tra Spooky treat planned for the day itself, I thought i’d start branching out from X-Men Comics (though that will be my primary focus), with a comic i’ve been dying to read since I found out it existed: The Child’s Play mini series from innovation comic, one of only two series and 10 comics overall starring your faviorite murder doll and mine: Charles “Chucky” Lee Ray. Also contains a slasher off to see who would win between Chucky and some classsic killers because the comic put the idea in my brain. Wanna Play? Then join me after the cut. 

WARNING: This review contains scenes of Gore. While I did try to cut it down being a horror comic about a slasher villain, this was inevitable, Discretion is advised. 

Child’s Play is a horror franchise I absoltuley love. While i’ve procastinated on seeing the DTV sequels, not that I think their bad i’m just a forgetful mess sometimes, and Seed, because no amount of Jennifer Tilly or intresting gender identity issue stuff will compensate for me having to watch Chucky masturbate, I have followed the series for years, afraid to watch it because I wasn’t a huge horror fan at the time and Chucky scared the shit out of me as a kid. Eventually I realized that despite my fear I loved the franchise for it’s thoroughly interesting killer, entertaining kills, and at it’s best great stories and at it’s worst so bad it’s good royalty. Even the Don Manncini, creator of the series and writer of every film and director of three, disowned remake is pretty good if thoroughly it’s own thing.  So naturally a Mini-Series taking place between 2 and 3 that may fit neatly into continuity, this is my shit and i’m so happy to finally read it. 

For the lapsed and unintiated, the Chucky/Child’s Play series, the original anyway the remake is it’s own thing and has it’s own backstory, follows Charles Lee Ray, aka Chucky, a serial killer who in desperation to get away from the cop perusing him after his partner ratted him out, used his vodoo knowledge, because every serial killer knows voodoo apparently, to put himself in the nearest vessel, a doll. The rest of the backstory can be covered as we go as the first issue does a really good job of organically explaning it for the unaware. Granted I don’t know if most non child’s play watchers would be intrested in this comic but it’s a nice gesture. 

This mini comes to us from innovation entertainment, a 90′s publishing company that made tie in comics for a number of things, and from writer Andy Mangels who also wrote Innovation’s Nightmare on Elm Street comics, which Linkara has covered in detail if your curious and which i’ll probably cover myself at some point, especially since this issue made a strong impression on me.  Speaking of which, the mini as mentioned takes place between the second and third films, both of which have their own adaptations that i’ll cover eventually, but I felt the original story was more appealing. As far as I can tell there have only been really three bits of media outside the franchise, not counting the aborted video game: A , from all accounts, terrible endless runner game, this mini series, and another mini series from Hack/Slash creator and former Nightwing Maestro Tim Seely, as well as a crossover between Hack/Slash and Chucky from Seely. And having read said crossover and found it excellent and feeling just like the movies in regards to the little shit, I hope to find the mini one day and share it with you lovely people. But even if I had i’d probably be covering this one first since chronological order combined with the fact it seems that mini dosen’t fit into canon anymore and this one might. Now the exposition is out of the way let’s get to the good stuff. 

Since I didn’t really cover the covers in my first two X-Men reviews, and feel I really should going issue by issue it just hadn’t occured to me, let’s look at the cover. It’s decent, kinda a parody of old horror comics covers or old horror movie covers and a nice start to things.. although frankly I would’ve preffered the splash page instead. 

I love it. It’s a nice little gag, and while the blood splatter is partly nonsensical and looks like Chucky just killed a guy to splatter some extra blood about to make his collection look more badass.. though given who we’re dealing with it wouldn’t suprise me, so it dosen’t really detract. That being said being a burgeoning horror fan and having seen films from most of these franchises and knowing enough about those I don’t from other reviewers reviews, i’d be remiss if I didn’t speculate about if Chucky could win against these other titans of terror. PLACE YOUR BETS BITCHES, IT’S A SLASHER OFF. 

Chucky Versus Micheal Meyers: He’d stab him for the love guru. Easy joke aside the horror of haddonefield does have size and strength, even in his old man version from the recent movie and upcoming sequels, over Chucky and while I thought this would be easily him... Chucky has him in speed and agility. He could climb that fucker and stab him up and down, shadow of colossus style, until even Micheal would have to buckle over, or just as likely set an elaborate trap like 2k18 Laurie. Micheal has some intellegence and a Chuck’s own drive not to give up, but that won’t save him from an opponent who’s faster, smarter and just as piss angry stubborn. Chucky wins.  Chucky Versus the Creature from the Black Lagoon: Chucky. The creature is strong but chucky’s craftier and would poison a lake just to kill a bastard.  Chucky Versus Jason: Tough call. Like Micheal, Jason is slow.. but he’s also 20 times more durrable, stronger and way more likely to get Chucky off him. He’s also more likely to use the environment meaning even if I vastly prefer Chucky, it’s a more even fight and more likely to go in Jason’s favor, as any trap Chucky set would likely get walked off. Jason wins.  Chucky Vs The Phantom of the Opera: Not really a traditional slasher and I don’t really know the version that is or the version that isn’t to be frank, but it seems like Erik could take chucky in cleverness and ruthlessness and combined with having home field advantage, i’m calling advantage Erik. He wins.  Chucky Vs Dracula: Okay 1, make this a movie yesterday Mancini and 2, this is a tough one. On the one hand Drac has mist, a horde of brides, wolves and transformation. If it’s home court, Chucky’s gonna die, especially if the count simply uses his brides to seduce him as Chucky is kinda easy that way. But in the US? Chucky is an onry bastard and Dracula has a ton of weakness, so I could see Chucky loosing round one then coming back to kill the bastard at dawn and anyone dumb enough to defend his coffin. Plus Chucky isn’t alone having Tiffany and the ablity to split himself among good guy dolls, so I could see Chucky creating another army of himself to do a suicide run on Drac’s castle. It’d hurt but Chucky is a vengeful dick. Chucky wins. Seriously Mancni get on this.  Chucky Vs Freddy: Depends on the setting: In the Dream World, it’s likely Freddy as he can throw Chuck off guard by giving him his body back or using former survivors, while in the real world it’s Chucky’s turf but Freddy still has knife hands with more reach than his lumbering opponents, so even with prep I expect Chucky to eat that one, so I give it to Freddy. But honestly I prefer Don Mancini’s ACTUAL pitch for a crossover he’s trying to get happening: Chucky and Freddy meet up, and actually admire each other’s style but realize that two killers in town will dry up all the victims so they wage a dirty rotten scoundrel’s style looser leaves town contest: whoever chops up the most teens by dawn stays. I want that yesterday too.  Chucky Vs Xenomorph: If it’s a facehugger as shown, Chucky, it probably woudln’t be able to bond with him and he’d stab it. But a proper showdown.. xenomorph. It matches Chucky’s speed, ferocity and while not as intelligent is still far stronger and just as ruthless.  Chucky Vs Leatherface: Chucky. While Leatherface has the better weapon and matching speed, Chucky can outthink him. Chucky wins but while I haven’t seen Texas Chainsaw Massacre, against the whole clan Chucky probably woudln’t win.. but would probably throw in with them long enough to survive since he’s a murderous bastard too and as long as he dosen’t have to join in dinner, it’s essentially his MO with help and family. He’d probably grow to either love them or get annoyed enough to kill em all.  Chucky Vs  The Tall Man: Tall Man. The Phantasm Ball is just too powerful and Chucky too vunerable and stubborn for a teamup.  Chucky vs Pinhead: Pinhead. I may be too squeamish for hellraiser but he’s FAR above Chucky’s paygrade.  So overall it’s 4 to 6 with Chucky loosing, but he still put up a far better fight than you’d think. And for funsies before we move on to the actual meat of the comic at long fucking last.  Chucky Vs Ash: Ash. Ash is dumb sometimes sure, but he’s just as stubborn, has dealt with being accused of murder before so framing him won’t work, and unlike the Slashers he’s got a shot gun, which while chucky can dodge, I could see Ash pining him. Dumb dosen’t mean he isn’t clever. However I do want to see the hyjinks that would insue so please, Mancini, do this one if you either can’t get freddy or if you can after that. Please? Okay so with ALLLL of that out of the way, let’s dive in. 

We open on the above, what’s left of Chucky after Child’s Play 2, being reforged into a fresh body. It’s exactly as pleasant as you’d think. 

Maybe he just says that because the sight of him with lipstick gives grown men heart attacks. 

See? Unsuprisingly, that’s one of my faviorite Child’s Play moments. Or maybe he just needs a pair of fresh eyes to stop being so hetronormative. 

I do love this bit, it’s a nice bit of comedy that dosen’t feel too broad and fits right into the franchise, even before the outright horror comedies. And now for you ladies and gentleman and other’s pleasure...LIVE NUDE CHUCKY!

Granted Bride would later retcon in a penis, but given he’s in a third body by then. Or maybe it’s the fact his body gets more human the longer he’s in one, so maybe he grows one or fused a strapon to himself. I dunno. I’m not an expert in Chucky’s Penis. That’s Don Mancini’s job. So Chucky puts some pants on, because wether it’s because you love somebody or want to stab them silly, you put your pants on for them, and wonders if he should wear something more inconspicuous before realizing he’s a 3 foot animate doll.. he’s always going to be conspicuous, another inspired bit of comedy. This is something I like about the issue: Regognizing how ludicrious the two sequels at the time were, Mangels leans into the comedy a little, but without overriding the horror, as you’ll soon see, somehow correctly predicting the direction of the franchise. But chucky made a mistake.. the last page showed him triggering an alarm by accident and well. 

As you can see in a neat stylistic choice, the siren blares over the entire page as Chucky makes a run for it and a mysterious observer sees a slight against god running about, decides cool and follows. He accidently slams into chucky in another funny bit. He offers a ride and while Chucky balks at this weirdo, said weirdo points out that how’s he’s going to outrun the cops otherwise and Chucky reluctantly gets in. And it says something if the guy with a bigger body count than a heart attack still has reservations going with you. The teen says Chucky reminds him of a kid who was in the papers for claming a doll killed some people and his mother who backed up the story, was suspected to have did it and put her in an insane asylum, or as this little shit calls it “Electro-Shock Pallace” as someone who himself is mentally ill, and afraid of asylums and lives in a world two decades removed where mass killings happen often and are often pinned on mental illness, fuck this twerp and I can’t wait for his commupance. Chucky sets him straight. 

See this is why I didn’t jsut do a big infodump on everything right up front, the comic does a good cjob recapping child’s play 1, and 2 isn’t relevant to the plot aside from the intro. They explain things quick and fast and chucky himself gives a good chunk of the film’s backstory pretty quickly once he and shades here get back to his house. 

This is also interesting as even the films haven’t really gone into how Charles Lee Ray felt as he became a doll or if he was conscious when Karen first got him. There’s more of course, and while it’s not necessary to this story, Karen does show up in this series, so i’ll fill you in on where the story went from there, as well as what Chucky left out or wasn’t there for. Here we go... Karen Barclay was the struggling mother of young Andy, who wanted a Good Guy doll for his birthday. Karen, not having much, found one second hand... Chucky. Chucky started manipulating the young kid, offscreen though that just makes it more unsettling even if the mystery of if Chucky’s real or not is kinda pointless when we saw a guy explode himself into a doll. I also like the nod that Chucky knows about as much as the fans do as to why their was a mega explosion. He first kills Karen’s best friend and Andy’s babysitter for the night, which Andy blames Chucky. No one belivies him.. which is understandable.. what’s not is when Chucky kills next, having andy take him to his acomplice’s house and blowing it up, NO ONE seems to question why a little child blew up a known criminal, how he knew where the house was, or why, when the previous crime was done in the home with motive, he killed some random guy. I do love this film but this bit feels especially dumb on the cops part not even bending a LITTLE. But this isn’t a review of the first movie so let’s move on.  Andy is comitted, which as sad as it is to see an innocent child thrown in an institution does make at least some sense so they can find out if he’s really seeing things or not, and Karen returns.. and finds that the Good Guy dolls don’t come with batteries, yet Chucky has been talking like any other toy. As a result we get one of the best scenes in the franchise history if not it’s best, and really, as much as I try I can’t do it justice. Though if you can’t watch in short he does an exorcist when she checks the batteries, she threatens to burn him, and he reveals himself. In long... it’s worth a watch. 

