#imagining losing all of your friends in one fell swoop and then seeing one appear for a split second

[thychesters]

i know he had absolutely no clue but bon clay showing up as zoro when he runs into luffy again ... that messed me up. you have this guy whose sole goal two days ago was to get back to his crew, could only think of his friends, and then he finds out his brother is going to be executed and says "sorry guys, you have to wait just a little bit longer!" and he still has no idea where any of them are, let alone if they're all still alive! the last he saw zoro he could barely stand and he begged usopp to grab him and run; nami called to him for help, robin reached out, and that was the very last he saw of his crew. and now in his mad dash to get to his brother, in a last ditch attempt to save ace, zoro appears and for a second he beams, and then it's bon clay and he shouts "i'm disappointed you're not zoro, but i'm really happy to see you!"

#imagining losing all of your friends in one fell swoop and then seeing one appear for a split second #while you're in all out sprint to go save your big brother's life #i could be writing but ... this counts too #kate watches op #impel down

[kykyonthemoon]

A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Childe/ Tartaglia x Lumine Fanfic

During The Summer Festival in Inazuma, Lumine encountered a kitsune-masked man. He was strange, yet so familiar. Who could he be?...

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

When Lumine and Paimon set foot in Inazuma, the weather was midsummer. In the sweltering air, the streets strewn with cherry blossoms became ever more bustling. The Summer Festival had arrived, with residents across Inazuma putting aside their daily worries to enjoy the best things summer had to offer.

Even travelers like Lumine and Paimon could not resist being invited to the festival. The lady from Kamisato house had asked Lumine and Paimon to accompany her, but something unexpected caused her to make another appointment. Determined not to miss the occasion, Lumine and Paimon agreed to take to the streets in new outfits that Ayaka had sent them.

Inazuma clothing is multi-layered and slightly harder to wear than previously worn by Lumine. In the summer, people do not wear too many layers due to the hot weather. As she put on the yukata, Lumine secretly admired its beauty: each needle line was very neat and beautiful, the outfit was pale yellow, dotted with cherry blossoms, especially it was not as hot as she had thought. There was also a hand fan made of bamboo and fabric of the same color as her yukata, which featured koi fish. Lumine remembered that Ayaka once told her about the types of fans, and this one was called “uchiwa,” and the koi pattern symbolized good luck.

“Traveler! You look beautiful!”

Lumine turned to her companion. Paimon wore the same patterned yukata as her, but it was pink and white. Her little friend looked more adorable than ever.

“I was thinking if my dress is a bit tight. If Paimon can’t eat anything tonight, I’ll be so angry at the Kamisato!”

Lumine burst into laughter.

The bustling city of Inazuma greeted them in the glorious sunset. On both sides of the road, colorful lanterns were lit. Everywhere was filled with different restaurants and stalls; flowers, prayer charms, masks, and decorations that extend all the way to Amakane Island. The most sold was, of course, food. Needless to say, Paimon loved to be here.

“Whoa! What a crowd!” Paimon remarked as they mingled with the group of walkers. “Don’t leave me behind, Traveler!”

However, it was Lumine who was left behind when Paimon was caught up in the roadside food stalls. The little companion flew up and then swooped down on literally every stall she saw, as they offered free tastings. A few minutes later, Lumine could not see Paimon anymore.

Lumine could not fly like Paimon. She had to squeeze through the stream of smiling and talking people to find her friend. Inazuma City is large, with small streets intertwined and connected to one another. After a long search, Lumine accepted the fact that she had lost Paimon.

Lumine sighed. It’s also unclear where she was on the map of Inazuma City. She wandered alone, looking at the streets and rolled her eyes to every corner to see if Paimon was somewhere around. Not paying attention to the path, she suddenly bumped into someone's back.

“Sorry… I’m sorry!” Lumine said, embarrassed.

In front of her was a white yukata patterned with light blue waves. Whoever she bumped into was much taller than her. Then, he turned around.

Lumine noticed that he was wearing a kitsune mask on his face. Although his face was unknown to her, his appearance was very familiar; tall and slim, with short, choppy orange hair, even his voice was like that person.

“Are you alright, Miss?”

Lumine was frozen for a moment.

"You're not hurt, are you? You should be careful in such a crowded place like this. I can’t bear to see a beautiful lady like you get hurt."

Lumine frowned. Even these teasing words were very similar to a person she knew.

"We've met before, haven't we?" She asked frankly. Lumine does not like to play the vague game.

The one in kitsune mask laughed out loud:

“Quite a bold young lady, aren’t you? Perhaps we’ve met, in my sweetest dreams.”

Lumine blushed. She was both embarrassed and a little angry. How dared a stranger make fun of her like that?

“If you’re not the person I know, then I’m sorry for bothering you.”

Saying so, Lumine was about to leave, but the man stopped her.

"Wait. I'm sorry I teased you. But you look a little lost, Miss. Is there anything I can do to help you?"

Lumine weighed in on it a bit. She really needed to find Paimon and get back to the inn. Yet was this stranger trustworthy?

“Are you a local?” Lumine asked.

"No. I'm an outsider, just like you. The only difference is that I've been here for a while. I have some personal business here."

If it's a private matter, it's best not to ask. Lumine thought so. She hesitated for a moment and replied:

"I'm actually looking for my friends. I’ve just lost her."

"Then you've met the right person. I know every corner around here."

Seeing that Lumine did not believe him, the man said, "Come on, don't look at me like that! I just want to help a far-away traveler. That’s all."

"All right." Lumine replied. "But if you ask for mora, I don't have much..."

The masked man looked at her for a moment and then laughed so loudly that passers-by stared at them.

"Haha! Miss, you're funny! Why do you think my kindness needs to be reciprocated?"

Lumine paused for a moment. Her days of adventure from Mondstadt to Liyue, and now Inazuma, helped her come to terms with one thing: everything has a price. In other words, you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.

"Well... I'm sorry I didn't think right about you..." Lumine replied.

"Then, would you accept my help?"

Lumine nodded and said nothing more, but she thought that she would definitely repay today's favor.

They walked through the crowded streets. The masked man told Lumine about Inazuma and about the culture here. It helped widening her perspectives. If she hadn't bothered to look for Paimon, she would have enjoyed the whole atmosphere.

But there's no denying that everything at the Summer Festival was so special and distracted her over and over again. She came across a mask stall by the side of the road and turned to look at the person next to her.

"Do you want to buy a mask too, Miss?" He asked.

"Not really... I'm just thinking your mask is more beautiful and elaborate than what they sell."

The masked man adjusted his mask a little. Lumine saw him laughing.

"Of course. This is something I painted myself! If you want, I'll paint a same one for you."

Lumine waved her hand. “No, there's no need…” she said, but he pulled her into a nearby stall and asked the owner about the masks which customers could paint themselves.

Lumine watched intently as he painted the mask with red, black lines, and yellow dots. Moments later, he gave it to her.

"Here. For you."

Lumine picked up the mask, examining it with amusement.

"Thank you."

"Let me put it on for you."

Lumine looked up at him sheepishly.

"I... I can wear it myself."

Seemingly unable to hear her say anything, he took the mask and put it on one side of her hair.

"T-Thank you..." Lumine said, gazing down at her feet.

The man smiled.

"Hey, I don't even know your name." Lumine said as they continued to go.

"Call me Mr. Kitsune. The kids in Inazuma call me that." He replied and waved to a group of children in the distance.

He seemed to be very loved by children. Lumine thinks that any person who is liked by children cannot be evil by nature. Suddenly she thought of someone she knew. Could it be...? But how could a Harbinger like him be here? She looked around. There's no sight of the Fatui nearby. Was it all just her imagination?

The two walked into a smaller yet not less crowded street. Immediately, Lumine’s attention was caught by a crowd playing a very interesting game. They gathered next to a large pot of water, inside there were many goldfish. Each person held a seemingly fragile racket made out of paper, and tried to get the fish into their little bucket as much as possible during a specific amount of time.

"Do you want to try it?" Mr. Kitsune asked after seeing Lumine’s interest in the game for a long time.

Lumine nodded.

Mr. Kitsune said something to the woman who appeared to be the owner there, and she handed them two rackets and two small buckets.

In excitement, Lumine sat down and Mr. Kitsune sat next to her. Picking up turned out to be much more difficult than it seemed. The racket was flat and very easy to tear, and the dodgy fish seemed to have learned to avoid players and irritate them, skillfully.

Lumine's racket was torn shortly after she thought she had picked up the first fish. She looked to the side. Mr. Kitsune gave her a new one.

"Thank you." Lumine responded and the excitement returned. There's no way she’s going to lose to these goldfish!

After a hard fight, Lumine finally got her first fish. She eagerly turned to Mr. Kitsune to show it off, but then her face went sullen immediately when she saw his bucket full of fish. What was more obnoxious was that he reseted his head on one hand and caught the fish only with the other hand. His attitude of fish-picking was very relaxed, not as strenuous as Lumine's at all.

"How did you get so many fish?" She asked.

"Oh... I don't know. Perhaps it’s my talent?"

He had just finished speaking when another fish fell into his bucket. Lumine gave up and dropped her racket into the bucket. She sat and watched him pick up the fish. From time to time, she pointed to the fish she wanted him to catch.

“This one! It has nice color.”

"You do know that we have to return the fish after the game, right?" He laughed and moved his hand to pick up the fish Lumine wanted.

After the time was up, Mr. Kitsune got the highest prize: a stuffed fox. He gave it to Lumine.

"It does look like you." Lumine looked at the fox in her hands and commented as the two left. It has a soft orange fur, a white belly and four black legs.

"Then every time you see it, you will think of me."

He replied without a hint of shame. But Lumine was blushing like a red tomato. Seemingly aware of her intention to return the fox, he said:

"In Inazuma, it is considered disrespectful to return the given gifts.”

Lumine pinched the fox's nose with a force. She thought about turning it into a sandbag for Paimon to practice her fighting skills, but then it was also too cute for that.

After coming to the end of the street, Lumine realized they had reached the gate of Inazuma. The outside of the city was as bustling as the inside, but the air was fresh and pleasant thanks to the sea. The moon was high, and Paimon was still nowhere to be seen.

Looking around for a moment, Mr. Kitsune said:

"Maybe your friend has gone to Amakane Island. It is the best place to watch the fireworks. Besides, there is also a well-known street stall selling delicious oden.”

Perhaps Paimon would not go there to see the fireworks, but for the food, yes. Lumine agreed to join Mr. Kitsune on the walk to Amakane Island to find her friend. They walked a long way across the coast. Along the way, Lumine noticed that the people of Inazuma City were also heading to the island as they were mostly hands-to-hand couples with smiles. There were butterflies inside her stomach when she thought that walking side by side with Mr. Kitsune like this made them look like a couple.

"Tell me about your friend." Mr. Kitsune suddenly spoke up. "The one whom you thought I was."

Lumine mused. "I don't know if we're friends anymore..."

"What's wrong? Did he do something bad?"

"It could be put that way." Lumine recalled the mess that the Eleventh Harbinger of Fatui – Tartaglia had made in Liyue. Worse than that, he had taken advantage of her trust, leaving her caught up in a dispute between forces like a puppet. Even though everything had been resolved, she still could not let it go easily.

"If he's a bad guy, you should beat him to death and never speak to him again."

Those words made Lumine laugh.

"I do want to beat him up. But..." She paused for a moment and then continued. "There’s also a good side of him that changes my opinions on him. I wonder what his true face is."

They walked a little further. The sound of waves was caught in her ears. Lumine saw some crabs digging the sand and hiding from people in the distance.

"Everyone has their own masks to wear, Miss." Mr. Kitsune said. "One day, I hope he'll have the courage to take his mask off in front of you."

Lumine gazed up at the man wearing the fox mask next to her for a moment. Wasn’t he hiding his face from her too? What's that fox mask hiding that she didn’t know yet? But everyone has secrets, and Lumine is not much of a pryer.

As soon as they arrived at Amakane Island, Lumine’s nose was immediately attacked by the aroma of food emanating from street vendors. Perhaps she was really hungry after the hopeless search for Paimon, and a long walk to this place. Now Lumine just wanted to sit down and eat all the food that the people here had to offer.

Mr. Kitsune led Lumine to an oden stall. They were seated right in front of the counter and the smoke and aroma emanating from the kitchen in front of them made Lumine's stomach rumble louder than ever. There was no need to wait long, their food was served soon after. Lumine's bowl had a variety of food: fish balls, boiled eggs, fried tofu, radishes and even noodles. She happily picked up her chopsticks and grab the food, but then realized that Mr. Kitsune was still sitting and looking at his oden bowl in a rather contemplative way.

"Aren’t you going to eat?" Lumine asked.

"Ah..." Mr. Kitsune seemed confused. He picked up his bamboo chopsticks awkwardly.

That person doesn't even know how to hold a chopstick too... Lumine brushed that thought away as soon as it appeared. She should have let go of the obsession which was him for a long time. Somehow, in all the places she went and the people she met, Lumine was looking for such a familiar silhouette in the past.

"Here, let me show you." Lumine reached out her chopsticks to Mr. Kitsune and demonstrated how to hold them little by little. There were moments when their hands touched and Lumine found herself blushing more than necessary.

"You're so good!" Mr. Kitsune's remarks made Lumine's cheeks flush to the ears.

"Well... It's just a normal skill..." She replied, recalling her days at Liyue, when she had practiced holding chopsticks skillfully to pick up food before Paimon ate it all.

Lumine ate her oden and praised the chef's talent. She also kept her eyes on Mr. Kitsune. He merely lifted the mask a little to eat, and the place they sat was not bright enough for Lumine to see his face clearly.

After the oden, Lumine was once again invited by Mr. Kitsune to a tri-color dango treat. Realizing that she was being treated too much, she offered to pay for some octopus balls called takoyaki which later on she had quite a memory with it. It's a dish of spherical scones made of flour, with chopped octopus fillings and some other ingredients inside, then fried in a special pan that has a lot of semicircular concave parts. Lumine bought a square plate containing four takoyaki arranged neatly inside and she skewered one to her mouth.

“Wait!”

But It was too late for Mr. Kitsune, Lumine had put a whole round takoyaki in her mouth. She looked at him and wondered why he was leaning up as if he’s afraid her tongue was burnt. The food was cold enough to be eaten. But that's just what she thought.

When she bit into the crust and spilled the filling, Lumine knew why Mr. Kitsune had warned her. The filling was so hot that Lumine's tongue tip was on fire. She rushed a hand to her mouth, tears welling up. She tried to chew and swallow the food. Fortunately, it wasn't so hot to the point it actually burned her tongue.

Mr. Kitsune gave her a cool cup of tea. Lumine, after regaining her composure, noticed that he had been chuckled all along. She grimaced, took a sip of tea and said in a furious tone:

"You don't have to laugh at me like that."

Mr. Kitsune tried to suppress his laughter and replied, "Sorry... I've never seen anyone eating takoyaki in such a cute way."

Lumine's face was red, not knowing whether it was the food being too hot or because she was embarrassed.

Nearby, there was a place filled with tiny hexagonal wooden cards. Mr. Kitsune said Lumine could write her prayers on the card and hang it up. She took one and wrote her wish, hoping that she would soon be reunited with her twin brother. Mr. Kitsune just stood beside her, his eyes were looking away.

"You don’t have a prayer?"

"I don't need it." He replied. "My wish has already come true tonight."

Lumine wondered what his wish was, but she doubt that a mysterious man like him would let her know too much about himself.

They still could not find Paimon. Mr. Kitsune said that having gone to this place, at least they should see the fireworks. So Lumine and he climbed the moss-covered stone steps filled with weeds, through the red torii gates that had faded over the years. The whole road felt as the entrance to a wonderland with fireflies and magical forests.

There were also a few others walking up to the fireworks watching location. One of them accidentally bumped into Lumine causing her to slip. She thought she was going to fall, but Lumine was saved. She found herself in Mr. Kitsune's arm and her head on his shoulder. He stood just one step behind her. And then, Lumine caught his blue eyes.

They’re the same like someone’s…

Embarrassed, Lumine stood up. "T-Thank you..." She said, turning her face away.

Lumine was not used to walking on Inazuma wooden slippers. She blamed on them just to avoid thinking about the real cause of her confusion. Mr. Kitsune suddenly stood closer by her and said:

"Hold on to my hand, you won't fall again."

He did not look at Lumine but his hand was reaching out in front of her. Lumine hesitated but held on to it at last. They walked slowly up all the stone steps, to a cherry tree and sat down on a large rock, just in time for the very first fireworks to break out.

The night sky was lit up and there was a loud explosion. Colorful fireworks flew into the sky, then dissolved into hundreds of small rays of light. Lumine watched and admired their beauty. It was truly an ideal place to watch fireworks shoot from Inazuma City. Lumine turned to the man who brought her here.

"Though I can't find my friend, I'm happy that I’ve had a chance to enjoy the festival and watch the fireworks with you."

Mr. Kitsune seemed surprised and delighted.

"It is my honor to accompany you, Miss."

Lumine felt her cheeks burning up again. Perhaps all along the way, she had already known who the man in the kitsune mask really was.

"I hope that we'll see each other again soon."

*

* *

It was late at night. There was no more fireworks or laughter. Yet there was still a shadow of the person sitting under the cherry tree, even when the girl with him had already left for a while.

Next to him was a crimson mask, which seemed to exude a kind of dangerous and tempting power. But all his attention was on the harmless kitsune mask in his hand. All that happened tonight felt like a dream. Having known the Traveler had come to Inazuma, he still did not expect that she had found him herself, bumping into him among so many people on the street.

He had always wanted to see her again, ever since their farewell in Liyue. He constantly talked about her in letters to his family, as if they were very close friends; perhaps more than friends?

What could he expect, when fate always puts them on different sides of the battle? He fought for what he believes, and she always chose to help those who oppose him. But deep down in him was the desire to see her again, to see her smile at him once more. He wanted to touch her, but feared she would disappear like fireflies.

Therefore, having a walk with her, eating together and watching the fireworks next to her; everything happened tonight was a beautiful dream in the middle of the summer night. Delightful and sweet, yet came and fade away too quickly. After all, at least he knew she still remembered him.

If only she didn't. That way, she would not have to be upset when they meet again, maybe in another battle here in this land. She had hoped that they would see each other again soon, but he'd rather she not knew who was with her tonight.

Tartaglia put down the kitsune mask and picked up his Harbinger mask. He turned his gaze to the sky, praying silently that the stars would remember today for eternity. Then he put on the heavy mask and left.

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

Au's note: It's been a while since my last Genshin fic. Hope you guys enjoy this one. I really love Japanese festivals in summer and this piece was inspired by those, and with the in-game activities/ atmosphere too of course!

My Genshin Masterlist: x

#uwu sorry for my rusty writing skills #genshin impact #fanfic #chilumi #childe x lumine #tartaglia x lumine #lumine #childe #tartaglia #genshin impact fanfic #fanfiction

[bamfdaddio]

X-Men Abridged: 1980 - The Dark Phoenix Saga

The X-Men, those enduring mutants that have sworn to protect a world that hates and fears them, are a cultural juggernaut with a long, tangled history. Want to unravel this tapestry? Then read the Abridged X-Men!

(X-Men 132 - 140, X-Men Annual 4) - by Chris Claremont and John Byrne, John Romita Jr. and Bob McLeod

Go on. Name a more iconic X-Men panel. I’ll wait. (X-Men 134)

If you were born in 1980, you were born under the sign of the Phoenix. This means you will have great hair, but you’ll also be absolutely corrupted by power. Don’t worry, as long as you don’t consume any stars and/or galaxies, you should be fine.

This year hits the ground running, introducing Emma Frost, Kitty Pryde and Dazzler in one fell swoop. The White Queen is the first of the Hellfire Club to make her move, but Phoenix is quickly able to dispatch of her, as you can read here.

Cyclops, worried that the rest of the Inner Circle will soon come in for the kill, decides to abscond to Angel’s Aerie in New Mexico to throw their pursuers off their scent. Jean decides to make the most of it and has sex with Scott on top of mesa. (Kinky!) She also shuts off his uncontrollable destructo-beams, nbd. This somehow inspires Scott to go from reactive to proactive and lead an ill-advised charge straight into the Hellfire Club on the night of their big ball… soirée... thing. Call it a Hellfire Gala-avant-la-lettre.

Fine, he might have been inspired by the raw power of the Phoenix. She’s the biggest gun on their side and, if there's one thing you can be sure of, it´s that reliable powerhouse Jean won´t switch sides in the middle of battle.

Oh wait, that's exactly what she does.

As soon as they enter the Hellfire Club, Jason Wyngarde, who reveals he’s actually Mastermind, takes control of Jean, finally turning her into the Black Queen. With the power of the Phoenix and the patriarchy on their side, the Inner Circle makes short work of the X-Men. They consists of:

Jason Wyngarde, aka Mastermind.

Sebastian Shaw. Often shirtless. The Jeff Bezos of mutantkind. Has the ability to absorb kinetic energy, which means punching him only makes him stronger. (Colossus and Storm figure this out the hard way.)

Harry Leland. Ability of mass manipulation, which has got to be one of the dopest powers ever. Uses it to dunk Wolverine three floors down into the sewer.

Donald Pierce. 25% robot, 100% asshole, 100% useless in taking out X-Men, 225% the worst.

Wolverine is the only one who escapes, resulting in another iconic image:

Apparently, this picture is solely responsible for the fact that Wolverine became the face of the X-Men in the zeroes. It also lit my cigar from the other side of the room. (X-Men 132)

Needless to say, stabbing ensues.

Meanwhile, Shaw pontificates what he wants with the X-Men. He means to use them as guinea pigs to isolate the X-Gene, which he’ll then reverse engineer to give everyone (with money) super powers and all of a sudden, I want Shaw to do a team-up with John Sublime. Jean is not all there, however: she’s trapped in the astral plane, cultivating a cruel streak a mile high.

And suddenly, Jean-turning-evil is not all that funny anymore. (X-Men 133)

Cyclops traverses the mental link he shares with Jean to confront ‘Sir Jason’ and challenge him to a duel. Guy can’t catch a break: in Jean’s mindscape, he is stabbed and he promptly collapses in the real world. Ruh-roh!

Wolverine, meanwhile, has done a passable impression of the Bride against the Crazy 88 in Kill Bill, and he interrupts the Hellfire Club and their gloating. That’s when Jean resurfaces as well, snapping out of her voluptuous Victorian fantasy and, playing a dubious tango with everyone’s trust issues, switching sides once again. The Phoenix is like the golden snitch: as long as your team holds it, it’s enough to win.

Colossus snaps Pierce’s robo-arm, Shaw gets punted through a floor and Leland uses his powers to increase Wolverine’s mass - just when Logan is jumping on top of him. Oops! Should have made him lighter than a feather, Leland.

Jean, meanwhile, is doing her own passable impression of the Bride and goes on what the advertisements would refer to as a ‘Roaring Rampage of Revenge’. (Oh, she roars, and she rampages, and she gets bloody satisfaction.)

