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amariaamaris · 3 years

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Of Changes and Revelations

I got this idea from the other Marvel and TVD crossover that I did, it is going to be (hopefully) very different. I hope it comes out well and that I do it justice... I’m already working on a second part, I felt that this was getting a little to long! Please let me know what you think and if there are any grammar/spelling/punctuation things that need fixing. Constructive criticism is always welcome. This took me forever, there were so many roadblocks and questioning myself on if I actually wanted to write this. Thanks to my sister pushing me and my imagination running wild with promises of what I can do in the future with this... I decided to go through with it... so enjoy!

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After it’s all said it done; after Esther failing in killing her children, Bonnie’s mother being turned to break the link, Abby bailing (again), Klaus forcing Bonnie to break the spell Esther did... The expulsion of magic that resulted inadvertently saved Finn’s life, knocking out the scooby gang in the process (including most everyone in the town). While also setting fire to anything flammable within the radius of the town (leaving only a select few homes and buildings untouched). It’s safe to say all the white oak is gone... along with multiple buildings.... (oops?) The poor trees are all fried, though luckily they have strong bark, so they’ll survive (it also helps that Bonnie helped to heal them).

All of it coalesces and brings Bonnie to locking herself up in her grams house for as long as she pleases with no acknowledgement of the outside world. She had methodically gone through the house and unplugged the internet, tv’s, shut down her phone, and all other electronics. She just wants to be left alone, Bonnie is exhausted; she’s tired of being used, abused, and taken for granted.

She had found a boundary spell in one of the grimoires to keep those with ill or selfish intent off her property and the fu- away from her (especially certain vampires). In the middle of the week Bonnie left her grams house and went to the school. At the beginning of the week she set up this time to test out of high school.

Bonnie made sure to blend in with the crowd to not be spotted by her “friends”; they may have not seen her, but she definitely saw them. She took the test within three and a half class periods and got the hell out of there. Bonnie drove away like a bat out of hell and made it back to her grams house as fast as she possibly could. She had completely moved into her grams house throughout the one after another of the supernatural shit show that she now calls her life (or rather did call her life). Not like her father was ever around for her to bother staying in his house.

The plus side of testing out of high school is that she can go and get whatever she needs without being worried about being ambushed by her “friends” or the Mikaelson's. Bonnie has also decided that she is going to take all the time that she needs to spend on self-love, working with her magic to learn, and embrace it joyfully. She also has been spending time in meditation and speaking with all of her ancestors. For once in her life, Bonnie Shelia Bennett has finally decided to be selfish and damn the consequences.

Little did she know that her new change would go right along with a huge change that will flip her world on its axis and bring up deeply buried memories.

————

Rudy Bennett knew that this day would come, he knew that eventually they would hunt him down. After all, he did abandon his post, he cut off all contact and went rogue. In doing so, also kept his child away from her culture and her people. He knows that if they find out about her and his lack of parenting, that would sign his fate.

Rudy couldn’t hide his shaking hands as he poured himself a drink and promptly chugged what was in his glass. He did decide that he wouldn’t run or hide, he was going to wait for them to come. He just got done pouring his second one when the lights flickered off; causing a shiver of fear to run down his spine, he could also feel sweat on the back of his neck.

When the lights flickered on, there were two Dora Milaje standing on the other side of his desk. Still as stone holding their vibranium spears, with the king and his cousin standing in between them. Both in different black panther suits (armor?), causing Rudy to gulp. Rudy could feel more sweat break out on his skin as he warily stared at his king.

“D’Kadi Dzube, you’ve been missing a long time.” Rudy or rather D’Kadi watched as both the men tapped on their collars and watched as the mask melted away and showed their faces. Rudy could hear his blood rushing to his ears as he felt himself pale a little. “You were once my father’s most trusted war dog. Then one day, you disappeared without a trace. Just a few months ago we found you... we also found some very interesting information. D’Kadi Dzube you have a daughter that you hid from your people. From my understanding you have been neglecting her as well.”

Rudy could hear ringing in his ears and the blood rushing through his body, he could imagine that he looked white as a sheet. Everything was blurring and before he knew it his eyes were rolling and he fell into darkness.

————

Bonnie could feel something coming to the depths of her bones, it would cause her to pause as her hair would stand up on its ends. Which would lead her to looking out the windows, but there was nothing there. It got to the point where Bonnie decided to add an extra warding to the house rather than the property. Evidently to keep anyone away from the structure of the home, while still being able to enter the yard (only if they pass the wards on the property that is).

Bonnie had started a cute little herbal and vegetable/fruit garden in her backyard, along with some landscaping spanning around the whole house. Along with flowers on both sides of the pathway walking up to the house. Bonnie has never before felt this free and happy. That doesn’t change the fact that she still feels a phantom twinge of pain when she thinks of how her friends haven’t even tried to come visit her. Not. A. Single. One.

Hell! Even Klaus showed up! Not that he could get on the property and it’s not like he was checking up on her... but still! Bonnie lets out an annoyed huff and shakes her head as she focuses back on her plants at the front of the house. She tries to work through her agitation; at her friends, the Mikaelson’s, the Salvatore’s, her parents, her grams for not teaching her from the beginning, at herself for not being smarter and wiser, and Bonnie might as well add the world to the list to.

She very quickly finds herself falling into a flow of taking care of the plants as everything washes away. Bonnie has found that in many instances doing something like this puts her in a meditative trance that helps to center her. Two hours pass with Bonnie working on her plants, when she hears a car drive up and park on the curb.

Bonnie allows herself to slow down in her landscaping work, but doesn’t turn around - even as she hears the car doors open and shut. She can also hear strangely accented voices talking, both male... but she can sense more people with them. Hearing them coming closer makes Bonnie glad that she chose to wear a wide brimmed straw hat that belonged to her grams (she’s rather not have people recognize her before she can tell whether or not they are threats).

“Excuse me? Are you the daughter of Rudy Bennett and Abby Bennett....” She freezes, but gives no answer. Bonnie can already feel her magic gathering, ready to motus the hell out of all of the people behind her. Receiving no answer, the people behind her exchange looks, “Granddaughter to Shelia Bennett?” Bonnie feels her agitation spike, causing her to rip off her dirty gardening gloves and throw them to the ground.

Bonnie turns around to look at them, noticing two men that look like cousins, two bald women that have what look to be tribal tattoos on their heads, and a random white man wearing clothing far heavy for how warm it is. Bonnie can practically feel her magic crackling at her fingertips and through her hair. “That depends on who is asking and why...?”

One of the cousins move to step forward, but upon seeing the look on her face, thinks better of it. Though, that didn’t stop him from kindly smiling at her, “My name is T’Challa, this is my cousin N’Jadaka, these two women are Okoye and Ayo, and this is James Barnes. I would like to speak to you about your father.”

Bonnie studies all of them and then flicks her eyes back to T’Challa, before she can respond with something biting, she hears whispers upon the wind. She allows herself to slightly tilt her head to listen better. After a few seconds Bonnie focuses back on T’Challa and the people he brought with him. “I’m not interested in talking about the sperm donor that calls himself my father. I could care less what type of underground cultish mafia he got himself into. If he owes you anything make Rudy deal with it, his problem’s aren’t mine to deal with.”

Bonnie quickly makes her way onto the porch of the house - without turning her back on them (she doesn’t have a death wish) - already knowing that whoever these people are, they aren’t going to let her off easily. N’Jadaka, the man with weird bumps all over his extremely musc- no! Bonnie quickly mentally shakes herself as he snickers with a smirk on his face. “I don’t think I have ever heard someone call people from Wakanda a cult or mafia. The little kitten does have a point cousin.” He runs his tongue over his teeth, “She should be wary, she knows nothing about her father’s history. “

“N’Jadaka...” T’Challa gives him a sharp warning look, not noticing Bonnie moving to open the front door to slip inside. “Where do you think you’re going kitten? We said we wanted to talk that’s what you’re going to let us do!” He moves to go onto the porch, but feels like he hit a brick wall, N’Jadaka also gets a nasty zap throughout his entire body. Causing him to hiss slightly in pain as the group takes notice of the wind picking up and hissing whispers upon the wind (not that they could make out what they were saying). They do notice how Bonnie seems to understand exactly what is being said upon her head whipping around to face the road. All of them watched as she ripped off her hat and lightly tossed it onto the porch swing, they heard the sharp angry hiss escape from her as her green eyes darkened.

The group from Wakanda evenly spaced themselves out as they turned upon hearing a car door slam, they all watch as a long blonde haired young woman walked around the car and onto the property. “Bonnie! Where have you been? We have all been trying to get a hold of you, you haven’t been at school, you haven’t been answering your phone or showing up to practice! We’ve been worried! Honestly Bonnie Bennett you better have a good reason for completely cutting all of us out of your life... who are these people?!” Bonnie stares at Caroline for a few seconds realizing that her chest no longer hurts when thinking of her ex-friends. In fact Bonnie realizes with sudden clarity that there isn’t pain when she thinks of her friends, only white hot fiery fury and looking at Caroline only makes her annoyance and fury rise at the audacity that she had to show up to her grams house unannounced at her house, at her sanctuary.

“Who they are is none of your business Caroline, in fact they were just leaving, like you will be. I’m not particularly in the mood to talk to people that ruined my perfectly peaceful day by arriving unannounced.” Turning her attention to the curious onlookers Bonnie continues “I don’t care to talk about Rudy and whatever shit show he’s gotten himself into,” looking to Caroline “and I don’t want to be forced to listen to lies! I’m well aware that none of you have noticed my absence up until a couple days ago. I’m also aware that none of you actually care for me, all of you just see me as some weapon to be used. Well I’m done being your sword and shield. I want all of you the hell off of my grams property. Do whatever you want with Rudy, it’s not my problem and I want nothing to do with it. Caroline you and the rest of those assholes can shove your lies and demands up your asses. I’m not going to be your quick fix to problems you brought on yourselves. Grow the fuck up and deal with them yourself! Now get the fuck off of my property!”

The front door slams viciously behind Bonnie, whose screaming voice still echoed in the air with whispers following it, the group from Wakanda all had their eyebrows almost to their hairlines. While Caroline’s jaw was dropped almost to the ground in shock and hurt. “You should leave Care-o-line, you’re no friend of hers.” N’Jadaka’s voice quickly pulls her out of it and brings up her misplaced righteous fury. “Oh, really, I am her friend. Who the hell are you? From the way it was looking none of you are friends of Bonnie’s! I’m her best friend!! You had to have done something to upset her, she would have never said something like that or treated me that way! All of you are the ones who should leave!”

N’Jadaka moves to step forward, but James puts his hidden vibranium arm in front of him and says only one thing in a harsh warning tone. “Erik...” Causing Erik to suck on his teeth for a second then back down. While T’Challa steps forward with his hands up in the universal sign of peace. “Miss...” Caroline huffs out her answer to his silent question, “Caroline Forbes!” He immediately gives a soft smile, “Miss Forbes, I believe all of us need to leave Bonnie alone for the time being. If it makes you feel better we will get into our car first, but we will only be leaving after you drive away. She is important to our people and I will not risk something happening.” Caroline works her jaw as the gogs in her brain slowly turn, her eyes sharpen for a few seconds, but she quickly gives in and slowly, dejectedly nods.

None of them notice the whispers on the wind that one small young Bennett witch listens too as they all drive away, with a contemplating look in her eyes.

————

The next day has Bonnie working in the backyard harvesting the herbs, vegetables, and fruits that she needs. Bonnie gives absolutely no reaction to N’Jadaka’s presence as he walks around the back of the house. “You know it’s seen as extremely rude to not only invite yourself to someone’s house, especially not knocking on the front door.” She has to hide her slight smile upon hearing him huff out a laugh, “I’d love to knock on your front door kitten, the only problem is... I couldn’t seem to get on the first step.” Bonnie can sense the question in his words, but chooses to ignore it and continue her work. She can feel him watching her and gets quickly fed up witch a harsh huff Bonnie stops what she is doing, stands up, and turns to face him.

She has to give herself a few seconds to get accustomed to the height difference between the two of them, to put it simply... he dwarfs her. Not only in height, but in sheer muscle mass, she averts her eyes to try and hide the affect he’s having on her. Bonnie decides to chalk it up to the fact that she hasn’t had any direct human contact for a while. “Look N’Jadaka...” “Erik” His interruption causes her to blink, “What?” Erik let’s out a quiet huff while a smirk plays along his lips. “My colonizer name kitten, is Erik. I’d rather go by it than N’Jadaka... has a lot more pride in it than my other name does.”

Bonnie quietly mouths colonizer with a confused look, but decides that they can come back to that later. “Fine! Erik... just...” Bonnie let’s out breath and frowns as her eyes play across the plains of his face and the outdoors. “I don’t know why... but my ancestors like you and they say that I can trust you. Now I’m going to do something that I never do... I’m going to trust my ancestors.” She allows herself to walk up to him and look him directly in the eyes “and if you ever... and I mean ever break that trust. I will personally find a way to kill you, slowly, painfully, and only when your begging for mercy will I kill you... got it?” While she was talking her finger was poking him in the chest to help emphasize her words with a sickly sweet smile upon her face.

Erik gives a slow smile knowing that he shouldn’t find himself turned on by her threat, but he is. He allows himself to carefully grab the hand she was poking him with and holds onto it. Erik chooses to ignore the quiet gasp that escapes her lips... for the moment “You got it kitten, would you like me to explain what you were very unwilling to talk about yesterday with my cousin?” He watches completely fascinated as her eyelashes shadow her eyes while she thinks it over, when she looks up and focuses back on him, she gives a hesitant nod. “Okay, but your helping me with my garden... if we have to talk about something that I would rather never have to think about again, your going to be useful and help.” Her words pull a sharp laugh out of Erik, as he grins and gives a nod in acceptance.

Once she quickly shows him what do to and what to look for, they start working. As they work he explains everything to her, everything hidden from her, everything that her father has done... everything. It completely shatters her, it obliterates everything she thought she knew about her father and his side of the family, everything she thought she knew and understood about herself; it sends her completely into orbit. She doesn’t even realize that she is crying, nor does she realize that she is raging at Erik and upon his body. Her fists swinging to hit his chest as her magic angrily swirls around them. Bonnie feels as though she is shattered into a trillion shimmering atoms being carried away upon the wind. She can’t tell if she will ever find herself... how can she? Bonnie doesn’t think that she can gather the exploded pieces... how can she find them? They have scattered to the wind getting caught in the trees, falling to the streams of water to be carried and caught elsewhere. Bonnie can’t even feel Erik tightly holding her as he somehow carries her inside of her grans house. And eventually, much later into the night, he helps to pull her back together, but for now. He try’s to help hold together what little is left of Bonnie Shelia Bennett.

As her true name echoes through her entire being...

Ahnika...

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I hope you enjoyed it, please let me know what you think. The second part is on its way! Peace, love, and joy!

#thevampirediares #black panther #bonnie bennett #rudy bennett #t'challa #n'jadaka #dora milaje #crossover #james buchanan barnes #white wolf #non canon

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pleasancies · 3 years

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First Shot

wordcount : 2k+

content / warnings : futuristic whump, lady whump, defiant whumpee, electrocution, hunted, animal attack, starvation, human experimentation, animal death, graphic depictions of violence, eating live animals, leg injury

I was planning for a simple running off from wild animals story but stuff happens. The story got dark. Tag : @summer-of-whump

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Previous Chapter

Avis woke up with a shiver. Wind gushes through her hair. Little thorns prickled at her back. She tried to heave herself up, but there's a twinge of pain in her arms that runs deep into her bones. It was dark, but she could smell the rain, hear the sound of leaves rustling and crickets chirping. She needs to get up. Keep moving. This isn't the lab anymore. She has to go back. Avis slowed her breathing. Her finger clawed into the ground. Grass brushing against her palm. With a count of to three, she heaved herself up. Pain flared on her arm. She grimaced. Pushing her body to stand was easier.

Every step was uncertain. Bare feet meets fallen twigs. The sound of it breaking is almost deafening. She felt around. Trees, moss, and stone. Avis was afraid she's going around in circles. But she's free, as baffling as it is. Last thing she remembered was the lab. The oxygen mask. John and Lisette. Fenrir.

Did they left her her because they thought she's dead? The test, whatever it is, was a blank in Avis head. Possible memory wiping technology? Too many question marks. Potential threats to report when she managed to get back to her friends.

"Hello, Miss. How are you feeling?" The voice made her jump. She turned her head, frantically looking where it came for.

"Down here. Look at your feet."

Sure enough, there's an ankle bracelet. Avis did the sensible thing to do, prying at it so it falls off. It was glued to her legs.

The voice speaks again, "This is the test we were preparing you for. Don't worry, the serum will kick in soon and fingers crossed it works. Now, I'd like you to—"

"Go fuck yourself, John." Avis spat. She grabbed a sturdy looking branch. Clenching her jaws, she forced it between her ankles. Avis let out a small yelp, as the twig tears apart the fused flesh and machine. Drops of blood falls along her toes. Still, she kept going without hesitation.

A nasty crackling noise send Avis movements into a halt. Her entire body jerked as electricity pierced her ankles and burned her veins.

"If you tried to break free then I'll zap you again. Got it?"

Avis tried to speak, but her teeth was still chattering from the aftershocks. She could hear Lisette murmuring on the other side. The girl was too far from the mic for anyone to clearly hear.

John went on, "I really don't want to do this. The more we hurt you, the more likely this project fails and you die. But you took things to an extreme."

"I'm a Heretic, I have to do what I have to do," Avis muttered. Her ankle cuff buzzed a noise that might have been an exasperated sigh.

"I urged Professor Clayton to release you without the shock bracelet. I don't want to reinforce your group's indoctrination that we're sadistic tyrants. But I guess he's right. You and your people are beyond saving."

"I don't need a baby-faced intern who looked like he could die if he lift a potato sack to save me."

Lisette's laugh can be overheard from the speaker.

"That goes for you too, Lise. You're complicit in this," John gruntled. "Fair enough, answer me, Miss. How do you feel? Avoid using profanities, please."

"Like I've been electrocuted, dear boy."

"Other than that. Emotions, physical conditions, list everything."

Avis frowned. It would be so easy to flip him off. Why would she answer to some milquetoast intern about how she feels? The boy might never even starve in his life. Her jaw and gums hurt. After the shock, her ankle felt strangely heavy. There's a veiled threat in his words. They injected her with something.

"How do you feel, Heretic?"

Do you even know my name?

She pick herself up, looking at the distance. Now she could see faint outlines of the trees around her. Faint glints of light hidden in branches. A camera? Avis stared at it.

"Hungry."

"Good, good. How about your emotions, and your perception. Compare to what you see and hear when you first wake up to now."

"A-agitated. Pissed. I want to kill you. My left arm hurts. My teeth hurts." Avis stopped, composing her thoughts. The tip of her fingers felt foreign. As if it belonged to someone else. She wondered what Sherman are doing now.

"Miss."

"Sorry. I'm thinking about my friends."

There's that buzz again. She could discern it. General interference and background noise. Keyboards clacking. Pen scratching at paper.

"Why do you think of them?" John's voice sounds so clear. Sickening. Avis could hear his breath. It was slightly shallow. Did this kid has ashtma? The image of him wheezing to death as she slowly crush his windpipes made a tight sensation in her belly.

"Dunno. Can you stop talking? Your voice makes me want to gnaw at my ankle."

"Alright. Answer my question first, Miss. Any significant change in your senses. This could be vision, hearing, smell, anything."

Avis point at the hidden cameras, "One, two, three, four, there might another one over there, but I need to come closer."

She put a hand on her stomach. It's like there's a hole in there. Somehow it reminds her of the well in her parents' house. The twinge on her arm had dissipate, replaced by a dull throb coming from the inside of her gums. There's just so many things she doesn't see or hear before. Hard to keep track. Her thoughts were jumbled, running all over the place. John muttered a curse.

"John, I thought you said there's no need for profanities."

"You're not supposed to hear that. It's the serum."

Avis froze. The buzzing thoughts stopped. Cold panic gripped her chest. The forest she's starting to feel familiar with becomes unrecognizable. As if someone had brought her to a mirror world. The trees and rocks similar, yet still a twisted replica of itself. How could she not notice?

"What did you do to me?"

"It's only temporary, calm down."

She hissed. Avis took a start, crouching on the ground. The cameras are more than blinking lenses. She could see the machines, the holes it's stuck to. She lunged at the closest one. Her thoughts blend into a murky set of instinct and sensation. Lisette shouted in the background. Avis bit at the lenses, and pulled. She bashed it on to the trees. Stray cables flew.

There's still more eyes watching her. A few trees away. She took a step back, lowered her body, and—

An ear-piercing scream echoes throughout the woods. Her vision went dark. Her body convulsed. Avis fell. She grunted as her back collide with ground.

Still pumped with adrenaline, Avis practically jumped from the ground. Her head flinched back before she speaks. "C-coward! Where are you!"

Another shock. Blood leaked from her ankle. Avis curled in on herself. She blinked away her tears.

No, I'm not going to die like this!

Her body wailed in protest as she heaved herself up. They tased her again. And again.

She lay there for a while, afraid to move. Her fingers twitched. Something had grown in the tips of her nails.

"You're allowed to move now," the voice from the bracelet said. It was deeper. Older. "Please stand."

Getting up was a chore. Avis almost flinched as she expects another sting. One of her feet feels heavy. She leaned at a tree, trying not to move so hard. The gnawing feeling at her stomach is stronger now. She was still shaking and her ankle hurts everytime the skin touches the bracelet.

"I'm so sorry for ruining this Professor," John said.

"Don't be sorry. She's still awake. Project Fenrir, would you please tell me about your injuries?"

Avis grimaced, "You burned my ankle."

"How about your hunger?"

She wondered what Professor Clayton looked like. Until now the man only exist as a name John and Lisette talked about. How big is his head? Does it fit into her mouth? Avis shook her head. Disturbing that the serum made those thoughts came so easily to her.

"You didn't see me eating did you?"

"Aside from the camera I guess not."

"Thought so."

Maybe eating the head is unwise. It would satisfy her anger but it might hurt her jaw. Avis hope this professor is fat. More meat to fill her sick.

"I want to eat you, old man."

"We'll feed you. Soon. This is your test. We will send you a moving obstacle. Defeating them will grant you food. The wound in your ankle might hamper your movements, but if you're as skilled as your file suggest, I believe you can survive them. Good luck!"

Avis cursed under her breath. They left her no choice but to obey. She put her finger into her mouth. Her teeth had grown. Sharp edges and bigger fangs. She hoped the change isn't too drastic. Her friends would have a hard time finding her if she looked like a monster. James kids' would be afraid of her and she couldn't be their nanny anymore.

She should keep moving. Whatever that moving obstacle was, it's not going to be pretty.

Despite her limp, it was easier to navigate the forest. She had adjusted through the dark, and the uneven terrain wasn't so rough after you noticed it's patterns. It was an artificial forest. For miles there was no animal or a single fruit growing in the trees. The ground won't be too altered by the vegetation.

James had taught her once about the fake forests. The trees are real and organic, everyone knows that. But what's unsettling was it's history. Years ago, when the seeds of the trees weren't even made. The Empire was given a choice of which artificial plant variety it's going to use for conservation efforts. They chose the ones unable to bear fruit. The official documents said it produce oxygen more than the others. Besides, most of the land animals that can survive without human intervention had gone extinct. But the thing killed nearby wild plants. Soon enough, the main source of food are from corporate farms and their trademarked seeds.

Avis thought about James while she aimlessly walked in the forest. How he might think, working as a forester and having to plant the artificial seeds. She missed him. She missed Sherman, Emmett, Nancy, pretty much everyone. She hoped they made it out of the city.

A howl tore through the forest. The hurried steps making a beeline to Avis location. She heard panting and leaves crunching. It was a pack. Avis crouched, running more with her hands than her feet. She made a turn. The wolves changed their direction.

The animals were more intelligent that it supposed to. It doesn't seem to follow Avis by a trail. Everytime she repositioned herself the wolves follow. Always a straight line to her. It wasn't long until her throbbing ankle made her trip. Avis bit her lip. She shouldn't make a noise. She grabbed at her bracelet, desperately pulling at it so her burns get a chance to breathe. The footsteps grew louder. She clenched her teeth and started to stand.

The ground was spinning under her feet. Avis staggered. She was out of breath. Her stomach is growling.

Left foot, right foot. Come on, move!

Her face meets the forest floor. The hairs in the back of her neck stood up. A growl. Right behind her.

It dragged her by the neck. The other lunged at her face. Avis clawed and kicked. It hits the air. Another touches flesh. She smelled blood. Her throat was dry. She heard a yelp. It pulled her out of panic. Avis crawled as fast she could. They can't make her kill these animals.

One wolf caught her by the hair. They yanked her off the ground. She land head first onto a tree. She slid down, only to be bit by the ribs and feet. Avis flailed her claws into the air. They dropped her.

The smell of blood was too much. It filled her nostril. The emptiness in her middle ached. Avis lost. Her teeth finds flesh. Her ears barely register the dying cry of the two dogs. She chewed. She swallowed. Warmth filled her stomach. Nerves flared in delight.

When Avis came to her senses, there was only her and two carcass.

"Congratulations, Fenrir. You passed your first test with flying colors."

Next Chapter

#whump #whump fic #oc whump #whump series #lady whump #lady whumpee #dead dove do not eat #animal attack #animal death #electrocution #defiant whumpee #starvation #human experimentation #futuristic whump #summer of whump #summerofwhump #summerofwhump9 #leg injury #injury whump

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sunaddicted · 4 years

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Calming Influence (Q/Silva, crack)

James didn’t think he could be blamed for being suspicious of the way Raoul Silva buzzed around Q-Branch, flitting to computer to desk seemingly without any kind of supervision going on; it made something visceral inside of him twist and turn with the memory of the glass doors of MI6 effortlessly sliding open, as if they had been made for allowing an easy passage rather than restricting it - and all had been done remotely, from an apparently useless and damaged laptop.

He didn’t want to know how much more damage the blonde could do if he ever got his fingertips on one of their computers keyboards, the little taste of hacking the man had given him while he had been tied up in his island-lair had been more than enough to make him healthily concerned of Silva’s capabilities: Q was good, undeniably so, but James had a feeling that the former Double-Oh was even better; he wasn’t an expert, he knew only basic hacking, but natural talent was only part of it - experience mattered and it was evident that Raoul Silva had had a lot of it.

Unrestrained too.

“How are you so nonchalant about the fact he’s roaming around as if he’s not a threat to national security?” James asked Q under the guise of getting the boffin a fresh cup of tea; nobody ever would find that suspicious, it was a well-known fact that the Quartermaster required a steady supply of tea throughout the day in order to function - he wasn’t sure about whether it was just a legend that had become fact or Q really was that dependent on caffeine.

“Would you believe me if I said he is a calming influence?”

“No”

“Well, he is”

James frowned, his eyes zapping from Q to Silva - still unnervingly too close for comfort to a computer that was hooked into the mainframe, if all the cables dangling from it were anything to go by - and back to the younger man, peacefully sipping from his mug, whole body relaxed against the edge of the desk he was leaning on.

It was kind of infuriating: here he was, worrying and vigilating like one was supposed to when a terrorist and murderer was in the room, and nobody seemed to give a shit.

“How so?”

Q shrugged “He keeps my temper in check” and whenever he hit a bug in his coding or a snag in his reasoning, it was refreshing and soothing being able to talk it out with someone who actually could follow him; R was good and talented but she just wasn’t at the same level, she couldn’t understand him as effortlessly as Silva did.

To be honest, Q was a little enamoured with the man.

He knew it was wrong , one just didn’t go and sprout a crush for a criminal mastermind that innumerable international agencies wanted to put their hands on so that they could permanently do away with him - but Q had always had a thing for smart and dangerous men who could make him sweat with a frisson of genuine fear; it wasn’t a part of his psyche he necessarily wanted to explore, he didn't really care about why he was attracted to the likes of Silva.

“You have a temper”

“Don’t sound so shocked”

“Well, I can’t help being surprised”

“Because I never murdered you for feeding the gun I slaved on to a Komodo dragon?”

Q was never going to let him live that down and James couldn’t really blame him for it: it hadn’t been his most thought out move, if he was honest with himself “Among other things” he conceded with a small nod, the corner of his eye constantly trained on Silva; every movement of the man made him tense, body getting ready for a fight seemingly out of its own volition - his reflexes acquired over years and years on the field came to life without James needing any kind of conscious effort on his part.

“Meditation works wonders, you should try it”

“If meditation works so well, why do you need that bastard around then?”

“Maybe I don’t mind the eye candy”

James didn’t splutter - he just did not . The noise that left his throat was… something that could go undescribed for the sake of his dignity “ Eye candy ?”

“You’re sounding a little hysteric”

“That’s Raoul Silva”

“And?”

“He blew up the old headquarters, almost killed me and killed M”

“Oh, shuck the holier than thou attitude: it’s not like you’ve never fucked someone who was on the other side of the chessboard, to put it metaphorically”

“You’ve fucked him?!” James hissed, crowding closer to Q in the hopes that feeling a little threatened would make the younger man change his version and say that he had just been joking, purposefully riling him up in an attempt at getting back at him for all the wasted and destroyed equipment.

He would even admit he deserved it, if that ended up being the truth.

