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aweebwrites · 5 years

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Where Be Dragons? Pt.1

(Another installment of my dragon!Kai fic for anon!)

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Part 1 of Series

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"Hey Nya, have you seen Kai anywhere?" Cole asked as he stopped by their shared room.

"He's with Lloyd outside, most likely having another round of tug of war." Nya says as she sharpened her sai.

"Huh. Then I guess I should look for another partner for weights." Cole says, tapping his chin.

It's been roughly three months since the whole interdimentional jump thing and they all seem to notice how much Kai prefers his half dragon form over his normal one. Sure he spends half as much of the time as his normal self but whenever he gets particularly excited or upset, he shifts without realising. It was only recently that they discovered he spent as much time as he did looking normally because he thought they found his other form disturbing. It took a lot of reassurances to let him realise that they didn't care what he looked like, just that he was here and safe. After that, he's let go a lot. He insists on a game of tug of war with Lloyd each day for the past three days since that discussion. While Lloyd wasn't weak by any standards, Kai was very strong in his other form. He lost every time.

That gave Nya an idea.

"Or maybe you don't. Kai's pretty strong in that form. Maybe tug of war could be a new workout routine for you both." She suggested and Cole thought on it.

"That's... Actually not a bad idea." He says then turned out. "Thanks!" He called over his shoulder before heading out to the training yard.

He was amused to find both Lloyd and Jay tugging at the rope Kai held in his mouth, seated on his back haunches, looking bored. He then tugged them both forward with ease, making them yell as they fell into the blow up pool of water he insisted needed to be in the middle. He laughed as they pulled themselves up, walking over on all fours.

"Wanna go again?" Kai asked Lloyd, wagging his tail as he tilted his head to the side.

"I think it's my turn." Cole says as he stepped out and Kai looked over his shoulder at him.

"So you think you have what it takes to defeat me?" Kai asked with a low croon, flexing his wings.

"I know I do." Cole says with a smirk as he walked over as Lloyd and Jay walked over to where Zane was spectating.

"We'll see about that." Kai smirked, picking up the rope with his mouth as Cole went over to pick up the other end.

"Alright. Ready..." Zane says and Cole wrapped the rope around both hands as he smirked at Kai. "Go!" He yelled and both immediately began tugging.

Cole noted immediately how strong he was like this but smirked. He could do better. He tugged roughly and Kai skidded forward before digging his claws into the ground. Alright. No more holding back. He reared up on his back legs before tugging hard, making Cole yell as he was pulled off his feet, landing directly into the water.

"What was that about defeating me?" Kai asked, walking over on his hind legs, reaching a taloned hand to help him up.

"You may have won this time but you won't win again." Cole vows as he took Kai's scaled, padded, half paw hand.

"Sureee." Kai says with a roll of his eyes, helping him up.

"Look alive boys." Nya says as she walked out with Sensei Wu behind her. "We have trouble in Ignacia."

"The citizens are reporting an unfriendly dragon terrorising their village. Considering the only dragons that should be on Ninjago are your elemental dragons whom have already returned to the First Realm, I have reasons to be concerned." Wu told them and Kai frowned.

"Then we'll go right away. Maybe I can talk some sense into them." He says as he shifted back to his more humane appearance, his eyes remaining slitted with small fangs in his mouth.

"Then let's suit up and go!" Jay yelled and they took off.

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They could hear a loud roar upon their arrival as most villagers ran, screaming.

"Woah! That guy sounds big!" Jay yelled as they hoped out of their vehicles, trying to spot the danger.

"Sounds... Familiar..." Kai whispered with a frown.

It sounds like- but it couldn't be. They were in a completely different dimension.

"What are we standing around here for?! Let's go!" Nya yelled and they all rushed ahead to where the villagers were rushing from.

They could hear a loud wing beat and yelling just over a hill.

"Why did we park so far again?" Zane questions as they ran up the hill.

'I mean no harm!' Kai's head jolted up.

No. That roar. He knows it anywhere. He pushed himself faster and stood at the top of the hill, staring at the massive black dragon with wide eyes.

"Garmadon?" Kai whispered, watching him carefully trying to not trample the homes he was standing amongst.

"Woah! Big!" Lloyd says with wide eyes.

"The bigger they are, the harder they fall." Cole says and Kai threw his hand up in front of them, preventing them from taking off.

"I know that dragon! But how did he get here?" Kai whispered, looking confused.

"Wait- he's one of the dragons you lived with?!" Jay asked with wide eyes.

"Yeah..." Kai whispered, the moment seeming so surreal.

It was however interrupted by the angry villagers holding spears and torches.

"We have to help him!" Kai yelled, rushing ahead, his friends behind him. "Leave him alone!" He yelled as he pushed past them.

"Excuse us." "Official ninja business." "Nothing to see here folks." "Leave it to us."

Kai stood before the black dragon, eyes big as he looked up at him. But he looked wary. Didn't he know who he was? The thought broke Kai's heart. Has he forgotten? He tightened his fist. He wouldn't give up that easily. He let a low croon slip and the dragon went perfectly still before lowering it's large head, startling the villagers and making his friends nervous.

'It's me... It's Kai... Do you remember?' He asked in an assortment of croons and growls.

'Kai?...' Garmadon crooned low before giving him a sniff, his pupils dialated now in recognition. 'Kai!' He crooned happily and Kai grinned, rubbing up against his muzzle once he nudged him, transforming as he did.

'It's been so long. I'm glad to know your world is the one we stumbled into.' He says fondly and Kai's eyes widened.

'We?' He asked, surprised.

'Yes. It is a long story but we need your help. Jay is injured and we aren't familiar with the flora here.' He told him and Kai gasped.

'Then I have to get sensei.' Kai says quietly then looked back at his friends. 'You need to get Sensei Wu right away.' He told them urgently.

"Yeah, I didn't catch any of that." Cole says and Kai realised he was still speaking dragon.

"We need Sensei Wu right away. They're all here and one of them is injured." Kai told them in English.

"Roger." Zane says and he and Cole headed.

"You guys should go too and bring the Bounty. We'll go ahead and I'll direct you through the comms." Kai told Nya, Lloyd and Jay.

"Roger that." Lloyd says as he and Jay took off.

"Be careful Kai." Nya says softly and he smiled.

"I will." He says before turning back to Garmadon.

'Let's go. My friends have gone to get our Sensei. He can help Jay.' He told Garmadon who nodded.

They both took air then, Kai allowing Garmadon to lead the way.

'I don't understand. How did you all end up here?' Kai asked Garmadon from where he was flying next to him.

'The Oni. They appeared to have stumbled across some strange power source and used it against us so they can plunge our world into eternal darkness.' Garmadon told him, leading him further into the mountains. 'The other dragons can fend for themselves and the dragon lands but the rest of the world will need us.'

'This is bad. There's only one person we know of who can send you all back but we haven't seen her since she brought me back almost three moon cycles ago.' Kai told him with a frown.

'Three moon cycles? It has been almost six winters since you had gone home.' Garmadon told him, confused.

'Right. Time here runs slower than your home world.' Kai explained as they came down for a landing, deep in the mountains.

'I see. This makes the situation more dire.' He says as they touched down. 'I am back and I have an old friend with me.' He spoke as Kai looked up at the dragon made hole in the mountain, no doubt Cole's handy work.

Kai saw green eyes open in the darkness of the cave and his breath caught. He watched as the eyes went up and up and up. He walked out then and Kai found himself looking up at a nearly fully grown Lloyd. His tail flickered back and forth on its own as a wide smile pulled at his lips

"Lloyd..." Kai whispered reverently, watching as the large green dragon walked forward towards him, eyes narrowed.

Garmadon chose not to tell him, waiting for him to find out himself.

'An old friend?...' Lloyd spike and his voice was definitely deeper.

Kai kept grinning like a loon as he watched Lloyd's eyes widened.

'Is it-' He hesitated before leaning down and taking a sniff at Kai.

He jerked his head back as if burned but his slitted pupils were blown wide as he hopped from paw to paw, his tail now wagging rapidly.

'Kai!' Lloyd yelled, tacking him and Kai laughed as he licked at him, stroking his snout as he did.

'Look at you! You've gotten big!' Kai laughed, getting on all fours and nuzzling along his snout, Lloyd rubbing against him as well.

'You haven't grown at all!' Lloyd grinned, hardly able to contain his excitement.

'Hey I take offence to that. I've grown a whole centimetre, thank you very much.' Kai huffed and while Lloyd didn't know what a 'centimetre' is, he'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

'Hey! No-one's allowed to have fun while my leg is busted.' Jay's voice came from the cave.

'Not even if it's Kai?' Lloyd called back, circling his brother happily.

'... You're kidding.' That was Cole.

'He really isn't!' Kai called out.

Seconds later, he was being tackled by four excited dragons.

'Kai!' 'It really is you!' 'You haven't changed at all! 'It's great to see you again!' They all echoed at once.

'A friendly face is exactly what we need right now.' Kai grinned at Sensei Wu's voice before rushing in, Lloyd trotting after him.

'Wu! It's good to see you!' Kai says with a grin, nuzzling the elder dragon who was looking over Jay in greeting.

Said blue dragon was laying down- most likely by Wu's orders- with his head craned up to look at him.

'Well! Look who we have here!' Jay says, flashing his teeth.

A low growl caught his attention and he looked over into a secluded corner to see a dragon he's never seen before.

'Who's that?' Kai asked Wu curiously.

'My adopted son.' Wu explained and wasn't this news. 'He had went off on his own a few years before we met you to find his own destiny. We've just recently reconnected.'

Of course it's Morro. But this Morro could be different. He'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

'Nice to meet you. I'm Kai.' Kai says as he walked over, craning his head up for a greeting nuzzle but Morro only looked at him with poison green eyes, much darker and murkier than Lloyd's glowing green.

'He's... Not very talkative.' Jay says sheepishly and Kai frowned before turning back to him.

'Speaking of...' Kai says then shifted back to his normal look. 'My friends should be bringing our Sensei to help you out Jay.' He says, checking his comms.

'Nice.' Jay says, laying down again.

'Which in turn reminds me.' Garmadon says as he walked in, the other dragons before him. 'Earlier, you called your Sensei 'Wu', the very same name you've given my brother. Why is this?' He asked curiously and Kai scratched the back of his head.

'Well... You see, the thing is... My friends, Sensei and I... We're actually this world's version of you guys...' Kai says with difficulty, hoping they take it well.

'Our theories are true then Wu.' Zane says as he walked over, sitting down close to Jay, tempted to lick his opened wound.

'You two knew?' Kai asked, surprised.

'We suspected. You and Blaze shared quite a lot in common. We had come to the conclusion that you and he must be the same- but from different worlds.' Wu explained.

Before Kai could ask any more questions, he got a hit on his comms.

"Kai, were inbound. Where should we go?" Lloyd asked and Kai held a finger up to the dragons as he turned away.

