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#and then my brother messes around on my computer when i lend it to him for a zoom meeting
marv3l-drag0ns · 3 years
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Sibligns siblings siblings siblings
This is my sister this is my brother i dont like them even though we’re supposed to care for each other
they dont respect my privacy and they like to complain
Im just trying to stay pretty sane
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The Original Eight Chosen Children (+ Gennai) as the Fellowship of the Ring.
Hi there! This is just pure fun and based off how I perceive both the Adventure kiddos and the LotR characters.
Gennai - Gandalf
The mysterious figure who propels the quest forward.
No one knows exactly what or who he is or how long he has been around.
Has a vast knowledge of the past and the events that led to this exact moment.
Talks in riddles.
Wise beyond belief but is not afraid to tell you that you're being an idiot.
"Fool of a Took Taichi!" (Taichi is not actually Pippin, but it fit in nicely)
Taichi - Aragorn
The unspoken leader of the group.
Goggles = Andúril
Both healers in the sense that they bring the group back together after it fractures (Taichi does this twice in Adventure).
Inspires everyone to keep going by lending them courage.
Knows when to seek the counsel of someone else, instead of being the one to decide everything (Koushiro and the cards!).
Crazy, untamable hair.
Cares deeply about his friends and will put his life in mortal danger to protect them.
Will mess your day up if you're evil.
Pretty decent at surviving in the wilderness.
Never backs away from a challenge.
The Black Gate of Sauron? Etemon stuck in some crazy black hole in the sky? Taichi/Aragorn doesn't care. Taichi/Aragorn will charge full speed ahead.
Sora - Legolas
This one was hard, not gonna lie, but Sora will always have Taichi's back, just like Legolas with Aragorn.
The only graceful one in the entire group.
Is not afraid to roast the f out of Taichi/Aragorn just for the memes.
But would still literally follow the Taichi/Aragorn into the pits of hell/caverns of Dwimorberg.
Somewhat reserved, and keeps emotions inside.
Talks to flowers and understands them.
Mom friend.
A++++ fashion sense.
Sharp-eyed and intuitive (Sora would definitely slay with a bow and arrow)
Would bring everyone into Valinor if they could, but brings bff Koushiro/Gimli only AFTER Taichi/Aragorn passes away because they can't leave while he still lives. They have to keep an eye on him.
Koushiro - Gimli
Would also follow the leader wherever they go.
Short and red-haired.
Fondness for building things = computer programming and building new tech for the Chosen (goggles, phones, etc.)
Doesn't much care for nature or forests. Semi-afraid of trees.
Prefers mountain fortresses built out of stone...AKA secluded office spaces.
Polite but blunt and stubborn, especially when it comes to Taichi/Aragorn.
Develops an ultra-tight bond with Sora/Legolas (I love Koura friendship!).
Appreciates the literal: If Sora were to take out a giant Digimon, it would "still only count as one."
Not one for running anything longer than a quick sprint.
Follows Sora/Legolas into Valinor (gets snuck in) because aftdr Taichi/Aragorn dies, there is no point in staying (Taishiro feels!! 😭).
Yamato - Boromir
Listen. Boromir rocks, and Yamato rocks, and I'm not dissing Yamato by this comparison.
Compelled by the strong desire to do good even if it conflicts with the leader's vantage point.
Gets a bad rap for being pensive, thoughtful, and brooding but still tender towards his friends.
Understands the importance of allowing the group to grieve.
Becomes overwhelmed by darkness and gives into it, even if briefly (trying to steal the ring/trying to beat the f out of Taichi).
But! But! He is immediately remorseful of his lapse in judgement and comes back to himself.
Boromir literally gives his life for Merry and Pippin (his friends, ahem ahem, like a certain crest that Yamato bears!), fighting orcs despite being pierced by several arrows.
Boromir's sacrifice is akin to Yamato's decision to leave the group.
And just imagine Boromir's last words to Aragorn (in the movies): "I would have followed you. My Brother. My Captain. My King." as Yamato returning to Taichi during the Dark Masters arc. I HAVE FEELINGS.
Boromir is AWESOME okay? Just like Yama.
Jou - Merry
Has some notion of common sense.
Fueled by a desire to look after Mimi/Pippin because they're younger.
Wants to fight but few people take him seriously.
Also wants to go home but realizes he is part of something bigger than himself.
Therefore, he keeps going and won't stop until it's done.
Will stick by friends until the very end.
When he fights, he gives it his all.
Brandybucks are known to be fond of boats and even swimming, and although Jou gets seasick, he does have a Digimon partner who is water/ocean based.
Mimi - Pippin
Just wants to sit down to six meals a day and sleep in a bed again, thank you very much.
Princess/Prince vibes.
Is very much put out by all the adventure but tries to keep strong.
Sometimes fails at keeping strong and complains: "But what about second breakfast?"
Bffs with Jou/Merry and together they round up an army to help take out the bad guys.
Sometimes makes silly mistakes that are potentially life-threatening.
Has to touch the thing, especially when told not to touch the thing.
When they say they will do something, they do it, no matter how inconvenient.
100000% loyal and sincere.
Hikari - Frodo
Carries the burden of darkness, though they never meant for any of it to happen, they still accept the burden.
Because no one else should have to bear it.
Is the light of the group.
Evil is always reaching out to grab them, to pull them away.
Doesn't wholly believe in themselves.
Cherishes Takeru/Sam - "I am glad you are with me. Here at the end of all things, Sam." - HELP MY TAKARI FEELS.
Trusts Taichi/Aragorn beyond comprehension.
Sturdy and sassy when needed.
Longs for peace, quiet, and harmony.
Takeru -Sam
Is the physical embodiment of hope.
Will never leave Hikari/Frodo.
Very distrustful of anything that might potentially be evil.
Incredibly sassy with anything and everything all the time.
Follows Frodo into the depths of Mordor (basically hell/the foundation of darkness) = Takeru following Hikari into the Dark Ocean.
"Come, Mr. Frodo! I can't carry it (the ring) for you, but I can carry you." This has Takari written all over it.
Did I mention they will never, ever leave Hikari/Frodo? Actually crosses the sea to Valinor to be with Hikari/Frodo again.
Pure as an angel.
Will not give in to the powers of darkness.
But will 100% punch evil in the face.
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rpmemes-galore · 3 years
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a few people wanted to know the story, so enjoy.  fair warning, its a long, rough read, with a buncha triggers possible throughout.   but hey, hey, enjoy, i guess?  will probs end up deleting this later today and gonna work on memes.  hope y’all are doing okay, take care. 
My relationship with my older brother has always been really... rocky. Without going into too much potentially triggering detail, he hurt me a lot when I was younger, so there's a lot of fear surrounding him. Saying that now as the reason for why I could never stand up to him for this.
A few years ago, my family decided that someone should move into our late grandparents home to look after the place, and I immediately volunteered. I loved that home, that farm. There were a ton of good memories there, and I was so excited when my family agreed. But, then my health took a downward turn and it was decided I couldn't live alone due to safety reasons. Enter, my older brother. He was in his late twenties at the time, and parents wanted him to finally move out, so they said he was going to come live with me there to keep an eye on me in case something happened. I wasn't happy about it, but he was the only one who could, and the only way I'd get to live at my late grandparent's place, so I agreed to it.
Right from the start, things were not great. He didn't help unbox anything except for his own belongings... No kitchen stuff, no bathroom stuff, just his clothes and computer. As it was just me doing it, and with my fragile health at the time, it was taking me a long while to get it all done. And that's when my aunt thought it was a great idea to start doing weekly visits, i.e. inspections of the place. She got pissed when she saw things still boxed up after a week of being there, but told me she was willing to look past it if it got put away soon.
I busted my butt getting everything put away, then. But I was contending with other issues at that point. He'd started messing up the house. I would wake up to find garbage and crumbs across the kitchen counters and table, dirty dishes dropped wherever he was closest to, and his dirty laundry dropped on the living room floor. His room started getting bad, as well. From about a month of being there, it started to stink. I went in a few times and there would be dishes with rotting food on his dresser. The floor was covered in a layer of food wrappers and other garbage. Dirty laundry was thrown everywhere. His game discs, which we'll come back to later, would be laying unprotected on the floor.
It just got worse from there. At the start, he'd tidy up a little bit after himself. If I asked politely enough, he'd throw garbage away or bring his dishes out of the room... only if I asked him. Three months in. That changed. He started getting snippy at me, slamming and locking his door if I asked him to do anything around the house. His messes were getting worse, and it was just me trying to play catch-up everyday. It got to the point my morning routine was wake up, head out to the kitchen while picking up any dirty laundry / garbage on the way, gather up dirty dishes from around the room and put them on the counter to wash, wash a few of them just to get a headstart, wipe crumbs off all counters and table, wash the rest of the dishes (I still don't understand how he could use so many in a single night), sweep floors if the crumb situation was bad enough. All this before I'd allow myself to have anything to eat or drink, due to sheer panic of my aunt stopping by unannounced again and seeing the place in this state.
My brother was working a very part time job at the time and, as soon as he left for his shift, I would pounce on his room. I'd haul out armfuls (plural) of dirty dishes which I'd then hurry to wash, I'd carry out at least one full, heavy duty garbage bag of trash. I would try to make his bed after brushing off the crumbs. All this in the few hours I had before he'd get back home. And he would always get incredibly pissed at me for it, which I understand. I know it was an invasion of privacy and, if not for the aunt, I wouldn't have done it... But the state of his room was going to get us both evicted, so I felt justified doing it.
It went on this way for a year and half. During that time, he made me bring his game discs in to get them fixed, had me pay for them, and never paid me back. I wound up in the emergency room on three separate occasions, all due to working myself to the point of over-exhaustion and aggravating already pre-existing health problems. Once, when I was away for a few days, he'd turned my room into a storage room. Ie, he threw all his laundry and belongings on my bedroom floor because he didn't want to deal with them. I wound up having to sort through it and pick it all up. He moved the landline phone into his room, essentially cutting off my contact to the outside world behind a locked door as my cellphone barely had any service there. He took food money from me, against my will, to buy his own... Would eat part of it and let the rest rot in the fridge until I cleaned it out. (important note, I have a lot of dietary restrictions. So it's not like I could just snack on it or share it with him. I just had to deal with him basically stealing my food money, then wasting it on food I couldn't even eat.) He would lock himself in his room anytime the aunt came by, making me have to face her wrath on my own, because I had no lock on my door, and I wasn't allowed to put one on. He would barge into my room uninvited, but get pissed if I went into his. He would expect me to play video games with him and throw a fit if I said no, even after I explained that I had too much cleaning to do and, if he really wanted me to play with him, he would have to lend a hand so it would be done quicker and I might have energy to play. He never did. He wouldn't empty out our cat's wet food and would just let it go moldy if I wasn't there for a few days... and would 'forget' to refill her water.
The only jobs he was expected to do around the house were emptying the cat litter for our one cat and vacuuming, both things I physically couldn't do because of severe asthma. And once a week, he was supposed to bring laundry over to our parents place to wash, as we didn't have a washer or dryer. I remember him vacuuming once the whole time we were there. He rarely emptied the cat litter, which meant I would wind up having to do it once in a while and just suffer through a serious asthma attack afterwards. He also rarely brought the laundry over. I wasn't able to drive, so I would wind up having to ask my mom to bring it over with her when she visited. Three jobs. He hardly ever did any of them, but still expected the house to be clean when our aunt stopped by and would be upset if it wasn't. He just didn't want to have a hand in getting it that way.
On the subject of other family, I tried reaching out. My parents would visit on occasion. They both knew how bad it got, they'd seen it at the worst. I'd even called my mom in a full crying panic more than once, when the aunt called in the morning to say she she'd be there in an hour... And the house wasn't clean. Mom had to come over and help me speed clean it, with me working through a full-blown panic attack, scared I wouldn't have it "clean enough" by the time the aunt got there. Mom is also the one who drove me into the ER. She knew how bad it was, but he was her golden child. The "can do no wrong" child, and I was always the problem. She would tell me I was making it out worse than it was, that it wasn't that bad, that it wasn't his fault he was messy, that I should just deal with it and clean up after him. Dad would at least seem sorry for me. He'd tell me he wished my brother would clean up after himself, but that there was nothing he could do. Aunt just didn't want to hear my excuses. She would yell at me for the state of the place, after I'd worked myself half to death cleaning already. She blamed me for it, threatened to kick us out over every tiny thing wrong. Made passive aggressive comments. Took pictures and said she would show them to the rest of our relatives so they'd know how we were destroying the house, ect.
A year and a half of this. I lost a dangerous amount of weight. I hardly slept, hardly ate, anxiety spiked so badly I was having panic attacks at least once a week, especially toward the weekend when I knew the aunt was coming. All of my days were devoted to cleaning up after him. I dropped hobbies just to wash dishes or pick up his garbage. I even pulled an all-nighter just trying to make the house look presentable... After I'd been in the hospital and spent a few days at my parents place recuperating, so you can imagine the state of the house.
Toward the year and a half mark, I met my now husband. When we decided he should come spend the weekend, I was both happy and terrified. I worked myself to the point of passing out to make the place look decent. I asked my brother to help, told him we would be having company, and was met with a slamming door in my face while he went back to his video games. Now husband came up, we had a great time and chose to make it a weekly thing.
It was about a month into that when I went away for the weekend with my then bf. At this point, he kind of knew how bad it could get and just wanted to get me out of there for a few days. He'd even given my brother a piece of his mind for not emptying the cat litter and making me do it, because of my asthma. So brother hated him. Told me to break up with bf for being "rude" to him. Even called my mom to complain about it and it I got chewed out by my mom for "letting" my bf at the time talk to my brother that way. I was beyond sick of brothers bullcrap. I was exhausted. Had been in the ER just recently because of him, again, and needed to get away. Bf took me up to a cabin and we spent the weekend there, had an amazing time. And brought me home. From the second I stepped back into the farmhouse, I wanted to cry. It was an absolute disaster, like the brother had gone out of his way to destroy the place. So much garbage, laundry, dishes, ect. I said goodbye to the bf, who was horrified and reluctant to leave... And I started trying to make a dent in the horror show that was the house. It didn't take long for me to breakdown. When I called the bf that night to make sure he'd gotten home safe, I told him how bad it was. And he invited me to move in with him. I jumped at that chance for more reasons than one.
Brother took immediate issue with this. He threw a fit when I told him. Straight up told me I was being selfish, that I didn't appreciate all he did for me, that how dare I leave, how could I DARE to move in with someone who talked to him that way!! I just packed up a few of my things and went with the bf. Just like that. I was out.
It was three months before I went back to grab a few more of my things. In that time, brother had gotten an eviction notice from our aunt and was having to move back in with the parents. And I don't blame her one bit. Let me paint a picture for you of what I saw when I walked in the house: he'd run out of room for garbage on the counter and table, it was stacked too high, so.. he'd opened the oven, pulled the racks out and was piling garbage up on them, instead. Guess what the only place that didn't have garbage was... The pristine garbage can. The living room floor was covered in his dirty laundry. He had run out of clean dishes and resorted to using Tupperware lids as plates, with the dirty dishes covering the entire counter by the sink or stacked in his room. Speaking of, I caught a glance inside his room. The smell was worst in there. I could tell there was food in there from the time I left... Didn't try to take a step inside, obviously, not that there was a place to step. Keep in mind, this is AFTER the aunt had visited and demanded he cleaned up. She'd seen it this way, blew her top, and he still didn't give a crap. I, on the other hand, panicked. Call it ingrained at this point, but I started frantically cleaning. It was only my bf who stopped me. Had to actually grab my hands and hug me to get me to stop, with me hyperventilating and close to a panic attack. We got my things and got the hell out of there. But not before I noticed my brother seemed upset that I hadn't cleaned up while I was there.
Brother's living back with our parents and has trashed his room there. He's still pissy at me for calling him out on the way he treated me, and thinks I'm still required to be nice to him because mom says I should... and that he did absolutely nothing wrong with the way he behaved. He's also still holding a grudge against my hubby for him having the utter gall to tell him to be an adult and clean up after himself. Mom still denies it was bad (even though she's dealing with it now) or that I have anything residual from that time, despite the fact I told her that I get panicky and shaky when the place I'm living, now, gets even slightly untidy.
For me, I'm happier than I've ever been. I'm essentially no contact with my brother and limited contact with my mom. Just got married. Living with someone who loves me and actually helps with housework, even without being asked! Still dealing with the trauma of living in a place that felt THAT stressful and unsafe, but working on it. Not holding out much hope of brother realizing how entitled he was / is, but eh. He's not worth the time thinking about him.
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mischiefandspirits · 3 years
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Are You Sure About That?
((Warning for blood and blood drinking))
The seedy streets of Gotham were filled with whispers about the demons and monsters that roamed the city, and outsiders and Gotham’s lawful scoffed at how superstitious the criminals could be.
Gordon had worked alongside Batman enough to be quite sure there were no demons in Gotham. Sure, the vigilante was a little standoffish, but it was Gotham. Likewise, the Robins and Batgirls were all good kids. Maybe the first Robin’s smiles were a little eerie, but that was likely just the contrast with his mentor. Maybe the second and third liked morbid humor, but that was just how kids were these days. Maybe the fourth Robin was a bit temperamental and harsh, but he was young. Maybe the Batgirls’ movements were a little uncanny, but that was probably just the training. Maybe Nightwing seemed a little too cheerful about the stuff they dealt with, but the kid had been doing this since he was young. He could have a worse coping mechanism. Red Hood was the only one he’d really consider monstrous, but the guy was a former crime lord turned anti-hero and he had been getting better since the Bat had taken him under his wing.
The members of the Justice League rolled their eyes whenever someone brought up the rumors. Batman was grim, overly serious, and secretive, but he was a good man who only wanted the best and always had plan after plan to help the league succeed.
The Titans thought the rumors were hilarious. Sunshine Boy Nightwing? A demon? Who could believe the guy who was always flipping around and laughing at his own bad puns was some dark monster?
The Outlaws didn’t believe it, but they understood why someone might make the mistake of thinking Red Hood was a monster. The guy was vicious and maybe a little messed up in the head, but then again so were they.
Young Justice scoffed at the rumors. Corvid was incredibly intelligent and an incredible fighter, but he was also an absolute mess who couldn’t remember to sleep, eat, or drink on his own.
The Teen Titans stared dumbly when they heard the rumors. Sure, Robin was rude, brutal, and a bit entitled, but calling him a demon was a little much, especially considering the team had a cambion member.
The Birds of Prey ignored the rumors. Oracle was a godsend, even when she had to give up the cowl because of an unknown accident. And Batgirl was a brash spitfire, but she was always willing to lend a hand. Likewise, Huntress mostly stuck to herself, but she could be kind and personable when the time came.
The public, well, as time went on they saw more and more of Batman and his companions working with their teams on the news. It was quite clear to everyone that the group was nothing more than baseline humans with incredible training who were out to make the world a better place.
Yet the rumors persisted.
Because in the shadows of Gotham, where only the darkest of souls and their victims could see you, there was no reason to hide.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nightwing licked the blood off his talons as he listened to Batgirl’s story, idly kicking the unconscious gangster at his feet every so often.
“Why didn’t you just kill him, Fatgirl?” Robin huffed from Nightwing’s side and the imp ruffled the tiefling’s hair, carefully avoiding his horns.
“Killing shouldn’t be your go-to option, hdiiga,” he chirped.
“Don’t do that! You’re getting saliva and common blood in my hair!” Robin snarled, slapping away his hand.
Nightwing smirked and leaned down to lick a speck of blood off his youngest brother’s cheek, pulling back quickly when Robin screeched and tried to punch him.
“I’d say it’s an improvement,” Red Hood teased as he finished tying up the gangster he’d had taken down.
“Mind your place or I will put you back in your grave!”
Wiping some blood off his mouth, Hood smiled at Robin. “Go right ahead. I could use the nap.”
“If you’re counting on me to resurrect you, I’ll remind you that the last time I did that, you tried to banish me,” Red Robin said, not looking up from the laptop he was hacking into as his shadows soaked up the blood on him.
Nightwing and Batgirl groaned as the zombie and demon settled into a familiar argument.
“Well maybe if you’d brought me back properly as you did for your blonds, then I wouldn’t have tried to banish you.”
“That was different! I was less experienced when I brought you back!”
“I should have been easier to bring back! I was already a zombie!”
“EXACTLY! You came with a bunch of extra complications!”
“Are you two ever going to let this go?” Batgirl asked, eyes on the gangster she had knocked out. His face was twitching with distress as she twirled her fingers across his forehead, occasionally pulling them away to see the small moment of peace he got before she began brushing them across his forehead again. The revenant looked up at Robin and winked. “And killing’s boring, Human-Bird. Everything ends way too fast.”
