#you guys have something much more sinister going on here. AND IT COMPELS ME SO

[planet4546b]

i have such a clear vision for how sayerhale works in my head that i cannot figure out how to verbalize and i only see clearly when i am listening to mountain goats songs. but i cannot figure out how to communicate it. but oh god its like ezekiel 7 and the permanant effiecency of grace. In here.

[akunya]

eiiiiii the idea of getting private meeting with camboy vox HELLO. you make me suffer for good stuffs every single day 😭💦 can you spoil me a little bittttt. - 🐱

“private session.”

pairings: camboy!vox akuma x male!reader

summary: congrats, lucky winner! because of your generous donations, vox reached out wanting to thank you in person. things, however, take a turn.

tw: DRUGGING, yandere, manipulation, voice fetish. camshows, drinking, implied noncon. age gap, etc.

notes: last fic of 2022! im posting this mere minutes from midnight, so please pardon any mistakes. ill go back and edit this a bit later.

and yes, i can write a part 2 if you truly wish. sorry for cucking you guys, again..

happy new year everyone, thank you for such an amazing 2022. i hope to write much more in the future!

“im at the right place, aren’t i..?” you mumbled to yourself, frigid, clammy hands swiping your phone to make sure the location was right. the restaurant looked a bit trendy and sophisticated, somewhere you wouldn't dare step inside on your own. you and vox both agreed on a restaurant to meet at around eight o'clock. to be truly honest with yourself, you never thought you’d have the guts to do something like this — but when vox, the streamer who you’ve been watching for months daily and donating to everyday reached out to you personally, how could you say no?

nonetheless, sitting across from him at the table really made you wish you had refused.

for one, he was much too ethereal to be in your lowly presence. the camera didn’t do him justice at all — his pale skin was a nice contrast to his black hair, adorned by his signature red highlights. he even wore the red eye makeup that you loved to look at, except now, you could see his mouth and bottom half of his face, uncovered by the black mask he would usually wear. his lips looked so soft, and when his tongue darted out to lick them you were nearly going to faint. we’re those.. fangs? his canines were sharp, and you felt like a pervert for staring so intensely.

you quickly paid your respects to the other fans who would never know that vox, a niche but popular adult streamer, was a truly beautiful man in person.

you didn't even notice how silent it had gotten between the two of you. “no need to be so quiet. i don’t bite, i promise.” vox’s sweet voice snapped you out of your thoughts, apologizing profusely for zoning out so much. “you’re right! im sorry, ive just never done anything like this before..” you chuckled awkwardly, shifting in your chair while vox just smiled. he found your skittishness adorable. you reminded him of a scared little bunny — and he was the big bad wolf, ready to eat you up whole.

"what a shame. and here i was thinking you do this quite often, with how you accepted my request and all." the demon smirked at how your face flushed, becoming a stuttering mess. you should've expected it, but he was just as snarky in person as he was on his live shows. as your little meeting continued, vox realized he enjoyed your presence much more than he thought. the night was filled with friendly but interesting conversation, and for once, the demon didn’t feel forced to keep speaking.

at first, he debated on meeting with you in person. what if the person who donated nearly thousands to him each month turned out to be not as pleasant as he hoped? while the demon wouldn't be surprised, he would be a tad disappointed with all of the free shoutouts he's given to you. still, with you being his top donator for a while now, he felt compelled to show some form of graciousness. a little present, just in time for the holidays.

vox enjoyed streaming more than he thought he would. even though he could use his voice and other demonic powers for much grander, sinister things - for some reason, using them to tease and drain the wallets of his viewers was surprisingly just as satisfying. doing this, he never had to worry about getting a silly job like most humans did, letting the demon truly relax when he wasnt tampering with cameras and himself.

but, you, however - vox liked how shy and nervous you were. it awakened a sick monster inside of him, that wanted to see you cry and beg for mercy at his fingertips. he thought his days of toying with mortals was over, but unfortunately (or fortunately?) for you, you seemed to rekindle that fire in his heart. if he didn't know any better, he would've never expected you to be someone that watches adult streams online, let alone spend money on them.

taking advantage of how anxious you were, vox continued to ask questions about yourself, forcing you to blurt out answers in hopes of not screwing up. "so, what do you like about my streams, y/n?" the male swiveled the wine in his glass nonchalantly, golden eyes looking into yours, awaiting an answer. you gulped, shakily drinking yours as well.

"um, well, you're the first streamer i've ever really watched for.. that sort of stuff. i initially liked how your voice sounded, and wanted to hear more, but i ended up staying for your little stories and when you'd talk about yourself. you just seemed really nice." it was a bit embarrassing when you had said it aloud, but it was the truth. you enjoyed the moments where the demon would just ramble the most. of course, given the content of his streams, most of the things he'd speak about were so dirty it made your ears feel hot - however, there were moments where he'd just talk about his day, and you seemed to enjoy those the most.

it was vox's turn to blush, his grip tightening on the wine glass ever so slightly. how could a mere mortal make him feel so... flustered? hes had his fair share of affairs over many decades, however, never has he felt so vulnerable. the demon was expecting you to talk about his cock or something, but of course your innocent little head wouldnt do that. you should be thankful vox isn't a cannibalistic demon, or he seriously would've eaten your heart out by now.

therefore, the man didnt feel any remorse when you went to the bathroom and he slipped a drug into your drink while you were away.

it wasnt his fault - how was he supposed to let you go after today? someone as sinless and pure as yourself needed to be his. vox wouldnt be content with letting you go back to being another viewer behind the screen, not after your little meeting. the demon knew truly that you probably wouldn't refuse going home with him, but that also didnt guarantee you'd accept his offer. he considered the drug just a bit of a push in the right direction, if you will.

"sorry for taking so long. there was a line outside, so.." your voice trailed off, going back to your seat as the older man simply chuckled. why did you feel the need to explain yourself? it didn't matter how long you took, even if you tried to run now, vox would surely find you. pouring some more wine for himself, he filled his glass a bit more to match yours. you tried to tell him you weren't too keen or interested in alcohol at the beginning of your little date, but the demon wouldn't take no for an answer. "y/n, lets have a toast, shall we?" his held up his glass expectantly towards you, waiting for you to clink the rim with your own.

you hesitated for a moment. the smell of wine never enticed you, but seeing vox wait earnestly made your heart flutter. one glass shouldn't hurt, right?

you simply nodded, the familiar clank of glass against glass being shared between you two before drinking. you drank a majority of the wine, only leaving a small amount left. "good boy. its good, isnt it?" you nearly sputtered the drink back up from the praise, nodding again and drinking the rest in one gulp. it was much different hearing his words of affirmation in person. it felt addicting, unreal.

"thats it. a toast for the new year, my boy. im excited for the memories we shall make together. aren't you?" oh, did vox mean his streams? of course you looked forward to those, how could you not! he was the highlight of your day, making you smile and laugh. "mhm! im excited. im looking forward to your streams, vox." the demon felt a shiver roll down his spine, suppressing a groan. he could get used to you saying his name. he wanted to hear you say it in other ways, too.

"i hope we can get more.. personal, as well, y/n. it was truly delightful being here with you." the man had such a way with words, making you swoon. was he this nice with everyone? no wonder he had so many followers! while you didnt know the true extent to what he had implied, you agreed, telling him that you were happy you came out today.

of course you were. you were his little rabbit, frail and gullible, unknowing of the big bad wolf sitting across from your very table. he truly wondered just how oblivious you could be, but much to his delight, he'd find out soon enough. your eyes started to feel heavy, zoning out while he talked about random things to keep you occupied.

"goodness, y/n, are you alright? you look a bit pale. here, let me take you back to my place. i don't live far at all." his voice was sickeningly sweet, how could you deny his offer? you nodded drowsily, letting the man hold you to steady your balance.

the cold air of the outdoors didnt phase you, and neither did it bother vox. peering at your sleeping face, he smiled, leaning in to kiss the top of your forehead.

"happy new years, y/n. lets have fun together." vox whispered in your ear, turning the corner towards his apartment.

[angelfirstclass]

Magneto: A Villain playing Dressup or Reformed Tortured Soul?

This is going to be hard one for me because I don't want to be too negative about Magneto because I think in X-men 97 he isn't the villain, but upon rewatching the show I think this question is viable. I may be accused of being a Romy shipper and Charles apologist, but I'm not really. I like Magneto in the show and he says some of the best lines in the show. But sometimes he says and does things that are kind of assholey am I right?

To start off with, the way that he introduces himself and announces that he's the heir to Xavier's mansion and the X-men. Did he really have to barge into Xavier's office and confront the team as they were bonding together playing basketball? He is so smug in that scene which is something I like about Magneto, his Alpha male strength and directness. It's hot and works when I'm writing Magneto fan fiction, but it is a tad presumptuous. His first reactions from everyone on the team is anger and suspicion and then he wonders why he's not getting a warm reception. He could have been normal and called or rang the doorbell or something, but it wouldn't have been as dramatic or as Magneto to come barging in.

The way that he says My X-men at the end of episode 1 is kind of smug and sinister is not? Maybe it's just the writers wanting tension out of that moment and having the readers shocked by Magneto, a known X-enemy inheriting everything, because at that moment we don't know if Magneto is going to be a good leader or not.

Then we see Magneto in action and he's playing the good guy. He saves a child from a busted ride and the Morlocks from the Friends of Humanity. It is shocking to the X-men but also shocking to humankind because of Magneto's past crimes. He enters leading the X-men tamping down his evil past and his more destructive methods of getting back at anti-mutant groups, but he is still Magneto with all his arrogance and his confidence and his strength of belief in himself.

Something that I actually love is the line that he toes the line between trying to be a good X-man and his feelings about humanity. He has seen so much that he is formed by those traumas and pain which cannot be so easily let go of. When he talks of not harming the Friends of Humanity members, the sneer when he says "sapiens" is pure gold. This Magneto is a tempered Magneto and we have to appreciate how far he's come. If it wasn't for his love of Charles Xavier he would be 1000 times worse.

It could be argued that other people might have made better leaders of the X-men, but for this season's storyline having Magneto play the leader was brilliant. He was just enough of an asshole to make the whole thing interesting and made the twist at the end more believable because he never really lost himself completely. You saw moments of him being potentially selfish, arrogant, cruel throughout the season which made him an interesting, complex character.

"My intentions here was not to cause drama or discord." Lol! Says the man in the cape and big M on his costume and the one who barged into the mansion without notice. Yeah, sure, Jan. He yielded to the UN, but not until after he proves how powerful he could be. A note to point out his that Wolverine talks about people being upset over all the things Magneto has done and "can't say I blame them" for being upset and I take this seriously. So currently he's trying to reform, but in this universe and timeline, Magneto has done some awful things.

The trial scene is really amazing. There are some great lines in it. The speech is probably the most compelling reason to want to trust Magneto. He is a great public speaker and he speaks of his past, how the oppressed become oppressors and that loving or being different will cause you to be punished. He is speaking Xavier's words and attempting to walk his past, but he must also acknowledge his past and the consequences of them. This is where I get confused or conflicted as I don't know if Magneto went too far or just enough or is justified or crazy. I don't know and I don't think it's something that the writers even know- like that is the crux of the show itself.

His sardonic wit is the best! "Oh to play by the rules and still they come for you." Yes. It's all going sideways and Magneto is not panicked in the least. He may be a lot of things, but dumb is not one of them. He saw this all coming and knew it was a matter of time that the extremists broke through and the judges would be deemed traitors of the race. It's like a part of him wanted things to get extreme, so the X-men would get to be on his side and see that humanity is not to be trusted and making nice doesn't work.

When asks if this is the high roads destination and essentially kidnaps all the judges, viewers are justified in thinking he might have snapped and gone back to his evil ways. We are surprised to see that he is walking Xavier's path and applaud him for that. He eventually lets the people go and asks them to not let him let them down and that's so poignant because we see just in episode 2 what Magneto is capable of and what he could do if he wasn't walking Xavier's path.

Magneto did a pretty good job of leading the team from episode 3 to 5, he is concerned about Jean, Scott, and Nathan and coordinates the team. He fights clone Jean or Madelyn and she taunts him with the line about a villain playing dress up as a hero. I think that line is so apt with Magneto because I think that his character arc is at the heart of the storyline. I wrote once saying that his relationship with Xavier was the thesis of the story and I also believe that Magneto's belief of Xavier's ideals and his own is also a pivotal part of the story. Madelyn had the power to delve into the psyche of each mutant and find their weak spots, so it proves here that Erik is self conscious of seeming to play the hero and most likely doubts his own commitment to Xavier's cause.

Then we go to Genosha in episode 5, where Magneto is king, literally. There are posters and statues of him everywhere and this all was his dream. Magneto is a savvy politician and understands making grand speeches or doing publicity stunts. Even other mutants at Genosha understand that he is the handsome face of Mutant kind and especially after joining the X-men and following moderation is liked by moderate mutants as well as humans. Even when he speaks to the group, he acknowledges that this was all Charles' dream and he didn't believe that it would happen. He is asked to be king and then he asks Rogue to be his queen. Episode 5, I think is tragically the peak of when Erik is believing Xavier's dream and thinking that peace is possible and happiness is possible for him as well. He is letting down his guard, accepting the King position, declaring his love for Rogue, trying to walk Xavier's path, be a good X-man, and etc. We know what happens next tragically however.

Everything he believed gets snatched and beaten out of him in Genosha. He tried to walk Xavier's path and it did not work out for him. He was already scarred, but this time was too much. He was kidnapped, tortured, and saw many deaths. He was already toeing the line before and felt justified in a way for committing crimes and atrocities and Genosha set him back to that way of thinking.

When we see him later, trying to persuade X-men to join him, EMPing the planet, attacking members of the X-men trying to stop him, he is traumatized and reacting poorly to Genosha. I don't justify his behavior, but I understand it. This is an Omega level mutant that has a track history of hurting humans for hurting mutants, so when a massacre hits it is not surprising that the mutant in question flexes his powers and gets angry.

What I don't know and am still on the fence about is how dedicated he truly was to Xavier's cause. Was he really a believer and dedicated to being a X-man or did it just take one incident for him to return to his ways? Also, how far is too far? Who is allowed to seek revenge or retribution? And to what extent? It is these questions that I think are so fascinating and I'm glad I don't know. These questions about Magneto are what made the show so interesting and complex and wants to make me see Season 2.

[some-pers0n]

Reading through scenes with Albatross in them, so you know what that means!! Note time!! Time to take notes about Albatross, with little sprinkles of Fathom and Lagoon.

This is a post literally only meant for me. I'm. yeah. If I ever rip it out of my drafts it's gonna be because: "Wowie you think the other dragon likers will enjoy this as well?" It's not going to be coherent at all, switching from bullet points to full on tangents. I'll eventually shorten it down to something more compact and easier to comprehend, perhaps with a character sheet for Albatross with a detailed personality section.

With that being said, lets read.

Chapter 1

Chapter where Fathom learns that he's a magic guy. Okie.

First note is entirely off-topic, but I really do love Indigo and Fathom's interactions. They're so sweet.

Lagoon's first introduction already paints her as ominous and foreboding, comparing her rising out of the sea like "a sinister iceberg". Iceberg flipping videos are spooky to me, so yeah that makes sense. Either way, it establishes her character to be one that's antagonistic, with the use of the phrase "stalked slowly up to the beach" in the next sentence making it very firm that she's not exactly a dragon we like.

Lagoon's literally beefing with a child. God I hate her so much,, I love her <333

Interesting use of the titled "most respected dragon in the Sea Kingdom" to describe Albatross. I like that it implies that Albatross is viewed more highly than even Queen Lagoon (which isn't too high of a bar to clear, but ehh). He's beloved by the kingdom. He's their first animus.

Odd to describe his expression as "suspicious" here. I like thinking that he looks like a generic evil cartoon villain/anti-semite stereotype here. The next sentence describing him with a hooked snout doesn't help.

Curious that he would complain about the TOP ceremony here. I get it's for exposition, but I find it interesting. He doesn't see a point in the exam. It's a waste of time to him and the others. He says that, if they were an animus, they would've figured it out by now.

Lagoon on the other hand wants to use this exam to weed out the animus dragons quickly. She wants another animus so she can use them in case the RainWings or MudWings try to do anything fishy, saying that they've been acting up. She views animus dragons less like actual people and more like tools for either how own vanity projects or for war.

^ Something very compelling to me here is how she uses she/her pronouns to refer to this imaginary animus they'll discover. Why does she do that? That's...quite odd. Does she want Pearl to be the animus? Strange.

Lagoon once again uses the Sapphire incident as leverage over Albatross. This is our first introduction scene to these characters and we've established that Lagoon is antagonistic and kind of a prick. She reminds Albatross of this without batting an eye. I like to personally think that she isn't as bothered by the mauling of her sister as Albatross is. Albatross was traumatized by the event and the guilt of it all has followed with him for his entire life. Lagoon on the other hand doesn't exactly seem too bothered with the idea of bringing it up just to remind Albatross about what he's done, reminding him that, no matter what he does, he destroyed Sapphire's life.

Albatross shows his disdain for being used as a tool for Lagoon. He's given her everything she wants, yet she does not feel fully satisfied with it. He also mentions he does not want an apprentice. Headcanon: I think Albatross isn't fond of the idea of having an apprentice because he kinda just hates the concept of Lagoon having another animus to look after. Honestly? I fully believe that if Fathom discovered his magic on his own time and approached Albatross privately about it, Albatross would've trained him but he would INSIST that he NEVER tell Lagoon about it. He doesn't want to doom another dragon to his fate.

!! Lagoon reacts to this aggressively. She hisses and snarls at him over this slight resistance. It shows that she's not one for the idea of Albatross ever standing up for himself. It's never been about what Albatross wants. He's barely even a dragon in her eyes. He's just a breathing wish-making device that looks ugly as hell to her.

Albatross submits. Headcanon: I think Albatross is always anxious and tries controlling himself constantly because he doesn't want to hurt Lagoon the same way he did with Sapphire. It's...very hard not to, though...

I like thinking that Albatross did the coconut thing because he was so confident that there wouldn't be an animus dragons. I also like thinking that he thought it would be something to entertain the dragonets. Like...imagine being nine or something and you're told you could hit the Pope with a basketball if you just yell at the ball. Silly.

^ Also in the Guide, Albatross says it's much easier and a lot more safe to enchant a coconut to float or something. It characterizes him as actually caring about the safety of the tribe and putting in far more thought and care into the exams than Lagoon ever could.

Albatross is bored by doing these tests. Fathom is amazed however by simply watching the coconut fly over to him.

^ Interestingly, Fathom is spooked and scared. He's unsure if the test will hurt him. He's anxious that, somehow, Albatross has enchanted the coconuts to react if somebody touched it.

"Wouldn't it just be easier to throw it at you?" BWAHWHUDHAIDUH-- INDIGO AHHHH

^ Albatross laughs at this. He's amused by the response, finding humour in such a simple question. Silly guy.

Interesting note of animus magic here is that you have to command something to do what you want. You don't ask it. You order it. Fascinating.

BONK!!

IT BROKE BONES??? I mean, obviously. It's a giant dense coconut flying at him at the speed of a bullet. Of course.

Pearl you goddamn rat.

HAHAHAHAHAH OH MY GODDDDDD how could people read this book without understanding that Lagoon is clearly evil and Wrong? "You are going to do such great things for m- for your tribe" AHAHAHHA

^ Actually obsessed with how shitty the royal SeaWing family is. That's such a silly thing of Tui to do.

Albatross is happy!! Again, going back to that headcanon I talked about, I think Albatross would like to train Fathom, but rather he doesn't want to be replaced or to sentence Fathom to a life of constantly serving a bitchy queen. That's something to worry about later. For now, everything is happy and nice.

Chapter 3

Private magic lessons with grandpapa.

I actually adore Indigo and Fathom oh my goddd they're so sweet...

Really love the interactions here. It's quite fun and goofy between all of the characters.

Fathom listened to Albatross's wishes to have him save his animus magic. Albatross knows the dangers that animus magic holds, and Fathom wants to listen to his grandpapa. Fathom really does look up to and love Albatross. He's so sweet and untraumatized <3

HANDWRITING!!! USE OF THE WORD HAND!!! NOT TALON!! HAND!!!!!

I always forget the Island Palace was a thing and the massacre wasn't at the Summer Palace you mean to tell me that this bitch needed THREE palaces????? One of which only really existing as a means for PARTIES??? Gott DAMN Lagoon chill out.

^ Fuck it. Headcanon: Albatross lives at the Island Palace. Yeah yeah it's mostly used for parties and for political diplomats to sleep, but GOD I don't think Albatross could stand to live in the same palace as Lagoon. How about Albatross lived there with his wife and raised his kids there? Now he lives there alone. Boo hoo. He's the host whenever guests come to visit. He gets pissy that his house basically becomes a nightmareish party hellscape whenever his sister comes over.

^^ It's also pretty and I think Albatross would like it.

Albatross drags Fathom to the beach where he first discovered animus magic so he could really drill it in just how fucked up animus magic is. Epic.

Albatross is silly and goofy!! He is happy and having fun and is excited to teach Fathom the ways of being a wizard. Fathom inversely is so inexperienced and gullible. Silly guy.

Something to note: So far, Albatross really hasn't been talked about like he's...stern or rude. He's only bothered by Lagoon's antics and demands. I think he's a fairly good and friendly dragon, but it just extremely annoyed by Lagoon (completely understandable)

GOD he's full of so much whimsy and joy. He's so silly. I love this little guy (I am talking about an old traumatized dragon)

Fathom describes this interaction as being new and slightly odd, as Albatross was always seen as some distant and powerful figure. A dragon of importance that was always too busy. He was always nice and friendly, but never exactly...there. Now? He gets to see how he really is: SILLY!!!

Further showing how much Albatross is having fun via by describing him jumping into the ocean with him "splashing into the sea".

Lagoon requested Albatross show Fathom the palace just in-case Albatross dies before it's finished. Now, I know I'm biased, but from how things happen later on, I feel Lagoon was plotting to dispose of Albatross the moment Fathom was discovered to be an animus. She wanted Fathom to pick up where Albatross left off. Fathom would be a new, better, more presentable animus.

^ Albatross doesn't know about this plot, so he goes along with it. He's excited to teach Fathom!!

Again, Albatross shows that he's a lot more considerate and aware. He's cautious and thoughtful. He purposefully stretches out the creation of the Summer Palace so that it doesn't cause any damage to the ecosystem.

Fathom stfu your gandpapa cares about the environment. He didn't mess up the spell, he just didn't want the ocean to explode or whatever.

Albatross is supportive of Fathom's idea to create a cover of leaves over the Summer Palace, but this is where Albatross gets serious and tells Fathom he needs to think and plot out his spells. Albatross does not want Fathom to use up his soul carelessly or to make rash and impulsive choices without thinking them through clearly. I think this fear of Fathom misusing his magic was instilled by, again, the Sapphire incident. He doesn't want Fathom to follow in his footsteps.

TRAUMA STORY TIME!!!

Albatross is obviously telling this story to Fathom as a) exposition for his backstory and b) to tell Fathom that he needs to be careful with his magic. It is not a toy. It is a powerful, dangerous force.

Fathom is hopeful and still thinks Albatross isn't really capable of harm as he assumes that his first enchantment was something grand and wonderful.

Literally how does anybody read this and come away thinking that Lagoon was entirely innocent here. Fathom literally reflects on Albatross's comment on them doing "normal brother-sister teasing", which is Sapphire and Lagoon coming down and bullying him until he snapped back at them. Fathom is like: "...I don't think that's normal brother-sister teasing, grandpapa."

AUGHHHH LAGOON YOU'RE THE WORST,,, classist loser. Treating Indigo badly and saying that, by keeping her around, they're "coddling the lower class". She obviously views herself as being better and superior to common SeaWings.

Sapphire and Lagoon are the worst. "Everything you have will be mine when I'm queen" ughhhhh

Such a terrible event shaped Albatross in a way that cannot fully be described. It scarred him. It was the first time he had used his magic, and it was to harm his sister. It was a simple mistake, yet he can never live it down. He blames himself for it. Lagoon on the other hand uses it as a means to control him. Manipulate his trauma and guilt-trips him into doing what she wants.

I blame TF2 for making me have a knee-jerk reaction to the word "spy". Albatross literally saying "a spy?" when he notices Indigo watching them made me think of the french guy.

Aww,,,Blob....

Chapter 6

oh no

Lagoon is becoming more rude towards Indigo since Fathom was revealed to be an animus. Again, she hates how she had a commoner dragon frolicking around with royals.

Lagoon more or less hosts these parties as vanity projects for her to show off everything grand about her (which was basically done by Albatross after she manipulated him into using his magic). I'm willing to bet she doesn't care really at all about what happens from a political standpoint, so long as she's known as some grand and glorious queen.

Fathom mentions that Lagoon is "skilled with diplomatic meets" because she has the power of an animus behind her. Again, she mostly relies on Albatross and his magic to be feared.

Fathom wearing jewelry that also matches the stuff Albatross wears. I wonder if that was set up by Lagoon.

IT'S BEEN THREE YEARS SINCE THE TEST?? Okey then.

These Fathigo moments are melting my heart. Tui....

BWAHAHWHAHUWDHAIWUHAI--- I always forget how charming and silly these books are. Ahhhh this is so cute and fun.

Blah blah blah let us get back to old murder man. It's THE chapter after all.

So after three years, Albatross is still too spooked to let Fathom do more than basic spells. Is he fearful? Perhaps at this point he knows about Lagoon's plot to replace him and wants to live longer. It's hard to tell. Three years is a large timeskip. A lot could happen in that gap.

I think Albatross has become a lot more...quiet and estranged since then. He completely erased the work that Fathom had made. He's a bit more erratic. If there's one thing I wish we got, it would be a better explanation for this. Something HAD to have happened in order for him to have a personality shift like this.

He's described as being unexcited when they finally completed the palace. Perhaps this was the moment. I think that, yeah, Albatross figured out that his time is up. He's going to die. Lagoon is probably going to kill him off and replace him with Fathom. I headcanon that Lagoon killed Albatross's wife, which he probably could've figured out by now as well, so him finally completing the palace would mean he's obsolete. He's finished. There's no use for him anymore. He'll be disposed.

