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eepyuii · 4 months

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frostbite — pt. 6

pairing ; childe x gender neutral!reader

content ; childhood friends to “rivals” to lovers, slowburn-ish

cw ; fighting and mentions of injuries, but nothing specific tho

notes ; happy holidays, fellow childe enjoyers!! hope you’re all having a wonderful time. this chapter feels close up-y if that makes sense but i promise there’s MUCH more to come >:3

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you see childe as faceted.

he’s childe, he’s tartaglia and he’s ajax- all at once and one at a time. he’s childe, the ruthless maniacal warrior who prioritizes strength and triumph above all else- a weapon of war. he’s tartaglia, the calculating, fake smile wearing, connection-making debt collector- a fatui harbinger. but then, he’s also ajax, a warm, family loving, hug providing and dream protecting big brother- your best friend.

you see all three of those people in him. though… the latter, not so often. he was ajax when he was at home, seeing his family and playing around with teucer, that you know, but you hadn’t seen him in morepesok in more than half a decade. no, the last time you saw him be ajax was when you were fourteen- you called him ajax for the last time when you were fourteen.

ever since then, he’s been childe.

you’ve never made the mistake to call him otherwise, because there was no mistake to be made at all. when you were in zapolyarny palace, he was childe. when you were dining in liyue, he was childe. even when you first sparred and eventually fought in the golden house, he was childe.

so why is it now when you’re faced with an entirely new being, biology indecipherable yet identity indistinguishable, that you call him ajax?

perhaps you’d like to blame it on exhaustion- you’d been fighting incessantly for whoever knows how long, fingers sore from gripping your weapon so tight and legs shaking to merely stand. or perhaps it’s the sheer confusion and inability to truly comprehend the sight before you, there’s no plausible explanation within your grasp as to why he’s even able to transform into that after all. or maybe… maybe you see too many people in him that aren’t ajax anymore.

and you’re desperate to see ajax again.

and the worst part is that you can’t even name the being before you, you can’t come up with what or who it could be within childe’s facets. the mental gymnastics happening in your brain render you frozen, limbs heavy and heart erratic- leaving you to fall motionlessly when the creature stabs his weapon into the ground and promptly shatters it. the falling rubble reveals a whole new lower floor of the golden house, one that your downturned gaze can’t help but stare into as you’re falling. as the ground seems to get closer, you shut your eyes and brace for the impact, hoping it’ll at most break just your ankles.

but the impact never arrives.

instead, you feel a tug to your sleeve that breaks the violent pull of gravity you were experiencing- it results in your feet making the gentlest contact with the ground. you assume it was paimon pulling you just in time as she floats down along the two of you, because the second you open your eyes she’s flying over to the traveler to check on her.

the sight takes away any notice of the purple flash that passes through you in the very same moment.

after a brief recovery, the two of square up for a third time as you spot a purple spark from across the settling dust of the debris. it’s centered and tall, telling you the glow is coming directly from the singular eye of the creature.

“you got to the gnosis before me, didn’t you?!” a deep, distorted, growling voice yells out, yet you can still hear a bit of childe’s own voice within it.

“did you simply move faster? or… did you leak the information regarding the golden house to me on purpose? was it you, y/n? have you been working with them from the start?!” he swings at you expertly, electro trailing after the weapon’s path while surges of water shoot up towards you at the same time.

“no matter. hand over the gnosis, now! don’t make me take it from you…”

“w-we didn’t take it!” paimon defends.

“do you hear yourself right now?! none of us could’ve taken it, it’s not here!” you add coarsely.

he doesn’t seem to hear you as he incessantly strikes and blinks away from your attacks, sending his own long ranged lightning strikes instead. both of you take several heavy hits from the creature and after some time, you feel like you’re about to collapse. you don’t have anymore energy to heal yourself, much less the traveler- yet you still push yourself to sustain her as much as you can. you think you’ve reached hallucinatory levels of exhaustion when you see… it.

an impossibly large elemental whale that surges from the ground.

it flies upward with a deafening vocalization and slams back down with waves of water. you back up as far as possible as the whale takes up the entire floor, even if you doubt that what you see is real. that very doubt is soon dispelled when you watch the traveler fall to the ground where the whale just landed, soaked in water. you panic and rush to aid her but before you even get to the traveler’s side, the creature’s large blade comes down right in front of you- it was so close that were you even an inch forward, it would’ve sliced your face clean off. the traveler gestures for you not worry about her as she get struggles to stand up and eyes the creature, who’s currently preparing a charging surge of electro and hydro, while you’re cornered.

the seconds before he strikes seem to slow down while your heart pumps inhumanely fast- your mind scatters for what to do until you look down took your feet, noticing the way the excess water ripples with your steps. your hand twitches with cryo energy and a wall of ice shoots up the next moment, extending all the way to where the traveler is still getting up. the unexpected defense catches the creature off-guard and he staggers for a moment, giving you the chance to sprint all the way out and behind him, where his starry cape floats endlessly into nothingness. you almost land your sneak attack when he suddenly seems to sense your presence and turns around just in time to retaliate.

“all you do is run!” he growls.

when he slashes his electro-charged weapon this time, you manage to catch it with the pole of your own spear, holding it away from you with all the might you’re still able to muster. movement from your peripheral vision catches your attention.

“now!” you yell.

the traveler understands perfectly and jumps to hit the creature from the back while he’s still busy pushing back against your polearm. the strike seems to be final, as the creature drops his weapon from yours and steps back, falling to his knees. another flash of purple light emits from him and suddenly, childe is in the creature’s stead once more.

he heaves weakly, head turned down defeatedly.

“ngh… well then, time to cool off.”

childe is practically spitting out the words with how much force he has to put into getting them out. “it seems the burden of the foul legacy transformation was too great on my body. i lacked the opportunity to think this through…”

foul legacy… well there’s its name. seeing childe in front of you again makes the entirety of the last few minutes seem unreal, like you woke up from a nightmare where childe was… that. like it never happened- though the sheer amount of injuries that all three of you bear prove otherwise.

“…you had no connection to the gnosis, no matter where it’d been taken.”

“that’s what we’ve been trying to tell you! we didn’t take it!” paimon urges, hands on her hips.

childe struggles to get to his feet, as if his limbs have turned to lead, once he finally gets to it, he’s still panting coarsely.

“this battle has already left me satisfied. anyone who strives as i do to grow stronger shall be called a friend, even if our friendship can only be shown in battle against one another.” with the next sentence, childe eyes you momentarily, when you try to catch his gaze back, it’s already gone- as if he’s too ashamed to actually meet your eyes in return.

“pretty sure that’s not the normal way to make friends.”

you snort. “you’re still expecting anything normal after all this?”

“unfortunately, i mus bring this amiable conversation to an end. my quest still beckons. given that the gnosis wasn’t taken by anyone, we must look to the beginning- it was never in the exuvia to begin with. in fact, it might be that the exuvia was just a diversion of sorts.”

“hm… i wonder who called that way beforehand.”

“what? so you mean that…” paimon trails off and the traveler finishes.

“…rex lapis is alive?”

you nod. “it would appear so.”

“it seems that the guardian deity of the capital of commerce is also well-versed in little maneuvers beyond the boundaries of contracts. as such, we must now look to our backup plan.”

your heart sinks.

with all the commotion, you’d nearly forgotten what you went to the golden house for to begin with. to deter childe from summoning osial. suddenly, all the tension and uneasiness from the fight creeps back into your spine and the traveler notices instantly, visibly becoming concerned herself.

“childe…” you warn.

paimon, on the other hand, remains clueless. “backup plan?”

“i had hoped it would never come to this… for the weak to be swept away in the process. the truth is, the world belongs to those who pursue strength- i seldom willingly involve myself with the weak. unfortunately, we cannot be picky about our methods as fatui harbingers, children must all learn to eat their vegetables sometimes.”

his choice of words and childish expression seems to only pour more salt into the wound- famously something you heard his mother nag him about when you were younger, which in turn you’d hear him complain about to you in private. seems like he’s more than learned to eat his vegetables and only the gods may know how much you wish he didn’t.

“so what’re you planning to do?”

“i will awaken the god that lies dormant beneath guyun stone forest.”

“a god?!” paimon exclaims.

you sigh, shamefully averting your gaze to the ground. “osial, overlord of the vortex… he was defeated by rex lapis in the archon war. he’s remained pinned beneath the geo archon’s spears in guyun stone forest ever since.”

“if such an ancient god were to be unleashed upon liyue harbor, defenseless without the protection of its deity…”

your fists are shut so tightly that your nails start digging into your palms.

“he means to draw out rex lapis with a threat to his people.”

childe nods smugly. “do you truly think the cunning rex lapis would just stand aloof and watch the ensuing destruction?”

paimon’s gaze scatters around nervously. “but… the archon war ended two thousand years ago! how could an ancient god appear in a world now overseen by the seven?”

“simple. i’ve already prepared the means to awaken it.”

an amber aura suddenly surrounds childe and within another flash, sigils of permission start orbiting him.

“hey! those are sigils of permission!”

“the fatui have been researching them and… well- duplicating them.” you might as well assist in the exposition of the plan, no point in standing helplessly aside while childe prepares to drown an entire city. any chance of stopping him forcibly was also out the window, on account of how physically worn you were- standing on your shaking legs at all was already a challenge.

soon enough, thunders can be heard outside the golden house- it’s already done. you only don’t feel completely and utterly hopeless at how the next moments might turn out because, after seeing the traveler’s abilities in action, a sliver of faith festers in your chest. now it’s up to her and the adepti to deliver.

“hahaha! let’s see… will the nation that lost its deity be swallowed up by an ancient malice once more? if you wish to drown together with the people of liyue, you’re free to stay and enjoy the show!”

as childe laughs evilly, he’s swallowed by a vortex of water that floats up into the ceiling of the house and disappears without a trace and the three of you that remain rush out to catch up to him. unsurprisingly, there’s no clue as to where he might’ve gone and as the traveler and paimon prepare to head to the harbor and face again straight osial, they stop to look at you expectantly. you tell them that as much as you’d like to aid in the fight, you should go look for childe.

—

“heh… here to finish the job while i’m still weak?”

for someone so crafty, childe is not exactly hard to find. in fact, he’s in the first place you even think of looking- the mountaintop where you first sparred, sat against the trunk of one of the outer ginkgo trees in the area. his position displays a perfect view of the catastrophe you caused, the jade chamber floating before the seas where osial emerges from. childe doesn’t even turn to look over his shoulder when you arrive silently but he knows it’s you, almost as if he was waiting for you to show up.

“depends on how this conversation goes, really- and trust me when i say we have plenty to talk about.”

the harbinger remains silent, only turning his head to watch you sit neatly beside him against the next tree over and waiting for you to keep going.

“first of all… what the fuck was that in the golden house?”

he laughs, boyishly this time.

“a lot happened back there so that’s not very specific, but i’ll assume you’re referring to foul legacy. i guess i do owe you this explanation.” childe averts his gaze and sighs deeply, like he’s preparing to admit something difficult. the very start of his sentence justifies that.

“when i disappeared that day, i… fell. not like tripping on the ground or anything, i literally fell through the earth.”

you feel your entire being sink at the mention of that day. as painful as it is, you recall the exact moment he’s talking about- the very second the disappeared from your sight in the snow, at least now there’s some clarity as to what happened. unfortunately, that clarity doesn’t make anything any more comprehensible.

your eyebrows furrow in confusion. “w-what?”

“even after all these years, i myself don’t exactly know what happened. i just remember lying there in the snow, the wolves getting closer and closer and then- suddenly, a crevice opens and i fall straight through the ground. and i end up in the abyss.”

the abyss… you haven’t heard much about the abyss. it’s never come up as something of relevance or even interest to you. it’s always felt like such a distant topic to you, like i’d never truly be important enough for you to involve yourself in- turns out you’ve been sitting right next to it. snapping yourself from your brief thoughts, you turn to see childe with a tense expression, as though recalling is physically taxing to him.

“childe… you don’t need to tell me this if you’re-“

“ajax.”

“what?”

“call me ajax, please. i heard you say it back there and it’s been so long since you’ve called me that.” he asks, almost breathlessly.

so he did hear you before. dammit. the desperation for the name present in his voice sends you into reminiscence- about your time as children- how happy you were, how free you were, how careless you were. it seemed just like yesterday you were still fourteen and laughing with ajax as you played in his childhood bedroom. how did it all end up like this? with the two of you sitting in a mountaintop- pathetic, injured and tired as you watch an entire fucking catastrophe happen to a nation from far away.

ajax goes on to tell you about his time in the abyss, where he met a woman named skirk, where he was taught all he knows about combat, including but not limited to the foul legacy form, and where he became the killing machine that he is.

“then… can i ask- the day you came back,” you start off and the memory already brings stinging tears to your eyes. the scar on your neck, the one you still have from ajax’s sword, seems to start burning as well.

“why-… why did you react like that? was it the shock from all you went through?”

ajax’s expression turns to that of a kicked puppy- well in this case, he would be the one to kick the puppy and feel endlessly guilty about it. he eyes your neck and spots the small slit of scarred tissue, flinching at his own doing.

“i-i would say so, yes. if i’m being entirely honest, i don’t even remember that day very well. i guess i was still in a state or fight or flight… well, heh, in my case only fight.” he chuckles sheepishly and you return it.

“i’m… i’m really sorry for hurting you, y/n. i know i’m not exactly in the place to say that after fighting you twice in a day but- i promise i never intended to back then.”

you nod in understanding, you’re too spent to even try to be mad at him right now. looking back towards the fight, you watch osial take a heavy hit from the defenders of liyue just in time. at this point you’re not even worried that they might not win.

“i’m tired of fighting, ajax. as annoying as you can be sometimes and in need of a bicker, i’m tired of being… on edge whenever we talk. we’re clearly having a nice talk right now so, tell you what- what about a truce? let’s not make each other’s lives harder than they already are.”

ajax seems to physically light up at your proposition, like it’s all he’s ever wanted. he nods fervently and flashes a giddy smile that infects your own face subconsciously. you reach into one of your pockets with an idea, pulling out a small object that you present to him on an open palm.

“here. a symbol of our truce.”

you offer him one of the origami stars you made before, it’s not like you have any use for the hundreds of them that you made. ajax takes it into his own hands with the gentlest of holds.

“since when do you know how to make these?”

“since earlier today. i was astronomically bored waiting for the millelith to show up.”

ajax snorts out a laugh, then a second passes by and he bursts into full hearty laughter and for the third time, you can’t help but to join in on him.

“wait! does this mean we can still spar every once in awhile?”

“don’t push it, harbinger.”

taglist ; @kentply @osaemu @rain-and-a-nice-nap

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starrypeeps-headcanons · 1 year

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Headcanon assortment (pt. 3) Shorties editon

-Magolor is very conscious about his age and his looks. With that being said, please, DO NOT call him "old", he will get very much angry.

-Galacta's hair is just superb, wavy, voluminous and just perfect. Of course, touch it and you'll die.

-Zan's nose is pretty ugly. It wasn't like this before though, in one fight with Francisca, she punched Zan in the face and broke her nose.

-Is hard to make Taranza mad, he really has the patience of a saint, but if you manage to make him angry you fucked up big time.

-When in certain mood, Zero Two can and will fight nearly everything and has even attacked his own kind.

-After being liberated from Forgo's possession, Elfilin was really never the same again, and fell depressed for a while.

-Gooey (therefore Blob), like any other member of the Dark Matter race, reacts negatively when in contact with light based objects. Although not as drastic as the other members of the family.

-Instead of not being able to feel (positive) emotions, the Dark Matter community values stoicism and emotionless-ness above everything else. Showing excessive emotion is frowned upon. For them is usually easy, save from some exceptions.

-Magolor has a replica of the master crown and whenever he's feeling cheeky or if someone pisses him off, he threatens the person by putting the crown on.

-Shadow Kirby can use copy abilities but doesn't like to (more like he's too lazy to) so he sticks to a sword.

-Iron Mam is a waddle dee, she just wanted to be ridiculously strong.

-...And Bandana Dee is a huge fanboy of her.

-The souls that DO get a second chance of living, get a new body identical to the previous one but with the scars of their respective deaths previous to their rebirths and no post mortem memories.

-Francisca lost sensitivity in some parts of her body due to frostbite.

-Fairies are born from a huge flower. A flower basically appears on the royal garden, over the time it grows and grows until it blossoms. And there you go: A fairy.

-I said this in a separate post but Meta Knight listens to a lot of old spanish music (Camilo, Mecano, Mocedades, Serrat, Leo Dan, etc.) more or less what your mom, auntie or even grandma listened to.

-Dark Mind is pretty vain and is always checking on himself to look for any cracks around his body to erase.

-Meta Knight is actually extensively trained in hand-to-hand combat (like all GSA members) he just would rather use his sword because he feels he's not as good (nor strong) at it.

-Marx is the very definition of a jock, he's very athletic and strong too. From all the sports he plays, he seems to excel at gymnastics.

-Another odd friendship that came to light during Star Allies was between Flamberge and Taranza. Their personalities are widely different but they still manage to get along nicely.

-Void Termina has a very wide vocal range, maybe not in his voice (which is low and booming) but the noises he makes, from growling like a bear to sound like a shoebill stork or chirping like a bird.

-In Dreamland there are three kingdoms: The Cave Kingdom, Dreamland Kingdom and the Heaven kingdom.

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poliel · 3 years

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Surprise Egg: 8/13: Eggabell

Unsurprisingly striding back into town with Eggabell caused a commotion. Not even five minutes passed between her walking into town and everyone gathering to speak to her. There were many questions about Lizbert and what had happened to her all of which Eggabell deftly avoided and then quickly stopped via stating her reason for returning being to examine the egg more properly.

Apparently, it was Gramble’s turn to pouch it. He happily rushed over to give it to her. Buddy turned to leave. Since they were still stuck here they might as well go hunting for everyone and search more for the Snaxsquatch too while they were out. Before they could even pick which direction to head out in though…

“Hey Buddy,” Filbo said as he came up next to them, linking an arm through theirs. “It’s been a little while since we spent an evening together, you want to hang out?”

“You just want me to stick around so Eggebell can examine me before going back to Frosted Peak, right?”

“Huh? No. She only said she’d do that if you let her. I just want to hang out because it’s been a little while and I’ve missed you.” His faux innocence was cute and honestly would’ve been convincing if they didn’t know better due to the fact they’d just spent almost the whole day together climbing the mountain then coming back down. Not to mention this was the same tactic he often tried to pull when he wanted them to take another break once outright asking had started to fail. And like every other time he would either drop it with a sad sigh if Buddy persisted or would push the issue until one of them gave up.

Buddy sighed. “Fine.” The attempt at opening the stone doors failing meant that they had stuff they needed to catch up on in their journal anyway. … And they were tired. No amount of rest really made them less tired so there was no point in it a lot of the time but if it made Filbo happy then they’d put up with it. And they liked spending time with him too so why not?

“The egg’s underdeveloped,” Eggabell said as she poked her head into the hut after not evening bothering to knock before opening the door. “I don’t have the tools to determine anything more than that but I don’t think it’s fatally so, no thanks to a certain someone trying to give themself hypothermia and frostbite while carrying it.” She gave Buddy a pointed glare which was undeservedbecause they hadn’t known and hadn’t been trying to give themself anything of the sort. “The grumpling’s going to hatch small and probably weak too but with proper care I think they should be all right. But you guys aren’t in charge of it so that’s really all you probably want to know, right?”

“Yeah, thanks for telling us. Now uh….” Filbo trailed off.

“You want me to do Buddy?” She looked at them again. She’d already made it clear on multiple occasions that she was concerned about them but, like with her previous attempts to get them to do or not do something, if they refused she’d probably go back to looking for Lizbert without much of a fight. But…

“Fine.” With a sigh, Buddy flipped their doodling journal closed and extricated themself from the bed and cuddling into Filbo’s side. “But make it quick.”

“I intend to.”

Doctor visits and examinations were always the worst with the ice-cold stethoscope and all the prodding and the poking. Not to mention the invasive questions and ‘how would you rate your pain/discomfort?’s. There were two bright sides here though; she didn’t poke them with any needles and she had a salve to put over their various burns, making those spots at least feel better almost instantly – if they’d known such a thing was in her medical bag, they’d have stolen it long ago as they’d be doing from here on out.

“You’re malnourished and not recovered from giving birth in such a state,” she declared after what felt like forever.

They hopped off her makeshift examine table set up in the front part of her and Lizbert’s hut. “Shocking. I never would’ve guessed.”

She frowned at them. “I don’t know what your hang up is about not eating bugsnax but I suggest you let it go for the sake of your health.”

They’d have gladly given up their initial hang ups with it if they could. “I can’t. I’m allergic.”

“Oh! Uh… that’s really bad. How allergic are you exactly? If it’s just a mild rash or something it might be worth it to just suffer through it at this point.”

True and if that was the case they’d have done so long before now but… “I ate one and then spent the next few hours in outhouse.”

“Oh hmmm… definitely don’t then because in your state you could easily die from that.”

Buddy had not even considered that. All the more reason not to partake because that was not how they were going to die if they could help it.

Eggabell sighed before continuing. “You should probably go home then. Bring Gramble and Shelda with you too if you can. I know Gramble’s not going to want to go and probably neither is Shelda but…”

“No. I’m not leaving until I’ve interviewed Lizbert or we find solid proof she’s dead.” That made Eggabell flinch but Buddy didn’t care enough to apologize. “So not until we open the stone doors.” They’d find Lizbert, her remains, or no sign of her which would likely mean her body was buried in snow somewhere on the mountain.

With that said, Buddy turned to go. If they got out fast enough, they might even be able to leave town without Filbo noticing and trying to guilt trip them into resting for the rest of the day. Before they could do much more than open the door though…

“You know, you’re a lot like Liz.”

Pausing with their paw still on the doorknob, Buddy looked back her. “What do you mean?”

“Stubborn and passionate with a high tolerance for pain and discomfort but most of all stupid. You don’t ever pause to think about how being reckless and hurting yourself affects the people who care about you. Except you’re even worse about it than Liz ever was. Your body’s going to quit on you if you keep this up for much longer. You could die.” She’d started speaking in a calm tone but ended making exasperated gesture towards them.

“Well then, all the more reason to get those doors open as soon as possible.” Because they weren’tleaving until their story was done, they could hold on for that long at least. Speaking of opening the doors though… “You should ask Triffany for help with the stone door puzzle. She’s good at that kind of stuff.” They’d suggested going to her for help to Eggabell once before and got a vehement ‘no’ but the situation was a bit different now so…

Eggabell glared at them, doubtless mad about the change of subject but ultimately sighed – no matter what, she still cared most about finding Lizbert and that was easy to exploit. “No, I… I can figure it out myself.”

“Now who’s being stubborn?”

“I uh… you’re right. I’ll ask her. But you…” she walked up to them to poke them lightly in the chest, “need to go rest, okay? Until the stone doors are open you need to be sitting around doing as little physical actively as possible, got it?”

“Got it.”

She held her stern gaze on them for a couple seconds longer before they turned away and led the way back outside.

Buddy stood and watched as she headed for the research tent where Triffany could be seen working on something. As soon as Eggabell reached it without looking back at them, they glanced over at the freshly lit campfire. Filbo was there but he didn’t seem to have noticed Buddy coming out with Eggabell. He was distracted talking to Wambus and Chandlo. It was the perfect opportunity to slip away.

So, after sneaking over to Filbo’s hut to retrieve their pack they were headed off for the Scorched Gorge and Sizzling Sands. If they were lucky maybe they would actually find the Snaxsqautch this time and then return to learn that key to opening the doors had been found. Meaning they would be able to finish their story and finally go home and eat real food again. They could only dream.

***

Buddy slipping off unnoticed and without saying goodbye while Filbo had been distracted from waiting for them was not the least bit surprising at this point and he should’ve been on the lookout for such an attempt. But that didn’t make it any less disappointing or worrying especially after interrupting Eggabell and Triffany to ask for Eggabell’s general assessment of their condition. They should be resting and taking it easy as much as possible but instead they were off doing who knows what?

And there wasn’t a single thing Filbo could do about it. He didn’t even know where they’d gone, making going after them hard even if he’d stood much of a chance of convincing them to come back and rest – once they were out of town there was no getting them to come back until they wanted to. So he just put on a positive attitude and went on his rounds around town, a lot later than usual because he’d spent the bulk of the day climbing up and then back down Frosted Peak but whatever. He checked up on Floofty to make sure they were okay after the whole almost cutting their head off for science thing a few weeks ago. And Wambus and his garden. Gramble’s ranch and everyone else with their various things they were doing or working on. He inquired after the egg too of course. He still felt a bit weird about how it was biologically his but the relief of not having to be in charge of it and the little life within far outweighed that feeling. Besides it seemed to make those in charge of it happy and that was good to see.

The town really was starting to knit itself back together. And even if Eggabell wasn’t going to stay for much longer she was still back for now and interacting with Triffany and some of the others again. Now all they needed was Lizbert here and everything would be back to how it was before. Or actually, better because everyone was starting to get along more than even before they’d split. Some of that was centered around those caring for the egg but it was also just in general amongst everyone. It was very good to see, filling Filbo with that fuzzy warm feeling of wanting to get everyone into a group hug or something. He wasn’t going to push it though.

