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acourtofthought · 10 months

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Love - SJM Style

Obviously the actual falling in love part is amazing but before her characters get to that point, we have a lot of this:

Rowaelin -

You are a child, and a spoiled one at that. And,” he said, those green eyes holding nothing but distaste, “you are a coward.”

And then she said one of the foulest things she’d ever uttered in her life, bathing in the pure hate of it. “Fae like you make me understand the King of Adarlan’s actions a bit more, I think.”

“First thing,” he breathed, “we’re not friends. I’m still training you, and that means you’re still under my command.”

Chaol / Yrene -

You didn’t seem to mind the privileges that came when you snapped your fingers and Kashin ran here. Perhaps he’ll grow tired of you stringing him along.”

“You’d be surprised the people that opiate makes you consider. Who you’ll find yourself willing to sully yourself with.”

“Did she pick Dorian, then? The queen. I’m surprised she could stomach either of you, given your history. What your kingdom did to hers.”

“Yet you were assigned to me because your Healer on High saw otherwise. Saw that no matter how high you climbed in that tower, you’re still that girl in Fenharrow.” A laugh came out of him, icy and bitter. “I knew another woman who lost as much as you. And do you know what she did with it—that loss?” He could barely stop the words from pouring out, could barely think over the roar in his head. “She hunted down the people responsible for it and obliterated them. What the hell have you bothered to do these years?”

Aedion / Lysandra -

She knew Aedion would agree to the plan, even if he still hated her.

“You can go to hell,” Aedion snapped. “You can go to hell, you lying bitch!”

Lorcan / Elide -

Aelin had been brutalized, their very location betrayed by Lorcan to Maeve, and still he tried to follow. Right through the sand still wet with Aelin’s blood.

Elide let out a soft, vicious laugh. “Of course you didn’t. Why would you have intended for your wondrous queen to sever the blood oath?”

Lorcan blinked at the words, the hatred in them, stunned enough that he let her walk past this time. Elide didn’t so much as look back.

“The only thing that I am jealous of, Lorcan, is that she is rid of you.”

“I’m sorry,” he repeated. But Elide’s face did not warm. “I don’t care,” she said, turning on her heel. “And I don’t care if you walk off that battlefield tomorrow.”

“I have never heard Lorcan apologize for anything. Even when Maeve whipped him for a mistake, he did not apologize to her.” “And that means he earns my forgiveness?”

Quinlar -

“She’s a spoiled party girl. What did you expect?” “She’s not stupid, Hunt,” Isaiah countered. “Everything I’ve seen and heard suggests otherwise.”

His teeth flashed. “I don’t care what you call me, Quinlan, so long as you do what you’re told.” Fucking alphahole. “Immortality is a long time to have a giant stick up your ass.”

Feysand -

Rhysand ran an eye over me. “I knew you liked to stoop low with your lovers, Lucien, but I never thought you’d actually dabble with mortal trash.” My face burned.

Even as he said my most private thoughts, even as I burned with outrage and shame, I trembled at the grip still on my mind.

I stared at him, sending as much hate as I could into my gaze. He’d been the one who’d caused all this. He’d told Amarantha about Clare; he’d made Tamlin beg.

I bared my teeth. “Go. To. Hell.” Swift as lightning, he lashed out, grabbing the shard of bone in my arm and twisting. A scream shattered out of me, ravaging my aching throat. The world flashed black and white and red. I thrashed and writhed, but he kept his grip, twisting the bone a final time before releasing my arm. Panting, half sobbing as the pain reverberated through my body, I found him smirking at me again. I spat in his face.

“Don’t get me started on what you did to me Under the Mountain.”

“I didn’t ask for your approval.”

“I think we can agree that I owe you nothing, and you owe me nothing.”

“I’m not your enemy, Feyre.” “Tamlin says you are.” I curled the fingers of my tattooed hand into a fist. “Everyone else says you are.” “And what do you think?” He leaned back in his chair again, but his face was grave. “You’re doing a damned good job of making me agree with them.”

“No, because it’s so much easier to pretend it never happened and let them coddle you.”

“Luck? Yes, how lucky for you,” I said quietly, but not weakly, “that the rest of Prythian was ravaged while your people, your city, remained safe.”

His laugh was bitter, soft. “I thought so. Perhaps you should take some time to figure that out one of these days.”

“At least I let them see who I am, broken bits and all. Yes—it’s to save your people. But what about the other masks, Rhys? What about letting your friends see your real face? But maybe it’s easier not to. Because what if you did let someone in? And what if they saw everything, and still walked away? Who could blame them—who would want to bother with that sort of mess?”

Nessian -

“What are you looking at?” Cassian’s brows rose—little amusement to be found now. “Someone who let her youngest sister risk her life every day in the woods while she did nothing. Someone who let a fourteen-year-old child go out into that forest, so close to the wall.” “Your sister died—died to save my people. She is willing to do so again to protect you from war. So don’t expect me to sit here with my mouth shut while you sneer at her for a choice she did not get to make—and insult my people in the process.”

“If that’s what a bastard-born Fae warrior can do, no wonder my sister has become so entangled with the High Lords.” Bitch. Bitch for the insult to him and to Feyre. “Did it bother you more that you wanted it, or that it was a bastard-born nobody who made you feel such things, Nesta?” “It’s been a long winter. Beggars can’t be picky, I suppose.”

What did he care? What did he care? He had enough shit to deal with.

“And what do you deserve?” A slow smile, indeed a plains-cat readying for the kill. Then, “Certainly more than a bastard-born nobody.” Bitch. “What a fne partner you are, Nesta. Remind me to bring a book on military strategy the next time. Maybe you’ll stand a chance then.” A cold, fat look. “It’s easier, isn’t it,” Cassian breathed, crossing the distance again, not caring who saw them standing in the bay window “To wield the words and the coldness as armor to keep everyone from seeing where and who you failed and how you did not care until it was too late.”

Only hatred gleamed in her eyes.

“Well, I see it, Nesta Archeron. And all I see is a bored and spoiled girl—”

“Is it Nesta?” “Not everything in my life is about your sister, you know.”

Nesta had made it clear enough she had no interest in Cassian—not even in being in the same room as him.

“I’ve made my thoughts clear enough on what I want from you.”

He didn’t know why the hell he cared. Why he’d bothered.

She’d made it clear enough in those initial days after that last battle that she wanted nothing to do with him.

“I was dragged into this world of yours, this court.” “Then go somewhere else.”

“Stop following me. Stop trying to haul me into your happy little circle. Stop doing all of it.”

“Your sisters love you. I can’t for the life of me understand why, but they do. If you can’t be bothered to try for my happy little circle’s sake, then at least try for them.”

“You think I can’t hear that male in your bedroom, trying to quietly put on his clothes and sneak out the window?”

Elucien are coming along quite nicely -

“You betrayed us.”

Her eyes went frank and cold. “I was to be married in a few days.”

“She wants nothing to do with me.” / And as for here …” He shook off my grip and headed for the door. “I can’t stand to be in the same room as her for more than two minutes.

“You couldn’t say a single word to him? A pleasant greeting?”

“He brought you a present.” Those doe-brown eyes turned toward me. Sharper than I’d ever seen them. “And that entitles him to my time, my affections?”

“Where’s Elain?” “I am not always in this city to see my mate.” The last two words dripped with discomfort.

#elucien #pro elucien #elain archeron #lucien vanserra #feysand #nessian #mating bond #rowan and aelin #elorcan #sarah j mass #elain x lucien #lucien and elain

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mylyricpages · 5 months

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'DAYS GONE BY' - ARCHIVE SERIES - VOL. II ( FULL LENGTH VERSION ) ( 2013 )

For me the lyrics that didn’t end up on my ’official’ lyric collections for whatever reasons still have their own charm and their own little place in my affections. Often they didn’t get onto those collections because they didn’t turn out quite as I’d imagined, or they didn’t quite fit in with the tone of the material that surrounded them, or sometimes, there simply wasn’t enough room on the particular collection they seemed to belong to.

But something about them still had a certain ‘something’ for me that just couldn’t be ignored.

I’ve got a few personal favourites among them and I’m glad that they can now finally see the light of day …

Hope you enjoy

James Ellis

‘Everything You Leave Behind’ Sessions ( 2004 )

LAST GRAINS OF SAND ( FOR IN THE END )

SEVEN MINUTES

THIS SHIP WILL NEVER COME IN

IF I SHOULD EVER ( SEE YOU SMILE )

UNTIL THE END ( OF THE WORLD )

‘Bullet Proof Hearts’ Sessions ( 2004 )

SALVATION BLUES # 1

ONE BIG LIE

THIS IS HOW I LIVE WITHOUT YOU

‘In These Times’ Sessions ( 2005 )

MY BEAUTIFUL COMPANION

SAVE A HOPE

LITTLE CHILD ( MOTHER’S HEART )

( MAYBE I’LL SEE YOU ) IN A DREAM

THE LAST PARADE

FIND YOUR WAY HOME AGAIN

SPLINTERED THORN

Compiled December 2013

LAST GRAINS OF SAND ( FOR IN THE END )

Call up all your courage and sign up all your names pull up your eyes toward history’s next page each answer is in the question And each reason is in the rhyme For in the end time leads to all things And in the end all things are lost to time

So turn your ears toward the distant sound of that rallying call So question if this life has any real meaning In the end at all

for in the end this will not all fall through our fingers like the last grains of sand

Mothers cradle daughters and fathers comfort sons this fight is far from over this war is yet to be won and there’s a feeling deep in the air that something has begun

For in the end time leads to all things and in the end all things are lost to time So let this faint whisper grow louder so let this song still be sung So let the chimes of freedom still be heard, let those bells still be rung

for in the end this will not all fall through our fingers like the last grains of sand

Heaven steals and reclaims its daughters and sons these flags are meant for burning And this new beginning Is meant to be begun the first shots they have been fired and the deed it has been done the ballad will still be written this song will still be sung So release all the chains and climb the walls So let them hear the sleeping giant in the government halls

for in the end this will not all fall through our fingers like the last grains of sand

And time changes everything and everything changes for us all in time So those that once had a plan come to understand that from their fates they can no longer resign

So shatter the hourglass and extinguish the rising flames So raise up your wearied gaze to those that would assign the blame for in the end this will not all fall through our fingers like the last grains of sand

the last grains of sand

SEVEN MINUTES

Seven minutes, for it all to fall into place Seven minutes, since I lost my faith In all the things that used to matter so much to me I felt the air grow thin I felt it all slip gently away felt the things I believed in begin to stray

felt a pure rush of blood straight to the head felt all the things that used to matter so much to me suddenly feel so very dead

Seven minutes, for it all to fall into place Seven minutes, since I lost my faith In all the things that used to matter so much to me I heard a hush, so quiet not even a single sound in that moment before I hit the hard of god’s good ground

I heard such a pure rush in that moment you left this place Something I found I somehow could not trace I heard the sound of a depth charge go off somewhere inside my head felt all the beliefs that used to matter so much to me Suddenly feel so dead

I felt it all pass beyond I felt it all slip gently away I saw you pass beyond I felt you slip gently away from me Now I’m adrift, so very adrift please, help me if you can Oh, help me if you can

How do I find those things that you left behind How do I find the parts of you still left inside

Now you’re gone Now you’re gone

THIS SHIP WILL NEVER COME IN

Coming down, got caught up in life’s beautiful indulgence and now I’m trying to get back to before it got so bad just to find that fragile piece of innocence before the times around us grew so sad

I can’t sleep, these symptoms are still so very deep I can’t live where I find myself now got this thing inside of me that I need to move on

Headed for a faraway coast running for the sea long to be that child again, oh how I long to be me

Don’t know if you can hear what it is I’m saying cause it’s clear there ain’t no more use in staying ain’t no use in keeping this love of ours alive any more

So I cannot wait here for our ship to finally come in I cannot see the end of this slow burning beginning So I am going to sail down this river away from you my lonely friend

and leave you here my love leave you here Oh, so far behind me

You know I just have to start again Cause’ this ship will never come in this ship, this ship this ship will never come in

IF I SHOULD EVER ( SEE YOU SMILE )

You used to steal my breath away Each time you sighed I used to be able to wipe the the tears away from your eyes What happened? What happened? to me and you

You used make my heart miss a beat turned the sour to the sweet I used to be able to make You sigh aloud in your sleep What happened? What happened? to me and you

How did we screw it up? How did we screw it all up?

You used to raise me up to the light so far away from the gloom You used to be the sense, the scent, the breathtaking atmosphere in any given room What happened? What happened? to me and you? How did we screw it up? How did we screw it all up?

And if I should ever see your smile again If I should ever see you smile I’d fall upon the ground at your feet And if I should ever see your smile again If I should ever see you smile I would surely fall upon my knees

Oh, what would become of me Oh, what would become of me

We heard the rumour and it slipped from our lips we felt our love at our finger tips but somehow we never felt it in our souls What happened? What happened? to me and you?

How did we screw it up? How did we screw it all up?

UNTIL THE END ( OF THE WORLD )

Run away, would you run away if you felt you just couldn’t stay Would you leave me behind Would you find a safe place to hide Would you run, would you run away from me turn away, would you turn away if you felt our love had had its day Would you leave it behind Would you save your pride Would you turn would you turn away from me

don’t go, don’t go, try not to let it weigh so heavy on your heart don’t go, don’t go, try not to let it weigh you down so much try not to let it weigh you down so very much

Would you hear the melodies inside of me Would you hear me as I sing this song inside of me? Would you see the soul behind these eyes Would you see the soul inside of me?

Would you go? Would you go?

And if I asked, would you stay with me until the end of the world? Until there’s nothing left but me and you? And if I asked, would you stay with me until the end of every thing? Until there’s no one left but me and you? Until the end of the world Until the end of it all

Would you stay, would you stay with me?

Until the end of it all Until the end of It all

SALVATION BLUES # 1

this man, he finds something here that changes his life sees the world end in a September sky he tries to go back to the start he finds his faith falls apart he finds there is nothing left to say

he’s listening for a voice he’s listening for a sign he’s waiting, he’s waiting he’s so tired, so very tired now

he’s so tired, so very tired now

this man, he spends too long staring up at the sun tries to find religion in the sound of a shot gun he finds salvation in his personal pain he brings a needle to his vein finds he lost everything along the way

he’s listening for a voice he’s listening for a sign he’s waiting, he’s waiting he’s so tired, so very tired now

he’s so tired, so very tired now

this man, he switches to a channel promising heaven tries to find god at the Seven Eleven he finds his bottle has run dry he searches for a reason why finds there is nothing left to make him stay

he’s listening for a voice he’s listening for a sign he’s waiting, he’s waiting he’s so tired, so very tired now

he’s so tired, so very tired now

this man, he cries Jesus just don’t try to find me this man, he cries Jesus just don’t try to save me oh, don’t try to help me oh, don’t try to save me

ONE BIG LIE

I don’t believe in your self righteous belief I don’t believe in the T.V sermons or in the faithless man that tries to deceive

It doesn’t really matter that much to me because I never really could believe in anything at all

I don’t believe in the heart of the one big lie I don’t believe in judgment day Or in a modern faith that tries to heal my mind

It doesn’t really matter that much to me because I never really could believe in anything at all

No one believes in all the things that need to be done and no one says all the things that need to be said Nobody listens to the preacher that has god in his head

It doesn’t really matter that much to me because I never really could believe in anything at all

So why don’t you show me So why don’t you show me So why don’t you show me how to believe

THIS IS HOW I LIVE WITHOUT YOU

I’m dying not to miss you, I’m dying not to see you I’d like to forget all that you said I’d rearrange every single line hear something different inside my head

It would be so good to change all of this It would be so good to forget all of this but I’m still waiting I’m still waiting for you to catch my fall

When will, when will you Catch my fall?

So this is how I live now This is how I am now This is how I’m lost This is how I’m found This is how I see This is how I have to be without you

This is how I live without you This is how I live Without you

It would be so good to change all of this It would be so good to forget all of this but I’m still waiting I’m still waiting for you to catch my fall

When will, when will you Catch my fall?

So this is how I live now This is how I am now This is how I falter This is how I stumble This is how I fall This is how I have to crawl without you

This is how I live without you This is how I live Without you

Something inside of you saw right through me Something changed, turned my world upside down on me Every moment of every day I still can’t deny I miss you miss your eyes, miss your smile, miss everything about you

Maybe it’s not so easy to change I can’t be sure I can turn away but I know I shouldn’t really Stay here in this place for too long again Well, maybe one day I’ll say goodbye I’ll say goodbye to you

MY BEAUTIFUL COMPANION

I have seen such a beauty in her eyes green as Indian fields beneath the skies I have seen her Jesus smile clear as untouched oceans, a beauty always above denial

I worship the ground she walks on I breathe the same air she breathes but how could she ever really know

She says she is my companion she says she is my friend she says she will be here until the end but how can I believe her how can I believe her

I have seen such a beauty in her ways transcends through her eyes from the soul inside her I have seen her angel smile shining bright as her love, a beauty always above denial

I fall on the upon earth before her I am the ground beneath her feet but how could she ever really know

She says she is my companion she says she is my friend she says she will be here until the end but how can I believe her how can I believe her

She is my companion She is my companion Such a beautiful companion

SAVE A HOPE

Save a hope for love, save your soul find some sunlight in a dark place Save a hope lover, please don’t slip away a single ray of light awaits you Save a hope for love, save your soul find something to live for in these sad times Save a hope lover until the day you can get away from here

So, don’t hide away from the things that can really help you Oh, I hope I can help you Oh, I hope I can help

Oh, I hope I can help

And so I say a prayer a prayer for you my love And so I sing a hymn a hymn for you my love

LITTLE CHILD ( MOTHER’S HEART )

Little child with your wide eyed stare the whole world’s brand new from your view down there

Little child, small hope’s gonna get bigger as you grow and become aware of everything that’s around you

Little child, bundle of hope on all fours, picked up if you fall down but she won’t always be around for you

Little child, I wonder if you could see inside her mind Little child, I wonder would you see all that’s been so Denied to her to her in her life until you came along

Little child, so helpless yet so strong there’s strength in being so frail but one day you’re gonna go away

Little child, time will pass you by so fast as you begin to learn who you are Spread your wings and begin to fly

Little child, one day you’re gonna break your mother’s heart Little child, one day you’re gonna break your mother’s heart

You’re gonna break your mother’s heart

( MAYBE I’LL SEE YOU ) IN A DREAM

It’s raining, I’m running through a million different dreams Slow motion through long summer grass So very lost since the day that I lost you I’m falling, I’m falling, lying down on soft earth So very lost since the day that I lost you

It would be easier, it would be so much easier If everything were just in dreams It would be easier, oh so much easier if it could all just be how it seems

Maybe I’ll find you again in that place Where I saw you cry Maybe I’ll see you again In the place where last you cried Maybe I’ll see you again In a beautiful dream In a beautiful dream

LAST PARADE

So this is your last parade, it’s so sad to say, to say good bye to you So this is your last parade, I’m going to be here until your last breath for you It’s so sad to say goodbye to say good bye to you

Hold my hand, hold my hand let me lead you through to the light Hold my hand, hold my hand let your spirit rise let it be free let it shine so very bright

I wish I could hear all the thoughts going through your head I wish I could hear I wish I could hear I wish I could imagine all the memories going through your head all the thoughts that now will never get to be said I wish I could hear I wish I could hear

So this is your last parade I’m going to be here until you’re last breath for you It’s so sad to say goodbye, to say goodbye to you

FIND YOUR WAY HOME AGAIN

So the memories are all you’ve got left cause you just gave up on all that you still felt You just thought you had nothing left Just hiding away from your self but now you got no more places to hide So the good times really didn’t last and you’ve got your head trapped in the past Darling, you’re living just like a ghost I can see right through you

Never hear me when I call You’re hardly here at all feeling like you’re always looking in from the out side

Never hear me when I call You’re barely here at all ignoring all the ones who really used to know you so very well

You gotta find your way home You gotta bring yourself back to us again

Sing, sing yourself back to life again bring, bring yourself back to life again

Oh, darling, just find your way home again

SPLINTERED THORN

Don’t pretend to send all your faith through to me, oh, don’t pretend my friend I’m getting too old for the games that we play Don’t pretend to send all your hope through to me, oh, don’t pretend my friend I’m getting too old for the games that we play

Don’t pretend, oh, don’t pretend my friend I’m getting far too old for these games that we always play

If you believe in me I believe in you believe in me, I’ll believe in you believe in me, I’ll believe in you

You don’t have to live in days gone by this has all gone too far for you and I

And every time I see you it’s in images of days gone by And every time I see you it’s smiling beneath a mid September sky

You don’t have to live in days gone by this has all gone too far for you and I

this has all gone too far this has all gone too far for you and I

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bright-eyes-strawberry-lies · 3 years

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I can always tell when people haven't read the books and are just parroting shit they hear thinking it’s so hot when it’s icy cold so welcome to another segment of Robin Educates Ya'll With Quotes From The Series: Nico and Percy edition!

“I won’t tell on you,” he said. “But you have to promise to keep my sister safe.”

“I...that’s a big thing to promise, Nico, on a trip like this. Besides, she’s got Zoe, Grover, and Thalia -”

“Promise,” he insisted.

“I’ll do my best. I promise that.”

[Titan’s Curse, pg 119]

Bianca’s jaw tightened. “No. I’ll go.”

“You can’t! You’re new at this! You’ll die.”

