#so far it just seems like shes got a bit of an interest in machinery and stuff

[animehouse-moe]

Mobile Suit Gundam - The Witch From Mercury S2 Episode 6: Our Empty Selves

On the surface, this episode can seem quite standard. Simply bringing exposition and information to the forefront of the story, and giving viewers a heads up on what's going on and where things will be going. Admittedly, for the first half that's what I took it as, just a cut and dry transitional episode. But, as I watched more and more I came to understand that it really fits the subtitle of the episode.

Our Empty Selves. The characters lack a lot of what makes them, well, them in this episode. They're not given space to act as or express themselves, and are relegated to a hollow and empty existence. Sometimes by their own choices, others by circumstance, and even some due to those around them.

So maybe I'll start with Guel and Miorine, the students. They're trying to make a difference, trying to win the presidential election for the Benerit Group, but they're not making any real progress. They're seen as unproven children in the eyes of their potential financiers, and have their backs against the wall. They need to make an impact, they need to make sure Prospera stays on their side, they need those Financiers with them. So they're forced to make decisions that go against their wishes, to bring a Gundam down to Earth to talk with protesters. These pair probably are the weakest in terms of the reflection of the subtitle, but they still fit under it in the moral and ethical sense. How far will they blur the lines to ensure they win over Grassley and Shaddiq? How much will they do to keep Prospera on their side? I wouldn't say it's a riveting aspect of the episode, but definitely one that sows seeds for the future.

What better segue than to use Guel's brother, Lauda, next? This is a fairly simple one, but I think is a really great piece in terms of the difficulties of siblings. Lauda worked endlessly to help his brother earn that key to success. He did what he could to make sure Guel wasn't expelled, to ensure that he could return as the CEO of Jeturk Heavy Machinery. He's proud of his brother, he's incredibly happy to be by his side and to help him at the drop of a hat. But that effort isn't recognized. He remains in the shadow of his brother, robbed of the tireless work that he put in. And what's he to do? He's still at Astacassia while Guel is off to Earth for the sake of their company. He's stuck at school while the others of his house praise Guel to no end and leave him in the shadows of the greatness of Jeturk Heavy Machinery.

I really like how GWitch uses the shadows in a literal sense here for Lauda, that he hesitates and chooses for himself to remain in the shadows, to sit himself on the sidelines and remain empty.

Continuing the game of connections, we've got Chuchu now. Yeah, a bit of an interesting one for sure, but I like the changes that we're shown. Namely, that Chuchu's aggressive/violent streak is missing. Her energy has been tapped and she's off thinking about Nika and Suletta, a far cry from her usual feistiness. All it takes is a sentence or two from Lauda for that to really set in for Chuchu.

Alongside disarming Chuchu, I found it interesting how openly Lauda and his lackeys thanked Chuchu for her efforts. It shouldn't really be surprising, but well, they're teenagers and they're from a rich company. The prejudice is almost engrained in them at that point, so to see them thank Chuchu just goes to show how shaken up they were by the developments during the Open Campus.

Following Chuchu, we can grab Nika who brings us towards Norea and Elan. I really like these two and how they approach their emptiness. Norea fills that hollow existence with her hatred for Spacians, but it's a simple mask for having lost Sophie. Elan on the other hand, he's never known what it feels like to have something, so in spite of being the shell of the real Elan, he has no real qualms with his existence so long as he can live. It's an interesting dichotomy that presents Norea and Elan on opposite spectrums despite being so similar. Plus, Elan's line is just so damn good here.

And then we finally make it Suletta herself.

I'll be brief, there's a lot to Suletta's emptiness here, and it's all over the place. Things like her wish list and how "celebrate a birthday party with friends" is the only thing not crossed off, or how she throws herself into school or tending to the tomato greenhouse to forget about Miorine.

And then there's the whole Eri story. It's a lot, so I'll leave it be with just this one clip of Suletta losing Aerial. She's had her status as Holder ripped away, she's lost her engagement to Miorine who won't even talk to her anymore, and the icing on the cake, she's no longer Aerial's pilot. She's lost everything that was granted to her, everything that made Suletta, Suletta. And it's really great development, breaking her down until she no longer exists as the girl she thought she was, she's now forced to come up with an identity of her own and find what it is that she wants in life. Suletta herself personifies the subtitle "Our Empty Selves" to an incredible degree.

And just one last little tidbit, I really liked Prospera's character this episode. She's been rather messy since the start of this second season, but this episode really brought the best parts of her character forward. The caring mother that will do anything for Eri still exists, but that tinge of insanity or mental instability isn't there. She's calculating and cunning for sure, but it comes at a cost, and one that she's aware of and has planned for. She doesn't abandon Suletta to space or anything, nor does she discard her completely. Rather, through dialogue like this, you can see that Prospera holds nothing against Suletta in any fashion, but she doesn't hold her all that dear either. That love and adoration and passion all stems from Eri. It comes from being a sibling to Ericht, to being there to comfort her, play with her, and give her a reason to move forward. Suletta is second to Eri, but that association gives Prospera a reason to care for and to even love Suletta.

So, you might have been like me at the start and thought that this episode was rather sluggish and only focused on exposition until that ending scene of Suletta, but there really is a world of content intermixed with it. Stories of violence and money and power, and how it robs so many people of what comprises themselves. How in pursuit of a goal it's easy to lose sight of yourself and what you want from it. That moving forward does not always bring you what you want.

#the witch from mercury #gundam the witch from mercury #機動戦士ガンダム 水星の魔女 #kidou senshi gundam: suisei no majo #gundam witch #gundam witch from mercury #gundam suisei no majo #suisei no majo #g witch #witch from mercury #mobile suit gundam #gundam #suletta mercury #guel jeturk #miorine rembran #shaddiq zenelli #anime recommendation #anime review #anime and manga #anime #anime original #mecha anime

[houdinicorbini]

Hi! Can I request monty x fem!reader where she is a night guard and finds monty (after Gregory defeats him) crawling around and she helps him and fixes him up? Thanks!

Sure! This is actually good timing because I wanted to get myself out there with security breach!

So thanks!

Also, I will say for this that when the animatronics get destroyed by Gregory, whatever mind control thing they are under leaves

Trigger warnings: Monty getting destroyed, mind control, slight cursing

"Hey! Little guy!" Monty yelled as he once more caught sight of the lost child roaming the pizzaplex.

He's been chasing him all night, along with Chica and Roxy, but something about this didn't seem right.

Nothing about what he was doing,, seemed right. But he can't remember much right now. Like his memories had been taken overnight.

There are bits and pieces that Monty does remember, are memories confirming that he'd never go as far as to harm a child, though, it feels as if he has no more control of his body.

That he's merely a puppet. Someone who's having to watch from the outside, as he's forced to hunt down this poor kid.

He wonders if the others feel this way, or if he is alone on this.

But of course, none of that matters right now, only the objective at hand. Catch Gregory.

Multiple times Monty had come close to completing him mission, but Gregory keeps getting away, time after time again.

And suspiciously, Freddy will sometimes be there as well. But he's helping the others track down this kid, he's not helping him, no, that would be insane.

Vanessa has informed all of the animatronics to find and apprehend him, but why does it feel like their is some ulterior motive? Like catching is not just what you need to do.

Even if Monty wanted out of this, it seems as if something else, or someone else, is forcing him to stay in line.

So there's nothing that can be done here, the only goal is the find and kill Gregory, whether they want to, or not.

And because of this constant chasing and nearly dying, it's forced Gregory to stand up and fight back. Chica was the first one to experience that.

And unfortunately, Monty is about to as well.

~~~~~~~~

You've been working as a nightguard here at the pizzaplex for some time now. Maybe a few months already.

The plan was to actually apply for a mechanical job, but due to the company using high tech machinery to fix the animatronics, you decided to take the job they offered.

Which was nightguard.

It did bum you out a little that you couldn't work on the animatronics because this was something you've been striving to achieve since you were a kid.

But you took security guard becuase you'll at least be able to get close and see these fascinating robots.

Montgomery Gator was the one who had caught your interest the most.

You thought his design was absolutely amazing, how they were able to make something as heavy as an animatronic swim which the fact of that alone would make anyone want to discover how he operates.

He's also you're favorite due to the fact that you got this job while you were in an incredibly low point in your life. And seeing him give his all on stage cheered you up.

Made you even stay and watch the concerts he was in when it was your day off.

He was the main reason you kept doing this odd job. All night you swear you've heard talking, like a kid, but when you investigate, there is no one!

It feels like you are going insane.

And for some reason the animatronics were just out and about??

You tried to ask why, but they just seemed rather spaced out or tried to come up with an excuse.

You believe one of them said something about Vanessa letting them out, which is already causing your mind to run fifty miles an hour.

"I just need to find Vanessa and see what's going on."

~~~~~~~~

Monty had just jumped down onto the catwalks right above gator golf.

He could hear the robotic gators down below breaching the water here and there.

What he couldn't hear was Gregory, he saw the kid on the catwalks, but where was he?

And then he heard what sounded like the toy guns going off, hitting the target right above the giant bucket of golf balls.

Now he knew exactly where the brat was.

But why did he think Gregory was a brat? He never thought this way before. Sure there was the occasional kid, but this felt different.

Everything just felt hazy.

And this hazy feeling is starting to wear Monty down, like he's trapped. None of this feels right.

"There you are!" Monty screamed, chasing after Gregory at full speed, the flooring shaking with each hard stomp he made.

These catwalks were never up to date, and that is about to be Monty's downfall, quite literally.

This annoying little game of cat and mouse continued on for the next several minutes.

Probably the most stressful several minutes Gregory has ever had. Not everyday you go toe to toe with an animatronic alligator.

But all of that was about to change as Gregory was so close to filling up the damn bucket. Maybe five more golf balls and he's good to go.

Multiple times Monty has nearly achieved his goal, but he's always a second short and the shaking of the catwalk isn't exactly helping him out here.

He couldn't exactly understand why Gregory wanted up here, but Monty's not exactly in the right now to ask questions right now, not that he could anyways.

'Almost there' Gregory thought to himself, trying desperately to not get caught by this oversized attraction.

He was somehow able to get three balls in before he was chased away from the shooter, but no worries, he's got this!

"Enough of this game of hide and seek!" Monty growled in frustration, looking around eagerly to see if Gregory was anywhere near.

Monty can only deal with this damn child getting away for so long before it gets real annoying. And we have gotten well past that point.

"There you are!" Monty yelled, finally catching sight of Gregory once more, not realizing that the bucket has been successfully filled.

Rushing past the bucket and to the button, Gregory anxiously waited for Monty to get in close enough range.

"No where left to run." Monty said in a menacing tone, getting closer and closer.

Once he was right under the bucket, Gregory slammed his hand on the button, causing the bucket to begin falling on Monty.

Which Monty was able to catch it but he was struggling and was able to stop it for a second.

That absolutely terrified Gregory for a second, until the floors finally gave away and broke underneath the gator.

He watched as Monty hit each and individual beam on his way down until he hit the stage.

Finally, now he can rest a tad bit easier. ~~~~~~~~

You could have sworn that there was a loud crash that had come from inside the building somewhere!

What on earth is going on tonight!

You've heard about odd things happening sometimes, but after working here for months and haven't seen anything weird, you assumed it was all rumors.

But tonight is forcing you to wonder if there is some truth behind those rumors.

Getting a tad bit anxious and frustrated from the odd events of tonight, you decide to go investigate what exactly is going on.

"I new I shouldn't have come in tonight." You say in a tired tone.

"And on my day off too."

Going through the building, you see no signs of Chica or Monty. Which is weird because you saw them actively moving around earlier, even Freddy was no where to be seen.

"Vanessa is gone too, of course." You said with a sigh, getting rather fed up.

You jumped out of your skin when you heard what sounded like metal scraping against the floor.

You quickly grab your flashlight before turning it on in the direction of the godawful scraping sounds.

What you saw both surprised and disturbed you. It was Monty, and he looked so lost and broken.

He had no legs and his exoskeleton on his arms looked like they had been taken off.

"Monty?" You say, worried about how this happened and what did this to him. This is some really bad damage.

"What happened?" You ask, each step of your boots causing them to echo throughout the place as you got closer to him.

The animatronic looked around, wanting to know the same thing. He couldn't remember much, just bits and pieces of what happened.

Though, he didn't want to believe that to be the truth.

"I'm,,, not sure." His voice came out rather gravelly. And it's not like it was a complete lie, he didn't truly know what happened, only parts of the truth.

"Let's get you down to parts and service, we can talk more then." You say while effortlessly picking him up. Monty laid limp as he let it happen, he was very surprised by the raw strength you had.

He would've find it humorous, if it was not under these circumstances.

Monty didn’t want to see you under these conditions, you were always his favorite employee.

You actually treated the animatronics with love and respect, not like they were some inconvenience or abomination.

It was a nice change having you around, knowing he wouldn’t get treated badly for just being different.

“There should be some spare parts to work with down in parts and services.” You said, cutting the silence.

Monty stayed quiet, still trying to piece together what happened and why he felt like he wasn’t in control.

Maybe a deadly virus had hacked into his programming. Yeah, that has to be it.

After a few minutes, you had gotten down to parts and services through Monty’s door.

After sitting him down in the chair, you went to work, preferring to due this by hand. That machine is just a horrible shortcut, and who knows when it might malfunction.

“I’ve read through all of the Glamrocks manuals, including the daycare attendants!” You said proudly.

Monty slowly looked up at you, puzzled by how you got your hands on it.

Reading his confusion, you answered.

“I stole them.”

And then continued to work on him like nothing happened.

He couldn’t help but let out a loud laugh at the fact that you had the guts to do something like that.

“I made sure to put them back exactly where I found them.” You added.

“I think it’s good that you did take them.” Monty admitted, kind of happy that it’s you working on him and not the automated machine.

But he couldn’t explain why. Is it because he thinks of you as a friend?

You kept going back and forth from him to the back where all of his parts were being kept. You even made sure to grab his manual, just to be safe.

You don’t want to mess up just because you got overconfident. It would be him who mainly gets punished.

Well, maybe you too, you could lose your job.

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you get all fixed up!” You said with a smile, already working on getting his legs fixed up.

“May take a bit.” You said, noticing that you’d have to get a new exo skeleton, may need to replace some of his endo too.

You have a lot of work to do, and not enough time to do it since the doors would be opening in just a few hours.

What felt like a while but was actually maybe 10-15 minutes, Monty decided to speak up to break this silence.

Though it’s not like he minded it, your presence was just enough. But he couldn’t understand why.

“You’re too good at this to be a night guard.” He said, noticing how well you were doing.

“I’ll take that as a compliment.” You laughed before continuing your sentence.

“I had originally tried to get a job here as a mechanic, but they told me I wasn’t needed in that department. I took what I could get, so when they offered me the night guard job, I snatched it.”

“I think they should reconsider, I’d still be crawling if it weren’t for you.” Monty said with what sounded like sincerity.

