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andrewmoocow · 2 years

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Little Homeworld Life chapter 10: From Russia with Hate, Part 1 (originally published on October 17, 2022)

AN: And here we are at our first, and only, big two-part episode of Little Homeworld Life chronicling the return of Jones, Bane Jones. Agent 00014 was a character I thought would be real fun to tackle again, and lo and behold, he not only gets one episode to himself, but two! Speaking of James Bond, this special episode shall take elements from Bond movies like From Russia with Love, hence the title, and The World is Not Enough. If you've seen either of these films, you might get a good idea of what will go down. Now that we have introductions out of the way, let's move on.

Synopsis: Bane Jones arrives at Little Homeworld to recruit Lapis & Amethyst against an alliance between Francis von Bowling and The Sickle.

Cast:

Jennifer Paz as Lapis

Michaela Dietz as Amethyst

Pierce Brosnan as Bane Jones

Estelle as Garnet

Deedee Magno-Hall as Pearl

Uzo Aduba as Bismuth

Shelby Rabara as Peridot

Christoph Waltz as Francis von Bowling

Diedrich Bader as Lennie

Wayne Knight as Milton

Amy Sedaris as Teal Zircon

David McCallum as G

Paget Brewster as B

Corey Burton as The Banker

Noël Wells as Black Rutile

Featuring Vladimir Mashkov as The Sickle

With Andrey Batt as Konstantin

Edward Furlong as Pavel

Seth Green as Leo

And Olga Kurlyenko as Tina

In an undisclosed part of Europe, the World Defense Agency's finest agent Bane Jones was on another mission. Under the orders of his superior B, Jones was assigned to meet with a European banker and discuss some recent unfortunate events that had befallen a fellow agent of the WDA on the line of duty.

"Ah, Mr. Jones, I was told to expect you." The banker greeted Bane as the agent walked into his office. "So nice of you to come on such short notice."

"Well, if you can't trust a banker, what has the world come to?" Bane dryly answered as he sat down at the banker's desk. "Now then, I trust that you have intel on the death of Agent Craig?"

"Ah yes, that one." The banker replied as he pulled out a cigar to smoke. "You recall the Crystal Gems that everyone has been talking about lately, correct? I can't seem to go a day without reading about them in the news."

"Why yes, I do." Bane responded with a smile. "Lapis and Amethyst are good friends of mine who helped me take down P.H.A.N.T.O.M in Los Diego. Wonder how they're doing these days?"

"Well, that's why I asked." The banker continued. "Word on the street is that von Bowling and his two cronies managed to escape prison, yet again, but this time they had a little help."

"Of course von Bowling escaped again." Bane rolled his eyes in annoyance. "We have got to find a way to lock him up for good and ensure he stays there."

"Back on subject, it would seem that those Power-Hungry All-National Team Of Madmen has allied with the Russian crime lord known as The Sickle." The banker revealed to Agent Jones, much to the agent's alarm.

"The Sickle, you say." Bane wondered as his eyes widened and his eyebrows arched. "And what could those two be doing together?"

"Unfortunately, that was all your friend could gather before his life was forfeited." The banker added morosely before he and Jones discovered a small red dot on the banker's forehead. "What is that, a ladybug?" Smacking at the dot caused two more to appear, much to the banker's horror. "What the? Oh no!"

"Get down!" Bane yelled to the banker, but it was too late. Three bullets were fired at the banker, killing him as his three killers revealed themselves. They were three men in black military garb, one fat, one short, and one lean. These three crooks were quite different in looks, but all of them seemed equally mean.

Though Mr. Jones was briefly horrified by the banker's sudden death, he kept a cool head as he pulled out his gun. "And who might you three be?"

"Ah, Bane Jones, so glad of you to visit." The tall one that Bane immediately deduced to be their possible leader declared warmly, even though he and his cronies had just committed a brutal murder. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am known as Konstantin, and these are my associates Pavel and Leo."

"It seems fate has conspired for us to meet, Mr. Jones." Pavel, who was shorter than Konstantin but far taller than Leo, added. "We originally plotted just to take down that banker and leave, but unfortunately, it seems you just had to get in our way."

"And what a surprise too!" the dwarflike Leo exclaimed. "As I'm sure you already know, our boss, The Sickle, has allied with your old friend Francis von Bowling not just to take you out once and for all, but to destroy those infernal Crystal Gems you're friends with too! I mean, how could you?! Selling out your entire species for those alien cretins who have doomed the Earth more times than I can measure my height!"

"I can assure you, the Gems are good friends and trusted allies of the World Defense Agency!" Bane exclaimed as he prepared to shoot one of the assassins down with his pistol. "Now, I'm normally a gentleman, but hearing such hateful words about my friends makes me very uneasy. And you won't like me when I'm uneasy."

"Challenge accepted, Mr. Jones." Konstantin said while dropping his gun and throwing his fist at Bane's face, but 00014 calmly caught it in his hand before twisting Konstantin's arm behind his back and tossing him into Pavel & Leo before running away from the three assassins.

"Stop him!" Konstantin yelled before the three gunmen gave chase. Bane made a diving leap out of the deceased banker's office that would usually kill any ordinary man, but years of experience have turned Jones into anything but ordinary. Sticking a perfect three-point landing, Jones raced through the streets to escape his pursuers, catching the attention of bystanders as he kept running.

"Terribly sorry, short on time here!" Bane exclaimed as he ran faster away from the three assassins as soon as the trio began catching up to him in an alleyway. However, the chase ended rather anticlimactic as a phone started ringing, and Konstantin picked it up.

"What is it?!" Konstantin yelled to the caller, whom Bane assumed to be The Sickle. "Oh my, already?!" he responded to his boss. "We'll be back shortly." Hanging up, he, Pavel, and Leo turned to face Bane. "We really hate to cut this short, I'm sure you were very excited to have an epic chase sequence, but we have to cut and run. The boss is expecting us."

"But don't you worry, we'll be seeing each other again soon!" Pavel laughed evilly.

"Come, my brothers, we must return to The Sickle at once!" Leo said as they marched out of the alley, leaving Bane alone to contemplate what had just happened.

"Whatever that Sickle fellow wants those three to do, it can't be good." Bane mused to himself before he heard a pair of high heels approaching him. Turning around, he discovered a beautiful Russian woman with pale skin and a goth-like fashion style consisting of a black blouse, navy blue miniskirt, a pair of black heels, a gold belt of crimson jewels, and short violet-dyed hair. "Pardon me, miss, but I'm afraid this might be too dangerous for you. Allow me to introduce myself. I am-"

"Jones, Bane Jones, I know." The woman said in a sultry Russian accent. "Your reputation precedes you, sir. Call me Tina, daughter of The Sickle. And I believe I could be of assistance to you."

"Daughter?" Bane gasped at the news that The Sickle had a daughter. "Hm, never heard anyone say he was a family man before."

"That is beside the point, Mr. Jones." Tina replied nervously. "My father has devious plans for you and your friends, but I believe I can be of assistance to you. Please, take me to your American masters so we can work together to stop my father and von Bowling!"

"I can see you're desperate, Tina." Jones responded, though he started getting a little suspicious of his new ally. "Okay, I'll bring you back to America, but you must promise to behave yourself. There's no telling if P.H.A.N.T.O.M or The Sickle are still watching us."

"Oh, you are most kind, Mr. Jones." Tina said before kissing Bane on the lips and almost leaving him behind in the alley. But as Jones began following Tina, he continued acting suspiciously toward her and started making a call.

"Good day, 00014. How was the mission to the Czech Republic?" Bane's gadgets provider G asked.

"Not very well." Bane replied morosely. "The banker became a casualty, but I did gain a new ally in the daughter of The Sickle. However, I feel like I must keep an eye on her while bringing her back to headquarters."

"Hm, sounds a little odd." G said. "I don't think we have any records of The Sickle being a father in our criminal database, but I don't really mind. Regardless, we should run a few tests on her to make sure she's telling the truth."

"Understood. See you again soon." Bane nodded before hanging up.

"Hey, what's keeping you?!" Tina called for her new companion from afar. "We're wasting daylight here, as you Americans say!"

"Don't mind me, dear, just making a call!" Bane hollered back as he walked towards Tina before taking her hand, and the two began planning for the return to the United States.

Meanwhile, in America, a couple of Little Homeworld Gems had gathered around Lapis Lazuli and Amethyst as they excitedly listened to a story the two were telling. "And then we were tied up and hanging over a shark pit while the villain had his cyborg wolf watching us!" Amethyst eagerly recounted.

"The wolf had, like, a surveillance system built into his nervous system, so that Francis would watch us die." Lapis added. "But thankfully, we found a way to get out."

"Ooh, tell us, tell us!" Teal exclaimed before Garnet, Pearl, Peridot, and Bismuth appeared behind her. "Hey, guys!"

"So what's all the commotion about?" Pearl asked about the gathering.

"I've been hearing rumors that Lapis and Amethyst once met a secret agent and wanted to know if they were true," Teal explained. "so I gathered up everybody spreading those rumors so they can learn they were right all along!"

"We all certainly had a fun time in Los Diego." Garnet smiled. "Maybe you'd like to hear our stories too."

"Yeah, like how Pearl got roasted by Neil Michaels!" Peridot exclaimed, embarrassing Pearl in the process.

"Or how this neckbeard stole a superpowered air freshener!" Bismuth added before she saw the faint shape of a helicopter approaching them. "Hey, what's that supposed to be?"

"Wait, is that a helicopter?" Peridot asked as the shape got closer to Little Homeworld. "What could it be doing here?"

"One second, guys, I'll fly up and check." Lapis said before she spread her wings and flew up to get a better look at the approaching chopper. To her surprise, the vehicle bore the initials WDA, indicating to her that an old friend was coming to visit. "Wait, Bane?!"

"Good day, Lapis, fancy seeing you here." Bane greeted the water Gem as he pushed open the helicopter door. "Bet you didn't expect to see me visiting, eh?"

"We were just talking about you!" Lapis responded over the chopping of the helicopter blades. "What brings you here, Mr. Jones?!"

"Just allow me to touch down so we can talk!" Bane responded before turning to his pilot and silently ordering him to bring the helicopter in for a landing while Lapis flew back down to the ground.

"Well, what was up, other than that helicopter?" Amethyst asked Lapis.

"It's Bane Jones, he's coming here!" Lapis exclaimed eagerly just as the helicopter landed behind her. As soon as 00014 stepped out of the chopper, he was quickly surrounded by Gems wanting to ask him questions.

"OMG, it's Bane Jones!" Teal Zircon cried. "I can't believe it, I'm meeting Bane Jones up close!"

"Please, ladies, one at a time; I'm here on business!" Bane chuckled as he tried to escape his crowd of fangirls and meet Lapis & Amethyst again. "Good day, girls, I'd love to stay over for a chat, but I'm on a new mission."

"Ooh, which one is it this time?" Amethyst asked. "Are we going into space, Japan, the Caribbean, Korea?!"

"All in due time, Amethyst." Bane answered before turning to return to the helicopter. "Come now, we'll explain everything at headquarters."

"Wait, Mr. Jones." Pearl stopped the agent in his tracks. "I don't think we ever got the chance to properly introduce ourselves, so would it be alright if me, Garnet, Peridot, and Bismuth came along with you?"

"I don't see why not." Bane agreed to Pearl's suggestion. "We'll need all the help we can get against our latest threat."

"Cool, spy adventure." Garnet grinned happily.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's move!" Bismuth exclaimed as she boarded the WDA helicopter.

"Don't think I have much else to do this weekend." Peridot added before turning to Teal. "We'll be gone for a while, you guys. Try not to burn the place down while we're gone!"

"We promise. Bye now!" Teal responded as the Gems took off with Bane Jones on a new adventure in the helicopter.

A couple of hours later, the Gems had returned to Los Diego, and not much had changed since their last visit. Convention season wasn't in full swing yet, so there weren't as many people dressed in costumes based on their favorite shows, movies, games, and comics littering the city streets. By the time the Crystal Gems were taken to the World Defense Agency's headquarters, they were welcomed by its staff with open arms.

"So glad they accepted your summons, 00014." Bane's boss, B, said as she shook each of the Gems' hands. "It's a pleasure to meet you all. I am B, head of the World Defense Agency. I'm sure you're already familiar with Mr. Jones and our gadget expert, G."

"The gadget expert is named G, how fitting." Garnet commented. "So, tell us what we're here for, ma'am."

"Glad you asked, Garnet." B said as she and G presented the Crystal Gems with an image of a newspaper headline reading "FRANCIS VON BOWLING BREAKS OUT" along with security footage of the leader of P.H.A.N.T.O.M and his two minions Lennie & Milton receiving some help in breaking out of prison. "A few months back, the fiendish criminal mastermind Francis von Bowling escaped confinement once again, but he's got help this time."

The security footage was replaced with a mugshot of a large, heavyset Russian man with a large beard. "This is The Sickle, leader of a powerful Russian crime ring who has had frequent collaborations with von Bowling in the past, dating all the way back to the fall of the Berlin Wall." Another photo was displayed, this time of younger versions of the two criminals shaking hands with each other dated to 1989. "It seems the two are working together again, but who knows why?"

"Probably revenge." Amethyst answered. "I mean, we did kick von Bowling's butt last time we saw him."

"Yes, it's pretty obvious what Francis's goals are, but we have no idea what The Sickle is plotting either." G added. "Luckily, Mr. Jones found a new partner who should be able to assist us." This was when he cued Tina to enter the scene. "Gems, I'd like you all to meet Tina, daughter of The Sickle."

"Hello there, Crystal Gems." Tina greeted the Gems. "I have heard much about you from my friends back in Russia."

"Yeah, it turns out not many people like us there." Bismuth responded. "Something about violating their ancestral grounds for our own devious ends."

"Yes, if we work together, surely we can improve your reputation there." Tina stated, though Garnet looked rather suspicious at her claims. "Is something the matter?"

"It's nothing, Miss Tina. It's just my future vision giving me some ominous warnings." Garnet replied awkwardly. "Something about dark magic and nuclear weapons." Tina's eyes widened in horror before nervously scooting away from Garnet. "Wait, come back!"

"I have my suspicions as well, but I suggest we try to keep an open mind." Bane proclaimed. "Who knows, maybe she could be on our side."

"Maybe you're right, maybe you're wrong, Mr. Jones." G agreed with the WDA's top agent. "But in the meantime, pay attention, everyone!" He turned around to begin displaying the gadgets Bane would be using for his mission. "Allow me to introduce to you the devices you shall be equipped with on your assignment."

"You call those gadgets? Ha!" Peridot laughed derisively. "I once managed to hack televisions all across the country with just one communication tower! It was some very advanced technology, more advanced than your pieces of metal!"

"Someone's a little braggadocious." G wryly chuckled before presenting what seemed to be an ordinary pen. "Observe, this explosive pen." With a click of the button, the pen started beeping, and G tossed it at target on a nearby wall before it combusted. "I guess you could say the writing was on the wall."

"Leave the sassy one-liners to me, thank you very much." Bane chuckled at G's joke before his gadget provider displayed another gizmo.

"For someone who wants to look both stylish and deadly, I present this razor-brimmed derby hat." G proclaimed before throwing the hat at a few training dummies, slicing their heads clean off with little mess before it returned to his hand. "And over here, there's-"

"Um, is that a human nipple?" Pearl asked regarding a near-perfect replica of a human man's bare chest. Only there were not two nipples, but three.

"Ah yes, the golden gun incident." B declared flatly. "Our target was born with a third nipple that time; thus, this was designed so Mr. Jones could disguise as him."

"Can I take it?" Amethyst asked as she began taking the prosthetic nipple for herself. "This will make me a fortune online!"

"Go ahead, do with it what you will." G said before he continued with his demonstration. "Now, as I was saying, over here, this weaponized wristwatch has seen a lot of use before." He pressed a button that caused a multitude of gadgets to spring out of the clock face. "It has a variety of uses. It can cut wires, burn through metal with a laser, defuse electrical devices, all perfect for getting you out of a jam."

"Looks more like a Molex." Garnet said as she examined the watch manufacturer's name along the rim of the watch.

"They were kind enough to provide us with one to modify." G answered before revealing the last gadget on the itinerary. "And finally, our crème de la crème of the division's gadgets." He pulled out a set of car keys and pressed the unlock button, causing a very stylish-looking car to appear. "I've been making some modifications to your Rumbakini Tormenta lately."

"No way, a Rumbakini Tormenta?!" Bismuth gasped in awe at the cool car in front of them. "That's one of the sleekest cars in the world of automobiles, and here it is for me to tinker with!"

"Pace yourself, Ms. Bismuth. That is very valuable to Mr. Jones." B tried calming Bismuth down. "Care to give us any specifics, G?"

"With pleasure, madam." G replied. "I employed some Gem technology recovered by the government to modify this vehicle. Now it can fly, can become bigger on the inside, fire lasers from the headlights, and the wheels can cling onto most surfaces too."

"So cool!" Amethyst squealed in excitement. "Come on, guys, onwards to Russia!"

"Someone's a little eager to start the mission." Pearl laughed warmly as the Gems began boarding the Tormenta. "Hey, has anyone seen Tina anywhere?"

"Oh, sorry, my friends!" Tina exclaimed as she hurried towards the car. "Sorry, had to go to the bathroom and you know how much trouble those can be!" she awkwardly laughed, causing the Gems and Jones to stare at her in confusion. "Anyways, shall we depart?"

"Yes, let's." Garnet coolly agreed before Bane turned the car on and activated its new flight mode so it could fly off toward Russia.

"So you say that Jones knows now?" The Sickle grimly asked his three subordinates in his headquarters in the coldest parts of Russia. "I asked you to merely terminate that banker, and this is what happens?! Honestly, you three are just as incompetent as you are efficient."

"Please forgive us, boss, but now he's coming straight to us!" Konstantin exclaimed. "He'll walk straight into our trap now!"

"They are indeed correct, my friend." Francis von Bowling agreed with Konstantin while nursing a wineglass of gorilka. "Thanks to our spy on the inside, we know Mr. Jones has allied himself with the Crystal Gems against us."

"The Crystal Gems." The Sickle growled with his chin resting on a fist. "Once I see those foolish rocks, I shall make them pay for what they have done to me!" He then looked to his three assassins. "Konstantin, Pavel, Leo, bring them to me at once! Alive or otherwise!"

"Same goes for you too, Lennie and Milton." Francis said to his two lackeys, the ratlike schemer Lennie and his large, childlike partner Milton. "I want to see the blue and the purple ones again, in particular."

"Oh yes, boss, those Gems won't know what hit them." Lennie cackled while evilly rubbing his hands.

"Yeah, it'll be cool to see those Gems again!" Milton chuckled oafishly. "We won't fail you this time, boss!"

"I hope so." von Bowling replied. "If all else fails, we can rely on our mole to finish things." He then turned to some of his scientists experimenting on some highly advanced technology far beyond human comprehension. "But in the meantime, these mechanical limbs we found underwater should prove useful to us."

"Indeed it will, Francis." Black Rutile declared as she emerged from the shadows, much to von Bowling's alarm. "Oh, pardon me for the intrusion. You may call me Black Rutile, a fellow enemy of the Crystal Gems. I followed you from the Galaxy Warp to Russia because I need some help."

"What kind of help?" Francis asked suspiciously of his new visitor's motives.

"Help to build this dimensional portal, of course!" Black Rutile proclaimed as she unveiled some holographic schematics of the Vortexxer. "I think you and your little organization might have just what I need to keep it stable, and wouldn't you know it; you have almost everything I could want! So how about we work out a little deal? If you give me all the parts for the portal I need, I shall help you terminate the Crystal Gems once and for all."

"A rather tempting offer, miss." Francis smiled and shook Black Rutile's hand. "Just say the word, and I'll be there."

"Are you sure we can trust you, Gem?" The Sickle asked suspiciously. "How do we know you're not like the rest of your kind? You did broadcast your face to the world not too long ago."

"As I said to Francis here, I am just as much a victim of the Crystal Gems as you are." Black Rutile proclaimed, her declaration striking a chord with The Sickle before the Rutile brought up his criminal record on her visor. "Isn't that right, Nikolay?"

"Oh, you're good." Nikolay smirked at P.H.A.N.T.O.M's new ally in surprise and admiration of her skills. "I like you, stranger. Black Rutile, your name is?" He then offered some of his gorillka to Black Rutile. "I feel this shall be the start of beautiful friendship."

Elsewhere in Russia, the Tormenta finally landed in the streets of Saint Petersburg, followed by Bane disembarking with Tina and the Gems. "Be alert, everyone." Bane advised his female companions. "As you said, the Gems don't have the best reputation here due to past events."

"For crying out loud, one giant portion of the world gets wiped out to make room for a Galaxy Warp, and yet they blame the closest ones to the real culprit!" Lapis complained as the group left the alley the Tormenta was parked in to search for The Sickle. Along the way, the Gems discovered how much their technology influenced Russia to become slightly more steampunk than they expected. But they were also forced to be victims of all sorts of prejudice from the locals.

"You colorful killers may have won over the Americans, but we will never forget what you did!"

"Aliens go home!"

"Quit tearing our planet apart!"

"That pink beast would've been the death of us all! Hugging will change nothing!"

"Filthy lesbian rock humans!"

"Just don't pay any attention to them, gang." Garnet advised her teammates. "They only want to make us mad."

"Still, there are still so many things our people have yet to atone for." Pearl replied. "The Crystal Gems may have saved the Earth all the time, but we're just a small group of Gems doing good for the Earth. They probably just think we're a credit to our race at best."

"Whoa, no need to go that far, Pearl!" Amethyst cried while deflecting a bottle of vodka being thrown her way without even looking. "What, you really think that because we're not like them, that means we must be evil?"

"I mean, I stole most of the ocean to return home." Lapis agreed with Pearl. "Which led to hundreds either dying or nearly going out of business."

"Don't get too bummed out, and let's focus on the job at hand." Bane said before turning to Tina. "Now Tina, where do you think we'll find any information about The Sickle?"

"I believe we shall find our answer at the Royale Casino." Tina answered while gesturing to a nearby casino flooded with shady characters. "Number one wretched hive of scum and villainy in all of Russia! I have no doubt in my mind he might be there!"

"Well, how about that?" Bismuth remarked proudly at Tina's observation skills. "Come on, girls, let's get in there and find our crooks!"

"Indeed, let's get a move on." Jones said as the gang walked towards the Royale Casino, while Tina slagged behind to make sure none of them heard what she was going to do.

"They have taken the bait." Tina said into her phone. "Bring the boys out immediately."

Just as everyone expected, the Royale Casino was filled with criminal lowlifes in addition to regular people spending their money on slot machines, card games, dice games, poker machines, and roulettes. And just like outside, many of the Royale's visitors were incredibly wary of the Gems that had just arrived.

"Okay, everyone, spread out. One of these crooks must know where he is." Bane commanded his ladyfriends as he, Tina, Lapis, Amethyst, and Garnet walked towards a big poker table in the center of the room. At the same time, the other Gems interrogated the casino's visitors.

"Excuse me, sir, can you tell me something about someone called The Sickle?" Pearl asked a gambler who was cleaning out his opponents at a game of craps.

"What's it to ya, pointy?" the gambler scoffed while flicking Pearl's nose. "I don't fraternize with your kind."

"Well, I never!" Pearl snapped at the man and stormed off in anger.

"Pardon me, but I must request that you bestow upon me information relating to The Sickle if you please." Peridot politely asked another lowlife at a slot machine.

"I would if you sounded less like a nerd." The slot-puller replied disdainfully. "Now, shoo little girl, I'm on a streak here!"

"Hey comrades, any of you got any deets on The Sickle?" Bismuth asked in her best attempt at a Russian accent as she stepped up to a roulette table.

"The Sickle, eh?" a shirtless, muscular man in a pair of red trunks with a big beard and scars all over his bare & hairy torso answered. "Maybe we could give you some answers, if you beat us at roulette."

"Game on!" Bismuth declared as she pulled out a wad of dollars left over from the trip to Los Diego and handed it over to the croupier. "I'm betting a hundred dollars on 17 Black!"

"Thank you." The croupier responded while taking the cash, Bismuth not telling whether he was unaware a Gem just placed a bet or didn't care as the ball began rolling around the roulette wheel. "No more bets!" It was this close to landing on the spot that Bismuth had bet on, but unfortunately for her, it landed on 23 Red instead. "Ooh, sorry milady. Better luck next time."

"I must admit, you were good gambler. For Gem." The muscular man complimented Bismuth as she walked away.

Meanwhile at the poker table, Bane, Lapis, Amethyst, Tina, and Garnet were playing a high-stakes game of cards against a dozen other seedy opponents, each varying in skill and menace. While Bane played his cards right, both figuratively and literally, and the Gems were doing moderately well, Tina seemed to have no idea how to play.

"Oops, silly me!" Tina declared as she discovered she had yet another bad hand. "I do not seem to be good at this game!"

"That's a real shame, Tina, because watch this." Garnet declared before she unveiled her cards. To the alarm of everyone around her, the fusion had a royal flush. "Read 'em and weep, boys."

"Impossible!" Bane gasped at Garnet's hand. "How did you get a royal flush so easily?!"

"Future vision." Garnet boasted. "Been using it to cheat at cards with Amethyst and Greg for years."

"I knew it!" Amethyst exclaimed before they heard the doors open, followed by Konstantin, Pavel, and Leo stepping into the Royale Casino.

"Okay everyone, stop what you're doing now!" Konstantin commanded the casino's visitors while arming himself with a gun that looked like reverse-engineered Gem technology. "I want everybody on the ground except for anyone with unusual skin color! And no, I don't mean that kind of unusual skin color!"

"It's those assassins that killed the banker again!" Bane exclaimed as the gamblers scrambled around the casino.

"Hey, wait a second. Those weapons they're holding look a little familiar." Amethyst said as the three gunmen drew closer to Bane and company, followed by the other Crystal Gems racing to stop them.

"Are those my limb enhancers?!" Peridot gasped at the trio's firearms. "How did you get them?!"

"Found them in the Tunguska Sea near some big rock formation." Leo revealed to the group, causing Garnet and Pearl to all look at Amethyst. Last they remember, Amethyst was the one to dispose of Peridot's limb enhancers after they finally poofed her by dumping them in the ocean.

"Oh, come on! How was I supposed to know someone was going to confiscate them?!" Amethyst cried before the Gems were all held at gunpoint.

"Now then, our boss has some very special friends who want you taken out for what you did to them." Pavel declared. "So either turn around now and leave or else things will have to get ugly."

"Wait, everyone please!" Tina yelled as she got between the two groups. "Boys, boys, we can resolve this peacefully as long as you let my friends go."

"So that should be our cue to run?" Bismuth asked.

"You bet." Lapis responded flatly as Bane and the Gems ran out of the casino. But as soon as they escaped however, Tina immediately changed her tune.

"Thank you, boys, for that marvelous introduction." Tina smirked at Konstantin. "Anyways, you remember the deal I made with Bowling, right?"

"Yes, here is that book you wanted." Leo answered while handing over a strange grimoire that emitted a sinister energy from it. Tina just smiled evilly as she opened the book and began reading through its pages.

As soon as Bane, Lapis, Amethyst, Garnet, Pearl, Peridot, and Bismuth escaped the Royale Casino, they ran for the Rumbakini Tormenta and immediately began racing through Saint Petersburg in order to get as far away from the three assassins as possible.

"Thank goodness Tina bought us time!" Pearl exclaimed as the car sped through Russia. "I just hope she'll be alright."

"Who knows if we'll be alright, though." Lapis said as she poked her head out the window to discover numerous police cars driven by P.H.A.N.T.O.M goons chasing after them. "Quick, Bane, step on it!"

"Well, it's 37,500 miles to America. We got a full tank of gas and multiple gadgets, it's getting cold, and none of us are dressed for the weather." Bane declared.

"Hit it!" Amethyst yelled as Bane stepped on the gas, making the Tormenta go even faster. But unfortunately, the P.H.A.N.T.O.M cars started going faster as well. "Talk about putting your pedal to the metal, am I right?"

"This is no time for puns, Amethyst, we need to think of a plan!" Garnet yelled.

"Why don't we ask those fellows in the nice suits?" Peridot suggested while spotting a pair of men in matching black suits, fedoras, and sunglasses driving in a beat-up sedan. "Excuse us, but could you lend your assistance? We're on the run from villains here!"

"We'd love to stay and chat, but we're on a mission from God!" the first man declined the offer.

"Our Lady of blessed acceleration, don't fail us now!" the second man yelled as his companion drove the car away from the highway, which gave Peridot an idea.

"Wait, Bane, we need to go off the road!" Peridot yelled to the secret agent. "Just like those rad dudes in shades!"