“It’s my fault the monster came after us,” she said. “It’s my responsibility. Here.” She picked up the little god statue and pressed it into my hand. “If anything happens, give that to Nico. Tell him...tell him I’m sorry.”

“Bianca!” But she wasn’t waiting for me. She charged at the monster’s left foot.

[Titan’s Curse, pg 196]

Awestruck, I looked to Nico. “How did you-”

“Go away!” he yelled. “I hate you! I wish you were dead!”

The ground didn’t swallow me up, but Nico ran down the steps, heading toward the woods. I started to follow but slipped and fell onto the icy steps. When I got up, I noticed what I’d slipped on.

[Titan’s Curse, pg 308]

Annabeth and Grover helped me search the woods for hours, but there was no sign of Nico di Angelo. [Titan’s Curse, pg 309]

“I can’t let Nico be in any more danger,” I said. “I owe that much to his sister. I...I let them both down. I’m not going to let that poor kid suffer anymore.”

“The poor kid who hates you and wants to see you dead,” Grover reminded me.

“Maybe we can find him,” I said. “We can convince him it’s okay, hide him someplace safe.”

[Titan’s Curse, pg 310]

“So the Nico boy is gone now?”

“I-I guess. I tried to search for him this spring. So did Annabeth. But we didn’t have any luck. This is secret, Tyson, okay? If anyone found out he was a son of Hades, he would be in danger. You can’t even tell Chiron.”

[Battle of the Labyrinth, pg 38]

“Percy has been worried about you, Nico. He can help. I let him see what you were up to, hoping he would find you.”

[Battle of the Labyrinth, pg 167]

“We missed you at dinner,” I said. “You could’ve sat with me.”

“No.”

“Nico, you can’t miss every meal. If you don’t want to stay with Hermes, maybe they can make an exception and put you in the Big House. They’ve got plenty of rooms.”

“I’m not staying, Percy.”

“But...you can’t just leave. It’s too dangerous out there for a lone half-blood. You need to train.”

“I train with the dead,” he said flatly. “This camp isn’t for me. There’s a reason they didn’t put a cabin to Hades here, Percy. He’s not welcome, any more than he is on Olympus. I don’t belong. I have to go.”

I wanted to argue, but part of me knew he was right. I didn’t like it, but Nico would have to find his own, dark way.

[..]

“Makes sense,” I admitted. “But I hope we don’t have to be enemies.”

He lowered his gaze. “I’m sorry I was a brat. I should’ve listened to you about Bianca.”

[...]

I wasn’t sure what he meant, but I nodded. “Keep in touch, Nico.”

[Battle of the Labyrinth, pg 342-344]

He looked up at the Furies and took a deep breath. “I’ve done what my father asked. Take us to the palace.”

I tense. “Wait a second, Nico. What do you -”

“I’m afraid this is my new lead, Percy. My father promised me information about my family, but he wants to see you before we try the river. I’m sorry.”

“You tricked me?” I was so mad I couldn’t think. I lunged at him, but the Furies were fast. Two of them swooped down and plucked me up by the arms. [...] “All right, traitor,” I growled at Nico. “You’ve got your prize. Take me to the stupid palace.”

[The Last Olympian, pg 119/120]

The mountain of darkness loomed above me. A foot the size of Yankee Stadium was about to smash me when a voice hissed, “Percy!”

I lunged out blindly. Before I was fully awake, I had Nico pinned to the floor of the cell with the edge of my sword at his throat.

“Want...to...rescue,” he choked.

Anger woke me up fast. “Oh, yeah? And why should I trust you?”

“No...choice?” he gagged.

I wished he hadn’t said something logical like that. I let him go.

Nico curled into a ball and made retching sounds while his throat recovered. Finally he got to his feet, eyeing my sword warily. His own blade was sheathed. I suppose if he’d wanted to kill me, he could have done it while I slept. Still, I didn’t trust him.

[The Last Olympian, pg 129/130]

Nico slid off Mrs. O’Leary’s back and crumpled in a heap on the black sand.

I took out a square of ambrosia - part of the emergency god-food I always kept with me. It was a little bashed up, but Nico chewed it.

“Uh,” he mumbled. “Better.”

[...]

I caught him before he could pass out again.

[The Last Olympian, pg 132]

“Go back to your father,” I told Nico. “Tell him he owes me for letting him go. Find out what’s going to happen to Mount Olympus and convince him to help.”

Nico stared at me. “I...I can’t. He’ll hate me now. I mean...even more.”

“You have to,” I said. “You owe me too.”

His ears turned red. “Percy, I told you I was sorry. Please...let me come with you. I want to fight.”

“You’ll be more help down here.”

“You mean you don’t trust me anymore,” he said miserably.

I didn’t answer. I didn’t know what I meant. I was too stunned by what I’d just done in battle to think clearly.

“Just go back to your father,” I said, trying not to sound too harsh. “Work on him. You’re the only person who might be able to get him to listen.”

[The Last Olympian, pg 139/140]

Percy stared at his jelly donut. He had a rocky history with Nico di Angelo. The guy had once tricked him into visiting Hades’s palace, and Percy had ended up in a cell. But most of the time, Nico sided with the good guys. He certainly didn’t deserve slow suffocation in a bronze jar, and Percy couldn’t stand seeing Hazel in pain.

“We’ll rescue him,” he promised her. “We have to. The prophecy says he holds the key to endless death.”

[Mark of Athena, pg 172/173]

“Plans?” Hazel asked. “Nico has until sunset - at best. And this entire city is supposedly getting destroyed today.”

Percy shook himself out of his daze. “You’re right. Annabeth...did you zero in on that spot from your bronze map?”

[Mark of Athena, pg 384/385]

Otis trudged over to the dias, stopping occasionally to do a pile. He knocked over the jar, the lid popped off, and Nico di Angelo spilled out. The sight of his deathly pale face and too-skinny frame made Percy’s heart stop. Percy couldn’t tell if he was dead or alive. He wanted to rush over and check, but Ephialtes stood in his way.

[Mark of Athena, pg 508]

At Otis’s feet, Nico shuddered. Percy felt like a hellhound hamster wheel somewhere in his chest had started moving again. At least Nico was alive.

[Mark of Athena, pg 509]

The past week or so, Percy had imagined a lot of scathing things he might say to Nico when they met again, but the guy looked so frail and sad, Percy couldn’t muster up much anger.

[Mark of Athena, pg 536]

Nico’s eyes looked like shattered glass. Percy wondered sadly if something inside him had broken permanently.

[Mark of Athena, pg 539]

To recap: Percy never promised Nico that he wouldn't let Bianca die - he promised to do his best. Percy never promised Bianca that he would look after Nico. Percy spends months looking for Nico and never not even once told him to get lost. Nico was manipulated by Hades so that he'd bring Percy to him, and Percy was rightfully angry about it. The last person to betray Percy was Luke (and you all want Luke to die for that). Percy constantly worries about Nico.

Percy doesn't have to apologize to Nico for shit and he didn't "do him dirty" in the slightest.

#percy jackson #nico di angelo #hoo #pjo #riordanverse #percy jackson series #heroes of olympus #mark of athena #titan's curse #battle of the labyrinth #the last olympian

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moon-lixie · 3 years

Text

Steam - Lee Felix

word count: 1.452k

song: please never fall in love again - Ollie MN

warning: a really soft make out that will turn you into mush, probably.

requested by @sunshinelixie-lee

There are people that come into your life ready to evaporate into thin air later on, like the steam that escaped Mrs.Lee's casserole every other Friday afternoon.

Felix wasn’t one of those people; you didn't want him to be and he had made sure that you knew he didn’t want to either. It had been an almost unspoken promise that needed just one look to be kept in the depths of your heart for the rest of eternity.

Despite everything, you could see him becoming the steam that was meant to only exist in his kitchen when as a child you would go eat dinner at his house. You thought he was becoming steam and for the very first time in your life it felt like you were craving stone cold casserole.

Because it terrified you to the core to lose him; the fear lingering on the pit of your stomach barely compared to that one time that Felix had broken his arm after falling. That day a promise had slipped his lips ever so comfortably, he said that he wouldn’t get hurt ever again to prevent you from crying; his promise dissipated like smoke years later.

You didn’t resent him for not keeping his promise nor did you lose faith in the ones that came after that. After all, life as unpredictable as it is, always makes sure to take us far from what we plan, showing us that we have little to no control over the course of things.

Still, powerless and with no control we make a lot of promises that we don’t know if we can keep. Like that one time that you had promised Felix you would go to prom with him, just the two of you because nobody had asked you and he didn’t want to ask anyone. You had broken your promise soon when an enthusiastic smile drove you to tell your dear friend that a boy had asked you and you had said yes.

One would assume that things go wrong in every way once a promise is shattered, but the two of you had understood it wasn’t all that bad. For instance, it had been fun staying by his side once he broke his leg on the seventh grade, and even though your so called date had sucked beyond words, it had been a blast to drive around town with Felix on his dad’s car —that had been lended to him just because of the excuse of taking you there.

The lack of complete disappointment didn’t make you more prone to breaking promises —or so you liked to think— but instead made you tolerant to how life seemed to work. This time around though, you wanted to curse at life for trying to break a promise that was more sacred than any other, one composed of everything but words.

Unspoken, unprompted, unworded; you had no idea had to ask. Would adding a Lixie to the question make his heart soften enough not to leave? Was he even leaving at all?

It felt like he was somewhere far away right then and there, sitting at the edge of his own bed, a sigh caressing his lips on the way out of his mouth. His back was the only thing that faced you, the familiar striped button up unknowingly bringing peace to your heart.

The back of his neck was completely exposed, his short haircut allowing the skin from there to turn into an even deeper tone of honey. Blond locks, freshly dyed just like he had been used to doing for the last year. You didn’t want him to be one of those people.

Fluffy sheets cradled your existence, a plushie touching your back at the lack of grand space on his mattress. Never in your life had you wanted to be cramped on his bed with him more than today when you felt like you lost him.

A shaky hand reached out for him, a subtle attempt to fix the unspoken pledge with everything but words. Once your fingertips grazed the soft fabric of his shirt he looked back at you, smile blinding you more than the Sun could ever.

When his head fell onto the plush pillow you felt relief, one that only increased when his fingers reached out to play with yours. You had seen him grow up and yet there was not a day that you could account for when he hadn’t looked for physical contact with everyone he liked.

He had held your hand a million times and yet this time around it felt different, as if the noise from the background had suddenly died down and he had stolen all the available oxygen now that he was this close to you.

Unspoken but yet understood; just like your promise, he had seen something in your eyes then that needed no further explanation, something that made hesitation dissipate just like steam.

Giggles escaped his lips, as childish and sweet as they were when the both of you were still the same height. And then he moved closer to you, only a couple of centimeters, but it felt groundbreaking nevertheless.

The pad of his thumb rubbed the skin of your cheek as if he was trying to trace his own freckles in your face— it wouldn’t be the first silly thing you ever saw him do.

Relaxed lips turned into soft smiles, seconds later turning into unworded affection that had —without meaning to— make both drift away from each other. It wasn’t steam but fear, fear of losing, fear of loving.

His lips felt the kind of warmth that reminded you of summer at the beach, building castles on the sand and promising silly stuff that couldn’t be, but who was life to stop two hopeful and childish hearts?

Moving his hands to tangle in your hair had been the epitome of heart stopping once his fingers ever so softly started massaging your scalp. It sent shivers down your whole body to have him this close.

Feverishly yet gentle, his lips moved against yours in a harmony that could very well be the result of so many shared years. You both felt a bit lost, old enough to know what it felt to never want to let go but young enough to accept you weren’t experienced enough to know what you were doing.

The smile on your lips never disappeared, not even when you cupped his face and got impossibly closer to him, in an attempt to steal the warmth of his heart to yourself. Because you adored his sun like heart that kept everyone around him warm.

One of his hands escaped your locks to hold onto the side of your torso, fingertips barely grazing the fabric of your shirt, still managing to make your heart pick up its pace.

Panting you both pulled away, in a daze that made your foreheads stay pressed together and your lids to exist heavily and yet too light. All of you felt too light, as if floating wasn’t an impossibility for humans, as if you were able to fly to wherever you wanted with him.

He grazed his lips on yours, playfully laughing now that he had enough air to do so. Hand never leaving his loose hold on the fabric that kept him away from your skin, preventing this moment to go in all the ways it shouldn’t.

Because it was too soft and warm to shater quickly, it was a bit too much like the early stages of spring, summer wasn’t meant to arrive just like that. So he kissed you once again, this time with more intentions of not backing away again.

Eager fingers of yours moved to play with his soft hair, reminding you of his habit of using a generous amount of conditioner when he showered. It made you giggle and it made his heart be truly alive.

Slowly he moved so that your back was pressed against the mattress, his hands now resting on each side of your face, lips still pressed against yours pleasantly. And once he pulled away you could swear there had never been nothing more magnificent in the history of humankind.

The slight blush that accompanied his freckles only made his small and faint dimple look all the more adorable. The look on his face made you believe that he was witnessing all the stars in the universe; it prompted you to do the same back at him.

This was the one promise that would never break, because you loved him too much to become steam and without saying it he had let you know that he wasn’t going anywhere.

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myundeadgayson · 3 years

Text

Ahoy, We are Castaways AU, but not really because Gunk and Ishmael find Pirates:

@bluwards So.... I mayhaps wrote an entire thing for your idea?

For anyone wondering, here’s the link to the OG au idea post: https://bluwards.tumblr.com/post/661885099380506624/au-where-tommy-and-wilbur-were-part-of-a-pirate

This might not be exactly what you were hoping for of this, but I had an image in my mind and just went HAM on it. Like, I mean that as in I started this at like... 1am last night and I finished at like 4pm today??? I’m not saying I wrote that entire time, but I am saying that I literally just NEEDED to finish this because it’s SUCH A FUN IDEA. (I’m sorry for writing so much by the way! I got excited.)

Notes: None of this is historically accurate to literally anything, especially history and pirates. Instead, we’re gonna image this is some fun fantasy world where like. Pirates are out chilling in the world stealing shit and royalty exists somewhere enough you can be like “yeah, i’m royal. try to prove i’m not bitch.” (Also, I’ll post this on Ao3 later and edit with the link after I sleep. For now, please enjoy!) Words: 5160 Characters: Wilbur Soot, TommyInnit, Philza Minecraft, and Technoblade

The heat must be getting to him. It must be because there’s no way that’s a ship he’s seeing out on the horizon. It seems to be drawing closer, but it’s not near enough to tell, not that it would matter anyway. It’s not real. It’s not real, he tells himself. It has to be a mirage. As if their luck would ever be that good.

Wilbur rests his head back down into Tommy’s mess of curls. The two of them are curled together underneath the shade of the treeline. His back is pressed against the rough, uneven bark of a palm tree with his bare feet digging into the sand. Tommy’s eyes are closed. His little brother is tucked tight against his side, dozing softly as the slight breeze ruffles his dirty hair.

If Wilbur tried, he could pretend Tommy was just resting. He could pretend this was the two of them relaxing on some beach that they’ve gotten all to themselves. He could imagine that Tommy tuckered himself out, now the two of them were peacefully dozing off in the shade on a lovely Summer day as the gentle sea wind blew.

In that fantasy, they would have chosen to be here on this beach. A beach would make for a good day trip, he thinks. He imagines that it would be a beach off the coast of a small town. He’d take Tommy early in the morning down past the docks and watch Tommy hop along stones down a path leading towards the sand. Wilbur would make him carry a basket of bread and other treats that they might have gotten from a kind baker that didn’t mind that their pockets were a little low. Wilbur would smile and promise to repay them, and it’d be a real promise instead of a sharp-toothed lie.

He’d bring a threadbare sheet because they’d have one to spare for it. He’d spread it along the sand and bask in the sun’s rays. He’d open his eyes occasionally to Tommy’s excited shouts as his brother pulled odd shells and tiny hermit crabs from the ocean, then laugh as Tommy shouted obscenities when they inevitably fell from his hands because Tommy was anything but careful. A few shells would be saved though, and Tommy would make a small pile of them on the corner of the sheet for them to keep.

Tommy would eventually tug Wilbur up to join him. Wilbur would laugh and pretend to be reluctant as his brother guided him down towards the water until the warm waves lapped at their feet. Tommy would grin at him, bright as the sun overhead and his hair sparkling like strands of gold. He’d look so proud of himself as he showed Wilbur more shells and other interesting things he found.

Along the way, one of them would splash the other whether it be accidentally or not, and it’d start a war. Wilbur would laugh until his ribs were sore as he smacked water Tommy’s way and listened to the younger shout insults back at him. It’d all be in good fun and it’d show in Tommy’s toothy grin as the blond would get some harebrained idea of how to “win” their little game and it’d end with them both falling into the water. They’d be soaked to the bone and Wilbur would playfully smack water at Tommy’s face for getting them both wet, but it’d be fine in the end because they would sit out in the sun until their clothes dried. In this fantasy, Wilbur could imagine it wouldn’t matter anyway because once they went home, they’d have more clothes to change into and one pair wouldn’t be missed for a day.

When the sun started to set over the horizon, Wilbur would gather them up to leave. He’d gather up their food and make Tommy carefully fold up the sheet. It’d end up balled up instead and Wilbur would tease Tommy for his shit folding skills. They’d stay an extra few minutes to stare off at the sunset as it glistened over the calm waters. All would feel peaceful until Tommy ruined the moment with some joke that’d make Wilbur smack him upside the head, even though he’d laugh all the same.

They’d walk home with Tommy’s shells tucked safely into their pockets under the soft pink skies. A perfect background to a perfect day.

It would be nice, lovely even, because in that world they’d go home to some nice place Wilbur managed to keep for them in some nice town. It’d be real and theirs, and they’d each have a warm bed to sleep in and food in their stomachs. It might be small, but small was okay because they’d both be happy and they’d have nothing to fear.

If only life were ever so kind.

It was a nice daydream, but if Wilbur were to look down, it’d shatter. It’d shatter if he listened at all to the way Tommy’s breathing sounded off. With every low breath, his brother’s chest would shutter. Wilbur could feel it every time.

Tommy’s nose was red and peeling, as were his cheeks and shoulders. His freckles were hidden beneath the furious scarlet and white flecks. His skin had gotten tanner, but the dark rings under his eyes made him look ghastly. Wilbur was sure that he looked about the same himself, but seeing it on Tommy was different.

The boy was thin enough before they’d gotten stranded, but now his limbs looked just too small. Wilbur could practically see the bones poking through. If it weren’t for the blaring sun overhead tanning their skin, Wilbur was sure that Tommy would look more like a walking skeleton than a teenager.

They’d got thrown overboard days ago. Wilbur lost track of how many. He stopped really caring when he realized there were other things to care about, like keeping them alive.

Luck had never been on their side. Wilbur had known that since they were little and a twelve-year-old found himself in charge of a five-year-old.

The world’s always been against them. It started early with a mother too young to be on her own with a child. She was struggling enough as it was to keep them fed that when that one child turned to two, the odds for any of them getting by turned minimal. Even with Wilbur doing his best to help, swindling and snatching up food and loose change off of oblivious folk in the city, hope was running thin.

It was amazing she’d ever gotten so far. Wilbur hated to see it that way now, but it was the truth. The fact she’d ever made it to Tommy’s fifth birthday was incredible. When the sickness set in though, no amount of Wilbur’s efforts could seem to help her. Eventually, she’d stopped waking up entirely and Wilbur was left on his own to care for his little brother.

Luck ran out, but they made their own with time.

After losing their mother, Wilbur packed them up and they were off. He taught Tommy every trick he knew. They traveled endlessly, hopping from place to place just to keep moving whenever it seemed like any townsfolk around started catching onto their games. Wilbur tried a few odd jobs every time for money in places, and Tommy was tiny enough that he could sneak bread and other foods off vendors to bring back to whatever tiny hole they’d called home at that moment.

As they both got older, the tricks got better. Their stories were perfected and their act was flawless if ever they needed to talk someone into lending them a place out of pity, or a new job.

When Wilbur caught sight of a ship though, he’d thought they were golden. Sure, he only knew vaguely about working them. He’d taken on a few jobs on some docks before, but he’d never been on a ship himself. The thought was meant to be that if he could get on that ship for a job, he could bring Tommy along with him. They’d stay there and hop off at the first chance they could once they’d landed in a new country, then they’d start over for real. They’d start over fresh in a new place entirely and everything might be okay! They could make life whatever they wanted because no one would be able to know otherwise!

And everything did feel okay for a while. Turns out the ship Wilbur found was a crew of pirates, but like always, Wilbur managed to talk his way through. Tommy played along perfectly, and before they knew it, they became crew. Perhaps they were there for nothing more than playing clean-up, but they would take what they could get.

Their luck was turning up. As Wilbur started working his way through making connections with the crew, he was starting to think maybe he’d found a place for them. They wouldn’t stay, of course, but it made sense, didn’t it?

The constant traveling and plundering— that kind of life was meant for them. However, there were also rules to follow and heavy risks in not doing so. Neither of them were good at following rules, but they were good actors all the same that could fake it until their last breath. But for a short time, it felt like a good fit and Wilbur remembered telling Tommy as such.

Tommy was much more reluctant. He was getting by, but he didn’t like it there. Maybe Wilbur was succeeding, but Tommy was younger. His limbs were all thin and gangly, and it made him look weaker than he was. The crew would shove him around and they’d always be too loud in his ears. Tommy was rather loud himself, but when you’re trying to hold your tongue to survive, it wasn’t like he could exactly defend himself.