“Maybe I’ll try to request it again if the opportunity ever comes up.”

~~~~~~~~

You were able to get what you could done before the doors open. What was left would have to be fixed by whoever operates the machine.

After that night, you and Monty had grown so much closer.

You found yourself at his concerts when you were off or just available.

And Monty found himself leaving his room at night just so he could see you. He’d even walk with you through your shift.

Luckily the odd things from that night had finally stopped so you didn’t have to worry about anything weird like that happening again.

But the weirdest thing to you is that you might be falling for an animatronic alligator.

And he might be falling back.

I finally got it done! I apologize if there’s not enough Monty x reader in it, by the time I realized there was too much down to go back

But I hope you enjoy!

#x reader #montgomery gator #monty gator #monty x reader #fnaf montgomery gator #fnaf #fnaf montgomery #fnaf monty #fnaf security breach #fnaf sb #fnaf x reader #fnaf glamrock monty #glamrock monty #montgomery gator x reader

[literary-illuminati]

2024 Book Review #10 – The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik

I read A Deadly Education last year and quite enjoyed it (and Novik’s unrelated Spinning Silver is just one of my favourite low fantasy books full stop so she has quite a bit of my trust), so I finally got around to putting in a hold request for the sequel. Broadening your horizons and reading outside your comfort zone means swimming through 400 pages of YA a couple times a year, right? Anyway, despite only barely remembering who anyone but El and Orion were when I went into this, was a fun read!

The book picks up more or less directly where A Deadly Education stops – with the horrible murderous monster-infested extradimensional wizard high school’s cleansing machinery repaired for the first time in generations, and the place therefor incredibly less monster-infested than previously. El, prophesied future dark lady of the apocalypse with a savant’s talent for specifically the sort of magic you cast after cackling and before someone puts a sword in you, doesn’t get to enjoy that much – her senior year seems destined to be spent being the target of just about every monster that’s left. Eventually you really have to wonder if the school is trying to kill you – and that question is where the plot really starts to go off.

So I said it before, but this is very much YA. I don’t mean that as an insult, or even a marker of quality, just that it’s a book from the perspective of a 17 year old looking down the end of high school and clearly written to provide a relatable emotional reality for an assumed audience of the same. So El sometimes acts like a cartoon character, and is pathologically incapable of expressing her emotions coherently or expressing affection for the guy she likes in any sane manner, and is far more blase about murder attempts and soul-eating monsters than emotionally awkward conversations – but honestly all that just rings as pretty true to life. Deeply aggravating at times, and her internal monologue and all its snark and doublethink does occasionally grate a bit, but overall it really works. She’s just a fun character to spend time in the head of, (and far less irritating in basically every way than she was in the last book. So hey, maturity!).

The emotional beats were all pretty simple and clearly telegraphed, and it isn’t exactly a book that requires you to sit down and ponder deep symbolism or metaphor to comprehend, but the pacing is tight and it’s very readable. The prose isn’t really anything to write home about – especially knowing what Novik can do when she decides to get fancy and show off a bit – but it very clear and just dripping with El’s personality on every page. I read this at the same time as I was picking through an incredibly dense and citation-heavy historical reader, and the contrast made me very appreciative of those virtues.

Character-wise – well, there’s El, and Orion (love interest, single-minded and near divinely-ordained monster hunter, golden boy of the most powerful enclave in the world), and there’s El’s few close friends, and then there’s a cast of dozens of students with maybe one memorable character trait who kind of drift in and out of the narrative as required. The amount of nuance and exploration someone gets drops off dramatically with each step down the list you go. Most of the cast shows up precisely when required and is more or less forgotten about directly afterwards – which does sell this being a school with over a thousand students in it! But the number of characters who really feel real drops off pretty rapidly.

(Also like, I assume it just comes down to social progress in the 2010s coming at you fast, but you really get the sense that at some point between the books getting written the publishers sent down a memo that you were allowed to say queer people existed now.)

Even more than Deadly Education, this is a book without any sort of singular villain, or even really any consistent antagonists. Some of the other students are assholes, sure, but the book’s whole thesis is that no one is that murderous or awful for the sake of it – they are because they’re rats in a cage, convinced that amoral self-interest and husbanding and acquiring every resource they can is the only hope they have of maybe living to see their families again. Offered a chance to do good, to actually change things for the better and help everyone without getting themselves killed in the process, just about everyone takes it. Even the semi-intelligent school itself gets in on it by the end, pressing the senior class to figure something out and make it obsolete – and the whole conflict of the final act is how and whether everyone will.

El and Orion can both kill basically arbitrarily large numbers of monsters (or people), so the monster-killing is never really where the book finds its drama either. I mean, both do a lot of it through the climax, but the actual tension mostly comes down to crowd management and logistics and whether everyone else is as committed to this as the two of them are.

As for what they’re struggling against – so like, this isn’t Divergent, by the standards of the YA I read in high school, the social commentary is both subtle and nuanced. But I mean, it’s also a story where highschool is four years or murder-hell-prison and justified only because it’s barely the lesser of two evils, and also a story where the poor and marginalized are only kept around more-or-less explicitly as ablative bodies for the kids the powers that be care about, with their only hope of good life being so impressive and useful to those kids that they try to bring them along when they ascend back up to the gilded paradise that is their birthright. So like, not that subtle.

As far as teenage romances go (which, for me, really isn’t very fair at all), El and Orion’s was surprisingly tolerable. It helps that they’re both actually deeply profoundly weird about it, and also that the book didn’t try to milk any drama out of will-they/won’t-they stuff or a love triangle. The ‘and they have sex for the first time the night before the final climactic struggle where one or both of them could very well die’ did feel right out of an old bioware game, though. (Also I’m just a sucker for tragedy and ironic mirroring/repetition, so the ending was great for me).

Look forward to finishing the series whenever I get around to it sometime in the fall.

#book review #the last graduate #the scholomance #sff #ya #urban fantasy

[blackjackkent]

This Sharran gauntlet is definitely a bit of a maze. Doing my best to cover everything and not get lost but we'll see.

My immediate plan was to go deal with that displacer beast, since the knowledge that it was there was making me nervous. :P Jumping down to the level where it was standing, though, it seems to be abruptly gone, and Karlach picked up a perception check.

Cool. Probably the one Raphael told us to look for.

Aggressive quicksave per @zenjestrr's suggestion, and down we go, fully expecting something to jump out of a wall.

Actually, before even starting down the corridor, I'm able to move the camera along, and hey, look.

There he is.

This big boy and his numerous friends are a level above us (just take my word for it; the messed up, shattered architecture around here is very confusing) and looking the other direction. I'm guessing our current path will take us underneath him and then he will drop down on us? The displacer beast appears to have moved to the far side of the room past him.

My ideal strategy here would be to jump up behind him and get the drop on him instead, but only Karlach has the jump distance necessary to make that work. So we'll see if we can get a shot on him from underneath before he notices us, I guess.

A very unscientific diagram of the situation:

After some experimenting, I was able to get the group (in a rare moment of the hide action actually working successfully in this game) to sneak to the far right side of the room without alerting anybody. This allows us to get a bit of a look around at this area, which is AWFUL.

Hector points out that there is tons of blood and gore everywhere, and this is hanging out at the far end near where the displacer beast is pacing back and forth.

Yechh.

I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt, Shadowheart, that this isn't what normally goes on in Sharran temples.

We do seem to kind of have the option of just...scurrying past the whole situation and not engaging. But I'm not overly interested in doing that, and I don't think Hector is either. He doesn't like Raphael much but the depiction of the Orthon as a crazed brute seems like it might not be off the mark and needs to be dealt with.

But if there's a way to handle this situation stealthily I don't think I know what it is. And ultimately I think Hector would like to get Orthon's side of the story before killing him outright. So I think the correct answer here might just be to step into view and see what happens.

[QUICKSAVE]

The displacer beast spots them immediately, followed at once by the orthon on the upper level, who has sighted down on them with a crossbow.

"What's this?" the devil growls in a rumbling, resonant baritone. "Fresh entertainment...but you're too fresh for this place, aren't you? There's a whiff of the surface to you..."

His eyes move from Hector to Karlach, and he smirks. "You. Tiefling. You've got the stench of the Hells about you - the stench of home. And a whiff of the surface besides. A servant of Zariel, if I'm not mistaken." His fingers flex on the handle of his crossbow. "I'd know the stench of her infernal machinery anywhere."

Karlach shifts uncomfortably at Hector's side. "What do you know of infernal machinery?" she asks.

The devil shrugs casually, the tip of the crossbow remaining perfectly steady with the movement. "Only what I can smell. And whatever engine burns within you is grinding to an inevitable explosion. Burning and fear - you reek with it."

Hector sets his jaw. How dare this creature taunt them with that terrible encroaching deadline? He has tried, so hard, not to think about it, to focus on what he and Karlach have together, now, but that mocking voice draws it back into immediate focus and the pain stabs back into him again, and with it, fury.

And yet...

Is it possible the orthon knows something that could help to save her? Hector would betray Raphael in a heartbeat if it meant keeping Karlach safe...

As if following his thoughts, the devil twitches, looks back towards Hector and wrinkles his nose up. "There's something else...almost hidden by your fear-stink. Cherries...musk...and sulphur. Raphael! I can smell him all over you. WHERE IS HE?"

"I...don't know what you mean..." Hector tries evasion, but it's useless.

"LIES," the devil bellows at once, as Hector on some level knew he would. "My nose would recognize him anywhere. That perfumed trickster swindled me - trapped me!"

There's clearly no point in being coy about this. Hector sighs. "He wants you dead," he says matter-of-factly.

"Where is he?" growls the orthon. "Spit it out. NOW!"

"Careful," Shadowheart mutters. "I'm not sure we want Raphael as an enemy."

Hector isn't either, but he also believes Raphael fully capable of lying about what is actually going on here. What he wants, more than anything, is information before making a decision, and this orthon seems like it might be marginally more likely to tell him things directly than Raphael is.

"Let's...share our experiences about Raphael," he says carefully. "Perhaps we can help each other."

The devil laughs. "Bargaining, are you? A Kara-Tur warlord once tried the same - I made him watch as I ate his concubines and young, then fashioned a codpiece from his skull." He snarls, a noise of muted frustration and rage. "You can't help. It's not just walls that keep me here. Not the traps, the dark, or the creatures it hides. Something stronger holds me. A contract. Either I fulfil the contract, die trying, or forfeit my freedom. If I leave this place now, I'll become Raphael's slave."

Hector's eyebrows lift in surprise. This...is interesting news - and not simply for reasons of the issue at hand. Astarion has said on more than one occasion in camp that he would like to work with Raphael, to make a deal that would see him freed of Cazador's ability to control him. Hector thinks it's a terrible idea, but knows arguing with Astarion is pointless - but he wonders how Astarion would feel to know that Raphael is ready to enslave and control as well, perhaps just as much as Cazador was.

But...that is an issue to consider later. For now he must decide what to do regarding that crossbow still pointing down at him.

"Show me this contract," he says, still speaking very slowly, carefully, ready to dodge aside if the devil shows signs of attacking. "Perhaps there's something you missed." That would be the ideal scenario, wouldn't it? Get the creature out of its contract, send it back to the hells, and upset Raphael's plans at the same time but without giving him room to object.

The orthon blinks, then straightens and, completely unexpectedly, begins to sing - terribly.

"Spill all the blood sworn to the night. Silence all prayers, smother each rite. Wander Shar's halls, hungry to slay. Leave no Justiciar alive to obey. Leave none to hear it; then be set free. This song is your oath. Swear, swear it to me."

Hector resists the urge to wince at the discordant notes, focusing instead on the message of the strange, winding verse.

Narrator: Well, that explains where all the Dark Justiciars went. [INSIGHT] The final lyrics linger in your mind. There is a trick buried within them - a clause that cannot be easily fulfilled.

"That's it," the demon rumbles, bringing his crossbow up again and re-aiming it at Hector's face.

"So he's responsible for all the carnage down here," Shadowheart whispers, appalled. "All those Dark Justiciars...slaughtered..."

Hector looks up at the orthon, his mind churning rapidly, trying to parse the situation and the best way out of it. "Raphael wanted you to kill Dark Justiciars?" he asks. "Why?"

"Asking why doesn't get me paid," the orthon snarls. "Hunting and killing does. Raphael mentioned something about an aasimar. Meant nothing to me. I did my part - I filled these halls with ghosts. But Raphael's playing some other game, one that involves stiffing me."

He pauses, seems to consider for a moment, then shrugs. "Anyway, enough prattle. The lyrics are clear - all who hear the song must die. He spits on the ground, cocks the crossbow back. "Time to die."

Hector backpedals at once, a hand going to his crossbow, but as he does, he babbles out desperately, [PERSUASION] "The lyrics are a trick! You've always had an audience - your followers! Get rid of them!"

Years of reading back in the monastery libraries on all manner of subjects coalesces here; he has read of devil contracts and of the legal ones of the material plane. If he can convince the devil to believe him...this has to be correct, it has to be the way out...it solves everything at once...

But that's a very big "if."

A long, strained pause. For a moment he's quite sure he's going to get a crossbow bolt in the head no matter what...and then the orthon's weapon drops and he looks perplexed. "The merregons?" He glances at the masked, imp-like creatures flanking him. "They barely have a thought to share among themselves..." Another pause. "But they do have ears." He turns towards them, snaps out an order. "Kill yourselves! Back to the hells with you!"

It's a rather extraordinary show; without hesitation, all the small creatures turn and slam their axes into each others heads, then collapse in a bloody heap. One of their axes clatters down next to Hector's feet.

The orthon roars with frustration. "Arrrghhh - I still hear it! Seems your theory is wrong!"

Hector's whole body is jittery with adrenaline, both from fear and from a sort of hysterical thrill that he spoke and the creature listened to such a bloody degree. He can feel the situation on the verge of slipping out of control...but he's almost certain his interpretation of the situation is correct, and at least there are fewer enemies on the field now. [PERSUASION] "You're not finished yet!" he points out desperately. "The displacer can hear you, can't she? Kill her!"

A very unexpected burst of grief flashes onto the orthon's face. "Kill..Nessa?" He looks towards the displacer beast at the far end of the room with deep regret.

"Stay very still, my beauty..." he whispers, and pulls the trigger on the crossbow. The shot flies true and the displacer falls without a sound.

The regret morphs into rage at once. "I STILL HEAR IT!" the demon bellows.

Hector swallows. This is it - the final point. If he's right...the orthon will no longer stalk these halls, Raphael's request will also have been fulfilled, and all of it completely in line with the contract.

[PERSUASION] "Exactly," he says. It takes every ounce of nerve in his body not to flinch away from the pure fury in the demon's face. "Kill yourself, complete the contract, and you'll be reborn in Avernus. Free!"

Surely this is right. It fits with everything he's read before about such things. Listen to me, he thinks desperately, watching the crossbow's tip waver in midair.

And then the crossbow drops. The devil stares at him, reaches to his back and pulls out a heavy steel sword from its sheathe.

"If you're wrong about this," he growls, "I'll claw my way out of Avernus and eat you alive - contract be damned."

He lifts the blade, puts it to his own heart, and thrusts it home. A spatter of bright red blood sprays across the stone floor. "Nicely played, Raphael... Bastard..." he groans out and collapses heavily off the platform into a heap on the ground.

For a long moment, Hector and his companions simply stare at the unmoving body, unable to believe that worked.

"That silver tongue of yours is dangerous," Shadowheart murmurs after a while, looking rather impressed. "Bravo. I can't believe you actually pulled that off."

----

"Me either," Hector whispers. His heart is pounding as if he's just run a marathon, and he finds that his hands are trembling as he goes to try and loot the devil's body.

He didn't really think that would work, right up until the moment that it did. All this time out in the 'real world,' he's struggled with the nuances of conversation, of handling tense situations smoothly. Here, of all places, he was utterly terrified that he would say the wrong thing, would fail, would get them all killed...

But that devil...listened to him.

He believed what he was saying, that these actions would free the orthon from its contract; it wasn't a lie, he wasn't trying to trick the creature. But nevertheless, it was a desperate attempt at best. And the fact that it worked...

He sits down heavily on the floor, puts his head in his hands, and just breathes until the shakiness starts to bleed out of him. It worked, and it's over. It worked, and it's over. One less thing to face in this darkness. All things with her strength.

