#when I saw the fares I thought it was a glitch and no one was going to o accept the ride because it doesn't vent pay the gas

[boyapologist]

I think the universe just rewarded me for my shitty ASB because I just paid NINE BUCKS for the ride home???? and the driver was literally 4 minutes away, I didn't even wait

[leahnardo-da-veggie]

The Tragedy of Love, Death and Maggots part 2

Part 1

Athena froze, and I saw rage flash across her features. It was dangerous to provoke her, to rip her mask off and reveal the ugly wounds that festered within. I did it anyway, because it was the only way to get her to listen. “Shut up, Doc,” she hissed, earlier cheer evaporated. “Don't you dare talk like that.” 

“Stop that, both of you. The cultists remain a threat to us all. If we don't stop them, they'll eventually become a threat to us again,” Mrin snapped, forcing herself between us. “But we are perfectly capable of keeping an eye out for this new danger while finding their new hideout.”

Brett, who had been uncharacteristically silent, piped up. “Yeah, guys. Please don't fight.” He shifted himself to stand closer to Athena, pressing himself to her scrawny frame. “Things are bad enough without us turning on each other.”

Wrapped around his finger as she was, she acquiesced, settling against him. “I suppose it wouldn't hurt. Go on, Mrin: How did you work out it ain't the cultists?”

Mrin picked up the corpse's floppy wrist. “Look at this tattoo,” she said, gesturing to the familiar mark that stood out amongst bruises.

“The sigil of The One That Lurks Beneath Rotting Flesh,” I said automatically. “A signifier of high ranking amongst the cultists.” I thought through the implications of it. “This was either an inside job or someone who hates cultists, then.”

“If it's the latter, I say we let them get to it,” Athena told me brusquely. “Maybe even find ‘em and help out.”

“We'll see what happens,” I agreed. The thought of siding with anything cruel enough to torture a man, even a cultist man, made my stomach churn. “Come on. I don't think there's anything to do.” 

And so our little spat ended just like all the others, full of unresolvable threats and lingering anger. It simmered under the surface as we gathered rusting cans of food from a stash, when I jostled her arm as we ate dinner, while we lay in bed, silent and seething.

I stared at the cracked ceiling blankly, watching the flickering light overhead. When had I last seen natural light? This place was all concrete and grime, endless electricity fuelling my living hell of insomnia and nightmares.

Mrin was hardly faring any better. Her bedroll was empty, as it often was, for she often meandered her nights away, futilely seeking an escape. Were I younger, I would have followed her, and joined her in that pathetic hunt for freedom. But that was the folly of youth, a folly neither Brett nor Athena had inherited.

They slept curled up in a little ball, snuggled up beside each other. I would never admit it, but I envied their love for each other, the companionship I dared not seek. I watched them silently, arms propping me up, heart heavy.

"They're gonna die here, you know," Mrin said. "They'll die young and in love, without having ever seen the light of day again. They'll die here, and we'll die here, and the cultists will die here. Nobody's winning this game."

"I know," I whispered back. "Aren't you gonna go on your nightly walk?"

"It's pointless. It's always been pointless. It'll always be pointless."

I didn't know how to respond to that.

Taglist:

@coffeeangelinabox, @dorky-pals, @calliecwrites, @kaylinalexanderbooks, @shukei-jiwa

@thewingedbaron, @pluppsauthor, @cowboybrunch, @wylloblr, @possiblyeldritch

@tragedycoded, @finickyfelix, @urnumber1star, @ratedn, @ramwritblr

@vampirelover890, @possiblylisle, @illarian-rambling, @the-ellia-west

@evilgabe29, @glitched-dawn, @rivenantiqnerd, @dragonhoardesfandoms

@drchenquill, @everythingismadeofchaos, @owldwagitoutofyou, @dimitrakies, @beloveddawn-blog

@riveriafalll, @the-golden-comet, @rascaronii, @trippingpossum, @real-fragments

@xenascribbles, @unrepentantcheeseaddict, @the-inkwell-variable

(Anyone else who wants to get added can tell me in the comments, pm me, or send me an ask about it!)

[kvetchinglyneurotic]

I just wanted to pop in and tell you again how much I adored The Hedgehog’s Dilemma and Flightless Birds. Truly they are two of my favorite fics to come out of this fandom. I’m so excited for everything else you’re working on and I just know they’re going to pleasantly destroy me <3

That said, consider this an open invitation to share anything you might want to share! General thoughts, fic ideas you’re working on or not working on, writing snippets, or even how end of semester grading is faring- whatever you want!

Thank you!! It’s still amazing to me that something I’ve written is favourite fic-worthy, especially when there’s so many talented writers in the fandom. As for the end of semester marking: I'm at paper 50/101 and answering this ask to procrastinate before I start my marking for the day. Because the papers are all answering the same prompt and it's making me feel a bit like I'm stuck in a time loop, here's a snippet from Wrong Answers Only from Ted's first day in the time loop, before he realizes it's a time loop — from his perspective, he's just invited Jamie back and is expecting him at Nelson Road, but from Jamie's, they haven't met up yet.

Out in the hall, he opened his call history, but the glitch that was affecting the rest of his phone had got to that and his messages, too. By the time he’d located him between Martin Tanner (one of the boys from his third season coaching) and Laura Taylor (a uni friend who’d gone on to be a surgeon), Ted had wandered his way to the empty weight room and sat on the bench. The ringtone echoed tinnily through the empty space as he waited — one ring, two, three, and then the call connected a second before it dropped. “Coach?” “Hey, Jamie, where are you, bud?” “At— at the studio, you know. ‘Bout to go on Holly and Phil,” Jamie said. He sounded a little quiet, uncertain, same as he’d been at the bar the other day. “They’re, you know. Doing my hair and all. Gotta look fit.” “You gotta do that twice?” Ted asked. A long pause. “No, I— I dunno what you mean, coach.” “Well, you were just on a couple’ve days ago, weren’t you?” Ted said. “No,” Jamie repeated. Ted scrubbed his free hand over his face, filled with a sudden rush of exasperation — he’d really thought Jamie had left all this behind him, the poking and prodding and pushing back against everything Ted said for no other reason than he could. “C’mon, man, I really thought we were getting somewhere.” “You’re the one that sent me back,” Jamie said, sharp. “You think I wanted to go back to City? You saw what my—” he cut off in a choked breath. “I was trying, coach. Why’d you send me away?” Ted’s fingers trembled. He scrubbed them viciously against the fabric of his pants, but when he spoke, his voice came out steady. “Jamie, I invited you back.” “Why’re you still playing mind games?” Jamie asked, plaintive. It was a strange sound on him, and not one Ted was sure he liked. “You won. Just leave me alone. Please, just leave me alone.” And then he hung up.

[stargazer-sims]

If you want to see what the face glitch from the 18 April 2023 patch does to sims, here you go...

Yes, I did quit without saving after I took these screenshots.

Every sim I checked now has transparency/holes inside their mouths and horizontally-compressed teeth. About half of them are cross-eyed in one or both eyes, and a number of them have weird neck, jaw and eye socket deformities.

The glitch is more subtle on some sims than on others, but it seems every sim is affected to some degree.

Also, some people were saying this was not visible in CAS, but clearly it is, because everything with a white background here is from CAS.

______

This is Sachiko. She's now cross-eyed and has holes in her mouth:

And here is what Sachiko looked like before the update (this was around October 2022)

______

My beautiful baby Eden is also now cross-eyed and has holes in his mouth. It also appears that his eyes are sunken into his head, his mouth shrunk, and his teeth overlap horizontally.

This is what Eden looked like before the patch. This is from February 2023, just before I changed his hair from blond to black, and one from right after I changed it to black:

______

Here's poor Victor, whose face looks like it's being sucked into a vortex. It looks like the entire lower half of his head has shrunk. He also has the holes in his mouth and horizontally compressed teeth. Not gonna lie, I almost cried when I saw him.

Weirdly though, Yuri is mostly fine, except for holes in his mouth and compressed teeth as well.

This is Victor a few weeks ago, before the patch:

_____

Anya, with crossed eyes and holes in her mouth. She's not too bad, but still affected.

And here is before the patch Anya. With her, the change in the eyes is subtle, but it's definitely there.

______

Davey is cross-eyed too, and lost the gap between his teeth. He also has holes in his mouth, but they're hard to see due to the angle of this screenshot and his wild hair.

This is what Davey looked like before the update:

visible tooth gap before the update:

______

The glitch affects occult sims too, or at least it affects aliens. I think Maxan fared the worst of any of my sims. Like Victor, it appears his face is being sucked into a vortex and his head has been shrunk. He has the most noticeable holes in his mouth. He's also got some weird little stray vertices coming out of the center of his upper lip/gums. At first I thought this was because his teeth are CC, so I switched them for some base game teeth, and the same thing was still going on. His eyes are messed up too, although it's a bit harder to tell on him than on the human sims.

Unfortunately, I don't have any before pics of Max on hand. They're on a flash drive that I saved from my old computer. But, I think the deformity is pretty obvious on him without a before and after comparison.

ETA//

I found some before pictures of Maxan:

[birdkittenn]

continuing where i left off

wrath layer fic chapter 2 reaction:

once again, author's notes reaction. i found the details tag from a tumblr post once and decided id stash the info away until i could use it somewhere. and that turns out to be here

yeah. feral little guy who wants to kill and murder but stopped by the guy who isnt feral

everything is gayer from v2's pov, who has already realized his feelings and trying so hard and failing at getting rid of his crush on this stupid blue fuck

and then i have little thoughts on the little v1-sentry interaction. it's there i guess. v1 the undersocialized little guy who only knows how to kill panicking because if not kill, then what do?? the fact that there's a Lot of people didnt help

oh the v1 trauma scene. im dreading a little at rereading this, i dont think it was good >-<

first, from current v1's pov, who has forgotten what has happened. this reads fine honestly

and now with the memory. the last line in the center is part of v1 realizing that its stuck in a loop and deleting the memory. so far with how i've written it, v1 does Not fare well when realizing it failed an order/task/anything. it does better at not marking things as failure now but it still handles it poorly

current idea that im not 100% sure will make it into the series is that memory deletion does not mean deletion of like, feelings. the stress is Still There. which. you know. if v1 suddenly finds itself in a loop where it keeps deleting its memories, and thereby placing it back into the exact same situation each deletion, the stress just continues building up and. yeah

not sure how i feel about the fact that, so far, my pre-canon characterization of v1 and v2 is that v1 is the most anxious thing that loves to kill ever, and v2 is like...there. v2 going "wow, its so easy being an unfeeling machine" [proceeds to not even realize he is experiencing feelings]. v2 is very stressed when he learns that he has feelings like everyone else. deals poorly with having them. v1 is just always stressed the fuck out though. i guess it's like a cheetah or something

word of the author means nothing btw if its not in the series. everything can change at any time i just like talking about my current plans

v1's reaction to conflict like this! it doesn't want to talk about that at all and gets angry if you try. the anger comes from something like fear though

ok the drawing scene! i struggled with explaining the concept behind it a little. i looked up an image of a lighthouse and mentally broke stuff down into shapes and then tried to describe that as best as i could

if i have to be completely honest, the idea of robots being Very Good at just tracing art and doing realistic art, but struggle more with the abstract stuff comes from this fic. i havent finished reading it nor do i really remember a lot of stuff anymore these days but that was 1 of the scenes that stuck out to me. another scene that sticks out to me is the part where sun tries to describe his favourite colour, but its a very specific colour, guy probably has the hex code for it and all, and tries really hard to recreate that exact colour. its cool i need to reread if i ever get the time. 107 chapters got hands

ivan aivazovsky! i wanted one of his wave paintings specifically because the first time i saw it, i went WOAH and so i knew i had to use one of his paintings for my yaouri fic. and then the part where their conversation drifts away from the drawing topic is because i ran out of things to say and also i needed them to move onto the next thing i wanted them to do

oh, the voice thing is next! v2's voice is perfectly fine by the time of the 7-3 fic, but in the 4-4 fic, it was fucked up. i needed a reason as to why v2 would restore his voice and the answer is v1 just likes it. v1 likes to listen to him a lot. it also likes to make him shut up but like lovingly

oh, from one of the glitched text, i transcribed "play nice" as "pʰle͡j na͡js" partly from that 1 time i took a linguistics course and they made me transcribe those sounds as e͡j etc instead of whatever online dictionaries transcribe it as, and then that just stuck with me. i also had a moment while transcribing "play" as like hey wait a minute! air releases when i pronounce the p in play, so i should add the symbol for that

i have that outfit in my closet! no pictures but i know exactly what it looks like. sadly have been unable to find an image that looks like my dress online

i have also had a scene where once v2 finally dresses up v1, his pet name for it is just doll. like. yeah. i havent found an excuse to get v2 to do that though

(v1 is just laying down on a couch during this scene)

oh yeah i had v1 teasingly call v2 a sculpture but didn't know exactly how to get it to do that. i mean i figured it out but yeah. i dont know if this was a planned thing that never came to fruition or something i made the fuck up just now (memory not the best) but they wouldve played around a bit with the actual sculptures in the room and comparisons wouldve been made

aaand that's the end of the chapter. i dont have any further thoughts on this

and the below screenshot is the alternate petting scene where v2 overheats. i instead moved the overheating to the next chapter. v2 cannot handle this amount of affection (yet) (he unwillingly gets trained to tolerate more before he gets far too happy about it and ceases to like function for a bit) (thanks v1)

who wants to see me liveblog my reaction to my own fic

[sablelab]

Covert Operations - Chapter 123

SYNOPSIS: Claire wonders if Jamie’s visit really happened last night or if she was dreaming. Going stir crazy in Med Lab she asks Dr Foster when she may be discharged and is surprised when Jamie visits her again.  He discusses her condition with the Doctor and they both keep up the facade they discussed the night before.  As expected and true to form Madeline and Operations do arrive in Med Lab with their decision about Jamie and Claire’s rehabilitation.

Chapter 122 and all other chapters can be found at … https://sablelab.tumblr.com/covertoperations

THANK YOU all for your support of my writing of this story.  I love reading your impressions of what I have written and I appreciate you taking the time to do so. I hope that over the next few weeks or months as I plan out the last scenario that you will continue to enjoy Covert Operations especially over this extra-long Droughtlander.

  CHAPTER 123 Laying in her hospital bed Claire’s mind started to play tricks on her. She started having self-doubts about last night wondering if Jamie’s visit was just a dream. She pinched herself hoping that she would find that it wasn’t a dream but that it had really happened. Jamie had been here … she’d seen him with her two eyes, touched him, kissed him, talked to him all under Section’s nose without discovery. These fanciful thoughts were superfluous for the reality was that her love had indeed been in her room. The fact that Jamie had been able to do so, made her realise to what lengths he would go to achieve his mindset. She marvelled at his tenacity in being able to pull off his late-night sojourn with Fergus’ help without being found out. But knowing Jamie, she was not surprised that he was able to do what he did. Her only worry was that there could be a glitch and they would be found out. No doubt she would find out soon enough when Madeline and Operations finally came to see them.

Suddenly the voice of her doctor roused her from her reflections.  “Good morning Claire. How are you feeling today?” he asked in his usual upbeat way. Opening her eyes, she sat up in bed with a bored expression on her face. Dr Jeremy Foster had just started his rounds and had surprised her with his greeting. Claire looked at him and saw a slight smile on his face as he expressed his amusement at his patient’s behaviour. “Ah, I see that you are better judging by that scowl,” he replied ignoring her facial reactions while reading her paperwork for the day. Claire folded her arms across her chest. “When do you think I’ll be able to leave Med Lab? I’m going stir crazy in here.” Things were certainly getting better then. This morning he’d come across a grumpy looking woman who although battle scared was biting at the bit to leave. A muffled chuckle was her answer.

“Oh my, Claire … and here I thought you were enjoying seeing my smiling face each day.” “I do but …” “But you want out of here. Yes?”  “Yes.” “Well … it could be soon but don’t get your hopes up. It all depends on Operations and Madeline.” Claire bit her bottom lip steeling her inner thoughts about Section’s leaders and trying to be positive by remembering Jamie’s parting words.  Be patient … It will happen Claire … We will be together. 

Holding her arm out so that her blood pressure could be taken, she tilted her head back to stare up at the ceiling as Dr Foster continued to take her obs. Her mind was reeling with a combination of happy and cautious thoughts. Her impatience at not knowing when she and Jamie would be discharged was starting to get to her. Suddenly the pain from her wounds was telling … but it wasn’t the physical wounds that manifested themselves it was the hidden ones that she’d buried deep within her psyche. She grimaced but held back the moan that threatened to escape, instead repeating over and over again in her head, “We will be together. We will be together.” Claire knew that she needed Jamie’s touch, his love and support to erase all of her demons. Dr Foster watched the emotions that crossed his patient’s face.  He could see that she was struggling with her situation at the moment.  In fact, he was a little worried that if Section’s leaders failed to implement his recommendations that his patient might very well take much longer to recover.  Not only that, but Claire may even be taken off the continuation of the mission if her mental wellbeing didn’t improve.

Clearly, she still bore mental scars of her incarceration. Having been subjected to prolonged torture Claire was still emotionally drained although physically she was doing fine. However, there was obviously something that was causing her pain. It only reiterated in his mind that she needed to be in an environment that was conducive to a complete physical and mental recovery and the sooner the better. Section One’s leaders needed to come to the same conclusion as well. Madeline and Operations had been sitting on their hands for far too long. If they didn’t release both her and Jamie soon, he would have to speak with them again and plead their case despite the consequences should they disagree.  “Well everything is looking good Claire. I’m optimistic that you’ll be out of here before the end of the week.” “Whoopee.” Jeremy Foster gave her a reassuring grin and replied tongue in cheek. “You’re such a model patient … I’ll be sorry to see the back of you.” Claire was about to answer but they both looked up when they heard the sound of the automatic doors woosh open. She suddenly felt her body go into overdrive at the sight of the visitor walking through the glass-panelled doors. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Seeing who the person was, Dr Foster turned towards James Fraser as he made his way into the room. His eyes widened a little when he’d appeared but he was not at all surprised to see Jamie there. Both of his patients had indeed made excellent progress despite their horrific injuries and it was testament to their training and conditioning that had held them in good stead. The two operatives looked as though they were physically recovering quickly. Jeremy Foster was amazed at how well Jamie’s prognosis had gone. The man was a machine and despite the uncertainty a few days ago, it certainly was remarkable how he was healing.  Turning to look at Claire he stated the obvious. “I see you have a new visitor.” He then walked over to where Jamie was standing and spoke to his other patient. “It’s good to see you up and about Jamie. How are you feeling?” “I’m fine,” was his patent James Fraser answer. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

However, Claire wasn’t fine. She took some deep calming breaths as she stared down at her hands. They were trembling. Her heart was thumping riotously within her chest as she tried to retain her composure, but it was difficult when she was having heart palpations knowing that he was here again. She cast a glance at Jamie when Dr Foster’s back was turned. Her mouth was suddenly dry and she tried to moisten her lips with the tip of her tongue. Her skin felt clammy to the touch, then it felt the opposite, as she stared at the man she loved as he spoke with Jeremy Foster. Memories of last night were as vivid now as could be. She also felt a little bit nervous but at the same time overwhelmed to see him back again so soon. 

Whatever would she say to him? How could she stop herself from revealing her emotions when her heart was doing flip flops in her chest?  How could she keep her feelings from showing?  Jamie had said people would see it in their eyes. She needed to be cool, calm and collected in front of Dr Foster but more so in front of Operations and Madeline should they turn up today. 

