#who had no real part in the plot minus a snatch here and there she just spent 10 hours fetching things

[jackietaylorsghost]

been referred to on here a few times as ‘the person who’s an abby hater’ and i just want 2 assure you im not just an abby hater, i hate that whole fucking game for a long laundry list of reasons and abby barely scratches the surface of it

[forthechubbies]

Mrs. Jeon Vol 3

Synopsis• One nightstand gone Marriage!? The past catches up with Yn when her head over heels husband finds his lost bride and will keep her by any means necessary.

Category's•Violent Thoughts, Hostel Behavior, Nsfw (Later), and Bratty Jungkook.

Duos• Yandere! Jungkook x Chubby! Reader

Vol 1, 2, 3, 4,

What’s going on down there? It sounds restlessly calm. You could hear muffled voices but nothing more; you aren't too keen on testing your luck and sneak into the corridor to eavesdrop on their conversation. Pretty sure the door is locked anyway.

Instead, You took note of the confined walls surrounding you. A typical master bedroom accessorized an earthy decor, cute mini-plants placed in various room areas, two tiny pet turtles in a tank constructed into a giant wooden bookshelf.

Speaking of books, talk about books galore. The shelved books had little to no wiggle room aside from the one empty slot belonging to the open novel on the nightstand. The owner won’t mind you partaking in one quick gander-

“Ah!” You gasp, fixing your eyes on your newly treated ankle. For a minute, you just about forgot this crazy abducted situation your in. The bedsprings dip as you flop back into the spot where Jimin left you. Jimin was the man you fell on during your first attempt at freedom; he was even generous enough to bandage with utmost care.

A kind gesture a particular bunny wasn’t too thrilled on seeing, Jungkook's face soured while watching Jimin’s filthy little womanizing hands caressing the delicate soft plushy skin of his carrot’s legs.

Son of a bitch trying to cop a feel on his wife, Jimin’s flirtatious persona, led him out to be a well-known heartthrob but often seen as a gigolo through certain people's point of view and, frankly, Jungkook's wife won't be a victim of the Jimin Effect.

Crash!

The smash of a glass object-making contact with the hard marble kitchen floor snatched Jimin’s and your attention giving it to the irritable bunny who’s psychotically enthusiastic about testing his progress in strength by snapping his hyung’s neck-

Oh, no, his carrot looks frightened-He shouldn't do such a brutal act of love with his wife nearby; her poor innocent heart might shatter. No violence...At least for the time being.

Next thing you know, Jungkook's face lightened up, and even when Jimin bit his head off for breaking one of Jin’s fancy dinnerware, his facial expression persisted undaunted. Jungkook kept a serene masquerade, but through closer observation, he clenched his jaw at Jimin’s hand on cradling the small of his wife’s back, guiding her into hiding in the upper part of the house for a reason unknown.

Jungkook let Jimin take you no-fuss included, Hence, Your encaged situation. For all, you know, The men were downstairs plotting a far-flung strategy to murder you making it look like a battle of defense.

Though, You were more occupied by another Crack for the floor down below. ” Ahh!” You cried out, falling back on the bed once again.

Meanwhile, Downstairs.

”Stop! Breaking Hyung’s plates, or we're both as good as dead!” Jimin growled. ”Quit avoiding the question! Who the hell is that woman!? Did you hurt her!? Why-!” Jimin asked Jungkook until his cheeks burned a reddish hue, and his neck veins were dominant.

In one swift breath, Jungkook responded. “ She’s Mrs.Jeon. My wife.”

Jimin knew his maknae had a few loose screws in his head, but this is getting out of hand.

”Wife?! Do you know how old you are!? Kook, You just turn twenty-three-”

”So What.” Jungkook interrupted. ”You want me to wait until I’m an ancient fart like Hyung to get married.”

”Pffft.” Jimin pressed his lips into a thin line suppressing his need to laugh. ”Ahem, respect your elders-You little brat.”

Amidst the brothers at each other's throats, another member of the maknae line awakened from his mid-morning nap; drowsy eyed Kim Taehyung waddled upstairs to check up on his Hyung living in the room above him.

He could have sworn a faint scream is what he heard-Well; there's no harm in checking.

You jumped at the squeaky hinges of the door opening. Wait, it was unlocked!? Expecting the uninvited visitor to be Jungkook, You raised a pillow over your head, ready to be hurled-to your amazement; it was a completely different man.

A long-haired male with long chocolate locks kept at bay by a beige headband; his attire was disarray. His tank top hung off his shoulder, slightly creased in his pajama pant’s waistband.

Adorable, to say the least, the poor thing’s eyes weren’t even fully open yet, the pretty pink pout of his lips nearly forced an” Aw” from yours.

”Who are you?” He grumbled, scratching the back of his neck.

Sweet mother of deep, He stood a few feet away, but the raspiness and depth of his voice caused your insides to start quivering.

”I’m-I’m the sand fairy.” You choked out, fluttering the tips of your fingers as if spreading magic dust. ” I'm here to ensure all your dreams are sweet. ”

You nibbled your lip nervously, hoping he takes the bait. He yawned in response dragging his exhausted body across the room to you; he halts. You gulped, staring up at him; you felt like a mouse about to pounce on by a tiger.

”H-H-I!” You yelped.

The man took no real investment in your fib; instead, he decided to reap the benefits of how soft and plushy you are by laying his head on your bare thighs. He wiggled in place to reach maximum comfort.

”Ah.” He moaned, falling back to sleep.

Oh, dear.

………

The sound of the hyung’s arrival made the two maknae gulp.

First in the door was Hoseok, hands full grocery bags ” Come help! Quick, save the ice cream if it isn't soup by now.”

Namjoon followed behind. ” I told Jin not to get the ice cream first-He knows how he gets with his coupons.”

”The worst part is he got upset when we told him that's enough food then told to stay in the car.” Yoongi stretched out the pins and needles feeling in his limbs.

”You may say that's enough now, but when that brat comes, he's going to eat us out of house and home!” Jin scolded, unconsciously fetching the rest of the bags.

Jin froze, staring at Jungkook, helping put the food in the correct places. He didn't hesitate to smother his baby boy in a hug, but right after, he jabbed Jungkook's gut.

”Oof!” Jungkook doubled over, gripping his chest. ” I missed you too,” He coughed.

Jin stood tall. ” And there's plenty more where that came from once Hoseok gets his hands on you.”

Anyone but Hoseok.

” I heard Jk!” Hoseok rushed Jungkook a bear hug. ” Thank goodness you're alright!” He jabbed in his Jungkook's gut. ” Where the hell have you been?!”

Jungkook groaned. ” Ou-Ouch..I won't be able to tell you if I keep getting hit.” He cleared his throat. ”America.”

”America!” The hyungs blared out.

Namjoon pinched the bridge of his nose. ” What possessed you to go there on your own? Have you forgotten what you are?”

Jungkook sighed. “ I know, I know, but I just envy normal people around my age having the freedom to go wherever they want.”

“ But you’re not," Yoongi brutally minced Jungkook’s sob story. He’s not particularly fond of beating around the bush, especially when dealing with his brothers earlier this afternoon. “ Unlike ‘normal’ twenty-year-olds, you are adored by army who would be upset if anything happened to you.”

Jungkook bowed his head in shame; the thought of army never really crossed his mind.

“And-“ Yoongi continued. “ There are crazies in every country, so what made you think heading off on your own would be alright!?”