All things with *my* strength.

For the first time, he realizes he truly believes it. He can do this. He can face these things and handle them, at least sometimes, even the ones that seem insurmountable. For the first time since the crash, a tiny bit of the everpresent fear ebbs away.

"You all right, Hec?" Karlach sits down next to him, leans her head gently against his. Feeling him shaking, she shifts to wrap her arm around him and, unresisting, he slumps into her side.

"I hate this place," he mutters with a hoarse, rueful laugh.

Shadowheart stands nearby, watching him thoughtfully. "You have no love for my Lady, or the others who worship her," she says quietly. "I know that. But you drove out that evil, so it will not kill any more of us."

He nods slightly, not looking up. "They don't deserve a massacre," he says hollowly. "Any more than the Selunites on the surface did."

She has no answer for that, and turns away with a troubled expression.

"Loathe as I am to interrupt our self-congratulatory snuggle session," Gale says mildly, "I think we might do well to be moving on. We've no shortage of other dangers to face before our tents show us their welcoming faces once again."

He leans over and offers a hand to Hector, helping him lever away from Karlach and back onto his feet. "But well done, my friend. Any standoff with a devil that ends with everyone still un-immolated is fine by me."

#bjk plays baldur's gate 3 #hector carlisle #bjk writes her own party banter #hey hey hey what's that coming down the pike #it's an INCREDIBLY LONG POST #this post has everything #hector character development #party banter #a devil singing badly #persuasion checks that blew out my entire collection of inspiration #unexpected displacer beast feels #tiefling snuggles #you name it we got it #god only knows what i just wrought in terms of raphael's opinion of me but we'll cross that bridge when we get there :P

[hadeantaiga]

I'm watching Twin Peaks for the first time.

Pilot episode spoiler free thoughts: I am hooked. The characters are all really interesting and I want to know more and to watch all of them like ants. I want to put them in a jar and shake it up.

Pilot episode - liveblogging, full of spoilers.

----

Lots of machinery ASMR and nature porn. Not sure what the show's about though.

Who is this sad person making sad eyes at the camera.

Hello fisher guy. Oh, a thing. Oh it's early spring, those tulips aren't up yet. Oh that's a whole body.

Lucy's gonna tell everyone. Oh boy he gets to use the siren!

Andy's got a big heart huh. Ope, they know her.

Hi lady (mom?), Laura's not coming down.

That kitchen is red.

Does David Lynch have a foot fetish?

Gross, don't spit dude.

"We're businessy businessmen doing business"

Is this Mr. Palmer? Yup. Also, there's the sheriff. Sarah knows what's up. Glad to see he cares about his kid tho. So often the businessy businessmen don't care about their kids.

Oh, I know this music! Now I know where it's from.

Ow, my ears.

Ah, Bobby. Here you are. You're a greaser huh? Ah, smoking and drinking, it's what Teens Do.

Idk if the acting is good or bad but I do believe Laura's dad's character is genuinely sad.

No really, does David Lynch have a foot fetish?

Bobby I want to hate you but you are very charismatic. Random screaming student. Everyone just seems to instinctively know Laura is dead.

Bobby was driving his third girlfriend home, he wasn't murdering anyone. Hey whoever this guy is, he's actually ensuring Bobby gets his rights, to a degree.

Everyone also seems to have really loved Laura. Like. It's almost creepy how much they all love her.

Oh, it's the music again.

Don't be sad, just get some drugs.

Oh, sad lady owns the mill. Josie Packard. Why is the other woman so mad?

Oh, that doesn't look like a good time, girl. Oh, she escaped.

It's Flattop greaser guy. He was in love with Laura too??

Hello eyepatch lady.

IT'S OUR GUY, RIGHT? The detective??? That's some sleazy music, he's gotta be a detective. He's very cheery.

Dale Cooper, FBI.

Huh. Dale, you're a bit of a snob. Also, you're annoying. Am I supposed to like you?

What is in this psych's ears?? Also, creepy, yuck.

Ew, Dale's going really far up there under that nail. Oh shit, a letter. Dale your face disturbs me.

Hey blonde boy, you don't tell Donna what to do. Heh, Ed's alright though.

Yeah, I'd also break the diary open, it's not like she's gonna write in it again. Hm, "J" is not Bobby. Day 26? Cocaine? Lockbox key? Mysteries abound. Also, chocolate bunnies.

I kinda love this cop who can't stop crying. Andy.

I don't think Bobby killed her. Wait, how was she studying at Bobby's house at 9:30 if her mom said she came home at 9? Lol using a calculator to type messages. "She wouldn't do that to me" hmm, do what? See "J"?

Audrey does what Audrey wants. *snort*. Audrey, you're great. Terrible, but I love you anyway.

Ooh, who said that line about the picnic earlier in the episode???

I guessed there'd be a reflection in her eyes.

Oh - it's flatop kid. He's the biker? But is he THE biker? And just cause he was the person behind the camera doesn't mean he killed or hurt them.

Oh, I've seen/heard "Fire walk with me" online before, didn't know it was from Twin Peaks!

Flattop has the other heart piece...

Seems that whole family is a bit... in need of help.

Ronette, who escaped, was a sex worker or something? In a skeezy magazine. Also a photo of trucker guy?

Ok Leo, your acting is kinda bad.

Oooh, Ed's getting it on with diner lady? Don't blame him. But meeting at the Roadhouse at 9:30? That's when flattop is gonna meet whatshername!.

Oooh she was his sister. That's why sawmill lady was so angry.

"Who's the lady with the log?" "We call her the log lady"

Mayor is senile, apparently. Dale, don't scare them all by saying the killer may be among them and then tell them not to start a witch hunt.

~oooh nighttime scary~

Hi, old man. Oh, Donna's relative of some kind. At least her sister(?) is gonna cover for her. Harriet. The bros are here to grab Donna but she's not there hehe. Blondie is Mike, got it. Heh. Harriet, that wasn't much of a cover. But Dad? Grandpa? I wouldn't have told THOSE losers she was missing, I would've said "She doesn't want to see your sorry asses".

Are you really gonna leave Hank? For Ed? Are you? Love this singer though. Ah, so the other bikers? greasers? don't like Mike and Bobby huh?

Oooh Joe's taking her to "James".

I'd turn off your lights if you're tailing, that's just me.

I do like how like, not-glorified this bar fight is. It's kinda lame actually.

So here's James.... oh, it's flattop. Oooh, so Laura WAS into sketchy stuff. And maybe Bobby killed someone? Aw, James. I don't think you killed her either. I might be super wrong, but hey. And it's the music again. It's fine, you can trauma bond and kiss to the music. Eey, Donna, that's a good plan to hide the necklace actually. If he's innocent.

Oh, I like that Dale already believes James didn't do anything.

Bobby that's a hell of a look on your face.

Aw, Donna's dad is a sweetie.

Bobby, you're so fucking weird. But apparently so is Mike, so whatever. Two peas in a pod. Also I don't like you anymore.

Ooh Mill owner lady and the sheriff are together, and the mill sister is planning some murder perhaps?

Uh, what? Was Laura's mom dreaming? Having a vision? Screaming for an unrelated reason?

(end of episode)

#Twin Peaks #liveblogging

[the-empress-7]

I'm not very far into the book, only about 20% according to the Kindle tracker. Just finished the "Hillary" chapter.

So far my impressions are that Bower is doing a really deep dive into understanding and presenting Meghan's background. It almost reads like a study into the machinery of PR and how it can be used to build one up (and similarly, tear one down). I find it interesting how he presents the version of Meghan she portrays herself to be and then contradicts it with quotes from other sources or her own writing on The Tig.

The more eye-opening bits to me so far have been

Use and abuse of Malta - she got her whole trip paid for by the Maltese board of tourism in return for promotion on The Tig but she never followed through. She wrote an essay about racism instead.

Shameless branding and rebranding of herself to get the attention she wanted and ignorance of the contradictions. Her only loyalty is to seeing her name in lights and trending on social media. Anything and everything else is just a tactic to be exploited in the name of self-promotion. For example: the falling out with UN Women was because she wanted to be a UN Ambassador. She kept pushing for the promotion and only did the bare minimum to be able to ask for the promotion. She dropped them faster than a hot potato when they told her 'no' and refused to work with them any longer but felt completely fine to continue promoting and using her previous work with them as if they were still partners. (Which seems to confirm that the abrupt cancellation of the Fiji Market visit was precisely because of UN Women's presence and their ability to use her to promote their work. Only Meghan is allowed to use others in the game of PR and promotion.)

It sounds like she and Cory didn't have the steady passionate relationship they presented on social media. The book makes it sound like they were one of those on-again/off-again couples because they went through periods of ignoring each other and periods of being together. Which is interesting because Meghan has always promoted herself as a serial monogamist, someone who "loves being in love."

Mainly it's like Plant used to say. If Meghan just presented herself as she really truly was, no matter how messy it may have looked she would have won a lot of sympathy and a lot of fans by having the more relatable lifestyle. Had Meghan embraced being relatable (versus being aspirational, which Kate cornered the market on), she could have rivaled Kate in popularity and attention.

I appreciate this and I very much agree with your summary comments.

[moe-broey]

The Zeniths........... (or as they're formally known: Zenith Guild)

I have some fun lore (very loose) about them too!

> Lio and Nia are childhood friends who both transed their genders and ended up having matching cat names (did they do that intentionally...?)

> Lio is driven by the pursuit of knowledge, his greatest desire and passion being uncovering mysteries. Above all, he seeks the truth. He does have a one-track mind about it, willing to go to dubious lengths to achieve this.

> Nia's passions include pretty much anything outdoorsy. She has a great love of adventure and everything that goes into it -- managing resources, foraging, hunting, camping. They'll follow Lio wherever he goes.

> Xane and Alex are siblings who travel together -- one, a humble street performer, the other, a traveling doctor. Alex was highly ambitious, but is currently in their burnout era. Xane has always been a nonchalant ne'er-do-well who seemingly does fuck all. Upon closer inspection, it seems he puts away a lot of his money from performing and uses it to support Alex's pursuits.

> Xane and Alex have a bit of an odd dynamic. Alex, the younger one, seems to be the authority and decision maker of the two. Xane, on the other hand, is far more wishy-washy and carefree, to the point of coming off careless. They look after Alex way more than they let on, though.

> Lilith looks to be the odd one out. She traveled alone for a while, long enough to have a sense of independence, but not so long that she didn't feel the sting. She's extremely ambitious and is very much an overachiever -- no, it has nothing to do with her small stature! And how (infuriatingly!) people underestimate her or even worse, treat her like a kid! (She is around the same age as her peers -- just small.) She has NOTHING to prove. Often, she'll take on double the workload, adventuring with two separate parties.

> Another tidbit about Lilith: The alchemist machinery on her arms doubles as weapons to wield magic and as prosthetics. Her being disabled adds to her deep need to "prove" herself and outperform everyone.

> And one tidbit about Lio: While everyone's classes are reflective of who they are, what they strive to be, what they're passionate about and how that reflects in the expression of self -- Lio is a Dark Hunter simply because of aesthetics. He's just like that. His egg cracked, he got top surgery, and decided he's never wearing a proper shirt ever again and also he needs to be 90% sexier (trans vanity stage). Though could it be a premonition as well...?

A lot of how they ended up as one team was luck and chance encounters. Lio and Nia are forced to seek more party members as they struggle to keep up and stay alive, just the two of them. Very occasionally, Alex will wander around the outskirts of the labyrinth to heal anyone who was lucky enough to get out, but not so lucky to do so unscathed. At the bar, or in the street, Xane will wander and perform. He becomes a fairly reliable source of information, rumors, and connections. Lilith has been simultaneously guild hopping and traveling alone, trying to find her place. I think, they all end up connected somehow through strings and domino effects before they officially all band together!

Additional thoughts that get somewhat spoilery (EO1 plot-wise) --

I HATE. THE FOREST FOLK ARC AND HOW IT PLAYS OUT SO BAD. But for Zenith, I think it lends itself to some interesting characterization:

> Lio is fully ready to disband Zenith and carry out the mission himself. To completely uncover the mystery of the labyrinth, he's convinced himself he can play both sides while under the finger of Radha Hall. A few things are going on in his mind: The ends justify the means (it really doesn't.), him disbanding Zenith is altruistic (sparing his allies and taking all the responsibility himself), him thinking if he can minimize the damage done (avoiding all the fights he can, only fighting when there's no other option) then it's okay actually (now, I don't think that it is LMFAO). Still, all of this shows how far he's willing to go, how he thinks he can outsmart it, and how he justifies it.

Zenith, however, does not disband. Because:

> As said earlier, wherever Lio goes, Nia follows. Which shows just how far NIA is willing to go, and just how unflinchingly loyal they are to Lio.

> Lilith had been fighting to find her place for so long, probably has some abandonment issues to boot. She has finally found a group of people who see her as an equal, value her contributions while never undermining them, and even look after her and care for her -- valuing her as a person. She is not letting go of that.

> Alex develops a kinship with Lilith, as an ex-overachiever now burnout. And, of course, Alex has formed strong bonds with Nia and Lio, too. While Alex is the hardest to convince, I think Alex's deciding factor is Lilith, whether they admit it or not ("You guys are gonna die out there. Like. Super dead.") Were it not for Lilith, they would have dipped and cut their losses.

> Xane's deciding factor is always Alex. Wherever Alex goes, Xane follows.

#etrian odyssey #the zeniths... #this. saved horribly wrong in my drafts and i live in fear that it'll get fucked up again upon saving/posting. #PLEASE.... PLEASE WEBSITE...... PLEASE FUNCTION FOR ME......... #lio (oc) #nia (oc) #lilith (oc) #xane (oc) #alex (oc)

[dreamsatdusk]

Hmm for the ask game how about 1, 2, and 20? And also I see Alexander the Great mentioned in your bio. Can I ask why? :)

Apologies, missed this one earlier! Thank you for the ask!

book you’ve reread the most times?

Probably either The Black Company, by Glen Cook or Ninefox Gambit, by Yoon Ha Lee. I've also ready Diana Wynne Jones' Howl's Moving Castle at least a few times. As a kid, I probably reread The Boxcar Children the most.

2. top 5 books of all time?

I couldn't decide even sort of, so this turned into a selection of favs that I think are rather different from each other.

The Phantom Tollbooth; Norton Juster: Disillusioned kid finds a toy tollbooth setup has appeared in his room, builds it, drives his toy car through...and winds up in The Lands Beyond! It is extremely weird in a very matter of fact sort of way that I adore in books to this day. I was particularly amused by the wordplay and such even as a kid.

Machineries of Empire; Yoon Ha Lee: Okay that's a trilogy and a short story book all together, so I suppose I will say Ninefox Gambit is my favourite of them all, but there's so many key points in the other books too, so! The consciousness of an undead general is installed into the head of a soldier chosen to defend against a rebellion opposed to the dystopian space empire she lives in. It is far far more complex than that little description makes it seem. One of the books where my mind latched on at high speed and very intensely to a particular character (Jedao).

Deathless; Cathrynne Valente: A retelling of The Death of Koschei the Deathless, but set during and after the Russian Revolution. It follows the life of Marya Morevna, Koschei's chosen bride. Another one that is complicated to try to explain, because there is an immense amount going on. I suspect it might be easier to follow if you know at least a bit about the relevant faerie tales and Soviet Union history, but I've heard that even people without that backgound enjoyed it.

The Etched City; K.J. Bishop: Beautiful and utterly bizarre. I'm not sure how to describe the plot. It starts out with two...hmm, friends? war buddies? who are ex-soldiers and on the search for a new home after being on the losing side of a civil war. They resettle in a city with very peculiar stuff going on. Steampunkish in a way. Wikipedia informs me it's considered part of the 'New Weird' genre, so I should look into that and see what else is on that list.

The Lord of the Rings; J.R.R. Tolkien: I really loved LotR when I read it as a child, but then I also got into the History of Middle Earth collection and it's fascinating how much work went into all of it, how much the story (and that of the Silmarilion) changed as they were shaped. And then there's also hilarious things like the proto-versions of the 4 hobbits having a debate about eating dinner on the second floor of a house and throwing the (wooden) plates out into the front yard and never cutting the grasss so you can't see them.... This is all so you needn't bother carrying the dirty dishes DOWN the stairs mind you.

20. what are things you look for in a book?

I tend to be put off by overly simplistic use of language. Not always, but there have been cases where something was really bothering me about a book here or there and I figured out that's what was up.

Characters that interest me. This doesn't mean they have to be 'nice' or 'good' characters, but someone needs to interest me somehow. I've found it a struggle more than once to stay engaged with a book where I get to the point of just not caring what happens to anyone in it. Again, not a hard rule, but one that has recurred more than once.

Vivid descriptions that paint a strong picture in my mind are a delight, but yet again, not a dealbreaker. (One of my favourite authors actually sucks at this*L* I think we were 7 or more books into a series before the narrator of the first 3 books was ever actually described at all?)

Strong worldbuilding, moral complexities, a sense of epicness - all further interests. And I have to admit, I have a soft spot for eccentric military geniuses.

Alexander the Great

Bonus round! Alexander has been one of my historical interests for a long time and I have two shelves of books about him and related topics (e.g., the Successors to his empire, a book about his mother, one about his grandmother, etc.) I'd almost forgotten I put something in profile notes. I think I did so when I was trying to come up with some stuff to mention as interests, like fandoms and such.

In the spirit of the book ask theme, I will recommend A Very Short Introduction to Alexander the Great by Hugh Bowden as, indeed, a good short intro. It's solid and detailed in spite of its brevity, but it also included some information that some older books about Alexander have ignored in my experience, so I found it an enjoyable read even beyond my original objective (which was to find out if it was actually a good intro book to suggest to people who asked).