Chucky runs for it, Karen tries to tell Mike who dosen’t belivie her.. until Chucky comes for him. Chucky then heads for Dr.Death, his vodoo 101 teacher, who refuses to help him viewing him an abomination but stupidly left a vodoo fetish of himself around and you can guess the rest. He reveals Chucky can only transfer to the first person he revealed himself too so he heads for Andy with .. this. 

Mancini had to know what he was doing right? Right? Anyway. Karen and Mike find a dying Death who tells them to aim for the heart and who his target is. Andy dodges Chucky and escapes the Aslyum heading home where we get a final confrontation between the Barclay’s, Mike and Chucky, which is damn good and ends with Andy burning the fucker with a badass response to his claim of being his friend to the end “This is the end friend”. This dosen’t quite finish him but a shot to the heart, with Mike to blame, kills the bastard.. for now. Now we’re all caught up, let’s get back to the story. 

Dipshit has called his friends to see Chucky and as seen above, Chucky is wondering why he shoudln’t kill the guy.. but Dumbass has a good point for once: his one friend is studying magic, presumibly at Durmstrang since Hogwarts dosen’t tolerate that kinda shit, and could help summon dr. death to see if they can fix his situation. Granted Death viewed him as an abomination and wanted nothing to do with Chucky, but he might let something slip or have no choice and it’s better than the nothing Chucky has to go on. Chucky gives exposition to Fuckwit’s friends and claims he killed Dr.Death in self defense, which isn’t entirely innacurate and Steaming Bowl of Elephant Piss suggests holding a seance. But one of his friends, Burt, who seems to be the only one to see Chucky for the red flag he is, calls an audible and Chucky grumbles off while they talk in private. 

As you can see, Fuckbucket sets the intellgence standard for his group. However their not SO obnoxious that it distracts from how horrible what’s about to happen will them will be. Except shitty shitty bang bang. Since It’s hard to remember all of the dead meets names i’ll be calling the girl Molly Ringwald, Burt by his name since he’s being sensiable, the moron drinking his own blood Edgelord, and Numbnuts MCGee my current barrage of creative insults. But yeah none of them take Chucky as a threat seriously, which is a nice little meta commentary on how most people think they could take Chucky, even though the guy is nigh unkillable, smart and fast and stronger, if not heavier, than him being a doll would make you think. Burt is the ONLY one here who seems to think harboring a serial killing doll is a terrible idea and thus the only one I respect. And “Most LIkely To Run Into A Wall” has the genius observation seen above where he asks “we’re helping him why would he hurt us”... when he’s already threatned to kill him and has no use for any of them once he has any info they can scrape up, with Burt pointing out even if their sucessful they’ll be responsible for more killing. Sadly he’s outvoted. Seriously while I do like Mangels, I question his opinon on teenagers and horror fans, especially given his long screed about the horrors of the world at the front of the issue and how his comics horrors don’t compare to racisim or homphobia, though the latter is a nice touch considering this was the early 90′s and some horror audiences could be homphobic morons, when the horror fans he portray are a darwin award of the decade winner, a moron who cuts himself not because he has serious issues with depression but to drink his own blood, a witch who goes along with their stupidity, and ... one likeable guy who’s coded as a wuss but is the only sane one here. 

So morons r us, plus burt and chucky, call Dr.Death’s spirit forth in a very moody and atmospheric scene. Naturally it goes GREAT. 

Dr.Death’s form dissolves terrifyingly and awesomely and our morons, and Burt,  are left, literally since they turned the light’s down in the dark> Burt is freaking out and has shards of crap in him thanks to all this.. couldn’t of killed fuckaround could you John? Burt is lead to the bathroom, while Fuckwit and Edgelord head downstairs, Fuckwit heading further down to check the breakers since the power is out for the whole house while Edgelord actually says something smart and wonders what they ALL shoudlv’e been thinking about: Where’s chucky? He has a response in this AWESOME looking panel. 

And here’s where the it dosen’t undercut the tragedy bit comes into play. Sure these kids are kinda dumb.. but most teens are, and they might not belivie he actually killed peope or even if they did, think they can take him as foolishly stated. They had their whole lives to become better people, and Mollly Ringwald and Burt seemed like decent enough people while Edgelord was probably going though a phase. Dum Dum Dumbassigan dosen’t really get a huge repreive but the point is NONE of them deserve to die and they aren’t dialed up to obnoxious, except assface, to be that unsympathetic. Their being stupid sure, but again MOST TEENS ARE or will at least be easily talked into doing something that all common sense says should kill them. And sadly in David, aka edgelord’s case...

Yeah it took a while but I had that gore warning for a reason. And he then decides to fill David with knives. I also stopped calling him edgelord because well. .look at it. The death is horrifying, well drawn and only made worse when Chucky decides to play “pin cushion” and fill him with knives off screen. His next target is sadly my man burt. He does complain A LOT and while a little whiny, given he’s covered in cuts, about to die and was the ONLY ONE here to excercise caution.. yeah he has a right to be. And then.. this happens to Burt in the bathroom...

Yup, THAT just happened. But I like it a lot.. it’s done with style, humor.. but not without horror either. A nicely done little parody. Molly, or wendy as the comic calls her, wonders around the Darkness for a bit.. and then finds David’s corpse.. which I own’t show as holy shit it’s as graphic as it is horrifying. And given what I showed you of his death earlier, that’s saying something.She tells an approaching Moron to stay back.. and well..

In order....... I am so angry at that first panel “I don’t know what happened here....” I DON’T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED HERE. 

BITCHCAKES, YOU LET A SERIAL KILLER INTO YOUR HOUSE WHO VANISHED ON YOU AFTER A SPOOKY GHOST TOLD YOU TO KILL HIM OR SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES. WHAT IN THE STAR SPANGLED, CHERRY COATED MARSHMELLOW FUCK DID YOU THINK HAPPENED.  Second, while I get her logic, Fartnugget isn’t capable of working out basic sequence of events let alone killing a person.  And finally.. there is no amount of gifs that can convey how happy I am at that last panel. 

Wendy goes mad from the shock and Chucky, whos’ been lurking under the table this whole time with a Freddy Glove, strikes. 

It’s no “welcome to prime time BITCH”, but I think Freddy would dig it. Naturally, the glove dosen’t kill her but she snaps her neck.. and then chucky , of all things, calls the police. 

I’ll not explode with rage again btu the david’s dead line tempted me, as HE JUST KILLED YOUR FRIEND OF COURSE HE DID. As for his threat... Chucky is unimpressed. See this was his plan. At least once they stopped being useful. Gee who could’ve predicted that? Chucky has decided to frame ponytailed idiot for it, a real brilliant way of going about things, and to me WHY Chucky is such a threat. Even if you beat him, if you don’t have proof.. he still gets you locked up and then comes back stronger than ever. This ending also actually helps with a plot hole some might have with the series. 

Chucky dosen’t leave fingerprints. He MIGHT as he turns more human, bud odds are he dosen’t, thus it’s easy enough to frame whoever’s left.. though it was neat to see him do so intentionally. Truck Nuts breaks down, Chucky flees and we end on a teaser for the next issue as some mysterious Doctor has come to Karen Barclay with promises to help go after Chucky. But that’s for another day. For now our story is done. There’s also a page for a “Stuck On Chuck” contest, with the winners getting to be in issue 5. Just bringing that up so if I ever get there, I won’t have missed it. And with that we finally close out. 

Final Thoughts: 

This issue is excellent. I was expecting something slightly cheesy and not great, and while there are narmy elements: the commentary on horror being a media scapegoat seems out of place and as I made abdundantly clear on second read the lead is insufferable. His fate is still tragic, but he’s such a moron I can’t help but feel he brought it on himself, but his friends aren’t so obnoxious that you don’t feel bad when they do die, a mistake full on horror movies make too often. The kills are gory, as shown there’s some nice visual flair here and there, and chucky is drawn amazingly, especially for the time. There’s an awkward shot here or there but for the most part the artist really captures him well. This comic is a hidden Gem and if your a fan of the films or even just the first one, I strongly recommend it, or if nothing else as I haven’t gotten to the rest, this issue.  If you liked this review, feel free to like or reblog, and if you want one like it for the issue or graphic novel of your choice, just pm and slip 5 bucks into my paypal and i’ll get right on it as soon as the first week of november. Until then, i’m your friend to the end. 

[netflixmomma516]

Her Secrets Part 3 - 13RW Series

Part 1    Part 2

I woke up to the sun shining in my room, my alarm going off in my ear. I opened one eye and hit off. I roll my eyes and check my social media. Nothing.

I turned on my Spotify, then walk into my closet and find something to wear. I quickly straighten my wavy brown hair and replace my glasses with contacts. I yawn not wanting to be up right now. I decided on no makeup for the day, due to how tired I am.

I'm still thinking about the after party everyone is talking about, it would probably be fun, but that's one of the causes for me to move here.

I shuffle down the stairs and see my dad in his nice clothes for work. "Good morning," he says cheerily. I half smile and grab my breakfast. "So what are your plans for the night?" He asks curiously. "Well, there's a basketball game and a party tonight so that." "Okay, I'm glad you're fitting in here." He says looking like he's about to cry. I smile as I roll my eyes and hug him. "Bye dad," I grab my keys off the counter and walk out to my car.

-

The first person I saw when I walked into school was Jeff. I couldn't help but smile at him. He walks over to me and hugs me. "Hey." "Hey," I said back. "So about that after party.." Jeff started. "I'm going on one condition," I smile up at the giant brunette with beautiful brown eyes. "What?" He gave me a little smirk. "If you don't let anything happen to me," I shake off the memory of the last party I went too. "Of course, just think of me as your personal bodyguard." Jeff smiles at me. I couldn't help but smile back at the response.

I knew he would protect me tonight. "Okay, then I'll go," I smile at him. "Awesome. We're still on for tomorrow too, right?" He asks with hopeful eyes. "Of course we are," I smile. "Awesome." "Well I'm going to go to class I'll see you later," I tell him. "Okay," He hugs me and I walk away. Butterflies flying like crazy in my stomach.

I get about 10 feet from my locker and my feet stop, I see a sight that I didn't know if I wanted to see; Scott leaned up against his locker talking to Chloe. My heart dropped when I saw her smiling up at him, I can tell in her eyes, she wants him back. He confessed they dated for a couple months, a couple months ago. 

-

"So what's the deal with Chloe and you?" I ask rather bluntly. "What do mean?" Scott asks as he sits down next to me. "I mean, I can tell Chloe has some kind of hold on you." He looks down at his stretched out legs, "well we did date, we broke up not too long ago." He admits.

-

I find the strength to keep walking and I finally reach my locker and I do the combination. "Hey YNN," Chloe says. I fake a smile at her. I knew there was something bitchy about her.

"Well I'm going to class babe," she tells Scott. He smiles at her, "okay bye." Wow no cute nicknames for her; surprising. I put my stuff in my locker, "hey." He says to me. I mentally roll my eyes. "Hi," I keep short. "What's wrong?" He asked. I couldn't tell him I was jealous of the fact that Chloe called him babe.

