#Plus the tap water where my work is in the main body of the city is intolerably terrible without some kind of filter so. Never been able to

[corset]

My work got this super nice water fountain machine thing that filters the water and it’s SOOOO crisp and cold and Delicious I am about to get so hydrated at work

[stopeatingwhales]

“dance with me,” x noel gallagher

this was one of my earliest requests and i’m so unbelievably sorry it’s so overdue! i honestly went all out with writing this (it’s the longest fic i’ve ever written from this date). my honest face by inhaler helped me write the ending/the last part to this, so thank you inhaler anons ;) x

Pairing: high school noel x reader

Warnings: low form of assault, but it’s very brief (from another character - not noel) + A LOT of softness :)

Word count: 4.772

Requested by anon, I’m so sorry it’s so late <3

༉‧₊˚✧

“No, I want you, she’s so heavy is the best song!” I exclaimed, throwing my hands up in the air, a repulsive look plastered on my face. “Imagine thinking that Polythene Pam was the best,” I added, my loathsome expression increasing in disgust.

I was at Noel’s house, sitting on his bed in his shared room, accompanied by his younger brother Liam as Abbey Road by the Beatles blasted out of his record player. The atmosphere of the space was extremely calming - Noel sometimes joining in on Oh! Darling as it spun around on the player, his guitar strumming the notes lightly projecting the song louder, whilst his knee bounced up and down to measure the beat. I laid down on his bed, adorning his scent whiffed all over the sheets as I played with a few of my hair strands, humming along to Paul McCartney’s voice quietly, not interrupting the soothing sounds escaping from Noel’s guitar. The occasional curse word slipped out of Liam’s mouth - his eyes pinned on the simple question written on his homework sheet. He hadn’t done any of his work for the past two weeks, receiving multiple detentions - to which he didn’t attend - until the headteacher of our school decided to threaten him with an expulsion. During the time I was with them, I had slightly helped on a few of the questions littering his maths sheet, hinting at the answers so he would be able to properly figure them out himself. However, trying to teach a naughty 12-year-old how to do long division was exactly like being able to balance a spoon on your nose whilst laughing. Completely and utterly impossible.

Me going over to Noel’s place wasn’t unknown; I tended to go over to theirs once or twice during the week, most times after school because I had nothing better to do. We usually hung out in his room, mainly because we were both drained from how exhausting school always was, and plus, we didn’t need to go anywhere to have a laugh together, we always did. No matter where we were, we somehow found a way to brighten everything up - perhaps by smoking a joint together in a plain field, watching the sunset as we impatiently waited for another rave to pass by us, or by spending our evenings in relaxing moments like these, listening to our favourite albums without a care in the world, the occasional argument slipping out of our mouths about which was the best song - usually ending up in Noel ignoring me for the sum of 10 minutes before I gave in and apologised for my stupid remark. There’s no best song by The Beatles, they’re legendary for a reason.

“Shut it, otherwise I’m ignoring you again,” Noel replied, staring at me with both his eyes squinted together. I lifted my head up from his pillow, scoffing. Knowing this was going to happen, I didn’t reply to his silly remark, dropping my head back down onto his pillow once again. Despite the groggy feeling partnering in the room due to the heater being on, his scent was sweet. He smelt like a packet of heavy Marlboro cigarettes, whisked in with cheap aftershave from the shop down the road because he’s skint from buying too many cigarettes and ‘forgot to buy one the other day’. Nevertheless, it was alluring. I adored his scent, mainly because it reminded me of how the littlest things in life can mean the most to you. It continuously reminded me that doing simple things like these add to the empowering lifestyle of being a teenager in a dying city; Manchester was left to rot due to the prime minister focusing all her time and dedication to unimportant things, rather than helping the poor and lower class. It gave us a sense of freedom, that without the higher class evoking their worry in our troubles, they forgot about everything and let us be. We could do whatever we desired now, whether it be partying until you’re unable to walk for three days, or skipping school because you can’t be bothered to see people that only retaliate at you for petty reasons. It was the bittersweet rivers of life, we were poor but we had fun with it, dancing until our last breath before dawn.

“Noel,” Liam said, lifting his head up from his crinkled worksheet. “Don’t you have that school dance soon?” he added, the temperature of the room now feeling like it was upped one hundred degrees due to my cheeks reddening. Since me and Noel didn’t have that big of a friendship group, and both of us having somewhat a troubled love life for our age, our minds never brushed past the thought of going to the leavers dance. It was itching towards the end of the school year, meaning that we were going to leave school, so going and taking part in the fun of a last dance was quite hyped up. My mind sometimes brushed the idea of me and Noel going together, but we were only friends. Plus, wouldn’t that just be weird?

I tried to subtly raise my head to look at Noel, my eyes trailing from the plain white ceiling to his slim-structured body. The neck of his acoustic guitar was gripped gently by his left hand, his right caressing the strings softly as his playing came to a close from the question hanging in the air. He shifted around in his seat a bit, adjusting where the guitar sat, before clearing his throat and answering the question. I was tempted to ask him the same thing too, my curiosity over the subject now being the only thing pitted in my mind. “Well, yeah but I haven’t got no one to go with, init?” He said, staring straight at Liam, then the piece of paper lying in front of him on his bed. My heart sank a little as that sentence launched out of his mouth abruptly, my thoughts now following on with unspeakable things of what I could’ve answered to that. I knew he really wanted to go with someone, but there wasn’t anyone who would be willing to go out with him, even for just one night.

“Couldn’t you just go with Y/N?” Liam asked, turning his head to look at me. My eyes widened expeditiously, my crimson cheeks now turning to fire as I chewed on my bottom lip. The heat bubbling in my body caused me to feel a slight tingle at my lower back, the feeling of sweat beginning to form on all the spots that weren’t visible to both boys - the skin I owned underneath. “Unless you’ve got someone to go with, but I doubt that,” Liam added, chuckling after his words.

Ignoring his comment, I stayed silent for a few seconds, my eyes darting to my fingers as I fiddled with them - figuring out what to answer. “I mean, we could just go as friends I guess?” I said, now staring straight at Noel. He stared back at me, his eyebrows shifting around a bit, contemplating the idea that was now punctured in his brain. “There’s nothing wrong with that,” I added, reassuring that I did feel the same way at first - friends shouldn’t be going together - when it’s no harm dressing up and having a couple drinks with your best friend, we do that all the time anyways.

“I suppose so,” He replied, nodding his head as he darted his head back to the record player, reaching out for the opened water bottle placed by the record player - taking a short sip of it before carrying on his sentence. “But you have to admit Polythene Pam is the best song,”

~~~

As I walked through the school gates I was for once welcomed with a feeling which wasn’t dread. I gazed around the mundane, dimmed colours of the school’s front whilst anticipation filled my veins whole, adoring my body like a little child, after begging and begging for minutes on end for their guardian to buy them a treat they had been eyeing at for what felt like a year, their carer gives in from the child’s immediate persistence, causing the kid to be on a cloud-nine-level of euphoria and exhilaration. For once, I felt excited; apprehension for the tales ahead buzzed through my body, for my usual, stale state taking a departure once my eyes made contact with the known building for once. Tonight I was going to enjoy myself, even if I despised the majority of the people who were attending. This was one of the last chances I got to enjoy myself at school - and since we’re going for the its-the-last-day-of-the-world vibe - I might as well make the most of it while it lasts.

Walking up to the main building, I saw bright, flashy colours being projected from inside the large hall, reminiscing me of the many raves I had hazily attended with Noel whilst we were drunk off of our heads. The sparkling lights, the huge domes of crowded, drunken teenagers - just like me and him - trying to find a place to fit in, accidentally stumbling into an open, warm embrace to another dimension crammed with unknown faces, an introduction to the exact same embrace they’d be entangled in when they go back home to their parents in the middle of the night - whom were sick to their stomach in worry because they didn’t know where their child was. You belonged to your families, but you refused to believe that life was as bland as it had become; there’s more to life than studying for exams, everyone says. You don’t want to end up like the small percentage of people who refuse to live their lives because it's the only one they’ve got. You want to live your life because it is the only one you’ve got.

My shoes echoed a light tap on the concrete as I paced slowly, my mind entranced in thought, wondering the crowds I’d be exposed to once I set foot inside the chattering room.  As I made my way to the glass door, I stared at my reflection briefly, adjusting my hair a little bit due to it falling out of place from the small gusts of wind that had accompanied me on my way to the school. A rush of nervousness focused on my mind until I gripped on the handle, pushing the door open, revealing the view of teenagers dancing about, drinking, laughing or slobbering on each other's faces. My anxieties were cleared when I saw every girl dolled up in dresses; the one I was currently engulfed in wasn’t that nice - it being the only dress I’ve had in my wardrobe for a couple years (since I wholeheartedly have a brutal hate for dresses). I was forced to keep it in my closet in case there was a time and a place I needed it, for unexpected times like these,  a leavers disco, my date being my one and only best friend Noel Gallagher. I was astounded to realise it actually sat on me the same as it used to, only a little bit shorter due to me growing in height. I was the same height as Noel, yet we would always have arguments over who was taller - always being shushed by Liam as he was figuring how to write a paragraph describing what happens in Act 5 of Macbeth. Get a room, you two.

Wandering on the sidelines of the grand hall, I picked up on the little decorations which had been ripped off the walls from careless students. The colour of the room was a simple blue, making it quite hard to study everything from the human eyes. Bits of what seemed to be silky red ribbon - the flashing lights of the room making it quite hard to figure out what shade it was - ripped up tissue paper, and a few bursted balloons. Music was playing, blasting out of huge Marshall amps, stacked upon each other on the main stage, where years worth of plays and performances were repetitively played almost every half term, my mind reminiscing on the first play I did in year 7 as a side character. The many screams that escaped people’s mouths as the chorus of Boys Don’t Cry by the Cure, prevented me from living out the memories for the last time as I set foot in the hall. Humming along to the melody, I waved my arms around in the air - not too far out, in case I accidentally come into contact with someone rushing past me - my fingers twiddling together as I spun myself around slightly. The ambience of the room felt very uplifting, reminding me of, yet again, those fun times I had experienced with Noel on the many late nights of the summer holidays.

My eyes briefly caught contact with a table as I was walking - the drinks stand. It sat straight ahead of me, yet it was positioned facing the crowds of people mingling about singing along to the new song that began playing. As each step began bringing me closer to it, I attempted to analyse what was suited up for options, squinted my eyes together. There were four fish-bowl-like tubs, with nothing but flavoured beverage inside them, all of them being a different shade - one lighter than the other, one darker than the other. Once I made it to the table, I continued to vary my choice, my eyes completely enthralled by the options. Bowls were left almost empty, some fully empty. As I placed my finger on the one which had the most drink in it, I squinted my eyes together again, wondering if it was the best choice.

“You come here alone?” chirped up a voice in front of me, behind the table. As I raised my head up, I met eyes with the person, noticing that it was one of mine and Noel’s mates. There were stacks of paper cups lined up behind him, along with one small stack sat on the wooden table beside his stood body - for easy access when having a lot of customers, especially at the start of the dance, when all the people attending want is a drink to murder the awkward atmosphere building up in the place.

Laughing lightly, I smiled. “Well, I’m supposed to be here with Noel,” I said, quickly scanning the room after to see if he had made it yet - clearly not. “But he doesn’t seem to have arrived here  yet,”

I heard a laugh escape the boy's mouth. “You and Noel?” he asked, grabbing a spoonful of the drink I was eyeing merely seconds previous, snatching a paper cup from the pile lined up perfectly beside him, gathering some of the drink before splashing the liquid into the cup. “I was wondering when that was going to happen,” he added, more or so mumbled, as if he was trying to hide it from me. I noticed he rolled his eyes slightly, his eyebrows furrowing together as he dropped the spoon he was pouring the drink with back into its original position - inserted into the bowl.

“Sorry?” I asked, confused by his comment. He handed me the drink after swishing it around in his hand a couple times - perhaps to check if there was enough to the point it wouldn’t spill, or maybe because he was stunned by my upfront approach against his words, mustering responses in his head before spitting back at me. It felt like there was a lot on his mind - a lot he wanted to say, most likely things to me.

His eyes wandered around the table separating us. Fixating both his palms on the table, keeping it steady, he sighed, sucking in one side of his mouth before exhaling. “Well, he’s more of a pretentious twat if I’m honest,”

I was shocked. My jaw was practically on its way to drop to the ground and smash at full force - as if it were being thrown off the tallest tower in the world. Why did he say that? “Plus, he’s your best mate, are you that lonely not to go with anyone else?” he scoffed, clearly aiming the question towards why I hadn’t gone with him. There was speculation of him liking me between conversations I had with our small friend group at school, but I tended to avoid bringing it up in conversation; I got too uncomfortable. We weren’t close, he was always there simply whenever we hung out at school. Apart from that, we barely ever saw him, let alone know anything about him.  

“Come on Y/N, let’s dance,” he said, circling the table, walking round to where I was standing, my eyes facing the bowls. He grabbed my arm roughly - turning me to look directly at him. “You deserve better than that fucker!” he exclaimed, attempting to drag me closer to him, as he pulled us to the middle of the room, where everyone was dancing. Gripping onto the beverage tightly in my free hand, I pulled it close to me, in case I’d manage to spill anything on the floor, becoming the cause of someone’s injury from slipping and ripping their clothes. His body language seemingly began to turn more aggressive as we made it to the centre of the room, the pressure being put on my wrist getting more and more tight. The idea of me and Noel dancing in the room played on his mind as it did with mine too, noticing the amount of people dancing with their significant others. Perhaps the reason he kept adding so much strength was because he was jealous, the same sort of jealousy when you find out two of your supposed best friends had gone out together and forgot to ask you to come - when without a doubt deliberately did it since they didn’t want you attending. His grip was slowly seeming out more pain in my body.

My hand began to ache; the force he was pushing onto my wrist was causing my hand to tingle from the lack of blood circulation. The idea of throwing my drink at him, knowing I wouldn’t drink it anymore due to what he was doing to me, “Get off of me, you bitch!” I shrieked, jittering my hand around in all ways possible, causing him to turn his face to look at me, scold me perhaps, until I took the chance and threw my drink straight at him - aiming for the eyes like pepper spray gauging to the root of your eyes, blinding you in immediate pain. I heard him shout, instantly releasing his hold from my hand, as I headed to leave the room straight away. Practically everyone had their eyes glued to the pair of us, staring both of us questioningly, the sound of my heels clanking against the wooden floor ringing through my ears painfully as I exited the immensely tensed stiff room.

~~~

Walking outside of the building, I made my way towards the gate I once entered, couching to lean against the wall that was placed beside it. The aged wall felt cold, the little bumps of hardened cement sticking out of the bricks digging into my dress, eventually into my back. The contrast of my heated body against the freezing wall brought a feeling of relaxation - the stressful situation that had previously occurred just moments ago finally began departing from its connection to my thoughts. I held my face in my hands, slowly feeling my wrist go from its numbed state to a softened feeling of fuzz; I moved it around a little bit, noticing I had somewhat control of it now. The past tingly feeling I felt on my hand had come to my head instead, as I started to weave myself into thoughts about what people would take and think from the situation. I was almost certain someone was going to mention it to everyone and everywhere imaginable - casual teenager gossip, a girl got assaulted, spread it around!

As the skies unfolded newer, darker shades, welcoming the night, the stale breeze picked up on itself, cluttering my hair, throwing it to other parts of my face - like how it was before I had entered the building, this time as if I had rolled down a mountain and stood up injury free. Collecting my arms in an embrace to warm me up, I leaned my head back against the brick wall, staring at the twinkling night sky. It was surprising how much light the moon emitted. You didn’t need that many lamp posts at all, unless you were walking in an area where the moon was unable to shimmer its colours: a dull alleyway, where there's only one small light hanging on the wall, basically broken, a flickering light flashing out of it, just managing you to get through the dust and dirt cascaded around you. Almost telling you that, you’ll be able to survive your hardships, as long as you believe in the light to keep shining.

Staring at my shoes, I admired the little sparkles glimmering from my shoes. They were small, short-cut heels that I put on to make myself look fit for the part of a schoolgirl ready to depart from her beautiful teenage life and enter a world of womanhood. I was growing up, and I just hoped that the future that was slowly unravelling itself to me was going to be better than I anticipated it to be. Tonight went to shit, though.

“Y/N?” a voice said, speaking up as it walked through the gate’s entrance. Straight away I was able to know who it was. Noel.

Moving my head from the view of the night sky, I locked eyes with Noel - who was standing in front of me, concern miffed on his eyes. He was clothed in a cheap looking suit, perhaps one he found in his mother's closet which belonged to his father previously, or maybe one he stole from a friend. It fit him perfectly, as if the brand tailored to his bodily structure. His hair looked as if he had done it properly for once, rather than having it in its usual, worn down state. “Why are you sitting alone, and outside in the freezing cold?”  

I scoffed, recalling the situation. However, I avoided mentioning it; it would only make the rest of the evening more dreadful to experience. “Rough night,” I mumbled, turning my head to the glowing skies again. “Where were you?” I asked, attempting to change the subject expeditiously. Thankfully, it worked.

“Thought it started at ten,” he replied, walking to lean on the wall beside me, but not sitting like I was. He shuffled his feet a little bit, small, minuscule rocks causing a scraping sound to ripple out from underneath. It was a soothing sound at first, the coarse scratches against the floor reminding me of walking in the middle of a sea of leaves in a park in autumn, completely emptied, without a soul to be seen when there's not a single tree alive and blooming anymore. A ghost town, when in summer would be compressed with thousands of people trying to get past the sweaty, sticky air causing you to cough a couple times. You walk through, stomping on whatever leaf your shoe comes into contact with, a crisp, crunchy sound mounting from it. You slow your pace, wanting to breathe in the cool air, capture the moment before it’s too late and you’re getting your keys to unlock your front door. “Guess not,”

Sighing, I shook my head. “It’s fine, don’t worry, really,” I answered, my eyes trailing to the school building once again. “It’s not like you missed out on anything,”

As if on cue, once my eyes made contact with the place, the loud music that was being projected out of it came to a halt - cutting off mid song, forming goose bumps on my arm out of frustration. You don’t cut off a song halfway, patience, please. I’d always say to Noel, when he got sick and tired of listening to I want you (She’s so heavy) for the fourth time. We’ve listened to it four times! Regardless, you twat. You don’t cut off good music.

I heard Noel snicker lightly, knowing I would get bothered - even if I didn’t physically show it. What was replaced with the rasp, echoing sounds of some random dance song, was the music I was silently waiting for all night. The slow dancing song. The most memorable moment of the night. In all honesty, the song that was playing was bad - but that’s not the point.

As the music progressed on, I imagined myself in the hall, slow dancing with Noel. Tonight made me realise something: over the past year and a bit of mine and his friendship blossoming, he became someone that I needed in my life, in my future. Like how tea needs its milk and sugar. Like how to write you need a pen. You couldn’t take one or the other out of the equation; it wouldn’t make sense - at all. It was weird enough knowing we used to hate each other in class, not because someone said something to the other to piss them off, neither of us really didn’t know. We just hated each other’s presence - until we both shared a spliff together one morning before school; I had forgotten my last cigarette at home, and him - not exactly knowing why he did it - offered to have a hit of his.

“Dance with me,” he said, lifting his body off off the wall, once again standing right in front of me.

“What?”

“Every girl deserves a dance,” he started grabbing my hand, preparing himself to pull me up. Our eyes made stale contact, his brunette eyes interlocking with mine. They had a certain shine to them under the moonlight, a certain twinkle I was never able to notice before. “Especially you,” he added, dragging me up from the icy, dirty floor.

My heart fluttered as he pulled my body close to his, his hand adorning my hip as his other held my hand and pulled it closely to his chest. My grin was as wide as the sun in 360 degree view, heating up my face in a light blush, not noticeable in the dark. A part of me felt as if he noticed; his small smile widened slightly when the rush of warmth embraced my skin. I placed my free hand on his shoulder, allowing my fingers to feel the cheap fabric he was wearing. I didn’t care how expensive or how low-priced, all I needed was Noel, no one else. He knew me like no one else did.

Pulling Noel closer to my body, we began swaying, the soft sounds of the music playing in the background. I’m sure everyone else in the town would be able to hear the music at one point; they used an unreasonable amount of amps for the songs. I hugged his body, adoring his scent once again. The same, cheap, worn down smell, whiffed with what smelt like a hit of weed, perhaps to calm himself down. He looked quite nervous when I first saw him. He was nervous, for me.

“Y/N,” he said, causing me to lift my head from his shoulder. I stared into his obscure, enthralling orbs, my heart softening. His pupils were dilated, his bottom lip sank into his mouth. He seemed anxious, worried about what was happening, until he exhaled his breath, a breath seeming like it was meant to escape decades ago, and cocked his head to the side, leaning in.

Heart pounding, I did the same, as our lips brushed against one another's. The kiss felt extremely overdue, as if it was meant to happen on the morning we first bonded on our new knowledge of our shared habit. He tasted exactly like how I imagined: sweet. Sweet with a hint of honey. Sweet with a hint of hunger, as if this was needed far, far long ago. This kiss was a response to every conversation we ever had, every lock of the eyes, every embrace. We continued swaying whilst our lips adventured on the feeling of something new. Love.

So when you ask me, how was your school dance? Because you like to push your nose into everyone else’s business, I’ll tell you, it was the best night of my life, like the end of all things usually is.

[londonsquitebiggg]

THE ONE - Part One

^^^ this is the town in which my story is based^^^

Krista's Pov,

*BEEP, BEEP, BEEP*

"mmmmhhhmmmmm" I groan rolling over to turn off the horrid sound that is my alarm.

Today was the first day back at school after a very long summer break! I'm not excited to go back to campus today but I can't wait to see Sam, we have been the best of friends since we were born.

I start my day off with my normal routine, I wake up, reluctantly got out of my warm bed and walk into my in suite bathroom. I plugged my IPhone into my Ihome port and put my music on shuffle as I hopped into the shower. After I washed my hair with my strawberries and cream shampoo and conditioner, and washed my body with my strawberry body wash (Okay so I love the scent of strawberry don't judge me!). I washed the soapy suds off my body and shut off the water. I dried myself off with my big fluffy towel.

As I walked out of the bathroom and headed to my walk in closet trying to figure out what to wear today, I peaked out of my window to see what the weather was like, it was the same as always, hot and sunny! I decided on a tealy greenish cropped tank top, some ripped skinny jeans, and some white lace toms.

After I'm dressed I walk over to my vanity and plugged in my straightener to try and tame my mess of hair. While waiting for it to heat up I did my make-up which consisted of some concealer to mask my dark circles, a bit of powder to make my face look less oily,  some mascara, a little bit of blush, of course I did my eyebrows, and put on my chap stick. I'm not a huge fan of make up mainly because I honestly don't know how to do it but I also am too insecure to not where any at all so I do what I can.

Once deciding that this was as good as it was going to get I  ran my straightener through my hair till it was less of a mess and more of a wavy look. I walked to my bathroom to brush my teeth, and put on perfume and deodorant so I wouldn't smell ,  I pinned my hair back so I was out of my face and put a hair band on my wrist in case I needed to put it up later in the day. I grabbed my phone and backpack and headed downstairs to get some breakfast.

I guess it's about time that I introduced myself, my name is Krista Mayfield, I live in High Water, North Carolina, I'm currently 17 but my birthday is just three short days way. I am a Sophomore in college, I know that I'm technically "too young" but I worked my booty off and graduated high school early so it works. I still live at home with my family, we have our own house cause my Father is the Alpha of our pack.

Yes. I know what your thinking and it's true, I'm a werewolf. Well I will be you see, I'm 17 still and I haven't shifted yet so I don't have my wolf yet. That will all change soon though, just three days and I will shift and I'll be able to start looking for my mate.

"Krista get your breakfast before your father eats it all!" I heard my mom call me and walk into the kitchen, I grab some toast and a banana not feeling all that hungry and also running late to meet Sam at the school.

I kissed my mom on the cheek "Morning mom! I have to get to school early to meet Sam, I love you! Bye" I rushed as I grabbed my keys off the hook, almost out the door when my Father's voice stopped me in my tracks.

"Krista, there are some new wolves that are on our territory looking for their mates, they'll be attending your school so if you see them be nice please? I don't want them to feel unwelcome, they are from a neighboring pack and their families are old friends" I nod my head in response kiss my dad on the cheek, and rush off to school.

After a thirty minute drive I pull up to school and jump out, I saw Sam and I screamed as we ran to each other we crashed into a big bear hug, (yes we are those friends).

"Oh my gosh I missed you so much!" She said and we broke the hug. "I know I don't know how I survived without you!" Man was that the truth.

We saw each other over break, of course. Spent lots of time at the beach and just hanging out in general, I mean we practically lived at each others houses! However Sam's birthday was a month and a half ago, so she had to start her training and also her family went on a vacation for like three weeks so I haven't seen her as much as usual as of late.

We were out front of the English department when the we realized the time. We walked to our first lecture of the day and picked out our seats and put our stuff down, I went over to Sam and started to talk about her trip before the teacher got there, I wanted to know everything.

During the conversation I heard the door open but was too involved in my conversation with Sam and some of our other friends that had joined upon their arrival. Sam stopped talking and focused on something behind me, she was staring wide eyed, I wanted to know what had her so distracted. I turned around and there was four cute boys, well three cute boys and one extremely hot one, he had brown hair styled in this messy, effortless pushed back style, he was wearing all black and from the looks of his arms he had A LOT of tattoos... he is SO hot! I was basically drooling at how absolutely stunning the god like man.When suddenly I remembered that my birthday is in a couple of days and I will be able to find my mate and I know for a fact that the moon goddess would never me with someone as hot as him no matter how much I have prayed for basically a mate just like him I knew he was just too far out of my league. Plus he definitely is one of the wolves looking for his mate, not to mention that he's probably a lot older then me he has to be at least 25-26, I mean age doesn't really matter when mates and werewolves are involved but I could practically feel the power radiating off of him and I didn't even have my wolf yet! there is no way that I would be paired with such a strong Alpha!

Harry's Pov,

I'm not going to go into detail about my morning mainly because its not very interesting, I got up, got dressed, and drove to the new school I'm attending while one the BloodMoon Packs territory. Alpha Mayfield told me that a lot of the wolves from his pack go to this school which I could tell by the smell but I could also smell some humans, So it's a mixed school which is common considering it's a big city and it's not just a werewolf community.

I'm Harry, I'm here in High Water to try to find my mate, I'm 26 years old so I'm starting to get concerned that I don't have one. Which would be bloody terrible if you ask me but if that's what the Moon Goddess has planned for me then I guess I don't have much of a choice, but that sure as hell isn't going to stop me from looking for her.

I grew up in Holmes Chapel, Cheshire. You guessed it, I'm British. My family moved to the states when I was 16 after our Pack was attacked, my father was lost that night, my mother was lucky enough to be blessed with her second chance mate, Robin when we moved here. He was an Alpha of one of the biggest packs in America. My sister Gemma she found her mate last year, He took over Robins stop as Alpha and Gemma is now our Luna, I'm be an Alpha but I lost that opportunity from not having a mate yet. It didn't really bother me, I would be the Beta of our pack unless I don't find my mate, or unless she is to become the Luna of a pack, making me her Alpha... If she accepts me that is.

"Harry! my main man, nice of you to finally show up" one of my best mates Louis said knocking me out of my thoughts as I walked up to our group.

"Yeah, I figured if I'm here to find my mate I should get out of the house and start looking around shouldn't I?" I jokingly replied.

