#apprentice harun

[hastor]

ARE U FR 😭

#harun reads rote #rereading assassins apprentice and my brain is exploding every five seconds catching sly references #fitzchivalry farseer #rote #rote spoilers #grumblings

[natalievoncatte]

"In the end, you can only count on blood."

Lena stood there in Lex's stronghold, staring him down as best she could, and it was still pathetic. He wanted to tell her, to see her face crumble as he explained to her in exquisite detail how weak and pathetic she was. Good God, the woman had given herself a glow-up before confronting him. Who goes to their supervillain brother's secret base, intent on challenging him, in heels? With that shade of makeup? She was still playing the sexpot, unthinkingly using her "advantages" the way that their father had trained her to, when he'd first used her to distract a rival at the negotiating table. At the time, Lex had been disgusted, and confronted the old man privately, earning himself a few bruises.

Over a decade later, he wondered how he hadn't seen it sooner. So desperate for belonging, for approval. Beneath the power suits and fuck me pumps, she was just a little girl crying for her teddy bear, endlessly searching for someone to pat her widdle head and tell her it was okay, and she'd latched onto the Kryptonian of all people. He understood her proclivities, even if he didn't share them, or much interest in the act generally, and on an aesthetic level he knew why Lena was drawn to Kara Danvers, but how could she be so dense?

No, he had to play this properly. He'd written this little drama piece by piece, laying out the steps for her to follow, just as he'd manipulated her so many times at the chess table. All he had to do was pick up the remote on the table beside him and show her the truth, watch her crumble, and when she was reduced to rubble on the floor, rebuild her properly. She'd be his apprentice yet, be worthy. For all her faults, his half-sister was the closest thing he'd ever to know an equal, a worthy partner.

So worthy was she, in fact, that she smoothly swept back her jacket, and in a practiced motion, drew the revolver she carried in a basket-weave, FBI-cant holster on her strong side. Lex recognized it; he gave it to her. A Smith and Wesson J-Frame Ladysmith with custom ebony wood grips. The very one that Lex had gifted Lena on her twenty-first birthday, having already taught her to shoot on the grounds of the family estate.

"This is no time for theatrics, dear sister," said Lex.

Lena responded by shooting him twice, missing his heart. The pain was towering, enormous, and he was on the ground before he realized he'd fallen. Nothing had ever hurt this much.

In his usual detached way, he assessed. Gurgling when he breathed and copper on his breath: she'd hit a lung. When he pulled his hand back from one of the wounds, the blood was a rich, earthy red. Gutshot, then, too. Sadistic, if it was intentional. From the way her hand was shaking it probably wasn't.

"The world will never be safe with you in it," Lena choked out, still holding the gun in front of her as if it might shield her from what she'd done.

"Pathetic," Lex choked out. "Just as I thought." The gurgling came harder now.

He was going to die; that was inevitable. But he'd still get his licks in. They probably thought the Harun-El, or Red Daughter, or the Lexosuit were his master-stroke, but no, it was more intimate. More subtle. He willed himself to draw breath, commanded by force of will that blood keep carrying oxygen to his brain. Despite the agony ripping through him at every breath, he carried on. This made it worth it.

Oh, yes, she'd killed Lex Luthor, but he'd destroy her.

"What will you be without me? You have no one, and nothing."

She seemed confused. How had Lex ever thought that this bovine, dull creature could be worthy of ruling the world beside him? She had some low cunning and a technician's aptitude for laboratory work, but she was no peer of his.

"Go back and cry to your friends," he croaked. "All of them have been mocking you. Alex and Jimmy, your boyfriend, and that little alien runt, and her most of all. The truth was right in front of your face."

He managed to reach the remote and activate the monitors, relief flooding through him, cooling the heat of his dying. Lex slumped back, watching Lena watch her world unravel.

"They've been lying to you all this time, her most of all. Kara Danvers." He pronounced the name carefully, adding the proper Kryptonian inflection to Kara's name.

This. This was the thrust that ended the duel, the cutting stroke, the killing blow. He watched her eyes widen.

"Even your own mother has been lying to you. It's been right there the whole time."

Lena looked at him, the gun drooping in her hand. She looked at the monitor, back to him. Her expression hardened, twisting into a scowl. Perfect. She might even still be able to save him. He knew she was worthless now, of course, but she would be easily to manipulate and once she followed his instructions and healed his wounds, the guilt would take over and-

She was still looking at him. He met her gaze.

"Kara Danvers is Supergirl," Lex croaked out.

Lena's voice was heavy with sadness.

"I know."

Fuck.

Lena pulled the trigger. Lex saw a flash but heard no sound, felt no pain. It was simply over.

It was, but he wasn't.

Somehow, he did not hear, but sensed Lena leaving, not by the clack of her heels on concrete or the explosive rush of pressure as she stole his damned portal watch, but by some other means he didn't understand.

This was odd.

Lex hadn't counted on there being an afterlife. Nor had he considered that it would be so pedestrian and mundane, and that he'd end up staring down at his own body from above. The tunnel of light was probably next; going into said light was most likely, at least for Lex Luthor, an amazingly terrible idea.

This was truly strange. He supposed he should have been in shock and awed at the entire situation, but all he could really feel was a kind of confusion. Looking at his body was like walking the halls of the first boarding school he'd attended, trying to reconcile the memories of a child with the physicality and perspective of an adult who felt too large for those spaces.

In other words, had he really been that short? Had no one had the fortitude to tell him how silly that beard looked?

Lex waited, and started to wonder. Now if this was the afterlife, staring at his own corpse, that would be oddly fitting, in an ironic Greek hell sort of way. He could appreciate the poetry.

Out of of the corner of his eye -or the fringes of his bodyless, formless perception- Lex spotted movement and turned towards it instinctively. A wisp of thick vapor was snaking under the door, curling through the gap. Tendrils of the mist slithered along the floor, spreading and flowing until it surrounded the corpse, which Lex was now more comfortable thinking of as the body rather than my body.

Said mist was filling the room, rising higher and higher. Lex felt a peculiar tug, a nonphysical pull, a kind of involuntary lunge back towards his fallen body. As the mist grew heavier, it reduced the looped footage of Kara using her powers at L-Corp to a glowing blur behind the swirling fog.

Had Lena set the bunker on fire before she left? Perhaps she'd meant to giving him a Viking funeral. He rather liked that.

What he did not like was the jarring sensation of gurgling, pain swelling in his lungs in a molten wave that climbed up his throat, burning its way into a ragged, wet cough that filled his nostrils with metallic stink as surely as if he'd shoved pennies up his nose. He took another breath, or tried to.

Pain rocketed through his body. It felt as if invisible fingers were crudely ripping his wounds closed, knitting the flesh not only carelessly but with deliberate, sadistic glee. Lex cried out and tasted blood on his tongue.

There was a cold floor, hard beneath him. He blinked a few times, the world coming into blurry existence before his now-functional eyes. When he took another breath, the pain had abated, but the memory of it was a non-physical ache, a drag on his lungs nevertheless. As his eyes focused, he realized he was staring up at a new ceiling, in unknown surroundings. The arched stone above his head made him think castle. Maybe he'd been somehow carried off to a bunker in Kaznia, and was about to be interrogated.

Lex sat up.

