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kaihuntrr · 1 year ago

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part eighteen: witch hunt.

Grian makes a conclusion.

The town was quiet. The constant eerie breeze and the faint rush of the river felt like the only sounds that kept this place from feeling as dead as… a corpse. It felt like walking through a cemetery, but the dead were replaced with these hollow, paranoid, and quiet people who had dug their graves the moment they arrived in the port. The gloomy, jagged rocks that surrounded the island felt like the iron bars of a cage, trapping its residents and people inside.

Grian felt a shiver up his spine. This town bugged him a lot.

Grian hadn’t wanted to venture too far from the ship when they first arrived. All they needed was a place to stay, fix up the ship, get Kites sorted with a new ship and weapons, then leave- back on that death mission to find a sea prince. Grian shook his head. Who in their right mind would want to bring a sea prince back to the kingdom? To the castle? Who would feel excited to bring one back?

Martyn, Grian sighed, his shoulders drooping, Martyn would.

“Did you find anything?” Grian looked up at the sound of Cleo’s voice. The two of them had been searching the market district together, everyone else partnered up to investigate. This was near the area where they had met the Scarlet Witch, but Grian’s heart sank the longer they turned up with nothing.

Grian shook his head. “Nothing,” he kicked some dry dirt away in frustration. He could remember the eager look in Martyn’s eyes as he raced after Pearl. The witch’s grin was sharp and cocky, like there were fangs protruding from her mouth rather than regular teeth. “Have the locals said anything?”

“They wouldn’t even look at me,” Cleo sighed. They didn’t get anything either. “Let’s just get to the meeting point. Maybe one of the others found something. Martyn couldn’t have just vanished.”

To think- none of the residents had said anything, not even offering some sympathy for the hunters. That worried Grian. How much of their life was sucked out of them, after spending all this time on an island such as this? Could he even do anything about it? Probably not, as there was apparently a whole sea prince to be worrying about when they were finally ready to leave.

The two hunters walked beside each other in silence, their gazes focused on the path ahead as they listened for any sounds out of the ordinary. Nothing. The islanders were doing their usual thing, Grian gathered, nothing had changed because of a disappearance. It sent another shiver down Grian’s spine, the thought of vanishing one day and no one bothering to look. No reactions, no frantic searches. At least Maryn had the two crews looking for him.

No wonder this place was a ghost town.

“Hey, Cleo,” Grian said quietly, distracting himself from his thoughts as Cleo hummed. “Do you think we’d be able to capture a sea prince?”

Ah, small talk. Grian’s worst enemy. But anything was better than to drown in his thoughts. Anything.

“If the king says we can, we can,” Cleo shrugged nonchalantly. “Though I’d rather be off taking boneback eggs than be after a sea prince.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because they’re less of a hassle,” Cleo sighed, though Grian was unsure if it was out of exhaustion or annoyance. It could be either one. “Smaller, easier to grab, more likely to exist…,” they said that last bit with a hint of frustration. “...Honestly, I don’t understand why we have to get caught up in all this sea prince business.”

Grian wasn’t sure why, either. The news of them being tasked to capture a sea prince had been a surprise to everyone in that room. Prince Chayanne had looked concerned while his father calmly explained everything to the Canaries and the naval commanders, as if there was a problem. It didn’t help that Princess Tallulah was so silent, either. Martyn was invigorated to capture one, but… wasn’t that a lot on the two groups? He could recall Katherine saying something similar, too. Why entrust it to them?

“Probably because we’re the king’s best hunters.” Grian could hear Martyn reply, a big grin on the blonde’s face. Martyn’s utter enthusiasm was infectious, but after he almost drowned, Grian had noticed the slight shift in his mannerisms.

Did he see something under the waves? Grian huffed to himself. Like what- his life flashing before his eyes?

Grian focused on his conversation with Cleo. “It’s a big thing,” he crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at them. “I didn’t expect you to be as uninterested as you are.”

Cleo shot a confused glance back. “I’m not uninterested,” their gaze shifted away, looking up at the stormy skies. “There’s just a lot of monsters out there. It’s hard to imagine something as grandiose as a sea prince would really exist…?”

The walk became silent.

Cleo shook their head, trying to reorganize their thoughts. “Maybe they do, and I’m wrong,” they shrugged, their voice a low hiss. “But if all those legends were true, why haven’t we seen anything?”

That was what people had said, that exact same thing- over and over again; It couldn’t be real because no one saw it. What story was there to tell if ships were destroyed with no survivors? But who could have been lucky enough to live through a sea prince’s attack and admit it? No one could verify it either way. All Grian knew was that the debris from those attacks were saved and examined, but nothing came out of it. Examined and researched with no real evidence.

Cleo and Mumbo did do thorough research in the past. It would make sense those two would be the most curiously frustrated about it.

“You and Mumbo sound the same,” Grian chuckled, “Both so skeptical about it.”

It made sense too, given that the two of them were both from the Herons before leaving it to be a Canary. They never spoke much about their time there though.

Cleo gave Grian a teasing smile and nudged him. “I thought you didn’t believe in them either.”

Grian chuckled briefly before stopping himself. “I thought that myself, but…,” he tilted his head away, his voice low as he gripped his chest. Cleo leaned in closer, “something in me tells me that they exist.”

Cleo blinked. “Gut feelings don’t dictate what’s real or not, facts and research do.” They put an arm on their hip. “I’ll happily admit that I’m wrong if we ever see that sea prince guarding the island, for as far as we know, all beasts are the same.”

“Beasts are nothing more than mindless demons that haunt the sea,” Grian remembered his birth parents telling him. “They do not have emotions, they do not feel. They do not cry out in sadness or wallow their dead. They do not feel joy or fear. They do not understand human words. The only thing they feel is their unending hunger and their lust for desolation.”

While his birth parents may be dead, those words hung above Grian’s head whenever they hunted. Those beasts they killed were just mindless monsters, nothing more.

Grian found himself nodding along with Cleo’s statement. The two continued their walk in silence, Grian hoped the awkward feeling in his head would soon be gone as his mind focused back to the haunting howls of the wind and the feeling of his arm hairs standing on edge. How were the people here so used to this… this silence? No fun and games, just nothing. Grian sighed. Soon. They’d get out of here soon.

“Grian! Cleo!” Bdubs excitedly waved to the both of them. “Oh good! You made it back!”

The two Canaries approached the center of town, an open space with empty stalls and a miraculously still working fountain. There were some flower patches in each corner of the plaza, protected by small iron fences. Somehow, despite the cold and barely any sunlight, the flowers remained healthy and vibrant. It looked like the only thing with life on this island.

Both Canaries and Kites were in conversation, hanging around the area and discussing things, while some were still out and searching. Between both crews, they were a pretty big group, so it was easy for them to cover the entire tiny port town.

Based on their looks, Grian assumed the worst.

Still, Grian smiled. “Of course we did,” he nodded in greeting as Bdubs approached. Then he asked hesitantly, “How goes the search?”

“Nothing,” Bdubs shook his head, his expression shifting to a pout. But Grian felt a sweeping relief that no one had come back having found a corpse. “I guess you two haven’t found anything, either.”

Cleo shook their head. “Nothing from us.”

The three of them shared a look of disappointment and worry, but subtle relief. Grian wrung his hands to vent out his frustration as Bdubs led them to the fountain, where almost everyone was clustered together. Some of Kites had arrived in the center at a similar time as he and Cleo did. Grian could see tired gazes on their faces, disgruntled and upset with not finding anything.

No one could just… disappear like that. That wasn’t possible. What could have happened?

“This is so stupid!” Tubbo stomped his foot on the ground, huffing and groaning. Grian wanted to release his frustrations just as much as the brunette did, but he kept his composure. Someone had to keep things in check, and Grian was a captain. “We’ve searched everywhere, but we couldn’t find anything!”

The two groups continued to mingle, voices spoke with annoyance and hopelessness, but Grian didn’t really tune into what they were saying. They all echoed the same thoughts, there was no need to listen in to the complaints. Grian wracked his brain; where would Martyn go, if he was on a haunted island with creepy residents, guarded by a sea prince, and taunted by the Scarlet–

The Scarlet Witch.

Martyn chased after her.

“Has anyone seen the Scarlet Witch?” Grian’s sudden question turned some heads around, looking at him with eyes narrowed and eyebrows raised.

“What makes her so important?” Joel tilted his head. “Other than… y’know.”

Her deal with the sea princes?

Grian crossed his arms. “Martyn was keen on looking for her,” he furrowed his eyebrows, mentally putting the pieces together as he spoke. “It wouldn’t surprise me if he went out to search for her while everyone was asleep.”

But why would he? Most of Martyn’s actions were easy to read, or at least reasonable. Grian had heard the fire in his voice after he’d ran after the witch– Pearl, as Martyn mentioned– with his eagerness to find answers to questions that were unbelievable. Martyn was stubborn enough to make brash decisions– how else would he have gotten that scar on his cheek? But would he risk getting himself hurt again?

After their first meeting, Grian hasn’t seen Pearl at all. She was definitely a curious person to look into, since she was the only one with some type of personality while the rest of the island was absolutely devoid of life.

Except for those flowers, Grian glanced at one of the flower patches. It didn’t look like a single part of that small lush area was wilted or trampled. He squinted at the white flowers. Moonflowers. Those were some of the only flowers that could grow in the dark, and the grass around them were neatly trimmed. Someone must have been taking care of them- recently.

“Now that you mentioned it…, I haven’t seen her at all.” Scar blinked, his mind drawing to a blank as he tried to remember any blur of red he’s seen in the past few hours. Nothing came to mind.

“Neither have we,” Eret shook their head. They glanced at their crew then looked at Grian. “None of Kites know what she looks like, but if she’s as… eccentric as Katherine said she was, we would have noticed.”

“So we’ve narrowed it down to Pearl taking Martyn, or something like that,” Katherine put a hand on her hip.

“I don’t know about that for sure…,” Mumbo interjected. “Could that really be our only option?”

“It sounds like it,” Katherine replied, shooting a glance at Mumbo, “Unless you have another idea.” Mumbo shook his head. Katherine rolled her eyes, “But where would she be? We checked everywhere in the village.”

“We checked everywhere in the village, yes,” Krow looked at Katherine. “But the witch might be hiding out in the forest. It would make some sense, wouldn’t it? She’d want to be away from these townspeople who seem to dislike her so much….”

“Has anyone checked the woods yet?”

Puffy sighed. “The path’s been blocked. The bridge collapsed sometime in the night,” as she finished her sentence, she narrowed her eyes then blinked, “Huh. Saying that out loud makes it sound a lot more suspicious.”

Mumbo hummed in thought. “If there’s no leads here in town, then he’s got to be in there,” he muttered, glancing towards where the forest lay. He walked up to Grian, motioning in the direction of the ship. “It might be best if we gather some supplies before we dive in head first. I have a feeling we’ll be spending some time in the forest.”

“Do you mind if we borrow some of your supplies?” Eret asked as they gestured towards the Kites behind them. “We’re still unarmed.”

Joel nodded, a small smile on his face. “Of course,” he turned around, raising his hand in the air. “Canaries, with me. I’m sure we have enough bedrolls and weapons, let’s get moving.”

We have a lead. It’s only a matter of time until we get you out of there, Martyn.

Grian walked with determination in his step, listening to his heartbeat instead of the haunting melodies of Crescent Bay. He had to shake off his worries.

You’re going to be okay.

—————

The trek to the woods felt more uplifting than the search. They finally had direction, a lead in their case. Grian held back a sigh, if only he’d thought about it sooner. He’d spent too much time thinking about how freaky the place was instead of putting himself in Martyn’s shoes. Entering the woods was just as logical an option as any, and with Puffy’s mention of the bridge being broken, they could start trying to find another way in.

If there was another way in.

Grian and Joel led the groups, holding out lanterns as they walked along the dirt path. The houses of the village began to space out more and more the farther they went from the port. Soon enough there were only some small broken fences and houses that quickly became mere flickers of light in the distance. It felt colder, emptier even, than walking around near the port.

Grian heard the faint sound of rushing water and walked faster. The river. Something they’d need a bridge to cross. They were getting close. Puffy mentioned it being collapsed earlier. They were hunters, they didn’t mind a little water. A collapsed bridge couldn’t stop them, if worse came to worse they could just– oh.

Grian stared blankly at the torrent of a river rushing through the carved channel of the river bank. He could tell just by looking at it that it was deep. And it was fast. Going in there was a death wish. They couldn’t ford the river.

There were some stray pieces of the bridge remaining on their side of the shore. The fact that the splintered wood was even here at all instead of all washed downstream made it seem much more likely that the bridge had been purposefully smashed rather than just collapsed.

Grian held his lantern higher, trying to see the far shore but a perpetual mist exuding from the woods prevented him from seeing farther than a few feet out. It seemed so far away…. Grian stared at the thick mist blocking his view, trying to figure out some type of solution. They couldn’t even build a makeshift bridge if they couldn’t see the far side of it.

He glanced behind him as he heard the faint murmurings of the two crews. They carried a few boxes worth of food, one of weapons, and one of medical supplies. Hopefully enough to last them a day or two. Grian looked up at the large and imposing tree that stood on the riverbank, wondering if he could climb it to get a clearer view over the mist.

Then an idea hit him, a distant memory.

He thought about the tree again and hummed. This tree was surely as tall as the river was wide, and if the bridge was broken and needed replacing….

“You don’t think the residents would mind a little lightshow, do you?” Grian looked at his brother with a fiery glint in his eyes. Joel raised an eyebrow as gears turned in his head, his eyes widening with a grin as soon as he understood. “A little arson wouldn’t hurt.”

“I don’t think they would,” Joel turned to the rest of the hunters, seeing them holding crates and supplies with them. It would be enough for one night, but nothing more than that. “Does anyone have a bucket?”

“Got one!” Scar walked forward, bucket in hand. “What would you want me to do?”

“Try finding somewhere to fill that bucket with some mud.” Grian pointed at the bucket, a mischievous grin forming on his face.

“Aye, captain!” Scar grinned with a small salute. Grian rolled his eyes and smiled, a faint blush on his cheeks as Scar walked away, lantern in one hand and bucket on the other.

“Everyone!” Joel called out. “We’re going to need help gathering some firewood. We’re taking this thing out.” The Kites looked at him like he was nuts, but the Canaries all sighed and started gathering loose sticks. Business as usual.

If the bridge was broken and this tree just so happened to be in such an opportune spot, then using it to create a makeshift bridge would make things easier. Grian smiled to himself, this was a good plan.

