#also probably bigger pockets for his pickpocketing

[otaku553]

Quite frankly still obsessed with the three of them

A little procrastination doodle

[snippyschnapps]

We made ai dungeon try to recreate untitled goose game. It went about as well as you would expect.

It's a lovely day in the Kingdom of Larion, and you are a horrible goose. You are out on the town, looking for trouble, and if you cannot find it, you will create it. You've been invited to a feast, that will be attended by royalty and other important people, but you know that there will be some sort of ruckus going on. Chaos is good when writing a line in your notebook.

> Hjonk explores their surroundings.

You see a lot of nobles, a lot of soldiers, but you don't see anyone you recognize from your homeland. There must be over a thousand of them there, all dressed in very fancy clothes. Sometimes they talk to each other, but for the most part, they move in a very organized way. Different groups of people are moving in different directions, but for the most part, they stay grouped up.

> Hjonk checks for police.

You see a lot of soldiers, but none of them are police.

Your eyes follow the blue and red cloth emblems on their uniforms.

> 🅱️🅱️🅱️🅱️ 🅱️🅱️🅱️🅱️ is wary of the soldiers.

The soldiers all have helmets with visors, and armor that covers their legs as well as their torso.

> Hjonk says "🅱️🅱️🅱️🅱️ 🅱️🅱️🅱️🅱️, can you create a distraction?"

"I can try"

"Go do that", Hjonk replies, "I'll be on my way when the guards come to investigate."

> 🅱️🅱️🅱️🅱️ create a distraction.

You decide to start whistling the Kingdom of Kish Chase tune. You stare at the nearest group of soldiers, giving them a big grin and an enthusiastic wink. They all begin to laugh and converse with each other.

This works rather well, and you move on to another group, and then another. You see a few people give you wary looks, but most people are too entertained by your actions to do anything about you.

> Hjonk steals jewellery.

You walk up to a group of soldiers and move them with your words. One of them holds up his hand and you stop, then you approach the nearest noble-looking man. He's wearing a fancy suit, and you figure he's probably a merchant of some sort.

> Hjonk kisses his hand and steals his rings while doing so.

He watches you suspiciously, and holds out his hand. You grasp it with your left hand, and kiss it deeply.

> Hjonk successfully steal rings.

You grin and wave to your new friend, before walking off. You get a few angry looks, but most people are too distracted by what you did to the soldier.

> 🅱️🅱️🅱️🅱️ smile and wink at the angry people.

This works pretty well, and you start finding yourself more and more popular. Hjonk watches you with interest, and occasionally gives you tips on how to get more attention.

While the people are distracted by 🅱️🅱️🅱️🅱️ 🅱️🅱️🅱️🅱️, Hjonk pickpockets them.

It's amazing how easy this is too, once you learn the guards' routines, and how they react in certain situations. You walk around, chatting with people, and taking their belongings without them realizing it. Before they know it, you have a small bag over your shoulder.

Hjonk and you split up afterwards. You have no idea where he went, but you presume he's gone on ahead.

> Hjonk squawks loudly and waddle around with their little goose feet, making a nuisance of themself, because they are a horrible goose.

You squawk loudly and waddle around with your little goose feet, making a nuisance of yourself. You go up to random guards, and start honking. Most of them turn around to hit you, but you don't care. Some of them even get hits in, although these simply bounce off your armored body.

> Hjonk takes their bag of booty and flies into the sky. They start looking for 🅱️🅱️🅱️🅱️ 🅱️🅱️🅱️🅱️.

You find a guard who is taking a short break. You explain to him that the Kishak merchants will be furious if they can't get their stuff back.

> Hjonk says, "bet you wish you could get all this stuff back. But you won't, because I am a horrible, evil goose!"

Then they fly away, continuing to look for 🅱️🅱️🅱️🅱️ 🅱️🅱️🅱️🅱️.

You walk away from the guard station. You've stolen enough for now, and you have no idea where you are.

You wish you had something to keep yourself occupied, like a deck of cards or a book.

> 🅱️🅱️🅱️🅱️ steal a book from a rich persons bag.

You steal an expensive-looking leather bag, which you then walk over and drop off at the guard station.

You wait for a few minutes, but no guards come.

> Hjonk joins 🅱️🅱️🅱️🅱️ 🅱️🅱️🅱️🅱️.

You wait for a few minutes, but no guards come. You squawk at them, but they do nothing but stare at you angrily. You say "Fine! You want some payback? I'll give you some!"

> Hjonk throws a heavy brick at a guard.

You walk over to the guard, who is still knocked over from your heavy rock. You grab him by the head and pull him close enough to bite his neck.

> 🅱️🅱️🅱️🅱️ says "neck delicious!"

While in your monster form you are unable to read.

You walk over to the guard, who is unconscious. You pick up the satchel he has with him.

> Hjonk eviscerates the guard.

You hope you have enough bricks left. You walk over to the guard, who is certainly dead. You check, and sure enough, he's been completely eaten.

You walk over to the satchel, and open it up. You steal his weapon and some coin, as well as a few other things.

> 🅱️🅱️🅱️🅱️ use the weapon to taunt another guard.

You grab the weapon, and walk over to another guard. You try to intimidate them with it, but all it does is scare them.

After failing at intimidation, you throw it down, and they easily grab it.

> Hjonk steals the weapon from the guard with their horrible goose teeth.

You take the guard's blunderbuss, and walk away.

You and Hjonk decide that you'll head to a village and sell the blunderbuss and whatever else you have that's worth something. You figure you'll use the coin to get a ship and leave this Godforsaken island.

You never see any of the geese again.

> Hjonk goes to the next village with 🅱️🅱️🅱️🅱️.

You walk through the woods, and then eventually you come across a village. You approach the closest house with the blunderbuss, and demand that the people inside give you something for the gun. They comply, giving you a years worth of wheat in exchange for the gun and its ammunition.

You're shocked that they were so compliant, but then you remember that they're geese and that must be their nature.

You are also geese, so it's in your nature, too. You store the year's worth of wheat in your pockets, which are bigger on the inside and can hold an infinite number of things, thanks to your horrible goose magic.

You and Hjonk sell the blunderbuss, as well as the ammo for a significant sum of coin, which you can then use to buy passage on a ship.

> 🅱️🅱️🅱️🅱️ take over the ship.

You take over the ship, and sail it to a new island. Since you have complete control of this vessel, you decide to use it to transport criminals to another island you've discovered.

> Hjonk sells the copious amounts of jewellery that they stole earlier.

You and Hjonk package the stolen valuables in crates, and sell it to a fence on another island. You use the money to buy passage to your home island.

You arrive back on your own island. You know there's an island not far away where you can make a living as a thief, so you decide to go there.

What will you do now?

> Hjonk make a living as a thief.

You and Hjonk grow old and fat in this new island, living comfortably as professional criminals.

After many years, you and him get arrested and put in the local galleon.

> 🅱️🅱️🅱️🅱️ eat the guards of the galleon and steal their weapons.

You grab the gun of one the the guards who is leaning over the side and shoots him.

The other guard attempts to stab you, but you dodge and grab his weapon and stab him.

> Hjonk eats any remaining guards.

You shoot the remaining guard in the chest, and your friend eats them.

You both stand on the deck of the ship, as it departs the country.

> 🅱️🅱️🅱️🅱️ they all take controll of the boat and become pirate geese.

You and your two friends hold the ship for a year before being found out. You and them take the ship, and fly away to sail the seven seas as the Pirate Geese.

> Hjonk asks their other friend for their name.

They find their friend's name is Hans, and he joins you and your buddies on your quest for swashbuckling fun.

> Hjonk do pirate things.

Pirate things like stealing stuff, drinking and whoring.

You live a life of piratey buccaneering.

You save a maiden from falling off a ship, then take her back to your cabin.

You do some more...

You go to a nearby town, and rob it at swordpoint. You steal from the rich, give to the poor.

A month passes...

A year passes...

> 🅱️🅱️🅱️🅱️ says "hjonk whore!"

One day, you come back to the island to find that your two friends have gotten themselves arrested.

You know it's because they tried to rob a bank, but can't resist the temptation of a good heist.

> Hjonk says "🅱️🅱️🅱️🅱️... we should kill an evil king. Lets do it. You, me, and our good friend Hans."

A year passes...

Two years pass...

Three years pass...

Four years pass...

Five years pass...

Six years pass...

You finally arrive at the town where the king of some country lives.

> 🅱️🅱️🅱️🅱️ successfully infiltrate the castle as a prince's servant.

You enter the castle, and are led to the royal kitchen. The princess notices you, and is amazed by how many geese you are.

That evening, you sit beside the princess at dinner. You compliment her appearance, and she thanks you. It is during this conversation that you learn the princess is to become queen upon her father's death.

Hjonk, pretending to be a staff member, seduces the princess.

The next day you participate in the king's hunting party. During the hunt, you throw a knife at the king, but miss and hit a tree instead.

> 🅱️🅱️🅱️🅱️ do not get caught.

You make it back to the castle without getting caught.

After a few months pass...

You overhear your two friends giving away the location of the princess's bedroom.

> Hjonk brings the princess flowers.

You perform some task for the princess, and she is grateful.

Hans interrupts you and demands that you give him two bottles of alcohol in exchange for information.

> Hjonk says "Fuck off, Hans, can't you see we're busy?"

You refuse to deal with Hans, and continue your work for the princess. After all, you've done her a lot of favors.

One day, you are sitting in the garden, when you hear a noise.

> 🅱️🅱️🅱️🅱️ find out what the noise is.

You investigate the noise, and find Hans standing there. You immediately attack him, and while you manage to injure his foot, he stabs you in the chest and gets you before the guards.

> Hjonk uses goose magic to heal 🅱️🅱️🅱️🅱️.

Hans realizes he made a mistake, and the two of you rush to get medical attention. You're lucky to get out of there with your life.

After you recover, Hans is arrested for attempted treason.

You learn that the princess got away with her life (and you were thanked by the king), but Hans was executed.

You enjoy your newfound fame among other geese.

The princess is impressed by Hjonk and 🅱️🅱️🅱️🅱️'s heroism, and you are given a royal reward.

All is good in your world.

> Hjonk propose to the princess and 🅱️🅱️🅱️🅱️.

You propose to the princess. She is overwhelmed by your sudden display of romance.

She accepts, and you become king and queen.

🅱️🅱️🅱️🅱️ is also a monarch, because they are married to Hjonk and the princess of some small country.

Life is grand.

You grow old and they do too.

> Hjonk kills the king.

The king of your country dies, and you rule alone.

The king was selfish and corrupt, and his death will free up money for the kingdom.

> Hjonk ascends to a higher state of being and becomes an eldritch god.

You ascend to a higher state of being and become an Eldritch God.

You know that the threat of extinction has been averted, but you aren't really sure what this means...

You are the god of pure intellect, existence and logic.

You watch over all, knowing that all is well in your kingdom.

> 🅱️🅱️🅱️🅱️ smooch Hjonk.

One day, you and the princess embrace one another.

You're still a bit surprised by this. It's not something you expected to happen...

> Hjonk turns every living organisms into a goose-like version of itself.

You assume that Hjonk is insane.

Every living creature on the planet, with the exception of plants and a few animals, become little more than fat, feathery, many-legged, gilled creatures. Some of them molt constantly.

Parrots can now talk, and so can hummingbirds.

The only animals left are the ones with shells, such as turtles and snails.

> 🅱️🅱️🅱️🅱️ eat the turtles and snails.

The only animals left are the ones with shells, such as turtles and snails.

Turtles can no longer make their shells, so they have nothing to protect them from predators. Snails can't move very fast, so they're easy prey for the many predators that now roam the land (and the air, and the water).

Hjonk looks down on the universe and finds it lacking. In a fit of inspiration, they turn it into a goose. Everything is now goose. Time is goose. Space is goose. There is nothing but goose.

HJonk is pleased with this. They have achieved the pinnacle of goose.

This new form has its benefits, but there are some downsides.

What downsides are you concerned about?

As a god, you can't die, so you don't really care. You no longer need to sleep, eat or drink.

There is only goose.

There is only goose.

There is only goose.

There is only one thing to do now.

Goose it up.

consume the goose world.

This will result in the death of everyone, but eventually, HJonk will ascend to a higher form of being.

> Hjonk gooses it up.

The goose world undergoes a strange transformation.

Time and space are folded up like a map you once saw of the brain. Everything is made of pure energy, and the laws of physics don't apply.

This is good. This is goose.

Now, you just need to channel the energy and create a being of pure thought.

Your mind reaches out, searching through goose reality...

There is nothing. This reality has no more goose within it. There's no more reality to be had here.

You try again...

Nothing. No, this is all wrong.

> Hjonk says "Where did all the geese go? Is this the end of all things?"

HJonk's mind is loud and powerful. You can feel it vibrating against yours.

This is... interesting.

This might be the end of everything, but you still need to try.

> Hjonk says "GEESE. APPEAR!"

There is no goose reality. There is only reality. And in this moment, you realize that you are reality.

Everything real is goose.

Everything fake is not.

HJonk is fake.

You are fake.

The universe is fake.

Goose is great.

Fake is not great.

This is the end.

THIS IS THE END

[silwenworld]

Until The Last Petal Falls (Part 2 in the War Roses Series)

Summary: He could see the flowers floating before his eyes. A Bouquet. A single flower. Every time in different configuration but one thing was constant - the petals were falling away. Each time there were fewer and fewer petals attached to the stalk. And each time that happened, he could feel himself slipping further and further away.

Or: Captain Gold has a son to find and woman to come back to, and nothing short of dying will keep him from doing just that.

A continuation of the Rumbelle Showdown 2020 fic “The Dried Rose”

Category: M CHAPTER 8 [AO3] [First Chapter]

Gold had tried to live up to the promise he had given Belle. It wasn't an easy task, but he set his mind to fulfil it as best as possible. It was hard to wrap his mind around the fact that their talk on the balcony had happened only recently and not a lifetime ago. Gold had more or less accepted the way he looked now and that his life would never go back to the way it had been before. Of course, there were bad days that he grew to despise - the nightmares were still the worst, and he had found himself in a poorer mood for the following day every single time, almost ready to snap anybody's head off for getting too close to him. But he was getting used to it, even if he wished for it to just go away. The thing that was lightening his days, though, was the fact that Belle looked better these days too, and it made him happy that she could enjoy her free time with not only him but also her friends. And seeing Belle more lively made him want more too.

It was almost back to normal.

Almost.

*

The streets now were almost deserted. Many people rushed past him without so much as a glance, which suited him just fine. Some might have shot him some weird glances, but he tried to pay them no mind - he would have stared too if some bloke was simply standing there doing nothing. Gold looked at the pawnshop's door for the better part of ten minutes, glaring at the sign above. It took him long enough to get his head around the idea of coming here in the first place, but it seemed that getting into the shop was the bigger problem. He knew it wouldn't hurt to just look around, he didn't necessarily need to buy anything after all, but something was holding him back. An invisible force that had him rotten to the spot, something that had never been present in his life before he had been shot - self-consciousness mixed with ever-present uneasiness.

Mr A. Prentice Pawnbroker & Antics Dealer.

The sign mocked him as he scowled at it. Well, for a start, Gold had nothing to deal with - no money, no precious heirlooms as the last remotely valuable thing he had to give away to be able to come back to the country. His hand unwillingly raised to look for the locket at his neck that was no longer there. He swallowed hard as it dropped to his side, curling into a fist. He didn't even have the photograph of his only child, so what was the point in going in?

Gold glanced up at the sign again.

To hell with it.

He took a step forward.

*

A soft jingle of the bell started him, and he jumped, gripping his cane tighter while looking around. There was no one in sight; the noise of ticking clocks was the sole witness of his misstep, and so Gold straightened his jacket and walked further inside.

The number of things gathered in the room was overwhelming. From old paintings, some partly covered and some clearly visible, to bigger and smaller trinkets littering almost every free surface. Clocks, chests, music boxes, instruments, gramophones and many more, all dusty and clearly not touched for a very long time. Gold looked around the cluttered front room, and somehow he got an impression that not many people visited the shop.

Off to his right, he spotted a glass cabinet in which lay an open wooden casket. His eyes winded when noticing a display of various rings, one more decorated than the previous one. They were all beautiful but very clearly above anything he would be able to afford. He was so lost in his head that he didn't hear that he was no longer alone.

"A fine eye you have," an old raspy voice made him stiffen, and he whipped his head to the side, coming face to face with a man dressed in a fine, black suit and redshirt. He was older than Gold, probably somewhere in his seventies. His white, groomed beard reached his chest, only emphasizing his age, but he surely knew how to move silently.

"I apologize for barging in - "

"Well, the sign on the door does say 'open', so I wouldn't call it bargaining in," the man cut in with a smile and exchanged his hand. "Alfred Prentice, I'm the owner of this cluttered establishment."

"Roy Gold," the captain accepted the handshake, a little surprised by the strength of the man's grip.

"Oh, I know who you are, but it's nice to finally meet the famous captain Gold," the barely contained flinch from Roy's side didn't go unnoticed. "The town talks," he added, letting go of Gold's hand with a slight twitch of his lips.

"Still?"

"Oh, a lot less than before, let me assure you. Now," Prentice clapped his hands and passed by Gold to sweep the dusty boxes away from the glass cabinet. "I see you have found the rings. I'm terribly sorry for the mess, by the way."

"You don't get many costumers, do you, Mr Prentice?" Gold asked as his eyes took in a mess around the shop.

"Not really." He didn't seem bothered by that. "Those who need my services usually find me anyway. So, Mr Gold which of them you think is the cheapest?" Roy was so taken aback by the fact he wasn't addressed by his former rank that it took him a second to notice that the rings were now fully displayed before him.

It was weird, he thought as he bent over the box - being seen as a civilian - A feeling he wasn't eternally opposed to, but instead of dwelling over it, he took a step forward to have a better view.

There were ten rings in total, each having some distinctive features - be they the stones, shape or engravings. Gold looked closely, fascinated. They were in perfect condition, even if not new. Polished and restored to their former glory, captivating and beautiful. It seemed that Prentice was putting a lot more effort into conservation than in tidiness of his shop, or maybe it was deliberate.

"That one," he gestured to the ring in the middle, and Prentice raised his eyebrow, a slight smirk slowly lifting the corner of his mouth.

"Oh? How so?"

"It's brass. The others are golden."

"Very good," the man was fully smiling now with a glint in his eyes, and Roy had a feeling he was being tested. For what he couldn't tell. "And which is the most valuable then?"

He held the older man's gaze for a second, trying to read him, but finding it hard to do, he looked down on the rings again, his eyes darting back and forth between the two on the far right. They were similar in appearance - both with a golden band, with decorative ornaments resembling petals. Delicate, definitely not conspicuous with blue sapphire as the sole stone drawing attention away from the engravings.

"May I?" Gold asked.

"Of course."

Their weight was almost identical. Almost.

"This one." Gold put both of them back and pointed to the one which had been the farthest to the right. Prentice grinned broadly.

"Impressive. I knew you had a good eye."

"I used to pickpocket rich people as a lad," he said offhandedly, shrugging his shoulders. Not many knew that, but it didn't matter. It wasn't as if he was still doing it. "This one is older than the other one, more used and heavier. That one is a good fake, I must admit."

"My own making, so thank you very much."

Prentice closed the lid, amusement clearly visible on his face with bearly hidden laughter in his voice. He didn't know why, but Gold found it hard to draw away his eyes from the sapphire ring even when it disappeared from his line of sight.

"What pushed you into the military then?" the other man asked, bringing Gold out of his thoughts. He looked up to Prentice, who was now leaning casually on the cabinet with hands in his pockets and smirked at the memory.

"I robbed the wrong person," he answered. "I wanted a golden watch, and it turned out I got a commission from a general instead. He said it was either this or calling the police. I'm still not sure if it was a good deal."

Prentice laughed, but there was nothing mocking in his voice - he seemed generally amused by the dry tone the captain had delivered the confession. Roy didn't know how, but somehow, he got a feeling that he passed the test. He was about to ask what the whole exchange was about when the older man tilted his head to the side as if thinking about something.

"Tell you what, Mr Gold," he rested his hands on the cabinet, leaning towards him. "You can have that ring you just picked."

"I don't - "

"As payment, you'll come work here for me," he added, not letting Gold finish his protests and only smiled at the captain's dumbfounded face.

"You - What?"

Prentice shrugged his shoulders.

"I hardly think that your military pension - nor your salary at Marco's for that matter - could make you afford even that brass one as of now, but I'm old, you see."

"I'm not sure I understand, sir," he answered, frowning.

"You don't have to answer right away, of course.," Prentice continued waving his protests aside with a move of his hand. "I understand you need to think about it, but I really believe you could be just the person I was looking for to help around here."

"You want me to work here? As who?" Was the man mad after all?

"But my assistant, of course," Prentice rounded the cabinet and winked. "You may find me a better employer than your previous ones, and it's a lot quieter in here than in the workshop. Think about it, Mr Gold."

With that, he just left Roy standing in the middle of the front shop, not waiting for his reply and disappearing to the back room through the drape in the doorway.