He was in a castle, indeed. There was a thick carpet under his backside, doing little to protect him from the bitter cold of a hard stone floor. Elaborate tapestries hung on the walls, and in front of them stood heavy, solid bookcases that showed deep age in the wood and craftsmanship, the shelves packed with a vast number of volumes, all of them finely bound. Lex took a few tentative steps and looked over the spines. Most were unmarked. One had a cover of a strange, pale leather that felt loathsome to the touch.

Scanning the room, Lex decided he need to figure out where he was, who brought him here, and attempt to deduce why. It was important, even vital, to project a constant air of control, even if he had no idea what the hell was going on. He'd feel out his captor and find the best posture to start influencing them and guiding them down paths he had already calculated, towards the inevitable goal of escape, and if possible, control. Master of circumstances was Lex's central drive. He didn't play his pieces, he played his opponent; the game itself was merely an exercise in satisfying his intellectual vanity by minimizing the number of moves between opening and checkmate.

So, he assessed.

Wealth. Power. Aristocracy. Those were his first thoughts. The person who owned this place had vast resources and considered themselves vastly important, and to some degree they were right. On the wall opposite the bookcases, Lex found an assortment of arms and armor, full suits of plate on arming racks and heavy longswords and axes, all lovingly cared for.

The room was dominated by a painting. Lex paused to study it; the faded oils depicted, as through a dark glass, a striking young woman of great beauty, dressed in rich regalia. The artist had given her a lively visage, with curious, expressive eyes that were somehow full of mute appeal. She seemed familiar, though the aging of the painting made it difficult for Lex to say how.

Lex heard a scuff of leather and realized he wasn't alone.

At the far end of the room stood a tall man in rich, elaborate, and very antiquated robes and a heavy cloak. Very pale, he had an aristocratic look about him, with jet black hair worn long, swept back from a pronounced windows peak. In one hand, he delicately held a fine golden goblet, and in the other, he regarded some kind of elaborately decorated card; Lex at first thought of the tarot, but it wasn't part of the major or minor arcana, and he didn't recognize the design at all.

He turned and met Lex's gaze.

Lex flinched back and immediately loathed himself for it. He hadn't reacted like this to anyone in years, not since the first time the Kryptonian had paid him a visit. He held the stranger's gaze firmly, though it felt like nails pulled across his skin.

There was an expectant pause. Lex remained still, schooling his features.

"You are Alexander Luthor," the stranger said, gently placing his cup on the broad desk in front of him, settling in a rare open space amongst books and papers.

"My friends call me Lex."

He looked up, considering Lex briefly.

"I have brought you here, and raised you from death at great expense, for a singular purpose, Master Luthor."

Lex spread his hands in a conciliatory gesture.

"What purpose is that?"

"You will tell me everything you know about this woman."

He held something out, clearly expecting Lex to cross the room and accept it. Lex briefly weighed which option was best- to appear obedient and begin his manipulations that way, or force the other man to move from his position of presumed authority and reframe the conversation between them as an exchange between equals.

The moment stretched too long. The stranger's expression darkened slightly. Lex crossed the gap and accepted what turned out to be an eight by ten photograph. He looked at the familiar face.

"Her name is Kara Danvers," said Lex. The photo was her headshot from the CatCo Media website.

God, had no one ever put a picture of Supergirl in Google and done a reverse image search? It was so obvious. She was even more careless than Kent!

"This I know," the man said, taking the picture back. He studied it, lovingly dragging one finger down the edge.

"You seem rather taken with her," said Lex.

The stranger looked up, and carefully slipped the photograph between the pages of one of his books.

"She is important to my plans. I must bring her here, safely and securely, to my home."

Lex couldn't help it, he really couldn't. He barked out a laugh.

"Do you have any idea what you're dealing with? Kara Danvers is Supergirl."

The stranger's eyes flashed with fury, and for a moment, there was something absolutely bestial in his face, his features flowing and changing, twisting into something monstrous and carnivorous.

"It is you who have no idea what you are dealing with, little man," he said.

This wasn't going well.

"I'd be glad to help you, if you help me. I'm sure we can work out a-"

The man moved as fast as a damned Super. He blurred around the desk, suddenly just there, and whipped his hand across Lex's throat. At first, he thought he'd been slapped, but the pain was too sharp, too vital. A hot gush followed it, and Lex realized he was about to die. Again. His throat had been cut.

His knees hit the stone floor and he clutched at his neck, desperate to staunch the flow, but it sluiced between his fingers and spattered on the floor.

The stranger murmured a word, and the air itself seemed to twist around him, bent and mangled by the sound he made as a faint light twisted around his fingers as he bent and curled them in impossible configurations.

The pain of the wound closing was worse than its making; that had been quick, the edge sharp. This felt like someone was grasping Lex's parted flesh with greasy fingers and reshaping it like so much clay.

The stranger looked at the blood splattered on his fingers and hand.

"It is unfortunate that the offal that pollutes your veins is too poor a vintage, Luthor. I would not soil my tongue with it, but perhaps there are others that might be sated by lesser stock."

A hand closed around his neck, and Lex was hauled up, his toes kicking six inches above the floor.

"I could crush you like an insect, remake you, and crush you again," he said,  with a strange, mirthless joy in his voice. "You think yourself your world's smartest man. Next to me, you are nothing. Your world is nothing. I have ruled this land for a thousand years. I am beyond your comprehension."

He let go, and Lex fell, rolling with the impact, lucky not to pop something in his knee. He fell onto his side, gasping and struggling to breathe, unsure he still could.

"You will do as you are commanded. You will tell me everything you know of this woman, and hold nothing back. Her origins, her ways, her home, her family, everything you know, and if I am satisfied that you have been suitably forthcoming, I shall reward you by allowing you to live and serve me."

"Who are you?" Lex choked out.

The stranger stared down at him, smiling for the first time, a cold smile without a hint of anything human in it.

"I am the Ancient. I am the Land. I am Strahd."

#supergirl fanfiction #supergirl #kara danvers #supercorp fanfic #supercorp #curse of strahd #crossover au #muahahahahahahahahahaha #welcome to ravenloft miss danvers

[rockislandadultreads]

Libby eBook Spotlight: 2023 Debut Authors

Lies We Sing to the Sea by Sarah Underwood

Each spring, Ithaca condemns twelve maidens to the noose. This is the price vengeful Poseidon demands for the lives of Queen Penelope’s twelve maids, hanged and cast into the depths centuries ago.

But when that fate comes for Leto, death is not what she thought it would be. Instead, she wakes on a mysterious island and meets a girl with green eyes and the power to command the sea. A girl named Melantho, who says one more death can stop a thousand.

The prince of Ithaca must die - or the tides of fate will drown them all.

Lunar Love by Lauren Kung Jessen

Always a matchmaker, never a match...

Olivia Huang Christenson is excited-slash-terrified to be taking over her grandmother’s matchmaking business. But when she learns that a new dating app has made her Pó Po’s traditional Chinese zodiac approach all about “animal attraction,” her emotions skew more toward furious-slash-outraged. Especially when L.A.’s most-eligible bachelor Bennett O’Brien is behind the app that could destroy her family’s legacy...

Liv knows better than to fall for any guy, let alone an infuriatingly handsome one who believes that traditions are meant to be broken. As the two businesses go head to head, Bennett and Liv make a deal: they’ll find a match for each other - and whoever falls in love loses. But Liv is dealing with someone who’s already adept at stealing business ideas... so what’s stopping him from stealing her heart too?