Robin clicked his tongue. “I will never understand why we should waste our time torturing someone who has nothing worth telling? If we’re not going to kill them then why bother attacking them at all?”
“Because it’s fun?” Nightwing and Batgirl said together.
“There’s always something you can get out of someone, even if it’s just sustenance?” Red Robin offered.
Hood shrugged when the tiefling turned to him. “Don’t look at me. I’m the white sheep, remember. The only reason I could give you is that listening to B lecture about maintaining appearances by limiting deaths and going after insignificant criminals gets really annoying after a while, and that’s never stopped me.”
“Are you five done?” Oracle’s hissing voice echoed through the alley as the green mist that had been hovering across the ground began to rise in serpentine forms.
“Just finished downloading the data you wanted,” Red Robin said, closing the laptop and passing a thumb drive to the snake coiling up him.
“Alright, the police are three minutes out so either clean yourselves up or get out of there.”
“I will head in. I need to wash off the common blood and,” Robin glared at Nightwing, “saliva.”
The imp smiled back unrepentantly. “I’ll go with you, hdiiga.”
“I should probably take off as well,” Hood said as the two left. “I still need to check on a few things in my territory. Maybe grab another bite to eat.”
“Please clean up after yourself this time. I don’t exist just to disappear all your bodies.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll behave. Not really in the mood for a lecture from His Majesty anyways,” Hood said with an eye roll and swatted the serpent on him off so he could grapple away.
“Guess it’s just you and me on babysitting duty, Red,” Batgirl said. She stood up and stretched before walking over to Red Robin. “Mind helping a lady freshen up?”
The demon snorted, but his shadows rose to clean the blood off her. As they waited, Red Robin raised his guise to make him appear human and Batgirl pulled up her scarf to hide the part of her pure-white face that wasn’t covered by the cowl.
Once they’d gone through the motions with the humans, Red Robin took off on his bike and Batgirl headed up to the roofs.
“Alright, O. Take me home!”
The green mist that had nearly disappeared in the presence of the humans flared to life and condensed into a large serpent that coiled around the revenant until she couldn’t see anything but green. The mist dispersed after a moment, leaving her standing within a summoning circle at the center of the Clocktower.
Oracle was sitting in front of her at a desk surrounded by computer screens and candles with green flames. A scrying bowl sat in front of her and a laptop was across her lap. As Batgirl stepped out of the circle, the scrying bowl stopped glowing and the candles went out all at once. The otherworlder set her keyboard on her desk and spun her chair around to face Batgirl, the white light fading from her eyes and the light from the screen catching eerily on the cracks across her skin that kept her from glamoring.
As she pulled down her cowl, Stephanie tossed Barbara a pendant glowing with psychic energy. “Brought home dinner!”
“Thanks. Your dinner is in the oven. Tiết canh.”
“You’re the best!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hdiiga is an Impish term. It directly translates to mean an infant imp, but it more generally is used as a term of endearment used by parents for their children or older siblings for their younger siblings.
For the record since they didn't appear:
Bruce is a demon king from the same demonic realm as Tim
Selina is a demigoddess who was granted powers by a cat goddess and, as a result, can reincarnate up to nine times
Helena is a cambion that came about as a result of a shared night between Bruce and one of Selina's past lives
Talia is completely human as was Damian's father (Damian's tiefling traits are a result of Talia and Ra's infusing Damian with Bruce's power during his time in the incubator in hopes of earning Demon!Bruce's favor. They are not aware that Demon!Bruce and Batman!Bruce are the same person)
Bernard is also a revenant (he and Steph were the blonds Jason mentioned)
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justmaybee · 3 years
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To Stop a Fight (Before It Starts)
Summary: Jiro and Saburo have been acting strange recently. Ichiro is about to find out why.
A/N: Y’know when you get an idea that just won’t leave you alone till you do something about it? Yeah, that’s this. Buster Bros too, who would’ve thought?
———
Ichiro is confused — very, very confused.
Like, he can’t pretend he understands his brothers all the time, twenty four-seven. Sometimes Saburo gets all technical, talking jargon Ichiro’s never heard of. Sometimes Jiro gets overexcited, speaking so fast that his stories get jumbled up and hard to follow. It doesn’t matter, Ichiro will always lend an ear and hear them out.
But he can’t do that if they’re...hiding something from him.
The thought inches its way into Ichiro’s head, and it makes his stomach turn. He presses his lips together against the small wave of nausea.
It just doesn’t sound right. Jiro? Saburo? Hiding something from him?
He may not understand his brothers all the time, but they’re everything to him. He knows them better than anyone, and vice versa. It’s them against the world.
So the idea that they’re keeping something from him is...off-putting.
He links his fingers, pushing them up over his head. The crack in his spine alleviates a load of pressure on his back and the relief is audible in his groan. He’s not cut out for all this computer work. Saburo really is a talented kid.
He stands up, wobbling for a second, before stepping out from behind the desk. Research can wait, he needs a snack.
He steps over to a cabinet, stuffed full of junk foods. Not the healthiest thing, but you grab what you can when you’re working on a job. He stares blankly at the bags and boxes, slipping back into thought.
He’s definitely being a little dramatic. They still get together and throw around some lines for practice every night. His brothers still come to him whenever something’s happened at school or during a mission. They live together, of course, and if it were a really big deal they’d have a hard time hiding something even if they wanted to.
Sometimes Ichiro can get a little tired of their bickering and back and forth, but he likes to think he’s become someone reliable, especially to his little brothers.
So no, he’s not that worried.
But then what has been up with them recently?
He only started noticing this last week, but a part of him thinks it could be stretching back further than that. A bunch of separate events, but he knows they have to be connected. Call it a hunch. It just all revolves around those two fighting and then going silent.
Like a week ago, Ichiro remembers them kicking around a soccer ball on the street. The way Jiro’s eyes lit up when they saw it, a little deflated and worse for wear off to the side, made Ichiro laugh. And neither him nor Saburo could even dream about outplaying Jiro, but that wouldn’t stop them from trying.
It was a lot of fun, more fun than Ichiro could’ve thought really. And by the time the sun was getting low, and Ichiro was calling out that they’d have to head home, both him and Saburo were feeling a little worn out. Jiro was still dribbling the ball like he could do it all night.
And of course, Jiro decided to shoot a cocky comment to Saburo, who lashed back immediately, always ready for a fight. Ichiro’s lived through a million of these squabbles and he’s sure to see a million more, so he didn’t give it much attention, heading down the street back to their place.
He had no doubt that they’d follow behind, but he did turn to peek when he heard a shout from Jiro. He was afraid Saburo had started pinching him again, but that wasn’t the case. At least, he didn’t think so.
Because what he saw was Jiro doing a fast jog to catch up to him, while Saburo stepped at a leisurely place behind. Not weird, but the wide-eyed expression on Jiro’s face and the satisfied smirk on Saburo’s made Ichiro a little suspicious.
Fast forward to the weekend. Two? Maybe three days ago? Jiro and Saburo were giving Ichiro the run down of a job they had finished up. Nothing too crazy, but enough that Ichiro felt more comfortable sending them out as a pair.
The job itself went off without a hitch, as expected, but the debrief was chaotic in its own right. Jiro gave most of the points, but Saburo was very generous with his corrections and notes. Sometimes they were helpful, more often than not they were nitpicks that had Ichiro wanting to laugh and sigh at the same time.
Jiro was starting to get a little flustered, eyes narrowing in annoyance by the end. When Saburo gave another quip, it looked like Jiro was really ready to grab a pillow off the couch and slug him with it.
Instead...
“Nii-chan, I think my phone’s about to die. Could you hand me the charger?”
Ah, yeah. Jiro’s phone did have a battery issue. They should really think about upgrading it.
Ichiro spun around in his chair, looking over the back desk for a charger and jumping in his seat at a pitchy yell from Saburo. He rolled his eyes and grabbed the cord, ready to lecture Jiro on why smothering Saburo with a pillow is not a good comeback but—
Jiro...wasn’t smothering Saburo with a pillow. Surprisingly. No, he was sitting back against the couch, arms crossed with a smile on his face that made Ichiro immediately check up on their youngest brother.
He was...fine.
A little pouty, hair maybe a little mussed up. Also leaning back against the couch, but his posture—
He was almost—how to put it—curled up?
Ichiro can’t remember if he had his feet up on the couch before, but between his knees being pulled to his chest and his arms wrapped tight around them...
Jiro chose that moment to keep explaining, so Ichiro gave him his full attention. But he started picking up on their pattern.
The three of them are together. Either Jiro or Saburo starts picking on the other (nothing new there). Then one of them shouts, like they’re about to start yelling at each other, but—
Nothing. Silence.
They break up the fight before it’s even happened. And Ichiro doesn’t have to say a word.
This should be a good thing. It is a good thing.
Right?
It means they’re maturing. Growing up. Taking Ichiro’s words to heart and moving past their constant bickering and fights...
Ichiro shuts the cupboard. With a little more...force than necessary, if the avalanche of snacks he can hear means anything.
Okay, so he’s not exactly sure what any of it means, but he is sure of one thing.
He spins around to shut the computer off. Everything is saved, and Saburo can get back anything that isn’t anyways. He kicks the chair in place and grabs his keys, spinning them around one finger as he steps towards the door.
He needs to see his brothers.
———
Ichiro loves their city, loves Ikebukuro with all he’s got, but there’s nothing quite like their own home. It took a lot of time and money. It took doing things he hopes his brothers will never have to stoop to. But it’s theirs, and Ichiro can’t help but breathe a sigh of relief whenever he steps through the door.
Tonight though he’s cut off by a scream that has his blood running cold.
He doesn’t kick off his shoes. Doesn’t shrug off his jacket. He sprints towards the noise, grabbing at his pockets until his fingers stop fumbling enough to hold his mic.
The rubber of his shoes catch him from sliding on the floor when he stops dead in front of their living room.
“Ji-Jirohohoho! Would you—ack—quihihiHIHIHIHIT!”
It’s, um—
They’re—um—
Ichiro’s sigh of relief is a lot louder this time, slipping his mic back into his pocket.
It’s loud enough that it’s somehow heard over Saburo’s squealing, and Jiro turns to see his older brother leaning against the entrance.
It’s kind of funny, now that Ichiro’s adrenaline has calmed down.
Jiro looks like he’s been caught red-handed, even though Saburo is the one with a tomato for a face right now. He pulls his hands out from under Saburo’s sweater, fiddling with his fingers in his lap.
Saburo takes the chance to roll onto his side, hands clutching at his stomach. The shrieking Ichiro heard when he came in dulls to tired giggles.
“Oh, uh, hi.” Jiro waves. He tries to act nonchalant, but he looks more embarrassed than Saburo whose hoodie is still bunched up at the waist.
Ichiro smiles back, “Hey.”
Jiro is yanked from the one-sided, awkward conversation, but Ichiro can’t say it’s the better choice for Jiro.
Jiro yelps as he’s full-body tackled, falling backward over the other side of the couch. Saburo’s panting for breath, and he probably can’t see much past the mess of his bangs, but he doesn’t seem to have any trouble latching a hand onto Jiro’s knees and squeezing.
“Ah, wha-! Sabu—no! Saburohohohoho!”
Suburo’s response is the same treatment on the other leg, and Jiro makes a squeaking sound before he’s cackling. He twists against the cushion but he can’t seem to get himself up enough to push Saburo away from where he’s straddling his shins.
Like Ichiro isn’t even there, they treat it like a war zone, going back and forth with a familiarity that has their oldest brother shocked.
“No—no! Jiro, dohon’t! You’re gonna stretch out my—my shihihihihihirt!”
“Ouch! Not fair, Saburo! No pinch—ah! No PINCHIHIHIHIHING!”
“JIRO! No, I-I swear, I’m gonnahaha — I’m gonna kihihiHIHIHIHICK YOHOHOHOU!”
“Nah! No! I’m—I’m sorry! You win! Just—No! Not thehehehehere!”
At some point Saburo’s head is hanging off the arm of the couch while Jiro drills his thumbs into his ribs. Through watery eyes, he finally sees Ichiro, watching them like they’re the entertainment for tonight. He’s can’t possibly be in the right state of mind, and that’s probably why he makes the biggest mistake possible.
“I-Ichi-niihihihihihihi! H-help!”
Ichiro coughs to cover his own laugh, though Saburo’s scream when Jiro’s hands find their way under his arms does the job pretty well.
Guess it’s his turn to join.
Jiro’s confused noise gets cut off when his back hits the couch, bouncing once off the cushions. Saburo is still giggling weakly beside him, so that means—
He gasps so suddenly he almost chokes on it, and only a garbled version of Ichiro’s name comes out before he’s squealing louder than even Saburo could.
His hands push, pull, grab weakly at Ichiro’s hand latched onto his hip. He didn’t even know he was ticklish there, but the bright laughter that bursts from his mouth and has his eyes watering makes that so clear so quickly.
Ichiro chuckles, watching Jiro shake his head back and forth, red cheeks hidden by his wild mane of hair. Ichiro’s only using one hand, but Jiro might be the loudest he’s been all night. Even as he sinks against the couch—slipping down because of weakness, gravity, maybe both—Ichiro is able to keep him in stitches.
Speaking of one hand.
With Saburo laying back over the arm of the couch, it’s pretty easy for Ichiro to slip a hand under the gap in his shirt and start vibrating his fingertips into the taut skin of his stomach.
Saburo again proves how good he is at everything he does when he shrieks, loudly. His lung capacity is really something. His head flies up for a moment, but the weight of gravity and his own exhaustion keep him from getting all the way. He has to settle for wrapping both hands around Ichiro’s wrist and kicking his heels against the couch, as if that’ll help calm the ticklish buzzing of Ichiro’s fingers against his skin.
It’s something like fate when they both call for mercy at the same time, cries of “Nii-chan!” and “Ichi-nii!” just legible through the hysterical laughter.
Ichiro pulls his hands back with a little pat against the prickling skin. The pair droop so quickly, Ichiro has to be quick to catch them before either slip to the floor. He drags Jiro upright, and moves Saburo to sit against the couch properly.
He ends up leaning against Jiro while they catch their breath. Ichiro tries not to smile, like they’d even notice if he did.
“Okay. Two questions,” Ichiro starts once his brothers look a little less ragged. He knows they’re good when Jiro nudges Saburo off him, Saburo shooting a stink face his direction.
“How did this happen, and why wasn’t I invited?” The way his brothers avoid eye contact at his second question is too funny.
“...Well,” Saburo starts, fixing his bangs to look at Ichiro properly. “You were upset the last time we got ‘too violent’ with each other, so next time Jiro said something stupid I just—“
“—decided to be a smartass and do something that ‘wouldn’t hurt,’” Jiro scoffs, finishing for them.
Ichiro laughs aloud at that one, and—even after everything—it isn’t long before the other two join in.
“And we—um—didn’t ‘invite you’ because we didn’t think you’d want to,” Saburo mumbles.
“—or that you’d be so good at it,” Jiro mutters, hand rubbing subconsciously at his hip.
Ichiro claps a hand on both of their legs, only smirking a little when it makes them jump in their seats.
“It’s been a while, but I do have some experience in tickling you both to tears,” Ichiro smiles.
“That makes sense,” Saburo mumbles. Jiro nods, looking at the carpet.
“But Ichi-nii,” Saburo asks, always thinking one step ahead. “Are...you ticklish?”
Hm, all the times Ichiro had tickled his brothers when they were younger, he never had to worry about taking what he dished out.
But now, it looks like Jiro and Saburo have found something they’re willing to work out together.
Um, g-good for them.
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side-shawty · 4 years
Text
What the Tech?
Fandom: DC
Type: one-shot
Prompt/Summary: Damian Wayne with a quirky, tech-savvy girl.
Pairing(s): Damian Wayne x Reader
Requested? YES by Anon
This is an old old old request that I found in my drafts when I had a different fic account and I figured I’d share it with all of you. I was too shy to post things like this back then but now I’m more than happy to. (I couldn't find the og request so that's what it is lol)
-Duckie
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Stupid Hackers.
Technically speaking it wasn’t exactly Damian’s fault that his katana had practically sliced Tim’s laptop in half. He should have never been working so close to the training area in the first place.
So now here he was, spending his free period in the library grumbling at his laptop as he attempted to break the codes that Tim had put on it as his way of revenge.
That was when you walked in. As per usual, you were spending your free period working on a new coding program in hopes of impressing the judges at the Wayne Tech contest next month. You always impressed the judges. However, it became harder and harder to work with Damian Wayne cursing under his breath and slamming on keys.
With a sigh you stood up, dark curls swishing in your face with the speed, and waltzed over to him.
You put a hand on the desk he was working at and leaned over the back of the computer, “What exactly did that laptop do to you?” You questioned looking curiously at your fellow senior.
“And what does it matter to you?” He asked without ever looking up at you.
“It matters because I can feel your frustration from the other side of the library, Damian Wayne.”
At the use of his full name the young heir finally looked up at you. This was your first time seeing him so close since the week-long project you did together freshman year. Since then it had been distance looks from the other side of the classroom and your stupid school girl crush came back ten-fold.
He was no longer the baby-faced 14-year-old and puberty had hit him like a truck. His face was all angles, blue eyes, and tan olive skin with a head of black hair that Y/N wanted to run her fingers through.
As Y/N cleared her throat and stood up straight again she failed to realize that Damian was having the same train of thought. He thought of how much she had filled out in all the right places and how she had gone from cute to dangerously sexy in the past few years—even in the school uniform. Her dark skin stood out against the pristine white of her button-down and her curls were a casually organized mess.
He cleared his throat, throwing a playboy smirk on his face as he leaned back in his chair. “Y/N Y/L/N, just the person I need. You’re good with computers right?”
You rolled your eyes, “Well I’d hope so considering I am the head of the computer club. What do you need?”
“One of my many idiot brothers has decided to put a series of codes and viruses on my computer and on it, I have a paper that’s due at midnight. Mind lending a hand,” he asked with a voice that could have made you rob a bank if he so desired. Walt, was he flirting with you?
“I’m sure if you just apologize and ask nicely he’d remove everything,” Y/N told moving around the table and leaning over slightly to have a better took at the screen.
“You don’t know my brother,” Damian scoffed, “he’d make me grovel and I refuse to ever have to stoop to that humiliating level,” he said, nose in the air and crossed arms.
You sighed, “Well move over and let me see what the damage is,” you motioned him to switch over to the next chair whilst you took his seat and got straight to work.
As time ticked by the awkwardness that had settled in the silence was driving Y/N crazy so she stared to ask Damian questions while she worked and soon enough he began to ask too. The awkwardness was long forgotten by the time the bell interrupted Damian’s next question about animals.
“Well if you have a last period class I can finish up here. I have computer graphics but I’m excused for today,” Y/N told him.
“It’s fine,” Damian replied, too quickly before he cleared his throat and regained his composure, “I have history but Mrs. James is so old she’ll forget to take attendance again.”
“Okay, well in that case maybe we should take a little break,” you stood and stretched all of your limbs exposing just a bit more leg that the young man couldn’t help but stare at as you went back into a standing position and held your hand out to him. He took it almost instantly and felt a warm electricity in his hand and spread all through him. you gave him a warm smile before walking to the vending machines just outside of the library.
“Pick anything you want, this one’s on me,” you said with a wink and never let go of his hand as you fished a debit card from your breast pocket.
Damian got an energy bar and you got a pack of skittles, your hands were intertwined until you sat down again and Damian felt an immediate loss of warmth.
You were about to start working again when you froze, “Good lord Damian is your brother so kind of brainiac level hacker? He put like fifteen more locks on it while I left,” You gave a heavy sigh and leaned far back in your chair, silently counting to ten before pulling eyedrops from your bag, using them, throwing your curls into a messy bun and cracking your knuckles.
He sighed and closed his eyes, rubbing his temples, “Maybe I should just rewrite the paper.”
You laughed and patted his shoulder reassuringly, “Don’t worry I can help.”
And with that, you stood to get your abandoned laptop from its place at the next table over just as the bell ending the final class of the day sounded.
You and Damian looked to each other in question.
“Do you, uh, wanna finish this back at my place?” Damian asked bashfully with a hand rubbing at the back of his neck.
“No!” you answered too quickly, and it took everything for the Wayne heir not to flinch, “Um, I mean, we can just go to my house. I live closer and, uh, I wouldn’t want to intrude,” it was your turn to look sheepish as Damian smiled softly.
Not wanting to make you any more uncomfortable Damian said, “Okay, I’ll drive.”
