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transdemigod · 3 years ago

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Cutting Yourself Off from the Entities: A Comprehensive Guide

I am once again overanalyzing the Magnus Archives for fun. This topic is super interesting to me, and I haven’t seen it explored as much as other theories, so here we go.

So, you’ve pledged yourself to one of the Dread Powers, but decided that you’ve had enough of terrorizing others. Not to worry, there is a way out. Melanie King did it and lived all the way to the end of the series!

Here is the summary, though I’m sure a full explanation will be more satisfying:

To escape the Buried, lose yourself to the emptiness. To escape the Corruption, kill what loves you. To escape the Dark, give yourself to the sunlight. To escape the Desolation, choose kindness. To escape the End, cut yourself off from dreams. To escape the Eye, blind yourself. To escape the Flesh, give up control of your body. To escape the Hunt, tear out your teeth and claws. To escape the Lonely, bind yourself to others. To escape the Slaughter, remove your emotions. To escape the Spiral, destroy your voice. To escape the Stranger, make yourself known. To escape the Vast, trap yourself in a small place. To escape the Web, give up your autonomy.

The rest is under the cut. Let me know if you have any ideas that you think I missed, I would love to discuss theories.

We know for sure that the way to escape the Eye is to gouge your own eyes out. The other entities have less information, but we get a few clues here and there. In the season 4 Q&A, Jonny and Alex joke about leaving the service of the Stranger by running naked through the streets. They also mention that the Desolation can be left by an act of true altruism. With these details, as well as other details in the rest of the canon, we can make a list of criteria that must be satisfied for an act that will cut someone off from each of the 14 Entities.

Firstly, it isn’t enough to just stop feeding your god. Daisy and Jon both tried to abstain and ended up wasting away, and it is implied that they would have died if they had continued. Dying is certainly one possible way to escape the service of a Fear, but we’re going for living out the rest of your natural life here.

Secondly, there has to be some sacrifice made that relates to the specific power. This is where the Desolation’s explanation kind of falls apart; doing one good act doesn’t stop you from just continuing to be destructive, so the act must also include giving up the thing that ties you to your Entity. In the Stranger’s case, one could argue that exposing yourself does count as giving up your anonymity, and there are several Stranger avatars that seem to thrive on being unknown. My theory is that each Entity has a draw of some kind, a power that it gives its followers, which you would have to completely give up if you are to leave it for good. Jon mentioned that the blinding has to be permanent, so I’m assuming this applies to the others as well. Basically, the avatar who wishes to leave must give up something that one who does not wish to leave would never want to.

Third, the change can be physical or symbolic. Obviously blinding yourself is a very physical change, while committing acts of altruism or making yourself known are less so. Some of the Entities will have pretty clear parts of the body that connect you to the power, others will need a bit more of an explanation. In special cases where a person gets their power from an artifact or a Leitner, destroying the thing would probably be enough to cut them off from that power. And of course, if you are as lucky as Georgie Barker and manage to completely get rid of your fear, that would probably be enough to cut you off from them as well.

So, here are my explanations for what you would have to do to cut yourself off from each of the 14. I’m basing it on examples we get in the series, the few rules I have decided to set, and what would seem thematically or symbolically appropriate. Realistically, each individual would have their own personal journey and each avatar is different, but it’s more fun this way.

The Buried- The draw of the Buried is a little difficult to narrow down, we’ve heard about restfulness, the comfort of enclosed spaces, the desire to be a part of the earth, etc. The thing Buried avatars seem to dislike the most is wide open spaces, though I don’t know how that would translate to something you can change about yourself. How would a person cut themselves off from the earth? You could move to a place that is very open, but you could also just leave. I’m not sure if there is a way a person could give up the concept of space, so I’m probably going to have this same problem when I get to the Vast. Probably the only thing you could give up that makes sense is the type of space the Buried is tied to, so you’d have to keep away from enclosed spaces. However you’re supposed to do that, I have no idea. This one is just going to have to be a less satisfying answer, unless I find another idea later.

To escape the Buried, lose yourself to the emptiness.

The Corruption- Most people who get into the Corruption get filled with bugs, and we know from Jane that it is appealing because you have a sense of belonging and purpose. The Corruption focuses a lot on toxic love, and I think communities specifically because the things we think of as infections are multitudinous: insect hives, bacteria, fungal colonies, etc. Even in the case of that one guy with the beetle wife, it was implied that there would soon be many more beetles. So, I think to stop being fed by the Corruption, you have to get rid of the infection in whatever form it takes. The one woman in the statement about the cult ended up leaving, but she wasn’t a full avatar, so I think that would require a bit more drastic action. If Jane had wanted to leave, she would probably have had to kill every worm inside of her. Knowing what we know about her, she would never want to do that, but she also had no regrets about becoming the Hive. Someone like John Amherst would have to get rid of all the diseases inside of him, so it might be as simple as a hospital visit and getting pumped full of antibiotics. If you got hollowed out by bugs, you might have to fill in the space somehow to be able to move, but I’m sure you could find a way. Maybe some help from the Flesh? It does seems to be in opposition to the Corruption in many ways, so that would work thematically.

To escape the Corruption, kill what loves you.

The Dark- Another abstract one. What’s the opposite of blinding yourself? The Dark, aside from the literal definition, includes things like weird science and unknowable things that lurk in the dark. Seeking knowledge would be a good opposite to darkness, but that’s not making a sacrifice or a permanent change. It’s not very clear what avatars of the Dark would hate to lose. Manuela Dominguez describes hating the light, how traditional divinity and knowledge are unnatural as opposed to the dark state of the world. This might be another location based one. Apparently, the sunniest places in the world are in northern Africa and the southwest parts of America, so moving there might do it. There isn’t an easy permanent change to make, but committing yourself to being in the sunlight as much as possible would probably work. Change your sleep schedule, move somewhere sunny, just avoid the dark in general. Maybe even start worshipping the sun; that would be in opposition to the cult following the Dark has.

To escape the Dark, give yourself to the sunlight.

The Desolation- We know it’s an act of altruism. I think it might need some adjusting, though, to make it more of a sacrifice by the person who serves the Desolation. This fear is all about sacrifice and loss, so it’s a bit tricky to think of something a Desolation avatar could give up when they’ve already committed to giving up everything. Well, everything except themselves. Many avatars, like Jude Perry, have shown themselves to be selfish, but I don’t think even they would be opposed to going out in a blaze of glory. No, the hardest thing for them would be to settle down and live a prosperous life. This one probably would have to be continuous effort instead of one grand sacrifice. It doesn’t fit with the others, but it does fit the theme of the Desolation. Yeah, I’ve just gone in a big circle. Altruism does make the most sense. Just make sure that selfless gesture counts. It’s not a real choice if you don’t mean it. I guess that would be really difficult if you’re used to burning everything around you, so maybe it’s more of a sacrifice than I thought.

To escape the Desolation, choose kindness.

The End- We actually already have a canon answer for this one: lobotomize yourself. Adelard Dekker found an End avatar that was killing people with carbon monoxide through their dreams, and he stopped him by cutting through his pre-frontal cortex- the part of the brain that lets you dream. It’s implied that this didn’t completely work, but I think the reason for that is that the avatar was not the one to make the choice. It’s emphasized again and again that serving the fears is all about personal choice, so it makes sense that any attempt to cut someone off wouldn’t take if the person hasn’t decided to give up their connection. The End is associated with dreams in most appearances, so I believe that a person who chooses not to dream would no longer be bound to it. Oliver Banks could see those whose deaths were coming in his dreams, which directly led to him becoming an avatar, so if he had decided to stop dreaming, that would be it. This procedure might be a bit difficult, I can’t imagine performing your own lobotomy would go very well, but I’m sure getting someone else to do it would count if you were the one to make the decision. Of course, Terminus would still have you in the end, but that will happen no matter what you do.

To escape the End, cut yourself off from dreams.

The Eye- This one is already answered. The draw of the Eye is the power to watch, so you have to give that ability up. Simple, straightforward, and definitely fits the theme.

To escape the Eye, blind yourself.

The Flesh- Oh boy, this is a weird one. We have dysphoria, consumption, body horror, I can’t say this one sounds very appealing. But it must be, or else it wouldn’t have people serving it. A lot of the draw to serve the fears could be interpreted as dishing out what you can’t take. You don’t have to be afraid of being watched if you do the watching, you don’t have to fear harm if you harm them first. Maybe the appeal of Flesh is making others share that fear that you are nothing but meat. I don’t think it’s really possible for people to give up their corporeal form, unless it’s metaphorical but I have no idea what that could mean. I think those who serve the Flesh thrive on being “more” than others. More body parts, more mass in general. You could go on a diet or become a vegetarian, which I think the writers may have joked about once? I want a more concrete solution, though. Diets are easy to break. You can’t fully give up food without dying, so I guess you could give up the control of food. Giving up your sense of taste would be interesting, but I’m going to keep it more general. No easy answer for this one either.

To escape the Flesh, give up control of your body.

The Hunt- People are drawn to the Hunt by that deep, primal desire to chase and attack. Humans have both predator and prey instincts inside of us, so you would have to completely leave the predator behind to escape the Hunt. I think a good way to do this would be the get rid of your teeth, or nails, whichever you use to cause harm. Daisy was able to temporarily leave behind her power in the Buried, but as soon as she got out, she started starving. I think this is a good argument that you could partially cut off your power by using a power that opposes it in some way, but you would have to give up a part of yourself to make it stick. As soon as she had the freedom and ability to hunt again, that was when the urge came back, and she eventually succumbed to it. Getting rid of the parts of your body that do harm wouldn’t completely stop you if you were dedicated enough, but it’s the choice to do so that matters. This one is a bit more of a symbolic choice, and you could probably do something else to your body that would prevent it from hunting, but I am going with the cooler option.

To escape the Hunt, tear out your teeth and claws.

The Lonely- Probably all you have to do to escape the Lonely is just…be around other people. I’m sure this is easier said than done, but there are lots of ways to commit to other humans. Get married, join a club, make a blood pact and permanently bind yourself to another human. The possibilities are endless! This one, I think more than the others, would require a bit more of a continued effort. I know that the whole point is to make one drastic, permanent change, but the Lonely feels like something that’s easy to relapse into. Maybe it’s the depression metaphor, I don’t know, but I don’t think this one has as easy a solution as the others. It’s hard work forcing yourself to stay connected to others, and it’s something most people in real life struggle with. Giving up any of these powers is a difficult choice, which is the whole point. Life is hard, and we have to make tough decisions. Anyway, I’m okay letting this one be a bit more abstract.

To escape the Lonely, bind yourself to others.

The Slaughter- This one is very similar to the Hunt in terms of actions, so I think the solution might be similar as well. Destroying your weapon would fit well, but it is just way too easy to pick up something else and continue hacking and slashing away. To give up violence entirely, you might have to destroy a significant part of your body. For the Slaughter, I think we should go with a less physical act. The opposite of violence is healing, so maybe become a doctor? You would have to really commit to helping others instead of hurting them, and that is too easy to go back on. I think the sacrifice made here would have to be emotion. Anger and the desire to hurt would go away if you couldn’t feel anymore. I don’t know how you would do this, except through drugs, but that isn’t permanent. There is probably a part of the brain you could destroy that causes emotion. It’s not the same as the prefrontal cortex, which we destroyed back in the End section, so at least it’s not the same solution twice. Honestly, the drugs could work if you did them long term, it’s about the choice anyway. However you do it:

To escape the Slaughter, remove your emotions.

The Spiral- The draw of the Spiral is the power to lie and deceive. There are many ways to do this, and there are probably just as many ways to stop yourself from doing it. However, there is one way that I think fits very well and is absolutely a permanent change: destroy your voice. This is actually the first one I thought of because even though it’s not technically the only way to stop yourself from lying, it fits very well thematically. Michael as the Distortion calls itself the Throat of Delusion Incarnate, so what better way to break yourself off from the same power then by tearing out your throat? It’s not perfect, but I like it so much that I’m going to pick it. I don’t know how one would go about destroying one’s voice, except with very careful surgery. Or screaming for a very long time.

To escape the Spiral, destroy your voice.

The Stranger- We got our answer to this one in the Q&A. Run naked through the streets, and make sure to engage with everyone who talks to you so that you can’t hide. Utterly terrifying. It makes perfect sense though; we heard from the Not!Them that beings of the Stranger hate losing their anonymity. Whether by switching skins, tricking the mind, or looking so generic that no one can remember your face, being known is antithetical to the Stranger. There are probably other ways to go about losing your anonymity then running around naked. You could get up on a stage somewhere and pour your heart out, or publish an autobiography. Basically anything the Eye would like. As long as you are putting yourself out there in a way that you can’t take back, you should be able to successfully cut yourself off from that uncanny fear.

To escape the Stranger, make yourself known.

The Vast- This one might actually be easier than the Buried, because it’s not purely spatial. It includes things like longevity, our insignificance in the face of a massive universe, and large scary things in general. A Vast avatar would hate to be enclosed, but they would also hate to be made responsible. They enjoy making others afraid of their insignificance, but what if they were important to the universe? What if the world was actually very small, and they fit neatly into it instead of being lost? There’s a lot of different ways to go here, so narrowing down one sacrifice might not be the best answer. I can’t really think of any one action that makes a person feel as though the world is small and trapping them. Giving themselves to the Buried would, probably. A direct contrast is the easiest answer.

To escape the Vast, trap yourself in a small place.

The Web- Avatars of the Web are manipulators, through and through. There are so many ways to manipulate a person that no one action could prevent you from doing that, so this one would likely vary a lot between individuals. That movie director who had people puppet him in his own house comes to mind, I think giving up your freedom like that is a good way to do it. Being paralyzed wouldn’t stop you if you used your voice to control others, and giving up both would suck, but if that’s what you need to do, then I guess it’s your choice to make. Maybe all you would need to do is let someone else tell you what to do, and fully trust them. That would be difficult, coming from the Web where everything is tied together and you know how easy it is to manipulate you.

To escape the Web, give up your autonomy.

#tma #the magnus archives #the buried #the corruption #the dark #the desolation #the end #the eye #the flesh #the hunt #the lonely #the slaughter #the spiral #the stranger #the vast #the web #tma entities #tma analysis

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mistkissedmoon · 5 years ago

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Blankets made of Trust

“You have one night to decide”. Jason felt the words thrum through the air on loop before slamming into him, nearly knocking him over as he clenched his teeth until the words in his mind became an indecipherable ringing in his ears. You’ve got to be kidding me. One Night to decide whether I want to become a zombie or an attack dog?! He thought furiously. He wrenched his head up and caught the warning stare of the Bat through the bulletproof glass - Who called him again, Jason thought scathingly - who raised an eyebrow. Careful, he seemed to be saying. Don’t talk, or I’ll take away all your options. Options? That was a fucking joke. There was no other option! The Lazarus pit’s madness had been growing more overwhelming by the hour, and if he went without some kind of spell he would become a mad serial killer. At the same time, what they were proposing was out of the question. Jason scoffed and turned to stare out between the thin bars of his cell. It was a damn miracle the idiots hadn’t been broken into already, most of their walls being made of glass, he thought sourly. It’s not like they leave a guard behind when they fight.

“Red Hood. Did you hear that?”

Jason snapped his head back and levelled his most threatening glare at Nightwing. The idiot puffed his chest out and gazed at him like he thought he was actually intimidating.

“Yes.” He gritted his teeth and forced out the next words; “thank you.”

Batman - you poor excuse for a father mentor, Jason thought bitterly - motioned for everyone to exit his cell and they left without a backwards glance. That self-righteous Bat, the lapdog golden boy and the rest of his fantastic five crew including his replacement left- how humiliating low, to be replaced and then judged, in every sense of the word, by both my brothers him, while he stood in a cell that only had a toilet, sink and bed - with that absolute bitch of a magician. When everybody had left, the door of the enclosed witness area clicked shut, the scrape of a lock echoing soon after. Jason’s head fell back against the wall as he let his breath out explosively.

“Anyway,” Zatanna had said, glancing meaningfully at Batman, “I can definitely block the Lazarus madness, but seeing as he is a criminal I think we should add a few rules to the spell.”

Of course, their pet magician would insist on a few more rules being thrown in; Jason would lose the ability to kill, there was a ‘code phrase’ to make him do whatever they say (paranoid old bat and his lousy replacement) and Jason would hold the spell up with his own energy stores, making him tired easily. Lap dog or Rabid beast. Jason grimaced, closing his eyes to stop the burning sensation just behind them. Doomed if I do, doomed if I don’t, he thought grimly. A flash of purple light had his eyes snapping open in shock as a figure with an armload of objects materialised in the shadows of his room. Jason tried not to stare as the residual smoke revealed the objects to be a shiny diadem, an old - and well preserved, he noted approvingly - tome as well as a few bottles of what seemed to be softly glowing…somethings.

“Hey there, lucky little ravenclaw. You coming out? What's up your ass?” He inquired tiredly.The figure - Raven, he remembered- looks like a literal shadow, clad in a deep blue cloak that seemed to suck at the very light around her until she was little more than a barely discernible silhouette against the dark walls. All the same, the way she carried herself made him think of a sorceress or queen of old from the books he used to read. Heck, maybe even a goddess, like she’s saying ‘I have made a decision, and nothing you say or do will stop me’. Like she wasn’t thinking about how much care that book deserved or whether she should consider giving it away.“I’ve made a decision,” She answered in a low, musical voice. “And nothing you say or do will stop me.” Well. That was serendipitous. “I’ve thought about what Batman wants Zatanna to do to you, and…” Raven hesitated. “I don’t think that this is right.”

Dully, Jason wondered if she would ever gain the courage to do more than just voice her disapproval with Batman’s methods. If any of these ‘heroes’ would. Probably not; there must have been a reason she worked here, after all.

“I’m willing to offer you an alternative solution; I can cast a spell on you instead.” Her words were delivered with complete certainty, taking an subtle breath and squaring her shoulders afterward. Pure unadulterated rage sprang to life within his veins. Jason’s face rearranged itself into a truly ugly, fearsome expression, his muscles tensing in preparation for a fight.

“So, what? You’re just going to put your own spell on me before she does?” Jason spat bitterly.

“No. I’m going to -”

“I’m not going to be your slave, or anyone else’s, for that matter. You can tell Zatanna that, too.”

“I don’t want you to be my slave. I want you to pick and choose the words of the spell that will seal the Lazarus away, so I can, with your consent, cast that specific spell on you.”

Jason’s eyebrows decided to try defying gravity to fly into his hair. After a startled second, he barked out a laugh. He crowded the female titan against the wall and glared down at her, clenching his hands. To his annoyance, she seemed apathetic to the point of boredom.

“Give me a break, sunshine. In what universe would the golden boy -”

“Don’t call him that.”

“The Bat’s loyal bitch-”

“Language.”

“-ever send you to free me without stipulations?”

“As far as I know, none. Which is why I am here of my own volition, without his knowledge.”

Raven swept passed him and laid her belongings on the bed. Jason’s eyebrows held an unanimous meeting and promptly decided to retry their earlier flight. “What?”

Raven paused her idle flipping of her book to spare a dry glance at him. “Are you hard of hearing, Jay-son?” she carefully enunciated. Jason scowled.

”Forgive my surprise, oh smart one. I’m just surprised you of all people would go against his back. You aren’t ruled by your emotions, and you always do what your leader says -” Raven twirled around to face him suddenly, something flickering in her eyes, gone before he could decipher it.

“I don’t do what Nightwing tells me to do. I do what I think is right.” she corrected, a hint of soft rebuke in her tone. She resumed her flipping of the books pages until she reached her goal and moved on to sort the eerily glowing crystal bottles.

“And helping a convicted criminal is part of your moral obligation, is it?” Jason slouched against the wall, raising his hands incredulously.

“Helping anyone and everyone who truly needs it is a part of my moral obligation.” Raven declared proudly without hesitation. Was this girl serious? One look at her face and Jason knew she clearly was. “I understand you heroes think all killers were beyond redemption.” He commented with wry amusement.“You shouldn’t stereotype.” She said coolly, “Or tell your assumptions to a hero, who happens to be a demon.” Jason paused, mulling that revelation over. It was common knowledge among those who fought in the same circles as him that Raven’s magic was uncommon. Several unscrupulous magic users he talked to had fearfully claimed that her energy was ‘demonic’. Jason silently apologised for rolling his eyes or dismissing these accounts as fanciful or exaggerations and resolved to buy any of them drinks if he happened to see them again. “Besides, it’s usually unwise to be so presumptuous of a person you desperately need help from.” “What makes you say that?” He parried defensively, scratching his chin. “For all you know, I could have broken out and found another gullible magician to give me a few potions or something.”

“But you won’t. You’ve already tried, and none of them were powerful enough.” She supplied bluntly. “I..” She looked away, almost shamefaced, “I felt it.”

She… what? Ah. Right. Empath, he suddenly recalled, wincing. He was good at concealing his facial expressions, but nothing could have masked the sheer desperation he felt when he showed up at their door. Merde. He must have looked like such a fool for trying to seem like he didn’t need her help.