"Head over Ignacia into the mountains. Go around needle peak and you should see the cave they have set up." Kai instructed.

"Got it. ETA 3 minutes." Lloyd told him and Kai nodded to himself.

"See you soon." He says then turned back to the group of dragons.

'My friends are on their way. They should be here in a few moments.' He told them. 'By the way, what did you do to hurt yourself so badly?' Kai asked Jay who gave a sheepish huff.

'Well, you see, there was this bird and a mountain...'

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"This is it. Drop anchor." Zane instructed and they did so, all of them sliding down said chain and landing on the ground just outside the cave.

"You're here. Good." Kai says as he stood by the front, waving them over. "So- uh. Just a fair warning, these guys are actually us but from another dimension." He says and they all looked at him alarmed.

"What?" Wu blinked and Kai grinned sheepishly.

"I know this sounds weird but you'll see. Come in." He urged them and they all followed, looking at each other curiously.

Kai ignited his fire on his hand, using himself as a human torch and the others startled, seeing the cave full of dragons.

'Guys. This is Nya, Jay, Cole, Zane, Sensei Wu and Lloyd.' Kai introduced and the dragons looked them over, intrigued.

"Guys, this is Nya, Jay, Cole, Zane, Sensei Wu, Lloyd, Garmadon and Morro." He told the ninja who all gasped at the last two names.

"If they're Garmadon and Morro, doesn't that mean-"

"It means nothing whatsoever." Kai says, cutting Zane off. "Garmadon is a father to me and one the nicest dragons you'll ever meet. Morro I just met for the first time today but things are different there. They're just as much as my family as you guys are." He says, taking a defensive stand before them.

"We didn't mean to offend Kai. We respect your feelings." Zane says as an apology and Kai nods.

"They may be us but they're also very different." He told them.

"Well said. But perhaps it is time we treat that wound. The longer it is left opened, the more likely it is to gain an infection. And we aren't sure how their bodies will react to our pathogens." Sensei Wu says, approaching Dragon Jay who looked cautious.

'Don't worry. He's just going to patch you up.' Kai reassured Jay, stroking his uninjured leg as Dragon Lloyd lingered close.

"How about everyone else get friendly with themselves, hm?" Kai suggested and the ninja all looked at each other before shrugging, each going towards their respective dragon selves.

'So you're me huh.' Blaze says, walking over to Kai. 'I should have known. Only I can be so awesome.' He says and Kai grinned.

'He's supposed to be me?' Kai glanced across at Dragon Lloyd who was looking over Ninja Lloyd warily.

'Yeah. I guess the only difference aside from the obvious is that his Garmadon, his father hadn't been around to raise him and when he finally was, he had to sacrifice himself to save everyone.' Kai says, noticing the looks he was throwing Garmadragon when he thinks no one was looking.

'Is that so?' Garmadon says, walking over to the human version of his son.

'Yeah. It's a long story but our Garmadon really loved him and would have stayed if he could have.' Kai told him as Garmadon lowered his head to sniff at him, well aware of the eyes on them.

'I see.' Garmadon murmured quietly, tilting up Lloyd's chin with a claw like he had done before with Kai.

He then gave a low croon before nuzzling Lloyd, taking some of the tension out of the room.

"Kai. I need you to translate as I work." Sensei Wu says once he was ready to patch dragon Jay up.

"Yes Sensei." He says, walking over before sitting next to him, explaining to Dragon Wu everything Sensei Wu was about to do and why for when he didn't understand the purpose.

Only Kai calling Dragon Jay a hatchling made him keep quiet as Wu stitched the large gash closed.

"Now that Jay's all patched up-"

"This is gonna get confusing really quick, I can tell." Nya says, cutting him off.

"But you know which Jay I mean right now." Kai pointed out before crossing his arms. "We need to get in contact with Vortica somehow." He told them.

"That is an unlikely feat." Zane spoke up with a frown. "She is able to travel dimensions. Dimensions whose time runs differently from ours. The chances of us being able to get to her are critically low." He told him.

"Well, I wouldn't say that low." Nya says with a smirk ans they all looked to her, confused. "What? You think I wouldn't look further into the crazy chick that sent my brother to another dimension? She has family in Ninjago. A father. Mother unknown. If we could get her father to send word that we need her, then we should be able to get these guys home. Only problem is, he lives on rhe very southern tip of Ninjago, thousands of miles away from here. It'll be a long trip to get there, even with the Bounty." She told them.

"Long, but necessary." Sensei Wu spoke up, walking over. "Nya, you Zane and Cole head there immediately. The rest of is will stay and look after the dragons." He told them.

"Aww but dragon me is so cool..." Cole whined as Jay grinned.

"Considering that half of the team won't be with you, your strength may be needed if you receive unpleasant company." Sensei Wu pointed out.

"Yes Sensei." Cole sighed, disappointed.

"We'll be back before you know it." Zane says, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"But before you guys go for however long, it might be a good idea for us to grab some toiletries and food." Jay says, running out of the cave.

"And some tea supplies as well." Wu agreed, leaving with the other ninja.

'So what was that all about?' Dragon Lloyd asked and Kai glanced behind to see him laying down, watching him curiously.

'We have a lead to getting in contact with the one who sent me to your world. It may take a while to get there and back though and we're still not sure if we will reach her.' Kai told them all, reaching his hand up and smiling once Lloyd rested his snout in his hand.

'But it's a start.' Wu says and Kai nods.

He turned to them all, feeling as if it was just yesterday he had been in the wilderness of another dimension with them.

'I've missed you all.' He says softly, heart filled with emotion.

'We missed you too Kai.' Nya says as they walked over to him.

'Fishing got pretty lame without you there to compete with.' Jay says as he nuzzled him.

'I didn't have any real competition in flying races anymore. It was actually fun to lose.' Blaze admitted and Kai grinned.

'I missed having a tiny brother to ride on my back.' Cole huffed and Kai laughed as he hoisted him up on his back then.

'I missed the conversations... And the experiments.' Zane says, walking over to Cole who pranced around in circles with Kai on his back.

'I missed the team up against these guys.' Nya says, using her tail to pick him up off Cole's back and setting him down again before he got dizzy.

'I missed having you as apart of our family.' Wu says and Kai looked to him as he watched them.

'I missed having you as a brother.' Kai looked to Lloyd and felt his heart swell, nuzzling him the moment he lowered his head close enough.

'I missed having you as my brother too...' Kai says softly, stroking along his snout as well.

'And I...' Kai turned around to look at Garmadon who had ninja Lloyd seated against his massive paw, keeping him close. 'Missed my son.' He says and the tears did fall then.

He ran over, shifting mid run before he hopped up on his snout, hugging it tight.

'I missed you too... Father...' Kai says softly, looking up at large glowing red eyes before grinning. 'Hi.' He says and Garmadon's deep chuckles rumbled.

'You're lucky. I can't climb dad anymore.' Lloyd says wistfully, walking over and nuzzling his father.

'Then I'll climb him for us both.' Kai declared before climbing further up his snout, using his wings as balance.

He sat atop his head proudly, between his horns and they cheered, making Kai grin.

'You know what the best part about being this small is?' Kai asked, looking at Lloyd who was roughly half his father's size.

'What?' Lloyd asked, tilting his head curiously.

Kai grinned then took flight, gliding across and landing on his head.

'I can climb you too.' Kai says, patting his head and Lloyd laughed.

'I guess you can!' He says gleefully.

Kai laughed but then Ninja Lloyd caught his attention. Kai frowned before flying down to where he was, seated against Garmadon's paws still.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Kai asked quietly, walking over on all fours.

"What? Me? Oh, um- nothing. Nothing at all." Lloyd says, snapping out of it, putting a grin on his face.

"I'd you think I believe you, you have another thing coming." Kai says, sitting on his haunches, raising a brow as his tail coiled around his hind and front legs.

Lloyd sighed, looking aside.

"It's just-"

"Hey Kai! Lloyd! I brought your stuff!" Ninja Jay yelled as he walked in with their respective duffel bags in their colour with their symbols on it.

"Bad timing Jay." Kai sighed then looked to Lloyd. "Later then." He says and Lloyd nodded.

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'Please tell me there's something we can eat in this world...' Dragon Cole spoke up and Kai froze, having never thought of that.

"That's a tricky question, You guys aren't technically from our world so we aren't sure exactly what you would be able to eat..." Kai says with a frown.

"That's not as true as you'd think." Sensei Wu says as he sipped his tea. "You inherited your dragon traits from their world and while you won't eat certain things now, there are several more that you do. We can use what you do and don't eat as a guideline." He says and Kai hadn't really thought of that.

Yes there were things he no longer ate- like chicken. It smelled... Like something he shouldn't eat for some reason. But he did take a liking to mud newt of all things and even Wallipers. (Only Sensei Wu and Nya knew about the Walliper for good reasons).

"They're omnivores but they lean more towards carnivores. They usually hunt. I mean, there's enough Wallipers around they can eat for now but it depends on how long they'll be here." Kai shrugged.

"They will have to do for now." Sensei Wu nodded.

"Wa-wallipers?" Jay whispered and Kai scratched his head sheepishly.

"Sorry Jay. They need to eat." He shrugged as he got up.

'Chow time.' He says and Cole perked up, getting to his feet. 'Jay, how's the leg?' He asked, watching him slowly stand.

'Actually, pretty good.' He says, testing it.

'Do not push yourself. You'll stay here with me. Brother, you watch the younglings.' Garmadon says and the dragon ninja huffed.

'We're not younglings! I'm almost a hundred winters old.' Blaze says and Kai rose a brow.

If he was that old and looked that young... How old was Garmadon?

'You all act like it.' Wu says as he got up, walking towards the front of the large cave, pausing for a moment. 'Would you care to join us, son?' He asked, looking over at Morro.

'I'll pass.' Morro gruffed and Kai arched a brow.

'So you're in a completely different dimension from your home and you're telling me you're not even slightly curious about what it looks like?' Kai asked him and Morro glared before getting up.

'Fine. But not because you convinced me.' He huffed and Kai rolled his eyes.

Riiiight.

"Ooh! Can I tag along?!" Ninja Jay asked excitedly.

"Sorry Jay, these guys go saddle-less. You wouldn't be able to hang on." Kai says, climbing up Lloyd's side and onto his back. "Let's go." He says to the dragons and they all flew out, Kai using the claws on his toes to keep steady on Lloyd's back as he flew.

'So! What are we looking for exactly?' Nya asked, flying next to Lloyd.

'A really fury animal with big, curled horns. It's surprisingly good. But I was thinking about having us explore below the mountains as well. The only problem is that the jungle below has a lot of monsters but you guys are all bigger than them.' Kai told them, sharp, slitted eyes on the mountain range. 'Its more likely to have more variety to choose from however.' He says and they all looked towards each other.

'Can we uncle?' Lloyd asked with large eyes.

