#anyway I liked Boat Guy and I look forward to him coming back

[leupagus]

I've seen a number of posts claiming that Rebecca choosing to stay on Boat Guy's houseboat was "incredibly stupid" or "wildly unsafe" or other such descriptors. Everyone's perspectives are valid; I certainly understand that individual people would not want to stay there in that situation, and don't get why Rebecca did.

That being said, I really disagree with the posts that think she should have left or that she was in danger. Even putting aside that this is a television show and not real life, Rebecca, had she been a real person, did not have a "death wish" merely by remaining on board and spending time with Boat Guy.

Boat Guy was clearly interested in Rebecca, even before she fell into the canal — after all, he tries to warn her about being in the bike lane first by whistling at her and then saying she's a beautiful woman. He's smitten right from the jump! And during the scenes they have together, we see him make a number of passes at her. This is a guy who saw Rebecca and thought "ooh yes please."

But that does not make him unsafe, nor does it make any of his actions "creepy," "gross," or "red flags." What it makes him is a middle-aged man speaking as an equal to a middle-aged woman, who is similarly showing sexual interest in him. And who doesn't feel the need to pretend he doesn't find her gorgeous and compelling and sexy, which again, is not a bad thing!

I suspect a lot of the folks framing this guy as predatory just... don't have a lot of personal experience of being a 40-something woman flirting with a 40-something man. And I can say, from personal experience, that it's really fucking nice to see that dynamic between them.

Because I would've stayed on that boat, you'd better believe.

[rainbow-nerdss]

AITA for accidentally traumatising a 13 year old kid by pretending to be his dead mom?

So basically a couple of weeks back i (33F) was at work and I noticed this guy (30sM) staring at me. Now, this isn’t totally unheard of, I'm kind of used to it because I've done some acting in the past and sometimes people sort of stare while they try to figure out where they know me from. Usually I ignore it, but this guy was like crazy hot so I figured, fuck it, I’ll go talk to him, maybe make a sale out of it. We sort of talked a bit while I served him, and found out he’s a single dad. He had sort of sad vibes and I was kind of into it so when he asked me out I said sure, why not and we agreed to go for dinner.

So everything was going well for a while, we went on a few dates but mostly we facetimed bc he works 24 hour long shifts and scheduling dates around that and a kid is tough, which i totally understood and I was happy to be patient with him.  I should also say we still haven’t kissed at this point, even when he took me out on a boat on a lake, which was probably in my top 5 dates of all time? Anyway, I got the vibe he was holding back a bit but I figured I could wait bc he seemed like he was working through some stuff and dating in LA is fucking hard. 

What happened next was where the real shit started to hit the fan, though.

Basically, I decided to bring him some brownies at work, but I mistimed it and he’d already gone home so I gave them to his coworker who looked at me like I was a ghost or something. I should have recognised something was off then but I brush it off and the next day I get a call from the guy, and he asks me to come over to his place which hasn’t happened before. I figure this is a good sign, that maybe he’s ready to start moving things forward, but when I get to the house, there’s all these pictures on the coffee table and they all look EXACTLY like me. My first thought was: holy shit, this guy’s a stalker. Great. Then I looked closer, though, and the pictures weren’t even of me. Turns out, I look exactly like this guy’s dead wife???

Anyway, that was wild and obviously I left after hearing him out a little bc I just needed to wrap my head around it.

Now this next bit might be where i’m the AH, bc i haven’t had a chance to do any acting in a while and I genuinely felt bad for the guy, he just wanted a chance at closure with his wife and I couldn’t really fault him for that. 

So long story short, I cut my bangs (they looked cute in the pictures of his wife so I figured they’d work on me) and I went to his house in character as his wife and encouraged him to say what he needed to say to her. Things got pretty heated and he shared some really intimate thoughts and feelings so I was getting into it, you know? We embraced and I was feeling pretty good about the whole thing. I thought it really helped him until the door opened and in walks his kid with a woman who is apparently his girlfriend? So i guess the single part of “single dad” wasn’t totally accurate either.

Also, the kid called me mom, which kind of broke my heart, and I feel like maybe I might have fucked up somewhere here.

So reddit, I have to ask AITA for pretending to be a dead woman and accidentally being the other woman while simultaneously traumatising a thirteen year old kid?

[hopelesslyromanticshark]

can you do leo valdez x hades fem reader pleasee

⋆⭒˚.⋆ leo valdez x daughter of hades! reader hcs

content: leo valdez x daughter of hades! reader hcs warning: none! (lies tiny angst at the end my bad) authors note: yall need to ban me from listen to sad music while i write bc i ruin whole ass hcs by making em sad at the end BLAME PHOEBE BRIDGERS AND MITSKI THIS IS NOT MY FAULT YALL I WILL NOT TAKE THE BLAME did i put the music on?? yes. did i also know this would happen?? yes. BUT IM JUST A GIRL IN THE WORLD STFU-

leo would tell anyone who listened that you guys were fated to fall in love

you always roll your eyes but let him list off all his reasons why he believes this

firstly, you guys met purely by chance

you'd been walking around in the woods, having sensed some interesting bones there earlier and wanting to dig them up and hear their story

leo been running from the stoll's after a wonderful prank, which sent him hurling through the bones you'd just managed to reconstruct from the ground

"hey! i just got mr. cain here back together and then you come running through him like you own the place," you huffed before continuing to lay into leo, who looked up at you with borderline heart eyes

you were yelling at him and he was falling in love

you forced him to help you collected his phalanges and pelvis and leo did so without needing to be told twice, wanting to spend more time with death's daughter

from that moment forwards, you had two shadows, one which spewed constant pick up lines and jokes

nico was not happy, purposefully making sure to uproot bones in places that leo walked often, leading the boy to trip a lot

sadly, this backfired on nico, as you were always there to catch leo and rebury the bones

nico also tried knocking some sense into you by forcing you to admit to your father that you had a crush on some boy

but, once more, this only solidified your feelings as persephone had been in the underworld and squealed with joy at the reveal before dragging you off to a girl's night

it was a night filled with cosmo magazines and face masks and flirting techniques and the trading of lip glosses

nico gave up after that, in fear that he'd just push you two closer together

leo always bragged that it was fates work getting you together, but you always believe it to be nico's attempts to keep you apart

anyways, following you girl's night with persephone, you figured you had enough tools to get the guy

but before you even had the chance to apply your new lip gloss, leo dragged you to where you first met and was asking to be your boyfriend

you agreed but whined about not being able to ask first

and, as an olive branch for nico, leo made him some silver skull themed jewelry, which nico took with a glare and nod

that was the closest leo got to acceptance from the boy but he took it

you gift leo little trinkets that the dead gift to you, thing you think he'd like

a pocket watch from a 1950s boat conductor, a ring from a danish seamstress, a cog from the titanic that one of the passengers stole with his dying breaths

he proudly displayed it all on a shelf above his work bench, sometimes leaning back in his chair and staring up at it to get inspiration

and one night, while you were sitting on the couch in bunker nine, while leo worked and you cuddled into one of his sweaters, you reached over and traced your fingers over the photo of him and his mom

"...she's in elysium," you whispered, fingers ghosting over the photo and eyes locked onto her own

leo turned in his chair, face scrunched up as he wasn't entirely sure he heard you. and he wanted to make sure he heard you correctly.

"what?"

"your mom. she made it. she...she's waiting for you, leo. she's so, so proud, gods you can feel it, come here," you replied, heaving breaths as you felt it course through you, jumping you and rushing to him, shoving your hands against any part of his skin you could reach

he could feel it, your typically cold skin was burning up, warm and thudding and leo could swear he could smell his mother's natural smell of grease and her tamales that she always made for his birthday

"you're the best thing she ever made. she has no regrets, not a single one. the love she has for you is...it's so strong, leo. even my father can't kill something like that," you whispered, sliding your hands against his skin as to keep the contact, to allow him to grasp onto the feeling for longer

leo's hands grabbed your wrists, guiding your hands over his shoulder to his back before he tugged you into his chest, pulling you into a suffocatingly tight hug

you splayed your hands wide over his back, spreading the feeling to anywhere you could reach as he cried into the crook of your neck

he was muttering in spanish, pieces you've picked up here and there, translating into words like 'grateful' and 'love' and 'miss you' and 'mom'

and while you were growing exhausted from effort to use your powers, you refused to quit, knowing he needed and deserved this

soon after, leo pulled your hands from him, worry covering his tear streaked face

"oh, my sweet girl," he whispered as you slumped against him

without a second thought, he picked you up and laid you down on the couch, knowing you needed rest after that

he could tell you were already asleep from the soft fluttery breaths that left your mouth

he kept one of your hands held between both of his, no longer feeling his mother's love but something different

something similar though, the strength behind it nearly as strong

"thank you," he whispered against your skin before pressing a kiss to your temple

and then he said a silent thanks to whoever sent him you, whoever sent him barreling through your bones that fated day, whoever made nico want to break them apart, whoever had persephone home when you revealed your crush on the boy

he'd thank whoever would listen for the daughter of death, for he would never stop being grateful for her.

[luffyvace]

Kurapika fluffy relationship headcanons :)

i felt like doing some for him so here i am

finding fluffy ones for him isn’t hard but i just wanted to add to the ratio

gn reader! :)

so before i start i want to say that i’m going to do this in a scenario where you met at the boat taking you to dolle harbor

(if you don’t remember it’s the island that leads the entrance exam—aka the island where the old woman asks the main four if you’d rather save your mother or you lover. look it up-)

anyway

you two met on that boat

he looked pretty friendly to you

so you struck a conversation

even if your not the most social- the other guys sure didn’t look friendly

plus you were interested in the book he was reading

which is what you talked about

eventually you got each other’s names and some small introductory facts about each other

so you guys became friends :)

he saw how strong you were during the yellow wolf thing’s test (forgot they name- not gonna look it up)

or if your not strong you were smart enough to figure out that this was a test

or not- again. then maybe he helped you out/protected you

”hey thanks!”

”it’s nothing, just watch your back next time :)”

you travel with kurapika, leorio and gon for some time and get to know the 4 of them decently by the time you make it to the actual exam

fast forward to around the time your getting closer to finishing the exam

leorio has picked up on the fact that kurapika has a crush on you by now

he offers him advice but kurapika decides to do things on his own

fast forward again to after he courts you

(if you want hcs that go more in depth on him crushing or trying to court you just ask)

relationship time!!

i’ll clear this up right here and now-

no he wouldn’t involve you in his spider killing business

ik everyone says that 😭

but it’s true we all just kinda collectively agree he wouldn’t for your safety

especially since your his s/o

now your the closest person he has to family besides friends

and he definitely wouldn’t want to risk that

so no, he wouldn’t involve you the same way he wouldn’t involve killua, gon and leorio

if you get held hostage along with gon and killua he would internally panic

this is kurtapika tho so of course he still stays calm and rational

they’d better not hurt you

but just like gon and killua they left you go :)

he gives you a very very tight hug after that.

he loves reading and would love to bond with you over books if you do too

recommending authors to each other

reading in silence next to each other

sharing your thoughts after finishing the same book

its comforting

kurapika is a pretty good cook

even though he doesn’t do it often he was taught from a young age by his mom

so he’s real good with seasoning

kurapika likes savory foods, a little bit of sweet too

occasionally salty

but he won’t mess with spicer ones

if he does the shopping he won’t come home with spices

you’ll have to buy that

his first instinct wouldn’t be to give massages

but if you ever asked for one he’d realize loves to give and receive them

if your not strong he’d teach you how to defend yourself

probably some basic nen too

he likes cuddles more than he’d like to admit

if you ask he’d blush a little then lay down and wait for you to snuggle up next to him

hes also real good at keep the place clean

he wouldn’t bring up dates since he’s busy a lot but if you suggest one when he has some time he’d be more than happy to go on one with you

he’s a very loyal, honest and communicative lover

on the last one though he’ll shut down and walk away before coming to talk it out later

it kinda sucks but it’s a habit of his so you’ll have to talk to him about it if you want him to put forth effort to stop

he respects and supports most decisions you make as long as they’re safe

he probably told you about his family back when you were friends

like how he did with gon killua and leorio

you can try to comfort him about it but he kinda reacts how he did when he told gon and the others

”only killing all the spiders would be able to put me at ease”

even then as we saw when he heard they “died” he’d still be drowning in a indespicable emptiness 🤓

on a brighter note

if you compliment him his reaction is kinda cute

”oh..! thanks y/n :)”

continue to do it frequently and he’ll do it back to you

it becomes you guys’ thing.

his love languages are quality time (as much as he can) and acts of service

overall he’s a 9/10 lover <3

[yathamannapagaasah]

I accidentally assaulted Clarisse

NEW SERIES ALERT

summary: A new girl at camp, but…. She’s different..

warnings: minimal swearing

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ow. “Ow” is a onomatopoeia, I think, but it didn’t matter if I was grammatically correct, because I had just hit Clarisse La Rue in the head with a rubber axe during practice with the Stoll brothers, and she was now sitting on the ground in a fetal position, holding her head in agony, and staring at me with anger in her eyes.

“Oh my God” I muttered under my breath, as I slowly backed away. “Avery, come back, she’s, she’s not going to hurt you!” Connor Stoll pleaded, but then Clarisse began to get off of the grass and I sprinted towards the strawberry fields. I looked around frantically, trying to see if Clarisse was still following me, but then I caught a glimpse of Beckendorf scolding Clarisse, and I visibly relaxed. 

Okay, quick Backstory: two days ago I nearly got killed by a big bear-wolf thing. A goat-child told me that my mom fucked a Greek God and I’m the offspring. If that makes sense. I thought my mom was Hindu, can multiple Gods exist at once? Anyways, the goat guy brought me back to this cool camp and I got to talk to a horse man and a LITERAL GREEK GOD but he was an asshole so I don’t really care about him to be honest. Fast forward to now, this is my first day training, and I somehow managed to injure 5 people, including myself. 

I was sitting down under a tree, trying to catch my breathe after running a fricking marathon trying to not get stabbed by Clarisse, when I noticed one of the Stoll brothers coming up to me, Connor, was it? “Hey, Avery,” he greeted 

“My name is Aikaterini”

“…Can I call ya’ Avery?”

“No”

“Fair enough,” he nodded, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah” I responded “She’s just… She’s terrifying” and Connor chuckled.

“She’s not that scary, give her a chance, she’s tolerable” he said, and gave me his hand to take to get up off of the dirt, and I took it and dusted off my pants when I was off my butt, “She wants to kill me” I retorted and Connor grimaced. “Stay outta trouble, okay? And be careful”, I nodded and he offered a hand on my shoulder as comfort before heading off somewhere to scold an Ares kid, or kill a small child, one of the two.

I awkwardly walked to the Hermes cabin, in which I was staying in, since my father hadn’t claimed me as yet. I hope he does. I heard a lot of undetermined kids get stuck at the Hermes cabin because their bitch-ass parents didn’t claim them. Anyways, I was like, an Inch away from the cabin, before the boat goy came up to me, wait, no that didn’t sound right, anyways, he came up to me, “Chiron needs to talk to you” he said and he practically dragged me by my arm towards a big building “Who’s Chiro- woah! Okay, so I guess I don’t get to say no”

We arrived inside the building and I paled at the sight of the old horse guy. “Aikaterini Balakrishnan, how are you? Getting along well with the rest of camp?” I could tell that he was trying to make conversation, but I couldn’t focus when there was a 7-foot centaur standing infront of me “I… uh… yeah” was what I managed to choke out before glancing around the room, and noticing that the asshole of a Greek God was sitting at the table, with a irritable look on his face and I rolled my eyes.

The centaur sat down on his hind legs and offered me a seat at the table, where I noticed that they were playing a card game “You’re playing Pinochle.” Chiron raised an eyebrow “Why, yes, do you know how to play?” “Yeah, my mom taught me, well, actually, she taught me Bezique, but I taught myself how to play Pinchole” Chiron nodded in approval “You know how to play Bezique as well, that is quite impressive for a girl your age” I blushed in embarrassment, “Yeah, I guess, why did you call me in here?” “Ah,” he put down his pack of cards and looked at me.

“Do you know what tomorrow is?” He asked

“Friday” I responded confidently

“Yes!” He clapped his hands excitedly and I squinted my eyes “Huh?” Mr. D groaned and stepped out of the room, and Chiron waved him away “Don’t take him on. Tomorrow is Friday! Which means we are playing capture the flag!” He explained and I pursed my lips “You guys actually do things in this place besides trying to impale people or set people on fire?” And Chiron grimaced, “Now now, girl, what happened yesterday with Sanya was a mistake, she was just trying to make a sword and her hair caught on fire, it was a, what is it you children say now-a-days? No biggie” I raised my eyebrows “So why don’t you go find a group to be apart of, huh? Get out there, make some friends, I heard you were training with the Stoll brothers, cheeky bastards, aren’t they?” I furrowed my eyebrows “No, no, they aren’t cheeky, they seem really nice” I said and Chiron chuckles, “That is until they steal a family heirloom from you” “Why would they steal from me?” Chiron seemed suprised I didn’t know about these things, “Aikaterini, their father is Hermes, the God of thievery” “I thought he was the God of messengers?”