Both groups worked hand in hand, picking up any fallen twigs and shaving off bark from the tree to create a base for the fire. Grian dug out a space under the tree’s roots. With the riverbank soil as wet and loose as it was, a few snapped tethers in the more solid earth should be enough for the tree to topple itself. And with the mud slathered over the higher parts of the trunk, the fire shouldn’t spread to the rest of the tree. Nearby foliage was removed to prevent a spread as well, dry stuff added to the pyre.

It was a survival trick Grian had picked up and pieced together from the books he’s read as a kid- from his biological family’s collection. Soon enough, everything was set for a fire.

“Good work, everyone!” Grian smiled, puffing out his chest as he looked at the group. Half of them looked at him like he was crazy. The other half just looked tired of him. His happy crew. He turned back to the tree and opened his lantern, taking one of the dry sticks to catch the fire. “Now we get to the fun part.”

Grian set the stick into the other firewood then quickly backed away, the small flame quickly spread into a roaring blaze as the crackles of ember and smoke spewed out, eating away at the roots of the tree on the dry soil end. Joel picked up a sword from one of the crates and carefully prodded at the dirt surrounding the tree, trying to prompt it to fall over the river as the fire continued to blaze through the bottom.

Finally, the tree began to crack, groaning as it tilted forward, over the river. Grian threw his fists up and cheered as his plan actually worked!

“Stand back!” Joel shouted, taking Grian by the shoulders and pulling him back from the collapsing tree.

With several cracks, a loud thud, and a slight tremble in the earth, the mighty tree fell, breaking through the mist to reveal the forest that lay behind it. Grian stared in absolute glee as mist slowly crept back in, barely flinching as Scar and several others dashed forward to pour fresh water and mud over the burning roots. The smell of smoke remained, briefly entering Grian’s nose as faint embers flickered out of existence.

Grian continued to stare into the forest. He felt something beckoning him to come closer. A feeling of curiosity, perhaps? Grian tilted his head, slowly walking forward and climbing on top of the fallen tree. He could see blurry, tall trees beyond the edge of the mist, leaves blotting out the rest of the clouded skies for a long stretch of darkness.

“Be careful,” Grian told the others with concern laced in his voice, but he dared not to look back, “We don’t know what’s in there.”

With careful and precise steps, Grian held up his lantern as he plunged into the forest.

#the sea prince au #sea prince chapters #limited life smp #limited life #life series #life smp #trafficblr #majorwood #mean gills #coral kids #scottyn #martyn inthelittlewood #martyn itlw #inthelittlewood #scott smajor #smajor1995 #dangthatsalongname #pearlescentmoon #tsp act one

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cobaltsunrise · 4 months ago

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what are your other plans for jmj?? or aespa in general?

I was dying for a question like this haha

I think my problem is that I think too much and write too little. I can’t promise I’ll write everything (rn I have a lot of free time, but next week I’ll be super busy 😭) but I’ll share my little outline here.

A superpower jmj au: It’ll have 3 chapters, and I suppose it’ll end up around 20.000 words (it’s at 13k right now). I’m having so much fun writing it, tho it might be a bit too psychedelic and violent lmaooo. Basically, jm is a really famous hero (hero as in an actual profession), and mj is a villain who knows more than she should, roughly speaking. I wrote my favorite scene ever in this fic... It’s gonna be called Fata Morgana (yes, after the optical illusion).

Part two of Lotus-Eater (also a jmj au): The first part was all soft and sweet and fluffy, with little cute ghost jm, but in the second part I’d explore jm coming back to “haunt” mj in adulthood. It wouldn’t really feel like a supernatural story anymore, more like mj treating it as a mental illness. So, basically, famous actress mj and ghost-or-hallucination-or-a-secret-third-thing jm would go on a trip to Japan together, bond, and sooth their grief. Yey! It sounds super random now that I’ve written it down, but I swear it would make sense haha

A historical winter-ningning au (I have no idea what their ship name is, sorry haha): Manchuria, 1943. I actually started writing this one. Yizhuo is a courtesan at an elite brothel in Harbin, and Minjeong is the wife of a Japanese aristocrat who is a client of this same brothel. I got really excited about this one hihi. There will be plot twists and a side jmj.

Maybe part 4 of The Taste of Hunger (because I have zero self-control): It would be five times jmj came out as a couple and one time they didn’t have to. Very fluffy <3 Coming out to Yizhuo, then Aeri, then jm’s sister, then Dowon (yes lmaooo), then jm’s childhood friends, and finally, mj’s family :) But I don’t know if it’s really necessary, I feel like I’m milking this project too much 😂 We’ll see…

Honestly, I’m kinda terrified that I won’t be able to keep writing in my daily life cuz this year in particular I can’t afford to make it a priority. It fucking sucks, because writing might just be my favorite thing in the world — especially getting to share it with people who make me feel seen — but I’ll try to optimize my time as much as I can.

Anyway, long ass answer! Sorry 😅

#my writing :)

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syrakhanistan · 6 months ago

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THE DEAL: Prologue - Lion’s Share

“You…!” He whispered, agonisingly, full of hopelessness.

“Me.” The other man spoke softly in response, sitting down at the other end of the table.

A hollow silence filled the dark room, three walls of concrete and one of smoke.

“You… you’re mad. This is lunacy, of the highest order.” The first man complained bitterly, broken Arabic failing to hide his deep accent.

“Tut, tut. Like you can talk - the man who set this all into motion.” The second man continued to speak patiently, his own Russian-English lineage barely perceptible behind a near-perfect replication of a Sayda accent speaking fluidly.

He took a sip of the warm tea on the table that had been ordered for the guests before them, the stolen liquid still heaping steam.

“I… I gave that up, left it behind me. It’s why I’m all the way over here, instead of…” The first man began, before trailing off, faltering beneath the withering stare of the second.

The second man clenched his fists briefly, knuckles going white, before relenting. He slowly stood, his worn tracksuit barely keeping up, as his pale, ghost-like body stepped towards the fourth wall.

The smoke continued to billow from below, yet another wreckage from the conflict brewing underneath the building.

“…Your home will always follow you, no matter how far you run. It is within your heart, after all.” He said with a small sigh, fingers tip-tapping against a hole in his shirt. “Lapdog, favoured scion of the Greenlight. Why fight destiny? You were BORN for this.”

At that remark, the first man stood up, angry, his chair falling behind from the motion. “Born for this? Fuck that. You’re absurd.”

The second man sighed again, this time more drawn out, dramatic for effect. “You signed the contract. You put all this… ALL this… into motion. You, personally, were responsible for at least 20 million… and you expect to just, what, give up after that, without finishing the job? Find some level of forgiveness? Maybe a cushy desk job, well paid and benign, before dying at a ripe old age, and finally getting your due loves of Heaven?”

A rough laugh ended his sentence, before turning into a choking cough. “Pfft. Fool. There will be nothing for us, especially if you give up so close to fulfilling it.”

He turns back around, pale features lit up by the broken lamp. “Even without your input… the Accords Cut will release in about a year, without your approval or help. And, especially if you do not continue, the Salvation Project will begin imminently. Your 20 million will be, how do you say… drop in a bucket.”

He narrowed his eyes, lifting a finger to point at the first man. “You started all this, son of Greenlight. I offered you support, you took it, and then reneged on the Deal.”

Another outburst. “There WAS no deal! No obligation! I promised you NOTHING.”

A cackle responded. “Ha! A dog barking at his leash, a leash not tied to any post. It was you who started it; the Deal was YOUR doing. Yet you were the one who jumped the ship early. 20 Million, on your head, and that number is of no use, not to them nor to us, without Continuation.”

The building rattled. The smoke of the fourth wall broke briefly, the lights of the city beyond staring bright and unaware, before being covered once more.

The second man breathed in, and out. “Despite your early exit, even in failure and resignation you helped to further the Project. Ironically, your tip led us to the Death Plane of Six.”

The first man’s eyes widened, and he slowly sat back down. “That’s…”

A dry chuckle. “Yes. With your, how shall we say, early departure… We found that thing, a remnant of Six, that ruin you wish to leave behind in your sorrow.”

“Greenlight… They weren’t…?” The slow response.

Another laugh. “Of course they were! They were PROUD, and if you’d continued, you would have been too, God willing. It was beautiful, and YOU helped lay the groundwork.”

He continued his jeering, while slowly moving away from the smoke and returning to the table.

“That being said… Your seat remains. Unlike me, you would STILL be welcomed back with open arms should you return to Greenlight.” The second man spoke, a touch of fond reminiscence in his voice.

“As if you couldn’t?” The first man responded languidly.

“I am no favoured scion. Just another hanger-on, hopeful of past glories. That’s why the Accord Cut and Salvation are so… beautiful.”

A lost stare met grey, empty eyes. “I will not help you. No matter what. 20 Million was bad enough, but 100 Million…”

The second man breathed in, and out, before smiling coldly. “100 Million at least, Lapdog. But - So be it. The Deal remains, and will remain, yours and yours alone - but the consequences will be mine to bear as long as you continue your little escapade.”

He stood, barking an order in Russian to the shadows darkening the first wall. As he moved, he placed a hand back onto the table, the documents that had been there sweeping back into his arms, a long piece of paper being the replacement.

“Lapdog of Sin… The only wage you truly earn will be an endless apathy. Your destiny is elsewhere, and you know it. You know how to find me, should you finally realise the usefulness and pity of fools.” He spoke softly, words clearly full of venom. “The world still holds on to hope for you. Myself - I am not so sure.”

Another laugh, as he turned his back, the shadows along the walls following him down the stairs, the metal door slamming shut, the room bright once more except for all the smoke.

The first man continued to look blankly down at the paper on the table, thoughts racing, all of it mad, all of it new, all new, faded for Her.

…

The Russian stumbled slowly, carefully, down the stairs, the shadows continuing to guide him as always.

As the shadows flowed outwards, opening the door of the limousine awaiting in the alley for him, he opened up a phone, tapping away, and answering the call that awaited him.

“It’s me.” He spoke warmly, carefully, each syllable a potential mine.

The woman’s words on the other end were comforting, equally warm, equally sharp as daggers.

“Yes. He remains… uncaring.” The Russian responded to her request, as the convoy pulled out from the alleyway, moving into the streets, the cold Georgian night seeming to follow. “More relevant to us - he was as shocked as we were regarding the Death Plane.”

A brief moment, before more words came, a pointed question, desperate, and cold.

The Russian smiled a little. “Come, now - you know me well enough to know the answer to that! How many times did we—”

Her response cut his smile and laugh down to size, a shiver in his hand, eyes twitching, nerves faltering.

“I… I see. Why didn’t you—”

Disparagement. Poison down the line, contained anger.

“I understand that, but—”

Orders barking, the rage still held back, all by the loosest of frames.

“…very well. I will… It will be done.”

Quiet thanks, acknowledgement.

“No, thank YOU. I need no such thing; it’s you who remains true.”

Call finished, a small line of truth in a sea of hateful lies, she still cares even if she tries not to.

The Russian knocks on the window of the front cabin. A shadow opens it, eyes as cold as his.

“We’ll have to make a detour. I need to lose you guys, get my old guys back, and…

Well, the Summit is best attended smartly, right?”

Gonio awaited the Russian man, the Deal still in play.

#mgnq #politics #syrakhanistan #magical girls #accounts #reports #Middle East #Georgia #Summit of Gonio

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majoringinsarcasm · 2 years ago

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20 Questions For Fic Writers

1. How many works do you have on A03?

71! I’ve deleted and orphaned a few over the years though.

2. What's your total A03 word count?

491,986

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently on the Ace Attorney train but I’ve dipped into Good Omens a bit, and I’ll never say no to any of my old faves.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

1. Inside Jokes (MHA)

2. Surprise Party (MHA)

3. Complete The <3 (Haikyuu)

4. And They Were Roommates (Haikyuu)

5. Keeping Up With the Reserve Course (Danganronpa)

And because NONE of those are ace attorney haha the highest kudos fic for that fandom is: the kiss and cry

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try to do as many as I can even if I’m late because comments mean a lot to me. I have not replied to every single one but I try my best.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

(currently not finished and posted so this answer will change) Uhhhhh all mine usually have a happy ending with angst being at the start or middle. I guess maybe OH duh

“a fizz and a pop” which is a Crowley pov fic I wrote after the season two finale. “a rumble and a hum” is about equal angst but Aziraphale’s pov and I meant them to be a pair so those two for sure

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Most of them have happy endings but Happiest in universe is probably Indirect Correlation which is a MikexBill fic taking place in a nobody died AU of the second chapter of the IT movies when they’re all adults. Loved that one and it got lovely reception on the timeline when I shared it. Bike night!!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not yet. Got some comments that I still don’t know if they were trolls or not

9. Do you write smut?

I do and want to improve.

10. Do you write crossovers?

None currently posted but I had a Free! x Host Club fic way back in the day I ended up deleting. And I want to combine some Ghost Trick characters into an AA fic I’m planning. So I’m not opposed if the mood strikes

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge but I’ve gotten one of those scam “we love your work” comments so who knows.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I have not. (I don’t think I dont remember anyone asking unless they did and I’m forgetting and I don’t wanna go check Again I keep flipping back and forth).

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Haha does role playing with friends count? Not yet but maybe someday. I’ve written fics that my friends have inspired and I shared the progress with though. Oh no that’s a lie I have once but it’s no longer around. Hope that person is doing well.

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

See this is tricky because I have ships I love that I’ve written about and ships I love that I enjoy without creating for it. I’ll say Hinata and Kageyama from Haikyuu though they are a ship for life.

15. What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

All of them uhhhh I have a 10k wip that may never see the light of day about cheating and marriage proposals but we’ll see if that ever becomes a thing.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I think when the iron is hot my sentence structure for comparing things is really sharp. I love writing people talking and often Hate having to add the proper fillers in between which is why Way back in the day I loved dialogue only fics. And chat fics / social media I LOVE those.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

If someone told me to describe a setting, room or outdoors doesn't matter, or they would put me in a meat grinder I would just jump in. I have a project that will force me to practice though

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I’ve done my fair share of google translate this phrase in the past but I don’t know how accurate that ever is and I’m not skilled enough in any language other than English to attempt it in a meaningful way

19. First fandom you wrote for?

An RPF / Real Person Fiction “couple” and if you don’t know that’s for the better. (It was not Dan and Phil in case people are trying to guess it was specific and niche and that’s all you’re getting bc it’s no longer posted thank goodness)

But aside from that the first fandom is Free! Iwatobi Swim Club. Miss those boys.

20. Favorite fic you've ever written?

It’s a toss up between Surprise Party (MHA) and you’re in his recent texts, I’m in his shitty car, we are not the same (Until Dawn).

