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firstofficerwiggles · 4 years ago

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Chapter 5: How the Paintball Battle Was Won

Links to Chpt. 4 , Chpt. 6

Pairing: The Mandalorian x female reader

Rating: T

Warnings: Canonical violence, PTSD for the reader, angst, hurt/comfort

Word Count: ~6400

Author’s note: So this chapter gets more angsty, but I promise it is sandwiched in there between some humor and some serious fluff along with some Domestic!Din thrown in there for good measure. I hope you enjoy reading this chapter! (Also, smut is coming in the next chapter for those of you who are thirsty for it.)

“Paintball?” You look up at Mando in surprise, “Isn’t this a game for teenagers?” He’s brought you to a dusty town on Baros with a few hole-in-the-wall cantinas and a sleepy looking marketplace in the middle of nowhere to play paintball?

“I wasn’t sure if it would still be here, but they’re open,” Mando sounds chipper. “I haven’t been here in years.”

“You used to come here and play paintball?” The idea seems ludicrous, that Mando, a seasoned warrior and top bounty hunter, would be playing a game that requires shooting brightly colored balls of paint at your opponents.

“When I was younger and first in the Fighting Corps, we trained here on Baros for a time. We used to sneak out when we had breaks between training sessions to come and play with the local kids.” Mando’s voice sounds nostalgic and happy as he remembers his youth. “I’m sure now that our commanders knew what we were up to, but it gave us additional fighting practice, so I don’t think they minded.”

You try to imagine Mando as a teen boy stealing away with his friends from a probably rigid training schedule to play fake war games with other kids. It’s a charming thought, but it’s hard to picture when you look at the man now. But he’s right, it would have been decent training too… oh, now you understand.

“This is so I can practice shooting live, moving targets.” You’re on to his plan.

“What?” Mando is all innocence, “I just thought since we’re here, we ought to have some fun.”

“I know you think I can’t tell, but I feel you smirking at me under there.” You tell him pointing towards the helmet.

Mando simply chuckles at you and gives your hand a tug towards the entrance.

“What about the baby?” You ask, hoping to stall a little, “He can’t play paintball.”

“He’ll be safe in his pram, and you’ll have a chance to practice protecting him too.” Mando replies. He’s clearly thought this out.

“That might be too advanced for me to focus on shooting targets and guarding the child,” you tell him.

“Yes, but I’ll be here to help you.” His voice sounds warm as he tells you, “You’re going to be great, c’mon.”

The owner of the paintball place seems delighted to see Mando and tells the rest of the patrons in the prep area that they are in for a real treat today. Most of the other people here are teenaged boys, but you’re surprised to see a couple of adults here too including a few other women. Perhaps you were too quick to judge. The teen boys are in sheer awe of Mando and after they openly gawk at him for a few minutes, they’re pestering the owner to find out if they can request that Mando be on their team.

“Teams will be by random draw as always, although people paying together will automatically be put on the same team unless they request otherwise.” The owner tells everyone waiting. “Now, please enter the locker area to suit up and stow away personal belongings.”

You’ve been given protective gear and a helmet to wear to ensure your safety during the game. While the paintballs aren’t lethal, they can still hurt quite a lot without protection. Mando watches as you gear up, and when you’re done you can’t help but goof around and strike a model pose.

“How do I look?” You can still manage to make flirty eyes at him, as although your helmet covers most of your face, the visor only has light tinting so your eyes are still quite visible.

“You’re adorable,” he tells you. It’s been a little over a week since your trip to Canto Bight and your first Keldabe kiss with Mando, and he’s been growing more affectionate with you, particularly with compliments. He’s still rather shy about physical affection though, almost as if he thinks he’s limited to only a certain number of touches a day.

“Ok, everyone, let’s go over the rules.” The owner calls everyone to his attention and reviews the rules of the game, which are basically, if you get shot three times in a ‘critical target area’ as indicated on your protective gear, you are out of the game.

“Today’s game is your basic brawl. The last team with the most players remaining when the buzzer sounds will be the winners. However, we have a special guest and special rules that will add to the challenge!” The man gestures towards Mando, “If you want to take out the Mandalorian, you need three hits somewhere not on the armor, and good luck with that!” The man says it in such a way that he’s confident no one will be able to get Mando out of the game.

Before the game begins, you check on the child to make sure he’ll be ok. He has his favorite silver ball and a couple other toys with him in his pram, and you’ve tucked in few snacks that he likes in case he gets hungry.

“Ok, sweetie, you’re going to play with your toys and keep the pram closed until Mando or I open it,” you tell him. He coos at you in response and you give his nose a little boop before securing the pram.

“Here, put this on,” Mando hands you a metal wrist cuff with various buttons, “It’s linked to the pram like my vambraces, so that way the child will follow you wherever you go.” He quickly shows you how the buttons operate.

You and Mando get assigned to the red team and are issued paintball guns filled with the appropriate colored balls. There are three teen boys, a man, and another woman on your team. The teen boys are vibrating with excitement at being on Mando’s team; they keep calling him ‘sir’ and asking for ‘battle advice’. Mando is very kind to them, and answers all of their questions in a serious manner. It’s quite sweet really, how nice he is to them, but you’ve noticed that’s generally who he is, so long as that person cannot be perceived as a threat. With your team agreeing on Mando’s plans for the battle, followed by a loud war cry whoop from the boys, you head out to your designated starting positions.

Your adrenaline is pumping and when a loud bell rings out to indicate the start of the game, you’re almost as keyed up as the teenagers around you. Mando’s plan calls for your team to be on the defensive and wait for the other teams to come to you, allowing you all to maintain better positions and hold on to better cover for as long as possible. It’s a good plan and fairly soon, some of the teen boys from the green team have charged over to your area recklessly, making them easier targets. You get off a couple shots, but your nerves get the best of you and you miss wildly. Fortunately, only Mando seems to notice as your other teammates are on target and dispatch the boys without anyone on your team getting hit.

“It’s alright, just breathe,” he tells you, “Remember you’re a good shot, I know you are.” He places a hand between your shoulders and rubs lightly to help calm you down. He points towards something moving in the bushes to your right and taps your shoulder. You can see another player advancing towards your position.

“Aim your weapon, take a deep breath,” Mando instructs you, “and shoot.” You pull the trigger and watch as your paintball splatters bright red on the other player’s chest plate. You remember quickly that you need two more shots to eliminate your target and so you shoot again. It ends up taking you five more shots but in the end, you’re victorious.

“I actually did it!” you squeal a little in delight and Mando gives your waist a small squeeze.

“Great job, cyar’ika!”

Hmm, there’s that foreign word again. It’s the second time he’s said it to you, and you think it must be Mando’a but you haven’t thought to ask him about it yet. You’re about to say something when a yellow paintball suddenly bursts on Mando’s left pauldron. You instantly whip your head around and fire off shots in the direction of the shooter. A sudden fierceness overtakes you in your determination to take out the player. You channel all your focus into your aim and once again, you are successful, only faster this time.

“That was even better,” Mando tells you, and your heart soars at his praise. He hasn’t even bothered to take a shot yet, he just seems content to watch you.

The game continues and it seems that the other players have caught on to your team’s plan, which leads to a break in the action. Everyone huddles together for a moment, and you realize the rest of your team are waiting for Mando’s instructions.

“So, Mando, what do we do next?” you ask him.

“What do you think our strategy should be?” he counters.

“Well, it seems like we’ve taken out quite a lot of the green team, so I say we head towards the yellow team’s area and try to lower their numbers more.” You figure this is the best way to ensure that your team will have the most active players in the end.

“Why don’t we finish off the green team first? You know, get them while they’re weak,” one of the other players suggests.

“No, her plan makes the best sense,” Mando says in support of your idea, “If we want to be the winners, we have to make sure the yellow team has more casualties.” There’s something about the way he says this that gives you a sense of pride. He’s not just going along with your suggestion because he likes you, it’s because he trusts your judgement and he agrees with it.

You set out in an attack formation as directed by Mando in search of the yellow team. He’s stationed you towards the rear of the group allowing the child’s floating pram to stay behind you, meanwhile he’s positioned himself at the front as an attractive target. You don’t love the idea of Mando making himself the bait, but you recognize that his strategy is logical as the challenge of taking out the Mandalorian will be too tempting for the others to pass up on and thus it should be easier for the rest of you to hit them.

The plan works perfectly and as a barrage of paintballs are launched in Mando’s direction, your team begins methodically targeting the yellow team. You try not to watch as more yellow paint splashes onto Mando’s beskar, because each time it does you feel a spike of irrational anger, how dare they shoot at your Mando. As for himself, Mando is finally shooting off paintballs of his own, but you get the impression that he’s doing so rather leisurely, like he’s not really putting in too much effort. Must be taking it easy on everyone.

Things seems quiet for a moment and you turn to check on the little guy’s pram. It’s still closed up and he’s safe and sound. You’re just turning back to look over your shoulder when a green paintball hits you in the side, right where there’s no padding. It’s surprisingly painful and you double-over, grasping at your side. Mando’s reaction is swift. He quickly dispatches the green shooter and then rushes over to you.

“Are you hurt? Do you need help?” His voice is full of concern.

“I’m fine,” you wheeze out, “just stings.”

“Take a moment and breathe,” he says as he tucks his left arm around you to hold you close to him while he proceeds to keep shooting with his right. It suddenly strikes you as incredibly attractive how he’s managing to comfort you and still fight at the same time.

You can’t keep yourself from telling him, “Maker, you’re hot.”

“What?” He looks down at you for a second, a little surprised.

“Nothing, I’m just impressed by you.” You laugh a little and pull away so you can go back to the game.

The game continues for a while longer and you’re astounded by how much you’ve gotten into it. You no longer feel nervous about shooting at other people and you’re caught up in wanting to help your team win. You get hit a couple more times, but luckily they manage to miss the critical targets so when the buzzer sounds, you’ve managed to be one of the ‘survivors’. You run over to Mando to assess his ‘damage’ and while he has yellow and green paint splotches all over his beskar, he has only one green spot on his arm in the unarmored section near his elbow, which means that no one managed to successfully remove him from the game either. After a brief count, your team is announced as the victors by just one player. Your whole team cheers and exchanges high fives as you congratulate each other.

“See, I told you it would be fun,” Mando leans down close to you, “You were great, I was impressed too.” He brings his helmet down to touch the crown of yours.

You don’t have a chance to say anything back as the teen boys are at Mando’s side begging him to take a holophoto with them. Mando dutifully poses with the boys as you help out by acting as the photographer. You pull out your own holopad and snap a few holos too for your own enjoyment later.

You return to the locker room to get cleaned up and back into your regular clothes. You’re securing your holster belt with its real blaster when you realize again how thankful you are that Mando’s gone out of his way to help you learn so much about fighting, even to the point where he found a way to make sure it would be enjoyable.

You head over to where he’s cleaning the paint off his armor with a bucket of water and some rags. It must be a bit hard to do though because there’s no mirror to help him see all the areas that need to be cleaned. You pick up one of the rags.

“Have a seat and I’ll help you get cleaned up,” you say as you motion to a bench.

“Thanks, it’s hard to do without being able to take it off,” he tells you.

He sits with his legs akimbo and you step between them to get better access to the beskar. Fortunately, the paint washes off without much effort, but there’s so much of it and you want to be sure to get it out of the small ridges and furrows of the armor.

“Thank you for bringing me here,” you tell him as you clean, “It really was fun and I think you’re right, it was good training.”

“You’re welcome,” Mando says warmly, and he brings his hands up to your hips to pull you in a little closer. He leaves his hands there as you move to clean his helmet and begins tracing little patterns with his thumbs. His touch is simple, but it makes you feel so fluttery inside. You look down at his visor and give him a little smile as you wipe a streak of gloopy green paint from the crown of his helmet.

“It drives me crazy when you look at me like that,” he tells you with his hands tightening on your hips.

“How am I looking at you?” Your smile widens.

“Like you have a secret and you’re daring me to find out what it is,” he says, his voice sounding deeper.

You chuckle, and as you finish cleaning his helmet you drop your lips down and give it a kiss, “Is that so?” you ask in a coquettish tone and you give him a wink.

Mando groans at you and pulls you in closer, “I’ve had enough being in public, let’s get back to the Crest,” he says. His words and the timbre of his voice fill you with dark excitement, and you nod your head in response.

You bid goodbye to your teammates and hurry out into the street, heading in the direction of the ship. You’re only a short distance from the Razor Crest when you hear a laser bolt whiz past you. You draw your blaster and turn towards the source of the bolt where you see five armed men bearing down on you, Mando, and the child. “Hunters!” Mando shouts to you as he returns fire.

Another blast comes from behind you and you whip around to see three more shooters trying to box you in. Like Mando, you shoot back, your fight mode coming out in full force. You manage to shoot one of the hunters in the chest and you see him fall. You don’t dwell on it though as you scan the area for a possible escape route. You feel Mando tug on your sleeve as he gestures to the left where you can see a small side street. You rush towards the street as fast as you can while Mando provides cover. You’re still wearing the wrist cuff from before so the baby’s pram is following after you. You feel a sharp burning sensation in your side and it almost knocks you to the ground, but your determination to get away is stronger and you push your legs to keep you running.

The narrow street spills out into a broader avenue that is now bustling with activity. You bump into people as you try to get away and it makes you stumble. You look around wildly for help but everyone seems oblivious to your distress. The baby’s pram is still right with you and you’re relieved to see it’s still closed up tightly. But where is Mando? You thought he was right behind you but now you don’t see him anywhere. You turn back to the narrow side street when you see one of the hunters come barreling out of it. He fires several bolts in your direction, one of which ricochets off the pram. People scream and scatter. A primal protectiveness surges within you as all you can think about is how you won’t let this man hurt your child and so you raise your blaster and shoot him twice in the chest. He falls to the ground, but something in you won’t let you stop. You keep moving toward him until you’re standing over him and then you shoot him in the head to make sure he can’t hurt either of you. You should probably feel guilty about killing him, but you don’t. You look down the street, worried that you’ll see another hunter heading your direction, but it seems quiet. You pant as you try to catch your breath and now you realize just how badly your side is hurting, you think it must be from before where the paintball hit you but when you look down you see your shirt is soaked with blood. You sag against a building as you realize you’ve been shot. A woman sees you and hurries over to help,

“We have to get you to a doctor right away,” she’s saying.

“Wait, I need Man-, I need to find Man- Mando.” The pain is making it hard to speak.

“It’s alright, your child’s pram is right here.” She doesn’t understand.

You sway on your feet and she quickly places an arm around you to help you walk. “Don’t try to talk, dear,” she’s telling you as she drags you towards a medical clinic. Everything is getting blurry and you fight to stay upright. When you make it inside the clinic, someone immediately pushes you towards a gurney and you collapse on it just before you black out.

Din is desperate to find you and the child. When he sent you down that side street, he succeeded in taking down most of the hunters. But one particularly large man, a Clawdite, had managed to tackle Din. That allowed another hunter to slip by and head down the street in pursuit of you. After stabbing the Clawdite, Din quickly trails the other man. His head is filled with worse case scenarios but when he finds the body at the end of the street, a sense of relief comes over him. It’s short-lived, however, when he realizes neither you nor the child are anywhere to be seen. Din can feel true fear rising in him that perhaps there were others and maybe you were both captured, when he remembers the wrist cuff he gave you and the tracking device he installed within it. He breathes a sigh of relief again when he pings your signal and realizes you’re nearby.

Din tracks your signal to the medical center, the sight of which makes his blood run cold because if you’re here that means that one of you must be hurt. He rushes inside but before he can ask anyone about you or the baby, he hears a frightened scream and then your voice shouting,

“NO! NO! Get away from me! NO!”

Din is back in full combat mode as he hurries towards the sound of your terrified voice. He finds you in a room with a round floating medical droid trying to administer an injection. You are curled up on the floor in a corner of the room with your hands over your face as you cry out in fear. Din shoves the droid out of the room forcefully before carefully approaching your huddled form.

“Shh, shh, it’s alright, it’s me, it’s Mando,” he says as he tentatively reaches out to you. “The droid is gone, and I’m here.”

You sob something that sounds like ‘Mando’ and launch yourself into his arms. You’re still crying hard when you get out the word, ‘baby’. Din looks around the room and thankfully he sees the child’s pram. He manages to reach the open button on his vambrace and the pram’s dome opens up to reveal the little one safe inside. The baby looks concerned at your distress and he lets out a sad-sounding coo.

“He’s alright, cyar’ika, the baby is safe, you did so wonderful protecting him.” Din holds you and runs a hand over your back, and he continues to whisper soothing words trying to calm you. A noise at the door causes him to look up and see two nurses there who are trying to figure out what all the commotion is.

“Sir, who are you and why is this patient out of her bed?” one of the nurses asks indigently.

“She’s terrified of that droid, you can’t let it near her again,” Din says, scooping you up in his arms and helping you back to the bed.

“Alright,” the other nurse says in a kinder tone, “but you can’t be back here unless you’re family.”

“I’m her husband,” Din snaps, knowing they won’t argue with that, “Now can someone tell me what happened?” His voice is demanding and rough.

“I’m sorry, sir, your wife was shot in the side,” the kinder nurse explains, “She’s lucky because the bolt missed her vital organs but she will need some time to heal. The droid was only going to give her a bacta shot.”

“She’s scared of that droid,” Din repeats, “Can’t one of you give it to her?” His tone of voice makes it clear that it’s a demand not a request.

“Maybe she’s just scared of the shot,” the indigent nurse says, a slight scoff to her tone.

“The shot is fine, just please not the droid,” you manage to say in a weak voice. You look at Din as you explain, “The Empire used medical droids for torture.”

Din remembers how you told him you were punished by the Imps when they discovered your sabotage, but you’ve never gone into details about that punishment. He has some idea now what they must have done to you, and why seeing another droid like that would cause such a negative response.

“No more droids are to come into this room,” Din instructs the nurses.

“Of course, sir, I’ll give her the shot myself,” the kinder nurse tells him, “I’ll be back in a moment.”

Din turns back to you and reaches up to smooth the tears from your cheeks. “It’s going to be okay, I won’t let anyone or anything hurt you.”

“Will you please stay with me?” you ask and you grip his hand tightly as if he might disappear.

“Nothing could make me leave you,” he says as he caresses your face.

A soft whine floats over to Din and you from the pram as the little one wants to know what’s happening. Din steps away from your side to quickly pick him up and bring him over to the bed with you. At first Din tries to just hold him close to you, but the child isn’t satisfied with that. Instead, he quickly climbs out of Din’s arms and onto the bed to nestle up against your chest, he then reaches up to touch your face with his little hand.

“Hi, buddy,” you say softly, “I’m so glad you’re here.”

Din watches the two of you as a vast sense of gratitude washes over him; he’s so very thankful that you both are safe now and no lasting damage has been done. He holds your hand again and brings his helmet down to your head allowing him to watch over you and the child as close as possible.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Several hours later, you are doing much better after the bacta shot has done its work and the medical center releases you to go home. Din swipes a hoverchair and quickly steers you back to the Razor Crest; he insisted that you shouldn’t walk all the way back to the ship. Once on board again, he gets you safely tucked into your bed still with the child cuddled up against your side. The little guy refuses to leave you alone and even demanded to ride in your lap on the way back to the ship instead of returning to his pram.

With the three of you safely in space, Din returns to the hull. He’s pleased to see you’re resting comfortably as you talk softly to the child and he sets about to prepare some dinner for the three of you. It’s been hours since any of you have eaten and he’s sure you must be hungry. Din’s not as good a cook as you are, but he tries to add the little touches that you do for him like cutting up the fruit and arranging it on a plate, and adding honey to your tea the way that you like. When he brings your dinner over to you, he notices that the child has managed to use his powers to bring several of his stuffed toys over to your bed and he seems to be arranging them around you for additional snuggling.

“You’re doing a great job as a caregiver, buddy,” Din tells him chuckling.

“I keep telling him he’s being so sweet sharing his plushies with me,” you respond with a soft chuckle of your own.

Din helps you sit up, before handing you the dinner tray.

“Do you need help eating?” He asks concerned.

“Nah, I’m fine, Mando,” you tell him, “Really I feel much better; I don’t think I need to be in bed anymore.”

“You’re staying in bed for the rest of the day, and probably tomorrow too,” Din replies pointing his finger at you the way he does when he disciplines the child sometimes.

“Yes, Nurse Mando,” you reply cheekily.

“That’s right. Now eat your dinner before I feed you myself,” he says with a nod of his head.

After you’ve eaten, you’re still sitting up in bed and now you’re playing a little with the child and his plush toys as you tell him a story. Din can hear in your voice though that you’re tired and even though he knows you are doing better, you need your rest.

“Ok, kiddo, I think that’s the end of story time.” He comes over and picks up the child despite his little whines of protest.

“It’s alright,” you say softly.

“No, you need to get more rest,” Din tells you, “Besides, it’s time to get this guy cleaned up before he goes to bed.”

You can hear the sounds of water running in the fresher and Mando saying “Don’t look at me like that, she needs to rest so she can get better,” and it makes you smile. Both of your guys are being so sweet as they take care of you. You stretch back out against your pillows and close your eyes, and before you know it, you’ve drifted off to sleep.

When you awaken a while later, you see Mando sitting on a crate near your bed reading something on his holopad. He’s taken off his armor and is now more relaxed in his undershirt, trousers, and helmet only.

“Mando, is everything alright, what are you doing?” You’re surprised he’s not in bed himself or up in the cockpit where he’d be more comfortable.

“I didn’t want to leave you alone in case you needed something,” he tells you.

“That’s very sweet, Mando, but you must be getting tired,” you say.

“It’s nothing I can’t handle,” he replies. You know he can go for long stretches without sleeping, but it’s really not necessary now. Maybe there is a way you can get him to rest at least.

“You could come lie down with me,” you suggest and give him a small smile.

“There’s nothing I’d like better, but you’re hurt and you need to rest,” he says, but it’s clear from his tone that he’s tempted by your offer.

“I won’t do anything more than just cuddle with you, I promise,” you counter, and you give him the flirtatious look that you know he likes. It works like a charm and although he lets out one of his long-suffering sighs, he’s standing up and moving towards the bed.

“Alright, we’re just going to cuddle and you are going to rest and try not to move too much.” Mando may be trying to sound stern, but there’s an eagerness to his movements that gives away how much he wants to join you in the bed.

He lies down next to you on his back and puts his arm around you pulling you close to his side. You shift your position so that you can place your head on his chest and rest your hand on his stomach lightly. This way you can lie on your good side and take any pressure off the side that needs to heal. As you settle into him, Mando lets out a sound of contentment making his chest vibrate beneath you.

“Thank you, this is nice,” you tell him, “Plus, you’re so warm and cozy.”

He chuckles at that and rubs his large palm across your back, “It’s getting to where I can’t say no to you.”

“I see no problem with that,” you reply and you give his chest a kiss through his shirt.

“Mmm, I bet you don’t.” His chest rumbles again pleasantly against your cheek.

“Mando, I didn’t get a chance to really thank you earlier, but I want you to know you really helped me back at the med center.” You hope he understands how important he was for you in that moment.

“You don’t have to thank me for that, I could see how terrified you were and I knew you needed me.” Mando says softly and pulls you tighter to him. He pauses and then asks you, “When you said you were punished by the Imperials, did they… torture you with the droid?”

“Yes,” you tell him in a flat voice, “It would give various shots to induce different types of pain. It was horrible. Seeing that droid today felt like being back there, back in that terrible place. I- I don’t want to talk about it too much.”

“I understand,” Mando tells you, “I hate droids… well, there was one once who wasn’t so bad, but mostly I hate them.” His voice is gruff as he tells you this.

“Why do you hate them?” you ask.

“My home was destroyed by droids,” he says, “Everything was gone, my town, my friends, my parents, all killed.”

“Oh, Mando, how awful,” Your heart breaks for him, “That’s devastating. I’m so sorry for you.”

“I was only a child, and I would have been killed too if not for the Mandalorians who rescued me,” he explains.

“You were a foundling too,” you say softly.

“Yes,” he replies.

You’re quiet for a bit as you stroke his chest in a soothing manner. You know he’s supposed to be comforting you, but you want Mando to know that you’re here for him too. He brings his other hand up to cover yours. You realize that his glove is off and for the first time you are touching his bare skin. Your breath catches in your throat at the sensation and you revel in each tiny movement that he makes as he slowly explores your fingers with his. His hand is large and warm, and you marvel at how delicate and gentle he is as he touches you.

“You skin is so soft, cyar’ika,” he murmurs to you.

“Thank you,” you say softly, but then you can’t help but ask, “What does that word mean, cyar’ika?” He’s called you that a few times now and your burning curiosity can’t wait any longer.

Mando chuckles lightly, “Aren’t you the code-breaker? What do you think it means?”

“Oh, I see, a linguistic challenge, hmm?” You’re willing to play along and you take a moment to think.

“Well, you’ve used it in place of my name, so it could be a nickname, but based on context, I’d say it’s a term of endearment.” You lift your head up to look at him as you propose your theory.

“What do you mean?” He questions, intrigued.

“Well, if it were a nickname, I think you’d use it more frequently, and by my count you’ve only said it four times, which makes me think it must be more special than just a nickname. Plus I know you’ve said my name more often than that.”

“Oh?” He sounds amused.

“Yes, and when you said it was important too,” you explain, “Twice you said it when I was very distressed and you were sure to use a calming tone, but then, the other two times were when you gave me a compliment, and those times, you had a more romantic tone.”

He’s laughing openly now and shaking the whole bed as he does. Oh no, you’ve nerded him into hysterics, “Sorry, am I being too analytical?” you ask him sheepishly.

“No, no, I love how logical you’re being, cyar’ika,” he emphasizes the word again and his voice is caring as he tells you, “I’m impressed and entertained by how you think. I had no idea how much thought you’d put into it.”

“Well, am I correct though?” You’re still dying to know.

“Yes, you are,” he says between chuckles, and you smile up at him in response. He calms down a bit and then tells you, “It means sweetheart.” His voice is deeper as he says the word in Basic and you feel your stomach flutter in delight.

“I like that, Mando, I like it a lot; it’s such a beautiful word,” You wish you had a term of endearment for him that would sound even half as beautiful.

“Din,” he says to you.

“What?” you reply confused.

“My name is Din, Din Djarin,” he introduces himself to you, “I’d really like for you to call me by my real name.”

“It’s an honor to know you, Din Djarin,” you reply in as warm and loving a tone as you can, trying to show him how much it means to you that he’s sharing something so personal.

“The honor is all mine, cyar’ika,” he tells you and he squeezes your hand to punctuate his words, “You mean so much to me, I don’t know what I would do if I lost you.”

“I feel the same about you, Din.” Lying in his arms, it’s easy to tell him how you feel, and you realize how much you want him to hear it. “I was so worried when we were separated today, but when you found me, and I knew you were there, it just felt right, like I knew everything would be all right.”

Din pulls you in closer, hugging you as tight as he can without hurting you. He feels your arm snake around his waist to hold him tighter too and he feels a sense of true serenity. It’s a new emotion for him or at least one he hasn’t felt since he was very young. The two of you stay like that for a long time and as he listens to your breathing, he thinks perhaps you’ve fallen asleep. He relaxes his hold on you and thinks that maybe he should try to slip out of the bed so that you’ll rest properly, when he feels you stir.

“Din, will you teach me more Mando’a?” you ask, your voice sounding dreamy.

“Yes, but not tonight, you need to sleep,” he says softly but firmly.

“Ok, good,” you reply with a small yawn.

You settle back in to the bed a little and pull up the blankets around you more. Din starts to pull away from you little by little, but you’re having none of it and you grip him tighter.

“Are you trying to leave?” you ask, sounding only a little pouty, “Don’t you want to stay and cuddle?”

He sighs, “You need your rest, and I’m distracting you from that.”

“I’ll rest better with you here,” you insist.

“I’ll stay if you promise to go to sleep now,” he replies.

“Ok, I’ll go to sleep.” You’re quiet for a few seconds, but then you whisper to him, “Din?”

“Yes?”

“Goodnight,” you whisper, “I hope you sleep well.”

“Cyar’ika?”

“Yes?”

“Stop talking.”

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you so much for reading! Continue to Chpt. 6 Where no Mando Has Gone Before. If you’d like to be added to the tag list, just let me know!

By the way, do you all remember that droid from a New Hope that gave Leia the shot? That’s the one I was thinking of when I came up with how the reader was punished by the Empire. That thing gave me nightmares for weeks when I was a child.