So maybe they didn’t see eye to eye about it, but that was fine. Wilbur agreed they’d only be there a little longer because the moment they docked somewhere new, they’d be off and onto wherever life would take them next.

Unfortunately, their luck ran out.

It all happened in a blur. Wilbur remembered when the storm hit. It was rougher than normal. He remembered fighting with the rest of the crew to take care of the ship. They were fighting hard to stay afloat as the waves rocked the ship from side to side so hard that Wilbur feared they would tip.

The ship didn’t tip, but Tommy did.

He could still vividly remember Tommy slipping. He’d watched in horror the way his brother scrambled for purchase on something, anything. He’s just barely caught the side of the ship.

Wilbur went after him, not caring in the slightest for whatever task he’d abandoned. He’d tried to help yank Tommy back aboard. Tommy, who held on with white knuckles and fingernails digging into the wood with fear in his eyes. Wilbur tried to reassure him, but he was sure his words got lost in the raging winds. He’d tried to pull Tommy back onto the deck, and for a moment, he was succeeding. He almost managed to pull Tommy back on board.

Right as he thought he’d gotten Tommy back though, the ship hit another furious set of waves. The brothers got thrown hard, and suddenly they were both going down.

It was a miracle they didn’t drown.

Wilbur sighed, closing his eyes once again. He tried to block out the memories of rushing water and Tommy’s screams of his name. He could still taste the seawater on his tongue as it tried to flood his lungs.

They’d gotten tossed endlessly in the waves. The ship was forgotten in the battle to just hold on to each other.

He combed his fingers through Tommy’s hair. The boy didn’t even respond. He must have finally fallen asleep, Wilbur thought to himself. Sleep hadn’t been easy to find since they’d woken up ashore. Though the island seemed abandoned, neither of them could be sure there wasn’t some hidden danger lurking somewhere. Their sunburns didn’t make it easy either with the way their skin would ache. Even in the shade or the dark of the night, they’d struggle to find enough comfort to rest at all.

He was glad Tommy was getting some sleep now. He was getting rather tired himself. As much as he’d like to give in, one of them needed to stay awake just in case.

Wilbur groaned as he forced his eyes to peel open once more. As his vision started to clear, he noticed the mirage was getting closer. The blurry shape of the ship was getting bigger. It was looking like it was getting ready to dock at the edge of the island at any minute. Or at least it would if it were actually real.

Wilbur huffed, resting his cheek on Tommy’s head. He watched idly as the ship grew closer and closer to the edge of the shore. It wasn’t coming straight towards them. It was heading more towards the left edge of the island where the trees were a bit more scattered, but the shoreline was still mostly clear of rocks.

It wasn’t until it was starting to look suspiciously more and more lifelike that Wilbur started to get more intrigued.

Furrowing his brows, he lifted his head. He pulled away from Tommy some to sit up further. Tommy groaned in protest. The motion caused the boy to slide down, his head resting more on Wilbur’s chest than shoulder. Wilbur wanted to hush him and whisper soft apologies for disturbing him at all. Unfortunately, the ship’s drawing nearer by the second and Wilbur could feel something akin to hope bubbling up in his throat.

He frantically nudged at Tommy’s side, “Tommy. Tommy, wake up.”

“Augh…” Tommy rolled his head, burying his face further into Wilbur’s shirt with an annoyed whine. He weakly smacked at Wilbur’s arm, “Fuck off, Wilbur… M’tryin’ to sleep, asshole…”

As much as Wilbur wished he could agree, he needed Tommy’s eyes. “Get up! I think I see something,” Wilbur urged. He shoved Tommy off him until the boy got the hint to sit up on his own.

The blond looked absolutely pitiful. Tommy rubbed at his tired eyes with his fists. Wilbur’s chest ached with remorse for having bothered him, but he told himself that again, it could be for good reason.

“What the fuck’re you on about?” Tommy mumbled irritably.

“Look! Look there,” Wilbur hissed, pointing out at the ship. It seemed to be getting ready to dock. Tiny figures could be seen moving along the deck, grabbing at ropes and such. “Do you see that?”

It took a moment for Tommy to follow where he was pointing. The boy was still getting his bearings on being awake again. Wilbur almost turned Tommy’s head himself to see though. Patience was growing thin as their potential hope of being able to escape was growing stronger, but he needed to be sure. It could be his mind playing cruel tricks on him. The exhaustion could finally be taking its toll, and maybe Tommy would be of no help because he could be seeing nothing as well, but the chances of them imagining the same ship with the same little people had to be high.

“See wha’?” Tommy’s voice was still groggy from sleep. The boy’s eyes slowly followed Wilbur’s finger towards the ship. Wilbur watched as the recognition clicked into place and all at once their hope seemed more plausible. Tommy’s eyes widened, “T-That’s— Wilbur, that’s a ship!” His head whipped around to look up at Wilbur. “That’s a real ship, innit?! Please tell me that’s real!”

The brunette was already grinning and nodding along with that same spark in his eye. “Oh, thank fuck! You see it too then! I thought maybe I was just imagining it.”

For the first time in days, Tommy looked excited. “Holy shit, Wilbur, we might be saved!”

He tried to stagger to his feet. Wilbur had to rush to catch him before he stumbled to the ground, “Tommy, careful!”

He caught the boy before he could fall. Tommy winced, teeth gritting to bite back a cry. Wilbur noticed it instantly. He dropped Tommy’s arms at once, moving to take the other’s wrists where the burns were less present. The younger steadied himself on his feet with Wilbur’s cautious guidance. Once he was stable, he passed Wilbur a sheepish grin, “Heh, oops?”

Wilbur heaved out a sigh. There was no way he could be mad at that, not that he ever planned to. He shook his head, letting go of Tommy completely now that it seemed his brother could stand on his own. He straightened up, looking out towards where the head of the ship was disappearing behind the treeline. Taking a deep breath, Wilbur ruffled a hand through his hair before looking back to Tommy, “I think they’re planning to dock on that side. If we go now, we might be able to get on.”

“Then what are we waiting for?! Let’s go!” Tommy shouted excitedly. With that, he turned to march ahead.

He barely got a step before Wilbur was catching him by the wrist to stop him, “Wait a second! I wasn’t done yet!”

Tommy practically whined as he was stopped for the second time. He turned back on his heel with a loud groan, “What? The ship’s right there, Wilbur! We need to go!”

Wilbur could understand his enthusiasm. He wanted off this island as much as Tommy did, but if they were going to get onto that ship, they needed a plan.

“Listen to me. I’m not sure we’ll be able to sneak on without getting found out and I don’t know about you, but I really don’t feel like getting tossed off another ship,” Wilbur told him honestly.

Tommy’s nose wrinkled at the reminder. Sniffing, the boy turned to face him better, “Then what? You want us to go and just ask them? Like ‘hi, Mister Captain, sir! Could we please jump on this here ship you got? I know you don’t know us and it’d be really to leave us for dead, but I think if you’d really just considered it for a second deep in your heart’— honestly, that’s sounds really stupid, Wilbur. No one’s going to fall for that!”

Wilbur sputtered, trying not to choke on a laugh. “No, no! As if that’d ever work.” He cleared his throat, pulling himself back together quickly. “We don’t know what kind of ship we’re dealing with yet. I say we go stake out the ship first and plan from there. But if we get caught, I think I already have a few ideas in mind. But whatever we do, we just have to stick to it well enough to get to their next stop.”

Tommy rolled his eyes, “Sounds easy enough. Now can we just go already? I’m so tired of all this stupid sand.” ****** ****** ****** ****** ****** ****** ******

“So…” Phil dragged out the word. Techno remained tense behind him, leaning against the side of the ship. Phil didn’t need to look behind him to know the man was glaring at the pair of boys in front of them, searching for some sign to not trust the two. Phil held up a hand as if to silently gesture his first mate to settle down. He could handle this. “How about we start with your names, alright, boys?”

The two young men before him traded a look. Whatever mental conversation the two had ended in the span of seconds before the older of the pair was clearing his throat. The brunette was suddenly holding out a hand, “Captain Ishmael. Honor to meet another Captain”

“Ishmael?…” Phil slowly repeated, taking the man’s hand. He’d give it to the kid. For someone that was clearly on the verge of exhaustion, he had a good grip. “Really?”

“Uh huh!” Ishmael took his hand back with a rather proud grin, “It’s a family name. Passed down from generation to generation! I’m Ishmael the 3rd actually, in case you wanted to know.”

Phil did not. He couldn’t care less about this man’s history, but he did care about the fact that he could have sworn the man didn’t have as much of an accent before. And it seemed to be growing thicker with every word (as if “Ishmael” was getting his bearings on his new voice).

“As you can probably guess, we’re a very long way from home, you know?” Ishmael went on without missing a beat. “We had a ship of our own, but huge storm took it out with the rest of our crew and, well, you can see how things turned out.”

Phil only arched a brow further. He was sure the disbelief was heavy on his expression, “Right…” He turned his attention to the young boy beside the self-proclaimed captain. He’d been mostly quiet since boarding. “And what about you, mate?”

“Gunk,” the boy croaked up after a moment. His voice was incredibly hoarse. He had the same accent as Ishmael, lending slight credit to their tale, not that Phil believed either of them in the slightest.

“Gunk.”

The boy hummed, leaning heavily on the young Captain’s shoulder. “Yep. And that’s Gunk Gorbachev to you,” the kid added, weakly lifting his head enough to shoot Phil a glare, pointing a finger as well in a way the older blond assumed was meant to look threatening. “Heir to the Gorbachev throne, I’ll have you know.”

Phil only stared blankly at the kid. Blinking slowly, he settled on a simple, “Okay… So, we have Captain Ishmael and Gunk…”

“Gorbachev,” the kid corrected.

Phil nodded, “Gorbachev. So tell me why exactly should I let you on my ship?”

Ishmael cleared his throat first, “Well, as I mentioned before, our ship got destroyed in the storm. I know you’ve got no reason to believe us, but I assure you when we get back to the nearest mainland, I can find you all the proof I can to prove Gunk’s father is a highly influential man. He would waste no time to give you as much money as you wish for his son’s safe return.”

Before Phil could answer, Techno was doing so for him. “If he’d only send an amount for the kid, then why should we bother to keep you?”

To Ishmael's credit, he held his own well. Phil knew exactly how intimidating Techno could be, especially when he was trying. The man could make most men cower with a single look. Ishmael, however, held Techno’s look head-on, lips stretched into a firm line, “Well I’ll have you know, I’m one of King Gorbachev’s most trusted Captains. I’m now Gunk’s primary caretaker as well, seeing as the rest of our people were taken down in the waves. The bounty for my safe return will be high. Not as high as Gunk’s, but it’s still more bounty for you, isn’t it?”

“But you still crashed his ship,” Techno bluntly pointed out, much to Ishmael’s disliking. “Someone who can’t take care of their own ship and out of their crew, only manages to keep themselves and some kid alive doesn’t sound very worthy to me. At least, that’s not someone I’d wanna take back.”

Ishmael narrowed his eyes sharply, “I think as someone who lives their life on the water, you would know how unpredictable the sea can be, Sir…”

“Technoblade,” the said man gruffly answered.

“Technoblade,” the name almost sounded cruel on Ishmael’s tongue, “I’m sure you know exactly how unfair the tides are. You can’t always predict the storms when they come, neither can you always get away from them in time. I’ll have you know, Technoblade, I did my damned hardest to save my crew, but the waves separated us and took my ship down with it. You don’t think I haven’t spent days searching the shores for signs of my crew? Because I have.” Ishmael’s voice was getting louder and more emotional with every word. “The best I could do was to do my sworn task, which was keep Gunk here safe…”

Phil could see the sheen of tears behind the young captain's eyes as he choked on those last few words, and if he was lying, Phil had to admit the kid was a pretty damn good actor.

Ishmael’s arm was wrapped protectively around the Gunk’s shoulders, keeping the boy close to his chest as if it really were his sworn duty and he couldn’t handle the thought of failing another task, especially one so crucial.

Gunk was in on it as well. The boy played a pretty convincing part of the sad child that’s lost his people. Phil might feel bad if it turned out to be true because he did look awfully pitiful. He had his head tucked against Ishmael’s chest. His eyes weren’t closed, but they stared ahead, unblinking yet filled with sadness as if he were reliving the painful memories.

“Now I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t talk about my loss,” Ishmael finished, squaring his shoulders once more. The man’s dark eyes were hardened over in a way that almost made Phil believe his story. That was a soldier’s look if he knew one. “It isn’t as if I haven’t been thinking about them enough for the past few days… How would you like it if the seas turned on you and took your crew?”

Techno seemed to have nothing more to say to that. This talk seemed to have turned much more emotional than he planned. He crossed his arms with a grunt, breaking Ishmael's gaze to glower at the deck instead.

Ishmael broke the gaze as well, huffing loudly before turning his attention back on Philza. “Now as I was saying, you can offer me up as well. If the king offers you nothing, you can kill me, that’s fine. But I think you’d be wasting your effort if you did so now and lost even more bounty. You seem like two very smart men, so I don’t think you’d want to pass up on a good deal for nothing, would you?”

“I suppose not…” Phil hummed, leaning back in his seat. “But how do you know we won’t kill you after the payment?”

Ishmael shrugged, “Then that’s the risk we’ll have to take, isn’t it? It’s sure better than dying alone on an island, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Fair enough,” Phil decided. He pushed himself to stand and motioned to a nearby crew member towards the boys, “They can stay. We’re keeping the same route as we were without them.”

“You can’t be serious,” Techno spoke up, standing up to follow after him. A few crewmen were already passing them by to start prepping the ship for departure once more. Techno dodged between them, growling as he hurried to catch up to Phil’s side, “Please, Phil, you can’t really believe any of that, can you? That was the fakest story I’ve ever heard! C’mon! I mean, did you even hear that sob story?! The kid’s claiming to be a prince?!”

Phil only hummed noncommittally, “Now, Techno, I don’t think I ever said I believed them. I said I’d let them stay.”

“Phil, that’s two extra mouths to feed,” Techno sneered back. Phil didn’t need to spare him a glance to know how disgruntled his companion looked. “That’s two extra people wasting space that we don’t need! We could have just left them there! No one would notice! We probably won’t even get any bounty from this! It’ll just be a waste of time!”

“Then I guess we’ll have to wait and see,” Phil answered, patience holding strong as ever. He’d already prepared himself for Techno’s barrage of questions. He had a feeling his first mate wouldn’t be thrilled about keeping a new pair of strays, especially ones that tried to lie their way into staying. “They’re only a couple of kids, mate. They’ll only be here a few weeks at most, then we’ll be rid of them for good. It won’t hurt us to babysit for a while.”

“I didn’t sign up to be a babysitter, Phil! I don’t even like kids!” Technoblade was starting to sound more exasperated by the second. It took everything for Phil not to smile. His normally composed partner was throwing a fit over a couple of stowaways, as if their crew wasn’t built off similar strays. Though Phil supposed the difference was those strays were a little more honest. Phil couldn’t tell if that was the problem, or if Techno was taking difficulty sharing space with more newcomers. Apparently he wasn’t done, so Phil would soon find out.

“I mean, really, Phil. We could take in so many other things. But you choose a couple kids lying that one of them’s some fake king’s heir and the other’s a— a fake captain? Who fakes being a captain! You’ve gotta agree with me here, Phil. ‘Cause I’m sure lying about being a captain is normal,” Techno snarked, “totally normal kid things.”

Phil sighed, and paused in his step. Techno paused with him, just a step behind. Phil turned to face his partner. Techno only stares back at him, expression stoic as ever, but Phil could see the heavy annoyance in his eyes. If Phil hadn’t known him for all the years he had, he would never guess the man was only about as old as the self-proclaimed captain. He’d be a liar if he said it wasn’t starting to show currently, which Phil deemed for better or worse. For as old as he tried to seem, Techno was still quite young.

Phil placed a hand on the younger man’s shoulder, “You worry too much, mate. Yes, it is probably a lie. Honestly, I can’t say I ever believed even a second of any of it, but you saw how they looked. They were sunburnt and thirsty, and likely going to be stranded for the gods only know how long. Do you really think if you were stuck in their situation, you wouldn’t try to say anything you could to make sure you stay alive? Even if it sounded absolutely ridiculous?”

Techno went silent for a moment. Phil watched him mull over his answer. Finally, his partner averted his gaze towards the horizon. “Well I wouldn’t be as obvious about it…”

Phil cracked a laugh, “Oh, I wouldn’t either. It was really obvious, wasn’t it?” He chuckled, and gave Techno’s shoulder a soft squeeze before pulling away to continue walking, “We’ll keep a close eye on them. You can watch them as closely as you want, if that makes you feel any better. If anything seems too suspicious, then we’ll handle it. For now, let them recover. Let them rehydrate and eat, and we’ll just listen to see how their story changes. Maybe if we’re lucky, they’ll be worth their weight after all. It’s just a few weeks.” (Spoiler: it was more than a few weeks and Dadza Phil did the Dadza attachment thing as always.)

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florvinhara · 3 years

Text

felt it ripping me apart (part 1)

summary: kira deals with the aftermath of turning

warnings for heavy angst !!!

word count: 2.2k

read on ao3 or below the cut:

Kira wakes from a nebulous, pained darkness to the memory of a familiar voice- beloved, broken- calling her name.

At first, she wonders if she’s hungover; the lights are dimmed but too bright, and she feels sick with a hollow emptiness that tangles her stomach into knots. She sits up with a groan, and scrubs at her face with her hands until flashes of recollection start to surface from the depths of her foggy mind. They are more sensation than anything else, brief impressions of moments in time. Blood. Please. Pain. I’m sorry. Cold. Stay with me.

Blood… no, she is decidedly not hungover. She had woken up before, she recalls, feeling stiff and strange all over, and upon trying to stand up had been overcome with a tidal wave of nauseated exhaustion so strong she’d had to sit hunched on the edge of the bed holding her swimming head between her knees until she’d stopped feeling like she might pass out. Her second attempt had not been much more successful, and she had resigned herself to laying back and irritably shoving at the scratchy sheets until someone came to explain why she was once again in the Agency’s medical wing.

She had remained entirely silent while Elidor gently explained what had happened, pushing aside complicated swirls of emotion and focusing only on the concrete facts, of which there were three. In order, she’s been going through them again and again, turning them over in her mind like puzzle pieces which don’t quite fit into the rest of the picture.

One- she had been mortally wounded.

Two- they’d turned her; there had been no other option to save her life. Which means that:

Three: she is not going to die. Not now, perhaps not ever.

It’s a short list, but she repeats it religiously- one, two three, one, two three- because otherwise, her mind will start wandering. The trek from these simple isolated truths to their messier implications is a short one she can’t stand to make. Will she have to leave Wayhaven? It had been in her plans, eventually, but there’s a difference between moving and having to slowly disentangle yourself entirely from human society as an unforgivable amount of time passes you by untouched.

More pressing, how will she leave this hospital room? Because beyond this controlled environment, with its drawn shades and soundproofed walls, is a noisy, chaotic world that had already at times overwhelmed her until she couldn’t breathe.

And there is one more concern; she has pointedly not allowed her train of thought to drift in that particular direction, but the seed of fearful doubt is rapidly taking root in the back of her mind anyway, snarling around her spine and curling purposefully at her throat. After all, it is one terrifying thing to love someone knowing that your lives run on different tracks, that you must fit the vast expanses of your devotion into the span of 60 or so years. To promise your eternity to another person is another animal altogether, and she cannot ask Nate to give her that- it is a gift she doesn’t deserve, and why would he want to offer it anyway? She knows how much he misses humanity, seeks out the echoes of it wherever he can- without hers, will he recognize her, or just see the chasm where that mortal part of her used to be?

It doesn’t bear thinking about for long, the inevitable, and so she pulls her focus back to the safety of the past, the proven. She’s managed to delay whatever is going to come next so far, having asked Elidor for some time alone to rest. It had been a flimsy excuse, but he had kindly pretended to believe it and let her be, staring blankly at the wall and mentally reciting the concise points that comprised her list until sleep had claimed her.

Perhaps it had helped after all; she still feels hollowed out and numb, but the sickly dizziness is gone and the lights above her no longer leave sharp, star-like patterns in the backs of her eyes. The signs are promising enough that she decides to try standing again, shoving the blankets off and swinging her legs over the edge of the bed. This time, she does manage it, though she immediately stumbles upon making contact with the ground as a strange, shaky sensation skitters up her calves, pins and needles pressing against the soles of her feet and making her wobble like a newborn foal. She grabs at the pole where an IV bag would usually be hanging for support, wincing at the bright spark of unexpected chill where her hands make contact.

Did this get shorter? she thinks distantly, and then remembers that the pole isn’t shorter, she’s just taller now, and she wonders if that means she’ll have to buy new clothes. Which is just so stupid, so ridiculously not important a detail in the grand scheme of things, the fact that her mind jumped there first makes a laugh just left of hysterical fizzle in her throat, and it is so profoundly unlike her that it makes her feel sick. She stumbles to the adjoined washroom as she feels her chest constrict painfully in feverish panic, dragging the IV pole behind her half for balance and half for comfort, and leans over the sink, gasping for breath, until her heart stops beating against her ribs like a caged animal and she can inhale without the air stabbing knife-like at her lungs.

Slowly but surely, her breathing evens out, and she glances up at her reflection in the mirror- then freezes.

The differences are slight, so much so that at first she thinks it must be a trick of the light, but the more she casts her gaze over the face reflected back at her, the more she is sure it cannot be hers. Or, more accurately, it is hers in the way that an old picture is one’s self- similar enough to recognize but changed enough to be almost another person entirely.