This is what happens when you fuck around and find out, Jason. (X-Men 134)

Phoenix makes Mastermind’s mind touch the infinite. His tiny human mind can’t cope. And, just like me when I’m at Pride and surrounded by a bevvy of shirtless gym bunnies, he becomes a dribbling mess. A shell with nothing inside. For those of you paying attention: this is where your Lit teacher would shout “dramatic irony” and underscore Emma Frost vs. Storm on the chalkboard.

This is also the moment where she officially Breaks Bad.

We see powerless people become heroes all the time. The reverse, where the angel falls? That happens far more rarely. I think that is the reason this story was so shockingly effective in the eighties. The reason why it’s still so effective? I think because, like the One Ring, you can read the rise and fall of the Phoenix in a myriad of ways. Is this a victim, reclaiming power? Is this a woman, trying to rise in a man’s world? Is this someone who was always buttoned up, daring to embrace her own power, her sexuality, her dangerous side -- only to get promptly beat down? The ambiguity of the narrative gives it strength, which is why I think it keeps resonating even now. This counts especially in the X-Universe, inherently designed to appeal to the underdog.

Anyway, the X-Men try to flee, but it’s too late. Jean can’t hold it in any more. She explodes in Phoenixesness and vaporizes the X-Men’s aircraft over Central Park. Relishing in her power, Jean easily defeats her friends, before flying off into the galaxy.

In the Avengers mansion, Beast gets the report that the X-Men are trashing the Hellfire Club. Ignoring his duties as an Avenger, Beast chooses his old family and hops off to investigate on his own.

The report, by the way, comes from Shaw, who knows when to turn tail and cut his losses. Among the confused, scared refugees of their party, he begins working a politician on the importance of a Sentinel program. That politician? Senator Kelly. Remember that name.

Jean can’t talk, she’s doing hot girl things. Nomnomnom that star system, sis. (X-Men 135)

Originally, Jean wasn’t meant to die. This one panel, the one showing the inhabited planet, is the reason why she eventually does: Jim Shooter, editor-in-chief, felt Jean shouldn’t be able to get away with a literal genocide. Claremont and Byrne, who had planned to strip Jean of her powers at the end of this, had to change the end of their story within days before it went to print. Additionally, this stoked the adversarial fire between the two: Claremont claims that he hadn’t originally intended there to be an inhabited planet, but felt his hands were tied when Byrne drew one. I wonder how true this is, considering how embedded it is in the narrative, but that’s neither here nor there.

The Phoenix’s genocide alerts the Shi’Ar - and therefore Lilandra - to her presence. Lily says that Galactus is nothing compared to the Phoenix: he merely eats planets, she will consume all that exists.

A hungry Jean, meanwhile returns to Earth, not sure what she’s looking for. She pays a visit to the home of her parents, but when they warily come to greet her, she can’t help but read all the innermost thoughts of her family. Nothing is secret, nothing is sacred. (Imagine knowing all those little thoughts your parents had about you, all those little terrible human things they did in their life. Imagine knowing all their sexual fantasies. Brrr.) It sours the Phoenix against them and she is about to start familicide to her list of sins, when the X-Men attack!

Nightcrawler slaps a psionic scrambler designed by Beast on her, but she’s still too strong. Wolverine tries to end her, but he isn’t ruthless enough to do the deed. When the scrambler overloads, Scott tries reasoning with her, appealing to her love. This causes the Phoenix to waver and Charles Xavier (airdropped in by Warren), bolts Jean telepathically.

Drinking game rule for the Phoenix saga no 6: shout “ca-caw” and take a sip every time the raptor appears. (X-Men 136)

Xavier feels Jean helping him out from within the Phoenix and together, they slowly trap Phoenix in the same sort of energy-matrix as Jean did with the M’Kraan-crystal. The Phoenix finally lays dormant, the X-Men have Jean back and Scott, overwhelmed by emotion, sort of awkwardly proposes to her. Happy Ending! And then, pulling the rug out from under our feet, the X-Men (including Beast and Angel) are whisked away.

They appear in front of Lilandra. The Shi’Ar hold Jean accountable for her planet-killing ways and Lilandra orders her Imperial Guard to take her away! But Charles invokes an ancient law with the same relish of someone who invokes an obscure board game rule against the person who is about to win: he demands a trial by combat.

The rules are easy:

X-Men win: Jean lives

Shi’Ar win: Jean dies.

The trial will be on the dark side of the moon. The Shi’ar are way too strong and, one by one, the X-Men fall, until only Jean and Scott are left. In their last stand, Jean loses control and becomes the Phoenix again, wiping the floor with the Imperial Guard. Technically, they win, but she knows now.

Suicide by abandoned-machine-of-a-long-forgotten-civilization-on-the-dark-side-of-the-moon. (X-Men 137)

She dies. Phoenix dies. The X-Men lose. Scott, bereft, leaves the X-Men.

One detail I love is the holempathic crystal that Lilandra bestows on Jean’s parents.

Without becoming too maudlin, the idea of this is beautiful. A condensed image of a person you love, one you can touch when you feel memories slipping away so you can remember who they were. (X-Men 138)

And with that, season 2 of the X-Men ends. Without Cyclops and Phoenix, the X-Men have to readjust. While Beast returns to the Avengers, Angel takes up residence in the mansion again. He confesses to liking most of the new X-Men, except Wolverine. (To be fair, Wolverine is an acquired taste.) Kitty Pryde also formally starts attending the school and slowly, the Jean-and-Scott-shaped void is filled.

Patriarchal Charles is thrilled to finally have a new teenager in the house who will hang on to his every word. It’ll be like the sixties all over again! (X-Men 139)

There are so many beautiful touches in the few panels:

Wolverine calling Charles ‘Chuck’

Nightcrawler getting drinks (and a beer)

Most amazingly of all, Storm becoming the leader. (I give Chuck a lot of flak, but this decision is Right.) Not just because Storm is the best X-Man for the job, but also because she was a black woman leading one of premier Marvel superhero teams for, what? The better half of a decade? The eighties had barely started, so this was a big fucking deal.

Storm also takes up a motherly role for Kitty, who takes up her suggestion for a codename: Sprite. (This after Kitty rejects Charles’ suggestion of Ariel, which is only fortunate, considering that name would soon be associated with redhaired mermaids.)

The rest of the year is dedicated to two adventures, both of them starring Kurt. The first is depicted in the annual: on Kurt’s birthday, he receives a mysterious package with a mysterious figurine that mysteriously explodes in his face. Professor X calls guest star Dr. Strange for aid, who deduces that his soul has been stolen. What follows is a quest to regain Kurt’s soul in an adventure that feels a little too I just read Dante’s Inferno, check how smart I am.

Hell is a little too pedestrian and boring, though we do get a King Minos hitting on Kurt and Ororo. A man of wealth and taste indeed. Anyway, at the end of this side quest, it turns out all of this was a convoluted revenge scheme concocted by one Margali of the Winding Road. She turns out to be Kurt’s (adoptive) mother, who’s getting revenge for Kurt killing her son.

Kurt, racked with guilt, reveals he had no choice. Stefan had always feared the darkness in his soul and he’d made Kurt pledge to stop him if he should ever succumb to it. After Stefan killed a child or two, Kurt had no choice but to end him. Stefan perished and Kurt was blamed for all of the murders, having to flee an angry mob.

Margali forgives him, with some help from Jimaine, Kurt’s foster sister. In a twist that is a little too soap opera for my tastes (and I watch Riverdale), Jimaine turns out to be Kurt’s squeeze, Amanda Sefton. I’ve always disliked this twist, and not just because of the incesteous vibes: I like the idea of Kurt dating a regular lady who is into him despite his appearance and his being a mutant. Making Amanda Sefton his sorcerous half-sister dilutes that message a lot.

The tail end of 1980 involves Wolverine going to Canada so Wolverine can make amends with Alpha Flight. Kurt joins him, ostensibly to flirt with Aurora, but in fact this shows that Kurt and Wolverine are establishing a rapport. A deeper friendship.

In a pretty paint-by-numbers adventure, Wolverine, Nightcrawler and the worse half of Alpha Flight take down a Wendigo. We don’t get Northstar or Aurora, but we do get more Snowbird, who can change herself into Canadian animals, with the danger of being consumed by her animal side.

We get this delightful panel out of it:

Scared Nightcrawler almost makes me forget how full of shit Jimmy MacDonald is, considering last time Kurt saw them, they tried to kidnap the fuzzy elf. (X-Men 139)

This whole arc is meant to show the softening of Wolverine. Not only does he share his name with Kurt (well, sort of: “Logan, is that your name?” “Yup.” “You never told us.” “You never asked.”), but when they fight the Wendigo and Snowbird turns into a white wolverine to deal the final blow, he talks her out of being consumed by her vicious animal nature.

The year ends with two details worth mentioning:

The Canadian government dissolves Alpha Flight, which I can only find a prescient move that highlights their good taste. A realistic note I like is the minister referring to the mutant problem as ‘an American problem’ even though they employ the Beaubier twins. Wankers.

Fred Dukes escapes prison to join the New Brotherhood of Mutants!

We’re now entering a run of the X-Men which I haven’t read much of yet, but Freddy mentions he was helped by some lady lawyer. That’s gotta be Mystique, right?

I can barely contain my glee.

Ugliest Costume: Despite that godawful hooded thing Kitty wears, I have to give this to Dazzler. There’s no salvaging that costume: I’m sorry, but she’s wearing a disco ball around her neck. It's a boot from me.

Best new character: Emma Frost. Fight me by the bike rack near the parking lot if you disagree.

Turns evil: Jean Grey, famously so.

What to read: X-Men 129 to 137, the Dark Phoenix run.

#x-men #abridged x-men #x-men abridged #cyclops #phoenix #professor x #storm #nightcrawler #wolverine #colossus #beast #angel #dazzler #kitty pryde #emma frost #hellfire club #dark phoenix saga #chris claremont #john byrne #john romita jr. #bob mcleod #sebastian shaw #jason wyngarde #harry leland #donald pierce #lilandra neramani #shi'ar #alpha flight #snowbird

[nobilismare]

@blade-of-fraldarius​ | x 

Claude nocks an arrow, draws the bowstring, then releases. Another. Draw, release. The wind howls around him. The wyvern screeches. An arrow clips his ear, pain blossoming at the side of his face. Instinctively, Claude squeezes the saddle with his knees, and they drop in unison, hurtling towards the earth. The world rushes to meet them.

Failnaught is rough in his hands, the bowstring is taut beneath the pads of his fingers. His arrow flies. A scream sounds from the battle below. Claude blocks it from his mind. His breathing is controlled, rehearsed; he feels nothing as yet another faceless target hits the ground. This is war. He can't afford to think about his actions. He will grieve later, not just for those he has killed, but for their families, the fragile peace Fodlan once held, and for his own shattered innocence. Oh, he and death were close acquaintances, and Claude knows he will see much more of it before the war is through. But here and now, all he can do is fight.

Skirmishes were breaking out across Fodlan, troops on both sides mustered and stationed at the Leicester border, the Great Bridge of Myrddin hotly-contested territory between the two nations. While his grandfather still retains the title of Duke Riegan, Claude is finding himself pulled ever-deeper into the murky world of roundtable politics. He'd thought some time away would clear his head, but he'd been dragged into the Ordelia-Hrym conflict, and then a letter from an old friend had found its way into his lap.

And there he is, lance in hand, fighting like a man possessed. Ferdinand von Aegir, his shouts and commands audible above even the fiercest of battles. But he's alone, fighting off three men by himself, backing against the riverbank with every step. The Empire is closing in. Another few metres, and not even his goddess could save him.

Claude doesn't have time to think. He nudges the wyvern down towards the fighting, low enough that she swoops over the brigands and thieves, her sheer bulk knocking the imperial forces aside. With a yank on her reins, Claude forces her to back up, great wings shielding Ferdinand from harm. "Catch," Claude commands, staring Ferdinand down for just a moment before, on cue, the wyvern scoops him up in her talons, gripping him by the torso and taking to the skies once more. "Hold on tight, Your Nobleness," Claude calls over the sound of wingbeats, "you're in for the ride of your life. Thank me later, yeah?"

Ferdinand could not take it anymore. He spent the past five years adjusting to a new world that was about to come, in ways he did not agree with. His words never got through to the Emperor despite his stubborness and confidence that he had the right ideas. There was never a discussion, a consideration... Everything that had happened was in secrecy and it seemed a long term plan had been set in motion that he was but a pawn of. It was a fate he could not accept. Not after he worked hard to improve himself, to become the best version of himself to be able to guide Edelgard. No. His strengths were never put to good use.

With his father stripped of his title and gone, having fled from his confines and his mother who died of illness, he had no reason to stay. The Aegir family had fallen harder and faster than he could have ever imagined and there was nothing left to stay for. Nothing that could give him hope to change the future for the better by staying in his own lands, waiting for his next order that he could not reject.

So he had written a letter to the one person who might be able to help him out. Someone would give him a second chance and help him seek refugee.

After sending the letter, he had already left home in the middle of the night on horseback. It was going to be a long journey. One that had to be done in secret with no one finding out until it was too late to capture him. His only chance was to go through Hrym and cross the bridge, no matter how dangerous it was. He was well aware of the risks and that he could possibly lose his life but he had to take it. If he fell, he would not go down easily.

And he didn’t. Even when he was cornered, injured and with his horse having fallen, he would not give in. The Goddess was almost questioned in that moment. Had this been her plan all along? Did he make the wrong decision and was this his punishment? Having lost everything, was she so cruel to even take his life?

No. His prayers were answered instead. To his surprise, the enemies were quick to disappear as a wyvern appeared in front of him. With his eyes wide, it took him a moment to see who brought a miracle his way. 

“Claude!“ Ferdinand almost sighed out of relief but he was not safe yet. With talons wrapping around his torso, pressing on an open wound, he grit his teeth but he couldn’t help but smile because of his friend. May he never change.

Once they made it to a safe area, away from the fight, he was brought back down to his feet although he could not stand for long. His hands immediately pressed onto his bleeding side, finally able to feel the pain.

“If you had not arrived, I would be lying on the bottom of the river by now. I do not know how to ever thank you.“

#bladeoffraldarius #✩. | v. post-timeskip #( I DID NOT MEAN TO WRITE THIS MUCH ) #( and you were worried hahaha ) #( no need to match length ) #( just needed a little backstory )

[fallinnflower]

forsaken

minghao x reader (demon!hao, drama, historical!au)

wc: 1.6k

a/n: so i used a prompt generator and then went overboard but if you’re curious the prompt was: 400 words + demon + electricity + “I will remember this” + shipwreck

Day One

You wake up on an unfamiliar shore, still tucked beneath the bench of the small wooden lifeboat where you had fallen asleep God knows how long ago. The sound of the wood scraping against the sand is what wakes you, and for a moment you lie in dazed confusion staring at the sun-bleached wood before you realize just what it is you’re hearing. Land.

The world pitches and darkens as you sit up too quickly, but you manage to scramble out of the boat onto shore, slowly dragging it along with you until you’re far enough from the tide’s reach. After days without food or adequate water, the effort exhausts you, and so you flip the lifeboat over and prop it up on a rock just enough for you to shimmy beneath it for shelter before falling asleep once again.

Day Three

There is no sunlight on the island, at least none that reaches you. The overcast days bleed into starless nights, however the clouds don’t seem to speak of an impending storm, merely a shroud enveloping the island.

You start a fire, just barely, and wander through the flora to find anything even remotely edible, praying each night that it won’t be your last.

Day Seven

With renewed strength comes renewed consciousness, and in the darkness and stillness of the island your mind replays the horrific events which led to your arrival. You hear the screams of your friends; the sound of your sails whipping untethered in the wind; wood splintering violently. Desperate feet on the rain-slick wood, too slow to outrun the falling debris. You can still smell the blood in the water, even when you tuck your nose into the crook of your elbow, like you’re right there again.

God has forsaken you, and you know it now. After taking away your crewmates in one fell swoop he’s forgotten you, discarded you. Left you to sink like your ship in the dark.

The thunder rumbles in the night as though laughing at your plight, as though in agreeance with you, and you don’t sleep.

Day Ten

Desperation sets in. You can see yourself wearing away, the bones on the back of your hand protruding, joints knobby and red. Hunger makes it hard to hunt makes it impossible to eat makes you hungrier. You’re desperate.

The sky darkens in the evening but you see no stars, and you stare out at the ink-black water and imagine it swallowing you whole as it eagerly laps at the shore, creeping ever closer. The wind tugs at your hair, your tattered clothes, and with your jaw clenched tight you crouch in the sand and begin to dig.

First, a circle, a deep trench that the wind won’t merely blow away. The grit sticks beneath your fingernails and scratches, tears at the delicate skin there until it bleeds, and yet you continue, the pain fueling you. With the circle’s completion you hesitate a moment, and a rumble of thunder seems to accompany the shiver that runs down your spine as you contemplate what you’re about to do. Or, what you intend to do.

You close your eyes, take a deep breath. What is faith to you now? This is a last ditch effort, you remind yourself, this is about survival. In your mind you can picture the summoning circle, an image you’d found both frightening and fascinating. You hear the crack of thunder once again, louder, and jump slightly, losing your balance. With your hands placed in the center of the circle to steady you, you see a long shadow cast over you when the lightning finally strikes, the smell of sulfur in the air making your stomach churn.

“Well, aren’t you going to finish the job?”

Day Eleven

You wake up on the beach, the circle you had drawn in the sand half-destroyed due to your sleeping over top of it. Your heart jumps wildly as you remember the shadow, the voice, and you will yourself to calm down — it was only a dream, a figment of your dehydrated and starved consciousness —

“Aren’t you at least going to tell me what you want?”

You shoot up into a seated position, flinging sand every which way. The voice appears to have come from a man who’s sitting on top of your lifeboat, one long leg crossed over the other, dark hair ruffled in the breeze. He tilts his head at you, a smile gracing his lips but pure, crackling fire in his gaze. His eyes are sharp, poised above high cheekbones, and the arch of his eyebrows scream condescension as he sizes you up. The hair that flops in loose waves and curls across his forehead is the blackest you’ve ever seen, like a void. When you don’t reply, simply staring agape at him, the corners of his mouth twitch up further, though there’s no kindness in his voice when he speaks again,

“It’s very impolite to fall asleep in front of your guest, you know.” 

You struggle for words, consonants and vowels falling aimlessly from your lips as the lithe man stands and stretches in the same lazy manner as a cat, his dark gaze pinned on you all the while. As he begins to walk you feel as though you’re being circled by a predator, watching as he slinks around you in his black attire like a—

“Panther.”

The man stops in his tracks, cocks his head to one side, and then laughs. The sound sends chills down your spine, makes you go rigid. You watch as he composes himself once again, nonchalantly flicking some hair out of his eyes, before pinning you with his gaze once again.

“A panther,” he muses, practically purring. Despite the velvet smoothness of his tone you continue to feel unnerved. “That’s new. I’ll remember that.” 

There’s a sudden flash of lightning, and then he’s right in front of you, merely a hair's breadth away. You swear you see the electric current in his eyes, crackling like heat lighting, and you hold your breath.

“But, sadly, you’re wrong,” he says, though he sounds anything but sorry. “And I think you know exactly what I really am. So, why don’t you tell me what you want, hm?” A chill seems to descend upon you, and you shrink back into yourself slightly, trying desperately not to tremble. 

“I-I—”

“Don’t be shy,” he coos, but you can see the impatience growing within him. “Just tell me what you want. Go on.”

Although neither of you move you swear you can feel a pressure bearing down on you, making it hard to breathe, and it’s only through such desperation that you finally find your voice,

“I want to go home!” You close your eyes in fear, but the oppressive weight retreats as the tall man, the demon you summoned, chuckles darkly.

“See, was that so hard?” When you open your eyes you find him standing casually in front of you, and he leans down with a smile, offering you his hand. Although you know you shouldn’t, you feel drawn to accept his gesture, like Aurora to the spindle, and so you slip your rough, calloused hand into his. His palm and fingers are smooth and cold, and to your surprise he helps you up casually, his smile almost friendly.

But then the pain begins. You scream, trying to pull your hand from his to no avail; he merely watches with a placid grin on his face as the flesh in the center of your palm burns in a perfect circle along with his. Between the two new wounds electricity flows, illuminating the demon’s face wickedly, and you can’t do anything but weep as the searing pain continues. When the light dies away the demon pulls back his hand, smiling despite the way both your palms continue to smoke. You clutch yours to your chest, dropping to your knees in the sand. 

“A pleasure doing business with you,” he says after a moment, and when you look up you realize he’s dragged your lifeboat back out from the trees. 

“I— aren’t you supposed to take me home?” you ask, still clutching your hand, and he laughs.

“I’m not, but this will. It might take another day or so, but you’ll be home, just like we agreed. Go on, get in.”

After a moment, you simply do as he says, exhaustion washing over you. Once you take your seat you notice its improved condition and a small pile of fruit tucked away in a bag beneath the bench. 

“What’s this for?” you ask.

“Well, I can’t have you arriving dead. You haven’t upheld your part of the deal yet.” You turn your head to look at the demon, but he merely holds your gaze calmly.

“You mean—?”

“You’ll be seeing me again, very soon,” he says, his grin widening. “Your soul is no good now, but I’ll come to collect, don’t worry.” His fingers curl around the edge of the boat and he leans towards you, his beautiful face marred by his cruel grin,

“And if you should be in need of me, you may call me Minghao.” 

With that, he gives the boat a shove, sending you with frightful speed into the waves. You clutch the underside of the bench so hard you’re sure you’ll find splinters in your fingers, but when you turn back towards the shore you find only the dark expanse of the sea behind you and a streak of heat lightning disappearing in the clouds above, a spark seeming to shoot straight through your palm. 

And one word seems to ring through your head, echoing like a death knell: forsaken.

#caratwritersclub #minghao scenarios #the8 scenarios #seventeen fanfiction #seventeen fanfic #seventeen imagines #seventeen scenarios #seventeen texts #kpop fanfic #kpop fanfiction #kpop writing #kpop scenarios #kpop reactions #My writing

[itsuki-minamy]

“K SIDE: PURPLE 05”

Translation: Naru-kun Raws: Ridia

K - Side: Purple (Chapter List)

A genius is certainly something.

Hase thought the same thing again when he saw Yukari who had finished the mold.

The two are in a vacant lot at the corner of "Niibangai". It was a desolate meadow of about 10 square meters, and when he first visited it, the grass was all that could be grown, so Hase and Yukari had to start cutting.

He can catch a glimpse of his own workout for just an hour starting at 5pm. Yukari's level was far beyond Hase's imagination, although it wasn't something to practice, and he said it with a light feeling that was only a beginning.

Just teaching him, will absorb it in the blink of an eye. If it is a simple technique, it can be imitated just by looking at it. It is not just about imitating. He can instantly see the motif of the pattern and technique and customize it.

Hase was a man who served as a master of the Miwa Meishin style, but it took a long time to learn the art of swords. However, this boy named Mishakuji Yukari is trying to get it in less than a month.

"Huh."

Hase looked out into the cloudy weather and groaned in a situation where he couldn't give up even if he was disappointed.

"Master? What happened?"

While wiping the sweat with a towel, Yukari asked mysteriously. Hase waved his hand.