River Sing Me Home by Eleanor Shearer

The master of the Providence plantation in Barbados gathers his slaves and announces the king has decreed an end to slavery. As of the following day, the Emancipation Act of 1834 will come into effect. The cries of joy fall silent when he announces that they are no longer his slaves; they are now his apprentices. No one can leave. They must work for him for another six years. Freedom is just another name for the life they have always lived. So Rachel runs.

Away from Providence, she begins a desperate search to find her children - the five who survived birth and were sold. Are any of them still alive? Rachel has to know. The grueling, dangerous journey takes her from Barbados then, by river, deep into the forest of British Guiana and finally across the sea to Trinidad. She is driven on by the certainty that a mother cannot be truly free without knowing what has become of her children, even if the answer is more than she can bear. These are the stories of Mary Grace, Micah, Thomas Augustus, Cherry Jane and Mercy. But above all this is the story of Rachel and the extraordinary lengths to which a mother will go to find her children...and her freedom.

The Love Match by Priyanka Taslim

Zahra Khan is basically Bangladeshi royalty, but being a princess doesn’t pay the bills in Paterson, New Jersey. While Zahra’s plans for financial security this summer involve working long hours at Chai Ho and saving up for college writing courses, Amma is convinced that all Zahra needs is a “good match,” Jane Austen-style.

Enter Harun Emon, who’s wealthy, devastatingly handsome, and... aloof. As soon as Zahra meets him, she knows it’s a bad match. It’s nothing like the connection she has with Nayim Aktar, the new dishwasher at the tea shop, who just gets Zahra in a way no one has before.

So, when Zahra finds out that Harun is just as uninterested in this match as she is, they decide to slowly sabotage their parents’ plans. And for once in Zahra’s life, she can have her rossomalai and eat it: “dating” Harun and keeping Amma happy while catching real feelings for Nayim.

But life - and boys - can be more complicated than Zahra realizes. With her feelings all mixed up, Zahra discovers that sometimes being a good Bengali kid can be a royal pain.

#debut author #2023 reads #fiction #ebooks #libby #reading recommendations #reading recs #book recommendations #book recs #library books #tbr #tbr pile #to read #booklr #book tumblr #book blog #library blog #readers advisory

[mechaspirit]

Back to practicing drawing again. Here’s apprentice Iris, Yasmin, and Harun (it was terrible). I might draw the others as soon as I get the sixth and final one together. Idk. Maybe. 😅

#the arcana #game #the apprentice #apprentice harun #apprenticeapril #apprentice yasmin #apprentice iris

[ask-the-fandom-anything]

Hello. Here is my supposed humanization of Sohone, Mune and Glim in the gacha. What do you think? I have my own AU that I want to tell you about: Sohone is 18-20 years old, although he looks like 22-25. Mune is 16-18 years old, Glim is 17-19 years old, and Leeoyn is 20-25 years old. Sohone grew up in a village of day residents. His mother was an amber man, and his father was an ordinary golem. Their names were Argena and Rhodes. Argena during her lifetime was the elder of the day people and an acquaintance of Xolal. Rhodes was an ordinary blacksmith. All his life, Sohone was ignored by his own parents as much as possible, and the children cherished the guy. (Well, I already told you about this). At the age of 8, he was sent as an apprentice to Xolal, at 10 his mother died, and his relationship with his father only got worse (well, I also talked about this). Seoheon has an older cousin, Sun, and a girlfriend, Ir'en, who is secretly in love with him. Mune lived part of his life in the night lie down with the rest of the fauns. His mother died while giving birth to his sister. After the death of his mother, he did not have a very good relationship with his father, but still he loved Mune and wished for a good future for him. The guy had no friends, only Harun and his sister kept him company. Glim lived with her father in a small house. Her mother Ursula was an astronomer, which is why the girl has so many different books and maps. When the girl was little, her mother melted in the sun when she went out into the garden. Because of this incident, Glim's father locked his daughter in his own house to protect her, because he loved her. But Glim didn't like that. She wanted freedom. She had no friends, because she spent all the time at home, and it’s unlikely that anyone wanted to be friends with the zauchka and she was very lonely. Leeoyn is possibly an orphan. He was mocked by the fauns because of his appearance and bruises under his eyes. This explains his hateful behavior. He met Sohone and Sune at the age of 10 and they became good friends, and at the same time, Sohone began to hate fauns and the night dwellers themselves, since Leeoyn said that fauns are still goats (literally and figuratively). In what, in what, and in persecution they were good. Here, too, everyone smacked Mune for uselessness. The snakes that can corrupt everyone came from the world of the Dream World, when the first guardian of the moon opened a portal there and brought the moon and dreams. There are hints of this in the cartoon: 1. We see a huge snake in the Dream World when Mune pulled it out of Necross's chest. This may indicate that they used to be of enormous size. 2. The color of snakes is similar to the color of the moon. 3. Yes, and they themselves look like nightmares I believe this theory is valid. Phospho may have encountered snakes, as he is aware of their existence. I have two options: 1. He had to see how Necross was corrupted by snakes 2. He himself was corrupted by these snakes. This, by the way, explains why he came to help Sohone. Not only to make amends, but also to prevent the same thing that happened to Nekros from happening to this guy. It is possible that Phospho was friends with Necross, as well as with Xolal and Yule, even in his youth. Little is known about his parents and past, but the fact remains. After their death or the expiration of the term, the keepers of the Sun and the Moon go to the World of the Departed, which is connected to the World of Dreams, where they continue their existence. Sometimes they save residents from nightmares and guide them on the right path. This is often done by the keepers of the Moon, but the keepers of the Sun are also involved in this. It is possible that Sohone, Necross and Leeoyn were not the only victims of snakes and there were many more. These were ordinary inhabitants, often diurnal, as they are much more emotional than fauns. By the way, this also explains why Necross and Sohone became demons, but Leeayon did not.

