#well he came to us and we counterattacked and so he died...

[ezzydantes]

Family Was Always Important

Summary: Garp has made his way back to Windmill Village after Y/N's death saving Ace and Luffy. It's not just Dadan he has to face...

Warnings: au (couldn't let my boy die like that). Talk of death, dark thoughts, possible suicide. Mostly angst. Not exactly Canon and will conflict with Odasama's writings. Also Taking some liberties on mythology. If you know it and see the obvious conflicting things... ignore. Enjoy!

Garp made port into Windmill Village. He was only able to track down one of his grandsons and it was the one he dreaded meeting most. He had no counterattack to the capabilities of the Flame Flame fruit and after Marineford... if he died by Ace's hands then so be it. He'd fight as hard as he could but the man deserved his vengence on him. Garp had contributed to your death and left the children you and Ace had motherless... not to mention he knew he had a bounty on him from your exposed family who had been enamored into the pirate world these last 800 years.

You had older siblings and cousins gunning for his head. The foremost being the leader of your clan and the eldest of your sisters... Hecate... Catey for short. She was the lover of Shanks and had raised you, Ace, Luffy, and Sabo before joining him on the sea.

The bartender Makino came outside of the local bar and tried to intercept him immediately amongst the complaints of the citizens. "Something must be done!" They have drank the whole town dry every day!"

"Garp..." Makino said in a whisper but the pair was already making their way out. Dadan appeared first... her eyes shocked but then glaring at the Vice Admiral as she tries to push her cohort inside. "Ace... NO!"

"Fuck that Dadan!" He shouted as he stumbled out. He straightend himself up as he glared down the old man he had fought with over the years. "You fucking let her die!" Ace roared, "She was the sweetest person to us!"

Ace punched his grandfather down without using his devil fruit powers. "You fucking knew she was strong enough to save me and Luffy..." he cried as he began punching the life out of the elder man, "You KNEW who she was and what she meant to us!"

Dadan, even in her weeping mess, was able to pull the grieving man off. "Ace! Beating him to death won't bring her back!"

"Don't you think I know that?" He slurred as he fell to his knees. "She was my whole world... her smile was my sunrise... her laugh... it was like a warm breeze... Hell I even miss how cold her stare was when she was pissed at me..."

The former Commander of the Second Division of Whitebeard's crew curled into himself with his arms wrapped around his head. "Y/N!"

"You were there! And you let her die? You called her your granddaughter and yet you picked the Marines over her! What about the twins? What about that baby girl she just had?" Dadan cried as she threw a few punches as well at Garp. The elder man hung his head and cried silently as Dadan continued her verbal assault.

"They'll never know their mother! And the world has suffered for it! She was a fucking goddess! The World Government be damned! Those beings weren't meant to leave our world and you KNOW it!" The bandit woman cried, "They were the ones who created order and kept the World in check... we were free when they ruled the world."

"I should have died.... I should have died with her...", Ace sobbed aloud, "I still can..."

Garp and Dadan looked to one another before both jumping onto Ace to prevent him from hurting himself. Flames be damned. "Y/n would kill you herself before allowing you to do that!" Garp shouted as he pulled Ace's arms behind him while Dadan pushed his head down.

"Enough!" A familiar voice shouted. All three froze as the citizens of Windmill Village began to bow but were quickly told to stand up. "I am no Queen and I'm definitely NOT one of those bastards who have the nerve to pretend to be gods..", Catey laughed as she helped an elder person up.

Her piercing gaze snapped over to three entangled within themselves. "Garp... Dadan... give me a moment with my kid brother... would you?"

The Vice Admiral and the Mountain Bandit quickly got off the younger man. Dadan pull A e up to stand properly as she backed away from him. "Lady Cate..." the elder woman bowed.

"Again... not royalty and I don't expect such from you, Dadan", the ravenette smiled as she placed her hand on the bandits shoulder. She looked to Garp, "I'll have words with you later" her tone sharper and colder to the older man.

"Walk with me, Ace", Catey gently stated as she began to make her way towards the outskirts of town. The young man simply nodded and followed.

There was a pregnant silence that could be sliced with a dull knife between the pair as they trekked further and further out of the village.

"Why are you not with Luffy or the children?" Catey's voice startled him after so long of walking in silence.

"What?" He quietly questioned as he finally looked up at her disappointed face.

"You're not alone in your grief... why are you not with your brother or the children y/n and you share?" She again asked. Her tone was more serious this time.

Ace hung his head and looked away, "How can I face them when I failed y/n so? She and Luffy went through Hell and back to save me.... I wasn't worthy to be saved... not by her and not by Luffy..."

"Unfortunately you don't get to make that decision on your own. I told you all growing up that you were all worth something to someone and to treat your lives as a precious gift... not to squander it in your own self pity..." Catey lifted his face to meet hers, "Every single soul in this world has the ability to define and change Fate as it should be."

"So you're Gol D. Roger's son... y/n is part of a forgotten and banished race deemed less than human... Luffy is the son of Monkey D. Dragon... Sabo is the son of spoiled aristocracy... these titles and backgrounds do not define you. What defines you is that you are the husband of y/n and the father of Lu, Bo, and Asa Rouge...", she smiled as she cupped his face and brought his forehead to hers.

"Asa Rouge?" Ace's voice broke as he began to sob uncontrollably. Catey wrapped her arms around him and held him close as he cried. "She knew you'd love it...", she chuckled, "and she's beautiful by the way... I forsee her having your freckles and being a spitting image of y/n.."

"You've seen her?" He shot up from her embrace, "where are my kids?"

"There's my kid brother... they are safe with an associate of ours. We were never forgotten on Amazon Lily and they treat us as gods and goddesses... Luffy is currently being treated there under the care of Trafalgar D. Law... a skilled surgeon who took him on by my request. I separated you two so you could get your bearings... but I didn't expect you to lose yourself like this. I'm glad i asked Jinbe to look after him", Catey caressed his face, "All is not lost my little prince."

"Why do you call me that? And why did you always call Luffy 'Rex'? " Ace was wiping his eyes and snorting snot out of his nose causing Catry to giggle at his manly antics.

"You're married into royalty and the son of the former King of the Pirates... and Luffy WILL be King of the Pirates", she smiled, "Rex means King in one of many languages we spoke on Atlantis."

"Why didn't you come to Marineford... I know y/n prayed to you...", he softly questioned as he held her hand to his face.

"I came as soon as she did... but Akainu had already mortally wounded her... we are immortal if we live peaceful lives but we CAN die... and I couldn't save her... but best believe I kicked his ass to kingdom come... would have killed him too I'd Shanks hadn't shown up", Catey responded wistfully, "Which brings me to another matter... what are you willing to do to get her back?"

Ace stared at her as if she had grown a second head. "Anything.... wherever she is, is where I'll go..."

"Good answer... shall I tell you how we get her back? It's a long journey and the babies have to come with..." Catey smiled, "We'll be on our way to the North Blue."

"You know better than anyone else in this world what I'll do for my family, Sis", he grinned.

"First we check on Luffy... he needs your reassurance.. then we pick up the kids from Amazon Lily.. from there we go to the North Blue... to some ancestral lands of my people... and from there you and y/n plot your course...", Catey explained but was engulfed in Ace's warm embrace.

"Thank you... for always being there and loving us", he began to cry again.

"Always..."

[fireemblemramblings]

Fire Emblem Awakening- My Pairings

So, these are my official pairings for Fire Emblem Awakening!

Note: I had to play this twice hahaha, so my battle count is obviously low. The first time I beat the game I didn't know Gaius was recruitable, so I accidentally killed the sugar man. Also, somehow I forgot about recuriting Severa??? haha no idea how xD

So here goes~!

My Avatar and Lon'qu

He's THE BEST haha!! His fear of women. xD I took that as a challenge. lol!   First time playing this game, I didn't even know I married him when unlocking S support. I saw the confession scene and I was like wait what?! Husband Lon'qu. Wife Cactus. WAIT. WHAT!?!? LOOOL WE ARE MARRIED?! I love him though hahaha Honestly, if it were anyone else, I would have just started over. XD

Chrom and Sumia

Of course, everyone's beloved Chrom! So, he gets Sumia. Also, they are just cute together. Though their support conversation was based on pies xD

Frederick and Cordelia

Ahhhh. I like them both... Frederick totally works hard. I'm always for Frederick and Cordelia xD

Virion and Tharja

Virion and Tharja just makes sense to me. I mean look at Noire. Totally takes after her dad, if you know what I mean. Also, he was totally doing her bidding.... He must like her a lot xD

Vaike and Maribelle

BRADY LOOKS LIKE VAIKE. Thus, Vaike and Maribelle must be paired :D

Stahl and Olivia

Stahl and Olivia.... oh boy hahaha. His love letter confession was cute for her!

Sully and Kellam

Kellam and Sullly obviously for Kjelle~ Come on! EVEN THE NAME KELLAM AND KJELLE.

Ricken and Lissa

Again, Ricken is Lissa's hero ;)

Gaius and Cherche

Gaius gets Cherche because I like them both. Plus, Gerome can have orange hair and still look cool.

Panne and Gregor

Omgosh these two are adorable with each other!! It's been awhile, but I think he kept on calling her a bunny? xD Also, Gregor and Panne just work together well. I feel like they can change each other for the better.

Libra and Nowi

She helped him find his heart!!

Henry and Miriel

I'm sorry Henry, but Miriel needs a husband and you seem to love her. And no, Donnel is not getting with anyone hahahah. eww! little boy Donnel

Children Pairings~

Owain and Nah

It was hard pairing Nah....

Inigo and Lucina

THEY HAVE THE BEST SUPPORT FOR EACH OTHER!! (Inigo's other supports just made me cringe and laugh.) (Lucina's supports with the other kids... I was just like no. no. No.)

Brady and Cynthia

Cynthia's mysterious helper, Brady is so kind hearted! Their support was adorable~

Gerome and Severa

Severa talks about how Gerome has a handsome face and we get to see his face without the mask!!!

My Morgan~

Morgan deserves NO ONE in this time zone. hahaha. All the girls were too wacky for me for him...

Yarne and Noire

Noire never once went crazy with Yarne with her blood and thunder haha And she blushes at the end with him. They're cute together.

Laurent and Kjelle

Laurent watching over Kjelle and him promising to become "Dreamy" xD

http://fireemblemramblings.blogspot.com/2017/05/fire-emblem-birthright-my-pairings.html

[sarcastic-nebula]

Personal Audio Recording: Landing at Point Rain

a/n: I'm experimenting with style and POV, and I might add more to this later. TW: torture, death, overall sadness. MC is a pink twi-lek female

Personal Audio Recording: Landing at Point Rain

I was not yet a Padawan Learner when the First Battle of Geonosis occurred. Naturally, another droid factory needed to be taken care care of years later, and that was how I ended up suspended in a dark room on Geonosis.

I was with Master Ki-Adi and our men, we were going through a cave to get closer to Master Skywalker's position. Landing at Point Rain was a complete disaster. The Geonosians had been shooting us down since we entered the atmosphere. The landing, if it could even be called that, had rattled us all. Some, including my master, got hurt, others died. Safety lie at the landing zone where Master Kenobi and his battalion had ended up miles away from us. The cave itself seemed like a lucky shortcut, until the bugs flew out from within the cave. They shot at us, and in pairs they tried to carry one of us at a time to an unknown place. One of the clone troopers under me, Leaf, was the first to be carried away. This squad of Geonosians also tried to take the commander, Jet, but he got away. Sadly, other men were taken too. I tried to deflect their blaster shots to them. I tried to defend my men and my master. I tried to get those in the air back to the ground.

But then, in a stupid moment of hesitation, four skeletal hands wrapped around my arms, and I was being flown into the cave. My arms are still bruised dark pink and purple from their strong grip. Maker, if only I wasn't clouded by worry, instead focussed on my duty!

(hard sigh)

The Geonosians were fast flyers. The cave was huge, I thought they were going to drop my men and I from some height and have us die more painfully. But they kept flying, and their grip never faltered.

I don't remember how long it took, but I guess they were taking us somewhere inside the droid foundry. Why, I would find out later, but at that moment, I was terrified they were going to drop us one by one, and enjoy listening to our bones crack and lungs give out.

Eventually we made to some room within the foundry. Prisoners. All of us suspended along the walls. Vulnerable, with no idea of what to expect. All I knew was that I had to stay strong for my men, and for myself.

Time passed, shoulders got sore, and eventually a protocol droid, a tactical droid, who I assumed to be Poggle the Lesser, and an entourage of battle droids came through a rather large door. I didn't even notice there was a door until it opened. I was consumed by shock and worry until then.

Poggle approached me, protocol and tactical droids with him. After voicing a series of clicks and hums, the protocol droid translated something like, "His Majesty wishes to know who else will be joining the attack on this factory". Basically, he wanted to know who was coming, how many, who was already here, what supplies, you get the idea.

I was frozen. Everyone was looking at me, and I just stared aimlessly at Poggle. He was ugly, but he was in control, and fear just consumed me.

I'm so ashamed.

I guess I was silent for too long. Poggle yanked one of my lekku and repeated the question. It hurt so much, I couldn't concentrate because my head was spinning. If the five or so clones around me were worried, the buckets hid it. Maybe I was so afraid, the Force was muted. Or maybe the suspension rings my wrists and ankles were in were Force-suppressive. I just don't know. I did yelp though. I can't stop thinking about it.

Anyway, he said his question a third time. At least I found my voice, and I told him that I wouldn't tell him anything. If he knew about possible reinforcements, more shit would have gone down. Who knows what else he could have done with any words I could give him. I think he even asked about how well his counterattack was going; how many needed med-evac and whether or not there was a medical facility nearby to help with the casualties. Three Jedi Generals, two Padawans, and hundreds of thousands of clones would overwhelm any of the medbays we had on hand.

I told him I wouldn't speak, and so I didn't. Poggle took a blaster from one of the battle droids, held it up to one of the men. He clicked and clacked some more, and the protocol droid asked me one of the same questions. I think his name was Mark.

(tearing up)

I hope his brothers can forgive me.

My lightsaber was so close yet so far away, you know?

(sniffles)

There were clones on either side of me, and all the ones to my left hung lifeless when they got back to me. Each time they asked some stupid kriffing question, I was silent, and Poggle shot another man.

There were three men alive on my right, and then Poggle changed tactics. With that blaster, he shot one of his own droids, and flew over to it. He blasted one of its arms off, shot the arm a few more times, picked it up, and returned to face me.

A few more hums and clacks. Protocol droid asked me where the injured clones and Jedi would go from here. I refused to answer. Poggle took that smoking droid arm and held it against my arm for a few seconds. Not long. But it hurt like the Sith hells.

I had never seen my own skin blister or disintegrate before. Guess I can cross that off the bucket list. Well, I didn't really see it burn up since I guess that sort of thing happens on contact. But the blistering was real.

Poggle did it three more times. I don't know if anyone flinched when I shouted each time. I wonder if they could hear my heart rate changing.

I guess Poggle got bored after that fourth time. Maybe something worthwhile was happening outside. Either way, I was breathing hard and shaking as he turned away and left with his droids. Silent tears fell down my face. Was I in shock? My heart was still beating like crazy, and I just couldn't get enough oxygen.

I wasn't even thinking about Master Ki-Adi that whole time. I wonder if he was thinking about me.

When Poggle and the droids left, the suspension binders deactivated. Those of us still alive gasped from the surprise. Those of us gone just...slumped. I couldn't look at their bodies.

One of the still-living men, Leaf, came up to me. Talked to me a little. Asked the other two for bacta, bandages, anything. It hurt when Leaf wrapped my burns. They were grey and red.

I don't know how, but the boys played with the control panel in the wall near the door, and got it to open. I don't really remember the how and the what. Just the air getting a little lighter once we snuck out of the foundry. I just... they were leading, and I was following. That's all I can remember. I think a military transport ship found the four of us once we got away from the factory, and took us behind the landing zone, where the battle just went on and on.

A medic came to look at us. He was out of bacta, but he had some fresh bandages. He slowly removed what I had on, and kept a stoic face as skin that adhered to the first set ripped off. He was still calm once he saw the damage. There wasn't a lot to be done, it was an active war zone, and I felt sick to my stomach. Every movement of my arms sent shooting pain throughout. There was no time for that medic to worry about my pain.

(brief pause)

I think that the next thing that happened was after maybe another half hour of fighting, a Republic airstrike gave us the reinforcement we needed to push the Geonosians back, and then call it a day. I remember being led into a transport ship with my master, Master Kenobi, and some more injured men. No, Master Ki-Adi-Mundi wasn't with me until then, he was busy on the front. I'm sure he was a bit worried for me.

The transport took us to the Resolute, and from there, 501st medics helped us toward their medical bay. The bandages really hurt once they came off. There wasn't much the medics could do once they got to me, so many others needed bacta. I guess I'll just be scarred for a while. (Y/N) out.

[sou-ver-2-0]

“Midori is Meister’s son,” and other Sou theories

I’ve had a theory for a while that Original Sou is the son of Meister, the likely Mastermind behind the Death Game. I’ve alluded to this theory before, but I haven’t made a proper post for it until now.

I came up with the theory because it’s the easiest way to put Original Sou under Meister’s power and influence. It’s the simplest explanation I can think of for why Original Sou was both an Asu-Naro member and a planned Death Game participant. That’s a strange combination of things to be, but it’s not that strange if that’s what your father raised you to be…

However, there’s more to this theory than a mere hunch. In the first two chapters of YTTD, we learn the story of the Satous: Gashu the father, Kai the human son, and Rio Ranger the doll son. I believe that the story of the Satous is foreshadowing for the story of Sou’s own family.

Gashu is a villain dedicated to the cause of Asu-Naro. He raised Kai to be an Asu-Naro agent. Part of Kai’s job was to watch over Sara, a planned Death Game candidate; he grew to care for her. Kai becomes a participant himself and is one of the Game’s first victims. After Kai dies, we are introduced to Rio Ranger, a sadistic Floor Master. He is a broken doll who wears smiling masks. Rio Ranger is similarly fated to die, and Gashu is then revealed as the father.

Let’s try changing the names in that story. Meister is the main villain behind Asu-Naro. He raised Sou Hiyori to be a top agent. While on the job, Sou developed a close relationship with Shin, a planned Death Game candidate. Sou himself is the first candidate to die, before the Game even begins. However, we meet him again in the “Graveyard of Broken Dolls” as Midori, a sadistic Floor Master who masks his cruelty behind a smile. Midori instructs the participants to kill him… Perhaps leading to a scenario where Meister will finally reveal himself.

I’ll dig into these parallels deeper beneath the cut. But before I go any further, I want to give credit to @joukester​ who came up with the “Shin was a replacement candidate for Sou” theory, which has influenced my thinking a lot. I also want to credit @novatoast​, who pointed out the important Kai parallels and many other ideas to me! I’m very grateful. While Shin is my favorite character, Sou is the character I enjoy speculating about the most. I’m excited to finally share my thoughts on the ramifications of this theory.