'It would be unwise to take risks.' Wu says to them and they all awed. 'But... If we are larger then there shouldn't be a risk.' He says and they cheered.

'Bank right and descend Lloyd, you'll be able to see it past the cloud cover.' Kai instructed and Lloyd nodded as he does so.

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'Get some rest Jay.' Garmadon spoke low and Jay only grunted, already half asleep now that the hype of leaving is gone.

He then looked back to the- what was the word Kai used?- human Wu, Jay and Lloyd who were seated around a fire Kai left them. Jay was talking to Wu about them it appears. He couldn't say for sure. He understood enough words to properly assume from his time spent with Kai. His concern wasn't directed towards them however. It was this world's version of his son. He was a child who wore many masks but he knew as well as Garmadon did that he could see through those masks, through the lies he's told himself.

'Lloyd.' Garmadon spoke and Lloyd stiffened. 'I know you can understand me. All I require is for you to listen.' He continued, even as Lloyd stiffened even more.

'I may not know what has happened between you and your father here but I know that if he was like me in any way, he loved you deeply. Even on his darkest days that love lived on. He may be gone here but his love lives on inside of you. You must never forget that.' Garmadon continued and Lloyd clenched his fists as he kept his head down. 'He wouldn't want you to do this Lloyd. To deny your nature and to hurt yourself this way. Your friends love you and they would never-'

'You don't know anything!' Lloyd snarled, startling his uncle and Jay.

He cleared his throat with a similar sound.

"Sorry. Had to clear my throat." He says as an explanation then went back to staring at the fire.

"Sounds like you may be coming down with something." Jay says with a frown and Lloyd waved it off.

"I'm fine, don't worry." He says and Jay shrugged before pulling out his phone and fiddling with it.

No signal didn't mean no games. Plus, he was already a portable charger.

Sensei Wu gave him a lingering look before returning his gaze to the fire as well. Garmadon watched Lloyd pointedly stare directly ahead, his body language is of one who didn't want to talk. He will get through to him some how.

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Kai looked around from the top branch of a tree in the jungle at the base of the mountain range. So far, none of the monsters here even approached them. In fact, they kept a wide berth. They had a chance to get a whiff of them before they left and decided they weren't worth eating. They were just here a few minutes however so they weren't expecting to find something already. There was a river near by and Kai spotted Morro there, watching the fish swim by with his tail flicking. They were smaller cousins of fangfish but slightly larger than the flat fish he used to eat in their world.

He watched him pounce at the completely wrong time. Kai almost choked on a laugh once the angry fish smacked the slender black and green dragon across his snout. He should really help. He waited first through. Once he spotted a fish too distracted by the dejected dragon, he swooped in. He sunk his claws into it, holding in tight so it couldn't escape before using his wings to pull it and himself out of the deep waters.

'You jumped too soon but here you go. I know for sure this good.' He says, offering the struggling fish to the glaring dragon.

'I don't need your pity.' He growled at Kai, turning away.

'It's not pity Morro.' Kai says with a roll of his eyes, flying around to face the dragon. 'I don't know what happened to you or what you've gone through. I do know however, that you're family. And family look out for each other.' He says determinedly.

Morro looked at him suspiciously.

'You don't even know me.' He growled.

'Then let's change that, hm?' Kai says with a grin, offering the the fish once more.

Morro looked at him once more with wariness before he leaned forward hesitantly and took it. Kai let it go, watching him.

'Go on!' He grinned and Morro hesitated again before throwing it back in his mouth, chewing twice before swallowing.

His pupils blew wide as he wagged his tail, liking the taste.

'Good, right?' Kai grinned, nuzzling him.

'Yes...' Morro says slowly before nuzzling him back after a moment of hesitation. 'Could you...' He says then trailed off, uncomfortable with asking for help but he was hungry.

He supposed this was what he got for ignoring his adoptive father's attempts of feeding him when he spent so long on his own surviving off the few plants the Cursed Plains had to offer.

'I'll show you how.' Kai says, landing on all fours next to him. 'It's all about timing...'

As Kai coached Morro, all the other dragons watched from the cover of the jungle, crouched low.

'Amazing. He actually got him to talk to him.' Cole spoke quietly to his friends.

'Human me is more awesome than I thought.' Blaze says in awe, keeping his eyes on them.

'What are you talking about? This is my brother. He's impossible to dislike. If anyone could do it, it's him.' Lloyd says proudly.

'Indeed. He is even showing affection. Perhaps he will open up to us one day?' Zane whispers his hopes to Wu whose heart was filled with joy to see his son opening up to someone.

'Perhaps. But on his own time.' He says then turned away to give them privacy. 'Come. Let us find our own meal.' He says, turning away and foraging deeper into the jungle.

'I caught one!' Morro yelled moments later and Wu felt warmth.

Perhaps it was not so bad they ended up here after all.

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Part 2

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(Here's part one! Editing such a long fic is a witch but it's worth it! I actually dreamt the Morro-Kai interaction that happens at the river and decided that I absolutely had to write it in here. Part two coming to you in a sec!)

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whereisvanderwood · 6 years

Text

A Lovely Day

Yona of the Dawn | Akatsuki no Yona

Yandere!Abi x Reader

My Yona of the Dawn x Reader List for more one-shots! Check it out!

Abi wasn’t fond of visiting his King’s quarters, not wanting to withstand the sight of his sickly face and skinny body. It was disgusting. A god shouldn’t have been brought upon such unfair anguish in his dying days.

Ungrateful humans, Abi often thought. They don’t even care about their king.

It was true, with the exception of (Y/N)-- a common girl in the town square whom stood up for the heaven-sent warriors on a weekly scouting mission. It was a rare find to come across a human who hadn’t fallen to greed and hate, and instead see these dragons as equal-standing and as human as anyone else, if not considered above them.

“He’s not a monster! He didn’t choose his eyes to be the way they are!”

Abi did indeed take a liking to her, being the first human to not be so afraid of his presence. All four of them did, including Hiryuu who could only listen to the wonderful tales spoken of her by his warriors. But only the blue dragon was aware of how terrible an idea befriending a human would be, what with the countless consequences that would present themselves; her fellow townsfolk, to name a couple dozen.

“It’s not fair how the kingdom treats you all. You’re as human as we are, after all.”

“Damn right we are. They’re just a bunch of idiots and scaredy-cats,” Shuten scorned at the thought of them. “Oh, not you though, (Y/N). You’re fine.”

Abi watched the usually loud and grumpy dragon’s demeanour change at mention of her name, his heart strings tugged in an unpleasant way. “You should’ve expected it, Green Dragon. People aren’t as perfect as you stupidly think them to be.”

“Think you’ll still be funny if I put a spear through you?”

“I’ll paralyze you first.”

“Then you’ll faint like you always do, then I’ll kill you!”

Their bickering halted as an ornery call of (Y/N)’s name echoed to the group’s ears. Looking over the tall wall of the castle, they saw a man pacing back and forth the fields, his eyes scanning the land.

“Oh, shoot. I have to go, you guys,” she grumbled.

“(Y/N), do you get in trouble for being with us?” the white dragon queried.

“They’re just grumpy old people, Guen. They don’t understand you guys like I do,” she smiled. “I don’t care what they say; you’re all my friends.” She hopped off the wall and entered the stairway to the side, Abi joining her.

“Will you come back, again?”

“Of course I will! I love seeing you all.”

“All…?”

She stopped walking, giggling to herself before nudging him in the arm. “You, most of all. You know that.”

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, he kept himself hidden from sight in the shadows as she exited the castle walls. Quickly, she ran back to his side, pecking his cheek before retreating off again. He smiled as he watched her leave, wishing their feelings didn’t have to be so secretive.

Returning to his comrades, the four dragons peered over the wall and spectated the exchange between (Y/N) and the stranger, watching aggressive hand gestures flying about left and right.

“He looks kind of angry…” the yellow dragon pointed out.

“Why couldn’t you get super hearing, Zeno? It’d make you way more useful than you are now.”

“Be quiet. I can lip-read,” Abi mumbled.

“What’re they saying, then?”

“Not telling.”

He watched their mouths intently, trying his best to interpret the conversation for himself. He started to feel an onset pang of guilt as the words he was making out sounded abusive and controlling. His eyes narrowed more in boiling anger, feeling the urge to use his nightmarish power right then and there.

The man suddenly grabbed (Y/N)’s wrist and began to pull her away as she strongly protested. The four had a vague idea what might have been exchanged, but were still shocked to see such violent-looking behaviour toward (Y/N).

“...That can’t be good.”

“That bastard--” Shuten was already on top of the wall ready to jump over to intervene, but Guen had him pinned with his bone-crushing strength, shaking his head.

“What did they say, Abi?” Zeno asked.

“She can’t see us anymore.”

“Well… I guess we had it coming.”

“Can’t we bring her back?”

“Don’t be stupid, Zeno,” Abi snapped. “She’ll get in even more trouble.”

“Dragon warriors...!” A puffed out soldier called out to them as he ran from the other side of the walkway. “It’s… It’s King Hiryuu…”

…

The sky didn’t look blue. It was dull. The sun was too bright and felt too exposing. His world was dark and lonely. His existence was nothing to all who breathed life; he could disappear and no one would bat an eye. Even (Y/N) hadn’t seen him in many months gone by, leaving him to assume he was forgotten by her, too. The one person who made him felt like he was worth something.

“Abi?” Zeno knocked before inviting himself inside. “You should come out and get some fresh air. It might do you good.”

The blue dragon’s eyes were tightly bandaged over, hiding his unorthodox eyes from the avarice of the soil. Man didn’t deserve him, or any of them, he convinced himself.

“Get out.”

“It’s hurting us to see you like this… What would Hiryuu think--”

“Hiryuu is gone, Zeno,” he hissed. “There’s no reason for us to be here anymore. Everyone hates us.”

“That’s not true! We’re here to bring peace and protect the people of Kouka!”

“And what of my peace!?” In a fit of anger he stood from the cold floor, lifted his bandage to reveal his dangerous aggression and stared directly into Zeno’s eyes. “I can’t hide my power like you three can-- I’m stuck parading around these cursed eyes and scaring everyone off like I’m a monster.”

“You’re not a monster! (Y/N) never thought you were!”

At mention of her name, Abi lost his composure. He pushed Zeno with his open palms against his shoulders, causing him to fall backwards into pots against the wall. The yellow dragon was completely stunned at his friend’s erratic behaviour, and froze.

“What would you know? You don’t even have power. You’re weak. You should count yourself lucky to be so useless.” Stepping over Zeno carelessly, he walked out into the sun-setting light for the first time in days, ripping the cloth from his eyes completely like it was a heavy chain.

“W-where are you going?” Zeno yelled out.

“To get her.”

Zeno didn’t dare stop him-- he knew he had absolutely no hope of winning against someone as deadly as the blue dragon. Instead, he subtly retreated behind Abi’s back to look for Guen and Shuten. Maybe they can stop him, he thought as he ran about the castle walls in desperate search.