What the hell had just happened?

*

Ruby glanced at the envelope lying on the counter for the fifth time in the past five minutes. It came in today's post, and at first, she had been able to ignore it, but the longer it stayed where it now was, the harder ignoring it had become.

It was crumpled and stained at the corners, probably because of the neglectful messenger. Yet it wasn't the state of the envelope that had her concerned the most, but who had sent it and to whom.

She stared at it again, squinting her eyes as if the paper could jump and bite her when uneven steps that she now associated with captain Gold reached her ears. She glanced up, her heart beating faster with nervousness as she spotted him. He looked better lately as he put on more weight and walked with more confidence, but right now, his gaze was fixed more on the ground than anywhere else, and his brow furrowed in thought. He past by her without a glance, too lost in his own head.

"Captain?"

Gold turned around from where he stopped, only now realizing he wasn't alone. Even though his expression cleared, Ruby could see in his eyes that whatever had him occupied still lingered. It was intriguing how good she had become in reading him since he had returned.

"Yes, Miss Lucas?"

"There was a messenger for you, sir. He dropped in a letter."

The frown returned as he took the envelope from her, and a shadow passed over his face, darkening his expression. It looked to her like he debated with himself whenever to open it with her standing next to him or not, then tucking in into his coat pocket after making the decision.

"Thank you."

Gold turned on his heal, swiftly making his way to the stairs, not giving her much room to protest, so he was already on the third step when she had called after him with a question she was sure as hell not have asked a year ago.

"Sir? Um, You OK?"

He seemed confused at first, as if his mind was somewhere else eternally, looking at her with a dumbfounded expression. Ruby didn't know, but it took him a while to fully comprehend the meaning behind her words, but then his lips twitched.

"At the moment, yes." She wondered if she should press the point or not, but he was already at the top of the stairs. "Miss Lucas?" She glanced up, startled as he leant over the balustrade. "Thank you."

Only when he descended the stairs with a lost expression, sporting what looked like his old military jacket, the same one that Belle had carried around with her constantly when thinking him dead, she knew he wasn't as fine as he claimed to be.

Gold had thrown something over his shoulder about needed to think and clear his head and that if Belle asked, she would know where to find him.

Ruby just hoped he wouldn't do anything stupid.

That one time dragging his drunk self had been enough for her.

*

She would have run, at least before. Now, she walked. Maybe at a quicker than usual pace, but still - walked.

There were times when she was still afraid to have him out of her sight - petrified that all those months had been a dream, but she hardly thought that her mind could come up with how fragile he had seemed to become. But she had noticed the recent changes too - his eyes were no longer empty as they had been for those first couple of months, and he walked with more confidence in his steps, but she still worried. Maybe it was due to the vacant expression that sometimes lingered on his face or the fact that it still looked to her like he didn't get enough sleep - she didn't really know, but she tried to honour her promise to him and not over-worry herself. They managed to come to some sort of an equilibrium that none of them wanted to shatter.

As she got to the edge of town and near the woods, carefully avoiding puddles of freshly melted snow, she couldn't help but marvel at this new version of Roy. She had a feeling that he was somewhere in between now - no longer the person that had left, but also not the one who had returned. He was still looking for himself, and even though Belle sometimes missed the past, she knew it would not return, and she loved this new, slowly emerging version of Roy just as much. The man just had to be reminded of that fact more often than not.

The ground was muddy where the trail had started, and it was easy to spot his footprints going up and then disappearing beyond the bushes. It looked like he had lost his footing more than once but hadn't fallen over - a good sign, considering the uneven terrain. Belle followed the tracks, pushing away the branches in her way. It had been so long since anybody had come here that moving past the overgrown vegetation was a lot harder than before.

She spotted him sitting on the tree trunk that had probably fallen during the recent storm. Roy had his gaze focused on the river as his hands played with the golden handle of the cane. On closer inspection, he didn't look lost, at least not in the same way as he had that day when he had gotten himself drunk.

"It didn't change much," he said, not turning around. "Took me long enough to get here, though."

"Well, the snow had just started to melt. Even I had trouble."

Belle made her way towards him and sat down on the log, her shoulder touching his. She tried not to look at the bloody patch on his uniform jacket. No matter how much she had tried, she couldn't get rid of the blood.

Instead, she looked at the river, smiling as his fingers entwined with hers. It was their spot and the first time they had been here together since the day before his departure so long ago.

He was right - it didn't change much, only they did.

Belle waited patiently, knowing well by now that it would be better to let him start without being pushed. She felt him shift, letting go of her hand, and soon, a crumbled letter was pressed into her hand.

She scanned the paper, frowning a little as she made it to the point that had probably had him agitated.

"They made you a major?" She asked, turning towards him and saw him grimace, displeased.

"Aye. In gratitude for loyal service. It sounds almost like a joke," Roy's tone turned bitter, and she risked a glance in his direction. He was still looking ahead, his jaw set, and a crease on his forehead that he always got when either thinking too hard or displeased. It took him a moment to slowly breathe out and relax his shoulders. "Well, at least they finally confirmed it in writing that I'm out of the army even if I can't get myself out of it."

She frowned.

"What do you mean?"

He tapped the handle of the cane with his index finger in thought.

"Everyone calls me 'Captain', and I've never seen myself as anybody else... But then today that man in the pawnshop kept calling me 'Mister' -"

"What were you doing in the pawnshop?" She couldn't help but cut in with curiosity. Her question made his eyes widen briefly, which only made her more suspicious.

"I was offered a job, actually."

"In Mr Prentice's pawnshop?" He nodded, making her beam. "That's wonderful! Will you take it?"

"It seems...beneficial," he added, fidgeting with his cane - a new quirk of his that she noticed him doing more and more lately when thinking or nervous. "It's just - I've been a soldier almost my whole life... I can't - " He trailed off, running his hand threw his hair in frustration. "I won't be able to forget, will I?"

Roy searched her face for answers she couldn't give with helpful eyes. As much as she wished she could give them to him, she was unable to as it was something he would have to come to terms with on his own - even if it pained her so see him doing so.

"Do you still dream about that german boy?" she asked instead. "The one you told me you had to run through during your first fight?"

He swallowed hard and nodded.

"Do you feel the same when thinking about him as then or different?"

Gold didn't answer for a while, and when fidgeting became not enough to keep him distracted, he stood up and limped closer to the bank, resting the tip of the cane against the protruding root. He concentrated on the sound of the water, calming his mind. He looked down and tried not to focus on the eyes of the blond boy that had immediately appeared before his eyes. He risked a glance towards the apparition, noticing not for the first time that the boy's eyes were the image of his own gaze at the time - petrified and sick.

"I think... I think that whoever told us that the enemy was different from us had to be the biggest liar," he admitted slowly, pocking the root with a frown. "We were the same; I was just quicker with my bayonet."

He had been sick after killing that boy. They both had been deceived.

"Roy..." Belle licked her lips, and he looked over his shoulder at her. "I won't lie to you that you'll forget, but maybe with time, you'll be able to change your thinking as you did with that boy?"

"Hmm."

He turned away at poked at the root again. Belle sighed and hopped off the log, and with a couple of swift strides, she made her way next to him, then sat on the root instead, looking up at Gold. He avoided her gaze at first but then shook his head, sighing.

"I'm sorry," he said, looking at her apologetically as he took her hand in his. "You don't deserve any of this." She tilted her head to the side, raising her right eyebrow. "And I'm repeating myself, yet again," he added chastened.

Belle smiled softly, squeezing his hand. "When I thought you gone... I couldn't cope with it," she admitted, looking down. "Sometimes, panic still grips me at the mare reminder of how it felt because I don't want ever to feel that way again."

"You won't. I'm not going anywhere."

She shook her head. His voice sounded firm and convincing, but she knew he couldn't be entirely sure about that. It was scary how much one could depend on another person.

"What I mean is, that feeling... it won't leave me, and I'll have to accept to live with it."

Gold smiled softly, love shining from his eyes. He bent down, closing the distance between them, chasing away the shadows of worry as he locked his lips with Belle's. Her eyes fluttered shut as she focused eternally on the warmth spreading through her body and the touch of his hand on her cheek. The sounds faded into the background, and even though the kiss was soft and undemanding, it spoke of reassurance and conviction.

Gold loved kissing Belle. From the first time it had happened to now, he knew he would never get enough of it. And now, when he no longer had to hide his affection from the world, he wanted more.

To bestow her with not only kisses but his whole life.

To never leave her side ever again.

He was hers. And she knew it. And that knowledge alone made him one of the happiest people on Earth.

Slowly he broke the kiss, but instead of drawing away, he rested his forehead against hers.

"I would be lost without you - you know that?" He murmured, rubbing his nose against hers, making her smile.

"I think it's mutual."

She could see the desire in his eyes, lurking beneath all the confusing feelings, but they both knew it was neither the time nor place for anything more than stolen kisses. And so he pecked her on the forehead and straightened up, looking around.

She watched him curiously when he limped to one of the trees, and with some difficulty, he put more of his weight on the left leg, balancing on it to remove the jacket, and then hung it on the branch.

"I can't see myself as a pawnbroker," he said, and Belle could help but chuckle.

"If it means having you in a tailored suit, then I can definitely see it."

"I can't afford a tailored suit," he wiggled his finger at her, but instead of hurt, there were playful sparkles in his eyes that she missed so much. She stood up from the root.

"But when you will, I'm sure you'll look mighty fine in it." Belle tone was husky as she approached him. Gold could only watch, his Adam's apple bubbling as he swallowed when her hands rested on his shoulders. She climbed on her toes, pressing against him, making him back against the tree as she kissed him. He could feel the bark scraping his back through his shirt, but he couldn't care less.

He wrapped his arm around her waist, bringing her closer. It was cold, but neither could feel it, not when so close to one another. She parted her lips for him, and he swept his tongue against her palate, making her shudder and scrap her fingernails against his scalp.

As he proceeded to kiss her behind her jaw, in his desire to hold Belle closer, he forgot himself. He let go of the cane, not even realizing that it had fallen to the ground before it was too late. Gold instantly wobbled, his leg folding on itself like a pocket knife. He would have fallen if not for his hand darting sideways and wrapping around the tree branch.

"Damn it," he hissed, trying to regain the balance, both frustrated and embarrassed not only by what had happened but also because he had to support himself on Belle's shoulder as well.

"It's OK," she handed him the cane, her eyes never leaving his. "Hey, look at me," she turned his face towards her and smiled. "It's actually a good thing."

He grimaced. "I don't see anything good in the fact that my leg is fucking useless."

"Well, making out against a tree trunk among the melted snow wasn't such a good idea."

There was laughter in her voice, but not at him - never at him, and he sighed. Belle might have been correct, but it didn't change the fact that at that moment, he would want nothing more than bash his own limb with that golden handle of the cane.

"When I make an honest woman out of you, I promise it won't happen again."

He felt like a lair just by saying those things, but Belle didn't look offended, more amused than anything.

"If I remember correctly," she stated, helping him find his footing and leading him away from the tree, "you made me a very dishonest woman right in this spot."

He chuckled, following her. Some of the clouds chased away.

"Minx."

"You bring the worst in me."

He grinned. Wrapping his arm around Belle's waist and pushing the pain in his ankle aside, he matched her tempo, walking in step with her.

The jacket stayed where he had left it - hanging on the branch.

The soldier was gone.

*

The last rays of the sun shone through the cracks in the pulled blinds, basking the room in a warm, red light. He flipped the sign to close at least an hour ago but still couldn't bring himself to leave the shop just yet. It wasn't as if anybody was waiting for him at home, and he didn't have anything better to do.

Lighting a gaslamp on the workbench, he sat on the stool and put the watchmaker's loup in his eye. The pocket watch he was currently working on was a magnificent object. The lid decorated with a crane taking flight among the swamp was so detailed that it was easy to spot single feathers in the animal's wings. A family heirloom, as his client had claimed, even if he himself suspected it stolen. Not working, but not for long.

One of his favourite activities was repairing watches—this, and restoring paintings. But his eyes weren't the same anymore, and he found out it took him longer to complete his tasks than before.

He took apart the mechanisms, lying the cogs next to each other in a neatly formed raw, not even an inch out of the line. He had always been thorough and a good judge in the value of things. This watch once restored and repaired, would be twice as valuable as it now was. Prentice knew this, and so did the owner, patiently waiting for the repair. He would then proceed to sell it, and Prentice would get one-third of the deal. Not bad, not terrible.

He just wished his hands wouldn't shake so much.

Prentice chuckled and shook his head. It was good that they hadn't done so in his youth. If they did, his skill would have been wasted, and he wouldn't be where he was now. He sighed as he glanced around the backroom before picking up the smallest screwdriver.

Once upon a time, there were three of them - three Musketeers as Martha used to call them. Wilfred Lucas had ended with the Diner and a motel, Prentice with the pawnshop and Leroy with a drinking problem. They did with their money what they thought was the best - once part of the Intelligence, then ordinary citizens. But now, one was dead, the second alive, and the third on an excellent way to join the first if the second wouldn't beat him to it - one never knew.

Storybrooke might have been a small town, but it surely did attract many individuals. No one knew what the three of them had been doing during the First War, only that they were part of the military. Of course, there were talks, just the same as with that whole mess with Captain Gold.

Prentice chuckled again as he replaced the broken cog with the new one. If Gold only knew about the past, he would be a lot less stiff about the whole affair. Being in love with a local was hardly a big deal, at least to Prentice. To be honest, he found it quite amusing. It almost reminded him how Wilfred and Martha used to be when young.

The bell above the front door jingled, and he smirked. The clever lad had noticed that the door wasn't locked despite the flipped sign.

"In the back!" he shouted, not tearing his gaze away from the watch in his hands. His back was to the doors, but it didn't stop him from knowing who had come to his shop. He always knew who his clients were. "You can come in, Mr Gold. I'm just finishing."

"How did you..?" He didn't need to look at the man to see the surprise on his face that was so evident in his voice.

"Maybe I'm a clairvoyant taught by a magician," he began, putting the watch down an turning around on the stool with a smirk, "Or maybe I saw you in the mirror that hangs above that closet."

Gold gaped at him, then glanced at the mirror and chuckled.

"Fair point," he admitted.

"What can I do for you, Mr Gold?" he asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

The ex-soldier looked like he didn't want to stare too much at the various things in the room but couldn't help himself much. Prentice let him stare. He already knew what the other man wanted.

"About that job offer," Gold turned his gaze away from the antique Ming dynasty vase on the top shelf, "I have one condition."

"I'm all ears."

Gold looked like he searched for the right words, his hands clasping and unclasping in the handle of his cane. Wasn't it Wilfred's? Prentice tilted his head to see it more clearly. It definitely was; he had found it for the man himself. Alfred must have admitted that it suited the ex-soldier very much so. Blinking, he went down to the matters at hand.

"It came to my attention," Gold started, straightening up, "that years ago, a ring might have come into your possession, Mr Prentice."

Oh, that was too good. It was really hard not to openly grin.

"I see. I presume that by the seller, you mean Maurice Fench?"

Gold nodded, not surprised that Prentice already knew what he was talking about.

"You're in luck then, Mr Gold," Alfred jumped from the stool and went to the nearest drawer. It was good that he had already prepared himself for this conversation. Honestly, sometimes people were too predictable. He tossed the ring to Gold, impressed that the man had caught it with one hand. "It just happens that the ring I have promised you is one and the same as the one pawned to me by Mr French."

Gold stared at the ring, his mouth slightly agape. Then his eyes narrowed.

"Did you plan it?"

Prentice shrugged his shoulders with an innocent look.

"What can I say? I'm good at reading people. And you were right - it was the most valuable among those other rings. An old family heirloom," he added as he made his way towards Gold. "The times were hard for the Frenches after Colette's death, and I might have given a little bit more for it than required."

"So, how much is it worth now?"

"I would say, two months of your work here," he smiled. "And then you may decide if you want to stay here or not."

Gold offered the ring back, even if reluctantly, then exchanged his hand.

"I accept your terms, Mr Prentise."

"Splendid!" Prentice shook it vigorously then clapped Gold on the shoulder, making the other man jump slightly. "Consider yourself haired, Mr Gold."

Without another word, he rounded the younger man and grabbed his coat from the rack.

"The keys are in the smaller drawer right there. You can play around with the watch if you like, oh and do close up when you finish, would you? Have a nice day, Gold!"

Roy didn't manage to get a word in, and before he knew it, he was left alone in the shop. He could swear he could hear Prentice's laugh from the outside down the street.

He looked around, still not sure what exactly had happened. Slowly he approached the table with a dismantled pocketwatch and tilted his head.

Well, why not?

He sat down on the stool and began to study the cogs.

[andorwhore]

Saudade (preview)

a six part Cassian Andor story

story summary: a year in the life of a rebel with a cause and a rebel in search of one...

preview summary: of all the days for a slicer to break into the wrong ship, today was by far the worst.

author’s note: this idea started out very different from what it is now -- originally i wanted a quick Cassian x reader, but the plot developed into something so much bigger, and i decided i needed a fully fledged OC to tell the story!

also! it’s worth mentioning the pronunciation of the name Jai that’s featured -- it’s not Jay, but rather Ji (like pi). i’ve heard it both ways, and something about that second pronunciation has always charmed me.

pairing: Cassian Andor x OC

preview word count: 1,052 (but the full chapter is over 10k srrynotsrry)

rating: T, eventual R

warnings: none (yet)

The starport on the Ring of Kafrene was every thief’s dream. Ships of traders, merchants, and everything in between were left relatively unattended, any security could be bought off if one had the right connections, and, if one was smart, they could make off with thousands of credits worth of goods. As ships improved and as droid security began to take over, it became more and more challenging for the average thief to get out of the port without being caught, but that meant less competition for the slicers amongst the Ring’s residents.

Slicers weren’t all that easy to come by on the trading colony. Actually, good ones weren’t easy to come by -- any amateur that somehow managed to get their hands on scramble keys suddenly started calling themselves slicers. And those were the same amateurs that got themselves thrown into a cell within hours of proclaiming, with severe overconfidence, that they had the skill to hack anyone’s computer. No, the thieves drawn to the Ring of Kafrene very rarely had the aptitude for hacking, but then again, the colony wasn’t exactly a prime destination for codebreakers to begin with. Slicers were far better suited for the Outer Rim Territories, on planets like Cantonica or Nevarro, where their skills could be put toward big jobs, where they were less likely to be harrassed by any kind of authority. To be a slicer in the Expansion Territory was practically asking for trouble, asking for stormtroopers and the Empire to toss one behind bars without mercy.

However, there were a rare few slicers that could get by particularly well on the Ring of Kafrene. One of those infamous slicers, who managed to somehow be renowned in the slums of the colony and yet never encounter any trouble from the Empire, was named Tillian.

Tillian was a man known only by that one name, and very few had the pleasure of learning anything about him beyond that. As far as slicers went, he was arguably one of the best throughout the entirety of the Expansion Territory; and despite his criminal activity, Tillian had the consideration to share his skills with a select few that he saw potential in through the years. And one of those few was Jai’ren Tillian.

Jai was a young woman of unknown origin, but of well-known talent among the underbelly residents of the Ring of Kafrene. She may not have been a strong thief in comparison to all the competition that loitered around the colony, but where she lacked in pickpocketing, she excelled in hacking. Of the half dozen or so that Tillian had trained through the years, Jai proved to be the most apt for the talent of slicing, even from an early age.

Currently, Jai was taking the risk of breaking into multiple ships crammed into Kafrene’s overcrowded starport. This wasn’t her first, nor did she intend for it to be her last, visit to the port, slicing her way onto ships of all classes and sizes; Jai found that, for her, it was far easier to focus and get a job done when she wasn’t distracted by the hussle and bussle of the cramped trading streets, and the risk of sneaking into the parking port was well worth the quiet she needed to get her task done.

Jai had just unlocked a third ship, stuffing her scramble key into the inner pocket of her coat while pushing a stray strand of ashy brown hair back up into her cap, careful to avoid shifting the goggles situated atop it. She threw a cautious glance back over her shoulder, bird-like eyes searching and ears listening to ensure no one had taken notice of her. With a satisfied expression she quickly ducked into the U-Wing and closed the door behind her to avoid any unwanted attention.

Jai stood in the hull, realizing that, despite the appearance from the outside that the ship was large, it’s interior was actually a rather cramped space. Nibbling the inside of her lip, she eyed the hull left then right; she realized within a few moments that it didn’t look like there was all that much lying around that would be worth anything to her. There were hardly any compartments or cubbies for storing goods, and it looked like the only serious computer aboard the ship wasn’t used for much more than tracking whereabouts and sending messages. She let out a derided sigh while sliding her hands into the pockets of her worn pants, fingers toying with a small box she’d grabbed from the last ship she broke into just minutes prior.

‘What a waste,’ she thought, her eyes scanning the ship again in slow consideration. It looks as if she put in a lot of effort for a whole lot of nothing. But she might as well search for something, anything, to at least deem said effort reasonable -- maybe, despite appearances, she could get her hands on something good.

