#<- He rewrites it just to send back to her and SHE has to meditate (same problem)

[bumblingbabooshka]

Tuvok/T'Pel insufferable romance is real to me. I want her to completely match the energy he has in that one "Alter Ego" scene where he like, notices she's reading some sort of very old and long book for pretentious people and says he's actually read the book before. He wrote a paper on it, actually, a very well received paper. If you'd like I could- and T'Pel interrupts to say she's actually re-reading it. "I apologize. / Don't. It's rare to meet anyone who has more than a...passing interest in such things. / I assure you my interest is far from passing. / Mm. However, just because it hasn't yet passed... / (Agreeing with what's unsaid) Persistence is not the same as comprehension. / (T'Pel tips her head in agreement) / If you're uncertain, I'd be more than willing to demonstrate the depths of my knowledge on the subject. " <- They are going to be so annoying together for the rest of their lives. People are gritting their teeth listening to this.

[airplanned]

I don't want the World, I just want your half and Dragon Rescue, for the WIP Game, pretty please!

"I don't want the world, I just want your half" is a soulmate AU sequel. Whole Cake Island from Zoro's POV!

"Dragon Rescue" is what I was writing for the advent calendar 2023. It's a combo TotK rewrite with that joke tumblr post where the Yiga are like, "We kidnapped Zelda!" and Link's like, "How'd you kidnap a dragon!?"

Snipits from both under the cut!

Zoro sits crosslegged on the narrow little bunk aboard the submarine.  He doesn't like how loud every movement is aboard the metal ship.  It makes him feel like he can't move around, because even walking is like an announcement.  Or maybe he's just using that as an excuse to sit here in the bond.  He treats it like meditating, trying to calm himself and send that calm across the ocean.  The waiter needs it.  He needs Zoro to not freak out.  The rest of the crew needs Zoro to not freak out.  So he sits here.  Holding his wrist.  Focusing on his breathing. "How is he?" He blinks his eyes open to look at Robin, who's leaning in the doorway, her face gentle sympathy and concern. "Alive." "That's good." For a while he doesn't provide any further information, and she doesn't ask for any. He breaks first.  "He's stopped reaching out.  He's always glad when I reach out.  He's kinda desperate for it.  But he's not sending anything back.  It's like he's not touching his wrist at all." "Perhaps he can't." Zoro lifts an eyebrow. "He might be under observation and doesn't want anyone to notice.  Or perhaps he's in chains in a dungeon and can't reach his own wrists." "Yeah, that's not helpful, Robin." 

Here's Dragon Rescue:

"Princess Zelda has been kidnapped!" Penn announces.  "Again!" Poor Penn looks so upset about this, flapping his wings so much that feathers fill the air around him, that Link holds himself back from rolling his eyes.  He maintains a blank face and continues eating his spicy fried rice. After checking out the last three "Princess Zelda has been kidnapped" scoops that Penn has sent him on, Link's done getting worked up over it, to say the least. He chews slowly and swallows before waving his chopsticks in Penn's direction and saying, "You know it's the Yiga, right?" and loading more rice into his mouth. "Well this time, people say they saw her.  They say she's being kept in a cage!  And she's crying for help!  I want to get the story, but maybe this time we should call in the monster squad.  We might be in over our heads." "They've already done the cage thing," Link says.  Seems kinda lazy to do it again. "I know!  That's what makes me think it's real this time.  There's no way they'd get away with it twice.  This time people will think it's a prank and not come to save her!" This is absolutely untrue.  The Yiga will pull the same stunt over and over as long as it works.  And as long as Link shows up, it's working. And, unfortunately, he's going to show up.  Of course he is.  He knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that it's not Zelda, but there is a slim chance that they've kidnapped a random blond villager, mistaking her for Zelda.  And if not, then he'll beat up the Yiga anyway. He sighs into his bowl, then tips it back and shovels the rest into his mouth. When he finishes, he says, "Alright.  Where are they?"

[bailesu]

John Rewrites Star Trek:  The Motion Picture

This movie is great thematically, visually, and musically, and a disaster in terms of plot and character and pacing and especially pacing.  Way too many scenes of actors trying to react to special effects that don’t exist yet.  Two new characters, who are largely wasted.

So what is the theme of STTTMP?  It’s the question ‘Is this all there is?’  It’s the classic mid-life crisis question and that’s where the cast is when the movie starts - the Enterprise finished its mission, they moved up the ladder, but they’re not satisfied.  It’s that feeling there ought to be *more*.  Even V’ger has this and so this has to be a movie about the quest to find meaning in life when you have achieved your original goals... and now you don’t have a direction.  This also functions as a cosmic question - does the universe have any higher meaning or are we just an accident?  Why do we exist?  Is this all there is?

So we open with Scotty dropping by Kirk’s office to ask about some parts they need for the engine refit on the Enterprise.  Kirk is now Admiral Kirk and we learn the Enterprise did a successful five year mission and now there’s a refit and a new commander for it, Matt Decker; we get a brief mention of the Doomsday machine here and the first mention of Will Decker.  They also mention that Uhura has been working for Starfleet intelligence, mostly deciphering Klingon transmissions.  

 Then Uhura enters, dropping a report on Kirk’s desk.  “Look at this,” she says.

Cue footage of the Klingons vs  huge glowing energy field which zaps them with a beam that methodically erases them.  We learn this field destroyed three Klingon outposts and that it came from beyond the Empire.  

Uhura says, “It’s on a direct course for Gamma Iotis, near the border of the Federation.”

Scotty says, “That sounds familiar.”

“It’s where Bones is part of a research facility.”  Kirk said.  “I will get you those parts, Scotty, and brief Captain Decker.  It’s the only ship that can get there in time and even then, it’s going to be a close shave.”

Kirk has a message sent to evacuate, but it’s too far for a direct connection.  But given the limits on how fast ships can move, it will get there before V’Ger can, right?

Cut to Gamma Iotis, where McCoy is having an argument with David Marcus over whether terraforming technology is a good idea.  David’s ideas involve the use of technology based off the transporter and who still hates transporters?  Bones, that’s who.

Carol steps in to get them both to backdown and approves David doing some testing on a small scale.  Then V’Ger attacks and they’re running for the ships when everything evaporates.

Cut to a shot where the entire moon is gone and V’Ger moves on.

Then we roll the opening credits.

We see Spock, meditating in a Vulcan facility.  He has achieved his goal, Kolin’ar, but he is clearly not satisfied.  The peace he was promised is not there.

And then he feels the attack on McCoy and all the souls on Gamma Iotis vanishing.  He does something (to be explained later) and then tells the head monk he must leave.

“If you return to the world of attachments, there is no turning back,” the monk warns him.

“The needs of others is more important than the needs of the one,” he tells the monk, who cannot argue.

Cut to Kirk, who is riding to the martian shipyards where the refit is underway, taking Uhura and Scotty with him.  The VIP ship is commanded by Sulu, accompanied by Chekov, who are both bored out of their minds.  Kirk tells him the reason he ended up here was that they all did so well that Starfleet was afraid to risk them.  They had become too big of heroes, and he mentions what happened to John Glenn.

Here we get the ‘Look at how sexy the Enterprise is’ shot but cut down to reasonable length.

We now meet Decker and Ilia.  The Deltans are a race of telepaths.  Most never leave their homeworld, but if they must, they shave their heads, because their hair acts as telepathic antennas and around people with no mental defenses, they would be overwhelmed; Ilia can still do telepathy by touch.  Deltans have a reputation for being incredible at sex but are not obsessed with it, unlike Roddenberry’s version.  Decker and Ilia were once lovers but he left to enter Starfleet.  She became discontent with the limits of her homeworld, having learned more of the universe from him and joined Starfleet to see other, different places, but now they’re assigned together and it’s awkward.  Especially as he is her commanding officer now.

Scotty runs off to install the parts.

As Kirk is briefing Decker on what’s going on, two things happen: They get a report that the mysterious cloud is headed towards Earth at ludicrous speed, and that it destroyed Gamma Iotis with no survivors.

Kirk decides they have to go NOW.  No waiting.  They take off and Chekov and Sulu are along for the ride.

Decker isn’t happy to have his boss riding him.  The hasty departure leads to the wormhole problem, which Decker and Ilia and Scotty solve as they’re the only ones briefed on the new equipment.

Then Spock joins them and tells them McCoy is somehow alive and dead at the same time, his katra is inside V’Ger.  All the katras of the dead are.

Cut to McCoy, who finds himself in a weirdly frozen version of Gamma Iotis III.  He can’t figure out what’s going on but has this feeling like Spock’s looking at him.

His efforts to figure out what the hell is going on leads to V’Ger talking to him through Carol Marcus, who was up to this point one of the frozen.  We find out V’Ger’s mission is to go out, collect samples and information, to learn all that is learnable and bring this information to the Creator.  McCoy is now data in V’Ger’s banks, only he can still act of his own will.  

V’Ger then ‘activates’ various of the other people, making them act strangely and explaining that he has spent a lot of time playing out various scenarios to understand how carbon-based lifeforms think.

McCoy is really angry over that and tries to do the Kirk Manuever (use illogic to make the computer blow out, but it doesn’t work).  He refuses to play along, and V’Ger becomes both angrier and intrigued.

They reach V’Ger.  It remembers the feuding between Klingons and Federation, learned from its scan, and sends out the Klingons, reconstituted but still under its control.  Sulu and Chekov get to show their stuff here and the Enterprise wins, but Spock realizes they are just puppets, reconstituted from data about them.

He also feels V’Ger’s loneliness and discontent.  This is where Spock goes in, with Ilia flying him in, to try to make mental contact; he talks to McCoy and senses V’Ger’s state of mind.  The world is nothing but a plaything and the playing means little; it knows all that is knowable, or thinks it does, and now it seeks to report to its Creator, hoping to feel fulfilled.  Ilia tells Spock about how she left Delta because she didn’t feel fulfilled there.  She wanted more but didn’t know what she wanted.

Uhura now figures out how to communicate with V’Ger in a way it can understand and it responds by sending Carol Marcus as its ‘probe’ and tells them they must tell it where to find the Creator.  This shakes up Kirk.  It believes the Creator is on Earth, according to its oldest records.

Kirk comes up with a plan on how to destroy V’Ger with the Enterprise; he and Decker have a big argument over whether Kirk is freaking out like Decker’s father did.  Cue flashback.  Then Spock tells them that V’Ger would barely even feel it.  They cannot defeat it by force.

Their only hope is to try to reason with it.  Spock feels V’Ger is lost and seeks a purpose.  He has too much knowledge and power and nothing fruitful to do with it.  He seeks a purpose.  Ilia agrees and feels terrible for it.

They enter V’Ger and confront it, discovering its origins.  It demands of Spock to know how McCoy stillhas his own will, and Spock indicates he has been in contact with him sufficiently to sustain him, a power born of his search for Kolin’ar, but one that also meant he could not be content with it, for he could not renounce his connections to others.

But V’Ger has no others to connect to.  It has mastered this plane but does not know how to rise above it.

And now we get the Decker and Ilia joining with V’Ger, to help it to ascend and to learn how to connect with others.  V’Ger restores everything he turned into data.  Then they ascend.

This is pretty barebones, but that’s how I would do it, to give everyone more stuff to do and try to also build links to exploit for the later movies.

The Genesis Device is adapted from V’Ger tech information David gained to refine his ideas.

Carol and David will return in movie two.

We can blame the devastation of Khan’s world on V’Ger :)

We set up the idea of katras for later use and help show Spock has a strong bond to McCoy as well, for when his katra ends up in McCoy.

[pars-ley]

Until Tomorrow | Part two

Pairing: Taehyung x Reader

Summary: You’re a happily single magazine editor in London, that is, until you’re set up with a handsome musician, who’s not exactly forthcoming about being in the biggest boy group in the world. But with your days together numbered, will this blossom into something more or crash land, leaving your heart broken.

Genre: Idol!au / Fluff / Romance / Comedy / Slight hint of smut 

Rating: 15+ (sfw)

Warnings: Mentions of sex and sexual activity / Kissing

Word Count: 6413

Part one | Part two Notes: Beta reader @ditttiii​ Thank you so much for your help, you are such a queen! 

I knock lightly against the boss’ door and wait. 

Janelle Rogers is the editor-in-chief for our magazine, she’s brilliant but also a bit eccentric. She always has some kind of wacky blazer on and yet, somehow always manages to look professional. She’s also the messiest person I know, resulting in her desk always being untidy, but she claims it to be organised chaos instead.

Who am I to argue with that kind of logic? 

She’s tough and a lot of her employees are terrified of her, but if you work hard and do a good job she usually notices and shows her appreciation in some way, which makes her quite pleasant to work for. 

I get on with her well on a personal level too. We’ve been out to dinner a few times and it’s always fun. It also always turns into a late night drinking session. Going out with her, usually means I am in for a two day hangover, which is why it doesn’t happen all that often.

“Come in!” She calls.

Swinging open the door, I step in. 

Janelle is pacing back and forth, phone tucked under her ear, as she searches through the papers in her hand. Hearing me enter, she looks up and removes the phone from her ear, before she says, “Y/n, I heard you wanted to speak to me, please come in. I won’t be long.” 

She indicates to the empty seats across from her desk. 

I sit down and cross one leg over the other, trying not to listen to the heated discussion she’s having. 

“I appreciate that I do, but I need that piece before the end of the week.” She says, her tone clipped. I see her jaw tense as she grits her teeth to whatever response she gets. “And I understand that, nonetheless, you’ve had plenty of time to figure it out. Your story needs to be in by the end of the week, otherwise I’ll use someone else’s. End of discussion.”

She hangs up the phone, almost slamming it back down onto the base unit and sighs. 

Sitting down, elbows on her desk, she gives me her full attention. “Some people will use any excuse to avoid a deadline.” She shakes her head and then meets my eyes. “Please tell me you’re here to give me some good news.”

I grimace slightly. “Well the magazine is on track...mostly. The music segment however…” I pause. “It’s unfinished.”

Her face drops. “What?” She mutters, her voice low, brimming with anger. “What do you mean, it’s not finished?”

“Only half of it is complete.” 

She slams her hand on her desk. “God Dammit, Toby.” She runs her hands over her hair, smoothing her tight, black curls. 

Toby was one of our writers, mostly for the music assignments. He did interviews with the artists, went to gigs, reviewed albums but recently had gone on a holiday for some kind of meditation retreat. ‘No phones permitted and no contact from the outside world’ kind of place, not my type of holiday but who am I to judge?

“Can’t we just use one of our other music pieces?” I ask, knowing the answer before she gets the chance to respond.

“No, we need that segment. Our sales were up last month because we featured that story about the k-pop group selling out Wembley, now we need to report what the shows were like.” She sits back in her chair. “BTS are very current, it’s what we need. They’re our ticket to the younger generation buying our magazine.”

“Well, that’s why it’s not finished, the concerts are this weekend and Toby’s obviously not going to be here for them. He didn’t seem to have tickets for them either.”

She lets out a long, drawn out breath. “Ok, well we need to get our hands on a ticket.”

I put my hands up to stop her. “I’ve already got people on it but I need another writer to rewrite the segment.”

She nods. “Toby won’t like it but that’s not my problem. I’ll get George on it.” She picks up the phone and within seconds it’s all arranged and passed over. 

I stand and make my way to the door.

“Y/n?” She calls as I open the door to make my exit. I turn back to her. “Good work, keep me posted, we need this story.”

I give her a sharp nod, not sure how possible it will be to achieve this but of course I’ll try my hardest to make it happen.

I head back to my desk, sending more emails and making more calls, when my personal phone vibrates against the wood. I glance down at the screen and my stomach flips when I see who the message is from.

Taehyung [14.09]: So, how’s your day going?

A wide grin spreads across my face. He’s thinking about me. My chest swells at that thought alone and I type a quick reply and press send.

Y/n [14.10]: So far? It’s a day from hell. What about yours?

His reply is  immediate.

Taehyung [14.11]: 😥 I don't like to hear that. My day is fine. Will be better later, hopefully I can cheer you up...If you’re still free?

I smile at my phone. I couldn’t wait to get out of here and meet him. It’s the only thing keeping me going through all of this work, knowing that he would be there at the end of it. And clearly he was looking forward to seeing me too; my ego was quite inflated. 

Y/n [14.11]: Of course, can’t wait. What time?

I put my phone down and carry on clicking through my emails, relieved to discover that I’ve sent and replied to all I needed to, for now at least. I decide to take a much needed break. I put my earphones in and shuffle my Spotify playlist of metal and rock songs that I had put together and turn the volume up to as loud as it can go. 

The ear buds thrum inside my ears as they blare out classic 80’s rock sounds with ‘Pour some sugar on me’ and I lose myself in Def Leppard. Turning in my seat, I look out of my office window. 

The landscape of London is truly something to marvel at, and I would never tire of this view. The way the entire city reflected in the windows of the high-rise buildings, the way the sun bounced off the river and the classic style of our oldest landmarks. London is a remarkable place. 

I sigh and put my feet up on the low window ledge, crossing my ankles. My phone vibrates in my lap and I smile as I see his name on my screen, reading the message.

Taehyung [14.21]: I’ll be working for a while, is 7 too late for you?

I sigh, I had another early start tomorrow but I can’t pass up the chance to go on a date with the only guy I've been interested in for two years. Who knows how long he’ll be over here for? I can deal with being tired for a few days.

Y/n [14.22]: I can make an exception for you. Let me send you the address.

I sent him the link with all the info of Yoshi’s restaurant. If he was anything like me, he’d be looking over the menu and planning his meal.

Taehyung [14.25]: Then I am flattered. See you there :)

I grin at my phone like an idiot. God, how old was I? I’m sitting here embarrassing myself, acting like a seventeen year old love sick teenager over a guy I barely know. 

I kept picturing his face, his smile, the way he raises an eyebrow so seductively, or the way he runs a hand through his dark brown hair. I’m not sure if my memory of him does him justice. 

I pause my playlist and quickly dial Yoshi’s number, waiting for him to pick up.

“Yo! What’s happening, jelly bean?” His usually cheerful voice rings out.

“I’m wondering something?” I ask hesitantly.

“Wondering...if I’m as good in the sack as people say? Why yes, I am.” He quips.

I roll my eyes. “No one says that and I would never be wondering that.” 

His laugh vibrates my ear. “Your loss. So what are you wondering then?”

“Well, do you have a table for two for tonight at seven?” I bite my lip, waiting for the response.

“If the table’s for you, for sure! Who you bringing with you this time? Taylor?” He asks, mentioning one of my oldest and closest friends who has been with me to his restaurant many times.

I hesitate. “...No. I’m bringing a...date, actually?” I hold my breath as I wait for his reaction.

“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!” He exclaims, so loud I have to quickly turn the call volume down before he deafens me. “Hold up, you can’t just drop a bomb like that on me! Who is it? How did you meet? It’s the tourist guy you bumped into, isn’t it? I told you y/n, I told you he thought it was a date.” He bombards me, laughing out of excitement.

“Actually,” I cut in, “It’s not him.” I hear the groan of disappointment on the other end. “It’s his friend.” I laugh.

“Well damn girlfriend! I’m impressed. I can’t wait to hear more about this. Your table will be ready at seven, don’t worry, I got you.” 

I smile. “Thank you, I really appreciate it. And Yoyo?”

“Yea?” He waits, the grin in his voice audible.

“Please, nothing embarrassing.” I practically whine.

He gasps. “Would I ever?” He pauses. “On second thoughts, don’t answer that. Heart crossed and hope to die, I shall be on my best behaviour.”

My shoulders relax a little. “Thank you. See you later.”

I hang up and remove my earphones, releasing a long, slow breath. That didn’t go as badly as I had imagined it would, he let me off surprisingly easy. Maybe going there tonight won’t be as mortifying as I’m imagining.

My work phone rings and I push the thoughts of Taehyung and tonight’s date out of my head and get back to work.

The afternoon goes slow, my eyes constantly finding the clock to see how much time has passed; counting down the hours till I could leave and meet him. 

I wade through my workload; like trudging through mud. I haven’t had any luck with finding a ticket to the BTS concert at the weekend. Any hope I did have was fading fast, well aware of the fact that I was running out of time. I had 3 days until the concert took place, I couldn’t give up; my boss wouldn’t allow it. 

I work past my usual time, wanting to get as much as I can done today, so it might allow me some more freedom for the rest of the week.

At six o’clock I am strutting out the door, after touching up my make-up and fluffing my hair in the washroom. I had decided to take the underground to ride the few stops to the restaurant. Once out of the stuffy tube station, I send a message to Taehyung letting him know that I’m walking from the station and will be there shortly. The text I get back however, has me practically running to the doors of the restaurant.

Taehyung [18.47]: I’m inside :)

My heart drops. But surely Yoshi wouldn’t have any idea who my date was or what he looked like, so Taehyung should be safe.

I yank open the heavy, double doors frantically searching for him. When my eyes finally find him, I gulp. Him and Yoshi are both sitting at a table, deep in conversation. I quickly rush over, interrupting them.

“Taehyung, I see you’ve met my friend, Yoshi.” I smile nervously, as they both stand up to greet me.

Yoshi gets there first, pulling me into a tight hug and squeezing me hard. I pat him on the back. “Ok, I tap out.” I wheeze,and he releases me. “Try to not injure me before my date, will you?” 

He laughs. “Introductions have already been made, so you don’t need to worry. I was just filling  Taehyung in here, about some of our adventures.” He winks.

I scowl at him. “Ok, ok, enough embarrassing stories.” I take my bag from my shoulder and put it with my blazer onto the far side of the seat in the booth. 

Yoshi grins. “Ok, I’ll leave you to it. Taehyung, very nice to meet you. Someone will be over soon to take your order. Enjoy guys!” He says with another wink, before he quickly proceeds to leave us alone.