I don't think he planned the massacre. It was rather him finally reaching a breakpoint and going "fuck it, if I'm dying tonight, I'm taking down as many other dragons as I can". He would've been repulsed by the idea, but at this point he just straight up doesn't care. I think when he first approached Lagoon he wanted to sort things out with her, but as it became increasingly obvious that she was going to be unreasonable, he just pulled out the knife and dealt with her himself.

I hate you Lagoon.

There's no real point in me describing this part. It's Lagoon just basically showing off Albatross's creations to the very-not-okay-with-animus-dragons SkyWing royals. Her head is so far up her own ass she just doesn't care.

Big fight happens.

The reactions from the other dragons are interesting. Manta, Splash, and Reef all react with anxiety and tense up. They know that Albatross isn't in a Good Mood, or perhaps they are a little aware that Albatross is going to be disposed of and Lagoon is practically throwing rocks at the bear now. No longer is she poking the bear with a stick. She's pretty much just hurling rocks and telling it that she's going to kill it.

Definitely when I rewrite this scene it's gonna be a lot more dramatic. I mean, it's the climax of Albatross's story. The big moment everyone knows. It deserves to be slightly more bombastic than this.

KNIFE!!!

Chapter 8

Still endlessly amused by there being a Clearsight chapter right before this.

Murder dragon becomes murder dragon chapter, lets go.

Straight up doesn't care anymore. Again, like I said before, I think he wants to go out with a bang. Headcanon: I don't think Albatross was at all content with how his life went. Yeah, he's the most respected dragon in the tribe, but at the cost of being a little pet for his sister to boss around. At this point he is Done with everything. Its gone fully into a manic episode.

^ Something like this as well, I don't think he liked the parties at all. Circling back into the Island Palace being his home, he hates his house basically being turned into a playground for Lagoon to show off. I also think he just generally doesn't like parties because they're loud and bother him. I'm 100% adding in my animus curse headcanon into this winglet, so with the added bonus of him being sensitive to sound it makes him yearn for peace and quiet. He's just getting that wish in a bloody and brutal way.

Interesting that Fathom tries DEFENDING Albatross even after he's fully aware that he killed Lagoon on purpose and is going after the SkyWings. He's in denial. He still loves his grandpapa and doesn't want to think he would actually do any of this. If he did, it was for a good reason, right? He would stop soon, right?

MANTA NO NONONONON NOOOOOO OH MY GOD NOOO THIS IS SO SAD NOONONONONOOO Manta is Albatross's daughter, by the way. She's trying to reason with her father.

Finally the realization is beginning to set into Fathom that, yeah, his grandpapa is going to kill everyone.

Ouughhhhh I wish Tui did more horrific moments like this. Having Albatross come into the room and act all like a horror monster is so good. She's really good with writing tension in these scenes. Love it.

Interesting that Albatross would point out Fathom's lack of an imagination of all things. Perhaps he's reaching for straws for anything that makes him better than Fathom. Reasons for why he should've been seen as a good and worthy animus.

Again, with Albatross mentioning here how he wants to kill Fathom up close, it's less about the killing them to him. It's the joy and release from watching the life drain from their eyes. To finally show how powerful he is. To show that he deserves to be seen as powerful and more than just a lapdog for Lagoon.

^ Albatross also sees Fathom as the reason for Lagoon disposing him. Albatross blames Fathom for it. If it wasn't for Fathom, he could've lived on with his miserable existence for a while longer. Maybe he could've shown Lagoon what he thought of her then.

Annnddd Albatross is dead within like two paragraphs. Yippeee.

Honestly if I'm doing this I'm giving his ass a Breaking Bad ending with him managing to live on and limp over to a place that's important to him before dying. RIP bozo.

[positivelybeastly]

Do you think Xavier is a bad influence on beast and the X-Men as a whole?

"That is - that is pure - pure poppycock and balderdash! That is ludicrous! That is absolutely - how would you - "

And then Hank stops for a moment.

And thinks about it.

"I don't - think he's a bad influence, no. That's a ridiculous question."

*

So, I think it's important for me to state that I think Professor X as the secret bad guy/villain of the X-Men story is just. Dumb. The X-Men story falls apart if he is just evil, there's clearly enough good about him to justify why everyone believes in him and follows him and puts stock in his dream (and no, it isn't fuckin' telepathic control).

But.

. . . Okay, this is going to take some set-up and context, so bear with me.

I find that if you take just the original 60s run as fully, unaltered canon, which . . . some people do, then you're gonna end up hating Xavier because he is just such a massive piece of shit. But pretty much any characterisation past that point, especially Claremont's, takes much more care to depict him as still very much an authority figure, but with a strong caring, paternalistic (for good or for ill) side to him that's shot through with a strong, burning tendency towards manipulation.

I think a delineation does have to be drawn here, though, that Charles being manipulative is (usually) different to someone like Mr. Sinister being manipulative, because Charles I think genuinely does have people's best interests at heart, but he's got a tendency to believe that that means his idea of their best outcome is the correct one. And. It isn't.

You can see it with Scott most acutely, where he tried to give him something that would best utilise his talents and give him what he was missing from life, but he didn't realise (and I do think it's a case of realisation, rather than not caring) what that was going to do to him in the long run. Scott doesn't have anything other than the X-Men because Xavier didn't think to really give him anything other than the X-Men.

You can also see it with Hank, where he really should have realised that Hank was in the middle of a really bad behavioural spiral pre-Krakoa, and pushed him to be closer with his actual friends or get off the damn island, but because he was preoccupied with Krakoa and probably thought, well, Hank's one of us, we should try and help steer him back, he gave him X-Force.

Which was precisely the wrong thing to do. You don't give an emotionally compromised wreck of a man control over your intelligence agency. But I choose to think Charles tried to do it out of love, not wanting Hank to feel cast aside or useless in the new status quo.

Bobby, Warren and Jean don't have it quite as bad, mostly because I never got the impression Xavier connected with Bobby or Warren as closely, and Jean is so absurdly powerful that their relationship has been one of equals for a long time now rather than outright teacher and pupil, which was what Scott and him were for the longest time, and which Hank and him arguably still are.

I always liked the version of Xavier you see in Parker's First Class, which is a version that makes the O5 and the X-Men at large's loyalty to him make sense, but you can't ignore the paternalism and manipulative streak that really does run through his character. Even before a lot of the damaging retcons to his character like Deadly Genesis or Danger, he was still doing fucked up shit like erasing Hank from his parents' minds because it was 'safer.'

So, is he a bad influence on Hank and the X-Men? Yeah, kind of? But I don't think he intended to be. I think he genuinely had the best intentions for all of them, they just . . . didn't pan out, and he went about trying to actualise those intentions the wrong way.

I feel like that's a more compelling characterisation for him, to be the man who loves his children but who can't stop fucking up their lives, or turning them into (in a roundabout way) weapons in his fight for mutant rights. The good man who can't stop doing bad things because he can't just let go.

[constellaj]

16

Please talk more about your reboot!

16: If you could change anything in the show, what would you change?

okay so how i would re-do CANON is completely different from how i would talk abt a reboot so im gonna touch on a couple things in both contexts! the reason for the difference is canon rewrites imply i can go back in time and introduce dp fresh and new, before anyone knows what it is; but for a reboot, id be working with an audience that has a better understanding of the source material, so i dont need to spend as much time explaining, but i also need to keep everything recognizable

Valerie

REWRITE: i would def make it more danny's fault that her dad lost his job, like danny was intentionally being reckless and shattered some security stuff, and he has a whole mini lesson about learning to not just run in guns blazing. i would probably remove the dating stuff with her and danny (and tuckers crush) too, I think them wanting to be good friends is good enough for freshman year

REBOOT: the fandom already knows valerie exists, so i would actually skip the whole shades-of-gray introductory episode and have her be present as the huntress from day 1-- probably even before danny got his powers. cujo is also HER dog, and her backstory-- we'd find out in like, season 1, that a natural ghost portal (maybe one wulf opened) ripped open on her dog and killed him, and since then shes had a vendetta against ghosts cause of how reckless they are and their disregard for life-- of course, cujo isnt actually dead. cujo is a halfa. a puby halfa. anyway instead of a hoverboard she actually rides cujo around cause he can fly and its big and epic. valerie has BEEN amity parks ghost-eradicating superhero for at least a year (tho shes been in the shadows abt it) and her hatred towards danny actually just becomes really petty, like them flying next to each other chasing skulker just going "I got this. no I got this. no I got this" and they just get in each others' way and its a mutual grudge.

BOTH: i am NOT keeping in vlad giving her the suit to watch danny under any circumstances. it was only utilized half assedly in canon (when vlad couldve just had an invisible duplicate watching him instead) anyway, and I dont have any reason to keep it in a reboot either. instead i want her tech to be a combination of half-stolen and half-gerryrigged stuff and she slowly slowly learns how to build her own.

I also dont want anyone knowing her secret identity, except maybe her dad, and sam or tucker. i think it works better if danny isnt privy to this magic info

Freakshow

REWRITE: i would honestly just remove him. the episodes hes in arent particularly interesting, theyre just generic "we need a plot about x" filler and he's not compelling enough a character (at least in writing) to carry a better plot that another antagonist couldnt. i'm serious

REBOOT: unfortunately in a reboot he's gonna have to pop up somewhere or else ppl will be like "where IS HE" so I'm going to stick with running some kind of ghost circus, maybe a few occult things, but cut out a lot of the spooky magical knowledge and mcguffin stuff. maybe i could make him like, someone from vlad/jack/maddies college who always felt pushed around by them and so he has a vendetta? and theyd be the only reason he even learned abt ghosts in the first place. idk in either way I want to force him into being irredeemable but also include LYDIA (the tattoo girl ghost) way more-- I want to give her an arc that ends in her tossing freakshow aside and running off to be a ghost vigilante.

BOTH: dear god the infinity gauntlet is stupid that needs to GO AWAY. especially for the reboot cause it would exist in a post-mcu world and way too many people would complain about it

Vlad

REWRITE: amp him up to a far more sinister and villainous character. the crushing on maddie isnt enough, I want to show him on-screen performing experiments on ghosts and himself, dismissing everyone else cause he thinks hes smarter than them. i want him to be actively sabotaging the fentons at every turn. i would also clarify that he doesnt actually want danny as a son, but as a trophy-- a line where danny says something along the lines of "you don't want a son. you want a slave". i want to make him a character who wants to destroy the entire planet and put it in the ghost zone so he can be the true ghost king and i want to make this all evident from day one. if i'm writing a series villain you can bet i'm going to write a GOOD one. less petty drama here and more actual stakes.

REBOOT: it seems silly but sense with reboot we have the benefit of hindsight and recognizing that vlad wasn't a big series villain, theres no way i'd actually go back and write him to be such. for starters, of course, theres the fact that anything he does would really be an exaggerated part of the original, and it would bore an audience to see the same story again-- theres also the fact that it doesnt seem right to take a character who was treated as a joke half the time and suddenly make them big and important. no, instead for my reboot i want to lean into the petty gay uncle vibe. he had a crush on jack and now just casually insults him. he moves mansions every now and again by just haunting the family who lives in the one he wants, and taking over-- i mean, who is gonna believe that an actual ghost haunted you. he dislikes danny not because he has some concept of 'evil' and 'good' but bc danny is just too damn active. of course he actually does care about danny and his safety deep down, it's just on the surface they have very conflicting motivations-- not to mention that danny has been raised on legends from his parents of the villainous Wisconsin Ghost, who has to be stopped at all costs.

BOTH: i want jack and maddie to KNOW he's a half ghost and to actively be hunting him down for it, maybe bc they think hes possessed, or been a ghost tricking them this whole time, or the victim of a tragic lab accident who needs to be put to rest, etc. whatever the case it will give vlad actual tangible reason to despise them and genuinely suspect they dont have dannys best interests at heart. i think it would be neat if vlad was cynical and every time danny hit him with the "I'll expose us both. at least theyll still love ME" vlad could be like in the back of his head "oh god theyre going to kill this child"

Dani

REWRITE: cut her out. we don't need her character at all. maybe replace her with a more ominous shadow duplicate / clone that actually looks like danny himself and doesnt really have a name? you could probably combine her and dark dans characters for their arcs

REBOOT: instead of a clone from vlad, she's a guys in white creation using some of dannys dna after he was captured (and vlad broke him out bc he was like "ugh i guess i have to save this child")

BOTH: vlad actually cares abt her (duh), shes nonbinary (double duh), she gets the funny dissolve into goo powers

i had more i thought i was gonna write but this post is already very long and also im running out of coherency for this LUL

[nikkialena]

More Than Just A Number

What he do now, was the first thought to cross your mind when Obi-wan requested a meeting with you. As long as you've known Anakin you've learned that he's a magnet for trouble, not that you were any different as a padawan but you were both generals now, there was a time for games and a time to be serious and Anakin couldn't seem to differentiate the two. Although a small smile tugged at the edge of your lips at the thought of seeing a couple of old friends, as you walked into the Jedi temple you were greeted by an overly eager Anakin whisking you into a hug and an annoyed looking Obi-Wan. "Hi Ani, long time no see huh whatcha been up to," you asked as he let you go and smiled his signature cocky grin "well you know stuff" he muttered scratching the back of his neck, "so getting into trouble and causing problems for everyone else?"

A couple of Jedi council members snorted including Obi-Wan, Anakin just crossed his arms "you call it trouble I call it thinking outside the box" he mumbled with a slight hurt look on his face, "it's good to see you [Y/N] but we called you here because we need another general in my absence...also nobody else really wants to work with Anakin" Obi-wan mentioned while rubbing his temples. "Hey" Anakin shouted but you ignored him as Yoda and Obi-wan briefed you on the rest of the situation, "why me though I mean I don't mind but these hundreds of other Jedi" Yoda touched your shoulder as a gentle smile touched his lips." Strong with the force you are, strong like Anakin" and that's how you ended up babysi- working with Anakin, currently you were locked in a tense battle of dejarik waiting for him to make a move. Either way, he was fucked he only had one character left with two hp while you still had three with full hp, if you looked close enough you could see beads of sweat forming on his forehead as he tried to think of a way to outmaneuver you but that wasn't likely, whaling softly he accepted defeat and moved his character forward which proceeded to be pummeled by yours.

Throwing your hands in the air you snapped your fingers and swished your hips in a little victory dance "face it sky guy you'll never beat me in this game", Anakin snorted and crossed his arm "I'll have you know I came very close to winning last round...anyway I have something to attend to" he uttered briskly standing up. "You mean someone" you teased and he blushed softly speedily walking away leaving you to go talk to his precious Padme, ever since you were little kids she was all he could talk about, you remembered the day they met he came back to you shouting 'hey guess what I saw a girl a real girl' you'd given him a pointed look hurt evident on your face. He quickly tried to fix the situation by mumbling how you were a girl but not like a girl girl nonetheless, it hurt your feelings.

This is why to this day you always wear a hooded robe, you were an interesting character to look at since your mom was a twi'lek and your father a zarak most people gawked at you whenever you removed your hood. Walking into the bathroom you splashed your face with cold water before staring at yourself in the mirror, with hesitant fingers you pulled back your crimson hood allowing your lekku to fall freely, two of them draped over your shoulder while the other two hung behind you reaching a trembling hand to the crown of your head you traced one of the jagged horns sprouting from your scalp. They completely circled your head like a mangled crown of sorts, you'd cut them off multiple times before but they just grew back with a vengeance standing taller than before, almost like they were mocking you for your futile attempts. Your hand slowly reached for your saber attached to your hip when you sensed a presence from outside the door, quickly throwing on your hood you dried your face with your sleeves and opened the door, "how may I help you, Captain Rex?"

He stared at you for a second before fixing his posture and saluting you "oh um nothing ma'am general skywalker just sent me to check up on you because you weren't answering your comlink", you stared down at the comlink blinking on your wrist and held in the urge to facepalm you were so lost in thought you didn't hear Ani calling out to you. A soft blush of embarrassment washed over you as you scratched the back of your hood "I can assure you I'm fine Captain Rex" he gave an acute nod before turning to leave, you weren't exactly sure what compelled you to grab him but you reached out and grabbed him. "Sir," he asked questionably looking down at your delicate fingers wrapped tightly around his wrist, you could feel his confusion through the force and your confusion as well, clearing your throat you nodded at the game "fancy a game captain?" He was wearing his mask so you couldn't see his eyes but you could feel his surprise and you didn't even need to use the force to sense it, "me" came his confused voice.

You rolled your eyes and shoved your hands in your pockets "no the wall...of course you", you sensed a slightly joyous aurora oozing from him as he sat down across from you, taking your seat a small smirk touched your lips as you motioned with your hand "you can go the first Captain". Damn. You hadn't expected this much of a challenge usually you'd crush your opponent in under ten-fifteen minutes flat but Rex, was built differently he'd seen through all of your ploys and called all your bluffs holy fuck he might actually beat you. It was your turn to sweat as your fingertips hovered over different characters altogether. You had about fifteen health points to his sixty, you were growing quite frustrated mostly because you couldn't read him.

Part of your strategy was being able to see your opponent's face but he was wearing a helmet, technically he couldn't see your face either but that was an irrelevant factor, "take off your helmet I wanna see the shocked expression on your face when I cream you". He chuckled and it was deep sexy and raspy, "I don't think that's going to help you much general but okay" with one sift motion his helmet was off and neatly placed on the table, you felt your smile flatter as he once again saw through you and your antics but boy was he gorgeous. He had a hard jawline with a small cut etched into the bottom of his chin, two golden orbs pierced your soul reading your every thought before you could make them, his skin was sunkissed and his hair a bright blonde styled in a low buzz cut a small smile formed on his lips as he uttered the words "your move".

You could feel the confidence oozing from him and it irritated you, that's not how you liked your men exhaling a low breath you moved one of your characters, it punched his heavy hitter, and took a critical low leaving it with one hp left. You shifted your [e/c] eye to his with a slight nod letting him know that it was his turn, unable to contain his smile any longer his lips curled into a sinister grin as he worked a combo on your characters ultimately massacring them, your shoulders slumped in defeat as he almost jumped from his seat but composed himself. "Good game Captain" you grouched extending a hand out to him he reached a handout and shook it, his hands were big and warm as they enveloped yours "thank you ma'am better luck next time" he sang in a slightly arrogant tone "you don't have to call me sir or ma'am you know my name is [Y/N] just call me that" you could feel a whole plethora of emotions coming from him joy, pride, confusion and honor he hesitated for a moment before mumbling. "Okay ma'- I mean [Y/N]" he quickly corrected himself as he slowly began to rise from the chair you arched a brow "where are you going?" He looked at you confused as you nodded at the game "it's best out three bitch" he smiled softly and plopped back down "well if you really want to lose that bad I guess" he teased

[falcor-thee-luck-dragon]

What a Time to be Alive - Diego Hargreeves x reader

Chapter 5- Valhalla

Summary: The gala was fun and all, a mild exception being when you almost got choked out by one of the Swedes. For the time being, you and Diego get a surprise visit by the rest of the Hargreeves.

If you want tagged just hit me up. Tagged: @white-wolf-buckaroo @fandomoverlord221 @la-vie-en-amour1 @2cuteforyourlies @thatfandombitcch

“You know, I’m starting to get the feeling Dads avoiding us.” Five says frustrated, looking on as the cars continue to hastily leave the ruined party.

“Yeah, no shit.” You mumble back at him, fixing your dress, as you happen to notice how it now has a nice clean rip where the shoulder seam should be together. In the face of danger all accessories are temporarily forgotten, oh well, you didn’t even like the dress anyways, to constricting.

“Hate to be the boring one, guys, but, uh, it’s time to get the hell out of here.” Says Lila as she walks into view from behind some bushes and a brick wall, continuing to walk past all of you until she reaches the pavement, stopping to turn around and usher you three to follow.

“When you say “we,” who exactly are you referring to?” Challenges Five.

“Not a lot of ambiguity in that sentence.” Replies Lila, shrugging him off.

“Listen, I don’t know who you are or where you came from, but whatever it is, I’d advise you return posthaste.” Five says, using that pushy tone of his again, done with Lila’s falsities.

“She’s right Five we gotta get outta here.” Mutters Diego, looking around slightly nervously.

“I just saved your life, you kinder-shit. If I hadn’t stepped in, all that would be left of you is a blazer and some bloody socks.” She snaps back.

“That’s the problem. You’re too good. You ask too many questions. You know too much. And you fight like you know what you’re doing.” Five says making a compelling point. You eye her up suspiciously.

“He’s not wrong.” You tell her, equally as conflicted as to who or what she truly is.

“So I know how to handle myself. And that makes me the bad guy?” She questions calmly like what we’re saying is absolutely ridiculous.

“Whoever you are, you’re in my way. If I see you again, I will kill you.” States Five seriously, with restrained anger flashing in his eyes as he gives her a last dirty look before walking away back to Elliot’s house.

Looking to you and Diego in disbelief, she turns to go walking a couple of feet before turning back to the both of you. “Guys come on we have to go.” She urges.

“I was getting my ass handed to me back there. You helped Five, not me.” He questions walking in closer to here accusingly.

“Because he’s a kid and you’re a man. Bloody act like one for god sakes, Y/N didn’t appear to need any help. If I remember correctly.” She says in defense, trying to get her point across without giving herself away.

Nodding Diego walks past her. You look up at her pleading eyes and look down for a second thinking of what to do. Making up your mind, you purse your lips together, walking past her as well.

“Y/N, really?” She pleads, knowing she’s losing the battle. You turn to her.

“I liked you Lila, you were fun to hang around with for awhile, I’ll admit. But we know nothing about you, and shits gotten weirder then ever. And right now I can sense that your lying to us, I wouldn’t even have to look at you to know that, I can practically smell it.” You explain to her without much remorse, you knew something was up after all, and nothing is getting in the way of your family’s safety. If she happens to be with the wrong people, that is.

You stare at her for a second more before turning around and following Diego. Tired of all the crazy shit you’d endured at the party.

“Oh, come on. Y/N? Diego? Really? You’re just gonna walk away?” She yells, as Diego starts to make a beeline for the woods. You ignore her calls as you jump over the thigh high stone wall and into the woods you go.

——

The next morning you and Diego get a surprise visit from Luther, someone whom you haven’t seen in a year and a half. After greetings are said, he walks in hungry as ever. So now here you are in Elliot’s kitchen as Luther makes himself a ridiculously large amount of scrambled eggs. You, Diego, Five, and Luther in the midst of a discussion on everything that’s happened up until now.

Smelling the delicious scent of scrambled eggs you sit on the kitchen table with your boots on the chair, looking between Diego and Luther who’s currently cooking said eggs at the moment. Watching as Diego paces back and forth heated about the ass kicking you, Five, and himself received last night.

“No, no, no, I don’t understand. They keep following me and Y/N. Those Dutch fuckers.” Diego points out, attempting to explain his thoughts to Five.

Wait, who?” Wonders Luther, trying to keep up with what’s going on.

“Some Swedish sociopaths.” You answer bluntly.

“Precisely Y/N, atleast one of you is paying attention.” Turning to Diego he continues, “They’re hired guns paid to eradicate us before we do anymore damage to the timeline.”

“Yeah, but why now? I mean I’m fine for three months until you showed up.” Diego growls, snapping his fingers angrily at Five’s unflinching form.

“Yeah, I was here for a year and no one messed with me.” Luther adds, focusing on the eggs he’s still cooking.

Pointing to Five you reply, “Luther’s got a point. I was here for almost two years and I haven’t been randomly hunted down by anyone. Then you show up and I get put in a choke-hold.” You say raising an eyebrow at him.

“Even if it was my fault, which it isn’t, we only have six days before the end of the world, and the closest anyone’s gotten to Dad was that driveway at the consulate.” Comments Five, glancing between the three of you.

Quietly Luther speaks up, “Well that’s not exactly true.” He says with a sigh, looking at the wall before turning to your guys’ confused faces.

“What do you mean?” Asks Five, stepping in closer.

“You didn’t?” He looks away from your prying gaze, he did.

“I saw him.” Luther says, looking nervously at you three, like a child getting caught with a frog in his pocket. He then proceeded to go on a long and boring story about how he traveled back to the Umbrella Academy, talked with Sir Reginald Hargreeves himself, only to get shot down and sternly told to leave. Of course that’s what was going to happen, idiot, he doesn’t even know who you are.

Sitting to Luther’s right and Diego to his left with Five in a chair to your back left. You slouch leaning your arms against the table, propping your head up with your right arm, as you lean against the wall. Listening to the two converse about his misfortunes.

“That’s pathetic.” Diego tells Luther bluntly.

“Yeah, well at least he didn’t shank my ass.” He mumbles, mouth full of scrambled eggs.

“No, bro, he shanked your heart.” Diego says in the most sincere voice you’ve heard in awhile.

Snorting with amusement from your side of the table, you add bluntly, “Well it wouldn’t be the first time.” Gaining a chuckle from Diego and an eye roll from Five.

“Mhm, hilarious.” Luther replies sarcastically, continuing to scarf down more eggs.

Walking into the doorway to the kitchen, Elliot stops, looking confused at Luther. “Is that my bathrobe?” Staring up at him like a deer in the headlights he says innocently, “No”

“Look, who cares what he shanked? He knows something about time travel.” Interrupts Five, talking to the three of you.

“Uh, wait, why don’t we just do your thing and, uh, time travel us out?” Wonders Elliot.

Standing up visibly frustrated, not really caring enough to explain himself anymore, Five asks the three of you sitting down. “Anyone care to explain?”

Luther looks up at Elliot ready to clarify why, “First time he tried, he got lost in the apocalypse.” Diego adding, “Second time, he ended up without hair on his balls.”

“Last time I tried it, I scattered my family across three years in Dallas, Texas, possibly triggering a doomsday.” Five says, while making himself a cup of coffee. “Anymore questions, Elliot?”

“Uh, no.” Studders Elliot, finally getting the point.

“You’re all missing the big picture. Dad is the ringleader of a sinister cabal that’s planning to kill the president.” Diego says sternly.

