#What to do if Your Arctic Expedition Doesn’t go as Planned

[thatsbelievable]

#What to do if Your Arctic Expedition Doesn’t go as Planned #tips #tricks #life hacks #helpful hints #advice #exploration #the Arctic

[strawberry-jammers]

One year

a dreamsmp x reader where a young (y/n) wants to rebuild an old old kingdom before they have to be crowned to rule over their parents kingdom. with the help of their friends and a couple of servants, they hope to rebuild it all with out their parent knowing about it.

part one part 2 part 3

part 2/?

masterlist

The lovely @acidicvolt edited this!

this part is just traveling and fluff lmao. it'll pick up in the others <3

this series is so much fun to write, I'm really enjoying it

word count: 2,215

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It had reached midnight, the sun long gone and nearly everyone in the castle was asleep, except for three. Karl and Niki made their way to the teens room, which was at the opposite end of the castle.

"Are you sure the king’s asleep? They have been on edge as of late…” Niki said, walking alongside Karl. Karl nods, clutching the bag he always wore. 

“Yeah, checked and everything. He's out like a light.” 

Niki nods, sighing. “Thank god he sleeps on the other side of the castle. We'd be dead if he found out we were helping his kid like this.” 

Karl nods again, looking ahead at where they were going.

In the young teens room, everything was prepared for their expedition. They packed appropriate clothes to sneak around, fight and blend in with. They had food, tools/weapons, along with the letters, money, and the lmanburg page. They were ready and excited to embark on this adventure.

Niki quietly knocks on the door, opening it a crack. Seeing that (y/n) was alone, she walks in, followed by Karl who closes the door behind them. (y/n) sighed, thankful it wasnt Eret. 

“So, you know the plan?” they ask. 

Niki nods, holding onto her own bag. 

"Okay, I'm staying behind to tell the king you two went on a camping trip for the next year or so. Somewhere in the middle of the woods where he can't check in to see where you are." Karl says to the two of them. 

"Thank you again Karl for doing that. " (y/n) says, leading Niki to their window. "Niki, you know enough of the plan right?" They asked, grabbing the ladder they had in case they ever needed to escape. 

"Yeah. We're heading to Tommy’s castle first right?" She asked, watching as (y/n) opened their window. A soft breeze entered the room. 

"Yep! Then we'll try to find Tubbo. Ready?" (y/n) said, hooking the ladder to the window and throwing it out the castle, trying to not make a noise. 

(y/n) looked down. It wasn't too high up, but it was still a bit scary. They looked back at the two servants, nodding. “Karl, when we reach the ground, bring the ladder back up and close the window. I'll go first. Again, thank you Karl, see you in a year!” with that, (y/n) climbed out the window onto the ladder. the two servants nodded, Niki going over to the window, watching the teen start to climb down the wobbly ladder. 

Once (y/n) got far enough down, they waved their hand for Niki to go after them. Niki smiled over at Karl. “It was nice meeting you, Karl.” she said, making the brunette smile as well. “It was! See you in a year Niki! Take care.” she nodded, grabbing her bag, making sure nothing was left behind. Once she saw everything was in check, she went down, following her new friend.

“Man, I should've worn a thicker sweater.” Niki said, finally reaching the ground. “Yeah, I should've checked before we left. Too late now though.” (y/n) responds, watching as the ladder slowly shrank back up into their room. The two of them waved at Karl, who smiled back at them. “Alright, where to go first? We can't just go straight to the tundra.” Niki said, watching as (y/n) looked around. It was still pretty dark out, so they hoped it wouldn't turn a day before they even left the castle grounds. “Well we need to find some transportation for when we exit the forest. Cant be going thru town, it's too early for that.'' Niki nodded, looking over at the forest. “Got any torches?” (y/n) asked the pinkett. Niki nodded, shuffling into her bag, pulling out an unlit torch and lighter. “Yep, need one?” (y/n) shook their heads. “Only one of us needs one for now, well just gotta stay close together. Let's go, we can't stay here forever.” (y/n) says, chuckling softly. “Of course! Let's go!”

The two of them entered the forest close to the castle, leaving it behind. (y/n) had no regrets, they knew they needed this, even if eret forbid them. Niki was excited, she hadn't gone on an adventure since she was small, so it was a nice change of pace.

“Yknow (y/n), we’ve never actually met properly before this. Only in passing.” she said, stepping over a thick tree root. (y/n) followed, nearly tripping. “Really? I didn't notice. Though, i was held up in my room for awhile there.” they said, looking at all the trees that encased the two of them. No matter how many years go by, they still found nature to be beautiful. “Yeah, I did become one of the king's cooks when you were 16, not too long ago.” she said,pulling a branch up for (y/n) to walk past. “Oh thank you. What were you doing before then? Before you started working for my dad.” Niki thought for a second before answering. 

“Well, i was only 18 when he hired me, so i was doing what any kid did at that time. For a while I took up gardening, growing many types of flowers, though they all ended up dying after a while.” she said. (y/n) stopped, noticing the forest was ending. “i did gardening as well when i was young child. Made many flower crowns and such with them.” Niki gasped excitedly at this. “Maybe we can make flower crowns together!! I haven't done it in so long..” (y/n) smiled. ‘Of course we can! We have a whole year after all!” they laughed together, looking out at the forest in front of them. “God I hope your mom doesn't fire me when this is all over…” (y/n) looks over at Niki, giving her a reassuring smile. “Well good thing I'll be the ruler when we get back. You're not getting fired on my watch.” Niki smiled at this. “Thank you (y/n)...should we go now?” (y/n) nodded, looking ahead once more.

The two of them continue to walk, leaving the small forest behind. “Okay, we should be in a farm area. The houses are spaced out so no one should see us. Should take a half hour to an hour to get through. There should be a train station after that. It'll take us to the arctic kingdom." Niki nodded, grabbing some bread from her bag. "Bread?" (Y/n) shook their heads, declining. "I ate before we left. Thanks tho." 

They both walked through the field, the torches flame flickering as they walked. There were no monsters around, since there hadn't been any around the area in 100s of years. They were safe. 

Niki looked at some of the farmland, noticing they had to walk through some of it. (Y/n) noticed it as well. "How do we get through there? They'll notice someone was here in the morning." (Y/n) said, not completely knowing how to get by. "Got any ender pearls?"  

(y/n) thought for a second, looking in their bag for some. “Oh, looks like I do! Got a bag full of ‘em.'' They hand some to Niki, who throws it over the larger field, hoping to get over without touching the wheat. (y/n) followed, both of them successfully getting across the farm.

“I am so glad that worked.” (y/n) said, putting the pearls back in their bag. Niki nodded, sighing. “Is the trans station past those trees?” she asked, pointing towards the small strip of trees not too far ahead of them. “Yeah, behind there's the train station. An old friend of mine runs it. Lets go!” 

The two of them basically run across the field, not wanting to waste a second of their time. The sun would rise at any moment, and they really wanted to get out of town before it rose. 

They had reached the trees, their original torch being burnt out from all the running. Niki grabbed and lit another, the two of them heading into the small patch of trees to the train station.

The station wasn't too much to brag about, a boring old timey train station was all it was. There was no train in sight, making the (h/c) haired teen sigh. “Damnit, the train might not be here for another several hours.” they said, heading up to the platform. Niki followed, smiling slightly. “Could be worse. Not sure how much worse but it could be worse.” 

The two of them sat at a random bench in the area, looking at the map (y/n) had packed.

“So the kingdom is all the way over there, which is about 6 hours by foot. Taking the train would be around the same pass but we wouldn't be out in the open.” (y/n) says, pointing their finger along the route they need to take. “Is there a way to get there any faster?” (y/n) shrugged, looking over the map. “We could either go through the towns and such, or we could get some horses and get there that way. Wouldn't know how to get any of those, they're kinda rare in this area.'' Niki nodded, thinking for a second.

Both of their thoughts were cut off by someone's cheery voice. “Hello! It's been a long time, hasn't it (y/n)?” They looked over to see their old friend, Jack Manifold, approaching the two of them. (y/n) smiled, standing up and walking over to the said man. “Eyyyy Manifold! Good to see ya!” The two of them hug, separating soon after. (y/n) looked over at Niki. “Hey, have you met Niki?” Niki smiled, putting the map in her bag, standing up as well. “Indeed i have! To be fair, it was a brief interaction. “Nice to see ya, Niki.” 

She nodded. “Nice to see you too, Jack.” (y/n) smiled, looking back over at Jack.

"Jack, we need to get to the arctic kingdom, do you know when the trains coming back?" They asked the slightly smarter man. He nodded. "Won't be coming back till noon today. I'm just here because I forgot something." (Y/n) looked up at the sky. It was getting lighter out. They sighed, looking back down at Jack. "We can't wait that long. Know any other way to get out of town fast?" 

"Well, I could lend you my horse. Most of the time he just sits here and cry's." I looked at Niki, who seemed to be pleased with the offer. "Mind if we take him? We'll return him at some point obviously." Jack nodded, starting to go around the train station. "I'll be in the arctic kingdom a day or so from now, so you can return him then!" We follow Jack behind the station, where his horse sat tied up while eating some grass. 

"His name is thunder, good lad. Constantly sad tho." Jack unties the reins from the pole, handing them to Niki. "Say, what's your trip for anyway?"  Jack asked the two of them. (Y/n) answered. "We're going to see prince Tommy to recruit him to a project we're working on. Top secret stuff man." Jack nodded. "Seems fun. Might join you if I feel like it. Well, have fun you two." They nodded, Niki getting onto the horse and bringing him to the front of the station. "Oh, by the way. You can't tell anyone I was here, at least for the reason I am here. I know I've asked for a lot but if anyone asked, can you tell them I went camping somewhere in the woods?" 

Jack nodded, smiling at the teen. "It's fine, secret adventures are cool anyway. I'll keep your secret, now grab your stuff and have fun on your journey." They smiled, hugging the male. "Thanks Jack, I'll repay you eventually." They say while letting go of their friend. 

He nodded. "Anytime (y/n). Now go, Niki’s waiting." They nodded, running off to the front of the station. They spotted Niki on thunder, who held all our bags. I looked up at her. "You know how to ride a horse?" They asked, trying to get up onto the horse. Niki giggled, helping them up. "Yeah, I was taught when I was younger. Come on, gotta get out of here before the sun rises right?" (Y/n) smiled, latching onto Niki lightly, so as to not fall off. 

"Yeah, lets go!" They took off, running along the tracks. The sun rose as they went, turning the sky into a pinkish color. 

Niki slowed the horse down a bit, staring at the beautiful sky. "I love the sunrise…" (y/n) hummed in agreement, resting their head on Niki’s shoulder. 

"I haven't seen it in awhile. Always amazes me." Niki nodded, smiling softly. "Should we continue or just watch the sunrise?" (Y/n) chuckled, lifting their head off the woman's shoulder. "We should go. Maybe we could watch the sunrise tomorrow. 

Niki nodded, returning the horse to his original pace. 

They left towards a small path in the forest, leaving towards the arctic kingdom where they'll hopefully find the first person they need to reach. 

Hopefully.

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series tag list, ask if you wanna be added! 

@xx-smiley-xx 

#mcyt x reader #dreamsmp x reader #niki nihachu x reader #jack manifold x reader #karl jacobs x reader #royal au #sbi au #niki nihachu x you #niki nihachu x y/n #jack manifold x you #jack manifold x y/n #karl jacobs x you #karl jacobs x y/n #tommyinnit x reader #eret x reader #wilbur soot x reader #Dsmp Royal Au #One Year fic

[unheardwoman]

🌙 — ALL ABOARD ! The HMS PROMETHEAN welcomes ( NOÉMIE COLETTE LÉON née ALARIE ) to the expedition in their capacity of ( THE CASSANDRA ). They are ( 30 years old & cisfemale ) and might be painted as ( ANABELLE WALLIS ). When you strike up an acquaintance, address them as ( she/her ). Their deeds on land precede their arrival — people say they are ( protective as a lioness, determined to see things through, and devoted to those who have earned it ) but ( terrified of her own madness, guilty over being a terrible mother, and distrusting of those who desire to be in her inner circle ) when the tide turns. Their purpose aboard the Promethean falls in line with ( returning to France with all of the Agathe survivors in one piece; no matter the cost ).

Her full TIMELINE (tw mentions of depression, postpartum depression, loved one death & mentioned attempt at infanticide.)

WANTED CONNECTIONS (will be up soon)

AYYY YA’LL IS YA GIRL TRIXIE. Bringing you this hot very troubled mama. If you thought you were gonna get a sweet, very maternal, woman oOooOohohoo sit down, my child. In the words of the cinematic masterpiece, Mean Girls: I’m not like regular moms. I’m a cool mom.

PERSONA:

ON LAND: Witty, sharp, vivacious. A wildfire of a woman. Very great with connecting with others, numbers, understanding what people want, what she wants, and how to get it.

ON THE AGATHE, B.S.O (Before the Silent One):  “Work hard, party hard” mindset. She had a reputation for being a very stern overseer. Meticulous about every single thing, every little cost. And additionally to that, she would physically help however way she could. She didn’t have to be as involved as she was but she wanted to prove to every single seaman that she could match them. That she was not just a pretty gilded thing. She became very endeared to the majority of the crew. She knew everyone by name. When not on the job, she was jovial and drank most men under the table. She earned their respect in a short time.

TO THE AGATHE CREW: She is serious faced, with hard eyes that could level you in a glance, but she had made it clear that you are always welcome in her presence. That the icy azure in her eyes can melt into gentle tropical waves in an instant. She has incredible powers of discernment, knowing the perfect times to be hard and soft and who needs what more.

ON THE PROMETHEAN/WITH EVERYONE ELSE: She continues to oversee what (who) is left of the Agathe, protective and observant. She smiles and is polite with most, but she is wary. She naturally distrusts people but she has an urge—a need, now—to gather resources and garner loyalty from those on the Promethean. Anything to get her crew home.

she is basically if you took a wild promiscuous rave/party girl and like forced to become a suburban mom. like do you really expect her to just give up her vices, be the perfect housewife and be happy with that?? come on now

in her younger years, she was quite the hedonist and of the fiesty variety. Because the privilege was real (ya know, because old money can buy you that) and when you already have EVERYTHING what else is there to do besides enjoy the spoils of life, the spoils you did nothing to earn. 

she wanted excitement and pleasure at every moment in time because the truth is she has an undercurrent of nihilism and untreated depression that just make her go: nothing in the world matters. absolutely nothing. so ah what the fuck WHY NOT? hand me the whiskey, give me some laudanum, and let’s fuck until the sun comes up twice. 

but ah all good runs must end sometime right? she gets wooed and (can you believe it) ACTUALLY FALLS IN LOVE with a soft, rich, romantic who is just entranced with her. so she puts all her other lovers on pause to marry him and it is pretty nice

until kids happen.

she has really difficult and PAINFUL (like 12 hours in excruciating labor painful) pregnancies and that untreated depression really comes out to play in postpartum

she isn’t really a good mom to her 3 kids, hires a nanny to deal with them as she joins her father in helping him do business things so that she doesn’t go completely mad. it really starts just so she can get out of the house and not think of them.

she isnt really a good wife in this time either because her husband LOVES their daughters and she accidentally avoids him in avoiding the kiddos.

but on the silver lining: she gets 1 thing to care about. AND THATS THE AGATHE EXPEDITION. It is her baby (yeah i know. ironic) and she likes using her charm, wit, and intelligence to gather the resources to help her father plan it. it’s natural for her and it feels so right 

BUT THEN HER DAD DIES (traitor) AND her eldest brother (who is now the patriarch) is like “k we gon cancel this because no one knows how to man it” “UMMM IM RIGHT HERE?? “yeah but lol youre a woman”

and that really sends her off the deep end. like almost hurt your own daughters deep end.

BUT HER HUSBAND STOPS HER RIGHT BEFORE SHE ALMOST KILLS THEM IN HER MADNESS and is like “oKAY IF I LET CONVINCE YOUR BROTHER TO LET YOU GO TO THE ARCTIC WILL YOU STOP BEING INSANE???” (rip no one cares about mental health yet)

and she says “yes”

and he says “okay shit. fine. go.”

and off she went to the arctic. She kinda put her hedonistic tendencies to the side while on the agathe because she actually cared about this 1 thing. and she wanted to do it RIGHT and to be taken seriously. but she still had little bits of sass here and there. she was a bossy lady, that's to be sure. sometimes, when she was in full Overseer Mode, it was hard to tell who was the real captain of the Agathe.

but then disaster strikes and for some reason, her maternal need to PROTECT HER OWN has come to life. like 5 years fucking late (pour one out for her 3 unloved daughters) 

basically, the agathe crew are her Babies and if you fucking touch them she will smile as she cuts your hand off (metaphorically, not literally). she’s not the violent type. shes more of the, manipulative ‘will ruin you life so you dont want to live anymore’ type. 

also lets not talk about how part of her protectiveness of the agathe crew comes from how she is trying to right the wrongs she committed to her own kids through them. lets not....talk....about.....that

#tw depression #tw postpartum depression #tw death #tw infanticide #all of these things are just VAGUELY mentioned but i wanna be safe #thqintro #history

[laurelleghuleh]

OCAF | Ch. 8 “Bites”

Warnings: read the masterlist first

Songs: "I Feel Like I'm Drawning" by Two Feet, "Shiver" by Maroon 5, "Do I Wanna Know" by Arctic Monekys.