He looked in every room, peered in every courtyard and asked every member of staff, until he reached the throne room. The good news was he found Shuten.

The bad news was Abi already beat him, and Shuten had his own spear in his chest pinning him to the throne.

“Think you’re still funny with a spear through you?”

With what little life the green dragon had left in his eyes, he spat blood at Abi’s feet and spoke, “Wh...what’re you gonna do…? Kill her?”

“Don’t be stupid,” Abi muttered before digging the spear in deeper until he was finished completely.

Zeno covered his mouth as he felt bile quickly rise in his throat. He watched him slowly turn his head to face him, standing in fear-stricken paralysis. The warrior’s eyes were glowing intensely in a number of different colours in the darkness of the room, at the same time looking so incredibly pained.

“(Y/N) is only mine. Do you understand? Because Green Dragon didn’t.”

The yellow dragon still refused to move as Abi strided past, the hem of his clothing brushing his shoulder being enough to make Zeno vomit everywhere. Abi knew he wouldn’t have to worry about the yellow dragon taking him on.

Abi was so close. He was in arm’s length of being able to feel something again, anything other than pain and a lifeless heart. He craved the purpose he felt when (Y/N) was around; from the times he would observe her from afar, he could tell she breathed so much life into those who had the pleasure to be in her presence.

“The world doesn’t deserve us, (Y/N).”

He couldn’t feel the soft grass tickling beneath his bare feet as he had the town square in his sights. He was completely numb with the exception of an extreme feeling of greed. From a distance he could see people smiling, laughing, and enjoying each other’s company like they bared no hate to him or his dragon brethren. He instantly loathed them for being so fake.

His feet toed the border of the small village before anyone noticed him. Pitch forks were grabbed and torches were lit as they wasted no time in charging him head on. “Begone, monster!” they cried.

Swiftly, Abi stole a sword from a nearby weaponry display and slew all within convenient range. Blood splattered onto bystanders who perhaps weren’t so against the dragon warriors. After what they were witnessing in this exact moment, their minds were probably changed as they fled for their lives.

“Where is (Y/N)?” He asked over and over monotonously, like a robot programmed for devastation.

“Abi!” a feminine voice called out.

He looked back and forth in rapid movements with his neck. It was the voice he’d waited to hear for so long. He longed to see her. He felt like he was going to die.

Abi’s eyes at lasted rested on her sparkling golden orbs. However, a different man stood by her side. He was yelling at her to go back inside a small hut as she tried pushing past him numerous times. Something glinted in his eye before he noticed they were both wearing rings; a symbol of eternally devoted true love.

He didn’t like her belonging to another man.

Taking a reckless gamble, he spear-threw his sword through the air, going through several other victims before at last striking the man in his stomach. Blood sprayed from his wound, as well as everyone else’s, creating surreal sprinklers that children often danced around in on lovely days.

And today was a lovely day indeed.

“(Y/N)...” he called out as he staggered toward her, looking like someone of the dead. “They don’t deserve us. No-one deserves us.”

“Abi… What’s happened to you?”

“I missed you.”

“...I missed you, too.”

At last they touched, their hands interlocking with their fingers. His eyes gazed at the empty space between them, though so small and easily fillable with intimacy.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t come back… No-one would let me go, anymore. My father arranged a marriage for me--”

“Where is he?”

“...You killed him already. It’s alright.”

At last, Abi cracked a smile of content. “That means you won’t leave me again, right?”

“Yes.”

“You’ll be mine alone, right?”

“Yes. Forever.”

“Then that’s all I need.”

My Yona of the Dawn x Reader List for more one-shots! Check it out!

#abi #yona #yona of the dawn #akatsuki no yona #yona x reader #blue dragon #x reader #yona fanfic #anime #hiryuu #king hiryuu #guen #shuten #dragon warriors

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thespace-dragon · 7 years

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CHAPTER 2 UPDATE

hahah trust me i didn’t forget about this gem~ neither did ani ;)

Summary: After the Conclave blew up in everyone's face, the whole world went to shit. Lance didn't know what to make of it, but there was no way he would join the Inquisition to become their tool. Sure, he could close the rifts now, by some miracle - accident in his humble opinion - and he was doing his best to close them on his own. Trouble was, they were getting worse as time went on. After being tossed by a shade, he was seriously reconsidering doing this by himself. Needless to say, he got lucky that a cute Seeker came to his rescue after getting caught in a dragon's nest; the only problem was that cute Seeker was trying his damnedest to recruit him into the Inquisition.

Word Count: 5477

Chapters: [-1-] [-2-]

Ao3

When Lance came to, his ribs felt like they were on fire, searing with pain. Maker, this was the worst he has ever felt next to receiving the mark.

He groaned and blinked his eyes open. The stone above him glowed and flickered with the light of a fire that he was laid down next to. Everything felt heavy, every inch of him was begging for him to visit the Fade and forget about what had happened a few hours before.

“So, you’re alive after all.”

Lance winced and turned his head slowly. The knight from before sat on the other side of the fire, eyes boring into him with a fire of his own.

“I’m assuming thanks to you,” he rasped.

The knight thinned his lips and looked away. Lance took stock of what exactly hurt and what was simply sore from lying on the ground. His ribs were obvious, but when he shifted to sit himself up, he felt the bruises on his back protest, ranging from his shoulders down to his hips.

His chest was bandaged, and his shirt had been slipped off of his shoulders, left to pool around his waist. He sucked in a breath and forced himself to an upright position. He leaned on his right arm and panted, the other lying in his lap. A quick look told him that the Mark had burned off the palm of his glove, yet another repair he was going to have to do when he returned to his hut.

The man that had saved his life watched him warily. “You’ve been the on closing the rifts.”

It was a simple statement and Lance looked up at him, careful to keep his face neutral. “I’m sure there are more mages than just me capable of such a feat.”

Lance returned his attention to himself. His body was battered, but whole none the less. His bag laid at his side and reached to look through it. Elfroot and the one stalk of royal elfroot he managed to get were slightly crushed, but still usable. He ripped a leaf off the smaller plant and brought it to his mouth, chewing it into a paste. Lance continued to dig through his pack till he found one of his last lyrium potions and a roll of bandages. The lack of lyirum would mean another trip to the caves on the opposite side of the Hinterlands, but first, he had to get himself walking.

Spitting the elfroot paste onto his palm and adding a touch of lyirum as he wrapped the Mark in bandages made his hand feel less like it had the center of the world being ripped apart in it. A soft sigh escaped him and his shoulder slumped.

The knight had remained silent, watching Lance treat himself with a far deeper knowledge of healing than he was ever going to grasp. He knew that Lance was bluffing.

“You would be wrong to assume that there are more like you.”

Lance raised a brow before dumping the rest of the lyrium potion down his throat. The effect was immediate; soothing cold and energy returned to him, relieving the heaviness he had felt when he first woke up.

“It’s of little concern to you what I do in my free time, Knight.”

“It’s Keith.”

Lance chose to ignore him and pulled on his magic, whispering lowly and pressing both hands to his side. It took a few moments, but soon enough he could feel his muscles and skin knitting themselves back together. It was all he could afford to do if he wanted to be safe.

“Thanks for the save, Keith. Would have been a dragon snack if you hadn’t come along.”

“If you would have listened to the postings of the Inquisition and the locals, you wouldn’t have been in that situation in the first place.” Keith sounded exasperated.

“If you haven’t noticed already, I’m not exactly one of the locals,” Lance bit out.

Keith took stock of what Lance was dressed in, they were essentially rags, nothing like the townspeople or the apostates wandering the woods. The mage was thin but well built. He wasn't missing meals like the refugees were. A defined chest, strong arms – Keith snapped his gaze up to the mage's face. His ears were burning and he was thankful his hair covered them.

The mage was smirking; Keith had been staring for too long.

“Alright, so you’re not from the refugee camp,” Keith huffed. “So where are you from?”

“Here and there.” The mage shrugged.

Keith pursed his lips. “What’s your name, mage?”

“Ah, see,” he groaned as he pulled himself to his feet. He was stiff but everything was still working. “About that, there’s really no need to know who I am, I’m just a mage who lives in the woods.”

The mage pulled his shirt back up, covering his shoulders, but leaving his chest bare. How did he live like that? It was nearly winter.

“A mage that can heal himself and close the rifts. Why haven’t you come to the nearby town to help?”

Lance shrugged. There were lots of reasons, the biggest being people didn’t trust mages if they didn’t belong to the circle. They were jumpy around him, judging him for something he couldn’t help being. At least he was comfortable with himself, but there was no need to go out of his way to make people trust him either.

"Have no business with the town. I don't bother them; they don't bother me." He stooped to grab his bag and looped it over his shoulder. His staff was leaning against the wall nearest him, waiting for him to take it. He wondered if it zapped the knight when he touched it, the thing had a tendency to do that since he enchanted it with a lightning rune.

Keith stood and stepped around the fire. “A healer of your capabilities would make the difference between life and death for half of the refugees there, mage.”

Lance blinked, expressionless. “Right, the refugees. I’m sure one of the circle mages you have lying around can do something, even those chantry enchanters have some ability. You don’t really need my help.”

He turned and began to walk out of the tunnel, limping slightly and using his staff to help him. Lance heard the knight’s armor clink and rattle as he jogged to catch back up with him.

“I don’t think you understand. These people – they have families, and their loved ones are dying because the mages and enchanters we have don’t have the power to heal everything that’s wrong.”

“Shame.”

“But you do! I just watched you heal your ribs like it was nothing!”

Lance stopped and held up a hand before Keith could keep going. "First," he held up one finger, "that did not take 'nothing'. It cost me one of my last lyrium potions to be able to heal the cuts on my side and the burn on my hand.” A second finger went up. “Secondly, the refugees are fine. They just need to stay out of the woods and away from the abandoned fortress to keep from being caught in the crossfire. Neither side is very picky about who they kill, and if they can’t protect themselves, they have no business being in the woods.”

He started to walk away again, Keith’s face a mixture of anger and surprise that Lance knew any of that. He may hail from the Wildes originally, but the Hinterlands have been his home for the past five years. He knew what was going on, but the idle town gossip was something he wasn’t interested in.

“How do you know that they’re trying to leave the town?” The knight was back.

Lance rolled his eyes. "Oh, it's simple really. The Inquisition is in town and it sparked the new war between the mages and Templars. They were at an agreement before your lot strutted in like you owned the place."

Their boots scuffed the rocks beneath their feet, and Lance was pointedly ignoring the knight. Now that they were out in the sunlight, the knight was far more attractive than he cared to admit. So his hair framed his face and eyes nicely for someone who hasn’t cut it in months? Big deal. And his eyes were a surprisingly dark shade of gray-blue, almost like wet shale. Focus Lance.