It was all mostly thanks to Buddy, getting everyone back and then helping with everyone’s problems. … The only downside was that they were running themself half to death while doing so and factoring into that was them having carried the egg unknowingly for months. They were really amazing and wonderful… he was worried about them. Nothing he could do about that right now though so…

Shaking that off for now he looked up at the others gathered around the campfire which was almost everyone in town except for Eggabell and Triffany. Even Floofty and Snorpy were here even if they weren’t likely to stay long, they never did. “We should have another party,” he said, drawing everyone’s gazes to him.

“Another one, really?” Beffica said though she didn’t sound quite as scornful as she used to when questioning his ideas. Progress was being made there too!

“Yeah. Almost everyone’s back now. So I was thinking we should celebrate. It’ll be fun.” And a party would be a good way to get Buddy to rest in town a little more. It could also act as an informal farewell to them since they should and would hopefully finish their story soon, allowing them to go home. Whether Filbo was going to accept their invite and go with them, he hadn’t decided yet but he had until they were actually leaving to make that decision. “So what do you guys say?”

There was a general murmur of agreement to indifference about the idea. No one was enthusiastic about it but that was fine, once the party actually started, they would all hopefully be more into it.

“If we’re going to do this party thing,” Snorpy spoke up over everyone else. “I need some time to make some uh, special party lights for uh, partying purposes.”

“This request has to do one of your ridiculous conspiracy theories, doesn’t it?” Floofty said, giving him that look that almost always led to an argument between them.

Before he could respond and make that argument a reality, Filbo spoke up cheerfully as if he hadn’t picked up on any of that tension. “We could use some cool party lights!” If doing whatever he was going to do the lights would make him feel better about attending the party than Filbo didn’t care. “So it’d be awesome if you could make some special ones for us. How long do you think that’ll take?”

Floofty rolled their eyes but didn’t say anything. Snorpy looked nervously their way for a couple seconds before looking back at Filbo – argument successfully averted, thank goodness! “A few days should do, no more than a week for sure.”

“Awesome! Let me know when you’re done and I’ll start setting everything up.” And maybe he could get Buddy to help with that too. While it wasn’t proper rest it would still be far more restful than running around after bugsnax and the Snaxsqautch had to be so it’d be worth to ask them.

#my writing #bugsnax #filbuddy #filbo fiddlepie #the journalist #eggabell batternugget

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beetlegoose01 · 3 years

Text

Frostbite (Chapter 2- Suspire)

AN: Chapter 2 is here friends! I appreciate all the kind feedback I received last chapter! Without further ado...