Taking a deep breath to compose herself, she glanced up into the eye of the surveillance camera. Knowing that the video surveillance would be monitoring their every word and actions, she needed to have self-control. Lowering her eyes in an effort to draw some air back into her lungs, she hoped that she could do this and more.  ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“That’s good, but I’m afraid the patient is not in the best frame of mind today. Perhaps your visit will change her disposition.”  Jamie felt a faint smile tug at the corner of his mouth at Dr Foster’s remark about his Sassenach. He knew exactly how she was feeling. He couldn’t wait to get out of here either. However, knowing that this was supposed to be their first visit he asked, “How are her injuries doctor?”  “As you know, they were extensive and it was lucky that you got back to Section when you did … for both of you. Fortunately, Claire’s wounds will heal and fade with time with no apparent scaring. With rest and rehabilitation, she should be back to full health in no time.”  “I see.” Lowering his voice a little so that Claire couldn’t hear Dr Foster continued. “Her physical injuries are healing quite well Jamie. It's the hidden ones that are a worry.”  The insinuation belying his words struck a chord with Jamie. He was well aware of Claire’s state of mind and he intended to do something to fix that. “I understand.”  Jeremy Foster passed a quick intense glance at James Fraser knowing that as her trainer, mentor and partner he would know exactly what he was alluding to. He then raised his voice once more.

“Good. I'll be back in a short while. I’ll let you two have some time alone to catch up.” His parting words however, were a caution that they were not totally alone. “Should you need anything while I’m gone Patrick will help you.”  Jamie cast a look to where Patrick Mullins, the Med Lab tech was on duty working quietly in the far corner of the room.

“Thank ye.”  ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ When Jamie had entered Claire’s room, he’d seen Dr Foster hovering at her bedside on his morning rounds. He had hoped that the doctor would be there so that he could ask about Claire and how she was faring. Jeremy Foster had only reconfirmed what he’d already deduced himself … all that was needed was for Operations and Madeline to give them the green light for some recovery time. His eyes were drawn to his Sassenach and he began to walk over slowly towards her bed.  He leisurely trailed his hand along the starched white sheet just as he’d done last night when he’d approached as she slept. Jamie could see that she was nervous at his appearance but having discussed a strategy to deal with her feelings in the wee hours before dawn he knew that she would follow his lead should Madeline and Operations visit this morning too. He came closer until he stood by her bed. They looked at each other for a moment in silence but Jamie could see that his Claire’s face was riddled with thoughts of trepidation for what the day may hold.  His eyes widened slightly before he turned to speak to Patrick Mullins, the Med Lab technician, working inconspicuously in the room. Jamie decided that he would prefer some modicum of privacy to speak with Claire.

“Will ye excuse us, please?”  Taking in the situation the technician looked at the Level 5 operative. He was not at all surprised by this request. Nodding in compliance Patrick carefully put away the vials he had been handling, and quickly left the room leaving Jamie and Claire alone except for the surveillance cameras’ impersonal stare.  Waiting until the orderly had closed the door behind him, Jamie made sure to keep his back to the video surveillance cameras before he spoke to Claire. Although they would catch their every word, he could prevent them seeing his facial expressions. Jamie’s voice was impersonal, but his eyes conveyed for a split second that he wanted to pull her to him and hug her tightly.

“How are ye feeling?” To both of their ears he showed enough concern for her welfare but with a tone that could not be misinterpreted by anyone watching for anything more than that. Jamie had no doubt that this first visit would have been anticipated and that they were being monitored very closely to gauge appropriate or inappropriate behaviour between the two of them by Section’s leaders. He was confident that they would have a visit from Madeline and Operations shortly knowing that he was here visiting Claire.  She could feel Jamie’s gaze roaming over her face and reciprocated with a wry smile, “Oh, I’m fine, just a little swollen and … bored.”  “So, Dr Foster said.” Folding her arms defensively across her chest, Claire’s eyes studied Jamie with just enough concern for his situation. He still looked magnificent this morning like he did last night. In her mind’s eye she caressed his frame once more before resting them on his bandages. He too was dressed in his standard white undershirt for Med Lab and to her eyes, he looked magnificent and oh, so sexy. “How's your wound?” “It's all right.”  “You look good for someone who has gone through a major operation.” “I’ve been better … but I’m fine.” “That’s good.” ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ However, before they could continue any more banal conversation, Jamie happened to glance towards the room’s glass door. His sudden distraction caused Claire to glance that way as well to see what had captured his curiosity. Section One’s leaders, Madeline and Operations, were in the corridor speaking to Jeremy Foster.  The two operatives passed a quick look between each other. Finally, they would know their fate. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ The sound of the Med Lab doors opening once more captured Jamie and Claire’s attention as Madeline, Operations and Dr Foster all entered the room. With an effort Jamie pulled his gaze away from Claire knowing that their time would eventually come, but for now he was the perfect cold operative. He turned towards Section’s leaders as they came closer to her bed and watched as Madeline’s cool gaze took in his bearing before resting them on the patient.  Casting her astute eye over him standing at Claire’s side, Madeline folded her arms across her chest before meeting his eyes again. "Ah, Jamie … I see you are up and about.”  She took in his bandaged chest wound, white scrub-type pants and white tank top. Madeline noticed his pale face, deep under the eye circles, but it was Jamie’s demeanour that caught her attention the most. She knew that determined posture. Section’s cold operative was standing in front of them giving them little to go on. His eyes were guarded; his stance was that of a mentor’s aloof concern for his material's wellbeing and nothing more. Not only that but it seemed that James Fraser had turned the corner and that his recovery was imminent. Madeline cast an enigmatic glance towards Operations.  “You must be feeling better,” he added. Acknowledging their presence Jamie nodded in his succinct way being careful to sound reserved in his reply. “Aye … I am.” He watched Operations’ face at his response, then moved away from Claire’s bed to stand at the back of the room. “Good.” ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ The two leaders then turned their attention towards Claire observing her as she sat up in bed. Without turning to Dr Foster who was standing behind them Madeline asked, “How is she doing?"  Claire felt on edge at the look her superior gave her. Despite Madeline’s apparent detached interest, it was as if she was sizing her up while her nervous anticipation had everything to do with what Section’s leaders would decide. Claire smoothed the sheet across her body and surreptitiously glanced at those around her bed. She knew that whatever Dr Foster had to say about her condition may affect any decision that Madeline and Operations might make about her recuperation away from Med Lab.  “Claire’s much better.” Operations cleared his throat and spoke to Dr Foster. "What do you think? Is she able to be discharged?” Both Jamie and Claire pricked up their ears at what the doctor might say.  The physician considered his question for a moment then turned towards the two leaders. “My professional opinion is yes. I think that Claire is ready to leave Med Lab. I can do no more for her medically. Recuperation is what she and Jamie both need now.”  Jeremy Foster saw the two leaders exchange a surprised yet compliant look at his opinion as if they too had already come to the same conclusion.  “So, what you’re saying is that both Jamie and Claire should be discharged.” “Yes. I see no reason to keep them here under observation any/ much longer. Both operatives have continued to improve much faster than anticipated and could be released as early as/ the end of the week tomorrow morning. They certainly would benefit from time away from this environment to enhance their healing.” Operations seemed to have been put on the spot by the doctor’s candid reply. He cast a look Jamie’s way, then shot Madeline another frosty glance as if to say he’d been checkmated and didn’t like it, before turning to address Dr Foster once more. “And how much time would be needed for their recovery?”  The doctor was taken aback by Operations’ question. He was sure that Section’s leaders would have already discussed this before coming to Med Lab. He was at a loss how to proceed in case he said something he shouldn’t.

“Excuse my impertinence sir, but Madeline and I have discussed this at length.” And so too had Section One’s leaders. Madeline noticed that Operations’ manner was noticeably restrained even though he was well versed in her reasons for granting Jamie and Claire downtime and had agreed that it was the way to go. However, despite the pros and cons of her arguments, he was obviously still not 100% in favour of the proposal. She cast Dougal a reserved glance.

He ignored her look. It gnawed at him that Madeline knew him so well. It was as if she could read his mind and knew his thought patterns before he did so himself.  Glaring at Dr Foster with obvious irritation he was resigned to the fact that the doctor’s answer would be the same as what Madeline had suggested. Nevertheless, he was hoping that he would say a couple of days. “Just answer the question.”  “A couple of weeks should be sufficient sir.” “I see.” To appease Dougal’s reservations and concerns about the Rising Dragons’ mission Madeline asked, “Will they have recuperated enough by then to return to the mission?” “I see no reason why not.” Satisfied that the assignment would not be prolonged or compromised any further Operations replied succinctly, “Two weeks and not a day more.” ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ James Fraser stood like a sentinel overseeing the current proceedings, reserved in his manner but vigilant in his deportment. Both he and Claire took in the conversation that had occurred between Dr Foster, Operations and Madeline, knowing that a decision for them was imminent. He waited for the green light from Section’s leaders but it was still not a fait-accompli that they would be given downtime for recuperation. However, it was obvious by Operations’ reaction, that no matter how reluctant he was about granting them time, his sole focus was on the Rising Dragons’ mission and how their absence would affect the end game that he so wanted.  He also observed Claire.  Her shoulders became tense as though she was bracing herself for whatever Section’s head strategist would say. Normally when operatives had been in Med Lab, like she had, they were transferred to Level 3 for reprogramming under a new instructor especially when an operative had been out for some time. However, Jamie doubted that they would do this in their case, because both he and Claire were vital to the success of the Rising Dragons’ mission. Madeline also liked to conduct a psyche analysis on any operative who had been incarcerated and tortured to test their suitability for reinstatement to an important mission to see if they could still meet Section's standards. Jamie knew they both would be subjected to some form of psyche analysis at some time. No doubt Madeline had planned for such a situation but the question was … when would she conduct it … before or after downtime?  ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Turning to address James Fraser and then Claire, Madeline stated succinctly, “You'll both stay in Observation for the rest of the day as Dr Foster has outlined.”  Jamie nodded in approval as he walked towards his superiors. “Then you'll be discharged in the morning.” Jamie’s face was blank and Claire’s eyes were wary of Madeline’s next statement, as if anticipating the worse. Although a wry smile bowed her mouth it failed to reach her eyes. “Operations and I have also decided to grant the two of you some downtime away from Section One for recuperation.”  To Jamie and Claire’s ears her words lacked sincerity but it was nothing more or less than what they expected from Section’s head strategist. Madeline always played her cards close to her chest. Not only that, but ulterior motives were always laced with any favour granted. There would be payback for the two of them. Madeline scrutinized the both of them to gauge their reaction to what she’d told them. None was forthcoming except a concise “Thank you” from Jamie.  Operations stared intently at his best cold operative for a few seconds. His facial features registered his inner thoughts about this whole process, they tightened, his eyes were intense and his words were terse and concise. “We have also deferred your debrief of the mission until you have returned from your downtime.” His superior gave Jamie another telling look. “However, I will expect a comprehensive and thorough report from you on my desk when you return to Section.” Their eyes locked briefly in a taciturn exchange before Jamie tilted his head in compliance. “I understand.” Diffusing the impasse situation between the two men, Madeline brought matters to a close. “Enjoy your downtime. Use it wisely to rest and recover for once you return to Section One we expect the both of you to immerse yourselves in the Rising Dragons’ mission without reservation.” “Of course,” Jamie replied in his monotone manner refusing to give Madeline the satisfaction of seeing that her words had not been lost in translation when reading between the lines.  Operations and Madeline didn’t respond further, but they looked at Claire once more, before exiting Medical, leaving Jamie alone with her again. They heard Dr Foster address them as he walked them out of Med Lab. “I’ll arrange for their discharge first thing in the morning then?” “Yes … see to it.” ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Two weeks. Remembering where she was Claire looked around the room cautiously as she sat in her bed. Her eyes lowered as she contemplated what had just happened. A gamut of emotions was rioting through her system as it finally dawned on her that both she and Jamie had indeed been given downtime. As hard as she tried not to smile, she couldn’t and a broad beam of happiness crossed her face. She dared to glance up at Jamie who had once again placed himself in a position that hid the surveillance cameras from capturing her mood. They looked at each other for a moment in silence their eyes locking together. Jamie saw the emotions cross her face and his eyes widened slightly in understanding. “Are we really going to be able to have downtime together on the outside?”  Jamie said nothing but his eyes gave her the answer she wanted to hear. Claire sighed in contentment, biting her lip in an achingly familiar way. Her blue eyes suddenly beamed with such emotion that the breath caught in his throat. Anticipation, longing, desire and happiness were all gleaming on her features and to Claire’s bewilderment were reciprocated in Jamie’s intense gaze. Two weeks. It was a lifetime to them. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~to be continued TUESDAY 26th May

[breakingsomething]

the fall part eight - in which magic is dangerous

basic summary: magic is a dangerous thing to mess with when you don't understand it.

trigger warnings: vomit, violence

tagslist: @synonymsforzombie @spicydanhowell @skyewardlight @dreaming-of-stories-and-stars @cest-mellow

anti was starting to think running away from the hospital hadn't been a good idea.

he didn't even know how he'd done it. the whole hospital was crawling with magicians, magic in every fucking corner… and anti was a murderer. they knew this. he shouldn't have been able to escape so easily. yet somehow, here he was. wandering around the streets and trying not to be sick again. throwing up hurt so, so badly these days.

anti groaned and grabbed at a wall with his good hand, skin scraping against the stone. his fingers were too numb to even feel it properly. his head pounded, like someone was hitting him repeatedly with a mallet. or a baseball bat. fuck, but he didn't want to think about red and the music shop right now. he didn't want to think about it even before red had beaten him. he didn't want to think at all, really.

anti was a virus of a person - literally. he had never been sick before in his life. now, he clutched the wall behind him tighter, head spinning as bile rose in his throat. it was all he could do not to faint there and then. funny, he laughed internally, how he'd been feeling ok right up until he escaped. of course it would be now that it would hit him. just his fucking luck.

a person walked by - a man in a thick jacket carrying a skateboard. anti struggled to move, to hide himself, but the man… walked right by. anti watched him go in amazement. had he not noticed the half dead looking man coughing and leaning against a wall for support? maybe not. this was brighton, after all. anti didn't expect much more.

but then more people went back and forth, and not one of them noticed anti. his legs gave out beneath him and he sank to the ground, panting. a woman stepped over his legs.

what the fuck was happening?

this wasn't right. as anti stared up at the people, he noticed how despite their seemingly normal appearances, they all had one thing in common. blank eyes. but as he took the time to keep watching, he saw something else. from far away, the people looked completely normal. it was only as they drew near to anti that their eyes blanked out like they'd forgotten how to see.

maybe they thought he was homeless, anti thought drily. this was pretty much how the general public treated you when they thought you were begging for money. but this seemed different from the usual uncomfortable looking away and awkward avoided eye contact. it was like… they literally couldn't see anti.

he dragged himself to his feet. stumbling into the middle of the pavement, he tried to get someone's attention. most people walked by him, not even giving him a glance. what the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck, anti's thoughts screamed. he had to glance down at himself to make sure he hadn't turned invisible.

"'scuse me, sir?" anti glanced up to see a teenage girl with a buzzcut and a black tracksuit peering up at him curiously, holding a white greggs bag in hand. "uh, are you… ok? you're really pale, are you hurt?"

she could see him. how, he didn't know, but fuck if he wasn't grateful. he shook his head, suddenly realizing he had no idea what he was going to do now.

the girl took a bite of her sausage roll, not taking her eyes off anti. "do you need money for train fare or something? you look a bit lost, man."

a few people behind the girl slowed as they passed, and a few of them made eye contact with anti. confused looks spread across their faces before slipping away the second they weren't looking anymore. that was weird. that was very weird. anti's heart was fucking racing, though whether it was caused by fever, dehydration or stress, he didn't know.

the girl saw him looking and glanced behind at the people. "are you looking for someone?"

anti shook his head again. the girl scrubbed at her nose, shifting from foot to foot. "is there anything i can do to help? sorry if i'm bothering you. my day's been pretty boring and i figured if i could help you, i would. do you need anything?"

anti was about to reply when the girl glitched.

she glitched. there was no doubt about it. a solid ripple of neon colour ran through her, static briefly spiking as her body distorted out of place before returning to its original position. anti made a noise of shock deep in his throat before clamping a hand to his mouth, backing away slightly.

the girl frowned. "you ok, man?"

anti turned and fled. he pushed past people on the street, not once hearing anyone telling him to watch it or anything of the likes. eventually he collapsed on a bench next to a bus stop, gasping and wheezing and clutching at his stomach. don't be sick, don't be sick, don't be - too late. anti wished the bins didn't have lids over them, but hey, maybe that was a plus to seemingly being invisible to everyone but some random child. no one was drawing attention to anti vomiting on the pavement in front of them.

he laid down across the bench, shivering. he should definitely be thinking about what he was gonna do now that he'd escaped from the magicians. he should probably, definitely do that.

but all he could do was squeeze his arms around himself and wait for his head to stop spinning.

-

"i'm going out," marvin said as he raced down the stairs from his room to the main hall. chase and henrik were both in the kitchen, surprisingly. he'd have thought they'd be avoiding each other like they had been since the fight. chase was sitting on the counter drinking something hot, eyes rimmed red. he didn't look up. henrik glared at marvin from the sink where he was washing dishes.

"off to see anti?" he said scathingly, tone dripping with contempt. marvin resisted the urge to roll his eyes. he was trying to get back in henrik and chase's nice books, and he figured being patient would help.

"anti's missing," he said instead. the reaction in the other two was instantaneous. henrik dropped a cup to the floor, and chase almost fell off the counter.

"m-missing?" henrik choked out. he slumped down on his knees, trying to pick up the glass with soapy hands. "where - he - he wouldn't -"

"hey, calm down," marvin soothed, racing forward to help henrik with his task. chase jumped down and joined him, the three of them working together. "he's still sick, he won't come here. most likely he's just being a big bitch and thinks he can get away from hecate so they don't try to contain him after he's better. but he's too sick to do much now, i swear."

"oh yeah, you'd know," henrik muttered. his eyes were shining, tears teetering on the edge.

then chase spoke for the first time marvin had heard in about two days. "do you know where he is?"

marvin blinked, scooping up the glass into a dustpan and standing to get a bag to put it in. "uh, we don't know," he said. "they don't know how he escaped either. the hospital is high security, given that the medical aspect of hecate is based there. he shouldn't had been able to just - walk out."

"are you… going to try and find him?" chase asked uncertainly.

marvin hesitated. "uh, i suppose." he dumped the glass into the bag, crouching back down next to his brothers. "i don't have much choice."

"no!" henrik gasped. he grabbed at marvin's arms, clutching his sleeve tightly. "no, no, he's dangerous, you can't!"

marvin gently pulled away. "he could hurt someone else if i don't stop him," marvin said softly, taking henrik's hands in his. "i can't just stand by and let that happen. i'm gonna find him, return him to hecate, and -"

"and what?" henrik demanded. the tears spilled over, and he angrily wiped them away. "what if he hurts you? i - marvin, as angry as i am at you, i don't want you to d-die!"

he doubled over, digging his hand into his mouth to stop his sobs from escaping. chase rubbed his back before looking up at marvin with a determined gaze.

"i'm coming with you," he said, raising his chin slightly. marvin was about to protest, but chase raised a hand. "you can't go alone. i don't want you hurt somehow, even if you think anti's too sick to hurt you. he's a liar and a convincing actor. i mean… look at my children." he winced, most likely remembering how anti had lied to his kids to get them to trust him. "if it'll help put henrik's mind at ease, i'll go."

"that wouldn't put my mind at ease at all!" henrik cried. "then he'll kill the both of you!"

marvin and chase exchanged looks, trying to come to a silent agreement. then they turned back to henrik. "we'll be ok," marvin promised. "i take it you want to stay here?"

henrik sniffled, nodding slowly. he took a trembling breath as chase helped him to his feet. "if that's ok," he mumbled. "i don't think i can face him right now."

marvin and chase left about five minutes later, having reassured henrik that they'd be ok and cleaned up the rest of the floor. as soon as they closed the front door behind them, marvin cleared his throat. "ok, uh… so. i guess we'll just… i know a couple tracking spells, but they never worked as well with anti since he's so good at scrambling transmissions, magical or not. although maybe now that he's sick, he won't be able to -"

"you didn't think about this at all in advance, did you?" chase asked. marvin turned to look at him, and chase raised an eyebrow.

"no," marvin mumbled, glancing in the opposite direction. "but i'm responsible for anti and everything he does now. i have to be the one to find him."

"can hecate not track him?" chase asked. "isn't that sort of their thing?"