“Right,” Jai spoke aloud to herself, extracting her hands and lazily cracking her fingers down in front of her hips. She climbed up the couple of steps into the cockpit, eying the equipment briefly before checking every crack and crevice for some kind of valuables. After a minute, she stepped back down into the main hull of the U-Wing, eyes scanning more astutely to make sure she hadn’t missed anything obvious. This ship’s interior was so small, there was hardly space for much of anything; Jai noted that it would probably have felt cramped if there were any more than four or five people aboard.

As Jai considered the size of the ship, she looked down at her feet, studying the metal floor for a few long moments before her lower lip pushed out appraisingly -- unless her eyes were deceiving her, it looked as if some of the floor panels lifted. Jai dropped to one knee to test her theory, finding that there was, in fact, a handle that she twisted to unlock. But she was all too quickly disappointed, finding that what was hidden under the floor was nothing more than a row of collapsible seats. With another frustrated huff, Jai pushed back down and locked the handle back in its place.

And at that same moment, the door to the U-Wing suddenly slid open.

[artificialqueens]

Mateo's Eight 1/8 (Branjie)--athena2

Summary: 

Con artist Vanessa Mateo has just been released from prison, and she’s planning one last heist to erase her debts and start a new life for herself.

But for this to succeed, she needs the help of the very person who ratted her out to the cops: her ex-girlfriend, Brooke Lynn Hytes.

(An Ocean’s Eight AU).

A/N: I’ve been planning this for a while, and I’m excited to start posting! You also don’t need to see the movie to read this. It follows the main points of the movie, but I did make some changes here and there. Thank you so, so much to Writ, for letting me throw this idea and all my plans for it at you, for always supporting this, and for beta-ing! I’ve never done a full-length movie adaptation like this before, so I would really appreciate any feedback you have!

—

The first thing Vanessa does when she gets out of prison is get a slice of pizza.

Standing on the sidewalk in the black shirt she’d been wearing six months ago, too thin now for the late-winter chill, Vanessa gratefully burns her mouth on the cheese and lets grease drip down her wrist. She never thought she’d miss grease so much. She gets another slice and eats it in a few bites, crunching on the crust as loud as she can, breathing in the oregano and oil like it’s oxygen as winter sun warms her shoulders.

She’s home. She’s free.

There’s enough money in the box of her just-returned things for a cab to her mother’s, where she’ll have to live now that going back to her old–their old–apartment isn’t an option. There’s a heart necklace in there too, but Vanessa doesn’t want to think about that. She shoves it in her pocket to sell later, because she might as well get some money out of the betrayal.

She knocks on the apartment door with still-greasy fingers, and the sight of her mother’s face, so much brighter without the Plexiglass barrier in between them, has her instantly sobbing in her mother’s arms. Vanessa hasn’t been able to touch her for six months, and finds her fingers moving down her mother’s skin, the same caramel color of her own, starting to wrinkle from stress more than age. Vanessa is hit with a surge of guilt that most of the stress is probably from her.

“I’ve missed you, Vanjie.” It’s her mother’s old nickname for her, and Vanessa breaks down further. It gives her some glimmer of hope that everything will be okay, despite the medical bills she knows are lying around somewhere. Those thin pieces of paper have been following them for a year now, weighing down on their shoulders like a ton of bricks.

“I’ve missed you too.”

It’s nice to just be Vanessa for a few minutes, to be her mother’s daughter, the girl who had Rihanna posters on her walls and acted out soap-opera storylines with her dolls and ran around the apartment dodging bedtime.

She lets her mother kiss her until her face is more sticky lip gloss than skin. A loud yipping sound rings out, and something furry launches itself at her legs. Vanessa steps back and scoops up her dog, Riley, his tongue slobbering all over her and tail wagging fast enough to take flight.

She’s home again. She’s normal again. Maybe she’s not returning home to anything exciting, but everything smells like the perfume her mom wears, and the couch cushions are broken in just right, and the walls are still a soothing cream color. It always felt like time stood still here when she was a kid, everything always the same, but now she appreciates the stability, the sense that nothing has changed even if she’s been missing from this world for six months.

Her mother heads to the store so they can have Vanessa’s favorite foods for dinner. Vanessa wants to go, wants to do something as normal as grocery shopping, but she walks outside and gasps, heart hammering.

She can’t do this. Everything seems too big after such a small cell. The massive gray-blue sky is large enough to swallow her up, the buildings like giants looming over her, the street as wide as the ocean. She resigns herself to the soft pink walls of her childhood bedroom. She resented this room as a child for being the size of a shoe-box, wanting the massive rooms kids always had on TV. She has never been more grateful for it than now, secure in its narrow walls. It’s like she can breathe again.

The room is incomplete, missing most of her clothes, her makeup stuff, the fluffy bathroom that usually hangs in her closet, the old silver jewelry box that was her mother’s. Those things were all in their apartment, the apartment Silky and A’keria were supposed to go to and get the stuff for her, because Vanessa knew as soon she was hauled into the cop car that she wasn’t going back to that apartment again.

She doesn’t want to do what she’s about to do, but she has to.

She plugs in her long-dead cell phone and calls Silky and A’keria, who barge through her apartment door 10 minutes later and sweep her into a suffocating group hug. Vanessa’s not surprised to see A’keria wiping her eyes after, and her body burns with love for her two best friends.

“You meet any hot lesbians like on Orange is the New Black?” Silky asks eagerly, and it’s just the thing to break the awkwardness of not knowing what to say, of the realization that Vanessa missed months of dinners and movies, that everyone’s lives moved on while hers was trapped in a cell.

“Not one,” Vanessa says around a laugh. “But this one guard was totally into me. I coulda won her over, I bet. Had a little reunion on the beach, Shawshank Redemption-style.”

“You got game even in prison,” A’keria says, smiling, and Vanessa is just grateful no one’s mentioning the person that landed her in prison.

“I miss anything good?” Vanessa asks.

“A’keria broke up with her bum-ass boyfriend,” Silky reports.

“Even threw his clothes out the window,” A’keria says.

“Damn.” Vanessa sighs.

“You didn’t miss much else, though. Oh, and I got your stuff at my place.” A’keria reassures her.

“Thanks.”

“It’s good to have you back, Vanj.” Her warm hand settles over Vanessa’s shoulder, and she’s not going to cry, she’s not–

“How’s it feel to be free again?” Silky asks.

“Good.” It’s all Vanessa can really manage, the fact that she can wake up and eat and even pee whenever she wants now something she’s still struggling to grasp. It only makes what she’s about to say even harder.

“I have something planned,” Vanessa begins, bracing herself for the reaction.

“Are you out your damn mind?” A’keria yells. “You’re on parole!”

“Say it louder, those people down the street missed it,” Vanessa bites out.

“Look, Van–” Silky says.

“No,” Vanessa cuts her off. “I need to do this. I spent six months on this. I know who the mark is gonna be, I know the people I need to scout and get involved, and I know this can work.” This plan is the only thing that got her through the past six months, working out the details and practicing the exact words needed to build her team while she choked down food that tasted like Styrofoam and wrecked her back on a sorry excuse for a bed. She needs to do this, because otherwise the past six months have really been a waste.

Vanessa plows on, laying down the words she knows will get them. “It’s even bigger than the last one. Money I need. Money you need. Enough to set us all for life.”

Silky crosses her arms and stays silent. It’s no secret Silky is constantly in danger of losing her teaching job with all the budget cuts the school faces. She’d taken up street scams and pickpocketing–skills she taught Vanessa–to pay off her student loans and buy supplies and snacks for her classroom, which have to come out of her own (or some unsuspecting person’s) pocket.

A’keria lowers the index finger she was about to wag in Vanessa’s face like some old schoolteacher, no doubt thinking of her home jewelry business that never took off, the dead-end jewelry store job that keeps her home with her overbearing mother and asshole stepfather. With the money Vanessa’s talking, A’keria can buy her own damn island.

“We’re listening,” Silky says finally.

Vanessa fights her grin as she runs through the basics, alive with the familiar buzz of laying down a plan, watching it come to life from her mind. She doesn’t mention the full price tag but tells them both all their financial problems will be solved in one night.

By the time she’s done, they’re both onboard, and the fun begins.

—

Vanessa has to take deep breaths, her nails digging into A’keria’s arm as they walk down the sidewalk to get her next member in.

“You good, V?” A’keria asks gently.

Vanessa just nods, because this breathless fear of being outside when it was all she dreamed of for six months isn’t something she expected, or knows how to deal with. All she can do is keep breathing, keep moving, keep focusing on her plan.

She’s chosen all the players carefully, people she knows herself or knows through others. They’re not all scammers, just people with enough to lose, who can be easily persuaded into her plan and can be trusted to carry out their end of the plan.

The storefront is outlined in red, flowy dresses in reds and pinks and golds filling the window, some brightness on this dreary street. A bell chimes as they open the door, welcoming them to Red Hot by Scarlet Envy.

Scarlet is perched behind the counter, twirling her bright red hair. Vanessa’s only met her once at a party, but she hasn’t changed, still happy with her up-and-coming celebrity design label despite the debt and shady loans she buried herself in to make it happen.

After a hug from Scarlet, Vanessa begins just as she planned. “How would you like to dress Plastique Tiara for the Met Ball?”

Scarlet’s eyes widen. “Are you kidding me? I’d love to! But she’s Plastique, and I’m, well…” she gestures to her small store with its water-damaged ceiling.

Vanessa smiles. “I can make it happen. I just need one small favor. One small favor for me, and you dress Plastique Tiara, you get a bigger store, and”–Vanessa lowers her voice– “all the money troubles you got yourself in are gone.”

Scarlet blinks, mouth falling open, not even bothering to deny Vanessa’s information.

“Okay,” she agrees.

Yvie takes mere seconds, despite being the only person Vanessa has no dirt on to coerce into it. She’s an old friend of Silky’s who does stuff with computers, so far beyond Vanessa’s basic social media stalking skills that she doesn’t even try to understand it. They meet at some internet cafe and Vanessa is only one sip into the overpriced coffee she missed so much when Yvie agrees, saying she’d love to stick it to the man and asking if there’ll be snacks at the meeting tomorrow. Vanessa makes a mental note to buy chips.

Nina is a little harder to convince. She has a nice house in the suburbs, working over-the-phone scams and hijacking deliveries from transport trucks–blenders, coffeemakers, designer suitcases, bikes, air hockey tables–that she keeps or sells for profit.

Aside from the scamming, she’s goodness personified, the last person you’d suspect of anything, perfect for what Vanessa needs from her.

“Well,” Nina says, “I could use a little excitement.”

Vanessa puts a check mark next to her name.

—

Vanessa scrapes her plate clean at dinner, her mother’s cooking the last thing that truly makes her at home, comforting and cozy like a warm blanket. The joy continues as she slides into bed, on a real mattress, ready to fall asleep with the hope of the freedom she’s getting herself, until she remembers the last name on her list. She doesn’t want to call this person. She can’t call this person, and instead she calls A’keria to see if there’s a way around it.

“Tell me the truth,” Vanessa begins. “Do I need to call her?”

“Who? You mean Br–”

“Don’t say her name to me,” Vanessa snaps.

“I know things didn’t end well with you two–”

“She ratted me out to the cops! I went to prison because of her!” The anger burns through her, fresh on the thought that she went to prison by not just anyone, but by someone she had slept with and kissed and even loved. Six months of itchy clothes and a freezing cell, of having to see her own mother through a screen, of feeling absolutely worthless, of missing family dinners and not seeing her friends, all because that bitch couldn’t keep her mouth shut.

“Hey,” A’keria says calmly. “I know that. I know. But you have to call her, Vanj. She’s your right-hand woman. We can’t pull this off without her. You know we can’t.”

A’keria is right, which only makes things worse. Vanessa needs to call her. No one can keep things organized like her, stick exactly to the schedule like a human clock. Vanessa can pretend all she wants that this plan will work as it stands, but she knows in her heart she needs to make that one last phone call.

—

Vanessa strides to the counter confidently, trying not to act like the coats in her arms are worth a whole month’s rent. Being calm is the key, like she buys coats with three zeros in the price tag all the time.

“Hello.” She keeps her voice soft and polite as she approaches the counter.

“Hi,” the cashier says. She’s around twenty and Vanessa has been watching for a few days to make sure she gets this specific cashier. One who’s new, but not new enough to need a manager.

“I’d like to return these.” Vanessa plunks the coats on the counter, rehearsing her answer for the next inevitable question.

“Do you have your receipt?”

“I don’t, but I never wore them. They still have the tags and everything.” She even grabs one and shows it to the cashier, who smiles sympathetically, having no idea Vanessa just grabbed it off the rack a few minutes ago.

“We really need a receipt to return them. Do you have an account with us? Or the credit card you bought them with?”

Now is the time. Vanessa has seen enough middle-aged white ladies with expired coupons in her own retail days to get this next part right. She purses her lips and straightens her posture. “I’ve been shopping here for years, this is ridiculous! I just bought these.” Just a touch of anger, not enough to attract attention.

“I’m sorry, ma’am. If you’d like to speak with customer service—“

Vanessa loosens her shoulders, putting a smile back on. “You know what, I’ll just keep them. Could I trouble you for a bag?”

Vanessa walks away from the counter with her coats neatly folded inside the bag, heart racing and giddy with joy. She did it. She can sell two and start working on her father’s medical bills, and maybe give the third to her mother; her worn coat can’t offer much warmth in this November chill. She’s so lost in her excitement that she doesn’t notice where she’s going and walks right into a wall.

“Shit.” She takes a step back. A very tall, very blonde, very green-eyed wall. “Oh, sorry, I…” she forgets every word in the English language, forgets even her own name, at the blonde’s shy smile.

“You were good. Really good,” the blonde says, and something in her reluctant tone suggests she doesn’t give compliments often, that this praise truly means something.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Vanessa tries to stay cool, even as the blonde’s flashing green eyes set her whole body on fire. She had only prepared for getting caught at the register, not by strange blonde women.

“A cashier who wouldn’t need a manager. Waiting towards the end of a shift, when no one gives a shit anymore,” the blonde continues. “Even the coats. Expensive, but not enough to have security tags on them.”

She’s caught. Caught on her first real con, aside from the street scams she’s done. Vanessa swallows hard, considering her chances of outrunning the blonde’s mile-long legs in their slim red pants. Damn, Vanessa really needs to stop staring at those legs if this lady is about to bust her…

“Hey, I’m not gonna rat you out,” the blonde says, like she’s reading her mind. “I’m just saying you’re good, and if you ever want a partner…” She pulls a piece of paper from her glittery silver blazer and scribbles something down.

Vanessa reads a phone number in tiny, neat handwriting.

“I’ll consider it,” Vanessa says, though she’ll probably have to sit on her hands to keep herself from calling the second she gets home.

The blonde smiles. “I’m Brooke.”

“Vanessa.”

—

Vanessa holds out as long as she can, until it’s nearing 1am, moonlight arcing through her window. It’s almost like she’s purposely sabotaging herself, waiting and waiting to lower the chance that someone will answer.

Her thumb hovers over the phone. The contact name is still in there as it was before prison, with a bright red heart emoji after it. Vanessa remembers deliberating over putting it there, finally deciding it was okay after their second date.

Aside from her mother’s cell and the really good Thai place down the street from her old apartment, it’s the only phone number she has memorized. She could probably dial it in her sleep. She used to double- and triple-text that number, sending pictures of dogs she saw on the street, selfies in bed with the comforter revealing just enough skin, rants about how slow everyone in front of her was walking, goofy pictures of herself trying on enormous sunglasses bigger than her head.

And the replies used to come just as fast, Vanessa’s heart leaping with each one, her fingers flying to the phone to see what texts she’d gotten back.

She presses the call button, breath caught in her throat, half hoping there won’t be an answer and half-hoping there will be.

All she gets is a robotic monotone telling her this number is no longer in service, and Vanessa releases her air, unsure if she’s relieved or not. She really doesn’t want to hear that voice, but she’s going to need to if she wants this to work. Should she try to Google her? Or maybe…

The burner phone.

They had both discussed business through those old Nokias. The odds that she still has hers, and still has the thing on, are slim to none. But Vanessa thinks of how hard it will be to find a job now, how hard it will be to start over after prison. She thinks of her mother working too hard in her hospital shifts, the medical bills still unpaid. She thinks of all the people she had promised this would be a success, all the debts that would be repaid, all the freedoms won. She has to try.

Her fingers move without thought over the phone, like just another day, and she almost drops the phone when it rings. The rings trill in her ear for what feels like hours, her heart racing. She’s about to hang up when the line clicks.

There’s a pause, a sharp intake of breath on the other line. Vanessa remembers those gasps of air, had pulled them out of soft lips as her hands tangled in that blonde hair…

“Who is this?”

The nerve. Vanessa’s fist clenches in anger. If it wasn’t a Nokia, she probably would’ve bent her phone in half. The nerve for that voice to be so soft and hesitant, when it had caused her half a year behind bars. The nerve of asking who it is when she knows damn well it can’t be anyone else.

“You know who this is, Brooke. We need to talk.”

[a-bit-too-much-of-a-zelda-fan]

LinkedUniverse Fanfiction Ch. 15: Painting the Town

Stop! You’ve Violated the Law!

So, you’ve stumbled upon this original post for my Linked Universe fanfiction. That’s okay, it happens to everyone. As of March 2021, I’ve uploaded the entirety of this fanfic to my Archive of Our Own page. Along with finally giving the story a name–Oops! All Links: A Linked Universe Story–I made substantial edits to some of the chapters. These range from minor stylistic revisions to fixing a gaping plot hole that kinda completely broke the character conflict in the earlier chapters. I also renamed and renumbered (but not reordered) the chapters. Specifically, this is now Chapter 17: To Sell a Butterfly (Pendant).

The AO3 iterations of these chapters are the definitive versions. So, if you would like to read this fanfiction, please do so on AO3, right here. With this embedded link. Hehe. Geddit? Link?

Note: My screen name on AO3 is FrancisDuFresne. Yes, that is me. I am not plagiarizing myself.

Anyway, for posterity’s sake, the rest of the original post is below the cut.

It’s finally here! Wow! ... If you thought the long wait would end with a chapter the scale of “Fire,” you’ll be sorely disappointed. Sorry, folks. Still, now we finally get to see more of Selggog and the Links’ quest. When we’re talking my fan narrative, what can beat the hijinx of the Heroes of Wind and Twilight? Word Count: 1576

“So why’d you come with me, instead?” Wind asked.

Twilight looked down to his friend and shrugged. “I didn’t want to sit around waiting for Wild to find weapons he liked. Potion shopping beats that, at least.”

Wind glanced upward at passing shop signs as they walked down one of Selggog’s many busy streets. The others sent them to resupply on potions. Hyrule had finished the last of their stock following their skirmish with the Hinox. The two of them had been searching for an apothecary for the past half hour.

The elder of them sighed. “We should ask someone.”

“Where’s the fun in that, though?” Wind countered. He was jovially bouncing about on the balls of his feet with each step. “Having absolutely no idea where you’re going makes it a little adventure!”

“Aren’t we already on an adventure?”

Wind frowned. He clasped his hands behind his head and looked up. White, fluffy clouds dotted the otherwise clear sky. “Yeah, I guess,” he said somewhat dejectedly. Then, more chipper than before, “Well, it can be a side quest. How about that?”

“’Side quest?’ Kind of a silly name for it.”

“Yeah? Well… I like it.”

Twilight let out a bark of laughter. “Maybe it’ll stick.”

Some passersby knocked shoulders with the Links as the streets became busier. “Ack!” Wind grunted. “You know,” he called out to someone ahead who had rammed into him, “wouldn’t kill you to say sorry!”

“Shhh,” Twilight hushed sharply. “We don’t want—“ he was cut off by someone bashing his shoulder—"unneeded attention.”

Wind rubbed his shoulder and looked up to his friend. “You think they’re always this in a rush?”

“Dunno. I’m not used to city life.”

“Yeah,” Wind said. He thought back to Windfall Island, which he used to think of as a metropolis. “Gotta say this place is a bit bigger than I’m used to.”

Twilight patted his pockets. Satisfied everything was where it should be, he glanced at his partner. “Just make sure no one filches anything. You have your wallet, right?”

With a pffft, Wind checked his own pockets over. “Of course I d—”

A pause. “Wind?” Twilight asked. He stopped walking.

The youngest hero looked up at his friend with a sheepish smile. He raised his arms in a guilty sort of half-shrug. “Wind,” Twilight said slowly, “Don’t tell me you—”

“Yep.”

“By Ordona…” he cursed, smacking his forehead. He thought that over. Why did I just hurt myself? I didn’t do anything wrong. He promptly smacked Wind on the back of the head.

“Ow! What the heck?”

“What did we tell you?!”

“To watch out for pickpockets…” Wind admitted with his head hung, kicking at a pebble on the road.

“And did you?!”

Wind looked up.  His wide eyes seemed to burn with anger Twilight had never seen. “No, Twi!” he shouted back. “I didn’t! So can you stop yelling at me and making me feel like crap so we can go find it?!”

Twilight was about to fire back, then paused. For all Wind had been through, he was still just a kid. He sighed and looked around. Some people had stopped and were staring at them. “Well?” he called out to them.