“I’m not trying to control you, Jason. The book is a dictionary; you can pick and choose the words you want me in the spell and I’ll perform it.” Her soft, persuasive tone urged him to believe her.

“Why should I believe you?” Jason snarled, lashing out with a feeling of vicious satisfaction upon seeing her take a step back. “What if this is one of Nightwing’s tricks to rummage around my head gathering intel?”

”I will not enter your mind - that’s not necessary at all in this circumstance - and if I do, you can easily overpower me while I am in a trance.”

“What use would that be? Then we’d both be in here, and I can add resisting arrest to my list of crimes.”

Raven looked like she was having difficulty stopping herself from rolling her eyes. She waved her hand, magically unlocking the cell door. “Are you always this paranoid?”

“No. Just when I’m in the headquarters of sworn enemies and about to be magically lobotomized within twenty-four hours - not to be rude, but at least a third of your colleagues have tried to send me to Arkham asylum.” Jason reminded her flatly, crossing his arms.

“Exactly! What do you have to lose!?”

“My life. Also, I’m doing fine. I could easily break out of here if I wanted too.” Raven looked pointedly at her spell book, exaggeratedly feigning patience. Jason’s lips twitched, satisfied. Annoying her was fun.

“Although I appreciate your sense of derring-do, I really must insist I block the madness trying to make you go on a killing spree before you leave.”

“While telling Nightwing all the extra little details you’ll happen to hear while we talk, huh?” Jason’s eyes bored into her, suddenly agate-hard. It really isn’t fair, he thought suddenly, that Raven could so easily try to deceive me like this. Life wasn’t fair. Jason knew this, and didn’t understand why he felt like crying right now. It must have been the stress. Or the Lazarus pit. It certainly couldn’t be anything else, since he’d been lied to so many times before and he’d generally been unbothered. In fact, he had started expecting certain people to lie about being on his side and had taken to wearing a doubly reinforced Kevlar suit. It had saved him from knives in the back - literally - more than a few times. The bruises still hurt like a motherfucker, though. Raven slowly took out her communicator - and slid it towards him.

“There. Now I can’t contact him in any way. Is that all?” He bent down and slowly picked it up. Jason thought about it for some time. He disliked any kind of spell on him, especially spells that would be permanent and affected his mind, however positive the effect might be. All the same though, it was necessary and Raven was giving him as much freedom that he could want. Something akin to grudging respect; or gratitude welled within him.

“Fine.” he complied gruffly, resisting the stupid urge to thank her. “I just have to pick out words in this book, right?”

He strode over to the tiny cot and picked it up, carefully not taking his eyes off her nor touching the freaky looking vials. “What’s the language - oh, right, English is this half of the page. Okay, this should be easy enou- no. Stay where you are. I don’t want you to move while I’m reading this book.” She threw him an exasperated look and disregarded his command, sitting beside him and leaning against the headboard.

“Of course, Jason. Would you like me to hold your hand?” she asked sardonically. “That should be reassuring enough, shouldn’t it?”

Jason ignored that, trying to concentrate on being irritated with her instead of the thought of his hands, warming and covering her tiny ones. He cleared his throat and tapped several words in quick succession to distract himself. “Would those words work?”

Raven, he learned, had a incredibly wide vocabulary and impressive command of tone. She could add inflections that added entire volumes of meaning of her words. On the whole, though, he would have preferred a less exhaustive running commentary of the kind of gruesome implications his miswording could cause. In retrospect, he realized that he should have chosen to ‘block’ the madness, instead of ‘concentrating’ it in his head, but Raven took great pleasure in describing the resulting explosion that would cause. Raven went on to describe - very unnecessarily in his opinion, the other various failings that would stop his heart, give him wings on the sides of his heads and cause his face to erupt in highly painful tentacles in glowing terms with apparent relish, never mind that any one of them was good enough reason to reword the spell. Raven tended to overdramatise certain things, he noticed. Especially things that would result in giving him a terminal injury, which, ha, he was sure wouldn’t be permanent this time over, either, especially if the Lazarus was still in his system. He said as such to Raven, who promptly whacked him over the head with her book - ow, it was heavier than she made it look - and told him to “focus, you leather-skulled domnoddy.”

“You aren’t afraid of me? I’m apparently a very unhinged serial killer, after all.” Jason grumbled half-curiously, rubbing his complaining skull.

“I could ask the same of you. I’ve never met someone who was so calm upon learning about my heritage. I’m practically a descendant of lucifer.”

That- That was something he had not considered. “If the account given in Genesis is really true, ought we not, after all, to thank this serpent? He was the first schoolmaster, the first advocate of learning, the first enemy of ignorance, the first to whisper in human ears the sacred word liberty, the creator of ambition, the author of modesty, of inquiry, of doubt, of investigation, of progress and of civilization.” Jason quoted, shrugging.

“Well said.” Raven said after a pause.

“I’m afraid I can’t take credit - a quote by Robert Green Ingersole. I’m more than willing to share his belief when it comes to you, though.”

“That’s kind of you. Although, I think you give the serpent too much credit. I like to think we would have eaten the apple eventually anyway.”

‘We’ he mouthed. Not ‘you’. Interesting. “I can’t tell if your view is cynical or optimistic, little birdie.”

“Optimistic. I like the thought that we’re curious enough to try to better ourselves, no matter how flawless we may be.”

“Hypothetically, could it be said that the humans were truly flawless before they ate the apple?”

“No. If they were flawless, their faith would have made them invulnerable to tempting. Besides, their children became the first murderer and victim of the world; seeing as how humans learn from their parents, they couldn’t have been close to flawless.” Raven countered.

“Fair enough. If neither of us can accept that eating the apple was evil, and that faith isn’t our greatest strength, what is?”

“Perception. Just because one person sees it differently doesn’t mean either is wrong. It’s what makes us human and helps us advance - If Eden’s humans were perfect, it must have been a pretty bland place.” Raven smiled shyly, - cute - like what she just said had a special meaning for her. “And if you define perception as a type of knowledge, then it was gained by eating the apple.” Jason stared at her, a little in awe. His debating skills had been blunted by his lack of intelligent company since Alfred, but he had enough wits to recognise a superior orator. “You’re delightfully witty, little bird.” He complimented. There was a lull in conversation while she focused on reading the spell. Idly, he wondered if she was avoiding his eyes. He wasn’t entirely sure if that meant he’d made her flustered (of course, he would want to make any girl flustered, Jason thought, consciously not questioning if that was true). “Thank you. This wording ought to do it.” Raven withdrew a rod from within her cloak, upon which closer inspection revealed a point easily as sharp as a dagger. Jason felt the blood rush from his face and stumbled away from her, falling off the cot and sending one of the vials flying, shattering on impact with the wall next to the cot. Raven jumped and refocused her eyes on Jason, befuddled. After a awkward pause, in which Jason remained frozen with consternation half on and half off the bed, acutely aware of the foul-smelling concoction dripping onto the cot, Raven coughed, folding her sleeve over her nose and gingerly edging away from the liquid.

“Jason.” She scolded nasally, “I need to draw some symbols on your skin before I can cast the spell on you.”

“No way.” He refused flatly, surreptitiously putting the cot between them. “The last person to approach me with a piece of metal that big killed me and I’m not letting you inscribe stuff into my skin.”

“First on all, if you want to recover from that trauma, I know a couple of therapists who won’t care about your alter ego. I can accompany you if you really want help.” She spoke haltingly, turning away to dip her instrument in one of the vials while a curtain of hair shielded her expression.Jason’s snapped to hers in astonishment. That was not the response he was expecting. Truthfully, he didn’t know what he was expecting, but it was most certainly not that. “Secondly, I would never kill you, ever! If you can’t go with me, don’t you have someone else to accompany you to therapy?” Raven looked at him, fire sparking in her plum eyes. Jason sat back down on the cot and put his interlocked hands behind his head. “You saw how Bruce looked at me, little birdie. I don’t trust my brothers one bit with this and the one person who might go with me is back at the old Batman HQ. I can’t exactly pop in and ask him to come to therapy with me; god, what would he think anyway?” Jason scoffed, too jaded for tears.

“I believe you.” Raven admitted quietly. She sighed, her exhale sounding like branches rattling in the wind and Jason suddenly remembered Catherine, tired, Catherine, jaded, Catherine, with a sigh like branches rattling in the wind and a will like a dying ember. Jason frowned. That sound was far, far too tired to match one so courageous and lovely as her. If it was up to me, she’d never make that sound again. He thought firmly.

“You don’t belong there anymore; I know what that’s like.” Raven looked even more tired then, not angry, just… sad. Her eyes looked old. Her lashes fluttered, as though just keeping them upright was causing her effort, and Jason had a strange impulse to wipe that look of her face. “But.” Raven straightened, Jason mirroring her, and suddenly the formidable titan was back. “That doesn’t mean you have to cut off contact with that person. Dick’s told me about him - his name is Alfred, right? If what Dick has said about him was true, then you should write to him - he’s been worrying about you.” Jason looked down, wishing he’d had the foresight to smuggle in a cigarette with him.

“He wouldn’t welcome my letters, little bird.”

“Yes, he would! You’re so smart,” she protested. “How can someone as smart as you not see that!”

Jason felt the tips of his ears glow in an odd kind of embarrassed pride.“Alright. I’ll try.” He coughed, feeling foolish. Raven looked oddly proud, her eyes more tender than Jason felt was appropriate.

“Try to write about something you love or admire. It’ll be easier that way,” she advised, placing her rod - which emanated an uncomfortable burning sensation - directly over his heart. Jason tried not to flinch unsuccessfully. “What is that?”

“A toothpick of a giant.” Raven replied nonchalantly, focusing on her work. Jason blinked. “How?” He was unable to articulate further than that, but Raven must have gleaned what he was asking through his gobsmacked expression. After quelling a fit of laughter with a snort, Raven explained, ”We were sucked into another dimensions on one of our missions. Nightwing, in his infinite wisdom, took one look at the sleeping 30ft giant and decided to punch it in the nose, and then got us both sucked in it’s left nostril when it snorted.” Jason cackled wildly. Raven shook her head jokingly, smiling at him. “Honestly, if we hadn’t acquired such a valuable tool climbing out of it’s mouth -” Raven punctured her tale of woe with a horrified shudder, to Jason’s renewed cackles growing ever-louder. “I think I would have left him there when we managed to teleport back here.”

“So it was like a series of unfortunate events, huh?” Jason lilted flippantly. Raven swatted at him mock irritably, but he could see the hint of a grin on her face before she composed herself. Why did she do that? Jason immediately began running through his repertoire of book references for something that might bring that beautiful smile back. Woah. Beautiful smile? He questioned himself, mentally shooing away from that thought. Bad thought. Go back to wherever you came from, because you certainly did not come from The Red Hood’s esteemed intellect. Jason cleared his throat, his palms unreasonably sweaty for some reason and almost dropped the book he remembered he was still holding at the last minute. “Aren’t you afraid of Nightwing catching you red handed?”

Raven’s eyes dropped to the whitewashed floor. “No,” she uttered softly. “He’s much too busy fighting with Starfire right now to worry about anything else”. Raven met his gaze with a pained smile, her eyes soft with sadness. Jason’s stomach twisted nauseatingly and he suddenly regretted his question.

“Trouble in paradise?” he joked feebly, raising an eyebrow. He wanted to take back the words as soon as he said them. “Something like that.” Raven crossed her arms and blinked away any emotions that had been present in her gaze. No, no, dammit! Look what you did, he snarled inwardly, you made her close up!

“Starfire’s people are traditionally polyamorous but Dick-Nightwing refuses to talk to her about any options or - well, anything outside of work, now.”

Her words, although sudden, were unusually soft and tired compared to their earlier banter. Jason jolted up to look at Raven, who had apparently taken his silence for an inquiry.

“Uncommunicative as ever when it comes to love, those bats, I see. ah, lord, what fools these mortals be.” he blurted impulsively, wincing inwardly. Raven threw her head and her hood back - she has such lovely plump cherry lips! - and laughed. Her laugh was deep, and husky, he noted absently, as it quieted to infectious chuckles, and quite possibly the warmest thing he had ever heard in his life. Somehow managing to be on the quiet side, yet filling the room with her vibrant presence until he felt like he could hardly breathe. “Nobody who loves is a complete fool, and if it indeed foolishness, then it is divine folly.” She teased playfully, the tiredness in her voice vanishing like mist on a hot day, the corners of her mouth still twitching. Jason let out the breath he had been holding, a chuckle of his own beginning to rumble in his throat as he leaned back on the small cot.

Jason reached for a flask among the glowing vials, to find Raven curling protectively over it, calling it her Assam; her favourite tea. He had to release a few more chuckles upon seeing her so passionate of her tea - she’d get along well with someone he knows. After that, however, the tension surrounding them eased into something easy and almost familiar, almost distracting him from the complicated patters Raven was twirling over his bare chest.

“Do this often, little bird? Only artists like painters normally have this level of precision.” He commented.

“I don’t just do it for other spells.” She admitted reluctantly. “I make art of all kinds.” Jason tilted his head, curious. “I use paint to draw murals, I draw the stories I read about, and I draw the plants and animals I’ve seen from other, um, other-” She elaborated eagerly. Her eyes sparkled and she tossed her head, displaying a burst of passion Jason found himself unable to look away from. “Places?” He offered.

“Planets.” She finished wryly. “And sometimes dimensions, too.” She frowned, studying him closely. “Hold still. I need to kiss this seal in order for the spell to activate.” Without waiting for his reply, Raven swooped down and planted a light, soft kiss on her glyphs, which began to glow with the same light her vials had. Jason started, lowering his hand from behind his back to touch the place she had kissed him - and whacked her soundly on the nose as she looked up. “Ow!” Raven slid in his lap.

“Sorry! Sorry!” Jason yelped. “Are you okay, little birdie? Oh, god, I haven’t broken anything, have I? Deep breaths, Deep breaths. Should I call an ambulance - do you even have a doctor in this place?!”

Jason’s arms fluttered uselessly around her as she pressed against the bridge of her nose gingerly.

“I’m good.” She winced. “I have healing powers.”

Jason felt unbearably awkward. Would turning himself into the bat end the feeling of wanting to climb under the cot and never come out? Jason wasn’t sure, but he seriously considered it for a few, long silence filled minutes. Raven exhaled heavily, her breath touching his neck, and Jason suddenly became excruciatingly aware of their position. His heart kept banging against his chest like it was trying to reach her. Jason could have counted every single one of her eyelashes. Her brow creased. Oh, god. She could hear his heartbeats, couldn’t she? Geez, had they always been this loud? Ugh. Jason felt like he could die of embarrassment. Raven cleared her throat and gracefully stood up on the cot, moving around him to inspect the mess on the wall. Always so graceful. Jason stood up hurriedly and turned to face her back, rubbing his neck.

“The spell is complete; the pit’s madness will never affect you again. If you want, you can leave; There isn’t anything very interesting to do now,” she murmured, almost apologetically, beginning to clean the stain away with magic.

“Why would I? As if you could ever be boring.” he said reproachfully.She blushed, which shot a thrill up his spine that manifested in what must have been a thoroughly dopey smile on his face. God. What was she doing to him? Jason wondered. Whatever it was, it made his chest feel confused and happy and tight and yearning at the same time, so he pushed the feeling down and forced himself to smirk.“What is that, by the way? You didn’t use it, did you? That looks nasty.” Jason cringed as another drop of the mystery liquid reached his bedding.

“No, I didn’t. You didn’t choose any of the words that required it. It’s human blood.” Raven explained absently, rolling his eyes, at his disgusted expression.

“It was one of the men we were too late to save - he tried saving another man who had been framed who was imprisoned in his kingdom’s palace dungeons.”

“He was idealistic for trying to save someone in the government��s headquarters” Jason decreed firmly. Raven gave him an amused look. Damn, she was way too perceptive for her own good.

“Or perhaps he was honourable to not condemn the prisoner to an unjust fate.” She lilted, almost playfully. Did she just flutter her eyelashes at me?

“You know what I‘m implying. If robin figures out you did this, he could kick you out, little bird. I’d be happy to host you as a selfless citizen, myself, though.” Jason brightened, not at all selflessly.

“That’s a chance I’m willing to take. You should not have to suffer for his need to micromanage everything related to the Titans. Besides, he’s so emotionally stunted he’d never punish me in a way I can’t see him gloat over my misery.” Raven retorted pertly. Jason tried to choke back a cackle, staring at her incredulously. He ended up making what he imagined to be the sound a dog toy made when it broke, which was why he tried to stop imagining and change the subject. Did she really just say that? “And if he puts you in this cell?”

“I’ll tell him to stop sulking like a spoilt brat. He always looks like he needs to take a shit.”

Jason struggled to control the tide of snickers pouring out of him. Okay, he decided, she wasn’t just witty, she was hilarious.

“He probably won’t try anything too painful, with you long gone and I being as valuable as I am - oh!” Raven slipped off the bed, into Jason’s instinctive embrace. Sudden, burning fury roared within him, the type that threatened to lash out if provoked.

“And if he tries to hurt you like a spoilt child, I’ll cut off his cock and nail it to a sewer wall somewhere until he remembers his manners.” Jason growled fiercely. She stared at him from their close proximity, the laidback energy between them tightening and fraying with tension. Jason fidgeted, realising how protective that statement had sounded. What was she doing to him?

“Since you’ve been so good to me, and all.” He added hastily.

“That’s gross, Jason.” She said, relaxing in his arms - too close, too fucking close, her back was curving against his arm - and he set her down carefully, supressing a shudder. Jason’s eyes widened.

“Here!” He thrust her communicator back at her. She glanced at it, surprised, as if she had forgotten about it too. When she reached to take it, Jason impulsively clasped her hands with his other fingers.

“Would…” Jason licked his lips, steeling himself, noting how raven’s eyes traced where his tongue had been and drawing strength from it.

“Would you like to come to dinner with me?” he waited, breathless.

“I’d like that…”

She squeezed her eyes shut, and tensed her shoulders like she expected Jason to reprimand her or make her feel guilty.

“What convinced you?” he asked, curiously. She looked up in surprise and blessed him with a gentle smile. Jason found it oddly adorable.

“I hadn’t realized what a charmer you were.” she drawled.

Jason blushed furiously and rubbed his neck, glancing at Raven, who seemed to be more amused by the second.

“So, where should we meet? Your place? You don't exactly have a secret to keep, now.” She pointed out. Jason guilty thought of the red x costume in his condo.

“I do have a secret, actually.”

“I'm sure it must be simply dreadful.” Raven said placidly, reclining on the cot. Jason thought about the way she hadn’t hesitated to help him regardless of what her leader said. He thought about the look she’d given him when he had told her about not being able to go home. He thought about how she looked when he’d said he would write to Alfred. He swallowed and cradled her cheeks. If he was feeling particularly brave when remembering this later, he might have thought that she had nuzzled into the cradle of his hands.

“It might be, honestly. I can’t tell how you’ll see it as. But if you come to my condo next week, I promise I’ll tell you everything.” he whispered hoarsely - apologetically - in her ear.

“Everything?” Raven echoed. There was an unspoken question in her eyes, and Jason wanted nothing more than to take her in his arms and rock away the doubt in her eyes until she felt secure again. He settled for wetting his lips. Later, he reminded himself. Later. “Yeah, Little Bird. Everything you want, okay?”

“Okay. Thank you. In our world, telling me your information means a lot.” She looked at him with growing respect and a touch of admiration in her eyes. “That must have taken a lot of courage.”Jason smiled at her. What a weird person. What a weird demon. She was simply wonderful, he decided. Absolutely wonderful. Jason stared into her amethyst shining with hope, and privately managed to gather enough thought to decide on writing to Alfred about her. He thinks that he’ll write that his lady (if it would not be presumptuous to call her that) is unapologetic when breaking rules, brutally honest, a real demon but that she paints for fun, is loyal to her ethics first and foremost, keeps her books in pristine condition, a true hero yet a gentle soul and would look terribly, terribly breathtaking if he can convince her to wear a flower crown and get her eyes to sparkle like they were again.

Ripping his eyes away from her reluctantly, he backed out of the door and looked back - to see a flash of purple smoke. Of course! He felt like hitting his temple with the palm of his hand. She has magic; she could have left or alerted Nightwing at any time without his knowledge! For some odd, indecipherable reason, this revelation caused him to break out in bouts of uncontrollable snickers as he jumped out the closest window. He decided to add Assam tea to his shopping list.

Epilogue.

“Little Bird.” Raven spared a questioning glance at her - their - bed’s other occupant, who winked at her and waved lazily. Raven pursed her lips and aimed her gaze back at the novel in her hands, stifling a yawn. “It’s time to sleep.”

“One more chapter.”

“Mon petit oiseau, you know I adore a good book as much as you do. But I adore our bedtime ritual even more, love. Haven’t you finished that tea yet anyway?”

“Almost.” She turned a page and cradled her mug with both hands, draining it.“Awesome.” Jason stole a languid kiss to distract her as he plucked her book out of her hands and set it down on his bedside table.