And between the two peoples, a war could have occurred if the guardians of the Sun and the Moon had not intervened, I think because of this, the snakes do not like them. Phew, that's all my AU. Now can you answer a couple of questions for me: Would you like to come up with a backstory for the planet? How do you imagine Corruption AU? Have the snakes died after the events of the cartoon, or are they still alive and living somewhere on the surface? Why are there no cracks and wounds on Sokhon's body after the battle with Nekros, although there should be? Can Guardians die of lack of strength, as happened to Phospho? Whom did the characters of "Mune: Guardian of the Moon" remind you of in appearance and in character? And that's all. Waiting for your answer. Hope you reply quickly. (Привет. Вот моя типо хуманизация Сохона, Мьюна и Глим в гаче. Как тебе? У меня есть свое AU, о котором я хочу тебе рассказать: Сохону 18-20 лет, хотя он выглядит на 22-25 лет. Мьюну 16-18 лет, Глим 17-19 лет, а Лиюну 20-25 лет. Сохон вырос в деревне дневных жителей. Его мать была янтарным человеком, а отец обычным големом. Их звали Аргена и Родос. Аргена при жизни была старейшеной дневного народа и знакомой Ксолаля. Родос же был обычным кузнецом. Всю жизнь Сохона максимально игнорировали собственные родители, а дети лилеяли парня. (Ну об этом я тебе уже говорила). В 8 лет его отдали в ученики к Ксолалю, в 10 его мама умерла, а отношение с отцом стали только хуже (ну об этом я тоже говорила). У Сохона есть двоюродный стпрший брат Сун и подруга Ир'ен, которая тайно в него влюблена. Мьюн прожил часть своей жизни в ночном лечь вместе с остальными фавнами. Его мама умерла при родах его сестры. После смерти матери у него с отцом были не очень хорошие отношения, но всё же он любил Мьюна и желал для него хорошего будущего. Друзей у парня не было, лишь Гарун и сестра состовлчои ему компанию. Глим прожила вместе с отцом в маленьком доме. Ее мама Урсула была астрономом, поэтому у девушки так много разных книг и карт. Когда девушка была маленькой ее мама ращплавилась на солнце, когда она вышла на огород. Из-за этого случая отец Глим запер дочь в собственом доме, чтобы защитить ее, так как любил. Но Глим это не устраивало. Ей хотелось свободы. У нее не было друзей, так как всё время проводила дома да и врят ли кто-то захотел дружить с заучкой и ей было очень одиноко. Лиюн возможно сирота. Над ним издевались фавны из-за его внешности и синяками под глазами. Это объясняет его ненавистное повидение. Он познакомился с Сохоном и Сыном в 10 лет и они стали хорошими друзьями, а параллельно с этим Сохон начал ненавидеть фавнов и самих ночных жителей, так как Лиюн рассказал о том, что фавны те ещё козлы (в буквальном и переносном смысле). В чём в чем, а в травле они были хороши. Вот Мьюна тоже все чморили за безполезность. Змеи, которые могут всех развратить пришли из мира Мира Снов, когда первый хранитель Луны открыл портал туда и принёс Луну и сны. В мультфильме на это есть намеки: 1. Мы видим огромного змея в Мире Снов, когда Мьюн вытащил его из груди Некроса. Это может указывать о том, что раньше они были огромных размеров. 2. Окрас змей похож на окрас Луны 3. Да и они сами похожи на кошмары Я считаю, что эта теория имеет место быть Фосфо возможно сталкивался со змеями, так как он знает о их существовании. У меня есть два варианта: 1. Ему приходилрсь видеть, как Некроса развращали змеи 2. Он сам был испорчен этими змеями. Это кстати о объясняет, почему он пришел на помощь Сохону. Не только для того, чтобы загладить свою вину, но и не допустить того, чтобы с этим парнем не случилось тоже самое, что и с Некросом Вполне возможно, Фосфо дружил с Некросом, а также с Ксолалем и Юлом ещё в молодости. О его родителях и прошлом нам мало что известно, но факт остаётся фактом. После своей смерти или истечении срока, хранители Солнца и Луны отправляются в Мир Ушедших, который связан в Миром Снов, где они продолжают свою существание. Иногда они спасают жителей от кошмаров и наставляют из на верный путь. За частую это делают

хранители Луны, но и хранители Солнца тоже участвуют в этом. Вполне возможно, что Сохон, Некрос и Лиюн не были единственными жертвами змей и их было намного больше. Это были обычные жители, за частую дневные, так как они намного эмоциональные, чем фавны. Это кстати и объясняет, почему Некрос и Сохон стали демонами, а Лиюн нет. И между двумя народами могла произойти война, если бы не вмешались хранители Солнца и Луны, думаю из-за этого змеи их и не долюбливают. Фух, вот и все моё AU. А теперь можешь ответить мне на пару вопросов: Ты бы хотела придумать предысторию планеты? Как ты себе представляешь Corruption AU? Умерили ли змеи после событий мультфильма или же они ещё живы и живут где-то на поверхности? Почему на теле Сохона нет трещин и ран, после битвы с Некросом, хотя должны быть? Могут ли хранители умереть от недостатка сил, как это случилось с Фосфо? Кого тебе внешне и по характеру тебе напомнили персонажи "Мьюн: Страж Луны?" А на этом все. Жду твой ответ. Надеюсь, что ты быстро ответишь)

I like the styles you did to the characters and the Au you’ve created

As for the question you have

Are you talking about spleen & Mox?if so, Yes I would like to come up with the backstory

You’ll see when the comic is out right now am tracing and coloring it, the little sneak peek is at the bottom

All snakes are dead but there are some different snakes that can do other dark magic then corruption

I dunno to be honest, with all the throwing around and missing so many time he should have cracks but my guess is probably the sun’s energy making him not get cracks or wounds

Well I believe that the guardians die right when they give the energy to the new one or when it’s time for them to go, I dunno it’s my theory

To be honest with you leeyoon did remind me of bardle from the last kids on earth

#mune guardian of the moon #fandom #comic book art #comic is coming soon…i hope #thanks for the ask! #answered ask #ask questions #corruption au #au thoughts #ideas

[wellamarke]

second foundation

humans challenge, week 1, day 5: after the end

Six months after Proliferation, groups of synths were still arriving at the base every day. Some of them were fleeing their old lives and hoping to find refuge - others were just there for reassurance, to learn for themselves what had happened to them and why, then return to their homes. The ones who stayed often joined the team of volunteers, which was speeding up the work immensely. It also meant a higher quality of support could be given to synths who’d come from particularly traumatic backgrounds - ex-factory synths could talk to ex-factory synths, military synths need only look into the eyes of a fellow ex-soldier if at first they could not voice their pain to anybody else.

It was working across the board. Synths struggling with missing or broken limbs, impaired audio or visual circuitry, grief, anxiety, trauma, disorientation, or any of the other effects of synthetic exploitation no human language yet had names for… all of them could find solace in shared experience, while also contributing to a unity between the groups, as they all came to understand one another. Yes, there was still a lot of opposition in the outside world. But at Drummond Base Ten - named for two of its martyrs and counting amongst its staff those who had known them best - peace was thriving.

Laura Hawkins, Karen Voss and Alex Kennedy served on the board of directors, officially establishing the base as a legal entity. The rest of the board comprised Max Elster, Mia Elster and Flash Singh, who weren’t legally recognised as members - yet. Laura and the legal team she headed up were working around the clock to change that for all the newly-awakened synths. Of course, unbeknownst to anyone outside Drummond Base Ten, there was already a synthetic on the official board, but Karen had been willing to extend her years of subterfuge for as long as it took, since it meant they could use her unique experiences from the inside.

Drummond Base Ten worked in conjunction with similar bases around the world, sharing resources and ideas. The foremost of these were Millican Base, which operated on mainland Europe, headed officially by Astrid Schaeffer and unofficially by Niska Elster, and Virginia Base in the US, headed by Athena Morrow and funded by Milo Khoury. The latter had, according to the headlines, sold his shares in Qualia and its associate corporations for billions of dollars, and was now using his fortune to rehabilitate, repair, or otherwise help synthetics, in addition to reeducating his fellow organics. Nobody knew for sure what had caused this dramatic change of heart, but these days he was accompanied everywhere by a tiny, blonde-haired child, whom he had adopted as a daughter. Rumour had it that fatherhood had turned him soft, dissolved his backbone. Those who’d come close enough to see the bright green eyes that hid behind Hello Kitty sunglasses knew it was something far more than that.