As he was about to say some smartass response when we noticed everyone rushing inside and we figured it was time to head to class, we didn't want to be late to class on our first day, well we didn't care about being late to class we just didn't want to miss an opportunity to find our mates. We were all just leisurely walking a when I suddenly got wind of this amazing, intoxicating, overwhelming, and addicting smell of Lavender, Cedar wood, and what I could only describe as sugar, my wolf Marcus was howling with glee, he kept chanting

"Mate, Mate, go to mate"

Over and over again, I started walking a little bit faster towards following her smell which lucky for me lead right to my first lecture I was so lost in her sweet smell, I could barely see straight. I opened the door and almost fainted at sight of my gorgeous mate. She was tall and tan, she had perfect long blond hair that was pulled back away from her face in a natural wavy style, She had the most stunning face that I had ever seen, she had very little make-up on which worked because she didn't need any she was so gorgeous, she was wearing very skinny ripped jeans that hugged her in all the right places and a green crop top that showed her skin which made me mad because I didn't want anyone else seeing what was mine!

I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth when I caught her checking me out, wondering if she was think about me in the same manner that I was thinking about her. Shit, it's taking every ounce of self control I have to not rush at her and claim her right here right now!

But just the she realized something and turned around, which made Marcus whimper because that means she didn't recognize me as her mate, or she did and didn't want me. I couldn't help the longing to walk up to her and say hello, to tell her how beautiful she was, how much I wanted her, how much I loved her eyes. So that is exactly what I did. I walked my way over to her and tapped on her shoulder.

"Hey, my names Harry, It's nice to meet you." I introduced myself to her once she turned around.

"Hi, I'm Krista, I don't mean to sound rude so if it comes across that way I'm sorry. But why are you talking to me? I mean your so hot and so much older then me...I.. uhhh.. umm I mean your like older and you don't want to embarrass yourself on the first day here talking to the awkward nerd when you could get in with the top of the food chain so easily with your looks.. I mean age...  I mean I'm, I'm going to shut up now " My little mate was rambling with nerves, making me chuckle at how adorable she looked all flustered, not to mention that she called me hot, but I didn't like the fact that she thought that she was embarrassing, a nerd, or saying that I was so old, Kind of hurt the ego a bit... I guess her hot comment could make up for that.

"What are you talking about? I'm only twenty-six??". I asked her confused.

"Yeah and I'm only sevente.." before she could finish her friend cut her off.

"Oh come on Krista you know your turning eighteen in like three days." my cute little mate was blushing at the reveal of her birthday being so close, especially it being such an important one.

It all made so much sense to me now, she wasn't rejecting me, she didn't recognize me as her mate because she hasn't shifted or got her wolf yet. Without her wolf senses she wouldn't be able to identify my smell, or feel our mate pull as intense, she would still feel it but she wouldn't be able to understand why she is feeling things towards me.

"Oh well, don't worry I just wanted to introduce myself to such a gorgeous girl as yourself, I'll see you around love" as I was walking away I winked at her and she blushed, bloody hell she looks so innocent when she blushes. It makes me want to do very unholy things to her! Which is okay because I am her mate but if anyone else was thinking these things about it I would rip their throat out.

I turn my head back as I walk back to the guys, because and can't stand not looking at her for longer than three seconds and I see her looking at me a bit flustered, her breathing is labored and her cheeks are tinted the most beautiful shade of pink. It's good to know that my words had there intended effect on her, 1 point Harry.

Krista's Pov

I can't believe that he just freakin' talked to me!!! Like the hottest guy that I have ever seen in my life just came and talked to me, he literally just called me love! Let's not  forget he called me gorgeous!! I think something is wrong with his eyes I mean has he seen me? I mean don't get me wrong I know I'm not ugly, I just don't think that I am pretty enough for the literal hottest guy to say I'm gorgeous!!!

Also how sweet is he to talk to me and not even care about my nerdy status! I mean the wolves here wouldn't dare disrespect me like that but the other students here find every excuse they can to pick on my age and my grades.. which doesn't make sense to me? like you come to college because you want to learn stuff so you can get a good job.. why would you want to have bad grades????

"what the heck just happened???" Sam said pulling me out of my thoughts.

"I have no stinkin' idea! like did you see that man? like holy smokes he is good looking" I said fanning myself trying to cool down, feeling like the temperature has risen like 20 degrees in here since him and his friends walked in.

"And let's not forget that incredibly sexy British accent!!" One of my best friends Ashlyn said. No matter how much I agree with that statement, it was makes me feel super annoyed that she just called him sexy, why am I feeling this way? Normally I would be blushing at her use of the word "sexy" but no I'm fuming with anger at the thought of someone else finding him attractive!

"Get a grip woman! You have no claim over him!" my subconscious screams at me. As much as this irritates me I know she is right. He isn't my mate and I don't have any sort of claim on him... he isn't mine.

"Do you think he is one of the wolves that's here looking for his mate?" Ashlyn questioned.

"I would assume so. I've never seen any of them before, heck I didn't even know we had wolves coming on our territory until my dad said something this morning. Why do you ask?" Was my reply to her, irritated that she was intrigued with him.

" Well I'm just wondering why he came over and was talking to you of all people".....OUCH! that was kind of harsh. I mean I'm as surprised as anyone that he was talking to me. I know that I'm not the prettiest girl around but I wouldn't expect one of my best friends to be so shocked that I could actually attract male attention.

As if sensing what I was thinking, probably because I wear my feelings on my face, she jumped into action to dig herself out of this hole.

"I didn't mean it in the way that you are thinking!! I just meant that his whole purpose here in High Water is to find his mate, so by him coming and talking to the most literally prettiest girl in school, I assume that means that he hasn't found his mate yet which means that talking to you could come across as him being a guy who doesn't put his mate first and flirts with other girls before he finds her... or he found her and he's a huge player..." Ashlyn nervously rambled, making some really good points.

" I don't know Ash, maybe we should consider the fact that maybe Krista is his mate??" Sam cut in. Both mine and Ash's heads snapped towards her staring in shock and confusion.

"I mean, she doesn't have her wolf yet so she wouldn't have been able to sense if she was. But he doesn't come off as the kind of guy to cheat on his mate, and he's twenty-six. Don't you think he is a little too old and mature to be flirting with girls that aren't his mate?" She said trying to explain her logic.

" I mean, yeah but like me? And him? I mean that's funny Sam I don't think the Moon Goddess would do him that disservice. I mean he is way out of my league! We aren't even playing the same game that's how far out of my league he is." Was my response to her outrageous theory.

"oh don't start this crap again! Krista you are the most gorgeous girl in the whole world! As much as you don't believe it, Sam's right. I mean his whole purpose of coming her is to find her, why would he jeopardize that by making her insecure and jealous of you?" Said Ash, They hate it when I talk bad about myself.

"And don't bring the Moon Goddess into this! You know just as much of the rest of us that, looks, age , and status have nothing to do with who she pairs you with! All that matters is that your mate is your other half. They complete you! Heck, your probably the best mate that guy could get!" Sam said being the best friend ever and boosting my confidence up a little.

I looked over my shoulder behind me at him, my mind jumbled with the possibilities of me and him being mates. As if sensing me staring his head turned at that exact moment. Gorgeous green eyes locked with mine, a stupidly attractive smirk on his face. It was that moment when Professor O'Neil walked in telling us to find our seats so we could start. It was like he knew how he was affecting me, my breathing labored, my cheeks flushed, and my heart pounding.

I couldn't tare my eyes away, he chuckled as he winked at me and faced the front to pay attention to what our Professor was saying. I rushed to my seat, trying to calm myself down and control my breathing. Trying to pay attention to my English lecture, but was struggling because my mind kept floating back to what Sam said.. could I really be his mate? Maybe.. but if I truly was, why didn't he say anything?

[banditthewriter]

Redolence - Billy Russo - 1

This is my A/B/O fic that I’ve been working on for a while. I use a comprehensive set of warnings so please be mindful. If you have questions or concerns, shoot me a message! 

Redolence: the quality of smelling strongly of something or of having qualities (especially smells) that make you think of something else

Summary: The reader is an Omega who works at a Companion Center that helps the Alphas through their ruts. She gets a request from an Alpha named Billy Russo. An immediate connection builds into more as the two of them navigate the ins and outs of the society they live in and the feelings their connection brings out of them.

Warnings: Smut. No really, lots of smut. Also angst because yeah. Sex in various positions. Oral sex (male and female receiving.) The reader does sleep with other Alphas but it is only ever mentioned, never described. Some talk of slave trade, not detailed. Angry sex. Unprotected sex. Reader experiences a bad panic attack that is described.

Tags are at the bottom. Let me know if you would like to be added to one of my tag lists!

*gif is mine*

Enjoy!

*****

"Why do we do this job again?"

You tilted your head back to see your best friend and fellow Omega on her back with a frown on her face. Karen Page was scowling at her phone.

"Is that your Alpha?"

And there it was, an attractive blush over her cheeks. If anything could get her out of her sour puss mood, it was mention of her Alpha.

"He's not my Alpha," she stressed even as her blush grew darker, "he's just an Alpha I happen to see a lot."

Since the two of you were in the common room, you didn’t remind her that she saw him outside of the Companion Center where the two of you lived and worked. If someone overheard, Karen and her Alpha would be in serious trouble. 

Alpha and Omega relationships weren't forbidden. In fact if an Alpha and an Omega started a relationship after meeting in the Companion Center, it was seen as a successful union. But there were proper channels and a process to it.

Plus it meant Karen would have to leave the center. She'd either get her own apartment or move in with her Alpha, a military man named Frank Castle. 

But for the sake of clarity, you reminded Karen why you both did this job.

"We work here because we both make more money in a month than we could in six months or a year at a job on the outside."

It was true. The normal salary for an Omega at the Companion Center was a few thousand dollars a month. Since they didn't have to pay rent or utilities, money was spent on decorating their homes and things like clothes or groceries. 

Everything else was savings. You yourself had a very nice chunk of change in a savings account for when you left the center permanently. 

Karen sighed and put her phone down on her chest. 

"He says his rut is in a few weeks," she explained quietly.

Ah, so that's why she was frowning. That was, after all, the purpose of the Companion Center and the reason the two of them met.

When an Alpha knows their rut is coming, they go to the Companion Center to pick an Omega. You hadn't seen the choosing room but you imagined a large book with scratch and sniff stickers. Alphas would be given your name and a receptor with your scent and that was how they picked which Omega to spend their rut with. 

They could request the same Omega after that, if they were happy with the results the first time. That's how Karen and Frank got to know each other before they randomly met in the city when Karen was running errands.

And now they talked daily.

If Frank's rut was coming up, it meant he'd come to the center and request to see Karen. That in itself was fine, but you had the feeling that Karen was starting to resent her job a little bit. 

It had to feel weird to have feelings for a man you met at the center. The whole purpose was to come in and have casual sex with someone you didn't know. 

Well, the purpose was more nuanced than that, but that's what it boiled down to. The Omegas were there to help the Alphas during their rut. It wasn't supposed to be romantic or meaningful.

You understood the protestations of society about Companion Centers. They likened it to prostitution or being a sex slave. But you didn't feel that way. 

Alphas didn't pay for the service, so you weren't a prostitute. You got paid for being a Companion which wasn't always sex. Some Alphas came to the center for companionship. Omegas came to the center to learn about their physiology. It wasn't always sex, so you weren't a sex slave.

You weren't a slave at all. You picked this job. Sure, you lived and worked at the center, but you were free to leave. And you could go out to the city anytime you wanted. 

Stories of Omegas being trafficked for Alphas in ruts were rampant in the city though. And female Omegas were often taken for forced breeding with Alphas as that was the most surefire way to get an Alpha child. 

You gave Karen's hand a comforting pat, unsure what you could say that would make her feel better. Then you pushed yourself off the floor where you had settled and stood up, cracking your back a bit as you did. 

"I'm going to go make dinner. Give me a call if you want to watch a movie or something."

Karen gave you a welcome smile before you turned and headed to the elevator.

The elevators in the center worked differently than most. It didn't just move up and down, but also horizontally. The center was some thirty stories high and a few football fields in length. It held a hundred living quarters for Omegas.

The Alpha would get in the elevator on the main floor and the controller would send them to the Omega they had picked. It would go to the floor and then rotate until it found the correct apartment. 

Not unlike a vending machine which was ironic.

You got into the elevator and scanned your wrist where you wore your ID tag. It told the elevator which apartment was yours. It also told people in the city that you were an Omega at the Companion Center and therefore protected. 

The elevator came to a stop at your apartment and you got out. Down the short hallway, you scanned your ID tag once more to be let in. This way only you were allowed in your room unless you opened the door for the other person. It was for the safety of the Omega.

In your apartment, you started for the kitchen but a gentle chime made you hesitate. The touchscreen next to the door was lit up with a message. 

You tapped the corner which brought the message to full screen. 

Alpha 659437 - William Russo requests Companionship 

You had been requested. You clicked on the name and waited for the information to load. There wasn't much, but there never was.

Thirty six years old, previous military, currently a businessman. There were physical traits but you never read through those. 

Back on the first screen you finally saw the time requested. It was for that same day in just a few hours. Usually companion requests were sent a few days ahead of time, but maybe this Alpha hadn't been aware that his rut was on its way.

You tapped a green square at the bottom of the screen after you read the information. It thanked you for accepting the Alpha’s request before the screen went dark.

With an Alpha on the way, you didn't have time to make dinner. Instead you checked your fridge to make sure you had enough food and water for the evening to come. Satisfied, you grabbed a protein bar and headed into your bedroom.

It was clean except for some dirty clothes which you put into the hamper and then put into your closet. Then you stripped your bed and put those in a separate hamper to wash later.

In a separate closet were rows of vacuum sealed bags that you removed. The routine was familiar after a few years. These sheets were washed with unscented detergent so that the Alpha wouldn't be assaulted with too many different scents. You put them on the bed and pillows. Next was a quilt from one of the vacuum sealed bags.

Bed made, you finished your protein bar. It wasn't much, but you'd grab a second one after your shower. 

That was next in the routine. In your bathroom there were bottles of different scented shampoos and body washes. Instead you pulled out a few items from a grey box that was under your sink. You set out a few on the counter that the Alpha could use if he needed. Then you grabbed yours from the box.

Unscented soap, unscented shampoo and conditioner, vacuum sealed washcloth and towel.

After you had showered and dried off, you pulled out some clothes to wear. Plain underwear and a sports bra paired with a pair of soft yoga pants and a t-shirt. These were clean but they weren't vacuum sealed. This way they held your scent enough that the Alpha would recognize you from the choosing room where they had picked out your scent.

And also to get them used to your scent before their rut took hold. At that point, they'd be smelling a lot of you. 

You only had about thirty minutes to kill at that point so you went into the kitchen and grabbed another protein bar. While you munched on that, you pulled out some food to set on the table.

Some Alphas wanted a meal first, to talk and get to know their Omega companion. Some wanted to watch television or just talk. A few had played cards with you. 

Some Alphas just wanted to go straight to bed. Those were your least favorite. They made you feel like some sort of commodity, just something for them to use. They were also the ones that left immediately after.

You, like most Omegas at the Companion Center, preferred the Alphas that talked to you like a human. They were grateful for your help during their rut. An Alpha without someone to spend their rut with was miserable. The ones that just treated you like a thing to use? Those made your skin craw. 

The time ticked by slowly, but finally your touchscreen chimed. You clicked on the view and saw that a tall man was in the hallway with the elevator doors closing behind him. The camera wasn’t very high tech so you couldn’t make out any of his physical characteristics, but you didn’t need to.

You pressed the button on the touchscreen that activated the speaker.

"Alpha ID?"

The man looked at the door in confusion until he saw the speaker and camera. Then he gave it a nod.

"659437."

You released the speaker button and then unlocked the door. When you pulled it all the way open, you were surprised by what you saw. His face was scarred, but there was more than that. Even with those scars, he was terribly handsome. Dark eyes and long lashes, some facial hair spread over the unscarred parts of his cheeks, a mouth that was downturned into a frown.

You bet he looked beautiful when he smiled.

“Please come in,” you said as you waved him into your apartment. “Make yourself at home.”

He hesitated a moment and you felt a frown tug at your own lips. It wouldn’t be the first time you’d been turned down by an Alpha when they got to your apartment, but it never got easier. Just as you started to build yourself up to tell him he could go back down and pick someone else, he stepped across the threshold.

You shut the door behind him and watched as he looked around. His hands were fisted at his side as he stood stiffly in the middle of your entryway. But at least he was inside. You could fall onto your companion training.

“Do you want something to eat? Or drink? I have some stuff laid out if you’re hungry,” you said as you moved around him to the table, letting him see the options. “I can also make something if you’d prefer.”

He turned to face you and you noticed that the frown wasn’t as fierce as it was before. Now he just seemed confused.

“Do you always feed Alphas when they come by?”

He had a bit of a New York accent that made you want to smile, but you didn’t. You didn’t want him to think you were laughing at him. Instead you shrugged a shoulder and met his eyes.

“If you are hungry, sure. If you aren’t hungry, we can sit and watch television for a bit. Or just talk, if you’d prefer,” you offered as you gestured towards the couch and loveseat in the living room.

He still looked confused. With a nod, he moved into the living room and sat down on one of the couches. You followed his lead and moved to sit on the loveseat, keeping yourself near to him but not crowding him. He looked uncomfortable.

He was thirty six; surely this wasn’t his first time at the Companion Center? Going that long without a partner for his rut would make him nearly feral once it hit. The center was usually careful with that, but perhaps they missed something.

You needed to put him at ease, so you continued with your training.

“What would you like me to call you? Alpha Russo? William?”

He shook his head at that. You were wondering if maybe you weren’t to call him anything when he finally spoke.

“Billy. You can call me Billy.”

Billy. You wondered if it fit the man on your couch. He looked more like a William, mature and in charge, but maybe Billy would grow on you.

“Alright Billy. You can call me Y/N if you would like.” 

Always defer to what they wanted, always give them the choice. These were things that you had learned early in your training and it was the easiest to fall back on. But Billy was still sitting stiffly on the couch.

It would be rude to ask if this was his first time at the Companion Center. It would be rude to question why he was requesting a companion if it seemed like he didn’t actually want one.

Instead you moved to the edge of the cushion you were on and waited for his eyes to meet yours once more.

“Billy, you seem tense. Would you like me to rub your shoulders? Just to help you relax a bit.”

He seemed surprised. There was a long moment before he gave a nod, giving you permission. You stood up and slowly moved to stand behind the couch. Then you carefully placed the backs of your hands against his shoulders. It gave him a moment to prepare and accept that someone—an Omega—was behind him. Alphas were notorious for attacking when they felt threatened so you were trained to never be threatening.

Once you were sure he would not flinch or attack, you pressed your palms to his shoulders. You could feel the tension that he held there. As you started to press in with your thumbs, you started up a thread of conversation.

“Did you see that it’s going to storm for the entire weekend? The weather channel said we’re going to record amounts of rain.”

You kept up the ministrations of your hands as you talked to him about the weather. His responses were monosyllabic, but at least he was responding. And you could feel a little relaxation in his shoulders as you worked.

“I’m sorry for being… awkward,” he finished in a tone that was closer to self deprecation and humor than you had expected. 

“Nothing to apologize for,” you promised as you rested your hands on his shoulders. “Do you want me to continue?”

There was a moment of hesitation before he nodded jerkily. You continued your work while talking to him about a movie you had seen recently.

The massage actually held two benefits. It would loosen him up a bit, sure, but it also got him used to your touch and scent. You were sure to turn your wrists towards him as often as you could and make it seem natural. The scent glands in the wrists were gentle and not overbearing so it was the easiest way to get a new Alpha used to your scent.

“The last time I came to the center, it wasn’t like this,” he admitted as you worked on a particularly stubborn knot near his shoulder blade.

Your hands paused for a moment at that. You did some math in your head and then let out a breath.

“You haven’t been to the center in over five years?” 

That’s when the change happened, when the Betas that ran the center changed the protocols from just sex to companionship.

“I was deployed for some of that. Then I started a business right after I got out. And I was in recovery for a while.”

His scars. You remembered that he had been in the military and now he was a businessman. It wasn’t unusual for the body to shut down the mating response while under all that stress, plus the military used suppressants. And if he was injured, which obviously he was, his body would have been focused on healing rather than mating.

But that made you pause for a different reason.

With one hand still on him at all times, you moved to stand beside the couch where he was sitting. You didn’t want to break the contact and you told yourself it was because you didn’t want to lose this connection the two of you had started.

“Billy, I have a question that I normally wouldn’t ask an Alpha, especially not on our first meeting. Will you permit me to ask a personal question?”

He closed his eyes—more of a wince than anything else.

“Go ahead.”

You gave his shoulder a brief squeeze, letting him feel that you were still there. With his eyes closed, you definitely didn’t want to take your hand away from him.

“How long has it been since your last rut?”

His eyes popped open and you immediately yanked your hand away from his shoulder, despite your training that fast movements weren’t a good idea. His hand shot out and wrapped around your wrist, but there wasn’t any violence in the touch.

It was more like he just wanted the contact. Like he needed it maybe. He tugged your wrist closer to him and you watched as he stared down at the inside of your wrist.

“I thought you were going to ask what happened,” he said as if he was addressing your wrist.

You opened your mouth as that sank in. That’s why he had reacted the way he had when you asked. It made sense, but you would never be so impertinent as to ask that kind of question. You were about to relay as much to him, but he shook his head and began speaking once more.

“I had a rut before my accident, but I didn’t have a… companion, I guess. I got through it alone. They usually come on pretty quickly for me and I didn’t have a chance to get to the center before it hit fully.”

You slowly reached out with your free hand and covered his with yours.

“That must be difficult. But you’re here now. I’ll take good care of you Billy.”

It was something you usually said to the Alphas. You meant it in an all encompassing kind of way, like you providing food and a massage if they needed it. Billy nodded his head, his eyes still on your wrist. You watched as he raised it up, but all he did was press his nose to the soft skin there.

His skin felt warm. And by the way he was checking your scent, he was getting closer to his rut taking hold.

“Would you stand for me?”

He opened his eyes slowly, blinking them lazily as if he had been getting lost in your scent. Then he gave a nod as if he had just heard your question. You stood up and he followed suit, still holding on to your wrist. Once he was standing, you stepped backwards so that he would have to step with you.

Two more steps and then you were away from the couches. He followed almost as if he was entranced, but you could see a flush rising to his skin. You didn’t think he was the kind to blush, so it was more that his rut was starting to take hold. Of course he had just been inhaling the scent of an Omega, so it wasn’t a surprise that his rut was kicking in.

“We’re going to go to the bedroom now,” you said softly as you stepped into his space, seeing his eyes become heavy lidded as he looked down at you. 

His irises were so dark that you almost couldn’t see the pupil. Or maybe it was just that his pupils were so large right then. 

You led him towards your bedroom with his hand still wrapped around your wrist. Across the threshold, you glanced back and caught his eyes roaming over your body. You felt a little gratified by the look in his eye and that was intensified by the sight of him getting hard in his jeans.

Shit. You couldn’t remember the last time you were actually attracted to an Alpha that had requested you. And you definitely couldn’t remember the last time you’d gotten hot under the collar at the way they reacted to you.

In the safety of the bedroom, you lowered the lighting so that it wasn’t so bright. Then you moved so that you were both next to the bed. You could see the rise and fall of his chest as his breathing started to race.

“Do you want to start like this? Or do you want to go ahead and get undressed?”

You barely got the question out before he was kicking off his shoes and socks. As he fought with the zipper of his jeans, you raised your hands to your shirt. His hands clasped around your wrists and he shook his head.

“I want to do that,” he breathed in a low voice as he stepped closer to you.

With his jeans unbuttoned and open, he grabbed the hem of your shirt and pulled it off of you. Once that was off, he pulled off his own shirt.

He had scars. You expected it after seeing his face, but the reality was different. You fought back the urge to trace them with your fingers. His hands moved to the bottom of your sports bra and he pulled that off of you as well.

For the first time since he had touched your wrist, he looked uncertain. You grabbed his hands and pressed them on your ribs, letting him feel you take a deep breath that way.

“You can touch me,” you said in a soft voice, your mouth feeling a bit dry at the feel of his hands on your skin. 

His hands slid up your sides to cup your breasts. You felt his thumbs brush over your nipples and you bit your lip to keep from making an incredibly embarrassing noise. He did it again and this time you let your head fall forward at the feeling. 

Then his hands were gone, but only long enough for him to shed his jeans and briefs. He stood before you completely nude. With your head tilted, you could look as much as you wanted without being caught. And yeah, he was beautiful all the way down.

His hands were back on your skin, but this time they moved down your body. His fingers hooked under the waistband of your yoga pants and the underwear you wore under them. He tugged them down over your hips and thighs, letting you kick them off.

Now you were both bare. His eyes were all over your body. You wanted more than his eyes though. You wanted his hands on your body. You grabbed his wrists and moved his hands to your sides once more. One of his hands went up to your breast again, but the other moved down. It went over your hip to your thigh, the tips of his fingers pressing into the swell of your ass. He tugged you close as he did that, your bodies so close you could feel the heat from him.

“Y/N?”

It was the first time he’d said your name. You blinked up at him and hoped that he couldn’t tell how hazy you were just then. His eyes looked crystal clear as he stared down at you.

With your head tilted up to him, he leaned in as if he was going to kiss you. Only he stopped a few inches away. Realizing that he wasn’t going to take that step without your permission, you surged up to kiss him. The touch of his lips against yours seemed to set a fire inside of him.

Warmth spread over your body from him. His hands moved to grip your hips, tugging you up so that you had to wrap your legs around his waist. Your arms wrapped around his shoulders as you kissed him, sucking on his tongue and panting harshly against his mouth. Then everything was topsy turvy until you felt your back against the bed.

He had tipped the two of you over. It put the weight of him resting between your legs. You put your feet against the bed and rolled your hips upwards, grinding up against his cock. He pushed your hips down and leaned over you, kissing you hard once more.

As an Omega, your sex drive usually mirrored that of the Alpha you were with when they were in a rut. You felt like you were going to combust if Billy didn’t get inside of you soon so you could only imagine how he was feeling. And with him having so few ruts in the last few years, you weren’t exactly sure what to expect.

He pulled your hands from around his sides and pressed them down against the bed on either side of your head. His fingers lingered on your wrists as he kissed you, his tongue sliding against yours. When he pulled away, it was to kiss across your jaw and down your neck, inhaling over your scent glands. His teeth scraped against your collarbone and you rolled your hips up into his again.

When he finally released your wrists, it was so that his hands could go down your body. His hands went to your thighs and spread them wider. Then he was kissing his way down your body. You looked down to watch as he kissed across your thighs. He pressed his nose into the junction of your thigh and your pelvis and took a deep breath. The scent glands there were the strongest, but you hadn’t expected him to pay much attention to it.

Most Alphas were more interested in their own pleasure, but Billy didn’t seem to be in any rush to get inside you. Instead his hand went between your legs. His fingers rubbed between your folds, finding you already dripping wet. He made a pleased noise at finding the wetness there. You were sure he would put his fingers inside of you then, give you something, but instead he spread your folds and lowered his mouth to your clit.

“Fuck,” you moaned as your hand went to the back of his head to hold him close, your hips moving to grind your pussy against his mouth.

His tongue lapped up at your wetness, sliding up the length of your slit. Then he focused attention on your clit, sucking and circling his tongue around the bundle of nerves. His fingers moved lower. His middle finger went in first, curling upwards to brush against your g-spot. He fucked it in and out of you while he focused his mouth on your aching clit.

You were lost in the feeling that he was causing. All you could do is ride it out as he added a second finger. The fingers moved faster and faster, slamming into you harder. It was so close to what you really needed. That and the suction of his mouth on your clit had your back arching as your orgasm rocked over you.

Usually you’d come when the Alpha did, but you could probably count on one hand the number of Alphas who wanted to make you come before they did. Most Alphas were more focused on their pleasure.

Billy pulled away from your pussy, wiping his mouth as he did. His tongue ran along his bottom lip and you clenched around the fingers still inside of you. His eyes moved down to where he was inside of you, grinning at the feeling. He pumped the fingers in you a few times before he sat up completely.