Previous Chapter: https://pepperimps01.tumblr.com/post/644922844412854272/frostbite-casetello-an-do-these-two-have-a-ship

~~~~

"So, can I go now?" Casey asked impatiently, trying to flex his arm. "I've got places to be, slowpoke."

Donnie glared at him, irritated. He seemed even more frustrated that Casey had made that semi flirty jab at him. "Like where?"

"You know...around." He gave a toothy grin.

"Very specific, Jones."

"I like to think I'm very pacific."

"That's-"

"Actually..." Casey wiggled his eyebrows. "Red wanted to talk to me about something. Maybe a bit more than talk if you know what I mean..." He shrugged. "Can't exactly blame her. I'm a catch."

'We aren't there yet, Jones.'

'Is it about April? Because it's not my fault, she ...y'know likes me more.'

Donnie's heart plummeted, dropping the scalpel he was holding. It crashed by his feet loudly, but he didn't bother picking it up. "You better go then." He said coldly.

"Are you sure? Because I wanted to tell you some-"

"Just leave!" He snapped. "Can't you tell I'm busy? I've got retromutagen to work on."

"Jeez, okay. Don't get your tail in a knot." The teen raised his hands in surrender.

Casey stumbled out of the lab, dazed and confused. His arm thankfully didn't hurt anymore, but he still felt a bit uneasy and sick to his stomach. He really just wanted to take a nap, forget about everything that happened and maybe never work with Donatello again. Couldn't that turtle take a joke?

He needed a distraction...

"CJ!" Mikey exclaimed, leaping towards him with a stupid grin on his face. Casey yelped, taken aback by the orange turtle's enthusiasm. At least that was a distraction alright. "You won't believe this, dude!"

Casey smirked. "You know, I'm starting to think everything is believable at this point. What's up? Did you discover a new pizza joint?"

The smallest turtle looked about ready to explode with excitement. "Nope! Can't tell you yet, bro. Come on, Leo's explaining everything at the dojo! I'm just getting you and Donnie! I'm ...Mikey the messenger!" And then he was off again, no doubt badgering Donatello.

Casey shook his head, laughing. Though he was somewhat curious about whatever the leader in blue had to say.

He entered the dojo, checking if Master Splinter was behind him. He trusted the old ninja master, and couldn't deny he was a big help...but that didn't stop him from flinching every time they made eye contact. Rats still gave him the creeps.

Raph and April were already there, chatting amongst themselves. Raph was currently practicing opening and closing April's tessen.

"I dunno, it just seems a bit..." He trailed off.

"A bit what, Raph?" April's eyebrows furrowed. "Go on, finish that sentence."

"It's not very sharp, that's all." As he said this, the tip of the fan poked his finger and he let out a squawk of pain.

"Not very sharp, huh?" April swiped the fan back. "Remember this from me: don't judge everything by its outer appearance."

"Touché." Raph waved at Casey, and the pair did an elaborate secret hand shake.

"What's this about anyway?" He folded his arms.

"Beats us." Raph shrugged. "All Mikey said was-" He changed his voice to a high pitched, cruel but accurate impression of his youngest brother. "Dudes you've gotta hear this! I'm gonna cry on the floor if you don't come to the dojo right this second!"

"It must be big if Leo wants to tell us." April said. "I mean, all Raph and I dealt with was the Purple Dragons graffiting a stop sign."

"It was a slow night!" Raph protested.

"Maybe they saw Karai?" Casey suggested. That was really the only thing he could think of.

Mikey bounded into the dojo, followed by an extremely disgruntled Donnie, who made a big show of standing as far away from Casey as possible.

"What's all this about?" Donnie asked.

The single light bulb above them started to burn out. The team heard shuffling from behind the large tree, and a shadowy figure approached them, stepping into the dimly lit middle area. He dramatically raised his head, looking grim.

"You're probably wondering why I called you here this evening." Leo said, glancing at Mikey, who of course already knew and was wiggling with excitement.

"Well, yeah. Spit it out, already." Raph said impatiently.

Leo ignored him. "Mikey and I encountered something tonight. Another mutant. We thought we caught them all or made allies with them but..."

"What?" His emerald eyes widened.

"What is it?" Donnie pressed.

"A dragon!" Mikey interrupted. "A humongous dragon! He had razor sharp teeth and claws!" He paused. "Actually he kinda reminded me of Leatherhead but way less friendly."

"Dragons aren't real, meathead." Donnie grumbled. "They're completely made up fictional stories."

"Have you ever seen a dragon before? Huh? Have you Donnie?" Mikey retorted, cloudy blue eyes filled with a sense of innocence that truly believed dragons were real- but also with a stubborn pride to prove his genius brother wrong. A common occurrence between the two youngest brothers.

"No but-"

"See?" Mikey looked triumphedley at Donnie, then turned back to Leo. "Continue,"

"Like I...and I guess Mikey was saying, we know it's some type of reptile. Not a dragon for sure, but something."

"Any distinctive features?" Donnie asked, snark evident in his tone. "There are over 8000 living species of reptiles, so you might need to be more specific."

"Ah, shut up Brainiac." Raph groaned.

"He's got a point though." Casey pointed out. "Not that I'm agreeing with him- I mean...there are like, a lot of reptiles out there."

"We didn't get a close look at it, I'm afraid. We had to retreat. Whatever it was, it was tough."

"And...kinda scary." Mikey said, hiding behind his oldest brother wearily.

"Fear is the path to the dark side, Mikey." Leo said firmly, patting his head. "Don't let your fear cloud your judgment. We can take it on. Just like we always do."

The group stared at the leader blankly.

"Did you really just quote Yoda?" April said, covering her mouth to stop her giggles.

"Wh- nooo..." Leo blushed, leaning against the tree in a failed attempt to seem casual. "Why would I do that? That's totally ...lame." Clearing his throat, he continued: "Tomorrow we'll hold a stake out to find this mutant. I'm thinking they may have a chance to be an ally. Any questions?"

Mikey raised his hand. "Are you sure we can't have a pizza out instead? I'm not really a fan of steak and-"

"Any relevant questions?"

"Has it done any actual damage?" April tilted her head.

"It looked more scared than anything, actually." said Leo. "That's why I think we can convince it to join our allegiance."

"And if it isn't willing? Suppose it isn't up for prancing through a meadow with us and decides to kill us all?" Raph said. "Because our track record with friendly mutants tends to be a mixed bag."

"You didn't answer my question, did it do any damage?"

Leo chewed on his lip. "So...don't freak out but, it- she- he? Er- they looked very hungry and did attempt to spit on us. With acid. Or venom or whatever." He pressed on, despite the horrified looks of his peers. "It'll be okay! I have full confidence we can handle this as a team."

"So let me get this straight, Leo." Raph said, moving forward to his brother. "You almost got killed by this monster and your next course of action is: let's be friends! Are you out of your shell? That plan works just as well as Casey and Donnie baking cookies together!"

"For once I agree with Raph." Donnie said, earning a very disgruntled look from his brother.

"I didn't say friends, just figure out their motives." Leo mumbled.

"Whatever you say, Fearless." Raph pushed his brother aside roughly. "Good luck with that. I'm gonna check out Bloody Deaths III, anyone wanna play with me? Casey?"

"Sure," Casey felt his phone buzz. An anxious text from his twelve year old sister Riley snapped him back to reality. "Ah...actually can't. My little sister is getting worried. See you guys tomorrow?"

"Yeah, whatever."

"No worries. Older brother duties call." Leo nodded.

"Don't worry Raph, I'll play with you!" Mikey

"So will I." Leo agreed, happy to relax for a little bit. "How about you guys?" He glanced at Donnie and April, the last remaining members still inside the dojo.

"Just a moment. I'll be right there." April confirmed.

"Don't keep us waiting," Raph cracked his knuckles.

As they were leaving the dojo, Donnie felt a tap on his shoulder. Spinning around, he faced the beaming freckled face of April O' Neil.

"Hey!" She said cheerfully, blue eyes bright and curious.

"Er, um, hey!" He echoed, voice raising several octaves as puberty decided to betray him. He was grateful his brothers were in the other room, babbling about the video game Raph found in the dumpster. No doubt they would be teasing him about his failed attempt at flirting.

"I wanted to talk to you." April said.

"About the new mutant? Because I didn't get a chance to see it-"

"No, no." She interrupted, nudging his shoulder playfully. He blushed at the contact. "I meant about you and Casey. Everything turned out okay?"

Donnie fought the urge to groan. Of course it was about Jones. Instead, he bit his tongue, smiled sweetly and said: "He was...okay." he waved his hand vaguely.

April grinned, relieved. "Wow, that's way better than I expected!"

Donnie narrowed his eyes.

"What I mean is, you two are my closest friends. Seeing you two butt heads, act like you hate each other- it hurts." She explained. "So it's nice seeing my two best buds get along.

'Best ...buds.' Donnie thought to himself, analyzing each word carefully. 'So maybe she isn't interested in him. That boy with his cocky grin and his stupid egotistical-'

"Casey mentioned you fixed his arm up too!"

"Huh?"

"His arm...he sprained it and you patched it up."

He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Oh, that." He chuckled. "Wait...he told you?"

"Yeah, he seems grateful but obviously too 'macho' to admit that."

"It wasn't really anything special."

"But it was, Donnie." April's eyes twinkled. "It was a really nice thing to do. I'm just...so happy you two are finally getting along. Thank you. I knew you would eventually!"

"Heh, well you know."

April chuckled, taking his hand as they walked to the pit.

Mikey sprung up from his beanbag chair. "Yuck, did you two kiss?" He gagged.

April rolled her eyes. "Wouldn't you like to know."

Raph pretended to throw up into his bowl of popcorn while Leo just laughed fondly.

"Take a seat you guys." He said. "We're about to start the game!"

"Actually I think I might call in early tonight." Donnie faked a yawn. "I'm so ...tired."

"You? Sleep?" Raph snorted. "If you didn't want to hang out with us, you could just say that. I don't think I've seen you go in your room since you were thirteen, Don."

"That's not true..." Donnie's cheeks flushed.

"Aw, leave him be." April said, grabbing a handful of popcorn despite Raphael's protests. "He needs his rest."

"Yeah, you do look significantly greener than normal, dude." Mikey pointed out. "So to speak."

"Go get some rest." Leo said, raising a comforting hand to Donatello's shoulder. "That's an order from your leader."

"Well...goodnight then. Have fun." Donnie added an extra fake yawn for added effect, then retreated to the lab when they looked the other way.

~•~

Donatello checked his very messy notes, examining each point with precision. If he wasn't exact, weeks, heck, months of research would be a waste. He wasn't going to let anyone, let alone Casey Jones ruin his process. The lack of sleep already made his work sloppy.

"Add the dose of norepinephrine, stir carefully with the calibrated mutagen..." He mumbled under his breath. "Then wait ten minutes before..."

But he couldn't get that terribly charismatic smirk out of his mind. That no nothing, cocky little son of a-

"Focus Donnie. Don't think about him."

"Talking to yourself again I see."

"Gah!" Donnie yelped, practically doing ballet leaps as he grabbed the nearly fallen canister. He turned around to face his older, but significantly shorter brother. "Hamato Raphael!" He squeaked shrilly.

"Ooh using the full name on me." Raph snickered. "What did I do to deserve that?"

"How long have you been here?"

Raph shrugged, poking the bunsen burner. "Eh, long enough."

"Weren't you suppose to be playing that dumb game with the others?"

"Yeah, and we beat it." He said, piercing green eyes staring him down with a sense of judgement. "And I thought you were supposed to be sleeping. Shoulda have known you'd be back in your Nerd Cave." He flicked Donnie's arm.

"Why are you here?"

"Okay, twenty questions, is it against the law to see my baby brother?"

Donnie folded his arms. "Since when do you ever visit me for no reason?"

"Because I'm such a kind, caring brother?" He looked away guiltily. "Who simply wanted to check on you? Is that such a terrible thing, Donatello?" He leaned forward, dropping the act to return to his usual deadpan tone. "Also my motorcycle needs fixing."

"Ah, there it is."

"Watch the snark, I need it fixed soon."

"Fine, fine." Donnie sighed. "I will."

"Good, 'cause Casey and I are gonna hit the streets with that baby." He said smugly.

Donnie wilted. "Jones?"

Raph raised his eyebrows. "Yeah, Casey Jones. Human, dark hair, lots of missing teeth...this tall? Ring any bells? Oh, right. Forgot you and him had this thing going on..."

"It isn't about that." Donnie said quickly. "We...him and I..."

"You know, seeing you two act like idiots around each other isn't gonna help the team out. Even Mikey thinks it's stupid."

First April, now Raph? And apparently Mikey too...

"I don't care about what you and Jones do, it isn't really my business." Donnie cooled down, trying to tame his temper. "And we're trying, truly trying, at least I am to be civil."

"Hmph, yeah right."

"And ...I don't care if you two spend time together. Why should I? We aren't even friends!"

"Okay, okay." Raph raised his hands in surrender. "I'm going to bed. You should too by the looks of it. After my bike is finished, of course."

Donnie grunted.

"And Donnie?"

"Hm?"

"Who exactly are you trying to convince? Me or yourself?"

Donatello didn't have an answer.

~•~

Everything hurt. From the depths of her scaly toes, to her ferocious gaping mouth.What was she? She didn't know anymore. A monster? A freak? Any humanity she had left, was a clouded memory and there was no turning back. She struggled to move, still becoming accustomed to her new features. Four legs were harder to maneuver than two, but she made do.

She slivered across the murky water, pains in her stomach growling from lack of proper food. She couldn't recall the last time she had a warm meal. She lifted her head, silver grey eye slits opening. . In what she lost, her human form, her hair, and sense of a normal life- she had gained quite a few things too. A keen sense of smell, for one. Her eyesight had improved too. She had also gained an olive green tail, which helped with her balance.

'As long as I don't need those pesky glasses anymore.' She thought to herself bitterly. Those horrid things were the cause of her harassment when she was a human. Now she would have the last laugh. They would cower in fear if they saw what she looked like now.

Her stomach grumbled again.

But yet...those turtles she encountered. So tasty looking...so delectable. They would satisfy her pain.

She stared at the mutant's reflection. It blinked when she blinked. It moved its tail when she flicked it.

This was her life now. She might as well make the most of being a monster.

She had work to do.

#TMNT 2012 #teenage mutant ninja turtles #ninja turtles #tmnt fanfic #tmnt #donatello #casey jones #jontello

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jackdawyt · 4 years

Video

youtube

We’ve finally reached the moment my channel was created for, BioWare officially revealed a brand-new behind the scenes trailer that showcased many gameplay prototypes, concept artwork pieces and next-gen footage that each demonstrate Dragon Age 4’s current production stages, building an overall mood of the game’s vision and direction. And it’s just the best thing to come out of this year.

Saria and myself have already broken down the trailer’s concept art, and gameplay shots in an incredible 45-minute video, that you need to check out if you’re remotely interested in the next Dragon Age game.

However, today I’m delving into every single piece of information that surrounds this new trailer, as we’ve got plenty of news, tweets and tidbits to delve into!

First up though, before the trailer’s release we had a few related tweets from the team regarding the current production of the game.

Production Updates:

In late July, Mark Darrah tweeted some updates about Dragon Age 4’s development. He said: “I realize that most of you are here for Dragon Age news and there hasn't been a lot of that lately...

Let me just run down some things I can say:

1. We are working on the next Dragon Age

2. Yes we are working from home

3. Working from home is harder

4. We are making progress”

Continuing from that, John Epler retweeted Darrah’s post and said: “WFH is hard! But we're figuring it out, a little better every day. I miss lunches with my team, though.”

And, Patrick Weekes tweeted: “An exhausting but productive week, with a bunch of folks across the Narrative team coming together for Writer Voltron to look at some stuff and figure out how to make it better. Harder over Zoom, but worth it nevertheless.”

@stoner_gordon asked Patrick: “Writer Voltron? Maybe I’m slow today but what do you mean by that?”

Patrick Weekes replied: “There are things writers can work on for awhile by ourselves. Followers, or individual quests. But some stuff is owned by multiple writers, so we set aside time for all of us (plus non-writers involved with Narrative) to get together and hash things out. That’s Writer Voltron.

It is mostly a TON of meetings. We go over content and see what works and what doesn’t. It’s also the time where we make big narrative decisions as a team (or make big proposals we then bring to other affected departments).

Examples of stuff we decide at things like this:

- Hey, this big story element doesn’t work

- How should we do romances?

- Hey, this big huge thing is unclear

- Does it feel like we’re all making the same game?

We have a great team. It’s positive. We’re all exhausted by Friday.”

This was a very interesting look at how the writing team are pushing forward during the current world situation, ensuring that each writer can push on with individual work, while tasks that are assigned to many writers are slightly trickier, the team are working it out, while staying as safe as possible. And, I’m always eager to hear how certain things like individual quests, followers and romances are being developed.

Dragon Age Website Update:

With the new trailer’s release, the Dragon Age website was updated. The trailer itself ended on the notion of visiting DragonAge.com.

Upon impact to the site, there’s a red lyrium wallpaper with a slogan that says:

The world needs a new hero. Will you answer the call?

“Journey into the world of Thedas in Dragon Age™. Discover new adventures full of striking characters, powerful magic, and rich storytelling. Meet an incredible number of Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and Qunari in a realm where every decision you make echoes across history.”

New protagonist, new adventures, striking characters, powerful magic, rich storytelling, a roster of races with every decision having rippling effects in the world. Each quality that truly define a Dragon Age game. Very exciting to see this!

Behind The Scenes Trailer:

Onwards to the trailer, we have many of the amazing developers sharing plenty of insights into the next Dragon Age game’s vision and development.

Casey Hudson stated their using next generation technology, which will be Anthem’s codebase and tools of the Frostbite engine, to bring the world and characters of Dragon Age to life. And the team are still in early production, I’ve estimated that they’ve been in production stages for around 15 months, since May 2019.

Casey Hudson (General Manager): “We’ve been using next generation technology to bring the world and characters of Dragon Age to life. We’re still in early production.”

Gameplay Designer Melissa Janowicz spoke about creating bosses and how she helps with many of the creature designs, mostly doing the big threats we’ll go up against. This trailer’s concept art certainly paints a picture of many dark, evil monsters to defeat.

Melissa Janowicz (Gameplay Designer): “We’re very experimental here at BioWare, so we’re always coming up with new stuff.”

“I actually design bosses; I help with the creature design team as well. So, I do all of the big threats you have to go up against.”

The Creative Director, and previous Art Director, Matthew Goldman shared that Dragon Age is all about mystery, and hard-boiled detective stories, which is an egg-cellent pun. All wrapped up in a fantasy setting, with an original world.

Matthew Goldman (Creative Director): “The world of Dragon Age has really got it all, it’s got frontier stories, it’s got mystery, it’s got hard-boiled detective stories. And of course, it’s all wrapped up in kind of a fantasy setting.”

“This is an original world, original flora, original wildlife, original architecture, that makes it fun to explore and discover.”

Executive Producer, and proficient teaser, Mark Darrah shared that in the next Dragon Age, we get an opportunity to see new things, new places, and interact with people who lived and grew up in these spaces as well.

There’s a huge emphasis on characters we haven’t met yet, because of course, the Inquisition declared it would look for new people to deal with Solas. We’re going to Northern Thedas, we should expect brand new characters to fall in love with.

Mark Darrah (Executive Producer): “In the next Dragon Age, we get an opportunity to see new things, new places, and interact with people who lived and grew up in these spaces as well.”

Mastermind, and Lead Writer Patrick Weekes shared about the game that currently working on, and how they want to tell a very different story about what happens when you don’t have power, what happens when the people in charge aren’t willing to address the issues.

This time around, we’re playing as a new hero, with not nearly as enough power like the Inquisitor, but instead someone who most likely comes from humble tidings, at a guess, someone like a spy, Antivan Crow, or Lord of Fortune.

No matter the role, our main character will have many conflicts with the predominate people in charge, as they aren’t willing to tackle the issues at stake. I can assume many ideas of course, perhaps the Tevinter Magisterium, The Qunari Invasion, or the Dread Wolf’s scheme.

Whatever powerful force that may ignore the ongoing issues, there’s going to be a lot of conflict from what can assume is going forward thanks to Tevinter Nights.

Patrick Weekes (Lead Writer): “For the game we’re working on now, we want to tell a story – what happens when you don’t have power, what happens when the people in charge aren’t willing to address the issues.”

Arby’s Enthusiast, and Narrative Director John Epler spoke on the things we can expect in the next instalment, there are going to be stories that focus on the people around you, and the friends and family you make.

Every Dragon Age game is about the family we create along the way, expecting more of that, lightens my heart!

John Epler (Narrative Director): “The things you can expect in the next instalment are going to be stories that focus on the people around you, and the friends and family you make.”

“I just love the possibilities that Dragon Age offers us, and I’m excited to explore a lot more of them.”

Associate Producer Jen Cheverie shared that something we’ll be able to look forward to in the next Dragon Age are really close relationships with game characters who really become real for you. I’m so excited to see how relationships and friendships develop in the next game.

Jen Cheverie (Assoc. Producer): “Something we’ll be able to look forward to in Dragon Age is a really close relationship with game characters who really become real for you.”

Foundation Technical Director, Jon Renish, with an amazing beard, spoke on how BioWare want characters to either be loved or hated, the best examples of that is Solas. Half of the community wants to kill him, half the people want to marry him, then another part want to do both.

The fact that the devs can stir these reactions, proves that BioWare can and will create characters that move, and shape us.

If they can make you love or hate a character, they’ve successfully made you care for this world, even if hate is that motivator. However, if you felt nothing for a character, then you wouldn’t have these strong reactions, and wouldn’t feel as connected to the world, or that character.

Jon Renish (Foundation Technical Director): “We want characters to either be loved or hated, one of the best examples of that is Solas. Half of the community wants to kill him, half the people want to marry him, then another part want to do both.”

Lead Creature Animator, Esther Ko confirmed that Dragon Age 4 is being created using motion-matching technology, that will ensure characters will be as realistic as possible, from the way they walk, move and interact.

We saw a sneak peak of Solas’s facial animations, and we can already see the improvement of graphical fidelity and animation quality.

Esther Ko (Lead Creature Animator): “BioWare and EA have been one of the forerunners in using motion matching technology, and that makes it way more realistic for when you're looking at the characters, the way the walk and move, and interact in the world.”

Writer Slyvia Feketekuty spoke on how players want suspension of their disbelief, to believe that the bunch of pixels that make up these characters are actually a living, breathing soul.

Slyvia Feketekuty (Writer): “Players want that suspension of disbelief that this wonderful collection of digital pixels is actually a living breathing soul.”

Gameplay Director Andre Garcia said that choice is a big part of what Dragon Age is as a franchise, the decisions you make can affect change in the world. Reiterating that the next Dragon Age will most certainly surround our choices, with consequences for each.

Andre Garcia (Gameplay Director): “Choice is a big part of what Dragon Age is as a franchise, the decisions you make can affect change in the world.”

Adding more fuel to the fire for choices and consequences, RPG Programmer Katrina Barkwell spoke on decision-making meaning that a party member lives, or a party member dies. Ultimately, choice making means owning your outcome and reactivity to the choices that you do make.

Katrina Barkwell (RPG Programmer): “Decision-making can mean that a party member lives, or a party member dies. And it means owning your outcome and reactivity to the choices that you do make.”

I said in my breakdown, and I’ll say it again here, it was very nice to see a few of the developers that we love and support in this trailer, sharing vital information on the next game. The story about Dragon Age 4’s development is all about the people creating it, and I am so glad that BioWare have an amazing, tremendously talented bunch of people who know what Dragon Age is.

Adding to that, it was so wholesome to see many of the other developers on a zoom call, showing how despite the current world situation, they’re doing all they can to push the development of the next Dragon Age.

Key Trailer Features:

Moving on, throughout the trailer, we had many key features highlighted.

The in-engine shots showcase the next-gen improved fidelity and quality of the Frostbite engine. The reveal of Solas’s facial animations indicate more realistic and life-like animations and scenes, just look at his pearly white teeth, and how his face folds.

And the Gameplay shots reveal a character playing as a warrior, with a sword and shield, wearing Grey Warden armour. Most certainly, the character is a champion specialization, indicated by the “Line in the Sand” ability.

We see them evading, blocking, shield bashing, and preparing to strike. The camera placement is solid, I really like the angle it currently has, I’m hoping it stays like this.

The spider with hands is incredibly frightening, however, beautifully animated. I just hope it’s not going to grab items like the barrel, and throw them at us, when approaching combat.

Two brand-new voice actors were revealed: Jee Young Han & Ike Amadi

Jee Young Han previously appeared in Anthem, as the character Sentinel Dax. In Dragon Age 4, conceptually, she’s playing a character called “Bellara”, whom I’d suspect is a dwarf, given that Qunari and Dwarves generally have American voice actors. Not to mention her dialogue line of something being “the good kind of rumble.”

Ike Amadi, also appeared in a previous BioWare title, being Mass Effect 3, as he played Javik! It seems he’s playing a character by the name of Davrin. Who is most certainly a Grey Warden, indicated by his dialogue? Perhaps he’s the Grey Warden in Tevinter Nights’ cover, considering none of the characters on the book’s cover appeared in the actual book?

Concept Art:

Moving on, the majority of the trailer features amazing conceptual artwork that reflects the mood, tone, story threads and narrative beats that the developers would like the final game to take inspiration from.

Equally, that means the concepts may or may not appear in the finished project, it’s too early to tell. However, that doesn’t mean we shouldn't pass on dissecting and inspecting the art pieces, because we get a sense of BioWare’s vision, scope and direction for Dragon Age 4.

Adding to this, Patrick Weekes tweeted about how concept art is used to create a mood, not to outrightly confirm things, but for a framework. While some concepts may excite you, like “Harley Qun”, don’t get attached just yet because they may, and will change.

To quote Weekes: “We can't answer questions right now about who is or isn't a follower or what story choices we're making. Beyond giving away too much too early, we could also give you the wrong impression and leave you disappointed later. Or we might need to change things between now and ship.

What I can say is that I personally am proud and excited about the game we're making. I hope that came through in the video. I also hope you have fun speculating, even if we can't answer questions right now. You all made a lot of devs' days yesterday. Thanks.”

So, while it’s absolutely fun, and amazing to speculate about what these concepts may relate to, and the direction of the next game, don’t get too attached just in case certain plot threads or characters are cut or changed.

Needless to say, me and Saria still have plenty of speculation videos coming up following the trailer, because we find enjoyment in speculation, and seeing how far off from the truth we were when the game actually does ship, I think that’s a good mindset to have.

Regarding the trailer as a whole, I think it’s fair to say it was created as a reaction to what was shown at EA Play. A lot of the fanbase, and people in general were upset with what was shown, however, BioWare listened to us, and delivered this behind the scenes trailer, two months after.

We can tell it was recently filmed too, not to get too stalker-ry, but Patrick Weekes dyed their hair on the 19th, June, which was a day after EA Play.

If they had done so before, Weekes’ would’ve had their natural hair-colour in the trailer.

So, even with the current world situation, the developers took the time to film and create this amazing BTS trailer. Speaking on behalf of the entire DA fandom, thank you so much BioWare for giving us a trailer while in very early-production stages. It has been the saving grace of 2020.

Romance Teases:

In other news, we have a few Weekes Tweets that regard romance in the future.

Patrick Weekes retweeted @nevarran-novice saying: “This is my formal request that BioWare give us at least one emotionally damaging romance for every Dragon Age game. Like, literally scoop my soul out and throw it at the wall with the angst. Please.”

Patrick replied with: “I mean I like happy romances with fun positive endings, but the customer is always right!”

It really is true; we all love pain and tragedy in this fandom, as we play Lost Elf theme at 1 am, sobbing in the night. I’m not the only one, right?

Patrick Weekes tweeted: “Hi, sorry, stumbled across this while looking for something else. Just wanted to say:

- Disliking a character or ship is totally valid and does not hurt my feelings

- Coming into someone’s space to say that what they like or dislike is wrong is bad, sorry that happened to you.

And in games with romances, I believe that the same-sex romances should offer the same spectrum of sweet-to-spicy that the straight options do. If all our m/m romances feel dirty while our m/f romances range from romantic to raunchy, then we need to do better.

This clearly hints to BioWare making their future romances more tasteful for every type of romance, which is always good, more inclusivity for everyone! In my honest opinion, I don’t need sex scenes to drive romances, while I’m sure I’d love one for a potential Qunari female wife, I don’t need, or desire them for every single character. Sex and romance in moderation; while being tasteful, sounds perfect in my opinion.

In the concept artwork, we saw a sexy, Qunari female, that many of us have dubbed the nickname “Harley Qun”, while it’s really hard not to get attached, it’s nice to see BioWare making this character idea more of a reality.

In 2017, a fan asked Weekes about the idea of a strong female Qunari companion. Weekes replied: “definitely a chance. We like doing character types we haven’t down before, and that would be a biggie in hypothetical future game.”

So, while Harley is still just a concept design, there’s much potential for her in the future. I wonder if Patrick is writing her too, not that I’m basing my news on retweets, but Patrick has been retweeting a lot of her fanart. But that could just be because we’re already obsessed with her.

Final romance related tweet, because I didn’t know where else to put this one... Patrick Weekes tweeted: “Is "Dick in a Box" formally a Lonely Island song, or is it technically SNL? It's for work.”

So, erm. Yep, there’s that.

Mark....:

Mark Darrah tweeted: “No release date to share at this time…” Obviously as a joke, for those who don’t know, the next Dragon Age is at least 2-3 years away, according to EA’s 2019 earnings call.