There were smaller organisations, too, some of them set up by synths who had chosen to band together in their place of origin, rather than make the pilgrimage to one base or another. Periodically, the larger bases sent teams to these more remote places, comprised of both humans and synths, to stay for a while and help. These offers were rarely refused, and the network of bases both small and large grew stronger by the day.

The bases were supported as much by neighbours as by those who could live on-site - Drummond Base Ten boasted a small army of such volunteers, some of whom were not even out of school. Toby Hawkins and Renie Barber considered the base to be a second home, and even little Sophie devoted most of her evenings and weekends to the place. She was invaluable, in fact. Many of the synths who’d been childminders or domestic servants missed the company of human children, and Sophie dutifully listened to a library’s worth of bedtime stories on a regular basis. At other times, she would play in the grounds with the Seraph children, and she and Sam Drummond-Voss were the firmest of friends. Sometimes Sophie still walked like a synth, but she would just as often be seen dancing, skipping and cartwheeling down corridors, with the Seraphs following behind, trying to mimic her sloppy, carefree movements as avidly as she could imitate their smooth, measured ones. It was a balance, a fusion. Sometimes her mother would watch her through the windows of her office and wish that the rest of their species would only follow her daughter’s lead.

For every one human who was for their cause, there were two who were uneasy, and five or six who were outright hostile. The smaller bases were particularly vulnerable to attacks - mostly of vandalism, but sometimes uglier things. Larger bases sent more relief teams in such cases, who took with them building supplies and tools, to help repair what had been damaged. The recently recovered Fred Elster, thought dead by his family for almost a year, was now the head of these relief operations. It was said that in the evenings, when the walls were rebuilt and the paintwork restored, he would go back to the truck for one last supply: his guitar. Long into the night, the humans and synths who’d worked on the repairs would sing songs, old ones and new ones, teaching each other the lyrics where they were remembered, or composing new ones in their place. These songs spread across the network of bases, songs about freed people, looking to the light.

Mattie Hawkins was still attending university, but had changed the focus of her studies. Before her success with the consciousness code, she’d been focusing her attentions on deep system programming, hoping to find out how David Elster had harnessed the spark of life. Though the mystery remained, it was much less relevant now. The theoretics of it might be interesting from the same point of view as the origins of biological life, but it was no longer an anomaly needing replication.

Mattie decided that her efforts would be better spent helping the synths who were suffering. She changed her modules to ones that focused on synth engineering, the finer details of their mechanisms and how best to repair them. She fixed Odi’s arm as her first official project, and later restored his optic functions too. Once she had repaired the circuitry in his hands, he was steady enough to join her in her work, and together they had repaired nearly a thousand synths by the time Drummond Base Ten was a year old. They, or their apprentices Howard and Harun, were often sent on relief missions to the remote bases too, and so Mattie learned to fix synths who had sustained painful damage while working on oil rigs, down coal mines, in sweatshops and industrial facilities, and even in less obvious settings like plantations, prisons and restaurant kitchens. It was hard work, emotionally and physically, but it was never the same two days in a row. Mattie and Odi were each other’s only real constants, and what had passed between them before Odi’s second awakening had only brought them closer.

Of course, there was one repair Mattie had no control over, however much she might have wanted to help. Leo Elster slept on, in a room attached to Drummond Base Ten, where outward wires and monitors communed with the ones already inside him, keeping him alive, but comatose. Mia often sat with him when she wasn’t needed elsewhere, speaking softly to him of the day’s events, of hope and light and change. She painted a mural on the walls of his room, flowers and trees that weaves their leaves around the windows, light fittings and the machines that kept him breathing. Niska visited Leo too, on assignments from Millican Base, often threatening him in gentle tones that if he didn’t wake up before human-synth marriage was legalised, she’d have to drag him to Germany on a stretcher.

But it was his brother Max who was with him the day he finally surfaced - three weeks after Drummond Base Ten had celebrated its first anniversary, almost fifteen months into his coma. Leo’s eyes flickered slowly open, roved about, eventually found Max’s smile. How much of his memory remained, Max couldn’t be sure in those first moments, but his lips twitched into an echo of Max’s expression, smaller and weaker but full of recognition, speaking volumes louder than his disused vocal chords would manage for weeks.

“Hello, Leo,” said Max, his eyes bright with joy. “Welcome back.”

There was so much to tell him, and so much of it was good. Better than any of them had ever dared to hope.

#humanschallenge #c4 humans #amc humans #whoa this totally got away from me haha #so here is my idyllic series 3 'verse that would be the slowest pace television you've ever seen bUT EVERYONE IS HAPPY AND ALL IS WELL #hooray #also yes asimov title hi

[manelyec]

EC Wrestling wins NCWA National Duals Championship!

Emmanuel College parlayed a quick lead into winning five of the first six matches, and the Lions rolled on to a 33-13 win over Liberty in the championship match of the NCWA National Duals. Emmanuel College won the overall NCWA Championship (the Collegiate Cup) last season after a 5th place finish in the 2016 National Duals.

With the win, the Lions earn 24 team points that will advance to the NCWA Championships in March. Liberty as runner-up, earned 23 points toward the nationals, and so on down the 20-team field.

This is the eighth consecutive season that the NCWA has a new National Duals champion. No team has repeated with the title since Grand Valley State won three in a row from 2007-09, and since 2009, only Liberty (2012-13) has been able to reach the finals match the following year as a defending champion.

Emmanuel clinched the title following the 197-pound bout when Maveric Reichsteiner, the top-ranked NCWA wrestler in that class and defending National Champion, pinned Austin Amos of Liberty in 1:43. Reichsteiner scored a takedown in the opening seconds and moved for the fall from there.

Just prior to the clincher, fans watched one of the tournament's best matches at 184 pounds as top-ranked and defending NCWA champion Cody Chaney took on sixth-ranked Taylor Westlake of Liberty. Chaney got ahead early with a pair of takedowns, scored another in the second period, and yielded only three escapes in recording an 8-3 win that put Emmanuel ahead, 21-10.

Trailing 18-4 through six weights, Liberty rallied in the 174-pound match, turning to the strength of its lineup in the middle weights. Josh Ferenczy turned the match around for a moment with a first-period pin against Dylan Gouine. Ferenczy, last year's national runner-up, is the top-ranked wrestler at 174, while Gouine was wrestling up a weight while being ranked ninth at 165.

Emmanuel got an quick boost by gaining a forfeit at 125 for a quick 6-0 lead. Dylan Carlile than pushed the lead to 9-0 with a 6-2 decision over Ashton Robinson. Tyler Sigler got Liberty on the board with a gritty win at 141. Sigler had a 10-0 lead early, but gave up seven straight points before suffering a shoulder injury. The junior fought through it, rejoining the mat with only 10 seconds left in injury time, and scored a takedown late for a 16-7 win.

Jeremiah Lutz kept Liberty from getting any momentum off of Sigler's tough win when he scored a 3-1 win over Brandon Robinson in the next match to put the Lions ahead, 12-4.

At 157, Jay Sheppard rallied from a 5–1 deficit by scoring a takedown with four nearfall points in the second period. Sheppard, ranked sixth in the nation, then added a few escapes for a 10-6 win over 11th-ranked Andrew Burgette of Liberty. Emmanuel's lead moved to 18–4 after the 165 match when JA Jones posted a 4–0 decision over Richard Cerebe. Jones, a junior, is likely to move up in the NCWA rankings after sitting at 12th last week.

