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thesugarsoiree · 8 months

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Savior Of Dragons | CHAPTER TWO

The years had been kind to Y/n Cargyll. The beginnings of her plan had started beautifully. It took a few months to amass a full suit of armor alongside a helmet to mask her identity as a woman, but once it was done the real fun began. She trained by herself, along the part of the coast where no one bothered to go because no fish lived there. She watched the boys train in the courtyards and watched the knights battle at tourneys. She bruised herself, fought with herself, but she always picked herself back up again. For five years she repeated this, fixing her armor and sword until she looked on par with a real knight of the seven kingdoms. She practiced manners and other forms of weaponry, collecting skills as fast as she could think of them.

Finally, Y/n said goodbye to her parents and her little brother who was born a few months after she had ‘arrived’. At least they wouldn’t be alone, although Y/n’s father did slap her when she told them she was going to leave. She set out on her journey to Dragonstone, a young 17 year old maiden with the willpower only a dead woman could possess.

So now here she was, in her sixth year on this journey of a dream and finally at the gates of Dragonstone. The massive stronghold was a sight, obsidian spires entering the clouds and dragon heads snarling down at her. Gaggles of people swarmed into the palace with her, excited for the day's tourney. The town right below Dragonstone was affluent and the Targaryens enjoyed paying them tribute; almost as much as they enjoyed watching the tribute. There was a tourney every few weeks to entertain the royals and the people; knights fighting and dying for the pleasure of the future Queen.

Y/n had fought in two so far, succumbing each time. Since then she had gotten better armor thanks to her job as a different blacksmith’s assistant and she had trained under real knights while in disguise. This time, Y/n was sure she would win.

“Ah, the prodigal son returns?” She felt a clap on her back as she entered the knights tent, shaking her head with a laugh.

“And he is ready to win, Harlik.” Y/n smiled but Harlik couldn’t see it, the northern knight putting on his own helmet.

“Sure, kid. That's what you said the last two times.” Harlik laughed, walking with Y/n.

“I’m sure of it this time, I can feel it.” Harlik laughed harder this time, holding onto his metal covered stomach as he practically crashed into her.

“Oh! Is that so? Well then fuck this tourney because we already have a winner, Ser Alren Cargyll of Shit’s Bottom!” Y/n shoved Harlik off of her, sighing.

“Suck a cock, Harl!” Y/n tsked, and she would never admit it but she enjoyed the way Harlik treated her. It made her feel welcomed, a part of something, like she wasn’t just some rookie knight who mistakenly wandered into Dragonstone. Twice.

“Aye, if I had the inclination I would but seeing as a cunt is so much better, I’ll stick with them.” He mused, shouldering Y/n with a snicker. A horn sounded from outside the tent and the rest of the knights put their helmets on.

“Let the games begin!” Harlik shouted, the knights hollering back as they made their way to the different arenas. Some were wrestling, others were sword fighting, but the bravest were jousting. The jousting was watched by the nobles while the other fights were left to entertain the small folk. Y/n had wormed her way into the jousting pit after convincing Harlik to put in a good word for her the last time.

So now here she was on a black mare with a black lance entering behind her opponent onto the field. The crowd cheered as they entered, her opponent being announced as, “Ser Bronn Torrent of House Torrent!”, a real knight unlike Y/n. She was introduced as, “Alren Cargyll of Kingslanding!”, nobody in the grand scheme of things. That's what everyone thought, anyhow.

Bronn galloped his way towards the royal family, offering his lance to the Lady Rhaena Targaryen, her sweet smile a contrast to her fathers solemn demeanor.

“My Lady, I ask for your favor to get me through the many fights I am to face on this day.” He grinned, his helmet comfortably on his lap. Rhaena placed her favor onto Bronn’s lance, a ring of silver sea-vipers falling gracefully to its hilt.

“I wish you good luck, Ser!” She waved, Bronn rounding to his end of the field. Y/n slowly approached the royal family, looking at them through the gap in her helmet. Daemon Targaryen sat beside Rhaenyra, her three sons nearer to Rhaena as they watched with bated breath what Y/n was going to do. She raised her lance towards the Princess and heir, the woman she came here for, the woman she would fight for.

“My Princess, I ask for your favor so that I may serve you with your blessing, and win on your behalf.” She spoke, bowing her head low. Daemon glanced towards Rhaenyra, the woman smirking in beguiled amusement.

“You wish for my favor, fair boy?” Rhaenyra asked, the crowd growing quiet.

“I do, your highness.” Y/n swallowed down her fear, looking back up at Rhaenyra’s piercing violet gaze.

“Prove yourself. Win this first round against Ser Bronn and I shall give you my favor.” Rhaenyra sat straighter in her seat. She would not give her favor to any common boy off the street, especially one she thought would not survive past round one.

“As you wish, Princess.” Y/n bowed, steeling herself as the crowds roared to life again. Once her and Bronn were settled and had their lances ready the overseer blew his horn and their horses took off. Y/n steadied her hand as Bronn came nearer but it was futile, both of their lances only grazing each other while the crowd’s awe’d in disappointment. Get it together! Y/n scolded herself, Bronn’s shining blue armor like a target that haunted her eyes. Y/n didn't have the money like he did to dye his metals, she wore pitch black armor that melted into her horse's coat; barely glinting against the glare of the sun.

They charged again and Y/n took a deep breath, closing her eyes and tightening her grip. She felt the impact of her lance on something hard, opening her eyes and looking back to see Bronn collapsed on the ground, his horse being wrangled by the tamers. He groaned, Y/n watching as he took off his helmet and called out for his squires. She silently cheered for herself, going back to where Rhaenyra sat and offering her lance again.

“Your highness, I ask again for your favor and one request. If I win all rounds of this tourney, I ask that you swear me in as one of your knights. I wish to serve and protect only you, my future Queen.” Y/n lifted up her eye coverings so that Rhaenyra could meet her gaze, the Princess looking down at the girl critically. The woman stood, taking out a ring of sweet-scented red and black roses. Rhaenyra tossed them onto Y/n’s lance, staying silent for a few moments.

“You have courage, asking for such a thing,” Rhaenyra congratulated, looking back at her husband who had not taken his eyes off of Y/n since she first asked for Rhaenyra’s favor.

“I accept. If you win against all of the opponents pitted against you I shall make you one of my sworn knights and you will be granted the ability to serve me.” Rhaenyra smirked, holding her hand out so that the crowd would quiet.

“We seem to have a brave boy in the ranks today! The rest of this jousting will be him against the knights of the seven kingdoms! Let the tourney begin!” The audience seemed to have no problem with this sudden change, screaming louder than Y/n had ever heard them scream before. She went back to her side and prepared herself, for this was going to be a long tourney.

Y/n, or as the crowds began to chant, Alren Cargyll was a force to be reckoned with. She had almost lost a few times but so far she had prevailed against each foe the Princess had pitted against her. In the current moment, however, Y/n began to doubt if she would win after all. Her and her final opponent, a six-foot-something knight from the Princess’ own guard, had knocked each other off of their horses and begun to fight on the ground. She had been handed a sword while her opponent took a hammer instead. Y/n was swift enough but he was well trained, it was to be expected. He had knocked her down multiple times but she always got back up before he could finish the job. Y/n hadn’t got too many hits on him yet, and her grip was beginning to become lax. She was beginning to become lax.

The screams of the crowd were mixed, some cheering for the man while others screamed for Y/n to get back up and fight. She rolled out of the way when he swung his hammer down, her head crashing against a pole that held up the jousting divider. Y/n barely had time to lift her sword to block his next attack, holding off the hammer mere inches from her face. Her opponent's helmet had come off ages ago but hers had yet to falter, his wild eyes and sadistic grin widening when her arms began to give out.

Shit. Was she about to die again? At a fucking tourney? Y/n gripped onto her sword harder, gritting her teeth as she did so. No, absolutely not. She was going to win, and she was going to save the entire fucking Targaryen family line while she did it. It was like a fire had been lit within her, Y/n kicking up her feet so that the man was tripped up. He faltered for a moment but that was all it took, Y/n tossing him over and throwing the hammer from his grasp. She took her sword and held it against his neck, panting as the crowd's ear splitting cheers rose for the final time that day.

Suddenly Y/n’s arm was grabbed and she was hoisted up, the overseer naming her the winner. Y/n stumbled her way back in front of the royal family, collapsing onto her knees. Only her sword held her up, Y/n’s head hanging low as she attempted to catch her breath. The crowd quieted and Y/n looked up to see Rhaenyra standing once more.

“May I present the newest knight of my guard, Ser Alren Cargyll!” The audience hoorahed, Y/n holding back tears.

She had done it. She had finally done it.

#x reader #x fem!reader #hotd x reader #house of the dragon #hotd #game of thrones #asoif/got #saviourofdragons

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justsomekpopstuff · 4 months

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ateez as a hockey team - part 3

A/N: When I say that hockey!ateez has been living in my head rent free for ages, I mean it. If you also enjoy hockey, or want to learn more, feel free to reach out!

current masterlist | fic recs

part 1 | part 2 | part 4

their team colors are red and black based on nothing but vibes

their team mascot can only be described as some sort of cowboy/pirate rapscallion type that matches their chaotic anarchist vibe

one game, both starting goaltender!Mingi and backup goaltender!Yeosang were taken out, meaning the team needed an emergency backup goaltender, or EBUG for short

No one on the team knew of anyone outside who they could call in to fill in their goaltender position, and the refs were about to make them forfeit the game. That's when they had the brilliant idea to take forward!Jongho, slap some goaltending gear on him, and put him in net because, by their definition "he's good at everything so he'll be fine". They ended up winning that game.

their first season as a whole team, at their very first practice, the whole team collectively decided that they needed to do some "bonding activities"

That "bonding activity" ended up being a Goaltender Joust. Starting goaltender!Mingi and backup goaltender!Yeosang got dressed in full gear, and were set to carry teammates on their backs and charge at each other like an actual joust, with hockey sticks as the lances. The first two to participate, based on size alone, were forward!Hongjoong, the captain, and forward!Wooyoung. How no one broke anything besides hockey sticks that day is a miracle that their managers cannot explain.

Despite being the backup, backup goaltender!Yeosang is the first goaltender on the team and in their league to score a goaltender goal

Goalie goals are incredibly rare, so when it happened the entire arena was in an uproar. Yeosang didn't even realize he had scored until the entire team barreled down on him and pretty much tackled him to the ice with joy. He swears to this day that he just meant to get the puck to the other side of the ice.

best tape job: forward!Seonghwa, who tapes with absolute precision and perfection before every single game

worst tape job: forward!Wooyoung, who tapes like a nightmare but he says it gets the job done

forward!Hongjoong got into his first official fight a few seasons in after a player from the other team started to get a little to violent with his younger teammates for his liking

He ended up winning the fight, but didn't expect what came next. The fight ended up going viral online because the player that Hongjoong had fought was quite a bit larger than him. It didn't help that someone made an edit of Hongjoong looming over this player during the fight with the "Troubled Birds" meme text that says "I'm three ounces of whoop-ass" over it. The team printed the meme photos out and got it framed in the locker room, and they always take one on the road. Defenseman!Yunho swears its for "good luck" and not because it makes him die laughing ever time he sees it.

when the three stars of the game are announced at home games, the players will throw one of three things into the stands - rabbit plushies, cowboy/pirate plushies, or foam swords (all are fan favorites)

defenseman!Yunho can no longer be mic'd up during games for behind-the-scenes content because the first and only time he did it, he was so loud he broke the microphone

forward!Jongho is known throughout the league as Hockey One-Punch Man

Everyone on the team already knew that Jongho was secretly freakishly strong, but the rest of the league had to learn the hard way. A player from the other team decided to "snow" backup goaltender!Yeosang and get up in his face, poking Yeosang with his stick rather aggressively. Jongho, in his fresh-faced rookie season glory, said "absolutely the fuck NOT" and skated over there to try and get the player to stop. The player then tried to tease and pick on Jongho instead like “oh you think you’re so scary”. That's when Jongho dropped the gloves just one-punched him and knocked the other player out cold. No one fucks with Jongho again, especially when they realized that he was punching with his RIGHT hand, and Jongho is LEFT handed.

The team is banned from doing many things on the road, including roughhousing in the hotel rooms, courtesy of defenseman!San and forward!Wooyoung

The particular ban around roughhousing was implemented very quickly into their second season while they were on the road, when everyone quickly realized that these two in particular were chaos incarnate when rooming together. It was late at night when the whole team's floor woke up to a very loud yelp of pain. Come to find out that the two of them were roughhousing, and San, completely on accident, broke Wooyoung's wrist. They were never allowed to room together again, and now forward!Seonghwa is in charge of bed-checks.

#ateez #ateez imagines #ateez drabbles #ateez reactions #my musings #seonghwa #hongjoong #yunho #yeosang #san #choi san #mingi #wooyoung #jongho

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celestialholz · 1 year

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Normal/Flying/Enigma - or 'Larry is a goddamn Christmas present, and here's what I found when I unwrapped him'

... Fucking Larry, huh? Mad guy. Absolutely unhinged set of pixels. He's got as many interpretations as days in the year - autism, depression, the working man stereotype, 'just a dude', to name a few - but... and I know this is a bold claim, but I think I've got him figured out. I've already meta'd him before on a smaller scale, and concluded that Mister Quiet, Calm and Collected here is actually a secret showman who loves crowd approval, so let's carry on.

Let's work our way under his skin, yeah? You just sit there and eat onigiri king, take a well-deserved break.

Let's start with the obvious: Larry has no clue who he is. He gives you the Facade TM, tells you he hopes you have no need to put on the same front as him, and then during his rematch says this on why he loves Normal types:

... Which is all well and good, right? Fair, valid, pretty regular guy - except oh no wait, hang on, he is literally the least ordinary trainer in this franchise.

This right here is a perfect example of the duality of Larry already, and we've just started. He's a showman, an exhibitionist in the Pokemon arena, and he duel-serves as Elite Four and gym leader.

Just to put that into context for those fans who are newer than my veteran ass, no one does that. Even those who got promoted later - Lance, Koga and Wallace, unless I'm forgetting anyone else - have never wielded two titles simultaneously. And even in their promotions, Lance, Koga and Wallace keep their damn types. They don't master a whole new one, at the highest of battling levels, on a goddamn whim because their boss said to. Whether he likes it or not, by the established standards of this series, Larry is a fucking genius. Even those with mixed teams don't hold type mastery to this degree. Whether or not you personally found him easy or difficult to defeat either time is not the point - literally, no one's doing it like he is. He trains four entire new team members, between his three jobs (because oh yeah, he's got another one), to the late fifties/early sixties in levels and acts like it ain't shit. That's endgame levels to anyone else, the culmination of their eighteen-badge journey or their literal years of training - for Larry, it's fucking LEISURE TIME. Man's doing this in front of Netflix.

... And we're supposed to believe he's NORMAL? And the thing is, I don't even think he's gaslighting us, at least not consciously - he genuinely believes this. This is his normal.

No wonder Geeta sticks him in the gym right next to Area Zero. 90% sure he could solo the place if you gave him a few hours to go and catch the right team. Don't even know what we're doing here, to be quite honest. Might as well go home and hug the Skwovet in my own lounge, the adorable little bastard. What the honest fuck.

My man, take a look in that mirror as you munch those delicious rice balls. There ain't a single thing regular about you. Larry seems to have no clue that his life is anything but standard - he walks around wearing a facade. His penultimate mon, which I've covered the significance of before with Flapple and Hassel (and with Larry himself here), is Staraptor, a lone wolf, who leaves the flock upon evolving to live alone, and yet his ace Flamigo only functions well in a group. Just a quick compare-and-contrast between the dex entries of them both here:

... Excuse me whilst I error 404. He's got so little clue who he is, even his team has personality conflicts.