"they're not - hecate doesn't just track magic," marvin explained. he raised a hand and muttered some words under his breath, feeling the sudden pull of magic in his chest. so the spell was working - that was something, at least. "they control it. they find magicians and watch over them, train them to use magic better, all under the guise of a rich people's golf club. they're partially based in the hospital as well - the one nearest to us, luckily." he beckoned for chase to follow him down a nearby street. "they've saved my ass many times."

"but you left," chase said, keeping up with marvin easily. "because they… don't do black magic?"

"because… yeah, basically." the signal was fading, and marvin spun round on the spot, struggling to pick it up again. "hecate apparently doesn't do black magic at all, although you can learn things about it so that you know not to use it. there are certain black magics that are illegal, such as necromancy, certain hexes, ect, ect. lots of shit. and i will admit, i used to do a lot of that stuff. but not now. i hid away all my magics - that is, until jackie gave it away to some other random fucking organization, apparently."

they were silent for a little while, marvin simply following the spell and chase trailing behind quietly. it was a while before marvin decided to speak again.

"i'm sorry about the fight," he said, voice low. "i know how - we shouldn't have gotten you involved. it was stupid and wrong and we were being immature. i'm sorry."

chase didn't answer. he was hugging himself and rubbing his arms, which to anyone else would look normal, but marvin knew was something chase did when he was anxious and needed to soothe himself. the older man placed a gentle hand on chase's shoulder. "are you still upset? or is it… something else?"

"i dunno," chase mumbled. he flinched away from marvin's touch. "i just - i miss… i miss jackie. and jamie. i miss jackie so, so bad and i can't accept that he'd just… that he'd ever hurt us like that." he blinked rapidly, voice breaking. "and jamie, i - i - he - he never even said goodbye!"

he let out a choked sob but quickly pulled himself together, breathing in deep and stroking his arms. marvin wondered when chase had learned to self soothe so well.

he inhaled through his nose, swallowing hard. "i miss 'em too," marvin whispered, voice hoarse. "more than - more than i can explain."

"i know you do," chase said. "jackie was like your twin. and you were closer to jamie than all of us. i know this - this hurts more for you. and i know i'm kind of being selfish right now."

"you're allowed to be upset too," marvin said, and he bumped chase's arm lightly. "we all loved them."

luckily, neither man had to say more, as marvin's spell sputtered and gave out underneath his fingertips.

"well, fuck," he said, after a pause. "where are we now? i wasn't paying attention."

"high street," chase said, peering round a corner. "near the academy. is anti near here, then? we're not super close to the hospital."

"let's hope he's here," marvin said, pulling chase across the street. "and start looking."

-

henrik was fucking fuming.

he'd been pacing the living room for about ten minutes trying to calm himself, to no avail. how could they just up and leave for anti of all people? seriously, anti? henrik rolled his eyes at the air. fucking anti. even chase had wanted to help this time. he wondered if they were both mocking him as they wandered brighton looking for the glitchy bastard.

little feet padded behind him, and henrik turned to see jaffa cake walking along behind him. "hallo, jaffa," he greeted, some of his anger melting. he bent down next to the cat, smiling fondly. "are you looking for your papa? he is off being a bastard somewhere. sometimes i wonder why i put up with him, yes i do, yes i do." he scratched jaffa's head as he talked in a silly voice, mimicking the one chase often used, and she purred, pressing her head to his hand. henrik sighed. "i love him though, unfortunately. i really wish i didn't."

someone knocked at the door. probably the package guy chase had asked him to look out for. henrik gave jaffa one last scratch before getting to his feet and checking the door. a young blonde man stood on the other side, wearing a uniform and holding a box in hand. henrik sighed. well, maybe getting chase's package would help them to talk about something other than… getting chase's package. that one sentence had basically been the only thing chase had said to henrik in two days, which he really didn't blame him before. he kind of hoped marvin would talk to him a bit while they were out.

"i'm here," henrik announced, undoing the locks on the door. when he opened it, the man flashed him a smile, holding out the medium sized box.

"package for one chase brody?" the delivery man asked with a cockney english accent. henrik nodded.

"i'm his brother," he said. "do i need to sign?"

"yes, please," the man agreed, shifting the package to get out a small electronic tablet. "and your name is?"

"henrik von schneeplestein," henrik said with a small smile, taking the stylus the man had offered him and attempting to scribble his name down. funny, the pen didn't seem to work.

the other man paused. "henrik. that checks out," he said, and punched henrik right in the stomach.

henrik flew back, gasping in pain as he hit the kitchen table and collapsed to the floor, pain flaring instantly in his back. the other man stepped inside, kicking the door shut behind him. henrik couldn't even try to get up without crying out in agony, so all he could do was watch from the floor as the delivery man stepped forward, eyes dripping with darkness - darkness, like jackie's darkness - and grinned, staring down at henrik with a pleased look on his face.

"i - i - who -" henrik stammered. he looked around wildly for something, anything that might help him, before his gaze landed back on the man in front of him. "jackie?"

the man laughed. "oh, fuck no. a… close friend, as historians would say if they were to write about us in the future." he lifted an arm, and a black flame blazed up on his hand. "jackie does want to see you, though. i'd stay still if i were you, doctor."

-

it wasn't hard to find him. all they had to do was follow the sound of static.

he was lying on a bench near a bus stop, across the street from the park. they could see him glitching from miles away. chase swallowed hard; he wasn't too keen on the idea of going near him. luckily, marvin stopped him from moving anyway, throwing an arm in front of him. "wait," he said. "what's with the people?"

chase squinted. "dunno what you're talking about, man…" he trailed off. because the people walking by anti were acting oddly - posture straightening, eyes snapping forward and looking anywhere but the man on the bench. marvin visibly stiffened.

"i can smell magic," he mumbled. "a lot of it, too. weird magic. like… like…" he stared straight ahead, eyes clouding. "like smoke. like smoke coming through an open window."

chase gently shook marvin's arm. "hey, man. remember what we're here for."

marvin blinked slowly. "oh. ok." he stepped forward like he was walking through thick honey, face pale. "you stand here. i'll see he's ok."

"no, i'm - i'll go with you," chase protested, squashing down his fear. "he's sick anyway, not much of a threat."

he was trying to convince himself more than anyone else, but marvin didn't call him out. as they walked towards him, the static ringing get louder and louder. chase cringed at the sound.

"anti?" marvin said loudly, stirring from his haze slightly. chase hung back as marvin bent down, shaking anti's shoulders. when had he gotten so comfortable around him? "anti, you fucking dunderheaded bitch, get your ass up. fuck, he's been sick all over the bloody pavement, ew. my shoes! anti, fuck…"

anti groaned softly, face scrunching up in pain. "mm," he whined, not moving to get up. he clutched at his stomach, curling up into a ball. chase watched him, fascinated. he hadn't seen anti look this pathetic since the day he'd left jack.

"anti," marvin said again, but his voice kept getting quieter. he glanced around him, eyes wide. "anti, what did you do?"

anti rolled over, breathing heavily. "nothing," he signed shakily. "for once."

his eyes met chase's, and chase took another step back. he was wishing he hadn't agreed to come with marvin.

"call the hospital," chase told him, not looking away from anti on the bench. "they'll take him back and we'll figure shit out."

"no!" anti shook his head rapidly, slicing his hands back and forth through the air. "no, no…"

he pushed himself up into a sitting position, swaying on the spot. he tried to stand, groaning, but instead went very pale and just managed to lean over the bench to be sick again.

"lovely," marvin deadpanned. he pulled out his phone, glancing down at it to type in the hospital's phone number. "how did you get out anyway? there were people looking after you."

"weird," anti signed. "didn't see. nothing is -" he made a sign chase didn't recognize, trying to use both hands but wincing in pain.

"what - what was that?" chase asked nervously, shoulders shooting up when anti looked at him. he shouldn't still be so scared, especially after having just seen him throw up on the ground. anti blinked, head drooping to his chest.

"g-l-i-t-c-h," he managed. "in…"

"hello?" marvin was saying into the phone. chase glanced over, letting anti regroup. "hi, it's marvin mcloughlin. i found - uh, my brother anti was missing. i found him near the school on - hello, is anyone there?"

chase tuned back to anti, taking a cautious step forward. "glitch?" he asked, confused. "you?"

anti shook his head. he slipped off the bench, and without thinking, chase raced forward to catch him before he hit the floor. it was only after he'd done it that he remembered. chase make a noise of discomfort, trying to lay anti down on the bench so he wouldn't have to hold onto him. his skin was very hot to the touch.

"hello?" marvin said, even louder. he paced back and forth frustratedly. "hello, this is - this is a hospital, why is no-one -"

chase heard a faint voice come out the phone, and marvin gasped. "put in on speaker!" chase demanded, his arm still around anti. marvin nodded and did so, letting chase hear the woman on the other end.

"is that your brother there?" said the deep female voice. "hello. nice of you to finally call, marvin."

"i wasn't calling you, kazuki," marvin said angrily. "i was calling the hospital. my brother ran off, he's hurt. he hasn't recovered at all since -"

"well, maybe if you'd called like you promised, i'd be able to tell you why," the woman - kazuki, the head magician at hecate if chase remembered correctly - told him drily. "get in the car. it'll take you here, and i will explain."

"what ca-" marvin started, but he'd already turned round and seen the black car pulled up behind anti. the windows were blacked out. chase stared in awe as marvin whipped back round, clearly annoyed. "how did you find - actually, i won't ask. you really want to bring anti to hecate?"

"i do," kazuki said. chase could hear a smile in her voice. "i would like to talk to him, actually. get in the car. we don't have a lot of time."

chase looked to marvin for instruction. marvin ran a hand through his hair, looking stressed. "time? time for what?" he despaired. "why are all the people round here being weird? how did anti escape so easily? why - why can i smell such horrible magic?"

kazuki sighed loudly. "ok, i'll give you the basics. if i do, will you promise to get in the car and come to me so i can explain properly?"

chase nodded. marvin watched his nod, then tossed his head back, glaring at the sky. "yeah, sure," he mumbled. "so what's happening?"

"well," kazuki said. "the world is falling apart, and we believe it's partially your brother's fault."

-

"who are you?" henrik demanded, trying to steady his voice. he pressed his hands flat to the floor, preparing to stand. he didn't take his eyes off the man in front of him.

the blonde smirked, tossing his head to get hair from his bright green eyes. "my name is aaron, if you must know," he said, twirling his hands dramatically. "did you not know your brother had a boyfriend?" the man laughed at the look on henrik's face, putting on a mocking baby voice. "oh, he did keep a lot of secrets from you, didn't he?"

"well, i think this is fairly less of a surprise to me than the fact that he was torturing a man in an abandoned store," henrik said, glaring. "what are you going to do, beat me? tie me up, break my bones?" he laughed harshly. "i've seen it all. it's been done. maybe if you try a method to scare me that i have not seen before, i will be impressed."

his hands drifted backwards, feet steadying themselves on the cold linoleum. he was suddenly incredibly glad he'd put on shoes earlier.

aaron bent down, pulling something out of his back pocket. despite all his talk, henrik's heart skipped when he saw the translucent, beautiful dagger in the other man's hands. "see this?" aaron said with a winning smile. "do you know what sort of things i've done with this blade? do you know? of course you don't. now, i'm gonna tell you what we're gonna do."

he pressed a knee to henrik's foot, pinning him down. "i'm gonna handcuff you and take you to jackson. he's gonna take good care of you, and eventually, your other brothers too. you aren't safe around that glitch bitch who's trying to work his way into your heads."

"i know that already!" henrik exclaimed. he sat up just slightly straighter, as casually as he could. he shook, playing up the act as aaron watched with a satisfied smirk. "i tried to tell them - ich schwöre, i do not believe he is - bitte, bitte, i am -"

without warning, he slammed his knee forward, right into aaron's nose. the man roared in pain as henrik jumped up and jabbed an elbow into his back, drilling him to the floor. aaron grabbed at henrik from behind and flipped himself round, eyes fully black and teeth bared. snarling, he whacked henrik's head against the table, making white spots dance in front of his eyes. henrik gasped, clawing at aaron's hands as he lifted his dagger and prepared to plunge it downwards.

"please!" henrik choked. "he's not - jackie, jackie, hurts, bitte, bitte, du machst mir angst!"

with one final shove, he threw aaron's arm back and fell almost on top of him, scrambling to his feet and racing for the door. something wrapped around his leg; a burning strand of pure blackness, emanating from aaron's hand. henrik kicked forward despite it, trying to free himself and stay standing as aaron got up again, not lowering his hand to free henrik from his magic.

"stay still, doc," he grunted. "the magic will only hurt you more if you fight."

"why are you helping him?" henrik cried, clinging tightly to the doorframe. "he's gone mad, he doesn't - nngh, he - he's hurt us, he tortured our brother!"

"i'm just trying to help you," aaron said, voice suddenly soft. "please, the glitch has brainwashed you all. you don't -"

henrik suddenly yanked himself backwards, legs being pulled out from under him, and aaron cried out as henrik slammed the front door on the magic holding him to the other. the bond snapped, but aaron threw the door open without touching it, eyes blazing. "don't try," he snapped. "listen to me, fuck's sake! it's like talking to a brick wall!"

henrik ignored him, half running and half limping down the stairs on his hurt leg. aaron followed, throwing bands of darkness at him that snapped his shoulders like a whip, making him grit his teeth against the pain. "come on, doc," aaron called. "slow down, you'll hurt yourself more. please, will you listen -"

henrik turned to his last resort. in one swift motion, he bent down and yanked a knife from his trouser cuffs before throwing it straight at aaron.

henrik was a good shot. he knew he didn't miss. aaron screamed, and henrik bolted, tears flying off his face from the speed at which he was running. eventually, when he got far enough away, he pulled out his phone and punched marvin's name in his contacts.

"hen?" he heard marvin say. his voice sounded slightly distorted. "we're heading to the golf club. everything ok over there?"

henrik collapsed onto the edge of the pavement, the summer sun beating down on him. he was sweating, and he was too afraid to look at his leg or his shoulders where aaron had hit him. "marv'n," he slurred, wiping at his face. the tears had already dried off, but he could feel how blotchy his skin was. "some guy… 'tacked me, got in the house. don't we have defenses up?"

"what?" marvin cried. "we do, yeah - what the fuck? was it jackie?"

henrik shook his head before remembering marvin couldn't see him. "said he was jackie's boyfriend?" henrik mumbled. he shuddered in a random blast of cold wind. there hadn't been time to put on a proper jacket apart from his denim one, and he curled in on himself in the cold. "he has magic. he's in the house… i got away."

"shit," marvin swore. "i'm gonna - i'll - a ca - street -" his voice glitched in and out, a sound of static rising.

"marvin?" henrik said loudly. "you're - i can't hear you. is anti with you?"

no response but the hum of white noise.

"ok," henrik murmured, a trickle of unease creeping up his back. "well, if you can still hear me… i'm coming round to hecate. i'm sure they'll let me in if i 'splain the situation. bis dann."

the call ended without henrik touching a button.

-

ring, ring. ring, ring. ri -

"jackson?"

"hey, babe. did he get away?"

"mm-hmm. what now?"

"you follow him. i know where he's going, i'll be right behind."

"cool. also, didn't you say the place was guarded? spells 'n shit, that's why i needed to pose as a delivery man so i could get him from outside, yadda yadda yadda?"

"yes?"

"place wasn't spelled."

"...seriously? no magic there at all?"

"nope. just usual household magic smell. no protection."

"oh. interesting. marvin's... slipping, i see. are you ok?"

"oh, i'm fine. i mean, he threw a knife into my arm. but it's cool, i'll live."

"he threw a -"

"i will see you soon, babe. meet you at the golf club."

beep.

[lunartearrose]

Timsasha pleas (you know who this is)

OH HECK YES listen the moment u said timsasha i IMMEDDIATELY knew what i wanted to do so like. prepare for incoming angst and an alt timeline!

read it on ao3 here!

it got super long but also here it is under the cut!

Squish squish squish. 

Tim did his best to ignore the disgusting sounds of worm death under his feet as he ran to find a safe place. The best thing he could find for defense in case of more worm infested zombies was a flag pole with a rather sharp end - a fairly poor excuse for a weapon, but he figured it could at least leave a gross, corruption-ridden fleshbag confused enough for him to run more. And dear god, he hopes not to run into Jane again…

Before he knows it, he sees a sign dangling over a door up ahead, reading “Artifact storage.”

‘Oh that’s just great.’ Tim thought. It was the last place he’d ever want to hide in, but nonetheless he ran right in.

 It seems the worms weren’t daring enough to come in, but he heard someone walking deeper in the corridors of cursed objects. Steeling his nerves, and keeping that flagpole handy, Tim walks further into the cramped darkness. He kept careful eyes on his surroundings, keeping his eyes on everything he could, while avoiding brushing up against the things that sit in this space. He wonders what made it tough to hear what was ahead… was it the echo?

“I see you!” a familiar voice echoes around him, sounding close. 

He’d know her anywhere. It was Sasha. He picks up the pace, not caring what his weapon of poor choice brushes up against, just wanting to see a familiar face in this madness.

“I see you.” a… voice calls. It felt familiar. But it felt so wrong.

He rounds the corner as a struggle begins. The sight before him was nothing short of a nightmare to look at. Whatever was happening instantly caused a migraine to look at - but something deep inside him refused to let him shut his eyes. He felt like whatever this was had simply been another monster attacking, and he knew Sasha was in trouble. Between the bright, pulsing colors and hands gripping the person in front of him - no - people in front of him? There were two. But one of them was Sasha. He was so sure. They were fighting… and he had to act fast-

“SASHA!” Tim calls out for his trusted friend.

“Tim!” two voices call out, one a bit delayed. The image of both the struggling people flickers and ripples, as if reality just couldn’t handle the two existing at once.

But he saw what he needed to see. One figure’s reality seemed to twitch, spasming into elongated limbs and crooked features covered in frayed cobwebs. Tim didn’t need to think twice, and ran forward, plunging the sharp end into the figure that did the awful twitching. The sound it made was like that of plunging it both into a body and a foam square, strange but sickening all the same, as he shouldn’t have been able to just pierce it like that. The creature takes its hands off Sasha, whom he was now a hundred percent sure was her, and grips the end of that flagpole. 

“A brave one, aren’t you?” the warbling voice growls at him, now unsure of who’s form it wants to take. Who’s life does it wish to steal now?

Tim gives the pole one last quick thrust before abandoning it and picking up his injured friend. With Sasha in his arms, he runs like hell as the half finished monster gives chase, howling with laughter

“C’mon! That really hurt, you know! If you drop her then I might just spare you!” it shouts at him. 

“Fuck off!” Tim retaliates, and suddenly he feels like he’s losing his breath as the monster repeats his words and catches up dramatically.

“Such a coward! Always running away!” they mock, but it’s too late. 

Wise to the trick, Tim doesn’t respond, forcing himself to run faster. He’s aching, feeling the scrape of sharp claws that almost caught up, but he keeps going. This isn’t just his life at stake...

Tim doesn’t dare to look back, praying to reach a door, not even bothering to note the out of place yellow of the door he busted through. He ran, and ran, and ran, his surroundings a blur, until the adrenaline finally begins to ebb. His running slowed, his legs shook, heart pounding as he does his best not to fall, placing Sasha’s unconscious body on the shifting floor. He wasn’t sure if the need to cough or vomit was worse.

The entity that so kindly let them in and let the monster lose itself watches on, wondering what Tim will notice first. The answer soon comes as he looks over the girl he was carrying, a girl the distortion knew had a name. Once. They watch as Tim swears and fusses over the scratches on her chest, trying to use whatever he had on hand to slow the bleeding, noting the especially strange wound over one of her eyes, that traveled down her cheek and into her hair, still looking as if it were a glitch in reality itself. 

“Sasha! Sasha, stay with me, please…” Tim says to her.

And soon, with enough shaking and pleading, this Sasha girl opened her eyes. She struggled to sit, and Tim helps her, keeping the pressure on her chest wound. 

“Tim…” she mutters softly, “I…”

“Thank god, you’re awake… how do you feel?” he asks.

“Pain…” she answers softly, “Please… get help…” 

“Right, of course.” he says, finally taking a good look around him, “We’ll- ...oh.” 

