#like and they wouldn’t have to go to foxfire only to be kicked out and wil have more time to adjust to the fact they don’t have an ability

[lezabeththetheodoraimposter]

“no one can know I can tell what people will manifest as!!” why not? ability detecting is basically torture. u could save sooo many elves so much wasted time. and just how do u think the neverseen will use this against u?? it’s literally useless to them. but it is useful to the elves. like SUPER useful. people can spend their whole lives training w their abilities before they even manifest. like omg keefe cmon

edit (I put this in a reblog but don’t feel like reexplaining it so I’m putting it here)

I get what ur saying about Keefe not wanting the council to exploit him and that having all those ppl go to him but I really think that’s the only good reason which is still a very good one bc it’s about what HE wants (but also think of terik who did it for a bit then stopped but occasionally does it for some people) tbh the only good reasons are Keefe just not wanting to and that’s fair. but honestly I’m talking about the use of the ability and how in the grand scheme and when Keefe is in a better mental place that it can be SOOOOOO useful and like when he’s past all this and is happy and healthy then I would say he should tell ppl about it even if he doesn’t open up to “readings”

with a ability training thing that was one of my main points (tho I did put it in the tags and those go away when u reblog 😒) but ability training is literally TORTURE. like they put these like 11 year old kids in burning hot rooms for hours hoping to trigger a froster… like that’s soooo unethical idk what the councils reasoning for that is. it’s literal child abuse and I’m not even kidding. its brushed off but omg wtf. and imagine going through all that only to discover you were talentless and all that was for nothing. like that would suck

and for the talentless. keefe not wanting to tell ppl they are talentless is a very valid and good reason, but aside from that I think his talent would be more helpful. bc it would give talentless ppl more time to grow up and adjust to the predugist (hate bc I can’t spell 😭) against the talentless. bc even though they would have to deal w it from birth, isn’t that better than living a normal life w friends then BAM one day ur talentless and all of ur friends stop hanging out w u. like ur WHOLE world would be flipped and it’s better to give the talentless more time to adjust to it imo.

also the schooling thing u meantioned is another reason knowing ur talentless form the start would be helpful. BECAUSE THE TALENTLESS ARE PULLED OUT IF FOXFIRE WHICH IS SOOOOO MESSED UPP. like they go to foxfire for like 3 years then the council is like “haha no ability? sucks for u lol! go off to a different school where u know no one and make different friends yk just forget ur whole life up to now haha” like WTF. (honestly the bigger problem here is how the talentless are treated but we already know that has to change so this is about how keefe can help).

also it could give “bad match” couples where one of them is talentless (like Kesler and juline) comfort to know their kid isn’t talentless. And if their kid is talentless then it saves them years from worrying over it and the suspense of it all. Also I just think knowing ur ability from childhood and being able to train for it before u even manifested would be soooo helpful

but in the end of the day yeah, keefe just not wanting to is the biggest thing. and I might be remembering incorrectly bc I haven’t read the book in forever but I remember something about keefe thinking he accidentally triggered the triplets abilities which would be more problematic but idk if I’m remembering it wrong. but I do think like years after kotlc ends (or when ever he feels ready) keefe should defo start using his ability for good. like it doesn’t have to be everybody. it can just be kids of q talentless parent(s) to help their parents out yk bc if two telepaths have a kid then it’s obvi going to be a telepath u don’t need keefe to tell u that

also the main point of the pre-editted post was about how he doesn’t want the NEVERSEEN to know bc he thinks they might be able to use it against his friends. like how. literally how? what use is it going to do them.

#bro it’s ur not special 🙄🙄 #but seriously think of how much it could help people #I mean yeah they could tell who would be talentless then but that means the talentless won’t have to go through ability detecting for nothi #like and they wouldn’t have to go to foxfire only to be kicked out and wil have more time to adjust to the fact they don’t have an ability #it could also save a lot of “bad match” couples years of stress over if their kids will develop #keefe sencen #kotlc fandom #kotlc

[ga-yuu]

~Kurama~Main Story Chapter 25~Part 1

I really feel like this game was suppose to be a yaoi but in the end they changed it!

Warning!! Kurama is too cute from here onwards!!!

Chapter 24

*

*

*

--------Part 1-------

Kurama: “I suppose, when you know someone for a long time, you can sense him acting different.”

(Kurama...?)

Before long, the heat smoldering in the depths of Kurama’s eyes made my heart beat wildly.

His face slowly approaches------

Kurama: “Yoshino, what the hell did you do in front of that man?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1. Nothing special that I can think of (+4/+4)

2. I don’t remember.

3. You’re overthinking.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yoshino: “:....Nothing special that I can think of.”

Kurama: “You have a habit of playing with men without being aware of it. I don’t trust you.”

I look away, as Kurama stares at me suspiciously.

(Nn....)

Kurama: “Tch, whatever.”

After a small click of his tongue, Kurama turned again to Yoritomo-sama and Kagetoki-san.

Kurama: “Anyway, let me give you my opinion on the war against the Court.”

(I can’t believe Kurama has an opinion on human warfare....)

Yoritomo: “I’m all ears.”

We all gulped and listened to Kurama’s opinion.

And an hour or so later, our meeting comes to an end....

Kagetoki: “Then the plan is that way. I’ll get on with the preparations.”

Yoritomo: “I’ll leave that to you. Yoshino. I know you’re tired but you’re going to have to work some more.”

Yoshino: “Yes. I’m ready. I know I attacked some of the Shogunate and the Rebels soldiers...I’m ready to make up for that.”

Kagetoki: “No one has died. It’s a waste of time to think of imaginary atonements.”

Yoritomo: “The soldiers who witnessed it knew that you were shouting at them not to come closer. They might have been frightened, but that will eventually go away when they see you in your usual self. We just have to wait patiently.”

(Kagetoki-san, Yoritomo-sama....)

Kurama: “It’s not your fault if you hurt someone. Rather, I’m amazed you were able to endure that horrible spell.”

Yoshino: “When I was at my limit, Kurama came to me. That’s why.”

Kurama: “.......”

Our gazes intertwined and I looked away, feeling embarrassed.

Kurama: “Hey, why are you looking away?”

Yoshino: “Mm...nothing....”

(Don’t ask me that...)

Kagetoki: “The air around them feels warm, right?”

Yoritomo: “Yeah. I was surprised when Kurama asked me to help him. So this was the reason.”

(Don’t tell me they already know!?)

Kurama: “What are you talking about?”

Yoritomo: “We are talking about your illicit love affair with our Yoshino.”

Kurama: “Oh that, there’s nothing illicit about it. It’s called ‘Mutual love’. I just discovered earlier today.”

Yoshino(blushing): “Wait!!!”

(We were supposed to be talking about something serious, but how did we end up talking this!?)

....And after telling our story, we each prepared for the final battle.

..................

Meanwhile--------

At the main camp of the Imperial Court, Yasuchika, sitting facing Ibuki and Akihito.

Yasuchika: “....This was not supposed to happen.”

Ibuki: “You can’t deny that it happened. Is there something wrong?”

Yasuchika: “You’ve seen it. It was perfect. It’s not something that can be solved by the willpower alone. To read the wavelengths of human is perfectly impossible even for Tamamo, who is skilled in the art of conjuring.”

Akihito: “Maybe Kurama or Yoshino underwent a big change.”

------Part 2-------

Akihito: “Maybe Kurama or Yoshino underwent a big change.”

Ibuki: “Big change, huh? Anyway, the only thing left to do would be a night raid.”

Ibuki shrugs uninterestingly.

Ibuki: “I don’t think he’s got much left in his tank. We should not wait for him to recover, we should fold him up. Also, the little fox is useless when she’s exhausted. The trouble is, they know what we’re going to do anyway.”

As if he had expected Ibuki’s answer, Akihito smiled softly.

Akihito: “Well then, we have to try harder, even though it’s a muddy way.”

Yasuchika: “......................”

................

(The time has finally come.)

Kurama: “I knew you’d be waiting for me anyway.”

Ibuki: “It’s a pleasure to live up to your expectations. Yoshino, nice to see you too.”

Yoshino: “......Ibuki.”

While the Shogunate intercepted the night raids of the Imperial Court’s soldiers.

Kurama and I were out of the party and were approaching the main camp of the Imperial Court.

(To be honest, I still shudder at the thought of fighting Ibuki. But...)

(We can’t lose for the sake of everyone who’s fighting right now!)

Ibuki: “You’re surprisingly a great woman for not falling in despair at my tricks, you know? Apparently, I lost our game.”

Yoshino: “That’s because I had Kurama help me.”

Ibuki: “I’m jealous of that.”

After muttering in a tone of voice that could be a joke or serious, Ibuki pulls out the greatsword on his back.

Ibuki: “Are we playing the same game again? Didn’t you two learn that your duo can’t beat me at all?”

Kurama: “You talk a lot. Why don’t you think it's because of that pride that Yoshino and I are standing here now?”

Ibuki: “I always enjoy playing seriously. No matter what the consequences.”

(It’s coming!)

Kurama’s fan splits the wind and Ibuki stabs the tip of his swords into the ground at the same time.

There was a crack in the ground and Kurama lifted me up softly and flew away.

Ibuki: “Thanks for the breeze.”

As Ibuki narrowly avoids the attack, Kurama stays in the air and creates countless blades of wind again.

Ibuki: “I knew it. You’re powerless.”

With those words, the blue light of thunderbolt approaches us-------

Kurama: “Yoshino.”

Yoshino: “Yes!”

(Lend me the power of the nine-tail fox.)

As soon as Kurama flapped his wings and deflected the light from its path, I held up my hand like he told me to.

Ibuki: “And? What are you doing there?”

(Nn....)

The golden dew rises at a slower rate than before.

(I’m worn out from using too many different powers.)

A second flash of light comes from Ibuki’s fingertips as he grips his sword.

Kurama struck it back with a spell-cast iron fan, but----

In no time at all, a third shot ripped through the pale night.

Ibuki: “You can’t start anything if keep preventing it.”

Tamamo: “That’s why I’m here.”

Ibuki: “.......!”

Without a sound, Tamamo appears behind Ibuki and thrusts a silver ornamental sword at his back.

(Yayy....?)

Tamamo: “Sand....”

A small shield of sand blocked the cut that was meant to pierce his back.

 Kurama: “Get away!”

--------Part 3--------

Kurama: “Get away!”

Ibuki appears again, just barely slashing Tamamo, who jumped backward on his hind legs.

Tamamo: “I used to be good at disguising signs and mirages.”

Ibuki: “It’s still hard to tell, but if you know it’s coming, you can predict it. With Yoshino’s help, you restored some of your power back. I thought this would be a perfect time destroy both Kurama and Yoshino.”

(I can’t believe you’ve read that much....)

Kurama: “Don’t hold back unless you want to fall prey to Ibuki’s attacks.”

Tamamo: “My my.”

Tamamo and Kurama simultaneously create a foxfire and a blade of wind to pin Ibuki down.

Ibuki: “Well well, it’s getting exciting, isn’t it?”

A breathless exchange of slashes and spells.

(Kurama’s guidance is all I can manage to take away from the spell.....)

Ibuki: “How long can the stalemate last?”

Tamamo: “The more Yoshino takes away your power, the more power I have. In that sense, the balance will be broken sooner or later, won’t it?”

Ibuki: “Can Yoshino and Kurama even hold it that long? I think not.”

Yoshitsune: “----I disagree with that.”

Ibuki: “!!”

A figure gallops in on a horse, kicks the back of the horse vigorously, and rushes at Ibuki with the force of his landing.

(Yoshitsune-sama!)

Before I knew it, the sword had been pulled out and was glittering in the moonlight, creating a wind blade.

Yoshitsune: “Kurama!”

Kurama: “Don’t rush. I don’t need to be told what to do.”

As he says this, Kurama is already waving his iron fan.

Ibuki: “....................”

Annoyed, Ibuki jumped back and avoided the wind blade from the both of them.

He was distracted by a foxfire which he had just avoided, and a transparent vortex tore Ibuki’s kimono thinly.

(Wow! We did it without any meetings!)

Kurama: “Faster than I expected, Yoshitsune.”

Yoshitsune: “That’s why I came quickly.”

Ibuki asks suspiciously keeping his distance.

Ibuki: “Have you been in touch with Yoshitsune tonight? The main body of the Rebel army must pass close to the Imperial Court from here. It must be difficult to even get messengers back and forth.”

Yoshitsune: “I didn’t get any message from Kurama asking for me. I’m only here on my own because I can’t move my troops behind the Court’s eyes.”

Yoshitsune-sama points his sword at Ibuki while talking with an expressionless face.

Ibuki: “So why did you come here?”

Yoshitsune: “I felt like Kurama was hurt.”

Kurama: “.................”

Yoshitsune takes one look at Kurama and see how badly he is hurt.

The amethyst eyes turned to Ibuki with a murderous glint.

Yoshitsune: “At last we finally meet, Shuten Doji. It seems you have taken care of my friend really well.”

Ibuki: “Friend?”

Tamamo: “You underestimated Kurama, Ibuki. Did you think he wouldn’t have friends? While you’ve been treating him like a baby, Kurama has been going his own way.”

(I was surprised when the name of Yoshitsune-sama came up in Kurama’s plan...)

Memories of our conversations in the main camp of the Shogunate were revived.

--------FLASHBACK---------

Kurama: “Even if I don’t call him, Yoshitsune will come to me. His soul is closer to that of a demon. He’ll surely be able to trace the familiar traces of my magic.”

Kagetoki: “What if he doesn’t?”

Kurama: “I’ll do the opposite.”

------FLASHBACK ENDS------

 (It happened exactly how Kurama told us.)

Without looking at Yoshitsune-sama, Kurama opens his mouth.

Kurama: “Do you know what I’m thinking now, Yoshitsune?”

Part 2

#ikemen series #ikemen genjiden #ikemen mc #ikemen genjiden kurama #main story translations #otome #cybird #cybird ikemen #cybird otome

[crimson-mage-02]

Fallen Raven

Summary: One night, Damian had begun having nightmares of his beloved dying and didn’t want it to become true as he desperately wanted to prevent it from happening.

@eleanore-delphinium @chromium7sky @ravenfan1242 @whereflowersbloom @srose-foxfire here you all go! 

He was in a dark and abandoned building with cloth blowing in the wind slowly. He went through spider web and felt the cold wind against his face. He was looking around to see if his teammates and Raven were there in the room. But he could not find them in the dark.

He nearly trapped over and looked down to see his friend, Conner on the floor injured. He bent down to aid him only to see his clothes were all ripped and stained with blood. He looked around and saw his brother, Starfire, and everyone in the team all injured. No sign of Raven anywhere which made himself worried and concerned about her safety.

“Raven! Where are you?! Rachel!” Damian called out to her.

“You’re too late, Damian.” Deathstroke’s voice echoed through the room as the young hero unsheathe his sword and looked for him.

“Where are you Slade? Come out you coward!” Damian growled as he turned around and saw him holding onto Raven with her clothes ripped, while seeing red symbols all over her body including on her forehead. He also saw her short hair had grown longer.

“You are too late to save her, Damian. Oh, and Happy Birthday.” Slade cackled as he let go of Raven with Damian dropping his sword and ran to try and catch her, but Slade held him back, making him watch her fall down to her own demise.

“NO!”

(~)

“NO!” Damian jolted from his sleep and sat up with cold sweat and looked around his room, seeing it was only a dream. He panted heavily and ran his hand through his hair and heard the doors opening. He saw Raven coming in a hurry, looked concerned about him. “I am alright, Rachel. It is just a dream.”

“More like a nightmare. I can tell.” Raven shock her head, seeing it wasn’t the case.

“Don’t try and read my mind, Rachel.” Damian sighed sharply as he turned to the side and took the covers off of him. His back was facing her and he sighed heavily.

“I wasn’t reading your mind. I do not need to read your mind. I can see that you are distressed.” Raven pointed out, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Just try and relax and go to sleep. We can do our meditation exercise tomorrow during training.” She left him alone in his room and went back into hers across the hall. She could’ve sworn he looked terrified when he first saw her when she came into his room before hearing him shouting out.

Damian sighed and went back to sleep. He laid his head back and tried to go back to sleep. Trying to forget it was all a dream. Maybe tomorrow it will not continue to make him go off guard. He saw all of his teammates in a bad shape, beaten up by Slade. He clenched his fists and narrowed his eyes as he buried his face in his pillow, he remembered the state Raven was in his dream. But to him, it felt real to him.

(~)

In the morning, Damian walked along the hallway and saw Jaime was on the phone talking to someone with a bright smile. He sent him a thumbs up with a grin. “Y-Yeah, sure, I’ll be there! Heck yeah! I don’t want to miss it. See you at 6.”

“Is it your girlfriend of yours?” Damian asked with a smirk.

“Oh, uh, we haven’t made it official yet, but I uh, am taking her to see a movie.” Jaime rubbed his neck nervously with a chuckle. “As well as taking her for some pizza.”

“Sounds romantic.” Damian smiled at his friend.

“Oh, come on, how about you and Raven?” Jaime asked him, going into the kitchen to eat breakfast with Damian getting some tea out for himself and his friend was getting some eggs and toast ready.

“Me and Raven are nothing but friends.” Damian replied simply, composing himself.

“Hmm, I am not convinced by that, Damian. You and Raven seemed very much like a couple. I know you guys want to keep it secret until the time comes.” Jaime said with a smile.

“How long have you known?” Damian asked him.

“Not long. I mean, it was pretty much obvious.” Jaime replied, giving him his toast with egg and butter. “I knew when you started to her to take her to Gotham.”

Damian grumbled underneath his breath and looked away from Jaime who smirked. He was only taking her to Gotham because they were having their mission there and had to stay over the night while she was injured during a fight. He sighed, seeing he was now alone in the kitchen to make his breakfast.

Then he heard footsteps thinking it is Jamie. “Back on it, again are we?”

“Back on what again?” Damian gasped softly turning around to see Raven. In a shirt and a light lavender shorts and had her hair in a little ponytail. “Uh, apologises, I thought you were Jaime.”

“Oh, well, he left already and it’s just the two of us in the Tower now.” Raven said slowly going up next to him getting her own cup from the cupboard. “So, what’s your plans for today?”

“The usual, I train and train. Nothing else is planned.” Damian replied, drinking his tea.

“Hmm. You seemed disturbed about something from your ‘not dream’. Are you sure you are okay?” Raven asked with great concern.

“Yes, I am sure. There is nothing to worry about.” Damian assured her as he sat on the couch with her sitting beside him with her legs on his lap. He was used to sitting next to like this. He was uncomfortable at first and he secretly liked it. He looked over her, seeing her drinking her coffee with her eyes glancing into his. As if she was trying to figure out what is really bothering him from last night.

“You really want to know?” Damian sighed heavily, putting his cup on the table in front of them while holding her legs in his lap, making sure she doesn’t fall.

“Yes, we have been secretly going out for a while and I am worried that you hiding something from me.” Raven said putting her cup behind her on a small table. She turned back to see Damian, leaning back on the couch, covering his face.

Raven sat on his lap with his hands on her thighs and he looked up at her, feeling her hands caressing his face. “Damian… just tell me what happened and then we can try and solve it.”

Damian sighed and looked away from her for a moment then back into her eyes. “Alright. But I must warn you, you might not like it.”

After he had explained what he had seen in his dream, vision, or nightmare. She sat in deep silence with the young Wayne looking down at his clasped hands in front of him. “Did…that really happen in your dream?” Raven asked softly.

“Yes, all I ever saw was darkness, the whole Team injured with you being held by Slade with all those red markings all over you and on your forehead. I-I saw him letting you go, and you fell down the Tower.” Damian said softly, not looking at her.

“Well, that is just a dream, Damian, it might not happen. I am still here.” Raven said to him, putting her hand on his. “I won’t die unless I know you are going to be okay.”

“But a world without you in it, I don’t think I will ever live on.” Damian scoffed, looking away from her, but still held her hand in his.

“Damian… people come and go. Live the moment, you know.” Raven said, holding onto his hand tightly. “I want to enjoy every moment with you, while I’m still alive. It is not going to happen.”

Damian looked at her with a gentle smile and was about to lean in until Gar barged in. “Hello! Good morning!” He glared at him for interrupting their moment and Raven just calmly drank her tea.

“Oh, sorry, lovebirds, I am just excited. So, uh, what are you doing for the rest of the day?” Gar asked his teammates.

“Training.”

“Meditating.”

“Oh, uh, that’s great. I just uh, get some grocery then. Tara and Donna are out for shopping. Why aren’t you with them Raven?” Gar asked.

“Uh, well I insisted they can go on ahead while I do meditation and other things to care of.” Raven replied, finishing her tea. Damian and Raven thought they both were alone in the Tower. They would’ve had the whole Tower to themselves to have time for themselves.

“Anyways, I’ll get going, any requests?” Gar asked.

“Some more milk and some more bread. We also need toiletries.” Damian replied as he got up from the couch. “Raven, you need anything else?”

“Hmm, I’ll just send you a text Gar.” Raven replied as she stood from the couch and then put her cup in the sink.

“Alright, then. I’ll be getting them and uh, I’ll be back in a few hours. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” Gar smirked at the two. Damian sighed in annoyance and then went out of the kitchen but looked back at Raven who leaned on counter.

“Raven I do assure you, that dream will not happen. I promise.” Damian said, putting both of his hands on each side of counter where she was leaning. She nodded slowly with him kissing her lightly on the lips and pressed their foreheads together.

(~)

Starfire and Nightwing led the team onto their assignments in taking down criminals in Jump City. Jaime, Traci, Donna and Conner were with Starfire. Damian, Raven, Tara, Garfield, and Kid Flash were with Nightwing. Both separate teams were taking down some cult members to some secret organization.

Raven took down two cult members with Damian swinging his sword at them with Kid Flash, running through the field, hitting, and kicking them onto the ground with Tara trapping them with her boulders.

Garfield had hunted a few with Nightwing. “Alright, this should be it.” Gar went to Tara’s side who was standing with Raven.

“Kori said she had captured one with a symbol on his forehead. She wants to see you Raven.” Nightwing said to the young girl with Tara raising her eyebrow in suspicion.

“Why would a cult member want to see Raven? I don’t like this Rae.” Tara said, turning to her friend.

“Me either, Grayson. Can’t I go with her to see this…. Cult member?” Damian asked, narrowing his eyes.

“Sorry, Damian. But the cult member only ask for her.” Nightwing replied as he narrowed his eyes. “And only Raven. No one is to disturb them.” Damian scoffed softly as he crossed his arms. He wanted to stay by her side at all cost if something does happen to her.

On way back to the Tower, Raven went into the interrogation room with Starfire and Nightwing waiting with their cult member being seated. With cuffs on. “We’ll be right outside if you need us.” Nightwing said to her.

“And we’ll be checking on you soon. Just call us if you needed help, Raven.” Starfire smiled at her and then they both left her alone with the cult member. Kori and Dick stepped out of the room and saw Damian who was waiting outside for her.

“Damian, she’s going to be fine. I am sure of it. She’ll pull through.” Dick assured him, placing a hand on his shoulder.

“I know… it’s just I wanted to make sure she is fine.” Damian said to his brother, not wanting to tell him about his nightmare he had last night. Not wanting him to worry over him so much.

“Why don’t we all go to living room to eat up? To keep up our strength?” Kori suggested.

“That’s a great idea, come on.” Dick wrapped an arm around Damian and casually dragged him in the hallway with Kori smiling brightly at the sight of the two brothers fooling around in the hallway.

Raven was sitting on the chair, waiting patiently, staring at the cult member in front of her. He or she wasn’t saying anything for the past 10 minutes. She sighed softly and took off her hoodie with her medium length hair flowed down on her shoulders. She doesn’t know what to do in the meantime, but she could always try and read the cult member’s mind.

She concentrated on getting into the cult’s mind, but it was clouded by a thousand thoughts until she felt a sharp pain in her head. Then opened her eyes, seeing fire surrounding her. She coughed violently, there was no oxygen. She saw destruction in front of her, buildings broken down. Windows cracked and heard horrid screams from the people.

She stumbled back until she hit something. Hands were on her shoulders and she shuddered in fear, as she looked up seeing it was Slade. “Hello, Raven.”

She screamed in terror with her eyes glowing white with red symbols appearing all over her body as her hair started to grow with Slade throwing her on the ground with the cult members grabbing her as she shouted out.

“……Raven!” She opened her eyes seeing everyone in the room with Damian helping her up. She sat up, looking at everyone looking at her in concern.

“Whoa, you okay Raven? You look like you had seen a ghost.” Tara said with Donna and Traci nodding in agreement.

“Maybe you should take a few days to rest up.” Traci suggested with hands clasped together.

Raven looked back at the cult member and saw him all completely drained and was left in a catatonic state. She then looked at herself and looked for the markings she had seen in her vision. She sighed seeing it wasn’t glowing in front of them.

“Raven? Are you alright?” Kori asked her.

“Y-Yes, just a bit shaken up.” Raven nodded, not looking at her in the eye.

“Alright, Damian, take her to her room. Everyone else, get some rest while Dick and I handle this. We will talk about this in our tomorrow morning’s brief.” Kori said to everyone. Damian nodded and walked with Raven by his side. He watched every move she does, seemed moving towards the elevator slowly. He could tell she was shaken up by what she had seen.

Once they walked inside the elevator, Damian turned to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, only to see her all shaken up. She took a few steps back from him and then calmed down. “Sorry, Damian. I am…. Just…”

“I know. You had seen something in his mind.” Damian said. “What is it that you saw in his head? Let me see through your eyes.”

Raven looked over at him and then took off her hood. “I don’t want to get you in a catatonic state.”

“You won’t. Do you trust me, Raven?”

“But—”

“Do you trust me?” Damian asked again as he looked into her eyes determinedly. He was willing to try and help her overcome her fears and anything that scares her. She knew that he wouldn’t give up that easily to help her and the rest of the team.

“Alright, meet me in my room after you get changed.” Raven sighed in defeat as she stepped out of the elevator with Damian frowning in concern.

Later that night, Damian had changed into his normal short and pants. He sighed as he walked across the hall to Raven’s room. He knocked on the door three times. The door slid open to see Raven in a blue blouse with black leggings.

He went into her room slowly and sat down on the floor with her sitting in front of him. “You sure you want to do this?” Raven asked softly.

Damian didn’t say anything but just to grab her hands. She was trembling. Shaking in fear. He knew she was afraid to hurt him. He trusts her with all of his heart. He placed both of her hands each on his temple. She nodded and she closed her eyes and let him inside her head once again. Damian frowned when he opened his eyes seeing he was in a pit of darkness. He looked around until he saw the symbols in front of him then saw fire was surrounding him.

Damian gasped softly, hearing heavy footsteps and saw Slade in front of him. He charged at him with a single punch and then he opened his eyes, seeing Raven had let go of his temples and sat in front of him, not looking at him.

He panted softly. “Slade…. He’s…. He has the same symbol in his forehead.”

“Yes, I saw it as well. He is after me with those cult members.” Raven nodded.

“We must warn the others.” Damian said urgently as he stood up and looked down at her. “I-I don’t want to lose you. And it’s risky to let you go on missions with us.”

“What? But I want to help, Damian.” Raven argued, standing up, looking into his eyes desperately. She wanted to help and never felt like she is useless to anyone, especially Damian. He looked away from her and remembered his nightmare he had. He doesn’t want her to die not at all. He wanted her to live the life she’d deserve.

Early in the morning, Raven had woken up and was on the rooftop watching the sunrise. She stood up with her cloak covering her body with the wind blowing gently. She sighed softly and looked at her arms seeing more symbols were appearing and glowing. She narrowed her eyes and closed her eyes to pray that Slade won’t go after her.

She heard the door was opened and saw Damian beside him in his normal attire, watching the sunrise. He didn’t say a word and wanted to enjoy the sunrise with her. He looked away with a small blush as Raven felt his hand was intertwining with hers. She smiled a bit and held his hand tightly and cherished this moment with him as the sun shone brightly beyond the horizon.

The two went down to the lounge and saw Kori and Dick were already there. “Oh, you two are early. We are just going to wait for the others.” Kori smiled, greeting the two.

Raven and Damian both sat away from each other with Donna arriving to the lounge and had a conversation with Raven. Damian glanced to the side to see Raven smiling at the Amazonian next to her. Dick noticed the longing looks they had given each other and smiled. Damian glared at his brother who now knew of their relationship. He also knew he can keep a secret. For now.

After a few minutes, everyone else had arrived and started the brief. “Alright, as far as we now know is that Slade is out there hunting for cult members.”

“And he will be out there in the city, so whenever you are out there in the open. Make sure to keep your comm on at all times.” Dick said as he looked at Damian who had his arms crossed. “Damian, is there anything you would like to add?”

Damian looked at his brother, Kori and his teammates with Raven not looking at him. “Raven did have a vision of Slade. He is after her. Only her.”

Everyone all looked at Raven in concern as well as Kori and Dick. “Alright. Thank you for telling us. Well, I think it’s best if Raven stays here. Damian, would like to volunteer in looking out for her?” Kori asked him.

“Yes, I would like to do that.” Damian responded quickly.

“What? But I want to help, Kori. I want to be out there stopping him!” Raven exclaimed desperately at the two older leaders.

“Raven, if Slade is after you, he’ll mostly likely to kill you.” Dick reminded her. “If Slade is after you, then it might be possible your dad might.” Raven stayed quiet and then thought this through, thinking he could be right. Her father might come back to get her. Or worse after her family.

“Okay, while Raven and Damian stay here, all of us will be patrolling the city. Any other questions?” Kori asked. Everyone shook their heads as they moved on with their activities and training until nightfall.

All day, Raven was meditating to clam her nerves down on the rooftop with the wind gently blowing away. She opened her eyes seeing two birds flying up in the sky with the sun shining brightly. She smiled and wanted to enjoy the perfect sunny day, but she cannot help but think about the vision she had.

It was all frightening to her and as for Damian, he is extra worried and protective of her now that she is confined to the Tower at all times. But she liked the peace and quiet. She stood up on her feet and decided to go down to get something to eat, but on the way back inside, she saw Damian training with the holograms. He was doing kata and some hand to hand combat. It was precise and in perfect form. Also, noticed he was only training without his shirt.

He kicked one hologram while punching the other from his side. He panted heavily and then swiped it legs as it disappeared on the ground. Then he stood up tall and then turned to the console, seeing Raven was leaning on the wall.

“How long have you been standing there?” Damian asked.

“Not that long.” Raven replied with a smile and gave him a towel for him to use. “You have been training for two hours?”

“Yes, I must…. Stay focus on perfecting my fighting style.” Damian said, rubbing his face on his towel and then chucked in a small basket. He grabbed his water bottle and drank it. “What have you been doing?”

“Just mostly meditating.” Raven replied short as she walked past him, not looking at him in the eyes. She walked into the hallway with Damian watching her. He seemed to think that she might be planning on escaping. He won’t let that happen.

“Raven, what are you plans tonight?” Damian asked her as she stopped in her tracks.

“Nothing expect for reading and meditating.” Raven replied, turning to Damian who put his singlet on and walked towards her. “Why?”

“Just curious. How about while the others are on patrol, we should have dinner together?” Damian suggested to her.