Thing is, right... if he walks around wearing a facade, why does he? In fact, whilst we're on the subject of his team, why doesn't he take his clearly vacation-themed team ON A VACATION?

Look at these guys.

Palm trees, tropical birds, blue skies with clouds, and... well, Staraptor's clearly his favourite. Man's got a holiday-themed squad, which leads us to another core point:

Larry doesn't drown himself in work because he likes it, he does it because he doesn't have anything else.

Logically, Larry must make bank. We don't know what the gym leaders get paid - though for the first time, we know that they definitely do, thanks to this:

(Thank you for that little screenshot, @prince-kallisto. <3)

And not only does he get paid from this, but he's in the Elite Four - every sensible conclusion says that this man has to be one of the highest-paid trainers in Paldea. And he's got a third job that we don't even know about. Bearing in mind that every other adult NPC in this game seems to get along just fine with one or two jobs, I don't think we need to remotely worry about Larry's finances.

And he doesn't particularly like any of his jobs, so he doesn't do them for love... and if he doesn't take any time off, he must be drowning in potential time to take off...

So, why doesn't he go on holiday? Why does he drown himself in work he dislikes when he has no financial need to; why does he live a lie; why doesn't he find out who he is?

Well, there's only one thing that really connects all that together, isn't there?

Larry's life is a void because he's alone.

When people are lost, they throw themselves into work to find purpose. What's the point of going on holiday when you've got no one to go with? This man does embody a stereotype perfectly, but it's probably not the one you think. It's much simpler - 'money can't buy you happiness.'

He tells you about this loneliness himself, in a way.

Larry has normal and regular interests, in a world where he is anything but, and people only want to be surprised. No one gets him, whether because they're not on his battling level, or because he's too ordinary. And when no one gets you... how are you supposed to get yourself? However introverted we are, we experience ourselves partly through others. He has the Elite Four, who are 100% a found family, but... the problem with that is that they accept him at face value because they love him. Which is amazing and all, we adore that, but it means no one gets under his skin.

And the further problem of that is that he's no happier deep-down. And that's not on his colleagues, not at all. Rika is relaxed and easygoing, Poppy is a child, and Hassel... well, Hassel is drama, Hassel is married. Hassel has his own perfect love story already. Hassel has already seen someone a little bit like Larry before - directionless, depressed, unsure of his own self - and he went and promised him forever anyway. (Hello Brassius, I see you king. Be careful on that windmill.)

... And that... yeah, that's kind of the crux of it all. Larry needs him someone very much like Hassel; someone who sees through every layer of facade, someone who accepts. (... I realise this is me right now, and yes, I do volunteer as tribute. Come here, you beautiful fucking not-normal man. <3)

Essentially, what I'm saying is...

Larry needs a partner... and I don't mean another Pokemon one.

But, as sad a conclusion as that is... he's learning, by the end of your time with him.

(Can we talk about the chef lady in the background, by the way, who is ignoring her TikTok to listen to his conclusion? What a sweetheart.)

We've taught him to open himself up a bit, to start embracing the new and the different. We've started to help this man, and if that isn't the most worthy thing my Nuzlocke son Juan here has done in his adventure through Paldea that wasn't helping a sick dog, I don't know what is.

As much as they annoy us sometimes, happiness is other people. Other people who see your soul, and smile. Perhaps he doesn't even need a romantic partner... perhaps he just needs the world's best friend.

But whatever it is that he needs... let him go on holiday, Game Freak. Let him be him, and very happy because of it. Give him a Hassel who isn't Hassel, and a month off at a certain DLC festival to spend with them. Larry exists in a club of one - he's too talented in the same breath as he's too average.

(Personally, I think he should take Katy, but... hey, that's me and my vanillacupcakes agenda. And the fact her ace is a Normal type who likes dessert.)

#larryposting #elite four leader #gym leader larry #mentions of all sorts of souls including:#hassel #brassius #poppy #rika #geeta #katy #vanillacupcakeshipping #and even a dash of #ephemeralartshipping #because y'all know my MO #pokemon scarlet and violet #meta #... why does metaing this man ALWAYS MAKE ME SAD

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theteasetwrites · 1 year

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The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning

Chapter 95: Designation Two

❧ Pairing: Daryl Dixon x Female Reader ❧ Era: Season 11 ❧ Pronouns: she/her ❧ Warnings: mild language, violence ❧ Word Count: 8k

❧ In This Chapter: Everyone gets taken, including you. The Commonwealth has special plans for you, however, and Daryl has plans of his own, all of which involve getting you back.

❧ A/N: Um so it's been a little while. Lots of things have happened since I posted the last chapter. The finale of TWD premiered, I got to see the majority of the main cast in person in Los Angeles, Thanksgiving happened, I started my new job, and I kind of sort of got pissed off because someone didn't like that the reader was a vegetarian lol it's been a wild week. But please don't let any of that get in the way of enjoying this new chapter! I hated replacing Connie with this little side plot, but we also love to see Daryl being a knight in shining armor so I think it's okay. We still stan Connie. <3

They took everyone.

Ezekiel, Princess, Negan, Annie, Magna, Rosita, Gabriel, Maggie, Connie, Kelly… You, and the kids, everyone.

Daryl had been waiting for you at the designated spot, where he prepared the wagon with the last of your belongings, along with Judith, RJ, and Dog.

They took him by surprise, no doubt knowing he would be the hardest to get. Daryl never went down without a fight, but this time, his fight wasn’t good enough.

Four men were sent to deal with him, two of which got away with both the children (and even Dog) while the other two engaged in a heavy tussle with the patron of the Dixon family, resulting in the deaths of both men, but not before the children were already taken away.

Only Daryl and Carol had avoided capture, and when Carol found Daryl, their only option was to seek the help of the maligned former deputy governor of the Commonwealth, Lance Hornsby.

Locked away in a heavily guarded prison cell, Hornsby promised to lead them to where you and the others had been taken, and when he outlived his usefulness, having revealed that following the train tracks outside of the Commonwealth would lead to the missing people, Carol killed him.

Of course, you had no idea about all that. All you knew now was that you were shrouded in darkness, with a burlap sack over your head as you awoke.

You were sitting, but you were moving. It’d been a long time since you were in a moving vehicle, so long that it didn’t even register to you at first. When your eyes finally shot fully open, you shook your head to knock off the sack, and it was still dark, but there was a dim light coming from the headlights and the brake lights. You were in the back of a military vehicle, probably one of the vans the Commonwealth Army used. In the darkness, you could just barely make out three others, all with sacks over their heads, too. You could barely see over the front seats, but there were two soldiers there, one driving, the other looking aimlessly out the window into the darkness outside.

When you tried to move your hands, you quickly realized they were tied. It felt like a zip tie, but you couldn’t be totally sure—they were behind your back.

The last thing you remembered the most clearly was being separated from Robin and Westley, and after that, your senses were dulled from the burlap sack over your head, though you recalled a sharp prick in the base of your neck, where they’d injected you with some kind of anesthesia.

It could’ve been days since then for all you knew, and wherever they were taking you, it probably wasn’t good. You weren’t going to stick around to find out.

What mattered most now was finding the others, finding the kids, finding Daryl. You couldn’t even let yourself think too hard about what might’ve happened to them, lest you break down and start crying. No, you had to get out of here. That was the first thing, then you could go looking for them, and then you could grieve, if you needed to.

“Hey,” you whispered to the others, trying not to catch the attention of the soldiers. “I’m gonna get us out of here.”

One of the other captives sat up straight, seemingly in response to you. “(Y/N)?”

You recognized that voice, it was Heather, Robin’s former teacher from Alexandria, and the mother of Emily, your former student. “Heather… Just follow my lead. I’ve got a plan. Kind of.”

The plan you had developed in the meantime was primitive, but it could work. You just had to believe it would.

“Hey,” you called out to the soldiers up front. The one in the passenger seat turned to look at you through the cage that separated you from him. “I need to go to the bathroom.”

The driver scoffed. “That’s too damn bad,” he called back. “No one gets out till we get to Outpost 22.”

You paused for a moment, thinking of anything you could say to get them to stop. “If you don’t let me out,” you said, “I’ll pee all over this van.” It was a sentence you’d never thought you’d say out loud to a stranger, but then again, it wasn’t too far off. You’d just given birth, and your bladder wasn’t as strong as it used to be.

“Shit,” you heard one of the soldiers mumble under his breath. The van came to a slow halt, and you sighed a little in relief, though the hard part was coming up.

The soldier in the passenger seat opened the door and slammed it shut, shaking the van. From the front seat, you could hear the other soldier speaking into the walkie. “One of them’s gotta piss,” he said. “Keep the convoy movin’, we’ll catch up in a few minutes.”

It wasn’t lost on you that these two soldiers most definitely had powerful automatic weapons, but you also were confident you could wrestle with one and snatch his gun before the other could notice. Well, you weren’t really too confident, but it was worth a shot.

The back doors of the van opened thunderously, causing Heather and the other two captives to flinch at the sound, while you squinted desperately to see beyond the burlap. You could just barely make out a figure approaching you in the darkness, until he ripped off the burlap sack and grabbed your arm to escort you out of the van.

“Hurry up,” he said, pushing you out until you hopped onto the ground below.

You scoffed, wiggling your hands in the confinement of the zip tie. “How am I supposed to pull my pants down with my hands tied?” you asked.

The masked soldier tilted his head and huffed. You could tell you were pissing him off, but it was now or never.

He went behind you to loosen the zip tie, pulling it off your wrists. “It’s going back on when you’re done,” he said. “Try to run and I’ll shoot you.”

“I’m not going to run,” you said, and it wasn’t a lie. You really weren’t going to run. You were going to fight, even if it would’ve been smarter to run. Sometimes, life requires stupid decisions.

“Good,” he replied, stepping back. “Now hurry up, lady.”

You swallowed hard, rubbing the rash on your wrist from the zip tie as you thought of the next move. It occurred to you then that the soldier was staring at you, not allowing you any kind of privacy in which to relieve yourself.

You turned to face him. “Do you mind?” you asked. “I can’t go with you watching me.”

For a moment, you feared the man would refuse to allow you privacy, but, to your immense relief, he slowly turned around, facing his back to you. “I don’t get paid enough for this shit,” he said.

With a deep breath, you wasted no more time. Lunging at the man’s back, you tackled him with all your might, wrestling him to the ground as you tried to take his gun. You were able to quickly yank off his helmet before grabbing the gun and bashing the stock against his head until he seemed to lose consciousness. Powered by adrenaline, you pried open the back of the van, without even thinking of the other soldier, who you hadn’t noticed was no longer in the driver’s seat.

You quickly untied Heather and the others, two men you didn’t recognize, but who must’ve been other citizens of the Commonwealth. “Let’s go,” you said.

Heather’s eyes widened as she peered over your shoulder. “Behind you!”

You turned with the gun held high, but before you could shoot, the other soldier already fired several rounds into the two men, and then one into Heather.

It all happened so fast, but you lunged behind one of the seats, about ready to raise your gun to shoot back.

Before the next shots could be fired, you heard the voice of the soldier you’d knocked out. “Don’t shoot her!” he said. “She’s designation two!”

Designation two?

You looked over your shoulder to see Heather’s body bleeding out, the blood pouring from her lower abdomen, the life already drained from her eyes. You huffed a deep breath, processing another death of an Alexandrian. The gun in your hands wouldn’t be enough to take down the guards. They were heavily armored, and you knew from examining Daryl’s Commonwealth uniform that it was nearly bullet proof, except for the spaces in between the armor plates where only fabric covered the skin, but it was too dark to aim properly, and you were too exhausted to focus.

You felt the van rock as the two men slowly climbed up into the cabin, with one saying, “Stand up. We won’t shoot.”

Fat chance, you thought.

If they weren’t going to shoot you, they were going to do something with you, and whatever “designation two” was, you didn’t want to stick around to find out. You wanted to find your child and your newborn. They needed you. Daryl would be fine on his own, wherever he was, though you hoped he was somehow with Robin and Westley. If he wasn’t, he was looking for them, and you. Worst case scenario, he was dead, but if you knew Daryl, and you were pretty sure you did, you knew that he was a hard son of a bitch to kill.

You, on the other hand, weren’t so tough.

When you stood to aim your gun at the two guards, one was quicker this time. The barrel of his rifle smacked you across the head, knocking you to the floor of the van. You were just barely still conscious, with hazy eyes as you watched the guards close the back door of the van. Wherever you were going, you’d have no idea where you were until you woke from the uncomfortable slumber you soon fell into. It was daylight outside when you awoke, hands tied once again, and now in the backseat of a jeep, driving alongside some train tracks.

Hornsby’s lead had taken them to the train tracks, somewhere quite far outside the Commonwealth, but Daryl wasn’t entirely focused on the distance now, since wherever his family was, it wasn’t in the Commonwealth.

He and Carol watched from the cover of the woods that morning, Daryl with his binoculars as his eyes scanned the scene. A train had just arrived, stopping on the tracks. With each guard standing around, he counted.

“There’s six of ‘em,” he said to Carol. Just then, another train arrived, with several Commonwealth Army vehicles on it. Soldiers shouted indistinguishably to each other, barking orders as the second train came to a halt.

“Think we can follow it without them seeing us?” asked Carol.

Daryl lowered the binoculars for a moment. “We hang back far enough, we’ll be fine.”

Then the sound of a much smaller engine, and Daryl raised the binoculars to look towards the mechanical gurgle. From his view, he could see one Commonwealth soldier in uniform, driving the topless jeep, and a man he didn’t recognize sitting behind in regular clothes, but his hands were untied—he must’ve been with them, Daryl figured.

In the passenger seat, it was hard to see past the bulky Commonwealth armor adorning the guard driving the jeep, but there was someone there, too, and on top of their head was a familiar white beanie, with a poof on top. He’d gotten you one just like it as a birthday present one year, when you said you needed more hats. You loved that hat, he loved when you wore it. You were wearing it before he left to meet up with you, before his plan went awry.

The man in the back seat jumped up to grab the passenger’s arm, and the soldier stood up to circle around and grab the other one. Daryl knew now. Well, he knew from the minute he saw that hat poking out over the soldier’s silhouette, but he didn’t want to believe it. Maybe a part of him did, just because he wanted you to be alive, and now he knew that you were, but your wrists were held together with zip ties, no doubt so tight they’d leave a bruise or even break the skin. Your face looked tired, confused, scared… All feelings he had always tried his best to never let you feel.

There was a bruise on the side of your face where you’d been hit, and that disturbed him the most. It made him instinctively tighten every muscle as his heartbeat began to race until it felt as though it would burst from his chest, grow wings, and fly to you.

The soldier and the other man pulled you to another soldier, and the men all proceeded to talk, though it came across as only a murmur.

“They got (Y/N),” Daryl breathed, without moving his gaze from you. “They got my wife.”

His hands grew weak, handing the binoculars to Carol. As soon as she lowered them, searching through her bag to pull out a walkie talkie, Daryl snatched them back. He brought them to his eyes once more, just to study every single detail of the scene in case it would prove to be what he needed to get you back.

Carol switched through several channels on the walkie until a man’s voice surfaced over the grainy static of the radio. “Guy’s saying I have to put an exile on here,” he said. “It’s a cargo transport and against regs. Over.”

Another man’s voice replied. “It’s been cleared from up on high. She’s not gonna be a worker, she’s designation two.”

“Oh, shit,” the other man replied.

“Yeah, exactly.”

“Get her there safely.”

“Copy that.”

Daryl’s heart pounded against his tight, strained chest. He had no way of knowing what “designation two” meant, but all he knew was that you weren’t safe, and that you belonged in his arms, not being loaded onto a train that would take you to God knows where. Daryl believed in simplicity, and what he didn’t need to know was of no consequence to him. He just needed to know that you were all right, and he needed you with him, in arm’s reach. If he didn’t have that, there was something very, very wrong.