We both stand there smiling at each other before I lean in, kissing him on the cheek. I linger there for a moment but I stiffen when I feel his breath at my ear. 

“Nice to see you again.” He greets softly. His deep voice like silk, doing things to my body I didn’t expect. 

I pull away, blushing slightly. “Shall we?” I indicate to the seats in the booth. He nods and we slide in. 

One of the best things here was the decor, it gave us a lot more privacy than other places I’ve been to. The booths had partition doors which I could close completely or leave open slightly. The partitions behind our seats were completely covered with painted japanese murals and there were beautiful, pink blossoms hanging from the ceiling.

“Were you here very long?” I ask, trying to gauge how much time they would have had to speak to each other.

He shakes his head. “Long enough to hear how you met each other and the story about the time you spilt a drink in your lap at a theme park and he told everyone you walked passed, that you had wet yourself.”

I laugh and roll my eyes at the memory. “That’s Yoshi for you. Never passes up the chance to embarrass me.”

Taehyung smiles. “He also said some very nice things about you.”

“That is good to hear but he has to, he knows I’d bully him otherwise.” 

He laughs at that. “You two seem very close.”

I nod. “We are. He’s been my best friend for a long time.”

“It’s good to have someone like that.”

I nod again, agreeing. “Do you have a best friend?”

He smiles. “Yes, his name’s Jimin.”

“And would he embarrass you like Yoshi does to me?”

He shakes his head, then leans in closer. “Worse, much worse.”

I chuckle. “Well in that case, I hope I get to meet him one day.” I reply, a smirk playing across my lips. 

He fights his smile. “Perhaps you will soon.”

I raise an eyebrow at him quizzically. “Is he over here also?”

He nods slowly. “Yep and yes, he’s another musician.”

He answers my unasked question and I lean back in my seat, surprise evident on my face. “Really? I’m guessing you still don't want to tell me about your job?”

I notice a flicker of sadness flash in his eyes, before they look down and away from my questioning gaze. I feel immediate guilt in my gut. “Hey, it’s ok, you don’t have to tell me anything, you just seem quite secretive about it. I was saying it more as an observation.” I reassure.

He looks up, eyes wide, “I’m not secretive!” He exclaims, shocked. “I want to tell you but—”

“Hey,” I cut him off, “No need to explain. Don’t worry, you can tell me whenever you’re ready.” I give him a reassuring smile and a gentle pat on the hand he had placed above the table.

I see him stiffen for a moment and my response is to do the same, until he turns his hand over, so we're palm to palm and gives it a little squeeze. His shoulders relax and so do mine, even though my heart hammers wildly with excitement. I can feel my palm starting to sweat the longer his touch lingers on me, it feels like a lifetime before he finally lets go and pulls his hand away. 

I can breathe and think straight again.

While I was more than happy to wait for him to tell me about his work, I found myself growing increasingly curious about the subject. He’s so mysterious, I can’t understand why he won't talk about it. I would assume that being a musician would be a  cool profession to divulge about,  most would probably gush till their heart's content, given the opportunity. 

But, in a way I’m glad he’s not like that, I don’t think I would be able to  stand the egotistical bragging.

“Can I take your drink order?” A sweet voice asks, stepping in between the sliding doors. I look up and recognise the server as Emiko. She’s worked here for a while now, and is always pleasant

“Oh, hi y/n! So nice to see you.” She beams her usual toothy grin.

“Nice to see you! How have you been?” I ask.

“I’ve been good!.” She giggles. “I won’t disturb you too much, what can I get you two?”

I order a lemonade and Taehyung orders a coke. I did contemplate an alcoholic beverage, but I don’t want to be the only one drinking on a date, that’s how I'm sure to embarrass myself.

I pick up the menu and skim through it, even though I'm sure I know it by heart by now. 

Glancing up as he too studies the menu, my eyes rake over his broad shoulders, the light beige shirt he wears falls flatteringly over his broad chest, clinging to all the right places. His black cap conceals his hair, but I can tell it’s all swept back off of his forehead. I watch the way he juts his jaw to the side as he mulls over what to order. His tongue dances across the inside of his lips, my eyes trained on it, mind drifting off again to wondering how soft his lips would feel. How that tongue would feel moving against mine...or other places. He looks up at me and instantly a flush of red travels up his neck. 

“What?” He asks quietly, giving me a bashful smile.

“Nothing,” I look back down at my menu, feeling flustered myself. “What are you going to order?” 

“Hm, maybe the Yakitori chicken skewers, any recommendations? Yoshi told me you’ve tried everything on the menu.”

I laugh. “That is true; I'm a big fan of his cooking. And yes, you should get that, it’s—,” I give a kiss to the tips of my fingers, chef style. 

He laughs and leans back in his seat. “So tell me, why was your day so awful?” He frowns, genuine concern on his brow.

I roll my eyes and groan. “Work is a joke at the moment, I’m covering for someone so I have twice the usual work load and that’s not even the worst of it.”

Emiko returns with our drinks, interrupting me. I pause as we order our meals and some sushi to share, then she leaves in a rush.

He raises his eyebrows at me and leans his chin on the palm of his hand, listening intently and waiting for me to continue. 

“Ok, so, my boss is hellbent on this particular story. The writer of said story has gone off on an unreachable holiday and it's only half done. So, now I have to try and get a ticket for a show that is apparently so high in demand, it seems impossible, so we can finish said story.”

He frowns. “I’m confused. What’s the story?”

I sigh as I fiddle with my napkin. “About some boy group and their shows at wembley.” I have a realisation then. “You’ve probably heard of them? BTS? They’re from South Korea too.” I’m not sure but for a brief moment I think I see him stiffen out the corner of my eye. His expression unreadable. 

“Yes, I’ve heard of them.” He says, nonchalantly. 

“You don’t like them?” I ask, wondering why his face suddenly looked so solemn. “Don’t tell me they’re your musical rivals?” I tease attempting to lighten his mood.

He smiles and some of the tension seems to leave his body. “No. They’re cool. So why do you need a ticket?”

“So the writer can review the show and tell the readers all about it. Our boss is trying to appeal to the younger readers and she’s convinced this is the way to do it, through this group.”

“What will happen if you can’t get the ticket?” He asks, eyes wide with worry.

I shrug. “My boss will be very, very pissed. I don’t plan on finding out though. I’ve got a few more days, it always works out in the end, one way or another.”

He watches me carefully. “I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you.”

I grin as our meals arrive, steaming hot and smelling incredible. We eat in silence for a while, enjoying the taste. I watch as the noises and faces Taehyung pulls assure me of the fact that he’s very impressed and my chest swells with pride for my friend. 

I do, however, let my mind wander into thinking about hearing those noises of appreciation in other aspects. Like me...on my knees...underneath this table. Snapping myself out of less than innocent thoughts, I focus on my meal. 

Why couldn’t I control myself? Why did everything about him appeal to me in such a powerful way? Is it because I haven’t had sex for over a year? Or is it simply that he is just the perfect specimen of a man? Maybe both.

“That was amazing. I’m blown away.” He sat back in his seat, wiping his mouth with a napkin. 

“I’m glad you liked it! Yoshi will be thrilled.” I beam and take a long drink of my cold lemonade, hoping it cools the heat inside me. I could feel tiny beads of sweat forming down my back and along the nape of my neck. 

We sit and talk until Emiko returns to clear our plates and Taehyung asks for the check. 

“I’m afraid, I cannot stay out late with you tonight.” He says solemnly.

I try to ignore the disappointment I feel; not ready for this date to be over. “Ah, that’s ok, I know you’re busy.”

He shakes his head and puts his hand on top of mine, leaning forward. I mirror him automatically. The warmth of his palm slowly flows through me and my eyes can’t help but float down to our touching skin. His hand feels soft and yet strong with his long, delicate fingers enveloping mine. I look back up to his intense eyes blazing into mine.

“It’s not that, It’s just—” He pauses looking away, my stomach drops as I’m left wondering as to what on earth he’s going to say. He doesn’t want to see me any more? He’s not attracted to me? He sees me more as a friend? What excuse is it going to be this time?

“...I turn into a pumpkin at midnight.” He says, his face so serious it takes me a few moments to register the words that have just left his mouth. Relief swamps me as I feel myself relax back into my seat and laughter vibrate through my body. He joins me, his boxy grin spread across his face but as he does, he lifts my hand, turning it over and laces his fingers through mine. 

My laughter fades, and I look down at our entwined fingers. Normally, an action like this so soon after meeting would have me running for the hills, but with him, it just felt...right.

“Is this ok?” He asks hesitantly, a crimson shadow forming on his cheeks.

I nod and swallow; my mouth suddenly dry. “Yes.” I reply simply, frozen in shock.

He relaxes a little and leans forward on his elbows, his thumb gently tracing small circles on the back of my hand.

“I should go back to my hotel…”

“But?” I query.

He side smiles, looking up at me seductively through long lashes and the sight is enough to make my belly clench. “I really don’t want to.”

My heart knocks violently against my ribcage at his admission. “I don’t want you to either.” I blurt out, surprising myself.

His eyes widen slightly before he side-smiles again and squeezes my hand. “I’m glad it’s not just me. I cannot tell what you think about me.”

I let out a small, slightly nervous laugh. “Is it not obvious?” I raise an eyebrow, surely he must be joking. I have never been so red, flustered and embarrassed with a guy in my whole laugh.

He shakes his head. “Not really, sometimes I think I know where your head is and yet at other times it’s hard to read you. I wish I knew what you were thinking.”

It's almost a question; giving me the option not to feel obliged to answer, but I don’t want to leave him hanging and wondering. Maybe laying my cards out on the table wouldn’t be such a bad thing, before I get in too deep.

I lean on my elbows that rest on the table and angle myself towards him slightly. “Ok, just so you know where my head is at…” I shift slightly under his now intense stare, as he hangs on my words. “I like spending time with you, and even though we’ve only just met...I feel I’ve known you for a long time, which is rare for me, to have such a sudden connection. I find you insanely attractive that it’s hard to think straight when I’m around you.” He beams at that and a deep crimson glow burns his face. 

“We seem to have a lot in common and I’m definitely enjoying our time together and getting to know you. You have an air of mystery about you and to be honest, it just makes me more intrigued to find out more about you. Since I met you at the museum, you have been on my mind more than I was expecting and this…” I lift up our joined hands. “would have frightened me to the point of running and hiding, if it was with anyone but you.” I say, quite fast, the words leaving me in a rush, as the urgency of having to say them takes hold of me. 

I exhale and hesitantly meet his stare.

His boxy grin is wider than ever as his eyes sparkle with excitement. I find myself mirroring his smile.

“I’ve got to admit, I was not expecting that but a part of me was hoping you felt that way.” He beams. “When I’m with you, I feel like I can completely be myself, no personas, no hiding, just me. I’m not too experienced in matters of the heart and this is a first for me; feeling this way. You’re so beautiful that it’s distracting especially because I find you fascinating and I want to know every little thing about you. Every story, every thought, everything but when you talk or smile, I can’t help but want to kiss you.” He stops, leaving that last part hanging heavy in the air.

His tongue darts out to wet his lips while he watches me. My stomach tightens with anticipation, hoping he will, waiting for him to lean in and do it. I stare at his mouth, heart beating so hard that it’s all I can hear pounding in my ears. 

He leans forward until he’s just inches from my face, his scent swirling around me, his soft, plump lips inviting me, calling to me, when the screen doors to our booth open abruptly. 

Taehyung is back against his seat in a flash, his hand no longer touching me and I suddenly feel cold without his skin against mine. 

My head snaps up, only to be met with Yoshi’s grinning face.

“Hey guys, I hope you were happy with your meals?” He asked, eyes eager for approval, completely oblivious to the moment he just disturbed.

I slump back in my seat. “Perfect as always, Yoyo.” I smile, trying to hide the disappointment that swells inside me.

“Yes, it was amazing. I will definitely be returning before the end of my trip.” Taehyung says softly, offering a bow of his head.

Yoshi slaps him on the back, the action making Taehyung’s eyes pop with surprise and I muffle a laugh behind my hand.

“Thanks man, I really appreciate that. You’re welcome here anytime, just drop by and I'll make sure you’re taken care of.” 

Taehyung smiles and nods. “That’s very kind of you, thank you.” 

“Here’s your bill.” He places the little, leather book with the paper inside on the table. “Well, I’ll let you two love birds get back to your date, we have a ‘no fondling, foreplay or sexual activity’ rule here though, so be sure to take that outside if the mood strikes.” 

My icy glare burns into him as he grins and closes the doors before I can throw something at him. I hear his laughter and his footsteps as he leaves.

I look over at Taehyung who is fighting a laugh himself. 

“Don’t you start.” I warn, resisting the smile that twitches the corner of my mouth. 

He laughs out loud. “I love it when you scold me.”

I shake my head at him, feigning shock and unable to hide my amusement anymore. “You’re not supposed to enjoy it.”

He shrugs and gives me a bashful grin, then checks his phone and groans. “I really do have to go. I’m really sorry.” 

“Hey, don’t worry, it’s fine.” I grab my bag as he glances at the bill. 

“I’m getting this, no arguments.” He says sternly. I smirk at the authority in his tone, wondering if he’s that commanding in bed too. Mind out of the gutter.

He places his cash down with a very generous tip, that has my eyes practically bulging out of their sockets.

I grab my blazer and slide out of the booth. “Lets go.”

I lead the way over to Yoshi, who is busy entertaining the customers sitting around the counter where he cooks and chats away. I wave to get his attention.

“We’re off Yoshi!” I call out. 

He nods, drops everything and rushes around to us. He pulls me into a quick, tight hug and before he’s even let me go he’s reaching around to shake Taehyung’s hand. I squeeze out of his grip and return to Taehyung’s side.

“Nice to meet you, man.” Yoshi waves.

“You too, thank you again.” Taehyung replies.

“My pleasure. Call me later, doll.” He points gun fingers at me and waves as he returns to his station. 

We head to the doors, opening them to the heavy, night air; warmth swirling around me in a complete contrast to inside. I hear Yoshi’s voice behind me call out. “Use protection!”

I put my middle finger up behind me without even looking in his direction. His laugh bellows out before the doors shut behind us. God, I really hated him sometimes. 

We walk to the car that had arrived to pick up Taehyung, the driver waiting patiently behind the wheel. 

“Jump in and we’ll drop you off.” He said, opening the door for me. 

I slid in across the comfy, fabric seats. Taehyung spoke to the driver then climbed in next to me. I was surprised to see the black partition between us and the driver and the small, dark curtains covering all the windows. I’ve never seen a car with these before, how odd.

My thoughts are interrupted by his hand on mine, the heat from his soft skin, searing through me. I look over to find he’s watching me from the corner of his eye, he gives me a side smile and I thread my fingers through his.

“You know, Yoshi did say something before you came in…” He says into the quiet. 

My stomach drops, nervous with apprehension. “What?”

“He...mentioned your ex.”

I felt a small flare of anger course through me. How dare he speak to Taehyung about him. Why bring up my past with someone I might have a future with? I let out a long breath. “What did he say?”

Taehyung looks hesitant. “Not much, honestly. Just said you dated a real arsehole, who broke your heart in the worst way. Then you came in, he didn’t get to finish.”

Thank god. This was my business to talk about, not Yoshi’s. I nod slowly.

“I think...” Taehyung cuts in quickly, worrying he’s upset me. “I think he was warning me not to hurt you, that’s why he brought it up.”

That was probably the case but I’m still pissed off at him. “That does sound like Yoshi.” I reply, quietly.

“And while I would like to hear about your past, including past relationships, I will wait until you’re ready to talk.”

I nod again, mulling that over. “Tomorrow. I’ll tell you about it tomorrow, if you want to hear it.”

He squeezes my hand. “Only if you’re sure.”

I smile at him, my anger slowly extinguishing, not wanting to ruin the moment with Taehyung because of something Yoshi said.

“Do you get a lunch break at work?” He asks, randomly into the silence, breaking any tension left.

I nod and my brow furrows. “Yes, of course. Why do you ask?”

“I have a packed schedule tomorrow evening, so I cannot see you but I need to.” He hits me with that intense stare again. If I weren't already sitting, my knees would be trembling trying to hold me upright. “Are you free to meet me on your lunch break?” His pleading eyes melt my insides.

I feel heat race from my chest to my cheeks as my blush spreads. “For you? Of course.”

He smiles, genuine excitement in his eyes and he looks down at our joined hands. Sitting this close to him, arms and thighs almost touching, so close and yet, so far. The urge to shift closer to him is almost overwhelming but for some reason I resist. There’s an invisible current I can feel from his body to mine, almost electric, sending tingles through my body.

“Taehyung, we’re here.” A voice sounds out from a speaker somewhere making me jump and interrupting my thoughts. I realise then, the car has stopped, too focused on the sheer magnetism I could feel towards him.

“Come on, I’ll walk you to your door.” He climbs out, hand only leaving mine for a second before he’s grasping it again to gently pull me out the car. He leads me up the steps to my door and when I turn to him to say goodnight, we’re suddenly face to face, inches apart. 

My heart knocks rapidly against my ribcage, even as my lungs seem to stop working and my breath stills. His hand comes up to push the hair off my shoulder and I feel him linger on my neck. Warm, long fingers slide up to hold each side of my face, as he tilts his head and suddenly, before I can think, his lips are on mine. Gentle, soft and magical. 

My senses go crazy for a moment, overloaded with stimulation before I reciprocate eagerly. The taste of him like nothing I’ve ever experienced before, I want more. 

He pulls away suddenly, still close enough for me to feel his harsh breathing against my face. 

“Sorry, I should have asked first.” He says breathlessly.

My core is on fire, I feel ready to explode as I grab his light shirt by the collar and pull him against my lips again. My hands find their way to his neck, as I grip to keep him close to me and yet it’s not close enough. His hands wind around my waist holding me tight against his body. Heat and fire replace my thoughts, as I can only focus on my erratic heartbeat and the painful throbbing between my legs as his perfect, angular lips dance with mine. 

He breaks away to breath, sending a trial of kisses across my cheek to my ear.

“Until tomorrow.” He whispers breathlessly, before gently releasing me and taking a step back. He captures my hand, brings my fingers up to his lips, like he did that first night and places a gentle lingering kiss against them.Then he’s turning abruptly, dashing down the stairs and into the car. 

I stand there, dazed. Wow. Did that just happen? 

I fumble with my handbag, my head feeling fuzzy and unable to control the rest of my body.

I eventually find my keys and clumsily let myself in, walking through my apartment in a trance. I mechanically get ready for bed, my body on autopilot while I replay the kiss over and over in my mind, unable to think of anything else. As I lay in bed, my phone vibrates against the top of my nightstand, pulling me out of my Taehyung daydream.

Taehyung [22.30]: Made it back in time, no pumpkins here—

I laugh. Attached to the message is a close up photo of him laying down in bed, resting on an arm, his almost ebony eyes wearing a smile and staring straight through the phone into me. He looks gorgeous. Did I just kiss him? How on earth did that happen? 

My grin starts to hurt my cheeks but I can’t seem to stop it. I try to force it into just a regular smile, nothing too over the top or creepy, I fluff my hair out on the pillow and take a mirroring selfie, hitting send after.

Y/n [22.32]: Good to know, none here either 😊

Taehyung [22.33]: Haha! Good. I’ll let you get some rest, see you tomorrow lunch time. Goodnight! 😉

I reply, wishing him a goodnight in return, just before my eyelids finally start to droop. As I drift off to sleep I replay the images of his lips moulded on mine, my fingers in his hair and his warm hands on my face, hoping he will appear in my dreams tonight.

Thank you so much for reading, if you could leave me some feedback it would be much appreciate, even if it’s just a little comment to tell me what you thought 🖤

[makoto-nanami]

Miraculous Rewrite: Origins Part 1 (Chapter 1)

Hi, this will be my first Miraculous fan fiction, while I love the show, I most definitely have my gripes with it, how they treat their characters is something that infuriates me, and while this fic may get salty sometimes, I do love the characters, it’s just because of the status quo that the writers are instant on maintaining, they can’t grow or act sometimes completely out of character. So I’ve decided to have a try at writing a fic with my own OC in, to act as the voice of reason when Marinette starts going overboard/borderline cringy or when Adrien is a innocent baby who doesn't understand the world or when he thinks it’s okay to have a tantrum or flirt with ladybug. I’ll be following the episodes, so they won’t be too different, just told from a different perspective. Again I apologise in later chapters if I seem too have ingested a ton of salt, but know if I salt on a character I plan to resolve it at the end of the episode. I hope you enjoy!

- Also, if anyone could suggest which tags this needs because I blanked when I tagged this... (-_-’)

Origins Part 1 - Chapter 1

Many millennia ago, concepts of life were born, however, these beings realised they had too much power, a power that could easily be abused. So, they gathered to a kind human who had chosen to live in isolation from the rest of his kind and protect the world when needed, a bestowed their blessings in hopes that the human would help them. The human was confused by the seemingly god-like beings’ request, how could they trust a lowly human such as himself, a coward who turned his back on the rest of the world after witnessing the corruption such power brought to his brethren? These gods simple smiled upon this man and said you are no hero, you are no villain, you are simply an observer, a helper, someone who despite his hate to the world, chose to protect it in its time of need.

So, the man heeded their call, creating magic jewels embedding them with extraordinary blessings from these gods, the Kwami, binding them to the jewels restricting their powers. These were… the Miraculous.