LEVI'S POV

As usual, I couldn’t sleep that night either, but for once, at least, I had a "good" excuse. I desperately wanted to know how Daphne was doing, and at the same time, I also wanted to start caring less about that girl. I could have really gotten myself into trouble.

I had always lost out when I cared about someone else: my mom, my friends, my comrades. And once I learned my lesson, after countless deaths, I had completely trained my mind and body to suck it up and move on. Honestly, there was nothing else I could do. Each loss had brought me to my knees, still, none of those seemed to stop me from achieving my goal, which was to annihilate the titans. To wipe them off the face of the earth. Once and for all.

And yet with Daphne, it was… different. I still couldn’t fully understand the nature and depth of my affection for her. I found no explanation for that chronic attraction I felt towards her and her story. Maybe just empathy... yes, maybe just empathy, for another poor scrap from that hovel called Underground...

The sun rose. It was about time for me to go down to the cafeteria and let that brand new and challenging day begin. When I was almost in front of the main stairs, I noticed a bit of bustle: some cadets were crammed in front of a window, intent on looking out and making almost incomprehensible comments. Among them, I saw Petra, who immediately noticed my gaze and ran towards me.

"Captain, good morning!" she greeted me with her usual enthusiasm. “What’s this fucking racket now?” I cut her off. "Ahem... Well..." While Petra was stuttering something, I went to the window, getting those brats out of my way. Tch, what the fuck they are ever looking at.

"Here she comes again..." one of them whispered as they all stepped back. Then I saw her: Daphne was running like an insane around the castle.

"How long has this been going on?" I asked Petra, who had come forward, close to me. "I don’t know, sir, for a while I guess, but..." she shyly replied, intimidated by my possible reaction. "And you back there? What are you looking at, huh? Fuck off" I yelled at the cadets behind us. They instantly ran off.

"Captain, do you want me to go talk to her? You know, girl to girl..." I heard Petra say at one point, but I was too focused on thinking what the hell Daphne was trying to do to answer her. After a while, I came up with "No, Petra. In that state, if you tried to talk to her, she would probably rip your head off. Let her be. See you in the cafeteria."

As I walked down to the ground floor, I passed before the main door and there I felt like my legs didn’t want to move forward. I stopped and after a while, I decided to head outside. I stepped into the walkway and waited for her to pass in front of me again. Our eyes met, but she didn’t care too much and she just kept running around the castle, so I lost sight of her again. Tch, again with this ignoring-me thing?

On the second lap, as soon as I caught her gaze, we stared at each other again. Her eyebrows frowned visibly and so she stopped. After catching some breath, she started to walk in my direction. Actually, it seemed like she was coming right towards me. So, I decided to say something to her, "Oi, go take a shower, today Hange wants to do experiments on Eren-" She didn’t even let me finish, and when she was a few inches away, she just walked past me, without saying a word, and kept walking straight into the castle. This girl, she...

Later, Daphne didn’t come to the cafeteria and appeared in the courtyard just in time for the experiments. There were only me, her, four-eyed, and the whiner. During the whole experiment, Daphne stood aside, holding the notebook that Hange had given her, and she was just there waiting to write down what she was told to.

Eren failed to transform and Daphne helped him to come out of the stench where we had put him before. Once outside, she bound his hands, where he had bitten himself several times to induce the transformation. After patting him on the shoulder, Daphne suggested "Maybe it’s better to give the kid a break. It’s time for lunch anyways". Hange seemed to agree with her, so we all headed to the tables we had set up outside to eat something with the other soldiers. And still, Daphne was clearly avoiding me.

I have a bad feeling about this.

DAPHNE'S POV

After interrupting the morning experiments, we decided to take a lunch break. Eren seemed exhausted and as much as I understood their intentions, I was often puzzled by Levi’s impassiveness and Hange’s twisted curiosity. Although that morning those simple thoughts seemed hard even to process. I still felt my head particularly heavy after another sleepless night. Even the sweet words of Levi on the other side of the door couldn’t have had any effect on my sorrow. Indeed, if anything, they made everything worse. I wouldn’t have let those two piercing eyes look inside me again and distract me from my real goal: to go home, to save my sisters, to live in peace. Full stop.

While I was focused on my food, I felt a gaze on me and an unexpected shiver seemed to run up my back. Levi, as usual, was staring at me, while he was sipping something from his cup and standing a few meters from his teammates' table. Don’t you ever get tired of this, Levi?

I intercepted his eyes. I tried not to get too caught up in the situation, but something told me to play a little anyway. Let’s see how long can you keep up with me, Captain. Without looking away from Levi, I kept on eating and drinking casually. Suddenly a small drop slipped out of my mouth, so I retrieved it with my thumb. That same voice in my head told me, "Do it. Do it. You’ll make him go nuts”.

So, I went along with it. I put my thumb in my mouth and I sucked it slowly. I took all the time to calmly look at Levi’s reaction, who suddenly froze. His mug was still a couple of centimeters from his lips, now slightly open, while his gaze was focused on mine. My mouth curved in a small and mischievous smile. In response, Levi decided to turn his back on me. Daphne 1 Levi 0.

Soon after Petra approached him. She had probably witnessed the whole scene, but I couldn’t care less. She could think what the hell she wanted about me. I laughed and stared at the food again, but all of a sudden, I felt a little pat on my back. I saw Hange passing by, saying "Follow me". I did not make her repeat twice and I immediately ran after her.

"I’m sorry to bother you, but I really wanted to talk to you for a bit" she began to say, as we proceeded towards a small grove in the garden. "No, Hange, I’m the one who should apologize first... the other day I really fucked up" I interrupted her, bowing my head. "Yeah... You fucked up," she said, looking at me over her shoulder. "Hange, please you have to believe me. I wasn’t the one who killed your tita-"

"I know. I never suspected it was you... I know you got off to a rocky start with us, but I couldn’t believe you were capable of such a thing, so I never thought it was you". "Really?" I asked her, a bit curious.

"Call me a dupe, but... I feel like I can trust you, you know?" she said with a big smile, "From the first day I saw you, I immediately liked you. You look like a girl who knows what she’s about. However, I hate when people jump to conclusions. The fact that you’re from the Underground doesn’t mean a thing to me. In my eyes, that doesn’t make you either worse or better than any of us..." Her words seemed to comfort me straightaway. Hange was so transparent and honest. And I was incredibly grateful to have her somehow on my side. "But bad timing, girl," she added. I looked at her a bit confused.

"Erwin told me that you two ended up in the Underground and that Captain Levi didn’t give him much more explanation. But let’s just say I’ve done some math. I think you just took advantage of the situation to escape and I get it... Bad timing though" Levi didn’t say anything about it. So, he didn’t explicitly tell the Commander about my attempted escape. Seriously? Ok, but why? Was he trying to protect me or just not to make a pointless fuss out of that? I thought, but then Hange’s voice brought me back down to earth.

"I understand you want to leave, but I guess Erwin found his way to keep you here, right?" We looked at each other and all I could think was "Yes, Hange, a kind of way like if I tried to escape, he would personally escort me to the police who, after all I did in the Underground, would probably cut my head off in the public square. Something like that".

"But why? Why coming back? What did you leave there?” she asked. I sighed and in total honesty I told her: "My sisters. I want to save them from there. Bring them on the surface to see the sky and give them a safe place to live". My few but sincere words seemed to hit her immediately. So, she inhaled soundly and then spoke again: "Look, can I give you some advice? A little friendly tip?"

I don’t know why, but her way of talking and her totally naive hint at being friendly with me had provoked a minor and uncontrollable reaction in me. So, a little giggle slipped out of my mouth as I nodded. She seemed to notice it, so she vigorously took me by the arm and said, “Well, the 57th expedition is around the corner. It’s a crucial moment now that we have Eren with us. So, wait a little longer. Bear with it. Help us. Fight with us. And if everything goes as planned, I’m sure we’ll find a way to help you. Maybe we could talk to Levi... I don’t know, but I promise you we’ll find a way, okay?"

I squeezed her arm tight. I perfectly knew she was just trying to comfort me, but I really needed a break from everything that was going on in my life at that point. "And what happens if the mission doesn’t go according to plan?" I naively asked her. Hange stopped and grabbed me by the shoulders. She didn’t know what to say. However, our attention was immediately caught by a sudden roar, like an explosion, and so we rushed back.

Once there, a huge smoke enveloped what looked like a massive carcass, over which towered Eren, visibly terrified. All around him, the other cadets had drawn their swords towards him and between them and Eren, there was only Levi, unarmed, with his hands stretched out, saying "Don’t panic, I just said don’t panic. And that goes for everyone". The ferocious looks of Petra, Gunther, Eld and Oruo were fixated on Eren as if they were completely ignoring their captain’s orders. They looked like hunting animals, ready to attack their prey at the first wrong move, while Levi kept saying "Don’t panic".

As soon as we realized what had just happened, Hange went into raptures and immediately ran towards him. "Please let me touch your arm. Please, I swear I’ll only touch it," she said, and as she begged him, almost drooling, she got closer. With both her hands she caressed the carcass, still steaming. "Hange, no wait!" I tried to scream, but it was already too late. As soon as she felt the heat on her hands, she threw herself on the ground, aching but extremely happy. She had an expression like she was in ecstasy, and I was at loss for words. Hange was a curious character.

Eren freed himself from the carcass and fell to the ground, catching everyone’s attention. Levi quickly got closer to him and asked, "How are you feeling?". The boy was visibly stunned, so the captain dismissed him, returning to his companions. A glance was enough to put them in line.

Levi always seemed to have everything under control.

We went back to our tables to finish what we started and at some point, Petra came up to me saying: "Daphne, we were thinking about training a little bit in the afternoon with the devices. Would you like to join us?". "Um... sure, why not" I said. I still had no idea whether or not I could trust Petra, but Hange’s words had shaken something inside of me. The 57° expedition. The 57° expedition and then I would have found a way. We would have found a way, together.

"Great! See you later then" she smiled at me. "Sure... Thank you for inviting me, Petra" I added.

"It’s the least I can do... And since we’re here... I wanted to say that I’m sorry about the other day. You know, after training… I spoke out of turn. I got caught up in the moment," she said, slightly lowering her head. "No worries. Like it never happened" I immediately replied. Then she smiled and said "Good" and so she left.

A few hours later I was there again with Petra, Gunther, Eld, Oruo, and other veterans who I hadn’t yet met. Shortly afterward, Levi and two other team leaders joined us to supervise. I was oddly confident that afternoon: Hange’s words had encouraged me to work hard and the invitation of Petra... well I must say, I was impressed and somehow glad she was trying to get along with me.

As soon as she saw me coming, Petra greeted me energetically and beckoned me to join her. "I usually pair up with Oruo, but if you want, we could-" she started to say. "If you want, I can train with her" I heard a voice coming from behind me. It was Eld. Eld Jinn. Second in command among the Levi Squad’s soldiers. "Since we have not yet got to know each other..." he added smiling, as soon as I turned towards him. Eld had an honest face and the appearance of a warrior who knew what he was doing. I didn’t overthink it and said, "Surely, Eld. Thank you".

As we were approaching the grove to train, Eld started to speak, "I saw you with the devices. You looked pretty skilled. I have to say I was amazed by-". "By me? Because I’m a girl from the Underground?" I interrupted him. I shouldn’t have answered him like that. He didn’t say anything wrong, actually. I’ve always been such a terrible socializer.

"Absolutely not. I was amazed in general. You looked like you perfectly knew what you were doing with these freaking things. It took me forever to learn," he laughed. He didn’t seem to care at all for my interruption. "I’m sorry, Eld..."

"Don’t mention it. I guess it wasn’t easy... I mean everything, so don’t worry, I get it" he promptly declared. "Yep..." I replied, showing him a shy smile. Eld didn’t seem so bad.

"Hey, Eld" I heard a voice coming from our shoulders "If I were you, I’d be careful to handle those devices next to that one. She could steal them and run away, maybe run away to kill some titans she’s not supposed to kill". It didn’t take me long to connect that annoying tone to Oruo’s fuck face. As soon as I turned around, I jumped at his throat and knocked him down.

I sensed Petra and Eld coming closer as they tried to separate us. While I was squeezing Oruo’s neck in my hands, he still gave me that kind of look like he wasn’t still ready to give up. “Excuse me, what did you say? Try me now, you fucking moron!" I yelled as I held him tighter "Sorry, what? I can’t hear you, asshole. Speak louder if you dare!!". Oruo was struggling beneath me, trying to free himself from my grip.

By now many had come to watch us, when at a certain point I felt two hands taking me by the waist and lifting me. I was still holding Oruo’s neck, who was promptly pulled away by a couple of soldiers behind him. Petra got closer to him and shouted something like, "What’s wrong with you?". I didn’t understand much more, but I kept my blood-shot eyes glued on him, not caring much that someone was carrying me away.

I soon realized it was – of course - Levi. As I freed myself from his grip, he tried to pull me by the arm saying "Get back inside. Now.", but I growled at him "Leave me alone, Captain". "Daphne..." he threatened me, now standing right in front of me.

"Fuck off and let me smash that asshole’s face" and while I was yelling at him, I tried to get back to Oruo, but Levi got in my way. Again. "Get a grip. You're pissing me off right now. Calm down," he whispered. "Fucking leave me alone!" I yelled at him. He took my tantrum quite badly and as soon as I tried again to walk past him, he fiercely grabbed me and carried me inside the castle on his shoulder.

I kept trying to wiggle out of his grip, shouting nonsense. I kicked him and punched him on his back, screaming to let me go. Levi didn’t seem to care. At some point, I just gave up and let myself go like a dead body on his shoulder.

As soon as we arrived at my room, he let me off and again we found ourselves there, in front of my door, silently staring at each other. "Take a shower and calm down," Levi said, and then he turned his heels. He just took one step and then he added, still not turning around: "Don’t let words make you lose control like that. They’re just words..."

I stayed silent and as soon as he stepped forward to leave, I instinctively reached for his jacket and grabbed it with my right hand, as if to stop him. I didn’t really know what I was doing. He still didn't dare to turn or say anything, but at some point I saw his left hand coming back and looking for mine. Once he found it, he gently squeezed it and slightly turned his face, looking at me over his shoulder. And then, without saying a word, he left.

Later, I was at dinner with Eren and the others, who were all about telling me about the ceremony that was held that afternoon. They had officially joined the Survey Corps and it seemed like Erwin had given them one of his famous speeches to convince them. I watched them carefully, one by one. They were really just a bunch of kids, driven by their dreams. They were just a bunch of kids who had just signed a death treaty. I tried not to get too sentimental and I kept listening to what they had to say.

They all seemed pretty thrilled by the words of Commander Smith, who apparently would have shown us the following day the strategy he devised for the next expedition. Honestly, for some reason, I was looking forward to it.

As I left the cafeteria, I heard someone calling my name. As soon as I recognized his voice, I was almost tempted to keep walking and ignore him. "Daphne, hold up..." Oruo said. When I turned around, I saw Petra, Eld and Gunther right behind him. "Ahem..." he stuttered, then Eld pushed him. " Well, sorry about today, I didn’t know it wasn’t you..."

"Whatever" I said, turning around. If he thinks I’m going to apologize for choking him, he is so fucking wrong. Then Eld came up to me and said, "Hey, we have a meeting with some team leaders tonight... if you want, you can join us. I think we’ll talk about the expedition or something". "Yes, Daphne, you must come with us!" added Petra, approaching us. I shrugged and added a simple "Yeah, sure".

When we arrived in a room I had never seen before, Mike and Hange were already sitting at a table. The light was soft and the two were chatting animatedly. Later, Levi and Eren joined us and at that point, Hange threw a teaspoon on the table. "I pulled it out of the hand that came out of Eren..." she said, then turned to the boy who was now sitting next to her. "Does it ring any bell?" she added.

"Yes... I remember that before I transformed, I was trying to pick it up from the ground". There were a few moments of silence, and then Hange whispered "Just as I thought" and then raised her voice to say: "That’s why we couldn’t get you to transform this morning. Killing the titans, protecting yourself from a cannonball, collecting this teaspoon. It is not enough for you to hurt yourself. You also must have a clear goal to achieve". Eren was completely shocked by that revelation, but he managed to say, "Yes, it reminds me of that one time with the cannonball... But to transform just for a teaspoon? What’s the point?"

"So, today you didn’t break the agreements you made" Gunther claimed. "Of course,” Eren promptly replied. Gunther sighed in response and exchanged a glance with the others. All of a sudden, they all bit their hands in synch and that totally caught me by surprise. But I quickly realized they were trying to prove something to Eren.

"Fuck, it hurts so bad," said Gunther. "Eren, how the hell do you do this?" added Eld. Then Gunther told Eren "Until now we have always underestimated you and this is only a modest compensation...". "We’re so sorry, Eren, we just got scared. We’re a bunch of idiots, but we hope that you'll still trust your comrades" Petra declared, looking him in the eyes. Her expression and words seemed so genuine and honest. "Please, trust us again," she added. Eren nodded and convincingly said "Of course", then exchanged a glance with Levi.

I was quite amazed by the whole scene. The soldiers of the Survey Corps were always full of surprises and once again I felt growing inside of me a strange feeling, as of excitement. It was that stupid sense of pride for something I didn’t even feel like a part of yet.

