#even without the reptile blood his personality would be the same of course

[imagineanime2022]

Villains W/ S/O Like Queen B

Spinner X Reader, Shigaraki X Reader, Dabi X Reader

Requested: Anon

Request: Imagine the LOV (Spinner, Shigaraki Or others you would prefer?) With the girlfriend who has the same quirk as “Queen B” from “Helluvaboss”

Spinner

🦎 You both met when you were young, your quirk allowing you to take the form of an anthropomorphic wolf, you both shared the hardships and bullies so when you got older you stuck together. 🦎 You were still better off then him as your quirk still allowed you to change back to a human form when you learned to control it, it didn’t stop the bullies though, once it started it never stopped. 🦎 When you both joined the league you fit in easily with your ability to blend in with every type of crowd, you dragged him with you though by then you were a package deal. 🦎 If anyone dared to make fun of or tease Spinner while you were around it became everyone's problem because more often than not they had to help stop you.

It was one of the members of Redestro’s group that made the mistake of saying something about Spinner, it was actually before you joined so no one was about to stop you from taking them down in fact it was encouraged at this moment. “What did you say?” You asked giving them the chance to change what they said, almost hoping that you had misheard them. “Asked what you were doing with a reptile like that, surely a more hotblooded creature could give you a better time.” He said. “That’s what I thought you said.” You mumbled as you twisted the knife in your hand, throwing it at a speed that no one processed. “Say it again.” You growled, your teeth elongating and growing scratching at your palms. “Still want me now!?” You launched forward lifting him from the floor, blood spluttering from the wound on his neck running down your hand and arm. “If you were a nicer person I might have put you out of your misery.” “(Y/N) we don’t have time for this, just kill him.” Dabi ordered. “I don’t know why you're in a rush, I have all the time in the world, in fact he can watch all of his friends die while he slowly shuffles off to meet them.” You decided dropping him to the floor before turning to the others in the group. “Was he worth dying for?” “W-wait.” One of them stuttered. “I don’t think I will.” You smirked as you rolled your shoulders, the rest were easy to kill, you could tell that they had aligned behind him because they assumed he was the strongest. Once they were all dead you turned back to the first male glancing down at him “you're still alive?” He gurgled in response and you laughed as you crouched in front of him lifting his head and snapping his neck easily.

“That wasn’t necessary.” Spinner said as you stood up. “Of course it was.” You smiled, pressing a kiss to his cheek, let’s see any of them say anything like that again. “They won’t be saying anything.” He reminded you and you nodded. “Yeah I guess that’s true.” You nodded.

Shigaraki

✋ You were presented to him as a guard dog but your ability to materialise food and drink was what intrigued him more. ✋ When you were younger, it meant that you could have whatever you wanted without having to rely on anyone else, it made you both closer (despite your personalities being polar opposites) and gave you the confidence that you needed to take what you wanted. ✋ When you get older you realise how trivial it was in comparison to the second part of your quirk, the ability to control honey like substances. That was the one that people saw more often and honestly feared. ✋ Shigaraki actually liked having you around unlike more people, eventually you became closer than friends even if neither of you finalised what it was, he trusted you to get things done and have his back.

Shigaraki had decided that it couldn’t be worse than this, they had lost everything when his master was captured. He retreated into himself and stopped talking to everyone, including you, the one who had stuck by him through everything.

Chisaki was the turning point for that though, when he attacked the warehouse everyone else seemed to see red when Magni was killed and rightly so but you were quick to pick out the part of the interaction that helped aid your survival covering Chisaki’s hands in the honey like substance that you were able to control and in turn stopping him from touching anyone else. “Well, aren't you interesting?” Chisaki asked, his eyes cast over you as he analysed you. “What do you want?” Shigaraki asked, his shadow cast over you as he came to stand behind you almost as if he were protecting you from his gaze. “I originally came here to ask for a negotiation, maybe even a joining of forces but after what happened today I don’t think that would be possible.” Chisaki answered. “That being said I will still offer you a chance to meet with me to discuss it, if you choose to accept my offer there will be someone here waiting to give you instruction 24 hours from now.” “Why would I accept an offer like that?” Shigaraki asked. “I never came here to fight so I owe you a body, maybe you should come if only to settle a debt.” Chisaki shrugged, shifting focus to you again. “Would you let me go now?” “Don’t look at them.” Shigaraki warned. “Well then can I go?” Chisaki asked, addressing Shigaraki. “Let him go.” He ordered, you release your quirk as Shigaraki took the space in front of you in case Chisaki decided to do anything more than look.