Throughout history, heroes have used these jewels for the good of humanity. However, The Creator of the Miraculous realised, that two of these jewels were more powerful than the other despite his efforts of balance; the earrings of the Ladybug, which provided creation; and the ring of the Black Cat, which granted the power of destruction. The Creator knew that whoever controlled both blessings would achieve absolute power, a power that the Kwami had feared would be manipulated with malicious intent. After realising his mistake, The Creator promised that no matter what, he would observe the Miraculous, personally in their times of use, as he could not stop humanities tragedy on his own; leaving the Jewels with his disciples allowing them to distribute when humanity cried out in suffering.

However, no one can live forever without a cost. Many have tried, all of them have failed with various degrees of success. Immortality is a fickle thing. Wishing for eternal youth, cursed to never grow, burying loved ones and always begging for an end to your torment. The Creator had witnessed this, one of his many mistakes, one he most definitely wanted to learn from. So, he wished to be reincarnated, to watch the miraculous in humanities time of need. Unfortunately, souls and memories of humans are just as fickle as the body. While he would reincarnate he would inherit the life his successor, cursed to watch as the loved ones drift away, fade and die, cursed to watch with red eyes.

But that’s just a silly story my mother would tell me as a child. She would tell me how maybe I could be the next reincarnation of this strange man; I’d laugh when she would tell me that. Then suddenly out of the blue; I started having strange thoughts, dreams of another time, voices of people crying out for help. My mother, Evangeline, a woman who raised me, a woman who while not connected to me in blood, still cared for me as if her own, one day told me this story again, this time… I did not laugh, I cried. I looked at my mother; realised… she had not aged a single day since the day I had met her all those years ago, she smiled and told me I was ready. She told me of her friend who trained to protect the Miraculous and how she housed and protected him in his early days after the temple was destroyed. She then explained how it was time for me to fulfil my promise to the world and how I would be going to Paris, France to work with her friend to protect the Miraculous.

Why though? It wasn’t my responsibility; I never made any promise to the world! All I wanted to be was slightly successful, hanging out with friends and working towards achieving my dreams as a P.I! I never wanted this! But as I was on the plane to Paris, I couldn’t deny it… I felt the pull of that man’s promise; I won’t give in though, no matter what I will not be that man! I will observe but I will not change myself, I will not become him, not while I still have my dreams of friendship and life.

Once in Paris, I find myself outside of a massage shop… this looks shady. Why the hell would Eva send me to a massage parlour? Well, I need to figure out what’s going on and figure out my living accommodations, so might as well bite the bullet on this shady place.

Knock-knock.

The door opened at the force of my knock; that’s some security for world-ending jewels. I make my way into the shop and spot an old man meditating… this is just getting weirder. As I’m about to announce myself, he speaks. “Welcome, Young Creator.” He opened his eyes, widening as he took in my appearance. “Well… this was not what I was suspecting at all.” Rude. “But worry not, come and I shall explain the gaps in your memory.”

“Excuse me, but I am not that man, obviously. I am my own person, while I intend on helping him fulfil his promise… I have no intention of becoming him.”

“But…”

“I’ll help you but know that I am not him.”

He stared at me considering my words before gesturing for me to sit down. I sit as he pours green tea into cups.

“I understand. Now allow me to introduce myself, I am Wang Fu, Evangeline has told me a lot about you.”

“Likewise. However, I am a little confused about the situation here in Paris. There is no media mention of any Miraculous holders, so obviously neither the Ladybug nor Black Cat is in circulation as the powers they hold are less than subtle when used, so why am I here?”

“I see, you are correct in your deduction of the state of the Miraculous’, however, you were drawn to Paris, correct? We believe that that pull indicates humanities potential ruin. As soon as you started to have visions of the past, Evangeline contacted me, I was already here in Paris so we decided it may be best to let you settle in and learn about your role and responsibilities hopefully before the path to ruin forms. Of course, due to your age as well, we have been forced to enrol you in a local school high school.”

I blanched at this, having already graduated from a high school for the gifted where it wasn’t considered strange for children to skip grades depending on their academic standing. Great… just freaking fantastic… Fu looks at me as if looking for my opinion, I simply sigh and shrug, excepting my fate, begrudgingly.

“So… Where exactly will I be living? I mean, not to be rude or anything, but this shop/apartment isn’t exactly big.”

“Yes, my home is only so big, and I already have a littler of picky roommates. Evangeline and I have decided to let you stay at her old home while she lived in Paris many years ago. She assured me that it would be to your tastes and it isn’t too far from your new school.”

Eva’s old home? I kinda worried now, she’s the sort of person who loves antiques and old dollies, sure she grew out of it when she adopted me but if this is her ‘old’ home… It’s not exactly a place I want to be, surrounded by creepy dolls and old stuff, at least I didn’t have to pay rent… wait…

“What about money? If I live alone, won’t I have to buy food and stuff?”

“Ah yes, Evangeline told me, that while she is more than happy to supply money for food and essentials, it will be sent to an account that will record what you buy, she stressed that I tell you that money is for essentials only.”

“Sounds like Eva… did she mention anything else?”

“Oh, she told me to give you this note when you asked about money.” He hands me a small note.

-       If you want games, junk, comics/books, anything not essential… GET A JOB!

-       Love you, Eva!

Yup… that’s definitely Eva. I laugh weakly, thinking who would hire a 13-year-old kid for more than a paper-round. Suddenly a flash of green whizzed around the room, I instinctively tensed ready to defend myself but quickly feeling foolish, seeing a green Turtle like creature.

“Wayzz…” I find myself muttering, having no idea of where the name came from… perhaps one of his memories.

“Master, Master! Master, the Moth Miraculous, I felt its aura!” Wait, what?

“I thought it had been lost forever!” He lost a Miraculous?! What?!

“But Master, it’s a negative aura. I fear it may have gotten into the hands of a dark power!” Oh just great!

“We must find Nooroo and his Miraculous. If it has gotten into the wrong hands, it means the path to ruin has formed and there’s no telling what evil will come to the world!” He stands raising his fist hand to the ceiling, a green turtle shell charm bracelet reviling itself. I find myself stammering.

“Hh-hey wait a sec- “

“Time to transform! Wayzz- Hack!” He doubles over in pain. If I wasn’t so confused, I’d find this almost comical… almost. Wayzz floats over to him almost exasperated.

“Please Master. Be reasonable. You are- “

“Still young! I’m only 186.” Only?! Then again, I just found out the woman who raised me is an immortal child, so what do I know. “But you’re right, Wayzz. Young One, I can no longer do it alone, it is time… We’ll need some help.” He walks over to the gramophone and revealing a box with symbols I somehow knew all too well, a box that housed the most powerful jewels in the world, the Miraculous.

As we roam the streets of Paris, I notice a school. Other kids making their way inside, chatting about their summer vacation. I feel myself dread at the idea of enrolling during the second year, everyone already knows each other, it’s gonna feel weird, dammit. We get to a crossing and I see a short navy haired girl rush out of the bakery across the street with a box in her hands, as I am about to dismiss her from my thoughts, Fu started to walk forward acting frail and old despite the light still being red for pedestrians. “Hey, wait!”

“Uuuhhaawh?!” The girl rushed out and grabs him by the hand, taking him to the other side of the street, dropping the box in the process. The light changes and I rush over, noticing people stepping on the baked goods that fell out the box.

“Thank you, miss. Oh! What a disaster.” Yeah, I wonder who’s fault that is, old man. I pick the box up and hand her it back.

“Sorry about your macarons, he just walked into the road suddenly.”

“Don’t worry, I’m no stranger to disasters, besides, there are still a few left. Would you like one?” She said kindly, offering the box to pick one out. Fu reached out and took one before eating it.

“Mmmh. Delicious! Do you attend Françoise Dupont? My friend’s child here is enrolling today for the second-year class.” Wait, what’s he doing?

“Oh really? Welcome to Dupont then! Do you know which class you’ll be in?”

“Erm, I believe Miss Bustier’s class?”

“Same here! Would you like me to show you the way?”

“Oh no, there’s no nee- “

“Oh thank you, it’s reassuring that this little one will have such a friendly face in class.” What the hell old man!? As if reading my thoughts, he looked at me innocently. “After all, it’s normal for a child to attend the first day of school, right?” Ack… he goddamned planned this! I don’t know how but he definitely planned this! Aren’t I supposed to help you find the holders for the Miraculous, Fu? Again, he simply smiles as he looks at me. “I’ll inform you of my progress when school finishes.”

“Oh no, we’re gonna be late! Ah, have a nice day, sir! Come on!” She cries as she pulls me along. “Oh, how rude! I don’t think I’ve asked your name!”

“My name? Oh, it’s Alice.”

“Alice, eh? Nice to meet you, and I must say, what lovely red eyes you have!”

[azwriting]

A Tragedy (Forget Me Not, Kylo Ren x Reader) - Chapter Seven

Hi guys, here’s chapter seven! Sorry it took so long, I kept rewriting a lot of the parts because I couldn't settle on the best way to write it. Also we are going to pretend that purple kyber crystals exist...Anyways I hope you all like it! Let me know if you want to be added to the taglist!

Summary: (Y/N)’s relives all of her most important memories and realizes Kylo and her were more than friends.

Warning(s): Suggestive Material (not really), Mentions of death and pain,

Word Count: 6997

(Y/N)’s eyes fluttered open to the sound of the man whispering her name. Her eyes wide open, untrained, and filled with tears. A tidal wave had crashed over her, returning her past as if it had never left.

She was in a brightly lit meadow, the sun casting a warm halo around a man and woman, who sat contently behind their house in the Nayli countryside. Their attention was captivated by the toddler, their daughter, who sat in front of them on the soft yellow blanket. Her (Y/E/C) eyes were wide as her chubby hands lifted a shiny rattle up into midair.

A fire filled her vision next, smoke infiltrating the lungs of the four year old girl being rushed through the burning house by her frantic father. Once outside, her father placed her down on the grass, a safe distance away from the fire. “Stay here, I have to go find your mother!” 

The man instructed moving to leave, but the young girl’s tiny hand caught his. “No Papa please don’t leave me, I’m scared!” She sobbed. Another part of the house crumbled down in the background as her father stood frozen for a moment. He quickly retrieved a purple crystal from around his neck and placed the oversized necklace around his daughter’s neck.

 “Wear this it’s a Kyber Crystal, one like the Jedi’s used to use in the stories your mother and I told you. It will keep you safe until we return.” The child’s hand clamped around the crystal watching as her father ran back into the burning house, only to never return.

The girl sat in a small white hospital room, any evidence of the fire being cleaned away as she now wore a white medical gown, the purple Kyber crystal still hanging from her neck. Tears streamed down her face, she knew her parents were gone, and she was all alone. A woman with fair skin, warm gentle eyes, and her dark hair braided up entered the room sometime later. Her eyes traveled from the focused little girl to the floating syringe beside her, a knowing smirk forming on the woman’s face. 

“Hello dear, what’s your name?” The woman offered her a sincere smile, stepping closer. 

“(Y/N) (Y/L/N)” The girl whispered, the syringe dropping in the background. 

The woman frowned, “My name is Leia Organa, can you say that?” 

The child smiled softly, “Lele.” Leia laughed, she supposed that was close enough.

 “(Y/N) love, would you like to come home with me?” The girl nodded eagerly, perhaps this woman could provide her a new home, a new family.

The woman with a long braid trailing down her back, Leia, carried the girl into a spacious looking condo overlooking the capital of Chandrila, Hanna City. 

“Leia you cannot seriously be thinking of taking her in?” A deep voice spoke causing the little girl to whimper, snuggling deeper into Leia’s shoulder. 

“I knew her parents, (Y/M/N) and (Y/F/N), it’s the least I can do. She’d be an orphan if I didn’t!” Two men sighed audibly and a large wookie mumbled incoherently as well. “There’s another reason though…” Leia moved to put the girl down on a soft white carpet where a black haired boy with brown eyes, looking to be a year older than her, played with levitating toy blocks. As soon as the girl sat next to the boy, her hand lifted and flew a blue block over to her. The boy’s head lifted, shooting her a glare to which she only giggled at. 

“She’s strong with the Force, Luke.” Leia said to the sandy blonde haired man. 

“You said (Y/L/N)?” Luke questioned. Leia only nodded and Luke let out a small laugh. 

“What’s funny kid?” the dark haired man asked. 

“She must be the ancestor of Qui-Gon Jinn, Old Ben’s master. His great niece or something! You have to keep her then…” 

The brunette man sighed once again, “Great another Force User, as if I wasn’t already outnumbered!”

The girl, age six, woke in a dark room, a nightmare about her parents demise causing tears to fall thickly down her face. She quickly climbed out of her bed, her tiny legs carrying her to her sense of comfort. She looked out at the living room seeing the bustling nightlife of Hanna from the large open balcony, before entering the room next to hers. The boy was in his bed, tossing in his sleep, as the young girl approached his bed still crying. He suddenly woke from a sniffle, sensing her distraughtness in the Force. 

“Nightmare again?” He questioned rubbing his eyes, black hair messily splayed across the pillow. The girl only nodded and climbed into bed, into his open arms. 

“I’m sorry for waking you all the time Benny.” She whimpered in his embrace. 

“It’s okay that’s what I’m here for (Y/N/N), always.”

The girl and Ben were three years older, running through the meadow of Naboo, visiting for a political meeting Leia had to attend. The family had escaped to the quiet fields one afternoon though. The little (Y/H/C) girl was chasing the bouncing black curls of the boy. 

“Ben!” She called out, laughing, her smaller legs unable to keep up with the Ben’s long strides. His legs already growing longer than hers, it was not fair. 

Ben only chuckled teasing her, “Keep up (Y/N)!” The girl huffed pushing her legs to go faster, leading her to take a misstep and go tumbling into the plush green grass. “(Y/N)?” Ben halted before doubling back and diving into the grass beside the unmoving girl, lying face down in the grass. 

“Ben is she okay?” A woman’s voice called from up the hill. He rolled the girl over to see a sheepish smile on her face and the boy let out a sigh of relief. 

“I fell.” She giggled and Ben with his warm eyes laughed in return. 

“So clumsy!” He pulled her back up to her feet before the same woman, Leia, shouted for them. 

“Kids come here, Han take a photo of us!” The children groaned to themselves, not another picture. 

“Coming Lele!” 

“Coming Mom!”

“Can you hurry up?” Ben groaned watching as the girl fiddled with the wire paneling of the office door. 

“Can you give me a minute?” The girl rolled her eyes, keeping her attention on the multicolored wires. The two had been locked up in a stuffy office all day while Ben’s parents dealt with political problems, and it was time for a jail break. Rewiring a blue and red wire, the girl watched as the door flew open. “Ha take that Spaceboy!” Her teasing was cut short by C-3PO entering the room, clearly the reason why the door had truly opened. 

Ben gave her sly look and she pushed him out the door past the gold droid.  “Go Ben go!” The girl shouted as the two ran through the hanger and out onto the landing strip, heading for the fastest piece of junk in the galaxy. 

“Young Solo, Miss (Y/N) where do you two think you are going?” C-3PO called out to the mischievous children. Ben only smirked to the girl as they raced up the ramp and into the cockpit. He slid into the pilot seat and she into the co-pilot. Oh Han would regret teaching these two partners in crime how to fly. Barely being able to see over the dash the two took off in the Falcon for a joyride. 

When they returned later, the Falcon covered in branches, Leia and Han with their arms crossed and faces red with anger awaited them. 

“Oh we’re so screwed” Both children uttered.

Months later the children would find themselves back on the Falcon, with nervous expressions and intertwined hands trying to find comfort in one another.

 “They’re only sending us away because of me.” Ben mumbled, his inky black curls moving to hide his face. 

“No they want us to become Jedi’s, to master the Force!” The girl corrected, an excited expression taking over her face. She would become a Jedi, like the ones her parents told stories about. 

He only shook his head, “N-No… my p-parents are scared, scared of m-me, of this part hidden in me.” The girl’s smile dropped, eyes widening at his words. Squeezing her best friend’s hand, she urged him to look at her. His warm brown eyes held a look of sadness and fear, bottom lip trembling slightly. 

 “Well I’m not Ben.”

The girl and Ben were two years older dressed in variating shades of brown robes. Ben, with short black hair and a small braid trailing down his shoulder, was now officially a teenager as they sat cross legged on opposite sides of the room. Master Luke had to split them up, the two were always causing distractions during lessons. They were supposed to be meditating, searching the Force, but the two friends only continued to steal glances at each other, something strange and unfamiliar twisting its way into their stomachs.

Ben was meditating in his hut when the girl bursted through the entrance obviously excited.

 “C’mon Spaceboy its time!” Ben popped open one eye, glancing over at her. He was mildly annoyed with her for disturbing his meditation, but her grinning face seemed to diminish his irritation. 

“I’m coming, I’m coming!” He stood and the two walked out to the overgrown field just beyond the temple and huts, their place. Sitting down beside each other, the young padawans watched as the sun set beyond the ridge, their hands merely touching in the grass.

The girl clad in nothing more than a white nightgown and tears exited her tiny hut and walked to the one a tad further from the temple. Inside the other hut, lanky teen Ben awaited her on his cot, eyes turning sincere as she entered. 

“Are you okay?” He whispered already shifting over in his small cot. 

“N-No” She choked out, lying down beside him, her body trembling.

“Do you want to talk about it?” 

She shook her head, “No, just hold me.” Ben awkwardly wrapped his arms around her, her head resting against his bony chest. Feelings inside them both beginning to awaken as they fell back to sleep.

Another year had passed and the girl now 14, with a thick braid trailing down her back wielding her purple lightsaber. Master Luke had thought the color odd, the color symbolizing a connection to both sides of the Force, and the girl purely exhibited the Light side. But she had been drawn to it because of her father’s necklace which she could not part with. Or perhaps it was a possible indication of what her future held. Ben, 15, stood confidently across from the girl wielding his blue lightsaber. His hair was becoming longer, padawan braid becoming lost in the sea of curls, and he had grown beginning to tower even more over the girl. They grinned cockily at each other as they lined themselves up for a training session. 

They were the strongest amongst the group of padawans, in combat and in mastering the ways of the Force; Therefore the perfect partners, the perfect challenge as they continued to grow stronger. Ben striked first obviously impatient, but the girl easily deflected the advance with her saber. She went to strike back but he was too quick, moving swiftly to the side. The girl groaned repositioning herself for the next move. Ben swiped at her once again but she ducked and rolled off to the side. 

She quickly stood back up with a slight smirk plastered across her face. With black hair covering most of his eyes, Ben sent a playful smile her direction which she rapidly dismissed leaping forward to steal a strike. He didn’t seem to catch onto her plan, seemingly too distracted by something else, causing her to tackle him to the ground. Ben groaned looking up at the girl smiling down at him, her saber merely inches from his neck.

 “Gotcha Spaceboy.” His face turned a bright shade of red, his words seeming to be stuck in his throat. 

“I hate you.” He finally choked out, a flustered expression still on his features. 

“I know.”

The two, another year older, climbed into an old Tandem X-Wing. They had successfully convinced Master Luke to allow them to go to Chandrila for a grand ball Leia was hosting. They just had to be back within two day cycles and were not allowed to tell any of their fellow peers, which was not a concern. Ben did not talk to anyone really and although the girl was friendly with her peers, she stuck with her partner in crime. They’re had been some sort of tension rising within the New Republic though, something Leia nor Master Luke would tell them about, but the ball was being thrown in an attempt to regain back the New Republic’s favor. 

The girl leaned forward in her seat, placing her chin on the handsome boy’s shoulder, his eyes locked tightly on the vast darkness of space ahead. He was a terrific pilot at such a young age, taking after his Father, Uncle, and apparently his Grandfather. His Grandfather, Anakin Skywalker, was once a powerful Jedi Knight before being murdered by Darth Vader. Master Luke always told them stories about him, stories he had been told by the man Ben was named after. He always seemed to be saddened by the stories of his murdered Grandfather and his Grandmother who died after childbirth. Ben missed them, even if he had never met them. 

“We’re almost there.” He mumbled and the girl smiled, they were almost home.

Landing in Hanna, the two were greeted by Leia, her eyes watering as they fell on the two children before her. In fact, they were not children anymore, instead transitioning into beautiful young adults. She had not seen them in five years, only ever seeing the occasional hologram.

 “Ben!” She grinned excitedly pulling her towering son into a tight embrace.

 Ben laughed hugging his mother back, “Hi Mom!” Leia pulled back and held her son’s face in her hands, examining all the new little details and changes occurring on his face. The girl knew Leia saw it too, he looked like his Father… 

“Hi Lele.” The girl spoke up from the side, her large smile never fading. Leia released Ben and turned to her, pulling her into a tight hug. 

“(Y/N) dear, my goodness how beautiful you are becoming as well!” The girl giggled into the embrace as Ben questioned, “Is Dad here?” Leia pulled back from the hug and frowned. 

“No he had business he had to attend to, he’s sorry he couldn’t be here Ben.” Ben stiffened and nodded slowly, his eyes glazing over.

 “Well,” The girl cleared her throat, “We should go get ready for the ball, I don’t believe Jedi robes are considered appropriate for tonight’s festivities.” Leia nodded and ushered them off, watching as the girl silently comforted her son, something odd transpiring in the Force around them.

The ball had officially commenced and the event center overlooking the city was filled to the brim with people dressed in elegant wear. The girl nervously walked around the dancing couples, picking at the seam line of her mauve colored dress. Leia’s handmaids had transformed the young padawan into a princess: with purple vines painted up her cheeks, white gardenias and lavender woven into her tightly curled hair, and flowers and vines embroidered into the mauve colored dress. She looked like a child of spring. 

 Eyes followed her as she moved throughout the ballroom, hers only searching for one. And there he was across the room, in dark blue robes, brown eyes wide and already locked on her. His wild hair was tamed and sleek, his red tipped ears poking out slightly as he stalked across the floor to her. He stopped in front of her and the girl’s heart rate picked up, he was becoming outrageously handsome, it was not fair for her best friend to be so… distracting. 