LEVI'S POV

We all continued chatting for a while until that brat started yawning nonstop, so Hange decided to call it a day. I stayed a little longer to talk with Hange and Mike about the report on Eren’s experiments. Then I decided that it was time for me to head back. I felt unexpectedly tired. Walking before the kitchen, I noticed a figure in front of the stove and I instinctively stopped. Daphne was standing there, in front of the window, while a small pot was warming up next to her.

"Are you done?" she said at some point. She probably sensed my presence on the doorstep. I didn’t mind her tone and I started getting closer to her. Then she turned around and a frowny face appeared on her face. "What’s with you?" she asked. "I could ask you the same thing," I said. In response, she crossed her arms over her chest.

“It’s nothing," added Daphne after a while. "Oh really? Then, what was that show you put up today, this morning with that crazy race and then later with Oruo at the training session, huh?". She clenched her jaw, then growled "You know I’m having a hard time recently".

She tried to face again the window, but I promptly grabbed her shoulder, making her turn to me. So, I said, "No, Daphne. I have no idea what’s going on with you, because the other day I tried several times to come and talk to you, but you decided to ignore me” I paused as I sensed a little anger growing inside of me, but I simply couldn’t repress it. So, I added “What is it, huh? Are you intimidated, by any chance? Are you uncomfortable talking to me because we kissed last time?"

"No," she promptly answered, "Don’t worry, Captain, I’m not that sentimental. You did what you had to do. That kiss meant absolutely nothing to me." Nothing. Nothing, you say. Ok. Anyway, again with this captain-thing?

"I see…" I said, getting closer to her. " Well, I’m glad to hear that, because... I mean, in a few days one of us might even die during the expedition, so it’s convenient for both of us to not get any strange ideas and keep this attitude” I paused. I noticed she had suddenly tensed up at the sound of my words. "But I have to admit..." I started talking again, grabbing a lock of her hair and twirling it a couple of times between my fingers. So, I kept talking, this time almost whispering, "I never expected such an answer from an emotional girl like you."

Thanks to the darkness coming from the outside, both our faces were mostly immersed in the gloom and only a feeble light placed a few meters from us illuminated our contours. And yet, I managed to read all over her face the deep frustration that my provocation had created.

"If it matters so much to you, captain, I can easily demonstrate to you how little I care about that kiss," she barked back at some point. That being said, she let her arms down to the sides of her body and got dangerously close to me. You’re playing with fire, Daphne.

But her comeback didn’t scare me that much, so I decided to step further. At that point we were so close that she was forced to take a step back, bumping into the kitchen base cabinet. She tried to maintain her composure, but I had definitely caught her off guard, approaching her like that. I thought it wouldn’t have hurt to tease her a little more. Now let’s see who’s in charge. I got even closer, to the point we were just a few inches from each other, to the point I almost broke her pride down.

I placed my hands on the cabinet, right behind her, and our faces were now at the same height. Suddenly her breath became heavier, her lips parted and a deep sigh escaped from her mouth. Her warm breath brushed my skin and getting even closer to her, a small grin appeared on my face. By now, we were basically one glued to the other and I could feel her skin almost burning, her cheeks slightly blushing.

I tried to make her even more uncomfortable by impatiently traveling my eyes from hers down to her mouth and vice versa. She had no clue about what I was going to do next. Then, trying to annoy her, I added, "I don’t think you understood who you’re messing with, Daphne". I squeezed the kitchen top tightly in my hands, flexing my arms. I don’t think you understood a damn thing, Daphne.

She swallowed soundly, then took courage and told me, provocatively: "And you captain? As far as I can see, it seems like you are the one afraid to make the first move, sir". "I’m not afraid of anything, little girl," I whispered, touching her nose with mine and almost brushing my lips against hers.

She let a short sigh come out of her mouth, then added "Are you sure about that, captain?" circling her fingers on my collar and dangerously looking at my mouth and then back at my eyes. "Daphne, don’t play with me. You’ll get hurt," I told her frowning. I wasn’t sure who I was actually talking to. I didn’t know what another kiss would have led to: only one would have been enough to change everything, forever. And yet, at that moment I would have given anything to feel once again her sweet taste on my skin, in my mouth, under my tongue.

"Don’t flatter yourself too much, Levi” Oh really, Daphne? Really? Then she continued: "Are you sure you’re not just afraid?" There I couldn’t figure out what was making me insane, whether the way she called me by my name again or those words. Don’t be afraid, Levi. I believed I could hear my mother’s voice again. Images from that strange dream I had had a few days before suddenly appeared in front of me, almost blinding me. "Don’t be afraid, Levi". I’m not afraid.

Daphne tried to draw my attention back to her, asking me with a smug smile painted on her face: "So? Are you afraid you're going to lose at this game, Levi?". I was on the verge of losing my patience, so I took a deep breath. Looking back at her and staring straight into her eyes, I stated "No. I just have too much respect for you," I paused "And the water is boiling," and then I moved slightly away from her.

As I tried to reach the stove to turn it off, she suddenly grabbed me by the collar and pulled me to her. Her lips immediately found mine, which responded as aggressively as hers. I let myself go, completely, as I took her face with my hands. Then I slid my fingers behind her neck and into her hair.

We continued to kiss each other avidly like we were fighting in a bidding war. At one point she took my lower lip with her mouth, biting it slowly and then gradually letting it go. She then looked with such a pleased expression at my unexpected reaction: I was paralyzed and for a moment I just stared at her, almost out of breath. Then without overthinking it, I let my hands slide alongside the curves of her body down to her thighs and I pulled her up, putting her to sit on the kitchen counter.

I felt the urge to attack her lips again, just to wipe that mischievous smile off her face. I kissed her even deeper than before, holding her neck and back with my hands. She instantly responded to me, wrapping her legs around my waist and pulling me in. In the meantime, I started to hear a strange sound in the background, like a rumble, but I couldn’t completely figure out what it was. A white noise resonated in my head and all my senses were intent on perceiving that unexpected and new sensation that was running up and down my body, coming from somewhere deep down inside of me.

Her hands were now on my neck and she slowly moved her fingers close to my mouth, as if to ask my permission to part my lips. And so I did. I slightly opened my mouth, allowing her tongue in, while her hands cupped my face. I really felt like I was about to lose it: my tongue was totally subjugated by hers and after a while, I could no longer hold myself back.

Just for a second, I moved my mouth away from her and I started leaving tiny hungry kisses down her neck to her collarbone. I felt like I was starving and longing for something whose features and taste I couldn’t even comprehend. In response, she tilted her head back, almost in ecstasy. Her breath ran short and her skin crawled.

When I was closer to her collar, I stopped, undecided about what to do next. So, I looked up at her and she gave me a shy nod as if to allow me to do whatever I wanted.

I moistened my lips as I impatiently tried to free her from the uniform’s leather band over her chest and then from her shirt, as much as possible. Once I unbuttoned it, I stopped for a moment to contemplate the view I had in front of me: from the fabric of her bra to the shadow between her breasts, the goosebumps on her naked skin, right there, in the middle. Instinctively I began to kiss the contour of her right cup, along the line between her skin and the fabric, while my hand slowly climbed on her torso, accompanying my every step on her. Under me I sensed her skin becoming incandescent.

But as soon as I pulled the fabric away, just a little to slide my finger under it, almost caressing her nipple, a loud noise shook both of us. The pot, which in the meantime had continued to warm up, had fallen to the ground, spilling everywhere the water that was inside of it, from the hob to the floor. That bang seemed to bring us both down to earth and we immediately realized distant voices in the hallway adjacent to the kitchen were slowly getting closer.

We eyed each other and instinctively moved away, trying to pull ourselves together. Once she got off the cabinet, Daphne began to button up her shirt and rearrange her hair, while I fixed my clothes and lightly touched my mouth with my fingers. Who the hell is it now?

All of a sudden, Mike peeked out from behind the door, saying, "Is everything all right? Did something happen? I heard a bang and...". His eyes ran to the pot on the ground, without even caring too much about us and he immediately understood what happened. "Don’t worry, Mike. It was just me. I made a mess here..." Daphne answered him promptly. He believed her without getting too suspicious and so he left.

Again, we found ourselves alone, while the water kept running down the drawers.

"Well, maybe it was a sign that we had to stop, right?" she whispered slowly, getting closer to me again. I didn’t know what to say or do, I felt like I was catapulted back into our reality, in Captain Levi’s shoes, and a strange sense of regret rushed inside of me. What was I doing?  Sensing my silence, Daphne sighed, but before she could add anything else, I said: "Go ahead, I’ll take care of this mess here", never looking up from the ground. "Okay... Well, good night Levi" she murmured, almost sounding melancholic.

In my life, I have always known what to do, but at that moment I was completely paralyzed by indecision. So I only managed to say "Night, Daphne".

#LEVI ACKERMAN #Levi fanfiction #levi x oc #snk levi #Captain Levi #levi heichou #aot fanfiction #levi aot #AoT #read on ao3 #read on wattpad #snk fanfiction #fanfic #snk fanfic #ytlcaf

[sweetsunflora]

“The only way that we can live, is if we grow. The only way that we can grow is if we change. The only way that we can change is if we learn. The only way we can learn is if we are exposed. And the only way that we can become exposed is if we throw ourselves out into the open. Do it. Throw yourself.” ― C. JoyBell C.

0 years old / June 20, 1823 :

Emma-Rose is born to Carter Hartfield ( the only heir to Hartfield Trading Co. ) and Josephina Flores in Manila, Philippines.

She is born lucky ( on a sugar plantation mansion belonging to her father’s family ) and loved ( with all the affections and devotion of two parents who adored each other and her ).

3 years old / 1826 :

Children of other plantation owners are being kidnapped and held for ransom. Worrying for the safety of their only child, Emma-Rose is taken to France to live a safer and better life. Only her father accompanies her as her mother is expressly forbidden by Elias Hartfield—the reining patriarch and her paternal grandfather.

3-17 years old / 1826-1840:

With one hand firmly grasping her father’s, she arrives in France—afraid and with minimal knowledge of French.

She is sent to live on a lesser Hartfield estate just outside of Paris. And despite Elias’ extreme distaste of his grandchild, she is given an education like any other male successor would be. Tutors and professors are brought in to educate her in all areas of art, literature, science, and mathematics. And she takes to it quickly and hungrily. She learns piano and singing. She studies classical art and painting. She pours over philosophical works and rhetoric. She fascinates over natural history and the study of flora. There is never a moment where she does not have ink on her sleeves or a book in her hand.

Eventually, at only 15 years old, she discovers Naturalism. It marries so much of her loves together that it is only natural for her to be hooked instantly.

For a time, she has almost everything for a happy life: a passion to live for, a comfortable home, and close friendships ( Albeit with only two people. But do you really need any more than that? ).

The only blemish in her paradise is her grandfather, whose indignant disapproval persists even into young adulthood. She can be an artistic talent and an academic prodigy but in his eyes, she is forever affixed as the ‘filthy child’. The half-Oriental bastard who holds his legacy hostage.

It should embitter her. And it does. ( What has she ever done to him besides exist? ) But Carter pleads with his daughter to instead turn the other cheek. To meet Elias’ racism and bigotry with grace and forgiveness. If she can love crawling, creeping, insects and slimy slugs surely she can love her own grandfather.

So her anger morphs into ambition. If she cannot spit his poison back in his face, she will ingest it, purify it, and make it fuel.

She will make herself undeniable—the best heir he could have ever imagined. Intelligent, accomplished, kind, graceful. She may even push herself to be bold, even if it is wholly against her nature.

But she knows this for certain. She will garner his praise, even if it is against his will.

18 years old / July 1841 : 

Her first encounter with tragedy occurs as the death of a dear friend.

Quentin Ross: A prolific painter who was so often the life of the party. He was born into old money but he never sneered at her less than perfect pedigree. He saw her for so much more than that. He had always felt restless for most of his life but when he met her…it was if the world settled to a comfortable and happy stillness. ( She had that affect on most of the people she was close to. ) And whenever Emma was fearing that her life ( and her in turn ) was becoming too boring, too simple, too meaningless, Quentin would spin her around and make her dance with him. He was enthusiasm and joy personified. He loved life to the point of fearlessness.

When he is arrested and jailed for sodomy, she quickly makes plans to get him out. However, she is foiled when Elias hears of her association with the newly disgraced painter. She hurries to work around this new obstacle, but all too soon, her plans lose their purpose. Quentin dies in jail and grief renders her inconsolable for weeks.

She crawls into herself deeper, reaching for her work as distraction. She uses it as a reminder of all the beauty that is still left in the world, even if that world is now without him.

18 years old / December 1841:

Despite being in pain, the months following his death are quite productive for her academic career. Naturalism is the only thing that she does not lose desire for. Instead, she finds a renewed hope in it. Quentin’s beauty is gone but perhaps she can preserve the rest of the world in her writing. The universe seems to pity her and— in exchange for her suffering—is rewarded with a few notable publications of her work.

Still, she does not escape the unexplainable effects of grief. Losing a loved one, it changes your insides and turns you unrecognizable. It makes you half-crazed with loss, urging you to actions you never dared to do before.  

When she hears of a scientific exploration set to embark into the China Sea and Indian Ocean, she knows—deep in her soul—that she cannot let the opportunity pass. Or more accurately, the opportunity will not let her pass. The idea of discovery grips her, possesses her.

In an act of pure rebellion, she boards La Favorite with no permission from her family.

18-20 years old / December 1841- January 1844:

It is a reckless thing, to join an expedition on a whim. It doesn’t even occur to her that her safety is not guaranteed. However, whatever higher being that exists seems to smile down on her. The expedition is blessed with minimal conflicts and good sailing conditions for most of the trip. On this endeavor, she works under the tutelage of another more seasoned naturalist and she learns a great deal from them. Being away from France, from the place of her grief, seems to heal her. And the open salt air and new locations, gives her the drink of freedom she never even knew she wanted. Once again, she is a blooming sunflower. She finds even more importance in being a kind and gentle force in the world.

There is already so much pain in existence. Why add to it?

20 years old / February 1844:

All dreams, no matter how good, must end. She returns to Paris to meet the ire of her father and, more significantly, her grandfather. She had left with only a letter, telling them vague details of the expedition as so to keep them from thwarting her plans once again.

She knows she will meet some sort of punishment, but she underestimates her grandfather’s anger.

Marriage to Louis François Barbineaux. A man she doesn’t know. A widower in search of a new wife to act as mother for his four young children.

Elias holds the threat over her head like a guillotine.

Marriage would be the end of her and he knows it. Her freedom, her work, her accomplishments, her birthright and inheritances, would all fall into her husband’s possession. She would turn into nothing once again.

With haste, she finds it in herself to propose a deal. If they want her to go down the aisle, they will have to drag her—kicking and screaming. She will disgrace their good name to all of France if she must. Or they can allow her one more expedition. One that is mutually beneficial.

She has heard of the Agathe—which is set to sail into the Arctic to find a passage to China. It would give Hartfield Trading a great advantage to know of such a thing, she claims. And when I return, I will gladly and calmly marry whoever you choose. Just let me have this last one.

In truth, she has little care for trade routes. The Arctic is unexplored, ripe for a naturalist to discover. If she could get there first, her name would go down in history. With the uniqueness of her research, a publication of this content wouldn’t just make her famous. It would make her rich. Rich enough to leave her family’s control and live her life as she wishes.

With her father’s convincing, Elias allows Emma-Rose her deal.

21 years old / March 1845:

She sets sail once again. On her first expedition, she was running away from grief. Now, she is sailing towards freedom. Hope courses through her and she truly believes that all her dreams will come true in the tundra.

22 years old / June 20, 1845: 

Her birthday is a joyous occasion as she celebrates with found friends on the Agathe.

22 years old / June 21, 1845: 

The universe delivers the worst birthday present ever.

#tw death #tw death of a loved one #this is truely here for MY OWN SAKE #because i was going crazy #but anyways #if you read it i hope you enjoy #history #-- ( all roads have lead here : history ) #this doesnt change ANYTHING about her personality or how she acts #still quiet #still shy as fuck #still a romantic #but now we know how and whyyyyyy

[mst3kproject]

Terror in the Midnight Sun

Let’s see… aliens?  Check.  Sasquatch? Check.  Weird Scandinavian production trying to look like Hollywood? Check!  Bring on Terror in the Midnight Sun.

A glowing orb comes in for a landing in the arctic.  Word of this spreads quickly, and soon an expedition is dispatched to retrieve the unusual object.  One of the scientists on the trip is a Dr. Wilson, who is excited not just by the meteor but by the opportunity to visit his niece Diana, who is in the area training to be an Olympic figure skater.  Upon arrival, the scientists learn that some monster is going around killing people and reindeer, leaving gigantic footprints, and carrying off pretty girls.  When they follow its trail, they learn that what landed on the glacier is no meteor – it’s a spaceship, and the aliens’ pet Yeti has kidnapped Diana!

Yeah, that’s the movie all right.

Like a number of MST3K features, including The Touch of Satan and Blood Waters of Dr. Z, Terror in the Midnight Sun has several titles.  In its homeland of Sweden it is called Rymdinvasion i Lappland (Space Invasion in Lappland), while in English-speaking parts it is frequently Invasion of the Animal People.  Of these titles, not one of them is accurate. There is only one ‘animal person’ in the movie, and the single ship and crew really aren’t enough to constitute an ‘invasion’.  As for Terror in the Midnight Sun, that one may sound good, but there’s no midnight sun in the movie.  Rather, characters keep talking about ‘it’ll be dark soon’ and ‘we won’t make it by nightfall’.  Points for poetics, Title Guy, but none for relevance.