"Well, I'm willing to give anything a shot once." Bane shrugged in agreement before swerving the car off the highway and into the Russian wilderness. When the P.H.A.N.T.O.M troops attempted to follow, all that did was turn them into a big car pileup along the side of the highway—all except for one.

"That little gremlin must have been watching too many movies!" Lennie cursed as he and Milton became the last members of P.H.A.N.T.O.M chasing after 00014 and the Crystal Gems. "Step on it, Milton, quick like a bunny!"

"Yeah, quick like a bunny!" Milton replied and made the police car start catching up to the Tormenta. "You ain't getting away this time, Bane!"

"On the contrary, my friends," Bane smirked and pulled out a pen. "you'll find that the pen is mightier than the sword or the automobile!" He then clicked the button and tossed it straight into the inside of Lennie and Milton's car.

"Uh, what's the pen gonna do, squirt ink all over us?" Lennie asked. His question would soon be answered as the pen detonated in his and Milton's faces, completely incinerating their police car and causing severe damage to the Tormenta in the process. Surprisingly, von Bowling's two minions managed to survive the explosion. "Okay, question answered."

"This ends now, criminal scum!" Bane declared as he pointed his gun at Lennie and Milton's faces while the Crystal Gems surrounded the two thugs. "Just tell us what your boss and The Sickle have planned, and maybe, just maybe, we'll go easy on you."

"Oh, so now you want to know?" Lennie coughed spitefully. "You know, you could've just asked earlier! Okay, fine, you got us. Our bosses are gonna start World War III and blame the Gems for it. Ya happy now?"

"Wait, World War III?!" Bismuth yelled in horror. "How could they do something like this?!"

"Easy, they wanna get rich." Milton answered innocently. "Once we frame you guys as terrorists, the bosses will be hailed as heroes by nuking your Little Homeworld friends and becoming rich from selling weapons. Pretty basic goals, you know?"

"Basic, but very personal." Lapis cracked her knuckles and prepared for a fight. "You messed with the wrong Gems, you guys!"

"If you want to harm our friends, you'll have to face us first!" Amethyst exclaimed and pulled out her whip, followed by the rest of the Gems pulling out their weapons in anticipation of the fight. Suddenly, however, a third party was about to come into play.

"Enough!" the familiar voice of Tina declared as she stepped into the clearing, her blouse turned into a unitard, and her mini skirt switched with a blue cloak. "Bet you didn't expect to see me here, Crystal Gems."

"Tina, is that you?" Amethyst asked. "Love the outfit by the way. What are you, some kind of sexy goth sorceress?"

"Oh, I am not just any sexy goth sorceress." Tina answered. "My name is actually Rasputina, descendent of the Mad Monk Grigori Rasputin, the innocent man you failed to save from Prince Yusupov! And now, I am here to avenge him by destroying all of you!"

"Okay, didn't see that coming." Lapis declared in shock.

"I certainly did." Garnet added. "Future vision, after all."

"So, you were plotting behind our backs all this time." Bane scowled at Rasputina. "I bet being The Sickle's daughter was part of the act too!"

"Indeed it was, and now I have you all right where he wants you." Rasputina smirked seductively before pulling out the grimoire that Konstantin, Pavel & Leo gave her and reciting a spell. "Klaatu barada nikto!" The resulting spell trapped Bane and the Gems in a dark forcefield that began causing them unending pain as Rasputina turned to contact her superiors. "Master, it is done. Mr. Jones and the Crystal Gems are ours. Awaiting further orders."

In Loving Memory of Robbie Coltrane, aka Valentin Zukovsky and Rubeus Hagrid

March 30, 1950 – October 14, 2022

I think that might be one of the most shocking endings I've written for this series in a long while. Tina turns traitor, the Gems and Bane have been captured, and none of them know yet that Black Rutile has made a deal with Francis and The Sickle! How can they turn this around? You'll just have to tune in next time for the second part of Little Homeworld Life's first and only two-part episode! Same Gem time, same Gem channel!

#steven universe #steven universe future #fanfiction #steven universe alternate future #little homeworld life #lapis lazuli #amethyst #bane jones #garnet #pearl #peridot #bismuth #black rutile

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vortexbeyondthestars · 3 years

Text

decided to post some of my ideas for a ninjago/atla au besties. tell me whatcha think

under read more cus its kinda long lmao

some background first…

here, the first spinjitzu master is smth that doesn’t actually exist in avatar bc i couldn’t for the life of me figure out what to make him so now he’s like… he’s basically the child of all the original benders: the badgermoles, the sky bison, the dragons, and the moon spirit combined. he was born of their powers, and he was the first avatar, kinda like this au’s version of raava i guess?? so this au’s version of vaatu is the overlord, and like in ninjago, they have this never-ending rivalry. and the overlord is an avatar, too, but more of a dark one. it only cares about corruption and evil.

the first bending master, as he’s called in this au, manages to banish the overlord into the spirit realm, but he knew that one day, it would return. so he creates a land called ninjago and fills it with people of all kinds, each corner of the world having one type of bending. he gave the humans bending, but only one type for each person.

he didn’t want a repeat of the overlord.

so then he has two sons: wu and garmadon. he hemmed and hawed over what elements to give to them, but eventually he chose. wu gets airbending, the element of life and serene and calm. garmadon gets firebending, rough and harsh and the element of destruction. his fire is violet and incredibly hot.

everything goes fine, and the first bending master manages to keep balance of the world as its avatar. except the overlord does indeed return.

garmadon gets corrupted by its spirit and is bitten by the great devourer. he becomes obsessed with power and wanted to be the avatar more than anything in life. he believes that his father was holding his powers back because he didn’t trust him. and he believes that his father was going to hand over his power to wu after he died. and he couldn’t have that.

wu notices his downward spiral and suggests that he take a trip to visit the mortals. maybe that would help him realize that there is reason for their father being the only avatar in the world.

so garmadon goes down into the mortal plane. and meets fire lord chen and his second in command clouse.

fire lord chen is quite interested in an old legend of what is called the serpentine: ancient tribes of snake people said to have been born from the hatred and despair of the overlord, led by the toughest and the greatest, the great devourer. chen wants to bring these serpentine back, and at first garmadon agrees to help him, if only to get revenge on his father.

but he snaps out of it, because he realizes that its the great devourer’s fault in the first place that he’s like this. he betrays chen and clouse and warns wu of their plan, but without telling him whose plan it is. together, the brothers manage to gather together an alliance of the greatest bending masters in the world. garmadon wants their father to help, but wu gives some unfortunate news.

the first bending master is near his deathbed. he is very, very ill, and he is thousands of years old at this point. he wants rest.

so, naturally, garmadon is conflicted about this. he’s ecstatic bc he thinks that he can gain the powers of the avatar once his father passes, but also he’s sad, because, well, thats still his dad after all.

but anyway, the bending alliance manages to defeat the serpentine and seal them away in the spirit realm, like the first bending master had done to the overlord. this… turns out to be a bad idea.

fire lord chen and clouse both manage to shift the blame away from them, and since garmy was the only one who knew they caused the plan, he lets it happen. because he still is a bit evil.

something happens that gives him hope, though: he meets misako, who might be the love of his life. (also in this au that weird love triangle shit don’t happen) they get married, and for a while, garmadon seems perfectly sane. but.

the first bending master dies.

lloyd is born almost right after.

no one makes the connection, though, thankfully, but it is enough for garmadon to lose whatever sanity he had left. he completely goes insane.

he races back to their family monastery believing that he can and will gain the powers of the avatar, somehow, but he doesn’t. and that is too much for him to take. all of this… all of this… waiting… for nothing?

garmadon stares at himself in the mirror. he looks down at his hand, at the bite mark blemishing his skin, and grabs a ceremonial knife. he laughs to himself and places his hand on the mirror, slowly raising his knife towards it… he thinks he can stop all this pain in one easy swoop.

garmadon, sneering at himself: maybe… maybe this will fix it… if i just cut off the damn thing…

first bending master, in the mirror: i would not recommend it, son.

garmadon, face falling: why are you here?

first bending master: i came to speak with you. and to try and help you.

garmadon, snarling: don’t pretend like you care about me! i know what you really think. you think i’m a monster.

first bending master: i think you’re conflicted. the part of you that wants to be the avatar so badly you are willing to kill for it… that part of you clashes with the real you. the one that wants everyone you care about to be safe. your brother, your friends, your wife… your son.

garmadon: *laughs and turns around* why should i care about them, father? they don’t care about me! not my brother, not my wife, not my so-called friends, and certainly not you! the only one who does care about me is my son, and thats only because he doesn’t know any better. he’ll leave one day too.

first bending master, solemnly: you are wrong. i do care about you. i always did. i love you, garmadon. i do.

garmadon shakes, his hand gripping the knife tighter. his mouths trembles, and eventually turns into a scowl. he whirls around to face the mirror and slams his knife into it, shattering it into pieces.

he gets worse from there on. he begins to attack people left and right, villages and cities, even going so far as to consider breaking the serpentine free. he doesn’t get that far, though, because his brother interrupts him.

wu is very concerned, bc, well, garmy was a bit weird but never straight up insane like he is now. so he heads over to his family’s old monastery. there, he finds garmadon, seething and stewing. garmadon doesn’t take his arrival well.

garmadon: ugh! for once, can’t you just leave me alone?!

wu: no, i cannot. this isn’t you, brother! you must snap out of it!

garmadon: this is me! this has been me for my entire life, wu! i can’t change it now, and i can’t even be the avatar. what’s the point?

wu: the point is that father trusted us to take care of ninjago once he passed on. we have a duty.

garmadon: father was a fool, and father was selfish! i am remaking the world in my own image, an image that won’t let anyone have the kind of power that he did, except for those who are worthy!

wu: that’s crazy! you can’t just pick and choose who gets to be the most powerful bender in the world!

garmadon: isn’t that what father did, though, when he died? who is the new avatar, wu?! tell me!!

wu: i don’t know. and neither will you, if you keep this up.

garmadon: *laughs* are you threatening me?

wu: i am.

garmadon: fine. you want to take control of ninjago over me? fine. fine. fine. i challenge you to an agni kai! the battle that was always meant to be.

wu: very well.

garmadon: for the record… i’m sorry it had to end this way, brother.

wu, sadly: no. you aren’t.

cue final agni kai type fight, light vs darkness. fire vs air. obviously, wu wins, and manages to chain garmadon up so he can’t attack anymore. garmadon then has a complete psychotic breakdown like azula, complete with the spitting fire and sobbing hysterically while wu watches sadly.

wu banishes garmadon to the spirit realm, because he doesn’t think there’s anything else he can do.

ninjago is saved.

or so he thinks.

see, chen and clouse are still around. as are the serpentine, biding their time in the spirit realm. they meet garmy and decide that they should work together. garmadon, so torn up by hatred and despair, agrees to help them, if he gets to destroy his brother.

meanwhile, everything is going good.

lloyd is the avatar, obviously, but he’s only like. thirteen when he finds out. he’s an airbender avatar and lived with koko (bc its my au and i get to pick the mom i use) in one of the air temples (idk which one tho). he’s raised believing that he’s just a random kid who happens to serve the avatar, kinda like kyoshi.

that avatar he believes he serves is none other than morro, the adopted son of airbender sage wu. morro is four years older than lloyd, and he was just revealed to be the airbending avatar. morro, of course, is thrilled. but he also gets an incredibly big ego over it, believing that he is better than other people bc he is the avatar. the reason he was thought to be the avatar was because he appeared to waterbend at one point, but it is later revealed to have been simple airbending that pushed the water.

but morro doesn’t realize or know this until its too late. and when he does… its a shitshow.

basically, lloyd and morro are sent to meet with fire lord chen and his daughter skylor, along with wu, koko, and some of the other air sages. skylor is a chi blocker, an incredibly talented one who has mastered all of the different bending fighting styles even tho she herself is a nonbender.

ok so clouse is obviously there. he recognizes lloyd via koko and is fucking pissed. he’s like my ex-boyfriend rival’s son is here?? what the hell?? so he keeps a close on eye on lloyd bc he doesn’t like him. morro, meanwhile, is treated like a king at the palace bc chen wants to get into the avatar’s good graces.

and uh. well, as it turns out, morro isn’t the avatar…

they’re attacked by the serpentine, bitter at the bending masters for having locked them underground. morro is excellent at fighting, but lloyd has more adrenaline.

and lloyd firebends.

cue shock and horror and anger from all sides.

wu is the most horrified of all. the son of his brother… the man he banished… is the avatar?

so yeah thats the background AT LEAST. i dont really know what happens after that but lloyd runs away or something. i will write more i promise!!!

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ettawritesnstudies · 4 years

Text

How I outline!

Helllloooooo it’s been ages since I promised to do this and I’m SO sorry it’s so late but I finally got around to actually writing this post today so here it is :P @abalonetea and @inkwell-attitude, I think you both wanted to see this! (sorry to everyone else about the long post incoming!) DISCLAIMER: This is just my process, I’m not claiming it’s the best or that everyone should do this or that it works for every project. I don’t do this for short or simple stories, only for novel-length WIPs with complicated facets, but the process *can* be distilled for something less complex.

Step 1: Brain Dumping

At this point, I probably have some semblance of a premise and characters for this idea, and possibly also an endgame idea of where I want to take the story but not middle or clue of how to get from point A to point B. This is where you collect ALL the thoughts. Usually, I do this between phone notes and a document on my laptop for brainstorming, but you can use voice memos or whatever else works. I’ve drawn ideas on my hand in pen during a lifeguarding shift before and just taken pictures of my inked-over arm before I have to jump into the pool again. It happens. In any case, you have ideas.

Step 2: Put it in some semblance of order by using a map

[Image ID] a blurry picture of a whiteboard covered in ideas in various covered pens looking something like a conspiracy theory board. This is the outline I was working on last night for the first book in the Laoche chronicles but it’s so vague at this point that I don’t think spoilers really matter. [end image ID]

The next objective is to put the random ideas in a linear order. I collect all the thoughts into one spot and dump them on the board. I color code, so first I write down all the set plot-points in the approximate order in the black pen, start to finish, and leave space above and below for stuff has to happen in the middle.

Then the characters come in. I generally know backstories so those get dumped around the starting point in green. I figure out what characters are driving the plot and draw arrows between said plot points writing what the character does in the green pen. I include motivations, feelings, alliances, anything that might possibly be important to the plot too.

Then come logistics and filling in - that’s in red. You could also use conspiracy theory string. Where are they in the world? What needs to happen next? Where do I have plot holes? What makes the characters tick? What makes sense to happen next? What needs to happen to get to the end? What worldbuilding needs to get figured out to enable this plot point? Write it ALL down on a separate piece of paper and start brainstorming again. When you’ve got a good connection, add it. You’ll start to notice the board is starting to fill up. It won’t be linear anymore. That’s fine.

Step 3: Flesh it out

[image ID] a poorly lit photo of a board covered in sticky notes of different, some overlapping each other. This is only a corner of the board because it’s the outline for Storge and I only took a picture of the first few chapters [end ID]

This is where it starts getting real. I take everything I have on the whiteboard (which at this point is a disaster) and transfer every plot point, character interaction, motivation, worldbuilding thing, pacing notes, anything about unreliable characters, author notes about who knows what at certain points (both the characters and the reader), plot twists, and anything else from the notes that didn’t make it to the whiteboard and reconstruct the story on a board.

The reason I use sticky notes is because you can move them around, layer them, and space them to create a cohesive narrative. If I need to play with timing, I can do that easily. If I need to connect plot points to characterizations or anything else, I can do that with layering and spacing next to each other. I’m still color coding at this point. I can start slapping on stuff like “which day does this happen on? What kind of transitions do I need?”, chapter divisions, and thematic elements. You’ll notice there are more holes. Fill those in sooner rather than later.

Step 4: Outline Time

I obviously can’t take my carefully made board with me to school so now it’s time to put it into a document. At this point I should preface this with the fact that I really like the 3 act structure, so I start my outline with that before anything else, like so, using headings to make a document outline - that way I can jump around the outline using the outline quickly. Probably a bit extra but it saves a ton of time

[image ID] a Microsoft word document outline with a hierarchical structure that shows acts, plot points, chapters, and chapter titles. [end ID]

Once that’s been filled out, I start putting the information from the board into the outline structure, and I make sure to cover EVERYTHING something like this: (with color-coding)

Chapter #/Title

Day of the narrative: this helps me keep time and iron out the pacing

The objective of the chapter: what does the reader need to learn, what is the one big thing that happens plot-wise

Main Plot Happenings - this goes in red text and details what actually happens in the chapter. For Storge, this is the plotline that follows Luca and the Laine family (when they’re together)

If there are subplots, these go here too in other colors. Orange for villainous cutaways. Purple for anything with the avian city/war subplot

Character arcs: these are green. I bullet point a list and name every major character in this chapter. anything important to their arcs goes here, as well as how I’m writing them. What are the emotions involved? This is normally the longest part because I have a lot of characters

Worldbuilding: What does the reader need to learn about the world from this chapter? This helps me space out the exposition. Details come up on a “need to know” basis, so there’s new worldbuilding in every chapter but no page-long dumps anywhere.

Themes: WHY is this chapter important? How is it contributing to what I want to say with this story?

Any other author notes about unreliable narrators, plot twists, foreshadowing, and what the reader should know at this point in the story. The goal is that you don’t anticipate the twist, but rereading it there’s a “HOW DID I NOT SEE THAT BEFORE” reaction, so this is more for my sake as a storytelling-craft thing.

Any excerpts or dialogue or description that I pre-wrote in the brain-dump phase and liked and think would fit well in this chapter.

Repeat with every chapter until you’re done.

This takes a long time, and I’m always revisiting and reworking that final outline once I’ve finished it but it’s such a huge help to set me on the right path without detouring 565479851321 times because I realized there was a plot hole too late. It’s overly complicated and incredibly intense and in-depth so It’s not for everyone but I like my 30-page long outlines, so here I am :P

If you’re still reading this, then wow good job, and thank you! I hope this was somewhat informative and not too tedious to scroll through!

#long post #outlining #writing #writeblr #writeblr community #etta rambles #storgewip #the laoche chronicles #wow that got long #I tried to keep it brief #but my read more still isn't working on moble #which is stupid #so here I am #lol #hope you liked this!

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kbstories · 4 years

Text

Axiomatic

ax·i·om·at·ic (adj.) Self-evident; unquestionable.

The best part of battle is the afterparty.

(Or: Kidd wears a fur coat, Killer is thirsty. Zoro is there until he isn’t.)

Tags: Established Relationship, Drinking, Fluff and Smut, Blow Jobs, Anal Sex, It’s a PWP what can I say?

Read Chapter 1 here. Post-Wano setting. Content warning for mentions of Body Dysmorphia (relating to Killer).

***

Killer is drunk.

Technically he’s tipsy and on-his-way-to-drunk. There’s a bottle of sake in his hand, half-full or half-empty depending where his head is in a given moment. The straw between his lips is growing brittle, already frayed at the edge – he’s been toying with it rather than drinking for a while now, distracted by the feast running its course below.

With his ass firmly planted on the stone weight of one of the roofs – the inn’s, perhaps? Killer can’t recall why he got up here, much less which house it is – he’s got a view over all of Okobore Town, from where the outskirts are swallowed by the Wasteland to the pitiful square still lit by the bonfire’s embers. Whoever’s in charge of feeding the flames has obviously left their post or followed the siren song of free booze. They wouldn’t be the first to do so, the streets littered with those passed out or making out or both, somehow.

It reminds Killer a little of home. Well, the place they used to call home, him and Kidd, a town so small it isn’t really worth considering it one. Nothing more than the scrapyard of the bustling capital right next door with the people to match: Too poor to live, too stubborn to die and so they got carried along, forgotten by history.

Same bullshit, different island, Killer muses via the wisdom of too much sake in his blood. Different ocean altogether, and there’s no fondness in that.

Home isn’t a place for Killer but a feeling, the one he gets with full sails fluttering above and Kidd up front, hair wild in the wind.

Freedom’s a fickle thing, as quickly lost as it is gained with how complacent the masses tend to get. At sea it’s just them and their ship against the elements, life and death a matter of seeing the storm coming and having the guts to spit in its face.

Alone on that roof, Killer grins around the straw. That’s the shit worth living for, day after day after day.

Down there is Kidd, the red flash of his hair one Killer seeks out by sheer habit; his silhouette against the dying bonfire is imposing, that ridiculous coat hanging big and imperial off his shoulders. If he focuses, Killer could probably make out what he’s yelling about with… Strawhat’s navigator? Killer squints, infusing his sight with Haki where the dark and the holes in his mask fail him.

Yeah, that’s Nami. She says something, hands on expensive fur. She’s grinning, innocent and cunning all at once and that’s why they call her a cat, huh?

Killer considers cranking up the audio sensitivity on his helmet. Considers it, and tosses the thought right out the metaphorical window. Kidd’s a big boy, he can defend his precious coat from a thief. Nami, presumably, also knows what she’s getting into, poking the bear like that.

A long sip of sake later and Killer nods to himself. A good, rational choice.

His bottle is decidedly past half-empty when Roronoa Zoro finds him. Killer is not surprised, has felt him wandering around for a while now – there are two bottles of sake in his hands, his gait utterly steady despite the rosy tinge to his cheeks.

A heavy drinker, Killer’s heard that. He polishes off his drink to gesture to one of Zoro’s.

“You’ve got good timing, Pirate Hunter.”

“Who says it’s for you?”, Zoro asks with a snort, and gives him the second bottle anyways. When he sits, he does so with the kind of controlled grace many of Wano’s people wield, that flawless rigidity speaking of a life of discipline.

The way he drinks is the exact opposite of that. Interesting.

Killer concentrates on getting the straw through the narrow neck of the pitcher for a moment. The first sip proves it’s decent stuff; Killer’s mouth shapes itself around a pleased hum.

“You ever think about why the Marines call us what they do?”

It certainly makes Killer pause. Zoro doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to dabble in meaningless small talk – then again, what does Killer know? He turns his head to be able to see the look on Zoro’s face, watches the man nurse his sake with a pensive expression.

“‘Pirate Hunter’… Been a pirate longer than I was hunting ‘em. They could get the hint, y’know.”

They’re doing this, then. Pretending they weren’t at each other’s throats a mere week or two ago, like Zoro didn’t witness the side of Killer he loathes enough to hide it, always.

Fine. Killer can roll with that. “Which would you prefer? ‘Demon of the East Blue’?”

Zoro laughs and it’s so easy for him. “Now that’s one I haven’t heard in a while. You’ve been snooping, huh?”

“Sure as fuck not going into an alliance blind”, says Killer and it’s a bit pointed, a bit of a warning. They came back from war mere days ago but there’s room for blood when it comes to protecting their own.

“Mh. Wonder what that’s like.”

… Right. The guy’s the right hand of Strawhat Luffy, after all.

They drink, and Killer watches his captain. “The Marines don’t know shit, anyways.” A low hum to his side, prompting. Agreeing, perhaps. “Incompetent bastards thought I was the one to look out for when we made ourselves known, back in South Blue.”

“So ‘Massacre Soldier’ was, what, a misunderstanding?”

That makes Killer chuckle, a low ff ff ff sound. “Nah. Just that Kidd’s worse.”

“Ah.”

And it seems whatever else Zoro wants to add to that will have to wait. Even from afar Killer can feel it when Kidd’s eyes land on him and he sighs. “Speak of the devil. You might wanna get out of here.”

The sake stops on its way to Zoro’s mouth. “Huh?”

“Just giving you a fair warning, ’s all. Kidd kinda hates your guts over the whole”, a vague gesture to his own chest, “thing. He likes to keep grudges.”

“… Huh?”

Killer shrugs. It’s too late anyways. “Here he comes.”

“Hey! You!”

It doesn’t matter if he’s tipsy or drunk or whatever: Wrangling Kidd is something Killer grew up doing, and he stares him down now as Kidd pulls himself towards them by the metal in Killer’s mask. Hands up, no hesitation – Killer catches Kidd by the scruff of his coat, an arm winding around Kidd’s waist with enough strength to crush a smaller man and barely enough to drag this particular fool away.

To his credit, Zoro stays exactly where he is, his face blooming into something strangely close to delight. “Hah! You weren’t kidding.”

“Never am”, Killer tells him. He’s wheezing a little with how hard Kidd is struggling against his grip. “Captain! Fucking hell, you promised.”

“Didn’t promise shit”, Kidd hisses, a distinct slur to his words that Killer recognizes without trouble. Wasted indeed. “Roronoa! Hands off my partner!”

Zoro laughs – not the best of moves, Killer thinks with a wince – until his swords start vibrating. The smile drops real fast, then, becoming more of a tense smirk as he grabs on to that white katana of his.

“Oi, Spikey. Play nice now.”

All Kidd does is redouble his efforts, a whirlwind of bulging muscle in Killer’s arms and oh, Killer has had it. He presses his face against Kidd’s neck, his mouth only an inch or two away from his ear where they’re separated by Killer’s mask.

“Eustass fucking Kidd”, he growls. “Stop it or I will end you.”

Wasted or not, a shudder goes through his partner at that. It always does when Killer says his name like that. Killer knows, whatever happens now:

They both have a long night ahead of them.

Frantic hands, gasps of breath, lipstick smeared beyond hope between one kiss and the next. A moan, quiet against the sounds of belts being undone.

Killer pushes Kidd, gaze on him and only him as he bounces a little on the bed – their bed – and stares up at Killer. Eyes red as dusk, shining with the feral grin on his lips.

Killer gets on his knees for Kidd, always for him, and even if his blood wasn’t a-buzz with residue anger and alcohol, the way Kidd says “Fuck, Killer, yes” would get him there for sure. Trembling with it, Killer’s fingers hook into the waistband of Kidd’s pants to pull him closer, just where he wants him.

Kidd’s boots land on solid ground with a wooden thud. Legs splayed and Killer in the middle.

“You always have to make a mess”, Killer tells him, holds him down with one hand and the other working on his fly, “always so reckless”, and fuck, Kidd’s hard already. Hot and velvet-smooth in Killer’s palm and Killer forgets about chewing him out, for a moment.

It’s been weeks. Weeks since they’ve had time for this, hell, since Killer could even think about needing Kidd beyond the comfort his mere presence brings. With that infernal smile on his lips and his lungs clenching around the need to laugh, nothing would’ve come of it anyways.

Killer leans over and breathes Kidd in, gives him a gentle kiss, over the delicate vein that throbs under his lips. “We’re not done”, he lets him know, voice having lost most of its edge; Kidd laughs, runs a hand through the messy bangs falling into Killer’s eyes.

“I sure hope not. C’mon, don’t–”

Whatever Killer isn’t supposed to do gets lost in a moan. Kidd is big in Killer’s mouth, big and so familiar and Killer feels Kidd’s fingers tighten where they make a desperate grab for his hair. It makes him groan around the cock sliding over his tongue, again as he swallows around him and Kidd’s thighs jolt under the weight pinning them down.

Kidd is loud, it’s who he is, but there’s something about the cut-off calls of Killer’s name that gets to him. That makes him throw any sense of taking things slow to the wind and suck cock like he means it, lids fluttering shut and painted lips wide as he takes his captain as far down as he can get him without choking.

It’s been a while and it feels so good.

“Just like that, K. Keep goin’ just like that, don’t stop, fuck–”

And Killer feels his muscles shift under his hand, fingers splayed across Kidd’s abs straining with the need to move. Later, he might let him – can feel his own cock ache in too-tight jeans with the thought of Kidd holding him down and using him until he’s sated.

For now, he wants to get Kidd off, to hear his voice crack as it only does when he’s trembling on that edge.

It doesn’t take long at all, Killer’s lips and tongue and mouth dragging him there with no mercy for how breathless Kidd gets. “Kil”, Kidd gasps a warning; Killer hums, pulls off to catch the tip between his lips and jack him off the rest of the way, his hand easily gliding over spit-slick skin–

Kidd comes just like that, spilling into Killer’s mouth in twitching spurts. Given the garbage Kidd calls a diet he doesn’t taste the best but it’s Kidd, it’s the man Killer has hardwired his brain to adore no matter what. Killer moans softly, reaches down to rub himself as Kidd’s fingers release their death grip and sort of… pet him instead.

“Fuck me, darling, next time I’m horny I’ll just piss you off on purpose.”

Wiping his mouth, Killer huffs, “You already do that”, follows the trail of red leading up to Kidd’s navel with his lips. “You’re insufferable.” Licks along the valleys of his ripped stomach to kiss away the sweat gathering in the scar bisecting his pecs. “And we’re not done.”

Kidd rumbles a groan, pulls Killer into an open-mouthed kiss. The cold touch of metal worms its way under Killer’s shirt, in stark contrast to the need in Killer’s veins. It makes him shiver. “Kidd”, whispers Killer into that filthy kiss and it sounds like please, like more.

“Mh, I got you. Take this off, baby, let me see you.”