Next Comic:

As a final, very exciting news update, Nunzio DeFillipis, the amazing Dragon Age comic writer, alongside with his wife, Christian Weir posted on Tumblr about the potential of a new comic mini-series:

They replied to autopotion asking about the future of the comics, saying:

“We have another miniseries planned - and it would have come out this year if not for the current world situation shutting down the industry. We don’t want to promise anything, because everything is so up in the air with the entire world right now. But what we can say is that if and when there is another miniseries, it will wrap up the story we’ve been telling since Knight Errant. We will then aim to tell more stories, but one thing at a time.”

“Wish we could say more. Because we have a LOT to say, we promise. Hopefully we can talk about things soon.”

As an absolute fan of each of the Dragon Age comics, the fact that most certainly another one is on its way, and it will end the narrative since Knight Errant excites the crap out of me. Originally, it seems we would’ve had two comic launches this year, Blue Wratih to start year, and one following from that, ending 2020.

I imagine we’ll see this project back on track soon. It sounds as if this one may be a conclusion to the current comic roster, and after that, we may get brand new stories explored in other comics. While that’s quite far off, I adore this team behind the comics, and eagerly await an update to their stories.

With all that said, that’s a wrap for this most exciting news update, I’m honestly so excited to be creating Dragon Age content at the moment, making videos that I’ve dreamed about creating for so long. Check out my latest breakdown, and if you’re new, why not follow me, you’re in the best place to be informed on all things Dragon Age related. From the lore to speculation and news, I have it all here.

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nellied-reviews · 4 years

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Box 953 Re-listen

Well, I got a bit side-tracked by life (seriously, I had to take an impromptu trip to a consulate!) but I am back, and just in time for episode 8 of Wolf 359:

Box 953

In which Eiffel finds a mysterious box, Hilbert really wants to avoid the quarterly talent show and Minkowski is the very model of a modern major general.

Sometimes I'm surprised by these episodes when I get back round to them. This one? Not so much. I think I actually remembered pretty much everything relevant about this episode, going into it: Eiffel is avoiding Minkowski, finds a mysterious box, the mysterious box gets blown up before we see what’s inside it.

And in general, I do like the episode a lot. It's funny, after all, and it does that thing that I'm noticing a lot on the re-listen where the show throws out a big weird mystery, then ends up dropping it with a theatrical shrug of the shoulders. It's a smart thing to do, because all of the unanswered questions ("Do those transmissions really come from Earth?", "There's a plant monster on the loose!", "What's with that weird voice?", "What's in the box?") could be answered in the future, but could just as easily not be. Sure, some of them are super important and interesting in hindsight. But burying the plot-relevant questions under a heap of less relevant but equally intriguing questions disguises them, and means that we're surprised when something like, say, that weird ghost voice comes back later on. Plus it creates the impression that the Hephaestus itself is a setting full of mysteries and weird things. Which is fun.

As we begin, though, all we know is that Eiffel, for whatever reason, is hiding from Minkowski in a store room. Why? Turns out, Minkowski is worryingly invested in their quarterly talent show, while Eiffel is... less than enthusiastic.

And look, I am easily pleased. The idea of the four crew members being forced to participate in a mandatory talent show is very funny to me. The fact that this is quarterly - and so they have, presumably, already suffered through several of them - makes me smile a lot. Eiffel and Hilbert being united in their dread of it? Awesome. I love it. Honestly, it makes me want to consume and/or write fanfic about the Hephaestus' previous talent shows, and the shenanigans that I just know must have been involved.

An another level, though, can we also stop to appreciate how seriously Minkowski takes it all? It's played for laughs throughout, sure, but I do like the fact that Minkowski is the sort of person to go all out and just unselfconsciously embrace the talent show. Her love of musical theatre is so joyful and pure, and I really appreciate it. I think, on some level, it even makes her a more interesting character; instead of going down the well-trodden "I'm a badass with a secret love of something cheesy, which I'm horribly embarrassed of" route, she goes for "I'm a badass with totally non-secret love of something cheesy, which I am totally open and unashamed of." It's a sign of self-confidence, I think, plus a reassuring reminder that Commander Minkowski, badass extraordinaire, nerds out just as hard as the rest of us. (Plus, you really can't be a fan of G&S and take yourself all that seriously, because come on...)

Anyway, the conversation Minkowski and Eiffel then have, and Eiffel's ensuing log entry is just enough to give some tantalising hints of what past talent shows have involved (smoke rings? poetry readings?) before Hilbert calls Eiffel, desperate to avoid the talent show. And his solution? Knock Minkowski out. Because it's Hilbert, so of course that's the answer. *Sighs*.

While Hilbert gets going with that, then, all that remains is for Eiffel to explore the store room. And while this isn’t super relevant, it is a great excuse for a Night Vale-style list of Improbable Weird Things. And seriously, pretty much every single object here is worthy of mention. We have eyeless Russian dolls straight out of a horror movie. We have letters to Santa, a revelation whose implications are both hilarious and baffling. We have Chekhov's cannon, which totally won't be relevant later in the episode.

And in among all this, Eiffel mentions Goddard Futuristics by name for the very first time, which actually surprised me. I thought they'd already come up, since in hindsight, they really do have their fingers in everything going on up on the Hephaestus, even in the first few episodes. But I guess this is their first official mention? And to be fair, I do remember assuming, early on, that this was a military mission. So this is probably the point where we are aware, for the first time, of the corporate context of it all, and the fact that it's Goddard who are basically running a for-profit private army here. Which is... fun.

The dystopian side of that is brushed aside here, though, in favour of just revelling in the out-there weirdness of all the stuff that Goddard have stored up on the Hephaestus. L-shaped Lego pieces? 3 suits of armour? The partial skull of megafauna specimen 58 "to be handled with a vague feeling of existential dread"? It's Warehouse 13, in space!

It's also kind of heartening to see how excited Eiffel is by all this. Like, I know that he essentially got forced to go to space, but he really does have the sense of adventure for it. There's something very sweet about how not-jaded and enthusiastic Eiffel gets, as soon as he encounters something new. And then the plot thickens when he discovers the titular Box 953, which is reserved for Douglas Eiffel. What could possibly be in it? Eiffel, ever curious, is clearly desperate to know.

Before we find out, of course, we're interrupted by Hilbert, whose plan to knock Minkowski out has hone horribly wrong - he's just gotten her drunk. Even better, we get Minkowski's drunken rendition of "I am the very model of a modern major general" in the background during all of this, and kudos to Emma Sherr-Ziarko, because every single thing drunk!Minkowski says from here on out is amazing. From making pirate costumes, to nearly shooting Hilbert over ice cream, to the little hiccup she does, everything about Minkowski here is perfect and wonderful.

It doesn't distract Eiffel for long, though, and soon he's asking Hera what's in the box. She doesn't know, though, and actually can't access those files at all. Instead, she gets the message "Error, inappropriate security clearance", which is pretty creepy. It's the second time in as many episodes, after all, that we hear somebody who isn't Hera speaking through the Hephaestus, and it's a reminder of just how many secrets the station potentially holds. And so all we learn, in the end, is that Box 953 is weird. It's huge, and bolted in place, and it's cold to the touch. Plus it's making a heart beat kind of sound? It's at this point, I noticed, that the background music also cuts away, and we’re left with a weird crackling noise as Eiffel goes to open it. Spooky.

Every part of me was expecting this to be a Pandora's box-type scenario where Eiffel's opening the box would unleash something terrible and all hell would break loose. So when we hear something explode, it seems like confirmation of this... except when we cut back to Eiffel, several in-universe hours later, we learn that the problem wasn't Eiffel opening the box. In fact, Eiffel didn't manage to open the box; the explosion was from Minkowski setting off the cannon. It seems like a lot happened in the three hour gap in the recording (not least, Minkowski ended with burns and frostbite?) and as a result, Box 953 was lost to the vacuum of space. Bummer.

And then that's it. Episode over. Everyone is safe and well, and the station is fine. But we don't learn what was in the box, and I don't think it really come up again? I googled it, and I think I saw a suggestion that it's the simulation-y machine from Change of Mind? But I don't remember the connection really being commented on, and even then it doesn't explain why it's specifically Eiffel's name on the box now. Like... what situation would Command have been expecting him to use it in? Why? How? So many questions, all of them unanswered!

And I suppose that's fine, at the end of the day. I enjoyed this episode, I loved the talent show idea, and I didn't mind the weird storeroom bits. I can imagine that some people probably felt cheated by the lack of answers we got here - and Eiffel's own anger and frustration as the episode ends maybe feels like a concession to those people. But personally, I'm more than willing to leave it as a riddle for the ages. If this had developed into something more later on, that would have been fun. As it is, I didn't mind it one bit, though. As long as you don't overdo it, weirdness for weirdness' sake can be plenty entertaining.

Plus, drunk Minkowski is a gift to us all :)

Miscellaneous thoughts:

So I checked out the poem that got name-dropped in this episode, Sylvia Plath's Lady Lazarus, and holy smokes, disturbing much? In an interesting kind of way, sure, but still disturbing...

"You can't solve all your problems by knocking them out." "You know, people keep saying that, and yet my problems keep going away."

D'awww Hilbert is enjoying this, isn't he?

I bet your alcohol tolerance goes way down in space. Hmm...

"Eiffel, you do not understand, there is singing."

"Swashes and buckles, Hilbert, swashes and buckles."

Also, it sounds like Hera has absolutely no objections to the talent show, and is just busy practicing her lines? What a cutie ^-^

"I don't know if it was a warning shot or if she just missed." Scared Hilbert is 100% not what I'm used to.. Is this the most frightened we ever hear him?

Don't think I missed Eiffel finding Dr. Fourier's diary :'( (another thing linking this episode to Change of Mind?)

#wolf 359 #wolf359 #w359 #wolf 359 relisten #box 953 #nellied reviews #a solidly entertaining episode #and pleasantly low-stakes #I would 100% watch a version of Warehouse 13 set in space

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afni-fics · 3 years

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Elder Scrolls DC - A Reluctant Dragonborn - Chapter 10: Bleak Falls Barrow - Interior (part 1)

Elder Scrolls DC - A Reluctant Dragonborn - Chapter 10: Bleak Falls Barrow - Interior (part 1) by C_R_Scott Chapters: 10/? Fandom: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Red Robin (Comics), DCU (Comics) Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Characters: Tim Drake, Lucien Flavius Additional Tags: Crossover, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Skyrim/DCU crossover, Reluctant Dovahkiin | Dragonborn, Not Beta Read Summary:

The decent into Bleak Falls Barrow begins.

Previous Chapter | Masterlist | Next Chapter

-------------------------

Inside the Barrow, Tim kept good on his promise to the Argonian. He found the other bandits the reptilian man mentioned, and Tim was good to his word. He didn't kill any of the men guarding the entrance into the tunnels, but he certainly beat them down in a way that they wouldn't soon forget.

...Once they all came to, of course.

"Goodness," Lucien said as he toed one of the unconscious bandits by the firepit the criminals had set up for themselves, confirming they were well and truly out. "I don't think I've seen anyone fight like you do with your bare hands... or feet for that matter." He looked to where Tim was busy working the lock of a nearby chest the bandits had set up. "How did you learn to fight with punches and kicks like that?"

Tim didn't respond to Lucien until the lock was successfully cracked and the chest was swung wide open. There wasn't much there, much to Tim's disappointment. Only a couple of gems which he offered to Lucien, a handful of Septims which he pocketed for himself, and an old piece of iron armor that Lucien assured him was fairly worthless, so he left it in the box. "Years of training," he said as if that explained everything, which of course it didn't for Lucien.

"Training where?" the scholar asked as he examined the gems in the firelight.

"Home."

"And where is home?"

Tim sighed. "I thought you were supposed to be investigating the Barrow, not me."

Lucien had enough grace to look sheepish. "I'm sorry, but it turns out you're a very intriguing fellow."

Tim rolled his eyes and grabbed a nearby torch, lighting it with the bandit campfire. "C'mon Lucien. Clearly this is not the inner sanctum of the Barrow. Let's keep moving." He led the way down the tunnels that seemed to go deeper and lower into the mountain itself.

***

Because the tunnels themselves were round, Tim could hear nearly everything moving around ahead of them, most of which ended up being small packs of monstrously large and hostile rats the size of labrador retrievers.

"Good grief... Even the rats are huge," Tim muttered under his breath as he fired an arrow at one of the creatures as it tried to scramble up a circular stairwell to savage his ankles. He felt a twinge of satisfaction as the one he shot ended up tumbling into another that had been trying to run up behind it, causing both to fall off the stairwell entirely to the floor below.

"You mean the skeevers?" Lucien remarked as he examined an old Nordic pendant he found on a nearby table. "Do they not have them where you're from?"

"We just have rats, and they're maybe a fifth of the size of these things," Tim said as nocked one more arrow and shot the final skeever as soon as it came within his sight. At least, despite how repulsive and persistent these rodents were, they were allowing him a lot of target practice with his bow.

Lucien chuckled. "You're homeland is lucky. These vermin are a menace. Careful not to let those bastards bite you. You're liable to get a disease if you're unlucky."

Tim sighed. "And I would be that unlucky." He paused a moment and listened, but heard no more skeevers.

***

It actually took a bit of wandering, but Lucien and Tim finally came across another bandit. Tim had been watching the bandit from the shadows of the corridor leading into the large open room before a barred and apparently locked doorway.

Tim waited there for a moment with Lucien right behind him, as he was planning how to ambush the bandit and knock him out as quickly as possible.

However, the Barrow had other ideas.

The bandit had figured that a large lever in the middle of the room was the key to opening the way into the next room, so he pulled it with barely any hesitation. Unfortunately for him, and much to Tim's horror, the lever did not open anything, but it did release a shower of wicked darts from nearly all sides into the unsuspecting man. The bandit was collapsed to the floor before the trap had finished skewering him.

"Damn it!" Tim cursed as he finally deemed it safe for Lucien and himself to enter the room once the darts had stopped firing.

"Well, at least we know not to pull that lever," Lucien said as he went over to the bandit while Tim surveyed the room. Tim frowned as he quickly identified all the holes the darts had come out of. Everything was aimed squarely at the lever. Such an obvious trap.

"Is there anything we can do for him?" Tim asked Lucien as the scholar picked up one of the darts that had hit the stone floor instead of the bandit.

"No. He's quite dead. I'm certain he was done in well before he even hit the floor." Lucien sniffed the dart cautiously. "I think I catch a whiff of Frostbite Spider venom on these darts as well. If it was just one or two, he might've been able to survive it with a quick dose of anti-venom. Twenty or thirty in one go, though... I think this trap would've felled a giant if they could fit through these tunnels."

Tim sighed and began to examine the barred door. "Well there's got to be a way to move forward." He looked at the way the bars were set up. It was clear these bars were set up in a way to move upward out of the way. However, the mechanism to lift the bars was completely hidden from their vantage point.

"I'll check the upper floor," Lucien said as he pointed to a stairwell that led up to a walkway above the door. "Perhaps there's a switch up there?"

"Maybe," Tim mused as he stepped back to take in the entire bottom level of the room again. Aside from the lever and dead bandit, there wasn't much else about the room except for some carved decorative statues and rubble. Then he paused as he watched Lucien examine some animal carvings on the upper level. "Wait..."

Tim noted the snake carving and the whale on the upper level, and noticed how a third carving, that of another snake, had fallen to the lower floor due to age. Then he looked at three animal carving statues on the immediate left side of the room consisting of two eagles and a whale between them. He went over and started examining the eagle closest to him.

Much to his surprise, the moment he touched the eagle carving, the entire pillar it was resting on shifted. Tim's eyes lit up. "Is it really that simple?" he asked himself under his breath as he put down his bow so he could use both hands to push the pillar on one side. As he anticipated, the entire stone pillar began to turn clockwise, stopping only when the image of another animal, a whale, was now facing forward.

"Did you figure it out?" Lucien called down as he heard the sound of stone scraping against stone and notice what Tim was doing. By the time Lucien came down the stairs, Tim was already moving the third pillar so that the pattern of the pillars matched the pattern that was supposed to have been on the second level.

Snake... Snake... Whale...

"We'll find out in just a moment," Tim said as he went to the lever and pulled it without hesitation.

-------------------------

Warning: This is being pantsed more than plotted, and this is not beta read. We'll see where this journey takes us. Mostly I'm just doing this for my own amusement.

Note1: If you have any questions about the playthrough and Tim's feelings/experiences that aren't described in the chapters, please ask me in the comments. I'll do my best to answer your questions as best I can.

Note2: Part 1 of... a couple of parts. I'm not sure how many parts this trek through the Barrows is going to take. Been busy with work and family the past week, so wasn't able to do much playing or writing, though I really wanted to. With the weather turning bitterly cold recently, I'm definitely carving out some time to write and play this weekend.

#elder scrolls dc #fanfiction #tim drake #skyrim fanfiction #batfam fanfic #red robin #batfam #crossover #lucien flavius #wip #afewnovelideas

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keiziahknight1886 · 4 years

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Change

[Change (A Connor x Reader story based on Detroit: Become Human)]

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen (Machine)

xX0Xx

"That's exactly why you need to be in the emergency room, right now." Connor said, taking a step back. He fiddled with his tie until the knot came undone, before handing it to her.

She looked down at her hand, her nose still dripping, before looking back up at him.

"What's this for?"

"It's to stop your bleeding nose."

"Oh. Right." she said simply before complying, placing the cloth under her nose.

In front of her, Connor's eyes twitched and his LED glowed yellow for a moment before returning to its signature blue.

"I informed Hank, he'll be meeting up with us at the hospital and I've found your car through your phone's GPS system. Let's go." he said, beginning to walk over to the roof deck's entrance before noticing Y/n's fallen gun and picking it up then pocketing it.

Taking a few more steps, he went to open the door before realizing that Y/n didn't move. She stood still, swaying slightly with her hand still holding the beanie up to her nose.

"Y/n, did you hear what I said?"

"Hm?"

"Are you able to walk on your own?"

"I... Can you repeat what you said?" she asked, her eyebrows forming into a scrunched position as her head tilted to the side.

Taking initiative, Connor walked back towards her then kneeled down in front of her, his back towards her. "Come on, I'll carry you."

"Why?"

"Because your concussion is causing you to become disoriented, meaning the quicker we get you to an ER, the less you have to worry about permanent brain damage."

Connor didn't hear any indication of movement from the woman behind him, but when he was about to glance back to check her, she stepped into his looped arms, and wrapped her arms around his shoulder, adjusting for a moment to place the tie back to her nose.

Walking while carrying Y/n on his back didn't pose a challenge at all. Although it was expected, it still surprised Connor how trusting she was of him despite all the events that occurred that, and the previous evening.

Reaching the ground floor, he carefully opened the same emergency exit door both he and Y/n had entered a few minutes earlier.

Scanning the perimeter for any military personnel, Connor took note of the small group of soldiers nearby before walking out of the building and heading the opposite direction.

The snow crunched under him as he walked through the desolate streets, the sensations of electricity crawling up his limbs mimicked the feeling of frostbite. But that didn't matter.

It had been strange, to say the least. He originally just wanted to talk to Y/n in hopes of resolving whatever conflict or misunderstanding they had when they last saw each other in Jericho, and he had been expecting her to be upset with him, but ending up having to fight her was something unprecedented.

Having to hold her like this made him feel foolish to think that he had felt betrayed when she had been right the entire time. In his desire to keep being with her, he had chosen the path that would have permanently separated them.

Had it not been for Y/n's conviction to stop him and help his people, he would have already committed a terrible and irreversible mistake.

He was sure that, because of what had happened, she would be more hesitant around him and would be on her guard even though she was injured, but seeing her lean on him like this and entrust her safety to him, who had been the cause of her current state, was something mind-boggling.

The amount of trust she had for him, the faith she had in him, was something he knew would take time to understand.

He couldn't comprehend why someone like Y/n would still be willing to reach out to him after all that he's done, but he was grateful that she was patient with him. He was thankful that she still chose to help him understand that he was wrong instead of just giving up on him.

"...Y/n?.." he said quietly, noticing that her head was leaning on his shoulder completely, and it was beginning to slide off as he moved.

Stopping himself, he leaned a little more forward to lessen the chances of moving her neck any more than it already has, before glancing around to the buildings around them, scanning their locks.

Fortunately, he was able to access the entrance lock to the building closest to them.

Making sure to not leave too visible tracks, Connor cautiously made his way to the entrance, being careful as he opened then closed the glass door before analyzing the interior layout of the building's lobby. He saw that the front desk was the closest and most accessible place to place Y/n, so he slowly walked over to it.

Kneeling down behind it, he set Y/n down making sure to not move her too suddenly.

Turning around, Connor took a moment to assess her state again.

REQUIRES IMMEDIATE MEDICAL ATTENTION

He pursed his lips before looking down at her eyes.

She was staring right at him with wide eyes. He thought that she was about to say something with her parting lips, but then she just blew air in his face before grinning dazedly. He raised his eyebrows at her in amusement, shaking his head and moving to hold her hand.

Slowly, his eyebrows began knitting themselves together as the corners of his lips fell low enough to form a worried frown.

"Y/n, stay here, alright?"

"Hm?"

Connor let go of her hand then patted her leg before getting off his knees to stand. His optical units detected a lack of movement on the outside of the building, so he didn't see a reason to worry too much about his idea.

Walking over to the glass door entrance, he double-checked for the patrol soldiers. And with the promising sight of the empty street, he slowly opened the door and cautiously stepped out.

He had anticipated the pairs of hands that shot towards his shoulders, ducking then rolling forward and then turning to see the patrol. But he didn't anticipate seeing a familiar face.

Before he could move any more, Captain Allen had shot a warning bullet near Connor's auditory sensors, preventing him from moving any faster. Slowly, he raised his hands and stood up straight. The Captain's expression displayed his recognition immediately. Stepping forward, the Captain lowered his aim before speaking.

"I know you... you're Connor, the android from that hostage situation. I knew we'd meet again." he said calmly, his eyes not so subtly looking at the suspicious attire Connor was dressed in.

"My orders are to detain any androids I find. You're coming with me."

The Captain gestured for his comrades to escort it, beginning to turn around, but Connor spoke up.

"You don't understand!" he said, prompting Captain Allen to turn to face him again. "I have to bring someone- Y/n Anderson to the ER."

The name brought a look of recognition to the Captain's face. But, at the same time, this prompted the man to bring up his handgun again.

"How do you know Y/n Anderson?"

"She's my partner in the DPD... she has severe injuries, and if I don't get her to the hospital soon, she might-"

"Move along, Connor!" the Captain said, his tone adamant, and his team beginning to circle the android.

It stopped spouting whatever it was talking about, and instead surveyed the soldiers around itself, before beginning to walk where they escorted him.

Not lowering his guard, the Captain made sure that Connor and the patrol team were far enough before turning around to look at the building the android had come out of.

There was no indication of any suspicious activity, the only thing that gave Connor's location away being the tracks it made not being very well hidden.

Glancing back to his team, he caught the subtle hint that the android had been glancing back as well.

Scrunching his eyebrows slightly, he let his suspicions get to him and pondered the possibility of Y/n actually being inside, severely injured. Could it be possible that it actually wasn't lying, despite the tracks only indicating that only an individual had entered?

Adjusting his aim, he walked towards the door then entered the building.

Inside was dark. Obviously, since all of the buildings in the area had received instructions to evacuate all of their employees. Looking down to the floor, he took out then turned on his flashlight. A trail of shop prints- Connor's shoe prints, leading to the building's front desk.

With full caution, he walked over to it. But, the sound of nearby gunshots caught his attention, preventing him from investigating any further.

Dashing out of the building, he stepped out to see his patrol team laying in the middle of the street, scattered and unmoving. Connor was nowhere in sight.

Keeping his gun raised, he made his way over to his team with his eyes sweeping over all of his surroundings.

Once he reached his soldiers, he only bent down briefly to check if each of them were unconscious or dead, being sure to look around vigilantly every time beforehand.

None of them were dead. Two had sustained non-lethal gunshot wounds, while the other was unconscious. Standing upright again, he kept his gun up as he began to search around while calling for backup.

A soft beeping sound came from one of the abandoned parked cars behind him, prompting him to turn around abruptly. Keeping his footsteps silent, he stalked over to the car before walking over to check its other side.

A smartwatch.

But before he could fully realize what was happening, he turned to the sound of pounding footsteps towards him before being tackled to the ground, landing on his back and the grip on his firearm coming loose, causing it to clatter across the snowy asphalt.

Pushing himself up, Captain Allen stood up and stepped away just as Connor did the same. From behind him, he unsheathed his combat knife as the android went to throw a punch.

Blocking its first punch that came from the side, Captain Allen deflected the next before attempting to slice at Connor's shoulder. It held up its hand to block him from doing so, before shoving the man back.

Stumbling slightly, Captain Allen steadied himself before throwing hits closer to the android's eyes, his knife coming close to hitting one but Connor stepped to the side suddenly, moving to the other side of the Captain's wrist while turning and hitting the man, then punching the back of his head.

Feeling the impact from behind his head, the Captain felt unsteady but didn't stop. Twisting his body slightly, he attempted to stab Connor in the side, but the android just stepped back.

Bringing up his knife, he attempted to skewer the android's eye then stomach, but it blocked him both times with one hand. Then when he went to plunge it into Connor's shoulder, it grabbed his arm before forcing it away.

With nothing blocking him, Captain Allen used his other hand and punched the android's shoulder in front of him, causing it to let go of his hand and stand back.

Taking a step forward, the Captain threw a wide punch, prompting Connor to duck. Then when he repeated the action, Connor took another step back to dodge before throwing his fist to hit the man square on the jaw.

Forcing himself to become stable after abruptly having to twist his entire body, the Captain didn't have the ability to lessen the blow Connor sent him on the back with a kick. He fell forward, groaning, and extremely disoriented.

From above him, Connor analyzed the statistics of the Captain not passing out from getting hit with the large amount of force he used in his kick. But fortunately, the man allowed himself to fall unconscious, allowing Connor to have a sense of relief.

Looking up from the Captain's body, he analyzed the intersection ahead of him.

Connor's auditory sensors processed the sounds of rapid gunfire before silence filled the streets once again. He had noted the noise of a battle while he fought, but with his focus on making sure the Captain didn't deactivate him, he hadn't had it in mind to check what it was about.

Moving to head back and retrieve Y/n, Connor suddenly felt his consciousness being pulled back-- losing control over his body and no longer feeling the static coldness around him, only to suddenly find himself in a snowstorm.

The scenery was familiar to him, but the weather was far from how it last was, making around him everything feel alien.

Feeling frost beginning to crawl up into the sleeves of his jacket and bite his skin, he wrapped his arms around himself as he looked around in panic for the only program that could summon him to the Zen Garden.

He saw her, but she was turned away from him. Taking a few steps forward, he felt how stiff and cold his body had become, but still forced himself to speak up.

"Amanda? Amanda!..." he called out, prompting her to face him. "What... What's happening?"

"What was planned from the very beginning..."

After listening to Amanda, Connor felt fear and anxiety beginning to prickle through his wiring alongside the bitter cold. As he searched for a solution, a familiar voice echoed through his mind.

"By the way, I always leave an emergency exit in my programs... -make sure you keep her."

On the outside, Y/n couldn't say that she was feeling better, but being able to stand despite the fact that her head felt like the inside of an active dryer probably counted as better.

As she moved, everything around her seemed fuzzy. The air around her bit at her exposed face and she felt like bile was stuck in her throat, waiting to be dispelled every moment she moved too suddenly.

The sounds of sad singing echoed through the streets, coming from who knows where. It all felt like she was lucid dreaming, as opposed to leaning on a car in real life, on a night that would likely be written in history books, too nauseous to move.

But, despite that, she had to check on Connor.

She was aware that he had asked her to stay put before getting her watch, but she would have been caught by whoever ordered for him to be taken away. So, she was right for following her instincts.