It looks as though she has never lived in this body, never tested its limits by climbing that one unsteady tree branch and knocking a deep, jagged scar into her forehead for her trouble. Never pierced her own ears with a needle and ice cube in a misguided attempt at rebellion. Never stayed up through the night and marked the sleepless hours by the dark circles under her eyes. She grips the sink as she searches for familiarity in the reflection before her; the porcelain crumbles like sand beneath her shaking fingers, and this too is hideously unrecognizable, the strength and the unintentional destruction it can bring, the need to exist cautiously.

The more she looks, the more untethered from herself she feels, unmade and reformed by an architect with little regard for detail, the outline and not the shape itself. And she supposes she has been, in a way- she remembers, if nothing else, the searing agony as her bones had separated and knit themselves back together. It shouldn’t be real, it shouldn’t be possible for these traces of her life, the storms she has weathered and the consequences of her recklessness, to be wiped from her body as if they had never existed. A map unmade. A history forgotten. Even the scar she’d gotten from Murphy is vanished, a feat not accomplished even by the Agency’s healing magic. And for some reason it is this, the absence of a scar she never wanted, that finally breaks her as she sinks to the floor with a dark dismay rising in her throat like bile.

---

The linoleum floor is cold against her shins, but she welcomes the bracing shock it gives her, focuses intently on the sensation of it pressing on her legs as another swell of dread threatens to drown her. Her hands find each other, twisting anxiously until she realizes she does not recognize them either; the familiar divots of old scars and callouses are gone, as are the crooked slant where she had broken her fingers. Frantically, she wrenches them apart, despising their unfamiliarity.

Enough of this, she reprimands herself sternly, one clear thought in a swirling sea-storm of panic and confusion and what-ifs. She latches onto it desperately, presses her hands, still fluttering nervously as they seek out the comfort of a repetitive motion, flat against the cold floor and thinks it over and over again- enough, enough, enough- until the word has lost its meaning and she feels somewhat calmer again.

Her mind is still spinning in anxious circles, tying itself in knots the more she thinks. There’s only one surefire solution she knows of to ease the worried maelstrom; it’s time to remove herself from the equation, consider this from a more scientific standpoint. This doesn’t have to destroy her. Or maybe it does- after all, creation is a promise of violence, in and of itself born from destruction. Cells beget new cells by ripping themselves in two; the body is constantly sloughing off parts of itself which have outlived their usefulness. And this must still be true, even though so much is different, because stasis is death to the thousands of systems constantly at work to keep someone operating. Maybe there is some comfort there, then, that even though she cannot see it, at the smallest level, the familiar processes are continuing.

She imagines she can hear them now, blood rushing from her heart to deliver oxygen to the rest of her body, cells splitting apart and bursting as they die only to be replaced instantly, even her DNA unwinding and reforming as it encodes new strands of her genetic information. How much of it changed along with her- which genes were snipped out of existence and remade in a different, ‘better’ image?

Damn. Not even two minutes later and she’s already cycled back to her horror at the transformation, visible and invisible- perhaps this won’t destroy her after all, she’ll just do it herself fixating on the sharp, shattered pieces of the dissonance between the self she recognizes and the one she sees reflected in the mirror.

A worried voice cuts through the thick miasma of dismay choking her like poison- Elidor, knocking at the door and asking if she’s alright. Is she? No, she thinks, even as she calls out, “Yeah, just a minute,” and feels so much sudden relief to hear her voice, unchanged, that she nearly blacks out. Slowly, and with much aid from the IV pole, she pulls herself to her feet and chances another glance at the mirror. Immediately, she feels an overwhelming urge to punch it, to shatter the glass until her reflection is torn apart by the spiderwebbing shards, but she shoves it down forcefully, searches for resolve in the eyes looking back at her. She finds nothing there, but knows Elidor is waiting outside and opens the door, resigned.

“I was wondering where that pole had run off to,” he says with a teasing smile that falters the moment they make eye contact. Well, that was a short-lived act. “Kira, what’s wrong?”

Nothing that can be fixed, nothing that she doesn’t just have to get over and deal with. She starts to tell him as much, but her throat is so tight that her voice grates painfully as she speaks and she gives up halfway through the sentence, ending with a dismissive wave that falls too far flat of insouciant to be convincing.

Elidor’s brow furrows in concern. “I’ll get the rest of the team, and-”

“No!” she cuts in, flinging a hand out to stop him. If there’s one thing she’s absolutely sure of, it’s that she cannot be around them right now, can’t let them see that she can’t handle this, can’t deal with their thoughts or feelings or opinions when her own are still such a confused mess. And she especially cannot see Nate, not when she knows what’s going to happen; of course, he is going to be perfectly kind, even as he tells her this can’t work, she’s too different now that she is divorced from her humanity, he had never intended for this relationship to last centuries.

His gentleness will cut deeper than the words themselves, and if she could, she would do it herself, end it for him quickly and impersonally so she can spare them both the pain. But she is too unmoored right now, too frustratingly unsure of herself, to face a reality that has fundamentally shifted. “No, please, just- can you tell them I’m not awake yet? Or- just, anything?” Some small, unchanged part of her mind rebels violently at that, hates her for the cowardice, but it is too easily drowned out by the tumult of dazed doubts and worries shadowing her to be heard.

It takes about ten minutes of pleading for Elidor to uneasily agree to give her more time; eventually, he concedes, and leaves the room with a concerned glance over his shoulder. The door closes behind him, and she lets herself sink to the ground once more, curled over like she could belatedly shield herself from the injury which necessitated all this, until she drags herself back into the bed and seeks relief in unconsciousness.

#well ... Here it is!#lowkey i am Concerned so Please lmk if there is anything else i should tag this with for warnings!!!#anyway magnum opus / mirror fic part 1! part 2 coming... sometime ksjdfk #twc #twc fic #zephwriting

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itstittycitybaby · 4 years

Text

What is Lost is Once Found Again (Lin Beifong x fem! reader)

A/N: this is the angst fic and i have finished editing it. been feeling down lately because of some things so whens a better time to write something angsty? also reader is a firebender bc i feel like firebenders do not get enough love. enjoy yall.

warnings: angst, emotional/physical abuse, one homophobic slur.

You saw how happy they were. They couldn’t keep their hands off of each other. The bouquet of flowers fell from your hands. Its petals falling like the pieces of your heart that shattered. Though, this was your fault wasn’t it? You had introduced them after all and they hit it off. The rest was history. She laughed; Tenzin had made her laugh. Your vision became blurry from the tears in your eyes. You wanted to scream. You had been too late. Lin looked over and waved at you. There was a grin on her face, something you never really saw from her. You swallowed the cry that threatened to claw its way out. The urge to vomit was strong. You waved back weakly. Their attention turned from you and back to them. The fresh wild flowers you had picked for her were now damaged. It didn’t matter anymore. She looked so happy standing next to him. Lin’s green eyes looked a bit soft as she noticed the bouquet. It was a rare sight to see her so happy. Her voice sounded blurry and muddled. It felt like you were watching a movie play out on the big screen of a theatre. Tenzin looked concerned at your state of being. Here you were standing in front of them but you seemed gone. Lin’s voice snapped you out of your daze.

Her strong features pulled in concern as she called your name softly. “Are you alright?” No, you weren’t. You couldn’t tell Lin how much it hurt to see how happy she was with Tenzin. You couldn’t confess your feelings that you’ve been harboring for a while. Tenzin was your best friend and you didn’t want to ruin how joyful he was. If he knew he’d step aside and let you have her. He’d swallow it all down just for you. Blinking, your lips quivered. “I-I was just going to visit my father’s grave,” you lied. Their faces dropped; they knew how important your father had been to you. “Is that what you were going to give him,” Tenzin asked gently, head motioning to the now ruined flowers on the gravel. At that moment you hated Tenzin. He was so soft and kind that you felt guilty about falling in love with his girlfriend. You nodded, “Doesn’t matter anyways. I-I gotta go...see you later.” They tried to stop you; they called after you but you ignored them. She was gone now. You were too late. They were so enamored with each other now it didn’t matter anymore. The ache in your heart was deep. You felt anchored in the cold icy waters of the ocean but you couldn’t reach out. Cement blocks held your feet every time as you dragged through the sand. The ache in your bones became numb with the cold and every time you screamed you’d choke on the water. He makes her happy, you told yourself. I was too late.

Neither of them really talked to you anymore. It was expected, though. They were a new couple in the honeymoon phase. That’s how your mother put it, the alcohol in her system making her words slur and her movements clumsy. Your father’s anniversary of his death had passed a couple days ago and your mom became even more depressed. You fought the urge to scorch the walls that night when she spat her venomous words towards you. They were a sharp blade but you didn’t care. It would sink its blades into your skin and blood would rise. Eventually, it all became numb. Her sharp hilt of words became numb once more. “It’s your fault he’s dead. It’s your fault he’s gone.” The words stung but she was right. Your father’s death was your fault. “You know,” Tenzin started, his legs swinging off the steps of your porch. “My family will always welcome you.” It was cold that night. The freezing air bit your fingers and the wind whipped your clothes around. Tenzin had come to check up on you. He always did every anniversary. “I know,” you said softly. “I know.”

“No wonder she doesn’t talk to you anymore. A handsome and kind man sweeps Lin off of her feet. I’d do the same.” Your mother was sober this morning. She was back to her usual jabs but the eggs in front of you helped drown her out. You clenched your fork tightly, your knuckles turned white. “Too bad you couldn’t get him first.” You slammed your fist down on the counter. Flames flickered in your hands. Its tongues threatened to burn the counter you sat at. Your mother whipped around, eyes growing wide at your burning hands. You could feel how scared she was. She didn’t bother you anymore that day.

Dammit Tenzin! Lin’s room was warm compared to your frozen house. You always envied her for it but not tonight. You held her tight as she vented about her boyfriend. Well, now ex boyfriend. The thought made you scoff. Pema was a sweet girl but she was selfish. Incredibly selfish. “Am I just unloveable?” You snapped out of your thoughts. Lin didn’t shed any tears but her voice sounded so broken. “No Lin no,” you said softly, rubbing her shoulder supportively. “Tenzin’s just a dumbass. Pema is selfish and wanted to break two people’s happiness. Tenzin was stupid to got for it. You are loveable Lin.” I love you. Lin swallowed thickly; you could see her fighting the tears. “It’s stupid to cry over.” “No,” you exclaimed, pulling her into your chest. “It’s something perfectly justified to cry over! If you wanna cry you should, it’s good to cry.” “Heh. Thanks.”

You smiled softly. The moon shone on her pale features beautifully through her bedroom window. You had snuck out that night but your mom had drunk herself to sleep. You couldn’t help but think how selfish Pema was to break two people apart. While you had kept your mouth shut and swallowed the hurt, she paraded around with Tenzin. Lin’s bedroom window was open after she helped you in. You felt guilty about throwing a small rock near her window. But, when you heard Tenzin had broken up with her from some gossip in town, you made haste to Lin. The box of fudge from the bakery you had bought for her was almost empty from eating both of your feelings. “Please don’t hurt him,” Lin said softly in your arms. Her eyes were heavy and her breathing was more shallow. “I’ll try not to,” you joked. She laughed. For the first time that night she laughed and your heart swelled at the thought. “Night Lin,” you whispered, setting her gently onto the bed. She snored softly, causing your heart to swell. You kissed her head and ventured home.

You swung your feet from Lin’s bathroom counter. Tenzin and Lin hadn’t talked in a little over a year. Being your best friend the two of you talked and you gave clipped answers when he’d ask about her. Anytime you saw Pema you felt the rage and felt flames in your palms threatening to burst. You had yelled at him for an hour about how stupid and selfish he was. Aang had to come outside and see what all the ruckus was about. “Fuck,” you said tightly. You came back to the present from the stinging pain of the rubbing alcohol. “Sorry,” Lin muttered. For being such a hardass she was gentle when she needed to be. The cotton ball was soft on your temple, giving you some relief. At least the nosebleed stopped, but your eye was beginning to swell. “She can’t be doing this to you anymore,” she said softly, her brows worrying. For being nineteen, Lin looked pretty mature. Though, she had always been more stern and responsible even as a kid.

“It’s fine,” you muttered, brushing it off. You winced at the alcohol again. “No it’s not,” she replied sternly. You could see her green eyes flare up but there was concern and worry underneath it. “If you need somewhere to stay you can stay with me. I don’t want you to have to go through this anymore.” You didn’t interrupt her rant. Interrupting Lin is the equivalent to poking a grumpy old bear/ “What happened this time?” You sighed. You really didn’t want to have this conversation. Lin was open minded about certain things but you weren’t sure about being attracted to the same gender. It was still something you yourself were coming to terms with. Your mother had found out and the glass bottle shattered on the wall. It was meant for your head. “Just her being her usual self. Getting mad at something,” you clipped. Lin could tell you weren’t telling the whole story but she let it drop, thankfully. “All done,” she said. “Thanks.” She nodded in reply. “Do you need to stay here tonight?” “I don’t wanna intrude. I can stay at Kiki’s.” Kiki’s was the bakery you had bought the box of fudge for Lin when Tenzin broke up with her. The owner was always kind to you and knew about your struggles. He was warm hearted and offered you a place to crash from time to time. He reminded you of your father. Lin shook her head. “You’re staying here tonight. Besides, I just got this place and I want to spend time with you.” Your heart warmed at her words. An unrequited crush, two years strong. How sad. Your mother’s words rang in your ears. “How could she ever love a fag like you?”

It was raining that morning. Kiki’s had hired you as a baker and offered you the room upstairs. Even though firebenders were known to be ambitious, passionate, and more aggressive than others, you had no drive or ambition. You didn’t know what you wanted in life but baking was something you were passionate about. “I’m gonna be out,” you shouted over your shoulder. “Alright be safe,” Maro, the store owner, called out from the back. Swinging your satchel over your shoulder you grabbed the box of leftover donuts for Lin. You balanced the two coffee cups on the box and swiftly left the place. Your bright blue bicycle rested on the side of the bakery. As you mounted your bike you smiled, excited to see Lin today. The two coffee cups sat in the cup holders on the sides of the basket while the donuts sat safely in the basket.The wind whipped through your hair and the rain drizzled lightly. The rain was light but you peddled quickly so the food wouldn’t be ruined. Lin’s wasn’t too far Kiki’s either. It felt freeing to be peddling down the hills; your worries flew away with the sweeping wind. Her apartment came into view. The thought of seeing her made you peddle faster. You placed your bike on the side of the building and pounded up the stairs. You held the box of donuts tightly in your hands, shielding it from the now pouring rain. Your heart quickened as you reached her front door. You had left Kiki’s at eight so she had to be up by now. You knocked on her door. Faintly, you could hear her footsteps. Lin greeted you with a blanket on her shoulders and a white tank top under it. Black sweats hugged her body nicely. The dark circles under her eyes were prominent in the bright gray morning. “What a surprise,” she said, the corners over her lips tugging upwards. You chuckled, “Had some leftovers and decided to visit. It’s been a while.” Her eyes lightened up at the sight of coffee and the delicious pastries. Lin held the door for you as you balanced the goodies and stepped into her apartment.

“Talked to Tenzin finally.” You almost choked on the sprinkled donut you were eating. Lin held her coffee cup in her hands as she glanced down at her kitchen counter. Her plain glazed donut sat on a napkin untouched. You gulped your food down. “That’s..great. What’d he say?” Lin chuckled at your answer. “He apologized, actually.” She sipped her black coffee. “Oh…” you trailed off. You weren’t sure how to respond. He had broken up with her three years ago and now apologized? “I don’t feel anything about it anymore. I was surprised, honestly.” You hummed, sipping your hot chocolate. “Took him long enough.” Lin snorted, “It did. I just can’t help but wonder...why.” You shot a confused glance her way, digging into the box for another sweet. A chocolate donut, this time. You missed the smile Lin had as she saw your childlike wonder and excitement about something so small as a pastry. “No one seems to have any interest in me anymore. Can’t help but wonder if I’m going to die alone,” she joked, taking another sip of her drink. You could hear a bit of sadness in her voice though. Passion bubbled in your chest and before you could think better you opened your mouth. “You’re not gonna die alone Lin. You’re sweet and kind and compassionate. You care about the people you love and are fiercely loyal. You’re intelligent and observant and also snarky. You’re just so….perfect!” The creeping anxiety surged when the answer you met with was silence. Muffled laughter escaped Lin’s lips as she tried to keep a straight face. It was rare; her body shook and the giggles turned into laughter. It rang in your ears and your heart swelled at the perfect sound. Before you could stop yourself, you kissed her.Her lips tasted like coffee and mint. She smelt like earth, paper, and leather. Her lips were soft and plush. Your eyes widened and immediately you pulled back. “I-I’m so s-sorry I-,” you sputtered, scurrying away from her. Lin just stared. There was no expression on her face as she looked at you. You felt tears run down your cheeks before you had a chance to stop them. A heavy lump sat in your throat and you dashed to get your bag. You left without another word, slamming Lin’s door behind you. She didn’t even try to stop you.

“I’m a fucking idiot,” you sobbed, the rain pouring, soaking you to the bone. You peddled faster, sobs unleashing from your throat. The road was hard to see from the rain and your blurry vision. You didn’t care, if something or someone hit you you would accept your fate. Hell, that would be a good one. Better than losing Lin for good. Once you wheeled your bike to it’s spot you dashed into Kiki’s. Customers sat at tables leaving the workers distracted so you bolted upstairs. You didn’t feel like having Maro interrogate your crying right now. As much as you loved the big jolly man, you couldn’t let him see you like this. You changed out of your wet clothes and threw on something comfortable. For the rest of the day you let your blankets embrace you and cried your heart out. Eventually, you drifted off to sleep.

It was five pm once you woke up again. The memory of kissing Lin and acting so stupid made you curse. Tears threatened to spill again and you trembled. A soft knock snapped you out of your thoughts. “Come in,” you croaked. Maro opened the door poking his head in. “Are you alright?” The dam broke loose. Instantly you were a sobbing mess again. The man who was almost like your father closed the door quickly and held you in his arms. “What happened,” he cooed, rocking you back and forth. You told him everything;about your mother, your father, and Lin. After you were finished he kissed the top of your head. “Give her some time. She’ll come around with an answer for you soon. She’d be lucky to have you.” “Thanks Maro,” you sniffled, wiping your eyes. A few moments of silence stretched. You didn’t believe his words, something told you that you pushed Lin away for good.“I think I’m gonna have to leave.” The giant man beneath you squawked. “I need to learn how to control my firebending still. I’ve shut it away for so long, I think it’s time now.” Maro sighed, “I knew this day would come. You’re sure of it? What if Lin comes for you?” You shook your head. “I don’t think she will Maro.” “Alright. When you come back, you have a home here at Kiki’s. Y’know that right?” “I-I know. Thank you Maro.”

The next morning Maro and his brother waved you off. Maro cried as he gave you one last hug and a box of sweets for the go. You felt tears well up in your eyes as you said goodbye to your only family. “T-thank you Maro for everything. I never deserved your kindness.” “Yes you do, you’re family. You’re my daughter,” Maro blubbered. Even Maro’s brother who was a stone faced man had tears in his eyes You smiled. Your lips quivered and tears streamed down your face. “I love you guys,” you choked out. “I-I’ll be back soon I promise.” With one last goodbye you made your way to Tenzin and his family for a farewell.Tenzin was sad to see you go but he understood. Some journeys were meant to be traveled alone. Aang wished you the best of your travels and sent a wool cloak with you. It was soft and the warmest thing you ever owned. Pema was there, and you were civil with her, but after what she had done to Lin you didn’t see her the same. Tenzin had given you an amulet he was keeping for you and it hung around your neck proudly. You hurried to the docks of Republic City. Missing the boat would certainly add to your already dampened spirits. As you swept through the streets you couldn’t help but think of Lin. The wounds were still fresh but you trudged on. Like a coward, you ran.

Your room was barren and cold. ‘Had it always been this cold,’ Lin thought. The baker, Maro, looked sad today. It was unusual for he was joyful and warm. But today his flame had been blown at, the smoke curling around his heart. Lin was paralyzed when you had kissed her. She couldn’t move until it was too late. A white envelope sat on your desk. Lin. She ran to the desk and ripped it open. As she read it, her eyes widened and her eyes felt watery. Dammit. She was too late. Lin flung the letter on the floor and bolted to the docks. The white parchment paper sifted through the air gracefully until it fell on the ground.

Lin,

I’m sorry. I did what must be done.