“Mmm- Jason!” Raven protested weakly. He grinned at her and palmed her hips slowly. “What is it, darling? You know neither of us can sleep properly unless you do your ritual.” It had started about a year into their relationship, after a particularly bad nightmare. She set down her cup down with a mellifluous rap and squirmed to straddle his lap. Jason quickly draped a blanket around her shoulders and held her in a warm embrace. He'd quickly learned that she would get cold very easily and took full advantage of this fact to shamelessly encourage her to press every inch of herself against him whenever she was cold. Privately, Jason thanked whoever was up there that she hadn't caught him turning their 'broken' heater off yet. Raven exhaled as her fingers slowly caressed his face. Starting with his jawline, pressing kisses to his temple, lingering below his ears - he had to focus on not keening when she suckled beneath his earlobe -then combing his explosion of hair back, her dainty fingers travelling lower to his temples.

Three years onward and she still did this ritual every night, he thought fondly. “You have wrinkles”. she breathed abruptly. Wrinkles? On his gorgeous face? Jason thought. Oh, hell no. They were not wrinkles. They were the bags beneath his eyes. A few good nights sleep with his Raven and it’d clear right up. If not, the wrinkles had better pray for nothing more than skin lotion.

“Where?” Jason demanded indignantly. Raven touched the corners of this eyes gently, her eyes glowing tenderly.

“Did you know”, she began conversationally, “that there is one smile that cannot be replicated unless you are happy? It’s the only smile that includes the eyes - that’s where the saying ‘smiling eyes’ comes from.”

Jason sat back, wondering where the hell she was going with this, but happy to let her talk for as long as she wanted.

“If you smile that smile enough, well” she shrugged, tapping his wrinkles. “You must have been smiling a lot for some reason.”

“I wonder why,” Jason quipped, looking at her dimpling mouth hintingly. Raven let another of her low chuckles escape, curving her mouth invitingly - success! Jason rejoiced, part delightedly, part triumphantly - and leaned forward and brushed her lips against his - alright, fine - wrinkles then teasingly nibbling his lips before withdrawing, smirking impishly and batting her eyelashes coyly. Jason growled as she licked her lips deliberately. “I’m glad you’ve been smiling more,” she whispered earnestly, the look in her eyes taking Jason's breath away. He softened and swooped to capture her lips in a kiss that made her head spin and forced a swoon out of her mouth.

Jason wondered how she’d react to the information of her own acquired stunning wrinkles. Better not tell her, he decided lovingly, before Raven purred his name in his ear and he lost all coherent thought.

________________________________________________________________ “A series of unfortunate Events” - references a series of rather unpleasant, old children’s books.“Lord, what fools these mortals be!” - A midsummer’s night dream (Puck)“Nobody who loves is a complete fool. And if it is, then it is divine foolishness.” The squire, his knight, and his lady by Gerald Morris (Ganscotter and King Arthur)If the account given in Genesis is really true, ought we not, after all, to thank this serpent? He was the first schoolmaster, the first advocate of learning, the first enemy of ignorance, the first to whisper in human ears the sacred word liberty, the creator of ambition, the author of modesty, of inquiry, of doubt, of investigation, of progress and of civilization. - Robert Green Ingersole. ________________________________________________________________ uhghhhhhhhh this was an absolute monster, @theplacewherebeautylies. “Let’s start writing! It’ll be easy! I can quit at any time” AND I CHOOSE TO MAKE A FREAKING 6341 word fic. IT’S 2AM. This is my first fic and I can already relate so much to those sleepless writer’s post. I hope you enjoy and thank you to @bluescove for beta-ing, I think it really helped!

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keeroo92 · 4 years ago

Text

Be My Nightmare Chapter 17

Coming Home

~~~~Previous Chapter~~~~

Word count - 3,124

Warnings for surgical procedure, somewhat graphic. Blood and gore, minor.

_________

~~~~Nico~~~~

Nico took a deep breath and stepped forward, ducking under the yellow tape criss-crossing over the open doors of the subway. The acrid stench of death hung in the air, mixing with the signature piss and sweat of the underground. Not a pretty smell.

But the view horrified her, too. Cracked glass and smeared blood, a few bullet casings and two blue-clad bodies lying on the floor like dolls discarded by a child with a new toy. Her comrades deserved so much better.

Her heart clenched as she saw their frozen faces. It was Franklin and Taylor; she’d chatted with them by the water cooler the other day. Taylor told her that stupid joke about the zero and the eight, and Franklin… he was only just learning the ropes. His whole life ahead of him.

It made her want to scream.

She wasn’t unfamiliar with the unfairness of life. It twisted her up and spat her out more than once over the years. She’d fought tooth and claw to get where she was, struggle didn’t surprise her anymore. Misfortune had a cruel tendency to affect kind folks more than those who deserved it, but she always hoped to change that, even just a little. To leave the world better than when she entered it was all she wanted from life, despite how difficult the battle was. She could deal with the bad shit.

Still sucked to see the bad shit, though.

We gotta catch this fucker.

Balled fists held tight at her sides, she forced her eyes away from the corpses of her brothers in arms to scan the scene for any evidence that might lead to tracking down the psychopath who ended their lives. Anything would do, any thread she could tug to unravel the mystery and get to slap cuffs on the bastard. She’d never wanted to catch a criminal so badly, so deeply it kept her awake at night.

I’ll do whatever it takes. You’re going down, V.

The background check hadn’t given them much - he’d come from a middle class family, nothing remarkable about his childhood other than his fascination with art. By all accounts, while his young friends were off causing mischief, he’d be found visiting a museum or practicing his brushwork.

That is, until the shooting.

Regardless of his crimes, her heart went out to the poor bastard. Surviving a mass shooting by the sacrifice of a friend was enough to traumatize anyone. It was a damned shame (and an embarrassment to the healthcare system) that he didn’t get the help he needed afterward.

Still didn’t excuse killing folks, though.

At least they had one lead to follow - the doctor. After the dark-haired lunatic fled her apartment, it didn’t take long to get a search warrant. Techs were combing through the place, but they already had enough to put her away for at least a decade. Lobotomizing her own father, un-friggin-believable.

Tony was in shock, caught completely off guard by the doctor’s actions. His own hand-picked medical consultant, in league with the killer they hunted. A twist for the history books, he’d said. She’d never seen him so dumbfounded.

Despite being proven right about her suspicions, it turned Nico’s stomach to see the emptiness in Waras’s father’s eyes, the lack of humanity left behind. He was lucky to be alive, supposedly, but Nico had her doubts. Maybe death was a kinder fate than what the poor man endured.

He’ll never be the same. None of us will.

“I got a blood trail!”

Nico’s lips curved into a predatory smile. Franklin must’ve wounded the fucker, his last act one that could lead to the arrest of his killer. Cold comfort to his loved ones, but still. It was something.

~~~~Kotomi~~~~

The familiar click of her heels on cement vanished amidst the cries of the crowd. Enraged faces lined the entrance to Mundus Psychiatric Hospital, signs and shouts overwhelmingly oppressive. At least they weren't throwing fruit today. She’d count her blessings.

The protests first started a few days after the local news announced that V was the lead suspect in the recent killings, and that he’d escaped the historically secure facility. Citizens fearing for their safety flocked to the streets, calling for the hospital to close and the patients to go elsewhere, though nobody seemed to know where. As long as it wasn’t here.

Nobody cares about an actual solution, just that the problem gets dumped on someone else’s lap.

Then one of the orderlies told the tale of the fire, heightening the rage and terror. Malphas still hadn’t figured out who talked, but when he did, heads were going to roll. The director’s professional reputation was irrevocably tainted, along with the entire staff (though his was the only name being slandered in the streets).

It shocked her to see normal people so furious. People who barely registered the hospital’s existence before, now vilifying it at every opportunity. It didn’t matter that the place housed mostly harmless individuals, or that the staff genuinely tried to help them heal. All the goodwill vanished in the wake of V’s rampage.

“Bitch! Don’t you care that folks are dying?!”

Kotomi flinched as a protester caught her gaze and stepped forward from the picket line, foam-flecked lips spewing vitriol. She moved faster; maybe she could get inside before it got any worse.

“How many innocent people have to get slaughtered before you fuckers close this shithole?! Give ’em all the chair, I say!”

She crossed her arms and curled her shoulders inward, her heart hammering as she tried to pass the man by. She only wanted to go to work. Why couldn’t they just leave her alone? She hadn’t done any harm.

That’s not quite true…

In a way, it was all her fault. If she hadn’t frozen up during the fire, maybe things would have turned out differently. Why did she always freeze when it mattered most?

Her thoughts stopped as the man grabbed her shoulder, his grip tight enough to bruise. His rancid breath fanned over her face as he shouted at her, the words lost in the wake of her terror. Quaking legs barely kept her upright as her body flooded with adrenaline, her pupils dilating and sweat blooming on her palms and forehead. Maybe if she stayed quiet, he’d let her go? Could she just wait it out?

What choice did she have?

And then a familiar voice called her name, a pair of worried brown eyes replacing those of the protester as Rob led her inside. Someone else coming to her rescue yet again, because she lacked the strength to save herself.

“Are you alright, Dr. Ishida?” he asked.

She forced her fingers to relax their iron grip on her purse strap. “I- I think so.”

Rob sighed and glanced back at the crowd, their shouting audible through the glass door. “They’re getting bolder. I’ll talk to Aaron again, there’s got to be something we can do.”

But they both knew there was little point. Until V was caught, nothing would quench the fury of the citizens or lessen their drive to close the facility. Maybe her mother was right, she should’ve gone into a different field. It might be time to walk away.

~~~~V~~~~

The artist grimaced as he limped along, his palm pressed against his thigh to staunch the bleeding and ease the pain. Each step he took brought another pang of agony, and he couldn’t find an exit wound- the bullet remained. He’d have to get it out and treat the wound. First, however, he needed to find a safe place to recuperate.

He leaned against a shipping container, cautiously lifting his palm to check the blood flow. It was slowing, at least. Progress. His belt proved an effective tourniquet.

A gust of icy wind reminded him of his precarious position. The warehouse district wasn’t prone to pedestrians, which meant fewer eyes to spot him, but it also meant he stood out like a sore thumb to anyone who wandered by. He couldn’t afford to stay here long.

Keep moving. Can’t stop now.

He hobbled on, gritting his teeth against the pain. Sweat beaded on his forehead, itchy as it dripped through his hair. Aches ricocheted through his body, his muscles tired and close to quitting on him. He needed rest, a reprieve and a chance to plot his next move. Where could he go?

His friends stayed oddly silent. Did they abandon him? Unlikely, but he couldn’t discount the possibility. Either way, he had only himself to rely on.

Relying on others teaches one not to stand on their own. This is better.

Before long, his mind wandered to the worst three minutes of his life. It was inevitable after the reminders at the subway, the familiar crack of thunder as guns fired. How much pain had Nero endured that day? They said he’d been hit six times.

“Six… Six twelve Oak street…” he muttered. His vision swam and the artist faltered, shaking his head at his own foolishness.

He couldn’t believe he’d forgotten. Today was the day; he’d been looking forward to it. He’d had his doubts at first, but with each session Nero’s skill improved. The edges of his latest tattoos featured crisp definition, the whorls perfectly curved to follow the natural shape of his biceps.

The artist didn't notice the flush in his face and the dazed film in his eyes as he turned and set off in a new direction, his steps unsteady but determined. A slight smile graced his lips. What design would Nero add to the canvas of his flesh this time?

~~~~Reader~~~~

You sprinted to your ancient car, barely noticing the absence of the undercover cop car as you forced the engine to roar to life. No doubt they’d seen V leave and given chase, which meant you didn’t have the choice of going back to your apartment. The police would search it from top to bottom.

They’re going to find the sketches…

It seemed so long ago that the artist first grasped that tiny nub of charcoal in your office, portraying your face in shades of grey. The roller coaster hadn’t stopped since that day, and it showed no signs of slowing.

But fuck it. No sense dwelling on what could’ve been, the life you could’ve had if you hadn’t requested his case. What was done was done. Time to get on with it.

You flicked on the radio as you pulled onto the main road. An aggressive guitar solo blared out and you winced as you turned the volume down, switching the channel a beat later. Social media probably had better info than the radio, but reading and driving didn’t mix.

“-unarmed but extremely dangerous. Police are advising locals to leave the area immediately. Last sighted exiting the subway station on 119th street, but current whereabouts unknown-”

The subway. Smart.

As if you’d expect anything less.

Within ten minutes, you reached 119th. Flashing lights and sirens greeted you, blue-clad officers milling around as one of them plastered crime scene tape over the railing. Mid-morning sunlight streamed down like a sick spotlight.

If V was here, he was beyond your reach.

Shit.

You turned at the next cross street. The police undoubtedly had your license plate by now, you’d need to do something about that. No sense lingering in a place chock full of them. But where to go? Where would V go?

A soft ding stole your attention; a new message. You crossed your fingers as you pulled over to check your phone.

It wasn’t far, maybe a five-minute drive. Thank the heavens, at least now you knew he hadn’t gotten arrested. Yet.

Still… the message had you worried. It lacked his usual eloquence and wit, and didn’t say whether he was physically okay. Shots fired, the TV said. You pursed your lips and pulled back into traffic, mind whirling with uncountable ways V might be injured. By the time you parked a block away from the quaint, two-story house, you could barely breathe through the anxiety.

Grabbing your backpack, you didn’t even bother locking the car as you speed walked to the yellow front door. What would you find within? If they hurt the artist, would you be able to help? What if only his corpse awaited you?

You swallowed thickly and tried the doorknob. Unlocked; you took a deep breath and entered. Nothing immediately jumped out at you. Photos of a white-haired teenager lined a nearby wall, a hall table holding mail and a dish to leave one’s keys in beneath them. No blood stained the walls, no sounds of pain echoed from another room. It was quiet.

“V? Are you here?”

No answer. Not good. You set aside your backpack and tried again, making your way through the home. Each second he didn't respond only heightened your fear, stinging your tongue with metal. He had to be seriously hurt or incapacitated somehow, and neither option helped the situation.

“V? Come on, where are you?” Your voice shuddered.

“...curse my stars…”

You spun and raced toward the voice, tearing open a door you’d missed before to find the artist, curled up on a massive bed. Blood stained the sheets, concentrated near his thigh. Sweat coated his brow and his eyes stared at nothing, unseeing in the grip of his pain and madness.

“...love so high…”

“Don’t worry, V. I’ve got you,” you murmured as you cupped his clammy cheek. Dilated eyes, sweat and warm to the touch. Most likely an infection. You shoved aside your feelings; time to get to work. Right now, he needed your medical care more than anything else you offered.

Fabric rustled as you took a seat beside him and searched for the source of the blood. Through the fabric of his jeans it was impossible to tell, so you quickly tugged them off, taking care to reapply his improvised tourniquet once the cloth was out of the way. Heart pounding, you finally found a darker spot in the tensor fasciae, close to his hip. There was no exit wound.

Oh, V… you walked here with a bullet in your leg?

At least it wasn’t too deep. Odd, but you’d take what you could get. A thin trickle of crimson oozed from the wound, but he wasn’t in danger of bleeding out yet. Assuming he hadn’t bled too much during his escape…

“I need to find supplies to treat you. I’ll be right back,” you said, stroking damp hair from his brow. His skin was on fire. He didn’t respond.

You pursed your lips and left him, searching the bathrooms and kitchen until you had what you needed. A moment more spent thoroughly washing your hands, and you returned. The artist hadn’t moved an inch.

Is he having an episode, too? Maybe that’s for the best, it’s possible he won’t notice when I take out the bullet.

The best you had was a longer than average pair of metal tweezers. If they didn’t do the job, you’d have to widen the wound. Thankfully it wasn’t close to any major arteries, so you were confident you had the skills to remove it safely. A few inches to the left, and he would’ve already been dead for an hour.

“Okay, this might hurt,” you told him, pausing for a moment before dousing his thigh with a mixture of bottled water and table salt. After a moment you turned him so the excess fluid spilled out, leaving the wound clean and ready. You gave him one last look as your fingers wrapped around your tool. The head lamp you found in the kitchen flared to life with a touch and you straddled his injured leg, keeping it as still as possible.

“Now for the really fun part…”

The artist twitched feebly as you probed the hole. For once it seemed his episodes were a blessing; if he were even remotely coherent, he surely would have screamed.

Centimeter by centimeter, you searched for the signature resistance of metal surrounded by human tissue. More blood leaked from the wound, drenching your hands and slowing your progress. Muttered verses occasionally interrupted the squelch of your work, but you paid his words no mind. A distraction surgeon never helped.

At last you found it, an unrelenting hardness amongst the fibrous muscle. You tapped around the bullet, getting a feel for its dimensions before making your move. The tweezers barely opened wide enough to take hold, but they did the job and you felt the bullet disturb the surrounding tissue as you slowly drew it out with a satisfying plop.

You sighed and set aside your prize. Another round of improvised saline later, you carefully sutured the wound closed and bandaged the area. The artist still made no indication of awareness, just lying there as you put him back together.

The moment you set down the roll of bandages, you started trembling. V’s blood covered your hands, the sour stench of sweat and chemicals hanging in the air. As pointless as it was, you couldn’t help but wonder why life had to be this difficult. The last twenty-four hours alone had your nerves begging for a break. What a sick world, where you had to remove a bullet from the man you lo-

Holy shit.

Air slipped from your gaping mouth as you fell back against the wall. A manic chuckle followed, then another. Was this what love was like? You’d never come close to it before, to this burning like fire in your soul. The thought of losing V mere hours ago had you in tears, falling apart like an infant without its mother for the first time. When you were with him, despite his murderous and unpredictable nature, you felt safe.

And the things you’d done for him - withholding medical information, lying to your boss and risking your medical license, everything you’d spent years working towards; not to mention what you did to your father.

He’d forced you to face yourself, someone you didn’t even know anymore. Changed your understanding of the world and of art, torn asunder your preconceptions and lit the way to new views. The eloquence of his speech, the grace in his movement, the curve of that smirk and the way his presence changed the atmosphere of any room…

I don’t know if this is love, but I don’t have another word that fits. Not even close.

It was twisted; it was soaked in blood and violence, but you felt more authentic than you ever had. You smiled. Decades ago, you accepted that you might not be capable of love.

How wonderful to be wrong.

~~~~Next Chapter~~~~

#Be My Nightmare #my writing #v x reader #v x oc #dmcv #devil may cry 5 #fanfiction #fanfic #au #slow burn #angst #tw: gunshot wound

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fanwright · 5 years ago

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Out of the ATLA characters, who would be best to use as a template for a Star Wars clone army? Would you use only one for the template or multiple characters? If you use more than one, for what purpose would you assign their clones?

So this made me think quite a bit, and its harder to answer than expected.

On one hand, my first instinct is to select any of the main characters. All of them have qualities of some kind that can be seen as highly coveted in a clone template for the Grand Army of the Republic. However, there are some significant down sides to each main character being used as a single template for an entire clone army.

I actually had a very long winded response to this going through all the main characters and pointing out why one wasn’t suited while the other was, but at some point I realized that... almost none of them are truly ideal for being a candidate for a clone template. Shocking, I know, but I did say almost none of them. Now, this doesn’t mean that any of them can’t be a good individual soldier or officer or star ship captain or whatever you want them to be. As soldiers in their own right they would be good. I dare say some of them would be heroes, even legends.

But I wasn’t looking for heroes or legends. I was looking for someone who could just be a soldier. I was looking for someone who I felt was of fairly decent character, mentally stable, who could follow an order regardless of whether or not it was the right call, accomplish a task regardless of whether or not it was mission critical or trivial, and one who I felt could tolerate military life without many complaints and just... do it. In short, I was looking for someone who I thought could fit the role of a standard clone trooper. Someone who wasn’t out to be a hero or a legend, nor compelled to be a villain.

And that someone turned out to be Suki.

And in my opinion she’s actually kind of the only real choice out of the main cast of characters we see. And this doesn’t necessarily stem from the fact that we see her in a kind-of-military role already through her association with the Kyoshi Warriors, though I will admit it helped a little in making the choice.

Think about.

I consider Suki one of the main characters in the show, but she has this aura about her, for lack of a better word. A kind of aura that lends well to being the “every-woman” of any given situation that needs something to be done. She’s not really out to be a hero, though she possesses that capacity, nor is she out to be a villain, though I can see her doing more questionable things without any complaints or scruples, if need be.

She’s one of the only characters we see consistently see in some kind of uniformed role. More importantly the uniform is not meant as a disguise or for some other ulterior motive. When she puts on the uniform, she wears it to be a part of something, to do something required of her. When we first saw her in her first episode, I am willing to bet we were all sold on her being a Kyoshi Warrior. How she trained and how she believed in the tenants of her organization. When we saw her again in the show, this time at Full Moon Bay as a guard taking in tickets, again it wasn't as a disguise. She even said she did it just to assist people there, even if it was just doing something as mundane as punching in holes for tickets. On a regular basis, As if it was her job.