Some words on Meister, and the role of the Man from the Memorandum

I should be clear upfront that I think Meister is the Man from the Memorandum, the winner of the Previous Death Game, who loved and lost a “17-year-old School Girl.” I subscribe to the theory that Meister is recreating the Death Game to mold Sara into his beloved High School Girl by putting her through the same trials, and he is hoping she will win this time.

In order to make the perfect recreation, I think the other Death Game participants are also meant to fill in the previous participants’ roles. I believe that Shin fulfills the role of the “Man” himself, which was likely an antagonistic role. However, I believe that Sou was originally meant to play this antagonist role. I think that Shin’s First Trial is so unusual because it was designed to twist Shin into adopting Sou’s personality. That way, he could better play the part.

The first thing we learn about the Man is his confession, “In the first trial, I killed a person.” If Sou had survived to the Death Game, it’s possible that his First Trial would have been to literally kill Shin. Instead, Shin’s First Trial is only that “Sou” metaphorically kills “Shin.”

I want to bring up another possibility for the Man’s role; it may be a doomed role. It’s possible that even if Sou had survived to the Death Game, he might also have had a zero percent chance of survival. The worst outcome for the Mastermind may be seeing a “repeat win” for his own role. While I love the theory that Shin’s zero percent survival rate is due to his own agency (having a self-sacrificial nature), there’s a poignancy to the idea that both Sous turn to villainy out of desperation in the face of certain death. Knowing that the Game is rigged against them in favor of a teenage girl.

Perhaps, even knowing that your own father favors a strange girl over yourself.

Even if the role isn’t necessarily doomed, I think Sou Hiyori still knew more about Meister and the Death Game than any other planned participant. If Meister was Sou’s father, and Sou was serving him faithfully, wouldn’t it make sense for him to be upset that he isn’t the favored “Chosen One”? Knowing that he will someday participate in a Death Game, with a high chance of death, but his father isn’t even rooting for him?

What would that horrible knowledge do to a person?

Kai Satou and Sou Hiyori: Two Different Kinds of Stalkers

Let’s talk about the Human Sons, Kai and Sou. Kai was raised to work for Asu-Naro and he was trained to become an assassin. However, he could never kill a person, and so his ranking in the organization was low. I’m suggesting that Sou was also raised to work for Asu-Naro, but since he took on so many important jobs of manipulating participants’ lives, he was likely in good standing.

The most interesting parallel between these two agents is that they each developed an attachment to another candidate. Kai was instructed to watch over Sara, the strongest candidate, and he grew fond of her from afar. Sara never even knew his name. Although Kai had noble intentions, Sara feared him, and lived with the anxiety of having a stalker.

In contrast, Sou developed an intense, abusive relationship with Shin, the weakest candidate. Instead of keeping his distance while spying on the boy, Sou seems to have become Shin’s closest friend.

Sara and Shin share a similar trauma of feeling stalked. Watching eyes and grabbing hands haunt them.

Another clear parallel between the two stalkers is that they both left written accounts of their observations. We see Kai’s notes about Sara on his laptop, and we see Sou’s notes about Shin in his “Shin Tsukimi AI Test Data” book, to Sara and Shin’s chagrin.

Kai grew an emotional attachment to Sara in spite of his job to watch her. Now the question is, how much of Sou’s relationship with Shin was “strictly business”?

Was Sou’s interest in Shin really all for Asu-Naro? Was he instructed to form such a close relationship with the boy? Or did he also grow close to his chosen candidate in spite of his job? We can’t say for sure yet. However, the closer parallel to Kai would be that Sou’s feelings for Shin became more “personal” than “professional.” Personally, I find it likely that Sou wanted to exercise control over a vulnerable person because he didn’t feel like he had much control over his own life.

I speculate that a major difference between Kai and Sou is knowledge of their fate. I think that Sou grew up knowing that he would one day be a Death Game candidate, while Kai did not know this until the last minute. In a similar way that Shin only becomes a villain if you tell him his survival rate, I think that Kai’s innocence of his fate informed his nobler personality. Meanwhile, Sou’s knowledge of his fate could have harshened him.

How do these two men behave in the face of death?

Death: An act of resistance?

“This is... resistance. Our lives toyed with to our enemy's whims, we are unable to save even a single person... As we die off, this is... my feeble... resistance. But it is one large step... toward counterattack...! It is a step I was able to take... because you bought me time. It is surely... not futile. I entrust them to you...! Our regrets...!! Our hopes...!! I... am satisfied.”

Kai’s suicide in the First Main Game is framed as one of the most courageous acts in the story. Kai takes his life into his own hands, rather than let himself be abused by Asu-Naro a minute longer. He also uses his final words to give an inspirational speech to Sara and entrust his hopes to her. It is a heavy burden for Sara to carry, but she doesn’t have a choice. Nobody has any “easy” choices in this Game.

How does Kai’s death compare to Sou’s death? While Kai took his own life in resistance of Asu-Naro, Sou was murdered by Alice, presumably in service to Asu-Naro.

That’s certainly how it looks…

But what if? What if Sou’s early death was his own form of resistance? What if he deliberately provoked Alice to kill him, knowing that this would mess up the script? Knowing that this would make things more complicated for Meister? Is that so unthinkable?

Why would he do that?

It’s not like Sou’s life was particularly meaningful. He lived in service of an evil organization, possibly with a father who didn’t love him. His only close friendship we know of was with a helpless teenage boy, and Sou treated him terribly.

But…I’d like to share my most outrageous Sou theory, because I might as well go big or go home.

In the same way that Kai entrusted his regrets and hopes to Sara, it’s possible that Sou was entrusting his own regrets and hopes to Shin.

What I’m saying is that: it’s possible that Sou died thinking that his death would give Shin a fighting chance.

“I gave Sou to Shin. He’s already Sou by now, you see.”

This quote has always stood out to me. From our point of view, it was Shin’s own choice to take Sou’s name! Sou didn’t “give” it to him!

Unless…Sou knew that his own death would force Shin into the Antagonist Role? He might have known that his own First Trial would be to murder Shin, and he wanted to avoid that? He might have wanted Shin’s First Trial to make the young man “stronger”? He may have even liked the idea of Shin carrying on his own name and legacy?

Following this interpretation, it’s possible that Sou rationalized his abuse of Shin was “good” because it would have “prepared” the boy for the upcoming Death Game. Shin ought to learn how cruel people are. From a “friend.” If the story were to actually frame Sou’s abuse of Shin as “teaching Shin,” this would also tie into Shin AI’s line, “Though I learned a lot of things at his house.”

There’s an obvious argument against what I’ve just suggested. It comes from one of Midori’s most memorable lines.

“Since he was going to die anyway, I wanted to kill him with my own hands…”

Midori the doll says cheerfully that he wanted to kill Shin himself. That clearly shows his intentions towards Shin are purely negative. That line is not befitting someone who might have died to “help” a vulnerable person.

However, I have a counterargument for that. It’s that Sou and Midori aren’t the same person. YTTD’s narrative makes it very clear that the dolls and humans can have separate personalities, shown most clearly with Reko and Fake Reko.

And Midori doesn’t parallel Kai. He parallels Rio Ranger.

Rio Ranger and Midori: the sadistic broken dolls

Rio Ranger is an incomplete doll. His father Gashu strongly imbued him with “a strong sense of inferiority, which gave birth to jealousy and hatred.” Gashu also “discarded what [Rio Ranger] originally possessed.” “Kindness… compassion… happiness… / Nearly all of [his] positive emotions.”

I think it is possible that something similar happened to Midori. Sou’s feelings for Shin may have been more complex than simple sadistic pleasure at Shin’s pain. If Sou truly paralleled Kai, he may have had hidden “positive” emotions for Shin as well. Inconvenient, rebellious emotions that Meister would want to “discard.” Leaving Midori as the purely sadistic doll we know now.

I realize that this would be a shockingly positive development for Sou’s character if any of this is true. Original Sou is currently treated as a hate-able joke in the fandom because he is so cartoonishly evil. I feel obligated to say that nothing I’ve written would make Sou’s treatment of Shin “okay.”

And it could be that nothing I just wrote is true! I’m simply drawing parallels with Kai’s death of “resistance” and Rio Ranger’s loss of “positive emotions,” and trying to show the implications of what that could mean for Original Sou and Midori. But it could also be that Nankidai will write Original Sou’s death in an opposite way from Kai, and that Midori is more of a “broken person” instead of a “broken doll.” In fact, my favorite difference between Midori and Rio Ranger is that Ranger only knows what it’s like to be a doll, while Midori has the complex memories of human existence. Honestly, there are many ways Nankidai could approach this. I just don’t know yet.

For example, Original Sou could have even been instructed to allow Alice to kill him. I can’t discount that possibility.

Nankidai could also approach a death of “resistance” in a nuanced way. Perhaps Sou stumbled into conflict with Alice without meaning to take things so far. Like Kai, he didn’t want to die. Perhaps he escalated the tension because he was feeling more emotional than logical. Perhaps he found himself in a fight with a larger man, a fight he couldn’t win, and then he finally started rationalizing to himself that his death could still have meaning. And that meaning could have been a combination of feelings of spite for his job and obsession for his friend.

We do have evidence from Midori’s behavior that he seeks mutually assured destruction, and he even seems masochistic. This could lead to a death of “resistance” which is still very different in tone from Kai’s death.

“But I’ll try my best to make it one shot, one kill… I wanna take at least four people with me…”

“How nice hatred is… It lets me satisfy a person 100%...”

I do think that the only interesting thing to do with Midori’s character is to humanize him. He could get sympathetic traits to make him feel more realistic. I think this could even make him scarier! What’s most frightening about the character isn’t his campy villainous vibe; it’s the fact that he’s an abuser. And abusers use sympathy to get what they want.

Rio Ranger is mostly demonic in the story until we finally learn about his father, Gashu, who “puts Ranger in his place” by killing him. Something similar may happen with Midori.

Conclusions

This is getting long and I’ve already written about the most interesting potential parallels between Sou and the Satou brothers, so I’ll wrap things up.

The reason I find Sou/Midori so fascinating is because he is a man of many contradictions. He is a participant and floor master, alive and dead, aggressor and victim. He could be a victim within the cycle of abuse himself, if they develop his relationship with Meister as much as I’m speculating.

Even if my theories and conclusions are wrong, the parallels between Sou Hiyori and the Satou brothers still exist. We have two Asu-Naro agents who developed an attachment to a candidate before becoming early victims. We have two “broken” sadistic doll floor masters. I feel instinctively that these parallels must mean something. I want to think that the parallels mean that Sou could have a father figure, similar to Gashu, and the most likely candidate is Meister. We can also use these parallels to infer how Sou/Midori could be written to be a more complex character.

Thank you for reading!! @ Nankidai good luck writing this bastard.

[loversamongus]

Lovers Among Us - atla smau

masterlist / part 17 / part 18 / part 19

a/n: Zuko and Y/n’s conversation under the cut!

With both crutches under your arms, you made your way to the door and opened it. Sure enough, Zuko was standing there just as he said. You caught a quick glimpse of him leaning against the hallway wall with his arms folded, but he immediately straightened up when his eyes met yours. You felt your stomach drop a little and you had the sudden inclination to worm your way back inside the room where your friends sat still watching the movie. Surely, a man with razor hands and a decaying face who kills you in your nightmares is less frightening than this leap you’re about to take. Zuko must have felt your apprehension though because he held the door wide to help you through it and rested his hand on your shoulder to guide you across the threshold.

“You know, once I get a boot instead of these crutches, this will be a lot easier,” you said, more of an attempt to calm the hurricane of butterflies boarding up in your gut. “I could probably kick Sokka pretty hard with the boot, now that I think about it.”

Zuko didn’t respond; he only smiled. You would not have thought much about such a small smile, but recently everything about Zuko seemed to become a permanent fixture in your mind.

For the first time, you noticed just how small Zuko’s smiles actually were. So small, in fact, that if someone were not looking close enough, they may just assume his face was resting in his typical trademark scowl. How wrong they’d be though, you thought. They’d just be searching for his smiles in the wrong place. His real smile was in his eyes. There was a glow and warmth in his eyes. It was both inviting and comforting like a steady fire on a cold winter day. Zuko quirked an eyebrow, which you noticed immediately as you had just then registered that you had been staring at him through that entire internal monologue. Suddenly the carpeted hallway became very interesting. And the heat on your cheeks? Definitely from the temperature in the hallway. Or the strain of crutching around. Yep. That’s it completely.

You were quiet the rest of the walk to the car. You were quiet for the car ride to the Jasmine Dragon. While you said nothing, your decided to be quite the chatterbox. In addition to noticing and now appreciating all of Zuko’s little quirks, you also began to reflect on memories of your friendship with Zuko. You remembered when you first became friends with him and almost pulling an all nighter just texting each other. You remembered going to the farmer’s market with the gang, and splitting up to cover more group. Zuko stayed with you and carried all the fresh produce you picked out. For months the two of you kept up an inside joke about the man at the cabbage stand. You remembered how much you missed him when he went home to the Fire Nation one summer. You remembered the instant joy you felt when he came back early and being stricken with concern when he said he won’t be going back home for awhile. You remembered when Iroh was sick and had to be hospitalized for some time and Zuko called you at 3 in the morning just so completely lost. You remembered how you did the same thing when your grandmother was died. He rushed over to your room immediately and just hugged you until you felt something again. And you did feel something back then. But what, you didn’t know. So you pushed it aside and carried on.

The car door opened, jolting you out of your thoughts. You turned to see Zuko offering his hand. “We’re here,” he said, and you took his hand which guided you out of the car. He had already taken your crutches out from the backseat and handed them to you.

Silently, you thanked the heavens for giving you a best friend who has his own set of keys to his uncle’s tea shop. It was late and the Jasmine Dragon had closed hours ago. While you still wished Freddy Krueger would just come and kill you now, you were glad that you and Zuko would at least have some privacy. He gestured for you to take a table while he flipped on a few lights and shuffled to the back to brew up some tea. Of course, he returned after some agonizing, nervous foot-tapping moments later with your favorite blend.

“So,” he said.

“So,” you echoed.

“I’m sorry for walking out earlier.”

“You have nothing to apologize for.”

It was quiet for a moment and you desperately sought to find something interesting to fixate on other than Zuko thrumming his fingers on the table. The tea. The tea is nice. Good, although Zuko definitely added too much honey. You smiled though, knowing that despite his subpar tea making skills, he always remembers what you like. You could have been happy just sitting there, but Zuko broke the silence.

“What are we doing?”

“Well, I’m trying to stomach this overly sweetened tea. What are you doing?”

“Y/N…” This time Zuko’s eye did not smile at your attempt for lightheartedness. Try as you might, this was going to be a serious conversation.

“I don’t know, Zuko.”

“You have to know something,” he scoffed. Looking up, you caught him rolling his eyes and leaning back in his chair so that he could cross his arms again.

“Don’t you scoff at me. You got us into this mess.”

“Me?” he asked incredulously. You could practically hear the yell he was biting back. An opening. He was frustrated. You could convince him that this wouldn’t work. That you’re better off as friends because your friendship has already survived fights and your stupidity. But anything more? What kind of stress could that put on the both of you? What if it created cracks in the foundation?

“Yes, you. If you hadn’t walked out and caused a scene, we’d be enjoying a movie night or killing Sokka again.”

“I just apologized for walking out!”

“And I said you have nothing to apologize for!”

“YOU JUST SAID I CAUSED A SCENE!” His voice rose and his hands fisted through his hair. Letting out a frustrated sigh, he tried again. This time his voice was much softer, gentler.

“Why are you pushing me away?”

A worthy counterattack. You could feel his tugging on your heart strings. But you are a fortress, you will not crumble. This is for the best of your friendship, you reminded yourself.

But then he looked up and you looked away quickly. He moved his head to try to recapture your attention.

“Y/N,” your name on his lips was almost a whisper, a prayer really. You hesitantly looked back at him. “Ask me when.”

“When what?”

“When I knew that I love you.”

You felt your eyebrows shoot up towards your hairline and your jaw slackened in shock. Immediately, that hurricane of butterflies roared again. In your stomach. In your heart. In your throat. Can a fortress withstand an army of thousands of butterflies?

“When?” Your voice was faint, but you heard the simple question fall from your lips.

“I don’t know,” he answered.

“Zuko!” you groaned and facepalmed. “Why would you have me ask you that then?!”

“Because it wasn’t just one moment,” his voice had not changed from that soft tone. “There were so many moments that made me realize I love you.”

You could only gulp down a couple butterflies before he continued in a passion of communication.

“The first time I heard you laugh. When I see you hug my uncle. When you cried snot on my shoulder after watching Coco. I can’t narrow it down to one moment. All I know is when I’m with you, since I’ve met you, I’ve been genuinely happy. Hell, I look forward to just sitting next to you in class—“

“Why?” you interrupted.

“Why do I like sitting next to you in class?”

“No. Why do you love me?” Your voice was so quiet that a pin dropping to the floor would make more noise.

“I don’t think I could pick one reason either.”

“Try. Please.”

He paused for a moment to think, to choose the right words. All through his thinking, his eyes never left yours.

“You know me,” he said finally. “You listen to me and… you care about what I have to say. You know what will make me smile or what to say when I’m upset, even if I don’t want to talk. You know what I’m feeling, what I’m thinking. I love the way you lo—“ he caught himself and looked down at the table. “I love the way you care about me.”

Silence invaded the Jasmine Dragon again. It settled for a while between the two of you and you digested Zuko’s words. He said you know him but you have absolutely no idea what to say next.

“Okay,” Zuko the silence breaker spoke again. “I did all my talking. It’s your turn now.”

“My turn?” It was your turn to ask incredulously.

“Yes, your turn.”

“I don’t have anything to say.” Zuko’s words may have collapsed an area of the fortress but you began rebuilding brick by brick.

“Bullshit,” he almost laughed, but there was no mirth in his voice. “You wouldn’t have come to the door if you didn’t have anything to say.”

“Zuko, I--” you began, only to get cut off again.

“Don’t lie to me,” he said seriously. “Actually, I still have my fifth rule to use. Rule #5 is Y/n has to be honest with me.”

“Really?” you deadpanned. “Of all the possibilities, that’s what you come up with?”

“If it gets us to have this conversation, then yes.”

It was quiet again. Avoiding his gaze again, you look down at the table. Now you were most definitely pushed up against your last wall. A white flag would have to be raised. You were only tried to think up the words for your declaration of love surrender.

“Zuko, I--” you tried again. “I’m afraid.”

“Of me?”

“No,” you had to laugh. “No, of course not. I’m afraid of losing you.” Your honesty suddenly gave you a second wind, quiet and shaken voice be gone. Now you were animated in your best attempt to express yourself. “What if, what if we don’t work out?” you pleaded for him to understand. “What if it doesn’t work and you stop loving me and we start to hate each other and then we don’t want to even be in the same room as each other and then our friends will have to take sides and then the whole group falls apart?”