“Why America?” Namjoon’s brow jumped as the gears in his head began to turn. “ Out of all the beautiful places we visited-You chose the U.S? What was there that you had to leave without an explanation?”

Namjoon stared at Jungkook’s eyes not in a malicious sense, just a habit when trying to figure out a solution or, in this case, a missing clue to the reason his little brother hopped up and left.

“Twinkats (Twinkies),” Jimin laughed nervously. “ I bet his suitcase is full of them.”

Sadly, Jimin’s fairy charm wouldn’t work this time. Jungkook is drowning in deep waters, and there’s no salvage coming for miles; at this rate, Jungkook had two options: tell the truth, orrrr, run away with his loving wife in his arms.

Not gonna lie; Jungkook leaned towards the second option, but the fates had another plan.

”Hyung! Hyung! Namjoon-Hyungie!!” Taehyung screamed bloody murder, sprinting downstairs minus jumping the last five steps. ” Her ankle is purple!”

Taehyung paused, breathing heavily in front of the kitchen where the interrogation is being held, accompanied by a woman injured cradled in his arms, more worried about him dropping than her throbbing ankle.

Taehyung had the room’s undivided attention, and Jungkook’s enviousness scowl; his wife was clinging on to another man like a baby koala to its mother but had it been him, she would scratch his eyes out.

Let's not mention the fact! It seems like she's only wearing a shirt, and guess who the owner is, not him!

” Who-”

”What-”

”Why”

” How!?”

Before getting into details about the hyung's reaction to their new houseguest, let's first take a detour to Prince Taehyung mini rescue adventure.

A good hour in, Taehyung woke up from the best nap of his life to beautiful damsel sniffles and tears. The sweetheart asked what was wrong and nodded as the damsel explained, coming to realize she was in distress. Prince Taehyung aided the beauty with new clothes and tied a red ribbon into her hair….beacause he thought it would look pretty (Shrugs).

However, her ankle injury required a different source of help, so who else to ask but his favorite Hyung? But he couldn't find Yoongi in his room, so he decided to ask Namjoon instead.

Back to the original story

Taehyung explains the truth unconsciously, throwing his little brother under the bus.

Jin’s eye twitched as he peered at Jungkook, who was attempting to slip out of the kitchen. ” You little sh-!”

Let's just say Jin didn't nearly beat Jungkook almost half to death with a rice paddle while shouting numerous insults to bruise a thousand men’s pride in a second.

It went silent after Jin banished Jungkook to the beach house a few feet from the house until he wanted to see his face again. Namjoon took it upon himself to introduce the gang.

You politely shared a warm hello but wished nothing more to go home.

[ihopethisendswell]

My Computer Is Terrible So I'm Stating My Story Ideas Here Part 9: This is gonna be very f-ing vague but it has Lore Keeper Sonia in it and that all that matters.......and my oc x Leon ship I guess.

Okay okay okay

Swsh Fantasy/Medieval/Royalty Au

You love it. I love it. Will I write about it? Eh. Will I gush about it? Absolutely.

So so so

Some random things that I'm thinking about.

I'm going full ramble here prepare yourself.

Lore. Keeper. Sonia. My. Beloved.

Let her have an active role dammit

For what idk but it'll be something!

Also King Leon cause duh

With Raihan as his number 1 knight. The only one who can at least match him in battle

Also his bff( along with Sonia)

Being a young king Leon had less time to interact with those he cares about

Like Hop

Also Prince Hop My Beloved

So like

The plot is very vague but like

The basic idea is that there's a threat of a dragon or something similar to the sort

And ofc King Leon and his best knight will go to the threat themselves since soldiers they sent has note returned so better go themselves to not loose anymore men

So as they prepare to leave Sonia comes along and is like " I'm coming with you I know about these Legends of the Land that might help you" and Leon is like " No it's do dangerous" and they fight about while Raihan is in the background like " oh damn" before Leon uses his status as a king and orders Sonia to not interfere which really blows a whole into their already stained friendship

It also causes Raihan to question if his relationship with Leon is that they're actually friends or it's just of a king and his knight ( only professional)

Leon in all of this is feeling very bad but Rose is like " you did what you had to do" and tries to encourage Leon about his abilities/ status/ relationships.

Rose is Leon's counselor/ Duke/ idfc but he's there

Change in perspective: it's hops turn

His whole thing is that when he was really young he used to be bff's with this girl( Naomi) but the problem is that no has seen her AND one day she just disappeared like that one guy in the meme so no one believes him when he says that she exist

So up until now he was taught to believe that he was imagining things and that this girl didn't really exist until he started having weird dreams about someone calling him to fulfill some prophecy of sword and shield or whatever and each time this person mentions Naomi, his childhood friend

And in his dreams it's said that they have to go to the place Leon and Raihan are going to fulfill the prophecy

So now Hop's like " well dang I guess I have to fulfill this prophecy but there's no way that Lee would let me go with him-" ( cause he overheard Lee's and Sonia's fight) " so who can I ask?"

Piers that's who!!!

Idk if he's gonna be a duke or part of a gang of thieves not how tf does hop know about him but he does and we're gonna role with it

THIS IS GETTING ODDLY SPECIFIC FIR SOMETHING THAT'S SUPPOSED TO BE F-ING VAGUE

Also Marnie tags along too because of course she does

They somehow tag Bede along who was going to stop them but they forced him to come anyway

BACK TO LEON

A day before they leave Raihan is like " we should head to the market for extra supplies " and Leon's like " yeah sure" so they head to the market

While they're there Leon bumps into a stranger with black clock with neon blue highlights aka Alexis!!!!

And Alexis drops a few things most notable a compass of sort but before Leon can say anything Alexis just snatches it out of Leon's hands and walks off without a word

And Leon's like " rude" but honestly doesn't think of it

So the next day they're actually leaving for real and after a long while on the road Raihan thinks that some snuck on their carriage only to find out it was just Sonia because she's a bad bitch like that

And Leon obviously makes a fuss because she went against his orders but she's like " I know more about * insert place* more than the two of you combined!" ( Well not really, and Raihan is fairly knowledgeable about Legends and history and and stuff but I need a reason for Sonia to be there okay)

They fight for a bit before Raihan gets in between the two and is like " we're too far to go back now and she might be a big help so stop fighting" and they stop for the time being.

Que travel sequence with both parties having shenanigans

Leon and Sonia fighting

Hop and Bede fighting

Marnie honestly vibing

Piers being tired of everything and rethinking his life choices

Raihan honesty having to be the middle man before snapping himself and now all three of them are not on good terms ( oh you thought it was just gonna be Alexis x Leon angst? Ha! The games gave me both to much and to little content to work with. Suffer)

Another perspective change but it's Alexis this time!!!!!

In the game canon he had a relatively light scar on his right eye. Well now it's worse :)

In this Au he was cursed by a certain green haired man( Ghetsis) (I'm going to dread tagging this aren't I ), who was an evil warlock and king( or Alexis' Homeland and by force I must add)that Alexis defeated cause he was once a hero

Bascically he's cursed to have the appearance and abilities to a half-dragon

So for the most part he looks human with a few things akin to Zekrom minus the tail.

To be specific his arms and legs are both seemingly chard black, with slightly visible lightning marks. they glow blue when he's using magic/ his powers. His eyes ( well eye) is like Zekrom's

While that sounds cool, his new abilities give Alexis a lot of pain, as his body isn't suited for it

And because big that he can't really control his new powers so he's not only hurting himself but also those around him.