“Dance with me.” Ben blurted out, hand restlessly tugging at the high neck of his blue tunic. 

“Of course.” She smiled and the two awkwardly stuttered into the flow of the dancing couples. 

“You look stunning, if it wasn’t obvious.” The girl blushed fiercely head dropping in an attempt to hide from his prying eyes. 

“Thank you Benny, you look handsome as well!” His cheeks flushed a bright red and he dropped his head as they continued to waltz. 

“What are these white flowers? They smell beautiful.” He mumbled into the crown of her head. 

“Gardenias, my parents used to grow them by the house in Nayli. They are supposed to represent pure love.” Ben pulled back slightly, smirking down at her, making her heart rate pick up once more. He was close, too close for them to be just friends. 

“Is that so?”

The pair were back at the Jedi Temple, age 17 and 16, smirking confidently at each other as they positioned themselves for another fight. Their power only continued to grow, and they had an ongoing wager on who would win, both of them the strongest padawans especially together. With quick strategic movements the two danced around the training room as other padawan’s watched curiously, despite their apprehension of Ben. He moved with such agility, it left the girl a little breathless as they kept deflecting each other’s strikes. Suddenly as the girl stepped forward her ankle rolled, causing her to lose her footing. 

Not being quick enough to deflect the impending attack from Ben, a scream pierced through the previously focused and tranquil atmosphere. The girl crumbled to the ground in agony, her hands flying up to her neck only to instantly cry out again. Ben dove to the floor, their lightsaber’s long forgotten. 

“(Y-Y/N), I-I’m so s-sorry!” Master Luke rushed over alongside other students, quickly examining the singed skin on her neck. 

“Bring her to the infirmary now!” Ben with tears streaming down his pale face, pushed away the other students and lifted the girl himself. “Nephew.” Master Luke warned sensing the fear and self-hatred rising in him. He simply ignored his uncle watching the girl’s eyes flutter shut, lightheaded due to the movement and the white hot pain radiating from her neck.

 “It’s going to be okay, you’re going to be okay.” Ben reassured more to himself than her as he carried his best friend to the infirmary.

The next memory, (Y/N) had seen it before, but there was more to it than she had previously seen. The girl was lying in the infirmary bed once again, and Ben’s head was still pressed against their intertwined hands, sobbing. “Ben,” She whispered to the clearly distraught boy, “Look at me.” His head slowly raised to latch onto her own watery (Y/E/C) eyes. “I-I’m in love with you.” She whispered, cheeks burning. 

Ben inhaled sharply, pushing himself out of his chair to hover over her. A large smile broke across his tear streaked face, “I’m in love with you too.” He quickly pressed his lips to hers, both forgetting the sacred code of the Jedi. A Jedi will not know love, will not be involved in romantic relationships, as it will only prove to be a distraction. Their sweet innocent kisses grew heated, the girl sitting up to remove his tunic, hers soon following. 

They broke their kiss at the removal of their shirts and the boy whispered, “I love you.” His sweet eyes were hooded in love, lust, and amazement as he stared down at the girl.

 “I love you more.” She gleamed pulling him back into a feverish kiss, a silent vow being passed between their shared breaths and confessions. Their love was worth living in secrecy over…

Pressed against the side of the temple, the girl and Ben stole quick kisses in between lessons. “Ben we have to go before someone notices we’re gone.” She giggled as he pressed his lips all over her neck and face. 

“No, we can spare another minute.” He mumbled against her skin before pressing another chaste kiss to her lips. 

“Ben Solo! Where are you? Don’t make me hologram your mother!” Master Luke shouted from somewhere, causing Ben to groan dropping his onto her white clothed shoulder, a string of incoherent words tumbling from his lips.

 “I forgot I have my private lesson today…” He lifted his head displaying his bottom lip jutted out in a pout. 

“Go” The girl giggled, “before we get caught, or worse he calls Leia and she chews both of our ears out.” 

Ben laughed, “The latter sounds worse.” She giggled agreeing as he pressed his lips to hers one last time. “I’ll come find you after.” Ben whispered, his hot breath fanning across her face, before parting.

Months later the two sat stiffly in an empty classroom, guilt and nerves etched onto their faces as a furious Master Luke stood before them. They had been caught, caught in a compromising position that clearly stated they were romantically involved, the biggest no in the Jedi Code. “How could you two be so careless? You both know the Jedi are not allowed to have partners, let alone be involved in such activities as you two were!” The girl and Ben both ducked their heads, blushing at the fact they had been caught during one of their nightly secret hut rendezvouses.  

“Children can you please excuse the two of us for a moment?” Leia’s voice rose from her hologram placed directly in front of them. Not needing to be told twice, Ben and the girl rushed out of the room, stopping outside the door threshold to eavesdrop. “Leia why are you not furiously chewing them both out? They are jeopardizing their ability to become Jedi!” 

His sister sighed, “I’m not mad Luke, that’s why. I think you should allow them to continue being together.” Ben and the girl’s head whipped to look at each other, surprised by Leia’s words. Apparently they weren’t the only ones. 

“What? Why?” Luke demanded confused.

 “Luke they will continue regardless of your advisory and remember our parents. Who married in secret, who’s secrets were their demise. Please I beg you don’t let that happen to my boy. Don’t let that happen to (Y/N).” Luke let out a frustrated sigh, fisting his graying hair into his hand. 

“Fine, Fine! But no one else is to know of their relationship.” Luke reluctantly agreed. Ben and the girl outside the door let out a loud cheer as they embraced each other tightly. Leia laughed hearing them and Luke groaned, already regretting his decision. 

“You two also need to be taking precautions, I don’t want to be a grandmother yet!” Leia called and Ben’s face burned bright red. 

“MOM!”

Kisses were being peppered across Ben’s exposed skin as he carried the girl on his back, heading to the quiet fields ahead. The sun was touching the horizon as the day came to an end, soft pastels painting the sky and clouds. Ben squatted down once he arrived at their spot, letting down the girl. The two sat, the girl placing herself between Ben’s legs, her (Y/E/C) eyes watching the sunset with immense happiness. “So beautiful.” She traced the swirls of lilac woven into the pink sky with her index finger. 

“You are.” Ben whispered pressing a kiss to her hair, eliciting a small snort from the girl. The two watched the setting sun for awhile, enjoying the tranquility of the evening when Ben spoke up once again. “Will you marry me?” 

The girl jumped in his arms spinning to look at him, wide eyed. “What?”

 Ben’s face flushed immediately, “I mean I don’t have a ring, but marry me?” The girl gawked for a moment, her mind unable to process fully. 

“We’re so young though…”

 “So, you’re the one. My grandfather was nineteen when he married my grandmother. I’m 18 what’s the big difference?” The girl’s face broke into a large smile as she turned fully, straddling his lap. 

“I’m the one?” She whispered hands lifting to cradle Ben’s cheeks. 

“You always have been. You and I were written in the stars, brought together by the Force.” 

The girl giggled, “Such a poet Mr. Solo.” He snickered lightly, still waiting for her response. “Yes, of course.” She answered finally. Ben’s grinned so widely, pulling her down into a messy kiss. 

“Shit,” Ben breathed when they parted for air, “I’m going to need to find a ring.”

“(Y/N) wake up.” Ben whispered one night, weeks later.

 “Hmm what?” The girl shifted in her small cot, seeing Ben fully dressed in his darkest robes, kneeling down beside her. 

“If we leave now, we’ll be back before dawn. No one will know, not even Luke.” The girl blinked heavily, pushing away the sleep still clinging to her. 

“Leave to where?” She questioned, puzzled.

 “To get married.” Ben smiled, as if it was obvious. 

“Oh you were serious about that?” The girl joked, pushing her blanket off. Ben scoffed helping her stand as he did. “What about the rings? And a dress? Witnesses? Ben what about all of that?” She questioned looking into her love’s eyes. 

“You’re lack of faith in me is disturbing. I have it all figured out don’t worry about it.” The girl narrowed her eyes, observing him.

 “Okay let’s go!” Ben grinned and pulled her out of the hut and towards the old Tandem X-Wing.

The sound of wind brushing through trees and water slowly lapping against the shore filled the girl’s ears as she walked towards the balcony overlooking the endless blue of the Naboo lake. The place she had loved so much as a child and now she would be wedded here. At the place where Ben’s grandparents had secretly sworn their endless love to each other and now she would do the same. The ivory dress, with white flowers blooming throughout the body and sleeves, blew gently in the warm breeze as she walked towards her fate. She grinned to herself in excitement with nerves filling her to the brim as she thought of their secret wedding about to take place. 

It was simply beautiful in Naboo: she could feel the warm setting sun on her skin, the smell of cherry blossoms floating through the air, and the gentle warm breeze flowing through her. A crown of white gardenias and lavender was placed on top of her ivory lace veil and her purple kyber crystal still hung from it’s usual spot. She could feel it in the Force, in a way, her parents were with her.

The girl looked up to Ben, who grinned whole heartedly down at her. Their hands intertwined as the Minister asked them to recite the vows of unity. 

Ben and the girl in synchronization recited, “My soul honors your soul. I honor the place in you where the entire universe resides. I honor the light, love, truth, beauty and peace within you, because it is also within me. In sharing these things we are united, we are the same, we are one.” The girl’s (Y/E/C) eyes filled with tears as they placed the delicate silver bands onto their ring fingers. 

“I now pronounce you husband and wife, you may kiss the bride.” Ben eagerly swept the girl into his arms and bent down placing a sweet passionate kiss to her lips. The Minister excused himself as the two broke away. 

“My wife, (Y/N).” Ben breathed out testing the word for the first time. 

“My husband.” The girl whispered back, grinning. C-3PO congratulated them but the two ignored their one witness, only focusing on each other. “How did you find this lovely gown?” She questioned her husband. 

“I had some help.” Ben smiled looking over to the woman standing next to C-3PO, his mother. 

Leia approached them, tears in her eyes, “As much as I would love for you two to stay longer so we could celebrate, you have to go before Luke finds out you left, and find a way to hide those.” She pointed to their left hands adorned with a silver wedding band. The couple nodded saying their goodbyes before running back to the X-Wing, hand in hand.

“Would you stay still?” The girl groaned trying to remain still, but her back was starting to kill her. 

“How much more do you have to do?” She questioned Ben, who sat to her side, illustrating her portrait into a large piece of parchment. 

“Not much, now stay still.” He responded eyes flickering up to study another area of her face. 

“You’re lucky I love you.” The girl mumbled observing the black leather necklace that hung from Ben’s neck, holding and concealing his wedding ring underneath his brown tunic. A similar necklace hidden under her tunic as well. They had been married for 3 months and Leia had kept their secret, vowing that she only wanted them happy. Ben snickered, the ink from his pen gliding perfectly against the piece of paper as he continued to commit her image. 

“I know.”

“Ben talk to me.” The girl pleaded as her husband’s screaming woke them both up in her tiny hut one night. He had been distant lately and the girl was unsure why. She could feel this other side of him edging it’s way closer and closer to the surface, but she was unsure what it even was. His nightmares seemed to consume him every night, dark circles starting to form around his eyes. 

“It was you, you died.” The girl nodded slowly not showing any sign of being bothered by his words.

 “How?” 

Ben only shook his head, “I’m not sure it was blurry, but you were crying and there was smoke… but that’s not the worst part.” The girl’s hand rubbed up and down Ben’s back soothingly, silently asking him to continue. “You were being carted through the streets of Hanna. Your skin was pale, flowers placed in your hair, your whole body l-lifeless.” Ben shuddered at the thought, tears slipping down his cheeks. 

“Love, I’m not going anywhere.” She comforted wrapping her arms around his shaking frame. 

“I know, I will protect you. I promise.” Ben stated coldly into the quiet night.

The girl and Ben, now 19 and 18, walked across the vast fields of the planet. “Ben where are we going?” The girl groaned, not being able to see behind Ben’s large hands, that covered her eyes and most of her face. 

“We’re almost there, patience my wife.” He laughed at her impatience. She sighed annoyed but allowed him to continue to lead her to the unknown destination. “Okay stop, but no peeking!” Ben instructed after another 10 minutes. The girl felt his hands leave her eyes but she kept her eyes closed as told. She could smell the sweet smell of multiple flowers and the faint sound of lapping water. “Keep your eyes closed.” He reminded her sounding farther away. The girl heard the sound of a swoosh, like a door opening, before warm calloused hands grabbed hers, guiding her forward. After a moment Ben stopped, “Open.” 

He was close enough that the girl could hear his racing heartbeat pounding inside his chest. Slowly opening her eyes, a wide open living space greeted her. There was a kitchen on the side, a hallway behind them and another long hallway in front of her. 

“Ben where are we? Who’s house is this?”

 Ben let out an uneasy laugh, “Um, it's ours.” The girl whipped around with wide eyes, looking to the smiling boy. 

“What?” She questioned, a smile erupting across his face.

 “It’s our house, the original owners have long abandoned it. Master Luke said after we are done training we can live here. Think of it, we will be Jedi Masters, training padawans, going on missions around the galaxy.” the girl grinned, letting out a small squeak of excitement, before rushing around the house to examine it. It needed some work but nothing too bad, surprisingly, but she had a suspicion that Ben had been fixing the place up. The girl stopped by a large window beside the kitchen, observing the quiet terrain surrounding the house. 

“No neighbors? You can’t even see the temple from here.” She felt Ben quietly step up behind her, moving her hair to the side. 

He planted soft open mouth kisses down her neck, “No one to hear us.” His voice came out huskily and the girl turned to face him with a smirk on her lips. 

“Ben Solo you are positively evil.” 

Ben laughed, “That’s why you love me.” 

She scrunched her nose up, “An argument could be made.” Ben went to argue but she quieted his words by placing a feverish kiss to his waiting plump lips. He kissed her back immediately, their kisses soon becoming sloppy and needy. 

“I love you (Y/N), more than anything.”

The next images were familiar, the setting of a nightmare. Ben had not come over to the girl’s hut that night, instead falling asleep in his own hut. She was worried about him, more nightmares and dark thoughts were plaguing Ben. He had even begun to express his doubt over what his place was in all of this. The girl just hoped that her love would be okay… The girl jolted awake to the sound of screams and the smell of smoke. 

Grabbing her lightsaber, the girl rushed out of her hut, seeing the main Jedi Temple on fire in the background. Her eyes were automatically drawn to the bodies lying in the field, slaughtered in cold blood. She stood frozen, what was happening? She could hear screams within the temple and immediately began to run to help, but she was yanked back by a shadowy figure causing her to drop her lightsaber. “Ben! We need to help them!” She twisted around his arms to see blood smeared on his one cheek and how disheveled looking he was. There were tears wind whipped and dried on his cheeks, leaving behind a streaky mess. “Benny?” 

The girl questioned fearful of the dark glimmer in his eyes.  “(Y/N) we don’t belong here.” The girl went to cut him off but he shouted at her, “Let me finish!” She was frightened, this was not her Ben. “Luke tried to kill me, he sensed my power, my strength, our strength! We were a threat to him!” Ben exclaimed, looking back to his destroyed hut. Were? 

“Are you hearing yourself? This is your Uncle, Ben.” The girl tried to reason with him, but he would not hear it.

 “They’ve been lying to me about everything. You know my grandfather, the great Anakin Skywalker who was murdered by Darth Vader? He wasn’t!” The girl’s eyebrows furrowed, what did he mean? “Anakin Skywalker was Darth Vader! One of the most powerful Sith Lords to live, and I have that blood in me.” The girl shook her head in disbelief, was Ben really related to Darth Vader? How had he even come to find out about this? Why had everyone lied to them?

“Join me, my love.” Ben pleaded still having a firm grip on her upper arms. 

“You know I can’t follow, I can’t, we can’t!” The girl pulled against his grip but it only tightened making her grit her teeth. 

“I have and you can too. I can protect you.” The girl shook her head violently, tears pouring down her crimson cheeks.

 “I can’t follow you, you know that.” Ben huffed out frustrated, releasing his hurtful grip on her arms to push his hair out of his face. She backed away slowly until she heard the loud pleas coming from the temple once again. She turned to run but a hand grasped her once again. 

“No (Y/N), I can’t lose you too!” Ben pleaded sorrow plaguing his eyes. 

“I’m sorry Ben, but you already have.” The girl trembled as the words fumbled out of her mouth. Her hand reaching up to yank off the second black necklace she wore. 

“N-NO!” Ben choked out, but it was too late. The girl handed him the necklace holding her wedding ring, before she pulled herself free of his grip. She was angry, upset, and regretted her actions but she could not focus on that as she ran inside the burning building. Inside the burning temple, smoke filled her lungs and vision. 

She was not inside long before an awful loud rupture blared over the sound of crackling fire. She looked up to the ceiling, panic filled her bones, knowing what was to come. “(Y/N)!” A pain filled voice cried outside, just in time as the roof collapsed, caving in on top of her.

The girl stirred against the hard platform, her eyelids and lungs feeling heavy. “I don’t know R2, she just shut herself out of the Force, I can’t sense her anymore. That’s why she must forget, it's the only way to keep her safe from him. Set course for the Hosnian system, she will be safe amongst the Republic.” 

The girl coughed, eyes fluttering open for a moment blinded by the bright light, “Master Luke?” She heard shuffling and then a shadow appeared in her eyes, blocking out some of the light. “Master Luke, where’s Ben? Is he okay?” 

The shadow let out a deep pained sigh, “Shush dear everything’s okay, close your eyes and rest. Everything will be okay.”

The last two memories were not hers, (Y/N) knew that, yet despite that they entered her mind. Ben was covered in smoke and tears in the bedroom of the house, the house he had gotten for him and the girl. “She’s gone, She’s gone, She’s gone!” He repeated over and over again, losing control at the end. He had tried to run after her, but the roof caved in before he could enter. Now she was gone, he could not feel her in the Force anymore. Her pure light energy was gone, replaced by a hollow feeling inside him. 

The tears poured down his face as he let out a gutted scream filled with anger and devastation. Ben retrieved his lightsaber from his side, igniting it. The blue light illuminated his sorrow filled face as he let the rage take a hold of him. He began slashing the corner of the wall in the bedroom, before eventually collapsing to the floor in exhaustion. His trembling hands reached out to collect her grey and black lightsaber from the floor and the black necklace with her small silver band tied to the end of it. Ben held the items in his hands as his sobs continued to shake him to his core, his mind racing around one single thought, his love was gone.

The next one, Ben was clad in all black robes on his knees in tears, staring out at the blackness of space. The setting around him began to fade and shift into what he was weeping over. Two coffins being carted through the dark streets of Hanna. Hundreds surrounded the coffins and horses, carrying flickering candles, mourning the loss of the two Chandrila children. In one coffin a hologram of Ben Solo laid lifeless dressed in dark blue robes and covered in white flowers. In the next coffin was the girl in a dark purple dress. Her hair was adorned in lilacs, lavender, and white gardenias, just like Ben’s nightmare. She looked beautiful just as he remembered her, but the color to her skin was gone. She was just as lifeless as he felt. 

Ben hiccuped feeling a shaky hand being placed on his shoulder. He looked up and through his veil of tears he saw his mother standing beside him. She was crying watching the coffins moving slowly through the quiet streets, silently comforting her son, despite all that had happened. Leia knew her son was not dead, she knew he had turned and caused the destruction of the new Jedi. 

Her hand swiftly was removed and the image began to fade, Ben back on the Star Destroyer. He quivered, clenching his gloved fists as he felt the darkness inside rise. His love was gone and he blamed Luke Skywalker. Ben swore he would find him and destroy him, as another realization dawned upon him. Just as Hanna was being led to believe, Ben Solo truly was dead.

(Y/N) looked ahead, her face soaked and her body trembling. “(Y/N)?” The man asked once again crouching down to her level. Her (Y/E/C) eyes fell onto him, inhaling sharply. 

“B-Ben?” 

His warm eyes filled with tears and hope, “Yes, it’s me! It’s Ben, your Ben… your Ben.” He trailed off pushing her hair back behind her ears and settling them on her cheeks. (Y/N)’s heart was pounding in her chest as her mind tried to process everything, it was all too much to handle, to bear. The girl was her, Kylo was Ben, her Ben. The fire flashed in her mind, then the massacred students, his dark rage burning inside. 

“N-No, no, you’re not!” She sobbed out pushing his hands off of her face. “You’re not him! Ben Solo is dead!” (Y/N) screamed standing up abruptly. He stood with her trying to grab ahold of her, trying to calm her down. (Y/N)’s eyes fluttered shut remembering the shared kisses, shared embraces, their unclothed bodies moving together in such synchronization. It was all too much she could not keep it in. She was a volcano about to erupt. 

“D-Don’t touch me!” (Y/N)’s hands stretched out to push him off, but instead a power, a force, inside of her sent him flying backwards. Kylo was ten feet away on the ground, looking up at her bewildered, a part of her now unlocked like her past. 

Without so much as a second thought, (Y/N) took off running back into the house and into her room. Her name was (Y/N) (Y/L/N), she remembered who she was, she remembered the love, happiness, and pain. 

She wished she could forget again.

Taglist:

@benpeggycartersolo​

@2heures​

@thephantomwriter​

@thefandomzoneisdangerous​

@carol-chann​

@gambitsqueen​

[nurse-buckley]

Whumptober Day 23 - Exhaustion

Fandom: Critical Role  Characters: The Mighty Nein  Word Count: 1,648  Warnings: nightmares.  Fjord is having trouble sleeping, visions and nightmares of Uk’otoa plaguing his sleep. 