A demanding tug to Killer’s jeans. Killer doesn’t think twice about it: It’s a relief to get rid of them, the fabric starting to cling to his legs with how hot he’s running, and Killer throws off his boots and shirt to places unknown while he’s at it. Rolls his shoulders where they’re still a bit stiff from carrying his scythes all day.

Kidd is watching him, a hand on his own cock even if it won’t get hard quite yet. Leaning back in a sea of fur with the effortless grace of a king and the look of arrogant expectation to match. Killer meets it as he ties his hair into a loose knot to get it somewhat out of the way, nodding at him.

“You too. Or do you want me to tear ‘em off of you?”

How dark Kidd’s eyes can get. Those are his favorite pants though – Killer decides to be nice about it, unties Kidd’s boots enough for him to kick them off and save the rest of his clothes from an untimely demise.

Well, most of them. When Kidd makes to shrug off the coat Killer stops him. “Keep it.” His hands are on those suede-clad shoulders he’s been salivating over for hours now. “Keep the fur, Kidd”, an order he has no right to give, fingers clawed as they burrow between that softness and a heat that’s all Kidd.

It gets a look of genuine surprise out of Kidd. That, along with a pleased smile, closed-lipped. “Like it that much, do ya?”

Killer hums, “It’s soft”, kisses him, hides his own smile against demanding lips and the warning bite of teeth. “Makes me want to fuck you on it. Got a problem with that?”

“Shit, you kidding? Let’s ruin it.”

As much as he’s an impudent little shit anywhere else, here, coming alive under Killer, Kidd is all eager compliance and greedy hands across Killer’s back; it shouldn’t be as addicting as it is, the notion that this – the needy panting in his ear, the flush high in Kidd’s cheeks and spilling down to his chest – is all Killer’s. Only his, nobody else’s.

Killer slows down, then. Once Kidd has scrambled for the slick they keep around and Killer’s got his hands warmed up, he takes his time. Pushes one of Kidd’s legs to the side, keeps him there while he stretches Kidd finger by finger and fuck, he’s tight, clenching impatiently where Killer pushes in knuckle-deep.

“You’re killing me”, Kidd says, whines really, easily worked up by the twist of Killer’s fingers in him. Kidd’s prosthetic clings to Killer’s shoulder, his other hand in his own hair and tugging. “I’m ready, just – get in there!”

Killer is willing to rush a lot. Not this, though, never this.

“Shut up and relax”, he grumbles but he kisses Kidd, too, along the jagged edges of the scar down his face and his neck to suck on his clavicle. Kidd moans shamelessly, hips bucking into Killer’s curling fingers as he adds another.

Seeking that burning stretch before Killer can stop him. Killer curses, pulls out.

“Don’t complain later. You wanted this.”

Kidd tosses his head back into the covers and laughs. “Yesss. Fuck me, c’mon.”

Smug asshole. More slick, dripping from Killer’s cock to the fur below. The glide of his hand as he spreads it is already a lot, the sight of Kidd’s muscular neck bared and vulnerable hitting Killer somewhere instinctive, primal.

Deep down, Killer doesn’t want to wait either. He props himself up on one elbow, a mere inch or two separating their faces – and he stares at Kidd when he guides himself inside. At the way his mouth goes a little slack with it, the flare of his nose at the threadbare breath that follows.

“Good”, Killer tells him, catches Kidd’s gaze that’s barely past half-lidded. Licks over his bottom lip and kisses him, chaste as to not distract him from that first, long thrust.

“Doing so well, Kidd, almost there.”

Kidd feels sinful around him, warm and fluttering with tension that melts under the gentle thrusts Killer opens him up with. Leaning up to nip at Killer’s beard, his chin, and Killer indulges him, pushes his tongue into his mouth, slowly, languidly. Swallowing the soft noises Kidd makes as Killer hoists him up higher in his lap, Killer’s knees sliding apart in sleek fur.

He fucks him just like that, arms steady around Kidd and locking him in place when Killer finds a pace he can keep up for a while. Kidd fights it at first, he always does, not the kind of man to lie there and take it – Killer nuzzles his jaw, “It’s okay, let go, let go”, words that he knows Kidd needs to hear, cocky as he may act. Kidd’s breath shudders out of him and he does, finally relenting against the angle that makes him come undone each and every time.

Letting Killer sink in to the hilt and he groans, bites at Kidd’s throat and the pulse thundering there. “Good, so good for me.”

He rocks them both, hard enough to make Kidd shift against the fur. Kidd’s legs tighten where they’re tangled with Killer’s and he whimpers, far enough out of his head not to care what he sounds like anymore. A sound that burns in Killer’s gut, his chest, mouth open and panting over Kidd’s skin as he does it again and again and again.

It’s Kidd’s fingers going for the bundle of Killer’s hair and holding on; the feeling of Kidd’s prosthetic drawing red, stinging lines down the length of Killer’s back. “Kidd”, Killer mutters, demands, “Kidd–”

Kidd pulls at blonde strands coming loose, hard. “Whatever you want, K. Whatever you want, please–”

Voice gone, hoarse with the things Killer is doing to him.

Something in Killer snaps. The coat is torn open: Killer hears some of the seams pop in some places and he doesn’t care, mind and soul focused on turning Kidd around and getting him on his hands and knees.

“Fuck”, Kidd half-gasps, half-moans, “fuck–”

Then Killer is inside him again, sweating skin slapping against sweating skin, and his lips trace the shivers racing up Kidd’s spine, the faint freckles dotting Kidd’s shoulders. Kidd, Kidd, Kidd, his senses sharp as knives and hands roaming over what’s his, all his.

Whatever sounds Kidd is making, they are beyond words as he drops to his elbows and bends his back, pushing back into every hard shove of Killer’s hips. Killer moans, loud and breathless – feels Kidd clench around him and he gets a hand on Kidd’s cock, hard and leaking all over the coat, that fucking coat.

For the second time Kidd’s voice trembles, breaks apart on a high ah! as Killer squeezes him tight, so tight. Kidd comes around a choked noise and Killer keeps fucking him, his own peak tantalizingly in reach, not quite–

Kidd goes utterly boneless but there’s determination in the sliver of his eyes, the rasp of “keep goin’, want to feel ya”, and Killer grabs onto his hair just to tilt his head to the side and kiss him.

Over and over Killer takes him, covering Kidd with his bulk and it melts his brain, how Kidd just lets him. How Killer doesn’t have to hold back with him, going as deep as he possibly can and barely coming up for air until he loses himself in it, in Kidd.

Shaking apart above him, head bowed against the nape of Kidd’s neck. Killer rolls the last few thrusts just to feel how slick Kidd is, how well he takes him like this.

After that: A head full of static, numb limbs, cooling sweat.

“Hey, Kil.”

It’s Kidd’s voice that guides him back, “You there?”, the gentle motions of Kidd’s hand brushing the tie out of Killer’s hair and letting it fall around them. Killer pushes into that touch, humming. So comfortable.

“Babe, I kinda need to breathe here.”

Killer laughs and it’s fine like that, low and muffled against Kidd’s neck. “That so?”, he mumbles but he gets the hint, pushing himself to the side with a tired groan.

“Mmh. My head’s all fuzzy.”

“Yeah?” A hand slaps down on Killer’s chest, rough knuckles rubbing over the half-healed wound there. “From drinking or from fucking me to oblivion?”

Ff ff ff, Killer makes. He feels so light.

“Both, probably.”

Yeah, Killer is allowed a little smugness, too: Kidd’s hair is all mussed, lips red from kissing, neck covered in fresh, rose-colored bruises. Well used and looking like he doesn’t plan on moving even if the Punk’s cannons started firing around them.

Definitely worth slaying the coat over, Killer decides.

Still, when Killer takes Kidd’s hand in his, it’s all tenderness. Killer’s thumb brushes over Kidd’s knuckles, the same spot he presses a soft kiss to. Kidd lets him, squeezing back.

Their fingers entangle without really having to think about it, years of partnership in a single touch; and with the Punk's gentle sway all around them, they allow themselves to drift.

#one piece #eustass kid #killer one piece #kidkiller #one piece fanfiction #fanfiction #this is ns//fw (i just can't tag it properly 'cause tumblr)#this fic is also on AO3!!#my stuff #one piece spoilers

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wolfandwild · 4 years

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My Shadowlands Wish List

Now that we’re getting closer and closer to pre-patch and the inevitable launch of the expansion, I thought I’d rattle off a wish list of things I hope we get to see in Shadowlands, largely from a lore/story perspective. (Or rather, my stupid foot was hurting so badly I couldn’t concentrate on writing my fic properly, so I decided to ramble off some not-so-hot takes, honestly they’re pretty mild in the grand scheme of things). I was in the first alpha wave, so I’ve had a pretty good opportunity to play the game as it is thus far, and I did want to make it clear up front that I’m fully aboard the hype train. Shadowlands is looking like a great expansion for a number of different reasons, and while I do have a few areas of concern, on the whole I am currently feeling very positive. Please also note these are just my random, late-night personal musings - your mileage may vary, and that’s a-okay. Mild Shadowlands spoilers below the cut.

You Get A Customisation! You Get A Customisation! Everybody Gets A Customisation! This one is pretty much a no-brainer. I don’t necessarily think Blizzard need to have absolutely every possible character customisation ready to go before launch, but I’d like them to continue adding further options over time. I move in a couple of different circles in Warcraft - I’m obviously involved in the writing/lore/character aspect of the game, but I’m also GM of a raiding guild and closely follow the gameplay/competitive side of things too - and customisation is one of those few things that gets everyone excited, regardless of their reason for playing the game. I’m looking forward to seeing a much more vibrant, unique and diverse Azeroth come Shadowlands pre-patch. (Mostly irrelevant side story - when Wrathion returned in the Patch 8.3 cinematics, my Twitter and lore Discords were basically going berserk with excitement, meanwhile there’s a hundred very confused dudes in my raiding guild who don’t read quest text being all, “What the hell is a ‘Wrathion’?”. I live in two different worlds, honestly). Another reason I’m excited about customisation (and I’m probably in a very small minority on this one) is because I actually really dislike allied races, and I think it gives Blizzard an option to add more flavour to character creation in the game without always having to cobble together a new race. I honestly think they should have simply gone for sub-race customisation from the beginning, to avoid having to ass-pull allied races out of nowhere. Using customisation over allied races also makes it far simpler to give something to both factions (e.g. high elves), or to add something for one faction without necessarily having to always add something to the other faction to keep things in balance. Giving an extra hairstyle to humans but not orcs generally isn’t going to cause that much of a fuss, but if one faction were given an allied race and the other wasn’t because there wasn’t a logical racial option, there would be a shitstorm of epic proportions. So you end up in a situation where one faction* gets saddled with a really random, sucky allied race just to be ‘fair’. *The Alliance. It’s the Alliance. Leave Britney Arthas Alone Arthas has never been a personal favourite of mine, but I respect that he has a fantastic story, and that he’s a cornerstone of Warcraft lore. His story is both satisfying and complete, and that’s exactly why they should leave him the hell alone. I don’t mind if he’s visited in flashbacks (like the Bastion cinematic), or if we explore how he affected still living characters (e.g. Jaina, Sylvanas, Bolvar), but I think it would be a mistake to try to make him a central character in the expansion. In contrast, someone like Kael’thas is an excellent choice for an additional arc, because his original story was a bit all over the place and there is still plenty of room for his character development. Arthas doesn’t need it, and I don’t think the minute potential gain is worth the risk of retroactively making the rest of his story worse. On a similar note... Warcraft III Was Released Nearly 20 Years Ago, It’s Time to Move On The Warcraft RTS was a landmark series of games, and was obviously without them we wouldn’t have the World of Warcraft. However, I think the future health of Warcraft’s lore depends on the ability of the writers to grow the story outwards and upwards, not to always default back to the same handful of characters for nostalgia’s sake. While characters like Jaina, and Thrall, and Sylvanas are great, they can’t carry the narrative forever. Shadowlands represents a unique opportunity to build up the next generation of characters and to blow the cosmology of the universe wide open. From what I’ve seen on the alpha/beta, Blizzard are definitely taking a step in this direction, and I’m hoping that’s what we get instead of Patch 9.2 - Oh Look, It’s Thrall Again. On an additionally similar note... Sylvanas Is Crazy, And She Needs To Go Down (I don’t actually think she’s crazy, but one should never miss the opportunity for an Avatar reference). One of my complaints about the recent lore developments in Warcraft its that it’s starting to feel a lot less like the World of Warcraft, and more like the Sylvanas of Warcraft. She’s playing 469D chess; she’s behind everything; she’s the sole driving force of the narrative. I don’t think that works in an MMO that’s meant to tell the story of an entire expanded universe. It makes things feel small. And before I get eaten alive, I want to be clear that I don’t dislike Sylvanas as a character - in fact, I think she’s very compelling and on a night when my foot wasn’t killing me so much I’d be happy to get into an argument as to why she’s actually one of the most consistent and well-written characters in the World of Warcraft. I don’t necessarily think she needs to die, either, but I think it’s time for her narrative to come to a close to make room for other characters in the story, and I don’t think Blizzard are going to get a much better opportunity to give her a satisfying ending than in a death-themed expansion. Justice for Tyrande (Or Vengeance, Whatever Uther Wants to Call It) Tyrande got done dirty in Battle for Azeroth, probably more than any other character. I’m not a massive night elf fangirl by any means, but their entire race was basically used as grist for the mill in Sad Orc Dad’s story, with no next to no narrative follow-up besides a cool cinematic that went absolutely nowhere in game. Outside the game, her character then got subjected to the cacophonous misogynistic crowing of the fanbase that occurs whenever a female character dares to be angry in the World of Warcraft. Much like Jaina, she’s decried for being ‘crazy’ or ‘irrational’ for, you know, being pissed that her people and her homeland were wiped out in an act of wildly disproportional aggression. I don’t know about you guys, but that would tend to make me a wee bit testy, but maybe I’m crazy and irrational too. In any case, I want to see her go off in Shadowlands. Fuck ‘em up, girlfriend. You Get One Villain. If You Drop It, I’m Not Buying You Another One I think most people will agree with me that the two weakest expansions (at least from a narrative perspective) were Warlords of Draenor and Battle for Azeroth. There are a few reasons for this, but for me one of the biggest issues was that they were chop-and-change expansions. Both were advertised and started off with narratives and themes that were wildly different from where they finished up. Warlords was part Iron Horde expansion, part Legion expansion; BFA was part faction war expansion, part Old God expansion... and that’s exactly the problem. Both times, I felt like we got two half-done expansions, instead of one single, cohesive narrative experience. If you look at expansions like Wrath of the Lich King and Legion, both of which were very well received, a lot of their success hinges on their presentation of a consistent narrative with a clear goal for players within the story. The Lich King, for example, was a consistent and very present villain. He menaced you throughout your entire journey, and so his eventual defeat on top of Icecrown Citadel was meaningful and impactful. Defeating N’Zoth, by contrast, felt pretty hollow, as we hadn’t had enough narrative build up to really care about taking him down. Part of the reason I’m excited for Shadowlands is it looks like we’re getting a nice, focused story development that builds up to a logical and satisfying villain in the Jailer. Why Can’t We Be Friends? Look, I bleed blue. I love the Alliance... but the faction war should not continue to be a driving narrative element in the World of Warcraft. I don’t want the factions to be removed, I think they’re a core part of the Warcraft experience and I’d be pretty sad to have to let them go entirely, but the cycle of hating one another then teaming up in an uneasy alliance in order to defeat a bigger bad, only to go back to being at one another’s throats the next day is... tiresome.

Ideally, the war would have ended after Legion - it was the most logical place to do so, and I think it was a big missed opportunity that they ran with Battle for Azeroth immediately afterwards. Unfortunately, I think this means the Alliance is going to just have to forgive and forget, which doesn’t really make a lot sense at this point given everything that happened in BFA, but for the sake of the overall story, it might be a necessary sacrifice. That said... I Am Once Again Asking for Alliance Narrative Agency I know there are a lot of (valid) complaints to be had about the Horde storyline, but the one thing the Horde has always had over the Alliance is that they actually get to drive the narrative forward. The Alliance are pretty much exclusively reactionary, and in a lot of ways are side characters to the main Horde storyline. I’ve made this argument elsewhere, but it honestly wouldn’t be too hard to remove Anduin’s part in Saurfang’s storyline in Battle for Azeroth and have it turn out more or less exactly the same way... which says a lot about the importance of the Alliance in the overall storyline. In short, the Alliance are secondary players at best, and downright irrelevant at worst. One of my biggest hopes for Shadowlands is that we’ll actually get to see some Alliance narrative agency. To be clear, however, this does not mean a simple rehashing of Horde conflicts with a blue coat of paint. Alliance stories are not Horde stories, and nor should they be. Having an Alliance leader turn into a genocidal despot is not the only way to create conflict or agency in the story - there are plenty of opportunities for character growth, development and conflict on the Alliance side without having to have one of our leaders do a heel turn (e.g. Tyrande as the Night Warrior, Anduin dealing with his experience in the Maw, Jaina confronting the fates of people like Kael’thas and Arthas, Taelia meeting her father, etc.), and I really hope we get to see some of those narrative threads come to fruition. I Want to Mount Everything Add a hundred new mounts. Two hundred. A pot plant with googly eyes, the four hundredth Alliance horse, your mum. I’ll ride anything; I don’t even care. (Please note this is the most important opinion I have).

#world of warcraft #shadowlands #shadowlands spoilers #battle for azeroth #lore #turns out i had a few more opinions than i originally realised #anyway shadowlands looks cool guys y'all should check it out #but i would always rather have some warcraft than no warcraft #so take that how you will

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renwritesstuff · 4 years

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first impressions

I submit to #MERWEEK2020, First Impressions. Samantha Traynor x FemShep

Sure the first time they spoke was on the Normandy SR-2, but that was not the first time they met.

October 22, 2183

“I thought you were allergic?”

“To free food and rubbing shoulders with the top brass?” A plump woman with a short bob of brown hair and blue eyes arched an eyebrow as she swept lipstick over thin lips.

“To bullshit,” Specialist Samantha Traynor clarified, her arms still crossed as she hunched in her desk chair.

Specialist Mary Dietrich gave an acknowledging shrug. “You’re not wrong, but free food does wonders for keeping my bullshit allergy at bay.” She made a theatrical sniffing noise.

Sam pressed harder, “You know the ANN vultures will be there. Probably Khalisah al-Jilani too, your archnemesis.” She took a loud slurp of cold tea from the mug on her desk, racking her brain for more reasons why they shouldn’t go out tonight. “Also Staff Lieutenant Jeong and the rest of the smug quartermasters who love rejecting our grant proposals. You know we would be done with the new defense suite if Jeong wasn’t besties with Bautista in applied physics, right?”

Sighing, Mary made flicking motions to smooth out wrinkles on the sleeves of her dress blues. “Well now I want to go just to kick Jeong in the balls.” The orange holo screen projected from her wrist that was acting as a mirror disappeared as she set a glare on her fellow R&D mate. “C’mon Sam. Contrary to your belief, this is actually one of the perks of working on Arcturus Station. First on the victory tour to celebrate the end of the Eden Prime War! Oo-rah!”

Oo-rah, Sam groaned inwardly and more than a little sarcastically. Her nose wrinkled with her silent scowl.

Mary must have seen the face Sam made, because she stood up, hands on hips. “Suck it up, newbie! I will pull rank on you if it’ll make you leave the damn lab.”

Samantha squawked in protest. “I leave the lab!”

Sometimes! To sleep!

Traynor.

Okay, I sleep on the couch most nights. To change?

...Traynor.

Well they shouldn’t make the laundry service so convenient then. To shower?

……Traynor.

Fine! L Wing has the best faucets! Not my fault the washroom is one door down! I am a slave to convenience, okay??? It keeps my mind researching and developing per my job title, doesn’t it??

“Sleeping and making tea don’t count,” Mary scoffed back. “Plus this is a big deal. Don’t you want to be able to tell your grandkids about meeting all the heroes who saved the Citadel and the Council?”

“...Do I have to?”

A laundry back was draped over Sam’s face, filling her vision with crinkling plastic. Mary patted her head through the bag. “Damn right, you do. Or you get to tell Lydia you made me late.”

Oh fuck. She had only met Mary’s wife Lydia half a dozen times in the 6 months since she started at R&D on Arcturus, but the woman made an impression. A stern, stoic Kodiak mechanic, Lydia had never cracked a smile once at any of the dozens of quips and small jokes Sam compulsively made. And Lydia had a voice like a drill sergeant that made Sam want to stand up straight before offering to do push ups please-and-thank-you-ma’am.

Pulling the bag off her face, Sam unzipped it to find her dress blues freshly laundered and folded crisply. She mumbled, “....I’ll be good.”

Arcturus Station was the pride and joy of the Alliance with a state of the art light rail to traverse the 5km diameter arms. At the center was a large convention hall that could hold 20,000 of the 45,000 population at one time. Surrounding departments had been cleared out to serve as food stations, coat checks and privacy areas to host the current set of guests.

Sucks to be them, Sam frowned in empathy as she waited with Mary in the biometric security line. I can’t imagine having to clean up and stash all the rubbish we have lying around just so some fancy-pants donor can hang their coat up. Reminds me of a grammar school open house.

The overwhelming number of people made it hard for her to carry on a conversation with her coworker. Mostly human, with a few asari in sleek dresses and tuxedoed turians sprinkled in made up the meandering line that started at the light rail station. Background noise consisted of a dull roar of voices that grew louder the closer the two women got to the convention hall proper with just the faintest bass beat of music.

As they finally crested the last stairwell, the site of the grand hall was truly breathtaking. Large blast windows revealed a swirling backdrop of the Arcturus Stream nebula. Even the Arcturus mass effect relay was visible, the blue element zero core at its center flickering like a star. A few moving pins of light appeared next to the relay, more ships arriving to join the fleets already at Arcturus Station.

Decorated in heavy Alliance blue and gold, there were holo posters posted at intervals around the circular hall. Dramatic vid portraits of human heroes (with occasional notable alien Council SpecTRes appearing in between, no doubt a nod to the Council guests present) animated silently, larger than life.

A red-headed woman appeared multiple times at different angles and wardrobes on the vids, clearly the focus of the event. In one image the woman was pictured with a straight backed salute wearing dress blues, another wielded a rifle in heavy armor, another was flanked by a group of men and women (human and alien alike).

Commander Annelise Shepard, First Human SpecTRe. Hero of the Citadel. Captain of the Normandy SR-1, the most advanced ship in the Alliance Navy.

The room was warm with all the bodies and Sam found herself clinging to Mary, who was busy texting Lydia to attempt to meet up somewhere on the crowded floor. The clamor of conversation barely dipped during a few speeches broadcast across the hall. Admiral David Anderson’s low bass voice welcomed the guests to the station and indicated there would be a meet-and-greet with the Heroes of the Citadel after cocktails.

Excited jabbering was all around them as people tried to catch glimpses of the headliner heroes. Sam was only somewhat familiar about the events from a few weeks ago, much of it still under top secret clearance. Just that all the recent geth activity triggered from the terrorist attack on Eden Prime culminated in the attack at the Citadel. A joint task force crew, helmed by the first human SpecTRe, was responsible for bringing the terrorist down and saving the Citadel and the Council at the cost of human lives.

It seems kind of far-fetched, doesn’t it, Traynor?

Like something I’d read in a story. Or play in a video game.

Ooo, I hope it has a character creator. And I can make the character super hot.

It took the better part of a half hour of crowd weaving to track down Lydia Dietrich, Mary’s wife. A tall woman with very short, slicked-back hair was nursing a beer while she chatted with a small group of fellow mechanics hunkered by the dessert table. While Lydia and Mary started a row of friendly bickering (“What took you so long?” “What took you so long?”), Sam wandered over to the desserts to seize an opening in the line.

Ooo, lemon curd tarts! Her fingertips drummed impatiently on her pant leg as she watched the pile of tarts diminish with each new tiny plate down the buffet line. Couples in front of and behind her were laughing and gossiping.

“Oh did you see the Commander? I saw Cameron snap a holo of her.”

“I thought she’d be taller.”

“Not sure why they felt the need to bring the quarian, too.”

“I mean, it was on the crew, right?”

She. She is on the crew. Even Sam knew that.

“Can’t believe General Williams’ granddaughter was there, too. I thought all that family knew how to do was surrender.”

“Maybe she and the quarian were a distraction for the real heroes to do the real work.”

Simpering laughter followed which made Samantha’s skin crawl.

“Not sure why they had to open this event to all the little minions at the station. We paid forty-five thousand credits a plate for this? While little desk-jockeys like miss-didn’t-even-do-her-hair over there can show up and eat our food?”

It took a glance backward for Sam to realize they were talking about her. She resisted the temptation to lift a self-conscious hand to her hair.

Poppycock, I know I look amazing. I always look amazing.

“I know, darling. Our tax dollars pay their salary. You’d think they’d have the courtesy to stand behind us in line. Like good help.”

Remaining silent, Sam continued the slow march to the dessert table. She did fire up her Omni-tool and do a quick scan while waiting, the extranet chugging a bit due to the density of guests. But she was satisfied with her results.

The long-awaited distance closed and Sam finally stood before a half-empty buffet table. The dextro desserts had been picked over, as had some of the hybrid mini-cakes and parfaits. It looked like everything was in the process of getting refreshed by the catering company. Several waitstaff with tall silver trays were making their way over from the back.

But all that mattered is that there were still three lemon curd tarts left. All of which ended up on Sam’s dainty white plate as she swept out of the line. She felt a tug on her sleeve.

An older human woman in a far too tight evening gown scowled back at her. “I beg your pardon! Where do you think you’re going? How dare you take the last tarts? Have you any idea how long we’ve been waiting?”

Sam shrugged. “I’d wager about five seconds less than you as I was ahead of you in the same line?”

The woman’s date, a balding, rat-faced gentleman in a shiny tuxedo stuck a finger in Sam’s face. “Such rudeness! We actually paid good money to be here, so we deserve priority.”

“Perhaps she’s with the catering company, darling,” the wife simpered back as though struck with a thought. “She’s certainly dressed like them.” Her saccharine-smile was betrayed by cold, smug brown eyes.

An excited commotion could be heard behind them in line, but Sam didn’t dare glance away.

Remember, Traynor. Fixed eye contact. Bullies look for weakness.

She smiled back. “I wouldn’t say you paid Good Money to be here, did you?” She took a bite of lemon tart, savoring the acerbic flavor accented by a light sugary texture.

“What do you mean?” The couple replied in unison matching their haughty glares.

“You really should have better security on your Omni-tool. I mean, any old desk-jockey could just waltz right in and see that your asari mistress scored you free tickets. An asari mistress in the quarian slave trade, no doubt. Tsk tsk.”

The glaring transitioned to sputtering, confusion from the husband and outrage from the wife.

“Oh don’t worry, I reported her to the authorities for tax evasion, too. I mean, how else will your tax dollars pay my salary, right? It's the only way I can afford to eat such delicious tarts.” And Samantha took another large satisfying bite before saluting with the pastry, turning on her heel, and walking proudly off to go find Mary and Lydia.

The couple stepped out of line to argue, hands gesturing wildly. They turned to leave when they walked straight into the source of the commotion: Commander Annelise Shepard flanked by Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams and Tali’Zorah nar Rayya. All 3 women stood, hands on hips, glaring back at the pair. The two fled the hall, pushing past other lines in a desperate bid to save their dignity.

Ash and Tali burst into laughter before spotting Garrus Vakarian waving them over to a photo op with the turian hierarchy. Shepard remained behind, watching the dark-haired lieutenant disappear into the crowd. Her eyes crinkled and she suppressed an airy laugh.

“What are you so happy about, Shepard?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re smiling.”

“Am I?” Commander Annelise Shepard tried for nonchalance as she helped herself to a fresh lemon curd tart. She sniffed the confection, intrigued. She had never seen anything like it, but she couldn’t wait to try it.

“You are. It’s been awhile.” The asari in a low-necked evening gown came up and wrapped a hand around Shepard’s elbow, careful of the sling that held her left arm hugged tight to her chest.

“Oh, uh, yea. There’s just been a lot on my mind lately.”

“Well, I’m grateful for whatever it was.”

“Me too, Liara. Me too.”

And for the rest of that night Shepard’s smile came a little easier.

#merweek2020 #june 1 #first impressions #shaynor #samantha traynor #femshep #better late than never?

