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phoenixyfriend · 2 years

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Auntie Soka and Little Leia (and Rex) : Chapter 3

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In which we run into some old friends, who may or may not know they are in fact friends.

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Showing up in a seedy bar on a no-name planet is much less stressful in the company of a known, dangerous quantity like Jango Fett. Sure, there’s still a risk someone will try to take her charges—though they’d both object strenuously to being called that—but Jango’s implicit involvement in their safety does enough that she can relax.

The drinks for the younger two are just water. Adults in mind they may be, but their livers certainly aren’t. Fett gets a club soda, and Sokari is more amused than she should be that he refuses to drink on the job. The three of them certainly haven’t been a calming presence in his life.

“Torrent? Getting anything?” Fett prompts.

“She old enough to drink?” the bartender asks.

“Yes,” Fett says, an edge to his words that Soka isn’t entirely sure she likes. “Hey, what do you want?”

What does she— “Caff. Nerf milk, two sugars.”

What she really wants is tea, but she’s long since learned that trying tea in a back alley shithole will only make her wistful and miserable as she thinks about how much better Obi-Wan’s had been.

At least she’s used to caff being shitty, and covering up the taste with something else. The only times she’s ever had good caff were as a guest in a rich person’s home, which has mostly just meant grabbing a drink when she broke into Bail’s office once a year.

(He always got so tired when she told him about the holes in his security, but it had been a game. His annoyance was a farce. His fatigue was real, but the parts relating to her weren’t.)

(She’ll have to talk to Leia about her grief.)

(At some point.)

Fett grabs them a booth. It’s weird and she’s not a fan, but it’s… not terrible. If she tries, she can almost pretend the man across from her is just another middle-aged clone trooper. Rex’s complicated mix of emotions over the situation sure isn’t helpful, but he’s long since learned how to shut away distracting or distressing emotions behind mental shields so she can work.

Or just. Sit there. With caff. Trying not to have a breakdown.

Then you will d--

Nope. Not thinking about that.

“Your contact is late,” Leia mutters.

Fett makes a small noise. “It happens in this line of work.”

Leia scoffs. Sokari knocks an ankle to hers, but Leia just looks away. Rex isn’t going to be helpful, either.

Sokari really wishes they could have just stayed behind on the ship while Fett did his thing, but he doesn’t trust them that far. He doesn’t really trust them at all, and certainly not enough to leave them behind with his ship.

“The hell did you have a kid, Jango?”

The tension flees, mostly. There is a third—fifth, technically—party to take the weight of the conversation now.

“Hello, Silas,” Fett says. “Take a seat.”

The Mandalorian looks between Rex and Fett a few times, and then pulls his own helmet off and gestures. “What the frip?”

“Does he look young enough to be mine?”

The Mando’s face twitches. “I mean… wild oats do happen. Sometimes. You did get drunk a lot after Jaster died…”

Fett rolls his eyes. “Sit down, man.”

Silas sits down. He eyes Rex first, for obvious reasons, and then Leia—too small to register as a threat to a grown, fully-trained commando, so mostly just strange—and landing on Sokari.

“Slicer?” he guesses. “Or sniper.”

She raises a brow. “You think he hired me?”

“You’re old enough for the kinds of jobs he runs,” the Mando says. He glances at Fett. “Unless you finally picked up a droid that could do the kind of slicing you need…”

“Shut up,” Fett says. It’s oddly mild. “Torrent’s with the kids. I’m giving them a ride.”

The Mando’s brow furrows. “But that one…”

“Jango Fett,” Rex spits, “is not my father.”

Fett’s face does something complicated and ugly, and Ahsok—Sokari, it’s Sokari now—can’t help but pity him a little. Sure, he’s already done a whole lot of horrible things, but none of the ones that Rex is angry at him for. Soka’s done plenty of shitty things herself, in the pursuit of a higher goal.

“He’s blood,” Fett says, after a few moments of awkward silence where nobody quite knows what to do. “Beyond that… it’s complicated. His first loyalty is to her—” he gestures at Sokari, “—and she needs to get the little one to Coruscant. I’m… helping.”

“Without payment?” the Mandalorian prompts.

Fett glares. “He’s blood. I’m not—you know what happened to Arla, Silas. I’m not turning my back on that.”

Rex mutters something too low for human ears to pick up. Sokari, of course, hears it perfectly.

“Didn’t stop you from dropping the lot of us like bantha poodoo.”

Silas—she should probably call him by name, if only in her own head—looks like he’s trying very hard to ignore the web of complicated familial bullshit going on and only mostly succeeding. “Okay. So… business?”

Fett sighs. “Originally, I wanted to see if you’d gotten any information on a bounty I was looking into, but priorities have changed.”

Silas raises a brow. “Yeah? We taking back Mandalore?”

Fett slams a fist down on the table. “Would you quit it with that?”

Well, that escalated quickly.

“We need a Mand’alor—”

“Kryze is doing fine!” Fett snaps. “I may not like her, but she’s older than I was, and actually trained for the bureaucratic bullshit. She’s got popular support and knows the whole… agricultural, economic, education stuff. Kriff it, she wants the seat? Fine. She probably won’t kick off a fight that gets all her people killed because she panicked and started shooting.”

“You’d just come out of being tortured—”

“And,” Fett hisses, “I do not have the resources to do ‘take back’ Mandalore. I do not have an army. I do not have money. I barely have my ship and the armor on my back.”

“The clans would support you.”

“I don’t want their support,” Fett says. “Drop it.”

“But Mand’a—”

“I said drop it, Silas,” Fett grinds out. “I don’t have a plan. She does. If things start going downhill, then maybe I’ll give it another shot, but she’s barely been there a month, and she’s already fixing up the infrastructure Kyr’tsad took out. The Duke trained her for this.”

Silas doesn’t back down. “Every Duke and Duchess in our history has done better with a Mand’alor at their side. You know that.”

“Kryze doesn’t want one,” Fett says. “For fuck’s sake, Silas, I’m still recovering. Just let it go.”

Sokari tilts her head. Recovering? From what?

“Fine. For now,” Silas says. “Does it at least have to do with Mandalore?”

Fett doesn’t meet his eyes.

“That’s a yes, then,” Silas decides. “Please tell me you don’t want me to work for the Evaar’ade. I don’t have it in me to put up with the priss and pomp.” [1]

“Too bad,” Fett mocks. He rubs a hand over his face. “Kyr’tsad is still around.” “She’s having all the warriors deported to Concordia,” Silas grouses. “They have someone to keep an eye on the situation. Even those with leanings are going to be under watch unless they leave the systems like we did, and you know they won’t be coming home if they were that dedicated to the lifestyle.”

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[1] Evaar’ade – lit. ‘new (noun) children’, short for Evaar’la Mando’ade, which would be ‘new (adj) Mandalorians’

(Continue on AO3)

#Ahsoka Tano #Jango Fett #Captain Rex #Leia Organa #Silas the Mandalorian #phoenix files #star wars #the clone wars #sw rebels #sw legends #time travel #Depa Billaba

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anotherhumanpet · 3 years

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The Relationships of Dennis || Mobile

Characters and the summary of their relationship with Dennis will be added on as they are made, but please note that not everyone who has some form of relationship with Dennis is listed here. Characters are added on once there's been some significant growth in the relationship, but mainly my own motivation to do the work.

I am okay with making pre-established relationships, provided that there’s some discussion about it beforehand. Please know though that it's harder for me to write these sort of relationships because I'm working off of hope/speculation rather than what's naturally occurred between the characters.

Relationships are focused on what is seen in the main verse. AU relationships will not be listed for the sake of organization and focus.

Humans

Doctor Robert Wenny

#tag: supervisor parent (father)

Father. His work at the hospital keeps him pretty busy so Dennis doesn’t get to see or spend much time with his father. He says it’s fine because it means he’s left to himself a lot and doesn’t have to worry about being caught doing things he shouldn’t be doing.

Penny Grey

#tag: long distance parent (mother)

Mother. Since his parents’ divorce, Dennis doesn’t see her much outside obligatory visits. He misses having her around but understands why she chose to leave his father. Doesn’t mean he’s not still upset about it though.

Jaden Grey

#tag: smoke and mirrors won’t change what I know (Uncle Jaden)

Uncle, mother’s brother. He’s the one who inspired Dennis’ love for outdoor activities through his civilian work as a park ranger. Their relationship became strained and complicated though when Dennis learned Jaden was also an agent of M.E.C.H. and he nearly got Hot Spot killed. Jaden disappeared after that incident and Dennis welcomed him with a tearful hug when Silas reunited them.

Jack Darby

#tag: dude bro (Jack)

Best friend since forever, or at least as far back as Dennis can remember. He was pretty unhappy when Jack stopped hanging out with him after school and work without ever really giving a reason why. Dennis never thought that reason would be because of giant alien robots fighting in an intergalactic war, or that he’d soon wind up involved with it under “Decepticon protection” like Jack was.

Silas aka Gramps; Multiverse Variant

#tag: only one eighth dead (WarDog Silas)

The director of M.E.C.H., but not the director Dennis knew either. That man was (probably) killed by the Decepticons after he embedded himself into Breakdown’s body and failed to impress them with his doomsday gadgets. This man has managed to live on as a human (for the most part) and seems to be less obsessed with killing every Cybertronian in sight. Dennis isn’t sure what to make of him though. While Optimus taught him that every individual should be given a chance to redeem themselves, and Silas has both saved and mentored Dennis multiple times, Dennis still feels a little wary about Silas (or Gramps, as he generally calls him) sometimes. He trusts him with his own life and the lives of other humans, but he would never give up a Cybertronian to Gramps - even if his own life counted on it.

Silas aka Salad; Multiverse Variant

#tag: Dick Salad (CodeName Silas)

The director of M.E.C.H. that comes in a flavor Dennis is more familiar with. He’s wild, mad, and most likely on the brink of becoming unhinged. He’s an absolutely dangerous individual that Dennis should steer clear from, which is precisely why Dennis is barking at him whenever he gets the chance because fuck this guy.

Doctor Ralph Cech; Multiverse Variant

#tag: Doctor Killjoy (AskHuman Ralph)

An independent doctor working adjacent to N.E.S.T. and the Autobots, although his main focus is on the people of N.E.S.T. and not the Autobots themselves. Happenstance brought Doctor Cech and Dennis together because they both have a problem only the other truly grasps the difficulty of: being friends with a global terrorist commander while heavily affiliated with the organization that wants to take him down. Ralph has Salad, and Dennis has Gramps. Ralph wants to make sure Dennis is safe while he’s trying to navigate things with Gramps, and Dennis wants to give Ralph a break and make him feel little more appreciated.

Eve; Multiverse Variant; Demigod?

#tag: Hollywood’s freaky deer come to life (Eve)

A Hart of Yggdrasil, whatever that means. Dennis isn’t entirely sure what she is or what she’s supposed to be doing, but he does understand that Eve is a powerful entity that shouldn’t be trifled with. Luckily for him, she’s amicable and easy going, and seems to enjoy palling around him as much as he does her. Dennis wants to be the coolest cool he can be around her though so he doesn’t bore her into never speaking with him again.

Judas; Multiverse Variant

#tag: Judge Judy (CodeName Judas)

An agent of M.E.C.H. under the command of Silas, the Salad variant. He’s as unpredictable and unhinged as his boss is, but where Silas tends lash out wildly Judas is a bit more precise with his attacks. He regularly breaks into Dennis’ house to steal snacks because Judas feels it’s owed to him after he snuck Dennis out of the base twice during some magic-anon events. Unbeknownst to Dennis too, Judas is also taking it upon himself to make sure Dennis isn’t getting into any major trouble since the kid seems to be a danger magnet, and if he is, making sure it’s regular, normal teenager levels of trouble and not Silas - or higher - levels of trouble. Dennis has tried to run him off but none of his attempts seem to last very long, if they work at all. So, since he’s stuck with Judas, he’s refocusing his efforts on making the best of their weird relationship and being friends with him instead.

Achim; Multiverse Variant

#tag: Doctor Prick (Achim)

A mad scientist in every sense of the word. Dennis doesn’t know or understand who or what Achim is, let alone what he’s doing or what he’s trying to achieve. All he does know is that Achim is at war with Silas, the Gramps variant, because of a disagreement they had about taking over the world, and Dennis has become a target Achim has his sights set on to get back at Gramps. He’s hurt Dennis, a lot, and Dennis is absolutely terrified of him.

Jack; Multiverse Variant

#tag: still a bro no matter what (Convenient Jack)

Same kid from Jasper, same problems with growing up and alien warfare, but now with the added bonus problem of the Key to Vector Sigma never being reclaimed by the Autobots. Dennis still stuck to Jack like he was an old friend though, even if he was a new face to Jack himself. And after a horrible combination of magic, mysticism, and science turned Jack into a Transformer their dynamics have shifted slightly, but the boys still remain fast friends who are ready to throw down for each other - even when they really shouldn’t.

Yin; Multiverse Variant; A God? Vessel of a God?

#tag: your friendly neighborhood chaos god (KaijuCrimson Yin)

A God of Chaos, or the physical vessel for a God of Chaos. Dennis isn’t entirely sure which Yin is but Yin is nevertheless godlike, powerful, goofy, friendly, and now also protective of Dennis. He’s a nice person and while he does weird Dennis out occasionally, Dennis does enjoy spending time with him and tries to assist Yin with his struggles against Chaos whenever he can.

Autobots

Optimus Prime

#tag: here comes the general RISE UP! (Optimus Prime)

Leader of the Autobots. Extremely huge, scary looking, and intimidating, yet also extremely kind, caring, and gentle. Dennis looks up to him like a father figure and idolizes his heroic, familial image. While he knows he can never be as great as Optimus is (or the image he perceives of Optimus), he hopes can come at least somewhat close to it with his actions and as he grows up.

Hot Spot

#tag: my brother from another mother planet thing (Hot Spot)

Leader of the Protectobots. He has the personality of a puppy and a big brother meshed into one. Dennis loves to be around him, even if the circumstances that bring them together aren’t always ideal. He’d ride to the ends of the earth with and for this mech though, and would gladly take a bullet for him too (if he’d let him). Hot Spot is Dennis’ world and there is nothing that could take him away from his big brother.