As much as I want to go the route of he runs away from his family and friends to look for a cure and protect them this guy Formerly had no clue how magic worked he just used it, so he had to ask those around him who did to help him

Which involves the dragon that everyone is looking for as it is said to sap energy of any kind, which would reverse his curse.

This dragon is called Eternatus

The problem is that this same dragon is known to to use it's energy to cause destruction around it and Alexis is like yeah no, and goes off to find another way with Elliot and N since both Cheren and Bianca have they're own duties and N knows about the curse being Ghetsis' son

The compass is magic and it's away for each of them to tell where the other is and use for communication

It's also used to detect magic!

So yeah this compass is very important

Along they're travels the twins have this very strange dream regarding Naomi but they notice that A) she's wearing a necklace that was once owned by their uncle before he moved away to start a family.

So they rightfully assume that this girl is their cousin

The second thing they notice is that Eternatus is literally right behind her and is causing her A LOT of pain.

Bascically she's begging them to come save her because she's gonna die if they don't

If your wondering why she didn't contact Hop it's because she assumed that Hop had forgotten about her so she thought it would be pointless. Not the spirits/ the wolves though!

So know the twins have no choice but to go find Eternatus and rescue Naomi because why wouldn't they she's in trouble and they're cousin !!!!

So they tell N the gist and make they're way to the kingdom that Leon rules and Alexis bumps into Leon yada yada yada you get it

And after that they leave for Eternatus.

I have a lot more ideas but this is getting waaaaay to long so I'm just gonna make a part 2/ part 10.

Seriously this is very fun to think about as I love the fantasy genre.

TDLR: This is awfully specific for something that's supposed to be very vague. Also Lore Keeper Sonia my Beloved ( I know I didn't talk about her much but just know I love her dearly)

If anyone have any ideas or just want to brainstorm with me, feel free to tell me!

[fly-pow-bye]

DuckTales 2017 - "New Gods on the Block!"

Story by: Francisco Angones, Madison Bateman, Colleen Evanson, Megan Gonzalez, Christian Magalhaes, Ben Siemon, Bob Snow

Written by: Megan Gonzalez

Storyboard by: Sam King, Kathryn Marusik, Stephan Park

Directed by: Jason Zurek

Does this episode have the right stuff?

Scrooge and company have reached the Helmet of Hengis Khan, which is currently being guarded by a bunch of giant silkworms! Just take my word for it. However, Scrooge is ready, and knows that his nephews and honorary niece are up to the task to take on those mere worms. He's got Huey, the planner, Dewey and Webby are good as the distraction, and Louie is just good at doing something greedy like snatching the helmet while the silkworms are distracted. They lock hands together, a universal showing that they are an inseparable team, and Dewey does one of his classic one-liners to start this amazing fight scene.

In fact, the fight scene was so amazing, it just couldn't be animated.

Instead, we suddenly cut to the kids walking through the door of the Manor, where we learn that the fight scene would have amazing for the silkworms rather than the Ducks, as they have apparently failed. Outside of a few lines suggesting that Huey's inability to predict the unpredictable was a major factor in it, they don't go much further than the mission was a failure. They didn't seem to get any battle damage from them at the very least. I'm obviously not expecting blood, but I would think their hair would be a little messed up.

While Della couldn't predict that this mission would be a failure, as she had confetti cannons and a giant banner ready for what she assumed would be their triumphant return, she does tells her kids exactly what happens when Scrooge fails, something she should know from participating in countless adventures with him. First comes the wallowing, then the anger, then he just shakes it off and comes up with a new plan. Webby decides to add to that; each failure is just a reason for the team to grow. Scrooge tells Webby that is a great idea: he should grow the team by getting better, more experienced people to join it!

In other words, after trusting Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby ever since they proved themselves in the first episode, this one failed mission that didn't even get a scratch on their clothing gives Scrooge a reason to abandon them for a different team. On one hand, a team of non-children would be better for Scrooge's PR, but on the other hand, this just feels like an overreaction to make this plot work. Della seems to agree; she tells the kids that they would be able to handle whatever is going to barge through that door. No, she did not put it that way, but she may as well have.

In comes Zeus, Selene, and Storkules, a trio of gods from the Greek pantheon. The moon goddess Selene and the demi-god Storkules have successful taken the now former god of lightning/king of the gods Zeus's godly wreath, and now he's merely just a powerless jerk rather than a jerk that can smite people. As Selene says, he hasn't done anything good since locking up the Titans, a reference to the original myths, so it was coming to him.

Why are they here? Because they now need a god who can take his place in the Olympus pantheon, and they each have their own idea that happens to currently be in the Mansion. Storkules thinks it should be Donald, Selene thinks it should be Della, and Zeus thinks it should be himself. I can't help but think Storkules and Selene are not even trying to hide who their true loves are among the mortals. Nobody tell Penny.

As the children mope about how the gods surely wouldn't choose them if even Scrooge couldn't, Della decides to reject it and say her kids and kids' friend deserve it instead. What Della would do if she had the powers of Olympus will forever remain a mystery. Selene is convinced because, while they're children, they're still less immature than her father, who still threatens to smite people with lightning despite not having any powers anymore. I still like this slightly more accurate to the original myths version of Zeus.

As the children mope about how the gods surely wouldn't choose them if even Scrooge couldn't, Della decides to reject it and say her kids and kids' friend deserve it instead. What Della would do if she had the powers of Olympus will forever remain a mystery. Selene is convinced because, while they're children, they're still less immature than her father, who still threatens to smite people with lightning despite not having any powers anymore. I still like this slightly more accurate to the original myths version of Zeus.

Storkules wasn't there to see this plan change, as his candidate for godhood was still in the houseboat preparing his houseboat. After Donald takes out the garbage, Storkules bursts through the door and gives his friend of friends the biggest hug, and is impressed that he even prepared a celebratory feast as if he knew what Storkules was about to offer him.

Much like Della, what Donald would do if she had the powers of Olympus will forever remain a mystery, because he's got bigger plans on this day. That celebratory feast was actually him preparing for a big date with the only person who can stand his singing.

Don't worry, Storkules takes his friend of friends going on a date with someone else very well. Maybe a bit too well, and it's not just to Donald's chagrin, as he decides to do a labor worthy of being among the twelve he did that one time: make the perfect wedding feast! Anyone who knows this character will know where this is going.

It's also pretty predictable where the other half of the episode is going, even if I did think at least one of them would have done better than the others. Selene decides to give Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby each a chance to prove their worth on being in the pantheon. They each decide on an ability similar to the ones in the myths, they get a little test run at a random location, and, if they fail, Selene can just clap or snap her fingers and everything reverts back to normal. Even if she didn't reveal the last one, it would be just too good this early on if we had any victors here.

Louie wants to be the God of Fortune, so he gets the Louie Touch, which he instantly trademarks despite being a clear knockoff of a certain king's. This is most likely because he never really heard of the tales of King Midas's golden touch, as he ends up turning the entire park he was put in into gold. This includes a dog. Not a dog-person, a dog much like in real life.

Huey wants to be the God of Intuition, so he gets the power of prophecy, similar to Cassandra minus the "nobody believing him" problem. In fact, he has the opposite problem; Huey doesn't seem to catch the hint that telling the misfortunes that are going to happen to people aren't going to make people happy. It doesn't help that his powers are causing his brain to expand.