Surprise Party I feel like is the most fun I’ve had with smut and it’s also my first ever fic someone did a podfic for which was so insane I was buzzing for a week afterwards. And recent text / shitty car I just think it flows so well and captures the personalities of Chris and Josh in a way I really love. Not 100% canon accurate but canon in the scenario I put them in if that makes sense.

This was super fun. I haven’t looked at my stuff via statistics in a long while. Makes me excited for the potential of the new year. Anyone who sees this I encourage you to look up your stuff even if you don’t post about it. Helped me remember some of my old favorites

#ask game #this was really nice thank you Tati!

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impyssadobsessions · 3 years ago

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@gilbirda @desatu They inspired this fic. Check out Desatu drawing~! Jazz crouched down to be eye level with her little brother, now officially son. Danny was de-aged last year and with the help of Vlad they were finally able to live as a family without worry of being found out. Danny was standing there, staring at the ground. His fluffy hair covering his face as he twisted the ball of his foot, nervously on the concrete. His hand clenched tight around his backpack strap and wearing a red and white shirt, similar to the ones he wore as a teen. Jazz smiled sympathetically, as she reached out to brush her fingers through his hair. He was so small, and adorable. Today was his first day back at school, but this time at the age of six again. So he was repeating elementary, though to the government it be his first time. Danny never liked school so to go back to first grade, Danny was laughing and cutting up moments earlier that it would be a breeze. Jazz new it was out of nerves.

He always joked about things that made him nervous or uncomfortable. It wasn't about the grades that scared him, he was always good in school until high school when he gained his powers, now dimmed by the gun that turned him young again. Jazz knew it was the people, the teachers, the students, that bothered him. Most of all, today solidifies that Danny was stuck growing up again. Perhaps it was her fault for holding out his hopes that they could fix this, but even with access to the ghost zone again, Clockwork and the others made it clear. Only time could heal him. It was hard to hear for Danny. “It won't be so bad Danny.” Jazz tried to comfort, giving a warm smile, as her hand fell down to trace Danny's chubby cheeks. They had faint freckles over them. “Easy for you to say. I got another-” Danny waited a moment to count on his fingers, hissing that he has to stop and think about it. That been another odd thing, Jazz had noted. Danny didn't just look like a six year old, at times he truly acted like one. Where his brain couldn't process some memories or knowledge and it took him a while to pinpoint things. It scared her at first that her parents-JAck and Maddie had invented something that was just as damaging as the portal to Danny. But, it turns out through her research and thanks to the Yetis that Danny would be fine once he reached his age again. “Ugh, I'm so stupid only twelve grades and I'm starting first-” Danny smacking his hand to his forehead. “Danny you are not stupid.” “I messed around machines that got me killed and this.. I say that's pretty stupid.” Jazz frowned, crossing her arms as she looked at him. “No, that wasn't a wise decision on ANYONE'S part. You shouldn't have had even access to the thing. Danny.. You can fly a rocket ship, you can dissect a ray gun, and even fixed the broken tv we found in the dumpster.” “Last one you got upset about.” “You kept forgetting to unplug it when you were finished testing it.” Jazz pointed out. Danny just rubbed his neck, turning his head to the side. Jazz sighed, reaching to put a hand on his shoulder. “If you're anything, that's reckless. And who knows, maybe this time will be easier for you.” “Tuck won't be there.” “No, but other kids will and if it does get bad, you can always leave it Danny. I looked up homeschooling and I know you could get a scholarship into better school if you wanted too. There are options.” Danny stared at her for a moment, a sad but thinking look. He sighed, shaking his head. He looked so defeated, it broke her heart. So she leaned forward to give him a big hug. He didn't even pretend he didn't want it this time as he just accepted the hug. Not moving to hug back, but not pushing away either. “I love you Danny. We'll get through this, and it will get better. I promise.” “Love you too Jazz.” Danny whispered back, with a sigh, then quickly pushed away from her running towards the school entrance. Jazz blinked stunned, before chuckling, with a hand over her mouth. She stood and gave a wave. “Have a good day at school!!!” “No promises!” He waved his hand back towards her, as he kept facing the building entrance. She sighed once he was out of sight, hugging herself. This wasn't going to be easy, raising her little brother again, but at least she has hope that this time Danny would be safe. Well, safe was relative considering where they live. But for a half-dead kid, it was.

#danny phantom #raising phantom #jazz fenton #dp x dc #danny fenton #fan fic

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landscaping-your-mind · 2 years ago

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howdy howdy howdy, some good words, mostly rambling, one (1) reaction image bc I'm Sad About Jon Constantly All The Time. Content warnings for like, most things in the episode because I'm pulling quotes, and also existential fear (the state of the world rn) because I went on a little extinction ramble.

@a-mag-a-day

Case 9550307 – Wallis Turner. Incident occurred at the North Point prisoner of-war camp, then later the sunken ship Nemesis in late 1942. Statement taken 3rd July 1955 at the Pu Songling Research Centre, Beijing. Committed to tape 9th October 2014. Gertrude Robinson recording.

Jon, I love you, but Gertrude's way of introducing statements is way better. Although she did intentionally leave the archives in disarray so...

Like, I mean, in an ideal world, you'd be able to search for statements by people who appear in them and places and notable things that happen, and then... idk I just, alright like, I want to just, learn how to code so I can make myself a little website and organize the statements and then my little rat brain who just wants to sort things out will finally be appeased

Even if it’s just sleep, just a quiet nothing forever, it’s not like you know enough to be bored, is it?

Fun fact about yours truly, that's one of the parts of death that scares me the most! I cannot handle being bored, it's just... no, I can't do it. And boredom forever? No end in sight? I hope there is an afterlife so that I don't have to deal with that.

Worse than that is just... nothing, just an end, and I don't really like to think about that.

Sergeant once told me it’s no different from killing a chicken back home, but people aren’t chickens, and the idea that war strips us all down to just a body that moves and kills, or falls and dies, makes me feel sick to my stomach.

Fear soup! This is pretty Flesh.

I could feel my pulse quicken, like it wanted to match the tempo, though I’ve no idea why. I should have been confused, scared maybe, and I guess I was, but I could also feel my fingers tap-tap-tapping away to the beat.

Right, alright, The Slaughter and music thing makes sense to me now. It's about the... I called it group project violence? That but serious. I know The Hunt was the mob mentality episode, but like... idk, I'm not sure. Something about the music in these episodes, Jane's song of the Hive, luring you in, entrancing you. The song of the Web, making you dance to its tune. The song of the Slaughter, getting caught up in the rhythm of it all.

There's something there, I can't exactly articulate it.

[...] just before the trumpet began to drift over the waters just a few yards beyond the walls.

woodwinds against trumpets 2023

And when they were lying still and the music stopped and night was quiet again, that’s when I heard the sound that really chilled my blood. All my comrades, my fellow prisoners, cheered. And it wasn’t the cheer of those glad for freedom, it was the sound of bloodlust and cruelty.

the slaughter feels like the least... spooky of all the fears to me. like, of course, there's a lot of war ghosts, and uncontrollable urges to do violence among other things, but the thing about the slaughter really feels like human and stuff. like, all of them are, not necessarily human, but influenced by the fear of mortals -- and probably those weird jellyfish, too -- but the slaughter feels different.

also, may I just say a thing? a few of the entities aren't really made manifest by that thing happening. like, sure, the eye is the fear of being watched -- among many other things -- but you know what really breeds paranoia? not being sure if you're being watched or not. the end is the fear of death, and yet victims of the end are commonly just told when the end will come for them. the slaughter is the fear of violence in a slaughter-y way and not a hunt or desolation-y way, and a lot of the slaughter's fear comes from witnessing the violence, or dreading it.

thus the extinction manifesting wouldn't end the world, because it would be a world without fear -- like maybe it would replace humans with spooky inheritors -- but honestly I think it would be enough just to give us the knowledge, the constant dread that there are people more powerful than us who can end the world with a decision, or trash the environment knowing full well what the consequences are. I think it would be enough to look at the doomsday clock and see that we're 90 seconds to midnight. but make it spooky.

woo! existential fear! hopelessness and helplessness! i know, i know, don't give up, people can cause change, but also I am one (1) tiny little guy.

Leonard was the first to dance. Well, I think of it as a dance, though I don’t know why. He reached over and grabbed another one of the former prisoners, a scrawny guy, I think his name was Milton. He gave a cry of anger that I could never have imagined coming from his gentle, smiling lips even in the head of battle. There was nothing Milton could do. Even malnourished as he was, it was easy for Leonard to snap his arm like a twig, twist his neck until his leg spasmed and his skull started to crack. Even when his victim was clearly dead, he kept beating it, tossing the corpse across the deck with as much ferocity as if it were the most hated man alive. The bloody crew of the Nemesis watched, their eyes riveted and their feet tapping to the music.

First of all, I love the way Jonny writes violence, it feels so visceral, I don't know, just the way he describes it. It's good. 10/10.

Secondly, I've danced in like a group but like a community sort of group not a lot of times, but I have acted, and it feels similar. Like, I don't know. Something about being on stage, the lights almost blinding you, it feels invigorating, it feels like you're being swept up in something. Idk, like that scene in Mama Mia where Sophie meets all three of her dads in one dance, and then passes out.

Yeah idk.

Few wars in my lifetime have reached anywhere the near the heights of fear I suspect this ritual would need, though I did spend some time a while back looking over some details from the Cuban Missile Crisis to no avail.

Nah, mate, the cold war's a feast for the extinction! (however, soup)

Anyway, point is, you can probably discount The Slaughter. It had its chance.

I forgot these tapes were supposed to be for her successor.

oh... hmnr. and they didn't help... this one told them outright how to stop The Unknowing, there was probably one going into more detail about it. The tape she intended the Archivist to hear as soon as they got the job... well, we all know what happened to that.

That's just... sad to me.

I feel like I’m on a deadline, like I’m running out time, somehow. And I don’t even know where to go, what to look for, or—

THIS! THIS IS WHAT SEASON 4 FEELS LIKE! Weirdly stressful, despite not clearly having a... point, something to... do, it feels like that feeling you get when you're so... bored or understimulated that you're just pacing around trying to find something to do, and you can't find anything to do! And it's like, aaaaa.

That's season 4.

(oh, also, for the last time the watcher's crown was in the past, the mass ritual doesn't have a canon name and when asked, Jonny tentatively said "The Magnus Archives" however of course that's word of god and the author is dead so take it as you will, however please do know that it's not the watcher's crown)

Daisy’s got me listening to The Archers. I hate it. But it feels nice to hate something that can’t hurt me. I don’t know. That’s it, I, I guess. End recording.

[ID: A drawing of someone sitting at a computer crying.]

I'M JUST SAD. "It feels nice to hate something that can't hurt me." HHHHH HES REALLY BEEN THROUGH THE WRINGER HASN'T HE D:

right, uh,

this is over ig.

#tma #the magnus archives #mag 137 #the slaughter #the extinction #a mag a day #landscaping-your-mind-chapter-one

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neon-junkie · 4 years ago

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Hey, I want to make a request

So, everyone already wrote a enemies to lovers with Crosshair and Hunter, right?! But what about one with Tech? I think that would be interesting

Thank you and have a nice day

Enemies to lovers... my weakness...

I like the idea of you and Tech clashing due to your personalities, or maybe you're also good with technology, and suddenly Tech has 'competition'? (gender neutral reader)

Originally, you joined the Batch as their pilot, but you've proven your worth through an array of other skills: combat, shooting, medical, and technology.

Everybody was pouring their praise onto you, happy with their newest member who can hold their weight, and more, until you spoke up about something technology related.

Hunter asked a question, and since you knew the answer, you replied. Nobody responded, and you were met with an variety of shocked expressions.

At first, you had no idea why the Batch had turned ghost white, until you locked eyes with Tech, who was red in the face and absolutely furious.

Oh, yeah. Tech's the Batch's nerd... he was rather upset with you beating him to the answer, and to prove his worth, he began expanding your answer to Hunter, as if to prove that he knows more than you do.

It was petty, childish, cringe worthy, but after Hunter spoke to you later on, he explained that Tech can take these things personally, and feels like you're attempting to 'take his place,' despite that not being the case at all!

After that, Tech had it out for you, and it was clear how much he did not like you.

You've literally saved him from death multiple times, only for him to mutter "thank you," under his breath, furious that he had to rely on you.

He's always trying to one-up you. Sometimes, when a technical question is asked, Tech will pause and wait to see if you'll answer. If you do, he'll find a way to state that you're wrong, followed by giving his version of the answer.

The bickering is extremely petty, and the Batch soon find their ways to ignore it.

Hunter has tried talking to Tech multiple times, as has Echo, but he won't listen to them. He needs to be the only person in his role, as in his mind, that's all that he's 'good at.' Technology is his 'only strength', and having you come along has damaged his confidence and self-worth.

Until one afternoon where you're attempting to work on a project of your own. The grappling line on your utility belt failed last time you attempted to use it, so now you need to figure out why.

You take the small contraption apart, cleaning it through, then put it back together, but it still fails to launch.

Grumbling to yourself, you rummage around the ship, looking for replacements. You find scraps here and there, enough to replace the worn bolts and screws, and get to work on repairing it.

Tech is nearby, tapping away at the ships control panel, focusing on his own job. He's hyperfocused, mouth slightly parted and eyes fixated on the screen, but the sound of you cursing under your breath draws his attention away.

He watches for a while as you fiddle about with the gadget, unable to repair it, cursing over and over in frustration.

Tech doesn't want to directly ask if you need help, so he covers up his offer by saying, "you're ruining my focus," followed by explaining where you're going wrong.

You're glaring as you mutter "thank you," and attempt to do things his way.

Tech watches you work like a hawk, and soon rises from his seat and settles beside you, prying the gadget from your hands and fixing it whilst explaining what he's doing.

"-And as you can see, doing things my way always works. Look, this device is as good as new, all thanks to myself."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it," you grumble. "Thank you, Tech."

Tech returns to his work station, and you decide to ask an important question. "Does this mean you'll stop being bitter with me now?"

"What ever do you mean?" Tech questions, his eyes glued to his work.

"Well, you've finally one-upped me, so surely we can get along now?"

Tech surprisingly flashes you a smug grin as he replies, "we can get along, but that doesn't mean that I won't jump at future opportunities to prove that my intelligence is superior to yours."

Oh, it's like that, is it?

After that, your previous bickering turns playful, and the Batch is surprised to see you two getting along, let alone working together. You and Tech make it a competition, and of course, Tech is winning, not that you mind.