Sanitatem (Sani); Multiverse Variant

#tag: friendly neighborhood stalker doctor (Sani)

A mysterious Autobot who’s been living and hiding around Jasper for two years without anybody ever noticing. She knows Dennis but he doesn’t know her, and the more he learns about her the less he trusts her. He doesn’t think she’s up to anything bad or means him any harm because she’s medically treated him and has acted quite protective of him, but it’s difficult for him to trust her when he feels like she has the entire deck of cards in her hand while he has none.

Ratchet; Multiverse Variant

#tag: crotchety but attentive (Autobot Ratchet)

The Autobot Chief Medical Officer and unofficial/official Second in Command to the Autobot Earth squadron. Although he’s not the same doctor that Dennis came to know at the tail end of the war, he is still the CMO who carries all the weight and burden of Team Prime’s health within his hands. Dennis, being familiar with the stress of being a medical professional thanks to his father, is trying his best to care for Ratchet and give him space to have relief whenever he can. Whether or not Ratchet takes it though is another thing, as Ratchet in turn has come to worry over Dennis and doesn’t want to see the teenager burdened anymore than he already is.

Decepticons

Knock Out

#tag: dagger eyes motherfucker (Knock Out)

Kidnapper. Dennis is forever salty at this mech. Knock Out might have ironically helped Dennis and Jack patch things over between them, but Dennis will never forgive or forget his transgressions.

Tarn; Multiverse Variant

#tag: a living nightmare (Tarn)

Dennis doesn’t know who or what this mech is other than a fanatic of Megatron. He doesn’t really care either. After Tarn kidnapped him and tried to take him home to make him into a gift pet for an unnamed psychotic friend, Dennis decided he wanted absolutely nothing to do with this mech.

Neutrals/Predacons

Krenjot; Multiverse Variant

#tag: not a Jurassic Park rip off (DuskFall Krenjot)

A predacon who didn’t come back to life through Shockwave’s personal Jurassic Park project. Dennis is working on building up her trust in him so he can say he has a cool robot dragon friend that he can roast marshmallows with. He fully intends to roast those marshmallows with her fiery breath.

#mobile info post #mobile relationships

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nellie-elizabeth · 5 years

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Doctor Who: Orphan 55 (12x03)

This was a really great episode, and it made me feel more connected to the Doctor as a character, than maybe any other episode we've seen in Whittaker's run.

Cons:

There is a very Planet of the Apes reveal in this episode. Which is to say... it contains the same reveal from Planet of the Apes. I didn't hate it, and the environmental message is good and all, but this is not exactly breaking new ground for science fiction, obviously.

I could have done without Ryan and Bella actually kissing? Sometimes I think we undersell the value of a romance without explicit onscreen confirmation/physical affection. It's all very heteronormative to have this flash-pan romance play out on our screen, and then to actually show them kissing at the end of it as if we couldn't have figured out what was going on without that. It's not a huge complaint, it's just something I notice sometimes - that these types of kisses feel like forced story beats.

Pros:

One of the hallmarks of a successful episode of Doctor Who is when all the guest characters are distinct and memorable. There were a lot of different dramas and relationships playing out this week, and I felt like we had the appropriate amount of time with all of them. There was Bella, and then the surprise twist with Kane being her mom... there was the father/son engineer team of Nevi and Silas, and there was the old couple, Benni and Vilma. And each of these characters had distinct traits. I understood who they were, what they wanted, and how their relationships worked with the people around them. When you have less than an hour to tell a story, that's really impressive!

I also like how we had two different child/parent dynamics, each of which seemed to be a foil to Graham and Ryan. One of last season's most compelling through-lines was the tumultuous relationship between Ryan and his step-grandfather. And now, they are in a really good place. One of the sweetest parts of this episode was Graham running through the halls and pulling Ryan into a hug, relieved to find him unhurt. In contrast, Bella and Kane are in about the worst place one could be as a mother/daughter. I love the complexity here, with Bella seeking revenge, but her actions triggering consequences she couldn't have predicted. And that leads to a very moving joint sacrifice, where at least at the end, they did their best to reunite and make amends.

Nevi and Silas had a more low-stakes relationship, although they had their issues as well, with Silas, the child, being the more competent, and his father having to grapple with his skill. They mostly provided comic relief, and unlike our other guest characters, they made it out alive in the end!

Benni and Vilma's story was extremely depressing. They had been together for decades, but never married, and then Benni gets taken, and Vilma travels with the others to rescue him... only for him to propose and then be killed, to spare him the fate of being tortured by the evil aliens... and then later Vilma sacrifices herself so the others can get away! It was a sad end for these two happy old people, but I suppose it was tempered by the knowledge that they'd had a happy and long life together.

I talked about how the whole Planet of the Apes twist was perhaps a touch too derivative to really get a pass from me, but that doesn't mean I hated the episode overall. Essentially, I'm in love with any story that hits the viewer over the head with the fact that climate change is going to kill us all. It was also nice to see a story that highlighted the snowball effect of climate change. It's not just that the climate will change. It's the way that it will lead to mass migration and war, and the ultimate destruction of the planet as we know it. This isn't as science fiction as we want to pretend it is.

Really, the biggest reason I have for adoring this episode is the way the Doctor is portrayed. We saw in the two-part opener to the season that it's not always fun and games and fast-talking quips. And this week, I feel like we're settling in to a world where the Doctor gets angry sometimes, where she lashes out and also hides things from people. It was, in short, the most connected I've felt to her character, especially as it relates to the legacy of the Doctor from earlier regenerations.

And yet she's still the same bouncy person she has been since we met her. My favorite detail is that her oxygen supply runs out sooner than everyone else's because of how much she talks. That is so on-brand, I'm obsessed with it.

And the way that her relationships with her companions is being complicated... I am in love with it. You've got the mistrust, and the secret-keeping, and the way the companions are starting to question what other things they might not know or understand about their unusual friend. The seeds are being planted here for some excellent exploration later on, and I definitely have my eyes peeled for that!

9/10

#review #doctor who #doctor who review #dw

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thejenesaisquoigirl · 5 years

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For your D&D character meme, how 'bout odds for Talise, evens for Tamsyn, and the letter C? :D

Had a feeling this revenge was coming XD *cracks knuckles* Here we go!

1) What would they consider to be their biggest failure?

Talise: Oof. Maybe not being able to save her family, or at least her sister-in-law and nephew. Maybe her (former) deep reliance on alcohol once her memories started coming back. Trauma is a motherfucker

2) What’s the story behind their name?

Tamzen: When it comes to naming characters, I really just start thinking of names that stick out. It started with “Tiernan”–from Pirate Queen–and I must have watched an episode of The Tudors with Tamsin Merchant to remember that name, too. “Tamsin” kept sounding best with the character concept and then the spelling changed to “-zen” as a subtle joke since she’s a monk haha

3) What’s their relationship with their family?

Talise: When she was Hosanna, very close. They all loved learning (though maybe different things), the people in their city, and each other. She was closest to her brother, Yanis, despite their age difference. She felt adrift without a family unit, having a ship and crew helped, and finding Yanis has upset any equilibrium she was finding.

4) What’s one song that describes them or is them?

Tamzen: Not many peeps know this, but she was built to be the personification of the “Morgan: Amor Tristis (or Morgan - Amor Tristis on Spotify)” instrumental from the Ah! My Goddess movie. My all-time favorite instrumental and it suits her story.

5) Who is their best friend?

Talise: Expanding on the Yanis thing, he was her best friend growing up. So the years in which she thought he was dead and that she failed him were rough…but she was working towards a place of resignation…then they found him alive. It’s super weird now because yes, her brother used to be able to embarrass her; but now, it’s the first time she’s ever felt shame. Hosanna, while sharing a small flair for the dramatic, was a very different person than Talise was crafted to be. But in the party, Jax is the closest to a best friend, no contest.

6) Why are they their class?

Tamzen: She ran away from the city after her heartbreak and stumbled across a traveling group of mousefolk. Most of them were monks but since she stayed with the leader and his wife (the only ones with stuff able to house a larger humanoid), they were the ones who taught her as a way to find calm and take back a sense of control.

7) What do they think of their party members?

Talise: She feels distinct lines in the sand. At first, they seemed only about their sleeping habits (there was no other way the rooming arrangements could have shaken out and everyone live). But now, it feels very much like two separate factions working together. Separately: Q- she’s terrified of everything she does being in that book, and she has a hard time wrestling with his innocent naiveté when it reminds her of who she used to be. Briony- Not used to being around women in a strictly friendship sense, but is happy for her presence so Q has someone of a similar maturity. Braxton- He’s rarely there. Jax- They instinctually understand each other. It’s complicated but in a good way. Caspian- Like recognizes like but she feels they have different motivations behind collecting information…and it’s hard for her to move beyond a betrayal of trust.

8) In what ways are they similar to you?

Tamzen: Extremely calm under pressure, thinks she’s never good enough to be significant to anyone enough to not leave her, thoughtful gift-giver, gives herself for others until there’s nothing left, can have an accidentally sharp sense of humor, deep well of feeling and protectiveness for those she considers “hers”

9) In what ways are they different from you?

Talise: Unashamed in the way she moves through the world, unabashedly flirtatious and teasing, confident, how she copes with things (tends to be physical indulgences), seeing trust as black and white, unafraid of confrontation or large birds

10) What do they look for in a romantic partner, if they have a romantic orientation?

Tamzen: Someone who doesn’t see her as second best or not enough. Someone she doesn’t need to take care of but who can take care of her. Tamzen has a competency kink a mile wide; so if they’re even-keeled, stronger, a better fighter, and extremely skilled in what they do…they’re definitely her type. She’s a pretty quiet person, so they need to be comfortable with silence and understand things unsaid as she’s very action-oriented. You can tell a lot about how she feels about someone based on her actions, not her words. They also need to love her son.

11) If they had a patronus or animagus form, what would it be?

Talise: Ooooooooo….idk. Maybe a panther animagus? Something that slinks around with confidence but can be very soft. Patronus would be a cat like Talis or a hippogriff like Fantôme…or a peafowl.

12) What do they smell like?

Tamzen: Orange blossoms and vanilla, with hints of herbs that can be used medicinally (eg: lavender, tea tree, etc)

13) What is their secret skill?

Talise: Sketching/drawing. She’s intensely private about it; but has charcoal, pencils, and a sketchbook in her pack that’s rather like a diary.

14) What is their relationship to spirituality?

Tamzen: Complicated haha. She’s a “tsuki kitsune” and I tweaked that to mean she’s a fox blessed by the goddess of love with the potential of becoming “human.” Her “parents” are the guardians of a special, unknown spot in a forest the goddess has declared sacred; there to take care of the clearing and of any creature blessed by it…and Tamzen was a fox spawned there. Anyways, so even as a fox, she was engrained with this strong belief in the goddess and had an awareness of her presence; but then something devastating happened with the person Tamzen thought she was fated to be with–who had been the cause of her transformation. Ever since, Tamzen has had a tumultuous time with the idea of love…much less having firm faith in her goddess, because she feels betrayed. She’s slowly trying to repair her side of the relationship through making sure her friends find love; but she still thinks she’s been abandoned by someone she had absolute faith in, so she’s weary.

15) If they were to be remembered for something, what would they want to be remembered for?

Talise: NOT like what they were shouting at Hosanna. She’d like to be remembered, in general, rather than lost to lines in a book. She wants people to speak of her and the small amount of goodness she’s put into the world.

16) Why did they become an adventurer?

Tamzen: Happenstance led to her becoming a monk…and she needed additional discipline to try to silence the rage and nastiness brewing inside of her, so she joined the army. The adventuring grew from that.

17) What’s one thing about their backstory that came to you after you already started playing the campaign?

Talise: THIS HAPPENS ALL THE TIME. One notable thing–I hadn’t even thought about her being an alcoholic (sober now) until making her playlist. For some reason, “Chandelier” kept coming up and it had to have been a sign because it’s deepened her in ways I wasn’t expecting. Also her tattoos.

18) Do you have any headcanons for them that haven’t come up in game? Or headcanons for other party members?

Tamzen: Totes! She plays the lute only for Tal or when she needs to really think through something–frequently those moments are one in the same when he’s playing outside. Her internal crisis over always being second best and slowly being resigned to it. Party members: Mama: they sometimes read together (even though Tamzen doesn’t like to read), trade skills (Mama helps her build strength and she helps Mama with flexibility), and that Mama has to spend extra time in front of a mirror before going to a fancy event to take in the fact that this is her life now and she gets to wear these pretty things and be feminine. Kerrick: that he’ll sometime have ink in his hair from running his fingers through it while copying down spells. TBD: thinks it’s hilarious how he still hasn’t had to explain his name and has a running bet with himself over it. Finn: she catches Tal speaking squeakspeak to Finn while playing and Finn just going with it and trying to learn the game through context instead.

19) Any ships with your character? If a PC or NPC, what interaction launched it?

Talise: YOU DID THIS ON PURPOSE, SHIPPY MCSHIPPERSON xD. She’s the first character in a LONG time I legit ship with another PC. Whether it becomes romantic or remains platonic (it’s not just up to me or Talise), Jax is the most significant person in her life–excluding her brother. They just got each other from day one and they seem to be the only ones able to easily talk to the other, even when the subject is difficult. The canon you created about her feeling safe with Jax is 100% true; ever since Before, she has a hard time sleeping around other people but she trusts him enough to even share a bed…and he’s the only one with whom she would never be anything but truthful. At their core, they are people reinventing themselves after tragedy but don’t know if they’re doing it right. But Jax makes Talise feel it’s alright to be who she authentically is rather than acting the part she’s written for herself; and to find joy again in the things from her past. The ship’s legit launch was after their serious conversation about “equivalent exchange” in relationships (about Caspian) and has since been buoyed by all their side chats + interactions. “…are you just going to stare at me?” “Until you’re ready.”