“But you can help them! The Inquisition has lyrium stores if you really need-”

“Keith, I think you forget that you’re talking to a mage that has literally been avoiding the people. The apostates that live in these woods know I exist, but they have never seen me. Same with the Templars.”

“That doesn’t explain why you won’t help,” Keith snapped.

Lance stopped for the second time and sighed. Loudly. He leaned on his staff and propped a hand on his hip. “Maybe it’s because I don’t like people? Hello, just said that.”

“And what have the people done to you? Are you a hermit by choice or have you been wronged?”

“Oh Maker, you’re a dense one.”

Keith all but growled at him.

“Look, you’re nice, but you’re with the Inquisition. It’s a pretty large group. The town is full of people, most of whom are scared to even go near a mage, even if they’re from a circle. Sooo, why don’t you do yourself a favor and let me go my own way? Yeah?” Lance gave him a chipper smile and pat on the cheek before turning and making his way into the woods.

The knight paused and gaped after him. He shook himself and caught up to him for a third time, grabbing his arm and pulling him to a stop.

“Why are you so against helping?”

Lance plucked the man’s hand off of his arm. “It’s nothing personal, believe me. But I have my reasons, and they will remain my reasons.”

He turned and found the knight standing in his path.

“What is it now? Did you come up with some way to force me to join your cult?”

Keith looked taken aback. “What – cult? No, the Inquisition is not a cult. We want the world to survive and live in peace. We have no way of doing this without someone who can close the rifts. You can!”

Lance rolled his eyes. Maker have mercy on him. “You have no proof.”

Keith pointed at his hand. “That’s enough proof! You’re Marked!”

Lance involuntarily clenched his fist, nails biting into the bandage.

“Just because I have a magic mark on my hand does not entail that I can close the rifts. It reacts to them and no more. Now step aside.”

Keith frowned hand gripping his sword. He was nervous, Lance could tell he was inexperienced with dealing with mages. The ones from the circles were tame compared to him. He was wild, free, not bound to anything. He wouldn’t hesitate if pushed.

Keith stood firm. “Meet with the leaders and decide from there.”

“What part don’t you get? Why would the Inquisition, a sect of the Chantry, want anything to do with an apostate from the woods? Did the dragon knock your head and not mine?”

The knight didn’t even flinch. His eyes were steady, and his hand never wavered from his sword. It was a completely different person standing in front of him compared to a few moments ago. What was he so sure about-

“You owe me a favor.”

Oh. So that was how this was going to go? Lance took a deep breath, his hand gripping his staff tightly. Electricity sparked along its length, making the knight jump slightly, but Lance didn’t move.

“I never asked you to come save my life, and I never asked you to bandage my wounds.”

“You talk in your sleep. You mentioned the rifts and owing me one now.”

“Maker’s shit I do.”

They stared each other down. Lance seriously just wanted to collapse face first into his bed at his cabin, but this man was trying his patience. Why couldn’t he just let Lance leave?

Daring to use the little magic he had, frost covered his hand just before he tossed the spell at Keith’s feet. It froze his feet to the ground and wouldn’t melt for a few hours.

“The hell are you doing!?”

Keith yanked at his feet but, they were securely stuck to the ground.

“Sorry, little Knight, but this mage has somewhere to bed and you were in the way. I’ll see you around if I decide to visit the town. Farewell!” Lance sang as he passed the knight, well out of his reach.

Keith growled and tried to lunge for him but Lance was already gone, limping into the woods.

Lance felt sorry for the man, he truly did, but knight had proven to be more stubborn than Lance originally thought. He didn’t have the time to argue the finer points of saving another’s life. His bed was calling, and then he needed a trip to the caves after a day’s rest. The lyrium he needed wasn’t going to collect itself.

By the time Lance rose the next day, the sun was already high in the sky and his cabin was warmed nicely. His body protested some as he sat up and stretched. Bruises marred his leg and upper arms. His whole back was a giant knot from sleeping in a strange position, but it just meant that he finally had a decent night’s rest compared to the rest of his days.

He slipped out of bed and pulled on a pair of pants, forgoing his normal outfit for the sake that it needed repairs. The dragonling from yesterday shredded the top and there was no way he was going to be seen in that.

Lance decided that was all he was going to do today: fix his clothing and that was it. No going after rifts, no stumbling into dragon’s nests, and definitely not scouring his way through caves for what little lyrium he knew he was going to find.

Rooting through the trunk at the foot of his bed, he pulled out needle and string along with a stiff piece of leather for his glove. The Mark was calm today, and he was thankful that he lived nowhere near the dragon’s nest to be caught near the new rift. It was going to be a long time before he would be able to get to that one.

The day was beautiful and warm. The skies were clear and he could hear no sound of the fighting around him. Peace and quiet, just the way he liked it. Lance picked up his shirt and glove from the pile on the ground and made his way outside. Lounging in the sun would do him good.

“I wondered if this was your place or not.”

Of course the knight would find him.

Lance slouched and glared at the knight was leaning against a tree just outside of his home.

“Maker’s breath…why are you here?”

Keith fixed his glove in place, not meeting his stare. “You owe me a favor remember?”

“And your plan is to ambush me outside my own home.”

He glanced up at Lance. His pale skin gave his blush away as he quickly looked away before answering, “If that’s what it takes for the world to find peace again.”

Lance rolled his eyes and walked away from the knight and towards a small clearing where he could get his sewing done. “Right. Good luck with that.”

“Don’t you have any morals?” Keith asked, following him.

“Plenty, but I would bore you with them, so why don’t you head back to your cult.”

Keith sighed heavily. “It’s not a cult.”

“Could have fooled the Maker on that one.” Lance threaded his needle and eyed his shirt. At this rate, he might as well buy a new one.

Maybe Keith would see him in town eventually.

Not…that he was looking forward to that. Of course not. Lance wasn’t interested in him, Keith was with the Inquisition and that was something he wouldn’t see past.

Getting over himself, Lance set to work, legs crossed and shirt draped over his lap.

He knew Keith was studying him and it made him secretly glad he decided to go without a shirt. Secretly being the keyword. What was with him and suddenly caring if this Inquisition knight thought he was attractive or not? Maker, Lance, maybe he did have to go to the town for a few drinks at the tavern.

The forest was silent around them, only the wind rustling the leaves. Animals never wandered in these forests anymore, not since the apostates moved in and the Templars were set on dragging them out.

“Why are you so against helping?” Keith asked after the silence broached the level of being uncomfortable.

“Because it wasn’t any of my business.” It took his mother away and gave him the Mark.

“But you are a mage, this should be something you are concerned about, yes?”

Lance lowered his shirt and fixed Keith with a look. “And you are a knight. Why does it matter to you?”

Keith frowned. “Seeker, I’m a seeker-”

“What difference does it make?” Lance muttered.

“-and it matters because I want Thedas to be at piece. We cannot achieve that with a hole in the sky.”

Lance held up the thread and needle. “Stitch it back together. No more hole in the sky.”

“We need someone who is capable of sewing for that to happen.”

“What a shame that you don’t know anyone who can,” Lance sighed, turning back to his shirt.

Keith fumed, before stomping over to stand over Lance. "We would have someone, but he refuses to leave his hut in the woods!"

“Oh? Really? I would love to meet him; he sounds like a really down to earth guy. Maybe we-”

“I am referencing you, you damned idiot!” Keith growled.

Lance looked up and met his heated gaze. Keith looked ready to bite his head off.

He sighed and set his shirt down again. “Look, I don’t know why you’re here, or how you found this place. But my position is clear. I am not joining you.”

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t want to? I am a free mage, Keith, I plan to keep it that way.” He was tired of this already. The Inquisition was everywhere, people he had to constantly look out for and avoid. If they saw him closing the rifts, he would be taken against his will.

Which made it very strange that Keith hadn’t done exactly that.

“So you are willing to let the world fall victim to the Fade?” Keith crossed his arms.

“No, I never said that.”

“Then why is it so hard to join a group of people that are trying to rid the world of the evil that has befallen it?”

Lance stood and took a deep breath, he would not let his frustration rule him. He turned to Keith and leaned in slightly. “Because the world will always have evil and it is a fool’s folly to think that the world will ever be a peace, Seeker,” he said lowly.

Keith blinked and took a step back. Lance was sure that all of the troubles he had been through in the past five years showed themselves in his eyes. When he traveled through the towns, people always commented on how cold his stare was. But this? This was the full effect.

He knew he looked like he was wishing for death, that his eyes were always searching for something worse to appear before him. His eyes spoke of hardships and days where Lance contemplated killing himself, to escape to the Fade and be done with closing the rifts by himself. Yet here he stood, for better or for worse, still breathing and closing the rifts that he found on his travels.

Lance straightened, face grim. “The world doesn’t magically become a better place, Seeker. Better to realize that now than to keep praying for the Maker to save us all.”

He gathered his things and made his way back to his cabin. So much for enjoying the weather.

The next morning Lance was decidedly feeling much better. His body wasn't nearly as sore, and with light stretching, he was feeling up to a trip to the caves for lyrium.

He tugged on the same pants as yesterday, strapped on his boots, and found one of the few tunics he still owned. He slipped it on, grabbed his satchel and staff before walking out the door.

And lo and behold, Keith was there.

The sun was barely over the horizon, what was he doing here?

“Are you here to try and recruit me again?” he asked as he stalked past Keith and into the forest.

The seeker turned and walked behind him. “More to find out why you are so against this.”

“And I told you that I have my-”

“Reasons. I know,” Keith grumbled.

They walked in silence, Lance pointedly ignoring Keith and leading the way to the caves to the north. They were traveling close to where Redcliffe was situated, and Lance was sure Keith knew exactly where they were.

“Why are you heading to Redcliffe?”

Lance ducked under a tree branch. “Lyrium caves are up here.”

“That would-”

“No, no you don’t!” Lance spun and jabbed a finger into his breastplate. “This is my stash, you and the Inquisition can find your own.”

Keith frowned and pushed Lance’s hand away. “You don’t have claim to caves that hold lyrium, mage.”

“Does the Inquisition decide that too?” Lance scoffed and turned around again.

More silence. Keith’s clinking armor warded off any animals, and occasionally Lance would find a herb that he would need for something and snatch it up. Keith observed the entire time. He never asked what any of the herbs were for, and that puzzled Lance since he made it clear that he wasn’t going to help, so wouldn’t it be the smart thing that Keith would be asking questions and pestering Lance so he could relay it to the healers back at the refugee camps?

The longer Keith stayed silent, the more Lance was inclined to think he was dim.

Hours passed and the closer they got to the caves, the stronger the pull of lyrium Lance could feel. Yet it felt different compared to before, something was off. When they reached one of the shallower caves and instead of being lit with the calming blue of normal lyrium it was glowing a dull red.

This vein of lyrium had been corrupted.

It had grown up the walls, crawling along ever surface.

“Maker’s breath,” Lance breathed.