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landlordrecords · 3 years

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Bassline (& 2020 in general): Re-e-wind

What a strange year, as everyone, everywhere has said a million times… Writing-wise, I’d been doing Record Collector magazine since 2014, and uDiscover (the Universal Records online mag) for not much less, & that all just seemed to (understandably) stop dead with the onset of the pandemic. Since then, I’ve polished off my chapter on the work of Simon Morris and the Ceramic Hobs for Palgrave, & that’s about it, so you’re more likely to find me over on Twitter at Sniffy (@philblackpool) / Twitter these days, blurting out the odd sentence. I hence thought it might be time to revisit a very old piece…

Like many, I’ve been working from home for much of the year, and although I’ve occasionally wanted to pull out my own eyeballs, it has generally been very pleasant for a voracious music-lover. I started by catching up on the vast majority of my insane, years-deep second-hand vinyl buy piles, and then chomped through a load of ‘long listen’ stuff I’d had on the backburner forever (including, astonishingly, eventually getting through something like 40 hours of Pan Sonic live sets someone had dumped online). I graded hundreds of releases for sale on Discogs, and revisited umpteen musical thangs extensively, including 90s gabba, Sun Ra, music hall, Schoenberg, dancehall reggae, the acknowledged worst albums ever, happy hardcore, Italian house, bounce and makina (I’ve lost track of how much time I’ve spent checking out youtubes to try to identify a couple of most-wanted bounce and makina tunes), Britpop (!), cosmic disco, and Belgian popcorn. It’s been an extraordinary year, packed with cultural discovery and rediscovery. In amongst this, in no way ashamed of my abject love of Discogs, and already having used and edited it for many years, I read the entire guidelines and decided to go hard on sorting out stuff I care about on there. Seeing they’d finally added various more recent ‘styles’, I’ve spent the last month and a half doing a ridiculous amount of edits on a dozen or so niche genres of importance in recent times (footwork, Jersey Club, yadda yadda). My tweakings around Bassline and UK Funky eventually drew me to the attention of UK Garage legend Karl ‘Tuff Enuff’ Brown, a fellow Discogs obsessive not so keen on the editing side of the site, who wondered if I might give him a hand sorting out the mess of his own and his label’s (2Tuf 4U) discographies. His entertaining phonecalls were enough to convince me.

I dug out all my stuff related to Karl’s label to listen to along the way, and found myself noticing how much UKG has been back in the spotlight of late (key, and brilliant, article here: RA: Like A Battle: The Push For UK Garage's Future (residentadvisor.net) ). While by no means unaware of this (I’ve had some lovely promos from Kiwi and the like of late, plus some moodier bits from various El-B worshippers), my status as a confirmed middle-aged semi-retired raver had hidden much of this from me. This leads me onto one of my big philosophical points of recent years: I listened to dance music avidly before I ever went out dancing, and listen to it now in lockdown, and in semi-retirement. There is far too much an emphasis among ever-rejuvenating dance music correspondents on ‘the club’ as the only way to enjoy dance music, but we know that OG disco fans are 60+ and unlikely to be out every weekend these days – is their experience now worthless? Online fans talk up their love of dance music for exercise soundtracks, bedtime calming soundtracks, etc: this is reality. Dance music is as valid to all these people as rock is to people who haven’t been to a gig in 40 years.

The style I felt myself most drawn back to was bassline (largely via Karl’s low-key issue of some DJ Q material). My love of UK Garage and all its offshoots largely stems from how physically removed I have been from it from virtually its entire history. Only my 2000-03 stint in Essex perfectly matched the garage waveform, and that was the 2-step era, quite the opposite of bassline. Despite being largely a northern phenomenon, Blackpool is largely untouched by bassline, being all about punk and bounce to my mind. An instant love for me circa 2007, bassline feels like one of those genres with unfinished business, but remains one I’ve rarely danced to. Cut off in its prime, it is now back, enormously popular, and rightly so, but, due to the vagaries of the digital music world, some of its key material remains tough to access in any decent form.

I originally wrote the piece I have butchered for this one in March 2008, on Myspace (remember that), in reaction to the exciting waves of bassline and UK funky then reinvigorating the world of UKG. It looks a bit embarrassing now, with more writing experience, although I continue to applaud my own willingness to be open about my innocent appreciation of things I love but am not truly part of.

The most notable misstep in my original piece was the presumption that bassline would become the latest enormous chart sensation. Like happy hardcore before it, the ball was, in reality, fumbled. Instead of hoped-for freaky innovation, the producers also opted, as many in years gone by, for smoothed-out commerciality (in unholy alliance with low-grade grime crossovers), although the main adversarial issues seem to have been police crackdowns and the London-centric ‘cool police’. Although I was long aware of such problems with Niche in Sheffield (the genre’s spiritual home), it appears that the police interference had a devastating effect across the board ( Banned From Sheffield: How Jamie Duggan fought for bassline… And won (ukf.com) ). This largely explains why many of the bassline producers gravitated towards the largely wack bass house/house & bass style so beloved of teenyboppers in recent years. Thank heavens that era is now largely over.

Niche reputedly specialised in an arguably unholy mixture of dated late 90s speed garage and ‘bassline house’ (think ‘Let Me Show You’ by Camisra, and MK’s ‘organ house’), way past their sell-by date (I still only really like a handful of Shaun Banger Scott bits in this style, one single 2009 Brummie CD EP, and one Virgo remix). Ultimately, though, this experiment unexpectedly created something magical. The crucial element here is the 4/4 beat. While undoubtedly skippy, the vast majority of the material favoured had a firm 4/4 beat, always favoured across all key scenes in the north of England from northern soul onwards. When they ran out of tunes to rinse, in time-honoured fashion, they made their own. Long, rumbling walls of bass, organs, and hoppy-skippy beats, with raggafied samples and gunshots over the top. Popular in Birmingham as well (pretty much the centre of a vinyl glut at the time, and now notable in the popularity of DJs such as Chris Lorenzo and Hannah Wants), B-side titles hinted of coke overload. Disenfranchised by London’s movement away from the holy 4/4 (despite a slight revival in the early noughties), and via messenger services and the like, northern producers began to exchange a new hybrid in the mid-00s which took these speed garage and bassline house influences and updated them with current R’n’B bootlegs, with influences from grime (regional grime producers were key here) and, most notably, with rococo basslines. Its most obvious comparison point was Sticky’s garage productions, concurrent with the early grime era. Southern producers such as Agent X, Delinquent (who featured Gemma Fox on their magical 2006 ‘Boxers’), and Dexplicit (Fox again, 2005’s ‘Might Be’) ran with that, and the north lapped it up. Key early pointers also included DJ Narrows’ superb 2001 4/4 tune ‘Saved Soul’, and early 00s DND work (Artwork, later part of dubstep supergroup Magnetic Man). A notable increase in output came in 2006, and 2007-9 were the genre’s original glory years. And the bulk of producers and up-&-comings delivering serious anthems to the scene came not from London and the south-east, but from Leeds (T2, Wittyboy, Nastee Boi), Bradford (TS7), Manchester (Murkz, Burgaboy, Subzero), Nottingham (Virgo, IllMana), Leicester (JTJ, H20, FB & Zibba), and Wolverhampton (EJ, TRC, Brett Maverick). EJ’s Ejucation mix series (all up on Soundcloud) is a good place to start, beginning as the bassline house began to be overtaken by the pure bassline numbers.

Distribution for serious UK garage music has often been woeful, with only high street compilations & the chart singles (‘Heartbroken’ by T2, ‘What’s It Gonna Be’ by H20, etc) making it all over the country, and this helped stymie the true development of bassline, although vinyl prices, dreadful video promos, and the leap to digital in some ways didn’t help. Years on, as an incorrigible vinyl fanatic, I still only have handful of bassline 12”s. Yes, you can now access this stuff the world over via Youtube etc, but decent, high-quality copies of full-length tunes (they are often hacked about to great effect, but in a way which obscures the original intentions, in the mix) are not always the easiest to come by, although the classic producers are increasingly putting out digital compilations of their original work. Material that would, for previous genres, be fiended after, is lost to being just more online links. At the time, I looked high and low for 12”s, succeeding only rarely, largely on the flip of UK Funky releases. The (mixtape) audience, going by comments online, were often extremely young, are probably now still only in their mid-twenties, and are seemingly happy enough with this chaotic model. Bassline originally, as all rave genres, largely ran off mixtape boxsets, and a 2007 ‘Pure Bass – Fantasy’ box from Stoke remains my key document of that era: seven bassline CDs, with many tracks repeated, but packed to the gills, with most tracks only lasting a minute or two in the mix. As with all rave mixes, it has taken me years to suss the majority of the track IDs. In the Resident Advisor piece linked above, DJ Q (from Huddersfield) talks about thousands of lost bassline tunes, the bad side of the digital revolution. My recent Discogs ferreting suggests more bassline tunes than one might imagine did make some sort of decent release, but too many only made white labels, promo CDs for commercial releases (before being snipped from the main release), mix CDRs, or Youtube’s grainy depths. Classics such as TS7 featuring Bianca’s ‘Seems Like’ appear to never have had any decent release whatsoever, despite TS7 going on to be a big name in bass-oriented house, and Bianca Gerald having kept at the vocal turns ever since.

T2 hit biggest, with ‘Heartbroken’, a gorgeous, smashed-vocal garage dub so popular that it even inspired a Jersey Club refix. His catalogue was immediately deep, although I get the impression he has stopped adding to it. One complaint about bassline, including some of the T2 work, regards the untutored vocals, which can sometimes be rather flat, and certainly lacking in dynamics compared to the dazzling US vocalists featured on some earlier UK garage pieces (I refer here, as always, to TJ Cases’ remarkable ‘Do It Again’). I kinda like that - it shows amateur enthusiasm not far removed from punk, and most obviously links to lover’s rock, as does the production at times: it gives a feeling of melancholy entirely suited to the vocals. Other bassline heroes include TS7, who briefly brought to the fore sassy female garage MC T Dot. His productions also include ‘Smile’, one of my very favourite bassline tracks, full of that Simon Reynolds-quoted 'weird energy’ possessed by DJ Hype & co in the early nineties. Male bassline vocalists such as Ideal also remain unfairly forgotten, although some of the female vocalists have gone on to work in related genres since bassline’s peak.

Paleface, an ex-member of London garage rap crew Stonecold GX, runs Northern Line Records (FB, TRC, Wittyboy, Nastee Boi), something of a quality mark for bassline productions, while also making highly successful UK Funky tunes as part of Crazy Cousinz, and later progressing into commercial house territory. He chronicled much of bassline’s high-water mark (including being married to Kyla, since sampled by Drake). Wolverhampton-based Northern Line signing TRC proved particularly adaptable, spewing out a legion of original tunes and remixes before retreating for a while to grime. Leeds’ Nastee Boi was a favourite of mine at the time, with his pitch-black gangsta bassline tunes, but pushed on towards a mixture of underwhelming R’n’B vocal cuts and nursery grime toons. Wittyboy started similarly punishingly but also went smoother, unbalancing the classic bassline rough and smooth combination.

Now that the dubiously poisonous rep of Niche has been dispatched, the key bassline acts have returned to their key battleground, and the genre seems in full throttle again. Much of the new material seems a little one-dimensional to me: producers invariably big up Bristol’s My Nu Leng as, I suppose, a bridge from bro-step to 4/4. Everything, as acknowledged by the DJs, is huge drops and nothing much else. It still sounds pretty hot though – not the updated lover’s rock of a decade ago, but worth supporting. Bassline is NOT finished!

#bassline #bassline house #niche #organ house #brostep #speed garage #uk garage

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deliciousscaloppine · 4 years

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A TRUE RAREPAIR APPROACHES

For Jiang Yanli / Luo Qingyang (Mianmian!) Are you more the type to cut off your braid and wear an armour to save your princess or the type to give up your royal privileges to run away with your beloved maid?

This is really too long for a prompt, and too short for the story I wanted to write so excuse my bad planning (the story elements are good though)

The carriage rocked and rattled, making her sleepy.

“Is Lanling a big city?” her brother asked from outside. He was riding on a horse, out in the open air with no care in the world. No worries about his complexion darkening under the harsh sun. No petulant groom for him to satisfy with the pale color of his skin.

“Big? What kind of silly question is that! Why don't you ask if the sun shines.” her other brother barked from the other side of the carriage. “Of course, it's big, I showed it to you on the map!” He was also riding on a horse, out in the open air, his only care if he would make a good impression.

“Why are you mad! Don't you know there are no silly questions! All I want to know is how comfortable our sister will be. Lotus Pier is so distant and so small, it's okay for a peasant's life, but our sister is a fairy from the moon. She deserves the best wedding!”

“You needn't worry, young master!” the driver of the carriage said. “Lady Jiang will have no shortage of comforts. Carp Tower is like a town unto itself. It's no mere mansion. Its residences are outnumbered by its many workshops and shrines. Anything she wants will be delivered to her. All her life she might not have need to step outside of her husband's bedroom.”

An awkward silence followed. Her little brother knocked on the carriage window.

“Big sister, did you hear that?” he said concerned. “Listen, if you want to bolt, just say so. I'll take you on my horse and we'll disappear into the night.”

She had smiled “A-Xian.”

Her family where once rangers. They traveled throughout the land in ceaseless motion. They slept outside under the starry sky, they hunted for food, they knew how to make fire. They didn't mind wearing rags as they fought for justice. Perhaps that's why her father liked little A-Xian so much. He still had that hint of wilderness inside him.

But somewhere along the line, the Jiang had married well, they had acquired a big home and followers, and the ranger had become gentry. Not fully extinguished perhaps, but definitely more preoccupied with courtly manners, and dress, and important political alliances.

The carriage stopped and a loud voice was heard proclaiming some herald of the Jin Clan.

“What do you mean this carriage is too small! It's perfectly sized.” she heard her brother argue outside. “That thing is so big, it might as well be a house. How we'll talk to our big sister in this?”

She poked her head through the window. A well-dressed, if somewhat self important herald approached her.

“Lady Jiang, your future husband, the groom, the pearl of Carp Tower, our lord Jin Zixuan is sending this carriage for you so that you can enter the city with the honor befitting the status of the future lady of Carp Tower.”

Jiang Yanli was already dizzy from the rocking of the carriage. She had hoped to walk a few paces and breathe some fresh air before arriving in Lanling.

“I will take it, if my brothers are permitted to ride at the front.” she said getting off.

Her brothers looked at her uncertain. How could she tell them, she was supremely tired of their bickering. Of course, it was the nerves of the separation, but she had even more of those, and she had to maintain not only a perfect composure, but also a flawless complexion.

The road full of pebbles and rocks, crunched under her shoes and she wondered if that was that last bit of her freedom waving goodbye. A large retinue of maids and servants and all sorts of Jin disciples stood to greet her

“I am Luo Qingyang” a young, athletic lady with a sword and a fairly sunkissed complexion bowed. “I will be keeping you safe on this journey.” she said and showed her the way into the large, ornate carriage.

“You can call me Mianmian. Everybody does.” Luo Qingyang said once they were inside.

“Mianmian!” Yanli laughed behind her hand.

“Isn't it funny! But only girls can call me like that!” she said brightly and reached for a little embroidered pouch from her pocket. She handed it to Yanli. “Here! If you get dizzy smell this. It's some aromatic herbs, they help with headaches and the such.”

Yanli pressed it to her face smiling. “You make these yourself?”

“I am a talented swordswoman, but there is not much to do around in Carp Tower, I mostly escort ladies of the house and lord Jin Zixuan. I learned how to make these aromatic pouches from the other ladies there. They help me remember home.”

Mianmian took out another pouch. “This one has dried herbs my mother plants in her garden. When I get a little homesick, I press it to my face like this. I'll show you how to make them, they are pretty easy! This way you can take the smell of lotus flowers with you wherever you go.”

Yanli looked at the colorful pouch in her hands. “Thank you.” she said and felt tears coming to her eyes.

Mianmian pulled out a kerchief. “Oh, don't cry over a silly pouch! You'll see, you'll miss nothing when we get to Carp Tower. Whenever you get a little homesick, we'll just hop on this carriage and trot at the pace of a snail all the way to Lotus Pier!”

Yanli laughed. She laughed many times, until night descended around them and the horses had to rest.

“What is lord Jin Zixuan like?” Yanli asked lying down on the soft pillows, pressing Mianmian's aromatic pouch in her hand. It was hot in the carriage, but too cold for her to go outside.

Mianmian sighed. “Well, he is kind of aloof, you know. But he just doesn't know how to express himself. I mean, he comes across as conceited. Well, not conceited...self-important? No, that's not the word! Uhm, too full of himself?”

Jiang Yanli paled.

“But he is alright, I guess. I don't think you will be seeing him often, anyway. A sect leader is always terribly busy. Lord Guangshan almost never sees Lady Jin. Even though that whole thing is a different issue.”

“How so?”

“Well, they were forced into this marriage when they were very young, and they never really hit it off. I guess each felt trapped in a relationship they didn't want to be in, and both acted out in ways that caused a permanent rift between them.” Mianmian said. “Though lord Guangshan certainly did the most to ruin the relationship...with all of those uhm...extramarital affairs.”

Yanli sat up on her elbows. “I need a breath of fresh air” she said.

The night was dry and cold all around them, Yanli had needed a coat. The pebbles crunched under their feet. But the sky was clear and all one could see were stars, as many of them as the pebbles of the road underneath their feet. She smiled again to herself. Better not. Her family had good reason to settle.

“I will like Carp Tower.” she said in a loud voice.

“Eh, it's alright.” Mianmian followed. “It sure is impressive at first, but then everyone has so many opinions, so many little things you can slight someone over. So no one ever does or says anything that's slightly out of the ordinary. We all politely eat lunch and smile at each other.”

“How come you never left then!” Yanli heard herself exclaim. “If it's so horrible and boring what are you doing there.”

Mianmian lifted her shoulders. “It's comfortable, I guess.” she said, and Yanli felt her stomach twist in a knot. It was so cold she felt dizzy. The thought of galloping through the night, not with A-Xian, someone else, then seemed utterly ridiculous to her.

She was no ranger! She wasn't even a swordswoman. She was just a pliant, handsome girl who knew how to light the stove and cook, and make everyone feel better. That'swho she had wanted to be! That's who she thought she were. No catching fish or pheasants, and playing all day like little A-Xian. No practicing the sword and running amok like A-Cheng.

“Can you hunt, Mianmian? I don't mean monsters, or other ghouls. I mean can you catch pheasants or fish by the riverside?”

Mianmian looked at her bewildered. “I never had to. Every meal at Carp Tower is a feast.” Mianmian however could tell that was not the answer Jiang Yanli was looking for. “...I could try.” she offered.

“How about a horse? Can you ride one?”

“I always prefered my own two feet.” Mianmian said. “I can ride the sword though. That has to count for something.”

The sword, Janli thought. The sword.

Two days later the carriage arrived at Lanling, and an auspicious wedding was held after some time. Everyone drank to the new bride's health. She put on the fineries of Carp Tower, and smiled. And after a while there came a momeent when she had to say goodbye to her own two brothers, her mother and father and be now a true lady of the Lanling Jin.

“We'll come to see you often!” her brothers waved at her and left.

The groom? The groom was fine. Mianmian said he was polite and considerate, but Yanli thought he was entirely cold. On their first night together he had said, “Why don't you acclimate yourself to life in Carp Tower first,” and then left.

Her first thought was that she had done something wrong. That by some oversight, she had made herself undesirable. She looked at herself in her mirror and craved to be kissed, and held, and be talked to softly. To be squeezed in someone's arms.

“Don't take it to heart!” Mianmian had laughed the next day. “I am sure he is just as nervous as you!”

“I am not at all nervous.” she had said wistfully and wondered if it was wrong. If not being nervous was that disastrous oversight.

“I would be.” Mianmian mused. “I mean you do not really know your husband at all. That is a strange situation. He never had to find what you like and seek your favor.”

“It's too late now for all that.”

“I have an idea!” Mianmian said. “Why don't you tell me what you like! Then I can go and tell him! I'll be like your secret messenger.”

Yanli laughed. “That's childish!” she said. “He wouldn't like that!”

“Why not? Come on let's try! What is something you really like doing?”

Yanli mused. “I guess, I would really like it if he tried some of my soup.” Yanli immediately felt more heartened after expressing herself. “That's right! I want to make him some lotus and rib soup!”

She took Mianmian and together they went to the kitchen. The many maids that took care of the cooking were very surprised to see a lady of the house in all her exorbitant jewlery and fine silk satins among them, opening cupboards and asking where this and that ingredient were.

For the first time in several days, she felt like her old self. Like she was back at Lotus Pier, waiting for night to fall and share food and stories with her two brothers. Mianmian chattered incessantly, and from time asked to help, chopping the ribs, and grating the ginger, asking why they skim the foam from the top.

“It smells so good!” she finally said, as Yanli carefully served the soup in a bowl.

“Take it to him, before it's cold!”

Mianmian did as she was told, but when she returned, she had no eloquent messages of thanks.

“He's probably too busy to eat soup, right now.” she said.

“Or perhaps he finds it too provincial.” Yanli thought.

“Come on, let's eat the two of us!” Mianmian said and taking the ladle, she served them.

Yanli tasted the soup. It was not exactly how she used to make it. But she didn't what it was that was missing. Carp Tower had everything, it lacked neither ginger, not scallions. Was it the meat? The lotus root? Was it the air of this mansion, heavy with incense and slightly oppressive from the sweat of the fawning courtiers. Did it alter the taste of the soup?

“It's really good!” Mianmian said sipping some of the broth.

“It's not as good as I make it on Lotus Pier. Maybe that's why he didn't like it.” Yanli said pushing the bits of meat and lotus around in her bowl.

“What are you talking about! This is a hearty dish, I've never really tasted anything like it before, but even if I had, I would be glad if someone had just cooked it for me. It might not taste exactly as it does on Lotus Pier, but how could it, you are yourself a different person.”

Yanli's face droop. That's right, she thought, I am sadder. When her two brothers would come back, their faces lit up at the prospect of the soup, her heart was full. They were waiting to be with her, just as much as she did all day...Here no one paid mind to such things. Here no one was waiting.

“What's with the face!” Mianmian asked around a mouthful of lotus root. “Are you feeling homesick?”

“I do.” Yanli said.

“Then eat up! You'll feel better. That's what I always do! When I miss home, I eat watercress soup.”

But Mianmian didn't just say this. Taking a spoonful of soup she guided it to Yanli's lips. Yanli laughed and ate. And soon, she found out there was absolutely nothing with her soup. It tasted great. She ate and ate, until she finally felt full.

I should have played more with my brothers, she thought, when she had finished eating. I should have taught them how to make this soup, and they should have taken me hunting. This way my life would be more complete.

“I never really followed my brothers in their adventures.” she said to Mianmian. “Now I wish I had at least once.”

The following week, a great hunt was held in Phoenix Mountain. All week people run here and there to build a beautiful pavilion for the hunters to rest, and arrange the many refreshments that would be served. Yanli had to dress especially nice, and greet with Madam Jin the many guests. After a while all she had to do was sit at her own table and smile demurely at every remark, at every conversation, even if it was not directed at her.

Until Mianmian came and sat by her side. “I know what will cheer you.” she said. “Let's go hunting together. Let's go catch fish and pheasants!”

“We can do that?” Yanli asked.

“We'll just say you needed to stretch your legs and breathe the fresh air!” Mianmian said, and taking her by the hand, she stole away with her into the forest. Yanli became breathless and dizzy pretty soon, but there Mianmian was, kicking stones out of the path, and giving her her hand, when they had to climb up a steep path.

Mianmian was small, but she was agile and strong like a little mountain goat. They climbed and climbed until miraculously they came across a pheasant.

“I bet I can hit it with my sword from here!” Mianmian said.

“You can't use your sword for a poor bird. You have to give it a fighting chance.”

“Alright.” Mianmian said rolling her sleeves and lunging right on it. The pheasant put up a valiant fight, thrashing around agrily until it won. Screeching offended, it bolted for the bushes.

“I guess I am not that good at catching pheasants.” Mianmian said putting her hands on her waist. From the top of her head to her toes she was covered in dirt and dust, a few plumes sticking out of her hair.

Yanli laughed. “We'll have better luck catching fish!” she said, following the sound of nearby water.

“Only if you let me use my sword.” Mianmian grumbled.

Even if it was the height of summer the rivulet they found was cold, nevertheless Mianmian waded through it valiantly. “Wait here!” she called climbing on a rock.

“I see a lot of fish.” she said, shielding her eyes from the reflections of the water. “I wonder if I can try something.”

Mianmian closed her eyes and unseathed her sword.

“Lady Luo! Don't be excessive!” Yanli called.

But Mianmian didn't stab any fish, until not at first. She waved her sword in a great arc, her body following it like a wave. Rising its tip well above her head, her knee folding. Following the crescent of this move with her elbows bent, one arm extended, directing power with her index and middle fingers. Breathing as the sword rests for a moment before a decisive swing.

It looked oddly like a dance, Yanli thought. She had seen her two brothers often practice, but their form had nothing as graceful as that. They always looked as if they struggled against something; the air around them, their own shape, their own power perhaps.

The sword glimmered and shined, changing angles around Luo Qingyang's body, moving as if something invisible balanced on its very tip.

Then she brought it powerfully down, smacking the surface of water. The survace of the rivulet bounced, expelling all the fish in the air above them. Yanli shrieked, delighted, as a shower of trouts descended all around them.

Mianmian flew through the air, stabbing two fish, before landing triumphantly. “Let's eat them now!” she exclaimed.

Yanli gathered some twigs. She knew at least how to light a fire. She made a small firepit at the edge of the shore, and lined it with smooth rocks from the river. This was exciting, it was a proper outing in the wild – even if the hunters' pavilion was an hour away.

Yanli smiled to herself as she prepared the kindling. But for some reason when she tried to make fire, her hands faltered. She tried something she knew how to do, but the comfortable life in Carp Tower had made her forget.

Mianmian kneeled by her side, taking the flint from her hands. “Here, let me!” she said brightly, as she stood next to her, their shoulders touching, the sparks flying.

“My mom is a great cook! She taught me how to light a stove at least.” she said smiling.

“I knew how to do this once.” Yanli said loudly.

“You still do! You are probably tired from our little excursion.”

“...Do you think I could live outside, Mianmian?” she asked. “Like a ranger, with no home, just roaming the country on a horse and little else.”

“I am sure you could do anything you put your mind to.” Mianmian said quietly.

Even though Yanli had managed to do this one thing, her heart was now heavy. This was a summer dream, she thought as the fish was roasting. She should just enjoy it and then let it fade away.

The two of them ate their country meal, and as dusk began to approach, they made their way down the path laughing and joking, sometimes holding hands, when the climb down was too steep. When they finally arrived at the hunters' pavilion, before the sun began to set, a great commotion was waiting for them.

The disappearance of the young lady had caused quite the stir. Yanli had wanted to say, “I was just catching fish.” She knew what an immature thing it was to say. So she smiled and apologized profusely, while her husband sat at a corner and sulked, and Mianmian made her own excuses.

When the day was concluded and all the party returned to Carp Tower, Yanli felt she had to apologize to him especially. She tried to explain to him at first what that hunt meant for her. How her brothers would go on long trips, and fool around, knowing that when they came back, they would come back to a home.

“Lady Jiang!” Jin Zixuan said, as if they were not married. “How do you think it makes me feel, when I go looking for you and can't find you!”

Left alone once more during the night, she began to cry. Was it a delusion to think she could bring home with her? Mianmian appeared at the frame of the door.

“Don't cry! It was all my fault!” she cried and in less than a moment, she had embraced her.

“I am not crying about today.” Yanli said. “I am crying for tomorrow and all the tomorrows that will follow after that. I don't think I will ever have Jin Zixuan's love, but even if I did, I am no so sure I would want it.”

Mianmian dried her eyes with her sleeve.

“He might have sounded cold, but I believe in his heart of hearts he has a true fondness for you. When he sees you, he must surely feel like you are the most thoughtful and exceptional person in the world. I know that with time all he'll want is to fall deeply in love with you.”

“He never said that. Stop speaking his mind for him.”

“I am sorry.” Mianmian said confused, her eyes suddenly filling with regret.

Yanli clasped her, tightened her hands around those strong arms that could wield a sword. “When you talk to me like that don't do it for him! Defend me for yourself, love me for yourself.” she said, and as if shocked by her own words, she clasped her mouth next and fled.

She ran through the garden, and hid, like a scared child who has done something worthy of reproach. She stayed for a long time hidden, watching the carp dance in the water, wondering what was happening to her. What were those new things she wanted and why, and sometimes she thought of nothing at all, except for Luo Qingyang's face.

“Don't make this more difficult than it is.” she heard a voice suddenly say. She peeked from behind the bushes and saw Mianmian with two other disciples.

“Madam Jin wants you to leave. Here's some money, take it and go.” they said.

Mianmian looked at their hands, and then with very little hesitation, she took off the lavish garment of the Jin Clan and tossed it at them before storming away.

There were no more reproaches, only consequences.

That night, she smiled and greeted everyone at the banquet. She had graceful words for everyone, but it was not her saying these words. It was a ghost that repeated the things that had been fixed on it since childhood. Yanli felt it retreat from her more firmly with each act of decorum. Goodbye, she said to it with her mind.