Chiron looked at me with a thoughtful look on his face, “Has your mother not thought you anything about your roots?” “Not really, I’m Hindu, I grew up believing in Hindu Gods, now, I don’t know what I believe.” If my mother knew that, that Greek Gods are real, and not just fiction, then why would she grow me up with a religion?” “I am sure your mother had her reasons, that of which, I do not know, but you will come to find out anyways, now, I’d like you to meet some people, if that’s okay with you,” I nodded. Chiron called the goat boy, in which I learnt his name, being Grover, into the room, “Yes?” “It would be appreciated if you could kindly locate our respective leaders, those being one for Team Blue and another for Team Red." Grover nodded and came back into the room shortly with a two girls, a pretty one, with long box braids, and then Clarisse.

“Ladies, we have a new camper joining us, I’m sure you have seen her around, I am going to be making a public announcement soon, tomorrow, before the tournament, but for now, you can introduce yourself to her, and maybe recruit her to your team,” Chiron smiled and I looked at them and awkwardly waved, “Hi, uhm, hi Clarisse, sorry for hitting you, uhm, at- at the uh, the axe throwing thing, sorry” I swallowed nervously “My name is Aikaterini, it’s long, I know, you can call me, Kat, or whatever” my voice cracked and I made a mental note to hit myself in the head with a bat later.

“Hi, I’m Annabeth, I’m blue team leader” “You’re not joining the red team”

“Clarisse.” Chiron butted in, “Atleast see what she can do before you make a decision, now go on, bond, I want to finish this game of Pinochle.” We left the building and Annabeth made conversation “So, do you have any special training? Or any training at all?” “Uhm, I can do kumon?” Annabeth looked at me, a puzzled look rested on her face “What is that?” “It’s like… maths” and Clarisse snorted, Annabeth glared at her, “I mean, physical combat. Do you know any form of self defence?” “I, I can dance?” Clarisse butted in “Yeah, no, Annabeth, you can have her on your team.” I looked down in embarrassment, God, I wanna go home. “What kind of dance can you do? Ballet?” “Kuchipudi,” “Okay, I don’t know what that is, how hard do you have to train for that?” “Not as hard as ballet, probably, but if you saw me do it you would be terrified” “You can’t be any scarier than any monster I’ve ever fought, if you put the same energy that you put into dancing into training, then you’ll be a pro in no time” 

I smiled at her, she was nice, unlike Clarisse, who was walking away, I didn’t mind though, being on the blue team seemed like the better choice. I guess we’ll see how the tournament goes tomorrow, but for now, I’m going see if I’m any good at hand-to-hand combat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ hey guise 😁 I hope you enjoyed the first part of this Pjo fandom seriesssss 💗💗 nones of the characters in this stories except my oc’s (Aikaterini Balakrishnan) that were used in the story so far are mine. I wanted to add a Desi character to this story because they don’t get enough recognition 💗💗 Please lmk what you think about this in the comments and lmk what else you would liek to see in this series 💗 idrk where I’m going with this but I am not gonna let this story go to waste, I’ll try to get it done but I got school and stuff so 😪😪 thanks for reading 💗

[giggly-squiggily]

The Elephant In The Room (Blue Lock)

Heyo! You know who's been on my mind alot lately? Reo. I don't write enough of him- and given what went down in this past season I figured he'd need some good ol tickles so that's what I did :D This got a fair bit angsty at times but like- Second Selection Reo is angsty. It kinda fits. I hope you like it!

Cloud 9 (Taglist)

@myreygn @cupcake-spice13

CW: Swearing, Angst, Blue Lock Spoilers (Second Selection)

Summary: It's about time they addressed the whole "Nagi situation". Reo's resistant and Kunigami's worried. Interestingly enough it's Chigiri who finds an effective solution.

“You don’t smile a lot, do you?”

Reo’s already existing scowl deepened, violet eyes glaring daggers into crimson as he curled up further in his bed. “What’s it to you, anyway? Not like you care whether I smile or not.”

“Ooo, moody.” Chigiri leaned into his hands, unfazed. It wasn’t the first night they were all staying together, but it was the first time any of them addressed the elephant in the room. “And here I thought I was bad.”

“You are.” Kunigami pointed out with a small grin, earning an eye roll and a less than kind gesture sent his way. “Really though- I don’t think you’re the person to really point that out, Princess. If I recall correctly, you barely smiled once when the team was first coming together.”

“Had a lot going on.” Chigiri shrugged, though his voice softened when addressing the hero. Turning back to Reo, he tried again. “Kay so- are we just gonna pretend the Nagi thing didn’t happen.”

“Yes.” Reo began just as Kunigami said. “Nope.”

Now he was glaring at the ginger, extra irritated. “Drop it will you? It’s got nothing to do with either of you.”

“Sure, but you’re our teammate. Not to mention our roommate. Can’t deny it gets a little tense when you’re glowering over there.” Kunigami shrugged, trying for a smile. “Besides- we’re in the same boat with Isagi-”

“It’s not the same.” Reo cut off, voice sharp. Chigiri raised brows as they shared a look.

“Okay- my bad. Just trying to feel it out.” Kunigami held up a hand in apology, not sure whether to push or let it be. Ideally if they were to make it to the end, they’d have to start getting along. They were fine on the field, but this uncomfortable eggshell dynamic was starting to wear on him. Maybe it was the altruist in him, but he wanted to show Reo that they were there for him.

“Lover’s quarrel?” Chigiri on the other hand seemed to want to antagonize the other. He flopped forward on the lower bunk and tucked his chin against his arms, feet kicking behind him like he was a girl at a slumber party. “That explains a lot- were you two dating before Blue Lock or…?”

“Chigiri..” Kunigami began, but he was cut off when Reo sat up, eyes scary.

“Drop it. Now.” He growled.

“Or what?” Chigiri asked back, boldy hopping out of his bed and flopping into Reo’s. “You’re gonna sulk more?” He reached out, poking Reo’s side. “You know- whenever the hero over there and I fight, it’s super dramatic. Lots of yelling and drama- one time I set his sweatpants on fire.”

“When’d you do that?” Kunigami blinked. Reo’s mouth was twitching, though the ginger suspected it was more from the relentless pokes Chigiri was giving in directly into his side.

“He forgot already. Don’t you know that’s what we fight about the most?” Chigiri kept poking, starting to grin when Reo’s lips wobbled, leaning away from the touch. “He’s got the memory of a goldfish. I bet you he’d already forgotten our anniversary.”

“I don’t ca-are! Ugh, go aw-way!” Reo leaned further from the pokes. Interestingly enough, he wasn’t climbing off the bed. Kunigami started to smile too.

“Oi, you said you loved my goldfish memory.” He got up and kneeled beside the bed, poking Reo’s other side. “You said I was the nicest fish you’ve ever won at the fair. Crazy one, this guy. He kissed me, and boom! I turned into a human! It was like a budget version of the Princess and the Frog.”

“Oi, who are you calling the budget version?” Chigiri raised a brow, still poking Reo. “I like to think I’m rather expensive.”

“Yep, a whole 2000 yen worth.”

“Motherfu-”

“Gohohohd, you two are annohohoohying!” Reo blurted out, unable to keep the giggles out of his throat. He doubled over, trying to block out the hands poking and prodding his sides and waist. At some point Chigiri shifted from pokes to grabbing, squeezing his side with gentle pressure while Kunigami increased the amount of fingers poking his ribs. “Goohohoohoho awhahahhay, I waahhahahant to brhohoohohhoohohod!”

“Nah, you’ve been brooding enough. We’re running out of toothbrushes.” Chigiri pointed out, bringing another hand in so he could squeeze Reo’s hip. That got a reaction- the purple haired striker doubled over with a cackle, rich sounding laughter exploding from his lips. “It’s bad enough you destroyed your own, but you even snapped mine in half! I had to get a new one from Ego-sensei!”

“Yeah- plus we don’t like seeing you so down.” Kunigami bailed on tickling his ribs to grab his other hip, squeezing and massaging it like Chigiri and increasing Reo’s laughing fits. “We want to help, Reo! Or at the very least- we want to be there for you. Talk to us!”

“GHEHAHHAHHAHAHAHAHA!” The purple haired teen let out a loud squeal, slapping at their hands as he squirmed, torn between guarding and elbowing them. His face was flushed red, and his eyes were squeezed shut with mirth- tears brimming the corners as he wheezed. “FIHHIHIHINE FIHIHIHIIHNE I’LL TAHAHAHHALK! NOW STAHAHHAHAHAHAP!”

“Hmm..should we, hero?” Chigiri asked, raising a brow at Kunigami. The ginger looked between him and Reo, considering.

“Yeah, let’s let him breathe, princess.” They released him, watching Reo fall back as he gasped for air. His bangs fell in his eyes, hiding them as he sucked in heavy breaths, legs twitching from remaining sensation. Chigiri hummed happily as he got comfortable, stealing Reo’s pillow and tucking it under his chin. Kunigami readjusted so he was sitting on his knees, arms folded against the bed as they waited for Reo to talk.

“Fihihirst….fuuhck you.” He grumped, earning a snort from Chigiri and a grin from Kunigami. Reo pushed his hair away, voice tired. “You two suck.” When they didn’t respond, he crossed his arms over his chest, closing his eyes. For a moment, it seemed like he was falling asleep.

“It’s not the same. You two- you found each other and that was that. Sure, you might be mad at Isagi for going on ahead, but at least you have one another.” Reo sounded so sad that moment, knuckles whitening as he shook with- what, tears? Anger? “You didn’t have to watch the person you care about abandon you after everything you’ve done for them. Nagi just- he didn’t even hesitate! He left me to join up with them and didn’t look back at all. It was like I didn’t exist…” He blinked rapidly, shaking his head so he wouldn’t cry. “Call it what you want- lover’s quarrel, my pet abandoning me, me being dramatic- I don’t care! It just really fucking hurt what he did.” A tear escaped. He refused to let the rest fall. “It really, really fucking hurts.”

The pair were quiet, letting Reo’s words fall over them as he struggled to wipe away the tears in his eyes. After a moment, Chigiri poked his arm, voice soft.

“Hey…sorry. About the pet comment.” He sounded like he meant it. “And about Nagi.”

“Don’t- I don’t care about him.” A lie and they all knew it.

“It’s okay to care. I’d be hurt too if Princess did that to me and vice versa.” Kunigami reached out, taking one of Reo’s hands, squeezing gently. “You don’t have to pretend you don’t care about him.”

“I d-don’t-” Reo sniffed, but he didn’t pull his hand away.

“Good. In that case let’s run him over.” Chigiri decided. That shocked a laugh out of Reo, startling him out of his tears.

“Where the hell are you gonna get a car? And besides- you can’t drive.” Kunigami blinked, shaking his head with a grin.

“Neither do half the people in the K-drama’s my sister watches but they still find a way.” Chigiri shrugged, giggling when Reo let out a snort, covering his face. “Fine- we’ll hit him with a shopping cart. Or maybe with a shoe. Covered in-”

“Ew stop!” Reo shoved Chigiri over, nearly sending him off the bed. He was smiling though- the first real one they’ve seen since they teamed up. “Ugh, you’re awful!”

“You knew that already.” Chigiri smiled cherublike, making Reo laugh more as he shoved his discarded pillow at him.

“I’ll take care of Nagi. It’s…fine.” Reo sighed, though this time it lacked its usual heaviness. “I’ll kick his ass in our next match against him, and that will be it. But erm…” He averted his gaze, neck reddening. “Thanks for eh…helping I guess.”

“Of course.” Kunigami nodded, standing up. “That’s what hero’s do.”

“And Princesses I suppose. Gotta help the little folk out every one and a while.” Chigiri rolled off the bed, making his way towards the bottom bunk across the way before face planting into it. “Man, I’m tired. Wake me up when the next match begins.”

Kunigami snorted as he pulled the discarded blanket over Chigiri, climbing up and into his own bed. Reo wiggled into his own just as the lights went out- bedtime across the entire stadium. His heart still hurt- a pain he knew wouldn’t go away until he and Nagi had words, but it didn’t hurt as bad now. He didn’t feel so…bottled up.

Maybe opening up to people wasn’t so bad. With people like Kunigami and Chigiri- he could see himself doing it more.

Thanks for reading!

[crystalninjaphoenix]

Escape From Suilthair

Fantasy Masks AU: Chapter Thirty-Five

A JSE Fanfic

After so long of Chase and Jameson being stuck in this city, it's finally time for them to leave. Marvin, Jackie, Henrik, and the rest of the Phantoms reach out to the two of them, and they make a plan to get them out of the city. Chase wants to say goodbye to Amabel one last time, so they wait until morning. But... things quickly go awry. And yeah. It's a long chapter so I'm not going to spend too long on the author's note. Hope you guys enjoy!

Previous Part | | From the Start | More AU | Read on AO3: CrystalNinjaPhoenix

Taglist: @brokentimewatch

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Marvin woke everyone up before the sun rose, going around the boat and shaking everyone until they were roused from sleep. He merely said, “I found them. Help me get the others up.” It didn’t take long. Soon, everyone was gathered on the deck of the boat, listening to Marvin as he explained what he’d seen through Draco’s eyes. “A boathouse?” Jackie asked.

“Yes, I know what a boathouse looks like.” Marvin nodded as he paced back and forth. “I’ve seen them before, but this one was very run down. Didn’t look safe, to be honest, but it was hidden.”

“And they are both alright?” Henrik asked hopefully.

“As far as I could tell.” Marvin stopped moving. “Before we all speak with them, I should... Th-they said they discovered something very important about the King. And if it’s true... it could change everything.”

The rest of the group looked intrigued. Jackie leaned forward. “Well? Keep going!”

“I’m trying to figure out how to say it,” Marvin mumbled. “It’s quite... shocking.”

“Ah, just spit it out,” Vsevna said. Henrik nodded.

“They said that the King was being possessed,” Marvin blurted out.

Silence.

“...that...” Henrik clears his throat. “Did you just... say what I think you said? The King is being... possessed? As if... by some sort of spirit?”

“Yes,” Marvin confirmed. “Chase says that the person in his dreams is the real King, calling out for help. Which I suppose implies that this spirit is who we’ve really been fighting against this whole time.”

“But—but—but that’s a long time to be possessed!” Jackie stuttered. “We’ve been doing this for—for years now? If we assume that the spirit was behind all the King’s actions that have been worth fighting against.”

“I didn’t ask for details, I wanted everyone to be awake to hear it,” Marvin said. “So... are we ready to talk to them?”

The whole group gave various shouts of “aye” and “yes”.

“Let’s do it, then.” Marvin took the message rock out of his pocket. “Someone hold this.” Jackie hurried over and took it from  him, and Marvin sat down on the deck, leaning against the mask. “I’m just going to look through Draco’s eyes to be sure there’s no danger.” He closed his eyes... and after a few moments, nodded. “They’re ready.”

Jackie immediately raised the message rock to his mouth and started speaking at it. “Chase?! Jameson?! Are you there?!”

A second passed. Then— “—ackie, is that you?!” Chase’s voice said.

“Yes! Marvin told us everything you told him. Are you both unhurt?”

“We’re fine. We were injured a little after escaping—I said that Jameson was captured for some time, right? Anyway, we’re all healed up by now.”

“Oh thank the Elders,” Jackie breathed. “We’re coming to get you out of there.”

“Whoa whoa whoa.” Henrik stepped forward and grabbed the rock from Jackie. “I think we need some more informa—” He realized he wasn’t speaking into the stone and quickly fixed that. “I think we need some more information first. Where are you two? In relation to the rest of the city? Marvin mentioned you were on the edge, but which edge?”

“Yea, we’re on the very edge. There’s nothing but water to my left right now. I think we’re on the... northeast edge?”

“Great, that is as far as possible from where we are right now,” Henrik muttered.

“We could try to get closer to meet with you?” Chase suggested.

“That may work. Hang on a moment. Vsevna?” Henrik turned to face him, making sure that he was still speaking into the rock. “Do you think that the boat could sail around the edge of the Suilthair island and then approach at the edge where Chase and Jameson are.”

Vsevna frowned. “Perhaps, but... ah, can they hear me speak right now?”

“Oh! No, you need to be holding it. Here.” Henrik passed the message stone to him.

“Thank you.” Vsevna smiled at him, then turned serious again. “We could do as sova says and sail around to meet you. But the problem is that it will be very noticeable. Boats carrying goods to Suilthair can only dock at the South Dock. And that is only if they are carrying something very heavy or hard to transport. More usually, cargo is required to be unloaded on the shore, transferred to a ferry, and then taken to Suilthair. If the King’s people notice a boat sailing around the city, they will raise an alarm. If we are lucky, they will send out boats to board us. If we are unlucky, they will send wizard spells at us from the shore hoping to sink us.”

“That’s... a lot,” Chase said slowly. “So... no boats at all go around Suilthair? What about a boat sailing from the north to the south? Or from the south to the north? Not stopping in the city, but continuing past, down the Muinra Avon and through the Green Lake. Could you pretend to be one of those?”

“Those boats do exist, but we will have to get right up to the city for you to board,” Vsevna explained. “And that will be suspicious.”

“Oh! What if you we don’t get right up to the city?” Marvin suggested.

Vsevna walked over. “Hold on a moment, Marvin, explain that with the rock in hand.”

Marvin held out his hand for the rock—eyes still closed while he saw through Draco’s eyes—and started speaking into it. “We could find some rowboats or some such. Our boat could sail out around the city, not getting close to it, and then you could come out to meet us in a rowboat.”