“A cabal?” Luther asks, confused again.

“Ignore him” You tell Luther, earning a glare from Diego, you smile at him innocently.

“Look, the way I see it, we only have one option.” States Five.

“Oh yeah, what’s that?” Questions Luther, half sarcastically.

“It’s time to get the Umbrella Academy back together.” Five says in all seriousness.

“Hell yeah, family meeting.” Diego grins, looking at you, you lift an arm up in reply.

“Why not?”

——

Sitting in the upstairs area near the balcony are Diego, Luther, Vanya, and Elliot, who’s trying to explain the workings and history of jello to everyone. No one really caring enough to listen to his rambling about how it’s made. Meanwhile, you stand looking down at the doors in excited anticipation for your long lost friends.

You listen as they bicker from behind you, Diego still salty about getting the life sucked out of him by Vanya’s energy tentacles, finally they make their peace and you smile to yourself. Proud that he’s matured a bit since then, knowing old Diego probably wouldn’t even be talking to her right now. Hearing the sound of a bell ring, you look up to the doors and spot Five, Allison, and Klaus making their way inside. Shouting their own greetings not catching sight of the rest of you just yet. Now finally looking up, they spot the four of you and shock instantly arrives on their faces, everyone looking at each other with dumbfounded smiles.

“Oh, wow. I know this is impossible, but, did we all get sexier?” Klaus wonders his eyes landing on each of you. You smile at him, missing his stupid humor.

The four of you walk quickly down the steps, grateful to have the whole family back together again. You rush up to Klaus, engulfing him a bear huge. “I missed my partner in crime.” You tell him smiling like an idiot. Breaking away, still holding onto your arms he adds, “Ah my dear, how I’ve missed our Friday night margarita parties.” Smiling at you, Diego then comes in for a brotherly greeting himself. “Oh, you are drunk.”

“Yeah. No, just a little...just a few.” He says glancing at you for a second. You grin shaking your head at him, typical Klaus. He then turns to participate in a group hug with Vanya and Allison. You speed walk over, stretching your arms along with him, engaging in the friendly hug as well. Collecting yourselves together again, you stand back grateful for everyone still being alive and well.

“Klaus. Is Ben here?” Five questions, gathering the attention of everyone.

Putting a hand on his hip he casually says, “Oh, uh...no. No, unfortunately, ghosts can’t time travel.” He says, as he looks around to all of you, avoiding your gaze. You then hear an oddly aggravated whisper as the air pricks with static. Only you notice it, turning to the empty chairs you smirk. You know Ben’s here. Even though you can’t see the dead like Klaus can, whenever he’s around you and as long as he’s not to intoxicated, are you able feel the presence of the ghosts that follow him.

“Y/N is this true?” Five asks you, not completely believing him.

Winking at the chair you turn back to Five, glancing at Klaus for a second. As he rolls his eyes at you. “Everyone’s accounted for. Alive. And dead.” You state.

“All right, then. Let’s get down to business.” Five ends with, starting to walk up the stairs. Never one to mess around for too long, huh.

——

Everyone stares at Five as he begins to apologize for stranding us all here in the 60′s. Then he goes on to confirm about this new apocalypse and whatnot. Surprising Klaus, evidently leading to the discovery of his cult that he apparently somehow started, not that you’re that stunned, if we’re being honest.

Five then shows the picture of Sir Reginald standing on the grassy knoll, Diego fully believing him to be the cause of Kennedy’s death, and Five saying it could be something else entirely. You agreeing with the the more probable explanation of Fives. He does express the fact that no one really knows shit about anything quit yet either, so how could we know it’s actually Reginald on the grassy knoll.

Diego then starts rambling about how the assassination and the apocalypse have to do with their dad, yet again. Five cutting in with his own calculated approach.

“But we know something changes the timeline, we have to make this right.”

“Yeah, but how, if we don’t know what’s broken?” Adds Allison, who’s sitting next to Vanya on the couches large plushy armrest. Klaus sipping a glass of beer or something of the like behind them.

“Come on, do the math. We know Dad’s having shady-ass meetings with some shady-ass people. We know he’s on the grassy knoll in three days to kill the president.” He says looking at everyone, trying to convince them. “So I think we know what we have to do.” He says, walking over to Five after delivering that dramatic line.

Both of them speak at the same time.

“Find Dad.” Says Five.

“Kill Dad.” Says Diego, with slight aggression, your eyebrows raise in surprise.

Everyone looks up at him, confusion clearly written on every single one of your faces. You honestly weren’t expecting Diego to throw the whole ship out to sea. He wants to kill the old fart huh, yeah that’s not gonna fuck up the timeline or anything.

“None of us are supposed to be here, right? I mean, what if it’s us? Has anyone here done anything to screw up the timeline?” Questions Vanya who gets nothing but  nervous glances from mostly everyone. You included.

“Diego and Y/N, have been stalking Lee Harvey Oswald.” Blurts out Luther.

“I was an unwilling accomplice.” You retort, sneering at him.

“And you’re working for Jack Ruby.” Diego cuts in defensively.

Klaus speaks up adding, “Allison has been very involved in local politics.” He says, while laying comfortably on the couch.

“Okay, you started a cult.” She snaps back.

“And I’m a nanny on a farm. I don’t have anything to do with all of that.” Vanya says calmly.

“Well, maybe you do, we just don’t know yet.” Allison adds.

Diego whistles bringing the attention of everyone back to him. “Listen to yourselves. Everything in our new lives is connected to Kennedy. That can’t be a coincidence. Luther works for Ruby, Allison is protesting the government, Dad is on the grassy knoll, Klaus is...” he pauses for a second. “Doing something weird and pervy but probably related. See, clearly we were all sent back here for one special reason: saving John Fitzgerald Kennedy.” Diego rambles completely serious about his mindset on Kennedy and the real reason why you are all here. I’m in love with an idiot, you think. Opening your mouth to state your opinion, the rest of them doing the same. Five sits back in thought, sick of all his siblings and yours nonsense.

Sitting up quickly, Five interrupts sadly, “Guys, you all die. Even Y/N. I was there. I saw it. And I wanna forget it, but I can’t.” Everyone shuts up listening to him talk about the end of the world. “I saw Russian nukes vaporize the world with all of you in it...in a war that never happened until we brought it here. And Hazel gave his life to save us, so you may need to shut up and just listen to me.” Everyone looks on concerned and nervous, letting the hard truth about the future set in. “I don’t know if things we’ve experienced here are all connected. I don’t know if there’s a reason for everything. But Dad will. We need to talk to him before everyone and everything we know is dead.”

Pondering the words Five just said to everyone, Luther suddenly gets up. “Okay, I’m out.”

Frustrated Five raises his voice, “Did you even hear me, Luther?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I did. I heard a 58-year-old man who still wants his daddy to come and fix everything. Well you can count me out. It’s time we all grew the hell up.” Grumbles Luther, frustrated with everyone and the idiotic idea of going to Sir Reginald for help.

Standing behind the opposite couch of Allison and Vanya, you turn to Five vexed by what he just told you, raising your voice slightly. “Did you get knocked on your head as a child, I mean all of you, seriously? When has Sir Reginald-stick-up-his-ass-Hargreeves ever legitimately helped us do anything?” You pushed, trying to make a point. “Even though I thought I’d never say this actual sentence in my entire life, I’m with Luther. Fuck that old monocle wearing dipshit. I’m out.” You huff pissed off. How could they all actually agree to meeting up with him, like he’s gonna talk it out and everyone’s gonna be A-Okay again, no way. You lived in the Umbrella Academy for seven years. It wasn’t what one would call, a walk in the park.

Everyone’s eyes are on you by the time you’ve finished your passionate rant, all looking very perplexed by your outburst. Your opinionated eruptions aren’t anything new, as you’ve always stood up for yourself and what you believe in, but. You sadly understood that even as grown up as they all are, they still seek guidance in the old man. Luther’s right, it’s time they’ve all gotten their shit together.

“Alright then.” Luther adds turning to walk towards the stairs, you hot on his tail. Hearing the calls from everyone else for you two to come back, you ignore them. Even when Diego gets up, questioning the both of you.

“Don’t.” You glare at him darkly, not wanting to hear any more bullshit about JFK or Reginald.

In a flash, Five teleports directly in front of Luther, blocking your exit down the steps.

“No one leaves until we figure this out.” Five says, a stern expression on his determined face.

Sighing, Luther grabs his uniform, picking him up and throwing him off the staircase. Where Five teleports somewhere before he can hit the hard, tiled floor below.

——

Walking down the side street, next to Luther you keep your eyes forward not wanting to hear anything Diego tries to tell you. Taking the hint, Diego decides to talk to Luther instead. “What’s going on with you, big boy?”

“Ugh, leave me alone, Diego.” Grunts Luther, keeping his eyes forward and locked onto the street ahead of him.

“Huh? So, what, you’re just gonna sucker punch Five and haul ass, huh.” Looking to you, he continues not being able to stop himself. “And don’t even get me started on you, I mean really, you follow me around and then decide to throw in the towel.” He questions dangerously, honestly a bit annoyed that this whole time you were never really on board for saving the president.

You roll your eyes, about to let him have it. “I’m not stepping anywhere near that old fuck. We could handle ourselves, if the rest of you weren’t complete fucking idiots.” You snap.

Grumbling something incomprehensible, he turns to Luther. “You got a legitimate reason for walking out on us?”

“Look, maybe trying to stop doomsday is exactly what starts it. Did you ever think of that?” 

“Oh, so we do nothing? Since when are you a quitter?” Challenges Diego.

“Since the last time I destroyed the world by overestimating my own importance.” Luther exclaims, defensively.

“So this is about you never living up to the old man’s expectations bullshit, huh?” Says Diego, trying to keep up with the two of you who are walking quit briskly down the side street.

Luther scoffs, “Maybe. I don’t know, I mean we’re all crazy where Dad’s concerned.”

“Oh, I’m not.” Adds Diego smiling. Yeah okay hot stuff keep telling yourself that, you think, forcing yourself to hold it in. “He’s an asshole. I’m awesome, and Y/N would agree with me too, if she wasn’t so moody. It’s all very simple. You have to understand that, okay?” Diego says smartly, so damn sure of himself.

Stopping at the sidewalk you cross your arms turning to Diego. “So why can’t you leave JFK alone then, hmm?” You look up expectantly, raising an eyebrow as wait for the truth.

He pauses for a moment, “I’m a hero. Heroes stop crime.” He tells you earnestly, not a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

Shaking your head at him you take a deep breath, Luther coming to your aid. “No, no, no. No, Dad told you you’re a hero. Right? He told all of us. But what if he lied? What if we’re just a bunch of freaks who have no business changing the world.” Shouts Luther.

“No, everyone changes the world, Luther. Everyone. And it’s scary, but that’s kinda the deal. You know, your so goddamn big, sometimes I forget what a sensitive bastard you are.” Making eye contact with you he continues, “It’s all gonna work out. We’re on the right path.”

“You sound like a religious cat poster.”

“Oh, yeah? How do you know?” Asks Luther confused and frustrated.

Deciding to draw their attentions to something more important, you state an unseen but obvious fact, one that you’ve been silently tracking since the three of you left Elliot’s place. “Hey dipshit’s, there’s a long black car that’s been following us since we left Elliot’s.” They look at you confused for a second. “Six o’clock.”

Luther turns around as a mysterious black vehicle rolls up to you three. The driver getting out and pulling a piece of paper from his inner suite pocket. Handing it to Diego, who takes it cautiously.

Cutting it open with one of his knifes, he begins to read it aloud, “To my pursuers: I, Reginald Hargreeves...request the pleasure of your company for a light supper on the 20th of November, 1963, half past seven o’clock, 1624 Magnolia Street.” He finishes, looking up at the two of you.

“A light supper?” Luther wonders.

Luther and Diego then turn to you, Diego with a dumb smirk plastered across his face, you roll your eyes and hang your head back in defeat. “Goddammit.” You deadpan.

“Anyone hungry?” Luther randomly asks, you guessing it’s his attempt at lighting up the mood.

[franklyshipping]

Cyber-Flustering ~ A Markiplier and Jacksepticeye Ego Fanfic

HERE WE HAVE ANOTHER WONDERFUL AND JAZZY ANONYMOUS PROMPT WITH OUR FAVOURITE GLITCHY BOY HECKIN GETTING IT! LET’S DO THIS!

TAGGING: @anti-switch-glitch and @googlee-oliver

This was it for Anti. He had five minutes. Five minutes left to figure out who was doing this to him. Three weeks ago, someone had set up an Instagram account. Anti knew it had to be an ego, because only someone he lived with could have gotten the videos and pictures that ended up being posted. Pictures of him smiling or mid-sneeze or interacting with Gab’s cat, and videos of him snort-laughing or giggling or crafting with Robbie or napping with three blankets wrapped around him. And everything was captioned with something calling out how cute he was being…..and in the bio of the account, was a message directly to him. Anti blushed as he looked at his phone, re-reading the bio for the millionth time.

“Hey Anti! I’m sure this account documenting all your cutest moments is flustering enough for you….but let’s take it up a level, shall we? If in three weeks to the day you still haven’t figured out who I am….then I’m going to find you, and tickle you on a lovely livestream for aaall the followers of this account to see! That’ll round off the content nicely, don’t you think? Can’t wait to see if you find me out or not, good luck!”

Anti tossed his phone on his bed and buried his face in his hands, whining as a flustered smile spread across his face. In the first week of the account being up he’d been like Sherlock Holmes, trying to analyse every single ego out of embarrassment at the world seeing all this content. However, he soon came to realise that the account was only letting fellow egos follow it and see the content, which made Anti feel far better about it. Also, as the days continued to go by…..though it was all still flustering, Anti at the same time felt more loved than he’d ever felt before. Not just from the complimentary captions, but the comments from the other egos were so….kind and sweet. He didn’t feel belittled or mocked, he just felt surrounded by love.

So, in the third week especially….Anti had kinda stopped trying to figure out who the person was. Frankly, the thought of being tickled with the egos as an audience made him kinda excited, especially with how he knew they all cared about him and still respected him and his strength whilst he still liked things like tickling. So Anti was now just waiting….and soon enough, the time flicked to 8pm…...and he got a message on Instagram….from the account itself. He nibbled his lip as he opened it and read it.

“Uh oh, looks like your time is up! If I’m honest, I’m glad that this is the outcome…..now, come to the main living room, it’s time for our little livestream!”

Anti gulped, but took a breath and hurriedly replied.

“I’m on my way.”

Thus, he got up, and headed to the living room….and as soon as he crossed the threshold, he got chills down his spine. The lights were dimmed, the main couch was very obviously set up with a pillow, and there was a phone set up on a tripod….already streaming. Anti tentatively walked in front of the camera, glancing at the screen, before looking around and calling out.

‘Alright….I-I’m here, you win….who are ya?’

Anti gulped when he suddenly heard a little giggle from the darkness….but NOTHING could have prepared him for who actually stepped out of the shadows. Anti gawked, gobsmacked as he looked the person up and down, before whispering in disbelief.

‘…..O-Oliver?’

The kind-hearted, sweet android with golden eyes giggled and grinned, his tongue poking out through his teeth as he sauntered to Anti, cooing to him.

‘Hey there GlitchyKitchy.’

Anti blushed….the damned name of the account was flustering enough by itself. Anti was astonished. Out of everyone that it could have been, Oliver was the literally the LAST person he would ever have suspected doing anything like this! It was so mischievous and sneaky, and now all Anti wanted to know was why the heck Oliver decided to take it upon himself to start this teasy vendetta against him.

‘I-I….I-….I-I don’t understand….why?’

Oliver grinned fondly at Anti. It was true, mischief and secrecy weren’t things that came naturally to Oliver, and he had to muster up some courage and determination to actually do all this….but he had a very compelling reason driving him. A reason which he now revealed to Anti with a sweet, affectionate smile.

‘Well…..almost everyday people tell me I’m sweet, or cute, or adorable. And every time I hear something like that it always just….lifts me up. It gives me butterflies, no matter how hard a day I’m having, hearing stuff like that from people makes me so happy. I wanted you to feel that too, because I think you deserve it.’

Anti blinked. He was just….lost for words. Oliver did this, made a secret account and spent all that time and effort collating flustering pictures and videos of him….just to try and make him happy? The usually wild man was struck silent with bashfulness, because this was literally the kindest, sweetest thing that anybody had ever done for him…..ever. Oliver’s internal processors whirred and warmed affectionately at seeing Anti be so struck and bashful and happy, and Oliver was so happy that he’d done this for the guy, because Oliver knew that behind the knife-play and wildness….Anti was a good person who deserved sweet attention like everyone else. Oliver went up to him, and Anti shivered at the android’s gentle smirk.

‘Now then, why don’t you have a little lie down?’

Anti nibbled his lip as he glanced to the couch, before clearing his throat and replying challengingly.

‘And if I don’t?’

Oliver giggled. It was a sweet sound, but it gave Anti chills, especially with what Oliver said next.

‘Oh Anti, don’t forget that I’m an android. I am just as strong as my brothers, and I could make you lie down with only one hand if I really wanted to. I want to be nice to you Anti….do you want me to be nice to you?’

Anti got more chills. He never thought he’d see the day where Oliver, the sweetest of them all, made him feel flustered and intimidated. Anti nibbled his lip lightly, before averting his gaze with a nervous smile.

‘Y-Yeah….I guess….’

‘Good, now get yourself comfy!’

Anti bashfully lay down on the couch on his back, squirming as he get comfortable, trying to school himself and at least make it look like he had at least SOME resolve to be working with. Alas, this was foiled when Oliver sat on the edge of the couch and gasped brightly as he gestured to the livestream.

‘Oh look, there’s so many people watching already! Everyone must reeeally wanna see you get tickled Anti.’

Anti ended up smiling a shaky smile and letting out a quiet whine as he look anywhere he could except for the livestream. It was a noise which the ordinary person probably wouldn’t hear, but with Oliver being a Google, he heard it alright. The first cute noise of many. Oliver giggled, wasting no more time as he straddled Anti’s legs and kept Anti’s arms pinned beneath his knees, and Anti let him, because he knew that Oliver was the one with the power here. The squirming man let out another quiet whine as Oliver lightly cracked his knuckles, before waggling his eyebrows and wiggling his fingers in the air playfully.

‘Oh where oh where to tickle first! You’ve got so many sweet spots to choose from!’

Anti pursed his lips as he retorted embarrassedly.

‘I-I do not!’

Oliver raised an eyebrow as he giggled affectionately.

‘Oh yeah? You sure about that? Because I’ve already spied two cute lil tickle spots riiight….here!’

Anti gasped and yelped as Oliver reached and started gently scratching behind his (small, elf-like and adorable) ears, and the poor guy just burst into jittery giggles. Oliver felt like he was going to melt, because Anti’s natural non-maniacal giggles were the sweetest things ever.

‘AGH! N-Nahahat gehehet ahahaway!’

Oliver grinned at his cute protests, and kept softly scratching as he cooed.

‘Awww but your little ears are so cuuute, I can’t not tickle them! Plus, these are your consequences for not figuring out who I was.’

Anti kept giggling as he tossed his head about, but nothing could dislodge the gentle tickling. So, through pinker cheeks and splutters, Anti tried a threat out for size.

‘I-Ihihihi’ll b-bihihite yohohou!’

Oliver giggled at the threat, because when it came from someone consumed by bouncy giggles it didn’t exactly fill Oliver with fear. On the contrary, it gave him some inspiration. Allow me to present to you, the biggest backfire in tickling history.

‘Not if I bite you first!’

Oliver purred, before eagerly diving down and nibbling the shell of one of Anti’s ears, making him squeal in ticklish shock and kick his feet at the new, evil sensation. His giggles reached a much higher pitch too, and he realised that he’d literally just brought that on himself.

‘Nahahaha ohohoho my gahahahad!!’

‘Mmmmm nummyyy!’

Oliver hummed, making Anti squeak more and blush harder as the goofy android made the silliest nomming noises that he possibly could as he nibbled all over Anti’s ear. The fact that Oliver was being so silly rather than sinister with his tickling affected Anti more, it made him giddier. Usually if someone tried to intimidate im amidst tickling, it hardened his resolve because he could bite back, but with silliness it just turned him into happy mush.

‘S-Stahahahap wihihith the nohohohisehes yohou gohohoof!!’

‘But I can’t help it! It’s in my programing to make noises when I eat!’

Oliver retorted to Anti’s exclamation, making Anti snort and shake his head at this absolute gooby goofer of an android.

‘Thahahat ihihihis suhuhuch buhuhullshit!’

Oliver gasped. Oh he was NOT having that kind of language!

‘Hey! Don’t be so rude!’

Oliver nipped right behind Anti’s ear, making Anti yelp and jerk his head to the side adorably as he exclaimed VERY quickly.

‘Ohohohokahay okAHAY! Ihihi’m sohohorry!’

Oliver giggled, and leant up because he was always nice at heart, and he ruffled Anti’s already messy hair gently as he replied.

‘Apology accepted! Now then, where to tickle next?’

Oliver started tapping his chin in thought as his eyes flicked down over Anti’s body, which made the man squirm in adorable anticipation. You know when a tickler is looking all over your body, trying to decide where to go, and it feels like you’re being scanned? Well, this time it was literal, which made it all the more flustering for Anti because he knew Oliver could see ever little nerve in his body. Oliver giggled amusedly at Anti’s restlessness.

‘Yohou’re such a cute lil wriggler!’

Anti pursed his lips, and ended up letting out a half-growl half-whine sort of noise as he replied.

‘O-Only cuz you’re t-teasin’!’

Oliver giggled again, before beaming brightly as he replied.

‘Ahaawww I’m sorry, would you rather I just got on with it? Okey dokey! Let’s try these ribs shall we?’

Anti spluttered at the sudden shift, which meant he couldn’t prepare any defence as Oliver’s fingers darted to his ribcage, scratching light and fast in the most diabolical way. Anti was a mess of cackles in seconds, arching his back as he babbled.

‘NAHAHA NAHA W-WAHAHAIT OHOHLIII!’

Oliver put on a mock innocent expression, cocking his head down at Anti like butter wouldn’t freakin’ melt.

‘But you wanted me to just get on with it didn’t you?’

Anti whined through his cackles, and as he tried to retort, Oliver picked that moment to spontaneously pinch his uppermost ribs. Let’s just say that as a result, Anti didn’t get across everything that he wanted to say.

‘IHIHI NEHEHEVER SAHAHAID-EEEK!’

‘Never said what? Sorry bud, I don’t think even my sensors could catch that!’

Oliver replied with a teasy giggle, and decided to keep pinching the new sweet spots which had Anti thrashing and yipping amidst his open mouthed cackling fit. He was so flustered and giddy and loving how playful the tickling was, he’d never admit it obviously, but he was loving it none the less, despite his faux protests.

‘NAHAHAT THEHEHERE NAHAT THEHEHEEEERE!’

Oliver grinned fondly, and lean down nice and close to him so he could croon as he kept tickling him.

‘Awww this is another sweet spot isn’t it? Riiight at the top of the ribbies!’

‘OHOHOHOLIHI C’MOHOHOON!’

Anti wailed at the teasing, which made Oliver hum down at him with playful nonchalance.

‘Well, where is it you’d rather I tickle?’

Anti’s blush was creeping down his neck now, and he threw his head back with all his mind-swirling flusteredness as he exclaimed cutely.

‘IHIHIHI DUHUHUNNOHOOO!’

Oliver couldn’t keep the grin off his face now, Anti was just too endearing and perfect not to constantly smile at. Oliver kept up the tickling as he subtly glanced over Anti’s body again….before spying that Anti’s t-shirt had had ridden up, thus exposing a rather precious little button. Oliver chuckled, before cocking his head at Anti.

‘Are you sure you want me to stop tickling your ribs?’

Amidst his mirth, Anti hadn’t noticed Oliver’s little ploy, and he didn’t think….he just nodded.

‘YESYESYESYESYEHEHEHES!’

‘Okey dokey!’

Oliver let up with a bright smile, and let Anti gasp and pant for a few moments, since he was a sweet tickler like that. Anti was relieved for the time Oli gave him to get his breath back, and he slowly refocused on the android….but then his eyes widened as he watched where Oliver was headed. The android had shifted a little further down, and now had his lips hovering over Anti’s bellybutton. The poor glitch was speechless, which allowed Oliver to grin, wink, and then blow a rippling raspberry right onto his navel. Anti just absolutely screamed with laughter.

‘AAAAAHHHHHHH!!! OHOHOHOLIHIHIHAHAHAHA!!!’

Oliver gasped in amazement at Anti’s strong reaction, and eagerly blew another raspberry to make Anti shriek before he teased.

‘How’s this Anti? Do you like this better? I think I do!’

Anti was shrieking with wild laughter, kicking his legs and arching his back sharply at each raspberry, and the poor man as just becoming more and more incoherent by the second.

‘OLIHIHIHIIIII IHIHIHIT TIHIHIHICKAHAHAHA!!!’

‘Wohoah, it must really tickle if you can’t finish your words! I’m so glad I did this, you look like you’re having lots of fun!’

Of course, despite how mad and intense it was, this was the truth. Anti was loving the hell out of every tickly and torturous second, and in all honesty this was probably going to end up being the highlight of Anti’s whole freakin’ month.

‘SHUHUHUHUT UHUHUHUHAHAHA!!!’

Oliver giggled, and nuzzled his nose into Anti’s navel as he cooed.

‘Oops, did I fluster you a lil bit there?’

Anti had tears in his eyes as he writhed about…..before his laughter went silent. Oliver smiled fondly and leant up, having mercy properly now because he could see that Anti had taken as much as he could take. The android carefully released Anti’s arms as the man panted and caught his breath, but then Oliver’s felt his heart-core swell when Anti grinned up at him and spoke amidst giggles.

‘Yohou….ahare the mohost mischiehevous cute person….Ihi’ve ever mehet….oho jeez….’

Anti hugged his middle, rubbing it as Oliver beamed bashfully, before replying brightly.

‘Well I could say the same about you!’