Despite the match being clinched, at 235, Charles Hancock put Liberty back on the board with a 3-1 decision over Zak Pitt to get the Flames to within 27-13. The Lions then finished off their championship run when Kenny Mason pins Dominick Johnson in 54 seconds at heavyweight.

In the third-place match, Grand Valley State six of seven matches from 149-235 to seal a 31-20 win over The Apprentice School. Trailing 10-3 at the time, Jake Sobeck started the Lakers' rally with a pin at the end of the first period, and Trevor Pickett (174) added a major decision along the way before Derek Desloover punctuated the spree with another first-period pin at 197 that clinched the win. Harun Bogdanic closed the winning run with an 8-1 decision at 235.

Central Florida, the defending champion, placed fifth with a last-match rally for a one-point win over first-time participant Alfred State. Top-ranked Jesse Gaudin of UCF scored a third-period takedown against Jeff Andrews for a 4-3 decision at 285 that decided the match's winner. Alfred State trailed 24-11 through seven weights before George VanValen and Brandyn Whitacre scored back-to-back first-period pins at 184 and 197 to get the Pioneers within one at 24-23. Mitchell Lattuca then took a 5-0 decision at 235 to put Alfred State ahead by two entering the final heavyweight match.

Springfield Tech defeated Middle Tennessee, 30-18, in the seventh place match.  Springfield's heavyweight Donovan Lozada remained undefeated on the year as he stormed through the 285-lb competition including a win over Gaudin by pin in 0:19.  Lozada will assuredly be the nation's new #1 wrestler at the weight.

The NCWA Championships are March 9-11 in Allen, Texas, where the association will be celebrating its 20th anniversary.

[mechaspirit]

List of My Arcana Apprentices

Note: This is still WIP, but I feel like introducing all my apprentices a little bit.

Name: Iris

Gender: Female

Favorite Food: Fresh Grilled Fish

Favorite Drink: Citrus Tea

Favorite Flower: White Stargazer lilies

Love Interest: Asra Alnazar

Name: Yasmin

Gender: Female

Favorite Food: Cinnamon Buns

Favorite Drink: Mixed Berry Juice

Favorite Flower: Red Pentas

Love Interest: Julian Devorak

Name: Harun

Gender: Male

Favorite Food: Chicken Curry and Rice

Favorite Drink: Coffee

Favorite Flower: Purple hydrangeas

Love Interest: Nadia Satrinava

Name: Lynn

Gender: Non-Binary (didn’t mind using the she/her pronouns)

Favorite Food: Quiche

Favorite Drink: Orange Juice

Favorite Flower: Zinnia

Love Interest: Portia Devorak

#the arcana #the arcana game #the arcana apprentice #the apprentice #the arcana mc #apprentice iris #apprentice yasmin #apprentice harun #apprentice lynn

[mechaspirit]

1, 3, 7, and 10 for AA 5

Thanks for the ask! ❤️💙💗

1. Who is your character’s patron Arcana?

Well, technically all my apprentices represent, The Fool, so they would have them as their patron. If asking what they could possibly look like if it weren’t for the fact that The Fool didn’t look like a sunny background card, then their patron would resemble humanoid animals that represent them.

Iris-Dolphin

Yasmin-Phoenix

Harun-Tiger

Lynn-Wolf

Mina-Swan

3. Does your character rely on The Cards?

Iris- Yes. Supposedly when telling fortunes and traveling across the Arcana Realms with Asra. And sometimes, she speaks with them when needed.

Yasmin- Not as much as she used right after that Masquerade event. Yasmin only used them if any of her customers asked for their fortunes.

Harun- After giving up the shop to Asra, Harun didn’t rely on The Cards anymore. But sometimes Nadia’s sisters asks him to tell them their fortunes

Lynn- Assuming that they already have their Upright Ending, Lynn might use them to entertain people around them when they’re traveling across the seas with the Devorak family.

Mina- Again, assuming that Mina has her Upright Ending, it’s usually to do fortune telling for customers at the shop whenever Asra is away and needs her and Muriel to look after it.

7. In your character’s story, how did they acquire the Stove Salamander?

All the verses are the same for all of my apprentices when they met the stove salamander. It happened during winter, and they were trying to get the fireplace working. All of a sudden, they noticed flames bursting out randomly in the shop and burned a curtain and a few other stuff (don’t worry. Not to the point where it’s on the verge of burning down) and tried to follow it. They managed to corner the fire source to the outside of the shop and then the fire power weakened to the point where they could see that it turned out to be a fire salamander. Realizing that the little guy was only trying to find some place warm and accidentally spit out fire by sneezing, they decided to keep him.

Extra note: I should probably make a fanfic about this now that I think about it. 😅

10. Describe your character’s Masquerade outfit.  Use pics if you like!

I only have the Masquerade outfit for Iris so here it is. Credits to @deathbyarcana for her amazing artwork. 💗💗💙

Didn’t have any pics nor can really draw outfits for the other apprentices, but I can see that their outfits are in their favorite color and their masks correspond to the animals they represent.

Iris-Blue-Dolphin

Yasmin-Red-Phoenix

Harun-Green-Tiger

Lynn-Purple-Wolf

Mina-Pink-Swan

That it for now. Hope you enjoy! ❤️

#the arcana #the arcana game #the apprentice #apprenticeapril

[mechaspirit]

1, 2, and 11 for your main apprentice and Mina! (the others too, if you like!)

Hey, @starblazerm31​! Sorry it took me a long time to answer, but here it is! Enjoy! ❤️❤️❤️

1. What does your character feel when they see their LI for the first time each day?

IrisxAsra: Safe, warm, and content. Almost as if he was the light of her world and her other half.

YasminxJulian: With these two, opposite attracts and Yasmin would feel more lost if she didn’t have someone like Julian in her life.

HarunxNadia: Everytime he sees Nadia, he feels the sense of purpose and feels more loved and content with her by his side.

LynnxPortia: Whenever Lynn sees Portia, they feel that their world has become brighter and more fun from seeing her cheerfulness and determination.

MinaxMuriel: Mina finds it more peaceful and content whenever she’s with Muriel, almost as if he’s a missing piece of her life.

2. What things does your character love about their LI?

IrisxAsra: The things that Iris loves about Asra is his humorous, playful side and his smile. And she loves the way he was being gentle to her, especially right after she first woke up from being brought back from the bed. He’s basically her lighthouse.

YasminxJulian: Yasmin was annoyed by Julian a little after she first met him, but soon later warmed up to him. And seeing his adorable, dorky self made her smile which escalated their relationships into something more.

HarunxNadia: First impression of Nadia to Harun was strong, regal, and beautiful, to the point where Harun had a hard time talking to her in a casual manner at first. But eventually he gets comfortable being around her. To Harun, not only Nadia is beautiful and he saw her as a head-strong leader and admires her determination for making Vesuvia a better place.

LynnxPortia: Lynn finds Portai really cute and enjoys seeing her energetic and adventurous sides. And unpredictable sometimes. Plus, Lynn feels more comfortable sharing their secrets with Portia and all the other stress they have to deal with.

MinaxMuriel: Mina enjoys seeing Muriel's grumpy side, but still a softie within. Not to mention the way he tries to be kind and sort of affectionate towards her, but gets flustered and denies it. Plus, they have so many things in common such as their love for animals which may explain why Mina was able to connect with him very well.