"No, that... I was regretting my wits."

"Eh...?"

"Well, I'm fine. Yukari, were you able to do 'three quick steps'?"

A slight smile appeared on Yukari's mouth.

He turns the wooden sword in his right hand, keeps his eyes straight. A few moments to catch his breath, Yukari's body sank like a drop of ink in water.

He makes a small movement and throws his whole body. He kicks the ground and sticks his throat. The jaw is raised just by turning the wrist.

Mishakuji practiced them all brilliantly, and Hase avoided them all with one hand.

"What about that?"

Hase innocently tells Yukari who said it without being afraid.

"It's wonderful. But who told you to do it?"

"There is no other person to practice with."

"There is, "Kijin-kun"."

Hase showed with his jaw, the wood that was rolling in a corner of the bar piled up like a person's height on the vacant lot, it was a rehearsal table that Hase smashed to the floor. Hase called this "Kijin-kun" and was familiar with it, but Mishakuji looked at him with sad and frustrated eyes and shook his head slowly.

"That's a tree. How do you decide on a technique when you don't have a doll, throat, or jaw?"

"That's where you are immature, Yukari. Well, if you destroy your mind, the fire will cool, and since the eel's head is also devotional, people can use their imagination as much as they want."

"What is that?"

Yukari held the wooden sword before his eyes again and looked at Hase.

"I promise that if you can do the 'quick three steps', you can practice straight away."

"Uh."

"Master. Please help me."

Hase exhaled deeply when he saw Yukari's eyes shining behind the wooden sword.

Hase has seen this shade of light many times before. Curiosity and passion. He wants to see how strong he is and he wants to be stronger. It is the light that is willing to bear any pain to confirm it.

If he wants to go the way of a sword, that would be nice too. Hase somewhat regretted teaching this boy.

Regretfully, but a little gleefully, Hase holds up his sword.

"Just once."

"For today."

Hase smiled, feeling the strength of his entire body.

He can see it without looking in the mirror. Perhaps his eyes now have a light similar to Yukari's.

++++++++++

When he slowly opened his eyes, the vermilion-tinged cloudy sky spread out to fill his sight.

"You realized?"

As soon as he tried to turn his face to his voice, a stabbing pain ran through the right half of his body. Yukari endured the pain with three breaths and then slowly raised his upper body.

Hase, who was looking at Yukari, makes a surprised voice.

"Can you get up now? Doesn't it hurt?"

"It hurts much."

It was all he could do to keep from frowning. Every time his heart beat, sweat wet his forehead. The pain didn't go away even if he said it wasn't beautiful.

Seeing Yukari's appearance, Hase said...

"Well, from the feeling of hitting, the bones won't hurt. You will take it if you take a little more rest, so I hope you'll be calm for a while."

Yukari looks at Hase, who says something relieved and then asks...

"I lost?"

Hase rolls his eyes.

"Why, did you pretend to win?"

Hase's surprise turned into a bitter smile when he looked at Yukari.

"That's right. I've been waving my sword since I first met you. If I lose during the first month, there is no way to resist."

"What will you do?"

The next moment he challenged him, he passed out and was sprawled on the ground. If he could strike at least one sword, it would have been different, but, he was shown the difference in skill between heaven and earth, and Yukari felt a pain in the back of his chest.

Maybe it's a kind of emotion called regret.

He had never experienced such feelings in his life. This is because he has never had a passion that makes him regret it.

But now it is different. It was so unfortunate that he lost at "this". He couldn't stand or stay. Immediately, he wants to try again.

Suddenly, Hase put his hand on Yukari's head.

"Master?"

When he was shocked and looked up, Hase was inevitably laughing. Stroking his wrinkled purple head, he tells him to remember it.

"Don't be so impatient, Yukari. Your talent is like origami. I guarantee it. Possibly, you can get to Miwa."

"Miwa?"

Yukari bows his head. When he guessed it was like a skill state, Hase said casually.

"My friend. The current teacher at Miwa Meishinryu School, Miwa Ichigen. He is strong."

"Is it better than you, master?"

"I can't even touch it with my sword."

Yukari blinked. Hase, who defeated himself in one fell swoop, is a master who cannot even touch. It was as if he was being talked about beyond the universe.

"I cannot believe it."

Hase laughed and honestly said...

"That's correct. I couldn't believe it either."

Suddenly, the smile mixed with a lonely color.

"But it's true. If you're going to follow this path, you have to know it. Certainly, there are people who look like monsters, who you can't beat no matter how hard you fight."

Then, patting Yukari's head again, Hase says softly.

"You will be stronger. I'm sure you will catch up with me soon. Then you should ask Miwa to teach you. He's a sword and a human, he's done so much that I can't compare to him. I'm sure he's for you too."

"Master…"

Blocking Hase's words, Mishakuji opens his mouth.

"You lost to that person, right?"

Hase's smile was strong.

"Yes."

"Aren't you going to challenge that person more?"

Yukari looks directly at Hase. Hase flirted with the sharpness of his gaze as if an arrow had been shot at him.

"There is no reason to challenge him. He is a friend, stronger than me. It is not a victory or a defeat. You may not know it yet..."

Yukari didn't listen until the end. Jerking the palm of Hase's hand to his head, he put his strength into his legs and stood up on the spot.

Hase says like he's in a hurry.

"Hey, don't go crazy."

The moment he stood up on both legs, severe pain shot through Yukari's body. The muscles hit by the wooden sword scream. Yukari squeezed it and bit him to death, staring at Hase with blazing eyes.

"Master. I respect you. I think your ability is strong and beautiful. But…"

Take a breath and Yukari continues speaking.

"I don't think the people who stop trying are beautiful."

With that said, Yukari turned to the front to shake himself.

With an awkward gait, but certainly on his own two feet, Yukari reached over to his wooden sword and picked it up. Without looking back at Hase, he turned the corner of "Niibangai" and left while dragging the wooden sword.

Hase, who was left behind, was looking at "Kijin-kun" with his lonely eyes.

#k #k project #k fan clan #K stories #mishakuji yukari #k side purple

[sickficenthusiast]

Bloody Aspirations (an angstfic).

I used an angsty prompt from here on tumblr and I wrote this all in like a few hours and I can barely hold my eyes open anymore so I hope y’all enjoy whatever this is lmao. TW for descriptions of death (don’t worry it’s not permanent or anything).

Her hand is the only thing her senses become aware of as they fuzzily come back into focus, and then it's the lances of pain flaring out from and around the multiple bullet wounds bubbling a bloom of crushed poppies down past her ribs, collecting in an already spacious pool beneath her. Before she could regain herself too deeply, Pearl clenched her hand within Helen's, as if afraid if she didn't she would get away from her somehow, but that wasn't to be realised.

  The sky cast a perpetual veil of rain down toward the quiet earth, creating the only tangible sound Pearl was capable of hearing, as if the world had fallen asleep to its ethereal calmitive song, as she presumably had as well. All from the back of her throat to the base of her lips felt warm, frothing, metallic sludge rising up from her collapsing lungs and running down her chin and deeply bruised cheek to the grass under her head. Her insides felt as if they had been trimmed in velvet, also as if they had come to an absolute standstill. She couldn't get a full breath in without stabbing pain driving itself through her chest, and a broken, gurgling whine of delirious anxiety frothed about in the base of her throat, the ensuing tears indistinguishable from the pouring rain above them both.

  "He..." her voice viscerally sputtered around the blood filling her failing airways, warbling adrenaline causing a louder whimper of anguish-riddled agony to rip free of her, blowing from her mouth in a way which couldn't be reversed. She shallowly coughed out productive rasps which brought further outpourings of frothing blood to dribble free of her mouth, the thundering world before her pulsing in and out of her already blurring focus, cracks running through it showing her that her glasses had been broken. Something even thicker worked its way up her throat, streaming from it without pause in trails down both cheeks. She gasped in panicky bursts of bloody air, even this panic felt beneath a layer of indistinction, softened somehow by this sense of peace she had never felt mimicked in all her years. But it was a terrible peace, one that just proved to stress her further. She was dying. She was dying and she wasn't ready. Fuck, she wasn't ready, she couldn't go yet, not here, not lying beneath this frigid sheet of showering rain, not where no one knew where they were. Their friends knew nothing of what had happened, how would they be notified of this, what about their goddaughter, how would any of them fare? And removed from them, she didn't know how to die. She had no idea and yet her body somehow knew, this was pre-programmed in her after all. Pearl knew she could feel her soulmate's hand clutched in her own, but she'd made not a sound since she had regained herself, was she really even there at all? Her dying mind could just be giving her some form of comfort to see herself out within, what if she really was alone, dying all alone on the side of the road, unable to see Helen one last time, to tell her how much she was loved and how much she was sorry for leaving her? She couldn't do this alone, God she couldn't do it at all!

  "Pearl..."

That simple word had Pearl dissolving into further exhausted hysterics, the choked off voice of her love right beside her. She wasn't alone, Helen was here with her. Oh God, had that meant that she was dying too? Now if she thought intently, she vaguely remembered the slurs being thrown at the both of them, before her body became emblazoned in bullets. The shots had continued even after they weren't meeting her any longer, and could hear Helen's awful screams after she herself had hit the ground, a similar thudding sounding beside her not long afterwards. They had both been shot, she remembered now, the way their hands had been holding each other too telling of their sinful fucking god-hating love for those homophobic bastards to handle. They were both going to die for their love, and she supposed if there was to be a way to go, why not make it for something you stand for. Perhaps this was just to hold your lover's hand while walking, but even this inconsequential sentiment was too much for those fuckers to handle, and certainly was bigger than it initially appeared.  

Pearl gently smacked her damp lips as her streaming eyes drooped, dizzy radio-fuzz billowing throughout her head. Every time she went to speak her mouth opened uselessly, a gurgling noise of intent leaving it in place of words. It took a great many tries before she could clear the mass of blood in her throat enough to rasp out a simple,

"Helen?" She fought to regain her failing breath as her hand was suddenly clenched even harder, although this wasn't a great increase, Helen coughing an eerily similar cough before responding in a expired voice much like her own,

"Don't be scared, love."

Her voice reeked of softened grief, and Pearl recognised the tone all too well. This was the voice Helen used to comfort a dying patient, to ease them onto the other side as best she could. Now it was being used on her. Fuck, this couldn't be happening, God or whoever was up there please save them both. But a heavenly idea of salvation is to be forever within its company, so to ask of Them to save them, that would more than likely come in the form of bringing them both to the other side. But this wasn't right, they were still so relatively young, their entire lives laid before them, together through every single moment. But it would appear that they had prematurely reached the end of their time, and to look at the possibility of anything After, truth would be kept upon their word: they truly would be together forever, neither having to be without the other for a moment.

"'m scared, Helen, wha's happ'nin'?" Pearl heard Helen give a hybrid between a chuckle and a sob, before answering her with tears clearly lurking beneath the folds,

"Leaving."

"'m no' read'y."

"Don't think anyone ever is."

With every moment passing and every word Helen said, the panic was loosening in Pearl's chest, giving way somewhat for the peace to envelope her more completely, encase her within a warming gel-like substance as the world lost its solidity little by little. All that seemed to exist in this space with her was her wife, her hand and her voice, and that suited her just fine. Speaking becoming harder with every passing second, she mumbled wetly,

"Are we dying?" Helen gave a slight sob in response, before responding restrainedly,

"Baby girl, I love you."

  Pearl rolled her head somewhat to the side to vaguely see Helen sprawled on her side beside her, blood soaking through the entirety of the shirt covering her torso, the same crimson froth gathering at her mouth as Pearl saw how intensely, yet silently, she had been crying. There was a horrific distance behind her reddened eyes, seemingly trying everything within her power to stay awake. Despite how this broke Pearl's heart, she could do nothing to show this.

"I can't go first, just see her out. She doesn't deserve to die alone."

That had been Helen to speak, but her mouth didn't physically open, and Pearl moaned a tiny sound of confusion at this organic buffering, slurring out the last words she was to ever utter,

"I...love...you Helen, it's...been an honour, I...'m leaving..." She would try to talk over and over after this, but the process had begun. She was dying, and speech came first. A tremulous inhale sounded beside her, a gasping sob permeating it, before Helen choked out,

"'been the best honour, babe, biggest I can imagine. You're such a good girl, I'm right here baby and I'm not leaving, you...you go right ahead, Pearl, I'll, I'll g-g-guide you away."

Pearl's eyes fell closed at her words, her mouth gently hanging open as the peace choked her soul, the world losing all permanance save for her hand. She was floating now, suspended in a warm space, quiet except for the broken beauty of her wife's voice. Even the festering, blazing pain of her wounds faded to nothing, as if vanished entirely. As Helen spoke to her, her mind reeled with memories rich with the essence of them, and their friends. Their found family. Every instance of their happiness played out before her eyes anew, seemingly playing on mute as Helen was the only sound existing in her world,

"you're doing beautifully my love, I'm not going anywhere, you can let go for me, I'll meet you there. Wilson is waiting for us both, and, and Perry, our parents, everyone's waiting. You can let go, I've got you. Let go, love. Pearl, let go."

Pearl was then suddenly yanked from her body in one fatal swoop, floating above the scene with that same peace still accompanying her, still working within the process, but Helen's tone had changed. Now she was violently sobbing, audibly panicking as grief and impending death swept over side-by-side.

  "Oh God, whyyyyy! Pearl no, I can't do this alone I can't, please come back I can't do this oh God please bring her back I need her please I-" the only reason she found any pause in her tirade was the choking of blood that flooded hard against her windpipe, spluttering a bubbly spattering of blood up over her chin, trailing down it to her weakly heaving chest. Pearl couldn't move now at all, and as soon as she was able, Helen continued,

"Please I'm scared, please, Pearl, bringg, bring, ba'..." Her words weakened with every syllable. She aspirated blood for the final time, going completely limp.

It was after witnessing that heartbreaking scene that she could do nothing to assist in, Pearl awoke, finding herself rocketing upwards into a sitting position, a screaming sob se had been too far gone to expell leaving her mouth as Helen's dying words replayed over and over in her ears. She thrashed wildly in an almost demented manner, continuing to scream out her lungs until the adrenaline set nausea into motion, an she gulped back the sickly urges and lowered her face down into her hands, breaking into tears as Helen screamed and hit the ground beside her.

  "Pearl? Oh God, sweetheart, you're alright, you're okay I promise." That was Helen. She was okay. Pearl felt her strong, yet gentle arms wrap around her rocking form, and immediately turned her face into her chest and clung to her, feeling her and smelling her and hearing her. They were both okay, neither of them had been shot, and they weren't dying. She felt so incredibly ill, she stifled the urge to hiccup and tried to get as close to her wife as humanly possible, as the alternative was too frightful to comprehend in her mind.

  "Helen, oh fucking God you're okay!" she exclaimed through her violent tears, "it was awful, just awful babe, we were both shot and, and we died but you let me die first so I wouldn't be alone but, but, but, but, but, but you were alone and I heard everything and you were panicking and, and I couldn't help, and, oh fuck you can't ever die Helen I can't handle it! I watched it just now, I can't ever again I love you, I love you I love you I love you, baby I love you!"

"Easy lovie, easy," Helen cut in with her emotions clearly audible, "shhhh sh sh sh. You're right, I'm okay. Nothing is happening right now, we're in bed all safe and all sound, I promise you. I promise you with all I am that we're safe." As Helen spoke she cupped the back of Pearl's head and calmingly rubbed her other hand up and down the curve of her back, and little by little, just like in the dream, Pearl's panic lessened, until all it was was her exhausted crying, as she rested against Helen's chest and leaned into her every touch. Things really were okay, she wasn't lying. No one would hurt them. Helen was telling the truth. Pearl kissed her neck with the touch of barely a stolen breath, as she listened to Helen's continued words,

"Baby may I?" Her hand was suddenly felt against her forehead, leaning into this movement as Helen remarked sympathetically,

"oh, my poor love! You're melting, that feels like one nasty fever you have! Probably caused your nightmare and everything."

Now that she mentioned it, Pearl was feeling as if that was the case, a heavy pounding present in her head and an unsteady trembling within her aching bones. She had no idea where she would have picked this up from, but it was regardless undeniable, and she would take this reality over the alternative she had experienced that night a million times over. She barely felt the kiss breathed against her forehead, before she became aware of Helen pulling the blankets back up over her, easing her down against the mattress.

"That yucky dream is over, baby girl, now just let me take care of you, I'll try and make you feel better. I'll be right back, I'm just gonna grab some stuff that should help, you'll be okay for a minute?" Pearl nodded as her eyelids drooped, feeling herself dropping off quite quick now that the initial panic had dissipated, and as Helen got up to retrieve what she needed, she smiled, grateful to be on this side of things now. They really were okay, and as soon as she shaken whatever had caused this whole mess, she would do well to ensure Helen knew just how much she appreciated her, and how much she was grateful that, even in dreams, Helen would insist she go before herself, even in dreams ensuring Pearl was okay over everything else. If she could be a quarter of that kind of woman, Pearl would be happy.

#angstfic #angst #tw death #tw guns #tw shooting #tw homophobia #tw #trigger warning #death #dying #gun violence #dying words #fever #pearl #helen #rory #maria

[pilot-boi]

Breaking Apart

Jaune Arc is having a certified Bad Time, and that’s putting it lightly.

Cheating his way into Beacon, he just alienated the only person who cares about him, his daemon isn’t settled yet, and now he’s being blackmailed by Cardin on top of everything. So yeah. He’s having a bad time.

When you try your best, but you don’t succeed

AO3 LINK

Oh gods. Oh gods he’d really fucked up now.

This was all Jaune could think as he watched Cardin slink back over the edge of the roof.

“Well that went well,” his daemon muttered beside him, still laying sprawled in rabbit form where Cardin’s pit bull daemon had tossed her.

“Shut up, Ally,” Jaune replied, barely even registering what he was saying. Oh gods what had he done? 

He pulled his knees up to his chest, wrapped his arms around them and buried his face in his arms. Curling up into a ball never to move again seemed like the best course of action he could possibly take right then. 

Maybe if he couldn’t see the world, then he could pretend the world wasn’t happening.

Altoria huffed and limped closer to him, shifting into a beagle as she did so. As she nuzzled up into his side, Jaune couldn’t help but notice that she was picking smaller forms than usual.

He couldn’t deny that the events of the evening had made him feel drained, so maybe that was it.

She hadn’t been small before, when he’d been ranting at Pyrrha. But most of that was a blur, and would probably remain so until he managed to calm down and sort through his thoughts. All he could remember for now was that his angry biting words had been echoed in deep growls from the raised hackles of his daemon.

And then Cardin.

Oh gods Cardin knew that he’d lied to get in here. 

And that was bad. That was disastrous. As if Cardin didn’t have enough on him already what with everyone in Beacon and their moms knowing that Jaune hadn’t settled yet. 

Jaune didn’t know if something was wrong with him that it had been almost refreshing that Cardin at least hadn’t bothered to pretend that he could possibly be a competent leader without a settled daemon. After all if he wasn’t even mature enough to have settled, then how could he possibly be reasonably trusted with the lives of three other people?!

On some deeper level, he felt like somehow lying to Pyrrha and his team and his friends was worse than Cardin having one more thing to torment him over. Lying to Pyrrha, and then shouting at Pyrrha like this was all somehow her fault.

Jaune only realized he was shaking when Altoria whined and pushed closer up to his side. “Oh gods Ally what’re we gonna do?” he murmured into his arms, still unable to look at her. His voice was shaking, but there was nobody around to hear him, and anyways he couldn’t find the energy to care about appearances at this point.

“We could do what we should have from day one and go tell Ozpin or Goodwitch what’s going on,” Altoria suggested, and Jaune huffed out a laugh. Yeah right was he gonna do that. No way would that fix anything, it would just get him kicked out for his trouble.

Some leader he was, huh?

Lifting his head from his arms, he stared dully out over the roof towards where Cardin had disappeared. Maybe he was still there listening, but honestly Jaune doubted it. He’d done his bit, why stick around for the aftermath?

And what an aftermath it was. Jaune had for once done a real neat job of what he’d set out to do. He’d wanted to be left alone to fend for himself, and he’d quite efficiently alienated the only person left on his side. 

Now after Cardin had taken his shattered psyche and well and truly smashed it to bits, there was nobody left to pick up the pieces.

Jaune lurched to his feet and gazed out over the roof towards the distant tower. Green glow in a silhouette of spires and towers, with the moon shining brilliantly behind it. A picturesque sight that only served to remind him of the looming shadow the headmaster cast over this school, and how truly deep the hole was that Jaune had dug himself into.

He wandered over to the edge of the roof and swung his legs over as he sat down. Altoria settled down next him, perhaps not as close to the edge as he was. Not like it would matter to her, she could just shift into a bird if she fell anyway.

Cardin knew about his transcripts. He knew, and he was holding them over his head like that damn mace from combat class. Goodwitch had called off that fight before Cardin had been able to make the finishing blow, but afterwards, Jaune hadn’t known whether he was grateful or upset.

Looking out into the crowd of his peers as Goodwitch explained clinically just how much of a fuck up he was. Jaune had only been able to hold Pyrrha’s clear green gaze for a few seconds before he’d been forced to look away. He’d have given anything to just sink into the stage never to be seen again.

And then after tonight...

“What do you think Ally,” he said, leaning forward as far as he dared to look over the edge. “Think we should take the express way down?” He chuckled to himself, but his laugh sounded thin even to him.

“Jaune!” Altoria yanked on the hood of his sweatshirt to jerk him back again and then glared at him. Then, as a robin, she swooped in front of his face to flutter angrily as she said. “Don’t even joke about that, what the heck?!”

“I’m kidding! I’m kidding.”

He wasn’t. He almost was, but he wasn’t. And Altoria knew that, because she was him. She knew him better than anyone else in the world, better than even he knew himself, so she definitely knew when he was lying.

Jaune thought he heard a chuckle from the open window beneath them. But that was probably just his imagination.

He gazed bleakly out over the darkening sky for a moment. Lights were starting to flick off as teachers went home and students went to bed. He didn’t even try to pretend that his team might be getting worried about him. 

Pyrrha had probably already told them all about their little argument on the roof. And she was perfectly entitled to, as what exactly he’d said to her was starting to trickle back into his mind. So they’d definitely realized how much a failure he was.

They weren’t stupid, after all. After how abysmally he’d been performing in class, and how he’d so easily let Cardin push him around, they’d probably already come to the correct conclusion. Tonight was just the cement to seal the deal.

And now he couldn't even explain himself if he wanted. Because if he did, then Cardin would probably sell him out to Goodwitch because of what great “friends” they were. Jaune had to do what the taller boy said or risk expulsion or worse.

How cowardly was it of him to say that? Some leader he was. Too scared to own up to his own mistakes and accept the consequences, because he might lose the only real friends he’d ever known.

“Well congratulations, Jauney Boy,” whispered a voice in the back of his head that sounded suspiciously like Cardin, “You’ve already done that yourself with no help from me at all.”

Standing again, and casting one last almost wistful look over the darkening skyline, he turned back towards the rooftop door where Pyrrha had exited who knew how long ago. 