Anti giggled, and smiled when Oliver helped him sit up, as well as promptly giving him a loving cuddle. Then though, Anti’s blush bloomed once more when Oliver turned to the still-going livestream, and he hid his face in his hands when he suddenly remembered that every ego had been watching all of that. He whined as Oliver grinned and addressed it.

‘Well, I think we can all agree that this was pretty freakin’ cute! Now, if any of you guys wanna give our trooper here a cuddle then you’d better get down here quick before I take over!’

Anti snorted and giggled embarrassedly at first…but then, he nearly got new tears in his eyes when he suddenly heard sounds of stampeding, hurrying footsteps throughout the whole of the manor. Anti smiled, and Oliver grinned, satisfied that he’d completed his mission…..because Anti definitely felt happy, and oh so loved.

WOOOO HOPE YOU ALL LIKED THIS FIC LEMME KNOW IF YA DID WOOOO LUV YOUS XX

[nazghoulz]

The Definitive Ranking of Richard Armitage’s Acting Roles, Rated Exclusively by How Hot I Find Him In Screengrabs

Richard Armitage. As a diehard Thorin Oakenshield fan I certainly have a complicated relationship with him, mainly because I can never decide if I find him inherently hot or not. On the one hand, I’m a hardcore Thorinfucker. On the other hand my gay ass sees a headshot of Mr. Armitage and I’m just like, “Oh, no thank you.” So in order to set myself to rights, I have gone through Mr. Armitage’s IMDB and done a definitive ranking of all his 44 screen roles on there, based completely and arbitrarily on how hot I find him in screenshots. (Thank you to all the hardcore Armitage Fuckers who keep wordpress blogs with screengrabs of his various cameos and bit parts; my respect for you cannot be put into words.) I haven’t seen like 90% of these properties, and I didn’t bother to research them, so these are mainly just gut first impressions. I hope this helps anyone else out there who as confused by him as I am. Enjoy ?

44. Father Quart in The Seville Communion/The Man From Rome (2020)   — ??/10

I don’t think this movie is out yet? Idk I haven’t been able to find any stills of him, let alone much information about the movie itself. It’s listed on his IMDB though! And apparently he’s playing a priest...which could be extremely  👁️👁️ if done correctly.

43. Unnamed Naboo Fighter Pilot in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999) — 1/10

OH SWEETIE NO!!!!! This physically pains me to say this, because I unironically love this terrible movie with my whole heart, but unlike a yung Kiera Knightley’s role (pictured front and center) as Padmé’s loyal body double Sabé, this is probably a cameo that we would all like to forget about. The only thing Richard has to offer is this unfortunate turtle-faced realness. This helmet does him no favors.

42. Man in Pub in Boon (1992) — 2/10

As far as I know this is Richard’s first acting credit on IMDB, and he for sure is working the background extra energy. Go on girl give us nothing! He does have a decent backside though, and it’s better than looking at unfortunate turtle face, so I give this one a 2.

41. Paul Andrews in Between the Sheets (2003)  — 2/10

I can’t really articulate why, but I absolutely despise every screenshot I see of Richard Armitage in this role. He is completely unhot, and not even in a way I can laugh at. He takes no advantage of his assets, he has no charisma, no magnetism, no nothing. This is Richard Armitage at his most white bread rando, in a way that makes me actively dislike him. Pbbbbttth. Bad. Throw this whole thing away.

40. Craig Parker in Casualty (2001)  — 2/10

I don’t know, it’s like the perfect storm of the gelled 2001 hair, the terrible quarter? eighth? zip sweater, and overall, er, skeezy vibes that he gives off that makes him particularly unhot in this role. Perhaps not as reprehensible as Unhot Paul, but still. I think the sheer boringness of this has to count for something. Blech.

39. Dr. Tom Steele in Doctors (2001) — 2.5/10

He honestly looks like a villain in an early season of Alias, which... well. Quentin Tarantino was cast as a bit-part villain in Alias season one, so take that as you will. But at least he’s compelling here, which is why he gets half a point over Unhot Paul.

38. Steven in Frozen (2005) — 3/10

Get some rest, tall child! You can’t keep burning the candle at both ends! Also short haircuts do nothing for you, Richard. Styled like this, they just serve to make you look sort of like a sleaze.

37. Peter Macduff in ShakespeaRe-Told (2005) — 3/10

He honestly looks like he could be a guest star in Friends in this one, where he’s a guy named Jason who Ross meets in Central Perk where they find they have a lot in common. Ross introduces Jason to Monica and they really hit it off, but it all comes crashing down because while Jason is sensitive and writes poetry, he also thinks that the Earth is flat. The rest of the episode is trying to get rid of Jason while he becomes increasingly obsessed with Monica, and Ross cannot quite let go trying to prove to Jason that the world is round. Anyway. Macduff Flat Earth Jason isn’t quite as unhot as Unhot Paul, but he’s pretty much on the same level as Tired Steven.

36. Phillip Durrant in Marple (2007) — 3/10

Something about him in this image really makes me want to punch him in the face. It’s huge Peter Parker in Spider-Man 3 energy.

35. Young Claude Monet in The Impressionists (2006) — 3.5/10

I’M LOSING MY FUCKING MIND THE FIRST THING THAT COMES TO MIND IS !!! CARNIVAL BARKER !!!!! STEP RIGHT UP TO SEE THE WORST GOATEE IN HISTORY !!! I was actually going to give Yung Claude a 2 but the more I look at this terrible beard the more impressed I am with the boldness of this look, so I had to bump it up to 3.5. Idk. Just look at this. It’s incredible, especially knowing what kind of beard Armitage can grow himself !!!!!!!!

34. Heinz Kruger in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) — 3.5/10

This is definitely the best looking he’s been so far in this list, but he’s a Nazi in this one, which makes him unsexy on principle. But do I feel a little something when he gets pinned to the ground by jacked Chris Evans with the above look on his face right before he swallows his cyanide pill? Can neither confirm nor deny. They are also truly playing into his inherently sinister bone structure, so I can respect that.

33. Percy Courtney in Miss Marie Lloyd (2007) — 4/10

Even including Yung Claude and Nazi Heinz, I think Nothing Percy is probably the weakest of Richard’s period looks, mostly because he looks like, well, nothing. He certainly doesn’t pull off that top hat like he does in North and South, and the secret to that might be the lack of sideburns. In this one he just sort of reminds me of the asshole fiance in Titanic.

32. Philip Turner in The Inspector Lynley Mysteries (2005) — 4/10

He’s really giving off bargain bin Hugh Jackman as Wolverine vibes here, if Logan’s energy was more “murderer in a Hallmark channel mystery” than “superhero.” Though, given what sort of show this is, that may be the point! Idk, this isn’t the worst. At least he has a decent haircut in this one. Still, I feel absolutely nothing when I look at him. He’s simply royalty-free stock music given human form.

31. Dr. Alec Track in The Golden Hour (2005) — 4.5/10

I could see how this conceivably be sexy in this role, but to be honest, he’s still nothing to me, sorry. He gets some extra points because he obviously worked out for this role and the hard nips through a white undershirt is a commendable look. I whole-heartedly respect Doctor Alec’s thottitude.

30. Daryl in Staged (1999) — 4.5/10

Speaking of thottitude!!!!! This is one cream-faced business boy that I can certainly get into! He looks like the love interest in a pre-Hayes code homoerotic thriller from the early 1930s. I’m sure that’s just because of the lighting and general staging of this production, but hm... demure. Love it.

29. Capt. Ian Macalwain in Ultimate Force (2003) — 4.5/10

Well, he looks like a character from M*A*S*H but with no charisma, or like an extra in The Great Escape who snitches on Steve McQueen to the Nazis. Also in half the pictures I find of him from this he’s wearing this terrible beret, which I know he can pull off because of a role that ranks much higher on this list. Whoever styles this man really needs to pay attention to what sort of headgear they put on him.  

28. Epiphanes in Cleopatra (1999) — 5/10

Speaking of headgear, you know what?? He doesn’t look awful here. A solid 5, perfectly acceptable. I think the helmet does a lot to accentuate the sharpness of his face in this extremely bit part, though the eyeliner definitely also helps as well.

27. John Mulligan in Moving On (2009) — 5/10

Mr. Armitage’s characters can really have potential when a production’s stylist allows him to wear scruff (IN A WAY THAT LOOKS NATURAL, LOOKING AT YOU YUNG CLAUDE). However, as it is with John Mulligan in Moving On here, he just sort of looks like a rando? They’re not playing into the inherent angularity of his face, which for me makes it sort of confusing regarding what sort of emotion I’m supposed to feel while looking at him. As it is, I’m just like, “Yup, that sure is a regular human man, right there.”

26. Smug Man at Party in This Year’s Love (1999) — 5/10

This is the face of a man who less smug and is more DRUNK OUT OF HIS MIND !!!! Idk. He’s cute here, I’ll admit. That’s all I have to say about it.

25. John Standring in Sparkhouse (2002) — 5.5/10

I enjoy the bold choice of giving him wavy hair in this one, but I’m not sure he quite pulls it off. It doesn’t look bad, per se, just... he looks completely nonthreatening. Which I guess could be someone’s thing, but not mine. He honestly looks like a knock-off Will Graham, sans dogs and trauma.

24. Gary in Into the Storm (2014) — 5.5/10

I think the thing that really gets me is that this character’s name is Gary. Who on God’s green Earth looks at Richard Armitage and goes, “Ah yes, you do look like a Gary” ??? I don’t think I know of a single non-American Gary, especially since the name Gary only got popularized after Gary Cooper renamed himself after his hometown of Gary, Indiana!!!! It wasn’t really a name for human men before that!!!! I want to live in the alternate universe where Frank Cooper was originally from Albuquerque and named himself Albuquerque Cooper and this character is named as such. Gary. Really.

23. King Oleron in Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016) — 5.5/10

I truly hate how much his facial expressions in these stills remind me of Thorin, considering how bad he looks otherwise. Like his face his fine, I guess, especially since this is the first instance of his full beard. I’m charmed despite myself! Take me to wonderland, O King.

22. Adam Price in The Stranger (2020) — 5.5/10

For as compelling as people call this series, Richard here isn’t very much so imo. But despite my utter lack of interest, he doesn’t look bad per se. He just sort of has that stubbly white man blandness that colors a lot of his more recent roles. Like, at least his bad mid-2000′s styling had character. This is just the visual representation of a vague handwave.

21. Harry Kennedy in The Vicar of Dibley (2006)  — 6/10

Gosh... floppy hair, cute sweaters... he also seems to be smiling a lot in this one, which is nice! The only thing I have to complain about is that he looks very much like if Bradley Cooper and Hugh Jackman circa Kate and Leopold had a baby, which may not necessarily be too much of a bad thing, but I can’t unsee it.

20. Sgt. John Porter in Strike Back (2010)  — 6/10

Ah, back to poorly suited haircuts. At least he’s a little bit gritter and grimier than we’ve seen so far, and I will say Richard Armitage does look good covered in dirt, as we will see later on. Also he’s got biceps in this one, which, hell yeah.

19.  Ricky Deeming in Inspector George Gently (2007)  — 6/10

I’M HAVING THE HARDEST TIME RIGHT NOW RANKING THIS ONE BC OF THIS INCREDIBLE LITTLE WHITE SCARF-RIDING LEATHERS COMBO!!! WHICH ABSOLUTE GENIUS DECIDED THIS!!!! EVERY SCREENSHOT OF HIM IN HIS EPISODE HAS THIS!!! Part of me just wants to give Stylish Ricky a big fat 10 because I’m gay and adore the sheer audacity of this look, but I still have to be fair and rank his overall aura accordingly. I think he’s a handsome extremely gay-coded motorcycle lad in this one, but he doesn’t exactly rev my engine, so to speak.

18. Lucas North in Spooks (2008) — 6/10

The tattoos really spice this one up. Luke could have been plagued by the problems inherent in Regular Mulligan’s Moving On styling, but this guy has an edge to him. He has a good haircut and 5′ o’clock shadow, which is something I’ve figured out is integral to Armitage Hotness. I feel like if I got to know this character I could possibly find him sexy.

17. Raymond de Merville in Pilgrimage (2017) — 6.5/10

Speaking of bad haircuts, this one is his undoing. This is almost the perfect balance between full beard and short haircut, which is the only way a short haircut works on this man, but they ruined it with this one! They gave him a bad bowl fade, which completely undoes any inherent sexiness that comes with being a knight. Not even the fact that he’s covered in dirt can turn me on at this point, ugh. Guy of Gisbourne he is not!!!

16. Tom Calahan in Brain on Fire (2016) — 6.5/10

Oh hell yes, WELCUM 2 DA DILF ZONE!!! I’m not super duper thrilled with the looks I’ve seen from this movie, but he seems scruffy and comfy in a way that is slightly refreshing for ol’ Richard. This is certainly the best of his normie looks so far. I’m just sad it took them 24 years to figure out how to style him properly for sympathetic roles in a contemporary setting.

15. James in My Zoe (2019) — 6.5/10

It’s another DILF look, slightly edgier than Comfy Tom but none of that sexy tired energy that we’ll see from Ocean’s 8. I don’t know !! Jimmy here doesn’t exactly thrill me, I think I prefer Tom’s flannels to this sharp bomber jacket/white t shirt combo seen here. Oh well! I am extremely  👀 👀 👀 👀 👀 that he can just casually palm that soccer ball like that.

14. John Thornton in North & South (2004)  — 7/10

Alright. I’m sorry. I just don’t find him that hot in this role. Like yeah, he’s got the scruff and the sideburns that work to his advantage, and the setting does make this character inherently sexy, but in some screenshots he screams too much of an aforementioned Kate and Leopold (the best Meg Ryan movie, imo) era Hugh Jackman to me. And if I was particularly into that, I would just watch Kate and Leopold again. I will admit, however, that this rating could be subject to change if I actually took the time to watch this show.

13. Chop in Urban and the Shed Crew (2015) — 7/10

...I’M??? INTO IT??? He’s dirty and scruffy but also has kind eyes.... I feel like this is knock off Will Graham who has blossomed into his own. His run down, grime-covered own. He’s back edging into Bradley Cooper territory, but somehow it works for him in this one. Like, I’m 89% sure it’s the DILF vibes I’ve been getting from the other screengrabs I’ve seen of this role, and this particular flavor of DILF is way sexier than Jimmy or Comfy Tom.

12. Francis Dolarhyde in Hannibal (2015) — 7/10

His Caesar cut doesn’t bother me quite so much in this, probably because he is pretty explicitly playing a villain in a series that doesn’t have any basis in reality. A villain who is ripped, and who can effortlessly throw real Will Graham around. Armitage uses his inherent sinisterness to great effect as the Red Dragon, which is good actually! I think a lot of how hot he is in any particular role really depends on whether the styling allows him to play to his strengths...idk! I’m not usually a huge fan of clean shaven Armitage, but it works for Frank here.

11. Daniel Miller in Berlin Station (2016) — 7/10

As much as I adore this particular look (beard + fade + green army jacket), I have to compromise and give Danny a 7/10 because it seems like the first season they styled him in usual stubbly white man blandness. I’d say screengrabs from s1 are a solid 6, while this might be an 8, so the average is a 7. That’s all I have to say about this!

10. Claude Becker in Ocean’s 8 (2018) — 7.5/10

!!!!! I love him in this role, I about had a conniption in the theater because I absolutely was not expecting him!! He looks perfectly ruffled and scruffy, edgier than either Comfy Tom or Jimmy, which I’m very into. That plus his two borzois (objectively the best looking dogs on the planet) really put Old Claude over the top for me. Thank you, thank you Hollywood stylists for finally figuring out what to do with him for roles as a Normal Man.

9. Richard Hall in The Lodge (2019) — 7.5/10

I don’t know anything about this movie, but it seems pretty spooky, which I’m into. I think Richard is well suited for this sort of horror/thriller role, where his angular features can play into the overall vibe rather than some hapless stylist trying to work around them. He looks like another cozy DILF here but with a bite to him, like someone who would do anything to protect his brood. I mean, he’s teaching this child to shoot! But idk, he also has the potential for Jack Nicholson in The Shining energy, which I also could be....hm... into. Idk. Is this on Netflix??

8. Lee in Cold Feet (2003) — 7.5/10

FUN!!! FLIRTY!!!! OTTER VIBES!!!!! I LOVE THIS, he seems so goofy here, and Armitage doesn’t usually pull off goofy that well! I’ve giggled at literally every screenshot I could find from the four episodes he was in this show, he seems like a real himbo. I’m a huge fan, even if it comes at the cost of dehydration abs.

7. William Chatford in Malice Aforethought (2005) — 7.5/10

Hoo hoo HOO DO NOT JUDGE ME!!!!!!! Maybe it’s just because I’ve been watching the new season of The Alienist and the new dark and gritty HBO reboot of Perry Mason back to back, but sue me, I love the bold choice they made with giving him a pencil moustache here. He looks like a hot Howard Hughes; if cream-faced business boy Daryl from Staged is the young ingenue in the pre-Hayes Code thriller I cast him in, Bill here is the sexy antagonist. I desperately want to hear a perfect Transatlantic accent coming out out of that  mouth. This look fucks and I’m sticking to that no matter what.

6. Trevor Belmont in Castlevania (2017) — 8/10

Ah, yes, speaking of king himbos... do me a favor and look me right in the eye and tell me that you wouldn’t fuck Trevor Belmont. You can’t, can you?????? At least 80% of Richard Armitage’s inherent hotness stems from his voice, and you can’t tell me there isn’t anything sexier than thinking about letting that guy loose in a recording studio and letting him say fuck. Look, Trevor may be drawn that way, but it’s the absolute stupidity coming out of his mouth in that sweet baritone that makes me want to be raw-dogged by 100% pure Romanian beef.

5. Dr. Scott White in Sleepwalker (2017) — 8/10 

Much like I had intimated when talking about Hot Danny in Berlin Station, this is Peak contemporary normie Richard Armitage styling. I honestly think The Hobbit either awakened something in him, or casting directors finally figured out he looks way good with a full beard. His crew cut even works with his whole look, which is a miracle!!!! I think he should be contractually obligated to have a full beard in all of his future roles, but that’s just me.

4. Guy of Gisbourne in Robin Hood (2006) — 8.5/10

I honestly can’t believe I’m ranking Guy so far up here, but honestly, THIS RULES!!!!!! THIS FUCKS!!!!!!!!! Which is incredible due to Guy’s lack of beard, but I’m weirdly okay with it? Like sure, he looks like he’d probably call me a slur in front of his shitty friends, but he also looks like he could tenderly pound me into the mattress in a way that would have me questioning my commitment to the “no emotions” clause of our clandestine no-strings-attached sex agreement. Anyway. Guy of Gisbourne if you see this im free thursday night. please message me back if you’re free thursday night when i am fr

3. Angus in Macbeth (1999) — 8.5/10

HHHNGHGNHNGHGN HE’S SO HOT.....!!! HE’S SO HOT!!!!! Leather jacket!!! Scruff!! Dirt!!!! Flattering beret!!!!! He’s so hot, and the worst part about this is that this was filmed in NINETEEN NINETY NINE!!!!!!!!!!!! Which means we could have always had this, had stylists and makeup artists PLAYED TO HIS STRENGTHS!!!!! He’s so hot I’m getting legitimately angry. Without scruff and dirt this man is nothing. N o t h i n g.

2. John Proctor in The Crucible (2014) — 9/10

Look, I know I have a type. But... this guy is just so hot, Daniel Day Lewis please step aside!!!! Contemporary theater historians describe John Proctor as a “strong beast of a man,” and... hhhHHOOOGH HELL YEAH!!! HELL !!!! YEAH !!!!! Like, his dick got almost his entire Puritan village, including himself, accused of witchcraft and like, looking at this guy, I kind of get it. I would probably go to war over the raw animal beauty of this horrible dirty, greasy man. Sue me, I confess. I saw Goody Osburn with the devil.

1. Thorin II Oakenshield in The Hobbit Trilogy  — 9.5/10

Come on. You knew it was going to be this guy. Look at my icon for christ’s sake. I am completely biased, I cannot look at his pictures objectively. Anyway. Thank you so much for reading, this was a very stupid list.

[kenzieam]

Touch

Rating: M

Warnings: Major Angst, heartache, some language

Word Count: 3595

Tags: @jewels2876  @moonbeambucky  @jeremyrennerfanxxxx123  @iammarylastar @captstefanbrandt  @badassbaker  @pinknerdpanda  @oliviastan17 @mizzzpink​

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As time runs out, Lev remembers her first encounters with Bucky, and how the touch-starved, damaged man became just as important to her as she is to him.

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HEADS UP..... MAJOR ANGST AHEAD, READ AT YOUR OWN RISK. i DON’T EVEN KNOW WHY I WRITE THIS SHIT, IT JUST MAKES ME CRY.

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Shit, I’m cold.

But at least it doesn’t hurt anymore.

I don’t know how long I’ve been trapped down here; things have gotten hazy.

It’s been a while though; I can’t hear half as many people screaming for help as before.

I’ve had time to figure out what happened at least, with nothing else to do but lay here, slowly suffocating.

My day, I think it’s fair to say, has gone spectacularly to shit.

I think it was an explosion that made the building collapse, but things were happening so goddamn fast I can’t say for sure.

Either way, I’m here, trapped, and I’m pretty sure I’m dying.

Figures, Bucky didn’t want me to go to this convention. If I live through this, I’ll never hear the end of it; Bucky hates being apart from me, because I’m not enhanced like he is, he thinks I’m fragile.

And to be honest, I’m feeling pretty goddamn fragile right now.

My back is arched, bowed backwards to where I could almost grab my ass with the arm that’s twisted back behind my head; my fingers are in the perfect place to scratch any itch I might have between my shoulder blades, but an itch is the least of my problems right now.

I can’t feel my legs.

I don’t know if it’s the fact that a large section of concrete wall is pinning me from the hips down, or if its something more sinister and permanent, a broken back perhaps. Either way, I can’t see my legs or feel them. Maybe they’re not even there anymore.

Would Bucky still love me if I were broken? No longer whole?

I think he would, he knows what it’s like to be incomplete. So many times, after we’ve made love, he’ll hold me and tell me how much he loves me, how I complete him, make him feel whole for the first time in nearly a century.

It’s a heady sensation, to know someone as powerful and legendary as James Barnes loves you.

I never expected to find someone like him, to feel the things he makes me feel.

It breaks my heart that it’s probably all going to end today, with me trapped, alone, in my proverbial coffin.

Was it only three and a half years ago I heard Tony Stark was hiring and me, fresh out of school with the ink on my doctorate of Physical Therapy not yet dry, decided on a whim to apply?

I never expected a call from the man himself, never expected to be given such a huge opportunity so early in my burgeoning career.

But Tony had a plan. People get hurt all the time, secretaries with carpel tunnel, agents with bruises and bumps, Avengers with broken bones earned on their newest mission, it only made sense to bring in a full time PT to the medical labs in the Avengers Complex, and Tony wanted someone fresh and new, someone without any bad habits to break as he put it, which is ironic when you consider all the bad habits Stark himself has.  

I’m still working on refining his damn posture in front of the computer, but I think it’s a losing battle.

My job was soon revealed, to help after Bruce and Helen had worked their magic, regain range of motion, stretch and massage damaged muscles, ensure the team ran at their peak.

While my job originally was supposed to include the entire Complex, it soon became obvious that all my attention would need to be devoted to the team of superheroes themselves and, after a few months of commuting to and from my small studio in the city, I gave into Stark’s less than subtle hints and moved directly into the Complex myself, becoming a round-the-clock, on-call-all-the-time member of the team.

My first interactions with Bucky were minimal, a shadow lurking behind the much more gregarious Captain America himself. I didn’t take it personally because, from what I could see and had heard, the former assassin stayed as far away from everyone that he possibly could.

But he ended up being half dragged to me by Steve himself a few months into my job, due to a lingering pain in the juncture of his shoulder from a recent injury; or more accurately, from a recent injury on the training mats that merely brought back the pain Bucky had apparently been struggling with off and on ever since HYDRA attached his first bionic arm.

The big man didn’t want to be there, I could tell and only his loyalty and commitment to his oldest friend kept his ass on the table as I examined the puffy, angry red scar tissue, his body rigid beneath my exploratory touch.

I knew enough of his past to realize that Bucky’s aversion to me was part of, if not wholly, due to the rough and cruel way HYDRA had treated him, when every contact meant hurt and degradation, but it still affected me. What had he lived through that had taught him that even simple touch meant pain? And how, with the very nature of my work involving discomfort, did I help him?

“Can you rotate your arm?” I ask quietly. When he hesitates, I continue. “I need to feel the joint when you move it.”

He nods silently, accepting the fact that my hands need to stay on him, press in lightly while he rotates his shoulder and, most likely, increase the pain he already feels.

I fall silent, close me eyes to help concentrate as he complies. “Again, please.”

I finger a particular point, deep in the joint and Bucky flinches, swallowing a low groan. I instantly feel horrible, for surely, to make Bucky react at all the pain I just caused must have been extraordinary, but it gives me something to focus on.

I pull away, trying to ignore the way his skin makes my fingers tingle; must be related to his serum-enhancement, my mind studiously ignoring the fact that touching Steve doesn’t illicit the same sensation and offer him a smile.

“I think a lot of that discomfort can be managed with massage, relaxing and sorting out the muscles involved. I’d prefer to try that, rather than jumping into more invasive therapies right away.”

I wait for his response, glancing at Steve when it appears for a beat that Bucky hasn’t even heard me but then it hits me.

Massage.

Continuous touch, continuous pain while he will be forced to lay immobile, tolerating it soundlessly.

Pretty much Bucky’s worst nightmare.

Shit.

Steve shifts his weight, clears his throat. He’s obviously torn between answering for his friend and letting Bucky decide, although it’s clear he expects Barnes to reject the proposal, to push on grimly through the ache and potentially damage his body more.

“Okay.” His voice is so low I almost don’t hear him.

“I’m sorry?” I lean closer, frowning with concentration. Fuck, for so huge and imposing a man, the guy can make himself practically invisible, even right beside you.

“Okay,” he repeats, barely raising his voice. “We’ll try.”