"Nothing." I smiled at him. It was a fake smile, but a smile nonetheless. "Okay good. So did you decided on after parties after the game?" "Yeah. I'm going." I told him with a smile, thinking back to Jeff's and mines conversation 3 minutes prior. "Cool." "Well we better get going or we'll be late." He smiled and followed me to 1st period.

The whole first and second period I couldn't help but think about Scott and Chloe. I do like Jeff, but I also find myself falling for Scott too.

I walk into Government and see Jeff smiling at me. I smile back. I love his little smile. I make my way to my seat next to his. "Hey," He said. "Hey." I instantly smile at him. "How are you?" Him trying to make small talk. "Good." I smile at his lame attempt.

--

The day went by fast. I got home and did the little homework I had for the weekend. I couldn't quite keep concentration though; daydreams about Jeff and Scott take over my little mind.

I look down at my growing stomach, "We'll be okay bugs." I whisper. Emotions overtake my body and I start crying. The last month, everything has changed. EVERYTHING.

I was once a regular 18-year-old senior, with an amazing boyfriend, a mom who didn't really give me rules, because she was never home, awesome friends. I'm just worried people will find out my secret. People will figure out why I moved. HE will find me.

My head starts hurting thinking about everything. I lay down and close my eyes, hands on my growing baby. "I won't let anything ever happen to you." Sleep overtakes my body. -

DREAM Jeff and I are at the lake, "So YNN I really like you." I smile at Jeff and I confess, "I like you too." "But what about me?" Scott appears from behind us. "What about you Scott?" Jeff asks him. "You know I called first dibs," Scott answered Jeff. "Dibs?" I chimed in. "I'm not a trophy you win when you win a basketball game," I say angrily. "Scott just leave, this is my date," Jeff says. "I don't want to unless YNN tells me." "YNN tell him to leave." "YNN!" "YN!"

-

"YNN... YNN..." I fell my body shaking. I shoot my eyes open to see my dad shaking body. "It's 7, the game starts in a half hour." "Crap, thanks, dad." He walks out of my room to let me get ready. I change into simple skinny jeans, that I love that I can still fit into. I pull over a sweatshirt over my gray t-shirt. I run a brush through my hair and brush my teeth. I apply very natural makeup. I look at the time, and I have 15 minutes to get to the game.

I run down the stairs, deciding on my black flip flops since they are easy to put on, "Bye dad!" I yell. "Bye YNN be careful!" He calls back. I get into my car and drive the 15 minutes to school.

--

The stands are packed, and the game has already started. Thankfully it just started like 2 minutes ago. 

Jess; Up here! 

I look up to see her waving. I smile and walk up the bleachers. "YNN, I didn't think you were coming." She said hugging me. "I fell asleep and forgot to set my alarm, my dad woke me up." I laughed. "Well it just started and your boy Jeff already made a hit." I smile as I roll my eyes. "He's not my boy." I laugh at her, "Uh-huh, whatever you say." I smile at her and look to see Jeff and Scott on the field. I smile at both of the handsome boys on the baseball field.

--

We ended up winning with Jeff scoring a total of 10 points. I couldn't help but feel so proud of this guy.

"Let's go outside to my car and wait for the guys," Jess suggested. "Okay." I smiled at her and we walked from stands the chilly late-February air hitting my bare toes. "Dang, it's chilly." "My car is right over here." I follow her to a range rover. Of course, she has a nice car, I feel like this school is filled with nothing but rich kids, nothing against Jess because I like her. I climbed into the front seat and turned my butt warmer on.

"So what is really going on between you, Jeff, and Scott?" She asked throwing me off guard. I took a deep breath, "I like Jeff a lot, the last couple days we've really gotten to know each other and Scott seems really cool too, but I'm pretty sure Chloe and him are getting back together." I look down at my phone, trying to get my mind off of Chloe and Scott.

"First off I've known both of them since I moved here, and they are both incredibly nice guys. Jeff would treat you like a princess and Scott honestly would probably just spoil you with gifts. At least that's what he did with Chloe. Chloe wanted to be treated like a princess not just spoiled like one, and I can tell you Chloe is just jealous because Scott is moving on. Scott has been fixated on Chloe since the 5th grade, and she loved that she had Scott wrapped around her finger like that."

My phone starts blowing up with a call from Jeff, "Hey." I answer with a smile that could brighten anyone's gloomy day. "Hey, where are you and Jess?" Jeff asks, "sitting in her car." I laugh. "Oh well, we're done if you want to come here and talk for a second." "He wants us to come out there and meet him," I tell Jessica. She rolls her eyes, "Okay." "Okay, we'll be out there in a second," I tell him. "Okay." I could hear his smile in his voice.

"But YNN, they're both great guys, you can choose whichever one you think is going to be good for you and your baby." I shake my head, "What did you say?" "Whichever one you think is going to be good for you." "Oh okay." I smile at her. I shake off the feeling, no one knows.

We get out of the warm range over into the chilly air again. 

"Hey YNN," Jeff and Scott said in unison. I smile at both of them, "Hey guys, good game." I was truly impressed with their talent. "So I think people are going over there now," Scott told Jeff, I'm assuming they're talking about the party tonight. 

I get an uneasy feeling. I cross my arms over my body, one because I'm cold and two because I'm scared about this party. Jeff noticed my shift in demeanor, "Cold?" He asked. I shake my head yes. "Alright let's go, YNN you can ride with me and Scott." Oh great, riding with my two crushes this shouldn't be weird. 

"Jess you can ride with Justin and Zach." We all smile at the plan, "I can drive." I tell them. "Okay." Scott and Jeff said. So we start walking over to my silver Mazda 6. "Shotgun!" Scott called out. I roll my eyes as I enter the driver's side.

"It's at Garrett's house." Jeff said, "I'll show her the way." Scott said from the passenger side. "Okay." Jeff simply replied.

"So I pull out of the parking lot over there," Scott pointing to the nearest exit, "and take a right." I do exactly what Scott told me to do and we're on the road. "At this stop sign turn left." He continued telling me the directions to this guys house. I look in my rear view mirror at Jeff, who is looking out the window. He doesn't seem like himself tonight. I'll talk to him at the party, he'll tell me.

10 more minutes of driving we arrive at the house where a party was going on in full swing. Jeff and Scott both get out and I put my hands on my stomach. 

"Coming YNN?" Jeff asked from outside the car. I smile, and open the door, and walk out to the chilly February air. Jeff and Scott are waiting for me along with Jess, Justin, and Zach. We walk into the house and I'm immediately bombarded by the smell of alcohol which baby doesn't seem to like, I start gagging. I run outside and I threw up in the grass. Jeff follows concerned, "what's wrong?" I pulled myself together. "Nothing I got to go." I rush to my car and quickly drive away without an explanation to anyone, not even Jeff who probably deserves it the most.

--

I pull into the driveway of my dad's house, and I see an unfamiliar car and I walk to the window, and I see a woman. They are kissing. My emotions overtake my body, and I run to my car once again. I pull out of my driveway and drive. I drive and lose control of my emotions.

I pull into a vacant parking lot, only lit up with one street light. I park under it. I can't do this anymore. I cry harder. 

How come just two months ago I was a normal 18-year-old senior in high school? I was trying to figure out what color dress I wanted for Snowball, and I was trying to juggle my relationship, my job, and school. I was a normal girl. Now I'm living with my dad in this stupid small town and I'm pregnant and trying to hide that fact from everyone here. 

-

I walk into see Sam sitting there with his group of friends. I smile at him. "YNN, what are you doing January 22nd?" Sam asked as I took my seat next to the blue-eyed boy. "Isn’t that Snowball?" I ask with a smile. "Yeah," Sam looked behind me at the board and I looked back to see what he was looking. 'YN YLN will you swing into Snowball with Samuel Norman.' I looked back at him. I smiled and hugged him. "Of course." I kissed his lips.

[dontknockitkid]

Farewell

You knew this one was coming haha

I never posted anything on social media about baseball being over for me because I didn’t want to accept it, acknowledge it, or over-romanticize the ending of a simple game for me.

But I will, however, write this;

These are my sentiments about a game that had an exceptional part in molding me into the man that I am today. I will never communicate anything like this again, unless it’s in person and verbal and only if someone asks.

Here i present to you, Chris Ramirez, the baseball player.

First and foremost, I feel the need to give the greatest gratitude and praises to God for blessing me through my baseball years without a debilitating injury. I never broke, severely strained, pulled, or tore anything in the 16 years of constant travel, overhead motions, conditioning, or weightlifting. I praise my almighty God for that absolute blessing. With saying that, I’m not talking down to anyone who has had one because I’ve realized how anxious it makes athletes as well as how much it affects their confidence, self-esteem, sense of worth, and identity. I truly feel for those who have been affected by the unforeseen traumas of athletics.

Now, for the tear-jerky portion of my outpouring.

My dad has told me that he wanted to sign me up to play little league baseball when I was younger, but my mom was opposed to the idea because she said it was dangerous and I might get hurt. My dad, being the person that he is, went on to sign me up at South Side Little League in south Oxnard, CA. I make sure to specify SOUTH Oxnard because it was the most rag-tag, blue-collared, league in Oxnard (in my opinion of course). Being in this league for the first couple years of baseball made me the humble, quiet player that I was because we always played (and were crushed) by the surrounding, more wealthier and supported, leagues. The best thing about my younger years (pre-high school), was the traveling. Specifically the long drives I had with my dad. We would drive 3-4 hours and basically spend the weekend together. We would wake up early, go to the nearest McDonald’s, and then head to the sports complex. Those are some of the moments, weekends, and trips that I will cherish the most regarding baseball because they constructed the relationship I came to have with my dad. My dad went to as many games as he could, but the majority of games I either had to hitch a ride with a coach or teammate, and he would show up whenever he was able to. Both my mom and dad have supported and been there for me after every great and terrible game to give their unique feedback (you sucked today but we still love you; keep fighting kid. You have unbelievable potential.) I held on to each and every pre- and post-game talk with my dad because above all else, he was PRESENT. He cared about what I had to say and how I felt about my performance, and he absolutely 100% knew that I cared what he saw or had to say (even though after the tough losses I acted like I didn’t want to hear anything from him at times, but like a young boy, I yearned for my father’s edification and approval). They provided the life and the beautiful days I would never EVER take back, and seeing them smile at me and say they’re proud of me when I didn’t get drafted, had my last start, and graduated college meant the entire world to me.

Now, while I’m talking about my family, I wanted to include a few words for the village that raised me.

These pictures are from my very last season of baseball, but it embodies the support I’ve received from my beautiful family. From fundraisers, to them traveling/camping overnight for several days to see me play (succeed, and sometimes really suck, which often made me really sad), I am forever grateful for their presence. My brothers, Angel and Kevin would often help me forget about a tough loss by providing laughs that turned into happy tears, as well as celebrating with me when I had a great game. Their hugs and affirming, congratulatory presence throughout my life have fueled me to be a respectable sibling. I have always wanted to make them proud of me. I value the photos we have together in our baseball uniforms growing up, as well as the ones we took when they came to visit and watch in Vegas and southern Cali. Even more so than the photos, the moments I was blessed to experience when I hugged them and told them that I loved them after a game or after having not seen them in months, are where my love during those years rests. Te quiero muchisimo mis hermanos. Cousins, Tia’s and Tio’s, family friends, who have housed me on my trips, and let me crash on the couch or guest bedroom for a night or two as I was making my way across the country or back home, I love you. You have no idea how grateful I am for your gracious hospitality. It is and always has been truly heartbreaking as a little kid knowing I wasn’t able to make a baseball trip because of insufficient funds. My parents have done everything that they could to make sure I was able to go to at least a couple trips growing up, and I tear up just thinking about how they made it all possible. I am so thankful for the limited opportunities because it made me appreciate each and every one of them a whole lot more. I love you, mi familia. Near and far, familial and friend.