Goodbye,

“No!” Lin cried out as the boat sailed away from view. Tears spilled from her cheeks and her teeth clenched. Her fists were balled tightly and her face twisted in anguish. You were gone, forever. She stood on the busy docs;people went around her throwing dirty looks her way. She didn’t care. They went around her mumbling under their breaths. She had been too late. “Line five, ship is boarding, line five, ship is boarding,” the guy called out. Lin perked up. Were you still here? Quickly, she scanned the line. Her heart stopped. She recognized the familiar body and the wool cloak shrouded protectively across their shoulders. Lin bounded over to you. Her hand grabbed your wrist tightly and she pulled you out of the line. “Hey-” your eyes widened as you saw her. “Lin? What are you-” “You’re an idiot you know that?” You gulped. You didn’t think Lin would talk to you anymore but her anger wasn’t unexpected. “I-I’m sorry,” you said softly, averting her intense gaze. “I-I wasn’t thinking clearly and I admit that. But if you’ve come here to ridicule me-” Lin smashed your lips with hers. A muffled squeak in surprise left you but you melted into her touch. Lin’s hands held your face tightly and her chest brushed up against yours. You sighed into the kiss allowing her tongue to enter your mouth and gently sucking on yours. She pulled away;both of you out of breath. Your cheeks heated up at the realization that the love of your life liked you back. “How long have you loved me,” Lin asked softly. Her eyes shone with fondness as she looked at you. “You know when you started dating Tenzin?” She nodded. “I was gonna confess to you then.” Lin’s eyes widened in shock. “Why didn’t you tell me?” You smiled sadly, “You looked so happy. I didn’t want to ruin that.” Lin kissed you again. Her hands held your waist in a tight grip and she bent you lower. You giggled, grabbing her face for support. There were tears in her eyes as she looked at you. You felt your eyes start to water and you laughed softly. “I love you,” Lin whispered, tears threatening to spill. “Don’t you ever leave me again.” You smiled, you were crying again but these were happy tears instead. Gently, she wiped the spilling tears from your cheeks with her thumbs. They felt a bit rough but you couldn’t complain. You nodded, swallowing thickly. “I love you too Lin.”

#legend of korra #legend of korra fanfic #legend of korra x reader #lin beifong x reader #lin beifong #angst #x reader #reader insert

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givemeonebreath · 3 years

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A big, messy Linked Universe playlist

Link for Links

Heavy on the angst, because of who I am as a person. (At the same time, don’t take it too seriously, man.)

Influenced by canon, manga (TP Link is really Going Through It™ ), my personal perceptions, and popular fandom canon.

A pretty wide variety of genres, with a bias towards metal and prog rock.

I kept snippets of lyrics for most songs, also because of who I am as a person. (Some were particularly hard to narrow down to just one verse or chorus.) Those - and a little more rambling - are under the cut if you really want, in the order of the playlist. But. It’s long.

I didn’t initially make this with the intent to share, but hey. Throughout my past year+ of listening, I’ve been haphazardly adding songs to a playlist I very creatively named Links. If something reminded me of them, whether through the music or lyrics or both, I threw it on the playlist, so some songs might seem odd or vague. Some are really on the nose, as subtle as a sledgehammer. (Sky for Sky? Dude. Sorry.) Some are there because of a fitting line or two that stuck in my head. Ultimately, music - like any form of creative expression - can be interpreted in a multitude of ways.

My listening habits and tastes are erratic, which is why this is one big, jumbled playlist and not separated for different Links. Not to mention if I did that, some (Wild, Legend) would have a lot and some (Wind, Four) would have none, both because of my own familiarity with them, and because of the general themes of the music I tend to listen to. Most songs are a general ‘hero’s spirit reborn’ mood, anyway - those are the first part of the playlist. The second half is more nuanced to specific Links, plus a few Ganon vibes.

1. Deep Purple - April (Koji Kondo, composer of the original Legend of Zelda theme, was into Deep Purple as a kid, and it shows.)

2. Kamelot - Regalis Apertura

3. Au4 - So Just Hang On, Beautiful One (I’ve posted this here before. I can’t hear it without thinking of LU now.) So I slipped in through the gate almost unknown. All my border stamps were late. Seven days old. Cold hand griped my shoulder blade, broke the bone. Bloody nose and turned away, all the way home.

4. FC Kahuna - Hayling Don’t think about all those things you fear, just be glad to be here

5. Glass Animals - Youth Boy, when I left you you were young I was gone, but not my love You were clearly meant for more Than a life lost in the war

6. Pain of Salvation - Restless Boy A restless boy in a world too slow A flame born into cinder, ash, and glow I've given everything I gave it all Yet find myself alone

7. Haken - The Endless Knot Our design shifted frame by frame! Across the line our cycle starts to fail. Our design shifted frame by frame! Across the line we die to live again. We need a story to believe in. We need a hero to prevail. We need a challenge we can overcome, it takes a tragedy to make us one

8. Kamelot - Memento Mori (I particularly associate this with Time and Twilight) I am the god in my own history The master of the game I may believe if she would come to me And whisper out my name Sometimes I wonder where the wind has gone If life has ever been Sometimes I wonder how belief alone Can cut me free from sin

9. Katatonia - Fighters Look I told you so We never stop If we said that We'll back it up For sure You know We're fighters

10. Megadeth - This Day We Fight! (I mean, all Links, but particularly Warriors) For this I was chosen, because I fear nothing With confidence I tread through the dead of the night Off to another war-torn, faraway battlefield Wherein lies a demonic enemy horde

11. Moon Tooth - Igneous Well, the spirit took me And this old broken body leapt up and danced Settin’ out Settin' out with all my heroes in a bundle at my back Hawk am I More wings span in my shadow than overcast Yeah, you know what they say Always need something to look up to, ha

12. Samael - Moongate Destiny, tomorrow is today Destiny, without boundaries How many nights will we spend together traveling infinity back and forth and again How many times will we go together questioning eternity about us about our wonders...

13. TOOL- Parabola This body holding me reminds me of my own mortality Embrace this moment, remember We are eternal, all this pain is an illusion

14. Lunatic Soul - Blood on the Tightrope No matter how hard you try To shut down your feverish thoughts They hunt you down with no regret Cause you have to fix it all

15. Hybrid - Keep It In The Family

16. Soul Savers - Unbalanced Pieces Gone, now carry on Through violent seasons I call you mother, mother, mother In vain, absent chain The twilight's bleeding And the playing board has two unbalanced pieces

17. Steve Von Till - Valley of the Moon All she gives is a stone facade Like ill-given flowers at a dead man's wake Here we slave for the dreams of another And fight over scraps like wayward dogs

18. Ludovico Einaudi - Experience

19. Lunatic Soul - Summoning Dance Three stones on the right side Three stones on the left My vicious circle of life and death “Oh you want it” I hear it again “Oh you want it” My burden Curse to break

20. Lunatic Soul - Through Shaded Woods Run through your shaded woods Run through your shaded mind Run through the night Run away Run through the darkness Run

21. Lunatic Soul - Naavie

22. David Bowie - Nature Boy There was a boy A very strange, enchanted boy They say he wandered very far Very far, over land and sea A little shy and sad of eye But very wise was he

23. The Dandy Warhols - Sleep Well, I could sleep forever But it's of her I dream If I could sleep forever I could forget about everything

24. Au4 - Everyone is Everyone (and Everything is Everything) Tripping and tumbling, Flipping and fumbling. Flowing on the rivers of sadness That have been forever rumbling. But from dawn until now Of all the paths that I could have gone down Of all the valleys That I could have been flowing through. In spite of all the chaos And all that has come between us, How is it I still find myself Here with you.

25. Kingcrow - Everything Goes Your hands again upon the ground Falling rain for hours and hours As you learn the game Time dispels the fog ... Ever been there? Ever felt like prey? Ever thought your mind was feeble? Lot of things that don’t make sense

26. Pain of Salvation - Icon As a child I felt too old And now when I'm grown-up I feel too young A different kind so I've been told Just slightly out of reach and out of time

27. Sophia Loizou - Divine Interference (I got spooky dungeon vibes. Also, the title.)

28. Carpenter Brut - Fab Tool Runnin Gunnin Forward in the phantom shatter so grand Splatter grand, arcanum fuel Wrought iron out of the sky Over me, tells no lie

29. Blue Stahli - Death Will Have to Run All on the open road Where none will ever grow A journey toward the known With countless miles to go

30. Gyroscope - Mistakes & Ladders I am the first? No I can't be the first A continuous nothing, destined for something Tell me who you are and why you trapped me here

31. Queens of the Stone Age - Run, Pig, Run Run, pig, run Here I come

32. Chali 2na & Krafty Kuts - Guard The Fort The swords are drawn and odds are stacked And we clash the impact's a thunderous clap Calm demeanor Even though we are under attack [...my turn to guard the fort ready for combat]

33. The Great Discord - Army of Me (lol)

34. Kongos - Terrified I think I'll start again and change my name You only live once or twice, what a shame Somebody fucked up when designing this game

35. Woodkid - Run Boy Run Run, boy, run! This ride is a journey to Run, boy, run! The secret inside of you Run, boy, run! This race is a prophecy Run, boy, run! And disappear in the trees

36. The Beta Machine - The End A million miles away from you this time I'll do what it takes I'm on my way If lines are in the sand I'll go under If I can make it in time I will bring you back with me

37. Devin Townsend Project - Gump When we last met who was I? I'm sorry we no longer see eye to eye The energy to keep you in while keeping myself out I'm sorry how you'll take this But I just don't have the patience anymore

38. Arrested Youth - Riot! I can't get much satisfaction living in this cave It's tough to breathe, I'm in the belly of the beast Can't sleep with all my rage With me and all my generations living in this cage Pick up your guns and tell your sons, tonight we break the cage

39. Led Zeppelin - Friends So anytime somebody needs you Don't let them down, although it grieves you Some day you'll need someone like they do Looking for what you knew

40. Faunts - M4, pt 2 (Wild) Fight your foes you're not alone Holy war is on the phone Asking to please stay on hold Bleeding loss of blood runs cold And I need you to recover Because I can't make it on my own

41. Faith No More - Ashes to Ashes (Wild) I want them to know it's me, it's on my head I'll point the finger at me, it's on my head Smiling with the mouth of the ocean And I'll wave to you with the arms of the mountain

42. Devin Townsend - Jupiter (Wild) I know you At least I think I do Everything's changed But in the days that are so dark It's wonderful

43. Katatonia - Neon Epitaph (Wild) Shadow of my shadow Cling not to my grief I am long left behind now You are free

44. The Smashing Pumpkins - The Beginning is the End is the Beginning (Wild) Time has stopped before us The sky cannot ignore us No one can separate us For we are all that is left The echo bounces off me The shadow lost beside me There's no more need to pretend Cause now I can begin again

45. Katatonia - Lacquer (Wild) My voice travelling Soaring bird above your head The house we lived in Ridden with disease ... The levee breaking I can't live to fight once more The road to the grave is straight as an arrow I'm just staying around to sing your song, baby

46. Eskimo Joe - This is Pressure (Wild) There is no romance in suffocation The walls fall down like your expectations You want to scream And you want to shout But you've built up steam And you can't let it out This is pressure

47. Portugal. The Man - 1000 Years (Wild) We'll wait 1000 years Until the end of time We'll wait 1000 more Dressed up in gold and white We'll climb the mountain sides To find what's in the sky We'll dig through mountain sides To find what's deep inside

48. Au4 - An Ocean’s Measure of Sorrow (Wild) Forgot my name and who I was. Memories of nothing floating up. All of the sorrow we once knew, Colours the ocean's water blue.

49. Band of Skulls - Carnivorous (Twilight) I am corrosive and cohesive Like a chemical bond I'm all together undone I am the broken kingdom I'm just so, so, so So carnivorous

50. Glass Animals - Flip (Twilight) I wanna go back with a club and attack I wanna take to my guns and break you I gotta make my little foe take his own

51. TV on the Radio - Wolf Like Me (Twilight) My mind has changed my body's frame, but, God, I like it My heart's aflame, my body's strained, but, God, I like it

52. Kamelot - The Spell (Twilight) All my demons cast a spell The souls of dusk rising from the ashes So the book of shadows tell The weak will always obey the master

53. OSI - Radiologue (Legend) I was dreaming I was heading west thirty days faster Had a fever woke up in a sweat bailing out the water Can't go on Can't go back Heard your voice coming through the noise wrote it in the radio log Hurt my head, wondering what you said so I threw it overboard

54. Katatonia - Don’t Tell A Soul (Legend) I have been destroyed by the perfection that is a lie see I'm moving soon see my feet are already on the road and if you know where I’m going don’t tell a soul

55. Haken - The Mind’s Eye (Legend) The shape of things to come are closer than they seem Changing your design every time you disappear I'm planning my escape through portals of your mind Where people seem to drop like flies

56. Pain of Salvation - Species (Legend) Sometimes I hate my fucking species Yet most days I'll do anything to please it My generation was fooled to pursue our dreams But it is not what it seems You never need what you want And you rarely want what you need

57. Euringer - Do You Kiss Your Mama with That Mouth? (Legend) All my life, misunderstood I'm fuckin' too smart, too smart for my own good The last question, before I go is "Hey motherfucka, do you kiss your mama with that mouth?" Yes! I kiss your mama with this mouth

58. !!! - Pardon My Freedom (Legend) Like I give a fuck, like I give a shit Like I give a fuck about that shit Like I give a fuck about that motherfucking shit

59. Team Sleep - Ataraxia (Legend) Froze asleep Coma deep I dream I'm out with you Alone at sea

60. Oliver Tank - Embrace (Legend) You're in my dreams The world is torn apart at the seams And I don't wanna leave Wearing my heart on it's sleeve

61. Machine Gun Fellatio - The Girl of My Dreams (Is Giving Me Nightmares) (Legend) The girl of my dreams is giving me nightmares I don't know what it means but she's got multi-coloured hair When she stands in the sand I dream of peaches And I'm not sure what that means either

62. Earl Greyhound - Shotgun (Legend & Hyrule) I am nobody, nobody is who I am I am a traveler on this land And nothing, nothing, nothing in my hands

63. TV on the Radio - Staring at the Sun (Hyrule) You're staring at the sun You're standing in the sea Your mouth is open wide You're trying hard to breathe The water's at your neck There's lightning in your teeth Your body's over me

64. Echo & The Bunnymen - The Killing Moon (Time) Fate Up against your will Through the thick and thin He will wait until You give yourself to him

65. Sufjan Stevens - Sugar (Sky) Don’t break my heart, don’t break my flow now And all this rage has got to go now Let’s take up this lifeline Come on, baby, gimme some sugar Don’t make me wait Don’t make me wait too long Don’t make me sing the sad song Come on, baby, gimme some sugar

66. Obsydians - Ascension (Sky) Rise above the hardships you’ll face I will sign and keep on rising As long as you are giving me your soul and keep me awake Feel like home and spread your light around I will listen and just be there As long as you are giving me your love I’ll give you my soul

67. Sonique - Sky -_-

68. Enter Shikari - The King (Ganon) Watch your back, my friend I'm about to kickstart a cycle Of never ending revenge And this time it's primal, it's tribal

69. Saul Williams - WTF! (Ganon, Hylia) "You've been polluted, uprooted by time You have been muted, computed but I'm A living vessel of the one, of the moon, of the sun" Hey! You ain't as dead as you seem, what the fuck? Hey! But you keep living your lies

70. These New Puritans - We Want War (Ganon/ Dark Link/ any nemesis I guess) Shadows dance back up, it's happening again If you listen carefully you might hear them whisper: "We hold all the secrets, we hold all the words; But they're scrambled and broken so you'll never know" Can't you see them Floating like black ash? Can't you feel them Crawling down your back?

#linked universe #linkeduniverse #listening to music while I stare blankly at nothing is legit my number one hobby #and then shit like this happens #linked universe playlist

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autisticshadowthehedgehog · 4 years

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The Babylon Rogues are Dimension Hoppers and I can prove it

[ID: The Babylon Garden flying through space, as seen at the end of Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity. End ID.]

I have several points to make in this theory, so I’ll make this intro brief. Here is what I will be attempting to prove in this fun little essay:

The Babylonians are not native to Mobius

They are, in fact, native to Blaze’s dimension

They used to be dimension hoppers, but after the fall of the Babylon Garden they had to cease activity

The dimension-hopping can be proven by looking at Blaze’s world, Sonic Boom, possibly Black Knight, and finally and most damningly, the Arabian Nights of Sonic and the Secret Rings.

Let’s continue.

Babylonians are (canonically?) not native to Mobius

Very quickly, let’s go over some important lore for this theory. This might seem a bit “boring” for the moment, but please give it a read for context.

[ID: Ancient ruins showing the legendary Divine Wings, as seen in Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity. The Divine Wings looks similar to a spaceship, with two orbs atop and four “wings.” End ID.]

A bit of detail is given in Sonic Riders as to the Ancient Babylonians, such as that they are believed to have been genies. (Remember that specifically for later.) Their incredibly advanced technology marked them as separate from the other ancient cultures.

As revealed in Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, the Ancient Babylonians believed in a legendary bird known as the Divine Wings. From what we can gather from what Tails is aware of and Knuckles reads from ancient inscriptions, the legends say that the Divine Wings rode the gods through the heavens, but lost their plumes to the dark and fell to the ground. The plumes became “stars,” returning to the land- these “plumes” (the Arks of the Cosmos) being the power sources that were sought after throughout the game.

Tails eventually concludes that the Divine Wings was a spaceship, and that this “lightless black” that attacked the Divine Wings turns out to have been an actual Black Hole; while Tails believes it may have been programmed into the Arks as a warning “for people to step away from power beyond control,” what actually seems to have happened, though, may have been less of an intentional precautionary measure and more of a malfunction. It’s just as likely that the Arks went out of control either by themselves (as technology is want to do) or due to something in the planet’s atmosphere, threatening to turn their ship’s engine into the black hole.

Unable to control the Black Hole, the Babylonians then lost their ability for space travel; they disconnected the Arks from their ship, sending them into the planet’s orbit. Their ship, the Babylon Garden, crashed onto the planet; while it still floated, they were unable to leave the atmosphere, and thus wished for every “falling star” to be their Arks to help them return home. They only managed to recover two over time, both of which were sealed away separately until it was safe to relaunch their ship.

[ID: The Arks scattering throughout space, from Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity. End ID.]

The Babylon Garden remained floating and the Babylonians resided there, eventually becoming notorious thieves, though they are also famous for their technology, including their magic carpet (again, note for later) and “angel wings” they gave a boy that gave him a bit too much power.

This “too much power” seems to have “incurred the wrath of the gods;” the Babylon Garden was buried beneath the Sand Ruins, while the Babylonians scattered, though the Key to the Garden was passed along. Their history, though, turned into legend.

[ID: Art showing an angel-like creature striking lightning down onto the Babylon Garden. End ID.]

So, here is the “proposed” timeline:

Babylonians are aliens

Crash land on Mobius

Become thieves

Gods get pissed and “tower of babel” them

sidenote, but considering the known gods of the Sonicverse are Chaos, Illumina, Light/Dark Gaia and Solaris... I’m literally losing my mind imagining this unlikely group banding together and saying “yeah. yeah these birds need to go”

But here’s a question... what if it wasn’t a spaceship at all?

What if the ship could hop not across different planets, but through different worlds?

The Babylonians were not aliens from another planet, but from another dimension.

And the first of my evidence is that Babylon has actually been seen in another canonical dimension.

Babylon Exists (but is abandoned) in Blaze’s World

Who here remembers Sonic Rush Adventure?

[ID: A stage logo from Sonic Rush Adventure. It reads “Sky Babylon” and features a purple jewel among leaves. End ID.]

Very clearly, a certain “Babylon” does appear in Blaze’s dimension (which we’ll call the Sol Dimension for clarity’s sake). And this isn’t just speculation; the pirates and Blaze refer to the ruins as “Sky Babylon” within the game.

From what Blaze says, Sky Babylon was inhabited by an ancient civilization, and was a continent in the sky. However, one day “it fell from the sky and crashed into the ocean.” Quite similar to the Babylon Garden, huh? After the continent fell, the people had to live among the land-dwellers, but longed one day to return to the sky, leaving keys to point the way.

Sidenote: Blaze later finds ancient writings discussing the ruins- eerily similar to how Tails and Knuckles found out about the Divine Wings in Zero Gravity. And the writing says “To reach our homeland, head north along the shallows.”

[ID: Screenshot from Sonic Rush Adventure, of the Sky Babylon stage. Sonic is swinging on a rope beside pillars. End ID.]

So, let’s review similarities between Blaze’s Babylon and Sonic’s Babylon:

Ancient Civilizations living in floating cities

The continent later fell from the sky and crashed, becoming lost overtime

The people had to live on the planet but longed to return to the sky

Keys were left; the word “key” refers in Blaze’s world to the signs explaining how to reach Sky Babylon, while in Sonic’s world the key is the ability to open the Babylon Garden, left to Jet.

Ancient Writings were left explaining the lore.

Now I’m sure you’re all thinking, “Gee, Connie, it’s probably just the other dimension’s versions of the Babylonians, just as Blaze is another dimension counterpart to Sonic and Marine is the counterpart to Tails.”

But something interesting- almost nothing in Blaze’s world shares the same name as Sonic’s world. Even ones with similar names have notable differences- Eggman is Eggman Nega, the Chaos Emeralds are the Sol Emeralds, etc. And that’s literally the only two things with similar names, unless you count the South Island/Southern Island thing. (Which are. very common names.) Babylon is exactly the same in both dimensions.

“But it’s Sky Babylon and the Babylon Garden, that’s different-” No, actually. The Babylon Garden were the spaceship, and only became a homeland after crashing. Sky Babylon is referred to exclusively as the Babylon Homeland. So what if Sky Babylon was their home base, and the Garden was their ship?

This also isn’t the only dimension with hints of Babylonians.

Babylonian Hints in Other Dimensions

Now these two may be reaches, but they’re just setup to when we hit the big guns, so strap in.

In a canonically different dimension to the main games, the Sonic Boom games have several floating cities with very little backstory.

[ID: The Sky Citadel in Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric. Though abandoned, it is in good condition, and features several stone pillars and hanging plants. The citadel is among the sky and vaguely foggy, as it stands above the clouds. End ID.]

In Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, Team Sonic finds their final chaos crystal in the Sky Citadel, an enormous city located within the clouds; however, it has been long since abandoned, with only ruins remaining. In Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal, Lyric imprisons Amy in Cloud Sanctuary, which are several floating islands joined by roads and hidden by the clouds. Once again, in the sanctuary are ancient ruins; there are no remaining people, only remnants of a lost civilization, with zero explanation as to what this city is or was.

It is assumed that both of those worlds are remnants from the Ancients like Lyric the Snake; however, unless I’m mistaken, there is no confirmation of this, only the news that the Ancients hid the Sky Crystal in the Sky Citadel in order to keep it from Lyric; there’s no word that they lived there. In fact, wouldn’t hiding a chaos crystal from Lyric in a place that he lived be a really bad idea? Not a great hiding spot, guys.

Another sidenote, but speculation: should, as I’m sure you’re inferring I’m implying, these lands have belonged to the Babylonians of the Boom!Universe, who is to say that they didn’t find the hidden Sky Crystal and steal it? They’re notorious thieves after all.

The Sonic Boomniverse also has ancients with insanely powerful tech... hmm.

Secondly, let’s bring in Sonic and the Black Knight. You see, on the modern Babylonians’ ship, a painting of a pirate hawk is hanging above Jet’s desk. It has been speculated to be Jet’s father, or at least an ancestor. In this portrait, this captain holds a sword.

Now, let’s, um. Compare that sword to Caliburn, one of the sacred swords of Camelot.

I’m gonna be honest; at least to my untrained eye, I believe that the Babylon Sword pictured here is very similar in color and shape to Caliburn. The connector to the blade may be a bit more rounded like Laevatin, however that may just be the blurriness of the portrait. Now how would a Babylonian locked in Sonic’s dimension get access to Caliburn?

Well, you say, Sonic was transported to another dimension in Black Knight, wasn’t he? So they could have been summoned at some point, that’s not evidence they purposefully hopped dimensions.

But let’s go back to that. Sonic was transported to another dimension in Black Knight... and also in that other Sonic Storybook.

Which one was that again?

The Big Guns: Sonic and the Secret Rings

[ID: Concept art from Sonic and the Secret Rings. End ID.]

Let’s talk about the source of the name Babylon for a moment.

Babylon was also a city on Earth; it was in ancient Mesopotamia, which is now Iraq. The name at the time derived from the Akkadian bav-il or bav-ilim, meaning “Gate of the Gods.” The city was featured in several stories within Abrahamic culture- the Tower of Babel (which I referenced earlier!), the enslavement of Jerusalem resulting in the famous stories of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. In at least Jewish and Christian tradition, Babylon symbolizes oppressors and worldliness. The city is even personified in the Christian book of Revolutation as the Whore of Babylon.

But outside of this reputation, the city is known as an archeological marvel; very impressive architecture, an interesting code of law, and one of the seven wonders of the world, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, a tiered garden.

Sources: Mark, Joshua J. J. “Babylon.” Ancient History Encyclopedia, Ancient History Encyclopedia, 23 Oct. 2020, www.ancient.eu/babylon/, also the fact I am and was raised Christian so I Know This Christian Stuff™ just trust me

There’s more I could get into, but I’m sure you’re already bored- yeah, yeah, Sonic Team named their cool ancient civilization after another cool ancient civilization, who cares? Here’s why I mentioned this, though: Babylon was in what is now Iraq. Iraq, as anyone with a georgraphy education would know, is in the Middle East of the planet. Know what else is in the middle east?

The Arabian Nights.

Know what the Arabian Nights influenced heavily, almost exclusively?

The first Sonic Storybook, Sonic and the Secret Rings.

[ID: A screenshot from Sonic and the Secret Rings, showing Shahra the Genie and Sonic having a discussion. End ID.]

Remember all the way back in the beginning when I mentioned genies and magic carpets being a staple of SonicWorld Babylon? Well, genies are definitely canon to the Arabian Nights World, with Shahra and Erazor Djinn, and the idea of a magic carpet, while not appearing in Secret Rings, is very much a middle eastern staple, which most modern people connect to Aladdin, which Shahra references first and constantly throughout the game.

Now, two very interesting dimensional instances are featured within Secret Rings. First off- the titular seven rings.

[ID: Three screenshots of a scene from Sonic and the Secret Rings; Sonic and Shahra are attempting to grab a blue water ring. Sonic says, “Looks like I’m the only one that can touch [the rings]. I betcha it’s because I’m not from this world. Does that mean these rings aren’t from this world, either?” End ID.]

The rings, though insanely powerful, cannot be touched by anyone but Sonic. While it’s never confirmed, Sonic theorizes that the reason for this is that the rings are also from another dimension, possibly even his own. Now how would rings from another dimension end up in the Arabian Nights?

The second dimensional fun thing is one of the bosses in this game- the Ifrit.

[ID: Screenshot from Sonic and the Secret Rings. The Ifrit Golem rises from a fire pit. Sonic is shocked, and Shahra exclaims, “It’s a djinn that controls fire... it’s called an Ifrit!” End ID.]

Now, I could go a lot into certain theories about the Ifrit, but my sister covered that topic pretty well with her kickass Infinite/Solaris theory. So instead let’s just cover the basics.

Ifrit’s name also has sources in Abrahamic mythology, though this one is specifically from Islam. It is a powerful demon, usually identified with spirits of the dead. The whole “death” thing isn’t really brought into this but, you know. Interesting.

In Secret Rings, the Ifrit Golem is summoned by Erazor Djinn in order to burn pages of the Arabian Nights. It seems to be vaguely robotic, but considering it was summoned and seems to be alive I assume it’s just possessing some kind of robotic form, but most importantly it is mostly brown and red and is able to control fire. When Erazor summons it, he claims it is condemned by Iblis (a powerful djinn in Islamic mythology, former angel cast out of heaven, but also literally half of a god in Sonic 06, which was in production around the same time as Secret Rings) and also says he summoned it from Jahannam, basically hell.

[ID: A loading screen from Sonic Rivals 2, showing the Ifrit there, breathing fire. End ID.]

Ifrit also appears, however, in another game released the same year; Sonic Rivals 2. And it is mentioned to, again, be from another dimension. It is summoned by Eggman Nega to destroy the world, but is defeated by the Sonic Squads™ and eventually left trapped in its own dimension. It is, once again, incredibly fire-based, colored red and brown, and actually has mind control powers now, so that’s cool for it I guess.

So in two games, released the same year, Ifrit is connected to different dimensions; Arabian Nights, Jahannam, its own hell-dimension (possibly Jahannam?), and also a bit of Mobius, as Gerald Robotnik was noted to have studied the Ifrit’s legendary power.

So Secret Rings has rings from another dimension, and a fire demon from another dimension. Also a blue hedgehog shows up and does some stuff there idk. Which means that Secret Rings is no stranger to other dimensions popping in and out.

What this whole tangent is leading to- Arabian Nights is clearly connected to dimension-hopping. And Babylon is connected to the Arabian Nights by several things- specifically, the name and history, the magic carpet, and the genies.

(Does that make Jet and Shahra distant cousins?)

Also another interesting thing: the Levitated Ruins.

[ID: A screenshot from Sonic and the Secret Rings. Sonic is running through the sky, and we see several manta-ray like creatures, called the rukh, with cities built upon their backs. End ID.]

The towns there are built on the back of flying rukh flying through the atmosphere.

Flying ruins again? Interesting.

Very fucking interesting.

Conclusion

[ID: Screenshot from Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity. The Babylon Rogues look up at the sky, where the Babylon Garden is flying into orbit. End ID.]

So, let’s get down the facts:

Despite almost everything in Sol having a different name than in Mobius, the Babylonians have the same name.

Sky Babylon in Sol was considered the Babylon Homeland, but abandoned after it fell into the sea.

The Babylon Garden was some kind of ship, but it crashed on Earth.

The Babylonians in both dimensions longed to return to the sky and left keys for their descendants to make that possible.

The Babylonians are connected by visual cues to Sonic Boom abandoned cities (with no word on who lived there or where they went), and possibly even Black Knight.

Due to their name, similar technology, and the legends of genies, the Babylonians are also connected to the Arabian Nights.

Arabian Nights itself has a lot of dimensional shenanigans going on.

The Babylonians are connected to Sol, Mobius, Sonic Boom, Black Knight and/or Arabian Nights.

So. What conclusions did I draw from this?

Some thousand or so years ago, the Babylonians, originating in Sol, had the technology to hop between dimensions.

Considering they later became notorious Mobian thieves, we can assume that thievery was also in the picture during these ancient times. How easy would it be to be a thief with dimensional powers? You steal something, hop dimensions, and then hop back when the cops are gone.

Either the first dimension they went to or their main hangout was the Arabian Nights; they picked up a lot of the culture/tech, such as magic carpets and genie myths. Possibly due to this, the Arabian Nights has an open connection to other worlds.

Perhaps the Seven Rings actually came from Babylon, stashing these cool new gems into their inbetween world and forgetting to pick them up.

They set up some cities on flying manta rays, nbd.

They also hopped into the Sonic Boom dimension, where they made some sky cities to rest in inbetween dimension hops. Upon their ship’s failure, the sky cities were left abandoned.

They also may have visited the Black Knight dimension.

During one of their dimension hops, their ship, the Babylon Garden, goes to the Mobius dimension; however, something in their tech fucks up within this dimension’s boundaries/atmosphere.

This one’s just a wild speculation, but if they came from Sol, Sol and Mobius have different emeralds, so I think they may have different power sources.

In order to prevent a Black Hole from destroying them and this other dimension, the Babylonian travelers split their power and fall into Mobius. There, they live on their Garden until it falls.

Back in Sol, Sky Babylon also ends up falling; perhaps whatever caused the Garden to fall hit Sky Babylon, or perhaps some other disaster occurred before Babylon Prime could figure out what happened to their Garden.

The Sol Babylonians settle among the land.

Eventually they all either forget the dimension hopping or it becomes secret as fuck.

So what’s the full conclusion?

It’d be really funny if the Babylonians learned the Arabian Nights prophecy about a blue hedgehog saving their world and passed that story along forever but it just went completely over Jet’s head because the second he saw Sonic his gay kill bill sirens went off and he was like “I have to race him” and it takes him years to remember.

#sonic the hedgehog #sonic riders #sonic riders zero gravity #jet the hawk #sonic and the secret rings #babylon rogues #sonic theory #connie theories #mine

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spell-cleaver · 3 years

Text

Astrophilia

@star-wars-wlweek

Day 3: Defending Each Other & Time Travel

Also read it on AO3 or on FFN!

Sometimes, the universes collide; the Living Force makes no sense.

One moment Qi'ra was fleeing from the Imperial who'd caught her stealing his code cylinders, the dingy streets and back alleys of Corellia's industrial district flashing by around her. The next, a sun beat down on her and sand pelted her face.

She glanced up—then ducked as a gunship swooped in over her head. She stared up and followed its swerve; it descended rapidly a few hundred metres ahead in—

An arena.

A battle.

This was—

She threw her gaze around. It was a desert—ish?—planet, with stone walls or caverns, it seemed. She was in a sink hole, the stands directly above her carved out of the rock, and a few hundred Geonosians flickered their wings as they stared down.

Geonosis. She didn't know much about Geonosis, but she assumed that was where she was. However she'd got here.

Animals roared, laser weapons buzzed, and all sorts of cacophonies rang out from the central conflict in the arena, but she didn't have time to stare at that. Even as three humans leapt onto the bumpy, scaled back of what looked like… a reek.

She crept along the edge of the arena. She still had that random Imperial's code cylinders in her pocket and she clutched at them for some semblance of normality, following the wall towards one of those side tunnels.

She just needed to get out of the battle. She just needed to get out of firing range.

A clanking on her left stopped her. She stared in horror: flanks upon flanks of pink Clone Wars era battle droids marched out of the tunnel she'd been aiming for, hides gleaming under the beating sun. They each had a blaster except—

Except one.

One had lost its blaster, and creeping along behind it, sticking to the shadows of the caverns, was a short-statured girl, her hair knotted into two cute buns at the back of her head.

She looked less cute when she lifted her stolen blaster and fired, taking out a row of battle droids in quick succession.

The remaining ones stumbled and squawked before they turned on her. She grinned and ran—towards the arena, the idiot, the droids giving chase.

Qi'ra didn't complain. She went for the blaster of one of the fallen, palmed it in her hand—Lady Proxima had given her some training with a blaster, thankfully—and turned towards the dark tunnel—

"Hey, watch out!"

Shots shattered the air above her. She ran zigzagged to escape them, crouching low, and heard return fire behind her. She didn't look back until she'd paused in a cranny for cover.

The girl was coming back. Several droids trailed her, shooting; one even clipped her arm and set her gasping, clutching her bicep as she ran, but she still went. The droids aiming at Qi'ra hesitated and turned around to survey the new threat.

Qi'ra took her chance. She shot their heads off while their backs were turned, and that girl sailed right through.

"Come on!"

Qi'ra hesitated, then followed her deeper into the tunnel. She took a sharp left into shadows just where the light from the arena proper faded, and the moment Qi'ra was in with her, she slammed a door shut behind them and locked it.

"Thanks for that," Qi'ra said. "I was in a tight spot."

"I could see that. I wanted to help."

Qi'ra would've just kept running, but that was the girl's problem.

"You're not from here either, are you? You look different. Dressed different."

"So are you." Qi'ra eyed her. She was wearing a dress.

"Yeah. One moment I was in my bedroom at home, the next I was in this room here." She gestured around. "I'm Leia, by the way."

"Qi'ra." She supposed one should offer more than that, so she added, "I was running from Imperials on Corellia when I found myself running from battle droids instead. I thought that type were decommissioned."

Leia lit up. "You're from the Imperial era as well, then? I thought so."

"What do you mean, the Imperial era, we're—"

"In the Clone Wars."

Qi'ra gaped at her, suddenly doubting her saviour's intelligence. "What?"

"Haven't you studied history?"

"I'm a Corellian scum rat!" Qi'ra snapped. "No, I have not!"

"Ah." Leia did flush a little, then. "Sorry. Well, this is the Battle of Geonosis, the first battle of the Clone Wars. Did you see the Jedi fighting? All those old battle droids? We're in the past."

Qi'ra stared. How? was the first thing she thought to say. Then it was, What?

What she said, though, was, "How do we get back?"

"I don't know. But"—Leia's eyes lit up with a strangely enchanting fervour—"we have an opportunity."

Despite herself, Qi'ra was intrigued. "How?" If there were Jedi, she supposed they could steal a lightsaber or two. Those went for millions on the black market and she'd not only be set to get off Corellia, but set for life.

Or, these battle droids were easily hacked. She could employ a couple of them, sell them as bodyguard droids…

"The Clone Wars led to the increase in Chancellor Palpatine's power and eventual creation of the Empire," Leia said. "If we can stop the war here, we can stop the Empire from rising altogether. We can save billions from death and trillions from tyranny!"

…or they could be fools.

Qi'ra blinked. "Are you insane?"

"Not at all. The Clone Wars were orchestrated by a puppetmaster, my father taught me; all we have to do is reveal the truth to both sides before they all die. The Jedi are there, they'll sense we're telling the truth, and—"

"It's a warzone," Qi'ra snarled. "We'll die before we get near them. If we want to live, we have to flee. That's the only way to stay alive."

Leia looked at her like she was empty. "We could save the galaxy."

"Or we could die." She was so naïve, so idealistic, Qi'ra wanted to shake her. Didn't she know she was mortal? Didn't she know you could try, and try, and always fail? All you could do was live to try another day.

Even if Leia's fervour made her want to stay. Even if Leia surged forwards and grasped her hand. "Come on, Qi'ra. We could change the future for ourselves and others."

Qi'ra hesitated, looking at their joined hands.

Then she ripped hers free. "The Republic or the Empire. It doesn't affect me." She tried to keep her bitterness at bay. "I'll still be stranded on Corellia with thugs and gangsters." She met Leia's heartbroken look with scorn. "Who are you, that you think things will ever change?"

Leia's face hardened.

"I am the Princess Leia Organa or Alderaan," she declared, gripping her blaster. "My parents have not risked so much fighting the Empire just for me to abandon their cause now like a coward."

Coward. It was true, even as it hurt.

"Die, then," Qi'ra said. "The same way they inevitably will."

Leia let out a scream of fury and shoved past her, running out of the room and towards the arena.

Her touch stung, but Qi'ra shook it off, lifting her own blaster. She needed to get out of here and she was going to find a way to do it.

#qi'ra #leia organa #leia x qi'ra #my writing #random words on a page #starwarswlweek2021 #flash fiction #flash fiction: star wars

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cryptoidantagonist · 3 years

Note

Oh mars rovers are cool! I don't know much about them except for that they sent a new one out lately, right?

glad you asked. so,

The first mars rover (technically) was on board the Mars 2 mission from the soviet union. of course, mars 2 crashed and burned becsuse of a messed up entry angle and the landing systems failing to work (probably, the exact cause of mission failure is unknown) and the rover never deployed. Mars 2 was the first man-made object on mars and it was also the first man-made crater on mars.

Mars 3 (mars 2's twin mission) also had a rover. That mission as techically a success, because it transmitted an image back to earth:

this is the worst picture i have ever seen. i am made of salt right now. i can rant for half an hour about how much this picture sucks. the soviet union counted this mission as a success. the lander stopped functioning 70-110 seconds later and the rover was never deployed. "You can clearly see the horizen and the landmasses" shut up that is literally tv static. this picture activates my fight or flight response but its just rage.

Mars 6 was the next lander, but like all other soviet union landers it crashed & burned. it was 1 of 4 mars missions that the soviet union sent during the 1973 mars window. of the other 3, 2 missed mars completely and failed to enter orbit. the last one (an orbiter) entered orbit successfully, then stopped working for seemingly no reason i think 9 days later.

After that amazing show of failure on the soviet union's part, Nasa sent out Viking 1 and Viking 2. their purpose was to test for signs of former life on mars. Viking one had 3 negative and one positive test, and Viking 2 had 2 negative and 2 positive. Viking 2 eventually stopped working after a dust storm (i think) and it's batteries depleting. Viking 1 continued to run for over 6 years (keep in mind this was an intended 90 day mission) until NASA accidentally sent a code that turned the antenna away from Earth and overrode Viking 1's ability to auto-correct. Viking 1 held the record of longest running mars mission until Opportunity shattered that record by about 9 years.

After the Vikings, NASA sent out another lander, this time a rover. The lander was named Pathfinder and the rover was named Sojourner. It had a rather small operation time in, comparison to the incredible run of Viking 1, of only 83 days. However, it had a planned 7 with a possible extension to 30, so the mission was still more than successful.

Also fun fact: the pathfinder lander is the lander that the protagonist of The Martian uses to communicate with NASA!

After that was the Mars Polar Lander, which unfortunately crashed. It lost communication with nasa and it is still lost and unfound to this day. It was supposed to search for water in the southern ice cap but again, it crashed and was lost to history.

Next was Beagle 2, sent by the European Space Agency. It landed safely, but failed to deploy 2 of its solar panels, resulting in the antenna being trapped and the batteries failing to charge fully. It was lost for 11 years, only being found in 2015, by a satalite photographing the entire planet.

After that failure, launched in the same year, was Spirit and Opportunity. Their missions were to determine if it was possible for life to exist on mars. Both of them lived long past their initial 90 sol mission, with spirit getting stuck in a sand trap in 2008 and remaining a stationary rover until 2010, when its batteries failed to charge.

Oppertunity lived from 2003 to 2018, and is the record holder for the longest mars mission at 15 years. This mars rover is as old as me, but that will change soon because I will age but oppy is stuck in time. It was stuck in sand many times but it still perservered, rolling out centimeter by centimeter. In its 15 year opperation time, oppy traveled about 28 miles. Oppy hibernated in mid 2018 due to a dust storm, and was expected to wake up in November. it did not. the mission was called in febuary 2019, and NASA sent the song "I'll be seeing you" as their last transmission.

Next was Pheonix, who was sent by NASA to study Mars's northern pole. It froze over once winter hit. I was supposed to research the history of water on mars. I concluded thay water had been on mars, but its mostly gone now. The ice is also mostly solid carbon dioxide, or dry ice. Also the entire mission cose NASA 420 million dollars and thats funny to me.

After that was Curiosity! Curiosity was, as of two days ago, the only working rover on Mars. Curiosity is studying the geology and the makeup of the rocks on mars. It has also traveled 15 miles, as of Jan 30, 2021.

Last but certainly not least is Perseverance! Percy is the rover who just landed yesterday. Its landing was the most rough one NASA has ever attempted. In fact, they invented a whole new method of landing, involving several cameras pointed directly at the ground to find a safe spot. Percy's job is to study its crater, Jezero Crater, for any signs of past life. Jezero crater is the best bet we have for finding past life because it still has a well-preserved delta from back when it was a lake. Also the lake is from around the same time that life was evolving on Earth.

As a part of its mission, Percy will make little samples from the martian surface and leave them for a return trip to Earth. I dont remember exactly when, but NASA is planning on making a rover that will collect the samples and then go back to a MAV (mars accent vehicle) {yes its the same name is in The Martian} and return the samples to earth so we, on earth, can study the samples and try to determine once and for all if there could have been life on mars.