“Come on, Ally,” he sighed, feeling his daemon settle onto his shoulder from the way her wings brushed his cheek. “Let’s go.”

“What’re you doing?” she asked.

“I’m gonna do Cardin’s stupid homework, what do you think?” he mumbled, yanking the door open and disappearing into the stairwell.

“No you can’t really-”

“Yes, Ally, I am!” he snapped over the echoing sound his footsteps made against the concrete walls. The sound was echoing around in his head, in his heart. 

He was still shaking. He had to do this.

“There’s no other option, Ally.” Jaune’s voice was cracking again, and he stopped on a landing. “He’s got us trapped in a corner, so I’ve just… gotta do what he says…”

Altoria flapped her wings once, and shifted into a hummingbird to look him right in the eyes from midair. She hesitated. He could see her hesitating, even through what definitely weren’t tears in his eyes. 

“Fine,” she said eventually, and clearly reluctantly. She buzzed forward and pecked him sharply in the cheek with her beak before settling in his hair. “But let it be known that I’m not happy about it.”

Jaune sighed and continued down the stairs, a weight like lead settling in his stomach. “Yeah. Yeah me neither, Ally.”

#rwby #jaune arc #pyrrha nikos #cardin winchester #lie ren #nora valkyrie #glynda goodwitch #professor ozpin #mine #my writing #writing wednesday #daemons rwby

[mcfanely]

The Ice Emperor and the Earth Dragon

Burdened with the knowledge that a rescue was most likely not on its way, both Zane and Cole change tact. Moving from thinking their stay in the new realm would be temporary, to being fully aware that their stay could last a lot, lot longer. 

Chapter 05 - Dear Diary, 2043 words

That realisation had struck hard. Very hard. 

Cole hadn't realised how much he'd been relying on their friends coming to rescue them. How the thought of a portal opening up in the sky at any moment, the same one that had spat him and Zane out was actually pushing him on. 

That their brothers would come through and they'd have a ticket home.

But they'd realised that wouldn't be happening, that no rescue party was going to be coming for them any time soon, since why would they think that they'd survived a direct hit from Aspheera's staff? 

Kai, Jay, Lloyd, Nya, Pixal, Wu. 

What reason would they have to think that he and Zane were alive? 

Cole couldn't imagine what they were going through at that very moment. They'd won the battle, the war. They'd vanquished evil, but they'd be entirely sure that it was at the cost of two friends, two brothers. A chunk of their makeshift family gone in one fell swoop. Or maybe he could in a way, with losing Zane during the battle with the Overlord. But again, and two of them?

Unfortunately, they couldn't ponder on what they might or might not be going through. 

Still, they couldn't just sit around and do nothing. 

Their circumstances had changed in an instant and they both knew it. They'd gone from the mindset of they had to wait, endure an unknown period of time between them arriving in the realm and them being saved by their brothers. 

To being aware that they might not be coming at all. Endurance became surviving. It became the task of getting the mech working if only for the heat it could provide, the shelter or the aid it could give with going outside the cave and braving the elements. It became knowing that when exhaustion finally overtook them both at night, they'd wake up the next day, in the same cave, and repeat the process. 

Routine maintained focus. 

Routine was finding a source of food, or any food at all. It became firewood and a way to make a fire. They were ninja, they were trained survivalists. They had to be with the amount of times they'd been stranded. Yet, it didn't make the situation feel any less bleak. 

They weren't giving up, though. Neither of them would curl up in a ball and let the world take them.

They had to believe that help would come. Be it their brothers, or from a different source.

Both Zane and Cole worked through impossible odds by keeping busy. Productive distractions, as Cole has once dubbed the process. Which was why, after what had felt like a few days, they had a good routine going. 

They may have gone to sleep hungry and exhausted that first night, but by the end of the second day and after being blessed with a clear sky, Cole had found a partially frozen-over lake. Both fresh water, and food in the form of fish. 

After the fourth day, they were rising with the sun in the morning, both Zane and Cole sparred together before either of them were really fully awake. They'd found wood for a fire, only it was too damp to work with and take a spark, not that they’d been able to suitably produce one. 

The cave and it's shelter was probably the only reason Cole hadn't frozen to death, but they needed to amend the warmth problem quickly.

On the sixth day-- or the eighth-- Zane removed the screen from the control centre of the mech, and one of the many batteries the machine had in order to get at least something working. 

He passed it down to a waiting Cole, who then situated it on the flattest surface they had in their shelter. A large and almost level rock they'd been using as a table. It was now home to an assortment of wires, jumper cables, and now a screen currently without power. 

"You want to do what with this thing?" Cole questioned. 

"Record a message." came the reply as Zane hopped down the mech, "I thought that we should document our findings, should anyone happen--" 

"-- To come across this place and we're not here. That's smart." Cole smiled softly. 

He'd been trying to keep himself upbeat over the past few days. One thing that helped was that Zane was in the same mindset. Power forwards, just keep on moving and doing and something good should come out of it. 

Only, it felt like the good was still yet to come. 

Or maybe the good was that Zane had stopped sparking since they'd spent a bit of time fixing his wiring. Cole wasn't the greatest with electronics, nothing compared to Nya, but he made do. Then the lump on his head had come and gone without much fanfare, so he hadn't been concussed. 

They still both wore the stresses of the past couple weeks like a second skin. Their gis were ruined, oil stained and dirt tracked, ripped and frayed in parts. A part of Cole's trousers had electrical burns from stripped wiring, even. They were dishevelled, tired, but alive and keeping it that way. 

And the discovery of the damaged processing unit in the mech had been a cause for celebration. They had something to look at, an actual possible reason behind the inhibited function and the fact that it just wasn't working no matter how much tinkering they both did. 

It was what he and Zane were going to look at today. 

That was the plan, but then they'd gotten sidetracked with removing the screen to document their progress. 

Though Cole had to admit, it was a good idea. 

He hooked the jumper cables up to the battery, then nearly jumped for joy when the screen flickered to life in front of them. Finally, something was going their way. 

"Wow, didn't think I'd be missing technology already." Cole said, a slight smile on his face as he looked at the flickering screen. It was just a mirror image of himself, courtesy of the camera at the top of the console. 

Then, Cole just stared. Stared into his own eyes on the screen. How tired he actually looked. The fact that he was in dire need of a shower that wasn't cold lake water, or new clothes that weren't representative of being pulled through a hedge backwards several hundred times over. He tugged lightly at the hem of his gi with a small frown, picking off a loose piece of dirt and flicking it away. As if that made all the difference. 

"We both aren't exactly the most well kept individuals." Zane said at his left shoulder, which dragged Cole out of his stupor with a quiet chuckle. 

"What gave that away? Was it the fact that I'm using my belt to keep my hair out of my face whilst I work, or the oil you didn't tell me was on my forehead?" He questioned. 

"I was more focused on the twig you've had stuck in your hair since we were sparring this morning."

The noise Cole made at that reveal was a mix of an indignant huff and a sound of surprise, which really made for an unusual mix. Then he brought a hand back and started feeling through his hair. After a few seconds of fruitless searching, and the fact that Zane didn't change his expression during that time keyed Cole in on the situation. 

"There's no stick, is there?" Cole raised both his eyebrows at his friend in question, and Zane's almost perfect facade broke into a smile. "You absolute-- wow, Zane, and I thought I trusted you." He laughed and lightly punched the nindroid in the shoulder, only to get the action returned to him when he turned his attention back to the screen. 

Naturally, the only reaction was to grip his shoulder and give the most affronted ow he could muster. 

Zane smiled, rolled his eyes, and looked at the screen too. 

"I believe this would help keep up a routine." He said, shifting the subject so he wasn't risking Cole turning and returning the jovial punch a second time. Smart. "At the end of the day, we document what we did."

"Like a diary."

"Of sorts." Zane cleared his throat. "It also helps to keep track of the days here. Especially the ones where it feels like the sky does not open."

Cole just nodded slowly. The days that sometimes were hard to distinguish from the nights. When the snowstorms got so bad that they blocked out the sky, all light and severely inhibited vision. When it was hard to figure out if the day had begun, or if it was still the dead of twilight. 

Keeping track of days helped to keep thoughts focused, heads on straight. There was nothing worse than losing track of time. Counting days, it was something to measure. 

"I know we're both confused as to how long we've been here. And with my internal clock broken, I'm not able to keep track exactly." 

Cole just shook his head and draped an arm over Zane's shoulders, giving him a sideways hug. "We can't do anything about it now. But we can document today, make our first message to an empty realm."

Zane sighed, and leant slightly into the hug, "The point of making a message is the knowledge that someone could see it."

They both looked at the screen. 

It was unspoken, but if anyone actually ended up seeing these messages, they knew who they'd want it to be. 

Cole blew out a heavy breath and tapped the button in the centre before Zane could tell him not to. The screen flickered once, before a small recording symbol appeared in the top left corner. 

"Cole, we haven't even spoken about what we will say." Zane observed, and Cole just nodded. 

Though he sort of knew, if he hadn't pressed the record button, they would have been dancing around the idea of recording a message for a while before either one of them plucked up the courage to actually go ahead and do it. 

It made everything feel final, like they were accepting their situation for the long run. 

Maybe that was what they needed to do?

"I know." He smiled, before turning to the screen and glancing into the camera. 

"Hey," Cole said, then just closed his eyes for a moment at how stupid that had sounded. 

He should have thought of what he was going to say. 

"Uh-- we don't really know if there's anyone else out there. You know, anywhere. But this is a message to document the fact that we're here. Or at least, at the time of this recording, we're here." He paused, then reached over and tugged Zane fully into sight of the camera. 

"My name is Cole, and this is Zane." Cole continued, then paused. It was hard to think of what should be said. What could he say? Anything that his mind was providing just felt too morbid, too much like giving up. 

If you find this message, we're not here anymore. 

We don't know if, by the time you're seeing this, this cave has been empty for a while. 

We were counting on a rescue, but we figured out pretty early on that it might not be coming. 

"We're strangers in this land." Zane took over when he noticed that Cole was floundering. "And we're trying to find our way home."

Cole just watched, still on the screen, as Zane managed to capture the situation in the best way possible. In the lightest way. Like his words were there to provide hope for whoever might end up viewing this recording, as if their personal efforts to get back home meant that in the future they could be successful. 

Even when the odds were stacked against them. 

"We've found it hard to keep track of days in this place, it feels like it's been a long time." They shared a glance for a second. 

Cole, he was convinced they were on day eight. Zane, his guess was a little more, ten to fifteen days. It didn't narrow anything down. 

"-- But we're not giving up hope."

_

From the beginning

Ch 04 > Ch 05 > Ch 06

AO3

#The Ice Emperor and the Earth Dragon AU #The Ice Emperor and The Earth Dragon #cole #zane #cole brookstone #zane julien #cole ninjago #zane ninjago #ninjago #lego ninjago #lego #The Ice Emperor #mcfanely writes #mcfanely aus #mcfanely

[beca-mitchell]

life as we know it (1/1)

Summary: After Beca's miscarriage, the road to healing is a long one. Their first night out together in a while proves to be more difficult than expected.

Word count: 2.7k

continuation from this. Part of now i see daylight—an au series that explores beca and chloe’s lives together as if they had been childhood friends.

A/N: this universe is the work-product of hours of hc'ing with @asimplefavors, so just assume all ideas are things we've discussed. <3 in this universe, beca and chloe are high school sweethearts.

Warning for angst and mention/reference to a miscarriage.

read below or on AO3.

——————————

“I never want to be without you again.”

“I never left.”

“I know, but it felt like you did and that’s what hurt the most.”

Blinking at her reflection, Beca murmurs a quiet thanks at both her stylist and her make-up artist as they quietly mill about behind her packing up their things.

It feels odd, as it has for the past while, to be preparing to go out when it still feels like she ought to be grieving. The aches and pains—the physical ones—have long faded and she has been spending more time in the studio, slowly getting her bearings again. Though she is technically on a break from the album she had been working on before and during her pregnancy, she still thinks about the music she had been creating—the music she had anticipated being read just in time for their baby, but—

She inhales deeply.

Music has never felt more soothing or poignant.

Though she still shares her music with Chloe from time to time, there has been a very specific solitude she has received from simply immersing herself in music again.

But more than that—losing herself in the love she feels for Chloe, their life together, and their baby who didn’t make it, but who will forever be so, so loved and cherished. All of that, translated into music and memories to be cherished forever.

Beca attempts a smile at herself in the mirror.

Chloe’s quiet gasp draws Beca out of her musings.

“You look beautiful,” Chloe murmurs, pulling Beca towards her for a quick kiss. Beca finds it amusing that for how much Chloe hadn’t given a second thought about PDA in high school, Chloe is now the more reserved one between the two of them.

It’s charming.

“Wait,” Beca pleads, wanting to feel Chloe’s warmth against her for just a few seconds more. Her stylist can wait a few measly seconds. “There,” she mumbles against Chloe’s mouth, purposefully sliding her hand up Chloe’s back to send a shiver down Chloe’s spine. Pleased with her own ministrations, Beca pulls back, taking care to ensure that Chloe’s lipstick is as pristine as it was before.

“You two,” Beca’s make-up artist says lightly from where she’s packing up her things. “I’m not fixing anything,” she sing-songs.

Beca smiles up at her girifriend who returns the smile with equal energy. “There’s nothing to fix,” she promises, speaking directly to Chloe. “I’m going to have the best-looking woman on my arm.”

Chloe’s smile threatens to turn into a smirk, but she maintains innocence long enough. “Flatterer.”

Though Beca feels light at the moment, an undercurrent of nervous anticipation rushes through her. This is the first event she and Chloe are attending together ever since the miscarriage and though their relationship is pretty much back at where it was before everything nearly fell apart, it wasn’t without hard work and pain. One month after Chloe finally broke down in her arms, clutching at Beca with the desperation of somebody on the brink of total collapse--one month and eight joint therapy sessions later--Beca finally feels like she’s close to whole.

So while flirting with Chloe openly is only a mask to hide her nerves, she still thinks Chloe is the most beautiful woman she has ever laid eyes on. She softens her gaze, allowing herself to sink into the sensation of being so in love with the woman standing in front of her; it is gratefulness and happiness and passion all at once--Chloe, who has been there for everything, will continue to be there (so long as you let me, Chloe had said with tears in her eyes).

“What?” Chloe finally asks when she senses the change in Beca’s demeanor.

“Nothing,” Beca responds. She reaches out to hold Chloe’s hand. “I’m just happy.”

She’s telling the truth.

“Me too,” Chloe says.

Beca knows Chloe is telling the truth as well.

—————————— 

 The event is close-knit enough that Beca doesn’t feel any of the usual anxiety she feels whenever she goes to industry events. She can tell Chloe also feels a small measure of comfort having met many of the attendees as well. It is still surreal to both of them—Chloe more so than Beca—that this is their life now. By virtue of Beca's status as a celebrity and recording artist with a major label, they mingle regularly with celebrities. This event in particular is a moderately-sized event—honouring some of the older, well-respected music industry executives. It means the flashy celebrity turn-out is low to medium at best, which seemed like a fitting way to make a public appearance. Beca barely knows the honorees, but she supposes showing her face can’t hurt every now and then.

Her label’s president immediately swoops in front of her for a quick conversation. Chloe smiles and kisses her cheek, murmuring that she’ll come back with drinks.

In the past few weeks, Beca realizes then that she and Chloe hadn’t really spent too much time apart. It’s the only explanation for the loss she feels so keenly even though Chloe is just across the room.

“—Beca?”

Beca startles back to the present, flicking her eyes guiltily back to Tom who smiles at her knowingly. “Sorry,” she says quickly. “What, um—?”

“Never gets old, huh?” he asks, tipping his wine glass in her direction.

“What doesn’t?”

“Being in love.”

Beca feels the blush spread across her cheeks and down her neck all at once. “Oh, well, I don’t know if—” At his raised eyebrow, she shrugs helplessly and cuts herself off. “I don’t know where I’d be without her.”

“Well, behind every great artist,” he says lightly.

Chloe appears by Beca’s side again. “Is an even greater woman?” she asks with a pleasant lilt to her voice.

Beca grins, accepting the glass. “Took you long enough.”

“Well, I was going to say a great partner,” Tom corrects. He holds his hand out to shake Chloe’s hand. “Tom Mackay. A pleasure to meet you formally. Beca never shuts up about you.”

“He’s the big guy up there,” Beca clarifies for Chloe, talking over Tom.

“Chloe,” Chloe says after nudging Beca lightly with her shoulder. “Nice to meet you, Tom.”

They are soon joined by a couple, Dan Freeman and his wife Robin.

"So, Chloe," Dan begins in a tone that already has Beca rolling her eyes. She’s never particularly enjoyed his company, but he’s such a solid sound engineer that she begrudgingly admires his talent and tolerates him at least half of the time. "This one is always spending time in the studio, especially recently.” He tilts his head towards Beca. “I bet you’ll be glad when she’s finally done with this album.”

Beca clears her throat. “I’m actually taking a break,” she reminds him stiffly. “Remember?” Chloe, for her part, has not tensed up uncomfortably next to Beca, but instead tucks her hand neatly into the crook of Beca’s elbow. A quick glance shows a gentle smile on Chloe’s face as her eyes flicker to Beca’s.

“I’m grateful for Beca all the time,” Chloe says simply.

Robin coos at them and leans into Dan. “Look at them, why can’t we be more like them?”

Beca tries not to smile too smugly at her coworker, but a small measure of self-satisfaction seeps through nonetheless.

“How long have you two been together again?”

“It’ll be seven years next month,” Beca replies, unable to resist smiling at Chloe again who beams back at her.

“I envy you,” Dan says, shaking his head. “You’re so young and you have so many opportunities to attend events like this. Don’t have to worry about staying out too late or finding a sitter for the little ones,” he jokes, nudging his wife with a playful smile.

Tom laughs at that. “I agree. It was impossible for me and Emily to find somebody to look after our rascals, but we did. I’m sure they would have enjoyed this thrilling event though,” he jokes. “Well, the joys of being a recording artist...at least your schedule is king and you can set up whatever you need with no super strict deadlines,” Tom directs at Beca with a wink. “As long as we still get those albums.”

“Stop pressuring them both of you,” Robin chides. “I’m sure you’ll make lovely parents,” Robin says graciously, directing an apologetic smile at both Chloe and Beca. “But I know that’s not always in everybody’s agenda—at least not really early on.”

For a moment, she struggles to breathe. Beca feels some of the air around her grow thick and stagnant. The shift happens in an instant. She tightens her grip around the stem of her glass and wills herself not to crush the fragile material in her fist. Chloe tenses next to her as well and Beca feels the brief tightening of Chloe’s fingers in the crook of her elbow.

——————————

“I think...with our history and everything that we’ve been through together...part of me is afraid that one day I’ll wake up and she won’t be there,” Chloe whispers. She can barely look at Beca while she says so, taking the brief silence as an opportunity to quickly swipe at the tears welling quickly in her eyes.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Beca murmurs, trying to keep her voice steady despite the sharp pain that spreads through her chest. “I would never leave you.”

“But you almost did. We almost broke because of what happened.”

“I felt so guilty,” Beca explains even though the words are increasingly meaningless. So much of the misplaced guilt had been alleviated over the past few weeks. “I still do sometimes, but—”

“Beca, don’t,” Chloe pleads.

“But,” Beca continues, reaching out to hold Chloe’s hands. “It’s mostly because I know that I hurt you and I know that things still hurt, but I can’t imagine doing this whole life thing without you and I can’t believe that it feels like I almost threw it all away.”

“You didn’t,” Chloe promises. “We’re both working on it now and I know you’re trying. I’m trying, too.” Chloe twists her hands so she can hold Beca’s hands properly. “I love you so much.”

Beca sniffles, surprising herself. Laughing hollowly, she reaches up to quickly swipe away a few stray tears before immediately holding Chloe’s hands again. “I love you, too, Chlo.”

For a moment, they both forget that their therapist is sitting across from them.

They’ll get through it. "We'll get through this," Beca promises. "I'm sorry for ever making you think otherwise. Too lost in my own head." 

"Don't apologize for feeling things, Bec. I only ever wished I could take some of that worry away from you."

"We're going to get through this," Bece repeats, with conviction.

Chloe has no choice but to believe the love of her life.

—————————— 

There is a quiet pain in Chloe’s entire posture as she sits silently next to Beca at their designated table. The lights feel increasingly hot and jarring as they bear down on her. Though Chloe never shied away from the spotlight figuratively or literally, she somehow feels more put on the spot than ever.

The sudden reminder of what had happened such a short period of time ago—and the fact that she and Beca hadn’t even had the opportunity to tell anybody about Beca’s pregnancy before the miscarriage—sticks in her chest like a dagger through her heart.

She tries to focus on the food in front of her and the sound of the MC’s voice amid bursts of laughter, but none of that makes sense—it shouldn’t make sense, not when the flash of grief that rushes through her is immediately struck down by other warring emotions all threatening to burst free.

The fear she had felt when she had received the call from Beca—how Beca’s voice had trembled and hitched and wavered. The drive to the hospital and the energy it had taken to not tremble too badly so as to not get into an accident. Tears. Beca profusely apologizing for nothing and everything all at once, like she had any hand in what had happened.

And the distance—the distance that had stretched between them afterwards.

Apologies and declarations of love.

“Chlo,” Beca says softly. “Are you okay?”

Dragged back into the present moment, a rush of noise hits her as Chloe turns to Beca and quickly swipes at the tears that had formed. “Yeah,” she replies. “I think I’m just…” she trails off.

“Yeah, me too,” Beca murmurs. Her eyes reflect a similar pain. She glances around. “Want to...go?”

“Go? Go where?”

“Go home,” Beca says simply with a half shrug.

“Don’t you need to...be here?”

“I’d rather be at home with you.”

Chloe watches her for any trace of emotion that might indicate otherwise before she nods her head.

Together, they leave.

——————————

  “I’m pregnant,” Beca whispers, tears springing to her eyes. “I’m pregnant, oh my God.”

Chloe drops her plate into the sink, hastily wiping her hands off on the closest dishtowel. “Beca, what? What did you just say?”

Beca smiles through a hiccup or a sob. She can’t tell. “It worked,” she tries to explain with a shaky voice. “I’m pregnant.”

“Oh my God,” Chloe exclaims, immediately reaching out to hold Beca’s waist. Beca immediately notices the careful grip Chloe has on her already. “Oh my God, Bec, I—” Poor Chloe, completely overwhelmed, simply begins to cry.

Beca looks incredibly alarmed at the display. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Chloe promises. “I’m just so happy.”

——————————

 “Chlo,” Beca murmurs as they lie together in bed, showered and refreshed.

Chloe hums, tucking her face further against Beca’s neck and holding her close. “What is it?”

“You know what I see in our future?”

Chloe shakes her head, ruffling her hair as it sticks to Beca’s shirt and skin.