At precisely midnight, a great wind swept the tower, rattling every door and window. Yanli wore her hardiest coat and exited her room. It might have been a fierce night, but the air was fragrant with the smell of the peony flowers. So she run through the empty garden laughing.

She run with with her skirts clutched in her hands, as a torrent of flowers drifted in the wind above her.

“Turn away! Go back!” angry voices sounded in the night. For a moment, she froze, thinking they were coming from her mind. A sword hummed sonorously above the raging wind.

“None of you can stop me!” a familiar voice was heard, and then the sound of a blade thrashing, humming with the stress of every hit, producing a clear sound like a wailing song. Yanli run faster.

Mianmian was in the courtyard dancing with her sword. Twisting around attacks, bouncing her blade on weapons, until they broke. Her form nothing but perfect, as if there was nothing between her and the world, no other blades, no lances, no screams. As if she was just practicing steps in the dark, in deep meditation.

“Fall back! Fall back!” the voices cried. Yanli run to the very bottom of the steps, as bewildered men fled around her.

Mianmian smiled and gave her her hand. The sword hummed and stepping on air, it pulled them through the fragrant, night air, upwards towards the stars.

There were never seen again in the world, but I am sure they are quite happy.

#the untamed #the untamed fic #jiang yanli #mianmian #luo qingyang #yanyang?#the untamed f/f #the untamed prompts

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illegiblewords · 5 years

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Some Greek Mythology Hades + Persephone Notes

It’s been funny to me, having this story cropping up in FFXIV stuff lately lol. The myth of Hades and Persephone has been a huge part of my life since I was a little girl. My mom used to read different versions of it to me (among other things) in beautifully illustrated treasuries. I remember even then it made a big impression. One of my favorites.

In high school, I tried to retell the story. And I did an absolute BUTTLOAD of research for it. I read not just the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Ovid’s iteration, the more recent accounts in Bullfinches and Edith Hamilton’s Mythology. I listened to Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo and read the libretto. I found Claudian’s version. I went to Hesiod’s Theogony so I would understand where the gods came from before discovering their callings.

At the time I wasn’t ready. As a writer, I wasn’t at the level I needed to be and my trying to be historically authentic wasn’t the right road given what resonated for me personally. I do think I’m about ready now, just need to sort some stuff out.

But I have a few thoughts I’m going to include under a cut. This was a little inspired by another post on my dash, and it started with me being a bigass nerd nitpicking a detail lol. And I was side-eyeing myself all “don’t be that guy, it’s a good post”. And then I just got to thinking about the characters again a bit, and I still have a lot of affection and thoughts, so in the end I decided to just collect the bunch and plop ‘em here.

The nitpick thing comes from The Theogony.

Something that really stunned me when I first realized it--the original six children of the titans Cronos and Rhea had no assigned roles or tasks. They were, effectively, just people. Just gods. No elements, no affiliations.

Hestia, goddess of the hearth and home, a virgin, was the eldest. Not the eldest daughter only--of her, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus, she was first. Hades was the eldest son. Zeus, of all of them, was youngest while Hera was the youngest daughter only.

For a long time I’ve thought there was something kind of lonely, sad, interesting, and kind about Hestia and Hades. They both kept to themselves for the most part. Both avoided the drama and extreme punishments/squabbles of the other gods.

Each of the original six except for Zeus was consumed by their own father.

Being gods, they continued to grow and learn and survived even so. But it’s something I think about, and the idea that every one of them who went through the experience faced it alone is something I think about too.

Zeus was only able to escape because Rhea hid him. I wonder if she’d tried to hide the others only to be thwarted every time. I wonder if she stopped wanting to have children because she knew what would happen to them. There may have been a time she loved her husband, but if I remember correctly she helped her children slay him in the end. I wonder if she grew to truly hate him or if any love that remained was just outweighed by her horror.

Zeus had to be suspended from the trees in a cradle. If he’d been on the ground, the sky, or the sea alone then Cronos would have found and consumed him. His formative years would have been ruled by the fear that with one misstep, he’d be discovered and eaten as well. I think about that sometimes too, given he was so afraid of the prophecy that any offspring with Metis would outstrip the father in power that he literally ate his lover before she could give birth. When Athena was born anyway, bursting from her father’s skull in full armor, I wonder if he realized that he’d become the most horrifying embodiment of his father. I wonder what conversations followed between him and Athena that led to her becoming honored and beloved by him instead of feared. And I find it interesting that for all the love and pride Zeus felt for his goddess of war who outstripped him, he only ever felt scorn for Ares--the god of war and his only son with Hera.

But anyway.

Rescued by Zeus, the original six made alliances with their uncles the Cyclopes, the Hecatoncheires/the Hundred Handed Ones. And from them, the sons each received gifts to help them do war against the titans who would see them destroyed. Zeus received the lightning bolt. Poseidon, the trident. And Hades was gifted a helm of invisibility. Again, at that point none had any kingdoms or callings.

When the Olympians won, the brothers drew lots among themselves. I actually think the order might have been detailed too. Before they made their selections, I wonder if they were more afraid or hopeful. One of them would be the king of all the gods, ruler of the heavens. One of them would be banished from their midst to dwell only with the dead for the rest of his years.

Hades went first. Hades got what was, in many ways, a sentence to isolation. An exile. He’d done nothing to deserve it except be brave and be willing to accept the risk of that office. Maybe there was a reason for that, and only the one willing to risk shouldering that weight could receive it

I think about how Poseidon went next, and when he was given dominion over the seas I remember reading a little about him essentially throwing a tantrum/small war. Because he wanted to rule. I think about how Hades probably watched that furious reaction. I wonder how he felt and if he and Zeus spoke at all before parting.

Hades, before Persephone, experienced fear at the onslaught from Typhon, Gaia’s son born to Tartarus as revenge upon the gods for killing her titan children. He wasn’t the only one. All the other deities became animals and fled. Zeus was caught and mutilated. Those who remained had to band together and save him.

And I think about how, despite all the wars and squabbles, Hades seemed to appreciate the gravity of his position. He honored the dead he watched over. And it was only when, stricken by Eros’ arrow at the power-hungry Aphrodite’s behest, that his loneliness and need overwhelmed him.

He must have been repressing that for a long time.

In Claudian’s version, Persephone is shown falling in love with the King of the Dead. In L’Orfeo, when Orpheus comes to plead for his wife Persephone makes clear that she does in fact love her husband and considers herself fortunate to be beside him. I think about how Persephone was both goddess of spring (birth and rebirth, the renewal of life) and the Iron Queen whose name mortals feared to speak. I wonder if nature, red in tooth and claw was part of how she reconciled these truths in herself. I wonder what the process was like as they came to know each other and if it was difficult. I wonder what point it became clear that Hades didn’t simply need Persephone to be any companionship, any light among the dead--but as herself. As his equal and consort, who could and sometimes did challenge his decisions.

I really like the idea that their process of falling in love--Persephone, having always lived in the shadow of her mother without any opportunity to discover who she was for herself, Hades having sacrificed himself to duty to the point that it drove him mad--required both of them to help each other stand on their feet and reclaim their own identities from the circumstances smothering them. I adore the idea that they came to truly love each other after coming to know and love themselves too.

At some point I really am going to write my take on all of this as a proper story. Probably sometime soon. But it’s been nice to see the different ways pieces of Greek mythology get referenced in FFXIV, and when the specific Hades/Persephone story gets brought up by fans I remember this stuff.

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ichigopanhpff · 5 years

Text

BNHA Fic: Blink! Ch. 14

Read Ch. 13 | Masterlist

SPOILER ALERT: This chapter’s not much of spoiler territory but it’s still within season 4. It’s character development time!

Summer’s last breath left near the end of September and brought the autumnal chills. All the interns were able to attend Nighteye’s funeral after the dust settled on the Shie Hassaikai raid. Both the school and hero agencies agreed on putting the work-study program in an indefinite hold.

Ren took two mental health days from classes after all her injuries healed.

She stayed in bed, completely unmotivated to do anything. Despite that, she ultimately returned but her attendance had scattered absences.

This alerted two certain students from 2-A.

When lunch time came around, two familiar second years came up to 1-A’s table. Everyone energetically greeted them.

“Have you guys seen Ren lately?” Seri asked with an underlying tone of worry. Midoriya and Todoroki quickly took notice of it.

“She said she hasn’t been feeling well,” Yaoyorozu answered. “And has been in her room since I last saw her this morning.”

“Gottverdammt,” Tomoe hissed out in German and went back to Japanese, speaking in a hushed manner with Seri. “She’s relapsing.”

The two rushed out of the lunchroom.

“Lange-senpai, wait!” a voice called out.

The two girls turned to see five of the first years followed them.

“What do you mean by relapsing?” Uraraka suddenly asked in between breaths. “She was with us during the raid.”

“If this has anything to do with Chisaki...” Asui assumed.

“We’ll explain on the way,” Seri promptly responded. “Come on.”

The rag tag group exited the corridor and made their way to their dorms at a quickened pace.

“Ren was basically a physical and emotional recluse when we first met each other in class,” Tomoe summarized. “Had a lot of trust issues after being bullied at her old school in the States.”

“Bullied?” Midoriya asked, knowing all too well of this.

“It’s… something to do with her family that’s better coming from her,” the tall girl quickly replied.

“When Tocchan and I managed to become friends with her, she’d have relapse episodes where she wouldn’t come to school for days,” Seri continued. “Her anxiety got the best of her whenever she felt herself opening up. We didn’t know it was such a big vulnerability at the time and thought she was just playing hooky. After butting our way into her place one day after school to give her notes and assignments, we saw her buried under her covers in her room, cowering like an abused animal.”

“We sat with her for hours until she was comfortable enough with us to talk,” Tomoe finished and clicked her tongue. “That dummkopf… She must be a mess right now.”

Finally reaching the Alliance Dorms, they busted through the door and heard a startled yelp from the kitchen. It was Ren at mid-chew with her lunch. The longer part of her hair was halfway up in a messy bun and was wearing a black slouchy sweater with loose cream colored sweatpants.

“What… are you guys doing here?” she asked slowly in confusion, her voice sounding rough.

Tomoe and Seri shook in anger and immediately ran at her; One kicked Ren in the back while the other punched her in the face. She fell down with a dull thud without having a chance to defend herself. Their juniors, for a lack of better word, were completely dumbstruck.

“Du dumpfbacke!” Tomoe yelled in German and went back to Japanese. “You had us worried sick!”

“You bloody wanking bellend!” Seri screamed in British English and continued to stomp on her. “Why didn’t you text us after everything?! We thought you relapsed, you piece of crap!”

The remaining group couldn’t do anything but stand there and watch the beat down commence. They understood their senpais were concerned about her, but this was their way of showing it?

“Lange-senpai, Kubo-senpai,” Midoriya softly called with a fearful quiver. “I think you should stop...”

“We’re not done worrying about her!” both simultaneously angrily shrieked out.

“Ren-senpai’s not moving,” Asui pointed out with fret. “But her arm is twitching though.”

The two girls huffed heavily and looked down to see an unconscious Ren laying on her side, foaming at the mouth. Once the tussle subsided, they all sat down at the couches in the common area and explained themselves.

“Relapsed? Well...” Ren trailed off and rubbed where Tomoe punched her on her face. Her voice sounded hoarse, like she’d been screaming at the top of her lungs. “I did for a bit when we got back, but it wasn’t as serious as you thought it’d be.”

“You look like you’re doing fine,” Seri noticed with a tinge of annoyance. “So why haven’t you come back to class?”

“I’m nursing a throat infection,” she revealed and went into a light coughing fit, covering her mouth with her sleeve. “The medication makes me sleepy.”

“Why didn’t you say so then?!” Tomoe angrily shouted, smacking her arm.

“Ow. Because you were beating me with an inch of my life ten minutes ago,” Ren briskly answered while soothing the stinging area her friend hit.

“You got us there,” Seri surrendered. Her expression went from nonchalant to concern. “… We saw what happened on the live broadcast.”

“Fight Chisaki that recklessly...” The tall girl gripped the hem of her skirt as her shoulder shook, unable to hold her emotions back anymore. “You could’ve died! Even if you did have a vendetta, I wouldn’t have forgiven you if you went out like that,” she angrily shouted.

Tomoe glared at her with tears in her dark brown eyes, now free flowing down her cheeks.

“So don’t go decidin’ somethin’ as selfish as throwing your life away without thinkin’ ‘bout your friends n’ your mom!”

Ren looked at her friend choking back her sobs with the saddest expression. The pink haired girl drew her into a tight hug and stroked the back of her head. After having a few days to reflect on her actions, she did feel a small tinge of guilt for doing what she did.

It’s as Tamaki and Mirio-senpai foresaw: she got blinded by her emotions.

“Sorry… for worrying both of you...” she whispered. “I wanted to tell you, but we were under strict orders from the pros to keep silent.”

Tomoe continued to cry into her shoulder while Seri remained pensive.

“So with Chisaki gone...” The silver white-haired girl softly spoke. “And Togata-senpai on an extended leave from school, what are you going to do?”

Ren’s hazel-green eyes gleamed with sadness and sighed heavily.

“Lately, I’ve been finding myself lacking motivation to come back...” she confessed and released Tomoe from the hug, her friend having now calmed down to sniffles. “All this time, I wanted to be a hero just to find that scumbag and bring him to justice. And now…”

She sighed again and leaned forward with her hands loosely clasped.

“I don’t know what to do.”

The pregnant silence momentarily rang through, feeling the weight of Ren’s words seep into their mind. It was Uraraka who decided to break it.

“It’s fine to continue on as you are, even if you don’t know where it’ll lead,” the gravity girl encouraged.

“Senpai, no matter how tough things get, I hope you know you can trust and rely on us with anything,” Asui soothed with a matching smile. “Even heroes need support.”

“There’s a lot more people out there to save,” Midoriya stated and clenched his fist. “The world needs more strong heroes now more than ever.”

Ren hung her head low, hiding her sullen face with her hair.

“Am I strong though?” she whimpered out with her right hand gripping her left forearm, still trying to make sense of what happened that caused her arm to dislocate.

“We can’t answer that for you...” Todoroki finally spoke up with clarity. “But continuing on to be a hero is what your brother would’ve wanted.”

Her head lifted up with hopeless looking wet eyes, letting out a small gasp.

That’s right: she became a hero for his sake from the start. Why couldn’t she remember something as simple as that? Somewhere along the way, she got swept up with the current, unable to think of her own motives as she ran forward. Ren turned away to wipe the stray tears with her sleeve.

“I’m a pathetic senpai.” She let out a dry laugh between sniffles. “Look at me, being consoled by my juniors over things I have no control over… I’m so lame.”

“You are pretty lame,” Tomoe teased with a comforting grin.

“But you’d do the same for them,” Seri remarked with a small smile.

The rose-gold colored haired girl nodded with a shy grin.

Two days later, Ren returned to class after recovering and her life fell back into the usual routine before the internship happened: Classes, study sessions, counseling 1-A students, and of course, the late-night training sessions resumed with Bakugou and Todoroki.

“I saw you try out that move fightin’ that bastard,” Bakugou casually remarked with crossed arms. “It was sloppy.”

“I was desperate,” Ren angrily quivered out and chugged some water, not wanting to be reminded of her screw up. “With the way I was going up the pillar, I couldn’t attack from behind anyway.”

“Stand,” the blond boy requested, with her complying. “You should’ve came at him like this.”

Bakugou charged at Ren and aimed his right fist low, stopping short at her torso and slowed his left that was aiming at her jawline. Not once did her body flinch, having gotten used to his movements.

“Your opponent’s guard lets down when you hit their core first and you can follow up with the finishing blow to kill ‘em,” he instructed.

“And if you add your quirk to it, you’d have an extra element of surprise,” Todoroki added. “Increasing your chances of victory.”

“Don’t butt into our conversation, half-and-half,” Bakugou scowled.

“There’s… somethin’ I wanna try,” Ren suddenly blurted out. “I need the two of you to come at me with your quirks at full force.”

“Are you sure?” the bi-colored haired boy asked.

“I don’t think it’ll work unless I feel my life’s in danger. And I can’t rely on it all the time.”

The three positioned themselves and as always, Bakugou was the first to attack with a mighty yell and charge. He shot an explosion with his right, only to have Ren duck under it with her speed and jumped up to dodge Todoroki’s trail of ice on the ground.

“You’re mine!”

Rapid shots of explosion shot out of his palm at close quarter, making Ren put her arms up in an X-formation and jumped back. The singe on her arms smelled of burnt hair and skin; she had to endure the discomfort.

“Hey! We agreed to no hits to the face!” she shouted.

“Huuh?! I can’t hear you over the sound of me winning!” he retorted and went on the offensive by using his hands as a rocket blast.

Ren timed it perfectly and managed to roundhouse him in the face, making use of his back to jump on to attack Todoroki on the back line. He came at her with his ice wall attack, but used her momentum to leverage herself on the already laid frozen crystals and flipped over toward him. Remembering how Toga moved when she attacked Aizawa, the airborne girl struck hard at his right shoulder blade with her hand of her fist making a stabbing motion. The shock immediately traveled up his body and brought the boy to his knees after she landed. She gasped out loud and turned to see Todoroki on all fours, sweating hard and panting. His arms were shaking.

“Oh crap!” she exclaimed and ran up to dual-quirk user. “Did I hit too hard?!”

“My body’s… just in shock,” he gasped out. “I think you hit a nerve.”

“I thought you said no face hits, ya dumbass!” Bakugou shouted from the other side of the room. Ren mockingly held her hand up to her ear.

“You’ll have to speak up. I can’t hear you over the sound of me winning,” she mimicked his previous response.

A short pause later, Todoroki was able to regain control over his body and plopped down on the floor to the right of Ren, glancing over at her, who was patting her face down with a towel.

“That move before...” the boy questioned. “Did you learn that from the raid?”

“From the enemy’s side, yes,” she hesitantly answered, not wanting to let slip who.

“Speakin’ of enemies,” Bakugou interjected and placed a hand on his hip. “What’s the deal with you n’ birdface? I take it he’s part of your history?”

Ren rested her arms on her knees, looking up at the ash blond boy. “We’ll talk this weekend. I did promise Kiri-kun, after all. That good with you?”

Bakugou glanced at his senpai, her expression completely different from how she was weeks ago. There was a sense of peace and openness reflecting in her hazel-green eyes.

“I’ll have to let Midoriya, Ochaco and Tsuyu-chan know about it too,” she noted aloud.

“Why does that damn nerd and the extras need to be involved with this?!”

“Because I owe them my life,” Ren argued back. “So grow up and deal with it, Bakkun.”

“Don’t call me ‘Bakkun’!”

“I rather like it,” she teased with a grin and rested her index finger on her chin like Asui. “Makes me think of ‘Ba-Boom’, like your quirk,” she chuckled.

“Senpai, your arms...” Todoroki pointed out. She looked down to see her forearms decorated with irritated red burn marks from Bakugou’s attack and clicked her tongue in annoyance.

“Bakkun!” She yelled and held her arms up for him to see. “You’re treating this right now!”

“What the hell?! You told me not to hold back!” he retorted.

“You’re still treating it,” the girl demanded and pouted like a child. “And you have to kiss it to make it feel better.”

“Like hell I’m gonna do somethin’ idiotic like that,” he grumbled and grabbed the first aid kit beside him. He carefully lathered aloe vera ointment on her right forearm, feeling the cool sensation sink into her pores. While Bakugou tended to the other limb, Todoroki unconsciously held his right palm over the already treated one.

A gentle chill emitted from his hand, sending a wave of goosebumps up Ren’s entire arm. She stared at him in awe while he concentrated. His head tilted up the moment she let out a small sneeze that sounded like a mouse squeaking.

“Sorry, was it too cold?” he asked with a tone of concern.

“Just a little,” she sheepishly replied with a tiny chatter coming from her teeth and sniffled. “But it felt nice.”

“I’ll hold back on your left then,” he verbally noted and tended to it.

“If you two morons are done gawking at each other like lovesick puppies, I’m heading out,” Bakugou listlessly spoke and got up off of the floor, shoving his hands in his pocket.

“Bakkun,” Ren called once more, making him turn around. She flashed him a grateful smile and said, “Thanks for not holding back and treating my arms.”

A splash of red dotted his cheeks and urged him to quickly turned back, merely acknowledging her with a gruff grunt.

–

The weekend came quicker than Ren expected and started getting nervous. She was picking at an invisible hangnail on her finger, staring at the box on the floor still. Ren mentioned in passing to Tomoe and Seri about what she was going to do, only to be met with an understanding and concerned look. Before they could say anything, she reassured them it was fine; their trust was forged in the fires of battle with her.

Perhaps she should’ve asked them to be here for moral support and inwardly groaned.

A soft rap of the door jolted her brain back and swallowed hard.

“Here goes nothing...” she whispered to herself and opened her door and invited her guests in.

#mha spoilers #bnha spoilers #todoroki shouto #bakugou katsuki #midoriya izuku #deku #mha oc #bnha oc #mha season 4 #bnha season 4 #bnha midoriya #mha midoriya #mha bakugo katsuki #bnha bakugo katsuki #mha todoroki #bnha todoroki

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xxwritemeastoryxx · 5 years

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Forgotten Alliance Ch. 8

Author: xxwritemeastoryxx

Pairings: Eventual Elijah Mikaelson x OC with other parings mentioned throughout.

Word Count: 4.2K

Warnings: Canon Typical things

Author’s Note: As a reminder, FA can be found on ffnet up to chapter 42. I am uploading chapters here on tumblr for convenience. I decided against tagging this until new chapters are posted. Of course there are a few that wished to be tagged and I will be tagging them in this. If you would like to be tagged please let me know! Chapters are queued and will be posted randomly. Enjoy

After her phone call with Malakai, Elizabeth found herself in the courtyard pacing, waiting for Davina. Her nerves were getting the best of her. She never knew the specifics of the spell. She never was able to know why a Claire witch had to undo it. She never knew if she was the only one that would have to go through the spell, or if Elijah needed to participate. And to Elizabeth, she didn't want to involve Elijah when he had a lot on his mind. She hoped that Aya hadn't made Emmalina put elements into it that it would be difficult to do it.

"You are wearing down the cement with all that pacing you are doing." the voice caused Elizabeth to stop in her tracks. It should have scared her with her being so lost in thought, but it didn't. She turned to see Freya standing there.

"Call it 'prespell jitters.'" Elizabeth said with a smile. "You would think that I wouldn't be this nervous over something like this."

"You have a right to be." Freya said taking a few steps to stand next to her. "Five centuries of having a part of yourself is a big deal. To get it back, its perfectly fine to feel nervous. "

Elizabeth shook her head slightly. "How is Finn doing?" She asked trying to take her mind off the spell.

"As can be expected." She said with a small nod. "Thank you for earlier."

"For what?" Elizabeth asked confused.

"For saying Finn is innocent and that he was here to make things better."

"Well, he is. I spent the other morning with him." She said with a slight shrug. "I know how he feels and what he really wants. While I should hate him for trying to kill them, I can't. I can see where he is coming from."

"And that is what my brothers have yet to see." Freya said with a slight nod.

"Finn has changed. I can see that. I may have only been four when I met him and only had a year to spend with your siblings, but Finn I could tell then he wasn't happy. He tried living a normal life and I had spent a lot of time annoying the hell out of him to see him laugh at least once."

Freya chuckled. "I wish I could have seen that. I do envy you, Liz. You've been able to spend more time with my siblings than I have."

"You shouldn't. It wasn't your fault. I've heard the stories of your mother and actually had met her once. She seemed so..." Elizabeth shook her head slightly trying to find the right word to explain Ester. "Yeah, I got nothing nice to say about the woman." It caused Freya to chuckle again.

"I'd have to agree with you there." Freya shook her head.

"Freya, Liz? Can you ask the bodyguards to let me in?" They both turned to see Davina standing behind the Strix. One of them looked over their shoulder for confirmation and Freya nodded at them. Letting Davina pass, she headed towards the girls.

"Sorry I am late, Liz." She said with a small smile. "I had to get everything I needed."

"It's okay." Elizabeth said with a nod. "I could have waited a little longer if need."

Davina looked to Freya. "You still have the spell?"

"Of course." Freya said. "Lets get set up in the library." She said turning and walking away. Elizabeth and Davina followed her.

Elizabeth had to admit, she was now a nervous wreck. All of her earlier worries were back and her mind seemed to be going on with thoughts. While she wanted to just sit back and watch as Davina set everything up, she couldnt. The woman needed to know what all Aya had done. Davina held her hand out towards Freya for the spell. Nodding, Freya pulled the spell from her back pocket and handed it to Davina.

"Aya wasn't going to make it easy for you to undo this spell, Liz." Davina said unfolding the old paper in her hand.

"I expected as much." Elizabeth said sighing. "What was it that the old bitch decided to add to make this worse?"

Davina gave a small smile as she walked over to the table in the room. "Aya made it very clear that she didn't want you to undo this spell. She went as far as needing her own blood as apart of the spell." Elizabeth's mouth dropped slightly. There was no blood of Aya's left. She had saw to that when she had pulled her heart out and left her body in the Davilla estate. "But thankfully, something told me to collect her blood for a special occasion." Davina said with a smirk on her face as she pulled a few items out of her bag. Out of Davina's bag came several different trinkets and candles. The last thing that came out was a jar with Aya's heart with blood at the bottom of the jar.

A sigh of relief passed Elizabeth'a lips. "You really are a Claire." She said with a shake of her head. "Is there anything else I need to know about?"

"There is one thing, that may screw this whole thing up." Davina said with a small sigh. " You need the blood of someone who knew you while you were human. And Aya had it perfectly clear that it couldnt be Elijah."

Elizabeth shook her head. "There are five people that do. And three of them are incapable of helping out."

"Who are the other two?" Freya asked.

"Finn and Kol." She said watching Davina. "Though as much as I am trying not to kill your boyfriend. I'd prefer Finn's blood since I did have more of a friendship with him than Kol."

"I'd be happy to help." Finn said leaning against the door frame. "Anything to help Lizzy." It caused Elizabeth to smile

"How did that nickname even stick?" Freya asked and it caused both Elizabeth and Finn to laugh.

"My sister couldnt say my name when she was three. So Lizzy was the only thing she could manage to say. " Elizabeth explained.

"And I found it to be it fitting as she would come up to us at times with lizards in her hands. So it stuck with her. " Finn added in.

Elizabeth smiled and looked to Davina. "What else do we need for the spell?"

"Now, just you." She said with a small nod.

"Will he feel anything?" Elizabeth asked as she watched Davina begin her prep for the spell.

"Not until the very end. He'll start to feel uncomfortable because you will be, but the only thing he will actually feel is that connection being restored at the end." Davina began drawing the circle with salt. Once it was half way done, Davina placed the chair in the center and Elizabeth stepped into the center of it.

"Are you sure you are ready for this?" Davina asked as she finished making the circle around Elizabeth.

Elizabeth grinned and chuckled as she took a seat. "I've been waiting for this for a long time." She said watching Freya and Davina. "At least this time I'm not strapped down to a chair."

Freya shook her head. "But the pain will be the same, Elizabeth. Maybe we should take some precaution?"

Elizabeth thought about it for a moment and shook her head. "I know what is going to happen. I know I can handle it. I wont be breaking the circle. Not like I could anyways."

Davina had finished placing the items needed for the spell around the circle and stood by Freya. "When ever you are ready, Liz." She said with a small nod.

"Start away." Elizabeth said looking at the doorway where Elijah had now been watching. She nodded slightly, letting him know she would be alright.

Both Davina and Freya began their chanting. While at first Elizabeth felt nothing, it soon came just like she remembered it. A sharp pain in her chest, as if the wind had been knocked out of her. And as they continued, the pain grew. As much as Elizabeth had wanted to scream out in agony she didn't. But when Elijah began to feel faint pain, he looked to his sister.

"Freya, Davina, stop this." He said taking a few steps towards them. "You are causing her pain."

"No, Elijah." Elizabeth said through clenched teeth. "I-I'm fine." She watched as Finn placed a hand on Elijah's shoulder. At least there was someone letting him know she would in fact be okay.

At least Elizabeth knew the spell was working. She was feeling pieces of her being put back together. It was like a puzzle that had been difficult to put together and now, it was finally almost finished. A sharp pain coursed through her body and it caused her to cry out. But at the same time so did Elijah. Just as their cries of pain ended, Freya and Davina stopped their chanting. They both had a smirk on their faces as they looked back and forth between Elizabeth and Elijah. Davina was the first one to move as she broke the circle around Elizabeth.

Elizabeth smiled at Davina. It had worked. She could feel that. She could feel that Elijah was safe regardless that he had been standing in the same room as her. And Elijah could feel her. The old familiar feeling seemed to bring back so many memories of all the times that he had sensed Elizabeth was in danger. And now that it was back, he hated himself for a moment for not noticing all those years ago that it was no longer there.