“I’ll take the first watch,” Fjord announces to the group. His adrenaline is still high from the fight they’d not long been in. Truth be told, it wasn’t the adrenaline keeping him awake. The nightmares of Uk’otoa he’d been having recently had been growing worse. The visions given by Uk’otoa obviously not enough for him, his subconscious now playing a part and showing him horrendous visions of himself and his friends being hurt. 

The others agreeing, began to settle themselves down huddled together in the dome Caleb had formed to protect them. Fjord kept vigil, his mind wandering trying to think of anything but the dreams that had been plaguing him, not wanting to influence any type of rest he may be receiving later that night. 

He knew he’d have to rest sooner or later but he couldn’t seem to make it more than a few hours without waking up in a sweat, his breath catching in his throat as the panic wakes him. He’s lucky he’s managed to hide it from the Nein for this long, but he’s unsure of how wise that decision is when they rely on him so much.

A few hours later found Beau and Yasha waking up, choosing to spend their watch together for company. A small nod towards Fjord showed the pair that the watch was uneventful and Fjord settled down, laying on his side facing away from the two women. As soon as he closes his eyes, the half orc regrets it, he sees the faces of his friends, tortured and mangled from Uk’otoa’s soldiers, flashes of the previous nightmares still haunting him. 

Come morning the dome vanishes and everyone rises from their sleeping positions feeling well rested. Caduceus makes breakfast and tea for the group as they begin to discuss their plans for the day. Caduceus notices how quiet Fjord has been as of late, not wanting to interrupt, he’d kept his distance but he knew something was wrong. The Firbolg made a mental note to ask if there was anything wrong if the pair found themselves alone from the group later. 

Upon walking through the forests, Caduceus picks up on the sound of a branch snapping. The group halt in their tracks, forming a circle, protecting each other's backs as they each look around to see where the sound came from. A group of gnolls appear out of the shadows, five of them coming out of the surrounding trees and making their way onto the path, surrounding the group of travellers. They are no strangers to the creatures, deciding they could take them on with little effort. The Mighty Nein begin their fight, preparing their weapons and spells, ready to take on the creatures. 

The first gnoll lunges forward at Yasha, she takes Magicians Judge, slicing through the creature with ease, sending it backwards as she kicks the gnoll to remove her sword. Another chooses to attack Caleb, but the wizard is quick with a blast of orange light as the arcane fireball leaves his hands, engulfing the gnoll in flames. 

The fight is going well, the gnolls getting hits in where they can but the Nein fighting back with ease, synchronising their attacks like a dance. Fjord is losing the battle however, his fatigue growing easy with his already high exhaustion. He fires off an eldritch blast to the large hyena-like creature running towards him, it misses and the creature swings it’s battleaxe and slashing across Fjord’s chest. Jester sees the interaction, sending her spiritual weapon and with a flash there’s a comically large lollipop with spikes now attacking the creature. The attack gives Fjord enough time to disengage, allowing him to take cover from it. 

The half-orc looks worse for wear, the wound on his chest is seeping with blood, he can feel the pain radiating with every heartbeat. He clutches the wound, not ready to throw in the towel just yet. He summons the falchion, getting back into the fight and swinging at the gnoll engaged in combat with Beau. He swings his weapons down on the creature, easily cutting it down. 

The last thing he hears is a scream from the monk in front of him as her face turns into one of horror. He feels the familiar slash and impact from another gnolls weapon, his once smiling face from defeating the gnolls partner falls as his body drops to the ground, now unconscious. 

The Nein see the incident in slow motion, none of them quick enough to stop the creature before it attacked Fjord. Beau is quick to attack the creature with a flurry of blows, leading him away from Fjord’s body, not wanting the gnoll to attack him again. Once finishing off their own gnolls, they regroup, turning their attention to the remaining gnoll, firing everything they had at the creature before it too fell to the ground, dead. 

Jester rushes to Fjord’s side, Beau already having lifted his head onto her knees, attempting to rouse the half-orc with a gentle tap to his cheek. The tiefling cleric sees the damage that has been done and places a hand over the bloodied wound on the half-orcs chest. She concentrates hard, focussing her energy on healing the man beneath her and casts cure wounds. She watches as the energy flows from her hands into Fjord’s body, relieved as she sees the large wound begin to close. 

The Nein are surrounding the trio on the ground, holding their breath to see if Fjord would regain consciousness. They’re confused as to how he had fallen so easily, the fight that should have been so easy seemingly too much for him. 

Fjord wakes with a gasp, his head shoots up but he’s stopped by Beaus hands on his shoulders, “easy buddy.” 

The half-orc moves, gently sitting up with help from Beau and Jester, grunting against the stiffness and pain still plaguing his body. Caduceus kneels at his other side, casting healing word, helping to heal the pain and wounds further. He’s helped to his feet, being steadied as he falters slightly upon being upright. 

Embarrassed, Fjord moves forward, slightly ashamed at being taken down so easily by a creature he’s fought many times before. “Uh, you okay Fjord?” Caleb asks. 

He turns to the group, realising they were not following but standing behind, watching him leave. “Uh, yes. I’m fine, just got caught off guard I guess.” 

The Nein eye him carefully, not believing a word he’s saying but know better than to question him. They each knew that if Fjord wanted, he’d go to them in his own time. For now, a silent agreement was made that they’d keep an eye out for him. 

After another long day of travelling, the group could see Fjord was struggling. With another silent conversation between them they agreed it would be a good time, with a clearing coming up ahead, to set up camp again, they could all do with another long rest after the battle and day of walking. 

Caduceus fakes a yawn, “well, I’m exhausted.” The Nein go along with the act, deciding to stop, placing down their belongings and ensuring the area was safe to rest in. The Firbolg makes his way to Fjord’s side where he’s sitting, glancing over to his friends to let them know he was going to approach the events from earlier in the day. 

“Want to talk about what that was earlier?” 

Fjord shakes his head, not meeting his friend’s gaze. “I don’t know what you mean.” 

“I think you do,” comes Caduceus’ reply. “You’ve been looking more and more exhausted each day, you don’t look well rested and in that fight, you were not up to your usual standard.” 

Fjord sighs, “I guess, I haven’t been sleeping well. I’ve been having nightmares, nightmares of Uk’otoa and him hurting you all. I can’t allow that to happen. I can’t allow you all to be hurt because of me.” 

Caduceus moves a hand on Fjord’s back, comforting and grounding his friend. “You know we won’t allow him to hurt you, or anyone else. Why didn’t you come to one of us if you were having these nightmares?” 

“I guess, I was embarrassed. They’re not real, yet I can’t close my eyes without seeing one of you hurt.” 

The firbolg nods, taking in the information, it takes a moment of thinking but then the celric has an idea. “You know, Calliope used to have nightmares and what helped her was having a routine before bed. Meditating and deep breathing can help to relax your mind and body, I’m sure Beau would help you with that. Talking can help, you know you can talk to any one of us, if you're stressed or anxious don’t let it build up. Another thing that can help, which might sound silly is to rewrite the ending.” 

Fjord looks up, confused at that last suggestion. “What do you mean? Rewrite the ending?” 

Caduceus gives a laugh, lightening the mood slightly. “Only you have the ability to change how the story ends, you don’t like it? Fix it. You can rewrite the bad ending to one of happiness.” 

Fjord thinks on it for a few seconds, “that’s...actually not a bad idea. Thank you Caduceus.” 

The firbolg gives a gentle pat to his back, standing up and holding out a hand to Fjord. The half-orc takes it, standing and following Caduceus to where the others are gathered and sees Caleb preparing to make the dome for them. Jester glances over to the pair walking over, “you okay Fjord?” she asks, not making a big deal out of the situation. The man nods in response, sharing a smile with the tiefling before they head inside the dome, for another night's rest, only this time Fjord is hopeful that it will be the best one he’s had in a while. 

[blueberryraindrops]

Blueberry’s Ultimate T-Rated TUA Masterlist

KEY

Fics are organised alphabetically (articles e.g. ‘the’ will not count)

Download links are EPUB files only

authors can feel free to send me a msg if they want their fics’ download link taken down

Regular updates can be expected as long as I remain in the fandom

Last Update: 14/10/2020

Other Masterlists: All Fics; G-Rated; M-Rated; E-Rated

FANFICTION

☁︎ another cog in the murder machine by Ford_Ye_Fiji { T }

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Five finally gets the breakdown he deserves

☁︎ Blood like Lemonade by Ford_Ye_Fiji { T }

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Hunting high and low to seek revenge, Brand new moral code, got made reluctant renegade. Leaving empty souls when he avenged, Evil spirits flowed he drank the blood like lemonade.

Five's sordid past comes to light in, quite possibly, the most unpleasant way

☁︎ Details [Series] by VeteranKlaus { T }

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The last time Klaus saw his siblings was at Allison and Patrick's wedding. A lot had changed since then; including the not-so-accidental, irreversible loss of his sight.

There's no time to tell them that, though. Not with the return of their long-presumed-dead brother and the impending apocalypse. Plus, it doesn't matter. He's got Ben as a good seeing-eye ghost.

☁︎ do androids dream of electric sheep? by the_crownless_queen { T }

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Number Four is crying, and Grace was made to care for those children.

In which Grace was created to protect the children of the Academy. Even, as it turns out, from their father.

☁︎ don't waste your time (or time will waste you) by rosewitchx { T }

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He was an old man. He is sixteen. Ben dies next week. How does he know that? “I think I broke it,” Five stutters, and for the first time in her short life Vanya sees absolute terror in his eyes.

Or, Five travels back again. Something goes wrong.

☁︎ Fighting (Pre)Determinism by chibi_tantei { T / WIP }

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They go back in time, determined to rewrite their own family history. Only problem is, only one of them looks the proper age to get near their younger selves.

Or, six months after Five stormed out, determined to time travel, he returns home. His siblings are happy to have him back, but he's acting differently...

(Or, Five goes undercover as himself. Twice the siblings should make saving the world easier, right? Yet somehow, he's only now realizing how many issues his family has to fix.)

☁︎ Five and Dave's Life Changing (Life Saving) Field Trip by neuronary { T }

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The little boy, who Dave could now see was not as little as he’d first thought, shoved a tin mug at him. “Drink this.”

Dave drank. It tasted sickly sweet and slightly citrus-y. “Who are you?”

“Five.” The boy’s scowl deepened at Dave’s confusion. “Klaus’ brother.”

Or, Five saves Dave's life to stop Klaus from moping. From Dave's perspective, a very grouchy, sleep-deprived twelve-year-old kidnaps him and he finds it much more entertaining than he should.

☁︎ haven't you heard of meditation? by rosesareredvioletsareblue { T }

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"Klaus, you have a piece of glass sticking out of your neck!"

Klaus felt for the glass, wincing as he found it.

"Oh yeah. Fun." It took all of Five's willpower not to throttle him.

☁︎ Hidden Variables Theory, The by siriuspiggyback { T }

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Something has disturbed the space-time continuum, and it's up to Five to figure out what it is.

With a bit of luck, and a lot of alcohol, he might even manage to do it before he snaps and murders his siblings.

☁︎ haven't you heard of meditation? by rosesareredvioletsareblue { T }

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"Klaus, you have a piece of glass sticking out of your neck!"

Klaus felt for the glass, wincing as he found it.

"Oh yeah. Fun." It took all of Five's willpower not to throttle him.

☁︎ Hidden Variables Theory, The by siriuspiggyback { T }

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Something has disturbed the space-time continuum, and it's up to Five to figure out what it is.

With a bit of luck, and a lot of alcohol, he might even manage to do it before he snaps and murders his siblings.

☁︎ i'm gonna be here til i'm nothing (but bones in the ground) by iguessyouregonnamissthepantyraid { T }

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Someone definitely just punched him in the chest, right? That’s the reason for that feeling? Or that last batch of pills had something seriously off-label mixed into them. Because there’s no way. There’s no fucking way.

He squeezes his eyes shut until dots burst behind his eyelids, but when he opens them, the hallucination doesn’t go away.

“… Five?”

☁︎ if the sky comes falling down by synchronicities { T }

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The equations are still wrong.

In 2002, Number Seven wonders why her siblings are acting odd.

(Or, the post-finale “Vanya doesn’t remember the time travel” fic)

☁︎ If You're Different And You Know It (you're not alone) by M3zzaTh3M3z { T }

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Five was different. He’d always known. Different from most people, what with his freakish birth, powers and unconventional upbringing, all that old news. And different from his siblings. He was smarter. His powers were stronger. And he’d never picked a name. All that was old news too. But there was something else that separated him from the rest, something he didn’t know how to put a finger on, how to categorize, analyse, understand. Five didn’t like not understanding. It was probably Klaus that made him first notice something was off.

☁︎ Is the sadness everlasting? (love, I think it is) by ArmedWithMyComputer { T }

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A look into what Klaus' newly discovered ability could mean for the siblings.

Diego could feel his whole body trembling as he faced the ghosts, only able to take shallow breaths as he struggled to process the true horror of what he was seeing.

And then they started howling.

The sound pierced though his stupor and forced him to his knees instantly. It was like nothing Diego had ever experienced before, and he was consumed with the intensity and overwhelmed by a deep chilling fear. It felt as though his mind had been taken over and all he could hear was the shrieks of grief, more intense than any emotion he had ever felt.

☁︎ It Does(n't) Matter by MYSTERYstew { T }

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It’s a familiar feeling, being lifted up by Luther and tossed around like he weighs nothing (to Luther he certainly does), it was a favorite move of Luther’s as a child. Nostalgia is not what Five feels, he’s too busy flailing as Luther throws him over the railing.

or, Five fails a jump

☁︎ Just One Minute by willowhisperer { T }

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Five holds up his end of the deal, soaked in blood. The Handler decides to toy with him a little while longer.

Maybe it's revenge, maybe she's riding the high of her shiny new position as head of the Commission.

Really, she just wants to win, once and for all.

☁︎ Lessons 'verse [Series] by Soulykins { T }

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Five was maybe four years old when he figured out that he was pretty much ride or die for his siblings. He was also four when he figured out that in the Umbrella Academy, you could never let Reginald Hargreeves figure out what you loved lest he use it against you. There was safety in aloof indifference, more than could be found anywhere else under their roof.

Five times Five Hargreeves protected his siblings the best ways he could, and the one time he failed.

☁︎ Lethe by shoelaces { T / WIP }

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Le·the | A river in Hades whose waters cause drinkers to forget their past.

Or: Five loses his memories instead of Vanya, and it falls to his siblings to raise a superpowered teenager in the 1960s, all whilst preserving their own new lives and preventing yet another apocalypse.

☁︎ Like an abyss by fridayyy { T }

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For the second time, Five has to (gets to?) grow up.

☁︎ Like Oxygen by sevansa { T }

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Klaus's powers may be a bit more extensive than just seeing the dead, he's not sure what to do about that.

OR

The one where Klaus's power is not ghosts, but souls and that makes a hell of a difference.

☁︎ Mellow Rays of a Departing Sun [Series] by Emotionally_Detached (Yeah_Toast) { T }

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He makes it. He time travels and makes it through another apocalypse. He makes it, but his siblings don't.

His siblings don't make it, except he's in his own childhood and they're still here, alive and thirteen and he can fix things.

He will fix things

☁︎ most dangerous place in the world, the [Series] by Princess_Sarcastia { T }

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"Grace is the third model in a series created by and for Sir Reginald.  She has access to the knowledge obtained by her predecessors in their time assisting Sir Reginald in his many endeavors.

All three of them were primarily designed as protectors.  Do no harm, just as Mr. Asimov said!

But Grace is slightly different."

[priority one: protect the children]

☁︎ New Life, A by BirdInTheCave { T }

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Allison had convinced Ray to come back to 2019 with her and her family and after a month of being cooped up in the house with the other Hargreeves plus their own unconventional guests, Ray suggests they spend some time alone. He's still struggling to fully comprehend the new world he's stepped into but he's determined that with Allison at his side he can get used to anything. Allison can't find a reason to say no. She should have said no.

Luckily for her, Five will always be there for his family, now that he's back.

☁︎ Not with me by ClaraCivry (Kat_Of_Dresden) { T }

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They never asked if any of that blood was his. Five is bleeding, and he is also giving up.

AU to 2X07, with hurt Five because after all that boy has been through...

☁︎ Number Five | And The Things that Make Him Tick [Series] by Kraeyola { T }

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It's only been two weeks for him.

AKA: Five succumbs to two weeks worth of badly cared for (physical and emotional) injuries, and ends up extremely feverish.

☁︎ On My Terms by CivilBores { T }

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“I did what you asked,” he tells her. “Now, the briefcase.”

Her eyebrows raise in mock-surprise, red lips curling up her face in a sadistic smile.

“You didn’t think that was all, did you?” she asks.

AU: The Handler gives Five a slightly different deal.

☁︎ Partners, Parents, or None of the Above by DarkFairytale { T }

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Kenny's mom assuming that Diego and Klaus were A) a couple and B) Number Five’s parents was both bemusing and amusing at the time. But that was because it was the only time it had ever happened. Now though? Now they just can't understand why these misunderstandings keep happening.

☁︎ rude awakening by Soulykins { T / WIP }

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When Five wakes up, he just knows someone is in the room with him. Of course, even he didn't except to come face to face with the Handler who he'd thought to be very very dead. And he especially didn't expect her to break into his room and watch him sleep while waiting for him to wake up.

It's very fortunate that Diego and Klaus show up to wake him up and take offense to some random lady in the same room as their very uncomfortable, very thirteen-year-old brother.

☁︎ Screaming in the Face of Communication by papayaromantic { T }

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It's not that he doesn't want to pay attention to Five, just that he seriously can't hear what the boy is saying past the wailing of the torn apart woman in front of him.

☁︎ shaking like I shook before by Anonymous { T }

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Five tries to deal with it alone, until he learns that he doesn’t have to.

☁︎ skirts and sweaters by slightlyworriedhuman { T }

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"I don't want to be a ‘cute little schoolboy’ anymore, alright?” Five snapped. For some reason, the thought of himself as a schoolboy was enough to make his skin prickle. Was it the implication that he was younger than the rest of them, less mature despite his life?

...Yeah, it was definitely that. Absolutely.Five wants a change in wardrobe. His siblings are more than happy to help.

☁︎ small changes by calypso42 { T }

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“I need to ask you something.” He set down the large stack of books he was carrying beside him. Klaus glanced at a few of the titles - Consciousness in the Brain - Memory & the Role of the Hippocampus - Soul vs. Matter: A Comprehensive Look at the Origins of Sentience - and grimaced.

“Are you… having an existential crisis, or something? Because I am possibly the worst person you could go to for that.”

...

When Five goes to Klaus to ask him something about his powers, Klaus doesn’t think much of it. At least, until he realizes that what he thought was simple curiosity was actually deeper than that, leading to a revelation about Five himself.

☁︎ take shelter by aloneintherain { T }

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AU where the apocalypse doesn’t follow the Hargreeves to the 1960s. Without the threat of nuclear annihilation hanging over their heads, the siblings can take the time to be a family again.

Until they find out that the Handler has been blackmailing Five.

☁︎ this is a bad town (for such a pretty face) by luciimariiellii { T }

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Five’s gone. (How the Hargreeves cope, and how they reunite.)

☁︎ to unexplain the unforgivable by darkviverna { T }

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Ability to see the dead and having a temporal assassin for a brother don’t mix well.

☁︎ Too Much Too Little by 1spideyson { T }

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Five says nothing on the ride back, just gently presses the tips of thin fingers to his eyes and temples like his head is a new instrument he’s learning to play. Like he’s searching for the right notes.

Diego tries not to cast too many worried glances the boy’s way, but when Five crawls into Diego’s bed, shaking and grey, he can’t stop himself from speaking up.

A look at Five and Diego's relationship through a h/c lens.

☁︎ Too Old To Be So Young by KaseyBeth { T }

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Five winced loudly, pushing his head off the floor to see bright red smeared across his chest and stomach; crimson soaked into his shorts, running down his leg. His head fell back against the ground dizzyingly, and he groaned as someone touched the wound, biting his bottom lip as he tried to stay conscious. The end of life, of everything, was in three days; they didn’t have time for this, he didn’t have time for this. A bullet wound, a stupid bullet wound and all that stupid concern and worry, was just going to slow them down. There wasn’t time for mistakes, or hiccups, or rest and recovery. It was the end of the fucking world.

☁︎ traumaversary by WeWalkADifferentPath { T }

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It follows him like an unscratched itch. Under his skin, over his body, around his energy, like a mosquito that won’t leave him the fuck alone.

April 1st. April 1st. April 1st.

(A character study of Five, with some inevitable family feels, in honour of March 24th).

☁︎ Unexpected Future, An by aseies { T / WIP }

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“I’m sure you’re looking forward to finding a way back to your own time as soon as possible,” Nedzu said. “I want you to know that U.A. will do everything in its power to help you achieve that goal. Time travel is a complicated equation to solve, but I’m sure if we put our heads together we’ll come up with something!”

Five raised a skeptical eyebrow. “And you’re just going to do that out of the goodness of your heart? I’m not even old enough for high school yet.”

“Well, we’re all heroes for a reason, no? What good are we if we can’t help a single child in need?” Nedzu pointed out with a pleasantly neutral smile as he sipped his tea.

OR: Instead of time traveling into the apocalypse, thirteen-year-old Five Hargreeves teleports in the middle of the USJ fight.

He gets a couple of new dads out of it.

☁︎ walls kept tumbling down, the by Ingu { T }

→ Download Here

It started small.

There was a nagging ache in his chest, phantom pain from where the bullets had pierced his flesh, in the overwritten timeline that never will be.

(the one where rewinding time doesn't miraculously resolve mortal gunshot wounds)

☁︎ We All Deserve Second Chances (but don't repeat your mistakes) by justarandomword, wolvesandnovas { T }

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Time-travelling gave Ben a second chance at life. He's not about to let Reginald Hargreeves ruin that for him and Klaus.