This gets a chuckle out of the distortion avatar. The two look back at him, and Sasha whines in fear while Tim scooches away from him as fast as possible, not letting go of his dear friend for even a moment.

“We’re fucked, aren’t we?” Tim says.

Michael humms for a moment. “Well… you dragged in a fine meal a little while ago. I suppose I can let you leave just this once…”

“Great! How do we leave?” Tim says, suddenly finding the strength to stand whilst holding Sasha.

“Just keep walking.” Michael replies, pointing in another direction, “You’ll find an exit eventually.”

“Thanks dude. Would love to stay and chat but we need a hospital.” Tim says, running off the way he was told to go.

Once again, Michael simply chuckles to himself, and walks off to find out if the Archivist was faring any better.

…

Tim and Sasha were let out at the front of the institute, where police and ambulances had arrived. Sasha had to be taken to the hospital, and Tim never left her side. Thankfully, her vitals were still intact and all she needed was some stitches and something to help the pain. As for the strange wound over her right eye, it was certainly addressed, but the doctors soon found messing with it both caused Sasha pain and caused strange, unfavorable things to happen. The best they could do is give her an eye patch, and let it rest. Only when she could stay awake would Tim allow them to treat the scratch on his back. He didn’t want to leave her side, and she really didn’t want to be left alone. 

Once Tim was patched, he sat back down in the chair pulled up by Sasha’s hospital bed. “How you feeling?” he asks her.

“I’m feeling like an idiot for yelling ‘I see you’ at a monster, for one thing. Other than that, I’m at least not hurting too badly. How about you?” Sasha replies.

“I feel the very same way for not looking where I was running. I really thought we were dead in that moment…” Tim answers.

“Yeah. I thought that too… but we’re safe now, at least.” Sasha says.

She quietly reaches for Tim’s hand and holds it. Tim gives her hand a gentle squeeze in response, watching as she glances out the nearby window.

“I… really thought that was it for me, when that thing grabbed me. I’m glad you came around when you did.” She says.

“I’m glad, too. Really, I don’t know what I’d do if you ended up dead…” Tim replies.

“What was going through your head?” Sasha asks.

“A lot! It was confusing for a while, I don’t know exactly what I was looking at, but… definitely in the end, if that other guy hadn’t let you out at least, I was just afraid we’d never get to see each other again. And really couldn’t handle that thought. I think a lot of what drove me was keeping you alive.” Tim replies.

There was a bit of a pause. She squeezes his hand, and he squeezes back in turn. It was a bit difficult to have the right words to say to something like that.

“I think we both need a vacation after that mess.” Sasha says. 

“I agree. I think everyone’s going to need a break after hell broke loose…” Tim replies.

“Yeah… you think we could go somewhere together?” Sasha asks.

“...Like as a group of assistants or…?”

“No. Just you and I. I could use a really long one, and like hell I’ll take it alone with the week I’ve been having.”

The idea of a vacation with Sasha really made Tim happy. He couldn’t ask for anything better than that, and he honestly didn’t want to leave Sasha’s side either. Even if they got to escape that hell dimension, there was no guarantee that the entity of bullshit squiggles didn’t let the monster out too. 

“I’d be glad to join you, Sasha. Let’s hope Elias gives us a nice, long break.” Tim says.

Sasha nods. “Let’s hope.”

After that, they fell into another little moment of silence. Sasha listened to the little commercial playing on the tv, eye wandering around the room. Each time someone walked by outside the door, she couldn’t help but feel a bit tense. She tried to take her mind off that unease, focusing on the tv, and the warmth of Tim’s hand. She’s fond of how he’s always there for her, especially now.

“Hey Sasha?” Tim says.

“Yeah?” She replies.

“I… I think I want to tell you something.” 

“Alright then. What is it?”

“Well… this whole experience made me think-”

Unfortunately, Tim doesn’t get to finish his sentence. A Nurse opened the door, explaining that someone was looking for Tim. Tim sighs, and tells her to send them in here. The Nurse nods, and soon after she leaves, Martin enters.

“Hey Tim! I was looking all over for- o-oh.” Martin says.

Tim gives a short wave with his free hand, and so does Sasha. He asks, “What’s the matter?”

“I didn’t realize you were visiting someone, that’s what!” Martin replies, then glances over at Sasha and says, “I’m sorry for barging in, ma’am…” 

Sasha snickers. “Ma’am?”

Tim scoffs, “You don’t need to be so formal with Sasha, Martin. We’re all coworkers here.” 

“Oh! Sorry, I didn’t realize. N-nice to meet you, Sasha! Um, what department do you work in?” Martin asks.

Now, it’s very apparent that something’s wrong. Both Tim and Sasha are now starting to get very worried.

“You’re joking, right?” Tim says.

“Martin we work in the same department! The three of us are Jon’s assistants!” Sasha says.

“What? Thats- no, that’s impossible!” Martin says, clearly confused, “It’s only ever been the two of us helping Jon out, just Tim and I. Elias is still searching for a third…” 

“That’s not true, though! Don’t you remember Jon’s birthday? We brought him a cake, scared the hell out of him? Martin, you have to be joking…” Sasha says.

“No, I- I’m sure I’d remember if you were there… you guys arent joking, are you?” Martin says.

“Look, I have proof she works with us!” Tim says, taking his phone out of his pocket, “I’ll find a picture of the four of us, I know I took one recently.” 

But try as he might, after several painful minutes of searching his phone, he came up empty. Determined to be right, because hell, maybe that monster just screwed with the memory of those in the institute, Tim marches over to the nurse and asks if she can get ahold of Sasha’s medical records. If there’s anything you can’t argue with, it’s records.

But according to their records, Sasha James didn’t exist.

The only one who ever knew she existed was Tim.

[toothpastecanyon]

Noie’s Brother, Chapter 13

Thank you @feferipeixes​ for beta reading this chapter! I really appreciate it!

Fate sometimes rhymed, but Alcor felt like this one was a little on the nose. A newborn Mizar fading away in the hospital and a loving father pleading to him from behind a circle of candles.

Fate sometimes rhymed, but Naomi Argenta just wants this stupid vampire to stop harassing her brother. It’s making him go… weird.

See most updated version on Archive of Our Own.

________________________________________________________________

               Who was Dipper talking to?

               “Huh? I don’t… huh?” Looking up from the bus’s window, Noie saw Dipper frowning at a phone call. He rubbed his face. “No, I can hear you, I just… could you say that one more time?”

               Noie arched an eyebrow. He blinked at her.

               “I’m a…? What? Who is this?”

               “Who’re you talking to?”

               “Um - one second Noie - wait I don’t understand, you’re calling from Grandma’s phone, who is-”

               She snatched it out of his hand.

               “Hey! Noie!”

               Putting it to her ear, she heard, “-that the thing you’re focusing on? Who cares what phone I’m calling from, you are Alcor the Dreambender!”

               Noie’s stomach dropped. Lucy Ann.

               “You’re a demon in human disguise, okay? And I can explain but I need your help to… hello? You still there?”

               “...Hi.” She managed. Her voice was very small, and she cringed at the groan that came through the line.

               “Oh great, it’s you.”

               “Um…” Dipper was frowning at her; she flashed a bright smile. ”No! No, thank you! We’re not interested!”

               “What are you- are you trying to pass me off as a telemarketer?”

               “No no, sorry, um… no, not interested! Please don’t call again!”

               “You are just the worst, you know that?”

               Noie barked a laugh. “Hah, yeah, so thank-you-have-a-nice-day-bye!”

               “Yeah yeah, fuck y-”

               She whipped the phone away from her face and jabbed the red button until it hung up. The screen went back to normal, and she breathed a massive sigh of relief.

               Crisis averted.

               “Who was that?” Dipper’s voice made her jump. “Why’d you-”

               “Nobody! Just- telemarketer!”

               He frowned at her. “What are you talking about? They were calling from Grandma’s phone, how did someone-”

               “They can do that!” She clutched his phone to her chest. “It’s the, um- can’t think of the word right now but it’s a thing and don’t worry about it! Wow, look, we’re close to school!”

               “Spoofing.”

               “Yeah it’s spoofing!” She blinked. “Wait, what word is that?”

               Dipper was rubbing his head. “That’s what you were saying, they can spoof phone numbers, to… to, ugh. ” With a groan, he curled forwards, putting his face in his hands and mumbling, “Sorry, head is killing me right now…”

               “Oh, no,” Noie said, a little distantly. She was staring down at his phone, at the ‘1 New Text Message(s)’ on his lockscreen. Her heart thumped in her chest; after a moment’s hesitation, she bit her lip, tapped in his password and checked it out, just to be safe.

               The text was… an automatic reminder from their history class that the project was due next week.

               Oh, okay.

               She went back to his message history, and stared at the list of his recent conversations.

               Nothing. Okay.

               Went to close his phone, but paused there. There could be a message coming from Lucy Ann any second, she thought. That could really be a problem; it only took one message to ruin this.

               It only took one second.

               It only took one single slipup, and… okay, she had to deal with this.

               Noie sucked in a breath, and shot a glance over at her brother. He was still cradling his head, fingers clutching at his hair... his thinner, paler fingers tipped with claws, she noticed.

               (And his hair, was it thinner? It almost looked thinner to her…)

               With a hard swallow, she turned off his phone, and slipped it into her backpack.

               Okay, she thought for the rest of the ride.

               Okay.

               When their stop came up and Dipper dazedly asked for his phone back, she said she’d already given it to him. He was frowning and patting his pockets as they crossed the street into the parking lot, but she ignored him.

               That was okay, she thought. He’d forget about it in just a second now.

               The gates. The angel. The lump in her throat. They were all getting so close now, and that was okay.

               Noie squeezed his hand. It was okay. It was okay. It was okay, okay?

               And when Dipper squeezed back hard, claws digging into her skin… that was okay, too.

               Everything would be okay, as long as she trusted the plan.

                               “One moment, please.”

               Ugh, another one of these. There’d be more talk, and there’d be more growling, and Noie just stood there, dreading it. It was okay, too, but stars, she wasn’t in the mood. She’d gotten so little sleep last night - did she sleep at all?

               She… didn’t actually know, and that made her snort. Not a good sign.

               The angel started to talk, now, and Noie just closed her eyes, let his words wash over her, heard all about how the preparations are just about in place, it won’t be much longer, you’ve done well so far for a human. And that’s all I need; my plans would never demand perfection from you. I would never burden one of my chosen with more than they could handle.

               Slowly, Noie opened her eyes. He’d stepped to the side, so she walked forwards, bringing Dipper along with her.

                               Not to say that your burden has been light, my child. You have struggled more than was expected with it, and… that does sadden me. I admit these morning conversations have been quite endearing; I do so love humans, but an angel such as myself has duties to attend to and I rarely have the opportunity to interact with one, as I do with you.

                               …to form a bond, as I have with you.

               She kept walking. Kept walking, and a smile was put on her face. She was smiling… huh.

                               We are friends, are we not? I believe us to be friends, and that is why it would sadden me if what I placed upon your shoulders caused you feelings of resentment towards me. I forgive you, of course, if they do -  you may never understand the good I am doing here, and no personal attachment would ever distract me from bringing about your salvation, from bringing about the salvation of all my chosen people. If some of them must hate me to be saved, then that is unfortunate, but that is a burden I will carry for you.

               She nodded to herself, like that made sense. Kept walking.

                               But I do hope that we remain as friends after this.

               Kept walking. Not towards the math building. Into the nurse’s office, and that was a little strange but maybe she was taking Dipper there. Yeah, that made sense.

                               Perhaps I can lighten your burden, and that will cause you to look on me more favourably.

               Kept walking, over to the beds. She rubbed her eyes - huh, she was suddenly quite tired. She sat down, laid down, and that made sense.

                               ...There.

               She closed her eyes, and the angel’s smile stretched across her face.

                               “You are welcome,” he said with her voice. With her eyes, he watched her drift off to sleep.

________________________________________________________________

               Noie opened her eyes. She was standing at the bus stop, and it was the end of the day.

               She blinked, then frowned. It was the end of the day already?

               …

               Yeah, her phone said it was two thirty. Huh. That felt like it went by fast; heh, time flies when you’re a master of sleeping through school, right? Dipper didn’t know what he was missing out on.

               Dipper… Dipper!

               He was right behind her, slumped across the bus stop’s bench. The second Noie spotted him, a smile she didn’t know she was wearing fell right off her face. The past few days hit her like a truck, and ohhhh riiight, everything kind of sucked right now, didn’t it?

               Oh, shit! Everything really sucked right now! Wh- uh, what was she- how was she gonna-?

               No, wait, fuck, the bus was coming right now!

               “Dipper? Dipper, the bus!” She frantically tapped his shoulder. “Come on, you gotta get up!”

               He just moaned, and when she pulled him upright oh my stars he definitely didn’t look that bad when they woke up. A nosebleed had dried on his deathly pale face, and his eyes, half-lidded and unfocused, kept glitching to gold.

               “Dipper…” Noie breathed. Her stomach dropped, but then she heard the bus pull up behind them - no time to freak out.

               (No time, never any time-)

               Stuffing it down, she made his hand cover his nose and tried to plaster on a smile as she led him up to the bus.

               Fare money, fare money… argh, she should’ve gotten this ready before they got on! Thank the stars the driver took one look at Dipper and waved them through; that was a good bit of luck.

               Noie all-but carried Dipper to the back of the bus and propped him up in the corner seat. She tried not to look at him as she fished out a box of tissues, and stared at her own hand as she cleaned up the blood on his face.

               ...There, all gone. A nervous chuckle - good as new, right?

               Right?

               She cupped his cheek, and smiled when, a moment later, he leaned into her hand. His skin.. it felt clammy, his eyes were still flickering, and suddenly Noie was struggling to keep that smile on her face. Her jaw trembled, her lips twitched, her breath caught-

               Then she drew it all back. Sat forwards. Stared straight ahead. Drummed on her legs for a second then got out her phone.

               Dipper groaned, and she stared down. Scrunched up the fabric of her shirt, and squeezed until she had a lid back on the pressure in her chest.

               Only then did she dare to sneak a glance at her brother. It looked like he’d fallen asleep; his eyes were closed, and she couldn’t see what they looked like anymore.

               Okay.

               Ohhh-kay.

               This was still fine. There was still a plan, and that was weird but nothing had really changed, she could still fix this. Just keep him away from Lucy Ann and everything would be fine, everything would go back to normal.

               She nodded to herself, like that made sense. Hopefully her Grandpa wasn’t sitting in the kitchen today, she thought.

               Even he’d probably get all nosey if he saw Dipper like this, and that was the last thing she needed right now.

________________________________________________________________

               Washing dishes at three in the morning. Noie had to be quiet; she extracted a mug from the clutter in the sink with surgical precision, and let the tap dribble water over it.

               Then she took the sponge, and scrubbed hard.

               Scrubbed harder than she needed to.

               Scrubbed hard enough that her arms started to burn, hard enough that her breath got harsh and her shirt got stuffy.

               Hard enough that she didn’t have to think about anything, or anyone.

               Scrubbed like she wanted to shatter this mug.

Scrubbed, like she wanted

to scour it all down

               to

nothing.

…

               And then she gave up. Panting, she tossed it in the drying rack. Picked out something else.

               Tried it all over again, because this was good.

Her jaw ached from being clenched.

               She’d been a little stressed from all this Dipper business, you know? She needed to let off some steam-

Her back hurt. Her neck was killing her.

                -and this way, she was being productive about it! That was great, right?

Stars, her eyelids were burning.

               This was fine. This was fine… and besides, she couldn’t complain.

She was going to scream.

               It was Dipper who was really struggling, you know? She was doing this all for him.

She had to do everything for him.

               And she didn’t mind. She didn’t mind doing things for people. It was fine.

She had to do everything around this fucking house-

               It was fine! It was fine. You know, she’d appreciate a ‘thank you’ once in a while, but hey, it wasn’t like she was expecting one at this point so it doesn’t really matter what she thinks, does it!

shoved her sponge into a glass and soap splattered everywhere and it slipped out of her hands and fell to the floor and-

               Noie caught it. Her hand shot out and she caught it before it hit the ground.

Before it shattered and woke everyone up.

               Heart hammering in her chest, she glared at it. Glared at the soapy water now running down her arm.

Shattered, and then her Grandpa would storm over and he wasn’t going to talk to her about all the dishes she did perfectly, now was he?

He wouldn’t even notice.

               She gripped the glass until her knuckles went white.

               Nobody noticed. Nobody even cared until she messed up, and then they just got mad at her even though she was trying to help and she was going to break this glass.

               That thought popped into her head, and suddenly she was, she was. Noie backed up, trembling with fury, and glanced at the backyard. No, dammit, she couldn’t go out the backdoor-

               The front door! She jerked herself towards it and tried so hard to keep herself from wrenching it open - blood thundered past her ears as she did it slowly, narrowed her vision until she couldn’t see anything but getting outside come on come on FUCKING COME ON-

               Then she slipped through, darted out onto the driveway, and with every once of force in her body, every scrap of stress and frustration and guilt and worry and fury she’d kept to herself for god knows how long-

               Naomi Argenta hurled the glass straight at the concrete and utterly annihilated it out of existence.

               …

               She let out a breath. She breathed in… and pushed it out again.

               Her heart stopped racing; the sound of it faded to silence, and she breathed in…

               And she blinked.

               Looked down, at the constellation of glinting shards beneath her feet. Her bare feet.

               Oh, Noie thought, and there was a rush of shame that set her cheeks on fire.

               Oh, she should not have done what she just did. Why did she do that? Why on Earth did she do that?

               She tried to shift her feet, but there was broken glass everywhere and no shit you idiot, what did you expect was going to happen? You chucked glass at your feet!

               Noie cringed. Stars, she actually did that. She did that, she just straight up lost her temper and snapped - she actually snapped, and broke a glass, and now she was stuck here in this completely avoidable situation that was all her fault… What was she thinking?!

               What was wrong with her?

               What was she going to do?

               She looked around, but there was just glass everywhere. It was just everywhere she looked. Everywhere she tried to move her feet. Everywhere, and staring at it all made her brain go blank.

               Maybe in time, Noie would’ve gotten it working again, and would’ve come up with a solution on her own. Maybe she wouldn’t have, and was going to stand there, bluescreening until someone found her the next morning. She truly didn’t know, and at that moment, there was a noise from behind her that ensured she’d never have to.

               The sound of feet sliding down tile made her turn. The voice made her look up, and gape.

               “Psst, kid.” Lucy Ann was sitting right above her. She’d clambered over to the corner of Noie’s roof, and now those red eyes were peering down at her. She watched with wide eyes as the vampire extended one clawed hand... and reached out to her.

               “Let me getcha out of that,” Lucy Ann said, and motioned her to come up. “C’mon, take my hand.”

               Noie stared at her, and her hand.

               “Come on, it’s alright.” She flashed a fanged smile. “I know I literally look like a six year old, but I promise I can lift ya.”

               After another moment of hesitation, a glance around the driveway for some other way out… she swallowed hard, and started reaching up.

               Slowly, nervously, she touched, then grasped Lucy Ann’s hand. The vampire felt like ice, and it occurred to Noie how tiny she was; she was really holding onto the vampire’s wrist.

               That was not reassuring, but before she could change her mind Lucy Ann pulled her up onto the roof with the ease of someone pulling a damp towel out of the washing machine. The next thing she knew she was on the tile, and that deceptively strong vampire was looming over her, touching her legs wait what was she-

               “You got a bit of glass here.” Lucy Ann picked a shard off the end of her leggings and flicked it away. “That’s the only big one I see, but I’d do a change of clothes before jumping in bed. You humans really don’t do well with this stuff - makes you bleed all over the place, and that’s just wasteful.”

               Noie jerked her legs back, then gulped when those red eyes turned back on her. Lucy Ann didn’t look angry; the vampire’s gaze was steady, calm, carefully neutral, and made her want to melt into the ground.

               She should probably say something right about now, shouldn’t she.

               “U-um-” Noie started. She cleared her throat. “Th-thanks.”

               “Don’t mention it.”