20) What would your character consider their biggest success? Or what is your favorite success your character has had so far?

Tamzen: Tal and facing Silas again. She’s really surprised me in how she’s been able to grow to where she is now…so that’s an awesome success because it feels like there’s still more growing for her to do emotionally. But the ultimate success EVER was the gift of the hearthstone to Mama. It was canon lore created on the fly and it was so meaningful and has become a cornerstone of Tamzen’s character.

Letter C:

Smartest- Talise and Syl are the most booksmart; Calla is the wisest about people (followed by Talise and Tamzen); Vi is the smartest about how to use people for her advantage; Mireth is the most diplomatically savvy.Most Attractive- Tamzen is that annoying woman who looks beautiful even without makeup (#blessed) but isn’t necessarily sexy like Talise is. From there it’s Mireth (that half elf/half fae glowup), Calla (aasimar moon baby), Lady Vi (moon elf tall, slim model build), Evi (Italian witchy woman), and then Syl (striking but not always considered beautiful).Hogwarts- Ravenclaws are Talise and Syl. Slytherins are Lady Vi and Evi. Hufflepuffs are Calla and Mireth. Gryffindor is Tamzen.

#fuzzy feathers #@sapphireemeralds #food for asks #ask and you shall receive #dnd #ref for character

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kclenhartnovels · 5 years

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🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻-(obvi u don't have to do em all)-🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻

119 flowers, Lisa. 119. You think I won’t answer all of these? You’re a fool. I’m a fool. I’m going to answer all of them, and they’re all going to be Wolf at the Gates related so I can break your heart again. Buckle up, it’s going to be a bumpy ride. I’m putting it all beneath the cut so that not everyone has to suffer through this. Just you, Lisa. Suffer with me.

🌻 Here we go. Let’s go. First of all, WatG is about 18 years old. It’s older than most of tumblr. That being said, I found a fun game someone else did that has first and last lines of characters, so I’m gonna do that with the major players:

🌻 T’ke: “T’ke” and “I haven't lost it yet.”

🌻 Medvetis: “What has this man done?” and “Isthe, don't.”

🌻 Isthe: Is mute, has no dialogue

🌻 Constantine: “I don’t recognize him.” and “Long live the King.”

🌻 Delgos: “You’re supposed to be socializing, Con—my Prince. I’m not sure your father would be pleased about—” and “May the stars guide his spirit.”

🌻 Alastair: “Just a few words. Can you spare the time?” and “I am sorry, but we will have to bind your wrists, in order to maintain appearance.”

🌻 Samantha: “Sir Alastair Lobane, am I right?” and “Well, that could have gone worse.”

🌻 Valerian: “Mine ran off when I was attacked.” and “Away with you, rogue, before I lose my composure entirely.”

🌻 Kamin: [Not counting songs, because his first and last lines are actually both songs] “Any requests, my Lord?” and “If you would allow it.”

🌻 Jinx: “Pitiful crowd tonight.” and “Anger is all I have left, Delgos. Don't try to take that from me, too.”

🌻 Ashleigh: “Oh, I can hold my own. Why do you ask?” and “Stay in here to sleep tonight, otherwise the men will raid your bags for scraps.”

🌻 Silas: “Only one word? From Valerian? I didn’t think it possible.” and “Dismissed. Both of you.”

🌻 Aashiq: and “Safe journey, little cousin. Don't lose that bright head of yours.”

🌻 Tallest character: Ash, followed by Medvetis

🌻 Shortest character: Kamin, though narrowly, and of course Constantine is next

🌻 Most popular: Valerian

🌻 Least popular: Silas

🌻 Smartest: T’ke

🌻 Dumbest: Isthe is the least educated, but Con is the biggest dumbass

🌻 Oldest: Major characters only, Valerian. Otherwise, Silas.

🌻 Youngest: Kamin

🌻 Most talkative: V a l e r i a n

🌻 Least talkative: Not counting Isthe, Alastair

🌻 Since it’s pride month, let’s talk about orientations! Main character first! T’ke: Cis, Aro/Ace (touch-repulsed)

🌻 Medvetis: Cis, Demi-romantic, asexual

🌻 Isthe: Trans, ???romantic ??sexual, canonly has sex with a woman, probably at least bi

🌻 Constantine: Cis, super gay both romantic and sexual

🌻 Delgos: Cis, panromantic, pansexual

🌻 Alastair: cis, heteromantic and heterosexual (and so in love with Samantha)

🌻 Samantha: cis, ??? but definitely in love with Alastair

🌻 Valerian: cis (but honestly more gender-flexible if he allowed himself to be), bi but in denial about it

🌻 Kamin: cis, also extremely gay

🌻 Jinx: Cis but genderflexible, aromantic, pansexual

🌻 In the original draft, Samantha’s child from the first marriage died. But there was no real reason for it, and now she and Alastair just get to keep collecting children and they’ll all star in book 3 whenever I get around to it.

🌻 The original original draft was a short story. A short story. A short story. Save me.

🌻 This story has been around so long, the good news is I’ve been able to develop a lot of the world and backstory, such as:

🌻 Three generations of Vendave Kings and what happened during their rule: Marius, Silas, and Constantine

🌻 Two generations of Cielan Kings and their rule: Antony and Kendrick (after he takes out his brothers)

🌻 Two generations of Reckson Kings: [Ash and Xav’s father which I have not named], then Xaviastriuos and Ashleigh fighting over the throne.

🌻 Tawrivers, which was conquered by Vendave during Silas’ rule

🌻 Jinx is one of my favorite characters to write because she’s so unapologetically angry, bordering on feral. She is passionate and injured, and ready to take revenge because no one else will help her and her people.

🌻 Honestly, Jinx would have joined Medvetis and company in a heartbeat, if Valerian and Alastair hadn’t given them shelter and respect first. They are the only reason she didn’t join the rebellion.

🌻 T’ke has dysthymia, and is touch-aversive due to trauma in childhood. He is also very sensitive to sunlight due to his albinism. He wears so many layers both to protect his skin from the sun, and to hide his scarring as much as possible.

🌻 Isthe is mute thanks to a dog attack in his youth, and the attack led to a high fever for many days that nearly killed him. The infection damaged part of his memory, and as a result he has trouble learning new things. This is why T’ke is never able to teach him how to write. He prefers expressive communication anyway.

🌻 T’ke also gets seasick and it cracks me up every time because he’s so annoyed by that fact.

🌻 Valerian has severe agoraphobia, and after he was harassed by bandits in the beginning of the book, he never leaves Angaroth again. Samantha goes in his stead whenever he has to represent the area.

🌻 Alastair has lung problems thanks to his town being razed when he was a child, and severe smoke damage from the fire. It gets progressively worse as he gets older, but he tries very hard not to let it affect his work.

🌻 Constantine is an excellent swordsman and a terrible horseman. He gets thrown from his horse at least twice over the course of the book. May have been three times.

🌻 He also almost dies from sickness, gets strangled twice by Isthe, trips up the stairs during a swordfight, and generally gets his ass handed to him over and over again.

🌻 The beginning of each chapter has a journal entry from T’ke. If you take them all out and read it in order, it is a singular letter of sorts explaining his feelings about the whole story.

🌻 Delgos and Alastair have a very quick bromance that stays a strong friendship to the end of the book.

🌻 Alastair is the first person that Delgos comes out to. Unfortunately, Delgos confessing his love for Constantine flies way over Alastair’s head, and the response is more or less “you’re such a good guard, of course you love your king.” Whoops. He tried.

🌻 T’ke makes a binder for Isthe so he stops bruising his ribs with bandages. It then becomes a battle to make sure Isthe takes the binder off every night to sleep so he doesn’t injure himself.

🌻 T’ke is such the mother of the dynamic trio and he would hate it if anyone points it out.

🌻 That being said, he also spends most of the book making all three of them immune to poisons by gradually introducing them all to it.

🌻 One of the things that changed very little between initial writes and editing is Valerian’s dialogue. It remains paragraphs, rambling, warm, and ridiculous. I love him.

🌻 I need to make it more clear that Delgos is mixed race from a low-ranking family, because his change from middle child of a merchant sailor to Captain of the Guard speaks a lot about him, and about how much Constantine cares for him.

🌻 Valerian has two pet deerhounds that he adores, and are never used for hunting. They just lay all over everyone in the house instead. They were a gift from some nobility, but he never leaves the house to hunt with them.

🌻 T’ke keeps a pet hawk for a good portion of the novel. Isthe is inexplicably jealous of it.

🌻 Alastair gets incredibly attached to his horses, and names all of them after flowers from his mountain home.

🌻 Aashiq is also very attached to his donkey.

🌻 Uh, let’s see. Book one is technically Medvetis’ story arc

🌻 Book two is Alastair’s arc

🌻 Book three is the next generation

🌻 T’ke’s story spans books 1 and 2. His journals cause book 3

🌻 Alastair’s sons are identical twins. Poor Samantha.

🌻 Seeing how Alastair was raised by a single man makes Constantine think very long and hard about adopting an heir rather than trying to make one by blood.

🌻 Most of the reason why Silas passed such terrible laws was because he was in love with Elophia, Kamin’s mother.

🌻 Kamin is the youngest of three. His two older sisters were taken to Tawrivers for sanctuary, but Kamin was too young to travel so far, so he was adopted by Jinx’s family.

🌻 Constantine and Kamin are about the same age, and should have been King and chief advisor if Silas hadn’t been a raging bag of dicks.

🌻 Constantine’s mother died from complications of childbirth. Silas blamed Elophia for not saving her.

🌻 Kamin was an unplanned child. They didn’t think that they could have any more children after the two girls. His name roughly translates to gift.

🌻 Which, incidentally, is what Nafal’s name translates to. Aashiq adores his son beyond all measure.

🌻 Jinx is not her real name, but it’s what she’s been called since she was a toddler, and she protects her real name as if she could some day go back to it.

🌻 Harper is Kamin’s title, not his last name. He is, after all, royalty.

🌻 Kendrick is Alastair’s cousin. There’s no accounting for family sometime.

🌻 I fixed Patience’s autonomy, and I can’t wait for her to pop back up later in book 2 or 3

🌻 At one point, Constantine accidentally breaks Medvetis’ nose.

🌻 It probably wasn’t the first time Medvetis had his nose broken.

🌻 Speaking of single dads, Medvetis was raised by one, too! His mother died from the plague that rocked Vendave and its surrounding lands when he was young, and Cohen took over teaching and protecting him. Medvetis loved his father.

🌻 Oh! Apparently I have a wealth of single dads. Valerian more or less raised his daughter alone, as his wife’s schizophrenia got so bad she confined herself to her room for fear of hurting them.

🌻 Silas theoretically raised his son alone after his wife died, but let’s be real, Silas didn’t do any raising. The servants did.

🌻 Delgos was raised primarily by his mother and older siblings; his father was at sea most of the time.

🌻 T’ke was raised by Khalid and the rest of the merchant caravan, and they ruined him.

🌻 Isthe was raised on the docks with the other street orphans, running with a group of kids and probably one or two pseudo-adults that kept them in line. I have no idea what happened to his parents, but it’s likely they died at sea.

🌻 Delgos really wants to have kids, and Constantine is slowly warming up to the idea. They will likely end up adopting later, and have the discussion about it in book 2

🌻 T’ke hates children. He actually just generally hates people.

🌻 Medvetis wouldn’t mind having kids, but he would adopt and not have them naturally. As much as he would want kids, he doesn’t want to have sex.

🌻 Isthe loves kids. He loves people. Kids usually find him weird.

🌻 Isthe is also incredibly lucky at gambling, specifically dice games. I guess it balances out his poor luck when it came to the dog attack.

🌻 Isthe isn’t his birth name! He refused to let anyone know his birth name after he was attacked by a dog; he thought someone had used it to curse him. So, he made up a new one.

🌻 Delgos has a tattoo of the Runnemede lion on his chest. (Constantine thinks it’s incredibly hot)

🌻 Isthe gets a tattoo of Medvetis’ wolf on his arm at some point.

🌻 Kamin, of course, has his stars on his cheeks.

🌻 Jinx has the stars on her neck, plus another tattoo in her lower back

🌻 In the dark!AU, Delgos has a tattoo of the Cielan dragon instead :D

🌻 Speaking of defining marks, Medvetis has freckles and it is the most adorable thing

🌻 Also defining, Jinx’s red, red hair.

🌻 Ashleigh’s full name is true Reckson style: Ashleigh en Crowenne Brighton di Reckson

🌻 Originally, Wolf at the Gates and Dragon on the Mountain were one big book named Vendave because I had no idea what to title it. One big book. Thank god I had the sense to cut it in half.

🌻 Book 3 has nothing written on it yet, and only a vague idea of what the heck I’m doing with it.

🌻 Book 2 needs major rewrites but it’s not on the next “to do” list

🌻 I have no idea what any of the characters’ birthdays are, even though Medvetis turned 18 during a battle in the book.

🌻 These dumb kids are all so young in the book, it’s no wonder they suck at everything.

🌻 That’s a lie they mostly just suck at emotional stability and the ability to compromise.

🌻 Literally half the plot would fall apart if they all just sat at a table and talked it out.

🌻 All of the plot would fall apart if Silas hadn’t been a raging bag of dicks when he was alive.

🌻 Honestly I’m so mad that he just died in his sleep. He deserved a worse death and a shorter life but unfortunately the author let him get away with all of it. Damn it.

🌻 I thought a lot about cutting all the songs in WatG, but you convinced me otherwise. And no other beta readers were bothered by it.

🌻 Have I mentioned yet that I had the best beta readers for this book? Because I had the best beta readers for this book. They were SO helpful.

🌻 I’m both tired of editing it, and very excited about editing it.

🌻 I’m debating on commissioning someone to make a map for me because I don’t want to, but the book really needs it. I have a rough sketch, but that’s it.

🌻 A part of me wants to go back and rewrite the book as pure medifant, instead of low fantasy, but I don’t want to develop a complex magic system, and it would change too many things. I just want it for the aesthetic really.