Tag list: @overtly-cuteashell @grogusmum @imabeautifulbutterfly @wellofeternalthirst @idreamofboobear @theamuz @fangirlalexia @callmekane @im-the-nerdiest-of-them-a11 @theravenreads @nicotinebirds @boomtownboy @nova646 @wandering-storm-lost-shadow @becks-things @sleepwithacommunist @mackycat11 @som3thingcr3ative @punkdalek @pinkninja200 @s-unflowxr @ladyjenny19 @peppywitch @haley7242

#the mandalorian #din djarin #the mandalorian x reader #din djarin x reader #the mandalorian fanfiction #din djarin fanfiction #the mandalorian x female reader #din djarin x female reader #the mandalorian fanfic #din djarin fanfic

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dudeandduchess · 4 years ago

Text

Kyōjurō x F!S/O: Levain (Fluff, Modern AU, Slight NSFW Scenario)

Note: I wrote down something self-indulgent from the Coffee Shop AU prompts. 🥰 Hope you like it, bbys. Also, yes, I’m coming out of hiatus since I’m 90% done with the things that I have to do. 🍉🍉🍉

Summary: Kyōjurō attends a baking class that (Y/n) has started at her coffee shop. Despite being so horrible at cooking in general, he still comes to her classes every weekend— all so he could get closer to her.

Warnings: Making Out, Adult Themes, Language

***

Kyōjurō’s heart was pounding so loud in his ears, as he continued to knead the dough in front of him as suave as possible. It wasn’t that he was trying to attract the eye of all the other females in the class— no, that wasn’t it at all.

He was trying to catch (Y/n)’s eye from where she stood a few ways away from him. He had been for the past few weeks; hell, he’d been at it ever since she’d first opened her coffee shop a year ago.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t even muster up the courage to just ask her out— because, well… because she was (Y/n). She was too pretty, too smart, and too smart, and too kind for him; at least, that’s what Kyōjurō thought of her. She was the epitome of his dream girl that even just being in the same room as her always had him choking up with nerves.

So, when she had told him that she was opening up a couple of baking classes on the weekends, he didn’t even hesitate to grab the opportunity to get closer to her; and maybe even finally strike up a conversation that was more than him laughing too loudly, or her having to be pulled away for business-related things.

What he didn’t expect, however, was how hard baking was going to be— especially for him, whom had no cooking skills whatsoever.

Hell, he had never seen a brownie that looked like coal— not until he had made them last week. It disheartened him a lot, but (Y/n) had been really supportive; and he had even earned a comforting hand on his arm for that blunder.

Not to mention the sweet smile that she had aimed right at him, as well as that soft “It’s okay, Kyōjurō, I can teach you one-on-one next time.”

It was shameful for him to admit it, but his mind had taken a deep dive into the gutter with those words of hers. And he had kept replaying them in his head, over and over, when he was all alone in his room and doing… extra-curricular things.

“Okay, everyone, if you feel like your dough is ready, it’s time to let it rest— before we all portion everything out and then proof it,” (Y/n)’s voice rang out through the quaint side-room where they were at, making all seven of the other women— as well as Kyōjurō— look up at her from their work.

However, the blond was immediately awestruck when his gaze immediately connected with (Y/n)’s; his jaw falling a little slack as he watched her lips quirk up into a warm grin— with her eyes crinkling up at the corners. That alone had his heart racing even faster in his chest, and before he knew it, his fingers had unknowingly buried themselves in his dough ball.

As subtly as possible, the young woman motioned to him gripping his dough so tightly— that the excess bits were oozing from the gaps between his fingers— giggling softly, and making Kyōjurō blush profusely as he let go of it as if it had burned him.

He felt like such a goofball for making such a mistake in front of (Y/n) but, little did he know, that she found it— and him— so cute.

“Damn it,” The young man cursed under his breath, ducking his head all the while— if only to hide the fact that his cheeks were burning so red with a blush.

“Would you like some help with that, Rengoku-san?” Kyōjurō all but jumped ins surprise at the sound of (Y/n)’s voice so close to him. And when he looked up, the fact that she was already standing across from him— granted, at the other end of the table— had his heart leaping into his throat.

Up close, she looked even prettier than ever; never mind the fact that she looked so cute, even with that tiny smudge of flour on her cheek.

Everything in him was yelling at him to reach out and wipe it away— if only to get a feel of that soft-looking skin of hers— but his morals, as well as his nerves, were telling him to keep his hands to himself.

“Yeah…” The blond whispered, a little bit breathless at first, but managed to compose himself after a couple of seconds. “Yes, please. I’m… obviously failing at this.”

His words were offered sheepishly, with an equally sheepish smile that— (Y/n) would never admit aloud— made Kyōjurō so damn kissable. And if it were up to her, she would have already pulled him in for a smooch— or more— weeks ago, if it wasn’t for the fact that she wasn’t sure if he was just embarrassed at his lack of culinary talent, or if he always got flustered around her for different reasons.

She almost wanted to sigh wistfully, on the chance that the man in front of her really was just flustered for reasons that didn’t have anything to do with liking her. But she schooled her features to show a pleasant and innocent smile, as she reached forward and boldly laid her hands on top of Kyōjurō’s.

To say that the blond was startled would have been the understatement of the century.

He felt his entire body come alive beneath her touch; warming up in places that should not have been getting warm in view of so many people, along with his muscles tensing up as he resisted the urge to take his hands back.

Not because he hated her touch; not at all. But more so because her mere touch was driving him wild. Hell, he already couldn’t get the feel of her hands out of his head.

“When you knead, you have to use the heel of your palm,” (Y/n) guided softly, all while gently guiding his hands to follow suit with her verbal instructions. “Personally, I like to rock my hand at the wrist, so that it’s easier.”

With her words, the young woman glided her fingers up to wrap around Kyōjurō’s wrists— deliberately pressing the pads of her digits up against the veins at his pulse point, and gliding them up and down. She watched his face get even redder then, while his lips pursed themselves into a thin line.

He was so flustered that he could barely move.

However, the pair was pushed out of their little bubble when the sound of sheet trays and other pans clattering to the ground cut through the quiet air within the kitchen area.

The annoyance in (Y/n)’s expression was brief, but Kyōjurō had caught it; which had his mind reeling… that maybe— just maybe— some part of (Y/n) liked what had been happening between them then; whatever that had been.

And, the moment that another one of the class-attendees had poked their head back into the prep area, he had never been more irritated at a middle-aged housewife in his entire life. All because the other woman’s presence had (Y/n) letting go of her hold on him, so she could attend to whatever the others had messed up in the main kitchen.

***

(Y/n) leaned back against her perch on the high chair right by the counter, sighing softly as she set her cup of coffee down next to the phone that had been left behind after her baking class for the day had ended. Her staff had been nice enough to volunteer to wait for its owner— but she had given in to her more selfish desires, all because she knew whom the owner of the phone was.

So, there she was, waiting for Kyōjurō to turn back up to get his phone; sitting in semi-darkness, since she had already turned off a good number of the lights; enough to let everyone know that her shop was closed, but also enough to let Kyōjurō know that there was still someone inside.

With another wistful sigh, the young woman reached her index finger out and tapped on the phone’s screen— biting back a small smile when it lit up to show her the picture of Kyōjurō and his little brother.

Had she not known better, she would have thought that the boy was his son; but she had seen the pair before at her shop, and she had overheard the boy calling Kyōjurō ‘ani-ue’. So, that immediately quelled her thoughts of him being married already.

‘Maybe he’s not coming back tonight,’ The young woman thought to herself, as she picked her cup of coffee back up and took a sip of the contents. And she was about to throw in the towel, right when the quiet chime of the bells at the door rang within the dead silent coffee shop.

“Hello? Is anyone here?” Instantly, (Y/n) perked up at Kyōjurō’s voice— making her get up from her seat and quickly clutch his phone in her right hand.

She then walked out further to meet him halfway, smiling when their eyes met in the dim shop. “I’m taking that you forgot something?”

A blush colored the blond’s cheeks at that, as he bashfully nodded. He didn’t want to admit it, but the reason why he had forgotten his phone was because he had been rushing home— all so he could ask his father how to court a woman. Because he was done admiring (Y/n) from afar.

He wanted to freely touch her; hug her, kiss her, everything. And he couldn’t do that without asking her out on a date first; but, as he was coming to realize, she always reduced him to a flustered mess with just her presence.

Just seeing her closing the distance between them— especially with the overhead lights illuminating her features in such an ethereal way— had his heart practically skipping in his tight chest. It was like he was falling even more head over heels for her; so breathless and lightheaded, as she stood in front of him with that beautiful smile.

Gingerly, (Y/n) reached a hand into her back pocket and pulled the phone out— handing it to him. “What took you so long to come back for it? Class ended hours ago.”

Kyōjurō floundered around for a response, almost grasping at straws, until something in him clicked and he decided to just go with the truth. He had mulled over it long enough, and if she didn’t like him back… then he’d just have to find another coffee shop to frequent.

It wasn’t like he was a huge fan of coffee, anyway. The only reason why he had kept coming back to (Y/n)’s shop was to see her, and to possibly talk to her when she wasn’t busy.

“I was… nervous,” The young man admitted softly, all while lifting a hand up and accepting his phone. His gaze then flickered briefly down to it, before going back to meet (Y/n)’s. “Because I wanted to see you, but I also didn’t want to see you. It’s a mess, I know. But what I’m trying to say is that you make me nervous.”

(Y/n)’s eyebrows furrowed a little at that, but she couldn’t deny the hope that had flared up within her at the tidbit of information. She was extremely curious whether she made him nervous for the romantic things that she wanted.

A thick silence stretched between them then, and Kyōjurō wanted to hit himself for making it awkward between them. Still, he found himself speaking once more.

“Anyway, uh, I don’t know to thank you for keeping phone safe for me. I owe y-”

“A kiss,” (Y/n) blurted out abruptly, cutting him off and making her want to scream for being so forward. It was evident that she had taken him by surprise too, because his eyes had gone wide, and his mouth had gone agape before he managed to close it back up. “A kiss would be good.”

She was just about to salvage her pride and tell him that she had been joking, but the way that Kyōjurō swallowed thickly as he closed the minuscule gap between them said everything that she wanted to know.

Every nerve in her body buzzed with excitement, as she let her eyes flutter closed the moment she felt his breath fanning across her lips. However, there was a moment where she had to wait with baited breath— as the blond’s lips hovered just a few centimeters from her own— while Kyōjurō tried to calm his nerves down.

Everything within him told him to just close the distance between them, so when he finally made his mind up, he captured (Y/n)’s lips with his own and felt his body practically melt into hers.

She pulled away after that first touch of their lips, reaching up to cup his face— with her expression looking a little dazed and flustered. But it didn’t take long at all for her to pull him in for a much deeper kiss; tilting her head and gently nipping at his bottom lip to tease him.

Kyōjurō responded in kind to her actions, letting himself be swept up by her pace; and parting his lips as his eyes fluttered shut. The first touch of her tongue to his had him moaning softly into her mouth; relishing the taste of coffee on her tongue, and the heady warmth of her mouth against his.

All he could do was wrap his arms around her middle and pull her up against his body; a little irate that he hadn’t pocketed his phone at first, but working with his current circumstances.

And before both of them knew it, they had ended up in a position where (Y/n) was sat on one of the tables— with Kyōjurō standing between her legs, and her hands still tenderly cupping his face.

However, the young man pulled away from their lip lock after a while; eyes still closed, and forehead pressed against hers. Then slowly, almost reverently, he began to press numerous butterfly kisses against (Y/n)’s lips— relishing in the feeling of her smiling even wider with every peck she received.

“You’re too good to me, (Y/n),” Kyōjurō admitted softly through more and more kisses, only to finally pull away from her and look right into her eyes. “I’ve always been in love with you.”

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desiree-harding-fic · 4 years ago

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A TAZ Cinderella AU

You guessed it, folks, this is the full arc of what my Cinderella!au would have been for the Adventure Zone, if I had the time/inspiration to write the whole thing. Just imagine that all of this is paced out over a bunch of chapters of very pretty words, ok? ;)

That said, enjoy! I’m actually very proud of the thing I concocted in my my head for this!

To begin, a quick run-down of the situation as it stands at the beginning of the fic: Mostly Taakitz-centric, Blupjeans as a side plot. Kravitz is the Crown Prince of Faerun, his mother the Raven Queen current ruler of the kingdom, and him as her only son. Taako and Lup’s parents are both dead, and they live with their mother’s father: their grandfather Tostaada, along with the many aunts and uncles and cousins from Tostaada’s other children.

Tostaada has a house, several days travel (at least) from Neverwinter, a typical country home for the well-to-do. He’s somewhere between gentry and nobility, but his wealth has been in decline, as is often the case in these stories. His mistreatment of Taako and Lup comes from a disdain for their father. And it provides a convenient excuse not to pay servants.

Summary of the arc proper under the cut:

So we begin with a prologue (posted here) in which we see Kravitz and Taako, around the early teenage years (14-ish) and just get a little taste of how different their lives are.

Chapter one (also here) kicks off with Kravitz sneaking out of the castle in the early morning for a ride, musing at how busy he is and how stressful his life is trying to be in charge of a whole kingdom, etc. Upon his return, Barry, the royal head arcanist, and Kravitz’s friend, is waiting for him, and informs him that he has a meeting scheduled this morning with the Royal Council.

The Royal Council was originally meant to be a B plot in the story, something to help drive the thing forward, in part because I couldn’t think of a reason as to why the Raven Queen, who adores her son, would force him into marriage. There had to be an outside pressure. So the council was born.

The council was created during the reign of Kravitz’s grandfather, as a way of giving the people a say and lessening the power of absolute monarchy in Faerun, which was falling out of fashion. That was the intent, but, as we find out in the first chapter, the council is now filled with noblemen who haven’t really got the people’s best interests in mind, at least in Kravitz’s humble opinion, and get a good deal of say over what he does. There was never anything enacted that would allow Kravitz to either disband the council or enact term limits, and now, if he were to put such a thing to a vote, it would never go through.

The original council consisted of: Lord Sterling (Artemis’s father), Jenkins, Gundren & Jack (both recently deceased at the opening of the story), Governor Kalen, and Davenport. I promise this will be relevant later.

So in our first chapter the Raven Queen pulls Kravitz aside after his meeting and tells him, over a very tense tea, that he is turning 25 in a couple of months, and the council, as well as foreign powers, are getting nervous that he has no martial prospects yet, and as the Raven Queen has no other relations to carry on the monarchy in Kravitz’s stead, they kind of need to get a move on. Having it so that the Royal line could die out any minute isn’t great for cultivating confidence in the people of your kingdom.

Kravitz is understandably upset, being the romantic that he is (I love him), and he wants nothing less than to be married as the result of some political power play. And yet, there is low probability, at least in his mind, that anyone that will be “suitable” according to his mother, the council, and the people both in Faerun and abroad, will be anyone that he will even remotely like. But what can he do? He agrees to begin the process of finding a spouse at this year’s Harvest Ball, which will coincide closely with his 25th birthday.

Barry is actually the one that gives Kravitz the idea of throwing the doors open to the whole of Faerun, and Kravitz, seeing it as an opportunity to meet men who aren’t stuffy nobles he hates, strikes a bargain with his mother: a masked ball, three nights long. Kravitz will not know (in theory) who is wealthy and powerful and who is not, and will be able to choose at his discretion someone that he would like to pursue. Shockingly, the Queen agrees.

*~*~*~*~*

SMASHCUT to Tostaada’s country home. We see Lup and Taako going about their morning routine, making breakfast for the family, lighting the fires in the hearth, generally working their asses off. Mid-breakfast, there’s a knock at the door, one that Taako goes to answer. (This is a no-no. He’s meant to be more of a behind-the-scenes servant, Lup being the one who is seen. She’s slightly more favored by Tostaada. Taako is hated. But Lup is in the middle of something, so...) It’s a letter from the Raven Queen, an invitation actually, to the family Taaco, to come to Neverwinter for the three-night Harvest Ball.

The Queen’s intentions of finding her son a husband are not directly stated, but Tostaada is a shrewd, terrible old man, and it does not take him a moment to catch on. The family packs up, Taako and Lup and all, and heads to Neverwinter, the ball two weeks away.

While they’re packing, Lup pulls Taako aside and tells him her plan. They’ll be in Neverwinter for almost two weeks, ball included. And the whole kingdom will be swarming to the city for this, it will be more crowded than ever, and therefore will give them the perfect opportunity to run away from Tostaada. He’ll be so preoccupied he’ll never be able to track them down in the chaos of this event. Taako hesitates for just a second before he’s on board. They’ll run away mid-ball, when the family is gone, and by the time Tostaada realizes anything, it’ll be too late.

*~*~*~*~*

SMASHCUT back to Krav, chilling in the palace, it’s now two weeks before the ball (around the same time that Taako and co. get the letter, actually,) and preparations are well underway. During another busy day of overseeing some of the prep for the upcoming Massive Festival (TM), Kravitz runs across Captain Davenport, just returned from a long stint at sea.

They have a conversation about the state of affairs in the kingdom, Kravitz expressing his frustration at not only the ineptitude but corruption on the council, and his worries about this marital plan. He knows that Lord Sterling is going to throw his son Artemis at him relentlessly, but he hates the kid, and wants nothing to do with him, etc.

Davenport merely expresses that he has faith in Kravitz’s ability to turn it all around and make for a good king. That the recent loss of Gundren and Jack and the dragging on of the council replacing them doesn’t bode well, but that he needs to see the thing through.

He unfortunately agrees with the rest of the council, however, that Kravitz needs to be married, and soon. There’s only so long they can go dragging this out. Kravitz sees the sense in this and agrees, albeit reluctantly. At least he has the opportunity to find someone he actually likes.

Meanwhile, Taako, Lup, Tostaada and the family have arrived in Neverwinter and will be staying in a fine manor house in the upscale residential part of the city, and the family immediately sets out to find tailors and seamstresses who can get them all dressed up for the inevitable ball. The house is in shambles on the inside, the only way Tostaada could get it cheap, and Lup and Taako spend the afternoon trying to fix it up to live-able standards and clean it enough so that should the family be called upon, they’ll at least look respectable.

In the meantime, no one is home, and they begin to plan their escape.

They plan it for the third night of the ball. Tostaada will be furious if they leave sooner, being left with no servants to assist any upcoming nights. The third night, once the family leaves for the party, they’ll be in the clear. If Tostaada manages an advantageous match for any one of the cousins, he won’t bother with Taako and Lup anymore, and get better servants. It’s highly likely that in the next two weeks he’ll make several matches, so after the party is done they should be as safe as possible given their plan.

*~*~*~*~*

Everyone spends a week getting ready.

Istus, friend of the Raven Queen from a neighboring kingdom, arrives to the palace. She will be staying for the celebration, and for a while on either end. She and the Raven Queen have a conversation, in which the Raven Queen expresses her anxiety about the upcoming matchmaking process for her son. She does not want his marriage to end up like hers (loveless, purely political). She asks Istus if she will use some of her divination skills to look into the future. Istus agrees, and it is clear that she sees something very intriguing in Kravitz’s future. She does not say what it is, but she assures her Majesty not to worry.

The day of the ball arrives.

Now by some trick of fate, one of the cousins has received the wrong suit by accident, and Lup simply must go to the tailor and send it back, and retrieve the one he was supposed to receive at any cost. So Lup goes, and Taako doesn’t think much of it until she bursts back into the attic that evening, two garment bags in her hands. She says that there was a mistake, and that a noble man and woman didn’t pick up their garments for whatever reason; the week has been so chaotic anyway, and there was talk of them falling ill and being unable to attend the ball tonight, and the woman at the tailor shop felt so bad about the mistaken order she offered to alter them to fit Tostaada’s family for free, as a sort of “so sorry about the mistake” thing, and Lup said she would just take them, and isn’t it exciting Taako, we can use these and go to the ball tonight!

Taako is reluctant to accept this plan, but Lup says they’ll only go one night, just to see the spectacle, and then they can be home for the other two and prepare to run away, and besides, they’re starting a new life and this will be a fun way to kick it off, and the outfits even come with masks, Taako, please?

Taako finally relents, and they spend the rest of the afternoon getting the cousins ready to go to the ball themselves, along with the aunts and uncles and Tostaada himself, who is in one of his moods. It’s awful, but they finally get a moment away, and they sneak up to the attic to pull out their garments...

And they get caught. Tostaada never comes upstairs, but he was calling for them, one of the cousins having forgotten a brooch or something, they weren’t answering, and when he comes upstairs and sees them, he takes the garments, drags the twins downstairs, and lets the cousins laugh at them until they’re in tears, and the family rip the dress and the suit to shreds.

The thought that they would even show themselves is so repulsive to Tostaada, and he gets angry at the presumption of it all, and he locks them downstairs in the kitchen for the duration of the evening, the door swinging shut behind him with a heavy clang.

Lup is furious, Taako more resigned, as the house quiets with the eventual departure of the family.

An hour passes with them sitting in the kitchen under the house, Lup cursing her luck. If not for her stupid idea to go, they wouldn’t be in here, locked in, and they could work on their preparations to leave two nights hence. But now they’re completely useless.

The latch on the door to the outside of the house, the small yard in the back with the meager kitchen garden, comes undone, and swings open of its own accord.

A woman is there. Or at least it looks like a woman; she is cloaked, head to toe, even her face obscured, but there’s a shimmer in the air around her that they recognize immediately as magic.

Taako and Lup have been learning magic, little by little. Taako stole a book from the village a little over a year ago, but it’s slow going, especially with Tostaada always trying to catch them doing something “indecent.”

They’ve never seen anything like this.

The mysterious woman tells them she heard Lup’s frustrated shouting while walking by and wanted to see if they needed any help. Once they thank her for letting them out, she asks them why they haven’t decided to go to the ball; two young people like them at home on a night like this seems strange. Lup scoffs, says they thought about going for a moment, but they have nothing to wear.

Istus (for by now the reader surely knows it is Istus) cocks her head and says that that won’t do, will it? And raises her hands.

And in a moment their clothes are transformed, and Lup is dressed in a gorgeous gown in reds and golds, and feathered mask is on her face, and Taako’s in a finely made suit, his mask vaguely rodential. And the woman says that now they are well-suited for a ball. Taako and Lup are just gaping at her, but she shoos them along. Go, she says, and Taako feels a peculiar prickle up his spine when she tells them, when she tells him, it feels like, to amuse himself, to have a good time, to meet new people.

She warns them that while her magic is powerful, which is evident, it is sensitive to time. Wherever they are, at the stroke of midnight, the magic will fade, and their appearances will revert to what they were before.

Lup and Taako, wanting to go only for a few laughs and to spite Tostaada, say that this is more than enough time.

And they go.

When they arrive at the palace, it’s positively swarmed with people. They agree to meet by the front doors at a half hour before midnight, giving them plenty of time to get out without being seen.

And they go in.

They’re being jostled on all sides, and well, as much as they’d like to stick together it doesn’t really work out that way, and before he knows it, Taako is in the midst of a ballroom looking for Lup, and following the flow of the crowd -

And suddenly he’s face-to-face (or, well, mask-to-mask) with a very handsomely dressed man with a skull for a face.

A skull mask, to be exact, all silver and gold filigree and done up with rubies and diamonds, and his suit is fine, dark velvet in rich blacks and deep, deep reds, and he bows and Taako does, too, because he feels as though it’s the thing to do, and when the man straightens up he and Taako trade the typical small-talk befitting a prince and his guest (because, Taako realizes, with as many people seem to be looking at them, that is surely who this must be), and Taako says something witty that makes Kravitz laugh which I will not write here, because this is a summary, which means all I have to do is say when the jokes happen; I don’t actually have to write them.

Long story short, Kravitz pulls off his mask, and he asks Taako to dance.

The anonymity Kravitz was hoping to be afforded by throwing a masked ball has not really panned out. Everyone can tell exactly which mask the prince is behind, and once the receiving line began to form, there was really nothing for it. He likes the Mongoose-masked stranger, though, and would very much like to know him better. And so what if he’s abandoning the rest of the line? He’s the prince, thank you very much, and he can do what he likes.

Taako is sold the moment the prince pulls his mask off, because the prince is hot, and Taako feels rather gorgeous himself, and maybe this is the first night in a while that he’s had any kind of serious fun and he’s feeling a bit reckless, so he pulls his mask off too and they have a dance.

Or two.

Or three, talking all the while.

After the third, the prince bows respectfully and says he must see to his other guests, but that he hopes to see Taako again, and Taako, maybe just a little flustered, wanders over to the food.

Meanwhile, Lup entered the ballroom, having gotten a bit lost on the way in, shortly after the fateful meeting itself and what does she see but her brother, unmasked, dancing with a man who is most unmistakably the prince.

Which is really just perfect, isn’t it?

She pouts for a minute because one beautiful elf will hardly draw any attention in this crowd, except Taako’s dancing with the crown prince, so every eye in the assembly is fixed upon him, and seeing an identical twin will definitely lead to some word getting around. So Lup is confined to remaining masked for the duration of the ball.

Which isn’t so bad, since she was expecting that, after all, but neither is she looking forward to it.

She skirts the edge of the ballroom, finds her way to some refreshment tables, and she’s lucky her mask leaves most of the bottom half of her face free as she nibbles on the hors d’oeuvres set out and generally enjoys the spectacle. She is propositioned to dance a few times but after the prince removes his mask a large portion of the assembly does as well, and Lup rather sticks out for keeping hers on.

She isn’t given much more attention, then, as all of the other people around seem to write off the mask as a wish to stay hidden and therefore ignored, and while they aren’t wrong, Lup isn’t enjoying the ball half as much as she thought.

And then things go from bad to worse.

Some moron completely knocks into her and sends her drink, a strong red wine, all down the front of her, granted, magical and temporary, but very nice dress.

Lup’s going to be mad, but the man is so sweet about it, stammering his apologies, and completely red in the face and, frankly, such a dork that she really can’t be mad, and he does about some ridiculous business about trying mop up the wine and it’s completely hopeless, and Lup is bored -

So she tries casting prestidigitation on the stain.

And, somewhat to her surprise, it works.

This catches the man’s attention, who immediately straightens up and starts asking her questions about where she’s learned magic, and what other spells she knows, and what her name is. Lup, in a moment of impulse, introduces herself as Lady Lulu, which she cringes at immediately but sticks with. And the man is nice to talk to, and interesting, and apparently an expert in the arcane, which Lup is thrilled about. Out of all these people she ran into someone actually interesting.

At one point, she invites the man to dance, but he refuses, a bit awkwardly. He says he’s not very coordinated, but he wouldn’t mind taking a walk, if she wouldn’t mind either? Lup is going to say yes, but upon glancing at the clock, sees that it’s almost eleven-thirty, and tells him she has to go.

Taako, meanwhile, has danced with Kravitz twice more, and chatted a bit, and when he tries to extricate himself from his Highness’s presence Kravitz seems genuinely disappointed to see him go, and asks him if he’ll be back tomorrow night.

Taako, suddenly overcome with something that makes him want to make this man smile, says yes.

And then he goes to meet Lup at the front.

They head home, making their way through the streets which are not quite as crowded as the palace was, but are still significantly busy, as those who felt they would not be at home in the palace have taken to celebrating the harvest ball in the streets. Lup and Taako make it home unnoticed, and they chat a little bit about what they saw and what they did, and when Lup teases Taako about the prince, he’s unusually quiet. This worries Lup a bit, but she doesn’t press further.

Their clothes transform when they’re about 3/4 of the way home. When they arrive, they figure they have a few hours until the family gets home to begin making preparations for their escape. Around three, they shut themselves back up in the kitchen. Lup manages to find, from the outside, a way around the locked door that i haven’t decided on yet, because this is just a summary.

Wash, rinse, repeat. The twins are on their best behavior the next day as Tostaada and co. sleep through the morning, having been up late the night before, and while no one comes to call that afternoon, Tostaada still has high hopes for a match. Lup and Taako are locked in the kitchen, manage to get out -

And now, Taako has been nervous all day having promised the prince he would be back, and surprisingly, quite wanting to see him again. He’s pacing the floor when Istus arrives, transforms their clothes, and sends them off.

Lup is more than a little skeptical about this magic woman, but Taako wants to go, so she goes, and tries to put the bizarre-ness of it out of her mind.