“I’ll do my best,” I feel compelled to reassure him, barely stopping myself from resting my hand on his shoulder, pulling back at the last second when I remember that that would probably be the last thing to calm the man. “To make it as tolerable, as pain-free as possible.”

Bucky nods but doesn’t answer.

“Want to start now?” Steve asks carefully, glancing between me and Bucky. I don’t know what Bucky will say, but I’ve probably filled his quota of contact today.

A silent head shake, his lank brown hair swinging, a quick but interesting glance up at my face. Is he concerned about my reaction?

“Tomorrow?” I ask gently. At his nod I continue, running through my schedule in my head and I know these two usually go running in the morning, hitting the gym after and then grabbing something to eat. “How about after lunch?”

“Okay.” Christ, the man’s voice is so quiet and soft, it doesn’t fit with his appearance. He looks like a beast, huge and muscular, danger radiating out of every pore. Its so much easier to visualize him as the cruel assassin The Winter Soldier than as a traumatized prisoner of war. That is, until you look in his eyes; then the muscles, the bulk and silent intimidating air all fall apart.

The concrete around me creaks, the rubble threatening to shift, and I hold my breath. It’s getting harder to breathe but I don’t know if that’s because of the way my torso is twisted, or just a general lack of fresh oxygen. I can’t see any daylight anywhere, of feel any type of air movement, but I also can’t move any part of myself around to look. For all I know, there could be a way out of this mess directly behind me, but I’m pinned.

How long has it been? I think I greyed out for a minute there, remembering one of my first meaningful encounters with Bucky, the first time he answered me, agreed to try massage therapy for his shoulder. The trust he showed wasn’t lost on me.

The building groans, as if its in pain too and I fight a rising panic. The voices I could hear around me have gotten less and less, the faint screams for help devolving into wordless, animal cries of agony before cutting off altogether and I wonder if anyone is even still alive. Is there any type of rescue effort yet? Has there been some kind of terrorist act that’s holding up my salvation?

Have they told Bucky?

The convention was a couple of thousand miles away from the Compound, even with the quinjet Bucky and I were hours apart.

Is he out there right now? Digging for me?

My mind wanders again as a fresh stab of agony shoot through my torso, ending curiously at my hips.

I look up at the soft knock at my office door and smile.

“Hello, James.”

His eyes meet mine, just for the barest heartbeat before dropping. “Bucky,” he murmurs.

“Bucky.” I agree, my smile widening at his soft, endearing air. I want to just gather him up and give him a hug, show him that there is love and gentleness in the world and he deserves it too; although, to be honest, I’d just look like a koala hanging off him, God, he’s beefy.

He follows me soundlessly through the Physio department, to the room I’ve set up strictly for massage therapy. I put myself through school moonlighting as a masseuse, and that was one of Tony’s first requests, that I set up shop again. It seems some days that half of my job is just massage, but I’m not complaining; I enjoyed it in school and it’s just as amiable now.

I gesture to the table, draped with clean sheets. “I’m just going to work on your back and shoulders, so you just need to take your shirt off, if you want to remove your pants too, that’s fine. Lay face down and there’s a sheet to put over yourself when you’re ready. I’ll be right back.”

He nods again but there’s a tension in his body now. Is it because he’s going to be showing his arm, the angry scars that surround it? I’ve seen it before, but it seems to be an enduring shame with him, and I make a note not to draw attention to it.

“Are you ready?” I knock softly and ask through the door, hear his quiet confirmation. I turn the lights lower as I enter, explaining as I do. “I’m just turning the lights down a bit.” I busy myself at the small table covered in different types of massage oil. “I don’t know about you, but I can’t relax under full lighting.” He mumbles some sort of agreement, head lowered into the u-shaped cushion. He’s laying face down, like I requested, but he’s anything but relaxed. Fists clenched tight, breathing quickly, he’s not letting go, not yet. “I can play some music if you want?”

“Okay.”

I pause, then speak. “Bucky? We can hold off; you seem a little tense-”

“No.” He lifts his head to look at me. “I’ll lay still, I promise. Just go ahead…. I won’t react, I can take it.”

I shake my head, that’s not the point. “No, Bucky. That’s not how it works here.”

He lifts his head again after dropping it during his statement about laying still, frowning thoughtfully, if a little suspiciously.

“You don’t have to just lay here and ‘take it’. This is for you, if you get uncomfortable, if you want me to stop, you say so and we’ll take a break. I don’t want you to just lay here and endure the pain. If it hurts, tell me; if you start to get overwhelmed, tell me. The last thing I want is to make this another bad experience for you.”

He pauses then, forehead furrowing slightly. From what I’ve gathered regarding his past, free choice wasn’t something ever offered to him, HYDRA would just order him to lay stay and endure whatever torture or torment they were performing.

That shit doesn’t fly here.

“You are in charge.” I squat at the head of the table to meet his eyes, wanting him to really hear me. “I will not do anything to you that you don’t consent to. I can’t guarantee it won’t hurt, but I will only do want you allow me to, okay?”

Something flickers through his eyes, something soft and vulnerable and I get the feeling that he will lay here for me through the worst pain, if only because I gave him the control to, something he���s never been given before.

“Okay,” he replies quietly.

“I’m not going to lie, the harder I work, the more it hurts initially, the quicker the pain will be over.”

He nods and I think he’s relieved that someone is taking the time and consideration to include him in what’s going to be done to his own body.

“But we go at your speed, okay?”

“Okay.”

I stand again, reach over and turn on my playlist, a compilation of soft, bluesy swamp rock and acoustic melodies and begin.

I’m getting tired.

Is it dark outside too?

Will I ever see the sky again?

I can’t think that way, I can’t give up. Not on myself, not on Bucky.

He will come for me; I just have to hold on until then.

My mind continues to wander, trying to distract itself from the growing lassitude in my body. The weariness, the lethargy scares me, I wish I could still feel the pain, at least I’d know I’m still here, existing, even with the agony.

I remember the way our relationship progressed, slow and cautious, tentative.

Slowly his body would turn from iron to relaxed muscles beneath my touch, slowly there would be anticipation, maybe even eagerness in his eyes when he’d walk into the department, rather than grim resignation.

Once he fell asleep on me, facedown on the massage table and I let him nap, leaving the music and lights low, the door cracked, waiting for him to wake as I went about with other duties, finally seeing him emerge looked a little shamefaced, smiling tentatively in apology as I worked with Sam on a range of motion exercise for his recently injured knee.

That seemed to be the final barrier.

After that, I was one of the few people Bucky actually chose to seek out, a rare and exclusive club.

It was easy to love him.

For even as I seemed to be a source of comfort and contentment for him, he too was my bastion of strength, my rock.

If he could wake up each morning and push on, then anything I encountered in life was conquerable too.

“Baby.” He groans, lips brushing my ear.

His powerful body moves above me, inside me, bringing me to heights of pleasure I’ve never felt before.

It’s our first-time making love together, and in some ways, it’s like its truly the first time for both of us.

He’s so gentle and tender, careful with how he handles me, like I’m precious glass in his large, powerful hands.

He cradles me as he thrusts, holding me close to him, whimpers faintly and its that sound of pure vulnerable surrender that pushes me over the edge. He follows, groaning my name into my hair as his body shudders. I feel him pulse inside me, the most peaceful feeling of rightness suffusing my limbs.

Right here.

This is where I’m meant to be.

This is the point my entire life has been leading to.

He collapses beside me, breathing heavily and I roll to the side, resting my arm across his heaving chest. The faint flinch he always had, that he still has with most other people, is gone. He trusts me completely and it’s a gift I will never waste.

His eyes lock with mine, searching, somehow dark with desire and light with joy at the same time. His body is ready again, hard and straining, serum-enhanced and close to insatiable.

I roll to straddle him, his eyes following me. His hands reach up and I clasp them, twine our fingers together, press against them as I sink down onto his cock, watch his eyes roll back in his head with ecstasy. I roll my hips, encouraged by the sounds my movements draw from him, the low groans and grunts, moans and hums of pleasure.

“Fuck-” he curses and my heart dances.

My body is hungry, wanting more, and I increase my pace, chasing another release.

His eyes open, lock on mine once again and we stay connected like that, both in gaze and in body. I watch the emotions shine there, in his supernaturally blue depths, see the vulnerability there, something akin to awe, as if he has trouble believing he’d ever be this way again, open and honest and bare with someone else, trusting them in so many ways.

“Bucky-” my voice drops into a whine as my peak hits, my eyes closing.

“No.” He orders and my eyes snap open. “Let me see you, baby. Let me watch you.”

Our eyes lock again as I give in and then he’s coming too, thrusting up into me one last time, eyes burning into mine, the expression in them driving me into another, simultaneous orgasm, which infinity loops back into Bucky, his body shuddering as my walls milk him, drawing his seed hungrily, and I realize that there’s few things I’d rather be in this world right now, than joined so viscerally with him like this.

The only thing that would make this better would be if his seed takes root inside me and I’m able to give him a child, a second chance, an opportunity for unconditional love.

I cough, wince at the pain that flares in my chest, taste copper in my mouth.

It won’t be long now, I feel the truth in my bones and, while it breaks my heart, I still fight it.

I need to see Bucky, even if its for the last time.

I’ll miss our life together, the way he always sought me out, wherever I was.

Touch-starved as he was, for nearly a century, once Bucky learned he could trust me, began to touch me whenever he could.

An arm around me from behind, lips on my neck. Tight hugs for no reason, seeming to recharge at our connection. Waking tangled up with the huge cuddle-bug, barely knowing where I ended, and he began.

And the way he’d cling to me on the couch, even if others were there too, uncaring about what they thought. Curled against me like a child, head buried in my neck, almost purring under my touch as I ran my hands along his back and shoulders, like stroking and taming a large beast, soaking in the touch-love like parched earth and water.

After almost a century of starving, he was hungry for connection now, for my touch.

I hate that I’ll be taking that from him.

Slight sounds I’ve been hearing sporadically for a while now but not really able to make out become faint rustles nearby, a muffled call.

The rubble creaks, threatens to shift and, after a fraught pause, the rustling continues.

“Lev?!” I hear someone call, faint and blurry, but the way the word cuts tells me they’re screaming.

I try to answer but can only croak.

The weight on my body is almost too much now, the exhaustion pulling me further and further down. My belly feels heavy and a faint part of me muses that I’m probably bleeding internally, probably have been since I came to in this horrible, choking blackness.

Would Bucky still love me if I were broken? No longer whole?

I know the answer.

Yes.

I loved Bucky before he was whole, when he was broken.

A giant rat is nearby, scratching, then the cutting scream again, closer and cracking with strain. I recognize it finally, Bucky’s voice, breaking with anxiety, snapping under the stress. His throat will be sore for days.

I imagine him tunneling through the rubble by hand, shaking off other’s hands that try to stop him, tell him it’s too late and there’s no way I can still be alive.

But I know he won’t stop, not until he can touch me again.

[anangelicday-mrwolf]

Wolfsbane : Noblesse Fanfic (post-ending)

(previous chapter)

Chapter 54 – The Night of Horror

“Tao, duck!”

Screamed M-21, to which Tao responded by promptly letting an imaginary hand wrench his entire torso towards his feet.

Not a second after, a human body thrust its way through the exact spot where his head used to be.

Wham!

“Krrrgh!”

“Kraah!”

The agent M-21 just wrestle-flung collided with a man in a lab coat, reaping from them grunts close to beastly snarls.

They shared one thing in common – nothing about their appearances suggested they are Homo sapiens, with discolored skin reminiscent of corpses, nails and teeth jutting out in a vicious manner, and eyes seemingly brimming with blood.

And these were not exclusive to the two pseudo-zombies giving Tao and M-21 a challenge like nothing before.

Of course, it would take less than a minute and feel like less than 10 seconds for Tao and M-21 to make sure their opponents will never again disrupt them.

Alas, they could not position themselves appropriately, let alone pull out a weapon or shift into battle forms, because they happened to be facing the staff of KSA.

“Looks like that gas was combined with the technology on... What was it again? Rapid body modification?”

“Yup. Damn, I didn’t think it would be so effective.”

The two men lamented upon witnessing how employees and agents wobbled back to their feet; they could swear they did more than a proper job of hitting their vital points to knock them out.

They even twisted the ankles, solemnly swearing to get upon their knees for forgiveness once the storm is gone; however, their plan was made null by the healing power that naturally comes with body modification.

“...I don’t think we’ll be getting out of this situation, unless we pry out their limbs or a rib or spine or two.”

“...How I hate the fact that I can’t help but agree with you there.”

The outcome was beyond Tao and M-21’s expectation, probably because of Yuhyung’s adjustment.

Nevertheless, they presumed the healing power that surfaced within the victims would be below average.

After all, the project on which their modification was based off was classified as failure and ultimately canceled.

So just like M-21 said, the victims would not be able to recover the loss of a limb or skeletal structure.

Nonetheless, Tao and M-21 could not dare harm them; the only thing they have done wrong, if they have done anything wrong, was staying overnight to fully dedicate themselves to their duties.

It was not the question of post-measurements, already guaranteed by KSA and Frankenstein; it was the question of morals.

M-21’s and Tao’s faces stiffened as the victims dragged their feet towards them, the two men cornered in the room.

Just then, one of the agents bumped shoulders with a researcher closest to him, from which the situation took a precipitous downfall.

Slash!

Chomp!

The agent made a violent lash at the researcher’s face, and the researcher countered by rooting his teeth into the agent’s shoulder with full power.

Which served as a cue for the rest of the victims to tackle and thwack and open their mouths wide at one another.

Tao and M-21 turned pale as they watched how a scene from fratricidal zombie movie was being played live, their minds becoming numb with shock as the floor being slowly freed from gas was now being plastered with victims’ blood.

They threw themselves in the middle to separate the victims from each other, and that was when their communicators finally vibrated with life.

<Tao! M-21! Do you copy?!>

“Takio? Where are you? What in the world is keeping you? And why did you have to wait to...”

<What is going on? What’s wrong with these people?>

Tao and M-21 met each other in the eyes for a moment at how alarmed Takio sounded.

Then their memories rang the bell for them – the corridors of KSA were not the only area under the effect of Yuhyung’s gas.

“Don’t tell me... Are there people whose body went through modification? Shoot, I was hoping it’d take time for the gas to spread!”

<It’s not far from KSA’s HQ, but what on earth is going on? And what do you mean, body modification? I’m sure these people are civilians!>

“We’ll talk about this later! First, get over here! We could really use a hand or two right now!”

Knowing Takio, they anticipated him to fly over on the double, although they ended up acting individually, a rare occasion to begin and to continue.

Notwithstanding, there was a reason why Murphy’s law was ever coined.

<Uh... I’m afraid as of now I’m... Ugh!>

Swoosh!

Pow!

Their ears whirring upon the sonic boom so very tangible despite the distance secured by the communicators, Tao and M-21 gaped each other with their eyes trembling.

“Takio? What’s going on?!”

“Are you also under the civilian attack?”

<No! It’s the Union! I ran into two of them on my way. One of them happens to be that big guy we saw in the footage we pieced back together from the security camera outside the safehouse that was destroyed. And the other one is a woman with...>

“...Orange hair and cerulean eyes?”

<H-how did you know?>

“Takio, that’s the one!”

“That’s the woman Miss Lunark mistook for Kespar! The one who plotted against Frankenstein in joint with the 3rd Elder!”

“Hang in there. We’re coming in...!”

M-21 and Tao stomped their legs in a halt, in the middle of their sprint carrying the violently struggling people, partitioned with their arms and shoulders.

As soon as they turned the last corner connected to the nearest lab, they saw how the tiles were barely visible due to countless people with abnormal builds.

“Impossible! There’s no way such number would be remaining at this hour!”

“Tao, look at them.”

M-21 directed Tao’s eyes towards the side, where three men and women were yanking each other with their mouths like hyenas that fasted for a month.

“Look what they’re wearing. They’re no agents. Or employees.”

“Are they civilians...? Did some of them trespass?!”

Tao bellowed in dismay, which unfastened the door that was keeping the avalanche of trouble from stampeding towards them.

“Grrr...”

“Krr...”

The blood-shot eyes of people who were busy taking a bite or grab out of anyone within their reach darted glances towards M-21 and Tao.

Not long after, the artificially modified humans lunged towards the two RK’s like a pack of rabid dogs that have spotted a target, a phenomenon propagating outside KSA.

“W-what the hell?!”

“Argh! Mommy!”

“H-help me! Somebody please he... Aaaah!!!”

People who have never consented to their monstrous changes spread out from the street housing KSA’s headquarter, to hunt down innocent citizens, paving the streets with blood and gore.

Which Yuhyung was watching through his device, via the cameras attached upon interior and exterior of the KSA building.

His hands gripping the device quaked, and he hurriedly pulled out a communicative device he would keep asleep unless he has to talk to Helga.

<Oh, hey. So how’s the plan go...>

“What the heck is going on?!?!”

Yuhyung shrieked, as if he were forcing his guts out through his throat, as soon as Helga’s pointed-as-always voice hit his eardrums.

And her response successfully blew up his half-powdered mind.

<What’s the yelling for? Is there a problem?>

She sounded so very placid, whereas her voice was toned up and down deliberately, as if she had seen this coming.

“Problem? Problem is an understatement!!! You know what is... I mean, you are seeing and hearing what is going on! You said you’ll make your way to KSA, so you should know very well what’s...”

<Oh, yes. I know. Of course I do. In fact, I’ve known it for quite long.>

“...What...?!”

Yuhyung’s quivering voice listlessly scattered into thin air, like a ball of dirt caught in the wind.

<I’ve never told you, have I? I mean the reason why this project the data I gave you came from was labeled as failure and canceled. Well, you were too excited to get your hands on the data and didn’t even bother to ask.>

Helga did mention that the project has a side effect, but he heeded not much, since the way she spoke of the side effect gave impression that it is no big deal.

Still, like she said, he was so thrilled back then to at last gain the Union data he had been thirsting for.

His thoroughness, a must-have value for anyone affiliated with investigation, was discarded temporarily, as he was too occupied with letting his elation jingle his entire universe, like popping champagne open.

And when he later examined the data, he could not find anything in particular in terms of side effect, so he had forgotten about it, until now.

<That’s right. What you’re seeing as we speak is the side effect of this project. The subjects that experience rapid body modification lose the ability to tell their friends from foes. Whenever they see something living and moving, they will first and foremost react by driving their teeth and nails into flesh. And if they are devoid of lifeform around them, they will slash and masticate and take apart their own bodies.>

Instantly, Yuhyung felt as if the entire world spun right into his chest; the entire world turned into a stone of immeasurable size and unimaginable weight, smashing his heart into pieces and plummeting towards his core.

<Did you honestly think I’ll forfeit a complete, safe technology to someone like you? We’d rather die than to suffer a humiliation of allowing vermin like you walking on par with us!>

Helga snickered, stage-choking herself.

<Anyways, congratulations. You made your wish come true – turning non-modified into modified. And now, you’d get to collect as much data as you’d want, like picking apples under the falling leaves!>

Helga sneered as she smiled in vile entertainment and sinister glee, and Yuhyung could only make out his mind escaping far away from him as he watched her.

And the horror spreading throughout Seoul, delivered to his device in divided screens, did not stop assaulting his calm.

No...

This isn’t what I wanted......

I’ve never asked for something like this......!

<And now excuse me. There’s something that compels me to make myself unavailable for now.>

After peeking at something that was not accessible for sight from Yuhyung’s side, Helga cut off the signal, to restrain Kornel once more.

“I’d thought I told you to be prudent!”

“Oh, come on! Can’t you stop stopping me now?! We’re going to kill him anyways!”

“I would have let you, if it were someone else. But that’s Takio we’re facing – the one Sol told us. Takio of DA-5.”

“What? That’s him?”

“Precisely. We assumed it’d take a miracle for him to stand against Aris, let alone beat her. But he not only deleted her existence but also decided to put himself against us. Do I have to explain what we could achieve if we manage to apply the secret of his growth to us?”

“Okay, okay. I got it. Geez. But you don’t mind me beating him up just enough to leave him battered but breathing, do you?”

“Actually, that’d be more than welcome. There’s no telling what will unfold if we don’t go that far to capture him.”

This was certainly not a pleasant situation for Takio, about to battle two Union agents when immediately surrounding him was a scene from a common disaster movie.

His fingers poised upon the triggers, waiting for his order, were strained with pressure.

(next chapter)

So in summary, there are 3 battles taking place at the same time: (1) Takio (ft. Tao & M-21) vs Helga and Kornel, (2) Rael vs Deneb (with Yuhyung), and (3) Lunark vs Dark Spear. As I am posting this chapter, I finished composing part 1 of this battle. And once I’m done with the remaining parts, I’ll finally move on to the finale of this fic. I already know what I’m going to write, and I can’t wait to reach there lol. I’ll do my best as I take this fic to its ending!

[ihearthorror]

My Top 10 Favourite Horror Films of 2020

Every January, most people who review or talk about movies on YouTube tend to piece together a Top 10 list of their favourite movies from the year prior. In order to stand out from the crowd (and also because I was too lazy to do this sooner), I decided to wait until March, by which time most YouTubers aren’t really talking about movies from 2020 anymore.

I know what you’re thinking: sounds kinda stupid – why would anybody care about a Top 10 list of the best movies of 2020…THREE months into the new year!? Well, as you’ve likely heard, 2020 was a year like no other, and as result of the ongoing global pandemic, movie release dates from 2020 were pushed back months, sometimes multiple times. Some films that were supposed to be released last year didn’t arrive until 2021, even though they’re officially considered “2020 films,” according to their profiles on websites like IMBD and Letterboxd.

And so, some of these so-called “2020 films” were not available (at least to me) until only recently, such as Saint Maud or The Dark and the Wicked. I feel like I’ve now had a chance to see almost all of the horror films I’ve wanted to see from last year. In this video, if you care to stick around, I will share with you my Top 10 favourite horror films of 2020. So, here we go…

#10/ The Dark and the Wicked:

A sister and brother return to the family homestead where their father is slowly dying and their mother is understandably distraught but also disturbed and distant. The siblings soon realize that something evil has invaded their family home as they are terrorized by whatever is slowly killing their father. Directed by the same guy behind 2008’s The Strangers, The Dark and the Wicked is at times bleak and unsettling, and it does a good job at keeping you intrigued in this family’s unnerving conflict. However, it felt a bit rushed and undeveloped at other times, and its ending left me somewhat unsatisfied.

#9/ Relic:

Soon after Kay and her daughter Sam return to their remote family home following the disappearance of the family matriarch, the widowed Edna, they discover that something sinister has taken hold of both Edna and the house itself. Although Relic – which was co-produced by Jake Gyllenhaal and marked the feature directorial debut for Natalie Erika James – isn’t exactly offering up any enticing twists or salacious gore, or even a original concept for that matter, it relies on evoking dread and building tension to compel its audience to stay invested until the bitter end.

#8/ Amulet:

Taking its sweet time to unravel, Amulet is centered around Tomaz, an ex-soldier who is now homeless but is offered a place to stay at a decaying house in London, which is inhabited by a beautiful young woman named Magda and her dying mother. As the story moves along, we see that Tomaz is starting to develop feelings for Magda, who seems a bit…off. His feelings for her don’t wane even after Tomaz discovers that there’s something insidious going on in the attic of the house, where Magda’s mother is seemingly imprisoned. Toss in a suspicious nun and you’ve got yourself a creepy little film that seems to have fallen between the cracks.

#7/ The Beach House:

One might argue that not a lot actually happens in The Beach House and that the payoff isn’t worth the investment, but if you go into this film with an open mind and zero expectations, you should at least be satisfied. Two troubled college students head to a deserted beach getaway to spend some time together, but end up struggling to survive alongside some unexpected guests as a mysterious infection disrupts their holiday. Although it is a slow build up to the film’s climax, it is a tense and intriguing ride along the way, as a series of unsettling events give way to an apocalyptic episode that feels almost like a throwback to the sci-fi films of the 1950s. Making his feature film directorial debut, Jeffrey A. Brown elicits with The Beach House those brooding existential thoughts that lay dormant in the deep boroughs of our minds. 

#6/ The Invisible Man:

There’s always an elevated risk when making a modern film based on an old story that has already been told through cinema numerous times before. The last time H.G. Wells’ 1897 novel The Invisible Man had been adapted by Hollywood was in 2000’s Hollow Man, which was panned by critics despite making a sizeable profit. The 2020 adaptation is far superior and is perhaps the best adaptation of Wells’ classic in any medium. Elizabeth Moss gives a stellar performance that draws real emotion, so that we agonize alongside her as she is essentially haunted by a relentless ghost hellbent on controlling every aspect of her life. We live in an era when technology has advanced enough to bring this 124-year-old story to life like never before, while a polished script and an exceptional lead performance gives The Invisible Man a deeper level of emotion and terror.

#5/ Saint Maud:

For most of Saint Maud it is unclear whether certain experiences are actually happening in reality for the main character or if it’s all simply in her head, as some sort of mental breakdown caused by a work-related tragedy. Maud is a young hospice nurse and a newly-converted Roman Catholic who suddenly becomes obsessed with “saving the soul” of the woman she is currently taking care of, Amanda, a hedonistic dancer with a chronic illness. Maud’s behaviour worsens, as does her mental state, as horrific scenes and visions make us question if she’s actually losing her mind or experiencing something beyond this world. Saint Maud is an A24 feature by the way, so that should be enough to know what you’re getting here in terms of quality.

#4/ The Lodge:

Isolation is often embraced as a way to pad a horror film’s fear factor, and it works especially here in The Lodge, as a soon-to-be stepmom becomes stranded at a remote holiday home in the middle of winter with her fiance’s two children. The kids begin to untangle the dark past of their stepmom-to-be and a series of disturbing events transpire as their hope for survival fades. The Lodge is a dreary, atmospheric slow burn that leaves you somewhat unsettled. With its wintry backdrop, stylish sequences, and almost claustrophobic dread, the film doesn’t ever allow its audience to feel at ease for long, insisting that an underlying foreboding remain intact throughout. Although I found the ending somewhat disappointing, I immediately began to concoct a possible prequel that would delve into the backstory of the film’s lead character. One can hope.