And in a way... she kinda is like a clone trooper.

Clones have been noted to perform a variety of roles despite coming from the same template. And while many were of course trained in those specific roles, the character and personality of the template itself is a factor in how each clone adapted to their role. Now, it is noted that the genome provided by Jango Fett had to be tailored and modified so that the standard trooper could follow orders more obediently, diluting Jango Fett’s more independent and volatile tendencies while keeping the qualities that made him ideal as being the candidate. The Republic needed a soldier that was tailored and trained to follow orders obediently, one that could “get the job done”. Guaranteed.

With Suki, you potentially have a candidate that is similar. And this is where we get to the darker side of the clones, one where it got me thinking “Okay, who can we change up just enough to have their personality remain intact when their genome structure is tampered with, to the point where they are bred to be a good trooper?” Again, to me, Suki is the only real candidate. Why? Think about what would happen if you spliced up Zuko or Azula or Sokka enough to have them be bred as the genetic version of an ideal soldier. In my opinion, it means taking away what makes them truly unique. To me, that meant diluting Azula’s sense of ambition, sharp wit, and intense independence, possibly screwing with her mentality even more and making her seem almost lobotomized. That meant making Zuko less emotionally unstable and less angry, but also turning him into a literal drone in a way, completely obedient to whoever commands him. That meant diluting Sokka’s sense of humor and a bit of his creativeness just to control him, as well as smashing his moral compass to the point where he would be a serious asshole. You gain all their fighting qualities and what makes them good on the battlefield, but you loose what makes their characters unique if you have the Kaminoians have their way. And you know what perfectionists they are. Anything they don’t like, they’ll splice it out or dilute it.

With Suki, you don’t loose that much, as terrible or surprising as that might be to hear. If I was a Kaminoian cloner, I’d look at her and think “Hm. This one seems ideal. She has a sense of independence and seems to have a moral compass, but I can work with that. Not too much genetic tailoring to change that. With her template we will have a clone that can follow orders obediently, regardless of morality. She seems to come from a warrior caste with a strong sense of team work and cooperation. It seems to have been instilled in her at a very young age. This can work to our advantage in making a satisfactory product for the Galactic Republic. It helps that she is a proficient warrior as well. Her training has prepared her physically and mentally. Our clones will be able to benefit from this if we can tailor the genome correctly.” I do not believe much of her personality will be changed through this process, though she will come off as being a bit more “darker” or perhaps more amoral. Still, after giving it some thought, these changes wouldn’t be as severe if the cloners were to tamper with the others’ genomes. Hell, the Kaminoians would probably reject of a few of them outright for not being suitable candidates.

Now, there is also the issue of Order 66 and the Sith being involved in (or rather hijacking) the Clone Project. If I’m getting the information correctly, Master Sifo-Dyas, foreseeing a war that would engulf the Republic, wanted to commission a clone army for its defense. To my knowledge no clone template was decided on by Sifo-Dyas before the Pyke Syndicate killed him. He did contact the Kaminoians though and from what I understand they were merely just waiting on a candidate to start cloning with. Count Dooku was the one who paid Jango Fett to be the template for the clone army and at the behest of Dooku, the control chips embedded inside each clone were intended for them to forcefully comply with Order 66, which was not their intended purpose when Sifo-Dyas proposed the plan.

Now, with Suki, I still think there is a way to recruit her and gain her genetic template for a project like this. It involves a bit of crafty manipulation by the Sith. Perhaps someone comes up to her and offers the opportunity up in a noble way. “We have selected you as the candidate for a military project that will ensure the safety of all those in the Republic.You are the galaxy’s best warrior, short of a Jedi.” Perhaps Suki would feel a great sense of honor or pride in being selected, even taking pride in training the clones (As a contrast, Jango Fett was paid to be the template after consideration from the Sith since he was considered the best bounty hunter in his trade. He took no pride in the clones he trained and merely saw it as a job.) The Sith finds ways to manipulate and get what they want. I believe putting on a noble face to do so wouldn’t be out of the question.

So yeah. Suki would be my candidate for the clone template for a Grand Army of the Republic. That’s if I had to choose only one character.

If I had to choose multiple candidates though, thats where we get to have some fun! If that was the case, then other characters would be viable as candidates for clone templates.

We can get something like the Bad Batch, or Clone Force 99, from the Clone Wars show, but on a massive scale and with more templates instead of splicing up the single one.

Anyway, that’s my answer for now.

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canyouhearthelight · 5 years ago

Text

The Miys, Ch. 68

One chapter, beta’d by both @satan-parisienne and @baelpenrose, so there should be a minimum of errors floating around in there.

As some have noticed, I did update the Master List over the weekend. A few other things I just want to touch on:

Ask box is literally always open, as is my inbox. Feel free to drop questions, comments, whatever in there. I love interacting with people, so it makes my day to see y’all reach out to me.

Also, I recently crossed the threshold for 500 followers. It’s crazy, and I’m just gobsmacked that you all follow me. I won’t be doing a character contest this time, but keep your peepers peeled for what I am doing instead...

Now, on with our chapter!

“To confirm Councilor Reid’s statement, the bacteria that was, until recently, potentially killing us, is instead killing itself?”

“Correct, Eino.”

“And this is a bad thing because it is sentient?”

“Partially why it is bad, yes.”

“Xiomara, if I may?” I couldn’t see them, but I could practically hear Grey lean forward and push their glasses further up the bridge of their nose. Just the tone of voice told me that this Grey was well-rested and firing on all cylinders.

Xiomara nodded, then dropped her head back to suppress a groan when she realized the rest of the Council couldn’t actually see her. “Please go ahead, Grey. You are probably better to explain this than I am.”

“Thank you.” A brief pause. “While I do confess that I argued stringently against the decision that Else is sentient, in the end, even I was satisfied with the decision. However, Terran studies of neural matrices do show that there is a threshold of connections, below which sentience does not exist except as a potential. It stands to reason that, for a hive minded species such as Else or even the Hujylsogox, loss of too many members would create a similar loss of sentience.”

Noah’s voice hummed in confirmation. “This is correct. Even if I were to lose too many of my avatars, and later come in proximity to others of my kind, I would no longer be myself but instead be absorbed into the sentient member, and they would gain any information I had learned.”

I felt my face contort into a horrified expression. “Noah, does that happen?”

“Only in very dire circumstances, Wisdom. It is considered a capital crime do so against a cluster’s will, and the height of rudeness to begin to do so accidentally.”

“Question: if a species can lose sentience due to low population, can it actually be considered sentient?” Eino’s tone was carefully inquisitive rather than argumentative.

“The problem cannot be framed in that way and make logical sense,” Grey advised, not unkindly. “According to the Galactic research database, each member of a hive-minded species serves as a neural connection for one single, larger mind. Just because the individual loses neural awareness or function, the species does not; believing so would be comparative to stating we are not sentient as a species simply because sufficient neural damage can render one of us brain-dead.”

“Thank you for the clarification,” he breathed, seemingly in relief.

Grey continued. “In this case, however, there are no others of Else’s species. It is such a young race, that despite so many bodies, it only has one mind for now. Should too many bodies die off from starvation out of Else’s attempt to do no further harm, sentience will be lost. At that point, there is a reasonable amount of certainty that it will begin to eat freely again, and become sentient again.”

“And there is no guarantee that the new version of Else will like us as much as the current version. We can’t take that chance,” Xiomara finished. “What if we end up with a homicidal bacterium instead of an apologetic one.”

The entire channel fell silent at the weight of her words. I couldn’t blame anyone – it was a lot to process. Hell, I was the one who brought the topic to her attention, and even I felt the need to vomit when she said it. It was too much to really contemplate for long.

“So, what are we supposed to do? Feed it?” The words may have sounded sarcastic coming from a different person, but I knew Pranav was considering this a genuine option. In the time I had known him, he had always worked with the facts, regardless of what anyone hoped to dreamt.

Looked like it was my turn. “We actually have a few options that Else mentioned on their own, when they were trying to convince me not to have them eradicated.”

After a brief pause, Giang Huynh spoke up. “Please elaborate, Sophia.” Not only the illness, but the destruction or degradation of several structures had led to his department being the one most effected by Else. Instead of his normal belligerence, he just sounded resigned.

Taking a deep breath, I laid out what Else and I discussed. “The first, probably easiest option, is to isolate all of Else and deposit the entire culture into the first nebula we reach.”

“Nebulas are very rich in iron,” Eino pointed out. “But does it need oxygen?”

“Else is largely anaerobic,” Grey responded. “Due to its diet of iron, open air is almost immediately fatal to it. This explains why it has been predominantly found in bone marrow and the spleen, as that is where the highest amount of iron can be found in the human body, before the blood is oxygenated.”

“Are there any downsides to this option?” Simon asked. Since I was technically still on medical leave, he was acting in my stead. The only reason I was allowed on this conference was as a witness, not a Councillor.

“Else doesn’t like it,” I admitted. “Because, and I quote, ‘there are no humans in a nebula’.”

“Miys, does Else have a say in this?” Eino asked, curious.

“As a sentient species, yes, they must agree to the relocation unless their current environment is untenable without drastic intervention. Technically, their current environment is viable for the foreseeable future.”

“Wait – what?” Simon sputtered. “We only recently stopped needing constant transfusions.”

“Not all of the ship needed them on a constant basis,” Grey pointed out. “And some who were impacted did not need them at all until very near the end of the crisis.”

She means others like Tyche, I realized. “Okay, so that’s an option, but only if we lack any others and can talk Else into it,” I forged ahead. “Which means any discussion of whether or not Else needs to be forcibly relocated is moot, because they did bring up other options.” I paused for response, and continued when there was none. “The second option was dropping them off on a barren, iron-rich planet with a late-sequence star.”

“How is that any different?” Huynh sputtered in confusion.

I watched Xiomara’s eyes get wide. “Tactics,” she breathed before repeating it, louder. “It’s a tactical preference. An iron-rich world, especially a barren one, is more likely to be mined, isn’t it?”

“Mining such planets requires significantly less effort and resources than are needed to mine a nebula,” Noah confirmed.

“And mining gives them the chance to be picked up by a new species,” Xiomara dropped like a bomb, triggering a rush of muttering.

“We should only base the value of an option on whether or not it will be a detriment to Else if it is certain to prevent the detriment, regardless of the impact to us.” I was initially surprised to hear such a venomous tone from Huynh, before considering his home nation’s history. Okay, he has every reason to be adamant here. After all, his country had suffered horribly at the hands of mine, not even a century prior. “Are there any other options?”

“Put them in stasis and bring them with us,” I confessed. “But, I also pointed this out to Else: And then what? It’s still a finite resource situation, in the long run. Not to mention the fact that we are working toward having the least possible impact to the new world – doesn’t bringing a sentient plague with us completely defeat the purpose?”

“We are already studying the impact our own gut bacteria will have on Kepler 442b,” Grey added. “And while we have no plans for large-scale mining of natural resources, the planet and its star already have poor metallicity.”

“I feel like those options really cover everything that is actually available to us,” Xiomara confessed.

“Agreed,” Pranav chimed in. “There is an option that Else does not like, but provides greatest opportunity for it to thrive. There is an option it likes, which also provides the chance for a species that shows every indication of being quite social to potentially interact with others. And there is an option that is really only a stopgap measure.”

“Ultimately, Else has to agree to whatever measure is to be taken,” Noah pointed out, attempting to be helpful.

“Else wants to stay with us,” I rebutted. “So much so that it is about to lobotomize itself in the attempt. We have to convince it to take an option that is better for its survival.” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I realized what I was saying. I didn’t even attempt to suppress the groan of regret that erupted.

“If you are done impersonating a cow,” Xiomara grinned wryly, “Yes, that means we need to negotiate with Else.”

“You mean I need to,” I grumbled.

Grey gave me a sliver of vain hope. “We are attempting to locate another individual who has been able to get in touch with it, Sophia. While their method of conveying it was quite crude, Mr. MacMaoilir and Mr. Okima did have a valid concern regarding how taxing it is for your body when you are speaking with Else.”

“Any luck?”

“Not as of yet, no.” Damn it. Even Grey sounded unhappy with the fact.

“So, unless something drastic changes, the plan is for me to try to talk Else into agreeing to either relocating to a nebula or a barren planet, either way, no people. Does that about sum it up?” Confirmations came from everyone. “Wonderful. And if anyone comes up with any other options, please make sure we know ahead of time. Even a brief conversation is going to be ten hours, if the last one is anything to go by.”

“About that,” Eino ventured hesitantly. “The case study for your previous interview with Else indicates that you recited scientific papers to provide a lexicon. Is this true?”

“I wish it wasn’t, but yes, it’s true.”

His tone almost immediately perked up. “Since you know going in what you will be discussing, would it be more beneficial if we instead played a targeted lexicon for you to recite? It may minimize the time you spend reciting unnecessary or repetitive words.” When I didn’t immediately respond, he clarified. “I understand that your previous interaction involved many open-ended questions, and therefore you needed as many words as conceivably necessary for an intelligible response, but this time, the questions are close-ended, are they not?”

“The questions are at least more close-ended, yes,” I admitted, realizing what he was getting at.

“Council, I would like to offer my department to support this situation by preparing a targeted lexicon for the upcoming negotiations with Else. Should another person be found to enter into negotiations, we will also create a script for the questions themselves, which should provide enough language for Else to respond coherently with their answers.”

I shrugged and nodded at Xiomara. Even if I was going to be the person doing this, a targeted lexicon would be easier – and less time consuming – to recite than scientific papers.

She nodded firmly before replying, “That is a value add, definitely. Council vote?”

Unsurprisingly, the decision was unanimous. “Any idea how long it will take to get everything ready?” I asked, admittedly impatient. “We don’t know how long we have until Else reaches that threshold Grey mentioned.”

Eino hummed for a moment. “Tentatively? Five days. Conservatively, I would put it at a week.”

Pinching my nose before swiping an entire down my entire face, I made some quick estimates. “I don’t think Else has that long, I’ll be honest. Grey, do you have any idea how fast it is reducing itself? Or better yet, how long before it reaches a critical density?”

“As to the second inquiry, there has been no study to even begin estimations, but I will task a group of researchers with finding an answer. However, we do have hard data in regard to the first question: Since you last spoke with Else, seventeen percent of its population has died off. It has also ceased replication of itself. By current estimates, we have less than thirteen days before Else is entirely extinct.”

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#the miys #science fiction #humans are weird #aliens #original fiction #humans are space orcs #plague #apocalypse #sci fi

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thesffcorner · 5 years ago

Text

Pines

Pines is the first book in the adult mystery/ sci-fi series Wayward Pines written by Blake Crouch. It follows Secret Service Agent Ethan Burke, who wakes up in the small town of Wayward Pines in Idaho, with no memory of who he is, how he got there or even his name. After a few incidents, he regains his memory, but realizes that nothing is as it seems in the idyllic small town, and either everyone is in on a conspiracy or he really is losing his mind. I’ve read one other book by Crouch, Dark Matter and I really didn’t like it. So I was apprehensive going into this series, especially knowing that it was specifically his writing style and characters that I didn’t like; the issue is, Crouch has such interesting and unique premises for his stories, and this one was no different. I have also seen an episode of the show and it looked good (after reading the book, I won’t be watching it), so I wanted to at least read the first book in the series. I am happy to say that I liked this significantly more; not enough to continue the series, but enough to where I was reading out of intrigue, not hatred. I still had major issues with the plot of the novel, as well as Crouch’s writing, but I preferred following Agent Burke, than whatever the professor's name was in Dark Matter. The best way to describe this book is Twin Peaks, mixed with Lost and the Village. It’s a dystopian setting that looks straight out of the Stepford Wives; a small town in Idaho, the idyllic representation of small town Americana, surrounded by nature, with people who all have their place in town and are content with it. Agent Burke comes into town, looking for two missing secret agents: what he finds instead is a nightmare dressed like a daydream (yes, I hate myself too). At first, he has no idea who he is, how he got to the town, or why he’s injured; all he knows is that he has a paralyzing fear from the hospital and just remembers the name Mack. When he does regain more of his memories, he starts to see that people in the town are all acting strange: no one wants to speak to him, they give him faulty or outright false information, he can’t find his badge, his wallet or ID, he can’t reach anyone outside the town and when he tries to escape, he sees that the road curves back into the town and there is no way out. While all of this sounds very interesting, it was actually incredibly frustrating to read. I will give credit to Burke; he actually acts like a normal human would in this situation, asks questions that I found reasonable, gets angry, gets frustrated, which is a giant step up from other works I’ve read where the characters just don’t act human. I still didn’t enjoy the way these conversations went; it felt like being stuck in a poorly written RPG where all the dialogue is circular and the game outright refuses to let you ask the one question that would solve the plot (so a Bethesda game). What I found more frustrating was how the way people treat Burke, especially the sheriff, makes no sense, once we learn Wayward Pines’ secret. I’ll talk more about that at the end, but if we don’t know the twist, the way Burke is being treated is counterproductive to what the sheriff supposedly wants. He wants Burke to stop trying to cause a ruckus, but he’s not letting him leave town, he isn’t giving him his wallet back, won’t let him eat food, has him wander round the town with no detail to keep him in check so.. What’s the point? The stuff that annoyed me about Dark Matter annoyed me here as well. First we have the paper-thin, boring ass female characters. There were 4 notable ones: the nurse, who was the only character I liked because she actually had a personality (power hungry, but still a personality); Kate, the agent who Burke is looking for and had an affair with; Beverly, a local who ends up helping Burke; and Theressa his doting, entirely loyal and personality free wife. I hate the way Crouch writes his female characters, and I also hate how he views marriage. Theressa is so supportive, so self-sacrificing, so completely devoted to Burke that she has NO personality outside of being his wife. Moreover, Burke has cheated on her, been an absent husband, absent parent, has a host of other unrelated trauma that he seems to have never shared with her, that I was beginning to think she was married to someone else. All the sections with her bore me to tears; she’s worse than a cardboard cutout, she’s like an overly attached robot. Then we have Kate and Beverly. Kate is the lover; we know nothing about her other than she now married someone else and like all women Crouch writes, she is completely devoted to her new husband, but would still, secretly tap dat ass, even if it would put her life in danger. Luckily she doesn’t, though I have a feeling it’s because she’s supposed to be like 80 years old. Beverly flirts with Burke, breaks him out of a hospital, solves the case for him, and then gets brutally and unceremoniously killed because she has outlived her usefulness. As for the lead man himself, you’ll be shocked to learn I actually liked him! I know, I liked a male character, who am I? Jokes aside, I found Agent Burke to be a fascinating character. He is all the worst things; he is an adulterer, a bad husband, and an absent father, volatile and stubborn. He is also a veteran who fought in the Gulf Wars and was a PoW, who was brutally tortured. The most effective and affecting scenes in this entire book where the scenes where he flashes back to what happened to him during his captivity, and how his interactions with the sheriff mirrored that. His torturer is a walking, talking cliche; a sadistic, implied to be gay, half-white, half-Arabic man (I half expected his name to be Sayid since we are ripping off Lost so thoroughly). But their interactions and the trauma Burke carries made his character click for me, and I understood why he did the things he did, and made me root for him. Let’s talk about those reveals, so warning SPOILERS. First, we find out that we are actually in the future; Wayward Pines is supposedly the last town on Earth. Humans have evolved (if I had a coin for every time an author didn’t understand evolution) into incredibly intelligent and vicious beasts who roam the Earth like a zombie horde, and Pines was developed as an experiment by a multi billionaire genius scientist. First, we are going to ignore the fact that humans can’t just evolve into monsters like that unprompted, or that the timeline is simply not long enough for that to be the case. We are just going to focus on the sheer dumfuckery that is this concept. This man, hand selected humans from different eras of mankind starting with the 60s, and yet somehow there are 5 people who are all from Burke’s time in this town, who all know each other. K. Second, the way these people are integrated in the town is that they are told their name and where they will work and who they will marry(?), and if they start remembering their past lives, they get threatened by the sheriff. If they break the rules, like try to escape or remove their trackers, the entire town makes a LITERAL PURGE where they are hunted down and brutally killed. Burke was ‘integrated’ 3 separate times because he was so valuable, and kept almost getting himself killed, but other humans? The last humans on Earth? Fuck their life, let’s do some KILLIN! If Burke was so important (and I never once for a second believed he was actually crazy, it was as ineffective of a twist as it was in Glass) why is everyone in the town constantly trying to kill him? He almost dies when he gets attacked by the mutated humans, he is constantly starved, he gets tortured, beaten and at one point they try to LOBOTOMIZE him, and yet the scientist’s grand plan was to make Burke the new sheriff? What? His wife and son are used taken so they can be leverage over him, and yet he is constantly almost killed. Also all those soldiers in the compound… do they also live in Pines? Do they know about the outside world? Or are they always in the compound? And then Burke just gets made to be sheriff and that’s the end. Yeah… no. I was not a fan, in case you couldn’t tell. If you are a lot more forgiving of these things, check it out; perhaps the premise will be strong enough to hook you at the expense of everything else. I will not be continuing the series nor reading anything else by Crouch; we just don’t get along and it’s time for me to stop trying.

goodreads

#pines #pines review #wayward pines #moni talks #book review

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waterwindow · 5 years ago

Text

@bloodshadow213 Okay! This is actually the second ask I’ve gotten about Al in the last couple days.