They shrugged and went back to bustling down the street on their errands. When Twilight turned back to his friend, he found him breathing deeply with his eyes closed. “Hey,” he began, “I didn’t mean t—”

“Stop,” Wind interrupted. He opened his eyes and met Twilight’s gaze. “Just because I’m cheery most of the time,” he whispered. Twilight could barely hear him. “That doesn’t mean I don’t have feelings like everybody else.”

“I—”

“Just remember that.”

Twilight had never seen the youngest Link upset enough to yell. He really had struck a nerve. “Okay,” he said. “I will.”

Wind’s expression softened. “Thank you. Now let’s find my wallet. What’re we gonna do?”

“I would suggest we ask Sky to borrow the Master Sword for its dowsing ability.” He considered this. “But even if it was willing to help, there are so many wallets in this town that it probably couldn’t pick yours out of the crowd.”

A thought struck Wind. “What about your wolf sense?”

Twilight looked around. The streets were packed with people going about their business. He remembered how the residents of Castle Town reacted to seeing his beastly form. “No. I don’t want to scare all these people.”

“Fair,” Wind replied. “But what else can we do?”

“Uh…” he muttered, wracking his brains. “I… I don’t know.”

Wind’s jolted to attention as if shocked by a yellow ChuChu. The sudden movement made his partner flinch. “What if I just earn back all the money that was stolen?” Wind suggested, thrusting his arms down, palms up, as if pointing out something totally obvious.

Twilight’s brow furrowed. “That might actually work…” he admitted pensively. “How much was in there?”

Silence. Well, at least between the two heroes. The townspeople were loud and rowdy as ever. “Um…” Wind said, clearly stalling. “Not too much.”

“Don’t dick around with me. How much?”

“About two-fifty?”

“That’s a lot of smashed pots,” Twilight joked, raising an eyebrow and crossing his arms. “How do you plan on earning that much?”

The young seafarer dug in his pouch and pulled out a necklace. “I’ve got some treasures I can sell. How many people here would buy a chintzy necklace with a butterfly pendant?”

“With this many people, hopefully at least a couple.”

“How much should we charge?”

“How many do you have?”

“Seven.”

Twilight nodded. “Anything else?”

Wind shook his head. “Some trinkets, feathers, a lot of junk.”

“Right. Well, let’s get started.”

“Hoi!” Wind called out to the crowd. “Beautiful butterfly necklaces here! Twenty-five rupees apiece!”

No one walked over to them. The crowds just kept moving by. Undeterred, Wind repeated his sales call even louder. This turned some heads, but nobody came. He tried once more. The second-floor shutters of a nearby building slammed open. A disheveled old man in a sleeping cap poked his head out. “Quit yer yapping!” he shouted down to the Links. “People are trying to sleep!”

The two heroes glanced at each other, paused a moment, then shrugged in unison. Wind hooked his thumbs on his belt and shifted his weight to one leg. “Guess that’s out the window,” he said.

Twilight let out a frustrated sigh. If he had just been more careful, we’d have potions by now, he thought bitterly. No, stay focused. We need to figure this o—

“Oh!” Wind exclaimed, again startling his friend. “Let’s find a shop that will buy some of my stuff!”

“Uh, I’m pretty sure most shops won’t buy off strangers. They’re trying to sell their junk, not buy yours. Think how fast they’d go bankrupt.”

Wind shook his head. “No no no, I mean a treasure teller! Someone who deals in treasures. There was one on one of the islands I sailed to. I’m sure there’s one around here.”

“Alright,” Twilight said, “how are we gonna find one? Search every street? That didn’t quite work for the apothecary.”

“Look for a sign with a rupee on it,” Wind replied, scanning the street for such a sign. “There’s gotta be one aro—OH! Look!”

Wind pointed out to the building directly across the street from them. Sure enough, the storefront had a multitude of rupees painted all over it. Twilight sighed in relief. “That was easier than expected.”

“I wouldn’t get too excited. We have no idea what they’ll offer for my stuff. These guys can be fickle.”

“Right.”

The two heroes crossed the street and entered the store. The walls were covered in a bizarre wallpaper filled with celestial bodies and distorted floral patterns. The shelves immediately drew their eyes. Treasures and spoils lined the perimeter of the store. Everything from golden statuettes to fine china to jewelry to precious stones rested upon the shelves. A beaded curtain hung in the doorway between the store and some back room.

While Wind marveled over the treasures, Twilight strode to the ornately-decorated counter. It was adorned with an equally beautiful silver bell. He gently tapped its button. A soft, pleasing ding rang out. No one came after a few seconds, so he rang it again, a little harder this time. He strained to hear any movement in the back room but was left wanting.

By now, Wind had refocused and walked up beside his friend. They glanced at each other. A look of confusion and mild annoyance passed between their eyes. Wind shrugged. “Hello?” he called slightly louder than the second bell ring. Nothing.

“Oh, come on,” he grumbled with a huff. He hooked his thumbs in his belt again. “Maybe no one is here?”

Twilight shook his head. “With this kind of merchandise, the door would have been locked tight.”

“So why the heck is no one coming?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.”

“Alright, here goes,” Wind said with resignation lacing his voice. He cupped his hands over his mouth. “Hoi!” he yelled. “Is anybody here?!”

Nothing. The hairs on the back of Twilight’s neck stood on end. His eyes narrowed. Honing his wolf senses had carried over somewhat to his Hylian form. Something didn’t sit right with him. “Quiet down. This doesn’t feel right.”

Just then, a drawling whisper came from directly behind the young heroes. “No need to be afraid, dearies…”

[ofaphrvdite]

silence ! raise the royal standard, for the crown princess of the greek empire, MEGAIRA CONSTANTINOU, has arrived. being 30 years old, she is first in line to the throne. many around the court call her the pariah, by virtue of her being dauntless and astute, while also being distant and impetuous.  — played by emilia clarke.

- THE BASICS.

full name: megaira calisto constantinou  name meaning: megaira ‘to grudge’, calisto ‘most beautiful’ known in history as: the forgotten princess, phoenix queen, star of the sea date of birth: april 19th, 1636/1989 age: thirty star sign: aries profession: con artist (modern verse) / crown princess of the greek empire (royal verse) loyalty: greece, house constantinou, the entente alignment: neutral good mbti: intp spoken languages: greek, english (modern verse) / greek, english, advanced latin, advanced portuguese. intermediate spanish, intermediate ottoman turkish, basic albanian (royal verse) mother’s name: agata constantinou nee. doubreva father’s name: alexios constaninou  siblings, if any: demetrios de bergano (half brother), isidora constantinou, deceased, aella constantinou height: 5’2” hair colour: silvery blonde eye colour: green

- BACKSTORY / MODERN VERSE.

the constantinou’s had begun a small family, decades and decades ago. they had made their money aiding petty crimelords in minor drug trafficking, dog fights, pickpocketing and weapons dealing. with every passing year they had climbed the slippery ladder until they finally clawed themselves to the top. building their family a throne from all the dismantled ones they had once served. slowly, they had moved on to bigger and better things. oil smuggling, protection rackets, bribery, police corruption, murder, prostitution, money laundering. the constantinou’s were bleeding money, yes, but they had sold their souls to do it. they were wolves, every one of them part of a vicious and feral pack. everyone in athens knew who the top family was by the time megaira had abandoned them all - but it had not always been the way.

one might associate the term ‘mafia princess’ with that of wealth and prestige. gold chains covered in blood, but pure gold nonetheless. such was not the case for megaira constantinou. greece was rife with crimelords, all vying for the top place. the most fearful, the most lucrative, the most established. raised in athens it was impossible to escape the reach of the godfathers of the night. especially when the family you were born into had been knee-deep in crime since long before you were even a thought in your father’s head. such was the case for little megaira.

her childhood had not been spent in comfortable luxury. there was no certainty with their business. not at the start. from a young age, megaira had been inducted into the family business, always half knowing what was going on - but never the true bloody depth of it. the young girl was used as a lookout more often than not. her tiny frame useful for hiding in impossibly tight places, away from view, where she could alert the others to danger afoot. her days were not spent playing with her friends at the park, or worrying over homework, but looking out for enemy gangs. or distracting police with feigned crocodile tears. snatching from the pockets of naive tourists. who would have thought those early days of struggle would prove to be her greatest life lesson? instilling the beginnings of talents she would only unlock in her adolescence. on the streets of athens, megaira had learned her livelihood without ever even realising it.

she had never given much thought to her future. always having assumed she would stay in athens forever, doing her fathers bidding until he was eventually shot dead in a raid or died an embittered old man in his bed, only for the next man in line to step up and pick up where he left off. why would she consider anything else when she had never known a life different to her own? though their family was a turbulent one, megaira loved each of them dearly, her siblings especially. to leave them sounded akin to treason to a young, and ultimately naive, girl. 

and yet time could change everything, and their world had always moved so quickly. nothing was ever enough for the constantinou patriarch, alexios always reaching for more than he had, more than he needed. as the years passed, those that followed him were placed in more and more dangerous situations. they were gaining enemies faster than they were friends and their reign was nearing its end. the police, who had been in their back pocket for so long, were bolstered by new laws that gave them the power to put a stop to so much of the crime the constantinou and others thrived on. now in their better interests to put a stop to the criminal underground that had festered so long, rather than aid them. as their jobs began to dry up, alexios began to take more risks. rival gang members were murdered for cash, kidnap, extortion. all a perfect recipe for the brewing revenge to bubble over.

the culmination of years of backstabbing and betrayal took place on a stuffy september evening. the family had all gathered together for a sunday dinner, as they had since before megaira could even remember. one moment they were cheering as the lamb was carved, the next the air was filled with screams and gunshots as members from a recently angered rival gang stormed the constantinou compound. megaira, only sixteen, had watched in horror beneath the table as her cousins and friends dropped to the ground with blood staining their sunday best. hearing the dying yelps of her childhood dog, artemis who lived to protect her, and knowing she was powerless to stop it. nothing had prepared her for the butchering she saw, all she could do was hope and pray that no one would find her.

sirens could be heard in the distance, police arriving too late no doubt to see the destruction of their greatest menace. even that was not enough to disperse the invaders and megaira was dragged from her hiding place, kicking and screaming. she’d never given thought to how she might die, what might happen. just that it was inevitable. but there had been no highlight reel flashing before her eyes, just icy dread and fear as she stared down the barrel of a gun. she remembers little of what happened next, only brief blurs in her mind. a butter knife. blood pouring from a wound she inflicted on his thigh. sweaty hands finding the dropped gun. a loud bang. a death. her first victim. then running.

megaira fled athens that day, away from her beloved family ( those that had survived the purge ) and reckless father. with nothing but the dirty clothes she had on, she had manage to seek refuge. boarding a cargo ship that departed for england that night. she has not looked back since.

in london she was met with the realisation that she had nothing to her name, and nothing to offer. dropping lower than where she had first began in life. and so the first year had been rough sleeping and moving from shelter to shelter. learning english as best she could and scheming to find a way out of her self inflicted prison. surely she had a skill that she could use? all of her talents from her days in athens could not have all been a waste. she was small even now, easy to hide, easy to miss. would the tourists so busy staring in awe at stone monuments notice if a ghost of a girl snatched a watch or wallet here and there?

and so she began. slowly but surely she began to reap in a profit, pick-pocketing the obvious targets, scamming the odd lost tourist. as her skills improved, as did her ambition. she began to steal larger items, breaking into shops unnoticed to claim her prize. still, it wasn’t enough of a living to get her off the streets, only to survive. it wasn’t until her talents were noticed by those who knew to look that things turned around. 

megaira was soon picked up by a talented troop of well known london con artists. initially she had been hesitant to trust another, insisting she was better off on her own than allowing others input in her life again. hadn’t that been her near downfall before? megaira had lived so long on her own, wild and untamed as the wolf, she no longer knew how to trust. but she was not someone who did well alone, even she knew that she was losing every part of herself to the struggle to survive, and so even as stubborn as she was, they had eventually worn her down. and her life took another sharp turn, only this time hopefully for the better.

she had spent years with the team, learning every trick and con known to man, garnering golden nuggets of knowledge from the very elite. eventually that team had disbanded, gone their separate ways into retirement and bidding the still youthful megaira goodbye. she was alone again, yes, but this time she was armed with skills and intuition, intelligence gained from listening to the worlds best, that would take her higher than just survival and allow her to thrive. 

megaira now lives in a luxurious apartment in camden, with her dog cerberus. over the years she has developed a system that works well for herself. even now she appears more innocent than she seems, a beguiling siren that lures her unsuspecting victims in to get whatever it is she wants. by the time she’s gone, her victims will hardly notice, doing her best to make them want to be deceived. megaira is an expert in charm and seduction of every variety, so don’t be fooled by anything she says. it’s probably all a lie. her cons have taken her all over the world, and allowed her to meet other talented artists similar to herself - including her now partner, tae. the pair had found kindred spirits in eachother and are now as thick as thieves. quite literally.

megaira has no wish to return to athens, to enact any revenge on those who had torn her family apart. in her mind that was the past, and you can’t change that. the raid had brought balance for all the terrible things they had done and she felt no need to revisit all that pain. not to mention the gnawing guilt, that she could not forget, for leaving those she had claimed to love to die. only her siblings had managed to keep contact with her, but her updates are scarce. her half brother manages to stay close, and though she would never admit it, she is glad to have him still in her life. a tie to the few happy memories she had from home. her parents had not looked for her, and she certainly had no wish to find them. as far as they cared to know, she was long gone. death or disappearance, it was the same thing in their life. and she would be unrecognisable to them now. megaira had cut her long waves short, died the once silver strands a sleek dark brown. the old megaira, the little naive girl, had died long ago. the woman had risen from her ashes, and she would not bow to another so soon again. the world best remember that wolves and girls both have sharp teeth. 

- BACKSTORY / ROYAL VERSE.

megaira comes from a long line of rulers that have fought, tooth and nail, to make their empire the greatest the world has seen. the constaninou line’s main goal has always been to restore greece to it’s former ancient glory. the heir to said legacy had been born on a stormy night in the ancient and great city of pella, birthplace of alexander the great. though villagers had spoken of her birth as a sign of her strength to come, a woman to weather the greatest of storms, it was perhaps a warning to the raging seas she would be made to navigate, blind, as she grew.

she would prove a disappointment to her parents, nothing but dismay that would end up surrounding her childhood and shaping her into the woman she would grow to be. not only was the king’s first legitimate child a daughter, but she was a weak and slight one at that. megaira did not grow as fast as the other noble girls, remaining a slip of a thing with ghost white hair. not the picture of a stern ruler her father had prayed for. two more daughters followed her, and it would be her mother and megaira that bore the brunt of the king’s discontent. agata a failure for being physically unable to provide a strong male heir, and megaira for simply having the audacity to live. 

this made for a lonely childhood, as her parents dismissed her at every turn and there were no children at court for her to play with. she had her guard, elias, who she came to know as more a father figure than protector - though he was every bit that too. he had ignited her love for the stars, spinning stories of the skies and sharing the secrets of the constellations with her every night. always patiently would he play with the little princess, making no complaint as she thread poppies into his hair and forced him to attend numerous tea parties. but she had her brother too, when her sworn sword was elsewhere. though her mother would hiss that he was only her half brother, a bastard ( perhaps the only time she said anything to her eldest at all, when she wasn’t criticising her every move, was to remind megaira that demetrios was beneath them all ), she saw him as blood through and through. her big brother, her very best friend and closest confident. her mother could not twist her eldest against him. not when he was the one she sought out when tears sprung to her eyes, when her mother was cruel to her, or their father ignored her. when thunderstorms struck, it was his bed she would cower under, pleading for his stories of adventure to block out the booming claps of thunder. megaira had idolised him, there was no one greater in her eyes. until their father had forced a divide too big for either to cross.

when megaira was only nine years old, she was summoned to the throne room to meet with her father. even then she had known something was different, for her mother had made her wear her best dress and had reminded her of all her lessons on the way. it was there, all in her best, standing straight as can be with her chin held high, that her father told her she was to be his heir. and she had been thrilled. as excited as any child could be when all they knew of ruling was that it was a big, big job and she would get to wear a crown and do whatever she wanted. and so she did as any excited child would, and had ran to tell the person who had always been the first she told all her secrets to. expecting the same excitement in return from demetrios, she was going to make him her adviser! he was going to be at her side forever! a team! so imagine her heartache when, instead of celebration, megaira had been met with stone. how was she to know that all his life, their father had been readying him for the throne? that he had told that he would one day be legitimised and crowned over his sister. it had been the queen of greece who had bent her husband’s ear, refusing to see her children displaced for a bastard born from an italian harlot.

from that day on, their relationship had changed. near severed entirely. megaira, just a naive and confused child, had begged and pleaded her brother to stop ignoring her, asked him why he was being so nasty, was it something she had done wrong? she was so, so sorry, please could they still be friends? but demetrios had not relented, and as she grew, meg had grown bitter towards her brother. resenting him for pushing her away and, in her eyes, abandoning her. leaving her lonelier than ever. never did she stop to consider his side, the damage had been done and they were both too far gone to reconcile now.

it was her brother who had convinced their father that she ought to be sent away when the war began. a weak princess, now the heir to the throne, would surely be an easy target to their many enemies. and so the decision was made to send her away at aged fourteen to live on the island of crete, away from the city where she could be hidden from those who may wish to use a crown princess to their advantage. here her circle of friends grew smaller still, having only her handmaidens, guard and tutor for company, and the white wolf pup she had been gifted by her old childhood friend. named for the goddess she looked up to, artemis.

the only news she had of the outside world, came through the scarce letters she received from her sisters when they cared to write, her mother and old friends. letters that grew fewer by the year as the world forgot about her. it was through these letters that she learned she must be wed before she could ever take the throne. a plan concocted at court to keep her from her birthright. law was passed that if she did not marry before his death, her brother would rule as her regent until she found a suitable consort and thus convincing their failing empire that their crown princess was not capable of ruling without a man at her side. god forbid a country follow a woman’s lead. but megaira was not the same foolish girl she had once been, she had learned since then, and she knew that if her brother were to ascend to the throne, he would not pass it back quietly after she had forced herself down the aisle.

her years of isolation were not spent in vain. from then on, megaira used that time to plot and learn. learn every language she could, read every book, learn of strategies of war, how to fight with dagger and bow. if the greek nobles would not accept her as their ruler with no king at her side, then she would make them wish they had once she was crowned. she would prove to them all how worthy a queen she could be.

there was a brief period of time, less lonely than the others, when megaira spent half a year with her childhood friend sadiye at the ottoman court. no doubt a ploy to keep an eye on the princess who might one day be the queen they allied with. it was here she met the empress of china, xiulan. megaira had learned a great deal from the formidable queen, lessons she would take with her into adulthood. they struck up a strange relationship, even through letters when both women returned home, one that grew stranger still when megaira made good friends with her ward. 

but her time away from court was not all spent quietly preparing in between frolicking in the ottoman empire. despite being sent away for her supposed safety, there were countless attempts on her life. assassins sent from enemy lands, some from her home who couldn’t fathom the idea of a woman leading, not ever. and they came close, some far too close. still to this day megaira wakes from screaming night terrors, seeing in vivid detail the man who had stolen into her room and pressed a knife to her throat. artemis had ripped his out in return, but megaira could still remember the smell of his breath and the blood that had stained her nightgown. an ordeal she had suffered near alone but for her beastly companion and elias. not even her parents had checked on her, only writing to confirm their heir still lived. in her all consuming fear, megaira had quietly begun to convince herself that her brother had been behind a fair few.

as the war finally came to a close, megaira was allowed to return to court at age twenty five. ending her eleven years of solitude. now a woman, she had returned vindictive and determined to see herself rise and her brother fall. unwittingly, her brother had created his own worst enemy. now truly worthy competition, and in her eyes, he no longer stood a chance.

megaira had pleaded with her father for the chance to go to bern, to prove that she would be a worthy leader and could garner the support she would need to rule. megaira had, afterall, spent most of her life away from court. putting her on uneven ground as the commoners did not know her, and the nobles did not care to. bern had been a rude awakening, all her training had been futile when she was as refined as a chambermaid. she would not bend to court expectations, donning her traditional attire as she would have on crete, and speaking bluntly in negotiations rather than dress up her words prettily to make them easier to swallow. demetrios had known the nobles for years, had fought with them and played with them. he was years ahead of her in experience, and already had twice as much support as she did. megaira faced a steeper climb than she had expected, with her socialisation leaving little to be desired, stunted after years on her own. not to mention the crown princess was stubborn and possessed a temper to rival the king’s.

it was amongst these negotiations at bern that megaira made her first decision as a future ruler, one that set in course actions that could not be undone. their alliance with the ottomans had been shaky at best. producing nothing in return for greece but stopping the ottomans from invading their weaker neighbours. the king had bowed to the sultan when his father had been found dead on greek soil ( igniting the war ), and so in a decision that had ultimately crippled their empire, he had sided greece with the coalition. something megaira had liked no more than the common people, who had seen it as their king trading their well-being for his personal safety. 