“Sounds nice.” Raven smiled at him.

It was nearly nightfall and Raven was in Kori’s room, waiting as she got ready for her night patrol. “Raven I assure you. You will be safe here. You won’t be alone. You have Damian.”

“I know Kori, but all those cult members and Slade, they are dangerous.” Raven pointed out. Kori smiled, knowing she won’t give up and wanted to helped them. “I-I don’t want to lose you and the others.”

“Oh, Raven, you won’t lose us.” Kori hugged her young friend with a warm smile. “And remember Damian is always here if you need him.”

Raven nodded and walked out of her room, standing by her side. She and Damian had said their goodbyes to their family while they stood by the door, the entrance of the Tower. They both watched them going further away from their home until they were out of sight.

“So, what shall we eat for dinner? Perhaps some more soup and some bread?” Damian asked her.

Raven turned to him and thought over some of the other choice she could have. “Hmm, maybe some spicy food this time? The one Tara had cooked?”

“Oh? Okay then we are having curry tonight, then. Wise choice, beloved.” Damian smiled as he leaned down for a kiss. “Hmm… been a while we had some time alone.” He wrapped his arms around her. Raven chuckled and hugged him tightly. She laughed feeling him peppering kisses on her cheek.

“Come on, you get freshen up and I’ll get dinner ready.” Damian smiled before going for another kiss on the lips and he kissed her on the back of her hand. He walked back inside to prepare dinner while Raven gets freshened up.

Damian watched Raven going up to her room and he got started preparing the dinner table with two plates and some cutleries. He also had placed Raven’s favourite flowers in the centre and placed candles in the middle. He smiled, seeing his plans are all coming together. He had put the curry rice on their plates and had made their drinks and set them on the table. He was all ready to wait for her.

In Raven’s room, she was fixing herself until she heard voices calling out to her. She looked around in her room, only to see no one. She sighed and rubbed her eyes tiredly. Raven left her room to eat dinner with Damian. Titus barked when she was going down the stairs. She made a turn seeing candles and flowers being set on the table with their dinner being served.

“Oh, Damian, this looks amazing.” Raven smiled with Damian holding her hand gently in his.

“I wanted to surprise you. After all, it has been a long time we have been alone.” Damian smiled at her and took her at the dining table to eat. “Are you alright?” You look pale.”

“It’s nothing.” Raven replied quickly as she pulled down her sleeve to hid the marking on her wrist from him.

“Are you sure, I can brew in some tea to calm your nerves.” Damian offered, going straight to the kitchen to get her tea. Raven smiled and then sat down to eat the curry. She ate a few bites with Damian giving her tea.

“Thanks.” Raven smiled at him and then glanced at him seeing him looking at his phone. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s a warning. Cameras has alerted us there is an intruder.” Damian replied, not taking off his eyes from his phone. “Stay here and I’ll check who is trying to break in.”

“But….”

“Stay here.” Damian sternly demanded her. “I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

Raven stayed silent and stayed put as she was asked. She waited for Damian in the dining room, eating her dinner with Titus sleeping on the floor peacefully. She heard talking from Damian computer room. She wondered what was that all about. It sounded so serious.

She placed her empty plate in the sink as well as her cup. She turned to the table, seeing he hasn’t finished eating his meal. She walked towards the computer room and then heard Nightwing’s voice. “There are too many of them searching for Raven. We are trying to lure them away from the Tower as far as possible. Do not let her go anywhere near Slade.”

“Alright, I’ll make sure she does stay here.” Damian nodded as he got up and ended the call. He was holding a purple and red gem necklace in his hand and had planned to give it to Raven as a gift. He walked out to only see one candle lighting up. He saw one plate was in the sink. Titus whined as he heard him scratching the door. Damian realised she had went out to fight against Slade!

He ran to get changed into his hero attire and hurried on his motorcycle trying to call the entire team. But no one was available. He growled in frustration as he knew Raven was always stubborn. He drove fast to where Raven was. She was in a Tower where the other Titans were.

(~)

Starfire fell down on the ground as she was being thrown by Slade who was holding Conner who was punching him on the stomach, but he didn’t flinch. Slade used his body to hit Donna and Tara with Garfield catching them in his arms as a gorilla. Jaime was flying towards him with Kid Flash running towards him trying to knock him down, but Slade used his arm to hit him as he stumbled on the floor and nearly fell down the Tower.

Nightwing was already beaten up with demons and cult members were crawling to hold them and restrained them from attacking Slade. “Now I am going to ask for one last time, bring Raven to me and then I will let you go.”

“We are not going let you harm her, Slade!” Tara gritted her teeth in anger as he kicked her in the face.

“I am not talking to you. I am talking to lovely lady here.” Slade said, pointing his sword at Starfire’s chin, making her to look up at her.

“You are not going get to Raven.” Starfire glared at him. Slade narrowed his eyes down at her and then walked away from her. He looked down at Nightwing who was holding his arm, that was twisted. He grabbed his broken his arm and pulled him up with him screaming in agony. “NO! Don’t touch him!”

“Oh, he’ll be fine.” Slade assured her as he got his sword back in his sheath. His hand was going straight at his eye until he heard debris were going down. He threw Nightwing to the side as he moved out fo the side seeing Raven flying above them.

“Raven? Get out of here!” Donna cried out to her.

“Foolish girl.” Slade taunted as he ordered his cult to capture her while he handles the Titans until he was kicked by Robin in the face, he had just arrived in time to aid his friends.

Damian looked up at Raven who was fighting off against the cult but got her cloak ripped and was pinned down on the upper level. He gritted his teeth and growled trying to get to her but Slade had pinned him on the ground and punched him on the face repeated in anger, not having bruises and blood all over his face with his eye swollen a bit until he punched back at Slade and got him off of him.

Conner came to his side and got him away from Slade. “We can handle Slade, you help Raven.”

Damian nodded and used his grappling hook to get him higher to get to Raven. He used his smoke pellets and thrown them down on the ground with the cult members coughing and he swung to get Raven up higher on another level.

He turned to her seeing more symbols on her arms, body and on her legs. He growled in annoyance. “I told you not to go after Slade!”

“And I told you I want to help!” Raven argued. “I can’t stand by and watch my friends and you get hurt.”

Damian sighed softly knowing she is way too stubborn to listen. “Alright but stay close to me.” Raven nodded and stood up with his help and then they heard growling from the cult. She used her powers to bring down the debris down with her eyes glowing brightly. Behind her, Damian drew his sword and started swinging it at the cult.

Meanwhile, Slade was fighting off against the Titans. Kid Flash created a tornado to trap him inside from fighting against them with Terra trapping him with boulders. The tornado disappeared with Slade being trapped inside.

Robin had caught all of the cult members with Raven and Jaime. Conner had then tied up in Donna’s lasso. “That’s all of them.” Conner said to the group.

As they had captured the cult, Slade was the only one they all needed to capture. Nightwing had pulled out his tracking device. “He’s still close. We can still get him.”

“Great. I wanna pound him to the ground after what he had done to us, well, minus Donna, Conner and Kid.” Jaime said.

“So, where is he now?” Donna asked with Tara standing by Raven’s side who saw her markings were glowing. She sent her a worried expression while seeing Damian was standing by her side protectively. Slade had managed to escape from them during the fight.

“I suppose we can be in groups. To be prepared to take him down.” Starfire said to the team and Nightwing.

“That could work.” Connor agreed.

“Alright, Jaime, Gar, Tara and Donna. You are with me.” Starfire said, looking at her team.

“And I’ll be with Kid, Connor, Damian and Raven.” Nightwing said as they all moved out to find Slade.

(~)

Slade was waiting on a Tower while sharpening his swords and saw Kid Flash was running towards him. He chuckled dryly as he looked to the side and saw Tara and Beast Boy were on a boulder coming towards to his position.

He jumped down to the lower level while Kid Flash came running faster to knock down until he threw a bottle of liquid as he slipped on the ground and he flipped over and held on a railing above him and flipped over to stand on it. He looked over at Connor who stood far from him.

He flew up to him and punched him in the face until he had held on his hand and slammed him on the metal pole. Damian got his sword out and swung at him while Raven was throwing a few metal pipes at him. Slade luckily moved away and tried to find another way to get to Raven.

Damian swung his swung his sword in his hands. He desperately want to protect Raven and didn’t want his dream to become a reality. He fought against Slade with Connor who flew back up again while Kid ran from the sides to punch or knock him over. Kid rolled and then kicked him on the face with Connor catching him and flew up, throwing him up in the air with Nightwing pulling an arm back and punched him in the stomach.

Down below, Raven handled the cult members, trapping them in her own cage while Damian ran towards Slade with his sword nearly slicing his head off. He caught the blade in his bloody hands and head-butted him. Damian groaned painfully and Slade punched him repeatedly on the stomach, pinning him on the wall and dug his two onto his shoulders.

He cried out in pain while hearing Raven calling out to him. “Looks like your lovely woman is next.”

“Don’t you dare touch her!” Damian snarled at him.

Slade didn’t listen and still prepared himself to get to Raven while Connor flew to her side with Kid Flash and then Donna came in just in time with Tara as she threw in rocks with her. Slade dodged all of the rocks that were being thrown at him, catching Jaime in his hand, and slammed him onto the ground while punching Garfield in his bear form, knocking him unconscious. Starfire came shooting her bolts at him while he deflected the bolts and one bounced on his blade and came flying back at Starfire, injuring her arm and fell down in Nightwing’s arms.

Damian gritted his teeth seeing Slade was getting closer to Raven and all of his teammates were all injured and cannot fight. “Nightwing! Get these bloody knives out of my shoulders!”

Raven glared at Slade and raised her arms up, putting up a shield around her but Slade managed to shatter it. She gasped softly when he grabbed on to her cloak, ripping it from her. Revealing symbols appeared on her arms and body, glowing brightly. “Your father awaits your return, Raven.”

“NO!” Raven tried to fight back as he grabbed her arm while seeing a symbol appearing on her forehead. She swatted his arm away, shooting her orbs at him while he hid behind the pillar away from her.

She quickly covered herself from letting anyone see her glowing markings. She saw Slade was running towards her and had swung his sword at her. She moved away from him and stumbled near the edge of the floor. Nearly falling down.

Nightwing successfully got the knives out of Damian. He gritted in pain while seeing blood dripping down on the floor. His older brother charged at Slade, saving Raven from Slade but he kicked him on the face and grabbed his arm, throwing him into Damian.

He turned to Raven and slapped her across the face seeing more symbols on her back. She gritted her teeth and tried using her powers, but he held on to her wrist tightly as her eyes widened, seeing her father had given him powers to drain her dry. She screamed in agony while Starfire, Tara and Donna trying to reach her until Jaime and Garfield heard bombs ticking all over the pillars.

“Guys! No!” Gar shouted out to the girls as he transformed into a gorilla and grabbed Tara’s hand, taking her up on the upper floor with Damian running to get Raven to safety. He grabbed his grappling hook, but he was stopped by Slade once more.

He had enough with him and punched him hard on the face, knocking his teeth out. He snarled at him and punched him back, kneed him on the stomach. “You won’t be able to save her, Damian. Such a pity.” Slade chuckled as he looked back at Raven who was weakened and slowly got up with debris around her, hearing cracks coming from the floor.

“Since this place is crumbling to bits, there is no reason for me to stay here.” Slade smirked evilly as he walked away from Damian as he started running towards her. “Oh, and happy birthday, Damian.”

Raven fell down from the crumbling floor, but her hand was tied up to Damian’s grappling hook while he held onto it as more debris fell down on them. She gasped softly while seeing more cult members attacking her family and one was about to strike him on the back. “Damian!”

She lifted her arm and blasted the cult, burning its face while Damian was losing his grip and looked to the side seeing another was throwing a knife at the rope, cutting it with a weakened Raven, falling down to her death. “NO! Rachel!” He dove right in to save her as she fell down.

That was the last time she had seen was Damian in his civilian clothes, the last hero of Jump City she has seen was Robin, falling in to saving her determinedly while seeing the rest of her family were all getting out of the debris while trying to save her.

Her tears were forming in the corner of her eyes with her long black hair flowing in her sight. Damian was shouting out to her while grabbing another grappling hook. The rope was coming out, reaching out to her as she was reaching out to him while falling down the Tower, hearing her family calling out to them.

Everything felt like it slowing time around her. She looked at the rope as it caught up to her and was wrapped around her waist. Her tears were falling out of her eyes. She gritted her teeth, shaking in fear as she closed her eyes.

Damian felt Jaime’s hand holding onto him and held on the grappling hook and saw his love was caught but heard a loud thud that echoed from inside the tower. Raven’s head hit the ground before she could be pulled back up.

Both boys gasped in horror while Damian hooked the rope onto the metal bar above him and let go of Jaime’s hand. He landed next to Raven who was still attached to the rope. He breathed in and out slowly but unsteady. He took off his mask with his eyes looking over her worriedly. He held her in his arms, seeing she was not moving. “Rachel?”

He sat back on the ground with her in his arms securely, cradling her in his arms. He tried to find a pulse and his hand was shaking. “Rachel, please. Wake up. Rach—Rachel?” Damian called out to her, shaking her body a little, after seeing blood coming out of her mouth. “No…No!” Damian cried out while holding her closely to him.

The Titans all gathered around seeing Damian holding Raven in his arms, crying out her name over and over. “Please don’t leave me.” He laid his head on her neck while holding her closely with Starfire being comforted by Nightwing.

Garfield and Tara hugged each other tightly with tears rolling down. Jaime looked away from the sight of Raven’s body while Donna felt Connor’s hand on her shoulder, squeezing it tightly. They all heard the cries from Damian with the moon was shining on them from the broken ceiling of the tower.

2 years Later

After the death of Raven, Damian had given into the darkness. He had lost the woman he had loved with all of his heart. He laid himself down on his bed in his dark room. He covered his face with his arm, not wanting to open them.

Whenever he opens them, he only see Raven in his line of sight. He can see everything, her face, her smile. He can still hear her laughter ringing in his ears. He gritted his teeth in anger, wanting to block the sound of her voice.

“Uh, Damian?” Garfield knocked on the door.

“Get the hell away from my room, Logan. I do not want to deal with you right now.” Damian spatted, putting a pillow on his head.

“Look, I know how exactly you feel. In that other timelines, I felt as helpless and sad when Tara had died, but it takes greater strength to get up on your feet. I am sure R-she wanted you to do.” Garfield said, leaning his head on the door. “Look, man. You haven’t been to her funeral 6 months ago.”

He didn’t hear him answer or him talking. So he opened the door only to smell the scent of alcohol in his room. Seeing the bottles were only half empty. “When was the last time you cleaned up, dude?” Gar groaned in disgust.

“Just get out of here.” Damian said in annoyance.

“No.”

“I SAID GET OUT, LOGAN!” Damian finally snapped and grabbed his sword from the floor and pointed it at his neck. He saw Garfield didn’t flinch from his spot and his brown eyes looked into his emerald eyes, seeing as if he was trying to calm him down. To calm his anger.

“Raven… Rachel doesn’t want to see you suffering over her death badly. She wanted you to be happy, live your life to the fullest.” Garfield said sincerely. “She loves you so deeply and cares for you. You two were so close and she had made you be a better person, yet, you are here moping. She wanted you to be on your feet and become someone else. Someone better than Robin who couldn’t save the love of his life. You can be more like your father. You can be able to move past this and save more lives from suffering.”

Damian stood quiet from listening to his speech and lowered his sword down. Sitting back down on his bed. “You… really think I can move on…without her?”

“Yeah, I mean, I know everyone does. She does too.” Garfield replied, putting a hand on his shoulder, giving something out to him. “I found this in her room. I think she wanted you to read it.”

He left him in his room to read it as he opened the sliding doors to his balcony where the moon shone brightly. He opened up the letter and saw Rachel’s hand writing, as he remembered clearly, it was neat. And clear for him to read.

“Dear Damian,

By the time you are reading this, that means I have already passed. And I have written this just before you shouted out when you were having a nightmare. I had comforted you in a way and I am glad.

I know you’ll ended up feeling like this. Helpless, hopeless, defeated, and lonely. Do not forget that you have a loving family and friends who are still by your side. And you be there for them, Damian. You can get past this by moving on and live your life to the fullest. I believe in you and I love you.

I love you. I love you just as you are. You are Robin, the member of the Titans. You can become more than just Robin. You can become their light to make the world a better place. You are Jump City’s protector in the dark. I know you aren’t ready, but I do believe that you are ready. Remember, justice not vengeance, my beloved.

Love forever,

Rachel R.”

Damian held onto the letter and gritted his teeth with his tears staining the paper in his hands. He wiped his eyes with his hand and sobbed, finally letting all out, mourning his lost love’s death. Once he had calmed down, he looked at the letter once more and then held it in his hand, now having a new found purpose. He wanted her death not to be in vain. He looked at his closet and grabbed a small chest and had started to get changed.

In Jump City, the citizens were attacked by Black Mask and his goons, Putting everyone’s life in danger with the Titans coming in and saved the citizens while Nightwing kicked one goon on the head and flipped one over his shoulder. Garfield flew up in the sky dropping one with Terra slamming her hands together trapping two goons her boyfriend had dropped mid-air.

Superboy and Wonder Girl punched down the ground, crushing their vehicles while Donna used her lasso to throw the truck to crush down the speeding cars that were going straight at the young girls who were screaming and shouting.

“NO!” Starfire cried out until she saw a shadow appeared and grabbed the two young girls. She looked around the area and saw a grappling hook line coming from the building. She gasped seeing Batman was in Jump City helping them to save the citizens. He threw in his Batarang at the goons while Kid Flash managed to run towards them and tied them up with Donna’s rope. He and the Titans knocked down the last goons with Black Mask being arrested at last.

The Titans looked at the new Batman. He had the same mask with a navy-blue cape and yellow utility belt and had small jewel beads attached to it. His body suit was mixed with black and red accents.

“Damian?” Nightwing questioned with him looking at him and then left while grabbing his grappling hook and swing up to the building. The Titans all followed him to talk to him in private while the police took care of the villains down below.

“Damian? Is that you?” Jon asked rubbing his neck.

The new Batman took his mask off and revealed himself to his family. Starfire smiled sadly but proudly to see he is inheriting his father’s legacy. For Raven’s sake. This was good progress in moving. “I am proud Damian. I am sure Raven is too.”

“Yes, I do hope so.” Damian smiled fondly while looking down at the mask in his hands.

“And I love the new look to the suit, Muscle Man.” Terra smiled while Gar chuckled, agreeing with her. The Titans all rejoice with Damian, as Batman formerly as Robin has risen and vowed to make the world a better place to live while making Raven’s wishes coming true.

Damian finally set foot in the cemetery where Raven’s grave was. He bent down and put a bouquet of blue roses and white irises. He smiled and patted the engraved stone gently. “Rest well, my beloved.” He heard sirens blaring and looked up to see the Bat signal. He smiled seeing duties were calling and had said his goodbyes to Raven before joining his family in an another night of crime fighting.

#damian x raven #my fanfic #Teen Titans #damian wayne #raven #starfire #nightwing #blue beetle #beast boy #terra #Donna Troy #jon kent #Kid Flash #angst #romance #family #family angst #fanfiction #damirae

[ankewehner]

Livetweet of accidentally getting into fairyland...

Best twitter thread ever?

https://twitter.com/NeolithicSheep/status/1330548523721515013 Shepherd: Oh hey Ursula, do you have the number for those people who take out invasive plants still?

Ursula: Probably somewhere, yeah. They said they didn’t usually work on such small properties, though, and I don’t know if I’ve got an infestation worth their time.

Shepherd: Ok but what if I say "kudzu" to you, can we throw enough money at them to make it worth their time.

Ursula: If you say “kudzu” to me, I will panic, scream, and come running to Dogskull with a flamethrower.

Shepherd: Ok well I suggest driving but maybe pack up the flamethrower. Ursula: OH MY GOD YOU FOUND KUDZU OH GOD WHERE IS IT ARE YOU SURE IT ISN’T JUST WILD GRAPE

Shepherd: YES I KNOW WHAT WILD GRAPE LOOKS LIKE THANK YOU anyway I was walking Beamer this morning after the deer ate breakfast and the white deer was walking down toward the back of the property, you know that low tucked away part? And I thought, well, we'll just trail after her at a polite distance and if I'm lucky I'll find some of her fur caught on a bush! Wouldn't that be great! So we kept going past the big ass fucking oak trees that make, like, that weird arch? And there's kudzu.

Ursula: What big oak trees?! There’s no big oak trees back there! It’s all pine!

Shepherd: Yeah you know, the two really big motherfuckers that look like English oak. They're like, way the fuck back there.

Ursula: There are no English oak on Dogskull. Are you sure you weren’t trespassing on the Freemason’s property?

Shepherd: No they're closer to the front I think? Who's next door to them? Also I thought Dog Skull was 7 acres? Because I should be off it and hitting the road by now.

Ursula: Next door to them is the people with the trailer on its side. Do you see any trailers lying on their sides?

Shepherd: A lot of oak trees, a little bit of kudzu, zero trailers in any orientation. Some birds and squirrels. Oh hey Beamer found a nice pond.

Ursula: Okay, this is important. Do the oak trees still have leaves on them?

Shepherd: Yeah but so does the one up front. Oh wait. These are, uh, still green. Like summer green.

Ursula: Right. Okay. This could be a problem. Give me a couple minutes, we have to take trash to the dump and then I’ll look some stuff up. Meanwhile, DON’T EAT ANYTHING.

Shepherd: You mean in case it's poisonous, right? Like THEORETICALLY if I didn't see this tweet until just now and HYPOTHETICALLY I found an apple tree and ate an apple, that would be fine?

Ursula: ...that would not be fine.

Shepherd: Beamer didn't want any, which was weird I thought.

Ursula: INDUCE VOMITING! INDUCE VOMITING!

Shepherd: He didn't eat anything! I'm not going to gag my dog for not eating an apple!

Ursula: Not the dog! Induce vomiting in yourself! Every chunk of that apple needs to come out before you digest it!

Shepherd: FINE. I have puked it up. It was a really good apple, too.

Ursula: Oh thank god. Whew. Okay. The alternative was that you were gonna need a cold iron enema and I wasn’t sure how to do that on short notice.

Shepherd: Oh hey fun fact, "cold iron" is just, like, iron. It's not a special kind or anything!

Ursula: Do you have any on you right now? Beamer’s collar or tags or anything?

Shepherd: Collar hardware is all aluminum these days, otherwise it rusts. Let me pat down my pockets. Syringe of dewormer? Is that helpful?

Shepherd: Anyway I don't want to alarm you but uh. I can't find the trail I followed? So you and Kevin will need to go over tonight and give the boys [i.e. oxen] a hay bale and the goats and sheep two.

Ursula: No! I am scared of cows! We have to get you out of there! Look, I have a bunch of Llewelyn books from my teenage pagan days. I’m sure Scott Cunningham or Silver Ravenwolf covered this somewhere.

Shepherd: Scott Cunningham seems like a really drastic measure just because you're afraid of some cows. But sooner or later I'm going to run out of cigarettes so sure, why not. Oh!! The boys' bow pins are in my pocket, I was going to sand them today and oil them! They're very definitely iron!

Ursula: That’s good! That’s very good! If anyone tries to talk to you, keep hold of those! Now let’s see...do you consider yourself a “solitary practitioner?”

Shepherd: Ursula I'm an ornamental hermit, you don't get much more solitary. Also so far the only person who tried to talk to me was a frog.

Ursula: ...what did the frog say?

Shepherd: "SMOKING KILLS." I tossed it back in the pond.

Ursula: *rubs forehead*

Shepherd: Fucking frogs are all alike, I'm telling you.

Ursula: I really wish these authors had spent less time on “why Wicca isn’t Satanism” and more time on “what to do when you’ve strayed into the fae realms.” I mean, I understand it was the political climate of the time...

Shepherd: I feel like nobody really covers that last one anymore. You have 4 hours until the cows want dinner.

Ursula: Silver Ravenwolf suggests making your magical working space more inviting with stencils? These books spend a surprising amount of time on interior decorating as a vital part of ritual magick. I never noticed that when I was fifteen.

Shepherd: Yeah me neither honestly. It's remarkably unhelpful when you're stuck in faerie and your collie is getting bored. Shepherd: So you want me to... Build a magical working space and stencil it?

Ursula: I can’t actually see how that would help matters. Maybe I should check the Foxfire books instead.

Shepherd: I... Don't remember them having anything relevant, but I might be wrong?

Ursula: They have everything. Ooh, this one is about how to scald the bristles off a hog!

Shepherd: A) I already know how to do that and B) I do not have a hog, sufficient firewood, or a hog scrubbing brush here. FOCUS, URSULA. FOCUS.

Ursula: Sorry, the ADHD meds haven’t kicked in yet today...uh...let’s see...avoid whippoorwills, if you see any?

Shepherd: I do that already, otherwise they steal your toenails.

Ursula: If you harvest apples, leave one on the tree or it attracts the Devil.

Shepherd: You told me not to eat the apples! Am I allowed to eat the apples now??

Ursula: No! These are hypothetical apples! NO EATING! I tried to look up deer in the Foxfire books and there’s a story about somebody’s grandpa wrestling a buck in a mill dam and drowning it, but I don’t see the relevance here. I mean, Grandpa does sound like a badass, though.

Shepherd: I feel like I shouldn't wrestle deer here. What if I try telling Beamer to find his sheep? 

Ursula: Well, research has hit a small snag. I tried googling for the foxfire books and kudzu, in case there was something about fae kudzu portals, right? But it turns out your Twitter is the third hit. Shep, we may BE the experts.

Shepherd: Uh oh. OK. In that case, you and Kevin go over to Dog Skull. Hitch up Cole and Cannon and take them back to the oak trees. Put a logging chain around one and yell real loud "LET SHEPHERD OUT OR WE START PULLING"

Ursula: Oh hell no! I read tree law Reddit! I know how this ends! Do you want us to get sued by Freemasons?! 

Shepherd: I DON'T THINK THE FREEMASONS ARE THE PROBLEM HERE, URSULA

Ursula: I DON’T TRUST THEM WITH THEIR LITTLE LEVELS AND SHEEPSKINS AND WEIRDLY OCULAR PYRAMIDS Also if you see a pyramid with an eye on it, don’t eat it’s either.

Ursula: Okay. Never mind the Freemasons. I wrote a book about this once, I think. White animals, scary fae, random magic deer. It was set in Finland, so you may need to fashion some umlauts, though.

Shepherd: I've got my chore knife, I can carve so many umlauts. Do I just put them in trees until I get back?

Ursula: First of all, are you wearing pants?

Shepherd: YES I'M WEARING PANTS YOU WEIRDO

Ursula: t’s a legitimate question! I mean, I’m not wearing pants.

Now Shep, this is very important. You have to take off your pants.

Also your shoes, your hoodie, and probably Beamer’s collar.

Shepherd: Ursula. Why are we getting naked.

Ursula: To break the misdirection spell! Put your clothes on backwards!

And possibly inside out? Shit, there’s a bunch of different sources. I don’t know if they have to be inside out, but definitely backwards.

Uh...let’s see...hmm, backwards definitely. Inside out might be for leshy. Leshies? Leshys? What’s the plural form, do you think?

If you happen to see any giggling green hairy dudes, ask them what the plural form of their name is. That’s gonna bug me.

Shepherd: Beamer's collar doesn't have a backwards! I'll turn it inside out. And my clothes backwards and inside out, got it. 

Shepherd: There's just, like, frogs. And squirrels. I can hear music though! There might be a dance party, I could go ask about green hairy dudes?

Ursula: STAY AWAY FROM THE MUSIC unless it’s the Freemasons I guess 

Shepherd: No it's more folk music. The Freemasons play, like, Michael Jackson. 

ANYWAY clothes are backwards and inside out. Beamer's collar is backwards and just to be thorough I tied the rope end of his leash to his collar instead of using the clip, so his leash is backwards too. He's pulling me away from the pond! 

Ursula: Tell him to go find his sheep! 

Shepherd: I have so instructed him! Hopefully there's not, like, the faerie equivalent of really good sheep here. Hey do you want me to grab you an apple 

Ursula: No, they don’t come true from seed, but if you can cut me a decent slightly whippy twig with a few leaves, I might be able to root that sucker. 

Shepherd: ...you want me to pause a collie on a mission while I test the whippiness of twigs?? 

I HEAR MOOING. I SEE PINE TREES. 

Ursula: GO TOWARD THE MOOING

Shepherd: THERE'S THE OLD RUSTED OUT METAL THING! I'm back! On uh the opposite side of the property from the one I left from.

Also there's a goddamned chorus frog calling. 

Ursula: Yeah, they do that.

Ursula: THANK GOD THE KUDZU IS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PORTAL

...oh, and you’re back, that’s good too. Very pleased.

Shepherd: Anyway you don't have to feed the boys. Unless you want to?

Ursula: There is no situation where I will WANT to feed your giant-ass death bovines.

Also, what have we learned about following the white doe into the woods?

Shepherd: She knows where the really good apples are? 

Also my boys are tiny!!

Ursula: ...I’m gonna go take a nap.

#Ursula Vernon #NeolithicSheep #Faerie

[cadence-talle]

Teach The Torches To Burn Bright

Pairing: Fitz Vacker/Dex Dizznee

Wordcount: 2,212

Summary: “You’re a coward.”

“Correct,” Fitz responded. His sister fixed him with a determined look.

“You’re a coward, but you’re also my brother and I want you to be happy.” She leaned forward, sucking the dregs of her milkshake with a loud slurp. “So we’re gonna get you a date with that boy. Come hell or high water.”

(Or, a theater AU, feat fake understudies, many milkshakes, and fundamentally misunderstanding Romeo & Juliet.) 

Other notes: for @molly-sencen! I’m sorry this took so long and I love you so much, Molly. 

Taglist: @everyonehasthoughts, @clearlykeefitz, @loverofallthingssmart, @a-lonely-tatertot, @enbies-and-felonies, @molly-sencen, @lemontarto, @appalyneinstitute1, @ruewen-and-rising, @silver-snow, @linhamon-roll, @hyperlollypop, @never-ever-too-many-fandoms, @keeper-of-the-lost-queers, @impostertamsong, @vibing-in-the-void, @yeetersofthelostcities, @mistythegirlfluxmess, @diamond-dreamerr, @we-have-no-bananas-today

“Look, I’m just saying, Romeo and Juliet is overrated.”

“Romeo and Juliet is one of the greatest plays of all time. Just because you hated your eighth-grade English teacher doesn’t mean it’s bad.”

“They’re absolute idiots. Who falls in love in a single night? How do you do that? Who pretends they’re dead without making sure the other person knows it’s all fake? Death is a stupid solution.”

“Okay, I don’t understand them either, but-”

“Not to mention it’s literally a love story between a fourteen-year-old and a sixteen-year-old in which they meet, fall in ‘love’, and then get married in the span of three days. Tell me that sounds like a healthy relationship.”

Fitz sighs, pushing open the auditorium doors as he glares at his sister. “It’s not supposed to be a healthy relationship. It’s supposed to show the folly of falling in love too fast and how there needs to be a delicate balance between love and hate.”