Thank you!

#Ask Game Response #fairy-anon-godmother #Books #Machines of Empire #Alexander the Great #Glen Cook

[storm-inside-my-mind]

A Disregard of Traditions

She then turned her horse, and they walked in, the guards shutting the gates behind them with a heavy thunk as the machinery as Cyril walked in. The sound of the city was filled with music, people talking, and some sounds of wagons and someone working in a forge. Faenoina smiled only slightly as she came back into her kingdom, but she once more frowned at the opulent kingdom she was returning to. She was supposed to feel a connection to the kingdom she was a part of, yet she couldn’t at this moment, but she knew that any other creature would be ecstatic to get into her kingdom. From the gates one could see the sprawling city before them, with a paved path leading into the main road that had shops where people were open for business. There was another road that broke off from that one, leading up to a grand castle that seemed to be carved from stone and held together with branches and vines. A large garden and green area surrounded the castle, and guards were seen everywhere in or around the castle. Elves stopped to look at them both, because the princess was returning from another hunt, the elven prince accompanying her had come in without her first, and she brought in a centaur to the sacred kingdom of the high elves. The people looked upon the half man and half horse with disdain in their eyes, but not as much if he were to be a human, yet their thinly veiled prejudice was not hard to find in their gazes. However Cyril didn't mind it, as he was far more intrigued and humbled by the one elf who offered up her race to be with him. How she had changed her appearance before appearing before him once more, changed and warped and molded by the woods she spent so much time in.

His attention was broken as the sound of a roar could be heard, as people made room like they didn’t just hear a beast call out, as a giant grizzly bear came running down. The princess dismounted rather fast, as she rode barefoot, and opened her arms as a giant grizzly bear sniffed at her, before wrapping its large arms around her, basically hiding her from sight as he nuzzled his snout into her, his blue colored nose sniffing into her hair before he let her go and started sniffing around her body searching for something. “Blueberry,” she greeted softly, petting her bear, who raised his own face to lick hers over and over, smearing her makeup as she returned. It was once perfect lines, but now looked smudged all over, like someone went wild on her face. “I am fine,” she giggled, “but I brought no food for you today. It looks like kitchen food for you,” she giggled, despite Blueberry’s ears now falling in disappointment at her words as he gave a huff.

He watched her interaction with interest. "You have befriended a supreme beast... you may be a far better hunter than even I!" He muttered lowly though he was unsure if her elven ears would hear him. Granted Cyril never wanted to befriend a beast so he never tried, and he was unsure if he could if he wanted to, but she was clearly able to do just that. It also surprised him that no one was saying anything to the woman who was now crawling on top of the bear, laying down on his back as a servant to the stables went and got her horse, leading him away by the reins to have his saddle taken off and then he would be allowed to graze. Cyril was a little overwhelmed, and as his attention was brought back to Faenoina, he noticed that she spoke in elven to the beast, and he gave a grumble.

“I have spent my ten years becoming a huntress and learning the way of the world and the woods. I have spent a year and a half with the wolves, learning to read trails and find the differences between prints. I can never be a wood elf. They do have superiority over me in the aspect of their magic in the world…..I….I asked them to help me,” she said quietly, “so that if I am accepted by you, I could change.” She then bit her tongue, as she heard the horns trumpet. It only made her roll her eyes at the sound. Blueberry, as seen by the fur around his muzzle stained blue along with his nose, walked a bit faster to the castle now from hearing the sound of the call of the castle.

Her dedication to becoming a huntress continued to surprise him as she spoke of befriending and even living with wolves in order to learn to track and hunt. She did admit to the truth they both knew: she could never be a wood elf no matter how hard she tried. But what was confusing was her choice to get an amulet made to be able to become like him. Why would she charge herself when she seemed perfect to him? Or why not change to become a wood elf? As Cyril opened his mouth to ask the trumpets sounded drawing his attention to the distance. He followed her silently as he took in the marvels of the elves and their attempt to mimic nature instead of embracing it. He found the wrought iron gates twisted to look like vines appalling in the mockery of nature. No wonder Faenoina yearned to be something more than this.

Their pace was a bit slower, showing off the many trees that were starting to flower as the days were growing warmer. The smell of fresh baked bread and roasting meat was coming from the castle as they got closer, her heart was starting to thump louder and louder in her chest, and she could only hear the rushing of blood in her pointed ears. She was keeping her breathing under control by breathing with Blueberry, who was carrying her there for the time being, but he always had an affinity for her mother, the queen of the high elves, as he was raised by Faenoina, and made sure that part of his life he spent in the castle around her parents. He had found that as a cub if he lightly tapped the queen’s thigh, she would give him treats.

When they were at the large wrought iron gates that were twisted and dusted with silver made to look like vines, she uttered a couple elvish words, and they opened without anyone around them. She led Cyril in, and got off her bear, now walking beside him. Unlike other elves, she was smaller than normal, and it had others quite literally look down at her. Her eyes remained hard though, as she looked forward, leading them through grand halls that were held up by carved pillars that were meant to look like trees, the stone branches reaching out and holding the ceiling up. One of the guards came up, plated in a golden type armor, and helmet that had small spikes coming off of the sides. He was grinning, and staring down at her, as he had sharp features, including a square jaw, with slightly thinner lips and light brown eyes.

“Ah. Princess Faenoina. You’ve returned, short stack.” She paused. “Indeed, Hadrian. I brought the centaur I wish to be betrothed to. Now, out of my way. My parents called for me, as they probably have heard the news from Rowan,” she said simply, physically moving the larger elf away from her. He had his hands up as he moved with her instead of trying to fight her moving him like other times. He was aware that she needed to go see her parents, as he heard in the throne hall that her father suddenly yelled out a rather dirty elven curse word. Faenoina seemed irritated at the interaction, but the other elves of the castle moved aside for the tiny raging elf, with a large centaur behind her as she seemed to be preparing mentally to have a fight.

The throne room was huge, with pillars in a lovely line that lead to the throne at any place in the room where one could stand, causing a nice echo and ambiance as a small quintet played a harp, a guitar, a violin, a cello, and a flute. Each pillar had ivy vines wrapping around it, and the ceiling was glass, allowing the natural light to fill the room. The princess stood out more than the centaur standing in the hall with her. She looked even wilder than even he did at the moment even as she stood beside him this time, not in front of him or leaving a large gap between them, but a good three feet apart. At this angle, one could see that her head only reached to the lower part of his first shoulder at his horse half, and it made her look dwarfed next to him. As she led them through the halls literally parting the elves by her sheer presence and her hard stare he found himself a bit overwhelmed to be honest as the structures and the denizens were all so foreign to him. However Cyril walked proudly knowing that not even 10 of these frail elves could match him (or so he assumed). His chest and head held high as they entered the throne room. The light music was easily drowned out by the echoing sound of his hoof steps as he settled in next to his potential mate. She may have been short compared to the other elves but to him she was the same size as his horse half made him nearly twice the height of anyone here.

Her chin was high as she greeted her father and mother in elvish, before greeting Rowan, who now stood next to them with a rather ticked off look on his face. Her father was a lithe man who stood with his hands behind his back as he wore a crown or gold and wood, that sat behind his ears and looked like a halo, with dark brown hair similar, but not exact to Faenoina. She clearly had his hard look in her eyes, and the same green eyes as he stared her down, not even acknowledging the centaur yet. An elven woman with red hair stood next to him, her lips slightly tilted up as she had her hands clasped in front of her, her crown sitting on the crown of her head that looked exactly like the man next to her, as if it was meant for both halves to be put together to create a single crown, showing that they split the responsibilities. They all stared at Faenoina, who was the only elven person here at the moment with no crown on her head, but that was bu choice, it seemed.

“Adar. Naneth. Man aur, im tul- beating i news cin gaya. Im iest na break off nin engagement with Rowan. Im iest na take Cyril sui nin betrothed.” She gently gestured to the centaur next to her. “This is Cyril Windbreaker. He rescued me from my own trap ten years ago. I wish to be with him.”

As they spoke their native language he examined the king and queen carefully waiting his turn to speak. Faenoina's introduction seemed as good as time as any. "I am Cyril Windbreaker, your daughter speaks the truth. When I saved her she promised to become a great huntress and has done exactly that. She may be a stranger to my customs as I am to yours but if she wishes to be my betrothed then I shall consider her a prospect. She has already shown far more worth than any others." He states firmly offering her praise where praise is due. He reaches down to place a hand on the princess shoulder and gave it a firm squeeze. "By my customs she must court me as her mate, what do your customs dictate as the proper methods?" He asks, curious to learn more about her upbringing and why she sought him as her mate rather than any other.

Her father looked at him, and looked back at Faenoina. He spoke in his tongue to her, and she replied, seeming agitated, even stepping closer so her shoulder was against his leg, her head against his shoulder for a moment. Cyril didn't understand their tongue but the tone of voice behind them told enough. Her claim was causing an uproar among her kind and he found it amusing. Though had the tables been turned and they were before his herd the uproar would probably be even greater if not violent. He spoke again, and she answered in common this time. “Enough! I have made my decision! I will have him as my betrothed! Even if I have to follow the ancient customs to make him unyielding to the hands of time and calls of death! I will do what I must and can to be his!” She stepped forward, taking her bow off of her back, looking like she was about to attack. Even with the lithe and strong body from being in the wild, she still spoke like a high elf in the court. Cyril’s mouth opened in shock when she spoke of a ritual to make him immune to age and time. That was something he had heard of but from what he understood such a gift was extremely rare to receive from an elf and yet she was offering it just to cement her desire to be his mate. Cyril was touched, deeply touched so much so that when she withdrew her bow as if to attack, he stepped forward placing himself between her and her father just in case things turned physical.

“I have picked out your betrothed! How is he not good enough?!”

“He laid with others while waiting for me to turn of age!”

“You could forgive that in a few hundred years! You could sleep that long!”

“I do not care! He has made no attempt to know me! He only wishes to have me as his bed warmer so that he may have a higher status! I will not stand for his mockery of respect or even love,” she sneered. “I will not stay with that thing,” she said, pointing to Rowan. “Tonight I am bringing Cyril to the starlight feast. He is my guest in my honor. You will respect it, per tradition, since you love it so much,” she spat out at her father. Instead the elves held true to the grace and civility they are known for as they simply debated back and forth with Faenoina cementing her view as fact that could not be changed. Even stating that she insisted he be a guest of honor at some feast. Based on the king's reaction this was a big deal, one he would never be allowed to attend in any other circumstances

She took a breath, and turned to the centaur. Faenoina looked up at him, craning her neck from his height. “Would you do me the honor of attending the feast with me tonight? And I can explain more later,” she asked softly. Cyril looked down at his companion as she invited him, leaning forward so she didn't have to strain her neck so much to look up at him. "It would be my honor to attend with one as bold and brash as yourself. It is a shame you were born an elf as you would make a fine broodmother for a herd." He praises her though the praise may not translate well depending on her knowledge of centaur hierarchy. He praised her as being capable enough to be the equivalent to a queen in a herd.

“I have a place prepared for you, if you would like,” she asked, looking away, trying not to blush at her admittance that she had been planning to ask to be his for a long time, though when she made that decision, she was not sure herself. She was caught off guard as he replied to her, as she had expected him to decline.

"Please show me this place so that I may learn more about this feast and its meaning." He says as he offers her his hand to take. Should she take it, Cyril will smile and with surprising strength lift her up and onto his back, offering her one of the greatest honors he could, allowing her to ride on his back. The elven woman gave an excited smile at his acceptance of her invitation. So, when she took his hand, the elves around them gasped as she was sitting upon his back. She was unsure where to hang on for a moment, as she didn’t want to squeeze his ribs too hard, as she gently held onto his shoulders. “Bluebs, come my berry,” she said softly.

She seemed nervous, about how this would go, about how everyone will react that she was trying to betroth a half horse half man creature that resided on the elven plains out of the forest. How she was blatantly disregarding the tradition of being married to a prince of another kingdom to strengthen their kingdom’s bonds through blood. How she has chosen to cast her elven heritage to the side and try and overcome her very nature.

Oh what talk of the feast the pair will be.

[happytroopers]

Andor eps 2-  4 shit post

Maybe its my depression maybe its the show but I'm entirely apathetic towards this series so now im like 5 eps behind but this is me trying

Ep 2 spoilers below duh

-starting with a flashback tbh the flashback scenes were the More interesting bits from the first ep

-I love when there's random seemingly defect machinery just everywhere in Star Wars

-strip mining????

-idk who this man is or what he's doing but I love it

I wanna be Star Wars dramatic bell clanger

Star Wars Quasimodo

most of this show is just different characters suspiciously speed walking through alley ways

momma andor???

"It's all your women I'm worried about." Icon behaviors

oh what's his face is gonna turn Cassian in bc he's jealous I'm calling it now

I know this bc men suck

fuck u box's boyfriend who's name I can't remember. I was on board with you until you did this

this show is so dark. like lighting wise. I'm in my pitch black living room and im still having trouble making out all the faces

put me back on Tatooine where the desert suns burn my retinas through my silly lil screen

"corporate tactical forces" privatized police you mean

I love that this guy despit4e being ostensibly handsome definitely gets no bitches. Absolutely no play

I have that lantern in my camping gear rn

not to be off topic... I wonder what Boba is doing rn

its 5 years pre rogue one, so I'm assuming bounty hunting and being generally annoyed at Han Solo's existence but like... I want to go to there. (there is boba's lap)

insert the Cassy-Casssssy tik Tok audio here but this time its Cassian- Kassaaaa

are those Jedi issue sir? Ahhh fives I miss u every day

BELL MAN BELL MAN BELL MAN

hes an icon. fave character too far

abandoned after imperial mining incident.. Mandalor type beat

at least in legends

Edward Cullen type beat

how many darks can this bad boy hold

also are they poison or just tranqs

-that is an UGLY ship

-IS THAT BILL FROM MAMMA MIA

-THAT'S BILL FROM MAMMA MIA

-"if you can't find it here it's not worth finding" me at my local thrift store

-wow were two episodes in and approximatley one thing has happened. And it was the thing that happened int he first 5 mins of the first episode

EPISODE 3 spoilers obvi

-I want to be interested so bad

-pls let my depressed lizard brain latch on to this

-also why does Tumblr fuck up my formatting when im on desktop

-desktop is supposed to work better and yet

-why does this give me among us vibes

I never even played among us

for some reason I feel as though this is going in the direction of somehow in some indirect way something Cassian does is gonna be the root cause of Kenari's mining incident

that seems very par for the course

me too Cassian. I also react that way when I see my reflection

BILL FROOM MAMMA MIA

idc what his Star Wars name and back story is

just as with the marvel movies- that is simply Bill Anderson, Swedish adventurer, author, and singer of silly songs

soo not mamma andor

ahh I FORGOT THE FLASHBACKS WUOLD BE REPUBLIC ERA

perhaps even clone wars era

idk what that weapon that bill's got, but I like it

"the drowser" new gear just drpped

"you know how cold she gets" im soft

aww even fictional cops break citizens rights

bc hes a rat

of course his name is fucking Tim

Bill that was Optimus prime level inspiration

woah I love the organized signaling

bill I love you

a lil attracted to u rn

what is the lay out of this building

was it made to be one big OSHA violation

what is its purpose other than dramatic destruction

RIP Timm this was kind of ur fault

I love how even despite the fact that we know Cassian is a morally grey character, we're really doubling down that these blue guys are evil evil and it wasn't just those two assholes

love cassian emerging from the shadows

very sexy of him

they even made gun ships, my fave ship, ugly

lmao

RIP to the cop that got exiled

SHIT BOX SPEEDER IM IN LOVE

NO

smart but sad. that speeder waS neat

I swear I know the Maarva actress

"we need to get out of here." no response "SIR WE NEED TO GET UOT OF HERE"

SHIT THAT'S AUNT PETUNIA FROOM HARRY POTTER THATS WHY I KNOW HER

at least things happened this episode 5/10

EP 4 spoilers below obvi

-MON MOTHA IN THE THUMBNAIL

-mon mommy sorry mommy?

-Bill has his wn ship... just like in mamma mia

-the parallels are amazing

-"you're bleeding on my floor"

-Med Nog? SAY MOORE RN. is it just more alch??? is it bacta infused? miracle healing Elixar??? I need mor4e information immediately

-Sep??? is the separatist / confederacy of independent systems still kicking for am I missing something?