Zuko took a moment to take in your plea. You could tell her was considering what would be the best response. “Do you think that would happen if Sokka and Suki break up?”

“I already told Suki I’m taking her side no matter what so....”

You both laughed, and seeing Zuko smile again relieved some of your nervousness. It was so easy to talk to him. So easy to be honest with him. 

“I guess it depends then,” Zuko started up the conversation again. “If you maybe... felt the same way about me.” A small smile formed on his lips again but this time there was hesitancy in his eyes. You felt the urge to start rebuilding the fortress again but you promised to follow Zuko’s fifth rule of honesty. There was no turning back.

“I do,” you replied surely and you made it a point to make eye contact with him. You noticed the hesitancy slip away and the warmth and glow of his eyes returned. 

“Then you’re not going to lose me. If it doesn’t work, then fine. I’m your best friend first and foremost and you are mine. But I love you. And I want to see where that takes us.”

It wasn’t the first time he said he loved you during this conversation but for the first time, you felt complete ease overwhelm you. As if this was exactly where you were meant to be. With the person you were meant to be with. Fear and insecurity had washed away.

“Okay,” you smiled. “I love you, too.”

a/n: lol more to come, but back to screenshots for part 19 :) hope you enjoyed!

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[nobodyfamousposts]

Dolls AU: Fort Plushiness

They were getting confused.

It was a few months after Mama and Papa discovered each other as well as both of the Dolls, and there have been many changes that had been made since.

One of the changes was that the two had taken to sharing time with Littlebug and Chaton. Which was a nice change and made them very happy. Now Littlebug got to spend time with Mama! And Chaton got to spend time with Papa! And Littlebug and Chaton got to spend more time with each other without having to sneak away and worry about getting caught!

Chaton got to show Littlebug Mama's home with all the neat-looking and nice-feeling clothes. Littlebug in turn got to show Chaton Papa’s room room with all its stuff and the shiny stair railings and poles that they could slide down.

All in all, it was a change that they rather liked.

The other change was more confusing, though. Since Papa’s Day, Papa had seemed insistent on presenting them with things.

A lot of things.

More things than they knew what to do with, really.

It seemed that every day, they were finding something new that he had gotten for them. Littlebug and Chaton weren't really sure what to do with the things. Some of them looked like toys they recognized. Littlebug particularly liked the blocks. Chaton preferred the fluffy cloth bear that was as big as he was and perfectly hug-sized and comfy to nap with. The rest…they didn’t quite know what to do with or why they were there.

Except Papa seemed intent on watching them with each item, even writing things down in a notebook. He seemed to be hoping for...something? They didn't know what.

But it made him happy when they presented him the latest item they discovered. Handing any item to him made him smile and coo and he would play with them using the object. Which was nice! And they liked it a lot.

Not the item, but the way it seemed to make him happy.

They liked Papa when he was happy the best.

So maybe the things were tokens to let Papa know they wanted to play? It made the most sense. Though it kind of saddened them both at the idea of giving up certain ones they were attached to in order to play with Papa. Or that they’d eventually run out of things to give for Papa’s time. Would Papa start ignoring them then?

Littlebug didn’t believe so, since she and Papa spent plenty of time together before. But things were different now. Chaton was with them too, now. And they were going back and forth with Mama who still lived in her home. Plus having both the Pink One and Dark One around as well. There had been many new changes that had made them happy.

Was this a not-happy new change? Was it only temporary?

Fortunately, Marinette seemed to catch on to their confusion.

“Adrien, you need to stop.” She finally told him one day.

He looked to her in surprise from his computer and the next large group of toys and games he was intending to buy. “But Marinette! I’m their ‘DAD’ now. I have to show them I love them!”

She frowned. Not out of annoyance—she couldn’t be annoyed with him caring for the dolls and wanting to shower them with love. But this was getting to be a problem and part of her hesitated to be the one to tell him that. “I get that, but I’m sure there are ways of letting them know you care without buying out an entire toy store.”

He pouted. “I didn’t buy out an entire toy store.”

She glance back briefly at the boxes of toys already lining up the room. She then raised an eyebrow at him.

He looked away. “I only bought one of everything because I didn’t know what they’d like.”

“And buying everything would solve that?” She asked incredulously.

“This way I could see what they prefer or not!” He exclaimed as he tried to justify the excessiveness. 

“You could just ask them.” She pointed out. “Or show them a catalogue and let them pick what they would like.”

Seeing how sad he appeared, she rested a hand on his shoulder. “We need to keep things in moderation. It’s going to be hard to hide the fact we have them if we’re going to these extremes.”

And even if they didn’t, the last thing she wanted was to spoil the dolls with gifts to the point they became selfish and entitled. The last thing she wanted was to result in either of the dolls turning out like Chloe.

“But this way I can keep track of what all they play with!” He argued. “And they like everything I’ve gotten for them!”

She sighed. “Okay, Adrien? Is it that they like the gifts themselves or that they like that they’re from you?”

He blinked.

“What?”

She laughed. “Adrien, I’d bet that you could give them a pair of your socks and they’d be happy.”

“No way!”

It was fortunate that Adrien did not take that bet.

Yay! Fun thing! Soft thing! Stretchy!

He soon discovered that yes, the dolls would very much be happy if he gifted them socks. As evidenced by the way Littlebug and Chaton began to pull one of the socks between them like a game of tug of war. Adrien had worried they were fighting for a moment until both began to twist and were soon wrapped up in the sock together, their little legs kicking out from beneath the wrapping as they had fun in their silliness.

“Cute.”

It was also soon realized, to Adrien’s embarrassment, that while he had been taking note of specifically how the two have been interacting with the toys, he hadn’t quite taken note of what else they took interest in besides those toys.

It turned out that while Adrien had written that the two had played with some action figures in a princess castle, he failed to notice that the two had taken more interest in some of the bigger boxes that the toys had come in. It was only after Marinette came for a visit that they discovered the “fort” made of three boxes of various sizes interconnected together.

Said “fort” was apparently run by Commander Spotty and loyal knight Sir Sharp Claws. Which were really just Littlebug wearing a toy flag as a cape and Chaton wearing Adrien’s gifted sock as a hat. But they seemed to enjoy playing as knights in service of King Sleeps and Queen Pinky.

“What?” Plagg demanded as he looked up from his cushioned throne at the intruder.

Adrien raised an eyebrow.

“….they’re your kids. Don’t judge me.” He groused before rolling back over.

Queen Pinky looked up from her “throne” on top of a pillow carried by four unicorn toys. For her part, she seemed to have taken her role seriously, as she was wearing a velvet cloth that looked to be from a fancy doll dress as a cape along with a little toy crown.

Marinette gaped. “Tikki?” She couldn’t help the giggles.

“Do you bring offerings for the King and Queen?” Tikki demanded imperiously.

“Offerings?”

“If not, then you are to remove yourselves!” Tikki announced.

“Are you serious?”

Plagg shrugged. “You heard the lady.”

Sure enough, following the orders of the “Queen”, Littlebug and Chaton proceeded to push Adrien and Marinette away from the fort. The two teens were a bit too busy fighting giggles to really try to oppose them. They were left on the other side of the room recovering from their laughing fit over the pure hilarity of the whole thing.

“Okay, okay. You were right, m’lady.” Adrien admitted once his chuckling finally died down enough for him to talk properly.

Marinette was still giggling. “They’re kids. And they’re creative. They can be happy with anything, so you don’t need to go overboard, Adrien.”

He winced. “Yeah. I just…I want to though.”

She sobered at that. “Hmm?”

“I just want them to know I care.” He quietly admitted.

Oh.

Marinette leaned against him in a show of support.

“I think that simply being with them and playing with them shows that most.”

He leaned back against her, accepting the reassurance.

“Occasional gifts are fine, but they won’t have time to play with everything and really be able to tell what they like if you’re getting them too much at once.”

“I’ll try to scale it back.” He promised.

Marinette smiled in relief.

Chaton and Littlebug didn’t really know what they were whispering about. They were simply being cautious of any potential counterattack by the enemies of their King and Queen. At least until those enemies called them for dinner at Mama’s house at which point they abandoned their posts much to Tikki’s unhappiness and Plagg’s apathy.

The next day they returned to Papa’s place, he presented them with a new gift of paints, brushes, and sponges for decorating their fort.

Then he spent the rest of the afternoon helping them decorate the fort.

It only stopped when they tried to paint Plagg, too.

“No, no! None of that!” He told them, taking the supplies away before they could really get started. “I’m supposed to be Chat Noir, not Chat Rose!”

Chaton and Littlebug pouted. They just wanted to make his tail pretty. And his paws. And maybe his ears...

“No.”

Could they at least paint each other?

“No. Paints are for the fort.”

They pouted more, but then Papa pulled out glow-in-the-dark star stickers to put inside the fort and they were successfully distracted from the unfairness of not getting to see a pink-tailed Chat Noir.

All in all, things were getting better.

[waynewifey]

Fading away. —

Pairing: Jason Grace x Roman!DaughterofPluto!Reader

Sumary: after moths of over working, a colapse makes you get into a coma and reflect on your feelings.

Warnings: coma, angst, Pluto as a caring dad, fluff at the end.

Words: +-3k.

A/N: This is my first Percy Jackson Franchise fanfiction, so take it easy on me. This is also my biggest and favourite one. I hope you like this! My requests are always open.

(Y/N) (L/N) had a good reason to hate Jason Grace. How could she not? Jason was so annoying, self centred, selfish, stubborn and worse of all? He dated Piper McLean. Piper was great, (Y/N) knew that and they seemed happy together. But, still, he chose Piper, not (Y/N), his girlfriend back at Camp Jupiter, who he totally forgot about. How come Percy remembered Annabeth but Jason wouldn't remember (Y/N)? And when he recovered his memory, he chose Piper. But she also loved him still, and seeing him hurt like a bullet going straight through her heart. She decided to spend a year at Half-Blood Camp to stay with her half-brother Nico Di Angelo when Gaea were defeated. She thought she could manage to see him almost every day, but she couldn't. So she started doing anything to get her mind occupied. Going on meaningless quests, travelling to New York randomly, volunteering for literally any service in the camp and barely sleeping — because sleeping meant dreams.

"It doesn't have to be like that, (Y/N)." Her brother gave her another shot of Nectar. The sunlight that entered Hades' cabin was leaving slowly as they talked, (Y/N) leaned on her bed watching her fingertips become solid again.

"I'll learn how to do it right and I promise I won't push myself too much, but I can't stop practicing." She avoided eye contact with Nico, feeling ashamed of herself. After all, she was supposed to be the one taking care of him, since she was older. She came back from a "quest" for her father, that was staying a weekend on the Underworld. She started using Shadow Travel to get there. The problem? She had no idea how hard it was, and she almost died every time. He sighted.

"I'm not talking about Shadow Travel. You should talk to Jason and sort this out. You're almost killing yourself everyday doing the craziest stuff just to keep your mind off him. He already broke up with Piper, what's stopping you now? I'm your brother and it pains me to see you suffering, I won't just sit and watch while you literally desapear." He got up and walked to the door. The (h/c) girl forced a smile so he believed she was fine. Nico left the cabin.

After hours reflecting and thinking, she heard the trumpets that announced the convocation to a game of Capture the Flag. Since she was feeling better, she changed her clothes and walked outside. The teams were: cabins 1, 4, 5, 9, 12, 14, 18, 21, 23, 27, 28, 29 vs. cabins 2, 6, 7, 10, 11, 13, 15, 16, 20, 24, 25, 26. They started the game. (Y/N) had to protect the boundary with a kid from Hipnos' cabin while a group attacked the opponent's flag and another protected their territory and their flag. Everything was going as planned, she hadn't seen anyone yet. Out of the sudden, she saw a blond guy running in their direction with a sword. Oh hell no, Jason Grace wouldn't attack her like that. But he did.

"What the hell?!" She screamed, reacting to the blade flying in her direction. Her teammate was asleep. She defended herself with her own sword and counterattacked. He invested against her leg, trying to make her fall. Her instincts took place, she jumped, attacked again and they started a meaningless battle. Jason looked the same as always. He was almost the same Jason that used to take her on cute dates in New Rome. But he fought like a greek. And that was when it hit her, he changed. The mixture of love and hate made her loose her senses for a bit, giving Jason the lead. He focused on her leg but hesitated to hit it, giving her time to get back on the fight. She knocked him to the floor, her foot on his chest and her blade on his neck, when she heard footsteps approaching quickly. Of course. It was a trap. She turned around and saw a son of Hebe holding her team's flag running, followed by two daughters of Hephaestus. She grabbed a knife from her belt and threw it to his leg, hitting exactly where she wanted. She then grabbed Jason's blade and Shadow Travelled. For a moment everything was fine, while she drowned into darkness, but then she couldn't get out. She saw her father's face mixed in the dark. He raised his hand and touched her face, than she was back at the forest. Realising not even a second had gone through, she attacked the — injured — boy and the two gigantic girls at the same time. She wasn't really expecting to defeat them, just trying to win some time so, hopefully, someone would come help her. The boy dropped the flag and got a small sword. The two girls had hammers... oh. The three of them attacked at the same time and she protected herself with Jason's sword, which flew away. She was out of hopes when a figure appeared beside her and started fighting them.

"What are you doing here?! You're not supposed to help me, we're enemies, remember?" She said, fighting Hebe's son.

"I guess you're welcome then." Jason replied smiling, fighting the hammers-girls. (Y/N) sighted in annoyance. Seconds later, her teammates came running from the enemies' territory with a flag and the three-people group surrendered. Everyone started screaming and celebrating. (Y/N)'s head hurt with the noise and she looked to her brother, feeling numb.

"Hey, can we talk?" Jason said, getting in front of her with a big smile. He was proud of himself for helping her? Of course he was. He was going to take all the credit for her team's win. The anger rose inside of her burning everything. She furrowed her eyebrows and with the last energy that remained in her body, she tried to Shadow Travel for the perhaps hundredth time that day.

She fell into the darkness while feeling her body desapear quickly. Her heart was very accelerated but then it stopped. She saw herself at the barks of Lete's river. I'm dead., she thought. The desperation started taking over. She remembered the face of all her friends. Her siblings, Hazel and Nico. Her mother. Her best friend Reyna. Camp Jupiter. New Rome. The Lar Vitellius. Lares? Lares! Maybe she could go back as a ghost! She would at least see her friends again.

"Didn't expect to see you this soon." A voice said with humor. She turned around, as always enlighten by her father's presence. But his face was sad. Not the everyday-sad-Pluto, but the my-daughter-just-died-sad-Pluto.

"Am I d-... dead?" The anxiety forbid her from crying in front of her father. The one she never knew and once she did, she didn't want to disappoint him.

"Yes and no. You see, my darling, there are things more powerful then death. Right now, your physical being is exhausted from travelling through darkness and light — which I told you not to, but we'll talk about this later, you have a decision to make. You're body is surrendering to Death out of hopelessness. But your soul, on the other hand, still fights for the heart beating in your chest. And your conscious, the controller of both body and soul, has to decide which one of them you'll support right now. As Lord of the Death that's all I can say to you. But as your father, I would like to say that we have a room for you in the castle, if you'd like that. And also, I feel obligated to show you what is happening on Earth." When he finished his words, an image formed in the air, sort of an Iris message, but no one saw them. (Y/N) saw herself laying on the grass, surrounded by some campers, Nico and Jason.

She was watching them from above. Jason put two fingers on her neck, trying to feel her pulse. She — the one in the Underworld — gasped as the blond boy whispered 'nothing'. She glanced at her father, who had a pained expression as he stared at Nico freaking out. Her brother had his hands on her chest and was murmuring something in greek. Then, he opened his eyes, filled with tears of desperation, and glanced at Jason, who didn't look any better. She wanted to scream and go back to up there, but her voice wouldn't come out of her throat.

"Half of her is already gone." Nico struggled to say. Everyone around gasped. "I can't Shadow Travel with her, it- it would k-kill the other half..."

"Let's take her to the Infirmary. Everything's gonna be fine. She'll be okay." Will Solace had appeared in the crowd and kneed down to take (Y/N) in the arms, being helped by the other two. As they walked, (Y/N) held herself in her arms, sobbing. She didn't want to die, not like that. The image faded away and Pluto hugged her. He never did that before. She left out all her emotions through the cry. Her father caressed her back and gently kissed the top of her head.

"Now you see, my child, what those on Earth are going through. You have a family up there. And if you'd ask me, Jason Grace is a good person, even being a son of my brother. You have a choice, so make it wisely." Pluto said, not backing away from the hug. She nodded and he immediately knew what her choice was. "You know I'd love to have you here with me, but I'd love even more to see you happy. Don't be reckless. And listen to your brother. You don't have to worry to come see me, I'll make sure to visit you during your recovery." As he said that, a white door appeared out of nowhere. "Here's your carpool." The girl started to walk to the door, when she heard Pluto say: "(Y/N) I lo-... Good luck." She smiled to him and went through into the door. It felt like eons in the nothingness. She felt so much pain all over her body. Then she gained conscience. She didn't knew how long it had passed. She also couldn't open her eyes or say anything, but she knew she was laying down something comfortable, a bed, perhaps. But she could hear perfectly well.

"... and I'm so sorry you had to die for me to gain the courage to say this. Please come back to us... Come back to me. Nico barely leaves this room and nor do I, Will had to force him to go eat. It's not the same without you, (Y/N/N), it really isn't." Jason's words gave her the urge to cry, but she couldn't. It was like her body had shutdown completely. She felt his warm hands on her cold ones and after that, a door was opened. Footsteps. Only one person. Jason didn't move. Someone sat down next to them.

"Dad- I mean, Hades said she will be okay." It was Nico's voice. He sounded extremely tired.

"Didn't he say that last month?" Grace was annoyed, but he didn't stop holding her hand.

"I know, I wish I could do more... I'm... I'm sorry Jason." The blond sighted.

"I should be the one to be saying that. I know there's nothing else to do. I'm sorry for putting the blame on you. It's just- if we've talked before, nothing of this would have happened. If only I was brave enough..." (Y/N) felt weak and her consciousness was back at nothing again. When she heard something again, it looked like a lot of time had passed by, but she wasn't sure at all. Jason's voice was happy as he told her his plans to the future.

"I realised you would like to work with me training the legion. You're obviously skilled and the payment is quite good. And I've heard they are planning to build a village here as well, but I don't know if you-..." Every time she tried to stay conscious, she felt weaker. 'Rest', her father's voice said inside of her head, so she let herself.

Some time...? A long time...? She didn't knew. But the next time she heard, she was way stronger. She waited until then, so she could stay longer and try to understand her emotions. She heard almost an entire day. Her friends entered and left cabin 13 — she found out that she was there. Some of them talked "to" her, some just sat there in silence. When alone, Nico talked a lot about Will Solace. (Y/N) smiled mentally. Then Jason entered. She could already recognise the sound he made walking. He sat beside her bed and held her hand, as usual.