“Bond-”

“Q”

Why did he never manage to keep his fucking mouth shut? The younger man stepped even closer, not wanting anyone to accidentally hear the conversation they were having; Q could already feel the blood rising to grace the tip of his ears and the apples of his cheeks, the telltale betrayal operated by his own body “ Yes - and you’ll keep your mouth shut about it if you ever want to go back out in the field with a functioning gun”

#007 fest 2020 #007 fest #teambondvillains #2020 writing #anonymous prompt exchange (2020) fill #qsilva #Q/Silva #Q #quartermaster #raoul silva #tiago rodriguez #007 #james bond #crack #banter #i dont know what this is

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neshabeingchildish · 4 years

Text

That Alien Persona

@kiddangers @sunbeameyes Davenpage Oneshot of a Spike Introduction

Something was wrong. She could feel it. Sure, Chase’s eyes lit up the moment he saw her face in the morning and when he pressed his forehead to hers and strummed his fingers through her curls, it was no more intimate than the hundreds of times he did so before. But, the temperature was a few degrees off, the scent in the air wasn’t exactly as it typically was, and the sounds of the house were different. If she noticed these things, Chase definitely had. He had heightened senses. “I’ll make breakfast, since you have a mission alert,” she said. And there! His face. There was something in it for a split second before he smiled and thanked her. Now, she was worried. What was wrong and why wasn’t he telling her? “Are you okay?” She asked, straight up.

He returned to her arms and held her tightly. That was surely a ‘no,’ though he didn’t answer. He didn’t actually have to, because in a moment, she heard a loud, “That will NEVER not be weird to see!” Chase’s entire body tensed up around her whenever his older brother came into the room and she turned her head to see Adam laughing, next to Bree. “You sure you aren’t a robot that he built to be loyal to him?” He asked and winked at her. Chase’s fists clenched her clothes and she gently took his hands and squeezed them, earning her eye contact.

Now, she understood. She had heard in passing about how obnoxious his brother could be, but from his reaction, she was thinking that maybe she had heard a censored version.

“She’s definitely real, but… I honestly don’t get it either,” Bree said.

Charlotte told them, “Okay. The next person that insults my man like this, I’m gonna swing on.” Chase felt a little more relaxed at that declaration, and tentatively sat at the island. He began to look over the details of the mission and Charlotte started on breakfast.

Adam taunted, “Awwww. He finally bought himself a tiny little bodyguard!” And Charlotte set the eggs down, marched over and punched him in the chest. “OUCH!” How did such a tiny hand actually hurt?”

“I took it easy. Next time, I’m gonna hurt you. Leave him alone, Dude,” Charlotte warned, pointing at Adam. She threw Bree a look to let her know that went for her, too.

After breakfast, Charlotte headed for mobile command, which was a state of the art surveillance van with everything that she needed to run tech and keep up with the teams. “Henry and Jasper just picked up Leo. I’ve sent them coordinates for the showdown,” she said, tapping on her forearm.

Chase took a deep breath, stressed out, “I think I should be in the command station with you.”

“They’ll need you out there,” she said.

“No, we won’t!” Adam cheered. She glared at him and he ducked behind Bree.

Quiter, Charlotte told him, “Don’t let him get to you. If you want, I’ll switch you and Henry.”

“We can’t do that. There’s no way that in a mission this dangerous Jasper, Leo and I make a better team than I do with them, or even than Henry and Jasper are. Leo was a nice touch to that dynamic, by the way. You’re so smart.”

“Leo is the new me of that dynamic, and I feel really bad for doing it to him,” she said. “For good luck on my first mission without Davenport in my ear,” she tiptoed slightly and Chase met her kiss. She cupped his face. “I’ll make you proud.”

“You always do,” he said, smiling.

“How are there so many of them?” Charlotte heard Henry ask.

“I’m zapping every one that I can from command, but they keep coming from that jet. Leo, strike it from the east, Adam, strike it from the west. If we can take out that jet, AT LEAST, more of these robots won’t come out of it.”

“Mr. Davenport wants to try to salvage the jet,” Chase reminded her.

“Mr. Davenport isn’t here watching that robot factory beat the living hell out of all of you.”

“Yeah, CHASE! Your girlfriend is in charge this time, not you!” Adam said.

Softer, she told them, “If it’s possible to incapacitate the jet and keep it intact, try. But, not at the expense of the team, or anyone on it. Chase, if you have to, override Adam and hit it in the right spot, with his plasma grenades. Leo… I trust you.”

Chase turned to Adam and asked, “Think you can do it?”

Adam rolled his eyes and elbowed him aside. Chase activated a forcefield for the west battlefield team and Henry activated one on the east. Charlotte pinpointed exactly where Adam and Leo needed to launch their weapons at the jet for minimal damage, but to cease the robot production for now. They struck and she held her breath until she clarified, “Good job, Gentlemen. That jet will not be producing robots. Now, take the others down so that we can bring it in…”

Weapons came from the sides of the jet while the others were beginning to fight the robots, and Charlotte prepared her lasers to fire at the barrels of those, but they launched before she could take them out (she did), but not before a rocket fired upon mobile command. The team heard her scream and saw an explosion hit the van and set it on fire, as it repeatedly flipped over and crash landed on it's side.

“CHAR!” Henry screamed over the comm. Chase scanned to try to figure out if she was okay. His brain was on high alert. He had already been anxious about her doing this on her own, and now, he wasn’t finding her and she didn’t answer Henry over the comm. He was going to rush over, but Adam grabbed him and told him, “You can’t go check on her right now. I know that you feel like shit for telling us not to destroy the jet that probably just killed her, but…” Adam felt his hand removed from Chase’s shoulder and the next thing he knew, he’d flown across the field.

Bree had rushed to the van and helped pull Charlotte out, but Chase was unaware. Spike was in full effect. “Are you okay?” Bree asked Charlotte, while Spike ravaged through the robots on the battlefield. Charlotte held herself in pain and she knew that she had some injuries that would need medical attention; but, she would live. She nodded and activated manual control through her forearm to put out the fire and turn her bracelet into the gauntlet that would allow her enhancements. Bree rushed back to the fight while Charlotte turned the van upright and exhaustedly climbed back inside to try to see what was happening over there.

“Has anybody been able to see about Charlotte?” she heard Henry ask.

“I’m okay,” she answered, sounding like death.

Leo commented, “I’m gonna destroy that jet.”

“NO! I already took out the weapons. After this disaster, the only thing that will keep Davenport for making sure I never work in this place again will be retrieving that jet,” Charlotte said. Leo kept forgetting that she wasn’t one of “his kids.”

“Chase, what’s going on?” Charlotte asked, looking at his vitals in confusion.

Bree answered, “Oh, yeah… About that… That’s actually… Spike. When the van got hit, Chase kinda lost it…”

Charlotte took a deep breath, nodded her head and instructed everyone, “Help clear out all of the robots until the threat is eliminated. Maybe that’ll help to get Chase back.”

“Gotcha!” “On it!” “¡Comprendo!”

Whenever the robots were cleared, Spike didn’t seem to really have calmed down much. He looked around the grounds at the others, clearing away the robots. He generally recognized everyone. He knew them. Not in the same way that their person did, but very similar. So, he wasn’t going to bulldoze them like he had done the robots. In fact, he was about to head over to that van. There was something very important there that he needed to go see about, though he wasn’t completely sure what.

Then, he felt the big, stupid one clap him on the shoulder and announce, “At least he turned out to be good for something!” He laughed joyously. Bree laughed, a little, more relieved that this was over than anything else, but once again, Spike took Adam’s hand off of his shoulder and prepared to throw him.

Adam’s eyes widened as he realized that Spike was still there. He intended to fight back! “Adam!” Bree yelled.

Charlotte zoomed in on the fight and asked, “What the hell is going on?”

“Spike is gonna kill Adam!”

“My research says that Spike doesn’t cause fatal harm to anyone important to Chase!” Charlotte said, already getting out of the van.

“But he ragged on him while he’s already in Commando mode and I don’t know if Spike knows the difference right now! We could all be perceived as a threat.”

“Everybody clear the area. Leave Adam. He’ll be fine,” Charlotte ordered. They began to follow the order, but then noticed her heading towards the fight.

“Charlotte, what are you doing?” Henry wondered.

“Just retreat. I know what I’m doing.”

“I don’t believe that you really do,” Leo said.

“I do. I told Adam to stop picking on my man…” She said before taking off into a sprint, jumping into the air and punching Adam in exactly the right spot in his head to knock him out. Spike turned around and aggressively closed in on her.

She let out a tiny yelp of surprise, because… God, he looked different. She didn’t even know that Chase’s face had those features. The scowl was furious. His teeth were bared. She lifted both of her hands in the air and kneeled. “The threat has been neutralized,” she said. She wanted her breathing to be steadier, but she was already injured, upset that Chase was going through this and terrified that she might have honestly just really hurt Adam. He fell like a ton of bricks!

“You seem to be a threat yourself. You just bagged him. He’s not an easy foe to take down,” he said.

“Well… He had been fighting you for a few minutes and you’re the ultimate fighter. The only reason he lasted so long with you is because you had fought an army of robots, almost single handedly… But, they’re gone, he’s down, and I’m not gonna hurt you.”She looked up at him and promised, “I would never hurt you.”

He squatted to look at her face to face. Her brown eyes bore into his and they were there for a while. She had forgotten her injuries and her exhaustion, and her breath as she remained on her knees with her hands lifted and her head bowed. But, her body didn’t. She toppled over and fell forward onto him. “Hey!” She heard his raspy voice cry out out and he shifted her, picked her up and looked at her. She was dizzy and felt like she would pass out, but she needed to see Chase. He scanned over her and whenever she leaned her head against his chest and touched his cheek, she saw him blinking and then coming to.

“Chase?” She said softly.

“Charlotte!” He said and examined her. She had multiple injuries and needed immediate medical attention. “Did… did Spike do this to you?” He asked in a horrified whisper.

“No. He tried to help me…” she said and her head fell back when she went unconscious.

“Yo…” Charlotte’s voice croaked. Chase gasped and took her hand, quickly. Henry, Jasper and Leo were in the room, but trying not to hover around the bed.

“Thank goodness you’re okay,” Chase said, holding on to her hand as though he couldn’t bear to part with it.

She nodded, then gasped, “How is Adam?”

“Have you met Adam?” Leo asked. “He was awake and getting on my nerves before we even got you back to the lab.”

“And… How are you?” She asked Chase, looking at him, curiously. Henry patted Chase on the shoulder and gestured to the others to leave the room with him.

Whenever the door closed, Chase asked, “Are you sure? Are you sure I didn’t hurt you when my Commando App was activated?”

“I’m positive,” she said, sitting up. “If anything, he was curious or confused as to why I was there.”

“You know… I think we have at least that one thing in common,” Chase said, a little more sternly than he had been speaking before now. “Why would you go towards that kind of danger, Charlotte?”

She furrowed her eyebrows and scoffed, “There’s no kind of danger that I’m worried about more than your safety. You could have killed Adam. He’s an idiot. He was going to keep fighting you until one of you was down or until Spike left and Spike wasn’t going to leave while the threat was still present, was he? Not from everything that I’ve researched and studied about him. Somebody had to try to bring you back and who else could have?”

“Leo? Bree? One of your lasers could have knocked me out…”

“Bree thought that you were too far gone. Leo was on the other side of the…” She laughed, “Chase… I made a decision and it worked out. Are you upset about what I did or about the situation itself?”

“Everything. I’m upset about everything. He hasn’t shown up as long as you and I have been together, and the first time he does, you rush up to him and look him in the face? You… I never wanted you to see that part of me. That alien persona that I can’t stop or control. He’s a raging beast and you could have been killed.”

She gathered both of his hands and held them close to her chest. “Not to be corny and cheesy, but… There’s no part of you that I would ever not want to know. There’s no part of you that I would ever be afraid of or presume would hurt me. I know that you hate the fact that he’s a part of you and after seeing what happened, I even understand you feeling that way. But, as long as he’s a part of you… He’s something that I’ll just love you through. I could have been killed in the van. Being in front of Spike was one of the safest spots I was in all night. Being around you, I’ll always feel safe. Even when you feel like you’re at your lowest.” She pulled his hands to make him come forward and gave him a hug.

“I haven’t felt like myself the whole time we’ve been here.”

“I know. I knew something was wrong.”

“I’m glad that you’ll love me no matter what, but I want him gone. I don’t want to lose time, not knowing what happened and then have to wake up with you crumbling in my arms. I was so scared. I was so scared that I…”

“It’s okay.”

“It’s not!”

She rubbed her fingers through his hair. “Sorry. You’re right. It’s not… but, between the two of us, we’ll make it okay, right?” She leaned back enough to look at his face, but not enough to move her head off of his body. His eyes were warm and soft on her as he nodded. “All we can do is our best, to get through the things that happen when we’re our worst.” She snuggled back into him and her nose was on his neck.

“Oh… hey… also… There was something else. Whenever I assessed you for damages…”

“I’ve already gotten all the treatment I need, right?”

“Yes, but you’ve got something else, too…” She sat up and stared at him, concerned. He touched her belly gently and said, “Or, I guess, I should say “someone.” He smiled and his eyes moved to her face to see how she was going to take that news. She smiled back and let out a sigh of relief.

“Do not scare me like that! I thought you were going to say something bad!” Her hands covered his and they both looked at their hands. Right now, nothing was wrong. She could feel it.

#Nesha Crossover #Lab Rats #Henry Danger #Davenpage #Charlotte Page #Chase Davenport #Spike #Commando App

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ryder-s-block · 4 years

Text

Jaig Eyes (Ch 50)

Jaig Eyes (50/?)

Summary:

Kida, a former slave who now thrives as a bounty hunter, finds herself sucked into the war she advised Jango Fett against. Now that she’s involved, she has to finally mourn the loss of Jango, seeing his face in the clones that man the GAR. What happens when she allows herself to get attached to one, not for his resemblance to her former mentor, but for his heart?

————————-

Chapter Fifty: The Citadel

“Fear,” I heard a voice say in the darkness. “A Jedi spends his whole life training against it.” In the blackness, I began to hear the buzz of a generator. The clicking of buttons. I saw the glow of monitors.

I could tell by the slightly overbearing, claustrophobic feeling over my skin that what I was seeing was through the Force. I was likely still frozen in a block of carbonite...hopefully on our way past the defenses of the Citadel. And hopefully not on our way to death or worse...imprisonment.

“But at the Citadel,” the voice continued, making me turn to see a Phindian looking over a series of monitors. “Breaking Jedi is our specialty. Within these walls, they will learn to fear us. And if not, they die.”

I was bombarded with images. A Lannik with a terrible scar over his eye suspended in the air. Droids torturing him. He was a jedi.

Republic officers locked in cells.

The pain the Jedi was feeling.

Over and over.

The smugness of the Phindian. I prodded into his mind. His name. Osi Sobeck.

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

I lurched out of my brick of carbonite like a drowning child being drawn from a pool. Coughing and spluttered, I chased the Force visions from my mind as I righted myself, letting my cramped muscles loosen slowly.

“Hey, Snips,” I heard Skywalker say casually, making me turn. A grin crept to my lips as I saw Ahsoka stretching her neck, having just exited her own carbonite.

“Hey, Master,” she greeted back with the same nonchalance.

And then it dawned on Skywalker. He looked sideways at his padawan with an angry expression as Obi-wan and I joined him. “I must have carbon sickness,” Obi-wan expressed. “Because I could swear that’s Ahsoka.”

“Your eyes are fine,” Anakin said with a sigh. “It’s Ahsoka’s hearing that needs help.” My eyebrows shot up as the padawan scowled.

“I received orders to join the team,” she lied smoothly, her glance cutting to me quickly. “I thought you knew.”

“Orders? From who?” her master pressed.

“I discussed it with Master Plo.” I smirked beside her, watching Obi-wan go and check on the men. Sure, she’d discussed it with Plo. But I was the one who prodded her to go on the mission.

“He didn’t tell me,” Anakin growled.

“You were already in carbonite.”

“Well, I gave you a specific order not to come.”

Ahsoka crossed her arms. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned from you, Master, it’s that following direct orders isn’t always the best way to solve a problem.”

I smiled as Obi-wan returned to the group, the clones having been checked on. “I see Anakin’s new teaching method is do as I say, not as I do.” He looked to the young Togruta. “Welcome aboard.”

Ahsoka gave him a slight smile as the clones went about preparing, the droids discarding the leftover carbonite. And then...we started to walk.

I fell in beside the padawan, giving her shoulder a nudge. “I see you took my advice. You didn’t have to lie to cover my ass, though,” I said in a hushed tone.

“What?” she smiled. “I didn’t lie. I talked to Master Plo.”

“Right,” I chuckled, glancing at the clones around me, all of whom were pretending they weren’t listening. I looked down at my boots briefly, remembering the visions I’d seen in the carbonite.

“That was weird, wasn’t it?” Fives muttered to his brother. “Like a dreamless sleep.”

Yeah, I wish mine had been dreamless.

“Are you alright?” Ahsoka asked, butting into my thoughts. “You seem troubled.”

“We are breaking into the Citadel,” I lied smoothly--even better than she had. “It’s not something to take lightly.”

She frowned at me. Damned Jedi and their extra senses. “It’s more than that.”

I sighed. “I had a vision. I saw Master Piell.”

Obi-wan turned abruptly from in front of us--apparently he was listening in, too. “What did you see?”

I stopped in my tracks, all eyes on me now. Ah...now I knew how awkward this would all be with my new abilities. And they didn’t even know it all yet.

“He was being tortured. But he’s alive, for now. The officers are alive, too,” I assured.

“Then we’re not too late,” Anakin said with relief.

“There are cameras in every corridor,” I cut him off, not wanting anyone to get too confident. “The guy in charge is a Phindian named Osi Sobeck.”

“Yes,” Obi-wan mused, regarding me as he stroked his beard. “He’s been the warden of this Citadel for some time. And he’s not a threat we should take lightly. Come along. We are almost there.”

We rounded the corner of the cliffside we walked on, the Citadel looming before us, speckled with spotlights and security measures. I could feel Rex’s gaze on me, but I ignored it as Anakin took out electrobinoculars to examine the wall. “I see the entry point,” he announced.

“You were right,” Cody said beside me. “The wind conditions are too strong for jetpacks.” I dropped my goggles down, engaging the interface to scan the wall we’d have to climb to reach the door.

“Yes,” Kenobi replied to his commander. “We’ll have to do it the old-fashioned way, with ascension cables and a steel grip.”

“I don’t think so,” Anakin sighed, seeing the same thing I was seeing.

“What do you mean?” the jedi asked.

I chuckled, pushing my goggles up my forehead again. “Electro-mines.”

“She’s right,” Anakin mused. “We hit one of those, the mission’s over. They’ll know we’re here.”

Rex stepped up beside me, looking it over with his helmet specs. He glanced at me for only a moment before speaking. “I suppose that means we free-climb it.”

I breathed out slowly through my nose, steadying myself as I’d been taught by my masters. Obi-wan. Qui-Gon. Yilria. Bendu. Even Darth Bane. And even Jango.

And we started to climb.

With no ascension cables, I felt like I was back on Tatooine where Jabba would send my scrawny ass crawling to the tops of his Sail Barge to fetch his disobedient pet. Despite having his favor, I was still only a slave to him. And I was the only one light enough to crawl up there and get his monkey-lizard.

Or...it reminded me of when I would have to go clean the Rancor pit and scale the walls to get the pieces of armor that had been thrown around when the creature devoured its meal. Poor thing was starved. It really wasn’t that mean of a thing, as I’d seen it with its handler be rather sweet. He was raised in domestication, so he wasn’t raised to be savage. But Jabba didn’t feed him enough and chose to use him for entertainment.

What was I, a slave, supposed to say against his wishes?

Electricity bounced over my head as it zapped between the electro-mines. “You hanging in there, Snips?” Anakin called back to the padawan beside me.

She leaned in her hold on the wall, looking up at her master. “Couldn’t be better.” Her voice quieted as she started climbing again, glancing at me. “I could do without the wind, though.”

Sweat was beading under the rims of my goggles when Obi-wan glanced down at us. “The entry point is just a few more meters.” He scaled the last distance, pulling his nose up over the edge of the platform. Suddenly, he dropped down, hanging with only one hand, pressing a finger to his lips.

Anakin motioned for everyone to stop, my breath catching in my throat as we held on in silence. I heard the clanking of droid feet as they stepped out to inspect the platform above us, my fingers aching from gripping the stone wall. The footsteps receded again in a moment, followed by a sound that made my heart stop.

It sounded like a ray shield engaging.

“They locked the door,” Obi-wan called down, confirming my fears. “It’s ray-shielded.”

“Ray-shielded?” Anakin groaned. “That wasn’t the plan.”

I crawled up beside him, grunting. “Well it’s in the plan now.” I glanced over at Ahsoka as she crawled to the side to look up.

“There’s an opening up there,” she announced.

“We know,” Anakin dismissed. “The ventilation ducts. But they’re too small for us to gain access.”

“Too small for you, maybe,” Ahsoka argued. “But I think I can squeeze through.”

“Well, we hadn’t planned on Ahsoka being here,” Obi-wan allowed. “Perhaps she’s right.”

Anakin gave his padawan a nod, all of us resuming our climb up the wall as she pounced up deftly, slipping through the ventilation shaft with ease. I smirked, watching the ray shield disengage when she got inside.

“See?” she said, greeting her master as we pulled ourselves onto the platform. “I can handle myself after all.”

He smirked at her, but waved his hand. “Kida could have done that.”

“Not with my armor on, I couldn’t,” I called back, sitting for a moment at the edge of the platform, breathing hard. All my Force-based training had taken away from my usual physical work outs.

I was losing my edge.

I took a deep breath, getting up to help Fives as he found his way to the edge. I pulled him up, the two of us offering our hands to Rex, who was following close behind. The captain grabbed our hands, letting us haul him up onto the platform.

As Fives moved to help the next clone, I was kept still by Rex still gripping my hand. It was brief and discreet, so we didn’t draw attention...but it was enough.

He looked right at me, squeezed my hand in thanks, and then helped me to my feet beside him. I met his gaze from behind his helmet, but our moment was wrecked in a single second.

“Charger!” Fives yelled beside me, making us all turn and see the clone slipping down the wall. I leapt forward, throwing my upper body over the edge, feeling Fives grab my legs. He was too far out of reach for me to grab.

So I caught him with something else.

The clone--Charger--stopped midair, suspended by the Force. I could feel the surprise of the group, but I shoved them from my thoughts, focusing on getting Charger back safely.

It was hard. I hadn’t used it to hold something this big, or from this far...ever. And if I had, it was before I had training and was tapping into my rampant darkness.

Rex was beside me in a moment, leaning over the edge to reach for Charger’s rising outstretched hand. He grabbed his soldier hauling him up onto the platform, both panting from adrenaline.

“Thank you,” Charger breathed, touching my shoulder gently. I gave him a nod, feeling terribly drained.

And this mission had barely even begun.

The alarms sounded, all of our heads shooting up. “Well,” Obi-wan mused. “They know we’re here.”

“How?” Ahsoka asked, leading the way into the Citadel halls. “We didn’t hit a mine.”

“I’m assuming our shuttle was cleared for landing,” I breathed beside her, trying to muster my strength again. “We didn’t land where we were supposed to.”

“Take out their surveillance,” Anakin ordered as we raced down the halls. Fives took out a camera, only to have a series of wall turrets aim at us.

“Cover,” I called, ducking into the walling beside us, letting the Jedi deflect the incoming bolts with their sabers. Mine practically itched in the pouch at the back of my belt. The kyber was daring me to use it. It reflected my own soul quite a lot, I realized… the more I got to know it.

It was daring. Determined. Stubborn. But also had a love for life. For fighting. For protecting. For excitement.

So it wasn’t very happy that I was electing not to use it just yet.

The clones and Jedi worked together to destroy the turrets, barely spending any effort on the matter. My head lifted at the sound of something booting up.

“The walls are electrified,” a clone reported, turning our heads to the sight of an electrical field heading towards us. “Go! Go! Go! Go!”

I darted around the corner after Rex and Fives, feeling the electricity pass behind my heels. Someone screamed, a body flying past, encased in lightning.

“Longshot!” Cody called, leaning into the hall to see the dead soldier. I felt the immediate grief through the group. It nearly knocked me over, my hand reaching out blindly to find the wall. It caught Rex’s shoulder pauldron instead, prodding him to grab my shoulders.

“Are you alright?” he muttered softly, doing the best to smother his own grief. I shook my head, but stepped away to try and separate our touch. Him touching me only intensified my connection to him through the Force. It made the loss of the clone--his brother--horrible to bear.

“We must keep moving,” Obi-wan said gently, the clones following him easily.

I ran with them, making our way towards the holding cells. “I’m sorry about your vod,” I whispered gently. It was loud enough for the clones around me to hear, but soft enough that the Jedi leading us would not.

They were quiet for a moment before I heard them softly recite the Mando’a I had learned so long ago. I knew Jango had taught it to them. I was there when he had gently taught it to some clones after a training accident took one of their squad.

“Nu kyr’adyc, shi taab’echaaj’la.”

It was whispered softly, but it still felt like a chorus. As we came upon the holding cells, I muttered it back to them, understanding.

“He’s inside,” Anakin muttered at a door, stepping aside for Fives and Echo to take the lead. The door hissed open, the ARC troopers spinning into the room with ease and taking down the special units arranged along the walls.

Rex stepped in with me, easily shooting down the droid that was torturing the Jedi Master. I stepped forward immediately, seeing the Jedi as I’d seen him in my vision--suspended in the air, looking exhausted. I knelt at the base, pulling it apart to find the switch.

“You’re not who I expected,” the Jedi grunted above me. He wasn’t teasing, nor was he complaining. He was just making a statement.

“Secure the entrance,” Anakin commanded as he entered the room, lightsaber engaged. I rolled my eyes as I worked on the base, knowing the room was already secured by the clones. I found the switch, pulling the wires from their homes to disengage the restraints.

Obi-wan was beside me in seconds, helping the wounded Jedi to the ground. “Master Piell, are you alright?”

“Obi-wan,” Piell groaned out. “What took you guys so long?”

Anakin let out a grunt of amusement, helping the master to his feet. “At least your sense of humor is still intact.”

“It takes more than they got to break me, young Skywalker,” Piell assured, accepting the spare lightsaber Obi-wan had brought for him.

“So you have the coordinates for the Nexus Route?” Anakin asked, getting right to the point.

“I got them, all right. Half of them, anyway.” The Lannik turned to look over us with his one good eye. “My captain’s got the other half.” That would explain why I’d seen the officers in my vision. “I erased the computers when we were boarded and had both of us memorize part of the intel. That way, if somehow I cracked, the information would be useless to them without the other half.”

“Where’s your captain?” Obi-wan asked.

“Being held with the other officers, I assume.” I earned some glances around the room after Piell spoke. They’d remembered what I’d said about my vision.

Anakin sighed. “We’re going to need a new plan for getting out.”

“We can figure that out on the way,” I dismissed, glancing out the door to the sound of the alarms still blaring. “But we need to get moving now.”

Piell smirked at me as he led everyone from the room. “I like your style” he grunted at me before running off down the halls. I lifted my eyebrow earning a teasing punch in the shoulder from Fives as he ran by.

We hurried into the halls, making our way towards where the clones and officers were being held. As we moved, Cody taking point, I glanced around, my hair on edge.

“We’re being watched,” I whispered, Echo glancing at me knowingly. Whirring sounded at the end of the hall, commando droids pouncing into our line of vision. Kenobi and Skywalker stepped in front of us with lightsaber ignited, only for more to appear behind us. We were cornered in.

I stayed behind Ahsoka as she blocked the shots, firing my pistols over her shoulder. I hated commandos. Not only were they deadly, they were damn hard to shoot because they never stopped moving and jumping and twisting.

I almost envied their ability to move so fast.

They were getting too close, one dodging my blasts and pouncing straight into Ahsoka. She fell back into me, both of us pinned below the droid. It grabbed at her neck and lightsaber, letting me lift my pistol beside her montrals and shoot the droid in the head. She pushed it off, helping me up as the rest of the group downed the final commandos.

“We need to keep moving,” Kenobi said, leading us forward past the scrapped droids.

A loud, high pitched, whine sounded over the speakers, making us all flinch and hold our ears. I watched in horror as our guns were drawn to the ceiling...as well as Skywalker and I. There were magnets, pulling my armor with our weapons.

I would have laughed at Skywalker being pulled up by his metal arm if the situation wasn’t so dire. And then the ceiling ignited in electricity, Anakin and I both screaming as it enveloped our bodies.

The laugh I recognized as Osi Sobeck came over the loudspeaker. “You fools!” he cried with glee, more commando droids appearing around us. “I hope you enjoyed the reunion with your fellow Jedi, because you’re going to be my guests for a very long time.”

I watched in a daze from the ceiling as Ahsoka, Obi-wan, and Piell used the Force to push the commandos backwards, only for them to move only a few feet. “They’re magnetized,” Kenobi worried, pushing again. The clones did their best to fight with their fists...but let’s be honest...human fists against metal assassin droids? It wasn’t their best idea but I appreciated the gusto.

Glancing over to Anakin, I saw him reaching for his saber, my eyes widening. “Anakin, don’t!” More electricity coursed through the mechanism, making us both cry out. To my surprise, despite the terrible pain, Anakin was still reaching for his weapon. He got it, slicing through the ceiling, disengaging the magnets. We fell hard to the floor. I did my best to land deftly, but my legs gave out, making me crumble beside Anakin.

Now with their weapons, the Jedi and clones took down the remaining commandos, Fives and Echo coming over to us. “Are you alright, sir?” Echo asked, helping Anakin to his feet. Fives helped me up by my elbow, steadying me.

“Yeah,” Anakin breathed. “Let’s get out of here.”

They led the group out, Rex shooting out the camera Sobeck had been watching us through. He ran beside me, glancing over. “You alright?”

“I mean,” I shrugged, trying to brush off the remaining soreness from both the electrocution and the fall. “It didn’t feel great.”