🌻 That being said, it’s heavily implied throughout the book that T’ke may really be magical, which is fun in a no-magic world.

🌻 I was able to weave in some of the Ekanti “magic” though, including healing songs and tattoo work!

🌻 Valerian is slightly magical too in that it seems like he doesn’t need air to keep talking. He just goes without ever pausing for breath.

🌻 When Samantha married Alastair, she takes Valerian under her wing too, and tries to keep him from getting beheaded by the crown, or at least getting his tongue removed.

🌻 Speaking of, an assassin later in the book has his tongue removed. Gross.

#wolf at the gates #answer #vendave #you asked for it #you got it #WHY IS READMORE NOT WORKING

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wendimoorandinglenook · 7 years

Text

Day 3 - fics, headcanons, and meta

I wasn’t able to throw any ficlets together because I was sick all day but I have so many headcanons and so many AU ideas so I’m just going to throw them all at you.

Maybe they met at a masquerade ball? Panto wore a mask with a hood (it’s surprisingly hard to find examples of this that aren’t creepy or related to someone’s fetish) so Silas had no idea he was a Trost.

I think they’ve been together for a long time. I know they’re both super terrible at lying, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t good at sneaking. If you don’t get caught, you don’t have to think of a lie to explain yourself. Everyone who knows them has always thought of each of them as sort of odd, and they’ve both always spent a lot of time alone, and they’re both generally in the habit of not telling people where they’re going, so their behavior honestly didn’t change much at all when they got together.

I know that if you’re as passionate and earnest as each of them are, it’s technically possible to get to the level of #relationshipgoals that they’re at in a relatively short amount of time, but I have trouble wrapping my head around two people getting to that level of commitment and familiarity and intimacy and love in a span of time less than at least a couple years.

Panto actually had a short buzzcut when they met. (The long hair popular in canon came later.) (IMHO Panto is a trans man, and we all have a phase where we want the shortest hair possible.) Silas thought it was cute, but he likes the current swoopy hair better.

Yeah yeah Silas is a pacifist and wants peace for Inglenook and Wendimoor but he also thinks Panto’s combat skills are kind of really hot. It’s complicated, okay?

Lee Maj.doub said one time that Panto is the little spoon and this is my firm belief forever now and I will have no arguments about this

Panto and Farson met once by accident because one of them (PROBS Farson) wandered into the other person’s family woods. Panto had only half-drawn his sword when Farson said, “Wait, are you Panto? I’m Farson!” in a weirdly emphasized way that Panto correctly interpreted as having the subtext “I know you’re dating my brother! Let’s be nice to each other!” And they were nice to each other! They shook hands and talked for like ten minutes and then they were like “Ok lol it’s like 2 pm it’s probably not super safe for us to be talking in broad daylight so get back to your own woods before someone who isn’t me tries to stab you”

WHEN (not if, come on) they get married and Panto ascends the throne later on, Silas decides to be Panto’s prince consort (a prince/ss consort is the spouse of the monarch) since Panto is going to be king of all Inglenook and Silas is just king of the Dengdamors (side note A: remember that Francis is king of Wendimoor, not Inglenook, so Panto’s throne still exists) (sidenote B: I do not understand how royalty works in Wendimoor at all but I am trying my best with the information we have). The Dengdamors and Trosts are combined into one family under one throne. The valley is ruled by King Panto Dengdamor Trost and Prince Consort Silas Dengdamor Trost.

Litzibitz LOVES her brother-in-law but deep in her heart wishes literally one person round these parts was shorter than she is

Silas and Panto end up with way too many pets but they are all well taken care of and very loved

#pantlasappreciationweek

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iwouldhavelovedyoustill · 3 years

Text

EP3: Soulmates

She’s his soulmate, alright, but he never figured out if he was hers.

The journey he shared with her had been.. challenging, and he’d oftentimes wonder how they made it this far. Before they started their relationship, she’s been really upfront with him and honest with her condition. She had been diagnosed at 17 with a syndrome that prevents her from bearing a child. It was hard to accept, at first, but eventually, his love prevailed.

It became a sensitive subject since then and both had been really careful not to tread on dangerous waters. He’s well aware how badly she wanted a child on her own, even before he came into the picture, and he had also imagined a miniature version of him around the house.

They managed to overcome this and ended up getting married. Her parents could only care less; her personality never allowed them to meddle in their affairs. His parents, on the other hand, were greatly involved and he had to cover up for her several times after the wedding.

Kailan kami magkaka-apo? His mom would always ask. He’d been hiding these questions from her, knowing that it would hurt her deeply. His family knew that she has a sensitive condition and bearing a child can be difficult; they just didn’t know that the chances are extremely low compared to what they initially thought.

Endless trips to different OB-GYN clinics had been made over the course of four years and he remained strong for her; she’s been reminded over and over of her lapses and he knows that she’s only doing him a favor.

Until one recent test shed some light.

They were told that they can try and she might be slightly fertile on certain days; on how it happened, no one knows, but they have to take advantage of the opportunity.

A few months later, two red lines appeared.

He’s really, really overjoyed, more for her than for himself. Myk knew that something had changed within his wife and her beautiful eyes became prettier, brighter… and more hopeful. He’d catch her humming in the morning while making him breakfast and she would even hug him at night, thinking he’s asleep, while muttering a soft thank you over and over again.

“Pinch me,” she asked him one morning. “Feel ko nananaginip lang ako.”

He then playfully pinched her plump cheeks. “Hindi,” he smiled at her back. “Totoo na ‘to.”

Work didn’t seem too heavy that day; now that he has a good reason to work for, Myk felt that everything had just gotten easier. He was about to head home when his phone rang.

“Sir,” the helper they hired temporarily called out his name in a hurry. “Sir, si Ma’am nasa ospital.”

A thousand buckets of cold water splashed over his shoulders. With a shaky voice, he asked for the address and drove as fast as he could. Please, please, he prayed several times over.

Please let her be okay.

Em’s pale face greeted him. They might have dodged a bullet, given the type of smile she gave him, but he knew that they have to be careful from now on. He caressed her face and asked about the situation. “We’re both safe,” his wife assured him. “Medyo mahina lang ang kapit nu’ng bata.”

They knew this day would come. Reaching her second month of pregnancy can already be considered a feat since they were warned beforehand: It might be dangerous for her. Her bodily hormones might not be enough to sustain the entire nine months. The doctor’s words echoed in his head and he’s reminded of her conviction.

Okay lang Doc, he remembered her gleeful answer. Kaya ko.

Before the deed was done, he also remembered convincing her countless times.

Sure ka?

Oo. Let’s do it.

Baka kung mapapaano ka lang niyan. ‘Wag na kaya, baby? Okay naman tayo.

She squeezed his hand. Sila Mami… she pertained to his family. Hindi okay na walang Seb. Or Dani. Em’s smile hurt a bit with the mention of their imaginary children. Kakayanin ko.

Seeing her lose all the colors on her face made him question their decision again.

“Anong nangyari?”

“Napagod yata ako,” she grinned. “I just tried feeding the cats.”

Feeding their little spawns from hell doesn’t require much energy and she’s already in the hospital. He can’t imagine how sensitive her situation can be once she gets past the first trimester. “Em..” He wanted her to know that he was serious by using her name. “Itutuloy pa?”

“Oo,” she answered, squeezing his hand once again. “Kaya ko.”

Her statement turned out to be the opposite after being confined again, in the hospital, two weeks later after the incident. This time, the helper didn’t call him, but Janica did. The situation’s way, way worse than he expected. His vision got blurry and suddenly, Myk couldn’t hear anything. He signed a form without reading it because everyone was urging him to.

All he could think about is his wife.

Janica’s slap brought him back to reality. “Bakit ka pumayag?” There were tears on her eyes.

Pumayag..? What did he sign? He didn’t know. Myk lost his senses for a while and even his memories of the last few minutes were scattered. His puzzled look prompted Em’s closest friend to continue talking. “Alam mo namang hindi nya kaya.”

“Gusto nya,” he breathed, wanting to defend their decision together. “Alam mo rin na gusto nya.”

“Ginawa nya ‘yun dahil sa’yo,” she accused him.

There’s no way he’d fight with her when his wife is in a critical condition, but he can’t afford to take all the blame. “Ano?”

“Walang araw na walang masakit sa kanya,” she said through gritted teeth and teary eyes. “Lahat sumasakit. Pangalawang buwan pa lang nya pero ‘yung nararamdaman nya pang-kabuwanan na. Nagvi-video call na lang kami para maaliw sya sa bahay kasi pati helper nyo tinataguan nya. Pero umiiyak sya sa’kin palagi,” he can’t even believe her words. “Sabi nya ang sakit-sakit na. Ni hindi sya makatayo pero pinipilit nya kada uuwi ka, kasi sabi nya.. kasi sabi nya..”

What did Em say? “Sabi nya ang saya-saya mo kahit ‘di mo sinasabi,” a tear finally fell. “Sabi nya sobrang proud mong itinawag sa nanay mo ‘yung balita. Para kang nabunutan ng tinik nu’ng nalaman nyo na buntis sya kaya kahit hindi nya kaya..”

He hoped that Janica would stop talking.

“Kinaya nya.”

Hours later, his wife was safely confined in a room and he was assured that she’s safe. The fetus, however, had to be immediately removed after he signed a form to avoid further complications. The small ovaries she once had were also taken away during surgery and she can never produce a child, regardless of the process involved.

Myk didn’t sleep for days. He was told that Em’s body had to recover from the severe pain she had endured for weeks and it will take her at least 3-7 days before waking up. A lot of people had visited him and extended their apologies.

He wondered why they did. If anyone should apologize, he thinks it’s him.

Em woke up on the fourth day. She opened her eyes before he did and a gentle tug from her fingers to his made him come to his senses. Neither of them spoke; they both knew that the loss was too much. His wife’s hands tried to cup his face lovingly, and she gently kissed his forehead.

“Don’t blame yourself,” she smiled sadly. “No one is at fault here.”

He broke down right there and then.

“Sorry,” he said between sobs. “Sorry ulit.”

“I know,” Em soothed his back. “Pasensya na rin.”

She asked for a few weeks off after being released from the hospital, and he gladly agreed. Em needed time for herself and he knew that… he just didn’t know that it would be indefinite. He had almost gotten used to the empty spot in their bed where she used to sleep. She would snore sometimes and he’d find it hard to sleep, but her face was so amusing that he turned it into a meme between them.

He should’ve been holding her, comforting her, telling her that it was okay. It wasn’t her fault, her shortcoming; both of them were to blame for risking it. If she was next to him, he would tell her it is okay, and he still feels complete even if there’s only the two of them for the rest of their lives. Their lives would be forever scarred with this incident, but it is only a single event that wouldn’t be able to define their entire marriage..

..would it?

His wife finally came home after two months. She looked healthier after the discharge, but her aura.. was different. Almost unrecognizable. Even his affection almost looked rejected. And forced.

“I want us to talk,” she told him. “I’ll cook dinner.”

Myk didn’t want the day to end. He almost wished that the clock at the office wouldn’t reach 5PM and if he could spend the night with his computer, he would. There’s just something in her voice that he wanted to avoid.

The papers she handed over confirmed this feeling.

He didn’t want to touch the envelope, even if it was only inches away from his reach. He stopped eating bistek, his favorite dish of hers, and he had never refused to eat this meal before. Myk didn’t even want to ask what kind of documents are being contained in the brown envelope.

“I.. talked to your Mom without you knowing,” she started. “I told her everything.”

He suddenly can’t breathe.

“She was quiet for a while, then she got mad, you know? The kind of mad I deserved. She didn’t say it, but she thinks that I tricked you into marrying me.”

That’s absurd.

“And I feel like I did,” she laughed emptily. “I forced you into a life you didn’t deserve.”

He wondered what made her think like this. Was it because of the toys he bought before they even knew the gender? Or maybe the times he spent talking to the imaginary bump she has around her stomach? What?

What forced her to have these ridiculous thoughts?

“Tama na,” he raised his hand. “Tulog na tayo. Ako na maghugas ng plato. Pahinga ka na.”

“Myk..”

“Hindi,” he shook his head and stood up. Myk gathered all the plates, despite being full, and rushed them towards the sink. His tears were about to fall and he’s not letting her see him. “Bukas tayo mag-usap. Kakauwi mo lang galing probinsya. Pagod ka pa. Magpahinga ka na sa kwarto. Susunod ako.”

“Hindi ako umuwi.”

He froze where he stood. What?

“Hindi ako umuwi, Myk,” Em admitted. “Inasikaso ko ‘to.”

“Okay,” he sniffed. “Bukas natin i-discuss ‘yan —”

“Myk..”

“ — kasi pagod na rin ako sa work —”

“Baby..”

“ — mas okay ‘yung pag-uusap natin kung bukas —”

“Myk!”

He turned around, slightly annoyed. “Ano?!”

“Tama na.”

Em slowly walked towards him and it felt like time passed by slower than it should be. Suddenly, he saw everything flash before him; the way she came to him every time she spotted him in the crowd, the way she beamed at him for bringing her favorite gummy bears, and how she looked ethereal under her veil on the day of their wedding.

She was the love of his life. Still is. His soulmate. No one could ever make him laugh like she does. He had never viewed anyone the way he sees her. Everything she does just makes him adore her more and he had never known love before her.

If she leaves.. what now?

“Em,” he hugged her tightly and desperately. “It’s just one time. We’ll still be okay. Wala lang ‘to. Pagsubok lang ‘to. Normal lang ‘to sa mag-asawa —”

His wife hugged him tighter, and once again, she said, “Myk..

.. tama na.”

He wept like a child that night.