“Do you have condoms?”

You leaned up on one arm and leaned over to your bedside table. Inside was a new box and you pulled it out. You had a feeling you were going to need a new box after tonight.

He opened the box and then pulled out one of the condoms. He opened the foil and then held it out to you.

“Put it on me.”

There was a thread of the Alpha compulsion in his voice, but you didn’t think he was doing it on purpose. You grabbed it from him to slide it on him, jerking his cock a few times just because you couldn’t help yourself. It was like the perfect length and girth, fit perfectly in your hand. 

An image of your mouth on it made your pussy clench again, but thankfully he didn’t feel it this time. Usually any time you gave oral was because the Alpha requested it. You’d never wanted to do it as badly as you did right then.

Once the condom was on him, you started to roll over. Most Alphas preferred the first time to be with the Omega on their hands and knees. But Billy grabbed your hip and refused to let you roll over completely. Instead he wrapped your leg around his hips. He guided his cock to your entrance, but didn’t push in.

You weren’t sure what he was waiting for. You tried to pull him closer, but it wasn’t enough. There was pressure building and you could feel the heat from him. You needed him inside of you soon.

“Please Billy,” you pleaded, your breath catching on his name.

That must have been what he was waiting for because you barely got his full name out before he was sliding inside of you. His cock stretched you more than his fingers had. You squeezed around his cock as he rocked shallowly. Once he was sure your body was ready, he pulled almost all the way out and then slammed his hips forward. His thrusts were a tease, not nearly enough.

You reached one hand up and ran it over his head, desperate for more from him. He inhaled deeply at your wrist before he leaned in to kiss you. After a few desperate, panting kisses, his thrusts became wilder and more forceful. You could feel as he lost himself to the full throes of his rut. His hips pistoned between your thighs, slamming his cock into you over and over. You scratched over his back and shoulders, desperate to keep him close. Somewhere between the forceful thrusts and his mouth against yours, you felt a second orgasm build low in your stomach. As it crashed over you, Billy let out a growl against your mouth. 

A pleased growl, at that. You could feel his pleasure at making you come again. And now you wanted that pleasure. You clenched around his cock as best as you could, rolling your hips to meet his thrusts. His skin was almost feverish under your hands so you knew that he was close. He buried his face into your neck, his mouth biting down on the skin there as his thrusts became erratic. 

You took the moment to inhale his scent. The smell of Billy was mixed with sex and the spice from his rut but it all smelled so good to you. You let out a long moan as you felt his cock spill inside the condom. You felt the twitching as his cock drained and you let your head roll back at the feeling.

He kept his weight from pressing down on you, but he waited to pull out. When he did, you felt empty and couldn’t help as your pussy clenched around nothing. You didn’t have to feel empty long before his fingers were inside of you again.

“I don’t know how long it’ll take,” he said as he pumped his fingers in and out of you lazily, “but I can still feel it as strongly as I did before. It could be a while before my rut is over.”

With as irregular as his ruts had been for the last few years, you imagined it’d last for a while. Most Alphas would get two or three major orgasms and then the rut would pass over them. But if Billy didn’t feel any difference after that orgasm? And your own body still felt like a live wire. 

Although you did wonder how much of that was you mirroring him and how much of it was just that he was probably the best sex you’d ever had.

He pulled his fingers out of you long enough to rid himself of his condom. He grabbed a second one but didn’t have to ask for you to put it on him this time. You took it from him and slid it over his still hard cock. You leaned in and wrapped your mouth around the head of his cock, sucking on it as best you could with the condom on him. The latex taste of the condom wasn’t pleasant, but the warmth of him in your mouth was almost worth it.

You were pulled off of his cock and then rolled over. This time you were on your stomach, but it didn’t feel like how it usually did with Alphas. He didn’t make you present yourself for him. He raised your hips and tucked a pillow under them, but he didn’t force your face into the bed as he slid into you. His hands still moved over your body as he fucked you this time, playing with your nipples and then moving under you to play with your clit. You ached with need as you thrust backwards against him.

It was like he knew when you needed it harder, when you needed more from him. You clenched around his cock as he pounded into you from behind, your whole body shaking as you took everything he had to give. This time your orgasm rocked over you and made you cry out, biting down onto your own wrist to keep from screaming his name. And it was only moments later that you felt his cock pulse inside you once more.

This time he stayed inside you longer, his thighs flexing in an effort to keep from pounding into you again. When he finally pulled out to remove the condom, you rolled over to watch him.

“How are you feeling?”

He looked over his shoulder at you and then away just as quickly.

“Still in my rut,” he said defensively under his breath.

You crawled across the bed and placed your hand on his back. When he didn’t shy away, you moved so that you could drape yourself over his back, your arms going around his chest and holding him.

“I’m not asking because I want this to be over quicker. I just want to make sure you’re okay. Do you need something to drink? Some food? A foot rub?”

From where your chin was propped on his shoulder, you could see the tiniest of smiles on his face. And then it was neutral once more.

“Something to drink would be nice.”

You squeezed his shoulders as you got up. There was a robe hanging near your bedroom door and you tugged that on as you walked into the living room. With two bottles of Gatorade in hand, you went back to the bedroom to see that Billy had gotten situated on the bed with his back against the headboard and his legs partially spread.

His cock was still hard. You licked your lips as you tore your eyes away, but not before you caught his smirk again.

“Come here,” he said with another small thread of compulsion. This time you thought he might have done it on purpose.

You crawled onto the bed and handed him his drink. After both of you drained about half of the bottles, he put them to the side and pulled you into his lap and tugged your robe off. He grabbed another condom and put it on before he settled you over him with one leg on each side. This gave you more leverage as you lowered yourself onto his cock. 

“Just like this,” he said softly into your ear as he thrust up into you. 

You held on to his shoulders as you rode him, meeting his thrusts with your own. This position was intense for a reason beyond just the angle. There was an intimacy to this that you hadn’t experienced the few other times you’d ended up in this position. The intensity in Billy’s eyes as he fucked you made your chest hurt.

What was it about this Alpha that set him so far apart from others? Why were you on pins and needles around him? And why was sleeping with him like nothing you’d ever felt before?

This time you both came at the same time. You gasped at the feeling of clenching around his cock while he spilled inside the condom. His hands were tight on your hips, holding you down against him. As if you’d want to get away.

You slumped on top of him, your body protesting the number of orgasms you’d already wrung out of it. And you could still sense that Billy was in his rut.

You’d have to take a few days after this one before you could become active again. You had a feeling you were going to be sore.

He lifted you off of his cock and went to dispose of the condom again. This time when he got into the bed, he didn’t immediately reach out for you. You leaned onto your side so that you could watch him settle down on his back.

He was starting to come down from his rut, but you didn’t think that would last. This was how it normally was, with time between cycles. There’d be anywhere from twenty minutes to an hour before his body would feel feverish and he’d need to take you again.

“Would you like some time alone?”

Billy rolled over to look at you. He shook his head after a long moment. When you felt his hand brush against you this time, you knew it wasn’t sexual. This was where the companion part came in. Some Alphas wanted to be alone between their rut cycles, but some wanted contact. It seemed Billy was one of the latter.

You moved to lean against his side, your body pressed along his from shoulder to ankle. The closeness would trigger his rut cycle quicker, but it would do good for him as well.

“Just rest,” you told him as you brushed your lips against a scar on his shoulder. 

It was going to be a long night for both of you.

X

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[alarawriting]

Inktober 2020 #24 - Dig

This comes from the latest incarnation of the very first novel I ever wrote.

When I was 10 I was blown away by a book called “The Girl Who Owned A City”, about a girl my age trying to survive after a plague killed all the adults. This predated the TV/comic series “Jeremiah” by a good bit. The book had a lot of weird shit in it that I now know is libertarian/objectivist bullshit, but at the time I was amazed by it. So, of course, I wrote my own version of the concept, “Below”, which was terrible because I was in 7th grade and in those days, without the Internet, we all sucked when we were young. Then when I was 13, I wanted to enter a contest for teen novel writers, and my mom “helped” me by completely rewriting Below into a totally different, equally terrible work that was terrible in a very different way.

Sometime in my 20′s, I started a rewrite, more or less using the plot skeleton of the original but completely rewriting from the ground up, but I only got, like, two chapters into it. In 2017, I picked up the rewrite again, and would probably have gotten farther with it if not for the 2018 cancer diagnosis. One of the things I did was to add an explicitly autistic character as a counterpart to the main character, who, being that she was originally based on me, is an undiagnosed autistic girl who more or less successfully fakes being NT most of the time. Andy Thorn is a boy, does not successfully fake being NT pretty much ever, and was diagnosed as autistic at some point in his life. He’s also anosmic because my older son is and I wanted to explore how not being able to smell might affect a kid in a world without adults, after a plague.

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The house was like most of the other houses Andy had visited. One window was smashed, but the front and back doors were still locked, and aside from the broken window, there was no evidence anyone had gone inside. “Stay, boys,” Andy told his dogs. They’d led him here, and he didn’t question their noses, but it was good to get independent corroboration.

He used the stepladder he’d been carrying around in the cart attached to his bicycle to climb up to the broken window. Carefully he reached inside, unlatched the lock on the window, and screwed two clamps to the lower rail of the window sash. With the clamps attached, he was easily able to open the window enough to slide inside without hurting himself on broken glass. The front door was deadbolted, but the deadbolt could be opened with the twist of a knob – it didn’t require a key. Andy opened the door and let his dogs in, and then pulled in his cart.

Clifford and Updog immediately began sniffing around, exploring the house. “Clifford. Find the dead thing. Find dead, Clifford.” Tail wagging, Clifford went in search of dead people. “Updog. Heel.” Updog took the appropriate position. “Good boy. Let’s go.” He followed Clifford, and Updog followed him.

They were in the master bedroom, of course. Two of them this time, two men. Their rotting bodies lay next to each other, as if they had huddled together before the end had come.

Andy was here to make a bargain with them. He didn’t need to talk out loud, because they were dead and couldn’t hear him, and because he knew they wanted what he had to offer. Or would have wanted it, if he had been able to make the deal when they were alive on behalf of when they were dead. The dead wanted to be buried. They didn’t want to rot in the pajamas and nightgowns or sometimes naked in the bedsheets that he found them, bringing maggots and disease to the homes they had loved when they were alive. They wanted to go down in the ground and have a stone to mark where they’d been laid to rest. And they would pay him in the bounties of their home, canned goods and medicines and other things Andy could make use of and that they couldn’t anymore.

Stealing was wrong. Andy didn’t like the looters any more than he liked the gangs. The looters stole from people who weren’t alive any more – generally speaking people who had died in a hospital, far away, because they stayed away from the houses that smelled like death – and the gangs stole from the looters. Stealing was wrong, even if you were doing it to survive, because it was wrong. Wrong things didn’t stop being wrong just because you felt like you had to do them. Andy had found another alternative. He performed a service for the dead, and the dead repaid him.

He found bedsheets in the linen closet. Wearing his gloves, which he never forgot because he hated touching anything because everything had germs on it, Andy wrapped the first body in a bedsheet, and then the second one. They didn’t fall apart too much. The skeletons were strong. Some of the meat had rotted enough to fall away from the bone, but it was stuck in the pajamas so it didn’t fall away from the body, and then it was all wrapped up in the bedsheet. Another bedsheet, he carried out to his cart and lined it, and then pulled the cart to the bedroom.

It was hard for a 10 year old boy to move the dead body of an adult man. It involved a lot of pushing and pulling, and eventually, the body fell off the bed onto the cart. Two dead bodies would be too much to carry, so Andy moved the first one first, going back to the front door. “Don’t worry,” he told the dead man. “Your friend comes next. You won’t be alone.”

Outside, he dug in the dirt. Clifford and Updog helped. They liked to dig. For sanitary reasons a grave should be six feet deep, but Andy wasn’t even six feet tall, and there was no way he could dig that much. He dug down about a foot and a half, wide enough for two bodies to lie next to each other, long enough that they could lay mostly straight without having to curl up a lot. It took hours. Not as long as it had taken the first time he did this, when it was his mom and his dad that he was burying; he was stronger now, even if his hands were sore and calloused from all the digging, but it was still hard and it still took half the day.

When he was done digging, he tumbled the body off his cart and into the shallow grave, and then went back for the second body. That one was dumped into the grave too, lying half on top of the first body. Then Andy started putting the dirt that he’d taken out back on them, forming a mound.

He ate two meals there at the house, while he was digging. The cheese that had gone bad in the fridge was covered with mold, but the mold didn’t go all the way into the hard cheese, so he was able to get it all off with a cheese planer. The bread in the pantry was moldy too, but there was an ancient hard baguette that was too crunchy and tough to have grown any mold. Water still ran from the taps, though the hot water was all gone by now. Hard baguette plus water made softer, more edible baguette, and cheese where he’d cut all the mold off tasted weird but satisfied his hunger.  For his second meal he ate cold vegetable soup with milk made from powder, and had a dessert of a can of cherry pie filling.

There wasn’t any dog food in the pantry. They hadn’t had a dog. Most houses Andy visited didn’t have a dog, and the one he did find, the dog had eaten most of the old man’s body, making it very hard to collect all the pieces of the guy to bury them. He’d released the dog; as much as he liked dogs, it was a small yappy dog who barked at him and his dogs a lot and also growled at his dogs, so letting it free to join a wild pack was probably better than making Clifford and Updog jealous or stressed out. Andy did find canned Vienna sausages and canned tuna fish. He liked to eat those things himself, but Clifford and Updog needed meat in their diet; Andy could survive without it as long as he ate things like powdered milk and peanut butter, things with the protein he couldn’t get from most vegetables. So he fed the canned meat to his dogs. It wasn’t very much; they’d need another meal when they all got home.

It was close to evening as he finished shoveling dirt onto the mound. He heard a whistle, and turned. Three boys were standing outside the fence. He was face-blind, so he couldn’t tell from looking at them if he knew them from anywhere. One was a littler kid, maybe seven or eight, but the other two were around his age, 10 or 11 or so. One of the kids his age was white; the other two boys looked like they were from India or Pakistan or something. All three of the boys were wearing hoodies that had some kind of green blob painted on them, that looked as if maybe it was trying to be the same shape each time but whoever had had the can of spray paint wasn’t a good enough artist to be consistent. “Shit, dude,” the white boy said. “Did you just dig a grave for some deads?”

“Yes,” Andy said.

“This your house then? I thought this was the house where the gay guys lived.”

“Is that why they died together?” Andy said.

“Didn’t you know them?” the older brown-skinned boy said. When he talked, Andy recognized him. It was Nish Varma, who’d been in most of his classes with him. “How did you not know they were gay?”

“I didn’t know them,” Andy said. “I looked through all the envelopes in the house to find their names and I wrote them on this rock.” He showed the boys the rock he had written the men’s names on, in crayon because Sharpie markers didn’t stick to rocks as well as crayon did. Andy kept crayons in his pocket for that reason.

“What were you burying them for then?”

“That’s what I do,” Andy said. “I bury the dead. Stealing is wrong so when I need food, I go to houses that have dead people in them, and I bury them.  That’s a service, so I take the food they left as a repayment. That’s better than stealing. There’s nothing wrong with bargaining for what you need and working hard to provide a service and getting paid for it.”

The little boy said, “How can you stand how bad it stinks? We don’t go to houses with dead people! There’s flies everywhere and it smells awful!”

“I can’t smell anything,” Andy said.

The white boy said, “Seriously? You can’t smell that? What’s wrong with you?”

“What’s wrong with me is called anosmia,” Andy said. “It means I have no sense of smell. It’s like being blind or deaf except for smell.”  He gestured at his dogs. “My dogs here find the dead people houses for me. Dogs don’t mind dead people smells.  So I bury the dead bodies. You’re supposed to make graves six feet deep but that takes grownup men a long time to do and ladders so they can get out, so I don’t dig as deep.”  Andy had suspected that the main reason the houses he visited were usually untouched and unlooted – at most, a broken window or a jimmied door, but no food taken – was that people with a sense of smell couldn’t stand it, and as long as there were still houses where the owners had died in the hospital and so there were no dead bodies on the premises, other kids weren’t desperate enough to go to the houses of the dead.  He knew dead people supposedly smelled bad; he just had no idea what a bad smell was actually like, since he couldn’t smell anything.  But this was the first time he’d had it confirmed.

The white boy whistled again. “But still! You can lift dead grownups and you can dig a hole that big? You must be ripped, man.” He leaned on the fence. “Look, me and my dudes here aren’t here to get on your stake and take the food here. I can see you’ve got big dogs, and you look pretty tough.”

That surprised Andy. Most people didn’t think he looked tough. He used to get bullied a lot. “Maybe I got pretty tough from a lot of digging,” he agreed. Or maybe they were fake complimenting him in a sarcastic way and it was really bullying. Andy could never tell if that was what kids were trying to do until they started laughing. But he preferred to give people the benefit of the doubt and take their word for it until they proved otherwise.

“I’ll just bet,” the white boy said. “That’s why we’re here to recruit you. The Green Bears could use a strong dude like you.”

“You wouldn’t have to dig any more graves,” Nish said. “When you’re a Bear, you get fed.  We’ve got access to gas-powered ranges that are still on, so we get cooked food.”

“We had spaghetti yesterday,” the little boy said. “With sauce!”

“Yeah, and me and my brother are vegetarian but the kids who aren’t vegetarian got meat sauce.”

“And you can live in your own house, since the Civic Center got too full for any more guys,” the white boy said. “The Bears are fucking huge, man.”

Andy winced. “That’s a curse word. You shouldn’t say that word.”

“Oh, like my mommy and daddy are around to wash my fucking mouth out with fucking soap? Fucking shit damn on a bastard son of a bitch. Who’s gonna fucking stop me?”

“No one,” Andy said, “but wrong things don’t stop being wrong just because no one can stop you doing them.”

“Fucking hell, dudes, we got ourselves a real Boy Scout here,” the white boy said, and Nish and his brother and the white boy all laughed.

“No,” Andy said. “I was never in the Boy Scouts.” The other boys laughed harder. Andy scowled. He knew they were laughing at what he said, and he was pretty sure it was probably in a nasty, making-fun-of-him way, but as usual he had no idea why they thought what he’d said was funny.

“Andy’s special,” Nish said, leaning on the fence. “If he doesn’t wanna swear I’m cool with that.” Nish hadn’t been one of the kids who’d bullied him in class. He had never talked to him or tried to be friends with him either, but at least he hadn’t bullied Andy. “How about it, Andy? Come join us!”

“No, thank you,” Andy said politely.

The white boy scowled. “Dude. You have no idea what you’re passing up.”

“That’s okay,” Andy said. “I don’t believe in stealing. Gangs go around stealing things from other kids, so I don’t want to join one.  And I don’t believe in hurting anyone unless they hurt me first.”

“Bullshit,” Nish said. “In third grade you hit the teacher with a chair.”

Andy winced. He had done it because she took his book away while he was reading about dogs, even though he was already done with his assignment, because it was math class and he wasn’t supposed to be reading in math class. It had been totally unfair and triggered a complete emotional meltdown. He’d been suspended for three days and had had numerous Talks with his parents during that time. “I have a bad temper,” he admitted. “That doesn’t mean I think what I did was right.”

“I think you’d better reconsider,” the white boy said. “Carrie doesn’t like it when we report to her that some guy didn’t want to join the Bears. She’s psycho, man.”

“Who is Carrie?”

“Carrie Mulhaney. She’s Rich’s younger sister and second in command. When guys say they won’t join the Bears, she burns their houses down.”

“I’m not worried about that,” Andy said.

“I’m not fucking with you, man. I’m serious. She will burn your fucking house down.”

“With what?” Andy said. “Gasoline? Wood that’s on fire? Alcohol?”

“Are you serious?” the boy said. “With whatever! What does it matter?”

“My dogs are trained to smell dangerous things for me,” Andy said. “Fire is a smell they’re trained on. Gasoline is a smell they’re trained on. Natural gas is a smell they’re trained on. I don’t know of anything that can be used to burn down a house that isn’t a smell they’re trained on.” He smiled, with all his teeth, because a couple of kids in his class said that when he smiled with all of his teeth he looked like a psycho and he should stop doing that, except that right now, these boys were threatening him so looking like a psycho so they would leave him alone was a good thing. “I have guns upstairs in my house. If my dogs alert me that someone is bringing a dangerous smell to my house, I’ll take my dad’s rifle and I’ll shoot whoever is on my property. And dogs can smell a dangerous thing from a long way away. I could tell you all about how good dogs are at smelling, if you want.” Most kids never wanted to hear him talk about dogs. Occasionally adults would listen to him, but there were no adults anymore.

“Don’t let him get started,” Nish said. “If he starts talking about dogs he never shuts up.”

“Your funeral, man,” the white boy said. “If you’re saying no, you’re saying no, but I betcha Carrie isn’t worried about your guns.”

“That’s good,” Andy said. “If she’s not worried about them, then she won’t take precautions and it’ll be easy to shoot her if she comes into my yard.”

“Whatever,” the white boy said. “Come on, dudes, let’s go. We don’t need this loser anyway.”

“Weirdo,” the little boy said. “Creepy weirdo. We don’t even want him in the Bears.”

They left. Andy brought his dogs back into the house, sat down on the dead men’s plush, soft sofa, and called his dogs up on to the sofa with them. Then he hugged them while he cried. Emotional confrontations upset him, a lot. He’d gotten better at controlling his temper since third grade, and he could hide the fact that he wanted to cry until he was alone or with a safe grownup, but he couldn’t keep himself from crying indefinitely. Updog lay his head and paws down on Andy’s lap, which was heavy but comforting anyway, and Clifford snuggled close so Andy could hug him and cry against his fur.

After he was done crying, it was time to take his payment and go home. His dogs needed food, and he had candy bars at his house that he was saving for stressful times like this. He loaded his cart with the powdered milk and all the cans he could fit, as well as a bunch of fitness food replacements like energy bars and protein powder. Maybe tomorrow he’d come back for the rest of the cans; he didn’t know how fast dead smell cleared out of a house, though, so it was possible that other kids would hit the place before he had a chance to.

It was dark, and Andy had a hard time finding his way in the dark, but he trusted his dogs to know the way. “Home, Clifford. Home, Updog,” he said, and they trotted in front of him, pulling just hard enough on their leashes to lead him forward.  Really, he was only holding their leashes to make them feel secure, because they were trained with leashes; he knew they would walk with him if he let go of the leashes, and it was hard to pull his heavy cart with one hand and hold onto two big dogs’ leashes with the other, but he did it anyway because his dogs expected it and he know how upset he got when things happened that he didn’t expect, so he imagined his dogs felt the same way.

[aweebwrites]

Side-Effects (The Fic)

“Lloyd. Let Kai know that breakfast will be ready in a moment.” Sensei Wu says, sipping his tea as Zane attended to breakfast with Nya watching him idly nearby.

While Zane couldn't be trusted with fire, he was the only one who could cook meals without forgetting about it, being too impatient or making it taste like fresh garbage. They never pressure him however. They were just as fine taking turns heading out to Ninjago City to pick something up but Zane had those days where he wanted to do more than hole himself up in his room under dozens of blankets for hours- or even days- and today was one of those days.

“Sure thing Uncle.” Lloyd says, glad for something to get him moving.

He headed upstairs to where the rooms were, taking the stairs three at a time.

The Desert Bounty had 4 floors with their rooms being on either the fourth or third floor. The second floor was the living space, dining area and kitchen while the ground floor was the training area. Kai's room was on the fourth floor along with his, Nya's and Sensei Garmadon’s. Sensei Wu, Zane's, Jay's and Cole's were on the third floor. While the Monastery was still a work in progress, they would most likely spend a lot of their time here. After all, the had to share rooms in the Monastery and that didn't play out well as far as Lloyd heard from the others.

“Hey Kai.” He says, knocking at Kai's door before opening it. “Breakfast is ready.” He says to the fire ninja who was laying in bed and staring at the ceiling.

“Ok.” He sighs after a moment, getting up.

“If it's one of those days, I can bring breakfast up instead.” Lloyd suggested, shifting from one leg to another repeatedly.

“No, it's fine.” Kai says, stepping out and closing his door before heading down with Lloyd. “I haven't eaten with you guys in almost a week. I can suck it up today.”

“Alright.” Lloyd nods, knowing better to try and persuade him otherwise or tell him take it easy.

“Yo Kai!” Nya says with a grin once they walked into the dining/kitchen space before snorting, realising that she made a funny. “Get it? Yokai? Demon?” She says as Kai sat in his usual seat, pointedly ignoring her.

Due to all of their issues, their seating arrangements are fixed. At the head of the kitchen island they ate all meals at was Sensei Garmadon who was currently out, Kai to the right then Lloyd, Cole, Sensei Wu, Zane, Jay and Nya. While Nya is mostly tolerable, she gets under his skin sometimes. Kai just wants to make it through a day without flaming up.

“Very funny Nya.” Lloyd says with a smile to deter her.

“Isn't it?! Because yokai are demons and demons are usually seen with fire and he's the elemental master of fire so it will works out it's so weird kinda like this weird scorpion I saw yesterday that had two stingers like how does that even work plus the desert sand is so hot but underneath the top layer is much cooler I went digging around to see if I'd find anything interesting yesterday but I got sidetracked when I remembered that….” As Jay went on and on, Zane set down breakfast on the table before taking his seat and pulled the scarf he had on closer to his mouth.

He didn't need to eat anymore with his new shiny body but he was fine with just sitting and watching the others. Yes, he missed it sometimes, being able to eat but not for long.

“Thank you for the meal Zane.” Sensei Wu says and all but Cole echoed the same.

He only huffed and begrudgingly began eating. He still hasn't forgotten that argument they had 6 months back and while he couldn't remember the details, he remembered he was still mad at him.

I don't want to be.

His food was great however, not that he'd tell him that.

But I want to.

“What are we doing today Sensei?” Nya asked him, cutting random shapes into her eggs.

“Today is meditation Monday.” Wu announced.

“Meditation?! I hate meditation! It's always sit still and clear your mind but I can never clear my mind not even for a few seconds I just have to keep going like a solar powered scooter in a place where there's no night time speaking of I have to finish the schematics for that or ask my dad for some help he shouldn't be too busy since he's planning on coming in for a visit soon maybe I can get him to bring more copper wirings but I don't think I need much more of that I should ask for that diskjumpsprangle socket instead I could make 10,000- no 100,000 things with it like…”

“Ugh…” Kai groaned, rubbing his temples at Jay's endless chatter.

He loved his friend and he understood that he couldn't control it but it got to him sometimes. Everything has gotten to him at some point if he's being honest with himself. At least he's grown used to it enough that it was rarely a trigger.

“Jay, you don't do actual meditation, remember?” Cole pointed out.

“Oh yeah! I totally forgot like that time I forgot my own name! That was funny though I'm pretty sure it had something to do with the fact that I hadn't slept on 4 days because I had this cool idea that wasn't as cool as I thought but…”

“Shouldn't Dad be back now?” Lloyd asked his uncle, fiddling with his fork, his legs bouncing with his excess energy.

“He decided to pick up a few things in Ninjago City first. He should be back in time for meditation however.” Wu told him as Jay chatted off a no longer listening Zane's ears.

He hadn't been at the table for long and he's already had enough social interaction with the others. He sighs and stood, tucking his mitten covered hands into his pockets.

“Where are you headed?” Nya asked him, a beach ball sized water bubble in hand as he passed her by.

“My room.” Was his only answer as he left.

“Nya, you know the rule. No powers at the table.” Wu reminded her, pouring Kai a cup of ClariTea and sliding it over to him.

“Totally forgot.” Nya says with a grin, taking her focus off the water orb- and of course dousing the entire table in water, filling everyone's lap with it.

“Nya what the hell?!” Kai snapped, bolting to his feet and turning over his cup of ClariTea in the process but he was already soaked.