Taako goes to the ball, meets up with Kravitz, and this time Kravitz doesn’t leave his side all night. Lup wanders around, still masked, until she runs into Barry again (not literally this time) and makes good on that walk in the gardens he asked her for last night. They both make it to the gates again by eleven-thirty, and make it home.

This night, however, something tips Tostaada off. Maybe it’s the way Taako moves, or maybe it’s his own paranoia, but something happens at the ball that makes him suspicious. I will not hash out what it is at this time because, again: Summary.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

Istus, on the third night, gives Taako his most fabulous ensemble yet, a beautiful thing in deep blue and silver and gives him jewelry set in sapphires and, you guessed it, pink tourmaline (because I’m predictable). Including, most importantly, a pair of bracelets. As Lup is locking up the kitchen to go, Istus pulls Taako aside and hands him the bracelets, and tells him that they will not dissipate at midnight. She hints vaguely at Taako and Lup’s plans to go away after the ball is over, tells him to consider the bracelets a gift. They are two of a kind, she tells him, and perhaps they will fetch a price.

Taako does not know why this woman knows so much about their life, but he’s eager to get to the party, accepts the bracelets, and before he can ask her more, she’s gone.

They head out to the ball for the third time.

It is this night that we get the majority of the material between Taako and Kravitz. Kravitz, this time, is waiting right inside the door to the ballroom, and when Taako arrives he is immediately swept up by the prince into a dance. Although, after a few hours of dancing and eating and generally enjoying themselves in the ballroom, they take a walk in the gardens.

Meanwhile, it is at this time that we get the scene where Barry has been chatting Lup up, quite obliviously, and finally he asks her if she’d like to see his lab, unable to take it anymore, he’s so excited that someone’s interested in his work. Lup, of course, thinks it’s a come-on, as discussed here, but upon going up to Barry’s tower lab she realizes that he actually, genuinely was inviting her up to look at his research which is just... too cute.

Meanwhile, Taako and Kravitz are taking a stroll through the extensive terraced palace gardens, talking all the while and the both of them are just... enamored. Taako feels beautiful and important for the first time in a long time and it’s wonderful. Kravitz has found someone interesting and gorgeous and wonderful, and it’s just... too much. It’s hard to write in short form here that they’re in love, but they like... are. Just trust me. Not fully, because it’s only been a few meetings, a few nights, but there’s something there. There’s a pull that they haven’t felt before, and feels somehow beyond them.

They wander, and the gardens are beautiful, and the moonlight is beautiful, and they end up on a sort of terrace, secluded by trees, and the sea is down below them and they dance again, just the two of them, and then there’s kissing and it’s all very romantic, I promise. There’s a scene from it here.

Then the clock strikes midnight.

And Taako panics.

The time got away from him, he got distracted, and he tries to run, but Kravitz catches his hand and he’s begging Taako to stay but Taako can’t, because Kravitz doesn’t know what’s going on here.

He thinks fast. He unclasps one of the bracelets and places it in Kravitz’s hand and says so fast that if Kravitz wants to see him again he can look for him and Taako will have the other bracelet ok bye and then he runs.

He barely makes it out of the palace in time.

But of course, by this time, Lup is not at the front gates. They planned out a fallback location, less conspicuous, if one of them got held up, and Taako is already late, and he gets there as fast as he can, and Lup is pissed.

(she’s mostly just worried).

She kind of goes at him for being late but Taako just says he lost track of time, and whatever that feeling is in his voice makes Lup back off. She’s never heard Taako sound like that before. She lets it go, but she’s more worried than before.

They make their way home, ready to pick up their packs and run like they were planning. But they open the door to the kitchen, and there’s a thud, and a candle lights, and Tostaada is there, the contents of their packs spread out before him, and absolute fury in his eyes.

It’s awful. After his suspicion, he saw Taako enter the ball tonight. And knew it was him. And he was furious. He came home, headed them off, and yells at them something fierce, locking them in separate closets to deal with them, because they can’t be trusted to be together, they’ll scheme. (Some of the cousins, by the way, are here for this, because fuck the cousins).

They try desperately to break out. Banging on the door, trying to bust out the doorknob, to cast something on the door to unlock it, but they’ve been going three days only getting a couple hours of sleep a night. It finally hits them how exhausted they are. After a while, there’s nothing they can do.

Now you may say to yourself “this is awfully convenient.” And you would be right. But it’s also a fairytale, and this is a summary of a fairytale, so there.

Tostaada, because he fucking sucks, finds some way to separate the twins. Probably something along the lines of dragging Taako out of his “cell” and being like guess what I’ve always hated you and I’m a real bastard so you’re working for this shady caravan now, have a good time. Taako is Not Down to be separated from his sister but he’s also like hey fuck you to Tostaada and is going to dip from that caravan in about 30 seconds so he’s like yeah have a nice life, too, dickweed.

He slips away from the caravan in like... a day. Fuck those guys. He’s gonna go back and get Lup.

And just a bit later, Lup gets let out of the closet, and finds out that Taako’s gone. And she goes fucking berserk. She casts her first fireball (yes I know that’s now how it works in DnD but shhhhhhh it’s fine).

She burns Tostaada’s fucking dumbass city house to the ground. And Tostaada and the cousins are panicking but Lup is honestly like fuck the cousins, and she slips away in the chaos. Fuck Tostaada. Fuck the family. Lup’s going to go find her fucking brother.

*~*~*~*~*

We haven’t checked in on Kravitz in a hot minute, but he’s been completely smitten with Taako from the moment he met him, and has been saying as much to Mama Bird herself, the Raven Queen, who has been... a little less than stoked. She is skeptical because this isn’t going exactly as planned, and on top of that, Kravitz hasn’t even learned this man’s name. He’s an absolute enigma, and Raven worries not only that this man will potentially not be a good asset to the kingdom, but he also might not turn up and completely break Kravitz’s heart.

But Kravitz stands firm. The Queen said he could make his choice, well, he’s going to. He’s going to go after this guy.

...Or so he thinks. See, the Royal Council, as in all things, gets their say. And they’re not happy with this. Generally disapproving when Kravitz tries to make his own decisions, they say absolutely not to his wish to search for Taako. Raven tries to help by talking them down from letting them handle the search and keeping Kravitz in the capital to letting Kravitz go himself but only giving him a few months time. If he hasn’t found Taako by then, he’s going to have to call off the search altogether and look for another match.

It’s not good, but it’s something. Kravitz takes his bracelet and begins seeking out every elf in the land who even vaguely matches Taako’s description.

*~*~*~*~*

The elf in question is, at this point, on his own. Meeting up with your sister when you have no idea where she is and she has no idea where you are, and you’re running back and forth and missing each other, well. It’s difficult.

It takes them a little while to get back together, and I’m sure there are plenty of minor trials and tribulations along the way. I won’t go into them all here, because this is a summary.

*~*~*~*~*

Kravitz is on the move, looking for Taako. He searches and searches and comes up with nothing. It’s been two months. It’s almost the height of winter. He’s running out of his allotted time for his search. And that’s when it happens.

He’s riding through this one town, a ways from the capital, when he sees, there, out of the corner of his eye, a flash of silver and blue and maybe some pink, and he turns his head, and there’s the bracelet. The one Taako gave him.

But it’s not on Taako’s wrist.

Kravitz calls for the guards travelling with him and they stop the woman and they question her as to where she got that bracelet. She says that she bought it off a travelling salesman, and seems rather embarrassed about it. She’s reluctant to give it up, having bought it fair and square, but Kravitz pays her, and gets it back.

Kravitz is, of course, heartbroken. Taako said he would have the other bracelet. He told Kravitz to look for him. He said to look for him. If he gave it up, if he sold it, does it mean he doesn’t want to see Kravitz again after all?

Kravitz wants answers for a minute. But then he listens to reason. Or so he thinks. Discouraged, he returns to the capital, as per Lord Sterling’s suggestion.

Many people and things are trying to keep these two apart. It is at this point that these forces begin to win.

So he goes home, in time for the first snow to cover Neverwinter.

*~*~*~*~*

What Taako and Lup are up to in the meantime:

It’s pretty close to canon in that they mostly hop from job to job, and caravan to caravan, taking odd jobs and cooking and making their way. And it’s hard. It’s really hard. But something about it is good. This is the first time they’ve had, maybe in their whole lives, to just be in charge of themselves. They’re deciding their own destiny now.

Lup can see that Taako is different. Something has changed. The news that the prince is looking for him isn’t a secret at all, so she keeps a careful eye on him for how he feels about that. She brings it up a few times that maybe they could come forward in their own way, maybe let people know that he’s out there, but Taako keeps shutting her down before she can really talk about it.

As for Taako, he’s more than thrilled to finally be free of Tostaada, and to have his sister back after a few months of absence. But the whole thing at the ball and with Kravitz is... weighing on his mind.

I should explain the bracelet fiasco.

See, Taako and Lup returned from the ball, and the whole thing with Tostaada went down. Of course, while he was deciding what to do with Taako he confiscated the bracelet, and sold it off a bit later for whatever he could get. This is how it was able to travel so far from where Taako actually is; the jewelry seller went one way, Taako another, and Tostaada and the family, when they finally left Neverwinter, a third.

This is all running through Taako’s mind of course. It would be nice for Kravitz to find him, sure, but Taako was the one who set up the system of verification through the bracelet. Without it, what credibility does he have? And sure, maybe Kravitz will recognize him, but what if he doesn’t? It was dark, and it was only a few nights, and -

Anyway, Taako’s not going to worry about it. He’s fine, really, and it was only a few nights anyway, and what does he care about the dumb old prince. It’s not like Kravitz said he wanted to marry him. He just said he wanted to see him again. What the hell does that mean? And it’s not like Taako was the only one he spent time with at the ball.

Basically our sweet boy is snackin’ on a big slice of denial pie and it’s very sad.

Taako is saying that he doesn’t care whether he sees Kravitz again or not, but Lup can tell something is wrong. She suggests that they stick around in Faerun, work for the winter, and come spring, they’ll head out. They’ll hitch their way with the caravans, and work their way over the border. New country, new life. Leave all that Tostaada shit and everything behind.

Taako’s on board. They find themselves a job cooking and occasionally tending the bar at an inn, not a gross one but not the fanciest either. They’re going to work up some money, and they’re going to hit the road.

But back to Kravitz.

*~*~*~*~*

Kravitz is back home at the palace in Neverwinter. The first snow on the not-very-aptly named city makes traveling difficult. If Kravitz hadn’t already given up the dream of Taako, it would well and truly be impossible to find him now. No one in their right mind would send a search party out in the winter months.

So he’s essentially on house arrest.

And so begins the parade of potential partners. Everyone knows about the ball. Everyone knows now that the plan of having the prince find a partner there was a colossal failure. Every young and eligible nobleman in the capital who is even remotely interested in men gets thrown at this boy. Artemis Sterling most of all, a spoiled brat of a boy, who, when he’s not being absolutely appalling to people is boring them to death.

Kravitz is fucking miserable.

Does this make him think of Taako? Yes. Does he miss him? Absolutely. Does it only twist the knife of heartbreak in this boy who thought he had found someone good and then that person gave him up? 100 percent.

Kravitz is ready to jump off the cliffs out back the palace into the Stillwater Sea and swim to a new country when the word from Raven’s Roost comes.

Rebellion! Against Kalen, of all people! How could it be?

(Kravitz has hated Kalen for a while, but this certainly is a pickle).

Kalen is ousted, arrives in Neverwinter half-frozen and fuming, a few cronies on his tail, and chaos in the palace ensues. Who to believe? Kalen, who claims he has been unfairly attacked, or the people, claiming Kalen’s long-term abuse.

It all shakes out somehow. This is a summary, though, so I don’t have to say. Julia does something badass. Also she’s not dead. She and Magnus show up in the capital and there’s the whole them vs Kalen before the Raven Queen fiasco and finally she chooses the good people as the correct ones and Kalen is thrown in prison or banished or something lol idk.

And now there are... 3 positions on the royal council empty and it is essentially non-functioning. The kingdom is in governmental crisis. Magnus and Julia are at the palace. This whole rebellion/trial thing has taken most of the winter months.

Barry and Magnus become fast friends, which of course puts Magnus into Kravitz’s orbit more than the Kalen ordeal already has. And they begin talking. And at the prompting of Magnus and Julia being so in love, Taako of course comes up.

Magnus is all omg wow buddy that’s true love u gotta pursue that, and Kravitz is like ok but also consider he probably doesn’t even like me, and also it’s impossible, and also I can’t. To which Magnus says umm how do you know, and also bullshit, and also why not?

And why not indeed?

Well, Barry says, perhaps because the government is in shambles and to abandon everything now would almost certainly trigger all kinds of issues amongst the aristocracy, upon whom your hold is currently tenuous at best.

Kravitz says >:((

And then along comes Merle.

Merle comes moseying up the palace one day like hey guys how’s it goin’ I’m Merle, and the [PLACE WHERE GUNDREN WAS FROM] sent me here to be Gundren’s replacement on the Royal Council, after all I am his cousin, don’t’cha know, and sorry it took us so long, we had some issues to work through. He does not explain what these were, nor does he have to, for this is a summary.

Merle’s addition is a real gamechanger, because not only is he miraculously able to neutralize the more antagonistic personalities on the council (usually through saying something Kravitz can’t decide is crazy or profound), but also he’s a big advocate for let’s get things up and running again, starting with just replacing Kalen with one of these two nice people who Raven’s Roost seems to have elected to represent them.

Magnus goes “oh well I don’t know this is a lot of responsibility-” and before he’s even done talking Julia’s like “I’ll fuckin’ do it.”

This, of course, gets the council running, and, importantly to our plot, creates a majority of people who Want kravitz to Go After A Boy. They work on cleaning up the mess in Raven’s Roost, finally find a replacement for Jack (it’s Cassidy, also by election, which is a shiny new toy for these people) and they iron all of it out by the time Spring has sprung.

Kravitz says now can I go Find A Boy PLEEEAAAAASE I did the governing thing and everything. And most people’s reactions are omg I can’t believe you’re still talking about that but Fine. Take some friends. Kravitz takes Barry and Magnus and (mumble mumble some others idk like avi or someone don’t @ me) and is like BYE MY CONFIDENCE IS RESTORED AND I’M GONNA FIND A BOY.

*~*~*~*~*

So Spring Has Sprung.

Which means Lup and Taako are back on the move. Continuing their slow journey out of Faerun, working on their way (it’s nice to have money saved up, they find, but it’s not A Lot, and they don’t want to totally deplete it.) They usually stop for a week in a town, do some odd jobs, travel, stop for a week. It’s nice.

But they’re on the way OUT OF THE COUNTRY *cue dramatic music*

Will Kravitz Reach Them In Time? If he does, will Taako even Want To Go Back? All these questions and more exist at this point in the narrative.

*~*~*~*~*

Kravitz follows the lead of the bracelet. He does not stop for a week in towns. In fact, he’s pushing pretty hard. He tracks down the woman who points him to the seller who points him to Another travelling seller who points him to a jeweler in town who looks at the bracelet and says oh yeah, I got that from Old Man Tostaada, outside of town, he’s a proud type, but you should ask him.

Well. Kravitz certainly does.

In the nearly six months since Taako and Lup slunk and exploded out of his life, respectively, Tostaada has become an even crochetier, nastier, meaner old man than ever. He has no servants now. The cousins have to do chores, oh the horror. He’s propping his appearance of nobility up on pride alone. The house is in Shambles. It’s a whole Thing™️.

But one fateful springy day, one of the cousins looks out the window…

And Sees An Entire Royal-insignia’d Party Riding Up The Lane.

And promptly Panics.

Well Kravitz and co are ushered into the house with all kinds of Ceremony, and Tostaada is acting very proud, and Kravitz says excuse me sir, I was wondering if you might remember being in possession of this bracelet.

This is Bad News to Tostaada.

I may recall, sir, he says.

There’s a terribly polite and tense conversation after that. Tostaada refuses to say where he got the bracelet, even to royalty, being as old and spiteful as he is, and Kravitz is just about to threaten him with something terrible when one of the cousins breaks, and spills the whole story tearfully, about Taako and Lup and how they were treated and where Tostaada got the bracelet and “we didn’t know you wanted it, we didn’t know it was important, we swear,” and the only thing that keeps Kravitz from Severely Punishing them is that he refuses to waste any time getting to Taako, who he’s very keen to find now. Tostaada has no idea where Taako and Lup are now, though, so he wasn’t helpful in that sense. Only now Kravitz knows that they’ve Been The Fuck Through It, and that Taako didn’t give up the bracelet of his own accord, and so it’s possible that The Boy Still Likes Him.

And with renewed energy, off they go.

Tostaada gets stripped of whatever title he has left, or something, because FUCK him.

Kravitz and the gang are putting out the word that hey, we’re still looking for this elf, if anyone’s seen him, that would be great.

The thing is, this time, they’re getting leads, on account of Lup and Taako sticking around in places long enough to make a friend or two.

*~*~*~*~*

It’s later, and almost Summertime, baby, when Lup and Taako finally hear the news.

The prince is still looking for Taako? Damn. Boy’s serious.

Lup watches Taako’s face carefully when they hear this news. They’re leaving town. They only have one more before they reach the border and slip away. Lup says hey. Are you sure you don’t wanna come forward and say something?

Taako’s like no of course we shouldn’t do that don’t be silly it’s FINE. (It’s not fine, Lup can tell, but she’s not gonna push. This is Taako’s decision to make. They’re gonna make a fresh start in a new place. It’ll be great.

They start hiking to the next town, hobbit style. They make it out into ye woods and find a nice spot to settle down and camp. Make up a fire, get cozy, cook a little dinner, the whole shindig. They settle down to sleep.

Taako wakes up. In the middle of the night. The full moon is shining brightly down into the clearing they’re sleeping in and the fire is no longer the softly smoldering embers it was when he fell asleep. It’s nice crackling along. And sitting there, tending it, is a lady.

Lady is the only way to describe her. She’s in a gown of silvery thread with silvery hair tumbling down her back. She asks Taako if he’d like some tea. He can’t tell if the light in the clearing is from the moon, or the fire, or just from her. She speaks with a voice that just sounds so familiar, but that he doesn’t quite place.

She hands Taako a cup of tea. It’s floral and fragrant and lovely. She asks him what he’s running from. He says she sounds awfully condescending talking like that, and if she knew what he’d been through she wouldn’t act like leaving it all behind was such a bad decision. She says she never said it was a bad decision, she just wonders how much he’s thought about it, is all. There’s a quiet moment, as she sips her tea. She says, quietly, that perhaps Taako ought to be careful, not to run too far too fast.

And taako wakes up again. There’s a teacup sitting beside him. Empty. Clean. There’s no sign that there was any visitor in the night.

To Lup, Taako is acting weird the next day. He seems jumpy. He seems distant. She keeps worrying they’re gonna get jumped on the road, from the way he’s not paying attention to his surroundings. He’s in his head, even more than usual. But they manage to arrive to the next town without incident.

And Taako’s weird over the next few days. And Lup suggests on the fourth that they get a move on. There’s a caravan headed across the border tomorrow, we can go with them.

Taako looks at the drink in his hand for a long moment, not there with her, and she’s about to ask again when he says “maybe just a few more days.”

Taako doesn’t ask her for much. Taako seems very serious, and it’s kind of scaring Lup. But she agrees. A few more days is fine. Then they’ll go.

And a few days pass. And Taako’s weird. He keeps looking around corners like he’s expecting something to jump out from around them. He keeps looking down the street like he expects something to come barreling into town. But nothing ever seems to.

Come on, Taako, Lup says, three days later, while Taako’s dropped over a cup of wine in the local inn. Tomorrow some more people are leaving, mid-afternoon, they said, let’s go. Just over those hills and we can start everything over, make a name for ourselves. What do you say?

And Taako agrees.

They go to bed.

And, in the bright-mid morning the next day, Kravitz and the gang come riding into town, Raven Queen standard flying high over their heads, dressed in shining silver on black. Lup’s out on the street, collecting some last-minute supplies when she sees them.

Holy shit, Lup says.

She recognizes the Prince. She recognizes BARRY. And after her moment of gawking in surprise, the prince glances her way, and does a frankly comedic wide-eyed double take.

She does, after all, have Taako’s face.

He hops off his horse and very politely comes over and introduces himself, and identifies her by name (he met her grandfather) and asks, very kindly, if she might know where he can find her brother.

Lup does some quick mental calculus and says “yeah, I can show you where he is.”

That scene can be found HERE. (I truly can’t shortly summarize this one better than I wrote it so yikes secret few thousand words nested in this already monstrous summary, I’m sorry but not really I am sorry that it switches tense like three times, I do not have the energy to correct it).

Needless to say, they are reunited.

But it’s a lot to put on someone, the entire “come home with me I think you’re the love of my life even though we kind of only know each other a little, also if you say yes you might be responsible for governing a whole people” so Taako needs some time to think.

Kravitz leaves him some.

And then Taako and Lup have a long conversation, where Taako makes lots of excuses as to why he shouldn’t go with Kravitz, and Lup listens very patiently and nods and hums along, and then finally asks him if he thinks Kravitz will make him happy.

This stumps Taako for a good long time, standing stock still, looking terrified, before he nods.

Well, Lup says, I think you know what you need to do.

And Taako goes, the evening, as it’s getting late (which is about when he and Lup finished hashing it all out and he got his courage up) to Kravitz’s room in the inn, and Kravitz’s guards let him in, and oh. Oh Kravitz looks lovely, standing there, dressed down, comfortable in his own space. And Kravitz gets up and looks at Taako with wide eyes and Taako says, “I thought about what you said.”

“Yes?” Kravitz says. He might be crying. Taako can’t tell. He looks terrified.

“I think…” Taako says. “I think I want to go with you.”

Kravitz becomes a human embodiment of heart eyes and says “really?”

And Taako says oh my god yes but you have to not be weird.

“I’m not being weird,” says Kravitz, still heart eyes-ing, “I’m so not weird. I’m so normal, see?”

And they KISS.

*~*~*~*~*

Everybody packs up the next morning to head on their merry way home. Kravitz is over the moon. Taako is, kind of, too, but is trying to be chill about it. Lup tells Barry as they leave that she was the one he was hanging with at the ball that one time, good to see him again, and Barry becomes human heart eyes for approximately four seconds before he reigns it in and he’s like oh cool nice to officially meet you, and the two of them spend the rest of the trip circling each other trying not to act in love because like there’s a lot going on and Taako needs lup and all, and Taako and Kravitz are very amused by this.

Taako and Magnus become fast friends. And, he and Kravitz get time to properly get to know each other during all that travel together, and the scary thing is they fit better than they ever thought they would, they really do. Taako likes the boy more by the day. Kravitz is so smitten it’s revolting.

When they get back to Neverwinter, there’s a fair bit of fanfare and the Raven Queen makes a big stink about Kravitz shirking his duties and being irresponsible and whatnot, but he can tell she’s secretly pleased. She comes to like Taako very much.

And well… you know what’s next. After a bit, Taako and Kravitz get married.

*~*~*~*~*

EPILOGUE:

The marriage of King Kravitz to Prince Taako is known as one of the more fortuitous in the history of the nation.

Prince Taako, after his history as one of the working common folk of Faerun, went on to use his new seat on the royal council to champion reforms that changed the lives of working people everywhere. The laws he helped draft that established basic working condition requirements for those in domestic services helped launch a new era of equal pay and treatment for the working classes of Faerun, and a culling of the power of the wealthy.

He helped establish a new nation-wide system of government, based on regional elections, and with King Kravitz, gradually placed more political power in the hands of the people. The minimum requirements for the royal council to balance the number of aristocratic members with those without titles stands to this day.

Prince Taako was known, also, for his aptitude for the arcane. Though never did he manage to surpass his sister and brother-in-law in his lifetime, he is revered as one of the more powerful and skilled mages in Faerun’s history. Though perhaps more famous is his legacy as a great instructor in the arcane sciences, known especially for training Grand Archmage Angus McDonald in his early years.

Though perhaps chief among his achievements was his role in the war against the Hunger in the twenty-third year of King Kravitz’s reign. He was among those who formulated the plan to infiltrate the Hunger’s forces and carry out the assassination of John the Devourer. And when King Kravitz was injured in the final battle against the Hunger’s armies, it was Prince Taako who held the line, and was unmoved in the face of their power. For this, he became known during his reign as Prince Taako the Steadfast, though over the years his long-time connection with Lady Istus was cited as evidence to his improbable marriage and ascension to the throne being an act of Providence, and in many secret circles he was referred to as Prince Taako the Blessed.

Upon his abdication from the throne in the thirtieth year of his reign, Prince Taako and King Kravitz were succeeded by the former’s sister, Queen Lup and Prince Barold, whose daughter, Queen Lilliana, finally dissolved the monarchy in the twelfth year of her reign, thus ending the Faerun’s royal line forever, and ushering the world into a new era of peace and equality.

From: Faerun: A History by Lucretia Moreau, published 538 T.E.

*~*~*~*~*

BIG Thank you to @fandomsnstuff and @her-biness who helped me with this for a Long Time. The little cameo of the blupjeans baby belongs to @lillianabluejeans, and the last name from Lucretia is taken from one of my favorite fics, Bureau of Badass on ao3, by Chemicallywrit and miceenscene.

Bonus points will be given to those who notice the 500 references in here to various adaptations of the cinderella story :)

#taz balance #taakitz #blupjeans #taako taaco #lup taaco #kravitz #barry bluejeans #my writiting #my fic stuff #cinderella au #Thank you for making it all the way to the end #likes charge reblogs cast #(aka if u liked it pls pass it on for me :)))

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boarix · 3 years ago

Text

Wraith in the Ruins: A Fallout 4 Story Part XXII

The Crown of the Monster Queen

Trigger warnings: canon violence, language, gun, drug and alcohol use. Mature/sexual content.

Please enjoy!

…..

It was his turn at watch, but when Wraith checked the bedroll, Danse was nowhere to be found. His power armor was gone as well, “What the heck?” She pushed down a brief surge of fear, “Probably has the internal military clock and is already up… off having a pee…” The two of them were on their way to Breakheart Banks to clear a super mutant camp, and the little nervous voice in her head was suggesting that he had taken it upon himself to scout, or even worse, engage the pack without her. “He doesn’t strike me as the impetuous type… goddammit.” She waited patiently for all of five seconds before suiting up and going to look for him.

The previous evening Danse had frowned at Wraith’s suggestion to camp on the river, “In light of our power armor, it is ill advised to bivouac with water to your back.”

His pushback irritated her, “I thought you said you’d follow my lead on this trip, considering it’s for the Minutemen. Besides, in light of the existence of mirelurks, we would be more likely to retreat inland. Plus,” she folded her arms and smiled at him, “it’s pretty here.”

Your stupid blimp is at the airport. The airport is on a peninsula. With water around it!

He raised a voluminous eyebrow and glanced around, “I suppose the visibility is optimal at this location. And this outcropping of sandstone should provide concealment for a smokeless fire as well as a vantage point,” he gave her a slight smile of his own, “to watch for said mirelurks.”

The small cove had a clear view of the river as well as a relatively easy escape route up and into a small cluster of sheltering trees. Wraith and Danse collected dry driftwood along the shoreline and while he started the fire she disembarked her power armor to start meal prep.

“You should practice doing more tasks while in the armor.”

“Okay, but after I finish setting this tripod up, I’m going to go water those bushes,” She gave him a significant look, “and that’s not a task one does in the suit, correct?”

His eyebrows knit, “That’s too close to camp for a latrine, knight.”

Proud of herself for choosing such a great campsite, Wraith sported a large grin while she made dinner. She was in a good enough mood that she turned her radio on low and hummed tunelessly along with the music. She noticed Danse watching her, an inscrutable look on his face, “You need something, Paladin Danse? You’re just kinda spacing out o’er there.”

He blinked and shook his head, “Negative,” He lowered his eyes and his voice, “I was simply lost in thought.”

Mama Murphy had told Wraith that she could “save a soul lost in steel” and she had taken that to mean Elder Maxson. To that end she had reconsidered her previous rejection of Danse’s invitation to join the Brotherhood. Now, she figured the best way to gain the elder’s ear and remain in his good graces was to play friendly with his apparent favorite. Initially she had been put off by Danse’s stiff and formal demeanor and had put him in the same category of irritating as Rhys, but after spending more time with him her opinion had begun to soften. Somewhat.

“No problem. You know, if there’s something bothering you, I’m happy to listen.”