Webby wants to be the Goddess of Friendship Sunshine Get-A-Long Time, so she ends up being able to control the weather. Oddly enough, controlling the weather was one of Zeus's specialties in the original myths, so this should give her the biggest chance out of all of them since this is supposed to be "who is going to replace Zeus." Unfortunately, just giving the boardwalk a sunny day and getting Glomgold off of a kiddie ride he had been hogging doesn't cause everyone to hug, so she ends up striking everything with lightning in the end. With Webby becoming mad with power in the span of a minute, I don't wonder how Zeus ended up the way he did.

Dewey apparently wants to be the God of Dance, and tries to woo the judge with a dance. Even if he didn't manage to torment a random location to the point where it would have to be reversed by a moon goddess's snap, the lack of any god powers disqualifies him as well. I know it can barely be seen in that screenshot, but that reaction from Selene makes this whole scene even funnier.

It's not like these abilities aren't fitting, but it's such a foregone conclusion that they were going to fail these tests spectacularly that it just felt predictable.

While these trials are happening, Zeus decides to call up one of his more notorious brothers: Hades, god of the underworld. Despite only showing up as an unknown number, which would make sense even if Zeus was calling from a cell phone of his own rather than Scrooge's house phone, he picks up to hear the voice of the guy that trapped him in a world surrounded by bones. He's not too happy about his situation, needless to say.

Following in the footsteps of not following the Disney version of the Greek pantheon besides Hercules being treated as a 100% god, Hades is more like a goth who doesn't really care about anything. He doesn't go with Zeus's idea of causing an undead rebellion, reminding Zeus that he's too busy keeping the Titans locked up, which gives Zeus a different idea. Hades won't be involved with this idea, as, other than revealing that one of the few things that delights him now is Zeus being powerless, he decides not to do anything else. Despite this, it's neat to see this amount of world-building with the pantheon, and it makes me wonder if we'll see him again.

Being failures at being Scrooge's teammates and Greek gods, we get another mope scene. Scrooge actually calls this his "special ops" team, which makes me think that Scrooge actually wanted a different team for different situations, and it seems like they're hinting at an ending that would cast Scrooge in a better light: he was just planning a B team. Such a shame that doesn't really come up anywhere else.

I think the other plot is better, with Hercules acting like the unwanted friend getting in the way of Donald and Daisy's date, and it eventually falls apart. Even with Storkules in the background holding a tied up Cupid, a part of one of his earlier plans, one can really feel Donald's pain as he floats in a garbage-filled pool. This feeling of pain is even shown in-universe, as the normally oblivious Storkules decides to get some help.

Sadly, he goes to his father, Zeus, completely devastated that he had forsaken his best friend, and asks what he could do to help out two people in love. Zeus tells a story about how Hera fell in love with him after he defeated the titans, and that if Storkules can defeat one of them, maybe they'll be impressed. He laments that it's too bad there's no god with god-like strength that can unleash one of them.

To make a long story short, Storkules hits the ground, a titan comes out, Scrooge and the rest come out to see this madness, and the titans ends up eating Donald right in front of Daisy's eyes. I love this line that reveals, among other things, that Donald is still okay:

Storkules: (keeping the titan from eating Daisy) Don't worry, we can salvage this!

Daisy: You killed my boyfriend!

Donald: "My boyfriend"? (reveals to be in the Titans see-through stomach, still indigested) Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!

It reminds me of that scene in Coco. I can't spoil it, but there's a similar line there that also made me smile.

Della and Scrooge are climbing up the titan, Shadow of the Colossus style, where they talk about the other plot. This is their way to get the plots to converge, and it’s a good idea. In fact, while this goes against the idea that Scrooge was merely trying to expand his team rather than remove his kin from it, Scrooge getting confronted with his negligence while trying to deal with an even bigger problem is a pretty powerful moment.

The stakes are set pretty high, as the titan manages to turn pretty much everyone except for Daisy and the kids into dinner. Even Selene, the one that could reverse problems with the snap of her finger and the character that was pretty much treated as the Queen of the Gods until now, as Hera is only mentioned, manages to get caught in the titan's grasp, dropping the godly crown on the ground as she joins the rest of the party in this titan's stomach. Considering all of this eating of his fellow gods and mortals, maybe this titan is meant to be Cronus. He even manages to do what Cronus wanted to do in the original myths.

Whether or not that generic titan is Cronus or not, that victory doesn't last too long, as we get this really cool scene where Daisy manages to startle the titan with her own roar, and, using that as a distraction, Webby takes the crown, splits it up, and gives herself and her friends the god powers they wanted. While I wasn't that much of a fan of this plot, I can safely say it ends really well. Not only does Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby prove themselves as helpers of Scrooge, but kids worthy of have the powers of Greek myth. The latter doesn't last, of course, but still, it's great.

In the end, everything seems to work out just fine, and I really do mean everything, as the other plot also ends very well. While I don't want to ruin the moment, I'll say this: I find it very funny that Zeus ended up helping with Storkules' problem in the end, even if it wasn't his intention.

How does it stack up?

At first, I was a little miffed on this episode; I just don't think Scrooge would just throw away his team just because they failed miserably on one mission, especially in an episode after he trusted them so much, and especially after the episode after the one where he outright recruited one of them to go through his deadly danger dungeon. However, this episode has plenty of ways for me to forgive that: the scenes with Donald and Daisy, the cool god powers in the end, and Zeus being Zeus all throughout.

Still, this ended up being just merely in the middle for me.

Next, we get to see an Scrooge adventure with young Della for the first time outside of the IDW comics!

← The Split Sword of Swanstantine! 🦆 The First Adventure! →

[ratcarney]

hadestown but Worse i

okay, so hear us out. one night, vin @ominous-slut came to me with the inexplicable need to tear orpheus apart, so naturally i was like hell yeah! thus, Hadestown But Worse was born.

characters:

in Hadestown But Worse, it’s the nytw cast except with jewelle, kay, and yvette as the fates.

orpheus: it’s not reevepheus because reevepheus is too easy to torture (more on this later). the kid takes one hit and he’s down for the count. damonpheus, however, will fight back, and that’s a major point in this au.

eurydice: she’s not a focal point in this au because she’s been through enough and it’s illegal to harm nabiyahdice. we don’t want to hurt her.

persephone: drinks to forget.

hades: the figurehead of hadestown. really, everything is run by the fates here, but hades is the one that people think is in charge.

the fates: hot but also cruel. they are the main characters, they rule the story. the fates remain constant and that’s basically the heart of the au. mortals and gods are in and out but the fates always remain.

hermes: starts as a father figure to orpheus, but distances himself as the story goes on and he’s forced to watch as orpheus is torn apart. he doesn’t want to get too attached anymore.

the workers: their purpose is to be affected by orpheus’s voice (or lack thereof).

plot

- in this au the story quite literally repeats itself over and over and over again. while it’s not set within the musical, like onstage and all that, it’s in a real world and just happens to reboot every time eurydice dies. when orpheus started to die before eurydice, it ended then, too.

- hermes and the fates are the only ones aware that the story keeps repeating. the rest of the characters (minus the workers) may experience very slight deja vu from time to time but that never chalks up to them realizing that everything has been done before. the only one that might have actually remembered things is persephone, but she drinks too much to remember anything now.

- the first few cycles are very amusing for the fates. they like to see orpheus try and fail and they like to see eurydice muster up faith only to lose it as soon as orpheus turns around.

- but after a while, it gets tedious.

- lachesis is the one that speaks up first. it’s the eightieth cycle, and she and her sisters are sitting on top of a building to watch hades grant orpheus one chance to save his wife...again.

- “it’s always the same thing.” she remarks. “aren’t you bored?”

- clotho nods. “i suppose so.” she replies.