#3/ Host:

It’s increasingly difficult to be innovative and original when it comes to horror films these days, especially in the particular genre of so-called “found footage.” Rob Savage’s Host, however, comes off as something different, setting itself apart from most films in this realm in various ways. It centers around six friends who hold a séance via Zoom during a COVID lockdown, guided (at first) by a medium they hired. The séance then takes a dark turn and things soon escalate into madness. Sure, there are elements in Host that are prevalent in numerous horror films, but it uses a modern and topical way to implement them, while also refusing to overstay its welcome by cueing the credits less than an hour in. Overall, this film’s popcorn-and-Saturday-night-movie fun factor is why it ranks so high on this list.

#2/ Possessor:

It’s always a treat to come across an original idea, especially when it’s within the horror realm, and Possessor is certainly unlike anything else I’ve seen in awhile. Andrea Riseborough plays an elite corporate assassin who uses brain-implant technology to take control over other people’s bodies in order to kill high profile targets, though with every mission she gets further and further away from her true self. With her latest possession, she becomes trapped in the mind of a man who threatens to obliterate her for good. It is a provocative vision by director-writer Brandon Cronenberg, who just so happens to be the son of legendary Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg, and it serves as a disturbing piece of dystopian fiction that is even more frightening because it isn’t too far beyond belief.

And because everyone else is doing it, here are five honorable mentions that narrowly missed the list:

- The Call

- Color Out of Space

- Don’t Listen

- The Mortuary Collection

- Porno

#1/ His House:

In addition to its emotional storytelling and genuine moments of terror, His House – from first-time director Remi Weekes – sheds a light on the plight of refugees in a way that feels both respectful and empathetic. After a Sudanese couple make a harrowing escape from their war-torn homeland, they are granted asylum in England, where they struggle to adjust and fit in. They are assigned a shabby house on the outskirts of London, where the couple begin to experience terrifying and unexplainable events. His House is built around a fresh concept, two fantastic leads, and some truly haunting imagery, and I wish that more horror directors would put as much effort into quality filmmaking as Weekes did here. If this is his first venture into feature filmmaking, I am excited to see what his future has in store. 

There you have it, my Top 10 favourite horror films of 2020. What did you think and were any of these titles on your own Top 10 list? Please tell me your thoughts and recommendations in the comments below.

[thorne93]

Inside the Criminal Mind (Part 4)

Prompt: You’re married to Dr. Spencer Reid of the BAU, and are a distinguished doctor yourself on the team. You’re sent down to Miami, Florida for teaching and as a side request from the FBI, to investigate a string of missing persons. When you think you’ve figured out who the unsub is, your life becomes more complicated than you ever could’ve imagined.

Word Count: 3181

Warnings: (throughout the fic –>) death, blood, gore, killings, language, disturbing mental notions, mentions of rapes/murder/etc (You know, Dexter and Criminal Minds related business)

Notes: Thank you so much to @arrow-guy​​, @carryonmyswansong​​, and @mrs-dragneel-stark-solo​​ - without each of you, I couldn’t have finished, written, or properly navigated this story. Each of you helped me fish out details that were incredibly important to me. Beta’d by @carryonmyswansong​​ and @mrs-dragneel-stark-solo​​… Aesthetic by @mrs-dragneel-stark-solo​​

This is a crossover of Criminal Minds x Dexter. First time writing Dexter.

Also, the timeline is after Season 1 of Dexter, but during season 14-ish of Criminal minds into Season 15. Enjoy!!!

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

“How’s it going?” Spence asked over the phone. 

“Good. Nearly one month down,” you stated with a bit of a smile.

“I know. It’s crazy. I miss you so much.”

“I miss you too, sweetie.” 

“How is school?” 

“Ah, it’s alright. You wouldn’t believe how awful some of these students’ handwriting is though. My god, it’s like deciphering hieroglyphics.” 

“Actually hieroglyphs are easy to translate since they use pictures to depict their meanings it’s rather easy to interpret them once you know what you’re looking at.” 

A grin fell onto your face easily. “I love when you tell me random facts.” 

“I love that you love it and it doesn’t make you want to roll your eyes.” 

“Never.” 

“And the apartment?”

“It’s not as big as I’d like, but it’s practical. I have a bedroom, small living room, kitchenette. So it works. I just need a place to store my crap. Speaking of, you can go ahead and send down those other boxes of clothes, I’m going to need ‘em.” 

“Sure thing. Made any breaks in the case yet, or have you had time?” 

“I’ve had time. I actually got to question all of the Miami PD.” 

“Oh yeah? How did that go?” 

“Overall, it just helped in crossing off that most of them aren’t suspect to doing it.” 

“Most?”

“Eh, I don’t like saying for sure none of them did it because it just strikes me as funny that seven of them went through the Miami PD. Not the county or state, just the city.” 

“It’s a good a lead as any.” 

“Yeah tomorrow I think I’ll start my questioning of the families and social circles. Garcia already pulled the addresses of next of kin and work for me. I’ll go to the workplaces when I can before and after class, and hit up the residences at night.”

“You’re going to figure this out. I know you can. But don’t over work yourself.”

“I won’t. How is everything there?” 

“Good. It would be easier if you were here but…” 

“I know. How is everyone holding up?” 

“Pretty good. I think Emily and Garcia miss you most. Garcia asks about you nearly every day,” he informed with a laugh. 

“Yeah, I miss them too.” 

“How has this been, by the way? The break? Do you feel like you’re getting the break you need?” 

You paused for a moment, a little unsure what he was referring to, but then you remembered how you told him you wanted to leave the crime fighting behind for a bit. “Yeah, I do actually. I know I’m investigating this case but it’s just one case and I can plan it out. I’m sure if I had the team it would be easier but since we weren’t called into it…” 

“Yeah,” he agreed. 

“But it is helping. I mean most of my time involves the university work, and I’m just doing this on the side to keep me from going insane.”

“So you don’t feel like you’re just repeating what’s being done here? Chasing a case, that might not even have an unsub?” 

“It might not, but something tells me it does.” 

“Why?” 

“I don’t know, Spence. Yes, technically all of these could not be related. But something feels off.”

“It is Miami, it’s not exactly a place people come to settle down.”

“I know that, but why would a guy who is well to do in the community with a wife and kids just disappear? Even if he’s involved in something illegal, clearly no one down here was closing in on him. Or why did a woman who was in nursing school with a boyfriend for three years just vanish? These don’t add up. Even if they were seemingly good citizens they poofed out of existence alongside these criminals.” 

“That’s what I love about you. You see past things like that. I know you’ll make this right and find out the truth.” 

You smiled at his words. “Thank you, sweetie. That means a lot.” 

“Do you think you could come up soon? Just for a weekend?” 

“I’ll try. I don’t know when though because I’m about to give my first exam and then midterms…”

“Yeah, not to mention I won’t know when we’ll get called away to a case…”

“Yeah,” you agreed with a hefty sigh. This would be hard navigating when you could see each other. “I guess I really didn’t think about how hard this would be.”

“Yeah, me either. I’m so used to seeing you, the thought of not seeing you at all for months is…”

That’s all he could get out before he stopped. 

“Hey, we will find a time. If nothing else, I have all of spring break.” 

“Yeah, that’s true. It’ll be here before we know it.” 

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

You ran through the investigation through the week and interviewed almost all of the families, sixteen to be exact. The stories weren’t always the same. Some families felt that yeah, their loved one could’ve totally ran off. Some employees said the missing person never missed a day of work in their life. Others said their loved ones didn’t even leave the house without saying goodbye to everyone and texting if they would be late.

Something didn’t add up.

No matter how bad you wanted to say that some of these people may have gone AWOL, something told you that these people were victims of a crime. So you researched, hard, looking up everything you could on Dexter Morgan. 

He was a foster child and Debra isn’t his biological sister. He just began dating, seriously, for the first time since what seems like high school. His father was a cop -- bingo. That’s how he knew what to do and what to look for. Having rubber gloves on hand as a forensics specialist would be an easy cover too, in case he ever needed them for his own crime. 

It was him. You knew it had to be him. Everything pointed to him.

Okay, well not everything, but a lot of this was compelling. 

You just needed to put him at the scene and time of all of these abductions…

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

After class the next day, you decided to call in for a search warrant of Dexter’s residence. It was a long shot but it was a gut feeling and your department knew how accurate your gut was. You picked up your cell phone and were about to call your director.

But suddenly, something funny, something… strange twisted inside you. 

This man… This… Dexter. Unless he was doing some sort of weird balancing the universe act, he clearly had an MO for criminals. He wanted scum off the streets just like you did. 

What if… what if you didn’t… turn Dexter Morgan in? 

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

You stood at his door, knocking three times. He answered it and you grinned.

“Hello again, Dexter,” you greeted with a sinister grin.

“Dr. Reid, so good to see you again,” he stated, and you knew he was lying. 

“You’re a serial killer,” you confidently declared as you stood right on his threshold staring at him. 

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

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[a-fist-full-of-sparks]

The Copy-Cat Gang

((My first TF Fic in...well...ever. it’s mostly for my friends on discord but if you do find this i hope you enjoy!!!! also i have to point out i used the animated continuity’s terms for times because they just...sound better. thx plz no bulli))

There was something about this world - Cirrus 7 - that seemed so...deceptive to Colvus. Perfect for a faction called Decepticons, she figured. In her travels she gathered information about the whereabouts of old tech from the war from Cybertron...The Camien origin world that Colvus figured she'd never see. She didn't care which side this planet had belonged to, nor was she interested in figuring it out. From what she knew, the war was over, both sides figured out that maybe endlessly slaughtering each other wasn't the best way to come to an agreement and all of these outposts and bases were left to rot. After thinking about it for a while, Colvus began to explore these places, searching for technology that would lead to the betterment of life for Camiens and Cybertronians alike! And so here she was, looking into a deep, dark cave on the side of a mountain. The mountain itself stood out, as for about a mile all around it the forest surrounding it receded. It was as if the area surrounding it had been intentionally cleared. It seemed pretty obvious to Colvus that it was. 

"Welp...let's have ourselves a look." The Camien explorer sighed before taking her first steps inside of the cavern. 

At first, it was smooth going. There wasn't much of a descent to speak of, and openings in the cave ceiling provided enough light for Colvus to observe her surroundings. Various ores sticking out of the walls, scattered about in chunks, pools of liquid - some of it water, some of it not - and eventually...a large cable that led even deeper into the caves. From here, things only got darker. Colvus began to squint as the light in the room faded further and further. She tapped the side of her helm and a visor slid into position over her eyes. The room turned a faint, but clearly visible green as her visor granted her night vision. Along the wall, more technology was bolted on. Wires, tubes, panels, and dead light sources were all along the main path going downward. Along the way, she came across some corridors that led to empty rooms and dead end, the most interesting thing she found being several old hab suites, one of which looked like it had been abandoned before the base itself was. She moved deeper and deeper still into the cave system before finally reaching a large metal door. Bingo.

Stretching her digits and wings aflutter in anticipation, Colvus investigated the door itself, and the dormant panel that was beside it. "Ok...now, how to open sesame this thing?" She fiddled around with the panel for a minute or two before prying open the side and crossing a few wires. After a bit of jury rigging, Colvus managed to hotwire the door open. It'd clearly been a long while since anyone - or anything - had visited this facility, as the rusty and decrepit door opened with the horrible screech of rusting metal echoing along the walls of the cave. Colvus proceeded with caution, a small blaster pistol in her hands and her senses sharp. Though the rumors said that this planet was long since abandoned by any Autobot or Decepticon forces, she still didn't know what to expect from an old military facility. For all she knew there could be some kind of booby-traps still laying about! Or worse! Old holdouts from the war who didn't get the memo! The risk of it all sent a shiver of thrill up Colvus's frame...to her, the thrill of the unknown was pretty much what it was all about! Especially if it meant helping out the people in the end.

After about 15 or so minutes of sweeping, Colvus found no trace of traps, stragglers, or even anything interesting within the base...bummer. There were a few crates of supplies left over:. An outdated rifle, ammo and energy packs, a motion tracker, plus a ton of energon that she couldn’t take herself...there was too much for her to carry on her own. Alas, nothing TOO out of the ordinary. Beyond that, it was just a burned out, beat-to-high-hell facility. Trying not to let the bitter taste of disappointment get to her, Colvus rigged the door to the final room open, and peeked inside with a small ember of hope that there might be something of note inside.. Larger in size and much darker than the other rooms, this chamber looked like it had seen the most activity when the facility was active...and there was stuff inside. Lots of stuff. Operating tables, energon infusers, vitality monitors all over the room, and a stasis pod! Colvus checked her own vitals...she'd been exploring for over a week with no down time...maybe it was time to take a breather. The Camien Explorer surveyed the room thoroughly before attending to the stasis pod's console in the very back of the room...neat, she thought. Oddly enough, this console didn't just appear to control the pod, but the entire facility. 

"I guess the doctors around here liked to be in charge..." Colvus mused to no one.

A small, holographic screen appeared on the panel, and Colvus deactivated her visor to read the text that had appeared on it. It was purple...and though it was in Cybertronian rather than Camien, Colvus could make out that it read "Start-Up?" with options "Yes" and "OF COURSE" as options...She picked "OF COURSE", feeling adventurous. The entire facility lit up, as it's generators roared to life for the first time in what must have been centuries. Light illuminated every chamber in the base, revealing the nature of the previous owners as the entire base was a deep, midnight purple and on the main terminal, a Decepticon insignia presented itself on-screen. The symbol faded and a new menu was brought up: A series of options that included "Stasis Pod Control'', “Mining Site Status”, "Field Reports", "Roster", "Projects", "Base Directory" and "Personal Logs". This terminal in particular belongs to one "Calculite." Colvus cupped her chin and pursed her lips as her curiosity compelled her to dig into the files. Whoever this Calulite guy was, he left EVERYTHING behind. Odd...It's as if he and everyone else in the base dropped whatever they were doing and left in a hurry. Whatever the reason for their disappearance, Colvus was more concerned with what data they'd left behind.

For a solid 5 hours, Colvus was engrossed in the wealth of Data left in Calculite's lab. The various mission reports left behind shined light on the nature of this facility. It was indeed a medical facility, but also a hot-spot for Decepticon experimentation. Calculite was merely the latest in a line of decepticon inventors and experimenters, all of whom had their own wild ideas as to what the key to The Decepticons' ultimate victory was. Calculite himself had two philosophies, one vague...the other blunt as all hell. The first was what Colvus found most intriguing - Dubbed "Project: COPY-CAT". The experiment sought to answer the question: what if The Decepticons had their own Optimus Prime? Or their own Ultra Magnus? Perhaps their Thunderclash? Colvus wasn't big on names for the war, but assumed that those were some of the biggest and baddest bots that the Autobots had amongst their roster...perhaps this was a Super-Soldier Program to replicate the abilities of those bots? The other Project was called "Picnic" and was - simply put - the plan to incite Antriods to attack the Autobots, consume their supplies and steal their food for the Decepticons. According to his logs, every single member of the facility - Scientific and not - shot the idea down. Colvus stifled her laughter reading it. 

On that note, Colvus sifted through the Roster of the base; 15 "Active" members, 50 MIA/KIA/POW. A Majority of the list had been corrupted, but a few names stood out to her in both lists. Calculite himself, along with a bot named "Archeo-Tech", and another named "Stratosfear" and amongst the dead a bot named "Stratovarious" who was "terminated prior to recommendation." Spooky, Colvus thought. The Intrepid Triple Changer quickly skimmed through the base's directory only to find that, while there had been about 30 more floors, all but this one and 4 more had been destroyed in some kind of cataclysm. As she was about to dive into Calculite's personal logs...Colvus nearly tipped over...she'd been running on fumes for the last hour or so, and needed a recharge ASAP. Luckily, Calculite's recharge pod was still in working condition. She selected the Stasis Pod Control section of the menu, and activated it's recharge cycle.

> Please Enter Pod.

"Works for me..." Colvus almost yawned.

The Camien stumbled into the pod, folding her wings and relaxing as the pod did it's work, dropping her into stasis as it revitalized it's new occupant. She was long overdue for a power down, and had forgotten just how nice it was to be able to take a nap in relative safety. Unbeknownst to her, however, The pod was doing more than just revitalizing her. Colvus had completely misunderstood the nature of the project it seemed, and was blissfully unaware of the pod's true nature. It had taken note of her...her every feature and to some extent her thoughts as well. Down to even some of the most minute details, the stasis pod documented all of the information it could on the unsuspecting visitor. Though it’s intent was non-malicious, The Pod’s function was most certainly sinister looking...despite this, Colvus awoke from her power nap feeling better than she had in months of travel, and was set to leave the facility. Stretching her joints and wings, Colvus made ready to depart for the next locale. Although she’d gotten through a lot of the files, Colvus hadn’t been able to finish her in-depth reading before she nearly conked out. Eager to move on with her journeys, she used her data pad to copy everything in Calculite's terminal for her to show to someone else later. Maybe something in his logs would come in handy someday? From what she heard, a lot of The War’s scientists and inventors were geniuses in their craft. She just wished that enough of them were around to help fix the mess they made...With her patience for the decrepit cave expended, Colvus took her leave of the Facility and headed off for the next destination on her list...Not aware of what she had just awoken deep within the base’s hidden bowls...

--- Some Time Later ---

Utilizing the data that had been acquired from Colvus unknowingly volunteering for Project: COPYCAT, Calculite's Facility computer automatically began the process of construction. 7 Frozen Sparks - All Calculite could get his hand for a test batch - were taken from storage, all awaiting their new bodies...their prepared forms were created not by hand, but by manipulation of pure Sentio Metallico preserved from Cybertron itself. The Metallico was poured over 3 days into ever-changing molds, one for each new spark, in the likeness of Colvus. Alternate modes were pre-selected from the pod's scans of Colvus' mind and memories, and were distributed amongst these clones...

Calculite had come up with the scheme eons ago on Cybertron, initially as a means of bringing back Transformers who he believed had been taken before their time. Perfect recreations - or even improvements - on already existing Transformers, as a means of preserving and extending life. As time went on and the war began and escalated, the objective of his project had changed as a means of securing his continued usefulness to Megatron. Though he supported the Decepticon cause from afar, He initially wanted no part of the war. It took being persecuted by the remnants of Sentinel Prime's forces for him to go all in, believing that an Autobot Victory would simply cause history to repeat. In the later days of the war he came up with other schemes to buy time for COPYCAT to get off the ground. He figured that if Megatron was pleased with his idea, he could coast off of it, and let his new creations do the work while he faded into the background, maybe even disappearing. And disappear he did, as when the war was over, Calculite and his team all went to ground.

The Molded Metallico had done it's work, sparks neatly installed and inserted into pods for activation. Essentially, these initial subjects were to be treated as MTOs, only harder to produce and more...real. The next tests would have involved implanting the memories of a fallen Decepticon Soldier, but the testing never reached that phase. With the Facility running on reserve power, the Educational Program was interrupted...getting only far enough that they could read, write, fight and speak. However, this batch was not taught any of the values of Decepticonism, as Calculite assumed his first subject would ALREADY BE a decepticon...thus, this batch would be factionless, and left to wonder...and wander...

--- 3 hours after programming ---

A hiss came from the first of the 7 pods, and out of it fell a male "Camien'', fresh to life. Mid-fall, he yelped and stuck his knees out, hitting the ground on all fours in a total haze. His thoughts raced...What is this? Who am I? Where am I? What's happening? Is this real? He composed himself, and braced himself against a wall as he stood up. For a moment, the bot shivered in place, before managing to gain equilibrium and balance himself properly. He felt like he was made of a jelly for a second there, not able to muster enough strength to keep himself right before finally feeling solid enough to move on his own. He waited for a minute in place, making sure that he was really alright...this was all so new, having a body and what not...

He began to survey the room, not really knowing what else to do. It wasn't too big or too small...there was one closed door, 7 other pods...and what looked like a mirror. Though he looked over the pods as he made his way across the room, the mirror was his focus. It gave him a view of his shoulders, chest, head and...wings? His eyes were an emerald green and his body shade of blue that he quite admired...Navy? Yeah, he liked the sound of that. Having caught all his bearings, the bot turned his attention to the other pods...

Looking inside of each one as he made his way down the row, the faces of the bots - all the rest of them femmes - were identical...but their other features - wings, wheels, helms and the like - they were all different. The bot stared at the occupant of the pod that was right beside his...and on a whim decided to wake her up. What else could he do, really? He fiddled with the controls of her pod, and the sequence came to him naturally.

> Stasis Pod #0002 / Subject: "null"

> Activate Release Sequence 

> Authorization: [...]

The bot paused for a minute. He knew the authorization code - it was one of his first thoughts - but now the stasis pod wanted something else. His name. His optics darted about. 

His name.

> Authorization: [****] Subject 0001 "Cody"

> Authorization D[ERROR] 

> Activation in Progress... Standby...

A familiar hiss came from the second pod, filling the room yet again until the hatch was all the way open. The subject didn't fall out like Cody did. He felt...Jealous. The fall kinda hurt. The occupant of the pod had a more gentle awakening, her optics fluttering awake and her armor flushed with a Dark Evergreen color. The femme rolled her joints as she stepped out of the pod slowly but steadily holding onto the side to ensure she didn't fall over. Cody watched intently, not really sure what to make of his sibling...the two made rather awkward eye contact and held it in silence for a second or two.

"Um...h-hey." Cody stammered first.

The femme gave a sheepish wave. "Hey...?" She stepped out of her pod completely and took in her surroundings like Cody did. "Where is everybody?"

Cody shrugged and looked to the door... "I don't think there IS an everybody." 

"There's you, though." The femme rolled her right arm. "Got a name?"

"...Cody." Cody felt more sure about the name when he said it out loud. "You?"

The femme took a few seconds of contemplation before giving an answer. It helped that someone was there to ask her what she thought, as opposed to fumbling for an answer. 

She looked up from the floor and gave her answer: "Cielo."

Cody gave a nod and a faint half smile. One down, he thought. Pointing to the next pod, he made his way past Cielo to release the next clone. "I'm gonna...start waking these folks up one at a time. Alright?"

"Folks? What are- hey, look at that!" The surprise in Cielo's voice got a small chuckle out of Cody. "How long have they been there??"

Cody didn't look up as he authorized the release of the 3rd pod's occupant. "As long as i can remember...that ain't very far back though, so don't take my word on it."

Stepping back, Cody and Cielo watched as the next pod opened...the occupant inside already appeared to be awake by the time the vapor cleared, stretching her arms out and stepping out of the pod with an energy that could only be described as jubilant. Her body didn't really change color, rather it started to shine as it went from a matte gray to a shining Roman Silver. Her eyes were Ocean Blue and full of life...even though she'd just begun to experience it. 

The Silver Duplicate stretched her arms up high and tilted from side to side, grunting as her joints popped and servos rolled. She...didn't really seem to notice Cody or Cielo at all. The other two bots watched...waiting for her to notice their presence.

Jumping in place then stretching her arms out behind her, She finally took note of her siblings. "Hmm? Oh, hey! What's up?"

"You tell us, Sister..." Cielo crossed her arms and cocked a hip.

The new-formed tilted her head. "Me? Well...I'm Chiyo. Nice to meet ya!" She looked between Cody and Cielo, then turned to the other pods. "You guys got me out of there?"

"Yeah..." Cody trailed off, inching closer to the next pod. "Say...how'd you know your name so quick? Me and Cielo... I'm, uh, Cody, and that's Cielo... we needed a minute for our names..."

"Oh! I guess I just knew." To Chiyo, all of this was like water off a duck's back...not a worry to be had. 

As Cody started to move for the next pod, Cielo had instead opted to head for the door...and promptly knock it down. Cody flinched hard at the sound of metal slamming on metal and the subsequent crash of the door falling onto the ground. He ran to Cielo's side and grabbed her shoulder.

"What the hell was that?!" Cody squeaked. The sudden noise spooked him quite a bit. "I'm trying to focus here!"

Without turning to face her brother Cielo walked out of the room and into the next. "I want answers for why we're in here to begin with, and i don't think anyone in that room is gonna have them." 

The next room had a single pod and an assortment of medical equipment...and a lone terminal. The Pod looked as though it had been used recently...though Cielo could tell whoever had done so was long gone. Chiyo eagerly followed her sister, followed by a less enthusiastic Cody. While the Femmes observed the medical equipment, Cody took the time to fiddle with the console...noting that it had a data entry still open from it's last use.

"Project: COPYCAT."

Cody didn't turn his attention from the screen, but called out. "Hey, uh...ladies? You might wanna come see this?"

--- Solus-12, Abandoned Decepticon Outpost ---

Calculite was not a bot of superstition, but was more than willing to use said superstition to keep himself safe. At war's end, The Decepticon Scientist feared prosecution for involvement in Decepticon Experimentation, even if most of his work turned out benign in the grand scheme of the cause. He'd recently encouraged all of his staff to go their separate ways, hoping they could live their lives in relative peace now that the war was over. However, Calculite chose not to return home, rather he dedicated himself to realizing his original goal. Starting over from scratch would be a daunting task, he knew, but it would be well worth it if he could grant a second chance to some of the unfortunate sparks lost during the war...even if it wasn't all of them he still had to try. 

As he began to scan the planet for mining sites, Calculite conversed with himself constantly...about what-ifs, if-onlys and what-could-have-beens...

"That's bad for your mental health you know..." He quipped.

"Of course I know...It's just..." He sighed, looking down at his feet. "...A bit hard to break the habit."

For about 2 minutes, Calculite's gaze was fixed to his feet. The floor. He missed his team. He missed Cybertron. He missed being sure in himself and his work. He missed feeling alive. It was hard for him to get out of his rut, but inspiration usually followed when he did. He could work for days at a time before spending another 2 mulling over the past. The Scientist had trapped himself in a vicious cycle in the weeks since his arrival, and even if he were aware of it, it was unlikely that he could free himself from it.

But there was someone on Solus-12 who could. 