He looked surprised, “Oh! That’s not... Thank you. I’m going to do a perimeter check, if time permits…”

“Chow will be ready in about ten.”

Can’t wait to get away from me, huh?

“Acknowledged.”

They hadn’t spoken very much after that and the silence was less than comfortable. Wraith had volunteered first watch and had been relieved to put some distance between them.

Now she was worried for him (underneath the irritation) and she set a brisk pace as she stomped southward along the shore. She hadn’t gotten very far when she heard a shrill whistle from behind her. Whipping around, she lost her balance. The shoreline had angled upward sharply to form a cliff and she had a scary moment where she attempted to pinwheel her arms as she teetered dangerously close to the edge.

Danse came charging to her rescue, “I got you!” He whipped off his helmet, a glare created from worry on his face, and immediately launched into a graphic lecture on the finer points of drowning in power armor, “… and furthermore the joints and cockpit are not water tight. Ha… although this allows for a greater mobility… ha… it will fill quickly,” As he spoke a grin kept pulling on the corner of his mouth as the image of her flailing arms kept playing over in his mind, “and so standard procedure maintains you must keep a level head and wait until the water has completely filled… ha… the quick release… ha ha…” The smile had gotten free and now there was no denying he was laughing.

Wraith was not amused, “You picked a helluva time to develop a sense of humor!”

“You…” He stopped trying to fight it, “your arms!”

Wraith sighed and chuckled, “Yeah, yeah.” She shoved him playfully, “Where were you?! I don’t think it’s standard procedure to disappear like that.”

He pointed back toward camp, “You walked right past me, knight. I hailed you but you must not have heard me over the noise generated by a quick march.”

“Okay, but why were you up already?”

He kept a perfectly straight face, “Morning constitutional.”

Wraith’s laugh came out like a bark, “HA!” She shook her head and smiled, “Okay. Okay.” Turning away from him, she headed back to camp. “Paladin Danse, I think we have been working next to each other but not with each other.”

“Agreed.”

“So we need to communicate better, right? No more one-word answers…”

“Agreed.” He smiled at her when she turned around to give him an incredulous look, “That was a joke, knight.”

“That’s another thing; call me ‘Wraith’, please.” They were back at the campsite and she exited her armor, kicked off her boots and crawled into the bedroll.

“That’s too…”

“You call Haylen and Rhys by their names. You guys are a bonded team, right?” She yawned expansively, “We need to be a team too. So start bonding.”

He chuckled, “I believe that works both ways, knight. I’m going to patrol now; we can bond over super mutant eradication later today.”

“OORAH!”

“AD VICTORIAM!”

That afternoon the pair scouted the super mutant camp before falling back to work on a plan. To her surprise, Danse was all for just the two of them clearing the site and not calling for reinforcements.

Maybe he’s more reckless then I thought…

On the eastern edge of the former farm was a small lookout tower with a single super mutant in residence. After Wraith quietly dispatched the occupant, they set up a perimeter of mines then both took up position in the tower. Picking their targets, they began their first volley.

The mines were quickly exhausted as the humanoids swarmed the tower. This was all part of the plan and Wraith, whose armor was modded for melee, vaulted over the rail to smash and chop their opponents; keeping them clear of her teammate. The two of them stayed in constant communication: calling encouragement and tips back and forth to one another. It was working out fairly well until the alpha, a huge and imposing primus, got a couple of hits on Danse. The mutant called his two remaining pack mates back to him at the encampment’s main structure, and ducked back into cover before Wraith could return fire.

“Are you alright?!” Wraith retreated back toward the tower, crouched as low as the armor would let her.

“Affirmative. Taking cover.”

She put the tower between her and the primus and removed her helmet, “What’s your status?”

“Shoulder’s a little hot, but no stimpak required. This monster has fought the Brotherhood before.”

“Or, at the very least, opponents in power armor. Can you get a shot on either of his brutes?”

“Both, actually.”

“Okay, pick one.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m gonna kill the other one, silly.”

His small grunt indicated his annoyance at her oversimplification, “I understand. What I’m asking is ‘then what’?”

“Well, we’ll see, but I’m hoping the big guy will be motivated to come out of cover once he sees how much fun wrestling with me can be.” She winked at him.

He chuckled, “Put your helmet back on, knight. I’ll take the one on the left.”

“Fantastic. I’ll signal you when I’m in position.”

To get within striking distance, Wraith looped right, part way down the steep, rocky hill that overlooked the river while trying desperately to be stealthy in the power armor. Rather than stare at her intended target, she kept her eyes on a tuft of grass just in front of them.

You don’t feel me. I’m not here. You somehow can’t see this large, metal suit coming to kill you…

Once satisfied with her position, she uncovered the small mirror on her gauntlet and sent a ray of light back toward Danse. After counting to three she launched herself at her intended victim. She could hear her teammate’s plasma rifle hit the brute on the left just as she slammed her gauntlet’s bayonet through her brute’s closest knee. The impact forced their legs together and when Wraith raised her arm to flip them onto their back, the incredibly sharp instrument sliced right through, severing the leg completely. A quick chop at the neck beheaded the humanoid and Wraith was satisfied to see a large puddle of green where Danse’s mutant had been standing.

All according to plan.

“TIME TO DIE, HUMAN!”

The primus, on the second level of the farmhouse, took several shots at Wraith through the floorboards, clipping her helmet while she attempted a somersault which she couldn’t complete, “DammitFUCK!” She was able to roll away to the other side of the structure and get to her feet, but dropped her rifle and was shot two more times in the process, “Fucking ARMOR! Now I know why Deacon fuckin’ hates this shit!”

The primus laughed at her, “HA! BUCKET HEAD IN THE DIRT LIKE A MOLE RAT! HAHAHAHAHAA!”

“OH YEAH? WELL, PUNY GREENSKIN IS AFRAID TO FIGHT ME WITHOUT A GUN!”

The primus howled in rage; swinging his fists as he thundered down the shack steps to prove her wrong. Just as Wraith moved to meet him, an alarm sounded which indicated her fusion core was low.

Gotta wrap this up quick.

The alpha was an excellent fighter and Wraith, having some small difficulty adjusting to the suit’s more limited range of motion, got her bell rung a couple of times. She backed away as they grappled, hoping to bring him into range of Danse’s rifle, but when she cleared the building, she could see the paladin was no longer in the tower.

Gotta wrap this up quicker!

She trusted that her partner would circle around the other side of the building as soon as he lost sight of her, probably even taking the same route she did, so she didn’t panic. She was tired of being bashed around though so she caught up her opponents arms at his wrists and held on for dear life.

“GAAAAAARRR! LET GO, BUCKET HEAD!” Flexing powerfully, the great mutant lifted Wraith a couple of feet off the ground in his attempts to free himself from her grasp. He shook her back and forth but when that didn’t work, he raised his arms even higher before slamming her violently back to earth.

She was able to keep her feet and her grip, “HA! Can’t get rid of me that easily!” She heard a gasp behind her and was able to turn her head just enough to see Danse was watching them, “Don’t just stand there being impressed! Help me!”

Danse flinched guiltily before blasting the primus to green goo, “Are we clear, knight?”

Wraith doffed her helmet and patted her sore head experimentally, “Yeah, he was the last of ‘em.”

Danse removed his own helmet and was beaming at her, “Outstanding! Are you sound?”

“I hear ringing, if that’s what you mean.”

He chuckled, gave her a hefty pat on the back and ducked into the shack staircase, “We should check to see if they had any valuable equipment…” he turned back to her when Wraith didn’t immediately follow, “Are you seriously injured?”

“My core’s spent.”

He frowned, “You should still be able to move…” He smiled at her when she stuck her lip out at him, “I’ll just switch it out for you. I didn’t realize it was so low. I thought you said you went through the checklist I gave you…”

“Danse, I really like working on power armor…”

“As do I.”

“But, fighting in it…”

“Practice makes perfect, knight.” He gave her another pat, this time more gentle and affectionate, “You’re all set. AD VICTORIAM!”

“Oorah.”

…..

“Emogene…” Hancock narrowed his eyes as he repeated Wraith, “Emogene…” He turned away from her and looked to MacCready, “Emogene? That Cabot dame? Isn’t she…”

“Dead? Yeah. I’m pretty sure.”

Hancock looked down at Infamy who had flopped backward and was lying on the floor, “What the hell’s she mean?”

Panting, they weakly waved him away, “I couldn’t begin to guess.”

Hancock knit his brow and briefly entertained the images of choking the life out of the glowing one as he walked past them on the way to the staircase, “Nicky… I need Valentine...” He took the steps two at a time with MacCready, Deacon and Danse hot on his heels.

“You’re thinking you got something?” MacCready tried but failed to keep the desperation from his voice.

Hancock paused before picking up the Radio Freedom receiver, “What I’m thinkin’ is that we need to find out where Wraith hid the alien artifact that started this shit.”

“Alien artifact?” Deacon’s eyes widened, “Like, UFOs? I leave for a little while and you guys are picking fights with aliens?”

“Why are you looking at me?”

“Well, MacFeisty, I just assume it was you…”

“WHAT THE HECK IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!”

“Will you boys be quiet?! I’m on the phone!”

The minutemen operator who answered was less than courteous, “It’s the middle of the night and I’m not your errand boy, Mayor Hancock. Furthermore, this line is strictly for Minutemen personnel, and not for your personal use.”

“May I?” Danse accepted the receiver and lit into the unfortunate solider at full volume, “SPECIALIST REGIS, THIS IS CAPTAIN DANSE. THIS IS AN URGENT MATTER AND YOU WILL PERSONALLY COLLECT NICK VALENTINE AND BRING HIM TO THE RADIO AT ALL SPEED OR I WILL PERSONALLY SEE TO IT YOU ARE ON LATRINE DUTY UNTIL THE DAY YOU EXPIRE! IS THAT UNDERSTOOD?!”

MacCready smirked at him, “Well, I guess you’re useful to have around after all.”

In a few short minutes, Valentine’s worried voice came through the speakers, “John? What’s going on?”

“Tell me everything about what went down with Emogene Cabot.”

…..

Mama Murphy sighed, “Child, I know I can be of use. The Buffout won’t kill me. It’s my choice regardless.”

Sofie prickled at being called a child, “Ms. Murphy, what you do with your free time is none of my concern. That being said, I will not condone the recreational use of chems. As for your being of use,” her smile was forced; her perfect teeth a stark contrast against her scarred lips, “I’m sure Wraith wouldn’t want you to risk your health to help her.” The tiny ghoulette returned her gaze to the reports on her desk, brooking no further argument.

Murphy sighed again as she rose stiffly to her feet, “Thank you for seeing me, then.” After she left Sofie’s office she had fully intended to go home to her chair, but found herself walking through the door of the clinic instead. “Hello? Noah? Are you in here, son?”

The handsome young man poked his head out of a supply closet, “Hiya, Mama! How can I help you today?”

“I need you to give me some Buffout and then write down everything I say after.”

He blinked rapidly for a moment, “Uh… I’m a medic, not a chem dealer?”

“Semantics.”

He frowned, “I think the subject matter is a little more complicated…”

“Wraith needs my help. Our help. I can feel it…” She half closed her eyes and reached a hand out toward the ceiling as if the vision was tangible and she could pull it from the air, “I can just see…” She let her arm drop, “Please. I’d prefer if someone is with me; my memory ain’t what it was when I was young. But if you won’t help this old lady out, I’ll still find my own way to what The Sight wants me to see.”

Williams bit his lip, his dark eyes troubled, “This goes against what the doc taught us… but I seem to remember her also telling us to explore and discover new science, so… loophole?” He ducked back into the closet, “How many do you need?”

“Just one, child. Get ready to take notes.” She settled into the office loveseat, tossed the pill into her mouth with a casual negligence and closed her eyes, “Ohhhh, that’s the stuff. Feels like I could tear down a building, ha ha.” After a few seconds her eyes opened and when she spoke her voice was different: a cadence closer to chanting, “The one who can’t speak will tell them where. I can see them descending into the deepest dark where there is no air. Power’s lesser, ravaged twin calls to it. Guarded only by an ancient, unseeing eye, they seek and find their sorrow at the very bottom of the world.”

Williams felt compelled to the edge of his seat. After a few moments of silence so absolute, he could hear his heartbeat in his ears, he touched the elderly woman on her arm, “Mama Murphy? Are you okay?”

She sniffled and wiped a tear from her eye, “I… think so. Oh dear. Oh no…” Alarmed, Williams half stood but she waved him back to his seat, “I’m okay, son. Oh, Noah, I didn’t see him come back. Child, I fear he’ll be lost to the darkness.”

…..

“DARN IT, GERTY! MOOOOVE!” MacCready shoved at Bossy’s brahmin, “How can you have two heads, BUT NO BRAINS AT ALL?!”

The caravan from Goodneighbor to Sanctuary had been ambushed by super mutants near Lexington and in her attempt to flee, the terrified bovine had trapped the merc in the doorway of one of the town’s many dilapidated buildings.

“Damn it, MacCready, will ya stop playin’ with Gertrude and give us a hand?! The hell I’m payin’ ya for?!”

Diving between the brahmin’s front legs, the young man had to roll to the side as one of the mutants attempted to stomp him with a large green foot. He unsheathed his bayonet as he went and stabbed viciously, piercing the limb. When the humanoid involuntarily lurched downward, MacCready vaulted to his feet and slashed their throat from ear to ear before spinning away and shooting two more mutants who were closing in on the bawling cow.

Bossy nodded at him, “Now, that’s caps well spent.”

“Hancock’s caps, you mean?”

“Bah…”

Just as MacCready felt they were making a dent in the mutants, a mob of ferals, attracted by the commotion, attacked as well, “What is going ON TODAY?!” He dodged a roundhouse from a super mutant that when it made contact with the feral behind him, all but annihilated the ghoul’s misshapen head, “Thanks!” MacCready smiled at the mutant then shot him in the eye. He was knocked flat a moment later as a tangle of ferals verses mutant crashed into him. He got the breath knocked out of him and panic settled in as he realized they were being overwhelmed by the sheer chaos.

“CHOOOOOO CHOOOOOOOO! HERE COMES THE PAIN TRAIN!”

Wraith, wearing her power armor and wielding a rocket sledge, came crashing into the middle of the brawl; scattering ferals and mutants alike. Danse followed right behind her, strategically reducing the mob’s numbers to green puddles as he came.

There was moment when Danse nearly shot a caravanner, but for MacCready slamming his rifle butt into Danse’s arm, forcing him to miss.

“SHE’S NOT A FERAL YOU DUMBASS!”

Wraith stepped in between the two men as it looked like it might come to blows, “Easy boys. We’re all allies here…”

“Yes, it’s fortuitous that we happened by. Otherwise this group of… wastelanders, would have surely been killed…”

MacCready stepped around Wraith to hiss in Danse’s face, “We were doing just fine…”

“Must’ve been hard to get an accurate assessment from your back…”

Wraith saw the deadly look in MacCready’s eye and quickly intervened, “Whoa, whoa! Knock it off, Danse.” She turned back to MacCready, “I’m sorry about that…” She was interrupted by a message from Radio Freedom and after listening intently to her Pip-Boy for a moment she smiled apologetically at him, donned her helmet and left with Danse as quickly as she had arrived.

It was much later that night when Hancock crossed through the mostly empty bar and poked his head into the V.I.P. section of the Third Rail. There he found an extremely morose MacCready, well into his drink, “What’s the good word, little brother?”

After answering with an impressive burp, the young man patted the couch seat next to him, “Comere ‘nd cheer me up.”

Hancock slung an arm around to squeeze his shoulder as he sat next to him, “I see yer drinkin’ with purpose. Bossy said ya had a bit of a dust-up today…”

He waved the comment away, “’Snot that. I saw Wraith.”

Hancock made a face, “Still stomping around with the full metal jackass?”

MacCready laughed, but it tapered off to growl, “Can’t believe she ditched me for that tin can. What the heck’s she doing helping the Brotherhood of Squeal for anyway?”

“Well, I think she’s mostly touring ol’ rusty bottom ‘round the Commonwealth helpin’ Minutemen settlers. She wants him to see the plight of the people on the ground so when he flies up and reports to that balloon-wielding clown they call ‘Elder’, maybe he’ll have a more down-to-earth sensibility, you feel me?”

MacCready guzzled the last half of his beer and belched again, “I feel they should’ve mindeded their own busses… boise… butts, back to the Captinnal…”

“Or, better still, puncture their zeppelin on Trinity Tower and,” Hancock ran his thumb through the air while blowing a raspberry, “cast themselves out to sea in one long fart.”

MacCready laughed so hard he nearly fell off his seat, “Whew! Isneedsome air!”

Hancock helped him up the stairs, but hesitated when they opened the door to a substantial storm, “Oops, looks like this air’s damper than usual…”

The merc gently pushed off of him, removed his cap and stepped out into the torrent; closing his eyes and lifting his chin to let the rain wash his face, “Feels good…”

Hancock caught his breath as the young man turned and smiled at him just as lightning flashed across the sky; turning his eyes a brilliant aquamarine. He stepped out into the deluge, caught MacCready under his arm and led him past the doors to the bar and into the Old State House proper, “Can’t have you getting’ sick, now…”

Once up the winding stair, the ghoul led him to his bed and eased him down on it, “You can sleep it off here…” he helped him out of his gear and stooped to help with his boots as well.

“You gonna take my pants off too, big man?”

It would be so easy. Hancock could picture it in his mind: pushing MacCready onto his back, his mouth on his, hands exploring the young man’s warm, lean-muscled skin in search of scars… But when he brought his dark eyes level with MacCready’s brilliant blue ones, he hesitated. Yes, there was lust there, but it was the bleary-eyed-non-specific lust of someone lost in drink. He leaned in close, pushed his damp hair from his brow and planted a kiss on the merc’s forehead, “Ask me again when yer sober.”

When the ghoul turned to walk away, MacCready caught at his hand, “Please… just… I don’t want to be alone… Would you read to me? I… wanna to hear your voice.”

Hancock’s sigh was weary, but he smiled kindly down at him, “Whatever you need from me.”

…..

“I need you to stop naggin’, that’s what I need!”

“It might be that Strong is the only thing keeping her at bay, and now you’re running off on a wild goose chase…”

“Nicky, I’m not…”

“When you know you have people who can go for you!”

Hancock stopped his jog, closed his eyes and took a deep breath, “Valentine, you have my permission to shoot me if Radiance turns me feral, alright?!”

“Christ, John!”

“I should be able to restrain you in the event that you are mentally incapacitated.” Danse’s armor squeaked slightly as he pantomimed a hug.

Hancock chuckled at him, “Thanks, brother.”

After much debate, Hancock and Danse had left the Peabody Safehouse, stopped at Diamond City to pick up Valentine and were now making their way to the Cabot’s home.

“Besides, Nicky, she’ll have more of a fight on her hands: I’m stone sober.” He resumed running, “I think the closer you are to being out of your mind the easier she can get in it.”

“I can see that being a possibility; you said most of your people just had headaches, but the ones who were steady users went feral.”

“Were you imbibing on the day in question?” Danse tried to phrase the question as politely as possible.

“Well, no. I was watching my grand baby. But, I wasn’t exactly in the best frame of mind, you feel me?” Hancock picked up the pace, “Wraith missing, and Preston named General as if she had died. Not to mention that my people were going feral all around me and I had no idea why.” He grunted uncomfortably, “This is all getting a little too touchy feely…”

“So, high mental anxiety paired with what? Your being a ghoul? Still feel like we’re missing a piece of this puzzle.”

“According to Mother Isolde, some of the human Children of Atom were suffering from headaches as well. No doubt from when Radiance was in the Glowing Sea gathering feral ghouls.”

Valentine was breathing hard trying to keep up, “When I questioned Infamy, they said most of the horde had been from their efforts and that Radiance had stolen them.”

“The piece we are missing is that alien headband…”

“There’s no way, Hancock.” Valentine talked louder when the ghoul tried to object, “There wasn’t enough left of anything after Deegan shot Emogene!”

“Well, if I see what’s left lying cold and still in the ground instead of floating around terrorizing the neighborhood, then I’ll have nothin’ more to say ‘bout it!”

Valentine took point when they reached the Cabot House and the patrolling sentry bot seemed to recognize him as he was allowed to ring the intercom, “This is Nick Valentine calling, and I was hoping to talk to Jack, if he’s available.”

Edward Deegan’s tone was cool, “What’s this about?”

“We’d like to talk about the unfortunate events that took place on the day that Ms. Cabot passed…”

“You’ve a lot of nerve, Valentine…”

Hancock gently pushed Nick aside, “You been keeping up with this Radiance business?”

“Hancock? Uh, yeah sure. Why?”

“Wraith says she’s Emogene.”

The door practically flew off of its hinges and Deegan, backlit yet clearly enraged, stood huffing in its frame, “HOW FUCKING DARE YOU?!”

“Edward?!” Jack’s voice came drifting down the stairs, “Who on earth are you bellowing at?!”

“It’s Nick Valentine, Hancock and some Minuteman-In-A-Can…”

“Well, let them in!”

The angry ghoul stabbed a finger at Hancock, “Just you watch yourself. You hear?”

As he listened to Valentine briefly outline Wraith’s current plight and the subsequent revelation that Radiance was Emogene, Jack grew increasingly agitated, “I question the validity of any claim made by the former general as she is clearly insane.”

There was a heavy, ominous silence as Wraith’s three friends were shocked to speechlessness. This was followed by absolute bedlam, as all five of them started yelling at and to each other. After a few minutes, the noise took on yet another layer of volume as Jack’s mother Wilhelmina walked into their living room banging two pots together. Then silence reigned again as they all stopped to stare at her.

“Gracious! Five grown men yelling like little boys. What on earth is the matter with you all?”

“Please, Mother, it’s nothing I can’t…”

“Hush now, Jack. Don’t presume to tell me it’s ‘nothing’.” She turned to Valentine and gave him a toe to crown look, “Who are you, young man?”

He chuckled at her choice of words, removed his hat and dipped his head respectfully, “Mrs. Cabot, I’m Detective Nick Valentine, P.I.”

“Oh, that’s right. You were with my Emogene…” She fell in on herself for a moment then straitened and gave him a hard look, “What do you want with what’s left of my family?”

Doffing his helmet, Danse dropped to one knee, “Apologies, Miss, but we would like to pay our respects to your late daughter. Such a tragedy was her passing we would lay a laurel on her gravesite, but only with your approval.” As all eyes turned to him, he maintained a look that was a masterful mix of chivalry, humility and sorrow; the perfect personification of a knight.

Wilhelmina was completely entranced and stood gazing at him for a moment, “Yes. Yes of course. She’s entombed in the family crypt at Wildwood Cemetery.”

“Mother! These ruffians fully intend on disturbing her grave and you just told them where to go!”

“Now, don’t be ridiculous, Jack. Why should they want to do that?”

Although he was irritated by the pomp of the Cabot household, Hancock wasn’t without sympathy for a mother who had lost a child. He followed the example set by his companions and removed his hat, “We’ve no intention of desecrating a quiet grave, ma’am.”

Jack glared daggers at him, “I shall be going along to make sure of it.” He turned to Deegan, “Edward?”

The family guardian sighed heavily, “Yeah, Jack, me too.”

The group left almost immediately yet the sun had set by the time they arrived at the cemetery. They paused at the broken gate and crouched low, expecting to see feral ghouls wandering around. However, all was quiet and the only thing moving was a swirling mist that had settled into the graveyard.

The scene sent chill fingers up his spine and Valentine found to be very fitting, “Like the set of a horror flick…”

Jack scoffed at him, turned on his flashlight, stood up abruptly and briskly led the way through to the mausoleums built in to the eastern embankment. His pace slowed as the beam of light reached what was meant to be his sister’s final resting place, “How…”

The concrete building had been blasted apart from within.

“Looks like she’s not in at the moment. Perhaps we should check back later?” Hancock was smug.

“Fascinating!” Jack turned to Deegan, “I was shocked that any part of her head remained. The bullet must have fully struck the artifact! I gave what I thought was the total remains of it to Wraith, per her insistence, but I must have been mistaken. A small portion must have remained. Perhaps the combination of radiation…” He spun away from Deegan and grabbed Valentine by the arms, “I must go and speak with Wraith!”

Valentine blinked a few times before looking over at Danse and Hancock, “Anyone else just get whiplash?”

…..

“I don’t trust you…”

“Naturally.”

“And I don’t like you.”

“Oh! I’m terribly hurt.”

Once again Wraith and Infamy were together in the void of her consciousness. No longer pure white, there was a yellow-green haze overhead that bent down to meet with the horizon. Wraith theorized that because none of it was technically real, the coloration was a way that her mind had come to terms with Radiance’s barrier. It gave her something to push against so she had grudgingly admitted that Atom’s Assassin was apparently helping. The glowing one had danced around her gloating and so she wanted to make sure they understood what their relationship was.

“Once I’m free of her then I’m going to make sure I’m free of you.” Even though it wouldn’t take her away from them, she turned her back and walked away anyway.

Infamy followed behind, skipping, “And here I thought I was beginning to grow on you, hahaha!”

“I’m pretty sure there’s a cream for that...” Wraith trailed off as she felt a change in the void. If air existed there it suddenly became heavy and hot. She turned back to tell Infamy off if it was something they were doing, but the words died on her lips. Radiance was standing right behind them.

Infamy turned as well and took a few steps backward to get outside of striking range, “Looks like your chaperone is here. Curfew already? Hmm. Seems sooner than usual…”

“Infamy, you should leave,” There was something different about this Radiance: something more solid. More like the version that tormented Wraith with the memories of Marie’s death. More like the one that had burned her, “I don’t think this is a proxy…”

Radiance had locked eyes with her opposing glowing one, “You. I thought I could ignore someone as weak as you.” She glanced at the barrier, “You’re becoming a problem, I see. I’m close enough now though. Close enough…”

“Infamy! Leave! Leave NOW!” Using all her strength, Wraith ejected her ally before Radiance could destroy them. Then, left alone with her tormentor, she lifted her chin defiantly.

Wraith’s display of strength and nerve thrilled the monster queen, “Yessss. Beloved, you are strong!” She took a step closer, her arms out wide, “Imagine how much more powerful you could be if only you would join with me. Give yourself to me, my love. I could give you such pleasure…”

Wraith growled at her, “Never. You don’t love me. You don’t love anyone.”

“You’re wrong! From the moment I met you when came to rescue me from that silly preacher, I have loved you.”

“Prove it. Let me out.”

Radiance seemed to flicker out of focus and just for a moment, an image of Emogene Cabot flashed in her place, “We can’t. You have something we must have. We are incomplete without it.” Now the glowing one turned up the heat and sent tendrils of chartreuse flames crawling across the unseen floor toward Wraith, “You must tell us! Tell us where we can find the rest! Tell us where our crown is!”

…..

“Ah, here you are.” Danse had been looking all over the Prydwen for Wraith and it had been Proctor Ingram that suggested he check the forecastle of the airship. “I take it your audience with the elder didn’t go as you had expected?” The wind was intense and he practically had to shout in order for her to hear, “It’s certainly bracing out here!”

Wraith stood at the very tip of the narrow beam. She was in her power armor, but had removed her helmet and was staring at the city, “No. It went pretty much exactly how I expected.”

“What was that? I couldn’t quite hear you, knight.”

She chuckled humorlessly, and turned her head to smile sadly at him, “I’m on the precipice, Paladin Danse. I’m going to have to make decisions soon. Hard choices…” She could see he was confused and concerned. The concern was genuine and she felt a guilty tug at her heart. “I’m having a hard time getting through to him. I thought that I should… find it easier. He doesn’t want to hear me.”

“Take the time to remember why we’re out here; the elder has only the highest concern for the citizenry of the Commonwealth…”

“All her citizens?”

“You mean ghouls?”

“Don’t make that face.” She walked back toward him and had a brief moment of disorientation as she wasn’t used to looking down to talk to him, “Daisy. Remember Daisy?”

“The shopkeep in Goodneighbor? What about i… her?”

“You very much enjoyed speaking with her… don’t shake your head!” Wraith let herself sound angry, “Your elder would have her ejected from any B.O.S. settlement and forced out into the ruins.”

“Simply to protect any human citizen from the day when it… she, inevitably goes feral...”

“No human has ever acted spontaneously out of passion and hurt or even murdered someone? Besides that, there is a distinct lack of evidence that all ghouls would go feral given enough time.” Saddened, Wraith swallowed a few times to prevent herself from crying, “I guess I’ve failed with you too.”