He surprised me with a light chuckle as we rounded into the next hallway of cells. The clones locked down the hallway as I joined the Jedi at the locked door. I could feel the clones inside.

Anakin ignited his lightsaber, waiting with his eyes closed in front of the door. Suddenly, he pushed it through the door, destroying the droid on the other side and unlocking it. Ahsoka leapt in from above, taking out the second guard.

“General,” an accented officer greeted as Peill entered the room. He was a slight man who stood with a rigid back and emanated arrogance. My nose crinkled slightly.

“Captain Tarkin,” Piell greeted back.

The captain stepped forward to greet the Jedi as the clones tended to the four that had been captive. “I never thought I’d see you again. And you’ve brought friends.”

“Tarkin, this is Obi-wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker.”

The man didn’t greet the Jedi, merely glancing at them before addressing the room as a whole. “Now that you’ve found us, how do you expect to get us out? If they’ve locked this fortress down, there’s at least ten squads on their way. It’s going to be impossible to escape.”

“Well, he’s quite an optimist,” I muttered as the clones exited the cell beside me. I earned a few chuckles from them, the newly freed ones giving me a grateful nod.

“What if we split up?” Kenobi mused. “My team will create a diversion, while Anakin leads the others away. That way, if one of us is captured, the enemy will only have part of the information, and not all of it.”

My eyebrow rose as Tarkin stepped forward, a frown on his face. “General Kenobi, I think it’s better if we stick together. A stronger force would have a better chance of protecting the information.

“Not in this situation,” Obi-wan bit, obviously having a distaste for the captain.

“But surely we’d have more strength in numbers, Tarkin persisted, stepping after the Jedi. “Rather than divide us.”

“Obi-wan has a point,” Piell cut in with finality in his tone. “I’ll go with him. You go with Skywalker.”

I glanced between the captain and the Jedi before following them out of the cell. “Kida,” Obi-wan said, looking back at me. “You’re with me.”

I nodded, not missing the slight anxiety coming from Rex when he heard we were separating. “I’ll be fine,” I muttered beside him as the group readied to split. He nodded only slightly at me before turning to prepare his men.

“Shoot straight, kid,” Fives said, knuckling my shoulder pauldron again. I grinned at him, telling him to do the same.

Echo touched me shoulder gently, a jolt going through me that I couldn’t quite pinpoint the meaning behind. “Stay safe.”

“Yeah,” I whispered, watching the brothers give me a nod before following Skywalker and Ahsoka. “You too.”

Yet, as they receded, I felt the Force ripple with a sense of dread and sadness. And it was centered around Echo.

I couldn’t shake the feeling that something terrible was going to happen...and I wouldn’t be there to help.

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

MANDO’A

Nu kyr’adyc, shi taab’echaaj’la-- not gone, merely marching away (tribute to a dead comrade)

#fanfiction #fanfic #captain rex #captain rex x oc #rex x oc #rexxoc #rex #star wars #star wars the clone wars #oc star wars #star wars oc #clones #The Clone Wars #Clone Wars #Clone Troopers #jango #jango fett #Daughter of Jango fic #the citadel

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lord-explosion-baku · 6 years

Text

Todoroki x fem!reader

Warnings: ANGST, swearing

A/N: I changed just the “Endeavor threatening to hurt the reader” part because Endeavor is hero first and foremost and I don’t think he’d threaten to hurt someone for something like that. I hope that’s okay. Get ready for some angsty shit right here right now. This made me a tad emotional. I am a goose and I crave love. Huzzah.

“Shouto is aiming to be the next number one hero and he won’t be able to reach that goal if he has distractions such as you.” The horrible ache came to your shoulders full swing as you stared across at your unsuspecting boyfriend. “you understand, don’t you?,” Endeavor’s low voice rang in your ears. You did. You knew Todoroki was serious about becoming a pro, hell, nearly everyone at UA was. You just didn’t realize that you could’ve been a threat to him reaching the top.

How Endeavor found out about your relationship was beyond you. It had been three months since the two of you got together and you were sure you didn’t tell anyone, let alone show any affection in public. You two kept everything behind closed doors and you liked it that way. Having a secret boyfriend was thrilling! There were no complications and the two of you got along so well. Up until Endeavor got you cornered in public to tell you to basically back off.

You thought that it should’ve been easier than it was. Neither of you really talked about a sharing a future and there hadn’t ever been a confession on love, though beforehand you had been working up to it. A part of you wished he would say it first and another part of you thought that he never would. Still you as you watched him slurp up his noodles you couldn’t help but agonize over the next words you were going to say to him.

You waited for him to put his chopsticks down, you didn’t want him to choke. It was now or never.

“Is everything okay, Y/N?” “I think we should stop seeing each other.” Oh goddammit, you thought, embarrassed at speaking at the same time as him.

Your eyes didn’t reach his as he asked what you said.

You took a deep breath and uttered, “we should stop this, Shouto.”

He was silent, waiting for you to return his gaze. All you could do was stare at his chopsticks. “Y/N…” he began but didn’t continue. His hand reached for yours but you pulled away.

“I… am sorry. I just don’t see this going anywhere. We both have a whole lot we should be focusing on and I don’t want out time to be wasted.”

“Wasted?... what does that even mean?” Your eyes flashed at his. His blue eye was cold as ice while his grey one was almost telling… worried… anxious. “I don’t feel like I’m wasting my time when I’m with you.”

There was a tightening in your chest as your eyes began to sting. You couldn’t be around him for this. You couldn’t trust yourself to follow through if he was going to try to convince you to stay with him. You stood up from your seat. “I’m sorry, Shouto.”

He slammed his hands on the table, standing and yelled “what, you want commitment?!”

You closed your eyes, allowing a tear to fall down. “I’m sor-“

“Stop saying you’re sorry and tell me what’s really going on here!” Heads started turning towards the two of you. You hadn’t wanted to cause a scene. You started for the door but he grabbed your wrist. “Y/N, please…”

You looked outside the restaurant window and found a nice place for you to teleport to. Without looking back at him you said, “please don’t talk to me at school. Please don’t make this harder than it already is.” Then you zapped yourself on to the sidewalk outside. Casting one last look his way you saw him briskly walking towards the door, mouthing something to you, there were tears on his face. You zapped your way home and fell asleep on tear soaked pillows.

A week had past since you broke up with Todoroki. You survived off of pretending all the two of you went through never happened, it’s not like you could talk about it to your friends; they hadn’t known. You were successful in avoiding Todoroki, though the few time you did glance his way, he hadn’t been looking at you. That was all you needed to think that you were right in what you did.

Until you accidentally walked in on him in the training room during your lunch break. You had left your notebook in there and you had gone to retrieve it but you froze when you saw Todoroki, yelling, using his quirk, ice curved out from him in all directions, followed by rapid flames engulfing him, spinning around the room. Before he could see you, you bolted out of the room and to the cafeteria, leaving your notebook there to be fried.

You found your friends who were having a conversation about their last history test, and slumped down besides Hakagure, hand on your head.

“How’d ya down on our last exam, Y/N?” Mina asked, biting in to her sandwich.

You hummed your response, not really interested in delving into the conversation at hand.

The table went silent. Everyone was staring at you.

“What?”

“Okay,” Momo said, “enough of whatever this is. What’s going on with you?”

“Yeah dude, you’ve been down and out of it for the past couple of days,” Jirou said, concern flooding her eyes.

You sighed, cursing at yourself for not being better at hiding your feelings. “It doesn’t matter now, I guess. I’ve been dating Todoroki,” you closed your eyes and waited for the gasps or the yells or accusations or whatever but they never came.

“We know.”

“Finally, she tells us!”

“Yeah, we understand the rush of having a secret love affair and all but the two of you so obviously had puppy dog eyes for each other, it was cute and sickening all at the same time.”

Your eyes widened at your friends. They knew this whole time?

“So, what’s wrong? Trouble in paradise?”

You laughed out loud. “Paradise is lost and the devil has ripped my heart out.” You told them everything, from Endeavor threatening you, to you breaking it off with Todoroki, to what you just saw in the training room.

Hakagure gasped, “and you haven’t talked to him since?”

“No.”

“And he hasn’t even tried to talk this out with you?”

“I told him not to!”

Mina had her palm to her face, “boys are so fucking dumb!”

“Todoroki isn’t dumb,” you sighed, “he’s just respecting my wishes! And it really is for the best, you know. We should be focused on our education right now, and, well,l I don’t know, it was bound to happen eventually, right? We are young and…and trying to b-e,” your voice cracked and it was over. Tears were spilling from your eyes and you couldn’t smother your feelings any longer. “I’m the dumb one!!” You his your face in your hands.

Momo our a gentle hand to your back and began to rub your shoulders. “You’re not dumb. You were just scared.”

“I still am scared!” You leaned on to her. “But I know it’s for the best. I just- want him to be okay. I didn’t want to hurt him and god he looked so pissed in the training room and I just wanted to get my notebook and I shouldn’t have seen him like that and I feel so bad!”

Jirou gave Momo a pointed look, then Momo looked at Mina and Mina nudged Hakagure.

“You didn’t get your notebook?” Momo asked and you shook your head. “We’ll go get it for you.”

“Yeah, Y/N, we got you covered!”

And just like that they filed one by one out of the cafeteria leaving you just as alone as you felt. You poked at your food but couldn’t work up the appetite to have any of it. Minutes passed by and the bell rang, letting you know that your lunch period was over.

Luckily you had free period where you sulk under your favorite tree and daydream about living in a world where it was easy to move on and forgive and not ever have the emotions were feeling then. Then you got to daydreaming about the one person you wanted most in the world holding you while you cried, comforting you, telling you that everything was going to be okay…

Your notebook was thrown into your lap, causing you to jump. You looked up to see heterochromatic eyes glaring down on you. “We need to talk.”

You narrowed your eyes, shoving your notebook into your back. “I told you not to talk to me at school.”

Todoroki rolled his eyes. “Save it, L/N. Did my old man tell you to break up with me?” You were going to kill your friends.

You used the trunk of the tree to raise yourself to his level. “He didn’t tell me to do anything,” you said barely above a whisper. God, you hoped it wasn’t obvious that you’d been crying.

“Well, he said something to you that made you feel inclined to do what you did. He influenced you somehow.”

“Does it matter? What he said was true, I’m a distraction. I’m only going to get in your way on your path to a successful life!”

His eyes grew dark as he took a step towards you. “My path to a successful life? Is that seriously all it took?” His face was so close to yours that you could feel his cool breath lick your skin. “You don’t think I can have a successful life without you in it?” Your heart ached being so close to him without being able to touch him. You looked past him finding a place you could zap yourself to. He realized what you were doing. “Don’t,” he said. Too late.

Zap! You were striding down the hill but he was on you in a second. He grabbed your shoulder and spun you around. His lips crashed against yours, arm wrapped around your back, holding you in place. “Dammit Y/N, I love you,” he growled kissing you again. Hot tears fell down your cheeks as his hand cupped your face. “I love you so fucking much.”

You teleported a foot away from him, out of his embrace, so you could catch your breath. You were shaking as you told him, “I don’t want to hold you back, Shouto!”

“You’re not!” He yelled, “and if you were, I wouldn’t care! I don’t care about what that bastard has planned for my future! I care about you and our future!”

You bowed your head and watched water drop from your face, to the ground. Your future?

You fell into his arms. “I’m s-sorry.”

He brushed your hair. “Don’t be, unless you mean it. If you don’t really want to be with me, tell me. Without anything else influencing you, look me in the eyes and say we are done.”

You gazed up at him, tears were sitting at the edge of the eyes you loved so much. “I… can’t.”

His lips met yours again and this time you kissed him back, welcoming back the familiarity and the comfort of him. “I missed you so much,” you whispered, brushing against his cheek.

“I missed you too, Y/N. Promise me, you won’t do something like that again, not unless it’s your own will.”

“I promise, Shouto. Never again.”

And that was a promise you kept your entire life.

That last line was a ball of cheese.

Tags for EVERYTHING (closed): @yandere-inamorata @miitaart @dessiedawnwritesfanfiction @wickedlewicked @chickennuggetsarequestionable @nevermorelanore @kpanime @ayeputita @captain-sin-allmight-queen @diisasterbii @iceformer @meganofmars @colagirl5 @colorbookshd @grimmjadeskye @sm0kingcrack @sarcastictextstuck @zellllyyyy @psionicsnow @mynahx3 @andie-in-tumblland @iamthe-leaf @midnightfeline666 @bungou-stray-alies-tales-of-aly @rubyred-28 @kattariapenn @heypartypeps @quirktaker @thecryingsombra @smbody-stole-mycar-radio @ghost-of-todoroki @geektastic84 @personoffangirlingandtears @glixeo @rubycubix @mekakushi-dan-01-kido

#bnha x reader #bnha imagine #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha reader insert #reader insert #mha #my hero academia #todoroki x reader #todoroki shouto x reader #shouto x reader #shouto todoroki x reader #shoto todoroki x reader #tw angst #tw breakups #requests #bnha requests

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stickystarspectrumtroll-ocs · 5 years

Text

There are two OCs I have that I like very much but don’t include in my OC squad posts

They come from an online roleplay that nopony’s made any more posts or comments on in months now. I haven’t gotten to really do anything with them, but I find them very fascinating.

The roleplay is set in a school for superheroes and supervillains in training. One of my characters is a hero, the other’s a villain.

The hero character’s civilian name is Carol-Caitlyn Fletcher. Called C.C. for short.

She’s a generally cheerful and perky and optimistic person. She’s fairly enegertic, kinda goofy, kinda awkward, a little over-excitable, and super pumped for this whole superhero gig. She’s also really into art. Super good at drawing, carries her sketchbook and colored pencils with her everywhere. Also likes to sing. She’s good at that too.

Her powers include firing power blasts from her fists, and sprouting wings so she can fly, along with a unicorn horn that allows for telekinesis. They get a little hard for her to control when she’s excited or upset, and that’s been known to happen fairly often. Like, she’s super excited or super freaked out about something, and as she’s pacing the room chattering away about it, her unicorn horn appears and makes things just randomly float. Or she’s really mad at somepony and accidentally sends an energy blast through the wall or makes a dozen books float and then go zooming at the person she’s mad at.

But she does get pretty good at using her powers, and takes pretty naturally to being a superhero. I imagine her on her first time out there stopping crime, and every time after that, totally killing it out there and having tons of fun doing it. I picture her being the kind of superhero to cheerfully joke around and tease the bad guys as she’s apprehending them, and try to come up with oneliners on the go, commenting on each one to herself (”nah, that’s not it” or “hmm, I like it, but not quite” or “heyyy, that was pretty good! I gotta remember that one...”), and of course have the classic big-smile “I’m just happy to help” response to being thanked. Y’know.

Her superhero name is Mitochondria. (Because “powerhouse of the cell...” get it?...... I’ll... I’ll see myself out...)

Now, my villain character is named Jasper Lukas Von Rosenberg.

He has no superpowers, he’s the kind of villain who makes up for that with genius brains and dramatic flair.

He’s into all the classic villain shtick. Any day-to-day supervillain scheme you’ve heard of, like robbing museums or bank vaults or kidnapping somepony important or zapping people with ray guns that have all kinds of effects on them, plus having an evil lair full of machines and crocodile pits and stuff, and making dramatic entrances, giving villainous monologues, villain musical numbers even. Yes, he very much enjoys all of that. And in day-to-day life in school, he’ll be the one pulling fire alarms, starting food fights, pranking people, all that jazz..

The catch is he’s got no backstory or bigger plans motivating him for this. He doesn’t have a vendetta against anything or anyone in particular, and he doesn’t want to, like, take over the world or anything. Just things like this are good enough for him. He does it because to him, it’s all just fun. Heck, if he steals priceless artifacts from a museum or something, he's just gonna juggle them and play with them, and if he’s zapping people with a ray that turns them into cats, he just thinks it’s funny to see them turn into cats and see more people run and panic. He doesn’t even care if he loses, just as long as he gets to play the game again another day.

He’s not even a bad person, really. He’s got good manners and basic human decency. He’d attempt to comfort somepony he knew if he found them crying when they were going through some hard stuff in their life. He’d be fine temporarily teaming up with the good guys against some bigger enemy that’s out to destroy the world, then going back to his usual stuff once they’re beaten. He probably KNOWS he could very well just be a good guy full-time. He just figures, where’s the fun in that?

Oh, and his villain name is Count Jokester. (oh, how he loves the sound of “Count.”)

I imagine that over time C.C. and Jasper (as their civilian identities in school) occasionally talk to each other, bit by bit come to enjoy each other’s company more and more, and develop a sort of friendship. Of course they do have some...differences of beliefs in what’s morally acceptable for a person to do and what’s not, and what kinds of rules should be broken and what kinds they’d rather follow, with Jasper’s guidelines for these things being somewhat looser than C.C.’s. And they get into debates over that. But it’s still generally light and they respect each other’s choices.

I also imagine that as superhero and supervillain they get pitted against each other kind of a lot, but they both really enjoy their fights, and come to respect each other for being good at fighting and outsmarting each other and witty banter as well. So they’re kind of friends in that too. Frenemies. Kind of like Perry the Platypus and Dr. Doofenshmirtz in a way.

They’ll probably team up (along with some more of their classmates) against a bigger threat for a while at some point in the roleplay.

Also, at some point they probably figure out each other’s secret identities, and neither is too surprised really, given both of their super-selves look and act fairly similar to their civilian selves, and this knowledge doesn’t have much of an impact on their relationship.

Occasionally I like to imagine at least one of them starting to have a mild crush on the other eventually. But I don’t know if I’d actually write about that, partly because I like them a lot as friends/frenemies, and partly because I don’t know where I would really GO with it if any other kinds of feelings happened. The idea of them actually having a romantic relationship just doesn’t feel right to me somehow. And I’m too aroace to know how to write romance anyway.

I do kind of enjoy the idea of each of them eventually just starting to silently have the crushy-blushy thoughts a little and just...acknowledging internally that okay, MAYBE they like this person, but they’re not really interested in telling them or in actually having a relationship like that. Like, maybe they’re lithromantic? I dunno. I also enjoy how Jasper would definitely start to enjoy flirting a lot, so I can just picture him doing that all the time and C.C. just kind of rolling her eyes and smirking (or either making a snarky comeback or ignoring it if they’re in the middle of a fight). But, again, I don’t know if I’ll write this in because I also really like the idea of it just being 100% platonic.

I hope the person who created the roleplay I made these two characters for starts it up again so I can actually have a set place to play around with these two. I’m just itching to do something with them.

#information dump #superhero rp #c.c.#jasper #personal favorite

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fightevilandthengetblownup · 5 years

Text

CHATS: More Dumpsters, More Fires 3

#1 - Jo and Anna talking sometime after Jo got back to the house after the collar/cast was put on (and yes the spoil is Jo suggesting what you think it is LOL)

<Anna> hows Jo?

<Jo> Jo’s okay… She got to go outside, she’s getting a little spoilt for her own good, and she’s mostly trying to ignore the never ending threat looming over head - kind of amused/looking forward to laughing at Gray’s expense whe n he figures out things

<Anna> she’s so mean and such a troll

<Jo> She really really is.

<Jo> “I call it taking joy out of the small things”

<Anna> “I call it being a bitch”

<Jo> “Not saying I’m not.”

<Anna> “I don’t like you.”

<Jo> “I’m getting that. You didn’t like me much first time around til we got drunk a lot.”

<Anna> “You..just you seem like your punishing me for things that I don’t remember and enjoying the fact that I don’t remember it and in general being mean spirited about the whole thing. If we were friends, this isn’t how friends act or at least how I was taught how friends act.”

<Jo> “Well, I’m sorry if it seems that way - that’s honestly not what I’m intending. I’m just… playing around, Anna. It’s what I do, and most of the time you wouldn’t get upset by it - give it back or smack me upside the head. I’m not exactly from the same background as you,especially not now..”

<Anna> “I don’t know you now! And you know this, this is why you come across as enjoing it because you keep doing it on purpose! I don’t know if you enjoy seeing me upset or angry but it’s just mean.”

<Jo> “Well I’m /sorry/! It’s a little hard for me to wrap my head around that this person I’ve known for over a year is /suddenly/ someone completely different. And no, I don’t. I would have a week ago, but right now? I don’t.”

<Anna> “How do you think it feels for me? To wrap my head around the idea that for a year I’ve just been bar tending and trying to find myself again after my parents were killed and now I’m hearing that I’m this total other person who is supposed to be me!”

<Jo> “…right. …… ….I shouldn’t play around like that should I? I was just pranking you Anna, I get bored cooped up in a room - especially when I really don’t want to be. I was kidding around - the only things that, yeah, are true are about the guy you’ve sort of been with. I was just mucking about, too much day time television.”

<Anna> “It’s okay..I just..I’m frustrated and confused and I was sort of glad to hear that I had a friend and then you just turn out like this and sad.”

<Jo> “…Sorry. I didn’t think you’d take me seriously, was a little farfetched on my part. …I didn’t mean to upset you; I’m not exactly good at the people thing and we are friends, Anna. Usually you just see through my joking around..”

<Anna> “Give me some time to get to know you and I will again..probably..maybe..”

<Jo> “Probably.. Still, I didn’t mean to upset you and I apologise for that..”

<Anna> “It’s alright..and I’m sorry for calling you a bitch…repeatedly”

<Jo> “Don’t worry, that’s pretty accurate most of the time.”

<Anna> “Do you need anything? I don’t mind bringing stuff by to you.”

<Jo> “I, uh…I get pretty well taken care of - stuff wise. Though, I wouldn’t mind getting to get out sometimes actually. The, uh, um… my company is a bit of a homebody, so if you wanted to swing by, go out and do something would be better, maybe.”

<Anna> “Are you able to walk like that?”

<Jo> “A little ways. If it weren’t for the hands I’d be trying to drive myself honestly.”

<Anna> “I could drive if you have a car.”

<Jo> “…you don’t know how amusing that is.”

<Anna> “Um..right..wreck ..you probably don’t want me driving.”

<Jo> “Nah, it’s more amusing you were unsure if I had one. …hunter. Car is kind of a necessecity.”

<Anna> “Oh..right..well just let me know when you want to go out and I can walk to your place if you give me a addy.”

<Jo> “I do-.. um, I, uh… …yeah, I.. think I could, um, do that… The address, yes, I can, um.. I think Harry knows it, I don’t really …know it know it… And I will. I will definitely.”

<Anna> “You..don’t know where you live? I’m the one with the head injury here.”

<Jo> “It.. it’s not that. It’s a little more complicated than that.. I.. can’t really give out my address much. Because, um… you can’t tell any of the other hunter’s about the place. I come to them, not the other way around. They’re… Grey doesn’t really.. well, I don’t give out my address often so I- the end of West 5th street.”

<Anna> “Okay. I’ll be over there as soon as I go scribble that down on the walls of the men’s restroom. ‘Hunters, if you are looking for Jo or a good time, come to the end of West 5th street.’”

<Jo> “Oh god, don’t even..! And how would you know if I were a good time?!”

<Anna> “You said that we were together and it was more than once so it must have been something good about it.”

<Jo> “And I said I watched too many soapies. Unless you’re wanting to have walked on the wild side with me… in which cause I’ll have you know I’ve got nothing but rave reviews.”

<Anna> *Anna coughs*

<Jo> “…but still, I doubt anyone looking for a good time would be dumb enough anyway. Have to go through Grey first.”

<Anna> “Possessive bf I’m guess..”

<Jo> “Not so much possessive as…. uh…”

<Anna> “So the collar isn’t a sign of that at all?”

<Jo> “Well, that wasn’t put on by him. It’s a long story.”

<Anna> “Okay…”

<Jo> “It’s a… challenge. By someone else. How long I can keep it on without freaking out… Grey isn’t so possessive as to..yeah. He’s not /that/ possessive.”

<Anna> “Mmmk.. So besides killing monsters what do you like to get out and do?”

<Jo> “Movies… running, pool.. I like target practice or just.. Mostly I’d say pool. What do you remember that you like doing?”

<Anna> “Coffee shops, books, I like the water, botanical gardens. Pool is fun, I remember watching friends in college play. I guess you can’t really do that with the casts. What happened? I’m assuming a hunt went wrong?”

<Jo> “Coffee is good - there’s a nice one just outside of the city centre. And the docks - I’m down there a lot usually myself. I can’t with the casts though, no - should be off next weekend though which is good. Yeah..yeah you could say that. I just wasn’t expecting it, not as alert as I should have been and things went a little pearshaped.”

<Anna> “That sucks. I’m sorry. Still could have been worse I suppose.”

<Jo> “Oh, I’ve had worse, it’s no biggie really. Just kind of sucks - but I’ve never had someone arounf who’ll really..help out during before so it’s not so bad.

<Anna> "Well I guess that’s good. Grey loves you by the sounds of it.”

<Jo> *Jo laughs loudly*

<Anna> “He doesn’t?”

<Jo> “Just never thought I’d hear someone say that without it being mocking or concerned or with some sort of malicious intent behind it..”

<Anna> “I’m guessing that by someone you mean me?”

<Jo> “A little, but not specifically. There are a lot of people with opinions.”

<Anna> “Why, what’s so bad about him?”

<Jo> “It, uh… it’s complicated. He and you haven’t really ever gotten along, his family are… eccentric, I’m fairly certain my mom doesn’t like him because of it and there are some other…well.. people he knows who have some pretty interesting takes on our..relationship, is all… It’s not something he can change but I wouldn’t say its… bad…”

<Anna> “Wow. Well..I can’t wait to meet him..again and maybe this time we can get off to a better start be friends.”

<Jo> “I doubt that, but he might be persuaded not to try and set your hair on fire. ..That’s probably as good as it could get. He.. holds grudges.”

<Anna> *Anna blinks*

<Jo> “What can I say… we both have very voilate personalities?”

<Anna> “I..What did I do to him?”

<Jo> “I don’t actually know, honestly, or at least originally. …He’s very.. you both have very clashing personalities. Or had. And then something, which would make absolutely no sense to you now, happened which got him really hurt that could be tracked back to you so… it hasn’t really helped my few attempts to mend bridges.”

<Anna> *Anna just nods*

<Jo> “Plus, you were with his twin and they kind of hate one another.”

<Anna> “So..is his brother..does he have the same issues that Grey has? That no one likes him..and were? We aren’t together?”

<Jo> “Grey’s more on the outs with his family than on the outs with other people - he and Harry are really good friends actually, Harry is a little more dubious of /me/ than of Grey. While his brother… gets along every well with their relatives but.. he’s a bit of a dick sometimes - charming. But a dick. I honestly don’t know, I don’t really believe anything about your relationship unless it comes from you.”

<Anna> “So..I’m dating the dick? and You’re dating the estranged grudge holder?”

<Jo> “I..wouldn’t say dating myself, but yeah that.. works. Pretty much that.”

<Anna> *Anna nods again*

<Jo> “…Any thing else?”

<Anna> “Not sure..I’ll pick you up this afternoon after shift?”

<Jo> “Sure, sure.. Works for me.”

<Anna> “Alright..see ya then”

#2 - Post-mindwipe I believe, Jo joking/taunting about Anna and Gray’s relationship just goes to melt down.

<Anna> so no other snark from her other than bitching about Anna’s perspective of her?

<Jo> Oh no, she’s snickering at the fact “I guess there are times porn and reality /do/ blend. Anna’s really going for that naughty catholic school girl thing.”

<Anna> *dies*

<Anna> Anna is huffing

<Anna> “I am not”

<Anna> “I’m allowed to feel..things.”

<Jo> “Are too, Saint Milton. Really? God’s not going to send a lightening bolt down and strike you for wanting to engage in some highly energetic animalistic fucking with a mass murdering psychopathic monster? …course, it probably would be worth the zap.”

<Anna> She’s doing her best impression of a fish out of water..

<Jo> Jo’s snickering her head off now.

<Anna> opening and closing hermouth while making noises as she tries to argue

<Jo> LOL Jo is getting a kick out of this

<Anna> “You..are not very nice”

<Jo> “I believe you’ve said that before.”

<Anna> “I….”

<Anna> *Anna huffs*

<Jo> “Can’t deny you want to fuck his brains out? It happens.”

<Anna> *Anna turns red* “I..I..Do you have to use such crude language!”

<Jo> “Well…can’t really call what he does ‘making love’, and I kind of do.”

<Anna> “No one asked you!”

<Jo> “No one ever asks anyone.”

<Anna> “You..are..I don’t know what you are..”

<Jo> “..a crude country bumpkin? Impossible? Radiant and fantastic?”

<Anna> “A bitch!”

<Jo> “…That works too.”

<Anna> *Anna huffs and crosses her arms*

<Jo> “Just telling the truth. It’s completely normal to want to break the bed, and the couch, and whatever paintings are on the walls…” *Jo smirks, trying not to laugh*

<Anna> *Anna just stares at Jo open mouthed* “No wonder you and Grey live in a run down house! You can’t have nice things!”

<Jo> *Jo gapes and squeaks offendedly* “Hey! We live there cause.. shut up, it’s perfectly fine! Who wants nice things when you can have fun?”

<Anna> “Obviously people who aren’t you! I mean would it kill you to paint the place? And cut the grass, it looks like an abandoned house. Have some pride of owner ship”

<Jo> “That’s the flipping point, Anna.. Hunter’s don’t really leave paper trails or have steady incomes, and neither do monsters.”

<Anna> “You own a bar!”

<Jo> “Technically it was my great aunt and uncle’s. And I /did/ live there with the other’s right up until your accident, so honestly - I’ll have pride in a home when I want to put down /actual/ roots.”

<Anna> “You have an answer for everything don’t you..”

<Jo> “…it’s easier than not. I moved in with Grey, it’s his house and even then it’s technically no one’s, so…why make it look nice when it’s not even ours?”