"So, how do you feel?" Davina asked watching Elizabeth as she stood.

"I feel like myself again." Elizabeth said with a grin on her face. " I feel like I remember it to be." She looked to Elijah. "That feeling that your are safe, I like having that back." Elijah smiled at her before she turned back to Davina. "Thank you so much, Davina."

"No, problem Liz. You are the only family that I'd actually help out." Davina said with a smile.

"Speaking of family, what was Emmalina's part in the original spell?" Elizabeth asked. It was the only thing left that left her curious about the spell.

"You never needed a Claire witch, Liz." Elizabeth looked at her confused and Davina chuckled. "Aya wanted to make you believe that you needed a Claire witch to do the spell. She compelled Emmalina to tell you that she was forced to do it. The sisters where the one that put the spell together."

"How do you know all that?" Freya asked.

Davina walked over to her bag and pulled out an old journal. "Emmalina kept a journal, she had another witch remove the compulsion long after you had left and she wrote it all down."

Elizabeth shook her head. "And you see why I took so much pleasure in holding that heart in my hand."

Some time later, Elizabeth had found herself walking through the halls of the compound. She had been on her way to her room when she heard Finn crying out in pain. Rushing over to the other side of the compound she had shown up in time to see Finn and Kol begin to fight again.

"Davina, what happened?" Elizabeth asked not wanting to get in between the two brothers. But before Davina could answer, Kol threw Finn through the glass doors. Not wasting any time, Elizabeth rushed to Finn's side, trying to help him up. She turned to see Kol grab a candle from the table. "Kol, Don't even think about it." She said standing in between him and Finn.

"Enough!" Elijah said appearing between him and Elizabeth.

"This isn't your fight!" Kol replied

"I told you to stay your hand!" Elijah took a step closer to Kol. Elizabeth watched as Kol scowled at Elijah before taking a step back and chucking the candle across the room.

"Fine." Kol said looking Elijah straight in the eye. "I'd rather take my chances out there with the white oak then stay here with you lot."

Elizabeth turned around to check on Finn one more time while Freya made her way towards him.

"Elijah?" Freya was concerned for Kol's safety out there.

"He'll be fine. Marcel has paid us a visit." Elijah said causing Elizabeth's eyebrow to raise. She watched as Elijah reached into his pocket and pulled out the bullet. "The last remaining white oak in the world...right here."

Elizabeth watched as Lucien and Finn eyed Elijah and the bullet. While she knew of some of the intentions of Finn, her main concern had been the way Lucian had been looking at it.

"Sister, if you would be so kind?" Elijah asked and Freya nodded. With a simple flick of her wrist, the nearby fire pit burst into flames. Everyone had watched as Elijah tossed it into the flames.

"No!" Finn had yelled and reached into the fire, groaning from the pain as he grabs and pulls out the bullet.

"Finn," Elizabeth said walking over to him, concerned.

"The little witch has condemned me to this!" Finn said showing them the mark Davina had left on him. Elizabeth's eyes widened seeing the mark. "To remain a beast."

"How could she do that to you?" Elizabeth asked looking between Finn and the others.

"To get back at him for the hex had put on Kol." Freya said

"Elijah.." Finn started. "I can't bear an eternity with no hope of escape. Can you?"

Elizabeth shook her head and looked at Elijah who was watching Finn. Elizabeth could see the conflicted look he had about this. Everyone knew that Finn had never wanted to be a vampire. And now, that was Finn's only escape from the life of a vampire.

"Give it to me." Elijah said to Finn. Finn only looked devastated that Elijah was asking for it back.

Elizabeth looked to Finn. "Please Finn, give it back to Elijah. " But even with Elizabeth asking nicely and hoping that Finn would hand over the bullet, he didn't seem to want to. "There has to be another way."

Before anyone could try to negotiate with Finn anymore, Lucien flashed over to Finn and took the bullet out of his hand before anyone noticed. When he stood before them with the bullet, Elizabeth stood quickly and went to take a step towards Lucian when he tossed it back to Elijah. Elizabeth had been shocked that he had done so. She hadn't expected him to. She was still waiting for Lucien to do something to out himself. She still didn't trust him.

"Come on, then. After all this time... go on and destroy it." Lucien said watching everyone in the room.

"Elijah, please. Forever is a burden that nobody should have to bear." Finn pleaded and Elizabeth's heart ached for Finn. She hated that he was looking so lost and devastated.

"You cannot keep that in this house, Elijah. It is already a beacon drawing your enemies to you." Lucien said trying to get Elijah to destroy it.

"Shut up Lucien." Elizabeth finally said, irritated with the way he was messing with both of the brothers' heads. Lucian gave Elizabeth a glare before looking between Elijah and Finn.

"Perhaps the best solution is obvious? Entrust it to the one who loves each of you most."Lucien said looking at Freya.

Elizabeth didn't know how she felt about that idea. She wasn't sure if having Lucien so close to Freya now would be a good thing if she had the bullet. Elizabeth was about to voice her opinion when Freya spoke.

"I can cloak myself." She said taking a few steps towards Elijah. "If it has to exist, at least I can take it far away. Hide it under a thousand spells, somewhere where no one else will ever find it. " Elizabeth could see the hurt in Freya's eyes about having to keep the bullet around. Just like Elijah, they did not want their brother to die. "Until the day comes when... you are ready for release."

Elizabeth looked to Finn and saw some relief in him. But at the same time, there was no escaping the fact that he no longer wanted to live. She hoped that with Freya being able to take it away and hide it, Finn may want to stay around some more. She turned to Elijah who had been watching her. She gave him a slight nod. They all wanted Finn around. The was the best solution they had.

Elijah sighed and handed the bullet to Freya. There had been a serious expression on his face and Freya had understood what it meant. She needed to make sure no one else got their hands on it. And they couldn't lose Finn again after he just returned.

Elizabeth watched Freya and Lucien walk out of the courtyard. Elijah had went back to the parlor to speak with Marcel. Elizabeth sighed and looked at Finn with a small smile. He had still looked hurt about the whole situation. Elizabeth followed Finn and had a seat next to him on the couch in the courtyard.

"There has to be another way, Finn." She said softly.

"Not with this mark on me." He said shaking his head.

"I waited five centuries, for something that was taken from me." Elizabeth said watching him. "I hope you do not have to wait as long as I have, but there is always a way to undo it."

"This one isn't one that can be undone, Lizzy." The hurt in his voice made Elizabeth sigh.

"Have hope." She said with a small smile before patting his knee and getting up. "It's the best thing to have in times like this, Finn. With out it, we'd be lost with no sense of finding ourselves again." She gave once more comforting smile before going to look for Freya.

Elijah had just finished speaking to Marcel about the white oak and his brothers when his phone began to buzz in his pocket. While walking out onto the balcony, Elijah answered it.

"We got the white oak." He said into the phone. "Time to come home."

Well, at least one of us something good to report... Because Hayley and I have made a rather unsettling discovery. Seems our friends at Kingmaker Land Development are still targeting wolves. What we don't know is why.

Elijah didn't answer right away. There was a thought forming in his head and while he had never wanted to consider the possibility, he had to now.

"This whole time, we've been so consumed with everything out there. This auction, the swarm of old enemies... what if it was just a distraction? Niklaus, I am beginning to fear the real threat has been in front of us all along. Elizabeth had been right."

A few moments before the phone call, Elizabeth wanted to walk Freya out to her car. She wanted to make sure Freya had gotten to car safely since she was carrying the white oak. As much as Freya could take care of herself, she was still human. Elizabeth couldn't leave her unprotected.

"How do you feel?" Freya asked as they headed out of the compound.

"Whole again." Elizabeth smiled. It felt great to finally feel whole once more. She could feel that Elijah was near and safe. A feeling she had longed to remember for centuries.

"Now I know you'll be staying in the family for a while." Freya said with a smile and Elizabeth shook her head.

"Its not like that Freya. All I want is Elijah happy. It doesn't need to be with me."

Freya chuckled. "I know that is what you want. But I'm sure when he starts to feel what you feel, it will only be a matter of time. Elijah does need to be happy Liz. And I truly believe you are what he needs."

Elizabeth sighed softly as they reached Freya's car. "I'm in no rush."

Hearing footsteps they both looked towards the direction it came from, ready for a fight. Seeing Vincent they both calmed down a bit. It was Freya who noticed something wrong with Vincent.

"Something wrong?" Freya asked watching him.

"Very much." He said with a sigh before using magic against Freya. Elizabeth went to try and knock him unconscious before Vince close a fist and caused Elizabeth's neck to snap.

What do you mean she's right? Klaus said from the other side of the line. Elijah felt a faint pain move along his neck and it caused Elijah to gasp at the feeling. Elijah, what is it?

"Elizabeth just had her neck snapped and I felt it." Elijah said looking around, now worried for Elizabeth.

She undid it didn't she? Elijah heard Malakai say followed by 'undid what?' from both Klaus and Hayley.

"She did, Malakai." Elijah said while he rushed through the whole compound before reaching outside and seeing Freya's car door open and both of them no where in sight. "And now I believe both her and Freya are in danger."

I leave her for one day in your care and she gets kidnapped?! When I get there, Elijah we are going to have a long talk.

Elijah, find them. Hybrid, you tells what ever it was Eli-

Klaus had hung up the phone leaving Elijah calling Marcel.

A groan passed Elizabeth's lips as she was coming to. She really hated getting her neck snapped. She was going to have a to kick Vincent's ass for doing that. But when she looked around, she found herself in Lucien's apartment. She was tied down to a chair and gagged. When she moved her arms there was a slight sting from the vervain. That should have brought a smile to her lips that Lucien thought he could keep her still with verain. But it didn't. She felt off. She felt sick.

She looked around the room to find Freya across from her with a gag in her mouth. It caused Elizabeth to try to pull herself from the ropes. But she couldnt, she felt so weak. She shouldn't have. She had grown an immunity to vervain. She should have been able to easily rip out of them.

"That isn't going to help you, Liz." She heard Lucian's voice from behind her. "See, I knew like many of us old vampires, we train ourselves to grow immune to vervain. While it helps keep you weak for the time being, I had to take some extra precautions with you." He said stepping in front of her and kneeling down to her level. "Wolf venom seems to be doing just the trick to keeping you where you should be. Though I didn't trust one dose, since you have that best friend of yours. So I gave you two."

Elizabeth's eyes widened at him. She knew she was in trouble. Klaus was out of the city, for all she knew he was out of the state, and wasn't going to be back anytime soon. She had no clue what Lucien's plans were, but it now made it so she was running out of time. And with what ever time she had left, she'd at least somehow try to kill the man before her.

#The originals #the vampire diaries #Forgotten Alliance #series #ffnet to tumblr #elijah mikaelson x oc #Eventual Elizabeth x Elijah #chapter 8

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danwhobrowses · 5 years

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Tinfoil Discussions: One Piece Wano Arc

So this is gonna be a new thing; I don’t particularly post on Tumblr but I am the kinda guy who likes to put thoughts out there, so this is the first ‘Tinfoil Discussion’ where I’ll just be ranting personal opinions of various mediums. This first discussion involving One Piece’s Wano Arc.

It’s worth noting that there are Spoilers enclosed in this discussion up to One Piece Chapter 954, if you’re not caught up then I would advise not reading this until then...unless you’re not worried about spoilers. Also this’ll be an essay, no light reading here I have a lot flowing through my head.

So the Wano Arc has been something we’ve been waiting long for, not just because it was promising to be a Zoro-heavy arc but because it had been mentioned continuously and central to many elements of One Piece Lore; it’s where the Meito are made, the Poneglyphs were carved and is the den of Yonko, Kaido. Right now we’re in the second act of the arc, in 5 days the Ninja-Samurai-Pirate-Mink Alliance will take back Wano from Shogun Orochi and then hope to defeat (and potentially even kill) Kaido in Onigashima

Here’s the But though, is that enough time?

Because I don’t actually think so anymore. Undoubtedly the Fire Festival will not go to plan, not that anything ever will, but such bodes the question where we go after. Right now I can only think of two routes; the first is that the Wano Country Arc is utilizing a 5-Act Structure rather than the 3 that’s common with story narrative or Wano is the setting of 2 Arcs (Similar to Jaya/Skypeia or Water 7/Enies Lobby): Wano Country and the ‘War of Wars’ arc. Either one is something I am all for, even both would make narrative sense, so how will it pan out?

What will go wrong? (Note if the discussion cut off here I apologise, it seems CTRL+Enter is to post) The Obvious thing that will halt the Straw Hats is the Alliance between Kaido and Big Mom, both of whom having an axe to grind with Luffy due to their activities in Punk Hazard, Dressrosa and Whole Cake Island. There’s also other things at play though; the threat of Law ending his alliance (doubt he will), Edward Weevil’s pursuit of Marco, the creation of Sea Prism Stone weapons, CP0 in the Flower Capital and the lingering uncertainty that is what Kyoshiro is planning. All of these will likely lead to the Alliance either failing at Onigashima or failing to reach Onigashima, hopefully the latter, but that does not mean that the arc will be for naught. The Straw Hats are not strangers to taking the Big Picture L; Water 7, Sabaody, Marineford and WCI prove this, so what matters to this stage of Wano (possibly Act 3) is the small victory.

The Small Victory The plan on paper is simple; meet at the port, usurp the vulnerable capital, sail to Onigashima, defeat Kaido. Since the last two as we’ve covered are where the L starts to take shape, the victory must lie in saving the people of Wano and fulfilling Toki’s prophecy. Usurping Orochi does not seem to be as troublesome as defeating Kaido, even ‘Hiyori’ was able to throw him into a wall, the only true threat level is in Kyoshiro and the All Stars. This is something that can easily pan out the alliance’s way, but the victory could be gifted rather than seized. As I mentioned, Kyoshiro has yet to play his hand, how ‘Hiyori’ faked her death still unknown, it would seem that the Yakuza boss has his own plans, something that when the Alliance comes could end the usefulness of Shogun Orochi. As a result, Kyoshiro may allow the Alliance to take Orochi down, losing the battle so he can fight in the War. This theory also aligns with why I’m using parenthesis on Kozuki Hiyori - I still don’t trust her. But we’ll get to that, the other victory that would need to be addressed is the cure for SMILE, a role that may happen before or after claiming the Capital, it is certainly a thread we must resolve before leaving Wano and it can be proving ground for Chopper’s medical expertise - already impressive since he easily remedied Queen’s Mummy virus.

Kozuki ‘Hiyori’ Even if she is Hiyori - not that Kawamatsu recognized her, there is the consideration that the considered ‘most beautiful courtesan in Wano’ may be on Kyoshiro’s side. For over a decade he did look after her and they made a note that she knows how to play the long con, Kyoshiro also compares the courtesan like one of his own family, something she may feel like her Father didn’t provide. This could make her the anti-Pudding of the arc, which some may be annoyed by but it would be an ironic juxtaposition since Pudding played the ‘Woman as Temptress’ role for Zoro’s...rival? Brother? Brival? Sanji, whatever Sanji is, but Hiyori has done little to truly connect with Zoro the way she has tempted other men, woman even jumped into bed with him while he slept and he wasn’t impressed. So her turning on her kin can also give a unique personal twist to the Oden Clan’s involvement against Kaido and it may gift Shusui to Kyoshiro for his and Zoro’s proper clash, Enma possibly being a fake as she finally found something she can con out of Zoro - that could just be me wanting Zoro to keep the black blade though. This is whether she is indeed Kozuki Hiyori, and not someone who knows the story, though I’m 80% sure she is on that front, Oda is a man of misdirection.

The Reverie Connection Part of what makes me think that Wano will go beyond the Fire Festival is this connection to the Reverie, the brilliant mini-arc left on a cliffhanger as intermission between Acts 1 and 2, and slightly carried by Bege’s cover story, but it had information that bled into Wano. Come Act 2′s end, I expect the Reverie arc to resume so that we get new action, the Alliance of Big Mom and Kaido will certainly reach the Marines, through moles or CP0 as they return, this is likely what’s going to cause them to converge and let us know more about the Rox Pirates. This may also be position for another mystery of One Piece to rear itself: Dr Vegapunk. Vegapunk is hot commodity, he knows how to manipulate seastone, has most likely treated the Punk Hazard children and knows about the Vinsmoke genetics from his old partnership with Judge, there is also the Warlord Replacement Fujitora and the hidden Ryokogyu have discussed. Atop of the Im and Revolutionary plot notes will lead plenty of butterfly effects for mid and post-Wano storyline, but for Kaido to get his war the WG would need to get involved (and they’d want to keep an eye on the land that wrote the poneglyphs), and it will take time either way, much more than 5 days.

What the Aftermath of the Fire Festival Will Bring The Alliance’s initial failure to defeat Kaido is likely what’ll lead to the thing that makes Oda tout that Wano will make Marineford look small. The convergence of the WG will bring big guns and showcase some more of the Marine’s strength of force and how it can impact the rest of the world, with hope I’d like to see Tashigi get the arc she was due from Wano too, she is a swordswoman and this is the land of swords, also I’m tired of people calling her weak (all her opponents are high tier; Monet almost killed Luffy, Vergo almost broke Sanji’s leg, Law cut a mountain and Vergo in half, I could go on), moments for characters to step up can be built properly in this time as well, because all the Straw Hats need that next level bolster. Sanji may have the Raid Suit, Nami may have Zeus and Luffy is learning the Advanced Haki but the likes of Zoro, Usopp, Chopper, Robin and potentially Franky can use this stage to properly announce themselves to the world. We can also use this time for the much-theorized Zoro origin lore, Poneglyph stuff and Marco’s message to Luffy, this may also provide time to pick up threads left by WCI; Jimbei, the Vinsmokes, Pedro, this may also provide time for Big Mom’s remaining forces (primarily Pudding and Katakuri) and the Straw Hat Grand Fleet to converge on Wano also. There are also loose ends with Wano; the person Hitetsu is waiting for, Kidd’s Crew, Denjuro, Ox Third Boy, Basil Hawkins (hope that guy is alive), the possibility of a codenamed Ace of Kaido’s crew, the frustrating absence of Carrot throughout most of the arc (such a downfall from potential Nakama to not even in background), possibly even the Oars connection to Kaido’s Numbers, above all of them however is the appearance of someone that has been frequently hinted as of late...

Gekko Moria Moria isn’t popular with fans, but his positioning in Wano is something we should take note, Bege was going to Thriller Bark, Moria has escaped Blackbeard’s clutches, Perona is looking for him and his graverobbing has been mentioned. I think Moria could get involved in Wano, and be partly instrumental in allowing Zoro to keep Shusui, his axe to grind with Kaido may also be a useful weapon against him and Big Mom, using Zombie Samurai to improve numbers. Like Buggy and Cesar, he may end up being a reluctant temporary ally to the Straw Hats. Moria can also provide Blackbeard intel, but I don’t expect him to stick, may go the way of Bellamy and bow out after.

So that’s stuff that mulls around my head, theories of factor as to why I expect Wano to last longer, possibly even beyond Chapter 1000. To conclude I’ll just throw on some mini theories I have:

Zoro will at least buddy with Onimaru the Lion Fox, for a while. Zoro is fox in Spanish and he has Shimotsuki connections even if he isn’t of their clan due to Koushiro living in Shimotsuki village

We’re gonna learn something about Ace, he was a Spade Pirate and Kaido names his ranks after playing cards, there is a link

Luffy, Law and Kidd will fight together, just as they did in Sabaody

The Crew will only properly reunite in Onigashima, where they will have a Walk

We’ll learn of why Wano was the City of Gold, and Caribou may reap from it (I like his face turn but I don’t trust his greed)

Sandai Kitetsu will break, probably to Kyoshiro’s hand - this could be a la Rurouni Kenshin, whose Sakabato was destroyed

Kaido will face Monster Point Chopper, Chopper and his Rumble Balls should really be something Kaido would want

Big Mom will betray Kaido (’mama always makes the preemptive move’), Hawkins will join a new crew (I think he was betrayed, there were cuffs on the wall where he lay before Law) - be it Big Mom or the Grand Fleet and Momo will not be the next Shogun, I guess Hyou could be but he was a Yakuza leader, but Momo wants to learn about Zou and I think he’ll stick with that

Dogstorm and Nekomamushi will go Su Long

As well as the Bounty Increase, several Straw Hats will get new titles. Titles like ‘Pirate Hunter’, ‘Cat Burglar’, ‘Devil Child’ and ‘Cotton Candy Lover’ are not befitting of crew members anymore

So yeah, got that all off my chest...I won’t just talk about One Piece I’ll have more, if anyone reads hope it had some refreshing insights, if not then we’ll see how wrong I was XD

#one piece #wano arc #luffy #zoro #kaido #big mom

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zebraslovescupcakestoo · 5 years

Text

Join me for Coffee sometimes.

I am sitting at a Mexican restaurant called 'Mexicali's' today for a change and in favor of my friend who decided to take a rare chance to do something different. It's not everyday we decided to do something different, mostly my 'older' friend, due to the fact that we loved the peaceful moments of not dealing with the criminals and the mafias at the moment.

I am a bit embarrassed on the establishment with the clean, colorful settings and I'm just in my normal wear. It's not 'first class fancy,' but it's a really nice restaurant to go out. The owners were a Latino family that immigrated years back, worked REALLY hard to get the place and they proudly officially opened for business!

Of course, there was an issue with the process of buying the property. It's not the seller, the building or even the price. But it was the other 'buyer' who wanted to have the location to opened up another Italian restaurant.

I have NOTHING against Italian food, I do like them and knew quite a few so Kitty can take a break once or twice a night. I'm not sexist. It's just there's already five in Chicago already and I wanted to have something different other than pastas and pizzas! Back to this story, their competitors were not happy with them moving in with their food cultures and other stuff that I found really unfair and SO UNCALLED for! Just to say the least...

It wasn't long that the police, which my team was still part of, got a tip and some accusations of them depicted as 'criminals' and then some just so that it would be harder for them and easier for their 'rivals' to acquire it smoothly. I think it was a bit of a misunderstandings while most think it's 'legitimate' and I wasn't the only one. Sam thinks it's too and he also recognized the other 'buyer's' name!

He's only known in public image as an owner of all the Italian Restaurants but like Bendy behind that mask, he's also a Mafia boss that's in alliance with the Alfonso's! He told me that they're on neutral terms, but they're on thin ice with their relations lately...

So long story short, I did my investigations, uncovered what's real, what's not, uncovered the other mafia's secrets and then once we've hit the court room stage, it's final verdict was now in the press.

Italian Mob boss Arrested! Mexican family not guilty!

I had to admit that we almost lost at the end until that last detail that the 'witness' had slipped had caught mine and then Sam's attention.

It was tiring that almost all of our defense cases were close calls, but until Sheba is back with her full confidence, Sam is playing both hand decks and it's gotta be really hard in my point of view. Even if both of them are pretty good, it's almost hard to look at every evidence, rules, laws, and so on. It feels like I'm just doing the 'easy' portion of the trials...

Unless you're not in good shape and fighting against an Olympic Lunatic that runs the Underworld of Chicago.

I then noticed a child's voice at another table with what I assumed a mother with her son. They were having their little quality time together with her holding the menu card and her assumed son drawing something that looks like a dinosaur. She smiled and she patted his head as to say 'good job.'

I smiled sadly at that. It reminded me of my sister if she was still alive today. She would be a great mother like she was to me when I was growing up at that age. I never knew my mother and my father was barely at home but he raised us properly. It's frustrating that she would never had the chance to play with the twins, praised their abilities and watch them grow up...

But now I had to take over for her and for my father too. I knew that my uncles and the relatives insisted that they can do it, I still declined and wanted them to be raised here because of the whole new continents and the cultures they're not used to where they're at.

Despite the hardships, I finally did do a decent job so far, with some bumps but I think we're good for now. They even trusted me more than ever...

Speaking of trust... I then remembered my friend who had yet to show up. I then got a word from the waitress that they had a phone call from him saying that he will be a few minutes late. I nodded and said I can still wait.

I then look out the window to daydream a bit to kill time... I noticed a bust from a shop across the street that reminded that first case that I worked as an official detective, two years ago...

---Time travelling on a rainbow, Nyan Cat!----

It was supposed to be here, right? I thought as I examined the attached, block buildings from the sidewalk. They all said that this was an 'average' neighborhood, but this is like for the 'well-do' class like a doctor or a lawyer. I needed to find my lawyer for three reasons.

One: He helped me narrow down the six busts of Anubis in a 'vandalized' bizarre case and uncovered the missing Pharaoh’s Pearl that got stolen from a museum.

Two: I was saved from Bendy and Boris when I found out that this was one of their quick money schemes by a tall, dark mysterious black suited and mask man, They were taken down by his throw downs and my quick thinking with Bendy when he almost got him.

Three: he dropped his wallet without noticing when he disappeared... and I found out just who he was.

Which leads me to the next three things: I want answers!

I then head someone disputing a few houses down the streets and I saw the man I was looking for, smirking and walking with his Border Collie dog. I think that beautiful canine might be potentially deadly when she saw me and then ran at me with it's sharp teeth.

Border Collies are known for being territorial and very loyal to it's owner asides it's history of being an ideal 'sheep dog.'

I stood very still with my hand sticking out to halt him or her, I don't know it's gender yet, just to show I'm not here to pick a fight or murdering anyone.

But then to my surprise, he/she then started to slow down and got less aggressive as he/she sniffed my hand. Then like any other 'vicious' guard dogs that I've encountered, he/she licked it and was friendly again. It was an odd thing that I'm a 'cat' person yet for some odd reason, dogs liked me.

“That's a first, she never done THAT before. Most people would be running from aggressive, territorial dogs and Tiara wouldn't be this friendly to first time strangers at our home.” My expected 'suspect' said with a confused look once he caught up.

So the dog's a girl and she's very pretty. Kinda what you expect when someone's probably have a much bigger income than I currently have. “Hi, I'm the guy that was from that coffee shop a few-”

“Yeah, you're that new kid detective that came for the sales record papers. Did you need anything else?” He asked as he and his dog walked up to their home. I needed to have my answers from that night, but I needed to be careful because the way he took out both of them, it's insane! Boris has super muscles, Bendy has demon speed but this guy, despite his tall and lean look, is not to be underestimated! I think it's one of those Eastern boxing techniques and something with wind elements...

But none the less, I still want to know. I took out his wallet. “I found this and I believed that's yours. Everything is still in there.” He swiped is so quickly and that's when I knew I found my smoking gun.

“Thanks for returning it and not going on a shopping spree. Tell your parents they did a good job raising ya!” He was about to close his door shut until I instinctively had to say something, grab it quick and force it opened. Only ended up him whacked his forehead on the top door's frame, said something like 'tavern nackle' and then falls flat on the pavement. His dog barked and sniffed at this head.

Great! I made a new fried who's gonna sue me for aggravated assault after my first case!

Upon his looks at me like I just pissed him off, the only expression I made as horrified and I blabbed out. “I'm so sorry! I didn't-” He then halted me in gesture and got up. “Save it! My door frames alone already told me I'm too tall and this is not the first time sh!t like this happens.” He wrinkled his nose and gently rubs it.

“Listen, I need to talk you... inside. It's about that case and... other stuff I've uncovered. I know how and where that wallet came from.” I tried to convince him and I wanted to settle this peacefully. He stared me down like he was suspicious of me and then he sighed. “You don't seems like you're gonna blab it out to everyone...” I immediately shook my head in his agreement. I may be doing my job in the name of justice, but I wanted to do it the right way.

“I wouldn't without solid proof and well... you did helped. Twice. Was it because you wanted to help others? Or was is a promise you made for some one like me? Or any reason why you became an attorney?” I was asking so many questions until I noticed some sadness in his glaring stare... Have I said something I shouldn't have?

He then sighed and all that tension from glaring disappeared.“Kid, come in. It's a long story.” He tilted his head to gesture 'get in there.' Normally, I would get bad vibes from suspicious characters, but this guy despite a potential suspect, didn't seem like he was a bad guy... at first.

We got inside and I was... quite surprised. It was so simple yet the furniture reminded me of the 20's styled in great condition. I noticed some book shelves with many well, books, and then some old family photos, some medals, more photos in air gears, some items displayed like monuments and what stood out to me the most was that one, huge piece that was leaning aside from the large book shelves. It was a beat up piece of a propeller.

“May I ask what's with this um... fascinating piece you got leaning?” I politely asked as I sat down on the big couch. He was searching in the drawers for something. “Yeah, that was part of that one plane that I used to fly in the European war about a decade back.”

European war about a decade back? Isn't that...? “You fought in the WWII war?” My eyes gleamed to a hero of that infamous war! Sure the Americans joined in two years later in that and I do respect them too, but this is... amazing that I met someone had fought, survived and live to tell the tale.