#wow that was a ramble and a half #hope u dont mind #u said u didnt know much about them and my brain went into presentation mode #pinned this post so hopefully people are a bit less confused when they come to my blog

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swanslieutenant · 4 years

Text

a place in time - chapter xiii

Summary: Emma’s an agent working to reunite missing people with their families when the biggest missing persons case of all time appears in front of her in a flash of bright, white light. Thousands of missing people from throughout history, including one particular pirate, appear on the shore of a lake in the middle of winter: none have aged a day since their disappearance and, with no memory of their missing time, must venture into a strange and uncertain future. Loosely based on the TV show “the 4400.”

Rating and Warnings: Teen. For now.

Catch up: ch1, ch2, ch3, ch4, ch5, ch6, ch7, ch8, ch9, ch10, ch11, ch12

Read on AO3

Note: *shows up nearly 2 years late with a Tim Hortons hot chocolate* - apologies for the length it took for me to get this updated. It has been a hard/chaotic two years for me and this fic is a hard one to write, but things are settling a bit, so I will try not to leave it for that long again.

thanks to all the folks over at the @captainswanmoviemarathon discord channel for welcoming me in and helping me get this finished with the many many writing sprints it took!

___________________________________________________________

Neither Killian or Emma speak as they march back to her office, their steps quick and staccato against the polished floors. The world seems to be on a tilt, like Emma is walking through a funhouse with slanted floors, with the glass doors of the offices lining the hallway like the twisted and bendy mirrors of the carnival house, warping and distorting reality all around her.

Emma supposes she should be used to this feeling by now. After all, her entire world has been on a tilt since that night down at the lake, with the sudden appearance of thousands of people.

But this time it feels different. Like her normal life, or what has been her new normal at this point, has been shattered once again. What she thought to be true, who she thought she could trust and rely on – broken, once again.

I know him from my time.

When they reach her office, after unlocking the door, she gestures Killian ahead of her. He hasn’t said a word yet, and his face is solemn, the utter shock now an icy grit. His jaw is set, his eyes steel, the cold-hearted pirate that lurks beneath his charming veneer returned full force.

“This is his doing.” His voice is shaking with rage, the words more a growl than a sentence.

“This is crazy,” Emma says, swallowing the growing bile rising in her throat as she shuts the office door behind herself. She grips the side of her desk, her knuckles turning white, as she falls heavily into her desk chair. “How – are you sure that it’s the same guy?”

“Absolutely.”

He is still sanding by the door, hands curled into fists at his side, almost vibrating with fury. There is clearly some history here, and Emma remembers the vile that Gold spoke of Killian with when the returnees first arrived, how he had demanded for him to be locked up and kept away from the others.

“Who is he, Killian? How do you know him?”

“He’s a monster.” He spits the words, and then lifts his left hand, shaking his sleeve up his arm and rubbing at the scar that encircles his wrist, ragged and rough. “See this scar, Swan? He did it to me.”

She has wondered about the scar ever since she first saw it weeks ago, and now the shadow that had darkened his expression when she mentioned it then makes sense. She is truly sick now, her stomach twisting at the thought of her boss, the man she has sat across from in meetings and who controls this entire goddamn situation, literally attacking someone to the point of leaving such a horrific scar.

“He – dear god, Killian. That looks like he tried to cut your hand off!”

“It was no mere attempt,” Killian replies hollowly, eyes darkening. “He did cut it off.”

Emma blinks at him, and then stares at his hand, clearly attached to his arm. Now fair enough, she doesn’t know a lot about surgery or how re-attaching a limb would work, but Emma sure as hell knows there is no way Killian would have had his hand re-attached or be able to use it with 1700s medicine.

“He – what? I don’t understand. But your – your hand? How was it … fixed?”

“Magic.”

Emma’s heart stutters at the word. She leans back in her chair, stunned as if she’s been slapped.

“What?”

“A witch,” Killian continues, oblivious to Emma’s reaction, and he waves his right hand airily. “Or a fairy or some other manner of creature. I suppose I never actually asked her. My crew and I had come across her once before ever meeting Gold, and we retreated to her after his attack. She was a bit prickly, but she re-attached it for me after my crew begged her to. She had only a little magic left after running into trouble of her own, and she was no expert, hence the scar, but she did her best.”

Magic, witches, fairies. Her superpower remains silent, indicating Killian is telling the truth as he sees it, but Emma can’t believe it. Abruptly, Emma feels on the edge of tears. A hand re-attached by magic?

What?

Killian seems to finally notice her thunderstruck expression. “To you, Swan, magic is a myth. In my time, it was as common as your light switches. And clearly,” he adds, holding up his hand and flexing his fingers, “it worked.”

Seriously, what the hell is her life these days? Magic? Fine, she has no explanation for why Killian is standing in front of her, two and a half centuries after he should have died. But magic? No way. Aliens or scientific advancements in time travel make more sense than magic. But then she thinks of the video Anna had shown her of her sister controlling snowflakes as naturally as could be, and well, hell, magic at this point may make as much sense as anything else.

“I don’t understand,” Emma manages finally, wrenching her mind away from the literal concept of magic to the problem in front of her. Gold, Killian, time travel, his hand. “How – why did Gold cut your hand off?”

“I stole something from him.”

… Of course he did.

Her mind starting to burst at the seams, she can only gape back at Killian as he explains his history with Gold, utterly lost for words. In Killian’s time, Gold had been a powerful landowner in England, who ventured to the New World after making a bad deal and losing his fortune. He didn’t know how long Gold had been in America before Killian heard of him, but he did know was already successful and rich in his new surroundings, a dangerous businessman who no one dared cross.

Except Killian.

“As you may remember, Swan, at that time I was a wanted man by the English Crown, having stolen and burned many of their ships. They had done their own damage to me, and it was my utmost desire at the time to ruin them in any other way I could. So, when I heard rumours of an enchanted object that Gold had brought over from England, the last of his previous fortune and a gift from the king and royal family themselves, naturally, I wanted it. Besides, my crew and I hadn’t had a good heist in months. It was a hard, cold winter, and the stormy weather had kept many ships trapped in European harbours, and my men were itching for some action.”

Even amidst her shock at this whole situation, Emma has to resist the urge to roll her eyes – pirates.

“My crew and I were moored in a town called Newport, near where his new estate was. We were restocking the Jolly Roger when I heard he’d left the town for business and would not be back for a fortnight, leaving his mansion unprotected.”

“So, you of course just waltzed in and stole it. What even was it?”

He flashes her a devious grin, a glimmer of his charming, mischievous self breaking through his dark demeanour. “I’m a hell of a pirate, love, even on land. It was only too easy to sneak into his manor. We took everything we could get our hands on, and then I found this object, the king’s gift.” Killian cups his hands, as if he was holding several apples in his palms. “It was roughly this size. I couldn’t tell you what it was called, for I’ve never come across anything like it before. I thought perhaps a music box or a small chest at first. It was circular, with the sides plated in pure gold leaf. The top of it was beautiful, no doubt painted by the finest artist to represent a dark indigo sky with white stars emblazoned upon it. I wondered if it was only the case for the true treasure within, but I could never get the damn thing to open. My crew and I tried everything we could think of – prying it, smashing it, hammering it. Nothing. It seemed empty inside, too, for when you’d knock on it, it was hollow. After all the efforts for seemingly nothing, I thought about simply selling it. But, then I heard Gold was desperate to have it returned, that he had ripped his manor apart looking for it, so I knew it was something valuable indeed.”

Emma is trying to picture the object Killian describes, and she has no idea what it could be either. Sounds to her like a little box, like something you’d find in an old antique or knick-knack store. “Okay, so what did you do with it then?”

“I buried it, somewhere safe where I knew Gold couldn’t find it.”

The entire tale is the most Killian has spoken about his past as a pirate since appearing in this time, and Emma supposes she shouldn’t be surprised it ends with a tale of buried treasure. Typical.

“Besides that,” Killian continues slowly, and he rubs one of his upper arms absently, as if recalling a past chill. “My crew didn’t like it. Once we realized we couldn’t do anything with it or allow Gold to have it again, we needed it off the ship as soon as we could.”

“Didn’t like it?” Emma echoes, her skin rippling with goosebumps. “What do you mean?”

Killian frowns, and he rubs at his chin thoughtfully. “I know you don’t believe in magic, Swan, but if you saw this, you would. Even though we couldn’t get it open, the damned thing seemed to suck the energy of the area around it. People were grumpier near it, more prone to anger, and more likely to need hours upon hours of sleep after being around it for a long time. As if it pulled their energy into itself and made them weaker, less honourable versions of themselves.”

He’s right, she doesn’t believe in magic. The thought of a strangle little box, gifted to her boss in the 1700s that caused hardened pirates to want it out of their sight, is something out of a movie. But … after all Emma has seen and all she’s heard, even just in the last few minutes, perhaps she better start believing.

“In any regard, we buried it and forgot about it for a few months until we returned one day to Newport. Gold knew my ship – hell, everyone knew my ship, then – and he was watching for it. He surprised us and thought to kill me and my crew, but realized rather quickly if we were all dead, he’d have no way to find out where the object was hidden. So instead … he thought to teach me a lesson.” He holds his left hand up again. “Hence, this.”

Emma leans back into her desk chair, sinking into the old cushion and letting out a deep breath. She’s starting to get a tight, fluttery feeling in her chest she gets when she’s becoming overwhelmed, the feeling that usually spurs her to run, run as fast as she can.

But there’s no running from this. This, this twisted world with time travel and now apparently magic, is her reality.

Killian falls silent, finally taking a seat opposite her instead of standing, fuming, by the door. But Emma doesn’t know what to say back to him, so they sit in silence for several long minutes. After all, what do you say back to someone who is telling you about their adversarial meetings in the 1740s with your boss, who was the one to cut off his hand that was then re-attached with magic?

Emma has always been a logical person; she’s had to be. There was no room for whimsy or belief in the unknown during her childhood, not when she was burned too early by a world that only showed her its dark and cruel side. Her mind is so overwhelmed, she’s not even sure how to begin processing all this. If Killian wasn’t between her and the door, she may have started running.

“So, you buried this object,” she begins, forcing herself to focus on the tangible parts of Killian’s story, though it’s not enough to not notice the irony of discussing ancient buried treasure with a pirate. “Probably in a place built over by a parking lot, or so deep underground that its lost to history, or found by a random person and sitting on someone’s grandma’s shelf –”

“That seems unlikely,” Killian muses. “I would hazard a guess it has never been found. After all, that must be why I’m here, in your time. He’s after the object again. He couldn’t get it from me then, and for whatever reason, he’s brought me here to find it.”

Emma has come to the same conclusion herself now, but she shakes her head in dismay. “I just don’t understand. If he wants this thing back so bad, why not get it from you back then, not invent time travel and wait nearly three hundred years for it?”

He shrugs, but his eyes flash. “Only the devil himself knows what madness lurks in that monster’s mind.”

Emma sighs and rubs at her eyes. If ridiculous was a line crossed back when Killian first said he knew Gold from his time, this situation is so far gone, Emma’s not even sure what to make of it anymore.

“So where is it buried? The object?”

Killian doesn’t answer, idly tracing the scar around his wrist. She watches him, wondering if he’s simply trying to remember, but when the silence stretches on, she realizes he has no intention of answering her, and for whatever reason, that hurts.

“Killian … you know you can trust me.”

“I do trust you, Swan,” he says, and his voice softens as he meets her eyes. “It’s Gold I don’t. This object, whatever its value to him, has been safe for nearly three centuries. Its secret is safest with just one person.” He pauses briefly. “For now.”

Though still stung, Emma nods. “Okay. For now.” She lets out a deep breath, and runs a hand through her hair, combing out the tangles. “Well, if this object is really what Gold is after and you’re the only person alive who knows where it is, it makes sense why Gold wanted you arrested at first.”

“He what?” Killian’s voice is sharp, his eyes flashing with anger again, and Emma winces. She supposes she hadn’t told Killian that part yet.

As his expression darkens, Emma explains how Gold had first wanted Killian detained more formally than all the other returnees due to his reaction down at the lake where he first fought and argued with the Storybrooke agents, along with his past as a pirate and wanted criminal. How, now that she knows this history, it was most likely just a ruse for Gold to be able to keep a closer eye on Killian than the others.

“That slimy bastard.”

Silently, Emma agrees. She doesn’t know what Gold is planning, but she already knows whatever it is, it isn’t good. At her last meeting with him, when he’d asked her about ‘anything odd’ with the returnees, she’d left the conversation with a pit in her stomach, the root of doubt and suspicion that has now blossomed into fully fledged mistrust and, frankly, fear.

“We have to get you out of here. Out of Storybrooke, away from Gold. It’s not safe for you here anymore.”

“I concur.”

But then Emma frowns. Regina is away today, attending meetings offsite in regards to the returnees’ release, and Emma knows there is no way she is going to get Killian discharged from here without her permission. Any other returnee, maybe, but not Killian the media magnet.

She could attempt to sneak him out, but if they are caught … well, it was bad enough that Emma was seen by the media near him during his previous escape attempt. If they are caught again when she’s aiding him in an escape attempt … she’d be re-assigned to another returnee at the very least or fired at the very worst, and Killian will be kept here, in Gold’s clutches, for even longer.

“I can’t get you out of here tonight,” she says, swallowing down the anxiety that comes with the thought. “We have to wait until Regina is here, and do it all by the books or … well, I don’t know what will happen. She’ll be back tomorrow.” Emma sighs, and rises to her feet. “Come on. I’ll walk you back to the barracks. I think you may be safer there with the guards all around.”

They leave her office, walking carefully around the corner leading to the foyer where the media conference had been. But it’s over now, all the chairs and the podium cleaned up.

The walk to the barracks is mostly in silence, both of them lost in thought. When they reach the lobby, Emma grips Killian’s arm, pausing him in his tracks.

“Don’t get into any trouble,” she warns, her voice a whisper. “I’ll be back first thing tomorrow to talk to Regina about your release.”

“When have I ever gotten into trouble?” he replies teasingly, and he rests his hand over hers briefly before moving towards the staircase. “Goodbye, Emma.”

She watches him head upstairs to his room, until he’s gone through a door and out of sight. Emma should go back to her office and get some semblance of work done, but she pauses instead. The cafeteria is just ahead of her, buzzing with the hum of conversation. It’s lunch now, and the returnees are free to move about as the media are gone. An idea has occurred to her, and instead of heading back to her office, she walks into the busy cafeteria.

Near one of the wide windows at the opposite end, Emma spots David and Mary Margaret. As she’s walking over, Mary Margaret notices her first, brightening with a wide smile and shining eyes.

“Hi Emma!”

Their enthusiasm still makes her a bit uncomfortable, but she tries to smile genuinely as she takes a seat opposite them. They are smiling widely at her, clearly thinking she’s here for a friendly chat or at least a step in the right direction for their relationship, and suddenly Emma wishes that was all she was here for. A pleasant, light conversation with the parents she lost for 28 years, returned to her miraculously by (as it’s truly appearing to be) magic.

And yet here she is instead, a dark cloud of fear and suspicion hanging over her. She glances around before speaking, not really sure who she should be on the lookout for, but in any case, the other returnees and agents are pre-occupied with their own meal or conversation. And, besides, she supposes she has an excuse to be sat here talking with David and Mary Margaret – they are, after all, her parents.

“We’ve been wanting to tell you,” Mary Margaret starts brightly, before Emma can get up the nerve to speak. “Graham told us that once the first group of returnees start to be released, he thinks David and I will be allowed out for more visits. We were hoping, well …” she trails off suddenly, uncertain, and David grasps her hand tightly, squeezing it for support. Mary Margaret smiles at him, and continues, her voice much stronger now, “Maybe we could meet you and Henry somewhere for a meal one day?”

“Oh,” Emma says, taken aback. “Um, yeah, that that would be great.”

They smile in delight, and Emma finds she does truly mean that. If they had said something like this even a few days ago, she probably would’ve scowled and made up some excuse as to why it couldn’t happen, but instead, she is already imagining them at Henry’s favourite restaurant, with him showing them his favourite dishes and desserts. “Um, Henry will be so excited to hear about that. And I want to hear more about it too, but first – I came here to ask you for a favour.”

They nod, exchanging a glance with each other, plainly thrilled that whatever this is about, Emma has decided to ask for their help. Their willingness makes Emma’s heart twinge; they’re so happy to have anything from her, even if it’s an indication of a grain of trust, that it lights up their whole expressions as if she just agreed to start calling them mom and dad.

She gives herself a quick mental shake, and focuses again. She leans forward slightly, lowering her voice so they can only just hear her. “There’s something … weird going on around here, I’m still trying to figure it all out, but I need your help in the meantime.”

David and Mary Margaret trade worried glances at her tone. “Of course,” David says firmly. “What’s going on? What is it about?”

Emma hesitates. She wants to tell them what Killian told her, but it’s not her story to share. Besides, the less people who know about Gold, the better. Instead, she says, “Can you keep an eye on Killian Jones for me for the rest of the day? Make sure he’s doing okay and keeping himself out of trouble?”

David frowns, and crosses his arms across his chest. “The pirate?” he demands, and Mary Margaret glares at him.

“It’s important,” Emma continues, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. “I – can’t really say much else, but it’s important.”

“Of course, Emma,” Mary Margaret says, and she elbows David, who, reluctantly, nods. “That’s no problem at all. We’ll ask him to have dinner with us tonight.”

“Thanks, I really appreciate it.” She then gets to her feet, and disappointment flashes across their faces. She winces. “Sorry, I have to get back to work. But, I – uh, well I’m looking forward to that dinner one day soon.”

The disappointment fades a bit, and they say their goodbyes. Emma returns to her office for the rest of the afternoon, trying to get through her stack of endless paperwork, but it’s pointless. She gets nothing done, her mind on Gold and buried treasure and even when she gets home, she’s a nervous wreck all night, unable to focus on anything at all.

Henry is his usual chatty self, but Emma can’t keep focused on what he’s saying. She has no patience for cooking tonight either, so instead orders in pizza, much to her son’s delight. As he’s munching on his fourth piece of deep-dish pepperoni, Henry pauses mid-bite, glancing at Emma’s untouched first slice.

“Mom? Are you ok?”

“Sorry, kid,” she replies, and she forces herself to smile reassuringly. “Just distracted by work. Want to play a game tonight?”

He is satisfied with that answer, and playing Clue with Henry does help to pass the time, but her heart isn’t in it and she is soundly beaten in each of the three rounds they play. When it’s finally her son’s bedtime and he’s sound asleep, peaceful and warm in his bed, Emma herself gets ready for bed.

Sleep, however, has never seemed so far away. Her mind roils with the revelations of the day, her stomach turning with nausea and anxiety. With no wink of sleep in sight, Emma sits up in bed instead. She leans against the solid wood of her headboard, and hugs her knees into her chest, watching the tree outside her window sway with the cold wind.

It’s so simple, to watch the trees, illuminated by the street lights below. They are just as they were yesterday, unchanged by the revelation of magic such as controlling snow or re-attaching hands or transporting hundreds of people through time.

She watches the trees for a while, and at one point, Emma finally drifts off, her dreams a jumble of pirate ships and bright white light.

Those dreams, however, are abruptly broken by a shrill ring of her cellphone.

Emma jolts awake, and grabs the phone from the nightstand, answering it without reading the caller ID.

“Hello?”

“Emma, it’s Anna!” Her colleague’s voice is frantic and harried, and Emma sits up, her heartbeat accelerating.

“Anna?”

“You need to get back here to Storybrooke right away. It’s – it’s about Killian Jones. One of the returnees was found dead and –”

Emma swings her legs out from under the covers, the floor cold beneath her bare feet, as icy as the shot of pure panic running through her. “What? Is – is Killian –”

“No, no, he’s fine,” Anna says hurriedly, as if just realizing the implication of her words. Emma’s heart stutters again, her emotions of fear and relief in whiplash. “Well, I mean he’s not hurt, he’s not quite okay as you would say, but –”

“Anna, what the hell is going on?”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean – okay, like I was saying, I was staying here tonight with Elsa, and then – well, there was a commotion maybe an hour ago and when I went to see what had happened … well, one of the returnees is dead. It’s pretty clear they were attacked … like, with a sword.”

Emma’s heart sinks though she’s sure she already knows. If he’s not the one dead, and the victim was attacked with a sword …

“And what does this have to do with Killian?”

“He’s been arrested for the murder.”

_______________________________________________________

The drive back to Storybrooke is a blur. She’d woken up her neighbour across the hall and half-dragged her over to watch Henry and get him off to school in the morning, only telling her there was an emergency and she had to leave right now.

When she makes it onto Storybrooke’s grounds, she careens into an empty parking spot, half out of the vehicle before she’s stopped the engine. The main returnee barracks building is bright and illuminated, and Emma marches towards it, her heart pounding heavily with each step she takes.

On the steps leading to the building, outside the main doors, stands a group of several individual Emma recognizes as police and FBI officers from their emblazoned jackets. As she approaches, one holds her hand up to block Emma’s path.

“Hold up! No one is allowed entry right now. A federal investigation is underway.”

Emma’s hands curl into fists at her side, and she digs out her identification badge from her jacket pocket. She has no time to argue. “You don’t understand, I need to get in there.”

The officers’ frown at her badge, and she opens her mouth to furiously continue, when a voice calls her name from within the main doors.

“Emma?” The guards move aside, revealing Kristoff Reinsdyr, one of the guards at Storybrooke, looking pale and frazzled. “Thank goodness you’re here.”

One of the FBI officers scowls, and looks Emma up and down. “We have orders to not let anyone else in until Commander Hua says –”

“Emma needs to come in. She’s Jones’ agent in charge of his case here.”