So I guess hopefully I’ll be able to help the Anon as well with the information.

Al’s story is complicated. And 90% of it took place in V1 which means it’s laced with campy jargon, continuity errors, stories being told out of order and.... “””comics logic”””

WARNING, THIS IS REALLY LONG.

It doesn’t help that a lot of Wiki data and other online sources on him are completely false. Most of them confuse him with his Astral Twin Alvin and they can’t even get his actual height correct EVEN THOUGH THEY HAVE THE INFORMATION IN COMICS CLEAR AS DAY

if you’re going to WRITE THE ARTICLE could you please at least---

read the comics (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

ahem.

Despite that he’s one of my favorite characters, and so I’ve spent a LOT of time (YEARS) thinking about him so I’ll be the first to admit my interpretation of events is completely biased. I’ll do my best to separate concrete information from my headcanons.

anywho here’s Albert, HE’S..... HANDSOME.....

Okay so Albert- he’s got a few split personalities. Mr. Element and Doctor Alchemy. He’s also got the power to transmute elements. Yes- another misconception is that Albert’s gun or the philosopher’s stone is where he gets his powers. And where it was apparently retconned that Al needs the Philosopher’s Stone for most of his existence that wasn’t the case.

(and personally I still don’t believe that’s the case, because we’ve only ever seen ALVIN actively loose his powers when the stone is taken from him. And that might make sense once I get into who and what Alvin is. But let’s focus on Albert for now)

Anyhow, yes Albert is a metahuman.

He got his powers from meteoric radiation beamed into his brain as an infant. And his powers and split personalities are linked somehow or somewhat with celestial activity.

Anywho, the Element Gun at the very least is more like a magic wand that he can use to channel his power through. And it’s actually useless in the hands of someone else.

(I have a few headcanons that the Philosopher’s Stone might also be a meteorite- if not a larger piece of the meteorite that originally mutated him as a baby. Or it could be a figment of his imagination (link to headcanon).)

One thing that does seem consistent is that Albert’s powers are more or less suppressed and he has to assume one of his undesirable personalities to “unlock” them.

BUT EVEN THAT’S NOT ALWAYS TRUE. Here’s Al saving a firefighter as Mister Element.

(This isn’t the first time Mr. Element has been heroic, So it’s my headcanon that the Mister Element personality isn’t necessarily ‘split’ with Albert’s. It’s just a more intense version of himself. Because out of Costume, Albert is quiet and mild-mannered.)

ENTER THIS ASSHOLE

So there’s a plot where Eobard needs Albert’s help to get his speed back. But Albert won’t help because his powers are ‘locked’ behind his ‘Evil’ personality. So Eobard makes Albert go and steal stuff (with the random ability to hypnotize people by vibrating that he magically obtains for this single story) And spends the entire adventure trying to impress Al and gaslight him into thinking he likes crime.

And poor Al is just

he’s so done. It’s horrible I ship it

OKAY ANYWAYS

My ultimate point here before I got distracted fangirling is that despite Barry’s efforts to help, Eobard wins Al over and convinces him that he IS ultimately Evil.

The story ends with Albert momentarily betraying Eobard right as he was commanded to kill Barry. (using the power of self-hypnosis to counter-act Eobard’s influences.) Though convinced he is forever and permanently evil at that point, Barry knocks him out and uses the cosmic treadmill to take Albert to the future where he can be um

‘cured’

of his evil tendencies forever.

COUGHS this isn’t a lobotomy at all

So yeah! Al is ‘’’’cured’’’’

ENTER THIS STINKY BOY

Albert’s been a good. So Alvin shows up and starts running around as Doctor Alchemy COMMITTING CRIME. This is the first story we see him in so everyone thinks Albert is the one running around in costume, of course.

(Barry, Iris, and Rita are all part of Al’s life but I haven’t gone into them in depth for brevity- because holy shit this is long....)

(yes you read that right, Rita keeps tranquilizers on hand for Albert- for... obvious reasons- earlier in this post you saw he wigged out and caught their car on fire while they were in it. SHE PUTS UP WITH A LOT....)

( Headcanon-talk though. It couldn’t have been easy for Al either knowing he could be called a liar or drugged by his spouse at the drop of a hat. Of course Rita has every right to fear for her life. And she’s done a lot for Al, at the risk of her own safety. But that being said... they do get an off-screen divorce, and I believe it was 100% mutual.

This has got to be an unpopular opinion, since the fandom loves Rita and of course I’m sad they wrote her out of the story as well. I love her too! But it couldn’t have been easy for Al either. Living with a mental illness and a distrusting spouse who keeps a weapon on hand to use against you. And it’s clear later on that Albert literally has such an awful time keeping his shit together that he needs much more help than just Rita can provide. RAH RAH BLAH BLAH-)

Anywho,

they cart Albert off to jail, but Alvin kidnaps him. With every intent to frame him for all the crime he sees fit to do.

According to Alvin, he is Albert’s psychic/astral twin. Born at the same time and with an identical childhood to Albert’s.

Again according to Alvin, they sit on some sort of moral Teeter-totter. Where whenever Albert is good- Alvin feels an uncontrollable urge to be evil. and vice-versa.

Anyways he invented this potion called Desmodium where the fumes can cause people to be susceptible to hypnotic suggestion (Wow Alvin knows about hypnosis too, his entire life is so coincidentally similar to Albert’s) - which is how he was able to use Rita to lie about Albert’s alibi and frame Albert for Alvin’s crimes. He explains that because of their psychic connection, Alvin was able to locate where Albert hid the philosopher’s stone and used it to take up the mantle of Doctor Alchemy. (in this scene Albert is also under the influence of Desmodium which is why he’s just sitting dead-eyed like a doll)

So Alvin leaves to try and kill the Flash, and once he believes he has won, he reveals himself to Barry- and obviously he doesn’t succeed, so now Barry knows the truth of what’s going on and is on Albert’s side. Meanwhile, Albert escapes and feels the uncontrollable urge to don the Mr. Element costume to combat his evil twin. (Wigging out from the stress probably- which is why I headcanon that the Mr. Element personality is just a stronger-willed and decisive version of Albert.)

SO THEY FIGHT. It’s glorious.

Albert saves a firefighter, Barry sees the whole thing. Also Rita and Al meet up off-panel where he explains everything to her and she in turn explains everything to Barry and that’s completely convinced him that Albert is completely innocent and is in fact trying to do the heroic thing.

SO Albert, Rita and Barry work together and ultimately defeat Alvin. And from there on Alvin takes up the mantle of Doctor Alchemy permanently, becoming an honorary Rogue while Albert goes into retirement.

(Alvin seems to be the only one who ever hung out with the Rogues at all and had a relationship with them. He seems to have got along well with Lisa - or at the very least she seems entertained by his antics. Whereas she has no patience for perverts, and yet she’s bemused by Alvin’s flirtations when he’s drunk. Also Alvin being in consortium with the Rogues is why I believe Hartley much later comments on how ‘Freaked out’ the Rogues are of Albert.

Because whO IS THIS GUY? WHERE’D THE FUN REDHEADED AL GO.... Also all things considered, of course he laughed in their faces.)

I’M NOT DONE YET.

VOLUME 2

So somewhere along the line, Alvin discovers that he isn’t in fact Albert’s astral twin. That he’s actually a completely artificial construct born by the philosopher’s stone (or Albert himself depending on your interpretation) Personality completely made up of Albert’s ‘Dark Side’.

(WHEN or HOW Alvin came to this realization isn’t explained, but if I had to headcanon it might have been when he somehow survived his ‘death’ in his Blue Beetle cameo.

He attempts to merge with the Philosopher’s stone and it leads to his demise... AND THEN APPEARS AGAIN FOUR YEARS LATER IN THE FLASH. WE CAN READ INTO THIS- THEY DEFINITELY DIDN’T MAKE A MISTAKE.....)

Anyways, back to Flash v2. In volume 40 and 41 Alvin has completely lost his mind- likely due to his identity crises and tries to take over Albert’s life completely. Convincing Wally and Linda (and himself apparently) that he is ACTUALLY Albert Desmond, and not the evil twin.

But Wally figures out that it’s actually Alvin and defeats him.

And finds Albert locked up in the closet (FOR WHO KNOWS HOW LONG....)

Hopefully not long, Wally postulates that Alvin had been listening to Albert’s phonecalls and wanted an opportunity to get the Flash once and for all.

Alvin is taken to jail, but escapes almost instantly, leading to a fight with Wally that doesn’t look like it will end well for him. BUT GUESS WHO SHOWS UP JUST IN THE NICK OF TIME

butt

Fake memories you say, Wally? Would certainly explain why Alvin’s life was so identical to Albert’s.

And that is the end of Alvin, killed/absorbed by his own brother.

....

hey- remember this?

It’s almost like Al’s story could be read as a metaphor for neurodiverse repression to the point of self-destruction. Instead of working with him, they literally lobotomized the ‘evil’ out of him and gave birth to a physical manifestation of how he felt himself perceived by the outside world.

i’ve been reading these comics for too damn long

Anyways! After that, Albert vanished into the wind. He became Doctor Alchemy permanently and denounced the Mr. Element name- calling it an ‘embarrassment’. He became solitary and committed crimes much darker than his previous. (notably, a cop-murdering spree in Gotham).

Albert is literally unstoppable and the only reason he’s not wreaking havoc is He’s now characterized by his unhealthy obsession with books and escapism and finding ‘Peace and Quiet’.

Not only that, he seems to have developed a something of a grudge against Wally. (Either that or he’s too far gone to care about anything any more)

And that’s..... basically the end of the story. There’s some loose ends that got nuked out of existence right before Flashpoint. Something insinuating that Albert may have a larger role to play or knows more than he’s letting on- but it’s literally so vague it could be interpreted as anything. The plot is lost in the wind, unfortunately.

But If you made it all the way to the end, thank you for listening to my dramatic summery of Al’s story

Believe it or not, but I wasn’t even half as thorough as I could have been. So I definitely encourage you to read v1 and draw your own conclusions.

#doctor alchemy

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sage-nebula · 6 years ago

Note

for the HC meme: odd numbers for keith, evens for lotor :D

I’m going to answer for Paradigm Shift because it’s far better than and preferable to canon, and I’m also just going to do all of them for both of them since that’s easier than hopping back and forth, haha.

1.) Their physical weak spots:

Keith: He’s very ticklish behind his ears. It’s not a spot many people know about for obvious reasons, but Lotor discovers it accidentally while kissing, once, and never lets him forget it after that. On a less happy note, Keith has a scar on the back of his neck where Acxa dug out his Revender chip with a knife, and while that healed all right for the most part, it’s still indented, a bit sensitive to the touch, and aches a bit when he’s stressed.

Lotor: Whether it’s something genetic, or whether it’s what years of being dragged around by your hair in your childhood by your various diaks will do to you, the top of Lotor’s scalp is randomly painful to the touch. Often times it’s fine, but then other times the slightest brush against it will make it sting like it’s newly injured. Similarly, “tutoring” sessions with his diak often had him chained him with weights on him, which is what led to him dislocating his shoulders over and over and over again in his childhood. The last few times his shoulders didn’t heal quite right, or maybe this is just what happens when your shoulders get dislocated that many times, but either way he can dislocate his shoulders at will now, though it still hurts like nobody’s business (although he’s also used to the pain to a degree, so …). Other than that, he doesn’t really have any—at least, not any that he’d willingly divulge.

2.) Their emotional/moral weak spots:

Keith: Due to the traumatic circumstances in which he ended up at Revender, Keith can’t remember anything about his early childhood before ending up there, and isn’t even 100% sure that “Keith” is his real name (because the first name he remembered upon waking up there was “Kolgan,” and he went years without hearing his actual name, and had to really think on it when she asked him what it was). He’s a bit sensitive about this aspect of himself and his history (as seen when he snaps at Zethrid for asking if he made his name up), even though he mostly tries to focus on the present and therefore the future. He also, due to being discriminated against and abused for it for all of the life that he can remember, has a few bristly spots regarding his half-galra heritage—namely, that he makes sure everyone knows that he is part-galra instead of letting them put him in one box or the other (e.g. when he snapped at Hunk for calling him “Galra Keith”), and that he’s not going to shy away from, hide, or feel ashamed of this fact. He’s part-galra, and so is their entire team, and so are all the auxiliary teams, and they’re all going to change the universe no matter how many people hate them for that, because people hate them anyway just for being born so they might as well just lead a successful revolution while they’re at it, to hell with anyone who tries to stop them.As far as moral weaknesses go, Keith’s actually pretty ruled by what he feels internally as being Right, which means that he could well show mercy to someone who’d just sold them out so long as that person was a civilian also in bad circumstances. He’s far from afraid to do what he has to so that they survive / their mission is completed, meaning that he has killed Empire soldiers and will do so again (and if another reality-crossing happened absolutely would kick the shit out of every single canon Paladin without flinching if it came down to it, no mercy given), but there’s a reason that Acxa privately deems him “soft” the night they leave with Lotor, and that reason is because Keith is more willing to trust or offer mercy than most. He is, point blank, the second nicest person on their team. (The first nicest is Narti, and even she will fuck you up if it comes down to it, so … don’t mistake kindness for weakness. Not even once.)

Lotor: Oh boy. Well, to start with he has a myriad of trust issues. Lotor faced abuse (often under the guise of “education”) for pretty much his entire childhood up until the point he left with Keith and Acxa when he was thirteen, on top of assassination attempts (none too few of which came in the guise of food, which is why the first and only time Ezor ever tries to pull a food prank on him, it does not go well). Since he never had a trustworthy person in his life until he met Keith and Acxa when he was thirteen, and wasn’t even sure he could trust them right away (and tbf they had made a private pact to ditch him at the first sign of shadiness so he wasn’t exactly wrong), Lotor has an immense amount of difficulty trusting people, and usually doesn’t. On top of which, betrayal is something he takes immensely seriously and, perhaps understandably given who his enemies are, doesn’t forgive. On top of which, while Lotor knows that Haggar = Honerva = His Mother, he likes to pretend that Honerva died and was reincarnated as someone else—that, had his mother lived, she would have loved him. This is something that he works through, albeit with Keith’s very tough love (which in turn amounts to enough of a fight between them that the girls start wondering if they’re going to break up, which leads Zethrid to say, “I had to sit through three friggin’ decaphoebs of that will-they-won’t-they bullshit. They sure as hell better not break up after all that,” and Acxa to reply, “You’re complaining about three? Try six”), but even after he comes to accept that Haggar = his mother just as much as Zarkon = his father, the whole issue of his parents being abusive, genocidal tyrants who quite literally want him dead (or enslaved, or lobotomized and then enslaved, and really, is there much difference?) is still a sensitive topic even though he likes to say it’s not. And as a final note, he’s very sensitive to the idea of losing what he’s worked so hard to gain for himself: a home, a family, and love.

As far as moral weaknesses go, oh boy again. Lotor genuinely wants peace. He genuinely wants to create a universe where all planets rule themselves, where people can live happily, their unique cultures thriving, without the fear of losing their children overnight. But Lotor also doesn’t take betrayal well, as mentioned. If a civilian sells them out, and then that civilian is predictably going to be captured, tortured, or killed by the Empire as well, Lotor’s more than willing to let that happen because the civilian sold them out, whereas Keith’s the one who wants to go back to help the civilian no matter how much of a jackass they were. Lotor’s the one who will gladly throw Throk under the bus to take the fall for something Lotor and the team did, whereas Keith would rather let Throk screw himself over, as Keith is sure he will inevitably do (and Lotor agrees tbh), rather than setting it up. They don’t always agree (the civilian traitor issue is a big one they will never agree on, especially since Keith risks his own life trying to help that civilian out, which Lotor feels is unforgivable x2 on that civilian’s list of crimes now), but in many ways Keith is the one tugging Lotor back when Lotor starts to get too close to that line. Keith brings out the person in Lotor, and grounds him, as AJ once said.

That said, if Zarkon, Haggar, or anyone else ever succeeded in killing Keith? On their own heads be it.

3.) Scars:

Keith: As you could expect from someone who has spent most of their life fighting (and fighting in a war, at that), Keith has a lot of scars. Notable ones are the one on the back of his neck mentioned earlier, where Acxa dug out his Revender chip with a knife, same as he did for her. As I mentioned before, that one aches a bit when he’s stressed and is a bit indented. He also has a little scar on his bottom lip from where an opponent in the Revender arena bit him when they were fighting; their fang went all the way through his lip and left a scar there. There are plenty of others, too, but those are the most notable that I can think of right now.

Lotor: Like Keith, Lotor also has a lot of scars, albeit pretty much all of his are in places easily covered. He has scars around his wrists and ankles from these bracelets / anklets his diak made him wear during “tutoring” sessions when he was young, which would deliver harsh shocks whenever he got an answer wrong, tried to argue something he was taught, et cetera. Originally the shocks would just leave weals, but after enough layering eventually the skin there just scarred. Similarly, the stunt he pulled in the Revender arena the day he met Keith was enough of a transgression to earn him a punishment in lashes from his diak, oversaw by Zarkon and Haggar to make sure it got done, and so he has scars all down his back from that, too.

4.) Best places to kiss on their body:

Keith: Lotor likes to kiss Keith behind his ears, given how ticklish Keith is there, but Keith’s preferred spots are on the corners of his mouth or eyes, or on the palm of his hand. The palm kiss always makes him melt a little.

Lotor: Lotor likes it when Keith kisses him down along his neck and across his shoulders. He’s also very partial to Keith placing kisses between his shoulderblades when they’re lying in bed at night.

5.) Guilty pleasures:

Keith: For the most part, the idea of feeling guilty for liking something is foreign to Keith. There’s so much to be miserable about in the universe, given that the Empire rules it, so why should they make fun of the little joy they have? The closest he gets is when Kolivan gives him the yupper plush he had as a child, and the nostalgic scent (that he doesn’t even remember the reasoning behind) makes him hug it without thinking. That’s embarrassing, and even more so when Keith realizes how comforting the smell and feel of that plush really is. Other than that, though, no guilty pleasures.

Lotor: Keith is a lightweight, and he’s also very giggly when drunk, and so sometimes Lotor likes to persuade Keith into drinking just so he can see Keith get very giggly and silly because it’s endlessly amusing to Lotor. It’s a guilty pleasure because he knows he shouldn’t, but … he just wants to see Keith say “cash cache” and then fall into uncontrollable giggles because in that one, intoxicated moment, it’s the funniest thing Keith has ever heard in his life.

6.) Their vices (physical or emotional):

Keith: Whether it’s with one of the pod ships they have, or a hoverbike, or even the Black Lion, Keith loves flying as fast and as recklessly as he can. He’ll take ships out on test runs through asteroid fields, dodging and weaving around them, because the rush of adrenaline is intoxicating. Even when he crashes, provided he’s not unconscious or dead afterward, he’ll end up laughing because of the sheer rush of it all. This counts as a vice not only because of how dangerous it is, but also because pretty much everyone hates that Keith does it because of how dangerous it is to his health and safety. (One time Keith wrecked a hoverbike he’d been testing so badly that he had to fly a pod ship back with a broken leg, several splintered ribs, and a dislocated shoulder, and Lotor just about had apoplexy.)

Lotor: This will sound silly at first, but—gossip. Not harmless, middle school gossip, but Lotor likes scoping out information on others (his enemies, namely) that he can pocket and use for later, usually in ice cold revenge dishes. He’s not only always listening no matter the situation he’s in, but he also utilizes information networks in his spare time in order to get whatever intel he can for later use. Even the most trivial thing, like how one of Zarkon’s commanders hates another, high-ranking commander, could come in handy someday, and so Lotor grabs whatever seemingly petty gossip he can. (Also, sometimes it’s just funny. He’ll admit to schadenfreude where other people’s embarrassing secrets are concerned.)

7.) Their tickle spots:

Keith: Behind his ears, as mentioned.

Lotor: None, actually! He’s not ticklish at all.

8.) Bad memories/experiences:

Sadly, given the lives they’ve led, it’d be easier to list the good memories / experiences.

9.) Humiliating memories:

Keith: Once everyone finds out from Kolivan when Keith’s actual, exact birthday is, Ezor rounded up everyone (meaning their team, plus the auxiliary teams) to sing a happy birthday song to Keith on the day of. He had to endure a roomful of people singing to him at once, all eyes on him. It was awful, and he made sure it never happened again.

Lotor: Soon after they met Ezor and she joined the team, she decided to pull a prank on Lotor by putting something super spicy in his morning cereal. Because Lotor had many experiences in years prior to that with people poisoning his food for a variety of reasons (“lessons” from his diak, people actually trying to kill him, et cetera), the taste of a flavor he was not expecting and that shouldn’t have been there triggered him pretty badly. He wasn’t at all at fault for this (and believe me, both Keith and Acxa chewed Ezor out over it) and has no real reason to be embarrassed, but to this day he still looks at that loss of control as a pretty embarrassing memory.