And that’s how it started. Every day you and Damian would meet up during free period and then after last class (if either of you went) he’d drive you home. His excuse was because he insisted that the beginnings of October were much too cold to walk home in a skirt and tights.
You couldn’t argue and you didn’t really want to.
During the daily meet-ups, Damian couldn’t help but notice the little things about you, like how you never wore the uniform tie and seemed to have a different color or patterned one every day. How you loved to change up the style of your curly hair as much as you could.
One day after school you asked Damian if he could drive you to the hair solan instead of home and when he asked why you saw a glint of sadness in his eyes. Why would you want to change anything about those beautiful curls?
But when you told him you were going to get box braids he seemed much happier. He even stayed with you for all the hours it took to finish them. This was when Damian knew he was in too deep, going as far as checking on your house during patrol and never telling the others why he’d stopped coming home immediately after school (or earlier).
Damian was happier and he knew the reason was you. He was happy with knowing that fact, and he told himself being your friend was more than enough. He was wrong.
Damian usually got to the library first but he got caught up talking to Colin and Maps on his way and when he got there your attention was occupied by one of the football players. He was obviously flirting with you and Damian hated the feeling that this gave him. But some of the tension fell when he realized how desperate you seemed to get out of that situation.
So Damian sprung into action and approached the two of you. You caught his eye over the jock’s shoulder. A look of utmost relief on your face and Damian cooly slid in and put an arm around your shoulders.
“Everything alright here, Y/N,” Damian asked as you placed a warm hand on his back in gratitude.
“Fine, Wayne, I was just asking Y/N here about her plans after the game on Friday,” the jock, Brandon, said smiling at you and doing his best to ignore Damian altogether.
Damian’s back muscles tensed beneath the white button-down at his words, “I’m afraid she’ll be otherwise occupied,” Damian replied and after being friends with him since the beginning of the school year you could read him much better now. But this was something different, like a mix of anger, and annoyance and…jealousy?
But that was crazy. Right? Why would Damian be jealous, it made no sense. Unless...
“Well, that's too bad. I guess we’ll catch up some other time, yeah?” He asked and you only nodded with a tight smile on your lips before Brandon turned and left. But Damian never let go of your shoulders.
You looked up at him but his eyes were glued to the spot that Brandon once stood, glaring.
“Damian,” you said looking to get his attention.
And when he turned to you, all of the tension instantly left him and he found himself lost in your Y/E/C orbs, kind face showing nothing but concern for him. He took in all of your features, from the polka dot hair tie to the electric blue tie tucked beneath her sweater vest. He realized he’d been staring for too long, but couldn’t bring himself to stop.
“What’s wrong? Is there something on my face?” You asked and he smiled softly at you. A smile only you ever got to see.
“No it’s perfect,” he almost whispered.
Though the blush wasn’t prominent the heat worked its way into your cheeks anyway.  
“Good. Now quick question.”
“Mmm?” he hummed.
“We’re you jealous?” You asked with raised eyebrows and his eyes widened in the slightest.
He sputtered just a bit and released his hold of your shoulders in favor of standing across from you.
Damian didn’t look at you as he asked, “Does it matter if I was?”
You stood shocked for a few seconds at his earnestness before replying in a teasing voice.
“Damian Wayne was jealous over little old me? Wow wait until the papers hear about this one,” you said and he finally turned to you at that.
“I might have a better story for them,” he told you, and his sudden mischievous aura sent a tingle down your back.
“And what would that be?” You asked.
“This,” he said before unexpectedly closing the distance between the two of you in a sweet kiss. He tasted like peppermint and you were quick to melt into him as he placed his hands on your waist.
When you finally pulled back he was smiling and you couldn’t help but do the same.
“Oh yeah, Vicky Vale would have a field day with that one.”
316 notes · View notes
lady-lyrjok · 4 years
Text
Buried in Bones: It’s not a Stretch to Say...
I wrote another one!
I got a request to explore Stretch as he nearly falls during our time stranded in Echo with G. It’s a long one so I’ll have to leave most of it under the cut. Need context? This is the events beginning at the end of Chapter 47 in On Top of the Bone Pile but from Stretch’s POV.
Warnings!
Contemplation of death
Hallucinations/Panic attack
Depressed and panicked boy is depressed and panicked
Previous
---------------------------
“honey don-!!!!”
A blinding light filled the machine room. Stretch dropped to the floor with a curse and covered his skull. As fast as the light appeared it vanished.
“nooo no nonononononono!!!” 
Hauling himself up he peeked down through the observation window. Smoke was billowing from the  machine. Sans, Red and Mutt were sprawled across the floor un-moving. Alarms blared from several computers behind him… you… where were you? He had last seen you next to the machine. Where the fuck were you?!
With just barely enough wherewithal to check his computer for signs of radiation, Stretch bolted for the door.
You had to be under some debris, or maybe one of the others had tackled you out of the way and that’s why he couldn’t see you. Yea. You had to still be here. He hadn’t apologized yet. You had to be here! Pain radiated through his soul and he sagged against the wall. Was that you? Shit. With shaking hands, Stretch punched in the code to get into the machine room. An alarm blared in the background and smoke continued to billow from the machine. 
“h-honey?!” He called.
No response.
Sans and the others hadn’t stirred yet so you may still be on the floor somewhere. As carefully as he could, he picked his way around the room to look where he had seen you last. Hope withered in his chest at the sight of some odd black goo around where you had been standing but no you. Someone groaned behind him and he whirled around.
Sans.
This was his universe, he had to be able to get you back from… wherever the fuck you had gone.
“sans?!” He called out and moved towards him. Out of the corner of his socket, he saw Red staggering to his feet.
“pull those wires before the rest ‘f the machine goes up with ‘em!” No one answered his call to help as he scrambled towards the machine to do it himself.
More movement came from Mutt as he dragged himself up to reach a computer for a damage read-out.
Sans groaned again as Stretch seized the front of his lab coat and began to babble. “she’s gone. she’s gone. i-i tried to warn her not to touch the machine but - oh stars sans what dowedo?”
Mutt turned away from his computer screen. “coolin’ tower one has been disconnected, we gotta shut ‘er down or we’ll fry half our servers!”
NO! They had to find you! Stretch glared around at Mutt and let go of a very dazed Sans. “if we shut it down we might not get her back!”
Mutt’s eye lights flared as he glared back. “we let it run, everythin’ melts down an’ i guarantee we’ll not get ‘er back.” He growled. Red had made it over to Mutt and the two of them rushed from the room.
Looks like neither of them were going to be helpful. Stretch whirled around and moved back to the machine. He had a pen and notepad in one of his lab coat pockets that he pulled out. He had to get any notes down about the machine now before they pulled the plug on it. He heard Sans fumbling around behind him. 
Wait. There were numbers on this screen. Frozen numbers. They usually flashed up then left.
“stretch did you see what happened?” Sans’s voice wobbled as he spoke. Stretch had no time for him.
“she touched the machine.” He hoped that that was a good enough explanation for now. He had to run these numbers upstairs. He had to get you back!
“that shouldn’t have caused this though, we touch it every day.” Sans was still talking. Stretch only nodded and headed for the door. A hand clamped onto his arm, twisting him around and dragging him down to look at the jaded version of his brother. “were you running a simulation while she was in here?” he snarled.
What? No! He had brought everything to a halt after Mutt stopped his algorithm and left with you. Saying as much to Sans, he yanked his arm free and hurried back up to the observation room. The sound of the machine powering down lending speed to his steps.
---------------------------
Sans was refusing to search through the data upstairs with him and the others, he sat at a computer in the machine room so he could dig by himself. Stretch watched him break down several times from his vantage point in the upper room. Mutt and Red weren’t much help with the data either as they were in and out working on restoring the cooling lines to their servers. 
His soul hurt.
His skull hurt.
Where were you?
---------------------------
The cherry red tip of his cigarette glowed bright as he inhaled. Leaning against the side of the lab, Stretch was on his second pack that day. It was eleven in the morning. He had been out smoking more than searching today.
He couldn’t help it. The observation room was getting claustrophobic. Mutt had parked himself in a chair finally to help sort through the data dump. Red posted up with a laptop on the floor so he could pace as he worked from time to time. 
You were alive. They had determined that at least. Their bond with you was still intact. But feeling the constant pain of your absence in his soul day in and day out was starting to get to him. 
“are you here for the bond you tried to run from, or are you here to just get your kicks with some monsters?”
Stretch groaned and smacked the side of his skull with his palm. Why did he say that? It wasn’t your fault. He knew it wasn’t your fault that you had so many bonds. If anything, it was Sans’s fault for messing with the machine and dragging his and the other’s universes here in the first place.
He had always craved a connection. Not necessarily a bond, but a genuine connection with someone. Someone he could go to, and would come to him. Someone who would see him and his many flaws and love him anyway. Someone that was for him… only him. 
You were all of those things except the last. It was that last thing he had fixated on and blew up on you about. And now you were gone, with no way for him to apologize. 
“I-I’m not playing games.”
You had looked so scared of him. Why didn’t he apologize? Why did it hurt so much to see you drowsy and tangled up in your bed with his brother? Or to see you happily play fighting so close to that asshole Black? 
Stretch stomped out the cigarette and ground his palms against his sockets. They came away wet… and dusty? His hands began to shake as he gingerly felt around his sockets. The bone felt coarse where it used to be smooth.
Dropping his hands to his sides, Stretch clenched them into fists. How fitting. It was just his luck to finally get something good, push it away, lose it, then start to fall. It was his own damn fault.
---------------------------
What is sleep? Stretch spun himself in his rolling chair. Mutt didn’t look that much better than him from his spot nearby as he worked on building a new code for the communication device Red had just put together for the machine. Sans was supposedly out getting more coffee, and Red had left to take a smoke break.
With a sigh, Stretch stood and rolled the stiffness from his shoulders. “gonna take a walk.” He muttered in Mutt’s direction as he headed out the door. The sterile hallway and fluorescent lights grated at his exhausted sockets. But he couldn’t sleep, every time he shut his sockets, all he could see was you disappearing in a flash of light over and over again.
Movement caught the corner of his eye, but when he turned his head, there was nothing there.
“sans?” He called and followed where he had seen movement. There was no response, only the solid doors leading into the machine room.
Frowning, Stretch let himself in and looked around. The machine room was dim, the brightest light came from the observation windows above him where Mutt was working. No one except him was around.
But…
“hello?” He turned his skull at the sight of your band t-shirt. You had been wearing one when you came in. 
Nothing.
“honey? are you in here?” The low whine of the machine paired with the ringing of his own confused magic in his skull seemed way too loud. What if you needed to say something to him that would help bring you back?!
“honey?!” panic welled up as he whirled around again and again, chasing the visage of you out of the corner of his eye.
“Stretch.”
That was your voice! Stretch bolted after the sound. There you were. Standing next to the machine, smiling at him. His long legs ate up the ground as he rushed over to you.
“you’re here! you’re home! how di-? actually, i don’t care you’re back!” He made it to your side and scooped you up on a tight hug. “i’m so sorry darlin’ i-i was a total ass, i don’t care anymore. i’ll share the bond, i promise, i- honey? you okay?”
You hadn’t reacted at all to him or his words.
“Don’t look down.” You murmured, then you started to dissolve.
“wha- n-no, nonono honey don’t go!” Magic tears streaked down his face as you dusted in his arms. “come back! i’m sorry! please no, i’ll share for you!” He fell to his knees, desperately trying to keep a hold of you as you slipped away.
“N o !”
A hand clamped on his shoulder making him jump.
“stretch, wake up!”
What were they talking about? He was awake! He…
The dust on the floor was not yours.
Wait.
“stop! you’re hurting yourself!”
Stretch struggled against the hands grabbing at him as he clawed at the floor where you had just been. Someone moved in front of him, it wasn’t you.
Crack!
The shock of being slapped halted the tumultuous magic inside of him. He blinked and brought a hand to his cheek bone.
“ya back in yer skull now?” Red’s voice above him made him blink again. Looking around he found Sans gripping one shoulder, Mutt holding the other. Concern on both of their faces. Red was standing over him rubbing one of his hands.
“yea,” Stretch gazed around in confusion. “yea, i’m back in my skull.”
“good, get upstairs. sans brought breakfas’” Red grumbled and walked off. Mutt also released him and gave him a once over with his eyes before following Red out.
“you good now?” Sans let go of him but stood by.
Stretch nodded and grimaced at the dust on the floor. Sans followed his gaze. “looks like ya scraped your hands pretty bad, i gotta monster candy if ya need it.”
“sure.” Stretch staggered to his feet and trailed after Sans as he made his way out of the machine room. 
“Don’t look down.”
You had said that to him. 
He didn’t need a candy, he was falling.
There was no stopping it now.
---------------------------
How long have you been missing? 
How long has this pain pricked at his soul?
How long could he possibly hold on?
The machine was up and running again. Not that it mattered. It did the same thing it was doing before you vanished. Machinery was not his area of expertise. He knew about the stars and planets, not this infernal hunk of metal.
Speaking of… Stretch scratched the back of his hand. Little dust particles sifted off of him and into the air. He liked to think that he was just space dust, held together with magic. If only he could die like a star. Exploding into a beautiful supernova. Then maybe a part of him could be rocketed out into space to drift forever in the cosmos. But no, he would just dissolve into a miserable pile of dust. Just waiting to be swept up and dumped in the garbage.
Stretch frowned at the particles of him drifting around in front of his skull. How big would he have to explode to break through Earth’s gravitational pull? And if he did manage to escape, would some other intelligent life find his dust and trace him back here? To the others who could tell how he died missing you so much? He would be like a cosmic ray, flying forever through space. That sounded nice.
At least he could be found and traced. If only finding you was so simple. Cosmic rays had a starting place to connect to the end point. All they had was some random numbers and the knowledge that you were alive because of his connection to you through his soul.
Wait.
There was an endpoint. 
Stretch waved away the dust in front of him and glanced over the mess on his desk. He was connected to you, they all were.
You were traceable!
"i got it." He blurted out and jolted out of his seat.
"got what?" Sans asked from behind him.
Stretch scrambled through the papers on his desk, "cosmic rays." Could this actually work? 
"what about ‘em?" Red growled.
“they’re hard to track, ah ha!” Magic surged like a shot of adrenaline as Stretch found the note pad that he had recorded down the numbers left on the screen when you disappeared. Tossing them at Mutt, he turned to look at the others.
“yea, and? we’re lookin’ fer a person, not energy particles.” Red grumbled from his place on the floor.
Did he not see it? Stretch shook his skull and began to pick his way over to the whiteboard on the wall. “but we should be looking for particles, for links. how else do you think we track things hm?” 
He could hear the excitement in his own voice as he explained the basic principles of tracing cosmic rays. His excitement scared him, if this didn’t work, he would most likely dust on the spot. This was all he had left.
His soul soared when Sans said that there was a chance of it working.
He could get you back.
He could apologize.
He could learn to share, no matter what it took.
---------------------------
It worked! You were home!
Who came back with you?
Shit.
It still hurt.
---------------------------
Stretch fidgeted with his phone as he leaned against the kitchen counter. Papyrus’s time with you was almost up. He was next. He caught sight of the new skeleton coming in. What did he call himself? G? The golden eyed monster paused then approached him.
“stretch right?” He asked, extending a hand out to shake his. 
Stretch nodded but kept his eyes on the timer on his screen as he absently shook the other’s weird hand. He could feel that single eye light looking over him from head to toe as he let go. The new guy made a quiet ‘huh’ sound while looking at the hand he had just clasped his with. He seemed like he wanted to say something, but Stretch’s timer went off, it was his turn to sit with you.
Stretch walked up to your room. His magic was all over the place and he didn’t trust himself to teleport at the moment. Papyrus met him at your door.
“She’s still out cold.” He murmured. “But sitting with her does seem to help.”
Stretch nodded and slipped into your room. Papyrus shut the door on his way out leaving Stretch alone with you.
For a long minute, all he could do was stare. Too afraid to reach out and touch you only to find that you were part of his imagination again. Just in case you dissolved again. He resolved to sit next to you and turn on a show to distract himself.
You rolled over and curled up against him as you slept. You were solid at least. He wasn’t so sure about himself.
And then you stirred. Looking down in surprise, he watched you clamor up to a sitting position.
“hey, hey. glad to see you up.” Well at least his voice sounded calm.
You blinked and looked at him in confusion. Did you not remember him? Did traveling through the multiverse damage your memories?
“Mn, hey.” You greet him and look around, taking in your surroundings. “Where’s G?”
Stretch’s soul sank, you wanted the other skeleton. “downstairs with the others.” He heard himself say.
“How did you get here?” You asked, finding his face again.
“uh, the door?” Really? That’s your response? The door? Stretch doesn’t blame you when you roll your eyes and stumble out of the bed. He does keep a careful eye on you as you make your way over to the window to throw back the curtains.
The way your body sagged in relief spurred him to follow you to the window. “had to be sure huh?”
You nodded and fell into his arms. You didn’t dissolve. You were solid, alive, home. He felt like his soul was going to burst with relief. In a daze, he led you back over to the bed.
“mind if i just, hold you a while?” he asked.
You shook your head and he wasted no time pulling you into his lap. He stared at the silent show playing on your TV but didn’t process any of it. You were home, you were real and in his arms… he needed to apologize.
“i don’t care anymore you know.” That’s not an apology. You turned your head to look at him in question. “sharing the bond, it’s okay.” Still not an apology.
“Just like that? You asked.
There’s your opening, try again! “mmhmm, it was too much. losing you like that, it just doesn’t matter anymore.” What the fuck, none of those words were ‘i’m’ or ‘sorry’ what was wrong with him?
You were looking at him in the socket, “You sure?”
He’d be damned if he didn’t try. “missed seeing you.” Why couldn’t he say those two little words? 
The smile on your face said that he must be doing or saying something right though. “Missed seeing you too.”
Welp, if he was damned, so be it. His eye lights drifted down to your lips. Stars, he wanted to kiss you, convey everything he couldn’t say through his touch instead. “maybe… to celebrate… you know… your return.” Real smooth Stretch. “we could… talk later and uh, work on our touch?” Wow, he was just going to go for it huh? Why could he ask for a kiss and not say ‘i’m sorry’?! 
He tilted his skull down to you, holding back enough to let you decide. To his absolute delight, you moved to close the distance.
The door opened.
“THAT’S AN HOUR CARROT STICK, IT’S TIME TO SWITCH.” Fuck you Black.
Stretch jerked his head up and let out a harsh breath. He could feel you burying your face in his chest, probably equally embarrassed.
“okay, i still care.” He muttered. But he can care and still try… right? Hardening his resolve, he wordlessly moved you off of his lap so he could get off of the bed and leave. He shot you a grin on his way out in the hopes of looking like he was okay with all of this.
When Black shut the door behind him, Stretch slumped against the wall. Nothing had changed. It still hurt to see you with someone else. 
But…
He had to try. 
For you. 
He would find a way.
24 notes · View notes
afaithy · 4 years
Note
Number 3 with a Taichi/Koushiro friendship pairing? 💚
Ok, this story turned out a little silly. So quick details. As usual, the story takes place inside my Digi-verse :3. Taichi is a littly goofier than usual due to stress and probably the medication. So forgive him lol (?)
Koushiro has a lot of patience, to be fair. 
Hope you like it!
SEND MORE ASKS HERE _____________________________________________________________
I may be stupid, but I’m not an idiot
“Honestly, if you were any slower, you’d be going backward.”
― J.K. Rowling
Taichi had been having a bad day. It had all started when he realized that he had accidentally marked the deadline for his anthropology work on the wrong date, which meant that he had less than 6 hours to finish and send the document to his tutor. To make matters worse, his computer was under maintenance, and he had a bad cold.
It was curious, and extremely tragic, how something as simple as writing a wrong date could cause such apocalyptic results, but there was not much that Taichi could do about it. Hikari, seeing how miserable her brother was, agreed to lend him her laptop so that he could finish his work calmly. The girl wasn't going to need it anyway, since she had plans with Takeru that day, and she wouldn’t be back until late afternoon that day. 
This was how Taichi, made a cocoon of blankets, with a cold compress on his forehead, and a dripping nose, had ended up sitting in the living room armchair, desperately typing about the development of civilization and the evolution of social consciousness based on use of the digital humanities. Agumon watched him curiously from a corner of the room, but Taichi was on Takeru mode, and did not notice the digimon concerned look.
“There!” Taichi roared triumphantly “Now all I need is to sen….what? Oh nono….nonono….don’t do this to me now!”
“What’s wrong Taichi?”
“From all days for the internet to fail….why now?”