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witchdoodle · 7 years

Text

cute headcanons i just made up...

vivienne saw how pad struggled to get his hands on products for his hair type which is common up north but very uncommon south of the waking sea, and went out of her way to procure cocoa butter and castor oil for him. she used to wear her hair in elaborate hairstyles but just kinda got sick of it and wanted a sleeker look so she shaved it a couple years back, so she knows what’s up. she’s also hooks him up with stylists whenever they’re in orlais who know how to handle his hair type. she brought her personal stylist to halamshiral before celene’s ball for his sake, and gave him a lot of valuable advice about how to navigate orlesian racism/colourism within the game.

bull will happily spend hours braiding pad’s hair with surprising dexterity given that he’s missing half of two fingers. in turn pad loves to sit behind him with his legs slung over bull’s shoulders, rubbing balm into his horns (especially where they meet the skin of his head, which gets super dry and itchy) and helping shave the back of his head where he always misses spots.

after pad loses his arm bull helps him a lot with his hair.

meditation is a common practice among the qun, but the dalish do it too. pad’s keeper specifically taught him about mindfulness, which he still practices. pad does guided meditations for bull all the time which he looooves and finds super relaxing, and it helps with bull’s aftercare. (doms need aftercare too!)

silas works for dennet in the stables. dennet knew right away that he was worth his weight in gold as a stablehand and was like ALL THE REST OF YOU FUCK OFF THIS ONE’S MINE. he looked after him in the beginning when silas was still very shy and nervous around all these shemlen, made sure no one was bullying him or pushing him around and helped him gain confidence by backing up silas’ authority with the recruits who might be disinclined to listen to a “knife-ear,” especially a “cripple.” dennet basically was like: shut the fuck up he knows more than you.

plus, silas introduced him to the halla he’d brought and dennet was D Y I N G to meet one. he’s a little too big to ride one (and halla won’t take human riders anyway) but he got a little giddy just being so close to one. one of them even ate an apple out of his hand.

leliana also saw his usefulness right away and recruited him to teach her elven scouts -- the vast majority of whom are city elves -- how to ride halla. halla are faster, nimbler, more intelligent, and able to traverse terrain horses cannot -- ideal for scouts who need to move quickly and quietly.

leliana also put him to work teaching her agents sign language, instantly seeing how useful that, too, would be -- given that it’s not the chantry’s sign language and rival spies would be unlikely to be able to understand it. now a ton of people in the inquisition know it and silas has a lot more people to talk to.

leliana and shireen had a lot to talk about, having wildly different perspectives on the chantry. shireen and vivienne have more in common as far as their backgrounds go, though the two of them responded to similar traumas by moving in opposite directions. all three of them bond over shoes, but shy’s a little, well, shy because being dalish has made her such a tomboy and she feels like she doesn’t know as much as them about fashion and femininity.

iron bull took one look at kost, BURST OUT LAUGHING, and instantly adopted him. he taught him a lot about the qun, given how little kost has ever known about that side of his heritage since his tal-vashoth mum died when he was a baby and he was raised dalish. it was really good also for bull to be around someone who was vashoth.

one of silas’ gifts to kost was horn balm. kost’s nubs get very itchy in the dry air of the frostbacks. silas eventually confessed it’s nipple cream for horses and kost was like jfsklajkglajhklaeh a. ... but he kept using it. i mean, it worked.

varric looks after shan, makes sure he takes breaks, eats, sleeps somewhere comfortable, washes himself, wears clean clothes, because otherwise shan will only do most of those things if told. he’s gotten in the habit of having shan scribe for him. saves his poor aching wrists (varric does a lot of writing and correspondence) and gives shan something useful to do, which seems to make shan feel content. shan also helps varric with maths and accounting.

pad and josie also definitely takes advantage of shan’s willingness to do that. pad is not very literate -- josephine taught him how to read common, he could only read elvish before -- and having shan read his correspondence to him and write down his replies helps him A TON. josie just finds that shan’s handwriting is EXTREMELY neat and precise and he’s one of her best scribes.

sera keeps trying to teach shan jokes. it doesn’t work very well but she’s taught him how to repeat a few of them verbatim even if his delivery sucks. she’s surprisingly nice to him and she’s the first to kick the crap out of someone for mistreating him, because shan can’t really stand up for himself and it’s not fair.

shan can’t do magic but can still do alchemy, and he makes a serum that really helps ease the pain in bull’s bad leg.

solas and shireen have had long conversations about elven history and culture. solas’ relationship with the dalish is... strained... but he does feel a lot of respect for shireen for making the effort to attempt to connect more to her nature (as compared to, say, sera), no matter how much the dalish got wrong. (and pad has since taught solas that just because dalish culture is different from elvhen culture does not mean it is worse.) and shireen, like pad, is willing to learn and have her ideas challenged. solas taught her a little bit about painting too.

josephine commissioned an artist for an official portrait (and had to fire the first one after absolutely chewing him out for trying to human-wash pad’s elfiness), which pad hated. solas got him to sit for a more relaxed, less formal portrait that more accurately captured his personality, and sketched him many times mostly without his knowledge. he gave one such sketch to bull.

shireen... has a Huge Crush... on cassandra oh my god she’s like a giggly schoolgirl whenever she sees her like I LIKE... YOUR MUSCLES OKAY BYE runs away giggling

cole helps leith with their trauma, mental illness, and psychosis -- cole does a lot of reality checking for leith, because while they present similarly and are perceived similarly, cole only perceives truth, complicated as truth often is; leith is delusional, their mind just making shit up wholecloth. if leith asks is this real? they know they can trust cole when he answers yes or no, that cole won’t lie to them, in part because cole is a spirit/demon. they have looooong conversations alone, after which leith is usually much calmer and more lucid.

cole is the only one who knows leith’s surname/clan name. that name died with their clan; they won’t tell anyone else. not even cullen. they are just leith.

cullen paints or draws on leith’s arms with ink so they won’t cut themself.

cullen has long one-sided conversations with leith when leith is non-verbal -- he’ll pose a question and then answer it out loud, give a running commentary, just ramble stream-of-consciousness to keep talking, asks yes/no questions. it makes leith feel like they’re still a part of the conversation even when they can’t talk. cullen does a lot of little things like that to make leith feel normal or at least like it’s okay to be different. leith can’t talk today? all right, cullen will talk enough for them both. leith can’t make it outside? fine, they’ll stay indoors, who needs to go outside anyway. leith’s afraid there are people hiding and stalking them? cullen will check every nook and cranny.

solas has also had long talks with leith. solas never practiced blood magic much, we know that, but finds the practice fascinating and useful, so he was very interested to talk to someone who used blood magic as a tool and not as a means to an end in the pursuit of power for power’s sake. solas’ familiarity with spirits and the fade also makes him uniquely equipped to handle leith’s ... oddities.

#my ocs #padraig lavellan #kost andoriethiel #silas theralan #shireen theralan #leith #shan vhenaris #self harm tw briefly

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lolainblue · 7 years

Text

Fangs and Fairytales: Orphans Ch. 3

"Silas, I'm in trouble." Masha leaned against the cool tinted glass of the truck window, phone to her opposite ear. The last thing she wanted to do was drag her brother back into this. They hadn't spoken in several years, not since the incident that had left him a widower and Masha with a karmic debt she was now fighting to repay. He had made it very clear he wanted nothing more to do with Davrosh, Masha or the Underground. But it felt like fate that this had all happened here, the one place Silas was. At any rate, Masha had nowhere else to turn right now. She could only hope that time had at least made his wounds less raw, even if they weren't entirely healed. “Please. I need your help. Things went sideways...”

“I'm not involved in the underground anymore Mash,” he interrupted. “You know that. I can't help you.”

Masha had expected the denial but pressed on anyway. "Please. Riva and Metz are dead. Davrosh is badly injured, the rest of the cell is missing and all I've got is an unconscious hexe I can't talk to and Whispers's next shipment that I don't know how we ended up with. I don't know what's happening but I know he'll be after me soon. Please."

There was a long pause. “Just call whoever was supposed to intercept them originally then. I don't need this shit. The locals here are...”

"Dammit Silas, come on. Don't you think I'd have done that if it were an option? We were supposed to be the intercept, but not for several days, and Davrosh was the only one with the information. We were supposed to be meeting to formulate our plan when they were attacked. Do you think I want this? Do you think I'm running around out here looking for excuses to turn your life upside down again? Do you think I would call you if I had any other option at all?" Masha thumped her head against the window. She didn't want to do this, didn't want to dredge things up that were better left where they lay. "I wouldn't ask if I weren't desperate. Please. It's Davrosh." There was no response. "He needs you, Silas. This is family asking. Not some random Underground operative. If it weren't for him...." she trailed off, knowing Silas didn't need reminding that Davrosh was the only reason he still woke each day. She was ashamed for even bringing it up. She never liked guilt trips, but she had to convince Silas to help them or she might as well just surrender to Whispers now.

The silence on the line lasted far longer than Masha would have thought, definitely longer than she liked. She was trying to think of another way to sway Silas from his apparently unmovable determination to stay out of the fray when his low voice on the other end responded.

“2503 Gardner. Pull around the back. Bring your own blood.”

The line went dead. With a deep sigh, Masha took a moment to focus then pulled back out on the road, making a quick u-turn. Time to clean up her mess.

In the now quiet motel room, Jared and Shannon sat opposite each other on the cheap beds. Shannon had explained the events after Jared's fall as best as he could but there was little to tell beyond that. Masha had taken any real explanations with her when she made her hasty exit. But Shannon had waited all night to hear his brother's voice again and he wanted to keep him talking, even if he couldn't give him the information he knew he must be craving. He decided to change the subject.

“Do you think they're still out there waiting for us to leave? Or did they realize we don't have whoever they were looking for and take off?”

Jared shrugged. “I don't think they're out there anymore. I don't...” Jared searched for the proper word but fell short. “I don't sense them out there anymore. Or whatever.” He stood up from the bed, stretching his arms. His limbs felt strange now, strong and oddly fluid. “With all that commotion I guess it's a good thing the rooms next to us are empty.”

“How do you know that?” Shannon asked.

Jared shrugged again. He had always been the talker of the two of them but words suddenly seemed utterly inadequate. How could he tell Shannon that the room still absolutely reeked of a smell that Jared was pretty sure was Shannon's fear? Or that he knew there were exactly seven birds in the stand of trees by the parking lot, or that the guy in the room three doors down had some bad sleep apnea that he probably needed to see his doctor about very soon. There was so much information flooding him now. He tried to untangle the pieces of it all. He could tell that the comforters in here hadn't been washed since the last occupants had ordered a pepperoni and green pepper pizza, which they had apparently sat on the bed because the smell was very strong there. He could hear Shannon's heart currently thumping along at 74 beats per minute, which was much slower than it had been just a few minutes ago. He also knew that Shannon hadn't had a drink since a little bourbon before the show last night but he could still smell it in his sweat.

It went beyond all these sounds and smells though. There was an awareness attached to it that was as fascinating as it was unsettling. Some of it was as clear as if there were little notes attached to the objects he was examining, but most of it was fuzzier, little things that tickled at the edge of his awareness, things he couldn't quite articulate. There was one particular something tugging at him now. He got up and went to the window again, just in time to see a dark blue SUV pull into the lot and park just outside their door. As the willowy woman with white blonde hair stepped out of the driver's side Jared felt a rush of emotion course through him like a tide. Without another thought, he opened the metal security door and waited.

“Jay, what the hell are you doing now?” Shannon exclaimed, crossing the room in an instant, afraid of whatever Jared might be about to allow entry. He stopped short when he caught sight of Masha “Thank God. I thought you said it was going to be days...”

"Things are... developing," Masha said darkly as she swept into the room. "Don't be happy I'm here ahead of schedule. It's not good news." She spotted the small room fridge and crossed to it, taking out the four remaining blood bags. “I need you to get your things and get in the truck. Where is the bag for these?"

Shannon balked. “What? No. I need some answers. This is just way too much to keep swallowing blindly!” He could see Masha's expression turning angry but he was too fed up to care. “Look, I'm grateful and all, but we're in the dark here and you've got us running like prison escapees.”

"Fine! '" Masha shouted, the stress of having everything falling onto her shoulders taking its toll. "Pack. Don't pack. Whatever. But I'm leaving in three minutes and I'm taking my new child here with me. If you want to stay with him you'll have your ass in that car." Masha gritted her teeth and started looking around for their bags. When Shannon made no move to comply she tried leveling with him. "Look, I've made a mess, okay? A really big one. I should have been meeting someone instead of playing rescuing angel with you two and now...” She trailed off, her stomach sick. It was so much worse to admit it out loud. And she knew it was going to scare them and she didn't need them any more afraid than they already were. “I was late and now people are dead and it's probably my own fucking fault. I don't want or need any of this shit either but here we are." She found an overnight bag and shoved it into Shannon's arms. "Two of my friends, two amazing guys that this world really fucking needed are gone, and the things that killed them are probably going to find you and your brother here eventually. I'm guessing sooner rather than later because you two are clueless and don't know how to hide yet. My friends were a lot stronger and tougher than you are, so how do you think you'll fare when these assholes come round for you? So stop fighting me and get your shit before they show up at your door. Unless you want to end up dead too, and then all of this was for nothing.”

“I think they were already here,” Jared said quietly.

“What?” Masha wheeled around in alarm.

Shannon started shoving clothes back into the bag, not wanting to upset Masha any further. He may have wanted answers but more importantly, he wanted to stay alive. He figured the answers could wait. “About thirty minutes ago,” he explained. “Someone tried to get into the room. Pounded and shouted and threatened, demanded we open the door for them but then they went away.”

"Not human," Jared added solemnly.

“Jesus Fuck! And you're still not wanting to leave?” Masha grabbed Jared by the arm. “Did I choose a pair of idiots to save?”

Jared pulled back from her grip but didn't argue. “We're coming. Right Shannon?”

Shannon didn't reply, just kept stuffing their belongings into bags. Jared joined in and In a few minutes, all traces of their brief stay were gone and after a quick warning to Jared to cover up, Masha was hurrying them to the truck with the other fugitives.

“Don't look in the back,” Masha told the brothers as she prompted them into the waiting vehicle. She pulled another duffel bag out of the passenger seat before putting Shannon there. When she handed the bag back to him to hold, its coolness and weight told him it was probably more blood. He wondered why they needed so much. She put Jared in the back with the girls, propping the unconscious hexe between them. Jared looked at the huddled girls with open curiosity, taking in their wild tangles of reddish brown hair and orange gold fox-like eyes. He then turned his attention to the woman next to him, whose head kept falling onto his shoulder.