As The Ex-Decepticon proceeded with his sweep for potential mining sites, he happened upon what appeared to be what was left of a previous Cybertronian mining detail. A surprisingly intact one, he observed. Calculite hovered above the site for a moment before landing, scanning for activity amongst the equipment there...it looked as though the gear has seen frequent usage AND repair for the better part of a millenia. Checking around, Calculite found traces of Treads in the grass and mud nearby...BIG treads. They led off towards a rocky valley...

He perked up... "Cybertronian settlers?? HERE??" He transformed and immediately set off, following the tracks. "Please...PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!"

Ever since he disbanded his team, Calculite had been CLAMORING for contact, or any kind. He'd been so alone and so absorbed in his work that he had all but forgotten what it was like to hold a conversation with someone other than himself. Work, mine, rest, repeat... but now there was a chance that there was another cybertronian here! Maybe even more than one! Calculite could barely contain himself, nearly crashing several times as he weaved through the valley, following the treads until they stopped beneath a stone arch, nestled deep within a canyon. From there, they turned into footsteps. Large ones. About the size of a Cybertronian in fact!

"YES!!!" Calculite ran in, uncharacteristically gung-ho and eager to meet a new face... "Hello?! Hello, is anyone there?! I found your tracks and your mining equipment! I'm Cybertronian like you!"

As he ran deeper and deeper in, he heard what sounded like footsteps!

"My name is Calculite! I'd like to-" When he turned the next corner, he was immediately greeted with a large mass. It knocked him off balance and onto his aft... he must've looked a sight to his fellow Cybertronian. "I sincerely apologize...I didn't mean...to..."

Calculite trailed off as he was met with the sight of a hulking Heavy-Frame, towering over him and looking rather...upset...The figure was Gun-Metal Black, armored to hell and back, and looked so dinged up and scarred that if they told him they'd fought in every single battle of The Great War, Calculite might have believed them. Their eyes were a fierce yellow...glowing like fire. The larger bot kneeled down toward Calculite, with a scowl that caused the comparatively small scientist to shrink further. Their eyes narrowed as they spoke.

"...LEAVE."

For a moment, Calculite was still, but as he regained his bearings he registered what the bot had said and responded weakly. "What?" He felt his spark begin to quiver.

"...Go. Away." The larger bot said, and they turned away to return to their apparently prefered solitude..

"I...I...wait...you...!" Calculite stammered and shook, not knowing how to react...

This was the worst way it could have possibly gone...the only other cybertronian on all of Solus-12 and they didn't want anything to do with him?! Why?? What had he done to deserve this, he wondered? What could he do to solve this...? He was so bereft with grief that he nearly collapsed.

"...alright...I'm...sorry to have bothered you..." The tone of Calculite's voice was...different from all the others that The Heavy Frame had encountered...he was genuinely sorry.

"...S-sorry? ...you're sorry?" The heavy frame turned around. "You...didn't do anything..."

Now dejected, Calculite protested. "Yes, I did...I disturbed your peace, thinking you needed a friend and I-"

The heavy frame cut the smaller bot off by picking him and and hoisting him under their arm. This one was different. This one could stay around. As he was lifted, Calculite was startled for certain, but knew that this bot meant him no harm. Though he wasn't thrilled about being carried like luggage...

"H-hey!" Calculite half-heartedly struggled, flailing slightly. "What are you doing??? I don't need you to...Oh, forget it..." The Scientist went limp, and simply let his bulky new friend take him into the canyon. 

--- Cirrus-7, Decepticon Experimentation Facility ---

There was a lot to unpack here. Having read through all of the contents of Calculite's terminal, Cody, Cielo and Chiyo now had to come to terms with the fact that they were clones, that their template had left without even knowing she had been cloned and that there had apparently been a whole war they were just a few years short to. Cody and Cielo leaned back against the wall of the Pod Chamber, still mulling over the revelation in their heads. It wasn't the answer they were expecting for certain. Chiyo, meanwhile, was still as chipper as she was when she woke up. 

Her exact wording when she found out was: "Cool!"

In the meantime, she ran off speeding through the facility to explore more of it's floors. Disappointed to discover that most had been destroyed, Chiyo reported back to her siblings to give them the bad news...though they didn't really seem all that interested.

"MAN! This place is totally wrecked...I guess that means some of us will have to share a room." The silver femme shrugged. It really was no big deal to her. She turned around and noticed that the other pods were still sealed...and no one else was in the room but Cielo and Cody. 

"...Hey...you haven't woken up the others yet? What gives?" Chiyo tugged on Cody's wing.

Cody sighed. "Look, sis...you wanna tell the others here that they're clones, that's fine by me. Be my guest. I ain't lookin' to drop bombs on anyone here, so..." 

Chiyo was already at the 4th pod's controls when Cody finished his sentence.

"...Ok,sure...you do you..." He muttered.

With a hiss of decompression, the next pod was unsealed. The occupant was still in her pod for a moment as color came to her chassis and light to her eyes. A dark violet, complimented by eyes glowing amber, the femme came to. 

Chiyo greeted her. "Howdy! I'm Chiyo! Welcome to the world! We're clones." She said bluntly, much to the shock and protest of her siblings. "Those are Cody and Cielo. They're clones too! What's your name?"

The femme pushed herself off of Chiyo and on to her own feet. She rubbed her chin, scanning her siblings and then the rest of the room. "My name, I think, is Cerrie...thank you for waking me..." She seemed to be deep in thought. Like something was bothering her...

Cody picked himself up and took a step towards her. "You good?"

With a nod, Cerrie half-smiled. "I'm fine, thank you. Sorry for making you worry...It's nothing."

The other 3 took her at her word, not seeing a reason any of them would have secrets to keep...they had all literally been brought online, so why worry?

On a whim, Cody gestured to Cielo and Chiyo. "Alright...last 3...Pick a Pod and open 'er up. Let's get this done quick..." 

Cielo scoffed. "You changed your mind quick..."

"Hey..." The lone mech raised his hands. "I said I didn't wanna drop the whole clone thing on them. I'll still let 'em loose...but, eh...Chiyo's the one who gets to do the reveal."

"I call dibs on the last one!" Chiyo raced to the end of the row and stood ready to open the pod. "Let's go in order! You go first, Cody!" 

Taking his place at the 5th pod - and Cielo at the 6th - Cielo hit the release for her pod and watched as the next clone slowly woke up and became aware of herself. 

The femme's chassis filled in from the top down, her body the colors of a sunset - A dark, midnight purple to fading orange. Her eyes were shining, a brilliant Neon Green, brighter than Cody's own. She looked around for just a moment...before tackling Cody to the ground on sight. Everyone watched the scene unfold as the Sunset Clone held Cody on the ground in a hug.

"THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU FOR WAKING ME UP!" She beamed. "That was so kind of you to do! Can I be your friend??" 

Cody struggled to pry her off, but gently responded. "We're...pretty much all already friends...All of us here are in the same boat. We're all new to...being online and stuff. That and...well..." He trailed off.

Looking around, the femme's wings began to flutter excitedly...she was a gleeful as a puppy almost. The other femmes holding back their laughter, Cerrie helped Cody and the new femme back onto their feet. Cerrie was immediately embraced in a softer, but still firm hug. 

"I'm Culeen! It's so nice to meet you all!" The wonder in her optics disarmed Cerrie completely, as well as everyone else. Looking around, everyone in the room came to a silent agreement: If anyone dared to try to bring harm to Culeen, They die.

Cielo opened her pod next, and it's occupant came alive as their body flushed a dull gold and her eyes lit up red as they seemed to gaze right at - and through - Cielo and the others...she stepped out of the pod and looked around, more lost than any of the others, but was still calm. She was observing herself more than anyone else. She too was subject to a hug from Culeen, much to her surprise.

"Welcome!!" Culeen, almost radiating happiness at this point, smiled at The Gold Femme.

Cielo came to their side. "Welcome to the clown show. Over there's your ringmaster, Cody." She gestured to the rest of the group. "I'm Cielo, over there's Chiyo, that one's Cerrie and the cuddle bug here is Culeen." 

Culeen unwrapped herself from her sibling and took her hands. "What's your name?"

The golden femme was silent for a moment, taking in the sudden wave of affection from her sibling and the oddity of her situation. Looking down at her grasped hands, she blinked.

"...Cinclair..." She said softly.

Culeen smiled bright and swung her hands gleefully, pulling Cinclair along with her to the other side of the room where she began to become acquainted with her fellow clones. In the meantime, Chiyo began to unseal the last pod. She noted that it had gotten a lot livelier with the addition of Cerrie, Culeen and Cinclair...the others were talking with each other, and they already seemed like they were comfortable with their newfound company. She'd only known Cody and Cielo for about an hour and the others for even less, and yet she loved them all more than life itself already. She hoped that their lastest sibling would feel the same...The pod holding the last femme opened, and the newcomer woke up with a sudden gasp. Her frame filled in a familiar red and her optics glowing with an amber hue that Chiyou had sworn she'd seen before. As they pulled themselves out of the pod, the others all turned to greet her. Culeen, of course, was first.

"ANOTHER FRIEND!!! This day is just...THE BEST!!" The Sunset Femme threw her arms up, fists balled. Every passing minute was like another birthday...

The newly activated clone caught her bearings rather quickly...taking a few more deep breaths before stepping out of her pod. "This is...new...what's the deal?"

Cody moved to the front of the small group and answered. "We're all clones. So are you. And now that we're all here..." He turned around to face his siblings. "...we need to figure out where to go from here...

--- Solus-12, Neuya's Home. ---

Still wrapping their head around the concept of having a guest within the walls of their makeshift domicile, Neuya actually found themselves rather glad that they'd taken a chance on Calculite. The Heavy frame had awkwardly introduced themselves, and brought the Scientist to their full time home: A patch work hab-suite in a cave made with parts from various destroyed Autobot and Decepticon bases. It wasn’t much, but it was what Neuya had, although Calculite didn’t seem to mind at all. Despite being one of those Decepticons - The ones who tended to hurt the planet and steal the resources that Neuya had mined to survive - the visiting mech was nothing but a humble, polite, and all around pleasant guest. Calculite was alone, and had been for quite some time… 2 millenia he’d said. The way he simply heeded Neuya’s warning with little to no resistance also made the Heavy Frame reconsider their stance towards him. Though considering that they remembered next to nothing about how to start a conversation naturally, simply scooping him up off the floor was...odd, to say the least.  They hadn't met someone like him in...well...it had been a VERY long time. Something Calculite was now uncomfortably familiar with. And didn't the bot just ramble on...talking about his scientific findings about local flora, fauna, previous projects and other things that seemed to be his passion. Neuya didn't understand a whole lot of it, never having been the scientific type, but they did their best to listen regardless. At that moment, Calculite was explaining some of his last experiments before the end of the war that he'd gotten a kick out of.

"...I don't think i've ever been audibly BOO'ED for any of my work in my entire life! I knew they weren't going to go for it, but they played into it like I was a bad stand-up comic at Maccadam's!" Calculite gently chuckled as he went on. "Someone even threw a container of Energon Goodies at my head! I didn't even know we HAD those at the base! I started requesting them for my work-station after that. And everyone was in good spirits after that..." 

Neuya smiled as Calculite spun his oddly merry tale. For a Scientist aligned with such brutal characters...he seemed...nice. "Sounds fun." They said, brief and gentle. 

Some of the words that Calculite was saying were familiar to the larger bot...Energon Goodies. Neuya recalled enjoying those somewhat. And Maccadam’s. They used to go there before their empurata...He really was from Cybertron. To Neuya, the planet was almost nothing more than a memory, like a dream that they’d forgotten and could now only briefly and inconsistently. They hated that. Having the chance to continue helping people robbed from them, then turned into a war machine and sent off planet for who knows what purpose. Everything Calculite was saying only reminded Neuya more and more of the life they had stolen from them, and while it was no paradise it was certainly better than living in a dump like this in isolation. Calculite’s voice pulled The Heavy Frame from their internal brooding, not realizing that Neuya was in their own headspace for a time.

“Y’know...sometimes I wish that I could just go back. Not to my work with The Decepticons, but to my work in The Golden Age…” The smaller bot let out a long sigh. “Back when all that was asked me was to create and help others. Not make bioweapons or doomsday devices. I’m not built for that sort of thing!” Calculite’s demeanor shifted rapidly as he talked. “I know it’s...well, I was just telling myself earlier it’s not healthy to...dwell on the past. But now more than ever...even though the war is over...I just keep asking myself-”

“What if…” Neuya finished their thought. If there was a moment of connection between them, this was it. “Same here.”

Calculite nodded. “...You do know, don’t you…?” The more Calculite thought about it, the more he became curious about Neuya, where’d they’d come from, and how they’d ended up in the ruins of a Decepticon base… “Y-you don’t mind if i-”

A loud, obnoxious “WEE-WOO!” belted from Calculite’s arm, startling both him and Neuya as the scientist fell out of his seat, and the Heavy Frame hopped back a good couple of feet. As the duo caught their barrings, Calculite stared at his arm in what Neuya could only interpret as a mixture of disbelief, joy and mortification. They knew the signs of that last one a bit too well...Calculite stood up and - out of habit - showed Neuya the display that had appeared on his arm as if Neuya were one of his lab partners. Confused but engaged, Neuya looked on attentively. 

“Th-This...How is that possible?” Calculite’s wrist display projected a series of pods and the mechanical read-outs of a young Triple-Changer. “Someone found...But...HOW?? I deactivated Project: COPY-CAT millennia ago! How did-?!” The Bot’s optics narrowed in horror. “...oh no.”

--- 1,337 years ago, Calculite’s Lab ---

“C’mon, Modem, I promise that it won’t kill you!” Calculite begged the communications officer for his cooperation.

Modem nodded firmly, arms crossed and back turned. “For the last time, Doc. I am NOT climbing into that thing. How do I know i’m not gonna end up Antroid chow???”

“Because that was a JOKE!” Calculite threw his arms up.

“That’s what they all say.” Modem lied. Nobody said that.

In a borderline tantrum, Calculite’s rotors spun-up slightly. “Oh, FINE! Be that way!” Mumbling all the way to his control console, The Huffy Scientist punched up a new string of commands.

> Activate Template Scan Upon Stasis usage.

> Warning! Scan will commence regardless of subject origin.

> Confirm

> Are You Sure?

> CONFIRM

> ...Just saying, this sounds like a bad idea…

> C O N F I R M

> ...Ok...Don’t say I didn’t warn you...Command Recognized.

--- The Skies Above Solus 12, A Very Fast Helicopter flying at Very High Speeds. ---

“I’M SUCH AN IDIOT!!!”

Calculite made a beeline for his ship at breakneck speeds, prompting Neuya to give chase. Right...Neuya. Calculite had no right to ask them for help but...this was so incredibly urgent! Some unwitting wanderer had accidentally cloned herself, and according to the alert, her doppelgangers were ONLINE! They could get hurt! Or hurt someone else! Or both! ...or neither??? Too much risk! Too many factors! There were 7 of them, and either any one of them could be EVIL! What if that one was the leader? What if any of them were outliers? Point One Percenters?! ...ok, that one was a little less likely, but even so! With all of the risk factors that were included in even one clone being out there by itself, Calculite was thrown into a full blown panic! So much could go wrong in such a little amount of time...and what about the template? What if SHE was EVIL?! Calculite was flying so fast his engines were sputtering with flames.

Neuya was just confused. To them, Calculite had barged out of his front door and took off yelling a bunch of synonyms for “Not Good.” Thankfully, their gunship mode could easily keep up with Calculite’s Helicopter form...They recognized the model. An earthling helicopter. Mil Mi-24D. Hailing from the “country” they took their ground alt. from. They could see how hard Calculite was pushing himself...just how badly did he screw up???

The scientist dove hard, piercing a large hole in the clouds below as Neuya plunged behind him. In his haste, Calculite pulled up too late and failed to stop himself from skidding on the ground. Catching his belly on something and causing him to shift back to robot mode, Calculite harshly tumbled and rolled before finally coming to a stop just in front of his ship. Neuya’s landing, just beside their companion, was far more graceful. Making sure Calculite was alright, the heavy frame hoisted up the smaller bot and looked over the ship they’d been led to...the thing was a sorry sight. Decepticon logos on the sides and tail were faded and scratched beyond nearly all recognition, and it’s once-dark purple coloring was now a mere violet-gray.

Steadying himself and getting back on track, Calculite’s hands worked like lightning, slapping in combinations and commands on his wrist’s remote controls for his slumbering ship. “Get in, Quick! I’ll have the repair drones fix it while we’re airborne!”

Neyua watched confused as the skittish bot started pulling and tugging at them in a panic. “Wh-wait...wha..?”

“Please! We have to hurry! There’s no telling what damage the clones could do unsupervised!” The aforementioned repair drones swirled around Calculite as he stumbled into the ship, manic and off balance.

The ship was in tatters both inside and out, but was in good enough condition to fly without blowing up...for the most part. The Repair Drones were working quickly enough that they could achieve take-off within 5 minutes or less, albeit with the ship still under repair. Time was of the essence however, as for all Calculite knew, The clones were on a rampage at that very second!

--- Cirrus-7, Calculite’s Lab. ---

Culeen traced the shape of a heart into the small holographic screen she was playing with, as the others bickered over what to do now. With the clones all online, Cody didn’t see any reason they should stick around, nor did Cielo. Chiyo protested, saying that the facility was home and that they could figure out what to do after settling in. Cerrie agreed to the sentiment, and suggested that they begin figuring out what to do after they’d found a steady supply of resources...Cinclair was already distracted, having become fixated on a chair she’d found and spinning in constant circles. The others knew she would go with the flow, however, and allowed her to maintain rotation. And then there was Calrim, who immediately shouted “FOLLOW ME!” and then charged out the door in vehicle mode. The roar of her engine as she came back halted the conversation among the other clones.

She skidded to a halt and assumed robot mode in front of the conversing group. “What the hell?! Where were you guys? Didn’t you hear me???” She whined.

Cody pinched the bridge of his nose. “Look, sis...we’re not going anywhere until we figure out what we’re going to be doing out there. Heading out and coming up with a plan on the fly isn’t really a good idea when we don’t know what’s out there…”

“Or even where we are.” Cerrie added. “To top it all off, No matter what we end up doing, we’re not going to last long unless we can find or scavenge a steady source of engeron for ourselves...maybe some of us can go outside in shifts while the rest stay inside and come up with a plan?”

As Cody prepared his thoughts, his optics shifted around the room. “If we leave now, maybe we can find another site that’s a bit like this one...maybe one in…” He gestured his hand in a circle. “...better shape?”

“But...we came from here...so it’s pretty much home, right?” Chiyo’s face curled into a slight frown. “We can’t just leave without a second thought. I mean...I know we just got made and all but…” 

Even Chiyo herself didn’t know why she was so attached to the facility. In her mind, there was sentiment in it that just couldn’t really be explained. Like...she’d been here for eons and wasn’t willing to just leave on a whim. She couldn’t, for the life of her, explain why though. The others seemed totally ambivalent to the whole ordeal, especially Cinclair, who didn’t really seem interested in anything. Chiyo began to wonder; though she didn’t wish to simply let go of the facility, she did want to know why she was so attached to it in the first place...she had only just been forged here...so...why? Cody, Cielo and Cerrie continued to debate over a plan of action among themselves, as Chiyo moved to the facility’s stairwell to grab some of the supplies on the lower floor she’d found earlier. As she did, Cinclair silently followed, having grown bored of her rotation and seeking new stimuli. Calrim gave chase as well, seeing as she couldn’t get a word in with the others. Culeen was content to continue messing with the terminal as everyone else was busy and happily pressed every random prompt that showed up on screen. In her browsing, she absent mindedly blew passed the entries about Project: COPYCAT, Calculite’s notes and the personnel records, and stumbled across what appeared to be a new entry in the database, not that she would have recognized that. The prompt read “COPYCAT Template” and on screen, an image of a strikingly familiar femme appeared on screen, so familiar that Culeen was taken aback!

With an audible gasp, she shouted! “We have another sister?!” She let out a joyous squeal that prompted the others to come to her side.

Cody, Cerrie and Cielo rushed over, to find Culeen fluttering and rocking with utter joy. A quick observation of the terminal informed them that this wasn’t a new clone...this was their template. The one who they were based off of...Colvus.

With a nod, Cody looked to his 3 present sisters and gave a relieved, maybe shocked, huff. “Well...I guess that answers that question. What we do with this info, though...well...i’ve got nothing.”

“Weird how she just bolted…” Cielo crossed her arms, squinting at her template’s image. “Maybe she had trouble after her, couldn’t stay?” Trying to piece a reason why she left, Cielo looked to Cerrie. “Got any ideas, Sis?”

Gently scooting Culeen aside, Cerrie thoroughly observed the file down to every detail. After about 2 minutes of scanning, Cerrie scrolled back up to the top of the file, and blinked. “That...that can’t be right. There must be some kind of system error.” 

Before anyone could ask what was the issue, Cerrie refreshed the file, checked for corrupted data and double checked for any bugs and security breaches within the system...but the result came up the same regardless. Cerrie leaned back, looking as if she’d just been given the keys to Iacon...Cody, Cielo and Culeen leaned close to see what she’d been so blown away by: Colvus had only left 3 Solar Cycles Ago. The group all sat dumbfounded for a moment, reconsidering just what the nature of their creation had been, the intention of their template, and...pretty much everything that had occurred since their activation. 

“LET’S GO FIND HER!” Culeen jumped up so quick, her after-burners sputtered. “Please??? Can we go find her, PLEASE????” She clung to Cody and shook him needily. 

The Mech looked to his other siblings, who both shrugged. What else could they do? “Might as well. Beats sitting here on our hands…”

Culeen was so overjoyed that she transformed into her Sports Car mode involuntarily and nearly knocked Cielo off her feet and peeled out into the hallway. She zoomed past Chiyo, Cinclair and Calrim, all of whom had been present for her...exclamation. Chiyo and Calrim were lugging large crates, whilst Cinclair stood beside them.

“Her?” Cinclair asked, flat and monotone. “Who’s...her?”

“Our template.” Cerrie explained, “According to this data file, Colvus, as she’s called, came to this facility on a whim...She’s been hitting several abandoned sites across various planets all relating to an...apparent Civil War that we missed. What she was doing here, we can’t discern…”

Cody shrugged. “...and now, Culeen’s itching to follow her and ask her.” Moving to Cerrie’s side at the terminal, Cody began mulling in his head over the concept of a straight forward meeting, perhaps confrontational, meeting with their template. There were a lot of questions that needed answering, both before and after contact was made with Colvus. Did she have some sort of entourage? Did she have any idea that they were even online? ...and could she even be followed reliably?

As he began to confer with Cerrie and the others, Culeen remained in the doorway of the facility’s entrance looking as though she was retracing her steps, though she’d only just been created. It felt as though she could see...feel where another had been. She could see every step on their path, literally glowing from the cave’s entrance, to the medbay and back again. Like holograms, the ghost of a figure traced those same steps, mirroring every minute action of Culeen’s Template.This was the path. This was Colvus’ path, and now it was that of the clones too. 

“I know the way.” Culeen spoke softly.

---- Aboard Calculite’s Research Vessel ----

Over the few hours they’d been in flight, Calculite had spilled the beans to Neuya about Project: COPYCAT. Literally EVERYTHING. Past iterations, failed features, a list of some of the bots that he had hoped to bring back, his blunder of having the Template Record pod copy anyone who used it out of spite, and most importantly...how he thought that the facility had been destroyed. When the War was looking like it was headed the way of Cirrus-7, Calculite ordered all projects within the facility be ceased, and the base itself be torched and burned...to the point where he sought to do it himself. Of course, more worried about the prospect of being captured and prosecuted than his work being discovered, Calculite detonated the failsafe explosives from orbit as his ship made it’s escape from the supposedly encroaching Autobot forces. Not only was this force non-existent, but so were the charges that were supposed to destroy the first 5 levels of the base. Now, here he sat with the constant reminder of his errors hanging over him...and soon, he feared, there would be many more reminders in the form of innocents slain. 

Neuya, on the other hand, was rather confused by this fear. From what Calculite had shown them, the template of these clones wasn’t much to look at...a scrawny looking thing that could be easily broken, regardless of its number of alternate modes. In their head, the odds looked good to Neuya...they thought this to themselves to draw attention away from the fact that they were utterly terrified of the vacuum. It’s massive expanse and utter lack of ground shook them hard enough to have them prod Calculite with more questions about his project. Even in the Golden Age of Cybertron, Neuya had never put thought into the idea of going to space...let alone having ever been there. Now they struggled to keep their composure as this stranger - could Neuya really call him a friend yet? - pulled them from the only place they had remembered as home, and into the great, vast assault of color and light. Though there was beauty in it, Neuya was only reminded of their haze from when they’d first awoken on Solus-12...maybe they would adjust? If that was the case, the heavy frame hoped dearly that the adjustment would come sooner than later…

“We’re on course to be in orbit of Cirrus-7 in about 3 cycles…” Calculite sounded as if he were about to start hyperventilating. “Although...um...that might be a little hard, all things considered…”

Calculite wasn’t oblivious to just how foriegn Space Travel must have been for his larger friend. Eons alone on a remote planet without a mode of off-world transport must have been...difficult. Even with their drop-ship mode, The Scientist hazarded a guess that Neuya didn’t even realize that their alternate mode was capable of space flight...and from that began to wonder just what had made him this way? There was no way that such a Cybertronian of such strength would be left alone by the likes of the warring factions of their home world. 

Before he prodded any further, Calculite held out his hand to Neuya, a gesture that confused the Heavy Frame. “I know you’re...uncomfortable because of me...and I know that I’m throwing a lot at you so fast...so if there’s anything you need from me in return, no matter what it is, I’ll do my best to help you. Ok?” 

The smaller bot kept his hand out...and Neuya slowly held out their own to meet it. It didn’t completely alleviate Neuya’s fear, but it was better than nothing. They could see that Calculite was a mess, trying his hardest to keep his own composure while juggling keeping their new-found companion assured that they were alright, and planning how best to deal with his blunder. Though they’d not been around others in a very long time, Neuya still knew all too well what self-doubt and loathing looked like. If Calculite didn’t have both, they feared he soon would. 