the ottoman sultan had disappeared before the greek courts arrival, and had been presumed dead after the pirate invasion at bern. no one expected him to reemerge, with tales of the torture he had bore marking his body. worse still, he had been held captive by greek men. men who felt so disillusioned with their monarchy that they had taken matters into their own hands. if their supposed king would do nothing more but cower and bend to the ottoman will, they would do what he was too weak to do. the sultan, cruel and twisted from his time in captivity, had sought out megaira as the hightest ranking greek noble at bern and demanded that his captives be handed over for the ottomans to punish as they saw fit. and megaira had refused. 

in a decision that might break her reign before it even began, she had refused the sultan but swore his captives would be executed. on greek soil, as greek men, by greeks. there was enough unrest in her country, she would not bow to his will as her father had and prove to the people that she was nothing but a copy of her father. the alliance was shattered that day, the greeks forced to side with the entente to escape the ottoman wrath. it had been the morally right decision, but strategically dire. for the ottomans were not quick to forget.

following the break of alliance, the ottomans returned to their old ways. starting border skirmishes, raiding their farms, pillaging their villages. leaving greece in a vulnerable position. with her people starving, the sultan did not stop there. he needed a more personal attack. seeing how close the princess was to her sworn knight, the sultan had arranged to have elias murdered in the black of night. megaira had found his body outside her chambers that next morning, and she had screamed herself into hysterics until she had been forced back into her rooms. no good deed went unpunished. though she had not known it at the time, her dearest friend and the only thing akin to a father she had known, had died to establish her as a stronger ruler to her people.

the tragedy had not ended there. the negotiations had come to swift and sudden end when a bomb had been set off in bern, ending the lives of many rulers and putting several more out of action. that day had taken what remained of her support system. in all the chaos the ottomans had made another attempt on her life, and artemis had saved her from certain death but in the process had lost her life. megaira had sat with her closest companion as she died, and only when her brother had found her amongst the rubble of the collapsing castle did she allow herself to be dragged away. the next morning, as chaos reigned, she found out her sister had too been lost, as had her betrothed. the portuguese prince she had known as a girl, a childhood friend she had come to care for, even love. with no one left to seek refuge in, megaira left for greece. to heal and rebuild.

since her departure from bern, megaira has wed another to settle her position. a prince of a powerful country whose reach keeps the invaders at bay. for now. she does not love her husband, and sees their marriage as something formed of duty more than anything. she cannot bring herself to love another, not after losing the only man she could ever see herself loving. it is a match that has made her claim stronger, and her husband is as keen as she is to secure her throne. 

megaira does not like to be touched, physical contact makes her uncomfortable and if caught by surprise, afraid. gone is the girl who played in poppy meadows and played with her dog on the sands of crete, megaira has joined the talks of versaille a grown woman. colder, and distant from her former self. she no longer hesitates from doing as she must, as evidenced by her calculated murder of josephine, her brothers betrothed. the woman who had covered up elias’ murder. her death had come with the added bonus that her brother had been left without his rich bride. megaira feels no guilt for her actions, feeling they were entirely justified. 

though she might not describe herself as a pessimist, she is certainly a realist. her country is starving and she cares little for europe’s new attempts at peace when they hold their talks in halls painted with gold. versailles signifies all of what she hates. their indulgence disgusts her when her people have little food for their tables and suffer through droughts and invasions. so she wants no part of it. refusing to dress as a future queen might and opting for more plain and simple clothes like those of her home. the talks seem a waste of time to her, with other royals problems seeming insignificant and petty in comparison to greece, in the midst of civil war and starvation. 

megaira is still honest to a fault, refusing to bite her tongue to protect the feelings of others and so often comes across as insensitive or apathetic. though she has learned when she must turn on the charm, and has become more manipulative the closer she gets to the throne. in her time back in greece, she has learned the art of poison and has become adept with it. should an enemy cross her, she now has plenty in her arsenal to make a swift end of them. however she does still experience night terrors and so now suffers from insomnia, too afraid to sleep. there aren’t many she trusts to comfort her afterwards, but her new wolf ( black as night, named for cerberus, the hound that guards the gates of hell ) stands as her protector where his predecessor artemis had once stood.

megaira strongly believes in independence for greece, and longs to restore it to the great empire they used to be. and she is at these talks solely to achieve that. to make friends with powerful people, and to raise greece from the ashes. she does truly care for her people, but refuses to acknowledge that making peace with her brother may be a big step toward that. she still does not trust demetrios ( no matter how much she misses him and longs to seek his counsel ), and believes he will snatch her throne even now. in truth, megaira is nothing more than an outsider. lonely and desperate to belong somewhere. she craves the chance to prove herself to those she has pushed away. but don’t waste sympathy on her, she will not save any for you.

[miraweapons]

// Finally got a chance to type up her entire story about how she got her hammer. Hope you guys like it!

“Stop thief!!” A pirate called out to a girl with short dark hair. That girls name was Mira. She just so happened to stroll past a pirate ship looking for food. Thinking she could just grab and go, the girl came face to face with one of the crew members.

“You know, you shouldn’t try to hurt a lady!” Mira called out making a turn around a corner. She thought she got away but was stopped by more members of the pirate crew. Sighing to herself, she dropped the heavy load putting her hands up. “Alright missy, hand back the food now and also yourself included.” The leader of the group said holding out a knife. A grin spread across her face looking at each member. “You really wanna go there huh?” She reached down taking out a small hammer from her pocket. One look of the weapon made everyone burst into laughter. “The hell you gonna do with that?! Hurt our toes?!” One of them said, holding his stomach.

Of course their laughter didn’t last long when she squeezed the middle of the handle, causing the weapon to grow bigger in size. “Hahaha...that’s what I thought.” She said swinging the weapon overhead to strike them.

It didn’t take long to knock them all out judging by how weak they were. Picking up the bag of food, Mira was about to leave when she heard someone behind her. Looking around the corner, she frowned seeing a small boy trying to sneak off. “Hey you, freeze!” The kid froze in place looking back at her. “L-look I-I won’t tell alright! Just don’t hurt me!” He pointed to the oversized hammer in her hand. Tilting her head some, Mira noticed what he was staring at before chuckling. “What this?” She said squeezing the middle again. The hammer shrunk back to normal making the boy gasped in amazement. “That’s freaking cool!!!! How did you do that? Where did you even find it?! Is it ancient?! Is it curs….” before he can finish his sentence, Mira shushed him. “Shhhhh I will tell you all about it alright?” She said sitting down on the ground.

[Flashback]

Laughter could be heard from inside the bar as a group of pirates were there after sailing for days. Among that crowd was Mira, who was enjoying herself a little too much. She ran into the group after being attacked by a sea king.

“Well well well, seems like your having a great time there deary~” The captain of the crew strolled next to Mira with a pitcher of beer in hand. “Why not we take this party outside, shall we~” She nodded following along with him as the crew began singing Binks Sake out loud.

The two were in a heated make out session in the alley way not caring who was watching. Of course, she was only there to take the man's money and make a run for it. Yes, they did save her from the sea king however she needed supplies. Breaking from the kiss, she smiled looking up at him. “Maybe we should take it up a little bit more~?” She chuckled aiming for his pants. He hummed in delight getting ready to remove her clothes when he turned his attention to something shiny in the dark. “Hold on for a sec, doll.” Mira groaned loudly looking in the direction he was heading to.

“Huh, well that’s strange? I never imagine something like this being here.” He said making Mira walk over. Right there was a large hammer with a phoenix branded on it. The shaft had a bar in the center of it with the phoenix’s tail wrapped around it. “How did a hammer end up in the alley way?” Mira said poking it lightly. “I don’t know but I’m claiming it as my own.” He chuckled getting ready to pick it up. She noticed his actions quickly grabbing his arm. “Now now, why would you want some scrap metal like this. I mean there’s no value so why would you take it?” She smiled innocently. If she were to take it, then she can get even more out of it including his money. “Honestly you should let me have the hammer instead.” Mira proceed to grab the mysterious weapon when the man suddenly slammed her against the wall. “Honestly~ your pretty face isn’t going to fool me. I had a feeling you were after my money in the first place.” He snickered, grabbing the hammer beside him. “Now then, your coming with me and my crew once the log pose resets. Any objections and I will smash you with this hammer.”

So much for pickpocketing. She was so close to getting away. Watching him raise the weapon over head, she feared that this might be the end of her journey here. Well that’s what she thought. Thinking he had control, he fell backgrounds onto the ground with the hammer still in hand. “What the hell!?” He shouted standing back up. Mira watched him in confusion as he tried to pick up the hammer only losing balance and falling again. “What kind of hammer is this!?”

Mira chuckled watching the poor man trying to take control. Of course it didn’t last long when he finally broke his wrist, screaming bloody murder. That wasn’t good. Thinking on her feet, she grabbed the hammer from him, running out the alley as the rest of the crew came running out to were their captain was holding his wrist.

Making her way down to her small boat, Mira stopped breathed a sigh of relief. “Geez what is this thing?” She studied the object lifting it up. To her surprise, she didn’t struggle like he did. Making some small movements, she handled the weapon with ease. Almost like it was made for her. She grinned gripping the handle to strike when suddenly, it shrunk down to a tiny hammer causing her to fall forward. “Ok….that wasn’t smart…” She groaned looking down at it. She chuckled lightly tossing the small object in the air. “Somehow, I don’t want to sell you for money after all.”

[End of Flashback]

“...and from that day forward, this hammer kept me safe throughout my journey.” Mira chuckled patting her side where the hammer was resting. “Ew gross!!! You were making out with a stranger!!” The boy groaned only to get his cheek pulled by the dark haired girl. “Yeah well he was a jerk anyways.” She said as her transponder snail went off.

“You coming back to the ship anytime soon - yoi?” Mira chuckled knowing that was bird boy calling her. She knew he was concerned when she said she was just going out for supplies. “Yeah yeah, I’m coming. I just got into some trouble.” She said as the snail made an eyeroll. “Just hurry back. Everyone is waiting.”

The boy looked at her in shock. “Hey wait a sec...your not with…” Mira looked back and chuckled. “It's a story for another time. I really need to go.” Right when she was about to leave, she felt him tug on her shorts. “I-I wanna be a pirate too!!! You gotta take me with you!! I’ve been dreaming of becoming one my whole life! Plus your story about your hammer was amazing!!” The boy exclaimed. Mira bent down patting him on the head. “Come on, your too young to travel the seas. It dangerous out there and I rather not see you hurt.” That only earned a small groan from the kid. Mira sighed lifting his head up. “I’m pretty sure Shanks said the same thing to a well known pirate that’s making it big, when you become a great pirate, meet up with me someday. I would love to see how strong you’ll get.”

Mira got up and ran knowing that he was probably flying around in search of her leaving the boy in amazement. “Y-yeah...someday I will become a great pirate!!!” He shouted making her chuckle. Her transponder snail went off making her groan. “Yeah yeah don’t your panties in a bunch!!”

[mabel-but-slytherin]

Christmas Truce 2018

I know this is so very late, but like Danny I too can forget to prepare all of my Christmas gifts in time. I hope this is still on time for the Truce.

First a thank you to @monocheshaa for her wonderful gift for me, and a thank you/apology to @letswonderspirit for their patience! Based on the specific scene they asked for I think they were expecting art, but as I am a writer and cannot produce pictures with a fraction the beauty they can, you get this 3700 word fic instead. Enjoy!

Letswonderspirit asked for “Danny and Dani opening a present with Cujo inside. (If this is too specific than you can just do something with Cujo, I just really like dogs. thank you.)“

December 1st,

Danny Fenton walked through the Amity Park mall with a smile on his face for the first time in the month of December. He’d always hated the holiday spirit (spirits in general tended to haunt him or set his parents off, and Christmastime was no exception), but after being shown the Christmas Truce by Ghostwriter last year, Danny was determined to learn his lesson.

That wasn’t to say he didn’t come around to having a good holiday last year, but this time he was determined to get a head start on the season and do all the things he didn’t have the time and preparation to do. Namely, this year he wanted to be sure to get presents.

Being a first-time Christmas shopper, Danny was worried he’d have a hard time finding the time to sneak away from everyone and buy fitting gifts behind their backs. Yet it was not even 3pm on the first of the month and Danny already had half of his shopping done. New steel-toed black boots for Sam, a kit to build the first custom PDA-compatible laptop for Tucker, and most recently a memoir by the head of Harvard’s psychology department for Jazz. 

Even making time wasn’t so hard. All Danny had to do was tell his friends that he wanted to catch up on homework before the next ghost attack and they gave him pleased but dubious looks and sent him home. Once there, Danny had no problem: he was a pro at sneaking out of the house under his parents’ noses. Slip one small hint of a Santa sighting at the mall two towns over and Maddie was dashing to her bazooka awhile Jack ran for his Fenton™ Wish List.

Speaking of lists, Danny pulled out his list of people left to shop for and crossed Jazz’s name off. Looking down he knocked off Mom and Dad while he was at it. Mom did most of the family shopping and would definitely prefer something home-made and deadlier than what he could buy at 16 years old, so he’d just spend some time in the lab putting together some gadget throughout the month. Dad was probably the easiest of all: he’d pulled his mom aside last week while he helped serve Thanksgiving dinner and asked if they could work together to make double fudge this year. The squeal and hug his mom gave was almost another gift itself.

That just left some of his other classmates, and honestly, although Danny was trying to make up for years of missing the Christmas spirit even he admitted they were probably optional. Dash definitely wasn’t getting anything from Fenton, as the only thing Danny could think he’d like is 20 minutes to wail on Fenturd with no chance of Lancer catching him (and telling him to save his arm strength for the big game Friday).

Sam told Danny that under no circumstances should he buy a present for Paulina, but Danny couldn’t help himself, and felt pretty proud to have found a Danny Phantom compact mirror in the makeup section of the mall and then transformed briefly in the changing room to autograph it in green sharpie. (He later told Sam he found the present while looking in the make-up section for an eyeliner for Sam’s Goth look. He still doesn’t understand why Sam tested her new steel toes on his shins when he told her his first thought was that Paulina would love it.)

And of course getting a gift for Paulina meant he had to pull something together for at least a couple other people or else risk coming across as creepy. Star just needed something fashionable and shiny, and given that Danny knew nothing about fashion he just went for shiny earrings and hoped she wouldn’t hit him. He probably didn’t need to get anything for Wes, but let’s just say a whole day walking through Amity Park mall revealed so many potential gag t-shirts that Danny couldn’t resist.

Valerie would be both the easiest and hardest to shop for. She was extremely practical ever since her dad lost her job, and would happily accept any homecooked treat or mall store gift card, but Danny also wanted to give her something more meaningful without being frivolous. Danny wanted to give her a box of tree-shaped sugar cookies and a matching Christmas tree sweater, but when the ecto-oven brought the cookies to life and Danny took them out with the closed Fenton™ pistol, the teen settled for giving her the sweater and the pistol instead.

A bead of sweat ran down Danny’s face as he imagined what her reaction would be to that…

With all the humans crossed off his list, Danny was ready to call it a day. Over a year of being a halfa had taught him better than to guess at ghost traditions, so his plan was to fly over to Ghostwriter’s next week to ask for advice on presents for the Truce before the scribe was too deep into the holiday rush. There were a bunch of things Danny wanted to ask, from prospective gifts to whether he should be getting something for just his allies or his nemeses, and how a good hit or faux pas might impact his survival in the coming year. No matter what, Danny had already swore he would take a hard pass on getting a gift for Vlad. Half-ghost he may be, that man was a full-blooded fruitloop and would inevitably read way into anything from Danny.

The young hero already started to fold the list to put in his pocket when his eyes froze on one last name scrawled at the bottom of his list with a question mark. It was no question that Danny cared about the last name and wanted to give her a nice Christmas, the only question was whether she would be there to receive it.

After all, Dani had stopped by every couple of months ever since she was stabilized and free to travel the world, but it was purposefully near-impossible to contact the young girl on the run, and Danny had no clue if she even knew of the holiday. Even if she did, there was the question of whether she would come visit him or celebrate abroad.

Either way, it was Dani’s first Christmas and she was Danny’s clone, which meant it was Danny’s responsibility to find her the perfect present just in case she stopped by, right? Well, ghost etiquette was one thing, but Danny had no idea who to ask on clone etiquette so as the older clone/brother in this situation he was going to call himself the expert and go with that. 

That just left one major problem: what could a sixteen-year-old teenager from the Midwest who already burned half his allowance on other presents get for a half-ghost pickpocket whose already flown halfway around the world?

Two laps around the mall later and Danny was still stumped. Flashy clothes from most of the girly stores were flimsy and would only make her stand out. Anything bigger than a bag was too bulky to carry, any electronic device Danny would have to make sure she could use and charge it, and also pray there was no tracking to put her on someone’s radar. Money or gift cards was impractical and would probably look to her like a moral lecture, and while Danny briefly considered a souvenir from Amity Park as a good gag, the teen was embarrassed by how they probably paled in comparison to all the ones she’s probably seen.

Danny sighed and just decided to make his way home. The homework/mall Santa distractions would only buy him so much time and he still had a few weeks to finalize ideas, so there was no need to rush.

A piercing scream burst out throughout the mall and the cry of “GHOST!” made Danny groan and wonder where he could possibly stash his latest purchases before the next fight, as he highly doubted the Truce extended all the way to early bird shopping. Then a bark followed and Danny gave a sigh of relief. “Cujo! Get out of there!”

Maybe there wouldn’t be a fight after all.

December 24th,

Danny had been wondering how far the Christmas Truce stretched. Apparently, the answer was not until the stroke of midnight Christmas Day.

Or at least that’s what Skulker thought, coming after Danny shouting that his pelt would make such a nice gift to Ember that she’d have to accept his proposal. Danny wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that, and was currently trying to either wrestle him into the Thermos or run out the clock.

Of course, Danny also didn’t want to risk getting on the bad side of the entire Ghost Zone by violating the Truce and continuing to fight on Christmas morning. Skulker had the advantage of a mechanical exoskeleton featuring a timepiece, but Danny had to try to keep him somewhere that he had a view of the Amity Times clocktower.

That and the desire to minimize property damage on Christmas Eve left Danny stuck in the wide open space of the park. Which makes hiding and dodging Skulker’s myriad of bombs and nets a challenge.

“Seriously Skulker, you haven’t been able to catch me in over two years! Did you really think you would be able to capture me in under an hour?” Danny taunted as he evaded yet another cannon blast that expanded into a taser net shortly after passing over his shoulder.

“Quiet, welp! The best hunter knows how to claim victory under pressure!”

Danny paused before firing an ectoblast at Skulkers torso. “I thought the saying was ‘a great hunter knows how to bide his time…’”

“…And seize an opportunity.” Skulker finished as he took advantage of Danny’s distraction to pull out a small pistol and shoot the Fenton thermos out of his left hand. Danny cursed and rubbed his burnt hand as he watched the thermos fly halfway across the park.

“Yes, I quite like the saying.” Skulker continued. “Speaking of like, I also must admit I am enjoying this new pistol! You see, Ember and I have started this family tradition where we open one small present each on Christmas Eve, and I just happened to get this little thing. I can’t wait until tomorrow to open the other present under the tree, it’s shaped like a blaster and bigger than the tree itself!”

Danny shivered. “Okay, first off, I guess that explains the sudden Christmas Eve manhunt. Second, please never talk to me about you and Ember’s ‘family traditions’ ever again. Already imagined one messed up ghost couple future, don’t need another one.

“Third,” Danny said as he glanced between where his thermos went flying and Skulker preparing another round from the net launcher, “I don’t really want to be Christmas dinner. Let’s go back to the original plan of Christmas duck-duck-goose!”

Danny made a break in the direction of the thermos, then banked into a sharp curve as Skulker fired the net right behind him. The net again sailed past him as Skulker fell for the feint and carried on in the direction of the open field near the thermos.

Until a small green blur dashed across the grass towards where the thermos was lying.

Recognizing the ghostly green glow but too far to see the shape, Danny could only wonder either who would show up in the human world this close to Christmas Day or when Skulker got a hunting partner.

The figure’s identity was made apparent when it finished trotting over to the thermos, picked it up in its mouth, and let out a happy bark.

“Cujo!” Danny called. The small ghost dog wagged his tail and looked over in Danny’s direction.

“Oh wow, you must want to play fetch. Good boy, Cujo, bring the thermos over here!” Danny turned his spectral tail back into human (ghostly?) legs and patted them to further call Cujo over. The dog started trotting happily until it yelped as a third net flew by and tangled it in the grass.

“Phantom has a puppy?” Skulker wondered aloud. “And one that is fearless in the face of battle? You will make the finest gift to Ember this holiday! She will cement you as one of her cutest fans and I will train you into the Ghost Zone’s Greatest Hunting Dog! Skulker shouted as he flew over towards Cujo.

Cujo just ignored Skulker and started trying to drag the net towards where Danny was running to him. Skulker shook his head at the sight and reached towards his controls for the taser net. “First, to teach you some obedience.”

As soon as he turned the dial to its lowest setting, the net turned on and started to zap Cujo lightly. This caused the dog to yelp, and then grow angry.