As well as alternative titles, there’s a whole alternative version of this movie available, produced by Jerry Warren of Wild Wild World of Batwoman fame.  It reportedly begins with John Carradine telling us why science is good, followed by a prologue in which Diana is abducted and then released by the aliens prior to the events of the original film.  I did not watch that version.  The one I did see was plenty weird enough.

Another random thing we have in common with multiple MST3K movies is the preponderance of padding.  Lost Continent was mostly Rock Climbing and Racket Girls contained far too much wrestling.  For Terror in the Midnight Sun, it’s skiing. Diana and hunky geologist Eric Engstrom spend a day on the slopes to show us that they’re falling in love. Later, the couple attempt to ski back to civilization to get help, after the yeti destroys the party’s small airplane. The nomadic reindeer-herders who live in the area ski everywhere, and we have to watch even when they’re not going anyplace plot-relevant.  And I sure never thought I’d see a movie with a torches-and-pitchforks mob chasing a monster on skis yet here we are.

Besides the skiing, Terror in the Midnight Sun also lingers on things like planes flying, couples dancing, and yetis blundering about.  There’s a gratuitous song sung by a gratuitous lounge singer.  People wander around in a blizzard in ways unpleasantly reminiscent of Hercules wandering around in a sandstorm.  All of these last just slightly longer than they should, and I imagine Joel and the ‘bots having a very hard time with them.

For an old, cheap, black-and-white movie, the photography is surprisingly good.  We can always tell what’s going on and tell the characters apart, although don’t ask me to remember anyone’s name besides Dr. Wilson, Diane, and Eric.  Cinematography is just good enough to make you think that filming an arctic landscape in monochrome has untapped artistic potential – but not good enough to realize that.  Instead, I found myself noticing that the characters’ surroundings are not nearly as bleak as the miniature shots and the dialogue are probably trying to suggest.  There seem to be plenty of trees and rocks and cabins around, while we’re evidently supposed to believe they’re miles out on the tundra.

Again like many MST3K subjects, Terror in the Midnight Sun has a pretty girl in it for no better reason than that movies are supposed to have pretty girls.  Diana is otherwise entirely useless.  She invites herself along on her uncle’s expedition for no reason at all besides possibly that she’s bored, and she brings nothing to the party whatsoever.  The movie bothers to establish her as a skilled skater and skier and then never makes use of either talent – when she and Eric try to ski to the nearest settlement for help, she runs into the only tree for miles around and sprains her knee, so he has to leave her behind in a rescue cabin to be kidnapped by the Yeti.

I think this injury is what’s supposed to prevent Diana from escaping the Yeti… only it doesn’t keep her from running around for hours in the snow.

She’s also here to fall in love with Eric, because the reason movies need pretty girls, besides the audience’s opportunity to ogle, is so that the heroic male lead can get to touch some titties as his reward for saving the day.  The whole arc with the two of them is really weird.  They have a bit of a meet cute when Diana calls out “hello, darling!” to her uncle (who does that?) and Eric thinks she’s talking to him.  Dr. Wilson warns Diana that Eric is known as a heartbreaker who can’t stick to one woman, but this doesn’t seem to discourage her.  The lovebirds then have their skiing day, when Eric knocks Diana over and she retaliates by stealing his skis and leaving him to walk all the way back to the lodge!  He arrives tired, wet, and angry, and she asks him what took him so long… but twenty minutes later he still wants to dance with her.  What the hell do these two see in each other?

When she sees the Yeti, Diana screams and faints. It carries her off back to the crater where its extraterrestrial masters – pale coneheads in long robes – are waiting.  She wakes up and sees them, and screams and faints again.  Her entire purpose in the plot is to give the movie an excuse to show us the aliens, and the whole ‘alien’ thing itself is ultimately quite useless. In fact, the movie would probably have made more sense if the Yeti had been an Earthly monster.  At the climax, she remains an inanimate object in the Yeti’s arms.

By now we’re pretty convinced the creature isn’t going to hurt her on purpose, but the movie never says what it plans to do with her instead.  In the Creature from the Black Lagoon movies, the monster’s interest in the women was overtly sexual. In Giant of the Twentieth Century, the Yeti thought the two human children were young of its own species in need of protection. Here?  I dunno.  Diana’s in the movie because movies are supposed to have pretty girls, and the Yeti menaces her because that’s what happens to said pretty girls in movies.  Nobody’s meant to care about the reason.  The writers sure didn’t.

The Yeti itself is doubtless what you’ve been waiting to hear about.  It’s the real star of this movie.  While the aliens and their ship don’t look too bad, either, the Yeti suit is clearly what the film-makers are most proud of, and it gets plenty of screen time. It’s a pretty fun Yeti as crappy movie creatures go, around twenty feet tall (except when it’s carrying Diana, when it mysteriously shrinks to more like seven feet) and shaggy, with big tusks sticking up from its lower lip.  The script doesn’t give the guy in the suit much to work with, but he manages to convey that this is a creature capable of both violence and gentleness, even as its actual motivations remain a mystery.

The motivations of the aliens are equally murky.  The climax of the movie happens when the angry mob on skis chases the Yeti to the edge of a cliff, where they throw torches at it until its fur catches fire.  It is then kind enough to put Diana down, before toppling off the precipice to its death. And then, with their Yeti dead, the aliens just fucking leave!  Only minutes later, their glowing ship rises out of the snow where we’ve all been assuming it’s stuck, and flies away across the sky.  The movie treats this as a victory, never entertaining the idea that they’ve, say, gone to get reinforcements.  Dr. Wilson watches them go and muses, “I wonder if they found out what they wanted to know.”

Personally, I don’t think the aliens were here for any sort scientific or military purpose.  Instead, imagine you’re on a cross-country road trip with your buddies, and somebody brought their dog.  That’s fun, but it does mean that every so often you’re gonna have to stop somewhere to let the dog stretch its legs and pee on a few things.  With me so far?  Okay, imagine that on one of these stops, the dog digs up an anthill, and the ants retaliate by setting it on fire and pushing it off a cliff.  You’d leave pretty damn quick too, wouldn’t you? I don’t think we have to worry about these particular aliens ever coming back.

#mst3k #reviews #terror in the midnight sun #episodes that never were #all these movies have bigfoot in them #poor john carradine #50s

[whoaiminactivenowwepa]

On The Run (fanfic) - Chapter 1: The Deal

Summary: Lee decides to leave Texas with a childhood enemy after agreeing to help each other out.

A/N: AND SO IT BEGINS. Woof, this is my first time doing this sort of thing. I had a lot of fun writing the interactions between these two and I really hope you guys enjoy it.

Word Count: 2681

Notes: I mention here that Hester is a jackrabbit when she’s really an arctic hare. In the canon, Lee doesn’t know that she’s a hare until he meets Iorek in Once Upon A Time In The North. Wanted to clear that up in case anyone here hasn't read the book.

Speaking of OUATITN, I never got to finish it yet either, and I took the liberty of writing in some tiny details that might contradict from it. So sorry if I accidentally get any Lee Scoresby backstory info wrong.

Anyways, enjoy!!

-----

"Can't you move any faster?" Lee Scoresby whines softly, waiting by the back door of the Wright’s family mansion.

After several more minutes, Jane suddenly emerges from the window above him and she climbs down the vines growing down the side of the brick exterior walls. Hanging around her shoulder was a satchel of the last few things she needed before they leave.

She releases the vines and lands on the grass right in front of Lee, taking him and his jackrabbit dæmon, Hester, by surprise.

She's followed by her own dæmon, a Eurasian lynx named Zachyre, the feline landing just as gracefully on all fours.

Lee blinks before he follows Jane, who is now running into the wheat field ahead where his new balloon had already been set up and ready to take off.

Jane was just Lee's age, in fact, a few months older. She was a beautiful young woman of slightly built but slender frame. Her hair was of short curly blonde and she wore an expensive-looking leather bomber jacket that reflected her wealth quite easily. The handkerchief tied around her neck was her signature touch. The handkerchief changes everyday but regardless, you almost never see her without one.

Their hearts race as they run down the golden wheat field and nostalgic memories of carefree childhoods resurface.

The two young adults were running down the fields like children on recess after a boring first period at kindergarten.

The cool spring breeze seemed to make the gold in Jane's hair fly, and the skyline of wooden ranch houses, towers and trees seemed to blaze past Lee like he was already soaring great speeds. They weren't even in the skies yet, but they had never felt so free.

Jane makes it first into the gondola, where she had already began removing the ropes and anchors holding the balloon in place. Lee sprints faster and hops inside right at the nick of time.

The balloon immediately takes off as the draft pulls them high into the stars. After a few moments, the balloon stabilizes in the air. Lee takes off his hat and sinks onto the floor as he and Hester catch their breath.

"Jeez... Were you planning on leaving us?"

"You weren't running fast enough" She laughs and sinks down onto the floor as well, breathing heavily.

Whatever, I still made it, he thinks to himself.

This was it. It was finally happening.

Lee had wanted to leave the country for so long and that day has finally come.

He has no expectations, no specific plans. Just a hunger to be in some place new; to start a new life and completely start over in unknown lands, where nobody knows his name and nobody can hold him back.

He could go to the beaches of Greece. He could mine jewels and diamonds in the Malaysian mountains. He could befriend Eastern witches. He could fly to the North and meet a panserbjørne. The possibilities were endless.

It would be just he and Hester against the world. Well, at least that was what he had originally planned. But things had gotten... Complicated.

Jane opens her satchel to double check its contents. Inside it was some extra gold and pearl jewelry she planned to sell for extra money, and an aeronaut's manual. It was this small thick book with a picture of a balloon on the cover.

He honestly couldn't believe he decided to take her with him. He had always quite loathed her family name for how they bossed the low and middle class around liked they owned everything and everyone there... Which they sort of did, but that wasn't the point.

It took Hester some convincing him for him to realize it, but he needed some guidance if he really wanted to go through with their little "expedition". Not just guidance on where he should go first but also on actually flying the balloon. Thankfully, he knew someone who was knowledgeable with both.

The only problem was... That person was Jane Miller Wright. They were never exactly in the best of terms since childhood, and he had always found her to be quite the annoying presence.

But she offered a deal with him. It was simple: She'll give him flying lessons if he agrees to take her away from home. She wouldn't tell exactly where she was going, just what she was leaving behind, and that she'll show him where she needed to go.

-----

Lee gets on his feet to look at the scenery. The town was lit up by small glowing dots of streetlights and outdoor porch lights.

The moonlight glimmered over miles and miles of crops, fields and open land where he used to spend his weekends re-enacting the Battle of the Alamo with the orphans his uncle and aunt looked after.

He could see them just pass the clocktower he once climbed with a childhood friend long ago. It was the tallest structure in town where every sunset, it promised a beautiful view of the sun meeting the dots of trees on the horizon.

This town carried 21 years worth of memories. It was almost as if his whole life was being laid out before him... And he's about to leave all of it behind. Gosh, he didn't realize how much he was leaving behind.

Lee had been considerably quiet for quite some time now, and it wasn't very like him.

"Hey. Lee, you in there?"

Lee stands there in silence for a bit before he gets out of his own head.

"Sorry, I was just... Thinking."

"Really? That's a rare occurrence."

"Oh, har-dee-har." Lee groans as he puts on a thin coat that was hung on one of the balloon's load supports.

"This whole 'venture was my idea, you know."

"Yes, and you've hardly thought through it. You don't even have the skills to fly this thing"

"That's exactly why I agreed to bring you here, isn't it?"

Lee's quick hands suddenly pulls out the aeronaut's manual from behind his back. Jane scoffs. Now that was one impressive skill Lee had that she didn't.

"So where do we start? Teach me, teacher."

"And if I don't?"

"I really hope you didn’t hit your head when you jumped out of that window. Seems like you amnesia-d the deal out of your noggin. Look, if you don't fill your end of the bargain, I'm afraid I'd have to take you right back to that filthy mansion of yours."

“You will do that?”

“Of course I will.”

Lee steps closer towards her. Just inches apart, the tall man looked down at her with dark, intimidating eyes.

"After all, balloon's nothing without its pilot." he points at the subtitle of the manual which reads exactly that:

A balloon is nothing without its pilot.

They hold each other's glare, both of them insistently standing their ground. Suddenly, a devilish smirk tugs on Jane's face.

"Has it not occurred to you that this balloon's already got a pilot?"

Lee's brows furrow "What do you mean?"

Then suddenly, it dawns on him. Hester groans and mutters to herself as the thought only now comes to her as well.

Shit. He really didn’t think this through.

She's the only one here who knows how to fly this balloon.

Shit, the deal was a ploy! And she really was trying to leave him behind back there. That part of her plan didn't work out, but it didn't matter. She's still the only one here with flying experience, so with or without him, this balloon was practically hers now.

Jane laughs at the look on Lee's face and grabs the book back from his hand while he's pre-occupied.

She strides onto the far edge of the gondola and began working with the ropes and levers in a pattern that was alien to Lee.

He groans. She's showing off.

"So this whole thing was just about stealing my balloon, huh?"

"I'm honestly surprised it took you this long to figure it out." Jane comments, side-eyeing him as she worked. Boy, he would do anything for a chance to smack that smirk off of her face.

"She's joking." Zachyre hops onto the cushion seats so he's on Lee's eye level. "We weren't trying to steal from you."

"Are you, now? I'm pretty sure you just stole my balloon from me... And kidnapping me too, I suppose."

Lee faces back to Jane, "and here I thought I could trust you. I should've known thievery runs in the family." He says in a mocking tone.

His last statement almost sets her off.

"You're one to talk about thievery--!" Jane angrily stomps as she walked up to Lee. Lee takes a few steps back, actually getting worried at what she’s about to do with the rope she was holding, but Zachery steps in her way, purring loudly as he rubbed himself against her leg. It always calms her down.

"He's just trying to aggravate you; trying to make you regret getting involved. But we shouldn't give him that satisfaction." Zachyre explains softly.

Jane takes a moment to collect herself with a deep breath.

"Alright, cowboy. For your information, I haven't broken any promises yet. Your balloon is still yours, I'm merely taking over management."

"Ah." Lee replies, dry sarcasm in his voice.

"I'm a lady of my word; I will teach you how to fly... In time."

She walks back towards Lee, locking a potent glare as she ties a knot with the rope in her hands.

"But in the meantime, balloon's nothing without its pilot, isn't that right, Mr. Scoresby?"

She walks away, her hair flips as she turns to continue what she was doing. Hester giggles in amusement. She had to admit, this was entertaining to watch.

Lee as well couldn't help but smile as a soft chuckle escaped him.

"Alright, then... Captain." Lee rolls his eyes. "Perhaps the least you could do is tell me where we're going?"

Jane glares at Lee with the same belittling side-eye look. She hesitates, then rummages through her other bags. After a few seconds, she pulls out a large folded piece of paper and sets it down on the floor. It was a world map.

Lee kneels down next to her while Hester approaches one edge of the paper. They were clearly excited. They never had the money to travel outside of Texas, so anywhere seemed to be a great place to start.

Jane studies the map for a few seconds then points on a drawing of European land.

"London." she concludes.

Lee squints and his brows furrow.

"London? Seriously?" Hester grunts.

"What?" Jane raises an eyebrow at her.

London was always known to be a bit of a fancified city. The people there were clean and wealthy and flaunted flamboyant expensive apparel and jewelry. Probably Jane and Zachyre's type of destination but definitely not Lee and Hester's.

"I'm not sure if you've noticed, but Hester and I won't exactly... Fit in." Lee gestures himself and his dirty farmer attire. His moustache was thin and as messy as his hair. He was wearing an old checkered button-up under a thin cotton coat, with dark blue jeans and boots covered in mud and wheat.

"Why do you even need to go to London of all places?"

"Why not? I thought you wanted to see new places. I'm sure you've never been to a city like London before."

Lee raises an eyebrow. Was that another brag?

"No, but I was just hoping for something more... I don't know, fun? Like a beach, or an art museum in France or at least some elephants in Africa or something."

"There's plenty of things to do in London! And if you're so concerned about fitting in, I'll buy you some clothes when we get there."

"You will?"

"Yes. You have a terrible fashion sense anyways."

Lee laughs then shoots back. “Says the girl in bell bottom jeans.”

“What’s wrong with my jeans?”

“Those stopped being cool like, 2 years ago.”

They go on like this for what feels like hours. At first, it was a small debate over whether or not bell bottom jeans were still cool. Afterwards, they continued  nitpicking the smallest things about each other, just mocking one another with Jane’s petty insults and Lee’s purposefully terribly jokes.

Hours pass. Finally, the gondola had reduced to a comfortable silence as small beams of orange sunlight began to appear in the sky.

Jane looked after the balloon as they continued going northwest, while Lee sat quietly on the cushioned seats reading the aeronaut's manual. Every now and then, he'd look up at Jane to watch her work, trying to figure out on his own which was which and what did what.

Lee looks at the opposite side of the balloon and noticed Zachyre and Hester whispering something to each other. He couldn’t hear what they were saying, but they seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Eventually, Lee began to yawn. His eyelids were beginning to feel heavy and he could barely comprehend what he was reading anymore. That meant that Hester was getting tired too. She excuses herself from her conversation with Zachyre and hops on the seat next to Lee.

“We should sleep” she says as she gets on his lap and moves the manual out of his line of sight.