“That’s a good idea, but... uh...” Chase hesitated. “I don’t think... there are any rowboats anywhere in Suilthair.”

The group of Phantoms muttered darkly. “Are you sure?” Marvin asked. “I didn’t see any while I was there, true, but one of Suilthair’s main trades is fish from the lake. There must be rowboats.”

A moment passed. Then Chase’s voice returned. “Jameson says that three years ago the King made it illegal for anyone to own boats of their own. All boats have to be rented from the ferry dock—the one on the shore, not the one in Suilthair.”

“What a crock of shit!” Marvin growled.

Jackie walked over and took the rock. “The King must want to control ways in and out of the city. He seems awful keen to control the waters in general, actually. We heard tell while on the move that he’s building up a navy—a real, proper navy.”

“That’s... worrying,” Chase said slowly. “Um... hang on, Jameson is suggesting something.” A few moments passed. Then he returned. “Jameson thinks that some of you should rent a rowboat from the ferry dock. You can sail it up to the edge where we’re waiting, and meanwhile, your main boat can sail around the lake. Once the rowboat picks us up, it rows out to meet the boat.”

Jackie raised an eyebrow. “That’s a good plan. Or at least, the bones of a good plan.” He looked around at the rest of the group. “Any better ideas?” No one spoke up. “Great. It should be a small group of us who go get the rowboat. Who wants to come?”

“I think I should,” Marvin said. “I can keep watch on them through Draco. Make sure that we’re in the right locations to meet each other.”

“I will stay on the ship, then,” Henrik announced. “We have already taken a big risk by taking all our leaders on this trip. We should not make the risk worse by putting all of us in a small boat.”

“That’s true...” Jackie said. “Marvin’s our lookout, then. We should take two more people. Good fighters. I can be one, if there’s just one other.”

One of Vsevna’s crew raised a hand. “You’re still two leaders in a small boat.”

Jackie laughed. “That’s true, too. But I’m a very good fighter. And this is an important mission. We need very good fighters.”

“In that case, take Mona with you,” Vsevna suggested, pointing out a woman with short black hair and a cat mask. “She’s handy with a blade.”

“You don’t want to go, Captain?” Mona asked.

Vsevna shook his head. “My skills are better suited on the ship, I think.” Not to mention Henrik was staying, too. Everyone noticed the way the two of them were leaning close to each other. Still so early into their official courtship, they don’t want to leave each other, and everyone knows.

For once, Jackie doesn’t send Henrik a teasing look. This was not the time. “That’s settled, then,” he said. “Chase, Jameson, I’m going to reach you with a rowboat, along with Marvin and one of Vsevna’s crew, Mona.”

“A wolf and two cats!” Someone commented, and Marvin rolled his eyes.

“Great,” Chase said. “When... when are you planning on doing this?”

“Well, I hear fishing happens early in the morning, so we’d have to act soon or wait until tomorrow if we want to blend in with the fishers renting boats.”

“Um... how early?” Chase asked. “Because, um... well... a-a little bit after sunrise, someone... m-my daughter shows up.”

Jackie inhaled sharply. “You found your family?!” he said excitedly. “Then we need to get them out of there!”

“I—I don’t think that’s... possible,” Chase said. “I-it’ll be dangerous. And... Stacia, my wife... she’s been... enchanted. I think everyone from my old city was. They want to stay here. They have whole new names and lives and everything. Sh-she wouldn’t... she wouldn’t listen to me, if I tried to get her out of here. And... if I took the children... she might... I-I don’t know what she would do, but it won’t be good for anyone.”

Silence. Jackie and Henrik looked at each other, aghast. Even Marvin opened his eyes to stare at the other two with wide-eyed disbelief. “Marvin, is there any way to break an enchantment?” Henrik asked. “Perhaps with wizardry?”

“I-it varies depending on who’s been enchanted,” Marvin stammered. “And how long they’ve been under the spell. In... in any case, I don’t... know any spells to do it. I’ve been trying to remember some ever since we learned the truth about the King, but I haven’t, a-and I couldn’t exactly research spells this past fortnight.”

“If you guys are talking about ways to break the enchantment... don’t,” Chase said quietly. “It’s fine. They’re safe here, at least. And I think they’ll continue to be. I guess I don’t know that for sure... but call it an instinct. Anyway, they’ll definitely be in more danger with us than here. So... I-I can’t.”

More silence. Then Jackie took a deep breath. “If you don’t want to try, we won’t,” he said into the message rock.

“But um... like I was saying, a little after sunrise, my daughter shows up,” Chase continued. “I want to say goodbye to her.”

“We can make sure you have time to do that,” Jackie said softly.

“Thank you,” Chase said, his voice just as quiet. “Um... is there anything else?”

“Specifics on our end, but you just need to know to watch out for our boat,” Jackie said. “We’ll probably put our masks on as we get close, so watch for that.”

“We will. Thank you.”

“Be careful,” Jackie said.

“You as well.”

And with that, Jackie lowered the message rock. He looked around at the others. “Well... sounds like we have to prepare.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chase paced across the floor, glancing through the crack in the ajar door whenever he got to the right angle to. No sign of anyone outside. No sign at all, even as the sun slowly rose and lit the wooden walkways with watery gray light. Jameson stood in the corner of the boathouse, going over some of the defense drills that Chase had been teaching him. Both of them were nervous. Chase couldn’t think about anything but the upcoming escape, mind filled with dread for what might happen.

Until, eventually, he saw Amabel walking up the path towards the boathouse. Chase immediately stopped walking and opened the door a crack. She normally waved and hurried up when she caught sight of him moving the door. But today she just smiled and continued forward normally. She squeezed into the door through the gap Chase had open. “Hi, Dad.”

“Hey, Amy.” Chase smiled at her, then became serious again. “Is everything good?”

“Hmm? Yea, why d’you ask?”

“You just seem a bit less excited than normal,” Chase said.

“Maybe I am.” Amabel shrugged—and then her eyes landed on Draco, curled up on the floor, and gasped. “Kitty!”

Chase laughed. “Yep! Kitty. He belongs to a friend of mine.”

“Can I pet him?”

“You can try.”

Amabel nodded, taking her new task seriously, and slowly approached Draco. She held her hand out. Draco sniffed it. And when he didn’t turn away she started petting him, making little “aww” noises as she did.

Chase let her do that for a moment, watching with a faint smile. Jameson stopped his drills and walked over to the boathouse’s door, peering out through the gap. “Um... Amabel,” Chase finally said. “He suddenly arrived here with news. It’s... it’s time for us to go.”

Amabel looked at him. “You’re leaving? When?”

“As soon as possible,” Chase said. “Now, maybe. But... I wanted to tell you. A-and you can tell Quentin when you get home.” He crouched down so their eyes were level. “And I want to remind you that it’s not because of you, or Quentin, or Mom. I don’t want to leave, but I have to. We’ll see each other again. I love you.”

Before Amabel could say anything in response, Jameson inhaled sharply and looked back at them. Chase? There are warriors outside.

Chase’s attention immediately sharpened. He straightened up and walked over, peering through the gap next to Jameson. There were indeed warriors outside. Right outside. Wearing the royal crest. And walking directly towards the boathouse at the end of the walkway. “Fuck,” he whispered. “Do they know we’re here?!”

I don’t know! But they’re blocking the way out!

“They are.” Chase nodded. “Alright. We’re going to have to swim for it. Through the hole in the floor, just like last time.”

Jameson nodded. He didn’t look happy about it, but he sat on the edge of the hole, his legs dangling in the water. What about your daughter and Draco?

Amabel scooped Draco into her arms, holding him so his back legs stuck out. “I’ll go distract them!” she said, and ran right out of the door and towards the warriors.

“Amy, no—!” Chase hissed.

But it was too late. She was running right up to the warrior in front, saying something. The warriors stopped, all of them looking down at her. One at the back pushed to the front. They were wearing a helmet that covered all of their features. Amabel tried to talk to them. The helmeted warrior looked down at her, completely expressionless—and then grabbed her by the arm. The other warriors ran up to the boathouse.

Fear surged through Chase’s chest. “No!” he shouted, and he burst out through the doorway, immediately grabbing the nearest warrior and throwing them to the ground. The other two nearest backed up, starting to draw their swords, so Chase bent over and grabbed the sword from the fallen warrior’s sheathe and quickly blocked their strikes. He put all his effort into pushing the swords back—

And then Jameson appeared, shoving one of the warriors off the side of the walkway and into the lake. Without the second sword pushing back against him Chase’s efforts sent his sword flying forward, knocking the warrior’s aside and digging into their arm. They didn’t flinch, though, and swung their sword back around. Chase quickly ducked and ran past. There were two other warriors still standing—three counting the helmeted one. These two each drew a bow and tried to nock an arrow on the string. But Chase was fast. He ran up to them and swung the sword wildly, forcing them to dodge out of the way. The younger warrior—probably the newest—dropped the bow and the single arrow he was holding. Chase quickly picked it up. 

While he was doing that, there was another splash, and he glanced over his shoulder to see Jameson had pushed a second warrior into the lake. The one who’d been knocked down to the walkway gets up again. “Hey!” Chase shouted. Jameson looked towards him, then followed his gaze, and barely managed to dodge the warrior trying to grab him.

A sword came swinging out of nowhere. Chase, distracted, wasn’t quite able to dodge. At least it was only the flat of the blade that smacked into his shoulder. But there was still a burst of pain. He stumbled, and swung the bow around, smacking the wood into the side of the warrior’s head and stunning them for a moment. Long enough for Jameson to rush over and tackle the other warrior, who was also trying to attack, no doubt aiming to reclaim the bow Chase took.

Chase took advantage of the warrior’s confusion to shove them off the side into the water. Then he aimed the bow and arrow at the helmeted warrior. “Let go of her!” he shouted.

“Would you shoot a child?” the helmeted warrior said calmly, holding Amabel close to them. “Would you shoot your daughter?”

Chase started. “How do you know—”

A yowl filled the air, and Draco wriggled out of Amabel’s grip, scrambling up her shoulder and jumping right at the warrior’s face. Even with the helmet, the warrior still needed to see, and they instinctively yelled and staggered to the side as they tried pulling Draco off. Amabel immediately ran out of arm’s length.

“Ja—hey!” Chase started to shout Jameson’s name before realizing that probably wouldn’t be a good idea. “Let’s go!”

Jameson scrambled to his feet and ran towards Chase. The two of them then ran off together, with Chase grabbing Amabel as they went past her. “After them!” one of the warriors shouted. 

The three of them ran down the wooden walkways, turning at every possible opportunity. Until, finally, the sound of footsteps behind them started to fade. Chase grabbed a side door in an empty-looking building and threw it open, pushing Jameson and Quentin inside before going in himself. He closed the door behind him, breathing slowly, listening. The footsteps faded completely. Chase let out a breath and looked around. This appeared to be a living area for a small cottage. Currently empty. And nobody was visible through the doorway to the attached bedroom. The person who lived here must have left the door unlocked. “Are you okay, Amabel?” Chase asked.

Amabel nodded, eyes wide, looking a bit overwhelmed.

“You’re not hurt?”

She shook her head.

What was that?! Jameson asked. It’s like they knew we were there!

“N-no, I d-don’t think so,” Amabel said. “There are... there’re lots of warriors around today. All over. Searching everywhere.”

“Oh no,” Chase breathed, going pale. “This is the worst time for them to do that! Not that there’d be a good time. But if they just waited a couple hours—”

What do we do?! Jameson asked.

“They—they expect us around the edges of the city. We have to stick in this area until we can’t. We’ll contact them with this magic rock.” Chase took the message rock out of his pocket. “Where’s Dra—”

There’s a slight meow, and Draco hopped through the curtain blocking the window and into the living room. He looked around in a surprisingly human way until he saw the group. Then he purred, and a voice came from the message rock. “Chase! Jameson! You’re alright?!” It’s Marvin, whisper-shouting.

“We’re okay,” Chase confirmed. “Were you watching through Draco?”

“Yes, I saw everything. We’re in the boat looking for you. You’ve run farther into the city, you need to get out and find us!”

“Can’t you row between the buildings towards us?” Chase asked.

“I—maybe?” A moment passed. “We can try to get closer. I’ll try to guide the two of us together. We’ll be there soon! Be careful!”

“We will.” Chase promised. He lowered the message rock and looked at Jameson—then at Amabel. “Amy. Y-you have to go home now.”

“Huh?!” Amabel’s eyes widened. “But—but wh-what if the warriors come?!”

“You’ll—you’ll be fine,” Chase said, trying not to let his doubt show. “They won’t hurt you or Mom and Quentin.”

“But—but they saw me with you! What if they ask me about you?!”

“Then you tell the truth, okay? You tell the truth. Don’t worry about me.” Chase was sure he hadn’t given her any important details. “You have to get out of here! Go home.”

Amabel hesitated... then nodded. “O-okay. Goodbye, then.” She walked over to the cottage’s door. After putting her hand on the doorknob, she looked back, as if waiting for Chase to ask her to stay.

“I love you,” he said.

“I... love you too, Dad,” she said. Then she opened the door and ran out into the city.

Chase watched her go, fear settling into a heavy ball of lead in his stomach. He didn’t know she would be safe. But he was sure she would be safer here than with him... right?

Jameson put a hand on his shoulder. Chase jumped a little, then looked over him and sighed. “I... want her to be okay,” he said quietly. “And the rest of my family.”

I’m sure she will be, Jameson said.

“Yea...” Chase took a deep breath. “Well, we need to get out of here.” He took his bag off his back. “Here, I think this is a good time to mask our faces. We’ll probably be jumped by warriors no matter what we do, so might as well declare ourselves.”

Jameson nodded. Maybe we’ll throw people off.

“Maybe.” Chase took out Jameson’s rabbit mask and handed it over, then put on his own deer mask. “Let’s go.” He looked down at Draco. “Are you there, Marvin? Help us find you.”

Draco stretched, then trotted out the doorway. Chase glanced at Jameson—now wearing his rabbit mask, his features hidden. Here. He held out a quiver of arrows.

“Where did you get this?” Chase asked, surprised, as he took it.

From one of the warriors. I might have torn the buckle loop when I tore it off.

“It’s fine, I’ll just wear it in the waist position instead of the back position.” Chase fastened it in place. “Oh. There’s a little knife sheath attached. Here, you take that.” He drew the knife and handed it over.

Thank you, Jameson signed, and took it.

“Ready?” Chase asked. Jameson nodded. “Then let’s go.” The two of them left the cottage and headed out after Draco, hoping to find the boat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jackie, Marvin, and the crewmate named Mona had found it easy enough to rent a rowboat. The man in charge of the rentals had raised his eyebrows slightly at the way Marvin kept his eyes closed, but Jackie explained it away as him being his blind brother who wanted to try and help despite his lack of sight. Marvin nodded along. It wasn’t the worst excuse.

They were out on the lake, skirting around the south part of Suilthair, when the warriors attacked Chase and Jameson. Marvin reported everything to the other two as he saw it through Draco’s eyes, including their relative position to the rest of the city. They were now in the east section instead of the northeast, still in the floating neighborhoods but no longer on the edge. “They’re going to make a dash for it,” he reported.

“So we better make a dash for it, too,” Jackie muttered. He and Mona were rowing, but they paused to put on their masks. “Marvin, do you need help with your mask?”

“No, I could put it on with my eyes closed,” Marvin said—and indeed he could.

“We’re going actually into the neighborhoods, then, sirs?” Mona asked.

“You don’t have to call us sirs, I told you,” Jackie said.

“Force of habit, you show respect on a ship. But my question?”

“Yes, we’re going into the neighborhoods,” Jackie confirmed. “Meaning we might also be spotted by warriors. Strange... why do you think they’re patrolling so much? Do they know?”

“I suppose there’s a chance Jair had a vision while he was captured...” Marvin said slowly. “But he would have told us that.”

“He definitely would’ve,” Jackie muttered in agreement. “It might be that the King just decided to throw all the swords at Chase and Jameson. Maybe... maybe because they figured out that... secret of his.”

“Do you believe it, sirs?” Mona asked. “That there’s a possession?”

“Do you?” Marvin rebutted.

“I don’t know much of your spirits here in Glasúil,” she said. “I’m from Viargul myself. But I think it’s possible. I just don’t know how likely.”

“Not... all that likely,” Marvin said slowly. “But again... not impossible.”

As they talked, the boat slowly rowed closer to the edge of the floating neighborhoods. “Where do we bring the boat?” Jackie asked Marvin.

“Hold on a moment, I’m trying to get oriented.” Marvin opened his eyes for a brief moment, then closed them again. “It’s hard to match stuff up normally while I’m looking through Draco’s eyes. And the layout of the city is different than it was last time I was here. It makes sense, of course, that was years ago, but...” He trailed off, concentrating. “I think... turn into an opening here.”

The building closed around them as they rowed in between the walkways. Jackie and Mona kept rowing until the walkways became too close, the ends of the oars knocking against the planks. “Where are they?” Jackie muttered, looking around. Chase and Jameson were nowhere in sight. In fact, no one was in sight. There weren’t many people out on the walkways. Surely a city as big as the capital should have more people going about their business.

“I’m telling Draco to guide them closer here,” Marvin muttered. “We might have to tie the boat here and go meet them halfway. There are warriors all around. They might need help.”