“What’s designation two?” asked Carol, though Daryl couldn’t even think to answer that question.

What was going on in his head at that moment was much more practical. He needed to find the kids, but he needed to get you out of the hands of the Commonwealth, too. It was an impossible decision, one that he couldn’t really make, but it was clear what he needed to do. He needed to do what you would want him to do, and though you couldn’t see him looking at you from afar, watching you as your captors pushed you around and manhandled you far too much for Daryl’s liking, he could tell that you were thinking about the children, about your baby.

That was the most pressing matter, and as much as he wanted to pick up his crossbow and wipe out every son of a bitch who touched you, he knew that wasn’t a valid option, and that he’d be dead in a matter of seconds. Still, it sounded good, even if he died doing it. At least he’d die for you, even if he was being stupid.

“We can’t go get her,” he said after a while of thinking. “They’ll radio ahead. We won’t find the kids.”

“Hey,” Carol replied. “We’ll hang back, and we’ll follow it to the others, and we’re gonna bust ‘em out all at once.”

As much as Daryl wanted to listen to that rational voice in his head, the one that kept him from getting killed, he still couldn’t shake the feeling that he needed to find you as soon as possible. That might’ve not quite aligned with his words, or his brain, but it was what his heart wanted. Every inch of his body was at war with itself. As usual, you made his heart beat so loud he couldn’t hear himself think anymore. Still, he would try.

So much for trying.

Before the train got too far ahead, Daryl and Carol took out a few soldiers and hijacked their jeep, using it to follow the train on its way to wherever it was going, with you on it.

When the train had gone where the jeep couldn’t follow, they got ahead of it, driving at full speed to reach a junction in the tracks that the train hadn’t hit yet. There was a barn and some farmland nestled not too far from the tracks, where they staked out. The train was surely going to stop there, and surely that would be the time to attack.

“Train’s gonna hit that junction,” said Carol. “We should just sit tight till it does.”

Daryl scoffed under his breath. He’d grown impatient, his own emotions and fears getting ahead of that practical statement he’d made. Finding the kids first was important, and he stood by that, but the longer he thought of what could be happening to you on that train, the more antsy he became.

“I don’t think I can do that,” he said, heading back towards the jeep to load up his bow. Carol called out to him, but he had already gotten in the driver’s seat, huffing and puffing as he tried to get a hold of his emotions. He’d known what it was like to be in this position. It was dangerously close to what happened a year ago, when he thought he really had lost you.

Now, he knew you were alive, but any minute now, that could change. What if you tried to escape, and they shot at you? He didn’t even want to think about that, but he knew you, and he knew that you’d do anything to find those children. Not just yours, but Judith and RJ, too, and all the others, as surely there were other children that had been taken too.

Carol had joked once that you were the “godmother” for every child in Alexandria, that you were the most motherly person she knew. You had always found this statement ironic, since you never even cared for children that much until you had grown to love every child that was part of your family, and at this point, you had a very big family. All of Alexandria, really.

Daryl knew this, too. It worried him, how you’d sacrifice yourself for so many people, but then again, he’d do the same. For two people who, on the surface, were so different from each other, you were a lot alike.

His hands tapped nervously on the steering wheel, his breath still deep and shaky as he tried to control himself for a moment. Carol’s voice cut through his thoughts, though not even the voice of an old friend could comfort him now.

“When I saw her get on that train,” she said, “and I saw the door shut, I thought the same thing that you did.”

He huffed another anxious, impatient breath. “What’s that?”

There was a beat of silence as Carol thought whether or not to say what she was thinking. After all, Daryl had never vocally forgiven her for what had happened last year, but it was an unspoken agreement that he wouldn’t bring it up again. In fact, he’d never even brought it up with you, not since the night you returned home. It was difficult for him to deal with that again, thinking you were really gone. As much as he hated to admit it, he still couldn’t quite look in Carol’s eyes the same way he once did. She’d betrayed his trust so much during that time, and her carelessness had nearly gotten you, Magna, and Connie killed. Three people that Daryl was responsible for, that he cared about, and one that he loved.

“The cave,” she said.

The lump in his throat swelled so much he couldn’t speak, though a part of him wanted to silence Carol right then and there. As far as he was concerned, she had no right to bring that up to him. Whether or not she felt sorry for what she’d done, he didn’t want to hear it. It was the worst day of his life. No amount of death he had experienced could have prepared him for losing you, even if he had never actually lost you. It was too close, too real.

“Do you remember what Kelly said,” Carol continued, “the minute they were gone?”

He had to think on it for a little while, since just about everything after that cave swallowed you up was a blur, and maybe it was self-preservation, but he wanted to forget that day. Nothing good came of it, and his body had never ached so much in his entire life. He swore he felt his soul leave when he thought you were gone, and when he almost died, bleeding out in that abandoned auto shop, he just wanted to be with you again, even if that meant never taking in another breath of air again. Air was nothing to him if you weren’t breathing it, too.

But just then, he remembered—“We can’t save them if we’re dead,” he said.

“She’s your wife. We can play this however you want, but if we go it alone, we might be making the same mistakes again… We might not be able to save her.”

It took him a moment to regain clarity, but he eventually let his breath go, and nodded ever so slightly. “All right.”

But it wasn’t all right. When Daryl had heard the whirring of a nearby motorcycle, he and Carol followed the sound, hoping to get some answers from whatever Commonwealth soldier was most likely on that bike.

When they got there, they didn’t just find a soldier, but Maggie. She’d knocked out the soldier, but also stabbed him in the side of his chest, just between the armor plates. Of course, Daryl was relieved to see Maggie, but his focus for the time being was doing one thing he knew he could do quite well: interrogating.

In the barn back at the group’s stakeout point, Daryl had lugged the unconscious soldier. He was bleeding profusely, with deep red pouring from his mouth and onto the bright white chest plate that Daryl himself once wore. As he lifted the half-awake soldier to his feet, trying to get him fully conscious again, he felt a bit of empathy, like he could’ve easily been in this man’s shoes, too, if only he had followed the rules.

But then again, it would be against his nature to follow rules he didn’t agree with. Sure, Daryl wasn’t opposed to following orders. It was one thing the Commonwealth had said would make him a good soldier, his loyalty. They didn’t know him well enough, though. They didn’t know that Daryl’s loyalty had limits. Some people just didn’t deserve his loyalty, and whatever loyalty he ever had to the Commonwealth, it was really loyalty to his family.

His family was the only reason he cared to fight for the Commonwealth army. Promises of good pay and good housing were the only incentives that encouraged him to keep putting on that stupid uniform. He was never proud of it, never bonded with his co-workers or spent time getting to know them outside of work. Maybe he would’ve known this man if he bothered to remember anyone’s face, but whenever he had that uniform on, he tried to separate himself from the armor.

When his body hit the hard, corrugated metal wall, his eyes shot open just before he sank down to the ground, coughing up more blood. Daryl let go as he knelt down beside the injured man.

“Let me see,” he said, lifting the chest plate to reveal the bloody wound where Maggie had stabbed him near the armpit. It was a bad puncture wound, and he’d lost so much blood already that there was most likely no chance of helping him.

Still, he was alive right now, and if he knew anything about what they planned on doing to you, and if he knew exactly where the kids were, and the rest of his people, he’d make sure the last moments of this man’s life were put to some kind of use.

“You’re runnin’ out of time,” he said, low and gravelly, as usual, but somehow soft enough to convey whatever empathy he had for the dying soldier. His voice and gaze grew even softer as he thought of what to say next. In a matter of seconds, he became so vulnerable, desperate for help. The lives of the people he cared about most might depend on the flickering light of life in front of him.

What he next sounded more like begging than he had intended, but he couldn’t pretend he wasn’t desperate now. After so many times of almost losing you, and now maybe losing his children, he couldn’t bear the thought of it. Not another minute could be spent not looking for you.

“I’m gonna ask you to please,” he said, “do somethin’ good… with the time you have left.”

The soldier shifted as he coughed up more blood, holding the wound all the while.

“Where’s that train goin’?” His voice was calm, not at all filled with anger. Maybe several years ago, he would’ve had the energy to scream and yell, to start off the interrogation with brute force and physical assault, but right now, at this precise moment, there wasn’t any aggression. At least, there wasn’t enough to allow him to raise his voice. Maybe the more the soldier ignored him, the more forceful he’d get, but for now, all he could see in his head was you—alone, scared, hurt.

“They put my wife on it,” he said, as the soldier still remained silent, despite a few grunts and coughs. “Said she was ‘designation two.’ What’s that mean?”

The soldier coughed again, then closed his mouth tight, avoiding Daryl’s gaze. He should’ve taken advantage of Daryl’s relative kindness, because his patience wasn’t going to last forever.

Still, he only sighed a bit, and continued to speak in that hushed voice. It felt odd, since this tone was usually reserved for people he loved deeply. People like you, and Robin, and now his son. He just couldn't shake you from his mind.

You would’ve been proud of him, he supposed. He wasn’t immediately resorting to harshness and violence to get the information from him. As he thought of what you might’ve done next, he recalled that you always tried to find common ground with people, to find a way to show empathy. Maybe now was a good time to try that approach.

“Y’know, I was like you once,” he said, still so quiet, soft-spoken, and yet confident that he could get something out of him. He had to believe it. “I joined the force… ‘Cause my family needed money.”

Inexplicable guilt rushed over him then, and he averted his gaze, as if in shame. He’d had to do many things he didn’t want to do, taken dirty money he didn’t want, but he did it for you and the kids, so at least he could say he was living for love.

“M’guessing that’s your story, too,” he said.

The soldier still didn’t say a thing, just breathed heavily, slightly wheezing as his blood grew colder. Daryl’s patience was close to running thin, and as he stood back up to his feet, he examined the soldier with almost a look of disgust. He couldn’t believe he’d wasted his feelings on someone who couldn’t care less about his plight. So much for empathy.

“They took my kids from me,” he said, his voice growing louder, more impassioned. Energy began to rise up in the pit of his stomach, adrenaline pumping through him. The next sentence came out in almost a yell as angry desperation took hold of him. “And I want ‘em back.”

He could feel the tether inside him snap when the soldier still didn’t respond. He figured he’d been good enough, and you’d be proud of his restraint, but he had his limits, and he’d reached it.

“You hear me?!” That guttural, raspy exclamation echoed slightly between the walls of the abandoned barn. Daryl’s foot simultaneously rammed into the soldier’s side, jolting him back and forth as he grimaced and grunted in pain.

“Train’s gonna be here soon,” Carol’s voice came from behind. Daryl turned to see her joined by Gabriel, who must’ve found them.

“That’s all right,” he replied, “we can hurry.” He pulled one of his knives from the holder on his belt, lazily brandishing it, but holding it tight. “You wanna die quick… or you wanna die screamin’?”

If Gabriel hadn’t stepped in, that soldier would’ve known just how serious Daryl was, but the priest knew the man, and was able to get through to him more than Daryl could’ve.

When Gabriel had so eloquently and gently struck the fear of God into the soldier, he finally talked. He said that the “exiles” were being taken to a labor camp, but he wasn’t sure of the exact location, and that they’d need to follow the train in order to get there. It wasn’t much, but it was something.

And then, when the soldier turned to look at Daryl, he felt his heart sink. No good news could come from a dying man with that look in his eyes, a look of… pity.

“I’ve only heard rumors about designation two,” he said, choking on his blood and tears. Daryl shifted uncomfortably, yet tried to keep his cool and listen intently to whatever the dying man had to tell him. “They’re taken somewhere far away… They’re never seen again.”

Without hesitating another moment, Daryl got to thinking. There was no way he’d let that train go past the junction with you on it, especially not now. The conflict was that stopping the train to rescue you would cause the Commonwealth soldiers on it to radio in and inform the outpost that they’d been attacked. In that case, it’d be much more difficult to find the children and the other “exiles.”

Carol, as usual, had a plan, and all you heard were gunshots.

The train had stopped at a junction, you supposed. You knew trains pretty well, having taken them back and forth to visit home from college. Those were different, much nicer, trains, and you’d never heard gunshots from inside the Amtrak observation car.

At first, you figured it was routine walker slayings, but your common sense told you that soldiers wouldn’t waste their bullets on a few walkers. In that case, it had to have been many walkers, or people. Now, you’d killed many walkers with a gun before, and you’d never had to shoot in such rapid fire succession. These gunshots were going back and forth, the sounds coming from all different directions, and there were hardly even a few seconds between each shot.

“What’s happening?” you asked the Commonwealth soldier in charge of you. He had his head poking out the car door, the last car in the train.

When he ignored you, you stood from the makeshift seat. Thank God your hands weren’t ziptied anymore, and you could now use them to grab the soldier’s shoulder, demanding an answer. You were now, for lack of a better word, cranky. Your whole family had been kidnapped, you had no idea what was going on, and you had a real bitch of a headache.

You’d also just given birth, lest you forget.

“Hey,” you said, trying to peer past the man’s shoulders. “What’s all that—”

Something shifted in the air, and you were suddenly no longer important enough to “keep safe.” The soldier forcefully turned you around and grabbed your arm as his other hand reached for his pistol. “Shut up,” was all he said.

The gunshots seemed to cease then, but you had a gun held to your head. It was hardly a relief.

Without a choice, you hopped out of the train car in the arms of the soldier, disoriented and still trying to get used to standing after so long of sitting. Your legs felt a bit numb, but they kept you upright as the soldier frantically turned his body and yours every which way, as if looking for something.

Your mind was both racing and completely blank, as every thought you conjured was too jumbled up to make any sense of, until the sound of leaves crushing and the feeling of a presence behind you alerted the soldier, turning the both of you around.

Daryl.

He held one of the Commonwealth standard-issue rifles up high, ready to shoot. Despite your wriggling and attempts to throw your head back and hit the soldier, he managed to keep his arm tight around you, with the gun still to your head.

Daryl’s silvery blue eyes were locked onto the soldier as he kept the gun at eye level, not backing down. He had his crossbow strapped to his back, too, and a look you recognized as unbridled aggression.

“Drop it,” demanded the soldier, while Daryl’s mind raced to catch up with the situation. He was looking at you for a moment, breathing heavily and searching your face for all the answers. “Drop it!”

He leaned down slowly, letting the gun fall to the ground as he raised his hand in subtle surrender, eyes almost pleading as they locked onto the soldier.

“Crossbow, too.”

He lifted the bow from his back, dropping it next to the gun. As the soldier’s grip tightened, you found your hands grasping as his arm, trying to pry it off, but to no avail.

“You took out that antenna, hm?”

Now, both of Daryl’s hands were up, but his body looked about ready to lunge forward, rocking anxiously back and forth.

“Yeah,” he replied shortly.

“You cut the wire or you shut it off?”

You weren’t entirely sure why he bothered to ask Daryl how he disturbed the radio communication, but you supposed that as long as you were both alive, for the moment, that was a good thing.

Daryl’s eyes trailed to yours again, and he remained silent, only trying to communicate with you through the comforting softness in that look he gave you. There was something practical behind those eyes, too, as he thought about what on Earth he was going to do next.

You realized that there wasn’t really anything Daryl could do now, and that you needed to take matters into your own hands for a moment. It might’ve been a risk, but if you threw your arm up and behind you with enough strength, you could momentarily dislodge the gun from the soldier’s hand.

“Answer me!”

Without another thought, you lifted your arm and pushed back against him, knocking him backwards and disorienting him, until his arm swung back, intentionally backhanding you with enough strength to knock you to the ground.

Without a gun, the soldier retreated back into the train car, while you rolled back over onto your back, catching your breath. The next thing you saw was Daryl standing over you, leaning down as his fingerless-gloved hands drifted down to gently touch your face. “You okay?” he asked.