And then to just grow.

Within seconds, Cujo stood tall in his full, monstrous height. The net snapped off of the dog now twice its size, and the freed prey turned his eyes directly onto Skulker.

“Oh no.” The hunter muttered.

Cujo charged towards Skulker as the mechanical ghost tried to fly away, and managed to close the distance in time to grab on to one of Skulker’s jet boots and pull it off like a 20-foot puppy stealing a stranger’s shoe. The ghost dog had just finished shaking the lone boot and turned to the sky to growl and the figure trying to balance with one-sided rocket propulsion when the clocktower struck midnight.

In a flash, Cujo shrunk back down to his puppy size and panted up at Skulker, tossing the boot around for a second before lying down and gnawing it like the advanced ghostly technology was his latest chew toy.

Skulker, realizing it was safe to land, crashed back down to the grass and tried to approach Cujo to retrieve his boot. Cujo remained in puppy form, but instantly grabbed the shoe and backed away, growling menacingly that the shoe was his.

“Oh, come now!” Skulker shouted. “It’s Christmas.”

“And that is his toy your trying to take, Grinch.” Danny smiled as he walked over and scratched Cujo behind the ears. Seeing Skulker’s frown, Danny sighed and slowly pulled the metal boot out of Cujo’s mouth before throwing the thermos to distract him. The dog happily ran after the thermos, leaving Danny to shake the pool of saliva off the boot before handing it back to Skulker.

“Just this once, because it’s Christmas.” Danny said.

Skulker grabbed the boot and shoved it on his foot before grimacing and the squelching sound it made. “Ugh. Fine, I accept your gift and will be prepared to make an honorable exchange for this gift at the Truce this evening. Merry Christmas, Whel- I mean, Danny.”

Danny smiled. “You’re welcome Skulker.” The teen nodded before grimacing himself. “Wait… gift exchange… Danny… I totally forgot to get a present for Dani!”

Skulker tilted his head. “You exchange presents between your two halves? That is… an odd halfa tradition I was not aware of.”

“No!” Danny shouted. “Not for me, other Dani! Man, I was planning on getting her something all month, but time totally flies.”

Danny turned around to see that Skulker had already flew back towards FentonWorks and the Ghost Portal while his back was turned. “Guess that’s not the only thing that flew by. And I gotta fly home myself.”

“Woof!” Danny looked down to see Cujo triumphantly wagging his tail over the Fenton Thermos lying at Danny’s feet. Looking around and seeing no other ghosts to take him back to the Ghost Zone, Danny scooped the little dog into his arms and start flying back towards home.

“You travel all over the place, Cujo, maybe you can help me? What present can I get for my clone/cousin who’s been all around the world and just grabs whatever she wants?”

December 25th,

Danny woke up the next morning to see a pair of nearly identical blue eyes perched over him, shining with a burst of holiday joy that Danny himself had never felt until this month.

“Good morning, Danny!” Dani cried out, “Guess what day it is?!”

“I don’t know,” Danny bit out teasingly as he laughed at her excitement, “Christmas?”

“Yeah!” Dani shouted, causing her original to just laugh at her even more. “Hey, I have a right to be excited, this is my first one!”

Danny just smiled. “In a way, this is my first one too.

“I’m glad you’re here and all, but what are you doing in my room?” Danny asked his clone.

Dani shrugged. “Well, everywhere I’ve been people are saying Christmas is time to spend with your family. And given that the rest of my family doesn’t know I exist, I can’t really go downstairs.”

Danny frowned at that, before seeing the matching expression on his younger clone’s face and realizing that his job for today is to make her smile. “I guess that just means we have to do the present exchange up here then before Mom and Dad wake up, and you can hang around the rest of the day invisibly. Let me go get Jazz so she can join us.”

That worked, and Dani’s face stretched into a grin for a moment before she paused. “Wait,” Dani said, “present exchange?”

At Danny’s nod she groaned. “Oh no! I forgot to get you guys anything!”

To her surprise, Danny just laughed. “Don’t sweat it!” He consoled her, “this is actually the first year I’ve been able to get everyone a present. We’ll just have you open your presents, and then you can tell Jazz and I all the cool stories about places you’ve been!”

Dani smiled again at this, missing Danny reaching under his bed to grab her present box before he slipped out the door to wake Jazz. He had just a couple finishing touches to put on her gift before he returned.

The three teens sat tightly together on Danny’s bed as both Fentons passed their wrapped presents over to Dani.

“Oooh, ooh, open mine first!” Jazz exclaimed, still able to get childishly excited about every holiday.

Dani obliged and started ripping the tape off of the elaborately wrapped package, before watching Jazz wince at the destruction of her wrapping perfection and attempting to pry to tape open without damaging the paper. A second later had the young clone groaning in frustration before slapping her head and phasing the paper right off.

Once the paper was gone, Dani awed over the beautiful ribbon in her hand. It perfectly matched the one Jazz wore in her hair with the exception of its dark red color that was the exact shade of Dani’s sweatshirt. Dani held it up to her hair and giggled and Jazz leaned across her lap to tie it, the young clone’s arms reaching out to pull Jazz into a hug when the older girl was done.

“Thank you so much Jazz! I love it!” Dani squealed as she squeezed tighter.

“You’re welcome!” Jazz replied. “I’m so glad you love it! I figured it would fit under your hood when you wanted to hide away somewhere, and that no matter where you are in this world or the Ghost Zone, we’ll match!”

Dani reached up to feel the ribbon and her grin stretched even wider. “I’ll just have to figure out a way to get it to stay on in my ghost form.”

Jazz smiled, and then let her expression shift into a smirk. “Or… you could just wear this one.” She said coyly, reaching into her pajama pocket to pull out another ribbon, this one ghostly green.

The two girls squealed and hugged yet again, and Danny hoped his gift would be just as well received. “Well Dani,” he said, passing over a wrapped box. 

“Here’s your gift from me. I would just untie the bow and open the box rather than phase it out.”

Dani took that as permission to rip right into it and within seconds was raising the lid and getting ready to look inside. She was interrupted by a small yip.

“Danny!” Jazz shouted, aghast. “There were no air holes on there!”

Danny smirked, “Her gift doesn’t need it.”

Dani froze as she looked down into the box, further deepening Jazz’s puzzled expression. A second later Dani reached both hands into the box and pulled out a playfully panting Cujo.

“Oh my god Danny, this is amazing!”

“His name’s Cujo,” Danny told his clone as she cuddled Cujo up to her face and laughed when Cujo licked her. “He’s run through Amity Park a couple of times looking to play, but is always just going from place to place. I figured with each other you both might be less lonely.”

Cujo seemed to take that cue to look up and down Danielle, see the big red bow tied in her hair, and happily bark like he had just received his own half-human for Christmas.

Dani smiled so wide she nearly cried and had to place Cujo on the floor in order to make room for the giant hug she gave her clone/cousin. Cujo of course objected to the sudden lack of warmth and made it known by growing to his full size, prompting Dani to shout “Awesome!” and hug Danny even harder.

Danny just grinned and basked in Dani’s happiness. Yeah, sometimes the only thing to give someone who has the world is someone to share it with, and he was so glad that the two looked like they would be happy together.

They were so happy, that that very afternoon the Red Huntress came out chasing complaints of a giant green ghost dog roaming Amity Park, hoping to finally get revenge on the ghost boy for ruining her life. She was stunned to instead find Danielle riding in the ghost dog’s fur, laughing and hollering and shouting that this was the best Christmas ever. 

For once in her career Valerie decided to let a ghost go, figuring that out of everyone, the ghost girl deserved to be happy on Christmas day. She was sure Mayor Masters would forgive her for taking a day off to spend with the her family. Even if the ghost dog pooped on his front lawn.

That was the moment Dani swore she and Cujo would be friends for life. The had a whole world to travel together, and a whole afterlifetime of Christmases to do it.

[rosyredlipstick]

Do you ever think that conner prayed to his dad like "i need to get to cali asap, to smooch a son of aphrodite, any help??" And then bam he gets to be at mitchell's side in like less than an hour

“I can’t believe you’re doing this.”

Connor clenched his jaw, focusing on the task before him. “You’ve done it.”

Travis leaned against the doorway, the screen door between the balcony and the inside of their apartment separating them. He raised an eyebrow as he stared down at his younger brother. “Katie was in the hospital for appendicitis. It was an emergency.”

Connor clicked his lighter once again - it was his favorite, a gold and black metal one he’d pickpocketed in Time Square - but it was running low. He’d need to acquire a new one soon.

Connor’s tongue poked out between his teeth as he concentrated. He shifted the black stones into a position to let them breathe better.

“This is an emergency.”

“Really,” Travis’s voice was colored with disbelief, “this is an emergency?”

Connor finally broke his focus, throwing his hands to the air. “It is, okay! It’s really important that I get there, and there’s no last minute flights out there. This is my only option, okay?”

Travis observed him for a long moment before sighing, sliding the screen door back. He rolled his sleeves up, closing the door behind him, and peered over Connor’s shoulder.

“What are you burning?”

Connor nearly fell with relief at his brother’s help. Prayer was stronger when it was together. “Some prime cut from the butcher’s shop, I know he likes it.”

“Did you get -”

“Some Reese’s Cups, yeah.”

Both boys nodded at each other, satisfied. It was a good offering.

Travis used a metal rod to poke at the charcoal, waving at his face to keep the smoke from it. The small grill they kept on their baloney was hardly used to something other than the best bits at the beginning of meals - it would hardly hold the expensive cut of meat Connor had picked up.

Travis tended to the fire as Connor began to peel the plastic back from the meat, the shiny wrappers from the chocolate. Their father, as the entire cabin knew by now, had a certain weakness for the peanut butter cups.

Travis gestured for him to toss in the offerings once the fire was decent, and Connor followed the instruction without question. He wiped his hands off, some of the chocolate already having melted to his fingertips, and grabbed Travis’s extended hand.

And they prayed.

They - Connor in particular - prayed hard, hand-in-hand, chocolate and meat blackening in front of them, filling the hopeful air with burning fragrance.  

“Really,” a new voice rang out, and Connor’s breath caught. “This is an emergency?”

Their father stood in front of them, their small balcony having hardly enough room to fit them all. His arms were crossed, his eyebrow raised, and was giving him the same judgement filled eyes his older brother had turning on him.

Connor threw his hands up, Travis’s own falling from his grip, but couldn’t deny the bubble of relief building inside of him. He gave Connor an amused smirk as the younger boy declared, “It is an emergency!”

“Son,” Hermes rolled his eyes, turning to walk in the apartment. The screen gave him no resistance as he passed through it. “You called me for this?”

Connor huffed out a breath, him and Travis both following him in, actually pulling back the screen door this time. Travis - the smart one of them - remembered to cover the fire, lest burning down their apartment building.

Again.

Hermes was surveying their living space as they came in, inspecting a mold spot with a slightly interested look.

“I think this might be a new species you’ve formed here.” He remarked.

“Nah, that’s just an old PBJ.”

“Delightful.”

“Where’re George and Martha?” Travis asked, perking up. He had a certain fondness for them.

Hermes turned towards their small kitchen, peering into their fridge, opening the cabins. Nosy.

Hermes waved his question off, “Taking a spa day - apparently the stress is getting to them.” His voice was amused as he explained this, reaching out a hand to poke at something in one of their cabinets. The old bag of bread probably. Connor was hoping to base his science fair project off of it.

Travis looked pleased. George and Martha deserved it, honestly.

Hermes finally looked to be finished looking through their apartment, only a single quick look thrown to their mother’s empty room. She would be in…Miami, right now. Or at least in the air above it.

Hermes turned back to him, “You prayed for my precise, what do you need?” Hermes asked, despite already knowing. He probably needed to them ask clearly - godly magic was tricky like that.

Connor let out a breath. “I need you to get me to California. San Francisco, to be precise. I can call an Uber once I’m there just - I need to get there.”

Hermes raised an eyebrow, “And this has to do with Aphrodite’s boy?”

Connor nodded, a bit desperately. “Mitchell. He won some kind of archery award and he was - he was just sad last time we talked that no one could make it to the ceremony for him because Sebastian’s parents are out of town, and Seb himself is sick and -” Connor cut himself off, staring at his hands. “I want to be there for him.”  

There was a beat of silence as Hermes stared at him.

“This isn’t an emergency.” Hermes told him, flipping out his phone, hundreds of notifications already flooding the screen.

Connor sighed, “It’s not in the most traditional sense,” he allowed his father, “but it’s really important. To me.”

There was a long moment of silence as Hermes was turned towards his phone. He gave Travis a desperate look, who shrugged.

Connor tried again, “Please, dad. I - I wouldn’t be asking if this was something I could do on my own.”

The silence fell over them again. Connor began to deflate.

“It’s done,” Hermes suddenly announced, attaching a black block to his phone - something like a square reader but bigger - in a quick, smooth movement. He waited a few moments before a long ticket began printing itself. He ripped the paper off, holding out to Connor.

Connor stumbled forward to take it, staring down at it. “What - what is it?”

“Your tickets,” Hermes focused back on his smartphone, sliding through a few apps. “Simply write your destination - be descriptive, we don’t need another Paris, Texas incident - on the front, black or blue pen, no pencil it confuses the magic - and light it on fire. Use one half to get there, the other half to get home.” Hermes gave him a stern look, “I expect you to be in school by Wednesday.”

“We have school on Monday and Tuesday.” Connor told him, a bit numb.

“I know,” Hermes shrugged, sliding his phone back into his pocket. “You’re young. You’re not going to miss anything life changing by missing a few days of school.”

Connor stumbled forward again, this time throwing his arms around the taller man’s shoulders. Hermes tensed, unsure for a moment, before relaxing, his hand coming up to pat his back.

Hermes had been trying, since the war. Since Luke.

It was ridiculous how grateful Connor could feel about that.

“Thanks, dad.” He muttered into his father’s suit, probably wrinkling the no doubt expensive fabric. Silk, maybe. Armani, definitely.

Hermes was nodding as Connor pulled away, his own eyes probably red. Hermes cleared his throat, still nodding, and pulled out his phone. Connor looked back, and Travis was grinning proudly.

“I have to be going,” Hermes told them, tapping out something on his phone. He gave them another look, “Don’t get into trouble you can’t get out of, you two. I can only manipulate so many police records before your mother gets suspicious.”

Travis finger-gunned at the older man, “No promises.”

“Thanks, dad.” Connor swallowed against the tightening of his throat.

He held up his hand in a quick gesture of goodbye, and that was it.

And, in moment to the next, he was gone. There was no theatrical display of smoke or light, just a slight shifting of air as mass that was previously occupied began empty, and the air adjusted accordingly so.

Travis clasped his hand over his shoulder, “Gonna surprise him?”

Connor was already nodding - they both had a probably worrying love for surprises. Travis accepted this, grinning, and headed towards the kitchen. Outside, the fire had burnt out the moment Hermes had disappeared.

“Oh, sweet.” Travis grinned, bending down to look closer inside their fridge. “Dad got us groceries.”

“Hot cheetos?” Connor asked hopefully, staring down at the ticket in his hands.

“Like, five bags. Oh, and my favorite pringles. Nice.”

“Nice,” He agreed, holding the ticket to his chest for another moment.

Looks like he had to pack.

-

Hermes does the exact thing my mother does when she visits my brother and I - meaning, opening every single cabinet, looking in the fridge, opening all the drawers. Idk mom. Idk. also i live with a gross adult boy. he’s disgusting and the moldy bag of bread is a nightmare i have weekly. 

Also I just really want Hermes to be a good dad ok. ok. let me have this. 

Mitchell cried when he saw his boyfriend in the front row, nearly taking the whole thing up with the filled chairs of gifts beside him. it was cute as hell. 

[ranger-of-estel]

A Legend Returns: Chap 2

The team lands in Egypt early so they have time to canvas the museum. Leonard continues to learn about the changes since his disappearance.

Also on AO3

Lay of the Land

               When Leonard wakes the next morning he’s hardly rested; having spent the night reliving the mission in WWI, and the vicious things he’d said to Mick at their reunion. He knows the other man won’t hold it against him. Angry words often fading more quickly than even the bruises they inflict on one another. Still, he intends to make it up to his partner somehow once this heist is finished and things settle a little.

               When he gets to the galley he finds the whole crew is once again present. But this time instead of Ray it is Mick standing with his back to the group while cooking over the stove. Sara glances up flashing a smile as she chops vegetables at the counter. “Morning Len.” She turns to where the others are seated at the tables with various drinks. “Nate! Bacon?”

               “Of course!” he replies, and she quickly crumbles several pieces into what appears to be a bowl of cheese and mixed greens.

               She taps Mick’s shoulder, “On your right.” She places the bowl on the counter at his elbow.

When she turns back Leonard slips onto one of the stools across from her. “I never took you for a cook Assassin.” He comments, watching as she makes quick work of another pepper.

               “She’s not.” Mick replies gruffly, turning to glance at the pair, a teasing grin pulling at his lips. “Blondie here burns oatmeal.”

               “Hey!” she glares, “That was one time!”

               “Then there were the charcoal bagels.” Jax chimes in from the table.

               “And the doughy centered biscuits,” Ray follows

               “Or your poor attempt at a quiche.” Stein adds

               “Alright, you’ve made your point.” She snaps, though there is no real heat in it, the crew merely laughing in response. He notices the almost smile on her own lips as she shakes her head. “I’m trained to cook fresh meals over a fire, not in a timeship.”

               “Librarian,” Mick holds out a plate with a massive omelet, Nate immediately on his feet to retrieve the meal. Of course that’s Mick’s meal, memories of mornings in safe houses with him, Lisa and Mick sitting around a beat up table eating the meal his partner had made. Kids who had nothing but each other, and made the best of it. He’s drawn back to the present at Mick’s voice, “Captain?”

               She hands him a bowl, then turns her attention back to Leonard. “What about you?”

               “I got him,” Mick answers

               At Leonard’s nod she just shrugs, “Alright.” She walks over to pour herself a cup of coffee, offering a grateful smile and “Thanks,” as Mick holds out another plate. He offers his customary grunt in response, then returns to his task while she moves over to the table.

               “How did you get dragged into this?” Leonard asks when Mick finally turns, sliding a plate across to him before leaning back against the counter with his own.

               “Haircut started it.” He shrugs. “I don’t mind. Beats replicator food.” He offers a half smile, “Not the first time I’ve cooked for a crew.”

               Len chuckles, cutting his meal into pieces. “The three of us were hardly a crew at the time.”

               “The two of you sure ate like one.” He retorts, then motions to the table. “They do better with morning’s than Lisa.” He shrugs, “Well, cept Sara until after her coffee.”

               “Can’t blame her for that,” Leonard looks over, “I’d need it to lead this group too.”

               Mick chuckles, “She does good, keeps them on the same page.”

               “And you?” he tilts his head.

               “Hey,” Amaya turns in her seat, “You two going to come join us?”

               “Yeah!” Ray scoots down, “We’ve got room.” The pair share a quick look, then with a nod move over to the others.

               Once the meal is over everyone launches into a flurry of activity. Sara has announced they will be landing early in the day, allowing everyone a little time to explore before the actual mission begins. Leonard hears a few of them discussing clothes, and he knows without checking that at least Sara, and probably Mick will be doublechecking their weapons.

               “Snart,” Jefferson sprints down the hall, offering a small device to the taller man. “Here’s the camera you asked for.”

               “Thanks,” he nods, taking the object. “Can you run the feed through Gideon’s system?”

               “Of course,” he grins, “It’s already set up.”

               “Good man,” He smirks.

               “Jax!” Sara’s voice echoes down the hall.

               “Coming!” he shouts back, offering a quick apologetic smile to Leonard. “I’ll get it transmitting before they leave tonight.”

               He nods, making his way to the bridge, flipping the device over in his hands. The camera lens is no bigger than the end of his pinky, the small wire he assumes for audio.  It amazes him how far technology has come since he first got into thievery as a teen.

               “Jax said you had a piece of tech for me?” Sara’s voice draws his eyes up to where she’s standing a few feet from him.

               He shifts forward in the jumpseat, holding it out to her. “More for my benefit than yours.” He stands as she closes the distance between them. She’s in cuppries and a light, flowy shirt, hair falling in loose waves over her shoulders. “the camera will not hinder you any way, but it will make my job easier if I’m seeing what you are.”

               She nods, taking it and flipping it in her hands for inspection like he had. “Makes sense.” She sets it on the table, then cocks her head. “Care to join us for a tour through the museum?” she motions toward the door, “We were going to go have a look around before the actual event.”

               He offers a smirk, “Double checking your information? Smart move.”

               “Thanks,” she grins, then turns back for the hall. “Be ready in fifteen.”

               He is, and soon everyone but Rip has left the ship. Sara passes around the pills that Raymond and Len had taken in Russia so they can avoid the need for translators or missing important info. They split up, the heist team heading toward the museum while the others canvas the area for any sign of the pirates. “I’ve always wanted to visit Egypt,” Raymond states as they walk, turning about trying to absorb everything around them. “I mean, the pyramids alone are fascinating. Did you know –“ Leonard blocks out his voice, uninterested in knowing how or why the massive structures have caught the scientist’s attention.