Chisaki had been gone for hours now but Shgaraki was still hovering around you “What?” You asked. “Nothing.” He answered, Shigaraki had never been good at expressing his feelings, especially ones that stemmed from love or appreciation so you waited silently. “I didn’t like the way that he was looking at you.” “Well it’s no different than most people look at me.” You shrugged. “He wanted to take you from me.” Shigaraki answered like a petulant child that could have had his toy taken away. “You thought I would go willingly?” You asked. “Tch, just promise that you will stay by my side.” Shigaraki said after a moment. “I would be nowhere else.” You answered. “Good.” He answered.

Dabi

🔥 Feeling the motions of other people had it’s strong points but bed emotions were always stronger than the good ones and they lingered longer which definitely changed your view of the world. 🔥 Your abilities led to your parents abandoning you which only led you to focusing on the bad emotions. 🔥 You met Dabi when he was still Touya, his emotions were the loudest and most angry that you had felt in a long time so instead of running away from it you stood close to him aiming to help him and follow him as best you could. 🔥 Dabi knew that he couldn’t hide anything from you and he’d much rather have you close if you were able to read him so readily. It didn’t take long for him to actually enjoy having you around, you were the only person who knew who he really was, you saw the real him.

Dabi had ever seen you like this, the two people that stood in front of you, they seemed to know you almost seemed scared of you or maybe the fact that you had found them. “What’s goin’ on, who are these guys?” Dabi asked, leaning down so that his mouth was close to your ear. You must have looked scarier with the well known villain leaning over your shoulder like a protective cat. “My parents.” You answered finally as his eyes cast over to them, you felt it, the sick excitement bubbling up in him as he lifted his hand towards them. “What do you want to do with them?” His other arm wrapped tightly around your waist, his chin now resting on your shoulder. “I don’t know.” You answered honestly. “What do they feel?” He asked. “Scared.” You answered. “Now why would they be scared?” He asked “unless they know that you have a reason to hurt them.” “Hurt them?” You asked. “Say the word and I’ll get rid of the last ties to sadness.” He said softly blue flames beginning to engulf his hands. “You feel everyone else’s emotions, so feel yours tell me what you want me to do.” “I want you to get rid of them.” You finally answered, Dabi laughed a full and real laugh as he lit your parents aflame, you were filled with the joy he felt, you didn’t even hear your parents screams. So caught in the joy that he felt, you weren’t sure that you had ever felt something like this from him, that was when you decided you would do anything to help him feel that again, you would help him get the revenge strove for too.

Request Here!!

[isleofdarkness]

Fun fact; Rook is the reason Ace manifested.

Remember how Ace is immune to rabies? Here's the thing about Rook- he's constantly trying to kill it in the worst, slowest ways possible. Alcohol, drug overdose... rabies. Okay, that one didn't start on purpose- it's not like it was his plan for Ace to get attacked by a wolf (okay, yes, he was the reason it was in The Woods, but the wolf wasn't his fault-) but he saw an opportunity. Even on the Isle, wolves stayed far away from humans and hid in the deepest parts of the woods. The fact that Ace had been randomly attacked by a lone wolf only a few meters in meant something was wrong with the wolf. And when this happened during a rabies outbreak, and the wolf was foaming at the mouth and so desperate to tear Ace to shreds? The wolf had to be rabid. And it had bitten Ace nearly two dozen times.

He chased the creature away, of course. Letting it maul Ace to death would be too easy, too fast. He told the Queen that it had been bitten by a rabid animal but that he "didn't want to kill it on case it didn't catch." It got quarantined to the dungeon, of course, and the only person allowed to see it was Rook.

With how badly it had been bitten, it only took a few weeks for symptoms to start. It knew what rabies was, and it knew it was fucked the second its head started to ache and the dungeon started to feel colder. Why couldn't it be one of those lucky people who were naturally immune to rabies, like whatever her name was down at the docks (Harriet, half reptile with a low body temperature,) or that other girl with the white hair (Ginny Gothel, highly advanced immune system from her magick, so advanced her immune system literally broke down a large shard of shrapnel wedged in her back before anyone else could even realize that she had a fucknormous piece of lead millimeters away from both her heart and her lungs)? Gods, why couldn't its body temperature drop on command, or its immune system pick up on unusual threats the same way it picked up on its Scarlet Fever?