Kristoff gestures her forward, and Emma doesn’t wait to see if the officers complain again, though they do move out of her way finally. She and Kristoff hurry inside, where the brightness of the fluorescently lit building makes her eyes sting as he leads her towards the back staircase.

“Glad you’re here, Emma. Anna told me she called you,” Kristoff says, as they take the steps two at a time up to the fourth floor to the isolation and interview area. Emma is reminded sharply of the first time she had come up here, when she’d met Killian the first night, when he’d been belligerent and thrown in here to cool down.

The thought sets her teeth on edge. “Kristoff, what the hell is this about? Anna said there had been a murder?”

He hesitates. “Yes, it seems like it. There was some commotion around midnight in the residences. We thought perhaps it was a fight, but when we got there to see what had happened …” He trails off, and shakes his head once. “It was awful, Emma. Truly horrific.”

He doesn’t elaborate, and Emma decides she doesn’t want to know. “And – they think Killian did it? Where is he now?”

“In one of the interview rooms upstairs. He was with a few of the other guards for a bit, until the FBI got here about an hour ago. Now he’s in with their commander.”

They reach the top floor, and Kristoff leads her down a cold, empty hallway to the cluster of interview rooms at the end of the corridor. Kristoff opens a small side door, into a small observation room that faces the larger interview room through one-way glass. Three FBI officers are in the room already and they frown at her, but she simply flashes her identification badge in their direction before looking through the one-way glass at the scene ahead.

Killian is seated in a similar room to the one she first met him in, his face smooth and impassive, as cold as she’s ever seen it. His wrists are bound with handcuffs, chained to the table in the centre of the room. Mulan Hua, the commander of the Boston FBI who Emma recognizes from the lake, is seated across from him, watching him with a careful, quiet gaze.

“Let’s go over this again,” she is saying, her voice strained with patience. Emma isn’t sure how long Killian has been talking to her, but by his sour expression, she knows they’ve already been over this conversation several times. “Tell me exactly what happened this evening.”

“As I have told you a thousand times since I was dragged from my bed by your deranged guards,” he snaps, drawing the words out so they are each peppered with a near growl. “I have no idea what happened. I was in my room all evening, save for dinner. All I know is what you’ve told me: a man has been found dead, and you suspect I had something to do with it.”

“Murdered,” Mulan corrects, her face solemn. “He’s not only dead, he was murdered.”

Killian rattles the handcuffs pointedly. “Not by my hand. If I’d done it, I’d bloody well confess. I may be a pirate, but I’m no coward. I’ve committed my fair share of atrocities, but I will not confess to something I did not do.”

“How do you explain the fact that your sword was found discarded nearby, stained with blood?”

It could be a damning statement, but Killian laughs, rumbling and low. “You think me fool enough to leave a murder weapon lying about where any bumbling twit can come across it? Not to mention that I haven’t had my sword since I arrived in this bloody time when your guards confiscated it, so how, pray tell, do you think I managed to get my sword back?”

Mulan sighs, irritation flitting across her features. “Well, we know how you did it. We have evidence. Video evidence of you removing the sword from the Collection Room.”

Emma’s eyes widen, and she feels abruptly like she’s been punched in the gut. They have what?

Killian, however, isn’t fazed by this bombshell; after all, he probably has no idea what a video is. “I don’t care what evidence you say you have. It’s all false, I didn’t do it and I haven’t had my sword in weeks. So, either arrest me and throw me in a dungeon, or let me go for I have nothing more to say to you.”

And at that, he falls silent. Mulan tries to get him to speak again, but to no avail. Eventually, she sighs and gets to her feet, the chair scraping loudly against the floor and making Emma flinch. “Okay. You think about things, and I’ll be back with something for you to eat and drink.”

As she heads for the door, Emma sees her chance to speak with her. She darts past Kristoff and the other FBI officers in the observation room, out into the hallway, catching Mulan just as she’s shutting the door behind her.

“Commander,” Emma calls. “What the hell is going on?”

“Oh, Agent Swan, I’m glad you’re here.” Mulan breathes out heavily. Now that she’s out of the interview room, she appears tired, her face pale, her eyebrows pinched together with stress. “I’ve been wanting to talk with you. Do you have any idea why Jones would want to kill Henry Jekyll?”

“No!” Emma replies vehemently. “Killian wouldn’t kill – who the hell even is that?”

“He is another returnee. Or rather, was. He was one of Jones’s roommates when he was released from isolation. He was found dead earlier by his current roommate. He’d been stabbed several times.”

Emma stares back at her, lost for words, as Kristoff peers out of the other room, as if making sure everything is okay.

Mulan nods at him. “Officer, can you get me a sandwich and water bottle for Jones?”

He agrees, and disappears back down the hall the way he had come with Emma. Mulan turns back to Emma, and at her expression, lets out another deep sigh.

“Emma,” she says gently, almost understandingly. “I know you must have gotten close to Jones while he’s been here –” Emma inhales sharply, but Mulan doesn’t seem to notice “– since you’re his agent and all. Obviously, you don’t want to believe he could have done something like this. But you have to remember that he’s a criminal. He was an outlaw and a pirate, wanted by the British Navy at the time for treason and murder. And that’s just the recorded crimes. We really don’t know anything about him, or what he’s capable of. I’m not surprised something like this has come up, honestly.”

“I am,” Emma replies bluntly. “There is no way Killian killed someone, not when tomorrow – I mean, we are trying to get all the returnees out of here not keep them locked up longer!”

Mulan pinches the bridge of her nose, and gestures for Emma to follow her. “Come with me, take a look at what we found.”

Emma follows her into a second interview room, empty save for a steel table with a laptop on it. Mulan opens the laptop, entering her credentials to log in. It seems to take an exorbitant amount of time, Emma’s nerves fraying further with each passing second. The screen opens to a generic Federal Bureau of Investigation backdrop, and Mulan clicks on a video saved to the desktop, labelled simply ‘surveillance footage.’

“This is from back in early February,” Mulan explains, as the video loads up to reveal a room Emma recognizes as the Collection Room in the basement, where she visited once before to collect Mary Margaret, David and Killian’s belonging, with its shelves upon shelves of boxes and plastic containers.

“Security pulled it for us once we identified the sword. Watch.”

The recording is of the deserted collection room for several moments, blurry and shrouded in shadows, the time blinking in the corner of the video as 3:30 a.m. Then, grainy white light floods the room, the main door swinging open to let in the hallway light.

Through the pixelated footage, Emma recognizes Killian as he strides into the room, confident as ever. He walks to the back of the room without hesitation, to a small area behind a chain link fence which reaches to the ceiling. He disappears off camera as he steps into the fenced-in area, but he’s only hidden for a few moments before he steps back into view.

In his hands, is a sheathed sword, its handle black and simple, apparent even in the poor footage. He removes it from the sheath, and holds it up to his eye level, admiring the blade. He then re-sheathes it and slips out of the room, the light fading from the room as the door swings shut behind him.

The video stops, and Emma stares at it, dumbfounded. There it is, plain as day. Evidence of Killian retrieving the sword.

But she shakes her head as she remembers her own visit to the Collection Room more clearly. “No, no, that’s not possible. Listen, I know he couldn’t have gotten the sword. It was checked out, I remember because I went and got his other stuff and saw it on the list.”

“The list?” Mulan frowns. “What list?”

“There was a list in the Collection Room, a list of each person’s items which weren’t allowed to be checked out, but his sword had a note that it was taken out. So he couldn’t have done it, because you needed special permission to get those restricted items out. I remember because I was –”

Emma trails off, because Mulan is watching her with a skeptical frown. She clearly doesn’t believe Emma, and after all, why would she? There’s video proof of Killian getting the sword himself.

Kristoff knocks on the door to the interview room then, opening it to show the water bottle and wrapped sandwich in his hand. “Here you are, Commander.”

“Perfect,” Mulan says, closing the laptop and striding towards him. “Thank you, officer.”

She’s already back in the hallway, food in hand, marching down to the Killian’s interview room, before Emma, still stunned by the video, springs into action.

She hurries out into the hallway and, before Mulan can open the door to re-join Killian, blocks her path. Killian may be her … well, Emma’s not sure if she could even call him a friend, but whatever he is, he’s her responsibility. Returnees are always given legal counsel if they require it for any reason, including an active criminal investigation whether they are defendant or plaintiff.

“Does he have a lawyer on their way?”

“No, he declined one.”

Mulan says it calmly, but something about it is the last straw for Emma. The last twenty-four hours have nearly broken her – the video of Elsa, the knowledge that Gold is from the 1700s too, that magic is the most probable reason why all these people have shown up here, and now this: her … returnee arrested for murder and being questioned without legal counsel.

“He’s from the 1700s!” Emma shouts, and Mulan flinches in surprise. Even Killian glances over to the door, as if he heard her too. “Of course he declined one, I don’t know if they had lawyers back then. He has no idea about our laws or processes or anything. Killian doesn’t know what he’s getting himself into, he needs a lawyer!”

Mulan regards Emma quietly, and she shrugs. “Well, I’ll speak to him about it again, but I doubt he’ll change his mind.”

She opens the door with the food, and as she does, Emma leans slightly around her, to peer into the room. Killian is watching Mulan enter, stony-faced, but for a moment, a single moment before the door slams shut behind Mulan, he catches Emma’s eye.

If only magic was real; maybe she could send him a telepathic message to ask for a lawyer. But, Emma’s no magician, and the door swings shut, the breeze catching her in the face and rustling her hair.

“Here,” Mulan says, her voice muffled by the door, and Emma hurries back to the other room, to the one-way glass so she can hear better. The other agents are glaring at her now with open hostility, but Emma ignores them, moving past them so she is standing directly in front of the one-way glass.

Mulan has resumed her seat, the water bottle and sandwich on the table between them, but Killian doesn’t move to reach for them.

“Listen,” she says, casting a pointed look to the one-way glass. “Before we talk anymore about this, I’m going to remind you one more time that you are allowed to have legal representation before speaking with me.”

Killian remains silent.

Mulan huffs a sigh. “Alright. Okay, so let’s go over this again, shall we?”

Killian leans forward, the handcuff chains jangling loudly against the steel table. “Commander,” he says, intently staring now at her across the table. His tone has changed, the defensive snarls replaced with a charming lilt, soothing and persuasive. “You are a smart woman, smarter than those oafs who were in here before you. You know I didn’t do this. Even if I was so idiotic to kill a man I had met only a handful of times on the eve of being released from this prison, you know as well as I that any criminal worth their salt wouldn’t leave a bloody murder weapon tied to them and them alone near a massacred body should they hope to get away with the crime. Whoever did this wanted you to find that sword, to know that it was mine so you would come to me right away and keep me locked up here.”

Mulan narrows her eyes, and she asks, only half-jokingly, “So what? Someone is setting you up?”

Killian’s gaze flicks over to the door, to where he had seen Emma, before he shrugs, as if the suggestion is ludicrous. But it’s enough to clue Emma in.

Of course. He’s right, he has no motive to kill Jekyll. But someone else does. Someone else, who has something to lose if Killian is released from Storybrooke with the rest of the returnees.

Gold.

He must’ve seen them at the news conference, must know Killian would’ve told Emma everything about their history together. Know that, of course, Emma would try everything in her power to get Killian out of here before Gold could do anything like lock him up like he had always wanted to. So he moved faster, found a way to keep him here, in his grasp where he hopes to get the location of the mysterious object out of Killian, once and for all.

“Emma?” Kristoff asks, reaching out a hand to her in concern, and Emma realizes he and the FBI officers are staring at her.

She waves them away, realization and horror roaring in her ears as loud as thunder. She is still trying to process this, when in the interview room, Killian leans back in his chair, his expression dark and cold.

“Perhaps it is time I speak with an attorney.”

#cs ff #cs mc ff #captain swan #ouat #cs fic #a place in time #hope people like this one!#it's been a long time so i'm grateful for anyone still reading

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morkofday · 3 years

Text

thank you once again @yibobibo for tagging me ♥ even if, like I said, this is pure torture. I have so many sons that I’ve given up on counting them sigh but here goes.

favourite male fictional characters.

I took it that this meant ten so am going with that (tho am not gonna try and put them into order). am also sticking to all the characters I loved this year. and gonna ramble and add gifs so cutting it here.

1. Liu Sang

The Lost Tomb Reboot/Reunion: The Sound of The Providence

I have so much love for this boy it’s not even healthy. it’s a bit funny tho bc once I started tltr, I didn’t really like him and almost forgot about him as the first season ended. he just felt so annoying and bitter in what I saw him, even if I did get that he had a Tragic BackstoryTM (I felt for him but well. tltr really made him hard to like at first). but then they brought him back in the second season with his sad puppy eyes and inability to handle his thoughts on wu xie and being all touch-starved and pitiful and whatnot and baam, I had the adoption papers ready. he’s wonderful and so strong and so smart and amazing. and liu chang as his actor has been wonderful (and he’s so pretty my god, have you seen him??)

2. Shen Wei

Guardian

never did I expect to just. fall into this hole after a year? I remember what a mess I was when I first watched guardian over a year ago, right after finishing the untamed. I was in shambles even as I knew how it would end. and now I’ve done this all again while also reading the novel and. my love for shen wei, especially bc it’s zhu yilong acting as shen wei? astronomical. I want to write poetry about him and his stupid responsibilities that he chooses to carry silently and his devotion to zhao yunlan and his love for his ppl and his didi and. I hope that one day I manage to write weilan bc I have this one idea and you can come pry it from my cold, dead fingers if it doesn’t get out there (am also super happy about the edit I made bc my god does he deserve at least that)

3. Cloud Strife

Final Fantasy VII

ok so stepping into the video games territory now. I was waiting for the remake like crazy and it was everything to me once the quarantine hit during spring. the game is so beautiful and I felt like I looked at this gorgeous boy once and was ready to give him my heart (tbh am quite sure he owned my heart before I even learned to know him). he is tragic in so many ways (I’ve only scratched the surface of all of his pain I know) and I wish I could just. hug him a lot. he is kind and cares very deeply even if he hates to show it and I love it how remake showed him also just being a human disaster (some of his scenes are just. peak comedy). I would kill for his smile (I have already cried for it a dozen)

4. Geralt of Rivia

The Witcher (The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt)

if there’s one grumpy, brickwall of a man I love, it’s geralt. I affectionately call him “papa wolf” while playing witcher 3 and his voice in it does things to me (I am just so fond of him ok, begone you dirty fuckers). I got introduced to him through the books and adored him in them bc he is so prickly and sarcastic and still so full of love even if he will never admit to it. he is the father figure I wish I could have in real life. (and yes, I’ve seen the tv series (or at least a couple of the first episodes) and it looks stunning but. this is my version of geralt and that’s the hill I will die on)

5. Xiaoge

Zhang Qiling, Daomu Biji (The Lost Tomb 2)

(wow finding a gif for him was a pain, apparently I gotta learn how to gif or?) ah, my dear boy who I’ve ended up just calling xiaoge bc he seems to prefer it over his real name/title/whatever zhang qiling really is. I got introduced to him through tltr where we really didn’t get to know that much about him bc he was just... there. huang junjie was absolutely stunning tho and his soft smiles made me super fond, but only in the lost tomb 2 did I really fall in love with xiaoge as a character. I was surprised tbh bc I didn’t expect it to be this drama? I had so many doubts about the cast in tlt2 but they all delivered! and I think cheng yi’s xiaoge is now my favorite bc he somehow captured that softness and the pain of him? (and we do not talk about that buxun storyline tyvm) tho now that ultimate note is on the way, I gotta say that xiao yuliang does a wonderful job as xiaoge too!

6. Wu Xie

Daomu Biji (Ultimate Note)

(sorry we have to go with a pingxie gif now but maybe it’s only fitting) tbh it’s hard to choose my favorite version of wu xie. I think all of the actors for him have done amazing job showing wu xie in different parts of his life (all of them are very distinct but still feel like the same person) but currently zheng shunxi takes the lead. I really wanted to put the reboot version of him here (bc I love that mature, relaxed and somehow very soft version of him and the angst is phenomenal and the thoughts he has about death... yeah) but I already have zhu yilong’s face here once so :’D wu xie is just one of those characters you cannot not like. he is so strong, so kind, so stubborn, so wonderfully stupid sometimes and in need of careful protection. I also adore it how smart he is and I could listen to him spew history facts for 10 hours straight (even if it was in a tomb full of blood zombies) ♥

7. Jiang Cheng

Jiang Wanyin, The Untamed

my darling boy! my beautiful angry grape! I love him beyond words. I love him in all of his raging, misunderstood, stupid, sassy, constipated, abused, tragic, bitter, big hearted glory. I could write novels about him (and I did and am still writing oh boy) and his love for ppl and his inability to show that love and his loneliness and his issues. I could also write another novel for all of his outfits etc. bc damn, what a fashion king. he is just so great. he owns my soul. he deserves happiness and in this essay I will

8. Isana Yashiro

Adolf K. Weismann, K Project

I rewatched k project this spring bc a) it’s one of my favorite animes ever (it just looks stunning with all the colors) and b) I love yashiro to bits. I remember falling in love with him when I first watched k project many years ago bc he was just so kind and bright. this time though, I ended up seeing another side of him and my god did I cry. he is... so sweet. he cares for others so deeply and is ready to sacrifice so much for them and his love for his two clansmen... yeah. I think I finally saw the tragedy of him too, all the pain and loneliness and insecurity he decides to hide behind his smile and obnoxious personality. he reminded me a lot of myself and watching him made my heart bleed in a good way

9. Qi Tiezui

Ba Ye, The Mystic Nine

(wow am going to riot for the lack of all the gifs hhh) yes, we’re continuing with the dmbj universe that sucked me in big time this year. the drama of the mystic nine wasn’t probably that earth shattering for me as it somehow got boring more than once but I did love ba ye to bits. he was just... so nice? I got it that he was somehow this “comedic relief” in the drama with all of his funny scenes and ridiculous mannerisms but I could see the brilliance of him. he is warm and smart and kind of a romantic too and he cares for all of his friends so deeply? it was also sweet how protective of him his two zhangs were (does that run in the family? the tendency to imprint into one smart but disastrous man and keep him safe? maybe) and I really hope I knew more about him bc he seemed to have a lot of knowledge and a lot of impact to ppl’s lives (I yelled when they mentioned him in ultimate note, I miss him ;;)

10. Dorian Pavus

Dragon Age Inquisition

(yes I’ve been replaying DA:I this year, this counts!) another darling boy! my lovely sass master son! I have so much love for him and his story in DA:I. he is my favorite companion (and his romance is my favorite too, probably obvious in the way am currently romancing him for the third time) and he has given me a lot of strength. the way he stands up against his father, how he’s ready to reform his homeland instead of walking away, how he’s so caring for those he sees struggling... it’s very warming and I feel like I’m safe with him. it feels a bit silly to say that but he really is that comfort character I will seek out when I just want to know am doing fine :’) (and I am so excited to see him again in DA4! probably?)

+ 11. Li Cu

Tomb of the Sea

yes I cheated a bit (with my own rules lol) to fit li cu here. I didn’t really expect to like him or tomb of the sea as much as I did once I started it? I’ve seen leo wu elsewhere before this (battle through the heavens, nirvana in fire) and his face always makes me think about a sad puppy so maybe I just grew fond over li cu instantly bc he was... so hurt? the first episode really slaps you in the face with all of it, showing him being abused, wounded, kidnapped, tortured, used and then just very, very scared and broken. he continues being that throughout the whole drama and I feel like tomb of the sea (or sand sea or sha hai idk) is the darkest and angstiest story in the dmbj universe. I know it deserves to be bc this is a dark time for wu xie but... my darling li cu. I wish him only happiness ;; he was so strong and smart and wonderful in this and it was just so amazing to watch him grow and find his own place in the world just bc he did something himself (even when he got dragged into all of this bc of wu xie) also I support the wu xie adopts li cu -agenda

Honorary mentions:

Zhang Rishan, Xie Yuchen and Hei Xiazi from DMBJ universe. The Twin Jades of Gusu and Ouyang Zizhen from The Untamed. The Iron Bull and Fenris from Dragon Age games. Thane Krios, Kaidan Alenko and Jaal from Mass Effect games. The whole lot of Assassin’s Creed protagonists (especially Ezio Auditore and Shay Cormac). Adam Parrish and Ronan Lynch from The Raven Cycle. Neil Josten from All For The Game. Eduon and March from The Smoke Thieves. Qiling from L.O.R.D. Critical World. Luo Fei from Detective L (played by Bai Yu).

well, with this I can really see that I have a thing for those who are tragic :’D I have a thing for grumpy, prickly and antisocial guys or those who hide their pain behind a smile. maybe it’s bc I am somehow both, even if I can’t show my anger or be mean to others and even if I feel like my smile never sticks either. I just find kinship in all of the characters who are on this list. and I feel like I aspire to be as strong and as kind and as loving despite all the pain I’ve been put through.

thank you, this was so much fun! and sorry I made this so long and so complicated ^^’ but well, there are just way too many male characters I love haha

at the end I want to tag @i-am-just-a-kiddo @ashenwren @kholran @tiesanjiao @lan-xichens @aheartfullofjolllly @manhasetardis and @lzswy ♥ feel free to do this in your own way or not at all! and thank you if you managed to read through my rambling :’D

#tag game #wow this was something #i've been waiting for one #bc there is so much love in me #and this year i've discovered so many #new characters to just gush over #about me #random #edit: added a few characters #and tagged some more ppl sorry #also mobile tumblr wouldnt let me edit so lol

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