The Ship’s dashboard pulled the duo’s attention to a small blip on the radar. The sensor array had picked up a ship - ghostly in it’s sudden appearance - approaching them from the starboard side...rapidly. Their own ship wasn’t defenseless, but it would take time for them to activate it’s weapon’s suite, and by the time Calculite had begun the process, it was too late. Looming before their ship was a comparatively massive vessel, one that eclipsed their view of the stars completely. Calculite tried to maneuver out of the cruiser’s way, but found that the controls were unresponsive...not only had the ship completely gotten the jump on them, but it had managed to short out the ship’s navigation and controls as well.

Neuya growled, his instincts flaring up, but not letting themselves get carried away, while Calculite scrambled for his radio, his composure now entirely shattered. “Approaching vessel! This is Calculite of The-” He caught himself before saying Decepticon Army, Scientific division. “-Of Cirrus-7. We are on an urgent mission and mean no harm to your vessel! Why are you boarding us?!” His voice cracked in panic.

Their radio crackled alive in response as the vessel began to pull the smaller craft into one of it’s hangar bays. “We know that you are a Decepticon craft. You are being brought aboard for questioning by order of our captains. Comply, and you will be released safely.” 

The voice that of a femme, and Calculite recognized the craft’s design. Camien. What a vessel of this size from Caminus - fuel starved, Calculite learned from hearsay - was doing out here was beyond him, but he’d hoped to avoid conflict at all costs. Neuya was still fierce faced and tense, knowing all too well how these kinds of encounters ended for them; Laser fire and an enegon-bath. They too were wishing for a peaceful resolution, but considered their history and prepared for the worst. Their ship made a gentle landing inside one of the cruiser’s hangar bays, wide enough to be nestled in between a complimented fighter and a dropship of equal size to their vessel. A group of 5 Camien Security officers, armed both conventionally and with their own on-board weaponry, approached briskly and with purpose. Calculite was the first to rise from his seat, but Neuya was the first one out the airlock as they positioned themselves in front of the smaller Cybertronian. Though they’d only known the scientist for a brief time, Neuya was fiercely determined to keep him out of harm’s way. 

The all-femme group came to a halt just as the ship’s boarding ramp came down, 4 on each side of their slightly larger leader, Breakthrough. “All occupants, disembark immediately!” She shouted, sternly, but not harshly. 

Calculite slunk down the ramp with hands raised, followed by Neuya, who stood firmly behind their smaller friend. They could see the shock from the other 4 members of the squadron. One of them, a shifty looking jet, kept a sword fully raised and pointed at the heavy frame. All of them but their commander were in awe of Neuya, standing taller than them by half their heights. The squadron lead returned Neuya’s cold stare with a stare equally frigid. In spite of Neuya’s presence overwhelming her comrades, Breakthrough remained unmoved. 

She shifted her sight down to Calculite, deeming him more willing to talk than his comrade. “We thank you for your cooperation thus far, sir…” Breakthrough’s hands held firmly behind her back as she began her questioning. “We’ve been tracking your movement through this sector and have suspicion that you’re in possession of some information that we would find quite valuable.” 

Confused, Calculite straightened himself. “What…? I don’t really follow. We’re looking to get to Cirrus-7 to retrieve some…” He paused. “...sensitive materials. They could end up harming others, and we’re seeking to minimize any potential damage.”

“Odd for a decepticon…” Breakthrough noted. “...We were enroute to Cirrus-7 as the last known location of an individual of High Value to our captains, and were led to believe that you were in possession of information of said individual.” The Commander held out a small hologram disk in her hand and presented it to the duo. The likeness of a young Camien appeared before them. “This is our target. She was last reported to be enroute to Cirrus-7 a few cycles ago.”

“Hey…” Neuya rumbled. “Isn’t that...the one? The...template?”

Calculite was in awe. “Indeed it is!” Pulling up his wrist projector’s image of the recently scanned “template”, Calculite crossed referenced the image with that of the commander’s, to find that their subjects were one and the same. “This is PERFECT!” He exclaimed! “Our mutual friend has stumbled across something that I don't think she fully understands!”

Breakthrough breathed a sigh of mixed relief and exasperation at the progression of her task. “That much was to be assumed when we took this job.” She muttered under her breath. “Come with us...You need to speak with our captains.”

Not waiting another moment, The Squadron followed their leader down the hangar bay and towards the bridge. Neuya and Calculite looked at one another with gentle, uneasy smiles, then followed suit. This trip had already gotten more eventful.

---- Captains’ Quarters of The Arrow of Prima ----

Serving as joint captains of The Arrow of Prima, Radius and Colvala told the Forgefire Parliament that they had set off to find more sources of energon on uninhabited planets. They fully intended to do so, but only along the way as they carried out their primary mission. About a Stellar-Cycle ago, their daughter Colvus had left Caminus without Radius or Colvala knowing to sate her wanderlust and thirst for adrenaline. Helping Caminus was not enough for their daughter...no, she had to help the whole galaxy to feel some sense of satisfaction. While her mothers were proud of her compassion, her impulsive and reckless behavior worried them so sick that they were willing to tell the Parliament half-truths in order to find her and bring her home.

Did they feel bad for roping their old friends - Carbon Team - into a galaxy spanning expedition to find more energon? Kind of. Were they thankful for their service? Most certainly! Did they feel bad for the mission being a front for finding their daughter and bringing her home safely? Not particularly, as they still did intend to fulfil that objective, but their daughter was priority. Did they feel bad for not telling Carbon Team about the mission’s true nature in the first place? Yes, but they feared that their companions would have told The Parliament of their true primary objective, which thankfully, Carbon Team swore against doing. Did they expect the team to find two total strangers with info about Colvus’ latest misadventure just floating about in space in an old clunky ship? To put it simply, No.

As Calculite spun the tale of his experiment of Cirrus-7, Radius and Colvala were filled with a whirlwind of emotion over their wayward daughter and over the bot who spoke to them now. For all intents and purposes, this could be considered his fault for not making doubly sure that his work had been buried. But they withheld their judgement for the moment, knowing that their daughter’s life mattered more than wasting their focus on a petty blame game. Calculite wrapped up his summary and had a seat on one of the chairs the duo had been offered.

“This...this was all a huge mistake, one that i intend to justify.” The scientist closed. “Will you help...No, will you allow me to help me find your daughter and rectify these mistakes of mine? I owe it to you, and to everyone that my creations might bring harm to.”

Standing up from her chair, Radius had to restrain herself from scolding their guest, knowing he was already taking responsibility and asking for aid...aid that would likely prove invaluable when searching for their child. Or rather, their children now...though she wasn’t certain of how Colvala felt, Radius was almost immediately for the opinion that if these clones were anything like their daughter, then they could be considered her siblings, and by extension...their children. This meant her kin were at risk, and this more than upset her. But this wasn’t the time to be too emotional.

Radius looked Calculite in the optics and spoke firmly. “While we do accept your help with open arms, know that your...previous affiliations leave you suspect. You will be granted access to our ship’s resources and supplies only to aid in our search.” When Radius looked to Colvala for confirmation, her Conjunx nodded in silent affirmation. Radius continued. “Carbon Team shall assign you a handler and they will accompany you through most proceedings across the ship until we reach Cirrus-7. From there, you will accompany Carbon Team to this facility of yours, and search for any trace of our Daughter and report your findings.”

Though the prospect of being shadowed was unnerving, Calculite realized that being a Decepticon - current or former - led many to be wary of him. “I understand. Thank you, Ma’am.” 

Calculite stood up and was led away to be shown his new hab suite and workstation. Neuya watched as he left, and received a solemn smile from his smaller companion. That smile was an apology, Neuya had seen it somewhere on Pre-War Cybertron...but the memory was hazy at best. Without Calculite, they felt awkward sitting in the ornate room surrounded by strangers. This was the first time they’d been around this many other bots that weren’t shooting at them, and it certainly showed to the others in the room. Colvala watched as the heavy frame twiddled their digits nervously, optics darting around the room and avoiding contact with others. 

She slowly tried to get their attention. “...Are you alright?” She asked. “Do you need anything, dear?” 

Neuya perked up and looked at Colvala, startled. “Uhh...I...Ngh…” They winced hard and began to shake… “Sp-space...space alone…please...” There was only so much they could take in one solar cycle.

“It’s alright, you’re ok…!” Colvala reassured them. “Come, come with me...I’ll show you to your suite and give you all the space you need, dear.” 

The heavy frame rocked slightly, but nodded to Colvala as she led them to a safer space, somewhere they could have the quiet they desired. As she did, Radius sent out a general communique to all members of Carbon Team: Do not aggravate or antagonize our larger guest. Signs of unidentified trauma are present, recommending all hands to provide space unless engaged by the guest. As for the Decepticon, but on Guard. We can only trust his word so far…

Breakthrough privately messaged Radius.

[BT: I’ll make sure our guest is properly settled before bringing him on the deployment. Don’t want something going wrong.]

[R: That’s for the best...Thank you, Breakthrough. Your help has been invaluable.]

[BT: Of course. We’ll find your kid yet.]

[R: By the Primes, I hope so…]

---- Cirrus-7, Just outside of Calculite’s Lab ----

Though it had taken sometime to convince them what she was seeing was real, Culeen eventually proved her visions weren’t just a fantasy. She was able to accurately retrace Colvus’ steps through the facility and even predicted where she was going next by going down the list that the database had copied from her memory during the template scan. Now the clones had a solid idea of where their template was headed, a steady stockpile of supplies to come back to, and a whole lot of time on their hands…

Culeen, traced the trail she was seeing across the sky...eventually laying eyes upon another planetoid in the distance. Cirrus-5 “There...she’s headed there…” She turned to face the rest of the group, slightly bouncing up and down with fluttering wings as she began thinking about meeting Colvus. “AAH! I’m so excited! This is gonna be such a fun trip!”

Cody crossed his arms and looked up at their destination, before looking back at their motley crew… “Alright folks...everyone got what they need? Energon? Goodies? A good read?” He joked.

Cielo rolled her neck and shook out her arms. She’d been aching to do SOMETHING since they had awoken, and was more than eager to head out and find more answers. “Ready to roll.”

Chiyo looked back at the base solemnly...it really was a shame that they were leaving in her mind. But if it meant meeting the template, then it was worth it. Adventure didn’t come calling everyday, and she wasn’t about to let that call go unanswered. “I’m ready. Let’s go for it! No day like Today!”

“We’ll likely be out for a couple of Solar-Cycles.” Cerrie’s gaze flipped between her own feet and the planetoid above for a bit. “We have about a Deca-Cycles worth of energon in all of us. If we run low, we double back here for a refuel and head back out.” She looked around at her siblings with a small grin. “As an aside, I’ll take pictures!”

Cinclair was focused on a datapad she’d nicked from the facility just before their exit. She collapsed it and clipped it to her thigh, giving a thumbs up that she was all ready. She wasn’t particularly excited for the whole jaunt, nor was she dreading it. She was just following the leader...whichever one of them it was at the moment.

And then there was Calrim, still pouting and muttering that no one wanted to follow her...she would’ve thought about finding Colvus eventually! And probably would’ve found her relatively quick. At least they were doing something though. “Ok, fine...Let’s go. But I get to think about a name for our group, ok guys?!” 

Cody cocked his head slightly. “Do we...need one of those??”

“YES.” That the question was even posed set Calrim off slightly. “We do. If we’re going to be traveling in a group, making a name for ourselves...we need a cool name…”

“Ok! Let me know when you come up with one! I’d love to hear it!” Culeen’s innocent response threw Calrim off, earning her a huff from her younger sibling. “Now…” Culeen’s wings fluttered before she launched into the air and transformed. “RACE YA!”

Cielo and Chiyo were quick to take up Culeen on her challenge, not knowing just how fast their little sibling was. Calrim was quick to chase after them, with Cerrie scrambling behind them and Cinclair taking her sweet time, knowing well she wouldn’t be left behind. She looked to her siblings trailing off in the sky, and then to the planetoid they streaked off to...and then to the strange, silhouette of a ship that was approaching them from a distance away.

She blinked once. “Huh. That’s weird.” Then she took off, not worried about it THAT much. Maybe she would if it got too close. Not too much to worry about if it didn’t, she figured. 

As she rejoined the group, staggered formation shifted constantly: Calrim and Cielo’s alt modes were nowhere near as fast as that of their siblings, though as Cybertronians, even outdated alts could be pushed past their limits. Even then, Culeen led the pack as her jet mode screamed across this sky, seemingly propelled by her enthusiasm. Her sheer excitement turned into a power source. Cody had to push himself to keep up and get her to slow down while the others did their best to keep pace. 

As they were the furthest behind and not within ear-shot of their sibling, Cielo inched toward Calrim. “You’re awful quiet...you thinkin’ about that name?”

Calrim was silent for a moment, still brooding somewhat after her rejection as Leader by her siblings...though she was at least happy that she got to choose the name of their little posse… “Yeah...but I dunno if the others will like it…”

“Run it by me…” Cielo chuckled. “I’ll be the test audience.”

“You sure? ...It might be kinda lame…” The younger jet waivered slightly.

Undeterred, Cielo prodded. “Totally. Let’s hear it.”

With a sigh, Calrim gave way. “Ok…here goes...”

An hour later, The Copy-Cat Gang passed through a small asteroid field in-between Cirrus-7 and Cirrus-5.

[hvlfwygod]

reoccurrence | patrick

It was the same, every single time. At least, that was what his mom said when she explained it to his brother, his dad, his doctor. She was wrong, though. They didn’t always start the same, they actually could be very different. Sometimes Patrick was at the store, sometimes in the family minivan, sometimes walking through some endless foggy forest. What was always the same was the ending. Always.

“What are you making?”

Patrick glanced up from his drawing as Dr. Wilson sat down beside him. He’d been coming to her office for weeks now, answering all kinds of pointless questions and drawing all kinds of pictures. She listened to him explain what each crayon-rendered monster meant, how often they showed up in his dreams, and his ranking on who were the scariest. Today was a new beast, some cross between a scorpion and an endless black hole; Patrick leaned back to show it off.

Dr. Wilson— she insisted he call her Samara— was patient, she listened, she suggested drawings he could revisit. He listened, too, though only halfway, usually too invested in his drawings. If she wanted him to give her all of his attention, he reasoned, she shouldn’t have put so many papers and supplies in front of him.

"This guy is cool,” Samara said, squinting at the monster. “Can I keep him?”

“It’s not done,” Patrick said, pulling the paper back to him and continuing to color in the shadows. “But later, sure.”

“Cool! Thank you. So where does he show up?”

“In... the desert,” Patrick replied.

“Mhm, and what does he do?”

Patrick hadn’t decided, yet, but he screwed up his face as if he was trying to remember. Samara shifted beside him and he heard a faint scribble of her pen. Then, she sighed and pulled out another drawing, one from two weeks ago.

“He kind of looks like this guy. Are you sure he’s a new monster?”

Slowly, Patrick lowered his crayon. “That looks different.”

“Or, Patrick, are you making up stories instead of telling me about your bad dreams?”

It was quiet for a long time, but for once, Patrick didn’t immediately resume his coloring. He sat there, stony and silent, waiting for the rest of the accusation to come.

“Patrick, you’re seven, you know better than to lie like this,” Samara said, her voice stern yet gentle. “I don’t mind you telling me... Whatever you need to, if it helps. I’d love to hear about all these creatures. But I’m starting to think you’re avoiding talking about the dreams that are giving you trouble.”

Patrick shrugged, not looking at her. “It’s dumb,” he pouted. “Nothing helps. You can’t change a dream.”

Samara sighed. “Not if you don’t try, kiddo. But I promise you don’t have to keep having this nightmare. I know you’re super tired, but we can figure this out. I love your creativity, I really do. But I need you to tell me what you’re actually dreaming, so we can get to the bottom of it. Okay?”

After another long silence, Patrick sighed and flipped his paper over to the blank side. He started drawing anew: pairs of eyes staring out through the darkness, and himself, staring back. “Okay.”

———

He was still pissed off. Patrick, just not high enough to not be frustrated, mentally cursed himself as sat before his latest painting. The oily darkness was finally starting to take on a certain depth, turning slowly back into the base he’d painted weeks earlier. If he closed his eyes, he could visualize the old image: a dilapidated house, the twinkling black lake, the almost perfect way he’d captured the radiating moonlight. But when he stared at what was in front of him, all he could think about was that this was technically his second time reaching this stage. All he could see was a hand-sized smear wreaking a diagonal ruin across the canvas.

It’d been a while since his confrontation with Koda, but the time had done nothing to dull the pangs of regret. Not for fighting with her, but for the collateral damage. Patrick couldn’t even bring himself to recreate his painting until now, and still he could barely get through it without feeling inordinately annoyed. Swallowing pills before this had done practically nothing. Reno’s words from Halloween rang in his head: your shit mood is sobering you up.

A sudden urge to chuck the frame across the room came over him. Idiot, he thought. Fucking moron. Before he fucked up his work yet again, though, Patrick stepped back from his paints and walked away. He stormed past strangers in the studio, eliciting a few complaints and sideways glances as his hand slammed against the door and stepped outside.

The afternoon sunlight was too harsh, still. Perhaps the only indication that he was actually high at all, he mused bitterly as he lit a cigarette. He inhaled, held it, and let it go, forcing himself to calm down. For a few minutes, it worked. His brain was quiet, just a low hum of empty thoughts and the rhythmic exhale of smoke.

But even out here, even high (though, he reminded himself, not quite enough), regret seeped back in.

It had been such a nice painting. Fuck. Why did Koda have to piss him off? He couldn’t believe he’d left it with her, too, or let himself think that she’d take his side. The fight started to replay in his mind, like a bad movie to which he already knew the ending, but couldn’t stop watching. The worst part was that no matter how angry he was at his sister, the world, even Tai (because this wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t jumped Patrick in the first place) he was much more pissed at himself.

Newly aggravated, Patrick killed his cigarette and then dropped it to the ground as he walked back inside. He was ready to give up, write today off, come back to this cursed project another day. But as soon as he saw his unfinished painting again, as if to spite himself, he felt compelled to keep going.

Slowly, he sat down in front of the easel and started to paint. Slowly, the house rematerialized, the shores of the lake took shape once again. Slowly, the image he’d lost crept back into existence.

Patrick worked straight through the sunset, only stopping when fatigue started to weigh his hand and caused his brush to droop between his fingers. He sat back and studied the picture, feeling strangely tilted and dizzy, then checked his phone. Patrick blinked at the hour on the screen, much later than he expected. “Damn,” he mumbled; it was the first word he’d said in hours.

Patrick looked once again at the painting. He had to admit that he was pleased, if only a little. It wasn’t the original, but he’d managed to get close. Except, peeking out from the edge of a small cluster of sinister looking trees, Patrick noticed something new. A pocket of negative space was there, glaring and distracting.  Acting on another whim, he picked up his brush again started filling in the details.

When he sat up after a few long minutes, two eyes stared back at him from the emptiness. A snout was just beginning to take shape, as if the dog was walking out from an engulfing darkness.

———

He woke up with a start, but this time, it wasn’t out of fear. No, Patrick was excited, triumphant. He threw his covers off and scrambled out of bed, disregarding that the sun had just barely started to break over the horizon.

“Mom!” he shouted, pushing her door aside as he walked into her room. She stirred in her sleep but didn’t immediately wake up, so Patrick grabbed her arm and shook. “Mooooom!”

“Patrick, shh, it’s...” she lifted her head and blinked as she checked the time, “not even six, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing! I did it. I changed the—”

“What’s going on?” his dad asked, pushing himself up in the bed beside his mom.

“I changed the dream,” Patrick said, looking to him. “I made it stop, I changed it. They looked completely different.”

“Oh.” His mother’s eyes widened. “That’s great, sweetie."

Patrick preened. “All the wolves got scared of me and started running. All the things started to...” He struggled to remember all the details. “They went away.”

“That’s awesome, kid,” his dad added in. “I’ll make breakfast to celebrate.”

Patrick nodded vigorously, never one to turn down his dad’s pancakes. Before he could follow him out of the room, though, his mom took his hand.

“Sweetheart, can you tell me more about this dream?” she asked.

“It was the same as always,” he told her with a shrug. “But I changed it. It was like I was awake and in charge of everything.”

“Okay.” She nodded. “And what did it change to? Did you notice anything? Anyone?”

Patrick frowned as he thought about it. “... Maybe?” If he thought too hard about it more of the dream started to turn into fog. “I think maybe someone was standing next to me.” His mother pressed her lips together, and he wasn’t sure what for. Patrick tilted his head. “Why?”

After a pause, she squeezed his hand. “I’m sure Dr. Wilson will want to know whatever you can remember. But I’m really proud of you, Patrick. Do you think you can do it again?”

“Yes,” he said automatically. He couldn’t explain it, but this felt huge. Like he jumped over some insurmountable hurdle and didn’t have to look back. “It was so cool, Mom. I’ll never have a nightmare again.”

———

As soon as he fell asleep, Patrick started to wander. He left his own dream behind and went looking for his target for the night. It had been long enough since his strange, bitter standoff with Graves, and he figured by now the element of surprise would be on his side. All that was left for him to do was find the son of Hermes.

He was struggling, though. Which was odd. It wasn’t because of who he was going after, though. The more familiar he became with New Athens the faster he could locate anyone, even someone he’d never interacted with in dreams before. The problem he was having was not with seeking Graves out, but the strange, stilted quality to his dreaming. It was like he was tripping in his sleep.

Maybe he’d taken too much after all. Reno hadn’t warned him to slow down, but Patrick had noticed the slightly prolonged looks before they went to bed.

After leaving the studio, he went straight to his friend’s apartment, which always was followed by some sort of mind altering substance. Combined with his earlier indulgences it was, perhaps, a bit overboard. He was honestly surprised he’d managed to sleep at all. But the fact that he had drifted off was proof enough that he wasn’t too fucked up to do this. He wasn’t going to put this off another night. Patrick felt almost sluggish, but he pushed through, and eventually, found Graves.

He stepped into the man’s dream, sliding through a brief fog and appearing outside a small shop. Peeking through the window revealed a room filled with weird oddities and trinkets. Candles covered nearly every surface, the spaces in between filled with crystals, figures, all assortment of magical items. Graves was sitting at a table, sitting over a spread of cards. It reminded him of the kind of place Cleo would like to visit. Patrick was hit with a sudden, angry flare of jealousy. He wanted to tear this stupid building apart.

Patrick reached for the door handle, but his arm was slow to react. It was like he was moving through molasses, or something was weighing down his limbs.

Sneering, he decided to stay where he was, stay hidden. From a distance, he willed the cards to flip over on the table, the candles to go out, the twinkling items to all clatter to the floor.

But nothing happened.

And then, a sharp pain exploded in Patrick’s skull.

The entire dream seemed to go dark for a moment, and it felt like he was falling. Then, he was back, landing as if he’d just entered the dream for the first time.

“What the fuck?” He felt as though he were about to pass out, in a strange, dream-logic sort of manner. Darkness crept in a little closer around the edges. But if anything happened, Graves hadn’t seemed to notice. This needled Patrick more than anything else. With effort, he pressed his hands against the side of the building and imagined the floorboards underneath Graves trembling.

Again, nothing happened and again, his head seemed to split open. “Come on,” he mumbled through his teeth. Nothing, nothing, more nothing, then clouds he didn’t conjure rolled in, and rain soaked him to the bone in a matter of seconds, and Patrick could do nothing to change it. He stared angrily at the ground, buzzing with confusion. Did Graves know he was here? Were one of his siblings fighting him back? Patrick banged on the window and his target didn’t even look up.

He blinked, and then Graves was gone, and then the building was gone, and Patrick’s stomach flipped as he fell painfully out of the dream and back into his own. It was still raining, as if the storm had followed him.

Patrick was standing all alone. It was how it always ended, with everything going sideways and a countless array of eyes glaring through the darkness, right at him.

“No,” Patrick almost laughed, shaking his head. “No fucking way.” He waved his hand, pushed the nightmare aside. But again, again, nothing happened.

Fear rolled down his spine like a cold sweat. He willed the dream to change again, and again, and again, but it was useless. All he had was the low hum of growls, a unspoken promise of everything going wrong, wrong, wrong. And the stares, glowing and malicious. Impossibly twisted canine features inching closer and closer. Patrick whirled around, refusing to accept that he couldn’t escape, but they were behind him, too, and up above, and the ground wouldn’t let him move, and they were all about to jump—

He woke up with such a jolt that his head banged against the wall behind him. Patrick cursed and curled in on himself. Pain pounded through his skull, in time with his racing heart. He’d been loud enough to wake Reno, who leapt out of sleep beside him and was halfway to standing in a matter of seconds.

“What happened?”

It was like he was a kid all over again. When was the last time he hadn’t been able to just brush that shit aside? Patrick looked over to his friend and flinched. Reno’s eyes glowed in the dark. Ice cold panic gripped Patrick’s stomach before he remembered that it was normal, Reno’s eyes were just like that and he was awake. 

Patrick pressed his palms to his head. “Nothing,” he mumbled. “Bad dream.”

“Hm.” The tone of this response was almost enough to tip Patrick into a rage, but he was too shaken to commit to the emotion. Instead, embarrassment rolled over him. It was such a stupid, simple, not-at-all scary dream. But he was sucking in each breath as if he’d genuinely been in danger. When he closed his eyes, Patrick saw the wolf in his painting. A little invader in his waking world.

“Water?” Reno asked. Patrick didn’t respond, but he nodded once. He waited until he heard his steps retreating before lowering himself onto his back and staring up at the ceiling. His vision swam, a combination of fear and the drugs still wandering through his system. What had happened? It was like his abilities had completely turned off. A part of Patrick wanted to stubbornly throw himself back into sleep, but a much bigger part was worried that his powers wouldn’t work again. That he’d stare down those endless eyes again.

In the end, he couldn’t do it. Reno returned with water, said he was going to stay up, then wandered off. Patrick followed suit, though he didn’t Reno to some other part of the apartment. Instead, he moved to sit by the nearest window and, like the endless pre-dawn mornings of his childhood, waited for the sun to rise, to banish all his fear.