Danse looked slightly panicked, “Failed? How do you mean, knight?”

“I’ve grown to like you, Danse. I feel like we’ve become friends. How do you feel about us?”

He opened and closed his mouth a few times. Unaccustomed to heart-to-heart conversations, he was struggling to articulate how he felt about her, “I’ve told you off-the-record, personal information. Things I’ve never told anyone. You’ve become a confidant; a true friend.”

“I’m glad.” Her smile was sad. She let her eyes drop to the airport and was quiet for a moment. “Do you know where I got this?” She drew Kremvh’s Tooth and held it aloft so that the setting sun glinted off the wicked-looking blade; making it seem as if it was made of fire. “Hancock and I were responding to a Minutemen call at Dunwich Borers. There was a raider clan there. Bedlam. That was the name of their leader.” She sheathed the ornate knife and returned her eyes to the ground below, “After the fight we pushed forward. I guess we felt like tough shit and were looking for trouble. I saw some stuff. Never could explain… anyway,” She looked back at Danse who was listening intently, “There was a well… or something and I decided I was going to show off for Hancock. I dove in and swam to the bottom which is where I found the knife. I can hold my breath for a very, very long time, but I didn’t tell him that. About half way back I saw him. He had jumped in, fully intending to save me. Except now he was half drowned and I ended up towing him to the surface. After he caught his breath, do you know what the first thing he said to me was?”

“I couldn’t begin to guess.”

“He said ‘Whoa! That’s a badass knife!’ and asked if he could hold it.”

“Knight…”

“He risked his life in an attempt to save mine…”

“I don’t see how that’s rel…”

“Of course it’s relevant!” She wasn’t shouting just because of the wind anymore, “He’s a ghoul, yes, but that doesn’t preclude him from being a caring person! A citizen of the Commonwealth! Why should his wellbeing be any less a priority?” She pushed on when he didn’t answer, “I hope that you will spend some time thinking about what I’ve said. For now, we should go our separate ways.”

“I’m afraid I don’t quite understand…”

“I know you don’t, Danse. And that’s upsetting.”

“I’ll… verify if there’s a vertibird available for you…”

“No need.”

“No! Do not jump from here. If you land in the water…” He trailed off as Wraith had already vaulted over the railing. He saw her land safely and was impressed despite his frustration. He stood at the rail for a long while; letting the harsh wind buffet him as the sun went down.

…..

Infamy stood, dazed, “She kicked me out. She kicked me out?! She kicked me out!”

“Stop saying that! What the heck are you even talking about?”

They acted as if they couldn’t hear MacCready and ran up the basement steps, “Ohhhh, Strong! Where are you my great green galoot?”

“STRONG IS NOT YOUR ANYTHING!” The massive humanoid had been sitting in the doorway cleaning Smashy but now lurched to his feet to glare at the glowing one.

“Never mind. Radiance is here! Somewhere…”

“How do you know?” MacCready ran out into the yard with Strong. Peering through his binoculars he rotated in a circle.

“She crashed my session with our problem child.” They scrunched up their face, “Wraith just might have saved my life. Not sure if it was just self-preservation or if she genuinely cares what happens to me. She is the sort who would act automatically altruistically. Yet again, I like to think I have a way with people, you understand…”

“Will you shut up?! Jeez! You’re making it hard to concentrate!”

“Never realized one might need their ears to see. But, then again, you are the professional.”

“GHOUL’S SKIN WOULD MAKE A NICE BELT AND HAT!”

Infamy took the hint.

“I don’t see any glowing lights. I think you should still go out, Strong. Even if we can’t see her we want her to see you.”

He nodding then threw back his head and bellowed mightily, “RADIANCE! STRONG WILL RIP YOU APART AND PRESENT YOUR GUTS TO ALPHA!”

Deacon, haven taken an earlier shift, was napping on the couch when he heard their commotion. He joined MacCready on the lawn with his own pair of binoculars just as the super mutant jogged away, “Infamy, what‘s Radiance’s range?”

“For me it’s a few hundred feet or so. Might be more, might be less with your caged monster.”

“I don’t see Radiance but I do see our intrepid trio… Looks like they brought guests.”

The two groups came together and brought one another up to speed. Danse woke Curie and afterword they moved en masse to the basement. Rather than greet them with her customary threat display, Wraith gazed vacantly off into a shadow-filled corner. Apart from Deacon, who stayed near the staircase, they fanned out around the cage and stood in silent uncertainty.

“You thinkin’ she might be duking it out right now?”

“Could be. It’s hard to tell…”

“I suppose I should try to get back in. As much as I love being here this close with you all, breathing in your various body odors, no sense standing around waiting for something to happen.” Infamy sat cross-legged on the rough-hewn floor and closed their eyes.

To the shock of all, Wraith suddenly lunged across her prison, reached through the bars and grabbed Infamy by their foot. They struggled helplessly as she lifted them completely off the floor before violently slamming them to the ground as if she were cracking a whip.

Hancock and Danse leapt to an attempted rescue; each grabbing ahold of one of her arms. She laughed manically as they struggled. Jack, Deegan and Deacon joined in as well while MacCready ran up the stairs for the syringer.

“Emogene! It’s your brother. Please stop.” Jack pleaded with his sister, “If that’s you, then talk to me! Tell me how I can help you. What do you want?!”

She let go of the unconscious glowing one and shook herself free. When she spoke it was still Wraith’s voice, but the tone and enunciation were just different enough, it was if someone was doing an impression of her, “What do I want? I want it all, you simpleton!” She spread Wraith’s arms and spun in a circle, “I want power and love and to indulge in their delights for all time.” She came to a stop and leveled a murderous gaze at her brother, “I want the artifact. All of it. You will tell me where the rest of my crown is or I will burn Wraith from her mind and leave you all with her broken husk.”

“It won’t make a difference either way, you hag. You’ll still try and kill us all; even if we give you what you want.” MacCready leveled the rifle at her but didn’t pull the trigger.

“O’er my dead body.”

“That’s the idea, Hancock.” She smiled at him evilly, “Though in your case, I’ll be making an exception. I will see you dance for me, just like you did for Wraith.”

“I don’t know you, sister. I’m thinkin’ I don’t want to. And I don’t think you thought this through.” He spread his arms and gestured to the group, “Ain’t a one of us who knows where your dime-store crown is.” He leveled a finger at her, “There’s only one person on this entire planet who knows, and you’re squatting in her brain!” He shook his finger back and forth, “I would think that you’d play this a little nicer; you get more with sugar than salt.”

She yawned, “Ugh, what a bore. I forgot how much you like to hear yourself talk.”

“He’s talking a lot of sense, Emogene.” Valentine stepped over Infamy’s prone form and stood just outside of her reach, “Give this up. There is a chance we could still help you. Curie here is an excellent doc. Not to mention your brother…”

“MY BROTHER?!” She gripped the cage bars and leaned forward to shriek at him, “MY BROTHER HAD ME KILLED!”

“I… no… I…”

“NO!” Deegan wouldn’t let that stand, “Your brother sent Valentine and Wraith to try and help you. I… I shot you, Emogene. I thought you had killed everyone. That you’d become a monster. And the only way I could save the memory of a girl that I’ve known since she was a child…” The ghoul closed his eyes and looked away, unable to continue.

“Oh, poor Edward. Poor sweet fool; I am a monster! And just to prove… what?” She took a step back, her eyes confused “How? How did you find me?!” Confusion turned to fear, “NO! GET AWAY FROM ME, YOU BRUTISH, GREEN…”

As suddenly as she had become Radiance, Wraith returned to herself. She shook her head a few times before leaning into the bars, “I could really use an aspirin.”

Deacon stepped over Infamy and reached out a hand to touch her, but caught himself and pulled it back, “How much time do you have?”

“Ah, the eternal question.” She was happy to see a few half smiles on her friends’ faces, “I’m not sure. I don’t even know all of what just happened.” She popped her chin at Atom’s Assassin, “They alright?”

Hancock nudged them with a boot and seemed satisfied that their groaning was indicative of good health, “Yeah, I’m sure they’ll mend.” He pushed his tricorn back to clunk foreheads with her, “You sound better, sunshine.”

“She must’ve dropped the barrier completely. How did you manage that?”

“I sicked Strong on her.” MacCready came to give her a kiss, “I hope he eats her or, whatever.”

Curie passed a bottle in-between them, “Excusez-moi, Madame, but please drink this.” She beamed as Wraith drank it down without question, “You see, Monsieur Deacon; it does not taste like frowns!”

“That’s… not exactly what I said.”

Danse made a mental note that Deacon had once again taken a step back so the others would have room. It irritated him but he wasn’t sure why. He waited until Wraith had finished chugging Curie’s health drink before reaching through the bars to give her a bear-hug that was almost crushing. He didn’t trust himself to speak so held her quietly for a few moments while gently patting her back.

Wraith caught sight of Jack and pointed an accusatory finger at him, “You! You made this mess. You had better damn well help me clean it up!”

“I’m not entirely sure…”

“Tell me how to block the artifacts effects!”

“I’m not sure…”

“How about a goddamn tinfoil hat?!”

“Block nothin’,” Hancock was holding one of Wraith’s hands, “destroy is more my thinkin’, you feel me?”

“Unfortunately, that is quite impossible. The artifact is simply too powerful; it cannot be destroyed by any means…”

“Clearly, it ain’t.”

Valentine nodded and gestured to Wraith, “I was wondering about that too. You mentioned that it was indestructible, but maybe it only makes you think that it is. It’s proven to be vulnerable against an AMR, at any rate.”

“It’s sentient, then?” Danse was making a face.

“Absolutely.”

“Well, then, let’s go get it, strap it to a mini nuke and call it a day.” MacCready turned to Wraith, “So?”

“So what?”

He blinked a few times, her confusion having confused him, “So, uh. Where’s it at?”

She released Hancock’s hand and folded her arms, “Nope!” She started to laugh and shook her head, “Ha ha. You almost had me, Radiance.” She took a few steps back away from her friends and shook her finger at the ceiling, “There’s no way I’m telling you where it is so you can just sit and spin.”

“She thinks she’s… that we’re…”

“Not real.” Hancock was crushingly disappointed.

“But of course we are real. Why should this not be so?”

Once again Wraith’s eyes glazed over and she growled lowly. There was a collective groan and Curie began to softly cry. Danse held her and whispered soft words of encouragement into her ear.

MacCready clenched and unclenched his fists, “She went someplace by herself.” He seemed to be speaking to the ceiling, “No, that’s not right. She took Dogmeat!” He turned to Valentine, “Wraith went off someplace, just her and Dogmeat, right after you got hurt. That must’ve been when she ditched the alien thingy!”

“So the dog knows? Maybe. Does that help us?”

He opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by someone yelling through the Radio Freedom speakers. The group trouped up the stairs to hear better, leaving Infamy in the tender care of the concrete floor.

“I’m not sure if you heard me; this is Mama Murphy. Noah, dear, I know how these work. Probably better then you, sweetheart, so stop pushing buttons. Hello, kids? Is anyone at home?”

Hancock picked up the receiver, “Murphy? What’s happening?”

“Hancock, I’ve seen the way to help Wraith.”

.....

Thank you so much for reading! Like what you read? Looking for more? Please see my masterlink post tagged under Wraith in the Ruins (also my pinned post). As always, if you have any questions/concerns/comments please drop by and send an ask. Anon too. =^..^=

#wraith in the ruins #fallout companions #john hancock #hancock #fallout 4 #fallout fanfic #fallout fanfiction #deacon #danse #maccready #fallout curie #fallout strong #nick valentine

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coffeecomicsgalore · 5 years ago

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Golden Boy’s Cursed Day

Coming at you with a crack fic that popped into my head today.

Poor Mr. Golden Sunshine Boy is just having the unluckiest day ever.

Ao3

Adrien, Mr. Golden Sunshine Boy, Paris’s elite teen supermodel, super fan of the amazing Ladybug, would be considered to have all the luck in the world. He’s rich, famous, has whatever he could desire. Yeah, sure, that’s what everyone who lives outside the picket fence would say and Adrien being the composed fool that he is emits the aura of good luck. But today? Today? Well, let’s just pretend that the word ‘luck’ decided it needed to be on the other side of Paris, hiding its face from the golden ball of sunshine.

Strike that. Luck was on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean pointing and laughing hysterically at him while the dark clouds decided to hover over his head pouring all the possible rain it could from its body.

Today, he was the epitome of bad luck and the cackling of the little god of destruction did not help his mood. Nope, not one bit.

It all started early this morning when an akuma disrupted the one hour of sleep that he got in between photo shoots, lessons, and homework. It was a particularly hard one, spending most of their waking moments defeating it.

When Adrien finally got to bed, he closed his eyes only for his alarm to go off five minutes after settling his head in the comfiest position on the bed, reminding him that it was time to get himself ready with his early morning prep. But instead of getting up like he should have, he decided to hit the snooze button for another 10 minutes of rest and ultimately fell into a deep sleep.

So deep in fact, that he didn’t hear the knock on the door reminding him it was time to get up.

Or the knock when it was time to eat his breakfast.

Or the knock when it was time to exit his room and head to the car and head to school.

Finally, a nudge under his rib stirred him enough to open his sleep filled eyes. When his eyes finally cleared of the blurriness, he noticed a dark figure hovering above him, scaring him into a frenzied panic. Without thinking, he threw a punch into the figure’s general direction and ended up almost punching the figure, who was coincidentally Nathalie, in the face (luckily, she was able to dodge most of the force, only being grazed with a knuckle against her cheekbone) but the sheer panic caused him to fall off the bed before falling on the floor and clutching his chest in a heaving mess.

He finally got to school, an hour later than normal, missing homeroom completely, and entered his first class halfway through an unplanned physics test. Groaning over the luck, he got to work on completing what he could, only being able to complete half of it in the time frame. Well I can at least get a 50%, he thought, but when the teacher announced that it was a peer review exam, he got his test back shortly after realizing he used all the wrong formulas and getting a 0 on the exam.

Shit.

Grumbling to himself, he tried to take a sip of his purple soda when Ivan accidentally knocked into him, coating his white over shirt in a wet, purple mess. At least it wouldn’t be seen on his black top. Looking down, he noticed that his pants took some of the spill and a wet spot in the worst possible place could be seen. It didn’t help that his longtime friend decided that she had embarrass him further when she ran up to him, giggling in her own snarky yet friendly demeanor with a “Adrikins! You couldn’t make it the bathroom? Utterly ridiculous, even for you.”

He could feel his skin burning from both embarrassment and festering anger, but he just took a deep breath and headed to the locker room to change in another set of clothes. Luckily, he had an extra set in his locker just in case. Can’t have the face of the brand’ be covered in crap, he thought with an eye roll.

By French class, he realized he left his homework on his desk at home and couldn’t pass it in. Muttering a passable excuse, the teacher sympathized with him and opted to give him half-credit if he brings it in the next day. Now he just had to remember it to stuff it in his bag and bring it in.

By PE, he was already annoyed and feeling the pressure of the dark cloud hovering over him that he didn’t see the dodge ball being hurled in his direction. Kim had planned a surprise attack on Alix, but Adrien happened to walk into the line of fire.

Adrien startled himself awake and realized he was no longer in the gymnasium. He noticed the stark white room of the nurse's office and noticed a very worried Marinette sitting quietly beside him. One hand was holding his hand closest to her, while the other was holding something cold that was pressed against his face.

Marinette smiled when she noticed him awake and shushed him sweetly calming down the nerves that plagued his mind.

“You happened to take a bad hit from a dodge ball and was knocked out from the impact.” She removed the ice pack from his face to assess the damage. Placing the ice pack back on his eye, she continued. “I carried you here.” Great. Just great. This amazing, petite girl who shouldn’t be physically able to carry his dead weight around, carried his unconscious body to the nurse's office. What’s next, world? Seriously, what’s next?

It didn’t take him long to realize what was next. Now sporting a black eye and a cut lip, Adrien walked into the next class where an upper classman decided to place a kick me sign on the back of his shirt. How did he know it was there? When another classmate decided to buckle his knee from behind and then steal his chair as he tried to sit down in his seat.

If an akuma was around, there would be no stopping him being akumatized.

Just get me now, Hawkmoth! He yelled in his head.

As if the world decided to throw him another wrench, the school announcement system startled the students. “Akuma! Please exit the classroom in an orderly fashion.”

What. The. Fuck.

Another difficult akuma. Another of him being controlled by said akuma. Ladybug having to fight most of the battle alone, and luckily, just luckily , Alya had captured the battle on a live feed. Adrien couldn’t ignore the crushing weight in his mind, so he watched the replay to try to ease it only to have a front row viewing of all the hateful things Chat Noir said towards Ladybug.

Great. Just keep it coming.

His father had magically allowed Adrien to stay at school for lunch. Nothing else had happened since the akuma was defeated, so maybe his luck was returning? He was happily talking to Nino as the two walked towards the table where Alya and Marinette were sitting at. Adrien didn’t pay attention to his surroundings and barely registered the Adrien! Wait! coming from Marinette’s mouth before slipping on something and falling flat on his back, the entire contents of his tray falling on top of him.

The entire lunchroom went dead silent as he placed the tray on his head hoping to hide from the embarrassment.

That’s where the day had brought him, hiding under the tray thinking back to the entirety of the day and how his luck brought him to this very moment. He wanted to shrivel up and phase into the floor, just like Plagg usually does when he needs to hide from the world.

When he heard Nino, Alya, and Marinette surround him, he moved the tray slightly to peak at them with one eyeball and then told them he was hiding there until the end of the day. Marinette removed the tray, Nino picked him up off the floor, and Alya started to grab napkins to help clean up whatever was caked on his face.

Looking at the mess of the floor, he didn’t notice Marinette whispering something in Alya’s ear, or the nod Alya gave in return, but he did hear Marinette taking in a heavy breath before grabbing Adrien’s hand and pulling him with her out of the school.

“Marinette? Where are you taking me?”

“You’re coming to my house. I have a set of clothes that you can have and you can use my shower to get cleaned up. You won’t have time to go home and do any of that and I only live right across the street.”

Not even thinking, the dreaded words rushed out of his mouth. “You sure like to help out stray cats when they need it most, huh princess?”

Marinette stopped dead in her tracks and took one look at him with the ferocity of Ladybug’s before he realized what came out of his mouth.

What the fuck times a million.

Marinette closed her eyes, took in a heavy breath, and smiled at him in such a scary way that Adrien wished he could cataclysm the ground and swallow himself whole.

Ladybug was going to kill him. No. Not just kill. Murder him in the worst possible way and then bury his body deep into the ground where no one would be able to find him. He was dead. So dead. Goodbye Plagg. I hope the newest Chat Noir will be good to him and give him as much cheese as he wants and-

“Silly kitty.” Marinette said as she tugged him back along across the street. She said it in such a sweet way that it pulled Adrien out of his thoughts. “Let’s go get you cleaned up and I will feed you to your heart’s content. And I’ll bring up a cheese danish for Plagg too.”

Wait, she wasn’t shocked? She’s not mad that I spilled my secret identity to her? Or freaking out that I’m the cat that keeps showing up to her balcony... Wait. Plagg? She knew who Plagg was? How does she know Plagg? His eyes shot open. “Marinette? Are you-? You know-?”

Marinette turned around quickly and placed her finger to his lips. “Not here, not now, and yes.”

Adrien.exe has stopped working.

He didn’t remember walking through the bakery doors. Or saying hello to Marinette’s parents. Or being shoved into her bathroom with a new shirt, pants, socks, and boxers (note to ask her later why she has clothes his size). Only when the cold water started hitting his face was when he realized where he was.

Walking back towards her kitchen was when Adrien noticed Marinette finished up scooping a plate of dumplings from the pot on the stove. He sat down and quietly gave his thanks as she handed him the meal. He didn’t want to look up at her, but he knew the inevitable question needed to be said. He knew there was no way around this. He blurted out his identity and per the rules...

“Are you going to tell me I need to give up my miraculous now that I’ve given away my identity?” He said sadly as he moved the dumplings around in his bowl. Marinette looked up at him without saying a word. “I’m sorry My L- Marinette. I never meant to blurt it out. It just happened out of nowhere! This day was the day from hell and I wasn’t even thinking and now that you’re the guardian, I know you like the rules, and... and... at least let me say goodbye to Plagg first!”

Marinette set her spoon down carefully and folded her hands on her lap. “I’m not going to take your Miraculous from you. You slipped. It was an accident, a dumb one at that, but at least you said it to the one person who understands and won’t make a fuss about it.”

Oh.

“Plus, do you think that I could replace you? My kitty and my best friend, the two boys that I care the most about in this world is sitting in front of me as one person. I couldn’t replace you in my life even if I tried – which I won’t by the way.” She picked her spoon back up and started to gather some broth before taking a sip. “This is fine. I’m fine. You’re fine. We are fine.”

Adrien furrowed his brows as he watched her in an eerily composed state. “Marinette, I know you. Why aren’t you freaking out?”

“Oh, I’m freaking out. Badly. But I’m internalizing it until later when I can scream into my pillow.” She said with a smile. “Right now, I just want to make sure you are fed and that we get back to class without another clothing change.”

Adrien let out a breath that he was holding in. “Okay. Maybe my luck is turning around now. I have my lady and my best friend sitting in front of me. You gave me clothes and carried me-” Adrien turned bright red. “Now I know why you were able to carry me to the nurse's office! You don’t look as strong as you are. I bet everyone else said the same thing!”

“Yup. Plus, you were saying some adorable things while you were knocked out. Something about Ladybug and her amazing ability of being strong?” She smirked. “And how my hands felt so soft without the suit? Yeah. Something like that.”

Adrien groaned as he hit his head against the table. Just kill me now. Stop my misery please! I beg you.

“Nope. Sorry kitty. Not letting anyone kill you today.”

“You’re not going to let this go, are you?”

“Nope.” She said as she popped the ‘p’. “This is just too good to let go. Not for a very loooooong time.”

Dammit.

#ml Adrien #adrien agreste #miraculous ladybug fanfiction #ml fanfic #crack #ml crack #poor adrien #adrien has the shittiest luck

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whumpitywhumpwhump · 4 years ago

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Here’s Mafia Week Day 7! Prompt: Vendetta.

There’s a bit where they discuss homophobia briefly, and also there’s some death mentioned too (specifically of a pregnant person).Oh, and a brief mention/reference to a bad childhood home (implied child abuse, but nothing explicit here).

Beck didn’t leave his apartment for two days. He also didn’t hear from Simon.

Instead, he sat on his couch, icing his face, clutching a pillow against his aching chest. Usually after a good beatdown, the pain made it too difficult to entertain thoughts, but this time the panic was cutting cleanly through all other sensations. Where was Simon? Was he ok? Did Pat even know yet? How long would it be until he found out? And after that, would he piece together the truth about him and Simon?

If it were any other family that had gotten ahold of the briefcase, Beck thought bitterly, it would have been alright—survivable, at least. But the Connells? They’ve been the enemies for decades, long before Beck even joined up. Back when he was still a toddler three states away, hiding from his parents as they smashed dishes against walls and screamed, Pat and his wife Mirabel were expecting a child—an heir to the family business.

Simon told him the whole story one night, while they were sitting in Beck’s car, maybe three months after they’d started dating.

“How come Pat never married or had his own kids? He always calls you his heir and stuff, why not have his own?”

“He was married once, but it didn’t end well for Aunt Mirabel.”

“Wait, really? What happened?”

“Aunt Mirabel was a fierce woman and ran as much of the business as Uncle Pat did. From what everyone says, she was nothing like Ma. My mother is great, but she would never be willing to go head-to-head with, say, the head of the Bertinessis or something. Aunt Mirabel would walk right in, and they’d be scared of her. Even after she got pregnant. You don’t have to guess why Uncle Pat loved her so much. Nick used to tell me about the two of them together, what Uncle Pat was like back then. He was… warmer, apparently. Not with anyone else, just with her.

Anyway, she was like, 5 months along or something, right? And Uncle Pat’s got this sting planned on the Connells, at one of their old hideouts, a seafood place down by the dock. And everything was going just as planned, until one of their people escaped the hit, and took matters into his own hands. It was the Connell heir at the time, this kid named Joel. A lot of his relatives died in the hit, so he decided to strike back, right where it hurt. He came to Uncle Pat’s house and started shooting through the windows—this was his old house, not the one you’ve seen. My uncle wasn’t home, because he was waiting at the deli for the report after the hit. By the time he got home, Aunt Mirabel was… well, he took her to the hospital, and they couldn’t do anything for her or the baby.”

“That’s terrible.”

“He couldn’t remarry—that’s why I’m his heir. A blood nephew, next best thing to a son of his own. It’s also why he hates the Connells so much. He’s basically had a vendetta against them ever since then. Anything they’re involved is immediately life and death, no negotiations, no second chances, nothing. Which, I don’t agree, necessarily, but I get it, you know?”

“Yeah, makes sense.”

Beck hadn’t thought much of it at the time, but now—well, now, that vendetta put a target on Simon’s head. And, he supposed, on his.

The idea of falling in love with Simon hadn’t seemed that dangerous before it happened, or even while he was falling. It was only after that he realized the implications. Again, Simon had to spell it out for him.

“My uncle can’t know we’re dating.”

“Wait, what? Why not? I though he was ok with gay people—isn’t Mad Dog gay?”

“Oh no, Uncle Pat’s not homophobic or anything, he doesn’t really care about that stuff. Like, my mom dated a few women back in the day. It’s not that.”

“Then what?”

“Well… I’m his heir.”

“What does that have to do with it?”

“I’m the closest blood relative in the next generation, you know?”

“Yeah?”

“So one day, I’ll need an heir.”

“Makes sense, but—”

“A blood heir. I need to make a kid. Biologically.”

“But Uncle Pat chose you, and you’re his nephew, not his son.”

“True. But I don’t have any siblings, so I can’t choose a niece or nephew. It has to be my kid, or at least, it has to be under Uncle Pat’s rules at least. Once he dies, I’m just gonna do what I want to, but for now, he can’t know. You can’t let him know, Beck. He will kill you if he thinks you’re a threat to the family line. I’m serious, ok?”

Simon wasn’t serious often, but then again, he never fidgeted either, and when he asked Beck to keep their relationship secret, he was curling and uncurling his fingers in his lap. So Beck had nodded.

“I won’t say a word.”

And he hadn’t. Beck had done everything in his power to keep Pat from finding out about them, because he didn’t want to die, and he didn’t want anything to happen to Simon. But now, if Pat killed Simon, and he figured out that the reason Simon screwed up was a secret relationship with Beck? Well, in short, they were both fucked.

Normally, Beck could keep his calm. But he also usually heard from his boyfriend pretty quickly when things were dangerous because Simon knew he’d worry.

Two days, and not a single text or call from Simon—that was not good news.

Beck pulled himself up from the couch, stifling a groan as his ribs shifted. They still hurt like hell, but he’d just take another ibuprofen and ignore them. He shuffled into the kitchen and pulled the fridge open. The little light flicked on inside, illuminating the scant contents. With a sigh, he grabbed the container of sliced ham, a few slices of cheddar, and the jar of mayonnaise. Halfway through prepping his sandwich for dinner, he heard his cellphone buzzing in the next room. He considered going to check it right away, but a grumble in his stomach convinced him it could wait for two minutes while he got this sandwich ready.

Carrying his dinner on a plate, he returned to the living room and settled back onto the couch. He balanced the plate on the arm and picked up his phone.

MR. RIGGS flashed on the screen—the codename he’d used for Simon in his phone. He swallowed hard and unlocked his phone, opening the message. The text was short, but thorough.

He knows.

As Beck’s thumb hovered over the keys, trying to figure any way to answer that, a second message appeared.

He knows about everything.

Sweat broke out along Beck’s hairline. His skin crawled like he could already sense a gun pointed at him. A third message came up, longer.

He’s going to kill me—I’m in my room, door’s locked, but he’s coming up. Beck, you need to leave the city. I love you, I’m sorry.

Beck typed out the words, “I love you too, Simon,” but before he pressed send, one last message flashed onscreen.

I’m scared, Beck.

Somehow, that was worse than the other messages. Simon was never scared, not enough to admit it to anyone. Beck’s eyes watered, and he straightened up on the couch.

He was not going to let Pat kill Simon—not tonight, not ever.

Beck closed his text with Simon and typed in a different number in his phone, one he hadn’t used in years. He typed as fast as he could, trying to say everything in as few words as possible. She never liked long, winding explanations.