Honestly, you barely had any idea where you were. You hadn’t known where you were for about twenty-four hours now. Still, you reached up to touch his arms with both hands, as if grasping for the only thing you could really make sense of. He was standing right in front of you, the best thing you’d ever seen. “Yeah,” you huffed, nodding hard.

He stood back straight, letting his hands slide into yours before turning to follow the soldier, not wanting to risk him getting away. Well, and he held a gun to your head, and hit you. Now it was personal.

When you got to your feet, with the help of Carol, you caught a glimpse of the soldier hijacking one of the Commonwealth motorcycles, driving off. Daryl jumped on one, too, following behind.

Maggie and Carol had taken the train conductor hostage, taking him to the barn in the hopes that seeing the now dead Commonwealth soldier would inspire him to help supply information. You stayed outside the barn, waiting for Daryl. Maybe that was a selfish decision, but you hadn’t found yourself wanting to hug anyone more than you wanted to hug Daryl right now.

Leaning against the side of the barn, you perked up when the roar of the engine approached. Daryl looked rather dashing to you, the wind blowing his wavy, chestnut-colored hair back to show his stoic face, but the closer he got to you, the more a smile seemed to creep up. It was slow, and very subtle, but you knew his face so well that you could identify every nook and cranny under a microscope.

You walked forward as he kicked the stand of the bike before turning it off, then he nearly tripped over himself as he hopped off of it, fast-walking to you.

With a laugh, you accepted his big hug, and felt him lift you a few inches off the ground with a grunt. Your arms squeezed him tight as you rested your chin on his shoulder, taking the moment to close your eyes and just feel him hold you close. Everything else might’ve been wrong, but at least you had one thing that felt so right again.

“Thought I wasn’t gonna see ya again,” he said over your shoulder, his voice low and melancholy. When he pulled away, still keeping his body tight against yours, he cupped your cheeks with his cool fingertips, and he could feel the skin of your cheeks pulling as you smiled wide at him.

“You know we’re stuck together,” you said. “Whether you like it or not.”

His eyes only left yours for a few moments to scan behind you, and you knew he was making sure no one was around to see him show whatever affection he had in store for you. When you caught a glimpse of the deep pink blush forming on his cheeks, you let out a hushed giggle, but you didn’t want to embarrass him too much, even if he looked incredibly cute.

His hands cupped your cheeks tighter, pulling you close to him until he could kiss your lips. It was a simple kiss, but it lingered for a while, until he pulled away with a soft, boyish smile, and let the tip of his button nose rub back and forth against yours.

“You’re like a schoolboy,” you laughed, unable to keep yourself from poking a little loving fun at him. “Why are you giggling?”

He scoffed and lowered his head, still with that adorably crooked smile that brought so much youth back to his face, not that he really needed it. He aged so gracefully that you were almost jealous of him. Forty-eight years old, and yet he really didn’t look much different than when you first met him, besides the longer hair and the scar on his cheek. The few little wrinkles and crow’s feet he had were endearing and accentuated his handsome face well. His skin was perfect, really. You chalked it up to good genes, he chalked it up to you taking such good care of him.

One hand left your cheek to straighten your hat, the beanie he’d gotten for you. His eyes did a few circles around your face, admiring the glow you always seemed to have whenever he was around.

“I got you back,” he said.

“My hero.”

The blush on his cheeks darkened ever so slightly, but he tried to distract from it by busying himself with examining the bruises on your face. You’d been hit in the face twice now. Though you felt lucky to get away with such minor injuries, Daryl’s smile turned to a concerned frown.

“You in any pain?” he asked. “You wanna sit down, drink some water?”

Bless his heart.

The only thing about being on missions with Daryl was that he often worried about you a little too much, when he should’ve been worrying about other things. In that way, you supposed you were a bit of a distraction, but that was Daryl’s fault, not yours.

“I’m fine, sweetie. What about the kids? Do you know where they are? Have you found them?”

He froze for a moment, prolonging the inevitable answer. “No,” he said, his hands now rubbing the sides of your arms up and down, wrinkling the fabric of your windbreaker. “We’re still tryin’ to find exactly where everybody is.”

Your heart sank. Though you knew it was unlikely, there was a glimmer of hope inside you that Daryl and the others had somehow found the children, that you’d be able to see Robin and Westley again.

Robin was six, only a month away from turning seven. She was smart, but she was vulnerable. Westley even more so. He was a newborn, incapable of surviving on his own at all. He needed his parents, he needed you, especially. A mother’s milk could run dry without an infant to drink it.

Daryl knew this, and he saw the worry and fear well up in your eyes, though you lowered your head, trying to hide it. He lifted your chin as he spoke softly, barely above a whisper. “Hey,” he said. “S’gon’ be all right.” He pulled you back into his arms, forcing your face against his warm, inviting chest. Your hands grasped at his shoulder blades, nestled behind his angel wings. “We’re gonna get them back. We’re gonna get them back, and they’re gonna be just fine.”

You sniffled, holding back a few tears. “Westley…”

“He’s all right,” said Daryl, not knowing if that was true or not, but he’d say anything to ease your mind, to get you to focus on finding the kids instead of mourning them.

You shook your head. “He’s just a little baby.”

“And he’s a Dixon, so is Robin,” he reminded you, pulling away again to meet your eyes. “Dixon’s can handle anything… even the lil’ ones.”

You laughed through your tears, nodding with his statement. “What about a… Dixon-by-marriage? Can they handle anything?”

His lips quirked into a small smile, the kind of soft, warm smile that had lulled you to a deep, lovely sleep many times before. “Course they can. They’re tougher than a blood Dixon, just for puttin’ up with us.”

“It’s not so bad,” you said, absentmindedly fixing his windswept hair. It was always a bit askew after a motorcycle ride. “You’re perfect, actually… And you’re right. We’ll find them.”

The hostage train conductor had proven to be a figurative and literal dead end when he killed himself instead of agreeing to help you all get to the outpost where your people were being taken to. The next solution was to get the radios working again, and use that to get some intel about where exactly the place was located.

By nightfall, you were all gathered in the barn around a small fire, watching Rosita as she worked her magic on the radio. You were always impressed with her technological skills, which seems to come naturally to her.

When she had it working, she radioed in to dispatch, pretending to be a Commonwealth soldier who’d gotten lost at the junction asking for directions to the outpost.

The dispatcher gave a series of directions, all of which sounded pretty routine, but when mentioned one thing, you felt a pit form in your stomach.

“Head down the road until you find a suburban neighborhood,” she said. “A section has been shored up and fortified with walls. You’ll see friendly faces in the guard tower.”

Suburban neighborhood… Fortified walls…

That could’ve been any place, couldn’t it?

No, there was no place like home.

“When you get here, you’ll take the northeast gate closest to the railroad tracks, and we’ll have guards on the lookout for you. Unfortunately, we don’t have any spare units to send out your way for a pickup. We have a convoy coming in for colonial processing. Governor’s orders.”

You furrowed your brow, sharing a look with Daryl. That must’ve been your people, and you were willing to bet that this outpost twenty-two was also housing your children.

“Twenty-two, did you say a convoy is coming in for reprocessing?” asked Rosita.

“Yes, ma’am. Word is that most of the processees used to live here before the Commonwealth claimed the territory and turned it into an outpost, back when it was still called Alexandria.”

No… no. Please don’t be true.

It was a gut punch, a smack to the face. The third time you’d been smacked in the face that day in the last twenty-four hours. How could Hornsby and Milton do this to your people behind your backs? Well, you had expected it from Hornsby, frankly, but Milton… You’d talked to her personally. You’d sat with her in your brother’s house and talked about your pregnancy and your daughter and your family. You’d told her about the triumphs your people had overcome, and how Alexandria had come back stronger every time.

And all this time, after Aaron and the others came to the Commonwealth, under the impression that Alexandria was being rebuilt, it was really being used as a labor camp, a place where the Miltons could send all the people they found unsightly or unagreeable. They had taken everything that was beautiful about your home and turned it into something ugly.

The place where you’d raised your family and carved out a future for your children was now part of the Commonwealth, part of something evil.

As all this clouded your terrified mind, you felt Daryl’s large warm hand curl tightly around yours, his thumb rubbing the back of your hand. You flinched to look at him, his face illuminated by the soft orange glow of the fire. You saw sadness and disappointment in his eyes, too. You shared that look of betrayal, of guilt. If only you’d been less trusting, but what else were you to do? Alexandria was dangerous, and you were pregnant. There wasn’t much of a choice. Either move to the Commonwealth, or lose something else. Whatever that something might’ve been, you didn’t want to know.

So now you’d have to face the consequences, but so would Pamela Milton.

“The Warden will debrief you when you get to base,” the voice of the dispatcher on the radio continued. “In the meantime, keep an eye out for any more hostiles on the road. If you have to engage, shoot to kill. Watch your 6, and godspeed, 301.”

Rosita reluctantly held the radio back to her lips. “Thanks, 22. See you soon.”

Silence settled in among all of you. With your arms crossed, you leaned against the barn, shaking your head as you still processed everything you’d just heard. “They turned our home into a prison camp,” you said, voice shaky with rage. “They can’t get away with this.”

Your gaze met Maggie, who nodded in agreement as she thought, her face so incredibly serious. Some days, you saw the same carefree farm girl you met in Georgia, feeding the chickens and talking with you about men. The world had a way of hardening people, burying those parts down deep inside. Your old friend was still in there, but you knew that until this was over, Maggie was going to rip heads off with her teeth.

“Milton has underestimated us since day one,” she said, lips tight and voice deep with anger. “We are gonna get our kids, take back our home, and make it right.”

You didn’t notice it until Daryl squeezed your hand, but he’d never let go. Thank God he didn’t, otherwise you might forget you still had him to keep you strong. You’d need him for this. You’d need each other. That much was certain.

After a short silence, Maggie spoke once more. “And Pamela’s never gonna see it coming.”

Thanks for reading! Likes, comments, and reblogs of any kind are always appreciated!

Series Masterlist Next Chapter ➳

I couldn't do a taglist for some reason ugh so please turn on post notifications for the next best thing!

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weclassybouquetfun · 1 year

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Hannah leading the TED LASSO pack.

Doing tourist tings.

"We saw you from across the bar and we like your vibe.."

With TED LASSO ending (and it is ending. I don't care about all the hedging that still persists about, "We told *this* story", the show's done. They need to hush their butts with that) it's time to look towards the future. What is on the horizon for AFC Richmond.

The cast next gigs...Oooh whee, what's up with that? What's. Up.With.That?

-Jason Sudeikis will appear in Charlie Day's directorial debut FOOL'S PARADISE.

-Hannah Waddingham: Will co-host Eurovision next month, appears in the four part Masterpiece mini TOM JONES

, will appear in THE FALL GUY with Ryan Gosling, MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: DEAD RECKONING Part 2, will have a Christmas special and will do voicework in Dan Harmon's animated series for Fox KRAPOPOLIS (alongside Matt Berry and Richard Ayoade) and voicework in 2024's animated film GARFIELD with Chris Pratt voicing the titular lasagne loving cat.

-Brett Goldstein: Brett will also do voice work for GARFIELD. He's also currently writing series two of Apple+'s SHRINKING

-Toheeb Jimoh can be currently seen on POWER on Amazon Prime. He's currently in rehearsals for his return to the stage in ROMEO AND JULIET for the Almedia Theatre.

-Nick Mohammed: Unsure whether the series that he created/writes and stars in INTELLIGENCE will be renewed as a series or as a wrap-up film, Nick has other works going. He costars in MAGGIE MOORES directed by John Slattery (MAD MEN) and stars Tina Fey and Jon Hamm; he will do voicework in the sequel to CHICKEN RUN titled CHICKEN RUN: DAWN OF THE NUGGET and he has a role in the upcoming Disney+ historical series THE BALLAD OF RENEGADE NELL which will star Alice Kremelberg (ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK), Frank Dillane, Joely Richardson and Craig Parkinson.

-Jeremy Swift: Will do voice work in the animated cat caper 10 LIVES joining Bill Nighy, Sophie Okonedo and Simone Ashley. Jeremy also joins the Disney Descendants universe for the musical DESCENDANTS: THE RISE OF RED. He currently has a cd out.

-Phil Dunster: Phil is sticking around Apple TV+ for the time being as he joined series two of their drama SURFACE which stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw (the first season saw her opposite Oliver Jackson-Cohen).

-Juno Temple: Juno was already in the DC universe with a role in THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, but now she joins Brett and Cristo in the Marvel world with a role in the upcoming VENOM 3. She also has a role in the upcoming EVEREST about George Mallory's attempt at scaling the mountain. It will star Ewan McGregor, Sam Heughan and Mark Strong. However, before all that, expect to see her in series 5 of FARGO.

-Cristo Fernandez is a jobbing actor. You will hear him in TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE BEAST as Wheeljack

he will do voicework in SCOOB! HOLIDAY HAUNT, he appears in four shorts, the feature 3 FLOWERS and it was just announced that he's joining series 3 of Apple TV+'s ACAPULCO and the Disney+ adaptation of ALEXANDER AND THE TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD DAY.

-Moe Jeudy-Lamour (Thierry Zoreaux Van Damme) will costar in the sequel to cousins Stephen and Robbie Amell's film CODE 8. It will be released on Netflix.

New Village People has dropped.

-Moe Hashim: Moe will costar in Roland Emmerich's gladiator series THOSE ABOUT TO DIE.

-Charlie Hiscock: Will appear in Yorgos Lanthimos' POOR THINGS alongside Margaret Qualley, Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe and Mark Ruffalo.

-Sarah Niles: Will turn up in the long gestating reboot of THE TOXIC AVENGER starring Peter Dinklage, Jane Levy, Elijah Wood, Kevin Bacon and Jacob Tremblay. She can currently be seen in ITVX's RICHES.

-James Lance: Always one for voicework, James has lent his talent to the short HANGING which is the writer debut of background Greyhound Joe Street (far right).

#ted lasso #ted lasso cast #jason sudeikis #hannah waddingham #toheeb jimoh #james lance #cristo fernández #brett goldstein #phil dunster #jeremy swift #moe hashim #sarah niles #juno temple #moe Jeudy-Lamour

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silentwillowwhisperer · 7 months

Text

Day 2- Weapon

Whoo, almost forgot about this.

———————————-

Keith always finds it funny when others think that his skill set centers entirely around blades.

Yes, he picks up quite a few from the planets he visits with Voltron, but he likes to compare it to a trapeze artist using a net below them. It’s not strictly necessary to preform the job, but he feels a whole lot safer with something to rely on if things go wrong.

Also people tend to leave him alone as soon as they realize that he’s armed. It’s a win-win situation. He avoids social interaction, and others don’t get a taste of his temper.

He spends a lot of time on the front lines, slashing at enemies with everything in him, and it’s built him quite a lot reputation. He’s well aware that Galra soldiers are warned of his stab-happy nature.

There’s just something satisfying about being face to face with your opponent before striking them down. Something gratifying about seeing their face as they realize they’ve met defeat.

Also, again, most people have the common sense to avoid the raging teenager waving oversized weapons. The people who run are always shot down pretty fast by Lance. Or they underestimate Pidge and go down thanks to electric shock rather than a stab wound.

However, sharp sticks only get you so far. The Galra have a habit of deciding that Keith is no longer formidable without his sword.

Once, he had found himself up against a Galra man a good 3 feet taller than him. With a quick swish of his tail, the alien had knocked Keith’s weapons out of his hands.

He found out far too late that Keith has a solid punch. It was Hunk who ended up taking the soldier out with his bayard, but he looked so happy about it thatKeith couldn’t be bitter.

It was also his interest in blades that got him closer to Lance.

Keith had not noticed it at first, but the blue paladin’s love for shopping extended to gift giving as well. On their first paladin Christmas, Lance had hesitantly passed him a small black bag during the gift exchange.