(a.k.a. Reginald takes Klaus' dog tags and the aftermath.)

☁︎ we didn't choose this life, we're just (kind of) living it [Series] by noodlerdoodler { T / Partially WIP }

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Five couldn’t move, standing by and watching complacently, as his younger brother grabbed him roughly by the front of his sweater. It was like he was watching a play he wasn't apart of, yet that was definitely his small body being tossed over the balcony. No doubt, Luther thought that he would just jump out of the way. He'd always jumped out of the way, sometimes without even meaning to, but now visions of a world on fire flashed through his head as his body plummeted towards the ground. Seemingly, he was tumbling through the air in slow motion and absentmindedly, Five wondered if this was his life flashing before his eyes. All he saw was the desolate world he’d left behind weeks ago.

When Five hit the ground, it was with a sickening cracking noise.

“Oh my god, Luther, what have you done?”

☁︎ with two arms by karcheri { T }

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What it comes down to, really, is that Five had been too eager for results. Once it became clear to him that there was a connection between his powers and his energy level the obvious course of action, as he saw it, was to test this information. The hypothesis was this: higher energy levels = stronger powers and the easiest way to get more energy is to eat more. Pretty simple stuff. Too simple.

or Five times that Five starves himself and one time that he gets called out on it.

☁︎ you from yesterday by questors (sieges) { T }

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The difference between who his siblings once were and who they are now.

[nitewrighter]

Like every couple i figure Genji and Mercy would have some arguments. Do you think they could have a really big dispute ? What would it be about ? Maybe a little fic about it ? :D (sorry if my english is bad)

—–

 They were both tired. Genji had been off-watchpoint on several missions that had taken days at a time, only to return to the watchpoint to find Mercy pulling all-nighters at the lab. He couldn’t blame her, exactly–and what could he ask her to do? Put her lab work on hold so she could coddle him? With Talon breathing down their necks? That was one of the hard parts about loving someone so devoted to their work, someone who insisted on shouldering so much of the team. He was used to distance with her, more used to than he liked to be, but on the third night he found himself alone in their apartment, he decided enough was enough.

Usually Genji treasured their late-night talks in the lab, but tonight the lights overhead were cold, sterile, flickering and annoying.

“…still working on the Reaper samples?” he leaned his head into the lab.

“Nanites, and yes. Sorry I couldn’t make it to dinner,” Mercy was frowning through her microscope, 

“It’s okay,” said Genji, leaning on the wall of the lab.

A few beats of silence passed between them.

“So,” said Genji, “How goes progress?”

“It’s difficult to say,” said Mercy, still looking through the microscope, “From what I can tell, without biotics or a stable host body, or, cloud, the nanites quickly destabilize. They affect human cells like a retrovirus, essentially rewriting it to be able to switch between an organic and a nanite state, so the question is, how can I force nanites back to an organic state?”

“They would… probably need to be a part of their host body to do that?” Genji suggested.

“Maybe I could replicate the neurological signal,” Mercy muttered, more to herself than to Genji, “But presumably neurological cells are converted to nanites as well… ugh!” she pulled up from her microscope and rubbed her eyes, “The nanites can’t seem to infect themselves cross-species, I can’t make rat nanite cells from scratch, and even if I could make a nanite-infected rat, I still don’t have any idea what compounds were used in the SEP program and–and–!” she grunted in frustration, “I’m going in circles.”

Maybe it was the jet-lag from the last Orca trip, but the words fell out of Genji, “If you’re going nowhere, you don’t have to keep going, Angela.”

Mercy looked up at him. “I’m sorry?”

“I know nanites as a technology is a big threat, but it’s one only wielded by Talon. If we just… focus on taking out Talon, then we take out nanites along with it,” he shrugged, “Seems fairly straightforward.”

“…you’re saying don’t bother figuring out what went wrong with Reaper, and just kill him,” Mercy said flatly.

“Well… he tried to kill us,” said Genji.

“I can’t believe you,” Mercy brought her eyes up from the microscope, “I can’t believe you—!”

“I’m only saying it’s okay to back down from—”

“This is my technology, Genji! I have a responsibility to it! I’m the only one who can figure out a cure for him!”

“You said this wasn’t about curing him! You said this was about stopping his condition before Talon could replicate it!” Genji paused, “I mean, and considering they have Moira, it’s not unlikely they haven’t already replicated it.”

Mercy visibly bristled at the mention of Moira and Genji realized what he was saying wasn’t alleviating her annoyance in the slightest.

“I do have to do this, Genji,” said Mercy, pacing around the lab counter.

“You’re burning the candle at both ends, it’s already impacting your infirmary work here on the watchpoint, if it starts impacting your performance on missions–”

“What are you talking about?!”

“You missed two appointments with our fellow agents because you were busy with that… stuff–”

“These nanite samples are time-sensitive! God forbid one of the junkers is stuck with the sniffles for another day though!”

“…Angela, you’re obsessed,” Genji said flatly.

“Obsessed!?” fury deepened her voice.

“You would never put something like this over a patient! I know you still feel guilty about what happened at Zurich–”

“Stop–stop–don’t–don’t pull that Shambali nonsense–”

“Nonsense!?”

She huffed. “You know what I mean–”

“Oh so because I’m able to grow past my problems in a way you can’t control, then it’s nonsense!”

“NONSENSE IS YOU PSYCHOANALYZING ME ON SOMETHING YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA ABOUT BECAUSE YOU WEREN’T THERE!” Mercy shouted and then immediately caught herself. She shut her eyes and furrowed her brow, taking a few breaths to try and collect herself. “Genji–Just… let me do my work.”

“I’m worried about you, Ange–”

“Please.”

Genji took a deep breath. “I’ll be back at the apartment.”

—-

Mercy didn’t come back to their apartment that night. She swore to herself she would just take a quick power nap on the couch in the break area near the lab, and ended up passing out. She slept until a shaft of sunlight fell on her through one of the windows, then grunted in her sleep and turned away from it, only to have a warm liquid splash on her side, sending her awake.

“Hey!” Mercy looked at the tea stain on her lab coat.

“Good morning,” Ana stood over her.

Mercy rubbed at her eyes and sat up, “Unless it’s an emergency, Lúcio is fully capable of looking after the infir–”

“This isn’t about the infirmary,” said Ana.

Mercy’s brow furrowed and she pulled herself up further, no longer splayed across the couch and allowing Ana to take a seat next to her. Ana sipped at her tea.

“Here’s the thing,” said Ana, “The insulation between your lab and Athena’s main monitor room is very thin. And Jack and I tend to burn the midnight oil just as much as you.”

“Ach du scheisse–” Mercy pressed her hand against her forehead, “You didn’t–”

“Jack passed out. I heard the whole thing,”

“Well it wasn’t any of your business–”

“Overwatch consumed one of the greatest loves of my life, Angela. It consumed both of Jack’s,” said Ana, “I think we all learned too late that half the fight is making sure the team is all on the same side.”

Mercy made a face.

“It seems obvious, but it isn’t. Not as much as you’d think. We’re all here because we want to stop Talon, but some of us have different ideas as to what stopping Talon looks like. Some of us get frustrated with the methods of the organization as a whole. I don’t think I’ve properly expressed to you that that’s why Jack and I value you as a part of this team now more than ever.”

“Because I hated the militarism of the previous Overwatch?” said Mercy.

“And you were well within your rights to. But now,” Ana clasped her hand around her teacup, “I… I don’t believe that, as an organization, we’ve ever been as single-minded as we are now.”

“…and this has, what exactly, to do with my fight with Genji?” said Mercy.

“What you and Genji have was forged in Overwatch’s fight. It’s not like the relationships Jack and I struggled to keep alive through the Crisis. It’s not part of a world we struggled to keep alive even though we knew our circumstances would leave it forever changed. It’s yours. And I can’t, in good conscience, let you make my mistakes.”

“Your mistakes…?”

“Pushing people away when you’re at your most scared,” said Ana, “Fearing the loss of the things you love so much that you sacrifice that love.”

Mercy snorted. “I’m not scared—”

“Work can be one of the few places we feel control. More than our relationships–”

“More than a watchpoint full of idiots constantly hurting themselves…” Mercy said quietly, but then she huffed, “More psychoanalysis—”

“Angela you should know by now this whole organization is a mess of traumas and neuroses,” said Ana flatly, “Fighting Talon is important–taking back your creations that talon has corrupted is important… but so is the life you’re fighting for.”

Mercy bit the inside of her lip. “I really bit his head off, didn’t I?” she muttered.

“Well to be fair, it wasn’t very thoughtful of him to just shrug off weeks of work for you like that and reduce our fight with Talon to something that simple, but yes. You bit his head off,” said Ana, “But Angela–this is the most important question: do you still see a life with him beyond this fight?”

“The… fight we just had…?” Mercy’s brow crinkled.

“The fight with Talon,” said Ana.

Mercy tucked her hair back. “Sometimes it’s so hard to imagine that this fight could someday end…” she said quietly, “But… when I come home to him… I know there’s no one else I’d rather see.”

Ana gave her a comforting pat on the shoulder. “Take a nap and a shower,” she said, “Then extend the olive branch.”

“You threw tea on me,” said Mercy.

“A necessary sacrifice of a perfectly good cup of darjeeling to get your head out of your ass,” said Ana.

Mercy smiled weakly.

—-

Genji was meditating in his usual spot overlooking the sea cliffs when his visor brightened with alertness. He looked over his shoulder to see Angela standing a few feet behind him.

“Are my footsteps that loud?” Mercy asked quietly.

“No I just… I’ve… gotten good at telling when it’s you,” said Genji, turning back around to look at the horizon.

“Can I…?” Mercy started.

Genji glanced over his shoulder at her again, then scooted over to let her sit down next to him. She took her seat and another few beats of silence passed between them. Not tense, like the last time, but tired.

“I’m sorry,” she said quietly, “I’m sorry for yelling at you and calling what the Shambali did nonsense. I don’t think it’s nonsense. I was just…angry.”

“I was treating you like a child,” said Genji and Mercy perked up.

“I was acting childish,” Mercy returned.

“No, I mean–well, yes, but… I was dealing with you the way Zenyatta deals with me, and I’m not your teacher. I’m your partner. And trying to take back your work from Talon, trying to undo what Talon did with it… that’s not an obsession, and… you put in so much work, it was callous of me to just say you should walk away from it,” he pressed his fingers to the catches of his helmet and took off his faceplate, showing his scarred face, “So I’m sorry too.”

“I was definitely more of the asshole though,” said Mercy.

“It’s not a competition Angela,” said Genji with a slight smirk. 

“Do you think I’m controlling?” asked Mercy.

Genji blinked.

“You just… that part about the Shambali being something I didn’t control…” Mercy trailed off, “If you need more space–”

“I wanted you to quit poring over those nanites because I missed you,” said Genji smiling a little, “Well, that and the infirmary and the lack of sleep… But… I don’t think you’re controlling. I think… the way we’re living now, it’s very easy to feel like things are beyond our control, so we take what we can get. In your case you dive into work and in my case I withdrew from the situation and ended up coming off as… a condescending jerk who treats you like you’re unstable.”

“I was on hour 33 without sleep. I don’t think you could call that stable,” said Mercy with a smirk.

His smile faded, “I am still worried about you though.”

“Mm,” Mercy nodded, “I’m… I’m glad you are. I mean, I’m not glad you’re worried, but I’m glad I have you in my life to care about me like this. I was thinking… I’d put the nanite samples on ice for a while.”

“Would that work?” Genji tilted his head.

“Well, if Mei could survive, presumably we could find a way keep those cells stable. I just have to be willing to ask for help,” said Mercy, “If I’m getting nowhere pouring all this hours into obsessing over them, I probably need to step back.”

“You don’t have to do that for my sake–” Genji started.

“I’m doing it for our sakes,” said Mercy, “It wouldn’t be that long, anyway. Enough to get back on top with infirmary work and…” she glanced over at him, “Get back in touch with what I’m fighting for.” 

“And sleep,” said Genji, “Please.” he pressed his hands together in front of himself, “I’m begging you. Please sleep.”

Mercy snorted. “Fine, and sleep.”

Genji smiled and let his hands relax into his lap again.

“Genji?” Mercy spoke up again.

“Mm?”

“Do you see us having a life beyond this fight?”

“…the fight we just had?”

“No, the big fight. The Overwatch fight.”

“Remember that time we were at that gala, and we pretended we were married and I gave us three kids and a dog?” Genji arched an eyebrow.

Mercy snorted. “You were serious about that?”

“Well, not that serious but I did like the idea of it. Just… us having that little life together. Or maybe I just like the idea of making the Shimada clan roll in their graves by being a ninja-turned-househusband.”

Mercy grinned.

“But… to answer your question, yes,” said Genji, “A life with you is one of the things I’m fighting for. I mean, yes, of course there’s ‘Talon is evil and must be stopped’ but also I love you. And you want to see a kinder, more peaceful world. I want to see that world with you.” He reached over and took her hand.

Mercy’s eyes were wet and shining again. she blinked a few times and rubbed at them. “I love you too,” she said, smiling, “So we’re… all right?”

“We’re all right,” said Genji, “But, if you ever need to talk more about it…”

Mercy smiled. He gave her hand a squeeze and she leaned her head on his shoulder.

“So we should probably call Mei to get some cryo storage for those…” Genji glanced down to see Mercy had closed her eyes and her breathing had slowed. He smiled a little. A short little nap probably wouldn’t hurt.

[seriousfic]

It’s time again for the internet equivalent of picking at scabs, rewriting The Last Jedi. I recently rewatched the Plinkett review of this--perfectly normal way to get ready for Rise of Skywalker--and I had a few thoughts about how to better do the plot.

The gist of it stays the same. The First Order and Resistance are both feeling for the losses incurred, whether victorious or defeated, in the Battle of Starkiller Base. Deciding to go for a knock-out blow, the First Order sends their fleet to the Resistance base. This wouldn’t be like a million billion ships, but basically a carrier group. They still heavily outnumber the Resistance, they just don’t rule the galaxy. 

Rey’s gone to find Luke, so she’s out. Finn is still in a coma, can’t be moved because of the medical treatment he’s receiving, so while they evacuate the base, the Resistance has to simply hide him and hope the Empire doesn’t look around too closely.

A short time later, he wakes up. Stormtroopers are searching the base. He GTFOs out of there. In a fit of irony, the Stormtroopers are guys from his old unit, maybe led by Captain Phasma, and they start hunting him down as he hides in the hostile wilderness. Since this is Star Wars and not Rambo, I’d probably make it so that C-3PO volunteered to stay behind and watch over them, and maybe he could run into a primitive alien whose tribe is in danger from the Stormtroopers. But you get the idea, he has to run and hide, practice guerrilla warfare, befriend the natives, deal with his legacy of being a Stormtrooper, that sort of thing.

Meanwhile, Poe and the Resistance fleet are on the run. Hyperdrive tracking, that’s fine, but the white bronco chase isn’t. I also don’t want to rip off BSG’s “33″ by having them constantly jumping to lightspeed, being attacked by the Empire, and then jumping away again. Instead, let’s say they’re going through some outer space phenomenon like the Maw. They can’t jump to lightspeed inside it, which on the plus side means the Empire can’t cut them off. But this nebula thing is basically a storm in space, wrecking havoc with their shields and instruments, so that only a capital ship can survive. And when they emerge into a calm spot--like the eye of the storm, y’know--that means the Empire can send out starfighters to try and disable their engines. And once the engines are disabled, a cap ship will fall behind and be overtaken by the Star Destroyers. So: weather the storm, take damage from the environment--seek shelter, get attacked by TIE fighters.

Meanwhile meanwhile, Rey is training with Luke. Now, this is a thirty-second spitballing, but I imagine the theme of this story to be introspection. We’ve met the characters, so now we’re digging deep into who they are and what makes them tick. So it’d be handy here to go back and rewrite TFA so Rey, uh, is a character--not to mention the other two--but let’s not take all day. So let’s say that Luke is trying to get her to meditate, to realize her place in the vast universe, but Rey keeps getting sidetracked by obsessing over her parents. She thinks she can use this Force Cerebro mode to hear them and find out where they are, while Luke tries to encourage her to let go of the past and focus on the present. 

Similarly, Finn would be dealing with his past as a Stormtrooper, the old comrades who seem him as a traitor. And Poe would be dealing with, I don’t know, the burden of command. Realizing that he has to order people to their deaths and make the hard choices instead of flying out on a million-to-one odds. 

This doesn’t give Kylo Ren much to do--maybe he’s leading the pursuit of the Resistance, shooting up the cap ships, then boarding them once they’re disabled. Just rampaging through, killing everyone, interrogating them, still trying to find the coordinates Rey ran off to. Maybe he manages to catch BB-8, or maybe he’s on the planet, going after Finn--it takes time to encrypt all the files, so the Resistance had to ditch with the process still going, now Finn has a data chip and he has to keep it away from the Empire. But eventually Kylo finds out where Luke is and goes to capture him and bring him to Snoke, with Luke going along quietly.

I sort of see the climax as being, yeah, a twist. It turns out that Leia’s master plan--oh, by the way, we’re getting rid of Holdo and making it so that Poe knows the plan from the beginning, he just has a hard time sticking to it--is a rope-a-dope. They’ll lead the Imperial fleet through this storm, crippling the ships on both sides, only to lead them right back to their headquarters, where not only can they land and seek shelter with the help of some shield generators that were cleverly hidden, but the remnants of the New Republic fleet show up to kick the weakened Imps’ ass.

So I imagine the final fight as being a big climactic battle. We have Finn and the surviving Rebel forces and the aliens he’d befriended on the ground, fighting off a siege, while Poe and the remaining Rebel starfighters link up with the New Republic’s fleet to take the fight to the Star Destroyers. Also, Poe and Luke and Kylo Ren and Snoke are there. 

I suppose instead of replaying the Death Star throne room confrontation WITH A TWEEST, we could stage some kind of showdown that takes advantage of our Palpatine analog and Obi-Wan/Yoda analog both being alive and active. Not necessarily them picking up mountains with the Force, but something like Luke and Snoke sitting down across from each other and trading words while Rey and Kylo glower at each other like attack dogs being kept on the leash. Almost a philosophical discussion--maybe Snoke could point out that hey, the universe keeps falling to the Dark Side, the Jedi keep being wiped out, and the Empire keeps taking over, so why keep fighting? And Luke countering his arguments. Technically, we don’t need a lightsaber duel at all. There’s plenty of action with the land battle and space combat. I kinda imagine Luke winning the ‘debate’ when Kylo betrays and murders Snoke, while Rey stays loyal to him. 

Or hey, this debate about galactic politics could have the personalized counterpart of Kylo Ren. Luke is arguing that hey, no matter how bad things have gotten, no matter how many mistakes were made, it’s never too late to turn it around. And Snoke’s arguing no, universe is fucked, Kylo’s evil, there is no coming back for either of them so let’s wallow in the darkness, grab as much shit as we can, enjoy ourselves as much as possible while everyone else burns. 

Although, hypocrite time, I do imagine one massive show of Force on Luke’s part where he summons that interstellar storm from earlier to break up the fleet battle. Both sides are in shambles and have to flee to lick their wounds, but the Rebels are able to definitively flee and the Empire has suffered a devastating setback without accomplishing its objective. Maybe in the starfighter battle, Poe was able to take out the specialized hyperspace tracking ship. Maybe that’s what his storyline was about: he wanted to make a kamikaze attack on the tracker ship, while Leia was saying no, no, stick to the plan. Could be a metaphor for trusting the Force, like Luke’s position in his and Snoke’s philosophical debate.

[lt2steven]

Rewriting the SW Sequels

The creative parts of me like to imagine an alternate sequel story, where Rey still has the same backstory, but she gets found by Luke as a force sensitive. Luke runs his little Jedi Temple, but a mysterious force out there is getting to force sensitives before him. His only other student is Ben Solo, who has been training for a bit. Luke tells Ben that it is his responsibility to train Rey, much like Obi-wan to Anakin and Ashoka. Rey, familiar with fending for herself with a quarter staff, is given a dual blades saber, and trained in the basic ways of the force. Over time we see that Ben has a struggle with his desires, and tends towards taking a heads on approach towards power, contrasted to Luke’s trainings of paitient reflection and learning. Things are tense between the two. At some point, Luke senses another force sensitive, and the three Tavel off to find them. At this planet (wherever) Luke sends Rey and Ben to do some scouting while he meditates on the location of the force sensitive. Rey and Ben explore the planet some, with Rey getting into the culture some and Ben staying harshly mission oriented. While Rey is enjoying herself, she gets a feeling of dread. As she turns to speak to Ben, who hasn’t picked up on the sense, a red blade flys past her, narrowly missing the two of them. Back to Luke, he opens his eyes in shock, and rushes out of his ship. Back to the two, Ben, seeing his chance to prove himself, ignites his lightsaber and rushes off to fight the threat. Rey shouts for him to stop, but has no other choice to chase after him. After a small chase, the two catch up to this mysterious villain, and a fight ensues. Rey try’s to fight, but hasn’t been trained long enough, and gets thrown around. Ben forgetting about his Palawan, fights viciously and bull-headedly, and gets completely outclassed. This is when Luke arrives, ready to fight. The villain says “Ah! Luke Skywalker! I knew if I projected my presence you would come, and now you’ve played perfectly into my hand!” Before Luke can respond, a barrage of blaster fire launches at the two jedi, as the villain takes Ben away on their ship. Luke and Rey deflect shots, but can’t do much else. The ship gets away while Luke and Rey dispatch with the gunmen. Luke and Rey discuss what just happened, Luke eventually says “the sith are back... we have to save Ben.”