Taichi took the laptop and started maneuvering around the room trying to get a wifi signal. The boy was so desperate that he began to try the most ridiculous positions possible; from the table in the living room to the inside of the shower, but  no matter how much he stood on his tip toes or how much he bent down, the connection was too unstable to send the mail.
“I told Hikari we needed a new router!” Taichi growled “Come on damn it! I have 10 minutes to send this or I lose the credits!” 
Taichi continued chasing after the wifi signal until he finally got a full signal and the mail went out. The boy let out a triumphant cry.
“Taichi! Be careful!” Agumon screeched. 
In the middle of his search for a wifi signal, Taichi had barely been conscient of where he’d walked into. He was standing dangerously close to the balcony railing, with one feet on a stool and barely keeping the balance with the laptop in his hand. The sudden realization of this unnatural position made Taichi lose his balance a fall off. Luckily for him, agumon managed to stop his fall, but the laptop was not that lucky. It landed on the floor with a loud thud. 
There was small pause, while both Taichi and Agumon stared at the fallen device with horror.
“Oh no,no….” Taichi said, horrified “Hikari is gonna kill me.”
Taichi picked the laptop and began to check it. It wasn’t broken, at least not as far he could see. The screen wasn’t even scratched , but the hit had turned it off, so he tried turning it back on. 
Taichi held his air as the screen lit up, but then, it went into a blue screen and turned off again. He tried once more, and it happened again.  Hikari was SO going to kill him.
His day couldn't get worse. 
“Ok...keep calm…” he told himself “It’s not a big deal, we need help. It might be fixable. Koushiro! Oh yeah...I need Koushiro...now!”
Taichi took the laptop and without even bothering to change his clothes, he sprinted out of the apartment. He was lucky that Koushiro lived one floor above. Mrs. Izumi was very surprised to see him knocking desperately on their door and after the boy had given her a pretty desperate greeting, she had told him that Koushiro was in his room. Taichi thanked the confused woman and ran into the room, causing Koushiro to fall from his chair in surprise.
“Taichi-san! What  are you doing here?” Koushiro cried.
“Koushiro...this is an emergency….you might be my only hope right now; no,  scratch that, you might be my only chance of survival! Is that Mimi?”
Koushiro's cheeks went bright red and he quickly rushed to turn off his screen.  Taichi watched the black screen stunned and then he shook his head.
“ Forget it. This is more important.” Taichi saId “ I screwed up.”
“ I should be surprised, but strangely, I am not.” Koushiro sighed “ what did you tell Sora.san  this time?”
“What? No, I  didn’t tell her anything.” “Ok, then what did you do to Sora-san?”
“Why are you assuming I did something to her?” “Because most of the time you get this panicky is because you messed up with her.”
“ Not true...well, at least not this time! No, this is worse…” Taichi said, putting down Hikari’s laptop on the table “I broke Hikari’s laptop.”
“Again?”
“What do you mean “again”? I’ve never broken her laptop!”
“Well there was that time when we were on middle school….”
“Ah! That doesn’t count...How was I supposed to know that book would fall over there?” Taichi said, shaking his head “No, for real...I don’t know what’s wrong with it and she’s gonna kill me if she finds out. Hell, I think not even Takeru might be able to save me this time…”
“Fine, I’ll take a look. “ Koushiro sighed “What exactly happened?”
Koushiro tried turning on the laptop, but just like Taichi, the device turned on, showed a blue screen and then went off again.  Sighing, Koushiro opened his cabinet and took out a small tool kit and began working on the laptop. “It’s a long story…” Taichi said, walking around the the room like a restless lion “ The summary is, I wrote  my reports deadline wrongly, so it turns out I had to hand it in today by noon, and my computer is on the store for maintenance, so I had no computer and had to use Hikari’s to finish, but hell when I had like 15 min for the deadline, I couldn’t get wifi signal to send it, so I had to look around the apartment to see where I had enough signal to send it and happens that the balcony gets full service, anyway...I tripped and the laptop fell.”
“From the balcony?”
“Hell, no! If so there would be no laptop. I fell to the ground.” “RIght….” “It’s all the router’s fault. The signal is so bad.”
“Did you even consider using your phone’s hotspot? Or perhaps that Lan collection instead of walking around the apartment?”
“The what?”
“Never mind…” Koushiro sighed “I think I might have an idea of what’s wrong, but it is going to take me awhile. What time does Hikari come home?”
“In about two hours…” Taichi said, looking at the clock “but no problem. I have a plan.”
“YOu do?”
“Yeah!” Taichi said, taking out his phone “I’m texting Takeru. I’ll lift his curfew for this time, so he can distract Hikari and get her home later....”
“You do know, Takeru is a poor liar and Hikari is actually pretty sharp. She will suspect something is up…”
“She’s with Takeru. He can kiss her or something and she’ll forget about it.”
“I thought you weren’t pleased with your sister getting kissed by any boys, Takeru included.”
“Priorities Koushiro. I hate the idea, I truly do...but sacrifices are required for my survival.” “You’re overreacting…” Koushiro laughed “I doubt Hikari would kill you.”
“You had no idea how she gets when she’s really angry.” Taichi said, rolling his eyes “So...why exactly were you seeing Mimi’s photos when I came in.”
Koushiro dropped the screwdriver and then let out a painful groan when he accidentally got a little electrocuted with the laptop’s static. 
“I wasn’t!” he replied, blushing “Not ...strictly willingly. Mimi-san borrowed my tablet and when I got it back, I was notified that the memory was full. So I was going through the files to see what she had done to saturate my 1TB memory card.”
“Ahhhh...and what was it?” “Mimi-san seems to enjoy selfies.”
“She took selfies with your tablet?” Taichi smirked “That’s a message, you know?”
“A message?”
“Yup” Taichi nodded “She’s sending you an invitation. Believe, I know about this things.”
“Right, and that would explain your current status with Sora-san…”
“Hey, things with Sora are complicated ok.”
“How complicated could it be. Everyone knows you two are into each other.”
“Pff, of course not.”
“Right, that is why you made all that fuss when she was dating that...what was his name again? Yotaro?”
“Ryutaro...and for the record, the guy was a douche. He wasn't good enough for her.”
“Yeah, well, shouldn’t you do something about it?”
“I did, didn’t I? Sora wasn’t too happy about it though.”
“I didn’t mean that…” Koushiro rolled his eyes and said, “ I meant, ask her out.”
“Me?”
“Yeah, you. Everyone knows she went out with that guy to make you jealous.”
“No way. Sora would kick my butt if I even brought it up.”
“How do you know? My sources say that you might have a good chance.”
“Your sources, huh?” Taichi smirked “Is Mimi telling you all the gossip now?”
“That’s...out of the subject.”
“Riiight. Returning the question, then. When are you  going to do something about it?”
“What do you mean?”
“You two have been sending smoke signs to each other since highschool. Aren’t you going to do something about it?”
“Smoke signs?”
“Yeah, you are even more obvious than Takeru and Hikari, and those two beat you at it.”
“That’s different. Mimi-san and I are just friends.”
“Aha...that’s what Takeru said, you know?”
Koushiro gave Taichi an irritated glare, but the older kid smirked. 
“Taichi-san...if you keep distracting me, I won’t be able to fix this.”
“Ok, ok...sorry.” Taichi answered, raising his hand in a peaceful gesture “so...what’s wrong with it?”
“Good news, it isn’t unfixable. “Koushiro replied “the fal messed up with some of the RAM memory components, so I’ll  just have to check it and put it back together.”
“What’s the bad news?”
“I’m not sure if I might have the spare pieces here.”
“Well, I guess it could be worse.”
“Yeah, well….” Koushiro sighed “next time, do me a favor, Taichi.”
“What?”
“Don’t drop the computer.”
“Of course I won’t. I might be stupid, but not an idiot….”
“Sometimes you make me wonder….”
“It was an accident!”
“Yeah, I’m sure it was.” Koushiro laughed “You’re lucky I can fix it.” “Yeah, I’m lucky to have you as a friend. I am so grateful that I could kiss you.”
“I’ll rather not.”
“Right...How about I ask Mimi to do it instead?”
“Taichi-san…”
Taichi smirked. He was lucky to have friends like Koushiro, there was no doubt about that. 
============================================================
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I don’t ship them (Unless I you count BROTP’s as shipping) but I am pretty sure this is how Taichi was feeling at the time Lol
29 notes · View notes
shirtlesssammy · 5 years
Text
6x07: Family Matters
Then:
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The Big Baddie Alphas are building armies and Sam is a soulless sociopath
Now:
Sam is trussed up after Dean beats the living crap out of him. Cas is there for angelic input.
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He asks Sam how much he sleeps and they learn that he hasn’t since he’s been back. Then Cas asks what Sam is feeling. Sam doesn’t have an answer for that. A light bulb goes off for Cas and he tells Sam to bite down on a leather belt.
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He proceeds to shove his hand into Sam’s abdomen. He finds that Sam’s soul is missing. It appears that when he was resurrected from Hell, his soul was left behind.
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Dean wants to know if he’s still Sam and then tells Cas to get his soul out of the Cage. Cas says it’s not that easy.
Sam asks to be untied, but Dean refuses. Sam reveals that he had untied himself anyway. Dean is going to have to face facts and just work with him. Dean relents and makes their first priority to find out who yanked him out of Hell.
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Sam has no memory of who got him out of Hell. He only has one lead: The Campbell Compound. Parker Lewis Christian Campbell greets them at the door and sends them to Samuel in his office.
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Dean asks about Samuel’s return. Cas flaps in (and I really miss that wing flap sound, guys) to do another thorough investigation. Samuel still has his soul. Sam tells his grandfather that he doesn't have his soul. Samuel had his suspicions. “You’re a hell of a hunter, Sam, but truth is, sometimes you scare me.” Samuel wonders how they can fix this. Cas then announces that he has to go because, oh, he’s just in the middle of a civil war. Dean wants Cas to find something upstairs to help them. “Of course, your problems always come first. I’ll be in touch.” OUCH. Like, OUCH. They all seem mildly annoyed that he left. And I’m slightly annoyed they aren’t paying attention! (Natasha: Rewatching this season, I like to see these nuances. Cas is fighting a war when he learns about Sam’s soul. What must that do to his confidence, knowing that his first victory after his resurrection was a false one?)
The brothers then learn that the Campbells have a lead on the alpha vampire. They want in on the hunt, but Samuel isn’t so trusting of Dean. Dean makes it clear that he’s here to follow Samuel’s orders. Later, when the brothers are alone, Dean admits to not trusting Samuel, but they need him so it’s time to lend a hand.
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They set to work in the compound. Dean quickly wanders off to sneak into Samuel’s office. He’s caught and confronted by Christian. He insults Lisa and threatens Dean. Family for the win! Things are going to go just peachy on the run, I can tell!
The family assembles and head out on their mission. Once at their destination, Samuel makes Dean hang back with Gwen. They’re soon attacked by a vamp that Gwen dispatches in no time.
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Dean then hears gunshots and takes off to the house. There are dead vamps everywhere. He sees a member of the Campbell group get sucked behind a curtain followed by a spray of blood, and then he hears Samuel yelling towards Sam. He follows the voice and sees that a bunch of them are hauling a vamp with a hood on into the van. Dean has a flash of a memory (idk, I’m not watching this is order so I don’t know if this is in reference to something Dean is going through or what. I should go read Superwiki, but nope.) (Natasha: These are all visions he had when he was briefly a vampire! He was seeing the alpha vamp’s house, but didn’t know it at the time. Now all the pieces are clicking. HEY this must explain why every vampire is suddenly an amazing fighter. Contagious memory.)
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Dean makes it back to Gwen just in time for the others to find them. ALLS GOOD EVERYWHERE. Samuel says they killed the alpha. Dean wants to see the body. Too late, they already burned it.
While driving alone, Dean asks Sam about the hunt. Everything went fine! Dean stops the Impala. He gets out and angrily tells Sam that he saw him march the alpha out of the house. “Oh,” Sam says, a perfect response. It seems that Samuel has been capturing alphas and taking them somewhere to interrogate. It was Sam’s idea not to let Dean in on the situation. Dean can’t believe it and wonders if Sam even once wondered how shady this whole thing is. Dean tells Sam that they don’t have to work together, but if they do, he’s in charge because Sam has no instinct and can’t tell right from wrong. Or, Sam can go his own way.
At the Campbell compound, Sam approaches Samuel alone. He’s ditched Dean and wants to join the fight. Y I K E S. Samuel refuses to let him in the inner circle, or give him access to the king vamp, however, on account of the whole “lack of soul” thing. Double yikes! Later, Sam creeps through the parked cars outside and messes with a cell phone.
Cut to Dean, brooding in the Impala. Sam shows up, to Dean’s surprise. Sam’s turned double agent, but Dean still only gave him a 60/40 chance of actually returning to carry out their plan.
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When Samuel failed to trust him, Sam enabled GPS on one of the cell phones in the van. He pulls up Samuel’s location on his computer.
They track Samuel to a warehouse. Dead man’s blood is painted on the doors, forming an effective vamp prison. They creep inside, evading Campbells to find Samuel interrogating the head honcho vamp. Samuel’s trying to find something, and he’s willing to cage and torture the alpha vamp to learn its location. The alpha vamp is ancient, and supremely unimpressed by Samuel’s efforts.
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When Samuel storms away in a huff, the alpha vamp tells Sam and Dean to come out of hiding. So much for stealth! “How can I help you?” he asks, like a king. Dean pulls out his best snark, only to have some of that smacked away when the alpha addresses him by name. “You were my child for a time.” Awww...family don’t end in blood? Family starts in blood? While the alpha taunts Dean, he slowly scratches away at his cuff with his super mega vamp nail, all he can muster under the influence of a dead man’s blood IV.
The alpha tells Dean that he’s way too old to be concerned about mere Winchesters. “Soon I’ll be ankle deep in your blood, sucking the marrow from your bones.”
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Sam wants to know who made the alpha vampire, if he’s the first vampire. “We all have our mothers.” Chief vampire refuses to elaborate, switching to taunt Sam about his lack of soul. (Interesting bit of vampire lore that I totally forgot about: the alpha tells Sam that he “smells cold” without his soul.) Now we’re getting to the good stuff, and by “good stuff” I of course mean metaphysical analysis of the soul. The alpha vamp leads the discussion to ponder the place where all monster souls go. He reveals that Samuel has been interrogating him to find out how to locate Purgatory.
Their revelatory discussion is interrupted by the Campbell crew who disarm the Winchesters. Dean berates Samuel for his nefarious dealings and the Winchesters try to get the drop on their captors. During this confrontation, the alpha vamp taunts the lone guard in the room before breaking free. In seconds, he’s out of the cage and chomping on the guard, whose scream alerts the unhappy family outside.
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They take stock of the situation and Samuel grumbles that they need to catch the alpha and lock him up again. Dean’s shocked. The vampire has to die or he’ll kill all of them. They split up to search the warehouse.
The alpha attacks the Sam/Samuel/Christian crew first, easily knocking aside all of them and snapping Christian’s neck. The alpha pins Sam to the wall and tells him that he plans to turn him. “You will be the perfect animal.” Uh. Yikes.
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Sam gets saved at the last minute by Christian who wields a syringe of dead man’s blood. Christian’s eyes are demon-black.
In an instant, more demons arrive, then Christian and the other demons zap out with the alpha. Cut to...Crowley slow clapping from a balcony. Surprise, mofos! Samuel demands that Crowley un-demonify Christian. Crowley gleefully drops the news that Christian has been possessed by a demon for ages and ages.
Dean puts two and two together and demands to know how Crowley and Samuel are linked. Samuel’s been helping Crowley search for Purgatory. Crowley insists that he wants the territory and will say nothing further to mere peons. “We ain’t your employees,” Dean snaps. Oh, HONEY, you are. Crowley reveals that the Winchesters have been working for him through their connection to Samuel. In fact, Samuel was a specific lure for them, on account of their general predilection for family loyalty. Crowley brought Samuel back to life and boasts that he brought Sam back as well. If anyone gets out of line, Sam goes right back into the cage.
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Instead of a nice, big family hug after Crowley departs, Gwen and Samuel lock horns before Gwen stalks off to see to the vehicles. Sam and Dean try to get into it with Samuel but he just calls them “family” and tells them that they can kill him or step aside and let him work. Sam immediately pulls a gun on him. LOL. (I can say “LOL” at that, right? This scene is so grim.) Dean pushes Sam’s hand down. No, Soulless Sam, BAD! They’re going to let Samuel go, because he’s family and Dean just...can’t.
Sam wants to know if he and Dean are going to start working for Crowley. “Demons bone you every time,” Dean insists. Working for a demon is the worst thing he can consider, but Sam tries to work his soulless logic. They’re dead unless they play ball.
“You with me, Dean?” Sam asks, and we fade to black.
I am the Alpha Quotepire! Is he speaking in tongues? Are you speaking in tongues?
My true form is approximately the size of your Chrysler building.
Of course. Your problems always come first.
Would have asked him to stick around for a beer.
We got some questions for you, skippy, since you're going nowhere fast.
What is it like to have no soul?
Well, if the old man's Kermit... whose hand's up his ass?
You two are so hung up on family-loyalty nonsense, he said jump, you'd get froggy.
Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive! 
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dreamingsushi · 4 years
Text
Legend of the White Snake - Episode 6
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And as I was watching, my computer shut down himself to reboot. It’s an old one, it’s starting to get a little... well, I used this computer for more than five years, of course it needs a little bit more love and patience. But I will remember to keep save as draft more often so I won’t lose half of an episode’s review at once... I will rewrite it as I  remember it, it was just a few minutes ago anyways.
So, basically Jing Song really takes to heart his role as a big brother to Suzhen and is really protective of her. It looks like he’s kind of trying to drive away Xu Xian. When it’s time for Xu Xian to leave, it starts raining again and Suzhen offers to send him. However, Jing song remembers her that it wouldn’t be proper for a lady to do so and she might catch a cold, Xu Xian agrees and says she doesn’t need to send him off. So Suzhen at least asks Qing Er to get him an umbrella.
The next day, Suzhen and Ruyi meet right outside the door and notice that they are wearing the exact same thing. Well I believe only Ruyi notices it. Suzhen spent a long time choosing her outfit for the day and both Jing Song and Qing Er used the event to fight again. Ruyi isn’t willing for such a beautiful lady to come close her Hanwen big brother, but then Qing Er teases her in asking her what of Xu Xian’s aunt she is. That’s probably the best part. I have to say that I love Qing Er, she’s the funniest to me and such an interesting character. Even though she wanted to gain the body of a male, she sacrificed that to keep with Suzhen and resigned to be a girl. That’s pretty cool. And that would probably be the only time Jing Song and Qing Er agree: nobody is up to compete with Suzhen.
Ruyi first gets in and asks her maid to help Xu Xian’s sister to take the soup. Doing so, the maid trips and fortunately, Suzhen manages to grab the pot soup and get every drop of it back inside. Everyone is amazed and worried she might have injured herself. Then Ruyi being jealous that she doesn’t have Xu Xian’s attention takes him away to gift him with a precious object that her father owns. And she tries to take down Suzhen for not having brought a gift and coming empty handed. Suzhen feels bad for not knowing, thus immediately summons a gift which is a compilation of medicine book. Xu Xian is really happy with it and says it’s the most precious gift he received. And probably not just because he’s a doctor.
Before dinner, they have a toast to stop Ruyi badmouthing Suzhen and Suzhen toasts to everybody around the table, which is kind of awkward. That would be because Qing Er told her that’s how humans do. Poor Suzhen, I thought she would get drunk with so much alcohol, but she ends up being fine.
After dinner, Xu Xian’s sister ask Suzhen to help Xu Xian taking out books outside in the sun. Suzhen accepts readily. It’s actually big sister trying to play the matchmaker. She sends her husband away to drink and takes Ruyi to the yard with her. Basically, she’s trying to find some alone time for little brother and his girl. Good job big sis!
Jing Song wants to go with Suzhen but Qing Er stops him from doing so. And they end up fighting again.
Soooo aww. How cute. Suzhen finds a book that Xu Xian has been looking for for a long time. He wants to lend it to her because she wanted to read it for the longest time but as he hasn’t read it yet, she wouldn’t agree to take. So he offers to read it together. I am really liking that boy. He’s just so shy around her and wants her to be happy.
Xu Xian’s sister tries to teach Ruyi how to make silk blanket. At some point, Ruyi who is not used to work with her hands pretends that she feels sick so big sister takes her to have a rest. As soon as she’s gone, Ruyi gets up to go interrupt Suzhen and Xu Xian.