Biana arches an eyebrow at him. “Did you really just use the word folly unironically? In the twenty-first century?”

Fitz picks up his pace, walking faster down towards the stage. “Shut up.”

“No, no! Tell me more about the follies in Shakespeare’s writings!” Biana calls behind him, smirk evident in her voice. Giving a small groan- she’s never letting him live this one down- Fitz turns to move up the stairs on either side of the stage and runs straight into someone. 

“Oh, sorry,” he says, stumbling back. “I didn’t see you-”

It’s Dex Dizznee. Of course it’s Dex Dizznee. Fitz should have known he’d be in the theater today; he’s been halfway stalking the guy for a month. 

(“Just ask him out already,” Biana had said, chewing on her milkshake straw. “You’re, like, the most popular person in school.”

“I can’t do that!” Fitz protested. Biana frowned. 

“What’s stopping you?”

Fitz laid his head on the cold metal of the ice cream shop table. “He’s too pretty,” he said mournfully. Biana rolled her eyes and kicked him. 

“You’re a coward.”

“Correct,” Fitz responded. His sister fixed him with a determined look. 

“You’re a coward, but you’re also my brother and I want you to be happy.” She leaned forward, sucking the dregs of her milkshake with a loud slurp. “So we’re gonna get you a date with that boy. Come hell or high water.”) 

Now that he thinks about it, Biana probably orchestrated this. He wouldn’t put it past her. 

“Sorry,” Fitz says again. Dex grins, waving a hand in the air. 

“Not a problem,” he responds. “I was probably in the way, actually. We’re trying to get these new speakers set up,” he gestures to the huge speaker at his feet, tangled in a pile of electrical wires, “and it’s… harder than it looks.”

“I’ll bet.” Fitz nods, pretending he knows anything about technology or what it takes to install a speaker. “Well, we’ll get out of your way. I’m just here to grab an extra script-”

“Actually,” Biana says, appearing next to him. “I think now would be a great time for you to try on that tunic I restitched last week. We need to make sure it fits.” She smiles at him. Fitz glares back. 

“Sure,” he says through gritted teeth, moving up the stage stairs. Dex smiles, touching Fitz’s shoulder lightly as he passes. 

“See you later.”

“Uh.” Fitz says. “Yeah, you too, Deck.”

He staggers backstage and falls face-first onto a prop couch. Biana makes a noise of agreement. 

“Deck?” Fitz says, his voice muffled by the couch cushions. “Deck?”

“I’m sure he didn’t notice,” Biana pats his head. “You do need to try on the tunic, though. We have like ten more costumes to get through and the show’s in a week and a half.”

“That sounds like bad planning on your part,” Fitz observes, taking the offered shirt and pulling it on. “How does it look?”

Biana considers him, head tilted to one side. She smiles. “You’re going to be the best-dressed Romeo on this side of Eternalia. Sophie’ll love it.”

“Sophie is gay,” Fitz points out, “and has a girlfriend. You should know that- you got them together in the first place.”

“Mmm,” Biana agrees, “The great Sopherella Caper. Those were the days.”

“’Those days’ were last month.”

Biana waves a hand in the air. “Irrelevant. Okay, take the tunic off and I’ll make the final adjustments.”

“Great. See you at home?” Fitz scoops his bag up off of the floor as Biana nods, heading out towards the theater doors again. Dex holds up a hand in a little half-wave. 

“Have a good day, Ditz.” he calls. 

Suddenly, Fitz thinks he understands Romeo and Juliet’s ‘poison’ idea a little bit better. 

-/-

“You know, I think this is good, actually.” Biana says the next day. The five of them- Fitz, Biana, Linh, Tam and Keefe- are crammed into a booth at the ice cream shop, sipping milkshakes. (It’s far too early in the day for ice cream, but Fitz isn’t going to argue. The mint chocolate chip ones here are to die for.) 

“Explain,” Fitz responds. He doesn’t see how any of this- the fiasco with Dex, being brought to the ice cream shop in what he’s pretty sure is some sort of intervention, the fact that his milkshake has notably less mint in it than usual- is good. Biana shrugs. 

“Well, from what you said, it sounds more like he was teasing you than actually being mean. And teasing is good. It’s very close to flirting.”

“And if he was flirting with you,” Linh adds, “then that’s great!”

“And if he wasn’t?” Fitz asks, because he’s pessimistic like that. Tam raises an eyebrow, setting his milkshake on the table with a thunk. 

“Then you’ve completely embarrassed yourself and you can never talk to him again,” he deadpans. Fitz nods slowly. 

“I’m sure that won’t happen, though,” Linh says hurriedly, shooting her twin an annoyed look. Tam gives her an angelic smile. 

“Seriously, dude,” Keefe says, turning to Fitz. “You’re the only one here who’s still single. I wanna go couple’s bowling!”

Fitz holds up two fingers, ticking them off as he speaks. “One, ‘couple’s bowling’? Not a thing. Two, aren’t you single?”

Keefe stares at him. “What?”

“You do realize we’ve been dating for four months now,” Tam says. Fitz blinks. 

“I… did not realize that, no.”

“Wait, really?” Biana interjects, giving Fitz a puzzled look. “You were there when Keefe did his promposal.” 

“I thought it was a joke! Who orders goats for an actual promposal?”

Keefe frowns, looking vaguely insulted. “I do. Anyone who wants to do a promposal right orders goats.”

“Forget about the goats,” Linh interrupts, “forget about Keefe and Tam. We’re here to help you.”

All four heads turn towards him in eerie unison. Fitz swallows and Biana smiles sharply, pulling out her planner and flipping to May 13th. 

“Okay. We don’t know when Dex will be in the theater- he keeps really weird hours. What we do know, though, is that he’ll be here next Friday. Opening night.”

“So after the show, we shove Fitz in the soundbooth until he asks Dex out,” Keefe says, nodding. Linh shakes her head. 

“Let’s call that a Plan B. Fitz would actually murder us.”

“True.”

“You guys do realize I’m sitting here, right?” Fitz asks. They ignore him, instead gathering around Biana and her schedule. Silently, Fitz slips from the booth and moves towards the shop door.

This show is going to be a disaster. 

-/-

The theater is packed, people whispering and chatting in the dim light. Fitz should be backstage, getting the last parts of his costume on, but instead he’s in the near-empty hall alongside the auditorium. 

He always does this before a show- takes a moment to catch his breath, lean against the cold blue tile of the wall. A moment of peace before the craziness that is a Foxfire High theater production. 

Or, relative peace. There’s a banging coming from somewhere behind him- one of the doors that line the hallway. Fitz is pretty sure the one the noise is emitting from is a janitor’s closet.

He approaches the door, wary of whatever’s inside. Once, a junior found a raccoon in her locker. Fitz really doesn’t want a repeat of that. 

Instead of a raccoon, though, Sophie falls out when he opens the door. Fitz stares as she stumbles, almost falling, before getting her balance. 

“Why were you locked in the janitor’s closet?” Fitz asks. Sophie rolls her eyes as they head towards the backstage entrance. She’s in costume already, thank goodness. 

“Ask Keefe and Linh,” she grunts. “They’re the ones who stuck me in there.”

Fitz steps through the door, almost running into Dex for the second time in as many weeks. The taller boy has a confused expression on his face.

“Do you know why Biana was just trying to convince me I was the Juliet understudy?” He inquires. “I told her I can’t act, but she didn’t appear to want to listen.” 

Fitz sighs, aware of the flush creeping up his cheeks. “I might have some idea,” he admits. “I’ll talk to you after the show?”

“Sure. I need to get to the sound booth anyway.” Dex gives him a thumbs up and moves away. “See you, Fitz.”

He knows my name. 

Sophie has a dangerous smirk on her face when Fitz turns back in her direction, and he immediately glares at her. 

“Don’t.”

“I’m not doing anything,” She hums. “Just… I’m glad you’re happy, ‘kay?”

Fitz smiles at her. “Thanks.”

“Anytime.” Sophie punches his arm lightly. “Now come on, Romeo. We’ve got a show to steal.” 

-/-

The curtain has just closed, and everyone is screaming. 

To be fair, the show did go well- no one messed up their lines, and the kiss scene (which was, in rehearsal, simply nicknamed Awkward™) actually didn’t crash and burn. 

So Fitz supposes he can’t blame them for screaming, despite the damage it’s doing to his eardrums. (Someone is also playing Let It Go at an obscene volume. Fitz will never understand the theater kid obsession with Let It Go.) 

Biana and Linh come up behind him, hugging him from both sides as they shout. Fitz can’t quite hear them, but he hugs back. 

“I’m going to go talk to Dex,” he shouts, pointing towards the soundbooth. Biana and Linh give him matching grins and Linh yells something that might be go get it! and might be turn away and slam the door. Fitz can’t tell. 

He makes his way through the crowds and up the steps to the back of the theater, keeping his head down so no one will recognize him. The attention can be nice, but he doesn’t exactly fancy getting stuck signing autographs right now.

“Hey!” Dex says as Fitz moves into the sound booth, leaning against the door. They’re the only two still here; whoever was operating the lighting board must have gone home. Now is probably the perfect time to talk to him.

Fitz opens his mouth to say something- even he’s not sure what- when he hears an ominous clicking noise in the door behind him. He spins, trying the handle. Locked.

Sophie’s words echo in his head. Ask Keefe and Linh. They’re the ones who stuck me in there.

“Did someone… lock the door from the outside?” Dex asks, coming over and crouching down next to the lock. “That’s weird.”

Fitz sighs, shaking his head. “Not for my friends.”

“Your friends did this? Why?”

Studiously, Fitz stares at the floor. Then the ceiling. Then the soundboard. Anything but Dex, really.

“Do you remember,” he says slowly, “when I called you Deck?”

Dex raises an eyebrow. “Yep,” he answers, popping the ‘p’. “Not the worst thing I’ve been called, honestly.”

“I- I wasn’t trying to insult you,” Fitz manages. “I just- well. I got nervous.”

Dex wrinkles his nose. It’s kind of adorable. “Nervous? Why?”

Fitz shrugs one shoulder.

“I don’t know. You’re just… you’re pretty.”

“Pretty,” Dex echoes. Fitz nods, taking a deep breath. He’s in too deep to back out now.

“Yeah. And smart, and cool, and…” he trails off. “You’re amazing. And I was- I am- kind of in awe of you.”

“Oh.” Dex steps forward, reaching out. Blinking, Fitz takes his hand. “Well, what if I told you that the first time I saw you on stage, I almost fainted?”

Fitz’s throat goes dry. “You did?”

“Uh-huh. And whenever you were rehearsing and I was doing lighting, I couldn’t stop looking at you.” Dex smiles sheepishly, his cheeks tinged pink. “Because you were awesome, and beautiful, and I really, really liked you.”

“I- I like you too,” Fitz squeaks out. Dex grins, stepping a tiny bit closer. 

“Can I…”

“Yes.”

They stay there for a while, trading kisses back and forth, and something Biana had said a few weeks before floats into Fitz’s head. 

“Who falls in love in a single night? How do you do that?”

Like this, Fitz thinks. Like this.

He’s not in love, not yet, but Fitz still feels closer to Romeo and Juliet than he ever has before. 

(Hopefully without the death part, though. In that case, they really are idiots.)

#lynn rambles #my writing #detz #fitz vacker #dex dizznee #biana vacker #linh song #kotlc #kotlc fanfiction

[thelastspeecher]

D&D AU - Elf Kid Adventures, Pt. 2

Electric Boogaloo

I actually have two more scenes planned to tie up this little story arc in my D&D AU where Stan is half-orc and half-elf.  I originally was going to include those scenes in this post, but then these two scenes on their own were much longer than I expected.  So, uh, here’s some awkward stuff, some angst, some “aww” moments, and most importantly, a whole mess of Stan being head over heels for Angie.

Enjoy.

——————————————————————————————

              Stan couldn’t decide whether the expectation he did chores was the worst part or the best part of staying at the McGucket farmstead. On the one hand, he had to get up when Ole Tinbeak – the earliest rising rooster – crowed.  On the other hand, the praise from Mr. McGucket never seemed to end.

              “Excellent!” Mr. McGucket said cheerfully, watching Stan lug a bale of hay twice his size.  “I must say, Stanaximus, yer the strongest elf I’ve ever seen, and yer only a child right now!”  Stan grinned despite the straws of hay poking his face.  “Would ya consider employment as a farmhand?”

              “Thanks,” Stan said, slipping into the manners that Mrs. McGucket had insisted on drilling into him.  “But I like being a ranger with Angie and Lute.”

              “Fair enough,” Mr. McGucket said.  Stan set down the bale of hay.  His vision now unobscured, he spotted Lute standing a few feet away.  Lute had never seemed that intimidating to Stan before, and his new age (and matching immature wardrobe with many pairs of shorts) only served to hinder his continued attempts.  He was in his thirties, according to Mrs. McGucket, which made him like a human five-year-old.

              “He’s only bein’ nice to you ‘cause yer a guest,” Lute hissed.  Stan snorted.

              “If you could see through all that hair, you’d know that’s not true,” he replied.  Lute lifted the dark bangs that covered his eyes to glare at Stan.

              “I can see just fine,” Lute snapped.  Stan grinned.

              “Aw, is someone grumpy ‘cause he’s overdue for a nap?” Stan teased.  Lute blushed fiercely.  The McGucket parents had insisted Lute have at least one nap a day at this age.  Something about the extra rest being particularly important for growing elves.  “Maybe you should go sleep.”

              “You-” Lute started.  Mr. McGucket came over.  He took his youngest son’s hand.

              “He’s right, Lute.  Stan, think ya can finish the chores if Angie helps?”

              “Uh, sure.  But I don’t know where she is,” Stan said slowly.  Someone jumped down from the barn’s loft, landing lightly in front of Stan.  Angie beamed at him.  “…How long were you up there?”  Angie shrugged.

              “It’s startin’ to get a bit dark, so ya best check the fence fer breaks first, ‘fore night falls,” Mr. McGucket said, leading Lute out of the barn.  Stan and Angie nodded.  Once Mr. McGucket was gone, Stan turned to Angie.

              “We’re supposed to check the fence?” he asked.

              “Yep!  Follow me.” Angie walked out of the barn. Stan followed.  They went to the enclosed cattle pasture and began to follow the fencing.  “Luckily, breaks ‘re pretty easy to spot,” Angie said cheerfully.  “And easy to fix, too.  Just a quick Mending.”  Stan nodded silently, trying to ignore how the setting sun made her golden hair turn a fiery orange.  They continued to walk in silence for a few moments.  “Don’t let Lute get ya down,” Angie said in a low tone.

              “Huh?  Oh, I’m not.” Stan shrugged.  “I actually kinda like being a kid again.”

              “Really?”

              “Yeah.  I’m-” Stan rubbed the back of his neck and laughed awkwardly.  “I’m not in that big of a rush to get this curse removed, to be honest.”  Angie came to a stop, leaning against the fencing. Stan did the same.  His hands gripped the wooden slats.  Angie turned her head to face him.  A few long golden strands of hair loose from her braid bounced with the movement.  The sun cast her form in a brilliant halo.

              “Why’s that?” she asked.  Distracted by how she looked in the fading light, Stan didn’t hear her question.

              “Huh?” he mumbled.  Angie rolled her silver eyes.  As dusk encroached, they began to glow with a faint foxfire.

              “Why are ya not in a hurry to be back to normal?” she asked.  “I thought ya missed yer tusks.”  Stan sighed.

              “I mean, I do.”

              “Then what’s goin’ on?”

              “I…”  Stan trailed off.  Angie scooted closer to him.  Her hand rested next to his, their skin touching.  Stan’s heartrate picked up.  Unable to stop himself, he blurted out the truth.  “I forgot how much better people used to treat me.”  Angie’s eyes widened.

              “…Pardon?” she asked.

              Shit.  Way to go, Stan.  This is what you get for being so easily distracted by pretty girls.

              “I grew up in a mostly human settlement,” Stan said quietly.  “The only elf who lived in town was my mom.  Looking like her, I got attention.  But it was good attention, ‘cause a lotta humans are obsessed with elves. Even travelers passing through would sometimes stop and talk to me and my twin brother.  I think…”  Stan furrowed his brow.  “I think my mom said that, if we had grown up in a proper elf environment, we wouldn’t be allowed to interact with visitors.  I guess elf kids are considered really important, so they get kept away from outsiders.  At least, that’s how it was where my mom grew up.”

              “Ma says things were the same way where she came from,” Angie said.  “She ‘n Pa had some disagreements ‘bout it when we were little.  So it’s probably a high elf thing, not a specific place thing.”

              “Yeah.”  Stan took a breath.  “I liked getting all that positive attention.  But then my tusks started growing in, and my hair got darker, and I got bigger in a way that elves just aren’t.”  Stan looked down at the dirt.  He nudged a clump with the toe of his borrowed boot.  “I stopped looking like my mom and started looking like my pops. And I don’t have a lick of human in me, so I don’t look like a proper half-orc.  By the time I was sixteen, I looked full orc.”  Angie made a strangled sound.  Stan looked at her.

              “Sixteen?” she choked out, shocked.

              “Orcs don’t live that long.  Until I became an adult, I aged close to the same rate humans do. I think I was about twenty when my elf side kicked in to slow it down.”

              “Oh.  Right.” Angie nodded.  “You told me ‘fore that you were in yer sixties.”

              “Yep.  Haven’t aged a day in the last forty years, thanks to Mom.”

              “Yes.  Okay, continue yer story.”

              “Well, I dunno how much there is left to tell. I looked like an orc, and you know how people treat orcs.  Visitors stopped giving me treats and started putting their hands on their weapons when they saw me.  Since that’s how it’s been for the last few decades, I forgot that people didn’t always look at me like I was about to kill them.”

              “Even if you don’t get the curse reversed, you’ll start agin’ on yer own,” Angie pointed out.  Stan’s stomach twisted into a knot.  “Sooner rather than later, you’ll look like yer father again.”

              “Yeah.  I know.” Stan’s head drooped.  “It’s just-”

              “No need to explain.  I understand,” Angie said firmly.  She placed her hand over Stan’s.  Stan’s heart skipped a beat.  “It’s easier to be an elf than an orc.”  She quirked a half-grin.  “Though, just so’s ya know, I prefer yer orcish self to yer elvish self.”

              “R-really?” Stan stammered.  Angie nodded.

              “Tusks ‘n all.”

----- 

              Stan had just finished his breakfast when Mr. McGucket entered the kitchen.

              “Stanaximus?” he said.  Stan looked over.

              “Yeah?”              

              “Walk with me, son.”

              “Um.  Okay.” Stan deposited his plate in the sink and followed Mr. McGucket outside.  “Did you need me for something?”

              “I just need to have a lil chat with ya,” Mr. McGucket said airily.  “But I think you’d prefer the chat happen where there aren’t ears to listen.” Dread began to build in Stan’s gut. The two walked off the main, cleared area that constituted the farmstead, and into the surrounding woods.  Mr. McGucket moved through the trees like he was one with his surroundings, effortlessly silent and graceful.  It was actually almost difficult for Stan to keep track of the man, as he blended in so well.

              I mean, he is a wood elf.  Makes sense.

              “What did you wanna talk about?” Stan asked. Mr. McGucket smiled.

              “You courtin’ my youngest child,” he said simply. Stan stumbled over a root.  Mr. McGucket caught him.  “You all right?”

              “Yeah, I’m- I’m-”  Stan swallowed.  “What makes you think I wanna court Angie?”

              “I see the way ya look at her.  Like she’s the sun, moon, ‘n stars.  There’s no mistakin’ what that means.”  Mr. McGucket looked at Stan.  “You can deny all ya want after this conversation, but I want ya to be truthful durin’ it, okay?”

              “…Fine,” Stan mumbled.  He clenched his hands into fists and ground them into his eyes.  “I…I really like Angie, and being a kid again has made it a lot worse.”

              “Makes sense.  Children have lesser control over their emotions, after all.  Thank you fer bein’ willin’ to talk blunt with me.”

              “Yeah, whatever.”

              “Now, I encourage ya to court Angie, once you’ve all been returned to yer proper ages.  But I needed to warn ya that a courtship with her won’t go without difficulties.”

              “What- what do you mean?” Stan asked.  Mr. McGucket sighed.

              “Politics.  Yer a noble, and my wife, she…she was somethin’ sim’lar ‘fore she left her home to be with me.  I don’t know whether she still has her title or not, and our children certainly don’t have any titles, but they do technically belong to a very powerful sun elf house.  If you were a wood elf, or even just a reg’lar sun elf, I doubt it would be a problem. As it is, it might not be.  But it could be.  So I figured I’d warn ya.”

              “But I’m not noble,” Stan said.  Mr. McGucket frowned at him.  “You guys keep insisting I am, but I’m not!  Maybe my mom is, or was, but my pops, he was about as far from noble as you can get.”

              “Was?”

              “…Pops passed away a few decades ago,” Stan said quietly.

              “My condolences.”

              “I don’t need ‘em.  He was a kinda shit father.”

              “Hmm.”  At Mr. McGucket’s thoughtful, though noncommittal, sound, Stan looked up.  There was a troubled look on the man’s face.  “Would that be related to the scars on yer back and arms?”

              “How- how do you-”

              “Harper saw when he took ya to the lake to swim last week,” Mr. McGucket explained.  Stan stifled a curse.  The oldest McGucket son, Harper, had showed up unexpectedly with his adopted children, then insisted on them all doing activities during his visit.  Harper was an incredibly odd person, but Stan thought he was at least tolerable.

              At least, I used to think that.  Now that I know he’s a snitch?  Nah.

              “I want to revisit this at a later time,” Mr. McGucket said after a moment. “Right now, we need to talk about you courtin’ my daughter.”

              Do we?

              “There’s no doubt you have noble blood, Stan.  Just yer full name is one that’s indicative of high status.  Even if ya don’t have a noble title or upbringing, ya have it in yer heritage.”  Mr. McGucket cocked his head thoughtfully.  “Though not havin’ a title will prob’ly make it so Angie’s own royal blood ain’t a factor.”

              “Did you say ‘royal’?” Stan croaked.  A twinkle entered Mr. McGucket’s eye.

              “Yes.”  Stan’s jaw dropped.  “Now, I will say- wait.”

              “What?” Stan asked.  Mr. McGucket now looked at him with visible concern.

              “Open yer mouth, son.”  Before Stan could comply or refuse, Mr. McGucket carefully pried his jaws open, looking at his teeth like he was determining a horse’s age.  “Oh, no.  Are these…fangs?”  Instantly, Stan broke into a cold sweat.

              Fuck!  My tusks! They started coming in!  Mr. McGucket released his hold and took a step back, worry etched on his face.  Stan closed his mouth.

              “It’s okay,” Stan said quickly.

              “Son, you have two teeth what shouldn’t be there, and what look awful dif’rent from yer other teeth.”

              “It’s, um…”  Stan’s mind raced.  “My pops, he got cursed when he was younger, and it got passed down to me somehow.”

              “Really.”

              “Yeah.”  Stan rubbed the back of his neck.  “It’s not a problem.”

              “Maybe.  But when we get this main curse off ya, we’ll take a look at this one that made ya grow fangs.”

              “Maybe…”

              Gods, no, there’s no way in any of the planes that I’d let some elf take my tusks away.  Stan and Mr. McGucket entered a large clearing.  Stan blinked at the farmhouse before them.  Without him realizing, they’d walked back to the McGucket farmstead. Mr. McGucket put a hand on his shoulder.

              “Yer a very interestin’ young man,” he said.

              Damn, and he doesn’t even know I’m half-orc.

              “I’d like to have many more conversations with ya.  But since yer likely to woo my daughter, I have no doubt I’ll have plenty of opportunities to chat.”

              “I might not court her,” Stan said quietly.  The second he spoke, he knew it was a lie.  There was no chance he wouldn’t shoot his shot.

              “It’d be a shame if ya didn’t, since ya have not just my blessin’, but that of my wife, too.”  Mr. McGucket squeezed Stan’s shoulder.  “And not to mention, we wouldn’t push ya to court if we didn’t think it would go well.” Stan swallowed.  “All right, ya can go back to denyin’ now.  I have to go run a few errands, and you have some chores.”

              Recognizing the dismissal for what it was, Stan headed for the barn. As he approached, Angie emerged from it. She caught sight of him and waved. Stan’s heart did yet another backflip upon seeing her.  She came over to him.

              “Were ya in the woods with my pa?” she asked.

              “Yeah.  Don’t worry, he didn’t try to hunt me or anything.  He just wanted to talk.”

              “What were you talkin’ ‘bout?”

              “How you’re actually a long-lost elven princess,” Stan said casually. Angie gasped and punched his shoulder. “Nah, it was just weird stuff where he called me ‘son’ a lot and wanted to know about my family.”

              “He called ya ‘son’, huh?”

              “Yeah.”

              “Sounds to me like he was askin’ ‘bout yer fam’ly ‘cause he considers ya part of ours.”  Angie winked. “Good luck with that.”  Stan grinned confidently.

              “I think I can handle your family.  I mean, I handle you all right,” he said.  Angie threw her head back and laughed.

              “I’ll let ya continue to think that.”

#hhhhhh I love writing Stan simping for Angie and vice versa. just love me some Stangie #btw no clue when I'll write the finale for this story arc #hopefully during my days off for Thanksgiving next week #Stangie #Stanley Pines #Angie McGucket #Lute McGucket #Pa McGucket #McGucket Family #DnD AU #ficlet #my writing #my stuff #speecher speaks

[a-lonely-tatertot]

Finding Home

A/N: AAH I am so sorry this took so long to update!! And for anyone who didn’t understand the last update it was sorta Snapchat update and once again my beta for this was @bookwyrminspiration

Word count: 3607

Chapter 4: Change of Plans

There was a feeling of freedom that he used to feel every day. Tam missed that feeling as he dragged his sleepy body through the halls of Foxfire. He wanted to laugh. Why, in any world, was he here? He had been outlawed once before, seemingly too dangerous for them. And now here he was, spending day after day teaching children who didn’t understand how wrong their ways were; how to use the gifts they neglected for so long.

“Sir! Sir, is this how you do it?” a kid in the back asked as he floated a few inches in the air. He wobbled as he got higher and tilted from side to side trying not to lose his progress. Tam looked over in approval; he smiled a small smile, and the kid broke out in a grin.  

By the time the bell sounded with a shrill most of the kids had figured out how to float a few inches. Just a normal day, he thought as the next swarm of children came loudly into the clearing.

-

It had been a day since Sophie had gotten Linh’s number, and it had been five hours since the last time Linh texted her. She was using every bit of her self-control to not spam random comments about her classes that were so blatantly desperate cries for attention. Sophie wouldn’t be a clingy girlfriend. That wasn’t her personality. Right?

She wasn’t able to resist the urges that pulled her eyes to her phone screen or the corner of her laptop, begging for a notification to pop up. Quantum Physics was the one class she could actually pay attention to, something she was interested in to get her mind off of the girl who was probably busy working. With many glares and smacks on the arm, Amy drilled it into her head that Linh was “just busy” and Sophie herself had “done nothing wrong.” Sophie doubted both of these but played along for her sister’s sanity.

“What if her feelings have changed?” she asked at lunch, anxiously tapping her finger on the plastic table. Amy raised her eyebrow and looked seconds from dropping her head in her cheese fries.

“Then she’ll get the reward for the fastest change of heart, it’s been three days,” she said and rolled her eyes.

“My relationship with Fitz lasted for like three weeks,” Sophie said matter-of-factly. It was roughly true; even with her perfect memory, days and nights back then ran together making exact times hard to determine.

“That doesn’t count, you guys weren’t technically dating,” Amy brushed off as she slurped the last of her shake. “Plus, she wrote you a note, that’s pretty serious.” Sophie shrugged and tried not to reach for her phone again.

-

“I miss running,” Linh said, staring at her plate. They had been eating dinner, some new recipe that Biana had introduced Linh too. It tasted a bit bland but Tam really couldn’t care about the taste;  he was too busy replaying Linh’s words. Running had been the worst years of his life. Trying to find places to stay, not knowing if he could find food, knowing that the next day would be even more brutal. “I know what you’re thinking,” Linh said with a sigh. He made a noise in response.

“I don’t mean the life or death stuff, that was horrible. I mean like the times that we found that river? Or that field with hundreds of dragonflies! And when the gnomes taught us how to bake and how to make our own clothes! I miss that! I miss it being an adventure,” she said, longing clinging to her words.

He scoffed, “Only you would see it as an adventure.”

“It was more of one than Foxfire will ever be for us.” He couldn’t deny that. The kids didn’t quite need him, and honestly, he felt too young to be teaching them. Never going to the upper levels made his oldest class only a year younger than him, even if he was ages more mature.

Linh studied her plate. “We’re too young for this. For the war we’ve been through. To be teaching children how to fight because the leaders of our world are scared. We need time to grow up.”

That was when he finally got it. “This is about Sophie leaving.”

“It is not!” she shouted. He shook his head, getting up.

“Look,” he said as he started stacking their plates. “I know you two had this weird suppressed emotions thingy that you never talked about, but seriously, it’s been a year since she left.”

Linh sighed. “I miss her but I promise this isn’t about her. I just can’t seem to walk into those halls and teach those kids and not feel like an imposter. Maybe we just don’t belong here, and we’ve never tried belonging in the Forbidden Cities.” Linh was asking for a lot, but by the look on her face, she knew it. He understood what she was saying. He didn’t seem to fit in around the others, and that was okay. He wasn’t supposed to fit. But honestly, he hadn’t talked to the rest of the group in months, and his students were only there for past mistakes, past fears. Mistakes that weren’t his. What did he have to lose?

He stared her in the eye and nodded. “Okay.”

Packing was simple; he still had his old duffle. Dex gave them a harddrive identical to Sophie’s and stole a leaping crystal from the Council for them. “What they don’t know won’t hurt them,” he said with a wink. He was the only one they told; it was easier that way. That way once they were gone Dex could simply say they’d left and reassure everyone that they weren’t dead.

The night they chose was cold, very cold. Snow fell around them in slow motion. It covered the hills, the house, the bushes, everything. The only thing colder than the snow was the icy determination on her face, but he knew underneath she was ecstatic. He reached into his pocket and grabbed the small crystal, Here we go, he thought. This was no time for going back, for second thoughts, for last-minute grabs. This was Tam, this was the way he made the decision to follow his sister because he didn’t have second thoughts when it was Linh.

-

Linh picked her up from school, making her heart skip a beat and anxiety settle itself into a solid in her stomach. A huge grin, bright eyes, and a beanie holding her chaotic hair in place greeted her. The sun’s rays fell in her eyes as she jogged blindly to the dirty white truck. “Didn’t take you for the truck type,” Sophie remarked as she reached Linh.

“It’s actually Chris’s—my boss—he thought picking up my girlfriend was a valid enough reason to take the afternoon off and use his truck. Especially since I got Beth to take my shift,” she threw a smirk over her shoulder and crossed to the driver’s side.

Sophie switched the music twelve times until Linh grabbed her hand to stop her. She focused on the warmth of the hand covering hers to distract herself from the thoughts in the back of her mind, questions that wouldn’t go away, but if she asked them they would sound ridiculous. Linh didn’t need to know about the crazy anxiety underneath. Not yet, not for a while, so Sophie focused on Linh’s hand, her callouses, the lines, her fingers laced between Sophie’s.