I couldn’t write something like this without mentioning my coaches. The men (and their wives because if you know anything about coaching, it is a HUGE commitment and sometimes takes a toll on their families. So if any of my coaches’ wives read this, THANK YOU for being patient, kind, and supportive to the men that helped mold me physically, emotionally, and spiritually) that took their time showing me how to simply throw a small object wherever I wanted it to go with controlled aggression, allowed me to spend a good-sized portion of my life having the most fun I’ve had playing a little kid’s game.

I wanted to give a special and heartfelt thank you to my friend, brother in Christ, and former pitching coach Matt Merricks because he (by God’s wondrous grace) developed a form of pitching that incorporated your walk with Christ. Once I was saved by God and my world changed forever, I also became a different type of pitcher, and Matt was there to help refine the explosion of my new heart in Christ. Thank you forever Matt, you helped a young boy understand what it takes to heave a baseball and leave it up to God from there as soon as it left my fingertips, as well as doing the same in life.

To my amazing teammates:

To say you guys have changed my life would be the biggest understatement ever. My boys at Channel Islands and the surrounding high schools who I became so close with, you guys gave me afternoons worth enjoying. You made Oxnard and SoCal a place that tore my heart leaving, but oh so wonderful reflecting back on. If I wrote a small little paragraph for each person or year of baseball, this blog would span a lifetime haha, but I’ll keep it short and to the point.

Channel Islands: Jonny, Isaiah, Matt, Beto, Alfred, Ricky, Manny, Micah, Felipe, Greg, Miles, Anthony, Ray Ray, Leo, Wade, Josh, Stefon, and a few others who were my little tribe in high school: thank you for riding through it all with me. All the high school shenanigans, trouble-making, talks about girls, long days of practice and conditioning, were boosted to absolute nostalgia because of all of you. The memories jam packed at that one school and ball field, are some of my most cherished moments of my upbringing. People always say that you should go to college because those are supposedly the best years of your life, but in all honesty, these years are a definite close Second haha. I can still remember and feel the deep belly laughs at jack in the box, trips to fresh and easy, and countless other get-togethers I will not mention because some of my family might read this eventually hahaha

I love you, and I pray you all are doing well.

Colorado Northwestern:

A small junior college in Rangely, CO was the perfect place for my collegiate baseball career to kick into gear. Why? Because of these guys: Joe, Ricky, Alaska, Mikey, Cado, Nies, Chase, Trevar, Colin, Tanner, Riding, Hoff, Texas, the Woods brothers, Naus, Cory, and several others who brought seriously so much happiness to my days there. At a low point in my life, you guys helped keep me afloat by your jokes, brotherhood, invitations, inclusivity, and acceptance of a new direction I was going in life. You supported me, held me accountable at the late hours of the evenings, and poured into me when I really needed a laugh, friend, or a late night/early morning trip to Vernal or the gas station. The trips we took to the lake, the hikes behind the school, phenomenal bonfires at red rocks, runs up and down Kennedy, when we discovered the “rollercoaster”, and post-game dinners in the caf; dang, I freakin miss that small little school in that small little town.

If you didn’t see your name, don’t take it personally I promise. Even if you were only at that specific school for a couple weeks, you still were part of my experience and growth, and for that I am forever grateful for you all.

Mesa:

Finally, my Mesa family.

Not enough words could describe the absolute excitement and gratitude I had entering a program that was notorious for having a winning record, playing home games at the same stadium the junior college World Series is held, and where a minor league Colorado Rockies affiliate resides. I talked about the anticipation and excitement that was literally almost oozing out of me to every person that would listen, and I want to take a moment here and thank each person that listened to my gripes, groans, and endless soliloquys about a little boy’s dream coming true. You may not have known it at the time, but those moments and conversations built me up (or how us young people say it these days, “it HYPED ME UP”) and encouraged me to live up to the “hype” that I was giving myself haha

Colorado Mesa is where I bore my fruit; the fruit I had worked so endlessly for throughout my life. I was crafted and molded into the pitcher I would come to be my sophomore year at CNCC (and that summer), and CMU is where it all flourished. The grit was there; the motivation was there; the humility; the approach; the passion; the youthful zeal (you’re gonna hear me say that NUMEROUS times throughout my written pieces, so you better get familiar with it because it’s one of my favorite phrases). Everything was already in place, by God’s gracious love, and now it was time to showcase it. Soli Deo Gloria style. Coram Deo style.

Pitching at CMU was everything I’d hoped it would be and so much more. Having the opportunity to pitch in a rotation that included some of the best pitchers in the nation was a dream come true for a little kid from South Oxnard. My friends and roommates making their way over to the stadium on some Saturday or Sunday afternoon would come to be one of my favorite memories of putting on that creme colored jersey and doing what I loved. Now instead of making this a 55 page blog post, I’m just gonna talk about the memories that stand out the most:

I’ll start with the entire 2017 season. The 2017 season came with a ton of extraordinary moments, some of which I’ll go into a bit of detail soon, but it also came with devastating news that would lead to the season’s mantra and future banner of pride, brotherhood, and hardwork. A ball player and dear friend to many named Ryan Teixeira past away from his second battle with cancer. His wake and funeral services in California were unbelievably moving, and I couldn’t help but admire (and absolutely sob) on how unashamed of the gospel his family was at his funeral service. They were bold, broken, vulnerable, but stood firm on the promises of God. It was truly spectacular. May Ryan rest in glory.

I had the best year of baseball in 2017. Although my sophomore year at CNCC was super wonderful, I cannot compare the two as to which one was better than the other because each one was vastly different. At Mesa;

- I experienced a beautiful Friday night fireworks celebration after breaking a school win-streak. The stadium was as full as it ever had been while we were playing in it, and there was this aura of happiness and genuine enjoyment, regardless of wherever you were sitting (even in the visitor section). Fireworks and baseball have always been like peanut butter and jelly, ham and burger, salt and pepper, and tyga and Chris brown. 😂

- I flew for the first time (in a private airplane at that) to play in a regional tournament, as well as a D2 World Series. This playoff experience had me almost in tears thanking God for getting our team and I to that point in order for us to experience and excel in an environment like that. I pitched the BEST two games in my life that season (complete game shut-out against the #1 team in the region at their home field to eliminate them and send us to the championship, and a complete game win against the #1 team in the nation to eliminate them and send us to the semi-finals in the World Series).

Baseball is boring to a lot of people; I’ll admit I even think it’s boring sometimes, but I found an aspect that was worth cherishing the boredom forever. Through this game God gave me memories, friends for a lifetime, extreme frustration and anger, absolute joy and passion, and a love and appreciation for a game played by 4 year olds and 70 year olds. How amazing is that?

God, thank you for these years.

I will miss it forever.

[lonescion-archive]

TAGGED BY: @fujxn​ <3333 TAGGING: @meagerking​ , @dragoonxdive​ , @milleuda-folles​ , @counterfeitmasquerade​ (for Seth bc i love a boy) , @divine-identite​ , @zinidyne-zidane​ , @of-magic-and-fun​ , @vibraea​ , @misplacedheroics​ , @blackmage-lulu​ , @girlinthemagitekarmor​ , and anyone else who’d love to do this!

1. WHAT IS YOUR NAME? 

“Argath Thadalfus.” His tone is formal, clipped. 

2. WHAT IS YOUR REAL NAME?  

“....Algus Sadalfas.” 

3. DO YOU KNOW WHY YOU’RE CALLED THAT? 

“My parents named me, of course.” 

4. ARE YOU SINGLE OR TAKEN? 

“Why would that matter?” (Taken in a couple of verses, single in most of the others)

5. WHAT ARE YOUR POWERS AND ABILITIES? 

 “I can shoot a target at a rather impressive distance, even in poor visibility conditions. I can also throw stones, administer basic first aid, and rend someone’s helm as well as their armor.” He remains silent about the nature of his gifted dark powers. 

6. WHAT COLOR ARE YOUR EYES?

 “Blue, though I’m told they look like ice sometimes.” Sometimes they are the color of blooded wine, his sclera dark...

7. HAVE YOU EVER DYED YOUR HAIR?

 “What? No, no... I fancy my hair the way it is now.” 

8. DO YOU HAVE ANY FAMILY MEMBERS? 

 “There was my grandsire-- I did not ever get to meet him.” Yet he alone might have set Argath down this ruinous path... “My sire... and my mother.” Argath’s gaze lowers. 

9. DO YOU HAVE ANY PETS? 

 “I do not.” 

10. TELL ME ABOUT SOMETHING YOU DON’T LIKE. 

 “I do not fancy many a thing, but I especially find jesters to be an intolerable kind.” 

11. DO YOU HAVE ANY HOBBIES OR ACTIVITIES YOU DO IN YOUR SPARE TIME?

 “Before my time with Ramza, I used to love baking when I got the chance. A sweet treat and the reward of endeavor.” 

12. HAVE YOU EVER HURT ANYONE BEFORE?

 “I have hurt a lot of people. You shall have to be more specific perhaps.” 

13. HAVE YOU EVER… KILLED ANYONE?

 “Of course I have. You cannot enforce will without having blood stain your hands.” Argath clenches a fist.

14. WHAT KIND OF ANIMAL ARE YOU? 

 “I will personally say I am most toward being as a cat.” He rubs his chin. “Cats demand little of me.” 

15. NAME YOUR WORST HABITS. 

 “I suppose... I tend to burn both ends of the candle wax when I’m alight with passion for a project.” 

16. DO YOU LOOK UP TO ANYONE? 

“As any would for their betters. Ramza was one I looked up to for a time but events have... changed that.” 

17. GAY, STRAIGHT, OR BISEXUAL? 

“None of your business.” Bisexual, or at the least bi-curious

18. DO YOU GO TO SCHOOL? 

 “I was training at the Limberry Akademy for a time. Mostly I taught myself, and then I learned yet more travelling with Ramza and company.” 

19. DO YOU EVER WANT TO MARRY AND HAVE KIDS SOMEDAY?

 “Of course I do..! To rebuild my House... in order to do that, I will eventually need heirs to take my place when I am wizened and grey.” 

20. DO YOU HAVE ANY FANS?

 He looks around. He looks back. “.....Does it seem to you that I have... fans?” 

21. WHAT ARE YOU MOST AFRAID OF? 

 “Being a failure.” He looks uncomfortable. “Being... alone.” 

22. WHAT DO YOU USUALLY WEAR? 

 “My cadet armor, of Limberry craft.” He rubs a wistful finger on the worn armor plate covering his chest. 

23. DO YOU LOVE SOMEONE? 

 “I loved.” That is all he says. 

24. WHAT CLASS ARE YOU? 

 “I am a nobleman.” He frowns, squinting a little bit. 

25. HOW MANY FRIENDS DO YOU HAVE?

 “I don’t need friends they disappoint”

“I had many former comrades... all now dead or... otherwise.” 

26. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON PIE? 

 “It is an exquisite treat when I can afford a taste.” 

27. FAVORITE DRINK? 

 “Some wine once in a great while hurt no one.” 

29. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PLACE? 

 “Home.” He seems a bit weary as he sighs.

30. ARE YOU INTERESTED IN SOMEONE? 

 “I am interested in a lot of people.” Argath smirks. “But you might have meant to ask if I was interested in someone romantically.” He’s going to abuse these loopholes for as long as he can...

31. WOULD YOU RATHER SWIM IN THE LAKE OR THE OCEAN? 

 “I would say lake but the nearest lake to my home was Lake Poescas, so the ocean it is.” 

32. WHAT’S YOUR ‘TYPE’?

 “Type... type of what? Type of crossbow finish? I prefer oaken crossbows or bows. They feel more sturdy.” 

33. ANY FETISHES?

 Argath stares forward. He’s not giving this information up. Not without a long struggle anyhow.