- their heads turn to atropos, who looks like a lightbulb has just appeared over her head. “we can fix that.” she says.

- after a few minutes of scheming, they decide what to do.

- they mess with orpheus’s guitar just enough to make him play gradually more and more out of tune.

- to their delight, it shakes him enough that his voice fails him right on the word “singing,” and he never gets to his magical lalalas that the fates are so sick of hearing.

- they watch him look upward and whisper an apology.

- after that, everything just takes off. they jump down and clotho snatches eurydice, lachesis seizes orpheus, and atropos takes his guitar. she gives the guitar to hades.

- together, they drag orpheus into an open area as a “cautionary tale.” however, they get a little too excited, and kill him before they start having any real fun. it takes a little while to get used to how fragile mortals are.

- “oh, well.” lachesis shrugs, gazing down at orpheus’s face. “there’s always next time.”

- the next time, they realize that they can use papers to their advantage to make things more interesting—and then they won’t have to hear him sing at all!

- they try seizing him after papers, but something goes wrong with either the rope or the amount of pressure they’re putting on him, and he ends up dying way too quickly again.

- “oh, well.” and it reboots again.

- this time, they were smart. during the time in which persephone was on surface, they went to hades and had a cage commissioned. he agreed to have the workers build it, and it was delivered to them around the same time that eurydice was received by hades.

- this time, when orpheus laid on the ground after papers, he started to sing, and that’s what threw the fates off.

- he started singing if it’s true.

- the fates could tell he was getting tired, though, and finally, before he could finish singing “take these hands,” his voice gave out and the fates were free to take him into the cage that was made especially for him.

- clotho was all ready to start the torture (she had excitedly asked atropos if she could use her teeth, and atropos had answered “why not, he won’t remember it anyway.”) when orpheus started to scream.

-end of part i-

[cosmicrecluse]

Heres the full memoir minus the boring academic part at the end

A Stand Taken by People No Taller Than 5 Feet

The trees were tall back then, much taller than they are now. Everything was bigger when I was that age. The year of Adventure Camp, the first advanced camp I’d been able to attend since I’d turned ten, was to be my best yet. I had grown to the age where I no longer experienced the homesickness that would strike younger children midweek. Camp had finally become the ultimate escapism from all the hardships of home.

This particular camp appeared as a traditional one, one that allowed children to hike and explore nature while also learning from it. Unfortunately, this was not what we got. The program had no hiking aside from following the path to and from the mess hall, no exploring aside from the occasional kid who would wander off path only to be dragged back, no “adventure” of any kind really.

The closest we ever got to nature were the few nights we built a fire and cooked a meal over it, a time when campers were finally set loose into the woods with minimal supervision to bring back fuel for our makeshift stove. The meal was never good, in all honesty, but watching the flames lick at the meats and vegetables as the sun slowly set made something in me need- no, require- to be freer.

One of the days, after the food was gone and our fire cooled, my need for real adventure had grown into a roaring hunger. Daylight had not yet fully disappeared but twilight made the sun appear red, the forest past our cabins somehow more wild. It was everything I’d wanted from the forest.

“Can I draw with that?” I asked one of our counselors, Scout, as I pointed to the blackened wood left in our firepit. Scout believed it to be an innocent request, but if she’d been able to see no more than half an hour into the future she most certainly would not have let me touch the scorched tinder.

“Of course, just don’t eat it, kiddo,” She allows with a joke, unaware of what she’d set into motion. With charcoal in hand, I quickly ran off to set to work.

Intricate and stylized, the markings I’d drawn onto my skin created a look similar to the ones I’d seen my own mother smear onto my brother and me during Halloween. They coated my arms and face, lines running to a central point at my eyes. I’d planned on running into the woods with what I thought was camouflage, I would hide within the thickening shadows and go on a real adventure.

More children gathered around me, gawking at the decorations I’d drawn. They wanted some of their own, wanted to join me. And so, more charcoal was harvested and more campers gained painted faces.

Once done, we believed we needed weapons in order to defend ourselves from the oh so dangerous Ohio wildlife. Sticks from our surroundings kindly offered themselves to us and were easily sharpened against concrete pathways and rocks. These, too, were covered with markings from our charcoal.

Our plot had gone unnoticed to the counselors, who must have thought it’d been nothing more than a game, something we were doing to pass the time before bed. Though, they had a surprise of their own for us.

“Come on adventurers, we’ve got something to tell you all!” Another counselor gathers us together, her voice chipper. This one was named Ghost, as she was our resident spook and monster expert.

The 20 or so of us form a circle, our bright, big eyes looking up at the people we’d known as adults at the time. Looking back, they were barely older than I am today. They towered over many of us, and we were to follow their commands to the T.

But now we’d grown restless of being followers, we were meant to be explorers and trailblazers, not sit like ladies. The group already began to shift where they stood, the tension thick enough to cut for us but seemingly invisible to our counselors.

“The popstar camp is coming for a dance party in a few minutes! So you guys should all wash your faces off and get ready!” Ghost smiled at all of us and we simply stared back. No one moves. The counselor’s glance at each other uncomfortably.

“Kids, Ghost gave you something to do,” The head counselor, Tiger, prompts. We stay in our places.

We were adventurers, not dancers, and after three days of being subjected to dull lectures and zero fun, we’d had enough. The campers would no longer follow orders from them.

“Put them in the cabin,” I said, having become a sort of leader to the band of girls. It was a simple request that the campers eagerly fulfilled. Three college-age adults stood no chance against over a dozen preteens who were hungry as rabid wolves for a taste of freedom.

The door is slammed shut after the three adults were stuffed into their shared cabin. Erin, a friend I’d made at the start of the week, forms a small team of campers who begin stacking the rocks we’d used to contain our fire to create a barricade.

No longer did we want to escape into the woods, our plans had changed with only a few words. Now was the time to liberate ourselves, at least in my head. A ten-year-old cannot be trusted to understand the world, but I knew that I wanted to own our campsite one way or another.

I take my place atop a small rock, lifting my barely sharpened stick above my head and shouting to my campers. Those not keeping our would-be counselor’s trapped hurry around me. They shout and call, beating their own play spears against the dirt in a chaotic sign of unity.

“What now?” a voice calls over the crowd, silencing the uproar. The voice belonged to Emily, the oldest of our campers. She was not one I’d befriended, but she was highly respected for her age of twelve, compared to our tens and elevens. The campers turned to me once again for orders.

“We’re gonna get the popstar girls and make sure they never come back here again,” I reply, a proud smile upon my face and my dinky spear pointed at the path the other camp would have to take. The suggestion is met with more animalistic howls and bellows, followed by pounding feet as the girls rush to the underbrush. I take a seat on my rock, soaking in the summer air thick violent anticipation.

Only a few minutes later, the path erupted in screaming and pounding feet. The popstar camp arrived, the ambush had begun. I take up my stick and join my campers in their chase. The other two counselors that’d arrived with this new group were promptly shoved into a cabin of their own, a new barricade beginning to be constructed to trap them as well.

As the sounds of screaming children, pounding fists against securely sealed doors, and the howling laughter of my newly feral campers filled the humid air, a thought entered my head. A simple thought, one that I, in my juvenile and power-mad state, believed to be just. In order to prevent another forced dance party, the droll days that had filled what was meant to be an adventurous week, the iron control of our counselors, a sacrifice had to be made.

I, being a child with an odd set of parents, had grown up learning of my Aztec ancestors. I had become used to the idea of killing a member of society to a bloodthirsty god in order to bring about peace.