“Hello to you too. You two seemed to be enjoying yourselves.”

“I’d say the same about you and Jane.” She replies. Lee exhales sharply from his nose.

“Well, you clearly weren’t listening to our conversation. We were arguing over bell-bottom pants and haircuts, Hester.”

“And you were having fun. Both of you. I could tell, and Zachyre could too.”

Lee gives her a confused look. That’s what they were talking about the whole time?

“Look, I’m as surprised as you are. But you know, we’ve never really got to spend time with them alone before. Maybe leaving with their company wasn’t such a bad idea after all.”

Lee considered her words in his silence. She had a point. He hardly knows anything about her other than her last name was Wright. They lived in opposite sides of the city, so they only ever saw each other in local events and competitions. Whenever that happens, they either get into discourse with each other’s group of friends or prefer to avoid each other. But surprisingly, spending alone time with her doesn’t feel very different from spending alone time with his own good friends.

The mocking, the petty insults, the deprecating jokes followed by laughter. Only difference is that Jane is a girl, and he'd never met a woman with her kind of attitude. In fact, now that he thought about it, that quality about her is kind of admirable.

The idea of having quality bonding time with Jane seemed crazy to him. He looks over at her. She’s sitting down now, just watching the clouds fly past her and feeling the wind in her hair, deep in her own thoughts. He began to wonder if similar thoughts were running around her mind about him. Is she enjoying his company? Is she as surprised about it as he is?

“You know she tried to steal our balloon and leave us behind, right?” Lee looks back at Hester.

“Honestly? It seemed like something you would do.”

Lee chuckles. Perhaps he and Jane had more in common than he’d like to admit.

Before he could continue the thought, Hester suddenly cuddles up with him inside his coat. “Go to sleep.” She says with sterner tone in her voice. Lee wanted to stay awake, but Hester’s soft furry body against his stomach felt so warm and relaxing and cozy. It was making sleep all the more tempting.

He rests his hand over her and holds her close as he began to lean a bit onto the empty gas tank on his side. She’s right. She always is. About sleeping at least. He’s going to need a lot of rest for the adventure in London. Hopefully, it will be as memorable as Jane insists.

#fanfic #au #his dark materials #lee scoresby #on the run fic

[thaliatimsh]

if its alright! wrt the 'directors commentary' asks, honestly anything /Anything/ for 'imperfect life', oof :0

ONE DVD COMMENTARY TRACK COMING UP BECAUSE HELL YES you may ask me about this one. GOD I HOPE THIS READ MORE WORKS OR I’M GONNA DIE OF SHAME. For those of you who’ve missed my pleas: imperfect life is on AO3 here. read it or i cry.

Okay I reblogged that post with not much of an idea about what I’d actually have to say but imperfect life is at least at the forefront of my mind lol

First things first I’d had an idea for a fic about Hodgson At Mutineer Camp that i wanted to write floating around my head for a while that was. I suppose centred on the sheer Betrayal of GIBSON YOU CHANGED MY SHEETS FOR THREE YEARS? WHAT THE FUCK? And as I did more research abt both of them and found that they’d been on ships together & that it was likely that either Hodgson or Peglar got Gibson his job? Fuckin wrote itself, especially seeing as in show-canon Bridgens is the Peglar Papers Steward.

Anyway I’ve said this before to everyone who’ll listen but I will say it again: I think Hodgson is misinterpreted & underappreciated by a lot of the fandom &  it makes me SAD and also ANGRY.

Like: I once saw someone say that he was “mad about Jopson’s promotion, so fuck that guy”? NO. He MISSED Jopson’s promotion! He would have gotten a KICK out of Jopson’s promotion! You BASTARDS! Hickey picks on him SPECIFICALLY because he’s out of the loop! I’ll kill you!

Ham jokes? I’m coming to your HOUSE. man’s as ‘obsessed with ham’ as any self-respecting naval officer starving to death in the arctic

Then there’s the “Who is this?” being taken as some kind of a-okay for cannibalism instead of a guy who saw someone shot dead just last night and then spent the morning burying said dead'un being literally scared out of his mind by a greasy lil rat with a knife and Tozer blocking the tent flap with a fuckign RIFLE. DAMN YOU ALL.

Do I think he’s a complete FOOL? YES. Do I think he ever had any kind of malicious intent? NO. Okay anyway I’m gonna talk a bit more abt that later so let me go back to the next part lmao

So Part 2 of the George Henry Hodgson Saga was then to figure out why he had to go stay with his aunts - this ALSO came pretty straight to me, for whatever reason. I think it might have started off as just his parents pleasure jaunt, but as I was thinking about later scenes with Jimmy Fitzjas I came up with a thing abt - Im not gonna find the reference now but in the battersby book there’s a bit abt William Coningham going to take the waters at bath or whatever for Weak Lungs which OBVIOUSLY made me think of my favourite comsumptive Of All Time Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin & the countryside retreats he & his sister Emilia took for their symptoms as teenagers (and unforch Emilia died of tuberculosis aged just 14… rip)

ANYWAY I had some VAGUE idea that George n Fitz could have some kind of Passing Discussion abt Brothers With Shite Lungs that obviously never came to fruition but. Lol whatever, it gave me a reason for why My Parents Sent Me To Stay With Two Aunts.

UH. Right, so then like the third leg for this to stand on was that Fitzjames and Hodgson had ALSO served together & Fitzjames had: 1. recommended Hodgson to the expedition 2: mentioned him TWICE in his Voyage of the Cornwallis 3. Mentioned him in his letters to the Coninghams from disko bay (one of the only Terrors mentioned - there’s a passage abt Fitzjames going to look at the icebergs with Fairholme and Hodgson. ANYWAY; show-canon Hodgson has a sense of humour and I really think he tried to make the men see him as approachable, at least compared to the other Terror officers and that reminds me a lot of how the historical Fitzjames seemed from mystery man! Seeing as they KNew each other I think it’s not unfair to suggest that he’s trying to emulate an older and more successful officer! He wants to succeed! He wants to have fun and to be loved by The Men!

My friend said something very Prescient abt this to me recently which was that THere are a lot of similarities between Hodgson & Fitzjames and it’s kinda like. Fitzjames is the Ideal, and Hodgson just misses the mark. He’s the average man’s James Fitzjames and because he doesn’t know about Fitzjames’ surplus of political luck that only makes him feel more of a failure. Fitzjames gets a bullet that gets him compared to Lord Nelson, Hodgson gets in the gazette as ‘slightly wounded’. Even their monologues! Fitzjames gives a soul-baring confessional he’s never talked about before to someone he respects and he gets! Affirmation! Gets told that he’s a good man and brave and loved! Hodgson gives a soul-baring confessional he’s never talked about before to someone he respects and gets! FUCK ALL! A MAN SITS IN SILENCE! He has to fucking! Walk out alone after all of that! FUCK!!!

Okay so this whole fic just sat in my brain for probably like six months until I literally sat up in bed because I worked out the last piece of the puzzle

(Drac has an epiphany, July 4th 2019, colourised)

Which was, of course, 'Hodgson went to boarding school’ - which is what all of this ends up hanging off of! Boarding school culture! The younger years are servants for the upper years, who in turn are responsible for the younger students!  including discipline etc so like… if a younger year brought something up to their “fag-master” it’d be sorted by them and maybe prefects, without getting schoolmasters etc involved.

WHICH is why George doesn’t tell the captains about what happens to Neptune, because he’s out here trying to be a good fag master and get it sorted himself! His own fag master fucked him over by getting the schoolmasters involved when they oughtn’t have been! He’s not about to be Archibald Harrington-Thurlowe! He’s not okaying the mutiny! He’s trying to minimise the damage *on his own* like a fuckin idiot!

IF YOU CALL HODGSON A MUTINEER I’LL COME TO YOUR HOUSE N MAKE YOU GET LOST AND ABANDONED AND END UP EATING YOUR BOOT BEFORE GETTING 'RESCUED’ BY THE SAME GREASY RAT WHO LITERALLY MURDERED YOUR PAL AND TRICKED YOU INTO SLAUGHTERING CIVILIANS! I’LL. I’M NOT HAPPY.

I’m just basically so upset about 'one perfect moment in a whole imperfect life’ being a childhood memory that he was taught to see as so shameful to compare it to cannibalism under duress? FUCK.

A whole imperfect life in GENERAL has me fucked up! He just kept trying and kept just missing what he was aiming for! I mean. That’s relateable. Not one part of a life turning out as you expected or planned? ME!!!! Your achievements add up to nothing and no matter how hard you try you end up a footnote! FUCK offfff

I had some difficulty with the religious angle for a while because. hm. okay. To start with the religious angle IN-CANON is just.... not correct. Catholics don't let you drink the blood. The church of england DOES... and that's what most of these men ARE. The Papist Speech as a whole was cobbled together from one of Crozier's ~Visions~ in the book - and it's important in that case that Crozier is IRISH... Poor analogy, writers! Putting aside that he was also... SEVEN... maybe he was an unusually tall seven-year old, people assumed he'd had first communion/been baptised & no one wanted to cause a fuss... I mean the guy has lead poisoning so it's fair to mis-remember but... YEAH. Messy, which is a shame because it's a powerful monologue very well-delivered, shame it's complete fucking nonsense 😂 (not to be like... SMH Americans but... smh Americans...)

Anyway, as I wrote it? that’s me. I wasn’t raised religious - my dad’s an old-school small-town Continental Catholic, my mum’s agnostic but raised CofE (but *her* dad was raised Jewish (also continental) during WW2), I think they couldn’t be fucked with the drama, I never went to church or anything and as a kid when we had prayers at school assembly I didn’t know what I was doing!!!! I felt bad because I couldn’t fathom God as a concept!!! I still can’t! But as a kid it’s like. I don’t understand and on account of that I’m afraid I’m going to Hell. tfw you write what you know.

ALSO there were definitely a couple of times where I wrote G H Hodgson as played by B W Wooster and I will not be taking constructive criticism on that.

ANYWAY My brain has kindof turned itself off now but I guess this is just. My own personal backstory to this jhsgfjhs. I actually probably have about 400x more to say but it’s fully evaporated. thank you SO MUCH for asking me though. i die.

#i tag #george hodgson #bc i love him #also #long post #that's my baby officer! #insane character essay tag

[viciousgold]

What was your childhood home like? Can you cook? What are you most proud of? What other fictional characters would you get along with? What do you do when you are upset? What was your wedding day like? Did you have nightmares as a child? Did you have a favourite toy? Are you a light sleeper? Is there anyone who scares you? Do you have a sweet tooth? What is your favourite city to live in (AU?)? Did you go to public or private school? Do you swear? What would be your job in Will´s world?

What was her childhood home like?

It was very strict and rigid. Marisa’s mother was very set on her ideals for her children. Marcel immediately went into a position of power and status at a much younger age than Marisa, and despite being her younger brother, he was already more powerful than her before he even turned eighteen, which Marisa has always resented them both for. Where as her mothers expectations for Marisa were, especially because of their lack of wealth and status; get married to someone with wealth, high status, maybe have kids. Along with that though, she was trained to be a “good” wife, her mother expecting nothing less than perfection. Anything less than perfection was immediately punished. She also incredibly lacked affection. Her mother was cold and distant and for the most part refused to give her children much physical affection at all, barely any physical touch either apart from her reprimanding her children. 

Can Marisa cook?She can, absolutely, but she’s more trained at hunting and prep than the actual cooking part. She’s really good at survival; she can hunt a walrus, skin and de-bone it entirely and make really good cuts of meat from it, but then when it comes to the actual cooking part... I mean, she doesn’t burn it. But she doesn’t really know how to do things like technical cooking, seasoning, any of that, so her food doesn’t really taste good, it’s more so she cooks for herself when she needs to, when she’s on an expedition in the North and she’s in survival mode, she’ll cook herself something so that she has something to eat but it’s not that good, like, at all. Asriel is probably a better cook than her, so I could definitely see them like, on an expedition together and they make a deal like “hey, I’ll do the hunting and preparing the meat if you do the cooking of it” and together they actually have a decent meal. What is she most proud of?She is honestly truly proud of how far she’s come at such a young age. Granted, her brother has her beat, he was in a position of power at sixteen or so, but in comparison to the majority of people, Marisa began involvement with the Magisterium at twenty and rose to complete and full power even surpassing her brother in the ranks and authority by age thirty, and plus she was the first woman to ever become a member of the Royal Arctic Institute, so overall she is extremely proud of all she’s accomplished at such a young age. 

What other fictional characters does she get along with?So funny thing, I’ve been talking with @paracosmicvoid and she has a character named Linda who is such a parallel of Marisa, it’s crazy. They definitely get along so super well. There’s also @redlied‘s Abaddon from Supernatural who comes to an understanding with Marisa through using each other to each other’s benefit and they learn to get along in the process. 

What does she do when she’s upset?She takes it out on herself, immensely. Whenever she’s upset, it’s usually because of something she either did wrong or failed to do. And she punishes herself for it. This goes back to how her mother raised her and treated her where she was punished harshly for the smallest of things like using the wrong silverware, or crying when she was told not to, so when she makes big mistakes, she is extremely hard on herself and unforgiving of herself. It’s also very hard for her to try cheering herself up. Usually when she is upset, she doesn’t really even start to feel better until days or sometimes even weeks later. Sometimes she’ll try. She’ll drink chamomile tea, she’ll listen to music, but for the most part when she’s upset she does seclude herself to make herself suffer for what she believes was her failing at something yet again.

What was Marisa’s wedding day like?Honestly, it felt more like a graduation to her than a wedding. She had basically found an entrance into the Magisterium for herself and she was happy to finally have it. She was focused that day on what this marriage would bring for her life, how it would benefit it, and so she put on a facade of being in love with Edward, but the part that wasn’t a facade was her genuine happiness and excitement; it just wasn’t for the sake of entering into a marriage for Edward because she loved him, it was happiness and excitement for all of the benefits she would gain from the marriage. Did she have nightmares as a child?Oh yeah, all the time. She’ll still have nightmares to this day. Often times as a child, her nightmares were of disappointing her mother, or her mother hurting her again, or both. She grew up, at least at first, very terrified of her overbearing, controlling mother, and then into adulthood she decided that she was no longer going to be afraid of her; she was going to disobey her and be everything she wanted her brother to be, but better and even more powerful. The nightmares of her mother were consistent until probably about seventeen or eighteen and then later on in life, her nightmares didn’t stop, her mother just stopped being the monster in them. Her nightmares now actually consist of herself as the monster, usually. The ones that don’t are nightmares of her losing everything, and then later her nightmares of losing what she truly realizes matters most to her; her nightmares are of losing Lyra.

Did she have a favorite toy?

Yes, she did, she had a doll that she would dress up in lots of pretty outfits. They didn’t have much money during her childhood, but she would make dresses and scarves and hairbows for the doll using spare bits of fabric she could find around the house and of dresses she outgrew, which her mother was fine with since they all knew she didn’t plan on having another child past Marisa and Marcel. 

Is she a light sleeper?

100%. If a literal pen falls, she will wake up. Marisa is always on high alert and has been since a young age, and if I’m really thinking about it, this was probably due to her childhood as well of always needing to be on guard when it came to her mother. But now it’s for the sake of she knows that there are constant dangers everywhere around her, she’s very intensely aware of everything that could go wrong. The only time she’s really blinded is when she’s distracted by her motherly instincts towards Lyra, and this has caused her to make quite a few mistakes and let certain things slip up. 

Is there anyone who scares you?

She’ll deny it with every fiber of her being, but her mother does still frighten her. She won’t admit it, but it’s the reason she left her mother as soon as she could and then never went back. She doesn’t financially support her mother like Marcel does, she doesn’t visit her, doesn’t speak with her, doesn’t associate with her or even acknowledge her existence. Her mention of her to Lyra was likely the first time in years she even mentioned her mother at all in any context. 

Does she have a sweet tooth?Yes, sweets are probably Marisa’s absolute favorite guilty pleasure. She loves chocolatl, cake, pie, cookies, like anything really delectable and sweet, she adores. She and her brother weren’t really allowed to have sweets as a child, so she didn’t really experience much of them until her adulthood.

What is her favorite city in an AU?

She really enjoys Monte Carlo. Monaco is one of her favorite places to visit, mainly because it just feels elite and beautiful, and Monte Carlo especially. The grandeur there combined with how many fun things there are to do in the city, like different cafes, the yearly Monaco Grand Prix, all of the beautiful architecture there. 

Did she go to public or private school?Marisa had a private tutor growing up. They were poor, but her mother put so much of their funds into educating Marisa and Marcel because she wanted them to have every advantage that children of higher wealth and status had. So Marisa grew up very educated and intelligent, focused on studies for most of her childhood and then once she was eighteen she became a member of St. Sophia’s college.

Does she swear?She tries not to in polite society or within the Magisterium, but when she’s alone with friends or a lover, a swear once or twice might slip out. Apart from that, the only other time she swears is when she’s incredibly angry. 

What job would she have in Will’s world?

Well in Will’s world, she wouldn’t be as restricted by her gender as she is in her own world. With her ambition, determination and skills, Marisa would likely be something like a Senator, a Governor, or a high ranking CIA operative if in America, or if in England, she would likely be an MP, Prime Minister, or some form of high ranking MI5. 

#headcanon; #onceiworeatrenchcoat

[writingandchocolatemilk]

A Gentle Slide

Anonymous said:  "That's not exactly a good coping method" with prucan?

guess whose state just got the first snow storm of the season

On AO3. FFn.