“Whoopsie.” She grinned as the others stood as well.

“Whoopsie?” Kai says through gritted teeth as his clothes began to steam.

"Oh boy." Lloyd sighed to himself.

“WHOOPSIE?! You soaked everyone and my breakfast with your stupid WATER!” He yelled, pounding burning fists on the table and evaporating the water there and rapidly burning into the granite countertop of the kitching island.

“She did. And she's very sorry about it.” Lloyd says, quickly covering Nya's mouth. “Say Nya, Zane hasn't watered his garden today.” He says, pushing her towards the stairs.

"Oh yeah..." She says then headed downstairs.

“Arrrg! She's such a child!” Kai yelled, flaming up even more.

“Hey Kai-”

“One day! Just one day is all I wanted without THIS happening!” He yelled, skin going orange as his flames reddened further.

“Um, Kai-”

“I’M SICK AND TIRED OF THIS STUPID FU-” Kai's furious ranting was cut off by the reinforced metal that made up the floor melting under his feet, sending him plummeting to the ground floor.

“I tried to warn you.” Jay says, peering over into the hole.

“AAAAARRRRRGGGG!!!!!”

Jay barely managed to jump back quick enough for red hot flames to come blazing up.

"Nya?!" Lloyd yelled, rushing over to the window to see if she got out in time.

"Yeah?" She says, looking up at him from Zane's garden, water bubble in hand.

Lloyd only sighed in relief.

“Holy hot tamale! That was epic! Well not epic as in good but like epic epic like that was super cool to see but not super cool that it happened though it kind was but not-”

“Jay.” Cole says, cutting him off as he took off and wrung out his shirt. “Your eyebrows.” He says and Jay reached up to touch them.

“Oh man! This is the second time this month! My mom is gonna make me wear makeup again and drawn in eyebrows aren't a good look on me it makes me look like some kind of drag queen not that anything is wrong with them hut how do they even walk in those heels it should be…” Jay went on, forgetting about his eyebrows already.

“Before you get back brother, I'll need you to tap into our savings...” Wu says to Garmadon over the phone, looking at the large hole in the kitchen area.

Not to mention the damage downstairs...

__________________

(Heya! So you remember that Side-Effects AU I came up with a while back? Here's a small fic to show you an idea of how things are for the main 7! And for reference, almost everything up to rebooted actually happened but after Zane rebuilt himself only to still feel cold, he kinda snapped and froze over the whole factory- including PIXAL and the cultists that came to kidnap them. Long story short, season 4 and after never happens. I hope it wasn't too bad!)

[commodorecliche]

Gimme all the book recs Please :D

yaaaaaaaaaaaas okay great. i love sharing books i love.  

1. The Thief of Always - Clive BarkerGenre: Dark FantasyBig personal favorite of mine. My father read this to me when I was a kid, and it literally has stuck with me since then. Every now and then I go back and reread it just for fun. It’s a wonderfully spooky little story, accompanied by some really lovely and somewhat off-kilter illustrations. Much like Coraline, it’s a novel that is a fable for children, and a tale of terror for adults.

After a mysterious stranger promises to end his boredom with a trip to the magical Holiday House, ten-year-old Harvey learns that his fun has a high price.

2. House of Leaves - Mark Z. DanielewskiGenre: Postmodernism, horrorHands down an absolute favorite. This is a book I literally recommend to everyone. This is a book that made me viscerally uncomfortable, at times I didn’t even sleep in the same room as it. I made it sleep in the living room. There is nothing overtly terrifying about the book, but its format and its unsettlingly immersive nature will lead you down a road unlike any other. 

In 1997, Johnny Truant has stumbled upon a chest full of scrap papers that had once belonged to a man named Zampono. The papers aren’t just scraps though, they’re a chaotic but detailed transcription of a series called the Navidson Record. The Navidson Record is a series of videos made by a family who has discovered that their new house appears to change dimensions almost daily, it has hallways that shouldn’t exist, doors that should lead outside but instead lead into nothingness. Johnny attempts to re-order and reconstruct Zampono’s papers, and along the way begins to lose himself as well. 

3. The Postmortal - Drew MagaryGenre: Science Fiction, Postmodern DystopiaReally funny, really dark, and full of a surprising amount of morality and humanity in a pre-apocalyptic world. 

Imagine a near future where a cure for aging is discovered and-after much political and moral debate-made available to people worldwide. Immortality, however, comes with its own unique problems-including evil green people, government euthanasia programs, a disturbing new religious cult, and other horrors.    

4. Horrorstor - Grady HendrixGenre: Comedy, HorrorHonestly this book is just balls to the wall fun. It’s a horror novel that’s laid out like the world’s most messed up IKEA catalog. Spooky at times, ridiculous and funny, at times moving, while also offering great social commentary on consumerism and the the current status of retail workers. 

Something strange is happening at the Orsk furniture superstore in Cleveland, Ohio. Every morning, employees arrive to find broken Kjerring bookshelves, shattered Glans water goblets, and smashed Liripip wardrobes. Sales are down, security cameras reveal nothing, and store managers are panicking. To unravel the mystery, three employees volunteer to work a nine-hour dusk-till-dawn shift. In the dead of the night, they’ll patrol the empty showroom floor, investigate strange sights and sounds, and encounter horrors that defy the imagination. 

5. Rant - Chuck PalahniukGenre: Science Fiction, Horror, SatireThis is a book I read several years ago and that I still think about from time to time. I haven’t had time to sit down and reread it, but parts of it still resonate with me today. This is a very peculiar story and it is told in a rather peculiar fashion (it is an oral history, and as such is told in a very conversational way by a number of different characters with a wide variety of thoughts and opinions on the titular Rant. It’s hard to properly describe this book, but let’s just say it’s been in my reread list for a while now. 

Buster “Rant” Casey just may be the most efficient serial killer of our time. A high school rebel, Rant Casey escapes from his small town home for the big city where he becomes the leader of an urban demolition derby called Party Crashing. Rant Casey will die a spectacular highway death, after which his friends gather the testimony needed to build an oral history of his short, violent life. 

6. John Dies at the End - David WongGenre: Comedy, Horror, Dark FantasyHoly god what do I even say about this book? It is just hilariously and marvelously insane. A perfect mix of cosmic fantasy, horror, comedy, and lunacy, and I loved every minute of reading it. I still have the rest of the series lined up to read, too!

The drug is called Soy Sauce and it gives users a window into another dimension. John and I never had the chance to say no. You still do. I’m sorry to have involved you in this, I really am. But as you read about these terrible events and the very dark epoch the world is about to enter as a result, it is crucial you keep one thing in mind: None of this was my fault. 

7. Sphere - Michael CrichtonGenre: Science Fiction, Deep Sea HorrorThis is one I actually JUST finished, and I absolutely adored it. I had a couple small complaints about it, but overall, it was a wonderful read and very engrossing. Plus, I’m always a sucker for deep sea horror. 

A group of American scientists are rushed to a huge vessel that has been discovered resting on the ocean floor in the middle of the South Pacific. What they find defies their imaginations and mocks their attempts at logical explanation. It is a spaceship of phenomenal dimensions, apparently, undamaged by its fall from the sky. And, most startling, it appears to be at least three hundred years old…. 

8. I, Lucifer - Glen DuncanGenre: Religious Fantasy, Occult FictionThis book is incredibly well researched, thought out, and characterized, as well as funny and extremely thought-provoking. I’d never expected to see a story that would give me a realistic and modern look into the Devil’s side of the story. I especially never expected to see a story that would make the Devil learn what it is to be human, either. All in all just an A+, fantastical read. 

The Prince of Darkness has been given one last shot at redemption, provided he can live out a reasonably blameless life on earth. Highly sceptical, naturally, the Old Dealmaker negotiates a trial period - a summer holiday in a human body, with all the delights of the flesh. The body, however, turns out to be that of Declan Gunn, a depressed writer living in Clerkenwell, interrupted in his bath mid-suicide. Ever the opportunist, and with his main scheme bubbling in the background, Luce takes the chance to tap out a few thoughts - to straighten the biblical record, to celebrate his favourite achievements, to let us know just what it’s like being him. Neither living nor explaining turns out to be as easy as it looks. Beset by distractions, miscalculations and all the natural shocks that flesh is heir to, the Father of Lies slowly begins to learn what it’s like being us. 

9. The Wasp Factory - Iain BanksGenre: Psychological HorrorLook, I want to say this right off the bat. This book is… not for everyone. Trust me when I say this is an extremely dark book with a lot of dark content. I would say that if you have any potential triggers, you may want to message me first and I will give you a better rundown of what all this book entails. This is a true piece of horror fiction. But it’s also incredible. I ate this book up in about two days and it is one of my favorite pieces of dark fiction to date. So yeah, chat with me if you have any concerns, but if you enjoy truly dark fiction, then this is up your alley. 

Two years after I killed Blyth I murdered my young brother Paul, for quite different and more fundamental reasons than I’d disposed of Blyth, and then a year after that I did for my young cousin Esmerelda, more or less on a whim. That’s my score to date. Three. I haven’t killed anybody for years, and don’t intend to ever again. It was just a stage I was going through. 

10. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (the whole series, trust me)Genre: Comedy, Science Fiction, Cosmic FantasyJust trust me when I say this is a series that literally everyone should read at least once in their life. They are unflabbably hilarious in a way that only Douglas Adams could be, and they are just truly unique. This series is (rightfully) a classic and shouldn’t be missed. 

Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last fifteen years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor. Together this dynamic pair begin a journey through space aided by quotes from The Hitchhiker’s Guide (“A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have”).

11. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War - Max Brooks Genre: Zombie horror, Faux HistoryI beg you - do not judge this book by the very terrible movie that was made about it. It is an entirely different animal than that mess of a movie, I promise. World War Z is a masterfully crafted book that details the zombie apocalypse in ways never before done in fiction. The Battle of Yonkers scenes and the testimony of Tomonaga Ijiro still stick in my head to this day. This book is a triumph of horror, ‘history’, and humanity, all balled into a distinctly unique experience. 

The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years. 

12. The Raw Shark Texts - Steven HallGenre: Fantasy/Realism, Meta-fiction, MysteryThis is a tough one to put into words. I read this many years ago, and I remember it more as a series of emotional experiences rather than just as a singular plot. Which I think really speaks to its character as a book. This is a book that deals with dissociation, memory loss, our sense of self, how easily we can lose that sense, and our struggle to hold onto or to rediscover the world we know and the people we believe ourselves to be. This book is just… an experience, much like House of Leaves. It’s immersive, and at times quite unsettling. 

Eric Sanderson wakes up in a house he doesn’t recognize, unable to remember anything of his life. All he has left are his diary entries recalling Clio, a perfect love who died under mysterious circumstances, and a house that may contain the secrets to Eric’s prior life. But there may be more to this story, or it may be a different story altogether. With the help of allies found on the fringes of society, Eric embarks on an edge-of-your-seat journey to uncover the truth about himself and to escape the predatory forces that threaten to consume him. 

I think 12 should be good for now! I certainly have more though, if you want them!! 

Bonus, Currently Reading: The Library at Mount Char - Scott HawkinsGenre: Contemporary Fantasy, Horror, Dark FantasyI don’t have a whole lot to say about this yet since I’m not very far into it, but so far it’s been extremely intriguing, and Hawkins’ writing is truly beautiful. 

A missing God. A library with the secrets to the universe. A woman too busy to notice her heart slipping away. Carolyn’s not so different from the other people around her. She likes guacamole and cigarettes and steak. She knows how to use a phone. Clothes are a bit tricky, but everyone says nice things about her outfit with the Christmas sweater over the gold bicycle shorts. After all, she was a normal American herself once. That was a long time ago, of course. Before her parents died. Before she and the others were taken in by the man they called Father. 

Bonus 2, Up Next to Read: Dark Matter: A Ghost Story - Michelle PaverGenre: Horror

January 1937. Clouds of war are gathering over a fogbound London. Twenty-eight year old Jack is poor, lonely, and desperate to change his life, so when he’s offered the chance to join an Arctic expedition, he jumps at it. Spirits are high as the ship leaves Norway: five men and eight huskies, crossing the Barents Sea by the light of the midnight sun. At last they reach the remote, uninhabited bay where they will camp for the next year, Gruhuken, but the Arctic summer is brief. As night returns to claim the land, Jack feels a creeping unease. One by one, his companions are forced to leave. He faces a stark choice: stay or go. Soon he will see the last of the sun, as the polar night engulfs the camp in months of darkness. Soon he will reach the point of no return–when the sea will freeze, making escape impossible. Gruhuken is not uninhabited. Jack is not alone. Something walks there in the dark… 

(also if any of y’all have read these, i’d love to hear YOUR thoughts on them too)

[nika-the-hunter]

House of Mist [Ch.5]

NE 4th ST, South Bellevue Ruins +2 Days

Nicole hurried across Bellevue with Rykis and the other Fallen that had survived the ambush. The Baron's den was completely across town from where they had stowed the vehicles. It was the final hour before dawn, and a few flurries of snow had blown in while they were gone.

There were not many other Fallen out and about like there had been that morning, aside from the occasional sentry on patrol. Their glowing eyes made spotting them fairly easy inside windows or on rooftops. Nicole's Ghost flew around her head and glanced out at the buildings.

"I still find it highly unusual that this House is active during the day... and not at night like many of the other Houses," he said quietly, blinking along with their walk.

Rykis looked over at the small machine and simply waved across the buildings. "While our night vision is very good, there are things to do here that can only be done when the sun is out," he nodded enthusiastically.

"Interesting." The Ghost flew around and orbited Rykis once before returning to Nicole's side. "I still do not entirely approve of this, Guardian. We should be on our way to the Last City."

"I don't think so, Ghost. I don't know if you've noticed... but I suck," Nicole said. "I think we should stay here as long as these Fallen will have me. At least until I have more experience."

The Ghost's fins angled down, seemingly to mimic an angry frown. "Fine, you make a good point."

The group of Fallen, plus one Guardian, walked across the city, towards the Baron's dome. When they arrived, the Baron's guards ushered them inside. Nicole followed along, but Rykis was not translating anything at the moment. She passed through the dining room she had met the Baron in before, and into a large chamber with a variety of screens.

The Baron himself was sitting in a large chair in the back of the room. "This guy probably has a throne in every room here," she whispered to her Ghost. Even if what she said was transmitted beyond her helmet, only Rykis would understand.

"He does seem the type," her Ghost replied.

The Fallen proceed to reiterate what happened upon the mountain, at least which is what Nicole thought they were doing; none of it was being translated for her. Up in his chair, the Baron looked distressed and sounded extremely frustrated whenever he spoke.

It was a full hour of testimony before Rykis nudged her. She had sort of zoned out again, watching a series of screens displaying maps of the area. There was not much of a purpose to listening to a bunch of gibberish she could not understand.

"Guardian, have your ghost display his recording." Rykis gestured to the main screen facing the Baron.

"Got it; Ghost, if you may?" Nicole held out her hand, summoning her companion.

The small machine appeared in her palm and glanced towards the slightly curved screen. "I will see if I can make a solid connection. I've never interfaced with a Fallen screen before." A small beam of energy shot from the Ghost's eye and connected to the screen.

It took a moment, but the screen flashed and the group was treated to a video of her sitting on the tank. It was taken over her shoulder, and she assumed it was taken by her Ghost's eye, however the past version of herself took the Ghost out, yet the camera remained in the same position.

"This is a bit early; I will jump to the point in question. I will also be able to rotate the view to focus on anything that happened around us," the Ghost said; Rykis translated that for the Baron, who simply waved a hand in acknowledgement.

The video jumped forward to the moments before the fighting started earlier that night. The Baron watched the combat through completely before instructing the Ghost to rewind and rectangle different shots. He halted the recording on a good shot of the blockade and ruined Pikes. The frozen image also held a downed Skiff; she had not noticed its burning wreckage when she was up there, but it explains why there was no aerial cover like she had been told.

Nicole leaned over to her while the Fallen continued to discuss amongst themselves. "So... how exactly did you manage to get this angle?" she whispered.

The Ghost dipped one wing and turned to look at her. "Space Magic."

"Rea-" She started and then was immediately interrupted.

"Yes. Really."

"Well that just seems like a cop-out, to be honest," Nicole replied, reaching out and giving the Ghost a light push with her finger.

"Some sort of nano-camera system along your helmet and armor." Her Ghost imitated a shrug with his fins. "Some just call it space magic, so I do to."

"Isn't it nice to explain things though?"

"Absolutely... not." His damaged fin sparked slightly.

Nicole shook her head and sighed. "You are no help."

Meanwhile it appeared that the Baron had finished deliberating with the other Fallen. Nicole noticed him nod and gesture for the others to leave, except for Rykis who stayed behind. The Baron waved a hand at Nicole and spoke.

Rykis resumed his second job, being her translator. "By all means this was a failure, but you are lucky I cannot place the blame on you. You survived, where my fellows did not; a feat I am not sure how I feel about... Unfortunately I am aware you are unable to die, but that is also fortunate for me..." Rykis glanced back at the Baron, seemingly stopping mid-sentence. The Baron barked, and nodded for Rykis to finish. "...that I can kill you without consequence."

"Wait, hold on-" Nicole raised her left arm while her right felt for the grip of her pistol. However she stopped mid pull. There was no way she could kill this creature with a peashooter like that. Plus, even trying would ruin her chances here. Instead she looked on, and flashed five fingers at her Ghost.

"Five minutes? Got it," the Ghost replied with what seemed like the quietest response over the radio she had ever heard.

The Baron's lower arms appeared with a handgun, and fired once. The bullet flashed through her helmet and through her forehead, once again banishing her to the darkness.

Time passed in the void and eventually she was brought back to the land of the living. She had been dumped in the snow outside the Baron's compound, so upon awakening she was quite cold. Rykis offered a hand to help her up as soon as he saw movement. "Apologies, Guardian... the Baron is not pleased with the events that have transpired."

"No shit." Nicole took Rykis' hand and he pulled her up. "At least that plan worked..."

She took off her helmet and checked the front. Where the bullet had passed through there was an obvious paint chip and dent, the Ghost had patched it fairly well. She rubbed her thumb across the spot, barely feeling anything through her gloves, and then plopped it back onto her head. "What next?"

"There is nothing more tonight," Rykis said. "We should return to your tower."

"Oh, well that's fine." Nicole turned and looked over the skyline. "Which direction is that?"

"It is on the other side of the city," Rykis nodded. "I will take you, but pay attention this time."

Across the snow dusted city the old hotel stood out among the smaller structures on the peninsula; it was the only one over three floors. The hotel itself appeared to be in better repair than the rest of the buildings. It might be an acceptable place after all.

Nicole walked up the stairs and found her room. She flopped back down onto the old be and decided to go back to sleep for a good bit, she was more tired than she thought.

The next few days went on and Nicole found herself slotting into a daily routine. Rykis was spending the morning hours teaching her their language, which was not easy in any aspect. Afterwards she would collect food and water from the depot in the city, and return for more language class. It was just as hard for him to teach her as it was for her to actually pronounce many of the needed vernacular; however she was slowly starting to get the basics down after a week.

Her ventures into the city became more than just water runs after the first week. There was so much out there that the Fallen had not yet claimed, or they did not use. By the second week, there had been an increase in patrols going out; none of which she was part of. There was a lot of force build up down by the old highway. Rykis had said he was not sure what it was for, it was just in response to the patrol she had been on.

Between the day's language lessons, Nicole sat in the corner of the room reading a semi-water damaged book she had found in one of the empty Hotel rooms. It was a tour guide for hikes out in the mountains; though of course all the trails would be long overgrown by now, it was more for her to understand what the area was like. A sudden gust of wind blew in through the window and disturbed the flaking paint. Chunks fluttered to the floor around her discarded armor plates, and she stopped reading to look around the dilapidated room. As the cogs of thought turned in her head, she set the book down and summoned her Ghost. "You know... I think I can fix this place up a bit."

"Finally! We're actually going to do something." He popped off her hand and flew around the room, his eye producing a blue light and he scanned the space. "The structural integrity is still stable, so it's all going to be cosmetic work."

"Good." Nicole tapped her chin with a finger. "So we need paint and some materials to fix the walls... and I could kill for something more comfortable than the cloth I've been sleeping on. Let's see if we can find some out there."

She pulled on her chest plate and clamped the pieces all together. Nicole pulled the plate away slightly from beneath. "Oof... It didn't feel this tight yesterday. It really... compresses... stuff, you know?"

Her Ghost turned around and blinked at her. "I apologize, the measurements may be wrong; they were the default set by the provider. Time without the plate has allowed your body to expand to your natural form. We should find materials to make some adjustments while we are out there."

Nicole clicked all the small miscellaneous armored plates into place, but then tapped the plate over her hip with a knuckle. "Okay, this stuff feels thin."

"I did not have much material to make the gear, it provides life support but that is pretty much it," her Ghost said. "You can get better gear in time, with materials I can rework and break down existing armor to help upgrade what you have, or restore older sets you find... if that's what you like."

"Another reason to get going." Nicole headed out the door of her room and dropped off the side of the balcony to the floor below. Rykis' room was across the floor, but he was not in the room. A written note, in english, was up on the door. Apparently Rykis had been called away by the House's Archon. He would not be around for an undetermined amount of time. "Oh that's just great, I don't have an interpreter."

"Are you still going out then?" the Ghost asked.

"Of course, I don't feel like being cooped up in here." She spun around and walked down the stairs

"Good," the Ghost quipped. "When I was searching for you, I passed a great deal of warehouses south of here. There might be untapped resources left there we could check out."

Nicole ducked to get out through the old lobby doors and into the cloudy weather. "Okay that's where we're headed. How far is that?"

"It is about twenty five kilometers." The Ghost projected a map of the area onto her helmet HUD with a path from her current location to somewhere south of them. "It's a six hour slow walk, two at a jogging pace, if you're up for it."

"Are we sticking to a clear path?" She asked, heading up the nearby onramp that led onto one of the many ancient highways. The concrete roads remained relatively passable with all the old rusted cars pushed to the sides, grass and other shrubbery had long penetrated through cracks though.

"Best route keeps us following this old highway." He replied. "They're not overgrown as much as the surface streets."

"Alright, just keep the route up for me." Nicole took off down the road, staying in the middle of all the ruins. They had built the highways here with high walls on either side to keep the sound down for the homes and businesses that had once lined either side; however, it now just made it look like she was running down a dry river channel.

They traveled south at a quick pace, staying on the path the Ghost had set. Snow had fallen again while she slept; hopefully the winter season would end soon, her armor was not the best insulator. Nicole used the run to practice her language lessons, her Ghost would say a phrase in english and then she would repeat it back to him in the language of the Fallen. It was hopefully helpful, though she had no way of knowing if she was actually pronouncing it correctly. The scenery was a lot of rust, greens and greys, not much at all to look at; she needed something to keep her busy to pass the time.

Eventually the highway evened out and lost its concrete walls, switching to something slightly elevated above the land around it. The land here was flatter, losing the hills and steep valleys she had been running through for the last two hours. It was a welcomed change. These were wide valleys, she could see the other side but it was a good distance away. Though she could see why the Ghost had brought her all this way, this valley was filled with massive flat buildings. Warehouses, by the hundreds. She came to a stop outside the first warehouse. "Alright, one last phrase, lay it out for me."

"How about you translate what I say?" her Ghost said. "Here it goes, Hiss hiss, chitter chitter, growl growl."

"Rude." Nicole frowned and summoned her Ghost to her hand. He appeared, with his fins formed into what her mind interpreted as a snide smirk. She pulled her hand away from beneath the Ghost and gently slapped the little ball.

"Okay fine, fine." The Ghost twitched its fins and flew around Nicole's helmet. "Shall we find out if there is anything of use here?"

"Yeah, okay." Nicole hopped over a rusted container truck partially buried in the eroded soil. There were a lot of scenes like that across the area she had explored; piles of earth and vegetation had gathered along walls or anything else that got in the way of the wind and rain. An entrance to this monolithic concrete structure was thankfully shielded by the container; one of the loading dock doors had rusted and fallen away. She walked inside and glanced around the massive open space, columns were evenly placed in the open space, supporting the ceiling far above her. Rows and rows of metal racks were filled with crates and the remains of ancient cardboard boxes... Their contents rotted and growing moss.

"Well, I don't see anything here that looks like it can be salvaged," the Ghost said, flying around and through the shelves. "There are a large amount of computer screen mounts, not that we need any of those right now."

Nicole shook her head, "No, nothing valuable for us... though, if we did need it, could you do what you did to my gun? Clean it up and make it work again?"

"Possibly, but I was only able to do that because I had some glimmer, that is programmable matter, to reconfigure into the missing parts," he replied. "My reserves are running very low right now."

"Where do we get you more? I'm sure there there's bound to be some stored in one of these warehouses." Nicole walked further into the structure and passed a rusted forklift, some yellow paint flakes were still barely holding onto the frame.

"Glimmer could be found anywhere really; bits of Golden Age technology house components made from the stuff, but there does not appear to be any here anymore." The Ghost spun around the old forklift, his eye scanning over its surface. He mumbled afterwards, she could barely hear him. "Oh my, this thing was ancient during the Golden Age..."

She hopped over an area where the floor had given way to the basement below, though she spied a promising sign not too far ahead. Vault Storage. Nicole stopped before a set of massive doors, and waved the Ghost over. "Can you get these open? They look like they haven't been touched yet, and vaults always hold something good, right?"

The little machine sailed over and shot a beam of light at the control panel that she assumed belonged to the door. "Just a little repair work to bring this back online... as long as the cables to the motors are still intact."

As soon as he finished, there was a loud rumble as dust and rust broke free of the doors. They slid with a loud screeching that echoed across the cavernous space. Daylight streamed in from inside the doors, a bad sign to the integrity of the room beyond. Nicole raised her hand to block the sun, and then frowned at what she saw inside. The space was dominated by dozens of large wooden crates. Moss was plentiful, along with grass and ferns that grew on top of the old crates. The boxes themselves were taller than she was, but otherwise unimpressive. Stenciled across the front of one crate nearest to her were the words 'Vault N042'.

"Who the hell calls a wooden crate, a Vault?" She muttered, walking over to one over on its own and yanking the panel marked 'Door' free from its rusted clamps. The inside was equally as disappointing as the rest of the room. Crushed boxes and rotting furniture; some long dead person's belongings. Nothing that looked like it would be of any help to Nicole in her search for intact furnishings for her home. Everything here reeked of rot and mold. "Well this is all shit. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that everything here is old furniture."

Giving the entire area a once over with his scanner, her Ghost nodded in place. "It does appear so; I am only detecting small quantities of Glimmer, and nothing that can help with the hole in the ceiling back in your tower." He passed over the area one time more, "And the Glimmer is too far buried to be worth the retrieval attempt. However there does appear to be a pre-Golden Age car stored up behind the first row."

"How exactly is that useful to me?" She asked, slightly confused.

"Not at all, just an interesting bit that I noticed." He returned to her and vanished into thin air. His voice now coming from her internal helmet speakers. "There are a lot more Warehouses to check, however. We should get moving before dark."

Nicole used the hole in the wall to exit the warehouse. "I am not going to search each and every one of these buildings..."

"I will do my best to indicate which buildings might be better to search, however building materials aren't exactly something that my scanners are made for."

"Got it, there has got to be something useful out here." Nicole walked on to check the next warehouse, hoping she would have better luck as the day went on.

AN Apologies about the time between chapters. I am in the middle of moving right now so this hasn't exactly been my top priority. If it looks a little weird here at the end, its because I chopped the chapter in half instead of making you all wait even longer. Sorry.

[thedragontamerying]

So I’ve had this idea for a while and just recently got the courage to go ahead and write it. >///< I don’t think writing body movement or actions are my strongest point so this was kinda a challenge when it came to the dance steps, but I hope you all enjoy nonetheless! In case it wasn’t obvious from the stated ages, this story takes place years before the main ffxv story does (think Brotherhood).