With this knowledge, misinterpreted as it was, I called my campers to me once more. I reminded them of the tale of the Wumpus, a made of creature Ghost had sung a song about. It was a horrible beast that would snatch any child that wandered off path and steal their hair to replace the tail that it had lost.

Given that we were all young, stupid, and likely on the biggest adrenaline rushes of our short lives, multiple girls leaped at the chance to be made a sacrifice. Brianna, a girl who’d always been eager to be the first to any activity was quickly chosen.

A scarf was taken from a tent, rocks were gathered, and the girl tied to a small tree. While the pop star campers huddled together inside the community cabin that was meant to be a dance hall, we began singing the Wumpus Song Ghost had taught us in broken and ugly tones. As we did this, we struck the rocks together in an attempt to cause sparks as we’d seen our counselors do to light our cooking fire.

However, again, we were stupid and overly excited children, we did not know that the adults had used flint and steel, nor did we realize that the Wumpus was not real. But we continued on regardless; until a storm of adults from every camp arrived. Our rebellion, as I’ve come to call it, was squashed by threats of calling our parents.

[writesandramblings]

The Captain’s Secret - p.80

"People They Fall Apart”

A/N: I now take the stage with my baton, the orchestra fully assembled, every instrument in position, and the music begins to play.

Begins the events of episode 12, "Vaulting Ambition." (Small nitpick note, I did skip/fast forward some of the whole figuring out the Tyler/Voq thing for brevity's sake; this is not the Ash Tyler fanfic you're looking for. I have no time to dwell on that plot. And while I dearly love Stamets and Culber, we're also not here to dwell in the mushroom forest.)

In other news, I'm going to print a copy of this story in bound book format for my own personal amusement. If anyone wants to offer a "book review blurb"-style quote, please do a comment or message! I'd love some quotes to put on the back cover. My goal is to send to print on April 9.

To be clear, I'm not selling this fanfic or anything in any way, shape, or form. It's just, I've written a novel-length work (two novels, really) and I want to hold it in my hands as a real book.

Full Chapter List Part 1 - Objects in Motion << 79 - People They Come Together 81 - Pineapple Surprise >>

The ISS Charon, flagship of the Terran Empire and nomadic palace of the emperor, did not linger to admire its handiwork above the planet Harlak. It was a warp-capable fortress of unparalleled firepower and destruction entirely equal the Klingon Sarcophagus of the other universe. Like that ship, which Lorca had enjoyed demolishing, it was an incredibly attractive target to the rebels lingering in the area. While the evacuation of Harlak had not been entirely completed, enough rebels had escaped to pose a credible threat to the flagship if it lingered.

Georgiou left Burnham and the Shenzhou with the strictest orders to finish mopping up any straggling refugees from the planet as the Charon withdrew to more defensible coordinates. Burnham and Lorca were to follow once the Shenzhou's cleanup efforts were complete.

Burnham could ill afford any more indulgences with Lorca when the emperor's summons was hanging over their heads. "See to it that he's ready for transport immediately," she ordered.

As the guards dragged him towards whatever they thought this order meant (probably the waiting agony booth), Lorca shouted at Burnham and the rest of the bridge, "You're all a bunch of lab rats in the emperor's maze. Lab rats!"

Burnham did not know what it meant, only that Lorca was trying to tell her to relay some message. She undertook the task of performing a cursory sweep of the planet for rebels, doing her best to avoid actually finding any, but three small craft were not sufficiently quick or smart to evade detection and Burnham was forced to watch as Detmer fired on them with disinterested efficiency.

While she sat through this display, a transmission arrived from Discovery. Burnham took it in the ready room. It was the Defiant files. Discovery had gotten past the firewall and decrypted the data. Minus the Terran computer security measures, the files turned out to be very small indeed and almost entirely redacted, but that did not make them useless. There was data enough to start theorizing.

There was also just enough time before they boarded the shuttle for her to send a transmission back to Discovery. It was a small, terse, seemingly innocuous message. "Discovery. Thank you for your assistance in bringing the traitor to heel. The emperor has summoned us to an audience. I will be sure to tell the emperor personally of your role in my success when we speak. Whether as a prisoner or a lab rat, Lorca will pay for his crimes." She hoped that was sufficient to convey whatever message Lorca intended by the words.

The lab rat received the message. She sat in her room monitoring the bridge and communications, eyes glinting in the dim warmth, fur wriggling in excitement. Even if the words were spoken by Burnham, she knew they came from Lorca. She pressed the button for the comms. "Einar," she said, "it is time."

Groves and Mischkelovitz were in the lab proper. In a sense, they were beset on two sides. As Lalana emerged from the back of the lab with her silvery color-changing thermal suit in hand, Larsson came in the front. "What are you doing in here?" Groves demanded of Larsson, to which Lalana said:

"Einar and I have very much enjoyed our time with you both, but we are now required elsewhere." She elected to speak for Larsson, but if she were being honest about it, Larsson had not enjoyed his time with Groves and Mischkelovitz particularly. He found them only marginally tolerable.

Groves had been relaxing with his feet up and brought them down at once. "Say what now?" He should have been in Lorca's study attending to the Allan issue of how to trap and kill a probable time traveler who might or might not still be on the ship, but he had opted to work on decrypting the Defiant files in a more familiar setting because Lorca's collection of armaments creeped him out and now he was just avoiding the murder-themed mancave until such a time as Saru called him back. Besides, he and Airiam had been remotely working on decrypting the files together and had gotten a rather good game of chess going in the aftermath.

(Owing to her inhuman appearance, Lieutenant Commander Airiam had been banned from her post on the bridge and Groves was entirely sympathetic to her ensuing boredom. There was no room for either of them in this universe. What passed for law here was barely recognizable to Groves and if ever there was a place that rendered bioethics obsolete, it was a universe where humans were as almost cruel to each other as they were to the aliens they viewed as inferior life forms.)

Mischkelovitz did not look up from the mess of circuitry she was working on. She asked, "Where are you going?" Her flat tone suggested she was only mildly interested in the answer. Whatever research use she had for Lalana was over with and done with. The only reason Lalana was still in the lab was the mistaken idea that Mischkelovitz's current active projects included the lului box in some capacity. That was the secret she and Lalana shared. There had never been a need for the lului box. Or rather, there had been a need, and the need had been getting Lorca to go to Memory Alpha.

"We are going to join the captain," said Lalana, stretching up and gripping the edge of the worktable.

Mischkelovitz went from minimal to excessive interest in the space of a nanosecond. She put down the microwelder in her hands and turned to face them with eyes bright and eager. "Can I come?"

"Apologies, Emellia, but that is not possible."

"Well," said Groves, putting his feet back up and returning to the chess game on his padd, "have fun. It's your funeral."

"What do you mean, funeral?" asked Mischkelovitz.

"Your brother is being dramatic," intoned Larsson humorlessly.

"Am I, though? This whole universe is goddamn deathtrap. Dr. Culber already paid that price."

"Dr. Culber was killed by Ash Tyler," said Larsson, leaning against the worktable and crossing his arms. Maybe he did not have Groves' intelligence, but he was far too big to be intimidated by anything about Groves. He also looked even bigger than usual in his Terran armor. "Or whatever he is. And he came from our world. Honestly, I don't think the universes are as different as everyone seems to think. There are murderers in both."

"This universe is ruled by a fascist tyrant and you don't see the difference?"

"Fascism and tyranny have existed in our world as well. That is why we have words for them. Humans are humans, and they are always capable of bad as much as they are good."