“Who are they?” he asked as he tried to steady the young hexe so her head wasn't flopping about. He ended up leaving her reclining against him as he tucked her hair back from her face for reasons he couldn't articulate.

“That's a more complicated answer than I have the time or patience for right now,” Masha answered sharply. “Just don't try to talk to the girls. Trust me. You don't want to hear what comes out of their mouths.” She put the SUV into gear and headed out of the lot. “No more talking now. I need to think.”

“But I don't understand what's going on....”

“No. More. Talking.” Masha enunciated. Jared opened his mouth to argue but found himself unable to do anything other than comply. He looked at Shannon, slumped resignedly in the front seat and realized no one was getting any more answers right now. Jared sighed, laid his head against the window and waited for the next stop on this wild ride.

“So are you going to tell me what the hell is happening? Do I even want to know?”

2503 Gardener had turned out to be an abandoned department store in the urban graveyard of the city's old downtown. Silas had been waiting at the old loading bay doors and Masha had pulled the entire vehicle inside while he locked up behind her. She unloaded the brothers first, putting Shannon in charge of the young sisters and handing the still unresponsive hexe to Jared to carry, then she had fetched the incapacitated Davrosh from under the tarp in the back seat. She waited for Silas to direct them where to go but he just stood there beside the car, arms crossed and brow furrowed, waiting for explanations.

“Whispers,” Masha said. “I'm pretty sure Whispers is what is happening. So as long as it is his people we have until sunset to figure out a plan and get out of your hair.” She inclined her head towards Davrosh. “Is there somewhere I can put him down?”

Silas began leading the group towards a small office just off the main area. “Who are they?” he asked, gesturing to the rest of the group.

“I don't know who the woman is, beyond the fact that she's a hexe that was helping to hide the girls,” Masha answered, attempting to avoid having to explain the brothers, at least for another few minutes. Silas gave Masha a dark look, aware of her deflection, but let it go for the moment.

The office was larger than Masha had expected. There were various worn furnishings in addition to the expected desk and chair. She instructed Jared to put down the hexe in a large upholstered chair and then laid Davrosh out on the sofa. She opened the duffel and took out a bag of the blood she had brought and handed it to Jared. “Feed him,” she said, gesturing to Davrosh's prone form

Masha then turned her attention to Silas, realizing that this was the first time she had seen him in over three years. He looked exactly the same of course, a slightly built man with warm brown eyes he hid behind wire framed glasses he no longer needed, an affectation Masha had never understood. He still wore his hair long in front, one side falling across his face as always and Masha had to resist the familiar urge to tuck it back behind his ear. He looked like someone's gentle-natured history professor, not at all like the man who had once torn apart a bunyip with his bare hands. God, she hated dragging him back into all this. He deserved better. “I fucked up.”

“I gathered that much.” He gestured to the two brothers. “What's with these two? The girls I understand but....”

“I think we're the fuck up,” Shannon said.

“I went to a concert,” Masha said wryly. “There was an accident. That one,” she motioned to Jared, “Fell from some scaffolding. He was injured and dying. The other one is his brother.” She paused, searching Silas's face for understanding

“Masha....” His voice was rife with both pity and condemnation. She wasn't really sure what she had expected from him but the way he was looking at her now made her stomach roil with shame.

“He was so heartbroken Silas,” she tried to explain. “It was too much. I couldn't stand by and watch it happen again.”

“It's never going to change what you did Masha,” Silas replied evenly.

“I know that.” Masha snapped. “Nothing is ever going to change that. I have to live with that mistake but it doesn't mean I have to make another one. The problem is it took a lot longer than I thought it would so I was late to meet with the team. By the time I got there ...” She gestured weakly at Davrosh.

Silas tucked his hair back behind his ear while he shook his head. “Yeah, you fucked up all right.”

“Yeah, and I think Whispers found them already. They were supposed to be hiding out while I went to the meeting, but someone showed up at the motel they were staying in.” She considered Davrosh, who had begun to drink the blood that Jared was holding for him. She wondered how long it would take before he came to and started giving them answers. “Of course they didn't let them in, but the fact that they didn't force their way in and disappeared right after the sun came up...”

“Yeah, that sounds like Whispers all right,” Silas remarked darkly. “Well, at least it's early. We have a while to formulate a plan.”

“So you'll help me?”

“What choice do I have?” Silas went to kneel next to Davrosh, taking in his injuries. “He's going to be no use for a while. Do we have any idea where the girls were going or how to get them back to their people?”

“No. We weren't even supposed to be handling them yet. According to the information we had, Whispers wasn't bringing them in until Monday. This was just supposed to be a planning meeting, not an intercept. I don't know why they were already in town or how they ended up in that warehouse. I don't know how Davrosh got hurt, I don't even know for sure if it was Whispers or his pack. If we could find Astrid or Cotton....”

Shannon cleared his throat. “Could someone, maybe, please tell me what the hell is happening? You know, instead of ordering me around then ignoring me and talking about me like I'm not right here. '

“Now is not a good time...” Masha began but Shannon cut her off.

“No, and it wasn't a good time before and it doesn't sound like it's going to be a good time for a while. You can't keep using that as an excuse to have a conversation that I think you really don't want to have.” He looked at Silas. “Are you a vampire too?”

Silas rolled his eyes and looked back to Masha. “What did you tell them?”

“Not much. There wasn't time. Vampires are real. Don't tell anyone. Wear some sunscreen.”

“Shit. And then you left them to meet up with Davrosh I assume?" Masha nodded weakly in response. "What the hell Masha? You've gone completely off the rails.”

Shannon grabbed a coffee mug that had been sitting on the table by the sofa and hurled it at the wall, shattering it loudly. “Right. Fucking. Here!” he exclaimed, rage and frustration finally reaching the boiling point. “I get that I'm not in your damn supernatural club or whatever but I'm wrapped up in this all the same now so answers need start happening. What is going on?”

Masha looked at Shannon as if for the first time. He had been so full of tender concern for his brother and had taken in the evening's developments with such relative calm that she was surprised to find a hot temper lurking under all that. She was going to have to pay closer attention to him, assuming they all made it through this. “Fine, calm down. You aren't going to like any of this, but where would you like me to start?”

Shannon looked around at the room full of odd faces and wondered if he was the only human there. “You said fairy tale things were real. That seems like a good place.”

Masha sighed and looked to Jared again. He had said maybe two words since arriving at the abandoned store. He sat at Davrosh's feet now, watching the elder vamp drink from the blood bags Masha had provided. He had seemed so dynamic when he was performing, quite the contrast to the solemn figure he cut now. She supposed he was still in shock. The transformation could be extremely traumatic for some. Perhaps some explanations would help.

“All right. Stop me if I go too fast or you get lost.” Shannon sat down, assuming this was going to take a while. Masha took a breath and continued. “Most fairy tales have their basis in reality. Humans have always lived along side all sorts of other creatures but the relationship has never been an amicable one. Humans don't even like other humans that are different than them. They really are not tolerant of things that aren't human at all.”

Silas nodded, sitting on the edge of the desk and took his glasses off. Looking every bit the part of the friendly professor, he continued the lecture. “Now as you can imagine from the tales, some of these supernatural creatures tormented or hunted humans but not all of them. Not even most actually. However, the ones that did, they created so much fear and hatred that eventually humans wouldn't tolerate any supes in their midst. And yes, supes are stronger than humans but we're rare. There are so many more of you than there are of us. There's no way we would prevail if it came to blows. Plus, at least some of us, need you.”

Masha saw the way Shannon winced at that last statement and knew he understood his place in the food chain. If she thought he was going to protest however she was mistaken. He continued to listen patiently. She continued the explanation. “So we live in secret. We police ourselves, we have rules and organizations that enforce them, and we try to keep the nasties in check as much as we can. It's complicated though. There are factions. Things get out of balance sometimes. Some don't want a peaceful coexistence, they feel it is their right to live according to their basic nature, even if that means killing. The last time those factions got out of hand, well....” Masha gestured around to her somewhat battered audience. “It was ugly. People died, some supernatural lines went extinct. Most of the fairy tales that you hear come from that time period.”

Shannon had thought that if only Jared would wake up and start talking again this nightmare might be over. Sure, they'd have to find a blood supply and there would be secrets to keep, but they would figure it out, get back to their lives. He realized now that nothing was going to be going back to normal. They were deep in the fire now and the flames were only going to be getting higher.

@fyeahproudglambert @pinkletodreamer @meghan12151977@letosangels @lady-grinning-soul-k @nikkitasevoli @polosatik23 @fortify-undeny

#jared leto fanfiction #jared leto fic #shannon leto fanfiction #shannon leto fic #Fangs and Fairytales #F&F orphans #vampire au

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sammythedominant · 3 years

Text

Another Call Home

What: Sam calls home to tell his dad that there’s an identical clone of Sam on campus. With the amazing A playing Dwight.

Who: Sam, Dwight, mentions @sunnysky-evans, @summerxevans and of course @alexcooperdom

Dwight was just settling down on the couch. The smells of something delicious were wafting in from kitchen. Stevie was out with friends and Stacie was at her Future Business Women meeting. He was already rolling some ideas he could do with his submissive around in his head when his phone buzzed.

Sam was pretty sure the nervousness he was feeling right now even topped how he'd felt when he'd talked to his parents about his past as a stripper, and the abusive atmosphere that had entailed. This was going to rock their world, and Sam hated that he couldn't be there to help them through it. He called his Dad, and sighed nervously.

Dwight's lipped turned up in a smile. "Hey there sport. Wasn't expecting to hear from you today."

"Hey, Dad," Sam smiled. No matter how nervous he was, it always felt good to hear his dad's voice. "How's everyone? Are they all around?" he asked, quietly hoping that he'd managed to catch either Dwight or Dwight and Mary, alone.

"Nope. Your brother and sister are out. You know those two... social butterflies. Think your momma's already startin' to feel empty nest syndrome. Better warn you. She's been talkin' about grandbabies with the church ladies." He chuckled. "It's just your mom and me tonight."

Sam laughed softly. "Tell her it'll happen, it's just a way off still," he smiled. "With Nate and everything...planning for the future feels kinda weird right now," he admitted, with a little sigh, before shaking his head. "But that's not why I called."

"It better be," Dwight assured with a laugh. They had started so young and while he wouldn't change that because his children were his life, but he wanted them to have the chance to do and have everything they wanted. He sighed. He knew how hard things had been since Nate had moved. "How you doin' with that sport? Missin' your fella something awful I imagine." He frowned sitting up straight, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. "Everything alright?"

"It's not easy," Sam said softly. "But its exactly what he and Silas need, and it won't be long before we're all living in New York like nothing happened," Sam said, trying to sound like he fully believed that. He took a deep breath. "Everyone's okay, nobody's hurt," Sam said firstly, feeling sure it would be one of the first thing on his dad's mind. "But something happened, and it's something that...god, dad, I don't even know where to start. It's insane."

"Seems like they didn't have much choice with that new headmaster havin' something against them." He didn't want to acknowledge what they all knew. Long distance relationships were hard. But if anyone could do it, it was those boys. Dwight let out the breathe he was holding. "Alright... alright... kinda got me on sittin' on nails here kiddo. How 'bout you start at the start. Might seem crazy, but if we talk it out bet we can work it out."

"Yeah. I'm on board with the reason they had to go, it's just...hard, I guess, after three years of living next door to him," Sam sighed, before shaking his head. He really hadn't meant to get into this, but there was always something about talking to his parents that helped him be honest, sometimes. "Okay, so, I was out jogging, and I met this guy. His name is Alex Cooper," Sam started, pausing to gauge whether or not Dwight reacted to that name or not. He was very relieved when he didn't. "He, uh...well, he's my identical br.....he's identical to me, dad. It was like looking in a mirror."

"Whole hell of a lot different when you can't hold 'em or talk to 'em whenever you want huh? It's gonna be alright sport. Only way to the other side is to keep on keepin' on. You got your boys and you're doing right by them. Stay proud and whatever happens, your mom and I have your back." He knew this wasn't what his son wanted to talk about right then so he hoped that would be enough for now. He settled back against the couch as he listened. He wondered if this had to do with Nate. Was Sam having feelings for someone new? He decided to just keep listening though and hear him out. It wasn't that he couldn't hear the anxiety in his son's voice, but he just wasn't sure exaclty what he was saying. "Well, you know what they say... we all have a doubleganger out there somewhere right?" he said mangling the correct term into something that would be funny under other circumstances. He just wasn't understanding the extent to which this other boy looked like Sam.

"Yeah, I don't think I really thought about how different it would be. I just wanted to be supportive," Sam said quietly. "I know, Dad. You guys always have my back, and I love you for it," he said earnestly. He was always grateful for the support he got from his parents, and he knew he wouldn't be half as successful as he was without their love and care over the years. He took another deep breath. "No, dad. I mean, he's literally identical to me. He looks more like me than Nate's identical brothers look like him. He's my twin," Sam explained tenatively.

"Of course you did. That's the way you're built champ. You're a nurturer through and through. Some people think Sky is the most like your mom, but I gotta say it might be you." He was proud to say that he saw a lot of himself in his son too. At least he saw qualities that he hoped he had. Dwight was quiet for a long time. For a moment he wondered if his kids were starting an elaborate prank on him. "You don't have an identical twin Sammy. I was there when y'all came into this world." He was getting that hair standing up thing again and he didn't like it.

"Well, that's a really big compliment, dad," Sam said, after a quiet moment. Personally, he thought the title of who was most like their mom still belonged to Sky, but he had no problem with being a close runner-up. It really felt like Dwight had been quiet for an eternity, before the man finally spoke. Sam was sure he could hear his own heartbeat, and for the thousandth time, he wished he was back home telling Dwight this face to face. "Dad," he said quietly. "I don't know if...you're thinking the same thing I did, but I'm not, you know, uh, having a breakdown again. I promise," Sam practically whispered. "I promise, I talked to this guy, I sat down opposite him. He's...he's real, dad. He's got my face, my build, and I don't know how or if his parents have answers, but...he's real."