Mona immediately went about tying the boat to the walkway, using the rope that came with it to attach the boat to a pole with a lantern on it.

“I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this,” Jackie said. “But let’s go, then.”

The three of them climbed out of the boat and onto the walkway, running deeper into the city.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“There they are!”

Chase glanced over his shoulder and saw a squad of warriors pointing directly at him and Jameson. “Shit! Go!” He pushed Jameson around a corner and ran after him, just in time to avoid an arrow whizzing right past them.

Unfortunately, down the walkway is another squad of warriors, led by one of the helmeted warriors. Jameson skidded to a halt just as the second squad noticed them and ducked down a branching path to the side, Chase right behind him. This was not going well! They’d managed to be stealthy for a while, but there were just too many warriors out and about.

Draco ran out in front, speeding past the humans but occasionally looking back at them to be sure they were still there. He guided them through the twists and turns. Arrows flew past them, none hitting them but Chase felt a couple slice through his skin. A horde of footsteps pounded on the wooden walkways behind them—

And then suddenly, the walkway ahead of them broke apart, its planks lifting up into the air. Chase skidded to a halt, Jameson right beside them. There was now a gap in the path before them, too large to jump across. On the other side of it stood a woman with pale blonde hair and unnaturally blue eyes, wearing a black shirt and riding skirt. One hand was raised into the air, yellow light swirling around it, and the other clutched an emerald amulet around her neck. She looked across the gap at them and Draco hissed. Chase had only seen this woman twice, but he knew her. “Thalia Tinechroí,” he said.

“Lady Thalia Tinechroí,” Thalia corrected. “Though I’m glad to see my reputation precedes me.”

Chase quickly nocked an arrow in his bow.

“Now think this over!” Thalia said, seeing him do this. Her eyes flicked back to Jameson. “Especially you, Lord Jairsolas.” Jameson flinched. “If you surrender now, the King will be merciful. You will live. I cannot promise you will if you fight.”

Chase laughed. “He’s not going to be merciful. And do you know why, Lady? It’s because he’s scared.” He grinned at her, baring his teeth slightly. “The King you’re devoted to is scared. And whatever he’s promised you for helping him, he’s not going to give it to you. Because he’s not who you think he is. Not at all.”

Thalia blinked, surprised. For a moment, she hesitated.

And that was long enough for Chase to loose his arrow.

Thalia cried out as the arrow hit her arm right above the wrist. Her concentration broke and the wooden planks toppled to the ground, landing perfectly back in place to cover the gap. “Now!” Chase shouted, and he and Jameson ran across the walkway towards Thalia, the warriors behind them still pursuing. Jameson shoved Thalia to the side and she had to quickly right herself or risk falling off the walkway into the lake. As Chase and Jameson passed her, the warriors behind them hesitated, not wanting to just push past a noblewoman. “What are you all standing around for?!” Thalia shouted. “After them! Loose arrows!”

A wave of arrows soared through the air—but Chase and Jameson had ducked around a corner, so they all missed spectacularly. Chase dug the message rock out of his pocket. “Marvin?! Jackie?! Where are you?!”

“No names!” Marvin’s voice came immediately. “We’ve gotten into the city, we’re getting close, I promise! Damn it, all these streets look the same!”

“Mar—Th-there’s—Thalia Tinechroí is here!” Chase gasped out.

“Yes, I saw! We’ll be there soon!”

“Enid!” Thalia’s voice came from behind them. “Come to me!” There was a burst of light behind them, and then a howl. Chase glanced over his shoulder and saw a dog running forward, pulling ahead of all the humans at a quick pace, a dog with a deep red-brown coat that’s marred by a scar along its side. Draco hissed and stopped running, turning to face the dog.

“Draco!” Chase shouted, but the cat wouldn’t listen. As soon as the dog came close enough he leapt at it, and the two animals began fighting, bodies flailing.

“Don’t worry about him!” Marvin’s voice came from the message rock. “He’s buying you some time. He’ll meet up with us later. Turn right at the next chance!”

There was no time to hesitate. Chase and Jameson kept going. More arrows were loosed, and more of them scratched them—until, finally, one hit. Chase cried out as it was buried in his back, just under his waist. He staggered and Jameson grabbed him, pulling him onward. A blast of bright blue fire flew past them—Thalia was attacking. How foolish, to throw fire in a wooden town!

The next right branch was coming up. Jameson and Chase turned it quickly. There! At the end of the walkway, three figures with white masks covering their faces. One of them shouted out and drew his two swords. Another grabbed something around his neck and made an arcing gesture with his hand. An archway outlined in white glowing light appeared before Chase and Jameson—a shortcut. On the other side was Marvin, Jackie, and that other Phantom, Mona. Chase and Jameson barrelled through, and Marvin quickly shut off the magic doorway, leaving a good distance between their group and Thalia and the warriors. “Why can’t you just do that to get us to the boat?!” Chase cried out.

“Boats are hard! They don’t stay still!” Marvin said. “I tried it out a couple times on the journey over but—” Suddenly, Jameson threw his arms around him in a tight hug. Marvin stumbled back, surprised. But then he gave Jameson a quick hug back. “I’m—I’m glad that you two are alright,” he said softly.

“You’ve been shot!” Jackie gasped, looking at the arrow sticking out of Chase’s back.

“No time to stop!” Chase said. “Where’d you come from?!”

“Right! This way!” Jackie started running back the way they came, and the rest of the group followed after. “God damn, those arrows!” Jackie shouted as more of them flew through the air. One hit his back but just bounced off the chain mail shirt he wears. “Can you do anything about that, Magic Cat?”

“On it!” Marvin spun around, flinging a ball of light behind them. It expanded midair, growing to a circular shield. The arrows hit it and immediately fell to the ground—but then a blast of white fire hit the shield, cracking it. Marvin cursed under his breath and threw more light at the shield to reinforce it.

“We’re not too far away now!” Mona said. “But once we get there, we still have to cast off!”

“I can help with that,” Marvin said. “Just worry about getting there first!”

“Can’t you do your doorway thing for that?” Chase asked.

Marvin hesitated. “I’ll have to take the shield down so I can concentrate on that. Get somewhere safe!”

Jameson sprinted ahead suddenly, grabbing onto the door of the nearest building—some sort of tailor judging by the clothing in the windows. He pulled it open and gestured for everyone to go inside. They all piled through, and Chase slammed the door closed behind them. 

“Don’t mind us!” Jackie said cheerfully to the group of three people working in the shop, who were all staring at the Phantoms, stunned. “Just passing through! Might want to get out of the way of the windows!”

An arrow whizzed through the window at that very moment, tearing the sleeve of a shirt hanging there. One of the tailors shrieked and all three of them hid behind a table of fabric at the back of the shop.

Marvin clutched his focus and made that same arcing gesture as before, tracing a doorway in midair. Light followed his finger, and another doorway opened up, through which was a wooden walkway with a boat tied to a pole with a lantern. “Go!” Marvin shouted.

Jackie pushed Chase through first, then Jameson. Chase stumbled out onto the new wooden walkway, looking around to get his bearings—and saw something completely impossible. He stared.

“Dad!” Amabel ran down the walkway towards him. She was holding hands with Quentin, pulling him along behind her. “I knew I’d find you eventually! All the warriors were shouting about you being nearby! Something about re-in-force-mints?”

“Amabel,” Chase said quietly. “Quentin. What are you two doing here?”

“We’re gonna come with you!” Quentin shouted.

“No, no, you are not coming with us!” Chase said sternly. Behind him, Jackie, Mona, and Marvin all ran through the doorway, which disappeared as soon as Marvin walked through. “You are staying here! Where it’s safe!”

“But Dad! What if it’s not safe at home?” Amabel asked seriously. “The warriors were going all over, into people’s houses and stuff, they’d remember me and know I was with you! And that’d put Mom and Quen in danger!”

“I—I see where your reasoning is, but—but i-it won’t be safe where we’re going!” Chase said desperately.

“But—but we—we’re already here!�� Amabel said defensively.

While this conversation was happening, Mona got into the boat and started untying it. Jackie and Marvin stared at the kids in shock. “What’s uh... what’s going on here?” Jackie said slowly.

“We’re coming with Dad!” Quentin announced.

“No, you are not,” Chase said. “Get home now! It’s going to be dangerous here soon—”

And just as he said that, another doorway formed, a bit down the walkway from where Marvin’s was. Warriors began pouring out. Jackie’s head snapped towards them and he ran forward, blocking their way. The warriors drew their swords, and a fight started, with Jackie holding them off as they came out of the narrow doorway. “Get in the boat!” he shouted at the others.

“Get in the boat!” Marvin repeated, shoving Chase and Jameson that way.

“Go home!” Chase ordered the kids. “Now!”

Amabel hesitated, looking back at the warriors a little nervously. But Quentin darted forward, diving into the boat. And Amabel followed not long after. “Ha! Now we hafta come with you!” Quentin said.

“No! That’s not how this works!” Chase rushed over to the side, getting down to grab Quentin. “Come on, you’re getting out of there.”

A warrior broke through Jackie’s defense, swinging a sword at Marvin, who was looking at the situation with the kids. Jameson darted in, sinking the knife Chase gave him into the warrior’s side. The warrior shouted out and spun on him, but Marvin pushed him away with magic before he could attack Jameson. More and more warriors were getting past Jackie, though, so Jameson and Marvin quickly had to defend themselves. “There’s no time!” Marvin shouted back at Chase. “They have to come!”

Chase hesitated. He didn’t want to do this. He didn’t want to drag them into this. But Marvin was right, there’s no time. He let go of Quentin and hopped into the boat. “I hope I don’t regret this,” he said under his breath, drawing his bow again and aiming a nocked arrow at the crowd of warriors.

Marvin and Jameson backed into the boat as well, with Marvin almost toppling over as he got in. But he recovered and sent out a blast of force magic at the warriors, pushing them back long enough for Jackie to break his fight and sprint over to the boat, jumping in with enough force to rock it. “Go!” he cried.

Marvin leaned over the side and put his hand in the water. Blue light spread out with the ripples—and all of a sudden the boat shot away from the walkway, not unlike an arrow fired from a bow, leaving a trail of blue behind it. Everyone else fell down, but recovered quickly. On the walkways, warriors were running along, trying to shoot them all. Chase pushed the kids behind him. He noticed Mona drawing a bow and shooting right back, so he did the same.

Soon they were out of the floating neighborhoods and out into the open water of the Green Lake. Marvin continued to concentrate, steering the boat with his magic. “How are you doing that?!” Amabel asked in amazement.

“Wizardry,” Marvin said simply. “The water is pushing us along.”

“Whoa.” Amabel whistled in awe. Quentin leaned over the side of the boat to look at the blue light in the water, but Chase quickly pulled him back. He looked at the two of them, the strangest mix of relief and fear bundled in a knot in his chest.

The boat flew across the lake, turning in a wide arc until the large river boat the Phantoms borrowed came into view. “That’s it!” Jackie said. “Can you make it go faster?!”

“No!” Marvin said. “But we’re almost there!”

As they approached the larger boat and the rowboat started slowing down, they could see people moving around on the deck. Someone threw a rope ladder over the side as Marvin slowly magically steered the rowboat up to the side of the larger one. The person above leaned over the edge—a blonde man wearing a mask in the shape of a dragon’s head, only one eyehole carved out of the plaster. “What has happened?!”

“Warriors caught up, captain!” Mona shouted. Ah right—the blonde man’s voice is the same one who told Chase through the message rock about Suilthair’s laws on boats. Vsevna. “We have to get underway as soon as possible!”

“Kovatch blein!” Vsevna withdrew from sight and started shouting.

“Get the kids up first,” Mona said, looking at Chase.

Chase nodded. “Amy, Quen, you need to climb up the ladder. I’ll be right behind you.”

The children both nodded seriously and started climbing up. Amabel first, and then Quentin. As soon as there was room for him, Chase started climbing behind them, watching carefully to make sure neither of them fell. Quentin was a little shaky and slow but they both made it alright.

“Chase!” Henrik ran on over—then immediately stopped, eyes wide behind his owl mask. “Wh—what?!”

“I know, but it just happened!” Chase said. “W-we can talk about it later!”

Henrik nodded. Behind Chase, Jackie, Mona, Jameson, and then Marvin climbed onto the deck. “Is anyone hurt?”

“Just Chase,” Jackie said. Chase winced. The arrow in his back was aching. He hadn’t noticed with all the running and fighting, but now the pain was returning.

“Here, Chase, let me see if I can do anything about that,” Henrik said, walking on over.

Chase stepped back. “N-not in front of the kids.”

“Well, there is not much space in here to hide from them,” Henrik said, smiling a bit.

Someone suddenly shouted. More soon joined. Sailors paused their business as the boat got underway to point out at the lake. Chase spun around. So did Jackie and Marvin. Something was flying across the water, trailing blue light—the same spell that Marvin had used. But this wasn’t a boat. It was a square of wood, like part of the wooden walkways had broken off. Standing on it was a single figure, fair hair flying in the wind.

Jameson’s eyes widened. Is that...?

“You have to be joking with me!” Marvin shouted, more annoyed than anything else.

“Vsevna! How close are we to casting off!” Henrik shouted.

“We are moving, but we are not yet to speed!” Vsevna shouted back from the helm.

The makeshift raft suddenly stopped—yes, that’s Thalia Tinechroí on it, along with her familiar, Enid. She grabbed her amulet and made that same arcing gesture Marvin made earlier. A doorway of light opened up on the boat deck. Slightly moving—no, staying in place while the boat moved. Thalia and Enid leaped through, and arrived on the boat. “You’re not getting away that easily!” she shouted.

Every single crew member drew weapons. “You damn fool, Thalia!” Marvin said, laughing a little. “Do you really think you can take out everyone on this boat?”

“Oh, I very much do, Marvin.” Thalia’s eyes glowed yellow. “You know I was always stronger.”

“You have more magic, but you are not strong,” Marvin bit out. He held out his hand to the side, and Draco appeared from nowhere, walking around the mast like he was hidden behind it the whole time. The cat trotted over to his side and hissed at Enid. “You only ever do what Mother wants you to, don’t you?!”

“It’s our duty to serve the family!”

“Good! I’m glad you’re serving your family! But I’ll stand by mine until I die!”

Thalia lunged forward, hands bursting into fire. Marvin conjured a shield and blocked her attack, then started wrapping it around her, forming a bubble. Thalia opened up another set of doorways and walked out. Enid jumped at Marvin but Draco intercepted her midair, knocking her to the side. But Draco was smaller, and tired from the fight earlier. Enid pinned him. Marvin’s head snapped to him and he threw out magic towards Draco, eyes glowing bright white. As the magic hit Draco’s body, his eyes glowed blue. And the colors of their eyes, wizard’s and familiar’s, shifted color until they were the same pale blue. Marvin gasped in surprise.

Thalia ran for Marvin again, throwing back the crew members with magic who tried to stop her. She threw out a hand and magic spun from it, forming a rope that wrapped around Marvin’s arms while he was distracted with saving Draco.

Suddenly, the light from Draco’s eyes spread across his body. He became—bigger. Growing in size until he was as big as a wolf, bigger than Enid. He threw her off easily now and pounced at Thalia. Her head whipped towards him and she tried to conjure a shield, but Draco broke through it, clawing at her. She turned and ran. While she was distracted, Jackie ran over to Marvin and cut through the magic ropes. As soon as he was free, Marvin grabbed light from his amulet. He watched as Draco drove Thalia back against the edge of the boat—and then he threw the light. It slammed against Thalia, pushing her overboard. A loud splash filled the air.

Henrik darted forward and grabbed Enid by the collar. He looked terrified just being near her but he ran over to the edge of the boat and threw her over after Thalia.

Everyone else stared in shock. Waiting, anticipating, Thalia reappearing. The whole thing happened so suddenly that it didn’t feel real. Marvin glanced around. “She can’t use magic in the water,” he said. He chuckled a little. “She’ll need all her concentration to swim.”

Chase let out a long breath. He sat down heavily on the deck of the boat. “Dad!” Amabel shouted, running over to him. Quentin wasn’t far behind. They both stopped nearby, unsure if they should hug him.

“I’m okay, Amy, Quen, don’t worry.” Chase gave them a smile. “It’s just that... this was a lot. I need to sit down.”

Quentin nodded. He sat down, too. “We’ll stay with you too.”

“Yea.” Amabel sat as well.

“Heh.” Chase shook his head fondly. “Alright.” And though he was still worried about them, and worried for their mother, as the boat sailed across the Green Lake and back towards the southward-leading river... he couldn’t help but be happy that they were here. That they were together again after so long.

[spctrsgf]

the simulation

summary: you’re a new pilot joining the resistance, and the Black Squadron sends you and others into a simulation to test your abilities

word count: 3.1k

warnings: language, she/her pronouns, guns and blowing stuff up ig? it’s not graphic or anything

a/n: finally got around to posting this guy (unproofed cus my editor is busy)! we’re just gonna pretend that Marc’s parents found out how to live on Hoth for the sake of this story okay? please leave your thoughts so that i may improve <3

“Hello everyone, this is your pilot speaking. We will be on base in about 20 minutes, so please make sure you are seated with all your items and with your designated group.”