“T'che! Who do you think I was doing almost ten years ago? The 'Coco’ Chanel and mess around the Nazi spies?” He said it like he doesn't care about it and cuts my 'hopeful' feelings in half. I wasn't asking disrespectfully on purpose... He was kinda rude.

“I joined in the air force as a 'delivery boy' for carrying supplies and other sh!t I had to do. After a few years when times got rough, I was 'promoted' to join the fights in the air. I wasn't perfect but at least I get the job done.” I was thinking about while I was at that age at the time. I was doing my homework while he was up in the air fighting off the most evil people in the 20th century. I am so far behind his level...

“I did had my fair share of working with people who we all had a common goal. The British, the French resistance, the 'neutral' Swiss. Not the cheese one. We ALL wanted to end the Nazi regime and stop their 'Aryan race' ideology or else 3/4 of the world would not survive up to this day.” He lay down his old book full of photographs and I was looking through all of his photo shots with his groups and others who had joined the cause. Most of them was taken with one or two 'similar' person... I didn't had to ask why he was with so many different people he worked with cause I knew that there was so many lives were lost in that war. Even if some DID lived to tell the tale, I think he would bother to tell me upon first impressions...

“At that time, I only wanted one thing the most from my partners. Loyalty. They can cuss, b!tched out anything, vomit only the outside of the plane because of air sickness, but if they back-stabbed me in the name of the swastika or anything, I ain't afraid to cut them out cold.” Schhk!

I heard like something like a sword unsheathed and I saw something sharp from his right sleeves. It was a knife! “This is me being 'nice' since you seem like the type that doesn't run it's mouth at every little thing. I'm just be as 'polite' as I can but if you double-cross me, I'll send you to the morgue faster than a paycheck spend in a day.”

Now he's threatening me if I tried to turn him in! But I then 'see' something he's holding back. Not the 'other' weapon in another arm, but something about the past in silhouettes behind him... like a woman with another man... and then I saw a small window vision like someone's vision was fading and saw a person with a parachute opened...

I knew that I had yet to ask this, but by hearing this, getting to know his 'present' character, saw a few family photos and 'saw' something hidden...

“Sam... did something happened that made you lose your trust in people?” He gasped with wide eyes opened. I'm now scared of my own safety and what's gonna happened to my family... But I needed to know why.

“I-Im not gonna say what is right or wrong. I can't judge what you might have done or reacted to what happened that made you suspicious towards people. But I want to understand how and why you're acting distance to so many people. I've only saw you twice after that very first meeting and you look like you could have murdered someone if you wanted.”

He then rested his face beck to it's neutral self. “If you're gonna say that 'what if I say I'm like that?' I would ask why did you help me not once, but twice to save my life? I know you're not as bad as those other attorneys says about you when I asked where were you all this time.” I sat very still to wait for his reaction. Is he gonna throw me out in the streets? Yell at me for spouting non-sense? Or is he gonna do anything at all?

He sighed and then started to explain. “Kid, I'll tell you a little something that I learned the hard way when I was around your age. Sit down for a while. It's a bit of a long story so make yourself comfortable.” He sat down comfortably as I was too. “Back in my high school years, I used to date this girl that I liked and I really thought that we really love each other. A real, mushy, teenage love story I used to have. Her name was Nell but we all called her Nelly. I had that dream one day after college once and made enough as a prosecutor, I would ask that 'big question' for her hand in marriage. I also have a twin brother, Simon, who's a Mountie. That's what you might called the Canadian police in that country. He's that eternal Optimistic, yuppy-peace talk, tree hugging, good manner, good nature conscious @$$hole since we were born. Think of it as polar opposites of our characteristics that 'compliments' each other, OK?”

My eyes 'senses' indicated that on his left hand that he doesn't have the ring...

“Did she refused or something happened to her?”

He shook his head. “Nah... I found out that her feelings and mine weren't the same... Like a knife through the chest, I caught her and my twin brother together alone behind the barn that we used to own. It was after my last part time shift I've done for my college preparations. I even heard their whole conversations and I found out the truth that I was 'really' not happy with. She and my brother were in love. She did admitted that she does like me but... more like a friend and that those times we went to date was so that she doesn't upset me... Wanna guess how my 'feelings' went out the window faster than throwing out cold coffee back then?” He then got up a bit and reached over the shelves to grab a photo frame. “That's when I interrupted their little rendez-vous and I immediately said a lot of sh!t about what I've heard and my thought. I even finished throwing a punch at my twin's face, not caring that I probably broke his nose and then I left for colleague in Montréal. Since then, I dedicated my whole time for my licenced bar and I ignored any letters from home. I was still angry at them and I even discarded their wedding invitation. You can guess how my parents were furious when I said I couldn't come when I came up an excuse... I avoided their supposed 'reunion', both them and the newly weds, when I decided to take a hold in my education and joined the air force for WW2 as a 'delivery boy.'” He places the photo frame face down next to the night table where he is.

“Were you really... so upset about finding out the truth of her that you avoided any contacts with her and even your own family?” I had moments that I wanted to avoid at all cost, but I knew better now that I can't run from my problems cause it's never gonna solve anything but delaying.

“It's not that I was afraid, I just didn't want to deal with them after that.” That still means you're afraid of facing them when you acted out that night. “Anyways, I was then drafted to the air strips, learned how to fly those flying death machines and minded my own business in the war. I delivered the supplies and goods for the army and occasionally for old England when their times were tough about short supplies coming in and out. I have plenty of war stories that would go on and on, but I'll save it for another rainy day.”

I admit that I wanted to hear them, but I decided to respect that so we can continue his story. “As much as there was so many sh!t storms we've got ourselves into, I admit that I did found a new family, if you'd call it that. Random strangers you'd probably never met once before-” He got up and took another photo frame from the shelves, this time it was a group of people in their flight jackets. I can tell that one of them was the younger version of him that's about my age and he looked like he was having a great time with that bright smile. “-but it was close enough.”

He then proceeded to tell me each of them and then once he finished, he said. “We could all been having a good life by now...”

He then violently slammed the photo frame on the coffee table in between us and I heard something cracked. “IF IT WASN'T FOR THAT OSTIE-CRISS-DE-PIECE-D'HUMAIN-MARDE PAUL HAVEN'T PULLED A SUICIDE MISSION AND IF I WAS SMART FOR FIVE BUCKS...” He took a deep breath to calm him down when he noticed that I curled myself into a ball on my seat with eyes wide opened. He cleared his throat and continued. “Well... me and the others were completely clueless when we found out. It was a few months near the end game, 'V-Day' as they called it. We were supposed to transport some goods to the allied soldiers from Egypt to Italy. There was some sort of malfunction problems with most of the planes except for that big one... We didn't have much choice but all four of us embarked it cause some supplies were a bit heavy or many. At that time I, well, 'we' all thought that it would be fine since it was all five of us in one flying tank. It was about in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea when it started. Paul said he might have notice something in the cargo, so he and Cameron, who he volunteered to come along, tagged along while Jesse and myself were just relaxing. I wished that I would have taken his place instead, but I wasn't aware. We both heard a gun shot and Cameron's last cry. I got up and ran at the back with Jesse not far behind. When I opened the door, I was immediately hit from the bullet in the chest. Then I was knocked out... for a few minutes until my blurry vision came and I felt like we were falling vertically. Last I saw before I blacked out again, was Paul opening the emergency door with his parachute.”

My heart sank a whole lot when I heard that. Not only he was betrayed once, but twice! How can anyone abuse such a strong person like him despite some flaws? And why did that Paul guy back stabbed them and almost killed all his crew mates? Did he still believed that the 'Evil' teams were still winning if he does this?

“I barely remembered what exactly happened after that, but they told me from some account that I was found among the remains of our plane by some shipmates from Egypt. I woke up in that country's hospital when they told me that and I was pretty much feel empty on the inside again. It was my second time that I was betrayed by someone that I trusted and I almost completely swore myself never to trust or have another friend as long as I lived. Well... until someone had to change my mind.” I tilted my head to know who.

“During those days that I was bed bound in that make shift hospital, the last person that I wanted to see or even hear from was my twin, Simon. He somewhat learned about me being here and all that jazz, so he came here on his own while Nelly, his wife and my 'ex', was waiting back home... with their kids that I soon learned that I'm an uncle but I had no idea because I cut my ties with them since then. I was too angry from that night.”

He's an uncle like me! My eyes sparkled with joy. “I was even in big surprise that they had triplets.” I almost choked. Triplets?! I had enough trouble with twins but triplets? Oy yoy yoy! “You've got more on your plate than I do!” I said to that.

“Well, they're THEIR kids so I'm just a 'support' guardian so it's not THAT big of a deal for me. Back on topic, I was still not talking to him when he came and started to cry and apologized. I would have throw him out with a throwing technique, but in my condition back then, all I could do at the moment was lie on my back. I was annoyed that he still keep talking and was still insisted that he's gonna change my mind.”

I tiled my head. “And... what happened next?”

“Well, at first I wasn't gonna listen, but when you're bed bound from injuries, boredom would be almost intolerable and well... he DID kinda risk himself and spared his time to see me despite what happened so... I just listened. Turns out that when he and Nelly met the first time, it wasn't love at the start, but then when we started to date more, I wasn't aware that Nelly didn't like me as much as she wanted and that I wasn't exactly right for her. Unlike my twin, I was more serious, smart@$$-ery, indoor guy yet clever, a bit 'too honest' for my own good and I was more 'pessimistic' realistic sometimes. She's not saying that I was a 'bad guy' but I'm just well... wasn't just right for her. Let's just say.”

“So... she wanted to be with your brother instead cause he's more positive and much more... er... NOT that I'm saying you're bad either just well-”

“You don't need to beat around the bush. I preferred to be honest and tell the truth, even if it's hard and it might piss off people sometimes. That may not get many friends, but it will get the right ones. I will admit that I may come across rude sometimes, but I don't like to hide from the truth. Think of it as makeups: You can cover it up for the moment, but sooner or later, your true face will be revealed.”

“I remembered you saying something like that from that coffee shop. I do like honesty in people, but maybe if you try to explain to them in a nicer way, at least they'll respect you AND know you're much nicer than you look.” I know that he's an adult and that he's capable of making his own decisions, but sometimes it's alright to take some advice once in a while.

“I'll keep that in mind. After that was explained, he then told me what I had missed for almost eight years. You know the usual: weddings, babies, stupid parent hood stories with their kids, and how they're all looked like me for somewhat reasons. I didn't done it.”

I gasped. “My nephews look almost like me too!” He raised an eye brow with astonishment. “Seriously? What are the odds?”

“I'd love to tell more, but I still wanted to hear the rest of your story. What happened after you two talked?” I didn't meant to derailed his story, but it was really nice that I found someone who understands being an uncle/parent.

He then resumed. “Like I've said, it was hard, but after a while, I then started to think of all that happened from that time and then I realized of how I was wrong of thinking about the whole thing. I was furious when I found out about them, I was neglectful of all the letters they've send me for returning and for forgiveness apart for some family news, and how my only brother that still cared for me despite of all those years that I wasn't. Like I've said about him, he's a dummy goodie two-shoes, but he's got his heart in the right place. Then it's was time that I started to admit that I was wrong and that I was the one to apologize instead. I also told him that I would have turned back to that night so that we could have ended it more peacefully instead of tears.”

Then the Collie, Tiara, stared to whine with her dog bowl in her mouth once we turned to the direction of the sound. “Ah, tabarnak. Désolé, Tiara. J'ai completement oublié. I'll get your water.” His bilingual accent is really captivating and interesting. He got up from his seat and I did too to follow them in the kitchen. “Ah yes, did I forgot to mentioned that Tiara also came from Egypt, despite being a Border Collie and she was rescued from cross fires with the locals and the remaining Nazis that were hiding there?”

Another amazement! “No. Way-!?” I then 'sensed' something hidden in the kitchen. Oh no, not now! I just got on good terms with him and now it wants me to 'show' me something?

I did my best to ignore it and hoped that I would have a break from 'it.' But unfortunately, I haven't learned my lessons about my 'abilities.' No matter how many times I tried, it will be persistent and will be 'forceful.' My body then moved to move against my will and I was then staring at that one picture with two birds. One with a toucan and a flamingo. My 'sights' then showed me that there were some papers and items that seems like evidences in some sort of a safe box.

Is my sight telling me that he's hiding something important? Like, was he hiding crucial evidence for something? Blackmailing? Anything?

He then said to me. “What were you looking at?” I got surprised. So I had to make an excuse. “I-I was just wondering about this art. It's very tropical! I really like this! You have great taste with this painting!” I did my best to avert my real reason. Sam however, noticed that I was hiding something.

“Really? Just the picture? Do you ever wondered if there was something hiding behind? Like one of them detective gut feeling?” He looked at me like I haven't said something important. I tried to joked. “Ha! Good one! Like the ones in Noir movies if you're rich enough.”

“True, like I’m hiding some important documents from a case I'm currently working on.” He suggested.

“Yeah... Or maybe some important evidence small enough?” I 'innocently' said while I scratched my back.

“Or maybe say... a small, wooden box?” He then suggested. “Mmmm... maybe if it's small enough, yes it would be a possibility.” I said with my eyes glued to the floor.

I then felt a tap on my head and I looked up to a pair of staring eyes. “Or maybe someone's not being completely honest about what he said. Did you know I have a 'knack' of finding out the truth in a bizarre way?” He crossed his arms and was expecting me to tell him what I know. After hearing his story, I can't blame him for suspecting treason for the third time

I then felt terrified in a long time. What am I supposed to say? I have 'super vision powers' to see the truth and secrets, please spare me? I begged him. “Please Mr. Toucan! I don't want to cause any trouble! I know you're not a bad person, but I really can't say what I know! I'm the only person that my own nephews can trust after-ah!” Then Tiara plopped on me like she wanted to lick my face. I then started to giggle a bit until she had snatched something VERY important and irreplaceable!

It was my special necklace... My mom's and my sister's special necklace!

“Give that back, Tiara!” I tried to get it back, but she was quicker and she handed it to Sam. “Please! Don't break it or take it away! It's very important to me!” I was scared and I was almost into tears.

He noticed my appearance and he softened a bit. “Easy. I'm not that type of person to pick someone like you. I just wanted to know the truth.” He said.

I didn't know that I was being too scared over this, but what I needed right now was that necklace. “I... I know what you wanted, but please! I don't want to be send to a mental hospital! My nephews are my only family left and vice versa! They can't go my relatives over seas right now! They're too young to understand-”

He then clamped my mouth. “Whoa!Whoa!Whoa! Slow down! I never said I was gonna turn you in. I'm asking how you knew something about that portrait I kept it a secret.” He tries to calm me.

I shook a bit but I was a bit relieved. He decided to hand over my necklace and I held it very close. “I... Thank you. I'm sorry... I've... had this ever since my sister gave it to me when I was fifteen. She told me that it used to belong to my mother that I never knew and that she told me that it was rightfully mine. Although, I never understood why, but it feels very special to me.”

“You've also mentioned about nephews and being the only one. Care to share that story?” He asked. Well... I decided to tell him about it.

After a while... I explained on my sister and my father's demise and my relatives.

“I see. So you're almost a single parent, but you could have asked one of your relatives to help out. I'm pretty sure they'll be more than happy to see them more often.” He asked as he handed over a cup of hot milk.

“Thanks. I know that they even insisted, but the thing is, I'm not sure that Inky or Winky are ready or mature enough to live with them. They ARE my sister's. They're nice but sometimes a bit of trouble makers. I'm afraid that they'll be spoiled or they'll give more hard time for them when they're supposed to be enjoying their golden years after raising kids.” I explained.

“I'm pretty sure that they wanted you to have some freedom at your age. Lots of guys wanted to have freedom. I was no exception despite some circumstances.” Sam said.

“I know what you meant, but I made a promise to my sister that I will be there for them. Luckily for me, they all understood and they said that they'll be there if I needed them. I was told by some that I'm so much more mature than my 'look a like' cousin... Which is a story for another time...” I scratched my head and took a sip.

“I can wait for that. However, I still wanted to know what's the deal earlier before you panicked. I'm not going to turn you in, I just... had a 'knacking' feeling you were hiding something.”

I gulped at that. Is it really alright with me telling him? Even if we've met 'officially' the second time?

“I... would you believe that I have a 'talent' that can see things... hidden and... other things?” I shookly spoke. That's it. I'm done for.

He then patted on my head like a kid brother. “Hey. You weren't lying. So I believe you.”

I opened my eyes wide open to him. See if he was lying, but he wasn't. “You... believed me? Just like that?”

“You want to know how I knew and why I do?” He then pointed at his nose. “Remember that part about that plane accident? My nose had somewhat started to act funny when people lie or hiding something. Not for sneezing, but more like irritating and it makes me pissed. Depending on who they are and my mood, my manners are from one to f#ck you. Just a penny for thoughts if I ever done that to you. I've been through a lot and now I barely give a damn now a days.”

Apart that last piece he can detect lies with his nose? Huh! Guess we're not so different at all.

“Say, Sam. Have you ever made new friends here since you've moved?” I asked.

“Most of the people at the court house are a bunch of Willy Wonkas and think they can please and sugar coat everyone and everything. I only dropped in their conversations if sh!t hits the fans when they screw up big time.”

Guess I have much work to do with him.

----- Woken up from cloud 7-----

“Hey! Sleepy head! Wake up! He's almost here!” The voice of Kitty had woken me up. I saw her and my nephews all excited. “Huh? Wha?”

“Uncle! It's Uncle Sam's birthday! Remember?” Inky shouted. “And his family is coming over from Canada! You told us, remember?” Winky in turn shouted.

“Boys! This is a restaurant! Use your inside voices.” I shushed them. “And no, didn't forget.”

Truth is, the reason why we decided to hold it here was today, is in fact, Sam Toucan's birthday. The only thing Sam doesn't know is that this is a surprise party. I then noticed Sam's car coming. “Hey, Felix! Over here! Before they see you!” I noticed Sheba's shouting from the other side of the room, where it was reserved and I was like 'I'm trying to teach these kids a lesson and you just broke the concept' look.

I was then dragged by the twins who followed Kitty into the reserved area, where it's like a private room, but thankfully for us we can see better in the dark and who else is there.

“Alright, is everyone ready? I see them coming.” Sheba notified us from behind the curtains.

I heard the others giggling a bit and some of us hushed as we heard Sam, Woody and Matteo coming up closer. They told him to duck his head before he hits that door frame. Thank God they did or else he's gonna use words that aren't meant for children in any language.

As soon as they turned on the lights, we all shouted “SURPRISE!!!” All of us and also included, Sam's family from Canada which includes his faulty twin brother, Simmon, his wife *Ahem and ex-girlfriend, Ahem* Nelly, and his three nephews that looks a lot like him, Puey, Susey, and Louis. These three teenagers were identified by their colored scarfs of their scout uniforms, thankfully.

Sam chuckled with a rare happy feeling. “Well isn't this a nice surprise for a change.” I felt much happier than him, even if I would never admit it.

From back to that coffee shop where we first met, the stories he would tell, the patience I had to use whenever he was brutally honest, gaining his trusts little by little and then once the big pay off came, he did got better.

I'm not saying he's perfect, but he is-

“Felix, is that your name?” I was asked by Sam's little twin brother. “Huh? Yes, it is.” I said.

He talked to me while everyone was busy with Sam“I know this is a special day for both my twin and myself, but I wanted to thank you and your family to have a very memorable moment since we were younger. You've given him a very valuable gift that no money can buy.”

“I doubt it. All I did was being his friend.” It's not like I've turned to Batman and saved Gotham city at night. (At least not while I'm taking care of kids at the moment.)

“You gave him a reason to trust people. He barely did so when he came back from war. Sure, we all forgive each other, but he seems like he was, distant, from other people. Not to mentioned being cynical most of the time.”

“Yes. I know.” Being realistic and logical was one thing, but bitter and distrustful was another.

“I just wanted to know that if ever you need help, my brother and yours truly as a Royal Canadian Mountie, are available at anytime.” He placed his hands on my shoulder. “Thanks. I'll keep that in mind.” I thanked him.

I looked at Sam again to see that he's still having a great time. I looked at all of us to see that our 'family' had grown much larger since last time.

We might not be related, but we all care for each other and we all accept each other. Flaws and all.

And one day, we can be a one, big, happy, family.

----THE END----

Ahhhh..... I’m slugish and finally finished my OC’s humanized Sam Toucan’s backstory.

As I’ve implied, he does have a faulty twin brother, Simmon. To help you understand him, he’s the Dudley do-right version.

I wanted to give him an opposite personalities, like ying and yang but they compliment each other.

Now for the wifey, I decided to choose Dudley’s sweat heart version too.

As for kids well, if you watched the froot loop’s commercials from more than two decades, he does in fact, have THREE nephews with the unofficial canon names in this story.

Now for this part of the story, I wanted to utilize the days from the Zodiac signs, the astrology one, to describe his character.

Which is also known as a Scorpio. 🦂♏ Like me!

And news flash for any Felix the cat and Mickey Mouse cartoon fans: Their Birthdays are under the Scorpio dates!!!!!

And to finish off, I wanted to write about how Felix and Sam’s friendship had been formed and evolves over time. So you can think it’s like Bendy and Boris but more on a friendship level than ‘Bromance’ or ‘BL’ level.

Sam is straight, end of story.

BBTIM AU and humanized characters belongs to Marini4. OCs like humanized Sam Toucan, Woody McPecker and Matteo belongs to me.

#bendy before the ink machine #humanized #felix the cat #sam toucan #fanfiction #marini4

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gamesception · 5 years

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Vanilla Necromancer, part 1

Looking to play some vidya game. Mostly I want to play Outer Worlds, but I don’t trust my laptop to run it, and if I have to play it on console I’d rather wait for the switch port. Was playing The terrible Kingdom Hearts gacha game, but it tricked me into spending money one to many times so it got the cold turkey. I’ll still react to the rest of the story at some point, but right now I’m bitter so no. And I’m busy lately, so I need something dumb & mindless that I won’t mind dropping when Outer Worlds does release, so I don’t want to mess with Witcher yet. So... what to play?

Call me basic, because I am, but I always quite liked Skyrim, largely because necromancy is cool and Skyrim’s one of relatively few fantasy RPGs that let you go pretty hog wild with it. Especially if you play it on PC modded to high heaven - perk overhauls that let you collect bones to build extra skeletons, expanded necromancy spells, playable lich transformation, re-worked college of winterhold to make playing a mage in general more interesting, build your own guild to recruit a necromantic coven, alternate faction alliances for non-hostile relationships with npc undead & necromancers, etc etc etc.

With all those mods tailored perfectly to my preferences, It’s maybe not surprising that, while I’ve played Skyrim a bunch, I haven’t played vanilla Skyrim since the game originally released. But the convenient portability of the Switch is a good excuse to give it another go, and, looking back, even without all those mods it’s really surprising how much support there is for a Necromancer. So here he is, Sellosus the Blind, named for a Necromancer D&D character I once ran who betrayed the party so spectacularly that he derailed the game completely and became the primary antagonist for the rest of the campaign.

We god a nice, crotchety, grey haired, big bearded, spooky eyed old man. Fantastic necromancer mancer material right here. Nord isn’t the best for caster, necromancy especially. Dark Elf is probably the best there, Breton’s pretty close, but for all the characters I’ve run through this game, I’ve actually played through either side of the civil war plot arc. So Sellosus will be a Nord, to better fit into the Stormcast side.

As usual, Alduin interrupts my execution. Major goof on his part!.

Ralof and I escape from dragon and Imperials alike, and make our way towards Riverwood.

Along the way I attune the Mage Stone for an early game head start on leveling some of my key skills. Ralof doesn’t approve, but it’s only temporary, so I’m sure he’ll get over it.

Of course, he’d approve of my main Standing Stone choice even less, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself

We reach Riverwood and meet with Ralof’s Sister Gerdur. They ask me to head to Whiterun to ask the Jarl to send aid in case the dragon comes to. Fair enough, but I’ve got a quick side errend to run first. But that’ll wait for next post, if I feel motivated enough to continue.

So for the moment, here I am, Sellosus the Blind, novice necromancer. Bit of a short start, so maybe I’ll throw in a few thoughts on this guy’s build.

Obviously Magicka’s going to be Sellosus’s primary stat. Conjuration spells are pricey. Eventually this guy is going to be throwing out multiple expendable lackies per combat and that cost adds up. So lots of Magicka, relatively little Health, very little Stamina. Since I’ll be wearing robes instead of armor for flavor and style he’s going to be very fragile, but that’s ok. Once his primary skills are running properly he’s one of the safest builds in the game. Speaking of...

Conjuration is obviously Sellosus’s primary skill. All the explicitly necromantic spells are conjuration, as are most of the necromantic perks, both in terms of undead manipulation (summoning undead, animating corpses) and stealing souls to use for enchantment. The school has four main lines of perks - boosting summoned elementals, boosting animated dead, enhancing conjured weapons, and discounting conjuration spells.

Sellosus will be summoning elementals a fair bit early on, but I won’t be taking any of those perks as in the long term undead use will replace all of that. The undead enhancing tree sounds perfect but long term most of those abilities aren’t exactly worth while either... but Sellosus will still be taking them because the capstone ability to summon or animate two minions at once is amazing and a cornerstone of the entire build. The conjured weapon tree will be useful as the bound bow spell will eventually be an acceptable in-school alternative to destruction spells for range damage, and one of the perks will automatically apply soul trap to targets hit by bound weapons, which is much more convenient than actively casting the spell in combat - though it will still have out of combat uses. The discount line is useful because conjuration spells are just kind of pricey in general, and again Sellosus will eventually be throwing them about willy nilly.

Another key skill for Sellosus is Enchanting. In Elder Scrolls games, enchanting magic items is an inherently necromantic endeavor, as the energy that powers those enchantments come from captured souls. Which is pretty cool! Eventually Sellosus’s mastery of soul magic will allow him to create magic equipment that far exceeds anything found in the game naturally... with maybe one or two key exceptions. That’s relatively late game, though. I won’t be bothering with Enchanting too much early on.

The skill’s perk tree has three main paths - one enhancing elemental effects - which I might bother with for protection but... eh. Another enhances the use and recharge of magic weapons and that’s just not Sellosus either. But the center line greatly enhances skill & stat augmentations on magic equipment you make, and that will be huge later on.

Another key skill for Sellosus will be Illusion, for a few reasons. First is that one of the captsone abilities of Illusion is partially necromantic in nature - allowing illusion spells to affect undead (along with daedra & constructs) which are normally immune. This will eventually allow Sellosus to pass through hordes of otherwise hostile draugers completely unhindered as the lesser undead fall under the sway of his dark magic. Second is the relatively high level illusion perk that allows spells to be cast silently. Combined with stealth enhancing illusion spells like muffle and invisibility, this will allow Sellosus to remain entirely unseen by enemies while conjuring wave after wave of summoned minions. Third is to steal style points from one of the greatest undead arcanists in fiction, Adventure Time’s Lich. The Lich was a powerful necromancer, but its greatest threat was the ability to manipulate the minds of those exposed to its magic. With mastery of both illusion and conjuration, Sellosus will be able to turn his enemies against each other and then raise the corpses of whichever fall first to keep fighting until no enemies are left, making for a pretty sick play style all told.

Theskill tree has a discount line - useful because I’ll be casting the stealth spells a lot and they’re pretty pricey. To maintain invisibility in combat I’ll have to re-cast it after every other action I take so yeah any discount there is appreciated. Then there’s a line that enhances the level caps of the various types of offensive illusion and with the way they work those are pretty obligatory. Finally there’s a line that enhances the effect against different creature types, and the silent casting perk falls in there, so once again obligatory. Sellosus may end up getting every single illusion perk, the only skill tree where that’s likely despite conjuration and enchantment theoretically being more central to the theme.

Sellosus’s last key skill is restoration. This is a fairly minor skill in the build as I don’t plan on casting a lot of restoration spells in combat. Again, despite the low hit points, once the build is working it’s extremely safe. If all goes well my enemies should be slaughtering each other before they even catch sight of me.

However, there are a few perks in restoration that will prove essential. The ability to heal stamina along with health when casting restoration spells will help a lot with Sellosus’s lack of stamina advancement. More importantly the ‘Necromage’ perk enhances the affects of all of your spells when used against the undead. With the overall tone of the restoration school, this is obviously intended for virtuous wizards to purge the undead from skyrim with their destruction spells, but for Sellosus? Sellosus will eventually *be* undead himself, at which point that perk will enhance the effect of positive magics he uses on himself, including that of any magical equipment he creates for himself.

...

So that’s the build, or at least the plan for it. Even just in the perk trees, that’s already a lot of necromantic goodness to enjoy, and I haven’t even really gotten into the spells, questlines, & magic items. Something to talk about later, if I keep posting this.