If he was honest that was exactly what he was thinking. That was what that prickle running down his spine was. It was worry and fear for his son. And he should have been watching out for this. There had been so much upheaval in the last six months. But if Sam said that wasn't it that, then he would believe him. "Okay Sammy. I believe you. I believe you. Always will." He let that sink in before continuing. "But I just don't know... I don't know how this can be." He was suddenly on edge. He looked toward the kitchen where he could hear his wife, his submissive humming hymns. "Champ, I'm telling you. You, Sky, and Summer are ours and it was just the three of you. I was there." But that wasn't strictly true was it. There had been complications. Terrifying complications. He'd been shoved out into the hallway and Mary had been wheeled away, barely breathing and bleeding out. It's a story they've never shared with them because it's one Mary doesn't really remember well and Dwight would like to keep it that way. Trauma was better forgotten. "What does this boy have to say?"

Sam let out a quiet sigh of relief when Dwight told him he believed him. He was always grateful for the belief his dad always had in him, even when he wasn't totally sure he'd earned it. "Thanks, dad," he murmured into the phone. "I...I believe you, dad. But something happened, somewhere, somehow," Sam said, still speaking quietly. It was a horrible, frightening thought, but it was looking more and more obvious that something had gone wrong. "He says he has parents and family in Chicago, and that he's gonna talk to them about this," Sam said. "Dad, I know...I know I'm yours, but Alex is just as sure that he's his parents son. What if I'm....what if I'm not an Evans?" he whispered in a downright terrified voice.

Dwight opened his mouth, closed it, and opened it again. He couldn't talk because his heart was in his throat. What if I'm not an Evans?" He couldn't actually bare the thought of it. "Hold on a second son." He put down his phone and went to the kitchen. "Hey babe, I'mma bring Frank back his leaf blower." Mary made sure that he knew dinner would be ready in less than an hour and not to get too caught up talking to Frank because he knew how much Frank could talk. He assured her he'd be back soon and kissed her head. He scooped up his phone and stepped outside, the small lie gnawing at his stomach. He didn't want Mary to overhear this conversation though. Not yet. "Alright, I'm here champ. Listen, I don't know what's going on but one thing can never ever... ever change. You are an Evans. You are my son."

Sam waited quietly and anxiously, for Dwight to come back onto the phone. He hadn't realised how terrified he was of the truth until he'd started talking about it, and now it was the only thing he could think about. What would he do if he wasn't biologically an Evans? He sucked in a breath as Dwight came back on the line, and as his dad spoke, Sam felt a few tears beginning to flow. "Okay, dad," he said quietly, as he wiped at his cheek. "I don't know what to do. Summer's talking about DNA tests, but I'm just freaking out."

DNA? Well, Summer always was his practical and thoughtful child. But the thought of a DNA test made a ball of fear form in his stomach. "Do me a favor alright son. I want you to take a deep breath. I don't know what's going on or who this other boy is, but..." He took a deep breath and tried to squash down his own urge to run away from this. "seems to me you're going to need to know the truth now. Can't unmeet this other boy right? We Evans have faced a whole hell of a lotta trouble in this life but we always make it through to the other side. You know why?"

Sam closed his eyes as Dwight agreed with taking the test. He'd really hoped there would some simple answer for all of this when he phoned home, even if he couldn't think of what that answer could possibly be. "Because we're a family, and we can get through anything," Sam said, his voice a little firmer. He was quiet for a few, long moments as his mind worked overtime. "Dad, if we do a DNA test, and I'm physically your son, that means Alex is too. And it means...uh, well, it means Summer or Sky..."

"That's right. We have each other no matter what." His brain was slowly making those connections. "Have talked to Summer about that possibility?" He frowned. "I... I think we keep this from Sky for the moment."

"Yeah, we do. Blood or no blood," he said firmly. He knew it, in his heart, but it helped a lot to heart Dwight say it. "Not really. I'm only just working out all the different possibilities, I guess," he admitted. "I've gotta tell him something, dad. He's gonna see Alex sooner or later."

"Damn straight," he assured. He ran a hand down his face. "Okay. I trust you son. And you can have him call me if he gives a hard time. But let's talk about you right now. Do you want to do the DNA test?"

Sam took a breath, as he thought about having to tell Sky about all of this. He knew that was going to be hard, especially if Sky realised there was a possibility he wasn't biologically related to them. "I will. I guess I do. Do I do one with you? Or with Summer and Sky?"

That was a good question. "I have to talk to you mom about all of this so I won't be able to do anything until tomorrow, but I'll get a test tomorrow. Let's start there and decide what we do next when we get to it. Your sister can make a choice if she wants to get tested, but we'll wait on Sky, okay?" He was quiet for a long while. "Sam. Listen very carefully. This is scary. No doubt about it but a family isn't made by DNA. It's built on love and this can't change that."

Oh God, I'm sorry you've gotta talk Mom through all this," Sam sighed. "Tell her I love her?" Sam asked, knowing his dad would. "Okay. Let me know what company you're using, and I'll get it all set up," Sam said. "Okay. If Summer gets tested too, there's no reason for Sky to get tested, right? We'll know one way or another if at least two of us get tested," Sam said, scrunching his face a little. All the different possibilities of this was giving him a headache. "This could never change that, dad. This is...hard, but...I don't know, maybe this leads to a good place. Maybe our family is about to grow, in a really, really weird way."

"Got nothing to be sorry about. I will and so will you when she calls you later." He chuckled. They both knew she would need to check in with him. Dwight laughed again. "Well you know us Evans. We're nothing if not weird and dramatic right?" Mostly he thought they were very ordinary. However out of the ordinary things did seem to happen to them. "You sound tired kiddo. You gotta take care of yourself through all'a this right?"

"I'll keep my phone with me," Sam laughed softly. He had no problem with his mom needing to call him, and he also knew he'd want to hear from her as soon as she knew what was going on. "Yeah, that's the truth," he smiled into the phone. "I'm feeling it, but I've got Blaine here right now, taking care of me. I think my boys would be pretty mad if I didn't look after myself."

"Good. You let them take good care of you. You're strong Sam and I know you take care of them. Let them do the same for you. They are your family now and no matter what happens with this test you'll all have each other's strength to lean on." He nodded. "And maybe we're all over reacting. No sense borrowing trouble from the future eh?"

"I learnt that lesson the hard way. I always let my guys take care of me now, dad. Promise," Sam swore. "I guess so. No matter what happens, we're still a family. This is just...finding out about some biology stuff I don't really understand."

"I'm glad to hear it." He'd been pacing up and down their street and finally came to a stop on their stoop. "Don't reckon I understand it either son. We'll let science and God if they're up there figure that stuff out and we'll just worry about taking care of each other. Reckon this other boy might be feeling pretty scared too. Does he got someone to talk to there? Siblings or whatnot?"

"Sounds like a good plan, dad," Sam nodded. Blaine was kneeling at his feet by now, and he was idly playing with his boy's hair. "He says he has a sister here, I'm not really sure if me and her are...something to each other. I don't know if he's talked to anyone yet," Sam admitted.

I'm not really sure if me and her are...something to each other. Good lord the ripples of this revelation were going to be far reaching weren't they. It had the chance of up-ending a lot of lives. Dwight rubbed at his brow worriedly and then sucked in a breath. No, no he wouldn't let that happen. They'd get some answers and then they'd move on from there with love. It was the only option. He felt the urge to want to help the other young man and wondered what that meant... if anything. "Hope he talks to his folks like you did champ. This is a big thing to do all on your lonesome."

#para: another call home

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cwnerd12 · 6 years

Text

God Save the Queens

“God Save the Queens of Gilboa” Abner gives instructions on clearing out Silas’s office: “Give the personal items to Rose, she’ll figure out what to do with them.” A mover: “What should we do about the skull?” Abner: “Keep it. I was there when Silas came back to camp with it. It belongs with me.” Thomasina goes up to him, “Sir, I have a few of King Silas’s… unresolved issues that I think you should take a look at. Abner, “Can it wait? I have a meeting.” Thomasina, “It’s been waiting. It really can’t wait any longer.” Abner, annoyed, “Fine. As long as we we can do this quickly.”

Thomasina opens the door into Vesper’s cell. Abner goes in, and Vesper looks up at him, “Abner, right? I seem to remember you.” Abner gawks, completely dumbfounded, “Silas killed you.” Vesper, “Silas also said he killed David Shepherd.” Abner, still in disbelief, “You are dead!” Vesper, “Did you ever see my body?” Abner sputters, “Silas would have told me if you were alive! He never kept any secrets from me!” Vesper, “Silas kept secrets from everyone, except for maybe Thomasina. At least as far as I know. There could be secrets that I’m not aware of. Silas certainly had plenty of them. God rest his soul,” he casts an appraising looks, “Which one of Silas’s problems are you trying to solve today?” Abner, “D-David Shepherd.” Vesper, “Oh, he’s a hard one. Always just out of reach- it’s almost as if he knows some kind of secret you don’t, isn’t it?” Abner, “He’s not invulnerable. He’s still just a human being.” Vesper, “With the face and body of a seraph.” Abner, “He can be killed!” Vesper, “And so can you. Do you want to know what I think of Shepherd?” Abner, “What?” Vesper, “He should be king. He knows what mercy is, and he knows when to show none. If you fight him, he will kill you.” Abner, “You’ve been in a cell for twenty years! What do you know?!” Vesper, “That God favors the righteous, and there is no shame in admitting defeat. If I’m not mistaken, you have a daughter, don’t you?” Abner, “Yes.” Vesper, “Think of her. What would happen if she lost her father? Would she grieve?” Abner, “She’s my daughter!” Vesper, “Yes, but would she grieve?”

Leadership meeting in the safehouse. Joel explains, “We have an idea, David. It’s… it’s something we haven’t considered before, but it’s worth considering.” David: “What is it?” Shay, “Silas was complicated, but with Abner, all we have to do is kill him.” Joel, “We think if we send a team of Queens into the palace, they can take him out.” Asher, “It’s a suicide mission. Whoever shoots Abner is absolutely going to die, and there’s no way around it.” Joel, “It’s not a suicide mission, it’s just a very, very high-risk mission.” Asher, “It’s a fucking suicide mission.” Shay, “My girls can get out. I believe in the Queens of Gilboa.” David sinks into his seat, “Do we have any other ideas?” Isaiah, “I had an idea about using a drone to deliver a bomb, but that’s gonna take a lot of time to figure out. I don’t know what kind of damage Abner’s capable of causing before I can figure it out.” David rubs his face, “How would we even get into the palace? Everyone has to go through a metal detector.” Monique, “Not certain employees, like the princess’s stylist. I can get the Queens into the palace. Dress them up like they belong there, no one will see them coming.” Asher, “We said we wouldn’t do suicide missions!” David, “I said we wouldn’t do suicide bombings.” Joel, “It’s not a suicide mission!” Asher, “You aren’t actually considering this, are you?” David shakes his head, “If it will end things…” he trails off. Asher, “David, this is wrong!” David, “It may be wrong, but I haven’t known what’s right since one of my best friends turned us in and got your parents killed.” Asher, “Do not use my parents to justify this.” David, “I’m sorry, I’m just… I’m fucking tired of fighting. How else are we going to end this?” Shay, “I’ll send our best.” Asher, “We will lose our best!” David, “We’ll have a plan for getting out. I won’t send anyone into a situation where they can’t feasibly get out.” Asher, “And what if we don’t succeed?” David, “Then we don’t succeed. I say let’s do this, just be careful about it. We need to have a fool-proof plan. I trust Shay, Joel, and Monique to make one.”

Michelle leads Helen through the hallways of the hospital, “I’m so glad they’re letting you do this. Jack’s still sleeping most of the time, and he can’t talk, but he understands what’s being said to him, he recognizes the people around him, and he can follow simple commands. He’s just woken up, and already, he’s jumping over some pretty huge hurdles.” Helen, “He’s a Benjamin. I’d expect nothing less. The doctors were always amazed by how quickly Seth bounced back after his surgeries. You were pretty remarkable, too.” Michelle, “Jack spent enough time waiting around for me in the hospital, I guess now it’s my turn. Right now, what he needs more than anything else is people just talking to him. Abner won’t let anyone but Mom and me see him, and I have to be in class half the time.” Helen, “I’ll try to visit as much as I can. It shouldn’t be too hard. Maybe I can even have someone warn me if Rose shows up.” Michelle, “That’s definitely a risk you’re taking.” Helen, “I don’t mind risking it for Jack.” Michelle, “Mom said she has things to do all morning, which is why I tried to bring you in today. Jack’s gonna be so happy to see you, but there’s just one thing.” Helen, “What?” They stop in front of Jack’s door. Michelle, “He’s incredibly weak, physically. He struggles to just hold his head up, but, if you can, try not to use the word ‘weak’ in front of him. Dad used to call him that all the time.” Helen, “You’re calling Silas ‘Dad’ again.” Michelle, “It’s complicated.” Helen, “I understand. And don’t worry. I’ll tell Jack stories about Seth. He’ll appreciate that.” Michelle, “Thanks. He also might fall asleep on you, but that’s the brain injury, not him. Don’t take it personal.” Helen, “Don’t worry. I had plenty of patients fall asleep on me. I know how injuries work.” Michelle hugs Helen, and then opens the door. Rose stands in the room, adjusting Jack’s bed. Michelle, “Mom!” She rushes over, “Dr. Hussein said not to do that! You’ll tire him out!” She pushes the headrest back down while Jack blinks at her. Michelle, quietly to him, “Sorry.” Rose glares at Helen. Michelle, “I thought you said you were busy this morning.” Rose, “None of it was more important than Jack. I found people to take care of everything.” Michelle speaks to Jack, “I brought Helen to see you. She’s been really worried about you.” Helen comes over and smiles at him, “Hi, Jack.” He smiles faintly at her. She looks at the pictures on the walls, “I like what you’ve done with the place. I can bring you some pictures of Seth, if you’d like.” Michelle, “That’d be wonderful.” Rose, “I suppose you don’t need me here, then.” Helen, “You can stay, if you want to.” Rose sniffs, “I think it would be best if I left.” Michelle, “Mom!” Rose puts a hand on Jack’s shoulder, “I’ll be back this afternoon.” She casts a dirty look at Helen, and exits. Michelle, embarrassed, “I am so fucking sorry.” Helen, “Not the worst she’s been to me, actually. And I’m here for Jack. I don’t care about her.”