"Hello, princess. You look better." She reunited all the strength she had storage and sent it all to her right hand. She softly squeezed Jason's hand, for a small portion of second, trying to say 'hi'. She felt exhausted. He gasped.

"She just squeezed my hand!" He screamed, laughing. Nico jumped out of his bed, laughing as well. They both stared at her, waiting for more. "You're there, right? I knew you were! It's been long months, but you're getting better. Don't work too hard. We'll see each other soon, don't worry." He kissed her forehead. After that, it was easy for her to let go and dive into her sleep again.

She was slowly getting better. She noticed her comas were smaller now, and she got stronger every time. She started communicating by squeezing people's hand. One time for 'yes' and two times for 'no'. But it still was exhausting. She met with her father a couple times through dreams, but it never lasted long. She was sick of it. She wanted to jump out of the bed and run through all the camp. She was alone with Jason, as he talked about the last time he went to Camp Jupiter, telling every change. She slowly forced herself to open her eyes. It wasn't for too long, just enough for her to see the big smile he had while talking, her favourite blond hair and how he gesticulated while speaking. By that time, her feelings were completely lined. She declined her childishness and stubbornness to accept the fact that she obviously loved him. Her lips were able to form a small smile. He hadn't noticed her yet. I can do this, she thought.

"J." She whispered for the first time in five months. Her eyes were already closed again. He gasped.

"Did you just say J? That's me! I'm here, i'm right here, love. Can you hear me?" She squeezed his hand one time. Yes. He chortled. "You're so strong. I miss you so much." He started softly crying. She squeezed his hand two times. No. Don't cry, she wanted to say. "Alright, 's fine, 's fine. Gods, you're coming back. I bet Aphrodite is watching us closely." He chuckled but suddenly stopped. "I forgot we haven't talked about that yet, i'm sorry. I don't wanna be intrusive, you know. It's just, by what Nico has told me, well, you still liked me." She squeezed two times. "That's... that's great, love. But don't worry about that just yet. You should take some rest now, my love."

Five days. She had woken up every single one of them, but only listening. No squeezes, no talking, no looking. Just storing strength. She knew she was close to fully waking up. She was already able to keep track of the days. It was a Sunday, the day she received the most visits. It should be morning, because she only heard Nico's snorting. She slowly opened her eyes. The same place. Different clothes. She wondered who had changed them. Perhaps Will did. She systematically moved her arms, pushing herself to sit. Her back was laying at wall. She took a deep breath. It was going fine. She wanted to wake Nico up, but she decided to wait to see if she would be able to actually stay awake. About an hour later, Nico woke up by himself. He yawned and turned to her bed. She looked at him with a big smile. He jumped out of bed.

"Holy shit, (Y/N)! You're up! How- Wait! I need to- Wait! Don't fall asleep, I'll be right back!" She blinked slowly to sign 'ok'. He was back moments running later with a bunch of teenagers in pyjamas. They all froze at the door, staring at her. Hazel, Frank, Annabeth, Percy, Jason and even Piper. Hazel was the first one to wake up from the trance. She ran to her sister and hugged (Y/N).

"Ouch." She managed to say, reacting to the tight hug that made her head hurt.

"Right, sorry! I forgot. Wait, you speak!" Hazel answered and laughed. All of the others joined in, amazed by her friend, and started talking, telling everything she had missed. (Y/N) couldn't speed properly, only a few words like 'hi', 'ow', 'miss' and 'food'. Later that day, Will came to check on her. He said everything looked just fine, but that she should rest.

"Hey." Zeus' son said, once they were alone.

"Hi."

"Gods, it's so good to finally hear you again. I've talked to myself for a long time." They giggled softly. (Y/N) wasn't showing any signs of it, but that day had been extremely tiring. Her entire body hurt but she couldn't give up just yet.

"I... heard." She whispered. "A bit." Her eyes tried to close but she opened them wide, fighting her own nature. Jason noticed that.

"Hey, no need to over do it.” He brushed her cheek with his thumb.

"Sleep... here." She begged, placing her hand beside her. He froze for a moment, embarrassed. And then, with a rubor across his face, he sat on the bed beside her. She laid her head on his chest and quickly fell asleep.

“Go to sleep, love. We have all the time in the world.”

[plus-size-reader]

Loss

Sam Winchester x Plus size!reader

Word Count: 2690 words

Warnings: none

Summary: Sam knows that he has to call the reader when Hunters start going missing, to protect her but it isn’t nearly as easy as it sounds. 

——————————————————————————————————

The British Men of Letters were slaughtering American hunters, and that meant one thing.

That meant that Sam had to get as many hunters as he could somewhere safe and that included you. It wasn’t going to be easy, but he knew that he had to try.

You were going to be in danger just as much as anyone else, and Sam would never forgive himself if you died. He would never forgive himself if he had to hear about your death through a hunters chain.

So he had to try.

The only trouble was that you hadn’t spoken to Sam or Dean in months, and he wasn’t sure that you would even talk to him. However, he forced himself to pick up the phone.

As a matter of fact, he forced himself to pick up the phone, dial your number, and hit the call button before he thought better of it. It rang a few times, before clicking to let him know that you had chosen to answer after all.

“Sam?” you answered, shocked briefly at his calling before deciding to just hear him out. He hadn’t tried to reach you in months, but whatever this was, you knew that it had to be important.

There was silence on the other line for a second as he thought of what he wanted to say.

He had tried to make this call a few dozen times since you two had last seen each other but every time he’d hung up before he could get the words out. Unfortunately though, he didn’t have that luxury this time.

This was much more than just a stupid crush, this was a matter of life and death.

“Hey, where are you?” he eventually got out, knowing better than to get too emotional right off the bat, though it was hard. He had to keep it all business right now, until he knew you were safe.

...Almost immediately, you knew something was really wrong.

Usually, he only called you on business, but there was something else in his tone when he spoke that told you this was more personal. There was something wrong, and you had to try and make sense of it.

It was the only chance you had.

“Where am I? What’s going on Sam? Are you okay?” you wondered, registering that tone you only ever really heard when one of you was in danger. It was only natural that it put you on edge.

However, it wasn’t until he spoke again that you realized why that was.

“I’m at Jody’s place, I need you to meet me here as soon as you can. I’ll explain later” he assured, hoping that would be enough to convince you. He didn’t have that much time to explain right now.

He knew how crazy it must have sounded, but he just had to hope you could make it in time.

Losing you just wasn’t an option, and the most safe you could be was by his side.

Now, you really considered asking him more follow up questions or trying to figure out what was wrong with him but you knew it wouldn’t help. Sam sounded desperate, and you needed to talk in person.

“Okay, I’m on my way” you decided, whispering a goodbye and hanging up before heading in the direction of Jody’s house. Luckily, you weren’t too far out from where you were right now, working a case.

It would only take about forty minutes to get there, if you chose to drive the limit.

You had no reason to speculate what this was about, trying your very best to keep calm, though from the outside, it didn’t look that way. It looked like your foot was tied down to the accelerator, and you couldn’t help it.

Knowing the Winchesters, it could have been anything from a threat to either of their lives or another apocalypse. In any case, Sam wouldn’t have called you if he didn’t have to and that was what scared you.

There was a point in time when you and Sam were inseparable, and there was nothing anyone could do to change that...Or so you thought.

An accident changed all of that.

This life was dangerous, and you knew that but nothing could have prepared you for that day.

You didn’t even realize there was a werewolf in your area at first. In fact, it wasn’t until Sam and Dean showed up at your door that you started seeing the signs.

They assured you that they just wanted to let you know and were handing it.

...Until they  weren’t.

The two of them were plenty capable of dealing with what they needed to really but they could never be sure. After all, the Winchesters hunts were never as simple as they should have been.

So, they asked you for your help.

You and your sister, Shelby, were accomplished hunters in your field and they knew that it couldn’t hurt to have you two as backup. They had hunted several werewolves before and it should have been simple.

However, this case didn’t turn out to be as cut and dry as the others had been. There wasn’t a single werewolf like they had thought, and instead, you were dealing with a whole pack.

Not only that but you walked into a trap, which involved you and your younger sister, alongside the two Winchester brothers.

Now, you weren’t personally upset by the idea of an ambush, convinced that the two of you could handle this between the four of you but Shelby wasn’t so easily convinced.

She was not only your usual hunting partner and your best friend, but the only family you had left. Still, you didn’t hesitate to have her by your side for the entire event, not that it made her feel any better.

There was just so much you hadn’t prepared for. At that moment, you weren’t worried and you had nothing to worry about, but that quickly changed.

It was messy.

The entire process probably took a half hour or so but long story short, your kid sister, your only friend, ended up cornered by three or four members of the pack.

All you could do was scream as they tore into her, having picked out the weakest among you and they went for the kill. They had no interest in changing her.

They were out for blood, and they got it.

You ran to her side immediately, dropping your blade into the dirt without any care for what happened to you. The farthest thing from your mind was your own well being after something like that.

That left Sam and Dean with the responsibility of keeping you alive, which they took happily after dragging you along for all this. By the time it was all over and both men had put them all down, Shelby was dead.

They practically tore her inside out and you knew that there was nothing anyone would be able to do for her, so you held her hand and tried to keep it together.

It didn’t work.

In fact, you were still grieving over her loss and always would be but that didn’t mean you were going to abandon Sam or Dean in their time of need. Whatever it was he needed, you were going to show up.

There was no use blaming them for her loss when she was gone.

~ You rang the doorbell to Jody’s house expecting the brunette and the Winchesters to be waiting inside. However, when the door opened, you were faced with much more than that.

Inside her rustic home were more hunters than you’d ever seen gathered in one place before and it was almost impressive, until you remembered what you were there for.

As soon as the panic in Sam’s voice came creeping back into your head, you found yourself much more worried than before.

If this many people had showed up, that meant this was much bigger than just you and the boys. This was a hunter problem at large, and that worried you.

“What’s going on? Who are all these people?” you asked first, entering the house with no hesitation, striking up a conversation with Jody immediately. You didn’t know her all that well, but you had always found yourself comforted by her.

In a lot of ways, she provided the family you no longer had and you were grateful for that. She even called every year on your birthday and the anniversary of Shelby’s death to just talk to you.

It wasn’t much in reality, but for you it was everything.

“It will probably be easier for the boys to explain” she shrugged, separating from the hug she’d trapped you in to lead you into the kitchen. There, in the middle of all the chaos, was Sam, his brow furrowed in silent contemplation.

That was his worried face.

Jody whistled slightly to catch his attention before leaving to help attend to all the guests, patting you on the back lightly before she went. At her call, Sam turned toward you, his eyes widening when he saw you.

He really hadn’t thought you would show up, though he hoped.

“You made it. That’s good” he started, closing the space between the two of you but not going in for a hug or any kind of physical contact for that matter. Sam struggled, to this day, with what happened to Shelby.

He blamed himself and you knew that, but you weren’t going to talk about it anymore with him. Talking wasn’t going to bring her back and it seemed like you had bigger things to worry about right now.

“You called, I came. Now what is going on?” you repeated, hoping that the more you asked, eventually someone would tell you why you’d left your home this late.

Sam’s clear desperation was enough to get you here but it wasn’t going to be enough to keep you here if someone didn’t start talking.

“The British Men of Letters are killing hunters” Dean interrupted, coming up behind you with a cold beer in each hand, one for you and the other for him.

It was meant to be dealt with more gently, at least in Sam’s mind but Dean knew you well enough to know you weren’t going to wait around to talk them down.

You were more like him in that regard.

If it were up to you,each and every one of them were going to die and it was as simple as that. If they were causing any sort of harm to your people, it didn’t matter who they were.

“So why are we here?” you asked, taking the bottle he offered you, though you were now too disturbed to have a sip. You were hunters, you literally tracked down monsters for a living but you were hiding from the British.

It didn’t make any sense.

“We have to keep everyone safe right now. That’s our first play and then we can plan a counterattack” Sam spoke finally, injecting himself into the conversation again.

He had seen this coming, inviting you here with Dean and the rest of the trigger happy hunters, but he couldn’t help it. This affected you just like it did the rest of them and he wasn't going to leave you out.

He cared for you too much to let something bad happen. You had already been through enough thanks to Sam and his brother. He wouldn’t have dragged you into this unless he had to.

...And he clearly had to.

“A counterattack? Shouldn’t we just find them and pull the trigger? There’s at least a dozen guns between you and Dean, not to mention everyone else here. It should be more than enough fire power”

That wasn’t going to work.

Sam knew that you had a point, and that would probably work but it wouldn’t be worth the potential loss just to neutralize the threat without thinking it through.

This was bigger than either of you individually and this had to be gone about the right way.

“Can I talk to you for a second? Over here” he asked, gesturing down the hallway toward where Jody and the girls rooms were. There was far more privacy there from all the lingering stares.

The only hope they had was all working together and Sam needed you to understand that. He needed you, but he also knew that he needed to talk to you first.

There was something in the air between you and it was only a matter of time before it bubbled up to the surface. You were putting on a brave face for their benefit but he knew how hard this was.

You had been hunting solo since the accident and you had gotten out of the family environment most hunters operated under. It was going to take some time to get used to again.

Not to mention the obvious tension between the two of you where the past was concerned. This would just be a lot smoother if you could have a conversation.

“What did you need to talk about Sam? It all seems pretty simple to me” you sighed, watching him close the door behind the two of you, your arms crossed your chest.

You felt like you were all just wasting time hiding from the enemy while you could be solving the problem instead. It didn't make any sense to you and now Sam wanted to have a conversation.

There were more pressing issues at hand.

“Just let that be for a second. I have to talk to you” he started, sitting down on Jody’s bed, waiting until you sat down beside him to continue.

It was all a little strange but you couldn’t help but feel as comfortable as you had with Sam before everything changed. He was still the same, and sometimes you didn’t want to admit that.

It was easier to avoid the entire thing completely.

That was part of why you hadn’t spoken to either of the Winchesters in all this time. It was a lot easier to just be alone, because when you were, it was just you.

You didn’t have to worry about losing anybody else when there was nobody else but Sam had thrown a wrench in that plan when he called you back into all this.

“I need to apologize to you, for everything with Shelby. She would still be here if I didn’t ask for your help”

There was something strange in the tone of his voice, something you didn’t like but it wasn’t because he was wrong. It was because you hadn’t heard or said her name in so long.

It felt wrong in just as many ways as it washed you with relief.

“She knew what she was doing. She wanted to help just like I did and it wasn’t your fault. Those hairy bastards did that, not you and not Dean” you sighed. You should have known this was coming.

Sam had never really gotten over what went down and he never would, unless you were somehow able to convince him to do so.

“Still. You needed us and we weren’t there for you, I wasn’t there for you” he tried now, seemingly desperate to say or do anything to take his part of the blame but you weren’t going to let him.

There was nothing he could have done and there was no way he could have known. Shelby agreed to be there knowing the consequences, and so did you. You were both adults and you weren’t going to talk any more about it.

“Stop worrying about that, and lets focus on protecting those people, okay Sammy boy?” you hummed, calling him by that old nickname he hadn’t heard in so long.

It was nice to hear you say it again, and made him happy. Still, it wasn’t until you leaned over and hugged him that he really felt better about the whole thing.

“Everyone loses people Sam. It’s our job to make sure that we don’t lose any more”

[weasleydream]

dreams are my reality - part 3

it’s finally here! This part is what happened during that fateful night and only that. Also i messed with the timeline but nothing too bad. 

This may be a bit violent, mention of death and blood.

As usual, feel free to like, comment, reblog and enjoy!

Masterlist

~ i’ll see how the real thing can be and it’s not pretty ~

The muggle village - August 1983

“I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have left us, just that a good friend wouldn’t have cleared out just because McGonagall was walking in the same corridor.”

“Sirius, would you shut up?” I hissed, ready to break his neck if he added one word that wasn’t a yes. 

“Of course I’ll shut up, as soon as you admit that quitting on us was a bad thing to do.”

I didn’t need to look at him to know he was smiling goofily, seemingly unaware of the fact that we were walking in an empty alley just because we were looking for a dangerous death eater. 

“First of all, you could have run away too if your arse wasn’t glued to the floor. And McGonagall wasn’t just walking in the same corridor, she was coming for us! And Sirius, we were in first year and James and you had dragged me there against my will. Remember?”

And it was true; the memory of Sirius claiming I would be the coolest girl of the school was still fresh in my mind, and with the terror brought by the sound of McGonagall’s steps, I knew it would stay engraved in my brain for a very long time. 

“Dragged you?” Sirius made a clicking noise with his tongue. “I’m not even sure one of us grabbed your hand.”

“Oh, not only my hand you idiot, my bag and my wand too!”

“And? You’re clearly not traumatized so-”

Sirius’ voice had died in his throat as soon as the explosion had echoed, yet my blood froze in my veins at the thought that maybe he had gotten us spotted. With the discretion of a cat with soft paws, he crossed the short distance that was separating us and placed himself ahead of me. A glance in my direction - Are you ready? - and a firm nod later, we were running silently toward the place of the village, hoping with all our heart that no one was hurt. 

Obviously, the death eater had already left the crime scene. Sirius and I were the last of our group to get there. Remus and James were turning all around the place like caged lions, probably looking for any clue of where the responsible had disappeared. Lily and Peter were struggling in front of the burning church, trying to get the fire to stop and to get the survivors out of this hell. A woman ran into me and my arms wrapped instinctively around her; hers were trembling and her covered in soot hands were slipping on my skin. She was mumbling incoherent sentences in which I didn’t understand anything, and I was sure she was speaking another language. However, her frantic gestures toward the fire lighted something in me, an urge to get in the furnace without even knowing why. I looked up a second to see Lily fussing over a wounded man and Sirius and Peter still trying to control the fire. No one could help me with the poor woman. 

She cried out something, a word I didn’t understand. 

“Nena! Nena!” 

“I don’t know what it means!” I screamed, cursing myself for not being able to understand a single word. 

She pointed the finger at her belly, at her heart and finally at the fire. Slowly - way too slowly - I understood what it meant. A baby was in there. I nodded frantically and the woman fell on her knees. I didn’t have the time to check on her; instead, I went to Sirius and tried to get him to help me. He was totally freaking out, and his panic only increased when he realized what I was telling him. 

“With me!” he yelled, and we joined forces to try and extinguish the fire once and for all. 

Finally, the last flames died, the last proof of its presence being the ashes flying in the air. The woman rushed between the smoldering ruins and I was ready to follow her, but Sirius grabbed my wrist. A split second later, a terrible cry echoed, and Sirius shook his head. 

At the very same moment, something exploded a few streets away. 

“James!” 

It was Lily, and she lost no time in running toward the root cause of the noise. We followed her and found a half fallen house in front of James and Remus, the both of them looking infuriated. 

“The bastard!” 

Through gritted teeth, Remus told us how they were sure someone had led them there before making the batiment explode and James added the death eater - because it was obviously him - had been careful to stay well hidden. 

“So that means we’re running blindly behind him?” asked Peter, his voice still hoarse from the smoke of the fire. 

