Lucid Dreamer (1/2)
part 2
Gepard notices that it's been. Quiet lately. Like weirdly quiet. TOO quiet. He hasn't seen Sampo Koski in almost a week, which is about the longest he's ever been absent. And he is NOT worried. He's not! So what if they've been getting along more lately! So what if Gepard sometimes looks for him in his favorite hiding places! So what if he's been dreaming about blue hair and green eyes! It's nothing!!
But they're….strange, these dreams. Gepard doesn't usually remember what he's dreamt. It's out of his mind seconds within waking up. But these stick with him, they won't leave him be, they feel different somehow.
He dreams of Sampo bringing food to the frontlines and eating breakfast in his tent with him. Sampo always sneaks him extras. He dreams of chasing Sampo through the alleyways, Sampo sometimes letting himself be caught, Gepard sometimes catching him, and trying to ignore how it feels more like a game now more than anything else. He even dreams that Sampo tags along with him on one of his few civilian days. Sampo runs errands with him, prattles about inane bullshit while Gepard picks out groceries for the week, drags Gepard into some bakery he's never been to but he thinks Serval mentioned once.
And sometimes, it feels so close to reality, that Gepard half expects to see Sampo, shamelessly swaggering into the frontlines with all the guards' breakfast like his wanted poster wasn't only recently taken off the walls of Belobog. He's disappointed when it's always someone else instead. He tells himself his disappointment is ridiculous and if Sampo wants to go prowl around the Snow Plains or wherever he is, then fine. It's not any of his business.
…But it IS his job to investigate any unusual criminal activity relating to the frontlines. And the frontlines are Sampo's usual haunting grounds, and this is unusual activity, and Sampo IS technically a criminal, so it is absolutely part of his duty to look into this - is what Gepard tells himself the entire tram ride down into the Underground.
Natasha tells him he's gone, and Gepard has to steel himself. He knew Sampo made enemies wherever he went, there are a lot of people who would love his head on a platter, but he didn't think-
Natasha corrects him that she means literally gone. As in off-planet. Sampo always leaves her a note before he goes anywhere, so she knows not to expect any supply runs from him. He should be back in exactly two weeks. Thank the Preservation.
Gepard goes back home. He waits.
The uneasiness doesn't leave him.
"Where did you go?" Sampo stops dead in the middle of some story about Seele, and how you'd think someone with as blunt a mouth as her wouldn't have so much trouble asking a woman out, even if that woman IS the Supreme Guardian, and stares at him. He nearly fumbles his cigarette.
"Ahaha, what do you mean, I'm right here?" Sampo smiles at him the same way he always does. Gepard has no idea why he asked. It just popped out. He can never tell when Sampo is lying, anyway.
"I don't know. I feel like I haven't seen you in a long time." Gepard idly mouths at his own cigarette. He almost never smokes, but he wants to ration their stocks of Blizzard Immunity, and it helps with the cold. It's seemed colder lately, for some reason.
Gepard flicks his lighter once, twice, sighs at the third time because a metal prosthetic and thick gloves make the damn things so difficult. Sampo reaches over and wordlessly kisses the end of his cigarette to Gepard's, lighting it. "Thank you."
Nothing happens for almost a full 30 seconds. Something churns behind Gepard's ribcage. Because Sampo never leaves a "thank you" hanging. This is the part where he gives his spiel about how helpful and kind he is and Gepard either brings up how long his rap sheet was before Bronya helped clear his name, or just stares deadpan because seeing Sampo squirm is weirdly satisfying.
"…I'll be back in one more week."
Gepard jolts awake in his cot, mouth dry and eyes bleary.
The hell.
The next dream he has, Sampo looks tired. Sometimes he seems normal. Sometimes he says strange things, like how he wishes he'd gone to some restaurant in Belobog. Ate his favorite food more recently. Brought something with him. Gepard asks why he can't do that now. Where would he bring something? Sampo only shrugs. His rebuttals have less energy.
Gepard doesn't know if he wants to dream more, or less.
He ticks down the days on his calendar. Natasha hasn't told him any different. She promised she would if she got any kind of message. Sampo returns tomorrow, from whatever vacation or seedy business dealings he's been off having. He is not excited about it. He is not looking forward to it. He's not!!