<Anna> “Oh my God..you’re squatting there…that answers so many things about you..”

<Jo> “That’s… kind of what hunters do. Squatting or motels; I mean, I could /buy/ somewhere, sure but… ….what do you mean 'that answers so many things about you’?!”

<Anna> “You’re hiding behind this whole "this is what hunters do” line you keep using. Lack of roots, lack of relationship, would rather have random sex, you have serious commitment issues.“

<Jo> ”….dah. Daddy issues, commitment issues, intimacy issues, a lifestlye that only appeals to the insane, self destructive or psychopathic… Hi I’m Jo Harvelle, and I’m a fucking mess.“

<Anna> "You know they make pills that help that.”

<Jo> “I don’t need medicating.”

<Anna> “Sure..most people with your issues think they don’t without medication.”

<Jo> “I don’t need medication, Anna..”

<Anna> “Sure you don’t.”

<Jo> “I just have the same problems your run of the mill stripper have, but I combat it with killin’ not exposing myself for cash. I don’t need a little pil to make it all better.”

<Anna> “Right…and how much do you drink and self medicate because you realize that is what you are doing, passing off hunting as coping instead of dealing with your issues. You know there’s numbers you can call and people you can talk too.”

<Jo> “…I grew up in a bar, how much do you think I drink? And I don’t self medicate..I treat wounds, sure, but nothing more than pain killers and other first aid shit really. ….Numbers I can call, right…I can’t get through a single conversation with a civillian without having to lie at least six times, Anna, so that’s bullshit.”

<Anna> “Whatever you say Jo.”

<Jo> “I dont want and I don’t need help. You’re just trying to avoid talking about how awkward you feel about wanting to run your tongue along those scars of Gray’s and everything else that goes with it.”

<Anna> “At least that’s a normal human reaction..unlike hiding behind "oh I’m fine I’ll just go kill something to get rid of the anxiety I’m feeling.”“

<Jo> "I said I don’t want help, I don’t want to change that okay? And I’m not sue how normal it is when you know everything you do about him but whatever helps you sleep at night.”

<Anna> “He doesn’t seem any worse than the rest of the people I’ve been talking too.”

<Jo> “Right. …I’m sure that’s totally the truth.”

<Anna> “And maybe there’s a reason I met him. Who knows, besides according to everyone I’m not much better than him.”

<Jo> “You met him because he was trying to control me and my behaviour. And if you meant that in a destiny type way, sorry to burst your bubble but fate doesn’t exist anymore.”

<Anna> “Oh good God you do have an answer to everything..”

<Jo> “Maybe I do, but thats actually the truth these days…”

<Anna> “Gee I’d forgotten that..”

<Jo> “Ha ha, funny.”

<Anna> “I thought so.”

<Jo> “Glad to see somehow you found a sense of humor.”

<Anna> “Hmph”

<Jo> “…Sooo… back to you and your feeling awkward about wanting to jump Gray. You know I think you still have that school uniform at the bar.”

<Jo> “I never did get asked to return it”

<Anna> “Why are you so interested in what I want, are you and Grey not having enough sex?”

<Jo> “I’m just amused that that hasn’t changed at all.”

<Anna> “I don’t think a lot of things have changed..”

<Jo> “You’re nicer. Not that you werent before…you just… got very focussed.”

<Anna> “Right..”

<Jo> “…when none of us were trying to kill the other’s partner things were pretty nice..”

<Anna> “So then explain now.”

<Jo> “Explain what? You and I were friends, Anna… when you weren’t trying to kill Grey and he wasn’t trying to kill you; and when Gray and I weren’t anywhere near one another. We actually were friends ya know.”

<Anna> “So..if how you’ve acted towards me is friends..I’m glad I don’t remember what were like as not friends.”

<Jo> “….those scars aren’t from the car crash. That might give you an idea…”

<Anna> “What part of I’m glad I don’t remember didn’t you get.”

<Jo> “Fine.”

<Anna> “I just..I don’t know..I don’t get why I want to punch you or choke you half the time..and then you start talking and if I remember you or not it’s like this slowly growing urge..”

<Jo> “…that’s kind of a normal reaction, Anna. Pretty much everyone wants to do that to me outside of my family…and even then. I mean, half the time yeah, even when we’re friends its like that..”

<Anna> “So why didn’t you make an effort to be friends again, that’s what I want to know.”

<Jo> “Because this is how we’re friends! We rib and teast and poke fun at one another, and then we get drunk or eat frosting and actually talk about proper issues, and then I feel uncomfortable with serious conversation and turn whatever we were talking about into a sex joke. That’s..just how it’s always been, Anna.”

<Anna> “Well thanks for letting me know AFTER the fact I already went through our 'friends’ way of hazing each other.”

<Jo> “I… I.. I didn’t… I thought you knew that, I mean I thought that’s how friends just /are/. I’m not good at the friends thing - I end up hopelessly pining after them for a few months or fucking them, so I really don’t think I have a good grasp on what a friendship /is/, Anna!”

<Anna> “Gee what gave you that idea. The fact that everyone ends up pissed at you or the fact everyone ends up pissed at you.”

<Jo> “Ha ha.”

<Anna> “I’m serious”

<Jo> “Well I dont exactly have that many friends so not everyone does.”

<Anna> “Again..I wonder why..”

<Jo> “Oh just fuck you.”

<Anna> “From what I understand we already did that and it didn’t work.”

<Jo> “It really didn’t.”

<Anna> “So is this being friends enough for you?”

<Jo> “Hardy hardy har har, you’re catching on well enough.”

<Anna> “Huh, now you seem pissy when I’m simply returning the affection you claim we share..”

<Jo> “Actually I’m more amused you’re playing along. Figured you would be more stickish than before.”

<Anna> *Anna rolls her eyes*

#3 - Not 100% sure context other than its after the above. Also, Grey should pay attention to the fact Jo was looking at these things and ~thinking things~ (this was about October after they’d started up, so like...shes been thinking a long while. this is before the whispering, or maybe during it)

<Jo> http://www.geekologie.com/2012/08/another-day-another-zombie-themed-engage.php Its sad when I find these things and the train of thought goes:

<Jo> 1. I can see Jo agreeing to things just because its ‘adorable’ when really its not

<Jo> 2. And then she’d be killed by Ellen

<Anna> lolol

<Jo> 3. At least its not a salt-n-burn fire side romantic comment

<Anna> Anna..*smacks*

<Jo> …what?

<Anna> she’s..missing having girl company..and she’s debating which is better for it..Ruby or Jo and she’s leaning more towards Ruby

<Jo> LOL …/why/ is the question streaming from both Ruby and Jo right now

<Anna> “Jo’s sorta mannish…and Ruby..at least looks girly..”

<Jo> They are both laughing at her - loudly. Though Jo’s sort of offended which is just making Ruby laugh more

<Anna> lol

<Anna> Anna’s just sorta pouting..“it’s not my fault that they are the only choice I have for female friends..”

<Jo> “Ruby isn’t even a female.” “……………………….” “…”

<Anna> looooooool

<Anna> “she’s less butch than you”

<Jo> “/Gray/ is less butch than me. Doesn’t make him more of a female.”

<Anna> “So you’re the man in relationship?”

<Jo> “No! Well with you I guess I was, but no, I’m not….”

<Anna> “Guess that’s why I’m looking more towards Ruby..why do I want a second man in my life.”

<Jo> “If you can call what you do have a man.”

<Anna> “After the other night..He’s definately all man”

<Jo> “Good for you.”

<Anna> “Yes..he was..”

<Jo> “If you say so. …How was it after though? Did he stick around for breakfast?”

<Anna> “He didn’t stay for breakfast but he did stay till I woke up the next day.”

<Jo> “Aw how cute. So how long did the honeymoon last before whatever sent him packing without even grabbing a bit of you for snacking on the go?”

<Anna> “The threat of Crowley I guess”

<Jo> “Strange that such a 'manly’ guy as him would be run off by the overgrown demon.”

<Anna> “How come I’ve never ran into Grey outside of his house?”

<Jo> “Because. And he’s not being run off by anyone, especially if he’s staying in the one place, wouldrn you say?”

<Anna> “Right..surrounded by traps and iron..which wouldn’t stop Crowley..I guess that means that he’s simply afraid of normal demons. You really wish to throw stones at Gray for being afraid of Crowley when yours won’t even come outside?”

<Jo> “Actually its traps and salt, theres no iron in our house. And most of those are there because of the fact that, oh hey, I’m a hunter and he’s a monster and it’s second nature to protect ones home. As for throwing stones, I said that your’s is afraid to be with you because of Crowley not that he’s afraid of Crowley - theres a difference. Grey isn’t.”

<Anna> “Gray doesn’t strike me as being happy domestic housewife..he’s never said anything to make me believe that we lived together all the time. So why should I expect it now?”

<Jo> “I never said he had to be, I was just musing on the fact you say he’s leaving because of the threat of another man coming in to take his turn.”

<Anna> “there..no one else has a turn!”

<Jo> “And yet he had to leave in case Crowley showed up. Unless thats not why he left, so either you’re waiting for the wannabe god-demon to show up to see how his little /pet/ is going, or Gray left because he didn’t want to be around you after getting what he wanted. Or some other reason.”

<Anna> “Why are you making it sound so bad that he didn’t want to be around if Crowley did show up? He couldn’t stop him, Gray would have been killed and Crowley has no interest in killing me. So why are you trying to twist it to make it sound bad.”

<Jo> “I’m just intruiged is all - doesnt really sound like a typical Gray-like response. ..his kind are really quite territorial you know.”

<Anna> “Tell you what, if you want to know so bad, ask him.”

<Jo> “…Nah.��

<Anna> “Well if you don’t want to ask him then stop being a bitch.”

<Jo> “But you’re fun when you puff up and get red.”

<Anna> “You are such a bitch..”

<Jo> “Think you already said that. And I prefer bitch to butch, so I’m cool with it.”

<Anna> “Maybe you’re a bastard then being you’’ve been the man in all your relationships.”

<Jo> “I am not the man in my relationship at present, so there.”

<Anna> “Right…”

<Jo> “It’s true.”

<Anna> “Whatever.”

<Jo> “… …………do you have any idea how much I hate that word…”

<Anna> “yes.”

<Anna> “but whatever”

<Jo> “Fuck you.”

<Anna> “But you’re fun when you puff and get red. So whatever Jo..”

<Jo> “Oh God, you’re horrid, you know that right?”

<Anna> “Whatever..your hate of this word is interesting.”

<Jo> “…. Why do you say that..”

<Anna> “I’m seeing what you get out of making someone upset. Trying to understand why you feel this is proper entertainment at the expense of others.”

<Jo> “I dont try to upset people, I play with them. Theres a difference.”

<Anna> “oh so you play..with no reguard to how that playing effects them. Does your interest if Gray leaving me relate to the fact you were abandoned by your father?”

<Jo> “…Excuse you? I am not the one between us who was abandoned by their father!”

<Anna> “My father loved me, raised me, encouraged me to be whatever I could be in life. Your father put hunting above you and was killed by it. Isn’t that why you have such a problem committing to people?”

<Jo> “Oh you think that if you want to about your own father, but don’t you talk 'bout my dad like that. He was a good man. ….I…shut up, I don’t have problems commiting to people..”

<Anna> “Is that why you keep everyone at a distance? Playing with them? Keeping us at both a physical arms length and an even further emotional one? How did Grey slip past your defenses or can you just leave him at anytime, abandoning him too?”

<Jo> “My father has nothing to do with it.. You can’t be too open in this lifestyle.. …/I/ don’t abandon people, shut up.”

<Anna> “Please, you turned to hunting instead of taking of your clothes. You’re surrounded by men who could be old enough to be your dad and you’re constantly working to prove yourself to them. Do you seek out their praise when you do a hunt well?”

<Jo> “…I wou-..I dont even… …Maybe normal men my age bore me? They don’t know anything about the world and what’s really out there, and regardless of your suggestion - if a hunter lives long enough to get to that age they’re usually pretty decent men. It’s a /shame/ my father had what happened to him happen so young is all. There are plenty of hunters I talk to my own age, or close enough to, Anna. And I don’t need /anyone’s/ approval, god dammit..”

<Anna> “I see. And you’re wall of not being to open in this life? How does that hold up to the fact your father and your mother were open enough to get married, have you? Even after his death you’re mother stayed in the life, helped other hunters. She even gave them beds to sleep on at the roadhouse, tended them when they were hurt. I’ve heard hunters talk about it. Why do you have to be so guarded?”

<Jo> “There’s a difference between being on the road and being in the life the way Mom and hell, even Bobby a lot these days, are. ….And they were in love, people do things like get married and have babies when they’re in love. They were younger than I am too, so hey, maybe I’m just jaded like the other guys my age or near enough..”

<Anna> “But not you? You can’t be open to that because of the fact you’re a hunter? And how is being a hunter on the road and at a bar different? You still put yourself in danger. Why do you have so many walls? Open, playing, your stubbornness, why don’t you think you should have friendships and relationships that are closer than the arms distence that you keep everyone at?”

<Jo> “I… could get married and have babies one day, maybe. It’s not completely out of the realm of possibility.. On the road you can’t let your emotions get to you, at a bar.. you can be nicer and more open. Though you’re more likely to get hurt from friends never showing up again too. I do too have closer friends than that! And maybe I have a lot of walls to keep other people better off, hmm.”

<Anna> “Who are these closer friends? Are you not here as much as on the road? You have a home with someone, you aren’t living a nomads life. And would you say that "protecting” others by not letting them get close to you is for their own good out of your concern for them or from your need to control things?“

<Jo> "Dean.. Sam.. Grey.. …you. I didn’t mean to, it wasn’t my idea and then things got that I needed to be researching more than hunting at present but when that’s taken care of I’ll be on the road more than no again, sure.. I am not a control freak, if either of us were that would be you. I don’t like..I don’t want to hurt people so I’m not going to let them close enough to be, dah.”

<Anna> “You would call us close? Interesting because to me, from my perspective we are hardly anything but close. And it’s nice and controlling that you want to take away my choice at what risk to take being your friend, if we were that close to begin with. And you are going to abandon Grey by taking off and only stopping in on occassion. Isn’t that what you remember of your dad? The random visits?”

<Jo> “We /were/ close, maybe not now but we were before..things happened. …you know nothing about my dad, Anna, nothing at all.”

<Anna> “I don’t have to know anything about your dad. You present as your typical 'little girl lost’ case. But whatever Jo, you keep playing with people and spending all that energy into keeping them away instead of building healthy relationships.”

<Jo> “Excuse fucking you, I am nothing of the sort. You and your psychobabble, which I really haven’t missed, really only sees what you think you see. I’m not like that and my dad was not like what you think. I’m not going to abandon Grey if I’m off hunting, /he/ understands my life and doesn’t want to force me to change it like you used to. I have plenty of very healthy friendships, maybe just not the same sort /you/ think people should have.”

<Anna> “No you see, you dont get to decide for me what’s something I’m sensative about and what I’m allowed to get upset about when you decide to use it for your ammunition. You don’t get to decide what hurts me and what doesn’t. If you don’t care to respect my feelings then screw you and your feelings about certain subjects. Keep playing these games Jo and next time we’ll have a nice long chat about how it’s your mother’s fault for not leaving the hunting life and taking you away from it.”

<Jo> “You know what, fine. You tell me plain and clearly 'Jo, you’re upsetting me with what you’re saying’ next time and I will back the fuck off. Your verbal and facial cues are kind of all off from what I’m used to, Anna, so I’m sorry if my mucking around upset you - maybe not calling me a bitch, which really doesn’t seem to be getting your point across if that’s what you’re using FYI, and telling me to stop would work better for your female sensetivities. As for blaming my mother, I get the feeling you two would /really/ get along these days, given she tried her best to take me from it regardless of not moving.”

<Anna> “Always someone else’s issue and fault isn’t it. It’s my fault for not expressing the fact your hurting my feelings even though a blind person in a dark room could see that you are. It’s my fault for thinking that calling you a bitch wasn’t clear enough and that I have to resort to a long drawn out way of explaining to you. I’m sorry Jo that my physical expressions weren’t enough of a clue to you and your insensative 'playing’ to tell you to stop. Next time I’ll be sure to maybe cry with going all red and puffing up since obviously none of those things are enough for you.”

<Jo> “You know what? They’re not. Because before they didn’t mean you were hurt, just getting pissed off! So sorry that when you got your hard drive wiped and replaced with the catholic school girl persona the self righteous hard ass left with it and the cues got rewired. Calling me a bitch was generally common place for all variety of things, so no, not very clear. Just fucking spit it out in future or just say /stop/. Jesus fucking christ!”

<Anna> “That’s it, keep blaming me. Even when you’ve known now for how many conversations that I’m not that other Anna..it’s still my fault that you can’t rememeber it. How do you hunt if you can’t keep that simple bit of information straight? Isn’t that the sort of thing you would have to be able to spot? Personality shifts in people? It’s okay though, I accept the fact that it’s all my fault and never yours. I’m sorry for making things so hard on you Jo.”

<Jo> “Well it would make a fucking change for once - it being you to blame and not me, but then again you can’t remember /that/ either, so there goes that little victory over blameless Anna. There is a big difference between noticing things in strangers and noticing the same cues on someone you know but them being /completely inverted/ on themselves. And you say you’re not that other Anna but the more we talk, the more obvious it is it wasn’t just her Her Royal Fucking Grace-fulness side that was like this.”

<Anna> “Whatever..I’m so over taking the blame for this other person who I don’t know. I’m so sick of hearing what a horrible person I was but then hearing about other things and turning hte other cheek to them, all while I’m being punished for being something I’m not.”

<Jo> “You weren’t a horrible person, you were as horrible as I am. So that’s up to you to decide what that means.”

<Anna> “Well then according to Ruby I must have been a really horrible person.”

<Jo> “…Excuse me?”

<Anna> “I mean..I didn’t drug anyone did I? That was only you correct?”

<Jo> “…I didn’t want to..”

<Anna> “It doesn’t matter. That happened to the other Anna..not me.”

<Jo> “Right, because you’ll forgive what anyone else did to the other Anna. I totally believe that. …Though that..had been cleared up, before you start to think otherwise.”

<Anna> “No I don’t forgive, it just didn’t happen to me. It happened to her.”

<Jo> “…right.”

<Anna> “I don’t remember you. I don’t remember Gray. But whatever she felt for you, I feel and I trust that because I feel like I should be able to trust you with my life and that I should be your friend but then you do these things that make me want to scream.”

<Jo> “I think this is the point where I point out that’s kind of what my and..her friendship was like. We hunted together, trusted one another to watch our backs, and while some stuff happened and it was…really not good between the two of us for a while, I was going to be willing to put that stuff behind us after this whole..Crowley thing. Same as she was probably, hopefully. Things are different in war time, you know the saying. But yeah..made y-her want to scream a lot of the time too. It’s not really that strange.”

<Anna> *Anna shrugs and heads for her apartment.* “Just remember I’m not her. I don’t know our history. It’s weird to look at a total stranger and feel something close to love for that person and you dont know why.”

#4 - Anna blaming Jo for the Whispering again

<Jo> Hows Anna doing in deciding if she wants to talk to Gray yet still?

<Anna> she doesn’t know but shes okay with talking

<Jo> *nodnod* That’s progress, right?

<Anna> maybe lol

<Anna> hows Jo?

<Jo> Jo’s more mopey than angry, been eating frosting since her bakings been burning, and just very weird. So progress lololol

<Anna> awwwwww

<Anna> Anna thinks Jo should still get over it

<Jo> Understandable. Jo’s not sure its something you can ‘get over’, and she’s feeling sort of really bad for treating Anna like she had about not remembering things or being freaked out.

<Anna> “okay let me put it this way. How many other people are you going to find that’s going to put up with your ass? And willing to go to such extremes because he cares?”

<Jo> “Probably none, with all things considered. But going to extremes isn’t a very good thing, especially when it restricts someone you’re supposed to care abouts freedoms.”

<Anna> “You should know all about going to extremes from what I hear.”

<Jo> “What is it you hear then?”

<Anna> “Careless, reckless, gets the job done but is sloppy.”

<Jo> “Doesn’t mean I effect anyone but myself usually”

<Anna> “You effect everyone that cares for you, idiot. Grey most off all.”

<Jo> “I haven’t died since the last time, I think I’m doing okay, so maybe I just dont get why people are worrying”

<Anna> “……………. maybe Grey should have tweeked your IQ level when he was in there.”

<Jo> “Why? I have…barely even gotten close yet again. I don’t get why it effects everyone that cares about me how I do my job, because the job gets done and I get out mostly unscathed. I’m not a complete moron, I don’t take on what I can’t do myself.”

<Anna> “Do you even hear yourself? You judge things as being okay by how close or not close you get? That mentality worries every, you aren’t a cat, you don’t get nine lives.”

<Jo> “Maybe not, but I’m on my second one, so who knows maybe I am. I judge it that way because..well, that;s the easiest way to. I might break some bones one hunt, I’m not dead. I might get a concussion or have a large amount of blood loss, but I’m not dead. I’m still moving, I’m still breathing, I’m fine.”

<Anna> “And what happens when you don’t care about being dead anymore?”

<Jo> “I keep doing the same thing I’m already doing until I’m not any more?”

<Anna> “and what about the people you leave behind”

<Jo> “People die all the time.. you learn to live with it.”

<Anna> “You learn to live with it? Have you ever mourned anyone as an adult? Not as a kid?”

<Jo> “Not I’m guessing in the way you’d mean.”

<Anna> “then think about that, and I’m going to guess Grey and Gray have a longer life than us..”

<Jo> “Uh… longer than me, that’s for sure.”

<Anna> “So they get to the time you have..and then Grey gets to mourn you for the rest of his life and if you act careless, you’re taking time away from him.”

<Jo> “Are you applying this same theory for yourself? You realise you somehow got the most psychotic, murderous, uncaring creature I’ve ever met to feel something for the first time ever and you’re not even trying to patch things over or work out the kinks or help him get over the woman he fell in love with?”

<Anna> “Turning this on me isn’t a good way to get out of this conversation and he’s not the only one trying to get over tht other woman. But the point is I plan on being around whenever the time is right for us to talk if at all again.”

<Jo> “Sure it is, I’d much rather talk about you than me. I’m not /planning/ on dying.”

<Anna> “You aren’t doing anything to make anyone feel assured by that claim either.”

<Jo> “Why not? I don’t want to die. How is that not reassuring?” (sorry was making lunch)

<Anna> “Just..never mind you’ve never been in the place where you have to worry about someone. I don’t know how to make you relate.”

<Jo> “I try not to worry about others anymore. I swear it aged my mother ten years and then another ten after.”

<Anna> “Clearly.”

<Jo> “Course that’s a lie though.. I worried about the..other Anna? Is that what I should call you, er, her, um..”

<Anna> “I don’t know and you cared enough to hurt her. So..”*Anna shrugs*

<Jo> “That was a case of caring about my /mother/ more so than my not caring about her.”

<Anna> “Is all conversations like this? With Grey? You justifying your actions with the attitude that you’re in total control and not at fault at all?”

<Jo> “I’m not saying I wasn’t at fault there, I very very clearly was - but I was saying that I worried about her before. A lot. …I dunno. Probably?”

<Anna> “And you wonder why he just did something like that?”

<Jo> “I told him I wouldn’t lie to him and say I wouldn’t do something reckless in order to get rid of Crowley…”

<Anna> “And the rest of the time?”

<Jo> “…I’m not going to promise not to put myself in danger to save others.”

<Anna> “What about because it’s a rush and there’s no one in danger?”

<Jo> “Sometimes if you don’t rush to get the job done, it’ll get out of reach and then someone could get hurt or worse later.”

<Anna> “Do you really hunt to save people or do you do it because like simply like it?”

<Jo> “…Why can’t it be both? Why’s everyone seperate them out as the only answers. I want to save people, I want to help people and I like to do both those things, but, yeah, I like hunting outside of that as well.”

<Anna> “Because you hide behind saving people like a shopping addict hides behind needing just one more top or it was on sale.”

<Jo> “Well I don’t. I want to stop other people losing their families, I want to do something which makes me happy too.”

<Anna> “Sure..but maybe you should start by saving Grey’s only family first.” *Anna walks off*

#5 - Post-mindwipe and post-Jo/Grey making up

<Jo> *missed that LOL*

<Anna> Soooooo

<Jo> ooooooo..?

<Anna> “Can I drive the car?”

<Jo> “No!”

<Anna> *Sigh*

<Jo> LOL

<Anna> =P

<Anna> “Jo”

<Jo> “…It rhymes with my name, and starts with an ‘n’.”

<Anna> “nacho?”

<Jo> “…You suck. You suck so so bad.”

<Anna> *Anna grins*

<Jo> “Not gonna happen.”

<Anna> “So we don’t ever go out for Mexican?”

<Jo> “God, can you just… Just go make friends with Grey or call up your guy or something. Annoy someone else too!”

<Anna> *Anna looks innocently at Jo.* “What am I doing to annoy you? I’m just asking questions, how am I supposed to know that we don’t go out for Mexican.”

<Jo> “Fuckin’ God and Mother help me.” *Jo rubs the bridge of her nose* “What were you going to ask /other/ than that you can drive then?”

<Anna> “If you wanted to go out for coffee.”

<Anna> “And not Mexican it seems.”

<Jo> “So long as theres some cake included..”

<Anna> *Anna laughs quietly*

<Jo> “I like sweets, alright. Shut up.”

<Anna> *Anna ticks off on her fingers* “Sweets, no nachos, no driving for me..”

<Jo> “Sounds about right”

<Anna> “I can see how you and Gray are alike, he says I’m also annoying.”

<Jo> “Yeah, but I’m sure he means it much more affectionately than I do.”

<Anna> “No not really, he sounded about as annoyed as you do.”

<Jo> “Yeah, but he /always/ sounds annoyed. …Mostly.”

<Anna> “Not always but when I’m teasing him like I am you right now, he does.”

<Jo> “That’s because you suck.”

<Anna> *Anna smiles* “I don’t remember, do I?”

<Jo> “Oh no, I think you know pretty well right now.” *Jo shakes her head, rubbing the back of her neck with a laugh*

<Anna> *Anna just smiles staring at Jo*

<Jo> “Coffee, cake. No car.”

<Anna> “I can drive while you eat your cake.”

<Jo> “/No!/”

<Anna> *Giggles*

<Jo> “You touch my sweetheart, I’ll touch yours.” *Jo teases back, sticking out her tongue*

<Anna> “But I don’t have a sweetheart.”

<Jo> “Gah! I will go, buy you something, make you enjoy it and it become important to you and /then/ touch it!”

<Anna> “That sounds dirty.”

<Jo> *Jo raises an eyebrow* “That’s really not dirty by my standards, angelcake.”

<Anna> “Clearly I have higher standards than you.”

<Jo> “/Clearly/.”

<Anna> “Jo.”

<Jo> “…What?”

<Anna> “Are we going for cake and coffee or are we going to stand about talking about touching things.”

<Jo> “…Fine, we’ll go for coffee and cake. You’re going to have to walk though.” *Jo shrugs a shoulder, fiddling with her jacket buttons*

<Anna> “Why do I have to walk?”

<Jo> “Well, someone blasted a shot gun round through my car window and they’re not being exactly quick at getting it fixed.”

<Anna> “Oh well, I have coffee here, I’ll just stay in where it’s warm.”

<Jo> “…You don’t have cake do you?”

<Anna> “Yes, I make pancakes sometimes.”

<Jo> “Fine, I’ll just bring some stuff around 'nd make my own.”

<Anna> “Alright but I don’t have fire insurance.”

<Jo> “Ah ha, I’m good in a kitchen. You can ask anyone. Except my mom. I’ll be around soonish then.”

<Anna> “The door will be unlocked.”

<Jo> *Jo hangs up and stuffs a few things into a plastic bag before heading out, glad to have already thrown on her jacket and scarf thinking they were going somewhere else. It takes a while to walk, but when she gets there she just heads in and straight towards the fridge* “Please tell me you have better than my coffee at least. I ran out of filters yesterday.”

<Anna> *Anna has the heat up for Jo as she comes in and makes a bit of a face as Jo tracks snow across the floor.* “I have some stuff from the local coffee shop down the road and I have some of that necter sweetner instead of sugar.”

<Jo> “Anything better than instant is good with me. Though that’s awesome.” *Jo kicks her shoes back towards the door as she pulls her coat and scarf off, throwing them over the back of one of the small chairs after digging out Anna’s milk, eggs and butter* “You got any particular allergies to anythin’, Anna?”

<Anna> “No, not that I know off. Do you? Is there anything I should not buy when we are out together?” *Anna takes a mop and quickly cleans up the floor before throwing a towel infront of the door to block the draft coming under it.*

<Jo> *Jo bites down a smirk at Anna’s cleaning as she unpacks her own mmixing bowls, meausring jugs and other utensils, before starting to measure out from eggs and butter before pausing* “Where’s the flour? And no I don’t, I’ll eat basically anything. The more meat the better. Or sugar. One or other.”

<Anna> *Anna chokes as is Jo makes a comment about eating meat and sort of blushes.* “I’m sure, you do and flour is to your left, top of the cabinet in the white container.”

<Jo> “…What? What the heck were you just thinking?” *Jo gives Anna’s flush a curious glance, though her lips quirk up in the hint of a smirk as she’s certain she could guess. Turning to grab the container, struggling for a second to grab it out before spinning back around to continue adding vanilla essence and a mixing up some buttermilk before mixing together, feeling about in her bag for something*

<Anna> “I wasn’t thinking anything..” *Anna leans back against the counter not being used as she watches Jo with a bit of a raised brow.* “You are far more domestic than I would have pictured you.”