He could feel the tainted energy, ghosting over everything. How did this happen? The blight…it wasn’t supposed to be here. When the hero of Ferelden defeated the archdemon, the blight faded away and the darkspawn were locked away in the deep roads.

So what was it doing here in the Hinterlands?

“What happened to it?” Keith reached out to touch it.

“No! Don’t touch it!”

Lance smacked his hand and shoved him out of the cave, not letting Keith get a word out. When they were both out, Lance strode to the next cave and inspected it. More red lyrium. Again to another cave, again more of the tainted lyrium.

This was wrong. So wrong. Lance could feel his magic reaching out for it, and he was struggling to keep himself from using his magic anywhere near it. It put him on edge, his nerves shot and he was jumping at every little noise. He had to get away. This place wasn’t safe anymore.

He backed away from the caves, shaking his head, eyes wide. He backed right into Keith and flinched away.

“Are you alright?” Keith held his hands out, a placating gesture that was lost on Lance.

“The lyrium is tainted. With the blight.” Lance pulled at his hair, the energy from the caves still pulling at him. “It’s not supposed to be here. The blight was defeated it. It’s gone. Why is it here?”

Keith took a cautious step forward and Lance flinched out of the way, away from both the seeker and the caves. He had to leave, this wasn’t good. The manic energy that emanated from those caves was a danger. To everyone. How was Keith unaffected?

“Look, it will be fine, let’s head back to Redcliffe," Keith spoke with a low voice, trying to get Lance to calm down.

Lance's eyes danced around, looking for any darkspawn the could appear from the caves. They were deep enough to possibly reach the beginnings of the deep roads, but he wasn't going to be the one who found that out. He took another step back. He stumbled and fell backward, Keith lunging forward to grab his arm.

Lance felt an instant calm wash over him as Keith helped him find his footing again.

“What…what are you doing to me?”

Keith let his hand linger on Lance’s arm before stepping away. “It’s a trick that Seekers use to keep themselves distanced from falling victim to tainted objects. Clearly, that red lyrium was doing more to you than it was doing to me.”

Lance rubbed his arm and looked away. He appreciated the gesture, once again Keith was going out of his way for him, for reasons he couldn’t understand.

“Answer me truthfully,” Lance began, “but why are you seeking me out?”

Keith raised his eyebrows. “You are Marked and you can close the rifts. Why would I not be searching for someone who can help end this madness Thedas has been living in for years now?”

“You don’t even know if I can close the rifts, all you know is that I’m Marked.”

The seeker sighed and gestured for them to head back the way they came. Lance for once didn't argue with him. He wanted to leave, there was no way he was going to risk coming back to these caves.

“You are the only one that has been Marked,” Keith explained. “From what I’ve seen and what I’ve heard.”

Lance hummed but didn't respond. He found it difficult to want to trust the Inquisition. They had Templars amongst them, and they were aligned with the Chantry. The very same people who took his mother away from him all those years ago. It wasn't something he could easily forgive, especially during the war between mages and Templars. If he strayed from his normal path and came across a Templar, it was either kill or be killed, and Lance hated that he had to take someone's life simply to survive.

Keith didn't push Lance to tell him any more than that. As they trekked through the woods, they caught the occasional signs of fighting, but thankfully they encountered no one. The seeker was leading this time. They were heading to Redcliffe village. For what, Lance had no idea, but he had no will to tell Keith otherwise.

Lance studied Keith, trying to pinpoint where the man began and the Inquisition ended. His shield held the insignia, same with his breastplate. He had a long sword attached to his belt and wore a combination of plate and chain mail. He had to be smoldering in his armor, and Lance was slightly warm in his tunic and pants.

They reached Redcliffe without anything happening to them. It put Lance on high alert because there were few days where he didn’t encounter a rift or stumbled his way into a battle between apostates and Templars.

Redcliffe village was teaming with Templars and a few refugees. They eyed Lance, reaching for their weapons. It took Keith’s glare to get them to stand down, but even then, the few they saw at the beginning became many as they walked further into the town.

Keith led Lance to a tavern and sat him down at a table, hailing the wench to bring them ale and plates of food. Lance never let his guard down, even when Keith seemed relaxed in this current setting. There was no hiding Lance’s status as a mage, and the few people that were sitting around them soon left when they saw his staff.

“Don’t worry about the tab, I’ll pay.”

Lance glanced at Keith but nodded. He wasn’t going to turn down a free meal, despite what Keith may demand of him later.

The serving girl brought them their food and ale, and Keith happily dug into his food. Lance hesitated. His nerves were still a mess despite whatever Keith did to him. It made him feel…fuzzy, out of focus. And he needed clarity. An unfocused mind was the end to any mage, and while Lance had his moments, this made him want to sleep for days.

“You can eat.” Keith was eyeing him from across the table, sword leaning against the edge.

“Right…” Lance nibbled at his food. His stomach wouldn’t settle and he had no intention of drinking the ale.

It was an uncomfortable five minutes before Keith finished his food and pushed his plate away. He leaned back and propped one arm up on the back of a chair next to him.

“What exactly happened to you back at the caves?”

Lance met his gaze, his dark gray eyes were focused, curiosity burning within them.

He sighed and toyed with his food more. “The lyrium was tainted. Somehow the blight got to it and now it’s like that.”

“Wasn’t the blight defeated years ago?”

Lance nodded. “When the hero of Ferelden defeated the archdemon and disappeared, that’s when the blight ended. But that doesn’t stop whatever makes darkspawn, well, darkspawn. It’s a disease…and lyrium is a living thing. The blight infects what it can reach, it destroys everything, even the Wardens who use it to combat it.”

Keith frowned and took all of that in. Few knew that the Grey Wardens took in the blight to target the archdemon leading it. Lance was privy because his mother told him stories, how she met the hero of Ferelden and nursed them back to health just before everything took a turn for the worse when Cailin had died in battle. That had been roughly ten years before he was born.

“The name’s Lance, by the way,” Lance added. “I guess since you’ve seen me have a panic attack and saved my life, you should at least know my name now.”

Keith smirked. “So you admit that I saved your life?”

“I never denied it in the first place!”

The seeker threw back his head and laughed – and what a laugh it was. It racked his whole frame, and Lance could feel heat blossoming on his cheeks. He shouldn’t be reacting this way, not to a seeker, not to someone from the Inquisition.

He scowled and sat back, crossing his arms. “I only denied owing you anything for that.”

Keith leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. “I mean nothing by it, Lance.”

The mage suppressed a shiver from the sound of his name falling out of the seeker’s mouth. Maker’s mercy, why was this getting to him? What exactly did Keith do to him?

“But do tell me one thing.”

Lance looked over at him, wary of what he was going to ask.

“Why do you hate the Inquisition?”

He opened his mouth to bark out a response but Keith held up his hand and continued. “And I do not mean because it is bringing people to the valley or sparking the war between Templars and apostates again. There’s more to it than that.”

Lance stiffened and looked away, boring a hole into the wall across the tavern. “Isn’t that asking a bit much?”

Keith shrugged, his chain mail clinking. "I'm curious about your story. I have met many mages, and I can say that all mages have their quirks and their limits. But you… you have… there's something different."

“That’s putting it kindly,” Lance muttered.

He toyed with his food more, not wanting to even think about answering Keith’s question, but the man across from him asked him to earnestly that Lance felt compelled to. He had known Keith for a total of three days, and the man was intriguing. And it had nothing to do with how the firelight played off of his hair, or the way his eyes were dark as the night right now.

Keith waited, and Lance took a deep breath.

“It started when the Divine called for that meeting.”

The seeker immediately stiffened but didn’t speak.

“My mother was the Witch of the Wildes and she was asked to join. It was there I watched my mother and the Divine die.”

#voltron #klance #keith #lance #vld keith #vld lance #vld fic #klance fic #dai au #voltron legendary defender #vld #vld klance #vld klance fic #chapter update #the rift #mogis messes

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how2to18 · 5 years

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THEY SAY literary novelists can’t do genre. This is perhaps most acutely felt with mystery and noir, which has fascinated and occasionally defied postmodern eminences from Pynchon to Auster and beyond. Antony Lamont, antihero of Gilbert Sorrentino’s incredible Mulligan Stew, stands out as the funniest case study, albeit fictional. A fading, minor experimental writer immersed in an awful fusion of the new novel and a noir potboiler (the same sort of novel it seems Paul Giamatti’s character is working on in Sideways — his “Robbe-Grillet mystery”), the pompous Lamont’s tilt is equal parts cynicism and desperation — his radical approach really just a bald-faced cash grab, so smugly assured is he that the dark ambience, gratuitous sex, and abrupt violence of his meandering and largely content-free novel will finally nab him the hit he deserves. This is not, thankfully, the sort of novel that Jonathan Lethem gives us in The Feral Detective. Though you can be forgiven for imagining otherwise if you’re not familiar with his work, Lethem is no stranger to noir, or genre fiction in general — he came from genre, and is, in fact, a genre writer, especially when he promiscuously blends genres together as he’s been doing since his fantastic Philip K. Dick-meets-Raymond Chandler debut, Gun, with Occasional Music. In short, Lethem is a master, the sort of master for whom narratives about genres, as opposed to genres themselves, are the quarry. That he’s reached a high degree of mainstream success within the genre of literary fiction only burnishes his bona fides as a master of form.

The Feral Detective follows Phoebe Siegler, a thirtysomething New Yorker and former Times staffer who has traveled to the West Coast to track down Arabella, the missing daughter of her friend Roslyn. Arabella, a freshman at Reed College, stopped answering Roslyn’s attempts to contact her a few weeks into her first semester, and Phoebe — newly liberated from her job — decides a trip to Portland to pay the girl a wellness call is just what she and Arabella need. Arriving to find her gone and school officials oblivious, Phoebe digs in and discovers a slim trail of several-weeks-old credit card transactions leading down the coast to Los Angeles’s Union Station and finally, cryptically, to a travel plaza purchase in an unfamiliar corner of San Bernardino County, where the lead goes cold. Because she is worried about Arabella, and because she loves her friend — Roslyn is herself a mother figure to Phoebe — and because she is not ready to go back home, Phoebe decides to extend her vacation. The reason she is not ready to face New York — the reason she quit her job — haunts the novel from its first pages:

Blame the election. I’d been working for the Great Gray News organization, in a hard-won, lowly position meant to guarantee me a life spent rising securely through the ranks. This was the way it was supposed to go, before I’d bugged out. I’d done everything right, like a certain first female nominee we’d all relied upon, even my male friends who hated her, as a cap on the barking madness of the world. Now she took walks in the hills around Chappaqua and I’d checked into the Doubletree a mile west of Upland, California.