If you want to see what kind of dancing is in this you can watch a video here and if you want to hear the music that plays you can listen to it here. (I really like the music for this. It’s so bouncy!)

Tagging: @insomniasix @theyearofdiamonddogs @zoeyredbird1 @seal-pai @ffxv-ocs-unite @sgt-paintbrush

[Masterlist]

                                                   Belle of the Ball

“A dance?”

Artemisia sighed. “It’s more of a ball.”

“Ooh, fancy.” Her father, Dimitrios, whistled as he dried off a recently washed dinner plate.

Artemisia groaned in her seat at the dinner table, cupping her head in her hands. Her mother, Sotiria, leaned against the small kitchen island table. “Well, what’s so bad about that?”

“Didn’t you hear what I said earlier?”

Her father turned off the sink faucet and turned around, sheepishly smiling at his dejected daughter. “Sorry hon, I think the water might have drowned you out a bit. Ya gotta learn to speak up a little.”

“Plus you know we have bad hearing.” Sotiria pointed at her ear. “Old age and all.”

Artemisia sighed.

“Just give us a quick run down, Arty.”

“A ball? You mean, like the really big fancy ones?”

Ismene hummed in confirmation to her nervous student as she sorted out some papers through her filing cabinet. “We used to have one every year before The Wall came up. Back then it was used to keep good spirits between Insomnia and foreign royalty. But thanks to Niflheim and our current security, we haven’t had one in a long time.”

The nineteen year old narrowed her eyes in thought. “So why have one now?”

“The king is hoping it would help keep good spirits between the few noble families in the city. Apparently some of them are annoyed that the only time their invited to the Citadel is if it’s for important business.” Ismene smirked hearing the small scoff from Artemisia.

“Did they forget that we’re at war right now?”

“A majority of them aren’t involved in the Crownsguard or the Kingsglaive, so that possibility is actually higher than you think.” Ismene glanced over her shoulder at her student. “Regardless, it will be a fun night.”

Artemisia fidgeted. “These sort of things aren’t really for me, Ismene…”

“I’m aware.”

“Do I really have to go?”

Ismene rolled her eyes at Artemisia’s reluctance. “Yes, all Citadel officials have to be present for it.”

“Technically I’m still in training, so…” Artemisia’s retort died under Ismene’s stare.

The older woman sighed. “Artemis, I understand it can be nerve wracking having to keep up appearances around all those strangers. But the more you do it, the more you’ll become accustomed to it and it will become second nature for you. And trust me, it’s not as bad as you think it will be. It’s all just formality, after all.” Artemisia stared down at her fidgeting foot as Ismene continued. “You won’t have to discuss politics with anyone or try to prove yourself. Trust me, if anyone has anything important that they need to discuss, they’ll come to me. Besides, the prince and his friends will be there as well. You can spend the night with them, that will be fun. Plus I’m sure the prince will enjoy having you around to be his escapegoat from talking with anyone else.”

Artemisia fidgeted. “I don’t really… have anything nice for a royal ball.”

Ismene closed the newly organized cabinet -- though Artemisia doubted it would stay that way for long -- and grinned at her apprentice. “No need to worry about that. We can go on a little shopping trip and we’ll find something nice.”

Artemisia weakly smiled, her hesitance still obvious.

“I assure you, Artemis. You’ll have a great time.”

Artemisia’s parents, now seated at the table with her, lightly nodded and hummed in understanding.

“I guess I see where your anxiety is coming from…” Sotiria tapped her cheek thoughtfully.

“But still,” Dimitrios interjected, always one to look on the bright side. “If you’re not obligated to talk to the fancy folk, then it’s just a regular dance right? That’s not bad!”

“It’s more than that, Dad!” Artemisia exasperated, laying her head on the table and covering the top with her arms like they could shield her from the dreaded future. “I’m going to embarrass myself, I know I will. Or worse, I’ll embarrass Ismene and Noctis.” She’s known Noctis for ten years and had been officially working under Ismene for six years. Within that time she has grown comfortable with a majority of other Citadel and Crownsguard members, but not so much with other high-born members of Insomnia that regularly met with the king. Despite every bit of logic and experience she’s had with nobility and even royalty -- granted though, Noctis and Gladiolus didn’t really fit the mold constructed for people of their position -- she couldn’t help but still have this feeling of inferiority and awkwardness. She knew it was ridiculous, especially since she was not the only ‘common-blood’ amongst Noctis’ friends. Prompto had no titles or enormous riches, yet he never seemed to care about the sociological position of the rest of the guys. Whatever it was that caused his seemingly carefree attitude, Artemisia wishes she could get some of it too.

“Artemis, I think you’re overthinking things again.” Sotiria sighed. “I highly doubt Ismene would put you through something like this if she didn’t think that you were capable of handling it.” Artemisia glanced up at her mom when she saw the reministant smile on her face. “Besides, if the prince wasn’t embarrassed by you at all when you were younger then there’s no way you could embarrass him now.” Artemisia couldn’t help the small huff of amusement from her nose. She had a point; if Noctis wasn’t weirded out by their first meeting, then chances are he could handle any kind of awkwardness she might unintentionally throw his way.

“I vote that you go!” Dimitrios shouted, his handing standing tall over his head. “But I want pictures! You gotta let me take pictures first before you go to the dance.”

“That’s the only reason you really want her to go, isn’t it?” Sotiria looked at her husband suspiciously, reading him like the books that he creates.

“Well, that fancy school Ismene put her in didn’t have any dances, so we never got to see her dressed up like the princess that she is.” Dimitrios cried dramatically.

“Dancing isn’t really something that a tactician needs to know, Dad.”

“Whatever, the vote is two-to-one so you’re going to that dance, little missy. And I’m taking pictures!”

Artemisia couldn’t help but giggle at her father’s declaration. Her smiling mother shrugged, hinting that there was no way she was going to get out of the ball now. “Ismene said that you guys can come too, if you’re interested.”

“Oh no thanks, that’s too fancy for us.” Artemisia’s parents said in unison, giving her a thumbs up. “Good luck though!”

Hypocrites...

While Artemisia had accepted her fate to the night of the ball, all the preparations were turning out to be more overwhelming than the actual event would. The boutique that Ismene took her to was absolutely gorgeous and the dresses were breathtaking.

Also expensive. Very expensive.

Why was everything so expensive?!

Expensive enough that Artemisia didn’t touch anything that wasn’t specifically handed to her. One dress alone was going to put a major dent into her savings, she didn’t want to risk breaking something else and paying for that too. Thankfully, Ismene was friends with the owner and was able to get a discount for her. After that was a visit to the salon to consult with a hair and makeup artist. Artemisia had worried that her recently cut hair would limit her styling options, but the stylist declared that a good stylist has no limitations. Artemisia decided to trust his enthusiasm.

The night finally came, and after meeting with the cosmetologist, sorting out her new dress and enduring several minutes of an impromptu photoshoot from her gleeful father, she had made it to the Citadel with Ismene. Ismene had ushered Artemisia to on ahead as she spoke with Cor. Artemisia fidgeted with her hands as she made her way to down the luxurious hall towards the ballroom. The echo of her heels was slowly drowned out by the growing noise of the party goers as she neared the door.

“Quit it Ignis…”

“At least try to look presentable, Noct.”

“Prompto, turn the flash off on that thing.”

“Sorry Big Guy, the lighting in here is horrible though.”

Artemisia heard the muffled voices of her friends just beyond the door. She hesitated, her hand raised just inches from the doorknob. She groaned defeatedly before taking a deep breath in and shaking the tension out of her arms.

“I just want tonight to be over.” Noctis’ complaint was cut off as the door creaked open. The four men’s attention landed on Artemisia as she shut the door behind her with a sheepish smile. She stood awkwardly as the guys looked her up and down.

“H-How do I look?” She held her arms out slightly at her side, showing off the long blue transparent fabric that trailed below her arms. Silver bands around her biceps and her wrists kept the fabric from touching the ground. Her dress was a light blue color that descended into a darker blue at the bottom. The clothing was long enough to end just above her toes, her high heels keeping the fabric from touching the ground. Her hair had been tied back into a small braided bun with her side bangs framing her face.

After a moment of silence, Noctis shrugged. “It will do, I guess.”

Artemisia playfully glared at her friend, immediately picking up on the teasing tone in his voice. Prompto elbowed Noctis, causing the latter to laugh. “Don’t listen to him, you look amazing!”

“Indeed, you look beautiful.” Ignis added.

Gladiolus was quiet for another moment before clearing his throat. “Yeah, you look really nice.”

Artemisia smiled, a light shade of pink on her cheeks. “Thanks, guys. You guys look great too.” Noctis wore an all black suit that had small lines of white traveling down. She’s seen him wear it on the few occasions he attended business with the king, and everytime he wore it he looked just as handsome as his father. It always brought a smile to Artemisia’s face. Prompto’s suit was light blue with a white shirt underneath and a matching blue bowtie. The color brought out his eyes and made the freckles on his face stand out. Ignis’ suit was a dark maroon color, with a black shirt and a darker maroon vest. His usually combed down hair was slicked back for the special night and Artemisia knew that he was going to be popular tonight.

“Why aren’t you wearing a suit?” Artemisia asked Gladiolus, the taller man wearing his usual guard uniform. Gladiolus shrugged nonchalantly, though his furrowed eyebrows hinted at some disappointment. “On duty tonight, along with a few other Crownsguard. Those nobles can get kinda rowdy with enough wine, and someone’s gotta be there in case his highness here gets ganged up on.”

Prompto snickered. “I’m sure some of the girls down there would love to get a piece of ya, Noct.” Noctis rolled his eyes, obviously not fond of the possibility of being gawked over by a bunch of strangers.

A signal from a nearby Crownsguard member alerted the five that it was time for the king and prince to make their entrance, the party goers being deemed safe and all security in place. Prompto ran ahead of the others, stating that he wanted a good spot to get some pictures of everyone coming out. As the other four made their way down to the ballroom, Noctis offered up his arm to Artemisia. She raised a brow at the unusual gesture. “Having you with me might save me the trouble of declining all the dads here from meeting their daughters.”

Artemisia giggled. “Think I’m enough to scare off competition?”

“Good enough for me.”

Artemisia couldn’t help but laugh more at the flattery, locking her arm with Noctis’ and tugging him a bit closer for a playful cuddle.

Despite the uplifting verbal affections from the guys, as soon as they entered the ballroom, Artemisia’s body went rigid and her breath hitched in her throat. She could see the eyes of all the attendees focus on them as the group stood behind the approaching king and his entourage. The king smiled and greeted his son and his friends, all of them bowing in return before the older man looked out from the balcony at the party goers down below, welcoming them all.

King Regis continued on with some sort of speech that Artemisia felt like she should be paying more attention too but she couldn’t distract herself from all the eyes on them. The happy smile that she had a few minutes ago fell into quivering attempt of a smile. She tried to keep up appearances but it was becoming increasingly more difficult as the king’s speech rattled on. Not even Prompto’s distant attempts to get her to smile for his camera helped. She couldn’t relax with so many strangers looking at her. Logically speaking, she knew that they were looking at the king and Noctis and most likely didn’t pay her any mind, but that didn’t make the anxious feeling go away. It definitely felt like people were staring at her. Why would they staring? Did she look bad? Was she underdressed? Overdressed? Did it look like she was trying too hard?

Her hands felt clammy and her temperature seemed to rise once she noticed a couple glance in her direction and then whisper amongst themselves. Questions of why they suddenly started talking once they looked at her ran through her head like a bullet train, with multiple negative answers coming in just as fast. Her eyes slowly moved down to her arm that was still interlocked with Noctis’. Am I making Noctis look bad? Oh Gods, I must be so gaudy next to him. I should just move back more so--

Her attempt to disappear to the back was foiled by Noctis, who secured her arm around his tightly once he felt her move. She looked at him questionly but quickly noticing a similar look of uneasiness in his eyes. Her tense muscles relaxed slightly, her desire to comfort her anxious friend overriding her own worries.

“And with that, please enjoy the festivities.” King Regis finally finished speaking, the attendees clapping before slowly dispersing around the ballroom as music from the orchestra began to play. Many took off to the side lines to talk amongst themselves and enjoy the treats provided by the Citadel staff while a few couples began to dance to the music. A few of the king’s entourage bowed to Regis before descending down the balcony staircase to join in the merrymaking as the king came over to Noctis and his friends. “I’m glad to see that you decided to come tonight. I was worried that you wouldn’t.”

Noctis scoffed. “Even if I tried, Ignis wouldn’t have let that happen.”

Regis chuckled and looked at Ignis with a grateful smile. “Thank the Astrals for him then.”

“Merely doing my duty, your highness.” Ignis stated.

Regis turned his attention to Artemisia. “It’s nice to see you, my dear.” The older man smiled. “You look lovely tonight.”

Artemisia blushed shyly, averting her gaze to the ground as she lightly bowed. “T-Thank you, your majesty.”

“I hate to take you away from your date,” Noctis blushed and clarified that she was not a date before his father continued, “But I would like it if you could greet some of the guests with me.”

Noctis groaned but relented to the request after Ignis shot a look at him. The two young men followed Regis down the stairs after excusing themselves. Artemisia gave a small wave goodbye before sighing, figuring that she was going to have to continue the night on her own. “Artemis,” she jumped slightly hearing Gladiolus’ baritone voice and saw him standing by the opposite flight of stairs with his hand held out. “Need help getting down the stairs? I’m sure those heels don’t make walking easy.”

“Heh, yeah, thanks.” Artemisia chuckled sheepishly, placing her hand into his larger one. Artemisia lightly gripped the fabric of her dress to lift the hem slightly as a precaution as they walked down the curved stairs step by careful step. “You looked nervous,” Gladiolus said once they fell into a slow stepping rhythm. Artemisia weakly smiled, “Yeah… It’s stupid, I thought everyone was staring at me…”

Gladiolus gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. “Even if they were, I can tell you now that’s it’s not because of what you were thinking.”

Artemisia gave a genuine smile in thanks before the two fell into comfortable silence as they approached the bottom of the stairs. Taking the moment to look out to the crowd, she had seen some of the younger women stare at Gladiolus, giggling amongst themselves flustered. “It’s a shame you didn’t get to dress up,” Artemisia smirked, “I bet you would have looked good.”

Gladiolus snickered. “Won’t argue with you there. But I make anything look good.” Artemisia playfully rolled her eyes, chuckling at the teasing look in his eyes. Gladiolus slowly released her hand once they reached the end of the stairs. “I’m also a pretty good dancer too.”

“Oh really? Those giant feet are capable of keeping a beat?”

“Ha! Trust me, you won’t find a better waltz partner in all of Insomnia.”

Artemisia lifted a brow. “Says who?”

“Iris… When she was five.”

Artemisia laughed. “Can’t argue with that, I suppose.” Gladiolus smiled down at her as Artemisia calmed her laughter to quiet giggles. Gladiolus opened his mouth, looking like he wanted to say something.

“Gladio!” The young man blinked in surprise to hearing his name so suddenly. The two looked over Artemisia’s shoulder and saw Cor. “We got a couple of rowdy ones over there. Make sure they don’t cause any trouble.” Gladiolus nodded, but as soon as Cor walked off his figure visibly slacked and he sighed. “Five minutes in and someone’s already drunk. The people here know how to party.” Despite the joke, Artemisia could see smallest bit of reluctance in his eyes. “Duty calls.” Artemisia nodded in understanding, though she desperately wished he could stay. As he walked off, Gladiolus looked back to Artemisia. “Stop worrying so much, okay. Try to mingle and have some fun.”

Artemisia blinked at his command as he walked off and left her by herself. There she stood, awkwardly smiling at anyone who happened to glance at her before she gave in to her nerves and decided to move over to the food table as far back in the room and stay there for the whole night. She knew that Ismene and Gladiolus would be disappointed to see her keeping to herself, but at least she’d have the comfort of luxury sweets for the next two hours.

Indulging herself on the different types of snack food and drinks, Artemisia found the most empty corner of the room to wait out the rest of the night. Occasionally she caught sight of the guys, but Noctis was constantly being pulled back and forth by enthusiastic party goers. Gladiolus seemed to be the most preoccupied, either keeping watch over Noctis and saving him from the crowds or just trying to make sure no one got into a drunken fight. She had actually talked to Prompto off and on several times, but he was excitedly preoccupying himself with his photography and she didn’t have the heart to ask him to sit with her for a while. Surprisingly enough she hadn’t seen much of Ignis, though she assumed that he was making up for any lack of sociability from Noctis by speaking with the guests.

Artemisia took a sip from her drink, glancing at the large clock on the upper balcony. She sighed seeing the time. Forty-five minutes down, another seventy-five to go.

The clicking of approaching shoes caught her attention and she immediately perked up once she recognized the maroon suit. “Oh Ignis! There you are.” Artemisia greeted her friend as he approached the table. Artemisia handed him a cup of water. “I was wondering where you ran off to.”

“Entertainment,” Ignis thanked her for the drink and took some small sips, “Noct is no savant of conversation, so I’ve been picking up the pieces.”

How did I guess…

“What about you?” Ignis looked down at Artemisia suspiciously. “You haven’t been sitting here the entire time, have you?”

Artemisia averted her eyes away from his, a guilty blush on her face. “Uh… Well, I’ve said hello to anyone that has walked this way.”

Ignis sighed. “Come now, Artemis. You shouldn’t be wasting the night away, especially not when you’ve gone to the expense of dressing for it.” Artemisia sheepishly smiled and remained quiet; she knew he was right. She went to all the trouble of coming and she wasn’t  enjoying it at all. Regardless, she couldn’t find the nerve to socialize with the crowd of strangers.

The two stood in silence, Ignis taking sips from his drink as they watched the other guests. Some of them were dancing in the middle of the room, staying within their small circles and avoiding each other gracefully. Those who weren’t dancing were either waiting for an opening to join in from the side lines and enjoying the sight or talking amongst themselves. The current song slowly started to die down, the piece coming to an end. Artemisia looked up and saw that Ignis seemed to be staring at her from the corner of his eye. “What?” He didn’t respond, instead swallowing the last of his drink and placing the empty cup on the table. He walked forward as the music came to an end the dancers slowly dispersed from the floor, a few other couples ready to take their places. Artemisia blinked when Ignis held his hand out for her.

“Dance with me.”

“Huh?!” Artemisia’s face flushed red at the sudden request. “I-I-I… Uh… I d-d-duh…” She sputtered before regaining control over her mouth. “I-I appreciate the gesture Ignis, but I d-don’t dance.”

“Then let tonight be an exception.”

“Let me reiterate that: I CAN’T dance.”

“Neither can a majority of the people here.” He took hold of her hand, practically dragging her on to the dance floor once the music started. “Don’t worry, I can show you.” Artemisia stumbled as they walked onto the floor, surprised by Ignis’ unusual insistence. She regained her balance once Ignis stopped and saw that they were at the center of the dance floor. She immediately wanted to run back into crowd and disappear for the rest of the night, but Ignis kept her with him as he brought her hand up to his shoulder. He excused himself before placing his hand on her bare left shoulder blade. He held his left hand out and waited for her to take it with her right. “I-Ignis, really, I can’t…”

“Yes you can.”

Artemisia was taken back from Ignis’ persistence, looking at him widened eyes. After a moment, she hesitantly took his hand with hers. Ignis squeezed her hand, tightening his grip to steady her as he began to move. “First step back,” he instructed as he stepped forward with his left foot, making Artemisia step back with her right. Artemisia tried to follow Ignis’ movements as he continued through the simple waltz steps, trying to guide her body in the right direction with his own. She stepped to the side a bit later than him though and accidentally stepped on Ignis’ toes with her heel. He didn’t make any noise but Artemisia saw the small flinch of pain. “I’m so sorry, Ignis! S-See, I told you I can’t dance.”

“It’s alright, Artemis. It was just a small misstep.”

A couple more of those missteps and Artemisia was starting to worry about Ignis’ potentially bleeding foot. “Really Ignis, I think we should stop.”

“It’s your first time dancing the waltz,” Ignis didn’t loosen his hold on her as he continued with the dance, “Mistakes are going to be made, but how else will you improve.”

A few more foot mishaps and Artemisia finally began to understand the motions. She watched her feet, going where her dance partner directed her with his body. He’d step forward, she’d step back. He’d step to the side, she’d follow in the same direction. Ignis went into a turn and she nervously let him carry her through the motion. “See? You’re a natural.” Ignis praised. Artemisia sheepishly chuckled, looking away from her feet to meet his eyes. “I think I have a better teacher than anything else.”

The two friends continued dancing along with the rest of the couples, the crowd around them minding their own business while enjoying the festivities. Artemisia glanced around the room as they moved, confident enough with her body now to know where she should go. She made eye contact with Noctis, the young prince looking as begrudgingly as before and Prompto standing next to him and looking through his camera’s photos. She smiled at Noctis, trying to communicate with just her eyes how impressed she was at herself for learning how to dance somewhat. Whether he understood or not, he boredly blinked before looking over at the orchestra and a suspicious smile formed on his lips. Artemisia raised a brow as Noctis whispered to the conductor before looking back her and giving her a small thumbs up.

Suddenly the peaceful music cut off, leaving just the confused chatter of the guests the only noise in the large room. The dancers all came to a slow stop and looked over at the musicians, just as confused as everyone else for the abrupt cut. The conductor quickly went through music sheets as the musicians did the same, for some it looked like this was going to be the first time they going to play for the night. He looked over his shoulder at the guests apologetically before bringing his players to attention. He spared one more seeking glance down at Noctis, who gave him a big confident nod.

The conductor brought his arms up in the ready, holding them there as everyone looked on in anticipation. After a few moments of silence, the conductor slammed his arms down and a row of trumpets rang out. The sudden loudness startled the guests as the new lively music played, the new combination of jazzy trumpets and saxophones with the loud beating drums leaving them unsure on what to do. Artemisia glanced at Noctis again and saw he staring at them with the a smug grin.

Actually, it looked more like he was staring at Ignis, as the latter stared back at him and the two seemed to have an almost telepathic conversation. Artemisia detected the smallest hint of challenge between the two before Ignis returned his attention to her. He held out his arms in the same position as before expectantly. Artemisia blinked at the strange interaction but slowly took the position she had before. “What’s going on Ignis?” She instantly regretted giving him her hand when he simply said “Follow my lead.”

She gulped, knowing she wasn’t going to get out of this. “Long strides to the my left.” Ignis instructed through the loud music. Allowing her body to be guided by him, Artemisia focused on trying to keep up with his long steps, their feet moving quickly in tune with the upbeat music.

The crowd around them watched the two, confusion turning to amusement. The lingering dancers cleared the floor for the two friends’ impromptu dance number. “On my mark, hop.” Artemisia anxiously looked at Ignis but nodded. At his signal, the two lightly jumped in the air, the hem of Artemisia’s dress rising with the motion before gracefully settling as she came down. As she hit the floor though, her accidentally staggered forward and would have fallen directly on her face if it were not for Ignis’ hold. “S-Sorry Ignis--”

“Don’t worry,” He reassured as he brought them through a motion similar to the waltz, “Keep going.”

They glided around the floor, leaping and bouncing to the beat of the music. The crowd --  aware or not of the mistakes and missteps Artemisia made -- watched excitedly at their animated dancing, occasionally cheering whenever they sprung in the air for a graceful leap. And despite the watching eyes, her own mistakes, and her previous worries, Artemisia had to admit that she was having fun.

The two centered themselves in the middle of the large clearing as the music became more thumpity. Their feet bounced to the beat, swinging in place and lightly kicking out. Artemisia watched her feet to hopefully avoid stepping on her partner again and followed the actions of his nimble feet. “I’m actually surprised with how well this is going…” She whispered to her bouncing friend.

“You shouldn’t be.” He replied, “You’re a fast learner, this was to be expected.”

Artemisia smiled at the compliment and took the time during their simple repeated movements to look around the crowd. Noctis and Prompto were in the same place as before, with Prompto now wildly taking as many pictures as possible of her and Ignis -- he was going to parade those off for the rest of the week no doubt. Noctis had a small pout instead of his previous grin, but he gave a small smile back when she caught his eye.

“I’m going to lift you.”

“What?” Artemisia’s eyes went wide as Ignis’ hands went to her waist and lifted her above the ground as the trumpets rang out. Her hands instinctively grabbed his shoulders as he lifted her in an ark motion.

He gently brought her back to the ground and the two bounced back into the quick waltz motion from before. As the music began to build up, the trumpets’ notes becoming bouncy and the percussion adding suspense, Ignis brought the two of them back to their quick, long strides. “Keep your legs pointed out and jump.” Just as the trumpets erupted, the two lifted up in a grand leap, their legs mirroring each other as they remained pointed out on each side. Landing without trouble, Ignis maneuvered them to the center of the floor as their feet kept with the closing music. With one more thunderous note, Ignis spun Artemisia to his side for the finale.

The crowd immediately broke into applause, cheering and clapping for the wonderful performance. The two heavily panting dancers glanced at each other before Ignis bowed in gratitude to the audience, his arms gesturing to Artemisia as a direction for the praise. Flustered from the attention, Artemisia sheepishly curtsied in thanks. She glanced down at Ignis, taking note of the soft glow of pink and the small proud smile on his face that she returned.

Noctis and Prompto made their way through as the crowd slowly dispersed and to their friends. “O. M. G. Guys, that was amazing!” Prompto cheered, his eyes bright with excitement. “And I got some amazing shots if I do say so myself.”

Artemisia gave a breathy laugh in response before looking to Ignis and Noctis. “As fun as that was, care to explain what that was about?”

“Quickstep…”

Artemisia glared at Noctis before Ignis answered. “Noct here was upset that I had tried to teach him how to dance like a proper gentleman before tonight and he thought spontaneously changing the music would confuse me and would prove his claim of me being a ‘bad, pushy teacher’.”

Artemisia snorted seeing Noctis’ guilty frown -- his idea was easier to figure out that he anticipated. “Really Noct? You thought you could trip Ignis up?”

Noctis begrudgingly sighed. “I know, I know, of course he was perfect.”

“While I would argue that it wasn’t perfect and that there is much to improve on,” Ignis’ humble aura dissipated as he shot Noctis a teasing smirk. “I will say you could be at the same level if you had followed my teachings.”

Noctis lightly blushed, embarrassed by the truth behind his words. “I can get by just fine, thanks.”

“Is that so? Well,” Ignis lightly shoved Noctis towards Artemisia as another song began, “Have at it, then.” With one more tired grin over his shoulder, Ignis disappeared into the crowd of people.

Artemisia smiled at her noticeably awkward friend. “We don’t have to dance if you don’t want to Noct.”

Before the young man could respond, Prompto squeezed in front of him. “I do!” The enthusiastic blonde grabbed Artemisia’s hand and began marching them back onto the dance floor, ignoring Noctis’ protests. “Let’s cut a rug, Artemis!”

The rest of the night was spent trading between Noctis and Prompto as the two tried to prove that they could be as smooth as her previous partner, every misstep and punctured foot followed by a laugh and good hearty fun. And despite her feet aching and her body being sore by the end of the night, Artemisia decided that if every future dance ended like tonight --

I wouldn’t mind it

[ozma914]

How I Solved All Our Water Problems

Most of the Southwest United States is in drought, which should come as no surprised to those who who've heard the term "Desert Southwest". After all, Phoenix, Arizona, was built on a place that got so dry the Native Americans moved away.

Now the Phoenix rising from the ashes is a roasted bird, Las Vegas is turning from Sin City to Sand City, and the Hoover Dam will someday be called the Hoover Wall. Climate change? Well, yeah--Mother Nature has stepped out of the bath and is drying herself with a huge sandy towel.

The question is, what's to be done? We can't just hope California slides into the sea and changes weather patterns--we don't get that lucky. Oh, and people live there, that too.

So, how do we solve this problem?