Gepard falls asleep late that night, unable to settle. He dreams again.
He's alone. There are tons of people everywhere, the frontlines are always crowded. But he's alone. They all pass right by him as though he were a ghost. Gepard starts to walk before he realizes his feet are even moving.
He checks the trashcans in the dead end alley. He checks the supply crates that someone always stacks too high because they don't feel like finding more space for them. He pauses to check the soldiers that march past him, watching their footprints in the snow.
He finally finds Sampo on the rooftop along the northernmost wall, the one that looks out over the plains, towards Everwinter Hill, towards where the Stellaron had once been kept. With a full moon and an entire land of white snow, Gepard can almost see clear out to the horizon.
"Found you." Sampo stiffens, and Gepard is almost prepared for him to sprint off the roof. He doesn't. But he doesn't relax either. Gepard sits down next to him and stares out at the wastelands.
"…I fucked up." It wasn't what Gepard had been expecting. Sampo never 'fucks up,' Sampo just gets into incidents that are entirely, supposedly, not his fault and that he just happens to always be within the vicinity of.
"What did you do now?" It must be really bad if Sampo is coming to the Silvermanes for protection.
Instead, Sampo ignores his question completely. "See out over there? Right on the other side of that mountain. There's a safe house that way. It's hidden under a lot of snow and dead trees, but it's there. And in that safe house is a box full of letters. I need you to deliver those letters for me."
Gepard's brow furrows. It's a weird favor to ask. Sampo would never tell anyone where his hidden safehouses were. It defeated the whole purpose of a hidden safe house.
Something is wrong, something is really really wrong.
Gepard turns back to look at him again and startles, all of his questions dying in his throat, because the entire left side of Sampo's head is suddenly matted down, dark and sticky, his skin is dyed red red red-
"In three more months, there's gonna be something big happening." Gepard grabs Sampo's hand and it feels slick and warm against his palm. "I won't be here. So I need you to do my end of things for me." Gepard tries to keep hold, but something is fading, something is slowing, the sun is coming up but the colors are all wrong, everything feels like encroaching fog, Sampo's hand slides right through his. "I was gonna come back with my mask to finish setting the stage, but…" Gepard makes a frantic grab for Sampo's wrist, the air twists, he comes back empty-handed. "They have you. And you're the Iron Wall of Belobog. So it'll be ok."
Gepard finally manages to find his grip, snatches the front of Sampo's dark wet jacket and yanks him forward to hold onto him, and this close up, he can see it better, his colors are bleaching out, leaking outside the lines as if Sampo will become part of the background, as if he's fading into the strange fog that's been closing in on them. His fingers are already starting to feel empty again.
"Wake up."
Gepard jolts awake, uncurls his hands from where they're fisted in the blanket, scrubs the dampness off his face. Breathes. Breathes. Breathes. Today is supposed to be the day.
He throws on his civilian clothes, and he goes down to the shipyard the IPC had built. He finds a spot where he can see every person that returns to Belobog, and he waits.
And he waits and he waits and he waits.
No one he recognizes appears.
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Thank you...
[DP x DC fic]
[Love at first... murder? - part 10]
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Part 1
Ao3
---
Private chat nicknames:
ImBaby= Danielle/Dani/Ellie
MiddleChild= Danny
---
Danny rubs his eyes and stares at the laptop in front of him as he’s trying to focus. He’s currently at a table he claimed in his school’s library, and he’s been staring at his screen for a solid 25 minutes by now.
He currently has a free period, just before his last class of the day, so he decided to try and get some homework done now since he has less time after school today.
Because of his date.
He’s going on a date!
Due to the excitement, Danny can’t quite stop himself from grinning like a loon. To be perfectly honest, he hasn’t been able to stop grinning and blushing even since Red Hood had sent that last message.
It’s a date.
Red Hood had confirmed it’s a date!
The buzzing of his phone as he receives a message draws his attention away from his schoolwork even though it wasn’t on that anyway but on a certain kind and handsome vigilante.