It'll only be so long until the feelings finally come out... ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

#i didnt proof read this so sorry lol #swwriting #swheadcanon #tbbheadcanon #tech x reader #enemies to lovers #the bad batch #clone trooper tech #tech #tbb tech x reader #sfw #gender neutral reader #gn!reader #star wars #tbbwriting

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queerdraws · 4 years ago

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Cleaning Out the Rooms - a Harry Du Bois playlist Alcoholism, getting better?, memory loss, being a superstar, The Final Dream, forming political opinions, bad breakups, past transgressions, being a strange and inconsistent being, and persisting despite it all 26 songs (r-slur warning for Turnin’ on the Screw - QotSA)

including: David Bazan, They Might be Giants, The Mountain Goats, British Sea Power (of course), Queens of the Stone Age, and more. Full track listing and lyric excerpts under the cut

---- Turnin' on the Screw - Queens of the Stone Age (This is the opening track on Era Vulgaris, seemed like an appropriate opening song / introduction to Harry's general essence) ----

... They say those who can't just instruct others And act like victims or jilted lovers You can't lose it if you never had it Disappear, man, do some magic

Want a reason? How's about because You ain't a has been if you never was

I sound like this

Scared to say what is your passion So slag it all, bitter's in fashion Fear of failure's all you've started The jury is in, verdict: r******d

I'm so tired, and I'm wired too I'm a mess; I guess I'm turning on the screw

---- Bless this Mess - David Bazan (Harry being a drunk and a general mess, things going in cycles) ----

God bless the man who stumbles God bless the man who falls God bless the man who yields to temptation God bless the woman who suffers God bless the woman who weeps God bless the children trying her patience Trouble getting over it Is what you're in for So pour yourself another 'Cause it'll take a steady pair of hands Holy or unholy ghost Well now I can't tell, but either way you cut it You should get some distance if you plan to take a stand God bless the house divided God bless the weeds in the wheat God bless the lamp hid under a bushel I discovered hell to be the poison in the well So I tried to warn the others of the curse But then my body turned on me I dreamt that for eternity My family would burn Then I awoke with a wicked thirst

---- Don’t Sit Down Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair - Arctic Monkeys (general Harry vibe. off-kilter) ----

Break a mirror, roll the dice

...

Find a well-known hard man and start a fight Wear your shell suit on bonfire night Fill in a circular hole with a peg that's square

But just don't sit down 'cause I've moved your chair

...

Bite the lightning and tell me how it tastes Kung fu fighting on your roller skates Do the Macarena in the devil's lair

But just don't sit down 'cause I've moved your chair

---- I've Been Seeing Things - They Might be Giants (feels very Harry's detecting style, surreal happenstance) ----

I've been seeing things I've been seeing things Don't have answers but I've got lots of questions

Carpool's up, someone gets out Hand someone else a violin case I'm trying not to let them see me looking at them But I'm pretty sure there was a dollar sign

Keep your eyes peeled and you'll see stuff Which at first seems like unimportant irrelevant things

Can't just ask some perfect stranger "What are you hiding in your violin case?" Shadow them at a distance instead Try to get inside their head

Where'd they go now (Where'd they go now) I got distracted (I got distracted) Begging me to stay (Begging me to stay) Wearing a disguise (Wearing a disguise) That lady (That lady) Must have ditched the kid (Must have ditched the kid) Hidge the down (Hidge the down) [???] What's she up to now? (What's she up to now?) Trembling cold by the airport road Watching them stack containers in rows Seagulls, helicopter, windblown trash Something doesn't add up

I've been seeing things I've been seeing things No one asks but I'm packing all kinds of attention

Later I'm watching a news report Camera pans across a crime scene Unremarked upon detail Empty violin case Okay maybe not the same case Different material, different color Still you have to wonder Am I the only one who knows

I've been seeing things

---- Music is the Victim - Scissor Sisters (breakup Harry. drug-addled disco Harry) ----

I left my heart in San Fransisco It's at some motherfucking disco The people there where dancin' on it And that's including Ms. Matronic

Hell if music is the victim then so am I Of lovin' and a cheatin' the snake gon' bite I beg and I scream and I cuss and I cry If music is the victim then so am I

Of your bad fun Money's all gone but you need some Lover's on the phone but they got none Daddy ain't home from the dog run And you're riding through the city with a shotgun

I left my bag in Pasadena Where all them girls was doin' Tina Them bitches sure were crunked up on it I said I'd rather smoke some chronic

Hell if music is the victim then so am I Of lovin' and a cheatin' the snake gon' bite I beg and I scream and I cuss and I cry If music is the victim then so am I

---- Down to Your Soul - Right Away, Great Captain! (about the Final Dream and pre-game Harry) ----

And I see things I actually don't see. I knew it wasn't actually you a few feet from my reach. I looked into your eyes and I began to lose my teeth, And I felt you were dreaming the same thing.

And I know you don't know what I'm capable of But if you give me just one more minute I'm sure That you would be shaking right down to your soul And I'd hope that the fear of the lord brings me home. I'm a man in a body of water so tall Could swallow you whole and forget where he's going But I carved a map in the back of my arm Don't worry I'm coming home I said don't worry cause I'm coming home

---- No Surprises - Radiohead (suicidal harry, pre-game. Maybe immediately before the game. A little Big Communism Builder) ----

A heart that's full up like a landfill A job that slowly kills you Bruises that won't heal You look so tired, unhappy Bring down the government They don't, they don't speak for us I'll take a quiet life A handshake of carbon monoxide

And no alarms and no surprises

…

This is my final fit My final bellyache

…

No alarms and no surprises, please (get me out of here)

---- Cleaning Out the Rooms - British Sea Power (The instrumental part seems to have been used / referenced for a background music track. And also the name of that one thought project. as expected, it fits beautifully. Wake up in a new life, down by the seaside. Cleaning out the rooms. She’ll be coming soon.) ----

Where life is good in a way Swept away upon our hearts, in cold coal ceremonial On a rainy day, hang it up Get the vacuum and suck it in Cleaning out the rooms, I'll clean it up Dark cloud, drifting out of view I'll never know, she'll be coming soon, that is all I'll wake up in a new life, ship shape and shoe shine Cleaning out the rooms, I'll clean it up She'll be coming soon Drifting into view, way in the west, white cloud If everybody knew, I never knew, she'll be coming soon I'll wake up in a new life, down by the seaside In a new life, down by the seaside Cleaning out the room, I'll clean it up Dark clouds, she'll be coming soon Down the chimney, out the window, that is all

---- In the Morning of the Magicians - The Flaming Lips (waking up with no memory, but bad vibes) ----

In the morning I awake

And I couldn't remember What is love and what is hate

The calculations error

Oh, what is love and what is hate? And why does it matter? Is to love just a waste? And how can it matter?

Oh...

As the dawn began to break I had to surrender The universe will have its way Too powerful to master

---- Once in a Lifetime - Talking Heads (Huh?? What's happening?? same as it ever was, same as it ever was) ----

And you may ask yourself, "How do I work this?" And you may ask yourself, "Where is that large automobile?" And you may tell yourself, "This is not my beautiful house" And you may tell yourself, "This is not my beautiful wife"

...

Same as it ever was, same as it ever was Same as it ever was, same as it ever was

...

And you may ask yourself, "What is that beautiful house?" And you may ask yourself, "Where does that highway go to?" And you may ask yourself, "Am I right? Am I wrong?" And you may say to yourself, "My God! What have I done?"

---- Don't Change - David Bazan (alcoholism, cycles of wanting to get better, depression, slipping in to old coping mechanisms, plus a little bit in here about dreams. This is a song for if Harry continues partying after the memory wipe, I suppose) ----

He seems nice You met him once or twice But you wonder what he's like When he's sober

Then again You hear he has no friends Just people that he spins To do him favors

When he wakes up in the morning he tells himself Today I'll make a change But falling into his bed at night he thinks Man it was a beautiful day to stay the same

I'm so deep That only in my sleep Do the secrets that I keep Float to the surface

So I hold them down Till they don't make a sound Like they accidentally drowned Except on purpose

And when I wake up in the morning I tell myself Today I'll make a change But falling into my bed at night I think Man it was a beautiful day to stay the same

---- Airbag - Radiohead (born again, back to save the universe) ----

In the next world war In a jackknifed juggernaut I am born again In the neon sign scrolling up and down I am born again

In an interstellar burst I am back to save the universe

In a deep, deep sleep of the innocent I am born again In a fast German car I'm amazed that I survived An airbag saved my life

In an interstellar burst I am back to save the universe

---- A Comet Appears - The Shins (puppeting a man-body around pretending to be a living thing. drinking, depression) ----

One hand on this wily comet Take a drink just to give me some weight Some uber-man I'd make I'm barely a vapor

They shone a chlorine light on A host of individual sins Let's carve my aging face off Fetch us a knife Start with my eyes Down so the lines Form a grimacing smile

Close your eyes to corral a virtue Is this fooling anyone else? Never worked so long and hard To cement a failure

---- The Communists Have the Music - They Might be Giants (Big Communism Builder, but especially Harry's shallow understanding of Communism. Party-boy communist) ----

I got handed an Ayn Rand sandwich Straight from the can, it tasted so bland I asked a lass to pass me a glass Of Engels' Conditions of the Working Class

Right away they dragged me to the committee To explain my un-American activity They're gonna see they made a mistake If they'd only let me play my mixtape

I'm not partial to the martial Or the plutocrats, in their beaver hats And the fascists have the outfits But I don't care for the outfits What I care about is music And the communists have the music

---- Harlem Roulette - The Mountain Goats (Harry thinking about Guillame le Million? Generally: that vibe of secret, maybe supranatural machinations happening just outside your field of view. A kinda lonely, pensive vibe, sprinkled with past drug use, driving...memory) ----

Unknown engines underneath the city Steam pushing up in billows through the grates Frankie Lymon's tracking "Seabreeze" in a studio in Harlem Its 1968. Just a pair of tunes to hammer out. Everybody's off the clock by 10:00. The loneliest people in the whole wide world are the ones you're never going to see again. Feels so free when I hit the avenue. Nothing like a New York summer night. Every dream's a good dream, Even awful dreams are good dreams, If you're doing it right. Remember soaring higher than a cloud. Get pretty sentimental now and then. The loneliest people in the whole wide world are the ones you're never going to see again. And four hours north of Portland, a radio flips on. And some no one from the future remembers that you're gone. Armies massing in the dusky distance. Ghosted in the ribbon microphone. Leave a little mark on something, maybe, Take the secret circuit home. Nothing in the shadows but the shadow hands. Reaching out to sad, young, frightened men. The loneliest people in the whole wide world are the ones you're never going to see again.

---- Suture up Your Future - Queens of the Stone Age (Harry's gonna fix his mess) ----

I'm gon' suture up my future I ain't jaded, I just hate it See, I been down too long It's kinda hard to explain Burned and buried, all I carried

...

Tried explaining unexplained Got caught in the plan All this talking at once I've been giving my love away To the things that tear it apart I'm gonna suture up my future

---- Lampshades on Fire - Modest Mouse (Harry trashing his body / having already trashed his body, just kinda a Harry-vibe song) ----

...

Well, the lampshade's on fire when the lights go out This is what I really call a party now Well, fear makes us really, really run around A-this one's done so where to now? Our eyes light up, we have no shame at all Well, you all know what I'm talking about The room lights up, but we're still dancing around We're having fun, having some fun now

Pack up again, head to the next place Where we'll make the same mistakes Open one up and let it fall to the ground Pile out the door when it all runs out

...

As our feelings are getting hurt Oh, we want you to do the work Our ass looks great inside these jeans Well, we want just our water clean

Well, this is how it's always been And this is how it's going to be So you just move on

---- Seven Nation Army - The White Stripes (Harry "can-opener" du Bois. Talking to the skills, solving things, detecting, generally being a terrifying force of nature / the pale) ----

I'm gonna fight 'em all A seven nation army couldn't hold me back They're gonna rip it off Taking their time right behind my back

And I'm talking to myself at night Because I can't forget Back and forth through my mind Behind a cigarette

And the message coming from my eyes Says, "Leave it alone"

Don't wanna hear about it Every single one's got a story to tell Everyone knows about it From the Queen of England to the Hounds of Hell

And if I catch it coming back my way I'm gonna serve it to you And that ain't what you want to hear But that's what I'll do

And the feeling coming from my bones Says, "Find a home"

---- Body of Years - Mother Mother (Harry's past that follows him, Harry's half-decomposed body that marks the years of abuse it's been through) ----

All the remains of a cadaver of days I keep hidden away, keep them there just in case I wanna visit that place Blow the dust from the bones Off a body of years that I leave all alone Just a body of years

See the skin disappears And the blood turns to stone In a body of years now a pile of bones Like a sheet of veneer Each a piece of my soul It's a body of years that I leave all alone

It's Just a body of years, now a pile of bones You know Old soul who falls down Can't stop trippin' on these Old roads I go down Get back up and get my foot in the door And my face on the page Make my mark in the world With a bat and a blade It's a body of work that you can't ever change Like a body of years that you take to your grave It's just a body of years that I leave all alone It's just a body of years, now a pile of bones Like a sheet of veneer Each a piece of my soul

---- The Cap-m - They Might be Giants (just a Harry vibe song) ----

When I talk you keep looking away from me 'Cause you probably think that I'm high on pot But I'm not, I'm not

Look me over, I'm the Cap'm You say it's such a joke But I don't see you laughing

People seem to think you can't be called the Cap'm Unless you drive a boat Well, I don't I don't

Look me over, I'm the Cap'm Go ahead and mess with me You'll find out what will happ'm

...

Did you say what I think you just said My hat looks good on me? I agree, I agree

Look me over, I'm the Cap'm You act like it's a joke But I don't see you laughing

---- Broke - Modest Mouse (oops! all mistakes. Broke it all. Want to forget it but can't) ----

Broke account, so I broke a sweat I've bought some things that I sort of regret about now Broke my pace and ran out of time Sometimes I'm so full of shit that it should be a crime

Broke a promise 'cause my car broke down Such a classic excuse it should be bronze by now Broke your glasses, but it broke the ice You said that I was an asshole and I paid the price

Broken hearts want broken necks I've done some things that I'd love to forget, but I can't

Broke up, and I'm relieved somehow It's the end of the discussions that just go 'round and 'round And 'round, and 'round, and 'round ... It was like everything was evidence of broken time

You're living on fancy wine You'll drink that turpentine You're starting conversations You don't even know the topic

---- Spent Gladiator 2 - The Mountain Goats (Defiantly alive) ----

Like a spent gladiator, Crawling in the coliseum dust. Who can count on his remaining limbs, All the people he can trust. Like the one who stands behind him, Cheering him on. Ecstatic when he stands defiant, Wild with abandon when he's gone. Just stay alive. Keep your eyes on the pay line. Like a village on the step, About to get collectivized. When the men emerge with rifles from the haystack, Everybody looks surprised. Like the mice in the forgotten grain, Way up on the top shelf. Like someone who's found a small town to escape to, Keeps one eye on his abandoned, former self. Stay in the game. Just try to play through the pain. Like a fighter who's been told its finally time for him to quit. Show up in shining colors, And then stand there and get hit. Like the clock that ticks in Dresden, When the whole town's been destroyed. Like the nagging flash of insight, You're always desperate to avoid. Like the bloody-knuckled gunman, Still stationed at the breach. Like that board game with the sliders, And the children on the beach. Stay alive. Maybe spit some blood at the camera. Just stay alive. Stay forever alive.