So instead of moving the books, Suzhen and Xu Xian are reading the book. Well I am not sure if Xu Xian is really reading as he is looking at Suzhen with an admirer’s look. When she asks him if it’s a good read he says it is, while looking at her: in Chinese that word could be used to describe something beautiful or something interesting to read. So it’s very cute. She finds again something he lost (here I am thinking that his room must actually be a mess for him to be missing so much stuff around... well nobody can be perfect) and it’s actually that kind of game that you have separate in two parts. While he’s explaining to her that he made one more intricate than the others and that nobody else could open it, she manages to solve the problem easily. Then she says that he’s the one to have guess her lantern, he’s not surprise. Then she sees the lantern in question and goes look at it. Then they are having a moment of happiness. And it’s beautiful, and I am having butterflies.
But of course, Ruyi has to ruin it! She comes in and asks for Suzhen to treat her as she is feeling unwell. She doesn’t want Xu Xian to look at it because it would be a lady’s discomfort. Xu Xian says to call him if she needs help which angers Ruyi.
Hm. I smell another evil spirit here. Why are all the evil spirits women? Hahaha. Anyways, there’s a beautiful musician player mesmerizing people with her beauty. And she never uses her pipa to play. She just dances. And the only person that doesn’t seem concerned is Brother-in-law. I love this guy too.
That Ruyi... So mean. She tricks Suzhen into thinking Ruyi is engaged with Xu Xian and he only cares about her because she’s an orphan. So she feels unwell and decides to leave. She won’t let Xu Xian get some medicine for her. He must be so confused. Jing Song wants to look after her but Qing Er first stops him but he overpasses her. However, when she transforms into a snake, she is taken by that monk. Oh no ): Will he leave her alone, she wasn’t doing anything bad.
Jing Song uses the fact that she’s sad to ask her to go back to E’Mei mountain because they can be together for years. I feel she’s going to agree. No ): He wants to go right away, but she doesn’t want now now. She wants to look at the sceneries of the mortal realm.
Back at the guesthouse, brother in law saves the musician girl from some fat guy. She tries to keep him in her room, but he won’t. Really, he’s oblivious to all her charms. Which makes her angry.
Qing Er is stuck with the monk. The staff won’t budge so he won’t fight her, but if she tries to escape, the staff keeps on pushing her down.
As they are done drinking and get ready to disperse, brother in law and his men hears someone scream that somebody died. They run over right away. And at the same time, the monk’s staff starts moving, but not to fight Qing Er, thus he leaves her behind.
The is the fatty guy from earlier. He’s all dried up, no more blood in his body, but he has no wounds. The guesthouse tenant wonders if it’s a ghost of some sorts, but obviously, brother-in-law doesn’t believe in ghosts. So he orders everyone to be kept at the inn. Right then, Xu Xian gets there because big sister was worried and when he learns of what is happening, he’s worried about brother in law and suggests a way to free all those people so brother-in-law won’t get scolded. But I won’t know what it is before next episode and that may be only in a few days... I hate this ;^; And I want Xu Xian and Suzhen to keep together.
And funny thing. I keep mistyping Suzhen into Bai Zhen. Which is the name of the character Yu Menglong plays in Eternal love. Though the Zhen isn’t the same Zhen. I just thought it is funny.
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reallyautomaticvoid · 5 years
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Calling It: Good Intentions Chapter 4: The Great Coffee Spill
Characters (in order of appearance in this chapter): Tim Drake, Tam Fox, Dick Grayson
Chapter Summary:
Dick tries to talk to Tim.
It’s been a fortnight since Tim returned from his vacation.  
For some reason, none of the other Titans found it nearly as funny as Tim to call his kidnapping and toucher for days on end a vacation.  
Cassie had gone as far as to threaten to make him get a psych eval if he didn’t stop.  Tim grumbled at that.  He was the team leader.  If he wanted to call solitary confinement ‘mediation’ he should be allowed to do that.
Melodramatic.
In lieu of a psych eval, the team agreed, albeit reluctantly, to let Tim go back to Gotham to catch up on paperwork.  
Tam had been calling twice a day to see when Tim was planning on coming back.  After the fourth time Con had been chewed out by Tam—
“she does realize I shoot laser beams from my eyes,” he asked Tim after a particularly brutally conversation.  
Tim flipped through a magazine, the corner of his lips twitching.  “You do realize she doesn’t care?  The quarterly reports are coming up.” 
—he practically begged the other to let Tim go.
“She threatened to tear my liver out through my throat.”  Conner’s voice did not tremble.
“Wow, how very Game of Thrones of her.”
“Bart!”
Bart rolls his eyes.  “You don’t actually think she can do it, do you?”
“Dude, I don’t wanna find out!”
However, there were stipulations.  
Because, of course, there were stipulations.  
Tim isn’t allowed to work for more than two hours at a time after which he is to take at least a fifteen-minute break.  
At least eight hours of sleep.  
No patrols.  
Three meals a day but preferably more.
Plus he’s supposed to avoid stress.  
Good grief, how is anything going to get anything done?
Tim enters the office at seven, anticipant a long, tedious day, full of paper cuts.  
What he does not expect is, before getting to the elevator, Tam grabbing and yanking him in.  
She presses a button for their floor, and the elevator started to elevate.
“Morning Tam,” Tim says mildly.  “Something on your mind?  Or are you finally ready to kill me for leaving you with all of that paperwork?”  
He sips his black coffee.  Since the Titans hadn’t said anything about coffee, Tim took this to mean he’s allowed to drink as much as he wants.  
“Just let me finish my coffee first, okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, you're hilarious but listen, I need to talk to you before we get to your office.”  Tam took a deep breath.  “I honest to God don’t know how he got in there.  He was here before me this morning.”  She pauses before muttering,  “bounce around the place.”
Tim tilts his head. “Who, Bruce?  Tam, his names on the door.”
Tam makes an exasperated noise through her nose.  “No, no, not Bruce.  D—”  
At that moment, the elevator dinged and the doors slowly opened to reveal—
“Timmy!”  Dick exclaimed at the top of his lungs.  
Tim froze mid-sip, his eyes wide as saucers staring at Tam who looks like she’d swallowed a lemon.    
For the first time ever, Tim’s happy that his and Tam’s were the only offices on that floor.  Having one’s former older brother, friend, mentor scream a childish nickname at the top of their lungs doesn’t lend itself a professional background.  
For some unknown reason, Dick threw his arms around Tim and pulled him into a bear hug.  
Unfortunately, this causes Tim to spill his almost full cup of coffee onto the ground.  The three manage to jump out of the way of the hot liquid.  Tim looks mournfully at the hot liquid that was seeping through the carpet fibers.
“Oops.  Sorry about that Timmy.”  Dick looks down at the now empty cup, squeezing Tim tighter.  “Stuff not good for you anyways.”
Tim’s eye twitches.  
Taking a minute to clear his mind, Tim does a recount on his morning.
Dick was here.  
A Bat was here in his space.  
His space.  
Also, he didn’t have coffee.  
Aaaaaaaaaaand he’s been at work for less than five minutes.
Today is going to be hell, isn’t it?
Tim’s face slips into his Tim Wayne: CEO mask now.  He shoves Dick away ignoring the hurt expression on Dick’s face.  
“It just Tim.  Tam, would you mind going down and getting me another cup?  Please?”
Tam, who’d been making a valiant attempting to mop up some of the excess coffee, straightens up.  
“Sure thing, Tim.  I’ll call maintenance to clean this up too.”  She waves a the mess.
“Thanks, Tam.”  Tam pushes the button that would return her to the ground floor.  
For a wild second, Tim considers hopping in after her to get away from Dick.  He quickly dismisses this idea.  
It would be better to find out what Dick wanted, help him, and get him out of here. 
Rules for dealing with the Bats, remember?
The elevator doors close with Tam inside of them.  Tim turns to his office.  
“So, what do you need, Dick?”  Tim marches into his office.  
Just because today was going to be hell doesn’t mean it wasn’t going to be a productive hell.  Setting his briefcase down before starting up his computer for the day, Tim flits around the room, while Dick stands uncertainly at the door.
“What do I—Timmy, I don’t need anything.”  There is something in Dick’s voice.  
Almost like concern.
Odd.
Tim didn’t think that there was anything that he could do that would hurt Dick.  It wasn’t like Dick has been very concerned with Tim or anything that Tim did since—Tim shut down that line of thought.  
Moving forward.  Remember Drake?  He tells himself.  
“It’s Tim.  Then, if you don’t need anything, how can I help you?”  His voice is detached.  
Disinterested.
Cold.
For some reason, Dick flinches.
Tim does a quick sweep of the room, and no there aren’t any threats in here.
“It was just my day off and I—I just wanted to check up on my little brother.”  
Tim’s brow furrows.  
“Jason’s here?  I haven’t seen him yet.  Although, Tam’s been making a bit of a game kicking him out.  She thinks he’s funny.”  Tim pauses before groaning.  “Wait, please tell me Damian not here.  Fuuuuuck, I do not have time for another hostile take over attempt.”  Tim slumps down into his, groaning, before striating up. “Although, it might get me out of some of this paperwork.  That’d be nice.”  He squints at the pile of papers on the corner of his desk (which was almost a foot high and how Tam) before shaking his head.  “No, no it’d probably just double it.”  
Tim sighs, grabbing the top folder to work on not bothering to look up at the man standing awkwardly in his doorway.
“No, little bro, I came here to check on you.  Wanted to see if you wanted to play hooky or something?”  
Tim could feel his CEO mask slips for a second because he is genuinely confused.  
Little Bro?  
Why is Dick suddenly start to fain concern?  
“I’m not your brother, Dick.”  
Tim winces at his bluntness, but sometimes surprise does that to a person.  
And lack of coffee.  
Maybe next time Dick would just email Tim.  It’s far more efficient that way.  Plus, they wouldn’t have to bother with the faux pleasantries.
For some unknown reason to Tim, stating this simple fact turn Dick’s pale face beet red.  “What are you talking about?  Of course, you're my—”
“No, I’m not,”  Tim interrupts.  
Tim doesn’t want to hear Dick lie to him.  He isn’t Dick’s brother.  He is okay with that. 
Or at least, that’s what he kept telling himself.  
“Never have been.  Never will be.  If you don’t need anything, Dick, then can you go, please?  I have a ton of work to get done.”  Tim gestures at the pile of folders which Tim swears somehow got larger in the last thirty seconds.  
Tim scrutinizes the stack of work.
However, Dick doesn’t leave.  Instead, he strolls into Tim’s office, put his fist down with a thud on Tim’s desk, and did his best Batman impersonation.  
Tim notes that Dick’s knuckles are white.  
Tim flips a page from the file that he’s looking at.
“What the fuck are you talking about, Timmy?”
“It’s Tim.  And work?  I assumed you were familiar with the concept since starting at GCPD.  It’s were—”
“Not that Timmy,” Dick’s practically shouting.  Tim winces glad that Tam isn’t here for this discussion.  “What the fuck do you mean, you’re not my brother?”
Tim finishes the folder of paperwork that he’d been working on.  He places it in his outgoing box before flipping open the next one.  
“I mean just that.  I’m not a Wayne, Dick.  I’m not a Bat.  I was just the proxy—a substitute.  I was there to make sure Bruce didn’t lose his shit after Jason died.  I stood in until Damian came along.  Now he’s here and has taken over.  The substitute isn’t needed anymore.  Now I’m just a good little soldier who does what’s needed.  You guys don’t need to worry about me anymore.  It’s fine, Dick.  I’ve always liked being on my own.”  
Without looking, Tim could tell that Dick was vibrating.  Tim isn’t sure why; this is all old news and Dick had been there.  Dick stands there, watching Tim as he finishes the folder he’s working on.  
Tim’s booting up his email when Dick finally says, in a tight tone,  “Timmy, you may not like it, but you are a Wayne and—”
“It’s Tim.  Tim Drake.”
Dick rubs his temples.  “Yes, I know, Drake-Wayne.”
“No, just Drake.  I legally dropped Wayne months ago.  Or has it been a year?”  Tim muses more to himself than Dick.  Dick recoils as if Tim brandished a hot iron towards him.
Tim hums to himself while he clicked through his emails.  
He’s hoping to Hell that Dick will catch on and leave.  Dick had been Batman for Gods sakes; you’d think he’d know how to pick up on clues.  Tim, though, has never been that lucky.
“You dropped Wayne?”  The voice that comes from Dick is so small that Tim isn’t even sure that he’d heard it.
Without looking up at Dick, Tim answers, “yep.  Look, Dick, I’m swamped today so if there isn’t anything else,”  Tim pauses, waiting for Dick to say something.  He doesn’t. “Then can you go?  Gotta keep the company running until one of you guys take it back.”  
Dick’s about to say something when Tam came in carrying Tim’s replacement coffee.  She places it down on Tim’s desk.  
“Thanks, Tam.” Tim gratefully takes a swig of coffee before going back to his computer.
“You need anything else, Tim?”  
Tim glances at her.  Tam has the I will drag him out of here kicking and screaming if you want me to Boss.  Just say the word.
Tim, however, opt for a different answer.  “You want to do this paperwork for me?”
She snorts. “Not a chance.”
“Then no thanks, Tam.” 
“Don’t forget, you have a meeting in ten.”  
“Got it.  I’ll be out in a minute.  Thanks, Tam.”
Tam exits Tim’s office.  There's some sort of silent exchange between Dick and Tam but, with Tam’s back to him, Tim couldn’t make it out.
Humming to himself, Tim clicks through the last month of emails, deleting the ones he deems unimportant while saving the rest for later.  
After a solid five minutes of silence between the pair of them (in which Dick has not moved from his spot hovering over Tim; that has to be a record for Dick), Tim gets up to go to his meeting.
In his bent down form, Dick and Tim are eye level.  “We’re not done here, Tim.”
For the first time that day, Tim looks directly into his former brother eyes.  
Storm clouds are brewing behind the elder’s eyes.  Four years ago, Tim would have done anything to fix that.  He would have said anything.
Not anymore.
Without blinking, Tim replies, “yes we are.”
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flydotnet · 5 years
Text
Hidden Guardians of Humanity
VRAINS Rarepair Weeks 2018 - Day 7: Other YGO series crossover/Other Fandom AU
Summary: Six teenagers regularly save the world from the misanthropic virus-like AI XANA on a virtual world. This is their story through one of these missions against humanity's greatest danger yet. 
Fandoms: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS/Code Lyoko Ships: Hireshipping (Ema/Akira), Entrustshipping (Takeru/Kiku), Zinniashipping (Miyu/Aoi)
Wordcount: 3.8K words
Notes: "On ira, on saura, sauver notre existence, Se donner une chance de tout dépasser. On ira, on saura, sauver notre existence, Afin de faire, Un monde sans danger !"
I was stumbled at first with what to do for today. All the crossover ideas I had weren't very good... until I thought about Code Lyoko and how it was a perfect fit with VRAINS. A virtual world? Check. Keeping stuff secret from other people? Check. A recurring theme of AIs? Check. I rediscovered CL this year by watching the episodes now all up on YT (I think that's only for the original French dub, though). It's been a big part of my childhood and I surprised myself to like it even more as an adult. It was pretty messed up if you think about it: a bunch of teenagers ranging from 13 to 15 saving the world in secret on a daily basis while risking their lives to do so? That's dark for a kid's show dude. The series wasn't hiding it anyway: I can't count the exact number of ways XANA (a big bad virus-like AI) tried to kill the protagonists in. Anyway.
I changed a few settings. Kadic is supposed to be a middle school (collège), but since it's supposed to be a high school too (funny enough, the school it's based on, the Lycée Lakanal, is where I set a part of my original work), well why not. It fitted much better with the VRAINS cast too. I also took some liberties with the original 2003 run of the show to provide more modern technology like smartphones.
This story is, in short, a love letter to Code Lyoko and to my VRAINS OTPs. I may have forgotten to put the romance into that fic though.
PS. The quote in the beginning is the chorus to the Code Lyoko opening, "Un Monde Sans Danger" (A World Without Dangers). That song has been burnt into my soul ever since I was a kid. 
Event hosted by @vrainsrarepairweeks
AO3 version available here.
It was yet another day of class at Kadic High School, Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine. Nothing out of the ordinary, for once: boring Physics lessons, typical teenage drama, rumours going through the school about teachers and students alike. In that, it made no difference to any other day before it and any other day that would come after it. However, the routine was only a façade in this school near Paris.
Very few knew about the shortcut in the heater room of the dormitory or the one in the school’s park leading the abandoned factory nearby, resting in an island in the Seine. Most people would have just assumed that place was, well, abandoned and empty. The fact was that: that was wrong. That fact was proven untrue by the presence of a bunch of teenagers going there to save the world on a daily basis.
 However, today was a tranquil day in class of rumours and drama. There was always Naoki Shima spreading some kind of rumour on his idol, an e-sport player named Playmaker, which was mostly talked about by fangirls of him around the campus. Meanwhile, a little group of six students was gathering in their usual spot: near the coffee machine, on a bench, waiting for bell never to ring the beginning of classes.
They had formed this little group of friends of theirs in unlikely circumstances. It all started when Ema, from the twelfth-grade class majoring in computer sciences, discovered a way to access the abandoned factory in the river easily after a boring day of school. She apparently had to drag with her Akira, her classmate and a friend since middle school, there. Afterwards, they accidentally dragged with them Aoi, Akira’s younger sister in tenth grade, when she followed them to the factory on one day and stuck with them ever since. With Aoi came her own classmates Takeru and Kiku, who followed suit after they themselves found out about the factory by being friendly to the otherwise isolated Aoi.
 “Hey, guys,” Takeru opened the conversation as he looked at the other students in the courtyard. “It’s been a while since XANA last attacked… You think he’s going to come back soon?”
“I hope not,” Kiku replied with the most honesty in the world. “He almost killed sent everyone to space last time… We were lucky you were competing in the martial arts tournament that time, Takeru!”
“XANA will always come back until the Supercomputer isn’t turned off, I’m afraid,” Akira stated as he came back with two cups of coffee in his hands.
“Then that means you need to find the program to materialize Miyu soon!” Ema enthusiastically added as she thanked Akira for the cup of coffee. “It’s on me next time.”
“I’m doing what I can, but it’s going to take longer than expected. Last night was a fluke again,” he sighed as he rubbed his eyes with the hand not busy holding a cup. The yawn would be for another day.
“It’s fine, big brother,” Aoi simply said as she looked at him with a tiny smile. “You’re already doing your best, and Miyu has told us that before.”
“Your sister is right, Akira, don’t overexert yourself for that! I don’t want to recover your unconscious body on the floor of your room again and almost get scolded by Jim again for sneaking into the boys’ dorm for that!”
Takeru and Kiku simply giggled at the anecdote despite how many times Ema had already told them about it.
During Maths class, as usual, Ema was on her phone during yet another boring lecture from the teacher. There had to be someone watching over Lyoko when nobody could be at the factory in case an activated tower, XANA’s gateway to their world and all the potential damage that would always bring with it, showed up in the virtual world. That was a nice way to spend time: instead of sitting through a painfully tedious session of mathematics, she could just chat with Miyu and whoever else was online. It was funnier to be there and occasionally see Akira stare at her to be serious during a class for once.
He only didn’t ask her to stop on the spot because she otherwise could refuse to lend him their philosophy lessons whenever he’d simply stop understanding most of it. The confusing words and concepts didn’t work very well with his arithmetic brain. It was a fine compromise, though.
 Right when she was about to point out something funny Aoi had said in the chatroom with Miyu, she heard a strange buzzing sound. The neon over their hands started flickering ever so slightly, before the infection spread to the entire ceiling of the classroom.
“You know what this means?” she asked Akira in a whisper.
“A XANA attack. Did Miyu tell you about an activated tower?”
Her eyes immediately darted to the screen, only for a message to confirm their fears. Akira didn’t add anything more.
“Then what excuse do we throw?” she asked again, eyeing the little app she had on her phone she had freshly finished programming in her spare time (or whatever was left of it these days).
 Before she could ask anything, the bell rang. Their eyes bolted in different directions, checking for two different parameters: hers to the teacher, his to the hour on his phone. The former didn’t have a watch, the second didn’t match the time class ended at. As everyone was packing their things together to change classrooms, another ring resonated through the corridors: the fire alarm.
“Okay, it’s definitely a XANA attack”, Akira stated the obvious. “Warn everyone to meet together at the factory before we can get spotted by teachers or monitors.”
“Roger that.”