-"you'll ultimately die fighting these bastards" its sad bc its true

-CORUSCANT MY BELOVED

-nt the imperial security beureua

-"are you being purposely vague?" me at this show

-NOT SCARIF

-kyber crystal????

-Blue kyber??? hmmm

-dont steal the ship Cass

-hmmm why are we lying to the rebellion folk

-tie fighter sound effects my beloved

"close to nothing. But not very far from everything" also could be said about my hometown

-this is a nemik fan account.. for now. Idk he has good vibes

-I wish to be on Corucsant. concrete jungle where dreams are made of. There's nothing you can't do

-MON MOTHA APARMTNE T!!! I WANT TO OGO T THERE

-marriage problems??? fuck this guy

-I can't wait to see the CGI for the celestial event

-who is this blonde girl and why do we care about her

-"can I eat my food?" me too Cass

There's been significant improvement ! ok thats all the new content my brain can handle today good night.

[royalnugget42]

Ok so now that I’m officially in the Resident Evil fandom here’s something

In the aftermath of the explosion in that little village, Ethan’s body is recovered. He is completely molded though, and has no memory except that he has a daughter named Rose, and he is sent to a secret facility to be contained and researched. He spends years being experimented on, poked and prodded and his regenerative abilities grow to astonishing strength.

He can regrow whole limbs now. He found this out the hard way, when the scientists started cutting off bits and pieces of him. Whole bones have been regrown from nothing but mold, though he has to eat a lot of rotten food to make up for it. His captors never tell him who he was or what he did, not even telling him his name, and referring to him only by Subject F-001, or Series F.

Their guess as to how he got like this without showing any of the homicidal tendencies of his predecessors is a mystery to them. Perhaps it is the memory of his daughter, perhaps it is his isolation from the rest of the molded, perhaps he just has something in his DNA. Whatever the case, when he is not being hurt he is resentful and angry, but never violent, nor does he seem interested in spreading the mold further.

It’s 16 years after they took him that funding starts to run out for the project. They’ve devoted all the time to research that they can, and now they must look to utilize him in other ways.

They begin with that question, of why he is different from the rest of the molded, retaining some semblance of his humanity. They can’t take his memory of Rose, though they’ve tried, and instead start to introduce foreign samples of mold into his diet, to see if he gains any of their traits.

Did they know what was left catalogued in the E-series mold? Did they realize that every infected soul has left a mark in that strain? Did they predict...no they couldn’t have. But they should have.

Ethan Winters goes to sleep and dreams of his wife. He doesn’t remember having a wife, how could he? But he supposes this must be her, she is lying in bed with him and calling him baby. This is Rose’s mother, and she is beautiful. But she doesn’t say his name. He doesn’t know hers.

When he wakes up he sees a little girl with black hair at the foot of his bed. She giggles at him, but runs when he calls out, vanishing through the concrete walls. When he mentions this apparition, the scientists dutifully catalogue the apparent hallucinations in their notes on him, but they do nothing to help him when he begs them for knowledge.

“Where is she?” he shouts into the stark, empty air. “Where is my wife, where is my daughter? Where’s Rose?” There is no answer. Just the buzzing of fluorescent lights and the quiet beeps of machinery.

The second dream is of a kitchen. Sunlight pours through the window, and the wooden floor is grimy, but only because it hasn’t been washed since breakfast yesterday.

There’s an old man at the table. His wife brings a meal to the table, and whatever it is smells delicious. Their son, it must be their son, sits off to the side, scrolling nonchalantly through his phone. Their daughter is gathering silverware.

They are the picture of an idyllic, loving family. They smile at him and ask him if he’d like anything more to eat, gently chiding him. He’s so thin, shouldn’t he have just one more helping? So he dutifully finishes off another, before declaring he is done. The old man turns to him.

“You’ve got to go back soon. When you do you’ve got to remember.” Remember what? He only remembers Rose, he doesn’t even know who these people are. They aren’t his family, he knows that, but in a warped and twisted way they also are. The edges of his vision are black with mold as they all beg him to remember, to break free, to be himself again. Zoe is the last to speak.

“I know you remember us. We live on in you, everyone does. We’re all counting on you, kid.” He feels like he’s too old to be called a kid by this girl, but maybe this girl is older than she looks. Maybe he’s younger than he thought.

The little girl is back. She doesn’t run this time, just stares at him. It seems she is waiting for a question, and it’s only as he realizes this that he knows what to ask. “Who are you?” he asks. “Who am I?”

She laughs at this, bright and sharp as glass. “I’m your daughter, of course! And you’re my daddy.”

Rose? Is this little girl Rose? But no, she isn’t. He’s not sure how he knows but he does. This girl isn’t his daughter, except she is, isn’t she? They’re connected. A family in reverse. He didn’t make her, not like he made Rose, but she didn’t make him either. He’s too new for that. How can he be younger than his daughter?

“Evelyn.”

She smiles at the recognition in his eyes. There’s fear there, but also familiarity. This is at least someone he knows. If she is his daughter, then he must be her father. That’s how it works isn’t it? All at once he feels like a part of his identity is locked into place. If he is a father then he has to protect his daughters, both of them. He must find Rose, and his wife.

She fades away before he passes out again. He dreams of pain, in his hand, in his legs. He dreams of terror and aching phantom memories. There’s a woman, tall and beautiful, with hands like long knives, her daughters all over him, many-legged. There’s a doll, there are so many dolls, and there’s a woman in mourning. A creature of water and filth confronts him, spewing out acid that burns in his mind. He talks to a man that moves metal without touching it. The man tells him to remember, tells him not to give up.

“You were always so stubborn. Don’t lose that. You’ll get those bastards yet.”

There’s a woman, and she has Rose. He kills her, and as she crumbles she whispers that she is finally with her daughter. She whispers to him that they are family, that they are both related and the same. He takes Rose from where she cries amongst the stones, and feels his hands fall apart.

Evelyn is a good daughter. When he is awake, he tells stories, about his dreams, about her mother. Evelyn tells him things too.

“You and mom tried to kill me, but I never knew why. I had a long time to think though, and I think I might’ve been a bad girl.”

For what it’s worth, he is sorry, but Evelyn shakes her head. “It was for the best, after all. You weren’t really my dad then.”

He doesn’t know what he is. The scientists call him series F, but he doesn’t know what that means. Evelyn used to be called series E. She says maybe his name starts with an F, but he knows that it doesn’t.

He’s different from Evelyn, but not so different that he is distant from her. Evelyn says that she tried to give him a gift, something she gave to lots of people. She gave it to his wife too, but she never gave anything to him.

“You have a gift too,” she says, “but it didn’t come from me. You made it all on your own. I came from this place, from these scientists, but you made yourself. It’s like you grew from nothing.”

Evelyn always wants to have more family, always wants to give more of her gift. She asks if Ethan is the same, and he realizes that he has never tried to give his gift to someone else. He doesn’t know if he wants to. He already has all the family he could ask for.

He dreams of his wife. Her name is Mia. He knows that now. His name is Ethan, and her name is Mia and they are family.

Scientists have been recording his conversations, and they’re growing concerned. Ethan spends so much time talking to his “daughter” Evelyn. They have realized by now that the E strain mold in his diet must have contained some trace of Evelyn’s consciousness, possibly along with others. They’ve stopped exposing him to it but it seems the damage is done. He asks for Mia and Rose at every waking moment that he does not spend talking to Evelyn.

They took a risk. They took far too many risks. Something happens one day, when a woman comes in to monitor his physical state. He was supposed to be sleeping, but the drugs wore off sooner than expected. He saw the woman through the door, and he begged her, to let him out, to bring him to his family. She ignored him. He pounded against the glass and she just rolled her eyes and took more notes.

Something snapped. No, not snapped. It twisted and warped and grew. It blossomed.

If this woman wasn’t going to let him see his family, then he would make more family. He would make her see his side, and once they were family she would have to help him. That’s what family does. His breathing slowed, and he closed his eyes. With every ounce of longing and loneliness he reached—

Agony.

#resident evil #re8 ethan winters #re8 #re8 coda #aftermath of the village #ethan winters #mia winters #rosemary winters #Evelyn resident evil #tw mold

[kaylathekittykat225]

Carnival Ride of Horror // Steve Harrington x Reader

Carnival of Horror // SH

Warning/s: Cursing, laughing at inappropriate times, (very minimal) mentions/implications of abuse/stalking (just wanna warn, its super small but just in case!)

Word Count: 3.5k

Hey guys! It’s been a bit since I’ve written, lemme tell you, life has been kinda crappy and its just a little less crappy now! So I decided to start pecking at the keyboard again and this is what came of it! This lovely person requsted this work and I just got around to starting to really write because I had a free week. Anywhoodles, it’s good to write something again and I hope yall enjoy it!

Again thank you for this idea @seraphiiii

omg i came across your post about writing ideas in my feed and got so excited to see both steve harrington and young justice in the tags lmao. but i think a steve harrington x reader where reader and him go to an amusement park and reader is terrified of the rides so he’s like comforting her throughout them and encouraging her but also laughing (in a good natured way obvi) about how scared she is and stuff? i think that would be so cute!!

Here’s my Masterlist.

Enjoy.

-----

“Stevie, when we agreed to have a date night away from the kids, I didn't think we would be going into a mass of more kids.” As he pulled the keys out, you stared at the bright light shining machinery that had been set in the middle of a field outside the city. The annual summer fair had finally made its way to Hawkins, and it had left a buzz in the air as everyone planned when they would go, talked about what rides had come this year, who their ride buddy would be; it had been all the kids had been talking about for weeks. They put a day together the coming weekend to go as a group and they planned to drag Steve and you along on the off chance that they needed an “adult” to allow them on the rides.

Funny how they assumed either Steve or you knew how to adult.

“Cause I thought it would be a nice change from us just watching movies or having dinner.”

“Oh, so dino nuggets are no longer date-worthy for you.” Steve almost took you seriously, but he saw the grin that has graced your lips at your own comment. He relaxed a little knowing that you weren’t upset with his idea for date night, but he had always wanted to kiss someone at the top of a Ferris Wheel, and he would do anything to get you to the top of the rotating ride.

“So, you’re not mad that I chose here for tonight?” You shook your head and pulled at the door handle separating the two of you from the outside life.

“Of course not Stevie, I just thought it was an interesting choice.” The smile you chose to have was one that hopefully convinced him that you were okay with where the pair of you were going, even if you weren’t happy with the choice.

You can be happy with the idea of going to a carnival as long as you don’t go on-”Cool, so what ride do you want to do first?”

“Shit.” The world slipped out before you could stop yourself as Steve finished paying for your tickets and asked what you had said. “Nothing just kicked myself. Um…” You looked around frantically for something to do that wasn’t flashing brightly and spinning faster than the legal highway speed. “Let’s go over there!”

Steve followed your hand as he saw you point towards the stands of games that were rigged and way too fricking expensive, but he would do it for you. “Alright, starting out with some games I see, I like it.”

The two of you ran through a few of the games, most of them where Steve got way too into it and you had to step between them as he tried screaming that he deserved that stuffed bear/pony/cat/fish, because he almost had it every single time. He did beat out the basketball one, one of the last ones the two of you did on that strip, bolstering his confidence just enough to get him into a cheery enough mood.

“Alright! We played some games, and let the crazies test out the rides so I’m pretty sure they won’t break down on us. Which one should we do first? They got a drop tower, or how about the pit viper swings? Or, or, or how about we…” The night had been going enjoyable up until Steve turned to the rides you had managed to distract him from and pointed at the glowing and fast-moving monsters.

“How about we do the haunted walk over there?” Steve followed your pointing finger with a quizzical look, he hadn’t really taken note of the scary attraction before, never thought to really look to it with everything else going on. “I bet it won’t even be scary to us after everything we’ve been through right ha.”

You took off with a dry laugh without waiting for a response from him; his cries were head behind you, but the haunted house looked better than anything else around you. “Y/N.” He called you again, but you walked faster. By the time you got to the stairs leading into the building, you were practically running up them to get into the dark house with smoke billowing out of it.

“Y/N!” Your name was the last thing you heard before diving through the door and physically bumping into one of the scarers dressed as a zombie. He seemed nice, breaking character enough to ask if you were okay before you had already turned the corner and left him behind too.

Twisting and turning, you didn’t pay much mind to the screaming witches, zombies, skeletons, or anything that happened all around you; over the music and screaming, you could vaguely hear your name, giving you an indication that Steve followed you.

Not too far in, you found a quieter corner with only a couple cobwebs around it where you quickly ducked back into and tried pressing yourself into it deeper, hoping to watch Steve walk right by you.

Why the hell were you running from your boyfriend? You gained a sense of logic for a second where you paused. Why were you running? This was super childish of you and really had no reason. All Steve wanted to do was go on a few rides and you were being selfish and completely ruining what was going to be one of the few evenings you didn’t have to babysit the kids.

As the guilt started to swirl with your desire to not be found, you didn’t notice as the Frankenstein in the room had taken notice of you hiding in the corner and started to tromp over to you. “Hey, miss, you can’t be hiding in here, you gotta keep moving.”

“I’ll be out in a second, sir, let me just-” “You can’t be here-” “If you give me a second, I will leave as soon as I can-” “Miss you have to leave-” “Give me one dan minute-” “Y/N!”

Among all the screaming the Frankenstein and you had been doing was your name being called by a third and new voice along with a hand clasping onto your shoulder. Looking to the hand, you saw the unmistakable outline of the man you were hiding from. “There you are babe, why were you running off.” Just looking at the Frankenstein’s demeanor, you could tell he went into defense mode suddenly.

“Were you hiding from him miss? Are you okay? Do you feel safe?” The painted man moved to step between you and Steve in an attempt to separate you two.

“Whoa, whoa buddy, back off. She’s my girlfriend, chill out.” Steve tried stepping around the man o little success.

“Oh, your girlfriend? And she’s running from you? I don’t think this is looking very good for you, buddy.” The two were shooting back and forth at each other, getting chest to chest, and starting to cause a larger disturbance that started o be heard over the music and background scream noises. More workers it looked like started to slip into the room and try to get the two men to quiet down, going so far as to begin threats of throwing them out of the haunted house.

You were pulled away from the situation before being pushed away and into the next room, looking like it was on its way to the exit in the next two or three rooms: your destination.

-----

“Y/N?” His voice finally chirped up next to you as Steve took a seat next to you on the grass at the edge of the carnival. “You okay?” When he saw you sitting over here, he had quickly jogged over and took her in as he did so: sitting with her face pressed into her knees and arms wrapped tightly around her legs as she kept herself in as tight of a ball as possible.

You didn’t respond at first, only moving your head to look up at your boyfriend, the person you have embarrassed tonight and most definitely pissed off with your childish antics tonight. “I’m sorry.”

“Whoa what do you have to apologize for? I’ve been worried about you and wanted to make sure that you are okay.” His hand found its way to your back and began rubbing circles into your shoulder blade.

“I was really childish today and you didn’t deserve it, all because I was scared of the stupid rides.” Your words may have been mumbles, but he heard every word clearly.

“Hold on. Babe, did you say you were scared of the rides?” Your small and timid nod was enough for him to understand. “Why didn’t you tell me? I never would have brought you here if I knew that!”

Swallowing the thick feeling in your throat, you looked up at him and saw the disappointment and hurt in his face and that hurt. “Because you were so excited about it, I thought I could get through it and do at least one or two with you. But as we got closer, I guess my nerves got the best of me and I just...ran. Like a stupid child.”

“Hey, hey, hey, no.” Steve quickly shuffled to kneel in front of you and grabbed your hands, holding them in his own and your legs fell down to where you were now criss cross apple sauce. “I’m not gonna force you to do any of these rides if you don’t wanna. If you want to just go home, we can make this a movie night if that works better for you.”

“No, Stevie,” His mouth quirked up at this name. “You already bought the tickets; I don’t want you to waste the money you earned because I’m a scaredy cat.”

Steve took a second to think, racking his brain on how to salvage what has been an eventful evening. “How about…” He paused again and just stared at you with you staring back at him, waiting to hear what he wanted to say. “You can say no, how about we try a few rides, to try and get you on some. If you don’t like riding after one, we can go home, and you can at least say you did it.”

Mulling this idea over in your head, your eyes shifted from where your boyfriend sat in front of you to the bright and joyous scream filled rides were. “I suppose they don’t all look so bad.” You murmured to him, staring particularly at the giant Ferris Wheel that turned, a small memory from early on in your relationship popping into your head. Steve had mentioned a few times that his dream date would be to take a girl up on a Ferris Wheel and cuddle her and kiss her when they got to the top.