Okay, we could detonate nuclear weapons off the California coast, which would cause waves to wash over the land. There are a few problems with this idea, the main one being that the water wouldn't go far enough inland. Plus, it's salt water. Plus, you know, people. The surfing would be awesome, though.

Scientists have learned many asteroids and comets contain water ice. We could steer one this way and drop it over the Southwest--I'm thinking California--where it would not only provide water, but also remove an awfully lot of the demand for water.

"Honey, it looks like rain!"

 This didn't work out so well for the dinosaurs.

But I had an idea--one that makes just much sense as, say, the Congressional budget process, or the Kardashians. I originally came up with it during the Great Recession, in around 2008. At the time we'd had problems with drought or flooding, or maybe both, and while pondering it I had my own brainstorm.

Why did I not speak up? Because it was huge. Huge. I figured people would just make fun of it.

 But I'm older now, and honestly I just don't give a dam. (Dam, get it? Never mind.)

Then, in 2015, William Shatner floated a similar idea. I figured if it's good enough for Captain Kirk, it's good enough for me.

Maybe Captain Kirk could tell help find the water.

 Now, what are the two water related problems facing the US today? That's right: too little water, and too much water. (We northern Hoosiers are getting soaked pretty good at the moment.) So ...

Pipelines.

I know what you're thinking: "Mark, that would be insanely expensive!"

Hear me out. First of all, manpower would come from every able bodied person in the country who, for one reason or other, is getting government money. They would be trained in the necessary skills to build pipelines across the country, and paid to do it. If they're capable of doing the work but choose not to, then they just don't get taxpayer money--pretty much as simple as that.

Nothing would flow through these pipelines but water. Further--and this is important--water will go to drought stricken areas, but only from areas that are getting too much water. If it's flooding in Alabama, that water goes to Arizona. If there's no flooding going on anywhere in America, then the dry places have to hang on as best they can. No siphoning water from the Great Lakes, or the Mississippi River, unless they're overflowing their banks. Flood waters would go first to drought areas in the same state, if there are any.

They can have our snow, too.

 That would make it complicated, and at first enormously expensive. It might also go slowly, as only enough people would work on it to get the unemployment rate as low as possible. But in the long run it would give people jobs and future skills, reduce flood losses, and help make the Southwest green again. The pipelines could even be tapped for firefighting as they pass through rural areas.

Granted, it won't solve all our problems: The Kardashians will still be there.

It's a sensible solution that would take only political will, which is exactly why it will never happen.

But it's nice to think about, isn't it? Top off Lake Meade, help out the farmers who feed us, and Californians can stay in California. I mean, they'll still have the earthquakes, but no plan is perfect.

  http://markrhunter.com/ https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

[dipulb3]

2021 Wrangler 4xe is a mediocre hybrid, awesome Jeep

New Post has been published on https://appradab.com/2021-wrangler-4xe-is-a-mediocre-hybrid-awesome-jeep-3/

2021 Wrangler 4xe is a mediocre hybrid, awesome Jeep

The new Jeep Wrangler 4xe plug-in hybrid is the brand’s biggest step yet into the realm of electrified driving, offering up to 21 miles of electric range per charge. No, a big battery hasn’t magically transformed the Jeep into a smarm-powered eco-car; the improvements aren’t even that great when you look at the numbers. But electrification also hasn’t cost the 4xe seemingly any of the off-road capability or performance that we’ve come to expect from the Wrangler and it’s Trail Rated badge. If anything, it’s better than ever.

Electric Blue tow hooks at the front and rear visually differentiate the 4xe from more conventional Wranglers, perhaps more so than the subtle charging port mounted high on the front driver’s side fender. The blue theme also extends to the Trail Rated badges and other graphics across the boxy body. To the casual observer, the 4xe doesn’t look very different, especially when bathed in a healthy coat of mud. But of course, there are bigger changes hidden beneath the surface. 

2021 Jeep Wrangler 4xe speaks softly, carries a big battery

See all photos

The 4xe is powered by Jeep’s 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine, aided by a small starter/generator motor. It is similar in design and function to the eTorque mild-hybrid motor, though this one operates at 400 volts rather than 48.

Sandwiched between the gasoline engine and the standard eight-speed automatic transmission — replacing the torque converter — is the larger, main electric drive motor. A pair of clutches tie it to the gearbox and the gasoline powerplant, allowing the combustion engine to be completely decoupled from the wheels for full-electric driving. Downstream, you’ll find the same four-wheel-drive system, two-speed transfer case and locking differentials as the non-hybrid Wrangler, with a 2.72:1 final drive axle for the base 4xe Sahara or 4.0:1 for the more off-road capable 4xe Rubicon.

All together, you’re looking at 375 horsepower and a very generous 470 pound-feet of torque. The Hemi-powered Rubicon 392 has the same peak torque and more power, but the precise control and instant torque of the electric motor combined with the 4×4 system’s low-speed crawling hardware makes the 4xe the more capable Wrangler over extremely technical terrain, according to Jeep.

The 4xe’s 6-second 0-to-60-mph time is slower than the 392’s 4.5, but electrification has other advantages.

Antuan Goodwin/Roadshow

There are three E Selec modes that allow the driver to choose how to use the 17-kilowatt-hour battery’s juice. Electric mode uses battery power only for up to 21 miles of mostly silent driving at an EPA-estimated 49 mpge. The default Hybrid mode blends in gasoline power once the battery is depleted, while eSave prioritizes the combustion engine to preserve or generate charge for the battery, which is useful for saving a bit of low-speed EV range for the end of a highway stretch. The EPA reckons your economy will drop to around 20 mpg once the battery is depleted, which is surprisingly 2 mpg worse than the non-hybrid Wrangler with the same engine. Boosted by the initial electric range, I finished a day of testing at 24 mpg combined.

There’s also a Max Regen setting that can be applied to all three modes. It’s close to a one-pedal driving mode, giving a full 0.25 Gs of regenerative braking on lift, but still creeps forward at very low speeds. Jeep’s engineers have done a good job tuning the feel of this mode; the amount of regen or engine braking feels consistent regardless of the battery’s state and/or the chosen E Selec mode.

Most of my testing involved keeping the Max Regen mode on, and to give the 4xe the best shot at reaching its estimated range, the 4×4 system is best used in 2-High rear-drive setting. Like this, I was able to put 23.8 miles of mostly silent city driving behind me before the gas engine kicked on, which is slightly more than Jeep’s estimate. There’s still quite a bit of road, wind and, occasionally, drivetrain noise, and my example rolls on the standard road-friendly 20-inch wheels with all-season tires. Expect less range from the Rubicon’s 33-inch tall knobbies and shorter final-drive, and significantly less at highway speeds. Hybrid or not, the Wrangler still has the aerodynamic profile of a palette of bricks and overall efficiency tanks above 50-60 mph.

Plugging in adds up to 21 electric miles per 2.5 hour charge.

Antuan Goodwin/Roadshow

Plugging into a 240-volt Level 2 charging station — like the Jeep 4xe Charging Network trailhead chargers — juices the Wrangler’s battery pack in around 2.5 hours. At a regular 110-volt home wall outlet, that stretches to just over 12 hours from flat.

Of course, the most important thing about the 4xe is that it’s still a Wrangler; it still must deliver on the go-anywhere capability that name commands. To test this, I swapped into a more rugged Rubicon model with its 33-inch tires, dropped into 4-Low, locked the diffs and engaged full-electric mode to tackle an off-road course.

The journey started by fording water 30 inches deep without electrocuting anyone involved. The entire high-voltage electrical system is sealed and waterproof, plus the battery pack is actually tucked in the cabin, beneath the rear seats, where it is climate controlled and protected from bumps, punctures and scrapes.

The high-voltage powertrain and battery are waterproof and protected from the elements.

Jeep

With its impressive 77.2:1 crawl ratio and gobs of electric torque on tap, the Rubicon 4xe made easy work of some pretty severe climbs up solid, smooth rock faces. And while the 4xe’s PHEV hardware adds quite a bit of weight to the Wrangler’s package — about 770 pounds more than a comparably equipped Rubicon V6 — the battery’s position actually improves weight distribution, shifting quite close to a 50:50 split depending on trim, and lowering the center of mass slightly, for a more planted feel even at severe angles. Creeping along was made easier with the latest generation Selec-Speed Control smoothing out hill ascents and descents, but the throttle was remarkably sensitive and easy to modulate even without it. 

Perhaps the most enjoyably odd part of the 4xe off-road experience was just how absolutely and strangely silent the powertrain was even when hauling itself out of the mud and up ridiculously steep climbs. As much as I love the sound of a powerful ICE, hearing the scrub of the tires over the terrain added an unexpected dimension to the crawling experience, and I particularly enjoyed being able to more easily hear my spotters’ commands and the nature surrounding the trail. Of course, that meant the occasional thunks or scrapes from the undercarriage when exploring the limits of the 4xe’s 10.8-inch ground clearance and 22.5-degree breakover angle were also much more pronounced.

Street-bound improvements are minimal, but at least the Wrangler makes no discernable sacrifices off-road.

Jeep

The 2021 Jeep Wrangler 4xe starts at $49,490 for the base Sahara, including a $1,495 destination charge. That’s about $8,825 more than a similarly spec’d Sahara V6, but up to $7,500 in plug-in tax rebates and any state specific-incentives should ease the sticker shock. The more rugged Rubicon and feature-laden High Altitude modes I tested start at $53,190 or $55,074, respectively.

The Jeep Wrangler 4xe is just an OK plug-in hybrid. Its range and fuel economy are pretty weak but, with frequent charging and shorter trips, there’s still plenty of potential to bend the rules of “your mileage may vary” to your benefit. However, the 4xe is truly the most capable, technically advanced and eco-friendly Wrangler ever and its ability to quietly and confidently tackle the great outdoors with a nod to environmental responsibility is currently unmatched. At least, until the electric trucks arrive.

[imagineproduce101]

Park Woojin Mafia AU

you were a member of svt, a low-level gang in the area

as one of the original members, you specialized in jewlery/gem theft, having stolen probably millions of dollars worth of jewels from various households around the country

seungcheol, the leader of svt, informed you of a new possible heist opening up

a new family was moving into town, and were going to be staying at the large mansion

it would be a fairly easy job, given that you could easily break into the mansion before they moved in and place cameras/bugs in the house

you agreed to take the job, provided that the other members of svt do the research about the family moving in, what jewels they would have etc

“if there’s one thing i know for sure,” seongcheol said firmly, “we have to do this heist before 101 does. they’re too powerful, we can use this as leverage over them”

101 was the much more powerful gang, more like crime syndicate (mafia) in the area, and svt had been challenging them for about six months now

you weren’t fiercely loyal to svt for any one particular reason, but you did want to support your fellow members

the night before the heist, seungcheol kept nagging you, stressing how important the job was

he kept getting in your face and started yelling a bit, making a few other members have to hold him back

you kind of scoffed at that, pissed that he was questioning your abilities so soon before the actual deal

you stormed out of the svt building, heading downtown to grab a drink or two

in the taxi there, you carefully applied a bit of makeup, doing your best to not look totally dead

you made sure to not go to a club affiliated with any one gang-- if it was a svt club, seungcheol would chase you down; if it was a 101 club, you might get severely injured

you strolled up to the bar easily, ordering your drink before leaning against the bar, observing the small dancing crowd

while you were sipping your drink, you noticed someone approach you

you glanced at the man standing next to you who ordered his own drink

he was fairly tall, with a mix between caramel, honey and chocolate as his hair color

he looked intense but soft at the same time?

but he was definitely handsome, and one quick sweep of his body didn’t reveal any tattoos

“what are you doing in a club on a tuesday night?” you asked playfully, leaning on the bar next to him

he looked at you, slightly pleased and definitely surprised, as though no one had ever talked to him in a club before

“oh, i’m just blowing off steam before a big day for me,” he smiled shyly, taking a quick sip of his drink

“oh wow, same,” you nodded, a bit surprised at the coincidence. “i’m (y/n).”

“woojin,” he introduced, smiling at you brightly

the two of you struck up a fairly lively conversation, talking about the atmosphere of the club and what kind of drinks you preferred

as the song changed from some top 40s hit song to a remix of pour it up by rihanna

“wow, i haven’t heard this song in years,” you laughed, “i feel old now”

woojin laughed along with you, setting his glass down

“wanna dance?” he asked, gesturing out to the dance floor, where the crowd had gotten significantly larger

you contemplated his offer-- you should really have been getting home, but woojin was such a nice person to be around, and he was really handsome

plus, isn’t it good to blow off steam before a big heist?

you ended up accepting, following him out to the dance floor

woojin ended up being a really good dancer, and you had loads of fun dancing along to the various throwback (?) hits with him

as the night crept on, the two of you agreed that you should probably be getting home

he made sure to wait until you were able to get a taxi before leaving himself, but not before giving you his number

the next day, you went back to the svt headquarters, needing to finalize the plans

soon, it was nighttime, and the plan was in action

from the svt building, woozi disabled the family’s alarm system, allowing you to sneak into the house from the back door

you could have sworn you heard rustling in the bushes but you ignored it, creeping up to the second floor

the family was supposed to be out at a gala in another city, but you still wanted to be careful

“the main jewels are in the master bedroom” woozi instructed into your in-ear

as you carefully went into the master bedroom, you could have sworn you heard a click

but when you saw what was happening in the master bedroom, you almost fainted

woojin stood next to another guy who was rifling through the family’s jewels, a large semi-automatic gun slung over his shoulder and tattoos creeping down his exposed upper arms

((they were fit as fuck but that’s besides the point))

you tried to back up, but someone behind you was definitely pointing a gun at the back of your head

“who the hell are you?” they asked rudely, shoving you more into the room

woojin and the other man jolted, looking up at you, and woojin’s eyes got round

“sorry (y/n), you’re on your own” you heard woozi say before his audio clicked out

“i-i’m a friend of the family?” you tried, flashing the man with the gun a timid smile

“don’t try the bullshit with me, i can tell you’re from svt,” he growled, digging the cold metal of the gun further against your scalp “take this seriously, sweetie, i could blow your brains out with the twitch of a finger”

“i-i was working with svt,” you stammered, squeezing your eyes shut, “i’m not really a member, but they didn’t have anyone else for the job.”

“how the hell are we supposed to believe you?”

“they literally stopped giving me guides as soon as they knew you had caught me,” you snapped, glaring at the man momentarily, “they don’t give a shit about me, and i don’t expect you to, either”

you heard the hammer of the gun being pulled out (the click of the gun before it’s actually shot), making you tense up

“Hyung, no” you heard a familiar voice say “she’s not actually with svt, she’s a mercenary”

you weren’t a fucking mercenary but you’d take whatever bullshit woojin was feeding them for whatever reason

“mercenary, huh?” the man brought the gun down, peering at you, “how a mercenary like you get hired by svt?”

“they’re desperate,” you rushed out, not really in the mood to defend your members-- or rather, ex-members, given how quickly they’d abandoned you-- to 101, “the gang is practically broke, and they knew i was the only one who could pull this off.”

“and what exactly makes you so special?” the guy asked, crossing his arms

“the theft of the royal jewels a couple months back?” you crossed your arms as well, glaring back at him, “that was me.”

woojin whistled through his teeth, glancing at you, impressed, before his hyung hit him on the back

“here’s the deal, sweetie,” the man growled, “we can’t have people knowing that we were behind this, so we’ll have to take care of you our way”

unfortunately, you knew exactly what that meant-- swear allegiance to 101 or get your brains blown out and your body dumped into the ocean

“i’ll take care of her,” woojin said suddenly, “i know her, i know she won’t try anything stupid, right?” 

“r-right,” you nodded, scurrying over to woojin’s side

“we’ll try it,” the first guy sniffed, “get the rest of the jewels and let’s split”

as the first guy reached down for the largest necklace, you shrieked, reaching out to stop him

immediately, you had three different guns pointed at you

“no, im not trying to do anything stupid,” you rolled your eyes, “that isn’t the real necklace, it’s a fake. if you remove it, it triggers the alarm system.”

“and where’s the real one?” the guy said suspiciously, peering at the necklace

you rolled your eyes again, fishing out your phone and showing him a picture from that night of the lady of the house

“she’s wearing it.”

after collecting everything, the three men guided you to where their car was waiting and sped off

the driver introduced himself as sungwoon, and the two other men were seongwoo and minhyun

you sat in between woojin and minhyun, legs shifted more towards woojin

when they arrive at their own complex, woojin shows you to his room, explaining that you’d have to stay with him for a while so that 101 were able to ensure that you were actually going to swear allegiance and not try to run

“you’re really lucky i saved your ass,” woojin mused, filling up a glass of water from the tap

“well, to be fair, i saved your asses from that alarm system,” you pointed out, “so i’d say we’re about even.”

woojin just shrugged with a smile, gesturing towards his bedroom

“you can take the bed, i have a fold-out mattress in my couch”

you tried to argue with him that it was fine, you could sleep on the couch, but he would have none of it, grabbing you a toothbrush and spare t-shirt to wear to bed

when you finished up washing your face, brushing your face and changing, you stuck your head into his living room

woojin was putting sheets on the fold-out mattress

“hey woojin, thank you,” you said quietly

he looked up quietly, eyes darting over your figure, dressed in only his large t-shirt and he blushed a bit

“y-yeah, no problem”

while you two were definitely in a strange situation, you couldn’t ignore the feelings you’d felt from that night at the club,,,

you end up being locked up in his apartment for a while, only allowed outside occasionally

out of sheer boredom, you start devising plan upon plan for different heists woojin could try to execute, not really sure how else to spend your time

woojin did his best to not make it feel like prison, showing you his netflix account/password, letting you order food and even occasionally bringing over his friend donghyun’s dog for you to watch

you appreciated the efforts and understood that it wasn’t completely his fault

(and that you’d probably be dead if it wasn’t for his lying)

his kind actions made you feel strange, like that first night that you’d met him

he’d be gone for long, long periods at a time, out on different business each time

sometimes if you were feeling extra nice, you’d cook pancakes or something for him to eat when he got him 

most of the time he just got reheated pizza though

(you weren’t his maid lmao)

one morning, you were sleeping when woojin shook you awake

“(y/n), these are incredible,” woojin exclaimed, waving the laptop in your face, “seongwoo and daniel are letting you get your own apartment if i can pull off one of these heists”

he does pull off one of the heists that you’d so carefully planned, with you acting as woozi once did to you, speaking directions carefully into his in-ear

you did notice that when he put the in-ear in (like an earbud but wireless, so that someone can speak into it) and you started talking, he blushed a bit

but you brushed it off

since the theft went well, 101 grants you your own apartment, but does require you to get your own 101 tattoo

woojin and his younger friend daehwi accompanied you to the tattoo parlor

daehwi disappeared for a bit, but woojin sat in the corner as a tall lanky guy tattooed the 101 onto your collarbone

this time you really couldn’t help but notice the blush that blossomed on woojin’s cheeks when the tattooist asked you to pull down your tank top a bit more to expose the collarbone

the next day, woojin was helping you move your things from his apartment to yours when he realized you were frowning in the mirror, trying to take the bandage covering your tattoo off

“wait, are you supposed to do that?” he asked, walking over to you and grabbing your hands

“yeah, he told me to apply this balm to it twice a day,” you explained, holding up the little tub of balm from the tattoo parlor

woojin nodded, cool fingers carefully removing the bandage before taking the balm, smoothing it over your fresh tattoo gently as to not hurt you

you hissed at the coldness of his fingers and you felt a shiver up your spine

somehow you knew it wasn’t from the cold

as woojin finished patting the balm underneath your collarbone, you noticed how close he was to you

his fingers stopped moving across your skin, eyes super intense as he got even closer to you

“(y/n), can i kiss you?” he asked, lifting a hand to push your hair out of your face

you nodded wordlessly and felt your lips crash into his, his cool hands wrapping around your waist and pulling you closer

weeks upon weeks of unspoken thoughts spilled out into the kiss, which had begun that fateful night at the club

you threaded your fingers into the hairs at the nape of his neck, reminding yourself that yes, you did in fact have to breathe

while you never called your relationship “dating”, what you had was essentially that

soon you found yourself moving back in with him, looking forward to early-morning cuddles and kisses at three in the morning when he got back from a particularly hard job

you permanently took over as his “guide”, planning out his jobs and ensuring that he was safe

in a way, through that night so many months ago when you were abandoned by svt, woojin did more than just save you, he gave you another shot at life

he’s incredibly caring and kind, and makes sure that you’re comfortable and okay with everything he does

quite possibly one of the sweetest guys in all of 101

has a tendency to get embarrassed by the crude comments of other 101 members, but will definitely defend you if anything negative is said about you

loves it when you trace the tattoos on his arm, pressing little kisses to his lips and jaw

(imma stop there bc woojins a minor yikes)

he’s also fairly private, and doesn’t indulge in pda, preferring to cuddle you in the privacy of his apartment

really just an incredibly cute boyfriend

[cbacofficial]

Connected by a Cable [Chapter One]

"I'm out here in Downtown New York City for the release of Law of Mahna! The new Online Multiplayer Game boasting a robust character creator and that no two characters are the same! Everyone is excited for the release and some are already cosplaying as the promotional art for many of the main characters."

"Start your new adventure in the world of Sephirion. Pre-order Law of Mahna now!" The hot new game that many news articles are claiming that the characters look more life like than before and the world feel real. The critics claim from closed beta testing alone that the emphasis on characters being more than that was neat and the interactions they had...but could it be real?    We follow one gamer named Hioshi in line to pick up his game. A young man in his early twenties with short black hair and brown eyes.  The store littered with themed decorations and hostess girls dressed as certain characters you could make in the game. All directing and keeping those in line waiting entertained. Hioshi looked at his phone and opened the application that connected him and his friends together. They all were anticipating the release and some were in the same line as him but earlier. All Hioshi wanted was to get the game and level up fast to be the best raider. He thought to himself 'this is just like any other game...' walking up and picking up the box. He inspected the artwork. It depicted a vague image of the game's goddess, Mahna. And the other darker image was Varthamith. The two formed a vague yin-yang symbol as if saying that both sides were in balanced and the text proudly proclaimed it was indeed the official game.    Returning home, Hioshi moved aside a few boxes to open the case. A single CD laid inside. Popping the disc in the pre-started PC it began downloading his game with an estimated time at roughly an hour. It was the perfect time to clean his body, prepare a warm meal and snacks on the side while grabbing a few bottles of water. Hioshi took a day off work to enjoy a full on marathon of power leveling in this game much like others before he played. And soon enough, the game finished. Welcome to Law of Mahna. Please create your character.    Hioshi knew that the game only had one server so it would be easy to find his friends. He received messages from his pals about how weird the game was, insisting that the created characters they made had their own personalities. Like living things. Hioshi chuckled and figured to make his character an Eternal. Though they look similar to the humans in the game, the Eternals had glowing eyes and the story about them interested Hioshi. Seeing the character customization option blew his mind. It was so detailed that they even had a slider for how thin or thick you want your character.    Hioshi made the Eternal a female. Glowing green eyes. Golden yellow hair. Slightly tipped ears. About one hundred and sixty seven Centimeters. Average in most aspects but still had some muscles. There was also a slider for her bust as well. He slid the bar from the halfway point all the way to max, then to the minimum...then carefully adjusting it till it was slightly above the middle point of the slider. He picked the mage class since they had a strong connection to magical energies and now he was hit with the name.    "Hmm..." he thought hard and long on this. It couldn't just be any old name...but he figured one name would fit.    "Yukara." And with a push of a button the game began! ... ... ...    Now that he was in the game, Hioshi decided to move the interface around to his liking. Adjusting the size of some menu options and checking the starting abilities. The music in the game was fantastic and so was the sound work. Why he could of sworn he heard some girl call out- "Master, are you there?"    Hioshi did a double take and looked at his character who decided to turn around and face him from inside the game...and moving on her own. Hioshi rubbed his eyes and thought he was just deprived of sleep. But of course, he was not dreaming this. Those messages from his friends...they meant it. Hioshi asked "Are you...talking to me?" The Eternal nodded. "I am talking to you, Master. Are you ready yet to go and level up?"    This had to be a dream...No game had this much interaction at all. He got up and walked over to grab some water to drink, then with a second look at the screen his character he made was stretching on it's own and waiting. She called out "Are you there? We got stuff to do!" tapping her foot. Apparently Eternals were also known to be quite the temper problem folk. He tried to ignore it.    "Sure. Let's get going." with a glance off his character, he saw the starting zone and it felt refreshing. Unlike the typical forests, there was a small town they were at with the Eternal capital in the far distance. Viewable from over the large gate that arced over a path towards the next town. The trees infused with a magical power to give off a soft glow and the animals following this color and energy within. Talking to a guard, they were given a quest to take care of some small critters...    Hioshi continued on, playing the game like normal when he noticed his character stopped moving. He continued to try and move her forward but she resisted. The Eternal looked back at him, giving him quite a spook. "Master. Are you trying to get me killed? Those boars are deadly." she spoke directly to him! Hioshi had to do a double take, cleaned his glasses and smacked himself silly.    "Am I..really not dreaming?" Hioshi examined the character he made further. He tried talking to his character. "Yukara. The boars will not kill you. I'll see to it." assuring her enough to attempt and cast a few spells. The boar charged forth and did damage Yukara a bit, but it died without trouble. Yukara blinked. "Huh? Most characters die from these boars. You must be a real master at this!" Yukara gave some praise before looking to fight some more... ----    After killing the ninth boar, a new piece of armor dropped. Hioshi looked to see the stats were ideal. With a smile he opened the character window that showed all the items his character had on and could wear. There were a plethora of slots but not too many. He tried putting the cloth dress over the old to replace it, but red text above told him he had to remove the previous equipment first.    Hioshi didn't take a second to think and his mouse cursor hovered over the chest slot for Yukara as she was trying to eat after a battle. Attempting to pull it off affected his character model however, and the robe started to fall down. With a shriek that attracted the attention of other Player Characters, she quickly held her dress. "MASTER! W-What are you doing, you creep?!" her words halted his actions. Hioshi tried to talk to her and reason with his character "Relax. I'm just going to put this better dress on-" and he was quickly shut down when Yukara hid behind a tree from his camera view.    "You wanted to see me in my undergarments! Freak!"    Was this a new system as well? No, this was their personalities. They were like real living humans. They had wants and needs and decency as well. Again, Hioshi tried hard to get her to wear the better armor. "Come on. The robe has intellect on it. It will boost your damage." and this made her peer from the corner of the tree. She took out the bag from...well somewhere and magically the robe from his UI vanished as it appeared in Yukara's hands when she held it up. Unlike the starter robes it was a red and blue robe color that covered her body completely. She then crumpled it up and tossed it away without a second thought.    "It looks ugly!" she declared. The item completely gone now. Oh how furious Hioshi was at this point. She threw away a perfectly good upgrade for her low level. This was not going to be as easy as he had planned. At first he mapped out the quests he would take and go through from his friends in Beta but now it looked like this was more stressful. He tried reasoning with Yukara.    "Okay. I am sorry i tried to remove your clothes. But if we are to do this together, You need to worry less about the look and more about the actual bonus of wearing the items. Okay?" Hioshi felt that was a good stepping stone. With puffed cheeks in anger, Yukara exclaimed "I don't like the robe though! Looks butt ugly. Plus i'd rather have something like that."    Hioshi panned his camera over to notice a female dwarf showing off her new robes to a few other leveling friends. The torso had sleeves that didn't connect to the main robe. The gown colored in white, red and even black with frills on the bottom. It was gaudy but the attire was fairly rare to obtain. "I want that! Where can i get it?" she asked. Hioshi sadly told her "It's completely random if we see it. Best thing for now is to get any upgrades and worry about the fashion later." causing her to be even more defiant.    Hiroshi wondered if this was really a good game? ----    After plenty of quests, headaches and grinding, Yukara made it to level ten out of fifty. It was at this point when they made it to the small town outside of the starting zone that Yukara sat in a chair. "Master, i'm tired...can we please rest?" she asked Hioshi. While her attire did get a slight upgrade, it wasn't all that appealing to look at. "But we have to keep leveling. My friends and their Player Characters are already two levels ahead of us because you refused to let me change your attire." Hioshi tried to explain. The course he mapped out was not going all on schedule. He knew by this point they could of been up there. "You just wanted to see me naked!" Yukara said again. "The gear had better stats." Hioshi shouted at his monitor. "You should of let me done it instead! Stop being a pervert!" Hioshi was finally at his limit. "I'm done!" he shouted. Slamming his hands on the table and getting up. "You can level yourself!" Yukara was more than shocked and scared. "Master wait! If you don't stay on I-" Yukara was cut off before she could say anything. He was fairly angry at her. "Stupid Yuara...Insulting me now? I'll never play this game again. Not worth the stress." Hioshi thought of a way to make her understand why leveling is important but she seems to have a different mindset on things. Hioshi felt a vibration from his pocket. A message from his childhood friend, Nira. She always seemed to calm him down at times when he needed her most. She texted him if they could meet for lunch since she was back in the city. It didn't take him even a second to consider this deal as he replied with the location and time he was available. Perhaps eating would calm him down as well. ---    Hioshi stood out front of the applebees in a typical shirt and cargo jeans. The messages on his phone were from his gaming friends, trying to tell him it gets better if you sit and talk with the characters, but the last time Hioshi dealt with someone who was insufferable, it ended badly.     He tried to reply to the text when he noticed someone approaching. The woman coming up was a blonde with a ponytail, wearing a tank top and jeans with her sunglasses resting on her forehead. She happily approached Hioshi and gave him a massive hug. "Hioshi! It's been a long time!" the girl chuckled in glee. This was Nira. A childhood friend who up to this point has kept in touch through text and phone calls. Some of their friends keep saying they should hook up, but the two knew they would never be more than best friends.    "Nira. Glad you called me." Hioshi replied as the two grabbed their table over by the bar. This was all he could ask after the encounter with Yukara. Nira knew all the right ways to enjoy life. She was energetic. It was because of her connections that Hioshi met his online friends and created their little raiding circle. Thinking about it, Hioshi finally caved and asked her "Nira. How do you deal with someone who is not listening to you? I...Have this friend who doesn't listen to me and-" before he could finish, Nira interrupted.    "Just talk with the person. Don't be a slouch and expect them to listen to you first. I know you better than anyone, and you do get along with people. Either this person is a complete ass or you just need to explain the situation." Nira already replied without hearing the situation. She had no idea that the person in question was a virtual character in his game. Instead he nodded and began to eat. "Right. I'll do that." ---    Hioshi managed to get back on his computer after talking with Nira. Yet as he logged in, he saw Yukara sitting in the inn. Depressed and staring at the fire. "Why are you still level ten? Shouldn't you be fifteen by now?" Hioshi asked. Yukara turned around to look at his camera before back at the fire.    "...When our masters stop playing with us, we Player Characters cannot gain experience no matter how hard we try. I need you to help me get better or i will...still be too weak." she admitted to Hioshi. Her clothes were a tad torn, possibly due to not repairing. Even when she knew her level wouldn't rise, she still trained on her own to kill monsters...and there was no reward. What Nina said about how to explain the situation, he did so to Yukara.    "I'm sorry. I'm not trying to be mean or perverted. I wanted to get to max level fast to raid...but the question I should ask is...Do you want to get to max level?" Hioshi thought maybe it was best to communicate with her. Yukara turned around, her green eyes dimly lit on her mood. She replied "I want to make it to max level with a master I can trust. A master who knows what to do. A master that I know will help in achieving a high status."    Hioshi smiled. "Well...I have this nice layout of quests we need to do at the best time and what stats you need. Do you want to try it? If we don't make it to level fifteen in under an hour from this, then I will let you pick the pace we level." he pulled up his notes and noticed Yukara doing something odd.    On her knees she bowed to him. "Please, Master...Level me faster. Even until I pass out!" Hioshi on the other hand was startled. "WOAH! no need to go that far! We can take breaks now and then. But..." he checked her rested experience and a big smile came on his face. "We could level a bit more. You seem full with energy as is." and with that, Yukara stood up with joy in her eyes and a wide smile. Kicking off a friendship to last a lifetime.