<Jo> “Uh huh, then what was the blush about, Anna dear?” *Smirking still, Jo gets the limes she was after out, quickly grating the rinds into the mix* “In pretty much this one and only way.” *Finishing the batter, she grabs four spoons out of the cutlery drawer before offering two out to Anna as she gets the baking tray and cupcake liners ready* “Help me with this?”

<Anna> *Anna shakes her head* “I’m not blushing about anything!” *Taking the cupcake liners she turns around starting to seperate them out and lay them out in rows.* “So did you learn this from your mom? Did she bake for all the other hunters?”

<Jo> “Mhmm, you sure Anna? You /sure/?” *Chuckling, Jo quickly squeezes and mixes in one of the limes’ juice to the batter before begining to spoon in to the liners, leaving two of the spoons for Anna to join in* “Mom cooked for them all, but I’m not the greatest chef about the place. I always had a sweet tooth so she showed me the ropes as a kid and I’d bake while she made more substantial things.”

<Anna> “I’m totally sure. You’re the one talking about how you like your meat.” *Anna smirks as she dips a finger in the bowl quickly, tasting the batter as Jo measures it out in the cups.* “I’ve never met your mother right?” Did d she know about us?“

<Jo> "Oh that’s what that was about? Well, I am a fan of a nice piece'a meat..” *Smiling, Jo whacks the others fingers when she goes for another taste, topping up each of the cupcakes until the batter was gone other than the remainder around the edges of the bowl. Pushing it and the spoons across to Anna, Jo sprinkles a tiny bit of salt on top of each cupcake before slipping them into the oven, and sucks her fingers off* “You have actually, though she’s spending most of her time down with Bobby these days. She knew, she didn’t really approve but she doesn’t approve of a lot of things.”

<Anna> *Anna yelps as Jo whacks her fingers but then takes the bowl, licking the spoon as she shakes her head.* “Well as long as you keep your meat out of the cupcakes we are good.” *Putting the spoon the sink she runs a finger around teh bowl.* “So your mother and Bobby are a couple?”

<Jo> *Snickering, Jo turns to Anna’s cupboards and grabs another bowl for her to start the frosting* “I don’t think I would ever try to mix my two favourite things like that. …I..don’t know? Sure? They’re my mom and Bobby. They’ll let me know if anything turns serious; so I’m expecting a call any day now.” *She laughs, smiling as she mixes some butter with the icing sugar before grabbing out the bottle of tequilla from her bag*

<Anna> *Anna raises a brow as Jo get the tequilla out of the bag obviously intending it to go into the icing.* “So then your totally cool with the idea of your mom and Bobby..ya know..doing it.” *Turning around she turns on the water and begins washing the bowls so that there isn’t anything piline up.* “I guess that’s cool that you would like your step dad if they ever get married.”

<Jo> *Measuring out a little more than she thinks the reciepe quite calls for, Jo continues to beat and mix the mix as she turns to watch the other, pulling a slightly face and pausing for a sip of the drink for herself* “I’d rather not /think/ about it, but.. Bobby’s a good guy. He’s always treated me and Mom well and its not like I couldn’t have seen it comin’ eventually.”

<Anna> *Anna laughs watching Jo take a drink as she talks about marriage and step dads.* “Well still it’s good that she’s happy. How would Bobby feel about having Grey as a step son-in-law with him being a monster and all?”

<Jo> *Jo almost drops the bowl, her grip slipping for a second and catching it only at the last second as she spins back around to face the other way as she starts whisking again at double the speed* “I just want Mom to be happy, she deserves it these days…” *She studiously avoids commenting on the other’s question, flushing brightly*

<Anna> *Anna raises a brow as she dries her hands off from washing the dishes, Jo’s usually not clumsy and she sort of smirks.* “Everyone should be, I’m sore Bobby and Grey will get a long well.”

<Jo> *Setting the bowl down, Jo takes another mouthful from the tequilla bottle, hissing slightly at the taste more than the burn* “First time they met Bobby shot Grey. Course, first time my Mom met Grey she also shot /at/ him. ….Mom’d have the same issue as Bobby, probably more, about what Grey was - Bobby…was..well, he’d be a bit of a hypocrite to be angry about me bein’ with one.” *Shrugging, Jo starts to mix up the icing again, getting the mix slowly but surely more light and fluffy* “Though I don’t think they’d be ending up with any son-in-law’s at any point.”

<Anna> “Too bad, I was just thinking that with all the shootings as first meetings we could do a double shotgun themed wedding. It would be cute and I’ve helped with other weddings at my parent’s church so I could organize it.” *Anna reaches over trying to get a taste of the icing as she watches Jo.*

<Jo> “I.. …Last time this ever got mentioned, it was well known I’d be the one with a shotgun on them, and I don’t think that’s the greatest…idea. Things are just..” *Jo sighs, not stopping Anna from stealing a taste before squeezing in some of the lime juice and sprinkling in a fair two pinches of salt* “Things aren’t exactly normal, right now.”

<Anna> “Things not being normal is an understatement but as long as things have a chance to become normal then there is hope.” *Anna smiles at Jo as she takes a glass and pours herself a shot of the alcohol.* “I think it would be worth it just to see you all dressed up like a girl for once anyway.”

<Jo> “Well, I have plans. Hopefully..” *Jo pulls a face at Anna, taking the bottle back and swigging a mouthful before setting it back down again* “Next time, I’m going to wear a dress over here. Get your girly fantasies of seeing me all pretty for you out of the way.”

<Anna> *Anna snorts* “You don’t have too make a special effort on my part.” *She wonders if Jo’s going to be sober by the time the cupcakes get done.* “So besides baking and shooting things what else do you do?”

<Jo> *Measuring out a small cup of the liqiud, Jo sets it to the side as she starts to mix up the icing again carefully folding in some of the lime rind but keeps a quarter of it untouched* “Oh no no, much easier for me to wow you with my feminine charms without going through all the trouble of organising a wedding. …I mostly do research, help out other hunters, keep tabs on the bar. Work on making new weapons and such if I’m bored, build some things sometimes, work on my car and watch tv or movies mostly.”

<Anna> “Wow, you really are a tomboy.” *Anna chuckles as she steals another taste of the icing, licking it off her fingers.* “We could go out shopping at some point, there are a couple of malls it looks like or maybe catch a movie. I’m not sure how good I would be at building weapons.”

<Jo> “At least you’re not callin’ me butch.” *Jo laughs, watching Anna before just holding the whisk out to the other woman instead as the timer on her phone goes off and she checks the cupcakes, smiling when they’re the right amount of springy to the touch* “Neither of those sound like a bad idea. Except for the weapon work, I’m not letting you near my workspace. But a movie or shopping could be fun.”

<Anna> *Taking the whisk she happily takes care of the icing as she smirks at Jo, watching the blond woman happily cook away.* “Just don’t park the car next to it and I’m sure everything would be fine.” *Steping out of Jo’s reach she turns to wash the whisk once the icing is gone.*

<Jo> *Jo makes a sharp noise at the joke, shooting the other a dirty look as she begins to brush a small amount of the alcohol over the top of each of the cupcakes until the cup she’d set to the side was empty* “Like I say, shopping or a movie. Probably much less dangerous for /everyone/.” *Smirking back at the other, Jo leans against the counter setting another alarm for when she can start icing*

<Anna> “It was just one shot and I didn’t even hurt the car that bad, it was a flesh wound.” *Anna teases her more and she grabs another drink, the tequila burning going down.* “Let me guess if we go shopping, we have to go to the gun store after the shoe store right?”

<Jo> “I guess I’m going to go ahead and paint it black with just a /hint/ of red next time then?” *Jo snickers back, continuously pressing at the top of one of the cupcakes before going to start making up her typical DIY piping bags* “Nah, I have a guy I go to for most of mine, or at least the ones I care about. Make most of my own salt rounds and order the silver and iron from him; so no gun stores necessary. …Might need to go to the comic shop or game store though, I’m trying to understand what the hell Harry goes on about more.”

<Anna> “Oh! I found the gun I want, I bet you could modify it. I was looking online and there’s one that’s pink with Hello Kitty on it and another that’s purple with a unicorn.” *Anna is saying this with a totally straight face as she watches Jo make her own piping bags, remembering her mother doing the same.* “Harry once spent a whole afternoon explaining the mechanics of a game, not sure what it was.*

<Jo> *Jo blinks back at Anna, face twisting into a horrified and disgusted look as she tries to invision that such a thing exists before shaking her head* "Ah ha, no. But yeah, Harry’s strange. And Grey used to play a lot of video games though..I don’t know, I haven’t spotted him doing it recently but I figure its easier to learn in advance.” *Setting down the bag, she starts to cut the lime with rind into little wedges for decorating*

<Anna> *Anna bursts out into laughter at Jo’s expression as she describes the guns she saw online and she spares Jo the girly looking protection gear she saw as well.* “Those two seem like they would get a long really well, Harry really likes his games and comic books, he once spent a whole shift giving me a lecture of Marvel vs DC.”

<Jo> “Trust me, they do. Swear its like watching two teenagers, except they have very stupid thoughts that Spiderman and Iron Man are better than Batman.” *She can’t help but snicker to herself, knowing exactly what that lecture sounds like after several rounds of it with the geeky researcher. Feeling the top of the cupcakes again, she decides to just ignore her timer and start piping out icing*

<Anna> “Oh lord you are one of them too.” *Anna grins as she tries to make a grab for the first cupcake Jo finishes.* “How did Harry get into this life, he seems so far removed from someone who would be a hunter.” *Pausing she looks at Jo.* “He is human right?”

<Jo> “You thought any differently?” *Jo lets out a laugh, giggling to herself as she smacks Anna’s hand before studding the top of the icing swirl with a small slice of lime and then handing it over* “Harry’s definitely human. He and his friends were always into ghosts and they…did, you know those reality ghost hunting tv shows? They were doing one. But..online and not really popular.”

<Anna> “And just when I thought he couldn’t get any more of a geek.” *Anna takes the lime off that Jo put on there and sets it aside as she peels the paper off the cupcake and takes a bit. It’s really good even though she’s surpised how much it tastes like the drink.* “This is good Jo!”

<Jo> “Yeah well, he didn’t really appreciate my calling him and his friends hackjobs the first time we talked, but he’s actually pretty good at this stuff. Guess it sort of appeals to the geeky side, right?” *Smiling at the other’s reaction, Jo continues to make up the rest, putting a sliver of lime rind on some while wedges on others and sprinkling a small bit of salt ontop each* “Yeah? Well, I have had a lot of practice. Should have asked what you like first but..I had the stuff for these ones.”

<Anna> *Anna doesn’t say anything else till the cupcake is gone and she’s licking her fingers.* “Next time strawberry maybe?” *She’s relaxed and she’s really enjoyed just hanging out with Jo lately, it’s nice to have a friend again.* “Oh maybe chocolate with cherries and rum.”

<Jo> *Scrunching up the baking paper piping bag as she finishes, Jo smiles back at Anna as she tosses the sheet in the trash before picking up a cupcake herself* “I could do that. I’ve been trying to make a cherry cola rum one but haven’t quite got the right amount of cherry to cola yet. Though chocolate would probably be easier, actually.”

<Anna> “Oh chocolate and strawberries, that would be so good.” *Anna thinks the colo and cherries sounds good too.* “I’ll help you test out any thing you want to try, you can use my kitchen anytime. If you ever get out of hunting, you should open a bakery.”

<Jo> “I think you and Grey are going to be fighting over my baking now.” *Laughing, Jo makes her way through her cupcake, holding the wedge of lime in one hand as she licks up the icing before squeezing the juice over the top of the cake and eating the rest* “We’ll if we do go shopping, can always come back and try out some things after. …A bakery? That’s..a funny mental image, Anna, gotta admit.”

<Anna> “I think you could do an amazing business, do it after hours, serve these with the drink they match. And Grey can bite me, I call dibs on anything you bake.” *Anna takes the lime wedge and squeezes it onto the cake part before biting into it.*

<Jo> “Next thing you know, Harry’ll hustle in and try to get me to make themed cupcakes for things like new movies or DnD stuff.” *She chokes on a laugh at Anna saying Grey can bite her, coughing as she takes a mouthful of her own cake as she has the mental image* “I think he might have already, but you’re welcome to battle it out. Or I’ll just make seperate batches for each of you!”

<Anna> *Anna’s head snaps up as Jo says Grey already has and she has a look of panic on ehr face.* “Wait, please tell me that we haven’t he..Grey, your Grey and I ..oh my God I am the town bicycle. Did Harry and I? I thought it was just you and Gray, my Gray..” *Anna reaches for whats left in the bottle.*

<Jo> *Jo stares back at Anna before collapsing into laughing again, holding out a hand* “No! No no no! I meant he already called dibs! You’ve only been with me and your monster, and Dean but I didn’t know back then.” *She shakes her head, trying not to flush as she tries to think about any of what Anna suggested*

<Anna> “Oh thank heavens..I..just I am not like that!” *Anna blushes as Jo is laughing at her and she thinks this is karma for the car.* “You could have just said that he called dibs..”

<Jo> *Jo shrugs, still laughing to herself before her phone goes off. Looking at it confusedly and realising it was a call from a different hunter, she steals another cupcake and packs up her things - still joking with Anna and promising they’ll work out another day to hang out soon - Jo heads off towards the bar to make sure the book needed was ready for the other before heading home again*

#yay chatlogs

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avengers-nextgen · 5 years

Text

Noctis II

“Where’s your brother?” Loki asked, following Sage about the tower and activating the defenses.

“I don’t know,” Sage shrugged, recalling Scout’s instructions on the appropriate pin to enter in the controls. If she was off by a number she could very well be zapped to death by a hidden gun in the ceiling.

“What do you mean you don’t know?” Loki frowned.

“I mean what I said,” Sage replied, pressing the series of numbers with care. “We aren’t on speaking terms. It was his decision not mine and I’m not going to get into his business if he doesn’t want me too.”

“Let me talk to him then,” Loki decided.

“Don’t bother,” Sage frowned, “everyone’s been trying to. He won’t listen. Frankly it’s better this way.”

“What? You can’t say that. He depends on you!” Loki scoffed, matching his daughter’s stride as she made her way to another control panel.

“He’s not a little boy anymore. He can take care of himself,” Sage grumbled. “Just, drop it okay?”

— — —

“What’s going on out there?” Max questioned, looking anxiously about their cell.

“Something bad,” Enzo explained, pacing back and forth. “I can’t quite explain what the threat is but I’m worried. The way my dad talked about this goddess or something makes it seem like we’re about to enter some dooms day scenario.”

“That’s...not reassuring at all,” Max swallowed tightly, their skin covered in a thin nervous sweat.

“Right now the tension is in the waiting. We can’t do much until something happens,” Enzo sighed, “but even that scares me. Because what if that something is bad?”

“I wish I could offer some words of comfort but frankly I’m a bit terrified too,” Max croaked, seemingly able to sense the shift in the atmosphere.

“Hey, it’ll be okay,” Enzo promised, leaning against the bars to watch his friend. “I mean, maybe something goes wrong, but at lease this place is armed to the max-pun not intended-and we’re surrounded by supers. If anything we’re better off than everyone out there.”

“That’s what worries me,” Max groaned, “and you can think I’m stupid for this but I’m worried about my parents. Yeah, they suck, but they’re my family. I don’t want something horrific to happen to them. That’s not fair.”

“Listen,” Enzo reached through the bars to grasp Max by the shoulder, “I get it. My family is complicated too. But I don’t think they’ll be the target. We will. We’re the threat and as long as you don’t go to them they should be okay.”

“You’re right,” Max nodded. “Thanks. It’s unnerving not knowing what’s going on outside, you know? If you didn’t tell me these things I don’t know how sane I’d be.”

“What are friends for?” Enzo arched a brow. “I got you pal.”

— — —

“Alright, time to read up on my Norse mythology,” Scout huffed, slamming a stack of books on his desk.

“Which do you want?” Chloe asked, gesturing to a rather large leatherback book and it’s equally large counterpart.

“Does it honestly matter?” Scout whined.

“No, but I was hoping to make things less daunting,” Chloe smiled sympathetically. Both selected a book and sat down to read as fast as they possibly could.

“Notebooks and pens,” Nathaniel called, entering Scout’s room with his arms loaded. “Didn’t know how much of these you’d need so I raided a lot of the desks.”

“Thanks,” Scout smiled. “Got any gum? Preferably mint? It stimulates the mind.”

“Really? Cause I chew this all the time and I am not getting any smarter,” Nathaniel snorted, tossing the whole pack to his young friend.

“Can I help?” Penny asked, hesitantly interrupting.

“Uh...I don’t know if easing is uhm...”Scout winced trying to find a way to say as nicely as possible that perhaps this wasn’t suited for her.

“Oh, right,” Penny nodded. “Gotcha.”

“Actually,” Chloe mumbled, “you’re pretty okay at surfing the web right? Not Fox levels of good but pretty good?”

“I think so,” Penny nodded.

“Great, then I need you to look up as many news articles as possible and record what’s happening around the world. Get Arthur to help you,” Chloe instructed.

“Aye aye, captain!” Saluting, Penny ran from the room in search of the other twin.

— — —

“I really shouldn’t have ignored those maintenance messages,” Tony sighed, looking at all of the defense system statistics to realize that many were in separate need of recalibration.

“You think?” Pepper arched a brow.

“He’s got help,” Piper promised, nodding to Gen, Hope, and Orion. “Well, I don’t know so much about green bean-“

“I know enough about mechanics to maintain my own ship thank you very much. At least, before it was blow up,” Orion glowered.

“Right,” Tony nodded, “okay then. We have work to do people. We need to get this tower primed and ready for anything that comes our way. I doubt it’ll be effective from what asgardian doctor doomsday says but it’s worth a shot. Pipes you and Gen cover the third and fourth floors. Hope, you can handle the fifth and second-it requires small sizes. Orion, you’re with me and we have whatever is left.”

“Sounds good,” Gen grinned. “Got any tools?”

“Kid, I have the largest arsenal of mechanical supplies in history. Of course I have tools,” Tony scoffed, flicking a switch on his desk.

The back of his lab opened up to reveal an array of items covering the wall from floor to ceiling. “Pick whatever your heart desires.”

“How did I not know this was here?” Piper stammered, eyes wide and alight with both excitement and wonder.

— — —

“Let me help,” Bianca insisted.

“There’s not much you can do right now to help with this,” Bucky’s expression turned to one of sympathy. He and Steve were currently lifting boxes of emergency supplies down from storage.

“Well, I need to do something. I’m not just going to sit here,” Bianca frowned.

“Great,” Alex huffed, “because I need someone who has an eye for weapons to help me out with these.”

The blonde held up two large guns that looked old and unused. Well, the tech was new, but they clearly hadn’t been touched in some time. Smiling hopefully, Alex watched as Bianca’s expression softened.

“Okay, I’m in,” Bianca nodded.

“Thanks, I was worried I’d shoot my toe off,” Alex sighed. She followed Bianca down the hall to the weaponry. Alex has never really bothered going in there but the place was massive and well stocked with all sorts of equipment. “Wow. This place is huge.”

“I know,” Bianca smiled faintly, “now, what are we working with?”

Alex passed over the first gun with care. Bianca turned it over slowly inspecting it with an intense gaze. “Seems my programming might help after all. All guns have the same basic makeup. Once you know that you can handle almost anything.”

“Mind teaching me how to do this?” Alex asked.

“Sure,” Bianca nodded.

— — —

“Woah woah woah!” Peter waved his arms about as the hangar opened and a large looming aircraft descended. “Who the hell are you? This place is shut down. No visitors allowed. So turn around and go on back to your nice little hangar somewhere else. Okay? Don’t make me-“

“Shut the fuck up Quill,” Siyanda gave the man a stone cold look as she headed down the ramp. “I’m here to help.”

“Oh....”Peter winced, “my bad. We’re cool. No worries at all.”

Rolling her eyes, Siyanda left him to feel like an idiot for the time being. On her flight in she’d noticed how off everything was. The entirety of her trip had only made her anxiety worsen and her fears of what was to come escalate.

Tromping through the rest of that hangar she didn’t bother to wait for the elevator and instead marched up the stairs two at a time. Already, she could tell the entire place was buzzing with activity. It was like someone had flipped a switch demanding everyone do something important.

As if to confirm her suspicions, arriving on the ground floor was like walking into Costco on a Saturday. Weaving through the mass of people, the princess really only wanted to see one person at the moment. Finding that person took impossibly long.

Eventually, Si found Thalia lugging some large black case through the living room. The blonde didn’t notice her at first until she’d settled the case on the floor beside a few others. That’s when she was enveloped by a bone crushing hug.

“Si?” Thalia breathed, looking like an excited puppy. “You’re here! How was it? Are you queen now? What was it like? Did you get to-“

Thalia’s rambling was only silenced by an earnest kiss. Forgetting her next series of questions, she was more than happy to kiss Siyanda back.

“Okay, no love making in the living room,” Tony shivered in mock disgust as he passed by them. Siyanda only glared at the man.

“I’ll answer all your questions later, but now I need to know what’s going on here,” Siyanda worried.

“No one’s too sure what it is exactly but my uncle had some form of an explanation. It’s not quick-“

“I have time,” Siyanda assured.

“Okay. Come on, I don’t want to get in anyone’s way.” Thalia took Siyanda by the hand and pulled her off to her room.

Meanwhile everyone else was struggling to form some shape of defense to stand against a threat they didn’t know.

#avengers #avengers next gen #marvel #mcu #black widow #captain america #natasha romanoff #pepper potts #romanogers #scarlet witch #noctis #phase4

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crypticbeliever123 · 6 years

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Chapter 5 of my TMNT fic. Please let me know what you think of it!

So far, this night was going great. His brothers just caught him, taking down Triple Threats. He’s still not sure if they saw him take that Firebender’s Bending from him or not but he sure as hell hoped they didn’t, especially since it sounded like they were calling in Master Splinter for backup. Great. As if three mutant Benders weren’t enough trouble, now he was going to have the Avatar showing up to arrest him or something. Could this night get any worse?

Just as he leaps across to another roof Leo sends a small amount of water out from a pouch on his belt, freezing it under his step to trip him up. Mikey uses a gust of air to propel himself ahead of his path while Leo and Donnie surround him from behind.

“It’s over Nightwatcher. Just stand down and no one gets hurt,” Leo ordered as he and his brothers gathered their elements, preparing to fight if needed.

“I don’t want to hurt nobody. I’m just trying to keep this city safe from scum like the Triple Threats.”

“By taking away their Bending?” Leo retorted.

Damn. They did see that part. That’s going to cause a whole lot of problems.

Then the Republic City Police chopper appears overhead with a searchlight aimed at him. The cops rappel down to the roof as Master Splinter descends with a burst of air to slow his descent.

As will this.

The police force prepared to restrain him with metal cords, but Splinter raised a hand; a silent gesture to ask for a bit of time to talk. Tang Shen nodded toward Splinter, a sign of respect for his judgment and hope that he can end this without needless violence. She then nodded to her officers to order a stand-off. Splinter then looked to his three sons with a look of disappointment.

“I will deal with you three later.”

“Aw man! I told you he was going to take over!” Mikey complained.

“Mikey!” his two brothers yelled at him as this was clearly not a time to be complaining.

Splinter returned his attentions toward the Nightwatcher, unaware that he was looking at the fourth of his sons.

“So, you are the Nightwatcher?” Master Splinter asked.

“That’s just the dumb name your cop friends gave me. I don’t call myself that.”

“Then what do you call yourself?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know.”

Splinter’s gaze turns to the vigilante’s hands.

“Three fingers. So, you are a mutant then. Fascinating. And surprising considering what I have heard of you.”

“Oh yeah? What have you heard then that’s so surprising?”

“I hear you are a talented Firebender. One prodigious enough to wield a blue flame and who has mastered a skill only known to one other Bender. It puzzles me how you could have so much in common with the Shredder when he-”

“I’M NOTHING LIKE THE SHREDDER!”

“And yet you have just as ferocious a temper as he does,” Splinter replied, enraging Raph enough that he ignites his fists with blue flame in anger at the comparison.

The officers seem to tense and ready themselves for action just as Splinter himself does, subtly shifting his feet to a better fighting stance. Raph takes a deep breath and his flames soften to a warm orange tone as he exhales the remaining heat past the holes of his mask in a white flame.

“Hm. Perhaps I was wrong. Saki has never been able to control his anger as you have. Nor have I ever seen him wield a white flame before. You are a gifted Bender. Of this I have no doubt. But what you are using it for, stealing the Bending of others is nothing short of a crime and I must insist that you surrender quietly. There need not be any violence tonight.”

“You’re right. There doesn’t need to be any violence. So why don’t you all just walk away and let me go? I ain’t hurting anyone who don’t deserve it. And the worst I do to someone is sever their chi so they can’t Bend no more. Considering what they were doing with it I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. So why should I have to go to jail for trying to stop them when they can just keep getting away with what they’re doing?”

“I see. Well I am sorry to hear you feel that way,” Splinter replied, nodding to signal the cops that they could act now.

Tang Shen and her fellow officers threw metal cords at Raph, tangling his arms and legs. They pulled his legs back to force him into a kneeling position as two of the others pulled his arms to his side, completely immobilizing him. Splinter stepped forward only to be stopped by Donnie.

“Careful, father. He’s more capable than he looks.”

Raph gave a little chuckle at that as his fingers twitched with electrical energy.

“He’s right.”

He then grabbed the metal cords that were holding his arms and zapped the cops to release him before twisting around to blast at the ones who restrained his legs. As soon as his limbs were free he got back to his feet and found himself being charged at by Splinter. Splinter attempted to strike him at precise points to immobilize him by disrupting his chi but was shocked when they had minimal effect, only causing him to flinch as he kept complete control over his own chi’s flow quite well through his Bending capabilities. Nightwatcher took advantage of Splinter’s surprise at his ability to overcome chi-blocking, by giving him a roundhouse kick before blasting out a ring of bright white fire around himself to keep the others at bay and melt the metal the police sent his way.

“Didn’t see that one coming, did ya?” Raph smirked before Bending a column of lightning as he drew the white flames back in on himself, creating a loud crack like thunder and an intense, blinding light.

“Whoooooooa! What was that?!” Mikey exclaimed in shock.

“He’s gone,” Leo replied.

“He just disappeared,” gasp, “Like magic!”

“Mikey, he did not disappear using magic. It’s just simple misdirection. You know like magicians do. He can’t have gotten far,” Donnie replied.

“Pfft, you say it wasn’t magic but then you go talking about magicians? Make up your mind, bro.”

“Ugh!” Donnie groaned as he facepalmed hard.

“Father? Is everything alright?” Leo asked Splinter as he noticed the pensive look on his face.

“This Nightwatcher is powerful, possibly even more powerful than the Shredder. Possibly. It seems strange to me that he could possess skills that previously only the Shredder was thought to be capable of when a mutant such as him would sooner be killed by the Shredder rather than taught by him.”

“Which raises the question, how did he figure out the same technique as the Shredder and are they connected somehow?”

“They do seem to have quite a few things in common. But the police and I can focus on uncovering this mystery later,” Splinter said, turning to face his sons.

“Right now, I would like to know what you three were thinking?!” he roared.

“It’s my fault Master Splinter. We used a listening device to eavesdrop on your meeting with Chief Shen and figured out that the pattern might’ve been wrong. It was my idea to go check the Southern District for the Nightwatcher without telling you. I’m sorry, Master,” Leo answered with a bow.

“I see. And what of your other brother Raphael? You said you did not know where he is and I see that he is not with you.”

“Raph didn’t want to get involved in this. I’m assuming he went out for dinner with some friends of his.”

“Raph has friends?!” Mikey asked before being slapped on the back of the head by Donnie.

“Ow!”

*sigh* “I am just glad that none of you were hurt… or stripped of your Bending.”

“Actually he didn’t seem to want to fight us at all. He just took off running when we confronted him and didn’t even use his Bending until you showed up comparing him to Shredder,” Donnie mentioned.

“Nevertheless, I do not want you risking yourselves like this again. We are all going home this instant and you are not to go after the Nightwatcher again. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Master Splinter,” the three turtles said in unison.

“Excellent. Now, let’s just hope that Raphael is there already so that I do not have to ground him as well.”

“Grounded?! You never said we were grounded!” Mikey complained.

“I thought that was obvious. Two weeks, no TV, video games, comic books, or electronics of any kind. If you behave yourselves I may still allow you to attend that Pro-Bending match you are so eager to watch… with me accompanying to keep you out of trouble of course.”

“We’ll be good! I swear! Right guys?” Mikey replied, really anxious about possibly losing the chance to see his favorite Pro-Bending team in action Friday.

“Yeah and who knows? Maybe Raph will change his mind about coming with.”

“Somehow I doubt that,” Leo replied with a knowing smirk.

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setepenre-set · 6 years

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Temptress (Roxanne) chapter 4

Megamind/Roxanne, M rating

sequel to Temptress

The story of how Roxanne Ritchi became the supervillain known as the Temptress, her relationship with the superhero Megamind, and her eventual reclamation of herself.

AO3 | FFN

chapter 1 | chapter 2 | chapter 3

Roxanne makes her plans in the attic, and in the apartment downstairs. Learns exactly what kind of mayhem she’ll need to cause to get herself classified as a Level One Threat, as a supervillain, plots out how to make it happen.

She keeps books in the attic, and the food that she steals—cans, mostly, and other things that don’t go bad. Blankets, pillows, cushions.

She steals houseplants, sets them up underneath the little octagonal window, where the slats let the sunlight through during the day, waters them faithfully, fusses over them, moving them around to catch the most sun possible. Most of them remain small and sickly, in spite of all she can do, but one of them, a large, spiky succulent, thrives against all reason in the dim little attic, growing green and verdant.