“So do I call you Amilia?” Linh asked through the crippling silence.

That made her think. At home, she could be Sophie, and in her head, she was Sophie, sometimes to Amy she was Sophie. To the rest of the world she was Amilia, but maybe it would make sense for Linh to know her how she always had. Shaking her head she responded, “No, to you, I don’t think I’ll ever really be Amilia.”

That was that, Linh only nodded and started dancing to the song that was playing. Sophie watched her and laughed, singing along in her own horrible voice, and forgetting about the emotions that had risen with her own words.

The afternoon carried on, window shopping and debating if frozen custard was better than ice cream. Half the time Sophie’s face was burning and her heart almost beat its way out of her chest every time Linh laughed. It was normal, completely and utterly normal. If it was a movie Sophie would’ve fallen asleep and Amy would’ve been acting like the action had only just begun. Part of her mind wanted to know if Amy had ever felt like this. Part of her wanted to know if the feeling ever went away.

-

“What is this place?” Tam asked her. There were hundreds of towering buildings staring down at them, watching. The glass, the lights, the cameras on street corners and shops; it was overwhelming. On the other hand, Linh looked completely in her element. She looked like herself for the first time. He still resisted the urge to put himself in front of her and this new world. This wasn’t his place, but it was Linh’s and because of that he would make it.

“It’s called Denver,” she responded, and there was a look in her eyes that Tam didn’t like.

He didn’t like any of this. “Come on dear brother, Dex gave us the address for a ‘hotel’ to stay in.” The look on her face suggested that there was more to do than just find the hotel.

They headed west, trying to tell the building apart from the others. Tower after tower went by and crowds of people trapped them. Swarmed on every side, talking, moving, crashing into one another. Colors, sounds, shapes, things he had never seen. It took everything in him not to jump every time a person bumped him, to not take a friendly smile as a threat. This, this is what he'll always remember of running. How when they got to the dwarven cities he clutched Linh's hand just to know she was still there. When their parents kicked them out and everyone they knew suddenly turned against them. He'll always remember the blood pounding in his ears, the buzz of his veins, the thoughts like arrows in his head.

His throat went dry, and his voice broke when he spoke, "Linh, Linh I don't like this."

"Come on, it's not far!" She didn't even look back. So Tam kept going even as his mind began to scream danger and begged to turn back. She needs this, Tam thought.

But why? a part of him asked, and he quickly tuned it out. He didn't have second thoughts with Linh.

-

They pulled into the apartment complex as the sun started to set below the city line. Sophie laughed when Linh ended up getting lost three times. She didn’t say that she knew it was on purpose. She didn’t say that she, too, wasn’t ready for the night to end. Only laughed and gave her the right directions again and again.

The big black numbers on the side of her building came into view and for a split second she thought about not pointing them out, but Linh had already seen them. The steering wheel turned too fast for Sophie’s liking as they pulled into a parking spot next to the stairs. Doors shut softly in the dark silence of the night, and the stairs seemed shorter than she remembered. She wished there was a way to slow down time to make this moment at her door last a bit longer just so she could look at Linh one more time.

“So, I guess this is it,” Linh said softly, barely audible over the wind.

“Yeah, I guess it is,” Sophie looked up at her eyes, they were bright in the dark of night. They glistened and held something behind them like she was waiting for permission. It gave Sophie a burst of confidence and she asked, “Or you could stay the night?”

Linh’s eyes widened and for a beautiful, heart-stopping second Sophie thought she would say yes. She laughed nervously and said, “I think that there’s an unspoken rule about not staying the night after a first date.”

Sophie opened her mouth to respond when the door swung open loudly behind her to reveal Amy in fuzzy socks and some form of mismatched pajamas. “Yes! There is! It’s called: Sibling Gossip Time so get-“ Amy said hurriedly and out of breath.

“Amy!” Sophie exclaimed, Amy only rolled her eyes. “I am so sorry about her, but yeah she’ll probably kill me if she doesn’t get an update. Tam would probably be worried if you didn't come home, I'd rather he not kill me." For a moment Sophie thought that Linh’s eyes widened in surprise, thrown off by the mention of Tam. She pushed the thought out of her head trying not to think what it meant.

With an easy smile, Linh pecked her on the cheek, momentarily freezing Sophie’s brain, and gave a small wave to Amy and made her way down the stairs. Sophie could only stare after, words in her throat but not getting any farther.

-

A month later, they had found a place to stay outside of hotels and motels. Tam was able to find a job at a grocery store while Linh worked afternoons at a restaurant down the street. The moon was high in the sky and Tam was finally falling asleep when Linh stumbled through the door. A small crashing sound followed the door closing. "Linh?" he called out hesitantly, "Are you okay?"

A ray of light revealed her disheveled face. Makeup ran down her cheeks and her hair was disheveled. "Clearly not," she said, a bite in her words.

"What happened to you?" he asked, throwing off the covers.

"Go back to bed."

Tam stared at her, eyebrows furrowed, eyes wide, "No I'm not leaving you alone."

"I’m telling you to leave me alone. I am fine."

"Did I do something?"

Linh groaned. “Well yeah, you weren’t supposed to see this.

“But I did, now what?”

Linh whirled on him, “Now, you stop asking questions and forget about it, got it? I don’t need your help.”

Her nostrils flared and she stared at him with a fury he’d seen before but always directed at other people; for once he was scared of his baby sister. He had so many more questions and concerns but he’d never seen her so angry before, so reckless. For once he was scared of what she’d do. “Okay,” he said simply. He wished he hadn’t.

The moment the door closed Amy dragged her to the couch and forcibly sat Sophie down. “Tell me everything,” Amy said, eyes narrowing.

“Well she picked me up from school,” Sophie started, trying not to laugh.

“Well yeah; I already knew that but it does give her some bonuses for being classic,” Amy nodded.

Sophie halted, staring at her sister quizzically. "I'm sorry are you testing my girlfriend?"

"Oh sweetie, what else did you expect me to do?"

"Be normal?" Sophie raised her eyebrow, but Amy only laughed. So, Sophie continued and recollected the night. Only a few times Amy butted in with comments.

When she finished Amy hesitated and asked, “Did you guys talk about Tam at all?”

Startled, Sophie said, “No, why?”

A look crossed Amy’s face that she didn’t quite like, “I just think you should ask her about him.”

And that was that; Tam didn’t get brought up, and neither did Linh. Shoveling oven pizza in their mouths in between words, Amy hopped from topic to topic like their conversation never happened. Avoidance, Sophie knew the strategy all too well; she played along anyway. It was easier that way.

-

Linh wasn't talking to him. No matter how many times he tried, through notes, through shadows, through everything he could think of. She pretended he didn't exist, spending nights out more often or avoiding him completely when they ended up home together. Tam was lost. This was who they were, they didn't fight, they tried not to argue, and when they did Linh always came to him to talk it out. That's what he did. He waited for her to come to him.

He took as many shifts as he could, some days he watched the sunrise and set through the dirty glass. He didn't talk to coworkers as much as they tried, he didn't need new attachments. It happened slowly, realizing that he didn't see Linh anymore. She was either out doing something when he got home or passed out on the couch. Tam didn't know how he could help if she wouldn't let him.

The first thing he noticed was that she wasn't sleeping. At night he started to pretend to be asleep and see if she would get up. Every night, after thirty minutes of laying there, she'd get up and go out. She didn't sleep, the bags under her eyes grew. So did the hole in his stomach.

Then she stopped coming home at all. She'd leave a note saying she was gone, at this party or another, taking one more shift so they could pay for rent. There was always a reason. The only sign of his sister was the laundry basket that would sometimes appear by the door while he slept.

"Where's my work clothes dammit!" It was the first time she spoke to him in two weeks.

"What?" Tam asked the air, still bewildered by the fact that she was talking.

"My work clothes! I've gotta take Wyatt's shift and mine tonight which means I'll be like the only person there and I need my work clothes! Wyatt's gonna kill me if I'm late I can’t be demoted- they were right here I swear!" she threw up her hands and paced.

"Calm down calm down-"

"Don't you tell me to calm down-"

"Oh, I'm sorry the first time you've talked to me you're losing your shit over something simple-"

"Well I for one would like to pay for rent and I need my freaking work clothes to do it!" she glared at him with fury he hadn't seen before.

"Well if you actually talked to me you'd realize I got promoted so you don't need to worry about rent right now!" Tam yelled back, throwing his arms out.

"I'm not talking to you? I never see you to talk to you anymore!"

"That’s because you're always out making some other mistake that I am not going to join in on!"

"This would've never happened if you just stayed HOME!" she yelled and her voice cracked a bit, "You were happy doing the same damn thing over and over again. You would've thrived there."

"You asked me to come, you asked me for Sophie, for adventure. I said yes because I didn't want to fix our world's problems but this isn't better," Tam’s eyebrows furrowed and his tone implored.

"Yeah well, maybe you should just go home because clearly being here isn't doing anything for you. I should've never told you I was leaving, that was my only mistake," she said her voice calm.

Somehow that hurt more than when she was yelling. Linh gave him a final, pitying look before she closed the door behind her with a final slam.

The door closed, and he could hear her feet receding and he made his decision. He didn’t belong here, but maybe Linh did, and he had to trust she’d be okay without him.

-

Laying alone in her bed Sophie studied the ceiling. Why hadn’t Linh talked about Tam? Or at least mentioned him? She tried not to think about it. It wasn’t her business anyway. Why would she hide it though? her brain asked.

Sophie could think of a thousand reasons.

But what if she doesn’t trust you?

Chilling air brushed against her toes and she pulled them back under the fluffy blanket and curled herself in a ball. The fan on the ceiling still made noise every time she turned it on, a soft, tick, tick, tick. The wind was loud. Her distrust was louder. It ticked through her thoughts as she drifted, still, she couldn’t shake the cold dread coming over her.

-

Tam left. He cleaned up his stuff, washing his clothes in the meager washer and dryer and throwing them into a duffle bag. By the time the moon had risen he was all packed. He grabbed the elven crystal from under his pillow and held it up to the moon. With a flash, he was back in the clearing they had left in a half a year earlier. This time, Fitz was standing there, startled like a scared deer, staring at him like he had seen a ghost.

"Dex said you weren’t coming back," Fitz finally said barely above a whisper.

"Plans change," Tam said simply. "Where are you going?"

"Following your lead I guess, hoping I last a bit longer," he responded, staring at the crystal in his hand. There was a look in his eyes that Tam wanted to understand and in a split second of impulsiveness, he made a decision.

"Mind if I hitch a ride?" he asked, Fitz gave him a crooked smile.

"Thought you'd never ask."

-

Finally, drifting off, Sophie’s mind was still on Linh, on Tam. Questions that she didn’t know how to ask. Without her control, her mind searched for them. That night, her dreams were filled with memories that were not hers.

#Sophie foster #kotlc #tam song #fitz vacker #keepers of the lost cities #dex dizznee #kotlc fic #finding home #solinh #linh song #tater writes

[neverwatchedonepiece]

630-631: "Explore! A Kingdom of Love and Passion - Dressrosa!" and "Full of Enthusiasm! The Corrida Colosseum!"

Zoro in therapy, thinking about all the times Sanji called him “Moss Head.”

Well, episodes 630 and 631 were a great start to the longest arc in OP history so far. 

Oda has done a good job at creating a sense of place and hinting at the unique culture of the island (toys, anyone?) A new, mysterious and intimidating character has appeared. There is an old, local legend about thieving fairies (I am sure there is more to this than meets the eye). Plus the Temptation of Luffy plot is up and running!

Brook Gently Suggests Assaulting Minors Maybe Isn’t the Best Idea

Sunny has laid anchor! The Strawhats have finally set foot on the island! Well, some of them have.

The first scene in episode 630 was where Oda took time to split up the group. He always does it but in the past it hasn’t been organised with such clinical precision. Usually, something awful happens, or a plot point needs investigated, and they are broken up into teams. This time, Law had a master plan.

Luffy wanted to head straight into town. Law was all for that but warned everyone to remain on guard. If they failed to destroy the SMILE factory, it would ruin their plans. Law tore his vivre card in half and handed a piece to Nami. He warned her if anything happened to them, she had to sail straight for Zou. The vivre card would point there.

He then unveiled a hilarious map that looked like it’d been drawn by a kid with some crayons. One of Law’s crewmates designed it. (I hope it’s not his navigator, lmao.) Courtesy of said map, we now have the lie of the land. Doflamingo’s palace is at the centre of Dressrosa. Law guessed the SMILE factory might be nearby. The Caesar Handover Team - consisting of Law, Robin and Usopp - will travel on foot through Dressrosa and cross the Very Long Bridge north to Green Bit. They cannot travel on foot because Law heard it’s impossible to reach Green Bit by water. (Maybe it’s a rocky cliff coastline all the way round?)

As I have watched other shounen anime before, I have a sneaking suspicion it might take them a Very Long Time to cross the Very Long Bridge. (I am also happy to be proven wrong.)

Staying behind on Sunny to ensure news of whatever happens arrives in Zou are: Nami, Brook, Chopper and Momonosuke. Chopper was not exactly happy about not having Sanji around to protect them. This is it, Chopper! It’s your time to shine. Plus, you have Brook there. You forget how badass he can be.

There was a weird little moment when Luffy got into a funny argument with Momonosuke because Momo wouldn’t fly Luffy into Dressrosa. Luffy (and everyone who watched Punk Hazard) recalled that Momo almost flew out of the garbage dump in a sort of trance. But Momo does not remember that happening at all. And even if he did, he would never do such a dreadful thing again!

Then there was a tiny flashback of a guy with a deep, booming voice reaching out to grab Momonosuke. His only words: “What’s your name?”

I wonder why Momo has a fear of flying? Did this happen to him at Punk Hazard? It can’t have happened in Wano because he wasn’t a dragon then. Who grabbed him? Or who hurt him? Hmmm...

Not sure if it’ll be resolved any time soon because the focus for the rest of 630 and 631 was on the Factory Destroying Team! AKA Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, Franky and Kinemon.

BARCEROMA!

Before the plot marched on, the Narrator appeared to give us a handy-dandy summary of Dressrosa: the Kingdom of Love and Passion. 

@meheartonepiece You were right about the Spanish connections here. More specifically, Acacia Port Town gives me Barcelona vibes. The buildings are definitely Gaudi-inspired. There was a ton of seafood dishes on offer. Acoustic guitarists accompanied flamenco dancers in street performances. Even the warren of streets reminded me of the Gothic Quarter. It’s pretty cool. Oda has taken a bit of time to really build a strong sense of place.

And did I mention there is a sizable population of sentient puppets and toys living alongside humans?

Dressrosa: the Kingdom of Love, Passion and Toys.

I get the feeling Perona would love this place. Then again, the toys here can talk back, so maybe not.

Luffy and Franky Don’t Do Dress Codes

Meanwhile, the Factory Destruction Team had made it to Acacia Port Town. Kinemon had come good with extremely sophisticated disguises. Shades, suits and ‘staches. Classic.

They were initially weirded out by the toy population of Dressrosa (a serious-looking teddybear sat reading a newspaper at a pavement cafe, lmao). But Luffy recovered quickly and was like, “Let’s eat!”

As they dived into a nearby bar, Zoro sensed the approach of another. An old, blind dude with wicked facial scars who wore clacky, traditional wooden shoes (geta?) and walked with the aid of a stick. As soon as I saw this guy I thought, “Yup. Here comes a badass.”

Zoro almost drew his sword, but the guy slowly walked past Zoro, then turned and said, “Excuse me, I heard there is a gambling house around here. Do you know where it is?”

Zoro apologised, said this was his first time on the island but that the guy might try the bar across the street.

Inside, the Destruction Team were waiting for their food order. Foxfire was impatient. He did not like all this waiting around! Franky, who is sensible, reminded him they needed intel before making a move. Sanji noticed all the people were oddly calm for a state whose king just abdicated without warning.

“Maybe these people don’t know yet,” Zoro suggested.

Hmm... not sure about that. Maybe they all know he’s up to something. So far, his people are pretty confidence in Doflamingo’s competence as a ruler.

Then the food arrived, along with a strange little local legend. Since it was mentioned twice by Oda, I’m thinking it’ll be important to take note of it.

Sanji asked why one of the dishes was called “Fairy Pumpkin.” The toy waiter who brought it explained that it comes from the Dressrosa legend of the fairy guardians, who used to watch over Dressrosa for years. No one, however, has seen them in years. But that doesn’t stop them pilfering stuff.

Stealing stuff? That is definitely suspicious. Would not be surprised if a real, non-fairy thief is later unmasked in a Scooby Doo moment.

“Y U STEAL MY SWORD??”

“Would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for you meddlin’ Strawhats!”

Or, you know, there is a chance it *could* be fairies.

Might be an Underpants Gnomes type situation.

Step 1: Steal Stuff Step 2: ??? Step 3: Profit

But I had no time to dwell on the puzzle of the supposed fairy guardians, as the old guy Zoro encountered swanned back into the action and was the centre of a Really Cool Scene.

This. Guy.

While Luffy and co were tucking into their amazing food (seriously, I am hungry just thinking abouit the lovely food you can buy in Dressrosa), there was a commotion at another table.

The Old Dude had found the gambling table and was running an amazing streak of luck. At roulette, every time he placed a bet, his colour would come up. He had guessed right fourteen times in a row.

Of course, some dodgy characters entered the scene. I knew as soon as I saw them that they existed to have their asses kicked by this guy. A shambling bunch of hype fodders.

They challenged Old Dude to a game and basically cheated him out of the win every single time. If Old Dude guessed white, they’d lie and say it was black. Because Old Dude couldn’t see. So it was alright to cheat him, right?

As Old Dude placed all his chips on a final mega wager, the Fodders were about to cheat. Then a familiar voice piped up, “It’s white.”

Exposed as cheaters, the Fodders snapped, “It’s black, idiot!”

Luffy, monching away on his squid ink spaghetti, repeated himself. “It’s white. Old man, you win!”

Old Dude thanked Luffy for his kindness. Luffy was like, “No bother. I just said what I saw. But why are you even bother with these losers? You look strong.”

When the Fodders attacked, Old Dude tripped one easily. Then a fantastic beatdown commenced.

“It’s no good. Young man, could you stand aside for a moment? I’m going to send these people to hell.”

Ohhhhh, man. 

It was beautiful.

I’m still not entirely sure what actually happened, but Old Dude appeared to slash up the Fodders. Except he didn’t. There wasn’t a mark on them. But as he walked, a mysterious pressure forced them downwards, with such intensity it cracked the floor and they plummeted into a huge hole.

Zoro wondered if Old Dude was a Devil Fruit eater.

I’m wondering if that alone was the power of his haki.

At any rate, Old Dude made a swift exit, handed the maitre-d’ a card to where he could send the repair bills (nice guy). He seems to be Mega Famous, as the maitre-d’ recognised his name instantly. Sanji spotted it too. “Is this guy Extraordinarily Infamous, or something?”

Alas, his name was not revealed. But I have a suspicion Old Dude has seen through Luffy’s disguise, as he said it wouldn’t be a good idea to let slip his identity, “For the sake of both of us.”

Is he friends with Rayleigh, or something? Maybe a pirate? I actually have no idea. Maybe he’s just looking into events on Dressrosa and will be a temporary arc ally (like Vivi in Alabasta).

The Temptation of Luffy

Again, I did not have time to dwell on the mystery of Old Dude, as the Fairies had been hard at work during the chaos of the fight.

Everyone in the place had been robbed blind. Their reactions were quite strange. “Oh, well. If the Fairies did it, we’ll just have to forget about all your valuable stuff.” 

Are you serious? I’d be charging straight after them!

And Zoro agreed with me because Shusui had been taken. Luckily, he spotted it tied to a sack that was halfway out the window. Of course, Zoro took off. Kinemon ran after him, “RETURN THE PRECIOUS NATIONAL TREASURE OF WANO KINGDOM!” and Sanji tore after both of them because they DIDN’T HAVE TIME TO LET ZORO WANDER (lmao).

Within minutes, Kinemon lost Zoro and Sanji but was being watched from a dark alleyway by a guy with a gold, spiky helmet.

Luffy was inches away from joining the chaos, but Franky held him back. He had an idea. I’m not sure if it turned out to be the best one, or not, but it certainly moved the plot along (thanks, Franky!)

Luffy and Franky grabbed one of the Fodders and dragged him down another dark alleyway for an... informational interview.

“You’re working under Doflamingo, yeah?” Franky demanded.

“So what? You think you can mess with the Young Master on Dressrosa and get away with it?”

Franky punched the wall above him with just enough force for the guy’s life to flash before his eyes (probably).

He spilled what he knew. He remembered going after a few Samurai but had no knowledge of SMILE. He’d never even heard of it. Franky and Luffy guessed this guy was such a Fodder he wasn’t high-ranked enough to be in the know. So the next step was finding a few who did occupy such high office.

It turned out the Corrida Colosseum (where Diamante is the local hero) was having a special event. All the high-rankers, the great and the good would be there. Doflamingo had offered up a special prize. Everyone wanted it.

I knew even before the Colosseum commentator revealed it that the prize was Ace’s fruit.

This is cool.

Doflamingo is laying the bait, knowing Luffy won’t be able to resist.

And Law isn’t there to guard Luffy against temptation. 

He’s going straight for that apple in paradise, isn’t he?

We all know that look. That is not a good look.

#one piece #neverwatchedonepiece #nwop #never watched one piece #monkey d. luffy #blind swordsman #roronoa zoro #sanji #usopp #nami #tony tony chopper #nico robin #franky #brook #trafalgar law #foxfire kinemon #momonosuke #donquixote doflamingo #portgas d. ace #kanjuuro #dressrosa #corrida colosseum

[chemicalmagecraft]

I Would Totally Kick Jiraiya’s Butt Chapter 5

A/N: Sorry 'bout taking so long to do any actual writing. I kinda got really into this one thing I was reading and totally forgot to write for this for a while. The sleep deprivation and writer's block probably didn't help either.

"I was reading a thing" is probably a bad excuse, huh? Sorry.

Edit: Added two little bits that I thought of after posting that I really wish I thought of before. Have fun finding them!

kukukuku~

I knocked on Father's door. "You can come in," he said. I opened the door and he looked up at me. "Ah, Kouki-kun. Do you need anything?"

I sighed as I closed the door behind me. Better to get this over with immediately. "I have something that I'd like to try, but I want someone who can see chakra to give me their opinion if I have a bit of trouble with it," I told him as I sat down. I figure that not telling your adoptive dad that you have demonic powers when he has the ability to sense demonic powers is bound to blow up in your face. Might seem far-fetched, but it is possible. "Just please don't blow up on me before I have a chance to explain," I pleaded.

"Why would I do that?" he asked.

"Just please don't." I closed my eyes and turned my chakra-sensing on myself. Just as Kurama had told me to do, I looked for the parts of my chakra that were mine, but also... not mine. I made it, but it was also Kurama's in origin. I consolidated most of it into a core in my chakra coils, which caused the rest to gravitate towards it. I could feel the shift in my powers, my two types of chakra separating so that I could use the red chakra. I tapped into that new pool of chakra, feeling some of the surprisingly calm demonic chakra bubble to the surface, gathering in the palm of my hand. 

I opened my eyes to faintly see the red chakra dancing like a fire on my palm. I understood why it didn't feel like I thought it would; it was based on intent. Kurama's chakra was so dangerous to Naruto because he specifically wanted to do as much harm as possible to Naruto. When bijū chakra was used without that harmful intent, however, it seemed that it was a lot more docile, which explained the lack of danger involved in Naruto using nine tails chakra mode.

I could still feel Father's gaze trying to burn a hole through my hand, though. "Kouki," he said in a voice that made it clear that he was trying his absolute best not to freak out, "why do have the chakra of the Kyūbi no Kitsune?"

I let the "foxfire" die out and nervously put my hand behind my head. "I apparently absorbed some of it when he attacked the village?"

"And how exactly did you find this out?" he asked.

"I'm going to have to explain a few things first," I told him as I put my hands on my lap.

"Why?"

I clenched the fabric of my shirt a bit. "I just have to get this out of the way because you're going to ask about it anyway," I clarified. "First, the Kyūbi was controlled by a Konoha missing-nin that night." I paused. "Does it count as a missing-nin if he was declared dead before he even had the intention of betraying the village?"

He twitched slightly. "If he dropped a bijū on the village, the answer is a resounding yes. I think I can see where this is going."

"Okay, so it turns out that bijū are telepathic and very sapient," I clarified.

"And there it is," he muttered. "So the Kyūbi sensed its... his?" I nodded. "His chakra on you and contacted you from his prison, is that what happened?"

"Close," I said. "First, his name is Kurama. Second, Kurama can't actually use his telepathy all that well from within the seal. I accidentally established a mental link between us by using my chakra-sensing on him, then he was able to use that to scan my chakra for traces of his power. I managed to establish myself as... an ally, I suppose. I doubt he'd consider me a friend, but he definitely warmed up to me thanks to the fact that I'm probably one of only two humans that have shown him compassion and respect as a person."

Father was silent for a few moments. "Okay." He didn't seem angry, but I was still not going to provoke him. "I suppose that that's good. Is there anything else about... Kurama... that I should know about?"

I nodded. "I offered Kurama Fluffy-san's body if he knew of some way to transfer his mind to it without affecting the seal. He told me that he once thought of a jutsu that would transfer just his mind to another body, but never got the chance to use until now due to not having anyone who would use it for him."

"I'd be careful, but if you say it's safe, then I'll trust you."

"It's pretty safe," I reassured him. "He'd pretty much be completely dependent on me, anyway, so there's no need to worry."

"Good," he said. "I suppose I'll have to talk to Kurama once you get him. Perhaps you should talk to Hokage-sama about this, though."

I nodded. "I'll do that." I looked into the future a bit. "I should be able to do it later tonight." I started to walk to the door. "Thanks for not blowing up on me."

kukukuku~

"Come on, Kouki-chan!" the excitable blond shouted as he dragged me along with him, unsuspecting of the yin chakra that was seeping into his chakra network. I felt a little bad about it, but it wasn't hurting him and it was doing the opposite to Kurama, so the feeling passed quickly.

"You don't have to tug so hard, Naru-chan," I complained. "Where are we going, anyway?" I already knew what it was (stupid spoilers), but Naru-chan seemed so excited to show me, so I played dumb.

He grinned at me. "You'll see!" He proceeded to drag me through the village until we reached a ramen stall. I'd never seen it in person, but I recognized it immediately. "Ta-daaaaah!" Naru-chan exclaimed.

"Ichiraku Ramen," I read flatly. "You found a ramen stand." I shrugged. "It's lunchtime anyway. Are we eating here?" Naruto answered by walking under the cloth... flap things. What are those called? There's probably a name for them but I don't know it. I walked in after him and took a seat next to him.

"Ah, Naruto-kun," the kind-looking man behind the counter said. "Is this that Kouki boy you told me about?" Naruto nodded vigorously. Teuchi chuckled. "It's good to meet you, Kouki-kun. Do you two boys want some ramen?"

"Thank you," I muttered. "And thank you also for being kind to Naru-chan, Ichiraku-san."

Teuchi nodded. "It's all good! And call me Teuchi. My name... just isn't Ichiraku..." He served us two bowls of ramen.

"How much is it?" I asked, reaching into my pocket for the storage seal wallet that I'd made with some help.

"On the house," he said, pushing the bowl towards me.

I shook my head. "I have plenty of money and the only other things that I have to spend all of it on is candy and books, seeing how Father provided me with sealing material. Let me pay you."

"I'm surprised you'd want to pay for your food if I was offering to give it for free," he said.

"That's a really offensive stereotype," I jokingly said. He acquiesced after some sounds of confusion and I gave him the money I insisted I owed him. Only after that did I touch the noodles that I paid for. Let me just say this; comparing instant ramen to Ichiraku ramen would be like comparing fruit snacks to Dove chocolate. Sure, they're both good, but you just don't. I could definitely see how Naruto became so fixated on ramen if Teuchi kept giving him free food. "I still feel like I'm not paying enough for this," I commented. "It tastes so good." Though I must say, the noodles reminded me of spaghetti, which I also would not have turned down. I would have killed for spaghetti. Or garlic bread. Or calamari. "Calamariiiii..." I thought.

"I know, right?" Naru-chan said through the noodles in his mouth, knocking me out of my Italian tangent thoughts.

I sighed. "Please swallow your food before talking, Naru-chan." He was starting to remind me of my little sister, which made me a little melancholy. The lack of table manners didn't help, seeing as she did that constantly. I was really starting to miss her, even if her inability to swallow before talking constantly got on my nerves. I pushed that thought aside as fast as it emerged. It wouldn't do to randomly start crying over no reason. I ate my ramen in silence, listening to Naruto's antics, occasionally nodding and grunting to confirm that I was still listening, and pouring a little more yin chakra into Naruto whenever I had a chance. "Thank you for the food, Teuchi-san," I said when we both finished, then stood up. "Let's go, Naruto. I'll buy you candy."

"Aw yeah, 'ttebayo!" he said as he followed after me.

kukukuku~

I waited until I could feel his chakra approaching, then took a bite of my apple. Fuji apples are good. The Hokage entered the room to the sight of me sitting down on the ceiling and eating an apple. "'Sup," I said.

His eye twitched slightly. "Did you wait to start eating your apple specifically so that I would walk into the room as you started?" he sighed.

I chuckled, swallowed (somehow), and said, "I need to talk to you about something."

"I guessed from the fact that you were on my ceiling," he said drily. "Do you want to get down from there so we can talk?"

I smiled smugly and used chakra threads extending from my tree-walking jutsu to lower myself down from the ceiling like some sort of spider (or some sort of Spider-Man). It wasn't something that I would've been comfortable doing before that day, but with the demonic chakra in my system gathered in one place and not just randomly flowing through my chakra network, my control felt a lot better. At first, I'd been a little worried by the fact that I felt like I had less chakra than normal, but then I realized that that was just the lack of demonic chakra and that my human chakra hadn't really changed much and, if anything, had actually increased slightly. 

"So it turns out I was right about Tobi being Obito," I said. "You remember who I'm talking about, right? The guy who ripped Kurama out of Kushina and made him go on a rampage through the village."

"I know all that," the old man confirmed. "Why are you bringing this up?"

I sat down and took another bite of my apple. "Turns out that I got some of Kurama's chakra when he was rampaging around town somehow," I told him after I swallowed. I made absolutely sure to judge his expression, chakra, and even malice to see if I needed to stop acting so casual, then relaxed when I didn't see anything to be worried about. "So with that, I managed to accidentally contact Kurama, which is how I found out about my inner demon."

"Of course you would accidentally do that," Sarutobi muttered. "Is that what you wanted to tell me?" he asked.

I nodded. "That and the fact that I managed to befriend him and got him to tell me a way to summon only his mind outside of Naruto's seal and into an object of my choosing, which I am going to use to get him to teach me more about seals. I figure that with his help, I can figure out a way to help Gaara pretty easy."

"Good," he said. "Though while we're on the subject of your plans, what are you going to do about the Uchiha incident?"