  It always took some time to reach the factory and gather everyone. That was why they had this habit of only meeting in the main computer room instead of in front of the factory, giving them more time to fight against whatever XANA had to throw at them on Lyoko. Akira and Ema had arrived first and launched themselves in the elevator to the main rooms before getting joined by Aoi shortly thereafter.
“Takeru and Kiku will be a bit late,” she told them, “I think they had class on a higher floor and had more troubles exiting the school.”
 Moments after, the three had taken their respective spots: Akira at the main computer, Ema and Aoi in the cylindrical scans on the floor under the computer room. He had never been a man of actions and was the only one with a real knowledge of how to use the technical beast that was the Supercomputer. Meanwhile, Ema had always loved the thrill of action: fighting creatures on Lyoko was good way for her to exhort her thirst for a way to break away from the real world, even if it was just for a few minutes. Aoi was calmer, but still followed through when she learnt this could help both her brother and the friend she had found in Miyu.
“Are you ready to get virtualized?” he asked them as they set foot in the room, footsteps resonating on the iron floor.
“Of course!” Ema replied with thrill in her voice.
“I am,” Aoi responded more seriously.
“Then let’s get on with it.”
 Four scanners presented themselves to the two girls. Each climbing in one, the virtualization process didn’t take more than thirty seconds anymore. They were used to it: getting transferred inside a virtual world wasn’t painful, at best it was dizzying the first few times. Soon enough, Aoi and Ema found themselves in a forest-like environment, all changed up to battle attire. It wasn’t just for show: if Aoi had wings, it was because she could use them to fly. Ema, who hadn’t design herself in her subconscious mind to get those, was kind of envious.
“Miyu should be nearby waiting for backup,” Akira’s voice arrived from the sky of Lyoko’s Forest territory. “Be careful to monsters, XANA has been waiting for us.”
“As usual,” Ema sighed, amused. “Let’s do this, Aoi.”
 As they ran to their destination, a tower with a red halo, a girl with long pink hair in pigtails and blue eyes joined them. Aoi’s eyes started to shimmer as soon as they noticed her coming towards them, changing her sprinting direction to directly meet up with their friend. They had a habit of hugging each other as soon as they saw each other too. They had gotten more and more physical when meeting up in Lyoko, to the point of holding each other’s hands nowadays when seeing the others. Ema was certain that, would Miyu know about love like any other girl (despite being a sentient AI that was, frankly, more human than some actual humans she knew), they would already be dating. She remembered overhearing Aoi train herself to declare her love to her friend in her dorm room, after all.
“I’m glad to know you’re alright, Miyu!” Aoi told her as they went back to reaching the tower.
“Thank you for coming so quickly, Aoi, Ema! XANA has sent three Bloks who are guarding the tower, we need to be careful!”
 Turning her eyes away from the two friends, Ema noticed one of the Bloks shooting at them.
“Out of the way!!”
Pushing Aoi and Miyu out of the line of fire from the creature sent to them, she took a direct hit to the shoulder from a laser beam, falling to the ground. Trying to shoot back with her own laser arrows at the creature, she was at least relieved to see Aoi and Miyu had made it behind a tree to find a way to shelter themselves from the incoming attacks.
“Ema!!” Aoi’s scream was accompanied by the mirror of Miyu’s mirror reflecting the hit the older girl was about to take, which would have certainly devirtualized her. The Blok took the hit right in its eye, exploding shortly after.
 The commotion from this encounter passed, the three girls hid behind the very same tree. There were mock Bloks in the area, almost twice as much as they had first expected. As she watched from behind their little hiding spot, Ema could only notice this would be harder than expected with Miyu virtually unable to fight for herself and herself having taken a hit already.
“That was such a close call!” Miyu sighed in relief. “We really need to be more careful…”
She was holding onto Aoi’s hand as she said so, her sceptre in her other hand. Nobody knew where that weapon came from, really, but they had brushed it off as a mere way to self-defend against XANA’s monsters who, as it turned out, mostly used laser beams with long ranges to attempt ending her own life.
“Let’s be more careful until Takeru and Kiku can get here,” Aoi decided, with the two others nodding in agreement.
  “Sorry we’re late…!” Takeru said as he entered the main computer room, breathless.
Akira immediately turned around, his one-ear headphone-microphone still on, a smirk drawing on his face. Backup was finally here.
“Jim tried to prevent us from reaching the factory when we tried to go through the heater room shortcut,” Kiku further explained.
“I see. Ema and Aoi required backup, there’s apparently too many monsters for them to deal with.
She glanced at her childhood friend whose back was against the wall, still not recovering his breath.
“Are you okay, Takeru?” she asked with concern all over her tone, hands on her chest.
“I… I’ll be fine… Let’s get to the scanners quickly, I’m sure Aoi, Ema and Miyu need our help…”
 Even if nobody added anything, Akira turning back to the monitor to make sure this wasn’t a burning failure yet, Kiku remained worried. As the elevator went down another floor, she couldn’t get her eyes off Takeru and how flimsy his breathing was. He had never had a pristine health record, and that despite how good he was at martial arts, which made it so she was always concerned in some degree for his condition.
When the doors opened to reveal the scanner room, she handed her friend her help. He gave her a slight smile, a quiet way to tell her not to worry, as they climbed into their own cylinders to get virtualized. There was no time to lose and no time to get concerned for Takeru when there was a tower to deactivate and XANA going on a rampage to make everyone deaf by the end of the day through abusing ringing systems, ringtones and speakers.
 The two soon enough ended in the Forest territory of Lyoko, with instructions given by Akira to join back the others. Running on their legs, the virtualization keeping them away from whatever feeling of physical fatigue they’d have felt from that, they soon noticed the group of monsters blocking the way and their friends behind a big tree.
“Oh, looks like XANA did already send a party,” Takeru noticed. “Let’s be sneaky and see if we can end them without Miyu being targeted by them.”
“Agreed.”
 “Takeru! Kiku!”
Miyu seemed ecstatic to see them arrive, screaming their names in joy. Only then did she put her hand on her month, remembering XANA’s monsters could hear them. It was easy to make a diversion, but that was it.
“Akira!” Ema yelled to the sky to get their control tower’s attention. “How much enemies are they?”
No response.
“Oh God, that’s bad,” she then spoke to herself. “He must have been knocked away from the main panel.”
“Something happened to my brother?” Aoi panicked immediately thereafter, before clutching Miyu’s hand to keep her calm.
“It may have,” Kiku added as she joined them. “One of us needs to go check.”
 They stared at each other, before Ema decided to take the head of things.
“Okay, I’ve got a plan. Aoi, you stay with Miyu to make sure she arrives to the tower in one piece! I’m going with Takeru to face them directly, while Kiku shoots them from the back. I’ve already taken a hit and Takeru has a powerful long-range weapon. Everyone’s good with that?”
“Roger!” Everyone replied in unison as they split in groups.
 Ema had in her mind the secret hope of being devirtualized immediately. Takeru had less health point than she did, but she had already taken a hit and was the only one with any knowledge of the Supercomputer outside of Akira who seemed to spend a huge chunk of his nights on it. It was a perfect match for who had to go back to the real world to check on their friends.
She could see Kiku in her white kimono-like robe, braid flowing through the air as she ran and ran, in the corner of her eye running behind Bloks to stab them with her spear in their top eye, jumping on them, braid going up and down, causing their own self-destruction. She was clearly always going for those targeting Takeru, in a nice touch. The boy was himself with her throwing fire at the enemies, either to blind them or critically damage them.
In the corner of her other, Miyu and Aoi ran with their fingers intertwined, the latter with her own weapon out, ready to jump into action if needed. It was a safer solution for them than for Aoi to hold Miyu as she flew over the battlefield just in case she’d get shot in the wings: would that happen, they’d both take considerable fall damage and risk getting devirtualized. The possibility meaning the death of Miyu if it took place, they preferred to stay safe and go a bit slower. Good stuff there.
 Because she wasn’t paying all her attention to monsters, Ema quickly found herself to be devirtualized by a second hit in the chest, making her virtual body shatter in pixels before she could resurface in the factory.
  Exiting the scanner after getting forcefully devirtualized wasn’t the best feeling in the world, but Ema had no time for dizziness. She ran as fast as possible to the elevator and rushed her hands over the panel to go to the upper floor. They weren’t strangers to XANA using towers to gain access to the real world. In fact, they were even used to Akira getting attacked as to hinder the progress of those on Lyoko. The question was: what had it done to her friend while she was away in the virtual world?
As soon as the door opened, she realized two things: XANA had used a severed electric cable to do its deed, and Akira was unconscious the floor because of it. Her first thought was to rush to his side, to check if he was doing fine. A hand on his wrist, another on his forehead, and her eyes half-focused on the severed cable which now looked as inert as it should be, she let out a sigh of relief when she heard his pulse.
“You scared us again, you idiot,” she muttered under her breath. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to keep an eye on an important mission.”
 She gently half-sat Akira against a nearby wall and jumped into the chair facing the screens monitoring everything. Embracing the control tower nature of it all, she picked the headphone and put it on her ear.
“Anyone, you’re receiving me? It’s Ema!”
Everyone or so replied positively.
“Lemme see…” Her eyes deciphered as much information as they possibly could on the monitors. “Takeru, you’re down to 20HP, be careful! One hit and you’re sent back home! Kiku, there should be a Blok behind you! Aoi, Miyu, you’re near the tower, you may be able to fly there…”
 She interrupted herself when she saw the cable rise back to life, just as she heard everyone call out for Takeru’s voice. Getting down to her feet, taking a fighting stance, she hoped to be able to fight it back enough to have the time for the boy to reach her room. She knew how to activate the Return to the Past to fix all the damage the buildings around the school must have taken from the excessive sound, if the fact she was able to hear some low-quality rap music from the underground rooms of a factory was any indication, but Takeru didn’t.
Avoiding getting tripped by jumping over the cable’s feet, she was relieved to hear Takeru running towards her. He looked a bit out of breath from running so quickly in so little time, but he took his own fighting stance.
“Ema, get to the computer! I’m sure the others need you there!”
 Nodding to him as to confirm his decisions, she jumped back into the chair to see the information: Kiku was close to devritualization with a mere ten HP remaining while Miyu was just about to enter the tower. Trying her hardest to ignore how one-sided Takeru’s fight against the cable was becoming in favour of XANA, she focused on the screens. The boy’s pained scream when his back slammed against the wall didn’t help. Before she could entirely redirect her focus, Kiku had been defeated by a last laser beam.
“Aoi, be careful, Kiku just got eliminated!”
“We know,” the brown-haired girl replied from the other side of the screen. “Miyu is entering the tower now, I’ll try to keep back the last enemies until she can deactivate it!”
“Good, but please make it quick, Akira got stunned and Takeru may be injured from fighting a cable. I’m afraid I’ll be the next, not going to lie there.”
 Kiku soon joined the scene, judging from the elevator’s doors opening again and her little steps rushing to Takeru’s side.
“Ki… Kiku…” His weakened voice tried to warn his friend. “Don’t… Come here…”
Without a word, avoiding getting knocked back by the giant cable, she kneeled next to him, her gaze soon fixated on her friend rather than the incoming danger.
“Are you alright, Takeru?!”
“I… I think I’ve broken something against it… But it’s gonna be fine,  don’t worry… I’m sure Miyu is about to deactivate the tower…” He gave a timid but warm smile to her.
She gently held him against her, a half-felt one on her lips…
“It’s going to be fine. It’s always going to be fine.”
Judging from Takeru’s weak grip, she knew his hand had been broken in his fight against the machine.
  Entering the tower, Miyu made her way as fast as possible to the little panel presented in every tower. As soon as she put her hand on it, the system automatically recognized her, greeting her with the ever same and cold protocol.
MIYU
CODE: LYOKO
The entire tower progressively turned empty as it deactivated. From this little virtual pseudo-cocoon, she could only hope as she looked down everything was fine outside.
 Soon enough, the familiar energy wave of the Return to the Past resonated through the virtual world, making her smile as she thought that, once again, everything would be fine and that they had all saved the day.
  They were back in the same Maths class, which was still boring, still not interesting. A side effect of using the Return to the Past, obviously. At least, she could safely say that
“Hey, do you remember what happened to you before you got unconscious earlier?” she asked trying to hide her concern.
“I got electricized by a cable, that’s all I can remember. It doesn’t matter much anyway, the Return to the Past cancels every injury we could have sustained.”
“Well, that’s fortunate for Takeru, he broke his hand when fighting the cable.”
 Akira suddenly looked very pensive, before having a sort of epiphany flashing on his face.
“That makes me think… I should teach you how to use the Supercomputer, Ema, in case this ever happens again,” he whispered to her.
“I’m not against it. I already know how to use it, as you can see, but you could show me your… special tricks.”
The slight innuendo was enough to make him redden in a moment and look to the side.
“D-don’t phrase it like that…”
She grinned at his embarrassment. He was way too easy to tease, but it was always so much fun.
“Oh, by the way,” she added, “your sister is probably going to get a girlfriend soon, and she won’t even be material unless you come up with your program.”
“E… Excuse me?!”
“Miyu. She’s in love with Miyu and vice-versa. It’s just that you’re never here to see them flirt with each other knowingly or not.”
“Oh. That makes sense, when you precise it that way.”
“I know.”
 Now, if she had the same modesty as Aoi, maybe she would have the guts to tell him about her ever-growing crush on him…
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chancellormatt · 5 years
Text
Voltron Rewrite Episode Three - A Robeast Appears
Episode Three
Raimon stands to the right of Zarkon, unmoving, like a statue. Sendak stands on the other side of the Emperor, shifting the fingers of his artificial arm subconsciously. The three of them are inside a small hanger, overlooking the colony from a hidden position in the dome. The light from the colony’s artificial sun reflects off Raimon’s dark red armor, as he stares dow, at the fields dotted with distant houses and other structures. A transport ship flies inside the hangar and lands. A moment later the hatch hisses open, and Lotor exits, followed shortly by Honerva. Raimon finally looks up, as Zarkon begins to speak.
    “This is the fourth time you’ve visited.” Zarkon says. “I hope you are not wasting all of our time mingling with your lessers boy.”
    “Hardly.” Lotor replies. “I am merely preparing them for the coming war. Today I introduced them to Mother. You should have seen them. When they found out she had birthed me, they were practically worshiping the ground she walked upon.”
    “Pathetic. But, useful for the time being.” Zarkon admits. “Forget your cult of worshipers for now, you’ve had enough time for glory. Now we are to find something more immediately useful.”
    “You mean-”
    “This second colony of yours. We’re going. Now.”
***
    The research laboratory is a dark place, empty equally of life and light. This is changed when a blast of blue energy smashes the door to pieces. Raimon stands in the now empty doorway with an outstretched hand, which crackles lightly with energy. He steps aside to allow Zarkon to enter, followed by Lotor, Honerva, Sendak, before Raimon himself brings up the rear.
    “Why not just break it down yourself?” Lotor asks his father, eyeing the shards of broken metal that were once a door.
    “A lesson. Sometimes it is important to remind those who you command who their leader is.”
    Lotor eyes Raimon, who does not react.    The Prince then shrugs and turns to examine the room.
    “Now let’s see what I was up to here…” Lotor steps over to the side of the door way and waves his hand above a scanner. Lights in the room flicker on, and the contents of the room are revealed in full light. Bodies, hanging in canisters of fluid line the walls. It is clear that they are altean.
    “Oh.” It is all Prince Lotor seems to be able to say.
    Zarkon laughs. Lotor looks at his father with confusion. Zarkon shakes his head the barest ghost of a smile on his lips. “So much for your ‘second colony.’ These alteans were led to this moon like a Migrap to the slaughter. They were foolish to trust you.”
    Raimon walks up to one of canisters and places his hand on the glass.
    “But...why?” Prince Lotor asks, looking away from the canisters disgustedly. “I can’t imagine my alternate would do this without very good cause.”
    “Quintessence.” Honerva says, suddenly. “Alteans we...they have a unique relationship with quintessence.”
    Lotor nods, and walks over to one of the display and takes a readout from a small display on the side. “...right you are mother. They’ve...they’ve been sucked dry. This...yes, this makes sense. It was the only way he could get such pure quintessence. He...did what he had to.” The Prince says, more to himself than the others.
    Raimon turns away from the canister he stands in front of . “This area may not be secure. Permission to patrol the outside perimeter?”
    Zarkon tilts his head as he stares down at Raimon. “...denied. Keep searching this area. I want to find what else my son’s alternate was hiding. Sendak, you too.”
    “...understood.” Raimon walks past them, with Sendak following close after. No one seems to notice Raimon’s tightly clenched fists.
    “...we found something.” Raimon says some time later. He stands before Zarkon, along with Sendak.
    “This moon, if you can even call it that, has been remodeled far more than we imagined.” Sendak explains. “This facility is just the fin of the brantha fish. We found an powerlift tunnel network running all across the underside of the moon’s surface, to dozens of other facilities. One of the sister facilities should be of particular interest to you.”
    “Go on.” Zarkon says.
    “An underground factory, which based on the computer systems, is for the construction of warships and other weapons.”
    “Take us there.”
    The shipyard is a gigantic underground facility full of massive pieces of machinery. The dark paladins stand on a platform overlooking the facility. A dozen or so computer displays line the platform.
    “Will this suffice Honerva?”
    Honverva types on one of the computers for a few moments before responding. “...yes.” She finally says. “The machines here are quite modular. They can be used to build just about anything, and minerals and other building materials are automatically brought up the planet’s crust, meaning very little work on our part.”
    “How long until you can have a prototype up and running?”
    “A few Vargas. Maybe even less. This facility appears to be top of the line.”
    “Let me know as soon as one is ready. Sendak stay here in case Honerva requires assistance. Lotor, come. We shall leave your mother to what she does best.”
    He turns to leave, and Raimon follows without needing an acknowledgment. Lotor follows, but with hesitation.
    “What she does best?” Lotor asks with confusion.
    Zarkon lets out a short chuckle. “Creating monsters.”
***
    “Let’s go over this one more time.” Allura says tiredly. “We need to win over the alteans from the colony…”
    “-But they’ll never trust anyone besides Lotor.” Romelle says.   
    She sits at a table in the Garrison base mess hall, opposite Allura and Coran. There is food in front of each of them, though little has been eaten.
    “Not even an altean princess?” Allura asks hopefully.
    “I don’t think so, Allura.” Romelle shakes her head. “-I mean uh, Princess Allura.”
    Allura waves a hand dismissively. “Really it's fine. Please go on.”
Romelle nods.  “My people will be suspicious of any outsiders, and we haven’t had altean royalty for ages. You have to understand we were isolated for millenia. If not for my brother...well I don’t think I ever would have ever found out what was actually going on.”
    “What if we showed them? Showed them the second colony, all the horrible experiments Lotor was doing? Surely with all that proof they’d be able to see what a monster he really was.” Allura suggests.
    “I want to believe they would.” Romelle looks down. “But deep down I know that many, if not all of them would still refuse to believe. They’d say that someone else did it. Maybe even that you yourself did, so you could smear Lotor’s name. Probably all you would accomplish is alienating them further.”
    Allura slumps back in her seat, with a sigh.
    Coran pokes at his food dejectedly. “What if...what if we left Lotor out of it?”
    “What do you mean?” Romelle asks with confusion.
    “I mean that Lotor’s gone. We don’t have to worry about him anymore. If we approach them carefully, explain that he died...we could let them believe whatever they want to believe. It may take a while to establish trust, but they should come around sooner or later.”
    “And all we’d have to do is let them continue to believe that monster was their savior-no, worse! We’d probably be making him into a martyr!” Allura exclaimes.
    “I didn’t say it was a good plan.” Coran sighs. “It's just that we’re running out of ideas. Sooner or later we’ll need to approach them, and unless we come in with a plan, they’re just going to shut us out.”
     “We’ll...come up with something else. Gone or not I’m not letting that man affect these people any more than he already has.” Allura shakes he read.
    “Of course.” Coran nods. “You’ll figure something out, I’m sure.”
    Allura doesn’t reply.    Coran frowns, and eyes her untouched plate. “You really should eat, Princess. You have to keep up your strength.”
    Allura nods absentmindedly.
    “Well-” Coran begins to scarf down his own meal. “Ah’ll beh oof.” He swallows. “-They need my help on getting ready to build the new castle.”
    “Do you ever sleep Coran?” Allura says, forcing a smile.
    “Not a wink, Princess.” Coran returns the smile, and gets up. “Romelle would you be able to lend a hand as well? I could use someone else that can read altean to translate all these plans.”
    Romelle’s eyes flicker to Allura with concern. “Perhaps I should…”
    “I’m fine.” Allura waves a hand.
    Romelle nods. “Then It would be my honor, Coran.”