[scurvgirl]

Queen of the Stone, Part 3

Read on AO3, Part 1, Part 2

She has been a Grey Warden for eleven years, and the taint is beginning to consume her. She needs to find a cure soon. So Elodie Amell sets out in search and finds herself in the city thought long-lost, Kal-Sharok. There she discovers something much bigger than just a cure for the taint running through her body.

A companion story to my other story, In Your Gaze I Wish to Stay, but this can be read separately!

Lost Girls

Elodie descends deeper and discovers a shocking revelation.

They walked for another hour before Effir slumped against a wall, clearly exhausted from the day’s journey.

“Paragon-Elect, I request we make camp,” they asked, eyes half-way closed.

But Karega shook her head, “I know of a spot just up over here. C’mon, Shaper, you demanded to be on this expedition after all.” Effir sighed but pushed themselves off of the stone. Elodie murmured a little spell and gestured towards them, trying to give them the little boost needed to get through this next part.

They eyed the magic suspiciously then waved at it and shuddered when it continued to wrap itself around them.

“What is this? Spirits of the Stone? Leave me be, ancestors!” Their voice broke and Elodie frowned, waving again and making the magic dissipate.

“I apologize –

“Warn a person before you do that,” they growled and took off after Karega. Elodie sighed and reminded herself that the dwarves here hadn’t seen magic in…thousands of years.

She winced at her own insensitivity and followed along quietly once more. They jogged up a ramp that seemed to go on for miles before arriving at a huge open plateau.

Elodie’s jaw dropped at the sheer size of the space.

The ceiling was so high that she could barely see the dangling chandeliers. Towering pillars framed the space and section off other spaces containing large square holes that looked suspiciously like….

“Is this a bathhouse?” Elodie asked. Karega turned back and smiled.

“You reek, and I remember running past this place – two nugs, one bath!” She declared happily. Effir and Pritte paused for a moment before gravitating towards the pillars, recording any and all information possible.

“Are you not going to enjoy a bath?” Elodie called back as she followed Karega in search of a lever to turn the pools on.

“In a bit, perhaps,” Pritte said absently as he scribbled into his journal. Their voices carried through the space, echoing off of remarkably smooth and pristine stone. With a few careful words, Elodie illuminated the room, igniting torches, braziers, and even the chandeliers hanging above.

The light allowed Elodie and Karega to spot various hallways leading off of the main chamber. And in the third room they investigated, they found what they were looking for – or at least what Elodie hoped was what they wanted.

It was an entire wall of levers, pullies, and various notes attached with what Elodie to be descriptions. Karega leaned forward to inspect the descriptions only to huff and swear once more.

“Damn. Ancient Dwarven, you would think our language and writing would not have deviated this much, but here it is.”

“Is there really nothing you can make out?”

“Uh, just barely. Maybe…this lever?” She pulled a lever and a great WOOSH went through the room. There was a pause and then distant screaming, hissing, and clanking sounded out in the main chamber.

“Shit!”

They ran back out just in time to see Pritte burying another axe into a spider’s skull. He looked up, and smiled while Effir, now covered in spider gore, scowled.

“Wrong. Lever.”

Karega snorted in an attempt to smother laughter, earning Effir’s continued ire. The dwarf then dropped their things and proceeded to walk to the chamber where Karega and Elodie had just been. They grumbled to themselves unintelligibly, though Elodie guessed they were cursing herself and Karega for getting them drenched in spider gore.

They inspected the rune work on the wall, then began to pull different levers.

“It is required for the Shapers to know the ancient tongue.” They explained tersely before turning from the wall and heading back out to the baths.

Pritte danced around happily as he stared up at the ceiling where water was now flowing from into one of the larger baths.

“Marvelous! Great work, Effir!” He then quickly began to strip, seemingly uncaring for those that saw him.

Karega was the next to begin disrobing. Elodie and Effir turned away while they both quietly shucked off their rancid smelling robes. It had formed some sort of sticky seal to Elodie’s skin and she gagged as she pealed it off.

“This is disgusting.” She grumbled.

“I hate spiders.” Effir groused before turning and quickly sinking into the bath. Elodie soon followed, testing the water. It was warm, though not to the usual degree Elodie took hers, but she supposed that was easily rectified…if the dwarves did not mind a bit of magic.

“Would you mind me making the water warmer with magic?” She asked politely. Pritte looked wildly excited by the whole idea, scrambling up over the edge of the bath to grab his notebook. Karega frowned and Effir was about to deliver the hard ‘yes’ to the question when Karega shrugged.

“Very well, as long as you won’t fry us.”

Elodie nodded and grabbed her staff, then drove the end of it down into the water, hitting the bottom. She murmured a few words and drew the warming rune. It flickered orange then simmered out and soon the temperature began to rise. Steam was floating off the top in no time, turning them all into flushed versions of themselves.

The bath was amazing. Elodie scrubbed all of the spider gore off of herself, and potentially a layer of skin, but it was worth it to feel clean and refreshed. She was convinced that the water had some mineral in it to aid with cleaning, but she could not tell what it was.

Pritte set to cleaning his beard meticulously, though he babbled on about how he was limited in that there weren’t just some beard oils laying around and oh dear, he forgot to pack some. Effir, like Elodie, scrubbed until raw, but they seemed much less tense with all the ichor now sloughed away.

Karega actually relaxed in the warm water. She leaned back against the wall and let her head dip back; Elodie thought she even took a nap.

The warming glyph eventually wore off and they exited the bath with long sighs. Pritte set to work drying himself off, and with all the hair covering his body, Elodie was a little concerned he would be drying for days rather than hours.

Elodie told Effir to sleep, that she would take first watch and wash their clothes. They scowled at her but eventually reluctantly agreed, seeing as they could barely keep their eyes open.

One of the good things about the Deep Roads was that there was little need for an actual tent, which reduced the amount of stuff they had to carry with them. That being said, Pritte somehow produced a tent-like tarp, pinning it to the wall, creating some privacy for those who wished to sleep.

Elodie took watch and wash, settling down by the now partially murky water to begin the slow process of cleaning fabric covered in spider guts.

She was not twenty minutes in when Karega tapped her shoulder. Elodie turned, surprised to see the woman in such soft clothing for the Deep. But more shocking was she was holding a small portrait that looked very familiar…

“It fell out of your pack when we moved it into the tent,” she handed it to Elodie. The mage took it with a small smile, and looked down at the now rumpled and fading micro-portrait of Alistair. She started carrying it with her when her duties took her away from him. Which made it ten years old. Maker.

“Thank you, I would have missed this.”

“Your husband, I take it?” Karega settled herself next to Elodie, still angling her head at the portrait.

“Not…exactly. He is my love and I am his, but we are not married. He is the king of Ferelden and when he ascended the throne, he had to marry the current queen to ensure unity, which we desperately needed.”

Karega paused for a moment then nodded, “You are his…concubine? Is that the correct word?”

“Oh goodness no! I am his Mistress. It’s a little funny, we were both so hesitant about that but when he became king and I remained at his side, absolutely no one was surprised…or even remotely upset. Even the queen was agreeable with the arrangement.” She tucked the small portrait into her clothes and resumed cleaning the battle robes. But Karega remained, still contemplating.

“Who mothers his children?” She suddenly asked. Ah. Yes, that question. It was always that question. ‘Yes, but who does he sleep with? Didn’t he have to sleep with her? Didn’t that hurt you?’ No, it didn’t. And she wasn’t less for it not hurting. She felt no remorse about Morrigan or about Anora, they were both necessary, and he loved her, not them. Sex was sex was sex.

“Anora, the queen, gave birth to his son, and heir apparent, seven years ago. We…I cannot bear children,” her voice was soft and the old failures crept into her.

The first pregnancy, they had been so happy, ecstatic. Duncan was only a year old and everyone was thrilled to think that he would have a sibling he could be so close to. Alistair had spent that entire month with a goofy smile on his face, cradling his son his arms and touching Elodie’s stomach whenever he had the chance.

The miscarriage was a shock for most, but Elodie was somewhat expecting it. The taint…it ran deep and she knew that bearing a child while riddled with it could be almost impossible.

The second pregnancy was approached with wary excitement. They kept it secret, just Anora, Alistair, and Elodie plus the healers knew. When that miscarriage came, it wasn’t so surprising, but it still hurt, and like the first time, she locked herself in her room for two days, crying.

Her hand fluttered to her stomach and she recalled the third pregnancy. It was the shortest one, lasting only a week after she found out. There and then suddenly gone.

It was the fourth that was the worst. She had the healers swear not to tell anyone until she was past the first trimester. And then the fourth month arrived and she broke out in excited tears. This was the one! Her baby! Her child! But she was careful, and they kept the pregnancy secret once more so as to not stress Elodie and the baby.

A miscarriage in the fifth month was nothing she would ever wish upon anyone. It was more than a miscarriage, of thick blood and cramping. It was a death, tragic and devastating. And the scars were longer lasting, her body not fully recovered and her heart bearing a wound that would never heal completely.

She stopped trying for a child after that, and began searching for a cure. She could be happy with being a second mother to Duncan, and she was. It was not a lack of love that made her want a child with Alistair, but because she loved Duncan…and wanted to be a mother again.

Elodie blinked the memories away and looked at the small portrait in her hands. He looked so young in the portrait, short hair, and a thinner face.

“He looks like a child without a beard,” Karega commented absently.

“Oh he has a beard now, nice and full, not to worry,” Elodie teased. She glanced down at her hands, still healing from the lyrium burns but also still strangely mottled from the blighted tissue removal. She hadn’t told him, but…he probably knew, could feel the taint getting stronger in her than in him.

Wardens made during the Blight had it worse. She was supposed to have thirty years, and it was looking like she got thirteen max.

She was going to die, taken by the thing that had once saved her from a life of imprisonment and ridicule. She would never have reached her full potential in the Circle, would have either languished in complacency or been made Tranquil once they discovered just how powerful she was…or when she began to speak out against the injustices put upon the mages by the Chantry and its Templars.

She would never have met Alistair in the Circle. This life…however short and tragic, was a monumental improvement over the lack of one in the Circle. She would not have loved, not have learned how to embrace her magic, she would never have met some of the most amazing friends and people. And in the end, when she ventured back out into the Deep Roads that actually had Darkspawn, she would be grateful for these thirteen years. Elodie Amell had done a lot of good, had enjoyed a lot of wonderful things, and come death came rest.

The night continued on and Elodie was eventually forced to retire into a wary sleep. And like the previous nights, the hallucinations returned.

A song more infectious and seducing than anything she had ever heard flitted through the air. It led her down halls and up pathways, then down slick passages. There was lyrium everywhere, but none of it was creating such a song. She dove deeper into the depths of the roads until coming to a great pulsating lyrium vein. It ran the height of a pillar once covered in runes, only to now be squeezed by the lifeblood of the Titan.

It drew her in and she was helpless to not sink to her knees, pressing it into the base of the lyrium while she pressed her hands to it.

She gasped as images flooded her mind. She expected to see the man diving into the ball of light once more, but instead she saw…a woman. Taller and slimmer than any dwarven woman, dressed in beautiful ceremonial armor. Her form wavered and suddenly she was standing in front of the great ball of light, a man stood in front of her, himself clad in stronger armor with a great battle-axe waving menacingly at the tall woman.

But she merely outstretched her hand and a…red tinted magic emerged like slithering shadows from her arm, sinking into the man.

There was a scream, a bright flash of light, then a hiss, and Elodie shot up awake in her bed, the palms of her hands bleeding from the burns.

What…was that? She had believed that the first vision had been of Karega’s husband being chosen and that was symbol enough to draw her to the Titan, but this…this was nothing like that.

A woman, overtaking a man defending the Titan? Was this woman…her? Was she supposed to do something like that? That had been sinister magic, nothing like what Elodie actually practiced.

Or was this a story of some sort? Did this happen in the past? And if so…what did this have to do with her?

Elodie went through the ritual of patching her hands, hissing in pain at how tender her flesh was. The burns were excruciating and the dabbing and healing and bandaging didn’t seem to lessen the pain.

“Alright, Long Legs! Time to head out! Let’s move,” Karega shouted from outside.

“Just a minute!” Elodie replied before murmuring a healing spell into her hands and then changing into her traveling robes. They weren’t perfect after yesterday’s encounter with the spider, but they would have to do. She packed the rest of her things and ran off to continue the trek into the deep.

**

The deeper they delved into the earth, the more her wounds burned. It started as a dull throbbing, but by the end of the fifth day of walking, her body itched and ached from the pain. The hallucinations happened nightly and her body was slowly becoming more encompassed by the burns. There was only so much elfroot could do to stop the pain and the pain itself was fatiguing, requiring them to make more frequent stops for her to regain herself.

Her body groaned under the stress, and as they climbed through yet another spider passage, she hissed at the pain of her skin sliding against the rocks. Tears slipped down her face, dripping in an angle down her neck and onto a burn that hissed at the contact.

She was dying, but she had to keep going.

On the sixth day, the roads ended. A hush fell over the group as they stared at the awaiting abyss.

The only way was forward.

They took a collective deep breath and sojourned forth. Elodie bounced up a light for herself only to have Effir hiss at her to put it out. There were other creatures here who would be drawn to the light, and that she would just have to rely on the dwarven eyesight to see her through.

They attached ropes to themselves, mostly for her benefit she thinks, and slowly began to trudge forward. She had never come across a darkness so complete in her life. No light pollution or refraction from stars or the moon – just…pitch black. Not even lyrium veins seemed to touched this place.

She slid her hands across the rock to keep her righted and with the group. She wished they could talk to further help guide her, but noise in this eerie quiet could spell disaster for them, so she kept quiet.

The darkness stretched on for hours until finally, a faint glow emerged. Relief flooded Elodie as she took a step toward it.

The light moved.

A low sound of discomfort escaped Karega followed by the sound of steel being freed from its holster. Elodie grabbed her staff and ignored the pain in her hands, watching the slow movement of the light. It bobbed slightly before…suddenly leaping up high.

The rope tugged on Elodie and she moved along with the dwarves. They’re being stalked, these were close quarters, it was time to move.

The pace was quicker than before but she fully approved of moving as quickly as possible as a hiss seemed to start at the far end of the cavern and more lights appeared, bobbing and moving even more quickly than the group could manage.

Her feet found the edges of rocks, her body slamming occasionally into the walls. Pain. So much pain, but she had to keep going.

The only way was forward.

The hissing got louder and soon she could hear the thumps of the creatures landing on the rocks above them, nails scraping against the stone as they moved. Vibrations from whatever communicative noises they made filled the void spurring the group to hustle even more quickly.

When the first creature leapt down at them, it purposefully missed. Elodie turned, found the light and sent a warning burst of magic at it.

It growled in pain and the vibrations in the cavern only seemed to increase. She had angered them, shit. The creature behind her leapt once more and this time she was forced to use lethal magic, sending forth a sharp burst of telekinetic energy. There was a sickening crunch and then the light went out.

The vibrations stopped.

Lights around the cavern went out.

Elodie swallowed thickly and prayed that they had left.

Karega screamed as she hit the ground. Effir lunged forward, pulling the group with them as they hacked into the creature attacking their queen.

“Skrimmers!” Pritte declared as he hustled forward as well to aid Effir. The creature, a skrimmer, howled in pain as axes hacked into its hide. Elodie kept her head on a swivel and drew up a barrier around them. She made it exceptionally physical to keep more of these creatures from attacking.

“HRAH!” Karega shouted as the skrimmer was finally slain and hauled off her body.

She shouted something them in her language and they were barreling down the cavern.

“What are those things?!” Elodie shouted.

“Skrimmers! Fabled ancestors of the deepstalkers! Rumored to be twice the size with two heads, brain is located in the body cavity!” Pritte shouted back. Body cavity, that’s where she should aim, got it.

A skimmer hissed and jumped at her from above, but she anticipated the blow and stepped forward before it could land on her. She whipped around and shot ice into the thing, severing its worm-like heads and burying them into the body.

It sputtered and died before Elodie was tugged back along by the rope. She could hear the footfalls of the skrimmers above, hissing to communicate as they jumped down at them.

Elodie tossed up another barrier as two landed, shielding them from more. She felt the hits to her barrier and staged under the weight. There was…power in them, potentially lyrium based, and it wanted to shatter the barrier.

“I can’t help with them!” She cried, but the dwarves seemed more than capable of handling the monsters.

Karega began to spin and promptly hacked into the skrimmers as Effir bludgeoned their heads with their hammer.

A large skrimmer slammed into Elodie’s barrier and she winced. Every blow hurt, but that was the nature of physical barriers, natural extensions of yourself to prevent actual harm to yourself.

She screamed as acid was suddenly spewed against the barrier, her already tender flesh feeling as if it was being sloughed away.

She couldn’t maintain this, it was too much, they were too much. But she couldn’t see them, couldn’t let loose specific attacks that would kill them but not her and her group.

The darkness pressed on them and the lights were still hidden from the creatures.

You’ll have to rely on our eyesight.

Creatures here are sensitive to light, you’ll make us a target!

Sensitive to light!

“CLOSE YOUR EYES!” She shouted and promptly dropped the barrier to draw in all her strength. And let it billow out in brilliant light.

The skrimmers hissed in pain as they flinched away from her. The light died down and she opened her eyes on the last of the dying light to see where they were…and let out a torrent of ice spikes down the cavern.

She slammed her staff down, then whipped it up, directing the magic into their soft underbellies. She extended the ice as far up as she could get it, up and away, impaling and destroying them in undoubted death.

When it was done, a wall of ice containing the broken bodies of a dozen giant skrimmers glowed before them, giving them just enough light to see.

“You can open your eyes now.” Elodie huffed, falling fatigued against a stone wall.

“Shit, Long Legs, that is…impressive,” Karega breathed. Effir watched her closely for a moment before nodding and turning from her.

“Are all mages capable of that, El-o-die?” Pritte asked, fascinated and seemingly no less for wear. Elodie smiled down at him and shook her head.

“No. Magic is unique in every mage, and I have…had some unique experiences that have allowed me to grow my magic.”

“You can grow magic?”

“Like how you build a muscle, more like. Here,” she took his notebook and piece of charcoal, scribbling on it, “when you make contact with the surface, contact the Inquisition and ask for correspondence with their Arcanist, Dagna. She’s a dwarf who studies magic, I think you’d get along great.” She handed the book back and his face lit up.

“A dwarf who studies magic? Fascinating!”

“Pritte, we got some carvings over here, care to translate?” Karega stepped up to them, her rope temporarily removed. Pritte untied himself from Elodie and quickly excused himself to go inspect the carvings with Effir.

Karega stood before Elodie, quiet, imposing. Elodie let out a long breath and looked down at her hands, still covered in barely recovering lyrium burns.

“Can you walk?” Karega asked, her voice low so the others could not hear.

Elodie nodded but it was not reassuring, “You said I had two weeks, but I do not know if I even have three more days. How much longer to the ruin?”

“If we walk through the night, we can reach it by next day.”

“Then we walk through the night,” Elodie decided. Karega nodded, understanding, before calling for a break to eat. They were going to need all the energy they could get for this next stretch.

**

Her feet ached. Her skin burned. Her head was starting to feel light when the cavern finally opened up and lyrium branches once again resumed to wrap around the rocks. Giant, almost encased river-like lyrium that branched out over every surface of rock possible.

Her teeth rattled in her skull, but it felt good to be able to see again. The rope was removed from her once more, relieving her already stressed back. She leaned a bit more than normal on her staff as she followed Karega into the depths.

The rock began to change color, slowly warping into strange colors under the influence of the lyrium, she imagined. Oil slick colors seemed to cover rounded surfaces while younger stone appeared to be jagged and dull.

There was no dirt, only rock and lyrium as the cavern opened up. Oh. There was also steam…which meant water and fire of some sort, potentially lava. The walkways were suspended over what looked to be an unending chasm, steam billowing up from its depths.

It was interesting, she thought, that even so deep underground, one could find suspended high enough to die.

Pritte stepped forward, “Amazing…” he murmured.

They crossed the bridge and passed into an oddly shaped cavern. There were eroded striations in the rock and precise cuts that allowed the light from a lyrium vein to bleed through. The lines were mostly straight only worn with time, which meant….

“This was shaped by someone.”

“Clearly,” Effir said, inspecting the work more closely. They pulled out their journal and made some quick notes before Karega gestured for them to keep going.

“We’re getting close to where Gurendar disappeared, keep up.” Karega led them through the passage and across a short bridge into another passage that opened up into a great hall. Its ceilings weren’t as tall and overwhelming as the bathhouse, but the pillars were larger, the statues were more ornate and the lyrium had been cultivated along the walls into designated channels for optimal aesthetic appeal. To conserve energy, Elodie did not illuminate the space. Pritte stayed close to her, helping to guide her through the low light.

“You don’t have to stay by me, I know you want to explore,” she told him.

“I do. But you need me more at the moment. Besides, I am thinking of having another expedition down here after this whole thing is settled. You would think we’d know more about this place, but we don’t. It’s quite unfortunate,” Pritte rambled, his voice low and gentle as they maneuvered through the space.

“We don’t know more because of superstition,” Effir commented, falling just a bit behind Karega to join the conversation.

“The senior shapers tell tales of disturbances down here that no dwarf should ever encounter and has long forbid entry without good reason.”

“And this is the good reason.”

“The only reason good enough, to be precise.”

Karega suddenly stopped and held up a hand, “Quiet.” Everyone went on alert, heads turning to examine the wings of the hall. Other than the soft light emanating from the lyrium veins stretching up into the ceiling, coiling around pillars, Elodie couldn’t see anything. But then she heard it. Whispers like the drifting fluff off a dandelion.

Her magic rose in her, orienting her to the far left end of the hall. Her skin prickled and her lyrium burns itched, but she drifted closer to the whispers. The lyrium pulsed a bit more brightly and the whispers moved. Fuzzy, white figures began to coalesce into actual forms of dwarves gathered in the hall.

Karega and Effir shifted away instinctively away from the stone spirits, apparently unaccustomed. Pritte took it in stride, gasping in surprise but yanking a new journal out of his pack to begin furiously scribbling.

Elodie turned to Karega and Effir, lifting her hand in reassurance, “I’ve seen this before in the Deep Roads by Orzammar and Kal-Hirol. They’re harmless…usually.” She recalled the spirits turning on her and her party with vicious intent as they had explored the City of the Dead. She had made sure to be more vigilant about her behavior in Kal-Hirol, where the spirits had been so numerous. The death had weakened the Fade, even in the depths of the roads. It was so weak that the spirits had looked different from those beneath Orzammar. The Kal-Hirol spirits had faces, discernable features, clear, resonant voices, their memories forcefully stamped into the stone.

Karega and Effir relaxed somewhat, but their weapons remained out and their eyes sharp as they watched the spirits flow over the stone. They crossed into the center portion of the hall and a reverberation carried through the hall and into Elodie. She shivered, hair and magic on raw end as the spirits solidified into forms that resembled the spirits of Kal-Hirol more than Orzammar.

They spoke in the ancient tongue, five in total.

“They’re discussing war plans,” Effir murmured.

The forms moved and living dwarves fell silent as they strove to listen and record everything they were hearing. Elodie wondered if she should tell them now that this scene would likely repeat after completion. But she remained quiet and the scene continued. More spirits joined the fray and their faces became more distinct, the details in their attire more profound, making a Elodie’s stomach churn in anxiety. These dwarves were about to be slaughtered.

All at once the spirits turned their heads, looking past Elodie and her crew, down the hall to where Elodie suspected were invaders.