---- You Only Live Once - The Strokes (just general Harry, talking about the skills, choices you can make, what kind of cop you can be) ----

Twenty-nine different attributes Only seven that you like, oh-oh Twenty ways to see the world, oh And twenty ways to start a fight, oh

...

And countless odd religions too It doesn't matter which you choose, oh, no One stubborn way to turn your back, oh This I've tried and now refuse, oh

Oh don't, don't, don't get up I can't see the sunshine Oh, I'll be waiting for you, baby 'Cause I'm through Sit me down Shut me up I'll calm down And I'll get along with you

---- Pork and Beans - Weezer (Superstar Cop) ----

They say I need some rogaine to put in my hair Work it out at the gym to fit my underwear Oakley makes the shades to transform a tool You'd hate for the kids to think that you've lost your cool

I'ma do the things that I wanna do I ain't got a thing to prove to you I'll eat my candy with the pork and beans Excuse my manners if I make a scene I ain't gonna wear the clothes that you like I'm fine and dandy with the me inside One look in the mirror and I'm tickled pink I don't give a hoot about what you think

Everyone likes to dance to a happy song With a catchy chorus and beat so they can sing along Timbaland knows the way to reach the top of the charts Maybe if I work with him I can perfect the art

No, I don't care I don't care

---- Freaks - Surf Curse (head filled with skills, The Final Dream) ----

Don't kill me just help me run away From everyone I need a place to stay Where I can cover up my face Don't cry, I am just a freak

I am just a freak(x3)

My head is filled with parasites Black holes cover up my eyes I dream of you almost every night Hopefully I won't wake up this time

I won't wake up this time(x3)

---- The Smallest Church in Sussex - British Sea Power (oh yeah this is mandatory) ----

#disco elysium #harry du bois #harrier du bois #hdb #disco elysium playlist #generally wanted to keep this playlist fun to listen to despite the subject matter to there are still a lot of songs w good beats #communists have the music gets stuck in my head all the time #also sorry to repost this #i forgot to tag anything and if you edit something to add tags it doesn't seem to show up in search

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weatheredpileoftomes · 3 years ago

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enough prayers for the day

For Wondrous Tails of FFXIV, “the Twelve”. Post-Endwalker but pre-Myths of the Realm, ~750 words. Canonical character deaths, references to war and apocalypse; spoilers through 6.0.

It’s not as simple as having a single guardian deity, for most people.

Whenever she’s asked, Frydlona says she gives her first devotion to Nophica. She wasn’t born under Nophica’s moon, but Doenthota was, when Frydlona was just old enough to remember. Maybe that had been where it started.

She couldn’t have grown up in Cliffhide, daughter of a sea captain, without offering many and more prayers to the Navigator. When the seas were rough, she prayed—they all prayed—that Captain Merlgeim’s ship, or any smaller fishing boat set out alone, would come back safe. When weeks of brilliant sun left the fish wary and made the fishers come back empty-handed, it was Llymlaen they asked to bless the fishers’ casts.

But Frydlona has always liked verdant shade and leaf-dappled sunlight, rich soil under her hands and the pale perfect green of a new-sprouting seed. More than that, she likes the promise Nophica makes to provide.

If she could only choose one favor, it would be that: life abundant, for her and everyone she loves.

She does give her first devotion to Nophica, but there are days she offers more prayers to Byregot. Quick with each meal she cooks, and over any gear she needs to repair. Longer when she starts a new project, or can’t get a detail to come right.

Her rooms in Ul’dah have two shrines; his is the second. It’s the only one she brought to Ishgard when she was helping Francel with the restoration, and she’s burned incense there many a time she’s been working on a new master recipe.

It’s hard now to remember that there had been long years of Frydlona’s life when she thought of picking up a spindle when she thought of praying to Nymeia. Oh, people had died in Cliffhide, but few, and rarely, and for the most part kindly.

She grows Nymeia lilies, now. There’s never a shortage of need for them.

For the Scions buried at Saint Adama Landama’s, and all the other dead of the lichyard—the sylphs keep no graves. For Moenbryda, though Frydlona adds moon daisies as well when she can. For Minfilia, who has no grave or memorial to leave them at. For Haurchefant, and Ysayle, and all the dead of the Dragonsong War. For Sidurgu’s friend and Rielle’s teacher Fray. For Papalymo. For everyone cut down at Rhalgr’s Reach, in Doma, in the final battling to retake Ala Mhigo and all the drawn-out struggles after.

They worship different gods in Thavnair, too, but the memorial in Radz-at-Han to those lost in the Final Days is never short of offerings. Lilies are for the others, and she never has enough.

They worship different gods in Norvrandt, and honor their dead with different traditions. The Warriors of Darkness have no graves for Frydlona to bring bundles of plain sweet-scented herbs to, but neither do those lost to the sin eaters.

She still goes back—not just carrying messages between the Scions and their loved ones on the First, but visiting the friends she’d made herself and carrying on the work she’d started. The Crystarium gardens have more than space to tend those mourning herbs, and now that the soil is very slowly starting to recover they can plant and tend them.

She does bring Nymeia lilies to the ghost-filled streets of Amaurot under the sea—before Elpis, because she didn’t know what else to bring. After Elpis, because…because maybe things could have been different, this whole time, if there had been a way to say I mourn, and have it be seen.

But she brings no flowers to Garlemald and its burned-out streets, to a park sitting empty under the hollow wrecks of massive buildings. She’s afraid there are people there who would take it as mockery.

There had been a long-ago time when Frydlona thought of Nald’thal as a miner’s god, the same as she’d thought of Nymeia as a weaver’s. Her prayers had been for a true strike with sledgehammer and pickaxe, or for a rich and lovely find.

She’s never cared much for commerce, or understood that aspect of the Traders, but she’s lived in Ul’dah long enough that the thought of praying for Thal’s mercy alone isn’t strange.

Nymeia lilies were a traveler’s blessing, once.

Frydlona offers prayers to Llymlaen before journeys by sea and Oschon before journeys by road. Especially now, with the Scions scattered all over Etheirys, it seems she spends as much time thinking of Oschon as she does Byregot or Nymeia.

Guide their steps. Keep them safe.

She can spare a few lilies for this.

#i have Thoughts about frydlona and menphina but that's a fic set at a very specific time #wondroustailsofffxiv #wondroustailsofffxivwriting #my fic #my fic: frydlona #my fic: frydlona: gen #my fic: 6.x #frydlona merlgeimwyn

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phantsmenace · 4 years ago

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PONR Special - Russian Edition (Pt. 2)

With Andrey Shkoldychenko (Phantom) and Elena Bakhtiyarova (Kristin).

Minors: Don't read. TW for sexual themes.

So. Where were we?

Ah. There.

Doesn't it look like she's losing her senses there? And he's just, you know... Singing.

Kudos to her smear-proof lipstick. 💋❣

What's his voice doing to you, Mlle Daaè? 👀

His hold is soft and, if you pay attention, his thumb caresses her wrist. Her eyes flicker from his face, to his hand, to his eyes again and if that's not a heated gaze then I don't know anything anymore. 🤨🔥

Honestly, she gasps so much that this scene looks even more sexual than it already is 👁👄👁

Doesn't this look like he's crowning her here? And then, when his hands lower, he doesn't touch her directly, like she is just too precious for such a thing. Like he's physically, spiritually and verbally worshipping her.

Nice™.

This has strong Hades/Persephone vibes, specially if you consider their former back-and-forth with the wine- She hesitated at drinking the figurative wine at first, but then she, after his soft seductive acts, ended up doing so. I think this Christine is very aware that the person under the hood is not Piangi.

Or she thinks it's Ubaldo and they're totally smashing. Which Is Valid, And I Ship.

Mademoiselle, are you warm?

Her eyes aren't on Don Juan, or the performance; maybe she's trying to find Raoul with her eyes, but they aren't going up. Rather, they seem hazy and unfocused.

She could still be looking for her golden boy, but what I really think that is happening here is that she's trying her best not to give in. Even if she still thinks that this is Ubaldo (which I doubt), it is very obvious in this production that the direction wanted to show Christine's bond with the Ghost's music. Maybe she's projecting enough that, in her mind, she's singing with the Phantom; his music has seeped deep into her soul, making a rather bold claim on her. You're mine, it says, and Christine is struggling to fight against it because it has a point. Even if she doesn’t think that people can belong to each other, there's still a chunk of her heart that has been given to the Ghost. Or at least that's my take on the productions choice with Christine's acting.

Also, she horny.

See how his hand is accompanying the music? OG's making a statement there.

LADY AND GENT, THIS IS A WENDY'S FOR GOODNESS SAKE

Yes. He really did that. Look again.

Yes. Mlle just straight up had an orgasm there.

Valid

Little Lotte let her mind wander... Is she going to die of horny?

She went for it.

Erik you terrible tease. Jail for Erik. Jail for 1000 years.

Sidenote: Can we all appreciate how his hand is bigger than her face? Thanks. 💕

You just can't convice me that Erik’s opera had this part choreographed. "Oh yeah they almost kiss, but literal Don Juan freaks out and gets too horny to function". 🙄 Like... I can't see it. So I'd prefer to think that in this moment Christine really just chose that she was going to kiss Don Juan, because Canon is whatever I want it to be. /just enjoy life however you want, folks./

Her focus finally snap back to the performance as Erik hunches like a loser. Or does she?

Why are you smiling, mademoiselle? Are you simply back into Aminta's mindset?

And that's part 2. Are you ready for Part 3? 😏

Part 1

- Gifs by Persie (@petittneko)

#poto #gif #gifset #PONR Russia #PONR #andrey shkoldychenko #elena bahtiyarova #poto russia

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steve0discusses · 4 years ago

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Yugioh S5 Ep 19: Yugi and the Only Neck Accessory He Didn’t Really Want to Wear

Been busy! Hopefully stuff will open up soon as I’m taking a hiatus on a different quarantine project and will be finishing painting the entire roof of my car this week? One can hope. Sanding the rust off the whole top of a car takes a long time it turns out?

Also, fun Yugioh fact, I recently painted a book cover for an author who is older so she’s never seen the show, and she looked at my tumblr, saw my Duke Devlin fanart and was like “That’s him. That’s my main character. OMG. You captured him perfectly!” and I was like “Ma’am that is Duke Devlin, hence the single dice earring on his lobes there, but we can work with this.” and now a spiritual Duke Devlin is on the cover of a Wuxia-style fantasy trilogy on the Vella. Had to give him a top knot and delete the eyeliner for Wuxia reasons but uh, that’s just Duke.

So long story short, fanart can get you work, don’t even worry about posting that stuff online because most people don’t even know it’s fanart anyway and older ladies freakin love it.

Back in Yugioh, the team was doing their best to navigate a map through the woods and they do about as well as they normally do.

And inside Tristan lifted up the floorboards and was like “I found the only way out, this is it, this is the only way.”

And they ended up in something that has a color scheme I would actually associate with a jungle. Finally. We have finally left California (in order to go to another Hell.)

Youknow, when we went to California, we visited Hell, and when we went to India, we also took a stop at the nearest death destination. There’s just so much death on this show and sometimes I forget because there’s been a ghost in our party for so freakin long it’s been normalized.

(read more death imagery under the cut)

Joey freaks out at a flock of crows and reveals in this episode something I never realized about him before.

Like I’m not always the perfect observer as I’m sure you’ve noticed, but I love that this is canon for probably only this episode, but I will never forget it for the entirety of this series.

You go on hating birds, Joey.

Bro was like “Maybe it’s a deep cut about Mai Valentine because she’s a harpy lady” but eh...pretty sure we spent like an entire season of Joey telling us that Mai was a good experience? Would be incredibly funny if immediately after all of S4, Joey was like “You know what? Screw Mai, guys.”

So my thoughts...it’s probably just a literal bird experience. Like I had a friend who hated deer because once she went to a petting zoo, got some pellets to feed the deer, but her finger was sticking up, so when the deer came over to nibble on some pellets her finger went up it’s nose by accident. She was so disgusted by this event that was entirely her fault, that she brought up how much she hated deer basically whenever we saw one.

So like...maybe Joey fed a bird wrong at a petting zoo. I can see him getting bit by a parrot because he was too Joey Wheeler.

But now that we’re in a graveyard neighborhood, Pharaoh decides to hop out because there’s a lot of ghosts here and he needs to practice socializing with his peers.

So that’s just a Yugioh monster doing the ostrich dance, right? Like this is a meme from like 2010 but on Yugioh in 2003(4?)

Good to see the Ostrich dance here in the land before Vine.

So they pull out their Pokemon to do some antics, Tea looked like she was about to do something useful, and Yami does a yump across time and space to get her as far away from playing (not)cards as quickly as possible and y’all...sure was a position these animators animated.

Holy crap.

And I was going off about that scene last season where they woke up in the same bed like...

...have these two been together this entire time? Like together together?

They’re like...way more comfortable than you’d figure they’d be considering Yugi nearly passes out every time he gets a hug. But Yami just like....How long has this been going on? As long as Joey’s fear of birds?

Like obviously this show would never cover what the hell Yugi may be thinking about this overreaching move here, because we’re gonna gloss right over that, and just run away up a flight of stairs. No one mentions this ever again. Which is mind blowing for an anime to do. I think in most anime I watch, the kids would be like “ahh ahhhh I bumped into a booooob!” like it does for I want to say every other episode of My Hero Academia. But in Yugioh, they saw that low hanging fruit and they were like “we expect a higher level of maturity out of our audience. Now here’s a fleet of ostrich dancing tree monsters with faces for crotches.”

They decided to sprint up this flight of stairs, and it enough of a slope to deter the monsters who are only unbalanced weird legs.

I want us to take a moment and admire this background painting. I can’t unsee the rocks that are all the same size, just piled on top of eachother. Did Alexander the Great just plop rocks here--or was the mountain made up of tons of similarly shaped boulders?

Like there’s a lot of nice bg’s in this arc, don’t get me wrong, but this one...I’m just trying to wrap my head around the logic of it.

At the top, they meet a pantheon, that is immediately blocked by this wall, because if this arc had a tagline, it’s “Yugi gets inconvenienced every 4 seconds.”