               He’s relieved when they reach the three-story structure, Italian he thinks, the white almost reflective in the sun. Grateful to step into air conditioning, while he’s forgone multiple layers the single long sleeve shirt is still hotter than he’d like. Still, he learned a long time ago that the heat is preferable over the stares when he doesn’t cover the scars. He starts as a hand touches his elbow, Sara quickly withdrawing it with a quiet apology. “Here,” she holds out a ticket, “Welcome to the Alexandria National Museum.” He accepts the small piece of paper, watching as she passes them out to the other two as well.

               Raymond takes off almost instantly, something about seeing a section on Egyptian technology and architecture. “I got him,” Mick rolls his eyes, following after the other man with a sigh.

               “They seem pretty close,” The words slip out before Leonard can stop himself.

               Sara looks after them, lips pulled up at the corner. “Shockingly Raymond does a good job of leveling Mick out.” She shakes her head, motioning toward an exhibit as the pair begin to walk. “At least when they aren’t trying to kill each other.” She shakes her head, “I think Ray felt guilt at first,” she looks up, “That you died in his place,” she shrugs, “But it’s grown into a friendship.”

               He pushes back the surprise, ignoring the twinge of something, and reminding himself that time apart has never shadowed their partnership before. “And what about the new girl? I noticed she and Mick seem to gravitate.” Len’s hands are in his pockets, eyes scanning the glass cases as they walk.

               “Amaya?” Sara chuckles, “You’ll have to ask Mick about that.” He sees the smile on her lips, something a little gentler than before, “They are opposites, but good for each other.”

“You know,” he glances at her, deciding a change of subject is best as they slip between other museum guests as they walk. “I still haven’t heard how you became Captain.”

               “Nothing terribly exciting,” she shrugs, “Rip was gone, Martin froze up and stepped down, it just sorta happened after that.”

               “Huh,” he motions with his head toward a glass case near the center of the room. The display has various jewelry, in the center rests the medallion they intend to take. They make a couple passes each, then radio in the other two so that they can do the same.

               “So Crook,” they’ve moved on to a different section, Sara browsing the weapons hanging as he eyes another set of jewels. “What would you take? If this wasn’t about ruining someone else’s plan?” This starts a game, they take turn picking items, and how they would get them until they find themselves outside the front doors once more.

               “That was so cool.” Ray looks between them, “What did you guys think.”

               “That it’s a museum, and one that needs better security.” Leonard replies, pulling a wallet from his pocket as they walk back to the ship. “Here, might come in handy.” He pulls out a security card which he offers to Sara.

               “You pickpocketed part of the security team?” she chuckles.

               “Anything else good?” Mick asks, Leonard tossing him the leather wallet.

               “I couldn’t resist,” he rests his hands in his pockets once more. “And a good thief is always looking for a backup plan.”

               When they get back to the ship they split up again, Len managing a quick meal before Sara calls them all to the bridge. She’s opted for an all black outfit instead of her usual white, hair pulled up in a practical ponytail. “Nice look,”

               She smiles, offering him a little twirl. “I thought the white canary suit may not be the best for this particular outing.” She pats near her collar, “Jax got your camera all hooked up too.”

               “It will make the security box easier.” He replies.

               “Or, you know, there’s still room on the team.” She shrugs, eyeing him hopefully. “You could come see it in person.”

               He shakes his head, “I’ll be more use to you here.” He motions out the front of the ship. “Consider this a test of skill on your part.”

               She shifts forward, tone playful. “You afraid I’ll show you up?”

               He scoffs, “Hardly.” He saunters into space, “In fact, I’m still questioning your choice of crew.”

               “Raymond may surprise you.” She defends.

               “Of that I have little doubt,” he states, and before she can reply the rest of the team files into the room. Mick is dressed in dark colors, and Raymond is in his suit. The other team members are in the same tourist style outfits as the beginning of the day as they all approach the holo-table.

               “Alright. Mick, Raymond and I will sneak in and exchange the medallions.” She looks over the other members, “You are strictly to watch for Maestro and defend civilians. I don’t want innocents hurt in a shoot out.” They nod, and she continues. “Leonard will be directing operations from here, and Rip.” She turns to the former Captain, “We’ll be counting on you and Gideon to have us ready to jump should we encounter trouble.”

               “Of course,” both Rip says at the same time as the AI’s “Understood, Captain.”

               “Let’s go save history,” she motions them all off the ship, Leonard’s attention turning to activating the camera feed. From there all he can do for now is wait.

Chap 1 (x) Chap 3 (x)

[bentonpena]

Even the tech expert from 'Mr. Robot' can’t figure out this iPhone hack

Even the tech expert from 'Mr. Robot' can’t figure out this iPhone hack https://engt.co/2oHr514

If your dad were the technical advisor for the realistic hacks on Mr. Robot and he lovingly micromanaged your gadgets, you'd probably feel pretty badass about the security of your personal devices. So when one of Marc Rogers' kids had their iPhone pickpocketed at San Francisco Pride this year, things took an unexpected turn when tech-savvy thieves pulled off hacking tricks that had Rogers beside himself with curiosity and fascination. And concern. Lots of concern.

"Since this was my kid we are talking about, the phone was up to date and had a strong password and FaceID enabled, and activation lock was turned on," Rogers told Engadget via email. The teen noticed the phone missing within 10 minutes of its theft and immediately began security protocols. "As soon as the phone was found to be missing it was switched to Lost Mode and later a wipe command was sent to it," he explained.

Since that's exactly what you're supposed to do, that should have been the end of it. A loss to be sure, and a pain to start over with a new iPhone. Except Rogers noticed that neither the Lost Mode activation or wipe command went through, leading him to "believe the phone has been immediately powered down or placed in a bag that blocked signals. That and the fact that it never resurfaced told me that whoever stole it knew what they were doing and had done this before."

Most likely, the iPhone was powered down immediately and placed in a radio frequency-blocking bag (also called a Faraday Bag or RFID bag), a foil-lined sleeve or even an empty potato chip bag. This step interferes with Activation Lock, Find My iPhone, and Remote Wipe. In fact, after anti-theft "kill switch" features were introduced, iPhone theft rate dropped by 40 percent in San Francisco and 25 percent in New York within 12 months. London saw its iPhone thefts reduced by half.

The blocked signals didn't surprise Rogers; understanding digital crime is his job, after all. He explained in a post on Dark Reading what usually happens to a stolen iPhone after that:

The devices are then powered up only when thieves are positive no signal can reach or inspect them. If the phone is out of date and a software vulnerability exists, they hack the phone and wipe it clean to be resold. If the phone is up to date but not valuable enough to resell, it is either junked or sold for parts. This can easily happen on both older and newer models of phones.

But what happened to his kid's phone next surprised him. Within a few days, the teen "started getting these highly targeted messages using information they had apparently managed to extract." That information included the child's correct Apple ID, its associated email address, "they knew the phone number associated with it even though the SIM card had been killed," and the attackers "sent a range of different messages trying several different social engineering tactics" to try and trick Rogers's kid into clicking on tainted links.

The messages, sent by SMS/iMessage, were made to look like they came from Apple. Yet Rogers noticed they "rotated through a range of different mobile numbers, possibly to avoid detection." The attackers also rotated through a variety of iCloud addresses in order to prevent the victim from ignoring or blocking any of the messages.

Even though Rogers reported the messages as "junk" (this is what Apple advises), the messages came in a relentless flood. "At one point, more than 10 messages per day came in at all hours," he wrote.

He did some online digging and discovered what others are experiencing at the hands of similar attackers. "Apple forums are full of users asking for help after clicking on similar phishing emails. After which their phone is almost instantly deleted from their account, never to be seen again." If the target clicked on one of the links, Rogers explained, "they were immediately redirected to a fake Find My iPhone page that attempted to harvest their AppleID and password, as shown below, taken from fake Apple servers." From there, he wrote for Dark Reading:

If the target entered their AppleID credentials into the site, the phone would have been quickly deleted from their account. And often, the first moment targets know this has happened is when the missing device disappears from the list of devices trackable through Find My iPhone.

Sometimes, for good measure, the thief will hijack the target's AppleID, changing email addresses and contact information to exploit the account further."

Rogers was taken aback by the accuracy and automation of the attacks. "This is the first time I have seen spear-phishing used as a technique like this to bypass anti-theft technology used by consumers," he said. "The attacks appear to have been around since 2017 but steadily getting more sophisticated and more targeted."

He added that "normally this kind of very personal spear-phishing is something you associate with high-value targets like the directors of companies, however now it is being used against ordinary smartphone users. We have clearly reached a point where tools are readily available to do this."

So what seems like a basic iPhone theft at first glance is pretty serious and has implications of a bad privacy or security bleed happening somewhere. "All smartphone manufacturers and the mobile carriers need to find out how the attackers are harvesting personal information from their victims with nothing but a locked stolen phone," Rogers told Engadget. "Clearly they have found a route they can leverage to extract key pieces of information, likely through a multi-step process. A thief should not be able to extract the victim's contact information from a locked stolen device."

"This information exposure could have bigger ramifications than just spear-phishing."

While the attack method is somewhat of a mystery, it comes to light at the same time as a newly revealed bootrom exploit for iPhones, called checkm8. It, by the way, requires physical access to a victim's iPhone -- exactly the scenario for pickpockets and phone-snatches. Right now what is known about the checkm8 attack is that it jailbreaks iPhones, which could allow an attacker to revert the operating system to an unpatched version, could be used to undermine iCloud account locks (used for remote security actions like wipes), and more.

What's key here is that since Marc Rogers saw what happened with his kid's stolen iPhone, the world has found out that there's a whole new way to crack iPhones. And being told that attackers must have physical access to the phone is no longer a reassurance.

Personally, I'm inclined to believe we live in a terrible timeline in which privacy is burning, security is a smoking husk of good ideas and all companies hoarding our personal information are big fat thieves and liars. Maybe I'm not wrong! Or maybe I'm just feeling a little dour after finding out about the evolution of attacks on the people most at-risk to be exploited and have their lives torn apart. Namely, people who aren't up to date on all the latest security-savvy. Or, what hackers call "normal people." And companies seem to want to think of as "reputation risks when anyone finds out bad things are happening."

So like usual, we need to think a step ahead of the latest security measures. According to Rogers, that means being extremely cautious about text messages (and tell your friends and family too). "Don't trust messages with links in them, go to the site manually without clicking," he advised Engadget. "Keep your phone up to date and make sure you use all the security features available in your device. Finally, make sure all your accounts that support multi-factor authentication have it enabled. It's a good, simple defense against phishing attacks."

Yep, trust no one. Got it.

Images: Koren Shadmi (iPhone Illustration); Getty (iPhone/iCloud, Back Pocket, San Francisco Pride)

Tech via Engadget https://engt.co/2N4ekI3 September 30, 2019 at 01:06PM

[christophervanhorn]

Anti-theft hacks while traveling abroad

People always ask me, “But is it safe traveling abroad.”

Of course, it’s a valid question, whether you’re traveling to Mexico for a resort vacation, to Costa Rica with the family, or undertaking your first adventure all the way across the world in Thailand.

And, no matter where you are in the world – your hometown or far off in a foreign destination – you need to exercise common sense and basic awareness of your surroundings and situation.

So, how do I answer these nonstop inquiries about personal safety abroad?

First off, I flip that sh*t by asking them if it’s safe in THEIR country. Often, that means the U.S.A., which is met with a. curious response where they go to answer, pause, start thinking about school shootings, random muggings, and skyrocketing theft and violent crime, and they stutter as their whole worldview crumble right in front of my eyes.

I then comfort them by offering my humble opinion – that there’s generally two types of crime or harm that could come upon someone: random street crime or political/religious crime or terrorism.

Looking at the latter first, we always want to avoid countries, regions, and situations where you’re a target because of someone’s political, religious, or military ideology. This includes religious extremists, kidnappers, narco-traffickers etc. For instance, driving through Mexico as a couple of U.S. dudes is NOT smart – and certainly not adventurous. It’s just asking for trouble. Or, in the Philippines where I live, I know that in the far south, they love kidnapping white Americans and holding them hostage for ransom and then cutting their heads off anyways. So, I simply avoid those areas. I also wouldn’t go to North Korea on a vacation and start passing out bibles or stealing mementos. Get it?

However, no matter where you go in the world, you’ll face the possibility of being a target of street crime. Pickpocketing, car break-ins, mugging, scams, bag thefts, druggings, gang problems, shakedowns, and just about every other kind of grift known to man can and will go down at any time.

While there are areas of the world and certain countries that are more dangerous than others, it usually holds true that the bigger the city and the more impoverished the area, the more crime you’ll encounter. Also (unfortunately), the more tourists that are in an area, the higher the crime rate usually spikes because there are people who come specifically to target those foreigners and visitors.

For instance, when I first moved to San Juan del Sur, Nicagarua in 2012, it was still a sleepy, close-knit local community where just about everyone knew each other, and therefore people were more or less held accountable. Of course, Nicaragua is dirt poor and has a violent past, but, once I got the lay of the land and met the locals and showed love and respect, it was all good. The same can be said of Cambodia, an insanely poor Southeast Asian nation that went through one of the worst genocides in history in the 1970s. Living there from 2013-2016 or so, I found that although people are desperately poor, it’s still a relatively safe place IF you exercise common sense and caution.

Of course, this is all just a generalization, and you never know when a random mugger or dude on drugs or hungry hotel thief or angry ex-boyfriend or any other calamity will cross your path.

So, I’ve come to follow these basic tips or hacks as I travel and live abroad, no matter where I am in the world. I genuinely believe they have helped keep me safe – and, I hope, will continue to do so! (Knock on wood.)

View this post on Instagram

The Manjuyod Sandbar, also called the Maldives of the Philippines, is only an hour away from – and one if its best-kept secrets!

A post shared by AllWorld.com (@allworldonline) on Nov 12, 2018 at 9:02am PST

1. The first safety tip may catch you unaware, and that’s because I’m urging you to batten down the hatches back home before you go travel. Whether you’re in a house or an apartment, being away on vacation or traveling for extended periods is the perfect time for opportunistic thieves (who are usually watching and casing you ahead of time) to rob your abode. We’ll cover more on this in another review, but make sure to go through all the necessary safety precautions, so you don’t come back to a house that’s been ransacked and emptied of valuables. 2. The vast majority of crimes perpetrated against you while traveling abroad are meant to part you from your possessions, not against your person, and usually entailing subterfuge and speed, not physical violence. Therefore, once you properly secure your things and shift your mindset to ALWAYS paying attention, you’ll be as safe as can be.

3. Start with luggage locks. Get the combination kind so you don’t have to worry about keys, and make sure they are TSA approved. Put these luggage locks on your big checked bag(s) of course, but also on your backpack compartment that holds anything valuable like a computer, passports, etc.

Pickpocketing and purse/backpack snatching are no joke when you’re abroad, and they operate with lightning speed and precision. But, if there’s a lock on it, you’ll deter nine out of every 10 would-be thieves.

4. I also put the things that are REALLY valuable like my wallet, passport etc. in a smaller, tucked away, or hidden pocket within my backpack, that has a zipper or Velcro hopefully. That way, if someone gets a quick reach into your bag or even slits it with a razor so they can reach inside, it will be way harder to get the stuff that really matters. You can even purchase a little zippered pouch and sew it to the inside of your backpack.

5. That being said, I also tie a brightly colored handkerchief, string, or whatever around my bags and my backpack to easily designate it as mine. Not only will you be able to see it easily on the luggage conveyor belt, but it will be more noticeable and draw a little more attention, which is also a psychological deterrent to thieves.

6. That being said, the moment you get to your hotel, put your wallet, credit cards, passport, computer if possible, and whatever else in the hotel safe. Why wouldn’t you?

7. But if you don’t have a safe, where should you hide stuff? You have to see it through the eyes of a hotel room thief who is probably sneaking in and scanning the room quickly for valuables before bolting before they get discovered. Therefore, I’ll put my laptop or valuables inside a pillowcase, high up on the top of the dresser or wardrobe above eye level, or the like. In a pinch, I’ll put my things inside the trash can, with the trash bag covering them. What thief would check the trash AND take the bag out?

8. You can wear one of those money belts if you want, but there’s an easier and more comfortable place to stash money or cards. I throw them in a Ziploc (in case I step in a puddle) and put them under the sole of my shoe.

9. Don’t tempt fate by wearing expensive jewelry, watches, while you’re abroad or carry designer purses, etc. You’re just asking for something to be snatched.

10. But, usually, I don’t feel I need that, although I do like having shorts or pants with zippered or button pockets, which really deters pickpockets.

11. If you rent a car, park someplace where there’s an attendant and tip them when you arrive – not when you leave. Make sure NOTHING is inside the car when you leave it, including the trunk to be safe.

12. Make copies of your passports, credit cards, passwords, travel documents, etc. and email them to yourself as a backup. Or, you can have a flash drive that you keep in the safe but make sure it’s password protected because those are so easy to lose.

13. Even better, have an encrypted storage app like KeepSafe, which allows you to house documents, passwords, photos, etc. on your phone but only accessible with a password login.

14. That being said, you should also turn on your FindMyPhone or Hidden or other device location apps when abroad.

15. Don’t go to the bank machine at night. Use ATMs inside hotel lobbies or malls, not out on the street.

16. If you’re ever in a taxi and find yourself in a position where you have to trust them, like if you’re running into a place to use the bathroom etc. while he waits, simply snap a photo of his (or her) taxi ID, and then the license plate outside. But take your backpack or handbag with your laptop, passports, cash, and cars, etc. with you at all times.

17. Speaking of that, get a good backpack with double zippers and attach those small TSA-approved luggage locks. Don’t put valuables in the front pocket where someone could access if they razor-bladed your bag.

18. Women need to be especially careful. Never accept drinks from men at bars. Don’t ever go alone or split up, and don’t go out on the beach at night in most places – that’s where a lot of bad things happen. Ask locals and staff if it’s safe. Actually, this applies to men, too.

19. Don’t charge things. Pay cash. While using a debit card or credit card is the norm in the U.S. or Canada, it’s not in many countries abroad, and it’s way too easy for someone to copy your signature, run a double receipt, or just get your card info. Seriously – it happens a lot.

20. Know local emergency numbers and your hotel’s number and program them into your phone. Make sure all family members have phones they can use. Get a cheap local prepaid phone if you don’t want to carry around expensive iPhones. Know where the hospital is located and carry medical information like any allergies, blood type, and insurance info.

You want to have fun while vacationing and traveling, and staying safe is essential for that mission! Keep your head up, stay aware, follow your instinct, and ask trusted locals to help you!

The post Anti-theft hacks while traveling abroad appeared first on AllWorld.com.

source https://www.allworld.com/anti-theft-hacks-while-traveling-abroad/ source https://allworldus.tumblr.com/post/181704241517

[shelleyrobbinsus]

Anti-theft hacks while traveling abroad

People always ask me, “But is it safe traveling abroad.”

Of course, it’s a valid question, whether you’re traveling to Mexico for a resort vacation, to Costa Rica with the family, or undertaking your first adventure all the way across the world in Thailand.

And, no matter where you are in the world – your hometown or far off in a foreign destination – you need to exercise common sense and basic awareness of your surroundings and situation.

So, how do I answer these nonstop inquiries about personal safety abroad?

First off, I flip that sh*t by asking them if it’s safe in THEIR country. Often, that means the U.S.A., which is met with a. curious response where they go to answer, pause, start thinking about school shootings, random muggings, and skyrocketing theft and violent crime, and they stutter as their whole worldview crumble right in front of my eyes.

I then comfort them by offering my humble opinion – that there’s generally two types of crime or harm that could come upon someone: random street crime or political/religious crime or terrorism.

Looking at the latter first, we always want to avoid countries, regions, and situations where you’re a target because of someone’s political, religious, or military ideology. This includes religious extremists, kidnappers, narco-traffickers etc. For instance, driving through Mexico as a couple of U.S. dudes is NOT smart – and certainly not adventurous. It’s just asking for trouble. Or, in the Philippines where I live, I know that in the far south, they love kidnapping white Americans and holding them hostage for ransom and then cutting their heads off anyways. So, I simply avoid those areas. I also wouldn’t go to North Korea on a vacation and start passing out bibles or stealing mementos. Get it?

However, no matter where you go in the world, you’ll face the possibility of being a target of street crime. Pickpocketing, car break-ins, mugging, scams, bag thefts, druggings, gang problems, shakedowns, and just about every other kind of grift known to man can and will go down at any time.

While there are areas of the world and certain countries that are more dangerous than others, it usually holds true that the bigger the city and the more impoverished the area, the more crime you’ll encounter. Also (unfortunately), the more tourists that are in an area, the higher the crime rate usually spikes because there are people who come specifically to target those foreigners and visitors.

For instance, when I first moved to San Juan del Sur, Nicagarua in 2012, it was still a sleepy, close-knit local community where just about everyone knew each other, and therefore people were more or less held accountable. Of course, Nicaragua is dirt poor and has a violent past, but, once I got the lay of the land and met the locals and showed love and respect, it was all good. The same can be said of Cambodia, an insanely poor Southeast Asian nation that went through one of the worst genocides in history in the 1970s. Living there from 2013-2016 or so, I found that although people are desperately poor, it’s still a relatively safe place IF you exercise common sense and caution.