“Okay, we can try a few.” Though shaky, your voice was a little stronger this time and you gave Steve a small smile.

“You sure?” A nod. “Okay, I’ll let you choose which one we go on, okay?” Another nod.

Together, the two of you stood to your feet and approached the hustle and bustle of the carnival grounds again. “What did that Frankenstein do to you? I hope he didn’t get you in trouble or anything.” You asked as you laced your hand with Steve while the other went to hold onto his arm, squeezing it slightly as you got closer to the machines and your stomach growing heavy again.

“Oh him, he didn’t do much, just tried scaring me when he though I was some creep chasing you.” He chuckled at the short story, glancing over to you as you took in the carnival for really the first time, looking for something that didn’t freak you out. “How about we start with those spinning pods over there? All they do is spin around and if you want it to, we can make it spin on the inside too.”

Following his finger, you saw what he was referring to as it did spin around, the four small egg things with windows in them were spinning on the main machinery but also appeared to be spinning on their own. As you got closer and apparently joined the line, you could see inside one of them a group of middle school boys cackling as they pulled on the weird center disk that kinda looked like a pizza pan. “Yeah, we can give it a try.” The shakiness in your voice had come back and your grip on Steve tightened.

“Hey, you got this I’ll be right here with ya.” He returned the squeeze to your hand and fishes through his pocket for two tickets to hand over at the entrance. “Up ya go.” He mutters as he helps you up the three stairs leading into the egg ride thing you were entering before he stepped in behind you and took his place next to you. You were already holding a death grip on the center console when the door was shut, and Steve sat next to you. “You know what this is?” He asked gesturing to the disk you were holding onto with the vice grip.

“Something for me to hold onto?” You shocked yourself with how violently your voice was shaking as you heard something start to rumble around you. “Oh, shit its moving.” Steve let a quick chuckle out before he stopped himself and tried explaining the center console would cause the pod thing to spin. “Fuck no! Don’t you dare make this thing spin.” Bloody murder was not even near definitive enough of how much you were screaming.

“Babe, babe calm down, it’s fine! I promise, ha!” In comparison to your screaming, Steve seemed to be having the time of his life as he laughed; at least he wasn’t making the ride spin. “Babe, babe, babe, I’m so sorry I’m laughing, I promise I didn’t mean to, but you were screaming so much! And it was hilarious!” Steve held onto his sides as he nearly fell out of the pod and waited for you to follow his laughing self. When you didn’t step out, he turned back around and saw you still had your hands clenched very tightly to the metal plate, your eyes wide and your lips pursed together. “Sweetheart, I didn’t mean to make you feel bad about the rides, do you wanna go home?”

Hearing him soften up got you to finally look at him and slowly let go of the wheel. “N-n-no. I’m…” You paused to catch your breath and steady your voice. “I’m good, I just don’t know if I can do any more of these kinds of things.” Taking his hand, you pulled yourself up and stepped out from the ride and have yourself a few seconds to remember how to use your legs.

“You okay?” You nodded at him and gave a shaky, but okay smile. “You sure you wanna do another one? Cause we can go-”

“No, no, I can do…” The carnival really did have more rides than just ones that wanted to make you die, but none that really made you want to jump on them. “Can we do the carousel? I know I can do that one at least, my mom took me on them enough as a kid to be desensitized to those ones.” Steve looked over and saw the carousel that was filled predominately by smaller children, but if you wanted to do this and it was because he bought the tickets, he couldn’t make her do something else.

“If that’s what you wanna do, then we can do the carousel all night long, babe.” You nodded at him and followed him as he took your hand and the two began the walk to the carousel.

The carousel ride was much less curse filled, thankfully. You and Steve had found a pair of horses sitting side by side and the two of you quickly claimed them. Like you had said, you did get to enjoy this ride due to having done it before and you were able to just chat between the two of you, talking about how the kids were cute, how excited you were to take the kids to the park and not have to rides. It was a fine ride, definitely better than the last one.

“You ready to go home, babe?” Steve turned to you with a smile on his face. Getting you to ride two of the rides was honestly enough for him, plus, he knew Dustin would ride all of them with him later, with you waiting at the end for him.

You were about to agree and leave this eventful evening behind you, but you saw what Steve was standing near and bit your lip. Should you do it? Could you do it? “Actually, I wanna do one more.” He gave a quick quirk of his head before he followed your eyeline and turned around.

“What? Babe, we don’t have to do that, you have been through enough today and you were great, you don’t have to prove anything.”

“But...you have been wanting to do it, you told me about it one time.” You responded a little shyly as you confessed that you were doing it back of what he told you that one time. “I just...I really want you to be able to do it.”

“You...you remembered?” Steve was kind of shocked that you remembered him mentioning it, he had told that to girls in the past, but none of them really went out of their way to think about it, hell, even to remember it. “Are you su-”

“Steve, yes, I wanna do it with you.” The grin on his face was immaculate and contagious as one grew on your face as he quickly took this well and pulled you towards the line to the Ferris Wheel and dug around in his pockets for another round of tickets.

As it went around, you felt your stomach grow heavy again when you finally saw how high it got and had to calm yourself down without causing another scene. “Come on, babe, looks like ours is up.” He gently tugged on your hand and pulled you into the seat next to him before the handlebar was lowered and locked in front of you. “And here we go!”

The squeak that left your mouth was nothing but surprise and terror as you clung onto the bar for your life, your knuckles turning white with the sheer force you were holding on. “It’s really stupid you know that the only thing holding us back from falling to our death is this small bar and it’s really stupid because was if I was reall-holy shit this is really tall!” You finally removed your hands from the bar and moved to press yourself in Steve.

You could feel him trying to stop himself from giggling as he moved his arm to wrap it around you. “You can laugh you know; I really don’t care. I’m the coward of an almost twenty-year-old who’s scared of a carnival.” A chuckle did come through as the ride kept rotating and you slowly moved closer to the bottom.

“I’m not laughing at you, babe, but the noises you are making are fricking hilarious.” His voice still held the chuckle as he pressed a kiss to the side of your head, and you responded with another squeak of shock as you started rising again.

Making it to the top again, you were waiting for it to hit its peak and for the relief of lowering the cart to begin, but instead there was a shudder before the ride stopped. “What’s going on, what’s going on, why are we stopped? Oh god we are about to die, fuck, shit, I don’t wanna die.”

“Babe, calm down, someone below us is getting off so they had to stop the ride for a bit. Remember when we had to get on? Same thing probably happened to someone else.” You nodded your head and just stared ahead to the tops of the trees you never thought you would have seen.

“It’s...it’s not too bad up here.” You finally mutter after a few beats of silence and getting your bearings. “I wouldn’t want to stay up here, but it does look nice.” Steve hummed in agreement and pulled you a little closer. “Hey Stevie?”

“Hmm?” He responded looking down at you.

“Thanks, tonight was fun.”

His face broke out into a grin again at your thanks. “Of course, thanks for giving a few of these rides a chance.” Smiling up at him, you sat a little straighter and caught his lips with your own, the two of you humming to the other that you were happy with your evening.

Though it was not as long as Steve would have wanted to stay in that moment with you (the ride started again and you broke away with another shriek), but he wouldn’t have traded that moment for anything else in his life.

#steve harrington one shot #steve harrington imagine #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington #steve #stranger things season 2 #stranger things imagine #stranger things x reader #stranger things season 3 #stranger things #joe keery

[tyrantisterror]

The ATOM Create a Kaiju Contest 3-D: Entry Roundup

You’ve been patiently waiting for the results of the ATOM Create a Kaiju Contest 3-D, and now... you have to wait a bit longer, but at least you’ve got an entry roundup with lots of sketches and a good bit of feedback for all the entrants!  My goal is to get the finalists illustrated in a week or two, and after that, the grand prize winner will be announced.  But, for now, the official entry roundup!  After the cut:

I should note that while I sketched these in the order they were submitted, my scanner saved the documents with random names, so they’re a bit jumbled.  You know, just in case you’re like me and would get confused noticing that it’s almost in chronological order but with some entries jumbled around.

@bugcthulhu’s Obsideban was designed as a counterpart to Rohobaron - the Black King to Rohobaron’s Red King, if you will.  Or, well, Black Queen in this case, as Obsideban also takes her personality from the “delinquent girl” archetype in Japanese media.  Bug’s designs always ooze personality, and I had a lot of fun translating this big, gnarly retrosaur into my own style.

@toothlessloveshiccup‘s Argonox is the first - but far from the last - monster in this breakdown that brings in a bit of fantasy influence to ATOM’s roster.  A golden-fleeced ram with a vicious streak, this sheep is both treasure and dragon at once.  And while it wasn’t written in the monster’s profile, given the Yamaneon-rich nature of its wool, Argonox might be able to replicate the healing power of the golden fleece too!  A very fun mammalian kaiju and excellent entry.

@highly-radioactive-nerd submitted Gunmetal Jeeves, a robot butler who can gigantomax temporarily create a holographic/hard light version of himself to fight kaiju.  That detail was a late revision added to the entry before the contest’s deadline, made after the creator realized that ATOM allows for some truly ludicrous bullshit, which is something everyone should exploit when making entries for this in my opinion.  Also, this is a robot butler who can size shift.  Revel in its awesome absurdity!

Ultranerd submitted Rajasaurus, a dimetrodon-like synapsid kaiju with electric powers.  His origin specifies that the electric powers are a result of the volatile nature of the Yamaneon deposits he mutated under, which is an interesting idea.  That’s another theme that cropped up a lot in this contest’s entries, actually - people really wanted to play with what Yamaneon can do.

Case in point, @polygonfighter’s Yamaneolith takes the Monolith Monsters homage at the heart of Yamaneon even more apparent.  I like the implication that there is a second mineral-based lifeform at the root of this Yamaneon cluster’s anomalous behavior - a parasite, perhaps?  It brings up some interesting possibilities.

@ariccio50 submitted Kukulkuzana, and damn is this a cool spin on the body plan of my martians.  I made a few changes here and there (splitting its tail into two is probably the biggest one), but tried to keep true to the original design, because holy hell is it gorgeous.  The idea that this is a mountain-dwelling creature is really intriguing to me, as it looks like a sea creature, but at the same time, that flexible and low-slung build WOULD work pretty well in mountains, and it’s just the right mix of plausible weirdness that makes for a fun alien design.

@akitymh submitted Aramzados, a Venusian monster that’s basically an organic hot rod car.  I like the idea of organic machinery being the gimmick for Venusian kaiju, and Aramzado’s does it subtly enough to not feel like that gimmick is the sole thing going for it.  I especially love this monster’s stange, apparently mouth-less blade-beaked face.

@virovac submitted Rurzar and Zar Rider, a Beyonder kaiju and mecha (respecitvely) that were both modified and repurposed by humans reverse engineering Beyonder technology to make, like, a motorcycle-saurus essentially.  It is a delightfully absurd concept, and a very, very detailed one (13 pages of description).  There’s a dark undercurrent beneath the sillyness, though, as this pair show that humanity might still be following the same path as the Beyonders before them.

@dinosaurana brings us Krangor, a humanoid monstrosity of living kelp!  The goal here was to create a Jack Kirby-esque monster dude, complete with the gibberish name and all.  He’s also made out of kelp, which feels very classic 1950′s monster-y despite me not being able to think of any monsters that were explicitly made of kelp.  I love him.

@kiryuthechimera submitted Genkakurah, a psychic retrosaur with some draconic features.  Though his substantial powerset is probably the biggest distinguishing feature of this kaiju (given that most ATOM kaiju pretty much have the same standard powers), what really draws me to him is that reptilian pseudo-beard.  It’s just a fun detail!

@glarnboudin submits Tiratola, and see, there’s that fantasy influence again!  Even more explicitly dragon-y than Kraydi, Tiratola still manages to toe the line between sci-fi and fantasy enough to fit ATOM as is while still cementing its ties to my own slice of fantasy fiction.  Man it’s good I’m doing a Midgaheim book next, huh?

@dragonzzilla submitted Scuttlebutt/Argonautilus, a hermit crab kaiju who lives in/with a hollowed out mecha.  That’s a twist I can’t recall ever hearing before, and the idea of a kaiju and a mecha having an equal partnership that doesn’t involve one being grafted to the other is really intriguing to me.  A very unique concept!

@evolutionsvoid submitted Fleagor, an enormous flea who has no idea what to do with itself now that there’s no creature large enough for it to parasitize.  I love that concept - it takes the core idea of the giant bug kaiju archetype (i.e. unsettling the audience by showing how terrifying small, “insignificant” creatures would be if our sizes were reversed) and really turns it on its head.  The name also plays on the Universal Monsters, who were a huge part of 1950′s pop culture thanks to their movies being re-released in that era, so all and all this one is very on brand for ATOM!

@skarmorysilver submitted Lilacorn, another entry that plays up that Midgaheim/ATOM connection.  Reinterpreting the mythological unicorn as an Cenozoic wooly rhinoceros-inspired monster gives it a very unique look, both in ATOM and in the general world of unicorns, and she has a bad-girl with a heart of gold personality to boot!

dracosaurus-rex submitted Florasaura, a two-headed plant/retrosaur hybrid monster.  I love me some plant monsters, I love me some retrosaurs, and I love me some rhyming the word “flora” with other words that contain similar vowell sounds, so this one has me written all over it!

@downtofragglerock submitted Sauroguana, a delightfully odd flying retrosaur.  There’s a great deal of charm to the original illustration that this sketch doesn’t quite capture - it’s a deceptively simple design with a lot of personality in it, and with those unique leg-wings it really doesn’t need a whole lot of frills to stand out.

Draxi submitted Brakan, an unimpressive burrowing retrosaur kaiju whose mastery of illusions allows it to convince other kaiju it’s actually a big, super-powerful badass that’s the ultimate fighter in the universe.  It’s a delightful parody of the concept of a fan self-insert god-mode character, with a really fun story built into it to boot!

@quinnred submitted O.N.I.A.C., a mysterious cocooned kaiju whose chrysalis has been turned into an organic computer of sorts by the people studying it, and seems to possess a fairly advanced intelligence for a kaiju.  It’s a really bizarre and ominous idea, with built in intrigue given how vague its nature is.  Is it just a kaijufied butterfly/moth who got stuck mid transformation?  A relative of the Mothmanuds?  Something else, perhaps equally alien?  Good story potential here.

shadyserpent submitted Vespilitor, a bat/retrosaur hybrid made by the nefarious Spooks Organization.  A mercurial prankster whose tendency to stir up trouble never crosses the line into maliciousness, he’s the kind of monster who would make a great foil to a lot of ATOM’s cast.  I’d especially like to see him in a prank off with Ahuul - it’d be like Bugs Bunny fighting Daffy Duck, but on a kaiju scale.

@multiversefan submitted the Yamaneon King, a nomadic kaiju whose refusal to settle down causes problems as he stirs up trouble at kaiju sanctuaries all over the globe by showing up unannounced and stirring up the locals.  He was basically designed to be a monster that the kaiju sanctuary initiative would struggle to deal with, which is a good idea for a post-ATOM Volume 2 story conflict.

Sir K submitted Jadeera, a kirin kaiju that can actually forcibly convert most of its body to Yamaneon to enter a dormant, statue-like state in a loose homage to King Shisa.  Though the fantasy elements are far more present than I usually prefer for ATOM kaiju, I think it should be noted they’re pushed that far for a purpose - a theme in Jadeera’s entry, which continues where its creator left off with their submission to the previous ATOM create a kaiju contest (Yokaigon), is that the world of kaiju is more complicated and challenging than many are willing to accept, which is a theme in ATOM itself.  Yokaigon’s more supernatural/occult powers are based on the ghost parascience of my setting, which ATOM has delved into a bit (Pathogen being the big example), so it’s not as out of left field as some might think.

@cerothenull​ brings us our final entry (unless some got lost thanks to tumblr’s shitty tagging system), the flying spider Naeranti.  She’s a kaiju spider who uses silk to make complicate hot-air balloons, more or less, and that’s just delightful.  ATOM could always use more spider-monsters, and with a really unique gimmick backing up a wonderfully distinct look, Naeranti is sure to stand out among her fellow giant arachnids.

Well, that’s the roundup!  In a week (or two, depending on how much my hand cramps) we’ll have the five finalists, and sometime after that, the grand prize winner!

#The Atomic Time of Monsters #The ATOM Create a Kaiju Contest 3D

[cobwebcorner]

Day 12 Welcome / 29 - Child

(I did that cheesy thing I usually hate in prequels where I provided an origin for something that didn’t need it. The idea just bit in and wouldn’t let go)

Number 13 stood at attention with the other children and did his best not to shiver against the biting Romanian air. He and the others stood in a neat line behind their master, chins tilted up and hands flat at their sides.

“It is so good to see you, Mother Miranda. Truly, it has been too long,” Lord Spencer was saying, clasping hands with the dark-haired woman in gray. Mother Miranda smiled at him.

“It is always good to see you, Oswell. You should visit more often. And, who are these?” She turned to survey the children, who all straightened their backs a little inch further.