Danny picks the device up and takes a look. Seeing Ellie had messaged him, he raises an eyebrow. Assuming it to be another one picture of her standing on some monument in human form in spaces humans without powers shouldn’t be able to get to, like a horse on a roof, he opens the chat.
Though…
That’s not a selfie on top of El Ángel de la Independencia in Mexico, he muses as he reads the text with a slightly confused frown.
---
Private chat
~ ImBaby changed their name to SirEllieOfTheInfiniteRealms ~
~ SirEllieOfTheInfiniteRealms changed the name of MiddleChild to HisMajesty ~
SirEllieOfTheInfiniteRealms: once nightfall has cometh upon us, and the world has been plunged into darkness, though blood may be shed, be assured brother o mine, thine honor shall be guarded. i have formulated various challenges most onerous to confirmeth whether the helmed knight in red is righteous enough to court thee. for now, i will have to wish thee adieu, brother mine, as I will need to maketh some preparations for these mentioned challenges before I can enact them. as for the outcome of the trials i have set, i shall visit thee within the following fortnight bearing the news. until such time, i giveth thou farewell. ancients be with ye. o7
HisMajesty: ???
HisMajesty: have you swallowed an encyclopedia again? 🤨
HisMajesty: didn’t know it would actually work with teaching you new words 🤔
HisMajesty: would’ve been good to know when I still had Lancer’s English classes 😔😔
HisMajesty: what does even this mean? 🤔🤔
HisMajesty: what are you planning??
HisMajesty: Ellie?
HisMajesty: no seriously, like
HisMajesty: have you been hanging out with CW lately?? 👀👀
HisMajesty: cause this is exactly the sort of cryptic shit I’d expect coming from him 😕😒
HisMajesty: not you
HisMajesty: …usually 😔
HisMajesty: unless he told you to tell me this??? 🤨 🤨
HisMajesty: but then again, he prefers to use his sticky notes to leave me cryptic messages..
HisMajesty: Ellie? 😟
HisMajesty: what are you doing????
HisMajesty: where even are you right now?? 🤔
HisMajesty: last I heard you were in Mexico 🇲🇽
HisMajesty: are you still there?
HisMajesty: Ellie
HisMajesty: please answer me 🙏🙏
HisMajesty: Ellieeeeee ☹️
HisMajesty: Elle
HisMajesty: Els
HisMajesty: Ella
HisMajesty: Elski
HisMajesty: Elleroonie
HisMajesty: Ellexandro
HisMajesty: Eljamin
HisMajesty: Ellodore
HisMajesty: 🥺
---
Danny stops messaging her when he realizes she’s not going to read any of his texts any time soon. He lets out a weary sigh.
What has she gotten herself into this time?
---
Red Hood came to pick Danny up at his apartment at 12.50. He rang the doorbell this time. Before Danny can do so much as greet him, Red Hood hands him a box. Danny looks at it confused before moving his gaze onto Red Hood with the same expression.
“Here, for you” He grunts.
Danny looks back down at the box and under the stare of the helmed vigilante, that Danny can’t quite see due to the helmet. Danny takes it and opens it gingerly. Inside are what seem to be some kind of chocolate squares.
“It’s chocolate fudge. Homemade. Wasn’t quite sure what you would like…” Red Hood explains.
Danny looks back up and beams at him, cheeks turning slightly pink.
“Oh no, this is great! Thanks!”
He tries one out, under the watchful eye of Red Hood and Oh Ancients, they are delicious. Which Danny then also proceeds to verbalize.
“Oh my Ancients, these are amazing. Thank you so much!”
Danny gives him a quick hug, even lifting him slightly off the ground which does things to Red Hood (not that Danny noticed), as Red Hood lets out a soft “No problem” before letting go as he remembers something
“Oh wait! Before we go, I also have something for you as well!” Danny blurts out, quickly darting back into his apartment to get something, putting the box of chocolate fudge down on his counter.
He guesses Red Hood hadn’t quite expected that, as he was still frozen into place when Danny came back with his own gift for his date.
Danny hands over a small inconspicuous white box. Red Hood takes it and opens it before carefully taking out the sleek silver watch and turning it over.
As he’s looking it over, Danny starts talking again.