10.) Fears/phobias:

Keith: Keith doesn’t have any phobias, and on the day to day he doesn’t consciously fear anything, because unless something is happening right in that moment, he doesn’t see a reason to fear it. In other words, if they have some downtime and everyone’s safe, he doesn’t consciously think about how he’s afraid of his friends (his family) being captured by the Empire and tortured to death. But if they all were captured, then yeah, he’d be afraid of them being tortured to death, but even that would be kind of muted because he’d be more focused on rescuing them and getting them back. Fear isn’t something that rules Keith, or something he dwells on. He doesn’t see much value in sitting around scared; he’d rather do something to eliminate the threat.

Lotor: The idea of facing his father in one-on-one combat is something that scares him. Being anywhere that’s open and exposed without a weapon close at hand makes him feel anxious. The idea of there possibly being a leak in security in his ranks is enough to make him triple check every precaution he’s taken to make sure there isn’t. In contrast to Keith, who is a very much “we’ll deal with that problem when we come to it and otherwise not think of it” type of person, Lotor is fully aware of the things that unnerve him and takes active precautions to make damn sure it never “comes to that.”

11.) Bad or petty habits:

Keith: Keith bites his nails, and scratches at itchy scabs, and when someone is bullshitting he never lets it go. The fight Keith and Lotor have about Lotor accepting that Haggar is his mother that I mentioned earlier? The reason that was so prolonged is because Keith brought it up at every single opportunity. Lotor would walk into a room and Keith, without looking up from the tablet he was reading, would ask, “So, accepted that that witch is your mom yet?” He finds ways to reroute conversations right back to the point he refuses to let go, pushing and pushing and pushing until the person admits the truth. Again, Keith did that to Lotor out of very tough love (because if Lotor didn’t accept it in a safe place surrounded by people he loved, odds are he’d have to accept it when in a bad situation with Haggar herself, and that would be ten times worse), but it nonetheless can seem pretty petty to everyone who’s not him.

Lotor: It’s not uncommon for him to fall asleep in full armor, which in turn becomes pretty grody from sleep sweat. He also doesn’t always remember to take his dishes back out to the kitchen and so it’s not too uncommon to walk into his room and see a collection of used mugs and glasses over at his personal desk. (Smh, that’s how you get space ants, Lotor.)

12.) Grudges and vendettas:

Keith: Keith doesn’t hold grudges. Legitimately, he just doesn’t. He’s very much a, “we’ll deal with it in the moment and then be done with it” kind of person. If he has a problem with you, you know it because he’s told you. And you either settle it and he moves on, or you refuse to change your ways and he accepts that and still moves on, just while liking you less as a person. Of course they’ve made enemies of the Empire, but that’s not really a grudge or a vendetta. That’s, “they’re killing innocent people and also want to kill me so we’ll take them out of power first” type of deal. Sort of a whole different situation.

Lotor: On the other hand, Lotor remembers everything that has ever happened to him or the people he cares about and he never lets it go. He has a mental list of people who have wronged him or his loved ones and how, and should the opportunity ever arise to pay back one of those on the list, he does so and with interest. Throk was a racist, backstabbing traitor? Well, send him to the Ulippa outpost to rot with the ice worms (at least until the opportunity arises to frame him for further treason in the Empire, at which point do that so Haggar can torture him instead). Ezor’s mother abandoned her as a child and then only took interest in her again once she realized that her daughter had grown up to be a Paladin of Voltron? Well, once Ezor has realized her mother for the opportunistic vulture that she is, arrange it so that the woman is sent off to a different corner of the universe where it highly unlikely she’ll ever be able to attempt to leech off the daughter she cast out ever again (and where although she is surviving, she is not thriving), and so on. Lotor never forgets anything and there is no statute of limitations on these grudges, so it’s really in everyone’s best interests to never cross him or those he cares about. Sooner or later, it won’t end well for those who do.

13.) What gets them flustered:

Keith: Compliments. He is awkward as all hell when being complimented, particularly if he’s complimented by Lotor given the feelings he has for him. Remarks about how he is invaluable short-circuit his brain, but even smaller compliments like how he is an ace pilot are enough to make him start blushing and deflecting. He just can’t take a simple compliment from the one he loves without getting all embarrassed. He’s a mess.

Lotor: There’s not really a concrete way to get Lotor flustered, because catching him off-guard is no easy feat. That said, blunt, honest admissions of how much one (particularly Keith) cares for him are definitely a way to do it. Keith does not play games, nor does he beat around the bush, and this way of his of just stating exactly how he feels gets under Lotor’s guard and skin. Examples can be seen here and here.

14.) Ingrained habits/forces of habit:

I feel like I just answered this one in 11, haha. The only thing I’d add is the routine checking of security systems and the like that they both do, but otherwise I already talked about their habits.

15.) What it takes to make them cry:

Keith: At this point, the death of someone he loves. Pain, even extreme, generally doesn’t make him cry. The thought of his own death doesn’t. Unfortunately, the Empire being what it is, he’s seen so many innocent people killed by the Empire that that doesn’t drive him to tears, either. But if he lost someone he loved? Yeah, he’d cry then. That would do it.

Lotor: Pretty much the same, although I think his tears would be more from fury than grief, and followed by a scorching wave of vengeance in their name. He wouldn’t have tears to spare for grief, though, because on some level he’d reason that he should have expected this to happen. The moment he finds any happiness for himself, Zarkon and Haggar rip it away. Isn’t that how it goes? (Doesn’t mean he won’t make them pay for it with their lives, but still.)

16.) Dark secrets/’skeletons in the closet’:

Keith: I think the closest Keith has is that promise he made with Acxa the night they agreed to leave with Lotor, that they’d take him down and bolt at the first sign of shadiness. This is especially because it was his proposal; Acxa was reluctant to trust and go with him, but Keith pointed out that if it came down to it, it was two vs. one and they could take him. That was what got her to agree. The thing is, as the years go on Keith forgets about this promise entirely, so it’s sort of like shroedinger’s skeleton, in a way. Is it really in his closet if he’s forgotten it’s there?

Lotor: Mmm, I don’t know if this really counts, but when he was younger and still under the “tutelage” of his various diaks, it was common knowledge to those in the circle (including Lotor himself) that he was expected to shape up and become “good enough” not only because he was Zarkon’s biological son and therefore the crown prince, but also because he was intended to be betrothed to Sendak when he was of-age, given that Sendak’s bloodline was exceedingly pure, he was of a high-ranking noble class, he was pretty much the apple of Zarkon’s eye, and so on. Of course, the fact that Lotor was half-altean was not something that thrilled Sendak, but again, Lotor was the crown prince. The idea that Zarkon and Haggar had was that once Lotor and Sendak wed, Sendak would act more as emperor than his true role of emperor consort, making Lotor little more than a figurehead. Naturally, once Lotor fled Revender with Keith and Acxa in tow those plans were pretty much nixed (and Lotor was never into the idea anyway), but it’s still something he remembers that he never shared with the others. (And note that no swords were exchanged, so they were never officially betrothed. The swords would have been exchanged when Lotor came of age, but since he ran away before that happened, it was never an official engagement. Just a plan he did not agree to but was set anyway because none of the others involved cared about his consent.)

17.) Regrets:

Keith: He regrets any life he took outside of those that were Empire soldiers actively trying to kill him. Accidental kills in the Revender arena, any civilians caught in the crossfire . . . Keith doesn’t dwell on it, because dwelling won’t do any good, but he regrets each and every one.

Lotor: Lotor regrets telling his diak about a servant he befriended in his childhood due to the execution that resulted, although that’s yet another thing on the long list of things he intends to make his parents (and said diak) pay for down the line.

18.) Things they’ll never admit:

Keith: Keith is pretty honest about most things, so he doesn’t have a lot of secrets. That said, after he finds out about his true heritage (that his mother was one of the agents of Marmora, that he lived there until he was kidnapped at age three), there are nights when he wonders---and in a way, kind of longs for---what his life might have been like had he grown up there all along, but then he immediately feels guilty because it means he might never have met Lotor, Acxa, or the others. So he’ll never admit to feeling that way. Also, he and Lotor have made out in the Black Lion, multiple times, but he’ll never admit that to anyone, either.

Lotor: That he’s afraid of facing his father in a one-on-one duel. That he’s afraid of discovering through multiple-reality research that perhaps his mother would have always loathed him, even if she’d never “turned into” Haggar. That when he learned of Keith’s true heritage with the Blade of Marmora, for a split second he wished something would blow up the primary base so that there’d be no risk of Keith leaving him for them.

19.) People they’ve hurt or indirectly killed, and how it affected them:

Keith: When he was nine he was transferred into the weapons’ testing division at Revender, which essentially consists of two primary components: There’s taking a weapon through obstacle courses of cannons and poison gases and whatnot to see how effective everything is, and there’s taking weapons into a combat arena to test how effective they are there. Keith always tried to avoid killing his opponents---usually he’d knock them out---but the first time he accidentally killed someone, it was because they were holding him down, choking him, and he flailed out with a dagger in his hand and put it right through their throat. Their blood ended up all over him, and he was returned to his cell like that, to sit silently through the night as Acxa told him repeatedly that he did what he had to do and it wasn’t his fault. He was ten. He didn’t sleep that night.

Lotor: When he was very little he befriended a servant. It was slow, at first; this servant knew the risks of so much as looking Lotor in the eye, much less talking to him, but Lotor hadn’t picked up on any of his father’s classism, and so he persistently tried to talk to him until he opened up. He was kind to him; she told Lotor stories about his life back home, slipped him candies and such when he could. After one particularly harsh lecture from his diak, Lotor exploded that his servant friend (he used his name, obviously, I just don’t have one for him yet) never treated him this way. The diak reported this to Zarkon and Haggar, and they had the servant executed. Lotor was not notified until after the fact. He blames himself for it to this day.

20.) What-ifs/Alternate Timelines:

I mean, the show’s reality is an alternate reality for these two here in Paradigm Shift. There could be others, too. There’s that one Keith speculates about, where he did grow up among the Blade and never went to Revender, never met Acxa or Lotor that way. There’s one where the war never happened, where Lotor was raised properly as a prince, where perhaps the Blade of Marmora never formed and maybe Keith was never born at all since Krolia would have no reason to go to Earth, then. There’s an infinite number of possibilities and realities. So many exist. But as Lotor says, the only one that matters to them is this one right here---the one they’re living, where they’re together.

21.) Turning points in their life:

Keith: Well, being kidnapped and taken to Revender for one, albeit he doesn’t really remember that. He just woke up there one day with no memory of where he came from, how he got there, or what was going on. Meeting Acxa was another, because she reminded him that he was a person outside of the identification the Revender soldiers and scientists gave him, and she also gave him companionship in there, just as he gave to her. Then there was meeting Lotor, since he gave them a method to escape, and hope of revolution, too.

Lotor: The death of the aforementioned servant, having everyone in the Revender arena reject his ideals and facing punishment for what he did there, claiming the Castle of Lions and realizing that his revolution truly was possible for the first time, and so on.

22.) People who’ve influenced them greatly:

I’m a firm believer in the idea that everyone we meet and regularly interact with influences us in some way. Therefore, I’d say that both Keith and Lotor have influenced each other greatly, but on top of that, they’ve each been influenced greatly by Acxa, Ezor, Zethrid, and Narti as well. (And later on down the line, Kolivan, too.) They all influence, learn from, and grow with each other. It’s part of what makes them and their relationships with each other so strong.

#severalbakuras #keitor #series: paradigm shift #headcanon meme #this took me several days to complete so i hope it's enjoyable #keith kogane #prince lotor

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asharee-arie · 6 years ago

Text

Falling Seems So Easy

Read here on Ao3.

"I'm going to murder you,” Alec hisses at Jace, stabbing his brother in the arm with the swizzle stick from his drink for good measure. “First you drag me out to the bar for this stupid group hang,” the sarcasm dripping off his tongue at the words group hang made his feelings about this particular endeavor crystal clear, “And then you let me get sucked into a thirty-minute conversation with Raj who apparently thinks we’re meant to be. I just had to break up with someone I wasn’t even dating!”

“Woah, buddy, calm down.” Jace pats his back in a way that is probably meant to be reassuring but only serves to further narrow Alec’s already annoyed gaze.

Alec forces himself to take a deep breath and remember that Jace is his brother whom he loves. Of course, his attempts to calm his ire are shot to hell when Jace continues with, “Sounds like you were maybe giving out some mixed signals at work.”

“I bought him lunch. Once!” Alec cries, attempting to stab Jace with the swizzle stick again, missing as his brother recoiled on his bar stool. Normally, Alec likes to refrain from indulging in this type of childish behavior, but it has been a day and stabbing Jace feels vaguely therapeutic.

“Stop it!” his brother yelps attempting to swat the stir stick out of Alec’s vengeful hands. “Don’t blame me because you accidentally started dating someone without realizing it!”

Alec huffs in a few long breaths because otherwise he is going to shove the swizzle stick up Jace’s nose and attempt to lobotomize him which, on second thought, might actually improve Jace’s personality. Before his revenge plot can fully materialize, Izzy slides onto the stool next to him with a cheery grin.

“You look positively murderous, big brother.”

The obvious glee in her tone makes him shake his head in mild amusement. Only Izzy would think walking into the line of fire constituted a good time.

Jace leans around him to fist bump Izzy in greeting, his words making Alec groan. “Alec is just feeling salty because he had to break up with his coworker.”

Izzy’s eyes go wide with disbelief as she slaps him on the shoulder, “You had a boyfriend and didn’t tell me?!”

“No,” Alec grinds out between clenched teeth, “We weren’t dating. My coworker is just delusional and thinks lending him a quarter for the vending machine is a step down the path of true love.”

“Been there, hermano.” Izzy puts a consoling arm around his waist and rests her head on his shoulder while flagging down the bartender for a drink. “We Lightwoods are irresistible.”

Alec can’t hold back his laugh as she gestures toward Jace and winks, “Well except him. I think everyone can resist Jace.”

“Not Clary,” the blonde proclaims proudly scanning the crowd for a glimpse of his red-haired lady love. Not, Alec acknowledges with an amused grin, that Clary seems aware of her status as Jace’s beloved.

The fiery redhead knocked Jace on his proverbial ass the moment she’d moved into the apartment across the hall from theirs. His usually charming, smooth brother had disappeared in the face of her blindingly wide smile and he hadn’t reappeared since. Between Jace’s unprecedented lack of game and Clary’s seeming obliviousness to his feelings, all his former attempts to ask her out had gone hilariously askew.

On one memorable occasion, Jace ended up on a dinner date with Clary’s best friend, Simon, after Jace went overboard in his attempt to woo her in the style of the Spice Girls. It’s time tested advice Jace had argued the next day If I want to be her lover, I need to get with her friends. Platonically.

Izzy inclines her head in thanks as the bartender delivers her glass of Cabernet before directing another smirk at Jace and moving in for the kill, “Aren’t we here because Clary didn’t realize that you were asking her on a date and thought it was a group thing?”

The reminder makes Jace frown slightly before he shrugs it off and resumes grinning with his normal sense of inflated self-confidence. “A minor setback,” he concedes stealing a sip of Izzy’s wine, “I’m planning to be so charming tonight that she’ll ask me out on a date herself. Problem solved.”

Alec feels his lingering irritation fade as he listens to his siblings bicker good-naturedly. The familiar back and forth is a welcome distraction after a truly terrible week of work, his second rum and Coke further helping to smooth out the rough edges of the night.

Beside him Jace suddenly lurches to his feet, his arms waving enthusiastically as he spots Clary weaving through the crowd toward them. The petite redhead is flanked by the ever-present Simon, whose presence makes Izzy sit up straighter on her stool and fluff her curls.

Normally, Alec would take the opportunity to rib his self-possessed sister for her unusually obvious level of interest, but all coherent thoughts vanish as his eyes catch on the truly glorious man to Clary’s left. He is, well, perfect if Alec is being honest. He glitters all the way from his bedazzled high tops to his elegant cheekbones, his rainbow highlighter shimmering under the lights.

“Izzy,” he hisses out of the corner of his mouth, “Who is that?”

“Magnus? He’s Clary’s co-worker. Hot, right?”

The distracted, off-hand way she relays the information makes Alec frown in betrayal. She’s been aware that this beautiful man exists and has never once attempted one of her ridiculous matchmaking schemes on his behalf. It is downright rude, he decides.

“You are unbelievable.”

The dramatic whispered accusation causes Izzy’s left eyebrow to arch as she drags her attention off the bespectacled nerd she seems to find attractive to look at her brother. “Excuse me?”

“You have tried to set me up with four different people this week alone and yet you’ve never even mentioned that Clary has him for a coworker?”

“I wasn’t sure he was your type.” A wide, pleased smile sweeps over her face, “Clearly, I was wrong.”

“He is everyone’s type.”

“My baby is growing up.”

Izzy’s teasing coo makes Alec cringe even as his eyes refuse to stop studying every inch of Magnus from the tips of his artfully-styled hair to his long, slim fingers to the somehow adorable hint of ankle peeking out above his shoes. Alec is aware that he is being entirely too obvious about his interest, his siblings will never let him live this down, but it is hard to feel anything but warm as Magnus glides to a stop in front of him.

“And who might you be?”

The question is all but a purr, and Alec is embarrassed to find himself instinctively leaning closer.

Alec opens his mouth to say something, anything really, when Magnus unleashes a lethally bright smile, all sparkling eyes and full lips, effectively short-circuiting all of Alec’s remaining brain cells.

“How are you real?” he blurts out, his face scrunching up in abject embarrassment even as the words fly out of his mouth. “I mean, I’m, uh, Alec.”

A shocked giggle escapes Izzy. “Smooth, Alec, smooth.”

“Abort, buddy,” Jace coughs behind him.

“Biscuit,” Magnus drawls out without ever breaking eye contact with Alec, “I’m suddenly feeling a bit put out with you for not introducing us sooner.”

“Join the club.”

Alec’s cheeks heat as he realizes the words in his head are still managing to slip past his lips.

He’s doing the math on how quickly he can make a break for the exit because, really, Alec cannot be trusted to be in polite company right now, when Magnus throws back his head and lets out the most charming throaty chuckle. The sound slips over Alec’s senses like satin, smooth and inviting, enticing him to stay.

His brain is still struggling to come back online when Magnus takes another step closer, forced to tilt his chin up marginally to maintain their eye contact, “Is Alec short for Alexander?”

“Yep, but nobody calls him that.”

Magnus ignores Jace completely and holds out a hand in invitation, “Buy me a drink, Alexander?”

Alec manages a jerky nod as he tangles their fingers together. Magnus pulls him forward with a teasing yank that brings them close enough for Alec to feel the warmth of the other man against his chest.

“Guys, this is like one step away from being inappropriate.” Jace’s complaint falls flat when he instantly follows it up with a lascivious wink and an all too unsubtle thumbs up in Alec’s direction.

Izzy elbows Jace, “Shut it, Jace. They’re sweet. This story is going to make my toast at their wedding so easy to write."

Alec sputters helplessly as his siblings ignore all social norms and launch into a heated debate regarding which of them most deserves to be Alec’s best man at his hypothetical wedding to the gorgeous, tanned man standing before him.

“I’m a man,” Jace argues with an edge of condescension that usually ends in bloodshed (by Izzy’s hand, of course). “It’s literally in the name - best man. Chicks not included.”

Izzy scoffs, her expression shifting into something that Alec can only describe as bloodthirsty, “I’m his favorite sibling.”

She shrugs as if to say case closed.

Jace gasps in outrage. “Take that back,” he orders before turning to Alec. “Tell her that I’m your favorite.”

Clary and Simon watch the volley of words with matching wide-eyed delight as Alec wishes desperately for the Earth to swallow him whole.

“Guys,” Simon starts cautiously, obviously unsure if he should enter the fray, “Maybe, we should all get a drink?”

“Soon,” Izzy promises him with a sweet smile that turns sharp as she focuses her attention back on Jace. “There’s no way that Alec trusts you to give the best man speech. Your brain to mouth filter doesn’t exist.”

“Alec’s isn’t working so great right now either,” Jace shoots back belligerently.

“Kill me now,” Alec mutters under his breath, screwing his eyes shut. He feels the beginnings of a headache pounding behind his eyes. It is just his luck that not only does his brain seem incapable of forming complete sentences when it comes to Magnus but that his siblings have also gone full Lightwood.

A tender stroke across his palm makes Alec’s eyes fly back open to meet Magnus’ warm, amused expression.

“I’m sorry about them,” Alec whispers desperately trying to convey with his eyes that his siblings’ insane behavior is unsanctioned, and he shouldn’t be held responsible for the tornado of insanity currently swirling around them.

The soft, teasing strokes don’t stop as Magnus’ lips twist up in a smirk, “Well, darling, it’s your choice of course, but the lovely Isabelle seems the obvious choice. She’d look amazing in a tux.”