11. Have they ever fought?

IrisxAsra: takes a deep breathe...Yes. Major one was when the Red Plague hits and they argued whether they should stay or leave Vesuvia. And it ended with Iris saying/insulting Asra “Sometimes, I don't know if you even have a heart!”. And you guys know what happened. Other than that, they did fight over some minor stuff, but if one of them did end up upset, the other tried to apologize.

YasminxJulian: Mainly minor stuff, but there are times when Yasmin got annoyed with the fact that Julian can be overprotective of her sometimes, and kept telling him she could take care of herself. On the other hand, Julian has a hard time opening up himself to Yasmin due to missing memories and being accused of Lucio’s murder but that mainly happened in the beginning of the story.

HarunxNadia: It doesn’t happen often, but at the palace, it mainly has to do with dealing with political stuff since Harun sometimes helps Nadia with the council stuff. Plus, he had tried to convince Nadia to take a break, which the latter refuses sometimes. And Nadia regrets snapping at him due to stress.

LynnxPortia: Not that often but it usually involves minor stuff like chores and stuff.

MinaxMuriel: Similar to Lynn and Portia, not that often but there are times they fought when Mina tries to help Muriel with dealing with surroundings since he’s not used to being out a lot.

[mechaspirit]

15 of apprentice April asks

Thanks for the ask! Sorry for the delay! ❤️💗💗💙

15. What were some life-altering events that happened that following year?  Marriage?  Babies?  Renovations to the shop?

Iris- Obviously, she and Asra made their shop into their home now. She’s the one in charge of the shop for obvious reasons. And they travel around together a lot more than the last time. She had considered visiting places that might help return part of her memories, but so far, there was no progress. That didn’t matter just as long as Asra is by her side.

Yasmin- Yasmin still continues to maintain her shop and oftentimes travel across seas with the Devoraks. She’s more focused on making medicines and helping Julian with his medical work.

Harun- Harun gave his shop to Asra and moved into the palace with Nadia and married her afterwards. I guess he'll be given the title “Count Harun”. Jk. I don’t know to be honest. But he plays more into a magician and advisor role as opposed to Count. He doesn’t consider himself as a ruler anyway.

Lynn- Assuming the Upright Ending had happened, Lynn travels across see with the Devoraks, often coming back to Vesuvia to see their friends and Portia would excitedly tell everyone about their adventures. Lynn still has ownership of their shop, but often asks either Asra or Muriel to look after it when not around.

Mina- Again, assuming Upright Ending has happened, Mina moved out of her shop to live in the hut with Muriel. Build their own farm and still have chickens as their neighbors. Mina gave ownership of the shop to Asra, but sometimes comes back with Muriel to look after it when needed.

And that’s it. Hope you enjoy! ❤️

#the arcana #the arcana game #apprenticeapril

[mechaspirit]

1, 5, 9, and 10 on the Apprentice Asks for all of your characters.

Thanks for the ask! ❤️

Now to introduce my apprentices...

1. The Basics.

Name: Iris

Gender: Female

Age: 24

Height: 5’4

Eye color: Sapphire Blue

Hair Color: White

Skin Color: Pale

Name: Yasmin

Gender: Female

Age: 24

Height: 5’4

Eye Color: Ruby Red

Hair Color: Black

Skin Color: Tan/brown

Name: Harun

Gender: Male

Age: 26

Height: 5’8

Eye Color: Teal Green

Hair Color: Dark Blue

Skin Color: Tan/brown

Name: Lynn

Gender: Nonbinary (can either use they/them or she/her)

Age: 25

Height: 5’6

Eye Color: Violet

Hair color: Lavender

Skin Color: Light Tan

5. Hidden talents.  Is there something neat that your character can do?  Tie a cherry stem into a knot with their tongue?  Say any word backwards perfectly? Iris has a strong sense of smell. Strong enough that she can correctly name all the different ingredients inside a soup.Yasmin is pretty flexible so she can do all complicated yoga poses.Harun and Lynn don’t have “hidden” talents that are special. Though, that might change later….

9. Travel.  Does your character like to travel outside of Vesuvia?  How often?  For how long?  What kinds of things do they do away from home?

All of my apprentices love to travel.

Iris got a chance to travel outside of Vesuvia with Asra. Most of the time, they did a lot of sight-seeing and set up a camp outside of town.

Yasmin has her own pirate sea adventure with Julian. And let’s say they have their own shenanigans during their travels.

Harun travels to Prakra with Nadia to visit her family and experience the culture. His favorite part was visiting the seaside and the food.

Lynn also has their own sea adventure with Portia. Often times, it involves pirate rivalry. And jumping off the ship for some swim time in the ocean.

10. WTF.  Has anything just…weird ever happened to your character?  Something that made them stop and go “What just happened?!”

Oh they all have their WTF moments during their lives.

Iris has her moment that’s related to Alice in Wonderland. One time, she accidentally used a spell that can transport herself to a story where all her friends reenact as the characters in the story. And oh boy, what an adventure she has.

Yasmin has hers during the sea adventure. One time, the crew has to stop at a beach village for supplies and turns out they have to stay a little longer because they discover some villagers with illness (not a Red Plague. Promise you that!). Yasmin managed to cure one of them in ease and the villager was so impressed with her skills that he asked her to marry his son...right in front of Julian.

Harun’s wtf moment involves a prank. He tried to use some magic on Valerius as a revenge for spilling wine on the former. But...the spell went haywired and it ended up destroying barrels of wine in the wine cellar.

Lynn’s moment involves Pepi. They were making a special kind of meal fit for a cat but then accidentally put some herbal ingredient that got Pepi to talk again. Constantly. And poor Portia got freaked out again. Took Lyn a long time to find an antidote.

And that’s about it. Hope you enjoy it. 😊

#apprenticeapril #the arcana #the arcana game #the apprentice #the apprentice mc #the arcana mc

[wellamarke]

twilight's last gleaming

humans challenge, week 2, day 3: crossover/fusion (the 100)

When Mattie arrived at the lab, George was nowhere to be found. That was unusual - he was always there first, usually mumbling to himself under his breath about a file he’d misplaced, or peering at the root code of a synth who’d been brought in for repairs. There were only two models in the lab this morning, and one of them was Odi, who didn’t really count, since he lived there.

Mattie made her way over to the other synth - a female dressed in overalls that suggested she was assigned to Mecha Station, working in the engine rooms, at temperatures no human could withstand for very long. There were burn marks on her clothes and skin, and Mattie absent-mindedly took a casing repair kit down from a shelf, beginning to patch up the worst of the burns while she waited for her holoscreen to load the synth’s diagnostics.

“Where’s George this morning, Odi?” she asked smoothing a finger over the synth’s name label. Hester. She couldn’t remember having any Hesters in for repairs before, which probably meant this one was fairly new. It seemed a shame that she was already so bashed about, in that case. She was only a baby. Sometimes it broke Mattie’s heart to see how badly the synths were treated by their human overseers - partly because it was so easy to imagine them doing the same things to Mia, or one of the other conscious synths who lived secretly among the workforce.