               She opened her mouth-

               “I mean, don’t get me wrong, you’re still the worst.” Lucy Ann’s chuckle was caustic. “You’re not ‘Would-Leave-In-A-Field-Of-Broken-Glass’ the worst, but I just thought I’d make that clear.”

               “Oh…” Noie leaned away from her. “Uh, o-okay- good… good to know.”

               “Like you know how I’m still stuck in your yard fearing for my life because you won’t let Alcor help? Gotta tell you, I’m now way less worried about death by angel now that I’m literally dying of boredom.” She bared her teeth at Noie. “You know what I was doing when I heard you come out here?”

               “Um, I-”

               “You’re not gonna guess. I was playing Jenga with grass.”

               “Wh- wait, what?”

               “Jenga with grass. Humans still play Jenga, right?” Lucy Ann mimed stacking her fingers. “You make a tower with a bunch of blocks, three of them go this way, three of them go that way, then you try and-”

               “No, I know that ga-”

               “Then you know it’s not supposed to be played with grass!” She giggled, and there was a desperate edge to it. “Noooo, it does not translate, but you know what - I had time to kill! And grass. To kill… Hey, by the way, why do you guys have a lawn out back? You live in a desert, it’s freaky.”

               She scooted back. “Um…”

               “You want to leave, don’t you.”

               “I don’t… I mean, I-”

               “Hey, I do too! You know, just saying.”

               Noie cringed at her expression. She could see how this would be frustrating, but how was she supposed to explain everything was going to be fine?

               Because it was going to be fine, but it was complicated, and… ugh, what was she saying. She definitely owed it to Lucy Ann to try.

               With that thought in mind, she took a deep breath, and held up her hands. “Okay, okay, look-”

               “Oh, I can tell this is gonna annoy the shit out of me already.”

               Noie gritted her teeth. “No, this isn’t- can I just explain the plan, please?”

               “Yup. Gonna annoy the shit out of me.”

               “In just a few days, there’s going to be someone who’s going to, um, help my brother with what he’s got going on-”

               Lucy Ann crossed her arms. “You mean you’re gonna hire an exorcist?”

               “Uh… yeah, kinda.”

               “Not gonna work, kid.”

               “It’s gonna-”

               “Like, even in the scenario where Dipper is just possessed - which he’s not - there’s no way you’re exorcising Alcor the Dreambender.” She snorted at the thought. “Also just saying, if you’re denying this cause you’re worried about Dipper, the scenario where he is Alcor sounds a whole lot better to me than the one where he’s being possessed by Alcor. Like in version two you’re going up against literally the most powerful demon known to Earth, so… be glad that’s not reality, maybe?”

               Noie frowned at her. “He’s not a demon. Look, this is going to work-”

               “Ohhh my stars it’s not though-”

               “The person I have, it’s- he’s a… he’s a special case, okay?”

               “The fuck does that even mean.”

               “You’ll- uh, just trust me, okay? He’s got this plan all worked out-”

               “Wait, he’s got this plan worked out?”

               “Yeah?” Noie frowned as she sat up. “I mean, that’s the plan, and-”

               “Whose plan?”

               “I mean, that’s the plan-”

               “Who made the plan?  The exorcist guy you’re hiring?” Lucy Ann narrowed her eyes. “Who is he, actually? Is he an actual licensed exorcist?”

               She leaned away. “Uh, why are you so interested all of a-”

               “Cause I’m telling you right now that no decent exorcist would ever take on an Alcor possession; they know they can’t touch him. You say his name in one of their offices, they will turn you away and call the police so fast… ” Lucy Ann looked back at Noie. “But I’m getting off track. Point is, you probably hired some kook, or… well, you most likely hired some kook, but I want to know his name.”

               She stretched a smile. “His… name?”

               “Oh my stars, please tell me you know his name.”

               “No no, it’s just, um… I-I don’t think he has one?” She watched Lucy Ann’s eyes widen. “I mean, I don’t think he’ll be bad at exorcising-”

               “Then that’s specifically the problem, isn’t it!”

               “Wh-what’s wrong? Why are you-”

               “Cause now you’ve got a guy - you don’t know his name - who’s heard this story about Alcor and is telling you he can make your problems go away when he full well knows he can’t!” She stared at Noie’s bewildered expression. “Do you not see that that this is bad? And he’s got a ‘plan’ for- wait, do you actually know what the plan is? When’s it supposed to-”

               “He’s getting things set up. It’s fine.” Noie scooted towards the edge of the roof. “Look, he just wants to help, I have to trust him, a-and it’s not like he’s manipulating me or anything - I don’t have to do what he says! Like, I got you that blood pack even when he, um… didn’t want me to talk to you, um, and-”

               “Wait, what? What was all of that just now?!”

               There was genuine horror on Lucy Ann’s face, and that made Noie cringe. “Look, can I go now? I didn’t explain it well, it’s not that bad-”

               “Not that bad?! Do you hear yourself right now?”

               “I’m, um, gonna go inside now-”

               “No, wait!”

               Lucy Ann shot forwards and seized her arm. She flinched at the cold grip. “Hey-!”

               “Stop. ” Lucy Ann caught her other shoulder. “Listen to me, Noie. Who is this guy?”

               “I told you I don’t know his name-”

               “No. No. Don’t act dumb. You can tell me more than his name and you know it.”

               She squirmed under her gaze. “Uh… I don’t-”

               “This guy told you to keep this plan a secret, didn’t he.” Lucy Ann gripped her tighter. “Noie, I guarantee you he did that because he knows it’s bullshit, and he knows you don’t know any better.”

               “I-I don’t think-”

               “No, stop. Stop thinking you know things, because you don’t and this plan is a ruse for something. Don’t you see how quickly it fell apart when you talked to someone who actually knows about demons? Use your head, Noie. You’re getting played.”

               “That’s not-”

               “You’re getting played, and you need to tell me what’s going on so I can help.” She made a face. “And I’ve got a feeling we’re gonna need Alcor, too.”

               “Wha- no!” Noie shook her head. “No! He’s not a demon!”

               “But he- ugh, look, nevermind. I’m not gonna argue that with you right now, so just tell me about the exorcist guy.”

               Lucy Ann stared Noie down, and she was at a loss for words; her mouth opened and closed like a fish, and she tried to move back but the vampire didn’t budge. She’d gotten herself stuck, again, and now she really needed to think up of a way out of this. She needed to say something, anything-

               And to her surprise, that was when words came out of her mouth.

                “No.” Noie heard herself say. “You’re not on my side. You’re just trying to use me to get to my brother.”

                 In the stunned silence that followed, that was when the anger came. Really? Was this what was going on? Was Lucy Ann seriously just using her?

                  She clenched her fists. It made sense, in a way. It was possible.

               “Wait, what?” Lucy Ann gave a confused chuckle. “I’m doing what now?”

                  “You know what you’re doing - you’re lying! You’re trying to make me doubt my plan, but I can see through your plan!” Noie stabbed a finger at the vampire, and suddenly she was leaning back. “You’re trying to destroy Dipper!”

               “What are you- are you being serious right now?”

                 “Of course I am! You listen here-”

               “Noie-”

                     “-Dipper is my brother, and he’s not a demon-”

               “Noie, wh-”

                        “-and I’m going to do everything in my power to keep him safe from the likes of you!”

               Lucy Ann just stared at her like she’d grown a second head. The vampire opened her mouth to reply, but she’d heard enough, she needed to go inside, so could she please get these hands OFF OF HER-

               “Noie, I don’t- agh!” The vampire jerked back with a shout, clutching her hands to her body. “Ow! Fuck! Argh, what the hell was that? That hurt!”

                            Wordlessly, Noie rose to her feet. She glared down at the vampire, fists clenched, and watched her hiss and swear for another few seconds before unclasping her arms.

               “Shit, that hurt. What was that?” She glanced down at her hands, “That almost, that almost… felt, like…”

               And confusion turned to utter terror at the dark, smoking burns that were seared into her palms. Skin had turned to ash around the wounds, and she could only watch as the breeze came and whisked it away, scattered it into the open air.

               Then Lucy Ann turned that terrified expression onto Noie, and she felt… something.

               “Y-you burned me.” The vampire spoke in a shaking voice. “You… y-you’re with the angel, aren’t you? He’s the guy behind this plan of yours…” She held her hands out. “Noie, please listen to me, whatever he told you-”

                  Noie felt herself surge forwards. The vampire jumped back and her foot slipped on the slanted roof; she toppled to earth with a cry.

                   Noie watched her land amongst the shards, and that made her smile for some reason.

                    Wait, why was she smiling? Well, that vampire did something bad, right? She lied, she hurt Dipper, she should be afraid of her.

                               They should be afraid of me.

                   Yeah, that made sense. Think of all the times that vampire had trapped her, tried to coerce her, tried to control her into giving up her brother. Well, now she was in control!

                               I am in control.

                    That made sense. She was in control, and that vampire was down on the ground, helpless, screaming out for her dark lord to save her… but Alcor wasn’t going to come, was he?

                            No. No, there was only Noie, and the light of coming dawn.

                               It looked so helpless down there, didn’t it?

                               So pathetic.

                               My fists clench, and I can’t help but smile wide at the thought of...

                  Of smiting this creature?

               Noie blinked. Wait, what? She didn’t want to kill Lucy Ann! Where the fuck did that come from?

               That was when she heard a voice:

                               Do not be alarmed, child.

               And became aware of a presence in her mind that was not her own.

               “You!” Noie felt like cold water had been dumped over her; she started trembling. “What are you doing in my mind?!”

                               Answering your call for assistance, replied the angel, and stars it was weird to hear a mental voice besides her own. You were afraid, and being accosted by a vampire. Would you prefer I had not stepped in?

               “Uh, I’d prefer it if you didn’t try and kill people!”

               “Oh, what the fuck…” Down on the ground, Lucy Ann was staring at Noie with a mix of astonishment and horror. She darted for the front door and started banging on it. “Alcor! Alcor, you gotta get up! You gotta help me!”

               She was so loud, Noie was shaken out of her thoughts by a sudden fear. “What are you doing? Stop, you’re gonna get caught!”

               “Alcor! Alcor, help!”

               “Lucy Ann!” Noie somewhat awkwardly dropped herself off the roof, and came rushing over. “Wait, Lucy Ann-”

               She reached out a hand and Lucy Ann violently recoiled from it. The fear in her eyes didn’t make her feel good anymore; it made her feel awful, and she struggled to explain.

               “No, don’t be scared! L-look, I know the angel thing is weird, but I’m not gonna let you die!” She clenched her fingers, and unclenched them. “I’m still in control. I’m not gonna let it hurt you, I just need it to help Dipper-”

               “You’re delusional. You’re completely delusional. Alcor!”  

               “Wait!” Noie reached for her again but she darted away. “Don’t- argh! Great, yeah, go wake up the whole neighborhood! I’m going inside!”

               She opened the front door and shut it hard behind her. The house was echoing with Lucy Ann’s voice, and she cringed - shit, Grandpa was awake for sure. Any second now, he’d be coming round the corner and she had no idea what she’d say to him-

                               He is not awake.

               The angel again. She frowned. “What do you mean? How do you know that?”

                               I have been able to keep your elders dreaming and ignorant of the confrontation… for the time being. The angel’s voice sounded quieter, and almost strained. But child, this is an unholy place. The Dreambender’s presence is strong here… overpowering. It saps my strength. You must protect them in my stead.

               Noie nodded quickly and went to get a pen. The angel kept talking.

                               I feared an incident like this taking place. The vampire tried to lead you astray, and I sense the seeds of doubt it has sown within you. The angel sighed. The plan will be moved forwards to tomorrow morning; it is not ideal, but I fear delay will let them sprout, and jeopardise my work entirely. And the vampire will be dealt with.

               She heard that, and stopped. “Dealt with?”

                               Do not worry, child. Some nearby humans have already called the police on the vampire; they will take it away, and I will deal with it from there.

               “What? Don’t do that! Don’t kill her!”

                               You feel strongly about this. Why? You won’t have to be involved-

               “Because that’s not my problem with you killing her! My problem is you killing her…” Noie shook her head. “Oh, my stars, you’re actually… you’re trying to… What is wrong with y- argh!”

               Noie clutched her temples at a flash of light. Her head felt like it was on fire, and the angel’s voice was painfully loud.

                               Do not ask that of an angel. Ask yourself instead why you let your human emotions run unchecked, why you let them jump to such wild accusations of my character.

               Her vision swam. Her legs wobbled. She clutched the counter to keep herself from hitting the ground.

                               Of course I was not suggesting anything improper by apprehending the vampire. ‘Dealt with’ was meant to imply keeping it secure and out of the way, lest it hinders our plan. Lest it gets your brother killed.

                               Human, my intentions are pure. My conscience is clear. I know I am doing what is right. If you must question me, let me ask you this: can you say the same for yourself?

               Noie didn’t answer, couldn’t answer. She heard Lucy Ann calling for Alcor, and she pressed her hands against her ears and shook her head, grit her teeth, held back the scream in her throat-

               Then, suddenly, she felt better.

                               You give a truthful answer. Good. The truth is painful, but it is the only way to forgiveness.

               Shakily, she picked herself up from the counter. Looked around her house with wide eyes, like she was seeing it for the first time.

               “Alcor! Alcor!”

               Hearing her for the first time. She felt herself grimace.

                               You will continue to defend the vampire, won’t you. I suppose I have no choice but to leave it be… so long as you keep it from interfering in my plans - that, I cannot tolerate. But for now…

               Noie grabbed a pen from the counter. She walked over to the door, kneeled down, and carefully etched something into the baseboard. It began to glow a steady blue, and Lucy Ann’s cries faded to eerie silence.

                               I suppose this ward will suffice.

               Noie stared at the ward she’d drawn. She’d never learned how to do that, but there it was.

               She did it for Dipper. To keep him safe.

               A frown. Yes, that made sense.

                               Good work, child. The angel’s voice seemed to fade. I cannot remain here any longer. You must bring Dipper to me in the morning… you will know where to go. In the meantime, keep him safe.

                               At all costs, keep him safe.

               Noie nodded. “Keep him safe. That makes sense. I can do that.”

               She stared at the brightening sky, and clenched her fists.

               “I can do that.”

[nexstage]

LIMBO SILVAM - PART 8 (2/3)

"--ow!" Again the same female voice, but now it sounded a bit clearer. Lapis recognized it.

It was Connie's.

"--p, --le!" that other one was Bismuth's.

This made no sense at all. Why was she hearing Connie and Bismuth yelling? And why whatever they were talking about sounded so distorted, fragmented?

"I need to get out of here. This confusion isn't helping me" Lazuli tried to will her mind to wake her body up, or change the void in her subconscious for something better, but nothing.

Then the maddening laughter. Though it grew louder and louder, and the more time Lapis heard it, the more sore her whole body felt. Her arms and legs were stiff as boards, her chest was closing slowly, panick and pain mixed together were consuming her mind.

Crack... Crack... Crack

What was this? Did she hear well? Something was cracking. She couldn't move. It was like she was being tore apart from the inside, disintegrating oh so painfully while the laughter reverberated in her ears.

"STOP! Just shut up!" Lazuli shouted desperately to no avail. The pressure increased, like a huge hand grasping her in a sadistic hold. Wanting for her to experience the torture.

"Laz" Wait, was that Peridot? "Laz, come on, wake up! Don't leave me!" It was her! With all her might, Lapis fought the painful strikes. More and more until blinding light consumed her.

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

The blue gem opened her eyes in a snap, meeting Peridot's tear-stained gaze. Without giving her time to ask what was going on, the engineer tackled her romantic partner in a bear hug and kissed her profusely.

Lapis' mind went into Error 404 after that. Attempting to process Peri's loving gesture but failing, and the symbolic butterflies in her stomach and chest weren't giving her any advice either, but a satisfied part of her didn't mind.

Peridot opened her eyes and went full shock for what she had done. Pulling away from Lapis, the little gem searched in her head for a decent apology, an excuse, anything to explain her sudden burst of affection and concern. Lazuli's lips, however, stopped her when they met hers smoothly, the svelte gem smiled at her in a way that made Peridot's cheeks and shoulders blush.

"You don't look that good" Lapis' statement matched the seriousness in her face that had replaced her happy expression because of the kiss. Peridot grimaced while looking at her body. There were much more gray splotches and dark veins replacing the green of her skin than before, but it wasn't like Lapis was faring well. The problem was how to tell her about the recent worsening of her condition.

"Although... You know, I'm happy that you liked my approach on you waking up... Y-You know, the kiss... Even when I'm happy for that, your condition is something we need to take care of. Lapis, your whole body was glitching madly, heck, I even thought you were going to poof or shatter. Your sudden coma lasted many minutes and I panicked, and I... I don't know what will be of you, but I fear this will endanger your life"

Again the Error 404 mode entered Lapis' system. She checked her arms, who were almost covered in gray spots, and -as Peridot had told her- her whole being was glitching. Irregularly, erratically and sometimes she could feel the pain.

"Stars..." that was the only thing she could say. Peri hugged her slowly to lessen the fear and stress she could perceive from her companion. Lapis got a hold on the gem's arms with despair, keeping her thing together to not yell with all her remaining strength.

"Laz, things might be looking terrible for us right now what with our bodies' conditions, but we're getting closer to the mountain. We just... We just have to keep going and hope for the best, just like Steven said. He is the one who taught us that. And once we're home, we'll laugh at this whole mess and enjoy each other's company now that we have figured out and confessed our feelings. Wouldn't that be wonderful?"

"Yeah, it would" slowly, she calmed down and smiled at her crush with gratitude "It would. Thanks, Peri"

The mechanic gave her a big, loving grin. With some difficulty, Lapis got up and looked at her surroundings; they still were in the ice tunnel, the blizzards could be heard at the exit with how strong the icy roaring was. Lazuli and Peri held each other's hands and walked to the other side of the tunnel. Lapis, again, carried Peridot in her back to climb down a little cliff at the end of the tunnel.

Hail and blizzard continued to obscure the horizon while they walked through the snow-y dunes. Some meters away, a bunch of rotten-wood buildings hardly visible because of the snow were found. They looked like houses but in such bad condition it seemed that something swallowed and vomited them.

"Oh oh" Peridot trembling voice was a sign for bad news, and Lapis didn't want to know what another problem they had to deal with but not knowing might potentially kill them. "What now, Peri?"

"Is that thing again!". It was, indeed. The horrible creature was flying at a very low height, its shapeless mass of a body almost touching the cold ground. The crimson light from its eyes checking for some foolish prey to hunt. And to top it all, both Crystal Gems were still too far away from one of the destroyed buildings to hide in.

"Let's dig! Let's dig quickly!" Peridot, in a rush of panick, dug a hole in the snow as if she were a dog. If they weren't in the middle of nowhere and in a deadly situation, Lapis would consider that image pretty funny and cute. Unfortunately, they were in an unknown place with mortal monsters ready to shatter them, so she helped the green gem to create a burrow-like hole before the beast found them.

The red light bathed their improvised refuge and luckily, it didn't notice them. However, that thing was still flying in circles at low height, sometimes very near them, other times very far away which didn't help at all with their anxiety.

"Now what? Unless one is ready to distract that thing, we'll never get out of here" mumbled Lapis.

"I have an idea, though it's more like an experiment. I read some human reports about Earth-creatures called moles that build a complex net of tunnels by digging underground. If we replicate that, in a more superficial level, of course, we can escape without being detected"

"By digging a tunnel... In the snow..." It was unorthodox, risky, but their only choice "Alright, we'll take turns to see if we're going in the right direction"

Peridot nodded and both started digging. Lapis cursed mentally due to her powerlessness, all this snow was a precious resource she could use to defeat that thing and create a series of stairs long and big enough for her and her companion to climb and reach the peak of the mountain. But no~! It seemed that the world and the whole universe decided to prank her by taking her powers away because they had nothing better to do.

As if being in the mirror wasn't bad enough, but at least back then she knew she still had her hydrokinesis, now though, Lapis needed to rely on her own hands to escape. The anger at the utter injustice gave her more energy than she thought, even when the blue gem didn't seem to see the change. She dug harder, faster, stronger, checking for the creature's movements whe it was her turn.

"Finally!" Peridot's abrupt yell bursted her bubble "Freedom is ours!"