You looked to your right, quadruple checking that you were in the right section of the craft. Pilots, it read. Your shoulders slumped in relief and you let out a breath you’d been holding in, trying to calm your shaky hands.

To say you were nervous was a severe understatement. Everyone around you was talking, seemingly comfortable in their newfound purpose and home. Not that you were ungrateful for this opportunity, it’s just that you never felt like you really fit in. You were too nervous, too quiet to feel like the people around you were in the same boat.

There was one woman in the corner who seemed to be shutting herself out, but after a second look you noticed that she was deaf and couldn’t hear the commotion anyways. You supposed that she was set to be a mechanic of some sort.

So, that left you were alone in your feelings and nothing you were trying was helping the anxiety gnawing at your throat. Breathe, y/n, breathe. You closed your eyes, trying to drown out the particularly loud conversation from the people to your right.

“Everyone!” You jumped at the sound of the man over the loudspeaker. “We have landed. Please leave through your appropriate exits and welcome to the resistance!”

You stood up, grabbing your backpack and following the crowd out the door. You noticed helmets tucked under many peoples arms, suddenly feeling a little left out of the memo.

You don’t have the money for that, you idiot.

You smiled slightly as you remembered stealing your favorite helmet from the lady across the street, wishing you could have taken it with you. But the helmet was hers: you couldn’t do that to her even if you wanted to.

Anyway, you followed the rest of the pilots to who you assumed was the General, waiting for her to sort the masses. You were surprised at the lack of people in your group, there were roughly twenty of you. She nodded you and some ten others gently to a group of pilots, already suited up and ready to fly.

Staying to the back of the group, you found a nice spot between two heads to watch as one man stepped forward. You marveled slightly at him, his curly black hair flopped on his forehead as his brown eyes sparkled. His posture demanded respect yet he wasn’t intimidating; just enthusiastic.

“Welcome, recruits. I’m Commander Dameron,” the said man spoke. “I trust you all had a good flight in?”

Murmurs of agreement answered him.

He laughed. “Good. Now, to the point: based on a previous assessment, you all have been declared the best. We are the Black Squadron, the best of the best in the resistance. Currently we’re down two members, and that’s where you all come in. Two of you will be chosen to join us, if any of you are deemed good enough. There will be a test, but first we’ll let you all get settled into your quarters, and a droid will let you know when to come out to test.”

Everyone nodded in agreement, following one of the members of the squadron to the rooms. Your mind, on the other hand, reeled from Dameron’s speech. Best of the pilots? Two new people joining the Black Squadron? And, perhaps the most blaring thought of all: you were one of the contestants?

A man next to you touched your arm, snapping you out of your thoughts. “The droid says you’re right here.” He pointed to a door. “Oh, uh, thank you.” You smiled awkwardly, him returning the gesture (less awkward than yours, for sure) before following the rest of the group.

You pressed a button to open the door, not expecting it to work. You figured it just scanned your DNA or something when you pressed the button as you strode into the room, flipping on a light. It was a nice but simple room: a bed in the far right corner, a desk in the left, a bathroom across from the bed and a wardrobe across from the desk.

You placed your backpack on the bed before venturing to the wardrobe, whipping it open to find it stocked lightly. Their was a few pairs of orange pants, some tank tops (white and black), and a flight suit like the one Commander Dameron had been wearing.

Wait.

You whirled back to see the suit in all its glory. You ran your finger along the slightly worn material, lingering on the resistance symbol. You belonged here now, this was your home. A wave of emotions hit you like a truck, causing you to tear up and drop your fingers from where they were wrapped along the sleeve.

Composing yourself before your eyes grew red and puffy, you noticed something on the top shelf of the wardrobe. A helmet perched on it, and you quickly found that it fit perfectly on your head. “How’d they know?” You murmured to yourself, placing the helmet down gingerly and moving to unpack the rest of your stuff.

——

A knock sounded to your door, causing your to jump from your light stupor. You stumbled over to the door, opening it to find a droid waiting. “You have ten minutes to get ready before I escort you and the others to Commander Dameron. Please wear your designated flight suit and helmet.” With that, it whirred away to bother the next person down.

You swallowed deeply, your nervousness bursting up through the seams of the box you had just managed to cover as you slipped on the suit. You looked yourself over in the mirror. Part of you was screaming ‘this is the stupidest thing you’ve ever worn and the orange does not compliment your complexion’ and the other part of you was screaming ‘you did it your gonna be a fucking resistance pilot’.

You chose to listen to the ladder as you grabbed your helmet and headed out the door. Touching your free hand to your wrist, you reassured yourself that your bracelet was still intact, only relaxing once you felt your fingers brushed against the moon shaped beskar.

The droid and the other pilots arrived not long after you stepped out of your room, you falling in line with the nice man that had directed you to your room earlier. “Hey,” he greeted. “I’m Marc.” (I had to okay)

You smiled, easing at not having to initiate a conversation. “I’m y/n.”

“Well, it’s nice to meet you, y/n.”

“Likewise.”

“So,” he started in the short silence that ensued your answer. “Where are you from?”

“Tatooine.”

His eyebrows raised. “Really?”

“Yeah?” Was that so hard to believe?

“That’s so cool!”

You grinned. “Not really, but where are you from?”

He leaned in. “Hoth.”

Your eyes widened. “What? How? I thought it was inhospitable.”

“Not enough for my parents. They were hiding from the Empire and figured it was a good place to hide since no one goes there.”

“Huh. That’s smart if you ask me.”

Marc laughed. “Yeah, I think so too.”

“How’d you get food?”

“My mom knew a man who flew around a lot. He’d bring us a shit ton of food every few weeks.”

You gaped. “Awesome. What was his name?”

Marc was about to say something else, but your little group reached the hangar and Commander Dameron, causing Marc to quiet. “Welcome, recruits!” He waved his hands in the air. “Now we will be testing you to decide where to place you in terms of squadrons. One of which could be the Black Squadron, led by me.”

Another man stepped forward. “Hello, everyone, I’m Snap. Snap Wexley. And before you ask,” he held his finger out mockingly. “I want to be called Snap, skip all of that formal crap that Dameron does. Anyway, the test is relatively simple. The four of us,” he gestured to him, Dameron, and two others. “Will be split into two groups, as will you all. We’ll fight against each other and see which team has the last ship standing.”

“It’s a simulation,” Dameron cut in. “The simulation ships act and feel exactly as our normal x-wing would. The sides of your ship will plunge you into the reality at hand, and you will fly out of your respective star carrier to attack the other team. We will have droids act as people on the carriers to make the simulation seem as real as possible.”

Snap chuckled. “Alright, we’ll split you up into teams now.” He paused. “Oh! And this is Karé,” he pointed to a blonde haired woman. “And Mei.” He pointed to a shorter woman.

——

Soon enough, you found yourself in the cockpit of a simulator x-wing, riding along Snap, Mei, Marc and three other people who’s names you hadn’t retained.

To say you were nervous was, again, an understatement. You knew that Snap and Mei were good pilots: they were on the Black Squadron, after all. But Dameron? You’d heard things about him. Even on Tatooine you had, whispers of him being the best pilot the resistance had.

And now you were fighting against him. Lovely.

“R-four, check in.” Snap’s voice floated through the radio to your right. “R-four to Snap, I’m here.” You replied, remembering your call name.

“R-five?”

“Here, Snap.”

“Alright, Rookies,” Mei’s voice floated over the comms. “Show us what you got.”

The windows of your ship tinted, pulling you up and into the hangar of a star carrier much like the one you had just been in, but the doors were open and your teammates were rushing out of it. You quickly jetted yourself forward and out into space, getting into the zone.

“What’s the plan?” You heard Marc shout into the comms.

“Take ‘em down, R-two!” Snap yelped back.

“That’s a shit plan!” R-three yelled back.

“I have an idea!” You didn’t even hesitate to respond, your normal uneasiness fading. “We should split! Some people should distract their shooters and some people take down the carrier!”

“R-four, I like that plan,” Mei said. “But it’s hard to take down the carrier!”

“You have a point! Maybe we start with the communications first?”

“Everyone listen to R-four!” Snap cut in with a laugh. “She knows her shit!”

“Atta girl!” Marc yelled. “I’ll go with you to the comms!”

“Okay! Cover us!” You agreed, shooting up and over where the current commotion between both sides was happening.

Marc trailed closely behind you as you made your way to their star carrier. “Watch out, R-two! They got guns!” Marc quickly swerved to dodge the shots, alerting a rogue ship from the other side.

“We got company!” Marc yelled.

“I see them! Just keep trying to dodge!”

You studied the field, calculating your next move to avoid being shot. The enemy ship was coming from the right, the star carrier shooting from the front…

“Marc! I’m gonna do some weird maneuvering stuff so just try to follow me!”

“Yes ma’am!”

You dipped straight down almost immediately, dipping out of sight from the star carrier. Marc followed, and you correctly anticipated the follow of the enemy x-wing. “Time for the old switcharoo.” You yanked the controls upwards, flipping behind the trailing ship and blasting it to pieces.

“R-four! Nice shot!” Marc yelled over comms. “One ship down!”

A chorus of cheers sounded from the comms, and you beamed.

“Alrighty,” you said, mostly to Marc. “Let’s do Step 2.”

You came to the bottom of the ship, scoping underneath for a pressure point. “Y/n?” Marc asked, trailing you. “What are you doing?”

“I wanted to see if there’s somewhere that I can destroy the whole ship.”

“That wasn’t the plan!”

“Yeah, I know. But the comm antenna is also down here.”

“Alright…” Marc seemed apprehensive.

“We’ll be fine! We just have to find that antenna!”

“I see it!” You turned your ship around just in time to see Marc get blasted.

Flipping away from the shots, you managed to shoot back, hitting the ship that was shooting. “R-two is out, I hit one more!”

“So is R-one! Out, I mean.” Mei yelled.

“We’re taking damage! Snap, whats the plan?” You yelled.

“I don’t know, you’re the one with the good ideas!”

“And your the one who’s actually on the squadron!”

“Hold on!” A grunt sounded through the comms. “Just shot one!”

“Me too!” Yelled the quiet voice of R-five.

“Three more to go!” Mei cheered. “R-four, how’s your job lookin?”

“Good! Comms are down!”

“Perfe-“ Snap started to say, only to be cut off.

“Snap’s out!” Mei screeched.

“Shit!” R-three yelled. “What now?”

“R-four?”

You maneuvered around the star carrier. “I can try to take out this carrier if you think that’s smart!”

“What should we do?”

“Guys! I’m being trailed!” R-one interrupted.

“I got you!” R-three yelled back.

“Mei-“

“Mei is down! R-one is struggling!” R-three cut in.

“Fuck. Um, try to stay safe, R-three! I’m gonna take out the carrier!”

“How-“

“I found the pressure point!”

“What pressure-“ R-three cut themselves of, clearly dodging shots.

“The gasoline! With these types of blasters, it’ll explode!”

“Perfect! Also, R-one and I each shot down a ship, somehow!”

“Nice job, guys! Keep going, you got this!”

“Shit, R-four, Dameron’s trailing us!” R-one screamed.

“Get back to the carrier!”

“He’ll blow up the carrier!”

“Just go!” You grunted as you maneuvered your x-wing. “Get up the shields as soon as you get in!”

“Oka-“ A sharp shrill ran through your ship.

“Attention R-four,” an automated voice said. “You are the last one standing against the enemy team’s Commander Dameron. We are connecting comms right now in order to further test your abilities.”

“Shit.”

“Hey hey hey, watch your language.” The baritone of Dameron’s voice echoed through your comm.

You said nothing, only flying further into the star carrier, shooting any probes or people that posed a threat.

“You ignoring me, R-four?”

“You betcha I am, Commander.” You said through gritted teeth, almost at the gasoline tank.

“Where are you, by the way? Haven’t seen ya yet.”

“That would defeat the purpose of the test, wouldn’t it? If I can’t resist your questions and prodding, I’m as good as dead.”

Dameron chuckled. “Ah, snappy talker, eh?”

You chuckled. “Nah, you’ll find I’m pretty quiet unless necessary.”

“So this conversation is necessary?” You could hear his smirk.

“Can’t be making a bad first impression by ignoring my maybe future commander, can I?” You made it to the gasoline dropping one of your timed emergency bombs and then getting the hell out of there.

“You must be near the carrier,” Poe said suddenly. “Smart woman.”

“Took you long enough.” You bantered, feeling suddenly confident with your progress in the plan.

“Ya know, insulting me is not helping you impress me.”

“Huh,” you shot out of the carrier. “And here I was thinking you liked a little competition.”

Just as you finished your sentence, his carrier went up in flames, eliciting a string of curses from the commander.

“Language, Commander.” You chuckled.

“Ya know what, R-four? Fuck off. Seriously, where the hell are you?”

You smirked as you pulled up behind him, locking in on his x-wing. “Nice ass, Dameron.”

“SHI-“

Then you shot him, watching the plane go up in flames. You cheered to yourself, but were quickly swept back to present as you were shot at. “The hell?!” You yelped, grabbing your controls and jerking them to move. “R-four, can you hear me?” You heard Dameron come over the comm again.

“Yep!” You jutted into a hard left, pulling behind an x-wing and blowing it up.

“You need to get them off your tail.”

“No shit, Sherlock!”

“G- what did you just say?”

“It’s-“ you grunted as you yanked yourself into a jarring dodge. “A saying.”

“What? Look, R-four, you gotta go into the debris from the old enemy carrier!”

“Respectfully, sir, that is a shitty plan and I will not be doing that.” You slowed your ship to a stop.

“What are you doing? Move your ass!” Dameron’s voice took on a tone of urgency.

“Watch!” You pulled upwards at the last second, dropping your last emergency bomb, set off with a roulette of bullets. The x-wing’s exploded, you having to pull up even further to avoid being licked by the fire.

Once you’d deemed the bomb efficient and that the enemy ships were gone, you headed back to the carrier cautiously. As soon as you released the landing gear, the windows faded and you were back at the real hangar of the resistance star carrier.

Thirteen pairs of eyes tracked you as you slipped from the simulation on slightly wobbly legs. Some were of awe, some of hate. Either way, the attention was nerve racking and frankly, you didn’t like it at all.

But perhaps the most important of them all: Commander Dameron’s. As your eyes met his, you couldn’t determine the emotion behind them. You would like to fool yourself and say that it was some sort of newfound appreciation, but in reality it must have been disappointment. You did beat him, after all.

“Well,” Snap clapped to break the silence. “We will discuss and get back to you about who, if anyone, got into the squadron!” You and the others nodded, walking away.

You had made it a total of four steps before a hand grabbed your wrist, silently holding you back as everyone else walked away. Marc turned back once with raised eyebrows, but you just gave him a look of confusion. When everyone was gone, Snap yanked you back and wrapped his arm around your shoulders.

“You got game, Hawkeye.” He said with a big grin adorning his face.

You laughed. “Maker, is that my nickname now?”

“You betcha it is.”

“Great. Lovely.”

Snap nudged you. “C’mon, that’s pretty good. Coulda been worse.”

“Snap.” Dameron’s voice was hard as his eyes darted between you and the said man, causing Snap to drop his arm.

“Sorry, Commander.”

Dameron sighed, running a hand through his curls. If only you could reach up and- “I told you to call me Poe.”

“But-“ He nodded to where you were standing a bit awkwardly.

“Call me Poe, Hawkeye.” He stuck out his hand.

“You better not use that fucking nickname, Poe.” You met him halfway.

He chuckled. “Or what?”

“How would you like the base to know that you,” you stepped closer and into his personal space. “the best pilot in the galaxy got beat by a rookie.”

He tilted his head to the side, smirking lightly. “Is that a challenge to my authority I hear?”

“You bet your ass it is.”

“And you said you’d be a quiet one.”

“Only talking cause it’s necessary.” You smiled mockingly sweet.

Poe turned to Snap. “I want her on my squadron.”

[mars101]

Act 5: -> Scene 3: Kim Younghoon

WRITTEN PART -> (1.2k) -> no ss after text

june 1st, 2002

hi travel diary i have one word to say as i start this..

wow.

STARTING THIS TRIP OFF WITH A BANG!!!

not literally sadly but idk maybe we'll get there.. :)

anyways so, there was this guy i saw at the airport and… how can someone look this good?? i swear, it was like i was looking at a statue. i think that i literally did stare at him like he was one..

he did look back at me and i winked at him, i wish i had a picture of his cute blush that he got after i winked. he sent me back a small wave and didnt look at me after it though :((

we are going on the same flight so hopefully i’ll bump into him eventually..

July 16th, One day before Yin's Wedding.

After sailing the boat for a while, Juyeon told Yin to stop by the shore near the back of the island. He told her that the four of them were going to have a small picnic.

Juyeon was releasing the anchor, Hyunjae was gathering what they brought, and.. Younghoon was still napping… Yin was lucky enough to lose rock paper scissors and be the one to wake him up.

“younghoon..? we're going to leave the boat now”

“Huh? Oh this wasn't a dream..” Younghoon sighs as he sits up and rubs his eyes slightly. With a tired smile he stands up and looks around, “Oh Yin, where's Juyeon and Hyunjae?”

“already off the boat, come on let's go! you also have to tell me how you met my mom”

“Oh do I?” Younghoon raises an eyebrow as the two of them walk over to get off the boat. “i've already asked hyunjae and juyeon, now i need to hear your story”

As the two meet up with Juyeon and Hyunjae on the beach, they find a spot on a hill with a flat area. Younghoon immediately going to lean on the tree that shades the area.