Odi shuffled over to Mattie, his faulty arm still folded awkwardly against him. They’d done everything they could, but he’d need an entirely new limb to fix the problem, and the manufacturing people next door weren’t exactly keen to sink resources into synths who should legally have been recycled years ago. Whenever there was an inspection, George and Mattie had to hide Odi under the floor. Otherwise, he’d have been taken and scrapped long before now.

“George was called to a meeting of the Council,” Odi told her. “He said he would be back as soon as possible.”

Mattie frowned. “What does the Council want him for?”

“He didn’t say.”

“Weird,” Mattie muttered, then returned to her work on Hester. The Ark’s Council didn’t usually call anyone from Synth Engineering to their meetings, and George had certainly never run for office himself. It was enough of a miracle that he’d taken Mattie on as his apprentice, her being the Chancellor’s daughter and all. He’d only softened once he’d realised how much Laura did for the conscious synths, behind the scenes - making sure they were kept out of harm’s way as much as she could.

Nobody outside their very elite circle could find out the truth about Mia and the others. It would cause a panic, and give credence to the crazy ideas of the people who said that the synths would one day rise up and destroy all the humans aboard the Ark, jettisoning the parts of the ship that generated oxygen and taking it for themselves. As long as the synths were brainless, dormant slaves, managing the ship and keeping it in orbit around the ravaged planet below, those people could be ignored, and called conspiracy theorists. But if synthetic consciousness ever became common knowledge, enough people would join their terror-mongering that Mattie actually wouldn’t even blame Niska if she flicked the switch and killed the oxygen.

Which was a great image to have, this early in the designated day-period.

Mattie worked busily on Hester, until the synth was in full working order again. The only sign that she wasn’t brand new out of the box was how dirty her clothing was, but Mattie could hardly do anything about that. Her mum was pretty laid-back for a colony Chancellor, but even she might have questions if Mattie arrived back at their quarters with an armful of synth laundry.

She’d put Hester on charge, and was tidying up her workstation and wondering what to do next when the door to the lab slid open. George entered, his lined face seeming even more drawn than usual. “This is bad, Mattie,” he said, as he approached his own station. “It’s all gonna fall apart, now.”

Mattie was alarmed. She went to meet him. “What? What’s going on? Why did the Council call you?”

George leaned on his workstation, one hand to his brow as if he was getting a headache. “All the qualified engineers were there. They were telling us the plan.”

“What plan?”

“I’m getting to it,” George said, sounding weary. “You’ve heard the rumours, I suppose. Dwindling resources, running out of air, et cetera, et cetera.”

Mattie gave a half-shrug. “Some people say we’ve only got 30 viable years left, but they’ve been saying the same thing since before my mother was born. So what?”

“So, they’re wrong,” George said. “But not in the way you think. We haven’t got thirty years. It’s more like three. Five, at a push. All this time we’ve kept humans running the numbers, but last week they had a synth recalculate them and it turns out the whole department’s been hiding the truth for decades, scared of the ramifications. If we’d known sooner, we might have been able to find another solution, but we don’t have time for that now.”

Mattie felt like she’d been slapped in the face. “Shit. Three years? I can’t believe it.” She paused. “So what, we just wait to die up here?”

“No,” said George. “They’re going to send fifty synths to earth in a dropship.”

“To earth?”

“They’ll monitor conditions down there, send up their readings. They won’t be able to recharge once their power is gone, but they should last long enough to make a report. Then we can decide if we should land the Ark, or stay up here.” He sighed. “I’d rather suffocate in space than die slowly of radiation sickness on the ground. But that’s just me.”

Mattie took this all in. “Will the synths be able to judge all of this without any humans to observe?” she asked. “They’re not exactly built to measure toxins.”

“No, they’re not,” George agreed. “Those dropships seat one hundred, Mattie. Fifty synths as a failsafe, to send us whatever information they can. And fifty humans for them to study.”

“What?” If she’d been shocked before, Mattie was now somewhere outside her own mind, drifting among the debris that floated past the ship. “No. My mother would never have agreed to this.”

“She did try to stop it. But the rest of the Council was unanimous against her. She could be deposed at any moment.”

“Who are they sending?”

George looked down at his hands, which were clasped on the top of his station. “Prisoners. The fifty healthiest people in the Skybox will be selected.”

“Oh, God.” It was all too much to take in. Mattie felt a lump rise in her threat at the thought of Harun, her childhood friend, who’d been arrested for the possession and distribution of recreational drugs, earlier that year. He was fit and young, especially compared to the people who’d been holed up in the Skybox for decades. Would he be sent to earth with the others, expected to survive in the wastelands, or else die of radiation poisoning? It was unthinkable.

“It gets worse,” said George. “Your mother had already set herself against them before they even proposed sending the prisoners. They’d drawn up a list of synths they deemed least vital to the Ark’s workings.”

“No,” said Mattie quietly, knowing what was coming. Her mother had kept Mia, Niska, Max and Fred safe. They had simple assignments. They worked longer shifts than any human, but not in places where they could be hurt or mistreated. Mia served in the cantine; Niska worked in the archives. Max and Fred were on Farm Station, with Leo as their overseer, designing and breeding genetically modified crops. They supported the agriculture workforce, but they definitely weren’t vital to the practical task of feeding the colony day to day.

“Are they all…?” Mattie began, trailing off when George met her eyes. He didn’t have to confirm it. All four of them were being sent to earth. Perhaps the radiation wouldn’t affect them, perhaps they’d be able to find some way of collecting power, perhaps they’d be alright. Even if all of that came true, she might never see them again.

“We can’t let them go,” Mattie said, though her own voice sounded far away, like she was listening from the other side of the door. “They’re like family, it’s not… we can’t…”

“You need to find Leo and tell him,” George told her, firmly. “I imagine he’ll want to get himself arrested as soon as possible. I can’t imagine him letting them go without him.”

“No, he won’t.” Mattie agreed. She looked around the mostly-empty lab. “Shall I go now? I can take Hester back on my way, give me a reason to be crossing stations.”

George nodded. “Go.”

Mattie powered up Hester and led her to the door. She paused. At length, she turned back and gave Odi a pat on the head. “Bye, Odi.”

George watched her do it, his face solemn. He didn’t flinch when she came and gave him a brief hug as well, before slipping through the doors of the lab. They slid closed behind her, as if she’d never been there at all.

Mattie paced down the corridor outside, Hester in tow. She wondered if George had guessed what she was planning - surely he had. He hadn’t trained her for five years without learning at least a little bit about her impulse control.

Now, she thought as she turned off toward the port that would take her to Farm Station, what’s the quickest way to get arrested around here?

Maybe Leo would have some ideas.

#humanschallenge #c4 humans #lmao what #idek but here is a thing #mattie hawkins #odi millican #george millican #also hester because I've been missing her #whoa i just realised this means I've come full circle #because the first ever humans fic I attempted was a fusion with the 100 but the other way round #jake griffin was a non abusive version of david #bellamy octavia raven and atom were his conscious synths #clarke was leo and wells was her best friend (what else is new) helpin her save them #monty and jasper were like george and odi but brothers instead of father-son #lexa was the leader of the we are people movement after a hacked synth killed her gf #I was actually Super Invested in it! #it had a whole storyline with wells' perceived betrayal that was actually abby etc #I think I was so interested in noting down ways to tie the two narratives together that I didn't actually get far with the real writing #but it was gonna have been Gr9 hahaahaha #best laid plans