The lyrium around them pulsed, the stone groaned, and the entire space lit up in brilliant display. Elodie felt the Veil waver, pulling back to reveal new spirits, looking more like echoes from the surface than the Stone, running through the hall. The dwarven spirits braced themselves, there shouts and Pritte flinched, coiling inwards on himself as he inched towards Elodie.

In the middle of the invading force stood the tall woman that seemed vaguely familiar. It reminded Elodie of her hallucinations, of a woman standing over the cliff of blinding light, sinking her magic into the dwarf before her…. But this woman was different, in a way. She carried herself with a righteous regality that was unlike the threatening and consuming stance of the woman from Elodie’s hallucinations.

Her spirit let out a brilliant display of old magic, so potent and horrible that Elodie flinched from it, instinctually tossing a barrier up around her and the dwarves. The remembered spell coursed through the hall and engulfed the dwarven spirits, killing them instantaneously.

Effir and Pritte gasped while Karega growled, gripping her weapon with vicious intent. But there was nothing to be done, these were echoes of an event long since passed. The spirits remained, the woman glided through the halls and into more clarity. Elodie’s eyes widened, she was an elf. They were all elves. Tall and slender, bedecked in elaborate armor that wavered with magical enchantment not so unlike the dwarves.

When the woman began to speak, Elodie blinked, surprised she could understand her.

“A pity. They would have served well.”

“Shall we continue, my lady?”

“Of course. There is no time to waste.”

The spirits wavered and dissipated, the Stone no longer supporting the memory far past the death of its own. Pritte sniffled, eyes wide as he turned to Elodie.

“Is it too much to hope you know what they said?” His voice wavered but his hand was still, hovering over his notes. Elodie took a breath and nodded.

“They…were disappointed at having to kill the dwarves. The woman, the leader, said that the dwarves would of served well. Then they moved on, presumably in a hurry.” Pritte took to his journal as did Effir.

“Someone care to tell me what in the Stone’s name was that?!” Karega demanded. Effir glanced up from their notes and slowly put the journal away.

“The Stone takes in the memories. Shapers can make the Stone take it, shaping it into the stone, hence the name. But the practice was inspired by its natural ability to do this. To record. And to sometimes show. This was a memory, Paragon-Elect,” they explained with the slightest twinge in their voice.

“Memories like this one from my experience form because of great fighting and battles. Death,” Elodie continued.

Karega fell silent, her face harsh in the low light.

“Who was that elf? What was she doing down here and slaughtering my people for?” She asked, perhaps more to herself than the others.

“There are no records of this,” was all Pritte could say.

“I thought the you recorded everything.”

“If there is no one to report something, there is nothing to record, just…for the Stone to absorb,” Effir answered.

Karega let out a breath and straightened, “It’s unfortunate, but we are also running low on time. We need to move.” She picked up her axe and set forward again, her stride strong. Effir tossed their pack onto their back and followed Karega, their footfalls heavy and laden with exhaustion.

“I do not understand,” Pritte murmured as he put his things away, “the elves…why would they come down here?”

“I don’t know, Pritte, I don’t know.”

She rested a hand on his shoulder and patted it gratitude before they marched after Karega into a dark side chamber. This chamber was less ornate than the other but a vein of lyrium ran overhead, illuminating the area. Wispy spirits drifted into the room but didn’t say anything, they were just there, unformed until the elven woman and her entourage billowed through, killing the dwarves along the way.

There were three consecutive rooms like this until they came to a final chamber that just…stopped. There were no passages leading out which to Elodie meant to keep looking for a different passage but the dwarves pressed their palms to the far wall.

“We need to go this way,” Effir affirmed.

“There is unfortunately a wall there, we should look for a route around.”

“There is only one way,” Karega agreed and stepped back. She trailed her hands over the wall and Elodie’s magic began to prick at her skin. The lyrium pulsed, flickering and snapping making Elodie’s head pound. Memories flowed into the space, dwarves in ancient heavy armor formed a tight barrier in front of the door, shouting at each other. Effir scrambled for their journal, needing to record.

When the elven woman and her group entered the memory there was shouting on both sides. She switched to the dwarven speech, her voice saccharine sweet and condescending, making Effir huff in distaste.

The dwarves growled a reply that displeased the woman enough to let out a disappointed sigh. She gave her people an order that had them straightening their backs and raising their hands.

They set to cast. The dwarves charged. The relatively confined space was filled all at once with battle and blood, screams, and close quarters combat that the elves should not have stood a chance in.

The warrior elves surged forward to protect their lady, becoming a shield of armored bodies. The spirits flashed into different colors as spells were cast. But the dwarves were unrelenting, pushing and pushing. The elves broke rank and fell back only for a new spirit to suddenly invade the space. A great reptilian head suddenly extended into the space and let out a torrent of fire against the dwarves. Trapped in the room, the dwarves screamed, flailed, and died under the heat.

The dragon stepped into the room and bumped its head against the far wall where Karega, Effir, and Pritte stood. They gasped, shutting their eyes in some expectation to be hit. But it was only a memory of the dragon shoving and shoving against the wall until there was a loud crashing sound.

The dragon pulled back, its head bloody. Its form wavered and suddenly an elf stood where the dragon was, bloody but grinning. They turned back and the leader smiled.

“You did well.”

The memory faded as the elves pressed forward.

Karega growled, “What in the Stone’s name was that nonsense?”

“That elf turned into a dragon,” Pritte commented, more in awe than anything. Elodie blinked and let out a long breath. Well.

“I knew there were shapeshifters, but I did not know that there were shapeshifters who were once capable of that,” Elodie supplied.

“What? The elves don’t just sprout into dragons anymore?”

“I was not even aware that they ever did!”

Karega turned from Elodie and began to curse as she felt along the scarred wall for…something. Elodie leaned against her staff and contemplated. Elves that could turn into dragons. Elves that invaded the deep roads to what? Enslave dwarves?

Elves…that could turn into dragons.

Oh. Oh sweet Maker.

There was no real confirmation that they would be the Archdemons but the thought, the fact that long ago this was possible…could that mean…they were susceptible to the Blight? That the dragon-appearing Archdemons were just that – dragon-appearing because they were not truly dragons but…elves? Elves were susceptible to the blight, they became either Shrieks or Emissaries, depending on magical ability. And maybe…if they were infected while in draconic form…as Archdemons.

Elodie excused herself for a moment and ran into the hall to vomit. She panted and cleaned her mouth out with water and some of the ale they packed. It was just an idea of what the Archdemons were, and really, it was a better hope than thinking they were actually divine figures – just extraordinarily powerful mages. Who could make their souls somehow jump from body to body.

Right.

She rejoined the dwarves in the room who were now bickering in their language to figure out to get the blasted door open. Pritte scrambled along the far left of the wall while Effir handled the bottom. Karega made some sort of odd shimmying move before brightening.

“Aha!” She proclaimed before pushing harder into the wall. The Stone groaned and creaked as the wall began to move outward. Old, stale air blew into the room and light beamed in so brightly that Elodie had to close her eyes to adjust.

When she opened them, all of her breath left her.

Karega had said that Gurendar had fled into an ancient city but she thought they had already made it to the city but no, the comparatively minuscule chambers were nothing compared to the cavernous grandeur before her.

Buildings rose from mist covered depths, built on what appeared to be miniature mountains. More buildings were built into the sides of these outcroppings, with long bridges connecting each rock. There were trees growing out of the sides of the space, walls covered in lichens, mosses, and even vines. The buildings were reminiscent of the architecture in Kal-Sharok but unique and striking.

“Is this…”

“The home of the Titan,” Karega said, brimming with pride.

[ruffsficstuffplace]

The Keeper of the Grove (Part 30)

“Are you sure you want to do this, Weiss?” Penny asked as she and Weiss stood in a public bathroom. “Your body's stress hormone levels still haven't returned to normal.”

“Yes,” Weiss said before she splashed more water on her face. “I'm a Schnee, and as my grandfather Nicholas famously said: 'Where other people see desolation, failure, and the writing on the wall, I see motivation to keep on going until we turn this shit around,'" she continued as she dried her face with a paper towel.

Penny nodded. “Calling the Watcher's Roost...” she said as she held up her arm, the “tablet” section flipped out.

Weiss threw the towel away, checked her reflection in the mirror: her eyes were red and puffy from crying, she had the ominous beginnings of eye bags thanks to all the stress and less than ideal sleep she'd been getting recently, and just an aura of unpleasantness had settled on her from having been screwed over far too often and frequently.

She would have killed for make-up, some concealer at the very least, but she supposed she'd just have to work with it. Who knew: maybe looking like someone you wouldn't want to mess with would be a plus in the Watchers.

They left the bathroom and headed to the nearest Tube station, and off they went to the Watcher's Roost.

The Roost was situated on the side of one of the highest mountains of the Valley, overlooking all of the Bastion and a great deal outside the walls, too. Like the city itself, it was a series of trees and platforms connected by bridges and rope, along with a number of extra Tube stations, elevators, and zip lines for getting around quickly.

As Weiss arrived at the main entrance, she looked up and noticed giant birds perched in the higher branches, racks with saddles, bags, and harnesses with folded mechanical wings nearby. “If the Valley had an air force, this would be it,” she thought to herself as Penny arrived.

The two of them walked up to the doors, where there were already two Watchers waiting for her. One was an orange squirrel with all the chipper demeanor and hyperactivity that entailed, the other gave Weiss pause as she stared at him.

Most of the Fae she'd seen in the Bastion were based off mammals, and she'd only seen a handful of bird-like Fae such as Qrow. The one before her looked like a snake or a reptile of some sort, slit pupils in his pink eyes, pink-green scales creeping in on the sides of his face, his neck, and his hands, and what looked to be horns poking out from his forehead.

“Oh hi, you must be Weiss!” the squirrel said as she ran up to her. “Oh who am I kidding? EVERYONE in the Valley knows who you are! You're practically famous! Or is that supposed to be infamous? Anyway, I'm Nora, and that's Ren, and we're going to be helping you in your run through the Grinder!

“Hope you don't come out the other side as meat paste~!”

Weiss blinked, confused and more than a little concerned.

“'The Grinder's' what we Watchers call our entrance exam,” Ren said. “It can get pretty brutal.”

“Super brutal, you mean!” Nora cried. “There's a reason the Guild stopped offering 'Watcher' as part of the Job Gauntlet! Well, aside from the fact that we kept getting so much Moss and people who just didn't want to join up clogging up the ranks, but there's that, too!”

Weiss nodded slowly. “I… see...”

“So, are we going to stand here all day? Or are we going to see if you are Watcher Material?!” Nora said, grinning and leaning ever closer to Weiss' face with each word.

Ren calmly coaxed his friend back to a more polite, less uncomfortably close distance. “Sorry about that; Nora's been dying to meet you since Ruby told us that you were staying here permanently, and Penny's call got her excited all over again.”

“Why wouldn't I be?!” Nora cried. “We're going to be just like the Void Claw Clan and Lang-Lang from 'The Last Bear Ender!' An outsider, scared, confused, thrust into a new, dangerous world they are completely unprepared for, seeking guidance and protection wherever she can find it, fighting the wilds, her enemies, and her inner demons to rise up as their new CHAMPION!”

As Nora was busy with her monologue and dramatic posing, Weiss discretely asked Ren, “HV addict?”

Ren nodded. “It's how we both learned Nivian.”

“Figured...” Weiss muttered.

Nora turned back to her, put her fists on her hips and attempted a serious, dramatic look. “So, outsider, do you wish to grow strong with the darkness, or continue to cower in the light?”

Weiss wondered if it was too late to back out, and go see just what being a paid guinea pig would entail.

“There's a sign-on bonus of 1,000 Shinies if you pass, plus a regular monthly salary even if you'll probably be spending the next year or so training and shadowing senior Watchers in the less populated districts here in the Bastion.”

And at the promise of 22 Triple Chocolate Cake Shakes with change to spare, plus a year's worth of compensated on-the-job training, Weiss' mind was made up.

“Let's do this,” she said, smiling.

Nora cheered, while Ren smiled back. “Alright,” he said. “Let's head inside, and get you started.”

The interior of the Roost was a bizarre mix of a military base, a police station, and a hunter's lodge.

There was a giant board with announcements and notices about dangerous and criminal individuals, and suspicious activity in general. An army of operators manned terminals, screening and updating the others on important tips from citizens and their sources of information. A holographic “Heat Map” of the entire Valley was projected from the ceiling, lighting up in different colours depending on how dangerous an area was, sometimes with images of particularly deadly animals, always with a name in Actaeon or Nivian and a corresponding bounty for taking them down.

There were also the stuffed heads and carcasses of famous kills throughout the ages, portraits and pictures of proud Watchers and their trophies, and sometimes statues and reliefs of their more legendary figures, frequently portrayed in combat with their most infamous opponents.

Weiss passed by a giant statue of what looked like the bastard child of an alligator, a shark, and a tank that had also been heavily irradiated with magic, then injected with several gallons worth of steroids, because apparently whoever had designed it thought it wasn't terrifying enough.

There was a plaque underneath it: “Death Claw, the First Soul Eater,” Penny translated.

It was definitely just a statue, but the detail in its six eyes, the rows of serrated fangs within the three flaps that made its “mouth,” and the giant, twisted horns atop its head gave Weiss the chills. “That's a Soul Eater...?” she whispered.

“Yeeep!” Nora said as they passed it by. “Big reason why we Watchers are paid and funded so well—and also why we recruit year round, too!”

“We keep it largely as a reminder to never get complacent,” Ren continued.

Weiss gazed it at one more time, before she resolved never to turn her head in its general direction again, and hurried on after the others.

They went deeper into the Roost, into a series of underground caverns. She could hear the echoes of training and fighting, shouts and war cries from both Fae and animals. And from even deeper in…

“… Is that music?” Weiss asked.

Ren nodded. “We share our facilities with the Pits for extra funding and convenience.”

“Plus, a lot of Watchers tend to be Pit Fighters when they're off-duty, or vice-versa! You're going in there later as part of the Grinder, by the way.”

Weiss' eyes widened in alarm.

“Don't worry, we have safety measures and really good equipment,” Ren explained. “Your opponent's also skilled at roughing folks up without actually causing lasting harm.” He paused. “Physical harm, at any rate.”

“But for now, we're going to do Part 1 of the Grinder: The Reflex Test!” Nora said as she opened a door that led to a training room. It was very basic with a safety mat in the center, some machines for exercises and drills, and a rack of training dummies.

“It's very simple,” Ren explained as they headed to a table. “For 30 seconds, I'm going to try to touch you on your nose, you try and stop me or dodge. To pass, you only need to do either once. Ready?”

Weiss nodded and stood in front of him. “Ready,” she said as she held up her hands.

Nora put her hand over to a giant timer and turned on a camera. “On three: 1… 2… 3!”

Boop.

Ren lightly tapped Weiss on the nose, just enough for her to feel it.

Weiss blinked. “Wait, wha--”

Boop.

Weiss scowled. “Hey--!”

Boop.

Weiss raised her arms in front of her face.

Ren effortlessly weaved his hands around her defense.

Boop.

Weiss growled.

Boop.

Ren was unfazed.

Boop.

Weiss started flailing her arms in the air.

Boop.

Weiss grabbed both of Ren's wrists.

Boop. Boop. Boop. Boop. Boop. Boop.

“Gah!” Weiss let go, unable to stand against the assault. She spun around.

Ren sidestepped.

Boop.

She hid her face in her hands.

Ren gently pried her hands from her face.

Weiss looked him straight in his pink, slit-pupil eyes.

Boop.

Ding!

“Time's up!” Nora yelled. “Reviewing the footage now and…. yeeep… looks like you dodged a grand a total of zero Boops!”

“Don't worry,” Ren said, “you need only get a score of 2 out of 4 to pass, and the Combat Test counts for 2.”

Weiss grumbled as she rubbed her repeatedly booped nose.

“To the Endurance Test!” Nora said, walking off to the side and wheeling in a device that was composed of a tank with a valve, a hose, and a nozzle pointed well away from the operator's side.

“What is that?” Weiss asked.

“A Soul Fire Thrower!” Nora replied cheerfully.

“… What's Soul Fire?”

“A magical substance used for non-lethally taking down powerful targets that shrug off more instantaneous methods, or to weaken strong enemies to level the playing field,” Penny explained.

Weiss worriedly eyed the nozzle. “… Is this going to hurt?”

“Yep!” Nora replied, nodding her head. “Gonna hurt LOTS!”

Weiss stared at her. “Wait--”

“On 'Burninate!' 3, 2, 1: BURNINATE!”

FWOOSH!

Weiss screamed and ran around as she was suddenly engulfed in green flames. She patted herself, stopped, dropped, and rolled and rolled on the floor, but the fire wouldn't let up and kept on burning, and burning, and burning.

Then, as quickly as it started, it ended, leaving Weiss sprawled out on her back, eyes wide and breathing heavily, her body, hair, and clothes unburned, though tendrils of leftover magic rose up from her like smoke.

Ren stopped the timer. “5.27 seconds,” he said, before he walked over to Weiss, uncapped a bottle from his belt, and poured its contents over Weiss.

“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT ALL ABOUT?!” she screamed as she scrambled up, rejuvenated.

“Testing how long you might last out in the wilds,” Ren replied. “The time you can stay alight is a very accurate predictor.”

Weiss groaned. “Please tell me I passed...”

“Nope!” Nora chirped. “Gotta burn for 15 seconds at the least, 30 seconds ideally, and at least 72.08 seconds to break the record!”

“There's still the Combat test, don't worry,” Ren said. “I'd recommend at least a repeater, a melee weapon of some sort, and the lightest armour we have for speed and agility.”

“Do you have rapiers?” Weiss asked.

Ren nodded. “We do.”

“Good.”

Weiss stood in one of the smaller arenas in the Pits, armed and equipped exactly to Ren's advice.

Tall rocks and waist high barriers were strewn about, alongside a miniature mountain range behind her back and a deep ditch on her opponent's side, but hiding behind them wouldn't count for much with how small the arena was, how easy it would be to get flanked.

She looked at her repeater—a wrist-bound machine-pistol of sorts—then at the rapier of carved bone in her other hand. She'd been given time to practice with both, and a vigorous warm-up before the fight beside, but no one would tell her who or what her opponent was going to be, exactly.

“Are these darts live?” she asked earlier as Ren taught her how to reload her repeater with a fresh canister.

“As real as your sword,” he said calmly.

Weiss frowned. “Aren't you worried I'm going to hurt someone?”

Ren smiled. “Weiss, believe me, your opponent's going to turn out fine, and you will, too.”

She complained and cajoled anyone to give her a hint, but everyone kept their mouths shut, wanted her to find out for herself as she had with the Tubes. And as the lights dimmed, the crowds in the stands howled and cheered, and her opponent's gigantic cage was lowered into the ring, Weiss could take comfort in the fact that the mystery was finally going to be over.

She got into the stance Ren had taught her—sword for defense and deflection, repeater to actually do the actual hurting.

Nora got on the mic. <And now, Weiss Schnee's opponent for her Combat Test: ZWEI!>

The crowd cheered and howled as the lid opened and crashed to the ground with a massive thud. Zwei casually trotted out, both heads panting happily.

Weiss smiled.

<And for the purposes of this test: ZWEI on FIRE!>

A bird dropped a flaming pot of soul fire on Zwei's back. The flames engulfed his entire body in an instant, but he was completely unharmed. Heavy metal music began to play as he raised his heads up and howled, twin jets of green flames shooting out from his mouths.

Weiss eyes widened as several hundred pounds of burning, giant, mutant two-headed Corgi came bounding towards her, jaws open and tongues flapping in the wind.

[comebeonetwothree]

Blog #4: Red Rocks and More Red Rocks

06/16/2021

This blog was probably the most challenging to write yet, considering we have just been hiking a lot and seeing a fuck ton of red rocks everywhere.

They all look different, but they are all just red rocks. Round, sharp, big, small, dirt-like rocks… its all the same, but different.

Throughout all the states we have seen, the terrain has changed drastically as we pass over each border. New Mexico was straight white desert land, Texas was flat as fuck with windmills everywhere, and Arkansas was even more flat but without windmills.

Colorado, however, was very different throughout each region. We started in sand dunes and deserts and worked our way up to the mountains with lots of rain and snow run off. Then being in Colorado Springs, there was a mix of desert and moist mountains, plus some massive red rocks.

Traveling into Utah, there was not much difference in terrains, just some different shades of the red rocks.

Zion National Park was the ultimate red rock arena. Ironic, since we started off seeing Garden of the Gods -both are red rocky parks- but completely different.

Who

Who are the New York girls…

This chapter of traveling includes less new friends, but more last-minute links with old pals from college. It seems like it was just yesterday we were out in Oneonta… oh wait.

Myrene was a family friend of Mary. She opened her house up to us three, as a nice break up between campsites.

We got to wash our clothes and shower; you’ll never know how satisfying a shower is until after living without one for a few days.

Her house was in Colorado Springs, about 30 minutes away from Garden of the Gods.

They chefed up for us the first night with a little surf and turf; steak and salmon with a bombass salad.

Thanks, Myrene.

My dear friend Dee Jay, also known as, Daniel Joseph McDonnell, aka DJ, happened to be camping out in the same area as us in Blue Lakes Colorado. However, due to of lack of service, we had no idea.

Being in such close proximity of us, he sent it to Utah to come hang and meet up with his friend Kailen.

Kailen visited Oneonta this past semester. After meeting him, I mentioned this trip.

He was so welcoming to take us out with him while in Salt Lake City, and give us a locals only tour.

Upon arrival in Orem, Utah, Kailen gave us some good recommendations for hiking and an invitation to a house party being thrown that night… a house party in Utah??? Yah, not what we expected either.

At the party we caught up with DJ and his buddy Brad who was on the cross-country excursion with him.

Brad was a cool quiet dude; he goes to Buffalo State for engineering. He is also in classes to become a pilot…pretty dope.

At the party, we were constantly being asked if we were the girls from New York. Yes, yes, we are.

I guess everyone else there was a part of a friend group or Mormons.

What

What are you doing here…?

Bottom line, there is a fuck ton of red rocks, if you couldn’t tell from the beginning of this.

While in Colorado Springs, we got to experience the Garden of the Gods. It is this beautiful State Park with crazy large rock formations. They were smooth red rocks.

Before the sun set, we drove down the block to a LEGAL marijuana dispensary and acquired some flowers ;)

One pre-roll, and two chocolate bars later we returned to the Gardens of the Gods for a fiery sunset.

The atmosphere around the area already appears to have a sunset hue throughout the day, guess why??

Yup, the red rocks.

But it gives the sunsets this crazy enhanced color, with a little joint it make the sunset even more spectacular.

The following day in Colorado Springs, we went to visit this town that the locals call, “the town stuck in time,” also known as Manitou.

It was this super cute hippy dippy town with herbal Apothecary’s, glass shops, and bohemian little boutiques.

After, we stumbled across this crazy dope bar in Downtown Colorado Springs. It was an instillation art museum bar, and the main exhibit at the time was based on the Netflix original The Queens Gambit.

This giant bar had about seven different bar areas within the one location. Each spread out and each with their own vibes and aesthetics.

The vibes ranged from the specific beers they had on tap and the cocktails they offered, to the wood used for the bar top and lighting. There was even an upstairs with neon paintings, where you were provided with 3-D glasses to get the full effect.

There was an outdoor area with cornhole and an indoor game room with every board game you could imagine.

I could live in that bar forever… I peeked on a Wednesday night <3

In Utah, we rented a cute barn Air bnb for three nights, in a lovely air-conditioned upstairs unit.

We cleaned all our camping dishes as soon as we arrived, utilizing the water as much as possible.

The following day we went on this lovely hike to see some great views, and yup, you guessed it… some more red rocks!!!

After the hike in 100-degree weather, we decided to look for the nearest body of water to submerge in.

We went to Utah Lake State Park, a body of water that does not exceed 9 feet at its highest water level (and it stains your skin).

I thought I’d seen the nastiest water in the Hudson River, but nope, this shit was so dirty I could not see my toes when the water level was at my ankles.

Post standing in the water for 20 minutes questioning if we should go in, we indeed did not fully submerge, thank god because Maya informed us Utah often dumps sewage in the lake to dispose of it.

I instantly felt like I was in the lake in the Simson’s movie that stored Spidey Pig’s halo of shit.

That night we went to the Utah house party. We had no idea what to expect going in. Usually, house parties are small gatherings, but here we were the bitches from New York.

A small gathering is indeed what it was.

The following day we set off for a hike to some hot springs. Hot springs are natural hot water pools often off the side of a river or creek.

These hot springs were different from the ones we saw in New Mexico, it was about a mile long of multiple hot pools. The farther up we went the hotter the springs got.

After hiking two miles in 105-degree weather, the heat from the water was our enemy. It also smelled like rotten eggs?? I guess they forget to warn you of these things before you start the hike.

Post hike we picked up some Chinese takeout food and went on our way back home to pack up for our departure.

Driving to Zion area, we passed some new textured red rocks, these were sharper and more linear.

We spent two days there, because it is near impossible to see the whole park in that heat, let alone in a day.

At nights, we would cook dinner on our portable propane stove. The first night we chefed up turkey burgers, with sauteed onions and zucchini. The second night we made camping mac and cheese… boxed mac, cheddar hot dogs, and grilled chicken with a side of roasted veggies. The last night we ate the left-over chicken in a southwestern salad wrap.

Cooking in the woods is probably my favorite part of camping because you reinvent ways to create easy meals that satisfy your every need.

Where

Where to next…

Colorado Springs was a gorgeous area with a very large city and hikes everywhere. It was the best combination of hmm I want to go out on the town for some drinks, and hey let’s get lost in the woods and hope a bear doesn’t attack us.

The quote, “take a hike!” really applies here. You can get annoyed at someone in a bar and say, “take a hike” and it is very possible for them to just walk outside and take a fucking hike.

Post springs, we hit up Utah.

We set off on our 9-hour drive to Utah!! The home of Mormons and more red rock mountains.

In Utah there is a surplus of children. I know this sounds like it would be anywhere like the baby boom, but this shit is super locational.

Specifically in Orem, which is right outside of Salt Lake City, their target audience in stores is children and parents.

The Walmart there was divided up between 25% of food items, 25% household items, and 50% baby accessories and food.

While out on the town, basically every person has a baby or kids in bulk. About 5-6 is the average amount of kids per family.

Within Utah we stayed in Orem and Virgin (which is right outside of Zion National Park).

The town of Virgin was exactly how it sounds, prudent, quiet with little to no action.

While camping there for three nights, we traveled to Zion National Park for the day. Zion was this gorgeously large area of BIG red rocks.

So, my question is, why is that one area of red rocks considered a national park? What makes that area better than the other red rock areas for the national parks to take ownership of it?

When

When the fire starts to burn…

While in Colorado Springs for two nights, we caught up on laundry and energy, in a nice, air-conditioned house.

We drove to Utah and stayed there for six nights, three nights were spent in a loft Air bnb, and the other three were spent camping out in the desert in our tent, while DJ and Brad slept in their hammocks.

We were lucky enough to get some shade within the average 100-degree weather of the deserts. But not lucky enough to have a campfire, since there was a fire ban in effect, due to the lack of rain fall which hasn’t happened in weeks and wont for longer.

We are now back on the road…

Why

Why is it so hot out…?

I never thought I would enjoy a super-hot atmosphere, but with dead heat like this, it doesn’t feel too bad… plus my tan is coming in faster than ever before.

The weather consists of dry heat. So dry and hot that you kind of feel cold sometimes. It’s the kind of heat that makes you sweat, but the sweat is evaporated off your body before you realize it exists.

It’s not too bad… next week it will be 116-degrees in Utah. I don’t know how people live here without pools.

How

How you doinnnnn…

Being that bitch from New York comes with a lot of questions… How did you guys plan this? Why now? Where to next?

All I can say is we just out here doing our best… we made it this far, wish us best of luck and follow my blog for updates