Hey, Sadie. It’s Beck. I need your help. My boyfriend is Pat the Butcher’s nephew, he leaked info to the Connell family (my fault), and Pat is going to kill him. Text me back ASAP.

Looking down at the message, he clicked send, then chuckled sadly. It wasn’t how he planned on coming out to his sister, but then again, he’d planned on never speaking to her again.

Her reply popped up maybe two minutes later.

They’re taking him to the docks, pit stop at the deli for a beatdown. Cement shoes. Be there in 20, wait 30 secs after they drop him, go in after. I’ll pick you up on the corner of 8th and Bettler, 10 mins after, black SUV with Oregon plates.

Perks of having a sister who was also a criminal mastermind—he’d never found a limit to what Sadie could find out or fix. Who she called in the organization to get those details, he’d never know, but he was so grateful she did. As he pushed himself up from the couch to grab his keys, his phone buzzed again, and he looked down to see another message from Sadie.

When he unlocked the screen, he grinned softly. It was just a little rainbow flag emoji.

He shook his head, dropping his phone into his pocket. He grabbed his keys, wallet, and a coat, stepped into some sneakers, then rushed out the door.

It was time to go save Simon.

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nosferatyou · 5 years ago

Text

New Tune: Chapter 4 (Jake Kiszka x Reader)

WC: 3.9k

Warnings: Cursing, Alcohol, Moshpits, Rock and Roll, and general dumbassery.

Summary: Two guitarists meet at a Rock Festival, only having a week with each other before they have to return to their own lives. The bond they create is unfeigned and resolute.

I stir awake, in an incredibly uncomfortable position on the.. Couch? A blanket that I definitely don't remember getting was laying on top of me. I look up at the clock to see that it was 1 PM, and let out a groan. I move the blanket off of myself and trudge to the bathroom. I look in the mirror to see what I can only describe as a gremlin. My hair was a rats nest, my makeup had smudged off onto my face, and my clothes were untucked and wrinkled. The weirdest part was the sticky note posted to my forehead. I grabbed it off and scrawled onto it said

“Y/N, Left to go get coffee even though it's practically the afternoon. Anyways will be back soon. -Jake.

PS I would've moved you into a better position, but I didn't want to wake you.”

Shit, he’s going to be here any minute, and I look like straight up trash. Going for a different look, I grab a very cut up Black Sabbath shirt (with a plunging neckline), simple high-waisted black shorts, fishnet tights, and finally my docs. I quickly combed out my hair, and applied some darker makeup. By the time I was done I heard a knock at the door, I opened it to reveal a sweaty Jake with two coffees in his hand.

“Ah so you finally woke up?”

“Oh hush it, get in here I need coffee.”

He walks on and hands me the cup before splaying himself out on the couch.

“So what's the plan today.” He asked.

A smile grew on my face, I already had plans for tonight, but now I'm definitely dragging him along.

“Okay so.” I grabbed a seat next to him, practically buzzing with excitement. “Did you see the headliner tonight?”

“I honestly wasn’t paying attention.” He took another sip of his coffee, still relaxed on the couch.

“Well.. I already planned on doing this since we got here, but this may be a little out of your comfort zone. I don’t know how wild you get.”

He sat up a little bit, interest peaked.

“And I don't know if the band will be up your alley, but…. Anthrax is playing tonight and they put on some of the most fun shows I’ve ever been to. Anyways I honestly live to be in the pit and was gonna sneak in and have some fun.”

He really doesn’t strike me as the mosh type, but definitely the partying type, so this is all really a gamble.

“You know what, fuck it. The boys and I never went to heavier shows, so I've never moshed, but this place seems as good as any to do it. You also seem like a good mosh pit spiritual guide.”

An even bigger smile grew to my face, and I hopped up off the couch.

“The show starts at 7, that gives us like 5-6 hours of pregame and prep. Up you go, we have work to do.”

I grab his arm and try to pull him off the couch. He just laughs and goes along with it.

“Take me to your bus.”

“Not that im complaining but why?”

“That outfit is completely unacceptable.”

He looked down at himself and then back up to me.

“Wait what, why?”

“Well first off you’re wearing the same clothes as yesterday, and your toes are definitely gonna get squished in those flimsy boots.”

“Hey! They aren’t flim-”

I grabbed his hand again and dragged him off the bus.

“Lets go, Rockstar. Lots of work to do.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He suddenly stopped me before entering the bus, putting a hand on my shoulder.

“I’m going to be frank with you. They are weird as fuck, especially Sam and Josh, but seriously, watch out for Sam. He’s especially weird.”

I laugh and mimic his hand on my shoulder with my own on his.

“This’ll be fun then, I'm sure we will get on just fine. “

“Alright, Y/N. Just wanted to let you know ahead of time.”

“Whatever you say, Rockstar.”

I open the door and waltz up the stairs to see an odd scene to say the least. Josh, who I had met nights before, was sitting on the couch playing guitar. It seemed like his first time, but two tall boys were standing over him. One yelling at josh, and very aggressively might I add, trying to fix his positioning. The other was trying to calmly explain it to him, the two boys both breaking their instructions with bickering between the two of them.

“Josh, darling, just use your thumb to steady your hand on the neck. Barre chords are 100% easier that way.”

The two taller boys whipped their attention over to me, but Josh just tried what I suggested instead. He produced a much clearer sound and gleefully yelled because of it, then looked up to me.

“Y/N! Thank you, darling. These two imbeciles couldn't pick a way to teach, and it was nothing but confusion.”

Shortly after Jake clomped up the stairs, taking a place next to me. Josh quickly ran over to his twin to seemingly go in for a hug, instead all Jake got was a hefty punch in the arm.

“You bastard, where have you been?”

Jake rubbed his arm and said “Well we went out for a little smoke sesh and then fell asleep on her bus by accident. Sorry man.”

Josh raised his eyebrows in surprise then said, “Ohhh, well that's all you had to say, little brother. We get it.”

“Don’t be gross, Josh. There is a lady here. Plus I’m only five minutes younger, we've been over this.”

I suddenly burst in.

“By all means, Josh. Be gross. I could barely be described as a lady.”

“She already loves me, Jakey.”

He just let out a sigh and said “Don't forget about the others. This is Sam, the actual little brother”

Sam stuck out his hand and gave me a firm handshake. “I feel like this friendship between us will stick.”

“Very bold, Sam. I completely agree.”

Jake continued. “And this is Danny, not blood related, but is basically family.”

He also went in for a handshake, this one a bit softer.

“Pleasure to meet you, Y/N.”

“Pleasures all mine.”

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The boys and I instantly hit it off the bat, maybe it's my chaotic personality, or maybe it's theirs. Either way they grew very comfortable around me quickly, and so did I. Jake was a bit more laid back, he mostly just watched us all interact with a smile on his face. It was oddly endearing.

By that point it was Six and they helped us pregame for the night ahead. Many beers and a couple shots in, and Josh and I were in a heated game of the floor is lava. Well we were but that was until Sam grabbed the chair out from underneath me, causing me to fall onto the couch. Which poor Jake happened to be sitting on, so I partially crushed him, but we were all so tipsy that both of us didn't care. I was too comfortable to move, forgetting about the game.

“Danny, my love. What's the time?”

He checked his watch and said “About 6:30”

I sat up from my reclined position on Jake’s lap and yelled “Shit!”

I quickly got up and yanked Jake up a well, causing him to spill some of his beer.

“We gotta get you better shoes or else your toes are gonna be crushed.”

He laughed and started to push me to the back of the bus. “Well we can't have that can we?”

He led me to a tiny closet near the bunks where he stored his clothing. His shoes were also haphazardly stuffed in there as well.

“Damn this is how you live?”

“Is it not the same for you?”

“You got me there, Rockstar.”

I looked through all of them, stopping on a bright red pair for a moment because they were just so damn fun. But tucked away were some older and heftier leather boots. I grabbed them and stuffed them into his hands.

“Did you bring any normal shirts? Cause button ups won't do, man. Gotta have room to move.”

“Yeah I think I have an old Zeppelin shirt back there somewhere.” He said motioning back towards the closet.

I found it and threw it over to him. I turned around to face him staring at me with an indistinguishable look on his face.

“What are you waiting on? I'm not gonna help you, go get dressed and lets go.”

“Aw what a shame.” He teased.

He dumped his stuff into his bunk before unbuttoning his shirt and taking it off. My eyes slightly widened, and heat rose to my face. I coughed and pulled out my phone as a distraction. A multitude of texts from Sam, my boyfriend, as usual. I ignored them and simply stared at my homepage, just trying to direct my attention from the very tanned shirtless man in front of me.

He tapped my shoulder, pulling me out of my haze.

“Ready to go, little bird?”

“Ready, Rockstar.”

We said our quick goodbyes to the boys before heading off. Josh quickly called out behind us, “Don’t lose an ear!”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In our drunken state we tried and failed, many times, to hop the fence to the venue. The pit was much harder than expected to get to. Jake tried to lift me over, I tried to lift him over, all ended with one of us almost crushing the other. We were hot, sweaty, and about to miss our chance to join in the fun. Well that was until Jake thought of a different plan of action.

“Y/N!”

I had my hands joined together to grab his foot and lift him up the metal slats, I about dropped him when he yelled my name. Putting all my strength into lifting him, concentrating on a response was hard but I choked out,

“Jesus, Jake. Don’t do that or I’ll drop you again. What is it?”

He scrambled out of my grasp and almost took me down with him.

“I have the best idea I’ve ever thought of.”

“I doubt th-”

He cut me off and grasped my shoulders, shaking me as he spoke.

“We can just jump into the pit!”

I swatted his hands off of me and said

“We’ve been trying that for 20 minutes, dumbass.”

“No!”

He grabbed my hand and practically dragged me toward backstage.

“We are artists, we just go to the wings backstage, sneak onto the stage real fast, jump off into the pit, then join in!”

“Oh my god that is the best idea you've ever had!”

“I know!”

At this point we were in a full on sprint towards the venue, people were giving some strange stares, but we were way too drunk to notice nor care.

We finally reached the inside, laughing as we ran through, navigating through crew members and roadies. When we reached the edge of the wings we stopped for a moment to catch our breath, we both looked at each other for a moment. A look of excitement and adrenaline crossed his face, and i'm sure mine as well.

“Ready, Rockstar?” I asked.

“Let’s go, motherfucker!”

We both ran onto the stage, jumping off the ledge into the space between the barrier and stage. The people at the barrier very quickly noticed us, all very confused by our actions.

“Help me over!” I yelled to them, holding out my hands.

A couple of men grabbed me and lifted me over, I quickly thanked them and looked back over to Jake, still inbetween.

“What are you doing? Get over here!”

He laughed and lifted himself over, pushed close next to me.

“This is quite tight!” He yelled.

“What’d you expect?”

He just shrugged his shoulders and leaned onto the barrier.

“Oh no, Rockstar. This isn’t where we will be.”

He gave me a puzzled look, and I simply responded by grabbing his hand and dragged him away from our spot. I took us deeper into the pit, more and more to the middle. Both of us tightly pressed up against each other. The band wasn’t on stage yet, but the crowd was buzzing with excitement.

“You nervous?”

He looked excited, very drunk, but obviously a bit hesitant about it all.

“A bit. I have a feeling the moment it starts i'll fit right in.”

“Good! It'll be-”

The crowd erupted into cheers and we both looked up to see the band entering the stage. I looked back over to Jake, who’s nervous demeanor had increased substantially. I grabbed his hand, and he looked over to me. He squeezed my hand in response, a smile appearing on his face.

“Don’t let go until you feel ready.. Or if we literally get torn apart.” I yelled to him, barely audible.

“Oh jesus.”

Jakes POV

For the first couple of songs the crowd stood still, well not still, but what I assume is still for this crowd. The music was loud, really loud, and gritty, but the lead guitarist was damn good. Had a clean tone for the genre. It definitely wasn't my crowd, that's for sure, it was a lot of very tall men in tank tops, all older than you'd expect. Y/N definitely stuck out in the crowd. Though she was very much in her element, Dancing with the others, getting a bit rowdier than the rest actually. She knew how to hold her ground in a group like this no doubt about. The music definitely not what I ever ventured into, but I definitely could appreciate it. The band was having fun on stage and messing around, something i'm definitely no stranger to.

Then the band introduced the song “Indians” and all hell broke loose. Y/N’s grip tightened on my hand.

“Get Ready!” She yelled.

The guitars harmonized with a simplistic riff, no other instruments joining in, but boy when they did, the fun began. People around me started to basically push and shove me, basically just running their bodies into me. Jumping into each other and me, Y/N jumped into me at one point. It was tamer than expected, Y/N Joined them as well, pushing into me and jumping into others. It was definitely something I could have handled, I don't know why she hyped it up so much. Everyone took a mutually agreed upon break during the chorus and second verse. Still pushing but just keeping to their spots. Y/N had a huge smile on her face, and looked over to me, her hair wild and her face flushed.

She leaned over to me and tried to yell, “Get ready!”

“Get Ready? Wasn’t that the mosh?”

She threw her head back and laughed before returning to her space. The singer screamed “War Dance!” and the crowd lost it. They were jumping into everyone basically using shoulders and elbows to bounce off of each other. I felt my arm jerk and I looked over to Y/N, and everyone in front of her was.. Running? She tightened her grip and started running with them, and in town, I was dragged along. They all were basically running in a circle in dancing, screaming the lyrics to the song. When we got into a groove something in me grooved with it and I lost every nervous feeling in body. I let go of her hand and ran next to her, jumping into her at some points. She threw her head back with laughter and reciprocated by almost pushing me over. At some point we stopped running, but we slammed and jumped into each other until the song was over. And by that point I was so out of breath it burned.

“Holy shit.” I breathed out.

As the show went on the more into it I got and the more wild Y/N got. Alcohol still very present in our systems, along with adrenaline. Y/N screamed the lyrics with everyone and danced all night, causing a ruckus with the neighboring people, and of course I joined in.

She suddenly clamped her hand on my shoulder in the middle of the song “Antisocial”, surprising me.

“Jake! I have my phone on me, but if I don't make it out, we meet where we jumped in!”

“Don't make it back?” I yelled in confusion.

“Don’t worry ill be right back!”

She leaned over to the taller guys next to us and did her best to talk to them. They both high fived her and she grabbed onto their shoulders. They grabbed her legs and lifted her, passing her forward. The people in front of us very quickly took notice and passed her along. She was having the time of her life, yelling and milking her performance. I would be lying if I didn't say she was cool as fuck, and that I didn't envy her lust for life.

The guy next to tapped my shoulder and yelled “Dude your girlfriend is dope as hell!”

I simply responded “Don't I know it.”

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Y/N’s POV

Eventually I did make my way back to Jake, it just took me awhile to push through, and not get distracted by the crowd, as nice as it was to get recognized, I was worried he got swept away.

I found him attempting to headbang with the guys who helped me crowd surf, it was honestly cute to watch.

“I lived, Bitch!”

He stopped and locked eyes with me, the already huge smile on his face grew bigger,

“I don't want this to end!” He yelled, grabbing me and sweeping me back into my old spot.

“Well I’m sad to inform you we probably have one more song left, Rockstar.”

He gave me an over exaggerated frown and threw his arm around my shoulder and said

“Well I guess that means we have to make it count!”

“I guess it does!”

The crowd gave too much energy in too early on and tried to put everything into the last song, but it didn't compare to earlier. All of our bodies heavy, our breath hard, and sweat was everywhere. Compared to earlier, Jake now looked like a pro. Pushing everyone around him, keeping his balance, a huge smile stuck on his face. Near the end of the song I was completely exhausted and my balance is getting harder and harder to keep. They guy next to me just about pushed me over, except Jakes torso kept me from getting very far. He quickly caught me and wrapped his arms around me looking down at me, stopping for a brief moment. I looked up and our eyes met, our faces were closer than expected, our noses practically touching. The both of us not attempting to move away. Heat rose to my cheeks and I held my breath, unable to move. The relentlessness crowd was ever moving though, and the guy in front of us knocked the two of us into the men behind us, moving us from our position.

“Well that was close, you almost took me down there.” He laughed, relieving the tension.

“You wish, Rockstar.”

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The walk back to my trailer was silent, it wasn’t a bad silence, just contempt. We both just felt oddly comfortable around each other, and could just live in the moment, not having to force conversation. Comfortable silence is rare, and you've met someone truly special if that can be achieved. Even though it was last night i'm still confused as to how he got me to open up. I make it seem like i’m open with people, joke about my insecurities so they can’t hold them against me. Rarely does anyone ever see past that. I haven't even gotten the chance to throw those jokes around, I haven’t felt like I needed to around him. I've known him all of three days and he makes me feel something. I don't know what it is, its past romantic or platonic, I guess I just feel some sort of kin to him. That scares me.

We were in no rush, taking as much time as we wanted on the walk back. The both of us occasionally just staring at the sky. Crickets and a seldom guitar could be heard, bouncing from bus to bus. A different tune from each player, and even if it was 11, they all seemed to be saying goodnight.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jake glancing at me every so often. When I turned my head to look at him he just stopped trying to hide it. A small smile played at his lips and the stars almost reflected in his eyes. He seemed at peace. Still, I could see that he had a question he wanted to ask playing through his mind.

“What's on your mind, Rockstar?” I asked.

He seemed taken aback that i’d noticed.

“Oh uh, I was just thinking of asking if maybe you'd like to join me and the boys during practice tomorrow? I mean we played last night, but I what to see what you can really do.” He paused for a moment, a smirk appearing on his face. “Plus I can finally Woo you with my guitar playing. Gets all the ladies.” He finished off his sentence by very animatedly wiggling his eyebrows.

“You wish, I've been playing since I was three, bet you I can do everything you can, and then some.”

“You're on, little bird. You don't know what you're getting yourself into. Lets just say i’ve been playing for a little while.”

“You don't even know what you're getting yourself into.” I mimicked the smirk he gave me and said “Gets me all the ladies.”

He cocked an eyebrow in confusion “ You're taken.”

“Well when I wasn't… Let's just say I never had a shortage of fun.”

“Ooh look at you go.”

I just simply laughed and threw an arm around his shoulder, both of us returning back to our silence. My bus seemed to have snuck up on us because suddenly we were standing at the door. I reached for the door handle, stepping away from him.

“Wait.” He said suddenly, grabbing my hand.

I turned to him seeing that same expression as before, he had something to say.

He hesitated for a moment, his eyes searching for something in mine. I almost waited for him to step closer to me. He didn’t.

“No goodnight for me then?”

I stepped closer and left a lingering kiss on his cheek. He froze for a moment before relaxing under my touch.

I leaned in and whispered “Goodnight, Rockstar.” in his ear.

I moved away turning away for him to reach for the door again, opening it as quietly as I could. His hand slipped out of mine and I stepped onto the bus, but before I closed the door I turned around one more time. His eyes softened when they met mine, and a smile played on his lips.

“Goodnight, Little Bird.” He said softly, before turning around and walking away, humming a familiar tune.

Chapter 5

#jake kiszka #jake kiszka x reader #josh kiszka #sam kiszka #danny wagner #greta van fleet #greta van fleet fics #can we get a reblog this time #or at least one thats not for me #god i wish that were me

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aileruaa · 5 years ago

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Zeta flash: Dancing?

I actually loved writing this!!! I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it hehe

Joan had always said Bart had two left feet.

If good dancing was in the Flash family genetics, he got stuck with the recessive genes. Before he was taken away from his parents during the Reach apocalypse, he remembered them slow-dancing in the kitchen to somber love songs from the 80s, only illuminated by the dim, broken-down kitchen lights. And before Joan became sick, she and Jay would put on a vinyl record from time to time and dance in the living room to upbeat swing tunes from the 30s.

Bart always tried, he really did. But every time Joan took a step forward, he’d take two steps back, and he’d end up tripping over his own feet and messing up the rhythm, causing her and Jay to laugh at his expense- all in good nature, of course. To his credit, no one ever taught him how to formally dance; they just assumed he’d pick it up quickly. The only thing that was quick was his realization of his temperament, which wasn’t really suited for learning dance moves; he’d get frustrated and divert his attention elsewhere.

Naturally, Bart had his reservations about dancing. So when he received a flyer for the Winter Ball at school, Bart all but shoved the paper into the depths of his backpack, determined to forget about it until it passed.

“Hey, I thought I’d be the first one here.” Bart chirped as he beamed in through the Zeta tube. The Hollywood tower was empty except for Eduardo, who was humming a tuneless song in the kitchen. The Team had agreed to meet up in the tower for a movie night later that evening, but most of them had other things to take care of before getting to the tower.

“Well, you thought wrong. What’s going on?” Ed greeted Bart with a smile, chopping away at a few carrots. He was stuck on dinner duty that night, so he came early to prep the ingredients for his favorite Argentinian dish.

“Nada, amigo. You need any help in the kitchen, though?” Bart asked, distractedly rummaging through his bag to find his homework.

“I don’t think you could help if you wanted to.” Ed replied, tossing the carrots into a giant metal pot. “I still remember the time you burned water ‘cause you left it on the stove for too long.”

“Your loss.” Bart shrugged. He fished a piece of paper out of his backpack, hoping it was his history homework- but it was just the flyer he had buried deep in his backpack earlier. Bart balled up the paper as tight as he could and aimed it at the trashcan. He took a flashy shot but missed, and the crumpled flyer fell at Ed’s feet.

Ed put down his knife to pick up the flyer. He uncrumpled it and examined the colorful invitation to the school dance.

“’You are cordially invited to the annual Central City High School Winter Ball, this Saturday at 8:00 PM.’ You sure you wanna throw this out, hermano?” Ed asked, holding up the piece of paper.

“Eh, just toss it. I don’t need it.” Bart waved his hand carelessly.

“You’re not going?”

“Nah. It’s not my thing.” Bart flopped down on the couch and grabbed the remote, flipping through the channels available.

“Really?” Ed prodded, eyebrow cocked. “I’d think dances are totally your thing. Free food, free drinks, lots of friends.”

Bart turned to face Ed. “Well, yeah. But it’s a dance.”

“Uh, yeah.”

“A formal dance.”

“And?”

“I can’t dance.” Bart admitted. “I’m terrible at it.”

“That’s it?” Ed laughed, drying his hands on a small towel. “Then maybe I can help. I used to take dance lessons back in Argentina.”

“You? You took dance lessons?” Bart asked, incredulous. Ed didn’t really strike him as a dancer.

“Why so surprised? My grandpa made me take lessons as a kid before I came to America, said it’d build character. Besides, Argentinians love dancing, especially the tango.” Ed put his hands on his hips, tilting his head. “So much that we have our own version of it.”

“Dude, I can barely do the macarena. I’d literally fall on my face if I had to do the tango.” Bart shuddered, recalling watching Dancing With the Stars with Joan. The swift leg movements and intimate postures of the tango was too much for Bart, who had zero sense of rhythm and even less patience to learn the moves.

“Well, it takes two to tango, so I don’t think we can start with that even if we wanted to.” Ed chuckled. “I’ll teach you a basic four-step routine that most dances are built on.”

Bart shook his head. “No, it’s okay. Seriously. I’m not gonna go, anyway.”

“Either way, dancing’s a good life skill to have. You never know when the need to dance will arise. It could be a life-or-death situation.” Ed insisted.

“Life-or-death? When will I ever need to dance to save my life?”

“You act like you haven’t been through crazier situations.”

“Good point.”

Ed crossed the room to plant himself in front of Bart so the speedster couldn’t just walk away. At this distance, Bart noticed how much taller Ed was; he barely reached Ed’s nose when he stood up straight.

“It’ll be fun. We gotta wait for the carbonada to boil, anyway.” Ed smiled. Bart sighed. He couldn’t say no to that smile.

“Fine. You win.” He caved.

“Alright, so let’s talk basics.” Ed took Bart’s hands in his. Bart’s heart all but stopped- he knew it was coming but it didn’t make his feelings flutter any less. “In formal dances, there’s usually a guy and a girl, and the guy generally leads. But since we’re both guys, I’ll take the leading role, and I’ll teach you the following role afterwards.”

“Uh-huh,” Bart choked out. Ed didn’t seem to notice Bart’s flustered response as he guided Bart’s left hand to his shoulder, and placed his own hand gently on Bart’s side. He’d gotten this far with Joan a few times before giving up, so he knew at least this much. But dancing with married 90-year-old Joan was different from dancing with someone he was developing feelings for.

“Alright, now I’ll show you the box step. I’m gonna take a step forward with my left foot. You step back with your right.” Ed instructed, sliding his left foot towards Bart. If stammering with one’s feet was possible, Bart was doing it.

“No, just one step. You just took, like, three steps back.”

Bart took a step back as he was told, looking down at their feet to make sure he was doing it properly. Easy enough for now.

“Good. Now I’m gonna slide my right foot forward so that it’s parallel to my left.” Ed said, going through the motions as he spoke. Bart followed suit. “You basically just have to mirror what I’m doing.”

“Got it.”

“Okay, now I’m gonna take a step back with my right foot, so you step forward with yours. And then I’m gonna bring my left foot back. No, step forward with your left, not your right. And don’t slouch.”

“Oops, my bad.”

Ed tightened his grip ever so slightly on Bart’s side to correct Bart’s posture and steps; whether it was conscious or not, Bart would never know.

“And now we just do those steps, over and over on repeat.” They repeated the simple steps a few more times before Bart stopped tripping over his own feet and getting his feet positions all messed up. A few minutes later, the two were dancing in perfect sync in the living room of the tower, dimly lit by the kitchen’s lighting.

“Hey, you’re doing it!” Ed gave Bart’s hand a squeeze.

“I’m really doing it! This is so crash.” Bart exclaimed, elated by the quick results.

“See? Not so hard, is it?” Ed grinned.

“Yeah. Is there anything Bart Allen can’t do?” Bart joked, still not taking his eyes off the floor.

“Or maybe you just have a good teacher.“ Ed rolled his eyes. “When you get better, you can add a few flairs that’ll change your movements slightly, depending on the dance. But honestly, this is all you need for a school dance.”

“Yup. No fancy steps needed. This is fine.”

“Speaking of which, who are you gonna ask to the Winter Ball?” Ed asked, now that Bart was getting the hang of it.

“Huh?” Bart felt his ears get red- he hadn’t expected Ed to ask him the million dollar question.

“I mean, it’s a dance, so you definitely need to bring a date.” Ed pointed out. Bart froze, realizing that Ed was right- he’d have to bring a date to the dance if he did go. Asking someone wasn’t the problem. The problem was that Ed, the one guy he remotely had an interest in asking to the dance, went to a completely different school across the country and had to work on weekend nights at the Youth Center. But he couldn’t unpack all that- not right then.

“I, uh,” Bart stammered, refusing to look Ed in the eyes. “I-I don’t really, um-“

“Wait, slow down, you’re going too-“

Bart had unconsciously speeded up the pace, throwing the entire momentum off. Ed tried his best to match Bart’s tempo, but his foot ended up snagging on Bart’s ankles. The harmony they established broke down in a matter of seconds, and two tripped over one another to result in Ed landing on top of Bart on the floor.

“-fast.” Ed managed to cushion Bart’s head with his hand and balance himself with his other arm just in time before he made contact with the floor. Bart’s eyes widened and he felt the blood rush to his head, as Ed loomed over him. He was so close that Bart could smell his fading cologne.

“You okay?” Ed asked, voice soft.

Bart snapped out of it.

“Y-yeah. Totally crash. You know what? On second thought, I’ll go to the dance. Yeah. Maybe I can just go to the dance and stuff my face.” Bart blurted, detaching himself from Ed, who looked confused. “I’m gonna go and, uh, do that now.”

He sped out of the living room and back into the Zeta tube, alerting the computer to Zeta him back to Central City so he could cool his head.

“But your dance is on Saturday! And what about movie night with the Team?” Ed called. The room was already empty by the time he finished his sentence, leaving Ed alone with an overflowing pot of carbonada and a slew of mixed feelings growing in his chest.

#young justice #young justice outsiders #bartuardo #zetaflash #bart allen #eduardo dorado jr

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multishipperlove · 5 years ago

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Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Critical Role (Web Series) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Vax'ildan & Vex'ahlia (Critical Role) Characters: Vax'ildan (Critical Role), Vex'ahlia (Critical Role) Additional Tags: Trans Male Character, Trans Vax'ildan (Critical Role), HRT, Doubt, First Day on T, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting Series: Part 7 of Trans Vax'ildan Summary:

Vax is finally able to start hormone replacement therapy. For a moment, he starts having doubts.