34. TOP OR BOTTOM? DOMINANT OR SUBMISSIVE?

 “Perhaps.” 

35. CAMPING, OR INDOORS? 

 “Indoors. I prefer the comforts of home or the buildings to the savage wilderness outside of the cities.” 

36. ARE YOU WAITING FOR THIS INTERVIEW TO BE OVER?

“Most certainly. I have matters I must attend to..!” 

[moderndaydemeter]

Carp Fishing – 2020 Park Lake, Mayhem!

Carp Fishing – 2020 Park Lake, Mayhem!

This time last year, as I write this in January, I remember being critical of the constant doom and gloom coming from various media outlets about a possible ‘pandemic’ that was about to hit our shores.

Strangely for me, I had my fishing head on and actually had 3 bites during the course of that month, on a notoriously difficult lake, so you can understand the reason for my winter keenness!

Mother nature dealt a cruel blow with the river bursting its banks and going straight into the lake, colouring it up in the process and pretty much putting an end to some action that was to be had.

It wasn’t until well into March that I was to receive my next bite in the form of Mr Angry and then not long after that, we were all about to experience something that we never thought would happen in our lifetime, with the lockdown.

After the sterling efforts from the Angling Trust, I decided to not bother with the park lake and instead spend some quality fishing time at my other syndicate with my son. We spent most of that time carrying out some much-needed maintenance with a few burn ups that every kid enjoys! Throw in a couple of carp for good measure, he seemed almost as happy as he would be on his Xbox!!

Eventually, though, my thoughts were that I needed to be back at the park lake. This was to be my 3rd season on White Swan and I was determined to fish it my way, as I wasn’t really happy with how the past seasons have gone. Don’t get me wrong, I have always had my feet firmly on the ground as despite there being in excess of 200 carp swimming around the 26 acre lake, you’ll be hard pushed to actually see more than 70 of them grace the bank. I’ve fished a lot of circuit waters over the years and this is without doubt the hardest of them all. Over the past two years I was of the opinion that if the fish were showing over me and I wasn’t getting a bite, then I was getting ‘done’. I also knew that if I wasn’t creating chances after applying my watercraft, then they weren’t feeding on what I was giving them. Simple, I know, but not necessarily easy to work out when you are there doing it, it was more about reflecting on those experiences.

We’ve all done it, where we listen to others and we find out what the going method is and we try to deploy it, but the truth is, others might be better applying that method than we are, so that was my reason I wanted to apply some changes.

My rigs were the first thing I changed, together with my lead arrangement with the latter being inline and the former moving away from pop-ups to bottom bait rigs. I also went against the norm and used long hook-links as the shorter versions had been used extensively. Finally, I moved away from the ‘bits and pieces’ approach and just fished bait, but applied using a catapult or a throwing stick at night as the gulls would just get the better of you if attempted in the day.

With the new restrictions in place, we were back after the lake closed for its annual spawning break and, as you can imagine, we were all desperate to get fishing again, although it still didn’t feel right, but we were lucky to not be stuck indoors for any longer.

My first piece of action was a few weeks into June. It was one of those glorious June days, where the sky was a solid blue and the lake was slowly moving in a multitude of directions from the gentle breeze. The carp were also evidently showing and feeding in the first bay out of the car park. With no one around, I was pinching myself as to why that was the case?! Simon, the head bailiff said I’d be mad not to go into a swim called ‘Jays’! The swim had only just been vacated so I didn’t fancy dropping into it, so, with prior knowledge of a swim called the boards a few up, I moved into there.

Applying the aforementioned plan, two rods were put out against a solid weed bed, one on a very hard, well established clay spot and the other, a slightly softer silt area.

The fish remained in the area and, unlike usual with White Swan, no one moved next to me or opposite! The following day arrived with the customary overcast summer conditions. The odd bubble was popping to the surface, keeping my mind wandering together with the odd head and shoulder from a number of different carp, simply lovely!

Late that morning, the silt rod’s tip pulled down and the music to every carp anglers dream was to pierce the airwaves as the ATTS alarm screamed. My mate Ian literally walked into the swim as I was connected to a dark common rolling on the surface of the crystal clear water. At 27lb, I was delighted to get one with my new, but non-revolutionary ideas put into practice.

I had a couple more trips that month but the fish were on the move again, as is so often the case with there, so it was more a case of learning and watching rather than catching.

My drought continued well into August, although I wasn’t fishing as hard with other important things with the family to attend, so it wasn’t anything to start questioning with what I was doing, angling wise.

I found myself moving swims a lot. I suppose I was kind of chasing them, but at the same time introducing my bait with the help of a couple of mates that were also on the same stuff.

I really wanted to get the bait accepted by the fish, as do so many other anglers on there and that generally involves a bit of pain in trying to establish areas and it usually doesn’t pay its dividends until September.

I was mucking about in a swim called the beach, after seeing a couple of fish show over the subsequent trips. This swim is notoriously difficult to get a bite out of and in the past it has required a lot of preparation work in order to achieve that.

There was a large weed bed positioned in front of it, very encouraging, roughly about 30-40 yards out that made this swim far more favourable than its usually productive neighbouring swim, called the woods. The only explanation I could think of as to why the woods swim wasn’t producing was the lack of weed present in front of there as otherwise, I would have probably given the beach a steer.

I did a fair bit of weed clearing for the left hand rod. I was happy with the spot, a firm silt area, but the line lay leading up to it, not so. I was getting quite paranoid about it actually, so I decided to try out the new Mirage Platinum Fluorocarbon to somewhat ease that paranoia, which helped, as in my opinion, it is the best carp fishing mainline Gardner Tackle has produced to date. It’s versatility, sinking properties and strength were streets ahead of the nearest offering, but I still needed to do my prep work to get the best out of it and that was painful to say the least aided with the Gardner weed rake! But, they say time put in, equals reward!?

After a couple of short trips in the beach, I was on the move again, as the fish were showing in pretty much the furthest areas from where I was fishing. With my patience dwindling, I again found myself jumping from swim to swim in an attempt to be on the fish, feeling more and more detached from actually getting amongst the carp.

It was on one very sunny afternoon that I saw a group of fish in front of the beach again, in fact I was desperately looking for anything to move onto as I was so bored with what I was doing at the other end and had another night to fish at my disposal. This really was a gift, they were at multiple levels, some on the surface and some feeding on the bottom.

Another angler was fishing a swim to the right of this and out of respect, I didn’t cast a lead in the lake until the activity had settled down. He was going later that day, so that eased my conscience despite the area being the beach’s water.

The spots were easy to find and two rods with good line lay were positioned. I’d baited those spots on numerous occasions, so I was feeling confident and as the beautiful day moved into night, I pulted a good few hundred baits around the zones and then proceeded to throw the ball for Barney my lab, up and down the path behind, to wear us both out for the night!

There were still fish slopping out in front of me and the lake was quieter than usual, so I was really hoping that I would be in with a chance, overnight.

However, nothing. Where were the fish, I thought as I made the first cuppa of the day? There wasn’t a breeze on the lake. Both Barney and I took advantage of the lack of people and the tranquillity of the early dawn by standing at the edge of the swim, eyes peeled! If something was to show, we would have seen it and it wasn’t long as a very large, dark looking chunk showed a good 150 yards over the other side of the lake, which wasn’t ideal, but it was still in the middle area of the lake, which I took as a positive.

Thankfully, what seemed against the odds, the swim came alive at just after 8am. Sheets of bubbles were evident in multiple areas indicating a few fish and before long this was complemented with the signs of carp just breaking the surface with their heads.

I rang my mate Phil and said ‘it’s got to happen, they are all over me, mate!’ He was at the other end of the lake on the start of a campaign that required a healthy dose of commitment! I was now getting nervous about the whole situation, as I only had a few hours left before I needed to pack up and to leave the swim without a bite would have left me in a state of bewilderment. An opportunity like that doesn’t happen often, so you have to make it work. Eventually, the right-hand rod just ripped off and without so much as a thought, I bypassed my waders and jumped into the shallows to connect with the fish that sought sanctuary of the weed beds before finally being greeted by my net. My dog looked at me as if I’d lost the plot when I started punching the water as a show of immense satisfaction!

Phil came around to help with the photos, recognising the fish as a ‘proper’ one in the form of the 2nd Big Fully and he did a masterful job with the camera. With its heavily plated scales glimmering in the faint sun, it truly was one of the country’s stunners!

I couldn’t wait to return, and a couple of mates had said to get back into the beach as they were still showing in there, and it was free, so it was rude not to!

Sure enough, the activity was almost as frequent as when I had last had the 2nd Fully and I hadn’t ruined the chance of any action from a successful couple of casts with the weed rake and positioning of the baits.

My mate Paul was over the other side and he doesn’t miss a thing. He knew I was in with a chance and the excitement was running away from me, although, I had a niggling doubt that the fish were ‘doing’ me. I wasn’t overly happy with the hooking from the rig when I caught that last fish and the next morning, with not so much as a line twitch, one of my rigs had the hook firmly embedded into an extremely hard hook bait. That was enough, I knew that they were on the bait, but changes needed to be made. With a family holiday due the following week, it was time for some reflection.

My good pal Gary was keeping me informed with what was going on and he was doing a grand job of locating the fish and not letting on to the other anglers.

I had a couple of nights ahead of me early September and with Gary in the Oaks, he suggested I go into a swim known as number 8 as the fish were showing very close in. I found a couple of really nice clear spots in the weed, pretty much where he said they were showing. During that session, we saw a few but they were more in front of the swim to the left of me. For the first time, the area I was seeing them could be fished from the left side of the swim, because a tree had come down in the summer, giving you far greater access.

Just before setting off home, after a non-productive couple of nights, I had a good plumb about towards the zone that I kept seeing them show whilst drinking shed loads of tea with Gary and Sam that morning. I found a gem of a clay spot about 45 yards out, which was surrounded by Canadian pondweed, apart from a nice channel leading up to it that with some further work with the weed rake, I could get my line really down on the bottom. I knew that the line lay from the swim next door wouldn’t offer me anywhere near the advantage from 8 due to the really deep margin and I doubted anyone would go in there as it wasn’t popular, but in all fairness, the spot was directly in front of that swim, so I needed to be mindful of that possibility.

With no one angling around me on that late Sunday morning, I put in the remainder of my bait, consisting of chops and whole boilies via the Spomb and then just hoped I could get in there the following week.

The next week came around and with literally nothing else bar work going on in my world, I couldn’t think of much else than getting back into 8.

I knew the swim had been fished but not from where I was intending and thankfully, it was free when I arrived. At that time of year on Dinton, it helps if you’ve got a campaign you are working on, as they respond to prepared areas, however, keeping a popular swim like 8 unoccupied was never going to be easy, especially if it kicked off. I’m not traditionally one to have preconceived ideas, but I needed to stick to a plan.

I’d tweaked the rigs, keeping the long hook link, exchanging the material from tungsten ultra-sink to 25lb Mirage, coupled with size 6 spinner style Mugga’s. I still kept with the heavy inline bolt-bombs using a big loop in the hook link to ensure some movement, but I wasn’t too concerned because of the hard areas I was fishing.

With both rods positioned and ample bait applied with the pult alone in the dark, I popped down 2 swims to my right for a cuppa with Phil. I literally sat down and my remote signalled 2 beeps which had me flying up the path! The rod tip was pulled down and the bobbin was tight to the alarm as without taking any line from the spool! My initial thoughts were that the fish had already got into the weedbed behind, but I had no issues in guiding it towards Phil with the waiting net. A nice 27lb common was really the tonic I needed. The hook was exactly where I’d wanted it, in fact I needed forceps to take it out!