“I think I can see us with two kids. A beautiful house with a backyard. Maybe close to the ocean. And every day when we wake up, it’ll be to the sound of them laughing and giggling as they jump on our bed. You get the side of the bed closer to the door because I’m not getting my spleen ruptured by them every morning.” Beca inhales. “And God, I know they’re going to be beautiful. Whether we adopt or whether we figure out another way, they’re going to be such beautiful, beautiful children to call our own and that’ll be because they have you to model themselves after. I am so lucky to have you by my side. I was so sad earlier, thinking about everything and how unfair life can be sometimes, but Chlo, I can’t imagine what life would be like without you and I want you to know how much I love you.”

Chloe thinks she’s crying and laughing by the time Beca finishes, but she doesn’t care because she is pulling Beca in for a slow, deep kiss that quickly becomes messy because Beca is whispering words of love into her mouth and tightly weaving her arms around Chloe’s back to hold her close. It is surreal how this feels—how incredibly close to Beca she feels then. It is then that the memory of their entire shared history (littered with all kinds of memories, both happy and sad) doesn’t feel quite so daunting anymore. Like clouds parting to reveal an incomparable warmth, Chloe envisions such a clear and probable future with Beca. As clearly as Beca has seen it, evidently.

They share the same future.

They’re in this together.

“I know that we’re going to be good parents,” Beca whispers, voice thick with emotion. "Like...the best." She rests her forehead against Chloe’s. “I know I’m going to be a good mom despite my own parents.”

“You are,” Chloe breathes out with the little air she has left in her lungs. “You are so, so—” Beca kisses her, interrupting her. Chloe huffs, placing her hand loosely on Beca's chest. “I wasn’t finished."

“I know. I just had to tell you that you’re going to be an incredible mother too. I’ve known this forever. Ever since we were kids even when I didn’t even understand what I was feeling. I just know because you’re Chloe Beale. Our kids are going to be beautiful because of you,” Beca repeats. “I know it.”

“And you.”

Beca closes her eyes. The silence that follows is heavy, rife with all the emotion shared between them in the past few minutes. “I believe you,” she says finally.

Chloe knows she’s telling the truth.

fin.

#bechloe #my fanfic #pitch perfect #text #fanfiction #beca mitchell #chloe beale #angst #mine #now i see daylight

[cressasdbfanfics]

Homesick

Paring: GoChi

Words: 3,369

Summary: Set in the 7 year time skip. In Other World, Goku meets someone surprising. Meeting her both helps and hurts.

Fanfiction.net: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13694247/1/Homesick

Archive of Our Own: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26407174

Training for the rest of eternity on Grand Kai's planet was fun but taking a break sometimes was nice, too—even if my body didn't exactly need rest like I did when I was alive on Earth. My favorite place to explore was the planet the good people went to when they died. When I first visited the planet, someone told me that the place had something for everyone.

I flew over lush tropical jungles, arid deserts, around snowy mountain peaks, and over valleys that were forever locked in the perfect spring day. Fields of wildflowers blanketed the valley floors. King Kai told me people seek out the landscapes most familiar to them when they first arrived. It reminded them of home. King Kai said I might even find a spot that reminded me of home. I found my favorite spot not long after I died and visited often. It reminded me of home.

Tall, pillar-like mountains appeared in the distance. I kicked in a burst of speed, swooping low over a river toward the familiar landscape. I landed on the top of one of the mountain's grassy peaks and let my legs dangle over the edge.

I could just picture my house on the land below and imagine the mouth-watering smells of Chichi's home cooking drifting through the open windows. I smiled. I pictured Chichi as she stepped outside and called me in for dinner, a smile on her pretty face, and her hair let down from her usual bun.

I blinked and rubbed my eyes.

I definitely didn't imagine the woman standing with her back to me at the river's edge—a woman wearing a very familiar style of traditional dress with a long sleeved undershirt. I was sure she would have been wearing the same sort of loose-fitting pants and house shoes, too—if it weren't for the unsettling ghostly tail floating a few inches above the ground where legs should have been. A golden halo hovered over her head. Her long, dark hair reflected the halo's faint warm glow.

"No way." I slid off the edge of the rocky, grass-topped column and let myself free fall through the air. I slowed myself with a flare of energy only a couple of feet above ground and ran to her, my heart racing. I grabbed her shoulders and spun her around. "Chichi!? How—"

She yelped and stared up at me with wide eyes—a lighter brown than I expected. For that matter, the woman's hair wasn't the same shade as Chichi's hair was either. I let my hands fall away from the woman's shoulders. If there was anything Chichi drilled into me, it was manners so I decided to offer this strange woman who bore an uncanny resemblance to my wife an apology.

"Heh… sorry I scared you. You look just like my… ah…" I dropped my gaze to the river behind her and the silvery fish glinting in the sunlight as they darted around just below the surface. I rubbed at my chest.

"How do you know that name?" she asked, her head slightly tilted.

The woman's voice even sounded like Chichi's.

"Well. Ya see. Chichi's my wife," I said. "Heh… Or at least she was when I was alive."

The woman's mouth dropped open and her eyes went wide. "You're Chichi's husband!?"

I nodded. "Yeah. But—"

"I'm Chichi's mother, Lait!" she said, her expression brightening into an excited smile.

I stared at her. "Her mother…?" I mouthed. It felt like my brain froze—all thought grinding to a stop.

My attention snapped to a hand waving in front of my face. "I asked you what your name is," she said.

"Oh. Uh. I'm Goku. Son Goku," I said.

Lait clapped her hands in front of her chest in the same way Chichi did when she was excited about something. "Chichi got married! Oh, I hoped she'd find love!" Lait grabbed my hand. "Let's go for a walk."

Lait pulled me along a pathway following the river that wove between the column-shaped mountains. A forest of giant trees just like my mountain on earth lay ahead.

"An entire lifetime? Already?" murmured Lait. She glanced up at me and giggled as she scratched her cheek—a habit Chichi had when she was embarrassed about something. "Ah. Sorry. I lose track of time up here."

"Heh, yeah, I know exactly what you mean."

Gravel crunched under my boots as we entered the forest, the path still following the river. Lait floated along next to me.

"So, how is Ox after all this time?" asked Lait. "He was softening up into a real sweetheart when Chichi came along."

I stepped over a narrow stream that cut across our path and held my hand out for Lait—though I realized she probably didn't have to worry about losing her balance. "Yeah! He's a pretty cool guy! And an awesome grandpa, too!"

Lait halted just before the water, hovering inches above the stream's rocky bank. "Grandpa!?" She stared at me with her hand over her mouth but the shine in her eyes betrayed a smile.

I grinned. "Chichi and I have an amazing son named Gohan."

Lait's eyes filled with tears. "I'm a grandmother?" she murmured through her hand.

"Yeah!" I said with a nod. "Gohan is ten years old, super smart and incredibly strong. Heh. At least he was ten years old the last time I saw him. He's probably grown some by now."

I couldn't help but picture an older Gohan, nearing my height if not taller than me—though I didn't know exactly how much older

"Oh, I bet Ox spoils the daylights out of him," said Lait through a watery laugh.

I laughed, too. "Chichi got after Ox sometimes for giving Gohan too many presents every time he visited."

Lait accepted my hand and floated over the stream. She sighed wistfully. "That sounds like my husband."

We lapsed into comfortable silence. A small flock of chirping sparrows flitted by weaving through the trees. Lait looked at me, her mouth slightly open like she was about to say something. Instead, Lait bit her lip and looked toward the path in front of us. We followed the winding path deeper into the peaceful forest. The trail had left the river behind a ways back, though I could still hear the steady rush of water.

"Do you… Do you know if Ox ever found love again?" she finally asked, her voice quiet.

I looked at her and shook my head. "Don't think so." I thought back to the few times I heard Ox speak of his wife over the years I knew him—thought back to the way he spoke of her and the soft smile on his face. "Ya know, I think he misses you too much," I said.

With tears in her eyes, Lait fell silent again after that—aside from the occasional sniffle—leaving my mind free to wander. I frowned as we followed the path deeper into the forest, unable to shake the newly formed troubling question that pushed to the forefront of my mind: Would Chichi find love?

"Tell me how you and Chichi met," said Lait.

I glanced at her. "Oh. Uh. Well, we were just kids—twelve or thirteen maybe? When I first saw her, this huge dinosaur was chasing her and she cut its head clean off," I said through a chuckle. "Chichi was really strong."

Lait giggled, too. "Considering what her father was capable of, that doesn't surprise me." Lait and I crossed over a small wooden bridge built over a stream with crystal clear water. "How in the world did you manage to find Ox's kingdom, anyway? We were so far off the beaten path."

"My friends and I were searching for these things called Dragon Balls and tracked one to Ox's castle."

"The Dragon Balls, eh?" said Lait as she brushed her bangs out of her eyes. "I heard if you gather… seven, was it?" I nodded. "You can summon a mighty dragon that will grant you any wish. Ox and I never saw it ourselves but we believed the legend."

"The legend is true," I said. "I've seen the Eternal Dragon. Shenron is huge and powerful. If he's summoned in the daytime, the sky goes dark like it's night."

"That must have been incredible to see," said Lait with an awed smile.

"Sure was!"

"So… it was in this search for the Dragon Balls that you first met Ox and Chichi?" said Lait, her tone lifting at the end.

"Yeah! Ox overheard my friends and me talking about how to take the Dragon Ball from his castle. He didn't like that very much," I said.

A knowing smile twinkled in Lait's eyes. "He never did take kindly to anyone showing up to take his precious treasure."

I chuckled at the memory. "Yeah, he did attack my friends and me for that."

"Sounds like Ox," said Lait with a shake of her head. "Seeing that must have upset Chichi. Her dad scared her when he got like that when she was really little."

"Well, Chichi wasn't there right then," I said. "Ox sent Chichi on a mission far away from the kingdom."

Lait glanced at me, throwing me a look with an eyebrow raised and her upper lip just slightly curled. I knew that expression and I didn't miss the warning in it. "Away from the kingdom?" she said, her tone icy.

"Uh." I swallowed. "Y-ya see, a magical fire no one could put out endangered Ox's castle. He sent Chichi out to find the turtle hermit, Master Roshi to help."

"Master Roshi, huh?" Lait's expression of warning shifted into a surprised smile. "That's a name I haven't heard in a while. Master Roshi was Ox's childhood martial arts master."

I grinned. "Master Roshi was my grandpa's master! And then I trained under Master Roshi as a kid, too!"

Lait glanced up at me. "No kidding? Ox had expressed interest in training Chichi in the style of the Turtle Hermit school." Lait smiled ruefully. "I didn't live long enough to see that happen."

I touched Lait's shoulder as we walked. She reached up and patted my hand.

"Ox did train Chichi. She is one of the strongest women I know," I said.

Lait's smile grew genuine.

I spent the next few minutes telling Lait all about how I took Chichi to Master Roshi's house and back to her kingdom.

"Ox gave me the Dragon Ball for my help and even promised Chichi's hand in marriage to me for helping him and Chichi," I said. "I agreed because I thought marriage was a type of food when I was a kid. Boy was I wrong."

Lait threw her head back and laughed. "Did ya live under a rock?"

I scratched the back of my head and laughed, too. "Pretty much."

"What happened next?" asked Lait.

"Well, my friends' hunt for the Dragon Balls took me away from Ox and Chichi. I saw Chichi again a few months later and then didn't see her for a few years after that."

Lait stared at me. "A few years?"

"I was busy training for the twenty-third World Martial Arts Tournament," I said. "Didn't see my other friends for a while, either. Not until we met again at the Tournament."

"Did you return to her after the Tournament?" asked Lait.

I shook my head. "Didn't have to. Chichi found me to remind me of the promise I made to her."

Lait frowned sadly. "You forgot about Chichi?"

"Not exactly. When I first saw her at the Tournament, I didn't recognize her at first." I chuckled at the memory. "Chichi was so angry with me, she screamed in my face."

"Oh, dear. Sounds like she inherited her father's temper," said Lait through a giggle.

I nodded. "Yeah. But I really like that about her. I love her fiery spirit."

Lait sighed wistfully and said, "Chichi always was a stubborn child."

I laughed. "I can believe it."

"So, Chichi found you at the Tournament. Did she approach you after your matches?" asked Lait.

I shook my head. "No. She fought me."

Lait's eyebrows shot up. "Fought you? You mean she registered?"

I nodded. "Yeah! She was really good, too! She made it all the way to the semi-finals!"

Lait's face lit up with an awed smile that quickly turned into one of pride.

"I still didn't know who she was and she registered under anonymous," I said. "She said she'd tell me her name if I won our match so that's what I did."

"You won and she told you her name, I take it. And then?"

"Chichi helped me remember the promise I made to her but I still didn't know exactly what I promised," I said with a twitch of my shoulders. "I had to ask my friends what marriage was. They said I was supposed to live together with her for the rest of my life. I couldn't explain why, but the thought of that just felt right."

Lait sighed as we wandered down the forest path, a dreamy smile on her face. My thoughts drifted back to simple times, back to when my days consisted of training to keep Chichi and Gohan safe and coming home every night to Chichi's warm smile and amazing cooking.

"Goku?"

Snapped from my memories, I hummed a response. Lait's dreamy smile had turned into a troubled, sad frown.

"It couldn't possibly have been a whole lifetime for Chichi or for you. There's no way. How did you… ah…" Lait scratched at her cheek.

"Huh?" I put it together. "Oh. How did I die?"

Lait's eyes flashed wide a moment and then her cheeks went a little pink. Lait waved her hand through the air. "I… heh… Goodness. That's too personal. I'm sorry I asked."

I waved off her apology and offered a smile. "No, it's okay! I died fighting this really strong, evil guy named Cell. He was about to blow up the planet and, well, I couldn't let that happen."

Lait stared at me. "The… whole planet?" She shook her head. "Ox told me stories about some of Master Roshi's ability with ki but I didn't know anyone that strong existed."

"It's real," I said. "Cell was ridiculously powerful. Stronger than me, even."

"How did you beat him?"

I smiled toward the path ahead. "I didn't. Gohan did." I felt Lait staring at me. "My son and I trained long and hard to face Cell."

When I looked at Lait, I was surprised at first to see the pure rage burning in her eyes and directed at me. Chichi's temper didn't just come from her dad. It was almost comforting in a way. I did my best not to smile—I knew from experience smiling only made Chichi's temper worse.

Lait shoved her rigid pointer finger into my chest. "You made your ten-year-old boy fight against someone tough enough to destroy an entire planet?" Her voice rose with every word.

I nodded. "We didn't have a choice. We needed him against Cell just like we needed him against all the other strong bad guys before. My Gohan was stronger than me. And he won."

Lait huffed as she dropped her finger from my chest. Her lips remained pursed and her eyes narrowed.

"You know, you look just like Chichi when you do that," I said, unable to fight my smile any longer.

Lait's rage evaporated as her eyes lit up. She laughed.

Lait and I resumed our walk, following the path up a hill. The trees thinned.

"How about you? How did you end up here?" I asked. "Chichi and Ox said you got very sick but didn't tell me anything else."

Lait nodded and frowned down at the ground at her feet. "Yes, that's right. It was cancer. It spread too far, too fast for any doctors to do anything about it. Ox went so far as to hire shamans to try to heal me." Lait pointed a slender finger at her halo. "Chichi watched all of it." Lait hung her head as her hands balled into fists at her side. Her voice cracked as she said, "No little girl should have to watch her mother die."

"I'm sorry," I said as I touched her back.

Ox and Chichi rarely talked about Lait. Even then, I knew even then talking about her was too painful for them.

Lait blew out a breath. "I got to say my goodbyes when I realized I wasn't going to survive and not everybody gets to. It wasn't a disease or virus they could catch. I found comfort in that, too."

I didn't really say goodbye to Chichi before I left to fight Cell. I hadn't really said goodbye to her all those other times I left, either. I never was fond of goodbyes.

"What does Chichi look like now?" asked Lait.

"A lot like you," I said. "But darker hair and darker eyes than yours."

"And Gohan?"

"Well, Gohan looks a bit like me but he has his mother's eyes and different hair than mine," I said.

The path ended at the top of what turned out to be a cliff, a waterfall spilling over the wall of rock not too far from where we stood.

I sighed and crossed my arms over my chest, frowning despite the breathtaking view.

"You miss Chichi and Gohan a whole lot. I can see it in your eyes," said Lait.

I gazed out over the mountains and forest that looked like home but weren't and sighed. "Yeah."

Lait rested her hand on my arm.

"I was gone a lot before this. I know I hurt Chichi when I had to leave but she always forgave me for bein' gone." I smiled sadly. "I just hope she'll forgive me for this one."

"I know she will," said Lait, maintaining the comforting contact.

Goku, said a familiar voice directly into my mind.

I twitched as Lait gasped. I looked up toward the unnaturally gold and pink sky of Other World. "King Kai? What's up?"

There's something King Yemma and I need to talk to you about. You'll want to hear this. Trust me, said King Kai.

"Uh. Okay," I said with a shrug. "I'll be right there."

Good.

"Who was that?" Lait asked, eyes wide.

"You heard him, eh? Well, he's a friend. He's telepathic."

Lait nodded, but it was the slow sort of nod people did when they didn't quite believe what they heard. "I… see."

I chuckled.

Lait adjusted the shawl around her shoulders. Her skeptical expression shifted into a sad smile. "I guess this means you have to leave then?"

"Yeah."

"Don't be a stranger. Okay?" said Lait, tears gathering in her eyes.

I smiled as I tapped two fingers to my forehead. "I wont! I know this trick that lets me teleport to anyone no matter how far away. It's called Instant Transmission."

I concentrated a moment to get a good read on her ki, filing away her exact signature.

"Now I can find you whenever I want!" I said.

Lait closed the small distance between us and wrapped her arms around my waist. "Promise?"

Lait really did remind me a lot of Chichi.

I nodded and returned the hug. "Promise."

Lait stepped back and I got ready for Instant Transmission. I spared her an extra glance as Lait and the familiar landscape melted away.

I was surprised to find King Kai hanging out in Earth's check-in station with King Yemma. Last I saw King Kai, he was on the Grand Kai's planet supervising my spar with Pikkon. Whatever it was King Kai needed to see me for, it was big. Even more confusing, both King Kai and King Yemma had a smile on their faces, which they both directed at me. Fortuneteller Baba floated over the edge of King Yemma's huge desk, sitting cross-legged on her shiny crystal ball and smiling down at me, too.

I stared back and forth between the three of them. Whatever they were about to tell me was definitely going to be big.

#Cressafics #GoChi #original character #fanfiction #because he misses her #hurt and comfort #family #slight angst #Goku's family mourned him #I think he mourned them too in a way #What do you think King Kai needed to talk to him about? ;)

[fairytalesofavalon]

for myself

Summary: A master thief from the Kingdom of Virtue breaks into a nobleman's house, set on stealing a priceless necklace. Pondering just how it all led to this point in his life and how it could have been different.

Warnings: talk of executions and being executed, being branded, generalized anxiety, fear, PDSD, and trauma.

Short Story: 3676 words

For Myself

The ornate black box on the center of the table made my fingers itch. I had planned on searching the rest of the room first. Plenty of drawers and surfaces to sift through and large windows that were a quick escape route. But I couldn’t help myself, that box was just too tempting. I snapped the lid open, revealing the large necklace lying in the center. Pure silver, a large onyx mounted at the center, surrounded by amethysts, it was intoxicating, almost hypnotising. An heirloom of House Everfey. I picked it up, losing myself in the gleam of the gems.

“There you go, Lamorak. Another for your personal collection.” I whispered to the empty room. “And one less for Mordred.”

That man deserved it anyway. A familiar joy sprung to life as I twisted my gloved hands around the silver. My face, what I could see of it behind the hood and scarf, reflected in the large black gem. I could only imagine how he would react to the oldest piece in his collection disappearing. Lord Everfey would tear this city apart to find this. I can’t wait to see the chaos. The anticipation grew to the point where I was nearly jumping with joy.

That feeling dissipated the moment I heard voices outside the room. Instantly, that joy turned to fear. The only hiding space I would fit inside was a cabinet, an overly obvious hiding spot. There had to be something else.

The knob seemed to screech as it turned. No choice left, I shut the box, slipping inside the cabinet. The door was barely shut behind me before I heard the hinges to the room scream.

I held my breath, watching through the slits in the cabinet door as two sets of footsteps echoed around the room. One strolled into view, a tall man, wearing an overly gaudy and bright red coat. He took a seat at the table in the center, watching the ornate box. His lips curled into a snarl as he aggressively tapped the table. It was understandable. Redwoolfe had his personal guard look like complete fools just a month ago. For a split second, I thought about what would happen if he found me in here. But I stopped myself. It wouldn’t be good, that’s all I needed to know.

“I want him alive, Lawrence,” a voice out of my view said. “I understand your frustration with Virtue’s Shadow, but he’s more valuable than a corpse. If we-”

The other stood up suddenly, jarring the table. “What, have him executed. Everything’s gone too far. Crime’s been on the rise for years now since he appeared.” Lawrence sighed, rubbing his temple. “At this point, I don’t think that thing is even human. He’s like a living shadow, chaos incarnate. That thing won’t stop until he’s dead. He’ll die anyway. Why risk him escaping?”

The other strolled over to my hiding spot, the distance causing him to look like a lump of black. Lord Mordred Everfey, I tensed up at the thought of his name alone. For a very brief moment, I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. Maybe it was the mention of me needing to die, or Mordred so close to me, but my head started spiraling. They knew I was in here. That had to be it, Mordred was just dragging this out to mess with my head. I nearly sighed with relief when he just leaned against the door. 

Mordred was nearly as worked up as I was, anxiously drumming his fingers against the wooden frame of the cabinet. Each tap nearly made me jump, but I held still by some miracle. There was a very, very, long pause before he spoke again.

“He’s human, Lawrence. That means he can be reasoned with, bribed, threatened.”

Lawrence just laughed. “Bribed, did you really just say that. Virtue’s Shadow has stolen enough money to buy an entire province and he still hasn’t stopped-”

“It was an example,” Mordred forced out through gritted teeth. “What I mean is he’s not some wraith swooping in and stealing whatever he wants. He’s human.” As if to prove a point, he picked up the box. “Just a few moments ago, we both saw what was in here.” He slid the box over to Lawrence. “That is the most valuable piece in my collection. If he’s targeting anything tonight, it would be this. Virtue’s Shadow couldn’t have just manifested in this room then disappeared.”

I leaned closer as Lawrence undid the latch, lid tilted back to reveal an empty velvet interior. For a brief, joy filled moment, nothing happened. Mordred and Lawrence just stared down at the empty box in shock. Then they looked at each other. Another wave of silence passed as paranoia started to set back in. If they checked in here, I was dead. I was barely breathing, waiting for them to realize what was going on. For them to search this room, find me.

“H-how did he…” Mordred mumbled.

“Screw how he did it, he’s probably on his way out right now. Have the entire manor locked down, no one leaves here until he is found.” Lawrence stormed out of the door after that. Mordred followed soon after.

Only after I heard the door shut did I sigh with relief and slip out of my hiding place. There was a spring in my step as I made my way to the window. Partly out of relief and partly out of fear. I long overstayed my welcome. It was foolish really. The moment I stepped inside, I should have grabbed the box and ran. But I’d trade anything to see that expression on their faces again. And now that it’s safe, I smiled. They really are fools. The necklace seemed to grow heavier in my pocket. I couldn’t help myself but reach inside, tracing my finger across the surface of the smooth stones. After a few moments though, I remembered that I really needed to be going.