Lance had shuffled his feet nervously and avoided eye contact. “I just thought it was cool.” He huffed out.

Keith reached in to the bag to find a device about the size and shape of a dime.

“The lady who sold it to me said that you have to press it to someone’s neck at it releases whatever kind of poison you put in there. I thought you might.. think it’s cool?”

Is it possible to feel attraction towards a person and a weapon at the same time? Because Keith was.

(Keith’s gift to Lance was a pretty shell with swirls of blue and purple, similar shades to both of their eyes. It glitters like sand at the beach being showered with golden sunlight, and is almost as beautiful as Lance. Be quiet, Keith is allowed to be sappy sometimes.)

Keith does stop sleeping with a knife under this pillow after Lance gifts him a stuffed animal almost like a hippo the next year though, for fear that the blade might tear into the animal’s soft fabric.

————————————-

I forgot where I was going with this. I should really start writing drafts first. Or at least writing down little notes for plot.

#vld #voltron legendary defender #voltron #keith kogane #lance mcclain #klance #keith vld #vld keith #keithtober #2023keithtober #day 2 #tawny post

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autisticlancemcclain · 7 months

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The boy is young.

Marcela is concerned.

“What you are is nosy,” Miguel says.

“Blah, blah,” Marcela responds like the elegant lady she was raised to be, peeking through the blinds to watch as the boy struggles with several bags full of groceries. She frowns. “Look at him, Guelos. He’s still so young that he takes one trip with ten bags. He’s — a child, practically. A baby. With a mortgage. Who authorized this?”

Her husband sighs, pushing his chair out to come stand next to her. She opens the blinds a couple millimetres wider to help him see, leaning into the hand he places on her back.

“We were young too, you know. No older than him the year you were pregnant with Luis.”

Marcela frowns at him. “Yes, but we were young together. We both had savings, and jobs. I’d been practically raising my siblings for years, at that point. You’d been working since you were twelve. Times were — different, Miguel.”

She turns back to the window. The boy, who just moved in a few days ago, is standing on the small veranda, staring at the door. He looks down at his hand, laden with bags, and then back at the door. Marcela has to bite her lip to keep from smiling, despite her worry.

Miguel slides his hand across her shoulders, pulling her close and pressing a lingering kiss to her head. She closes her eyes, leaning into it, curling her fist at his sternum.

“Times have changed,” he agrees softly, words muffled against her skin. “We’ll keep an eye on him.”

“Okay,” she breathes. She watches over her husband’s shoulder as the boy finally gives up, dropping the groceries to the ground and digging around his pockets for his keys. It was funny before, but he looks so — defeated. Sad. Like this was the frustrating cherry on top of an already difficult day.

Or maybe she’s reading into things. She watches until he finally gets inside, door closing forcefully behind him, and she knows in her heart that she will not be able to leave it be.

———

Marcela is nosy.

“Why are we here,” Lancito whines, trying and failing to pull away from her hand.

“Because we are being neighbourly,” Marcela responds primly. She sees him stick out his tongue from the corner of his eye and decides to let him have it.

“You just want to see the inside of the new guy’s house,” he mutters.

Marcela’s jaw drops, because how the hell did that little brat know that, but before she can say anything the lock turns and she schools her face quickly back into her brightest smile, slightly strained. Lance, suddenly shy, hides behind her legs.

“…Hi,” the boy says. He looks — wary, slightly, but not too uncomfortable.

Marcela takes it for the win it is.

“Hello,” she says, softening considerably. The boy reminds her sharply of her brother. He had that same look to him, the eyes of someone older than he is; the posture of someone who seems to simply understand the world on a deeper level. His slight, awkward smile is identical, as well. She has to blink back tears, heart aching in missing him. “I’m Marcela. I live next door. These are for you.”

She holds out the plate of tostones, covered in aluminum foil. She’d originally had them in a container, but then worried that he’d feel pressured to wash and return it. She moved the tostones from the plate to the container so many times that Marco had walked over from where he was doing his homework, grabbed her hands, guided her gently to the side, and fixed the plate up himself. Miguel had laughed until he cried, because apparently he’s hankering for a divorce. (He’d laughed harder when she’d said that.)

“Oh.” The boy blinks, surprised. He stares at the plate for a moment, wary look on his face replaced with something like confusion.

“They’re tostones,” Lancito offers, peeking out from behind her. The boy startles, looking at Lance with wide eyes. Lance takes his awkwardness for ignorance. “They’re squashed plantains that are fried. Plantains are like bananas but better. Mamá makes them really good.”

Slowly, the boy reaches out and grabs the plate. He peels back the aluminum foil slightly, peeking inside.

“They look good,” he agrees, voice soft.

Lancito scoffs. He steps out from behind her, offense making him brave, but still hold on to the hem of her shirt. “Um, duh. They’re tostones.” He looks hungrily at the plate. “Mamá spent all morning making them and we didn’t get any. You must be her favourite neighbour or something.”

“Leandro-Agustín,” Marcela hisses, cheeks flushing. Lance only stares back at him with a puzzled expression, hand raised in a universal, what?

Luckily, though, the boy doesn’t seem to notice, or if he does he doesn’t say anything. He only slowly peels back the aluminum farther and offers the plate towards Lance. Lance looks back at Marcela, questioning. Marcela sighs.

Quickly, so she doesn’t change her mind, Lance snatches the closest one and shoves it in his mouth. The boy’s small smile gets a little bit bigger. He picks up his own tostone and takes a bite, inclining his head after swallowing.

“You were right,” he says. “They are delicious. Thank you, Mrs. Marcela.”

“Just Marcela is fine,” she assures.

The boy hesitates, face twitching. “I don’t think I can physically do that,” he says politely. “I can feel my grandmother rolling in her grave.”

Marcela snorts. “Alright, fair. I can live with the formalities, I suppose.”

The boy has the same tiny smile again. It brightens his eyes, makes his whole face look younger.

“I’m Takashi,” he says. He goes to offer his hand to shake, but there’s only —

The stump of his right arm twitches. The boy — Takashi — stiffens. Marcela watches, despondent, as his expression shutters, and he steps back.

“Thank you for coming,” he says robotically. “I appreciate the food.”

Marcela knows a dismissal when she hears one. She anguishes, once again, in the privacy of her own mind, just how young this kid is. Barely older than Luis.

“I’m right next door,” she says softly. Lance, ever observant, watches the two of them closely. “If you need anything, Takashi, let us know.”

The boy nods stiffly. He closes his door without another word. Marcela sighs.

“You’re gonna need another plate of nosy food,” Lance observes. “Or maybe you should invite him for dinner, and then he’ll invite you for dinner. That might work better.”

Marcela guides them down the steps and back to their house, kissing him gently on the head. “I think you’re right, mijo. You wanna help me make some cookies?”

They’ll get there.

#i am obsessed with these broad modern aus idk why #keith is gonna come into this soon swearsies #vld #voltron #lance #lance mcclain #marcela mcclain #lances mom #takashi #takashi shirogane #modern au #neighbour au #my writing #fic #longpost

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iono-zone-official · 7 days

Text

[A long video is attached to the post, with the normal Iono Zone logo]

(video text below the cut, it's a long one)

"Your eyeballs are MINE--Caught in my electroweb! Whozawhatzit? It's me, Iono! Ello, ello, hola! Ciao y bonjour! And welcome to the Iono Zone everybody!!"

"We've got us a VERY special guest today! One of the Paldea Elite Four members... IIIIIIIIT'S... RIKA!"

"Hey hey, Rika here, at your-!"

"So! Rika!"

"did you just interrupt me."

"Why don't you tell us about yourself! Liiiike... favorite color, favorite pokemon, aand... Oh, and type specialty!"

"Well, alright then. My name's Rika, I'm 26, an Elite Four member of the Paldea League, my favorite color is dark green, and I love ground types. Especially Clodsire. Their little faces are so squishy and adorable! I've yet to meet anyone that doesn't like 'em!"

"Oh yeah, Clodsire! It's your strongest buddy, ain't it? How'd you two meet?!"

"Well, I'll tell you. I was wandering around Paldea during my own treasure hunt one day, without a pokemon of my own yet as the school didn't hand 'em out back then. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going, and I slipped into a lake near Los Platos."

"Whaaaat?! That's crazy!"

"Yeah, I tried getting out on my own but those Flamigo are terrifying, man! They kept kicking me down, but then this little Wooper, the loveable goopy boys they are, attacked one of the Flamigo by splashing mud at them! I was able to use that distraction to climb out of the lake, and I helped the Wooper get away by throwing some rocks."

"So you two became friends after that?"

"Sure did! My little Clodsire is so smart, he knew exactly how to blind those Flamigos with one shot! They're smart, adorable, strong, and resilient! If someone doesn't like Clodsire... Well, I'd have to refuse to battle them."

"You can DO THAT?!"

"You betcha! Larry turned down someone a few months back for being one of the teachers involved in covering up that big student harassment scandal at that Academy in Mesagoza. Apparently he knew because he has some sorta ties to 'interpol' or whatever, and recognized the guy right away?"

"Larry's a cop?"

"Detective, I guess."

"..huh. I just thought he was some boring guy that hated us."

"Yeah, every League is required to have an interpol agent working for 'em. I think Sinnoh has some exception with that Argenta lady being a high-ranking detective for them?"

"Oooh, speaking of other regions! Do you got any interregional gossip for the peeps listening at home?"

"Hoo boy, where do I start? Oh, let's go with Sinnoh since it's on topic. Did you know that the new champion-ranked trainer, Dawn, is related to the new professor, Lucas? There had to be a whole investigation to make sure it wasn't nepotism that got either of them their jobs!"

"Wowzers! That's real interesting! Ooh, you got anything about Johto? I know it's got ties to Sinnoh, right?"

"You betcha. Apparently Champion Lance has held private investigations, and even assaulted several members of criminal organizations in order to solve cases. Interpol can't do anything, though, due to that part of the world having laws preventing them from entering the Kanto and Johto regions."

"They can DO THAT?!"

"Yeah there's been a whole lot of scandals and cover-ups with that, but I can't say any more. I've probably breached my contract with the league already, so interpol won't protect me if anything happens. But hey, I got Clodsire to protect me so who cares?!"

"Wow... There's a whole lot the elite four get to know that the public doesn't! It's craaazy!"

"Yeah, don't get me started on some of the relationship drama... The interregional group chats are bad enough as it is, I don't want to talk about some of the extremely weird things people talk about in those. At least Poppy ain't in 'em."

"Yeah, that's rough..."

"Oh! We're nearly out of time, Rika. Is there anything else you'd like to say before we gotta wrap things up here?"

"Hm... Well, let's see."

"Kiddos, stay true to yourself. Stick with your dreams until the end, and enjoy the life you've got. You've only got one, so don't go throwing it away with unethical crimes or anything bad like that. If you hurt anyone else, expect to be hurt back. Life is all about give and take, so be kind to others and they'll be kind to you."

"Accept different points of view that conflict with your own, and use experiences in life to build yourself up to be a better person!"

"Wow, Rika. That's SO touching!"

"Hah! You think so?"

"...oh, and another thing. Trans rights are human rights. If I see anyone insulting Iono or Tulip again on the Paldea League forums I'll be cracking skulls. You all hear me?! Don't hate people for who they are, hate them for disgusting actions they make, like murder. If someone hasn't done anything that harms others, don't attack them over it."

"..thank you, Rika. This has been a great interview, and I hope all our little friendos and challengers at home enjoyed it too!"

"I bet they did, it had the best members of the Paldea League in it, kiddo!"

"Yeah! I'm sure they enjoyed it!"

"Well, if any of you found this to be--bzzt!--shocking, go smash that subscribe button!"

"Your eyeballs are MINE--Caught in my electroweb! Whozawhatzit? Iono, the supercharged streamer! Catch y'all later!"

[the stream cuts off, and the video ends]

#pokeblogging #pokeblr #poke irl #pkmn irl #gym leader iono #iono zone #pokeblog rp #iono #pokemon irl #elite four rika #rika pokemon #pokemon rika #iono pokemon #Iono Zone Interviews!

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sanvirtheobserver · 21 days

Text

Taking Flight, An SMG4 Fanfic: Volume 4

Another volume in the bag, along with some announcements.

While the main flick will still be called Taking Flight, I have officially decided to give this AU an actual name: Nexus. A bit basic, I know, but also surprisingly fitting considering all the different characters from different shows I'm cramming into this. There's also a "lore reason" but....... we'll cross that bridge when we get there. I'd also like to thank those who actually take the time out of their day to read my stuff. It really means a lot to me.

Anywho, enjoy.

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

Chapter 16: Dirty Jobs

The cool midnight air lies still, and the sky is alight with the Full Moon. The perfect night for a hunt. We see Ragatha and Saturday dashing through the trees below while Tari flies up top. The shrieks are getting louder with every meter they cover.

Saturday: So how do you expect this "friend" of yours to be of any help?

Ragatha: It wouldn't hurt to have a little support. She'll be fine so long as she sticks with us.

Saturday: And you trust her to actually do something useful?

Ragatha: Depends, can I trust you to NOT try and kill her?

Saturday: I make no promises.

Another gutteral shriek echoes through the forest. The trio stop in a nearby clearing. The source of the shrieking lurks behind the trees, getting closer by the second. Tari is horrified by what's making its way into the clearing.

Tari: What.......is that thing?

Ragatha: That would be an Abstraction.

Standing in the moonlight is a shifting black mass dotted with fractalescent spines, creeping along on six prismatic spindly legs sprouting from its back. A pair of whip-like tails thrash around behind it, splitting tree trunks as if they were Styrofoam.

She draws her cleavers as Saturday readies her lance.

Ragatha: Stay close, and follow my lead.

Saturday: Watch and learn, little bird.

Saturday charges forward, drawing the beast's attention. It lashes out with its front legs, but Saturday expertly maneuvers over the sweeping claws and lands several jabs on its head with her lance. Ragatha flanks from the sides and riddles the beast's legs with sewing needles. One of its tails swipes at her and she swiftly slices it to bits with her cleavers. Once all the legs have been riddled with needles, she takes a few steps back and gives a mighty yank. Transparent threads tangle the beast's legs, immobilizing it.

Ragatha: Tari, now!

That's when tari swoops in, summoning a barrier before ramming into the beast and toppling it onto its back. Ragatha hops up and severs the beast's legs. Saturday hurls a fan of sharpened candy canes into the beast's underside, and with a snap of her fingers they shatter and further perforate their target. The beast writhes in pain, it's furious roars echoing through the forest before falling still. The color fades from its eyes as the body withers away, leaving a black oily stain upon the grass. Tari lands next to Ragatha as she offers a high five to Saturday, who callously declines as she walks up to Tari.

Tari: So........ are we cool now? I mean, you did a good job with thaAAAAH!

Saturday sweeps Tari's leg and sends her tumbling to the ground, raising her lance to Tari's chest.

Saturday: If I wanted to kill you, you'd be dead before you even saw me. Remember that the next time you decide to go on a midnight flight.

She stays her weapon and takes her leave. Ragatha helps Tari back onto her feet.

Clench: Well....... she sure seems fun.

Tari is quiet as she and Ragatha enter the Guest House. Looks like the others have all retired to their rooms for the night..... except for Aybel who was waiting in the lounge.

Aybel: Miss Ragatha. It's good to see you and Miss Tari back home safe and sound.

Ragatha: It's good to see you too, Aybel.

Aybel: I heard you had quite the adventure.

Tari: Yep..... just prancing about on a midnight stroll.....and.....nothing else, heh.

Can you tell that Tari isn't that good at lying?

Ragatha: The Showgrounds are secure, sir. Me and Saturday took care of the Abstraction, with a little help.

She glances at Tari with a smile.

Aybel: Is that so?

He hovers over to Tari and places a hand on her shoulder.

Aybel: Thank you for the assistance, Miss Tari.