"That's not exactly a good coping method."

Prussia looked over at Canada and blinked. "What?"

Canada looked down at Prussia's hands. Prussia slowly followed his gaze to find himself applying hand sanitizer. Prussia rubbed his hands together, a little defensively. "Do you know how filthy cars get?"

Canada adjusted his seat. "Oh, no doubt. However, that's the fifth time in as many minutes that you've applied Purell. Your hands are going to dry out."

Prussia snapped his travel-sized bottle of Purell shut. He had bought it at the airport. He always bought them at airports. Airport were fucking nasty. "Not that it matters."

Canada rolled his eyes. "Will you calm down?"

Prussia pointed at him. "Don't do that, don't act like I'm overreacting. You're not reacting enough. We are going to die out here."

"Oh my God," Canada breathed, "I called a tow truck."

Prussia looked miserably out the window of Canada's tiny, fuel-efficient, two-wheel drive, hybrid piece of carboard. The snow continued to pour down like rain, the whole world one gray mass, blended together.

Canada fiddled with the windshield wipers. "Aren't you from Germany? Aren't you part of Germany? Don't you have snow?"

"Yes, of course we have snow." Prussia even skied when he had the spare time.

"Didn't you fight against Russia?"

Prussia rolled his eyes. "I couldn't tell you the number of times I have throttled that psycho in the snow."

Canada tapped the window. "And you're afraid of sitting in a car, with heating, in the snow after all that?"

Prussia shook his head. "No, this is different. It's very, very hard to die when you're leading an army through the snow. You can huddle together, you know?"

"Like penguins," Canada said mildly.

"Yes, but manly penguins." Prussia gestured to the winter wonderland around them. "We're in a ditch in the middle of nowhere. No one knows where we are. Germany doesn't even know where I am. I don't have signal."

Canada crossed his arms. "You refuse to buy an international plan."

"Oh, sorry I didn't expect to get stranded in the middle of your country. I thought it would be a nice, relaxing visit. Crack open some beers, play some video games, watch you do paperwork because you're a hard worker or whatever. And now?" Prussia rested his head against the window. "Doom."

Canada shifted in his seat. "Well…"

Prussia looked at him. "Well what?"

Canada gave a little, innocent shrug, eyes drifting over to the radio. "Well, we are only out because you wanted beer in the middle of a blizzard."

Prussia gaped at him. "How dare you."

Canada was clearly fighting to keep the smile off of his face.

Prussia was at a loss. Did Canada just accuse him of getting them into this situation? "Okay, there are many things wrong with that sentence, and I'm going to go through all of them. One." Prussia held up one finger. "You assured me you could drive through this mess."

Canada, reflexively: "I can."

Prussia gestured wildly around the cabin of the car. "And yet we're in a ditch!"

"Oh, it's just a snowbank."

Prussia held up a second finger. "You knew about the blizzard and didn't stock up on booze. It's a staple to stock up on booze and get drunk during blizzards."

Canada didn't look convinced by this. "I'm not an alcoholic."

"And if the power went off? What would we have done? Played Monopoly by candle light? Monopoly is only ever fun piss drunk, and I should know." Prussia realized this made him sound like an alcoholic. "Not that I'm an alcoholic."

Canada let out a noncommittal noise.

Prussia wouldn't let that hurt his feelings. "Third." Prussia held up another finger. "You decided to bring us to your creepy, serial killer-cabin in the middle of nowhere. We were guaranteed to, firstly, get snowed in and stuck up there, and secondly, to lose power, which leads back into issue number two with your this is my fault argument."

"It's scenic."

"If you had brought us to your nice apartment in Montreal, we could have ordered pizza and walked to the liquor store." Prussia let his hands drop into his lap. "Ergo, this is your fault, not mine."

Canada considered these points, nodding slowly. He hummed like he had come to a realization. "Counterargument: I bought fucking wine."

"You and I both know wine isn't alcohol."

"And you and I both know wine is stronger than beer and is the better alcohol."

Prussia was on the edge of opening the door and running away from this conversation. He could feel himself getting stupidly angry because beer was a man's drink. Instead: "Either way, you're the one who drove us into the ditch."

"Okay, it is a snow," Canada pronounced the words clearly and slowly, "bank. And I still think that you set us on this course of events because of your stupid 'beer is manly' reasoning."

Prussia opened his mouth and then caught sight of exactly how hard it was snowing. It was coming down in buckets. It looked like rain. Prussia realized that Canada didn't drive a giant car like he did. He drove the piece of shit Prius, which was low to the ground.

"Canada," Prussia said, trying to keep the panic out of his voice. "I have something very important to discuss with you."

Canada raised an eyebrow. "Uh. Okay?"

Prussia very calmly pointed outside the window. "We can't let the snow cover the exhaust pipe."

Canada rolled his eyes. "I drive a Prius, Prussia."

"You don't drive a fully electric car though, do you? You still produce carbon monoxide and that will definitely kill us if we let the tailpipe get covered by snow."

Canada shrugged again. "Feel free to clear it out."

Prussia hesitated. It was. Very cold outside. And blizzarding. And he hadn't brought his gloves because he didn't think he was going to get fucking stranded in the middle of a blizzard. He thought he would be outside for two minutes, max.

Plus, it had not been Prussia who had gotten them into this mess. "No, you."

Canada patted his dashboard fondly. "I trust her not to kill me. You're the one with doubt in your heart."

Prussia shook his head. "I have died of hypothermia. I'm not doing that again. It was probably the worst time. It took, like, a year for me to feel my toes again. It took like a month for them to thaw me out."

Canada raised his eyebrows. "Really? I haven't heard this story."

Prussia opened the hand sanitizer. "It's not a very becoming story. I was leading a group—a smaller group—to try and flank… God, maybe Russia's men? But, since it was fucking blizzarding outside, visibility was lacking, to say the least. My men managed to find the army. I did not."

Canada reached over and took the Purell from him.

Prussia cleared his throat. "So, I have already frozen my ass off. Your turn."

Canada gave him a small, soft smile. "Who hasn't died of hypothermia?"

Prussia's hands felt grimy. "You terrify me, you know that?"

"Listen, I have been to the arctic. I have been on a ton of expeditions. It happens."

"Oh my God."

Canada shrugged. "So, it's either facing the cold or facing the carbon monoxide."

Neither option was appealing. "Where is this tow truck?"

Canada looked out the window. "Actually, that's a good question."

Prussia let his head fall back against the head rest. "We're going to die."

Canada let out a sigh and opened his door. He threw the car into neutral and stepped out into the swirling snowflakes outside. Prussia thought for a horrified second Canada was leaving him to freeze to death, but then the headlights illuminated Canada in front of the car.

Canada gave the car a shove.

Prussia groaned and then opened the door. "Alright, alright, I'll help."

Canada gave the car another shove. "That would be great, yeah."

Prussia joined Canada at the front of the car. The metal was very, very cold. Stupid fucking Prius. "Alright, one, two, three!" They gave it a shove. It stayed firmly in the ditch.

"Fuck," Prussia muttered. "Okay, again!"

It was raining ice. The snow, up in the stratosphere—or where ever the fuck rain and snow formed, Prussia couldn't remember because his brain was freezing in his skull—the snow had frozen into tiny, ice-pellets that were hailing from the sky. It felt like bullets hitting his face.

It was actually painful. It stung. It burned.

Prussia let out a miserable little noise. "Your stratosphere is trying to murder me."

"It's the troposphere."

"Fuck," Prussia said, deeply, with feeling. "One, two, three!" An ice pellet hit Prussia in the eye. "Again!" he bellowed, turning his 'I want to cry' feelings into 'angry' feelings.

Finally, the car groaned and rocked back an few centimeters—

Prussia threw his hands in the air. "Success!"

-and then promptly rocked back forward.

Canada cracked his knuckles. "We have it warmed up now, don't worry."

A final push got the car back onto the road, or close enough to where the road was underneath all the snow.

They returned to the warmth of the car. Prussia stuck his hands in front of the air vents, teeth chattering. That was misery, but fuck that ditch, they had pulled through.

Canada turned off the hazards. "Now, are we still going to the liquor store, or have you come to your senses?"

There were two paths here. Either Prussia could drink real alcohol, or Prussia could get out of this shitty car and shitty weather and actually enjoy his time with Canada. The decision was not as easy as one might imagine. "Listen, don't tell France or Spain I consented to drink wine. I'm begging you."

Canada rolled his eyes. He put his car into drive and then tossed something into Prussia's lap. "Hand lotion. Told you they would dry out."

#aph prucan #prucan #APH Prussia #APH Canada #Hetalia Fanfiction #writing #hetalia fanfic #gilbert beilschmidt #matthew williams

[brassandblue]

What if? because I too am greedy, for both Bertie and Francis

Yessss!! Let me tell you my ideas! 

Arthur/Alice, Goodsir and Bertie - (in addition to the ones you listed because I love them all!!)

Survived the Arctic AU (so maybe also Francis) where Bertie is king and after Arthur (and whoever else) makes it back from the expedition, Bertie’s like, ‘Arthur you can’t do that anymore what if we lost you’ and Arthur, who has been a teenager for hundreds of years at this point, on the cusp of his physical 20s, does not take it well. >> This means he absolutely ducks out and joins other expeditions as an able bodied sailor... although preferably bound for warmer climates.

SSGB where Arthur goes behind Albert’s back to set up a contingency plan he feels might offer more protection. He is t e r r i f i e d of being dissolved because of the occupation, and even though Britons are a stubborn lot who might very well hold onto their identity anyway, he doesn’t want to take that chance. Conflict ensues because Bertie probably finds out.

SSGB with Goodsir and Arthur! After a lot of vetting Goodsir is there to help look after Albert’s health (and probably Arthur’s) because it’s the King, that’s just necessary!! I know you mentioned this one in yours and I really like it. Albert needs something good and soft and also reminding that fighting is important but so is looking after Arthur, who is in very bad shape.

Revolution AU, where Albert is the George on the throne when the 13 colonies rebel. It’s very clear that Arthur is extremely distraught more over the personal fallout with Alfred. I think he might actually confide in Albert if they’re close, and it’s just... king helping personified nation through a very uncomfortable war. Doesn’t help that the Crown is broke and Arthur, who’s had a history of fucking off to go engage in piracy, is feeling the pressures of taking more responsibility despite not having much of a say in anything.

King’s(?) Physician AU basically any situation where Goodsir is tasked with Albert’s health and well being, and he is a very good but very firm doctor. 19th century, WWI and/or WWII! 

Arthur/Alice, Goodsir and Francis - /STEEPLES FINGERS

Stowaway AU, where Alice, who is very capable as a sailor, takes on a masculine appearance and false name to join the expedition, despite the enormous amount of trouble she’d be in if caught. Yo @myxcenterxstage i m a g i n e tho.

Survived AU, Arthur offers Francis and the survivors assistance in anything when they return to Britain. He’ll also petition William IV (or Bertie?? >> ) for appropriate compensation and accolades for the survivors, they went through frozen hell for the Empire, and they should be rewarded for their bravery.

Success AU! With Goodsir and/or Arthur, befriending of Francis occurs while the ice breaks up and they discover the Northwest Passage! 

#long post #omg I'm sorry #I just have so many ideas #bertievi #ooc #.if wishes were fishes (wishlist)

[livvywrites]

last line tag

tagged by @quartzses. thank you~

this is where I left off yesterday: 

Today was another break day. Aishlynn had decided—loudly, during breakfast—that they needed to do some planning. Which led to the six of them standing around Talitha’s map table.

Talitha pulled a rolled up piece of paper out of one of her many trunks, and spread it across the table—carefully affixing it into place with the help of a sticking charm. A map of the Arctic Expanse was spread before them. Alinora cocked her head.

It was more filled out than any other map Alinora had seen of the place.

“The other day wasn’t the first time I’d heard of a city in the Expanse,” Talitha said. “I had a thought of going after it, once. Before I got drawn into the resistance, and taking down Kai’os, and…” She waved a hand. “Anyway. I got my hands on every bit of research I could. Reports from every failed expedition that made it back. Notes recovered from expeditions that didn’t make it back. Hand-drawn maps. Sketched landmarks. You name it.

“I poured over every map of the Expanse I could get my hands on—which wasn’t nearly as many as I’d like. Between those and the notes, I was able to sketch this.” She waved at the map. “It’s as accurate as I can make it—and it’s all we have.”

“It’s guesswork,” Aishlynn said flatly. She eyed the map critically.

Talitha shrugged. “You say that like everything we have right now isn’t guesswork. We guess that Weaver’s Bane is capable of killing him. We guess that he doesn’t know where we are. We guess that we’re going to be enough to fight him. We guess that we can stop him before he breaks the shield.” Talitha crossed her arms. “There is very little in our lives right now that can safely be called ‘a sure thing.’”

“You have a point,” Aishlynn said begrudingly, lips pursing again.

“I always do.” Talitha sent her a sharklike grin.

Aishlynn scowled.

Alinora interrupted before things could get worse. “Look, I don’t like going in blind anymore than you do,” she said, nodding to Aishlynn. Aishlynn still didn’t look happy. Alinora wasn’t sure she ever did. “But this is the best we have right now—and it’s better than anything else we have.” She looked at Elaena, and the twins. “Unless any of you has something better?”

Lyr shrugged. “A map of the Expanse wasn’t something we thought to grab. Or even look for.”

“If we had known the sword would be there, we would have.” Ava frowned.

Elaena shrugged. “The only time I’ve been to the Expanse is when I was collecting souls. Didn’t exactly do a lot of sight seeing, at the time. And that was a long time ago, anyway. I’m not much in the collection business anymore.” She eyed them all like there was something else she wanted to say.

Whatever it was, she kept it to herself. Alinora was glad. Whatever it was, it probably would have brought out a new round of arguing, and she wasn’t sure she was in the mood to deal with that right now.

“This is it, then,” Alinora said. She looked at Talitha. “What’s your plan?”

Talitha tapped the map. “We sail along the coast for a bit, until it starts to get cold. Maybe stop and get winter supplies somewhere along the way. Once we’ve reached the mountains, I’ll switch the ship to airship mode—”

Talitha was cut off by Aishlynn. “Your ship can fly?” Her face was turning red again, and Alinora couldn’t help but sigh.

Ava caught her gaze sympathetically across the table.

“Yeah, Talitha, what the fuck?” Lyr tossed a piece of crumpled up paper at her.

Talitha caught it before it could smack her in the face and lobbed it back. “Did I forget to mention that?” She shrugged. “I always wanted a flying ship. So when I built this one, I decided to make it fly. No big deal.”

“Uh, yes, big deal. What the fuck?” Lyr repeated.

Alinora rapped her fist on the table, getting the attention of her allies. Aishlynn still looked ready to murder someone, Talitha looked smug, and Lyr looked frustrated as hell. Alinora could sympathize.

“We can interrogate Talitha about her ship later. I want to hear the rest of the plan.”

Talitha’s smug grin seemed to widen. “Right. So, I make the ship fly—” Aishlynn glared at her again, which Talitha ignored, “—and we breach the mountains. If we keep going south, we should eventually hit an airship berth. Hopefully the docks will still be functional. We’ll weigh anchor, and disembark.

“The crew will stay with the ship, while the six of us start traveling. If I understood our contact right, it should take us about two days, maybe three, to reach the tower. We can explore a bit, then make our way to the city and find the sword.

“Then we get back to the ship and head for Mynera. Any questions? That aren’t about the ship?” Talitha winked at Alinora, who pursed her lips.

Aishlynn rubbed her face. “Your plan is sound enough.” That sounded begrudging. Before Talitha could make a comment, though, she continued, “Do you have the notes you took?”

Talitha went back over to the chest she’d pulled the map from, rummaged around a bit, and returned with a stack of papers. “Here.” She handed them to Aishlynn. “I think I slipped into Parinaran at least three times.”

Aishlynn rolled her eyes. “Of course you did. I’ll skip them. You can translate for me later.”

Talitha grinned. “Aw, Shlynn, I think you just want to hear me speak in tongues~”

Aishlynn scowled. “You’re insufferable.”

“You say the sweetest things.”

tagging: whoever wants to do it!! <3 i’ve tagged a bunch of people recently, haha. 

#tag games #writeblr #writelr #writers of tumblr #tmq #the martyr queen #tmq excerpt #tmq excerpts

[madlori]

Lori Plans Travel, Part 1

Hey Tumblrinos! So I’ve gotten questions in the past about How Do Plan Travel. Like most people, I have things I’m good at and things I suck at, and one of the things I am Good At is traveling. I’m good at putting together itineraries, I’m good at researching the travel and the accommodations, I’m good at finding cool stuff to do, and I just love doing it - the minutiae and the endless Googling of things and the time management that goes into organizing a successful trip.

I’ve just started planning a major trip for next summer, so I figured now’s a good time to sort of...talk through how I attack it.

Where am I going, you ask?

Yep. Alaska.

To achieve my goal of visiting all 60 National Parks, Alaska figures big because there are a whopping 8 parks up there, and visiting them is...non-trivial. Some can’t be reached by car. And the weather is a big factor.

I’ve determined that I’ll make three trips (eventually). Trip 1 is the red numbers, that’s what I’m planning to do in two weeks next July.