It was funny, in the worst moment, to be honest. The blue gem was so caught up in her rage that she didn't know if Peri saw her glaring at the snow while digging, heck, she wasn't sure what was she doing at all with all the sudden energy her intense emotions gave her. It was like being in a trance. And because of being distracted like that, Lapis couldn't stop Peri from shouting in triumph and reveal herself and the other Crystal Gem to the monster they were trying to get away from.

The hideous beast observed impassively the fear-stricken gem whose eyes widened in shock for what she had done. "L-L-Look, over there! A clody prey to get!" Peri pointed behind the thing but it didn't budge.

The monstrosity roared powerfully and point-y, sharp tendrils came out from its body, directed to the helpless target. However, before making contact, Lapis got out from the improvised snow-tunnel, grabbed Peri's hand and rushed in a panick. The little gem almost felt like she was a ragdoll, her short legs could barely keep up the rhythm while they escaped through a new entrance and a mountain-made, narrow passage.

"Aaaaahhhhhh!" Peridot's free hand went to the injury in her leg, horrified at seeing that one of the monster's tendrils had pierced it. Lapis pulled her close to her chest, terrified of losing her. Unbeknownst to them, the other tendrils were getting closer, sneakily, at high speed, using the shadows of everything around them to gain strength. Then...

"AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!" Lapis' shriek of pain was louder than Peridot's. Her stomach and neck stabbed by two tendrils at the same time. The blue gem's vision was getting blurry pretty quickly, her legs were losing energy at every second. Her companion, desperately, dragged her on her back while evading as best as she could the furious attacks of the beast.

The engineer then spot an antique arch, beyond that there were some weirds statues, more of those strange metal/dark rock bars, and some columns of rock. With all her might, she entered the new zone and went to her left, finding a hole in the near hills to hide from the creature. Peridot covered all the entrance with snow seconds before the monster appeared looking for them.

Minutes passed, though it felt like eternity for the little Crystal Gem, until she gathered enough courage to check her surroundings. She sighed in relief, the monster was gone.

Slap!

Peridot touched to her right cheek who now had a handprint on it and hurt as hell. "Ouch! What the hell was that for?!" she yelled at Lazuli, outraged.

Her fury didn't last after seeing the accusatory glare Lapis was giving her. She shrank and blushed embarrased, not knowing why until her romantic partner opened her mouth. "What the hell was that for?! For real?! How can you be so stupid?! We were supposed to escape that thing unnoticed, not to get ourselves killed! If it weren't for me, you'd be dead already!"

Peridot's eyes watered due to the gem's tirade. She wanted to protest but didn't found any good arguments to use. Lapis was right, this was supposed to be a stealthy task and she blew it. If the blue gem hadn't been fast enough, that monster would have gotten rid of them. Still it really hurt to be insulted like that and by the person she was closest to, but she was also too proud to show her vulnerability, so she poofed her chest and sniffed a bit to stop herself from crying.

A sigh escaped Lapis' mouth, her tired mind composing itself to not lose it again. Reflecting on what she had said, she grimaced at her harshness. Of course, Peridot made a mistake that could've costed their lives, but her outburst wasn't helping either, was it? She couldn't let the frustration and adrenaline blind her judgement and distance her from her crush, so, she approached Peridot to apologize.

The other thought another harsh reprimand or slap was going to come, but only got tender arms wrapped around her gently. "I'm sorry" the ocean gem said regretfully.

"I know what you did was foolish and we could've died because of that, but that doesn't give me the right to react this way. It's just... I was so scared when I saw you wounded by that thing... I didn't know what to do. All of this is too much... We don't know why it's happening to us or why our powers don't work, and it makes me so angry and frustrated even when I'm trying to be as positive as I can. And when I thought I was going to lose you... I lost it. But it isn't fair to lash out at you like that. I'm so sorry"

Waterfalls started falling from Peri's eyes as she wept uncontrollably, her sobs shaking even Lapis. The blue gem tightened the hug while mumbling 'It's ok' and 'I'm sorry' many times. After some minutes of exhausting crying, Peridot sniffed and rubbed at her eyes, unsure of looking at Lapis.

The silence between them got very awkward and uncomfortable. "Y-You clod" Peridot said to break the ice, and glared at Lazuli, still hurt by her words. The other Crystal Gem lowered her head in shame and then signaled to her left cheek, "If you want, you can slap me. Maybe it makes you feel better".

The former technician got surprised at this offer, but after thinking for a bit, she just threw a snowball at her companion and crossed her arms. The tense silence started again, but this time it was getting unbearable. Lapis didn't want that fight between them to destroy their new relationship, so she opted to apologize one more time.

"Peri, I--"

"I know getting that monster's attention sabotaged our plan, even if it was accidental, Lazuli" the blue gem felt like stabbed after hearing the second part of her name being pronounced in a snapping tone "I know I should've been more careful. But seriously, you d-didn’t have to--" her sentence was interrupted by the trembling of her lips and more tears escaping her eyes.

Lapis decided to take a leap of faith and held Peri's face delicately and sweetly. The other gem looked away, between anger and hurt, but didn't pulled away from her companion's hands. Then the blue gem kissed her slowly, lovingly which surprised the engineer. The gesture lasted some minutes until Lapis stopped and leaned her forehead on Peridot's. "It was foolish of you, yeah. But my reaction was uncalled for. I hurt you and I'm truly sorry. Can you forgive me?"

The green gem stayed silent, until she returned the kiss. Holding Lapis' face with both hands and with a serious expression she said, "You clod, of course I forgive you. We have forgiven each other for many idiotic things done in the past, remember? Can you-Can you forgive me too for putting us in danger?"

"Silly, there's nothing to forgive. It was an accident after all. But please, Peridot, please be more careful next time. We were so close to be killed back then, especially you. Don't die on me. You told me we can make it together"

"Especially me? You were stabbed in two different places! It's a miracle you're still standing!"

"That's why we need to be more stealthy and more attentive if we don't want a repeat of this incident. Protecting each other's back, ok?" Lapis smiled at her and placed her hand in the cheek with the handprint. Peridot blushed and grabbed the hand not to pull it away but caress it.

"I think that's the best course of action. Much more with how I performed in the tasks of escaping minutes ago" the engineer looked away bitterly, ashamed for that mistake. However, Lapis took her chin delicately and gave her a kind smile to comfort her, "Let's focus on the now instead of the past. We forgave each other already, the next step is coming back home in one piece"

The little gem got serious and determined, nodding with newfound energy. Her eyes then spot some disturbing phenomenom in Lapis' neck and stomach which she pointed while shouting in fear. The blue gem looked at her stomach first because doing the same for her neck was impossible. The zone where the sharp tendril had pierced was getting blacker with every second. A big splotch whose edges were stretching, elongating in thin, ondulated lines. Kind of like veins.

Morbid curiosity and shock got the best of her when the blue gem touched the wound and then a painful, intense glitch shook her whole body much to Peri's concern.

"Laz!" the other tried to approach her when she saw her romantic partner falling to the ground but her injured leg, with the sudden movement, glitched which broke the balance and Peri fell to the icy floor too.

The blue gem immediately went to see what was wrong on her crush after getting up. Horror hit her when she saw Peri's leg, it was suffering the same symptoms as her neck and stomach: a black splotch whose edges where enlarging in the form of veins. The glitching was also a big problem.

"Stupid, goddamn, umpredictable changes in our bodies! First we can't use our powers, then those weird gray spots that get larger and larger, our gemstones getting black with every second and NOW THIS!!! I swear if we don't find out why this is happening at the end of this journey I will shout until I poof!"

"Hehe... At least, we are still the same. Especially you" Lapis got up slowly, her companion acted quickly to help her in case another glitch attacked her "Let's not waste more time. We need to get out of here"

"The sooner the better" Peri uncovered the hole where they were hidden and got out, Lapis following her from behind. Both gazed in different directions of the landscape in fron ot them. Rocks, snake-shaped statues and dark metal signs littered the area. At their left there was a huge irregular column of rock, and a bit up from them, another old arch.

"Ok, so if we climb that column, we will reach the arch and keep advancing. Oh! There is another arch to the right of this column but I don't think it will lead us anywhere, because we need to go straight, so--"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, Miss Compass. Go straight, don't derail, focus and don't die. I know the plan" Lapis sounded annoyed but there was a fond smile in her face. Without giving her warning, the blue gem put her crush on her back and went to the rocky wall of a mountain where the arch was located to start climbing. It was an advantage for her having watched that episode of Camp Pining Heart when Pierre climbed a hill to win a bet against a member of the rival team.

"Laz, are you really sure you can do this? Your condition isn't at its 100% AND your body is glitching. No offense, but I don't want us to fall if you glitch unexpectedly"

"It's ok, Peri. I'm still standing. Now let's go" her hand grabbed a sharp edge, then her feet got her impulse by placing them over a chunk of stone. Grab an edge, feet over a bit of rock, impulse, don't glitch, keep eyes and ears open. That was Lapis strategy to not fall; Peridot, on the other hand, kept watch in case that monster appeared again.

It felt surreal for both of them to go through this. More than the mystery of why they were stranded in a forest, why there was no sign of life except those somber creatures, it was overcoming adversity without their powers the real challenge they couldn't imagine to do, but were doing it anyway. It was strange, unconceivable, alien -what a great irony for an alien race, right?-, but most of all, humane. Such vulnerability and helplessness, being so fragile, was more familiar with humans than gems. The roles had been reversed though, and if they wanted to survive they needed to resort to other things than gem abilities.

"Ok...we are here... Stars, that... That was exhausting" Lapis panted, running a hand through her dark blue hair. Peri checked on her, in case her romantic partner poofed or something. Happily, it didn't happen but the glitching was getting worse.

"What about if we rest?" Peridot murmured, anxious for her companion's condition. Lapis shook her head as a 'no' answer and lent her hand to the green gem who took it despite her reservations. A narrow passage made by mountains and rocks was there and wherever it led them, both Crystal Gems only prayed it wasn't to a trap or the territory of those monsters. It was too much action and drama for their tastes.

A dense silence covered them while walking through the passage, their feet leaving footprints that the icy winds erased in minutes. Peridot stopped for a moment, her injured leg glitching, her gemstone giving her an unbearable headache. All her body experimented shivers that enlarged the gray spots and dark veins in it. 'Am I getting sick like humans? Is this what humans call fever or nausea?'

She fell to her knees not hearing Lapis' alarmed yell nor feeling her arms wrapped around her midsection. Her eyes were barely open while her mind was in another place.

"--p!" Uh?

"--op!" Was that Steven? Maybe she was hallucinating.

"--in... --is?" What was he saying? Why she couldn't understand?

"Can you say it again, Steven?" Peri asked weakly. One of her hands was raised, like trying to reach her friend who wasn't there but the voice kept saying things. Bits of phrases and sentences her brain didn't have the energy to process.

Lapis looked at her crush worriedly. Was she going insane or suffering the same symptoms as her when she went into a coma? Honestly, she didn't want to know, but as Peri said 'not knowing is the bane of this unwanted adventure'. Though the blue gem lacked of the clues to solve this problem.

"Peri, hey Peri, come on. Get out of your head. Please. Whatever you're listening, is not true" the other gem was shaken a bit but to no avail. Her trance was too strong to be broken. Lazuli was dry of new ideas which wasn't helping at all, then she remembered when Peri told her how she started to talk with her despite being unconscious, that it calmed her down if a bit.

'If it can get her out of her head or whatever is going through, so be it' and begun talking. "Have you thought about what you wanna do once we return home, Peri? Because I did" there was no response, the engineer's eyes were still looking to something invisible "I plan to sleep in the hammock for a whole week. A whole month once Little Homeworld is finished, or maybe while it is finished. And guess what? I want you with me, to cuddle with me so we can be comfortable. We deserve it after all... I know that this stuff about romance and serious relationships is something new to explore. Heck, if it weren't for Camp Pining Hearts and what Garnet loves to say about fusion, we wouldn't get it. I was honest to you when I told you that I loved you, that I have fallen in love with you, but it's challenging you know. I don't want to make the same mistakes, to run away and make you think it was all your fault when it isn't. I don't want to hurt you again, you're really precious to me. Hehe... It sounds cliché, right? Should I say something more epic, poetic? No, even with that, you will only want honesty. But sometimes is so difficult to give that when the truth is nothing but a not-so-bright surprise box. We might get good things or bad ones, or the worst of the worst. So, what's the point in being honest if the result may be ugly, right? But If we deny it, we'll only walk in circles. With lies to not upset anyone and hurt feelings. And, if it helps in something, I'm not the best in taking bad news well. You already know it, don't you?"

She stopped for a second to accomodate Peridot who was on her arms and keep walking. Her eyes searched for the light at the top of the mountain, the snow storm making it difficult to spot. They still had a long trek to go before seeing the peak in all its splendor. With a single glance of it Lapis could feel the end of a draining journey and the beginning of rest and peace. Just her and Peridot and all her family.

"I want to go back, Peri" she said with melancholy "I want to go back to the times when everything was so calm and perfect. Just you and I. When this is over, we have to start our break, ok? And maybe... Maybe we can visit Pumpkin's tomb too. She must be feeling lonely"

"L-Lone... Pumpkin?" Peri's voice broke Lapis' train of thought, the blue gem directing her gaze to her companion whose eyes were returning to normal much to the other's relief. "Thank stars, you're back!" Lazuli hugged her and the former technician raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"What do you mean I'm back? What happened? Also, where are we? Aren't we in the peak of the mountain yet?" the shower of questions made Lapis laugh for a bit, just hearing Peridot's voice gave her energy to keep moving.

"We aren't there yet, but we are advancing. You... I don't know how to say it but you entered some sort of trance, you were getting weak and almost collapsed, so I carried you"

"Oh..." the green gem didn't know how to take this. Well, she did know to be exact, but worrying her romantic partner with her mysterious condition and whatever trance she had sounded more troublesome than anything. "Did-Did I do something weird while I was incapacitated to continue?"

"Well, now that I think about it, you mentioned Steven. Like he was saying something you couldn't get" Then Lapis remembered Connie and Bismuth's voices she heard when she fell asleep "Peri, remember when I couldn't be woken up until I did and you kissed me?"

"Y-You didn't like the kiss?" the other Crystal Gem sounded so small and nervous it broke Lapis' heart, so she put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her.

"No, I liked it. Trust me. The point is, while I was unconscious again, I thought I heard Connie and Bismuth's voices saying something. But it was so difficult to understand.

"Bismuth and Connie? That... Ok, I could say it doesn't make any sense, though that conclusion is quite obvious"

"Yeah, but you hearing Steven was similar to my case. What if they're trying to communicate with us?"

"You told me once that Steven contacted you via dream powers even when you were still..." Peridot paused, knowing the next fact was really bitter for Lapis "Still fused with Jasper. So, um, if my calculations are correct, he might be able to reach us using that ability. However, Connie and Bismuth don't have it, so it's not possible for them to try to send a message to us. Unless our minds are reconnecting with the memories needed to solve the question of why and how we ended up in the forest"

Uh, she had a lot of good points. Still...

"But what if Steven is extending that power to them so the others can know where we are and talk to us. Isn't that possible?"

"That's a good theory. And the only way to make it real is if Steven, Connie and Bismuth are sleeping and connecting their minds. Besides, ours don't need to shut off via sleeping. Anyway, once we reach the light of the mountain and get out of here, we'll try to prove that theory"

With Lapis nodding to that statement, both gems keep walking until the passage ended in a new entrance to a paved path. They pass through and saw in front of them a massive, terrifying abyss whose bottom was overshadowed by dense, icy fog; the path was at the edge of the side of a mountain. Their unmaterial hearts froze at the simple idea of estimating the height in which they found themselves.

Beyond that, the condition of the place didnt look much better nor gave them some encouragement for a more peaceful journey: it was more narrow than the rocky passages from before, there were some rocks ahead obstructing a part, and the weather was acting more unstable and dangerous.

"The world is so unfair with this" Peridot complained, between annoyed with more struggles to deal with and terrified at the idea of falling to a painful death.

The universe, in that moment, decided to prove her right by sending a powerful gust against them. It happened so quickly, both Crystal Gems didn't have the time to defend themselves. Peridot was hit first, her back colliding with Lapis' stomach, the svelte gem tried to put her feet down with enough strength to not be dragged by the cold winds to no avail. Then her back crashed with the stone-made railing at the start of the path which broke in pieces.

The worst moment in Peridot's life played painfully slow, facing her mockinly. Lapis' body was pulled by gravity towards death, her feet the only thing available to grab to save her life. A part of the mechanic's brain told her that grabbing Lapis' foot to stop her end was crazy, the weight would drag her down and both would die. Another one, much bigger and desperate told her to screw reason and save her immediately, because both promised to protect each other.

So, that's what Peridot did.

"I got you!" she yelled at her companion who was shocked seeing the little gem holding her left heel, all her might put in the sole task of not letting her go.

"Peridot, what the heck?! Let me go!" Lapis shouted, her command overlapped by the strong blizzards. The other gem shook her head in negative and tried to pull her comrade in, though that was easier saying than doing it.

"Peridot, just let go! You're gonna die too!" the engineer again shook her head, crying tears of frustration for her pathetic and less-than-average strength. She cursed mentally at her weakness, right now being as strong as a human adult or a bit more was seriously needed but she even was deprived of that.

Another merciless blizzard collided with Peridot's back; thankfully, what was left of the railing became useful to her to hold on and not be pushed to a hellish fall. With her left hand and foot positioned behind the remnants of the railing, she pulled once, twice, thrice even, to put Lapis on the floor. Her efforts were brave, the ocean gem could give her credit for that, but they weren't working, and any time, a simple slipup might condemn Peridot to her demise which she didn't want.

She had no option. Raising her right foot in front of Peri's face, she said, "Let me go right now or I'll kick you! Peridot, this is my last warning! LET ME GO!"

'Laz can't be serious... Can she?'; however, her romantic partner's eyes were sending daggers at her via glaring, and her foot was still raised, so yeah, she was deadly serious. But guess what? Two can play the same game. And letting her companion die to save herself wasn't on her list.

"Kick me then!" she challenged her "Kick me and die! Leave me behind again! But if you do it, don't you dare to think this time I'm going to forgive you, because I WON'T! NEVER! Save my life if you want, I won't change my mind! I'd rather die with you than reach the peak alone! Even if it means condemning myself and being hated by you in the other life, I won't let you go! No matter how many times you try to convince me to!" Lapis felt something wet touching her face. Peridot's waterfalls of tears were soaking her cheeks and hair, making her cry too.

'What should I do? She might die because of me. But I don't want to hurt her again' Lapis' despair was consuming her mind to the point of giving up, until she saw Peri's determined expression. She was doing the impossible to save her and here she was, wanting to sacrifice herself even if that means leaving the person she loved most again. How a gem like Peridot could be so bold and devote? How could she risk her life that way for her?

'I think we can win. I think you can win' Yeah! They were getting close to the mountain's light, they had survided many horrible things, gone through worse. She couldn't give up nor leave Peri and their lives together behind. She must fight!

Quickly, Lapis placed her right foot under a part of the railing that wasn’t broken, to try to pull herself out of the abyss. "Peridot!" she yelled getting her attention "PULL! PULL AND DON'T FALL!" the little gem was surprised at that response, though it lasted a bit. With a huge willpower, she did as Lazuli said, arms and legs working endlessly to save her while the blue gem did the same, using her right foot as a impulse.

Peridot, in a snap, grabbed the other foot too and pulled with as much strength she could muster. Another blizzard hit her back, pushing her to the edge, but her left leg wrapped around a part of the railing that was intact to prevent the fall. Then she kept pulling; slowly and with Lapis' help, the blue gem could get hold of the remnants of the banister to make the last impulse, being in the paved path alongside Peridot.

[nebula-starlight]

JSE Fanfiction - Aftershock

Summary: When one light goes out, how strong are the ones that remain?  

Chase prided himself on staying busy. Perhaps it was a fault in of itself but he knew keeping himself distracted was the perfect way to prevent his thoughts from wandering too far. Still, he had just grabbed his phone to check on the others when he saw the message come across.