Bro was like “Clearly they would have pushed it over if Tea wasn’t slacking off” and like...she is actually. Look at her. Only used one hand? Slacker.

Joey was disappointed he couldn’t push over a massive wall, and the team decided not to analyze how much Joey Wheeler thinks of his own strength and instead fixate on these statues.

Usually in anthro characters they kinda look birdlike but act human. But what about an anthro that’s just a bird? Like human torso, but can turn his head 180 degrees? Yugioh made me ask this question.

And then Joey was like “wait, there may be a solution that isn’t just to use brute strength!”

Youknow it is a bummer that Kaiba couldn’t witness Joey own a dragon while he himself only has a robot jet dragon. Although, the jet is probably faster, stronger and overall...better than this baby dragon. It would have been great for Kaiba to witness Joey under-utilize this dragon and forget he has it for like huge swatches of the episode.

And then Grandpa pulled some body horror out of nowhere.

Wow.

I mean that is really gross.

I guess Grandpa can’t use Blue eyes, because Kaiba ripped it up, Grandpa can’t use Exodia because Weevil tossed it off a boat, and grandpa can’t use the card that’s just a building because...it’s a building.

So instead Grandpa has a bunch of meat and bones that look like something out of Doom. It’s probably from a more obscure Konami property, but I forget which.

I’ve seen Tristan hold back Joey in this hold, first time it’s been Tea.

So much shipping in this episode, it’s wild.

It’s also wild how low my standards are for what could possibly be shipping when it comes to Yugioh because of how freakin tepid all of these characters are, which as I’ve brought up before, I really don’t mind.

So Yugi decides that because Grandpa was folding his arms like one monster and it made a gem light up or something, to just do the video game thing and use the giant ass statues as clues.

Why was this arc not a video game? Like parts of it really feel like it was meant to be.

So Yugi falls down a hole, where the walls cave in like it’s that dumpster in Star Wars but like...it barely phases him.

Also...Yugi might be able to see in the dark. It’s never been brought up but like...the more I think about it...has Yugi ever struggled to see without the lights on?

After Joey disappoints everyone, he confronts death.

And Pharaoh and Yugi decide to solve the puzzle of “how do I get out of this trap dungeon room” which, honestly, is probably what they’re doing every time they hang out in the brain pyramid.

So they summon their mascot monster, and surprisingly the show decided its ability to fly cannot help them out here.

Kuriboh manages to become enough of a doormat to push Yami up to the stone and they end up in a set of weird cuts that ended in this?

Like seriously it was like flashes of light and then they were just...up here like this.

Hey like...

Alexander the Great, my man...

Were you planning to put that stone in the middle of a exhaust vent hoping someone would touch it? Because there’s no way anyone would rationally have done that. You would need to fly to do it. This is the world’s worst DM.

Like Yugioh pulls a lot of fantasy nonsense but this arc is a lot more like a “it’s a kid’s show, just go with it.” arc than most of them. It’s not a bad vibe, necessarily, it’s just not the vibe I’m used to.

So once I witnessed maybe the most boring conversation I’ve ever witnessed about corn (this was on a twitch stream, by the way, a guy was playing an interesting game, and then a guest came on and started talking about corn and plants for 2 hours) and they would not shut up about how all taxonomy is wrong because there are no such thing as trees and how all animals are labelled incorrectly, and then they started comparing it to like all sorts of mushrooms and phytoplankton as you would if you clearly got a little bit high before dumping your corn knowledge on a twitch stream.

Anyway, after that bizarre experience I suffered so I could learn how to play an obscure video game, I think I can safely say, that while I know everyone here thinks a bird can’t be a dog. If you’re a high biologist: a bird is absolutely a dog. Apparently you can just do that if you’re the most boring biologist alive and no one will argue with you because to do that would involve talking to you. We’ll just say a bird is a dog and no one can fight me or I will talk about the corn book that this guest on this twitch chat was thinking about renting from the library about the different types of corn mutations inherent in freakin Indiana. Therefore, Joey’s fear of birds and dogs is same.

So they use Dark Magician to save them from the statues, and Yugi busts into the pantheon again because they got to open this casket before a time limit that I kind of forgot about, tbh.

And inside the casket, is...this thing!

(enjoy this line on the bottom of the image I don’t feel like fixing it)

And you may say to yourself...it looks like it’s just floating in mid-air, that’s silly, and so I want to introduce you to the next panel where you can see that it is...quite literally...just floating in the air like a video game.

and it just slurps itself onto Yugi before he can be like “nonono.”

Wasn’t there some horror movie where you were stuck in some sort of body brace that slowly tortures you (was that Saw?) This has that vibes. Like man that looks uncomfortable to wear over a jacket and two belts and a collar that is another belt.

That and I...I gotta appreciate that Yugi popped his collar while wearing body armor and chunky necklace. What 00′s fashion appreciation right there.

Bit like...this isn’t breathable, right? Like Yugi’s gonna finally take this thing off and his jacket will just be completely soaked in sweat?

Anyway, that’s it for this post, next week we’ll see if Yugi can walk through a doorway in that thing.

Also, I can’t bring up the ostrich dance without sharing the vines of my generation

youtube

#Yugioh #YGO #yu gi oh #photo recap #episode recap #S5 #Ep19 #Yugi Muto #Joey Wheeler #Joey's fear of birds I've never heard about until this episode #Tea Gardner #Grandpa Muto #Tristan Taylor #Baby Dragon #This weird ass tranformer that Yugi is wearing.

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thornedrose44 · 5 years ago

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Ends of the Earth

(Read it on AO3)

The world ended.

Well, that's not technically accurate… humanity's time on earth ended, a lot sooner than to be expected which is where the tragedy of it all lies, if Lena were to guess.

Not that Lena's own time on earth had ended. She was still here, pottering on, miles underground, fiddling with forgotten experiments and watching endless hours of television that she never had time for before…

She wondered if this was what retirement was like…

Admittedly, Lena had always imagined it involving more travelling, maybe some gardening and it had never been lonely. She refused to acknowledge that when she thought of getting older it was with crinkly blue eyes and silver streaked blonde hair at her side which always helped soothe the ache in her chest that such morbid thoughts produced. Now, even that fantasy was well and truly gone.

She would only ever get to watch herself grow old now, at least she didn't have to worry about the paparazzi's comments about her receding good looks.

It wasn’t a bad life, not really. She had enough food to see her through old age or until the tempting call of the void summoned her. If Lena was being honest, which she kind of had to be when the only person she had left to lie to was herself… She knew it would be the latter that would take her in the end.

See the thing is… Lena hears… things.

They’re not real, or they are but they are merely the sounds that an empty building creates to keep itself company. The groan of a pipe. The squeak of a beam. The hiss of a fridge. The knock of a mechanised system keeping the air breathable and the water on hand.

Lena still had enough of her sanity to convince herself that the sounds were a natural part of her safe haven (‘prison’ more like). But there were mutters at the back of her mind that said other things. That squeak was a mouse still alive on the outside. That groan was a ghost, trapped forever alongside Lena. That hiss, the blast-proof doors whistling open and irreparably bursting Lena’s protective bubble. That knock…

The knock was the worst.

The knock was the call of the void that allowed Lena to fantasise. To dream.

That knock meant she was no longer alone.

That knock… that knock could be everything she ever wanted…

That knock could be Kara…

And that…

Lena knew that it would be the void that got her before old age. It would be that knock, her loneliness and the hope of seeing blue eyes just one more time… just one more time…. That would do her in.

***

The first six months hadn’t been too bad. Lena had kept herself busy making the repairs she needed to keep her safe haven ‘safe’ for as long as possible. The Children of Earth’s final attack, that had prompted humanity’s departure two months ahead of schedule and Lena staying behind to ensure their escape, had wrought significant damage to the structure of the bunker.

The work was dull. But it was good. It kept her hands busy. Her mind distracted. And it meant she could fall into bed, utterly exhausted and free of thoughts of what ifs and almosts and not yets and soons and new beginnings…

The majority of the work required for Lena’s home to be brought to tip-top shape was done after six months. The next six months were about optimisation. Trying to make her home… more homey… An already difficult task when there was little in the way of colour to decorate the concrete bunker, but a nigh on impossible task when Lena’s home had never been four walls but blue eyes, golden hair, a bright smile and a warmth that made even the darkest moments survivable.

It was the second year that broke something in Lena that she would never get back again.

It made the light in her chest steadily dim and extinguish.

A candle that had remained alight with the childish possibility that Lena would get her miracle, her last second save and a happy ending.

She knew it was impossible. Knew that the surface of the Earth was not accessible to another living being. That the transmat portal could not be repaired, the necessary materials completely depleted - even if Lena had the materials to repair it, she wouldn’t have been able to generate a high enough voltage to power it. That the survivors were now countless lightyears away and a ship travelling to her would arrive long after she had turned to little more than dust in this mausoleum.

To survive the breaking (more specifically the ‘breakdown’ that had Lena spending pretty much the entirety of a month drunk off her ass), Lena found a routine. She found a routine and stuck to it.

A routine that kept her busy, mentally and physically occupied because if she stopped… if she let her thoughts wander… Well, that knock started to sound rather enticing.

Lena performed regimented checks of her safe haven and its equipment.

Lena had time for reading. For television.

Time for fun science experiments she never had time to progress when the scientist part of her was told to give way to the business woman part.

Time for exercise; soft curves hardening to muscles as she threw around equipment and worked tirelessly and rigorously.

Set meals.

Set bedtime.

Set wake-up.

Day after day passed by in this fashion. Weeks. Months.

Two years in her concrete bunker became three, became five… and before Lena really knew it… she was rapidly approaching a decade in this prison of monotony.

***

It had started with an innocuous ‘beep’.

A fucking beep foretold the destruction of Earth - Lena prayed that humanity, when they re-told the story of the fall of their first home, would ignore that particular aspect of the tale.

It had all started out as a minor reading on a random L-Corp machine tucked away at the back of Lena's lab. (It had been the beginning of yet another half-formed experiment by an idealistic Lena when she thought that being in charge meant she could spend time on her own projects. How utterly naive she had been.)

Lena had taken it over to the DEO where she and Brainy looked over it together for a weekend - mostly because Lena had nothing better to do, what with her friendships being more or less non-existent since her near defection back to the Luthors and despite her subsequent assistance in bringing down Lex.

Lena assumed it was an atypical reading, a presumption that had been reinforced by Brainy with knowledge of the future. Because if this erroneous result was in fact true and accurate then… the Sun clearly had it in for the Earth.

It was heating and expanding at a ridiculous rate. A rate which would make the Earth uninhabitable in a mere handful of years, the heat and radioactivity increasing to such a level that it would be like living in an overpowered microwave.

So, the result had to be wrong because as far as Brainy was aware the Earth was very much still standing a thousand years down the line.

It took a month, with nearly all of L-Corp's resources working on it to find out that, as it turns out, the future can change.

Which was great news for those strongly in favour of free will and heavily against predetermination. Less great news for those that had recently got a mortgage for a new house…

It was full go then.

The next two years were some of the worst and best of Lena's life.

The sun's sudden failure was a parting gift from the Daxamites, who were big believers in ‘if I can't have it, you can't have it either’. Lena assumed Lex would appreciate the pettiness of the action.

The first six months had been filled with hope and a fervour to fix it. Solve the problem like the Superfriends had so many others before. Kara was their guiding light, tirelessly chasing down every lead, ready to get whatever Lena, Brainy and the whole cohort of scientists required at a moment's notice.

Lena, however, wasn't hopeful. She wasn't an optimist. Not anymore at least. Maybe once, when she was young and her mother was there to chase away the monsters under the bed and lift her into the air when the sun was at its warmest.

She had been hurt, though. Lied to and betrayed far too much to have faith in some intangible and, as of yet, unknown success. She was a Luthor. Raised to be resourceful, stubborn and with a tendency to doubt.

So, whilst her team of great minds slept, Lena would stay awake an extra couple of hours and plan and prepare for the worst. Because you never know when 'just in case' would be the only option left.

Lena and Kara's friendship over that six months steadily rebuilt.

It rebuilt over peace offering coffees brought to Lena's side by fidgeting fingers, “You look like you need it.”

“You didn’t have to.” Lena would always remind, not wanting there to be an obligation, not wanting Kara to be there unless she wanted to be.

“I know… I wanted to…” Would always be murmured back, soft and sincere, a rope cast out in the darkness.

It was rebuilt by softly spoken encouragement when either flagged.

“What use am I? It’s not like I can punch the sun better.” Kara huffed on days when she was left to pace without direction waiting for the next task, the next lead, the next… whatever...

“No, but I know that you would if you could.” Lena would reply, earning her a small upwards tick to Kara’s lips that made Lena’s heart flutter with something other than a constant state of anxiety. “You are more than just your powers, Kara. Far more.” Lena would whisper earnestly, and Kara would simply rest her head on Lena’s shoulder.

It was rebuilt by fingers gently interlacing to offer comfort, “We’ll find something.”

“Together?”

“How else? A Super and Luthor are unstoppable, didn’t you know?”

It was rebuilt by Kara sharing her fears of losing yet another home and Lena listening, “I don’t know if I can take another loss like this.”

“I know, I can’t even begin to understand what you must be going through, but it's not going to be the same as last time, you know?” Lena would murmur, soft and hesitant, afraid of stepping wrong, afraid of treading on Kara’s open wounds that she had never known were there before. “If it does happen…” Lena would tack on (always if, never when) in those first few months. “You won’t lose everything. I won’t let you. Everyone that can be saved, will be.”

“Is it bad that I don’t… I can live with a few losses… I can, but there are some… Some that matter more...” Kara confessed haltingly, blue eyes wide and scared as if she was revealing something she wasn’t sure Lena was ready to hear yet.

“No, there’s nothing bad about that. At least,” Lena murmured, ducking her head as she curled her fingers tighter around Kara’s, her thumb rubbing back and forth over knuckles, “I don’t think of myself as a bad person for it.”

“You’re not.” Kara would insist, finally covering over the hurt of ‘villain’ once and for all.

It was rebuilt in Kara carrying Lena to her cot in the backroom of the labs whenever she found her slumped over her keyboard in the early hours of the morning.

“Hmm…” Lena would sleepily hum as she felt herself being cradled in Kara’s arms who never used super-speed when she was carrying her anymore, something Lena was grateful for as it gave her precious extra seconds of being safely ensconced by everything Kara.

“Sleep, Lena, just sleep.” Kara would mutter tenderly, lowering her onto the blankets and pressing an almost imperceptible kiss to Lena’s forehead which guaranteed Lena pleasant dreams.

It was rebuilt on tragedy and hope. It was rebuilt on optimism and pessimism. It was rebuilt by two people who just wanted to save each other in whatever way they could.