Tari: Oh, um...... you're welcome. A good hostess always helps their guests.

Aybel: You should get some rest, Miss Ragatha. My brother will be arriving tomorrow, and I'm certain he'll have a new adventure planned.

She nods and heads upstairs, leaving Tari and Aybel alone in the lounge.

Aybel: So........

He ushers Tari to take a seat.

Aybel: You have some questions, I'm sure.

Tari nods.

Aybel: Well, first I must ask if you've told anyone else about what happened tonight.

Tari: No sir.

Aybel: Good. Ragatha prefers to keep that a private manner. She doesn't want the others to get involved. She has always been "protective" of this little troop of ours and doesn't want to put them at risk.

Tari: Does this have to do witn the monster we saw in the woods?

Aybel: Abstractions. Tragic things. They were once lost souls like us.

Tari: Then....... what happened to turn them into...... that?

Aybel: It has to do with resonance, the soul's ability to form connections with just about anything, whether it be an item, a person, a place, or a memory. Since the line between mind and body doesn't apply to us, we must rely on this resonance to maintain our form. Resonance is what anchors our mind and body. So, when a lost soul loses that resonance, they lose what makes us who we are. As a result, they abstract. They become husks of their former selves, shapeless, mindless amalgamations of chaos and despair. They hunt other souls to consume them, draining them of their resonance to try and replace theirs.

Tari: Wow.........that's..........that's terrible.

Aybel: Indeed. There was....... an incident involving an Abstraction at one of our facilities a month ago. The troop you see here are some of the survivors. Ragatha and her team were able to contain the threat...........

Though he didn't have any physical eyes, Tari could still sense a deep sadness within his soul.

Aybel:.........but not without losing one of their own.

Tari is taken aback by all this. She didn't expect all their new guests to have suffered so much.

Tari: Is...... is there any way to help them?To bring them back?

Aybel: I've tried, Miss Tari. We all have. But once you've passed a certain threshold...... there will be nothing left to save. The only way we can feasibly help them is to....... set their souls free.

Tari takes a moment to process all this. The idea of your friends turning into a monster is bad enough, but to be forced to put them down for their sake and the sake of others.......... she's only really seen it once before.......... and it crushed her. It crushed everyone. And to think that Ragatha has likely gone through this so many times before........

Tari: I......... I can't imagine.......

Aybel: This Circus has become like a family to us. That's why I've taken it upon myself to ensure that these Abstractions, and any other threats to the Circus, are held at bay by any means necessary. It's by no means an easy job......... but it's a job that must be done regardless.

Tari: You know..........

She can't help but think back to the incident with One Shot Wren. How he tortured Meggy, how he turned all her friends to puppets......... and how she did everything in her power to save them and set them free.

Tari: The Crew is everything to me. They've always been there for me, to help me when I couldn't help myself........ and I want to return that favor. And if that means I can protect others as well.........

She places a hand on Aybel's shoulder.

Tari: Then I have no regrets.

Aybel is taken back by Tari's resolve, the glow of passion and determination burned bright in those lilac eyes. He remembered seeing that same kind of resolve in his brave little doll........ and smiled.

Aybel: You truly are a brave little bird, aren't you?

Chapter 17: SHOWTIME!

It's a beautiful morning out in the skies as Ragatha chills out in the Crow's Nest of SMG3's ship. Apparently Aybel's brother, the "ringleader" of the Circus, has enlisted SMG3's help with the adventure planned for today.

Tari: Me and Saturday just finished scouting the area.

Ragatha: So, everything good?

Tari: Yep. Me and Saturday have covered the designated area and set up a perimeter. Stable terrain, minimal hazards, plenty of hiding spots, and ZERO Abstractions. How about you?

Ragatha: Going well so far. We're all set up for the adventure.

They both look down and see the rest of the Troop gathered aboard the top deck. Aybel is currently giving them the standard safety guidelines, jesturing to the circle of woodlands. Several beams of light are visible from the ship.

Aybel: The area within this circle of beacons is our designated "adventure zone" in which there are minimal hazards. To ensure your safety, you are to remain within this perimeter for the duration of the adventure. Is that clear?

Everyone nods in agreement.

Aybel: Very well..... We're ready, brother!

From the helm emerges SMG3 and a figure similar to Aybel, except he's in a red coat with various golden embroidery and wears a silk lined cape held with a polkadotted bowtie. His head is a floating orb much like his brother, but with only a pair of eyes. His hat is much larger, with little white "teeth" hanging around the rim. In his hands he holds his own little scepter baton thingie.

SMG3: Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and that colorful rainbow in between, allow me to introduce the ringleader of the Circus.....CAINE!

Caine: Oh it is GOOD to be back! Thank you very much, SMG3. I trust that you are all DYING to go on today's adventure?

Kinger: I miss my wife.

Caine: That's the spirit! Now where is...... AHA!

He flies up to the Crow's Nest at a breakneck pace.

Caine: RAGATHA! Good to see you being aggressively protective as always.

Ragatha: You know it.

Caine: And YOU must be SMG4's friend from the Showgrounds! Tari, was it?

Tari: Yep, that's me. Heheh.

Caine aggressively shakes Tari's hand, nearly dislocating her shoulder as he introduces himself.

Caine: Pleasure to meet you! My name is Caine, and I am glad to have you here on today's SPINE TINGLING, HEART STOPPING, MIND TWISTING ADVENTURE.

Clench: Jesus. Kinger wasn't kidding about the eccentric part, was he?

Tari checks her arm to make sure nothing is broken.

Tari: Um, it's a pleasure to meet you too, Mister Caine.

Ragatha: Be easy on her, she's kinda new to this.

Ragatha hops down to the lower deck. Tari flies down and joins SMG3 as Caine flies over to the top of the bridge.

Caine: Now, I know it's been a while since we've had a good adventure, considering some........unfortunate circumstances......... SO, we are gonna start off with something simple to get us back into the flow of things. My good friend (and todays sponsor) SMG3 shall lay down the premise for today's adventure, FIND THE FISHY!

SMG3: Thank you Caine. You see, my friend Fishy Boopkins is currently hiding somewhere in this circle of woodland, and YOU have to find him!

Tari: Wait.......You just dumped him in the middle of the woods?

SMG3: Relax. I had him microchipped beforehand.

He pulls out a PDA with a map of the area. A little green dot shows Boopkins' real time location.

SMG3: He'll be fine. He just needs to hide until sundown or somebody finds him.

Caine: And since this is a sponsored adventure, the first to find him gets 10 coupons for free coffee at 3's Coffee & Bombs, as well as their own limited edition 3's Coffee & Bombs hoodie!

What? You think Three would pass up the chance to sponsor his business? Anyways, SMG3 goes over to one of the Grav Cannons and expands the barrels as much as possible.

SMG3: Who's first?

First one up is Jax who cheers and does some summersaults, Zooble is next as they try to keep themselves together, Gangle and Pomni both scream and hold each other as they're flying, and Kinger silently flies forward like a torpedo. Ragatha gives a wink at Tari before hopping off the ship and down into the forest below.

Caine: Good luck!

Aybel: And may the odds be ever in your favor.

Tari then spreads her wings and flies off in the direction of the others. Switching over to Pomni and Gangle, they managed to make a relatively safe landing in a nearby pond with quite the splash. Gangle floats up and out of the water. Pomni breaches the surface and coughs up a hermit crab.

Pomni: Ugh...... Why is it always a cannon?

In another spot in the forest we see Jax landing in a bush next to Zooble, who has just finish piecing themselves back together.

Jax: WOO! Haha.........Howdy.

In another different spot we see Kinger having landed on a beaver's dam, much to the current residents' dismay. Tari swoops in to help Kinger back to his feet.

Kinger: What are we doing again?

Tari: You're supposed to be looking for Boopkins.

Kinger: Oh, right! Of course.

Ragatha arrives on the scene.

Ragatha: You alright, Kinger?

Kinger: ........... GAH! Oh, hi Ragatha.

Tari: I think he hit his head on the way down.

Ragatha: Nah, he's always like that.

Kinger: You guys didn't happen to see a gameshow around here, have you?

A few meters out we see Boopkins still looking for a hiding spot as the Troop begins their search.

Boopkins: Maybe I can hide in a pond? No, I'm a fish so they'd likely check the water first. Oh, Maybe I can hide in the trees! They'd never expect a fish to climb trees!

And for good reason. Try as he might, Boopkins can't even get an inch off the ground before falling on his ass.

Boopkins: Oh man......... Oh!

That's when he spots a nearby cave. He carefully peeks around the corner before waddling inside.

Boopkins: This looks like a good spot! Surely they would never expect me to hide in such a deep, dark, quiet............... lonely.......... scary........... depressing cave..........

He rigorously shakes his head as he presses forward.

Boopkins: FOCUS! You're a brave boy. You've faced purging teletubbies, bloodthirsty pirates, and even eldrich monsters! Besides, you only have to be here until sundown. All you have to do is stay calm and-

A random spider lands on his face, looking him dead in the eyes.

Spider: Hello there.

Aaaaand there he goes, screaming like a little girl as he runs deeper and deeper into the cave. Suddenly, he drops into what appears to be some kind of chamber. His screams can be heard all the way at the cave's entrance, where Gangle and Pomni have just arrived.

Boopkins: distant I WANT MY DAAAAAAAD!!!!!

Gangle: He really isn't good with this whole "hiding" thing is he.

They enter the cave and make their way to the chamber, where they see Boopkins running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Gangle manages to hold him still with her prehensile ribbons.

Boopkins: GET IT OFF! GET IT OF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF ! GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF!

Pomni manages to smack the Spider off of Boopkins' face. It takes a moment for him to calm down.

Pomni: You good?

Boopkins: Yeah....... Where are we?

Pomni snaps her fingers, summoning a glowing prism of light that illuminates the chamber. It definitely doesn't look like a natural cave formation, given the ancient architecture and dome-like shape. At the center of the room is a large orrery hanging from the ceiling.

Pomni: I think this is some kind of observatory.

Gangle: But why would you have an observatory that's underground?

Pomni carefully surveys the room, finding an opening in the floor. The trio gather around and see some stairs that lead deeper into the darkness.

Pomni: I guess there's only one way to find out.

Chapter 18: Hidden Wonders

It's almost pitch black in the depths of the ruins. Pomni leads the way, lighting their path with a glowing prism as Gangle and Boopkins follow close behind. A mural decorates the walls of the spiral staircase they are descending, with various depictions of planetary systems and constellations. Gangle and Boopkins are both nervous as the trio descends the stairs.

Gangle: I don't thing we should be here, guys.

Boopkins: Yeah. There could be monsters and stuff.

Pomni: If there were any monsters here, Ragatha would've dealt with them before we even came here. Besides, I don't think anything has touched this place since the ten commandments were a rough draft.

They reach the bottom of the stairs and find a hub room with a single pillar at the center. Gangle and Boopkins take a look around while Pomni examines the pillar, wiping away centuries of dust from the crystaline surface. She can see faint lights inside.

Pomni: Hm.........

She taps the surface, and suddenly the pillar lights up with a vibrant tapestry of glyphs and symbols as the entire room begins to glow. Back on the surface we see Kinger, Ragatha, and Tari walking through the woods when Tari suddenly feels something. She is stopped in her tracks, and Ragatha takes notice.

Ragatha: Hey, are you alright?

Tari looks down at her arm to see that it too is reacting to something. Whatever it is, she can feel it emanating from somewhere. Back in the ruins, the trio are awestruck by the vibrant lights that now flood the room.

Pomni: This must be some kind of control console.

She fiddles with the pillar some more and manages to open a door on the far side of the room. They take a look inside and find rows upon rows of shelves holding various tools and devices. There's also some skeletal remains laying on the ground.

Gangle: I don't like this.

Back on the surface, we see Zooble and Jax scouring the area looking for Boopkins and the others. Or at least Zooble is. Jax is just strolling around and yelling Boopkins' name. Zooble shifts their arms into blades to slice through the dense shrubs.

Jax: COME ON OUT LITTLE GREEN, IT'S PAST YOUR BEDTIME.

Zooble: Y'know, this would go by a lot faster if you actually helped.

Jax: What? I'm keeping an ear out. If I hear the little squirt, you'll be the first to know.

Zooble just sighs as they continue to search the area, hacking through the foliage until they end up hitting something solid.

Zooble: What the......?

They clear away the foliage to reveal something made of metal that resembles a large leg. They hack through the surrounding foliage to reveal a torso, followed by a head.

Zooble: Uh...... Jax?

Jax: You found em?

Zooble: I found.......something.

The two are dumbfounded by the sight of a nine foot construct laying in the brush. Intricate imprintations of feather-like patterns and flowing water decorated an aerodynamic frame covering a ball jointed skeleton. Both its arms and legs were tipped with tarnished metal claws, and a sterling crest adorned its helmet and chest.

Jax: Wow.......... Boopkins really gained some weight.

Zooble directs an unamused glare at Jax. They get the joke. They just don't find it funny.

Jax: What?

A few meters away, Tari arrives at the mouth of the cave with Kinger and Ragatha in tow?

Ragatha: So, why this place?

Tari could feel it, a familiar energy hanging in the air.

Tari: Call it a hunch.

In the ruins, Pomni is finicking with the pillar again. She wants to see if there's anything more to this place, but the interface isn't cooperating anymore. It's like she's locked out. Tari's group discovers the observatory and make their way inside, seeing the inner dome now alight with a simulated night sky. She investigates the Orrery as Ragatha hops down. Kinger waits outside while the girls investigate the observatory.

Tari: These ruins......... I've seen ruins like these before.

Ragatha: I'm surprised we didn't find this on our sweep. Wanna come down, Kinger?

Kinger does come down....... flat on his face. Don't worry, he's fine. Near the orrery, Tari finds something on the ground. It's a set of sheaths. Tari goes down to touch it, but the moment she lays a finger on it, a flash of light engulfs the room. Pomni's group notices the flash upstairs. They go op to investigate and see Tari who now has three swords floating in front of her. She waves her hand and the three blades dance around in the air before disappearing. Tari looks down at her hand before noticing Pomni's group.

Boopkins: Woah......

Tari: Boopkins!

She goes over and hugs him as Pomni goes to hug Ragatha.

Ragatha: So this is where you've been hiding out, huh?

Tari: How did you even find this place?

Boopkins: I found it while I was looking for a hiding spot. We think it's some kind of observatory.

Kinger looks up at the simulated night sky above them.

Kinger: Why build one underground, though?

Their chat is interrupted by the sound of explosions from the surface.

Gangles: Uh....... has anybody seen Jax and Zooble?

Yeah. Remember that big robot Jax and Zooble found in the shrubs? It's awake now, and it clearly isn't happy as we see it's now trying to kill the two. Zooble is holding their ground the best they can while Jax just leans on a nearby tree and gives emotional support.

Jax: You're doing great, Zuzu! Give em' what for!

Zooble: OH GEE, THANKS! THAT'S..... REALLY HELPING RIGHT NOW!

Jax: Hey, what are friends for?

Zooble: OH JUST HIT IT YOU MOTHERF-

Just then, Zooble takes an uppercut straight to the jaw and is sent flying. She is caught by Tari who arrives on the scene with Ragatha.

Tari: You okay?

Zooble: Yeah, I'm good. But this thing is built like a tank.

Ragatha: Then ignore the shell and focus on the joints.

The others are watching at a safe distance from the bushes. The robot fires a lazer from its eyes and Tari deflects with a well timed barrier.

Kinger: Whats that guy's problem?

Gangle: It looks like a robot soldier.

Kinger:...............AAA-

Ragatha comes in with a well placed kick to the robot's head before readying her cleavers. Zooble morphs her body into a more durable armored form, creating a mace and a shield from her arms.

Ragatha: Jax!

Jax: On it. Hey Tin Man!