“Running blindly and doing whatever he wants us to.” I added darkly. 

Even James and Sirius knew it had been a bad idea to accept this mission, now. Both of them had their eyes wild and were glancing frequently at each other. 

“So? What do we do now that he’s disappeared and we don’t know where to look?” muttered Lily before hiding her face in James’ neck, probably having a bout of nausea after everything we had already gone through. To be honest, I was still feeling sick thinking about that poor woman and her baby. 

I was observing a stone on the ground and wishing it could tell us what we needed to know when Peter stiffened. 

“Guys,” he whispered. “Act natural, but I think we didn’t have all the information.”

“What makes you think that?” 

If Remus was sarcastic and obviously didn’t understand where Peter was going with this, something caught my eyes and the realization hit me. 

“An animagus?” I questioned quietly, and Peter nodded. 

I almost missed the black feathers, but I still caught the bird flying from a rooftop to another. Then the bird dropped to the floor, and it happened so fast that none of us had sketched a movement when it turned into a massive black silhouette half hidden in the shadows. 

“You could have gotten out of here alive if you had just ignored me.” The voice was raspy, the tone aggressive. “Too bad you didn’t.”

This last affirmation sounded like a signal; as soon as the sound of his voice had died, the death eater drew his wand and we did the same, Sirius and Remus taking a step forward. I hadn’t seen his face, yet I was picturing myself the man with a crooked rictus and with the eyes so dark that you knew just by looking at him that his soul was rotten to the core. For some unknown reason, he didn’t attack; instead, I was feeling the weight of his eyes on us. I could imagine him looking at Sirius and Remus first because they were just in front of him, measuring the trembling of their arms - not caused by fear but by fury, which he probably was aware of; then his eyes passing from them to James and Lily, just close enough for him to guess the nature of their relationship, to Peter with his wand as high as ours and finally to me. Did he know I was looking intensely in his direction? That we were all looking right at him, our muscles tensed to make sure we would react quickly enough when the attack would come? 

If he did, he didn’t care the least. It was with something that could be qualified as nonchalance that he muttered the first spell. The green light illuminated for a second his face, and his eyes were fixed on us. The curse almost hit James, and that’s when the riposte began. 

The first counterattack spell came from Remus and missed the death eater by a hair. At the same time, Sirius rushed to the enemy, followed closely by James. Lily helped Remus to get up; he had dived to the floor to dodge a curse. Peter and I were making a detour to reach the death eater’s back, counting on James and Sirius to occupy him enough. It seemed like a mess, yet it was a manoeuvre well established because of years of service in the Order. It had always worked, more or less depending on the case, but it had never failed us. Never until then, at least.

I realized things were going to get even more dangerous when the man turned his gaze to me, plunging his eyes in mine and with his lips slowly twisting in a sickening rictus whereas he was being assaulted by James. A move of the wrist had sent James flying a few meters away, hitting Sirius and bringing him to the ground in the process. He lifted his hand, and as the terror was invading me, the only thing my brain was capable of was wondering if the movement was really as slow as it seemed to be. I drew my wand but like in dreams, it felt like something was stopping my arm. A glare was burning in his eyes, it was so intense that I felt it in the depths of my body. If the thought that he was doing some wandless and wordless magic on me crossed my mind, I found myself unable to express it. 

His wand was now pointed on me, his eyes fixing me to the ground and his power keeping me defenseless. Second by second, I saw his lips moving, forming a word I didn’t recognize, his arm got more stiff, his rictus wider. And behind my back, second by second, Sirius was getting closer to me. 

The collision caught me by surprise, not so much because it was unexpected but because of the violence of it. Sirius’ shoulder hit my lower back which sent my hips forward, and my head followed one second late. Our bodies hit the hard ground, and the scream of the death eater covered our grunts of pain. He didn’t give us a moment to recover and I heard his steps before I saw him taking great strides. Sirius was already getting up, his wand firmly held high to protect the both of us, but he didn’t need it to counter the first attack. The arm of the death eater was trembling with what I thought was rage, and he missed Sirius. Instead of its initial target, the curse flew to me and scratched my skin just underneath my neck. The shock stopped me dead in my tracks. A few centimeters higher and it was over for me; the realization erased everything else in my mind, even the painful burning sensation where my blood was now flowing. 

This time, the death eater didn’t mutter the curse. He yelled it, angrier than before, and the sound of his voice masked the noise provoked by Remus, who I saw approaching in his back. A green halo surrounded the death eater and disappeared in a heartbeat, barely illuminating the scene enough for the lifeless body of our enemy to be seen falling. However, I saw perfectly well his last curse making his way straight to Sirius’ torso. 

Sirius’ facial expressions changed from relief to shock and then to pain, to agony. His hands reached to his shirt, and when he removed them, they appeared red, bloody. His fall began with the buckling of his knees. They hit the floor, and his body, drained of all its strength, tilted forward. His arms had gone limp and his face crashed to the ground. 

It had all happened in less than a second. 

I was unable to move.

Somewhere at my right, several grunts escaped Peter’s mouth as Lily and James were helping him. I didn’t process his bloody leg, nor did I realize Lily was using only her right hand. Remus was already at Sirius’ side, and it’s only when he looked up to me with wet eyes that something clicked. 

“Sirius!”

To be continued...

[sweeethinny]

The Duke - Chapter 6

thank you very much for the reviews! really. writing this fanfic has been quite a challenge, but I just love writing a drama, and maybe it sometimes has a questionable quality, but I have fun. thanks for letting me know that you guys are having fun too! and thanks to my favorite beta @theroomofreq, and @deadwoodpecker for listen my crazy ideas 

AO3 | FF.NET | SIYE

| H. F |

‘‘The Dueling party?’’ His mother’s sweet but still loud voice rang out in Henry’s room, and her face contorted with joy and, it seemed, fear. '’This is something very big, don't you think? I mean… it's the dukes.’’ Arabella whispered the last part as if someone could hear them and take Henry off the guest list.

‘’I know.’’ He nodded, fidgeting with his hair nervously. ‘’But I need to go with Miss Weasley.’’ Her mother’s face contorted again, and even through the flames of the fireplace, he knew she was thinking that wasn’t a good idea. ''What's the problem?''

‘’There are none… really, I’m happy that one of us can at least step inside that castle.’’

''But…?''

‘’Henry, dear… It’s not our place. Who guarantees that Your Graces will treat you well? Especially when you're not going to be an employee of them, which they can send or dismiss, but you're an employee of Mr. Weasley. Entering through the front door.’’

‘’No need to worry, I’m always camouflaged among these people. I am at a safe distance from everyone, but I can still follow Miss. Weasley.’’ His mother sighed, and Henry wished he could hug her, try to calm her down.

‘’Well, Miss. Weasley could get married and get you out of this job, right? It’s so dangerous, son… You got hurt yesterday, and today you tell me that you were attacked.’’

‘‘We haven’t been attacked, Mom.’’ Henry looked at the small window beside him, night already falling like a gloom under the whole yard. ‘’I’m fine, she protected me.’’

''Poor girl ... How is she?'' He tried not to smile as he remembered how she yelled at him when he Apparated to their safe place, and how she made his heart ache when he realized that she was almost crying with only the idea of ​​him being attacked in front of her.

''Good. We're close to finding a suspect.'' He shrugged, not to say that he had followed Mr. Weasley across borders and that the two had visited Yeovil a third time (fourth time, if he considered the time that went alone).

The city was still an endless war field, cold as if the winter were endless, with horrible cloudy weather, and so charged with the magic of darkness that it drained all your happiness out, being very difficult even to be able to smile. They had struggled to enter without causing confusion - as they did the first time - and Henry could still taste the blood in his mouth when he had to kill a Death Eater.

The boy should not have even reached the age of 20.

‘’I hope they’ll arrest the person soon. I miss you, and I’m so worried that you die or get hurt.’’ Arabella tried to smile, but Henry can see there were tears in her eyes.

''I will be fine. I promise.’’ He smiled at her, wishing he could hug her again. He hadn't seen his mother in almost a year. It was too risky to visit her and be in danger of being followed. There were some people who had reason to want to get back at him.

''Send me news. Now, tell me what you’ll wear at the Dueling Party. ’’

‘’Work clothes, mom. My black robes, and at most, the Auror coat of arms. It’s the best way to camouflage myself.’’

‘’Why don’t you try something new? Maybe you might meet a woman ..’’

''Miss Arabella, it is a party of the high aristocracy, there are no women for me there.'' Henry laughed, not wanting to delve into the thought that the only woman he wanted, he could never take out for a dance. Even though he always saw her at the back of the room, alone, looking at all the other couples while she just looked madly melancholy.

Henry would never understand why no one asked her to dance, when he was ecstatic at the thought of having her in his arms for a few minutes.

‘’If you say so,’’ The woman shrugged, then yawned. ‘’I’ll let you rest… please take care. I’m thinking you are too thin.’’

‘’I’m still the same.’’ He laughed, waving at her. ''Bye. Love You.''

‘’I love you, too.’’ And then she was gone, the flames turning red again, making him hear the sound of the loneliness that night provided. The elves' feet walking down the hall, the wind whipping the trees rough, some crickets and frogs, and a few creaking branches.

Henry sighed, lying on his bed and looking at the ceiling, trying to forget that morning...

As soon as Henry apparated inside their security location - a house where only Ginny was Secret-Keeper - he was greeted by Ginny's scream echoing through the empty house;

‘’You could have died!’’ She threw herself at him, hitting his chest with closed fists. ‘’Died! In front of me and I couldn't have done a thing!’’ Henry grabbed her fists, making her stop. Feeling a little shocked by the reception, even a little dizzy from her explosion.

‘’But I didn’t die.’’ He reminded her as if to say that tomorrow day would still dawn. ‘’And it was the best thing to do.’’

''The best? How is it best to leave me behind while I can see you being murdered in front of me?!’’

Better me, than you.’’ Henry remained calm, even though her skin seemed to burn his with proximity. The brown eyes staring at him as if they were going to read his mind - and Henry thought she would.

‘’Don’t say that.’’ Her voice came out with a tone of hurt that he had never heard before, not even when he met her on a bad day. ''Never. I am not worth more than you. And I'm not saying that to you to say that 'bla-bla-bla of course it is, because you're here to take care of me'... You are my best friend Henry, and I don't know what would happen if that spell had hit you and I saw you die in front of me.''

Best friend... She, a daughter of a Viscount, who had been promised to a son of Duke, who was one of the most powerful witches he had ever met, considered him her best friend.

He, a poor man, son of a harlot who died for her Death Eater lover, abandoned in a dirty gutter, condemned to die... Best friend of a daughter of a Viscount.

Of course, if it were up to him, they would be much more than best friends. Henry would do much more than take a peek at Ginny's sweeping curves, and he would never let her sit at the back of a ball, alone and bored. No, Henry would dance with her, spin that red-haired woman, so alive that reminded him of fire, all over the hall, as he had seen some men doing with their wives.

Henry might even dare to ask for her hand in marriage ...

But that was only if he was someone else. Henry Figg, Ginny Weasley's bodyguard, needed to settle for Best Friend.

| G. W |

‘‘You don’t look good,’’ George said, moving the chess piece and waiting for Ron to counterattack.

‘’Shouldn’t Henry protect you? Why did you almost die?’’ Ron asked, without even looking at his sister, paying attention to the board as if it were the most important thing of the moment.

‘’What are you two doing here still? I thought that now that you had houses, and responsibilities, you would spend less time here.’’ She complained, irritated to the last hair. She overheard when her father argued with Henry about putting her in danger, even though he couldn't have predicted it. Besides, the image of him dying in front of her continued to haunt her like an endless nightmare. ''Wants to know? Don't answer me. I'm going to lie down.’’ Ginny turned her back on the brothers, stamping her feet against the floor and running up the stairs.

It had been so terrifying to see the green light almost hit Henry, and she hadn't even raised her wand before the spell came out and protected him, almost making her believe that she could do magic with her bare hands.

All day, after the attackin the morning, she was locked up at home, like a prisoner. She overheard Ron talking to his father about Miss Granger (and then with George), she continued to read the news in the paper about the Dueling Party - that her parents were seriously considering not taking her. Ginny almost cried when she tried to fly and was stopped by Henry, who seemed almost sadder than she was doing that.

Ginny didn't cry, however, but she was silent all day.

It was so disconcerting to read about what each lady was wearing at the last party, or who they had been dancing with, while she could barely fly out in her own backyard. It was almost torture when Fred arrived at their parents' house showing the new broom he had bought, and when she saw, as a prisoner, through the bedroom window the brothers taking turns to test the new broom.

She could have fought and tried to convince Henry to fly with her, or that she wouldn't go more than two meters, but Ginny was so tired of living like that - or, not living - that she just nodded and sat in the living room, reading another stupid romance book that would only serve to make her realize how… empty, her life was.

Ginny, before the attack, had the opportunity to have, what she likes to call, a near life; she managed to make some ‘’friends’’, and it seemed that little by little people forgot that she had been promised to the Dukes' son and all the drama. Until, someone threatened her in the middle of the park, and her first reaction was to blow up the greenhouse where her mother was.

She didn't remember that day very well, the only thing she could remember was that she felt someone enter her mind and make her feel a lot of pain, and then the next moment was when she woke up on the floor, surrounded by dead plants, glass, and dirt, being watched by so many wizards that it looked like a festival.

Everyone looked at her as if she were a monster, who had almost killed her mother and injured 10 other people who were around (including a child, who almost died).

''Doesn't she know how to control her magic?'' ''I heard she was possessed by You-Know-Who.'' ''She did it so she could finally make headlines.'' ''I heard it was a way that her father found, for them to call attention to her.'' ''That is the dark arts, I'm sure.'' ''I always knew she was crazy...''

Everyone suddenly had a history and had witnessed some crazy Ginny. Everyone was pointing a finger at her. Everyone never let her forget when she lost control over her magic as a child.

But a child does not do as much damage as she did.

And if it was only once... There was that other day, after all the confusion, when her mother took her to a party to try to make everyone forget, and a Marquis tried to kiss her in a dark library when they accidentally met.. She tossed him away, startled when she was grabbed by the arms and tried to be kissed by force.

Apparently, it was a lot of fun trying to make her lose control of her magic and take on that strength that seemed to rip through her chest.

He was badly hurt, but no more than Ginny, who was so embarrassed and scared that she didn't leave the house for weeks. She could barely get to the newspaper without shaking for fear that there would be more lies about her.

''She wants to draw attention.'' ''I'm sure she was the one who provoked him.'' ''I don't even know what he saw in her.'' ''Her father must have paid for them to meet… a man like that would never want to see himself next to a madwoman like her.''

Ginny had never had much freedom, but after the attack, it was as if she could never do anything that involved getting out of the grounds of their home. She couldn't even fly alone, a brother always needed to be together. Until Henry arrived.

Henry was the closest person she would call a friend. They talked, he never seemed to doubt that she would be able, and even in the moments when he needed to deny her requests - like flying alone - he seemed upset about doing it. It was as if he felt the pain with her, somehow.

If she had seen her one and only best friend die in front of her, because of her, Ginny didn't know what she would do.

‘‘It’s okay, Dootie, I can do it myself.’’ She waved to the Elf who was waiting in the room, ready to undo Ginny’s hair (even though she had just done a simple braid), and helped her put on her pajamas.

‘’Are you sure, Miss Weasley?’’ The little creature asked, head down.

‘‘Yes, thank you.’’ And then, after closing the door, Ginny observed her daily arrest.

The window was ajar, magically made to always seem closed when someone looked outside, and the wind blew into the room and caused the curtains to swing. Ginny wondered what Henry was doing, and maybe, if it wasn't so late and so inappropriate, she could go up to his room for them to talk. She always felt more alone at night.

He had been very kind to her - as always - during the day, even when he needed to leave to speak to the boss by Flu, he had promised her that it was not her fault.

Which was a lie, because it was obviously her fault. She, and damn fate, who decided that it was not enough to be promised to someone at birth, but the man needed to be kidnapped, leaving her the burden of carrying a hope that would not be fulfilled, alone.

She felt guilty when she thought of the boy's parents, who had lost a child, at the same time that she was irritated since no one thought she could do anything about it, and that as much as Godric's Hollow had hoped that the Dukes would give the city an heir and keep it under control and away from any dark activity, Ginny had little to do.

But still, people liked to talk about her, as if she had been the cause of the kidnapping.

Tired of a day that seemed endless, Ginny lay down on the bed, fiddling with her wand to make the room a little colder than it already was, and hiding under the covers, where it seemed to be the only safe place in the world. 

For a few moments, she let herself think about how handsome Henry was, and how she imagined that maybe, just maybe, he could look at her differently, and even forget about the social rules and just kiss her.

Unlike the Marquis, Ginny wanted Henry to kiss her.

Maybe he would undo her braid himself and compliment her hair... maybe Henry would compliment her like no one ever did. Ginny couldn't even think of what that would be like...

Ginny heard a noise in the corridor of her room, something like footsteps, and if it weren't for the fact that her parents slept upstairs, and that no more siblings lived there, that floor shouldn't make any noise except when she was the one walking. And she was lying down.

She grabbed her wand, her heart pounding against her chest, rising as quietly as she could, trying to assume who might be there so late.

The footsteps stopped just in front of her room, and when Ginny prepared to put into practice the many dueling lessons she had with Henry, the person knocked on the door;

‘’Ginny?’’ Her body froze behind the door, hearing the low voice seemed to echo down the empty hall.

‘’Henry?’’ Ginny didn’t let her guard down, knowing that everything could be a big trap. ‘’Where did we fly together for the first time?’’

‘’We never flew together.’’ She sighed, it was him. Opening the door slowly, afraid that the wood would creak and her mother would get up, Ginny just stuck her head out, a little ashamed that she was wearing pajamas so old and ugly.

The man also wore pajamas, but instead of being a faded pink nightgown, it was black sweatpants and a white tank top. A tank top that let Ginny see his arms precisely, tanned by the sun and so well defined that it made her squeeze her thighs and swallow. She knew that Henry was strong, but not that strong.

‘’Did something happen?’’ She asked, trying not to let him notice the lack of a bra or how transparent that fabric could be. Ginny was not the woman with the most striking curves, she knew that, the Marquis had made it a point to point out that she needed a lot of effort if she wanted to be as beautiful as the other women.

"I… I just came here to thank you for protecting me." He ran a hand through his messy hair, looking a little bewildered, without glasses, and his green eyes seemed to shine even in the little light that came through the hall window and the fireplace that Ginny kept burning.

‘It was instinct, I think.’’ She shrugged. ''Are you alright?''

‘’Yes.. yes.’’ Henry took a step forward, entering her room for the first time in 2 years. He had never passed the door. ‘’I came here just to thank you, and... and do this.’’ Then he kissed her.

It was completely different from the Marquis' kiss, and Ginny would never be able to explain why. But before she could understand why, her chest seemed to burn and tear, taking all the air out of her lungs, like squeezing a fruit until there is no more left liquid. Ginny thought she might be dying.