Nothing further happened that trip, although I was able to apply more bait to the areas, hoping that I could get in there again the following week, but as it happened, I couldn’t get down because of work commitments, so I returned nearly two weeks later. We were now into the prime back end of September and with the rain just starting to come down, I was most grateful to get the dog under the bivvy quick before he really started to pong in the confines of no8 again!

The spot felt that I’d caught the fish from my last trip felt good and with not too much effort with the weed rake, I was once again happy with the line lay.

I was persisting with the right-hand spot, but I wasn’t overall happy with this one, but moving it closer to the other rod would have been cutting my nose off to spite my face.

Keeping things the same, with rigs and tactics, everything felt good and once that rain stopped the fish showed where they were and I couldn’t have been in a better position! Almost exactly the same time as the last bite, my left-hand rod signalled a couple of beeps. Taking my time, I put the waders on and held the line with the rod still on the alarm only for it to slightly tension and then slacken off. Without hesitation I lifted into what was clearly a carp that again, was not in any weed and after a fairly disparaging tussle, it was seamlessly scooped into the net. I practised my much needed honing skills at self-takes, before returning the small common at just over 21lb. The hook hold was again perfect and, although it wasn’t cold, the bites were as if we were in the depths of winter, very strange.

Lining up the cast in the dark to the silhouetted treeline horizon and hitting the clip perfectly, the lead came down with a satisfying thud and the line was sunk beautifully.

I retired confidently for the night, although the fish could still be heard rolling on the surface with nothing else competing with the noise, making it very hard to sleep.

Like a true keen carp angler, I was up bright and early with a tea in hand and the dog sleeping on my bed as soon as I got off it, the lazy git!

Beep, beep from the left alarm and the line pulling up tight yet again, no line coming off the spool, but I was on it and before long I had a far better fish in the net that gave a much better account of itself!

Joe, an angler a few swims down from me was on his way to work early that morning, so before he carried on up the path, I gave him a quick lesson in how to use my digital SLR in ‘P’ mode before he suggested he used his own camera, which was something that the likes of Kardashian’s are used to looking at! At that point I decided he didn’t need any more of my photography training skills and I shut up and left him to do a superb job!!

The fish was another typical Dinton stunner that had put on over 5lb in a year at 35.07. They were munching all right!

sea fishing reels

[tidefated]

Note; I get that this is a reblog and fill it out form but I actually? Hate that so I’m reposting but I was tagged by @oceanfoamed and here’s the original form for ya’ll <-- leaving Holmes’s commentary here

In general:

Real name: Skyler

Nicknames: Bun / Sky

Age: 22

Sexuality: *insert one of my usual schrodinger jokes here*

Prefered pronouns: He / They

Are you a morning person?: I can be, but it depends on how my life is rolling at the time. Lately I like to sleep in more than I like mornings.

When swimming, do you prefer to do it in the ocean, or in a lake?: Ok full disclosure? I am so goddamn landlocked I have seen the ocean twice in my life- well, 3 times, but the first I was too young to remember, I’m just aware I was there, and must have seen it. I’m so landlocked, that the nearest large bodies of water ( a terrifyingly polluted lake and a terrifyingly polluted river ) are each a two/two-and-a-half hour drive away. I have seen the river when driving over it, and the lake at a distance because we were told to stay off the beach and I was like... 11? My ability to swim is pretty pathetic- I’ve apparently got all the motions right, but I perpetually forget to actually breath when I bring my head out of the water- like my body just fucking refuses to do it. So uh- short answer, I guess, is I don’t have enough experience to have a preference, and either way it’s probably not smart to let me do it unsupervised.

On Tumblr:

Anyone you would like to meet in real life?: Now that Mani is on my side of the ocean, @seafaired is someone I hope to see before the year is out, if I can arrange travel expenses accordingly, also @apcgee promised to go to a Broadway show with me.

Anyone you have met in real life?: I spent like 2 months-ish living with @oceanfoamed, but otherwise not yet! 

When did you first join? How old is your current account?: Uuh- I think I joined the RPC in like 2012? Idk we were all still using big gifs and formatting didn’t exist yet. This blog’s original form was made back in December/January 2017/2018, and was just remade ( better ) literally last month. So pretty shiny new.

Any peeves?: I mean basically all the stuff Holmes listed, but also whackadoodle formatting with lots of weird spacing and capitalized words and.. and... and... ugh guys people have?? Vision problems?? I am dyslexic fam you are not making my life any easier.

Unpopular opinion: TBH Malakh covered this really well in his version of this post, with the comment on purity culture, so uh. That. All of it. <-- that, but also throwing my own on here so as not to be a total copycat: You don’t have to write with a million people to be a successful RPer? Your worth is not measured by the number of your threads or partners. You can write with 100 people, you can write with 30 people, you can write with 5 people, you can write with 1 person, and you are still valid and worthy of respect as an RPer because this is about having fun not pressuring yourself beyond your comfort. That was a lesson hard learned for me & I feel it’s very important for everyone to remember.

Feelings:

Do you easily get jealous?:��Jealous, no- insecure, sometimes. I’m very aware that no one is obligated to write with me or anyone else? No matter what? But there will be times I doubt myself when others come around and that is- fairly natural I think? So I may withdraw until I can isolate the source of my own insecurities and smush them, or reach out for a little reassurance.

Do you easily get angry?: Under very particular circumstances.

Are you easy to cheer up?: Sometimes? Sort of? Usually when I get upset I only experience the actual upset-ness for a short while, and go straight to numbness- how long that lasts is pretty dependent on how effectively I can distract myself- but there’s only so much another person can do to distract me.

What’s the most hurtful thing someone could do to you?: Why the hell would I tell the internet? Ok but no really continuing here why would this be on a meme why would anyone even ask this?? Like- 80% of the people on this hellsite have trust issues they won’t own up to so like what is the point lmfao?? 

What’s the most hurtful thing someone has done to you?: One time my cat came to lay next to me like the sweetie he is, except instead he trotted across my face and sat exactly 2.5 feet away. >:

Are you good at hiding your emotions?: Probably, considering I’m not sure what they are half the time.

What’s the very best way to cheer you up?: Change the topic or use animal gifs. <--- same. Usually I need time to emotionally separate myself from an issue so that I can revisit it later- dealing with it in the moment is almost never a good idea- so the best thing to do is get me buried in basically anything else.

Relationships:

Are you currently in a relationship?: Nah- did that whole commitment thing for a little over 3 years and it kinda wrecked me mentally, emotionally, and physically haha. I’m not wholly opposed to the idea of dating, but long-term relationships are pretty far off the radar atm.

Do you currently have a crush on someone?: Nope. I adore lots of people but my heart doesn’t do the squeezy-plunk for anybody.

If yes, might that someone be reading this?:  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Do you kiss on the first date?: Errm... I know this seems to contradict the committed relationship thing mentioned above but.... I’ve never actually been on a date? That said, I don’t see the problem with doing so? I mean I’ve kissed people I’m not even attracted to bc we both decided to go ‘what the hell’, so it seems fine to me to kiss someone I am attracted to without a fuss.

Do you prefer going out, or staying home, when it comes to dates?: I had to think about this bc like Holmes I hate leaving my house but also the idea of inviting someone in to my house when I’m already out of my depth sounds like an awful idea cause it might destabilize my safe space.

Things:

Favorite drink: Water, some chai tea, frozen matcha, and lavender lattes specifically the way I make them at work.

Favorite food: Mmm any food that doesn’t make me sick is good food. Bonus points if I don’t have to cook it.

Most calming place?: Anywhere I can curl up and not be interrupted by humans while I dick around on my computer / anywhere I can sit in peace and quiet with a book and not be interrupted by humans or noises ( bonus points if lots of nature )

Most stressful place?: Anywhere that has more than (1) human I do not know intimately well. Any place with more than (4) people I know intimately well. <--- Holmes I feel called out

Most prized possession?: Laptop, as I cannot say my cats- but my Slytherin cloak from HP world cuts a close second, along with my vv old hardback copies of the HP books, which were gifts from my great grandmother when I was growing up.

Tag five people (if you want to):

✗ @apcgee

✗ Anyone who wants to do the thing should steal it like the pirates they are cause Holmes tagged all my other people or they’ve already done it.

[deathbyseventeen]

3lue || Joshua Element AU

Title: 3lue || For @justkpopjokes, I finally finished what I meant to write for your contest TT

Member: Joshua x Reader 

Genere: Momentary fluff. Adventure. Angst. Then some fluff again. 

Words: 5,797

A/N Maybe part 2???? (unedited - I’ll proofread more tomorrow, y’all have waited long enough. Im sorry for the typos TT) Tell me if you want part 2!

He didn’t understand how he got there, how he was met with blue skies, white clouds, and dark green tree leaves when he opened his eyes. How, when the feeling of his body came back to him, he felt like someone had dropped a boulder on his back.

There were many things he didn’t understand about the current position he was in, that was for sure. But there was one thing that bugged him the most. One that he felt wasn’t normal, but he wasn’t quite sure.

Who was he exactly?

No, he didn’t know and trying to remember just gave him a headache. But there was one thing he knew: he wanted to go for a swim.

————————

“I just don’t get it.” You groaned and swung your metal rod at a nearby tree. “We are two of the best section leaders in our triads. Why exactly are we being sent on this scouting mission.”

The boy behind you threw his head back in exasperation before answering you, “We’ve been over this already, Y/N. If they sent anyone else they’d probably be dead before they even got to the actual part of this mission. We’re section leaders for a reason.” He groaned.

“Well, excuse me, Seungcheol.” You rolled your eyes, “Pardon me, for believing the school would want their best elemental wielders there, you know, in case war suddenly breaks out.” You huffed out and readied to hit another tree.

“Would you stop.” Seungcheol snapped. “We haven’t even found what we’re looking for yet and it’s like you want everything else to come after us.”

“I thought we were the best.” You grumbled as you turned around to glare at him.

“We are.” Seungcheol insisted.

“Oh really? If they picked the best to come, then why isn’t Jeonghan here too?”

“Someone had to stay behind to guard the school. A magic wielder is better off there than here.”

“Is he now?” You raised an eyebrow to challenge him.

“You know that’s not what I meant.”

“Go tell that to him. Another leader in your triad, might I add.”

Seungcheol shook his head, exasperated,  “Let’s take a break.”

You nodded and sighed, “I’ll be…I’ll be in the lake. Don’t follow me. I’ll come back in thirty.” You pointed north and walked off before he could protest.

Every few seconds, you turned around to make sure Seungcheol was no longer in view. Then, as more and more trees began to block your path, you started taking off your clothes.

You dipped your toes in the water and smiled before throwing yourself in.

You sighed and submerged yourself, swimming to the bottom of the lake then rubbing your arms and legs, trying to use the pressure to get a weeks worth of dirt off of you.

A smile worked it's way onto your face as you cleaned yourself. Then you remembered why you had the ability to breathe underwater for so long, even though you weren’t a water based nature wielder.

Your smile turned into a scowl. It was better not remember.

You rubbed your forearm harder, glaring at it like it had done something horrible to you. Then, you flinched and lifted your hand off of it. A patch of skin had peeled off and small blots of blood were coming from it. You shook your head and headed for surface, pulling your forearm to your chest.

You coughed as you surfaced and used your free hand to wipe the water from your eyes. Slowly you opened your eyes, blinking away the burning sensation. A slightly tanned, red-brown haired, cat eyed boy, bare chested, floated in front of you.

“Ah!” You screamed before swimming away to shore, where you scrambled to grab your uniform before ducking behind a tree.

You hustled to get your clothes on; since, you knew that your startled scream had probably reached Seungcheol. A couple of seconds later, you could hear his footsteps pounding against the forest floor.

“Y/N? Y/N? Where are you? What's going on?!” He panted, a hoard of deer and a single bear behind him.