Of course, this is all just a generalization, and you never know when a random mugger or dude on drugs or hungry hotel thief or angry ex-boyfriend or any other calamity will cross your path.

So, I’ve come to follow these basic tips or hacks as I travel and live abroad, no matter where I am in the world. I genuinely believe they have helped keep me safe – and, I hope, will continue to do so! (Knock on wood.)

View this post on Instagram

The Manjuyod Sandbar, also called the Maldives of the Philippines, is only an hour away from – and one if its best-kept secrets!

A post shared by AllWorld.com (@allworldonline) on Nov 12, 2018 at 9:02am PST

1. The first safety tip may catch you unaware, and that’s because I’m urging you to batten down the hatches back home before you go travel. Whether you’re in a house or an apartment, being away on vacation or traveling for extended periods is the perfect time for opportunistic thieves (who are usually watching and casing you ahead of time) to rob your abode. We’ll cover more on this in another review, but make sure to go through all the necessary safety precautions, so you don’t come back to a house that’s been ransacked and emptied of valuables. 2. The vast majority of crimes perpetrated against you while traveling abroad are meant to part you from your possessions, not against your person, and usually entailing subterfuge and speed, not physical violence. Therefore, once you properly secure your things and shift your mindset to ALWAYS paying attention, you’ll be as safe as can be.

3. Start with luggage locks. Get the combination kind so you don’t have to worry about keys, and make sure they are TSA approved. Put these luggage locks on your big checked bag(s) of course, but also on your backpack compartment that holds anything valuable like a computer, passports, etc.

Pickpocketing and purse/backpack snatching are no joke when you’re abroad, and they operate with lightning speed and precision. But, if there’s a lock on it, you’ll deter nine out of every 10 would-be thieves.

4. I also put the things that are REALLY valuable like my wallet, passport etc. in a smaller, tucked away, or hidden pocket within my backpack, that has a zipper or Velcro hopefully. That way, if someone gets a quick reach into your bag or even slits it with a razor so they can reach inside, it will be way harder to get the stuff that really matters. You can even purchase a little zippered pouch and sew it to the inside of your backpack.

5. That being said, I also tie a brightly colored handkerchief, string, or whatever around my bags and my backpack to easily designate it as mine. Not only will you be able to see it easily on the luggage conveyor belt, but it will be more noticeable and draw a little more attention, which is also a psychological deterrent to thieves.

6. That being said, the moment you get to your hotel, put your wallet, credit cards, passport, computer if possible, and whatever else in the hotel safe. Why wouldn’t you?

7. But if you don’t have a safe, where should you hide stuff? You have to see it through the eyes of a hotel room thief who is probably sneaking in and scanning the room quickly for valuables before bolting before they get discovered. Therefore, I’ll put my laptop or valuables inside a pillowcase, high up on the top of the dresser or wardrobe above eye level, or the like. In a pinch, I’ll put my things inside the trash can, with the trash bag covering them. What thief would check the trash AND take the bag out?

8. You can wear one of those money belts if you want, but there’s an easier and more comfortable place to stash money or cards. I throw them in a Ziploc (in case I step in a puddle) and put them under the sole of my shoe.

9. Don’t tempt fate by wearing expensive jewelry, watches, while you’re abroad or carry designer purses, etc. You’re just asking for something to be snatched.

10. But, usually, I don’t feel I need that, although I do like having shorts or pants with zippered or button pockets, which really deters pickpockets.

11. If you rent a car, park someplace where there’s an attendant and tip them when you arrive – not when you leave. Make sure NOTHING is inside the car when you leave it, including the trunk to be safe.

12. Make copies of your passports, credit cards, passwords, travel documents, etc. and email them to yourself as a backup. Or, you can have a flash drive that you keep in the safe but make sure it’s password protected because those are so easy to lose.

13. Even better, have an encrypted storage app like KeepSafe, which allows you to house documents, passwords, photos, etc. on your phone but only accessible with a password login.

14. That being said, you should also turn on your FindMyPhone or Hidden or other device location apps when abroad.

15. Don’t go to the bank machine at night. Use ATMs inside hotel lobbies or malls, not out on the street.

16. If you’re ever in a taxi and find yourself in a position where you have to trust them, like if you’re running into a place to use the bathroom etc. while he waits, simply snap a photo of his (or her) taxi ID, and then the license plate outside. But take your backpack or handbag with your laptop, passports, cash, and cars, etc. with you at all times.

17. Speaking of that, get a good backpack with double zippers and attach those small TSA-approved luggage locks. Don’t put valuables in the front pocket where someone could access if they razor-bladed your bag.

18. Women need to be especially careful. Never accept drinks from men at bars. Don’t ever go alone or split up, and don’t go out on the beach at night in most places – that’s where a lot of bad things happen. Ask locals and staff if it’s safe. Actually, this applies to men, too.

19. Don’t charge things. Pay cash. While using a debit card or credit card is the norm in the U.S. or Canada, it’s not in many countries abroad, and it’s way too easy for someone to copy your signature, run a double receipt, or just get your card info. Seriously – it happens a lot.

20. Know local emergency numbers and your hotel’s number and program them into your phone. Make sure all family members have phones they can use. Get a cheap local prepaid phone if you don’t want to carry around expensive iPhones. Know where the hospital is located and carry medical information like any allergies, blood type, and insurance info.

You want to have fun while vacationing and traveling, and staying safe is essential for that mission! Keep your head up, stay aware, follow your instinct, and ask trusted locals to help you!

The post Anti-theft hacks while traveling abroad appeared first on AllWorld.com.

Via https://www.allworld.com/anti-theft-hacks-while-traveling-abroad/

source http://allworldus.weebly.com/blog/anti-theft-hacks-while-traveling-abroad

[allworldus]

Anti-theft hacks while traveling abroad

People always ask me, “But is it safe traveling abroad.”

Of course, it’s a valid question, whether you’re traveling to Mexico for a resort vacation, to Costa Rica with the family, or undertaking your first adventure all the way across the world in Thailand.

And, no matter where you are in the world – your hometown or far off in a foreign destination – you need to exercise common sense and basic awareness of your surroundings and situation.

So, how do I answer these nonstop inquiries about personal safety abroad?

First off, I flip that sh*t by asking them if it’s safe in THEIR country. Often, that means the U.S.A., which is met with a. curious response where they go to answer, pause, start thinking about school shootings, random muggings, and skyrocketing theft and violent crime, and they stutter as their whole worldview crumble right in front of my eyes.

I then comfort them by offering my humble opinion – that there’s generally two types of crime or harm that could come upon someone: random street crime or political/religious crime or terrorism.

Looking at the latter first, we always want to avoid countries, regions, and situations where you’re a target because of someone’s political, religious, or military ideology. This includes religious extremists, kidnappers, narco-traffickers etc. For instance, driving through Mexico as a couple of U.S. dudes is NOT smart – and certainly not adventurous. It’s just asking for trouble. Or, in the Philippines where I live, I know that in the far south, they love kidnapping white Americans and holding them hostage for ransom and then cutting their heads off anyways. So, I simply avoid those areas. I also wouldn’t go to North Korea on a vacation and start passing out bibles or stealing mementos. Get it?

However, no matter where you go in the world, you’ll face the possibility of being a target of street crime. Pickpocketing, car break-ins, mugging, scams, bag thefts, druggings, gang problems, shakedowns, and just about every other kind of grift known to man can and will go down at any time.

While there are areas of the world and certain countries that are more dangerous than others, it usually holds true that the bigger the city and the more impoverished the area, the more crime you’ll encounter. Also (unfortunately), the more tourists that are in an area, the higher the crime rate usually spikes because there are people who come specifically to target those foreigners and visitors.

For instance, when I first moved to San Juan del Sur, Nicagarua in 2012, it was still a sleepy, close-knit local community where just about everyone knew each other, and therefore people were more or less held accountable. Of course, Nicaragua is dirt poor and has a violent past, but, once I got the lay of the land and met the locals and showed love and respect, it was all good. The same can be said of Cambodia, an insanely poor Southeast Asian nation that went through one of the worst genocides in history in the 1970s. Living there from 2013-2016 or so, I found that although people are desperately poor, it’s still a relatively safe place IF you exercise common sense and caution.

Of course, this is all just a generalization, and you never know when a random mugger or dude on drugs or hungry hotel thief or angry ex-boyfriend or any other calamity will cross your path.

So, I’ve come to follow these basic tips or hacks as I travel and live abroad, no matter where I am in the world. I genuinely believe they have helped keep me safe – and, I hope, will continue to do so! (Knock on wood.)

View this post on Instagram

The Manjuyod Sandbar, also called the Maldives of the Philippines, is only an hour away from – and one if its best-kept secrets!

A post shared by AllWorld.com (@allworldonline) on Nov 12, 2018 at 9:02am PST

1. The first safety tip may catch you unaware, and that’s because I’m urging you to batten down the hatches back home before you go travel. Whether you’re in a house or an apartment, being away on vacation or traveling for extended periods is the perfect time for opportunistic thieves (who are usually watching and casing you ahead of time) to rob your abode. We’ll cover more on this in another review, but make sure to go through all the necessary safety precautions, so you don’t come back to a house that’s been ransacked and emptied of valuables. 2. The vast majority of crimes perpetrated against you while traveling abroad are meant to part you from your possessions, not against your person, and usually entailing subterfuge and speed, not physical violence. Therefore, once you properly secure your things and shift your mindset to ALWAYS paying attention, you’ll be as safe as can be.

3. Start with luggage locks. Get the combination kind so you don’t have to worry about keys, and make sure they are TSA approved. Put these luggage locks on your big checked bag(s) of course, but also on your backpack compartment that holds anything valuable like a computer, passports, etc.

Pickpocketing and purse/backpack snatching are no joke when you’re abroad, and they operate with lightning speed and precision. But, if there’s a lock on it, you’ll deter nine out of every 10 would-be thieves.

4. I also put the things that are REALLY valuable like my wallet, passport etc. in a smaller, tucked away, or hidden pocket within my backpack, that has a zipper or Velcro hopefully. That way, if someone gets a quick reach into your bag or even slits it with a razor so they can reach inside, it will be way harder to get the stuff that really matters. You can even purchase a little zippered pouch and sew it to the inside of your backpack.

5. That being said, I also tie a brightly colored handkerchief, string, or whatever around my bags and my backpack to easily designate it as mine. Not only will you be able to see it easily on the luggage conveyor belt, but it will be more noticeable and draw a little more attention, which is also a psychological deterrent to thieves.

6. That being said, the moment you get to your hotel, put your wallet, credit cards, passport, computer if possible, and whatever else in the hotel safe. Why wouldn’t you?

7. But if you don’t have a safe, where should you hide stuff? You have to see it through the eyes of a hotel room thief who is probably sneaking in and scanning the room quickly for valuables before bolting before they get discovered. Therefore, I’ll put my laptop or valuables inside a pillowcase, high up on the top of the dresser or wardrobe above eye level, or the like. In a pinch, I’ll put my things inside the trash can, with the trash bag covering them. What thief would check the trash AND take the bag out?

8. You can wear one of those money belts if you want, but there’s an easier and more comfortable place to stash money or cards. I throw them in a Ziploc (in case I step in a puddle) and put them under the sole of my shoe.

9. Don’t tempt fate by wearing expensive jewelry, watches, while you’re abroad or carry designer purses, etc. You’re just asking for something to be snatched.

10. But, usually, I don’t feel I need that, although I do like having shorts or pants with zippered or button pockets, which really deters pickpockets.

11. If you rent a car, park someplace where there’s an attendant and tip them when you arrive – not when you leave. Make sure NOTHING is inside the car when you leave it, including the trunk to be safe.

12. Make copies of your passports, credit cards, passwords, travel documents, etc. and email them to yourself as a backup. Or, you can have a flash drive that you keep in the safe but make sure it’s password protected because those are so easy to lose.

13. Even better, have an encrypted storage app like KeepSafe, which allows you to house documents, passwords, photos, etc. on your phone but only accessible with a password login.

14. That being said, you should also turn on your FindMyPhone or Hidden or other device location apps when abroad.

15. Don’t go to the bank machine at night. Use ATMs inside hotel lobbies or malls, not out on the street.

16. If you’re ever in a taxi and find yourself in a position where you have to trust them, like if you’re running into a place to use the bathroom etc. while he waits, simply snap a photo of his (or her) taxi ID, and then the license plate outside. But take your backpack or handbag with your laptop, passports, cash, and cars, etc. with you at all times.

17. Speaking of that, get a good backpack with double zippers and attach those small TSA-approved luggage locks. Don’t put valuables in the front pocket where someone could access if they razor-bladed your bag.

18. Women need to be especially careful. Never accept drinks from men at bars. Don’t ever go alone or split up, and don’t go out on the beach at night in most places – that’s where a lot of bad things happen. Ask locals and staff if it’s safe. Actually, this applies to men, too.

19. Don’t charge things. Pay cash. While using a debit card or credit card is the norm in the U.S. or Canada, it’s not in many countries abroad, and it’s way too easy for someone to copy your signature, run a double receipt, or just get your card info. Seriously – it happens a lot.

20. Know local emergency numbers and your hotel’s number and program them into your phone. Make sure all family members have phones they can use. Get a cheap local prepaid phone if you don’t want to carry around expensive iPhones. Know where the hospital is located and carry medical information like any allergies, blood type, and insurance info.

You want to have fun while vacationing and traveling, and staying safe is essential for that mission! Keep your head up, stay aware, follow your instinct, and ask trusted locals to help you!

The post Anti-theft hacks while traveling abroad appeared first on AllWorld.com.

source https://www.allworld.com/anti-theft-hacks-while-traveling-abroad/

[ask-the-phan-site]

Phan Cam: Horizon Heist: Felicia Hardy/Black Cat

>The Sanctum Sanctorum, Greenwich Village. Black Cat and I came here. What is she up to? Good thing I asked Spider-Kid to stay close by without Black Cat knowing.

Here it is. Your final test.

I don’t know. You want me to steal from there? Pick pocketing in the park, snatching purses in Hell’s Kitchen, and hijacking ATMs is one thing. But stealing from a superhero? Particularly one that has mystical powers? Don’t you think that’s a little... Grand?

Black Cat: Oh, please, it’s not like I’m asking you to take one of Strange’s mumbo jumbo. Believe it or not, this place has a gift shop. Just pick up a couple of shirts and maybe an SS Ring. They won’t even miss them.

Ren: (sighs in defeat) Alright. (whisper) Miles, don’t lose us.

Black Cat: Now, I can’t go in there because I’m too easily recognized and Strange has magic that can counter my powers. Succeed, and your training is complete.

Ren: Alright. Wish me luck... The good kind.

>I take a deep breath and go inside. Nothing weird so far. Except for the strange aura just from simply being in the foyer. Then, I noticed the entrance to the gift shop. I try casually to walk there without arousing suspicion. Inside the shop was just as empty, even the cashier wasn’t there, so taking somethings won’t be that hard. But just to be sure, I make sure no one was around. Before coming here, Miles installed a communications device in my glasses.

Ren: (whisper) Miles, can you hear me? I’m inside.

>Outside...

Hear you loud and clear... But I’m afraid I’m going to be a little late.

Ren’s voice: Why? What’s wrong?

Spider-Kid: Let’s just say... I’ve got company.

>Indeed. Spider-Kid was on the wall outside of the Sanctum. And staring at him from the window next to him was... an Asian man with a stern face.

Spider-Kid: (chuckling nervously) Hi.

(the only picture I could find) ... Hello.

>Back inside, I can sense Spider-Kid was going to be busy. Then, I sensed something else right behind me.

I knew you would find out sooner or later.

>I turn around.

Yes, I sensed your arrival as well, Ren Amamiya... Joker of the Phantom Thieves.

>I wasn’t that surprised that he knew. I am talking to someone with mystic powers.

Ren: I’m glad to see even you know about us.

Dr. Strange: Yes. I also know why you are here.

>With a gesture, Dr. Strange pulls Black Cat inside. Then, Spider-Kid comes in with Wong.

Spider-Kid: This looks bad, doesn’t it?

Black Cat: You had him watching us!? ... Couldn’t you have had Spider-Man come, instead?

Wong: You do know he’s only 17, don’t you?

Black Cat: Oh... A girl can only dream.

Ren: I think we have bigger problems. We’ve been caught.

Dr. Strange: True... However, I will chose to look away this time. Mostly because of what you did for both Peter Parker and Harry Osborn. I sense that they will need you in more ways than one. However, should you ever try to steal from me or this place again, I won’t be so forgiving.

Black Cat: Can you blame me? Being a thief is in me. You have my father to thank for that.

Dr. Strange: I know. You became a thief in order to find out what happened to him in the past.

Black Cat: Well, I’ve already figured that part out. Back in World War II, he witnessed something that would change the course of history and possibly win the war for the Allies... The birth of the First Avenger.

Spider-Kid: (surprised) For real!? Your dad saw Captain America born!?

Black Cat: Well... He saw the formula used to make him.

Dr. Strange: Yes. The same formula... He gave your mother while she was pregnant with you.

For real?

Black Cat: Well... Now you know how I got my powers.

Ren: I see.

Dr. Strange: Though I have to say, it is rather bold of you to come here to steal shirts that are barely $5 and a ring that’s not even real silver. It’s pewter.

Black Cat: Well I had to come up with something for Joker’s final test. Just be thankful I’m not asking him to take any of you magic trinkets. Even I know better.

Dr. Strange: True. I should be grateful. Still, you should consider who you steal from. Let’s consider this test... Passed.

Black Cat: Really? How so?

Dr. Strange: Because while we were talking... Joker has already taken the ring.

>He was right. I reach into my pocket to show the ring.

Dr. Strange: It is rather odd my powers alerted me after you took it. Either I’m getting rusty... Or your talents as a thief has improved.

Ren: That’s good to hear. Thank you, doc.

Black Cat: Well done. I guess I’m out of a job. But at least you still helped me with my work in digging into my father’s past. I know my father copied the formula, I need to find it. The world already has Captain America and myself. I don’t think we need three Super Soldiers in the world.

Spider-Kid: Yeah, imagine what someone like HYDRA would do.

Dr. Strange: I think I can. I’ve seen it. And it’s definitely not a pretty picture.

Ren: All the more reason why I think we should let S.H.I.E.L.D. in on this.

Black Cat: ... I’ll think about it. Right now, you just passed the final test. There’s nothing more I can teach you. And in return, not only did that girl in blue paid me a lot, you also helped me learn more about what my father did when I didn’t think anyone could.

Well... Thank you, milady.

Black Cat: And to reward you for your hard work... I'll let you keep that.

>She pointed to the ring I took. Dr. Strange and Wong looked sternly at Black Cat.

Black Cat: What? I’ll pay for it... Eventually.

>Black Cat gives me the Sanctum Sanctorum Ring.

Black Cat: The hunt for the secrets of John “The Cat” Hardesky goes on. You’ve given me the strength to go on with it. You have my thanks for that.

>I can feel Felicia’s happiness become stronger than ever.

I am thou, thou art I… Thou hast turned a vow into a blood oath.

Thy bond shall become the wings of rebellion and break the yoke of thy heart.

Thou has awakened to the ultimate secret of the other Fortune, granting thee infinite power…

Rank Up!

Confidant: Black Cat

Arcana: Fortune

Rank: 10 (MAX)

Ability: Improved Gentleman Thief

Can use Pickpocket with Persona Skills.

Black Cat: You know, if you were a few years older and had other interests, I think I would fall for you... But from what I’ve heard, you’re already taken.

Ren: It’s true... I’ll do anything and everything for that artistic pretty boy. I can’t imagine my life without him.

Black Cat: I can tell. You two are very lucky.

>With a smile, Black Cat tried to make an escape. However, Wong quickly ran after her... But not for long.

Black Cat: Sorry, monk, but I’m in a rush.

>The lights suddenly go out. Before he knew it, Wong was just hopping around looking for Black Cat. Then, he grabbed someone he thought was her. But when Dr. Strange lit up the room again with his powers... Wong saw he caught...

Wong: Forgive me. I thought you were Black Cat.

No, but I’m a hip cat.

Spider-Kid: Yikes! Remind me to bring a lot of mirrors next time.

Dr. Strange: Probably. Wong, please show Mr. Stark up. I’ll be with you later, Tony.

>With that, Wong shows the multi billionaire up the stairs.

Ren: We better go, too.

Spider-Kid: Yeah, even this gift shop is giving me the creeps.

>With that, me and Spider-Kid leave. Dr. Strange sees us out in the foyer. Then, he turns around... He wasn’t surprised to see the door to the Velvet Room open and Lavenza comes out.

You were right not to punish them. For what is to come, Peter Parker and Harry Osborn will need their support.

Dr. Strange: There is no doubt about that.

>Dr. Strange looks down at his amulet, the Eye of Agamotto, as it glows... Seeing what will come.