New video upload from Jacksepticeye

Well he had a few moments to spare. Informing his cameraman he was taking a short break, he plopped down in the nearest chair and pressed play.

Seeing Jack start the video off just as energetic as ever made him smile but that delight faded almost as suddenly the second his creator bolted from the room. Unease made him tense, bringing his phone closer to his face before the all too familiar accent blasted from his speakers. It was nice to see Henrik getting recognition and he did remember the doctor saying he was eager to appease the fans’ interest once more.

Several minutes passed before it dawned on him who the patient was but even then he didn’t put it together until the first glitch made him nearly drop his phone in shock. He’d heard of the demon but never actually seen him... Worry settled in the pit of his stomach, dread washing over him as the disruptions became worse. Henrik wasn’t faring much better than the onscreen Jack if he was honest. But what virus would use the supposed suffering of one to lure in another...

The scream that assaulted his ears would haunt him, eyes glued to the action as the in-game death screen appeared. Henrik... Surely he didn’t think...

That’s when he saw him truly for the first time... noticed the erratic glitching as he gloated over the apparent victory. It was a trick, it had to be! All he needed to do was get home and everything would be fine.

Standing up, Chase crammed his phone down into his pant’s pocket before sprinting for the room adjacent to his long enough to tell his cameraman that there was an emergency and he had to leave. He wasn’t losing much time anyway since they had almost been done with the day’s work. Now that he had that cleared up, he just needed the quickest way home...

After a tense thirty minute ride in a cab, he could barely sit still as they came around the corner that led to the home all of them shared. Realizing he could get there faster if he ran, he got the driver to pull over and paid him before getting out and sprinting up to the front porch. On the ride he had messaged both Jackie and Marvin but neither had responded so it was up to him to make sure he wasn’t just being overly paranoid.

Opening the door despite his hands shaking so badly he could barely hold the key, he stepped in to the complete and utter absence of noise. Not unusual necessarily but with how his heart kept pounding he wasn’t sure now that it was such a good sign. He’d start in the lab. If Henrik was anyplace and just hadn’t heard him come in then that was the best chance he had of finding him.

It was the wrong decision. Chase knew that as soon as he stepped through the door and his foot came down on something small that cracked under his weight. The best he could describe it was that a tornado had slammed right into Henrik’s personal space. Broken glass everywhere and unknown liquids dripped freely onto the floor as he hesitantly picked his way through the ruined room.

Towards the back there was an overturned examine table and Chase paled, hurrying in his efforts to get through the debris. All his earlier worry was resting like a knot in his stomach now and as he reached the smashed medical equipment the gathered nervousness rammed into him, knocking him breathless as he fell to his knees. Laying underneath was Jack with his clothes torn and skin bruised in places where veins had been stuck by various needles.

The video hadn’t been staged... It was all he could think as he struggled to upright the table first before checking further on Jack. Then Henrik was- No, he couldn’t afford to think like that now!

“Come on, dude. The others will be here soon.” At least, he hoped they were on the way. He sighed, getting an arm under the limp Irishman first before lifting him and laying him back down on the cold steel table.

First aid wasn’t much of his specialty - unlike Henrik - but without the doctor there... He glanced back over his friend, seeing where blood dripped from the corners of his mouth. Had he even been aware of what was happening? The video hadn’t made that clear.

“I vill not lose you! I almost lost you once before... Stay vith me buddy!”

He could hear the phantom echos of Henrik’s cries as he tried to save Jack while Chase worked to clean him up. Perhaps once Marvin arrived he’d have a better clue of what was going on. Their creator wasn’t dead though! At least he didn’t look like it.

Maybe he was in a coma... And maybe there was a way to bring him out of it if he was indeed in one.

But the fans? He checked his pocket for his phone, fishing it out and quickly checking the channel’s page. No second upload. Chase paled, sagging against the edge of the table as the full gravity of the situation slammed into him. Someone would have to take over the responsibility. Videos had to be made so the community wouldn’t abandon them or Jack.

He hung his head, pulling the brim of his cap over his eyes as he heard the distant sound of a door being unlocked. At least one of the others was home. They’d know what to do. How to get through this. Marvin had always said they were strongest together as a team. Even giving some example about candles sharing a flame or something like that. Well the glitch had just blown out two of them in one fell swoop and a third wavered uneasily.

“Chase, you home? I tried calling Henrik’s phone earlier to see how the video went but-“

Dead silence. The same way it had been when he first walked in. Chase didn’t have to say anything as he turned around, spotting Jackie standing in the open doorway to the lab with his hood down and his mouth open. There were no words to be said. The carnage spoke for itself and showed exactly what destruction this Anti was capable of doing.

Slowly the hero stumbled inside, whipping off his mask and hurling it at the wall before sinking to the glass-covered floor. “No... Not again. Why does every attack happen before I can come to the rescue?” He looked up at Chase, eyes full of genuine tears. “I’m supposed to be a hero! This isn’t supposed to happen to those I care about...”

Chase hastily shoved his phone back in his pocket before he cracked it, approaching Jackie cautiously as he navigated the minefield of spilled containers and broken beakers once more. He remembered now that it had been the eldest among them who found Jack after he filmed the famed Halloween video the year before. It was also the first time the glitch had physically appeared, cutting their creator’s neck in order to do so. With that in mind, he could only imagine the horror going through the hero’s head at the moment. How he felt like he failed not only Schneep but also Jack again.

“I couldn’t tell much but he’s not dead...” His voice cracked, the effort of announcing it out loud making it all the more real.

Crouching before Jackie, he pulled his brother into a comforting hug, knowing just how badly he was suffering but, at the same time, realizing his pride was preventing him from reaching out. Cleaning up could wait until they all came together to face the uncertain future. Jack would get better. They would find Henrik. And the glitch would pay. That he was sure.

“We’ll get through this. Together.”

Jackie latched on more forcefully than Chase had expected, nearly crushing him against the elder’s chest. “I should have been here... Why didn’t he realize something was wrong?”

“He’s as stubborn as you and it was Jack after all. We’d do anything for him...” He didn’t dare finish his thought, just content with being there for Jackie as he felt moisture drip onto his shirt and he patted his brother’s back gently. “Marvin’s coming, right?”

There was a moment before the arms holding onto him released, one last opportunity for the eldest to let his emotional walls down and just let his grief out. Once he withdrew from the hug, however, Chase knew it would take a while before anyone saw that side of him again.

Still, Jackie’s voice was thick when he spoke, barely audible even in the relative quiet as he stood up and brushed hair out of his eyes. “He should be here any minute now. You’re right though, we can survive this.” He lifted a hand, clenching it into a fist before slamming it into his other palm. “And that virus will be eradicated.”

[cslupus]

Seeds

FACEPLANT

Hello! It's Lupus. Here to put the chronic into the Chronicles. I don't own anything by C.S. Lewis but I believe he would smile on fanfiction and that he fully intended the reader to finish his world. I don't own anything by Tech N9ne. The italics are lyrics from his song "Einstein".

Christmas day. Topeka, KS. 2414 Se Colorado Street. Dale's house

"So, fucking Egypt, right? Yknow, I was there and damn it, I wanted to try some of that local hashish." John said this while gesturing with the hose of the hookah in his hand, half remembering to finally take a hit. He blew the next words in clouds, "It was back in late 2011 to early 2012 and they had that revolution, right? Well..." John paused to take a drink from his tall natty light and coughed. Scarlette sat inconspicuously at the end of the couch, a worn and gorilla taped hookah hose in hand as everyone listened to the man sitting cross-legged on the floor. She'd been at job Corp for a year and a half and was finally free to smoke. She was lit as fuck and did her best to follow along. He continued, "So I found some guys who put me in contact with a dealer. And this wasn't something like here in the states where you go to the place, take it home and, yknow. No, this dude led me and about 3 other guys to this fucking warehouse. There was literally this big ol' switch breaker, like 'Egor, flip the switch' style thing that they pull down to turn on this one bare bulb hanging over this circle of chairs. At this point I'm thinking, yknow. 'Yeah, I might die, but fuck it. Yolo. Let's see where this goes.' and besides, they already had my money. So we go and sit in these chairs and they break it out and we're passing it around when one of the guys there starts to speak. He said," John paused. The look in his eye had shifted to a sadder gaze. "He said he was with the Egyptian guard or military or whatever. I don't remember his rank, just that he gave orders. He told us his rank and he told us his job during the revolution. Keep in mind that this shit just happened, like, within a year of him telling this story. His job was to tell the armed soldiers guarding some building what to do. The protests were crazy and a few times, yknow, his men got nervous, and he got nervous. He finally ordered the men to fire into the air to scare the crowd back, and so they did and the crowd dispersed. Just a couple days later they were back, and after a bit he had his men fire in the air again and the crowd dispersed and backed up, but slower this time. And sure enough, a day and a half later, they're back. So he has them fire into the air again. But the crowd isn't dispersing. He's telling us about fucking hundreds of people calling his bluff and his superiors were putting pressure on him and then, for whatever reason, he looked ME in the eye, dead in the eye, and said 'So I ordered my men to fire into the crowd.' and the only thing I could think right then in that moment was 'I am so fucking high right now.'"

The room was quiet. This quiet was comically broken with the sound of someone sucking the last icy bit of fountain drink through a straw, and everyone suppressed their laughter until finally Scarlette let hers go. The rest of the room followed suit. The tension broke and Dale, the host, slid over to Scarlette and asked her to pass the Playstation controller. She handed it over and he proceeded to put on some YouTube. Music filled the spaces left by people trickling towards the kitchen where the liquor was.

If you got scratch nigga, get the fuck up Throw your hands up, if you hella fucked up Einstein, tech n9ne, two triple zip Crack a jaw, whip 'em all, if they wanna trip Ladies with the bar codes, meet me after this

Maybe you can show me, the meaning of abyss Everybody on the wall momma is a bzzz Had her at the budgetel stroking on my dzzz This ones for the psychos gang bangers and sluts Bumbs holding the pipe those college graduate fucks

Scarlette stepped out onto the front porch to smoke a cigarette.

As she untangled her ear buds, a second person came outside and lit a clove cigar.

"Sup, Eddie." Scarlette said. She looked at him and noticed his clean cut appearance and his absence of cornrows. "You look nice. Your hair is really short, though. Beard looks good."

"Thanks, clove?" he offered the little black pack over and she saw a lighter and a chillum in it with 3 black wrapped cigars and three little nugs of weed in the cellophane of a cigarette pack burned shut.

"Everything's coming in threes. Nah. I don't want one after that hash."

"Threes?"

"Three cloves. Three nugs. Three days."

"So it's true. You're going to London to live with your dad." replied Eddie.

"Yeah, got the ticket with my Job Corp. money."

"You went for culinary, right? Are you sure they'll take your certification in the U.K.?"

"There's plenty of places that pay under the table. Skill is skill and I have it. I'll start there." she said a little defensively. She didn't like to talk about her reasons for moving, but the truth was, she felt called. London was calling and she was going to answer. She just was.

"I wish you'd reconsider." Eddie said sadly. "Do you at least have some money left after the ticket? Probably just a couple hundred dollars. What if things don't go your way and you end up homeless?"

"I'm sorry, Eddie, but I'm..." she was cut off by a series of gunshots from a few blocks over. "No, seriously! Who the fuck gangbangs on Christmas?"

"Keep it classy, Topeka." Eddie replied. The put out their half smoked deathsticks with reluctance and headed back inside.

Kc mo roll Kc mo roll What do we say to haters off top Haters got beef they thinking we got We gon' get postal if it don't stop You can get ghost or you can get shot

Scarlet sat down on the sofa and looked at her novelty yo-yo/mp3 player she was given as a fare well gift from her Job Corp. friend, Sylvester.

"I wanted to, just, curate and give you the best techno and trap and dubstep playlist ever, but a bunch of shit went down at my house I had to deal with, so I ended up not having time and I was just going to give you the yoyo and let you put on whatever juggalo shit you wanted, but then my buddy gave me acid. While I was peaking, I suddenly decided to work on this list, so I'm just ripping songs off of YouTube based on how they made me trip and, if they didn't make me trip right, it was like there was this lion, this fucking golden ass lion, looking in at me through a door in my chest and it'd growl. I'd feel it growl. It was insane. But I did fill it for you. So, it's all techno. Pretty random. Glitch Mob, Timmy Trumpet, some Diplo. Give it a chance before you delete it all."

She didn't say anything but she'd been seeing a huge lion in her dreams climbing the rocks on top of Echo Cliffs as the sun's rays slanted beneath a great, black stormcloud. Then it would look at her and she'd realize something so shocking it would wake her up but she could never remember what shocked her awake. She rolled her ear buds around the yo-yo and put it back in her bag. She headed into the kitchen to find Eddie.

"No dude," Eddie said, red cup in hand "you should not learn how to crip walk. You shouldn't even say crip walk. Say C-walk. And don't do it."

"Man, I do not, for the life of me, understand why a dance should be off limits. I just don't." said Tommie. "Man, I don't give a fuck, I'm graduated! Oh damn, sup Scarlette!"

"Sup. Shit, I'm graduated, too." she said as she grabbed a cup.

"From Job Corp. Not the same. Come back when you been to college, then law school." Tommy said as he leaned forward and smiled arrogantly.

"Man, chill out you cocky motherfucker. You ain't passed the bar yet. You are not a lawyer yet. You're a juris doctorate having motherfucker. Let Scarlette have hers, man. It takes nothing from you." said Eddie.

Scarlette glared at Tommie and poured herself some soda. She didn't really feel like drinking tonight, not after her mom's drunken bullshit earlier. She was thinking about being home as little as possible until her flight. She had lots of people to visit and say goodbye to, so it felt doable.

London, U.K.

Tears flowed down her face as she picked through what was left of her belongings on the terrace outside her father's flat. Her father's girlfriend, Debra, didn't like Scarlette and exactly one week after Scarlette started her hotel job, Debra planted a chequebook in Scarlette's trunk and claimed it had been stolen. So, without a word, Loren took his daughters belongings and put them outside while she was at work. He'd never been a brave man.

Scarlette made her way down the water-stained concrete stairs, out through the courtyard, and on into the streets. She walked aimlessly, hungry but too cautious to spend anything. She thought of all the groceries she joyously bought for herself just days before. They'd all be eaten up by that treacherous bitch and her lapdog boyfriend. More tears came. She sat on a swing and cried as hard as she'd ever cried.

When she finally stopped, the world stopped with her. It was dead silent. No horns, no machines, no people. She heard herself breathing hard so she knew she wasn't deaf. Suddenly, a great shadow crawled slowly over her from behind. She looked up and saw the buildings, streets, everything, peeled up in a big wave and curling over her. She didn't understand. She didn't think. She ran.

She ducked between pedestrians, having to take great care to avoid them so they'd stop knocking her down. It was like they couldn't see her. She eventually found an alleyway and ran down it. She leaned against the wall to catch her breath. To her left she saw a window, with a man staring out at her, though it wasn't a man exactly. He had sharp features, a pointed beard and ears, and two small horns coming from his forehead. She began running again.

This happened over an over. She'd see something utterly impossible, run away, stop to rest, and see something else. A half man half horse, a dancing tree, a squirrel the size of a medium sized dog holding quill and parchment. She couldn't run anymore, but she pushed herself down a narrow corridor back to the street where she saw a boarding bus. She barely made it, almost payed the fare til she realized she still couldn't be seen, found a seat and hoped to not get sat on.

After sneaking onto busses for a while, she found herself near the center of the city. She realized how tired she was. Thoughts of food again tormented her, til she finally got off the bus to track down some fish and chips to steal. She walked with purpose and rounded a corner to come face to foot with a giant. She whimpered as she began running again.

She ran across a vacant lot and saw a tree sprout, grow big and robust, fill with apples, the split in two and decay right in her path. She tried to go around and felt her foot snared by an ancient prehensile root. She struggled as she found herself falling down a sinkhole. She felt dirt in her mouth as the Earth swallowed her and her screams. Roots scratched her face and arms. Soon she felt light through her eyelids and felt leaves along with branches. She was still falling. No matter how she tried, she couldn't keep hold of any branches. It was all she could do to cushion each collision with each ever larger branch. All too soon, she ran out of branches. She fell a whole story and a half and landed on a small boulder jutting from the flowing roots that gripped the ground with her shin taking all of her weight. She both felt and heard her bone snap and, with a wet pop, rip through the skin. She was on hands and knees. She didn't feel anything until she foolishly tried to stand. That's when the world spun out of control. She stumbled to the ground; the pain in her leg was so intense she could almost hear it. She vomited and collapsed into unconsciousness.

Not far from her, in the brush, waited a watching satyr. He nimbly negotiated through the tangled roots of the great old tree and picked up Scarlette's bag. He looked around where he saw objects from her bag fall with her and gathered what he hoped was everything. He briefly examined the contents. He picked up her phone, thinking it was a very dark mirror for scrying, and he almost let out a yelp when the screen lit up. He put it back and donned her purse with the strap across his chest, leaned down, and lifted Scarlette up in a dead man's carry. He was a simple satyr who only did simple magic, but he knew great magic when he saw it, and he knew the High King at Cair Paravel would want to make this his business.

If you wish to read more, cash me on Fanfiction.net and wattpad

[glmrtrsh]

Salem 2019 Part II

Click here for part one!

I woke up my second morning in Salem and thankfully, it wasn’t raining anymore! The weather wasn’t great as it was still a bit gloomy and cold out, but at least I’d be able to walk around outside, which was the plan for the day. I woke up a bit earlier than planned and decided that instead of taking an Uber again, I would attempt to take the local bus to downtown Salem. I googled the price online and there were so many different prices?? It made no sense to me, but I came to the conclusion that it appeared the fare was $5.50, which seemed like a lot but if you saw the website, it made sense. I used my map app on my phone to help me walk to the stop, and I made it there in time!

And then this mother fucking bus driver watches me pay with a god damn $5 bill before telling me that the fare was only $3. Thanks man.

So there I was, off to Salem again. Even though I had the whole bus route on my phone, I kept getting worried that I had somehow messed up and was on the wrong bus. Thankfully, I wasn’t and I arrived downtown. I went to the same cafe for lunch, and decided to walk around and see what I could find. I stumbled upon the Gallows Hill Museum & The Lost Museum, and they had a specialty ticket price if you bought both at the same time.

Now remember in part I where I said Salem calls everything museums... Yeah, THESE ARE NOT MUSEUMS!! Gallows Hill Museum is a theatre act (okay, I will give them some credit because it does say museum/theatre) and you go into one PITCH BLACK ROOM and a man puts on a one-man show with JUMP SCARES. I, personally, do not like haunted houses. I do not like to be scared. So now I’m stuck in this theater show thats literally meant to make you jump. Sis, I was just jumping from anxiety jitters the whole time okay. Honestly the guy really did do a good job & had I not been alone and known what I was getting into, I probably would have appreciated and enjoyed it more. 

The Lost Museum however.... ITS LIKE AN ESCAPE ROOM COURSE THING. Man I don’t know how to explain it. I just wanted to look at some fucking museum things. But noooo, after my Gallows Hill jumps I thought this would maybe be the museum part. NOPE. We ended up in a group of 5, lucky me being the fifth wheel to two couples, and had a tour guide. When we went into the first room and suddenly everything went black and we “had to escape” I knew in my heart I had fucked up. This was not a museum. This was my own personal torture chamber. We had to go through so many rooms and figure out how to escape them, with things popping up and screaming at us to make us scared. In the last room, the tour guide looked at me and said “you! Go turn that lever so we can escape” and I looked at her and went “No fucking way!” and refused hahaha. I’m a chicken shit okay. Honestly it felt like it was never ending and I was not having it. Salem, please for the love of God, stop calling everything a God damn museum.

So after my two back to back NOT museum experiences, I decided to take a walk to find the real Gallows Hill, which is the spot where the accused witches were hung. On my way I walked past the Witch House, which is a popular tourist attraction and had a huge crowd/line in front of it, so I didn’t go in.

Also saw this neat building!

OOGA BOOGA.

I stopped in this little, kind of sketchy liquour store on my walk and picked up a 4pack of these cute little wine bottles. After I paid I took them out of the package and asked the guy to throw it out for me and tossed them in my purse. He laughed at me.