Lalana tapped her top fingers on the worktable in a manner that seemed thoughtful. "I thought you were a moral relativist, John?" she pointed out.

There was a blank look on Groves' face. He had considered himself exactly that until arriving in a universe where the moral relativity broke his concept of the scale. Reading through the files on the data core recovered from the debris field revealed atrocities beyond comprehension. Now he did not know what he was, only that the darkness permeating this universe was something he outright rejected.

"In any event, if we are to die, it was a pleasure to know you both," offered Lalana. "Please also give my regards to Macarius. Einar, if you will assist me?"

While Larsson gave Lalana a hand with her garment and Mischkelovitz whimpered about not wanting Lalana to die, Groves picked up his padd and tried to focus on the chess game. He could not. He stared at the pieces on the black and green board and finally dumped the padd onto the table. "Groves to O'Malley. You up, moron?"

"Good afternoon to you, too," came the acid response. The eye roll felt almost audible.

"You might want to come down here. You're about to lose the rest of your staff."

A minute later O'Malley was on site with a cup of coffee and, of all the incongruities, a powdered donut in his other hand. Mischkelovitz took one look, snatched the donut from him, and broke it in half.

"What the hell do you think you're doing!" O'Malley went, entirely not caring about the donut. (Mischkelovitz put half the donut back in O'Malley's hand, broke off a piece of her half and gave it to Lalana, and began to eat the portion she had claimed for herself. Powder coated her fingers. It did not show against the medical white of her uniform.)

"Got a mission," said Larsson.

"Like hell you do!"

"Captain's orders."

"Oh, Saru ordered you on a mission without asking or telling me?"

"Lorca." Actually, Lorca had not ordered Larsson to do anything, but it was believable enough that he might have and not said a single word to O'Malley.

"You don't answer to Lorca! You answer to me!"

"I resign," said Larsson, carrying through on his perennial threat yet again. "Now I don't listen to anyone."

O'Malley stared indignantly. "I don't accept your resignation."

Lalana hopped between Larsson and O'Malley. She still had her filaments tucked inside her jumpsuit so she looked like a silvery bullet with a blue-grey head sticking out. "If I may point out, now that I am leaving, there is no need for your extra security measures, so Einar is free to resign."

"Wait, you're going, too?" O'Malley suddenly noticed Lalana was wearing clothing.

"Captain Lorca requires my presence," was her only explanation.

O'Malley shook his head. Children, all of them. "You understand you're not the sole reason for the security here, right? There's valuable research in this lab." Mischkelovitz's eyes went wide at O'Malley's words. Her brother didn't know the half of it. She shrank back towards her desk and debated going into the crawlspace.

"There is valuable research everywhere on Discovery," said Lalana. "I was the only thing that was secret about this room. Now this room is like all the others and may be guarded exactly the same way. But since you are here, allow me to say this in person. In the event we do not survive our journey, it has been a pleasure knowing you, Mac." She even did him the kindness of not calling him his full first name.

There was a horrible silence as that sank in. "Why... where..."

"Do not worry," Lalana said. "I have lived a very long time compared to you and Einar and I are not afraid of this eventuality. We will of course endeavor to avoid it, but there is no need for concern if this should come to pass. We are glad for the time we have known you. That we met at all in the vast cosmos was such an unlikelihood it is what you would describe as a miracle. A thousand million tiny things had to go exactly right for us to meet all of you and they did. Please do not cry, Emellia. Think of us in this moment always, as your friends. Now come, Einar, our shuttle awaits."

They made as if to leave. "Hold on!" said Groves suddenly, his feet coming down off the table again. "You're flying a shuttle in?" That was, he knew, an absolutely, completely terrible idea because even if the shuttles were mocked up to look Terran, they did not have valid Terran transponders and security ident codes and if the Defiant files were any indication as to the sorts of security measures Terrans employed, that shuttle was going get blown out of space the moment it got near the Charon. It would not hold up to any sort of scrutiny. "Let me give you a pineapple."

"Thank you, but I just ate," said Lalana, referring to the piece of donut. "Perhaps Einar is hungry?"

The word seemed to mean something different to Groves and O'Malley than it did Lalana and Larsson. O'Malley's eyebrows shot up. "Is a pineapple an option?"

"Of course," said Groves. "Why wouldn't it be?"

"Well, I don't know, we're in a different universe, aren't there different rules of physics or something?" The light here really did seem strange.

"No, you moron, the quantum variance here doesn't invalidate pineapples." The point at which changes in physics would break a pineapple was also potentially a point at which reality was collapsing and there were bigger problems to worry over.

"Well, then, by all means," said O'Malley, and smiled at Groves. "I do so love pineapples, they're my favorite fruit."

Groves grinned back a grin stretched so wide it threatened to turn into a laugh. "One pineapple, coming right up!"

"I don't understand. How is fruit going to help?" asked Larsson.

"Oh, you'll see," promised O'Malley as Groves and Mischkelovitz began to gather materials from around the lab.

Lalana hopped onto an unused table on the far wall. She loved watching things happening and it was a very nice vantage point.

The sweep of the rebels was done. Burnham sat at the shuttle controls as it left the Shenzhou's shuttlebay and tried not to focus on the fact they were about to fly towards the worst possible reality she could have imagined.

Luckily, she had a small but encouraging distraction on hand. She joined Lorca in the rear of the shuttle as the autopilot took over and showed him the Defiant's data. "The file has been redacted, but there is some data on how the Defiant crossed into this universe. A phenomenon called interphasic space, but where that space is, the exact coordinates? Struck from the record."

She had to put the padd in his hands for him; he was almost entirely restrained for this little transport exercise and his fingers and head were about the only parts of him that could move. "All right, well, we'll just have to hunt down the original report. If the complete archive's anywhere it'll be in the Imperial Palace which is..." Lorca inhaled. "Fortunately where we've been summoned. Some people would see that glass as half full." He smiled at Burnham. Right now it felt a little like his cup was running over.

Burnham did not smile back. She was having trouble understanding how anyone could still find anything to smile about at this point. Between Tyler and Georgiou, she had lost what limited capacity she had for that expression of human joy.

She had, at least, brought him a nerve dampener to counteract the worst effects of the agonizers. She injected it and he reached out and put a hand on her arm, the only part of her he could reasonably reach in the restraints.

"Listen to me. You'll get the data we need on the Defiant and you'll get us out of there. I know you will." His face was so earnest, so sincere, so hopeful. He had confidence in her.

She couldn't look at him. Whatever Lorca thought he saw in her, she no longer saw in herself. She darted away towards the front of the shuttle.

"Burnham!" he called after her. Guilty, she looked back. "I need you. You need you. What are you afraid of?" There was a comfort in his tone, an easiness that went against everything Burnham was feeling.

The insignia badge of her beloved captain found its way into Burnham's hands. Its surface was crisscrossed with ugly scratches. It was the only connection she still had to the person she had been before the Binary Stars.

Those scratches were her fault. Everything, it seemed, was her fault. Yet for some reason Lorca had the gall to still look at her and see some sort of potential.

"Georgiou," she admitted. "Logic tells me she's not the woman that I betrayed. But this feels like a reckoning."

"Your Georgiou is dead," Lorca reminded her, voice taut.

"Haven't you ever been afraid of a ghost?"

He did not fear his ghost, he lived for her. She was less a ghost and more an impossible dream to live up to. A miraculous dream at that.