“Did Yin really ask you guys on how you met Y/n too?”

The other two men looked at each other before nodding, “I mean yeah, it's been years since I talked about y/n so why not” Hyunjae leans forward torwards Younghoon as he talks, “Are we going to get a live retelling on how you met Y/n??”

“Uhm…”

july 15th, 2002

no way…..

TRAVEL DIARY! DO YOU REMEMBER THAT EXTRA HANDSOME BOY AT THE AIRPORT???

WELL HES HERE!!!! i did not know that my luck would be this good during this trip. three men. call me what you want but i am living the dream right now

also.. you know what they say, the third time's the charm ;) ok but in terms of when i saw them would that mean juyeon’s the third man or if i actually talk to them. and i will talk to the cutie by the way, just want to make it clear that this time i will make a move on him.

i am actually a bit nervous this time it is so weird, ew usually im not so hesitant like this i should just do what y/n does and be y/n

(oh god he has me talking in third person)

good luck y/n you got this!!

July 16th, One day before Yin's Wedding.

“Fine. But I'm not telling details-”

“what?!? but they're the best part. at least leave some details in. like what my mom was wearing, how pretty you thought she was, when did you two-”

Younghoon waves his hand around at Yin. Juyeon and Hyunjae are already starting to eat while waiting for the story.

“Alright alright, I'll leave some details in, I guess.. and don't expect much. I'm not a storyteller”

“You will be” Juyeon said before shoving a spoonful of food in his mouth.

“okayyy come on, come on, let's hear it!” yin exclaimed as she got ready to listen intently to younghoon.

“Calm down, Yin. I'll get to it. I think I'll need to give some background first. It was around twenty years ago, and I was on vacation with my parents and their best friends, plus their kids too. I first saw Y/n at the airport, I think?”

“wait does that mean you were the first one?”

“First one to talk to her.. no. but yes first one to see her”

Hyunjae gulps down his food loudly, “I think I was the first one to talk to your mom. Early June was when I met her”

“July 6th for me.”

“Uhm yesterday day, July 15th..”

“happy anniversary!!” the three men all looked at yin with different emotions on their face. “okay sorry wrong joke my bad. you can continue with your story now” yin takes a sip of her water to ignore the stares.

“Alright uh, so yeah, I didn't notice Y/n at first because I was making sure I had everything. But when I did look up and made eye contact with her, I had gotten so shy. I think I had a small blush on my face” Younghoon covers his face in slight embarrassment at the way the three others are listening to him.

“Now, it's a month later, and my parents just told me I'm going to marry a childhood friend and so-”

“Woah woah woah, you're going to just skip over that?? What do you- How did- WHAT”

Juyeon's jaw dropped as he put down his plate for dramatics and put his hands out, reaching for the air.

“Oh right uh, at a dinner with my family and her's, our parents said that.. we were going to get married in a month…”

“What.”

“The.”

“flip.”

“Yeah… my exact reaction, well almost. I was the only one who didn't know, so I ran away. Sneaked on a boat and ended up here on this island. Met Y/n at the hotel from earlier, and she clinged onto me, and we went out danced on the beach, kissed on the beach, and… dot dot dot.”

yin tilted her head in confusion and looked at the other two men who were nodding their heads with a slight smile, “dot dot dot? what does that mean?”

Hyunjae and Juyeon put their hands out for a high five to Younghoon while he replied to Yin, “It's something from our time, I'm not sure if you know about it.”

“but you're saying dot dot dot, how can i not know when it's just dots?”

The three of them start to stand up and stretch as they jokingly ignore Yin, “Alright let's pack up” Juyeon looks at a nonexistent watch on his wrist, “Oh yeah look at the time Yin, your wedding is tomorrow remember!”

“wait but-”

july 17th, 2002

what a night.

younghoon is such a dream. literally. men like him are only seen in my dreams, big sighs ahhhh.

with him, i feel like nothing can go wrong.

like first of all, he's so respectful, offered to pay when yin could literally give it to us for free, always asked me first, and has a fiance.

he's getting married.

younghoon is getting married and not to me.

y/n.. you are so stupid. there always has to be something going wrong in the end, right? just why..?

synopsis = a day before her wedding day, Yin decides to find her father so he can walk her down the isle, the problem? There's three candidates: Lee Juyeon, Kim Younghoon, and Lee Hyunjae.

last/next

masterlist

taglist:

@boomhoon , @sanasour , @loonaluvz , @jaerisdiction , @cowsmicwu , @jundundun , @piripurora

[frozenjokes]

Signing Back In, Apparently - 10

Prev/Next

I am so sick. but yay convex chapter. hope they kiss and get to be evil together

“Cleo! You didn’t tell me- can you also-?” Scar rushed forward and grabbed at their shoulder, but was promptly shaken off.

“I thought your reaction would be funny. I was right,” Cleo shrugged, shooing Scar further away, “Back on the wheel, boat boy, pay attention before we crash.” Scar yelped as he was shoved into the wheel. But there was absolutely no way he would be able to pay attention now.

“You can hear us?” Impulse pointed vaguely at himself before squinting to get a better look at the island, followed quickly by the rest of the ghosts. Well except maybe Mumbo, who declared he did not want to be here anymore before walking down the side of the boat and disappearing underwater. Grian followed him with an alarmed squawk. Always so dramatic, those two.

“Yup! This island is great , you guys are going to love it. It’s like ghost paradise. Probably? I mean, I think 90% of the ghosts there are certifiably insane, but they’re loving it. What are your names?”

“Oh, wow, it’s been awhile since I’ve had to introduce myself hasn’t it.. Well, I’m Impulse. The tall one who just went overboard is Mumbo, and the guy who followed him is Grian.”

“Pearl,” Pearl grunted, when Cleo looked her way, “Where are we going anyway? Clearly this involves us. What are you planning?” Her tone was accusatory as she stepped forward to tower over them. Cleo didn’t seem bothered at all.

“This is a gift! A ghost vacation, as Scar so aptly put it. Sausage is forcing him to be nicer to you guys, isn’t that sweet?”

“Alright, that’s enough, Cleo, you can navigate this better than me,” Scar left his station at the wheel, forcing Cleo to take his place and steer. He crouched near the edge, yelling into the water, “Mumbo! Grian! Get up here, will you?” Scar felt a chill over his back, turning to see Pearl standing over him. He scowled. “Did you just try and push me?”

“Wanted to know if I could touch you,” she deadpanned, looking extremely disappointed. Scar looked back just in time for Grian’s head to surface, flashing him what was probably meant to be a middle finger. Due to his disfigured water-hands, it was hard to tell. Mumbo surfaced next, looking quite resigned as he walked back onto the boat.

“Ay, why so down? I thought we had fun?” Scar mumbled, offering a small smile.

Mumbo closed his eyes. “Don’t.”

“Fine, fine,” Scar pulled back before Grian could lunge for him, settling at the sail, “Alright everyone, listen up. You’re here for some pirate mandated fun, and I’m here to be miserable and possibly die, which means all of you should be on board. Once we dock, you can go crazy, just stay the hell away from me. Enjoy it, because we aren’t coming back. Got it?” His answer was a resounding silence. “Perfect.”

“Inspiring,” Cleo rolled her eyes. “Well we’re here! Get ready to tie up the boat, Scar, the dock is pretty shit. Try not to fall through it.”

“Got it!” Scar grabbed the rope at the front end of the boat, leaping off as Cleo eased in next to the pier. It was weird hearing the ghosts talk amongst themselves. He tried to ignore it, a task made much easier when an anvil plummeted from the sky(?) and smashed directly next to him through the center of the dock. Battered by splinters, Scar fell back into the murky water with a scream. The water felt thick and warm, and he gasped as he surfaced.

“Cleo! What-?” Scar blinked in alarm as his hats began to float every which way, hurriedly wading around to gather them. Apparently, the ghosts were as shocked as he was given their silence, but Cleo didn’t seem fazed.

“Hey, Cub! Missed again! How long were you waiting here this time? Miss me that much?” Cleo stepped carefully onto the remaining edges of the dock, balancing until she could hop to shore.

“You brought someone new,” Cub, presumably, walked up to the water’s edge wearing a passive frown. He was short, wearing a lab coat that looked ever so slightly too big, but the detail that grabbed Scar’s attention the most was that he was a ghost. Maybe he.. should have assumed that one. He didn’t like the way Cub was looking at him.

“Yeah, and like four other ghosts, care to introduce yourself?”

“Nope.” Cub stepped into the water, reaching for the final hat. Scar snatched it away, but Cub’s expression didn’t change. Scar glared, but had a feeling this was a staring contest he wouldn’t win.

“Alright, Scar, have fun! Try not to touch anything!” Cleo waved.

“Hey- wait- how did you..” Pearl began, but Cleo gestured for her to join them on land.

“Someone else can show you, long story short, ghosts have a lot of power here. Let’s let Cub be, I’ve just given him a great gift.”

“You- you’re not leaving me are you?” Scar yelped, moving with great urgency from the water. The mud at his heels begged him to stay.

“Just let it happen, Scar,” Cleo waved.

“I am NOT-“

But Cleo put their fingers in their ears, yelling nonsense as she walked away into the fog. Pearl gave her an indecisive look, but quickly followed, dragging Impulse with her by the hand. Mumbo looked like he might stay, but Grian made sure to pull him away as well. Scar couldn’t escape the water fast enough to follow them, like the mud was working actively to pull him in the opposite direction. When he managed to scramble out and to the tree line, there was no sign of anyone through the fog.

“You won’t find them. The fog is confusing when it wants to be. And I want it to be. I can show you some pretty cool stuff though if you follow me.” Somehow, Scar wasn’t surprised to find Cub directly behind him.

“I am not following you. I have no interest in becoming part of your human taxidermy collection or whatever it is you do.”

“Taxidermy? No no, you’ve got me all wrong. I want a live specimen. And I certainly don’t have a collection, geez.”

“Live! You just tried to crush me with an anvil!”

“Well, maybe undead. The dead are easier to work with. In theory. I haven’t had the chance to test it on anyone, since no one ever visits except Cleo. Well, there was this one time I got to play around a bit, but Joe was watching, so I could only get a couple stitches in. I hope she gets horrifically injured again soon.”

“Stitches- are you talking about her face?”

“Yeah!” Cub’s intonation raised for the first time, and Scar couldn’t help but chuckle. “Now, let’s get out of here before Cleo tells Zedaph about you, he’ll have like a billion questions, and then the others will want to meet you and then they’ll get attached , it’s a whole thing.”

“Hm. Well I don’t like that.”

“Perfect, come on then,” Cub began walking into the fog, which Scar thought was rather arrogant, but he figured it might be better to keep an eye on him rather than just waiting to die. After all, Cub couldn’t touch him directly at least, so as long as he followed Cleo’s advice and didn’t touch anything..

Scar hurried after him, stumbling a bit over roots and mud patches that Cub could float over, “So visitors are pretty rare, huh? Human visitors?”

“Uh huh. Most sailors that try end up shipwrecked on the rocks,” Cub chuckled to himself, examining his own nails. Scar noticed with slight unease they were sharp. “We’ve had a couple ghosts join us that way. Though, it’s been awhile.”

“If you want bodies, why didn’t you just take them from the ships?”

“Oh, those have long rotted. The museum is a new venture, and I want someone fresh. Or, just alive I suppose. I’m not picky.”

“You know, Cub, I think you might have a marketing issue on your hands! No, no, this island is in crisis territory! Luckily, I’m an expert.”

“Oh?”

“You want bodies, right? Alive, dead, whatever, you want them. Well, I can make that happen for you, guaranteed. What’s the catch Scar? Nothing much, really, especially in exchange for my services. See, I’ve got a ghost problem. You saw them! When they’re happy, I’m happy, when they’re sad, my back hurts, so, as you can tell, not ideal.”

“I don’t have the power to cut ties between a ghost and the soul they’re bound to.”

“Ah, well then, I have a feeling I’ll be visiting again, and you won’t want me dead, no, no.”

“I don’t? Are you sure?” Cub turned, revealing a sly smile. Scar returned it with his own grin. This was his element.

“You need people now, and later, you’ll need other items that those ghostly hands of yours won’t have access to. There’s all sorts of things I could ferry back and forth for you. If I’m stuck here in an exhibit, especially when you could just as easily have someone else in a snap, I won’t be of any use. Well, besides looking pretty. But I guarantee I’ll draw more eyes with my other, wide range of skills.”

“I feel like a lot of this hinges on trust.”

“Well, sure, doesn’t everything? But I understand, I get it, why take a chance when the body you’re looking for is right in front of you?” Scar removed the hat at the top of the stack, presenting it to Cub in a dramatic bow, “These mean a lot to me. The hats of my old crew, my family, struck down in a storm on the wild sea. Consider it insurance. I will be back.” Scar recognized the twinkle of interest in Cub’s eyes as he tilted his head, reaching forward to touch it. His hand, maybe not surprisingly, fell through it.

“Hm. I’ll need my gloves for that.”

“So it’s a deal? You get my services, and I keep my life?”

“Not yet. I want to know how you plan on getting humans here.”

“Aha! Of course, of course. Now, as I was saying, this island has a marketing problem! The Haunted Island is possibly one of the worst names I’ve ever heard! I’m looking for something more.. exciting. And boy, you should know that I know my way around a rumor.”

“Alright, shoot. What should we call it then?”

“Hm, let me think. How about.. GHOSTS: A Trial in Terror. An Experience That Is Sure To Blow Your Fucking Socks Off! For short, Ghost Fucking Island. That’s what they’d put on maps at least, ideally.

“Haha, that’s awesome, man,” Cub stopped, hands in his pockets.

“You could call me an expert,” Scar puffed out his chest, placing his hat back in its place at the top of the stack. He didn’t see the wall before slamming into it, falling back with a yelp.

Cub snickered, “I never get tired of seeing humans do that. Bring a lantern or something next time, will you? Can’t appreciate the architecture if you can’t see a foot in front of your face.”

“Well I-“ Scar hurried to his feet, but stopped short as he followed Cub’s glowing form inside. Behind the massive front door was a dimly lit, but grand opening room, filled to the brim with all sorts of odd knickknacks. Scar might’ve stopped to read some of the labels, if he wasn’t so awed by how beautiful it was.

Cub smiled beside him, “Like what you see?”

“How did you do this? It-“ Scar broke off, leaning over to touch a table and then a picture frame, “It’s solid. How could you even move this stuff? You decorated, I assume?”

“There’s interactive exhibits if you insist on touching, otherwise, hands off,” Cub walked forward, far too fast for Scar to look at every little thing that caught his eye, but he wasn’t keen on falling behind, “This island works differently. The things that grow here, the rocks and minerals, and even the animals that are born here; all are solid to both ghosts and humans. That’s how we can build all this stuff. Only catch; some world ending disaster strikes the island every couple years or so and changes its form. So we start over. Build anew. Humans don’t like that, there’s a reason no one lives here. Besides the ghosts, of course.”

“Oh, wow. Mumbo and Impulse are going to have a field day with this. Grian too, maybe. Him and Pearl might just try and hit me in the head with a rock though,” Scar paused, taking another moment to look around, “This is amazing. Gosh, I’ll have to come back and see the outside! Light it up for me, will you?”

Cub chuckled, looking quite pleased, “Thank you. I’ve been collecting artifacts from our current.. season you could call it. I believe we’ll be nearing the end soon.”

“And you’ll lose everything?”

“Right. Don’t be too sad on my behalf, it’s always fun to start over. Come on, follow me. You can see the rest another time.” Cub bent down over a hatch near one of the walls, opening it to reveal a ladder leading down. How lovely and not sinister at all. Scar frowned, but he was in too deep now.

He wasn’t overly shocked to see a sterile looking lab space at the bottom, complete with fluorescent lights, dark countertops, and rolling silver tables. Just by being here, he was sure his chances of getting murdered and/or turned into some gruesome exhibit just increased tenfold. What a way to go.

“I thought you were into what I was selling,” Scar mumbled, examining the room for some sort of weapon. He had his sword, but that would pass straight through; not that any other weapon could do much to a ghost, but maybe Scar could at least slow him down.

“Oh, I still am,” Cub mused, sliding on an odd looking pair of gloves. Scar tensed as the ghost approached him, but Cub only plucked a hat off the top of his head. “Relax. Scar, right? I’m ready to make this deal, but I want one more thing from you. Sit.” Cub tapped one of the sterling tables. Scar didn’t move.

“I’d rather not.”

“Scar, if we’re going to be business partners, I’m going to need a little more. How much is your life worth to you, hm? I could live without, given what you’ve offered so far.”

“What else do you want, then?” Scar’s tone was flat. Wary.

Cub gestured vaguely with his head, turning to one of his shelves and gently pulling down a jar. Inside was.. Scar wasn’t really sure. It looked a lot like a ghost, but small and sharp, and quite angry. “This is a vex. They inhabit this island, although rare, and I’m quite fond of them. I’ve modified my body to fit some of their features, as you may have seen.” Cub tapped his clawed fingers on the glass, smiling with teeth for the first time. Sharp. Just lovely. “And this, with help of course,” Cub turned his back to Scar and unfurled small, spiked wings, seemingly from inside his lab coat. “Stitched to my back, right from the source.” Cub tapped the glass again, turning back around.