The window was firmly locked. Not that I expected it to be open or anything. I carefully maneuvered the small metal piece into the lock, holding it in place while my other pick did the real work. Whenever it was safe, I usually timed myself. Once, I got it down to-

“I’m assuming you’re Virtue’s Shadow.” 

I couldn’t help but freeze, cursing in my head. In a split second my head raced to boiling anger at myself, to anger at him, then fear, before I stuffed all of that deep inside and turned around. A man stood in the doorway, tall, black hair, pale skin and silver eyes, Mordred. That fear came back really quick, mind reeling back nine years. My entire body tensed up at the memory, fire, smoke, that reek of copper and salt, that slick feeling on my hands... 

I blinked, repressing the near overwhelming sensation. He didn’t know, I was just shocked to be caught, he needed to think that. I gave that man my best fake smile, somehow keeping my voice steady through the lingering fear. “Lord Everfey, so nice to finally meet you. I did see you back at Lord Redwoolfe’s ball, but I doubt you saw me.” As I spoke, I scrambled for some kind of escape plan. I had contingencies, but none that anticipated Mordred catching me.

“And I assume you heard every word of our conversation.”

That was it, that was my escape. “Of course I did.” I kept my voice steady. “Your friend really is right, Mordred. I’m not able to be reasoned with. Maybe I’m not even human.” My gaze trailed over to the lock for a moment. Just one more pin and I’d have the window open. A few more seconds, I could stall him for that long. “Maybe I am just the will of chaos created-”

There was a very loud and sudden bang from behind me. All the tension in my body released at once. I jumped, teeth grinding, lock snapping back in place from my sudden movement. By the time I actually did turn around, all I could focus on was his smile.

“Yeah, you’re human, boy.”

I glanced down at the lock. He’d be on top of me by the time I managed to get it open. That made me freak out. I took in a shaky breath, exhaling in sputtered bursts. My mind was scrambling, heart pounding in my ears. This wasn’t going to be good, but I needed to get out right now. It was either this window or the doorway he was standing in. 

I grabbed that same, heavy box on the table. “Try telling everyone else that.”

He didn’t even have time to react before I smashed the box against the window, glass flying everywhere. Before he could process what happened, I jumped out. It was a second floor window, I wouldn’t die. Though for a brief moment, rain and wind rushed around me as I fell before I finally hit the ground.

I stumbled as I landed, breaking out into a run right as my feet touched the ground. It was the middle of the night, rain and fog only making it harder to see. Half the gardens were a slippery mess of mud and dew covered grass. A mess that I only made worse by running through it.

My footsteps squelched as I tore through the gardens. Weaving around all the barely visible fenced off flowers and bushes. The sound of my own footsteps in the mud set me off. I hated it. But if I tried to be subtle, it would slow me down. It was only a matter of time before they all knew I was here. Being quick and loud was better than me being caught. 

Mordred screaming after me from the window only made me shutter worse. In an instant, hazy lights swarmed around me, shining through the rain. Great, I wasn’t even over the manor’s wall and they were already after me. 

Cursing myself for the… What was I up to now, the third time tonight. I darted for the fence, trying to pull myself over the giant wall of wrought iron. The edges were slick, cutting into my gloves as I desperately tried to hold on. My feet slipped along the edge, the mud on the bottom of my boots not making it any easier. All the while, those lights were getting closer. I could make out the silver armor, the rain hammering down on them. Their confused shouting ringing above all of that. None of it helped the panic slowly building inside of me. I tried to stay calm, to plan my next move, but I couldn’t. My legs flailed frantically against the smooth surface, desperately clawing for some foothold. 

Eventually, my foot finally caught hold of a horizontal support. I pushed off of it, scrambling over the rest in one motion. Water splashed around me as I landed. It kicked up again as I ran down the flooded cobblestone that made up the streets. It wasn’t long before I heard footsteps coming after me, echoing through the puddles and pouring rain.

I took a sharp turn off the main road, dodging through alleyways and side streets. Every single time I lost them, some other patrol would spot me and it would start all over again. 

My lungs burned, exhaustion clawing at me. I needed to lose them, right now. One dark alleyway in particular caught my attention as it hurled towards me. Without thinking, I ran down it, nearly smacking face first into the large wall at the end. A dead end, but they were closing in. I couldn’t go back.

A few soggy crates littered the opening. I ducked behind one, pressing my back against the rotting side. Right as they approached, I drew my dagger. Not once had I ever used it in a fight, but if it came down to that, at least I’d have a weapon. It was a terrifying thought, but so was what they would do to me if they did bring me in.

My breathing came out in rapid, ragged, breaths. If it hadn’t been for the sound of pouring rain, they would have caught me by that alone. For at least ten agonizing minutes, I heard guards pass by the alley a few times. Every single time, I squeezed my eyes shut, mentally preparing myself for the possibility that they would find me. The footsteps always passed, my head still shrieking that they might come back, find me, drag me off to… I bit my tongue, forcefully drawing myself out of the thought. 

Only after I didn’t hear anything for two minutes did I relax. Then I smiled and laughed and laughed. Tears streamed down my face. It really is terrifying, running, hiding, knowing one wrong move on a job could land me in line for the chopping block.

But once that fear was gone, all I could think about was how much I enjoyed every moment of it.

The evening after, I took a walk. Nothing special, I just wanted to watch the aftermath of the previous night. Three patrols already passed by me, another heading right for me. I hadn’t even been on the streets for five minutes. A bit boring I guess, but better than nothing. Most of the shops had been closed for at least an hour. It was impressive how terrified they could be. It’s just how it is now. One year ago, half the population would still be walking in the street. Well, this was still strange, there was still an hour left until sunset. There should be some people out at least.

Then I heard the bells ring in the center of the square. Right, they’d close early for this. One ring, a few people came out of their homes. Two, they all ran down the streets, right to the city’s center square. Three, I turned around, walking in the other direction, trying not to count. That didn’t stop me. Four, five, six, then silence, I just sighed with relief. It was less than normal. This was common and I was used to it, but that didn’t mean I had to like it. Punishments, they were public. People said it’s to discourage criminals, and it does work to a degree, I have to admit.

Another sigh of relief escaped me as I turned down a less crowded sidestreet leading towards the edge of the city. The grey stones became more worn down, moss growing between the cracks. The people down this part of the city kept their heads down, shuffled back into their homes. Some didn’t though, most hurried off to the square. Even the people here bought into all the lies Virtue fed people. 

They weren’t really lies, I reminded myself. Those idiots just have to draw a line, they just draw it in the wrong place. Everyone on the chopping block did do something wrong. But they don’t care who, why.

I was caught up in my own head, I hadn’t even noticed one of them following me. A boy, not a year younger than me, beat up cloak draped over his small frame. It made me smile in a way, a bit of nostalgia. Really made me think about how terrible I was when I first entered this line of work. 

He approached a bit quicker than I would have expected. But maybe I should have expected that. This boy wasn’t good after all. Then my thoughts snapped onto the bells. That one mistake last night could have landed me there. One mistake and it would have been my head rolling off the chopping block. One mistake nine years ago, when I was a scared child who just wanted something to eat that night. Publicly shamed, brand scorched into my skin, hands cut off. I really didn’t want to think about it and I didn’t want to think about what would happen to this boy if he had targeted anyone else.

He passed by me, bumping into me slightly. Had I not known, I wouldn’t have even felt his hand slip into my pocket. Subtle, maybe this wouldn’t be a waste of my time. I grabbed his wrist right as he pulled his hand out, twisting it until he stopped. 

That caused him to freeze, gaze darting from my face to the sack of coins he just tried to lift off of me. His eyes widened, instead of running or fighting, he just stood there. For a moment, I just stared at him. Holes and tears dotted his black cloak, dirt splotched on his skin, but that giant brand scorched across his neck was what made me pause. A hand, one single coin in its palm, petty theft if I remember correctly.

“Is everything alright?” A voice asked behind us. A pair of guards stood behind us, one of them realizing what was going on right away. His expression went somber as he reached for the boy in black. “I swear, you criminals never learn-”

Before I could stop myself, I was standing in front of the boy. “It’s a misunderstanding, sir.” That sir felt like acid in my mouth, but I dealt with it. “He wasn’t stealing.”

“Are… Are you sure?” He glanced at the boy, then back to me. Only then did he lean close and whisper in my ear. “Did he threaten you?”

“No, it’s… it’s only a misunderstanding. Sorry to bother you.”

Neither of them really looked like they bought the lie, but what else could they do. Both of them just shrugged and walked away. Only after they were long out of sight did I grab the boy’s arm and drag him down an alley. He was still trembling, wide eyed, clutching my pouch of stolen coins.

I held my hand out. “If you would, I think you owe me anyway.”

The boy handed me the sack of coins, staring down at his tattered black boots. “Thank you.”

My gaze drifted back to the giant mark on his neck. If he had gotten caught again, even for something like this, it would have been his life instead of something like that. His other arm was buried in his sleeve as well. I did my best not to stare. That’s how it was in this kingdom, there was right and there was wrong. But that left a lot of us behind. The why never mattered, just punishment without mercy. 

I bit my lip, for a moment just wanting to have a conversation with someone who might understand. Only one thing came to mind though. “How did you get that brand?”

He rubbed his hand across the side of his neck. “I was just hungry, I-I just wanted something to eat. Then-”

I held my hands up. “No, I shouldn’t have asked.” Being dragged into the square, screaming in pain as they pressed a scorching hot brand into his neck. I rubbed my neck, remembering the dozens of times that might have been me. It wasn’t the kind of thing I did, but I pressed the sack of coins into his hands. “Keep it, I have plenty.”

He tore the pouch open. If the boy had any sense, that could feed him for a month. “I-I can’t accept this.”

“Just take it. Don’t spend it all in one place either.”

The boy smiled, still shaking. “You probably stole it all in one place though.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Fine, I did. But people like us have to be careful with spending. And be careful our targets don’t notice us following them.”

His gaze dropped down to his boots. After that, I didn’t know what else to say. Talking isn’t exactly a skill I’m great in. “Just… Be careful.” What else could I really say. I turned and walked away, leaving the boy in the alley.

He whispered one last thing as I left.. “May Virtue’s Shadow bless you.”

I nearly rolled my eyes. That comment always felt strange. A mixture of guilt, fear, joy, so many people expected so much out of me. A wraith who steals everything he touches, motivated by nothing but greed. A shadow, one that all the others left behind by this kingdom look up to. Both explanations were foolish. I was human and I was waging a one man war against an entire kingdom. Well, I guess that made me a fool.

“Thank you.” That was all I said as I walked away.

They wanted you to be perfect. One mistake and they branded you a criminal. That same brand burned into my head. The same one my mother got.

“She made a choice, the right choice,” I reminded myself. “It wasn’t a mistake.” And that child she left behind turning to theft just to feed himself wasn’t a mistake either. Her little Lamorak. She’d probably be disappointed to see me now. A thief, stealing because he loved it. 

“What else can I do,” I whispered to myself. “They put her through things no one deserved.” My mind snapped back years and years ago. Her face whenever someone threw a brick through our window. When she had to clean up a decapitated pig’s head off our porch. This kingdom ostracized her for one decision. And what did she do when I stood up for her. She’d just smile, tell me she deserved it. It wasn’t fair, it never was. She wouldn’t want me to do this.

I bit my tongue. “It’s not for her. It’s for myself.” For everything they put her through, they made me watch. That wasn’t even enough for them. When bandits raided our village, burned it to the ground, they made her stay… He made her stay… I blinked, suppressing the memory.

Why wouldn’t I enjoy watching them scramble, seeing me as some wraith, as Virtue’s Shadow. After all they put me through, why wouldn’t I want to fight for myself.

#fiction #my writing #writers on tumblr #writing #fantasy #long post #anxiety #ptsd

[adacarisi]

Anon: Currently sitting in a room with my cat who is passing away. Would you mind writing about Barba who's GF has lost her longtime pet and finally breaks down to Barba about it. I have trouble showing emotion specifically grief so it often gets misread as not caring enough. But I'm handling this with difficulty. If you dont want to dont worry. Appreciate it thanks for writing so many requests I enjoy reading them.

I’m so sorry you’re going through this, it’s horrible to go through loss and not know how to process it physically or emotionally. Whatever feelings you have and however you need to express them is valid as long as you’re not self destructing or hurting others. I hope this helps a little, sorry it took so long.  

The story of how you met your cat was nearly as random as how you’d met Rafael Barba. You’d been much younger and much more lonely when you’d seen that thin little kitten darting in and out of blades of tall grass as you drove down the highway. Without a thought you’d swerved off the side of the road and jumped out of your car into the pouring rain. 

    You ran towards where you’d seen the little animal last and managed to catch a glimpse of its shape as it began moving towards the road. You reached the cat just in time, swooping its little frail and soaking wet body into your arms. You wrapped the kitten in the hoodie you had sitting on the passengers seat and turned up the heat that earlier had been at a low hum. 

    The vets office wasn’t far and luckily nothing was wrong with the little kitten. The vet seemed to think that someone had thrown the young kitten from a car but somehow it was unharmed. As those watery eyes stared up at you it became clear the two of you were bound together now. It seemed only natural what followed, you took her home, went out and bought a liter box, bags of dry food and cans of wet food, even a few toys you thought she’d enjoy. The months went by and became years. Your little kitten grew and the two of you got to know each other so well. When you were sick she’d curl up next to wherever it hurt the most, sometimes next to your head and other times resting her little head on your belly. 

    You found that you preferred the company of your cat to people when before you’d preferred no company at all. As the years went on there were many changes but she was with you through it all, those large eyes gazing up at you in solidarity whenever you’d lost hope or faith. A few of your darkest moments were only turned by the thought of leaving her behind. Who would care for her if not you? Who would give her what she deserved and needed if not you? Would she ever forgive you for leaving her? Anyone else would say that she could easily get on without you and that someone else would care for her. But you knew better than to give into that. There were times you’d sense ailments in her before she even sensed them in herself. You knew each other so well and were perfectly content and at ease when alone with one another as the years went by. 

   You’d met Rafael by chance in the same weather conditions that you’d met your cat. You’d met on a rainy day in the city with the sound of squeaking breaks and the scent of exhaust permeating through the windows of the courthouse. You’d been managing to do your work just fine when he rushed up to the attorney window. You were a legal assistant for circuit criminal but rarely did you have the misfortune of having to attend to the attorney window. You’d seen him before and had written him off as another pompous attorney but on that day you’d witnessed someone far more human than you’d previously observed. He was kind and patient, even humorous. And for the first time in years you found yourself smiling and maybe even hopeful. 

   The two of you dated off and on for a year or so and then things became more serious. Rafael Barba seemed like he could be it, he could be the person you shared your life with. The truest test was when he met your cat. You knew she could detect any trace of evil or bullshit, she’d been right when you’d introduced her to your now ex-best friend. 

“I’m not really a cat person, or dog person.” Rafael had begun to make excuses on the way up to your apartment. 

“Neither was I.” You smiled, still nervous but hoping for the best. 

When you opened the door to your apartment there she sat, poised and concentrated. You pulled Rafael to the couch in your living room and took a seat beside him. He seemed nervous, and he was right to be. Paw by paw she slunk around the edges of the room before leaping onto Rafael’s lap. She stretched her long body towards his face and took rapid sniffs, her whiskers trembling with her effort. Your cat took a few steps forward on his lap and stretched upwards even further before ceremoniously licking Rafael’s nose not once but twice before meowing loudly and hopping off of him to nuzzle your leg. 

“She licked me.” Rafael had smiled and reached down to pet your cat who accepted the affection very willingly. 

“It seems she likes you just as much as I do.” You had leaned towards him for a kiss when he’d turned towards you with a strange look on his face. 

“What?” You’d asked only to be met with a look that told you you should already know what he was about to say. 

“I would hope that you’d feel a little more than that for me by now.” Rafael pushed up his sleeves and you tensed. 

Had you ruined this already? Emotion wasn’t easy for you, it wasn’t how you chose to express yourself. So much of your reality happened internally, a place that was safe for you to process things without bombardment or harassment. You had done your best to covey your admiration and enjoyment of Rafael through words and actions but as usual it was misread. Allowing him to meet your cat had been a massive step for you. Allowing him into your home was monumental. And yet it appeared that he couldn’t understand that. 

The two of you fought that night for longer than you cared to admit. It was a fight unlike what you imagined typical couples would have. It was slow and measured, calculated statements received and returned for hours. Your cat had seemed amused at first, her eyes darting intelligently back and forth between the you and your boyfriend, but eventually she grew bored and fell asleep at Rafael’s feet. The two of you talked and talked until the conversation became more warm and smiles returned to both of your faces. 

   That night was the first time you finally felt understood. It was also the night that Rafael Barba understood not only that you loved him but how you loved him. There was a learning curve for a few months but things proceeded smoothly and happily for the years that followed. The two of you eventually moved in to a mutual apartment and forged a new life together. It was a quiet and peaceful life, one that Rafael Barba had never expected for himself but quite enjoyed. After all, he would have lived any life for you. 

   The night you told Rafael something was wrong with your cat he was heartbroken. Once again you’d sensed something was wrong with her before she even knew it herself. Your little kitten had gotten old and her body was failing her. The two of you took her to the vet the next day and after the labs were processed your intuition was confirmed. Your most loyal friend was dying, feline cancer, and there was little that could be done. Despite the minute options for treatment you tried them all. Diet, medication, everything. And nothing worked. Though you didn’t appear distressed to anyone else Rafael could see how frantic you were, how desperate you were not to lose your dear friend. He could see it in your eyes and sense it in your diction. 

    Two weeks later the time came. You held her close as she passed, laying on the ground with her soft body pulled into your chest. You watched as her wide eyes fell semi shut and her body tensed then slacked. You felt many things in that moment, abandonment, anger, pain and grief. You felt them all weighing you down like slabs of concrete. Rafael had gone to work that day but you had stayed home. You had known she wouldn’t be there when you got home. So you held her until she grew stiff and cold, smoothing her coat over and over before finally getting up to call the vet. 

   When the vet’s assistant arrived at your apartment she created a paw imprint as a keepsake for you out of some quick hardening clay. The tech explained that many people found the keepsake comforting especially when they couldn’t bury their pet. You watched as the vet tech carefully placed your companion in a plastic bag, hardly hearing the words that left her mouth as she apologized and offered her condolences. You smiled and nodded and before you knew it you were alone. For the first time in so many years you were totally alone. You waited for the familiar brush of your kitten against your leg but it never came. 

  Hours later you heard Rafael’s key in the door and the pregnant pause as he waited for your cat to make her way to the front door to greet him. Though she’d been getting slower day by day she still had been able to make her way to the foyer every day when Rafael got home. But not today. You heard the front door shut with a loud slam and your boyfriend came rushing down the hall dropping his brief case and a bag of to go Chinese food in one harsh motion. 

“Where is she?” Rafael asked, every word coated in anger.

“She died this morning, the vet’s nurse took her around eleven.” You got up and picked up the bag of food he had carelessly dropped. 

“You didn’t call me?” He asked bitterly following you into the kitchen where you began to unpack the meal he’d brought home. 

“Why would I, she wasn’t yours.” You spoke plainly, only turning around when you felt his eyes bore into your back. 

“I loved her as much as you did. I know this is hard for you but it’s hard for me too.” Tears had filled Rafael’s eyes and as he finished speaking they fell. 

“Why?” You couldn’t understand why he would feel the way he said he did. She’d been yours long before you’d met him. 

  “Because I love you, I can see how hurt you are and how helpless you’ve felt the last few weeks. It’s not your fault and I know you’re grieving in your own way but I would have liked to be there for you and for her.” Rafael reached for your hand but you pulled it away. 

“It’s not my responsibility to be upset in a way that you understand. She’s...she was my friend. I don’t want to talk about it anymore.” You started angrily but finished so softly your voice was barely audible. 

You took a container of egg drop soup and a crab rangoon back to the living room and sat down to eat. After a beat Rafael joined you and the two of you ate in silence. You didn’t speak when you took the trash to the kitchen to throw out, and you didn’t speak when you climbed into bed. You laid there feeling angry and sad, but mostly sad as you mulled over your exchange with Rafael. 

   Rafael stayed up for a while, holding the little imprint of your cats paw in his hands. He just wanted you to feel better, to open up and let some of the pain out but he knew he had to be patient. After all, he was frighteningly similar to you when it came to things like this. Rafael had stifled his emotions so many times throughout his life and career that they rarely showed, but god they burned away inside his chest and turned his stomach. It was then that Rafael Barba began to cry, not only for you and the pain you were enduring but for his sweet little girl, your cat, who he had come to love so much. Rafael had never really bought into the whole idea of having a pet but your cat had taken to him so quickly and he’d fallen in love. She became his little girl despite her already being quite old when they’d met. Rafael sobbed as silently as he could where he sat on the couch, tracing over the imprint her paw had made in the white clay. 

   You assumed Rafael was in his office so when you got up to get a glass of water from the kitchen it surprised you to find him on the couch, his shoulders heaving up and down with the weight of his sobs. When you moved closer you saw what was in his hands, the paw imprint. Seeing the man you loved mourning the loss of your treasured companion you too began to cry as you fell to your knees in front of him. The two of you stayed there for a while, both grieving together yet separately. Eventually Rafael pulled you up into his lap and his arms, letting you cry into his neck as the release of anger, grief and helplessness flooded from you. When you found you could speak again you did, telling your boyfriend just how you felt, how hard it was for you and why. The most amazing thing was that he understood, not just you emotions but your expression of them. Rafael spoke next, revealing the depth of his grief as well. Though you’d been together for years it shocked you just how similarly you dealt with things like grief and pain. 

   That night you realized there was nothing wrong with the way you expressed your emotions and there was nothing wrong with you. All it took was finding the right person who could accept you and be there for you while you processed them. You discovered that it was more than okay to feel things your own way, after all, your feelings belonged to you, but you also found that when a bond between souls exists, animals and humans alike, you no longer had to experience them alone. And after all those years of loneliness and pain, you finally found peace in that. 

#rafael barba #law and order svu #Raul Esparza #cat #svu #mini fic #sorry ive been gone so long #adacarisi #this wasnt my best #but i hope it was alright #sorry it took forever

[some-mad-lunge]

Interstellar Bitch

Because an Alex and Isobel friendship is on my must list for season 2.

**************

Alex had always leaned more towards having women as friends, that is after Kyle had disowned him before high school. Suddenly he was without a best friend in the shark infested waters that was public education.. Thankfully Maria, with her kind heart and Liz with her keen eyes that missed nothing, welcomed him with open arms. He wasn’t as free spirited or as studious as either of them, but it worked. He never thought of it as a cliche, it was just nice. 

He grew up in a house that suffocated him with male testosterone. No one wanted to listen to his ideas or hear his music. No one wanted to know him. Honestly, Alex thought his Dad would like him more if he just whipped out his dick and measured it, gave him something tangible to prove his son was a Manes man.