I’m super bummed to admit that apparently I didn’t even take a picture of the real Gallows Hill! The exact spot were the hangings took place is called Proctor’s Ledge and it was only discovered in 2016. Its a really nice memorial spot, but I wish it wasn’t on such a busy intersection and right behind a Walgreens. Oh well. Heres an image from the Salem Witch Museum website.

After hanging out there for a little while and reading about the memorials, I decided to head back into town. 

I decided I wanted to go to the Satanic Temple, but after my map glitching out and sending me in circles for 15 minutes, I gave up. I found a bench in front of an apartment to relax and sip some wine, and a local happened to see me outside and started talking to me. He was a bit older but he was very kind and was telling me about how long he had lived there, how much he loves the community, and how cool he thought I was for travelling here alone. 

I decided to get some dinner. I knew there was a restaurant inside the Witch City Mall, and got some pad thai. It was the blandest, saddest pad thai I have ever had.

As it was starting to get dark and the day was coming to an end, I realized I had $60 left and three options: go into more museums, buy souvenirs, or go bar hopping alone.

Guess which one I chose. Let the shit show begin, stay tuned for part III.

- S

[cortex-reaver]

Chapter 64: Loud Electronica Interlude

EHRMAGERD AN UPDATE!

Fic Masterpost

Warnings: Language, violence, explosions, cyberspace being…cyberspace

Hacker groaned as the regenerator room swam into view again.

“Ouch,” he muttered, scrubbing at his forehead where that last cyber-dart had slammed into his avatar’s face before he’d dropped out.

He pumped a second around of Stam-Up and Genius drugs into his system as he shook his head to clear it. Cortie stared sadly up at him from inside her ball, but said nothing. He patted her reassuringly, opting for silence as well.

“No luck yet?” Goggles asked worriedly. He shook his head.

“Too many security systems running?”

He nodded. He then motioned that he was heading back. Goggles nodded grimly. He closed his eyes, and dove into cyberspace. The view looked little better than when he’d left.

He promptly ducked five more gleaming blue cyber-darts flying his way, slapping up his ICE shield barely in time.

Hacker: Dammit, didn’t I just leave this party?

All three Stooges had put up their own ICE bubbles, deflecting the vast array of glowing darts flashing outward from Cortie’s drifting cone like angry porcupine quills. The darts glowed purple as they hit the Reavers’ bubbles and evaporated into puffs of broken code. Their bubbles weakened where they impacted, allowing any darts heading to similar areas to whip past their shields and hit the skulls themselves.

Hacker glanced to Cortie.

Multiple intruders in-bound. Third-level security systems activated, the cone announced in its flat voice. Cortie’s face crumpled on its top, looking even sadder.

She mouthed the words “I’m so sorry” before the cone turned so that he couldn’t see her face anymore.

Hacker: Eh, I figured it was just warming up to the Good Shit. Time to see how this megapulser works.

The cone’s bubble spat several dozen gleaming black missiles, long crackling trails of green energy following them. They were slightly longer than his avatar’s body, but only half the size of the Stooges’. The code-darts paled next to them in size. Hacker dismally guessed they would pack a far worse wallop.

He switched to the megapulser, and fired off a shot at one of the cyber-missiles. A gigantic glowing blue pulser diamond, made of jagged star-like edges, flew out. It smacked solidly into the missile, which exploded into a thousand sparkling pixels of digital shrapnel. Unfortunately, the shrapnel exerted plenty of damage – his shield bubble rippled and flickered around the tiny specks’ impacts.

He almost completely missed the next missile as it whipped towards him. He ducked away, but to no avail as the projectile bounced off his shield. The bubble rippled wildly, pixelating across a thousand colors. Then it crumpled completely in a flash of waning code.

A warning alarm pinged in his consciousness. Compared to the darts, which took several hits to burn out his shield, these were definitely worse. He was now open to other missiles – and just from the shield damage, he guess they would kick him out of c-space on one hit.

He rebooted his ICE, restoring its shield around himself. He fired again at the next missile, then screamed as a flying circular sawblade whipped towards his face. He ducked it at the last second, cursing as it shredded a portion of his ICE shield on its way out. He blinked in shock as he realized what had happened.

The cone had fired more than just missiles. A lot more.

The entire section of c-space between him and the cone was now full of flying circular blades, glowing spheres of angrily crackling lightning, and racing missiles.

The Stooges closed ranks, firing their own pulsers with a speed that dazzled Hacker’s eyes whenever he looked in their direction.

Moe: HOLY SHIT you’re right this just got fugly.

Larry: Argh stupid fuckin…BRB…

Curly: Watch your back, Hacker! Those things are–

Hacker watched Larry’s skull vanish, then reappear where it’d vanished–

Something flashed in his peripheral vision.

Cursing, he barely dodged another circular blade as it raced towards his avatar’s neck. He threw a pulser shot at it, turning it into pixel dust. Right behind it came two missiles and a ball of angrily crackling energy.

The ball smacked into his ICE shield, blowing it out completely with a loud crackle of green lightning. His HUD’s counter indicated at least five seconds before his ICE restored it.

SHIT shit shit shit–

He flew wildly, scrambling to dodge the incoming projectiles.

He spotted the Stooges splitting up with equal speed, racing in wide arcs while letting each other shoot out any pursuers. He joined them, blasting away at anything coming too close to him or them.

Beyond, the cone floated haplessly as it continued its assault. He watched as its ICE doubled in strength and opacity, turning from blue to a near-black.

Hacker: Just hang in there, Cortie. Just hang in there. We’ll get through. Just a matter of time here.

He switched to cyber-projectiles, sending off green arrow-shaped missiles after the waves of pursuing missiles, sawblades, and energy balls whipping around. Explosions rocked the local c-space with shockwaves.

Hacker: Is it me or are the security systems WORKING? We still aren’t close enough for me to send null.ethic over!

Larry: Yeah we’re gonna have to step it up.

Moe: This is—OW! FUCKIN—

Moe’s skull crumpled under the barrage of two missiles and one circular blade, its pixels flying wildly askew. The Reaver returned quickly enough, spitting out a rapid stream of pulser blasts at the next cluster of incoming attackers.

Larry: LOOK OUT!

A broad beam of yellow-green energy flashed out, smashing into Curly’s skull. Its pixels lit on fire as they blasted outwards in a rolling blue-green blastwave that bowled Hacker, Larry, and Moe over.

When the trio had straightened and rejoined Curly’s freshly reloaded skull, Hacker let out a frustrated growl.

The ethics program had changed its tactics again.

Brilliant beams of angry energy lanced across cyberspace, seeking the foursome. So far, they didn’t touch the regenerators. Then Hacker saw the replicator’s systems diamond crumpling into two floating halves as they fired. The sphere of other replicator systems twitched and spun wildly until they simply fell to a heap of deactivated icons on the floor. Craig was going to have his work cut out for him trying to fix that.

Larry: SHEEEIT now that’s nasty.

Hacker: Welcome to my life from forty years ago! Talk about reliving the old days!

Curly: HOLY FUCK THAT HURT!

Hacker yelped as one of the beams grazed past his avatar, neatly vaporizing a whole cluster of passing data icons. The replicator definitelywasn’t going to work anytime soon. Neither were the lights in that back corner Tamora liked. Good thing she preferred it dark there.

Hacker: MOVE MOVE MOVE! Make yourselves as hard to hit as possible!

He flew into a long twisting arc that included numerous frantic barrel rolls and sharp turns as he dodged the beams. The Stooges’ larger skull avatars fared worse than his, exploding repeatedly and re-loading into cyberspace amid the ashes of their predecessors.

Brilliant green light slammed into Hacker’s field of vision. Pain scrambled his senses as everything dwindled to dazzling lines of green and yellow glitch.

The regenerator room swam into view as Hacker slumped to the floor. Cortieball fell from his lap and rolled slowly away, her face staring worriedly at him as it remained upright. Goggles quickly picked up the ball, then walked over to him. Cortie mournfully watched Hacker as he lay with all his limbs sprawled out, staring up at the ceiling as he gasped for breath.

“Fuck, that hurt,” he muttered softly as the pain finally began to fade. “Ouch.”

He carefully sat up, and regarded the soldier as she walked up to him. Behind her, all three Stooges sat or lay in weary heaps, their limbs akimbo. Larry looked up at him and waved feebly.

Moe: Damn those beams are brutal…

Curly: No shit

Larry: Not sure if I can go back. Those beams are gonna clock me the second I reload in.

Goggles knelt and handed him the ball. Cortie stared forlornly up at him as he settled back into his cross-legged position. Exhaustion tugged at his body despite the high dose of Stam-Up and Genius in his system. He wearily scrubbed at his face.

“I feeEL HelPleSssS,” she whispered. “JUst WATcHInG aS yoUU DwinDLe whiLe TryINg to…s-s-saAVE meeE.”

He ran his hands along the ball’s surface, wishing it were squeezable. He’d never heard her sound so miserable. Or so hopeless. Every iteration of SHODAN he’d met spouted confidence and a calm assurance they would live. But Cortie sounded so very close to completely giving up.

He held the ball close to his chest again as he ran through his assortment of system menus. There had to be something on here. Something in this goddamn beast of a rig that could turn things around. Something.

He rummaged long and hard, digging through menus and sub-menus. Nothing stood out except advanced drug cocktails, assorted cyberspace weapons, and the system reset needed to send a Reaver back into cyberps–

He ducked into the System Reset options, wondering if there was a way to automatically reload back into cyberspace without a conscious desire to do so. Perhaps the Super-Reavers had upgrades on the basic Reaver configuration?

Hm. Cyberspace reload – intention-based. Aha! OK, gonna set that to automatic. Hokay. I’ll just drop back into C-space no matter what happens. Stooges seem to have that already set so, cool.

Let’s see…what else.

Weapons reload – none chosen. Huh what’re the options? Oooh, last weapon loaded? I’ll set it to that. That’ll save me looking for something to shoot when I auto-reload.

All right. What else is in here? Attack Recovery Modes? I thought I already covered this. Oh, they’re for heavy-duty attacks? Huh, let’s see…

Hacker blinked as he read through the Attack Recovery Mode options.

System override blockers…nice, I’ll turn those on. Cyberspace buffer reload…already on, automatic ICE reload – oh I’d get my shield back pronto, definitely turning that on – OH WOW.

Rootkit Defense Options? Oooooooh, enhanced rootkit detection, cutoff systems designed to keep a rootkit out of essential systems. NICE. Very nice.

Huh. What’s this?

Oh. My. God. Ohmygod oh my god…

ROOTKIT COUNTERMEASURES?! WHY DIDN’T I THINK OF THIS BEFORE? AUGHHHHH.

Hacker quickly read through the options, while screeching internally.

Once he was sure he’d read the menu correctly, he grinned broadly as he turned his attention to the ball in his hands.

“Cortie. You’re not gonna believe this,” he chortled.

She blinked up at him.

“I’ve got rootkit defenses all up in this shit,” he answered quickly. “If I get in range, my rig can keep your rootkit from messing too much with me.”

Cortie blinked. Then blinked again.

“ThaAT Must be HOow thEeeEy Did It. TheEY resisTED mY neURaL roOTkiT UntIL theY CouLD finISH sEnDINg the ParAMEtERr-r-rs.”

Hacker perked.

“So basically all I’d have to do is run headlong into your rootkit’s range, and let it scoop null.ethic out of my brain?”

Cortie stared at him in awe for several long seconds, then nodded slowly.

“You could write it as a Trojan,” Goggles suggested. “Make it look like an ethics upgrade or something? Something the params’ll scoop up before figuring out it’s meant to break ‘em.”

“I like it,” Hacker said with a widening grin. “That’ll make sure it doesn’t check the file too fully, and she can take it from there. I still know how to code for Tri-Op shit. They’re fun to gunk up with viruses. Eh. Old hobby. Old pre-Citadel hobby. Anyways….uhhh…lemme get into my softs writer and see what I can do.”

[thekaijudude]

Who do you think will win, Greeza Final Form, Maga Tano Orochi or Reugosite? Explain why.

Hold your horses people, stop bringing in Reugosite when we haven't even seen him in battle. All I can say about him currently is here:

https://thekaijudweeb.tumblr.com/post/180292883563/how-do-you-think-reugosite-will-hold-up-against

As for Greeza vs Maga Tano Orochi, I believe I've explored this question before but I shall explain further.

First we need to remember that the MTO we saw was an incomplete version as we know that he wasn't fully resurrected thanks to the fucking plot. So who knows how much stronger would he be if he was completely resurrected, so I shall use the MTO we saw (but I'm assuming that weak point does not exist)

First, MTO has extremely high durability as we saw that he was able to take a MASSIVE amount of punishment from Orb and Juggler.

Also, he has the abilities of the 6 elements thanks to the Maga Beasts which I shall breakdown:

1. Maga Tanothor - Tentacles (yeah, anticlimactic I know)

2. Maga Zetton - Maga Light Bullet (presumably the same as Zetton's trillion degree fireball)

3. Maga Bassar - The ability to create tornados

4. Maga Grand King - Maga Perforation (a piercing beam)

5. Maga Pandon - Multiple Fireballs (essentially just an AoE attack that is weaker than the light bullet)

6. Maga Jappa - Literally just the stench

In addition to MTO's own move of Maga Tano Thunderclap, which is a stronger variant of Maga Thunderclap, which had enough force to lift and hurl SZ for quite a long distance and MTO's ability to eat and consume any objects and energies.

And I shall now just analyze how would they fare against each other without doing another explanation of Greeza's profile for the umpteenth time.

Firstly, Greeza's everpresent shield would just nullify MTO's Maga Fireballs, the stench and his tentacles as they arent strong enough (from what we saw anyways) to deal much damage (not that Greeza will be able to smell anything anyways)

The tornado's won't do much to help in the battle against a spacial anomaly so there's that.

But MTO will be able to break through his first shield with the Light Bullet, Perforation and Thunderclap but I have no idea whether he'll be able to break through his manual one so there's that.

Assuming even if MTO can, Greeza has like 4 different ways of dodging an attack (assuming he even needs to considering his high durability as well) that is dodge using his hyperspeed and/or anti-gravity flight, teleport, become intangible or simply just bend reality.

Talking about dodging, Greeza is way faster than MTO considering that he's literally just a black hole with skin so it'll be extremely difficult for MTO to be able to absorb Greeza's energy as he'll would have to bite him in order to do that.

Now I would like to give it to MTO that he may very well be able to absorb any energy based attacks Greeza's throws at him. But Greeza simply just has to avoid launching his attacks in front of MTO to be able to stop the latter from consuming his energy as the only way MTO is able to absorb attacks is through his mouth. And given that Greeza is so swift and glitched he can definitely just spam attacks everywhere else against MTO.

Even if MTO can regenerate from his attacks, Greeza has this one controversial ability which is that he's able to absorb multiple kaijus at once and use their abilities as his own. Now considering that we never saw any limits to this ability like whether it'll only work on weaker opponents so there's some food for thought.

Although this is a rather tough one but it all comes down to whether MTO can regenerate faster than Greeza's DPS but considering the scale of some of Greeza's attacks it doesn't look very bright for MTO, but even if he is able to regenerate faster, he can't even catch Greeza to be able to deal damage to him, not to mention that controversial ability that Greeza has to simply just absorb MTO whole.

Though I really would've wanted to see MTO's full evolution as I have a theory that MTO's true resurrected form would've had the eight heads we saw as he exploded, so perhaps his true form might be a totally different story but nonetheless.

I see this as either a win for Greeza or a draw against an imperfect MTO

[nyotasaimiri]

The Baron’s Keep, part 9

Out of the spoiler tags on Wednesday. After this, it’ll be a bit of a “filler” arc while my rather battered crew recovers from this incident. It got messy.

Nyota leaned against the cold stones of the surviving tower as if she could draw their sturdiness into herself. Her body shook as she searched the sky and field for any sign of more Occasus. She could not believe it was over, not yet.

“Cautious. Is it gone? Are you intact? If it’s gone I need to talk to you.”

The Apex looked up at the sound of the Baron’s voice. A few glittering shapes watched her from the ramparts. Her vision swam; she couldn’t tell which was him. The Keep. She needed something from it. The Relic. Focus…

One foot slid forward, then the other, her shoulder grazing the rough stone. Why is it so far…? Nyota stumbled. Darkness folded in around her, her fingertips trailing down the wall as she slid down. Not yet... she thought, trying to fight as exhaustion dragged her eyes shut.

She came to with a Glitch standing beside her. “Concerned. Are you breathing?” The Baron asked, leaning over her.

“How… how long was I out?” Nyota asked, her voice still cracked with sleep. She was on her knees, leaning against the wall; her mouth tasted of grass and ashes, not a pleasant combination, and the cold had worked its way into her bones. Everything hurt, stiff and sore. Nothing new there, she thought, bracing herself against the stones.

“Thoughtful. No more than a few minutes, I should think,” he told her as she stood up. “If you can walk, you should come inside. This is a poor place for a nap.” His visible eye glittered with humor.

Nyota managed a wry smile as she stretched the stiffness out of her legs and limped after him. She was still exhausted, but the dizziness had faded. “How did the others fare?”

“Optimistic. We survived, despite that mechanical lizard’s best efforts,” the Baron said cheerfully. “Which reminds me…” He led her over to a few crates and hefted an odd rifle, passing it to Nyota. “Generous. Lady Khayar said to tell you ‘It’s a pleasure,’ and asked me to pass this on to you, though I see you already have your own?”

Nyota took the rifle with a strange reverence, wondering if gifting weapons meant as much to Khayar’s people as it did to her own. “The one I carry is not mine. Tell Lady Khayar she has my thanks.”

Anxiousness bubbled up in her chest as the Baron led her through the main hall. Rubble littered the floor, Glitch servants already working on repairs. Nyota looked around, searching for familiar faces.

The Baron noticed her searching the crowd. “Indicative. Your friends are over by the stairs,” he said. “I will wait for you by my throne?”

Nyota bowed to him, the respect far more heartfelt now than it had been when they met an hour ago. “Thank you, my Lord.”

She found Geo sitting on the stairs, Tarvei slumped against the wall beside him. Mog was curled up against Vei’s side.

“Captain Saimiri. I am glad you survived,” Geo said, glancing up as he heard Nyota approach. His left hand was bandaged and he had a thin cut along one cheekbone, but it didn’t stop him from smiling in open relief.

“Likewise,” Nyota said, trying to keep the surprise out of her voice. It felt strange, that he was happy to see her. “You are injured.”

“They are only scratches,” the older Apex said, inspecting his hand ruefully. “Those humans were quicker than I had expected. Mog had it worse.” He indicated the penguin, who was snoring quietly. “Vei saw to her as soon as she got back.”

Nyota crouched down beside Tarvei. He was breathing, at least, but he did not react to her presence at all. “Is he alright?” she whispered.

"He is not hurt,” Geo reassured her. “Vei was already spent when he reached me. Healing Mog was too much. But he should be fine after resting... Those staves you two wield, they are powerful, and I am glad I have not tried them. They seem very taxing.”

Nyota nodded, relieved. It always astonished her, how peaceful people looked when they slept. Vei seemed so much younger, entirely unafraid. He shifted but did not wake when she pulled the old doll out of her pocket and set it in his hands. “Tell him I said ‘Thanks,’ when he wakes,” she said.

The Baron stood up as Nyota climbed the last steps to his throne. The gate to the relic opened at a simple gesture. “Galvanized. Take this artifact, and take me too,” he said. “I have a teleporter you can use. I’m coming with you. I think this business needs sorting out.” He paused for a moment, looking thoughtfully at the keep. “Reflective. Also, it’s quite boring here.”

The relic floated easily over to Nyota’s hand as she reached for it, almost as if it recognized her. “I am grateful for your assistance,” she said, “but I’m afraid you will have to make your way to the Ark on your own. Please, tell Esther I will join her once I have seen to my own business.”

The Baron nodded and led the way to an ancient, dusty teleporter. He hummed cheerfully to himself as he activated it. “Invigorated. Out into the great unknown!”

Nyota stepped into the teleporter after he vanished, setting the coordinates for her ship. Time to go home.