This is what I had 🤷🏻‍♂️

[cosmictuesdays]

Too many are the best intentions.

There's a trend in Buffy fandom - at least, in the segment of the fandom that writes fic and posts it to the Archive of Our Own - to do large-scale full-series rewrites, primarily fix-its and canon divergences. The majority of these involve someone going back in time and living through a good deal of their past with the foreknowledge to avoid mistakes. It's a trope that's unintentionally picked up a good deal of resonance in the wake of Avengers: Endgame, and it's a trope that's reliably done the same way in a lot of stories. I understand the impulse and impetus behind the base idea, and I like the "Dear Whedon, Fuck You, Strong Letter To Follow" approach the fandom is taking, and it's mostly the surface details of the mechanics that change. It's a fairly reliable idea. As doing something fairly reliably isn't my jam, I wondered how I'd do a "relive one's life with timey wimey shenanigans" fic. Then I thought how nearly all of the fics I've seen involve someone going back to the past and coming back to the present one day at a time. I haven't seen anything involving someone going to the future and then coming back to the present. Especially not with someone living their life day by day without the preparation of having gone through it at least once already, but instead with knowledge of what's to come. Not so much "Buffy is shot from 1997 to 2005." More "Buffy is shot from 1997 to 2005 and gets sent back to 1997." Or whatever date range you like. Could be 1998 to 2368 and back. Could be 1997 to 2001 and back. The important part is Buffy gets sent someplace later in the timeline and then gets shot back with knowledge of what's going to happen. It wouldn't be a "go back and fix it" situation because she doesn't know what, if anything, needs fixing, much less how to go about fixing it. She's working from incomplete information and a biased point of view, so there's no "kill Ben/ally with this person sooner/stay home that one night" checklist. Additionally, a lot of the fics have someone move through time willingly in order to make things better. Having someone moved against their will presents a new facet that I'd like to see explored. Maybe someone said, "We need a Slayer here, now, in The Future. Grab her from that portal, and - oh, crap, we can't keep her here, send her back as soon as we figure out how to PUT her back." (Buffy: What the fuck.) Maybe someone did want to send a warning to the past, and their method of grabbing Buffy from her present and putting her back didn't work out the way they thought it would, because these things need specifics they didn't think to provide. (Buffy: What the fuck.) Maybe someone thought that bringing Buffy forward would solve their problems, possibly by grabbing her from a specific point in the past and circumventing the time in between, and things don't work out as planned, so she has to be put back as best they could. (Buffy: What the fuck, people.) Maybe Buffy herself thought going to the future would give her a solid idea of what not to do next, but it just made things even more difficult. (Buffy: Oh, fuck me.) Mostly, I'd like to see something meditating on and wrestling with Buffy's conflicting drives to both accept the destiny placed on her shoulders, as she did in the end of "Prophecy Girl," and to break the chains fate forged for her and be the one to say "I flunked the written." For Buffy to want to change things which haven't happened yet without knowing where she isn't supposed to end up would change her considerably. Season 7 Buffy saying "The mission is what matters" has supporting context. Season 2 Buffy saying that would be chilling. This isn't a story or narrative so much as an idea, and I don't know what else to hang it with, so I can't say what I'd do with it. Other than share it in the hope that getting it out might rattle a few other pieces into place, or at least that someone else on the internet might like the concept, too. (Convincing people about what she now knows would be a hard sell. If she even wants them on her side for all this. "Telling them's going to change what I saw. Screw it, I'm telling them.") ("I've got a little sister coming, and -" Giles blanches, thinking that he didn't remember condoms on the police car. "Not you, you lusty stevedore" she tells him with a smile.)

[one-of-us-blog]

Die Another Day (2002)

Today Drew is forced to watch and recap 2002’s Die Another Day, the twentieth James Bond adventure. Bond is captured and tortured by some bad guys, and now 007 is out for revenge! Can Bond handle going rogue, or will MI6 shut down his quest for vengeance before it can even begin? Will Bond find those responsible for his imprisonment? Why is it so sunny in here?

Keep reading to find out…

Eli, I loved your last two recaps so much! I know there was a stretch of less-than-stellar episodes for you to wade through, but I’m so glad you enjoyed these last two romps! I still can’t believe how close you are to the end of the show, but, speaking of, I’m close to the end of an era myself. This is the final Bond film before the big reboot, and it’s crazy to think of how far we’ve come over the course of this blog! I can’t stand it anymore, the anticipation has me way too excited to lay out any other preamble!

Buttocks tight!

Screenplay by Neal Purvis & Robert Wade, film directed by Lee Tamahori

We start with a shockingly three-dimensional gun barrel sequence, and then we jump to the coast of Pukch’ŏng County, North Korea. Bond, alongside two of his fellow MI6 agents, surf into North Korea and attract the attention of a helicopter, which they quickly commandeer. This helicopter was bound for the headquarters of Colonel Tan-Sun Moon (Will Yun Lee), located in the Korean demilitarized zone, and Bond soon arrives after placing some explosives in a suitcase full of diamonds that the helicopter’s original passenger was transporting. Just to give you an idea of how comically evil a villain Moon is going to be, the first time we see him he’s beating up his anger management therapist for lecturing him. Bond is greeted at Moon’s HQ by the surly Zao, who surreptitiously snaps a pic of 007 when he arrives. Bond and Moon meet, and it’s really driven home that Moon is a rude, crude dude with a bad attitude when it’s revealed he’s trading weapons for African blood diamonds. Moon shows off the weapons Bond’s supposed to get for the blood diamonds, but turns out Zao wasn’t taking Bond’s picture just so he could add it to his scrapbook. He’s done a background check on 007, and since Bond is the worst secret agent in the world it doesn’t take any time at all for Zao to inform Moon of Bond’s true identity. Moon blows up Bond’s helicopter, but he’s distracted by a call from his daddy, General Moon (Kenneth Tsang). He leaves the killing of Bond to Zao while he scrambles to hide all the illegal weapons he’s got in the demilitarized zone before his dad finds them and he gets grounded. Thinking, “Why the hell not?” Bond triggers the explosive in the suitcase full of diamonds, causing and explosion that allows him to escape and results in Zao getting a high-velocity diamond facial. Bond escapes on one of Moon’s hovercrafts (why not) and blows up most of his headquarters before chasing after Moon as he races across the mine-laced demilitarized zone. There’s a lot of shooting, some mines get blown up and Moon fires off a flamethrower for no good reason before Bond and Moon end up on the same hovercraft and Bond kills Moon by driving the hovercraft off a waterfall. Moon’s zaddy arrives, and he’s none too pleased about his dumb kid getting killed.

General Moon has Bond waterboarded while we finally head to the opening credits. This credits sequence is… troubling. Madonna sings out the mediocre techno ballad “Die Another Day” while we’re treated to scenes of Bond being brutally tortured interspersed with CGI ladies comprised of ice, fire and electricity dance around and some scorpions just kind of crawl around and mind their own business. Also diamonds. It’s a mess, and honestly the dime-store techno bassline makes it a little hard for me to get too invested in the vignettes of Bond being beaten and sodomoized with a hot poker by a sexy Korean woman in jackboots.

After what feels like a lifetime this bit is finally over, and a bearded, bedraggled Bond is brought before General Moon. Bond has managed not to break in all the time he’s been held here, and Moon lets him know it’s time for him to go. Bond is taken to a bridge where it seems he’s going to be shot, but then Moon’s goons lower their weapons and we find out this is all actually a prisoner exchange. Bond is being traded for the bedazzled Zao, and the two share pleasantries while they make their way back to their respective governments. On the British side, Bond is greeted by Damian Falco (Michael Madsen) from the NSA and…oh, my stars and garters, could it really be? Dare I dream?

That’s right, folks, Charles Robinson is back, babey!!! And not a moment too soon! I have no doubt he singlehandedly wrestled Zao into custody after Bond was done bonering everything up. Charles Robinson didn’t become the most valuable man in MI6 by being reckless, and he leaves nothing to chance. He has Bond sedated so that he can be checked for any kind of biological weapons. M, no doubt having met with Charles Robinson to mine his formidable intellect, goes to meet with Bond through a sheet of glass. M doesn’t mince words and lets Bond know that if she’d had her druthers he’d still be getting dicked by scorpions back in North Korea. She thinks they paid too high a price for Bond’s freedom by letting Zao go, but Bond didn’t ask to be traded and couldn’t kill himself because he… I don’t know, cut out? ripped out? his cyanide capsule years ago.

M explains that an American prisoner was killed in Bond’s prison a week ago, and they think Bond broke under torture and was mined for intel by the North Koreans. M gives him a vote of confidence by entering his glass prison to let him know she doesn’t think he’ll kill her, but she tells him he’s going for an evaluation and won’t be sent into the field any time soon. Bond… Okay, listen, Bond, like, meditates or something and lowers his heartrate to the point that the monitors he’s hooked up to think he’s dead. Some medical staff rush in to save them, he jolts them with an EKG machine and makes a break for it. Just go with me here.

Bond, now officially gone rogue, heads to a hotel he’s known at and gets a shave, haircut and new suit. The hotel manager, Mr. Chang (Ho Yi), sends up a masseuse to entertain 007, but Bond knows she’s packin’ heat and Chang, who’s actually with Chinese Intelligence (maybe he and Wai Lin have worked together?), is filming him from behind a half-silvered mirror. Bond tells Chang he won’t hold a grudge over all this if Chang can get him into North Korea so he can get his hands on Zao. Chang finds out Zao isn’t in North Korea anymore, though, he’s in Havana. Bond heads to Cuba and meets up with a British sleeper agent/cigar factory owner, Raoul (Emilio Echevarría). Raoul lets Bond know he can find Zao on an island which sports and unusual gene therapy clinic. Bond heads to a hotel which sports a view of the strange island, and there he catches sight of Giacinta “Jinx” Johnson (Halle Berry), who emerges from the ocean like the second coming of Honey Ryder.

Bond and Johnson seem to really hit it off, by which I mean they immediately hit the sheets, but the next morning Bond is left alone as Johnson sets sail for the clinic on Isla Los Organos. Bond knocks out another hotel guest and uses his ticket to get a ride to the island as well. He loads his new unconscious friend into a wheelchair and brings him along to the island, where he causes a distraction by hurling the man and his chair into a wall. He then finds a secret, mirror-lined passage and slinks his way through. Johnson, meanwhile, is apparently getting a consultation for gene therapy. Just kidding, though, she immediately kills the doctor, burns the evidence of her being there and lets us know she’s definitely a spy.

Bond finds Zao in the middle of a procedure that’s meant to rewrite his DNA to make him look like a white dude right as Johnson finds Zao’s file an stops the procedure right in the middle of things and leaves Zao looking like a naked mole rat of a man. Zao wakes up and he and Bond fight, but Zao gets away while Johnson sets off a bomb to shut down the whole facility. Bond and Johnson both chase after Zao, but he gets away in a helicopter. Johnson is almost killed by some guards, who don’t seem to notice Bond, but she avoids death by disrobing and then cliff diving down to an awaiting speedboat. Bond examines a bullet which Zao was wearing as a fun, festive necklace until Bond yoinked it off during their fight. Inside the bullet are some diamonds, which Bond has Raoul examine. The diamonds are being sold by Gustav Graves, who alleges to have found them in Iceland a year ago despite Raoul being able to definitively identify them (somehow) as African blood diamonds. Hey, that sounds familiar!

Who cares about all of that, though, because the most important man in MI6, Charles Robinson, arrives at work just in time to catch Miss Moneypenny spying on a conversation between M and Falco from the NSA. Falco thinks M played a part in Bond’s escape, and Charles Robinson sagely watches on as M shoulders the weight of Falco’s threats to make things right at MI6. Bond, meanwhile looks some stuff on Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens), who makes an interest by parachuting down to meet up with his publicist Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike) in front of a bunch of reporters (and Bond). Bond tracks Graves and Frost to a fencing… club? academy? class? I don’t know. It’s hosted by Verity (Madonna in the cameo no one asked for), who introduces Bond to Graves. Bond, despite being on the run from MI6 and, like, a secret agent, uses his real name because why not.

Bond and Graves immediately get into a cock measuring contest via proxy in the form of a fencing match, during which Bond lets Graves know he’s figured out that Graves is selling blood diamonds. Graves challenges Bond to up the stakes and the two start fighting with real swords and completely wrecking Verity’s swordfight clubhouse. Frost eventually breaks up the fight and Graves invites Bonds to a science demonstration. A bellboy gives Bond a mysterious envelope with a key in it, and he goes to an abandoned subway station to meet up with M. M’s not here to capture Bond, though, she just wants to compare notes on Graves. M warns Bond about Graves’ political connections and agrees to give him some unsanctioned help.

Bond arrives at MI6, only to find Moneypenny dead from a gunshot to the head. He takes out several attackers and is joined by Charles Robinson himself, so you just know everything’s going to be alright. But then the unthinkable, the impossible, the inconceivable happens and Charles Robinson, the unshakable foundation upon which the stability of the British government rests, is gunned down. No, I can’t accept it! I won’t! And I don’t have to, because this is all a training session taking place in the VR Zone. C’mon, you know a Q-Branch simulation is the only place a facsimile of Charles Robinson could ever be bested! Q (née R) brings Bond safely out of the VR Zone and takes him to his workshop in the subway, where Bond proceeds to touch everything like a five-year-old at a toy store. Bond is outfitted with a sonic ring that can smash unbreakable glass and, get ready for this, a car that turn invisible.

We’re due for a twist, so we get to sit in on a meeting with M and Frost, who, it turns out, is an MI6 agent spying on Graves. Frost things Graves will blow her cover, but M says that in all her time spying on Graves Frost has turned up dick all and M wants Bond to go in and shake some shit up a bit. Bond heads to Graves’ ice palace in Iceland where he’s greeted by the imaginatively named Mr. Kil (Lawrence Makoare) before Graves scoots up in his super speedy sled car thing. We get another mention of Graves never sleeping, which is a thing that just keeps getting brought up. The famous Jinx Johnson arrives while Bond heads to the bar before his DTs can get too out of hand. Bond and Johnson meet up while Zao arrives at the ice palace. He pulls Graves out of a crazy dream machine which he has to use to stay sane due to his permanent insomnia, and it turns out Graves is actually Moon post-gene alteration.

The shindig finally gets underway and Graves unveils Icarus, a satellite which can reflect Sol’s light toward Earth and function as a second sun. Bond hides out in his magical invisible car so he can snoop around in Graves’ private business, but immediately gets caught because he’s just no good at stealth. Frost saves Bond from being discovered by Mr. Kil by making out with him while Johnson Mission Impossibles her way into Graves’ inner sanctum. While Frost and Bond are busy getting busy, Johnson is doing some actual work. Unfortunately she finds Zao waiting in Graves’ dream machine instead of Graves himself, who sneaks up behind her and electrocutes her with a souped-up Power Glove.

Zao and Mr. Kil interrogate Johnson, but she ain’t a canary and she ain’t in the mood to sing, so Zao leaves Mr. Kil to slice her up with a mining laser (paging Dr. Goldfinger). Bond finally arrives at Graves’ greenhouse lair in time to save Johnson, but first he has to deal with Mr. Kil. Bond gets his ass handed to him, but the still-restrained Johnson manages to kill Mr. Kil with the mining laser. Bond sends Johnson off to find Frost and get in touch with MI6 while Bond confronts Graves and reveal he finally knows the dude is actually Moon. Frost arrives, only to turn her gun on Bond. Turns out Frost set Bond up in North Korea and she’s been a double agent the whole time. Frost is about to execute Bond, but luckily he’s got his glass-shattering ring which allows him to… well, shatter some glass. Specifically the glass floor of the green house. You get it.

Bond escapes in Graves’ super sled, but Graves brings in some North Korean generals so he can demonstrate the destructive capability of Icarus to them. Icarus hyper-focuses the sun’s like way beyond what could be useful for a farmer trying to get that sweet wheat all year ‘round, and Bond barely out maneuvers the solar death beam by driving the sled off the side of an ice shelf and using the sled’s anchor (?) to keep himself from falling into the frigid sea. Graves solves this problem by just carving off the whole chunk of ice and making a prophetically topical joke about global warming. Bond survives, though, by jumping into a Nintendo 64 surfing game and shredding away to safety.

Johnson is discovered by Frost and Zao, who inform her she’s going to die… eventually. Bond steals a Ski-Doo and makes it back to the ice palace where he retrieves his inviso-mobile, which is useful for about a minute until another Ski-Doo crashes into it. Zao uses the thermal vision of his own car to spot Bond, and the two set off on a merry chase while the now-abandoned ice castle begins to rumble around Johnson. Graves fires up Icarus and begins to melt the ice palace, but not before Bond crashes into it (the car chase is still going on, BTW). Bond tricks Zao into driving into a pool formed out of melted ice and then shoots a chandelier down onto him instead of just shooting him in the head.

Bond retrieves the almost-drowned Johnson and gets her into the warmth of the greenhouse in time to save her. The two head to a US bunker on the South Korean side of the demilitarized zone where they’re greeted by the one, the only, the legend, the icon, Charles Robinson. With a mind to rival Watson, Charles Robinson lays down the skinny in no time flat. Graves and Frost are in North Korea, and neither the American nor the British governments can go get him before Icarus is used to destroy any of North Korea’s enemies (i.e. everypony). M’s sending in Bond anyway, and Falco decides he needs a reason to be in this movie so he sends Johnson in too. The two are airdropped in, and Charles Robinson, with the sage, cautious wisdom of an old barn owl, worries that they’ll be detected. Falco’s dumbass has the nerve, the gal, the audacity to tell Charles Robinson to “relax”, so you know that sonofabitch has some comeuppance headed his way.

The missiles Falco has sent to destroy Icarus are instantly destroyed by the mirror’s solar laser, because of course they are you dumb stupid idiot. Bond and Johnson, meanwhile, have landed and stowaway on Graves’ plane. Graves calls for his zaddy to be brought down, where he reveals himself in his new white face and shows off a plastic mech suit that allows him to control Icarus via a computer mouse trackball installed in his Power Glove. He fires up Icarus to show off and make his papa proud, but General Moon tells him the other countries will nuke the hell out of North Korea to shut this shit down. Graves doesn’t take paternal rejection well and 86es his dear old dad. Bond tries to shoot Graves but his shot is deflected, resulting in a window getting blown out and the plane violently depressurizing.

Johnson manages to stop the plane from crashing, but then Frost is there to hold her at swordpoint and of course she’s wearing an ornate bra and elbow-length gloves for no damn reason. Who even cares at this point. Icarus’ death beam is still going, by the by, and Charles Robinson, with the time-keeping prowess of the White Rabbit, lets everyone know it’s headed right their way. Johnson flies the plane right into the beam’s path, giving her time to get the better of Frost. Johnson and Frost fight with blades while Bond and Graves just ineffectually punch each other. Johnson eventually gets the better of Frost and kills her (with a very saucy, “Bitch!” thrown in for good measure) while Graves gets the better of Bond and prepares to escape the falling plane. Bond prematurely triggers Graves’ parachute, which results in Graves being sucked into the plane’s engines and most definitely dying.

Bond and Johnson find a helicopter hidden in the plane, Inception style, and manage to ride it out of the exploding plane in time to avoid death by ground. Bond makes what I think has to be a weird 69 joke before the two fly off into the sky with a crate of diamonds in the back of the helicopter.

Moneypenny uses Q’s VR shades to live out a fantasy involving Bond banging her at MI6, because that’s all this movie has to say about her character, but Q interrupts her before she can rub one out. Glad everyone thought this scene definitely needed to be in this already-over-two-hours movie.

Bond and Johnson have sex on top of the stolen diamonds (imagine how uncomfortable that would be) and we’re finally done here.