Sometimes she talks to the person who drew on the walls. She can almost feel them beside her, sometimes, when she’s examining the diagrams.

Sometimes, she can almost see them. Out of the corner of her eye, but not—she knows that they’re not there. Not really.

(She talks to them anyway, though, pretending.)

The wall drawings are ingenious, and really her greatest bit of luck since finding the library apartment. The things on the walls—robots and laser guns and—

“Were you a supervillain?” Roxanne asks, not turning her head, looking at the diagram for the gun. “Is that what all this is?”

She builds the gun.

It’s not exactly the same; she doesn’t have the proper power source that the diagram calls for. She actually has no idea what the power source in the diagram even is—but she experiments and substitutes and finally she comes up with something that’s—

“Dangerous,” Roxanne murmurs, caressing the gun. “Very dangerous.”

She can’t get all of the settings on the diagram to work; her gun only has three that function—zap, which hurts and knocks over small objects; stun, which hurts, paralyses you for about ten minutes, knocks over large objects and sends small ones flying; and destroy, which makes things explode in a really gratifying violent manner.

Roxanne practices with the gun, and she practices with her powers. They didn’t work on Metro Man last time, but they almost worked, she felt it. So if she builds them up enough…

Supervillainy—studying the supervillains in the library books, Roxanne comes to realize that the—the presentation of the villainy is as important as the actual villainy itself.

Maybe even more important. A supervillain has costumes, a title—it’s almost theatrical.

In the tarnished bathroom mirror of the library apartment, Roxanne teaches herself to put on makeup. Red lipstick, crimson bright like freshly spilled blood—red is a particularly unforgiving color; she uses up nearly an entire tube of it before she figures out how to put it on without smudging or going outside the lines of her lips or getting it on her teeth. Dark eye makeup—mascara is such a pain, always leaving little specks of black on her cheeks, and liquid eyeliner is even more unforgiving than red lipstick.

She cuts her hair short. Not shaved off, like it was in the lab, but pixie-cut short. Harder for anyone to grab a handful of it. And with it short like that, she can pass for a boy, if the light is dim and she wears a lot of clothes and no makeup.

Roxanne gets a wig, gets several wigs, experiments with trying to make herself look like different people—older, younger, blonde, red-head, studious and bespectacled or school girlishly sweet, pale and wispy or, with the help of bronzer, deeply tanned.

She stays in the library like that for four and a half months, planning, and slowly her reflection in the mirror starts to look a little less skinny and bedraggled and hunted, her eyes a little less sunken and haunted.

Roxanne sees the night visitor for the first time in the second month.

She’s standing next to a bookshelf, running her eyes over the spines, looking for a particular title when she hears—

footsteps.

Someone here, someone in the library, someone—

Roxanne draws deeper into the shadows, hides behind the shelf, and she hears the footsteps coming closer—closer—and then they veer off slightly to the right.

Then everything is quiet for what seems to Roxanne like an eternity.

(who is it; who could be here; what are they doing here)

Finally she can’t stand it any longer; she has to look.

As silently as she can, Roxanne slips between the aisles, wending her way towards where the footsteps went. She stops behind a shelf and dares to peer around it, trying to see—

—a person is standing there, in the romance section, right next to that poster of the lighthouse in a storm.

A person, but the proportions are wrong, the head is too large and his skin—Roxanne squints in the dim light of the library.

Blue.

His skin is blue.

He doesn’t seem to realize he’s being watched, which is fortunate, because in her fascination, Roxanne fails to slip back behind her shelf. She stares.

While she stares, he puts a book back on the shelf, sighs, and rubs a hand over his face.

Is he tired? No—no, not tired, the set of his shoulders is wrong for that, too stiffly held. The gesture isn’t tired it’s—unhappy?

He drops his hand and looks over the books, stroking his fingertips over the spines. He pulls one out and turns it over to read the back, gives a minute shake of his head, and returns it to the shelf, pulls out another one.

Finally he seems to find a book that he likes. He flips it open and reads a few pages of it, then closes it and starts to turn.

Roxanne dodges quickly into another aisle as he moves down the line of books. His footsteps fade into the distance, and, after a while, she hears the sound of the library doors closing.

He comes back periodically after that, returning books, picking out another. Always that section. Sometimes he’ll go weeks without returning; other times he’ll come several days in a row.

Roxanne probably should find his visits a source of annoyance; they’re certainly inconvenient, but—she feels a strange kind of kinship to him.

He’s—real, more real than the ghost of whoever wrote on the attic walls.

She starts hiding near the romance section for a bit of time each night, hoping he’ll come.

She keeps a tight leash on her powers whenever he’s there, but she can never quite get them to turn off completely. If he feels them, though, it must be a very mild compulsion, easily dismissed from his mind.

Roxanne takes to reading the books he returns. There had been very few books in the lab, and she hadn’t often been allowed to read them; they’d frequently been withheld from her as punishment. The first novel she reads, after escaping, is one the night visitor puts back—Shy Violet.

(she would have thought she’d hate to read romance, but she devours them. it’s not like—the books aren’t like her powers. they’re—real, in spite of being fiction, real in a way that her powers aren’t.)

(I want that, she thinks, and pushes the thought aside.)

The second time Roxanne faces Metro Man, she does it as the Temptress, and when she uses her powers on him—

It works.

The jewel robbery goes off without a hitch. Metro Man gazes at her adoringly as she walks away wearing a fortune in jewels, a scarlet lipstick print on his cheek, her calling card.

Later, Roxanne looks at the shining gems, spread out on the ragged blankets she sleeps on, and laughs until she cries.

She falls asleep crying.

The seventh time the Temptress faces Metro Man, she doesn’t actually face him at all.

“—it’s you,” Roxanne blurts out, staring stupidly at the blue-skinned figure dressed all in black, holding a ray gun identical to the one drawn on her attic walls.

He looks confused, and then there’s a flash of blue light.

She wakes up when they rehydrate her in the prison.

(she breaks out in eighteen hours)

(when she gets back to her attic at the library, she looks at the wall with the ray gun blueprints, and she laughs until she sobs.)

Is everyone’s life like this?

Does the universe throw this kind of cruel irony at everyone, or is it just Roxanne?

Her attic ghost and her library visitor are the same person, and they’re not a supervillain at all, they’re a fucking superhero. Hers. Her fucking superhero.

(Megamind. Megamind. His name is Megamind.)

The next time he comes to the library at night, she watches him pick out a book, and she does not try to use her powers on him, and she does not attack. When he’s gone, she picks up the book he left behind and sits on the floor in front of the lighthouse poster. She doesn’t read the book, just curls up into a miserable huddled ball.

The second time that the Temptress faces Megamind, she’s prepared, and she has time to use her powers.

They don’t work on him.

They don’t work on him the third time she faces him; they don’t work on the fourth time; they don’t work on the fifth.

They work on Metro Man; they even work, after a fashion, on Megamind’s sidekick, who’s a fish in a robot suit, for god’s sake.

But they don’t work on Megamind.

The sixth time they don’t work on him is when Roxanne realizes that they actually don’t work on him at all. No matter how hard she hits him with them. No effect.

She overtaxes her powers badly, that time, ends up in the prison for a day and a half. When she gets home, she takes a bath in the apartment bathtub, the water as hot as the creaky old pipes will produce.

They don’t work on him. Her powers don’t work on him. Of all the people.

The universe hates her, Roxanne decides. It’s playing with her, torturing her like a cat with a mouse.

...to be continued.

Happy day 10 of my Birthday Fic Month! Thank you all so much for continuing to read, reblog, and comment on my stories; it really means a lot to me, and makes me so happy!

#megamind #megamind/roxanne #temptress #temptress (roxanne)#fanfiction

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travellers-survivor-old-west · 4 years

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Episode 1 - “It's not my fault our team chose the same song as the other team” - Cas

Let the games begin..............................

we out here. i'm on the cute yellow tribe. the only person on my tribe rn is Nicole and I already like her. i hope there's an idol hidden under joe del campo's cowboy hat

* A couple seconds later*

FKDSAHKDJFS LMAOOOO MY GIRLFRIEND ASHLEY ON THE OTHER TRIBE AND SHE LOOKIN LIKE A KARDASHIAN IN HER VID

Very excited for this to start! Tribe seems nice so far get a good vibe from eve and Ashley for sure. Just gotta feel everyone out a lil more and see how this first challenge goes

OKAY sooo I'll keep this first one brief. My tribe is pretty cool. I love Jared, I'm a little bit worried though because 1) he knows I'm a snake and will be scared of me and 2) he'll prob be able to know I'm friends with Ashley, but otherwise, he's my number 1 on this tribe and my favorite person in the cast other than ash. Like I'm so blessed to be with him and I don't think he'd turn on me yet since we'll be loyal. This Nicole girl seeemd cool in her vid then never messaged me back. Dylan seems nice but I think he might have been in bermuda or somethin LOL i've def played with him before and have no clue from what.... Sammy is cool, know him from before. And then uhhh that weird kid who had a three second vid, I hope he's out first. Ashley is on the red tribe I think? I LOVE HER she's literally my best ORG friend and she hasn't played in forever. Hope we get to a swap or merge without her doing something dumb first akhfdj. Patrick seems familiar I know he's old school and won HOS so that's cool. Eve seems cool never played with her but is that the same eve that does the challenge minis bc if so she knows im gonna pop off. Keaton good. Isaac good lol although I'm scared he'll come after me bc one time in his confessionals for a game we were in (i think indonesia?) eh talked about how big of a threat I was oops. maybe ashley will get him out for me LOL. and that austin guy seems cute, second game only awww. Black tribe has chloe YAYAYAY love her and excited to play with her. I think I'm on okay terms with Nick again, at least I really hope so lol bc bbclue was a mess but we kind of made up in ihos.... Vi/Cas I don't rlly know. payton seems like rhone but with a little more hair and less elderly wisdom. aidan's vid was weird but glad he got to the point I'm looking forward to this :) but I hope my tribe gets more active soon.

Okay so- Howdy! This is your cowboy speaking. I am going to go over my general strategy for the game and what I have done so far. I want to play a very physically/socially-centered meathead kind of game- a James Clement if you will. I want to try and win every challenge that I participate in and if we lose, I want to have 1 alliance with the strongest players that I will be 100% unwaveringly loyal to. Pretty basic stuff. So my alliance is with Owen and Sammy, which oddly enough- the last 2 Big Brother games I played, they were the people who got me out, respectively. Owen/Dana/Quill in BOTS and Sammy in Legacy3. So it's a risky group but this is the strategy that I outlined for myself so I'm gonna stick to it. They will be my F3 and I will literally ride with them until the wheels fall off. Until the hooves fall off, in western speak. I have no clue if they will be loyal to the end or try to target me on some point, but I have to try to keep them from eating the apple, because I'm not going to flip as my one-dimensional gameplan will not allow that! I confirmed with both of them that this is a trio they are good with, and the Pika-Dudes were born. I think it would be pretty rewarding for me if I could actually get them to stick together and make it to the end. But they could have other alliances on this tribe and vote me out this round for all I know, but so far my perspective is that they seem loyal Lastly, I suggested that we do the song "Before He Cheats" for the challenge, and that's the first time a tribe has ever taken my suggestion for the song, so I'm happy with that. I'll check back in if we lose the comp :)

okay so first confessional...honestly I am super excited to play with some of the people in this game. But I am just gonna talk about the challenge right now, umm so it's a music video which means.....hosts hate me...because I am always the one having to edit:,( okay so everyone got their videos to me finally except Nicole sent one vertically after I clearly said "@all plz film horizontally" so I just said bippity boppity bye. She seems sweet though and I don't want her to go anywhere soon. Anyways, Jared approached me with the idea of an alliance with me, him, and Owen which I'm totally fine with but I don't think I want to work with Jared like long game because idk if I can trust him to be like loyal to me. He is one of my fav people I just know it's a game. However I think if we go to tribal I probably would vote either Nicole or Xander. Not much confess right now except I am on a tribe with casper and his friends bc everyone forgot how to talk. alright that's it for nowwww.

#FuckMichael

What the fuck is Terlingua on someone better pray for my dude Aidan

VL: Oops

Omg yay!!!! We are safe for first tribal which I love. I'm starting to form pretty good bonds with issac,eve,and ashley so hopefully I can get it to where we all link up together for some kind of alliance.

Well so far it seems that Aidan, Chloe, Nick and I are in same mind set of voting off Payton. We shall see if it actually goes through. It’s really sad Bc the judges are all biased so now we have to vote someone out. Editing isn’t easy at all DX. I’m so sorry Payton if you’re do get voted out. You should move to the us to survive a bit longer ;-;

So my back’s been killing me all day. I thought it was from sleeping funny but clearly its from carrying this damn tribe.

This weekend was so flipping busy. I'm trying to get caught up at work before vacation and Matthew is here. I don't feel like I've gotten to bond with my tribe much. I'm glad to see Dylan A. We've not really gotten to play together much because he always gets voted out early in games we play but I don't think he will come for me and he's a bigger target than I. I like my tribe a lot. Jared is really funny and Sammy kicked butt in the challenge. I've talked to Owen a tad. I'm glad we didn't lose because I deserved to go home. I didn't get back from Erica's bday thing until 4 and then it wouldn't let me use the song I bought some it is copyrighted so I only had 30 sec then I couldn't get it to film horizontal. I'm a big ol mess. Yeeeeeeehaaaaaaw! 😂

Whew okay so I don't know anyone on my tribe (kinda) which is good but also a bit scary since its just 6 of us. Overall, I feel like everyone's a bit quiet and not too talkative. That being said, they might be talking a bunch in PMs. Right now, I am trying to stay under the radar and just be friendly with everyone. I really like Austin, Eve and Patrick right now. Keaton and Isaac are nice too but I dont really talk to them as much. If we would have lost this first immunity challenge I would have definitely wanted to vote for one of them. No official alliances yet but its still early so I think its okay. THANK FUCKING GOD WE WON. Okay well, we got 2nd but thats a win in my eyes. I just really hope I make it to jury and I will be happy so not being first boot is GREAT. Im trying to get this damn idol but I cant catch a fucking break and my ass keeps getting zapped... I dont think anyone has gotten the idol yet so I hope i get lucky and somehow get to it first. Here is how I see everyone as of right now: Austin: Probably my fave right now and hoping I can get into a f2 with him. He's funny and sweet and I feel like we get along and its pretty easy to talk to him. Eve: Eve is iconic! Want to work with her but I feel like she is really social so she might be a threat later on. Pat: Same as Eve, even though I just met him, I actually have known about him before since he is friends with some of my friends. I know he does good in games so he is someone I would like to see leave a bit sooner since I think he will be hard to get rid of later. But hes amazing and his video for the music video was ICONIC. I can see him and I becoming friends for sure. Keaton: Not much to say, I do know keaton from playing a game with him in the past but he was voted out first I think and then I hosted him in HOS but i wasnt super active in that one :) Anyway, I feel like we dont have much to talk about so I need to make more of an effort with him. I really wouldnt care to see him go tbh but who knows, this can definitely change if we start talking more. Isaac: omg okay so night one I go into everyones PMs to say hi and i notice that I already had messages with him which I found super weird because I didnt know who he was but I guess we kind of got into it like 3 years ago??? I told him I didnt remember this but i do. He was basically an asshole to me for no fucking reason. But this was 3 years ago so i really dont care so I hope he doesnt try to target me over it. He seems nice I guess but I havnt really talked to him much. In his defense he has been sick apparently but if we would have gone into this first TC I would have wanted to see him voted out first for sure.

Confessional 1: So right off the bat I talk a lot to everyone but Payton but my main issue is he’s probably not going so I’m gonna need to vote out someone I genuinely like right away. I think I’m decently connected and unless these guys are pulling off the best blindside ever I think I might possibly be semi safe??? Who knows though there’s a lot left of game to play this round so let’s let’s see who the votes will land on. I’m kinda trying to indirectly get my way but it’s like just not working out lol.

Its been a fun couple of days, im talking to my tribe and just feeling them out. Im very happy I don't have a history with any of them so I can just relax and start a clean state. Im a big fan of Jared and Sammy, but honestly nicole can go. She annoys me more than Jess's love of alcohol. I'm hoping to just chill and slide my way to merge where from there actually make moves and make my way to final 5 where we all know im gonna be voted out.

Idk what the fuck is going on lmao. I think I’m getting voted out because I haven’t talked to anyone but I’m trying to push the vote in cas instead but it might be too late because I just started talking to everyone cause I’ve been working too much.

https://youtu.be/bMY6mumIAQ0

Am I disappointed with my tribe? No. Am I disappointed with the outcome? Yes. I'm not a fan of these subjective challenges because the criteria literally changes everytime and all the judges (who are usually unqualified, uneducated and underemployed) seem to like to harp in on the most random shit like- I can't. And the fact that I, someone who never edited a fucking video before, had to do that shit just shows how useless my tribe is overall. Either useless or lazy but either way... I'm predicting a Matsing performance from this tribe. Why the fuck did I get placed here? So far people are fine but I don't /love/ anyone. Maybe I could put in more effort but like Chloe/Nick/Vi all seem fine and fun but like nobody I'm too connected with yet. I'm sure it'll come. Chloe and I seem to have the most similar personality but something tells me she's like connected idk. I don't see her going far with me. I see Nick/Vi being loyal though. Payton and Cas are like fine I guess but afaik they're the ones on the chopping block because of minimal socialization. I will be voting for Cas but honestly I don't care who goes home as long as it isn't me. I just want a tribe that isn't awful.

I like my tribe ok I guess. They’re all a girl or a gay except Keaton so that’s a plus. Despite my lack of participation in the first challenge due to my meningitis I’ve been assured that I should be safe on this tribe and I’ve been offered an alliance so we’ll see where that goes. I’m looking forward to beat sent home by Jared’s homophobic ass though. It’ll be fun

Dont sue me I'm dumb Okay this tribe is an interesting bunch, Ashley is great but scary, eve knows wtf is up, Pat and I are playing a game together rn, Issac... And Austin knows about me! Luckily we are safe but I think I can traverse this group without TOO much issue.

https://soundcloud.com/user-327042896/dylan-confess-1/s-HFs1s https://soundcloud.com/user-327042896/dylan-2/s-nVSd2 https://soundcloud.com/user-327042896/dylan-3/s-65KCP https://soundcloud.com/user-327042896/dylan-4/s-kLYio https://soundcloud.com/user-327042896/dylan-6/s-r6uNi

So like, love my tribe so far, I think Issac, myself Ashley and Austin are going to become a possible / close alliance, I also LOVE LOVE LOVE pat! What a fucking legend. Rly wanna try to work w him!! Idk dont wanna lose bc that means someone has to go :(

youtube

#yeehaw

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jess-the-vampire · 7 years

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Tom Vs The Forces Of Evil (Au), Chapter 12

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Tom could feel himself significantly get worse as the days grew closer to Friday, and it was becoming harder for him to hide it from Marco. He had to keep excusing himself into the bathroom or to go practice spells so he could calm himself down before he hurt someone. Marco was no stranger to the boy's temper so occasionally he could tell something was up and would step in to help and ask what was the matter. Tom as per usual blamed most of it from the stress of his dad, or getting another bad grade in school, or bullies picking on him. Marco didn't ask further questions and would try and relax him. It was eating Tom on the inside how much he was keeping from Marco. His newfound crush, how he tortured that monster, the threats against him, anything on the bond in general, he couldn't keep this from Marco forever. The crush thing could come and go, but the rest were never going away, he couldn't just expect his dad to forget about Marco, and the bond and wretched torturing were never going to leave his mind no matter what. It was only a matter of time before all these secrets bit him. But there were so many risks to it, especially if his dad caught wind of him telling Marco any of this. Which is why Star's return was so thankful, having any ear on his dad made him feel a lot better these days.