“You want to do that to me?” Scar breathed, feeling slightly ill.

“Not all of it today, unless you volunteer. I’ll be happy to work on you during future visits. I want to know what it will do to you, to combine the living and the dead. It might not work at all.” Cub set down the jar, sliding open the top and violently snatching the vex inside before tearing off its wings. His neutral expression didn’t fade.

“Is- is this going to kill me?”

“I don’t think so.”

“That doesn’t fill me with very much confidence!”

“Well, you don’t have a choice. Besides, you’re the perfect subject! A bonafide conman with a silver tongue who isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty. I don’t see any reason why the vex wouldn’t take to you.” Cub held up the wings, dripping with.. something. The creature they came from writhed at the bottom of the jar.

“I don’t suppose this procedure includes any anesthesia or pain killers?”

Cub actually laughed, a reaction that was answer enough, “No. But if you promise to sit still, I won’t strap you down. Good enough?”

“Guess so.”

“Great. Now sit down and take off your shirt.”

[callsign-rockstar]

Rulebreaker - R. Floyd x fem reader

•─────────────•°•❀•°•─────────────•

An ex-aviator has very strict rules with herself about dating pilots. She was still working with them though, and between her job as a flight analyst and strategist as well as being a waitress at the Hard Deck on weekends, she sees a lot of them. One night, however, a specific pilot draws her attention and she is on the brink of breaking the rules for him ;)

•─────────────•°•❀•°•─────────────•

pairing: robert 'bob' floyd x fem!ex-aviator

word count: 2.4k

warnings: none really, maybe mentions of past cheating (not bob) and mentions of alcohol.

requested by: @cfvgbhndun

a/n: hey guys! this was another request (I love ur requests seriously) and im so excited to say that I loved writing it so much that this will be split into 3 parts (I think, I just dont wanna make one post super duper long and I really wanna expand upon this one). anyway, I really hope y'all enjoy this hehe

•─────────────•°•❀•°•─────────────•

The bar was quiet and alone. Lunchtime had just passed and the Hard Deck always closed for a couple hours before opening at 5:30 sharp for the night. Penny was out with Amelia trying to fix something or another on their boat, and y/n found herself humming her favorite song while wiping down tables and putting chairs in their place. Penny had profusely apologized for having to leave her alone for an hour, but the truth was that Y/n loved both Penny and Amelia as her own family, so she really didn’t mind. 

After serving 12 years in the navy, she had decided to go into the inactive reserve. She worked at the Top Gun offices as a flight analyst and strategist during the week, as she still adored everything about strategizing in the most efficient ways possible. Weekends, she went to the Hard Deck to work the nights after visiting Top Gun and dropping off treats for everyone in the morning. There was no real reason she needed to be there in the mornings, but she just really loved her co-workers and all the people at Top Gun, so it was something that all of them looked forward to on Saturday mornings. 

Her earbuds were in and she danced around the bar, strands of her hair falling out from the low bun she had gathered it into so she could get things done without it in her face. She went into the kitchen, making sure everything was in order for when the cooks came in. It wasn’t necessarily her responsibility, but she always liked to help out the people and places she really cared about.

A tap tap at the glass paned door that led to the terrace prompted her to open it for Penny. Whenever she was alone in the bar, Penny adamantly urged her to keep the doors locked so she would feel safe being in there alone. It was a precaution that both of them agreed on, but the security personnel also happened to be amazingly comforting to her, so she never exactly felt unsafe anyway. 

Because she was a flight analyst, she had been working with Vice Admiral Simpson the past few weeks to come up with ways to fly a mission that she had been told was highly classified. Because of that, she didn’t really know what was up with it, and she didn’t know that a few familiar faces would be turning up later that evening. 

“Hey Penny! How’s the boat?” Y/n asked.

“We were able to get it up and running with a little help from the mechanics,” replied Penny, walking into the Hard Deck and taking off her sunglasses with one hand. The other was letting down her hair which had been in a ponytail, considering the heat of the day. The way the bar seemed alive even with only three people in it never ceased to amaze Y/n, it seemed magical, and that’s why she kept coming back to California, specifically here. It all seemed laced with magic, a normal naval town with a little bit of glitter dusted around every corner.

“Need help with that?” asked Y/n, seeing Amelia sitting down at a table with a physics textbook. 

“Yes, actually. We have a test next week and this stuff is just going in one ear and out the other,” replied Amelia with a smile.

“Penny, I finished cleaning the floors and dusting the stuff on the walls. Also, I pulled out the stepladder to do a bit of dusting for the things on the ceiling and pushed in all the chairs. Aaand I went into the kitchen to make sure everything was in order for when the kitchen staff came in,” said Y/n, making sure Penny heard the things she’d done so she had a justifiable excuse to help Amelia for a while.

“You know I only asked you to sweep and make sure the chairs were tucked in, right?” Penny asked with a smile.

“I know, I know. Just couldn’t help myself,” replied Y/n.

“You, Y/n y/l/n, are an angel,” said Penny, giving Y/n a hug before going back to her bar and leaving Amelia with her.

“So you have a test on aerodynamics next week?,” asked Y/n, glancing at the open textbook that sat in front of the girl. Amelia nodded, a little worried.

“You came to the perfect person for help! This will be a piece of cake once you see it like this…” began Y/n.

After about 45 minutes, Amelia understood. She still needed some practice, but she was doing much better than the day before when she could barely understand the words coming out of her teacher’s mouth.

“Thank you, Y/n. You don’t know how much that helped!” said Amelia, throwing her arms around Y/n’s neck.

“Any time, honey!” said Y/n with a laugh. There was only about half an hour left until opening time, so Amelia needed to be taken to her friends house. 

“I’ll drive her, Penny,” said Y/n, seeing how the other employees were coming back and Penny clearly had a lot on her plate to organize.

“Thank you,” Penny mouthed to Y/n, after giving a goodbye hug and a kiss to her daughter.

“Come on, Ames,” said Y/n, opening the front door of the Hard Deck.

Hopping into Y/n’s car, Amelia practically begged to put the top down.

“Please, Y/n/n! It’s the weekend! And it’s so fun when the top is down,” said the girl.

“Can’t say no, top down it is!” exclaimed Y/n with a smile.

The might not have physically looked like sisters, but they sure acted like them. They were singing in sync, smiling as the sun was setting and the wind was blowing in their hair. It was scene pulled straight out of a movie and neither of them could have asked for a better 15 minutes.

Somewhere not too far away in a small apartment, Robert Floyd was getting ready to head to the Hard Deck. He had just gotten out of the shower, wiping off the fogged up mirror in his bathroom while securing a white towel around his waist. He grabbed his glasses and put them on, finding his attempts to push them higher up the bridge of his nose unsuccessful because his face was still damp and the bathroom was very humid. He opened the door that connected the bathroom to the bedroom to try and get the steam out of the bathroom, even opening the window above the shower to get some air flow. A thin layer of sweat was beginning to form on his body, making him feel slightly frustrated because he had to be out the door in 20 minutes max if he wanted to make a good impression on his flight mates and be there early. 

After pulling on his khaki uniform and fixing his name tag, he combed his hair to perfection and gelled it back so it would stay in place all night. He sprayed on his cologne and brushed his teeth, making sure to look as put together as possible for tonight.

Y/n pulled into the side parking lot where all the employee spots were, backing her car into one of them. She opened the door that led into the kitchen and made her way into the Hard Deck.

“Evening, everyone!” She exclaimed, waving and all the cooks.

She was in a little bit of a hurry because Penny probably needed an extra pair of hands to get everything in order.

“How was the car ride?” Penny asked.

“It was great, Amelia is seriously the best,” laughed Y/n.

“You need any help?” she asked.

“Um, I would love for you to help me by just relaxing for a sec. You’ve been helping out all afternoon and it’s gonna be busy tonight, so I’d rather have you rest for a couple minutes and just relax before the show begins,” Penny said, patting her on the back and sitting her down at the bar.

Y/n knew there was no point in arguing, so she sat down and said hi to everyone who passed by.

The bar began to fill up with people, familiar faces greeted the staff and new ones walked in with looks of fascination. The Hard Deck always had that effect on people, one of wonder and a certain belief in its magic.

Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell was definitely not one of the people Y/n expected to see. They had seen each other over the years at naval events and had worked on some projects together, but she certainly didn’t think he’d be back here. Especially not after that one time he came to teach her Top Gun class and was fired, like, the next day.

“Captain Mitchell! Long time no see! What brings you down here?” she asked him.

“Very nice to see you, y/cs! I’m down here because I really messed up this time. You’ll find out soon enough,” replied Pete with a long sigh and a tired but sincere smile.

She was far too busy to continue talking to him, taking orders from her designated area of the bar, so she waved at him and went back to work. She and the rest of the servers had a good system going in which a group of two or three servers each took on a different sector of the bar. It worked out great for them because it wasn’t as overwhelming as having to walk around the entire place taking orders. 

All her questions about Pete’s strange comment were answered when she saw a guy in a khaki uniform walk into the Hard Deck. She couldn’t help but follow him with her eyes. He was very handsome and she couldn’t deny it: that neat hair was begging to be messed with and those gold frame glasses just needed to get lost in a pile of clothes beside a bed. Preferably hers.

She hadn’t really registered he was a pilot until she snapped out of her daydream and noticed her bottom lip was between her teeth. She had a strict rule against getting with aviators, ever. After years of dealing with them and their douchebag attitudes, she’d learned to not make that mistake again.

Her first serious boyfriend was a boy she met in the naval academy. She was actually in love with him, but he shattered her heart for the first time by completely ghosting her after months of dating. Then, another pilot had cheated on her, and so on. Pilots loved the thrills in life and thought they were the smartest people on earth, but none of them knew how to handle something as fragile as a heart. She thought it was ironic and even a little funny, because they were able to flawlessly fly those jets, operate such majestic beasts with scary precision and yet they didn’t know what to do with a person who’d placed their soul in their hands. But she was over them and knew she couldn’t make that mistake again.

As the evening progressed, she continued to see other aviators pour in through the doors of the Hard Deck. None had pulled her eyes the way that the very first one did, and even though she kept minding her own business, she honestly couldn’t get him out of her head.

All the sudden, she heard Penny’s voice call out for her.

“Y/n, will you help me out here? I need to go check something in the kitchen and I can’t leave the bar here alone,” she explained.

“Of course I will! Take your time,” she answered.

Slipping in behind the bar, she pressed down her black skirt flush against her thighs, sighing and taking the orders of people around her. One man who frequented the bar and was very nice asked for his regular, asking Y/n how she was doing.

Then, a not so familiar face popped up behind her. He waited patiently to be served, and Y/n turned around to meet the gaze of the aviator she’d had her eyes on ever since he walked in. She practically sank into his deep blue eyes, trying not to seem like she was falling deeply into them. The smell of a fresh but not overpowering cologne spilled over the bar and pulled her senses into him even more. She was already drowning in him and he hadn’t even said a word. 

“Hi! Can I have a… a beer please?” he asked. She could tell he was nervous, and obviously he wasn’t very good at hiding it, hands fidgeting and looking for something to occupy themselves with. 

“Of course,” replied Y/n. She could see he was about to set his phone down on the bar. She debated whether she should warn him and decided she should so as to save him an embarrassing first impression on the rest of the pilots. But mainly, it was because she really did like him and she really didn’t want to see his pretty face riddled with shame.

“Careful! Penny wouldn’t let that slide and I certainly will not either,” she said, pointing at the wooden sign.

“Oh, thanks! That would have been terribly embarrassing,” he said with the most gorgeous smile Y/n had seen. It was taking her every muscle to hold back, she wanted so badly to kiss him right then and there. But the battle scars she had from boys like him, who started out sweet and then turned bitter were already one too many. So she turned around and poured a beer from the tap before she had time to change her mind.

“Here’s your beer, lieutenant,” she said, returning the smile and noticing a pink color rising on the man’s cheeks. Pulling rank on these pilots that were all at least a little bit full of themselves always worked, even if they were barely just lieutenants still. 

A quick thank you and he was gone. Penny was back and Y/n decided she needed a second outside, alone. She noticed the stark contrast between the noisy inside and the quiet outdoors. She could hear the muffled sound of people talking, the laughter and the music. She didn’t, however, notice a certain aviator’s eyes following her as she walked outside. If anything, this was just a fun way to pass the time while the aviators were in town. But nothing more… or that’s what she hoped, anyway. She couldn’t make any promises about not breaking the rules for this pilot.

[dmwrites]

“It’s not fair.” Joel muttered to himself. He was watching, not stalking, watching, Jimmy and Tango walking around Tumble Town together, chatting and laughing and looking like they were having a lot of fun. Joel hated fun, more specifically them. So, he flew down from his hiding spot to grouch at them. “Oi! Idiot toy and ice guy! You’re both so annoying!”

“JOEL!” Jimmy yelled, shaking his fist out of instinct.

“Woah, woah, big guy! You can’t talk to Jim like that!” Tango strode forward, frowning and crossing his arms at the god. “What’s got your toga in a bunch, huh?”

“I don’t need a reason to hate, I’m a god and he’s an annoying little toy. And you, ice boy, are his little soulmate, so you too will suffer.” Joel sneered at them.

“Jimmy, you know what?” Tango said thoughtfully. “I think that Joel here is projecting his anger onto us, because Etho didn’t come to visit him.”

Jimmy gasped. “Tango you’re a genius!” He started laughing. “Oh my god, Joel’s jealous!”

“Am not!” Joel said defensively. “I could care less about him, he was just some guy, I would never care what he thinks or why he didn’t come to see me even though you two morons got hang out with each other. I’m not jealous!”

Jimmy and Tango were laughing now, and Joel huffed and puffed at them, feeling how red his face must be. Tango was the first to stop, and spoke again.

“Listen, dude, you’re literally a god! Just, like, summon Etho here or something. I’m sure he’s just in his singleplayer world or something, hasn’t even noticed that the hermits left hermitcraft.”

“He can’t do that, he’s weak! He’s a weak little man!” Jimmy laughs turned into screams when Joel hit him with lightning.

It wasn’t too bad of an idea though, Joel thought as he flew back to Stratos. Perhaps if he prayed to his fellow gods, he could be granted some extra power to jump over to another world, just enough to grab Etho. He hated that Tango had read him like a book, but it was true, he missed his soulmate, and had sulked when he found out that Etho wasn’t among the people that had come through the rift.

“Oh great and powerful Peril.” Joel stood in the peaceful temple he’d built for some god he could hardly remember. And he wasn’t weaker then them, just to be clear, he was just collaborating with the other gods, because he just loved teamwork. “I don’t know if you know, but I once was in a relation ship, like an actual wooden boat that looked so cute, with a guy called Etho. You might know him, he’s kinda a big deal, super mysterious and cool. We were soulmates, I showed him everything he knows, well, you know how it goes. Anyway, I want to bring him here, but I need some-” and here Joel looked around conspiratorially, like someone would be spying on him from the bushes. The only person around was Hermes, who was playing in the water a ways away, “extra power to get him. Could you please help?”

There was a moment of silence, and Joel stood with his head bowed. And then, Joel felt a heaviness enter his skin, and he knew that the prayer had worked. He snapped his fingers, and a portal appeared in midair, rippling in the breeze.

“Hermes! I’ll be right back, son!” Joel called. Hermes looked up and waved. Joel stepped into the portal, closing his eyes and concentrating on Etho, his mask and his laugh and his sarcasm.

And when he opened his eyes again, he was in a field, and there was a man with a shock of white hair with his back to him. He was surrounded by bits of redstone machines, and Joel grinned.

“Honey, I’m home!”

Etho yelped and turned around, pulling out his sword. “Wha- who- hold on, Joel?”

“The one and only!” Joel couldn’t stop smiling.

“What- hold on, hold on. Why are you dressed like that, and why do you have a beard, and, most importantly, why are you here?” Etho cocked his head and approached Joel slowly.

“Listen, we don’t have much time before my extra power gives out.” Joel told him. “Long story short I’m a god now, surprise, and all of your hermit guys came through some rift into empires- you remember empires, right- and you weren’t there and I was upset because the silly toy got his soulmate back- come with me!” Joel grabbed Etho by the arm and dragged him into the portal, giving Etho no time to respond.

They appeared back in Peril’s temple in an instant, and Joel sighed as the heaviness in his skin left him, and the portal vanished. Etho gripped Joel’s arm and looked around.

“Where am I? Did I have some bad mushroom soup or something?”

“No, no, my friend, this is my kingdom, Stratos! I am super cool and hot, I’m a god, baby.” Joel spread his arms so Etho could behold it. “You’re impressed, I can tell.”

Etho’s breathing was slowing, and he let go of Joel. “It was just very sudden, all of this. You know, I was trying to figure out a redstone machine that could invert-”

“Hermes! Come meet your dad’s old fling!” Joel called.

“Dad?” Etho asked, distracted at once. Hermes came running over and waved right into Etho’s face. “Hi there. Is this your father?” Hermes nodded, hugging Joel’s leg for a moment before running off again. “You had a kid?”

“Oh, yes, with Daddy Sausage, it’s a funny story actually, we-”

“Sorry, who?” Etho interrupted, eyebrows raised high, a laugh making his voice crack.