Glacier Bay

Wrangell St-Elias

Kenai Fjords

Denali

Parks 5 (Katmai) and 6 (Lake Clark) will be for a later trip, possible combined with some of the PNW parks. Parks 7 (Kobuk Valley) and 8 (Gates of the Arctic) are “someday” parks - I’ll have to join a guided expedition to visit those. And I’ll have to...shudder...camp.

Anyway.

So I’ve picked these parks, I’ve picked my dates. What order should I visit in? Well, that’s not super important, so why not start at the south and work my way up?

I note that if I do Glacier Bay first, after that I could relocate to Anchorage as a sort of home base for the other three. It’s a three hour drive from the city to Wrangell - I could do one overnight there. There is no lodging inside the park, but there is just outside the boundary. Kenai Fjords is definitely doable as a day trip from Anchorage (visiting the park usually consists of taking a boat tour, so that limits how much time you can really spend there).

And THEN, at the end of the trip - I could take the famous Alaska Railroad north to Denali and back to Anchorage and fly home from there. The railroad will arrange my whole train/lodging situation, it’s very convenient.

Timing things out is tricky, because a lot of things are governed by transportation timetables and when intra-state flights are available. So after some thought, I come up with a rough itinerary:

Day 1: Fly to Juneau (I’ll arrive around 9 pm)

Day 2: Fly to Glacier Bay (only one flight daily arriving at 5 pm)

Day 3: Tour Glacier Bay

Day 4: Fly to Anchorage, rent car

Day 5: Drive to Wrangell early, tour during afternoon

Day 6: Tour Wrangell in the morning, drive back

Day 7: Kenai Fjords

Day 8: Anchorage/day trips

Day 9: Anchorage/day trips

Day 10: Turn in car, depart on train for Denali

Day 11: Denali

Day 12: Denali

Day 13: Return to Anchorage

Day 14: Fly home

There’s quite a bit of wiggle room here - the order of operations once I arrive in Anchorage is flexible, at least until I book lodging.

One thing I always look for in an itinerary is what I call a keystone item. It’s something that either needs to happen a certain day (like a special tour, event, etc) or something that, if it doesn’t work out, seriously fucks up the rest of your plan.

In this case, that’d be getting a room at Glacier Bay Lodge. Why? Because it’s the ONLY lodging available at GB, and I were unable to stay there for some reason, I’d be SOL. Pretty much everything else has wide availability and options.

The Lodge doesn’t have availability on their website for 2019 yet (pretty common in the hospitality industry) so I called them. The young man I spoke to was super nice and almost concealed that he was having a bit of a laugh at me. “Oh, we never sell out,” he said. “Really, you can wait till spring to book, you’ll be fine.” I checked their website again and observed that they still have vacancy for, like...tomorrow. In peak season.

It occurred to me that I’m used to planning trips in the lower 48, where demand is often high and peak season means you need to jump on reservations early. But this is Alaska - even the most popular spots aren’t exactly thronged, and the vast majority of GB visitors arrive on cruise ships. So that’s good news.

I will probably get an AirBNB for my Anchorage stay. But you’ll note that between GB and Denali there’s one night I plan to spend NOT in Anchorage, when I overnight at Wrangell. So...do I get a temporary hotel room for that one first night in Anchorage, and get an AirBNB when I return from Wrangell? Or get an AirBNB for the whole duration, and just eat the cost of double paying for one night? Keeping in mind that there’s no reason at all I need to arrive in Anchorage and leave for Wrangell the NEXT DAY. In fact it might be nice to chill out in town for a day before taking on a long drive.

I’ll decide that later.

In the meantime, I have looked up prices for all the relevant hotel rooms, bookmarked a half-dozen potential AirBNBs, looked up times and prices for all the short intra-state flights, rental cars and the guided tours I’ll need, plus the prices (ballpark) for the Denali leg.

These all go in The Spreadsheet. It looks like this:

In The Spreadsheet I note down anything I find out about prices, times, details, and ideas. It keeps everything organized, and it keeps a running total of how much this is all gonna cost (so far less than I thought, tbh). As I continue to plan, I will note things I’d like to do/see, confirmation numbers as I make reservations, links to sites I’ll need, and ideas for places to eat or hike.

And I’m off to the races. Or to the tundra, so to speak.

#travel #alaska

[nightmareonfilmstreet]

[Recap] AMC’s THE TERROR Chills Your Soul in Series Premiere

“In 1845, two Royal Navy ships left England in an attempt to finally discover a navigable path through the Arctic. They were the most technologically advanced ships of their day. They were last seen by European whalers in Baffin Bay awaiting good conditions to enter the Arctic labyrinth. Both ships then vanished.”

So begins the premiere episode of AMC’s The Terror, the highly anticipated new series based on the novel of the same name by Dan Simmons. The story is structured around the true story of Sir John Franklin’s lost Arctic expedition, which is a completely true and tragic tale of the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, wherein 129 men were lost and never heard from again. The Terror will fill the gaps in the narrative with tales of madness and monsters.

“Go For Broke” opens a couple of years after the ships disappeared with two Royal Navy officers questioning an indigenous man about the fate of the expedition. The man explains to the officers that he met one of the captains, whom he referred to as Aglooka. When shown pictures of the three captains that led the expedition, Sir John Franklin (Ciarán Hinds), James Fitzjames (Tobias Menzies) and Frances Crozier (Jared Harris), the Inuit man identified Frances as the person he met on the ice. He was leading the remains of the crew across the frozen tundra, hungry and dying. Crozier relayed a message to the man, asking him to tell whomever came after to not stay, that the crew are being pursued by something called Tuunbaq and that they are “dead and gone”. He then gives the Inuit man the buttons off of his uniform to show to the officers.

  “You love your men more than God loves them, Sir John”- James Fitzjames “For all your sakes, let’s hope you’re wrong.”- Sir John Franklin

  With that ominous warning, we are taken four years into the past. We see the two ships in all of their glory, plowing through the ice littered waters of the Arctic. Sir Jon stands at the helm of the lead ship, the Erebus, and surveys what he commands. A religious man by nature, Sir John looks upon the frozen wastes and sees something that God has destined him to conquer. That’s if he can keep his second and third in command, Crozier and Fitzjames, respectively, from biting each others heads off. Fitzjames is a bit of a braggart (I mean, he is pretty handsome), and Crozier seems to have lost all sense of joy for his life and tries his best to find it at the bottom of a bottle. The expedition is going well so far, they are making good time, so the only real problems they have involve which spirit to serve at dinner.

As the officers dine in their lavish quarters, the rest of the crew eats down below. They are a jovial bunch, happy with the adventure they are embarking on and ready to do their part to fight through the cold to the warmer climate of the Pacific Ocean. As they eat their dinner, one of the men falls ill. “Falls ill” may have been a bit tame. The young adventurer convulses on his bench, spewing blood and bile everywhere as the others fearfully try to calm him down.

    All of this happens before we even get to the opening credits (which are absolutely gorgeous, by the way). This sets the stage for the dangers that are to come. After the sick young man has calmed down, he is taken to see Doctor Stanley (Alistair Petrie) and Surgeon Goodsir (Paul Ready) on the Erebus. Stanley is a gruff, unloving man who scold the young sailer for not telling anyone that he was feeling ill. When the sailor tells him that it’s because he didn’t want to disappoint Sir John, Stanley tells him that Sir John will assuredly praise his loyalty at the funeral. Pretty rough, dude. Goodsir, on the other hand, tries to help the young man stay calm and find a way to accept his upcoming death. In one of the most powerful sequences in the entire episode, we see Goodsir try his hardest to comfort the young man as death approaches. He lies to him, telling him that he will see a light a his family will be waiting for him to take him into heaven. When the young man mentions that he was an orphan and has no family, Goodsir tells him that it will be the angels, then, that take him to the entrance of the promised land. You can tell that he is trying anything and everything to comfort the poor boy, but nothing works. The young man, in his final moments, sees a vision of an Inuit man standing at the foot of his bed, wearing a terrifying mask. The boy screams that “He wants us to Run”, then dies in the throws of absolute terror.

  “This place wants us dead.”- Frances Crozier

  This feeling of doom permeates the entirety of the first two episodes of the series. We know by now that The Terror is a show about a monster stalking the expedition, but what we are shown right away is just how dangerous everything is on this expedition. Literally everything is trying to kill you. The cold, the food (already rancid after only a year), the ice and the ships themselves seem to be hell bent on making sure that these men do not survive. The main conflict of the series happens early on, as Sir John and Crozier argue about the best route to take for the rapidly approaching winter. Sir John wants to continue to the west like they planned, but Crozier sees that winter is coming fast and advises that they take an easterly route to safer waters. He fears being stuck in the pack ice throughout the winter, which not only holds them captive but also drifts and takes them wherever it sees fit. Against all protestations, Sir John is the commanding officer and makes the decision to plow on as planned.

    Guess what? Yep. They get stuck. For the second episode of the night, “Gore”, we fast-forward 8 months to the next spring. If the first episode dealt with the dangers of hubris, this next episode had everything to do with pressure. Not just the pressure placed on the boats by the ice, but also the pressure building inside each of these sailors as they await their fate. The ships have been stuck in the ice all winter and the men have started to get a little antsy. They play soccer on the ice and have romps with each other in the dark storerooms, but you can tell that they need too get moving and they need to get moving soon. Sir John and Crozier have not been speaking to each other, leading Sir John to finally admit that he was wrong about the path they took and to try and make amends with his second in command. To help determine their next move, they send our lead parties to try and find out which direction the ice is retreating.

How can put this delicately… These lead parties did not, go well. One group had to turn back after they found their provisions to be spoiled and rancid. They got off pretty easily, compared to the other group. This one, with Goodsir in tow, found their way to the shore of Prince William Island and an impassable wall of ice. This forces them to abandon their boat of goods and trek along on foot. As they return to the boat later that day, however, they see that their boat and been upturned and their camp has been ransacked. This wasn’t some little tiny canoe, either. This gigantic, 10-man lifeboat was thrown about by some gigantic beast that they say “must be a bear”.

  “If we don’t leave now, we’re going to disappear”- Frances Crozier

  As night descends on the camp, they are pelted by astonishingly large hail and hear a loud menacing roar in the distance. They have been followed by the “bear” and arm themselves in anticipation for the attack. As they all load and cock their weapons, one scared young sailor takes a shot in the dark, thinking he has felled the beast. What he has done, instead, is shoot an Inuit man in the chest, leaving him mortally wounded in the snow as his daughter tries to save him. Goodsir is called to the scene, and as he turns to face the group, he sees it. The beast. Tuunbaq. Almost as retribution for the wounding of the Inuit man, it attacks one of the sailors, leaving enough blood on the ice to guarantee his death.

    As they return the ship, it is clear that neither Sir John nor Dr. Stanley want anything to do with helping the indigenous man. They turn their nose up in the air and won’t even come near enough to touch him. Goodsir begs for the opportunity to try and save his life, which Sir John reluctantly agrees to. Unfortunately, the man’s gunshot is too deep, and he will die. As he is dying, his daughter tries to get him out of the belly of the ship, screaming that he must die under the sky, that he must die on the ice. She is held back by Crozier, who is able to communicate well with her due to his prior expeditions in the area. To her father, she begs him not to leave her. She claims that she cannot do this alone. That she isn’t ready.

That Tuunbaq will not obey her.

Here ends the first two episodes of The Terror. To say that a lot happened would be an understatement, but we must remember that this is a one-season show. We have just watched 20% of the entire series, so the amount of exposition is warranted. If I had to say anything about this show, its that AMC has an absolutely stunning hit on their hands. This show is gorgeous, form the ship’s interiors to the soaring bird’s-eye shots of the icy wasteland. The mystery is definitely there (What, exactly, is Tuunbaq and how can an Inuit man control it?), and the interpersonal drama between the Captains is exquisitely written and performed. In two short hours we have ben given completely fleshed out characters with backstories and motivations. Some television series cannot offer than in an entire season. We genuinely care about these men, even though we know what their final fate will be.

    As a young sailer is about to be lowered into the water to dislodge some ice from the propeller of the Erebus, Sir John comforts him by saying “God lies in all realms”. He doesn’t know how right he is. It is not his idea of God that surrounds them, however. In The Terror, ice and death are the gods in charge. And yes, Sir John, they do lie in all realms.

The Terror airs every Monday night on AMC, and I implore you to set your DVR for this one. This is one of the best looking, acted, and most horrific television shows that cable has given us in a long time. It is also the best two hours of television that AMC has aired since the first season of The Walking Dead. After you check out the two-hour premiere, head over to our official Facebook Group, Horror Fiends of Nightmare on Film Street, and let us know what you think. I will be writing recaps of each episode for Nightmare on Film Street, so be sure to bookmark that home page.

  The post [Recap] AMC’s THE TERROR Chills Your Soul in Series Premiere appeared first on Nightmare on Film Street - Horror Movie Podcast, News and Reviews.

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[ravensinsanity]

King Of The Poisoned Youth - Chapter ONE

King Of The Poisoned Youth is going to be a series of chapters set in an alternate reality version of Once Upon A Time, focusing on Peter Pan and Captain Hook. It’s told in the point of view of Raven, who is (unbeknownst to her) Hook’s daughter.

Take note that the title might also change.

Plot: Raven has lived her whole life on the Jolly Roger, aiding her father and the crew on their many voyages and expeditions. Hook loves her deeply, and she is the thin tendril that keeps him from spiraling into a bloodthirsty need for revenge on the one who killed her mother. Hook has kept Raven secret from Peter Pan; Pan doesn’t even know she exists, and Hook plans to keep it that way for good reasons. But luck isn’t always on his side. One night during a very bad storm, the Jolly Roger was unknowingly steered into Neverland’s waters. Raven was blown from the ship and she crashed into the raging sea. In the struggle, she nearly drowned. The waters beat her around like a ragdoll so viciously she was knocked unconscious. Fortunately, as fate was to have it, she survived. Her body washed ashore of Neverland overnight. But she awakes with no memories of who she is or where she came from. That’s when Peter Pan finds her, and he figures out pretty quickly who she is. He takes a liking to how defiant, confident, and skilled she seems to be. And in a way to get back at Hook for keeping Raven a secret, he decides to indulge in playing a game, and Raven is his pawn. He never intends to fall in love with her though. Surprise! Turns out, Pan is capable of loving someone else other than himself. In his own twisted way. And after Hook comes to Neverland in search of his missing daughter, Pan will do anything to make sure Raven stays his.

CHAPTER ONE

I awoke with a start, sucking in a huge gulp of air. Frigid water lapped over ashen skin, slightly pushing and pulling my body back and forth with each roll of waves. I heaved myself onto my side, coughing and retching as salty sea water spurted from my mouth. Panic surged through me and I struggled to sit up. I was in shallow water that was only a few inches deep, and it felt arctic. I coughed, tasting nothing but salt in my parched mouth.

Though a warm breeze washed over me, I was unforgettably cold. A grayish-white sky stretched into the distance, meeting in a straight line with the ocean. The sound of waves crashed over each other against large rocks met my ears.

My head throbbed and I pressed my hand against it, briefly shutting my eyes at the pain. Within a few moments it lessened. I stood, which made me realize how weak I was. I felt drained. My legs shook slightly, I was dizzy—mostly with confusion. My soaked clothes were freezing and sticking tightly to my body, therefore I shivered visibly.

As I splashed to the shore, I noticed how battered and bruised my body really was. I was sore all over and my legs felt as heavy as stones.

Out of the water now, I hurried over the pebbles and onto the sand, hugging my body in a feeble attempt to warm myself. The white sand I was standing on ended about fifty meters from the water, lined by tall, sinister looking trees that faded into darkness.

Where was I? How did I end up here?

I racked my brain for any memories but found nothing.

Raven, I thought suddenly. How random. But that….that was the only thing I could remember about myself. The only thing I could remember at all. Raven. The word echoed in circles inside my throbbing head. My name is Raven.

I didn’t understand how this could be possible. My mind functioned without flaw, trying to calculate my surroundings and predicament. Knowledge flooded my thoughts—well, more like hazy details of the world and how it worked. It all came to me naturally. And yet I didn’t know where I came from, or how I’d ended up lying in the water, or even who my parents were. I couldn’t recall a single damn thing about myself or who I was; just my name. I didn’t even know my last name. All I knew was that I was standing alone on this seemingly-desolate shore, and that my name was Raven.

I slowly eased myself to the ground, hugging my knees to my chest. I was so cold. I looked down at my clothes: I was wearing a black boned corset with strings pulling it together in the front. My white gypsy shirt was ripped along the sleeves as if a giant bear had clawed them. My tight black pants also had a few tears.

I took off my brown leather knee-high boots and dumped water from their soles before putting them back on. I had a belt with a satchel and sheathe—I pulled a dagger from the sheathe and felt along the blade. It was sharp. At least I had a weapon.

That’s when I noticed I was wearing a large, curved, black claw tied to a string around my neck. I held it in my hand, feeling its sharp point. What kind of gigantic animal did this come from? Frustration made me clench my fists. Why couldn’t I remember anything?

I sat there for a while, shivering, trying to remember something. Anything. My mind was blank. I racked my brain until it hurt and still came up with nothing.

Eventually, when my clothes had dried enough to be only damp, I began walking along the shore, looking around. I saw nothing but trees and thick vegetation on one side, and the minacious ocean on the other. For some odd reason I can’t explain, the forest radiated a menacing feel. I wasn’t ready to go in there yet.