A piercing beeping sound cut through the somber voices, causing Y/n to let go of the car she was leaning on, and place her hands over her ears. But after a moment, she slowly uncovered her ears and forced herself to look to the ground and focus.

It was her smartwatch.

Cautiously, she forced her feet forward, then bent down to retrieve the device with her eyes squeezed shut to prevent herself from feeling any more nauseous than she already was.

Making herself stand properly again, she held the device closer to view the text written on its small screen. She winced when she noticed how unnaturally bright it was, but her eyes adjusted to it.

Hank wants access to your GPS

YES or NO

She pressed the "yes" button before pocketing the gadget and moving forward.

Still stumbling along, she, fortunately, found Connor not too far from where she was.

He was in the middle of two intersecting roads, holding up a gun with both of his hands, unmoving.

"...Connor?.." she said, slurred, calling out while moving towards him.

He didn't respond.

When she reached his side, she brought up a hand and waved it over his face. He didn't so much as blink, let alone say anything. Knitting her eyebrows together, Y/n moved to his other side while poking him. He still didn't move.

She looked at the side of his face and saw that his LED was rapidly blinking red.

Her eyes traveled from his temple to his eyes, then to the gun. Well, more like where he aimed the gun. And even though she couldn't see clearly, she realized that it was where the singing was coming from.

Where the deviants probably were.

"Connor, snap out of it." she said, slurred. She attempted to slap the gun out of his hands, but in her dazed weakened state, and the fact that he definitely wasn't going to budge any time soon, it was useless.

Looking around, she tried to think of a solution.

Only one idea came to her mind, and she couldn't help but be a little more than hesitant as she dragged her feet to stand in front of Connor. Using her head as a barrier to hopefully deter him from doing another thing he'd regret.

"Connor? Can you hear me?" she asked, the slur from her concussion almost unnoticeable. Maybe it was the fear of her possible death overcoming her senses, but she wasn't really sure.

To make it worse, a pair of headlights came into view from above his shoulder. The car's shape was familiar enough, but she could only hope that it wasn't who she thought it was, despite the slight glimmer of hope and growing weight of dread.

And her hopes and dreads were confirmed when the car stopped just behind Connor, making Y/n squint her eyes due to her sudden sensitivity of bright lights.

A wide silhouette stepped out of the driver's side seat, slamming the door shut.

"Connor, what the f**k are you doing?" Hank asked as he stomped up to the two of them. He looked to her face, and his eyes visibly widened before he stepped back and drew out his gun. "Y/n, what did this prick do to you!?"

"Dad, stop! I think there's something wrong-"

"Hell yeah, there's something wrong! Your face looks like it's auditioning for the next horror movie, Connor's pointing a gun to your fucking face, and you're just standing there telling me not to shoot this bastard?"

"Yes!"

"Why the f**k not!?"

"Because he's clearly not in the right mind!"

"Not in his right mind, huh?" he said sarcastically, looking at his daughter whose face was half covered in blood and half looking at him with wide eyes. Her whole body leaned forward, and as she held up her hands to tell him to stop, her arms wavered.

Y/n didn't see her father make any significant movements, other than jerkily looking back and forth from her and Connor.

Then a clicking of a gun's safety sounded.

"Dad!.."

The man didn't respond, but just as she thought he was about to shoot, Connor suddenly lowered his aim, looking to the gun for a moment before tossing it to another part of the street. He didn't raise his gaze, however.

"... Connor? Is that you?.."

He nodded, still looking down, with her dad's gun still pointed to his temple. She could feel her lungs getting smaller, her breaths becoming smaller as her father's aim trembled before being brought down. The air around her felt thicker, yet stabbed needles on her skin and in her throat as she inhaled.

Then her father slowly pocketed his gun and turned to her, his hands automatically going to one of her arms and to place itself behind her back.

"Come on, let's go." he said as he began guiding her forward.

She grunted when she tried to move her feet, feeling like her joints had turned into jelly, and another step forward would cause her to fall.

Her dad sighed, then looked to Connor. He seemed to contemplate whatever he planned to say, opening his mouth and closing it, before groaning and dropping his head.

"Connor, a little help here?"

She didn't stay awake for much longer after that. She could recall sitting in her dad's car, beside Connor who was making sure that she didn't injure herself any further while her dad drove.

Then, she remembered falling in and out of consciousness when they finally reached the hospital with Connor nowhere in sight. Her dad was talking to a nurse, and she knew that she was lying in a cot.

The white walls, blinding fluorescent lights, and unwelcoming smell of antiseptic.

It was all so familiar to her, and it tugged at her stomach knowing that she was now the one in the hospital bed.

The room was warmer compared to the November temperatures she felt outside, but she was still cold. Her hands felt stiff, but she could move them. A lump formed in her throat as she realized how big an individual hospital room was, especially with no one accompanying her in it.

-------

Connor stared at the glowing Hospital entrance, longing to enter. Y/n was in there, and he couldn't enter because he was obviously an android.

Taking his gaze away from the building, he glanced around from inside Hank's car for other possible entrances all while accessing the medical center's blueprints and layout.

It was almost unbelievably convenient, but he had learned that the Hospital had a back entrance that functioned as a truck doc for supply deliveries and waste disposal. As well as an android storage and maintenance area.

Glancing down at his attire, he sighed. Shrugging off his jacket, he recalled what he had in his front pocket, neatly folded up as to not be so noticeable. Taking it out, he unfolded it and stared at it for a moment.

It was Y/n's beanie...

A sense of warmth flowed from his chest, outwards.

Placing it on, he checked the rearview mirror and adjusted it enough to cover his LED, taking notice of the damaged areas on his face. Then, anchoring himself forward, he opened the glove compartment and grabbed Hank's extra keys he figured would be there.

Not wasting another moment, he stepped out of the vehicle and walked to the car's trunk to check if Hank had any spare clothes in it. While he did so, he allowed his mind to predetermine all the different possible outcomes that could happen.

He felt a spark of energy as he walked towards the entrance.

With his damaged appearance sorted out, all he had to do was act calm and civil enough to persuade the lobby personnel that he was who he claimed to be. Taking in a deep breath of the frosty air, he walked over to the entrance, disabling the automatic alarm that was supposed to contact the DPD as he walked through the sliding door.

Inside, he walked straight to the front desk, shuffling his hands slightly while subtly looking left and right. The nurse was a frazzled young woman with messy blonde hair tied to a bun, she shuffled around piles of digital files while a news podcast played on low audio, not bothering to fully turn around even when he cleared his throat.

"Mm, what is it?"

"I'm here to see a patient who was just admitted here a few hours ago, uh, Y/n Anderson?"

"Alright, wait for a second..." she responded, dropping whatever she had in her hands to jump on the wheeled computer chair and begin typing on the terminal closer to him.

"What's your relation to the patient?"

"She's my wife." he said with a small smile. She looked at his eyes, her drooped and slightly frowned expression not changing before slowly scanning his appearance and typing something into the terminal. He shifted awkwardly before she spoke again.

"Your name?"

"Connor Anderson."

The woman typed a little more in the terminal before finally looking up to him and pointing to the corner of her lip. That prompted him to scrunch his eyebrows, and her to roll her eyes as she stood.

"She's on floor 17, room 76. Get rid of that on your mouth if you don't want to be escorted out by security." she said, not asking any more questions as she turned away from him to continue working.

He opened his mouth to ask whether or not she was doing her job properly but then decided against it before making his way to the given floor and room as he brushed his thumb on the corner of his lip.

Thirium.

The nurse helped him without even a blink of hesitance.

That gave him something to think about as he moved, but the thought about what'd happen when he'd see Y/n again, this time without the chance of her getting hurt present in the situation came back on his mind.

It had been so unexpected- being called back into the Zen Garden, despite choosing to be a deviant. He was honestly afraid that it could happen again, seeing as he has no control over Cyberlife's programs embedded within his coding. And, there was Y/n's reaction.

He knew that she was patient, but he was aware that patience only lasted for so long, and was getting ready to accept if she no longer wanted to see his face after how many times he'd hurt her.

A tense feeling settled in his hands. He massaged them as he stepped off the elevator.

What if she really were to reject him? Tell him that he was too much of a burden for her to handle, especially since she was just beginning to reconnect with her father. And Hank.

Hank was a whole different situation, entirely. He and the man were on considerably friendly terms, but that was before he had pummeled his daughter twice, and before he pointed a gun at her head. Logically, he determined that the best-case scenario would be one where the two Andersons didn't vow to try to kill him every day onward.

Finally standing in front of room 76, he dropped his hands and double-checked the name by the door.

Anderson, Y/n

He peeked through the door's narrow window and saw the curtains around the bed partially drawn, only allowing him to see the form of her feet underneath a hospital blanket.

Taking a step back, he allowed himself a few moments to process the possible harsh words he'd have to endure, then reprocess, before stepping inside the room.

"...Connor?.."

The voice had him accidentally shutting the door louder than he'd intended. Although, he managed to keep control of his expression.

He took slow steps towards the drawn curtains, feeling a strong urge to just turn and walk away as he pushed them aside to see her. And despite having seen her only a couple of hours earlier, she looked far different from the woman he'd fought on the rooftop.

Her eyes were droopy like she was fighting the desire to sleep. Her body was stiff, resembling one of a ragdoll's with lazily sprawled arms and legs, one of her wrists not under the blanket because it was hooked to an IV pack. She was also connected to a ventilator, as well as a monitor that beeps despite the thick silence.

"Y/n," he said, managing to have an even tone. "I... What's your condition?"

She was looking somewhere to her side, before shifting her gaze to him standing by her feet and speaking softly. "Not critical, luckily... How about you?"

Opening his mouth, he was about to respond with one of his prepared phrases. But the tired and slightly expectant look in her eyes prompted him to shut his mouth, breaking their eye contact, and take the moment to actually respond properly.

"Worried. I've been- I am. I'm worried. About you." he said, his eyebrows knitting together before meeting her eyes again. This time, a small smile was graced upon her features.

"Thank you."

She smiled at him and a burst of warmth filled his chest from how she looked at him. But, he could also feel his insides twisting. How could she still look at him like that, after everything he's done-

"You made it inside. Figures." a familiar voice said, accompanied by a scoff.

Hank walked into the room, towards the corner with a side table and sofa, placing down his steaming cup of instant noodles before he turned to Connor with an unreadable expression. Then smacked him upside the head.

"Dad!"

"So I'm giving you five seconds to talk or I'll just hit you in the head again."

"You can do-" he began to say, but then caught Y/n's gaze. "...I'd like the chance to explain myself."

And, he did. Hank opted to sit on the sofa mid-way through his explanation as sun rays began to seep through the room's blinds. When he began describing who Amanda was and what her role was in his programming, he also sat when the older man patted on the seat beside him.

Connor spoke of his original orders, and the possible consequences that could've happened had he deviated earlier while shooting a glance to Y/n and leaving out what he said in Jericho. He also spoke of how he deviated up on the rooftop, how he thought it wasn't even an option anymore.

Then he attempted to explain why he had his gun pointed to Y/n's forehead...

"You're telling me that this Amanda program... who's basically CyberLife... tried to make you kill Markus... but then Y/n stood in your way."

"Yes."

Hank looked at Connor, then to Y/n, then back to Connor, all the while nodding with a mock frowning expression. When he stopped nodding, his face was unreadable again, but, it was one Connor was more attuned to.

The older man gestured for Connor to lean in closer as his eyebrow twitched. Connor, wanting to get their conversation over already, leaned his head closer to the Lieutenant.

Then, Hank did the strangest thing.

He knocked on the top of Connor's head while saying, "I hope you uninstall yourself! Connor's got us now, so it's best you get out now than later."

Both Y/n and Connor looked to the older man with raised eyebrows and bewildered expressions. He just shrugged it off before grabbing his now cooled down cup noodles and standing.

"I'll go home for a bit. Grab some of your stuff, and maybe a blanket and pillow." he said, looking to Y/n before taking a forkful of noodles and placing it in his mouth.

Connor and Y/n shared another confused look, with Y/n shrugging her shoulders while an eased and mildly amused expression settled on her face. Connor, on the other hand, continued to stay boggled with how both Andersons seemed to push aside what he'd done so easily.

"Ah, and Connor..." Hank said, right has his hand reached to open the door, before jerking his head towards his daughter. "Keep that kid company."

"Thanks, Dad! Stay home for a nap before coming back." she responded in a false sarcastic tone with a wide smile on her face.

With Hank out of the room, Connor's hesitance lessened. But, that didn't mean that he would outwardly take Y/n and Hank's acceptance of him again for granted.

A waving hand caught his attention.

Y/n patted to the spot beside her, prompting him to get up from the sofa and move to the little space on her bed. But, he kept his face turned to the ground.

As he settled on the mattress, he started twiddling with his hands, knitting his fingers over each other while moving his thumbs. The air around him felt unnaturally sharp, like how it'd been when they talked on the rooftop hours earlier.

The beeping of the monitor provided some noise in the silence, but it only accentuated the uncomfortable feeling Connor had while under Y/n's gaze.

Then he felt a light tug on his forearm.

Forcing his eyes to look back to hers, he noted the sparkle in them despite her still worn-out appearance. Her smile hadn't completely faded, but instead of a wide one, it became closed and more subtle.

That same warmth he felt in his chest from earlier sent electrical currents up and down his spine, making him straighten his posture.

She grinned then moved her gaze to the shirt he was wearing. "It looks good on you."

He followed her gaze, looking down at the, slightly oversized, grey hoodie with "DETROIT POLICE ACADEMY" printed on it. Clearly, it was quite an old article of clothing that had been placed in Hank's car trunk as an extra outfit change. So he couldn't help but look back to her in confusion.

When she met his eyes again, hers became filled with mirth as her smile tightened like she was suppressing laughter.

"What do you mean?.."

She let out a breathy chuckle before stretching out her hand. His confused expression only deepened, but then she gestured for him to lower his head. He did so, still bewildered, until her hand patted the top of his head.

"You're cute."

After a moment of her patting his head, when she went to lower her hand, he carefully held her wrist then placed her palm on the side of his face. With closed eyes, he relished her warmth and felt himself melt to her touch especially when she brushed her thumb across his cheek.

Then a bitter feeling swirled in his stomach, bringing him back to his senses.

He moved her hand away from his face before laying it down to her side but not letting it go, a slight frown forming on his face as he remembered why he felt so nervous about seeing her again in the first place.

"Something on your mind?" she asked and he was grateful that she was always mindful of him.

He stared at her and tried to collect his thoughts, how was he supposed to start telling her everything when all that he wanted to say was something he wasn't sure how to express? He had zero bases on what way he could start but he wanted to apologize first.

"Y/n, I take responsibility for my actions these past few days... I want you to know I'm sorry." he said, avoiding her gaze again. "I was worried about you...and I wanted to make sure you were alright..."

"I'm doing fine... How about you? How are you feeling?"

"I'm... feeling many things...." he answered honestly and squeezed her hand. "The most I feel is worry and fear. I'm worried about you and I'm scared that something bad will happen to you..."

Connor looked away in regret but when he felt Y/n's clasp on his hand tightened, he looked back at her and he saw her smile at him in understanding. He couldn't comprehend how Y/n would still be smiling at him like then when she's in a hospital bed and he was the reason why.

"I'll be fine, didn't I say that I wasn't in critical condition?" she spoke in a consoling manner and he felt somewhat at ease, but it wasn't enough.

"You wouldn't have been here if it weren't for me... If I had just deviated earlier none of this would have happened... I could have helped with the revolution and possibly done something better but now... I don't think they'd even accept me."

"Hey... You were only doing what they told you to..."

"Yes but you said it yourself, I could have just ignored it and didn't do what they ordered me to..."

Y/n could clearly see that Connor was being hard on himself, she fully understood why he would feel such regret but she wasn't going to let him wallow in such negative emotions. He regretted his action and she would make him realize that he could take this as a step to betterment.

"Connor, you can't keep-" she tried to speak but a sudden pain made its way to her head.

Connor saw Y/n flinch and he heard her hiss in pain, he immediately stood up and looked at her in worry. She noticed his panicked stance and calmly raised a hand up while the other pressed on her temple.

Just as she felt the pain beginning to subside, a nurse walks in carrying a chart and notices her discomfort.

"What's wrong? What are you feeling?" the nurse asked and Y/n smiled politely.

"Nothing, just some mild pain..."

"Let's still get you checked okay?" the nurse gently smiled and Connor took a step back to let the nurse do their job.

Y/n kept her eyes on Connor who just stood by the wall with his arms crossed, his face showed worry and although he was facing her direction, he wouldn't look her in the eye and just observed the nurse and listened to what they said.

"It looks like everything is okay, small pains are common but nothing to be worried about." the nurse smiled. "I suggest getting some rest, sleeping is allowed but you've got to be woken up every two hours."

"Alright, I'll try resting. Thanks."

The nurse left after checking a few more things and after that, Connor walked over to the bed and adjusted the bed so that Y/n would be in a better sleeping position. She smiled at him in thanks but she still wanted to talk.

"Connor-"

"You have to rest." he cut her off and seeing his worried frown stopped her from arguing otherwise.

"Okay but..." she reached over to his hand and squeezed it. "You shouldn't keep blaming yourself, everything's going to be okay now."

He felt his heart swell with emotions as he saw her smile at him and he was starting to feel the relief her words brought. Connor was starting to feel slightly better and when Y/n says that it's all going to be okay then he would believe it.

Closing her eyes, Y/n felt herself falling into unconsciousness and took comfort knowing that Connor sat beside her, holding her hand.

Internally, Connor set an alarm for two hours.

He analyzed her expression, how her face grew more and more peaceful until she had reached a deep sleep. He watched as her breathing evened out, and how her grip on his hand grew slack.

With silence falling over the room like a blanket, the beeping monitor as an exception, his thoughts whirred around his mind rapidly.

Y/n was right. Not that she was ever wrong, even if he tried to convince himself otherwise, but he understood what she was trying to tell him. Not to blame himself.

Whether or not he had chosen to become a deviant earlier, he still would've been taken over by Amanda. And, maybe he would have been closer to Markus, making the probability of Amanda sabotaging their cause higher. So, maybe there was a positive aspect to him not joining the revolution.

Still, had he joined earlier, Y/n wouldn't have been hospitalized... Then again, what is to say that she would not have been hospitalized or worse, had she joined in rallying with the deviants earlier that night.

But that didn't mean he could justify his actions. No matter how many "ifs" he had in mind, what he did was a mistake. A mistake that could have permanent damage...

Pursing his lips, he felt a sense of bitterness and guilt claw at his chest.

She was still there for him. Every single fall he had, she was there to catch and comfort him. Really, it didn't make any sense. Her being kind, compassionate, patient... Her whole life had crumbled in front of her all those years ago, but it seemed like she never stopped stretching out her hand to help others.

But why him? The more he thought about it, the more he seemed like a stranger to her. She barely knew him, unlike her father. He wasn't very significant, compared to Markus. And, it wasn't her job to protect him, unlike all those other people she had handled before.

So why?..

Then something he had said to her, all those days ago, suddenly felt so relevant.

"Love... makes you feel sad when they're not there, and it makes you rethink your decisions. It makes you feel very worried when something happens to them and you find yourself wanting to protect them... to save them even at the cost of something important."

The whirring in his mind stopped.

Everything around him seemed to come back into focus, as the one word she'd asked him about seemed to explain why she would stretch herself so thin, even for someone like him.

Love.

With the silence keeping him company, Connor sat beside her. Someone he cared about, and someone who he felt cared about him too.

Time passed and it was soon time for her to be woken up. With his set alarm going off, he moved to wake Y/n from her slumber.

Patting her shoulder lightly, he whispered her name in the hopes of not waking her too suddenly. But, she didn't respond.

His eyebrows began to scrunch slightly, he shook her carefully, making sure not to move her neck too much. Same thing- no response. He noted not seeing a sign of movement throughout her entire body.

Picking up her wrist, he scanned for her vital signs and felt something in him drop to his stomach.

Signs of Severe TBI ; COMA SUSPECTED

Letting go of her wrist, he felt like all the air in the room was suddenly sucked out. The sensations of frost danced in swirls all over his body's sensors, making his brain process all sorts of instructions, but ultimately leaving him standing still. Frozen to where he stood.

The sound of beeping was the only noise that filled the room's silence... Until the sound of a door opening processed in his auditory sensors.

He didn't turn, nor did he bother trying to figure out who had walked in. The person's footsteps might as well have been static because even when they walked towards him, he ignored them. All that mattered, was Y/n.

"...-ey Connor? What's wrong with you?"

How did this happen? How had he let this happen to her? Especially under his watch...

"-id a screw in your head loosen or somthi- ?"

"...Nurse..."

"What?"

"We need the nurse!.." he said, forcing himself to turn away from her body to fetch the nurse.

Hank called after him, but he ignored his calls. The nurse came to her room right away, then went to call a doctor promptly right after entering while Connor stood outside contemplating all of the things he could've done to prevent her from falling into that state.

Hank didn't check out on him outside. But when the doctor entered the room and assumably told the Lieutenant what had happened to his daughter, he stormed out of the room like a mad man.

"What the f**k did you do to my daughter!?" the man yelled, shoving Connor to the wall.

Grabbing Connor's collar, the man lifted him up before shoving him back.

"What did you do to my daughter?.."

The older man's eyes glossed over with a glaze mixed with tears and fury as he looked to the android. He repeated the phrase over and over, his voice crackling a little more each time, until he dropped his grip on Connor's collar before turning away.

Connor felt extreme amounts of stress but knew that he had to force himself to stay calm lest he self-destructs. He turned towards Hank who was now leaning on the wall, he could see Hank's shoulders start to shake.

He had stared at the older man but didn't know what to say, this was all his doing. If he hadn't been stubborn and just listened to Y/n from the very beginning then she wouldn't have fallen into a coma and Hank wouldn't be hyperventilating like this.

The older man suddenly snapped his attention back to Connor and the anger painted on Hank's face made him scared. He had never seen Hank this angry before, even when they started working together and he disliked Connor from the very beginning.

"THIS IS ALL YOUR F**KING FAULT!!" Hank pushed Connor with as much force as he could. "If you hadn't been here then my daughter wouldn't be in a f**king coma!"

Connor didn't fall to the ground as he allowed the older man to push him and as Hank's words registered to him, he froze. He was right, if he hadn't been with Y/n, if he hadn't been so stupid as to keep following his orders thinking that it was for the best, then none of this would ever happen.

"Get the f**k out of here!" Hank yelled and it echoed throughout the hospital's walls.

"Sir, please calm down." one of the nurses tried to calm Hank down while Connor took a step back.

He takes one last look at the grieving older man and couldn't help but feel devastated for him. Hank had already lost Cole and now, the only child he had left was in a hospital bed with very little chance of waking up.

Connor walked away, feeling like an absolute wreck, and found himself aimlessly wandering. The only thing he could think about was the image of Y/n's sleeping form and the possibility that she wouldn't wake up.

The thought of her not waking up caused a sense of dread to overwhelm him and he felt himself beginning to convulse. His arm shot up to steady himself against the wall next to him.

Suddenly, the sensation of freezing air encased his entire form, his programs shutting down and his body falling into Autopilot Mode, as he felt himself getting colder and colder by the second.

Then, the feeling of soft cloth under his fingertips brought him to open his eyes. There was Y/n. And, she looked... Cold.

Her skin was paled, her hair longer and unruly on the white hospital pillow. Her parted lips looked dried, and her eyes looked like they hadn't moved in ages.

And that's how it felt.

He felt like he hadn't seen her eyes open in so long. His arms longed to stretch out to her, brush his fingers over her cheek, and hopefully feel her warm skin on his hands again. But... he couldn't.

His fists were clenched onto her blanket. The faded blue color of the fabric further accentuated the sickly tone of her skin. Almost all warmth seemed to have drained from her appearance as time had passed.

How much time had passed?

Then, he processed the sounds of Hank talking to a doctor. The man suggested placing her into a long-term hospital for patients who need constant maintenance and caretakers. Connor envisioned Hank placing his hands over his face before brushing up his hair.

Despite it being shorter in length, it was far more disheveled than it used to be when it was much longer. Without hair obstructing the view of his face, Hank revealed a pair of extreme dark circles under his eyes, as well as a red nose and splotchy cheeks.

The older man sniffled, before nodding to the doctor.

"Yes, yes. Do anything... I can't lose her, I can't lose her too."

"I know Hank... Stay strong."

The doctor nodded before turning to walk away from sight, disappearing into the seemingly never-ending Hospital hallway.

"Hank!" he called out. His friend's head slowly lifted before turning to look at him. The man's eyes looked glassy, and his face seemed vividly jarring despite being a considerable distance away. "...Hank?.."

Almost robotically, Hank stood up from his seat. His eyes never leaving Connor's form.

But, his body looked odd. One of his feet was facing the wrong direction, and his hands bent at an awkward angle.

The man took one step towards Connor, then somehow appeared so close that the android could feel the man's anger radiating.

"This is your fault." Hank said, bringing up a clenched fist and pounding the back of it once on Connor's chest. "All of it."

Then, he seemingly phased into the thin air right in front of the Android, leaving Connor with information he didn't know how to compute.

Y/n wasn't waking up, and it was... all his fault?

One moment he was looking down at the Hospital hallway's green linoleum flooring, the next he found himself looking up to the rustling leaves of a tree. The breeze was warm, and he processed the scents of grass and dirt.

Lowering his gaze, he scanned his surroundings. And, his eyes widened at the realization of what location he found himself in.

Tall buildings were far off in the distance and the entire lot was covered in mowed grass allowing for the headstones that littered the area to seem more prominent. In a twisted sense of intuition, Connor felt like he already knew why he was there.

The sound of a thud caught his attention, making him turn around to see a familiar person kneeling in front of a gravestone that was laid on a rectangular patch of dirt.

Recently upturned dirt.

That made Connor's fingers twitch and lose all sensations around him.

The feeling of the warm summer sky and the fresh smell of grass seemed to grow duller the longer he looked at what was in front of him.

"My... my little girl." the man whimpered in front of him, his hand coming up to brush his hand over the headstone with carved out cursive letters.

Connor, who didn't even have a heart, felt what was the equivalent of it dropping at the words on the headstone, and he could feel every function in his body stop. He couldn't even think straight as the words finally registered.

In loving memory of Y/n Anderson Respected officer Cherished daughter and sister

"You did your best... This world was just too f**ked up to keep someone as good as you around." Hank forced himself to say to the grave before another wave of silent tears dripped down his cheeks and beard.

Then Connor watched as his friend took a gun out from his jacket pocket, he opened the cylinder and Connor could clearly see the one bullet that was ready to be fired and the older man looked at it with a sad smile on his face before placing its barrel up to his forehead, bringing his eyes to a close.

"It's okay... It's okay... Daddy's gonna be with you soon. I'm coming Y/n, Cole... I'll be there soon, we're finally going to be happy now."

Connor couldn't move. His feet were cemented to the ground he stood on, and his mouth didn't move. He had no control. He couldn't stop the death of the only woman he loved, and now he can't prevent his only other friend he has left from-

"No... wait... Hank!"

The single sound of a gun being fired echoed throughout the green field and blood splattered over the grass, saturating the dirt.

His friend no longer sat in front of him as his body slowly slumped down and rested itself on the headstone and coating it in a sickening bright red. Only the lifeless husk of a man who lost his only two children laid there and it showed that he had given up because of all the pain that followed him.

I did this.

Connor couldn't feel anything around him. Everything seemed blurred, and he felt like his programming was corrupted to the point of irreversibility. The red walls of his programming seemed to confine him and he felt a sense of claustrophobia as it got closer and closer to him.

He wanted to scream because of the pain and wished for it to disappear, to not feel it again. Or, to feel anything at all, but the aching emptiness that pulsed within his being, a void that wanted to swallow him and decent him into madness, caused him to stop functioning.

Y/n died because of me. Hank died because of me.

All of this is my fault.

Nothing in the world made sense, everything was complete chaos and it had all been because of him. Just when he had thought everything would be better, just when he had thought he was finally understanding what love was and what it meant to truly care for someone.