Written for Trans Day of Vsibility 2020

A heavy silence hung over the small living room the twins shared, Vax sitting on the couch and Vex leaning against the opposite wall, both staring at the blue and white bottle of testosterone gel sitting on the coffee table. It didn't look particularly intimidating, but they both knew it was the start of something... bigger.

“So,” Vex mumbled, speaking up first and actually looking at her brother. “Are you excited? I mean, you can start now, right, this is it?”

Vax just nodded at first, still not taking his eyes off the thing. “I- I guess,” he muttered back. Of course he was excited. After all it had taken months to get the letter from his therapist, find an endocrinologist, deal with his insurance, all that jazz. And he'd, metaphorically, been on the edge of his seat through all of it, so it was a bit hard to understand why it had suddenly turned to apathy. Or fear, maybe. It was hard to put it into words.

Had he looked up, he would have seen his sister's eyes turn soft before she walked over, joining him on the couch and gently bumping shoulders with him. “Look,” she started, reaching out to place her hand on his, “if you don't feel ready, you know you don't have to. Start tomorrow, or next week, or whenever you want.”

“But I don't want to wait any longer!” he groaned in answer, finally allowing himself to move again and falling back against the cushions. His hands came up to cover his eyes, trying to block out the problem and the simmering frustration that came with it. “I've been working towards this for months, why is this so hard?”

“It's a big decision, I'm pretty sure you're not the only one having second thoughts this close to the finish line,” she assured him, tugging him forward again and refusing to let him hide. “Your next therapy appointment is in three days, why don't you talk it over with him.”

Vax shook his head, not happy with that solution either. “That's exactly the point though, I already passed the finish line. I thought it was supposed to be easier from here.”

She hummed softly and then rubbed his arm, before getting up again. “You know what they say about beginnings and endings, brother, it's not that easy. I'm gonna start lunch, you want something?”

“Sure,” he muttered back, rolling his eyes at her answer. But at least it got him to stop brooding for now, as he got up to follow her and help with food prep. Maybe he would talk it over with his therapist again, even though that wasn't really the decision he'd been hoping for today. But it would most likely leave him feeling better than rushing the decision.

For now, he stowed the bottle in the little cupboard above their bathroom sink, right behind the birth control blister package that reminded him he'd forgotten it again this morning. It was a good thing he wasn't actually taking it to avoid getting pregnant.

The next morning, he didn't forget his pill. And, of course, that meant he was also greeted by the sight of the bottle again, still standing there, waiting for him. He'd tried to avoid thinking about it too much the other day, so it came as a bit of a surprise to him that most of the negative feelings- weren't there anymore.

The dread that had settled deep in his chest, that had made it hard to breath at times, seemed to have eased up again. Instead he thought about all the possibilities that had seemed so far out of reach once, and were now right at his finger tips. Right. Finish line.

Taking a deep breath he finally reached for the thing, and called out over his shoulder to his sister. “Vex? Vex, I'm fucking doing it!”

“Right now?” Came the confused reply, and a knock at the door a moment later. “Can I come in?”

“Yeah, yeah come in,” he mumbled, unlocking the door for her and then taking a step back so they could share the small space in front of the mirror. “Look, waiting sucks, and- it's gel anyway, right? It's not like I'll start sprouting a beard as soon as I apply it. If there are any changes I don't like, I can stop any time.”

Vex smiled at him and nodded, and he got the impression that she'd had the same thing in mind all along. Apparently just waiting for him to make that realisation himself. Smug bastard. At least it had taken him less than 24 hours.

Either way. “Okay, what do I do?” he asked, looking from Vex to the bottle in his hands and back up, suddenly nervous again. “Like, do I shower before applying this? I don't think I have enough patience left for that.”

“Is there an instruction leaflet or something?” Vex asked, and he shrugged again.

“Oh, wait, it came in a cardboard box, maybe there's something in there,” he finally remembered, and told her where to find it. Moments later she was back, instructions in hand and already going over them.

“Okay, okay... says here, you need to apply it to a clean and dry area of skin, preferably your shoulders and upper arms. How many doses are you supposed to start with?”

“Just one for now,” Vax mumbled, as he started to tug his shirt over his head. He wasn't wearing his binder yet, but, well, he wasn't very shy in front of Vex. To make sure his hair wouldn't get in the way he swiped one of the hair ties from her side of the sink, tying it all up in a lazy bun. “I showered before going to sleep, should be clean enough. So... just one pump, right?”

“If your doctor said so,” she agreed, watching as he took the bottle in his hands again and pushed down once, leaving about a gram of translucent gel in his upturned palm. She scrunched up her nose. “Smells like disinfectant.”

Vax just grinned and started to apply it, spreading it as evenly as possible over the free skin. He wasn't bothered by the smell, or by literally anything right now. He was pretty sure he hadn't felt this giddy in weeks.

“Okay, and now you wait,” Vex told him, smiling as well as she watched his obvious delight at the small action. “Three to five minutes it says, then you're allowed to put your shirt back on.”

“Oh fun, so I get to stand around shirtless, in front of the mirror, every morning now?” he scoffed, but there was no heat behind it. Even that couldn't spoil his current mood.

Vex waved him off, busy now with trying to fold the leaflet again and fitting it into the birth control package. Chances were good that they would at least find it there. “I'm sure you'll get used to it. And you don't actually have to stand in front of the mirror, you know. Anyway, how's it feel?”

“Not all that different yet,” Vax chuckled, though he couldn't help but move in a bit closer to the mirror anyway. No beard yet. “But... I don't know, it feels good. Does that make sense? I know it's going to take a few weeks before I notice anything, but it still makes a difference.”

“I think it makes perfect sense,” she assured him once more. “But you know what this calls for?”

“What?”

With a wide grin, she took her phone out of her pocket. “Victory selfie.”

“Vex. I'm literally half naked.”

“Well then don't get your manly tits in the shot, dumbass,” she replied, before tugging him closer again and at an angle where she could take a photo without exposing him too much. It easily became more than one photo, too, with both of them striking some silly poses at first, making dumb faces at the camera, pretty much whatever they could think of to ruin any good shot.

In the end she had what she wanted though. A nice picture of both of them smiling, hair still unkempt and she herself in her pyjamas, Vax' naked shoulders barely in the frame.

Still smiling she pulled him closer still, pressing a kiss to his dark hair. “Happy first day on t, brother,” she whispered, before finally letting go. There were tears in her eyes now, which she did her best to ignore, waiting for a moment where she could wipe her eyes as discreetly as possible, but Vax didn't seem to be doing any better.

Later he would add a voice recording to the selfie, and store both in a very special folder on his phone. One he was hoping to fill with many more voice recordings, and photos, and videos, to make sure he wouldn't miss a single thing about this. To make sure he would always be able to remember how the journey started, and where he'd been along the way.

But for now, he was happy to sink into his sisters arms again and cry, just a little bit. Just until he could put his shirt on again.

#critical role #cr1 #vox machina #vax'ildan #vex'ahlia #mine #writing #cr fanfiction #fanfic #hrt #trans vax #tdov2020

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meat-husband · 5 years ago

Text

Finally got the alphabet stuff done for Jason c:

You can find the others I’ve done here.

NSFW and Fluff alphabets are below the cut!

NSFW HC

A = Aftercare (What they’re like after sex)

He’s prepped and ready. Extra blankets are already at the foot of the bed, there’s a glass of water on your table and he’s got a plate of leftovers waiting in the fridge in case you’re hungry. He doesn’t need rest himself, so he’s ready to get you whatever you need to be comfortable.

B = Body part (Their favourite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

He likes hands, on both of you. Holding you down and squeezing you, he likes knowing how easy it is to control you with nothing but his body. He isn’t used to much physical touch, so anything from holding hands to your nails clawing at his back is fine with him.

C = Cum (Anything to do with cum basically… I’m a disgusting person)

He doesn’t have a preference at all, but he’ll put it wherever you ask for it. You’re in a messy puddle at the end of everything, but he doesn’t mind.

D = Dirty Secret (Pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

He’s always taken it off before, but he would probably die of happiness if you rode his face with the mask on. Having you so close, licking at the holes in the plastic in an attempt to taste you, but he can’t deny you when you tell him to take it off.

E = Experience (How experienced are they? Do they know what they’re doing?)

He’s got no experience at all, and for the most part no desire for it, until you’re around. It’s not that he wasn’t capable of arousal before, but he’s never seen another person as an equal and thus as a partner before. He’s got the general idea down, but not the details, so you’ve still got to do the bulk of the work when it comes to showing him how it’s done.

F = Favourite Position (This goes without saying. Will probably include a visual)

He couldn’t pick just one, but no matter what you start out doing, you’re flat on your back or stomach within a few minutes. He’s big and strong, so you’re going to have a hard time keeping yourself upright. He’ll hold you up if you ask, but he sort of likes squishing you.

G = Goofy (Are they more serious in the moment, or are they humorous, etc)

He’ll follow your lead on what kind of mood is being set, but he tends to be more towards the serious end of things. He’s always eager and very focused on doing things right, carefully following instructions and watching for what you like best.

H = Hair (How well groomed are they, does the carpet match the drapes, etc.)

He doesn’t have enough hair on his head to really need to do anything with it, and there’s little to none everywhere else. He would just wait and let the rain take off whatever gore sticks to him, so you’ve got to clean him up if you want it done.

I = Intimacy (How are they during the moment, romantic aspect…)

He’s a sucker for romantic stuff, but once things start getting heated he’s a little less sweet and soft. He’ll still grip your hands in his or kiss you, but he’s tougher about it and more demanding.

J = Jack Off (Masturbation headcanon)

He didn’t really think of it before, but once you show him how to do it, he’ll take care of himself every once in a while. He really still prefers you being involved, even if it’s just him watching you from a distance while he does it.

K = Kink (One or more of their kinks)

He likes picking you up and throwing you around, getting you positioned just how he wants you. It’s not really a show of strength on his part, he just likes being the one in charge. He’ll move you both around however you ask him if there’s a certain way you want to do things.

L = Location (Favourite places to do the do)

The little cabin you share is the most common, but anywhere outside is fair game too, he doesn’t mind doing it in the dirt. You’ve tried it in your car once, but there just wasn’t enough room to move around with how much space he takes up.

M = Motivation (What turns them on, gets them going)

Pretty much anything really. He loves being affectionate or sweet with you, but that doesn’t mean he’s not going to dry hump you while doing it.

N = NO (Something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

He wouldn’t really get the idea of roleplay, it wouldn’t interest him at all. Dressing up is fine, but he’s not going to play pretend or act anything out.

O = Oral (Preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc)

Either is fine with him, although you’ve got to take a lot of care with both. He can be a little too eager and get rough with his teeth. For you, it’s more the difficulty of actually fitting him in your mouth, and keeping him still enough to do it.

P = Pace (Are they fats and rough? Slow and sensual? etc.)

Even when he’s riled up and being rough with you, he tends to take it slow naturally. He’ll change it up sometimes, but he prefers gently rocking his hips into yours. When he does speed it up though, he can’t keep it up for long because it’s a bit much for you to deal with all at once.

Q = Quickie (Their opinions on quickies rather than proper sex, how often, etc.)

Any sex is good sex, he’s not gonna say no to either. He doesn’t have a preference most of the time, just when the mood strikes him one way or the other. It’s more practical to have more quickies than full, drawn out sessions just because he wants it so often, otherwise you’re going to constantly be exhausted.

R = Risk (Are they game to experiment, do they take risks, etc.)

There isn’t much risk to take, being so isolated, but he’s up to try almost anything you suggest at least once, he’ll let you know if he doesn’t like it. Even things he doesn’t particularly like he’s open to doing again, if it’s something you want.

S = Stamina (How many rounds can they go for, how long do they last…)

If he had his way, he’d only have to stop when there were trespassers to kill. He’ll go as long as you want him to, so it’s really up to you.

T = Toy (Do they own toys? Do they use them? On a partner or themselves?)

If you happen to own any that you want to use together, he’ll be more than happy to. He’d be open to using some himself as well, but he’s not a real big fan of toys in general, so it would probably only be when you ask for it.

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

He doesn’t have it him honestly, he’s not got the patience or willpower to not fuck you. Teasing him is a little dangerous, because he doesn’t pick up on the flirty, shy aspect of it, he’s just ready to get going immediately. You can try being coy, but it just goes over his head.

V = Volume (How loud they are, what sounds they make)

He can’t make a lot of vocal noises, so it’s mostly loud breathing and panting. What noises he can make are mostly raspy growls, but it’s rarer to hear those. He makes a lot of noises, but they’re not really loud.

W = Wild Card (Get a random headcanon for the character of your choice)

Sometimes when he’s out patrolling the woods, he’ll stop in back home and watch you through the windows, just to check up on you. It’s mostly that he knows he’d get distracted and not be able to leave if he went inside, but also a little bit of hope that he’ll catch you doing something naughty so he can barge in and join you.

X = X-Ray (Let’s see what’s going on in those pants, picture or words)

Y = Yearning (How high is their sex drive?)

It really doesn’t matter what the situation is, if you’re ever in the mood then you already know he’s ready. He could probably just not stop and be fine with that, but regular people have to rest at some point.

Z = ZZZ (… how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

He doesn’t sleep, but he does rest, sort of. He’s still awake and aware, but it can look like he’s sleeping. A lot of times he doesn’t bother with trying, he just lays in bed and holds you until you wake up, but sometimes he likes to get under the blankets and lay down.

Fluff HC

A = Attractive (What do they find attractive about the other?)

There isn’t one thing, but a lot of little things that catch his eye. Your messy hair in the morning, the enthusiasm you have for those horrible movies you like, the way your hand automatically settles on his thigh when he sits next to you.

B = Baby (Do they want a family? Why/Why not?)

It’s probably not physically possible, but he’s sort of undecided about making a family anyways. He’s not really thought too much about it and he doesn’t really like kids too much, but he would agree to it if it’s something you wanted.

C = Cuddle (How do they cuddle?)

He loves to be the little spoon. It’s a bit difficult to make that happen, since he’s three times your size and you can’t really put your arms all the way around him. You just end up hanging off him like a baby monkey, but he’s happy.

D = Dates (What are dates with them like?)

You do things together all the time, walks and hikes in the woods or marathoning cheesy movies all night. There are no set date nights or activities, you’re happy to just be around each other.

E = Everything (You are my ____ (e.g. my life, my world…)

Love. He’s a sappy guy, so he values your connection more than anything else. He’s never been lonely before, so it’s all the more strong when he feels the pull to be around you and keep you close. He’s also not very familiar with romantic feelings, so they’re much more intense going through it all for the first time.

F = Feelings (When did they know they were in love?)

He’s attracted the moment he sees you, and after keeping an eye on you for a little while after, he can’t stop thinking about meeting you, touching you, being held by and holding someone else. He’s practically in love before he even really meets you, and that’s what pushes him to actually try introducing himself.

G = Gentle (Are they gentle? If so, how?)

He has to be, with the size and strength that he has, but it’s something he’s got to learn first. He’s very afraid of hurting you, or making you afraid of him, but over time he’ll get more confidence in himself and realize that he doesn’t have to overthink it.

H = Hands (How do they like to hold hands?)

He’s real big on physical affection, so holding hands is something he loves. Even if you’re already wrapped up and sitting in his lap, he’ll grab both your hands in one of his, just to feel that much closer.

I = Impression (What was their first impression?)

A little frustrated. You aren’t really in his woods, but you’re close enough that he keeps a watch on your property anyways. It’s irritating at first to have a stranger so close to him, even if you’re realistically a good distance away. He quickly changes his mind though, and keeping an eye on you soon becomes an excuse for peeking through your windows.

J = Jealousy (Do they get jealous?)

That’s an understatement. He’s pretty much only ever jealous of other people, but when it happens it gets messy. Normally he doesn’t let anyone get close enough to even realize you’re there, but you have to go into town eventually and he hates it. He’s pacing around the edge of the woods the whole time you’re gone, waiting at the start of the trail that leads back home for you to come back and more than a little afraid that you won’t.

K = Kiss (How do they kiss? Who initiated the first kiss?)

Kissing is a little complicated for him, depending on what’s under the mask. If he’s got lips, there isn’t too much hesitation in showing his face to you and the smooching can commence. Otherwise, he’ll still be ready to take the mask off, he’s actually got much better self esteem as a zombie because all of him is a little messed up now, but you’ve got to work out how to get kissing done with only one pair of lips.

L = Love (Who says ‘I love you’ first?)

He doesn’t say it, but he practically radiates it from the get go. He’s already enamoured by the time he’s actually approaching you, and although he can’t write very well at all, the big, clumsy hearts drawn on any piece of paper he gets his hands on are a pretty clear sign. He’s very eager to express his feelings any chance he gets.

M = Memory (What’s their favourite memory together?)

He likes leading you around the woods, showing you places he likes or interesting things. None of these things would really stand out to anyone else, but he’s been here so long that even the smallest abnormality is noticed. He’s always got something to point out no matter where you are.

N = Nickel (Do they spoil? Do they buy the person they love everything?)

He doesn’t exactly use money, but whatever an unfortunate camper brings with them is yours for the taking if you want it. All the sleeping bags and crappy pop up tents your heart desires, any flavor of granola bar you could dream of, limitless amounts of broken compasses and torn guidebooks.

O = Orange (What colour reminds them of their other half?)

Seasonal colors, whatever matches the time of year when you met. Soft, light spring colors or wet, monochrome winter ones, he always thinks of how lucky he is to have you more often around that time.

P = Pet names (What pet names do they use?)

He will die if you call him by pet names. Nothing could make him happier than indulging in sappy, cliche romantic stereotypes and he will be delighted by whatever you call him, but the more sickeningly sweet and lovey-dovey, the better.

Q = Quaint (What is their favourite non-modern thing?)

The whole camp is outdated and ragged after years of being abandoned, with a lot of equipment left behind. He likes the old mess hall where the children ate lunch, particularly the cozy little kitchen in the back where his mother worked. He doesn’t have any real memories of the place that make him like it so much, he just knows it was somewhere that his mother enjoyed being.

R = Rainy Day (What do they like to do on a rainy day?)

If he has campers to chase off, the rain isn’t going to stop him. Otherwise he’ll stay inside with you, or follow you out on a short walk in the rain, whatever you prefer to do. He’s hyper aware of how fragile you can be compared to himself, so the slightest hint of a sniffle gets you hauled back inside.

S = Sad (How do they cheer themselves/others up?)

He can’t stand for you to be sad, it puts him on edge and makes him feel like there’s some danger he should be hunting down. If something’s wrong, his first instinct is to defend you, checking over the little cabin for intruders. The safest place is by his side, so you’re on Jason Watch for the next few hours, or until he feels like you’re back to normal.

He’s actually pretty perky most days, so when he does start feeling upset it really shows. Affection, sweet and gentle, is the best way to get him feeling better, letting him lay in your lap while you stroke his skin and whisper nice things in his ear.

T = Talking (What do they like to talk about?)

He can’t make any vocal noises at all, the most he can do are breathy sounds and wet gurgles, but he learns quickly how to communicate with body language. He wants to hear about whatever you will tell him, not really understanding some of it, but happy to be included. It’s easier for him to answer direct questions than to try and say something on his own, so you have to lead any conversation.

U = Unencumbered (What helps them relax?)

He likes doing your bedtime routine with you, even though he doesn’t sleep, following you around and helping you get changed and brush your hair. He’ll tuck you in, making sure you’re comfortable and ready for bed, before climbing in himself.

V = Vaunt (What do they like to show off? What are they proud of?)

He’s a protector, so any chance to show off those skills will have him feeling strangely proud of himself and eager to show you what he can do. He is constantly striving to prove himself a good partner, doing whatever he can to earn your admiration. If you praise him for something, even something small, he’ll be quick to repeat it.

W = Wedding (When, how?)

He won’t want one himself, whatever you have together is fine on it’s own, but he will be very happy to participate in any kind of ceremony you want. Explain the significance of what it involves, the traditions or customs you use, and he’ll do his best to follow along. Honestly, he’ll be sort of lovestruck just thinking that you want to do something special like that just for the two of you.

X = Xylophone (What’s their song?)

He’s really fond of music, actually, and he’ll say it doesn’t matter what kind, but he’ll admit to a preference for soft, sweet songs if you push him. The words don’t matter so much as the feel of it, something slow and quiet, with smooth voices.

Y = Yes (Do they ever think of getting married/proposing?)

He’s a ride or die kinda guy, if you’re past the point where he might potentially kill you, then consider yourself spoken for. He doesn’t necessarily think of marriage because that’s not a solid concept in his mind, but he knows he wants loyalty and commitment from you and is ready to give it in return.

Z = Zebra (If they wanted a pet, what would they get?)

Despite pretty much living in the middle of the woods his entire life, Jason isn’t fond of keeping pets. Wild animals are one thing, but he doesn’t want something that depends on him. He won’t stop you from getting one if you want, though, so long as he doesn’t have to do much for it.

#Slashers #Jason Voorhees #Slasher x Reader #yay everyone is done now

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zippdementia · 5 years ago

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Part 77 Alignment May Vary: A Little Touch of Undermountain

Last time, my players got wrapped up with a bunch of Githzerai and so I needed to come up with a Gith dungeon. For the next piece of the adventure, I used level 16 of Undermountain, so following will be spoilers for that level of 5e’s Undermountain. If you don’t mind, then read on to see how it progressed!

When I prep for a dungeon, I like to read the whole thing first. Not in incredible detail while taking notes or anything, but just skimming through, browsing maps, getting the general idea, spotting interesting rooms, getting a sense of the challenge.

What I’m really trying to do is to find the story.

Every dungeon tells a tale, or at least has the ability to tell a tale. There is no exception to this. Sometimes the tale is very deliberate, other times it will read differently to each GM, based on the personal biases and aesthetics they bring to their reading of the dungeon. For instance, in a dungeon run by Kobolds but with no details as to why they are there, different DMs will draw different conclusions. Some might look at the treasure room and determine that the Kobolds must be protecting an ancient treasure of their people. Bam, there you have a story. Others might notice that the Kobolds are oddly led by a Drow wizard and conclude that this is only the tip of a greater invasion dwelling just below the surface. Another might take the same data and think that this is the dwelling of an outcast Drow, who pridefully believes this to be the first step towards his conquering of the world. Even another might see this and believe that the Drow has been magically enchanted to believe that he himself is a Kobold, and the Kobolds serving him don’t have the courage to try and convince him otherwise, not after what happened to poor pussbottom...

In the case of the dungeon levels of Undermountain, we have quite a bit to go on. Each level in the fifth edition rendition of the dungeon is given at least one deliberate and major story that can be used as a throughline without and several smaller plot lines that are left more open for the DM and players to develop through their actions. In level 16, there is a Githyanki fortress led by a female warrior, Al’Chaia. Wrapped up in her rule is a number of complications. For one, she has encouraged competition among her followers and this has had led to at least one believing they could be a better ruler than she is. Even among her dragon pets, there is competition, as one of the young dragons is seeking to escape the rule of his great red mother and is willing to burn his way to freedom if given the opportunity and a strong enough party of (momentary) allies. And speaking of momentary allies, there are prisoners in the dungeon just waiting for a chance to escape: a group of Mind Flayers for one, and a lone Githzerai monk for another. The two groups won’t work together, but either one could make for a powerful set of allies when trying to work against Al’Chaia. Al’Chaia, for her part, is equal mixture paranoia and pride, desiring to have a direct hand in everything that happens in Stardock and personally interviewing all trespassers and prisoners. She prefers to have intruders taken alive and her knights see this as such a clear way to her favor that they will go to great lengths, even endangering themselves, to capture interlopers rather than kill them.

So, this leaves us with the following story threads:

Al’Chaia wants prisoners

Ezria is a prisoner whom the Githzerai want freed

At least one general wants Al’Chaia dead

There are Mindflayer prisoners who want to be freed

Level 16 is broken into two dungeons, really: the Crystal Labyrinth and the Githyanki Stardock (which is actually located in space and is a light entry into the Spelljammer campaign setting).

Transposing a Dungeon

If playing Undermountain on its own, then the purpose of every dungeon level is to survive and make it to the next lowest level. In this light, Level 16 is an odd one, because you never actually have to go to Stardock to proceed to the next level of Undermountain. Even a group curious about Stardock can’t easily access it, they have to find a key first which requires either killing or convincing one of the more powerful combatants in the Crystal Labyrinth to give you their key. A group might be COMPELLED to seek out and explore Stardock by groups they encounter earlier or later in Undermountain, but square for square it is the easiest level of Undermountain to bypass. The other surprising thing is that all of the story I mentioned above, all of those hooks, happen mostly in Stardock and not so much in the Crystal Labyrinth.

For my purposes, there isn’t anywhere else to go: the players aren’t in Undermountain trying to get to the next level, so I had to focus them from the start on the idea of accessing the Stardock. At the same time, they had some major restrictions that delvers into Undermountain don’t, the big one being they have nowhere to run to in case they need a long rest. Oh, and because their ship is running out of oxygen, they have a limited amount of time to finish the adventure and achieve their goal.

The goal I set up as rescuing Ezria, the Githzerai monk. It made the most sense in terms of story and also felt like the most achievable mission (as killing Al’Chaia is tough, considering she fights with other Gith at her side and at least one young red dragon (possibly more, and possibly an Adult Red Dragon, too, depending on when and how you fight her). I didn’t rule out the possibility of them killing Al’Chaia, but if they did it would have to take place as a hit-and-run assassination, killing her in a few rounds before she had a chance to summon any guards and then getting the heck outta dodge before the mamma dragon showed up to take revenge. Regardless, the mission would require stealthy play, something we haven’t done too much of in our adventures.

I also broke the mission into three pieces in my mind: one was to get through the Crystal Labyrinth (reskinned for my purposes as an in-between world, a backdoor the Githzerai “tunneled” through the aether into the Githyanki fortress, but which was discovered and occupied by the Githyanki) probably proceeding with the help of one of the dissatisfied generals working under Al’Chaia. The second part was to find Ezria in Stardock and break him out of prison. The third part was to escape back to the entrance of Stardock, where Ezria would open a portal and they would get back to the Githzerai homeworld.

There was nothing I threw out or changed over much aside from focusing the dungeon flow on these elements and adhering to those three parts. Other than that, I just got ready to improvise based on whatever the players did.

How Did it Go?

After an initial added puzzle involving a malfunctioning security laser system, the players enter the Labyrinth proper. I changed the entrance point to be the far east side of the map, rather than the west, because I wanted to place them potentially closer to Urlon, one of the more benign of the disgruntled lieutenants (AKA he doesn’t attack them on sight). Overall, there is less activity on this side of the map so I felt like it gave them a better chance of finding a way through the maze to the Stardock.

They do a good job initially of sneaking around. They encounter an imprisoned Mind Flayer, Marqoux (we call him Marky for short) and talk to him for a moment to get a basic understanding of where they are and what to look out for. They are unable to free him at this time, and so they move on and come to a gigantic cavern filled with Githyanki, overseen by a more powerful Githyanki female floating naked in a crystal in the center of the room. This fight is huge. It ends up involving about a dozen Githyanki, all them leaping and misty stepping all over the place, striking by darting in and then teleporting away. The woman in the crystal compliments their attacks with magic missile, haste spells, and twice a gigantic fireball that the party manages to dodge. There are also three Crystal Golems, time and light bending monstrous statues who are less effective than they might have been (due to some poor rolling on my part) and instead make the players feel pretty epic as they dodge around +8 and +10 to hits and whittle away at the Golems until they are naught but crystaline dust in the glowing Labyrinth.

The coolest moments to come out of this come from Imoaza. At one point she strikes down a Githyanki and then uses her Warlock powers to trap his soul and raise him from the dead as a wraith who fights at her command. At another, she leaps over a Crystal Golem’s attack, splits Drosselgreymer into its two smaller sickles, lands on the golem’s chest and hangs there with one sickle while slashing away at the creature’s single diamond eye with the other until it goes down. She then backflips off of it, puts together Drosselgremyer again, and shoots eldritch blasts at two Githyanki as she lands. It’s some next level anime shit.

All this fighting eventually attracts the attentions of one of the Githyanki Knights, who strides into battle atop a young red dragon and who turns the tide in favor of the enemy, scattering the players. Imoaza hides inside a cone of ice and then sneaks away when it dissipates. Carrick flees deeper into the caverns, hiding himself in a crevice. And Milosh, who has proven to be by far the tankiest of the characters, takes on the dragon and its rider on his own for a round or two before being forced into a dead end outside of the Mind Flayer’s prison cell.