Maria and Liz (and Michael), they’d been the bright spots in this town. The escape from home and the loneliness, the white noise that cancelled out the voice in his head that made sure he knew he’d never be good enough.

He’d left them behind but he’d never forgotten. Emails and texts, you grow up and people fall away. Overseas he learned how to be friends with men, not needing to posture up, to prove he could give a punch and absorb a hit to be taken seriously. Still he missed his companionship with women. He missed the warmth of Maria’s hug, Liz’s sharp tongue that never failed to make him laugh. The way he used to feel understood, at least a little, for the first time in his life.

Coming home to them (and Michael), it was as if nothing had changed. A decade didn’t dull who they’d been to each other. Alex didn’t know if it was them, or this town, but they were connected. They were family.

Or they had been, but now there was a space between them, and he couldn’t get past it. He’d lost all three of the people he’d love most in one fell swoop. He vaguely wondered if there was something poetic in that. He’d run away to learn to be himself and lost the people who accepted him wholly for who he was in the process.

Maybe it would be easier if there had been some big scene, angry words and spilled drinks. Instead it was Michael and Maria holding hands, Liz begging him with her eyes not to make her choose. That in itself was a choice wasn’t it?

He’d made his own choice a decade ago and they had made theirs a little over three weeks ago. One thing Alex had to learn quickly was how to drink alone. To be fair he was getting pretty good at it, practice makes perfect. He had Kyle back, sort of, but there was still the bravado Alex felt he needed around his old friend. Maybe they’d buried the hatchet but scars run deep, and habits can be hard to break.

He’d planned his Saturday sitting on his porch, drinking some beer and wallowing in his own self pity. It was the only reason he was buying alcohol at 10am, most of the town still asleep or avoiding the heat. The last person he expected to run into, sunglasses hiding her face and two bottles of red tucked under her arm was Isobel. 

He couldn’t really remember ever having a conversation with her. He knew how much she meant to Michael, but did she know what Michael had meant to Alex? It was better not to think about it. Instead he nodded her way and attempted to side step around her in the aisle. It appeared she had other plans.

“You look more pathetic than I feel, and that’s saying something.” It stopped him in his tracks, had him turning slowly to take her in. She slid her large glasses up onto her forehead, her eyes were red but there wasn’t a hint of sadness in them. No, he saw what could only be described as understanding, maybe even fellowship and a hint of something else. Something he recognized.

Barely contained rage.

He didn’t know how to respond to that. She was a hard one to read, perfect facade that had all come crashing down. He didn’t feel like his pain could even hold a candle to hers. Maybe she’d been an uppity bitch back in high school, head held high to balance her prom queen crown but she wasn’t that person anymore. No one deserved what Noah has done to her, he wouldn’t wish that on anyone.

It was painful enough losing someone’s love, but learning you never had it to begin with? That was anguish.

He turned away and went to the cooler, hoisting the case of beer under his arm. He also snagged a bottle of tequila as he headed to the register. He didn’t see Isobel anywhere, hoped she found whatever she was looking for at the bottom of her bottle. Alex had yet to find answers in the bottom of his.

Instead he found her leaning against his Jeep, bags on the ground at her feet. She had her hips pushed out, braced for a fight. Alex, meanwhile, wasn't looking for one.

“I need a ride home.” It wasn’t a request but a command, and last Alex checked she wasn’t his superior officer, even if she had a sneer like one.

“And that’s your vehicle located northwest, you know, across the street.” It was early so there was no limit to his stride as he made his way closer.

He watched Isobel’s veneer slip, the swagger that was so much like Michael it made him ache disappeared.

“He bought it for me, I just realized. Anniversary gift. I never want to drive it again.” She said it like that was a good enough answer and for Alex it sure as hell was. Instead he jerked his head as he pulled his keys from his pocket, unlocked his passenger door and opened it for her. He was still a gentleman, and he wasn’t above simple kindness.

She climbed in, but put a hand on his arm.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

Alex almost laughed.

“Neither do I.”

She nodded her understanding, they both had some broken hearts beating simply to pump the anger through their veins. Analyzing that fact wasn’t going to change it. Instead he shut her door with a click and made his way around to his own side.

They drove in relative silence, every corner causing the bottles at Isobel’s feet to clank and rattle. He knew where she lived, Isobel had been made for suburbia, even if she was from another planet altogether.

He pulled into her drive and shut off his car.

“Not going to lie, wasn’t sure how safely we’d get here, you being down a limb and all.” 

This time Alex did laugh, because Isobel didn’t wear kid gloves around him and dammit if he didn’t enjoy that. It was nice for someone to look at him with something other than pity.

“Come on. We’ll be less pathetic if we get wasted together.”

The inside of her house was just as one would imagine, modern furniture, tasteful art and a large pile of men’s clothes heaped in the middle of the living room. Isobel flicked her hand at the mound as she headed for her kitchen, “Help yourself.”

Alex turned his nose up at the idea of cast offs from a serial killer and followed Isobel into the kitchen. He placed his bottle of tequila down on the counter. She handed him a corkscrew and he got to opening a bottle while she grabbed large wine glasses and a cutting board. He poured them each a glass as she cut up cheese and grabbed a package of crackers.

He blinked at her as she rolled her eyes, “We can be civilized about it.” She balanced the board on her hand as if she’d been serving patrons her entire life and grabbed her glass. Alex followed her again, wondered for a second if he would always be just two steps behind an alien when it came to living his life when she surprised him. She slid her patio door open and took a sip from glass. 

“After you.”

********

“What was it like?” 

“What was what like?”

“Seeing the world?”

“I was in Iraq and Afghanistan. I saw sand and death and children going hungry. Sorry I didn’t send any postcards.” Alex leaned forward to refill Isobel’s glass.

“Don’t be, Roswell has never been worth the postage.”

He touched his glass to hers in agreement.

**********

“Admit it, you like this song!” Isobel twirled as she shouted, pop music thumping so hard Alex should be annoyed. Instead he’s laughing as she swished her imaginary skirt, shooting him a come hither look. 

He just shakes his head and leans back, but he gives in eventually and sings along. Even holds out his hand and lets her grasp it as she dances around him.

*********

Letting an intoxicated Isobel paint his nails sparkly black was not Alex’s wisest decision. Then again, also not his worst.

“Hey, I’m doing a good job.” She sticks out her tongue as she steadies her hand and does one final stroke. “Ta-da!”

She blows on his fingertips, and passes him the bottle. “Now do mine!”

Naturally his work is better than hers.

*********

Alex isn’t sure how he ended up on the floor, but Isobel had tossed him some cushions and he’s shaded from the setting sun. He’s comfortable and relaxed, and holding a glass of tequila and ice to his forehead.

“I envied you in high school.” Isobel is using Alex’s good leg as a headrest. He can’t remember the last time someone was this close to him, happy being in his space, wanting to be there. Well he did, but he wasn’t going to admit that.

“Sure. Gay emo kid with an abusive father, what’s not to love?” There is no bitterness in his voice though, you can only be angry about the past for so long. Also his buzz is making everything easier to bear. “I wish I could have walked down the halls flipping my blonde hair.

“Fuck you. I didn’t walk, I strutted.”

*********

Somehow they’d ended up in the living room, each with a pair of scissors, cutting up Noah’s expensive suits. Alex wasn’t sure they should be using such sharp objects, but then again, he’d done a good job cutting out a star in a cashmere sweater.

“Should I feel bad that I could have donated these? I mean, there are people in need.” She sounded sincere but the swish of her scissor blades doesn’t stop. “But I don’t know if Tide gets out murderous alien germs.”

He hears her sniff and glances up, but her face is set hard. He lets her have that one.

“Or, we could burn the lot.” He likes the idea, is a little proud of it. 

Isobel’s smile is slow and menacing, “I have marshmallows.”

*********

His fingers are sticky and his stomach hurts from laughing as he watches Isobel try to lean out of her chair to grasp her drink. She’s going to fall and for some reason it’s ridiculous. The whole day has been.

She sits up and pouts.

“Come on, you have ET powers on your side. You got this, Evans.”

It takes a few minutes and her face gets flat and serious. Then the glass skitters across the pavement to bang against the leg of her chair. 

She picks it up with a flourish, all he can do is applaud.

********

“No, you have to shoot, use the A button!” Isobel is useless at this and he’s willing to sacrifice her to the cause. Leave no man behind doesn’t count when they’re this bad.

“Which one is A?”

“The one with an A on it! Dammit!” The screen goes red, they’re both dead. Alex drops his controller and drinks straight from the bottle. All sense of propriety went out the window around 2am, so he holds it her way so she can take a sip. 

She can handle her liquor better than most of the men he serves with. He’ll never tell her that though.

*********

“You know you could use your mind meld skills to get someone to bring us pizza.” The fact that Roswell doesn’t have a take out place open past 11:00pm is the greatest shame of the century.

“Or I could use my mind meld skills to get you to grab the Pop Tarts out the freezer.”

“You keep your Pop Tarts in the freezer?”

“You’ve never had a frozen Pop Tart?!” When he shakes his head she scrambles off the sofa, nearly trips over her own feet. “I am about to rock your world.”

It’s no blow job from Michael Guerin but it’s a close second.

********

Alex isn’t sure if it’s the pounding on the door or the pounding inside his head that wakes him up. He could do without both, and a healthy does of H20. He feels legs tangled with his own, knows they must have passed out head to toe on Isobel’s large sectional. He realizes he hadn’t removed his prosthetic and that is going to hurt later. Instead he wiggles his socked foot in Isobel’s face. It’s her house, he’s not answering the door.

Also if he gets up he just might die.

She squirms but it’s too little too late when the door bangs open and her brothers storm in with their girlfriends hot on their heels.

He hears Max’s huff and Maria’s laugh but they’re both drowned out by an unimpressed, “What the actual fuck?!”

Great. Michael’s here.

Isobel wraps her arms around Alex’s leg and snuggles into it. So it looks like she’s leaving him to deal with the Alien scout patrol.

“I repeat, what the fuck?”

Alex finally opens his eyes and is met with Michael’s hard and unimpressed stare. As if he has a commodity on messy hangovers or something. He kicks his foot again and Isobel huffs, but it’s enough to get her sitting up, hand pressed to her forehead.

She pushes Alex’s legs so he has no choice but to follow suit.

“You snore, Manes.”

“I know.” Michael says it before Alex can, the silence afterwards almost deafening. Max coughs as Alex shoots Isobel a look. It results in them bursting into giggles and leaning into each other on the sofa. To be fair, Alex's not sure how either of them are semi upright at this point anyway. No one else seems to get the joke.

“They’re okay guys, maybe we should let them sleep it off.” Liz is smiling but also glancing between Maria and Michael. There’s an issue there but it’s none of Alex’s business, just like he is none of there’s.

“You don’t answer our calls and Max finds your car deserted in town. We’re worried sick and you’re here passed out with him.” Michael isn’t letting this go and Alex almost stands up, squaring for a fight. Isobel puts a hand on his knee to stop him.

“It’s called a bender Michael, you of all people should understand that.” She attempts to rise and makes it halfway before she falls back, half in Alex’s lap. He catches her and rights her again. She pats the top of his head in thanks.

“Water?” Isobel is ignoring everyone else, Alex is keen on the idea.

“God, yes please.”

Alex leans back into the sofa and rubs at his temples. He can feel Michael’s frustrated gaze on him, even more so when Isobel hands him a cold bottle. He opens it, reaches out to tap it against hers and downs the whole thing in one go. 

No one is saying anything and Alex isn’t about to be the first. Last he checked he and Isobel were adults, but the eyes Liz is making at Max don’t seem to be doing the job.

“So, I’m alive, we’re alive. Any other questions or is the interrogation over?” Isobel seems revived by the water and the weight of Michael’s disapproving eyes. No one says anything. “Great.”

She leans down, grabs Alex’s hand to help haul him to his feet. Somehow his leg is working and he’s not limping. He’s starting to wonder if this is all a weird fever dream. Then Isobel tucks her arm into his and leads him to the door and past the army of interlopers.

“You owe me one.” It’s whispered as she presses her cheek to his in a mock kiss, like they’re high society and didn’t murder three bottles of wine and all the tequila that didn’t end up on the kitchen floor.

He thinks he might love her. Platonically but reverently, the twinkle in her eye leads him to believe he’s not alone in the feeling. 

“Until Saturday, ma’am.” He gives her a smile and a tiny salute, which became a thing last night, though for the life of him he can’t remember how.

“Of course, I’ll bring the limes and the hot sauce. Now run while you can.” She shoots him a wink and he makes his escape. The last thing he hears as the door shuts is Michael’s frustrated shout of, “What the hell is Saturday?”

Alex swings his keys around his finger and heads for his Jeep.

After a much needed shower and something greasy to settle his stomach he crawls into his own bed. As he lays there his phone beeps twice.

One is a message from an unknown number that says, “It's unfair this polish looks better on you than me.” He saves the number under the name Interstellar Bitch and makes a mental note to show Isobel later on. She’ll get a kick out of it.

The second is from Michael that’s four simple words, “We need to talk.”

He only replies to one, types out “It’s an emo thing.”

Then he presses his face into his pillow and laughs.

#shauna's roswell fic #long post #oops #roswell new mexico #fan fiction #alex manes #isobel evans #THE FRIENDSHIP WE DESERVE #a hint of malex #tw: alcohol

[angstalottle]

Lana On The Case

Part 3

Lana knew she shouldn’t have been expecting much, especially after spending the last week lying in bed stewing in her own filth and misery.

That didn’t change the fact that her current appearance still shocked her.

Her skin had gained an ashen quality about it and dark circles under her eyes.

She was sure is Red hadn’t practically force fed her she was have lost much more weight then she already had.

She felt drained and heavy, like her life was sucked out from her when Hannah left her…

Keith showing up had given her a small glimmer of excitement perhaps even hope but as soon as he was gone and she was left alone to her thoughts they turned right back to the fact that her best friend was gone from her life forever.

That thought hurt even more than knowing her sweet wonderful Hannah killed people.

Job offer or not Lana likely would have spent the rest of her life lying in her bed if her aunties hadn’t decided to do something about it.

One moment she's dozing staring into space, the next Blue has pulled her covers away while Re dumped a bucket of warm soapy water over her.

The two manhandled her out of bed and into some clean clothes before giving her two options.

One was to stay cooped up inside and suffer through them inviting every nosey friend they could think of over to omard her with questions and pinched cheeks followed by of course the dreaded relationship advice that everyone over a certain age believed they knew.

Or go down to the police station and actually do something with her life/

Though neither option was particularly fun in the end Lana chose to go out mainly because Red had also made a swinging joke which of course practically sent her bolting through the door.

The police station like everything else in the village was only a short walk away from the Altea estate, you could get pretty much anywhere by cutting through the large gardens that have unfortunately fallen into a state of disrepair.

The lady of the manor had died when Lana was away and since then the place hadn’t been the same, like some of the beauty of the world left when she did.

As far as she knew the only daughter of the family Allura was away for school or something while her father worked in London.

Lana had fond memories of Allura, being a few years younger then the girl and quite a bit poorer, she always seemed like this fairy princess that could have anything or do anything.

Looks like not even princesses could escape tragedy.

Lana hiked up her skirt as she climbed over the thick mess of weeds and flowers careful not to disturb anything as she passed through.

Even if everyone took the shortcut it was an unsaid rule that you were not to disturb the gardens or ever go close to the house.

Of course when Lance got her foot caught in a bramble and fell face first into the ground she broke that rule by flattening at least a dozen flowers beneath her.

“Oh dear are you alright?” A woman wearing a veil and long white gloves asked as she hurried over from the main house.

Odd appearance aside what really caught Lana’s attention was her snow white hair. A characteristic that was common amongst the Altean family.

Going off her build she could have been anywhere between 20-30 but without the face or hands it really was impossible to tell.

Lana felt her cheeks burn as she pulled herself up and dusted herself down frowning at the rip that now worked its way up her blue skirt.

The woman put her hands on her dress and examined the rip tutting softly “we really must get the gardener back in this place really has fallen to ruin.”

Now that she was closer Lana could smell the sweet scent of roses coming off her in such a large volume it would almost be suffocating if they weren't outside.

“Do you work here?” Lana asked trying to swallow her embarrassment while this strange woman kept hold of her skirt.

One strong breeze and she would see next weeks washing.

The woman chuckled “not exactly. I used to live here I never actually planned on returning but in light of my father's disappearance I suppose I didn’t have much choice.”

Lana couldn’t help but flinch, since what Hannah did came to light any case of men running off in the middle of the night or simply not returning after a day out is now considered suspect.

Their still digging up all the bodies and people have been flocking from all over in search of their missing husbands, fathers and brothers.

Lana then realised something very important.

Mainly that if Alfor was missing and this woman was his daughter then it must have been Allura!

“Allura?”

Lana couldn’t see her face but she imagined a smile on those pretty pink painted lips she used to know very well.

“That’s me, im sorry but who are you?”

Lana had her suspicions of course that this was all a scam, someone swooping in to steal the Altean family fortune, but she wasn’t really in the mood for any other mysteries right now.

That and according to Keith she was pretty forgettable.

“Oh im Lana… I used to play with you in the garden as a kid.”

“Oh my i'm so sorry Lana, im afraid my memory hasn’t been that good since the accident. She gestured to her veil and gloves “I got caught up in the Blitz and i'm afraid my appearance paid a higher price then by mind.”

Lana felt guilt crawl into her stomach, well at least she didn’t outright accuse  her of being a con artist. Besides Coran was a dear friend of the family, there's no way someone would be able to just take over Allura’s life without him noticing.

“Im sorry, I didn’t realise.”

Allura waved her off finally letting go of her skirt “don’t worry about it, ive made my peace with my situation, it is a tad lonely though, people aren't exactly eager to visit the manor these days.” She sounded so sincerely sad that Lana couldn’t help but feel for her.

She knew what it was like to lose everything because of a situation out of her control, the war had stolen many things from them, Lana was lucky to keep her beauty at least.

“Well then I suppose I have no choice but to come round for tea, I would invite you to my aunts cottage but they tend to get too excited around anyone they used to know.”

Lana gave her the best smile she could manage and was rewarded by Allura taking her hands and kissing them.

Once again her face turned an interesting shade of red.

“That sounds simply wonderful Lana, how about Thursday at 8 o'clock?”

Lana had lost her ability to form words so simply nodded earning her a small chuckle in response.

“I don’t want to keep you if your busy so ill just see you Thursday?” Allura asked startling Lana out of her stupor.

“Yes I should go, but i'll erm see you then I promise.”

Lana stuttered deciding it was best to continue on her way before she made an even bigger fool of herself so mustered up what grace she had to give an awkward curtsy realising that was dumb halfway through and instead turned and hurried on her way hitting herself muttering “stupid stupid stupid” over and over again until she finally arrived at the police station.

As expected of a small town the police station was fairly quiet this time of day home only to the drunks that were picked up the night before and only now being released to go back to their family or in some cases the church.

Of course one would expect it to be much busier with the number of bodies being dug up but unfortunately since Hannah left and it became national news the investigation had been taken over by some fancy out of state law enforcement that walk around in nice suits and a stuck up attitude to match their overall pompous appearance.

Going off the sour atmosphere in the station no one was too pleased to have the villages first ever big case stolen from under them.

Lana did her best to smile politely as she made her way to reception preparing herself for awkward small talk with someone she really hoped wouldn't recognise her.

“Hello im here-”

“If you got a crime to report fill out the form if not get lost.”

The woman behind the desk looked too young to be working, her slight frame and big doe eyes making her seem like she couldn't be much older than 15 but then again looks can be deceiving. Like the fact that despite wearing big round glasses and squinting at a book in front of her the glass within the frame appeared to be purely decorative and not actually serve any function.

Lana cleared her throat “no actually i'm here about the job. Im expected.”

This time she at least bothered to look up from her book and glanced Lana up and down “what they replacing me with some tramp, i've worked here ten years and they bring in some totty to take my job”

Lana quickly held up her hands feeling actually pretty threatened by this tiny angry lady “no! No i'm the new consultant im supposed to be working with Keith and-”

“Oi Keith! Some broad here says shes your new partner!” She yelled and just like that, all eyes were on her.

Lana smiled awkwardly at them really wishing a hole would appear beneath her and swallow her up whole so she could escape this situation.

However the only thing the universe sent her was a very flustered keith running in from the back.

He was carrying a stack of papers and had that god awful mullet tied back in a ponytail that honestly didn't look half bad on him.

“Thanks Katie i can take her from here.” Keith dropped the papers on her desk “Also Griffin needs you to file these for him.”

“He could do it himself” Katie grumbled grabbing the papers and flicking through them “he didn't even bother filling some of these out!”

Keith quietly grabbed Lana’s arm and pulled her towards him as Katie got distracted with her angry mutterings “Sorry about her, she's just pissed that her dad lost his job to a hot shot whos dad just happens to be a governor.”

“Ah where would be be without nepotism” Lana chuckled letting Keith led her back into a small office where five other people were sat. She assumed the cells were behind one of the closed doors and perhaps the archive room behind another.

It had been a long time since she had been back here, it was certainly before the war was even a possibility and she had broken the wrong persons window and ended up having to wait for her mother by Corans desk.

People tend to say that places from your youth always seem so much smaller when you visit them again. Until now Lana wasn't really sure she bought into that nostalgia fueled nonsense.

But seeing the row of chairs her feet used to dangel off while she prepared an excuse for her behaviour for her furious mother now looked like they would fall apart if she just got too close let alone sat on one.

At least not all the changes were bad. Coran really did deserve that nice office and the title Detective neatly painted above his name.

“You know I was starting to think you wouldn't be coming” Keith said as they came to what Lana assumed was his desk. It was a little away from the others and scattered with paper work in various states of finished. It lacked much personality beyond a couple of knives and oh boy keith standing next to an incredibly attractive man that Lana realised fairly quickly must have been his older brother.

“To be honest i wasn't sure either, my life kinda went to hell but Aunt Blue and Red practically shoved me out of the door.”

Keith chuckled in response as her perched on the edge of his desk “that sounds about right. Though I hate to say it but you've kind of come on boring day. Everyones so desperate for something to do that their even taking the grunt work from me.”

“So what your just sitting around all day?” Lana asked right as a hand collided with her behind.

Lana likes to think herself an understanding woman. Or at least she tries to ever since the instadent where what she thought was a gropper on a train turned out to be a blind man having dropped his cain. So rather then turning around and grabbing the arm of whoever just did that to break over her knee she calmly turned to them.

She came face to face with a tall man that she unfortunately recognised.

James Griffin top of the class when they went to school together and by far the most arrogant man she ever met. And that was before he got a cushy job thanks to his dad.

Lana glared up at him giving him a chance to apologize or say he had mistaken her for his girlfriend that was into that kind of thing.

Instead he just smirked “wow Keith how did you find yourself this hot piece of ass.”

Ok she was going to break his nose now.

Unfortunately before she got the chance keith stepped in front of her “don't talk to her like that Griffin, Coran hired her himself as a consultant and i'm sure he wouldn't take that kind of behaviour.’