David stands and faces a group of twelve Queens of Gilboa. David, “You all know the chances of you making it out of this… aren’t very good, right?” One of the girls, Lilly, answers, “We know, sir. We’re honored to have the chance.” David, “Which one of you is gonna be the one to shoot Abner?” Lilly, “I am, along with Bridget and Neela.” Shay, “We’re gonna have four groups of three posted in positions throughout the palace, if the first group misses, the others will go for it.” Monique, “I’ll have them dressed up like palace employees, but with shit they can run and hide weapons in. I’ll hide headsets in their hair. They’ll go in the back entrance, and I’ll lead them up to the right floors.” Shay, “I’ll monitor everything, and give instructions.” David, “Good, because we are every imaginable kind of fucked if this doesn’t work.” Joel, “We’ve said that a million times before.” David, “It’s been true every time.” He looks at the Queens, “If any of you has even the slightest bit of hesitation or doubt, it’s okay to step out now. Because once we get going, there’s no going back.” None of the Queens steps forward. Lilly, “We all volunteered for this.” David looks at them, conflicted, “What are you gonna do if you get caught? We saw what the MSS did to Frankie Hatch when they thought he could give over AFG secrets.” Lilly, “We won’t get caught.” David, “We can rescue you if you get caught.We can take more time and put together a solid extraction plan.” Lilly, emphatically, “We won’t get caught.”

(“Seamstress” Dessa) In a safehouse in Shiloh, Monique helps the Queens get ready. She settles hair to cover communication devices, and fits guns and knives into hidden pockets. The Queens test out their getups, practicing quick draws and combat moves. They get into two vans, and drive out to the palace. In the back of one, Shay talks into a headset, “You all know exactly where you’re going?” They arrive at the palace. Monique, back in male drag, says to a security guard, “Dresses for Princess Emma.” They’re all let in. Everyone goes into their positions. Lilly, Bridget, and Neela all wait in the dressing room. Emma enters, and Lilly pulls a gun on her. Lilly, “Don’t say anything. We don’t want to hurt you. Just put your hands up and do what we say.” Emma puts her hands up, terrified. Neela speaks into her headpiece, “Everyone in position?” Head of team 2, Layla, “Go.” Head of team 3, Marissa, “Go.” Head of team 4, Amy, “Go.” Shay, “Go.” Lilly, “Go to the door, but don’t open it all the way, and tell your aide to send for your dad.” Emma, “What are you gonna do?” Lilly, “We don’t want to hurt you, but if security comes, there’s gonna be a lot of gunfire, and you might get hurt. So do what we say, and you’ll be fine.” Emma nods. She takes a moment to compose herself, and then Lilly walks her over to the door. Emma opens it, “Can you please send for my dad?” Lilly whispers, “It’s urgent.” Emma, “It’s urgent.” Aide, “Sure thing, your highness.” Lilly, Neela, and Bridget keep their guns fixed on Emma, but position themselves in a place where they won’t immediately be seen. Emma trembles. The aide goes into the throne room, and approaches Abner, “Sir, Princess Emma is asking for you.” Abner looks annoyed, “I’m busy.” Aide, “She says it’s urgent. She’s in the dressing room.” Abner, “What could be urgent there?” Aide, “I don’t know, sir.” Abner sighs and gets up. He leaves the throne room, and Marissa sees him. When he’s out of earshot, she quietly says, “Target is moving.” Back in the dressing room, Emma looks at Lilly, “What the fuck are you gonna do?” Lilly doesn’t answer. In the hallway outside the dressing room, Layla sees Abner coming, “Target approaching, get ready.” Lilly, Bridget, and Neela all tense up and eye the door. Abner enters. (I kept an angel… #2) Lilly, Bridget, and Neela all fire on Abner. Emma screams, “Dad!” He ducks behind a rack of clothes, grabs his own gun, and fires back, hitting Neela. Lilly and Bridget try to fire back, but security comes running in, and take them both out. Emma runs to Abner, “Dad!” A security guy leans over him, “Sir, are you hurt?” Abner grabs his shoulder, “Grazed my shoulder, I’m fine.” Security guy, “We need to get you to a secure location.” Shay, “Shit, team 2, get ready!” Team 2, Layla, Amy and Serena, and Team 3, Marissa, Cecile, and Nadia, get into position hiding in doors in the hallway outside the dressing room. Soldiers and security guys escort Emma and Abner out of the dressing room. Teams 2 and 3 leap out of their location and begin to fire. Emma screams and Abner shields her while security guys fall around them. Shay listens in, “Team 3, try to head them off, go!” Shay, “Shit, shit, Teams 3 and 4, get ready.” In the residence, security guys rush toward Rose, “We have to get you to a secure location!” Rose, annoyed, “Oh, for fuck’s sake, they’re here for Linus, not me!” Layla gets close to Abner, and fires a shot at him, grazing his shoulder. He grabs her wrist and tries to disarm her, but she fights back. Security guys go for the other two, and engage in fierce hand-to-hand fighting. Abner fights with the skill and precision of an old soldier. He knocks her gun away, but she manages to get loose of his grip. She lunges for a security guy, but he grabs her, and manages to shoot her dead. One of the guards in the firefight turns and shoots Amy, fighting nearby him, but in return, he gets shot dead. One of the shooting Queens, Rachel, gets shot in the arm, and drops her gun. A security guy pins down Serena while another shoots her in the head. Shay, “Fuck, fuck, team 4, get in there!” Rachel ducks back into the doorway while Hannah continues to fire. Team 4, Marissa, Cecile, and Nadia run up to join the fight. A security guy pins down Serena while another shoots her in the head. The remaining security guys engage in the firefight, Hannah and Alma take out Abner’s security, before getting shot dead. Nadia and Cecile both manages to knock Abner over and hold him, Marissa points a gun at his head, almost triumphant. A sharp BANG, Marissa falls dead, and more security guys rush up the hallway, taking out Nadia and Cecile. Rachel looks at where her gun is. She can’t reach it without revealing herself. Shay, “Stay there, Rachel, we can get you out.” Security, “Are you all right, sir?” Abner points towards Rachel, “There’s one more down there!” Rachel lunges for her gun, grabs it, and ducks back into the doorway before she can get shot. Desperately, she shoots at Abner, taking out some final security guys. She pulls the trigger and the gun clicks, out of bullets. (When I ran out of thread… #2) Security guys run up to her. She shuts her eyes and crosses herself. They surround her and point their guns at her, “Put your hands in the air!” Rachel weakly puts her hands up. Abner rushes towards her, “She’s going to give me answers! Take her to the dungeons!” A security guy, “Stand up.” Slowly, Rachel stands. The security guy lowers his gun to take hold of her. In a flash, Rachel grabs a razor hidden in her hair and cuts her own throat. In the van, Shay listens in, horrified, “What the fuck.”

In the safe room, Emma sobs while Rose puts an arm around her in a vague attempt to be comforting. Abner, “It was the AFG. They sent twelve of their elite fighters, but we killed all of them.” Emma, “Oh my god!” Abner, “It means we’re safe, Emma. Twelve of our men died to keep us safe today.” Emma freaks out, “I don’t want to stay here any more!” Abner, “You are safer here than anywhere else!” Rose, “You should let her go back to her old apartment. It’s only you the AFG is interested in. They won’t bother with her.” Abner, “Emma is still a princess, she needs to be at the palace!” Emma, “Dad, you cannot make me stay here!” Abner, “You are perfectly safe here!” Emma, “I hate it here!” Abner, “Not now, Emma!” Rose, “Am I allowed to leave, yet? I told Jack I’d be back in the afternoon. You should come with me, get that shoulder stitched up.” Abner glares at her, thinking for a moment, but then says, “I will.” Emma, “What am I supposed to do now?” Abner, “Go back to whatever it was you were doing before.” Emma, “And pretend that I didn’t just get taken hostage?!” Abner, “You’ll get used to it.”

Joel and Monique sit with David, Shay, Isaiah, and Asher. Shay, “We should have sent more.” Joel, “We couldn’t. Not without getting noticed.” Shay, “How the fuck could Abner have survived this? I don’t understand! The girls I sent, they were fucking good!” Monique, “I know I got seen bringing them in. I can’t go back to the palace any more.” David, “That’s fine, Monique. It was risky to keep sending you, anyway.” Joel, “So what now?” David, “Either give Isaiah’s drone idea a try, or find something else.” Isaiah, “I’ll keep working.” Joel, “I’ll try to think of something.” Every sits quietly for a second, and then Shay sniffs loudly, “Those girls, they were good! How could we have lost all of them?” She breaks down crying. David, “We knew this was possible.” Shay, “There’s knowing it’s possible, and then there’s thinking it will happen! They’d all been with us, been with me, since the fucking beginning! I can’t fucking process this! Why are you all not more fucked up over this?!” Asher, quietly, “They all went willingly.” David, “It’s not that I don’t feel horrible about this. It’s just that I have a lot of things that I feel horrible about right now.”

At the hospital, Abner gets his shoulder stitched up. Outside his room, Rose and Michelle talk. Rose, “They sent twelve of them.” Michelle, “Twelve?” Rose, “They were all girls!” Michelle, “Queens of Gilboa. They’re out best. To lose twelve of them… Fuck, that’s bad.” Abner comes out, his shoulder all bandaged. He sees Michelle’s AFG jacket, and fury flashes in his eyes, “You. I want to speak to you.” Michelle, “What?” Abner “You had something to do with this!” Michelle, “I didn’t! You’ve kept me under close guard, you know everything I’ve done!” Abner, “You’re coming with me.” Michelle, “What?” Abner turns to his security guy, “Bering her with me!” He begins to walk away. The security guy grabs Michelle by the shoulders and pushes her roughly by the shoulders. Michelle, “Get your fucking hands off of me!” Rose follows them, “Linus, what are you doing?” Abner, “Go visit your son, Rose!” Rose jumps in front of Michelle, “I’m not letting you hurt her!” Abner stops and turns around, “Don’t make me have you restrained!” Another security guy grabs Rose. Abner turns around and keeps marching, Michelle pushed behind him. Rose’s security guy hold her firmly in place, “Linus! Linus!”

Abner enters the morgue. The bodies of the twelve Queens are laid out on tables. Michelle is brought in beside Abner. She suppresses her horror. Abner, “Look at them. Your precious idol, David Shepherd, sent all these girls on a suicide mission, and they failed! I know you know who they are! You’re going to identify every one of these bitches for me!” Michelle, “I don’t know them.” Abner, “You lying little cunt! They’re Queens of Gilboa! I know you were with them when they blew up the border checkpoint! Tell me their names!” Michelle, “Do whatever the fuck you want to me, I’m not telling you shit!” Abner, “I won’t hurt you. I’ll hurt Jack.” Michelle, “No!” Abner, “I’ll have him taken out of the hospital and locked in a cell just the way he is. If an infection doesn’t kill him, his recovery will be halted, and he’ll be permanently trapped, unable to speak, unable to move!” Michelle sobs, “Fuck you!” Abner, “Who are they?!” Michelle goes over to the first table, and takes a good look at the body, “Alma Diaz.” Abner, “Good. Go on.” Michelle moves to the next, “Lilly Risinger,” She moves on, “Bridget Mann. Neela… I don’t know her last name.” Abner, “Explain that to Jack.” Michelle, “I don’t! I wish I did, but I don’t! I’m telling the truth!” She sobs, terrified. Abner, “Fine. Keep going.” Michelle goes on, “Rachel Olson. Hannah Terzich. Cecile… I don’t know.” Abner, “You need to do better.” Michelle, “I’m trying!” Abner, “Keep going.” Michelle, “Layla Choi. Marissa Brotz. Amy Todaro. Serena, I don’t know.” The final Queen has a grisly facial injury that makes her unidentifiable. Michelle, “She has her face blown off, I can’t tell.” Abner, “Surely you can recognize the hair and the body type.” Michelle, “I can’t!” Abner, “I’m almost feeling sorry for Jack right now.” Michelle, desperate, “I don’t know who she is!” She sobs, “If you’re going to punish me, please don’t hurt Jack! Do anything you want to me, just leave Jack alone!” Abner, smugly, “Very well. You’ve done enough. Eleven out of twelve isn’t bad. I’ll leave Jack be.” Michelle cries. Abner, “Come on, let’s go see him.”

Michelle sullenly follows Abner into Jack’s room. Rose stands up, “What did you do?” Michelle, quietly, “Nothing, Mom. It’s fine.” Rose, “What the fuck did you do to my daughter?!” Jack’s eyes open to the noise. Abner, “Michelle helped me identify the girls who tried to kill me today. She was very helpful.” He looks down at Jack, “I see Jack is awake.” Michelle, “Leave him alone!” Abner goes to the foot of the bed, “Your boyfriend tried to have me assassinated today. I’m going to kill him.” Jack’s heart rate spikes. Rose jumps in between Jack and Abner, “You son of a bitch, you get the fuck out of here!” Abner, “Silas couldn’t kill David, but I will! His skull will be my trophy. Every day, you will look at it, and know what I did!” Rose shoves him backwards, roaring, “SHUT UP!” Jack’s eyes roll back in his head, he begins to convulse. Michelle, “Jack!” Rose spins around. Michelle, “Get a doctor, he’s having a seizure!” Rose rushes out. Abner looks down at the sight of Jack convulsing. He smiles with mad satisfaction. Michelle, “You sick motherfucker!” Abner, “I will keep my crown.”

#Kings

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