I shrugged. "Honestly, most of my plan was just 'tell the Hokage about it in as much detail as possible and make him sort it out because he's the one who leads the village.' Sure, I'm going to be pulling some strings from the shadows, but I don't have many strings to pull at the moment."

He nodded. "And what of the Fourth Great Ninja War?"

"That one's easy," I said. "Protect as many of the Edo Tensei victims as possible, with special attention on the jinchuriki. Aside from that, try to dissuade the other members of Akatsuki so I don't have to kill them or invent some form of soul-stealing jutsu so that they can't be brought back, make sure Tenzō doesn't get put in the Zetsu batter, make sure the Zetsu can't do any transformation surprise attacks, and make sure that it's easier for the Allied Shinobi Forces to get rid of the Edo Tensei."

"You don't want to stop the war altogether?"

I'd actually put some thought into that one. "I'm fine if we end up stopping the war, but if we can just make it easier and reduce casualties significantly, then I feel like we might end up with a more peaceful relationship between the hidden villages, which is definitely good."

Hiruzen thought over that for a bit. "You'd make a good Hokage, you know," he told me. I just started laughing at that.

"Nope," I told him when I was done chuckling. "I am not dealing with all that paperwork. I'm totally fine being a surprisingly competent advisor unless nobody else competent enough to run the village is in the running for the hat."

He sighed. "And I suppose you have a similar view on eventually becoming ANBU?"

I rolled my eyes at that. "Like I could act serious long enough to do that. I'll just become such a good ninja that nobody can complain about anything I do so long as it's not actively treason."

"What do you mean by that?"

I licked my lips. "Jiraiya's a trash human being and I don't even know if he's even been in the village since Minato died, but nobody says anything about it because he's -- as much as I hate to admit it -- a decently competent shinobi."

"Why do you hate Jiraiya so much?" he asked with what sounded like a bit of worry in his voice.

I fixed him with my best demonic glare, using a very small amount of my demonic chakra to force my eyes to turn red. "Aside from him being a walking, talking pile of garbage who seems to only be able to think about anything other than naked women for about three hours per day, there's the fact that he has and will continue to severely neglect Naruto. Despite him being Naruto's godfather and knowing it, Naruto doesn't even know the man and will continue to not know him for about nine years, at which point I do admit Jiraiya will teach him some things, but not nearly enough." That last word came out sounding very demonic and was punctuated by me involuntarily squeezing my apple hard enough that it, unfortunately, exploded. That was probably because my red chakra spiked from my heightened emotions. "I'm blaming Jiraiya for that, too," I said offhandedly, then began licking up the apple juice dripping from my hand.

"What... What do you mean, not enough?" he asked.

"I admit that he starts out strong," I explained, "showing him how to walk on water and giving him the toad summoning scroll, but he then derailed himself by just teaching him how to use Kurama's chakra to summon Gamabunta and not giving him any more instruction on what he can do with the summoning jutsu. Rasengan was fine, can't complain about that one. Then he takes Naruto on a three-year-long training trip where he teaches Naruto a couple of better tactics for using shadow clones, how to fight a little better, a bigger Rasengan, and how to dispel genjutsu."

Sarutobi frowned. "It took three years to do that? That doesn't seem like it'd take that long."

"I agree," I agreed (heh). "I admit that he also tried and failed to teach Naruto how to harness Kurama's power, but he gave up on that after getting a scar almost as bad as All Might's. I'm pretty sure that most of the trip Jiraiya spent his time writing books and ogling women, and then occasionally giving Naruto his manuscripts to edit while he 'gathered information.'" I used air quotes around "gathered information" because what am I, a peasant? "Considering how fast Naru-chan learns things like Wind Release, Rasengan, and even things like Sage Mode, there is no excuse for Naruto to have not come out of that three-year trip without at least one long-range jutsu to make use of that ridiculous amount of chakra he has, which would have been supremely useful for him, plus at least a basic knowledge of fuinjutsu. So yeah, Jiraiya's an awful teacher. I'd also like to say that Jiraiya thought nothing of taking Naru-chan's hard-earned money to buy prostitutes and booze, I'd totally do a better job being a father figure for Naru-chan than Jiraiya ever could, and I'm more mature than him, so you can just let him keep screwing around until he meets up with Naruto. I'll deal with him then."

The Hokage sighed and rubbed his temples. "That... that lines up with the number of times I had to discipline him when he was a Jōnin sensei..."

I gave him a flat look. "Why did you ever think he would make a good Jōnin sensei?"

"In my defense, he seemed a little more mature after coming back from Ame, so I thought that making him teach more children would make him get serious. His reasoning behind not wanting to parent Naruto-kun, by the way, was that any of Minato-kun's enemies would put two and two together immediately if Jiraiya were to start taking care of an infant with blonde hair and blue eyes."

"Okay, I respect that and the reason he didn't say of 'I'm not fit to be within fifty meters of anyone below the age of eighteen,' but couldn't he have at least arranged for someone who doesn't hate Naru-chan to pick up the slack? I thought he was a spymaster."

"I don't know, but I highly doubt that anything of the sort ever occurred to him."

"Figures," I said. I tilted my head to the left. The guard that I was tracking to tell when to leave was reaching the position he was in when the next opening was going to arrive. "Gotta go," I said. "I'm sure you'll be fine with what you have so far!" I jumped out the window at exactly the right time, then finally managed to pull my Tree-Swing Jutsu out in midair to swing off into the night.

Sarutobi looked at the puddle that smelled faintly of sweet apples. "You could've at least cleaned up the apple that you exploded," he muttered.

kukukuku~

"Why did you have Hiashi-sama come to watch our spar today?" Neji asked me as he walked to the opposite side of the room from me. True enough, Father was sitting off to the side, watching us.

I grinned. "I've got a new..." I trailed off and thought for a moment. "Let's go with calling it a new jutsu for now. I wanted Father here so that he could observe it and maybe even see if there's anything I should improve. That and he can tell me if my blows are starting to get too dangerous," I answered, then gave the seal of confrontation. Neji mirrored me, then got into his stance. Instead of getting into a combat stance, I continued to remain loose.

Neji frowned. "You should get into your stance," he said. Then he activated his Byakugan. I grinned, licked my lips, and concentrated on the demonic energy hiding within my chakra coils. It bubbled up for a few seconds, then I unleashed it and it flowed throughout my body. Unlike before, when it had just been in my chakra network, now it was being directed to flow through my body with my normal chakra, which was a little different. I felt the odd feeling behind my eyes that happened whenever they turned red and smirked at Neji when he gasped. I just smirked, slowly lowered my sunglasses to my eyes, and made a "come at me" gesture. 

He ran towards me and hit empty air with his palm when I seemed to disappear from where I'd been standing. I looked down on him from above and kicked at his head with my newfound strength. He just barely managed to get his arms up to block, thanks to his Byakugan, but still winced and took a step back from the force. I used his arms as a springboard to jump back and landed on all fours as he stumbled backward from the force. He growled at me and I sprang at him with a fist ready. He sent a palm out to try and intercept me but I easily caught his wrist and used it to pivot into a kick, which caught him in the gut.

It wasn't really a surprise that it was that easy, considering the fact that I'd managed to train up over the weeks to the point where I was almost a match for Neji. Even my relatively very minor Biju boost was more than enough to be very dangerous to someone who wasn't expecting it. When Neji recovered, he made a few signs that I recognized as the clone jutsu signs and ran circles around me as he multiplied a couple of times. Unfortunately for him, I could feel the minor amount of malice generated from his annoyance over my having kicked him even without extending my senses thanks to the demonic yin chakra running through my body like how Naruto did it, but with a lot less chakra thanks to my comparatively higher amount of yin chakra. 

I couldn't yet pick someone out in a crowd, but telling someone's general direction was another matter altogether. Speaking of my higher yin chakra, I used it to seallessly form an illusion by combining Kakashi's and Kurama's lessons to me on genjutsu. I then made a few nonsense seals, followed by that hand-clapping seal that Tenzō often uses when he does wood release. I smirked at every Neji's look of absolute confusion as I pulled my hands apart to reveal the wooden staff forming from my palms, his Byakugan failing to detect anything wrong with the scene apart from me using a Kekkei Genkai with only one known user who was most certainly not me. And dead.

Then the illusion shattered as my knee dug into his gut thanks to me launching myself at him. I actually winced a little because that looked like it hurt a lot. The fake Nejis all poofed as the real Neji was launched into the wall. "Hate..." he groaned, then slumped over and continued with, "you..." I wasn't really worried about that because I couldn't detect any actual hate behind his words, just the annoyance of me having kneed him in the gut.

I stopped the flow of demonic chakra and pushed my glasses back up onto my hair. "Might have overdone that a little, sorry..." I apologized.

"Owwww..." Neji agreed. I chuckled sheepishly, then turned to Father.

"That was impressive," he said. "Obviously, it should be considered a last resort, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't cultivate it at all."

I nodded. "I'm going to want to up my red chakra a lot, too. It'd be nice to manifest a proper cloak eventually." I then looked back over to where Neji was groaning on the floor. "Plus," I added, "I've thought of a few other uses for it too." I walked over to Neji and began molding demonic yang chakra, which was just like molding demonic yin chakra, but in reverse. I'd already tested the basis of the jutsu that I was about to use on myself, so I already knew that I could do it in theory, but I wanted to practice it on someone else in a relatively low-danger environment. I placed my hand on his back and poured the chakra into Neji, almost like how I was empowering Kurama in Naruto but also with a bit of a twist. I "watched" with my chakra-sensing as his body greedily accepted the power I gave it, then automatically began using it on the areas I'd hit. Neji sat up and patted one of the areas I'd kicked him, surprised at how it stopped hurting, presumably. "You're welcome," I said when he gave me a questioning look. Then I sighed and asked, to nobody in particular, "I know I don't have as much yang chakra as I do yin chakra, but how was that almost as draining as the entire fight?"

"What was that?" Father asked.

I grinned. "Demonic yang chakra has a potent regenerative effect. I just dumped some into Neji and forced his body to expend it all on healing." I noticed that Neji was done healing, but he still had some red chakra left. "Can I test something real quick?" I asked.

"Sure, why not?" Neji asked. "You just tested a jutsu that literally involved pumping demonic chakra into my body without asking permission, but sure." I shrugged, grabbed his hand, and made a small cut with Cat Claws. The cut immediately started to steam and closed up almost immediately. "Oh," he said.

"That's what I thought," I muttered. "It's not just healing, but also gives a temporary healing factor if there's leftover chakra... I don't suppose you'll consent to me maintaining your healing factor so I can get more yang chakra? And don't worry, the only possible side-effect I can think of from prolonged exposure would be a permanent healing factor."

"Okay, that actually sounds useful," Neji agreed.

"Cool," I said, then licked my lips. "Now I just need to find a name for the jutsu that makes it sound demonic despite being a healing jutsu..."

"Why does it have to sound demonic?" Father asked.

I rolled my eyes. "I have facial markings that make it look like I'm constantly wearing eyeshadow, I wear all dark colors, someone has called me a demon child, I'm literally friends with a giant demon, I have some of the power of said demon inside me, and I've unironically enjoyed listening to MCR," I listed. "It's gotta sound demonic." They both fell over. Because why not.

kukukuku~

I hugged Fluffy-san for the final time and put him in the middle of the sealing ritual thing. "Goodbye, old friend," I said to him.

"I was only in one scene aside from this and I'm just a figment of your imagination," "he" "said" flatly.

"But what a scene it was," I said faux-dramatically. I licked my lips as I made a series of seals and put Kurama's yin chakra into the toy cat. "Goodnight, sweet prince, and flights of demons sing thee to thy rest..." The sealing array that I'd spent a few whole days painstakingly memorizing and gaining an understanding of enough to use lit up bloodred and moved up to Fluffy-san's back, where they condensed into a small seal with the kanji for nine in the middle before fading from view. "Demon Soul Summoning Jutsu," I intoned. The plush cat's eyes began to glow red (heh, the Kyubi looks like Kyubey) and it twitched before getting up of his own accord.

"This is weird," Neko-Kurama muttered to himself as he stretched out his new body with far more flexibility than it should have. Though to be fair he also shouldn't have been able to move. "I'm here, but I'm still in the seal. I can feel both at once..."

"Everything okay?" I asked with a smile.

He looked up at me, then back down at his body, then around my room. "It's... perfect," he said, and I got the feeling he'd have been on the verge of tears if he had tear ducts. And bodily fluids. I grinned and picked him up. "Wha-HEY!" he protested.

I giggled. "That's good. You should be able to roam around the house like a housecat if you want to. I've already dealt with that. Though, fair warning, you might have to pretend to be my science project around people who aren't me, my father, and the Hokage."

He jumped down from my hands and harrumphed. "Thank you, human. I can walk around on my own, though." His attempt to look dignified was hampered slightly by how adorable he looked.

I pet him, and he harrumphed again before leaning into it. "I just think you're so cute," I told him. He glared at me and I smiled back. "I got an idea from feeling the jutsu that I wanna try. You're free to help me if you want to, but I just want to make it clear again that you can do what you want to."

He walked over to the door (oh my gosh he looked so adorable) and turned back around to look at me. "I might decide to give you some more of my knowledge later if you really need my help that much, but for now I'm going to enjoy the first freedom I've had in many, many years." He walked out the door after I opened it for him, then paused, twitched his tail, and said, "And thank you, Kouki," he said.

kukukuku~

A/N: Again, sorry about the stupid long delay. I think we can all agree that writer's block sucks. Hopefully I'll have Gamer Hero, Deku out sometime this year, lol.

#I Would Totally Kick Jiraiya's Butt #fanfiction #IWTKJB CH5 #Naruto #Naruto Shippuden spoilers

[xfangheartx]

Red Strings- Ch. 2

Ch. 2- Inuyasha’s Lament

Sesshomaru pulled up in front of a gigantic mansion that stood at the top of a flight of stairs, prompting Inuyasha to open the back passenger door and get out. "Don't I get a 'thank you'?" asked Sesshomaru. "Yeah, thanks," Inuyasha said before he muttered "pompous-ass schmuck" under his breath. "I heard that," Sesshomaru said. Before Inuyasha could even open his mouth and retort... "My baby!" "Oh, no..." Inuyasha bemoaned as he turned around, only to nearly be toppled over by a woman that reached up to his chin, wrapping her arms around her. Her hair was so long, she practically dragged it behind her. She was wearing a beautiful dark red velvet dress that reached down to her ankles and she was also wearing a black coat with brown fur trimming around the collar. "OOF!!" Inuyasha cried. "Hi, Mom...!" "Oh, Inuyasha, you're okay!" Izayoi said as she hugged her son. "I was so worried!" She then began to smother his face with kisses. "M-M-Mom! Mom, stop it!" Inuyasha cried. "I-I get it, I love you, too, but come on! Not in front of Sesshomaru! I'm not 5 anymore!!" Sesshomaru smirked while Rin giggled, though she tried to stifle her laughter by covering her mouth. "Thanks, again, Sesshomaru," said Izayoi. "Sorry I interrupted your date." "It's all right," Sesshomaru replied. 'It was worth seeing Inuyasha getting smothered in kisses.'

He then got back into the car, but not before Izayoi looked in through the window. "Bye, Izayoi!" Rin waved. "Bye, Rin," said Izayoi. "Sesshomaru, if you see Satomi, tell her I said hi, won't you?" "Yes, I'll give Mother your regards," Sesshomaru replied as he drove off.

"And as for you, young man," Izayoi said as she grabbed Inuyasha by the ear and dragged him up the stairs, causing him to cry out in pain, "you should know better than to worry your poor mother!" "Ow! M-Mom, ouch! Ow!!" Inuyasha cried. "Let go!! Dammit, I'm 21 years old!!"

"How could you leave so late at night?!" Izayoi asked. "And forget your phone, no less!" "I'm sorry- OW!!" Inuyasha cried. "Mom, that hurts!!" Soon, they were inside, revealing a lavish kitchen with black tile floors that looked so clean, you could eat off of them, and it even came with a bar area that had all sorts of liquor, including premium sake and imported wine. The living room had a 36" plasma screen TV- which, by the way, had a show about a talking sponge- and was set in front of a couch and two extra armchairs with leather upholstery. The sliding door revealed a large pool in the backyard, at least 10 feet wide and 7 feet deep, complete with a diving board. "Don't ever do something like that, Inuyasha Taisho," Izayoi scolded. "From now on, you take your phone with you so that someone can contact you! Do you hear me, young man?!" "Mom, I'm not-" Inuyasha started. "I said 'Do you hear me'?!" Izayoi asked. "...Yes, Mother..." Inuyasha muttered as he planted his rump right on the couch, causing a voice to yelp as he bounced up into the air before landing right back on the cushion. Inuyasha turned to his right to see a little boy of at least 4 or 5 years with red hair that was tied up in a ponytail with a turquoise ribbon. He had on a light blue shirt that had a swirling pattern of greenish-blue flames over the word "FOXFIRE" in dark green letters, as well as a pair of blue shorts. His most prominent features were a pair of golden yellow paws for feet and a bushy tail sticking out of his backside. "Oh, hey, Shippo," Inuyasha greeted as he gently ruffled the boy's hair. "Hi, Inuyasha," Shippo replied. "Welcome home." Shippo was Inuyasha's adopted younger brother. He had been living at Taisho Manor for about a year, now, ever since his father had been murdered by the infamous demon serial killers, the Thunder Brothers, Hiten and Manten. After their arrest, Shippo had nowhere to go and no other known family to turn to, so Izayoi decided to adopt him. At first, it seemed that Inuyasha and Shippo wouldn't get along, but eventually, they grew on each other. As Inuyasha settled onto the couch, he heard a loud bark coming from the hallway followed by the clacking of long claws against the floor, causing the half-demon to smile before he stood up from the couch and pat his chest. Before long, he was jumped upon by a red Akita Inu, who proceeded to smother his face with licks. Thankfully, Inuyasha didn't lose his balance. He just laughed as the dog kissed him while wagging his curly tail. "Hey, Taro!" Inuyasha exclaimed. "I'm happy to see you, too, boy!" Taro barked as he kept licking his master's face. "Dad's mad at you, by the way," Shippo said, causing Inuyasha to sigh as he put the dog down on the floor. "What else is new?" Inuyasha asked while he gave Taro a few strokes on the head. "At least he's still at the fucking office so I don't have to hear it from him." "Hello, son." Inuyasha's eyes went wide and his ears shot straight up before he turned around to see a rather muscular man wearing a police uniform, standing on the third bottom step of the stairs. Just like Inuyasha and Sesshomaru, his hair was as long and white as theirs and he had jagged blue stripes on his cheeks. Strapped to his back was a sword case that held a sword with a pearl in the hilt. "...Hey, what do you know?" Inuyasha asked with a sheepish smile before he glared at Shippo and clenched his fangs. "It's Dad!" Shippo shrugged, not knowing what to say while Taro whimpered and hid under the coffee table, his tail tucked between his legs. "Shippo, go upstairs, please," said Toga, prompting the young fox demon to hop off the couch and head upstairs. "And as for you, Inuyasha, we need to talk." "Toga, not now," Izayoi said as she approached him while handing her son a cup of instant noodles. "Inuyasha's had a rough night and needs some time to relax." "Thanks, Mom," said Inuyasha as he took the cup in his hand and began to eat the noodles before he picked up the remote and flicked the TV onto something else, but then Toga grabbed the remote and clicked the TV off. "Hey!" "Don't you 'hey' me," Toga said before he turned to his wife, "and as for you, Izayoi, don't coddle him because you make things worse." "But Toga-" Izayoi said. "He's a 21-year-old half-demon, living under our roof with no job!" Toga interjected. "You don't gotta rub it in," said Inuyasha as he flicked the TV back on, "and I'm working on the job part, okay?" "What happened to that application I gave you?" asked Izayoi. "You know, the one for WacDaniel's?" "I threw it out," said Inuyasha. "I don't wanna work in a greasy fast food joint. Besides, the burgers aren't that great." Toga grabbed the remote and flicked the TV off, again. "Okay, are you gonna keep doing that?!" Inuyasha questioned. "Yes," Toga began, "because you are going to shut up and listen. This has been going on for too long, Inuyasha. It's bad enough people discriminated against you since the day you came out of your mother, but what do you think people are going to say when they see you now?" "I don't care what people think," Inuyasha said as he turned the TV back on, but Toga promptly shut it back off, again, further irritating him. "You should care!" Toga argued. "Do you know what my friends down at the precinct call you? A lazy deadbeat half-demon who mooches off his parents!" "What are you gonna do?!" Inuyasha asked as he stood up and glared at his father. "You gonna kick me out, like you did to Sesshomaru?!" "That was different!" Toga yelled. "Sesshomaru left of his own free will!" "That's enough!" Izayoi shouted as she got in between them. "Let's not fight...please." "You know something, Dad?" Inuyasha asked. "I don't gotta sit here and take this. I only left last night and got my ass drunk because I wanted to get away from you!" "No," Toga countered. "The reason why you left and got drunk is that you can't get over your dead girlfriend!" "Toga!" Izayoi cried while Inuyasha tensed up. "You said you wouldn't bring that up again!" "...I don't gotta take this shit," Inuyasha cursed as he pushed his way past his father and headed up the stairs. "Inuyasha, I'm telling you this for your own good," Toga said as he glared after his son. "Look...I understand that you loved Kikyo...but you have to move on. It's been three years since her death!" "...Kikyo died because of me," Inuyasha said as he glared at his father. "And I would have saved her sooner if you hadn't been dragging your ass." He then headed up the stairs, and after about 5 seconds, they heard the sound of a slamming door. Toga sighed as he sat down in his chair while Izayoi put her hand on his shoulder. "Are you all right, dearest?" she asked. "...I shouldn't have said that," Toga said. "I just got tired of seeing him act so depressed." "I hate seeing him like that, too," Izayoi said as she sat next to him. "...I just want him to do better, Izayoi," Toga said. "You may think I'm tough on him, but it's only because we can't keep treating him like a child." "...I know," Izayoi said, sadly, "but every time I see him looking so forlorn, I just can't help it. I want to show him he can still lean on his mother for support." "There's a fine line between support and coddling, Izayoi," said Toga. "And...I understand how he feels. He finally had someone who loved him and he loved in return...but then..." He then sighed while Izayoi rubbed his shoulders. "I just pray that one day, our son finds some form of happiness, again," Izayoi said. "That's all I could ever want." "...Me, too," Toga agreed. XXX Inuyasha lied in his bedroom, staring up at the ceiling. The walls were plastered with Aerosmith posters and ACDC. He had a PlayStation 4 hooked up to a 24" Samsung TV and dirty clothes littered the floor. "...They want me to be happy, huh?" he mused as he glanced over at the vent. "Sometimes, I wonder..." Just then, he heard his phone vibrate, causing him to pick it up from his nightstand and swipe his finger on the screen. NEW TEXT MESSAGE FROM MIROKU: "Hey, it's me. U didn't pick up last night. R U OK?"

Inuyasha sighed before he began to tap on the keypad. INUYASHA: "I went to the bar last night. Forgot my phone. Had 2 much 2 drink. Just got home a while ago. My jerkass brother dropped me off."

There was a brief pause before the phone vibrated again. MIROKU: "Where were u last night?"

INUYASHA: "Some girl's place."

MIROKU: "A girl, huh?" ;)

INUYASHA: "Don't get any ideas, perv. I don't even know her. Besides, I'm not gonna see her again."

MIROKU: "If U say so. So what R U doing l8r?"

INUYASHA: "I dunno. Maybe take Taro 4 a walk, later."

MIROKU: "Do U want me to come over?"

INUYASHA: "No thx. I'm good."

MIROKU: "Call me if U need me."

INUYASHA: "Whatever."

With that, he clicked off his phone and put it back on the nightstand and rested his hand on his stomach...but as he looked down at his finger, he saw that same red string, again. 'What the hell is this thing?'

#inuyasha #inuyasha x kagome #inukag #izayoi #sesshomaru

[providentially-demonic]

The Devil and the Dead: Chapter Ten

Based on @ectoimp‘s absorbing AU sketches (Most of which can be found here!).  

I’m giving credit and kudos to @arthur-tristan-kingsmen, @phantoms-lair, @answrs and of course, the illustrious @ectoimpfor some of the discourse which guided the idea from vague AU to the story that does not want to stop running through my head.

Summary:  At first all he knew was darkness— rage, pain and the ultimate sting of betrayal.  And then Lewis opened his eyes…

I am so very sorry this took so long everyone. *hides in shame*

Back to Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten: Quiet; For Just a Moment

The sudden, agonized scream shattered the silence and the stalemate between Vivi and Mystery, but in an unexpected way.

“Lewis!” Arthur, galvanized into utterly forgetting his terror of Mystery, leapt forward, wings folded tight and moving with fluidity like he hadn’t since before the cave. He dodged Mystery’s lashing paw, oblivious to the fact that the paw rebounded off of air a good distance away from his body. All he could focus on was getting to Lewis.

Mystery roared, a sound of thwarted rage, and doubled back to leap in front of him again. His eyes behind his glasses were white-rimmed and more than half mad. “𝖄𝖔𝖚 𝖘𝖍𝖆𝖑𝖑 𝖓𝖔𝖙 𝖕𝖆𝖘𝖘, 𝖉𝖊𝖒𝖔𝖓!” he bellowed, blue-white foxfire curling around his jaws.

Arthur dug in his claws and darted left, even his atavistic fear of Mystery barely registering over the need to reach Lewis, who was still screaming, an unrelenting shriek of agony. He had to help him!

“Mystery!” Vivi’s voice was uncharacteristically shrill. “Listen to what you’re doing! You’re hurting someone! This isn’t right!”

Mystery sprang to intercept Arthur again, claws digging furrows in the dirt. “𝖄𝖔𝖚 𝖉𝖔𝖓'𝖙 𝖚𝖓𝖉𝖊𝖗𝖘𝖙𝖆𝖓𝖉, 𝓥𝖎𝖛𝖎!” he raged, trying to keep Arthur from darting past him.

Vivi leapt into the fray, jumping between Mystery and Arthur, arms spread. “No, I don’t! Mystery, look at what you’re doing!” There were tears on her cheeks. “I’m scared, Mystery, and right now, it’s you I’m scared of! You’re not the Mystery I know!”

Mystery’s head shot up, ears flicking forward in shock and eyes dilating.”Vivi—?” Then he shook his head. “No. You’ll forgive me when you understand.” One of his tails darted forward, to coil around Vivi and push her out of the way— at least that was the intention. The tail stopped short before it could reach her and could get no closer.

Mystery rocked back on his haunches like he’d been punched, pupils shrinking to pinpoints. All his tails writhed forward, stretching to try and grasp her. None of them came close, stopped in thin air and unable to get any nearer.

Horror filled his vulpine features. “𝖂𝖍𝖆𝖙 𝖍𝖆𝖛𝖊 𝒚𝖔𝖚 𝕯𝕺𝓝𝕰!?” His howl was heartbreaking in its raw terror. Unthinkingly, he darted for her, until he hit the invisible barrier with a strangled “Kii-yiiiii—” and went down on his rump, glasses knocked askew and eyes wild with unreasoning fear. He scrambled to his feet and lunged for Vivi again, slamming against the air with an audible thud. He rocked back and then strained forward, like he could overcome whatever was keeping him away from her with sheer force of will. It didn’t work and he circled her frantically, unable to come any closer to her. Arthur barely had the time to dodge out of his way.

Mystery reared back in his hind legs and threw his full weight into a headbutt against the force holding him away from his human. It stunned him for a second, and he staggered back, shaking his head.

Arthur took the opportunity to dash past him, desperate to reach the church and Lewis...

At least until he heard Mystery make an agonized bellow and then another thud. Hesitating, Arthur turned to look back.

Mystery was repeatedly headbutting the too solid air between him and Vivi, grunting with each impact. Vivi was backing away, her pale face streaked with tears, until she backed into the rusted iron gate and could go no further. “Mystery, stop, please!” she begged.

Mystery clawed at the air and rammed his head into it again. Arthur could see a bright trickle of  blood on his white fur, streaking from his nostrils. Vivi had said the ward wouldn’t hurt him but he hadn’t thought he would hurt himself on it! Mystery was going to kill himself at this rate!

Casting a longing glance at the church where Lewis had to be suffering, Arthur made the hardest decision he’d ever made. Hands shaking with terror, he tugged the leather thong up and over his head. It caught on one of his horns and he yanked until it broke, the little ward dropping from his fingers to the ground. Swallowing harshly, he leapt onto Mystery’s back, his weight making Mystery’s legs buckle with a surprised grunt. He knew it wouldn’t last long, Mystery was huge and could easily recover, but he had to make him stop harming himself.

“Vivi, gimme a hand here!” He shouted as Mystery started to buck beneath him, trying to get his feet back under him. Mystery was snarling, spittle flying from his jaws and all Arthur could think about was the half-lucid memory of Mystery lunging for him up on that cliff, but he only clung tighter, shaking hard.

Something bright blue cut across his vision and a shirtless Vivi flung herself onto Mystery’s head, bearing it to the ground. Her sweater was stretched over Mystery’s face and she used the arms to tie it down over his eyes. She crouched on his neck, wearing only her bra and skirt, and used a loop of her scarf to clamp Mystery’s jaws shut. Her face was still stained with tears but fiercely determined, and she leaned all her weight onto Mystery’s head to keep it pinned. Mystery flailed under their weight until Vivi lunged her head down and clamped her teeth hard on the base of his ear, the hand not holding the scarf digging fingers hard into the scruff of his neck.

Mystery froze with a muffled yip, every muscle locked up, and his tails standing straight out in shock.

Arthur looked up into Vivi’s face, set in a grimace. Without moving more than her eyes, she glanced down at the rest of her scarf trailing on the ground and then at Mystery’s feet.

Arthur took the hint and grabbed the long scarf, practically mummifying Mystery’s legs in the material and yanking a hard knot in it. It wouldn’t hold Mystery for long, not as strong as he was, but he hoped Vivi knew what she was doing. Mystery was starting to come out of his state of paralyzed shock, his tails starting to thrash along the ground.

Vivi released her hold on Mystery’s ear and slid sideways off of Mystery’s neck, arms wrapped around his head and pulling it close to her chest. She kept one leg looped over his neck and pinned that as well, even as the rest of his body began to thrash against the restraints. Without a word, she jerked her head toward the church, keeping Mystery’s blindfolded head held tight against her chest. She began talking quietly in japanese, her tone low and soothing.

Arthur scrambled awkwardly to his feet and wavered for a moment, undecided. Lewis needed him, but Vivi...

Something thumped against his foot and he looked down to see Vivi had kicked a ward at him. Not his, because the thong wasn’t snapped, so it had to be her own. She had to have taken it off to help subdue the more than half-mad Mystery. She glared at it and then up at him pointedly, but never stopped talking softly to the creature she held in a modified headlock.

Arthur’s wings drooped, but he did as directed, snatching up the ward and with one last worried look— he turned away and ran for the church, where the screams at last had tapered into silence, trying not to trip over his own feet. He was afraid of what he might find, but he would do anything he could to protect Lewis. Lewis had looked after him all the time since the cave, now it was his turn to return the favor. He scrambled for the shattered remnants of the door, hoping against hope he wasn’t too late.