He was sitting on the floor in front of his mirror, talking to his ex, something he never really thought would happen again after the ball. Star wasn't a great listener, far from it, she could barely stand still most of the time, and those pointy ears were focused elsewhere sometimes. But she was all he had as far as getting much from Mewni, Ponyhead was too much of a blabbermouth to talk to about anything serious. At least Star could keep a secret. The girl's ears pricked up as Tom spoke about...It, he blasted the floor with a spell, not hiding how sad he was in front of her. "You....like Marco?" "Yeah...." Tom muttered another spell under his breath, and tiny animals erupted from his wand. "But he doesn't..?" "Yeah...." "Tom, i'm sorry...." "It's not your fault Star, just my luck I suppose...I mean, Marco probably wouldn't date me anyway, it's fine..." "Tom....i'm sure that's not true...", Star argued," Marco really likes you, i'm sure he'd date you..." "Well if Marco really wanted to date me then why didn't he?", Tom snapped at her, fighting back tears, "It's not like i-I'm...seeing anyone else anyway?! Star, he doesn't like me like that ok?! He's had this crush for years!! Why did I think i could just walk up to him and ask him out when I knew he liked someone else?!" Tom zapped another part of the floor, leaving a hole in his floor, he quickly fixed it up before anyone noticed and looked back up at a more concerned Star. "Tom..." "I just can't like someone, no...the world just has to tell me how unlovable I am every time.....", Tom complained, more to himself then the princess before him. "Geez, how does my dad expect me to even have a heir if no body even wants to date me?" "Tom...Hey, it's- " "The only two people in the world I like enough to date, and i can never be with either.....and i just...i'm stupid....", Tom pulled his legs towards him and buried his face in them , "I'm so stupid.....I just....I wish i didn't like Marco..." "Tom, you know that's not true...", Star said, "It's not bad for you to like him, you don't have to be ashamed of it..." "Then why am I being punished for it?", Tom mumbled, "I-I just..." "Crushes don't always work out..", Star said, sitting down herself, "But...you’re stronger, for still being Marco's friend..." Tom looked up and wiped his eyes. "I mean, you still want him to be happy with whoever he likes, you still want to be his best friend.....that's really strong of you.." Tom sniffled, "Yeah..." "You're a good friend Tom...." Tom didn't reply, he wiped his nose onto his knee and tried to calm himself down. Star sighed, she was going to regret this. "Tom, Marco and I have been talking.....he came to me....to ask about your dad....", She said, making the boy look up, but before he could get angry she held out a hand. "He was concerned, he wanted to help you, he wants you to be safe....he wants....you to live with him instead.." Tom's sudden look of anger turned into one of shock and affection, he blushed, and ran his fingers through his pink hair. "He....he's trying to take me away from my dad?" "My Mom's looking into it....he just.....Marco wants what's best for you too Tom...", she bit her lip, flashing her pointed teeth, "Tom, no matter what you think, you're Marco's entire world....he puts you first just as much as you put him...Jackie is never going to replace you.." "He's allowed to have other friends to care about it's just...", Tom looked off to his side at the rabbit cage, and Star realized he was indicating he didn't have many other friends to hang out with. She smiled, "Well, that's just it then!!! You, me, and some other people should hang out together!!! Having more friends then Marco outta help you get over it!!" "Yeah...maybe..", Tom said, done crying, "Maybe I just...need some time away...with other people.." "Yeah, you can come over to the Underworld!!! you got anyone you could call?" Tom, picturing a blabbering ponyhead and a beanie-headed girl, "I guess there is some people i could invite..?" "Awesommmmme!!", Star giggled, "Let's do it.....This Friday!!! Sound good?" Tom looked to his bedroom door, knowing Marco was talking to Jackie in his own room down the hall, the girl he was asking out the very same Friday. Something was better then nothing. "Yeah....let's do it..." - Friday couldn't come soon enough for Tom honestly, the day he was regretting at the beginning if the week slowly made him much more excited. He'd get to hang out, spend time with other friends and away from the drama of his dad and Marco. He needed a new safe space. Marco wondered why Tom didn't want to go with them and Tom mumbled out that since he was asking Jackie out he didn't want to make it awkward, followed by Tom wishing him luck, Marco appreciated it ; But he was clearly very disappointed. He didn't tell Marco he was going anywhere when Marco went out to meet Jackie, there was no point in making a big deal about it anyway, they shared a hug before Marco left and Tom closed the door behind him before cutting open a portal to the underworld. Janna was already there, and so was ponyhead, both talking happily with Star. Tom already felt like a 4th wheel. He was the only boy here and only now did he realize that. They all turned to him when he entered, Star grabbed his arms and yanked him over to him. "I found your friends!! They're suuuuuuupppperrr cool!!!", Star bounced up and down in place, "Janna over here wants to show me around earth someday!! And Ponyhead is supppper fun!!!! But now that you're here, we can do some fun stuff!!" "B-flyy!", Ponyhead looked Tom up and down, "You looked trashed, you do something crazy?" "What? No...I-I'm fine...", Tom mumbled, too sad to even demand to be called Tom. Janna and Star exchanged knowing looks. "Where's earth turd? You guys stop being besties...?" "I don't wanna talk about it lilacia-" "Did earth turd hurt you? I told you he was bad new-" "Let's do makeovers!!", Star interrupted, "C'mon Tom!! I'll do your eyeliner and Janna can do your nails!!!" Tom was about to protest when he realized that they were trying to distract ponyhead. "What am I supposed to do?",Ponyhead protested. "You can go pick out some music!!!" Star suggested, and she went looking around for the demon's radio. Tom didn't protest when the girls starting doing his make-up, at least they weren't doing anything malicious to him as he was trying to heal from everything happening to him. Knowing them they'd probably do who knows how much damage to Echo Creek together. He couldn't help but think of Marco though, Marco loved to help with Tom's makeup. Tom liked to ramble on sometimes and Marco would listen while he helped him, careful not to hurt his friend. Tom liked Marco's little nods and hums as he worked, they were little things but Tom tended to always pay attention to the smallest things. He must have looked a bit sad because Star was giving him a concerned face, she finished up his eyeliner and produced a smile. Ponyhead had finally managed to put music on, which Tom easily recognized as a Love Sentence Song. Janna finished up Tom's nails and Star pulled Tom onto his legs, "C'mon, you wanna dance? It could be fun!!!". Star started to dance wildly and it didn't take long for Janna and Ponyhead to join her, He knew Star was trying her best, but everything just reminded him of Marco. Marco fit into his life so perfectly that it was going to be a challenge cheering him up. Still Tom attempted to try and dance a little bit, tapping his feet and swaying from side to side. It wasn't making him feel a lot better, but at least he was trying. Star must have noticed too, because she grabbed Tom's arms and tried to help him move but with no effort. She frowned before using fire from her boots to help her fly, Tom looked up at her and she attempted to lift him off the ground. He clung to her a bit and managed to laugh, but then Janna jumped on Star's back, adding to the pile. Janna was a bit too much weight for Star though, and the three of them fell on her bed, laughing. "Janna, I was trying to cheer Tom up!!", She said with a smile. "I know...", Janna snickered, "But that doesn't stop me from wanting a ride too.." Star looked over at Tom, and a grin spread upon her face. "You'reeee smilliinnnngggg~", She teased. Tom made a fake pout and covered his face, "Pft, I don't smile Star you know me, i'm dark and broody..." "You have a pink rabbit Tom..." "So?" Star punched Tom's shoulder, giggling, "Wierdo..." Tom lightly punched her back, "You're a weirdo..." Star got Janna off of her and fixed her dress, "C'mon guys, let's play a game now!! Ponyhead!? How about you pick the game?" Ponyhead, who'd been watching them this entire time, felt relief being able to be more in the center of attention. "Alright FINALLY, how bout...TRUTH OR DARE!!" Tom shuddered, playing truth games with ponyhead was never fun. Especially since the last thing he wanted right now was to talk about himself and his secrets. Star also noticed the problem and tried to step in, "Or we could do another game?! Like uh-?" "Girl, you said I could pick the game!! That means I pick the game, which is truth or dare, so we're playing..", She went to the center of the room and the rest started to follow, Tom could see Star end him an apologetic look his way. Tom shifted nervously, and could only hope ponyhead had no intention of asking him anything personal. They sat in the circle, and Tom was happy to see Star and Janna next to him on both sides, both being protective of him. Before ponyhead could do anything Star put her hand out, "I'll go first, er....Janna!! Truth or Dare?" "Dare!!!", Janna said immediately. "I dare you....to show us what's inside your boot!!!", Star shouted, pointing at said boot. Tom gave the demon a weird look, "Why do you think something is in her boot?" "A demon knows Tom...", Star said with a smile. Janna shrugged and took off her boot and shook it upside down. A bunch of stuff fell out to Tom's surprise, her cellphone, a pocket knife, a pack of gum, a recite for who knows what, Marco's house keys, and a roll of tape. Tom just looked at her in confusion, "How do you keep all that in your boot and not feel uncomfortable?!!" Janna shrugged, putting everything back in her boot and putting the boot on her foot again, "Eh, it's not as bad as what i keep in my socks...." Tom was about to question it when Star nudged him and spoke, "Ok Tom, it's your turn!!!" "Oh uh.....Star?!! Truth or Dare?!", he said on instinct. "TRUTH!!", She replied. "Uh...what did you learn in training? Like....what did you learn while you were away?" "Oh!! Well, my mom wanted to take me to train in a farther part of the underworld!! So i got to use axes and swords and I also finally got taught how to work with souls!!", She looked rather excited as she spoke, "My family has always taken care of souls on mewni and maybe soon i'll learn to raise the dead!!! It'll be so cool!!" "You don't know that spell already?", the prince looked at her in confusion, "I thought that was a bit more basic?" "Mom thinks i'll raise the dead for myself if i don't become more responsible, she's just being ridiculous....", Star huffed, "It's not like i was gonna summon the dead to get me food or anything, just for funsies....plus it's draining....i'd be too tired after awhile.." "Oh well, I hope you get to learn it eventually, i'm sure it'll come in handy...", Tom simply said, sometimes he wishes he could raise the dead, his ancestors were probably better company then his dad anyway. "Ok...my turn..", Janna announced, "Pony, Truth or Dare!" "DARE!" "I dare you, to...let me reach inside your neck!!!" Ponyhead groaned loudly, "Uhh...fInnneee, but don't touch my stuff, i don't wanna find my cell in your boot...." Janna grinned and reached next to her and into ponyhead's neck, she didn't seem too amused as Janna grinned. "How do you poop? I mean....you're hollow...." Janna said, "I mean, it's cool either way but..' Ponyhead immediately shook her off, "Ok turns over...MY TURN!" Tom's heart stopped. "STAR!! TRUTH OR DARE!!!?" Then it came back. "Uh.....DARE!!", she replied, flashing fangs. Tom let out a sigh of relief, at least Ponyhead's new liking to Star kept her distracted from him. "Show me one of your demon spells!!! Make something!!" "Uhh...", Star bit her lip and stood up, Tom could hear her chanting something under her breath and see her eyes start to glow. Tom leapt as some of the floor came apart underneath him and morphed into what looked like a small dog. Star's eyes stopped glowing and she regained her normal cuteness and picked up the small sculpture, "Demons have telekinetic abilities, but this spell kinda makes stuff come to life.....i haven't really mastered it yet...." Tom clapped, "I like it...." She smiled and sat down. "Thanks Tom...ponyhead, truth or dare!!" "Truth...", she replied simply. "How long have you and Tom been friends?", She asked sweetly, looking at both of them. "Oh? Me and b-fly have been friends since we were kids....we used to get in SO much trouble together, we used to sneak out and PARTY and his dad got Sooooooo mad!! Although he was kinda a downer most of the time, he used to sit by himself more then dance with the rest of us." Star looked over at Tom, who was looking away from everyone, he didn't seem to want to talk about this. "Well that seems cool!!", Janna piped in, also noticing Tom's mood change, "Tom? Uh....your turn!" She was clearly trying to change the subject immediately and Tom silently thanked her for that. "Oh uh..... Janna? Truth or Dare?", He asked, still thinking about those nights at the bounce lounge. Sometimes he forgot why he even used to sneak out, he never had too much fun at social events, but then again he wasn't very good at being social to begin with. "Truth..", she answered confidently, "And no, you can't date me..." Tom wasn't amused, "Why do you have Marco's keys in your boot?" "Why not?", She shrugged, Tom was about to interject when she cut him off. "Besides, these aren't Marco's actual keys, i got these copies done awhile back, cool right?", She said, now jingling said keys around, "Now if i had a skeleton key that would pretty sweet, but this is nice enough when I need to get some lunch from Marco's fridge.." "Do you even have your own house?", Tom asked. "Uh uh, one question at a time..", Janna said, "You'll have to wait your turn again to ask....now I'm going...". She looked Tom up and down, with a grin that made her scarier then even the demon in the room, "Tom....truth or Dare?" "Dare..", He blurted out, he would have to play at some point, the best he'd have to do would be to choose dare each and every time. "Let me hold your wand....", She held out her hand towards him, still grinning and Tom tightened the grip on his wand a little bit more. "My Wand's an important heirloom...I-I uh....that's probably not a good idea", Tom already felt upset enough about him throwing it, if anything else happened to it he was sure his dad would actually kill him in his sleep, and he might not blame him. "Dude, i just wanted to hold it....not use it..." "No....I said no...", He said a bit more angrily. Tom stood up, "I think i'm done...I don't wanna play anymore....". Star looked concerned, Janna was crossing her arms, and Ponyhead looked unhappy, "B-fly, if you're not gonna do the dare then- uh.....what happens when they don't do the dare?". She looked to Star and the demon thought for a moment, "Uh.....punishment?" Janna stood up, "Y'know, that could be funny, what'cha guys wanna do? We could dump ice water on him?" Tom backed up, "Guys, i just wanna stop ok? I'm not having fun anymore....can i just....can I leave?", He felt himself getting angry and he felt tears coming on again. Star bit her lip, "Yeah, let's just...move on to something else...." "Awww, c'mon, I wanted to do my turn!!!" Ponyhead whined. Tom grumbled, wand turning a noticeable green again, "Look, I don't feel like it ok? I came here to have fun and play games and feel better and I don't feel like being messed with, or having my stuff touched, or being picked on.....I just....I need to be alone...." Tom stormed out of Star's bedroom door, closing it behind him and back falling against the door, sniffling. He didn't know what was up with him but he couldn't hold himself together right now, he swore a bit under his breath and cried a bit when Star teleported in front of him, frown upon her normally smiley face. "Tom, I'm really sorry..." "No, it's me....i'm just....i'm not right..." She sat down in front of him, "You wanna talk?" "Everything is falling apart....", He mumbled through his sobs, "My entire life, is nothing but a joke....a freaking curse. I get stuck with these stupid anger issues from my stupid father, keeping me from having friends for years....can't even talk to someone, be social half the time....because i'm just gonna drive them away...." Tom couldn't remember a time where Star sat still and listened to every word he said, but now all her focus seemed to be on him. "Then I finally get to escape him, t-to get rid of my issues....so I can be liked, end up making the best friend I could ever have, someone who cares about me, and wants to help me and stays with me despite me being a big jerk and getting upset....and then I start to LIKE him, but no....he doesn't like me back so I have to keep even that quiet!! Y'know? Right next to all my injuries from my dad and my family history and all the other secrets i have to keep from my best friend in the entire world because i don't want to lose him forever..." He clenched his fists, "But I can't be upset about it because being upset makes me do bad things, it makes me someone i hate....and being angry is wrong. Just like being myself is wrong to my kingdom, or how much i'm putting Marco's life at risk for even being close to him..." Star could see a faint green glow start to form in the boy's cheeks and eyes and he got more and more upset, "I just want to stop, I just want to be happy, live a normal happy life where i don't have to keep secrets or be terrified of the future, where I don't have so much pressure to be this perfect prince i'm not..." Star refused to move, despite tom clutching the floor behind him now, becoming more and more angry, "Marco is doing so much for me, he wants me to stay with him and even i don't know if I can do THAT, because me being there will only put him in more danger or i'll hurt someone...." Tears ran down his face heavily, "No matter how much I try to move on, it's never going to just go away I just want it all to stop....." It was sudden, but in a flash the demon princess wrapped her arms around the crying boy, Tom relaxed instantly, returning to normal and sobbing into her dress. "It's all my fault....If i hadn't come to eart-" "Tom....", Star started, "It's not your fault....none of this....is your fault...." "I deserve this...." "Tom, stop..." "Star, I know you're just trying to help, but no matter what i'm never going to escape this, i wish i didn't have to think about it, I wish i could just not talk about my life but I'm never going to move on until I get rid of it...." "Tom, you're going to get better, this isn't going to last forever..." "So much for my anger management..." Star grabbed Tom's shoulders and forced him to look into her eyes, She looked just as sad as he did frankly, but she wasn't crying. "Tom, I know moving on is hard for you, and it hurts now.....but it's not going to hurt forever....demons suffer all kinds of eternal pain deeper then yours..." "But-" She covered his mouth with one of her clawed hands, "Tom, it's ok to cry, and be angry, and be hurt....y-you don't have to hide it, you don't have to bottle it in cause you're scared or worried.....". Tom shifted, "You didn't think that before....you dumped me....", Star winced a bit. "I know...but I also had no idea about your Dad, and everything you were going through....and i'm sorry I made you feel like being upset was wrong....", She bit her tongue, "Tom, you're not gonna get better by not being angry again....never being angry....sounds weird...you just...need to find a way to be angry in a healthy way....not with the weird green magic.." "Why are you of all people telling me this?", Tom asked, sniffling. Star rubbed her neck in embarrassment, "I've had one too many talks with Brian.....he may of...made me think about you more then I wanted to..." Tom managed a smile out of his sadness, "You make it sound so awful..." Star made a face, "Sorry!" "No it's ok, Y-you make it sound so easy.....controlling my anger like that..." "I never said it was easy...", She said, "But nothing is going to change unless you allow it..." Tom wiped his face, "I-I wanna talk to Marco, No, I need to talk to him...He needs to know, he needs to know everything....I can't just...I can't keep hiding things from him, I promised to be honest and he's better off knowing even if...", Tom closed his eyes, "Even if we can't be friends anymore afterwards...." Tom pulled Star into a hug, "Thanks for just...Thanks...." She hugged him back, "Are you gonna be ok?" "Yeah...I just....I can't...I need Marco, I need to talk to him....even if he never talks to me again...he needs to know...", Tom stood up, "He needs to know about my Dad, that's he's in danger....that we're talking again, and that I...I..." Star nodded. "Hey Tom, Your birthday is almost here right?" Tom looked at her, a bit strangely, "Yeah?". "Can I come?" "You wanna come to my birthday party?", Tom actually looked surprised. "Yeah....I don't know about you and Marco...but...no matter what, you should have someone to party with..", She shrugged, "I mean.....it'll only be more fun with me there to dance...". She twirled around to demonstrate, Tom's tears dried. He almost forgot just how much she used to make him smile. "Yeah..I-I'd love to have you there..." Star squeaked in excitement, "EEeeeeeee!! I'm so excited!! I'll make it extra special for you Tom, Birthday's are the one day a year it's all about you and how special you are!! No one should be sad on their birthday!!!", She jumped up and down. "You'll see Tom, You're party is gonna go super great, Marco and you are gonna work it out, and things will get better..." Tom sighed, "M-maybe..." "Tom....C'mon...smile...it's gonna be ok...", She said calmly, "Now that you've kinda let it all out, you can start to work on solving it..." Tom forces himself to smile a bit, "It feels good...to talk about it..." "I'm sorry this event wasn't fun.......",Star apologized suddenly,"You don't have to stay...if you don't want to.." "No Star, You're right....I can't rely on Marco my whole life....I need to have other friends.....", Tom explained, "Just like how Marco can have Jackie...". He then crossed his arms, looking at the floor, "I think, I just need to work some things out first....I can't force myself to get better...I need time.." "Ok....",Star said, understanding. "But...I'd love to do this again, when...things are better?", Tom added, "It's still one of the nicest things someone's done for me....and..It's kinda fun having a group of friends to hang out with and play games with....I don't wanna be a downer on your fun..." "Tom, you we-" "Star, I was....just..you and Janna kept worrying about me, trying to keep me calm and happy, I don't want you guys to have to do that. I-I need to take some time to myself....for awhile..take care of some things....come back with a clearer mind...", Star nodded, understanding. Tom pulled out his scissors, "I'm gonna head home....before Marco gets back, take Janna home and tell her and ponyhead i'm ok and I just need some space..." "Are you sure you're even ready to tell him?", she asked. Tom took a step forward into the portal home, sad smile plastered on his face as he waved to his Ex. "No, not at all....but there's never exactly going to be a right time....." - Tom paced back and forth, awaiting Marco's return home. Part of him was regretting the choice to leave the Underworld and stop hanging out with his other friends, because despite how he felt on his inside it was still nice to have company surrounding him and making him laugh sometimes. He didn't even know where to start when speaking to Marco, would he start with the fact he could be in mortal danger with his father? Or with the fact Tom was growing a crush on him? There didn't seem to be a right answer to all of this on what was better for him to do. He thought about backing out but fought the urge. No, he was never going to get better by hiding his problems from Marco, at least if Marco knew he could help him come up with a solution. That Tom's inner thoughts could stop hurting him, that he could know for sure how Marco felt about him. He needed to stop hiding, it was time to face the music. He felt his heart drop when he heard Marco come up the stairs and knock on his door, "Hey Tom? I'm back!! Can I come in?". "Yeah.", Tom replied way too quickly, trying to regain his posture. Marco walked in and Tom was expecting him to be smiling or frowning from his time with Jackie, but he looked oddly neutral when he took a seat on Tom's bed. Tom watched him and took a seat next to him, "Marco? Uh....something wrong? Did you ask out Jackie?". Marco didn't answer, in fact he wasn't looking at him. "Marco?" "I couldn't do it....", Marco mumbled, "We went to the skatepark, she taught me some skating moves, I got to watch her on the board and we talked and had fun but I just....I couldn't ask her...I got cold feet Tom". The human looked sad, he covered his face with his hands, "I feel so stupid....". "Marco, y-you're not stupid....", Tom said, "When you really like someone, and you wanna ask them stuff....it's ok to be scared...". Tom reached over and touched Marco's back, "It's just....a big thing, and you can't take it back either...". "I felt so confident I could do it too......", Marco rambled on, "And I just....froze." Tom's arm wrapped around his friends torso and pulled him close, Marco's head fell on his shoulder, "It's ok...you'll have other chances...". "I know....It just sucks....", Marco sighed, "But enough about me, What were you up to while I was out?I kinda missed having you there..." "Oh....nothing special...", Tom replied, "But...Marco...I need to talk to you...". Marco looked surprised, "Did something happen? Please tell me your dad didn't-" "No but...Marco, I-I ...You're in danger....", Tom managed, just barely. "Tom? I'm always in danger, we fight monsters together....", Marco started, removing himself from Tom. "No, M-my Dad....threatened to hurt you...when I went to see him...h-he...", The boy tried his best to relax, but he was clearly trembling, "I had to torture a monster in front of him and I couldn't and he was gonna hurt you and I should've said something before but I was scared he would do something horrible to you if he found out an-" Marco held Tom's shoulder, trying to clam him down, "Tom Tom!! No, Hey, it's ok.....". Marco was clearly still in a bit of shock, his heartbeat going a bit faster knowing Tom's father actually paid attention to him, and was using him against Tom. "Marco, stop saying it's ok, it's not ok.....I put a target on your back!!! And I've been hiding it from you for awhile now!! I should've warned you about my Dad, I was just...I was scared......and I did some bad things because I was scared!!" "Tom..." "I don't like hurting monsters ok? If they attack me first, sure I'm gonna defend myself...but hurting someone worse then how my dad hurts me....makes me feel awful!!! And I had nightmares for awhile about it and I-I just....I didn't want you to feel like I was a terrible person!!!" "Tom, you're not a terrible person....he made you do it....don't blame yourself..I'm not angry at you, you're scared of him...", Marco was trying to relax Tom, but the boy seemed too stressed, and very ashamed. Tom hugged his arms, sniffling, he didn't want to cry again today. "Marco, I come from a long line of kings like my dad, this is how things have been done for years, years of abuse on monsters and everything we've done. Marco, I've told you I want to be myself, grown to be me and not end up like my dad and you've told me i'm better then my dad. But.....I've never told you a lot about Mewni and it's history and maybe...I was just worried if I told you, you'd think.....That I was...", He trailed off, "I'm ashamed of my family Marco.....I didn't want you to know we've all been like this for generations....it's not something I'm proud of." "Tom....you can't pick your family.....", Marco said softly, "Your family has done some...bad things.....but you're different. You....You know what it's like...to be treated badly...to be hurt, you....you understand the monsters Tom...." "I don't like hurting people Marco....I don't wanna watch someone suffer....like I suffer...I was just....so ashamed of what I did....I just.....couldn't bring myself to tell you.", Tom sighed, "I just wish...I didn't have to be a prince....that this isn't the legacy I inherited.." "Tom, I've been keeping secrets from you too....", Marco admitted, making Tom look at him, "I....investigated your Dad, to find out what was happening, I talked to Star, Janna, and I got too involved in your business to try and help you... I didn't want to ask about it and worry you..." "Marco..", Tom felt a rush of affection overwhelm him, despite knowing some of this from Star. "I care about you Tom, and I just wanted to see if there was anything I could do to help....", the human sighed, "I'm not upset you didn't tell me, you wanted to protect me and yourself and that's ok....". Marco wrapped his own arm around his friend, "Your dad made you do something bad, he was making you into something you hate.....you've been bullied by him your whole life...and you wanted to keep me safe..." "But I did something terrible.." "We all do bad things Tom, but you didn't have much of a choice...it's ok.." "Well.....I'm not upset you wanted to help Marco....it's...really nice of you, to want to help me..", Tom said. "Well, I'm not upset at you for being scared and caring....and hey, it's ok....now that I know....we can be more cautious about your Dad...", Marco seemed a lot better now, rather more cheerful, although there was no denying he was nervous about being on a watch list for a mewman king, "I'm glad we both finally said this stuff.....it...honestly feels better to be honest with you...." "Yeah me too.." Tom looked at Marco's nervous smile and watched him play with his hair, he was adorable, in a dorky kind of way. Tom just had to say it, be honest with him, it was like ripping off a bandage. Marco would understand, he understood everything, he'd understand if Tom thought of Marco in that way. There was silence between them though, very awkward silence. Marco bumped Tom playfully, prompting Tom to bump him back, "I really did miss you y'know....you're so much fun to be around, you would've loved it....skateboarding failures can be so funny sometimes...". "I like spending time with you too Marco....", the mewman smiled, "You're just....so wonderful...and so understanding..." "You like complimenting me don't you?", Marco joked, "Well I happen to think you're wonderful too...Tom, you're sweet, and fun, a goofball, amazing at magic, you have adorable pink hair, and a nice smile, and your eyes are a pretty shade of red and you care so much about your friends and you always do your best and you love talking about the craziest things, and you're so good with animals!!" Tom felt himself blush, "You're quite the charmer Diaz..." "Shut up, it's true..." Tom bumped him again, fiddling with his hands, "Marco..I um....I..." "Yeah Tom?" I like you Three words, that's all it would take. "I want you to be happy, no matter what you want to do with your life....or who you like....you deserve the best....", Tom smiled to him, "You may be a nerd, and kinda weird, and a bit of a mom sometimes....but..I hope you find what you're looking for..." Marco hugged Tom immediately, "Thanks so much...I hope you do too...." "I'm still planning out your birthday party with my parents, I invited Jackie too, maybe I can ask her out then?!!!", he beamed, "Tom, I promise I'm gonna make up for every birthday you spent on mewni with this party..." "I know i'm gonna love it already Marco.." Tom said. "Why?" "Cause you're going to be there...and that's everything I could honestly ever wish for..." Marco turned red, Tom's comment clearly making his nervous, "Tom...I-I um...are you?" Marco was about to say something when he heard his dad calling them downstairs for dinner, and Marco stood up, taking Tom with him. "We better go eat...", Marco suggested, suddenly a little bit more tense, ushering Tom downstairs and to the kitchen. Tom felt anxious, Marco's new tone of voice made him nervous. What did he say wrong? Did he make things more awkward between them? Tom felt a bit sick during dinner, he didn't eat much. Marco didn't look at him either, and Tom wished he could just get up and leave. This had been what he was afraid of. When he and Marco went back upstairs, Marco still seemed to be acting weird. Still not looking at him and clearly still lost in thought. "Marco? Is-are you ok?", he hesitated to ask, but he had to know if this was his fault. "Hmm? No, i-i'm fine....it's um....just nervous about asking Jackie out...y'know?", He didn't seem to be telling the truth, but Tom didn't question it further. "Ok...", Tom didn't hide the disappointment in his voice very well, but Marco seemed to be too much in though to notice. "Marco, I-I didn't mean, to say anything wrong, I-I uh....", Tom started, "I-I just....I wasn't trying to say..." "Tom, don't worry, it's nothing, you said nothing wrong it's.....don't worry about it....", Marco replied. Tom silenced himself, trying to avoid all thoughts of Marco possibly hating him. "Tom....i'm gonna change, you uh...wanna do anything tonight...?", Marco asked awkwardly. "No...it's uh...been a long day for me....i'm just going to sleep I think..", Tom said, "Just...we can hang out tomorrow....." "Yeah, Tomorrow....", Marco replied, still in his odd tone, "Let's rest and hang out tomorrow....I'm pretty tired..." "Me too, yeah..." "G'night buddy....", Marco said, heading into his room and closing the door behind him. "Night....friend....", Tom said, closing his own door behind him. Tom leaned against the wall and tried not to cry, maybe by tomorrow Marco would forget what he said and things would go back to normal, at least that's what he was hoping for. The boy fell face first on his bed, and for once, hoped the boy in the other room was really thinking about Jackie instead of him. Tom sighed. All he could ever wish for? What the heck was that? That was about as embarrassing as it could get!! Now he made Marco feel awkward and uncomfortable!! Freaking great Tom, you tried to tell him, only to make him freak out. He wanted to break something again, desperately wishing he kept his mouth shut. Why did he ever think Marco would like him? - In the other room, Marco laid down on his bed, not even changed. Thinking about Tom. Today with Jackie had been nice, they had fun, she was super easy-going, and she still made him nervous beyond belief. He didn't like her any less. But Tom, he just.... Marco felt himself grow warm. Him? He's everything Tom would wish for? Tom's a prince, and yeah he didn't have many friends or support throughout his life, but surely there were better things then some human. Tom cared about him, made tough choices for him, but this was like....this was like when he used to go on and on...about Star. Now that he thought about it, this was a lot like Star. Tom would go on about how cool she was and what made her special to him, before the events of the ball changed him. and now that Marco was really thinking about it, he talked about him the same way. Tom talked about how great he was, how he was the best thing that ever happened to him, that he deserved the best, Tom made him feel good about himself. "Tom's my best friend...of course he likes me and cares about me...", he muttered into the mattress, "I mean, we're friends....we're not like....". Marco turned on his side to go to sleep, but found he wasn't tired anymore, but lost in thought about his friend. All the times he's argued with Janna about dating Tom, or the times he's thought of him as cute, or the moments where he made him feel like the greatest person on earth. Marco felt warm as images from the ball flooded his mind, how cute he thought Tom was, and how nice it was to dance with him. Yeah for multiple times he's thought of Tom as attractive but...he always thought of it as him enjoying it in an aesthetically pleasing way, not in a romantic way. Not that Tom wasn't adorable, or really cute...he was..he just.. "you have adorable pink hair, and a nice smile, and your eyes are a pretty shade of red" He still remembered when he first saw Tom in his suit for the ball, how his outfit perfectly matched his features. He was beautiful, he was fun, and Marco didn't know what he'd do without him if anything happened. "But we're just friends...", Marco said to himself, closing his eyes and shutting out these thoughts of his friend, "And liking him would't work out anyway.....I like jackie, and he wouldn't want to date some human...not at risk of seeing me get hurt..." Tom deserved the best too after all, and that wasn't Marco. Marco let these thoughts drag him into sleep, hoping tomorrow would be better. unknowingly that down the hall, the boy in his thoughts was thinking the same thing.

#tomco #star vs the forces of evil #svstfoe #svtfoe #tom the demon #tom lucitor #star butterfly #janna #ponyhead #my art #fanfiction #fanfic #Tom Vs The Forces Of Evil

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vacantgestures · 5 years

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Ascendant Recollection :CH 03:

Franchise: Kingdom Hearts

Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama

Love Interest: Riku

Rating: Teen

The gang makes their way to a new world, filled with ups and downs. Still that’s the least of their problems, as the aforementioned underlying force from Yukari’s dreams, posses a new threat.

I quietly slinked into the cockpit and took a seat, in the fourth empty chair, next to an unmanned console labeled "Teeny Fighter Controls." The boys hadn't immediately noticed when I came in as, they chattered away. Although Sora seemed to be more or less, listening then having been fully involved in their conversation. He was mostly looking about, taking in all the buttons and switches, and the view of space that hung over our heads, as the cock pit allowed a full 360 view. Amidst his ogling, he seemed to catch me sulking in my seat as when I looked up, he was there on his haunches, resting his chin on the arm rest.

"You okay?" He asked with big, eyes.

"Uh huh..." I responded half-heartedly, as I pulled my knees into my chest on the chair.

"Well... How was your ten minute nap?" Sora supplied. "I thought you were tired."

It was very clear I was in a mood. It was even more clear that Sora was trying get me to talk. In all Honesty, I truly wanted to say something-- to everyone, but I still wasn't... confident, I guess, about how factual the dreams were. I mean, yes, they seemed incredibly detrimental to share at this point, but how was I supposed to say to a bunch of strangers, and Sora, that I could see things while I slept? I mean, I'd been having these dreams for the length of several months, and only now was the crazy stuff coming to life.

Maybe I should wait.

"You think... Riku and Kairi are together, like we are?" I asked. I wanted so badly to talk about the point in my dream about where I'd seen Riku, but I held back. Besides, I wasn't even sure if everything was legit yet. And if they were... there where was Kairi?

"Hmm..." For a moment, Sora hummed in thought. His half lidded eyes contemplated endless possibilities in a matter of seconds. "Maybe." He finally said. "I mean, it's hard to say for sure at this point. We've ran into some pretty crazy things, but we also met nice people."

"More or less..." I said, recounting the fact, that Leon thought it was a good idea to beat up kids over holding a civil chat.

"And you and me turned out to be Keyblade wielders!"

"Sworn protectors of the world with endless opportunities of death at every turn." I remarked sarcastically.

"They're bound to be just as well off as we are! Who knows, maybe even better."

I looked down in to his deep blue eyes the sparkled with excitement. For a moment, we shared a small grin, delighting in the fact that we could still hope that our friends were in good health where ever they may be.

Yet still... I couldn't help but feel guilty about not sharing what I'd managed to learn.

I bit my lip as I prepared myself to speak. "Sora... I've been meaning to tell you that I-"

"We've come across a new world!!" I little voices boomed from all around it. It took a minute for me to gather that it had been chip's voice coming from the intercom that was connected throughout the ship.

"Convenient..." I grumbled.

"Great!" Donald exclaimed, as I watched him hit a series of buttons before realizing he'd thrown the ship into a state of rest. "Let's head out immediately."

I watched as he and Goofy made their way out of the cock pit, confident we'd follow.

"Sweet!" Sora exclaimed, rising from his spot next to me.

I frowned, yet still felt a bit of relief as I stood up and hesitantly followed the boys down to the air lock.

The four of us huddled together around the exit. Donald felt the need to wait until this moment, to lay down a few ground rules.

"Alright." He announced. "Before we head out-- something the two of you need to be aware, of, as Keyblade wielders. Protecting the balance and fighting monsters is a pretty big job. But, one thing to make absolutely clear is that you-- under no circumstances, tell anyone you are from off world."

"Why not?" Sora asked.

"To protect the borders of the world!" Goofy stated confidently, grinning as he stuck a finger in the air.

"That's 'Oders' of the world, you dimwit!" Donald corrected

"But that very order is being disrupted by the Heartless, isn't it?" I asked thoughtfully. "Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure the whatever world we go to, has already run the risk of having its whole state of peace of coherence pretty much thrown out the windows."

"Which is why, stating the fact of us being off worlders, will make an even bigger mess of things." Donald, agreed. I watched as he moved to unlock the hatch. "It's pertinent that we keep business on a need to know basis."

As he swung the door open, we were met by and impressive light show of energy the swarmed around the outside of the ship. A force field maybe? I watched as Donald and Goofy neared the exit, peering carefully outside.

"Now, we're about to set foot on new ground." Donald informed turning back to look at us. "One thing to note is that you, under no circumstances, jump the air lock. Once we get down there, let's make sure to stick together, got it?."

Sora and I nodded, wordlessly.

"Alright. Let's get to it." Donald said, as he and Goofy step foot outside the ship.

For a terrifying moment, I was led to believe, that these two were completely nuts as they had leaped to their deaths.

Sora and I rushed to the exit to catch a glimpse of our new friends, go plummeting to their doom. Yet, once there we found no sight of them. They'd completely vanished.

For a moment, we stood with expressions mixed with awe, horror and confusion-- completely unsure of what to think.

"Do you think..." I finally asked.

"Only one way to find out!" Sora shouted, taking a few steps back.

"Wait a minute, you aren't thinking of-- Sora, no!" I tried to stop him.

"Here I gooo!! Augh!"

As Sora got off to a bit of a running start, he'd accidently shoved me half way through the exit, sending me dangling over the side. Noticing his mistake, he tried to somehow stop himself, as he reached out to make a grab at me. But he'd been much too late, as he'd sunk into the light that buzzed around the ship.

Breathless, I found myself, once again gripped by fear, as I fumbled to try and keep myself from falling in, as well. But I was hardly holding on by the pads of my fingertips as I slipped and fell away from air lock and into the bright light, screaming for my life.

Kingdom Hearts: Ascendant Recollection

Chapter 03

A Wonderland Deception

On top of the weird tingling and the slight dizziness from light travel, it was a weird experience to say the least. Getting zapped down to a new world, would have actually been quite exhilarating had it not included falling through an thicket of trees, and smashing my face into just about every single one. When I hit the ground, the loud thud of my head against the thick trunk, almost dulled out the sound of a little girl screaming in fright.

I was starting to have a real bad relationship with trees at this point.

Sitting up, I rubbed the back of my head, and blinked the black dots out of my eyes. Slowly my vision began to clear and the image of a blond girl, in a plain blue dress around maybe... eight to ten years old fazed into being. She looked at me with big black eyes. Her body language was apprehensive. She seemed just about ready to run.

But... and you know I was probably losing my mind at this point from all the concussions I was getting and what not-- but this girl... actually seemed incredibly... small!

She stood near the sole of my sneaker, blinking fearfully up at me. I wasn't able to really tell, but in comparison to her, I was at a height much larger than the clock tower back at Traverse Town. She was probably no bigger than my pinky.

"Oh! I had no idea you--- How--? You’re so tiny! I didn't even see you! "I stammered over my words apologetically, feeling frantic about not having seen her. I could have squished the little girl, and never have known!

"It's not that I'm small, but perhaps, that you still seem to be quite tall."

"Still?" I asked. "You mean I should have shrunk before I got here?"

The girl nodded. "Was that not clear? That door knob specially stated to, sip the drink so you could shrink."

"Ah..." I paused for a moment, rubbing my head once again. Bad enough I had to keep up with this girl's rhymes, but I had no idea what door she was talking about.