As the warp drive disengaged, the light of the Charon's massive energy core made Lorca wince and turn away from Burnham. She, of course, turned right towards the light. It did not hurt her eyes to see it. She slipped Georgiou's badge back into her pocket.

They would be docked in a moment and she had one lingering question.

"What did you mean on the bridge when you referred to lab rats?"

For a moment, Lorca worried Burnham had not understood his intent. "Did you pass the message on?"

"I did."

He sat in somber silence a moment. "Just letting someone on Discovery know not to worry, I'll be home soon enough."

"Dr. Mischkelovitz?" The code had been obvious when she thought about it. Lorca was known to frequent Mischkelovitz's lab, a lab Mischkelovitz rarely left, and miš was the root sound for the word "mouse" in most Slavic languages.

"Very perceptive," said Lorca, choosing not to correct Burnham. So many times now she had tried and failed to guess at his motives and feelings. He could not recall a single time Burnham had guessed right. From accusing him of biological weapons manufacture to the Ripper situation to this very moment. All these months and she still didn't know him. Let her think she did, though. Let her think whatever it took to get them both through this.

As the shuttle came to a rest in the bay, Burnham thought it unfortunate that Lorca might have a connection of a romantic nature with Mischkelovitz. Not only did she know from Tilly that Mischkelovitz had severe social issues and was probably easily taken advantage of by someone with Lorca's charisma, Mischkelovitz was only three years older than Burnham. Lorca was old enough to have fathered either of them. Throw in the imbalance of power between captain and junior crew and it was exactly the sort of thing Captain Georgiou had warned Burnham about.

The shuttle doors opened. Burnham shoved aside her grief and strode out with a veneer of savage confidence, barking orders at the shuttlebay crew to attend to her prisoner and not keep the emperor waiting. Lorca stumbled out behind her, the emperor's guards pushing and shoving him every chance they got.

Neither of them noticed a tiny piece of debris left in the shuttle. It had fallen out of Burnham's pocket when she pulled out Georgiou's rank insignia during the trip. A tiny slip of paper with the words "You will be called to fill a position of honor and responsibility" printed on it.

Saru found himself running into more problems than he could ever have anticipated.

Lieutenant Stamets was slowly improving, but he wasn't out of the woods yet. The unfortunate truth was that he was still in a coma. Tilly remained tirelessly optimistic, insisting something positive was happening in Stamets' head, but whatever it was, it was not happening fast enough to get them out of this terrible situation.

The monster that was both Ash Tyler and Voq was having a medical emergency. Now that both sides of his consciousness were awake—the native Klingon personality and the human one that had been forced on top of it—his brainwaves were in a state of chaos. One moment he was Voq, the next Tyler. At this rate, there would be no tribunal, there would be no anything, because whatever was laying in sickbay was going to die.

Even if that person in sickbay was entirely not Ash Tyler, Saru had no intention of seeing anyone else die on his watch.

Then, because all of that was not enough, a message from Owosekun on the bridge: "Captain, did you authorize a shuttle launch?"

"I most certainly did not!"

Operating as captain without being on the bridge was proving to be a disaster. Saru turned to the nearest wall console in the corridor outside the medical bay. "Who is aboard? Open a channel!" The channel opened, audio only. "Shuttlecraft, identify yourself!"

"Sorry, captain, tried to give you a heads up, but your hands were full in sickbay."

Saru recognized the voice. "Lieutenant Larsson, return to the shuttlebay immediately."

"No can do. We're already running late. That fruit delivery cost us precious time."

What that meant, Saru was not sure. Then he realized it was human humor. The sort of humor Lorca often employed to diffuse high-stress situations. Saru would never understand that instinct. "What do you think you are doing?"

"Secret mission. You-know-who's orders."

"Lieutenant, if you do not return that shuttlecraft immediately, we will be forced to open fire." At the tactical console, Rhys armed the phasers in preparation. The action was pointless. Saru could not bring himself to command the phasers used against a fellow Starfleet officer, not in light of his determination to get everyone from their universe home alive.

"Ah, right, you haven't heard! I resigned from Starfleet. Again."

Or, for that matter, against a self-declared civilian, even one in the process of a stealing a ship.

"Beam him off," said Saru sharply.

"I can't get a lock," said Owosekun over the comm. "It's like his life sign is only partly there."

Saru realized what was happening. Larsson's usage of the plural "we." A single, unlockable life sign. Lalana was on that shuttle. It even explained that strange mention of "lab rat" in Burnham's last message.

"Love to stay and chat," said Larsson, "but my friend and I have an appointment to keep. Wish us luck!"

The channel closed. Saru stared at the emptiness on the monitor. The bridge was still waiting for orders. "Captain, do you want us to pursue?"

Saru wavered a moment. What was the right course of action here?

"Captain?"

The answer came. "No. Maintain our present position and resume standing orders."

"Aye, sir."

The next command was to open a comm to O'Malley, whose explanation was as unhelpful as it was clarifying. "They have left on the command of Captain Lorca?" Saru echoed.

"That's what they both said. Obviously, I had no idea you were as clueless as me."

"You might have told me Larsson had resigned his commission," Saru noted.

"Honestly, Saru, he says that twice a week. It's always been an empty threat."

"I am presently your captain," Saru corrected O'Malley.

"Yes, captain," said O'Malley without hesitation or resentment. "I'm afraid that's all the information I have."

Saru let O'Malley go and stood in the corridor deep in thought. He was not certain whether he had just made a mistake or not. That shuttlecraft was a risk they could ill-afford, but Burnham had not been in contact since that last cryptic message, so perhaps this was some sort of special contingency Lorca had devised in case of trouble. Were there other sleeper agents in among the crew, waiting for cryptic turns of phrase to rush out and execute other secret orders? Most likely not, but given Lorca had not informed Saru as to Lalana and Larsson's operation, there was a nonzero chance of something like this happening again.

In Lab 26, O'Malley and Groves exchanged a look. "Do not tell him about the pineapple," O'Malley said, white as a sheet.

Groves held his hands up and shook his head repeatedly. He had no words. Either they had just assisted in the execution of some sort of top secret orders or they had unknowingly aided and abetted a pair of transdimensional fugitives. Possibly somehow both.

Eventually, Groves did find words again. True to form, they were an indictment of O'Malley. "I'd just like to point out, where your staff is concerned, you are oh-for-two, Mac."

"Shut up, John," said O'Malley, but he was thinking the same. He felt like a failure. He had not technically chosen Larsson or Allan, but he was responsible for them and both had disappeared under questionable circumstances on his watch and now he was left holding the bill for their actions. In every conceivable way possible he had proven inadequate as a leader.

Then again, he had always known he was a follower in every aspect of his life. If only he had possessed the guts to stand up to Cornwell when she offered him this assignment. He always did what everybody else wanted. No wonder everyone thought him such a fool.

As he stood there thinking this, he heard the most familiar words he knew manifest in the room: "I love you, Mally." It was, as always, an attempt to cheer him from a morose moment.

"Just as much," he answered, voice hollow and automatic.

Burnham was left reeling in the aftermath of her audience with the emperor. The way Georgiou had beaten Lorca when he refused to bow to her, the promise of enduring torture for the stubbornly defiant captain, both of these things had been expected but still shocked her.

What she had not anticipated was the pure, unbridled confusion that followed when the emperor stepped forward and expressed her happiness at Burnham's return, eliciting applause from the assembly of Terran officers and bureaucrats around them. Georgiou had touched her hand to Burnham's cheek and spoken words that still echoed in Burnham's mind:

"Everything will be the way it was, dear daughter."

Part 81