She opened her eyes and looked at the white ceiling above her, alone and lying on the bed, sweating as if she had run a marathon. When she tried to reach for the wand to make the room even colder, the wand seemed to spit out magic and snowflakes began to fall everywhere. She was getting out of control.

Desperate, Ginny applied all the tactics she knew to calm down, fearing that her room would be buried in the snow. The same tactics that Henry applied to himself in the room a few floors below, also feeling his chest burn and sweating, frightened by the dream and the snowflakes falling under his room.

[yuvon-writes-letters]

Hey guys :)

Maybe I'm going chronological for one time, so I can sort my thoughts easier.

Yeah, Goldie's much mire active than I would've thought, too. But they did all those things to keep me alive and kind of save, since we still don't know who they are exactly working against. (I mean, we don't know who Goldie exactly is either, but you get my point)

Honestly, I am pretty sure the TSB timeline is continuing, at least if my theory that Goldie just set me back in an alternate timeline is true. In this case I feel sorry for TSB, though..Extremely sorry. He still was 'my' Jake back then, even though he acted weird in the end (maybe was manipulated by entities). I mean, if what he wrote was true he went with authorities. And in the end..this could've been his downfall.

And yeah, maybe I'm not exactly safe, but I just have to go back. If I go, and if I lose my job, I have some things to sort out. And Jake luckily agreed with me that clearing up my desk isn't the worst thing I can do before leaving. We're still thinking about a location, which I could luckily deside myself. Max agreed on that. Even though he still has some doubts. (I mean, of course...His cousin opened the door with bruises all over her face.) He did promise to not ask any questions until I feel ready, though. That gives myself and Jake some time to figure that out.

And also, Jake is right! We have three Jakes and three smart people. YUVON. And of course Goldie, like you said Yu :) And some information about the previous timeline. (And that was it with being chronological)

So yeah, like I said, Max and I'll go. And I also think we can be pretty certain now that the message came from Goldie not the MWAF (which is relieving). I saw the messages and they didn't make Jake the bad guy. I honestly just don't think I can quote them yet. (They're too good, but I probably start daydreaming if I do) But they talk about Jake being an important part of my life and my heart and Max protecting me when he cannot. My dear cousin jumped to conclusions when he saw my bruised face. About Max' phone...I'll probably throw it in a river or something if he brings it with him. I told him not to, also because of Jake (he's not only worried about the MWAF apparently...He didn't exactly say it out loud, but I think it's pretty obvious) but he loves this device.

And I emphasize with you about the being kidnapped thing, you'll manage it, I know it :) And if I need to jump dimensions and box some sense into your Crow-Crew xD

No but for real, you can do that. I know it :)

Jake, find a good point in time to talk to her. But do it :)

Otherwise, I still think the 'underlying desire' theory is a possibility! But, like always in the moment, we could be wrong.

As for my stasis, I really do not wish to talk to more people who think I've been kidnapped. And I am a bit scared that could somehow lead to either them or me being in more danger again. But for now we have to wait.

I for now will pack some important things and paper & pens xD I don't want to leave y'all behind :P

Liska🐾🔥

[A screenshot is glued to the back of the letter and the quick sentence "Jake wants to talk to Jake" is written above]

Hello Jake, it is a pleasure to meet you. I am not quite sure in which way Liska will handle giving you my message, but she promised me to not read it for now.

I don't know whether she told you before or not, but as far as I am concerned she realised I am not only worried about the MWAF chasing her.

With me breaking out of this stasis I am sure that my followers aren't that far behind. And I know you can't do anything from where you are, but cross checking way to protect her doesn't seem to bad to me. Especially since we are similar but still fairly different from each other. At least it seems like that from what I have read.

For my part, I recently improved and updated Nym-OS which allows me access to Liskas whereabouts. If Yuvon should read this, she knows and agrees to it.

Still I am yet stuck on one little detail: I am trying to help Nym-OS in counterattacking. So, even though I am sure you already knoe this yourself, Nym-OS gets the ability to access location of the people attacking Liskas phone. I am almost done with that, so we are able to see a bit easier if and where people are that could be a danger.

Do you have any other ideas for ways I could help? Or even improve what I am doing momentarily. I wouldn't normally ask this since I know and trust my skills, but I think that this is fairly different from a 'normal situation'.

~ Jake

Lis,

Um. I don't know if you've seen the newest person to send in a letter, but we now have an issue.

Jessy, if you're reading this, I was sort of trying to avoid talking about this right away but I'm sort of trapped in a weird place, and Jake's here too because I'm a dumbass. I did not, so you know, let him read your letter or my reply. I figured you wouldn't want that. Sorry for dancing around the issue earlier :/ But at least you can get a good sample of the complete insanity we go through on the regular now!

Yeah... you're getting thrown into the deep end right now, aren't you. Sorry. There's no way to ease into this. You should probably either stop reading these entirely or start reading the letters from the beginning, so this will all at least make some sense. The first letter should start with the words "To whoever reads this," just so you know you get the right one.

Back to you, Lis. Yeah, I feel pretty bad for TSB Jake too. I honestly can't imagine being in his position right now.

Alright. So, you can choose the place. Great! There's way less chance of you being caught that way...

Tragedies just seem to be happening to all us Duskwood detectives, recently, don't they? Rai is chronically overworked and barely has time to sleep, I'm stuck in this hellhole and I've been forgotten by most everyone, you were shot, and poor Matt died and... well.

I never knew him, but I feel really bad for him :(

You could give Max half the truth. Tell him you have a stalker, and he's starting to get physical. Jake has been trying to help you get away from the asshole. It's not even a lie, just... not the full truth. Because. You know. The whole truth is completely fucking insane.

Writing to Jessy just put into perspective how insane everything is, I think. Gimme a sec.

Oh, fuck. My Jessy just texted me. Great timing.

Jeez that whole thing with me leaving myself out was just a joke XD If I knew you and Jake would take it so seriously, I'd never have said anything. I'll steer clear from now on.

Yeah, okay, definitely Goldie. That makes way more sense. I don't think you have to be quite so drastic as destroying the phone. Just get him to leave it at home for the trip.

Ahaha, thanks. I don't think that's necessary, though. Actually, seeing future!Jessy's perspective has caused a bit of a paradigm shift. I think I might need to reconsider what all to tell and not to tell the Crow Crew. I just sort of default to keeping things secret, now, but you've seen how well that worked for me with you and Rai, and with Jake.

Again, you probably should wait for them to contact you first, but you WILL need to talk to them when that happens. What you say to them and what you don't is up to you.

Pack a couple different pens XD We're all a bit long-winded.

That's all from me :)

(The handwriting changes to Jake's.) Hallo, Lis.

Yuvon refuses to tell me what precisely she means about Jessica. Was she somehow contacted by an alternate version of Jessica? If so, how?

I am glad it was Goldie who contacted Max. Yuvon's suggestion for an excuse seems a good one, as there are far less things to remember that way. You simply need to oversimplify everything.

I do not, unfortunately, entirely believe that Yuvon was joking when she made that comment, based on previous comments and her ongoing guilt. I can't understand sometimes why she feels the need to lie so much. It is difficult for me to read people, much less her.

I will speak to her eventually. Early tomorrow, perhaps, if nothing else rears its head. Yuvon looks tired, and I am also admittedly not at my peak. I sincerely hope she does not wake up as early as she does every single day. It may get somewhat taxing, what with the lack of coffee here.

I think that is all from me to you, Lis. If you would kindly find a way to send the next section to my counterpart without looking at it, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you :)

—Jake and Yuvon

Jake,

It is a pleasure to meet you as well, despite the unusual circumstances.

That our pursuers may be freed from the stasis is a logical conclusion. Seeing as the last known location I had on them in my universe was approximately five hundred miles from Duskwood, they will likely be some of the first to free themselves from the stasis. I do not believe I need to warn you that time is of the essence.

It seems as if I am a small distance ahead of you in the development of countermeasures, perhaps because I have had more linear time to develop them. If you are where I think you are at in the development, you likely have or will soon hit a bug you cannot pin down that makes the pinpointing mechanism simply refuse to work at all. Presuming your and my version of NYM-0S are similar enough, the issue should lie in the public bool set in line 132 of the third part of the targeting script, the script that decides what constitutes a target; you have it defaulted to "false" where it should default to "true".

As for additional countermeasures: I was attempting to work on a rudimentary automated system of pattern detection when I was brought here. Essentially, its function would be such that it would be able to triangulate using the locator features already installed to find a rough estimate of where their headquarters might be. However, I have not found any way thus far to eliminate outliers, and as such the feature is currently next to useless. I am no longer able to work on the code, but perhaps you will have more luck than I did.

That is all I can think of for the moment on that subject. However, I have an odd theory on what may be part of the reason we vary so. If you have a moment to spare, please answer me this:

When I was very young, back when Mother was still around, she took me to a doctor for odd behaviors. This included not looking people in the eyes, but there was a list. I was given a diagnosis; if you had the same experience, you should likely know which one.

Did you have this experience? If so, please prove it by stating what the diagnosis was.

Do not worry if you do not know what I am talking about; I would rather you did not guess. Simply state that you don't know. It will confirm my theory.

Good luck with your pursuers.

—Jake

(The letter tucks itself in the paper clip with the others.)

[kdtheghostwriter]

SNK #128 - Seeing Shadows

That’s bad, right?

There were some semantic debates regarding what exactly Hange meant when they said, “Humanity is out of time!” I think it’s clear now that humanity has no more time for them to be indecisive. Eren is on the march, and even if he settles for destroying everything on the Marley continent, that’s a massive loss of civilization and one you simply can’t live with if you think of yourself as a hero. The look on their faces tells the story. It’s no longer about saving the world; it’s about saving what’s left.

How much is left depends on how quickly they move, but it’s not as easy as mounting up the troops. Eren and his Colossal Army are across the ocean now. They’ve had at least one full day to march and probably more since the previous chapter’s events around the campfire. Think about how long it takes for a plane to cross an ocean. Not a full day. Their best bet is commandeering Miss Kiyomi’s special aircraft powered by the mysterious Iceburst Stone. Before they do that, we have to pause for another episode of the worst show in the world: This Floching Guy.

As much I have advocated for Eren to be accepted as the new villain – praising Isayama for turning the Face/Heel dichotomy upside down as it pertains to Reiner – those two, even in their most vile moments, still have their fans. There is no guesswork with Floch Forster. He’s predatory, conniving, authoritarian and mean-spirited. Above all of that, he’s a cocky little shit in a way that even Kenny Ackerman would have scoffed at. He’s the antagonist to the characters we’ve followed for ten years now, but in his own mind they brazenly oppose him, which is where the title of this chapter ‘Traitor’ becomes important.

 For the last four years, Eldia has been ruled by deft slight of hand. In spirit, Historia Reiss, the rightful heir to the throne, has reclaimed her birthright. In reality, she retired to run an orphanage while the three branches of military have taken control of the government and all proceedings. Eren’s mission to Liberio as well as the counterattack from Marley’s Warrior Unit caused a vacuum to appear that was quickly occupied by the Jaegerist Faction. They now control the government and in extension all facets of Paradisian society. So what do you call a group of AWOL soldiers that are conspiring to sabotage your one method of security?

Traitors. Villains. Monsters.

They’re killing your friends and attacking your home. They’ve infiltrated your ranks and betrayed your trust. Thousands of innocent people dead just for the sake of completing their mission.

This week I learned that many people viewed Bertolt’s death as karmic in some way. I never saw it like that at all. His death at Armin’s hands was a necessary evil. Necessary certainly, but it was evil. It doesn’t make the 104th evil for carrying out the deed. It just happened to be the most brutal death in the series even if it wasn’t the most graphic. Bert is left defenseless as his powers are forcibly taken from him. He calls for his former comrades only to realize none of them will help. Then he calls for Reiner, his best friend who barely escaped with his own life. He dies a lonely, agonizing death.

“Who the hell wants to kill innocent people?!”

Who knows how long this question has been haunting Armin’s waking thoughts? There is evidence to suggest that the once bold Survey Corps veteran who was willing to sacrifice his life to help Eren take down the Colossal has been hampered by his successor’s timid nature. Ever since he acquired his powers, he’s always attempted to seek non-violent resolution. I don’t see this as simple naivety.

If you were given a power as destructive as his, where you are capable of destroying a town by simply calling upon it, why would you ever use it? Why would you ever want to? I grow uncomfortable with the amount of voices in the fandom concern trolling the 104th and their refusal to spill the blood of their neighbors. They’ve fought alongside or trained with most of these people. Why should they be expected to kill them like nameless drones? Even if it is necessary, why are they not allowed to mourn the choice?

Characters like these that we’ve known from almost the beginning. They know nothing of the outside world other than it’s filled with people that want them dead. Eren Jaeger is their best chance at keeping their society alive and these people they lived and fought and suffered with want to impede that and doom them. Samuel and Daz are soldiers, too. Forget for a moment that they’re opposing the main characters. Why would they let this happen?

 I digress, though. This point is more about Bert and his exit from the story. It came at the end of a fierce battle that saw the SC expend all of their resources and most of their man power. The fact that they came away with even one shifter’s power is a small miracle. The characters can be excused then for watching, unfeeling, as their former teammate is eaten alive. Now the shoe is on the other foot. Armin has been mortally wounded and the one vehicle that can get them to Marley in time is about to be destroyed. Before Daz can do this, he is stopped by Armin who is delirious but regenerating. Before he can deal the fatal blow, Connie wrestles the gun away from Samuel and shoots them both.

The mission continues.

One could say that it’s overkill perhaps. How many times must the 104th learn the hard lesson? Even Annie made reference to the fact that the Warriors plan was being criticized with no alternative. If they spot them, the mission fails. If the ship is blown, the mission fails. If they Azumabito clan is destroyed, the mission fails. All of these facts are true and the current best way to keep any of that from happening is to fight and kill the Jaegerists. It’s remarkably easy to say, but then they are the ones who have to live with choices made.

 No one should ever have to “get used to” the idea of killing…well anyone but especially not people you partnered with. Bert’s inclusion in this moment was no accident. It isn’t just because Armin inherited his mental likeness. This is the closest they have come to understanding the impossible position he was forced into four long years ago. Only this time, it’s Samuel who is scared and confused.

You can disagree with Samuel’s point of view but what Connie does next is by definition an act of treason. He shoots two members of his own combat unit and defies a direct order from a commanding officer. We know that the commanding officer is a sociopath and we know that following orders means being an accessory to genocide. But that genocide is the only thing keeping that island alive. That island has been the only home Samuel and Daz have ever known. They deserve as much as anyone, an explanation instead of a bullet to the face. But this is what happens isn’t it?

I love Metal Gear Solid for a number of reasons, but chief above them is the series protagonist, Solid Snake. In the flagship game, he is introduced to us as a super soldier engineered for battle that is pulled out of retirement to thwart his twin brother’s plans of nuclear destruction. This game is one of the few of its kind that can be completed without killing a single enemy. You are rewarded for your stealth. Because, you see, Snake the character is a pacifist at heart. He doesn’t want to do this, but he’s the only one who can. It’s a solo mission, so running and gunning almost always fails and if you kill too many people, the action hero main character becomes sick.

You see, because, these choices aren’t made lightly. They ripple and they matter. The 104th kids aren’t acting high and mighty, lording their moral values over the heads of those that betrayed them. They genuinely hate doing this. From your mouth you say, “We have to save the world,” but when you arrive you are told, “We have to kill these people.” For once they would like to preserve peace without additional death and I don’t think they should be scolded for that wish.

  Stray Thoughts

- Wasn’t all that impressed by Magath’s little speech, especially considering what came before it. It’s a change of heart, yes, but not from a genuine place. When faced with the reality of his homeland being flattened, and the futility of his current position, he immediately goes back to torture. Yelena is callous in her own right but she did nothing to warrant the violence. He’s lashing out and I don’t shed tears for him.

- Onyankapon on the other hand. What a guy. He resets the joint in Yelena’s arm and crafts a splint to keep it in place. He has no powers, but you would want this guy on your team during the end of the world.

- Reiner finally puts the pieces together here. “I’m just like you,” Eren says and like Eren, Reiner moves to protect his former teammates from making this impossible choice. It’s a noble gesture and one I respect. There’s no going back for him. He has far too much blood on his hands. That he recognizes that is a strong moment for the character.

- Armin and Connie’s plan wasn’t a bad one. If nothing else, it bought time enough for Annie and Reiner to get into position. If they had attacked outright, the plane likely would have been destroyed. Some people are frustrated with them but honestly, go read Berserk if that’s the case.

- East Sea Gang rise up! Mikasa in combat is still an absolute treat. And Floch gives us an example of this faction’s greatest flaw. You know; besides the nationalist framework they are founded upon. Floch is the most experienced soldier they have and when Floch Forster is your best fighter, your team sucks. Mikasa Ackerman was worth 100 soldiers as rookie. As an adult soldier, she is easily worth two Jaegerist groups put together. Kiyomi is clearly capable, but she also took advantage of Floch’s arrogance in the moment.

- Credit to Reiner and Annie for hitting their cue. I wondered what it would be like having them in this group but it seems like for the purposes it should work.

[miyu-hyperfixates]

Water ghouls AU!

[Part 0.5: Meeting Wei Ying]

(part 1) (part 2) (part 3)

Madam Yu and Madam Jin were in Yiling for a night hunt, where they encounter kid!WWX being chased by a group of dogs. Seeing the kid cornered and trying to protect his very small bun... Both of them couldn’t help but think of their own children in such a position and went to chase the dogs away.

Madam Jin actually brought WWX two other buns.

WWX of course was very grateful towards the two very kind [AN: I think it’s the first time I’m using Madam Yu and kind in the same sentence, pff] aunties... And when he saw that they carried swords his eyes went very wide, before hastily rummaging through the pockets of his dirty clothes. He pulled out a talisman and gave it to Madam Yu, beaming, “Here auntie, a lucky charm for you!” 

Both Madam Yu and Madam Jin looked intrigued by the ‘lucky charm’ that was actually a talisman. But they were unfamiliar with the sigils on it, and considering the slightly childish handwriting, both of them guessed that it might have been the kid’s work. It was more than probable that the kid’s parents were cultivators and he saw them writing talismans and wanted to copy them... Of course, to his small mind the sigils were probably no different from gibberish. And so he thought that he had made a proper “lucky charm” and decided to gave it the kind aunties as thanks.

Even Madam Yu had to admit that the kid was cute and endearing. So she took the talisman, thanks him and shoo him away.   [Because she could be kind from time to time, but not that kind and besides they still have a ferocious beast to hunt down.] She slid the talisman in her sleeves and will probably throw it away later when the kid wasn’t watching.

And well two hours later and the street rat and his talisman were probably the last thing on her mind. ‘Cause the lone ferocious beast that they were supposed to kill turned out to be a pack of six ferocious beasts.