Jax proceeds to inflate his body, his muscles expanding up to three times their size. He then proceeds to shoulder check the robot into Zooble, who follows up with a series of mace strikes.

Zooble: About time!

Tari is up next. She hops off of Zooble's shield and draws her glaive. Right as the robot brings down his arm on her, she plunges the glaive into its elbow and fires off a shot. The robot staggers back as it's arm is blown clean off. Ragatha charges in, slashing at its ankles and severing its other arm. The robot turns to her and readies another lazer blast, but Jax grabs its head and pulls it back. The beam fires into the sky, which can be seen across the forest. Tari comes in and thrusts the tip of her glaive into the robot's neck. She fires off another blast, severing the machine's head clean from its shoulders. The light from its eyes fade as its hulking frame collapses to the ground. Jax deflates and Zooble assumes her original form.

Zooble: YEAH! F*** YOU, YOU PIECE OF JUNK!

Pomni, Kinger, Gangle, and Boopkins rush over to the rest of the group.

Pomni: Are you guys okay?

Jax: A little winded, but I'm alright.

Zooble: Oh f*** off.

Ragatha rolls her eyes while Tari examines the destroyed machine's remains. She recognizes the patterns on the armor as the same ones on her glaive.

Clench: Well would you look at that. Might wanna keep a tab on this place.

Boopkins: Tari, is it safe now.

She looks over to Boopkins with a reassuring smile.

Tari: Yes Boopkins, it's safe.

Back on the ship, we see Caine and Aybel watching the situation on Caine's wacky watch.

Caine: Now THAT was quite the wallop if I've ever seen one!

Aybel: Indeed. Though, I think it's best if I pick the location next time.

Caine: Though I am rather curious about those ruins. I mean, what kind of idiot would build an observatory UNDERGROUND?

Aybel focuses in on Tari, who's still analyzing the robot.

Aybel: Yes........ curious.

Chapter 19: As The Day Goes By

Things have been busy in the Showgrounds as of late. Meggy is getting back into her exercise routine now that she's recovered, SMG4 is back to making memes on the computer, and the Anti Crew is tending to the ship while SMG3 tends to the Café. Tari has also been practicing on some dummies with her new swords, of which I have officially christened "blink blades" for reasons you will see in a moment.

Tari: Alright, second verse same as the first.

With a blade in each hand, she charges towards the first dummy and lands a double cross slice combo. She then throws both blades at another dummy, followed by a third blade in the dummy's head. With a flick of her wrist, the blink blades come flying back and levitate around her wrist as she eyes a third dummy. She sends out all three blades and positions them around her target.

Tari: Now for the money shot.

With a snap of her fingers, she blinks to each of the blades so fast........ that she doesn't have time to actually strike the dummy. She instead stumbles out of the last blink and falls flat on her ass, her head spinning as if she had just stepped off a Tilt-A-Whirl. Yeah, you can see why she still needs to practice.

Tari: Ugh.....

She shakes out of her daze to see Pomni rolling by with a wheelbarrow full of miscellaneous sacks and other items. On its side is a sign saying "Pomni's Products."

Tari: Oh, hi Pomni!

Pomni: Hey Tari. What's up?

Tari: Oh, I'm just getting some practice in. I'm still breaking in the new gear.

She flicks her wrist and the blink blades disappear.

Tari: What you got there?

Pomni: Oh, just some things I picked up during adventures. Bob said he was getting a marketplace set up, so I figured I'd take a look and see if I could set up shop.

Tari: A marketplace?

In the next scene we see Bob setting up a bunch of empty stands, one of which being labeled "Bob's Bargains." The area looks like a farmer's market as Pomni soon arrives with a curious Tari in tow.

Bob: Oh hey guys!

Tari: Hey, um....... what exactly are you doing with.........all this?

Bob: I'm glad you asked! Ever since we opened up that guest house, we've been getting more visitors. We are secure in neutral territory, so the law can't get us. It's nice and private, completely off the radar. So, SMG3 and I have a plan that could set us for life if we play our cards right. I'm setting up a marketplace to attract some merchants to do business and get a good economy, which we can also cash in our treasures. You see, when you're the seller, you conrol the supply. You control the supply, you can make the demands. And so long as we got treasure, we got trade. It's a whole ecosystem of perfectly legal commerce at your fingertips.

TLDR, him and SMG3 are now business partner, putting their business knowledge, bargaining skills, and lack of morals to good use in what basically equates to a semi-legally neutral farmer's market.

Bob: So let's see what kind of demands they're making. What are your demands, Pomni?

Pomni: let's talk supply first. See what catches your fancy.

Pomni goes off to set up shop as Tari is still processing all that dubious business crap. She does NOT know how to respond to all of that.

Clench: Economics is weird.

Over in Bricktown we see Kaizo, X , and Melony waiting by the front desk in the MKPD building. FM and Hal Monitor meet up with them to share any info they've gleaned.

FM: They saw him hitting a few spots last night, mostly pawn shops and antique stores.

Melony: Any word from the shop owners on what was stolen?

Hal: They all describe him only taking specific artifacts, all of which sharing the same characteristics you listed earlier.

Kaizo: What's so special about a bunch of antiques anyways?

X: We know it has to do with that Xelor you encountered on that Ketch. He's specifically looking for these kinds of artifacts, which are the same kind Wario and Waluigi tried to steal last week while powered up by those Xelor signets.

Melony: These artifacts are tied to whatever that Xelor has planned.

Hal: I'm not sure what you have planned, but you better handle this LEGALLY.

Melony: We'll do it as legally as possible, Mr. Monitor.

FM: I'll let you know if I find anything else.

The trio walk out of the building where an anxious Wario is waiting.

Wario: My brother....... is he.......?

X: They ran into him last night several times, but they were unable to apprehend him. He's still at large.

He's relieved to hear that Waluigi is at least still alive. That means there's still a chance of getting his brother back. Wario has been searching for Waluigi ever since last week's incident. Melony places a hand on Wario's shoulder, trying to comfort him with a reassuring smile. She can't help but feel bad for Wario, even if he is an asshole. The Wario Bros may be con artists, but they're still.......bros.

Melony: We'll get him back Wario. I promise.

He releases an exhausted "WAA" before pulling out a gun.

Wario: Alright. I'm-a gonna go steal something.

Over in Omnia we see SMG1 and SMG2 having a discussion with Saiko and Aybel about Tari's orb.

Aybel: It can control Meta, you say?

SMG1: We've done the tests. This artifact can take Meme energy and refine it into its purest form.

Saiko: I thought only you "guardian" guys could do stuff with Memes.

SMG1: We harness and control RAW Meme energy. Meta energy is more refined.

SMG2: Since this universe is made up of Meme energy, it's basically everywhere, and there are actually various methods of accessing ambient meme energy from the world around around us.

Aybel: You can utilize this ambient energy if you draw it from the environment, a donor of higher power, or your own spirit by concentrating it into Meta via Conduction, Divination, and Meditation respectively.

SMG1: You're surprisingly knowledgeable on this.

Aybel: My line of work requires me to know how the world around you works, whether it be the mundane or the fantastical.

SMG1: You said she "sensed" some more ruins, correct?

Saiko: Yeah. It was some kind of observatory.

SMG2: And this is also where she found her new weapons?

Saiko nods. The two SMGs look at each other for a moment.

Saiko: So...... what does this have to do with Tari?

SMG1: Well....... her connection with the Ancient Metarunners is apparent. Me and two will need to examine these ruins for ourselves. In the meantime.......

He picks up the orb and hands it to Saiko.

SMG1: I feel like she'll need this more than we will.

The sun is setting as Saiko and Aybel arrive at the Showgrounds. Pomni has just set up her shop over at the Marketplace, and Tari is retiring to the Castle. She heads over to the game room and plops down on the couch beside Meggy, who already has a six pack of soda at the ready.

Meggy: Busy day?

Tari: Of sorts, yeah.

Meggy tosses her a can.

Tari: So, you're finally back on your routine, huh?

Meggy: Yep! I'm still on the One-Ups, but the doctors finally gave me the all clear. How about you? You still being a good host over at the Guest House?

Tari: Yeah! A lot more......"exciting" than I thought, but things are going great.

Meggy: Good to hear. Have you been practicing? I know I haven't been here much with all the doctor's appointments.

Tari: It's coming along nicely, actually. Ragatha makes for a great sparring partner.

Meggy: Oh really?

Tari: Yeah! We've been.....um....... that's more of a private matter, actually.

Meggy: Is that so......

She smirks and gives Tari the bombastic side eye.

Tari: Not THAT kind of private! It's just........ she has this hobby of hers that she'd rather keep private.........

Clench: TLDR, it's not drugs and it's not sex.

Tari: Right. Either way, it's not my place to talk about what others do in their free time without their permission.

Meggy: Hmmmm.......

Oh look, Saiko just came in! And she has the orb.

Saiko: Meggy, don't pester her. If it's private, it's private.

Meggy: Alright, alright. So, what did One and Two have to say?

Saiko: Well, they're pretty much done with this thing.

She tosses the orb to Tari.

Saiko: They're gonna go check out those ruins you found the other day, see if they can find anything there.

Tari stares at the orb. The patterns were alight with opalescent energy. Taking a look outside, we see a bus drive up on the road in front of the Showgrounds. Off the bus steps a teenager wearing a black skull hoodie, cargo pants, and beanie. She has pale skin, purple hair and lilac eyes. She pops in her headphones and plays "As Above, So Below" on her phone, hauling her dufflebag over her shoulder.

Driver: Stay safe.

???: Bite me.

Taking Flight: Chapter 20: One Step At A Time

It's about 9pm as Tari lies awake on a couch in Saiko's apartment, examining the orb they had found on that fateful day in the woods.

Saiko: Hey there.......

Saiko chimes in from the bedroom.

Saiko: You good?

Tari doesn't respond right away. She just kept staring at the orb. Saiko can tell there's a lot on Tari's mind. She comes over and takes a seat next to her.

Saiko: More dreams?

Tari: No, just........thinking.

Saiko: About what?

Tari sits up. She looks like she just came back from the dead.

Tari: Do you remember the party? The one where Mario tried to take over the world in the name of Pizza. On that day I thought it was just the same random mayhem we're used to. Then I ended up plowing Pizzaface through the rafters and.......

She pauses, looking down at the scars crawling up her arm and chest.

Tari: It's so weird to think that's when it all started. The day I finally decided to stand on my own. And now here I am, soaring through the sky, fighting bad guys and slaying monsters just like the rest of you......... but now there's just so much happening, so many things that remind me just how little control I have. Even with all this power I'm still not........ good enough.

Saiko scoots over and places her arm around Tari.

Saiko: Tari, we still still need to know our flaws and limits to rectify them and better make use of our strengths. That's what makes us human. It also takes a lot of strength to acknowledge those weaknesses.

Tari: Really?

Saiko: Yeah! Even when you were afraid, you always went out of your way to show kindness and empathize with others. You shouldn't have to be a doormat, and it pays to toughen up when you need to, but that doesn't make your kindness a weakness. You just neec to do right by yourself as much as you do right by others. That sounds "good enough" to me.

Tari looks up to Saiko and smiles. She rests her head on her shoulder as they put on the TV.

Over on SMG3's ship, we see Melony practicing her swordsmanship on the top deck. She lays to waste a mannequin that's wrapped in bandages and wearing a clockwork mask. Kaizo watches as she brings out an identical mannequin - the fifth one judging by the bits scattered everywhere - and resumes her onslaught. Memories flash back to the Ketch, when they first encountered that Xelor. With every mannequin she fells, she hears those exact same words......

Rhode: Well done, my puppet.

Melony's eyes turn black, and the seeds on her cheels turn into red markings. With a mighty yell she unleashes a powered sword strike, reducing another mannequin to smoldering pieces. She goes over to the detached head and crushes it under her foot, panting like a beast as she goes for another mannequin. That's when she feels a hand on her shoulder. She aggressively turns and holds her blade up to Kaizo's throat, but he is unfazed. She lowers her blade, her eyes and marks reverting back to normal.

Melony: Sorry. I'm just....... I got carried away and.......

Kaizo: I know. I wanna see that Clocksucker's head on a pike too. Just take it easy until then, alright.

Melony: Alright........ I didn't hurt you, did I?

Kaizo: Well, one more inch and you would've taken my head off but...... I'm alright.

Their conversation is interrupted by some odd sounds coming from the fields. They both scan the area and notice someone else on the grounds doing some practicing of their own. They both come over to see Pomni standing in front of several targets. She summons a slender prismatic spike, lines up a shot, and hurls the spike into the first target. She then creates three more spikes and launches them into the second target one after another, each one landing within the central circle. Lastly, she conjures a large spike and hurls it like a javelin into the last target, splitting it in half.

Melony: Woah.

Kaizo: Not bad.

Pomni: GAH!

Kaizo's compliment catches Pomni by surprise.

Pomni: Uh...... hi.

Melony: That was SO COOL!

Kaizo: I gotta say, jester. I didn't know you had that kind of fight in you.

Pomni: Oh, well, I wouldn't really say I'm a fighter, but it does pay to be prepared.

Melony: Oh! We should set up a sparring session. We can have Tari and Ragatha join us too! It'll be great!

Pomni: Yeah, I don't think Ragatha would approve of me getting into fighting just yet.

Melony: Why not?

Pomni: Well....... She receives special training from Aybel. I don't know what that entails or what it's for, but she's always been insistent that we don't need that kind of training. She's always been a bit "overprotective" of us.......... even before we lost Kaufmo.

Kaizo: Kaufmo?

Pomni: Yeah. I've only been in the Circus for about a year or two, so I didn't know him TOO well, but he was a great guy. He actually helped me discover my prism powers. Then about a month ago there was an incident and........

She pauses. Melony can see a potent sadness in her eyes.

Pomni: he didn't make it.

Melony: Oh....... I'm sorry to hear that.

Pomni: Yeah...... now Ragatha is insistent on us leaving the more dangerous stuff to her and Saturday. And now every time I ask if I can help her take down whatever "boss" Caine has lined up for us, she just plops me down on the sidelines........

She clenches her fist and takes a deep breath.

Pomni: .......But the Circus is my home too, and the other Carnies are my family. I wanna be able to defend them too. You get what I'm saying, right?

Melony kneels down and places a hand on Pomni's shoulder.

Melony: I understand perfectly. We lost an old friend of ours too about three years ago. It was that loss that drove me to master my powers so I could better protect my own friends and live the life I wanted to live.

Kaizo: You're tougher tan you look, kid. There's no need to hide it.

Melony: Maybe Ragatha will change her mind if she sees how capable you are. You could start practicing with me and Meggy.

Pomni: You'd really help me with that?

Melony: Yeah! I think it's worth a shot.

Pomni gives a warm smile.

Pomni: sigh....... Alright. I guess we can give it a shot.

Melony: YAAAAAY!!!!! We'll start first thing in the morning!

A few meters out we find the mysterious teen has set up a spot in one of the tents. Y'know, the ones that were used as decoration for the Showgrounds. One of them is Red and Blue, and the other is Purple and Yellow. You'd think the crew would at least take them down, but nope! They're just there. Anyways, she has a pretty generic "angsty teen" setup with a mattress, some BIONICLE figures, posters for Cryoshell and Demon Hunter, and an old X-Box One hooked up to a TV. She lays down on her bed, occasionally looking over at a stool with an old monkey wrench sitting on top. She can almost hear her father's parting words before she left.

????: It's a bit of a "good luck charm" of mine and I want to pass some of that luck onto you. Because black magic or not, you are still my daughter. I'll keep your room nice and tidy for whenever you come back from this whole "self imposed exile" of yours.

She smiles. Even after everything she did, everything that's wrong with her, she still had that idiot of a dad that cared for her.

Uzi: I love you, dad......

The smile slowly fades from her lips as she roles over and goes to turn off the light.