“I’ve got places to be myself anyways.” Allura sighs. “Shiro wanted me there for the latest bout of ‘negotiations’ with the Garrison. Though, in truth, it's really just us banging our heads against a wall.”
    “Well you are a master negotiator, Princess. I’m sure you’ll get them to come around eventually.”
    “Forgive me if I remain skeptical...”
***
    The rest of the Dark Paladins return to the shipyard, only now, there is something new in the facility.  A massive mech armor, silver in color, stands in the facility, looming over the main platform. Honerva holds both hands up towards it, violet energy crackling from her fingers to the metal of the armor.
    “Are you finished?” Zarkon asks.
    “Putting in the finishing touches...done.” The energy fades and Honerva drops her hands, turning to Zarkon. “Shall we retrieve a test pilot?”
    “Pilot?” Prince Lotor asks. “You mean...this is what we’re using the alteans for? To operate these…”
    “Robeasts.” Honerva supplies. “And yes. Alteans relationship with quintessence should allow this robeast and all future copies to have...unique abilities. Would you care you grab one of your new subjects for the test run?”
    “Belay that.” Zarkon says. “We’re already all here after all.” He turns to Raimon. “He can test it.”
    Raimon says nothing, but Honerva looks unsure.
    “There will be a great deal of strain...I am not yet sure if the pilot will survive…”
    “He’ll survive. Get in the robeast, Raimon.”
    “...yes my lord.” Is Raimon replies.
***
    “Just like I told you every time since you’ve come here: The people of Earth, the Galaxy Garrison especially, cannot commit to an interstellar war-” Admiral Sanda says firmly.
    “Here we go again...” Matt sighs. Many of the Coalition and Garrison representatives once again sit in the boardroom. No one looks particularly happy to be there.
    Sanda shoots him a glare. “-the potential rewards simply do not outweigh the overwhelming risk. You at least should understand that much Lieutenant Shirogane.” She says the last, while turning back to Shiro.
    Shiro sighs. “I do understand. But I also have hope. Hope that you and the people you represent will be able to see that helping each other is the best way to survive the Galra.”
    Sanda’s face remains impassive.   
    “This is a waste of time.” Matt speaks up.
    “For once, I agree with former Science Officer Holt.” Sanda says.
    Shiro sighs again. He looks at Keith with a questioning look. Keith’s eyes flicker to Allura, who has been silent up to this point. Keith nods towards her. After a moment, Shiro begins to nod.
    “Princess Allura.” Shiro says.   
    “Yes?” She sits up, shaking head, as if driving away rogue thoughts.
    “I understand this might be a...sensitive topic for you, but if it's not too much, could you explain to Sanda what exactly it was that happened to your home planet, Altea?”
    Allura takes a breath and nods. “I can. My home planet, Altea, was once ruled by my father, King Alfor. He was...he was the best man I think I will ever know. My father ruled with kindness and ingenuity. He was a scientist, of sorts, and everything he discovered he used to try and better the lives of the people he ruled. However, just because he was a scientist did not mean he was not strong. My father was a warrior too, and one of the old Paladins of Voltron. He fought for people that could not fight for themselves, rescued those in need.” She looks distant for a moment, and smiles. “I can still remember when he first too me grand crystal falls, a sight so beautiful people from halfway across the galaxy to see it. Altea was a magnificent place, and I think that is in no small part due to the efforts of my father.”
    Allura’s eyes begin to harden as she looks up to stare Sanda in the eyes.
    “...my father was once allied with the Galra. He even called their Emperor Zarkon, a fellow Paladin, his friend. And in spite of what happened next, I think at least at one time, Zarkon thought the same of my father. Zarkon, crazed by an experiment to save his wife, turned on his friend. He...he murdered my father, and destroyed Altea. That beautiful, magnificent place, was crushed under the heel of the Galra empire, trampled like a juniberry flower. I am one of only a handful of alteans that still live.”
    “While you do have my condolences for this loss…” Sanda says carefully. “...that only seems to further illustrate what a bad idea it is to make the Galra our enemy, and why we cannot get involved in this war.”   
    Allura looks down.
    “Then you weren’t listening very well.” Keith says suddenly.
    All eyes turn to him.
    “Zarkon turned on his allies, his friends, and destroyed them without a second thought. If that’s what the Galra Empire does to it's friends, what do you think they’ll do when they find a lone planet, with no affiliation to any larger force, like the Coalition, just waiting to be overtaken? What do you think will happen if the Galra find you after we leave? Do you think they’ll ignore you just because you aren’t actively fighting them?”
    Sanda stares at Keith for a moment. “I will...consider these points you’ve made when I next speak with my overseers. But I’m afraid my answer still stays the same.”
    Shiro nods. “Thank you for your time.”
    The Garrison and Coalition representatives pour of the boardroom, dispersing quickly. Allura starts to walk off on her own, looking tired.
    “Allura! Wait up!” Keith calls over, jogging up to walk beside her. “Uh, thanks for your story. Think it might’ve helped. At least a little.
    Allura smiles weakly. “I just talked about my father and altea for a bit. I think the only part that might have give them any pause was what you pointed out. So much for me being a good diplomat.”
    “Don’t sell yourself short. You’re good at this. Sanda’s just a piece of work.”
    “I think she’s just following orders.” Allura points out. “I can’t say for sure, but my gut tells me that she does want to help, but can’t go against the orders of her superiors.”
    “Maybe.” Keith shrugs.
    Neither say anything for a few moments. Keith shoots her glances a few times, then sighs.
    “...Allura, I know you said you were alright before...but are you sure? You’ve been seeming really distracted lately, especially in meetings.”
    “It's nothing…” Allura hesitates.”...no, that isn’t really true. It's the altean colony. We’ve been trying to divise the best way to approach them, but so far we only have a few bad options. I’m becoming increasingly worried about what might happen if our first contact with them goes wrong.”
    “Well if anyone knows alteans, it's you. I’m sure you’ll be able to work it out.”
    “That’s what everyone says. But honestly I’m at a loss. I’m not my father, I don’t have his skill with leadership, and I never got a real chance to lead my people…” She looks down.   
    “Allura, trust me when I say your people could do a lot worse than you.” Keith replies.
    “I suppose your right.” She sighs.“Their last leader was Lotor, after all.”
    “Hm? Oh right Lotor.”
    “Who..who were you thinking of?” Allura asks with confusion.
    Keith suddenly looks nervous. “Uh, well Zarkon was a pretty terribly emperor, then of course you got Haggar, Sendak, really just a lot of bad leaders out there...”   
    Allura still looks at Keith with suspicion, but doesn’t press further.
“...thank you.” She says instead. “I’ll keep trying to find a solution to this problem with the alteans.”   
    “You wouldn’t be Allura if you didn’t.” Keith smiles. “If you ever need to talk about this stuff again...well you know where to find me.”
“I will.” Allura nods.
Keith waves and turns around to walk off down the corridor. Allura continues on her own, though she does seem more lively than before.
    ***
    The Robeast slams into the side of the platform, causing the whole thing to shake.
    “Amazing.” Sendak says.
    “It’s not Voltron, but it should suffice.” Zarkon notes.
A port opens on the machine’s chest, and Raimon stumbles out to collapse on the floor. They stare down at him for a time. Zarkon nudges the man with his foot. Raimon grunts, then tried to get to his feet. He gets halfway up before slumping back down to the floor panting.
    “See?” Zarkon says with a chuckle. “He survived.”
    “Yes…” Honerva says. “In the future we should see about training the pilots to withstand the stress. However, I suspect that you will not have time for that for your next demonstration.”
    “Correct.”
    “Demonstration?” Lotor asks.
    “The whole universe is going to see what this machine can do. And that will be just the first of many.  Sendak? You found what I asked?”
    “Of course, my lord. A smaller planet, and based on communications, a part of this ‘Voltron Coalition.’ It is a ways off, but if this Robeast can move as fast as Honerva claims, that should not be a problem.”
    “Good. Lotor, go back to the colony and grab one of your new underlings. It’s well past time we made our first move…”
***
    “Then I was like KA-BOOM! And the dragon was like BLEAH!!! And that’s how we beat the game!” Lance explains animatedly.
    Lance stands besides Hunk and Pidge, talking as they work on various electronic equipment.
    “It look a lot longer than he made it sound.” Pidge says. “We stayed up til like two am trying to take that thing down. Probably would have gotten through it sooner if Lance hadn’t used all his health potions on the first level...”
    “She’s just mad I’m better at her game than she is.” Lance whispers to Hunk, just loud enough for Pidge to hear.
    “It's a team based game!” Pidge exclaimes “When one of us wins we both do, how can you say you’re better?”
    “‘Cause I got the last hit, duh.”
    “After I buffed you!”
    Lance waved his hand dismissively. Hunk chuckles.
    “Whatever.” Pidge shrugs. “I’m just glad my mom let me work on stuff. Think the cookies might have helped though...”
    “Oh by the way,I forgot to mention, but you can thank Hunk for those cookies.” Lance says. “I mean it was my idea, but he did all the work…”
    “I kinda figured.” Pidge replies. “Thanks Hunk.
    “It wasn’t just me, my family helped too.” Hunk pipes in “We all love cooking so it was a pleasure. They were good too...we uh, might’ve made some more just for us.”
    It's Pidge and Lance’s turn to chuckle.   
    “Hey wait a minute.” Hunk says, as if remembering something. “Weren’t you gonna go ask Allura out on that date yesterday? What happened to that?”   
    “I’m...getting around to it…” Lance says, rubbing his neck.
    Hunk eyes him dubiously.
    “Look man, I’m just waiting for the right time. Seems like she’s got a lot on her mind lately...”
    Pidge doesn’t say anything.
    “Whatever, doesn’t matter to me.” Hunk shrugs.
    Lance looks troubled, but Hunk doesn’t seem to notice. He starts to whistle a tune as he continues to disassemble electronics.
    “You sure seem happy today.” Lance notes.
    “Well I’m back with my family, on earth, and the most important thing I have to do is some basic engineering.” Hunk smiles. “Guess I’m just glad that we can all finally rel-”
    Hunk is cut off by a sound from each of the three’s communicators. They all pull out their devices, to hear Shiro’s voice:
    “All Paladins and Coalition forces! Report to the ships waiting outside the garrison base! This is not a drill!”
    Lance Pidge and Hunk all share a look, before scrambling towards the exit.
***
    Allura rushes up to a platform where a small crowd of Coalition forces have gathered. Shiro and Keith are already standing atop the platform.
    “What’s going on?” Allura asks, pulling herself up onto the platform.
    “Ever heard of the planet Koroth?” Keith asks, helping her up to a standing position.
    “Sounds vaguely familiar.”
    “It's a small planet that’s pledged for the Coalition, not too far from here. They’ve been attacked.”
    “Galra?”
    “What else could it be? We’re the only support close enough to get there in time.”
    “What’d we miss?” Pidge asks, climbing up, alongside Lance and Hunk.
    “Just about to get started…” Keith looks to Shiro, who nods.
    “Everyone listen up!” Shiro says. “One of our allies, the people of planet Koroth are under attack! Their communications cut off midway through their distress call, so we have to assume the worst. No one else is near close enough to help them, so we’re heading over their effective immediately. Strap in. Whatever’s waiting for us over there, it probably isn’t going to be pretty.”
    The Coalition personnel disperse to run to their respective ships. Shiro turns to the Paladins.
    “Good luck out there guys.”
    “Shiro...you aren’t coming?” Keith asks, confused.
    Shiro frowns and glances down at his arm. “I’m not a Paladin anymore, and I don't think I’d be much help out there anyway...I’ll do more good back here, trying to get things going with the Garrion.”
    “...alright.” Keith says uncertainty. He turns to the other Paladins. “Let’s move!”
The Paladins head to their lions. Keith glances over at a determined looking Allura.
    “You uh...up for this?” He asks her carefully.
    “Yes.” She says firmly. “I’ll gladly accept a problem where the solution is just fighting Galra. It’ll be a relief to be honest.”
    “Alright, let’s give ‘em hell, then.”
The Lions of Voltron all blast off into space, tailing a set of coalition ships.
***
    Koroth sits in the darkness of space, an orb consisting of purple oceans and pitch-colored landmasses. The Voltron Coalition flies into the planet’s orbit.
    “Pidge, what do we got?” Keith asks.
    “I’m getting some crazy quintessence readings. Hang on...it's all coming from what looks like a city on the other side of the planet.”   
    “Let’s check it out.”   
    The Lions, followed shortly by the other Coalition ships descend into the planet’s atmosphere, to fly a ways above its surface. After a few moments, they skyline of a city comes into view. Smoke billows out from many of the structures, as a bright violet light surges from within the confines of the city.
    The Lions fly upward to get a aerial view. What they see shocks the Paladins. The entire middle section of the city is largely destroyed. Distantly, on the broken streets below, indigo-skinned Korothans run in terror.  Trails of purple energy crack the ground throughout the city, leading up to a single crouched figure. A silver-armored Robeast.  It is armed with a double ended spear that is thrust into the ground, surging with violet energy.  
    “What the heck is that!?” Lance exclaimes.
    “Some kind of new Robeast, it looks like!” Hunk says, looking worried.
    “Pidge, what’s it doing?” Keith asks.
    “The quintessence readings are off the charts! I think...I think it's draining the planet!”
    “Like the komar…” Allura realises with horror.
    “Well let’s not give it a chance to finish!” Keith declares. “Paladins! Form Voltron!”
    The Lions fly in formation, and combine into the Legendary Defender, Voltron.
    “Coalition ships, give us support, but hang back if you can, I don’t want what's left of the city getting caught in the crossfire.”
    “Understood.” Matt replies over the comm.
    “Alright. Everyone ready?”
    “Ready!” The paladins reply in unison.
    Voltron burst into action, racing straight towards the Robeast. The Robeast removes it's spear, and turns to face Voltron.
    “Form sword!’ Keith orders.
    Voltron tears out it's sword while barreling towards the Robeast. A moment before impact, Voltron swings. At the same time the Robeast swings it's spear in turn. The two mechas collide, and a shockwave rocks the battlefield. The two immensely powerful machines push against one another, each trying to gain the upperhand.
    The Paladins struggle, pushing with their throttles forward with all their might. Voltron steps forward, and the Robeast is shoved back a step. Voltron continues to push forward, and the Robeast inches backwards, it's feet breaking up stone in the process.
    “We’re...doing it!” Lance says through gritted teeth.
    And then, the Robeast’s chest opens up. A dark purple orb of energy forms at the opening.
    “What’s it doing!?” Hunk cries.
    The orb erupts into a dark purple blast of energy that blasts into Voltron. Voltron is flung across the city, to crash back down into the ruins of a skyscraper. The Paladins all moan.
    “What...what was that?” Keith asks.   
“It fired the raw quintessence it drew from the planet into an energy blast!” Pidge reports.
    “Let’s not get hit by that again. Come on! Back up guys!” Keith says.
    Voltron lurches back to it's feet, just in time for the Robeast to slam them back down with a swing of it's spear. With Voltron sprawled on the ground the Robeast splits it's spear in two and swings the tips of the two spear blades down to pierce Voltron in the chest. Energy begins to surge from Voltron into the Robeast.
    “AHHHHH!” The Paladins collectively cry, as Voltron’s energy continues to be siphoned.
    “Hand on Voltron! We’re coming to help!” Matt declares over the comm.
    Matt’s fighter along with a half-dozen others race towards the Robeast, energy blasters firing. Bolts of energy slam into the Robeast’s back. It seems unharmed, and doesn’t bother to turn away from Voltron.
    “Dang that thing’s armor is too thick!” Matt says. “Let me try something else…you guys try and get it's attention!”
    Matt’s fighter breaks off, while the other ships pull around to target the Robeast’s side. They concentrate all their blasts onto one of the Robeast’s arms. The Robeast’s arm slowly begins to glow under the heat of the repeated blasts. Finally the Robeast removes one of it's spears from Voltron, while still leaving one in place. It uses it's newly freed arm to fire a violet stream of energy out of its gauntlet. The ships scatter, as the energy beam tears across the space they just vacated. A moment later, a cable flys out to wrap around the Robeast’s arm.  
    “Got ya!” Matt says.   
    His fighter, now tethered to the Robeast pulls backwards. The small fighter strains, not really gaining any ground. The  Robeast on the other hand, starts to pull Matt’s fighter in with the cable. The other fighters pull around to support Matt, firing their own cables to pull back. Gradually they start to pull the Robeast’s arm backwards.
    “Quick! While he’s distracted!” Keith orders.
    “I think I can…” Pidge says, struggling to push her throttle forward. The strain of the Robeast’s spear makes the task nearly impossible. To Pidge’s shock her bayard port opens.   
Outside, the Robeast fires a blast from it's arm, which is now angled directly at the Coalition fighters. The fighters release their cables and scatter again, but two of them aren’t quick enough. The fighters explode in blasts of blue energy.
    At the same moment, Pidge rams her bayard into the port. Voltron’s green arm shoots up, the cannon materializing on it. The cannon fires directly into the unprepared Robeast’s chin.
    The robeast goes flying backwards, slamming back down into a mound of rubble. The paladins are all panting to catch their breath.
    “St...status?” Keith manages to get out.
    “We lost two.” Matt reports. “Don’t think our fighters can do much damage at all to that thing.”
    “Hang back then.” Keith instructs. “Larger cruisers, get into position. Your cannons might be able to do something, but don’t fire unless I say.”
    “Roger that!” Several Commanders reply.   
    “Paladins…” Keith sighs. ”...let’s try not to keep getting kicked around.”
    “Easier said than done!” Lance replies.
    The Robeast begins to rise from the pile of rubble.
    “Uh guys! It's getting back up!” Hunk says.
    Voltron bursts into motion, tearing out it's sword as it moves. The Robeast replies by shifting both spear tips into scythe-like blades. Voltron swings it's sword, while the Robeast blocks with it's scythes. The sword blade is halted just a hair away from cutting into the Robeast’s face. The Robest uses the curve of one of the scythes to pull the sword downward while swinging the other at Voltron’s neck.
    “Not this time!” Keith throws his throttles downward and Voltron jerks it's head below the strike, then headbutts the Robeast in the gut. The Robeast is shoved backwards, and it stumbles in an attempt to regain its footing.
    “Hunk now!” Keith orders.
    “On it!”
    Hunk slams his bayard into his lion, and Voltron’s shoulder cannon materializes then fires. The thick beam of energy slams into the Robeast’s shoulder, causing it to spin to the side. Voltron shoots forward, taking advantage of the distraction with a swing of its sword. The Robeast however, recovers quickly, and deflects the sword with one scythe, and counters with the other. The scythe blade slashes across Voltron’s chest, flinging it backwards. Voltron keeps from falling, but the Robeast presses the attack. A flurry of a slices from the Robeast keeps Voltron on the defensive.
    “Pidge we need that shield!”
    Without a word Pidge throws up the wing shield to block the following attack. However, the scythes surge with energy and the shield is split in two. Voltron swings the sword around to block, but the Robeast knocks the weapon from it's grip. Voltron moves as if to fly backwards but the robeast throws both scythes upward and brings them down, hooking into Voltron’s shoulders.
    Voltron is brought down to its knees, as the energy drain begins once again. The paladins all struggle in vain. Inside his cockpit, Keith tries his controls and throttle, but nothing works.
    “Come on...COME ON!” He shouts. “Pidge tell me you got something!”
    “It's just...draining us...too much…” Pidge says straining.
    “What about...the fleet?” Allura suggests.
    “We can’t they’ll...” Keith considers for a moment. “Coalition ships...fire on the Robeast.”
    “But we’ll hit you too-”
    “DO IT!” Keith orders. “NOW!”
    “Wait what-” is all Lance can say, before Voltron and the Robeast are engulfed by a hail of energy blasts. The two mechas are blasted in opposite directions, crashing through what's left of the ruined city.
    “Is everyone...alive?” Keith asks with a moan.
    “Barely…” Hunk says woozily.
    “Hey man you wanna let us know when you’re gonna do something like that!?” Lance exclaimes.
    “It was a split second decision. Wasn’t time.” Keith says.
    “Um, guys!” Pidge says.   
    The Robeast is flying straight towards Voltron.
    “Fire again!” Keith orders.
    The Coalition ships fire, raining down bolts of energy onto the Robeast. It  weaves in between the volleys of blasts, then turns towards the ships. The Robeast then opens it's chest and the energy begins to charge.
    “Stop it from firing!” Keith yells.   
    Voltron bursts into motion, but they don’t reach the Robeast in time. The chest beam fires, tearing across the side of one of the Coalition cruisers.
    “We’re going down!” a Commander shouts.  