******

For an agonized eternity, everything was pain. It wasn’t the familiar heat of a burn, or the agony of his own death, or even the sundering, tearing sensation of his locket being stolen; but some unholy combination of all of those, coupled with what felt like his mind being ripped to shreds. Lewis struggled against the flood of agony, but it swept him away in its unstoppable tide. It felt like he was coming apart at the seams and some distant, still-sane part of his mind wondered if this is what it felt like for a ghost to die.

It felt like bits of him were being flayed away, leaving him raw and bleeding; a torment of millions of tiny wounds bleeding his essence away. He was being torn asunder, scorched red and raw. He tried to hold on to anything, his love for Vivi and Arthur and Mama and Papa, his anger at his own death, even just the color of the sky, but they were all being ripped away and whirled into the maelstrom that was his entire existence now.

— And then, like the hurricane, there was a moment of utter silence, the eye of the storm holding the tiniest seed of what he had been in a formless limbo. There was nothing left to hold onto, so he did not try, only existing for a timeless moment, without thought or feeling, without pain or love, just being.

Then slowly, like the gentle plinking of raindrops on a utterly still pond, small things came trickling back. A name, one given by loving hearts to a nameless, lost child. The color of someone’s eyes, a clear, guileless blue, that darkened like stormclouds when they were angry. A shy half-smile, nervous and fleeting, but still speaking of an open, caring heart and humor in everything. Three hands, all of different sizes, but tiny compared to his own, reaching out for him with love and utter trust. A soft, puppyish bark and laughter that went from high yips to the chuckle of someone much older. Two people, whose names he could not find, but whose faces he would never forget. Another face, gruff and no-nonsense, but just as caring in their own slightly unpolished way.

Like the opening of a floodgate, more came pouring back, names, and places, love, and laughter, memories made soft by the passing of time, joy and wonder. There was sorrow too, to temper those joys into something worth holding onto; names and faces of those who had touched his life and left it, those who had come into his heart and stayed, a veritable swarm of things and feelings that made him who he was.

He remembered everything, even to his own death in the cave at the hands of the being that had taken over Arthur, but the things that came with those memories, the burning rage at what he’d thought was betrayal by his best friend, the sheer anguish and pain, the numbing terror of knowing Vivi had seen what had happened to him, were all faded, at a distance, like something from an old story once told to him. He still remembered what it was to die, still remembered everything with merciless clarity, but the bitter, ruinously poisonous emotional overtones were gone, blown away like so much ash.

The hate, the helpless fury at his own death and Arthur’s unwanted and agonizing transformation, the bitter thought that all that he was— was rage given form; only a shade of what he had been— those were not there any longer. He could pull up those things and look at them in the cold light of day, but they were not his be-all and end-all of existence.

In a blinding moment of clarity, he understood. The fire Mystery had called up had not harmed his locket because it could not; the anchor was the best of him, his love for Vivi, Arthur and family. But he had been reborn in the moment of his death; at the thought of the perceived betrayal, as a being of rage and hate. He only thought it had been snuffed out at the sight of Arthur’s body, but it had still been there, like a poison lurking beneath the surface.

It had been a poison, a corruption... and as was its purpose, the purifying flame had found that taint and burned it ruthlessly out. It had hurt because coming back the way he had, so very much of his essence, his soul, had been trapped in that corruption, those toxic feelings that eventually would have stripped away all that was Lewis, leaving behind a spirit that knew only how to hate. Not even having an anchor would have saved him from that fate, not if he had remained as he was.

But because of his friends, he had retained what he was, the humanity, and with the searing flames of the purifying fire, he was free and knew, even without anyone to tell him, that if he chose, he could leave the world of the living and go on to what awaited him. As he had been, he would never have had that option.

And that’s what it was, a choice. He could move on— or he could stay— and become what he had tried to be for Arthur, a guardian, a protector. And really, there wasn’t any choice at all.

With that thought, the church came back into focus around him and he realized he was still standing next to the altar, his locket resting in the palm of his hand. The flames still flickered around him, but they no longer hurt, just a warm tingle across his senses.

Right about then, Arthur stumbled through the ruined door, looking a little worse for the wear. His eyes were frantic as he scanned the interior of the church, lit only by the flames around Lewis now, because the light outside was fading into twilight.

“Lewis?!” Arthur called, his thin face full of fear. “Big guy, c’mon, you have to be okay... I can’t be too late, not after everything!” He was looking directly at the flames, and for a moment, his words made no sense, until Lewis realized he was looking right through him...

Lewis looked down at his hand, realizing it was as translucent as the flames flickering around it. Oh... oops.

He concentrated on becoming visible, and the flames went out, leaving them in near-dark until Lewis called up several of his little will o’wisp lights.

“Lewis!” Arthur exclaimed delightedly, and then made a strangled sound and went a sort of muddy green, his version of a blush, covering his eyes with one hand.

“Arthur!” Lewis floated toward his friend, so glad he was alright. A little roughed up, but no real damage. Vivi’s charm must have worked.

Arthur flailed at him with his wings. “Pants! They are a thing!” He backed up a step with a strangled squawk. “A thing you seem to have lost between when you left and now!” His voice scaled up, and he flapped the hand not covering his eyes wildly in Lewis’ direction. “How does a ghost even lose his pants, Dude?!”

Startled, Lewis looked down at a very definitely bare chest and arms... and lower. He made a mortified squeak and tried to cover himself with his hands.

Arthur turned his back, tail switching like a cat’s, the tuft of fur at the end standing out like a bottlebrush. “What is it with everybody taking their damn clothes off today? Is it like something in the air?”

Lewis could feel the blush creeping down his very bare shoulders and chest. Utterly abashed, Lewis tried desperately to figure out how to put his clothes back on... at least until something else Arthur had said got through his distraction. “E-everybody?”

Arthur’s tail lashed so hard it sent up a plume of dust. The murky blush was spreading over his shoulders too, and he scraped at the stone floor with his toe-talons.

“Arthur?”

Arthur deliberately kept his back turned to Lewis. “Um— yeah, kinda. Mystery went a little cuckoo and Vivi sorta took off her sweater to blindfold him.”

“Is she alright?” Lewis knew her wards were effective, but he still couldn’t help but worry.

“She— yeah, she’s okay, big guy. Are you? I mean, we heard you screaming out there!”

Lewis made sure he had figured out clothing before answering. “You can turn around now, Artie, I’m decent.”

Arthur kept his hand in front of his face as he did, peering out from between his fingers before heaving a sigh of relief and lowering it. He didn’t stop blushing, though, as he examined Lewis like he might be able to see something wrong with him.

“I’m okay,” Lewis reassured. He really was. “It hurt me, yeah, but— I think it helped me too.”

“Helped you how?” Arthur ventured a step closer, reaching out to touch Lewis’s arm, as if he were reassuring himself that Lewis was still there, still real.

Lewis covered Arthur’s fingers with his own, squeezing lightly. “It’s a long story, but I promise I’ll tell you. First, though, we need to check on Vivi.”

“R-right,” Arthur stumbled over the word, fingers tightening on Lewis’s arm for a second. He averted his face and suddenly lunged forward to hug Lewis tightly. He was trembling.

“Artie?” Lewis wrapped his arms around the slighter figure. “Hey, what is it?”

Arthur had buried his face in Lewis's chest, and didn’t look up. “Nothing. Just— just glad you’re st— okay.”

Lewis understood what Arthur had been thinking, and smoothed a hand over his hair. “I’m still here, Arthur. Not leaving you or Vivi, ever.”

Arthur made a small sound and nodded against Lewis’s chest, but just continued to cling for a moment, wings curling around Lewis and tail winding around his calf.

In spite of his concern for Vivi, Lewis was just content to hold Arthur, let him feel he was there. His locket beat steadily where it was pressed between them and Arthur slowly relaxed, an inch at a time.

Finally, Arthur sniffed a little and pushed away slowly. “Sorry.’ His lashes were damp.

Lewis cupped his cheek. “Nothing to be sorry for. I’m only sorry it scared you.”

Arthur shrugged, a deliberately careless motion, but still leaned his head into Lewis’s touch. “Yeah, well, it can join the crowd. There’s a lot of things that scare me.”

“You shush,” Lewis scolded affectionately. “You’re brave when and where it counts.”

Arthur snorted, but didn’t try to argue, simply content to stand there in Lewis’s loose hold.

The moment was broken by a warbling trill, as the deadbeat Lewis had sent away before he dared the fire swooped back in and looped wildly around them, trilling excitedly.

Arthur glanced up at it, a small half-hearted smile curving his lips up. “Guess we better go see if Vivi needs any help with Mystery.”

A/N: The title of the chapter comes from the song “Hurricane” from the soundtrack of Hamilton: An American Musical

#fanfiction #The Devil and the Dead #tDatD #ecto-rp #so so so sorry #that it took this long

[bad0mens]

Hi! For the Musical Challenge, may I prompt you with Snowfield from the Clannad OST? I hope you don't know the anime because the context would influence your writing and it's a very pretty piece of its own, but if you do it's ok too ;-D

Oh boy again, I’m sorry this is so so delayed. I do have a little context for Clannad even though I’ve never watched it, but this song was so lovely to write to anyway. I hope you enjoy this.

Snowfields

The world was soft and white beneaththe glittering winter stars. A cloud bank, flat and grey, was rollingin from the north from the mountains to shower Aurnion with even moresnow. He had expected this sort of weather given the season. Thewhole town was hunkering down to wait it out, safe in the warmth oftheir homes. Flynn didn't have that luxury, even though what hadbrought him here in the first place had been a chance to relax. Thefact of the matter was it was all Yuri's fault.

Flynn trekked out into the dark world,lit only by the distant fires of the homes in Aurnion and the whitemoon reflecting off of the blanket of snow that lay knee deep acrossthe plains below the mountains. It crunched beneath his feet as hemarched through, cloak wrapped as tightly as he could manage andstill get to his sword, and eyes ever on the ground. He was followingtracks, Yuri's and Repede's that cut trails through the snow. Hecouldn't wait for them to return any longer. It was too dark and toocold and with the threat of more snow on the horizon, he couldn't putoff trail lest it be covered. It wasn't that he wanted to talk toYuri, or even look at his face right now, but he did want to findhim. They could finish their argument later, once the frost in thetips of fingers and toes melted back to the warmth of life. And itwould be an argument to the very last breath.

Everything up to this had been a pain,so why not this part of their vacation, too. Flynn had planned it,the vacation, not the pain, and it all went downhill immediately fromthere. A skirmish near Heliord between the Empire and the Guilds hadonly resulted in the further building of tension between thefactions. Lives had been lost in a needless conflict, and it was upto Flynn to try and smooth things over with the people that they weresupposed to be allies with. It was enough to delay the vacation bysome weeks, the plans originally set for the middle of fall beforethey might have been frozen into Aurnion. After that, the beginningof winter drove hungry monsters into towns across the Empire insearch of food, and he had to deploy support immediately. Fortune'sMarket wanted an increased rate of pay due to the danger of theroutes they were being forced to take and the shortages that werehappening the world over. More negotiations. The Council wanted tofight him on everything. The troops were thinned by illness andhunger and the surge of monsters, and replacements were hard to comeby. But regardless of all of that, he and Yuri had made it here, to aplace that held a special memory for them, the place where they hadresolved so many feelings and troubles before, only to arrive andcreate new ones.

Flynn was at fault, too. Yuri wouldn'thave left if he hadn't taken the bait on the argument, if he had justlet things lie a little longer, given Yuri the space and time that heneeded, even now, to think about how far they had come and where ithad brought them. He had been just as much to blame for the fight,and so he trudged on through the snow guided by the stars. They hadalways led him to Yuri in the past.

The path wound and narrowed,footprints becoming less defined in the areas where there had been afight, the carcass of a monster remaining, and Yuri and Repede'ssteps moving on. Although he could not have been walking for a fullhour, Flynn could no longer see Aurnion behind him, only a trail ofhis own steps walking beside where Yuri had walked earlier, vanishinginto the darkness. Still he walked. The wind was picking up,whistling by him as the clouds rolled across the dark sky.

Howling reached his ears, the soundsof beasts baying in the dark on a moonlit hunt. It caused the hair onthe back of his neck to stand on end and his skin to prickle and hisstep to quicken until he was running toward the sound, one hand onhis sword. There was a fight ahead, snow kicked up by feet andblurring his view, but he knew without a doubt who was involved. Ofcourse Yuri would come out all the way into the middle of nowherebefore a blizzard to get in a good fight. It was Yuri through andthrough.

And Yuri was the one who stood there,sword in his left hand, Repede at his side, surrounded by a halfdozen of the sleek white wolves that roamed the land. Even this manyshould have proven no trouble for Yuri at all, and that's how Flynnknew something was wrong.

“Yuri!” he shouted over the snow,drawing the attention of the monsters.

He drew his sword, and quickened hisstep as they turned toward him, hungry mouths gaping. They rushed himin a pack, swift feet over snow rather than through it, andmaneuvered to surround him. He let them to keep them off of Yuri fora moment, and let them circle him, taking long, deep breaths, untilthe moment when the first one charged.

A quick strike took it down, the sprayof its blood painting the snow. The next two lunged forward, Repedeattacking one with his knife, and Flynn taking on the other. Beforeanother attack, warmth met his back, but he didn't flinch at it. Hehad no doubts about it being Yuri.

“Nice of you to show up,” Yurilaughed hoarsely.

“Well, I knew that you'd end upgetting yourself in trouble if I left you for too long.”

“I needed a chance to cool off.”

“Now that you've had it, can we endthis?”

“Gladly.”

The last three wolves didn't bother towait their turns, diving forward at them only seconds apart in spiteof how quickly the others of their pack had been dispatched. And theydidn't last a second longer, cut down by a pair of swords andRepede's knife, leaving their forms scattered in a rough circlearound them.

Flynn took a deep breath and wiped offhis sword before sheathing it. He didn't look at Yuri immediately, aflash of anger still lingering in him. He didn't want to startanother branch of the argument, but if he spoke now, it might happenanyway. Squashing it, he finally turned.

The motion came just in time to seeYuri go limp, sword slipping from his hand and falling into the snow.

“Yuri!” He was at Yuri's side inan instant, propping him up. “Hey, stay with me.”

“I'm fine.” His breath and voicewere ragged and his eyes glassy with pain.

“Don't lie to me.”

Flynn only had to peel back a cornerof Yuri's cloak to see the wounds on his arm and side, multiple roundand sharp punctures in the pattern of mouths full of teeth, deep andbleeding. It He didn't dare touch the wounds and risk causing Yuripain until after he tried a first aid spell. It was weak compared toEstelle's, only staring the process of repairing the bones crushedbeneath the skin.

“What happened?” he asked in a lowvoice, lingering over Yuri. Repede sat beside them, whiningworriedly.

“There were more than I expected.And hungry I guess,” Yuri tried to laugh, but it fell far short ofnormal.

“Let's get you back to town.”

He lifted him as gently as possible,although he could still feel the tightness of Yuri's muscles and thehiss of pain that he hid behind clenched lips. Repede dashed forward,looking back, and proceeded to lead the way for Flynn to followed.

“How are you feeling?”

“Oh, just great.” If he was ableto joke this much, he was still somewhat lucid. For now, that was allFlynn could ask for.

“Hang on. We'll be back soon.”

There was no reply. Yuri just laid,slumped against him, still warmth, still breathing, but hisconsciousness slipping away. And Flynn couldn't do anything right nowbut keep walking through the dark, snow covered world, hoping thatYuri could hold on.

The lights of the town flickered inthe dark, ghostly as foxfire, but Repede and his nose led them onfaithfully. He felt colder, Yuri heavier, with each step he took.Still he trudged on. He had to keep going, especially with new snowfalling, tiny razors of ice cutting at them, stinging in his eyes.The warmth of safety, of civilization was so close. There was nogiving up. Either they both made it out of this, or neither of themdid.

“Yuri?”

There was still no reply, butbreathing came, even but shallow.

“Do you remember that blizzard inZaphias when we were kids?”

Yuri wasn't conscious, but the threadof his words might have given him something to cling to as theytrudged on. Anything to keep him there with Flynn.

“The orphanage was full. We... wewere living in the corner of a warehouse. It was so cold that winter.I was out late for some reason, I think I had gone to find ussomething to eat.” Flynn needed this as much as Yuri did. Flynnneeded to hear his own words, to hear Yuri's breathing, the beat ofhis heart. It was the only thing convincing him that he wasn't justwading through a never ending hell after freezing to death. A threadfor them to share. “I guess you had gotten worried and had comelooking for me. Out in that snow bank... I had never seen you soscared before. But we made it. We made it here. We kept our childhoodpromise, you remember? We used our swords to make people smile, toprotect what we love.”

Only the howling wind responded,bellowing like the cries of spirits in his ears.

“You can't give up yet. I won't letyou.”

His strength was fading, draining awaywith the cold and the snow, but he held all the tighter, even as hisfeet fumbled to feel, to hold him up. The lights were closer now,brighter, warmer, welcoming. They were so close now, Repede stillbarking back at them to keep them on the trail. It helped his focus,even just a little, and he fought through the pain and the cold andthe weariness.

“I love you, damn it.” The waterin his eyes was threatening to freeze. “And I can't do this withoutyou.”

The roar of the wind sounded likeshouting, like screaming. His frozen feet marched on. The sounddrowned out everything else, his own voice, although he knew that hewas still talking, still speaking over chips of ice to keep thatthread pulled tight between them. His frozen fingers still clung toYuri. The gate of town was within sight, a pair of lanterns likefiery eyes in the dark, and a pair of soldiers left to guard.

All at once, everything stopped, andhe stumbled, fighting to stay standing, to stay in movement. Theshouting was closer now and through his snow crusted eyes, he couldsee the lanterns grow closer. Almost there. Emptiness filled hisears. Another step, and then another, no sound, no light, nothing.His face hit the ground, molten pain surging through him not dimmedby the snow. There was only darkness and the cold.

Light and warmth brought feeling backto him, but it was slow. The whole world had frozen in time, but theyhad marched on. And he hadn't failed.

Flynn couldn't have been out for verylong when he woke, propped up by a roaring fire, stripped of his snowcrusted clothing and wrapped in a blanket. The cold of the earthstill stung at his bones and half frozen flesh. Ice clogged his lungsand throat, making his first word on waking nothing more than awhisper.

“Yuri?”

He tried to scramble to his feet, butnone of his limbs would respond.

“Yuri?” he called again, panicrising in his voice and trying to look around the room. Their roomwas the same as they had left it.

A soldier entered the room, bringingwith him a flurry of cold air from the outside, and saluted him.“Commandant, you're awake.”

“What happened? Where's Yuri?” Hetried again to stand, having only a little better luck and managingto make it onto one knee, and pulling himself higher with the help ofthe fireplace. He was standing on wobbly legs in short order.

“He's with the doctor. You should beresting.”

“Not until I see him.”

The soldier simply sighed, and leadFlynn out into the snow and across the town of Aurnion to thedoctor's building. The bitter cold bit at him ever harder, but hewalked on with weak legs. The warmth of the doctor's building hit himlike a wall, but the smell of the crackling fire could not cover thesmell of illness. The doctor shot up out of his chair, dark and tiredeyes coming open at their entrance.

“Commandant, you shouldn't be upyet,” he said.

“I told him that as well,” thesoldier replied.

“I need to see Yuri.”

Silence prevailed in the room for amoment.

“Please.”

“This way,” the doctor finallyrelented, and led Flynn in an adjoining room with where a few bedswere set up.

In the bed closest to the fireplaceset into the room laid Yuri, bandaged and pale, with Repede crushedclose to his side, wagging his tail only slightly at the sight ofFlynn. Flynn moved to his side as quickly as his aching, frozen bodywould let him. He lay, still and silent save the very light sound ofhis breathing.

“His injuries are bad,” the doctorsaid softly from his position across the room. “As of yet, I can'tmake an guarantees about his condition. And he has yet to regainconsciousness.”

Flynn nodded back mutely, taking aseat on the empty bed beside Yuri. He hunched over, elbows on hisknees and twining his fingers together. He looked for words toquestions he wasn't sure that he wanted the answers to, his throattoo stopped up with grief and pain to let him speak them.

“You should really get some rest,Commandant.”

“I'd rather wait here.”

“Commandant, I must insist.”

He could only shake his head. He wasfrozen through, aching for the ice in his blood and bones. Other thanexposure, he was largely uninjured. None of that mattered. The wearand tear on his own body, whatever illness or fatigue might plaguehim. None of it. Here he would sit until Yuri woke up. He didn't wantto think about the other possibilities. For Flynn, there was onlyone. Yuri was a fighter, endlessly strong and stubborn, and he wouldfight through this. He would fight through this to the death, andFlynn would remain by his side until that fight was over. The threadsthat connected them would allow him to do no less.

Heedless of pain or grief, the snowcontinued to fall.

[clarenecessities]

The Dread Pirate Ladybug, Ch 10

Chapters: 10/13 Rating: General Audiences Warnings: Implied death, may contain horses

Chapter Summary: have you ever gotten the impression that everything around you is trying to kill you? if you’re not australian, you may be in a fire swamp Chapter Warnings: Actual violence, blood tw, blade tw, attempted murder, animal death, fire cw, poorly written romance

AO3

Marinette held her sword in one hand, and Adrien’s clammy palm in the other. She tightened her grip in reassurance as she peered into the twisting maze of the fire swamp.

The trees were everywhere, massive and gnarled and growing so close together that walking beneath them felt like descending physically into night. The vegetation was scant, but a thousand varieties of fungi curled and sliced from every surface, and lichen draped itself from the cathedral of branches overhead. A reek of sulfur and smoke lingered in the air. The ground wasn’t very swampy at all, hard and dry and carpeted with fallen leaves and an inauspicious bramble or two. A faint orange glow suffused the entire forest, but it grew more concentrated beneath this crust of debris.

Marinette pushed a small patch of blackened and decaying leaves away, revealing a network of phosphorescent fungus that seemed to pulse under the toe of her boot.

“Foxfire,” she said aloud, looking to Adrien. He was watching the ground with fascination, his bright green eyes shining in the reflected light. The eager curiosity on his face, which had been reluctant and heavy with fear mere minutes ago, filled Marinette with a fresh rush of affection.

“There’s an oxidative enzyme in the fungus,” she explained softly when he turned to her, unable to restrain her smile as he watched her with undisguised interest. “It’s the same process as fireflies. Don’t eat any of them though; a crewmate of mine did once thinking they were chanterelles, and regretted it… rather fiercely.”

Adrien pushed at the leaves with his own foot to expose a larger swath of the underlying variegation. The patterns shifted as he swept his sole across them, dancing like light reflected off of water. He gave a small laugh of delight, beaming at her.

“You’re right,” he told Marinette, a little breathlessly. “We can do this.”

“And what makes you say that, all of a sudden?”

“We’re standing in the middle of the Guilderian Fire Swamp, surrounded by poisonous fungus, and, quite likely, snow sand, spurts of flame, and smoke cats.”

“So we are,” she said cautiously, more than a little concerned about where he was going with this.

“In less than a minute, you’ve not only rendered the fungus harmless,” said Adrien, stepping closer to her, “you’ve made it beautiful. I don’t know how long we’ll be in here, and I honestly don’t think it’s going to be much fun, but we can at least survive. You, evidently, can survive anything.”

“Death cannot stop true love,” she repeated, with a wry smile. “And if I survive, I’m damn well taking you with me.”

He chuckled and pressed a lingering kiss to her forehead that warmed Marinette to the tips of her toes. She’d never get tired of those kisses, of these moments. She felt as though she’d been in a blizzard for five years, frozen and frostbitten, and she’d finally been welcomed back inside. The small and tender gesture was a warm drink pressed into thawing fingers, and her earlier rush of affection became a torrent.

He loved her.

He loved her and he hadn’t forgotten her, he hadn’t given up on her or found someone he preferred. He had been swept up by circumstances outside his control, as she had been, but he still loved her. In spite of—well—everything. Just about everything. She was honestly having a hard time understanding what she’d done to deserve it, given her behavior in the past 24 hours alone.

“I love you,” she told him, because it was the most important thing in the world that he know that. She couldn’t remember if she had said it earlier—she certainly hoped the kissing had been a clue—but even if she had just finished saying it, it wouldn’t have been soon enough. So she said it again, for good measure. “Adrien, I love you.”

He drew back from her forehead and looked at her with so much raw emotion that she wondered how she could ever have doubted his feelings for her.

“I love you too,” he whispered, “Let’s kick the fire swamp’s ass.”

They set off at a slow pace, Marinette slightly ahead as she was the one with the sword, their hands still tangled between them. Adrien wove as he walked, stepping on the patches where the foxfire glowed brightest, still excited by the phenomenon and the caustic ripples he could elicit. Marinette swept lichen and vines from their path with the flat of her blade, watching carefully for movement ahead. She sawed through an especially long and sturdy vine with the knife at her side, winding it around herself like a rope. It seemed a handy thing to have, given the circumstances.

Almost immediately, they discovered the flame spurts. Preceded by a low rumbling, the ground would break apart from below, and instantly erupt into a blazing column of fire, spewed from the crack for anywhere from a few seconds to longer than Marinette and Adrien waited around to see. The sulfurous smell intensified as these spurts roared to temporary life, revealing the flammable gasses that were their source.

Skirting one of these pyrophoric vents, Adrien began to look nervous again. His eyes watched the flickering geyser and he strayed a little closer to Marinette’s side, his free hand reaching out to clutch at her forearm.

“So,” he began, in a failed attempt to sound casual, “Dread Pirate Ladybug, huh?”

She smiled at him, the same smile she’d given him when he’d first made that connection.

“The one, if not the only.”

“…You lost me.”

“Pop quiz,” said Marinette, “how long has Ladybug been sailing?”

“Twenty years, give or take a few—” Adrien paused mid-sentence, frowning. “Wait a minute.”

She continued to smile, letting him work the timeline out on his own.

“So you’re… not Ladybug?” he asked, brow furrowed in confusion.

“Oh, I am,” said Marinette. She released his hand to wave her own through the air, gesticulating vaguely. “Let’s start at the beginning, I guess. I did promise you an explanation.”

Adrien kept one hand on her elbow, his eyes fixed on her with burning curiosity instead of watching where he was going.

“What I told you earlier—that was all true. And at first it didn’t really make a difference.” Marinette continued to sweep and slash the lichen and vines from their path as she spoke, watching where they were going so Adrien wouldn’t have to. “Ladybug was fairly apologetic, but still very firm: I had to die. Matter of principle, you know.”

“What changed?”

“I started talking about you,” she told him. “I don’t know that she felt guilty so much as she wanted to hear more, to be quite honest. She didn’t really believe me. Although I can’t blame her: You are a bit too good to be true.

“She had me go on describing you bit by bit—‘Eyes the color of summer,’ I said, ‘and hair like the autumn sun.’ I mean, you know me, I’ve no great gift for words, but I could wax poetic about your face for years.”

“See, I could probably, uh—wax pathetic about it. It’s more trouble than it’s worth,” said Adrien good-naturedly, tossing his short hair as dramatically as he could.  “Wait! Wane pathetic. Final answer.”

Marinette laughed, curling her wrist so they walked just a bit closer together. Even this, simply talking, felt somehow more complete with him at her side. There were no awkward little gaps in the conversation, no haltingly explaining a joke that had failed to land—he encouraged her to speak the way he did everything, gently and earnestly, and what she had been sure ten minutes ago was the strongest love she’d ever felt now seemed only a vague fondness compared to the depths of her current affections.

“Anyway,” she continued, rolling her eyes at him, cramming her emotions away for a more appropriate time and venue, “she was interested now, at least a little, and by the end I knew I had her. She was unfortunately still pretty set on murdering me, as a pirate really can’t afford to let people think they’ve gone soft—particularly a pirate whose whole spiel is ‘No Survivors.’

“So I said, ‘I swear I won’t tell, that seems a pretty fair price for the whole not dying thing,’ or something to that effect, ‘and if you let me live, I will be your personal valet for five full years, and if I ever once complain or cause you anger, you can chop my head off then and there and I’ll die with praise for your fairness on my lips.’ And, you know, she seemed pretty interested. I don’t think anyone could frame five years of captivity and servitude as soft. She didn’t give in immediately, of course—she said, ‘Go below, I’ll most likely kill you in the morning.’”

Marinette stopped talking abruptly, and pretended to clear her throat to cover it up, not wanting to alarm Adrien or alert him to the enormous smoke cat she had just spotted following them.

Smoke cats, while rumored to be incorporeal and thought by some to be a will-o’-the-wisp variety of apparition, were unfortunately very real. They were named as much for their exclusive habitat—fire swamps—as for their coloration. With dusky fur that paled to silver at the roots, and a coal black marbling along the lengths of their bodies, they haunted the fire swamps like living shadows. Though it was often said they grew to be as large as lions, most were only the size of an especially big dog. They were principally ambush predators, drifting across the flickering forest floor or lurking high in the treetops as they stalked their prey. They almost exclusively had bright yellow eyes, and it was these that alerted Marinette to their presence as they watched she and Adrien pick their way through the swamp.

They glowed like embers, intent on their quarry, as the smoke cat sat perched on the bough of massive tree, its tail—the same length as the rest of its body—swinging like a pendulum beneath it. Though solitary creatures by nature, smoke cats had a deep partiality to fresh blood, and a tendency to frenzy. Marinette looked at Adrien, inspecting the healing wound on his temple to insure it had scabbed enough to keep him safe. Her wrist had stopped bleeding, and would be safe for a while, but she could protect it more easily than someone else’s head.

“Go on; what happened in the morning?” he urged, meeting her eyes.

“I cooked the crew breakfast,” she said simply, pulling him along so that she was in between him and the smoke cat, but still leading. “Their previous chef had been using pepper instead of salt, so they were thrilled with some reasonable pancakes. Ladybug ate seven of them and thanked me, said she’d most likely kill me in the evening.”

“But she didn’t,” said Adrien, smiling again.

“No,” she confirmed, smiling back. God, he was adorable. He was so excited. “By evening I had found ways to make myself useful. I reorganized their storage room, and fixed up a very poorly patched sail, and had a talk with the chef about seasonings. I worked out a plan for cleaning the whole ship, so the rest of the crew could cut back on time spent doing chores.”

“And that’s when she decided to let you live?”

“Honestly, I think she decided that the minute she didn’t kill me outright. But she kept saying that to me for years—‘good work Marinette, delicious pancakes, I’ll most likely kill you tomorrow.’ Except eventually I ran out of things to do to improve the ship, so she started me on ways to improve myself. Taught me how to fence, and sail, and somewhere along the way, we became friends.

“And then one day, she called me into her cabin. I was half-convinced my luck had run out and she was finally going to kill me, but instead she told me there was something about her that no one knew yet: She had a secret.”

Adrien squeezed her hand, his eyes sparkling and wide as dinner plates. “What was it?” he whispered, as if the fire swamp was full of eavesdroppers.

“’I am not the Dread Pirate Ladybug,’” Marinette told him, biting back a giggle at his enormous gasp. He clapped both hands over his mouth, and she thought it was only half theatrics—he seemed as genuinely shocked as she had been.