“Ahh, yes. These are the candidates for the project that you inspired. Still in the early stages, of course, but I wanted to show you.”

Mother Miranda looked over them with detached approval. It was not unlike the way Lord Spencer looked at them, just without the glint of mania in the eyes. When Number 13 met her gaze, he felt himself being weighed, judged, and found wanting somehow.

“How well-behaved they are,” Mother Miranda said.

“Children, why don’t you explore the village for a while? Mother Miranda and I have adult matters to discuss. Remember! Mind the village lords.”

“Yes, Lord Spencer,” they chorused as one.

Then they scattered.

Number 13 wandered for a time, uncertain where to go. The simple houses of the village folk, though certain to be warm, did not interest him. The castle in the distance looked absolutely beautiful, but he had been told only the girls could go in there. There was another little manor house tucked next to a majestic waterfall up the hill, and many of the other children were heading that way already. He did not like feeling crowded. So he set out on his own, and wound up wandering through the woods on the village outskirts.

For as long as he could remember, he had enjoyed walking through nature. It was a source of some consternation to Lord Spencer, who scolded him sometimes for wandering too far. Despite the cold, the landscape in this region was lovely. He admired the mountains in particular.

“Hello there.”

Startled by a rough voice behind him, Number 13 turned. Above him loomed a grinning man in a long brown trench coat and floppy hat, an absolutely massive hammer perched on one shoulder. This was Lord Heisenberg, his brain supplied, one of the four lords of the village.

“What’s a little outsider doing all alone in these woods, hmm? Got lost?” Heisenberg crouched down so that 13 was at eye level with his sunglasses. The man’s grin was wolfish.

“You’re Lord Heisenberg,” 13 said.

The Lord looked surprised.

“Not often an outsider recognizes me.” A thought seemed to strike him. “Ohhhhh--you’re one of Spencer’s brats, huh?”

13 bristled at being called that, on the inside. Externally he kept his face passive and his mouth shut, as he had been taught. He had long become a master at holding his tongue.

Lord Heisenberg stalled, apparently at a loss for how to proceed with this new information. Then he found his grin again.

“Hey kid, wanna see a dead body?”

“I’ve seen many,” 13 replied. Their cadaver labs had been extensive.

“Not like this you haven’t! Come on, I’ll give you a tour of my factory.”

Normally, 13 would have kicked the strange man in the crotch and run. Like all the children, he had been given a cursory warning about trusting strangers. Lord Spencer had delivered it in a very bored, perfunctory way, like it was just the sort of thing one was supposed to say to children. However, this was one of the village lords, and they had been ordered to respect the village lords. He did not see how he could refuse.

Heisenberg led him to a massive sprawling factory complex, the biggest 13 had ever seen. It was not a place 13 would have chosen to visit on his own. The inside was dirty, rusty, poorly lit and covered in sharp edges. Machinery churned all around them in a weirdly beastlike motion, pistons galloping like horse legs chained in place, bathed in a hellish glow by the furnaces. For the life of him 13 could not figure out what exactly the factory was producing. All he could make out on the distant cranes were limp, hanging bodies. If the whole place was meant for corpse disposal, then it seemed overly elaborate and very inefficient.

“Welcome to where the magic happens!” Lord Heisenberg spread his arms wide, beaming down at 13 as they walked.

He led 13 all the way to a makeshift laboratory deep within the factory, where a body lay on the slab. As promised, it was not like any corpse 13 had ever seen before. The body had been heavily modified with cybernetic implants, its entire head and much of its upper body fused into a massive metal contraption which seemed to contain an engine. A propeller made of chainsaw blades erupted out of the front of it.

To his shock, Heisenberg swatted the corpse on the stomach and told it to get up. It did so, with no small amount of struggling against the weight of its absurd head.  13’s mouth fell open.

“See? What’d I tell you?”

“It’s really a corpse?”

“It was. You want to check its pulse?”

“I apologize for the stupid question. I can see that it doesn’t have a head.”

All discomforts forgotten, 13 began to bombard the Lord with questions about his work, and Lord Heisenberg was all too happy to answer them. They soon encountered an unexpected language barrier in that Lord Heisenberg was astonishingly self-taught on the biology side and didn’t know the correct names for internal anatomy. Yet he had intuited their functions and interactions with the eye of a genius engineer, and managed to get his creations working anyway. 13 tried to supply the right terminology, only to have his corrections waved away.

Here, talking science with a man of such strong passion and ability, 13 felt more at home in the rusty industrial nightmare of the factory than he had anywhere else in this strange country.

“Oh hey, what’s your name, kid?”

“Number 13.”

Heisenberg’s face twisted up.

“That’s not a name!” he barked. The sudden volume and vehemence of the shout shocked 13. He had never seen an adult display so much emotion. Had he angered the Lord somehow? He didn’t understand.

“It’s my designation,” he said.

“You can’t run around with just a number! Hell, even this moron has a name.” Heisenberg slammed the side of his fist into the soldat’s mechanical torso, making it wobble on its feet.

“What is it?” 13 asked, unable to fathom what you would call a man with an airplane engine for a torso.

“Sturm.”

He didn’t know what he expected.

“If dear old dad can’t be bothered to name you, then I will.” Heisenberg scrutinized him for a moment, his mouth still twisted up, brows pursed. “Albert’s a good name. Your name is Albert now,” he proclaimed decisively. “If anyone has a problem with that you can tell them Lord Heisenberg said so.”

“Albert.” Number 13 rolled the name around on his tongue, considering. It sounded...German.

“Yeah, Albert. Like the famous scientist!”

“You mean Albert Einstein?”

“Who?” Heisenberg looked at him blankly. “No, I mean Albert Wily, the great roboticist.”

“I’ve never heard of him.”

“He’s great, trust me.”

Albert. He smiled softly to himself, barely hearing as Heisenberg went off on a long ramble about the works of Albert Wily. He had never realized how much it hurt not to have a name until he had one, and it seemed suddenly precious to him.

Night had fallen for several hours before Albert noticed the crow. He pointed it out, asking how it had gotten this far into the factory. When Heisenberg saw it, he paled.

“Aw, shit,” he said, which Albert considered a baffling reaction.

More crows alighted on the beams above them, all staring down at Albert and Heisenberg with single-minded intensity. Heisenberg seemed to wilt and half-covered his eyes with one hand.

“Hi, Mother Miranda,” Heisenberg said.

It was difficult to track what happened next. The crows all took wing in a flurry of black feathers, and suddenly Mother Miranda was standing there, looking regal and divine and furious as an avenging angel.

“There you are, child.” She turned her wrathful eyes on Heisenberg. “Our honored guest has been looking for his lost one for hours now. He is beside himself!”

“He’s got twelve more, what’s the big deal?”

Mother Miranda’s glare only intensified. Albert felt he wanted to hide behind something, but could not let himself.

“Well if you’d have checked in with me, you would have found him sooner,” Heisenberg said. The glibness in his reply was absolutely shocking to Albert. He would never have spoken that way to Lord Spencer, and Mother Miranda seemed far scarier.

Miranda made a noise of disgust and held her hand out to Albert.

“You don’t need to humor Karl any longer, child. Come, we will return you to the others.”

But he hadn’t been humoring Lord Heisenberg. He’d been genuinely interested in everything he had to say. Albert looked back at the Lord, who just shrugged at him. Though he wanted to stay, he knew he could not. Albert took Miranda’s hand, and allowed her to lead him out of the factory, Heisenberg following lazily at their heels.

It was with great sheepishness he approached his guardian and the other children, who were all standing before Miranda’s altar and watching him with varying levels of impatience. The other three lords were there as well, standing at a slight distance from the children as well as each other. Lord Spencer looked at Albert very sharply when he arrived. Albert did not let himself wilt.

“I am sorry about that, Oswell. It seems Karl here got a little too carried away showing off his little projects.” Mother Miranda glared back at Heisenberg as she said this.

“Do not worry about it, my dear,” Spencer replied. “Come, Number 13.”

“My name is Albert now,” he said. He could hardly believe the words coming out of his mouth. You never corrected Lord Spencer on anything, ever. For his part, Lord Spencer appeared as startled as Albert felt. “Lord Heisenberg said so,” Albert added into the tense silence.

Spencer’s eyes flicked up to look at the man behind Albert, his mouth a flat line. Albert could almost see the cogs turning behind the older man’s eyes as he worked his way through the political minefield of disputing the name without offending the Lord.

“He gets a name? Can I have one?” Spoke up Number 4. 4 Had always been the most willful and impulsive of their group, as well as the most often punished.

“I would also like one,” Number 8 said, with more hesitance.

“It is not fair if only one of us gets a name,” Number 3 added, attempting to invoke logic as usual.

“There is no need,” Spencer snapped, silencing them all. “Your number designations have been perfectly adequate in the past--”

“What’s the problem? You have trouble thinking up names?” Heisenberg asked. “I can do it for you! Let’s see, Derek, Hans, Marco, Irma,” he rattled off, pointing from one child to another.

“Alex,” Lady Dimitrescu cut in, placing her hand atop the golden head of Number 12, who looked up at her with wide eyes. “And that one is Felicia, and this little darling here is Laura.”

“Ooo! Can I name some? Can I name some?” Lord Moreau babbled, pacing back and forth in excitement.

Lady Beneviento did not ask for permission. She glided up to Number 1 and pointed with her doll’s hand at him, screeching: “William! You’re William!”

“Jonah!” Lord Moreau burst out, then seemed to realize he needed to choose a child to receive the name, and hurried over to Number 6. “Y-your name is Jonah now. Do you like it?”

“Jonah,” Number 6 repeated, looking contemplative. He nodded.

Albert stood a little removed from the chaos, watching the Lords name every last child with a strange, foreign feeling bubbling in his chest. This was the first time he had done anything which could be considered deliberately rebellious against Lord Spencer, and it felt...good. The other children all looked cautiously happy, but that was of little concern to him. He had his own name, and no one could take it from him. He felt more real just thinking of it.

“You may wish to cut your visit short,” Miranda murmured to Lord Spencer, barely audible to him. “It seems my children’s bad behavior is rubbing off on yours.”

“Yes...well...” Lord Spencer sighed. “They would have been named eventually. I was only waiting until after the first trials.”

“You do not expect many to survive?”

“My process is not as forgiving as yours. I will not abide a lot of half-formed failures hanging on. They will transcend by my design, or they will die.”

And just like that, the warm, victorious feeling went out, as a candle flame dies in the path of a bitter wind.

#resident evil #Albert Wesker #karl heisenberg #how did Heisenberg know about the boulder punching you ask #obviously Wesker survived the volcano and went to recover with his grody Frankenstein uncle #this is very dumb and self-indulgent #but what else is fanfiction for? #my fic #notinktober2021

[draconic-ichor]

In the Steel Steeds Heart

Chapter 27: Lessons in House Beneviento

Warnings: strong language, sexual themes, hints of trauma

Summary: Juniper takes a visit to the Beneviento house for sewing lessons.

Feedback appreciated. 18+

“It’s not too late to cancel,” Heisenberg pointed out, almost hopeful, as he watched Juniper get ready.

“It is.” She insisted, combing her fingers through her hair.

“Nah, I have a phone right over here!” He strode over to it, “I can give her a quick call in no time flat.”

“Heis.” Juniper’s voice was a warning.

He seemed to deflate, shoulders sagging. “There’s no way to talk you out of it?” He pressed.

“Nope.” Juniper stuck firm, tying her curls back into a poofy ponytail.

It didn’t stop him from trying. He badgered her the whole way through the village, ever worried he wouldn’t be with her. Juniper kept firm, knowing she needed to learn this. His constant pestering didn’t cease until they were at the dilapidated wood bridges. Juniper gulped as she started across. The closer they got to the far side the more the mists thickened. By the time her boots made contact with solid ground again the air was heavy with it.

The path was narrow with overgrown hedges, small garden statues covered in ivys here and there.

Something drew Juniper’s attention. She paused as Heisenberg kept walking, turning to squint for better visibility.

A human stood in the mist, almost obscured from view. As Juniper came closer she could make out everything but the face.

It was a woman, about Juniper’s height and sporting the same ebony curls, but the other woman's hair was mostly tied back into a messy bun.

Juniper sucked in a breath, even without a face the woman pulled at a deeply familiar string of her heart.

The woman’s featureless face looked down, her light almond hands bunched into her floral skirt. She almost made a weeping sound.

“My dear….my angel.” The woman cried softly, “I've missed you.”

Juniper felt frozen, a tear running down her cheek. She wanted desperately to remember her face, her smell…anything.

“I’m sorry.” Juniper’s voice wavered.

She suddenly felt a strong hand on her shoulder, she turned enough to see Heisenberg chin almost on her shoulder.

“They aren’t real, buttercup.” He soothed, whispering into her ear, “Only hallucinations.”

Juniper tried to nod, blinking away more moisture from threatening her eyes.

She shook to clear her head a bit, the other woman fading.

Heisenberg saw his own share of ghosts among the mists, though he did his best to ignore them.

A sturdy outline of a man stepped forward down a fork in the path.

“Du bist so groß geworden, mein Kleiner.” The man smiled.

Heisenberg grimaced. He looked away, ignoring the shadow. It wasn’t who it pretended to be, it was just a cruel twist of his heart.

He led Juniper ever forward through the mists. Eventually their path opened onto a clearing. A mound of stones and flowers occupied the center, while a door stood on the opposite side’s rock wall.

“It looks like a grave…” Juniper frowned, seeing the dolls stacked up around the large stone.

“It is.” Heisenberg trudged forward, around the delicate stones and blooming yellow flowers.

Juniper read the stone:

Claudia

Juniper gulped, picking up her pace to rejoin Heisenberg. They went through the small door, following a cave path to an elevator. It looked out of place but was still alive with electricity.

Boarding it, Juniper looked around. This elevator was much more lavish and comfortable then the ones in the factory, more suited for recreational use.

Leaving the elevator and darkness of the caverns, Juniper gasped in awe.

“It’s beautiful!” She exclaimed.

Before them the old estate sat on a hill surrounded with blooming yellow flowers. A large waterfall thundered behind it, it’s mist coating the valley.

“Mhm.” Heisenberg agreed almost dismissively. His sour mood worsened with every step towards the estate, knowing every boot length was that much closer to not turning back.

Juniper stepped up onto the wooden porch, closing the distance to the heavy door. Before she reached for the knocker she glanced back to see Heisenberg did not step onto the porch himself, instead grimacing at the edge like an old dog.

Juniper turned back to the door, lifting the heavy knocker, drumming it a few times. Almost instantly Donna answered, pushing open the door, Angie close behind. They looked happy to see her, Juniper worried she had kept them waiting.

“Hello!” Angie exclaimed, “We’re so happy you came!”

“Hello.”Juniper smiled.

The sound of a throat clearing drew their attention. The three turned to look at Heisenberg.

“Return my girl in one piece.” Heisenberg spoke with his lips a thin line.

“We will.” Angie nodded.

“And no turning her into a fucking doll or some shit.” His voice was a steely warning.

“We know that!” Angie snapped.

He gave a cold look at the doll, “I wasn’t talkin’ to you.” His pale eyes shifted upwards, “Donna I’m serious, take care of her…she means an awful lot to me.”

Donna gave a slow nod before raising a single finger to her chest. She made a little ‘x’ motion over her heart.

Heisenberg nodded back in understanding, mimicking the gesture, “Cross my heart.”

Juniper watched them closely, never seeing him act in such a way with another person before. The small interaction was almost childlike.

Whatever weight that gesture held seemed to be enough for Heisenberg. He tipped his hat to the three before turning back and heading into the mists.

They watched him disappear until Angie started hopping. Her tiny feet made a tapping sound as she happily spoke, “Come on, come on!”

Donna pulled open the thick wooden doors, a warm glow cascading over the porch from within.

Juniper walked behind her as Angie trailed closely. The door seemed to close on its own after they all entered.

“We made cookies!” Angie exclaimed.

“Oh, thank you.” Juniper stammered, being led into the main hall. The estate house was very cozy inside, with ornate woodwork and flowery designs on the rugs.

The air held the smell of spices and herbs, a heavy hanging of dust as well but Juniper was used to far worse.

Where Lady Dimitrescu’s home was a lavish palace, a place of showy status-ship; and Heisenberg’s factory was raw and hazardous, a cesspool of secrecy and honed functionality. Donna’s home was neither.

It was smaller but looked to be well lived in and even held remnants of a loving family. Juniper had known this house once belonged to Donna’s parents but was very unprepared for it to still hold the shadows of normality to it. Certain things looked to be completely untouched since the time of the previous owners, left to sit as a time capsule to happier days.

Juniper was led into a parlor of sorts, a heavy table set with linens and dying flowers was in the middle. A smaller sitting room lay off to the side. The whole place was covered in porcelain dolls. Not surprising, considering Donna was called the Doll-maker, but Juniper thought she saw one more out of the corner of her eye. She stifled a shiver, wondering if Angie wasn’t the only sentient one.

“Come sit.” Angie instructed, “We’ll get the tea.”

She did as she was told, sitting and waiting as the pair went out the far door.

The manor was eerily quiet, Juniper hadn’t realized how used she was to the constant hum of machinery. It almost made her anxiety thicken.

Was this what Heisenberg felt like whenever he was away?

She thought. He’d been living in the sounds much, much longer then she had.

The sound of an elevator piqued her interest, a small sliver of something familiar.

They returned rather quickly, Donna holding a tea tray and Angie pushing the door open for her. Donna set the tray down, busing herself with preparing three cups.

“Donna makes her own tea!” Angie told Juniper, hopping up in a chair.

“Oh?”

“Yea! She’s really good at it.” The doll gushed proudly.

Donna set a porcelain teacup in front of Juniper, offering her a bowl of sugar cubes.

“Oh, thank you.” She smiled, putting two into her tea before stirring it.