"I'm so sorry!" Lake boy, screamed, walking onto shore. "I swear I didn't know anyone was swimming here. I didn't mean to--"

"Who the hell are you?" Seungcheol asked, falling into a fighting position. “Y/N?!” He screamed again.

You ran out from behind the tree, picked up your rod, and ducked behind Seungcheol.

“He’s a pervert, Coups. I was washing myself in lake and when I came up he was just there, shirtless and— and—“ Seungcheol blinked in confusion as you made gestures and motions toward yourself.

“I’m really sorry!” The boy said, putting his hands up in defense, “I didn’t know anyone was here. I’ve been swimming for half an hour and hadn’t seen anyone.”

“So the moment you do, you decide to approach them even though they aren’t dressed?” You growled.

“No!” The boy exclaimed, “I didn’t even know you were there! You came up while I was swimming! I was startled! I’m sorry!”

“What’s your name?” Seungcheol asked, shooing away the animals slowly.

“I- I’m not sure, I don’t remember anything. I woke up in a clearing not far from here, without any memory of anything.”  

———————

“We shouldn’t be taking him with us.” You hissed at Seungcheol.

“We don’t leave a civilian in distress.” He replied, monotone.

You readied yourself to reply, but he interjected before you could again, “Most reports said that victims were kidnapped and wiped of their memory. Only 3 out of 100 missing people have been found, Y/N." Seungcheol sighed heavily, running a hand through his hair.

"We're not leaving him behind. It's out duty to protect the people of our world. We have to help him. Besides," he began, looking uncomfortable, "I ended up at that clearing. It wasn't pretty, there was blood splattered on the trees. Something happened there, something horrible."

You bit back a groan when Seungcheol shot you a tired look. You glared at him for a second before glancing behind you toward the other boy.

He looked comfortable walking through the forest. The sunlight that seeped through the gaps in the trees, cast a glow on his red brown hair. He had clothes on now and he had even ran a hurried hand through his hair to fix it.

Your eyes froze on his downcast ones-- daunting cat eyes, they were unmistakable.

"Fine." You bit the bottom of your lip, "What should we do?"

"Take him to the nearest village, let them spread the word of another victim found. But," Seungcheol trailed off, shooting you a careful glance.

"But what?" You said as your eyes narrowed.

"We should take him to the Cave of Legends first. The villagers always speak of the legends to their kids. Maybe he'll remember something like his name, where he comes from, or if he even has abilities like ours."

———————

Leaves crunched under the weight of your feet, as you stomped on ahead of Seungcheol and the amnesiac boy. Seungcheol had decided that it would be better to start telling him about the world you live in, and took the rear with him.

They were only a couple of feet behind you, so their conversation was of no secret to you. Even more, the boy would respond enthusiastically, loudly.

"Wait! So that means you two are from some magical school that trains you to fight monsters?!"

"Well not magic, not everyone. We're called elementals because each of us can control something or be something."

"Like?"

"Like I'm part of the nature group. You know, some can control the greenery, others animals, and others water, etcetera etcetera."

"And the others??"

"Well--"

"The others are of no business to you." You snapped turning around and stomping towards them.

"Sorry to break it to you, Cat-eyes, but there are only three elemental schools. You hear me? Three. And all three would have reported if there were dead or missing elementals. Which, if you haven't caught on yet, means you're probably not one of us." You hissed.

Cat-eyes, wide-eyed, took a step back before Seungcheol stopped him.

"Y/N." Seungcheol snapped. "He has no memory--"

"The reason to why we're taking him to cave of legends in the first place!” You huffed.

“Look, I’m sorry—“

“Sorry, sorry, sorry. Is that all you can say for yours—“

“Look out!” Cat-eyes shouted, tackling you. The back of your head hit the ground with a light thump, you groaned, and before you could regain your senses properly, you felt a heavy weight atop of you be lifted and the cushion under your head ripped from underneath you.

A scream followed immediately after.

You were pulled to your feet by Seungcheol and propped up against a tree. There was a ringing in your ears, so you couldn’t tell what he was trying to tell you. You nodded anyways and watched as he ran off, transforming into an eagle.

You squinted, trying to figure out what had just attacked. Little by little, the blurry figure twenty feet away came into focus.

It was a giant.

You gasped. Amnesiac was in the hand of a fifteen foot giant. Then you gagged as it’s stench hit you. You shook your head, this wooden skinned giant, covered in moss, wasn’t about to get the best of you.

“Coups,” you croaked, “fire.”  You didn’t know how, maybe it was because of all the animal transformations he could do, but even from fifteen feet in the sky, he could hear you.  

He nose dived from the giant’s head onto his fist, where it held Cat-eyes. Even from a distance you could tell Cat-eyes was frozen in fear, the strength of that giant holding him turning him purple.

Seungcheol transformed back into human form when he landed on the fist, then put his arms around Cat-eyes. He turned his gaze in your direction and it was all you needed to know.

You threw yourself to the spot where you had stood before Cat-eyes had tackled you. You grabbed your rod and rose it into the air as the giant prepared to kill both boys with his other hand.

You focused on his hand, imagining electricity crawling out from within you, forming in the clouds and poising itself for attack. Soon enough, your entire body was engulfed in an electrical yellow glow.

You let out a war cry and aimed the tip of your rod at the giant’s arm. Lightning shot out of the tip and the sky, hitting its wrist. It screamed in pain and panic as fire raced up it’s wooden skin.

It let go of Cat-eyes, but before he could fall to his death, Seungcheol transformed into a bigger version of a harpy and grabbed onto to him and flew him to you before landing next to you.

“It’s weaker, kill it.” He heaved.

“I can’t put more on him,” you struggled to get out, since, you were controlling the spread of the fire, “more electricity, more fire, it’ll burn the forest.”

“Then I’ll just attack it aga—“

“You can’t! We can’t win this one, we have to go! Get ready to run!” You counted to three before letting yourself lose control of the fire, grabbing Cat-eyes hand, and rushing past the giant, in the direction of the cave.

—————————

“You control fire.” Cat-eyes whispered in awe.

“I don’t control fire.”

“Yes you do. That’s what you did when you saved us.” He sulked, playing with the twigs on the floor.

The three of you sat outside a small pit that you had dug up to hold a small fire. Cat-eyes sat across from you, on the other side of the fire. Meanwhile, Seungcheol was asleep between the both of you, curling into the heat of the fire.

You nodded nonchalantly, and kicked another log into the fire. His gloomy expression made you sigh inaudibly and throw your head back.

Through the thick of the trees, you could see a few stars, and with that, you made your decision.

“Fate is a funny thing, don’t you think?” You let yourself fall onto your back so you could stare at the two dots in the sky. You didn’t want him to reply, but you knew he would.

“I’m- I’m not sure. Is it?”

You hummed a yes, “It is. You probably had a life before your memories got taken away. And I, I was gifted with the ability of summoning lighting and controlling its products.”

“Oh, so that’s your power.”

“Mmm.” You replied. You expected that to be the end of the conversation, but a few silent moments later, he coughed into his arm.

“Sorry about, you know..the lake. I was there for a while, though. How- how did you last so long underwater?”

You pushed yourself up, off the ground, to look at him and his nervous facial expression. He stared at you for a few seconds before flinching and going back to playing with the twigs at his feet, muttering a quick apology.

"That's another funny fate, you see." You let out in a small breath. You waited for him to glance at you before laying back down.

Then, you let a dry chuckle, as you stared at the flickering duo of stars above you.

"I knew this boy when I was younger, he was from the same village I was, and we grew up together, inseparable."

"A boy?"

"Mm. He was born a nature elemental like me, except, his ability was to breathe underwater and control it. His aura was impressive too-- you see, he had no color, his aura was invisible, shifting, but you knew it was there."

"He taught you? Can't be that impressive if he isn't here with you and Seungcheol." He whispered.

"I guess Seungcheol told you why we were sent here too." You shrugged, "Anyways, everyday he would take me to the lake by our village and train me to do the same."

"You miss it, don't you? I can hear it in your voice. What about the boy? If he was so impressive shouldn't he be here with you?" Cat-eyes whispered, inching closer to you to be able to see your face.

You chuckled, “That’s what I thought too. That’s what he promised anyways, that we’d both attend the Elemental School, be placed in a triad together under the same elemental: Nature.”

You glanced at Cat-eyes and he nodded at you to continue, “But, when recruitment day came, I failed to notice that he hadn't shown up to our village sport field to show off his element. Then, when my acceptance letter came, I stood at the village boarder, betrayed. That was the last time I saw him."

"Don't you ever get to go home?"

"No, Elm School is a one way ticket. He didn't even come to say goodbye; and, now it's been four years." You shook your head and turned to lay on your side, away from him. Childhood memories and betrayals were the least of your worries now. There were more important tasks at hand.

"This fire is a beacon to everything. Go to sleep, I'll keep watch for a while.”

He didn't answer, so you imagined he had gone to sleep. You, on the other hand, tossed and turned, trying not to look at the boy with the familiar cat eyes.

——————————

Half an hour before the sun rose, you were startled awake by some noise in the woods. Already awake and staring off into the distance, it took you a while to notice that you were in someone’s arms. Cat-eyes had an arm draped over your waist, and another under your head as a pillow, and your back against his chest.

You could feel his breath fanning the back of your ear. But, the air around you was still, stiff, and it was giving you the urge to squirm, even in the slight comfort you felt in his arms.

Then, when the sun started to rise, the stiffness of the air made you feel like you were being watched.

When you heard Seungcheol toss and turn, then groan as he awakened, you pushed yourself away from the boy, sat up and looked around. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but something still felt off.

“Y/N, what’s wrong?”

You gave the perimeter a glance over before answering, “Nothing. We should set off now, I’ll wake amnesiac. You, go find us some food to go.”

He nodded groggily before leaving.

You turned to the boy and gave him a once over, his previously wet hair was in slight knots. You reached over hesitantly, the tips of your fingers brushing over the tips of his red-brown fringe.

He let out a shudder and leaned into your touch. But, you panicked and retracted your arm. He groaned at the absence of your touch and curled into a ball before turning his back to you.

You cocked your head and waited for his breathing to even before placing the tips of your fingers on the small of his head, gently undoing one of the knots that had formed.

Then, you realized what you were doing. You moved your hand onto his back and gave him a push, making roll into the fire pit.

He yelped on his way down and shot up when his roll was over. You stifled a giggle when he ran a hand down his face, spreading dirt over his face.

“Mornin’.” You said, straight-faced, cocking your head like you were confused at what had jut happened.

“G-good morning. Where’s Seungcheol?” He stuttered.

“Gone to find some food. We set off when he get’s back.” It was probably a second or two later that Seungcheol came back with berries in his hands.

————————

Despite your better judgement, you walked with the boy and Seungcheol, listening to Seunghceol go on about his life. Abruptly, you heard him switch the topic from him to you.

“I’m sorry about Y/N, they’re really not this mean or cold, they just have trouble trusting anyone. You should have seen how long it took for them to trust me.”

“Is it because of that boy they knew when they were younger? Before they got to Elm school?” He asked, curiously. Had they forgotten you were next to them.

“I’m right here, you know. You can’t just gossip about me that easily, you know. It's rude to gossip."

"It's not gossip if you can hear us."

"Says you." You snapped, glaring at both of them.

“Is that the boy you told me last night?” Amnesiac asked and you cringed. It had taken you three years to open up to Seungcheol, and now he knew that you had told a random boy in the spur of the moment.

“That’s none of your concern.” Seungcheol raised an eyebrow in your direction and you shook your head in response.

“Oh. Well, there’s actually something that I haven’t told you guys.”

“What?” You asked suspiciously.

“My name, I remembered it. I’m Joshua Hong, it came back to me while I was sleeping.”

“Congrats on remembering your first name. Do you remember anything else?” You deadpanned, raising an eyebrow as you questioned him.