“She said, ‘My name is Bridgette. I inherited this ship from the previous Dread Pirate Ladybug. She wasn’t the real Ladybug either; her name was Jeanne, and she’d inherited it from a woman named Hippolyta. The real Dread Pirate Ladybug has been retired fifteen years and is living like a Queen in Kaokoland.’”

“But—why?” asked Adrien, lowering his fingers from his face only slightly.

“The thing about piracy—for-profit piracy anyway—is if you’re good at what you do, and you don’t get caught, it’s a very lucrative business. I mean, I barely keep anything, and I’m richer than our whole hometown combined. Bridgette went after a different class of ship than I did, and she got even richer even faster. And once you’ve made your fortune, why bother, you know?” She shrugged as she walked ahead, peering contemplatively up into the dense branches overhead. “They were all fairly eager to enjoy their spoils, but a reputation’s a difficult thing to come by. No one is going to surrender to the Dread Pirate Marinette.”

“I mean, I might,” said Adrien, chuckling at her heels.

“You’re biased,” she told him with a laugh. “You’d surrender just for a shot at flirting with me.”

“Well, true,” he agreed, a crooked grin splitting his face, “but I’d just as soon surrender out of blind terror. You’ve quite a temper, my lady, and…”

“And?” she prompted, tilting her head expectantly.

He didn’t answer.

“Adrien?” she asked, turning around to look at him.

Where he’d been standing a moment before, there was a blank expanse of sand.

Marinette swore loudly, ripping the vine off of her shoulders and tying a swift knot around a tree, wrapping the other end around her wrist and clenched hand, springing immediately into the bare earth.

Snow sand, a variety of dry quicksand, is found only under very specific conditions.

The Guilderian Fire Swamp has these conditions in abundance.

The finest grains of sand, silky and innumerable, were tossed and tumbled by the jets of marsh gas that wove under the hardened crust that composed the majority of the surface. Anywhere the ground was looser or lighter, it was fluffed up by these vents—anywhere it was thicker, they tended to result in flame spurts.

Moving through the snow sand didn’t feel like swimming, or even falling; it felt like floating. Eyes squeezed shut, a sailor’s lungful of air to hold, vine wrapped around her wrist, Marinette moved blindly through the powder. She’d dived in like an arrow, and though Adrien had doubtless been vertical while entering, he would know to spread himself flat as quickly as possible—or at least, she hoped he knew.

She swept her arms wide, feeling desperately for the slightest hint of her beloved. Did he have enough air? Had he kept his eyes shut? What if she found him and he couldn’t be saved? Had she come so far just to lose him now?

Her fingers brushed something hard and smooth, and she reflexively snatched it up, only to drop it as though scalded.

It was a hand, distinctly human, desiccated and detached from whatever pour soul had fallen into the snow sand’s pitiless grasp.

Gross. Gross, gross, gross gross gross.

She had to find Adrien. Immediately.

As though summoned by her renewed resolve, Marinette’s searching hands found something soft and warm, heavy and familiar. She drew him to her chest, pulling the vine in her other hand taut, wrapping it around her forearm as she hauled them both to the surface.

She broke into the open air with a dry gasp, Adrien’s head slightly ahead of hers. She pushed him onto solid ground as her legs kicked uselessly for traction, eventually flipping herself onto the mulch beside him. She brushed the sand impatiently from her eyelashes, breathing hard through her nose to dispel what had accumulated around her nostrils.

Adrien was lying still, his entire face caked in snow sand.

Marinette swore again, swiping what she could from his eyes and nose with one hand, while the other felt for a pulse at his throat. She sagged in relief when she found one, and felt the ragged breath in his chest.

She opened his mouth to check for any sand, finding it mercifully empty, though she could see a few grains in the back of his throat. He must have inhaled through his nose at some point, which explained the sound of his breathing.

She bent his left knee, drawing his left arm up towards his face, and rolled him gently onto his side, thumping him between the shoulder blades with the heel of her hand.

Adrien came awake with a deep cough, a plume of sand blossoming from his mouth as he hacked and convulsed with the effort. He opened his eyes as it subsided, a sliver of green amidst crusty blond lashes, a muddy tongue flicking over his chapped lips.

“Marinette?” he croaked, reaching for her automatically, his hand shaking as it curled into hers.

“Shh,” she hushed him, brushing the hair away from his face. “You’re alright. I’ve got you. Can you close your eyes for a minute?”

He did as she bade, probably more out of exhaustion than compliance, and she drew the canteen from her belt, pouring a slow trickle across his face. His expression screwed up as it passed over his eyes, and he licked his lips again on instinct. Without the sand in the way, his face was pale as a sheet, and Marinette rubbed comforting circles on his back as he wheezed on the ground.

“Thirsty,” he managed after she had finished cleaning his face. She helped him sit up, and after having him gargle and rinse, he took a long draught of water.

“Alright?” she murmured as he lowered the canteen. He nodded in response, dull eyes flickering to hers. He lifted his hands to her face, brushing the sand from her cheeks with shaking fingers. She laughed at him for being worried about her when he’d almost died, but closed her eyes obligingly beneath his ministrations.

“Thought I’d lost you,” she told him while he swept at her jaw, pressing her forehead against his with a small sigh. Her heart rate was only just beginning to slow.

“Doesn’t feel too great, huh?” he rasped, his voice still raw from the sand and coughing.

She felt a fresh wave of remorse for her actions over the past few years. “I’m so sorry I put you through that,” she whispered, opening her eyes. “I thought… I thought you loved her. I thought you were happier without me. Marquis of Carabas, free of his childhood fling, off to conquer the world. I couldn’t begrudge you that, no matter how much it hurt.”

“Chloé came to me and said I could either marry her or die,” said Adrien. “Honestly at that point I was pretty ready to die, but she set your parents up with a castle in Carabas, and I never had to pretend I cared about her or anything, so I figured hell, why not? Just because I’d never be happy again didn’t mean I had to take everyone else down with me.”

“I had my parents moved yesterday,” Marinette confided with a small smile. “I sent some of my crew to pick them up. They’re all set up with a little house in Guilder, never have to work a day in their lives again. Provided they believed I was alive, I guess.”

“I’m sure they did,” said Adrien, returning her smile. “They never really accepted it. We got the news and I just sort of… shut down, but they didn’t buy it. Your mother especially.”

“We’re a stubborn sort,” she said softly. She didn’t like the way he was talking; he was blaming himself for believing she had died. “Adrien, listen: It’s not your fault. None of this is your fault. You did the best you could, you stayed alive—I’m the one who jumped to conclusions and left you all to fend for yourselves while I was off gallivanting across the seven seas.”

“You say that like it was easy,” he whispered, “but I can’t even imagine… if I had been in your place, and—and I came back to find you’d all moved on, that you were engaged to someone else—”

His voice broke, and she pressed her forehead into his more firmly.

“It wasn’t easy,” she admitted, because he needed to know that she cared. That she hadn’t just run off and abandoned him like his father, or gotten over him as quickly as she’d assumed he’d gotten over her. “When we got the news, I… it felt like I might as well have died, like what was the point? If I wasn’t doing anything worthwhile, if no one needed me, if I was just existing to be forgotten—”

“No one could forget you,” he broke in.

“That’s sweet,” she told him with a smile, “but grossly overestimates my significance. Not everyone is as aware of me as you are, you know.”

“They should be,” said Adrien, unapologetic, “but I’m sorry, I interrupted.”

“Well, I decided I was just going to be the best pirate I could be.” She shrugged, trying to play it off in spite of herself. He needed to hear it, and she probably needed to say it, but—it was hard to talk about. Just thinking about it had put a weight in her chest. “It was really the only way forward I could see. I’d… if I was never going to be with you, then I’d just take whatever road was at my feet. I had informants keep an eye on you, and my parents. I did what I could to make sure you were all safe. I hadn’t needed to get involved personally until yesterday.”

“You didn’t give up,” he murmured.

“On you? Of course I did,” she disagreed with a small, bitter laugh.

“No,” said Adrien, “on… living. On finding a way for yourself. I just did what other people told me, but you kept moving and learning and getting better and better. I only got prettier, and sadder.”

“It helped that I could still look out for you,” Marinette admitted quietly. “That I could still do things for you. Even when I was hurting, when I was so mad I wanted to turn up at the palace and scream at you—it helped that I knew I could. You didn’t have that.”

He shrugged, not meeting her eyes, swallowing thickly. They were so close she could hear the rasp in his throat.

“Besides,” she went on, voice growing a little stronger, “from what I hear, you were learning quite a lot. You weren’t just getting prettier and sadder. They were teaching you etiquette and politics and all that.”

“It’s not like I cared about it,” he laughed. “I know like six different ways to bow. It’s useless.”

“I certainly didn’t care about the things I was learning,” she told him. “I think we both did our best with our worst case scenario. We believed terrible things of each other, and—well—went a little off the rails, emotionally speaking, but we did our best. We tried our hardest. Sometimes all that meant was getting up in the morning, or eating enough, but… we did it. We made it, and now we have each other.”

The smile he gave her was radiant.

“We have each other,” he echoed breathlessly, returning her earlier pressure on his forehead. His eyes were half-closed, and Marinette’s own were having a hard time remaining open. Her blinks were slow and languid, lids heavy simply from his proximity.

The second kiss since their reunion was unlike the first, which had ultimately been a joyous affair, overflowing with emotion and affection and a fair amount of tears.

The second was slow, and sad, and carried the weight of what they had been through, the sharing of a burden they could never fully express.

Remorse heavy on the back of her tongue, Marinette pressed against Adrien’s chapped lips with a wordless catalogue of her every transgression. The years she’d spent doubting him, or cursing his name, or even wishing they had never met at all. The lies she had told him through her silence, the fate she’d led him to believe she’d met, the blindness she’d inflicted on him under the hands of his kidnappers.

This kiss was a question, an appeal for forgiveness she knew she didn’t deserve.

Forgiveness she received anyway.

Adrien sighed into the kiss like he was the one who needed absolution, so ready to welcome her back with open arms and an open heart that still showed the scars she had left. Her guilt beat into her with each thrum of her pulse, eating away at her, pulling her away from the beautiful creature before her. He deserved so much better than what she had put him through on the basis of an assumption—she left him with his own assumptions, to believe her dead and gone.

She began to draw away, opening eyes that had fallen shut and meeting Adrien’s gaze. She stilled at the weight of it, at the guilt she saw mirrored there, the desperation for her understanding, the strangled adoration he could never suppress. He followed after her, asking his own questions, seeking his own forgiveness.

She was only too ready to give it.

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               “I’ve had it,” Chloé announced, reigning in the great white horse beneath her.

“Had what, Your Highness?” asked the Countess, almost absently. Her eyes were trained on her hounds, milling about the corpse they’d discovered.

“It,” said Chloé, throwing her hands in the air. “We’ve been at this for hours. Do they have the scent or not, Lila? We’ll never find him at this rate!”

“They have the scent,” said the Countess. She dismounted to inspect the body alongside her dogs, pulling off the silver cowl to reveal a shock of silver hair, and blue eyes clouded by death. “So this is the great Papillon. He’s not much in person, is he?”

“He looks to have been awfully tall,” said one of their guards, when she looked to him for an answer. He seemed nervous to even speak in the presence of the Countess and Princess Chloé.

“No one’s tall when they’re laid out,” said Countess Rossi with a disinterested sigh. “It’s a pity. I would have liked to take at least one for questioning.”

“There’s still whoever’s got my fiancé,” Chloé supplied with a sour pout.

“True,” the Countess agreed, brightening. “And if the forensics are to be believed, they’re even better than those we’ve passed. We might be in for a truly glorious bout of scientific discovery, Your Highness.”

“Let’s focus on catching them first, shall we?”

The Countess hummed thoughtfully.

“They’re heading into the fire swamp,” she said, pointing ahead of her baying hounds where they whined and paced to resume the chase. “Take a portion of the guard around to the other end.”

“Excuse me?” said the Princess, voice dangerously sweet. While the Countess was the closest thing she had to a friend, station was not to be forgotten, and she was not to be spoken to that way.

“I humbly suggest,” said the Countess, with a bow a little too elaborate to be anything but sarcastic, “that Your Highness and the most dedicated of her retinue move to cut off the escape of the fiend which has most recently stolen her beloved.”

“You should learn to curtsey,” said the Princess, signaling the guard to accompany her as she wheeled around to face the far end of the Fire Swamp. The Countess smiled. The Princess tended to criticize that sort of thing only when she had nothing else to complain about.

“I know how to curtsey,” said the Countess, “but it’s rather difficult when one’s not wearing skirts.”

“Perhaps I’ll have some better dresses made for you,” said the Princess.

The Countess stayed a while with her hounds, sousing out the order of events. Whoever they were tracking, whatever their motive: They were a fearsome warrior.

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“Ow!” said Marinette, clutching at her forehead where it had banged painfully into a low-hanging branch.

“Are you okay?” asked Adrien from behind her, chuckling. She turned a half-hearted scowl his way, sticking out her tongue.

“I’m fine,” she grumbled, “just got a bit distracted, is all.”

“By?”

“I was… checking for snow sand.”

The look he gave her was deeply skeptical. “Be honest: Were you thinking about me?”

She blushed in spite of herself. “No.”

“Oh my god, you were,” he said delightedly, brightening.

“Nope! No!”

“My lady, I’m flattered, but do watch where you’re going, won’t you? You can’t very well kiss me if you’ve knocked yourself unconscious.”

“Can’t very well kiss you if I’ve knocked you unconscious either,” she threatened weakly, laughing as he wrapped his arms around her waist. She leaned back against his chest, looking up at him over one shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” he said, though he grinned unapologetically in her face, “I didn’t think you were really thinking about me. I was curious.”

“You know what they say about curiosity,” she muttered, poking his nose with her own.

“Well hey, if it can kill smoke cats, we’ve got it made.”

“Maybe we won’t see any smoke cats,” Marinette suggested hopefully. The one she’d seen earlier could have been a fluke. “Maybe they’ll know better than to bother with us.”

“Maybe we’ll get lucky!” said Adrien, almost as if he believed it.

“When have we ever gotten lucky,” she groaned.

“We’re together again, aren’t we?” he pointed out with a grin. “That’s all the evidence I need.”

“Well, if that’s luck, I think it’s safe to say we’ve taken more than our fair share,” said Marinette. She stretched up, kissing his chin before wriggling free of his arms, walking a few steps ahead of him.

“Considering all the bad luck, I’d say we’ve yet to break even,” he disagreed with a faint chuckle. “I suppose meeting each other at all was quite a stroke of fortune, but the things we’ve had to put up with…! It’s ridiculous. We’re owed a bit of a respite from bloodthirsty wildcats, don’t you think?”

“The way we’re talking, it’s more likely we’ve jinxed it,” said Marinette, laughing.

“What, like I’m just going to turn around and there’ll be a smoke cat?” he scoffed, spinning on his heel and swinging his arms in an exaggerated double take. He then paused, doing an actual double take. “Oh. Uh.”

“Don’t tell me.”

“We might have a, uh—problem.”

Marinette sighed, turning back, find Adrien locked in a staring contest with a reasonably small smoke cat, the former grimacing, the latter bristling.

“Shit, are—are you not supposed to look them in the eye? Is it like a dominance thing?” he asked Marinette, taking a nervous step back but not breaking the stare.

“I don’t know!” she groaned. “It doesn’t seem to be attacking, so maybe it’s just gonna let us pass? I’m sure it doesn’t want trouble any more than we do.”

“It’s so little… It’s like actually cat-sized. I thought they were supposed to be as big as lions,” murmured Adrien, edging back closer to her side.

“Yes, it’s adorable, now let’s get out of here before—”

Marinette’s words broke off in a startled yelp as she was suddenly pitched forward, twisting awkwardly mid-fall so that she landed on her left shoulder instead of her sword. Her back erupted in pain as something hooked and long and sharp sliced through her shirt and skin. Hot blood ran down her spine like sweat. She skidded across the crust of leaves and fungus, leaving a trail of smooth orange foxfire to illuminate her assailant: A colossal smoke cat, as long as Marinette was tall, with blazing yellow eyes and a furious snarl contorting its face.

Adrien squeaked, half a step closer to Marinette than he had been. The smoke cat’s glare flickered to him, and then back.

“Okay,” Marinette breathed, now locked in a staring contest of her own. Very, very slowly, she began to lift herself up with her free hand, turning so her saber was between her and the smoke cat. “Don’t move.”

The smoke cat hissed and spat, swiping at the toe of her boot. Every piece of fur on its body was standing on end, its bottlebrush tail out stiff behind it.

“Are you okay? What do we do?” Adrien whispered, frozen as he awaited instructions.

“Check and make sure your face isn’t bleeding.”

“What?”

“Please!” she pleaded, rocking slowly onto the balls of her feet, her knees resting against the ground with the barest pressure.

He obliged, his fingers coming away a little sandy, but dry. “Okay, I’m not bleeding. Now what?”

“Now go stand by that tree,” breathed Marinette, pulling a dagger about the length of her forearm from her baldric with her left hand. It glistened in the light of the foxfire too, much cleaner than her saber, which was coated in grime from their journey. Her back burned as she moved, muscles stinging where claws had torn through. “And maybe cover your ears.”

“What—” he started to ask, but Marinette lunged before he could finish, slashing the smoke cat’s parrying swipe with a backhanded twist of the dagger, what would have been a clean slice turning ragged at its recoil. Screaming in pain and fury, the smoke cat reared backwards, momentarily bipedal as it lurched away from a low thrust of the saber. Marinette swore as, having committed to the attack, she stumbled forward, losing precious seconds regaining her balance.

She struck again with the dagger, carving another piece of the smoke cat’s forelimb away. Tatters of bloodied skin and flesh dangled like ribbons from the joint of its wrist, and Marinette saw the white flash of sinew as it continued to hammer feverishly against her. She rolled her own wrist, securing her grip on the saber for another attack, eyes flicking to Adrien to make sure he was safe.

He hadn’t moved to the tree.

…She had gotten a little too used to people following her orders.

She let out a frustrated huff of breath as she rammed the saber forward and upwards, into what would have been the smoke cat’s ribcage—if it hadn’t sprung over her head.

It twisted acrobatically in the air above her, dripping gore across her outstretched arms, and landed on all four paws, only for its front right to collapse under the strain. It didn’t cry out, but the dulling of its eyes betrayed the pain. Marinette flashed it a fierce, victorious grin, daring it to attack again.

The smaller smoke cat, the one they had first seen, was now at the larger’s back, and was watching with wide yellow eyes, kneading at the branch it was perched on with eager claws that looked more like talons against the pale wood.

Marinette swore again, taking a pace to the right to get between the smoke cats and Adrien, who was watching somewhat anxiously, unwilling to cower but unsure how to help.

“There’s too much blood,” she told him, voice strained. “There’ll be more.”

“More blood?” asked Adrien, audibly gulping.

“More smoke cats,” she corrected. “Any of them that can smell it. They frenzy. Like sharks.”

“At least they’re not like eels,” he muttered. She heard him shift behind her, but couldn’t afford to turn around and see what he was doing.

Her shirt was sticking to her back as the blood soaked through the fabric, and her baldric sat heavily against the edge of one wound, chafing the broken skin. It’s just pain, Marinette reminded herself, settling lower into her fighting stance, it’s just your body complaining. She buried the sensation in the back of her mind, focusing instead on the memory of Adrien’s touch, gentle and soothing. Her heart was still beating frantically in her chest, but her breathing was deep and even. Panic and adrenaline made for clumsy mistakes, which she could ill afford.

The smoke cat tried to circle her, but as it moved she lunged once again, unwilling to make Adrien a closer target, even if the smoke cat wouldn’t attack him. It leapt onto its hind legs as she approached, surging forward with its claws splayed wide.

They met over the bare patch of foxfire where its initial pounce had landed her, the already disturbed leaf litter flying under their feet as they collided. Rather than using her saber, she pressed her advantage, slamming into the smoke cat with the full weight of her body. It yowled at the unexpected move, and they tumbled to the ground with their arms on either side of one another.

Marinette’s saber was jarred from her grip as her elbow hit the ground, but she kept a hold of the dagger, which had buried itself partway in the ground. As she yanked it free a spurt of flame burst into life, and she and the smoke cat instinctively rolled away from it, putting her saber out of her reach.

The smoke cat was slashing uselessly at her shoulder with its ruined paw, its left pinioned between them. As they rolled it managed to work it free, immediately scouring the side of her arm. Marinette bit down on the scream, forcing the pain away again; her left arm still worked, that was all that mattered. They stopped rolling as the flame spurt died, the smoke cat pinning her with its weight, snapping awkwardly as it tried to work its neck into a manageable position to rip out her throat.

With all the strength she could muster lying on her back, Marinette slammed the dagger in her hand into the smoke cat’s stomach.

It choked above her, yellow eyes widening as it wrenched away, taking the dagger with it. She struggled under its weight, still pinned, her right arm burning and numb all at once, her left still free. She pounded its side with a fist, trying to find the hilt of her dagger without being able to see it. The smoke cat reared its head back like a serpent poised to strike, and Marinette reached up to squeeze its ruined forearm, trying to loosen its hold as its teeth flashed above her.

There was a horribly wet tearing sound, and suddenly everything was hot and coppery and dark, and she couldn’t breathe—

“Marinette!” Adrien’s voice broke through, hoarse from stress and their earlier misadventures in the snow sand. The weight of the smoke cat vanished abruptly, and suddenly she could breathe again, and see again, and Adrien was kneeling over her and his hands were covered in blood, and he looked so distressed that it might well have been his.

“Please,” he was saying, begging, and she blinked up at him, “please, Marinette—”

“What?” she whispered, struggling into a sitting position, pushing herself up with her left hand, mindful of her wounded back. “What is it? Are you alright?”

He relaxed immediately, closing his eyes as he let out a shuddering breath. He bowed his head to press against her hand, which he clutched with both of his, and through the icy coldness of her fingers she felt the warmth of his breath.

“Am I hurt,” he murmured into her palm. “You’re lying on the ground, half ripped to shreds, and you ask if I’m hurt.”

“Are you?” she pressed, anxiously, fingers flexing weakly against him. She could feel the agonizing burn in her upper arm, but if she compartmentalized it, she wouldn’t be able to feel his hands around hers.

“I’m fine,” said Adrien, a little miserably. “I’ve never been so scared in my entire life, but I’m not actually injured.”

She looked around, piecing together what had happened as she scooped up a handful of dirt and began rubbing it vigorously into her wounds. The smoke cat lay a few feet away, her saber buried in its ribs, the smaller smoke cat cautiously circling as it tried to decide whether or not to approach the carcass.

Adrien had recovered the saber while she was pinned.

Adrien had saved her.

“Thank you,” she told him, looking back to find him frowning at her arm.

“What are you doing?” he demanded, ignoring her gratitude. She grabbed another fistful of mulch and rubbed it into the fabric of her shirt itself. “You’re going to get an infection!”

“Better than bleeding to death,” she countered with a breathy laugh. “Besides—we can’t walk around here reeking of blood.”

“Oh,” said Adrien, releasing her hand and getting to his feet, moving behind her, “the frenzying.”

“Right,” she said, fighting not to twitch as he began to press dirt into the wounds at her back. “That smoke cat should distract them for now.”

Adrien made an unpleasant noise in the back of his throat, dusting off his hands as best he could and standing back up. He helped Marinette to her feet more delicately than strictly necessary, steadying her with a hand against the small of her back. She rolled her eyes at him fondly, earning a broad wink in return.

Adrien set about dislodging her saber and dagger while Marinette scrounged up some lichen from a nearby tree, scrubbing halfheartedly at the drying blood on her uninjured skin.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Adrien asked softly, returning to her side with blades in hand. He’d wiped them somewhat clumsily on the fur of the dead smoke cat, but it was enough that she could clean them with the lichen and sheathe the dagger. “We can rest a while.”

“I’ll be alright,” she promised, smiling up at him as reassuringly as she could. “Besides, I don’t want to wait around and watch them cannibalize each other—or be stuck here when it gets dark. We should keep going.”

“Alright,” he murmured, eyes lingering on her injuries. His eyes were duller than usual, though not as dull as they had been when she’d first seen him that morning. He looked sick and scared and haunted, and it pulled at Marinette’s heart in unexpected ways.

“I’m sorry for scaring you,” she said, stepping in closer and wrapping her arms around his waist. She pressed her face into his chest, breathing in the smell of him, avoiding his eyes with renewed guilt. Was she ever going to stop breaking his heart?

He leaned his forehead against the top of her head, arms hovering carefully over hers to avoid her injuries. “It’s okay,” he whispered. “I’m sorry I couldn’t—that I didn’t—I’m so sorry. I couldn’t protect you.”

“Could too,” she mumbled into his shirt, rubbing her nose playfully under his vest. “That would have gone much worse without you, Adrien.”

“I’m still sorry,” he said.

“Me too.”

They walked in silence for a time, Adrien taking the lead now that Marinette was injured, following her directions through the swamp. They were filthy and exhausted, but Marinette hadn’t been so optimistic in years; they were together again. Nothing could stop them if they were together.

They reached the edge of the fire swamp in the early evening, before the sky darkened but after the temperature had cooled, and together breathed a sigh of relief. The trees began to thin, and the reek of the marsh gas dissipated, and the world seemed somehow lighter in the balmy air.

“My ship is waiting in the bay,” said Marinette with a weary smile. “Admittedly I was planning on going around, but we did alright, all things considered. Didn’t we?”

“We lived,” he acceded, laughing faintly. He was swaying on his feet, still staring at her like she was the only thing he wanted to look at. Her smile widened, and she leaned in, pressing a brief kiss to his cheek.

“Excuse me!”

They sprang apart at the sharp shriek, Marinette pointing her saber automatically at the shrill sound, Adrien reaching instinctively for a sword at his empty belt. Marinette, searching for the source of the noise, found herself facing a small army, headed by two very fine women, in very fine dress, on very fine horses.

The first, evidently the originator of the scream, was sitting sidesaddle on an enormous white stallion, and looked absolutely furious. Her long blonde hair was pulled into an elegant braid, her blue eyes were flashing with rage and indignation, and her lily pale hands were clutching the reins so hard her knuckles were white as bone. She wore a dress of loose, flowing gold that accented the color of her hair, and shone in the sunlight against her horse’s fur. Even in this alien setting, she looked like the princess she was.

The second was significantly calmer; the only indication of displeasure was her pursed, painted lips, and a disdainful light in her eyes. Where the first woman’s face was soft and even naïve under her fury, this second woman was sharp and keen and intelligent. Marinette perceived more of her countenance than her outfit, registering only that she wore browns and reds, practical breeches, and leather gloves over six-fingered hands.

“You’re excused,” said Marinette to the first woman with a genial smile. She did not lower her blade. Her free arm (the injured one) snaked around Adrien’s waist, drawing him closer to her side protectively.

The Princess’s eyes bulged. “That happens to be my fiancé you’ve got your grubby little hands on!”

“Oh, really?” drawled Marinette. “And here I’d scooped him off a bloodthirsty crowd of criminals. I would expect one to keep a better eye on their fiancé than that, wouldn’t you?”

“Surrender,” hissed Chloé from her seat, face beginning to turn red. “Or prepare to die.”

Marinette laughed. “Die,” she said back, her left hand flexing around the saber’s hilt, “Or prepare to surrender.”

She heard more than saw the archers taking up a flanking position; the sound of crossbows cocking was unmistakable, even over the distant sounds of the fire swamp. Beside her, Adrien was looking around wildly, but Marinette kept her eyes trained on the Princess, watching the Countess in her peripheral vision.

“I will not repeat myself again,” said the Princess, in her shrill, angry voice, “Surrender!”

“Nor will I,” said Marinette, “Die!”

“Wait!” yelled Adrien beside her, his voice cracking at the sudden volume. Everyone—Pirate, Princess, and Countess alike—stopped and looked at him. His face was drawn with anxiety, his scab from the eels crusting over, particles of sand still dusting his scalp—and, as ever, he was beautiful.

“For what?” demanded the Princess, scowling down at him.

“Will you—will you promise not to hurt her?” croaked Adrien.

“What?” asked Chloé.

“What?” asked the Countess.

“What?” asked Marinette.

“If we surrender,” he clarified, licking his lips, “if I go back with you, will you promise not to hurt her?”

“She kidnapped you!” said Chloé, gaping between them.

“She rescued me,” he corrected. He leaned further against Marinette’s side, his warmth radiating throughout her—almost enough to thaw the chill of her disbelief. “Please, Your Highness—we were children together, and she means a great deal to me, and I ask your mercy. As—as thanks, for my safe return.”

Chloé frowned down at him, looking Marinette over as if trying to come up with a way to articulate her disgust.

“The Princess is not renowned for her mercy,” said the Countess, raising one eyebrow.

“All the more reason to exercise it here,” said Adrien. The desperation in his voice was palpable. “It’s—it’s a great story, isn’t it? The noble princess following her fiancé across the channel, rewarding his rescuer? The commoners would think so highly of you, Your Highness.”

Chloé looked pensive. “They would love that,” she mused, smiling faintly.

“There’s a hitch,” Marinette interjected, heart pounding in her chest. “You can’t very well bring me along, Adrien. I’m a pirate.” To say nothing of the romantic competition she so obviously posed.

“You’ll be safe,” said Adrien. “They’ll get you some medical attention. You will, won’t you?” He turned pleading green eyes to Chloé, swallowing thickly. “Promise?”

“Of course,” she said primly. “We wouldn’t want our dashing friend here to succumb to her injuries.”

Marinette narrowed her eyes.

“They’ll take you back to your ship, and—and grant you a pardon,” Adrien continued, looking back to Marinette. He looked so scared. “You’ll be safe.”

“And what about you?” she asked softly. “You’ll go back to Florin City and marry the Princess? We’re speaking of love, here.”

“I can live without love,” said Adrien. He pulled away from her grip, crossing the short gap to Chloé’s side. She helped him climb in the saddle behind her, smiling primly, her earlier rage vanished.

“See to it that her wounds are tended immediately,” she bade the Countess.

“Of course, Your Highness,” said the Countess, bowing her head respectfully.

“I thank you for the return of my fiancé,” said Chloé to Marinette, her eyes flashing so smugly and victoriously that Marinette felt like the smoke cat she and Adrien had defeated earlier. “You are of course invited to the wedding.”

They rode away, most of the horsemen following in their wake.

Adrien didn’t look back.

Marinette’s shoulders slumped as she watched them go, all the fight running out of her, her heart chasing after the fading silhouette of everything she’d ever wanted.

“Well now,” said the Countess, her sharp voice piercing Marinette’s reverie like a blade. “Come along. We must return you to your ship.”

“Spare me at least your lies,” said Marinette, rolling her eyes. “You’ve about as little intention to return me as I have to buy them a wedding present.”

“Truth, then,” said the Countess, spurring her horse forward a few paces, so that Marinette had to tilt her head back to keep her eye. The black and tan hounds swarmed around them, some whimpering excitedly. “I hope you enjoyed your time in the Guilderian Fire Swamp. I guarantee you that you’ll soon look back on it fondly as a deeply relaxing experience.”

“Are nobles naturally this dramatic, or do you have to take a class?” Marinette asked innocently.