She brought it to her lips almost tentatively, the liquid dancing over her tongue. It was nothing like the prepackaged stuff Heisenberg kept around, no this was fragrant with floral notes and hints of herbs. Juniper took a deeper gulp, smiling.

Donna offered her a plate of cookies neatly stacked.

The cookies were a type of butter cookie, small and crisp with an aftertaste of vanilla. Juniper took a big bite.

“We made them from scratch!” Angie announced proudly. She happily picked up a cookie and began to dip it profusely into a cup of tea. She cackled as tea splashed out onto the lace tablecloth.

Donna seemed not to notice, lifting her cup up. She carefully moved the veil eough to take a sip.

After they enjoyed their tea and cookies, Angie telling Juniper so many random things during, they started to head towards Donna workspace.

They took another elevator, the one Juniper had heard earlier, down to the basement. They led her down a hallway lined with white painted doors before opening one.

The room had dirt floors and a heavier curtain of dust. The walls were lined with heaving shelving, filled with all assortment of fabrics and sewing supplies.

Angie excitedly showed Juniper the rarer fabrics, things the Duke had brought from far off places, as Donna cleaned off the table in the center of the room

The three sat down with a little pile of supplies before each.

Donna nodded, picking up a needle and threading it easily.

It took a while for the woman to find her voice, and when she did it was breathy and strained. Juniper thought it must’ve been a long while since it was used in any stretch.

Donna frequently forgot the proper words for items or techniques, having to stop for a moment to think how to explain things. Juniper was ever patient, just thankful the woman was taking the time to teach her at all.

When she did get going, Donna’s fingers were nimble and quick, making even intricate stitching look simple. She could put a sewing machine to shame.

Juniper tried to keep up, showing her results. It was lopsided and messy, earning a concerned little “Oh!” From Donna. It sent Angie into a fit of giggles.

“Take your time.” The woman instructed, “Make every stitch the same size.”

Juniper nodded, trying again.

“Not like that silly!” Angie pointed to the cloth, “Tinier! Make them cute and tiny.”

“Ok.” Juniper smiled at the doll’s enthusiasm.

“Practice stitching is im-important.” Donna nodded, “Mother made me sew for hours on spare fab-ric.”

“How do you make the clothing for the dolls?” Juniper asked, thinking clothes that size could easily be augmented to fit a baby.

“Are you making dolls?” Angie asked excitedly.

“W-well…” she thought, almost sweating, “I may, there’s not much to do around the factory you know.” She lied.

“How do you deal with living in that grimy old factory?” Angie asked.

“I've gotten used to it.” Juniper shrugged, “Its home now.”

“But what about Heisenberg?” The doll pressed, “He’s so mean!”

“Oh he’s not all bad.” Juniper looked at her hands, cheeks gaining a rosy blush, “He’s just a bit rough around the edges.”

“And loud!”

“He is rather loud.” Juniper agreed, giggling.

“But Donna is super good at making cute outfits!” Angie got back on topic.

Donna nodded, standing to look on the shelves behind her. She pulled a handmade book free, brushing dust or before setting it on the table.

“These are my patterns for the common clothes I make for them.” She opened the book.

Juniper looked it over, seeing many small measurements around the sketches. It reminded her of the schematics Heisenberg made of his Soldats.

She asked little questions here or there. Mostly about how Donna found the correct sizes and how to properly measure an object to make clothing for it.

She soaked everything the quieter woman said like a dry sponge. Even pulling out a sketchbook to make notes. Donna and Angie loved to have someone care so much after so many years of solitude.

~

Eventually Juniper’s eyes caught the clock overhead. She gasped, “Is it that late already?”

“Time flies when you’re having fun?” Angie laughed.

They cleaned up her workspace before heading back up into the estate.

Donna sent Juniper home with a better stocked sewing kit, easy patterns to practice with, a bag of scrap fabric, and a container of cookies for Heisenberg.

“Thank you for taking the time today.” Juniper’s voice was genuine.

“Oh it was fun!” Angie gushed, “Come back soon, ok!”

Juniper nodded, taking the bag thankfully from Donna. It was very sweet for her to provide so many spare materials.

Heisenberg was already waiting on the end of the porch, looking irritated as he smoked the last bit of a cigar.

He dropped it, tamping it out with the end of his boot before he stepped towards the three.

“You’re late.” Heisenberg growled when he was close to Juniper.

“And you didn’t send the Lycans?” She smiled playfully.

He gave a huff.

Juniper handed him the bag, he took it questionably. “What’s all this?” He asked.

“Sewing supplies for me and something for you.” Juniper answered.

Heisenberg glanced into the bag, making a little sound of surprise when he saw the parcel of cookies. He quickly looked up to Donna and Angie, almost embarrassed.

“Thank you!” He stammered, cheeks a bit rosey.

Donna nodded happily, waving them goodbye.

Juniper smiled, taking Heisenberg’s free hand and started the walk back to the factory.

“Not used to gifts, are you?” She giggled, seeing how flustered he was at the simple gesture.

He made a grumbling sound, not entertaining her with a real answer.

#resident evil village #karl heisenberg #heisenberg x oc #re8 oc #heisenberg #in the steel steeds heart

[mizelophsun11]

Mizeloph's Tale Chapter 8

Pairing - It is still General Kirigan x OC Sun Summoner and will eventually shift to Kaz Brekker x Reader

Summary - First the little group from Ketterdam has to make it through the Fold before they can get to Eastern Ravka. As they travel through the Fold a past that Kaz does not like to talk about haunts his thoughts. A promise that he never intended on breaking brings more to Kaz than he cared to admit.

Word Count - 2550

-

“They want you to believe the Sun Summoner has been found to finally tear down the wall that divides us. But how many times have we been fed a story like that?! And how many times have we in the West been told to send our sons and daughters through the Fold for another year? It is time to accept that we need to break away from the old country! Now is the time to form our own country, to keep what we make and what we earn instead of sending it to the East! For the true Ravka!” Zlatan finished his speech and walked off towards the entrance of his tent where he shook hands with Arken who had an interesting proposition

Out in the open Kaz Brekker watched their exchange, he had not been too thrilled about this, but knew that they needed Arken to get them across the Fold. He would be able to come up with a plan to deal with Arken later. Kaz spotted Inej looking at the stones with names of people from the West who had gone through the Fold and died or never come back.

Inej noticed Kaz walk up to her with the tiny goat “he’s adorable”

“Don’t get too attached” he looked between her and the stones “I didn’t think I’d have to specify no detours for you”

“Even if just a few minutes could end a lifetime of questions?” Inej asked

Kaz sighed “I have looked at these stones for answers, when I couldn’t find her name these stones felt useless, just another reminder of an unknown”

“Maybe because she was able to survive the Fold, she is now the Sun Summoner, you cannot continue to deny it forever, there is hope you two will see each other again” Inej knew that they both were trying to find a name to have some closure, but it was not always that easy

“Hope is dangerous, it can cloud anyones judgement, including our own. Just like your mind has been clouded by your questions of my past with Anna Mizeloph, I told you I wanted your complete focus on this job” Kaz said adjusting the goat he was holding in his arm

“I will, this will be the last time I promise” Inej could tell that she was pushing on Kaz berries with talking about Anna

“Don’t forget Inej, we all have debts to pay” Kaz walked off to meet head towards the meeting point with Inej walking behind him

Once it got darker everyone had met at the disclosed location near the edge of town so they could start their journey, but there was one person missing, Jesper. They still made their way towards where the train would be when Inej stopped to read the sign.

“Wait, there are landmines here..” Inej said looking to Arken

“I put those signs up there to keep people away” Akren informed them

Kaz looked behind “where the hell is Jesper?” he did not want to be delayed

They walked over to where the machinery was hidden that would get them through the Fold “It’s one thing to hear about it, but.. This is..” Inej looked at the looming darkness as they got closer

“Nothing compared to what lies within” Arken went through the thick shadow and pulled the train out “there, so the goat, jurad.. Thank you. Now we are just waiting on the coal..”

“Wait for me!” Jesper yelled as he ran, followed by gunshots

Arken began to panic as he saw Jesper running towards their location with people following behind “they can’t see the train!”

“Leave the lantern!” Inej yelled

“Landmines!” Jesper looked at the sign

“Come on!” Kaz knew it was going to be close

Jesper tossed the lantern onto the ground and ran to the train in the dark making sure to watch his step. Once he got in he felt a slight sigh of relief wash over him, he had gotten coal and not been blown up.

“Please tell me you have 20 pounds of alabaster coal” Arken pleaded

Jesper gave him the bag “slight snap in the plan, turns out the kid who was helping me buy the coal didn’t exactly know how to, um, buy coal”

“We know you gambled it away” Kaz knew Jesper too well

“I lost a bit of the money.. Well, I lost all of the money, but! I was able to steal 20 pounds of alabaster coal” Jesper smiled a little

“No no.. there’s only 16 pounds” Arken was slightly panicking

Jespers smile faltered “16 pounds of alabaster coal”

“Can we do it on 16?” Kaz asked

“Never been done before, now I need you three to sit down and never shift your weight” Arken started to set everything up to get the train to start moving, then they suddenly heard the sound of an explosion and men screaming

Jesper shook a little “Landmines..”

Kaz looked up a Arken from his spot “I thought you said they weren’t real”

“I said no such thing, I just said I put the sign up” Arken began to put coal in and the train started, they entered the Fold.

It was quiet in the train so far, everyone was thinking about anything else than being inside the Fold. As the train chugged on Kaz knew that right now he should be thinking about what they will do to get into the Little Palace, but his thoughts drifted to Anna Mizeloph. He knew better, but Kaz could not help it, the little girl with white hair that he remembered was now the Sun Summoner. He remembered when they were younger, imagining their lives and how everything would work out.

-

Little 8 year old Kaz and Anna were holding hands as they ran down an alley holding a few items of food. Once they got to their safe spot they sat down and started to nibble at the food, Anna looked over at Kaz.

“What do you think our lives will be like once we are older Kazie?” Anna asked

“Honestly, I’m not sure, I want to get back at Pekka for putting me and Jordie in our current situation” Kaz was angry, he and his brother had the chance to start a new life when their father had died, they should not be in this situation

“But you met me.. You mean a lot to me Kazie” Anna said looking at the small amount of food she had left, this was all she knew, living on the streets

Kaz sighed “the future also involves me and Jordie becoming rich and you will be a part of that Anna, we will stick together” he smiled a little at her and pulled Anna close

“Good” she rested her head on his shoulder “but if you become rich can we travel the world? Maybe see Ravka? I’ve only heard of it from others travelers, but it sounds beautiful”

“Anything you want Anna” Kaz adjusted Anna and began to run his fingers through her hair to try and get a few tangles out “when we are older you will get whatever you want, I promise”

Anna smiled and closed her eyes feeling Kaz run his fingers through her hair. While she hated that Kaz and Jordie were cheated out of their money to survive, Anna was thanking every saint that she had known for meeting Kaz. She felt beyond lucky to have a best friend like Kaz and wished that they had met under different circumstances.

“Hey Kazie?” Anna said softly

“Yes Anna?” He continued to run his fingers through her hair now for comfort

“Can you make me another promise? This one is more important..” Anna could not imagine her future without Kaz

“Anything you want Anna” Kaz smiled a little finishing his combe through of her hair and pulled her close into a hug

“Promise me that we will never be separated, that we will grow up together and never leave each other, please promise me this” she pleased

“Yes, I promise” Kaz said, not knowing what the future held and that in a year he would break that promise. However, he didn’t know that, so with his ignorant bliss he made the promise

“Can we pinkie promise?” Anna asked looking at Kaz

Kaz smiled and nodded holding his pinky out “I promise”

Anna held her hand out and linked their pinkles “I promise” she continued to stay close to Kaz as he kissed the top of her head, their promise.

-

Kaz thought about that promise more than he would like to admit, he was the first one to break it. Even though it wasn’t really his choice because the people who collected him and his brother thought they were dead. However, that was still the moment of separation and Kaz wished that things could have been different. Anna was and still is an important girl to him and it made him think about what would happen when they were finally face to face. It would eventually happen since Anna is the key to the million kruge mission. Kaz wondered if she would recognize him or not, if she did how would she react? There was a lot running through his mind about Anna that was suddenly jossled when the train jerked.

With the sudden motion of the train came a strange noise snapping Kaz out of his thoughts “what was that?”

“Bits of metal hun on the poles, when they collide with the one on the train it markes where we are in our journey, right now we are on time” Arken said while looking at his watch

“How did you know where to put the poles?” Kaz asked

“Physics and engineering are a part of.. Most of my success” Akren continued to focus on his watch, he would glance at the coal then back at his watch

“And the rest?” Kaz glanced up at Arken

“What we might call divine intervention” Akren checked the coal against

“What other might call luck” Kaz never enjoyed relying on luck in anything

“And after all, the Fold is thick with volcra, and the tracks are not complete. Coal please” Arken said, Kaz threw some coal in

“I’m sorry, did you say the tracks weren’t complete?” Jesper asked starting to feel a little bit nervous and began to move

“Ah, ah! No moving” Arken said “it seems like we are falling behind, by my calculations we are now a tad late, more coal” Kaz put some more coal into the flames, fueling the train to continue going

“Back to the real issue, we are on tracks that don’t connect to other tracks” the amount of panic in Jesper was beginning to rise

“There is a gap, but..” Arken was going to continue but Kaz cut him off

“You said you could get us through, how much of a gap?” Kaz asked

Arken sighed, continuing to watch the coal and the watch to see if they could get back to being on time. “I built slats on the car, they roll into place under the wheels and the turbine generated enough wind to push all the way to the eastern tracks. This only works if we did not shift our weight, now we are about to go past a nest, the noise may attract volcra but it is the only way across”

As they continued through the sound of growling volcra echoed “now we have a problem, but we should be fine if they haven’t attacked us by..” the flapping wings of volcra got closer

Kaz looked at how Arken reacted “if need be how do you fight them off?”

“There is no way to fight them off, I can only outrun them to give a fighting chance. Open the throttle and toss all of the coal in, if we had 20 pounds this would work” as the coal was tossed in the train was gossled, Arken looked out to see what had happened “Damn! One of them impaid itself onto a spike”

The blood from the Volcra seeped through the ceiling and into the train “we need to get it off or else the other will stand on it” Kaz said

“More coal!” Arken commanded

Kaz threw the rest of the coal in and the bag it came in “we are down on fumes!”

Everything was beginning to unfold against them, they were behind, volcra were now attacking their only means of transportation through the Fold. A true nightmare, it almost had seemed too good to be true in the beginning when everything was running smoothly. Kaz could tell that they would be cutting it close, if they could even make it through.

Arken nodded “we won’t make it with this extra weight” he continued to try and get the dead volcra off the spike

“This is how we die” Jesper said

“Jesper grab the goat” Arken looked down at his watch to see if they were any close to the other side of the Fold

“I’m not throwing out the goat!” Jesper yelled

“Damit it Jesper, grab the damn goat! It’s not bait, it is for you now I need you to calm down and hug the goat!” Arken yelled back at Jesper

The sound of metal meeting metal rattled through the train “no no.. we should have hit that mark 20 seconds ago”

This caught Kaz's attention “20 seconds? Meaning..”

“My timing is precise in order to get us through, even 20 seconds behind means the train could stop inside the Fold which means.. Death for all of us” Akren looked down at the flames keeping the train going, but his attention was pulled away by the sound of volcra “there are more coming.. You may want to make your peace..”

Kaz never hoped for anything, until now he was hoping to make it through the Fold to see Anna. He had never been afraid of death, every mission in Ketterdam was a risk. However, this was different, he could die right here and never see Anna again. Within his thoughts he realised that there was so much more to this mission. Once her name left that man's lips the night of the job, that night he knew that this would be his chance to see her again. He needed to stay alive in order to see her and that would not be possible if he died in the Fold.

Arken looked up as the contraption that had taken him across the Fold too many times to count, it was now being torn apart by a few volcra. Jesper knew what he had to do, he had the guns, with his skills in hand he approached where the volcra were tearing through the top. The monsters screamed and with collection Jesper began to fire off shots at the swarming volcra killing all of them. It was a moment of silence before another metal ping rang, the sun shone through the hole made by the dead volcra. A sigh of relief left everyone in the train, they had made it through the Fold, alive. Now they had to figure out what the next plan was in order to get them into the Little Palace and get Anna Mizeloph.

-

Author Note - I am so sorry this chapter came later than I had hoped! These seem to only get longer and longer XD However I hope everyone enjoys this chapter! I originally did not plan on adding this chapter, but I thought it would be good to see more of Kaz and the past he has with Anna Mizeloph. Like always feel free to pm me if you would like to or leave a comment, I love reading what everyone has to say!

Tag List- @rika90 @itsemy01 @hotleaf-juice @teatimeforusreaders @benbarnes-supremacy @graciefullygracie @aleksanderwh0r3 @klaudosh @herbatkazmilosica

#shadow and bone #shadow and bone fanfiction #the grisha series #grishaverse #grisha fic #ben barnes #general kirigan #general kirigan x reader #freddy carter #kaz brekker #kaz brekker x reader