Izzy’s triumphant yell and Jace’s indignant gasp are little more than white noise as Alec raises their interlaced hands to press an uncharacteristically bold kiss to Magnus’ knuckles. “Perhaps we should just elope,” he says under his breath.

Magnus' eyes glint with humor, and perhaps just a hint of something heavier, as he smiles up at Alec. "I have a feeling, Alexander, that I might take you up on that someday."

Something settles in Alec at the words. A warm possibility surging through his veins until it tumbles out of his mouth in a delighted laugh that only makes Magnus' eyes shine brighter.

"You guys, I ship this so hard."

Alec startles, his attention abruptly shifting off Magnus to their friends who are all watching him with various levels of disbelief plastered on their faces. Simon is grinning like a dope, clearly proud of himself for his announcement, while Izzy beams proudly looking ready to start a slow clap in his honor at any moment.

"I think," Alec says slowly, well aware that his face is somewhere between besotted and adoring, "That we should go get that drink now. Alone."

Magnus' smile is bright, happy and wide as he allows Alec to tug him away from their friends. "You read my mind, darling."

And, if some day, Izzy does tell this story at their wedding, Alec finds that he doesn't mind.

#magnus bane #alec lightwood #malec #shadowhunters #sh fic #ashareewrites #malec fanfic

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goldstonegolem64 · 6 years ago

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there was some problem with my laptop and it wouldn’t save my drafted so I had to copy pasted so of it and I did a lot of editing but there are something I couldn't fix and I'm sorry about that now have fun reading this chapter it’s a long one book one chapter 26 Haven

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYLLvLneU2k&t=17s

In the Galra command center Empire Zarkon sat on his throne hearing the damage report and the casualty list from when votron attacked with Prorok kneeling before him.

“ We have lost over 25 battleship, 32 warships ,19 destroyers, 6 dreadnaughts ,over 6 hundred fights, over 1 thousand sentries “Thace sighed heavily as he look at the ever growing list of fallen soldier” Three hundred soldiers and counting”

“ it is sad to hear that. But do we know how the princess escaped?” ZArkon asked not really caring about this news

“it seem like one of are sentries were hack. then lead her to a ship that had slipped in to one of our hangers during the battle with the lions ant Valkyrie sir” Thace said

“Have you found out who lower barrier and let voltron escape ?” Prorok asked hopping that with the culprit found that Zarkon’s wraith will fall upon them instead of him

“ You don’t have to worry about that Prorok I think I'm about to save months of investigating if I remove the one who has been chipping away at my victory. The one who sent his fleet to capture voltron with out my permission“ Zarkon said starring at the kneeling Prorok as two guards walked up behind him and grabbed him and started to drag him away

“ No my lord your making a mistake. Your making the galra weaker. THIS IS MISTAKE. YOU OLD FOOL YOU HAVE DOOMED US ALL YOU HAVE DOOMED US ALL” Prorok yelled as he was dragged to Haggars lab.

“lieutenant Thace take you place before me” Zarkon said calmly

“ Yes my lord” thace said

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYLLvLneU2k&t=17s

“You have now been promoted to fleet commander and will now let the investigation do not fail me” Zarkon said

“I will not my lord “ thace said

“Jay was started to wake up from the crash because of this planets sun light shining in through vas eyes . this was the second time he had passed out and crashed after he when though a wormhole He thought to himself. His entire body was sore as he was getting up from the floor and sat back down in his chair. “Hey val you alive” He asked there was no response from his partner.Then a loud groaning sound rang through out the mechanical dragon.”good to see your up and running my friend. now where are we ?”

“ it seem like were currently on a planet made up of nothing but swamp lands from what my scanners say also there seems to be a settlement about three hundred miles from here. An are long range comms are down and we can’t fly for a days ” She replied as she was getting getting up from the bog she was half submerged in

“Alright let head to that settlement and lets hope they let us use their comms tower if they have one and if they don’t then well just wait out your repairs”Jay said as he removed his helmet and lend back in his chair as vals started running towards the settlement

the planet they were on was full of colorful creatures that ran from val as she ran a cross the muddy land scape.some of the beasts that didn’t run from here were huge like the massive birds or the massive spiders that hde under the muddy and tried to fight Val only to loss a leg or any eye or the mountain sized turtles that walked in a hoard they has trunks like any elephant that helped them pull out the spiders from there hole or to drink water.the Flore here was very much like a jungle he saw massive tree that block out the sun or the giant man eating planet that just clamped down on a monkey like creature. This place was beautiful and he couldn’t wait to show the other the pictures he was take.

in the empty streets of the colony as the sun was starting to set two kids were sneaking around an abandon restaurant looking for food

“HEY Bastion I found more food” the smaller of the two kids yelled as he waved a can of food from behind a counter to his older brother

“Usamu keep your voice down” Bastion quickly moved from the kitchen to his little brother and grabbed the can from his brother’s hand and placed it in a bag with other cans of food

Why the monsters are asleep right” Usamu asked in a hushed voiced

“yes but some of them wake up earlier then other or you could tell bandit where we ar” Bastion freeze and pulled usamu under the counter and put his hand or his little brother mouth. As the sounds of people moving through the kitchen

”I swore that I heard someone in here” man1 said in a hushed tone

“Yeah sure you did are you sure the stress isn’t getting to you Ban “man 2 said

“Shut up your going to wake that thing up” Ban said still in his hushed tone and pointed toward a red mound that was rhythmical breathing

“why are you so worried it’s just a drone . They’re easy to kill and are heavy sleepers” man 2 said as he fired his blaster into the air once to prove a point and looked to the still sleeping drone

Bastion held onto his little brother who was breathing rapidly after the shots were fired. this wasn’t good and bastion know that .He had noticed his little brother eye were going from a calm kind blue to a dark purple meaning Usamu was starting to lose control

“what the hell are you doing do you want to die” Ban yelled completely forgetting about the red mound

“see ban nothing to worry abogghhgghh.” the second man looked down at his chest and saw a sickle like claw jutting out covered in his own green blood.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiWV2KseKeo

He turned his head to see a humanoid insectoid being with . It towered over the one man shaking to raise his rifle . it was about seven feet tall with a lanky and smooth body with a dark red color carapace that within the dark kitchen made it even more intimidating then it already was. with its lack of eyes and it’s hand still imbedded into the other mans. a line appeared going down it’s face where the jaw would be as it let out a loud vicious buzzing screech causing the jaw to spilt in to four pieces each having rows of teeth. it throw the body of the man it impaled and charged the other man with it’s four sickled arms.Bastion and usamu listened to blaster fire and a louder screech and a body hitting the metal floor.

”goddess be dammed Reve you had one job and you blow it. You big moron. it’s almost sundown better get back to the hide out” Ban said

“ Us are you ok?” Bastion Asked in calm voice .trying to keep his brother from losing control and lobotomizing everything in a two mile radius

“ I’m scarred” he said .Holding onto his brother trying to keep his cool as the darkness started to takeover his visons

“ I know I know.” Bastion said trying to keep it together himself “ok lets move quickly and quietly “

“Alright” Usamu said grabbing the bag of food they had collected

the door to the restaurant opened letting out chime. Causing the brothers to freeze up. A Silence fell upon the restaurant only being broken by heavy foot falls and a low deep buzzing. Followed by two smaller sets of foot step. the Ban looked into the dinning room and saw two more bugs accompanied by a hulking beast. it was taller then the two next to it .the only thing it had in common with them was it’s dark red carapace,the number of arms and it’s lack of eye. what made it differenced was instead of bladed it’s four arms were much thicker arms that ended in polydactyl claws. it’s body was covered in small spikes and a single horn jutting out of it’s head. Ban starred at three beasts just standing there just moving their heads around listening for the source of the noise. Ban starred to move backwards slowly going to the back door he and Reve had come in from. Bastion and Usamu were still hiding under the counter when the sound of pots hitting the ground followed by a loud screeching the sound of people running , things being crushed and a door being opened then it being smashed opened . The two brothers sat there for a few minutes then they heard a screech from out side then the sound of a blaster being fired. a few more minutes passed,

“ Ok I think the coast is clear let me check” Bastion said as he moved from their hiding place from under the counter. As he peeked over the counter he saw that the dinning room was empty” ok the coast is cle-” Bastion froze when a drone that had stayed behind to collected the bodies that had walked out of the kitchen with the two bodies hooked on it’s claws.

“ Hey Bastion what is wro-” Usamu said as he peeked out from under the counter.Then he froze up as well when he saw the drone stand there looking at him with it’s blank slat of a face

the drone started walking toward the noise with the bodies still hooked to it. Usamu tried to leave the small space he was hiding in only to be face to face with the Bug’s open razor tooth maw .His heart was beating fast his breathing was becoming more an more sporadic as the bug got closer to him. He felt his horns start to grow again. This was bad he didn’t want to lost control again he didn’t want to hurt people again he didn’t want to go back to the dark place. He closed his eyes and put his hands on his head trying to keep control. Then he heard the bug let out a screech of pain then heard a screech of pain from bastion and a table being knocked to the ground.

Usamu jetted out from under the counter and saw that the bug had a dagger in it's back. He also saw bastion slumped against a table and a bleeding shoulder

“ Run!!!” Bastion yelled as the drone started to wake toward him. this was it.This is how it all ended .But at least his little brother got away safely. He watched as the bug walked towards him. Then a wave of purple aura expanded throughout the restaurant and caused the bug to freeze . he looked passed the bug to see his brother floating there. His eye’s were no longer the light kind blue they were now a dark purple

“ Stop breathing”

An hour Earlier

Jay and Val had made to the settlements .

“ So Val have you been able to contacted anyone in there ?” Jay asked starring at the gate

“No one seem to beat the control at the time. But something doesn't fell right about this place if I being honest” She said looking for a new way into the settlement

“ Why is that?” He asked

“ there seems to be a low number of life signs for a settlement this big”

“ So maybe there was a plague or a purge or there is a monster that is killing poelpe or the galra showed up and killed a lot of people here” Jay said as he was knocking on the door trying to find a weakpoint” Hey Val can you pry the door open for me please “

“ Alright then” Val stabbed her wings into the door and pried the door open. giving Jay an opening to he could slip though

The door slammed behind with a loud echoing boom .Jay looked around the area for a control panel for the door only to find that it was smashed.” Sorry Val I can’t get you in right now sorry”

“alright I will find another way in. Just stay safe in there your my only pilot” She said as she started waking towards a huge number of life sign she just detected

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIlGeT6N6Xs&t=53s

“ Alright then” jay said as he found himself in a residential district which looked similar to the one he grow up but this one was completely empty . It was weird this place should be brimming with life but no. So Jay turned on his helmet’s scanner to see if anyone was in here that he couldn’t see and Started walking around the distract for a few minutes only to find that this district was truly void of life.He found this unnerved by this fact. So he turned his comms to a open channel so if anyone was still out there could reveal themselves to him and then he started looking for away out of here

A few minutes after he opened his comms it let out a huge crackle of static before a voice of an elderly women came out yelling “Hello Hello can you hear me”

“ Yes I can hear you . uh who are?” he asked

“Sorry how rude of me. I’m Isara leader of Queen slayers and the new lead of haven. Now who are you newcomer?” She asked with a imitating tone to her voice. .

Jay felt imitated by this women “ I’m Joseph I'm a paladin of voltron.”

“ Voltron Ay So where’s your lion then Joseph ?” She asked

“ Well I don’t pilot one of the lions I pilot a metal dragon called the Valkyrie. Also I prefer to be called Jay if you don’t mind” he said as he made it to a door that was blocking his way

“ Alright Jay what bring you here to this Hell hole of ours and where is your huge metal dragon then?”

“ Well She is looking for away in and were here to help. Also Val need a place that wasn’t a swamp or crawling with giant trap door spider monsters . Also again what seems to be the problem here and can you open this door?”

“ Well it started about a four mouth ago. When they were expanding are boarders because of a population boom When they stumbled upon a nest of a sleep red queen causing Seventy eight percent of this colony member to either be eaten or flee the planet. leaving a small few to there fate.Then me and my husband showed up to kill the queen before it woke up” She said

“ Ok What is a red queen and why haven't the empire or the rebels come to help yet “ He asked

“ well a Red Queen is a invasion species that launch their young into space on a meteor. So they can made a hive for themselves on some other world. They also adapt to there surrounding after they go through a hibernation like state for a few month then when it wakes up there ready to start making there hive and using any life on the planet their on to strengthen there hives. the reason no one has come to back this place up is because me and my crew were the back up.” She hit a few buttons in the control room she was in and the door in front of Jay.

“Ok if your the back up why haven’t you killed it yet” Jay asked as he walked into the next districted which was a industrial area which was yet again unnervingly quiet

“Well this one seemly kill one of those mountain turtle things when it impacted with the planet and it was eating it for a few years before going to sleep in it’s shell. Causing it to Grow twice the size a normal one would. “ She said

“Twice the normal size. How big do these thing normal get may I ask?” Jay asked now dual wielding revolver and Bayard just a little panic by what she just said

“Normally Queens grow to be about thirty to forty feet . But this one is about a hundred fe-” Jay was concerned when suddenly she stopped taking. But then he hear the voice of a very distort man with what sounded like a deep Russian like Accented. Jay couldn’t quite heard what he was saying but three words he did heard were Huge Metal Dragon.

“ Hey Val Where you at ?” Asked With a smile on his face

“ I’m at the north west gate where the biggest sign of life is. But the man I was talking to yelled at me to leave. Then he went somewhere to talk to someone named Isara” She said a little insulted by how rube the man was to her

“ Hey I think your friend is here and I need to leave you to calm the civilian down before a mass panic attack hit them. But I will give you a way point to Haven then we can talk and get here quickly before sunset” Isara said as she left a new way point appear on his heads up display

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKvqLZg3IQQ

Jay started picking up the pace as it would take him sometime to run seven before sunset. As he was running through the empty streets when a blip appear on his motion tracker. Then the sound of something being ripped a part followed by a weird honking could be heard from a building he was running pass.Then several more blips appear causing Jay to stop in place as a cacophony of the weird honking erupted around jay

{what the hell is that} Jay though to himself as the sound of something being torn apart coming from a near by ally. Jay went to investigated the sound. As he turned to look in the ally what he was scared him. it was a ten foot tall hulking pink skinned humanoid bugs with four thick clawed arms was emerging from a red cocoon. it’ s head was jerking around unnaturally causing cracking sounds as a red spikey carapace was growing out of the pink shin then long sharp horn started jutting out of it’s forehead. Jay started to move back slowly from the allay and bumped into something. Jay turned to see another bug but this one was smaller then the one in the allay but it still towered over him by about a foot.

It turned to face jay it let out a huge screech into jay’s face and brought it’s four bladed arms up about to attack this foe. Jay put he’s Bayard into it mouth and fire it causing the bugs head to explode sending chunks of meat and blueish yellow blood flying everywhere. then the body hit the ground with a wet slapping sound . He starred at the body for a few second before a loud screech came from the allay Then the sound of heavy foot fall . Jay turned to see the hulking beast charging towards him with it’s arms covering most of it’s unarmored stomach and chested . Jay turned both his guns toward the creature and fired several time most of the shoots went into it’s arms but a few of his shots hit its shoulder, underbelly and one shot took off the horn. But it kept on changing toward him. Jay had to jump to the side to avoid being trampled. He hit the grounded and watch as the bug slammed into an abandon vehicles casing the alarm to go off

The loud alarm caused the a huge scream to erupted from the hulking beast. It placed it’ s hands onto it’s head and it started violently lashing out at the air swinging it’s massive arms in random derations as it tried to locate the sound. Jay watched this display as I was just swing then some of the smaller one started to come out of building ,allay do the the car alarm blasting and the screams big one was letting out . But the moment they walked out of there hiding places they started to scream in pain as well. Jay found this really useful because he started getting back to his feet and start to run but stopped in his tracks when the sound of metal being crashed, the alarm and the screaming stopped. Jay turned to see what was going on and a fear creeped up his spine. me out of building

Jay had three real fears in life the first was the empire finding his home, the second was losing his other arm. his third and finally fear was bugs. He hated bug there weird body the odd numbers of legs the way they fly and their eye. This thing had wings, the lower body of a hornet the upper body of a mantis with scythe hands and unlike the drones which had no horns or the soldier which had one this thing had two horn pultruding from the back of it’s head they curved around his head and stopped near it’s mouth making it look like tusk and unlike the other this one had eyes. it then eye meet jays and let out a low hiss then the other bugs turned to look at him and all the bugs started to walk toward him ready to rip him apart. Jay holstered his revolver ,closed his helmet and ready himself to fight with both guns drawn. But then they stopped and started to fall back . Then Jay hear a clacking sound then a voice

“ What are you you you” A raspy emotionless said from behind him” You aren't like the others others others.” Click clack click clack.

Jay turned to see a Tall lanky being the long razor sharp clawed hands. it walked om six spider like legs on a scorpion’s body with a tail swing back a forth and on it’s head it had three bug eye’s and three horn in the form of a crown.

“ What the fuck are you” jay replied

’What the fuck are you you you” it mimicked in his voice while it’s head was turn

“I’m jay” he replied

“Jay Jay Jay” it mimicked him again “Are you alone lone lone? “ it mimicked in a different voice

Jay could guess what would happen if he said yes or no so “here a better question can you die?” he asked as he fired his Bayard twice times at it. then started to run after he shot another vehicle causing all the drones and the lone soldier to start screaming in pain again

The first shot was blocked by it’s tail. But the second one hit the beasts in the side blasting a huge chunk of causing a loud scream of pain. the king fell to the floor holding it’s side the it yelled in Isara voice” Kill it before it gets away “

Jay was following the way point to Haven which lead him into a new distract . As he was running he hear a buzzing coming from behind him. he looked over his shoulder to see the mantis hornet thing was flying toward him at break neck speeds . Jay looked back to see what was in front of him and saw a restaurant that had two drones and a soldier going inside of it . the bug came down to tackled jay to the ground. But as it was coming down jay fire his Bayard blindly. it tried to dodge bolts but one of the hit it’s right wing causing it to hit the ground .

Jay kept on running to the way point only to stop when the way point stopped at a sewer grate. Jay started to pull the grate up only to be knock away by a scythe like hand. his head hit curb and his helmet flow off after that. The world was spinning around as his ears were ringing. Then the bug got right on top of him and tried to stink it’s mandibles into jays neck only to be met by a metal hand punching it in the eye it recoil from the punch and stumbled backward a few feet it blinked a few time before it turned back to it’s pray only to see a helmet on the ground. it walked over to the helmet on the ground it looked at it curiously .it pick up the helmet in it’s claw it moved it around before a burning sensation in it’s chest then it’s sight started to blur it then when dark .

The bug hit the ground with a smoking hole in it’s chest. jay stood there breathing heavily for a few seconds before slumping onto a near by car holding is head in his metal hand. As he held his head the sound of march and buzzing start to be heard in the distains . Jay looked to the sky and saw dozen of the bugs in the sky and dozens of them crawling and running toward this location and then he saw the big one the front no longer holding it’s side and when it saw him it started to charge toward him with the hoard following behind it . Jay got up on his feet then stumbled an felt to his knee has the world started spinning again

.” yeah that a concussion.” Jay said then got back on his feet and started walking to the grate and started to pull at the grate and lifted the grate up.But Then he heard a child scream coming from a restaurant to his left followed by a screeching then jay turned to see the biggest one charging toward him with it’s tail ready to strike and jay dropped the grate and pulled out his Bayard .But before either one could strike the other a purple wave erupted from the restaurant causing both of them to freeze up and in the back of jay’s mind he hear a Childs voice say { stop breathing}

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wr16jZsBEjQ

Jay felt the air leave his lungs then he unfreeze to grabbed his throat . His lungs were on fire everything was on fire.jay looked a round the aera for his helmet through blur eyes and found it by the vehicle he sat on earlier . Jay tried to walk towards his helmet only to fall to the ground everthing was starting to fade into darkness and he started to crawl toward his helmet with his metal hand but then his body stop working as it start to go numb so as a last resort. He stretched what was left of his left arm as far as it could using his nature ability to shape shift and the energy chair he stole from sendak .Pushing both to there limits and grabbed his helmet an pulled back towards only for a clawed hand to grab it .

Jay turned to see the biggest bug trying to pull the helmet toward it’s self as it was also chocking as well along with every other bug in the area. How he didn’t noticed that before didn’t matter this was his helmet his only chance to survivor maybe and no bug is going to stop him so he yanked the helmet from the bug and watched as it struggled to grabbed the helmet again. the moment the helmet got to him he tried to put it on but that was hard to do with one hand and the fact that everything was going dark and his body was fully numb .But with his last ounces of strength slammed his head into his helmet.

The moment his helmet was place onto his head the weird purple wave effect stopped. he could breath again he looked toward the hoard and saw them all laying on the ground dead or dying. Jay lay there unable to move for a few minutes do to his body start to regain feeling. {thank god my half altea that could have ended badly for me} he thought to himself as he got to his feet As the wave disappeared. He started walking to the restaurant the door opened automatic.