***

After six months, it was known. It was known that there was no Hail Mary that could undo what had happened.

Now, it was just about survival… and, for some unfathomable reason, everyone was looking at Lena to ensure that.

“Me! Kara, they’re looking at me to… to… save them!” Lena yelled incredulously once she had returned to the sanctuary of her lab and it was just the two of them (as it often was now).

“Yeah… they are…” Kara replied with a shrug like it was obvious and understandable.

“Me! A Luthor!”

“No. Not a Luthor.” Kara declared firmly, lifting her chin in that way that always made Lena’s knees just that little bit weak. “Lena. The woman that has saved this planet and its people time and time again. A woman who has proven herself selfless and a hero in every way possible. The person that I…” Kara swallowed thickly and in that moment, Lena couldn’t breath, couldn’t move, couldn’t even think. Kara stepped towards her, strong and confident, reaching out to take Lena’s hands in her own, squeezing them tightly as earnest blue eyes stared deep into lost green. “Lena Luthor, you are my hero and I am always looking to you to save me.”

Lena finally inhaled a shuddering breath, nodded her head once and got to work.

The first step was the underground bunkers that would provide shelter for humanity whilst a more long term solution was achieved. The bunkers were not designed to be aesthetically pleasing or even remotely homely. They were functional, quick to put in place and hopefully temporary (which they would be for all but one).

Whilst the bunkers were built, Lena and her team were given two momentous undertakings that were critical for humanity’s continued existence:

Find a suitable new planet to call home.

Figure out how to get the entire population of Earth there as quickly as possible.

Lena hated the second six months of those two years. Kara was barely around, constantly buried under miles of earth, supporting the construction teams in their work, her help was crucial as having someone who could manoeuvre large weights delicately removed the overheads of large pieces of equipment and the time they would take to get in position and slowly carry out the task. When Kara ever did manage to poke her head above sea level, she was off to far flung places trying to minimise the impact of whatever natural disaster was occurring due to the Sun’s interest in making Earth a holiday destination for lava monsters in the near future.

Kara only ever made it back to National City for the occasional weekend once a month. A weekend that she mostly spent sleeping after having pushed herself past the point of exhaustion.

Kara had taken to sleeping in Lena's cot whenever she was back, holding Lena close instinctively whenever the former CEO managed to collapse beside her after her own ridiculously long days.

“You know, you have a far more comfortable bed at home? With proper sheets and pillows and blankets and all those really good things that are conducive to sleep…” Lena drawled as she slipped off her heels and sat on the edge of the cot that was already filled with a dozing superhero.

“I could say the same thing to you.” Kara yawned in return, shuffling to the edge of the single-person cot to leave a reasonable gap for Lena.

“Yeah, but…” Lena began to argue, biting her lip; Kara was out there everyday pushing her body beyond its limits in places with little sun, little hope and little in the way of comfort. And when she was granted a few hours of reprieve, just a few measly hours to rest before she was pulled back under, she spent it in a darkened back-room of a laboratory.

“No buts.” Kara cut in, tugging at Lena’s sleeve to pull her down into the empty space and open arms. “I’m here because…” Kara murmured, nuzzling her nose against Lena’s forehead whilst kindly ignoring Lena’s pounding heart, “Because I want to be here.”

“I want you here too.” Lena would eventually reply once her heart had returned to a normal beat and she was sure Kara had fallen into a deep slumber.

(The Superfriends talked about Kara never returning home and choosing to be wherever Lena was amongst themselves, but they never brought it up with either woman, presumably out of respect or simply being too busy with the impending end of the world).

During that time, Lena was under more stress than she had ever been in her entire life. A whole planet on her shoulders and she was being crushed under the weight of it all.

On the plus side, it was the longest anyone had ever gone without spitting her last name out with disgust. It was difficult to damn the person working tirelessly to save you. Not that there weren't some that tried to call her saviour and devil in the same breath, but the Superfriends, who had become her friends again, would put a stop to it before they ever got to the second part of their sentence.

Lena knew that Kara had asked them to look after her whilst she was away. And she appreciated the thought more than she appreciated the actual looking after. Alex had taken to looming over her shoulder like a bodyguard and frog marching her to the canteen at set times to eat three meals a day. Nia, meanwhile, insisted that Lena walk up and down the white-washed corridors of the laboratory at least twice a day to ensure she exercised.

She grew to love them all: Brainy who was constantly by her side, Alex who was holding her up when she nearly collapsed from exhaustion and Nia who always managed to remind her of the small things she was fighting to save when she got lost in the big picture. She loved them but every time they pulled her away from her work, Lena would hear a voice in her head whispering an ominous countdown.

***

One year post-world-ending-beep, and humanity was tucked away in its new home - the bunkers underground.

Lena and Brainy had finally found a promising planet that they could call home, code-named Goldilocks until an actual name was selected when they finally stepped foot on it (it felt weird officially naming something that they had never seen or experienced). Now, they just had to get everyone there and Lena doubted that there was an intergalactic moving service - maybe that could be her new business venture after her secondment as humanity’s supposed saviour was complete.

Their best option was the transmat portals (mark two) that she somehow needed to make so that they didn’t require a corresponding portal on the other side. Their idea was more of a wormhole or slingshot, that flung them across the galaxy. They had transports that they could load people up in, they now just needed to create the ‘road’ or ‘shortcut’.

Lena spent day after endless day with Brainy in contact with Earth’s greatest physicists trying to solve problems and reconcile theories that would probably have taken centuries to solve, but mother was the necessity of invention. And dear god, did they need this invention.

The pressure was destroying Lena and more importantly it was creating a gulf between her and Kara that they had so pain-stakingly worked to remove over the last year.

“Lena, you need to eat.” Kara pleaded, her fingers making only fleeting contact with Lena’s elbow, the last time she had made contact Lena had flinched which had hurt Kara in a way that no physical attack ever could.

“I’ll eat later.” Lena replied sharply, her eyes remaining fixed on the board in front of her.

“Come on, Lena. Everyone else has taken a break.” Kara murmured, gesturing to the empty room and the blank computer screens.

“I’m not like everyone else.” Lena responded absent-mindedly.

“I know, I know…” Kara soothed, fingers twitching with the obvious desire to pull Lena into her arms.

It had been weeks since Lena had been in Kara’s arms but Lena knew… knew that if she sunk into Kara’s embrace, she would crack open and she didn’t know if she would be strong enough to put herself back together again.

“Just, I’m here… for you… always.” Kara promised with a sad and lost tone of voice that made Lena’s throat tight and scratchy.

***

The Children of Earth were the single most irritating thing about the end of the world, and Lena knew that was saying something.

They were also the people that saw Lena’s near year long record without an assassination attempt as a challenge.

They were a fanatical group that believed if the Earth was ending, the human race should too. That was pretty much it. Considering the rather bleak sales pitch, Lena was impressed by how many people they convinced to eagerly join up.

Unsurprisingly, Lena was the number one target on their (s)hit list - what with being the main person working on getting them all off planet. Kara, took to being by her side almost constantly, an ever present shadow to the youngest Luthor; dark, steely blue eyes and a harsh frown on the world’s celebrated heroine made even the most committed of assassins think twice.

Kara’s shift to bodyguard came after the very first attempt on Lena’s life.

Lena was at her desk in her laboratory, making changes to an algorithm in the dead of night, the rest of her team retreating to their beds for a few hours whilst they could. It was Lena’s shaky hands that saved her life (exhaustion, stress and a near constant caffeine overdose had produced tremors in Lena’s long fingers that Kara couldn’t bear to look at anymore), Shaky hands reaching for a mug of cold coffee. Shaky hands so tired they couldn’t summon up the strength to hold it steady. The porcelain slipping through her fingers and rushing downwards to smash onto the floor.

Lena instinctively scrambled after it, pitching herself awkwardly downwards and to the side,

It was this that saved her.

Ensured the bullet aimed for the centre of her back actually hit her shoulder.

It was the sharp inhale of pain and whisper of Kara’s name as she fell off her stool that saved her.

Because Kara was always listening out for her. On hand and ready the second Lena needed her.

Lena didn’t hit the floor. Didn’t smash into the ground like her coffee mug.

Warm arms were around her before she even got close.

“You’re okay. You’re going to be okay.” Was whispered endlessly on repeat as she was carefully transported to the medbay where Alex and Eliza (quickly roused from sleep by a terrified superhero) got to work. Lena didn’t ask about the assassin, she knew she was safe with Kara watching over her and the Danvers so tenderly cleaning out her wound and that was all that really mattered. She didn’t have any space left in her mind to think of anything else, so overwhelmed with all the problems she had been asked to solve. There was no processing power left to confront other unknown questions.

Kara didn’t leave her side from then on. Not that Lena would let her. Not that night.

Their hands were clasped tightly together and would stay that way even when it inconvenienced the two doctors, who were wise enough not to raise it as an issue.

Lena’s wound was dressed efficiently and in such a way as to minimise scarring, Eliza and Alex returned to bed as they moved away from early morning, and the leaders of the survivors underground were made aware of the threat against their chief scientist. If Kara, as Supergirl, hadn’t insisted on serving personally as Lena’s protector, Lena was pretty sure the leaders would have demanded it, having grown equally fond of and dependent on the youngest Luthor.

When it was just them… just Kara and Lena… that’s when Lena let the tears fall and the sobs wrack her body. She was cradled carefully in Kara’s arms in an instant and everything she had been holding back burst out of her in an unending stream.

It was cathartic, letting it all out whilst Kara just held her and listened and whispered words of reassurance and affection.

The gulf that had formed, disappeared in an instant as Lena buried her head into the crook of Kara’s neck murmuring apology after apology for keeping her out, for putting distance between them, for not being good enough, for not saving Kara’s second home.

Kara listened, rejecting every single apology with a firm voice and understanding blue eyes.

“Don’t push me away again.” Was all Kara asked for.

“Never. Never again.” Lena promised, not knowing at the time how she would be forced to break that promise less than a year from now.

***

The looks and hints and flirts and teases started in earnest then - they had always been there but boyfriends, secrets, distrust, confusion and hurt had blanketed it and kept it from growing. Now, it was just them and the end of the world.

Their days were spent together, Lena trying to save the world and Kara just trying to save Lena.

“You know I was a prodigy back on Krypton…” Kara revealed her past quietly as she was oft to do when the lab was empty and the bunker was blessedly quiet.

“In writing?” Lena asked, abandoning her work to give Kara her full attention - Kara was the only thing, especially when she was like this (soft, vulnerable and eyes aching with the loss of one home) that could make Lena turn away from the screaming voices inside her head.

“No…” Kara laughed lightly, “I was to be the youngest to join the science guild.”

“Really?” Lena murmured in disbelief.

“Hmm…” Kara hummed, her mouth quirking up at the edges; Lena’s eyes dipped down to stare at the movement as they had begun to do with increasing frequency.

“Then why…” Lena began curiously wondering why Kara would turn away from something she had been preparing for and so obviously excelling at.

“Because, on Krypton…” Kara reached out with tentative fingers and pushed a dark lock of hair behind Lena’s ear. “We didn’t have people like you. People who worked on the ‘just in case’. People who spoke up. People who… thought everyone should be trusted with the truth. People who thought everyone deserved to be saved, not just the select few.”

Lena grabbed Kara’s hand and brought it to her lips, pressing a comforting kiss to its palm as Kara revealed her scars to her.

“I didn’t see science the same.” Kara confessed, her gaze turning far-away and distant as she took in the scribbles on the white-board like she recognised the odd syllable of a language she hadn’t spoken in years. “Science was elitist. Science led to hubris. Science failed to save us. But it was the lies that damned us in the first place. So… when I had the chance to start again…” She trailed off, expression melancholic and wistful.

“Thank you for telling me that.” Lena whispered sincerely, once it was clear Kara had nothing left to say.

“It’s funny, isn’t it?” Kara chuckled dark and pained in a way that made Lena’s heart crack across the surface.

“What is?” Lena prompted, squeezing Kara’s hand tightly in the hopes of grounding her.

“If I had been a journalist on Krypton, I could have made a difference. And if I was a scientist here, I could have made a difference.” Kara said, her smile a dark and broken thing that looked just wrong on her face.

“You make a difference, Kara. Every day. Just by being you.” Lena declared, green eyes sharp and jaw clenched determinedly.

The twisted smile receded back to something soft and adoring. “Maybe for the next one I’ll switch back to science, I mean how long do you think it would take me to get upto speed?” Kara questioned teasingly jerking a thumb at the board covered in excessive equations.

Lena let go of the heavy moment, though she wanted to reinforce to Kara that she was perfect just the way she was. But there would be other moments, other conversations, other secrets shared, other wounds tended…

“Depends on your teacher. With me there to help, I could make you an expert within a decade.” Lena asserted with a confident wink.

Kara’s gaze narrowed, a smouldering smirk slowly appearing as the kryptonian leaned into Lena’s space, “Is that so? Professor?”

Lena gulped.

***

It was a known yet unspoken thing between them.

They spoke around it, danced right up to it, fogged up the glass with eager breaths and pressed against the membrane with curious fingers. Lena knew Kara felt it, in the same way Kara knew Lena felt it. Though, both were too fearful to define it, to say how deep it ran, how much it meant to either of them.

It was ambiguous in its immensity, not in its existence.

Whenever they brushed up against it, and came close to breaking that barely visible wall between them, they were pulled back with murmurs of ‘soon’ and ‘almost’...

They were both too dutiful, too dedicated to the task at hand to leave room for much else. And they both didn’t want to start when they couldn’t commit all of themselves to each other. Wanted their chance to have the highest probability for success that it could. Because that's what they both deserved.

“The first sunset.” Kara murmured when they were cuddled up together on Lena’s cot in the small room put aside for the chief scientist at the back of the lab in the bunker. “Me, you and a picnic under the very first sunset.”

“Sounds romantic.” Lena teased, rubbing her cold nose against Kara’s clavicle.

“I’ve got it all planned.” Kara admitted honestly. “Every last detail.”

“You’ve really thought about this…” Lena said in awe, pulling back to look down into soft blue eyes.

“It’s all I think about…” Kara replied, her fingers stroking up and down Lena’s back - Lena wished those clever, clever fingers would sneak under her sleep shirt and run along her bare skin.

“Soon.” Lena exhaled their now common commitment.

“Soon.” Kara echoed.

***

The transmat portals were nearly done. Ahead of schedule which was probably a first for any project, yet alone one on such a large scale.

The only problem was the energy source. It was�� rather unstable and the amount of energy required to power all the portals at the same time was substantial. To ensure the tentative peace between all leaders and those involved, an agreement was made that all the portals would activate at the same time and humanity would pass through in one go to ensure that there was no group given an advantage.