Coming to think of it, I'd landed in some thicket, alone, without my team. I'm supposing, Sora's fancy summersault out the airlock, left nasty effects for me and my crash landing, alone in the new world.

"Well how do I get to your size?" I asked.

"The shrooms, that around here, loom. Tall they are, but bland tasting treats. They'll help you shrink if you attempt to eat."

I glanced around once again and realized that the trees, I'd come crashing through were indeed not trees, but mushrooms in which the girl had pointed out. In fact, this hadn't been the oddest, thing as I began to truly survey my surroundings. I sat in what I could only assume was more like great expanse of a possible field. Along with mushrooms, enormous blades of grass shot hundreds of thousands of feet in the air. The base of a giant tree trunk loomed so high in up, that it faded out of existence-- or at least just so, that I couldn't make any part of it out from where I sat with my size. I almost got tunnel vision when a gargantuan butterfly swooped down and picked up such a great wind that It tussled my hair.

Turns out, that I wasn't the biggest thing here. Great...

I looked back down at Alice, nearly shaking from the sheer disbelief of this world's capacity. I don't think I'd have too much trouble keeping the world order intact, here.

I turned to find a mushroom, at my height. Gripping it in my hand, I ran a thumb over it, feeling for the texture. It was a boring, unexpecting looking mushroom. It was almost impossible to believe that it would make me shrink.

"One bite?" I asked, looking down at the girl.

"That's right!" The girl nodded

Hesitantly, I pulled a small piece from the thing just to test its flavor. I wasn't keen on putting foreign plants into my mouth. Mushrooms were fine, but magical ones from other worlds??

Carefully setting the small piece on my tongue I, bit down and met a chewy texture I really had no tolerance for. I would have spat it out had I not felt obligated to grow smaller. Continuing to process the chewy plant in my teeth, I swallowed and quickly began to feel the effects.

At first my stomach bubbled before bursting into a fit of Butterflies. And before I knew it, the world around me increased in size and I went plummeting, once against, towards the dirt, right at the girl's feet.

I groaned, sick of the falling.

"Are you alright?" The girl asked.

"Quite..." I said with a bit of a cheeky grin, standing and brushing the dirt from my clothes. "So... I'm sorry to bother you but, I'm a bit lost. I was kind of here with my friends, but I've gotten separated from them somehow. Have you by any chance seen a boy with brown hair, dressed in red, come through here-- or anyone for that matter?"

"I wish I could say but, I've been alone this whole day." The girl said, with a droopy frown. "In fact, a little white rabbit is what I'm in search for. But the Cheshire cat failed to give a proper tour. So, now I'm quite lost in this maze. It feels less like hours and more like days. And worst still... the creatures with their odd features. I've been out running them for a while. Although, I haven't seen them in the last mile."

Quickly deciphering her poetry speak, I noted that this girl had been thrown into a pretty odd predicament herself. She was in a place she wasn't familiar with and was searching for white rabbit, she'd most likely lost multiple times. Some... cat gave her bad directions and now she was here in this ticket, alone. I had to presume that the creatures she referred to were Heartless.

"Well... I don't mind tagging along to keep you safe from the creatures. We can search together to we find who we're both looking for."

"Sure!" The girl cheered, clapping her hands and twirling about, excitedly. "Oh! By the way, how do you do? My name is Alice, and you?"

"I'm Yukari." I nodded, glancing about the path. "Ah...Which way do we... "

"Follow me."

On recommendation, I followed Alice diaper into the thicket of enormous shrooms and towering blades of grass. The expansive dirt, crunched softly beneath our feet as we walked. For a good while, the walk had been far from eventful so, I supplemented the silence for a bit of chatter. I asked plenty of questions, allowing Alice to do the majority of talking. At the same time, my mind began to drift away.

I wondered where my party could have turned up and if we'd meet at any point during this visit. I was so... small in the world, it was almost mind shattering. I tried not to think too deeply about it when we passed enormous insects and a bed of rude and pretentious flowers, that hung over our heads, and prodded over our appearances.

The wandering came to an end, when our surroundings began to shift from lush vegetation, to a manicured hedge maze. The sound of men, singing a light hearted tune, hung in the air, and I couldn’t help but notice a strange shift in the artificial sky that boxed in over my head. Sure it was bright and blue, but there was something incredibly off about the place.

"This way, perhaps!" Alice shouted excitedly as she made a sharp turn around a wall of hedge.

"Hey, wait!" I called, chasing after her. "It could be danger...ous..."

My words trailed off as I ogled at what lay before me.

"I... must have completely lost my mind..." I said under my breath as I watched Alice, merrily joined in with what appeared to be a group of... card men.

When I say, card men, I actually mean, they were literally people made of playing cards. Their bodies were a tall length of Bristol paper, decorated with spades, respective to their number. They heads, hands, and feet were all spades as well. I marvel with confused amazement at their incredible articulation, as they bent and jumped and danced around. All the while I noticed they been holding paint brushes, dripping wet with red paint. I watched as they messily slapped the paint onto what appeared to be white paper roses that sat, elegantly folded within the beautifully treated, trees that had been forced to grow into the appearance of spades.

The faint, musical number floated about the small clearing, bringing life to the artificial beauty around me. I almost settled into the mood when loud yelled, tore into my ears.

"WHO'S BEEN PAITING MY ROSES RED!?!?"

My soul nearly left my body, I had been so scared.

The three card men, leapt from their tree and scrambled about the placed until they had the neat idea of stacking themselves together, to hide their presence. Alice, afraid of the disembodied voice, just like the rest of us, had run to my side and cowered behind me.

I did say I'd keep her safe, didn’t I?

The world began to shake as, aggravated stomping came from the exit, opposite of the way Alice and I came in. An enormous, menacing shadow, creeped slowly into view from over the hedge's height. I could feel Alice's grip on my arm tighten. My breath got stuck in my throat as I stood there. I was somehow more afraid of whatever the consequence of painting roses red, than the actual... thing... that was advancing.

"WHHOOOO WAS IT!!??" The voice demanded once more.

From the darkness, the figure emerge and stared wide eyed as a plump, round woman dressed in a regal red and black umbrella dress loomed above us. She had puffy sleeves and a raised collar, that seemed particularly pointed. Her big pudgy face was red with rage. Her hair was a tangled mess that seem more aggravated by her mood than anything. Atop her had sat an itty bitty crown that was barely holding its own.

A legion of card men, came trucking into the scene on either side of this women. Seemingly very aware of the culprits, they surrounded the three card men who'd made a poor attempt to hide. Ripping them a part, they were dragged over towards the angry woman and thrown down in front of her.

"YOU THREE!!" The woman, exclaimed, loudly, pointing her small, chubby finger in the direction of the guilty party. "WHO!! Painted My Roses Red??!"

I watched, completely paralyzed as the cards tried their hardest to hide amongst each other, shifting the blame and pointing fingers before finally giving up and admitting to their actions. "W-we did Your Highness." One of them said. "We thought you might... like them r-red."

"Oh? So you did, did you?" The queen asked. Suddenly her beast like features vanished, as she reverted into a friendlier version of herself. But this was short lived as she immediately resumed shouting. "Who Told You, You Could Don't Such A Thing!? OOOF WITH THEIR HEADS!!!"

On que, red card soldiers emerged to take away the perpetrators, who were dragged away sobbing and begging for mercy, perhaps, never to be seen again. I clamped my molars tightly against each other when the angry peach of a women, stepped in front of me. Her face was serene, almost as if she was enjoying a cool summer breeze.

"And Who... might you two be?" She asked. She had that gentle tone in her voice that heavily hinted on apprehensive.

"Alice..."/"Yukari"

Both of us spoke together, afraid that hesitation would get us killed.

The woman... or I supposed I should call her the Queen, eyed us as though we were mere, ugly looking ants. I could feel Alice shaking as she gripped my arm tighter. I would have been too if I hadn't been trying to figure out where to look, out of the lady's royal respect. So I kept my eyes strained on the perfectly trimmed grass beneath my feet.

"Perhaps you already know this, but in case you might need a refresher, I am The Queen of Hearts. And I hereby dub you two guilty of treason."

My stomach lurched from where it had been lodged in my throat. "Tr-treason??" I blurted out.

"Cards!" The Queen shouted. "Take them away!!"

Panic filled me, as my eyes darted frantically about at the card soldiers that closed in on me. I turned, looking for Alice who'd already been grabbed up. She screamed and pleaded while struggling to get free.

"No, no, no! Let me go!!" Alice squealed over the hollering and thrashing.

"Alice!" I shouted. I would have rushed to her aid but, I was grabbed up by a few of the card soldiers. Surprisingly, they were stronger than I presumed, and their grip on we was uncomfortably tight.

I turned my head to search for the Queen who'd put us in this predicament.

"Please!!" I shouted. "We haven't done anything! Let alone commit treason!! Let us go so we can explain ourselves."

"SILENCE!!" The Queen shouted, exploding int a fit of red rage!! "The two of you appear, suspect, as those who've attempt the theft upon my heart!!"

"What?!-- Augh!" I was yanked back by one of the card soldiers, that was trying to now bind my wrist. “No!" I shouted. "I-isn't there a sort of trial or something!?! To prove our innocence."

I watched, as the Queen stared over me, her anger slowly dissipating. Her expression was quickly replaced with that of contemplation.

"STOOPPP!!" She yelled, suddenly.

And everything ceased.

The cards that succeeded in binding my hands, held me by my arms, and shoulders so I wouldn’t escape. I looked for Alice who looking up at the queen with a horror stricken face.

"Indeed." The woman, said as a devious grin slowly grew onto her face. "A trial, of course. It's only way. I'll hear your plea, but then it's OOOOOOOOOOF WITH YOU HEADS!!!"

Seemingly used to this sort of behavior, the cards knew exactly what to do. They took no time in shoveling Alice and I out of the clearing, past the maze. It didn't take long before we were roughly ushered into an "open air" court room, existing within the hidden recesses of the hedge garden.

Even as artificial as the hedge maze was, there still managed to be something regal in the appearance of the "room." An enormous long, red rug with gold trim laid, through the center of the area. It looked like a normal court room with jury and judge panel. There was the witness and defendant stands and everything. The only issue was, no one was around.

As Alice and I stood at our spread podiums near each other, I could already feel that this was going to go horribly for the two of us. The Queen sat as the judge, reclining happily in her chair. What we were waiting for, I had no clue at the time, but soon found out when a nervous looking rabbit came running into the scene.

"It's him!" Alice whispered to me, almost excitedly.

I watched as a white rabbit dressed in an a red outfit of puffed sleeves and fancy frilled collar darted up the spiral of stairs that wrapped up around tall pedestal, likely made just for him. Once at the top, the rabbit drew out a horn, and inhaled sharply before blowing out a sort of commencement tune, that settled over the court room.

"Court... is now in session..."The rabbit said, in between labored breaths. I watched as he wiped his brow with a handkerchief and stood silently at the ready.

"These two are the culprits!" Accused the queen, promptly starting the meeting, cutting straight to the chase. She aimed her little gavel at the two of us, waving it back and forth, from me to Alice. "There's no doubt about it. And the reason why? Because I say so, That's Why?"

"Why, this meeting is absolutely flawed!!" Alice cried out, stamping her little foot in protest. "Neither she nor I have done anything wrong!! I don't know whether or not, you're truly Queen. But, I've never seen someone so self and... and so mean!"

The Queen let go a very exaggerated gasp, placing a hand at her chest. I glanced about me as the card soldiers all around came undone and started to low-key panic from where they stood. I could only assume what was about to unfold as I turned back to the Queen of Hearts, now ready to fight my way out of the situation if I had to.

"You dare defy me?!?! Both of you are guilty!!! Guilty of the theft upon the heart of Queen of Hearts!! OOOOFFFF WITH THEIR HEADS!!"

The card soldiers leapt into action, moving faster than I could think. They yanked and pulled at my hair and arms, struggling to force me into submission.

"No, No!! Oh, Please!" Alice squealed, as they closed in around her.

"Hold it right there!!" A voice bolted through the air, like a rooster breaking the silence of dawn.

Raking my head free from the grip of one of the card soldiers, I found Sora barging into the court yard, with Donald and Goofy immediately behind him.

"You Dare Interfere With The Proceeding Of This Court!?" The Queen hollered. Her temper completely dissipated at this point. "Manner less! The Lot of You!!"

"Just wait a minute. We know who the culprits really are!" Sora declared.

"Yeah!! It was the Heartle--" Goofy began to speak, but quickly covered his mouth, realizing he'd almost said too much.

"Hogwash!!" The Queen spat. "You couldn't possibly know what you're talking of, lad. Have you, any proof?"

"Well... uh..." This was where Sora's 'planning' went south. I assumed he brashly rushed in to save the two of us, but with no forethought.

"Very well." The Queen hissed, as she glared infernos in the party's direction. Her nostrils flared aggressively and, it almost looked like steam was spewing out of her ears. "I shall humor your claim. Bring me evidence of these girls' innocence. Fail and it's Off With All Your Heads!!"

At this, the card soldiers, roughly picked both Alice and I off of the ground and shoved us into a cage.

"Until your investigations are through, the Court is adjourned!"

The slam of the gavel marked the definitive end of the session. I could truly feel the harrowing sensation of our predicament, when the boys approached Alice and my, engagement.

"Yukari, where on earth have you been this entire time??" Sora asked, keeping his voice level.

"I'm going to assume it has something to do with my... erm... rough exit." I said, eluding to the events prior without dropping any hints of our being aliens to this world. "I've been here probably just as long as you but, got... 'turned around' a bit." I punctuated my statement with air quotes.

"Well this is a fine mess." Donald said rubbing his temples. "This is what happens when you meddle in the affairs of other worlds. Now what are we supposed to do about... all of this?"

"Hey, I hardly did anything." I snapped a bit, keeping my voice low. "But Queenie up there is impulsive. She does what she pleases, and I for one can't be so sure, that even if you find your evidence, she'll let us go."

"Indeed." Alice whispered, standing next to me at the bars. "It would be a far cry to believe she'd hear it if you plead."

"Oh--" Sora seemed a bit thrown. "I know it seems a bit hapless, but we're definitely going to get you guys out of here. Don't you fret."

"Not at all. With Yukari here, I feel I've got a lot of gall." Alice smiled.

Her faith in me was shocking, considering I couldn't help her escape the Queen's wrath. I suppose it's more to do with my keeping her company than anything else.

"We've just got one problem.” Goofy interjected. “We don't even know where to start looking for any proof."

"There does in yonder woods, reside the Cheshire Cat." Alice suggested. "Do seek him out and ask him where this proof is at."

I realized, Alice had spoken of him before. But, the way she did so made me think he might have been a bit misleading. I would have debated if that were a good idea or not. But before I could speak, the Card that stood guard next to the cage seemed to grow irritated, at our discussion.

"Enough talking already! Get a move on.

Sora gave me one last, worrisome glance before the party strode away.

I sighed as I plopped myself down near the back of the cage. Pulling my knees into my chest, I wrapped my arms around them and tried to keep my through from souring. I watched as Alice took a seat as well, elegantly sitting mermaid style as she clasped her hands into her laps. The look on her face was troubled, which made me feel worse.

"I'm sorry about this mess." I said. "But those guys were my friends. I trust they'll definitely help us out of here."

Alice shook her head. I took it she didn't blame me, considering how we got here. "Of course you aren't to blame. Yet even with your friends help, I'm worried all the same. Without you here, I'm sure I'd have much more to fear..."

I nodded, resting my chin against my knees as the two of us patiently waited for the boys to returned. We settled into the quiet, not wanting to draw more attention to our situation. It wasn't even long, before Heartless exploded into the room, with the boys bounding after them.

"Oh no..." I grumbled, as I neared to bars of the cage.

"Here's the evidence your Queen-liness!" Sora shouted, taking down the Heartless as they surged towards the Queen of Hearts. Right as one was about to drive its claws into the Queen's chest, Sora leapt onto the judge panel and destroyed it, sending it bursting in a fit of darkness.

"How Dare You!?" The Queen exploded, probably more shaken at the fact that she'd almost been attacked. "The proof is nothing but a farse!! This is all the evidence I needed to confirm that you are the ones attempting to steel my heart. Off With Their Heads, All of them!! SIEZE THEM!!"

Suddenly, the cage lurched upwards, shoot up towards the sky before locking in place, raised above the court yard.

"Sora!" I shouted to him.

"Don't worry abou-- Augh!!" But his words were cut through as he was cut off when the legion of card soldiers, leapt onto him. To my great dismay, a curtain suddenly wrapped around the circumference of our prison, obscuring our view of the outside.

"No. Nope!" I said, getting up shakily, trying to maintain balance. Carefully I made it to the latch and tried to rip the door open with force. Of course, this thing was high grade, thick metal or whatever so it didn't budge. I attempted kicking it in, but this only managed to rock the cage. Alice yelped in terror, trying to keep her balance.

"Sorry." I told her. "I'm just trying to get us out of here, so I can hel--"

And then it struck me. The Keyblade.

I mean, it was a Key, maybe I could somehow get it to--

"Yukari!!" Alice screamed.

My head shot towards her, wondering what the problem could be. But when I looked upon her, I found, a pool of what looked to be inky darkness, culminating at the bottom of the cage. What was more alarming was that it wasn't just latched on to Alice, but myself as well.

"Oh Goodness! What is this?!" She cried out, trying to pull herself free, yanking her leg out with her hands. But no matter how much she managed to free herself, the stuff latched back on to her.

What was more frightening was that it began to suck her in.

For a second, panic whipped over my senses and I was frozen in place. My mind raced with frightening possibilities of what would happen if she was completely consumed. Where on earth was this coming from? A dark tendril, latched onto my wrist and yanked my down, into the pool. I fought against it as much as I was able, but when I wouldn't come to Darkness, it came to me.

Where I thought I was panicking before, I was truly freaking out now. Somehow I was tumbling through an expanse of dark fluid that curled and tightened around my body. I shouted, silent cries that were stolen away by the Darkness around me. I tried to call out to Alice, but it was fruitless. I fought against a tugging sensation that occurred all over my body, like a swarm of evil hands pulling me deeper into the darkness. I fought until I felt another pull, one much more pure, yank me in the opposite direction.

Suddenly light erupted from my chest and everything came to a halt.

"Sleeeeepp~" A hiss sounded in my ears.

I found it almost startling. But not as startling as another voice that loudly buzzed though my head.

"Get up."

My eyes, shot open.

Slowly I sat up, with great confusion. The two voices that chased each other in my head, sounded nothing alike. One raspy and evil, while the other was warm and inviting. At first, I wondered if I'd imagined it, before I noticed a body, of pure white, standing near me.

"Stand." The voice of a women spoke. But even as such, I saw no indication of lips or eyes. Whoever this had been, was a complete silhouette of light.

"Who.... are you?" I asked, a bit apprehensively.

Last time I even looked upon a creature completely eclipsed in black, I was always almost eaten. Who's to say this lady didn't have the same intentions.

"We must hurry, if you want to help you friends." She said, completely dodging my question.

"My... friends?" I asked. "Wait... where am I? What happened to Alice, is she--"

"You are in the Darkness between." The woman, voiced beginning to walk away. Her steps were so light in comparison to my own, against the wet, dark ground. "Your enemies pulled your through it, in order to capture you. Perhaps they intended, to use or destroy you... But in the end, their intentions are not pure, either way. As for Alice, she has lost the battle with the darkness and was captured. She's already within the enemies grip."

For a moment, I considered her words. "Well... Well we've got to go and save her!" I suggested.

"You are not ready." The woman said. "To face the enemies alone, would be suicide."

I pressed my lips together, knowing any further suggestions, would be met with disapproving responses. I wanted to suggest taking Sora and the others, but I had no idea what was going on, how I ended up here, or even how I'd get back.

"Due to my deep connection with you... I only managed to pull you away from their grasp."

"Deep connection..." I echoed. "Then... who are you? You seem a lot like that screeched thing. But somehow... different at the same time."

The woman, stopped, to do what I could only assume was ponder. "I suppose one could call us the Ladies of Light and Dark respectively. While I reside within your heart to protect you... she seems only intent on your destruction."

"D-destruction??" I stuttered. "Wait! Do I even get a reason as to why??"

But the woman let go a yelp, clasping her fingers to what I had to assume was her forehead. "I... cannot fully recall." She said. "For whatever reason... those memories are sealed off. I cannot even remember how I came to be here."

"Wait... your memories are--"

"But this is not important. You enemies have sent a heartless out to destroy your friends. You must hurry to their aid, as they cannot defeat it without you."

"Flattering." I grumbled. "But Sora's got a Key too. I'm pretty sure that--"

"Now..." The woman, dubbed as the Lady of Light, threw up her hand and created a sort of... portal made of bright, shimmering, golden light.

"Wait... Seriously?! You can't just throw all of this on me and not even explain!"

"SCREEEEEEEEEEUUUGH!!" A loud hissing sort of cry, sounded from behind us.

I filched, turning back to pear into the infinite Darkness to see what I knew was approaching.

"You must leave, now." The woman's voice was urgent. "You will get your answers, when we meet again."

"But I don't even know--"

"SCRAAAAAAAAAGH!!!"

"Now!!" The Lady of Light grabbed me by the shoulder, and shoved my through the portal. The greatest inconvenience of my days was being tossed through the air twice now. Sadly, where I thought those would be my last times, I couldn't have been more incorrect as I went hurdling through the air, screaming my lungs out as I fell through an enormous room of pinks and whites. The place around me seemed full of three dimensional objects, put upon passing them, they all turned out to be false, drawn surfaces. I screamed harder when I noticed a large, round table below me, that I couldn't decipher as a real one or a flat 2D plain as I went rocketing towards it.

But I did manage to make out three little figures stood upon the tables top, scrambled about.

I plummeted, right into the arms of Sora who'd ended up crumpling, unable to support the weight of a girl who'd fallen from the sky.

"What the heck!?" Sora shouted, picking himself up.

"What is that???" I responded frantically, ignoring Sora's mild curses.

Erupting from below the edges of table was an enormous... Heartless. For lack of better terms, the thing was odd-- sporting doubled limbed, double jointed legs, that looked good for jumping. It was a mass of folded paper like arms that that did nothing more but absent mindedly juggled batons of fire about while stomping around the room.

The table beneath my butt, had suddenly vanished. My party happily went slamming right into the floor below.

I yelped in pain as I massaged the side of my face. Glancing around at my team mates, they looked a lot worse for wear. How long that they been dukin' it out with... whatever this guy was. I turned to look for the Heartless only find an enormous black shoe coming down upon the four of us.

"SCRAAAAM!!!" Donald shouted.

The four of us all leapt in opposite directions, narrowly missing getting squashed likes ants. I rolled to a halt and quickly got to my feet and summoned my Keyblade. I glanced about me, taking a mental note of where the boys all landed, before gazing up at the towering Heartless above.

"Can I ask?" I shouted. "What in the world is happening!?"

"Talk later." An unfamiliar voice sung. My eyes darted all around the expansive room in search of the one possessing the voice. It didn't take long to find a disembodied, floating cat head spinning around on the ledge of the gigantic fire place. Slowly, it came to a stop, looking directly at me before it's body, of deep purple and pink stripes came into existence before reclining in his spot-- a big grin spread long across his face. "Fight! For now that the gang is all here, the Heartless can be defeated."

"This was all a trick!" Sora shouted, as he rolled beneath an attack from the papery arms of the Giant Heartless boss.

"A trick??" The cat, who I quickly began to gather was the Cheshire, tutted. "Nothing of the sort. The Cheshire Cat is always here to help those in need."

Upon those words, the Giant Heartless rose it's firey buttons over its head. Spinning them in its hands, fire quickly began to manifest before he plunged his twirling weapons down upon our party as a wave of fire came surging directly at our quartet.

"Some assistance?" I could barely hear the cat's words as the four us screamed for our lives.

I almost hadn't realized the twinkling, magical aura that fluttered brightly around Sora and I. Too panicked to think I shoved my Keyblade out before me to block the oncoming attack. To my great surprise, a flurry of a blizzard shot from the tip of my Keyblade and swamped half of the Giant Heartless in ice and snow.

"Wak!!" Donald voiced. "You just did magic!!"

No kidding. I could really feel it too, as I suddenly felt completely drained. Much like the Heartless, half of my body from the right arm up and bit down to my waist was frosted over. I shivered aggressively with teeth chattering as I tried to find warmth, drawing back my key. Looking up, I watched as the Heartless shivered and twitched trying to recover from my spell.

"That was amazing, Yukari!!" Sora shouted, throwing a fist in the air.

"But incredibly dangerous!" Donald added. "If you're gonna use magic, you'll have to focus it. Channel it through your Keyblade. Don't just throw it around recklessly, or you'll burn yourself out."

"Yeah.." I nodded, shaking the cold away. Slicing my Key through the air, I could see it glitter with little flecks of frost. "Sora. We've gotta rely on magic to take it down." I said.

"I mean... I'll try." He said, ready his blade, looking determines regardless.

The Heartless, now somewhat recovered, groaned as he weekly took a step in our direction.

"Looks like that really did a number on it. Sora, follow my lead." I ordered. "Donald, can you back me up with some stronger ranged spells? We're gonna try and freeze it for good, but I think I used up most of my magic already...."

Donald nodded.

"Goofy, we're gonna need you in front to block his fire. Together we can take him down!"

"Yeah!!" The boys all shouted before we broke huddle and rushed into action.

Sora, Donald and Goofy and I rushed the big boss, with Goofy holding up the front. He bravely blocked fireball after fire ball, while we all ducked numerous oncoming swipes of his baton. I could tell it was getting annoyed with us by the way it started stomping around.

Donald held up the rear, casting spells that did more area damage than, to the Heartless-- which was outright perfect as Sora and I hit him with little blizzard spells as we darted around the thing’s ankles.

The Heartless began to slow, stopping in its tracks and, bending it's odd legs to their fullest as it crouched down low.

"It's gonna jump!!" Goofy shouted, breaking formation as he ran for any possible cover.

The four of us completely dispersed as it leapt high into the air, nearly hitting the ceiling of the room. It was then that a bright idea formed.

"Donald!!" I shouted. "Watch it's trajectory!! Aim you magic at where it lands. Sora!! Focus on the enemy, keeping firing your ice!!"

The boys did just as I'd ordered, casting magical cold spells all over the place. It was only when the thing came back down, that I had grown increasingly worried. Now completely frozen, the Heartless would only be good for a frosty explosion!!

"Duck and cover!!" I shouted, turning to run. Instantly I slammed into Sora and together we'd plopped into a heap on the floor, only to attempt to scramble back to our feet to get to safety.

"Firaga!!" I heard Donald shout as he and Goofy appeared ahead of us.

A big, blazing fire exploded from the tip of Donald's staff, right at the moment where the Heartless hit the floor and erupted into a explosion of snow and ice that, had it not been for Goofy’s shield, would have impaled us all.

For a good while, the frost hung in the air, obscuring our vision. But whence it cleared we found the heartless, frozen and in pieces. While no longer functioning, it had still not completely disappeared. Sora and I quickly disposed of the thing, sending off yet another one of those large, pink crystalline hearts that floated up into the air, before vanishing out of sight.

"Phew!" Goofy exclaimed, wiping his brow. "Glad that's over."

"Good, lord... What is all that racket?!" A voiced whined. I looked to find a talking door knob yawning sleepily. It's baggy eyes looking our party over with great distaste. "Do humor me a bit and tone down the brawl, could you? A door knob isn't to get any rest around here, he can't..."

The thing, finished off its sentence with a grand yawn, opening it's maw perfectly wide, and holding it just right for us to notice something beyond the depths of his... esophagus.

Suddenly both Sora's and my Key lurched towards the door, as if being controlled by some guided hand. Promptly, a beam of bright light shot from the tips of out blades and right into the door knobs mouth before dying away. A loud clunking noises sounded before the door knob could, conveniently close its mouth.

"What... was that?" Sora inquired.

"Sounded like something... locked." I suggested.

The four of us continued to gaze on as something fell from the door, and rolled onto the floor at Goofy's feet. To which he picked it up to inspect what looked like a sort of bright green rock.

"Ahyuck, it's a Gummi black!" Goofy explained.

"It's doesn't look like a normal piece tough. Let's have it here." Donald urged, as he took it from Goofy to look over himself. As he turned it in his hand, he hummed in thought, furrowing his brows. "Haven't seen one like this before..."

Clapping suddenly filled the air, cutting through our revelation. We all turned back to the newly appeared table that sat in the middle of the room to find the Cheshire cat, once more.

"Superb performance! You're powers certainly do bloom true, if I do say!! Keep it up and someday you'll be florist! I can't wait to see what you'll do next."

I frowned at such a poorly placed pun.

"Who are you, really, Cheshire cat?" Sora asked. The tone in his voice informed me that he'd met with this cat more than he'd liked to.

"Alice is neither here, nore there-- or available for any occasion." The cat echoed. It was only then that I realized that his body had phased out of existence, while his voice reverberated impressively around the great room. "She's past from this world to where I cannot speak... Borne off by the shadows, she has fallen to the darkness of obscurity. Perhaps, your feminine friend could shed some light upon your situation. Tip toeing around the truth will only get you thrown into deeper Darkness."

All of the boys' eyes landed on me as, I became the new subject of interest.

"Yukari... what's he talking about?" Sora asked. "Does this have something to do with why, Alice... didn't come back with you?"

He Donald and Goofy traded worried expressions. I bit my lip, now fearing what I'd been putting off. But if what they Lady of Light had said, about our enemies was true... then I suppose it was indeed time to tell the boys about the dreams.

"We should get back to the ship." I sighed. "There's... something I've been meaning to tell you."

To Be Continued

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#Kingdom Hearts #AR #KHAR

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