At some point during the quite challenging fight, Madam Yu got momentarily distracted by something and it allowed one of the beast to rush through her defense. Considering how close it was and the direction of its jump, she barely had the time to raise one arm to protect her face. But before it could actually chunk at her arm it suddenly stopped as if it had slammed into an invisible wall. The protective barrier of course collapse barely a few seconds after because the spiritual energy sustaining it was quite low but it gave Madam Yu enough time to take a few step back and counterattack.    

Soon enough after that all the beasts were dealt with and they could finally relaxed. This was when Madam Yu took out the ‘lucky charm’ from her sleeve. It just happened that the arm she had raised to instinctively protect herself had been the one with the talisman within the sleeve. And sure enough, the talisman was still warm and the sigils were slightly bright in some parts and burnt in others. Indicating that it had been activated not so long ago.  

Madam Yu and Madam Jin looked at each other with wide eyes. Turned out what they thought were a child drawing was actually a proper protective talisman!

So of course they had to go and track WWX down again, because a kid who could write talisman that could be activated and properly worked (even if it was for merely a few seconds) was nothing short of a genius. It would be a tremendous waste not to nurture such potential.

They didn’t have any difficulty in finding the kid again, he was actually sleeping in one of the corner of the street where they had met earlier near a small makeshift tent made of dirty quilts.

The kid woke as they came closer and beamed at them, “Aunties, are you finished night hunting? Did the lucky charm help?” Madam Yu: It did. Did you write it yourself? The kid nodded enthusiastically. Madam Yu: Do you want to learn more? WWX: Can I? Madam Yu: I belong to the Yunmeng Jiang Sect. It is one of the Great Sect of the cultivation world. If you come home with me, I’ll take you in as a disciple and teach you. I won’t be kind though, so be prepared. WWX: I’ll come!! I’ll come! Please teach me!     Madam Yu: Very well, then come along. WWX rushed into the makeshift tent to take out his meager belongings (one fourth of a cinnabar, a very decrepit brush and the two buns that Madam Jin brought him earlier) and happily followed the other two. [And that’s how you catch a wild Wei Ying, *clap clap* (and she didn’t even need to bait him with watermelon)]

Because it was quite late at night and because the kid was super dirty, they decided to stay at a nearby inn, where the kid was forced to take a bath and changed clothes (that Madam Jin brought him... it was the clothes of the inn’s owner’s son and weren’t of high quality but it was definitely better than the clothes that WWX had been wearing).

After the kid looked more presentable and way cleaner, they took the opportunity to ask him about his talismans.

Turns out they were right. His parents had been cultivators  - probably rogue cultivators - and it was his mother who taught A-Ying this protective talisman. It was apparently his “job” to help them make it. Because he was “back-up” and it was a “very important job”... And she had made him make a dozens of them until he got it right and could actually activate them.

Thinking about it, the mother’s aim had probably been to provide him with a tool to protect himself just in case.

By the time, he finished talking about it, the kid was starting to nod off so Madam Yu send him to bed. But just when she did so, she suddenly realized that she didn’t actually know his full name. “A-Ying, what is your name?” WWX *sleepily*: A-Ying’s name is Wei Ying, courtesy name Wuxian. Madam Yu, suddenly filled with dread: Wei? Are your parents Wei Changze and Cangse Sanren? [By the way, at that time, news of the WWX’s parents death had not reach Yunmeng yet, which is why she didn’t make the connection immediately when she heard WWX calling himself A-Ying] WWX: Yes! Auntie, do you know them? Are you friend with them? Madam Yu: We are not friend. But I do know them. WWX: Oh...  

About eight months ago, WWX’s parents had gone to a night hunt in Yiling. And because they thought that this case might be more dangerous than usual, they didn’t take him with them for the actual hunt and made him wait for them back in the street of Yiling [in the exact corner where his makeshift tent is]. They never came back.

Madam Yu, once WWX fell asleep, very bitterly: So she’s dead... And I’m actually taking her kid in. What kind of fate is this? Is she mocking me beyond the grave?

Madam Yu could actually picture with great clarity what was going to happen as soon as WWX will arrive at Lotus Pier. JFM will welcome him with open arms. A son of a servant will be raised way above his station, not only as a mere disciple of the sect but like a son of the Yunmeng Jiang Clan. And A-Cheng will probably cease to exist in the eyes of JFM as soon as the son of Cangse Sanren would arrive.

Madam Jin seeing Madam Yu very sour face, tried to reason with her, “You’re not going to leave back in the street, are you? Outside of the fact that he is Cangse Sanren’s son, he didn’t do anything wrong and has a lot of potential.” [Those words are so going to bite her in the ass a few years later when Meng Yao comes into play, haha] Madam Yu: I am not coming back on my words.

Besides she was pretty sure that even if she left him there, as soon as words of their death reached JFM’s ears, he’d go and search the whole word for Cangse Sanren’s son. He wouldn’t give up until he managed to find him and then they’d end up exactly in the same situation (actually it was probably even a worse situation, there was no way rumors wouldn’t fly around with Jiang-zongzhu looking for and adopting the son of the woman he was rumored to be in love with).... The only way to prevent this situation was to straightforwardly kill the kid right now. But Madam Yu had not reach such a low point that she would go and murder innocent young kids no matter how troublesome their parents were.

If she’s going to have to endure the presence of Cangse Sanren’s son either way, then so be it. If she’s going to have to get used to the idea that Cangse Sanren’s son will from now on be an adoptive son of her family, then so be it. But she will make sure that both sons will be treated accordingly, even if this is the last thing that she’ll ever do! 

---------

Status Progress:

>> Wei Ying has been upgraded to adopted!

>> Madam Yu has been upgraded to on her way to become a good mother out of pure spite!

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

Author’s note: Right so remember when I said after part 3 that Meng Yao will appear next time? I lied. (Though he does make his entrance in part 4, you get this prequel/backstory first.)

So in canon (please correct me if I’m wrong) WWX’s parents died when he’s about six and he’s only found by JFM when he’s about eight or nine? That’s such a huge gap. And my personal hc to explain it is that actually JFM didn’t know they died for a long time.

I mean both of them were rogue cultivators. If there were no one around when they died how would it be possible for anyone to know that they died? My guess is that they actually send messages/letters to JFM once in a while (like every two or three years to let him know what they’re up to). Stuff like, “If after X times you didn’t get any news, then please consider us dead” or something. If they died in Yiling right after sending one of their letters, informing him of their location, then it would make sense that JFM would only notice that something is wrong a few years later with no new letters. Naturally he’ll go look for them and search at the last place they mentioned first and try to trace back what happened from there. Which is how he found WWX in the street of Yiling.  

Now in this universe Madam Yu stumbles upon WWX by pure accident less than a year after his parents’ death, which means that he actually gets adopted younger than he was in canon. Which means that by the times the event of part 1 happens, he was already living with the Jiang for something like 4 years (which explains why he has so much more lee-way and is so much more comfortable within the family).

Next time: Part 4 - Meeting Meng Yao (for real this time haha)

[thequietmanno1]

Thelreads, Vigilantes 16, Replies Part 1

1) “Anyway, lets not delve into that, because we have some vigilantes to see, and oh boy, ho boy, am I absolutely terrified of what we’re going to see, and for one single detail: this is a chapter that doesn’t have a name on it; so far, all the chapter folders had their names, unless they were something absolutely important that even knowing it would spoil the FUN™. And this is one of those… Oh god, I don’t know if I’m ready for something like this so soon… “- Well, your sister did successfully trick you, but regardless, I’d say the whole chapter was still a pretty painful read for you anyway, even if/because the mom’s still alive and dopeslapping.

2) “We open up at the Cave of Vigilantism, where Koichi is asleep, probably already loathing whatever the hell is in store for them today.”- I mean, if you knew your overbearing mom was about to pay you a visit, you’d either be equally despondent or panicking and doing some immediate spring cleaning to tidy the room up to still fail her incredibly high standards. Koichi just went with the option that let him get some rest in before the inevitable happened.

3) “Koichi, do you even clean your fucking house? I know that there’s currently a small army spending every night there, but even so.”- All the better for his mom to dope-slap him over for exposing nice young ladies to his messier living habits. In fairness, university dorm life for me was much the same, though we had time after studies to clean up- Koichi probably has even less to do that because he’s piling on vigilante work on top of everything else.

4)“AND YOU SHUT UP KOICHI, SOMETHING REALLY FUCKED UP IS GOING TO HAPPEN, STOP COMPLAINING AND CLEAN UP THIS PLACE BEFORE SOMEONE DIES”- Once again, you were more right than you know.

5) “NOW MAKOTO IS CALLING YOU TO TELL SHE’S BEEN KIDNAPPED OR SOMETHING, AND THUS THE PLOT KICKSTARTS WITH A RUDE AWAKENING, AND YOU’LL DEFINITELY NEED SOME SLEEP AFTER THIS IS ALL OVER, BECAUSE THERE’S ONLY ONE PERSON THAT COULD CAUSE A FUCKED UP CHAPTER TO HAPPEN SO SOON.”- Turns out there’s at least one more, though it’s less violence and murder and more uncomfortable controlling attitude and depressing lack of faith in best boy’s capabilities.

6) “NO WAIT, NEVER MIND, IT WASN’T MAKOTO, ITS ACTUALLY HIS FATHER, CALLING HIM, OUT OF NOWHERE, PROBABLY TO TELL HIM THAT HIS MOM IS DEAD”- Well, there’s at least one way Koichi differs from Izuku- Koichi at least has his dad in his life and in regular contact…. For now. I wouldn’t put it past Furuhashi to further the parallels between them somehow down the line, especially since Dadchi seems to be the more openly supportive and understanding of his parents…

7) “YEAH, HIS MOM DESCENDED INTO AN EARLY GRAVE, WHO WOULD’VE EXPECTED THAT TO SHOW OUT OF NOWHERE, WE NEVER EVEN KNEW ANYTHING ABOUT HER”- I mean…. Do you feel better now you do?

8) “i have such an immeasurable rage boiling inside of me right now… and its all towards my sister, that pulled this shit, knowing what I would assume…

excuse me, because I need to go throw a brick at her before I continue reading…”- Beginner’s mistake. If she dodges, you’re down a brick and now she’s expecting your counterattack. Go with a half-brick in a sock to make an improvised flail and now you’ve got a repeat-use weapon as well as a backup remaining half-brick for ranged efficiency

9) “Koichi got so happy to hear his mom came back from Heaven that he even found the motivation to clean his own house, that’s usually what happens to anyone after a miracle alright.”- Happy? No, no, that’s fear-motivation, brought about by repeated experiences throughout his childhood with similar incidents and scolding’s… and now Koichi’s escalated to vigilantism, an activity his mother would decisively not approve of, he’s got even more to lose should he give her a reason to berate him- heck he outright points out that his entire collage life thus far was already hanging by a thread before he started crime fighting, and this is clearly the first time his mom’s visited to see his new independent living accommodations, so he absolutely cannot afford to give her a single weak spot to criticise, otherwise the conversation might start railroading towards him getting packed off back to the countryside. 

All it takes is a single thing going their way and  people like his mom can start twisting the conversation towards what they want- and his mom clearly doesn’t want him to get involved with heroes, to the point that she’s uncomfortable with him living in the city, near to so much hero activity, at all.

10) “Alright, going by how he’s talking, maybe Heaven isn’t exactly the place she came back from. Koichi is already afraid of her, and that leaves me afraid as well.

…

I’m not going to leave this chapter wishing that she is dead, am I?”- Well, I dunno, that’s probably up to you, but it’s a safe bet you’ve probably not got the greatest impression of her right now.

11) “Nothing bad so far, she seemed really worried for his well being, and Koichi really is too soft and pure, considering the absolute bastard he tried to be friends with; so far nothing bad, let’s hope that no red flags will be raised here.”- Well, Koichi’s definitely shown he can’t be the best judge of character, given the collage guys he initially tried to befriend, his attempts to be friends with Soga, and his brief hero worship of Strendal, so his mom does have a basis for worrying about him in a city that’s home to routine examples of people going crazy with superpowers on a daily basis, without even considering all the other, relatively mundane things he could get wrapped up in, like scams or extortion. 

Heck, she even has some basis for that, given Koichi did end up getting involved in an illegal activity/gang and committing ‘crimes’ in defiance of the law, so she probably has a good understanding of exactly what kind of person her son is. The problem is that she’s clearly still looking down of his as a child in need of protection, rather than recognising his inherent qualities and capabilities as a young man making his way in the world, which causes problems for everybody.

12) “Pop please, nothing he said there is a lie, even that last part. He’s living an extremely respectable life by keeping to his ideals and protecting his neighborhood. Sure, he can’t tell the details of what he’s doing, but I wouldn’t say that anything there even comes close to being a lie.”- When you have to lie, always tell the truth. It worked out for Koichi before, and clearly, he’s had a bit more experience in speaking half-truths to his mom than we’ve known about. Makoto just ended up getting a natural 1 on her luck roll when she tried to press Koichi for info about his double-life, but now he’s expecting it, he’ll probably be able to repeat the trick a few more times in conversation with her…assuming he even knows what her quirk is, actually.

13) “KOICHI, YOU STUPID MOTHERFUCKER, WHY DID YOU EVEN HAD TO SAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT? WAS IT BECAUSE YOU MET MAKOTO? YOU KNOW SHE’S NOT YOUR GIRLFRIEND YET, DO YOU?”- It was probably the biggest confidence-building experience he’d had for a long time, so you can forgive him for letting his self-impression of his ‘game’ get to his head. Probably not helped in that his mom seems like the kind of person who’d be pushing him to socially interact with others whilst away from the house, whilst also being hyper-critical of his choice of friends. If she started getting pushy with him on the phone, to ‘get out there’ and not get cooped up all the time, he might have said that just to impress her/make her aware of his ‘landmark’ achievement of getting a girlfriend, and then it all snowballed from there. Having a successful social life really is the best defence against senior family members wanting to pry into your affairs.

14) “THEN THE HOUSE OF CARDS WILL FALL, AND YOUR MOM WILL SEE THAT YOU’RE A LYING LIAR THAT LIES. GOOD JOB KOICHI, YOU IDIOT.”- Well, I suppose we should give props to her for seeing straight through the ‘Makoto girlfriend’ angle from the start, rather than falling for it, simply because she knows her kid that well, but I still don’t want to credit her for implying that Koichi’s game level would never reach somebody like Makoto from the start. Having the best boy personality is a really good card to play when Koichi’s looking for a girlfriend, even if it’s hampered by the fact he’s also got an oblivious personality that prevents him seeing the blatantly obvious with Pop, and if he took some Style lessons from Bruce ‘Kuroiwa’ Wayne there he’d be carrying a girl on each arm effortlessly.

15) “So far everything is under control, nothing too bad, and koichi even managed to save himself by putting that label over the beers. Nice one koichi, I totally forgot about it, I’d been screwed if I was on your shoes.”- Honestly, Koichi might have hung that up ever since Knuckleduster started regularly raiding his fridge to ‘confiscate’ his beers from the illegal minor, something I think might have gotten under Koichi’s skin a little. 

He may not get to drink them himself, but he’s not the kind of guy who’d buy beer knowing it was illegal for him to do so, so he put the sign up to underscore to knuckleduster that he might be a illegal hero, but he’s still a law abiding citizen. That said, I am far more concerned with the fact that Momchi seems to have brought along a travel case with her for her ‘visit’… as if she plans to stay around for more than a day to two to see how Koichi’s spending life away from home.

16) “Alright, her comment there felt a bit dismissive of koichi’s capabilities in handling himself, but I don’t even have time to care about it because of course, she went straight to the kill: she demands to meet his girlfriend, and, of course, the shenanigans are about to ensue…”- Alas, it being the ultimate defence against prying eyes and inquisitive minds into your affairs, the very first thing most family members do upon being told about the ‘girlfriend’ defence is demand to see physical evidence of this for themselves, just to confirm whether or not it’s real and not an excuse you brought up just to cut them out of the conversation. 

Momchi has been in the cave of vigilantism for less than 5 minutes and she’s already expecting to see Koichi’s girlfriend there, as if he’d call her up on demand just to prove she exists. Were Makoto Koichi’s actual girlfriend, she could be preoccupied with doing her own thing at the time of Momchi’s visit- especially since she basically didn’t call ahead to forewarn him, and left that part up to Dadchi- like writing up her paper, or helping run CC’s hero image better, but the fact that Momchi expects Koichi to be able to produce her on demand paints quite the picture about her and his home life before he moved out… In fact, I’m now thinking it was probably similar to Bakugou’s family dynamic, only without Bakugou’s explosive temper, or his mom’s similar fiery attitude, but with the dad being more or less the same.

17) “But at least his mother liked her, which is going to be a disaster when she finds out the truth.”- Shame she seems to think Koichi’s actual prospects are way short of managing to snag somebody like Makoto with his best boy charms- hell, it’s a little depressing that she wasn’t fooled at all based purely on that fact rather than falling for it a little. Sure, Koichi’s kinda socially awkward and not the greatest with small talk, but he still managed to score a semi/sorta girlfriend in Pop without even realising it, so he must have something going for him besides the ‘mysterious crime-fighting vigilante’ angle

18) “OH WHAT THE FUCK

WHAT

WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT”-  Dopeslap. Ranged version. On a super-strict mom. And the ease of which she can Koichi fall into this casual display of their family dynamic speaks to long periods of him needing to be ‘corrected’ in a similar manner as a rambunctious kid, and Momchi dearest not quite realising that her little baby boy has grown up enough now that he doesn’t need such a controlling hand in his life anymore, nor such violent ‘correction’ of his flaws and mistakes. Is it any wonder Koichi had such a hard time gaining confidence in himself and his dream of being a hero if this is what his home life was like growing up? 

Izuku at least has Momdoria who supported his optimistic outlook, even though she heartbreakingly also ended up admitting to him that she thought it was impossible for him to be a hero as well, whereas Koichi probably literally never had anybody at home or in school/society that ever honestly believed in his ability to be a hero save Pop, unknowingly, until he met Knuckleduster. Koichi’s struggles with recognising his own self-worth as a capable hero are compounded by Momchi’s inability to see the same in him. It’s almost a similar handicap to Izuku growing up quirkiness- Koichi grew up teaching himself to never try by the expectations and ‘advice’ of those around him.

19) “Alright, you’re that type of mom, okay, I get it… Oh boy, I can’t believe we actually went to my previous comment about “leaving the chapter wanting her to be dead””- Izuku may have Dad for One as his ultimate obstacle in becoming the number 1 hero, but Koichi has to deal with Mom for None, and her quirk, stern disapproval, on his own path, and honestly, I can’t tell which would be the tougher fight, emotionally speaking. @thelreads

[hopeatermeetsgodzilla]

Chapter 7

Ichi shook his head, bits and pieces of ice falling off of him as he dragged himself onto a higher surface. He stood up, looking around him. First order of business: find his brothers. “Ni? San? Where are you?” San needed physical input to situate himself.