Lena understood the political reasoning but it was an engineering nightmare.

They were working on putting power stabilisers on the portals to limit the impact of unwanted surges, when the Children of Earth made their play.

Coordinated explosions that threatened the sanctity of the bunkers moved the scheduled departure date up and prompted a mass evacuation. Kara didn’t want to leave Lena’s side but the people needed their Supergirl and it wasn’t fair for Kara to stay by Lena’s side when she was far from the fighting and others needed her to be their shield. Kara left her side with a promise of, “Soon, we’ll get our sunset.”

Lena had prepped the transmat portals from the command centre, monitoring the power levels with a wary eye as the bunker shook with the ferocity of the fighting. Lena watched over transport after transport, making changes as required to keep the power stable. As the numbers of those left to go through began to dwindle, Lena sent her team of loyal scientists led by Brainy (who she had to order to leave) on their way, leaving one transport for her and the soldiers holding off the Children of Earth.

Lena struggled, as time ticked ever onwards, to keep the power surges under control and the transmat portal open. With the energy already expended, Lena knew if it closed… it wouldn’t be possible to open it ever again.

The soldiers led by Alex and Nia appeared following a large explosion that completely caved in an entire section of the (thankfully, now empty) civilian barracks. Held up by Alex and Nia was Kara, bloodied and bruised, skin a sickly green as her eyes fluttered weakly and her mouth moved trying to form words, fighting desperately to remain conscious. A battle she lost a second after catching a glimpse of Lena hurrying towards them.

They made their way as a group (Lena and those that had taken the pivotal last stand) to the transport when the evacuation alarm was joined by a clinically detached voice calling out, “Power Level Critical.”

The transmat portal flickered before brightening and then dimming almost immediately. The power surges threatening the very integrity of the portal.

“Lena, we have to go now!” Alex shouted, jerking her head towards the last transport that her group of soldiers were already piling into when she saw Lena freeze mid-step.

Lena doesn’t remember making the decision. It was just instinct. She could work out the variables, could see the solution and just… acted. It didn’t require actual thought.

There was the portal that wasn’t safe for a transport to go through unless someone was making the necessary adjustments to the power in the command centre.

There was Kara, hurt and beaten but still so alive and so beautiful and without a doubt the love of Lena’s life.

It was never a choice, so how could Lena have made a decision.

“No, you have to go. I need to keep the power levels under control. You won’t make it, otherwise.” Lena said, her voice eerily calm and collected for what she was about to do.

The looks of absolute, sheer horror that appeared on Alex and Nia’s faces as understanding dawned would stay with Lena forever. It was the moment she realised she was making a sacrifice and not just carrying out a simply logical action.

“No, Lena…” Alex gasped, her brown eyes turning watery as she hefted Kara higher as if.. As if she was trying to shake Kara awake so that she could bear witness to what was happening.

“There’s no other way.” Lena declared, striding forward to cup Kara’s perfect face in her hands before leaning down to press a soft, farewell kiss to Kara’s cheek. “I was really looking forward to that sunset.” Lena whispered quietly.

Lena took one second to memorise that light vanilla scent that she would always associate with Kara before letting go of the kryptonian and looking to the distraught sister, “Keep her safe.” Lena requested simply, “And…” Lena swallowed thickly, “Tell her to be happy. Just happy.”

And with those final words, Lena sprinted back to the command centre, yelling for Alex to “Go!”

It was a close thing in the end. The power surges were seconds away from blowing the portal, and the bunker along with it, to smithereens when the transport finally zoomed safely through to humanity’s new home. Lena cut off the power just in time to limit the extent of the explosion that followed. The portal blasted apart but it didn’t have enough oomph to rip through the bunker.

It did knock out the lights, though, leaving Lena in absolute darkness for the first week of her new existence as the last human on Earth.

***

Okay, so Lena needed to admit to something… just a small thing… it was just, she knew it made her sound… you know… not really all there…

She had a dog.

A… uh… robot dog… that she had built for herself for company…

And, you know, Tom Hanks had a volleyball so, in comparison to that Milo seemed far more… sane…

(Don’t worry she had resisted the urge to call it K-9 and she had made it far more mobile and life-like than the rather square Doctor Who companion).

His name was Milo, after the main character from Atlantis, one of Kara’s favourite films. He was sleek, more grey-hound shaped than terrier, but moved rather clunkily. He had a tendency to trip when going up or down staircase B5-1 since that particular set of stairs were a little steeper than the others in the bunker and Lena had forgotten to factor that in when she created him. Now, she found the little stumble he made on those steps gave him character, made him seem even more alive than the adaptive AI that operated him so she never bothered to fix it.

Lena resisted the urge to give Milo a voice, since a robotic voice coming from her robo-canine companion kind of ruined the image that she had of Milo being a real dog but she couldn’t stand the silence anymore, couldn’t stand only hearing her own voice.

That was the other thing… after a year she’d started narrating for lack of a better word. Commenting on her work, speaking her thoughts aloud rather than keeping them inside her head. Partly to add some sound to her quiet life and partly (but mostly) to remind herself she was still here, still had a voice.

If a tree fell in the forest would it still make a sound?

Did Lena still exist if no one was around to see or hear her?

In year four of her solitary existence, the narration became full-on conversations with herself which eventually prompted her to create Milo after she realised that she had gone to bed two consecutive nights in a row angry at something she had said to herself.

Milo spoke to her in song.

“You’ll always be here to keep me company, right Milo?” Lena would ask after crying over The Notebook.

“I’m never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you.” Milo would blast at her through the speaker in his mouth alongside a friendly wag of his tail.

Lena was working on a beam with a crack in it, bending her head down to check on Milo who was looking up at her through green LED lights. “Did I get it all?” She called down.

“Higher, higher and higher. I said your love…” Milo directed, his LED eyes emitting a beam of light to point out a spot above Lena’s head.

He was a good dog overall, though he definitely had a preference for 80s classics much to Lena’s equal amusement and chagrin.

***

She tried not to think of Kara. But it happened.

The longest she had gone, not including sleep (though most of her dreams involved her blonde best friend so it wouldn’t have helped her average anyway), was three and half hours. An event which occurred during her drunken month in year two; she had grown irrationally angry at the transmat portal and had taken a crow-bar and smashed up the remains of the structure whilst listening to screaming death metal music.

She knew Kara would mourn her, miss her at least for the first year. But Lena knew she would keep herself busy. That there would be near endless tasks to occupy her mind and distract her heart and that whenever there was a lull or a break, the Superfriends led by Alex would be there to soothe whatever pain may surface.

Hopefully, by the second year Kara would be able to think of her and it be a joyful experience rather than one of pain. She knew Kara would still think of her often even one year removed from their separation (loss). Knew she had been significant enough to Kara to leave a wake behind.

By the third year, Kara would be ready - Lena didn’t doubt - to open her heart to another, to find someone else to fill the spaces Lena fleetingly occupied. There would be plenty ready and waiting, many probably far more deserving than Lena.

Kara would find someone else to share that sunset with.

Years four to six, Lena hoped Kara would be rediscovering her passions, that her new home would be stable enough that Kara could get back to the things that made her happy. Lena hoped Kara was still writing, still turning her hand to paper and creating wonderful prose.

Years six onwards… Lena imagined Kara with a family of her own. The image would shift and change but there were always two children underfoot that Kara adored and both of which had inherited Kara’s blue eyes and pure heart. The other person in the picture was blank-faced, their features undetermined. Male or female, it didn’t matter. All that mattered was they put the brightest smile on Kara’s face possible.

“Just be happy.” Lena would whisper her plea out to the universe last thing at night and first thing in the morning. Because, if she said it enough, willed it enough then there was a chance she could make it true. Make the picture in her head of Kara real just by wishing it hard enough.

***

It was the start of her ninth year - Lena kept track by way of scratching into the walls a tally since it pleased her to think she was leaving some indelible mark on this place even if no one else would ever see it - and the knock was starting to become just that little bit more enticing. Lena had started to find herself walking up to the large blast doors and just… staring at them for hours on end.

It was only Milo that was keeping her going by this stage, blasting out, “Don’t you forget about me”, and “Oh, won’t you stay with me? ‘Cause you’re all I need”, whenever Lena’s fingers so much as twitched towards the manual override button.

Lena didn’t think too deeply about how her only reason for carrying on was the potential guilt that came with breaking the heart of a robot dog.

“Spread it like peanut butter jelly...”

“Whilst I appreciate that you found the perfect song for my current actions”, Lena chuckled, casting an amused glance over her shoulder at her companion, whilst she spread the peanut butter over the plastic-like bread that had been made to last decades, “I don’t think you realise what that song is really about…”

Milo’s head tilted to the side at the words - Lena had designed him so that when he was processing new information or analysing anything he would tilt his head to the side like a real dog.

“Oops!... I did it again…” Milo proclaimed, dropping to the ground with an embarrassed shake of his metal head.

“You’re still my best boy, don’t worry.” Lena reassured, finishing off preparing her lunch and making her way to the little living space she had made herself, a rather ratty red sofa and television screen had been added to the small room behind her lab that she had made her own. She had just sat down and was about to take a bite of her sandwich when-

Bzzzztttt…

That was new.

The buzzing sound was so loud and clear that it felt like the entire bunker was vibrating with it. Lena was on her feet in an instant, Milo by her side, as she grabbed her tablet and went towards the source of the sound. As soon as the sound had begun, though, it decreased in volume to a mere hum. Outside Lena’s lab, in the long corridor covered in tally marks was a bright purple circle with blue streaks of light hovering below the ceiling. Beneath the light in a crumpled mass was a figure dressed in dark blue and crimson red with a silver cable connected to their centre which disappeared back up into the portal.

“Okay, I got the angle slightly wrong… Yep, face planted…”, The intruder groaned as they pushed themselves up to reveal a mess of hair. “I know, I can fly but I wasn’t thinking about flying and didn’t react in time… and-” The figure struggled to their knees and shifted round, finally catching sight of Lena who was simply standing there, mouth agape, leaning on Milo to keep her upright.

Kara.

It was in that moment that Lena saw a shade of blue she had been deprived of for over nine years. Kara’s eye colour, though, was possibly the only thing about her that hadn’t changed.

Familiar golden curls had been cut away to be replaced by slightly darker blonde with the odd streaks of silver that only just grazed a jawline Lena’s fingers had traced countless times. Also gone was Kara’s defined and overly muscular body, she looked thinner… almost gaunt. Her cheeks hollower than they had ever been before. The crinkles around her eyes were nowhere near as deep as Lena had imagined them to be whenever she thought of Kara with her family. There were instead, however, lines around her mouth that implied she frowned more than smiled and that… that cracked whatever fragile grasp of reality Lena had left completely apart.

Because of this - Lena no longer trusting her eyes, unable to accept an existence where Kara hadn’t been happy, as Lena had begged the universe to make happen everyday - she didn’t truly see the expression on Kara’s face.

She didn’t see the sheer joy, the tears of elation, the broken smile that couldn’t smile as wide as it wanted due to being so out of practice.

“You’re here… You’re really here…” Kara breathed out, her blue eyes drinking in the sight of Lena shifting shyly from foot to foot as she stroked the smooth metal surface of Milo for comfort.

“Kara.” Lena murmured, testing the word out in her mouth, trying to see if she still knew how to say it after all these years.

“Lena, you’re here…” Kara whispered totally awestruck, getting to her feet and taking slow, careful steps towards Lena, her fingers reaching out for the raven-haired woman.

“I don’t under-... this isn’t real… you’re not real… you can’t be real…” Lena stammered, shuffling backwards away from the ghost in front of her, unaware of the gasp of pain that it caused. “Did I answer the knock? Is this a dream? Milo analyse the surroundings and conditions.” Lena ordered, dropping her gaze to her tablet as she tapped frantically against the screen, mumbling her every thought out loud as she had become prone to do over the years. “Hallucination, most likely… potential causes… sleep deprivation? Unlikely, I have a set sleep schedule. Radioactivity has finally penetrated the bunker and has caused a multitude of health problems. Possible, though I take regular readings of-”

“Lena! Please, stop…” Kara cried, collapsing to her knees in front of Lena, tears streaming down her face. “I’m here, okay? I’m really here!”

“No! No!” Lena shouted in return, “This isn’t real! Because… because…” Lena’s breaths came out sharp and panicky as she was overwhelmed by a tempest of emotions she had worked so, so, so hard to deaden herself to over the last nine years. “You’re meant to be married! You’re meant to be happy! You’re not meant to be here…”

Fingers curled delicately around Lena’s biceps; she wasn’t even aware that she had fallen to her knees as well, that she had brought her hands up to cover her face.

The touch and its sheer gentleness almost made Lena jerk away but the barely there scent of vanilla instinctively made her lean forward instead, her head moving to rest as it always used to do on Kara’s reliable shoulder.

“Lena, how could I be happy without you?” Kara whispered, her fingers moving ever so carefully from Lena’s biceps, round to her back… so tenderly wrapping Lena up in her arms. “Let me take you home, please, please Lena… let me take you away from here, please…” Kara begged, pressing featherlight lips against Lena’s forehead. “Let’s go see that sunset, yeah?”

Lena pulled away so that her hands could move to cup Kara’s beautiful, anguished face, thumbs wiping away the endless tears, “You still want to? Even after all this time?”

“It’s all I’ve thought about.” Kara confessed, a breathtaking smile overtaking her face… and that… that one smile made it all worth it… made nine years in darkness… nine years alone all worth it.

Lena loved how that smile stretched under her palms and she wondered how it would feel under her lips; the thought barely even crossed her mind before she started to lean forward to find out, Kara inhaling sharply as she realised what Lena intended, when-

“Sha-la-la-la-la-la, music play, do what the music say, you wanna kiss the girl.” Milo sang out for them, his metal tail thumping happily against the concrete floor, his green LED lights looking between his best friend and this blonde newcomer excitedly.

“Thanks, Milo.” Lena chuckled wetly, glancing over at her robo-dog before looking back to find Kara’s blue eyes sparkling with joy at her. “I have a robot dog, now.” Lena explained needlessly, cheeks turning an embarrassed pink.

“I can see that.�� Kara replied with a laugh, her hand reaching out to brush through Lena’s dark hair, as she asked her voice brimming with hope, “Are you ready to go?”

“Yeah, yeah, I am…” Lena admitted with a fervent nod of her head before pressing a delicate kiss to Kara’s cheek. “I want to see that sunset.”

#supercorp #lena luthor #end of the world AU #happy ending (I promise)#I cried writing this but adored it (what does that say about me?)#Would people be interested in Kara's POV?#Or another part following their time post-saving?

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