The first thing he saw was a drone on the dead on the floor with a dagger in it’s back and two body hook on to it’s bottom two bladed arms. one body was another drone and the second body was of a golden scaled fish man with a beck for a mouth. Then he saw a Boy with red skin gray hair and goat like horns growing out of his scalp. He ran to the kid and lifted the kid . Jay’s helmet scanned the kid an showed his vital signs. He was alive but had a fever of a hundred and five. This was bad he need medical attention state. Jay was about to get up when he hear the sound a blaster charging behind him. then he turned to see another kid with gray skin blue hair,amber eye and with a gashes in his shoulder holding a blaster he guess belong to the dead man

“ Get away from him” the boy say while shacking there

“ He needs to go to a hospital he has a fever of a hundred and five he needs help” Jay said slowly trying to calm the boy down

Bastion looked at the masked man who was hold his brother. He starred at usamu who was breathing heavily and sweating profusely. Then his eye’s opened and had returned to normal. Then he spoke

“ Bastion your ok “ Usamu said with a faint smile on his face before his eye closed again.

Bastion dropped the blasters and started to cry ” Please save him. Please make my little brother better” he said through the tears

“I will I promise now get ready to move because more of those thing are coming” Jay said has he looked a his motion trackers and saw several blips running around the area.

The two moved quickly and quietly to the grate. Jay handed Usamu to the bastion to start pulling the grate .Bastion looked around an saw all the dead bugs on the ground then to his brother still unconscious and wonder how this stranger survived this but he would ask that when they were safe.

Jay had finally removed the grate fully and saw a latter “ ok Bastion hand me your brother and start climbing down then” he said.

Bastion handed usamu back to the stranger and started to climb down the latter. Then he watched the stranger with Usamu under his arm climbed down. then he handed back Usamu and climb back up the latter to grab the grate and pulled it back into place then climb back down Bastion hand his brother back to the stranger then hoped on to his back because he couldn’t run with how bad his shoulder was.

“ uh mister Where are going and who are you?” Bastion asked as he

“ oh sorry I forgot I’m jay by the way and were going to a place called Haven a safe place for the people here. wait your not from there?”Jay asked as he started running towards the way point

“No me and Usamu were living in an abandoned radio tower a few block from the restaurant you found us in. I guess that where that lady , the huge winged man and all those other people who were killing the bugs came from” Bastion said

“ ok but why were you two live in a tower don’ t you have pera-” Jay stopped mid sentients realizing that they both might have lost there family when the queen wake up

“ I never had them. I was raised in the orphanage here. But Usamu’s dead when he was small do to his power” Bastion said as he looked a his brother still breath heavily

“ Let me guess his power is to stop people from breathing” Jay said now just a little scared of the kid he was hold

“Yes he has something called psycokin something another. Some big word I don’t understand”

“Wait this kid has psychokinesis so strong that it can kill dozens of bug at once and he was in a normal orphanage with normal kids.” Jay said now worried about his own safety.

“ No they were going to give him to the Galra empire when they found out about his power. But I ran away with him the moment I heard that” Bastion said

“WHY?!?!”

“Because I was scared of being alone..because No one ever picked me and all my friend were gone and I was lifted alone for years.Then Usamu came along and he became the family I never had. Then when they were going to take him away I didn’t want to be alone again so I took him before the empire could and we’ve been on are own for the passed two years” Bastion said

“ How old are you two?”

“ I’m Nine and He’s Seven” Bastion replied

Jay started having thoughts about taking them to matt and the rebel to keep them safe. But then he thought about Keep them with him so Fitz had brother to play with Along side the gain Shiro and Adam were having. He really need to tell them about that before it was born so they didn’t kill him maybe. But then he remember about the Gain he had panted before the mission to save Allura and though about how Allura would start telling him off on how bring kids on the castle would be stupid an dangerous. But leaving these two here would leave a bad tasted in his mouth. He would bring it up with her when they came to get him. “Wow your quite brave for two kid your age”

“Thank you” Usamu said weakly

“Sorry for waking you brother” Bastion said

“ No problem I've been awake the whole time. I'm just lazy and tired “ He said sheepishly

“Good to know” Jay said as he follow the way point to a corner and saw two armed men guarding a latter

“You there holt. State your names and purpose here ?“ A tall lizard man with bronze skin asked

“ this two are bastion an Usamu And i’m Jay. Isara sent me a way point here and I need to get Unamu to a hospital quickly he’s running a high fever and it’s getting high” Jay said trying to convince the two men to let him into

the two men looked at each then back to the three of them”So your the man the boss told use about be on your way then” the other man said pointing to the latter

“Thank you both “ Bastion said smile

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSjBh71Im-M

Jay climbed up the latter and found himself in a bustling town made out of the shop district . the three looked in aw a the scene rounded them it was a nice change of pace compared to the empty bug infested streets they were just in it did take them a while to find the hospital but when Jay did he check in immediately giving the boys to the doctors there and follow into a room where they stitched up Bastions shoulder and gave Usamu medicine to lower his fever and they gave him a few meds to help with the concussion . Jay sat down in the chair that was in room and stayed the night to keep watch over them. He told Val he was here and not worry about the concussion he would be fine and asked about her repair. She was able to fly again but her long range comms were still down and there was a lot of mud in her system .But the people here were help her and she was using there long range comms to contacted the other with no real luck at the but she would keep him post if she found them. So decide to get some rest. He sleep for a few hours until the door to their room was slammed open and a galra women wearing what Jay could only describe as Ana default skin from overwatch with pointed back ear and a blue bandana on her head said

“ My name is isara and your going to help me kill a queen Joseph” with a huge smile across her face

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wiseabsol · 6 years ago

Text

WA Reviews “Dominion” by Aurelia le, Chapter 1: Hell

Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6383825/1/Dominion

Summary: For the Fire Nation royal siblings, love has always warred with hate. But neither the outward accomplishment of peace nor Azula's defeat have brought the respite Zuko expected. Will his sister's plans answer this, or only destroy them both?

Content Warnings: This story contains discussions and depictions of child abuse, emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and incest. This story also explores the idea that Zuko’s redemption arc (and his unlearning of abuse) is not as complete as the show suggested, and that Azula is not a sociopath (with the story having a lot of sympathy for her). If that doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, I would strongly recommend steering clear of this story and my reviews of it.

Note: Because these were originally posted as chapter reviews/commentaries, I will often be talking to the author in them (though sometimes I will also snarkily address the characters). While I’ve also tried not to spoil later events in the story in these reviews, I would strongly recommend reading through chapter 28 before reading these, just to be safe.

Now on to chapter 1!

CHAPTER 1: HELL

Hey there, Aurelia!

I’ve finally decided to start my “Dominion” reread and reviewing spree! Or at least what I hope will be a spree; this might take a while, knowing me. I’d meant to give you my comments on chapter one a few days ago, but then I kept reading past it, and by the time I read chapter six, I realized that chapters one through five are really just one chapter split into five parts. Ideally, I would like to cover them all in one to reflect that, but once I started writing the review for the first chapter, it turned out too long for me to do that. So I’ll just do this chapter by chapter, like I’d originally planned!

Let’s start with the first line - “Have you found her yet?” Its repetition was largely the reason why I think chapters one through five were meant to be read in one sitting, despite their length. They flow together well due to it, making for a solid prologue. The action proper doesn’t start until chapter six, which I’m now considering chapter two in my head because of this. What I’m trying to say is, you did a good job on making your introduction so engaging to your audience that they can be 50,000 words into “Dominion” and not realize that the main story hasn’t even started yet. I find that very impressive!

Anyway, in the present day, Zuko is being a lurker at his own party and reminiscing on Azula’s progress (or lack thereof) in the asylum that he tossed her into. Which is a harsh way for me to put it, but here’s the thing. When I originally read this story, I was sympathetic to Zuko, since I was just coming off the show. My impression back then was that Zuko became…less sympathetic…in chapter seven of this story, and his behavior afterwards made getting through his sections feel like scrubbing my face with sandpaper.

Now that I’m a more critical reader, I’ve realized that Zuko was behaving…less than heroicly, shall we say…from the very start. And I don’t quite know if that is your interpretation of the character at work, either, because Zuko never struck me as out of character in this story. None of the characters do. But I would definitely say that the version of him here is more flawed and troubled than the show probably intended. That being said, given that this story is for an older audience and that it’s meant to be a deconstruction of Zuko and Azula fanfic, I also think that is appropriate.

Which is my long way of saying that I’m now going to gleefully call out Zuko’s shenanigans in this, even though I enjoy him as a character, both in the show and in this story. Because if there was ever a character who fit the trope of the Designated Hero, it’s Zuko.

Before I do that, though, I wanted to mention this little thing that I enjoyed: the description of the now teenaged Toph “barking” with laughter at one of Sokka’s jokes. It was one of the first details that gave me a sense of how much time had passed between the show and the start of this story, and it fit those characters well.

Moving back to Zuko. I can’t help but think that he’s a bad brother for visiting his sister only once. I get why it would be hard on him, but he still sucks for that. I do find myself grateful that he decided to not visit in his Fire Lord clothes, though, given what we learn in later chapters. That would have been awkward at the very least. And you know what else is awkward in retrospect? This fun line: “He wished she would curse him, or lie to him, or put him down, or dig her sharp nails into his skin.” Be careful what you wish for, Zuko.

“It seemed she was determined to remain utterly unreasonable when it came to the subject of their mother.” Excuse me? Zuko, you both know that Ursa didn’t love your sister. How can you blame Azula for feeling bitter about that? Though I suppose blaming her is second nature to you….

Ugh, just thinking about how Ozai might have punished Azula for asking after her mother makes my skin crawl. Her brother doesn’t even ask her what that punishment entailed, either. And you know, I’ve just accepted it as my headcanon that Ursa didn’t say goodbye to Azula before she left, which I suspect is due to how well it works in this story. Namely, Azula recalling how her younger self saw Ursa say goodbye to Zuko, and then went to her room and waited for the same thing, is one of the most deeply painful things I’ve ever read. And I’ve read the rest of this story, so I know there is comparable heartbreak later on. It makes me want to hug Azula, even though I’m sure she wouldn’t appreciate it.

And then Zuko wants to shake Azula out of her breakdown and I go from wanting to cry to wanting to scold him, because you don’t do that! You don’t shake people! There’s never any reason for it and you could hurt them!

Moving on, the description of Azula’s broken laughter is beautiful. I adore the turns of phrases and comparisons you come up with in your writing, Aurelia. But then, uh…Zuko gets a commanding tone and seizes Azula’s face, and I’m pretty sure she mistakes him for Ozai in that moment, considering that face- and neck-touching seem to evoke that reaction in her later on (especially neck touching).

Also…(sigh)…Zuko, when Azula says things that you don’t like, such as there never being anyone there with her, please don’t make her pain all about /you/. I feel like the normal reaction to that would be to feel bad for your lonely and hallucinating sister, not feel offended on your own behalf. Ugh, he’s just so self-absorbed!

What an awkward scene for the doctor to walk in on. That face-touching is a little too intimate for siblings. Azula’s tart response that yes, she can still breath fire, makes me laugh, by the way. She’s always going to be the best firebender around and I adore her for it (though there are many other things about her to love, such as her sarcastic wit). As such, muzzling her, while it makes sense in this context, makes me seethe. In the words of one of my friends, who I got to binge-read this a few months ago, Azula is a crispy cinnamon roll and deserves to be treated better than this!

Moving on. When Zuko says “I am the Fire Lord,” all I can think of is Tywin Lannister’s disdainful comment that a man who has to say that he is the king is no true king at all. I feel like Azula is thinking something along those lines, too. Also, this whole bit about Azula at least having her father’s love, but Zuko not being sure that that was a good thing – well first, Zuko, I’m not convinced that Ozai is capable of loving someone, and second, no, it was definitely /not a good thing/!

“I never hated you” – I think that might be the greatest instance of self-delusion in this room, Zuko, and I’m saying that while your sister is hallucinating. Azula’s line following that, where she says that they each had what the other wanted most, and that they could have been a whole person together – that’s a haunting one. It also encapsulates the conflict of the story and central character dynamic between these two, so kudos on that!

Ugh, the next few paragraphs are ugly thoughts for Zuko. “He would protect her” – this reads as sweet, until you realize that that’s probably the only way he feels comfortable around her: when she is in a position of dependence upon him and not a potential rival. Then he thinks the “Azula always lies” refrain and a part of me is like, “Really? I’m pretty sure she tells the truth more often than not, but YOU don’t like it, so you try to deny it instead!”

Then he tells her, “I chose right,” which is so condescending that I want to kick him in the face. “Right” is a matter of perspective, and it’s easy to claim that you were right when you were on the winning side. Obviously the war needed to end and Ozai needed to be stopped, but it’s not as if Azula is wrong in her assessment of Zuko’s decisions towards the end of the war. From her perspective, he betrayed their nation and their family and was rewarded for it with a crown. I can’t imagine that that feels “right” to her, considering.

Azula then raises the idea of being lobotomized, which makes everything inside of me shriek with horror. Fortunately, Zuko has the same reaction, because he doesn’t even consider it. We then get Azula’s line of “What I want doesn’t matter, if it ever did,” and I cry forever remembering what we learn in later chapters. Zuko’s response to her makes me scoff, because clearly Azula wouldn’t be in an asylum if he was willing to give her what she wanted. Him claiming that he’ll come back is also painful, since we know he’s only visited her one time as of this chapter, and it’s been years since that visit.

“The man pinning her down was as powerfully built as their father, and seeing Azula at his mercy – It didn’t seem right.” Excuse me while I fight the urge to throw up from the comparison, Zuko. As for his reaction to her screaming that no one would have her – again, he’s making it about himself, thinking that /she/ is rejecting /him/. He’s missing the point entirely.

Just another little note, but I like that one of the guards has dark skin. It’s nice to have some diversity among the unnamed characters.

After that, Zuko concludes that Azula is going to be in the asylum for the rest of her life, because it doesn’t seem like the doctors could be of much help, and she appears to be getting worse. I would call this a hasty conclusion to jump to, since it’s only been a few weeks since her nervous breakdown. However, given the limited understanding of mental illness in this world, I can see why he would make that assumption. We readers, of course, know that that can’t be the case – that there wouldn’t be a story if Azula didn’t recover enough to be functional in society – but seeing how she gets there is part of the journey.

In any case, those are my thoughts on chapter one! I’m looking forward to going over chapter two soon! Best of wishes to you, Aurelia!

Sincerely,

WiseAbsol

#WiseAbsol #Azula #Avatar: The Last Airbender #Dominion by Aurelia le #Fanfiction #Review

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mirror-reflecting-water · 6 years ago

Text

Registry

Given Name: Risette Yue Nicknames: Rise, AI (appropriatedinsight) Age: 20 Planetary Heritage: Earth Species/Race: Human Zodiac: Cancer

Reflection

Height: 5’8” Weight: 140 lbs Hair Color: Black Hair Style/Length: Dark hair, back-length. Disheveled, wavy hair. Build: Lean, somewhat athletic, frail-looking. Definitive facial features: Bright yellow eyes. Often covered up with green-tinted glasses. Style of Clothing: Rise often wears sky blue cloaks over long skirts and shirts. Her casualwear usually involves long skirts and shirts, and her color palette is typically sky blue, dark greens, greys, or blacks. Accessories include a ribbon, either emerald or red, on her left arm or hair and a beige laptop bag. Occupation: Computer Programmer & Engineer, Black Hat Hacker

Review

Notable Personality traits: Offline: Introverted and withdrawn. Speaks mostly by writing things down. Very soft voice. Kind and caring towards children and friends, cold to others. Online: Confident and domineering. Aspiring manipulator. Boisterous. Gratuitously destructive. Occasionally kind. Refuses to talk about offline matters pertaining to herself other than the fact that she’s a she and her hacking occupation. Likes: Computers, old-fashioned smackdowns, cats, revolvers, horrible and dated music, the internet, cell phones and SIM cards, improving her online rep, blogging, gratuitous destruction, knowing more than the other person, soft spot for kids Dislikes: Large groups of people, online/offline intimacy, animals other than cats, anger, lust, stupidity, shellfish.

Record

History - AI’s Journal:

Crazy does not begin to describe the past few years. If you told my high school self that I was going to meet a flaming superhero alien, help fight an army of insectoid zombies, and weaponize my brain, she’d likely question what kind of soporific you’d been drinking and then ask you to drink some more so that you’d Darwin yourself out of the gene pool.

I was normal back then... or at least normal as an unknowing receiving empathic orphan could be. And then one day, I attended the funeral of one of our school’s major patrons, and my life changed.

I survived a shooting that happened then and there, crawled out of a pile of bodies that included my peers, and began the most chaotic part of my life. (at least I hope it’s the most chaotic part of my life). Armed with only my knowledge of computers and my need for answers, I, an inconsequential pawn that should’ve died that day, realized my potential as a player in this localized insect zombie apocalypse. It’s as fucked up as it sounds.

I made allies. I made enemies. We prepared to take control of the company that caused this mess in the first place. My motives though were less pure than saving the city though.

And everything culminated into a battle between the forces of whatever we had - me; Flamma, the aforementioned flaming alien and best friend; and Saxon, a necromancer and scariest fucking lich lady I’ve met - and the company that started this FUBAR situation in the first place.

Thing didn’t go as planned though. I remember flashes. I remember the sensation of tapping my finger underneath the rubble, praying for dear life. I remember Flamma pulling me from the darkness after the tower collapsed in a mutually assured destruction scenario.

I was comatose for months after that battle. Something snapped inside my brain either immediately before or maybe during my coma, and before long I became a telepath instead of a receiving empath. But that’s not that important.

Y’know how movies portray people coming out of comas laughing and smiling and okay. Well, that’s a hock of bullshit. Learning how to walk and move again took weeks. My stamina is still shit to this day. And whatever scrambled my brain to turn me into a telepath did a number on my ability to speak - I barely can speak over a whisper.

Things... got more peaceful after that, though more complicated too. Through some sort of magical accident involving summoning a guardian, I somehow ended a four?five? year old daughter as a result with some sort of wind alignment, which has been very complicated to manage when you’re trying to appear normal to the outside world.

Luckily. I AM a telepath. But there’s definitely some moral quandary being crossed when you’re forced to erase the memory of those involved on a near weekly basis. I don’t dare do it on the kids, because I’m uncomfortably aware that my power is a damn sledgehammer - and I’ve practically lobotomized the people I’ve tested it on back when I first started out. (they deserved it though.)

Now I’m just trying to get through life in one piece, sticking around in my joke of a halfway house and making sure Levant grows up to have a semi-normal life. Also, praying that the local visiting superhero doesn’t get into too much trouble either.

Revelation

Abilities:

Proficient programmer and hacker: Rise’s alias, Ai, is well known in hacker circles, and she is considered to be one of the best in both causing wanton destruction to a system and covering her tracks. Tracing other people and defending a system not her own are not her fortes however, though she does know far more than the average hacker.

Computer engineer: Rise knows enough to customize the hardware of her laptops, desktops, and cellphones.

Receiving Empath: Rise can glean the surface emotions of others. When another person is addressing her, that person’s emotions can end up becoming far more intense than her own. Before Rise developed telepathy, she was unable to process the extra emotional input and was under the impression that everyone has this emotional insight but can control it better than she can.

Transmitting Empath: Rise can influence the emotional state of others. This ability is part of Rise’s telepathy and triggers when she speaks: this ability only works on humans who hear Rise’s words. Rise cannot control when she Transmits.

Telepathy: Rise can dominate another person’s will as long as they are human and can hear her voice. The power of Rise’s telepathy can accidentally knock out a person instead of getting them to follow commands. If Rise isn’t careful enough in her commands or her target’s willpower is incredibly weak, she can accidentally turn them into a drooling husk devoid of any consciousness whatsoever. Rise’s telepathy is not subtle at all, and those subject to it feel like they’ve been struck by a mental sledgehammer.

Dysphonia: Rise cannot speak higher than a whisper. Whatever scrambled her brain to grant her Telepathy did a number to her ability to speak. Speaking for longer than a couple minutes strains her vocal cords and can make her mute for some time afterwards

Sickly: Rise hasn’t completely recovered from her coma in terms of her stamina and her dexterity. Complicated hand and finger movements beyond typing on a keyboard are near impossible for her, and walking longer than thirty minutes is enough to wind her.

Equipment:

Customized Smart Phone: Contains two SIM cards: one primary and one secondary. The secondary SIM card cannot receive phone calls and ignores ping directives from passive tracing. Indicates closest cell phone towers and, when calling using the secondary SIM, will give a rough estimate of the time for an active trace to complete.

Two Netbooks: Both are silver-colored and fit into her laptop bag. The first of the two is used for both recreation, business, and blogging. The second of the two is purely business and is never connected to the internet at any time. Both laptops have hardware and software designed to erase and scramble everything upon detected forced entry, including bad logins.

Taser gun: In her laptop bag.

#about #profile #risette yue

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