It had just turned much worse.

The anguish and pain made him want to end it all, and seeing as everything that he loved and cared for disappeared because of his own mistakes made him realize that it would be better if he, like Hank, just followed.

That was all he wanted now.

For the pain to just... stop.

xX0Xx

Epilogue: It’s A Start

#detroit become human #detroit become human x reader #detroit become human connor x reader #connor #rk800 #x reader #reader insert #connor x reader #dbh connor #reader is an anderson #hank anderson #rk800 connor

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blu-eh · 4 years

Text

when kingdom comes calling

Words: 7,545 | Chapters: 1/1 | AO3 | Fanfiction

Summary: the Ghost Zone population assumes that Phantom took the crown with dignity. What they don’t know is fifteen year old Danny Fenton just wants to graduate high school, is constantly ready to throw hands with an army of eyeballs, and absolutely will not be crowned the Ghost King without a fight.

-----------------------------------

Danny is fifteen when the first Observant appears to completely ruin his life.

He wakes up with the feeling on the sun on his face and the birds chirping from outside his window. It’s peaceful, really, with his blankets being warm and his pillow soft. He feels more than a little well rested, which is a first considering his usual night-time activities, and thinks that maybe (just maybe) he can make it to school before the first period bell rings.

Belatedly, his ghost sense goes off.

Danny’s expecting it, really. It doesn’t stop the swirling aggravation as his good luck comes to an end. The day started out abnormal simply due to the fact that he had not once woken up at some ungodly hour in the morning to beat up a wandering ghost and send it back to the ghost zone. As per Fenton luck, his morning is ruined before it even has the chance to begin.

He groans, rubs sleep from his eyes, and comes face to face with the giant floating eyeball.

“Holy shit—” Danny turns intangible out of sheer surprise, falls through his bed, and is left grasping the sheets in order to pull himself as far as he possibly can away from the wayward Observant that is conveniently floating in his room. The Observant looks at him without blinking and its long cape flutters around its pencil-thin figure.

For a moment, they simply stare at each other. Danny, on the floor in his space pajamas, and the Observant hovering a few feet from the ground with its weird, unblinking, green eye.

“What are you doing in my room?” Danny says, slowly, and picks himself off the ground. He settles into a familiar fight stance and readies himself for a confrontation; space pajamas, bed head and all.

His previous encounters with the Observants and their weird time-council have not always been pleasant.

The Observant blinks at him, once, and says, “I have come to collect you for your coronation.”

“My what?”

“Your coronation, Daniel,” the Observant says with a sigh (which is really weird considering they don’t have mouths or, well, anything other than their eyes and hands). “It is time for you to take the throne and rule the Infinite Realms.”

Danny stares at him, his mouth opening and closing but no words coming out.

The Observant sighs again, “Please, come. There is much to do before you are crowned.”

Danny rubs his eyes just to make sure he’s not in some weird hallucination. He doesn’t think he’s fought any ghosts that could trap him in some freak alternate dimension or some sort of weird dream, but one can never be too careful. It would explain the situation more than whatever the Observant is trying to tell him, at least.

The Observants hate him. As if his own self-loathing isn’t enough to cover that base already. They’ve made it perfectly clear that should he ever mess up, should he ever become anything like Dan again, he would be destroyed and the council would not spare him pity for being a fifteen year old halfa.

Danny doesn’t remember doing anything bad or anything that could potentially cause his evil-future-self to come about and reign destruction and carnage on the earth, but then again Danny doesn’t have temporal clairvoyance like Clockwork and the rest of the Observants. Maybe he slept through one too many classes? Maybe he shoved the wrong ghost in his thermos?

Not like it matters, anyways. It doesn’t change the fact that Danny promised he wouldn’t turn into that and he isn’t just going to take whatever scheme the Observants dished out for him without a fight.

Danny holds up his hands, “Alright, okay. Listen, you had me going there for a little bit. I gotta admit that I was pretty surprised and kudos for the creativity but if you’re going to come up with a plan to kill me, at least make it believable.”

The Observant narrows its beady eye, “The council does not like it any more than you, child, but even we cannot directly disobey the Ancient Code of Rights.”

“The what?”

“Do you really not know?”

Danny’s irritation bubbles to the surface and he throws up his hands, “Its not exactly like any of you hand out Being a Ghost for Dummies book! Ghosts don’t tell me anything unless they’re trying to post-mortem murder me!”

The Observant blinks at him again, “You bested the previous king and his army in single combat thus earing the rights to the throne, the Ring of Rage, the Crown of Fire and the position of King of all Ghosts. I am to lead you into the Infinite Realms where we shall hold your coronation and crown you king. From there, you shall lead the Realms as did Pariah Dark in his prime.”

“King of all Ghosts—” Danny spluttered out before taking a deep breath and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Alright, ignoring literally all of that for a second—why didn’t I get this position, oh, wow, I dunno, right after I defeated Pariah? It’s been a year now.”

“You did not even know about your own core,” the ghost says, sounding miffed. Danny thinks if anyone should be sounding aggravated right now, its him. “A ghost—rather, a halfa in your case—that does not know his own power cannot take the throne. The council made a decision to wait until your powers were under your control and you have learned more about the Infinite Realms and the power you possess before taking your rightful place.”

Irritation bubbles to the surface as Danny tries to ignore the painful fact that he knows very little about ghost culture and ghost politics. He doesn’t dare tell the observant this, though, because he doesn’t want the power and he certainly doesn’t want to be king of some stupid dimension. His parents shoot at him enough thinking he's a normal ghost. There’s no telling what they would do if they ever were to find out he’s the ghost king.

Ectoplasm sparks to life in his hands as he tries to keep his emotions in check. He’s angry and confused and worried because why couldn’t things just stay simple?

Notwithstanding, it still doesn’t change the fact the Observants have tried to do something worse than kill him on several different occasions.

“You tried to have me obliterated.”

“Yes,” the Observant says simply. “That still would have been the preferable outcome to this entire situation.”

Danny blasts the floating eyeball out of his room and doesn’t once feel bad about it.

-----------------------------------

There’s an eyeball in his locker.

Danny glances around at the nearly empty halls and hisses out, “What are you doing here? Go away before I make you!”

The Observant hardly looks rattled at the threat. If anything, the thing seems even more determined to get Danny to go through with this absolute bullshit plan to make him, someone who is half human, king of the ghosts. “Follow me to the Infinite Realms for your coronation. You are under obligation to meet the council at Pariah’s Keep where you shall receive the Crown of Fire and the Ring of Rage.”

“No,” Danny snaps. “I have an English test next period with Mr. Lancer.”

“This is no time for your silly human games—"

Danny slams the locker in its eye. He turns to look at his friends, feeling deader inside currently than when he’s in ghost form.

“Huh,” Sam says and blinks in surprise. “When you told us this morning, I thought you were kidding.”

The locker rattles behind him and Danny casually leads against it when people start looking his way. The Observant could easily use intangibility to escape, but, for some reason, doesn’t. Danny’s not going to question it. “I wish I was.”

“Kinda cool that we’re friends with royalty,” Tucker says.

“You’re not,” Danny says. “Because I’m not taking some stupid crown and I’m not ruling the Ghost Zone where I am constantly in danger because ghosts hate me. I’m perfectly fine out here, with my family, and away from all of them.”

“Frostbite doesn’t hate you,” Sam says. Danny shoots her a look but she continues on like she hadn’t seen him. “Neither does Dora or Pandora, I think. And Cujo and Wulf.”

“You gotta admit, dude,” Tucker says and slings an arm around him before meandering away from the rattling locker. “The whole Ghost King thing is pretty cool.”

Danny’s so tired.

“Tucker, honestly, I just want to get to college and maybe not fail at life,” Danny says. He has a horrible feeling in his gut that this is only the start of what might be the end of his entire future. “And I have a very bad feeling that my future is not going to be as normal as I want it to be.”

-----------------------------------

Jazz figures out the entire situation by the end of the first night when she sees a floating eyeball hovering in front of Danny’s bedroom door. She ends up yanking him in her room and forcing him to tell her everything. He tells her, albeit reluctantly, but he does have to admit it feels pretty good to get it off his chest.

It still isn’t a fun conversation for any of them considering Danny’s future hanging by nothing more than a flimsy string.

Life still goes on. Mr. Lancer assigns him an absurd amount of homework. The school gets shut down at least twice a day because of Observant sightings. Unfortunately for Danny, school doesn’t stop just because a bunch of ghostly eyeballs have taken to haunting the school corridors.

Besides, by the third day and seventh missed class, Danny makes it exceptionally clear that the Observants should not—under any circumstance—enter his school and disrupt his classes. If they do, then Danny hasn’t been scared to use force in the past and definitely isn’t scared to punch a giant eyeball in the face should he see them wandering the halls or loitering in the windows.

The Observants learn very quickly. So, instead of bothering him in the halls, they wait outside in the parking lot until he’s let out of class at the end of the day. From there, they float around him (along with an unwilling Sam and Tucker) and try to convince Danny to enter the Ghost Zone and become a king of a realm he doesn’t even totally belong to.

“—Your coronation ceremony awaits you in the Infinite Realms. The council has requested your presence.”

Danny breaths through his nose, shares a sideways look with his friends, and tries not to do anything drastic. The Observant is just lucky that the streets are currently empty because, otherwise, Danny would not be putting up with the constant pestering. “Do you have anything new to say?”

“Should you not come then the council will be forced to do things outside of prior tradition.”

At least it said something new, Danny thinks even though he doesn’t necessarily like the tone the Observant is using. Out loud, he says, “Does that mean you’ll leave me alone and find a new king?”

“No,” the Observant says.

“Damn,” Danny says. “Anything else profound?”

“The Infinite Realms is in need of a ruler—"

“I said anything profound?”

The Observant actually looks a little offended by that. Tucker hides his laugh behind a cough while Sam doesn’t try to hide hers at all. He gives them a wry grin when he thinks the Observant isn’t looking and all three of them burst into laughter.

The Observant narrows its eyes at the group and says, stiffly, “Very well. If this is your choice.”

It disappears in a puff of smoke. Danny glances at the spot where the Observant once floated and shrugs because, well, it’s not like he can do anything about it now. It doesn’t stop the sudden feeling of apprehension that washes over him.

“Do you think they’re actually going to leave Danny alone?” Tucker asks.

“No,” Danny says. “I think it’s just going to get worse from here.”

-----------------------------------

“I’m not coming to the stupid coronation,” Danny snaps the moment he sees the eyeball in his bedroom. It’s a new one, of course, because the council apparently never sends the same Observant twice.

This one is definitely different, though. It's holding something close it its chest in its green, clawed hand. Every couple seconds, Danny catches sight of a flickering green light despite not being able to make out the object’s shape.

“Since you have made your refusal to enter the Infinite Realms for your coronation, then we are forced to bring the coronation to you,” the Observant answers. It opens its hands and presents the object; small, black and flickering in a eerie green flame with a smooth bottom and tiny points at its top. He can’t help the small sense of familiarity as he takes the object in.

Danny feels his heart stop.

“Wait, what—this that the CROWN?”

“Bow your head, child,” the Observant says. “And we shall get this over with.”

Danny backs up so fast he hits the opposite wall before the Observant can move a single step closer. He drops into a fight stance. “Yeah, uh, no. I’m good, thanks. Please go back to the Ghost Zone and literally never come back here again.”

“You do not yet hold power over the council.”

Danny shifts to into his ghost form and charges up an ectoblast. The combination of its flashing light and the fire from the crown cast an eerie green glow on the walls of his room. “Wanna bet?”

The Observant takes a step forward. “This is cumbersome—"

“Oh, wow, I’m sorry,” Danny snaps and spots his thermos right behind the giant, floating eyeball. He mentally makes a quick plan in his head. “Next time you try and make my life a living hell I’ll make it easier for you!”

The Observant makes a move as if it were going to place the crown on Danny's head but Danny's faster. He dodges, rolls out of the way, and blasts the stupid ghost in the side. It doesn’t make a sound, but it does narrow its eye further.

“If you put that thing on my head so help me—HEY, I said don’t. I don’t want your stupid crown or your stupid throne!” Danny tries to keep his frustration under control as the observant moves to place the damn thing on his head again. He lunges to the other side of his room, fingers curling around the familiar metal of his thermos. “Find someone else and leave me alone.”

The Observant slinks back, crown still in hand. It glances at the object before meeting Danny’s eyes. “I see this will not be easy.”

Danny doesn’t give it a chance to move. Before the Observant can even react, he opens the thermos and sucks the thing up (crown and all). The green glow of the room vanishes and Danny is left standing, alone, in the lightly damaged remains of his once-clean bedroom.

-----------------------------------

He finds a new Observant in his fridge with a certain flaming crown in its hand. He slams the fridge door shut without a single word.

Unfortunately, Observants are ghosts which means they have ghost powers and this one is much smarter than the locker-Observant. It phases through the fridge and attempts to place the crown on his head without a single word.

At least they were past formalities now.

“I’d say give it to Plasmius but we all know how that would end,” Danny says and dodges the hands that attempts to pin him down. He’s stuck in human form for the time being seeing as his parents are just a room over and he doubts they would be happy to find Phantom floating in their kitchen with Fenton missing. “Don’t—hey! If you don’t stop, I’m going to blast you, I swear to the ancients—"

“We are the ancients, Daniel—"

“Oh my god, shut up. Please, stop talking.”

“This is your destiny—”

“Has it ever occurred to you or your council that forcing a fifteen year old to become a king is really fucked? Like, seriously, I haven’t even graduated high school yet. I’m barley passing history, I don’t know anything about politics, I can’t even vote in human elections and you want me to become a king?”

Footsteps come from the room next to him. Danny meets the Observant’s eyes as he realizes the fact that there is a ghost in a ghost hunter’s house. There is absolutely nothing good that will come from this.

“Danny?” His mom’s voice calls out. Danny slams a pillow over the Observant and sits on it just as his mom rounds the corner. She looks around the room, once, and doesn’t seem to notice how Danny’s awkwardly sprawled out on the couch in a desperate attempt to keep her from seeing the Observant. “I thought I heard yelling. Is everything all right?”

Underneath him, the Observant squirms in clear discomfort. Danny hopes he elbows it in the eye.

Danny laughs nervously and plasters on a smile that’s just a bit too wide. “Nope, no yelling. I didn’t hear yelling. Everything is fine, mom. Nothing to see here.”

He feels a hand creeping up his back and he whips around to grab the clawed green appendage before it can force the crown on his head. Unfortunately, in his effort to resist being crowned, he forgets all about his ghost-hunting mom who has definitely saw the ghost beneath the pillow.

Danny likes to think that his life is just one string of disasters after another with absolutely no end in sight.

“Is that a ghost?!” Mom says and, oh boy, her gun is already out and pointed at the Observant.

Danny shares a slightly panicked look with the Observant, still holding it’s hand with the crown away from his own head. It might be the stupid eyeball’s fault in the first place, but Danny doesn’t think anyone really deserves to get handed over to his mom. Or get ripped apart molecule by molecule. That would almost be as bad as Skulker skinning him and hanging his pelt on the wall.

Danny scrambles off the couch, “Okay, this is all just a big misunderstanding—"

Mom’s not listening to him, though. Her gun whirls with power and she takes a step forward. “Step away from my son, you ectoplasmic fiend!”

The Observant either wants to die again or is stupidly brave because it stands up, billowing cape and all. “He is to bear the crown and the ring as seen by the council and take his place as the rightful ruler of the Infinite Realms in order to—”

Mom blasts the Observant before it can say another word. Danny has never been so grateful for his mom’s trigger happy finger in his life.

His mom turns to look him over and Danny shrinks back and says, weakly, “I think they have me confused with a ghost.”

The Observant floats back into a standing position, the crown flickering in his hand. Unfortunately, one blast is never enough to force an Observant to leave. Danny should know. He’s blasted them enough times to figure it out.

Danny hates floating eyeballs with his entire being.

“Daniel James Fenton,” the Observant says and dodges the next shot by his mom. It tries to approach him, yet again, with the crown outstretched. “You must take the crown and the ring in order to rule the Infinite Realms as it is your right—"

“Shut up,” Danny throws a couch pillow at it. The pillow bounces harmlessly off the ghost but his mom shoots it a second later so he feels rightfully validated.

“Don’t touch my son!” his mom snaps.

She blasts the ghost enough to send it backward, into the kitchen. The crown goes skidding out of its hands and rolls right to Danny’s feet. Danny meets the Observant’s eye. Then, out of pure spite, he kicks the thing as far away from him as possible. The Observant narrows its eye.

Mom has a ectogun to the Observant’s face before it can protest. Danny tries to hide his smile, but doesn’t do a fantastic job if the look the Observant is giving him is anything to go by.

“Listen here, you odd manifestation of ectoplasmic energy and post-human consciousness,” Mom says and leans a bit closer. “You are going to tell me exactly why you are here and exactly what you were trying to do to my son.”

The Observant doesn't even look at her.

“Another time, then,” the Observant says but it’s glaringly obvious that it is not talking to Danny’s mom. It stares at him with its weird, beady eye.

Mom notices and shakes the thing with her fists. She looks a second away from decking it and, if it had been any other situation, Danny might have let her. He probably would’ve even laughed. This situation, however, is not one Danny finds much humor in.

The Observant gives him one more look before both it and the crown disappear in a puff of green smoke. His mom’s face twists into one of furious frustration but she doesn’t seem wholly surprised. The house plunges into a irreversible quiet and, sitting on the floor of the living room, Danny feels a familiar twinge of apprehension in his gut.

It’s incredibly apparent that the Observants have no qualms about secret identities.

Not a second later, his dad bursts into the room with a gun in hand. “GHOST?”

“You just missed it, honey,” Mom says, fuming, before dropping to her knees and pulling Danny into a hug. “Oh, Danny, I’m so sorry. That must have been so terrifying for you. I know how much those nasty ghosts scare you. I promise that we'll work on the ghost shield and nothing like that will ever happen again.”

Luckily, his mom seems more concerned about the fact that a ghost got into their house and tried to attack their son than to pay close attention to the words the ghost has spoken. It doesn’t stop the rush of guilt that holds his very core.

-----------------------------------

“Take the crown, Daniel.”

“Can’t,” Danny says, tightly. “I have an algebra test tomorrow that I haven’t studied for because someone keeps trying to put a crown on my head when I’m sleeping so, as you can see, I’m trying not to be stressed about that. Can we please schedule this for another time?”

The Observant gives him a look. For a floating eyeball, the thing is shockingly expressive.

Danny shifts into a fighting stance. “Right, of course. I forgot nothing is easy with any of you.”

-----------------------------------

Jazz catches him shuffling down the stairs to the basement at four o’clock in the morning.

“Danny,” she says slowly, “How many of those eyeball ghosts are in that thermos?”

“Twenty seven,” Danny answers and tries not to fall down the stairs in pure exhaustion.

It’s more of a game at this point—try and get as close to the ghost kid as possible to put on the crown and the ring before he blasts them. Danny thinks the game sucks and he wants out.

“You don’t look very good.”

Danny narrows his eyes. “Thanks, Jazz. I hadn’t realized.”

Danny can tell from her face that she’s trying to psychoanalyze him but he likes to think that he’s actually doing pretty well considering the sheer number of Observants that try to force a crown or ring on him. It’s been almost a week and, well, he’s still not the Ghost King so that has to count for something. Danny is holding off hope that the council will get the message and fuck off.

“Don’t be sarcastic, Danny, I’m just worried,” Jazz says and follows him down the stairs. “How are you holding up?”

“My life is a nightmare,” Danny answers. “And my nightmares manifest in the form of lots of floating green eyeballs.”

He takes the last couple steps into the basement and places the thermos in the release shoot. There’s no point in keeping them in there—Danny knows because he’s already tried. No matter what he does or where he keeps them, both the Observants that he’s captured and the crown vanish from the thermos. Then, they show up the very next day and the cycle begins all over again.

“That’s very specific,” Jazz tells him. Then, “If they keep popping up like they have, it’s going to be very hard to keep your secret from mom and dad for much longer.”

“Jazz,” Danny says and tries to keep the worry out of his voice (even if he knows it's a losing battle). “If this keeps going then I’m not going to have a secret to hide from anyone anymore.”

-----------------------------------

There’s yelling on the streets and an ectoblast whizzes past his ears.

Danny’s in ghost form, fresh out of a battle from a rogue ghost, flying high above the streets with his parents following behind him in their assault vehicle. They’re yelling at him, like normal, and trying to blast him out of the air. Had it been any other day, Danny could’ve lost them in mere minutes but he’s exhausted from the fifteen observants he’s been avoiding and the two ghosts that he’s fought just this afternoon.

Another blast comes dangerously close to hitting him.

His ghostly tail flicks in irritation and he turns, just for a moment, to yell out, “Stop blasting me!”

He almost gets an ectoblast to the face in reply.

“Hold it, ghost kid! Listen to me when I’m talking to you!”

Danny races through the streets, the RV curving dangerously on the road behind him. A shot fizzes by his ear and he drives to the right, towards the school. He makes it a good thousand feet when an Observant pops, literally, right in front of him with the crown in his hand.

Danny shoots the Observant on principal.

Unfortunately, Observants are freakishly strong for only being a giant floating eyeball and, sure enough, he had a grand total of three different pursuers behind him. The only thing that could make his day better is if Valerie shows up to join the party.

(He really, really hopes Valerie does not show up to join the party. Danny doesn’t think he can handle his parents, the Observants and Valerie well enough to keep the crown off his head and his secret intact.)

Too add to Danny’s extreme luck, he can only take so many ectoblasts before even he needs to land lest he be forced to transform back into a human. He lost the Observant someone a couple blocks back, but, sadly, his parents will not be bound by important things like traffic laws and speed limits. His parents end up cornering him in some wayward back alley where they stand at the mouth, blocking the entrance. Both guns are trained on his grounded form.

His dad aims his ectogun right at Danny’s face and shouts, “Freeze, spook!”

Danny really, really doesn’t want to fight his parents but he also doesn’t want to be caught and dissected, so he powers up his ectoblasts anyways and waits for a good enough opening to fly away without being shot out of the sky for a second time today. His mom watches him with a wary caution that he matches. Out of the two, she’s definitely the more dangerous one.

“Come quietly, Phantom. You’re trapped,” his mom says.

It’s then that the Observant decides to make its appearance directly next to his parents at the mouth of the alley, holding out the crown. His parents jump at the sudden arrival of yet another ghost but the Observant pays them no mind.

“GHOST!” Jack yells and hoists his gun to the newest arrival.

“You’re the ghost that was in our house the other day,” his mom says with a sort of venom in her voice. She looks mad—like, actually pissed off—which is something Danny’s glad he’s never been on the receiving end of (yet). She seems almost conflicted, like she wants to aim at the new ghost but cant't since her gun is currently trained on Danny's chest.

The Observant hardly reacts, holding the crown out further. It meets Danny’s eyes and Danny has half a mind to blast the thing, despite his parents being there.

“Please do not make this more difficult than it already is,” it says.

There’s a split second in Danny’s mind where he almost considers turning himself over to his parents. Surely, it would be better than whatever awaited him should the Observant actually manage to crown him.

“Listen, guys,” Danny says and backs away. He holds up his hands, placating. “This has been fun and all but I’m very tired and I don’t actually want to deal with this so if I could, like, leave, that would be great.”

His mom’s eyes snap back over to him and she lifts her gun from where she had lowered in during her surprise. “You aren’t going anywhere, spook!”

The order actually got a rise out of the Observant. It turns to his parents with its single eye narrowed. “You have no jurisdiction over Phantom.”

“Phantom is in our town,” his mom snaps right back. The gun unwittingly moves more towards the Observant and less towards Danny. "Therefore we decide what is and is not fit!”

“He is the rightful king—"

“King?!”

"Ghosts don't have kings—"

Through the bickering, no one notices as Danny sinks into the floor, slips out of the alley and vanishes.

-----------------------------------

“Please, don’t,” Danny says.

He’s in ghost form, hovering about two hundred feet off the ground. It had been a normal morning for him so far despite the distinct lack of Observant appearances. Now, with a sick feeling in his stomach, Danny understands why.

In front of him, the Fright Knight stands in all his terrifying, ten foot tall glory. “You must bear the Crown of Fire and the Ring of Rage in order to take your place on the throne."

"Cant we talk about this, maybe?" Danny says, a little leery and more than a little pissed off. It's one thing to deal with a bunch of annoying, flying eyeballs but it's another thing entirely for said flying eyeballs to recruit the ghost of nightmares.

"I apologize, my prince, but there is no option here.”

Behind the Fright Knight, ten or so Observants loiter in the air. The one in the middle holds the familiar flaming crown and another holds the ring. They surround him in a semicircle, looking expectantly at the Fright Knight.

Danny’s life really just sucks.

“Oh, there’s an option alright,” Danny snaps. If there's one thing he hates, it's not being given a choice and while this is going to hurt (it’s so going to hurt), Danny is not going to let the Observants or the Fright Knight get that god-awful crown on his head. “I beat you once and I can do it again!”

The Fright Knight tilts his head in recognition and draws his sword. “Perhaps, but I am not playing to win.”

Has Danny ever mentioned that his life sucks? Because his life sucks.

“Should we help him?” Tucker asks Sam from where they stand below. Danny can just barely make out the words they’re saying with humming of his core and the rush of adrenaline that shoots through his system.

“I don’t think they’re planning on hurting him?” Sam answers back. “Besides do you have anything to go up against the Fright Knight?”

“Point,” Tucker says.

(Danny has great friends.)

“We would rather have done this the easy way,” one of the Observants says. The others bob their eyeballs in agreement.

Danny whirls on them, eyes narrowed. “You forfeited your right to have opinions on what's easy when you brought the Fright Knight into this!”

“It’s for your own good,” the same Observant answers. “The Fright Knight serves the king and the king alone.”

“For your own good,” Danny grumbles under his breath, mockingly. His hands light up with ectoplasm. “We’ll see about that.”

The fight doesn’t take long.

It’s as the Fright Knight said; he is not fighting to win. The knight is not below a few dirty tricks to hold Danny down for just a few seconds. Danny puts up a good fight but he's running on three shots of espresso and maybe a sum total of six hours of sleep the entire week thanks to the constant threat of observants trying to put the crown on his head or ring on his finger. Safe to say, he's not in his prime condition.

The Fright Knight ends up pinning him down in the middle of the destroyed street. His friends rush forward to help, but two Observants hold them back. Danny thrashes from where he’s pinned but he can’t do much more than move his head around. The Fright Knight and his horse are, unsurprisingly, very heavy and apparently very well trained in holding down slippery, intangible ghost-teenagers.

The Observant holding the crown approaches him slowly. Danny tries to bite it’s long, claw like hands out of spite but the Observant goes intangible before he can make contact. It slowly lowers the crown towards his head.

Danny’s eyes flash a dangerous green. “I swear, if you put that crown on my head I’ll—are you kidding me?!”

The Observant drops the crown on his head. It hovers just a few centimeters above his hair and Danny immediately feels a heavy sort of energy expanding throughout his body. The crown flares to life, changing from a small flicking fire to a roaring flame as power gathers in his very core.

“You could have come to your own coronation, however, we were forced to make drastic measures,” the Observant that crowned him says.

Boy, doesn't that just set Danny off.

With a snarl, Danny uses the new energy to twist and blast the Fright Knight off his back. The crown follows his movement, flaring brightly whenever he uses his powers. Instead of fighting back, the knight merely bows and disappears. Danny waits a couple moments, tense and ready to fight, but it seems the Fright Knight has done what he came here to do.

The crown feels heavy on his head.

He blasts the two Observants holding Sam and Tucker, too, just because they’re annoying. They rush over to him, but he holds up a hand and motions for them to wait. There are, after all, still ten ghosts and a ring that Danny needs to avoid.

Danny turns to the Observants, fights clenched and eyes narrowed. “Okay, congrats! You win. The crown is on my head. Please get rid of it now.”

“The Crown of Fire is your right,” one Observant says. “It belongs to you alone.”

An idea suddenly comes to mind.

“Cool,” Danny says, slowly. He takes the crown off and is surprised how little it resist. The fire doesn’t even burn his hand as he holds it by the rim. “Then you won’t mind if I do this.”

He throws the crown as far as he can, watching it sail above the homes. It flies for a hot minute before flicking out of sight. Danny feels strangely satisfied when he turns to the Observants with a grin on his face. However, the Observants don’t look nearly as worried as Danny expects them to. In fact, they look unbearably smug for what is, functionally, a giant floating eyeball.

The looks he's getting ring as very bad in his mind.

Something heavy settles back on his head. Danny’s smile drops and feels a sinking alarm in his gut when he reaches up to touch the flaming crown that he had, just mere seconds ago, thrown across the entire town. The same power settles in his core once again.

“No,” Danny whispers, horrified.