The Feral Detective is not only a novel of the Trump era, it is a novel largely about it — specifically, how the Trump era has felt for a certain set of us who woke up on November 9, 2016, with a newfound appreciation for the arguments of reality simulation theorists. If noir is at its core fundamentally the cruel stripping away of illusion, there could hardly be a better subject than a liberal coping with the Trump era. So thoroughly and suddenly was the narrative of Hillary Clinton’s inevitable victory evacuated, so traumatic was the puncturing of the optimistic Obama-era bubble, and so bizarre and even nightmarish have been the subsequent years that it’s easy to think of the whole world as having taken a noir-ish turn: worst timeline confirmed, doomsday clock ticking ever closer to midnight. For Phoebe, it is all too much to take:

My room reminded me of a gun moll’s wisecrack, in some old film I’d seen, on entering an apartment: “Early Nothing.” I was left with Facebook, where my friends had responded to the election by reducing themselves to shrill squabbling cartoons. Or I could opt for CNN, where various so-called surrogates enacted their shrill hectoring cartoons without needing to be reduced, since it was their life’s only accomplishment to have been preformatted for this brave new world. Television had elected itself, I figured. It could watch itself too for all I cared. I read my book.

There is, in her quest to find Arabella, more than a little self-interest — it is also a quest to find, if not the fictional world she thought she inhabited, a way to understand the one she never knew she lived in all along.

Her guide in this is Charles Heist, the eponymous feral detective, so called because of his penchant for tracking down lost, troubled, cult-brainwashed, and otherwise disappeared or off-the-grid kids. Working out of a nondescript strip-mall office in Upland, Charles Heist takes Phoebe’s case with a typically non-committal “no-promises” sort of attitude, but also with a decidedly nontypical disinterest in any sort of upfront payment. Other unusual details include the presence in Heist’s office of a wounded possum, which Heist is doggedly though unsentimentally nursing back to health, and a ragged, mute young girl named Melinda, apparently recently and quite literally feral herself. Phoebe is nonplussed but also, she must admit, intrigued — and Charles is a looker in a flinty, sunburnt sort of way:

He resembled one of those pottery leaf-faces you find hanging on the sheds of wannabe-English gardens. His big nose and lips, his deep-cleft chin and philtrum, looked like ceramic or wood. Somehow, despite or because of all of this, I registered him as attractive, with an undertow of disgust. The disgust was perhaps at myself, for noticing.

His services are retained. With nothing to go on except the travel plaza purchase, and a hunch that Arabella — a devoted fan of Leonard Cohen — might have ascended nearby Mount Baldy where the late, great songwriter frequented an isolated Zen retreat, Charles sets out and Phoebe returns to her hotel to brood on the case and the mysterious dashing man onto whose broad shoulders she’s laid her last, best hope.

These introductory chapters are incredible — it truly is a lot of fun to see Phoebe fall so quickly and so hard for Heist. Making Heist the honest and unapologetic object of Phoebe’s post-Obama rebound fantasy is a delicious complication of the femme-fatale tradition, and it’s great to see her unapologetic voraciousness respectfully, even somewhat meekly, received by the terse but game Heist. Lethem wrings plenty of comedy out of the improbable culture-clash romance that rapidly develops between the two, but there is something troubling that develops, too. For a writer who is normally so good with voice and so adept at playing off types while still imbuing his characters with enough specificity and depth to keep them from becoming cartoons, Phoebe begins, as the novel progresses, to feel at times much too broad — a weird gestalt of awkward comedienne, working girl, and other tropes whose presence isn’t entirely exorcised by cheeky self-consciousness:

I’d go home with a California story or two in my back pocket. No, sorry, I didn’t ever set eyes on the ocean or the Hollywood sign, but did I tell you the one about the porta-potty levee? The trailer park blowjob? Oh, what a Manic Pixie Am I! I pictured telling this over late lunch at Elephant & Castle.

Through Phoebe, Lethem means to implicate himself and by extension the whole cohort of urbane, liberal, upwardly mobile folks too assured of victory and too preoccupied with themselves to imagine the failure of their certainties in 2016. But although Phoebe’s preoccupation with what Heist thinks of her, for example, is funny, it began to worry me. On the one hand, it is great that Lethem allows Phoebe to be shallow — as he does — and to seem at times to forget about the search for Arabella while daydreaming about her new gumshoe boytoy — as she does — but is this an unvarnished caricature of complacent white feminism of the sort that both the left and the right now routinely flog for predictable results?

The plot, depending on how well the conceit works for you, congeals, or thickens — it is discovered that Arabella is caught between two warring cultish groups of desert dwellers, the feminist “Rabbits” and the boorish “Bears” and some genuinely funny moments, striking passages, and typically excellent walk-on characters follow. Each band is a primal caricature of the current partisan divide and not much more nuanced than what you’d get from reading Daily Kos or The Daily Caller. It’s mostly burlesque, but there are hints at a deeper reckoning. Phoebe, who spends much of the book in sidekick mode, gets a memorable “flower-pot” moment. The gesture — which Phoebe names after the belated contribution of a corseted heroine in a half-remembered Western she used to watch with her dad, which involved the woman throwing a flower-pot down on the head of a villain from a second-story window — kicks off an extended denouement that pleasurably complicates the existing dynamic between Phoebe and Heist. By the novel’s end, most of my doubts were, if not totally expunged, at least leavened by the complex affection I’d begun to feel for Phoebe.

Heist, a kind of subterranean Trump foil — a paragon of non-toxic masculinity — is the more lovable character, but Phoebe is ultimately more interesting. The feral detective, true to form, spirits Phoebe away from the old assurances and dead narratives to which she reflexively, repeatedly, retreats, even, in the end, the old one about the guy getting the girl, and she realizes ultimately that learning to live in the new world means letting go of the old.

Perhaps the ultimate truth of noir is that no matter where you’re standing, there is always another floor to fall through. If there is a central lesson of The Feral Detective, it might be simply to embrace this fact; as the Cohen-head Arabella might quote: “You want it darker.” Yes, and for a reason. Darkness can be a renewal, death and inversion driving out the old to make space for the new.

Seth Blake is a writer from New Hampshire living in Los Angeles.

The post Always Another Floor to Fall Through appeared first on Los Angeles Review of Books.

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theconservativebrief · 6 years

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Bodies have limits, and dance kicks at them, trying to make the impossible look easy. The sounds of that effort are often masked by music, so it’s easy at times to forget the physicality of the dancers — to miss the thuds, the squeaks of sweaty skin skidding on the floor, the gasping and panting for breath.

Suspiria foregrounds that corporeality, mixing it with elements of the inexplicable, and the result is horrifying, maddening, transfixing, transcendent. It’s the most ambitious and unsettling and confounding and cathartic movie I’ve seen this year, with some of the most disturbing images I’ve ever seen in a movie, at once bone-cracking body horror par excellence, meditation on women’s power and history, tale of ancient occultish matricide, and worthy homage to the decades-old movie that inspired it.

It resists efforts at making “sense,” though there are plenty of keys strewn throughout to unlock its many secrets. But you’ll want to make sense of it anyhow.

Inspired by Dario Argento’s 1977 film by the same name — which, in turn, was inspired by Thomas De Quincey’s opium-fueled 1845 essay Suspiria de Profundis — this incarnation of Suspiria, directed by Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name), feels like new flesh molded around old bones and lit on fire.

Less remake, more regeneration, Guadagnino’s Suspiria retains its predecessor’s setting and setup — a prestigious German dance school run by a shadowy coven — but digs its hooks into elements that Argento’s film floated past. The result is something much scarier, more chilling, more menacing, and absolutely, wholly its own.

The ladies of the company at dinner. Amazon Studios

Guadagnino decided in concert with screenwriter David Kajganich (with whom he worked on 2015’s A Bigger Splash) to set his film in 1977, the same year Argento’s film was released. It begins when Patricia (Chloë Grace Moretz), shaking and disturbed, stumbles into the office of her psychiatrist Dr. Jozef Klemperer (played by “Lutz Ebersdorf,” but actually Tilda Swinton under convincing layers of prosthetics and cosmetics).

Patricia tells Dr. Klemperer that the Markos Dance Academy, where she has been studying, is run by a coven of witches, and leaves behind a satchel of her journals, in which she’s scribbled about the “Three Mothers”: Mater Suspiriorum (Mother of Sighs), Mater Tenebrarum (Mother of Darkness), and Mater Lachrymarum (Mother of Tears). Klemperer is sure Patricia is just delusional.

Then Patricia disappears. And Klemperer, growing suspicious, decides to investigate what’s happening at Markos.

The day following Patricia’s visit, ingenue Susie Bannion (Dakota Johnson) arrives from the Midwest to study at the famed German dance school and live in its dormitories with the other dancers, as in Argento’s original film. She meets Sara (Mia Goth), a wealthy student who was close to Patricia and is devastated by her disappearance.

Excited at first to be among her dancing idols, Susie soon realizes that something not quite right is going on, and the more she digs, the closer she gets to danger.

But while the original film was about Susie (Suzy, in Argento’s version) trying to escape the clutches of the dance mistresses in a ballet school, this is something much different. In this film, the dance company performs contemporary dance. It has moved from Freiburg to Berlin, a city that in 1977 was divided by a wall between the East and the West, as well as between older Germans who wished to forget what had happened only decades earlier during the War and younger Germans who insisted it must be remembered.

Susie’s arrival coincides with the German Autumn, when a series of terror attacks throughout the year culminated in several key events: The Red Army Faction kidnapped and murdered Hanns Martin Schleyer, head of the country’s main business association; three members of the Baader-Meinhof group died by suicide in prison; and a Lufthansa passenger jet was liberated days after being hijacked on the tarmac in Mogadishu. The country was on high alert.

Tilda Swinton in Suspiria. Amazon Studios

This all forms the backdrop of Suspiria, the swirling chaos spotted in the background on radios and TV news broadcasts. In the foreground is Susie’s integration into the academy, headed by the mysterious Madame Blanc (Tilda Swinton again), with whom Susie — who was raised in a Mennonite community in Ohio — has been quietly obsessed for years, watching films of the company’s dances so many times that she knows the parts by heart already.

The school is led by a series of matrons and populated by lithe young dancers, all trained to perform Blanc’s angular, powerful form of dance. And though the young woman is mostly untrained, Madame Blanc spots Susie’s talent instantly.

That becomes important when Olga (Elena Fokina), incensed at Madame Blanc’s suggestion that Patricia didn’t disappear, but left the academy to join the RAF, storms out of the academy. Blanc permits Susie to fill Olga’s spot in an upcoming production and — touching her gently — imbues her with some kind of preternatural power of dance that also, in a (literal) twist, turns out to be Olga’s undoing.

That’s merely where Susie’s evolution begins. And where Argento’s film had the character trying to escape, Guadagnino’s does anything but that. Instead, Susie is drawn deeper into what’s going on at Markos, and Suspiria builds nightmarishly, exploding into a wild, blood-soaked climax that solves few mysteries — but hints at many others.