Uzi: .....But I can't go back.

#Nexus!AU #SMG4 #smg4 tari #smg4 au #smg4 fanfic #tadc #murder drones

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spaceaces00 · 1 month

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Really loved @wuffgang-ameowdeus-moozart post abt team rocket klance so I wrote a little smth for it. They’re like the “enemy” so I made Ash young Lotor bc…yeah. I had fun so enjoy!

Lotor attempts to cough out the smoke as he waves his hand in front of his mouth. He didn’t see any campfires or campers down this path. It had just been a bright sunny day before the smoke went off. How strange.

He looks down at the cat perched on his shoulder. Kova was Lotor’s first Pokémon and they became inseparable. Lotor plugs his nose with a hand and pets her, “I hope this smoke doesn’t bother you too much, Kova. I’m sure we’ll walk out of this weird smoke soon.”

She starts to purr, but quickly stops to look up. Her ears go wild; they only do that in danger. She senses something ahead. Lotor stays guarded as they continue.

He was right, the smoke was clearing. To reveal three figures: an older teenager with black hair tending to a small fire and rubbing sticks together, another fanning the smoke towards Lotor with a fan bigger than him, and a dog who was fanning the smoke with his tail. The people wore watching white sets with a big red “R” in the center of the shirts. Lotor picks up Kova and ducks behind a tree. These people can’t be doing any good with this much smoke.

They probably would’ve noticed him soon but they were arguing. A lot. The one with black hair spoke, “Lance, can you put your back in it? We’re losing smoke!”

The one who must’ve been Lance snaps back, “Well why don’t we switch then, Keith? It’s not my fault someone wanted to buy the extra extra extra extraaa extraaaaa large fan. My back is killing me I put so much in it!”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” the other one (Keith) grumbles, “Kosmo is doing a better job then you!” Kosmo, the dog Pokémon, barks back in appreciation.

“Well Kosmo has better hair than you.” Lance whispers to himself at a volume even Lotor could hear.

Keith slams the sticks down and locks foreheads with Lance. “That’s it! Do you think I even wanted to work with your lanky ass? Allura just promised me a bonus for it, one you won’t get!” Keith smirks.

“How dare you?” Lance gasps, “She offered me the same thing! I will be taking that bonus! Thank you very much!”

Keith grinds his teeth and sits back at the fire. “This will all be worth it to catch that Kova.” Lance huffs back and fans even more vigorously than before as if to make a point.

Kova? They want to catch Kova? Why? Lotor held Kova closer to his chest. His adventure to find more pokemon is going to become much more interesting. His heart was beating 100 miles per hour and his blood was racing at the thought of them being separated.

Before he could think on it, Lotor jumped out behind the tree, revealing himself. “I won’t let you take her! Who are you and why are you trying to steal Pokémon?!” He pointed at them enraged.

Lance looked back to the path and then to Lotor, his mouth wide open. Suddenly, he pulls the giant hand fan over to Lotor and a wave of smoke hits him in the face. This time he was slightly more prepared and managed to tuck his chin into his shirt collar.

As the smoke clears, Lance and Keith are standing back to back. Keith starts, “Who are we? Well, allow us to introduce ourselves.” Weird music starts to play in the background.

“To protect the world from devastation” Lance says and the smoke swirls around him.

“To unite all people within our nation” Keith holds a rose out. (He wasn’t holding that before)

“To denounce the evils of truth and love”

“To extend our reach to the stars above”

“Lance!”

“Keith!”

“Team Rocket blast off with the speed of light”

“Surrender now or prepare to fight” They're standing back to back now with their arms crossed. The dog jumps to the center and barks. Lotor guesses that’s his line and pose cue.

Lotor is speechless. Who are these weirdos?

#I watched two yt videos for this lmao #klance #keith kogane #lance mcclain #prince lotor #pokémon au #my writing #vld #voltron legendary defender

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delirious-donna · 2 years

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Heartstrings [Kakashi Hatake]

an: thanks to @friendly-neighborhoodnerd1 for requesting something just a little different to what I normally write. This was both heartbreaking and kinda fun to write.

prompt: the first time you sense your soulmate is when he is facing his death, fate could be so cruel...

pairing: Kakashi Hatake x female reader (Soulmate AU)

warnings: angst by the bucketload, hurt/comfort, canonical violence, major character death, traumatic theming, detailed description of sorrow, fluff at the end (I PROMISE!)

Masterlist

The unease had been steadily building in the pit of your stomach, yet given what was currently happening to Konoha, it made sense. An unprecedented attack by the vile monsters of the Akatsuki was sure to be the reason and nothing more.

You tried to convince yourself of this whilst helping to shepherd the children to safety with the other academy sensei. Your head spun thought after thought until you were dizzy thinking about it, but your heart knew differently.

The erratic beat that thundered against your ribs was nothing to do with fear over the attack, you knew that the village was well protected by the very best and that Lady Tsunade would pull through with some kind of plan sooner or later. No—this was everything to do with that primal part of you that recognised that something was about to happen that would change your life forever.

It was terrifying, although you couldn’t deny there was a tremor of excitement for what might happen. A hand flew against the nearest wall, steadying your frame as a wave of nausea swept through your stomach and your vision turned blurry. Pain, unimaginable pain, spread from the tips of your fingers and raced towards your heart. It felt like lightning was invading your very soul, burning away everything else that mattered until there was only one thought remaining—it was them.

You had never found the one, the person you were destined to be with and who would make your soul complete. In a way, you’d been glad of it as it removed the burden of expectation from your shoulders, even if deep down you wanted to have that bone-deep connection with someone.

The realisation that it was your soulmate that caused the ache within your chest caused cold sweat to bead along your forehead, your knees trembled and your brain simply refused to form any logical thoughts. Strange how only now could you relate the first lances of pain to those you had felt over the years, always putting it down to the stresses of your job or maybe you were sick. That one moment many years ago when it had felt like your eye was being carved from your skull, the pain blinding you for days until it had eventually passed. Now, you knew without a doubt that these incidents had been times when your soulmate had been wounded.

How you managed to walk through the eerily empty streets of the village, you didn’t know. Explosions and the sound of distant fighting skimmed over your consciousness like pebbles on the surface of a shimmering lake but you paid them no heed. An invisible thread was pulling you forward, the strands binding around your heart in quick succession, coiling in every direction until you were fully ensnared by the shimmering thread.

You stopped by the edge of a crater that looked freshly made and what you saw stole the air from your lungs and the strength from your legs. Collapsed to your knees in the dirt, you watched as a man you knew of but had never officially met, fought against a man you could only describe as terrifying. Other than to know instinctively that the enemy was a monstrous creature, you paid him no mind as your gaze became glued to the shinobi below.

His silver hair was striking, cutting through the gloom in its brilliance, the strands sticking up at an odd angle which you might have found endearing had it not been for the dire situation. He was trapped up to his waist in rubble and fallen debris, his arms pinned by his sides. Dirt streaks coated his skin along with a mixture of blood and sweat that dripped from beneath his forehead protector. There was another shinobi laying on his back off to the side, and he didn’t look to be in a good state, but again, you found it impossible to focus on anything other than the trapped man.

Kakashi Hatake, the legendary copycat ninja of the hidden leaf, one of the greatest Anbu captains and a shinobi to be respected by his comrades and feared by his enemies. He was your soulmate.

He was gravely wounded, the pain in your chest an indication of his state. Had you met him prior to this moment, and experienced that first physical touch with him, then you would be dying too. Part of you wanted it to be that way. How cruel could fate be to bring you to the man you were destined to love with all your heart and soul, who was the other part of you, only to watch him die in front of your eyes?

Every part of you ached; not only from the pain that Kakashi was experiencing but for everything that could have been and never would be. It hurt simply to breathe, your lungs burning from every painful inhale of smoke-filled air. Tears had blurred your vision and you weren’t even aware that you had crawled on hands and knees down the sharp incline towards the silver-haired man. Never mind that the enemy was still there, knowing that he could kill you in a heartbeat but wanting to reach Kakashi, to stretch out your fingers and graze his fingertips. To seal the connection that would drag you into the afterlife along with him.

You froze in your place, eyes snapped up to watch as a nail shot towards Kakashi from the auburn-haired Akatsuki member. The scream caught in your throat, halted by the piercing glare of the Sharingan and the nail warped out of sight. It had happened within the blink of an eye, and the way he slumped forward made it look like it had hit him but he was definitely still alive.

A flicker of hope ignited in your heart, the thread that bound you to Kakashi twisted and writhed until you couldn’t help but rub at the spot on your chest. You crawled slowly, easing your way around the rumble in an attempt to keep yourself hidden from sight. It would not be wise to be seen if there was even the slightest chance that he would survive. The redhead would like only to use you as a way to hurt him further, and that would never do.

Movement caught your attention, a young shinobi trying to flee the area and the mechanical contraption on the ground firing a missile despite looking as if it were completely trashed. You watched through wide fearful eyes as you sensed movement within Kakashi’s body, you knew what he was going to do before he had released the remaining stores of his chakra.

You would swear that his head tilted to where you were hidden from sight, his eyelids drooping as if in apology before he sacrificed himself to save the kid. It was honourable, in your mind, you understood his decision but your heart and soul shattered.

Your scream rent the air, the sound of pure unfiltered agony as you felt Kakashi’s spirit leave his body. The pain was unbearable, the gut-wrenching agony that twisted at your limbs as if you were physically being manipulated into an unnatural state. It was back-breaking, nerve-shredding and blood-curdling as you howled your sorrowful lament at the sky. There wouldn’t be a person for miles that did not hear of your pain.

With the death of your soulmate still ringing in your ears, your eyes slid shut as your face crashed into the dirt. It had been too much for your psyche to bear, your mind welcomed the dark with open arms.

Why did you have to be there?

Kakashi had felt your presence during his battle with the two Peins, and he prayed you would stay back, that you would keep yourself safe so that didn’t have yet another soul on his conscious in the end but you hadn’t.

It was just his luck that the sense of his soulmate nearby would kick in within the last moments of his life. He had never been blessed with luck with any such matters, so why should it be any different now?

He couldn't see you, and it was a blessing. It would only cause him even more suffering if he were to know how beautiful you were. He could already feel it in his heart, strings of fate tugging incessantly around the organ that was growing sluggish with every passing second. They sang to him of your beauty, of your tender heart that he would have loved to have cherished for the rest of his days and of your bravery as you made your way towards him.

Kakashi had hoped that his plan to act dead would work, that Pein would take his leave and he could be healed to rejoin the fighting, but that wish was short-lived. The whirring of the mechanical Pein stirred his senses, and he knew that a missile was being launched directly at the fleeing figure of Choji.

There was no way that he would allow the life of a boy that had not been given the chance to grow into adulthood to end. He knew it was suicide, that he would die if he used up the remaining tendrils of his chakra but nothing would divert his will.

He sensed your presence once more, Kakashi knew that you could see him although he could not see you. His eyes swivelled to the pile of debris you were concealed behind and let his eyelids close slowly. It was the most he could do without alerting the enemy to your location.

A feminine sound scream echoed within his brain as he activated his Sharingan for the very final time, swallowing the missile aimed at Choji’s back and feeling the darkness swallow him whole.

Kakashi had always thought that he would welcome death when it came, but there was something that prevented him from accepting his demise with grace. That small flame of desire for a happy life, someone to come home to and enjoy the comforts of domesticity. Never had he thought it would be on the cards for him, he knew that his soulmate was out there but had never actively sought them out as others had.

He longed for someone to hold his hand, to cuddle him close and soothe his fears when he woke in the middle of the night. Was it so much to ask for? A glimmer of normality after all the bullshit he had endured?

The scream that had been only in his mind pierced the veil of reality as he slipped from his body. He felt weightless, tugged behind the navel as he found himself elsewhere. His instinct had been to fight against the sensation, to cling to the strings that bound him to you, to fight with every fibre of his being to find you and be with you, but it was a losing battle.

Three familiar figures stood before him, faces that he had longed to see but he found no comfort in their presence. Kakashi stared into the happy expressions of his sensei and two friends. Minato, Obito and Rin; they smiled at him and beckoned him forth.

He wanted to follow, to find out where they went and be reunited but he still felt as if something was bound around his ankle, pulling him and begging for him to return. No, not his ankle, his chest. A weight pressed against him, made it hard to draw air into his lungs but soon enough his focus was diverted.

A man sat on a log, a crackling fire illuminating a face that was all too familiar to him and it hurt. Had he ever really forgiven his father for leaving him alone in such a harsh world? As he matured, he had come to accept his death and he certainly understood his reasoning more than he had as a wilful teenager, but he struggled with the thought of forgiveness.

He sat heavily and let the silence linger.

“You're too early, son.”

“I don't think I really had a say in the matter,” he retorted with a shrug.

The flames writhed, dancing and leaping upon the wood. “Perhaps we Hatakes are doomed to die young,” his father lamented sadly.

Kakashi wondered why he was here, it felt different to how his friends had appeared, this seemed more real and he studied his father for a moment. Comprehension dawned, slow and unfurling like a late bloom in a garden full of bright colours.

Whilst he still felt that he didn’t want to pass on, Kakashi found that the bitterness that had been directed at Sakumo was wiped away, erased as he understood that his father needed something from him.

“I understand why you did what you did,” he whispered, staring at his hands as they curled into loose fists. The anger that had once burned bright in his soul was snuffed out by a gentle presence that was new yet familiar.

Sakumo nodded, head bowed as if lost in thought.

“I forgive you… dad.”

He felt the hand land on his shoulders, the fingers that squeezed gently into him along with the quiet chuckle.

“Thank you, it’s going to be nice to see your mother again. I’ve missed her, almost as much as I’ve missed you.”

“Why did you wait here?”

Sakumo sighed. “I think you know why, I needed to know that you understood why I did what I did. I refused to move on to the afterlife knowing that you resented me, hated me even.”

There was a hush that fell over them, an understanding that settled like a comforting weight and his heart felt lighter than it had done in years. If only he had met you properly, had been given the chance to learn about you and love you for who you were and not only the soulmate connection, he would be happy to follow his father into whatever lay ahead.

“You’ve still got many things left to do Kakashi,” his father interrupted his train of thoughts, “and someone is desperate for you to return.”

His father smiled, and it was a genuine grin that reached his eyes, the corners crinkling affectionately.

“Don’t keep her waiting.”

On those final words, everything went dark once more. There was a rushing sound in his ears that shifted into a wailing noise that tore at his chest.

Someone was draped around his torso, or what part of it was sticking out from his prison. He felt the pressure against his body and realised with a jolt that he was alive. His heart thundered wildly, air drawn heavily into his lungs and his eyes springing open.

The presence tumbled back and there you were.

Tears masked your face, cheeks burning red with streaks of dirt and blood and he had never seen anyone so beautiful in all his life.

Your sobs started anew, your entire face falling into anguish as he struggled to free himself. He was desperate to touch you, if you’d allow it, to seal the connection that was pounding in his soul.

“It’s you,” he croaked, his voice raw and broken with emotion.

You nodded, wiping at your snotty nose and he hated the prominent tremble in your hands.

“Y-you’re alive.”

He was, and never again would he take his life for granted. From his death, he had found you and he’d fight every monster that stood in his way to keep coming back to you.

Kakashi grunted as he finally managed to pull his arm free, his hand raised in invitation, and he watched you study him intently.

The strings around his heart pulled taut as your fingers reached out. As his fingertips grazed your own, the shockwave rippled through you both.

No longer were either of you alone in this world, you were two halves that made a whole. Two souls joined in unity for now and forever, bound together in fate until you both took your dying breath.

Kakashi was your soulmate, and you were his…

#delirious writes #kakashi hakate #kakashi x reader #kakashi x you #kakashi fluff #kakashi x y/n #kakashi angst #kakashi hurt/comfort #soulmate au #tw death

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