“Holy shit,” Tucker says from across the street.

Danny turns and catches Sam’s eye. She mouths what is going on? at him. Danny wishes he knew anything about what’s happening but, as always, he’s clueless and confused and no small part of him is very, very angry.

The Observants merely stare at him. One steps forward and says, “The crown is yours by right. Hold out your hand and we will bestow upon you the Ring of Rage. Then your coronation will be completed and we shall leave you and return to the Infinite Realms to continue our temporal duties.”

Danny’s flare a brighter green. Ectoplasm pools in his hands and he readies for another fight. He doesn’t know it at the time, but his crown flickers to life. Suddenly uneasy, the Observants back away slowly.

“If you try and put that ring on my hand I will cut off my fingers,” Danny says.

“You won’t,” another Observant says.

“Wanna bet?”

They get the ring on his finger but, by god, Danny doesn’t go down without blasting all ten of them into the ground first. They pin him just like before, in yet another crater in the middle of a street with the crown on his head, the ring on his finger and unimaginable power flowing through his veins.

Apparently satisfied, the Observants let him up and quickly retreat. Danny stands, grumbling all the while, brushes off the remainder of dust on his suit and turns to the Observants. He's staring at the group, wondering just how he should get rid of them after they ruin more lives when all ten of then fall to their knees.

Danny takes a step back in alarm.

“All hail King Phantom,” the Observants say together. Their voices echo across the quiet streets of Amity Park. “Defeater of Pariah Dark and ruler of the Infinite Realms.”

People come out of their houses, peeking and staring up at him in horrified awe. Children point to his crown and laugh while the eyes of the adults reflect unseen amounts of terror. Danny can already see whatever good reputation he had dying like a snuffed out flame due to a single announcement. Danny meets Sam and Tucker’s eyes and wishes for nothing more than to flicker out of existence at that very moment.

Instead, Danny is forced to stand there, arms crossed and pissed off, with a burning crown floating on his head, a heavy ring on his finger and the weight of the entire Ghost Zone on his shoulders.

It’s quite possibly the worst day he’s ever had in his entire half-life.

-----------------------------------

The ghosts coming out of the portal over the next couple days to congratulate him almost make the situation worse.

It’s Johnny 13 who comes out first, gives him an exaggerated bow with a grin and says, “Hope you have a fun time being king, kiddo. I don’t envy you.”

Danny, who has had the worst two weeks of his life, simply rolls his eyes and mutters a sarcastic, “Thanks.”

“Kitty sends her regards as well," Johnny flashes him a lopsided grin and gets on his bike. He raves the engine before suddenly looking back. "Don’t expect the current peace to last.”

Danny watches him go, hands in his head. The crown flickers in the dim light and ring glows. He’s still not quite sure what a normal king is supposed to do; much less king of the Ghost Zone.

-----------------------------------

“The crown looks good on you, dipstick,” Ember says, later, when he’s out flying and trying to clear his head. No matter what he’s tried, the crown and ring simply won’t go away. He's been forced to wear an assortment of hats and gloves in order to keep his parents from finding out. They're pissed enough that Phantom was crowned the Ghost King as it already is.

“I hate this,” Danny tells her. “I want the crown and the ring gone.”

The other ghosts are definitely enjoying his absolute misery, even if they were all on somewhat friendly terms. As it turns out, a lot ghosts tend to play suck-up when confronted with unimaginable power.

Ember's smile widens and she says, “Well they’re your crown and ring. You can do what you want with them.”

Danny wants them gone. Then, he realizes something and stares at her in surprise.

“Was that advice?” Danny asks. "Did you just give me advice?”

“Did I?”

“I thought you hated me.”

“Right now, I pity you more than anything,” Ember tells him. “It’s whatever, babypop. You’re the king now and you’re no Pariah Dark so even if you do get in the way of my plans, I’d rather have you be king than go back to his rule.”

“That’s a very low bar to set,” Danny mutters under his breath. He stands, the crown flaring as he does so. He tries to hide his scowl. “Don’t cause trouble or, I dunno, try and brainwash the entire human population, and you can stay.”

He disappears into the air, content to head home for the night. Behind him, Ember calls out, “Think about what I said, dipstick! It’s your own power. You just have to learn how to use it.”

Later that night, he floats on his bed an concentrates. His own power bubbles to the surface and, in a fit on control, he wills his ring and crown to disappear. The objects flicker once, twice, before vanishing entirely. They’re not completely gone, of course, because he can still feel the power in his body but hidden is better than nothing.

-----------------------------------

Technus gives him some weird ghost device as a congratulations present. Danny’s pretty sure it’s not going to explode and/or capture him, but he can never be certain with a ghost like Technus. He ends up quietly shuffling it to Tucker when the technology-themed ghost isn’t looking.

Youngblood, Spectra, the Box Ghost, Lunch Lady, Desiree and even Vlad (holy shit) come and give him (begrudging) congratulations. Half of them think it's hilarious that he’s the poor sucker who gets the bear the burden of the crown while the other half think it’s too much power for his tiny halfa body to handle. Luckily, Danny now has a much easier time sending them back to the Ghost Zone if they get too rowdy.

Vlad gives him an especially vindictive look when he corners Danny in their human forms. Danny returns his look by secretly flipping him off since he can’t exactly shoot the mayor with an ectoblast in public.

Vlad leers over him in what's supposed to be intimidating. “I doubt you can hold on to that crown forever, boy.”

Danny might not want to be king but there’s absolutely no way that he would ever let the crown or the ring fall into Vlad’s hand.

He pushes Vlad away and clenches his fists, eyes narrowed. “Are you going to try and take it from me, fruitloop?”

“Perhaps another time,” Vlad says with a smile. Danny holds his fists to his side to keep from punching him in the face. “After all, a crown is a heavy burden for a child to bear.”

Danny grits his teeth. “I think I’ll manage.”

“We will see, little badger,” Vlad says and turns to leave.

Danny glances around, just to make sure no one is looking, before creating a tiny ice patch right in front of Vlad. He tries to keep his laughter muffled (but definitely takes pride) when the billionaire-asshole slips and sends him a particularly nasty glare. He gives Vlad the most innocent wave he can muster despite the grin on his face.

Danny thinks he probably needed that meeting with Vlad. While he still doesn’t want the crown, Danny finds that spite is one hell of a motivator to keep the crown as far away from Vlad as possible.

-----------------------------------

Skulker comes last. To Danny’s horrified surprise, he bows low and says, “Congratulations.”

Danny stands in his pajamas at three o’clock in the morning and feeling slightly overwhelmed. “Alright, this is more than a little weird.”

“It’s custom to greet the new king,” Skulker says and straightens back out. Danny’s half waiting for a gotcha! and some missiles but Skulker doesn’t do much more than observe him.

Danny narrows his eyes and crosses his arms. “Do you have to be weird about it?”

“Don’t get me wrong, whelp,” Skulker says as he turns to leave. “This will not last. I hope you realize that just because you are king does not mean I will stop hunting you. Your crown just makes you that much more valuable to mount on my wall.”

Danny shifts between feeling touched and a little relived at the normalcy of the situation and the normal disgust that comes with Skulker threatening to skin him because, really, it’s just gross. Despite his words, he still hears the silent message Skulker is trying to convey.

Just because your king doesn’t mean anything will change.

And that? That’s more than a little relief off his shoulders. For the first time since he was crowned, Danny lets out a genuine bark of laughter and a grateful smile comes to his face.

“Thanks,” Danny says. “I don’t think I’d have it any other way.

#i wrote all 7k of this in one day so Thats Neat #anyways theres too much angsty in the danny phantom fandom so im making it my lifes mission to write not-angst #danny phantom #phic #phicc #i think thats what this fandom calls fanfiction uuuhhhhhhh #danny fenton #danny phantom fanfiction #my fics #phandom #idk what else to tag this as so just take it #do readmores even work on mobile or is tumblr like. broken.

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darks-ink · 4 years

Text

Absurdism Chapter 3

Danny and Jazz begin their exciting game of “share the POV”. Much like the braincell, it is almost always Jazz’.

Rating: Teen/K+ (a lil swearing, because teenagers, man) Warnings: - Genre: Family, Hurt/Comfort Additional Tags: Sibling Bonding, Family Bonding, Alternate Universe - Halfa Jazz AU, Jazz makes friends

[AO3] [FFN] [more Absurdism on Tumblr] First Chapter | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

---

Chapter 3: Two of a Kind

Danny stretched out, releasing a huge yawn, then bonelessly flopped back onto the roof he was lying on. Staring unseeingly up at the sky, he contemplated how he’d gotten here. Man, he really should’ve realized sooner that this wasn’t his Amity Park. Maybe if he had, he could’ve gone back through the Portal.

Despite his bluster towards Jazz—this Jazz—he really was concerned about how things were, back home. He was sure that Valerie could handle the ghosts, especially if Dani dropped by, but he hadn’t seen his cousin in forever. And Sam, Tucker, and Jazz might’ve been pretty good ghost hunters, perfectly capable of helping Val, but…

But they would be far too busy looking for him to be any help.

There was nothing he could do about it, though. He knew how rare natural portals were, and how unpredictable. It was nigh impossible for him to find his way back on his own, and convincing Frostbite to give him the Infi-map would be… well, pretty difficult, he supposed. He didn’t have any “Conqueror of Pariah Dark” titles to show off, not here.

What he’d told had been the truth, to some extent. If he was stuck here, he might as well make himself useful. Give her the guidance she would need; the guidance he wished he’d had, when he first started.

Of course he’d forgotten about all the potential downtime. Jazz had school, and even if Danny took care of most of the minor ghosts, that still left… a surprising amount of time. With how busy his life felt, he really would’ve guessed that ghost-hunting took up more time than it did.

Maybe the downtime just felt really long. It wasn’t like there was much he could do, after all. He couldn’t go anywhere in human form, because people might confuse him for this universe’s Danny Fenton. And he couldn’t go anywhere as a ghost, because people weren’t familiar with those. Not yet, at least.

That, and even if they were, it would probably involve his parents hunting him. And, uh, he wasn’t exactly jumping with excitement to get back to that. Hell, he hadn’t even gotten his real parents to quit hunting him.

His core stirred to life, and cold air wisped out of his mouth.

“Well, here we go again,” he grumbled to himself, pushing himself off of the ground. He glanced over at FentonWorks, but Jazz didn’t stir. Wherever the ghost was, it was outside her range. Well, whatever. He could handle it on his own.

He would almost be tempted to let it run a little loose, just to stifle the boredom, but it was too risky. That, and he and Jazz were trying to keep the existence of ghosts a secret for as long as possible. Letting some random animalistic ghost run wild wasn’t good for public morale.

A glint of light in the distance caught his attention, and he zoned in on it immediately. Metal, maybe? Not a lot of ghosts brought ectoplasmic metal with them, and surely it was too early for Cujo…

The connections clicked in Danny’s mind, and he hesitated. Skulker, of course. Maybe he should get Jazz. Skulker tended to be a pretty tough fight, always upgrading his gear.

But, oh.

Skulker upgraded his gear, from the moment they first fought. This Skulker wouldn’t have any of those upgrades. He would be 2.5 years behind the curve; he’d be a wimp compared to the Skulker Danny usually fought.

Danny tapped into his invisibility, then started a large arc, only vaguely in Skulker’s direction. He was pretty sure the ghost was employed by Vlad right now, assuming that the other half-ghost was Vlad in this universe. But Vlad wouldn’t know about Jazz—or Specter—just yet. Skulker was just following rumors, hoping to snatch a half-ghost as prey before his employer could find out. Danny just needed to show him how hopelessly outmatched he was, and make sure Skulker wouldn’t tell Vlad.

The hulking metallic ghost was crouched on a rooftop, his mohawk flickering in the wind. Danny hovered behind him, dropping his invisibility, but the hunter didn’t even notice him. Ha! Too focused on Jazz, it seemed.

Danny cleared his throat.

Skulker whipped around, the panels on one arm shifting to reveal an ecto-gun. Danny eyed the gun aimed at his chest with half-lidded eyes. He’d seen more impressive weaponry wielded by literal high-schoolers. And that wasn’t even counting Valerie or the members of Team Phantom.

“Sup,” he said instead, nodding at Skulker. “Having fun?”

The ghost seemed thrown off by Danny’s casual attitude, his gun faltering slightly and his brows drawing together. “Um. Yes?”

“Well, see, I don’t appreciate that much.” He crossed his arms, maintaining his hover so he was taller than Skulker. “She’s under my protection, you see.”

Skulker snorted dismissively. More panels opened up to reveal weaponry. Weak, outdated weaponry. That’s right! This Skulker hadn’t even upgraded his basic body with Tucker’s PDA yet. Oh, what a joke!

“Yeah?” the ghost challenged. The gun came back up, aimed at Danny’s chest—his core. “And what are you going to do about it, whelp?”

“See, I was hoping you would ask that.” Danny smirked at Skulker, releasing the tight grasp he’d had on his core. Volatile ectoplasm, as green as his eyes, started curling around his hands. Gathered in thick glowing balls of pure energy in his palms. His glow flickered brighter as more and more energy released from his core.

Maybe this was a little overkill, all things considered. But Skulker had been a pain in his ass plenty of times. Besides, better to release some of that pent-up energy on a target like Skulker, who could take it a lot more easily than the animal ghosts Danny usually fought.

“Oh, I see.” Skulker’s eyes narrowed as energy started building in his ecto-weaponry. “It’s a fight you want.”

Meeting Skulker’s eye, Danny grinned even wider. “What I really want is for you to leave this city alone, and refrain from telling your employer about the existence of another half-ghost, but sure, for now I’ll settle for a fight.”

Finishing his sentence, he formed a reflective shield in front of him, intercepting Skulker’s shot the moment it was fired. The ghost thus momentarily disarmed, Danny flung the ecto-glass at him.

Skulker spluttered, swatting the shattering glass away, and was thus distracted enough for Danny to grab onto him. His white gloves dug for purchase, before one hand closed around the strap of his shirt, and the other caught onto the edge of his pauldron. Eh, good enough.

Satisfied that he had a decent enough grip, Danny shot up into the sky, Skulker dragged along. The ghost struggled underneath his hands, but couldn’t get enough leverage to get free. Not until they reached a satisfactory level of height, and Danny let go of the ghost entirely.

“Whelp!” the ghost barked at him, jet-pack wings unfolding from the panels on his back. “What do you think you are doing?!”

“Getting you out of the public eye.” Danny shifted, new energy forming in his palms as easily as breathing. “Amity doesn’t know about ghosts yet, and I don’t want their first impression to be this ass-kicking.”

“You expect me to be fear you, just because of that little shield?” Skulker laughed, sharp and metallic, before raising his gun again. “Ha! As if.”

“Nah. But I’ve fought ghosts far stronger than you, man.” Danny raised one hand as well, focusing his energy into the single ecto-blast. “And certainly scarier, too.”

He fired. Skulker, unable to respond so quickly, took the blast straight on the arm. The gun was blown off entirely, the metal on Skulker’s arm blackened and smoking.

Before Skulker could pull out another gun, Danny followed it up with a few more shots for emphasis. Blew off the remaining guns, then froze up most of the wings holding Skulker up for good measure.

The ghost faltered in mid-air, his engines cutting out for a short moment. He glanced at his wings, then at Danny, who had barely even moved.

“I… see.” His voice was low, and he was clearly unhappy to be so clearly outmatched. “What… did you say you wanted, again?”

Danny snorted. “Convinced already? You didn’t even make me show off any of the really impressive stuff.”

He shrugged, ignoring the way Skulker’s eyes widened in surprise. “I want you to leave this city alone, and all of its citizens. If you must, you can come hunt ghosts here, but only after checking in with me, and if I agree with your prey. And you can’t tell your employer about the half-ghost you were hunting.”

Skulker remained silent for a moment, eyeing up Danny. Finally, he grunted, “You know of my employer?”

“Some,” Danny said dismissively. “I want to keep this city safe. And I’ve got the stinking feeling that if they knew about the existence of this half-ghost, trouble would come.”

“A fair assessment.” The metallic ghost thought it over for moment longer, angling his head. “And what if I do not follow these rules?”

“Besides the fact that I can clearly kick your ass in a fight?” Danny raised a challenging brow. “I can destroy your reputation in the Ghost Zone just as easily. You’re the greatest hunter around, sure, until everyone knows you’re barely more than a blob ghost. Small, soft-shelled ghost that needs a robot suit to hunt? Not exactly a huge threat.”

“I—” Skulker blew out a noisy breath—somewhat surprising to Danny, since he hadn’t realized Skulker could even do that—and shook his head. “How do you even know that? Fine, whelp. I will leave, and if I ever chase prey into this upside-down world, I will inform you of my presence. Good enough?”

“And you won’t tell your employer?” Danny pressed. “Or anybody else, really. Nobody who doesn’t already know.”

“Yes, sure, fine,” Skulker snapped back. “Her existence will remain a secret, or at the very least, I will have no role in revealing it.”

“Good enough.” Danny released the gathering energy, softening the glow of his body, and stuck out an arm in Skulker’s direction. “Pleasure doing business with you, Skulker.”

“Wish I could say the same,” the ghost grumbled, but he took Danny’s hand and shook it nonetheless. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go.”

“Sure, sure, of course.” Danny waved his hands at Skulker. “Go have fun upgrading your suit. But don’t break our deal, or I will know, and you will regret it. Gotcha?”

“Yes, I understood your threat already.” Skulker shook his head, flying off in the direction of FentonWorks—and the Portal. Danny watched him leave, then shrugged to himself, tapped into his invisibility, and followed Skulker.

You know, just to be safe.

---

“I feel like this is going to be come very confusing, very quickly,” Jazz admitted as she landed in the open space in the woods. Danny—alternative universe Danny—was already there, in his ghost form.

“Huh?” He blinked, clearly confused, and stuffed a phone into one of the pockets on his belt. “What do you mean? What’ll get confusing?”

“Just— this!” She threw out her hands for emphasis, trying to gesture at, well, everything. “I really appreciate your help, but, y’know. You’re Danny, but not my Danny, but that sounds so rude!”

He blinked at her once more, then snorted loudly. “Yeah, no, I get it. I’m having the same with… well, basically everything. Jazz, and your parents, and everything else. You can call me Phantom if it helps, though.”

“I don’t know…” She grimaced, shifting her feet uneasily. “That just feels… rude, I guess? It’s basically your last name, isn’t it? Phantom?”

“It’s my ghost name. Sam and Tucker use it all the time as well, when I’m in my ghost form.” He floated a little closer, then shrugged almost dismissively. “Plus, you’ll have to get used to it anyway. When we start making our public appearances, we’ll have to call each other Specter and Phantom anyway.”

Right. She supposed he had a point there. “I guess so. Will you start calling me Specter, then?”

“If you want me to.” Danny landed as well, his boots touching down on the grassy soil. “I don’t mind either way. I’ve gotten used to switching between that kinda stuff really quickly, with Red and all that.”

“Uh huh…” There was the mysterious ‘Red’ again. “Speaking of this mysterious Red, you mind telling me a little something about them? And Danielle, as well, since you apparently trust those two to help keep your Amity safe? Could they help here, too?”

He made a face. Guess not. “Eh, I don’t know, Jazz. Not now, that’s for sure. It would be better to focus on training your own powers for now, and I’ll keep an eye on those two just in case. Okay?”

“Sure, sounds good.” She shrugged, but made sure to remember that. Whoever they were, they must’ve gotten into the ghost hunting business after Danny. Strange, though. Were they half-ghosts as well, or regular ghost hunters? Maybe one of each? Red could be a ghost name, since most ghost hunters seemed content with using their own. Danielle… Ignoring the close resemblance to Danny’s name, she could be a regular ghost hunter.

But, if Danny wasn’t interested in following up on their existence, she was willing to drop it as well. For now. Her own powers still needed plenty of work, although she’d be perfectly happy just to get these few under control.

“How about we start with some basic control?” Danny asked, suddenly, snapping her out of thoughts. “I remember that that was one of the things I struggled with most, after the accident.”

“Yeah, uh.” She laughed, a little embarrassed. “That would be nice.”

“Thought as much. Do you have any preferences?”

Reliable flight was nice, of course, for travel. Invisibility was mostly annoying when it activated when she didn’t want to; she couldn’t think of any situations where she might normally use it. Most problematic of all, though…

“Intangibility, for sure.” It was not only the most annoying, it also activated most of the three basic powers, and it could be really tough to cover for. “I’m so done with dropping things.”

This startled a laugh out of Danny. He lifted off of the ground again, floating in closer. “Oh, yeah, I know your struggles. Have you gotten in trouble with school yet, for dropping so much glassware?”

“No?” She frowned, mentally prodding her core a little. Were warm-ups a thing for ghost cores? Did shifting into ghost form count as warming it up? “I try not to handle the glassware too much, just in case. Why, is that a thing I need to be cautious of?”

“Nah, sounds like you’ve got it handled already.” He flapped a dismissive hand. “I dropped so much glass during my first month that the school banned me from handling it anymore, but it sounds like you were smarter about it. Still, intangibility first?”

“Uh. Yeah, please.” She clenched and unclenched her fists a little, unsure of how to proceed. “And, um. Dan— Phantom. Do we need to do some kind of… warming up, or something?”

“What, like when you’re going sporting?” He frowned, then dropped the face and shrugged. “Not really? Using your powers is easier while in ghost form, but your core is active all the time. You don’t need to warm-up your brain when you’re gonna start thinking, right? It’s always doing its thing.”

“But aren’t powers more like muscles? Aren’t we training them?”

Almost immediately, he shook his head. “Nah. I mean, a little, but not really. We’re gonna work on your connection with your core, mostly, since that’s where your power malfunctions are coming from. Your core has the powers ready, but you’re not used to using it.”

She narrowed her eyes, but he seemed certain of his answers, and, well. She had no way to disprove him, did she? “And new powers? Building stamina?”

“Both will come with time. Your core is still new, and young. It needs time to grow and stabilize. Using your powers will guide it in a certain direction, which is why training will help you develop new powers sooner. And using them more will help you build stamina faster, since your core will focus more on developing it.”

“I… see.” She prodded the core again, mentally. It stirred, easily. Was that just the trick to controlling her powers? Getting better at communicating with this new part of herself? “So how are we gonna train that?”

Danny’s expression grew sheepish. “Well, mostly I figured you could just work on your powers here, where no one would notice. Like I said, control comes from practice, and I can’t really help much with that.” He shrugged. “Besides the assurance that you won’t get hurt, of course.”

Jazz shot him an unamused look, but he ignored it completely.

“So, anyway, wanna start with intangibility? I’ll be here to make sure you don’t get stuck phasing through something.”

“That’s a possibility?” She blanched, throwing a quick look downward at the ground. She hadn’t even known that it was possible for her to get stuck!

“Well, it’s never happened to me, since I’m pretty sure you retain intangibility by reflex if you’re partially phased into something…” Danny shrugged. “But now you can be sure that it won’t happen to you!”

“You’re a terrible teacher! Now you��ve gone and made me scared of something I didn’t even know I could be scared about!” She combed a hand through her hair, aggravatedly. “Honestly, Danny!”

“Uh, whoops.” He shot her a sheepish grin, rubbing the back of his neck. “I was pretty scared of accidentally getting myself stuck, so I figured the same would go for you. Sorry.”

“Honestly,” she grumbled, half to herself. “So far the only useful thing you’ve done to help is deal with all those other ghosts.”

Danny laughed, clearly still a little unsure of himself. “That’s fair. This basic stuff, I can’t help with, not much. But once you’ve gotten better at it, I’ll be able to teach you all kinds of stuff. Like this!”

His fists lit up, suddenly, bright energized ectoplasm balling around his hands. Like the blasts from an ecto-gun, except that he was forming it himself.

“Pretty cool, huh? But if you’re not too big on fighting, you can use it defensively as well.” He swept his hands out, and the ectoplasm following, forming a hollowed-out ball around him. “See? We’ll spend a lesson or two on control, but after all, I’ll help you with new stuff.”

Well, she wasn’t above admitting that she’d been convinced. “What if I work on control at home, and we start on that stuff next time? Shields could be really useful.”

“Hah, uh, I guess?” The shield broke apart again, and Danny shrugged. “I mean, I usually dodge hits instead, since that costs less energy. But ecto-blasts are a pretty basic technique, so we can start on that next time, if you really want to. But! You’ll need to have a good amount of control already. Your core is essential for that.”

“Isn’t my core always essential?” she asked dryly. “Since it’s, you know, the center of my ghost powers?”

“You know what I mean.” He stuck out his tongue, and she stamped down her reflex to do it back. No matter how much like Danny he was, this wasn’t her brother. It was unfair to all of them to pretend otherwise.

Besides, if she was going to protect this town, she had to be a hero. No, not just a hero. The hero. Mature and an icon for the town to look up to. Not just a kid.

“But you want to get going, then?” Danny said, snapping her out of her thoughts again. “Since you said you wanted to work on your control at home?”

“Uh, yeah. If that’s… okay with you?” She twirled a strand of her vividly purple hair, still unused to its color—and the way it wisped. “Plus I kind of… need to clean the lab?”

“I’m not gonna force you to keep my company if you can’t or don’t want to, Jazz.” Danny met her eyes, the bright green barely hiding the sadness in them. “Go, then. I’ll be around when you’ve ready for the next lesson.”

“Right…” She scuffed one boot on the ground, but, well. She had committed, now, no matter how distressed Danny seemed. Besides, there was nothing she could do for him. “Well, thanks, anyway. For this, and for helping me with the ghosts.”

“Of course.” He cocked his head at her. “You’re my sister, Jazz, even if this is a different universe. Stay safe, okay? Cleaning the lab is always a nasty chore for a half-ghost.”

“I’ll be careful,” she assured him, before turning around, ready to fly back home. Then she paused, glancing back over her shoulder at him. “You be careful too, alright? Just because you’re not my Danny doesn’t mean that I want you to get hurt, either.”

“I promise.” He smiled at her, and she could almost pretend not to see the sadness in it.

She nodded to herself, finally pushing herself off and into the air. He’d be fine. Danny—Phantom—had been half-ghost for over two years. He could take care of himself.

But he just looked so lonely, here.

---

“What is this even supposed to be?” Jazz wondered out-loud, carefully lifting one of the half-assembled inventions in the lab. She was just about done cleaning the lab, anyway. She could afford the distraction. “Some kind of vacuum?”

Her core pulsed in her chest, and for a brief moment, she worried that she had somehow turned the invention on. But then cold air wisped from her mouth. Heaving a sigh, she turned around, towards the Portal.

Its green surface was flat, undisturbed. Ectoplasm swirled, like it was held back by an invisible barrier.

Suddenly it parted, a single humanoid ghost coming through. Green skin and oversized green gloves, a white coat with a humongous collar, and some of the wildest hair she had ever seen. Square glasses blocked the ghost’s eyes, so she couldn’t tell the color. Not that it was a big deal, but still.

“Uh, hey,” she greeted the ghost, putting down the ghost-vacuum-thing. “You’re not here to cause trouble, are you?”

“I am Technus!” the ghost retorted, pressing one hand to his puffed-up chest, “And I’m the master of all technology!”

“Okay, cool. Good for you.” She narrowed her eyes at him, nudging the vacuum-invention behind herself. “That didn’t answer my question.”

Technus narrowed his glasses—or glass-like eyes, she supposed—at her. “What does it matter to you? All technology is mine, anyway!”

“No it’s not! I won’t let you steal in this city!” She stood up, puffing herself up as well. “Either you go back into the Zone, or I’ll make you!”

“Hah! You’ve got nothing on me! Technus, master of all things electronic and beeping! And you! You are just a puny human!”

Jazz growled, her core eagerly stirring to life. Energy crackled over her skin as she shifted into her ghost form, casual clothes replaced by her purple jumpsuit.

“Ah, well—” Technus shifted, clearly thrown off. “No matter! Adios!”

And before she could stop him, he darted upwards, phasing through the ceiling of the lab.

“Hey, hold up!” She shot after him, phasing through the house. For a moment she was afraid that she had lost him, but then she caught sight of him again. Speeding towards the city, faster than she thought she could fly. Dammit!

Pushing herself to her max speed, she raced after him. He wasn’t all that fast, sure, but neither was she!

Technus slowed down soon enough, apparently distracted by an electronics store. Jazz finally caught up with him when her ghost sense went off again. She cursed, already turning to look for the other ghost, when Danny came to a halt next to her.

“Sorry, I was still in the woods. What’s up?”

“Some ghost named Technus.” She gestured over at the ghost, reaching for the Thermos on her belt. Yes, it was there, thank goodness. “He got away from me before I could shove him back through the Portal.”

“I’ll deal with him, he can be a bit of a pain in the ass.” Danny’s expression was serious for once, clearly focused on their strategy. “I want you to make sure he doesn’t get access to any of the tech around here. He’ll be able to possess it, and that’ll make him way stronger.”

“And we don’t want that. Got it.” She nodded, then dove down. It wouldn’t be a particularly hard thing, she figured, since Danny would be fighting Technus and thus distracting him. And it would give her a perfect opportunity to watch Phantom use his powers to their full extend, to watch him fight for real. Snapping up the occasional animal ghost didn’t count.

She had just lowered herself between Technus and the store when Danny followed her lead. Except, unlike her, he just straight-up tackled Technus.

Danny hit the full ghost like a meteor strike, hitting him at speeds she didn’t realize he could fly at. Somehow her not-quite brother stopped before either of them hit the ground, halting so suddenly that she was amazed he didn’t snap his neck.

Suddenly electricity lanced through the two brawling ghosts, crackling over Technus’ body, forcing Danny—Phantom—to distance himself again.

“I am Technus! Master of all things electric and zappy!”

“Oh, shut up, will you?” Phantom snapped back, a green ecto-blast forming in his fist. “I’ve heard it before!”

Technus opened his mouth, but before he could reply, the blast hit him. The ghost went flying down, crumpling onto the asphalt road. Not hard enough to cause serious damage, though, she was surprised to note.

Phantom shot down after him. Landed on Technus and pressed him back down when the ghost tried to get up.

“No, you stay down and listen,” he growled, aura flaring bright. “Here’s what we’re gonna do, okay? You go back to the Zone, and you’re gonna cool off. If you ever decide you can come here without stealing anything, or causing any other sort of trouble, you can come talk to me. Understood?”