#sception plays skyrim #vanilla necromancer #skyrim

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felseekers · 5 years

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lost anchors

Victory for Kul Tiras had come at a cost, as it so frequently seemed to, but the price they’d paid had earned them their fleet back, had earned Jaina some measure of atonement, if not peace, and earned both the Kul Tirans and the Alliance as a whole a moment’s respite.

It was hard not to feel just a little bit proud, a little bit triumphant.

Not since the initial voyage to Boralus had Jaina been in Stormwind’s keep, but she’d been preoccupied in the library for some hours, losing track of the time as she hadn’t allowed herself to do for years. It was quiet now, mostly just a few guards making their rounds. From one corridor, the sound of hushed conversation emerged, and the only thing that turned Jaina’s feet towards it was the somewhat-familiar cadence of Captain Shadeweaver’s voice, carrying far and clear as it typically did.

She stopped, however, when the sound of Captain Shadeweaver’s voice abruptly rose to a shout, “...hope your little power play was worth it, but I doubt you’re capable of thinking about anyone but yourself, Vivial. Don’t feed me that garbage now and expect me to believe it.”

Another voice, presumably Vivial, responded, but too quietly for Jaina to hear. Captain Shadeweaver, however, exploded. “You expect me to care about your ‘secret’ struggles when you brought this on yourself?! He never asked for this. He never even planned for this. He went back because your family thought you were getting in too deep. Because it’s all about you, right?”

Jaina prepared to turn and leave, but suddenly a void elf woman, with dark violet tresses falling across her shoulders, strode briskly by, her face a stony mask as she acknowledged Jaina with a nod. Jaina was ready to escape as well, but Captain Shadeweaver herself emerged, her blind side facing Jaina, and slumped against the wall, sinking down until she sat against it, her face buried in one hand.

She didn’t know what possessed her to stand there and watch instead of getting herself out of this situation, but she waited, torn between approaching the captain and letting the whole odd encounter slip by.

The Captain Shadeweaver sitting on the floor, however, was vastly different than the Captain Shadeweaver Jaina knew from their trip to Boralus, from the battle that ensued as they reclaimed their fleet, and that, more than anything, kept her where she stood.

She didn’t remain undetected for long, though--one of Captain Shadeweaver’s ears twitched slightly, and she looked up to lock eyes with Jaina at the other end of the corridor, her face drawn and haggard with exhaustion. It was a stark reversal from how Jaina normally saw the captain, so bright and full of vivacity she’d initially envied, but come to appreciate with time. She could not ever recall, however, seeing the captain so empty.

“Lord Admiral.” even her voice was more subdued than normal, hoarse from yelling, as she swiped at one side of her face with one hand. “You seem to have caught me at a disadvantage.”

“Are you all right?” Jaina ventured, reaching out with one hand despite the physical distance that made a gesture of comfort impossible, and she drew her hand back. “That was--”

“It’s not me I��m worried about, Proudmoore.” Captain Shadeweaver’s face twisted into a scowl, and her shoulders slumped as she released a heavy sigh. Turning her head away, she picked herself up off the floor of the keep and stretched her arms. There was a look on her face that said she was desperately trying to decide whether she wanted to say anything or not, and that, too, brought Jaina up short.

Captain Shadeweaver, in all the time Jaina knew her, had never been the type to hold her comments. She spoke her mind, and sometimes Jaina found it refreshing, but others she found it insufferably annoying. She’d almost have preferred the captain’s usual quips to this kind of detached, despairing defeat.

In the end, the captain noticeably withdrew from the conversation, and Jaina found herself disappointed. “I’m sure you’ve got things to do before we head back to Boralus, Lord Admiral, and Elune knows I do, too--I’m sure we’ll speak again later.”

Her pace was brisk and long and loping in its gait, the gait of someone who’d spent time aboard the deck of a ship, and Jaina watched her leave with a kind of concern warring with dismissal.

Shaking her head briefly, Jaina turned and followed the captain’s path, albeit at a slower pace. They did have much to do, as always.

But Jaina made a note to herself for their upcoming trip back to Boralus to speak to the captain again.

The Silent Tide was slowly becoming familiar to Jaina.

It still had its perpetual clutter on the deck, its raucous crewmates led by their equally rambunctious captain, its oddly worn-down and well-loved charm. This was a ship that had been home to many people over many long years at sea, and it showed.

Captain Shadeweaver’s demeanor had returned to something approximating normal as Jaina arrived to prepare for the ship’s departure. She made jokes among her crew, slapped them amicably on the shoulder as she swept past, on her way to her next task, her steps long and sweeping and almost dance-like in their grace. She was in her element, confident and self-assured.

Part of Jaina thought she might’ve just imagined the unusual encounter with the captain in Stormwind’s keep the night before, but if she looked beyond the surface, Jaina could see the subtle differences: Captain Shadeweaver’s shoulders hunched by a nigh-indiscernible angle, and her attention wandered as she heard reports from her crew. Her grins, while wide and toothy as always, looked just a little forced, just a little insincere.

Jaina busied herself checking the cargo manifests that one of the captain’s crew handed her, ensuring they wouldn’t be leaving anything behind for their trip to Boralus. She was startled out of her concentration when Captain Shadeweaver’s voice abruptly cut through the white noise of the ship’s chatter like a blade.

“What do you mean we had a misallocation of space?!”

Quickly folding and pocketing the manifest, Jaina strode through the ship until she reached the source of the shouting--Captain Shadeweaver, holding a half-shredded parchment piece with a look of incredulous, exasperated frustration on her face. The crew member she was facing--Eastland, Jaina remembered his name was Eastland--looked sheepish and cowed by the captain’s rage.

“Just what I said, cap’n.” Eastland indicated the paper held in the captain’s grip, near to white-knuckle tight. “We don’t have enough bunks for our crew and guests combined.”

Somehow, the captain’s grip on the parchment tightened even more. “How is that possible? We have the same number of crew and the same number of bunks that we had when we first arrived in port here. How, may I ask, did we lose some? And how am I just now finding out about it?!”

“Well, Captain...” Eastland did Captain Shadeweaver the credit of looking her in the eye, which Jaina had a feeling was the only thing that saved him from the captain’s immediate retribution, “...we’d have normally talked to Kyrian about that sort of thing--he handled the finer details, you took on the big picture...”

Jaina wouldn’t have thought it possible, but Captain Shadeweaver’s face turned even more apoplectic with fury, and Eastland seemed to realize too late he’d said the wrong thing. “One,” Captain Shadeweaver said, deceptively calm, “I think I made myself pretty clear on the matter when I told you not to bring Kyrian up again. Two, you didn’t answer my second question: how did we lose the ability to house our crew and guests?”

“We ended up with some last-minute additions to the crew manifest and some cargo had to go onto the ship by order of Matthias Shaw,” Eastland indicated the parchment the captain still held in her hand, noticeably more crumpled than it’d been earlier, “and, well, we meant to tell you, but...”

Captain Shadeweaver sighed heavily, a sigh full of exhaustion and impatience and resigned acceptance all at once. Finally, she turned and acknowledged Jaina’s presence with a nod. “Proudmoore--I guess you heard the unfortunate news. You’ll be taking my quarters for the trip back to Boralus.”

Part of Jaina burned to ask who Kyrian was, and why he was forbidden from being mentioned aboard the ship, but she’d wager it was pirate business from before Captain Shadeweaver’s Alliance days. “And just where will you stay, if I do?”

Captain Shadeweaver shrugged. “I'll stay awake, maybe keep watch overnight if my crow’s-eye crewman needs a rest. Not the first time I’ve done it, doubt it’ll be the last.” With a sharp whistle, the captain garnered the attention of two deckhands, who straightened at her summons. “Boys! Get the Lady Proudmoore’s belongings to my quarters--we’ll be sailing off within the day.”

Turning to stride briskly away to whichever task awaited her next, Jaina didn’t even have time to protest the decision, and by the time the Silent Tide was shoving off from the Alliance docks, she found herself in the captain’s quarters, taking in the scenery.

Captain Shadeweaver herself hadn’t accompanied her--she was at the ship’s bow, preparing to set their course. She had told Jaina to make herself at home, however, and while she didn’t know if she could get precisely that comfortable, it would do for a temporary workspace.

At the center of the room was the captain’s desk, an obviously well-loved and well-worn piece with its share of gouges and scars from where blades had been scraped into its surface and various ink stains from accidental spills. It was smooth to the touch aside from the deeper marks, but Jaina found a suitably flat space at the desk’s center, and set up her small work area there--inkwell, and quills, and two stacks of parchment: one filled out, letters she’d read, and the other, blank, for the intended responses.

Hours passed, and Jaina fell into the rhythm of writing out her replies and plans for whenever they arrived in Boralus. The candle she’d lit earlier, already half-burned down, reached the end of its wick, and Jaina got up to search for where the captain kept her replacements.

After a cursory look in the most obvious places within the captain’s quarters, Jaina figured she ought to find the captain herself to ask rather than digging through her belongings, and set off for the ship’s crew bunks, really just a series of hammocks at the ship’s center. All of them were filled, but none of them were concealing a night elf that even came close to resembling the captain.

Withdrawing her head, Jaina set her steps towards the galley, almost unnerved by the quietness of the ship--the hour had to be later than she’d thought, or perhaps the crew was still unused to a more rigid schedule, working with the Alliance.

Within the galley, it was dark and empty, except for the seat at the head of the table, where a tiny candle was lit, illuminating the face of Captain Shadeweaver, deep lines of exhaustion etched into her face and a mug in her hand.

It took several seconds for the captain to take note of Jaina’s presence while she determined how to approach her in this state, but Captain Shadeweaver spared her the trouble. “Proudmoore,” the captain greeted her in a somber, tired tone, holding up her mug half-heartedly, “I see I’m not the only one up at this hour.” Kicking out the chair next to her--the chair at her right, Jaina realized--the captain continued, “Have a seat if you’d like.”

Jaina took it, but suddenly felt like her question about where the captain kept her extra candles felt too light for the atmosphere in the room. Captain Shadeweaver’s gaze was distant as she studied the tabletop, one fingernail tracing a mark in the wood, and Jaina found herself asking instead, “Your crewman mentioned someone called Kyrian earlier--who is he?”

Captain Shadeweaver stilled abruptly, and Jaina hurriedly tacked on, “I only ask in case it’s a threat or potential complication we haven’t discussed yet.”

“Right.” Captain Shadeweaver said tightly, and the tension in the air rose. “He’s no threat, Proudmoore, you’ve got my word on that. Beyond that, I doubt you’d care to hear the details.”

She changed the subject, to something she hoped would be less of a sensitive topic. “Were you arguing with someone in Stormwind’s keep last night?”

The captain’s grip on her mug tightened, and her free hand, resting on the table, clenched into a fist. “If you’re asking for the sake of our efforts to keep the peace with the Alliance--”

“I’m not asking because of that,” Jaina interrupted, and found it rang true, “I’m asking because it seemed like it troubled you.”

Captain Shadeweaver held Jaina’s gaze for a long moment, as if gauging the statement for honesty, before breaking it and letting her fist relax again, scratching at a score in the old, worn-down table. “It’s not me I’m worried about, Proudmoore.” She said quietly, and Jaina remembered her saying the same thing in Stormwind’s keep. “Vivial Starstrider--that’s the person I was arguing with--just doesn’t have much perception outside of herself and her goals. Kyrian is her brother--and he used to be my first mate.”

The obvious question of what happened to him rested heavily in the air, but the captain didn’t wait for Jaina to ask it. “Vivial was one of Magister Umbric’s big researchers into the void, and Ky told me she was always getting sideways looks from the family for her magic research over the years. When she signed on with Umbric, they drew a line and asked him to come back to talk some sense into her before she embarrassed the family any more than she already had. He ended up getting dragged into their void nonsense and...well, he was never the same, I’ll put it that way.”

Jaina considered what little she knew of how the void affected the void elves, and grasped for a question to ask that wouldn’t feel insensitive. “Did it overwhelm him?”

Captain Shadeweaver huffed and took another drink out of her mug. “No, not like you’re probably thinking. The void just...isn’t as compatible with him as it is with some of the others. I didn’t even find out what’d happened until a few months ago--I just thought he’d dropped off the face of the world without a trace. Lady Xaaria’s been trying to help him, but...it’s a slow-going process.”

“The first time I was here,” Jaina indicated the chair she now sat in, “I noticed you kept this one empty...”

“Yeah, it’s pretty sentimental of me, huh?” Captain Shadeweaver made a self-deprecating sound as she took another drink out of her mug. “Keep imagining he’ll be good to come back one day and we’ll just pick right back up where we left off, but...I know that’s not the case.” Her grin that time was a little more normal, a little more like the Captain Shadeweaver Jaina knew, but there was a sad edge to it, as well. “Guess that makes you my honorary first mate for the evening.”

A faint burning feeling on the back of Jaina’s neck reminded her that she ought to be careful what she wished for in regards to the captain’s demeanor, but didn’t regret the loss of tension from the room. The air was lighter between them, and Jaina felt safe to change the subject again. “I was going to ask where you kept your spare candles--the one on your desk burned out.”

“Ah, right.” the captain drained the remainder of whatever was in her mug--Jaina caught the faint earthy scent of some kind of tea--and set it down on the tabletop, pinching the candle out. “I imagine you didn’t come all the way down here just so I could unload all of that onto you.”

“I didn’t mind.” Jaina said quietly as they walked, mindful of the rest of the sleeping crew. “You didn’t seem like yourself. It was unusual to see you so...downtrodden.”

“Didn’t realize you were keeping track.” from this angle, Jaina couldn’t see the captain’s face, but it was all too easy to imagine the sly look on her face.

“Your personality makes it difficult not to notice.” Jaina shot back.

The captain laughed as she pushed the door to her quarters, sitting ajar, fully open. “Fair point, I suppose.”

While she rifled through the top drawers in her desk, Jaina busied herself organizing the reports and replies she’d already finished, sorting them by importance so she could send them out whenever they arrived. “You keep surprisingly tidy quarters, for your ship being constantly cluttered.”

“It’s organized chaos, Proudmoore--I’ve had a couple hundred years to get the system down.” Captain Shadeweaver produced a new candle from one of her desk drawers and yawned deeply. “There you go.”

Jaina reached out to take the candle, and hesitated once it was in her grasp. “You could sleep while I work. I’ll be awake for some time yet.”

“If I’d known you planned to be awake all night anyway, I might’ve just made you work in the galley instead.” Captain Shadeweaver teased. “Don’t worry about it--I’d rather you have it available as an option if you wanted it. The crewman I’m swapping bunks with later is supposed to be free in a few hours, but I’ll doze there,�� she nodded towards the chair in the corner, “until then, if that’ll appease you.”

Jaina wanted to say that it didn’t particularly matter to her if the captain slept or not, but the room felt fuller with her here, and she’d have fallen on a blade before admitting it, but she’d almost have preferred the captain stay anyway.

Captain Shadeweaver took the chair in the corner, and Jaina returned to her paperwork, though it didn’t hold the same urgency that it had earlier. Fatigue burned at her eyelids, and while she made a valiant attempt to stay awake and finish what remained, at some point during the night, the unbroken quiet of the captain’s quarters and the sound of the captain’s breathing lulled Jaina off into sleep, right at the captain’s desk.

Morning came, and found Jaina at Captain Shadeweaver’s desk, with a new ache in her neck and a--fortunately long-finished--bundle of parchment under her cheek.

Something thick and warm rested over her shoulders, though, and Jaina reached up to feel soft leather, oiled and treated for use during a storm. It had to be one of Captain Shadeweaver’s jackets, the kind worn when one needed to stay warm and relatively dry in cooler climates at sea, and the shoulders didn’t fit quite right across Jaina’s own, but it was a surprising gesture of comfort from the captain herself--it couldn’t have been anyone else.

She went up to the top deck of the ship, the captain’s jacket left carefully hung over the back of the chair, and found their second day at sea had brought a storm.

It wasn’t serious--not bad enough to make the captain consider altering their course--but certainly unpleasant for those whose duties kept them above-deck. Anyone who wasn’t required to be up top found themselves in the galley, with some of the tea the captain seemed to prefer--she forbade them to drink anything stronger while they waited to see how the storm developed.

For a time, Jaina had stayed in the captain’s quarters, but her dedication the night before had paid off, and her reports were finished well ahead of schedule with just a half hour or so’s extra work. It left her curiously bereft of purpose during the ship’s steady rocking while they weathered the storm, and she found herself following the quiet sound of conversation to the galley, where at least half the ship’s crew had congregated. The other half had to be in their bunks.

Captain Shadeweaver, at the table’s head, noticed Jaina’s presence too quickly for her to turn and leave, and her face split into a wide grin as she kicked the empty chair at her right away from the table. “Proudmoore--come down to make sure the rest of us are staying out of trouble?”

For all her outward exuberance, Jaina could see the captain’s slow blinking and knew that exhaustion had to be dragging at her, while she was clearly trying to manage the duties of a captain and a first mate all at once, by her own admission and the argument she’d had with Eastland back in port. She slowly crossed the room but didn’t yet take the offered seat--the rest of the table seemed to be engrossed in their own conversations. “I wanted to ensure there have been no changes to the ship’s course or status.”

Captain Shadeweaver was already waving a hand dismissively. “Nothing new--my helmsman told me the wind isn’t bad, it’s just the sheer rain volume that’s posing a potential complication. He recommended a skeleton crew watch over the deck and make sure we don’t take on too much water, and I agreed--no point in all of us sitting out there, watching the rain.”

They let the quiet sit for a moment before Jaina cleared her throat and said, “Thank you for the jacket.”

“Oh, that?” Captain Shadeweaver raised a brow, and looked surprised Jaina had even brought it up, maybe even a smidge uncomfortable. “Don’t mention it. My helmsman came to fetch me when the weather looked like it was going to take a turn. Didn’t feel right to just leave you there without trying to at least make you a bit more comfortable.”

It wasn’t exactly entirely out of character for the captain, but certainly it seemed out of the ordinary. Her mild discomfort as she balanced one ankle over her knee proved that much. “Do you know how much the storm will delay our arrival?” was all she asked in the end.

“No, not yet.” the discomfort on the captain’s face melted away as they returned to the safely businesslike topic of their voyage. “We won’t be able to tell until the storm passes and we figure out exactly where we are in relation to Boralus. Hopefully the storm will pass by the end of the night. We’re gonna be overflowing on bunks if it doesn’t.”

The storm did not pass. Jaina occupied herself in the captain’s quarters with the various tomes she’d borrowed from Stormwind’s libraries for several hours, and every so often checked in with the captain herself, whose report remained largely the same. They were definitely off-course by now, since the wind had begun to pick up, but Captain Shadeweaver had assured Jaina that she could make up for their lost time once the storm was over.

It was sometime around sunset that the door to the captain’s quarters inched open with a faint creak, and brought with it a hot, earthy smell. Jaina turned from where she’d taken the chair in the corner and found the captain herself, two mugs of tea in her grasp. She set one down wordlessly by Jaina and took the chair in front of her desk with a deep sigh.

“I don’t suppose there’s been much change in the weather?” she had to ask, but Jaina had a feeling she knew the answer already.

“No, not much.” Captain Shadeweaver took a long drink of her tea and set the mug down, lacing her fingers together. In the low light, she looked even more exhausted than she had the night before. “All my crew’s hammocks and spare cots are full, and some people are still taking shifts in them, including the extra passengers. Remind me to tear Shaw a new one next time I see him.”

Despite herself, Jaina felt one side of her lip lift up into a grin. “I’ll do that.” she said dryly, and returned to her book. The tea that Captain Shadeweaver brought had a full, warming flavor with a hint of spice--it wasn’t a kind Jaina had tried before, and she held the mug up. “Can I ask where you got this?”

“My own creation, actually.” Captain Shadeweaver smirked as she carefully shoved her mug to a free space on her desk. “All the traveling I did, and I could never find the perfect tea. I suppose to say I created it would be technically inaccurate--I took a couple different mixes, put them together, and came up with that. After a great deal of trial-and-error, that is.”

“If you ever decided to get out of the privateer business,” Jaina lifted a brow, “you might consider becoming a tea seller.”

“A tea seller with only one kind of tea?” Captain Shadeweaver’s single remaining eye danced with mirth. “It seems like I’d be catering to a very limited set of people.”

It was fun, this occasional back-and-forth with Captain Shadeweaver, and it came to Jaina with an ease she found only slightly surprising. There was a time, not all that long ago, she might’ve avoided the captain’s various battles of wits both big and small, but now she found them entertaining.

Conversation faded out and was replaced by an easy silence, broken only by the occasional sound of either Jaina herself or Captain Shadeweaver yawning. When Jaina’s vision began to blur with fatigue, she let out a breath and set the book down, looking up at almost the same time as the captain.

“You should rest,” they both said simultaneously, and the captain chuckled. “Here I was hoping to get the last word.”

“You couldn’t have slept hardly at all last night,” Jaina pointed out, “and this is your ship, your quarters.”

“You, meanwhile,” Captain Shadeweaver raised one of her brows, “fell asleep over my desk, and probably had a great new ache in your neck to deal with in the morning--you couldn’t have slept any more than I did.”

“I can debatably function on less sleep, and I likely did get more sleep than you since I know you left before I awoke.”

“Fine, fine.” Captain Shadeweaver raised both hands before balancing her elbows on her desk again, fingers steepled together. “It’s clear neither of us are going to back down, so I have an idea, but I doubt you’re going to like it.”

Suspicion rising, Jaina marked her place in her book and closed it, but didn’t set it down. “I’m listening.”

Captain Shadeweaver’s face was carefully neutral, which was almost as jarring to see as the detached, under-the-weather look she’d had at the beginning of the trip, but none of those things were as surprising as the captain saying, “We could share it.”

“Share it.”

“My bunk--you wouldn’t know, since you didn’t sleep in it last night, but it’s big enough for two.” Captain Shadeweaver shrugged. “Barely.”

There was a single moment where Jaina wondered if the captain was implying something else, but she hadn’t made the suggestion with any of her usual charm or humor. While she was certainly not a shy person in the slightest, Jaina had a feeling the captain wouldn’t openly proposition her, at least not in these circumstances.

“Just to be clear,” Jaina began slowly, setting the book down on the nearest flat surface--a small table near to the side window, “this isn’t an attempt to...proposition me, is it?”

Captain Shadeweaver blinked once, then snorted. “Believe me, Proudmoore, if I intended to proposition you, it would be far more obvious. Subtlety isn’t my strong suit. This is for practicality while the storm keeps my crew--and me--from properly rotating bunks.”

“Fine, then.” she made a point of looking around the patently obviously bed-free quarters. “I assume you keep it hidden somewhere.”

It was hidden, and rather cleverly, for a ship bunk--Captain Shadeweaver tugged a small chain free of a small crack between wood panels and pulled the whole ensemble down, where she secured it to the deck with small wooden posts, bolted into the floor. As promised, it was bigger than normal, but likely not ordinarily intended for two occupants.

Captain Shadeweaver only bothered to remove her outer jacket, her boots, and the patch covering her right eye--not missing, as Jaina previously thought, but badly scarred and no longer shimmering with the bright light that her left one did--before flopping down at the edge of the bunk, pointedly facing away from where Jaina made her own preparations to sleep.

Uneasy was the wrong word for what Jaina felt as she sat on the opposite edge of the bunk--maybe it was something like unfamiliarity, the proximity to Captain Shadeweaver far closer than she’d been to anyone in a long time. For necessity’s sake, she reminded herself, and only for one night.

Jaina felt, somehow, it should have taken longer to drift away than it did--in this unfamiliar situation, with another person at her back, albeit as far away as the bunk would allow them to be--but something about the motion of the ship, even through the waning storm, and having an actual bed beneath her, were enough to let exhaustion finally win out, and sleep rose up to claim her.

Warm.

It was the first thing Jaina noticed upon waking, before even opening her eyes--she rested on something warm, something solid but soft, and it took several beats as she climbed the ladder back to full consciousness that she wasn’t asleep on something, but someone.

Captain Shadeweaver’s back rose and fell underneath Jaina’s cheek with the motion of her breathing, and she reflexively moved her arm where it’d apparently been resting over the captain’s shoulders. She briefly thought she might’ve been able to escape the encounter with her dignity intact as she slowly began to roll away, but the captain herself spoke, “Ah, good, you’re up.”

“How long have you been awake?” Jaina demanded, sitting up, and tried to make it not sound so accusatory, because there was nothing she could reasonably accuse the captain of in this circumstance--aside from clearly having been awake for some time and not pushing Jaina back to her own side of the bunk, but she shelved that thought for later consideration.

“A while.” Captain Shadeweaver’s answer was frustratingly vague, but she didn’t seem bothered by the question as she yawned once and ran one hand through her short, violet hair. She’d slipped her eyepatch back on, but even with her single remaining eye, Jaina could see the shadows of exhaustion beneath them, the kind of fatigue that was bone-deep and all but impossible to shake, and often accompanied by the weight of one’s burdens. “I think I need some tea, and if you--”

“He wasn’t just your first mate,” was the first thing Jaina blurted out, and couldn’t have said why she felt it important in that moment, but pieces from the past few days fell into place very rapidly, very subtle and so small that anyone might have missed them, but unquestionably there. “Kyrian. He was family.”

Captain Shadeweaver said nothing, and a stony silence settled over them. Finally, she sighed and got up, reaching for where she’d thrown her long jacket over her chair the night before. She rested her backside on the edge of her desk. “Everyone on my crew is family to me, Proudmoore.” Captain Shadeweaver’s grin was small and a little sad. “Or at least the only family I care to think about anymore. But Kyrian was like a brother, my best friend, and when he became a void elf...things changed.”

“You lost a friend.”

“But he lost everything.” Captain Shadeweaver countered. “He can’t be with the rest of us anymore because he told me the void afflicts him too much to risk being out here--he told me he’s afraid he’d hurt us, and the fear of it keeps him at shore. He can’t sail, he can barely leave Stormwind, for short periods of time while Lady Xaaria runs her few errands out there, he’s in pain and there’s nothing I can do to help him.

“I may have lost a brother,” Captain Shadeweaver finished, looking down at the deck, “but he lost everything. The fact that I now have to shoulder his duties as well as my own feels like a somewhat inconsequential thing to lose sleep over.”

“You still lost family,” Jaina pointed out quietly, “and you should be allowed to grieve for that.”

“It’s not me I’m worried about, Proudmoore.” Captain Shadeweaver arched a brow, lip twitching like she wanted to smile, as she said the same thing she had in Stormwind, in her ship’s galley, and she understood its depth this time.

“I know.” was all she said, reaching up to fix the braid she hadn’t bothered to take down the night before. “But perhaps it ought to be.”

“Hmm. Maybe.” with a long stretch, the captain fixed the strap on her eyepatch before changing the subject. “I’m getting my tea. I could bring some back for you.”

“That would be nice.” Jaina admitted, finishing the braid and getting up to search for the heavier pieces of her outfit, carefully folded and set down wherever there was space.

When the captain returned, she brought tea, and the news that they’d be arriving in Boralus, with their course corrections, in a few hours. The empty captain’s quarters had been left to Jaina once again while the ship’s captain made her preparations for docking, and Jaina carefully searched around the desk to ensure she hadn’t left anything behind.

With all her items safely packed away and moved along with the rest of the ship’s cargo, Jaina came to stand with Captain Shadeweaver near to the ship’s stern, where she watched, safely out of the way, while they coasted into port in Boralus’ harbor.

“It shouldn’t take long to find out what your next assignment will be, Captain.” Jaina knew that Captain Shadeweaver would certainly be needed back in Stormwind somewhat soon, but she would be remiss in not having the notoriously cunning captain solve other issues around the nearby seas in the meantime.

“Good.” the captain turned and lifted one brow. “Also, do me a favor: call me Miri, would you?” Her eye brightened with amusement, looking far more like Jaina typically saw her, full of vibrance and light. “People who’ve slept with me get to call me Miri.”

Jaina felt the back of her neck heat up again, but she managed to keep her tone even and unruffled as she said, “I hope you’ll understand if it takes time to break the habit of calling you by title, Captain.”

When the Silent Tide was fully moored to its dock in Boralus’ harbor, Jaina stood at the plank lowered from the deck to the harbor, and turned back to where Captain Shadeweaver stood, resting her weight on her left side with her arms folded.

“Thank you for your hospitality...Miri.” Jaina told her, tasting the unfamiliar name on her tongue.

Captain Shadeweaver’s grin widened into something that was a little deeper than normal, a little more sincere. “Anytime, Lord Admiral.”

#this may or may not be a characterization nightmare but it's DONE #my writing #ismirah shadeweaver #otp: from shore to shore #sorta bc they're not Together yet but w/e #disclaimer: i have not yet finished the alliance-side story but i know most of what happens and intentionally kept things vague

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