The Countess gave an audible sigh, and clubbed Marinette with the pommel of her sword.

Her vision swam, and Marinette swayed on her feet and crumbled backwards into darkness.

#miraculous ladybug #clare's writing #the dread pirate ladybug

[lonestorm]

The Inugami - Short 4: Sango

Summary: When Kagome Higurashi moved to the bad side of Chicago to help with her grandfather’s restaurant, she expected chaos. Being thrown into a fake gang, caught in the middle of a drug war and grudge that stretches centuries back in time, befriending a grumpy half demon along with a ragtag bunch of three other misfits… wasn’t exactly what she had in mind. High school AU. Inukag.

Rating: T (some language)

Pairings: Inukag, Mirsan

Chapters: Ch. 1 | Ch. 2 | Ch. 3 | Ch. 4 | Ch. 5 | Ch. 6 | Ch. 7 | Ch. 8 | Ch. 9 |  Ch. 10 | Ch. 11 | Ch. 12 | Ch. 13

Shorts: 1. Sesshomaru | 2. Miroku | 3. Shippo | 4. Sango

**Also on ff.net here.

Sango reclined on her bed, covering her eyes with her arm. A sigh escaped her mouth, having just laughed for the last few minutes. Miroku’s grinning face beamed up at her from her laptop; he was sitting at his desk with his laptop cheeks in his hands as he gazed at her with that twinkle of adoration in his sapphire eyes.

He always had that way of making the moon a little brighter out her window and the chaos less deafening. Which was difficult right now… their plan to find Naraku’s base was in a week, and the possibility of facing Kohaku tightened around her heart more every day.

As the thought filtered back into her haze of happiness from Miroku’s smile, Sango’s own smile slipped as she dropped her arm and squeezed her eyes shut. “One week,” she murmured.

“And it will be over,” Miroku agreed, managing to look both grim and content at the same time.

She hesitated, pursing her lips before turning on her side to face him. “And my brother will be taken to prison.”

The “or dead” was left unspoken.

Sympathy pooled into his eyes. “Anywhere is better than where he is now.”

“What if…” Sango felt her eyes grow hot, and she blinked several times to keep the wetness at bay. “What if I have to fight him?” Her fingers wound around her sheets. “After Mom, how can I lose…?”

“You’re not losing him,” Miroku insisted. Black hair was escaping his usual ponytail so that it brushed across his cheeks, framing his intent stare. “It may take a while, but this is the only way to get him back.”

Sango pushed a lock behind her ear. “Miroku… you’ve lost… everything. How do you…?”

“I haven’t lost everything,” corrected Miroku. “I have my life, my home, the monks as my family, I have Kagome, Shippo, Inuyasha… and I have you.”

Usually that statement would make her smile, but now she only shook her head and stammered out clumsily, “I kn-now, but you… you say I’m strong but… but I don’t know how to… but you must know how… he’s my baby brother… how can I…” She gulped thickly, and found she couldn’t get more words past the lump in her throat.

“My dear Sango,” Miroku said softly as he gently touched the screen, like he could stroke her cheek from across the district. The ‘dear’ Sango used to bother her. When he’d started saying it--one, two years ago? It seemed like he always had--Sango had brushed it off with a scoff, thinking he was trying some of his moves on her, that he probably said that to every skirt he chased. It had seemed patronizing or annoying, like ‘sweetheart’ or ‘doll.’ But she later noticed how his tone would get tender and quieter, like one of the meditations that the monks would recite while they gathered in the temple. Now, she didn’t roll her eyes at the endearment; when Miroku called her ‘dear’, he meant exactly that. One dear to him, to his heart.

“My dear Sango,” he said, “we are all so much more unbreakable than we think we are.”

Sango let out a yell as she smacked an approaching spider with a metal baton she’d found on a cop nearby. He dropped like a rock, eyes rolled back in his head. Shippo lit another up with his foxfire, and Miroku slammed spiritual power into two enemy demons so that they went smashing into a marble pillar.

The trio shot, slashed, and kicked their way to the entrance, where Wolves were swarming to save the humans and cops ran to their stations. Shippo began to transform into the big, pink, balloony form. He squeaked, “Climb on! Can’t hold it too long!”

Her and Miroku scrambled up to the top of his form, and he began to rise up, up, and to the roof.

Sango chanced a glance at Miroku on the ride, eyebrows pinched in concern. Back in the basement, he’d looked almost ready to kill not only Naraku, but anyone that got in his way… the Miroku she knew would never think of killing. Now, his anger was muted, but jaw still clenched and eyes trained on the roof. His heart was usually displayed proudly on his sleeve, but now, he was guarded, and she knew better than to pry. Or do anything now but, like, try to stop the entire city from getting Shikon bombed.

Sango, Miroku, and Shippo were under fire from about fifteen Spiders as soon as they reached the top; Shippo changed form instantly and Miroku and Sango rolled behind the nearest vent. Gritting her teeth in frustration, Sango said to the other two, “Help me disarm them! Then Shippo, help me take out the Spiders, and protect Miroku while he keeps a barrier around the device so that no one can touch it!”

“You got it!” Shippo answered, while Miroku just gave a nod.

Leaning out for a second, Sango threw her boomerang out and ducked back to avoid return fire. Luckily, she heard curses and the clangs of the gun she was aiming for being knocked out of a hand.

Shippo unleashed foxfire on those closest to him, burning their hands so that the guns were dropped; Miroku blasted them away with purple light until only knives and fists were left.

Sango snatched the fist that flew at her and automatically twisted it back, causing the Spider to cry out. She kicked the backs of his knees and next in the head. Ducking a swing, she swept her leg to trip the assailant, sending that one crashing down where she smacked their head into the concrete. And when she looked up to her next opponent...

“Kohaku?”

Sango froze. He was taller. He’d lost some baby fat on his freckled cheeks to a sharper jaw. He was thinner, a dark, tiredness residing in his brown eyes. And in his hand was a switchblade pointed straight at her heart.

The blade in her own hand lowered, and the battle seemed to fade around her. Did he even recognize her? “Kohaku? It’s me. Sango. Your sister.”

The knife shook in his hand. “I don’t have a sister. I don’t have anything but Naraku or death.”

“No!” Her smile was half crazed, marred by her heart being torn by his words. “No, we’ll take him down! You won’t need the drug anymore-”

At this, he let out a cracked, despairing laugh. “Won’t need it? I take it or I die! It’s been my future since I first breathed it in!”

“We can fix it! As a family! We’re defeating Naraku tonight! You can be strong,” she told him, taking a step forward. He took a step back.

“It’s too late,” choked Kohaku, knife trembling even harder. “I’m too far gone and you shouldn’t be here. The device will be set off and you… you shouldn’t be here!”

She heard Shippo cry out and curse, trying to handle the rest of the Spiders without her. Gritting her teeth, she gestured to the city. “You’re willing to doom all of these people? We can save you and the Spiders, but if this goes off, all will be lost!”

He swallowed, glancing at the edge of the building. Sango stepped closer, dropping her knife and holding out a pleading hand.

“Kohaku, please. Just stop. I know you don’t want to do this. Just… please come home.”

“I c-can’t…”

“We still love you, Kohaku.” She was only a foot away from him and his terrified eyes, now. “Dad and I. We still want you. Please! Please turn it off.”

His eyes flashed.

His hand twitched-

And his blade clattered to the ground.

Falling to his knees, Kohaku slumped and buried his face in his hands. Sango immediately dropped next to him, wrapped an arm around his shoulders. She just heard him say, “I c-can’t turn it o-off. W-we were just supposed to p-protect it. N-Naraku has the k-kill switch and detonator…”

Sango barely registered Shippo relaying the information to the rest of the Inugami and Wolves. Barely registered the screams and shouts and shots that were echoing from the city below. Barely registered that Shippo had finally dispatched the last Spider with a rope of fire and a punch in the face. Sango just held her brother to her shoulder and kept promising that she wouldn’t let go.

“I guess this is it, then.”

Kohaku was facing her grimly from the grip of a police officer, bowing his head once he’d spoken. Lights and sirens and chatter surrounded them, but all Sango saw and heard was her baby brother, away from Naraku at last. She’d seen Naraku’s body herself, and experienced the mixed nausea and relief that it represented.

She also saw that Miroku stood beside her. She almost couldn’t remember a life where he didn’t.

A shaky smile. “No, it’s a new beginning, Kohaku. You’re going to get treatment, and you won’t be in juvie for long. Then you can come home. We’ll be waiting.”

He grimaced, scuffing a shoe against gravel. “Life can’t… ever be the way it was, again.”

“No.” Sango put a hand on his shoulder and tilted up his chin. “But that doesn’t mean it can’t still turn out pretty good, Kohaku.”

Kohaku’s lip trembled. “M-my body is so… I don’t know if I can live without it, sis. He said, Naraku, I mean… he said not taking it will kill me. That it’s killed everyone that took it and tried to stop…”

“That’s a lie,” Miroku cut in firmly, crossing his arms. “People have gotten treatment for it for years and now live healthy lives. Some people, if they go cold turkey after their first try, can survive and get rid of it. Like our friend Inuyasha. He did that just last week, after Naraku tricked him to inhale it.”

A flicker of hope. “I can… survive?”

“You can thrive,” Sango affirmed.

“But I… I’ve been doing it for so long…” The doubt leaking back into his voice was like a drop of black ink clouding the water. “How can I…?”

At this, Sango shook her head and pulled her brother into her arms. He smelled like blood, dirt, salt, and a long-treasured memory. “My dear brother,” she whispered into his ear, clutching at the back of his jacket, “you are so much more unbreakable than you think you are.”

And she let him go. Watched them gently sort him into a police car. Watched it peel away.

The noises around Sango faded into a numb buzz, and all she heard was Miroku’s sigh when he pulled her to his chest. He pressed a kiss to her forehead.

“I’m in love with you,” she murmured dazedly when she hugged him about the waist and put her cheek against his heart.

His hand stroked her hair. “Well, who can blame you, eh?”

She let out a half laugh, half sob, before giving a tired groan. “You okay?”

“Physically? Yes. Psychologically? I’ll get back to you on that when I remember how to emote.” Another caress. “Are you?”

She released another sigh, snuggled into him. “What do you think?”

Miroku pulled back to give her a single, gentle kiss. “I think you’re unbreakable.”

#the inugami #inuyasha #inuyasha fanfiction #inukag #inukag fanfiction #mirsan #mirsan fanfiction #kagome higurashi #sango #miroku #my writing #my fanfiction

[malodorousmalcontent]

THE STRANGE SOUTH REVIEW

Got my sample order from The Strange South! Reviewing Harbinger in White; Banshee’s Holler; Damn, It’s Dark Down Here; Blood on the Moon; Hysteria; Nightjar; and Deerskin.

HARBINGER IN WHITE (PERFUME OIL)

NOTES: Black roses, black patchouli, and black feathers under a fresh layer of snow.

IN THE BOTTLE: Powdery roses. Not really much else. This actually reminds me a lot of what Sixteen92's Southern Gothic smells like - it's got that TUMS-y scent to it.

IMMEDIATE APPLICATION (BECAUSE I AM A GOON): Pretty much what it smells like in the bottle at first - TUMS-y roses. I kept checking the notes between it and Southern Gothic, trynna figure out what might be causing that scent, but they don't... Share any notes, from what I can see. I can only figure it's just something with the florals. The TUMS-iness is a little more subtle in this, though, so I didn't scrub it, and after a couple hours it became more of a smooth floral. I still didn't really pick up on any of the other notes.

AFTER RESTING: Wow, a couple days of rest did this an absolutely MASSIVE favor. It's not powdery anymore, not TUMS-y, and is actually very nice. It's kinda light (disclaimer, this may just be my bad sniffer), but I think i'm picking up on the patchouli too--it's very subtle, though, and mostly grounds the roses--and even the black feathers, which smell kinda... Dark and clean? I'm not sure how else to describe them. Not getting much in the way of snow, though.

I like this more than I did before by a longshot, but when it comes down to it, it's still just a pleasant floral.

It stays pretty close to the skin - I can smell it from an inch or so away at most. It's not light or lacking, though.

RATING: 3/5. If you like roses, this is a nice rose floral. Not quite for me, but I can't deny it's a good scent.

--

BANSHEE'S HOLLER (PERFUME OIL)

NOTES: Moonflower, wilted carnations, white musk, birch bark, and decaying leaves.

IN THE BOTTLE: STANKY. Like, there are a few scents that I sniff that are SO offputting i'm not sure i'm even gonna put them on, and this was one of them - maybe because I just didn't expect it to smell the way it did. On a second whiff a few hours later, i'd say it smells like a dusty, old, wooden room.

IMMEDIATE APPLICATION (BECAUSE I AM A GOON): This stayed STANKY on me for a couple minutes, but eventually became something much prettier - one of those airy, atmospheric scents that I can only think to describe as empty. The main notes I detect are the florals with the bark and leaves grounding it, and they combine in a really lovely way. The mental image it gives me is a living room in an abandoned cabin that's half fallen in on itself, exposing the night sky above, overgrown with white flowers that glow a little in the moonlight. It's actually kinda elegant, with a dark side of dirty.

AFTER RESTING: The bitterness of the decaying leaves and the woodiness of the birch is honestly so strong that I was kinda dreading trying this one again, it gives me a headache to sniff out of the bottle, but once it got on my skin, all that bitterness went away leaving mostly these dark, spooky florals with a hint of woodiness to ground it. It gets a weird freshness/mintiness that's cool on my nose the farther away I try to smell it. The moonflower gives it a sort of 'stereotypical perfume' scent that's rounded out by the carnations. I wouldn't say this has changed too much from Immediate Application. Dark, ethereal, and elegant. Smells like something i'd wear to a funeral.

I can smell it from about three inches away from my wrist.

RATING: 3/5. It's a nice, conceptual scent with some depth to it, but just isn't really my bag.

--

DAMN, IT'S DARK DOWN HERE (PERFUME OIL)

NOTES: Jasmine, vetiver, clary sage, damp soil, and coffin wood.

IN THE BOTTLE: Light and mostly floral. I think this was the first bottle I opened, and I told my roommate, who really enjoys Alkemia's Midnight Garden (straight florals), that they'd probably like this.

IMMEDIATE APPLICATION (BECAUSE I AM A GOON): Honestly i've been sitting here sniffing this periodically for a couple hours and i would'a sworn up and down this had honeysuckle in it, because that's the main thing I detect. Maybe it's a mix of the jasmine and the clary sage? I rarely actually smell jasmine in things, and have no idea what clary sage smells like?? Either way, it's also got some woodiness to it that darkens the scent. It's REAL light, so it's hard to say. tl;dr: light, slightly green floral with some woodiness underneath it.

AFTER RESTING: Again, I would swear up and down that this has honeysuckle in it and time and time again I am surprised it doesn't. That being said, this honestly... Doesn't smell bad, but it's really plain to me. It smells like a nice soap from a fancy hotel. I can't really pick out any particular notes - just soft clean smooth floral, all one-note. This doesn't smell exactly like jasmine, so I assume it's being rounded out by either the vetiver and/or the clary sage. I definitely don't get dirt or wood.

Gotta have my nose against my wrist for this one.

RATING: 2/5. Smells nice, but kinda boring - I like stuff with a little more depth to it.

--

BLOOD ON THE MOON (PERFUME OIL)

NOTES: Pine needles, frozen leaves, frankincense, crystallized honey (vegan), blood, and patchouli.

IN THE BOTTLE: A cold, dirty forest. A bitter scent, but not in a bad way.

IMMEDIATE APPLICATION (BECAUSE I AM A GOON): Still that bitter, dirty forest, but with... More? I'm not really getting the honey, but I can detect a little bit of the frankincense, and i'm guessing the dirty bitterness is a mix of the frozen leaves and patchouli. I'm not really getting anything that reads blood to me. The pine is really realistic, smooth and not at all minty/'christmassy'. As it is, this smells like a strange mix of clean and dirty: it's airy and empty, but that dark earth is only as far away as a glance downwards.

AFTER RESTING: Another one resting for a couple days significantly changed. This was a lot more bitter and dirty before--and, for the first few minutes, this stays bitter and dirty, then smooths out, the frozen leaf note heading to the back of the pack and leaving a smooth pine. After a few minutes, a waxy sweetness comes out that I can only assume is the honey, and a... Man, I recently was given a straight package of frankincense so I know what it smells like, but I have no idea how to DESCRIBE that smell. It's like a little incensey zing? It's there, accenting the honey. Sitting underneath it all is a very soft but decidedly coppery tang from the blood. If you really huff this in, you can still get the dirtiness of the frozen leaves note.

Despite the honey being one of the three big players, I would NOT call this a sweet scent - the sweetness is very subdued and realistic. I like this a lot more than I did, it's very pretty.

This is a lot lighter than when I first put it on - i'm not really smelling it unless my nose is up in there.

RATING: 5/5. This is really pretty! I don't know if i'd fullsize this or not, kinda waffling on that, but it's objectively really nice. I keep sniffin it.

-- HYSTERIA (PERFUME OIL)

NOTES: Blue wisteria, white jasmine, rock rose, crisp cucumber, and aldehydes.

IN THE BOTTLE: Very light, with this little squiggle of something sharp that tickles my nose.

IMMEDIATE APPLICATION (BECAUSE I AM A GOON): OHHH BOY THAT'S SHARP. Is it the wisteria? The jasmine? The aldehydes? I don't know, maybe it's all three! (Probably the aldehydes. I didn't have trouble with them in Alkemia's Foxfire, but...) But this is like if you had a nice cool pool of water and just dunked a cleaning supply bath bomb in it.  It's sharp, sour, chemically, and puts a bright, highlighter, neon yellow-green color in my head. I should've expected this from the name, it honestly fits it well, but holy crap. Wow this gives me a headache. Scrubbing this.

AFTER RESTING: Oh man this... Still reeks. It's just NOT good. I smell like a rave looks. I smell like a highlighter. Once again, scrubbing this bad boy post-haste.

Small update from like 20 minutes later: Seriously. It STINKS. It's bad.

I caught ONE whiff of it while sitting normally, which is too much for me. Otherwise I can only smell it a few inches from my wrist.

RATING: 0/5. Nope. Nope nope nope. This is a Bad.

UPDATE: After I first published this review on reddit, I had a lot of people saying they didn’t get this experience out of this perfume at all. To make sure I wasn’t vividly hallucinating the whole thing, I put it back on for a couple hours. Eventually, the chemical edge to it went away... But ultimately it left the screechiest jasmine cat pee smell imaginable. Still real bad on me.

-- NIGHTJAR (PERFUME OIL)

NOTES: Peach blossom, honeysuckle, sage, fern, tuberose, dragon's blood, clove, and smoked vanilla.

IN THE BOTTLE: Hubba bubba bubblegum, of all things.

IMMEDIATE APPLICATION (BECAUSE I AM A GOON): So, I put this on, and my first notion was like, that's weirdly sweet-medicinal, but within seconds it was back to hubba bubba bubblegum, and, honestly, I kinda like it. It's nice and smooth and comforting. The clove gives a little bit of a kick to it. If I really breathe it in, then I would say it's a nice, smooth, pretty fruity-floral, well blended, with a bit of depth/spice from the dragon's blood and smoked vanilla. There's something that gives me a really smooth, comforting honey vibe? And a waxy vibe, like makeup? Not sure what exactly is doing that. ...but, tl;dr, hubba bubba bubblegum. I'd wear this to bed.

AFTER RESTING: Two days of resting, and this... Still smells like hubba bubba! The honeysuckle's pretty noticeable in this, though, which I like. Nothing else particularly notable going on here for me, though.

Wears v close to the skin. I don't detect it at all until i'm an inch away from the source.

RATING: 3/5. It's not bad, but nothing particularly special imho. Wears a little too close to the skin for my liking, too.

-- DEERSKIN (PERFUME OIL)

NOTES: Warm straw, painted corn, antler velvet, juniper, and musk.

IN THE BOTTLE: This smells so warm and comforting in the bottle. Soft and musky and cozy. I got this one as a free sample, and was surprised when it was the scent I was most interested in just from the bottle smell.

IMMEDIATE APPLICATION (BECAUSE I AM A GOON): This keeps that warm muskiness from the bottle, but there's something else that's like... Sour, in this? I figure it might be the juniper, but it's a very strange, familiar, animalic sourness - I don't know how to describe it or why i'm recognizing it. I really don't care for it though. Otherwise, this is a warm, cozy scent that's neither dirty nor clean - like being wrapped up in a... Well, a deerskin.

AFTER RESTING: I hate to say it but I actually am not gonna try this one again - that sour note was with me while I was feeling particularly ill, and now it makes me sick to think about it. I suppose we'll never really know if it got better. :(

Has a sillage of a couple inches.

RATING: 2/5. It wasn't the worst, and i've got some personal bias here re: smelling it while ill, but that sour note was really unpleasant.

#perfumes #perfume reviews #the strange south #harbinger in white #banshee's holler #damn it's dark down here #blood on the moon #hysteria #nightjar #deerskin

[neverwatchedonepiece]

617: "Caesar's Defeat! The Powerful Grizzly Magnum!"

Basically Caesar: “REEEEEEEEEEEEE, SCIENCE!!!”

Only had time for one episode today but caught a snippet of the preview and it seems like posting for one episode here will fit in terms of the story arc. 

Caesar is down and out, Law has done what he came to do, and Luffy has executed step one of his plan to kick ass and kidnap! Now all he needs is the fantastically badass Usopp to come through with the cuffs and step two will be on the cards!

It’s all a matter of escaping Punk Hazard with Caesar in tow, plus Law, the Strawhats, a bunch of kids and maybe some surviving Minions and the G5 and Smoker and Tashigi and Foxfire and Momonosuke and Brownbeard.

Yeah, I hope Franky has some extra bed rolls hidden away in storage because that is a lot of extra bodies on Sunny.

Sanji will be fine. He worked at Baratie. He’s used to mass catering.

Law Tries Out His Stand Up Material On Vergo

In other news, Vergo is still alive. I kind of hoped Law might have taken him out but this is One Piece and you guys have always said that Oda sees a future for most of his characters. (Even Wapol. Yes, I am still salty about Wapol.) Smoker was on the ground, breathing hard. Getting fresh air for once, instead of dat tasty tobacco.

Vergo is also still shit-talking. “You broke the gear? There’s no turning back? That’s hysterical.” 

Brave for a guy who was (at that point) in two pieces with a building crumbling rapidly around him. Not to mention the noxious clouds of gas.

Then he used his hands to spring from the ground and attack Law. He was Roomed and doomed in two seconds, chopped into fractions and hung on the railings. (Approaching Nightmare Fuel territory if you think too much about it.)

Vergo totally reminds me of the Black Knight from Monty Python’s Life of Brian. If you’ve never heard of it, he’s basically this dude who keeps getting up and shit-talking his opponents even after the removal of all his limbs. It’s funny. Vergo even made a joke about it. “How will I eat breakfast tomorrow?” Yeah, he almost went full Black Knight there.

Except for the little serious turn when he threatened Law with Doflamingo’s past.

“How dare you, Law? This is an upset. But I know you’re going to regret it. Keep that in mind. You don’t know Joker’s past and that will cost you your life. Upstarts like you can’t hope to take over the world. It’s filled with those who are much stronger. Tell him, Smoker!”

First of all, why was he appealing to Smoker to back him up like a kid in a playground? The brazen cheek of it. As if. I’m glad Smoker blanked him and sparked up a fat Cuban cigar.

Secondly, what is all this about Doflamingo’s past? Why would that matter to Law? I’m trying to think what could possibly affect Law as much as Vergo says and I’m drawing a blank.The only thing that might be a bit meh is if Doflamingo was once a Marine. We already had that twist with Vergo.

At any rate, Law had had enough with Vergo running his mouth, and chopped his head into two pieces.

“Don’t worry about me. Just worry about yourself. This room will explode soon. Goodbye, Vergo the pirate.”

I ain’t bothered about Vergo. That guy is too arrogant for his own good and Law gave him a well-deserved taste of defeat. I just hope Law took Smoker with him.(It’d be hilarious if Law carried Smoker over his shoulder and they ran into Zoro carrying Tashigi over his shoulder. xD)

Speaking of Well-Deserved Tastes of Defeat...

This guy...

I love a charismatic, melodramatic, total piece of crap villain, but Oda did a great job of making me loathe Caesar here. I think Luffy lamping him square on the chops unhinged him a little. Law destroying the SAD factory and the labs as a result probably finished Caesar off. His arrogance and cruelty was off the charts! I thought Spandam was bad. Caesar makes Spanda look like a playground bully.

I loved how when he realised Law had unleashed merry hell, Caesar’s reaction was, “Damn! Who caused that? I bet it was Law. What is Vergo doing? You Strawhats RUINED MY PARADISE!”

His paradise. Wow, that sure does give you a little peek into this dude’s mind. 

And it gets better. 

Caesar had a last-ditch plan to defeat Luffy. He called his Minions in the Secret Room. “R-Building, can you hear me? Secret Room, come in! Open the air vents now! Let Shinokuni flow into this room.”

The Minions, understandably, were reticent to do this because they are the kind of people who, like the Strawhats, look after their own. They asked, “but wouldn’t it kill our guys?”

Caesar was like, “Well, I’m a gas man. I’m not gonna die. You’re just guinea pigs. No one would care if hundreds of you died. You are just the dregs of society! What are you doing? Hurry up. I can find replacements for you fools so easily.”

Uh oh. 

The mask came off. Caesar must have been so riled that he didn’t care if everyone saw his true nature. The poor, deluded Minions still clung to their vision of Caesar as their benevolent Master, their saviour.

“Oh, the Master is trying to fool the enemies. He must have a plan to do with the gas. It would hurt him to know we suspected him.”

Hurt him? Mate, Caesar has no feelings to be hurt. He has an ego the size of Laboon. That’s not the same thing.

So, of course the Minions pulled the lever. Shinokuni flowed into the room. And I had a facepalm moment at those poor, brainwashed Minions.

Caesar Does A Moria

“Yes! About time,” Caesar shouted. “Dregs shouldn’t think. Now, become my power, Shinokuni. Look, Strawhat! Look at his amazing appearance. This is my scientific power. Through this experiment, two countries have already expressed interest in the weapon. They are both quite peaceful but when humans get serious about defending themselves, they’ll look for any way possible to kill their enemies. Everybody needs me! I’ll spread weapons all over the world and become King of the Land of Death.”

There are a couple of things to unpack here.

First of all, Caesar is completely demented. I mean, that was always obvious. But that ambition of his is twisted and terrifying. Worse, that Doflamingo gave him the traction to actually make it happen.

Secondly, he’s insane but he’s not stupid. Caesar has an eye for business and is, weirdly, able to charm people into believing his bullshit. He also knows the darker side of human nature and how to exploit it, like he has done with those peaceful islands. He is also smug in the knowledge that big shots in governments everywhere will always want him in their corner, so there will always be a place for someone like him. That was a definite Art Mirroring Life moment right there. Harsh but true, I guess. The guy who first split the atom and invented the atomic bomb was a hot commodity, right?

Third, Caesar basically did a Gekko Moria. Caesar took it a step further because he actually gleefully killed all his Minions. Moria just took the shadows back from already dead bodies. This was the logical conclusion of Caesar seeing other people as objects or commodities to be manipulated, used or destroyed as he sees fit. The way he happily killed them all was just nasty.  “It’s amazing, if I do say so myself. Look at how fast it acts on their nerves. It’s almost an art!” And when they begged him to stop, “I am your saviour and I can make efficient use of you good-for-nothings. You are just crumbs. You should not stand against your Master. Die like dogs!”

Crumbs. Dogs. Guinea pigs. Caesar always uses dehumanising language on his poor Minions. And everyone else for that matter. He really is a psychotic, nasty piece of work. If this guy is working for Doflamingo, I cannot wait to see what a horrible bastard Doflamingo turns out to be. xD

Caesar’s Off The Deep End Behaviour and his treatment of his own people caused Luffy to have the veiniest, super frown I have seen on his face so far. Luffy does not like people who betray and used their own crew/soldiers/comrades. 

Luffy said to Momo, “Look after Brownbeard.” Then ran in the opposite direction. Of course, I knew Luffy was just looking to gain some distance. Caesar, of course, mistook it for Luffy chickening out all of a sudden.

There was one person who knew with absolute certainty that this was not the case.

Usopp Was Awesome Here

Can I just talk for a moment about how awesome Usopp was here?

All through this arc, he’s been ridiculously brave. He volunteered to split up with Brook and Foxfire so he could work on his own to find the Sea Prism Stone cuffs for Luffy. He was creeping round the labs on his own and when he found the Secret Room, he did not run upon being confronted with a full squad of Minions. He simply used his smarts to evade capture. Because he knew there was something in there of value and Luffy needed his help. 

When the Minions saw Caesar’s true nature over the DDM feed and were finally like, “OMG this guy is awful.” Usopp just walked up to them and said, “I know you’re all broken hearted here but could I sit in that control seat for a second? I wanna save my friends from the gas.”

See that? Usopp’s loyalty to his friends trumps all sense of fear. 

When the Minions tried to shake Usopp by saying, “Yeah, you’ll never escape because your Captain just cut and run. He left you guys behind.“ Usopp was Not Having One Bit Of It. 

“Whoa, whoa, whoa... Are you dissing our captain right in front of me? If he were the kind of person who’d betray us, this whole thing would’ve been much easier for me. I would’ve just run away with my tail between my legs. But he never, ever stops believing in us. So we have no choice but to support him. We pledged to live up to his expectations as long as we can breathe!”

There you have it. Right from the horse’s mouth. Luffy’s faith in his crew inspires them to greater heights. And in Usopp, this is bravery. Absolutely beautiful. 

And when the Minions said, “But what can we do? We can’t beat such a powerful man?” (Referring to Caesar) Usopp replied, “Yes, you can. You guys should just believe in our Captain. Caesar is the type of person that Luffy hates the most. Luffy won’t forgive Caesar.”

Usopp knows Luffy pretty well.

That Grizzly Magnum was really something else. I was expecting it to take out Caesar straight awayt but I liked that it didn’t. Caesar is the kind of villain who needs to have his pride thoroughly broken and to taste bitter, bitter defeat. If not, he’ll just tank the hit, pick himself up again and it’s back to his same old tricks.

The best portrayal of that was when Caesar was wrestling with Luffy, the Shinokuni slowly turning his hands to white powder, and he screamed, “Kneel before my power!”

Luffy will never kneel to anyone. Now, I’m not sure what those pulses of power were that drove Caesar back (Conqueror’s Haki?) but Luffy’s hit finally landed and, in a perfect moment of symbolism, Caesar’s self-made crown shattered.

He is no longer the tyrannical ruler of Punk Hazard. Caesar’s reign has come to an end.

And I can’t wait to see what happens next, because Doflamingo sent one of his lackeys to help him out. 

The plot chickens.

Well, you’re gonna kidnap him, so that might be a tough one to get round.

#one piece #neverwatchedonepiece #nwop #never watched one piece #monkey d. luffy #trafalgar law #caesar clown #donquixote doflamingo #vergo #vice admiral smoker #captain tashigi #roronoa zoro #sanji #usopp #nami #tony tony chopper #nico robin #mocha #momonosuke #brownbeard