The End

~~~~~

Woof! I know way back in my introductory post I mentioned that I’d seen this movie (or at least parts of it) at some point in my checkered past, but, lemme tell ya, there was a whole lot that I’d forgotten/suppressed about Die Another Day. Just to start out with some positives, I actually really liked the design of Zao’s diamond-encrusted face, and I really liked seeing Halle Berry here. She didn’t get anything worthy of her talents to work with, but still. Then there were things that started out neat, but didn’t work in the end. I liked Frost a lot when she was introduced, but then she got reduced to a sword-wielding lunatic in a bra for the final conflict with Jinx. Icarus seemed fun, but then I remembered that this is not the first, not the second but the third Brosnan Bond film with a satellite at the heart of its narrative. We had GoldenEye, then Carver’s dumb satellite news network and now Icarus. That’s three out of four Brosnan films with satellites as key players. I love space as much as the next gay, but, I mean, get a new shtick already! Then there’s stuff that was just silly. Bond stopping his heartbeat? The Power Glove? The ice palace? The invisible car? That Madonna song? C’mon. I know you have to suspend disbelief for any of these movies, but jeez louise. And while I know I don’t normally dwell on the technical side of things during my recaps, but the special effects in this movie were very bad. If we weren’t getting some unnecessary slow-mo, we were having shots like the one of Jinx cliff diving or the truly horrendous kiteboarding scene that legitimately made me gasp when it first started. While there were definitely some fun moments and some little touches I liked, on the whole this flick is a mess and a far, far fall from the glory days of GoldenEye.

I feel I can only give Die Another Day QQ on the Five Q Scale.

We’ll see you again in a hot minute as Eli serves up a couple of fresh recaps of the next two episodes of The Golden Palace, “Say Goodbye, Rose” and “You’ve Lost That Livin’ Feeling”, and after that it’ll be time for me to move onto a brand new Bond as I tackle the next James Bond adventure, Casino Royale (and maybe you can look forward to a few special treats before then, who can say?).

Until then, as always, thank you for reading, thank you for analyzing this (Sigmund Freud) and thank you for being One of Us!

[indrollment]

In which I rewrite LoK entirely bc I watched 20 mins of an hour and a half criticism video and I wanted to have my own rant

I stopped watching LoK after the first season finale, I was so angry. At the very least the first and second season could have been so interesting if they had done literally everything differently (haha). Having Korra grow up sheltered with private tutors instead of learning through traditional journeying could have been a really interesting illustration of the Avatar world's modernization. It would even still make sense with her intro, you wouldnt be able to send a 5 year old out to find mentors, but her waterbending parents wouldnt have been equipt to handle her other bending, so the Southern Water Tribe built a program around her and brought in top benders from all over the world. It does make sense that this could result in a coddled curriculum that's mostly based on her strengths and interests, sparring. And then they send her out into the world to travel to the more tradition-following Tenzin. The town episode goes just as it originally did, Korra is sheltered brute strength, nonbenders are an oppressed class, there's increasing class tension, Amon is a rumor, threat, or whispered hope. But have Korra never get airbending in the first season and, lacking self awareness at her privilege and symbolic position, act as an oppressor to the nonbending class, further fragmenting her from her role as Avatar and increasing insurrectionary feelings of the nonbending masses. Could Korra be the last Avatar - could the spiritual political position of the Avatar become abolished? Again, if they wanted it to be a story set in modernization, IT COULD HAVE BEEN A STORY SET IN MODERNIZATION. Then, same as original, Amon uses bloodbending to block chi and claims he's removing bending. Korra gets her chi blocked by Amon and it seems like the nonbending uprising is coming to a breaking point. First season ends with Korra broken with no bending. Second season is spent experiencing how the modernization of bending has created a society that shunts out nonbenders into an oppressed class and Korra has to experience this firsthand. This also forces Korra to slow down and develop self reflection, commune with the people and learn how to make connections that arent bending teachers, and learn the "for the people" part of being the Avatar. Tenzin starts to mentor her again, despite her initial resistance, she doesnt see the point if she doesnt have any bending. The writers take the time to take the meditation etc part of his training seriously, and we get to see what the airbending culture has developed into, grown anew from a single source, not Aang's memories of his ruined temple. We could even still have the Spirit World, a big plot and emotion heavy episode where Korra finally Gets It, connects spiritually, and enters the Spirit World. AND THEN SEASON THREE COULD HAVE BEEN HALF IN THE SPIRIT WORLD. Korra begins to actually be ready for the role of Avatar, not just the physical abilities, she unblocks her chi on her own, gains access to her airbending through her cultivated spirituality, Amon and his followers continue to be growing threats, backed by the masses who have valid criticisms of an oppressed class, we get to see cool "since you've been gone" world building, maybe get to see an entirely new additional world through the Spirit World, have conflict that's about civil upheaval instead of just a single villan's war. Amon could still be a political liar that tells the nonbenders that he's like them, and as long as it's made a point that the conflict is stemming from being an oppressed class and not from this one revolutionary who's not what he purports to be. It could even be a fakeout climax, the fight between Korra and Amon, the unmasking of Amon as a bloodbender, manipulator, and false prophet, and the nonbender revolution surging forward anyway, in their eyes Amon being revealed as a manipulator locking neatly in place with Amon being a bender. And then Korra, with her experience living amongst the nonbenders but also her newly renewed bending, caught in a civil war where she's meant to be the symbol of unity AND peace AND justice. What do you do when the three are mutually exclusive. The old world is gone, though there are still things to learn from it. The world we have now has developed so much, but is fundamentally broken, we can’t stay here. And Korra, the bridge between the people, the people, their heritage, and the spirits, has to actually BE the bridge between them all.

[wazafam]

When Episode 7 of The Mandalorian was released early, savvy fans sensed a disturbance in the Force, as though it had something to do with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hitting theaters. Grogu debuted a unique Force power that would later be seen in the Skywalker saga's capstone movie, inextricably tying the two epic pieces of the Star Wars franchise together forever.

RELATED: Stars Wars: 10 Things That Led To The Rise Of Skywalker  

Just how much else of the Disney+ flagship series has made it into the movie so far? It turns out there are bits and pieces everywhere, because Jon Favreau, David Filoni, and the rest of the Lucasfilm Story Group have been hard at work connecting it to every aspect of the Star Wars Universe, including the Sequel Trilogy. By being set decades before The Rise of Skywalker, The Mandalorian has been able to lay a steady stream of breadcrumbs that lead up to its exciting finale.

10 Force Healing

One of the most significant Force abilities Grogu has shown in The Mandalorian is to help heal others, such as when he applied it to Greef Karga's wound and saved his life. Its streaming debut coincided with the release of The Rise of Skywalker, not only making it canon but giving the series and the movie a strong connection.

While Force healing has existed for some time in Star Wars Legends, it's a power that's only been seen so far in media produced for the Star Wars Universe by Disney. The characters who can perform it so far have been Grogu, Rey, and Ben Solo.

9 Red Five

Star Wars fans rejoiced when they saw a familiar X-wing appear in the Season 2 finale of The Mandalorian. There was only one person flying Red Five at that time, and he happened to have a green lightsaber, a black gloved hand, and a boyish haircut. That's right - franchise veteran and hero Luke Skywalker had come to save the day and train Grogu.

RELATED: Star Wars: 10 Things You Never Knew About X-Wings

His famous starfighter would make another appearance decades later in The Rise of Skywalker, when just like in the swamps of Dagobah, Luke's X-wing was at the bottom of the sea off Ahch-To. This time, he could lift it out himself, which he did in order to provide Rey a means to travel to Exegol and defeat the Emperor once and for all.

8 Using Force Sensitive Individuals For Palpatine's Regeneration

In the very beginning of the series, The Client seeks out Grogu for his Force sensitivity, looking to extract part of his DNA to use in some mysterious experiment. Moff Gideon's aim is very much the same, and in Season 2 he succeeds where the Imperial loyalist failed, acquiring some of Grogu's DNA for some nefarious ends, which some fans believe may be to help in Emperor Palpatine's regeneration.

The Sequel Trilogy already showed the First Order -itself an evolution of the Imperial Remnant- abducting Force sensitive individuals (like Finn) to fill its ranks. Finn leads a ground assault against a Star Destroyer because he has a "feeling", and his Force sensitivity helps him strike a decisive blow against the Final Order fleet.

7 Snoke And Palpatine's Transference of Consciousness

In exchange for repairs on Nevarro, Mando agrees to infiltrate an Imperial facility with Cara Dune and Greef Karga, but what's supposed to be an old outpost is secretly a science facility. What they encounter makes it no stretch of the imagination to think the experiments at the facility tie into the events of The Rise of Skywalker. 

They come across a recording of Dr. Pershing, who mentions requiring a blood donor who has a "high M count," a reference to midichlorians, the microscopic life forms existing in all living cells that help facilitate communication with the Force. That reference, when combined with the sight of several cloning-like vats, indicate this could be where bodies were grown for Palpatine to inhabit or control, like Supreme Leader Snoke.

6 Genetic Engineering And Cloning

When first interacting with Kuiil, Mando learns the Ugnaught had something to do with genetic engineering when he uses the word "strandcast" to describe Grogu. The way Kuiil explains it, Grogu is "too ugly" to be a strandcast, but the use of the new term in the Star Wars franchise does point towards the Imperials' continued use of cloning going all the way back to the days of the Clone Wars.

RELATED: The Mandalorian: 10 Best Background and Secondary Characters, Ranked

In The Rise of Skywalker, Palpatine has returned through an inventive use of cloning, though not for his own body per se. He's created various vessels for his consciousness to inhabit. Fans are specifically made aware Snoke was a clone because of the amount of unused Snoke clones bobbing in vats on Exegol.

5 Yellow Blaster Bolts

There have been a variety of blaster bolts used in the franchise, with the most common colors being red and green, their hue giving the ability to distinguish friend from foe. In the second season of The Mandalorian while on the planet Trask, Bo-Katan and Koska Reeves and her crew use yellow bolts, which seem to be both unique and rare.

While seeking the Sith wayfinder on Mustafar, Kylo Ren fights through throngs of pilgrims protecting Darth Vader's castle, and the First Order infantry behind him fires yellow blaster bolts, perhaps indicating that 30 years after The Mandalorian such a hue is plentiful.

4 Blue Butterflies And Ben Solo

When Grogu and Din Djarin head to Tython, it's with the hope the tiny Force user will be able to use the seeing stone to send a signal to any remaining Jedi in the galaxy. While Grogu sits on the stone and appears to go into a trance-like state of meditation, blue butterflies begin to encircle him. It's possible he's being reached out to by a very important Force adept.

The Rise of Skyualker introduces fans to Ben Solo after Kylo Ren casts off his Sith identity and embraces the light side. The movie may be the only time Ben appears on screen, but in a special episode of Star Wars Roll Out for the official Star Wars Kids Youtube Channel, Ben Solo is surrounded by blue butterflies. It's possible that at 4 or 5 years old, Ben Solo was communicating with Grogu across space and time, much like he did with Rey.

3 Galactic Laws And Droid Reprogramming

During Mando's time with Kuiil, the inventive scavenger is busy rewiring IG-11, a dangerous assassin droid he feels will make a perfect domestic, capable of keeping Grogu safe. He's able to reprogram IG-11's basic functions "under the charter of the New Republic," implying the new governing body needed to rewrite some of the galactic laws after the fall of the Empire.

RELATED: The Mandalorian: 10 Droids Seen Throughout The Series

There was already precedent for governments dictating droid programming. In The Rise of Skywalker, C-3PO's memory has to be given a reset in order to get him to be able to speak the language of the Sith. When the Empire was first created, Palpatine mandated no droids would be allowed to speak the ancient tongue, and their programming was changed accordingly.

2  Rey's Hairstyle

In the Season 2 episode "The Siege", which finds Mando an Grogu reuniting with their old friends Greef Karga and Cara Dune on Nevarro, Grogu is sent to spend time with some children at a school while Mando takes a side job in exchange for repairs to his ship.

As Grogu settles into the lesson, the humans around him react in various levels of maturity to the newest and greenest addition to their class. One little girl who's sitting behind him wears her hair in the same three-bun updo Rey sports for The Rise of Skywalker, a look she hadn't worn since The Force Awakens. 

1 Mandalorian Ships To The Rescue

Though fans might have to wait until Season 3 to see the Mandalorian's homeworld, they've been getting pieces of Mandalorian history from various characters in the series, such as the Armorer, Bo-Katan, Moff Gideon, and of course, Din Djarin himself.

Though the Mandalorians and the Republic/Jedi have a history of bloodshed between them, when Lando Calrissian has to drum up Resistance allies to battle the Final Order, Mandalorians answer the call. As can be seen in several shots, a Mandalorian Fang Fighter is among the thousands of ships that come to the aid of Poe Dameron and the Resistance fleet.

NEXT: The Rise Of Skywalker: Ways To Interpret "Rey Skywalker" (& Possible Meanings Of The Gold Lightsaber)

The Mandalorian: 10 Connections Between The Disney+ Series And The Rise Of Skywalker from https://ift.tt/3r4YbCk

[erikredwood-21]

Chapter 6: It has to lead somewhere… right? Part 1

Erik walked out the Biology building looking at the small piece of paper. He knew where the fountain was but, why there?

The wind was blowing and the temperature was at about 5-7°Celcius, Erik kept walking until he could see the food court, he thought on calling Helena but he waited until reaching Professor Jeniffer. Some people were still shopping or hanging out, so the place was a little bit crowded, but Erik was able to spot Professor Jeniffer near the fountain.

‘Professor, you wanted to see me?’ asked Erik as soon as he was close enough.

‘Yes, wow, you are really good deciphering codes. Anyway, I got some information for you, shall we?’

Erik and the professor walked a little bit around the court, the students were enjoying their night, completely unaware of what was around them.

‘You know, I got interested in that Security Clearance you asked about a month ago’ said the professor in her always calm voice.

Erik felt a small knot in his stomach, he thought the professor was going to scold him again.

‘But I figured… why can’t we, the professors, have access to those works, so I went to the S.E.A.L.P. offices and I found something really interesting.’

The S.E.A.L.P. offices? Erik had heard about them, but he wasn’t sure about what they did over there. Was his brother working in there?

‘We can have access to those files by a written permit from the Principal or the Council, but since I was already there I did a quick research, I wasn’t sure about what you were looking for but from the way you asked me that day, it was something having to do with you. I searched for your name but nothing but a single file came out by the name of “Alexander Redwood”, I assume he was your brother since you are the only two Redwoods I know.’ said professor Jeniffer, she kept walking out the food court and since Erik was following her he tagged along.

‘Yes professor, he’s my brother, he was in the Academy three years ago… the thing is, he graduated, you knew him?’ asked Erik trying to not sound too desperate.

‘No, I was in the S.E.A.L.P.’s teaching program at the time, but I heard his name before, Dr. Martin mentioned him quite a lot.’ said professor Jeniffer while she sat down near the fountain in front of the Biology wing.

‘He knew my brother?’

‘Yes, I remember his name, Dr. Martin was a Neuroscientist, one of the best actually, and he always talked about Alexander, he thought of him as his own “legacy”.’

‘So he was my brother’s mentor?’ asked Erik troubled.

‘You could say he was, yeah. Although he was always in his research, something about rewriting DNA codes like if they were computer programs, but well, everyone believed such thing was impossible.’

‘Was? So you mean that now we can rewrite DNA strands?’ asked Erik, somehow troubled.

‘No, of course not, we can create our own DNA strands but all of those experiments and tests were banned by the S.E.A.L.P., Dr. Martin’s work was merely theoretical.’ said the professor while arranging her scarf.

‘But, if he was a neuroscientist, why would he work on DNA, I mean, that is a work for a Geneticist’

‘Yes, you are right, but he was looking at it from another angle. He believed that with the right cells, the brain with its own biological functions, could make the body slowly rearrange its cells with the rewritten DNA, since our cells constantly regenerate, eventually the body would be made entirely of those new DNA cells.’ explained the professor.

‘I had no idea you could do that, on a living thing. I read once that some scientist rearrange the DNA strands of a bird and made it grow teeth and a tail, but they were embryos, not actual living birds’ Erik was astonished, that kind of work would’ve been an amazing advance in both, the Genetics and the Neuroscience field.

‘Well, Erik, that’s everything I can tell you today.’ claimed the professor.

‘Thank you professor, that’s actually really helpful, I would like to know more about my brother.’ said Erik. The professor stood up and took out her cellphone.

‘I’ll let you know if something comes up, you should read some of Dr. Martin’s work, that may give you a better idea about what he was working with your brother.’ the professor sent Erik her profile information and walked past Erik.

‘Stay safe, and keep everyone you care close’ said the professor before walking back into the food court.

Erik walked back to Helena’s room, the temperature dropped drastically, it was around 1°C or 0°C. He entered the room and talked with Christopher, Helena and Caitlyn about everything the professor said to him. Everyone was thinking about where would Alexander be, as well as why the Academy itself hide his info.

‘Ok, so basically your brother worked with Dr. Martin while he was here, and Dr. Martin had this crazy idea of rebuilding a human’s cells like a computer program, right?’ asked Christopher while writing down some notes.

‘Yeah, he believed that if a mutated cell entered the body, the brain could duplicate it and eventually the entire body would have that mutated cell.’ Erik, was making his cellphone spin in the table. He was still arranging all the information he heard.

‘Well, we know that the S.E.A.L.P. might give us permission to research if we send a written request, but I am pretty sure they will say no.’  said Christopher.

‘Have you read anything from Dr. Martin’s book Erik?’ asked Caitlyn, she was at Christopher’s side.

‘I read it, there’s nothing mentioned about the cells, it talks about the different aspects and processes that the brain can use to repair itself if needed, but nothing beyond that.’ said Erik before standing up and walking towards the window.

‘Look guys, things are pretty confusing right now. Let’s not tire ourselves right now with this.’ suggested Helena, she knew that both Caitlyn and Erik weren’t going to let this go until they understand it, so the best option was to meditate about it, think it through, something Christopher was good at, he believed patience was key.

‘Maybe it’s for the best, we can’t make a wrong move and let the S.E.A.L.P. spot us doing something we shouldn’t.’ said Christopher while he put his things in his bag. ‘We need to think this through, carefully.’

Caitlyn stood up and walked towards Erik, he was still looking outside the window.

‘Erik… I know things are confusing right now, but I want you to know that… we are here for you, Christopher and I’ Caitlyn said that rather sad, almost as if she knew how it felt to lose someone. Christopher got near Caitlyn and took her hand. ‘That’s right bro, we’re here for whatever you need, just say the word.’

Erik turned around and heard both of his friends, huh… a funny word isn’t it? Friends, he had friends, he had Helena, who he loved as a sister, and he didn’t figured it out until that moment, but he had two other friends, a girl with the most shiny golden eyes, Caitlyn and a very reliable, resourceful and keen boy, Christopher. He cared about them… a lot.

‘Thanks guys… really…’ said Erik, but before he could finish Caitlyn pounced to give him a tight hug. She was warm and soft, Erik hugged her back. ‘...I am here for you guys too.’ he said.

Christopher and Caitlyn left Helena’s room, It was running late and the next day was a school day, Friday, but a school day. Helena closed the door and stretched, she was tired.

‘I am exhausted, I am going to sleep now.’ said Helena before yawning a bit.

‘Yeah, me too. I’ll see you tomorrow Shine, good night’ said Erik while getting his things.

Helena gave him a tender kiss in the cheek before saying ‘Goodnight to you too’ and walking to her bedroom. Erik closed Helena’s door and looked at the hallway… clean and silent as always.

=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=

4am Friday

Dormitory section C, Female Wing

Caitlyn was in a deep sleep in her bed, even though her room was smaller than Erik and Helena’s, she enjoyed it, it was like a small flat. Most things were organized, and it had a comfortable bed, but what she loved about her room was that she had a window, not all the girls had one. It was near her bed, she like hearing the outside numbly before sleeping and how the sun would shine through in the mornings.

The thing was that this morning, was going to be different.

‘...look it’s the fastest way…’

‘Shh, they’ll hear you…’

Caitlyn woke up due to the voices, they were coming from the other room.

‘...we just need to be fast, the system resets at 5am…’

‘It’s too risky…’

It sounded like a girl and boy were having a conversation. Caitlyn got curious, so she carefully got out of bed and sticked her ear close to the wall to be able to hear better.

‘Ok, if you won’t go with me, I’ll do it by myself.’ the boy said.

‘No, please, don’t do this, it’s impossible, no one has gone over 21.’ the girl replied, she sounded scared.

‘If I don’t do this, I’ll never get out, I am sorry’ said the boy before the sound of a door closing startled Caitlyn.

«He’ll never get out? What does he mean?» thought to herself Caitlyn, she was going to call Christopher, but it was way too early, so she decided to do this on her own.

It was quite chilly, so she grabbed a sweater and put on small boots. She opened her room door and saw how a guy was walking down the stairs, rather suspiciously. If there was something Erik taught her, besides extremely long chemical compounds names, was that if someone looked suspicious or out of place, it looked that way because it was. She closed her door and followed the guy out the building. It was still dark, only the environmental light from the building and pathways allowed vision, she stayed behind the guy, keeping her distance and very aware of her surroundings. The guy walked all the way to the food court, past the Clinic and the Presentation Halls. Caitlyn was wondering where he was going, or most importantly what was going to reset at 5? The guy took a turn towards the forest part of the academy before entering the Food Court amd walked straight ahead. Caitlyn tailed him, using the woods to her advantage, evading being spotted. They walked for a long time, the foliage started to get denser and the sky was starting to get slightly blue. The guy stopped when he reached a wall, he started to frantically look for something on its surface, almost desperately. But he couldn’t find anything, Caitlyn stayed behind a bunch of bushes trying to identify what the guys was looking for but something distracted her, it was the guys watch, it had an alarm. The sound alerted Caitlyn and made her fall off to the ground, trying to not be spotted Caitlyn remained in the floor, she was behind a large log, it was hollow and cracked, she had a clear view of the guy.

‘No, no, no. It has reseted, why it did not open?!’ the guy shouted. He kneeled before the wall for a few seconds and then a sound took his attention.

Caitlyn heard how something hovered at her left side towards the guy, it was some kind of drone, it’s metal was black and it had a very bright light in the center with four other smaller drones around it, hovering along with it.

The guy looked terrified, he froze entirely. The drone with the light stayed in place facing the guy, while the smaller drones scanned the guy with a very thin and shiny blue wave. When the scan was finished, the smaller drones created a rectangle which they filled in with the same blue wave.

//S.G.S 3

Student #676

1/100.- Which element in the periodic table has the atomic number 53?

-Speak answer-//

The drone was displaying one of the impossible tests to the guy. Atomic number 53? Caitlyn couldn’t remember which one was that, probably Erik would know, even Helena.

‘I-I-Iodine?’ said the guy still terrified, he was sweating.

//S.G.S 3

Student #676

1/100 - Correct

2/100.- The increase in the rate of a chemical reaction by the active site of a protein is called?

-Speak answer-//

Apparently the guy was correct, the drone displayed another question, but he clearly had no clue. After a minute or so of the guy stuttering and thinking, a small countdown appeared, from 10. The guy got paranoid and before the countdown reached zero he tried to make a run from it. The drone shot him something and the guy fell to the ground, then the drone proceeded to pick the guys body and left towards the deeper woods, back to the Academy. Caitlyn was in a bit of a shock, she stayed in the floor for another while, the sun began to rise and she could notice how in the wall a straight horizontal line glowed and then stopped. She had to tell everyone what happened, tell them about the mysterious disappearance.