“And if I don’t?” Technus narrowed his eyes, spectral tail lashing. “What if I leave, and come back unnoticed?”

“I’ll know.” Phantom leaned in close, eyes glowing brighter. “Trust me, you don’t want to find out. Leave, Technus, or I won’t ask so nicely.”

Then he let go, floating away from the previously pinned ghost. Technus looked between him, then her.

“Fine,” the ghost finally said, clearly begrudgingly. “Even I, Technus, know when I am outmatched.”

“Just go already,” Phantom snapped at him, and Technus flinched away, closer to her. “Specter, mind escorting him back, so we’re sure he’s not getting away?”

“Yeah, sure.” She waved a hand in the direction of home. “Come on, get going. We don’t have all day.”

#danny phantom #danny fenton #jazz fenton #jazz phantom #jazz phantom au #halfa jazz au #phanfic #dp fanfic #dark writes #absurdism

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commander-daine · 5 years

Text

GW2 April Fools’ Patch Notes 2019

As always GW2 delights with its April Fools’ patch notes, though I have to admit I preferred last year’s chair puns.

World Polish

Updated audio for sitting in chairs. Chair-based audio can be adjusted using the Unique Audio drop-downs in the Options menu.

Cloud movement in Shaemoor has been corrected to match Tyrian wind patterns.

Fixed a visual bug in which some dredge did not appear to be ghosts in Dredgehaunt Cliffs.

The commander's communicator has been upgraded to include a virtual assistant. Use voice command "Dessa!" to get started. For example, "Dessa! Play 'Fear Not This Night.'"

Players found to be in violation of the "No Mounts" zone within Amnoon will be fined.

To address immersion complaints, all charr character names have had the word "charr" replaced with "kitten."

Cats in the player's home instance that are not kept entertained will now begin destroying gathering nodes and scenery at a set rate per day.

Fractals

Mistlock instabilities have been renamed "fractal birds" for clarity.

To fix the problem of "bad days," fractal birds are now based on player profession rather than randomly generated each day. Corresponding birds will be applied to all party members based on their profession. Check the Profession Skills section of the release notes for the first season's birds!

Raids

Raised the water level in Hall of Chains to facilitate the use of underwater skills in the final encounter.

Personal Story

The Personal Story has been renamed Professional Story to reflect that this is your character's job.

Items

Fixed a typo that caused the Gift of Dedication to require chak eggs instead of chak egg sacs.

Stonemist Castle can now be crafted as a decoration for guild halls.

Profession Skills

General

Alacrity now speeds up the wait time for the daily reset.

Confusion now randomizes your key bindings when it is applied, in addition to its previous effects.

Movement speed now scales with boot rarity.

Elementalist

Entering water attunement now temporarily removes the dehydration condition.

Entering fire attunement now temporarily removes the frostbite condition.

Seasonal Fractal Bird: We Bleed Birds.

Engineer

Reduced scrap acquisition rate of scrappers to pre-Heart of Thorns™ levels.

Seasonal Fractal Bird: Bird Vindicators.

Guardian

Increased depth of symbolism on all guardian symbols by 25%.

Seasonal Fractal Bird: Bird Overload.

Mesmer

Changed Signet of Inspiration by 33%.

Seasonal Fractal Bird: Bird Convergence.

Necromancer

Axe skill damage increased by 5.999% repeating.

Reduced the number of scourge shades scourged when a scourge shade scourges shades.

Seasonal Fractal Bird: Toxic Birds.

Ranger

Pets commanded to fight members of their own species will instead turn hostile and attack the ranger.

Seasonal Fractal Bird: Social Birds.

Revenant

Replacing the previous energy cost, revenant skills now consume spirit shards.

Seasonal Fractal Bird: Outbirded.

Thief

Reduced the amount of gold gained when Steal is used on friendly NPCs.

Thief initiative is now reset when the thief enters combat, with the starting amount randomly determined from 1 to 20.

Seasonal Fractal Bird: Last Birds.

Warrior

Increased the cost of entering Berserk mode from 30 adrenaline to 35 adrenaline.

Players can now prevent adrenaline loss between encounters by using attack skills, even if they don't hit anything.

Seasonal Fractal Bird: Slippery Birds.

Structured Player vs. Player

Fractal birds have been introduced to PvP. The greater the lead a team has over the enemy team, the more birds they will have applied.

World vs. World

General

When the outnumbered effect is applied, autobalancing will immediately take effect.

Added new mount race events featuring the warclaw to all WvW maps. Please show good sportsmanship and don't attack players who are waiting for the race to start.

Eternal Battlegrounds

Added a new environmental hazard to the Eternal Battlegrounds. Roving bands of feral warclaws sweep through the map, dealing high damage to players caught outside of a gradually shrinking circle centered on Stonemist Keep.

Alpine Borderlands

Added a new environmental hazard to the Alpine Borderlands. Players in the cold, high-altitude, low-oxygen environment of the snowy north will have the new frostbite condition applied to them. This condition periodically inflicts chilled and confusion.

Desert Borderlands

Added a new environmental hazard to the Desert Borderlands. Players who spend longer than 10 minutes outdoors in the Desert Borderlands will have the new dehydration condition applied to them. This condition periodically inflicts crippled and torment and will be accompanied by hallucinations of enemy mirages.

#gw2 #guild wars 2 #april fools #april fools'#april fool's #updates #upd8 #that cat bit in the world polish section is gold #BUT #nothing can top 'signet of inspiration has been changed by 33%'

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canoncannon · 5 years

Note

Can you write something about the first time Daryl visits Hilltop with Dog? It can be established relationship or canon compliant, just featuring Jesus, Maggie, and Hershel please 💕~much love from your hospital friend

Hope this cheers you up a little, and I hope you get well soon! I have an idea for part two, so this may get a continuation sometime soon.

“Can I crash here tonight?” a voice says in the darkness, somewhere past the light of the fire.

Daryl jumps.

He hates it when Paul does that.

“Why’re you out so late?” he asks into the night. He still can’t see the little fucker.

Paul drops out of the tree above him, scaring the shit out of him for a second time. To his immense dissatisfaction, he jumps again, even worse than the first time.

Paul’s smile tells him that he noticed, and that he’s enjoying pissing Daryl off. “I was at the Kingdom and lost track of time.”

Like hell you did, Daryl thinks, but he lets it slide. He knows Paul is checking up on him, making sure he’s alright, but he doesn’t resent it. Paul brings news of the others, and it’s good to hear how they’re doing. Sometimes he’ll bring little things he thinks Daryl might need, like toothpaste or fish hooks.

More importantly, though, Daryl finds that he doesn’t mind Paul’s company.

Occasionally.

–

It’s been a month since he’s seen Paul when he hears from somewhere behind him, “Fancy meeting you here.”

Daryl would be please about the visit, except he’s currently naked, waist deep in the lake.

“You,” he says slowly and deliberately, without moving, “are an asshole.”

Paul laughs. “I’ll meet you back at your camp. Hurry up, I brought you some cigarettes.”

–

Dog changes things for the better.

Daryl’s almost ready to go to sleep one night when she darts away towards the road, barking her head off.

Walkers aren’t that quiet. Daryl waits, crossbow raised, even though he’s pretty sure it’s-

“What the hell? You got a dog?!”

Daryl grins at the annoyance in Paul’s voice.

–

Winter had been cold in previous years, but this year was something else entirely. The nights felt like he was sleeping in an ice bath, even with Dog cuddled beside him in the tent.

The final straw was when he saw the ulcer on Dog’s paw. She was getting frostbite.

He packed up and trudged to Hilltop. He hadn’t seen Maggie more than a year, but he knows he’ll be welcome–Paul’s said it often enough.

The other man still looks surprised when he sees Daryl behind the gate as it opens. He’s carrying a small boy piggyback-style through the snow, his hair tucked away in a beanie.

“Daryl!” Paul says, beaming at him.

The child squirms his way to the ground, and Daryl realizes in shock who he must be. Glenn’s eyes, Maggie’s hair. “Uncle Paul, what’s that?” he asks, pointing at Dog.

“It’s a dog,” Daryl says instead, crouching on one knee in the snow. “It’s a- a kind of animal. You can touch her if you want.”

Hershel hides behind Paul’s coat for a moment, not used to strangers, but after a little coaxing he steps forward, shyly holding out a hand. Dog licks it and he laughs, turning delighted eyes up to Paul.

Paul’s eyes, though, are fixed on Daryl. He’s got a small smile playing at his lips as they walk towards Barrington House. “How long are you staying?”

“Uh, the winter. If it’s alright with your boss. It’s colder than a witch’s tit out there.”

“Course it’s alright,” a woman’s voice says, and Maggie comes down off the porch. Daryl hadn’t registered her presence–he’d been preoccupied with Paul’s smile. “Daryl. It’s great to see you.”

He hugs her, then gestures at Hershel, who is still enraptured with Dog. “He’s- he’s, uh.” Daryl can’t ind the words. At last he says, “I shoulda come earlier.”

“Just glad you’re here now,” Maggie says with a smile. “You alright staying with Paul? Not sure having the dog in the house is the best idea.”

Daryl only blushes a little when he turns to Paul and asks, “Alright with you?”

“Yeah,” Paul says, and Daryl is struck with how happy he looks at that moment, all because Daryl’s going to stay with him for awhile. “Yeah, you can stay with me. Just keep your mutt off the furniture.”

#desus #daryl x jesus #ficlet

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maximumsuckage · 6 years

Text

In the Beginning: Part 7

Part of @archangelgabriellives‘s collab

Last time on In the Beginning: “Everything was just perfect for him, until he met another deity. Kali.” (@callmemisshorizon 2018)

Word Count: 1937

Pairings: Gabriel/Kali

Warnings: nothing worse than reminders of awkward teenage days

Previous Parts: Masterlist, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

The blade was designed to mimic an angel blade, brought back by a Viking trader from one of his expeditions. It had exchanged hands a few times in the interim- the metal had been touched by souls in India, then Jerusalem, then Constantinople, before taking a straight shot northwards. If he closed his eyes and focused, he could follow the path, reading each soul that had left fingerprints on the blade in the past three years since its forging.

It had been offered up to him in sacrifice- the trader who had bought it had returned home only to find that his wife had died in childbirth and the baby was stricken with fever. It was a valuable weapon- the metal could only be found in India, and traveling there was a harrowing journey- but the man had declared that he would give up that and everything else if it meant his child would get better.

Gabriel had taken him at his word. The man, once so consumed with worldly possessions that he would leave his pregnant wife on a rumor of wealth, lost everything. His ship, safe in harbor, was wrecked in a freak storm that didn’t even touch the other boats. His servants abandoned him, carrying off his gold and expensive fabrics and jewelry. His large house, envy of all his neighbors, went up in flames.

Loki demanded sacrifice, after all. That was the pagan way.

The virus that had stricken the babe’s lungs vanished. She chortled at her father’s face, reaching up to tug on his hair, red as her own. She would grow up strong and healthy, never touched by sickness or injury.

And as soon as Gabriel had doled out the justice, he forgot the tiny family. He had only eyes for the weapon, because it had his name on it:

Saint Gabriel the Archangel.

That really wasn’t fair. He was doing a great job on Earth, and now some Christian was trying to drag him out of hiding by making pretty weapons with his name? He tossed it aside; it hit the stony ground with a clatter. “I bet you can collect the full set,” he grumbled, spreading his invisible wings. “Let’s get Michael and Raphael too- yay! Collectible weapons! Next they’ll be selling cards with our kill stats on them.” He pumped his wings against the air to launch himself into the ether between dimensions.

A second later, he set down near a forge in India.

He hadn’t realized how accustomed to the winter weather he’d became. Landing in India was like stepping into a sauna; immediately he began to shed layers, vanishing them one by one back to his home on the shore of the North Sea. Only when he was barefoot, wearing just his tunic and light pants, did he turn towards the man making the archangel-inspired weapons.

“Alright,” he called out, walking into the wide open door of the forge (and certainly not bothering to knock). It was like walking into a wall of heat, somehow even hotter than the tropical sun. “What’s this I hear about making archangel blades?”

The smith turned around, confused by the sudden entrance.

Gabriel opened his mouth to give him a good talking to- probably call it blasphemy, or something along those lines. It would be just enough to scare him into stopping his work, or at least, not putting Gabriel’s abandoned name and title everywhere. But he was distracted by a sudden presence outside, and he turned.

His breath caught.

Gabriel had seen beauty. He had seen the vastness of the cosmos, the galaxies that swirled in eternal dance. He had seen continents rise from the ocean, had seen the birth of plants and animals and birds and fish. He had seen angels and archangels, seraphs and cherubs, powers and dominions.

But in an instant, he forgot all of those. Behind him, the smith fell prostrate, but Gabriel only stepped forward as though in a daze, to stand in the yard and face her.

On the surface, she was no more than a pretty southern girl. Her patterned dress was cheerful and bright against the deep tan of her skin. She stood lightly on her toes, as though ready to dance, but she stood with the straight, strong posture of a queen.

In his angelic vision though, Gabriel saw a flash of the truth.

Eyes burning with mischief and chaos. Midnight blue skin freckled with stars. Fangs glinting between plump, slightly parted lips. Four arms- the hidden two were playing with a lotus flower. A sword hung at her hip, clinking against a skirt of bones. She was a monster. An absolutely stunning monster.

(But wasn’t he also a monster? His true form burnt people to dust, after all).

“Oh, uh, hi,” he said, and cursed himself, face flushing hot (it was probably just the heat of the forge behind him).

“Loki the Trickster.” The goddess’s hips swayed with each graceful step as she approached him. “What a surprise, finding another chaos god here.” She paused, and gestured around at the jungle. “A bit far south for an Asgardian, aren’t we?”

Gabriel forced his eyes to remain on her face, to not wander lower. Her human form was lovely, and her true form was toned and athletic, the skin raised here and there with scars from past battles. “Yeah, no, I mean- Just checking out this guy’s swords. Um- I found one. Up north. Back home, you know, so I wanted to figure it out- So, you got a name?”

You stupid idiot! He felt his blush deepen and he tried to focus on her thick black braid- there was nothing exciting about hair, right? It was just sleek and long with not a single strand out of place, and okay, maybe he liked good hair; was that so wrong? Seriously, what was wrong with him?

But the goddess only chuckled. “Kali the Destroyer. I’m sure you’ve heard of me?”

He gasped out loud- or more likely, choked on air. Kali the Destroyer? He had heard stories about her- vague rumors about a creature so powerful that she could stomp out the sea, who destroyed evil with a zest that terrified even her own pantheon. She was good, technically, but she was gleeful in her destruction. She had consumed demons and punished sinners and fought in battles that would have made Mars himself tremble.

And dear gods, she was beautiful.

“Yeah, uh, once or twice,” he choked out, gaze shifting down from her face. That was a mistake- now he was looking at her breathtakingly long legs, deep midnight blue skin dappled with sunlight shining through the trees surrounding the yard. Her feet were bare and muddy.

“Mmhmm.” Though it wasn’t even a word, it was the smuggest noise Gabriel had ever heard. He was struck dumb, and she knew it as she began to pace around him, like a lioness surveying an antelope. “Why are you here, Loki?”

Her forearm brushed Gabriel’s as she passed him. It sent a tingle down his skin, unlike anything he had ever felt in Heaven. He shivered, but not, he realized, in discomfort. He wanted to feel it again.

“Was this man giving you trouble?” She nodded at the smith, who was still laying with his face pressed into the dirty ground. He whimpered at being included in the conversation.

Gabriel had to lick his dry lips to talk. “No, no, nothing like that- just checking out his work, is all. Um…” He felt prickly all over. It was too hot here, and Kali was close- too close. He could sense her power, rolling around the clearing. It was near tangible- even the fire in the fire in the forge sprang higher, crackling in the quiet.

“Was his work satisfactory?” Kali picked up a blade from the outside display and tested the sharpness with her finger- a droplet of red appeared against the midnight blue of her skin. She licked it off, glancing over at Gabriel quizzically. Her tongue was blood red.

He swallowed hard. “Yeah, it was fine,” he said, voice coming out just a bit too high pitched to be natural.

“Pity. I was hoping for a kill.” She set the sword back and stepped towards the door. Gabriel wrenched his eyes upwards- in the humidity, her dress clung to every curve. He took a deep breath to try and compose himself.

“Although,” she mused, standing in the doorway and watching the smith breathe, “Before I caught wind of you, I found a man beating on his wife and son. Blood might still flow today.” She half turned, studying Gabriel with an unfathomable expression. “How would you deal with such a thing up north?”

He was being tested- he didn’t know what she wanted to hear, but he wanted to impress her. Needed to impress her. She still looked more amused than anything, like he was a curiosity giving her a modicum of entertainment. Gabriel’s muscles clenched uncomfortably at the thought of her growing bored and moving on.

“I would destroy him slowly,” Gabriel said. He swallowed hard, considering how he would do it. His mouth felt too dry to speak. “First, I would give his wife and child the money and means to run away. Then I would bring a plague of locusts on his fields.”

Kali nodded, crossing her arms as she listened. The lotus flower twirled between two fingers.

Gabriel tried not to think about his sweating palms and continued. He spoke slowly, carefully trying to think out the hypothetical course of action. “Once the harvest fails, I would turn his neighbors against him, one by one, so that nobody will allow him over for dinner in the wintertime. And then, when he goes out to chop wood, he’ll realize that the rats chewed a hole in his boots. So he’ll get frostbite and trip when the wolves go after him.”

He froze, considering. Kali raised an eyebrow.

“Wait- no.” He shook his head. “A lynx instead. She’ll play with him while he tries to run away. But the axe will have stuck in the tree he was trying to cut, so he won’t have any weapons. And then maybe he falls into an ice river and hallucinates his wife…”

Kali’s lips were quirked up in a smile. “You’re a sweetie,” she said with a little chuckle. “Going through all that trouble. Good work ethic.”

Gabriel blinked. “Work ethic?”

“To be frank, I would just stab him.” Kali reached out and patted his arm. “But your idea is good too, Loki.”

His breath hitched when she touched him- he hid it in an awkward cough. Somewhere outside the little forge, a hunting horn sounded, and Kali straightened. “Ah, my people. I’m off. Get out of here, Loki. Winter Viking god like you will pass out in this summer weather.” Stepping out into the yard, she smiled at the sun. “You have to enjoy these good days before the monsoons roll in. I’ll see you around, I’m sure.”

When she stepped past him, one of her true-form arms reached out and tucked the lotus flower into his pocket. Then she vanished like she had never been.

Gabriel pulled the flower out of his pocket with shaking fingers and sniffed. It smelled like ash and smoke.

“Oh brother,” the smith said, finally getting the nerve to lift his head off the ground. “Don’t fall for her, man. She’s crazy.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Gabriel murmured, smoothing his thumb over one of the petals.

Special thanks to @scrollingkingfisher for the grammar check

Author List: 1. @revwinchester 2.@ttttrickster 3.@phantomwarrior12 4.@anxiety-fuel 5. @sugar-high-viking 6.@callmemisshorizon 7.@maximumsuckage (meeee) 8.@tricksterxangel 9.@archangelgabriellives 10.@nobodys-baby-now 11.@thewhiterabbit42 12.@warlockwriter 13.@lastsavinggrace 14.@archangelsanonymous 15.@archangelashiah 16.@archangel-with-a-shotgun

#Gabriel's past writing challenge #gabriel #supernatural #canon compliant #fanfiction #my writing #Kali #gabriel/kali #spn fanfic #I definitely missed reblogging a bunch of these #but I couldn't remember which I'd reblogged or not #school man #and bad app lmao #but they're all heckin awesome #and I've read the whole thing like twice now #so go read the previous chapters

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catte-bard · 6 years

Text

Questions

Previous: Nice Night for a Sleep Walk Next: Safe and Sound

The crackling fire was such a comforting sound as Bellona lay curled up in bed. She had practically swaddled herself with the blankets given to her. Pressing herself against the warmth of the mattress.

The trip to Ishgard was a bit of a blur. Details were hard to recall. It was like her mind was full of a haze that grew thicker the harder she tried to conentrate. But apparently Nathaniel and his nephew wasted no time in alerting someone to the situation of the adventurer they picked up on the side of the road. They didn’t have to do much pleading, as one the knights they had spoken to had recognized Bellona. And aide was quickly dispatched to get her to one of the chirurgeons before her condition worsened.

Her ear perked at the sound of the door opening and someone walking in. Probably one of the healers come to check on her. The woman tried to keep a groan to herself. Usually, when someone came, they meant to coax her out of the warm safety of her covers so they could check up on her condition.

It had only been...a bell? Perhaps not even that long. Her mind felt so foggy that it had probably only been a few minutes. But the first moments within her arrival had been filled with healers and chirurgeons buzzing about her. Checking her temperature, checking her for frostbite, checking her for any other injuries she might have. Eventually, they let her rest for awhile, giving her warm clothing and advising her to stay in bed.

Any other time, the woman would have protested to being bedridden. However, Bellona was too cold to be stubborn. And the room was so invitingly warm.

“Mistress Marcellus?” The voice of one of the healers. “Sit up, we can’t have you falling asleep yet. You need something warm in you first.”

Sighing, Bellona reluctantly sat up, but made sure to remain huddled within the blankets. The young Elezen man smiled at her and offered a bowl of steaming broth. Cautioning her to take it carefully as the contents piping, he looked her over again for signs of frostbite.

“Ah, Bellona! I heard you were here and came immediately.”

“Aym...Ser Aymeric.” The Miqo’te looked up in surprise, she hadn’t even heard the man come in. Too preoccupied with the healer’s badgering.

The young healer stepped aside, bowing his head in respect.

The man’s face was strained with concern as he moved over to her bedside. “Are you alright?"

“I’m fine.” She told him. She felt cold and exhausted...but at least she was alive.

“What happened to you, my friend?” The Elezen asked. “I hear...they brought you in from the blizzard? Your condition prompted you to be rushed to the infirmary.”

Bellona could only unhelpfully shrug. “I just remember waking up in the snow.” She proceeded to recount the short story how she ended up in Ishgard on this cold night.

Aymeric scowled. “You mean you don’t remember anything else?” The woman shook her head. “Nothing at all? Nothing that could have led to you being in the middle of the Central Highlands?”

Once more, Bellona could only shake her head.

“The cold can be a dangerous thing.” The healer suddenly chimed in. He tapped at his head. “If one is exposed to it for too long, the memory can be affected.”

She didn’t like that answer. Anything could have happened to her out there. Anyone could have done anything to her. And she couldn’t even remember it.

A hand on her shoulder. “And you are absolutely certain you remember nothing?” Aymeric asked again. “Any small detail might help, my friend.”

Bellona sighed. “You and everyone else here can ask that question as many times as you’d like. I still won’t be able to recall anything.” She chewed on her lip. “Maybe it’ll all come back to me later?”

The answer seemed to satisfy him, but it of course didn’t make him any less concerned. “Perhaps the Scions will know something? If they’ve taken notice of your disappearence they are no doubt worried sick.” He smiled. “If something’s happened, they should be the first we try to contact.”

"The Scions!” Bellona suddenly exclaimed, standing up suddenly. Gods, they hadn’t crossed her mind once since she’d been here. They were probably were driving themselves made trying to figure out where she went. But also, what if something had happened to them as well? What if...

“Calm down. It’s alright.” Aymeric hand’s were at her shoulders, gently, guiding her back down to the bed. “I’m sure they’re fine, otherwise we would have heard something. Right?” He gave her a reassuring smile and that seemed to be enough to get the adventurer to settle down.

“I will contact them as soon I leave here.” He told her. “Perhaps they might be able to fill the gaps in your memory. I’ll also ask the knights that had been in the area at the time if they had seen anything unusual.”

“Meanwhile,” The man continued, “you are to avoid making a pest of yourself for the chirurgeons. Stay warm and rest until the morning. By then, hopefully we’ll have some answers.”

Bellona chewed her lip. Then after a moment, she slowly nodded.

Aymeric nodded as well. “I have much to take care of right now. But later, I can come back to visit again if you’d like.”

“No.” Bellona quickly said, earning a surprised look from him. Aymeric was a busy man, and had more important things to worry about. He didn’t need to waste time sitting at the bedside of some fool who walked herself into a blizzard.

“I mean...it’s fine. I’ll be fine. Asides, I’m tired and all I’ll probably want to do later is sleep.” She said and managed a weak smile. “I imagine it would be very boring for you just sit and listen to me snore.”

And the Lord Commander chuckled. “Very well. I will see you in the morning then.”

“Aymeric.” She called as he was turning to leave. He paused, looking back at her, expectantly. “If you see Nathaniel and his nephew again. Can you tell them I said thank you? They saved me.” Even a simple thank you didn’t feel like enough for their deed. She felt like it deserved so much more than that. Perhaps when she had fully recovered, Bellona could find a way to properly repay them?

“Of course, I will be sure pass your gratitude on. As well as my own.”

He then left with the healer, the two of them stepping out into the hall to speak. Bellona could hear their voices drifting through the cracked door, it was hard to make out what was being said. For it sounded as if they were speaking in whispers. However, whatever the conversation was, it was brief.

Moments later, the young healer came back into the room, beaming at her. He moved over to the table at her bedside, scouring over a few glass bottles and containers that had been set there. “Alright.” He said after seeming to find what he was looking for. “I do believe we should try giving you some medicine as well.”

And Bellona groaned. Of course...

It was none of her business really. But... “What did Ser Aymeric want outside?” She asked, partly curious and partly wanting to stall whatever bitter concoction she was going to be forced to take.

“Hm? Oh, nothing really.” He said, scowling and he pondered the dosage he needed to give his charge. “The man was probably worried some brigand had attacked you. Asked if we found any signs of trauma. Or if the men who brought you in made any mention of anything that might have hinted at a struggle.”

“And?” Bellona asked when the man didn’t continue.

He blinked at her in surprise. “Well I told him you were fine and -- you are feeling alright?” Bellona nodded. “-- And we found no injuries. No cuts or bruises. The only thing to be concerned about was getting your body temperature back up.”

She was quiet as she processed this information. So what then? Did she just decide to walk out into a blizzard? What could have made Bellona willing waltz out into the cold wearing nothing but her sleepwear? How could she have walked for malms through snow and ice, without anyone noticing her?

...

The healers eventually left her be. After constantly badgering her and checking her temperature, they decided it was safe to leave her alone. Leaving her with a small mug of hot chocolate, the Miqo’te was finally allowed to rest after a long night.

Bellona wasn’t sure how long she had been out, but she felt rather groggy when a noise woke her up. The room was darker, the flames of the fireplace having died down to a subdued glow. Outside the window, she could hear the wind howl.

She frowned, sleepily squinting in the dark. That sounded like the door; had someone come in here? “Aymeric?” The adventurer called timidly. Or one of the chirurgeons peeking in to check on her? “Is someone there?”

Silence was the only reply she got.

In the weak light, she noticed that the door to her room was open. Someone had been in here. One of the absent-minded infirmary staff probably forgot to close it. Sleep called to her, urging her to fall back into the warm comfort of the bed. But...a strong curiosity to investigate instead drew her out of the warm nest of blankets.

She shivered. An unpleasant draft was drifting in from outside the door. Before she went to close it, the woman peeked out into the hall curiously. It was dark, though she could spot some light shining out from a cracked door down the hall. Soft murmurs of conversation could be heard as well. The room for the healers and chirurgeons. A few of them would probably be up late to tend to patients.

“Hello?” She called again, meekly. No answer.

Yawning, Bellona was about to duck back into her room when movement caught her attention at end of the hall. Someone walking away. Ser Aymeric? Or perhaps even Edmont or one of the Scions? But upon seeing her asleep, they decided to leave her be until morning?

Sleep urged her to return to bed, but curiosity beckoned for her to come out into the hall. She cast a look at chirurgeons’ quarters, the door sat at the end of the hall, right in the direction the adventurer wanted to go. Bellona crept out into the corridor. She moved as quietly as she could past the door, keeping to the far side of hall so as not to be caught.

“Is someone there?” This time, she called a bit more loudly than she probably should have. Wincing, she glanced back at the chirurgeons’ room. When the door didn’t swing open, she continued down the hall.

There were stairs on this end of the hall, and Bellona had caught sight of someone about to descend them. However, they stopped, hearing her pursuit. And Bellona ventured forward to confront them but stopped short. The hall was dark but the light shining out front cracked door of the chirurgeons’ room was enough for her so see a face.

But who she saw made her take a sudden step back...

“Now what do you think you’re doing up?”

The sudden voice from behind practically made the Miqo’te leap ten fulms in the air. She whirled around to meet the glowering expression of someone. An elderly woman dressed in a chirurgeon’s uniform stood there, arms crossed and foot tapping impatiently at the floor.

“I...I thought I heard someone outside...” She babbled for an excuse but Bellona let her reply trail off. She looked back to the steps and saw there was no one there. Gone without the slightest sound.

“You alright, dear?” The elder cocked a brow at her. “It’s late, not many people are up to visit around this time. And even then, we don’t allow anyone in here at this late bell.”

The Miqo’te blinked a few times as if coming out of daze. “I...” She frowned. “Never mind. I’m sorry, I... I’m tired...I probably just dreamed it.”

“Up sleep-walking then?” The chirurgeon scowled and shook her head. “Come, you shouldn’t be up and out of bed so soon.” The woman took her by the wrist and began leading her back to her room.

Bellona gave no protest and followed. You’re just tired. Today has been a long and stressful day. She told herself. Her body had been weak and exhausted from her time out in the cold, perhaps he mind was as well.

A conversation she recalled hearing among the healers came to her. The cold could mess with someone’s head just as badly as the heat. Leave people without memory of anything. And...leave them confused; perhaps even enough to imagine things there that actually aren’t. Such as dear friends that were long gone...

#final fantasy xiv #ffxiv #ff14 #ffxiv rp #miqo'te #writing #i'm going to try a weekly update with this #emphasis on try #I'm just trying to get myself into the habit of writing more #and to stop being lazy and actually start working on things

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