"No." He whispered sheepishly. You mumbled a quiet 'great' under your breath, then jumped over a fallen trunk.

"How long until we're at the cave?"

“We’re already here.”

“What? But, there’s no cave.”

You stopped in front of a wall of vines and aimed your rod like you were about to stab it, then did. Your electric yellow glow electric yellow aura snaked its way down your rod before extending itself off like octopus legs onto the vines. Then, like they were alive, the vines sucked the aura in and parted down the middle, creating an entrance.

"Here." You motioned at the part, smirking.

Joshua gaped at you, astonished. Seungcheol chucked and patted him on the back before walking past him inside.

"Well," you drew out, "are you going inside or staying out here?" You said, but it seemed he wasn't done gaping at you yet. So, you let out a huff and grabbed his hand, pulling him inside.

It was pitch black inside, yet you continued walking down a rocky path that was titled downwards. After a minute, you felt Joshua hold your hand tighter.

When you were younger, you would have laughed at the idea of someone being afraid of the Cave of Legends. Though, remembering the first time you were made traverse down the cave held you back from laughing at him. His reaction was beyond normal, but at least he had you, you had had no one.

"Alright we're here." You muttered to Joshua, "Seungcheol?"

"Right here. Would you do the honors?"

You nodded, then realized he couldn't see you. "Incendio." You commanded.

Three colored orbs birthed from the ground collided with the walls, and splattered like paint before recessing into the walls. Moments after, a low glow could be seen spreading across the wall, creating lit up figures.

Seungcheol coughed and motioned to your hand. You raised an eyebrow in question but glanced downward anyways. Your hand was still holding Joshua's. You choked back a cough and ripped your hand out of his, stepping away from him and next to Seungcheol.

"This," Seungcheol motioned around him in a wave, "is where our story begins. We’ll make it quick.“

You cleared your throat and motioned to the wall behind you, “A millennia ago, multiple auroras appeared above a town not far from here. Awestruck, the community wandered outside, but when they did it disappeared. Instead, three colored orbs, blue, green, and red, rested mid air in the middle of the night.”

You grabbed his hand, trying not to look him or Seungcheol in the eyes, and brought it up the a glowing blue circle on the wall, and held it there for him to feel its vibrations as you spoke. “I am the patron of the element of fire.”

You moved it to the glowing green circle, “I am the patron of the element of nature.” Then, moved it to the last glowing circle, a red one, “And I am the patron of the element of Magic.”

Seungcheol turned him to the other wall and you continued the story as other drawings lit up, “The nature patron spoke first of his prophecy, ‘From tomorrow onwards, your children will be born with gifts based on our elements. One day, together, three will rise as the most powerful, one for each of us.’”

“Then, the magic patron came in with its prophecy, ‘Enemies of the world will rise and seek these users, destroying anyone who gets in their way.’”

“The giants?” He asked turning to look at you, wide eyed.

You nodded and pointed at a carving a little away from him, “And more.”

Seungcheol then took over, “The magic patron took hope away from the world, but it was the fire patron who gave it back, ‘The three most powerful users will form a triad squadron, with no more than five or four soldiers behind them— they will know who those are. Together they will know what to do to defeat earth’s enemies, but only after they face their opposites for the first time; and, purity will be the first to begin after it learns of its mistakes.’”

The glowing subsided and you were all plunged into darkness. “Common,” you whispered pulling on his elbow, “it’s time to go now. We have to take you to the nearest village.”

Silence. You heard him shuffle around before he intertwined his fingers with yours. You tensed but relaxed when he ran his thumb over yours.

Together, you walked in silence, the pitter of patter of rain outs the only noise that resonated through the cave. Even, Seungcheol’s heavy breathing took a back seat to the cries of the skies.

When the light of the outside began seeping through small holes in the vines, you let go of Joshua’s hand. You turned around to glance at him and gave him a small smile, “The nearest village—“

“Is only a couple of hours away. We’ll get you there so don’t worry.” Seungcheol smiled, patting his back.

“Can I really not come with you guys? I feel comfortable around you.”

“Sorry,” you whispered, “it’s too dangerous for someone who doesn’t have a gift.”

“Oh.” He replied, his brown eyes boring into yours.

“Common.” You said, parting the vines and stepping outside with Seungcheol.

Joshua looked back, something inside him told him he had never been to this cave, but he knew of the legends very well and it didn’t sit well with him. A nervous buzz settled within him, but whenever he looked at Y/N it would calm.

He shook his head, he was probably just being paranoid.

“AH!” He heard you scream and sprinted for the exit. He stumbled and struggled to grab onto the vines because of the scene before him.

A giant, bigger than the one from before, took a step in front of you and Seungcheol. It cackled at the sight of you preparing to shoot it with your lightning rod. With a slight flick of its pinky finger, it sent you and your rod flying against a tree.

Seungcheol, on the other hand, had transformed into an eagle again and was attacking its face.

The giants laugh shook the ground. It swatted its hand through the air and knocked him out from the sky. On his way down, unconscious, he transformed back into human form. His ability was basically knocked out of him.

He hit the tree and bounced back, landing a couple of feet away from Joshua.

Joshua stumble backwards in shock, landing on his behind. He gasped, shook off his shock, crawling toward him to pull him inside. But, it was too late, the giant’s hand swooped down and grabbed him.

Then, it turned to grab Y/N front the ground too. Joshua, frozen in his spot, watched as the giant stalked off in the direction it had come from.

—————————

Joshua hid in the shadows of the tree line, where the giant hadn’t disturbed the trees.

He had followed its trail of destruction for three before finding its territory. From his spot behind a tree he could see the giant sitting on the ground, grabbing clumps of dirt in its bulbous hands and eating it.

In the pit that he had formed because of that, he had tied you and Seungcheol to split tree trunks. Seungcheol was still out of it and unconscious, but you, you were staring at something by the base of the giants feet.

“Human,” its chuckle made the ground rumble, “do you know what this is?” You shook your head once.

“It is the memory of the one who was destined to fight me and destroy me.” Its laughter boomed, “Well it fought me and lost. I took its memory and flung it into the distance.”

Joshua shuddered. How was he supposed to get you out of this mess? In hindsight he should have probably just gone to the village and asked for assistance from an elemental user.

He had no power.

What was he supposed to do. Fight it with his bare hands? The giant would probably laugh and flick him away like he had to the last one who fought it.

No, he shook his head. He’d be bait. All he had to do was untie you, give you your lighting rod and then you could fight.

He didn’t understand why, but he knew something inside of him was telling him he had to do this. Even if he didn’t really know you, and even if you had been cold to him the entire time he had been with you guys.

He had to get you out. He had to help you. He couldn’t just leave you behind. There was a pang in his heart every time he trued to consider it.

Joshua moved from his tree and snuck up behind the giant. It was so big it shouldn’t be able to hear any of his steps from so far away.

“I’ll take your memory and his as a souvenir before flinging your dead bodies into that forest.” It cackled, “Did you find the hero’s body while you were there? Your so called trees should be watered with its blood.”

“What?” You squeaked, squirming in your binds, eyes widening.

Joshua took the giant’s continuous laughter as his cue to throw you your rod. Luckily for Joshua’s impromptu plan, the rod landed against your tree trunk, one tip against the dirt and the other pointing at the sky.

Your eyes widened to a comical size and in a second, you reached out so your pinky could touch it. Joshua grinned when it did because a second later, lighting was falling from the sky.

Your bindings were undone with one and with another the giant was screaming “my eye.”

You ran to Seungcheol and undid his bindings before shooting yourself out of the hole. Joshua ran to your side to help you carry Seungcheol to safety.

“Take him.” You panted, “Go. I need to go back.”

“What?!” He exclaimed. “You can’t go back! It’ll kill you!”

You shook your head and pushed Seungcheol’s weight onto him, “Go.” Then, you ran off toward the giant, falling back into hole.

Joshua stared back in horror but obeyed you anyways. After all, what could he do to help? Nothing.

Inside the hole, you ran to the giant’s feet, eyes trained on a glowing blue orb. Inside you could make out images of a lake and a child that looked all to familiar.

Before long, the image would flicker and change again, this time to scene you knew you knew. It was you, at the edge of town when you were about leave, looking back hoping that he could come.

He had been there, but he had let you go like you meant nothing to him. These were his memories.

You grabbed the orb and aimed your rod at the sky. You used your power to fling yourself out again. Unfortunately, by this time, the giant had recovered. With a swing of his hand, he swatted you out of the sky and into the forest line.

You groaned while clutching the orb to your chest.

“Give me back my prize.” It roared.

“Y/N? Y/N?” Joshua hurried, shaking you. You forced yourself to open your eyes despite the weight.

“Joshua?” You whispered.

“Yeah. Yeah, it’s me.”

“Here.” You whimpered, pushing the orb into his hands. “Place it against your lips and breathe in.”

‘Wha—“

“I’m sorry.” You forced out before you went under, slumping into his arms.

Joshua gulped as he carried you over to Seungcheol, wiping a bit of dirt off of your face.

He glanced down at the orb in his hands, watching as the pictures changed. Shuddering, he placed the orb against his lips and breathed in, closing his eyes in the process.

A tingle shot down his body, like electricity was running down his body. It went down before racing back up toward his head.

He stumbled and braced himself against a tree, he felt like his brain was freezing over. Then it happened.

He remembered.

Imagines flashed behind closed eyes.

A smaller you giggling in his arms as he instructed you to hold your breath. Him watching you show off your powers on recruitment day from afar.

Him, hiding behind a tree, watching as you kept glancing back and delaying your departure. He had hidden deep in the forest for days, curled up against his knees, half of his body glowing blue.

His eyes shot open. He looked down on himself and grimaced when he realized half of his body was already glowing blue and a pure blue fire was nipping at that same side.

He clenched his fist.

“Hey!” Joshua hollered, stalking up to the giant.

“You.” It growled.

“Me.” Joshua affirmed.

The giant roared and aimed its hand at him. Joshua’s jaw clenched, this was the first of many sorries, and he was going to make each of them count.

Blue fire. Pure blue fire. He had two elemental abilities by his side, but he only needed one.

He screamed and ran toward the giant, hand outstretched as fire shot out of his hands and body, engulfing not only him but the giant as well.

—————————

Even in the endless darkness around you, you could feel a pain and sadness growing inside you. Well, it was more like it finally made its presence inside because you could the strength of it’s roots around your heart and stomach.

It was suffocation that finally made you realize that you weren’t really in a pit darkness. You were stuck, awake and with all your senses, but not wanting to open your eyes.

It was the instincts of survival, fight or flight. You didn’t know why, but something inside of you told you that ‘flight’ was the right answer, but that ‘fight’ was the only one you were allowed to take.

You felt a pang in your heart, great enough to make you cringe and move a hand over your heart. When it subsided, you eyes fluttered open and instantly landed on the boy in front of you.

He was dressed in a jeans and a checkered white and teal shirt, his red-brown hair comes and parted on one side. His eyes were closed, but even in your daze you could still visualize the blue glow that came from his right side, the one you saw for a second after a surge of energy had run through the ground while he gained his memories, waking you before passing out again.

Your eyes trailed down to where one of his arms was extended, your other hand enveloped in his.

“It was me. I was the one who betrayed you.” He whispered. Slowly, you lifted your gaze to meet his, but didn’t answer.

“You knew who I was.” Tears gathered in his eyes, a reflection of yours.

“I was the one to hurt you, after I said I wouldn’t. You knew it was me, didn’t you? Didn’t you?!” You looked away and stared at the diagram of a heart above him. “Why did you pretend to not know me?”

“Because you made your choice, and I made mine.” You whispered out, a small crack in your voice, and tears slipping down your face as you removed your hand from his.

“Y/N.” He croaked out, as he wiped away your tears with the pads of his thumbs. “I’m sorry.”