I kept going till I found some low, flat rocks that spilled from the sea. I sat on one, relishing in the warmth the surface held. And I put my mind to work. Right now I had hardly any options. I was out in the open, exposed, vulnerable, hungry, parched, cold, bruised, and I couldn’t remember a damn thing about how I ended up here. Were there other people? Was I in danger of being attacked by some kind of lurking predator hidden in the trees? Minutes ticked by as I weighed my options.

Groaning in frustration, I let out a big sigh. If only I could remember! I slowly rose to my feet. What I really needed was water. I decided that’s what I would go after first, before doing or thinking of anything else. Drinkable water.

“And who may you be?”

Startled, I spun around at the voice to see an older boy standing behind me. He stared at me with idle curiosity; yet his gaze held iniquity to them that made my skin prick. A feeling of gloomy darkness seemed to slide like a shadow over me. It vanished in an instant, but it was undeniable. His smile wasn’t friendly. It was a smile that spelled trouble. With a promise.

He was tall and lean, with rich chocolate hair tousled in griminess that promised finesse. His strong arched brows really brought out his eyes—they were deep and catastrophic, a dark green that was the color of the forest. His fair skin made him look devilishly handsome. But there’s a dark energy about him that ebbed and flowed as unpredictably as the waves of the ocean. I could almost feel it. And my gut instinct was screaming he’s extremely dangerous!

I yanked my dagger from its sheath. “Who are you?” I demanded, unable to look away from those eyes—they seemed to be holding me in his piercing gaze even though that was physically impossible.

“I’m Peter,” he said nonchalantly, taking a step closer. “Peter Pan.”

I didn’t reply, but I continued eyeing him. How did he even get so close without me noticing him before? Surely I’d have heard him?

“Sound familiar to you, laddie?” he asked.

“No.”

He narrowed his eyes, lifting his chin, as if not pleased with my answer. “How did you get here?”

“I don’t know.” I flicked my dagger to indicate the sea. “I literally just woke up here on the shore. No memories of anything else.” Immediately I wanted to smack myself. I had just made myself even more vulnerable than before. Why would I just tell this strange, dark boy I had no memories? I’m such a fool!

“Looks like you had a nice swim,” he noted, his gaze travelling up and down my body.

I looked down at my battered, sandy, wet clothes. “Yeah, that’s what it looks like.” I don’t want to look away from him for long, out of fear that he will do something. There is a weird light in his eyes, a way he looks at me, that sets me on edge.

“What’s your name?” he pressed.

“Raven. That’s all I remember: Raven.”

He smiled, cocking an eyebrow. “Raven?” he tested. “I like the sound of that.”

I frowned, unsure of the compliment. “Okay…um, Look, Peter Pan,” I cast a glance at our surroundings. “Where are we? What is this place?”

“Why, it’s Neverland, of course.”

“Neverland,” I repeated, a little too enthusiastically. That sounded familiar, like I’ve heard it before. “Is there a village near?” I could get some answers there. Some food, maybe.

“A village?” Peter Pan scoffed. “No, I’m afraid you won’t find any villages here. Villages mean a kingdom, and a kingdom means a king. We don’t have any kings in Neverland.” He paused, then smirked. “Just me.”

“Oh?” Despite my feelings of weariness, I mocked a bow. “My apologies, your Majesty, I wasn’t aware that I was in the presence of such….royalty.”

Peter Pan rolled his eyes. “And I wasn’t aware I was in the presence of such a dweeb.”

“Fair enough.”

Was he like a leader of some sort? He did seem have an aura of authority. And I just knew that this boy knew a lot about Neverland, everything, maybe. I needed to get information from him.

That’s when I saw he had a sheath around his waist, and it was longer than mine. If he had a weapon, that means there’s something on this island that he needed to defend himself from. This sent dread creeping through me. Was it animals? Or other people? He sure as hell looked as if he knew how to fight.

Peter Pan watched me with one eyebrow raised and his arms crossed, the faintest hint of a smile edging his lips.

“What?” I said wearily.

He shrugged. “What?”

“Is there a way to get off this island?” I pressed.

“Yes,” he answered vaguely. “There’s a way.”

“How?”

“You’ll need my permission.”

“What?” I frowned. “What do you mean?”

His expression suddenly grew sinister and he stepped closer, his dark eyes boring into mine. “No one gets off this island without my permission.”

Anger and defiance washed away my fear. “Who are you to decide if I can leave this island or not?” I retaliated.

Peter Pan suddenly pulled out his knife, which sent panic fluttering through me. I gripped my dagger tightly, raising it in a defensive stance.

“Do you want to find out? Let’s see what you’re capable of, Raven.” Before I could say anything in response, he lunged at me. As I leaped out of the way his blade painfully cut my arm. I had no time to linger in shock at his sudden attack. Furious, I slam my dagger toward him but he blocked it with his wrist hitting mine, and kicked me hard in the stomach. I doubled over, in which he took advantage to kick my rib cage and send me crashing to the ground.

Outraged now, and refusing to be humiliated like this, I nimbly rolled over and pop back up to my feet, bringing my dagger down on him in a slashing motion.

He narrowly avoided it and his knife almost plunged into my side before I instinctively knocked his arm away and kicked him hard in the knee. He fell back but just as he hit the ground his legs swept out and rammed into mine. I stumble backwards. Peter Pan was up on his feet again in an instant. I barely managed to block another blow with my arm and slice my dagger at his torso but it never connected. He vanished into thin air right before my eyes, and my blade cut through nothing.

Bewildered, I looked around wildly. What the hell?! Suddenly, a knife was pressed against my throat, and I could feel him standing behind me. I narrowed my eyes, lowering my weapon in defeat.

“That’s not fair,” I growled. The word magic popped into my mind. This bloody demon had magic. And though it should have surprised me, it didn’t.

“You’re not bad,” Peter Pan noted. His breath was warm on my ear. “I’ve got to say, I’m not disappointed.”

“Are you going to kill me?” I was panting hard, glaring at him as best I could without turning my head. I was defeated and completely at his mercy because he cheated, and that made my blood boil.

To my surprise, Peter Pan’s knife left my neck and he stepped away. “Actually, I’m not,” he said as I turned around to face him, smoldering. “You interest me. I’ve got a game in mind I’d love to play with you, so I can’t have you dead just yet.”

A game? I stared at him, puzzled and dreadful. What in the devil’s name did he mean, a game? I forced myself to repeat, “Yet?”

“Yet,” he confirmed, staring at me with those goddamn intimidating, piercing green eyes.

“So you still plan on killing me, huh? After playing a game with you? Like what, tag?” I scoffed. “After you just attacked me like that? I’m not doing anything with you! You’re crazy, and no help at all.” I pointed my dagger at him to show him I was ready in case he tried anything.

“I can be plenty of help,” Peter Pan assured.

“I just met you and you attack me out of nowhere,” I spat, cupping my hand over the cut on my arm. “I don’t want your help anymore.”

Peter Pan let out a breathy chuckle. “Oh boy, you have a lot to learn about this island.” He arched an eyebrow. “And me.”

“Oh, I’ve learned enough,” I said, throwing it like an insult. “Your name is Peter Pan, you’re ‘king’ of Neverland, you’ve got magic, and you like to attack people with no warning or reason.”

“Are we listing the obvious?” The corner of his mouth quirked up. “Okay, my turn, then. Your name is Raven, you’ve lost your memories, you can fight well, and you’re attractive.”

I opened my mouth for a fiery retort but stopped dead at that last past. Did he really just—

“Oh, and you’re wet,” he added. “Soaked through-and-through. Come to think of it, Raven, I know I’m hot, but that’s a little too much; I mean we just met. Though I’m flattered.”

My mouth fell open and my eyes widened at his wildly inappropriate comment. “I cannot believe—”

“Sh, don’t say that,” he interrupted. “This whole island runs on belief. You’ve got to believe everything, laddie.”

“Wow, you really are crazy,” I hiss.

“That’s one way to put it.” He twirled his knife in his hands and I took a step back, eyeing it warily as he slipped it back into its sheathe. “Call me Pan.”

“I’ll call you narcissistic.”

“And I’ll call you captivating, love.”

Something ringed in my head from what he just said, something I couldn’t put a finger on. I frowned, my mind frothing with frustration. Why did I suddenly feel something, like a little crack to my lost memories?

“What is it, love?” Pan asked, saying ‘love’ with a bit of charm because he thought it annoyed me.

There it was again, that spark of memory, but I couldn’t quite grasp what, and it scuttled away before my mental fingers were even around it. “Nothing,” I said flatly.

Pan was gazing at my dagger, and all the teasing in his face died. “What’s that?” He pointed to the handle.

I moved my hand down it slightly, revealing a skull and crossbones etched into it. “It’s a marking,” I answered in a duh voice.

Something sparked in Pan’s eyes, and he looked at me with furrowed eyebrows and a taut jaw. He seemed to be studying my face now, before his eyes moved down to my clothes, then back to my dagger.

“Is something wrong?” I demanded, uneasy.

His face spread in a smile. It made the hairs on the back of my neck raise. This grin was nothing short of twisted.

“No, nothing at all,” he assured, both eyebrows raised. He turned and scanned the sea, then looked back to me. “Raven, are you thirsty?” he asked, changing the subject.

“Yes,” I replied.

“I can quench your thirst. If you want.”

I stared at him, knowing there was a hidden innuendo meaning to it. “With water,” I said. “Then go for it.”

Pan faced the trees, pointing with an outstretched arm. “Head northwest into the jungle, just keep going straight, and you’ll find a river within a couple miles.”

“How do I know you’re telling the truth? I can’t trust you.” I said.

“I guess you’ve got no choice.” Pan flashed a grin at me.

I uneasily walk toward the trees, to desperate for freshwater to give myself time to poke around and try to find out more. “If this is a trap, Pan, I swear on the devil I’ll—” I turned back around and stopped myself, realizing he was gone. Nowhere in sight, without even leaving a trail. Where did he go? Why did he just disappear? And why was he helping me?

More questions added to the list of things I had no answer too. I looked up at the sun. I had a couple hours until dark. I best start my trek so I’d make it to the river before nightfall.

With my dagger in hand, I entered the jungle. The trees swallowed me up more and more until I could barely see the ocean between the trunks. My eyes were met with every shade of green imaginable. Broad, glossy leaves hovered over and around me, dotted with brightly-colored, large flowers. But just as unmistakable as the beauty here is the feeling of danger so thick it stirs the air. 

I stood still for a while, listening to the muffled sounds in this vast jungle. I was on edge.

Then I started my trek. I found myself cutting my way through the dense, suffocating undergrowth, fighting through the very air, which hung heavy, moist and still. Trees so tall I couldn’t see where they ended surrounded me, and a strange green light shimmered through the vast canopy of leaves. This jungle seemed to have an intelligence of it’s own. It was an assault on all senses. The virescent hues were the foreground, the background, and as high up as I could see. The heat and humidity pressed in on my skin, making sweat pointless. The sounds of the insects, the birds, and the larger animals, created a symphony of nature calling me deeper. The leaves brushed up against me, some soft, some rough. The air tasted both sweet and fresh, like flowers blooming on my tongue.

I became lost to my thoughts. Was I stupid to trust a boy who attacked me? Who had a dark energy about him that set me on edge? Yes, I am stupid. Very stupid. But I also felt like I had no choice. Maybe after getting some water I would think more clearly.

But for now I knew one thing for sure: I couldn’t quite put my finger on it but something about Pan wasn’t right. Wasn’t normal. Wasn’t….safe.

#peter pan imagine #peter pan ouat #ouat peter pan #once upon a time #peter pan fanfic #peter pan fanfiction #once upon a time peter pan #peter pan once upon a time #peter pan ouat fanfic #peter pan ouat fanfiction #robbie kay #neverland #neverland imagine #captain hook ouat #hook ouat #killian jones

[silvertalkzones]

Death Benefits: Part IV

Chapter 5

Blackness.

It was a warm, enveloping darkness. A smooth dark-chocolate sleep enveloped me. I wanted more than anything to stay in that wonderful state, but something very loud was urgently beeping at me. Then the pain started, and any hope of sleep evaded me.

It took me a few moments to figure out where I was. My body hurt too much for me to be dead. On the other hand, it looked as if my manager was in no pain. Glad he had lots of coverage. Oh wait, it doesn’t pay if you are killed during a criminal act, right? I forget. I’ll have to ask my manage… I’ll have to call Life New Business.

Kicking open the car door, the acrid smell of battery acid and gun powder hitting my nose, I picked myself out of the car and could only think, “Move!” as I stumbled toward the street. I staggered, fell, picked myself up again, and limped toward the road hoping to flag someone down.  

On television, it looks so easy. You don’t even have to wait. In my case, I merely passed out in the street and was completely unconscious when I caused a three car pile-up as they swerved to avoid me.

Chapter 6

When I awakened this time, I was again disoriented. There were bright lights in my face, and my head was killing me. I slit open an eye to confirm what I had hoped: I was in a hospital. Relieved now, I went to check my head for bandages, only to realize that my right hand had been hand-cuffed to the hospital bed. Oh great. I’m not sure my health plan covers handcuffs.

My entire being ached. There appeared to be penguins floating around me. My throat lining was like parchment, so I tried to reach for some water, and ended up joining the penguins for a bit. Eventually, slowly, I began to think. I reached for the call button.

I don’t know why I was expecting a kindly nurse in a starched white uniform. Too much TV again, I suppose. Instead a heavy set woman wearing scrubs and what looked like a veterinary top only poked her head in my room long enough to confirm, “He’s awake.” My mind reeled as I readied myself for the cops to come in and begin interrogating me about the shootout and homicides. Despite all that excessive reeling, I was not prepared at all for Professor Orangutan to walk in and sit at my bedside.

“Well, hello there, Christopher. Can I call you Chris?” he asked.

“My name isn’t Christopher or Chris,” I said praying inwardly that he had the wrong person.

“That’s the spirit, Chris,” he said patting my hand condescendingly. “How are they treating you? Can I get you anything?” he asked.

“Well, I just woke up, so they aren’t really treating me yet,” I said, “but may I have some water?”

“Of course you do,” he said and patted my hand again. “Chris, we’ve got a bit of a situation here. I hope you can understand that.”

“Actually I don’t understand anything,” I said.

“That’s the spirit,” he said again. I thought he was going to talk to me next about his alma matter, chipmunks or arctic expeditions that went twenty miles no matter what so they got turned into Dora commercials. I was pleasantly surprised when he didn’t. “It’s got me up at night,” he continued unabated. “That’s the truth.”

I scanned the room for watch towers and guards with guns. There were none that I could see. “Can you please tell me what’s going on?” I asked.

“You see, Chris,” he said, “we’ve have got to stay in compliance. Now Slick and John-John were very, very good at their games. They were professionals.”

“You mean professional killers!” I said.

“Very good, Chris,” he said. “John-John did most of the sanctions. Of course, we call them ‘Death Benefits.’ Slick was best at finding the right prospects, but he liked to… take a shot at it now and again,” and he chuckled at his own joke. “Still, JJ was the best. That’s why he’s gone traveling so much. He’ll be hard to replace.”

“What does that have to do with insurance?” I asked.

“Did you even pass CDP?” he said in a mocking tone. “When does life insurance pay? Why do we call it a death benefit?”

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“Chris, you clearly have a lot of questions,” he responded. “I propose a quid pro quo. You tell me everything you know, and in exchange, I’ll explain everything.” It sounded good to me, so I did. I had no ideas which details were pertinent, so I included as much as I could, down to the blood spatter. Then it was his turn.

“Well, that’s just unfortunate,” he commented. “Tell me something, Chris, have you ever heard a client say that he was worth more dead than he was alive?”

“Of course,” I said.

“Well, that’s more than just an expression. Some people are going to outlive their money, and be so poor and sick in their elderly lives, that they’re not really alive,” he said.

“So, what, you take their lives?” I asked with incredulity.

“We call it, ‘collecting their lifetime premium,’ but yes, that’s what we do,” said Professor Orangutan.

“But you can’t just go around killing people!” I started and then amended, “er, collecting their lifetime premiums?”

“Of course we don’t do that,” said PO. “No, all ‘claims’ are filed by the families. Slick’s job was to contact them and see if they were appropriate candidates.” When he saw my mouth agape, he clarified, “He loves the work and helping people.”  

“What does this have to do with me?” I asked.

“You identify them!” he said. The “duh” was implicit in his voice. “Your job is to set appointments, identify the sick, dying, uninsurable and poor people who will outlive their money. After you identify them, Slick would contact their beneficiaries to vet them. Then John-John would file a death claim. They give us back 20%, with a standard deviation of 12 points for the variable contracts.”

“But why am I here now?” I asked.

“Oh, that,” said PO, for the first time looking a little like he regretted things. “You were too aggressive in calling people for follow-up. The last family was supposed to be a death claim, but when you called them, they just assumed you were the one who would send their parents to the Big Underwriter in the Sky… so to speak.” He paused looking a little lost in nostalgia for a moment. “You were just in the wrong time and place.”

“Yeah, well I intend on leaving both of those now!” I shouted, and with a fierce kick, I knocked Pete off the bed and even managed to get it to roll toward the window. The latch was open and I was only on the second floor of the hospital. I could make it! I leaped from my bed and through the open window…

Then I screamed in pain when the handcuff on my wrist pulled the bed to the edge of the window and stopped my descent.

“You’re not very bright, are you, Chris?” said Professor Orangutan.

“My name’s not Chris, you asshole,” I managed.

(To be continued)