James rolled his eyes but did visibly tense as he shot a glance at the closed office door. “Whatever. This whole thing is just for press, whoever heard of a woman police officer. Their far too emotional.”

“Last I checked you were the one that cried when i kicked you in the nuts as kids.” Lana huffed crossing her arms.

“Ah buck teeth Lana! My my you did fill out nicely. How about after work I take you out?” Jame smiled looking her up and down in a way that made her skin crawl.

“How about I tell your mother that you slap my ass, if i remember right she was a reasonable woman.”

Oh how quickly his attitude changed. He swallowed whatever response he had ready and scurried off to his office next to Corans.

“What a creep.”

“Yeah but a rich one.” Keith sighed “you ok?”

“Yeah just kinda pissed i didn't get to make that jerk squeal like in highschool.” Lana noticed a small smirk appear at the corner of keiths lips at that and decided to take it as a win even if she could still feel his disgusting hand on her.

Unfortunately the next few hours were not as exciting.

Lana pulled up a chair across from Keith and kept herself busy by flicking pieces of paper at him, an activity that he avoided joining in with for exactly ten minutes.

They were so wrapped up in their game that they didn't notice coran standing next to the desk until after Keith made the winning shot and jumped up to let out a victory cry.

“It's nice to see you've found a way to keep miss Mclain here entertained during our slow day.” Coran chuckled as Keith startled and quickly cleared his throat trying to hide the blush quickly creeping up his face.

“Detective i can explain”

Coran held his hand up quickly cutting him off “no need, I understand the importance of a bit of fun to avoid dying of boredom. The time for that has now sadly passed im sending you to look into a missing persons cases.”

Keith and lana exchanged a look, while lana’s was excitement Keiths was confusion.

“Sir while im happy for a case why not give it to someone else? Im sure all the others would kill for a case right now.”

Coran simply chuckled to himself handing over a case file “because Kogane your the only officer here I trust not to get side tracked while investigating. That and i'm sure Lana here will make sure your eyes don't wander too far.”

Lana wasn't really sure what he meant by that until they got to the scene of the crime.

Or as everyone else calls it the ‘Galra Gentlemens Club’.

When the club first opened it was met with outcry from the church and the school boards and well anyone with too much time on their hands.

Now after being open for more than a decade, those same people have become the most lucrative clientele, who know stuck up prudes could have such deep pockets for the sinful arts.

Keith had kindly offered to give Lana a ride on the handlebars of his bike since the club was located uphill from the station and there was no way the poor old police car would make it up the whole way. Apparently a replacement was on its way but they had been promising it since before the war.

Lana had of course told Keith that while she appreciate the offer she would find the very idea outlandishly improper, so of course made him ride the handle bars while she put her years of missing the bus and not wanting to be late training to good use.

After a quick check with her compact and a nod to Keith they entered the club.

Lana was no stranger to Gentlemens clubs, she had been to more than a few during the war to meet with people who were usually a lot more willing to give up information when they had a few drinks in them.

This club was no different, everything was a sickening deep purple as if the colour alone could make it classy or hide the disturbingly prominent wet patches on the couches.

Lana tried her very best not to stare at the men already here this early on a weekday morning and instead focused on following Keith back to see the manger.

“Just let me do the talking, guys like this aren't always that nice to women” Keith whispered as he knocked on the door and it swung open to not show a greasy man but instead a very tall muscular woman with short black hair wearing a suit.

Lana felt her mouth go dry just looking at her.

“A-are you the manager here?” Keith asked clearly feeling equally intimidated and aroused as Lana was.

“Yeah i am, who wants to know?” She asked leaning against the doorway and looking down at him. Her gaze however moved quickly from keith to Lana and a smile spread across her face.

“Usually we don't hire new talent outside of auditions but for  a beautiful girl like you im willing to make an exception.”

“I” Lana squeaked finding herself speechless for the first time in a long time.

Thankfully Keith came to her rescue before she could actually contemplate working for this greek god of a woman.

“Actually we came from the police station. You called about one of the dancers going missing?”

The woman nodded and stepped back into the room hurrying them inside before closing the door.

“Yeah my best girl Ezor, she was seen leaving the club last week but no one has seen her since.”

“Does she often disappear like this? Perhaps to visit a gentleman caller miss...?” Keith asked pulling out a notebook while Lana looked around the office.

“Zethrid…. And trust me she's not the sorts to make house calls.”

It was fairly empty save for a punching bag in the corner and a few pictures on the walls. Most of them were group shots of all the dancers in costumes. But those actually on the desk seemed only to contain Zethrid and a slim woman with pink hair tied in a high ponytail. It was just the two of them over and over again smiling like they didn't have a care in the world.

“Is this Ezor here?” Lana asked picking up one picture showing the two in the park, judging from the bunting and celebrating in the background it was the day the allie ‘won’ the war.

Zethrid nodded “yeah that's her… we actually live together and yeah she disappears sometimes but never for this long and never without contacting me.”

“Is it possible she ran off with a sweetheart?” Keith asked taking the picture.

“She wouldn't. I know she's been taken its the only explanation.”

Something told Lana that this relationship was deeper than friendship “The last night she was seen, was there anything unusual happening?”

Zethrid thought for a moment “now that you mention it there was a black car parked outside the club all day. I didn't give it much mind incase it was a customer trying to work up the nerve to come in but it left right after she did.”

“Did you happen to catch the plates?” Keith asked hopefully only to let out a disappointed sigh when she shook her head no.

“But the car was old looking with a dent in the drivers side door.”

Keith noted it down “thanks we will be in touch.”

He led the way out but Zethrid grabbed Lana by the arm before she could leave “please i can't imagine life without her… she's my best friend.”

Lana knew what it was like to lose one of those. So she smiled and put a hand over hers “I promise ill do everything I can to find her.”

Once they were safely outside keith let out a groan “you should promise people anything, it just means you'll get attached to the case.”

“Isn't that the job of a detective though? How can i love a case if i don't care about it?” Lana huffed hitching up her skirt and getting on the bike.

“I'm just saying that it will end up hurting you more if we find her dead in a ditch somewhere.”

Lana rolled her eyes “ever the optimist huh Mullet. Besides we have a lead how many people in town have old black cars?”

“Excluding the police cruiser i'd say seven.” Keith noticed the sceptical look Lana was giving him and rolled his eyes.

“My brother owns the mechanics remember, i help out sometimes and not many people really have cars round here.”

Lana sighed “maybe we should get a second opinion from your dreamy brother.” she batted her eyelashes playfully at him as he climbed onto the handle bars.

“Shut up and pedal we've got a lot of groundwork to do.”

Five hours!

It took five hours to find all the cars, to check for dents and alibis.

In that time Lana fell into two ditches, got attacked by a chicken and the rip in her dress traveled up to past her knee.

As her mother would say she's only some red lipstick away from looking like a whore.

Lana wished she could say that time was well spent and while watching Keith getting chased by an angry family of pigeons that had taken resident in one of the old cars they ultimately ended up on a dead end.

So while the light began to fade and the two slowly walked up to the station the mood was sour.

“It could always have been someone from out of town?” Lana suggested holding the split in her dress to try and keep it from travelling any higher.

“No they would have been too noticeable. If someone from out of town drove through here everyone would know about it by now. We must have missed something.”

Lana shivered in the cool air and was surprised when Keith handed over his jacket without taking his eyes off the path.

The red really did suit him better but the warmth from his body made her feel better.

“We should check surrounding houses tomorrow, maybe one of the cars was taken without the owner realising.”

“And what they dented it and then undented it?’ Keith snorted “no if the dent was fixed it would have had to come through the shop. Shiro may be able to help.”

“I'll try to hide my disappointment” Lana laughed earning her a playful push from Keith which she returned.

The two were laughing and having a moment of fun that when cold hard reality finally came crashing down Lana felt like she had been punched in the face.

Just as they walked in the car they were looking for pulled in behind them.

Old, black and with a large dent on the side.

The only problem was that it was Coran driving it.

#langst #fem lance #1940s detective au #klance #allurance #pidge #Coran #james griffin

[atopearth]

The Legend of Dragoon Part 1 - The Serdian War

Omggg this is so nostalgic already! Seeing Rose save Dart from the Dragon was a pretty iconic scene haha. I honestly don't remember this game having voice dubs lol, that was a nice surprise. I can't remember why exactly Shana could affect the future of this world or whatever, but I do remember she's the Moon Child or something and Dart needs to go around the world saving her haha. It's sad to see Dart's hometown Seles get burnt to the ground just because Imperial Sandora needed to capture Shana. And omggg I love how unique the battle system is btw, it's honestly the highlight of the game for me hahaha. I used to be pretty bad at it but I usually get the hang of it after a while haha. It's so weird btw. It's probably been more than 10 years since I played this game, but somehow subconsciously I knew that there must be something at the graves in Seles, and there really was stardust there! I can't remember what it's for, but I guess it's good to know that inside me I still remember a lot of things about this game haha. Anyway, Dart and Shana have a pretty common childhood friend relationship where he's always protected her since they were kids, so there's no way he won't go to save her from Hellena Prison. Seriously though, it's a pretty cliche relationship but I don't know why, when I was a kid, I was just really fond of them haha.

Meeting Lavitz here for Dart is a blessing since he'll be able to help him get through all the soldiers, but I guess that's likewise for Lavitz. Still better for Dart though since he'll be constantly trying to protect Shana haha. Anyway, I always found it saddening that Lavitz wanted to protect his fellow Knights of Basil that were captured as well, and about to be fed to Fruegel's pet but in the end, they still ended up dying🥺 I didn't realise that Dart actually hadn't been back to Seles for 5 years! No wonder why the others in town took a while to realise it was him, I just thought they were all groggy after their injuries. I guess that's why they believed that if he was there, Seles might have been okay, but still though, one more Dart can't really go against an army lol. Anyway, playing with Lavitz is so nostalgic! Hearing Dart say Double Slash and Lavitz say Harpoon is just so crazy hahaha. I can't wait to get Rose etc~ I still suck at the Additions though lmao, every time I'm like, I'm to good at this, I fail hahahaha, and I'm still just doing Double Slash, I literally only need to press one button when it goes close to the square lol! Fruegel wasn't that hard of a boss at all! I actually really enjoyed being able to use my Addition skills more because the soldiers kept dying in one hit lol. Ohh yeah, Dart's first hometown (where he and his parents lived) was called Neet and was attacked by the Black Monster! I think it was pretty saddening that his family escaped, but his father decided to return to help others, and his mother followed after him, like, what about your child?! It must have hurt for Dart to see something similar happen to Seles though... I can't believe Dart went on a journey to find the Black Monster when he was 13 though, like dang! But I guess a kid like him who had to learn to survive by himself would be resilient enough by that age... Hmmmm, as I gathered, the Kingdom of Basil is at war with Imperial Sandora and the war is widespread over Serdio itself. Can Emperor Doel of Imperial Sandora control the Dragon enough that he thinks he can take over Albert's kingdom instead of keeping the truce?? Gotta love how conveniently that log we chopped allowed us to cross the river hahahaha. Lavitz is such a kind soul though. He doesn't even know these random people on the road, and they're even from Sandora but he just invites them to Bale and even his house because they have nowhere else to go. I guess his kindness is a reflection of the type of country Albert runs.

Lmao, I love how Dart and Lavitz are such bros that even Shana can't butt in🤣 It was pretty scary when Lavitz slipped on the rock and nearly fell off the waterfall though, I felt so nervous for him lol. So cute how the guys are so fond of each other already though lol. Not sure what exactly Shana's powers do, but it instantly decimated that snake when her life was in danger so....hmm. It's so sweet how respected Lavitz is that the artist girl in Bale painted a portrait of him, and Dart said it was too handsome hahaha. Omg! I feel so sorry for the NPC in the inn! His child and his grandchild died due to the war so he thinks there's no meaning to his life anymore... That's so saddening... The lady that has been waiting for her boyfriend to come back even after 10 years is so faithful, it's heartbreaking. It's so cool to see how much the people love Lavitz in Bale, I guess it's understandable though, not only is he a good boy and knight, his dad is also a revered knight, so he's probably doing well succeeding him. Not surprised Dart wanted to leave Shana here to protect her lol. I loved how she practically immediately told him her feelings about it and him, like wow, she's so bold to say she wants to stay beside him forever in front of the king and everyone lol. Albert is right though, with a dragon on their side, no place is really safe in Serdio anymore... Hmmmm Winglies used to rule at the top until the Dragon campaign where they fought against Emperor Diaz and the seven dragons, and it was then that humans acquired their freedom after their slavery by the Winglies? And it was then that the Black Monster appeared.. I think it's really cool of Dart to see that him chasing after the Black Monster all this time has been selfish of him, and it caused him to nearly lose his hometown again, so now he wants to join alongside Lavitz to end this war before it creates more people like him who have lost their homes. No wonder why Hoax sounds familiar huh, that's where the current line of defence has been pushed to, and it's most likely where they'll use the dragon! HAHAHA, why does Albert have a slide that goes back to the entrance of the castle in his bed chambers?! Not complaining though because that was pretty fun and cool lmao. LOL at Shana saying she's Dart's girlfriend and not Lavitz's when the mum misunderstood, even Dart didn't know she was hahahaha. Lmao at Dart saying he can cook aka he can cook a large piece of meat hahaha, is that how he survived by himself for 5 years?! Even Lavitz was like forget it, leave the cooking to his mum and Shana loll. The answers are all so hilarious, imagining Dart trying to practise with his sword in Lavitz's house is so cute loll, he'll destroy the place. It was even more funny when you choose the option to take a nap because Dart says every young lady knows that lack of sleep is bad for your skin, and Lavitz is just speechless at it hahahaha. Looking around the house, it honestly feels kinda lonely that Lavitz's mum lives in this big house by herself considering Lavitz is away most of the time. I've always enjoyed the rooftop scene, you get to see a nice view of Indels Castle and you can see that Lavitz's passion towards protecting his country stems from watching his father, but it's become his dream now too. This is similar to Dart, where his passion lies in protecting Shana because he's the only one that can do that right now, he might still consider her a baby sister for now, but we'll see how it all goes! I think it's really cute how in the end, Lavitz ended up spending the night and even took his mum's handmade jerky haha, he's a soft boy at heart. I mean, the country and the war is important, but who knows how many times he can bond with his mother, so I'm glad he decided to spend some proper time with her instead of just lunch. I find it funny how you can jump from Lavitz's house's rooftop to the stables hahaha, imagine doing that in real life!

Lmaoo at Dart, Lavitz and even Kaiser (the Eighth Knighthood leader taking care of Hoax) saying that as long as Shana's food is edible, it's good enough🤣 To be fair, when you're a knight or a wanderer like Dart, I doubt you'll have much complaints about food haha. Omgg so King Doel is actually Albert's uncle?! Since Doel is apparently Carlo/Albert's father's brother! I wonder why their relationship soured, was it because Doel wanted to be king instead? Lmao at the midwife asking if they came to talk to her because Dart and Shana wanted babies hahahaha. War is always a saddening thing though. When I think about the soldiers such as the one holding the amulet from his daughter believing that he can go back home to her, the people fortifying their houses to protect against the raid and everything, it's just so saddening to see these soldiers fall by enemy arrows and everything... Man, the fight against Kongol is so unforgiving lol! If you fail your addition, he counterattacks you! I missed it once and was like whoa! Otherwise, I always love Rose swooping down in her dragoon form and saving Dart from Kongol~ hmm, so the Dragoon Spirit (the stone Dart's father left behind) means that you "deserve" to rule Dragons and for him, it's the Red-Eye Dragon? Nice that it's clarified that Dragoons were the ones who led humans to victory in the Dragon campaign, the pictures just kinda showed humans riding on dragons so I wasn't sure haha. It was so cute how Dart piggy backed Shana and told her that even if she may not be as strong as Rose, she's good for other stuff and doesn't need to compare herself. Oooh so Winglies used Virages in the Dragon Campaign, this one was pretty weak though! Greham's story is a pretty common one, but I always find it terrible, mainly because people like him driven by jealousy and power in order to get stronger than their best friend that they essentially admire, but then kill them in that quest is just..sad. People like Lavitz's father Servi trusted him, but in the end because of their desire to be stronger, they sacrifice their friend and end up pretty much regretting it in their death. I'm not sure if Emperor Diaz from the Dragon Campaign is alive or whatever as he says, but it's nice that Greham ended up leading Lavitz to inherit the Jade Dragoon Spirit.

I remember Lohan! It's such a crazy city because of how huge it is, yet all the houses and stores are so tiny and in like a maze lol! No idea how Dabas (the antique seller that tells us we can get Dragoni plant to save Shana from dragon poison north of the nest or something) affords his gigantic store lol. Lmaoo at the man staring across the street at a lady thinking she's interested in him, but she's actually just staring at him because he reminds her of her dog hahahah. I love the rollercoaster kinda ride you do at Shirley's Shrine to get the numbers to go to the boss lol, it's pretty fun hahaha. I thought Drake the bandit was aiming for treasure here, but it seems that he was protecting Shirley all along! I feel bad that Shirley's gone now, but I guess this is how it should be, and at least the White Silver Dragoon Spirit is in good hands and will only be used to heal people. It's kinda cute how apparently Haschel and Dart journeyed together before! Now they've reunited in the Hero Competition! Anyway, I've always loved this tournament part because it's really cool to see how Dart himself fares against others without the party. On another note, I'm not sure why I love Lloyd since I've kinda forgotten his character, but to this day, I love the name Lloyd enough that if it wasn't weird, I would totally call my future kid Lloyd, and it's probably the only reason I would prefer a boy than a girl LOL. I think I always found it really cool how overwhelmingly strong he was compared to Dart probably. Lmao at Lavitz trying to drag Rose away so Dart could play games around the arena with Shana alone, but she punches him instead hahahha. Okay lmao, totally cannot do that obstacle course lolll. I'd rather do what's wrong with the room one, it's so easy after you do it a few times hahah, also helps if you cheat by taking a photo with your phone LOL. But otherwise, it's the same scene every time so it's pretty easy. The pink bird in the hat moving around is too hard with the pixels merging together imo lol! And the monkeys throwing balls at Dart is pretty hilarious hahahah.

Although I can understand why Dart is so adamant on continuing his journey looking for the Black Monster after the war, Lavitz is kinda right that maybe he should focus on the present instead of chasing after the past, otherwise he's going to lose his chance at happiness with Shana. Omgg, Albert offering up himself at Hellena Prison to protect the people of Bale from Imperial Sandora?? This is when Lavitz dies...isn't it?😭 Well, I obviously didn't farm enough to get Flower Storm for Lavitz and I honestly cbb, but I did Google to see it, and apparently when Lavitz does it, he says Rose Storm (because he likes roses the most apparently) and Albert says Blossom Storm because his favourite is cherry blossoms! The even cooler thing is that this is changed in their Dragoon forms! Lavitz's second magic skill is called Blossom Storm with cherry blossoms all around, and Albert's is Rose Storm so they kinda swap around in Dragoon form to show their love and camaraderie with each other, it's so cool! Honestly though, I nearly cried when Lavitz died. I feel like when I was a kid, I never really saw how cool, loyal and kind Lavitz was because the Additions were too fascinating lol, so now seeing how friendly he was, how considerate he was towards Shana's feelings for Dart, how he gave advice to Dart on what he should cherish most, and how we was always willing to give his life to his king and his country, it really broke my heart to see him die like that. Especially in Lloyd's hands, someone who we thought was an admirable swordsman turned out to be the guy who would kill Lavitz when they actually fought against each other. I'm not sure what kinda sword he has but it seemed really beam-y lol. And what is the Moon Gem that he needed from Albert's body? I think the pain really hit me when Lavitz entrusted everything to Dart, and then the Jade Dragoon Spirit flew out of him😭😭 Ohh, the reason why Lloyd could so easily pierce through Lavitz's Dragoon armour was because his sword was the Dragon Buster, a weapon from the old world made to kill Dragons! It's really nice of Haschel to have come along with them btw, especially since he's on a journey to find his daughter. Although I guess it's not much of a deterrence considering he's been looking for 20 years, but still. I guess he'll find her along the way... Hopefully. So, the Moon Gem was one of the magical artifacts scattered across the world made from the Winglies after their defeat, but only they can use them? It's been hidden in each crown heir every generation in fear of the powers of destruction it could bring when put in the wrong hands hmm, I'm kinda amazed they found a way to put it in the body like that though. I guess now that Albert's kingdom is "gone", he's got a reason to go along with us to end this war with the few people and Dragoons he has. I mean, if the Dragoons ended the Dragon Campaign, I'm sure they're better than an army anyway lol. It's kinda nice that the one who taught Albert his lance skills was Lavitz himself, so it's understandable that he would use the same moves. Anyway, onwards to the Black Castle where Emperor Doel resides! Straight to the end of the war hopefully!

Lmao at the guy registering to be a mercenary with Imperial Sandora trying to revoke it after his friend told him about the Dragon being defeated and Hellena Prison having fallen. Wow, I restarted because I accidentally sold something but omg when you say you want to register, the guy taking registrations advises you to not and even gives you money if you have money problems because he doesn't want you to risk your life! He's so nice... Aww the people at the inn! When the lady begged for us to stay and treat it like charity, I felt like I couldn't be stingy lol, it's only 20G anyway. LOL at the guy trying to con people for their money by claiming he killed Feyrbrand (Jade Dragon) and then he gets arrested hahahah. The variety of researchers in the Black Castle are hilarious, especially Mr Magi who turned himself into "Cerberus" but really turned into a dog lol. But the research of Dragons and magic? This sounds suspicious and bad... The battle against Kongol was so annoying! His skills take so long lol! Defeating Doel felt like...bringing someone back to their sanity? I wonder why he had to kill Albert's father back then, was it really just to be king? Anyway, it's not nice to be happy about someone's death, but honestly, with Emperor Doel's death, the 20 year war finally ends... But our journey has not, because as Dart said, this journey began because people captured Shana, and after that too many things have happened to just go home and live peacefully, we need to see what Lloyd wants and whether Emperor Diaz really is alive.

Anyway, that's the end of chapter 1! Kinda crazy that it was only one chapter tbh, I felt like I finished a story but really, it's just the beginning. So many things happened... Especially Lavitz's death. Anyway, I'm hyped to continue the journey! Btw the battle against Emperor Doel was pretty hard, he deals so much damage lol! But then again, I'm always cheap with my healing potions hahaha. Didn't think he'd be a Dragoon though, but I guess it was to be expected lol. Yay for everyone having a Dragoon Spirit now though lol. Honestly though, I really enjoy the variety of battles and how engaging the story and characters are. I really like how there are battles that are more as a symbolism than an actual battle such as Shirley’s where you’re supposed to give her the correct answers rather than defeating her, I think it really makes you think about everyone’s motivations and how they deal with it all in order to continue on their path. I just love it. The towns are also so different and fun! Like, Lohan is just a bumble of shops and everything, gotta love the guy that shouts at you for running around the rooftop lol, and Bale is just so Albert and Lavitz centred that it has such a warm feeling when you’re there. Tournaments are always my thing, so I’m glad this game has it too haha~ I can’t wait to see the rest!

#the legend of dragoon #legend of dragoon