Suspiria is more about dream logic than real logic, more web than timeline. That it starts the year Argento’s film was released feels right: The spirit that animates that one feels reborn in this one which, in a sense, is its point — a spirit of rebellion and subversion against authoritarian powers, particularly patriarchal ones. Female energy and crafty women working in secret, it suggests, are responsible for keeping the world’s creative heart beating, even while skirmishes and wars and insurrections fight to beat it down.

That its name and eventually its mythology are tied up with the idea of “supirium” makes sense, then — though in Latin the words “suspirium” (sighs or forceful breaths) and “spiritus” (the spirit) are separate, for most of ancient times the concepts of breath and spirit, or life force, were tied up together.

The same word is used for both throughout the Bible, for instance, in both Hebrew and Greek. Concepts like prana and qi (or chi) are also linked to both breath and spirit or life force. Breath starts life, and it ends when the breath is gone.

The Markos company performs. Amazon Studios

In Suspiria that life-giving force is carried by women, particularly by the Three Mothers of Sighs, Darkness, and Tears, and by those who serve them — including in the dance academy. So the film is rife with symbolism about nationalism (the dance the Markos group is performing is one that Blanc created in the wake of the war, meaningfully called “Volk,” or “people”), about women’s power against men (who in this film are often at the mercy of the dance academy mistresses once they step in its doors), and — perhaps most troublingly — about the complexity of that power yielded by women against one another.

And so I agree with other critics that I would have liked to have seen a Suspiria written and directed by a woman who was as deeply affected by the story as Guadagnino clearly was, and as willing to get tangled up in it and not try to untie it all. Perhaps we’ll get that version in the future.

In the meantime, though, it’s impossible to ignore how skillfully Guadagnino dove into the material and came up with something all his own. Argento’s version of the story is noted not so much for its storytelling — which can be lightweight and campy at times — as for its visual style, which pulses with bright and bold colors, wild lighting, and surreal camera angles.

Guadagnino largely sidesteps those for most of the movie, rendering a muted Berlin in greys and browns, and when he finally slips into Argento’s visual style it’s all the more terrifying by contrast. Argento enlisted the Italian band Goblin for his film’s iconic soundtrack; Guadagnino brought in Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, who delivers an eerie score.

And by leaving lots of plot threads tangled and unexplained, this Suspiria leaves us with far more unease. Dance and horror became allies long ago, when early ballets in the courts of kings and queens often involved stories about witches and deities, werewolves and spirits. Many of the most famous ballets in repertoire today are, essentially, horror stories — about broken-hearted swan-women, about princes imprisoned in wooden dolls, about women dancing men or themselves to death.

Dakota Johnson in Suspiria. Amazon Studios

In movies like Black Swan, filmmakers cannily turn the implied horror of these stories into horror films about women’s bodies and the history of dance, the pain and discomfort experienced en route to flawless performance, the exacting and sometimes abusive choreographers, and the rules that artists want and need to break.

That the new Suspiria is set among a contemporary dance troupe in a Berlin recovering from a war, grasped by an imposed rule, cowering from terror attacks, and grappling with its own sordid history makes for a perfect place to explore those same motifs.

And by its enigmatic end, Suspiria is troubling and grim and yet strangely mirthful, having opened wounds without much interest in closing them. This is not a film you untangle; it’s a movie you feel. That will drive some mad. For others, it will feel something like ecstasy.

Suspiria opens in theaters on October 26.

Original Source -> Suspiria reimagines a cult classic as a bone-cracking tale of women, power, and pain

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amandaelisablog · 7 years

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Crime Shows and Bad Decisions

To Whom It May Concern:

Salutations to you, I am going to delve into the many criminal shows that have been and still air today. More than likely you have spent time watching these programs and wonder to yourself how these people manage to find themselves in these situations. At this point I find myself critiquing their poor decisions.

There are many out there and this is just a short list:

· Forensic Files

· 48 hours

· Homicide Hunter with Joe Kenda

· Who The Bleep Did I Marry

· America’s Most Wanted

· Dateline

· Snapped

· American Justice

· Killer Kids

· Making A Murderer

· Mommy Dead and Dearest

· Disappeared

· Nightmare Next Door

· True Crime with Aphrodite Jones

· I (Almost) Got Away With It

· Scorned: Love Kills

· Obsession: Dark Desires

Looking at these lists there are at least one or more that you might have seen. You could be like me and find the shows fascinating and learn the not to-do’s from the people telling their stories. Each show has it niche and they might deal with parallel issues but then they have different ways to tell a story. Forensic Files for instance deals with a variety of cases involving rape, murder, kidnapping, serial killers, faking deaths and cold cases. It is truly fascinating how they’re able to solve these cases with a simple fiber from a car to even plants just with their DNA and some smart investigations. 48 hours is just as it sounds, the first 48 hours is vital to find someone who has gone missing. This is actually very common with the police department and so on.

I don’t know if any of you have seen the case of Gypsy Rose Blanchard and her mother Claudine “Dee Dee” Blanchard? It is covered on Mommy Dead and Dearest and to most it seemed like an open and closed case. It was much more complicated than that and there are many who sit on either side of the fence. This is the story presented in this case; Dee Dee spent almost all of Gypsy’s life keeping her disabled. She made up all of her medical conditions and spent over a decade stuck in a wheelchair. She was on so many medications that they induced the symptoms of the supposed conditions which she used to make her look sick to gain favor with different organizations. Dee Dee kept her daughter’s age from her as well, even telling her father not to reveal her age because she was mentally that of a 5 year old though physically being 15 years old. It was discovered throughout the story that Dee Dee had Munchhausen by proxy which is a disorder in which the caretaker will induce sickness to get attention and gifts. These gifts were expensive trips to Disney world and other vacations. Dee Dee had also stated they lost their home in hurricane Katrina, so the place the relocated to build them a home for free. Dee Dee kept her daughter hostage for most of her life, abused her for trying to get away, keeping her away from her father and lied to keep people from helping Gypsy. To add to this Dee Dee had been her own mother’s caregiver and let her starve to death. She even tried to poison her step mother. Gypsy had run away a few times and her mother always found her and would threaten her and abuse her for her actions. The conclusion of this sad tale is that Gypsy had her mother killed by her mentally ill boyfriend. People felt as though Gypsy had suffered all of her life and they didn’t want to put in prison for life, being that she had been a victim in a terrible situation. They gave her ten years and she’ll still have a chance when she gets out.

Obsession: Dark Desires is a terribly creepy show. The lengths that some people with go to for those they become obsessed with. Most of these cases involve different varieties of stalkers, love struck employees, ex-boyfriends and next door neighbors. It’s a scary world nowadays because of the internet and how much we give free for people to use against us. Just know that if you have someone obsessed with you then you definitely want to go online and look up websites like Beenverified to remove your information from being purchased. There are a number of free ones where you can just go in a delete them completely. This prevents others from having access to your previous and current addresses your family members and so much more. This is so legitimate I have done this and it’s a load off my mind to have this information off of the web. I’m sure that there are more out there but if you’re dedicated them you’ll have peace of mind.

While on other shows one of the reoccurring themes are the cases of both men and women who meet a charming person and within a month they get married without the allotted time to get to know each other. It is then that the trouble slowly begins. They don’t give enough time to get to know each other; there isn’t time to get to know someone in just a month. Because of this these people come face to face with a real life monster. Worst yet the small glimpses shown they brush aside and let them go. We as people should be aware of anyone in our lives. I’m not telling you readers that you should be suspicious but just be aware and give time in a relationship to learn the ins and outs of the person you might fall for and spend your life with.

Personally and this is just me mainly because of the things I’ve seen and been through; background search, tests for possible STDs. People lie and that means everyone, they will tell you one thing and you later find that the person you lie beside is a complete stranger. If the person you plan to be with does truly love you then they will not have any problems with your request in looking into them. It goes both ways too and you can give them the same thing. Just think for a second if everyone did this there could be complete trust, more so than what you want to imagine. If you were able to really know the person you bring into your life things would work out better. A lot of these people want to rationalize that they just had to trust the person’s word and that was enough. It really isn’t though and this is the end of each episode especially in ‘Who The Bleep Did I Marry?’ where each person says they wished they had known and how devastating it had been. With a little bit of knowledge you could save yourself years of your life wasted if this person turns out to be a horrible person.

Once let’s say a woman named Jane gets married to John the light switch flips and he shows his true colors. At this point you’re tied together because of the marriage. What’s worse is when they have children together and the children are used or kidnapped by the spouse. Not enough people stop and plan these things out, yes sometimes there’s accidents but most of the time its poor protection and planning. People make the mistake of joining bank accounts, even if you trust the person completely it’s better for your relationship not to. Most successful couples will tell you that with this separation in accounts the couple can erase one possible issue that most couples have. Money can tear people apart, even the strongest couples. Now back to the case of Jane and John, she will feel as though it is what you do in a relationship is join together bank accounts adding your spouse to all your accounts. It is not a breach of trust to keep things separated. You stay equal in your relationship and still are able to share your money with one another.

When you first date someone they only show you the good side of them. It’s new and exciting and you want to make a great impression but you need to get to the core of this person. But as we learn from these shows it is unwise to take that at face value. They are wolves in sheep’s clothing and the victims don’t see it coming when they wolf tear their lives apart.

The worst one are the ones who don’t have a criminal record because their acts have never made it through the system. Some lie about their name and that’s what makes it harder. This makes it harder for you to dig deeper.

If you notice that something isn’t right use your instincts and get out. It will get worse and no matter how many times you rationalize it there has to be a time when you leave and save yourself and your children. There is a point when trying to make the marriage work falls off the list of priorities especially when it comes to abuse. I had just watched an episode of Who the bleep did I Marry and this husband was drugging his wife every night so that he could have sex with her unconscious body. She finds out about the drugging and confronts him and she basically said don’t do it again, not this is messed up stay away from me. He did it again and she stayed after that, it wasn’t until she finds the videos that she decided this was what would break her and cause her to make a solid decision. Another thing that just baffles me is the ones where the woman or man gets a glimpse into the real person that they are and then they’re proposed to, they actually say yes despite continued abuse and mistreatment.

I’m not going to lie here and say that I know everything or that I’ve ever been completely wise in my past. But now that I’m older and look back I at least can say once I saw the red flags I would walk away and keep myself safe. I’m glad for this though and it opened me up to finding someone perfect for me.

Keep your eyes and mind opened to the world around you don’t allow someone to put you down, criticize you, deceive you, or control your life. You’re an independent person and you can still be in a relationship even if it isn’t with this person not treating you well. You will have problems in any relationship, but use a wise mind to pick out and weigh what you can fix and what you cannot. Don’t just jump into marriage lightly just because they seem perfect at the time. Live together feel each other out and learn their quirks before marriage even becomes a thought. I suggest doing as I do and binge watch these shows, especially Who the bleep did I Marry? Do it you won’t regret it!

Be wise my dear readers.

Sincerely

Amanda M

#reality crime shows #who the bleep did i marry #spousal abuse #Con artist #criminal background check #mommy dead and dearest

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