[I’m fine, and will be there soon. Just let me warm myself up a bit.] Ichi sent a wave a reassurance to Ni, giving the okay. The weak king wasn’t there (yet) so they could take a second to get their bearings back.

“Uh... look up?” Ichi raised his head in confusion, eyebrows rising up in shock when he saw San, looking down at him from a higher up surface.

“How did you- Get down from here, San!” Ichi yelled, the youngest brother nodding wordlessly and sliding down the slope. He was still giggling to himself when his older brother angrily grabbed his arm and dragged him close.

“Sorry, brother Ichi.” San said with a shrug as Ni came into view. “Hi, Ni! Wow, you look grumpy.”

Indeed, Ni looked even grumpier than usual. [It’s cold and I can barely gather energy and I have a headache from the soundwave and there’s a chunk of ice stuck in my pants-] “I hate it here.” Was what he finally settled on after his psychic tirade. “Can we just go? Maybe sink an island or two with a storm for warmup?”

“We still need to gather enough energy to travel, Ni.” Ichi reminded him, getting a groan from him as he was also dragged close. “Quit complaining, it’ll only take a few hours.”

“We don’t have a few hours.” San suddenly informed his brothers.

Ichi looked at him, looking unimpressed. “And why would that be?”

“Because-” A jet of blue fire suddenly burst out of the ice, startling Ghidorah and making them a few steps back, Ni immediately going to stand before his brothers for defense.

A few seconds later, the weak king emerged, long, wet hair drying in a few seconds from the leftover heat. “Ghidorah.” He hissed.

“... Godzilla.” Ichi answered disdainfully as Ni hissed right back at him and San hid behind his older brother further, shaking.

(Because... the weak king has been patrolling the area since yesterday.) San finally informed them telepathically, an air of resignation hovering over his corner of their telepathic link.

{Why didn’t you say anything earlier!?}

(I tried to yesterday.)

[Brother San.]

(Yeah, what is it?)

[The weak king possibly showing up just after we finally free ourselves is NOT a ‘guess what’ situation!]

(Don’t get angry at me, you’re the one who didn’t want to know anything!)

{Ni, San, now is not the time for bickering.} Ichi cut them off, eyes narrowing at Godzilla. {It looks like we’re gonna have to fight. San: you’re on lookout. Ni: focus on gathering energy while I distract him. The moment it looks like he’s going to attack, I want you to attack right back. Keep him on his toes while I start gathering enough energy to teleport us.}

[How do you know he won’t attack the moment you opens your mouth?] It took Ichi a moment to remember Ni’s psychic powers weren’t nearly as developed as his, but by the time he remembered, San was already half-way through his answer.

(Because he’s tired. Very tired. Quite a bit more than us, actually.)

{Looks like we’re not the only ones who slept while humanity tried to rise above, brothers.} Ichi smiled as he took a step forward, Godzilla growling at him. This should be easy. “Finally came to submit to us?”

“Fuck off with that shit.” Godzilla snapped right back, hair flashing brightly at the outburst. “Here’s your options: you quietly stay here and don’t do shit while I go wake up Scylla and you triple-fucks get frozen again with minimal damage for all parties involved, or I pull out you entrails and skip rope with them.”

[I’m gonna kill him.]

{Patience. Him trying to negotiate proves he’s not in form to fight us right now.} Ichi cackled, making sure all of Godzilla’s attention was on him, and not on Ni who was concentrating, or San who had climbed to a vantage point. “Oh please, you’ve never beaten us on your own before. You’ve always had the help of your little moth, or had slaves following your every orders baiting us.”

None of the Ghidorah were sure Godzilla not jumping them at that was a testament of how tired he was, or of a patience he developed while they were asleep. This said, he did narrow his eyes and bared his teeth, a low growl building up in his throat. “And there’s always three of you trying to fuck everything up.” He noted bitterly. “Doesn’t it get tiring for your brothers to not have free will?” Ichi closed his eyes at that, outrage belonging to his brothers filling his being.

[Did he just-!?]

(That bitch!)

[Alright, how am I killing him? I kind of just want to go for the head.]

(No, draw it out and make him beg for death with how much pain you’re putting him in.) 

[How much pain are we talking about?]

(I’m thinking make lightning run directly through him starting by his gills, and amplify it gradually?)

{Ni, San, while I am loving the both of you indulging in your inner sadists, we have more important things to focus on.}

[At this point, it doesn’t really matter. I’ve gathered enough energy to fight him physically.]

(And he’s on the edge of snapping. You just need to make him a bit angrier.)

{Well, San, we’re standing right in front of him and I’m telling him how weak he is. That used to be enough to make him attack in a blind rage. Do either of you have suggestion?}

[You let me jump him.]

{Very tempting idea, but if you just lunge at him, he’ll be able to counterattack quite easily. San?}

(You either tell him how bad of a king he is, or you tell him how weak his little nap made him.)

{Let’s go with that. Any objections Ni?}

[I’m not going to fight him.]

(Once Ichi is done enraging him, you’ll get your fight.)

[Then, I have no objections.]

Ichi opened his eyes, sneering at Godzilla. “My brothers chose me as our leader. It was an unanimous decision. Which is more than can be said about you.” He tilted his head in mock curiosity. “Tell me, how many of your ‘friends’ follow you out of fear of getting killed like your rivals? And how many would turn against you if they learnt of how weak you had gotten?”

Like always, San could be relied on to tell someone’s weaknesses, Godzilla jumping at them with a furious roar. And like always, Ni could be relief on to defend them, grabbing one of the weak king’s arm and throwing him beyond the ice. Now, to collect energy to get out of here...

-

Godzilla landed on all four, his claws making an horrible sound against the floor. Metal? Humans figured out metal again? Didn’t Battra kill the last ones- He was snapped out of his thought process as Right- because that’s how Godzilla made the difference between them, who stood where when they weren’t fighting- jumped at him, one of it’s legs raised and ready to strike down.

He quickly moved out of the way, Right’s leg leaving a dent in the floor where it struck. He then quickly charged toward Godzilla, lashing out with clawed hands multiple time which his opponent quickly avoided, cackling the entire time. “How the hell have you recovered so fast- ACK!”

Right had changed strategy, raising one of his legs and kicking him in the crotch. He grabbed Godzilla’s face as he started falling forward. Right’s laughter momentarily died out a bit. “I never went to sleep,” Sharp claws started digging into Godzilla’s face, what looked like very thin and very numerous veins lighting up all over Right’s hand, seemingly travelling all the way up to the crescent moon-shaped jewel on his forehead. “So I don’t have anything to recover from.”

Right started laughing again, but his breath was cut short as Godzilla’s kneed him in the stomach, unleashing a pulse of energy right after to get him away before grabbing his braid, dragging him to the ground and trapping him under his foot, a smile appearing on his face for the first time today. “If you think I’m gonna fall for the old energy absorption trick just after you woke up, you’ve got another thing coming!”

But Godzilla was so caught up in the ecstasy of almost killing a Ghidorah… (Uh, Ni? He’s starting to charge his Energy breath. You need to get out from under there.)

[Noted.] … that for a minute, he forgot they were three of them. Right rolled himself onto one of his side as much as he could, only to use the momentum to roll himself onto the other, standing up and barely avoiding Godzilla’s Energy Breath, avoiding it for a few seconds as he ran.

Not because it ended up hitting him, but because Godzilla suddenly stopped, a shocked look on his face. I’m out of energy!?

“Oh...” Right smiled with a mouth full of needle teeth, his hands lighting up. “Out of juice already?” He then raised his arms, and bolts of lightning surged out of his fingers, making Godzilla momentarily blank out out of inexorable pain as he was hit. When it finally stopped, it was because his throat had been grabbed, claws digging painfully into his gills and dragging him at a speed he still couldn’t proceed after the shock. 

And then, Godzilla was thrown into the pool of icy waters in the middle of Ghidorah’s former icy prison, breaking the thin layer of ice that had formed in the meantime and Right cackling the entire time. When he resurfaced, Right was finally calming down, and Middle and Left were floating.

“I thought you wanted to kill him?” Left asked Right as he floated up to join the two others.

He scoffed, giving his hand to Middle for an energy transfer. He was, after all, the one who had been closest to Godzilla’s Energy Breath. “He’s weak and tired. I want a real challenge.”

Godzilla snarled from his position in the water. He didn’t have enough energy left to fire another beam so soon. “You cowards! What are you planning on doing now!?”

Middle cackled, raising one of his arms and releasing a burst of dark energy, the dark hole Godzilla knew they would use to get away starting to form. “Why, resume what we started before you and your slaves trapped us, of course!”

“What you starte- why the hell do you care so much about destroying humans!? They can’t do anything!”

The three of them giggled. “Who do you think freed us, you pathetic reptile!?” Middle asked Godzilla, a cruel smile on his face as the portal behind him grew. “Humans learned how to harvest your voice. Yours and the others who woke up!”

“I must say, your weak little bird friend sure has learned how to project his voice.” Left commented, reminding Godzilla that last time Ghidorah had seen Rodan, he hadn’t moved to Mara, hadn’t become the Voice of Vengeance, hadn’t a massive target painted on his back, hadn’t been beaten down enough by fate that there was a very real chance of him just letting them kill him-

“Humans did not bother with remembering us.” Right continued, the calm and cold and dead tone of his voice contrasting heavily with the shrieking cackles he emitted while fighting him. “And now, they will pay heavily for that mistake. Farewell, soon-to-be former King of Titans.”

And with that, Ghidorah disappeared in the void, leaving Godzilla to wonder just what he had missed for things to spiral out of control like that.

[thelordofdarkreunion]

Tongues of Fire- Empire Week Parade Scene

I assure all of you that I am working most diligently on the Magnificent Scoundrels stories.  Currently, I have two just about finished.  However, I feel bad about not posting anything for a while, so I will give you this.  It is the intro scene of Thomas Drake’s galaxy.  I hope you like it.  If you have any requests for stories, please feel free to ask.  

“One of the strongest natural proofs of the folly of hereditary right in kings, is, that nature disapproves it, otherwise, she would not so frequently turn it into ridicule by giving mankind an ass for a lion.” -Thomas Paine, Common Sense

Vorketh, Capital of the Empire of Prosium

It was Empire Week.  A celebration of all the achievements of the Empire of Prosium; technology, art, architecture, culture, and, definitely the most important to any proud Imperial citizen: military.  It was day one of the celebration, and today, on the broad streets of Vorketh Prime, the capital city of the capital world, the Empire of Prosium gave a military parade for all to see.  People and aliens from throughout the galaxy came to see the main parade of Empire Week.  Quite simply, there was nothing else like it in the known universe.  The entire Imperial Ninth Army would march through the streets, in a massive display of strength that no one else in the galaxy could even hope to match.  Fighters and gunship transports would buzz overhead in perfect formation, while massive ships of the line, this year led by the dreadnought Executioner, could be seen in low orbit above the planet.  The Emperor himself would be present at the ceremonies, as would every single monarch of the various solar systems of the Empire, including King Alderic of the Zerith System.  

Alderic looked across the raised platform along the parade grounds to where the parade would start, the Citadel of Vorkerth.  The sky was a grey color, lit well enough that people could easily see, and quite common on Vorketh, unlike the rich blue sky of Earth, the original homeworld of the human race.  The white stone architecture of the capital streets stood out against the jet black of the world’s massive planetary defense cannons.  He looked around.  There were a great many Federation humans here, enough to outnumber even the other various species the Empire controlled.  Odd, but it mattered little.  There were always a lot of them here.  He sighed to himself.  The Federation.  So argumentative.  So much...lack or purpose.  Everyone within the Empire of Prosium knew what they wanted to become, and if they didn;t, they served in the military.  Although, he himself never wanted to be King of the Zerith System, oddly enough.  But sometimes, circumstances were out of the control of individuals.  

He was generally thought as a handsome man, and many thought he looked like a more rugged version of the Emperor.  He was wearing his full kingly regalia, complete with cloak, crown, and sword.  His various medals hung on his chest, pinned on what the Empire called a tunshi, or a cross between a tunic and a shirt.  Black pants with a gold stripe running vertically down the leg covered his legs, and black dress boots that ran up to the knee protected his calves.  Next to him stood two of his closest friends.  Queen Naatz wore almost the exact same thing as he did, the only difference being she had several different medals than he did, and the crown from the system she ruled had slight variations in the design.  King Wachek had the same base design, but, fitting his personality, it was much more flamboyant.  Everything was styled and hugged his slim form perfectly, and a shorter crown than Alderic or Naatz covered his slicked back blond hair.  At his side was a thin rapier, unlike the heavy medieval-style Imperial Guard swords carried by Alderic or Naatz.  Each of the three monarchs ruled a somewhat mediocre system, not extremely important to the Empire, but not some backwater hovel, either.  This was what originally had brought the three together.  They were no one extremely important within the Council of Monarchs, but they still held some sway.  They were all savvy enough to realize that by banding together, they could get a lot more done than they ever could separate.  That political alliance had, eventually, turned into a fast friendship.  

Wacheck walked over to where Alderic and Naatz stood, carrying a glass of champagne.  He brandished it like it was some long lost priceless work of art.

“Look at this!  French champagne from Earth.  One of the Federation ambassadors brought an entire cargo crate of it for the festivities.  I must say, I think I like it better than any of the stuff we make.”  He took a sip.  “Of course, they’ve had more practice making it.”  He turned a wry smile towards a group of Federation ambassadors, who were talking with the group of high officials clustered around the Emperor.  The entire pavilion was packed with officials from every major government and race in the galaxy, including every human one.  The Federation ambassadors were being, as per their nature, extremely sauve, lavishing compliments upon all of the high Imperial officials.   The Guild officials were, as per their nature, trying to smooth talk several Imperial generals into buying Guild products and weaponry.  And, of course, the Union ambassadors were glowering in the corner.  Several Imperial officials were smirking in their direction.  Typical Union of Equality.  All bark, no bite.  In contrast, the Empire was all bite, no bark.  

What appeared to be a Dracus general approached Alderic’s group.  The Dracus were a warrior race, and had what most humans thought to be the body and legs of a kangaroo sitting on its haunches with the head of a lizard.  They were bipedal, and while they weren’t close allies with the Empire, they respected the Prosium for their martial traditions.  This one was wearing red ceremonial armor, which made it of very high rank.  Alderic couldn’t tell the difference between the male and female of the species, so generally he just asked Dracus their names and used that.  

“Magnificent parade,” he said, in the growly, guttural voice of the Dracus.  Alderic turned to him, or, at least, he thought it was a him, and smiled, careful not to show his teeth.

“Why, that you, General…”

“Itchernicer, King..”

“Alderic.  King Alderic.”  Itchernicer bowed and gave the traditional Dracus hand gesture greeting, moving his fingers to his lips, then his forehead.  He looked like he was about to say something else, but then the loudspeaker cut in.

“Ladies, gentlemen, species from all over the galaxy, the parade is about to begin.  If you or your species has sensitive hearing, you should wear protection.  Enjoy the parade!” With a flourish, the Emperor, flanked by four members of the Imperial Guard, entered the balcony.  The Emperor waved to the crowd, who let out a massive, roaring cheer.  Commander Robert Rorrenbrand, leader of the Guard, was several steps behind the Emperor with two more Imperial Guardsmen.  He was average height, with a rounded, scarred face and short cut black hair.  He was also, Alderic knew, despite his unimpressive looks, quite simply the best soldier in the galaxy.  Some might think these security measures harsh, unreasonable, but those people were not from the Empire of Prosium.  As any loyal citizen will tell you, the Empire never messes around when security is concerned.   

Itchernicer, Alderic, Naatz, and Watchek turned towards the Citadel.  The massive monument, built of white marble, towered over the wide streets.  White marble steps cascaded from the front of the building, lit by the fires of massive braziers.  Massive statues of Imperial Heros, some twenty feet high, towered above the streets.  Every culture had heroes.  Some thought that heroes were people who came up with new technologies, or those who were pious and strove to help others.  Not Prosium.  While all of those were traits and qualities to be admired, the people of Prosium believed that the only way to tell a true hero from all the rest was to forge them on the battlefield.  Only where shot and shell screamed, where man and alien alike died choking on their own blood and crying in agony, could a true hero come forth.  True heroes were those who fought and often died for the Empire.  True heros were not some scheming politician or sniveling scientist who strove to convince everyone that they and they alone were right; true heroes were the ordinary men, women, and aliens who performed insane feats of bravery in places that shred normal people’s sanity.  True heroes were like Private Stebban Wyric, who fought to the last bullet of his handgun to give the battered remnants of his regiment time to fall back from an overwhelming counterattack.  True heroes were the members of the Imperial 414th Army Regiment who fought to the last man and the last round to protect their standard.  True heroes were like Governor Isin Habbic, who volunteered to ram a cargo ship into a terrorist vessel holding a thermonuclear bomb to save his people and planet.�� True heros were like Mary Strolheim, who called in an orbital bombardment on her position to repel an overwhelming enemy force and eventually win the War of Kraken’s Nest.  True heros were the selfless who laid down their lives for their people, and they all had one thing in common.  The exceptionally brave were awarded the medal and title Hero of the Empire, and, if they still lived after their feat, everyone, from the lowest factory worker to the Emperor or Empress themselves would salute them.  And, every single Hero of the Empire had their name, image, and deed emblazoned into the stone walls of the Citadel’s Hall of Heroes, an entire section within the Citadel of Vorketh that was dedicated to the preservation of their legacy and guarded day and night by the elite soldiers of the the Emperor’s personal bodyguard.  Just as the children of the Federation knew the names of human history’s greatest scientists and leaders, and the children of the United Guild of Merchants knew the names of all the great company leaders, and the children of the Union of Equality knew the names of all of Communism’s great heroes and leaders, so too did the children of the Empire of Prosium know the names of most of the Heroes of the Empire.   And it was from the glorious Citadel that housed the Hall of Heroes that the parade began.  

Legions of black uniformed warriors, the dauntless men and women of the Imperial Army’s 9th Army, 56th Regiment, weapons held at the ready, marched in perfect lock-step down the steps of the Citadel.  Massive crimson flags, adorned with the black eagle of Prosium, snaked their way down the buildings bordering the parade ground.  Alderic took in a deep breath of Vorketh’s sweet air.  He was glad to be a part of the Empire.  The sweetness of the air was suddenly snached away, to be replaced by the ozone smell of plasma jets, as a squadron of Naval fighters screamed overhead at a quite frankly alarmingly low altitude.  The crowd cared not, though.  They cheered all the louder at the jets’ arrival.  

The soldiers reached the base of the Citadel, and started to march through the streets themselves.  Loudspeakers placed upon the parade route struck up a military march as the infantry was joined by ranks of vehicles.  Black and grey tanks, armoured carries, and mobile missile launchers drove expertly through the throngs of soldiers, their hatches opened and each commander giving their salute to the Emperor’s box.  Alderic looked around, taking in the entire parade, looking through the clear grey sky at the forms of massive capital ships hoving in low atmosphere.  It was, indeed, a fine day to be a citizen of the Empire of Prosium.