“Oh, shut up.” Joel muttered. “Listen, I did not do all of this just for you to laugh at me for what I call the man I co-parent with. My builds are in the sky and amazing, and I am so tall and hot. Right?”

Etho eyed him over. “Still shorter then me.” He said.

“Etho, I swear!” Joel said, but he couldn’t help but smile. Etho was back with him, and it felt right.

[immobiliter]

@avaere sent: " hey hey hey hey ! - " now now, come on ! who could truly blame this guy ? this totally normal guy with normal horns and a normal approach to the metallic beetle that found itself on the table of the poor lady that just so happened to be at the wrong place and totally wrong time; " - lemme get it , i swear , bro - ah , sorry , where are my manners . . . miss bro - i'm not gonna hog your snacks, alright, i just want that funny lookin' beetle you've got there . . . on the edge of the table. . . just. . . "

reaching two hands out , the oni took a wide stance , shifting crimson gaze flickering between her and the beetle. it sat so calmly. man! it'd be such an easy catch . . . if he just. . . inched. . . closer. . . closer. . . hands opening up, hovering over the shiny specimen. . . oh man what a large one ! these fontaine beetles sure were something else and nothing like the ones back in inazuma ! maybe it was meant to be that the oni had come a little late to the film festival.

"okay - keep quiet now," itto instructed further as he jumped forward, hands clasping onto the table to the point where there'd be a small tremble in both tea cups and plates. " HAH ! GOTCHA NOW BEETLE BUDDY ! THOUGHT YOU WERE A MATCH HUH ? A MATCH FOR THE UNBEATBLE, INDESTRUCTIBLE AAAAAND TOTALLY INVINCIBLE ARATAKI ITtoooooo... huh !?"

hands pressed down.

against.

table.

empty; ". . . aw man ! not a again ! " he could not believe this. hands would retract in a slumped stance. mumbling to himself, he'd soon redirect his attention to the poor person by the table (she must have been busy enjoying food or something). " almost had this time, it's so cruel ! can ya' imagine !? i came here for the film festival because my bro ayato pulled up in these parts, but man, i get here and it's done ! what's kinda cool though is that - oh, are you gonna eat that by the way? i'm kinda starvin' - "

an introduction would've been grand... but poor furina had now been wrapped up in an oni that took place by her table; " ... anyway, so i was on this boat and heading to the film festival hosted by this, i don't know, FURINA ? ? ? doesn't ring a bell but, but - man, i was so ready to offer my tough guy act for her movies - ! there's totally no oni that's badder, cooler and better than me ! ... seriously though, you gonna finish that ?"

       Furina was sat just around the corner from Café Lutece, tea cup, plate of bulle souffle and several scripts piled up in front of her. The success of her directorial debut at the Fontaine Film Festival hadn't gone unnoticed, it had seemed; mere hours after the culmination of the event, scripts were being left in the post-box by her apartment — and, even more daring besides, being handed to her on the street as she ran her errands ( daily, she reminded herself, or else she'd once again become a recluse ). Sent and gifted by aspiring scriptwriters, all of them, who were now seemingly desperate to have a performer of Furina's experience working behind the camera in order to bring their vision to life. It was flattering and unexpected all at once and, perhaps for the first time since her retirement from public life, she felt the stirring of some kind of purpose.

       Even if she turned the vast majority of these scripts down, it was nice to sit outside, enjoy the sun on her face and render judgement on the pen and ink offered to —

       The voice nearly made her jump out of her chair. Heterochromatic eyes frantically looked for the source, landing on a tall, horned man with peculiar markings on his skin waving his hands at her. She froze, panic gripping her by the throat as half a dozen different scenarios played out in her mind's eye. What did he want? Who sent him? Was he here to hurt her? Instinctively, she looked for Clorinde — but, of course, the famed Marechaussee Hunter was no longer her personal bodyguard.

       I just want that funny lookin' beetle you've got there. I just want that funny lookin' beetle you've got there. Funny lookin' beetle. Right there. Look, Furina.

       The what?

       Furina followed his gaze then, not menacingly focused on her at all but trained on the mechanical insect — she believed they were called Subdetection Units, though she had always been less interested in them than she had the data they gathered for the Fontaine Research Institute that she could then peruse — that was perched on the edge of her table.

       Gloved hands gripping the table's edge, Furina's immediate panic receded, and she simply watched, dumbfounded, as this utterly strange man readied himself to catch the critter in both of his hands. Just as he pounced, her eyes widened and she reached for her teacup, swiping it from the table before the tremble of silverware had the chance to become a smash against the ground.

       At least, she supposed, now that she had it in her hands, she could take a small, unperturbed sip of her tea as her companion loudly proclaimed of his victory, casting a glance around them to see if he'd attracted an audience. Fortunately, he had not.

       But, it seemed he hadn't caught the beetle after all. Furina felt almost bad for him ( he had put in commendable effort, after all. she did not know what the correct stance was in order to catch oneself a beetle, but... he had certainly been sure of the one he had chosen ). Though she wasn't entirely sure what to make of the fact that this now meant his attention shifted entirely to her.

       “ Uhhhhh, no, by all means — ” With two fingers, Furina slowly pushed the dish of bulle fruit souffle over to him, making the most of the table that was still physically separating them. If he wished to eat it himself, then fine. Perhaps he'd eat her food and then quietly leave.

       Despite his meandering commentary, however, there were some words that jumped out, piquing her curiosity. He seemed friendly enough — you know, for a strange man who'd interrupted her work over a beetle.

       “ So, if you were late arriving for the Film Festival, that must mean that you're from Inazuma, right? ” It was true that not all Inazumans were the same, surely, just as Fontainians were all pretty different, but he seemed wildly unlike the group who had travelled here to collaborate on a film with them — and had he called himself an oni?

       Furina did not know much about Inazuma's folklore, but this man being an oni would certainly explain the horns.

       Carefully, she set her teacup down on its saucer, and hesitated. “ It's only that I worked with Miss Furina at the festival as... one of the extras on the movie that she was directing. There was a brother and sister involved — Ayato and... Ayaka, I think? ”

       She wasn't sure why she lied. He said he didn't know who Furina was. She could have told him. She could have outed herself as the former archon of Fontaine, former God of Justice, former starlet of the stage and screen who'd retired and, well, didn't have much of a role to play at all now in her nation's future. She could have slipped back into the role that was still a part of who she was. It would have been easy. Effortless. But she hadn't.

       Her next words were purely an attempt at being polite. “ It's a... shame you weren't here in time to join us — uh, what did you say your name was again? ”

[rosieblogstuff]

First Sentence Tag Game

So I was going through my drafts and I have this mostly-completed tag game post from April??? that I appaently never finished. Probably because there aren’t 10 things here. WHATEVER. HAVE AN OLD POST. And since it’s a tag game I’m tagging @lailuhhh @commanderbunnbunn @bloodfromthethorn @nativestarwrites @appalachianapologies @you-go-kaboom-i-go-kaboom @readingwriter92 @thesammykinz @ruztyryan @dinosaurswant2rule GO FORTH AND TAG!

------------------------------

Tagged by @lailuhhh and @authorangelita - thank you!!

Rules: share the first lines of ten of your most recent fanfics and tag ten people. If you have written less than ten, don’t be shy and share anyway.

I decided to post the first lines of 10 WIPs instead of 10 finished stories. I opened these docs in the order I’ve workedon them, most recent first (skipping the Murdoc thing and the Wilderness thing, since they’re partly posted).

A thing with boats:

Water cuts through the air on the left—port—side of the boat as Mac turns it toward the mainland. The hint of fog hanging in the air to the south is a strong lure, even though it doesn't look very thick.

Crouched against the back of the boat behind him, Jack curses but gets off a trio of shots, earning them a momentary break from being shot at. The green band of trees is getting larger, but it’s going to be dubious safety if they don’t get farther ahead of the boat filled with guys who want to murder them.

Patty but Worse:

Prologue - January, 2012

The two files lay open on the desk between them, a spread of photos and reports that Patricia Thornton refuses to let distract her. She knows what they say. She read both files forwards and backwards five times before she even agreed to her boss’s little plan to just drop by Afghanistan.

“Training Day” (a WIP I apparently started for the writealong):

Jack is lounging against the passenger side of the truck with his canteen in hand when Mac gets there. He’s got his uncomfortable vest on but in an apparent concession to the fact that they’re on base and it’s about a billion degrees in the shade, he’s not wearing his helmet for once. “How’d it go, professor?”

A 1x11-related WIP  

No one is more surprised than Mac when they’re out of prison a mere four hours after they went in. When the guard woke them up and hauled them out of their cell, he really through his Mandarin must be getting rusty. But when they reach the prison’s waiting room, Riley is already there, along with two people he doesn’t recognize who are obviously waiting for them.

“Paper Pushing”

Paper folders. They seem archaic, but then, keeping your secrets on paper does make it harder for people like Riley to get at them.

Although there are probably digital copies of all these folders, too. They’re stacked in four neat piles along the edge of Thornton’s desk. Every last one of them has a security tag on it.

Another WIP from the writealong called “Ranch Day”:

Departing: Los Angeles, 12:41pm. Arriving: Dallas, 5:53pm.

Mac realizes he’s been staring at the airline tickets a beat too long when Jack clears his throat. “You, uh, you do still want to come, don’t you, Mac?”

“Yeah, no, I do. I want to go. I just didn’t realize–I mean, I didn’t realize you were buying tickets. I can pay you back–”

[f0point5]

Hello from my vaycay (still ongoing)... I just needed to put in some rambling into your ask box again. 😄

I've read all the last parts and I've read so many asks and your answers to them and how the prevailing idea seems to be that it's y/n who needs a wake up call...

First off, I loved the birthday weekend content and all things entailed. And this whole weekend seemed to open different cans of worms.

I said after the first texts Elliot sent y/n on her "behavior" around Max that I didn't like her reaction. I also said I'd wait for the Monday part to see what she'll do with it after she's done celebrating Max. And it didn't change anything for me.

I get it that Elliot isn't necessarily the one making his friends do the stalking and watching and talking. I get it that he isn't the one initiating this or wanting it or whatever. I get that's it's hard to deal with her being "famous" or trending on Twitter with the things she does and says, that it makes him look bad in front of his friends and that it damages his reputation if you will. I understand that it's a bad look and that it's rough on him to have people message him about those things. BUT HONESTLY... he had it coming! If he hadn't talked as big as he did to everyone and their friends like she's his girlfriend already, he might have had an easier time. And telling her she should change her behavior? Who does he think he is? I don't like the guy. And I don't see what she likes about him either. Besides the fact that he doesn't watch F1 and that he isn't "famous" and isn't part of her world... what is there about him to make her like spending time with him? She doesn't have too much to tell about their dates, she always sounds so bored... I don't get it. 🤣 I'll celebrate the day when he's finally gone.

Now back to Max and y/n and the ideas on who needs the wake up call... for a really long time I was absolutely sure about the fact that it's indeed her. And I never once got the idea that it's him. I didn't change my mind in the way that I now think it's him.

No, I now got the notion that they're kinda in the same boat. I feel like both of them believe the other doesn't feel like more. And they both seem to have their way of dealing with that.

In one ask there was a theory that y/n had a thing for Max years back and that he put racing first. And I honestly doubt that would fit the narrative. I don't think Jos would support the connection between them as much as he does if it were true. And I don't think Max would be so sure about her feelings if he knew she once had a thing for him. I'd understand her feelings if it were true, but it wouldn't explain Max's.

Somehow I feel like there's something in their way that happened in the past. I don't know how to explain it or how far back we need to dig but it seems like something happened between them that made both of them believe the other's never gonna look at them any other way than as a best friend. To make it sound even crazier it feels like whatever happened might be something that made Max feel like she'd never be interested in that way and him reacting to that made her feel like he'd never be interested in that way. Like that something happening wasn't something that was talked about but something that just was. 😅 I'm not making any sense here. 🤣

Anyways, I'm looking forward to the next parts... I'm really curious who that Clara girl is and what kinda favor Max needs from her and why y/n doesn't seem too happy about her being there for the next race.

Max's reaction to her tweets came out kinda strong and her deleting them seemed equally as strong of a reaction. I wonder what you're cooking there... 😅

I get your reaction Y/N’s butbutbut I feel it’s in line with the reaction of someone who is only marginally concerned either way. She said it since Day 1 if he doesn’t get in like there’s another 4 billion men out there. She enjoys his company enough and she believes his drama will settle down enough to not be a problem. If it were me, man would be blocked, but I get her I won’t lie.

Max having no time for anything but racing as a teen has always been a canon event. I think there’s some unresolved feelings from the early teen years lol but weren’t we all young and dumb once. They are no the primary thing affecting Max and Y/N’s mindset now, I will say that much.

You’re making sense! We will dig more into how the friendship settled into what it is. We started to touch on it in the flashback part, how they slowly started to build something really strong. I plan to jump back before that and after to see how and why they became how they are. Max and Y/N both have reasons they think they aren’t together, they think they’re doing the right thing and maybe they are….

I am beginning to hint at some of Max’s reasoning very gently, I’m curious if anyones picked up on it. I’m trying to do justice to how little I think Max would reveal about all this to people, especially over text.

But yeah he was not amused by her Twitter exchanges. For a pretty sound and specific reason which I fully get but I think he was feeling particularly touchy after the whole birthday weekend. She deleted them because she felt bad she’d made him uncomfortable, and she knows him better than anyone. She picked up on a least a bit of what he meant.

I’m planning a very jam packed race weekend of revelations so… ;)

[lollipencil]

SuperMoon: Part 2

Admittedly, it's not a "true" part 2, but I had this sequence in my head and really wanted to get it out.

Enjoy and be gentle ---

The memory of pain haunted Steven as he woke up. For a brief moment, it seemed to still be occuring, nerves playing catch up. He whimpered, curling in on himself as he braced.

Then, peace.

Steven panted as he took his time basking in this fact. An odd trilling sound began to fill the air, cutting off once Steven noticed and stiffened. Was something in the room with him? And where even was he?

The blank white room held no clues, neither did the colourful sarcophagus he had been sitting in. Climbing out, Steven padded out of the room. More white, and no answers. "Hello?" Steven's call echoed off the plain walls, to no reply. Well, no verbal reply anyway.

A feeling urged him from where he was standing, down the corridor, and towards a pair of double doors.

Peeking through the window, Steven could see a vast birdlike creature. Pale tendrils wrapped over green feathers as the skull-like head nuzzled something tucked into its torso. Silently, Steven backed away, swallowing thickly. Right into another door. The thud was soft but loud enough to have Steven whip around.

Then he saw it.

His reflection in the window. Brown eyes were now mostly consumed by a white crescent, and the gasp that realising this brought showed off sharp teeth that still looked human when not looking closely. Something peeked out from behind Steven's neck. Breathing hard, he reached back, grasped something lightly, and pulled. In his clawed hand, was loose green feathers.

The rest of the world seemed to melt away. Only those feathers in his hand could be seen. Uncompleted questions floated around Steven's head with no place to land. Idly, he turned around and looked up. Into the creature's eyes through the window.

It stared unblinkingly. A tendril reached forwards and opened the door with a click. "Hatchling," the creature chirrped gently, "Come here. I will hold you." Steven didn't know what to think. Yet, he shuffled forward anyway.

The creature cooed as he got closer, nudging him with their tooth-filled beak until Steven was tucked into their side. Alongside another. Steven stared into a sleeping face identical to his own, almost completly identical in fact, right down to the feathers down the neck and claws on his fingertips. Only the way the other's brow furrowed in his sleep and the white and grey clothes he was wearing showed any difference from Steven.

Questions, this time full, spiraled around his head. Who was this? Why does he look like him? Surely, he'd remember if he'd had a twin, right? This train of thought was cut off when the other leaned forward gradually, until his nose was tucked into Steven's neck.

Suddenly, none of the questions mattered. This guy, whoever he was, was in the same boat as Steven. Did he remember that pain too? That idea had Steven curl his arms around him. "He should not hurt," radiated deep in Steven's heart, so deep it startled Steven with the strength of it. Not that he really objected.

Humming softly, Steven placed a soft kiss on the side of the other's head, and curled into him. That trilling sound returned, only this time Steven could tell where it was coming from: himself. Trilling back encouragingly, the creature rested their head close, looking at them with fondness. A shuffling sound had Steven peek a glance at the doors.

A head quickly darted out of sight. "Hey, hey, it's ok," Steven said. After a few moments, a pair of eyes reappeared in the doorway. A pair of very familar eyes, even with a unfamilar look in them. "Hello there, don't mind the big guy. He won't hurt you, come on." "Come," the creature urged themself, "Join your brothers."

Brothers. Something about that word terrified and delighted Steven in the same breath. And the new other seemed to feel the same. But it did its job.

He came over, each step carefully silent. Steven reached out once he was close enough and grasped at the sleeve of his jacket. Hesitating slightly, the new other knelt down then draped himself over them both. Steven nuzzled into his hat and breathed. "Hola," the new other whispered near silently. "Hello," Steven mumbled without removing his head, "Do you happen to know what going on?" The head under him shook from side to side. "Ok."

Tendrils stopped their constant waving around in the air, and wrapped themselves loosely around the little huddle they'd formed. Steven pulled his face back and yawned. In sync, they all shuffled about for a bit, before drifting to sleep in each other's arms.