I don’t know if we’ve mentioned before that Milosh has a power cannon on his arm, similar to Mega Man? His can burn special gun-arm slots to mimic certain magic and it can fire arrows like a crossbow, powering them up with different effects as he fires them (and he’ll learn more effects as time goes on). He uses one here to launch an electrified arrow into the Githyanki knight’s chest, nearly killing her in a single blow! She survives though and with his resources running out and a pissed off red dragon staring him down, Milosh prepares to either make his final stand or use a special ranger power he has to pierce the aether and travel unseen through the ethereal plane to escape. But instead the Githyanki hails him between ragged and haggard breaths and orders him to stand down and surrender. Milosh agrees and tries to find some clever way to turn this to advantage, but instead he is clapped in magical irons that prevent the use of his abilities and a magical headband that might have been familiar to Targaryen/Daymos from long long ago, blocking out Milosh’s thoughts and blinding him. Then he is led from the arena and up to Stardock.

But what about the player? Not wanting to lose anyone from the table for an extended period, we determine that in their haste to capture Milosh, the guards did not notice a key lifting off of their belt and floating quietly towards the small portal set in the door to the Mindflayer’s prison...

Keeping Your “Head” in the Game

The other party members, Imoaza and Carrick, witness Milosh’s surrender (Imoaza was actually disguised through magic as one of the Gith warriors talking to Milosh about surrendering, though she is too afraid to be caught to try and make a big play, like escorting him herself). They see him being led away by the injured Githyanki knight and her very-healthy-looking red dragon and realizing (correctly) that there is probably nothing they can do to rescue Milosh without risking the death of at least one party member, they continue to explore the labyrinth. Carrick is not very stealthy in his plate mail, and ends up alerting ANOTHER Githyanki magic user in a crystal, but Imoaza still has her disguise, and is able to pretend she is chasing him down, which makes the other Githyanki pause in their own pursuit. In this way, they stumble into the workshop of Urlon, creator of the crystal golems and their best bet at getting into Stardock.

Urlon explains his frustrations of Al’Chai’s rule and his desire to see her dead. He says if they manage to assassinate her, then he will create a distraction and slow the hunt for them, buying them time to find their comrade and escape. The players agree, though in truth they don’t intend to take on Al’Chai: they simply want to get to Ezria and get the heck out of this mess. Urlon doesn’t know this, so he offers them a ton of help: items and a general layout of the Stardock, and he also reforges Mistweaver, which used to belong to Aldric but which Carrick is now using, into a +3 magic weapon that retains its curious ability to hold onto and reproduce certain kinds of damage. An alarm then sounds throughtout the Labyrinth and Urlon snarls: “One of the Mindflayers has escaped,” he tells them. “They’ll be swarming the Labyrinth to find and kill the bastard. Here, you’ll need to hide until this is over.” He telekinetically levitates a massive work table off the ground to reveal a trapdoor leading into a small chamber underneath the workshop, where Imoaza and Carrick squeeze into a semi-comfortable spot, getting a short rest while Urlon and his apprentice, a younger Gith male, go to join the hunt.

The Mindflayer in question is the one being played by our other player, and the alarm is because he inadvertently alerted the Gith after a botched stealth roll. He now flees through the Labyrinth, seeking a hiding spot. He eventually spots one while slinking around the edge of a large cavern: a niche high in the wall that he levitates to and stuffs himself inside like a trapdoor spider. Indeed, the metaphor is apt, for some time later (after a short rest), a young Gith rests against the wall, out of sight of his companions... and is promptly set upon by the Mindflayer, who scores a critical hit against him and drags him up into the niche to feast on his brain. The brain’s memories rush into Marky and it turns out he ate the brain of Urlon’s apprentice. He now knows that two of the adventurers he met earlier are hiding out in Urlon’s workshop and that they have the means to enter Stardock.

Imoaza and Carrick have been sharing a somewhat uncomfortable silence while they rest. Carrick has been keeping an eye on Imoaza since Aldric’s death. Some whisper of fear eats at him. He hasn’t exactly suspected her, but some Paladin intuition is cluing him in to Imoaza’s deeper evil... though, for her part, Imoaza does not believe in evil. She believes only in pragmatism, and has already justified Aldric’s murder in her mind as an act of mercy. Aldric was clearly going to die, she tells herself, and was beginning to show his weakness besides. He’d become emotional and attached. He had a family, for god’s sake. That was dangerous for the group. She was preserving the group.

When Imoaza and Carrick next see the light of the Crystal Labyrinth pouring in through the trapdoor, it is not Urlon who stares down at them, but instead the tentacled face of the Mindflayer. He sends a telepathic message into their heads: “We should help each other.”

It is not the easiest decision to make. After all, Mindflayers are not easily trusted, and they also know that the Gith will be hunting for this one and will respond to any sighting of it with extreme prejudice. Even Urlon, who seemed actually sympathetic towards Ezria and the other Githzerai, going so far as to say he would cease the hunt for them if he replaces Al’Chaia, turned cold when it came to discussing the hunt for the ‘flayer.

At the same time, what choice do they really have?

The three thus band together, leave Urlon’s workshop, and make their way to the portal to Stardock. The Mindflayer uses his access to the Gith’s brain he devoured to fool the lone Crystal Golem blocking their way to the portal to Stardock (a cool notion the player came up with). They pass the golem without incident and insert the key into the portal, and are whisked away to the second part of the adventure, which we will cover next time.

One More Thing...

Before I sign off though, notice some of the things that went on in this session. I didn’t overly prep for this session. All I did read over the dungeon and then find those story threads. To keep things moving and the game fun in the actual session, all I had to do was tie everything that happened in the actual play with one of those story threads. Thus, when the fight with the Githyanki threatened to kill one or more of the players, it was perfectly reasonable instead for the Knight to try and imprison at least one of them, avoiding a TPK and keeping the story moving. Then, because that was removing a player from our game potentially, I improvised by turning to another story point: the Mindflayers. Now my player could stay in the action (very memorably so) as a Mindflayer. How often does a player get to play a monster in a game? And last, when the players seemed beat down and at a loss for where to go next, they found Urlon, who connected them to the “revolution” plot line.

Thus, no matter how crazy things got, I could always get us out of the weeds by steering us back towards the story threads. Identify these in your own sessions and you will find you have to plan a lot less and are ready to improvise when the need arises. And it ALWAYS arises. That’s half the fun of being a Dungeon Master!

#Dungeons and Dragons #dnd 5e #Campaign Journal #AlignmentMayVary #Alignment May Vary #Githyanki #Githzerai

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tactyl-ymon · 5 years ago

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Dnd session recap - Broken bonds and bodies

You know what, this is becoming kind of a standard disclaimer at this point. But sweet fuck I am bad at doing these write up’s in a timely manner. Not that it matters, but I’m trying to get better I promise. Anyway, on with whatever I can remember from a session from about 2 months ago!

We start with a bit of a rewind and some Vieraen shenanigans that took place part way through last session. While everyone is out finishing a dark ritual to summon a tower, Vieraen is out to be a menace. He finds some children in an alley and asks them if they know how to delete someone or if there is anyone who would know … how to delete someone. They end up taking him to a ramshackle tent in one of the slums with basically the most kiwi orc ever known named Jake Johnson and then get to talking about poisons and just how good they are. After a bit of back and forth, they come to an agreement. Jake will help Vieraen make some dope poisons, but he needs to test them on the drow rogue … and by test we mean stab viciously in the gut to see how the poison affects someone,. Seeing nothing wrong with this, Vieraen gets poked and takes a ludicrous amount of damage. After a fairly long session of knifey stabby, Vieraen leaves his new friend, both with a greater understanding of how poisons hurt and several minor stab wounds he heads up to one of the main magic shops in town to try and sell some things and get a fancy new dagger. He starts talking with the Halfling shop owner about the dagger he wants and what it would take to reduce the price before he pulls out one of the gems he’d picked up from the tunnels leading to the witches den on our last group assignment. Fun fact about the gems he got, they’re all really good at containing a specific type of magic and the one he was trying to sell was a fully charged fireball set to explode at the slightest nudge. Somehow not noticing the halfling’s wide eyed terror that this drow hooligan basically just walked into his shop with a live grenade, Vieraen mentions he’s got like 10 more in his bag if the owner would be willing to trade. Things escalate, the shop owner wants Vieraen out of his shop, Vieraen reeeeally wants that dagger though. Vieraen mentions he’s not leaving without that dagger as the shop owner uses the moment to cast a suggestion that Vieraen should leave. Under a compulsion to gtfo, Vieraen wanders outside and the shop owner locks up behind him. With that taking up most of his day, Vieraen heads back to the barracks to sleep everything off and wait for everyone to get back from whatever errand Core sent everyone on.

Seeing as the weird sylph didn’t eat anyone in their sleep, the tower crew heads back to the barracks for a quick breakfast and fill Vieraen in on what they found before everyone gets a message from Core about a bar fight nearby he needs everyone’s help with. Feeling the need to brawl, Eridol and Drackuss lead the charge and as they slam open the tavern doors they find absolutely nothing. No brawl, just a couple drunks from the night before passed out on the bar and Core getting playfully batted at by probably the most adorable cat anyone had ever seen. Core introduces his new friend as Whisky Whiskers, she’s a 2 ft tall munchkin cat person and also a monk, also she drunk Core under the table last night. Honestly, it would have been more adorable if she wasn’t here to keep an eye on Eridol and his constant teetering on the edge of a mental breakdown. With introductions made, Eridol asks if this was the bar fight he needed help with and with the magic words said, Drackuss starts a one man brawl with the drunks at the bar, breaking a chair over one and piledriving one through a table that leaves most of the poor man’s blood on the outside. Everyone tries to stop the dragonborn juggernaut, but it’s our new friend Whisky who manages to stop the beatdown with a stunning strike that lasts long enough for everyone sober enough to act to restrain Drackuss while Eridol feverously heals the men. Drackuss’s holy medallion slides to the floor in several pieces but this goes unnoticed by everyone but Drackuss and as far as he’s concerned, the less people who know about his broken oath at the moment the better. Drackuss apologises, he’s just been so antsy for a proper fight recently and this got the best of him. Eridol is too busy healing the patrons to notice and everyone else didn’t really care that much. Drack gonna drack.

With nothing really to do for the next day and a half due to Core needing to do more research on the giant tower that apparated out of the earth and Emmi heading back to her ship several towns away for some me time, everyone else decides it’s time to hit the bath house to relax and mostly to clean Eridol because even without the gore from the past few battles still hanging off his armor making him smell like ham and sadness, he’s still not really been taking care of things. Most of the group grabs a communal bath to chat and everything while Drackuss gets a bath on his own away from the group. Whisky gets to know everyone and generally makes Eridol uncomfortable with all the invasions of his personal space, asking if he’s ok and just generally not letting him mope, the group starts drinking away the day and having as much fun as a group of hardened adventurers can do in a communal bath house. Drackuss sneaks out of the bath house and heads into one of the nearby forests, driving by an urge and whispers in his head he ends on coming across the camp of one of our previous allies, Olgum the hobgoblin fighter. They have a tense conversation while Drackuss draws his sword, proclaiming he’s been sent here to retrieve something Olgum doesn’t deserve anymore. A shield Olgum has but refuses to use properly. A shield used to solidify a connection to Bhaal, the god of murder. Drackuss needs it and he intends to take it one way or another. It is less a fight and more an execution as Drackuss murders his once friend and ally. With the final blow a new connection is made between Drackuss and the evil god he now serves. He takes the shield, a ring and some trinkets before setting the camp ablaze and returning to the bath house, the rest of the group none the wiser because we’ve been drinking together in the bath for the past 4 or so hours. They all talk about plans for the next few days, Vieraen wants to head back to the magic shop to see if he can talk that dagger into his pants and Eridol mentions everyone should come to the pits tomorrow to see him fight, it’ll be great. This is definitely not a cry for help, don’t worry about it.The crew heads up to the fight pits to cheer for Eridol as he tries to let off some steam against a hill giant they had all fought as a group several weeks ago that had a bone to pick with the tiny gnome who burst his chest open last time. Bets are placed and buffs are sneakily applied before they fizzle out entirely when Eridol enters the ring. The fight starts with a bang of holy light from Eridol that sends the giant reeling. The show is fierce and comes to a head when the giant throws several boulders, most of which hit Eridol as he is feebly trying to close the distance to the giant with his tiny gnome sized legs. They trade blows for what seems like hours until both are left broken and bloody with just enough energy for one last clash. Eridol gets off a fantastic hit to the ogre’s side, mirroring the last killing blow he gave the giant in the group fight while the giant swung down with his literal tree trunk of a club, hitting eridol dead on. The crowd grows quiet as the dust settles and only one of the combatants is visible. The giant’s hand twitches and a gnome wriggles out from under the tree trunk. Bruised, bloodied and broken but somehow victorious. The crowd erupts in cheers as the fight pit’s healing field brings the giant back to consciousness. Both fighters bow to each other and the crowd, glad to have put on a show and bury the hatchet in each other as it were. The group comes down to Eridol’s prep room to see the gnome slumped against one of the walls, letting the rooms healing aura mend some of his shattered bones as the bruises set in and he starts the process of making sure everything heals properly. Congratulations are given and Eridol gives a shaky thumbs up in response before basically passing out. Thoroughly spent from the fight and mumbling that he’ll see everyone back home once the post fight shakes go away and Eridol gets to take care of what he thinks is a concussion.

Vieraen mentions that they should go back to the magic shop in the mean time and off they trot to the Magical emporium to find it still locked and no signs of life. Which is weird, this place never closes, especially not for days at a time. The group decides this is a mystery worth solving as the poke and prod the building for clues and they end up in one of the back alleys all looking for a secret entrance. Not wanting to cause a scene, Drackuss decides to disguise himself as Core, our government official patron so he can hand wave away any nosey villagers who notice us totally not criminals slinking out behind a shop full to the brim with magical artifacts. After several more failed attempts to break into the place either to look for clues or so Vieraen can steal his dagger, the group decides they should notify Core because this is worrying and obviously someone further up the chain should be told about this. Core arrives out the back of the shop to see the group and his doppelganger that was Drackuss as they go over everything, Core admits it is a bit weird that the shop is closed and if they have any other ideas to get in. Vieraen thinks for a second and pulls out the fireball gem that honestly started this whole mess and mentions if they throw it at the door it should get through and as a group they all decide that yes, this is the way forward and the gem is yeeted at the building. The gem containing a charged fireball. Surprising literally everyone, it explodes and sets some of the neighbouring fences on fire but with no damage to the shop, y’know because it’s a magic shop and has preventative measures for this. Someone mentions that they should get Eridol down here to help treat any of the mild injuries, Vieraen takes it upon himself to call the cleric over their necklaces. With non existent panic in his voice he shouts “Eridol, you should come quick, someone’s about to die”, which gets a genuinely panicked response from the still recovering cleric that he was on his way.Realising that Eridol would be expecting to see some kind of injury, Vieraen turns to Drackuss and asks the now evil paladin if he could “Stab me real bad” which is really all Drackuss needs to hear as he turns on the drow and Vieraen realizes sometime between the first and second hits this was maybe a mistake because Drackuss is actually trying to kill him. Chaos ensues as Vieraen attempts to get away from his would be executioner, Whisky jumps up and tries to stun the dragonborn as Core and Tornur trade throwing themselves in front of the drow rogue with arcane shields a plenty to absorb the hits. No one knows what is happening, Drackuss is on the war path and obviously willing to cut them all down to get to Vieraen. Someone gets on the necklaces to let Eridol know that Drackuss has gone insane which is another heaping spoonful of terror Eridol tries to keep down as he is running through the streets, still covered in gore from his exhibition match in the pits. While Core and Tornur protect Vieraen, Core yells for Whisky to get out and that she needs to find Eridol. Whisky nods and takes off as fast as her tiny feline legs can go. Now without one of their trump cards to slow drackuss down, Tornur comes up with a plan and conjures a thick cube of webbing to restrict the raging paladin and slow him down long enough for Core to cast haste on everyone and get a glimpse of the cursed shield in Drackuss’ possiession. Between the haste, Vieraen’s innate knowledge of the city and Drackuss’ restricted movements they all get away and start running back towards the fight pits to regroup and call on the city guards. With his prey getting away, Drackuss knows the opportunity is lost and starts heading back to the barracks to either funnel everyone into a killbox or to gather supplies and leave to survive another day.

Halfway across the city, Eridol is running as fast as he can towards the magic shop and where the fight should be taking place, hoping the panic he felt from Vieraen’s message mingling with his abject fear that has been there since Drackuss cut him down are hidden well enough by his pure need to protect his friends. Between being so exhausted and being nearly out of spells he almost misses Whisky as she clambers over a nearby roof. He does the only thing he can think off and pushes divine light into his shield to use as a beacon. The two meet up shortly before the remainder of the not evil friends turn up. All looking worse for wear, no one knows what’s going on. Eridol realizes that Drackuss would need to head back to the barracks to pick up supplies and that they would either be walking into a trap or an empty building. Without a second thought, Eridol asks that everyone stay safe, turns to Core and says “We will take care of this … I … I can take care of this” not trying to hide the panic and fear as he starts running towards the barracks, Core curses under his breath and turns to Whisky, Vieraen and Tornur and says he would understand if they don’t want to come before getting in touch with some guardsmen and running after Eridol. Of course nobody listens to either of them as Vieraen, Whisky and Tornur book it after their tiny guardian towards a very possible death.

#Tactyl Ymon #DnD Recap #Eridol #Whisky #Tornur #Veiraen #Drackuss #Emmi #dnd

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firegrilled · 6 years ago

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Momma’s Boys - Part 1

@erejeanweek2k19 Prompt: Single Parents

Summary: Carla Jaeger and Celine Kirschtein are two very different moms who have one thing in common: unconditional love for their sons. This is a story told from their perspectives as their boys grow up and grow much closer than they ever thought possible.

Lots of inspiration from @aymmichurros‘s momma comic :D

Stay tuned for more parts during erejean week

Part 2

Sunlight glinted off the rearview before a slender hand readjusted the angle. A pair of sharp eyes stared into the mirror at a brown haired toddler snoozing in his car seat in the back. She smiled at her son as she flicked the turn signal, gently pulling into her destination. A few moments later the Honda Civic was parked and she was carrying her dozing son over to the quaint, off-colored building.

“Hello, welcome to Shinganshina Daycare where we nurture, teach, and herd the next generation,” a bubbly woman greeted the mother. “You must be Mrs. Kirschtein, yes?”

“Its Ms. But please call me Celine,” Ms. Kirschtein returned the friendly greeting.

“Alright Celine, I’m guessing this is lil’ Jean?”

“Yes, my cute little Jeanbo,” Celine confirmed, her smile widening when her son yawned.

Jean rubbed the sleep away from his eyes.

“According to my papers he’s to be here until the afternoon, yes?”

Celine nodded, setting her son down. “Yes, today I’m starting a new job and I hope it’ll end early but you never know.”

“Of course, I wish you the best.”

The bubbly receptionist squatted down so she was at Jean’s level. Giving a wide smile she held out her hand.

“Momma?” Jean questioned, scampering behind his mother’s leg. He peeked around to stare at the stranger.

“It’s okay Jeanbo, she’s going to watch you for mommy while I’m at work. Will you be a good boy for… I don’t believe I got your name?” Celine realized, a pink blush rising to her cheek. She softly nudged her son forward.

“Mrs. Bodt,” the woman smiled. “Come Jean, I’ll introduce you to the others. I even have a son your age.”

Placing a thumb in his mouth, Jean took the woman’s hand with his free hand and walked with her inside.

“Mommy will be back later. Be a good boy!” Celine waved to her son, keeping a smile on her face despite the guilt creeping up her neck. As much as she wanted to be there for her baby boy she also needed to provide for him.

Shoving her guilt down, Ms. Kirschtein spun on her heels to leave. Before she could exit, she noticed another woman leading two other toddlers to the entrance. Celine opened the door for her.

“Ah thank you,” the woman muttered as the two tiny kids practically lead her inside.

“Mommy, mommy!” The boy with wide green eyes called out, brimming with energy. “Is ‘Min here?”

“No problem, miss,” Celine chuckled at the cute display. The tiny boy still couldn’t pronounce his r’s.

The other child, a girl in a red scarf, remained silent.

“We’ll just have to wait and see, let’s go,” the mother replied.

Celine glanced back at the woman dressed in blue jeans and a loose fitting white shirt as she left for her car. The unkempt brown hair and disheveled clothes were the opposite of Ms. Kirschtein’s business attire and straightened hair. Not everyone needed to make a striking first impression at the city’s biggest bank.

---

“Hello? Jaeger residence?”

“Is this Carla Jaeger?”

“Speaking,” Carla confirmed, nestling the phone between her ear and shoulder. She waddled over to the sink as the phone cable pulled back. Three steps and she already maximized the full distance of the cord.

“This is Trost Prep’s office. Your son Eren is currently sitting with the vice principal,” the matter-of-fact voice explained. “We’re going to need you to come down and pick your son up as he’s suspended for the rest of the day.”

A bubbly dish slipped between Carla’s fingers and landed with a mighty splash in the sink.

“Suspension? For a first grader? What happened?”

Carla reached into the sink and pulled the plug, allowing the water to swirl down the drain.

“We can explain when you get here but he got in a fight with another boy. Please come as soon as possible.”

With a heavy sigh she hung up the phone. What did her son do to get suspended in his first week of school?

“Don’t worry Mrs. Jaeger, we’ll take care of the dishes,” a cool voice reassured her.

Carla turned to face a small contingent of maids.

“Thanks Levi, I’ll entrust the rest of the house to your care. At least Eren picked cleaning day,” she laughed. “I can’t wait to tell his father about this later.”

Levi and his companions nodded, returning to their duties.

A few missed turns and one angry car horn later Carla pulled into the prep school her husband insisted their children enroll in. She was already a ball of nerves as she tried to navigate the hallways, embarrassed to have to ask for directions multiple times from staff until she arrived at the office. Inside she found a receptionist with tortoiseshell glasses clacking away at an absurdly large computer.

Clearing her throat, Carla made her presence known. “H-Hello? I’m here for Eren.”

Without making eye contact, the receptionist pointed with her thumb over her shoulder towards an office.

“Please go right in.”

Mrs. Jaeger walked around the desk towards the office, noticing another boy sitting in a blue hard plastic chair just outside the office.

The boy had light brown hair at his tips but it grew dark the closer it got to his head. He kicked his feet back and forth in the hair, squeezing his hands into fists on his knees. He had a few scratches and bruises on his arms. Dirt covered most of what should’ve been his pristine white uniform.

Wordlessly Carla entered and clicked the door shut behind her. In another blue plastic chair in front of the desk with his back to her sat the familiar silhouette of her son. At the desk stood a tall and blond man with well-kept hair and a stern face. The wooden nameplate on his desk had Erwin Smith etched into it.

“Mr. Smith I presume?” Carla greeted, earning a glance from the man. She didn’t miss her son suddenly straighten up.

He turned and offered a tiny smile. “Mrs. Jaeger, please sit down.”

Erwin gesture to a larger more plush chair next to her son.

“Thank you,” Carla replied, taking the seat. She wore a frown as she scanned her son. Like the boy outside dirt and grime covered his uniform, while a bruise colored his cheek with a fresh Band-Aid just below an eye. “Can you please tell me what happened?”

“Your son got in a fight with another student though we don’t know who started it-”

“It was horseface!” Eren interrupted, huffing and crossing his arms.

“Eren, don’t interrupt others when they’re talking! Especially Mr. Smith,” Carla narrowed her eyes, instantly silencing her son.

Eren’s face paled and his gaze fell to the crème colored carpet.

“Eren and Jean got into an altercation over this new phenomena called pocket monsters. As a result of the fight we’re suspending both students until the end of the day to set an example for others as well as themselves,” Mr. Smith explained. “Since they’re so young nothing will go on their permanent records of course, but we have a strict policy here at Trost Prep that we must maintain as we raise the next generation of leaders.”

“Of course. I’ll see to it that Eren learns his lesson and this won’t happen again.” Standing up, Carla glared at her son. “For starters, no more Pokemon until he learns to behave himself.”

“But mom! He tried to be Charmander when I called him!” Eren pouted, his shoulders falling.

“I don’t know what this Charred salamander is but I don’t think it’d want you fighting others, Eren.”

As Mrs. Jaeger chided her son, a knock at the door drew the attention of those in the room. The receptionist popped her head in and looked straight at the vice principal.

“Mr. Smith, I was able to get ahold of Mrs. Kirschtein but she’ll be unable to get her son before the end of the day. What would you like me to do?” She asked.

“Take him to the empty gymnasium so he can think about the mistake he made. I’ll speak with his mother when she gets in.”

Mrs. Jaeger frowned at the thought of leaving a child so young alone but punishment is punishment.

“Come, Eren. Your dad returns from his conference today so you can explain why you’re suspended and your uniform is a mess.

---

“Yes, sure. I’ll have to call you later, Shannon, I have another meeting right now,” Celine spoke as she navigated the hallways of Trost Prep with ease. How many times had she followed this same path over the years? She turned the corner as she clamped her cellphone shut, almost jumping from surprise when a familiar shocked face appeared.

“Ms. Kirschtein!” Carla Jaeger greeted, dressed in a relaxed crème colored sweater and blue jeans.

“Mrs. Jaeger!” Celine replied.

Carla smiled nervously, “Oh I really hope this doesn’t become a habit of theirs…”

“Ugh yes, I hope so to… I mean-” Celine instantly agreed, adjusting her suit jacket. How many lunches had she sacrificed to her son’s shenanigans at this point? “I’m tired of grounding Jean for the same reason over and over again. It’s really stressful!”

Celine pressed her fingers to her temple before continuing.

“’Why can’t you just get along with this kid? Why?’ ‘Cause he’s the DEVIL ITSELF’- And I’m like Jeanbo that’s not possible!”

Celine waved her arms around as she recounted her son’s ridiculous claim. Much to her relief, Carla laughed her mockery of Jean. The two walked to the office together as they continued their discussion.

“It’s the same for my Eren. No matter how many times I punish him he continues to come up with lame excuses. ‘He’s mean to Armin, he always starts it, he likes broccoli!’ and I’m like ‘Honey, no. You’re not even trying.’” Carla recounted, earning a chuckle from Celine. “And of course he now does this right before his birthday. I might just have to take away the party we promised him.”

Ms. Kirschtein paused right as they reached the door to the office. “Eren’s birthday is coming up? Jean’s is next week.”

“Yes, Eren’s is in two days. He only had to be good for two more days but boys will be boys,” Carla sighed as she rolled her eyes.

Celine rubbed her chin as a new idea formed in her mind. The more she thought of it the wider the smile on her face got.

“I might have a solution,” Celine stated.

Carla cocked her head, gesturing for her to continue.

“Well if grounding them isn’t going anywhere they clearly need to learn to cooperate with each other. They can have their birthdays still, but celebrate with each other,” Celine elaborated.

Furrowing her brow, Carla thought about the proposal. “Well it would be a punishment and we’d be there to monitor them… let’s do it! And we can do it at our house, we have more than enough space. Do you know where the Mithras district is?

”Mithras?! O-of course. You live there?” Celine barely caught her jaw from dropping.

“Perks of a famous researcher who moonlights as a physician,” Carla shrugged as she opened the door to the office.

The receptionist barely glanced up as the two women entered.

“Hey Carla and Celina. You know the drill,” the skinny woman waved them over to the principal’s office.

“Happy to see you too, Hanji.”

The cheery appearance faded as the two put on their best angry mom expressions. Carla turned the knob and let the door creak open, opting to place her hands on her hips and glower. Celine crossed her arms and mimicked her expression.

The door opened to reveal the two boys sitting next to each other with their backs to the entrance, talking to the principal. Their sons slowly turned their heads, already wide-eyed and sweating. Unlike most office visits, both boys were relatively unharmed and their uniforms were thankfully clean.

“Celine, Carla, please have a seat,” Erwin greeted the pair of mothers with a tiny smile. “How familiar are you two with the concept of Yu-gi-oh?”

#fic: Mommas' Boys #erejean #Eren Jaeger #Jean Kirschtein #erejeanweek2k19 #enemies to lovers #prompt: single parents #jean's mom #carla jaeger #fighting smols #snk #shingeki no kyojin

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