    As the cruiser starts a controlled fall towards just outside the city, Voltron and the Robeast clash once again. Voltron tears out it's sword to swing once again, only for the  Robest to catch the blade along the lengths of it's scythes. The Robeast uses its position to shift the sword to the side, and body slams Voltron shoulder-first. Voltron is pushed back and only barely managed to leap out of the way of the next scythe blade, however the one after that, tears the sword out of voltron’s hand. Pressing it's attack further, the Robeast goes in for the drain strike again. The moment before it's blades dig into place, the shoulder cannon materializes and blasts the Robeast in the face.
    “Nice job Hunk!” Keith says, as the Robeast is blasted backwards.   
    “Yeah, well I’m not about to let that thing keep us from getting home.” Hunk replies. “But man, the cannon should have done more, Voltron must really be drained.”   
    Sure enough, the Robeast is already recovering.
    Keith curses under his breath.
    From inside her paladin Allura examines the damage to the city around them. Thin trails of quintessence still bleed out of the planet’s cracked surface in places.
    “Paladins we have to stop this Robeast! As unstoppable as it might seem, if we don’t, I fear that creature’s weapon could drain this entire planet’s life force!”
“I’m all for taking it down, but we’ve been getting creamed up close and that chest beam makes fighting at range a bad idea...” Lance says.
    “The chest beam...that might be it Lance!” Pidge exclaimes.
    “Huh!? Did I actually figure something out?”
    “Don’t give yourself too much credit. Guys, when it opens up that port to fire it's chest beam, It should be vulnerable for a split second. We’d have to provoke it into firing, and our timing would have to be perfect…”
    “Do it, fire everything.” Keith instructs. “You too Coalition! Let’s put this thing’s back against the wall!”
    As the Robeast begins to charge at Voltron, they pull backwards. Voltron flies in reverse, throwing out both hands to blast energy from. The small shots don’t seem to have much punch, but Hunk’s cannon throws it back. Before the Robeast can recover from that, it is blasted from above by the Coalition cruisers. As it takes to the sky to fly evasively, Voltron pulls around again, to fire with the green lion cannon, knocking it to the ground once again. As soon as it hits the ground, the Robeast it smashed further into the ground by energy cannon fire from above.
    “Keep pushing!” Keith yells, as Voltron fires streams of energy from both hands.   
    The Robeast rises from it's prone position as it attaches it's two scythes back together into one staff-weapon. As it does this, the staff spins as it glows with energy, deflecting the incoming energy fire off in various directions. The Robeast’s chest opens and begins to glow.  
    “Booster now!” Keith cries. Voltron blasts into motion, tearing it's sword out as it does, racing  right for the Robeast. The Robeast in reply, blasts away in the opposite direction.
    “You aren't’ getting away...” Keith says slamming his bayard into it's port.
    Voltron’s booster wings appear, and Voltron lurches forward at breakneck speed. Violet energy bursts from the Robeasts feet as it goes into overdrive as well. The ball of pure energy continues to glow on it's chest. Voltron is closing the distance, but not fast enough.
    “We aren’t going to make it in time!” Pidge shouts.
    “There must be something we can-” Allura’s voice cuts off as her bayard port begins to glow.
    The Robeast’s orb of energy is about to release.
    Allura lets out a battle cry as she slams her bayard into place.
    A long blue weapon with a spiked energy tip appears on Voltron’s shoulder. It fires. A spear of energy shoots out, slamming into the the Robeast’s shoulder, embedding itself. The spear, tethered back to Voltron with a cable of light pulls taut, and The robeast is jerked backwards, right towards Voltron.
    Voltron drives it's sword directing into the Robeast’s open chest panel. For a moment, nothing happens. Then, in a blast of violet energy, the Robeast is blown apart. Pieces of silver-colored armor fly across the city. A single dark capsule flies out from the Robeast’s upper chest, flinging itself well beyond the city-limits.
    The Coalition comm explodes with cheers.
    “Paladins...everyone...alright?” Keith asks, panting.
“B-barely.” Hunk pants out.
    “Still...breathing.” Pidge manages.   
“That was...nothing…” Lance says, not managing to convince anyone.
    “Allura?” Keith asks, noting the only person not to speak up.
    “I’m fine…” She pulls out her bayard and smiles. “Maybe a little better than fine.”
    “Good…” Keith takes a deep sigh. “...Coalition...how many did we lose?”
    “Twelve.” Matt reports. “Two in each of those fighters, and the rest from that glancing blow Commander Scrag’s ship took. He set her down easy enough though, that could have been a lot worse.”
    “Could have been better too…” Keith says, more to himself than the others. After a moment, he shakes his head. “...Pidge, what was that capsule that flew off at the end?”
    “My guess? The pilot. I’m tracking their location.”
    “Coalition forces, tend to the people of the city, give them all the help we can.  Paladins...let’s go find the pilot, and give him a proper Voltron welcome…”
***
    The five lions of Voltron set down in a rough circle around the capsule. Keith is the first out, followed by Lance, Pidge, Hunk, and Allura bringing up the rear. The Capsule is dark, and shows no sign of opening. Keith turns his bayard into sword and starts to pry it open.
“Any bets on who it is?” Lance asks. “My money’s on Sendak. This seems like a Sendak kinda thing.”
“Haggar.” Pidge says. “That thing’s weapon was just like the komar, which was her superweapon.”
In an instant, both are proved wrong. The lid of the capsule pops open, and the pilot is revealed. A young man with dark hair lies inside the cockpit, unconscious. He pointed ears, and a curved mark on each cheek. Allura gasps and pushes past the others.
“An...Altean!?”
***
    Hours later, the Paladins sit inside a medical center, back on Earth, in the Galaxy Garrison base. Most of the Paladins are shifting or fidgeting uncomfortably. Shiro, Coran and Romelle are also present. Allura sits incredibly still, staring at her interlaced fingers.
    “Paladins...he’s awake.” A doctor says.
    Allura is out of her seat in a second. She steps into an examination room, where the altean boy lies strapped to a table. She takes a breath, and approaches him, with Coran and Romelle at either shoulder. The others wait at the door.
    “Izan!” Romelle gasps.
The boy looks up groggily.
    “You know this boy?” Allura asks.
    Romelle nods. “He’s from the colony. Bit of a troublemaker, but he’s not…” Her voice trails off.
    Allura nods, and turns back to the boy.
    “Izan? How are you feeling?” She asks.
    The boy’s eyes seem to focus. He gets a look at Allura and his eyes narrow.
    “I have nothing to say to you.” Izan turns away sharply.
    “Watch your words Izan, this is royalty you speak to!” Romelle says.
    The boys shoot to Romelle. “Huh, Romelle. So they got you. Pity.”
    “What are you talking about?” Romelle demands.
    The boy scoffs and turns away again. Allura sighs, and leans down to meet him at eye-level. “Izan, I know this must be confusing to you, but we are not your enemies. I am Princess Allura, last heir to the Altean throne. Please, help me to understand how you got inside that Robeast, and where it came from. I only want to help.”
    The boy laughs. It is a hollow, mirthless sound.
    “He told me you’d try to use trickery...but a Princess? I didn’t expect that one.”
    “He…?” Allura asks with confusion?
    “Who else?” the boy shrugs. “Our savior, the person who all alteans owe their life to, and the man that’s going to destroy all of you fake Paladins…”
    “No…” Allura says, her face already turning to horror, before the boy even speaks the name.
    “...Lotor.”
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bluecastleinthesky · 5 years
Text
Prucan week day 2
Gilbert was going to kill Alfred looking at the list of fixes he had to get to he wondered what on earth the other man did on his shift. He had a feeling that most of the issues were from over enthusiastic over upgrading things just to find something to do. Which was all well and good until a poor computer from 1999 burst into flames trying to install windows 10 software. Rolling his shoulders and wincing at the crackle Gilbert started to get his things together he had 4 internet connections to fix and a buggy library catalog to troubleshoot and once that was done he was totally playing online MMOs until 5. “ Looks like a perfect day Ed” he said swiping a soda from the fridge as he headed out .
“You making Al do the big fixes?” Eduard mumbled as he sat scrolling through code trying to find where some poor grad student had messed up his profile page.
“Yep” said Gilbert popping the ‘p’ with some satisfaction. “He made them he fixes them” .
“Fair enough” Eduard said waving absentmindedly at him as he left.
Scrolling through his phone as he walked Gilbert smirked as he looked at the pictures his brother had put up on Instagram “Looks like you’re whipped lil bro” he snickered putting just that in the comment section under a picture of Ludwig putting up shelving with a cat strapped to him. Shaking his head, he wove through the students heading to class and to the comparatively empty library.
One elevator trip to the subbasement of sadness later he was stuck in line waiting with the rest of the petitioners to ask the head librarian what exactly was wrong with the non-connecting computers. Blinking he realized the person in front of him was the Professor he had helped the other day.
“Hey you’re the tech guy” The other man said suddenly seeming to realize the same thing.
“Yeah that’s me” Gilbert replied with a smile “what are you doing down here?” he asked looking around “You keep a book out late?”
Matthew snorted “Nothing like that I’m actually trying to figure out why none of my students seem to be able to get the reserve books I had them put aside”
“Ah” Gilbert said shuffling forward as the line shortened. Leaning against the corner of the bookcase he asked “Keeping anything good on reserve?”
“Just the main textbook I had a few spare copies, but supposedly they can’t get them and that’s why no one is doing the reading” Matthew shook his head “I have a feeling that no one has actually tried to take them out but I want to check before I make them do a quiz”
“Sounds fair”
“Yeah. So why are you here? Did they glitch out too from the other day?” Matthew waved his hand vaguely seeming to be trying to capture ‘blue screen of death’ in the gesture.
“Nah it’s a internet connection issue with the lending laptops” Gilbert said surprised that the other man had asked
“Hopefully it’s an easy fix” Matthew said with a smile and wave as he headed into the office leaving Gilbert outside with a rather funny feeling in his stomach.
“Huh” Gilbert said looking after him shifting his orange backpack to the floor as he slouched further against the bookcase. “Well at least he’s polite” he muttered waving at the other man a few minutes later as he headed into his meeting.
 Matthew had spent most of the morning trying his best to figure out whether his students were lying or just incompetent and it turned out the answer was both. Resigning himself to writing up a pop quiz he head to lunch flipping through his planner to make a note so he would remember. In the back of his head he wondered how the Tech guy had fared with his issues hopefully they had been easy to fix.  God he was cute he thought absently as he headed to his office. Something about how he slouched against the bookcase…? Mentally shrugging he got back to work drafting a quiz and then sitting through what felt like an endless staff meeting where they were informed funding was going to be allocated to yet more upgrades. No one was happy about that. Felix was still kvetching about it when they got back to their office. Nodding along Matthew paged through the funding plans.
“Did you see they are giving us new work laptops since the students are getting some?” he commented.
“Really?” Felix said looking through his own packet of papers. “They didn’t mention that in the meeting”
“I still feel like the money could be better used for programs” Matthew said dropping the file on the corner of his desk.
“Speak for yourself” Felix muttered “I could use a new laptop” .
Glancing at his coworker’s stickered covered laptop Matthew was forced to agree. “You’ve had that thing since graduate school right?”
“Dude I’m still in graduate school” Felix said moving his laptop aside “Just got to finish up my dissertation and I’m done though”
“I keep forgetting” Matthew said “Sorry about that. You know what” he added looking over at their couch .
“What” Felix said already back to working on grading
“We should get like a foot stool or something like a table cause then I could sit on the couch and work”
“You want it you get it” came the mumbled reply.  
“I’ll look over the weekend” Matthew said settling in to write up the test and taking the wave over the cubical wall as a yes.
 Gilbert’s day ended up being better and worse than he had hoped. The internet issues at the library had turned out to be from outdated tech and how on earth do you say ‘no really you need to buy a laptop from this decade’ to someone who was absolutely not going to do that? At least the catalogue issue was easy to resolve. With time to spare Gilbert looked at his phone as he settled into his office chair. Eduard had already gone home and in an hour he could do the same. Frowning he scrolled through the messages from his brother he had missed while working. “schiss Lud” he grumbled before calling him.
“Hello?” his brother picked up on the firs t ring.
“Lud I know I said I’d help with the sale this weekend but I’m really..” Gilbert tried to say until he was cut off.
“If you ditch to go drinking I will kill you” his brother said
“Look its Oktoberfest I don’t know what you expect here?” Gilbert whined slightly spinning in his chair.
“I expect you to show up to the estate sale so that I don’t have to do it all alone!” his brother said in a huff.
“Fine whatever but I’m showing up hungover” Gilbert finally said, “Me and Tonio have been planning this for weeks!”
“The sale has been planned for weeks too!”
Gilbert hung up on him before he could complain more. Ignoring his phone as his brother called him back he packed up his stuff. The hell with it he was going home. Leaving a note for Alfred ( ‘There had better not be anything broken when I come in Monday’ ) he locked up and headed for the parking lot. ‘stupid estate sale’ he muttered to himself as he walked. His step-mother had recently died and with her gone neither him nor his brother were interested in taking the house. While her family had handled the property they had left the contents to them. It was Ludwig’s idea to have a garage sale. In Gilbert’s opinion he who thought of the idea should do it and that meant he didn’t have to be involved. Clearly his brother did not agree.
Estate sale or not Oktoberfest was happening and with having to work over the school break Gilbert had managed to take Friday off. Settling into his car he adjusted the mirror and smirked. This was going to be fun.  
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ambiengrey · 6 years
Text
I’m Listening
Warnings: this is an (abandoned) WIP. Completely incomplete. Written in 2014. Uhh, also, bad language :/
Prologue
“I’m taking you to the cave.”
“No, not the cave. I’d rather just die here.”
“I’m not letting you die. But, if not the cave, then where?”
“Just…well, where do you live? Because I know it’s not the manor.”
“…”
“What? You don’t like me knowing where you set up camp?”
“It’s pretty permanent. So no. Why don’t I just take you to your place?”
“No.”
“Oh, come on – I have to take you somewhere! I bet you have ‘digs’ all over this neighbourhood, and a few over. You’ll probably move before I can tell the Bat where you are, anyway. Not that I would, but if that’s what you’re worried about—”
“That’s…not it.”
“Then what?”
“Just take me to your place, alright?”
“Not unless you tell me why I can’t take you to yours. If Bats isn’t the problem—”
“And here I thought you weren’t gonna let me die here.”
“I won’t if you just tell me what I want to know.”
“I’m not doing that. So I guess I’m on my own.”
“You can barely move. Or stand—sit back down!”
“Argh—”
“My place is not exactly close. Or equipped half as well as the cave. But at the rate you’re going I guess any equipment is better than nothing? I don’t doubt your place has at least that much. But mostly, I honestly don’t trust you. So I need a really good reason to let you through my door—”
“Because! Because I… I don’t strictly…have a place…”
“You – what? You…don’t have anywhere to stay? You don’t stay anywhere? So, what? You live…on the street…?”
“Talk about it later, Timmy, I’m bleeding to my death here. Come on.”
“…Fine. But we’re discussing this.”
“Come on. Don’t fall asleep.”
“It wouldn’t be sleep so much as a fucking coma…”
“Stay out of it either way – I don’t want to have to take you to a hospital.”
“No hospitals, kid—”
“What did I just say? I know.”
“Just…reiterating.”
“The obvious.”
“I’m half dead here, kid – cut me some slack…I’m not all there.”
“I scoff at that first, but I can’t really argue with the second…”
Chapter
Dick would be lying if he said watching Bruce speed the Batmobile almost impossibly fast into the Cave and parking it with a halt of screeching, smoking tyres in its designated spot, hadn’t half-scared the life out of him in a way he hadn't been since he was Robin.
“What happened?” Dick had demanded, already halfway out of his seat in front of the computer, but of course Bats didn’t reply at once. They had a show-and-tell relationship after all – Dick would tell him things (such as, ‘you’re an idiot’) and Bruce would reply with some display or another (such as, ‘yes, I am’ in the procedure of doing something idiotic). True to form, thus, Bruce had jumped from the vehicle without a word and had swiftly rounded the large black machine just as stoically to the passenger side, its automatic door already opening for him.
Dick had, at this point, already left the console, crossing the Cave to the car at a run, thinking the worst – Red Robin had been out there as well, after all. Only, a motorcycle had grumbled in the distance suddenly, down the same cavern the Batmobile had come from, and Dick had paused, uncertain. At the same time his younger brother roared into the Cave, black cape flaring in his wake, Batman emerged from the other side of the Batmobile, carrying someone Dick had not been expecting in the least – Jason.
His signature red hood was missing, though an equally crimson mask covered his eyes, which were, despite the white eye-lenses giving no outward sign, decidedly closed – he wouldn’t be letting Bruce carry him if they were open and he were conscious, for one thing, and he was completely limp, and bleeding, for another. With the leather jacket he almost always wore absent – and the holsters usually round his thighs, Dick had noticed, as well – the dark grey armour covering his torso was revealed to be badly broken, and what Dick could make out of the field-gauze layered against his right side was soaked through with blood, not an inch of white left.
“What. Happened?” Dick had repeated, belatedly realising he’d snapped at Batman using Nightwing’s voice. He couldn’t regret it though, since it was likely the only reason he’d finally received a semblance of an answer.
“I don’t know,” Batman’s reply had been curt, and gruff, and he’d shoved past Dick, who’d been halfway up the ramp towards him, and carried on in a silent march towards Alfred – the old butler having wheeled in a gurney from the medical area in a way that suggested he’d been radioed beforehand and Dick had felt more out of the loop than before.
Batman had visibly hesitated, tightening his hold on Jason almost imperceptibly before relinquishing and allowing him to be carted off back to the Med Bay, though Batman followed hastily – a towering statue of foreboding darkness, quivering with a desperate kind of worry and a menacing sort of rage that only came from the deepest crevices of Bruce’s being and only surfaced in full-force when one of his sons’ – or daughter’s – lives were on the line. It spoke of justifiable vengeance against whoever was responsible for his children’s latest bout of pain – a pain Dick knew Bruce always shared in, if not physically.
Dick had stood halfway up the ramp to the Batmobile’s parking space, watching his adoptive father take determined strides in the wake of his bleeding younger brother, and Dick’s heart had ached and twisted and felt confused – he’d been upstairs with Damian, the boy nursing an awful cold, petulant and despondent about being grounded for it, and Dick had been trying his best to make him feel better. He’d only come down to the cave because Dami had finally nodded off to sleep.
Seeing Alfred’s haste in bringing the gurney around and Batman’s possessive hold, Dick had felt torn and guilty at not having been there to receive the call Alfred must have taken by himself, leaving him uninformed and unable to lend a hand.
Stricken, he’d all but forgotten about Tim until the boy had poked him in the arm, and, startled, Dick had spun around. “What happened?” he’d repeated for the third time in as many minutes, without thinking, before he felt the same wave of dread that had accosted his insides at the first sight of the Batmobile. “Are you okay?” he’d demanded to know before Tim had done more than open his mouth to reply to the first question, grabbing the teen by his shoulders. “You’re not hurt at all?” Tim hadn’t looked hurt, at least, but they were each of them adept at hiding injuries, stubborn idiots (himself, regrettably, included).
“I’m fine,” Tim had said, and cut in before Dick could ask again. “It’s just—” he’d glanced beyond Dick’s shoulder at the hallway extending from the main area of the cave, leading off to the Med Bay. “It’s only Jason.”
Dick had wanted to repeat himself one more time, but he could tell that he didn’t need to. With a sigh Tim had tugged off his mask, briefly rubbing at his temple in a way that had made Dick think he must’ve had a headache, before he started, “I found him. In an alley. He was roughed-up pretty bad, his armour cut through, with a knife, it looked like. But, considering, it must’ve been one heck of a blade,” Dick had dropped his hands from Tim’s shoulders, and, looking tired, the younger boy had rounded his older brother and wandered off to the computer console. Dick had followed solemnly in his wake, sparing the hallway a passing glance.
“He’d already lost a lot of blood, and…it was a mess,” Tim had continued, setting down his mask and looking like he wanted nothing more than to drop down onto the chair and go to sleep right there. “But he was conscious,” Tim had added, quickly, turning round to Dick, as if he’d realised how bad his explanation had started sounding. “When I found him. And he was bantering and being an ass and everything,” Dick couldn’t have helped but smile slightly at that. “I half-dragged him along, because he insisted I just take him to my place for a proper patching-up, but I could tell he was going to need more than that, and really I was just buying time,” by which Dick had figured Tim meant he’d activated his emergency tracker at once when he’d come across Jason, and Batman had been on his way the moment he did.
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