“Okay, okay, so I’ll explain what it does in a minute. First off though, put it on!” He says, jittery from nerves and excitement
He really hopes Red Hood will like it.
Red Hood silently does as he says and puts on the watch.
“Now turn to the wall and press that button right there!” Danny continues, pointing out a small button on the side of the watch.
---
What Jason had expected to happen when he pressed the button on the watch, was for it to light up or turn on or something, maybe play a little tune or a nice message.
What Jason hadn’t expected to happen, was for a toxic green laser to shoot out of the watch and blast the wall in front of him, leaving behind a black scorch mark.
Stunned, Jason drops his gaze back onto the, now slightly smoking, ‘watch’ before turning his wide-eyed gaze back onto Danny. Danny, who seems to be practically vibrating in excitement and is eagerly awaiting his reaction.
“Do you like it? It’s the Fenton Watch Ray! I modeled it after the Fenton Wrist Ray, but I decided to make the design more sleek and inconspicuous. When pressing the button, it’ll release a highly pressurized ectoplasmic energy blast.
“You see, it takes in ambient ectoplasm from the surrounding area as fuel! So it won’t run out of energy and you don’t need to charge it! The ectoplasm it’s infused with also makes it more resistant, so it’s harder to break and you’ll be able to take it out on patrol with you if you need it!
“Don’t worry though! While it may look a little dangerous, it’s actually quite harmless to living humans! The most it’ll do is knock them down, or even out on some occasions. And there’s no lasting after-effects!
“Oh! And this button,” Danny pauses as he points out a button on the other side of the watch, “shows you the time!”
Danny pushes the button and, sure enough, the screen of the ‘watch’ lights up, showing it is currently 12.56 pm.
During the entire rant, Jason just stares at Danny through his helmet in stunned silence. He didn’t quite understand everything that was just word-vomited at him, but he got the general gist of it.
‘Marry me,’ is what he wants to say.
“Thank you” is what he says instead, in the softest tone known to man with blushing cheeks and a lovesick smile on his face.
---
Taglist:
@i-always-say-yea @uraniumwizard @why-must-i-be-like-this @griffinthing
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post apocalypse au where the plot of stranger things doesn't happen but vecna still tears the world open and brings the upside down right side up. and the scattered people who managed to survive the initial earthquakes and power outages and complete breakdown of society have to contend not only with creatures from the upside down trying to eat them, but also with what the bleeding of an alternate dimension into their reality is doing to their bodies
people with prolonged exposure to larger tears seem to be slowly changed into something else, like some radioactivity from the dimension is mutating them. people grow claws, or leathery wings, or their face peels open, or they turn into unrecognisable piles of eldritch goo. there's vampires, were-demogorgons, flayed, weird ghosts, and the number of super powered people like el was in the show skyrockets
other people who manage avoid this fate shun those that fell to it. and to an extent it's reasonable, some people who get changed in this way completely lose their humanity, like the flayed, and while others retain it it probably doesn't seem that way when a vampire-like person needs human blood to survive. but a lot of people are just as terrified of the changes happening to them as other people are, and while they may not be harmless, they'd much rather use their new biological advantages to keep people safe
despite this, people that have been 'corroded' by the upside down are ostracised, feared, sometimes outright hunted by regular humans. so sometimes, they band together. form their own little apocalypse groups
eddie is in one of those groups. he wouldn't say he's the leader, bc they don't really have a hierarchical structure and eddie likes to think he's managed to maintain his anarchic ideals even in the face of the apocalypse. but he is the oldest, and the most scary looking (if not the most actually dangerous), so the combination of everyone being younger and his ability to scare off corroded-hunters that come looking for them means everyone else kind of follows his lead
so no one really questions when he comes back to camp one day holding two passed out humans. a mole-dotted man and a freckled woman, probably about eddie's age, who were injured and had crawled into a ruin building to die. and like. what was eddie supposed to do, leave them there??? no, gareth, it has nothing to do with how pretty the guy is. no, eddie doesn't know how they'll react when they wake up in the middle of a corroded camp, they'll cross that bridge when they get there. el says she senses that they're good people, so clearly everything will be fine actually!!!!!
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