In its upset, it felt something uncomfortable shift under its skin. It looked at its arms on reflex, even though it knew the cell was so dark it wouldn't be able to see anything.

But when it opened it eyes, it could see everything. The entire cell filled with blood red light.

As it marveled at the light and tried to figure it out, it forgot the strange tug from earlier.

Its upset had controlled its own blood for the first time in its life. Without meaning to, it had sent its immune system onto high alert, white blood cells now knowing something was wrong and it needed to be stopped. Its body realized that there was something major it wasn't seeing, something that was hidden. Its immune system was looking for the threat and, because it was looking so hard, found the difference between its natural immune cells and the ones that were only pretending.

After fifteen minutes, its immune system started fighting the foreign cells. As the battle waged, Ace started to feel its immune system's efforts. Because the room started getting very, very cold.

The thing about Underlands is that they aren't entirely human, not anymore. To adapt to the many threats of their realm, their brains have learned how to control certain protective responses, such as balancing nuclear factor kB (NF-kB) family or transcription factors by controlling the output of its antithesis, A20, which deactivates the kB factors. Human bodies do this too, but there's a limit. If the temperature gets too high, the body panicks and starts struggling to properly regulate these genes and factors, leading to the imbalances that cause organ and brain damage, and death. Underland bodies, however, don't do this. Their body temperatures are meant to fluctuate.

So, when Ace's immune system pushed its temperature higher and higher, its body continued working properly because it had biological protocols in place for situations like this. Honestly, Underlands have so many cool adaptations that they never even realize, but we'll be here all day if I get into them on this post.

Basically, in the case of fevers, Underland bodies can go far, far higher than human bodies are capable of. Their temperature limit is caused by their immune system figuring "this isn't working, let's try something else," not by lethal imbalances of chemicals.

Its temperature was also rising rapidly because its body cells can stand up to 1800 degrees Fahrenheit for situations like this. Its immune system knew from experience that foreign cells couldn't.

A mere 122 degrees Fahrenheit was child's play for it (not that it would know until a few years later, when it was unlucky enough to catch TB, septicemic plague, and possibly an ebolavirus because they were going around but it can't be sure, caused its fever to get to nearly three hundred degrees because nothing else was working,) and rabies can only survive 122f for a few minutes. But its temperature kept rising to 130, where it stayed for three minutes until the white blood cells could be certain the disease was gone.

What it did was a minor thing, just the tiniest little nudge to get its white bloodcells to look for a disease they'd missed, but gods did it intimidate people.

"Ace? I thought you got bit by a rabid animal."

"I was. Got rabies. But now I'm better."

?????

[crowsyart]

Some baby spiritstein and spirits pelt pattern(he has a cross mark on his back) of course he’s a lot redder but yeah

Stein is also trans because. I’m projecting

[ckneal]

Sometimes I need to remind myself that not everyone watched Supernatural with an ongoing gen fic happening in their head, all about the family life of the angels before Chuck’s disappearance and the rise of humanity. And as such, not everyone was constantly compiling stray details thrown out about the angel characters, clustering them together into this rubber band ball of ideas that was just so fun to play with.

I mean, for instance, not everyone took in the way the other angel characters seemed to look down their noses at the cupid characters (who, it’s worth noting, are never once referred to by their individual names, but instead by the human pet name for their category of cherub [which in Lucifer’s case, was certainly framed as an unflattering term], despite Castiel once boasting that he knew everyone in Heaven), and reason to themselves that it was surely because the other angels were jealous. Because obviously, the cupids are given classified information from God himself about what bloodlines he wants to see continued and merged for the sake of his Plan, putting these silly, non-combatant angels on par with the archangels in terms of secret knowledge about what was to come. For the first couple billions of years of existence, while the other classes of angels were sitting around with nothing to do, they all had to watch the cupids happily zipping around the earth, cooing over blue-green algae and gradually coaxing different species into existence with their magic love arrows. And every time a significant milestone was reached, they also had to watch as the insipid little harbingers of love scooped the newborn creature up and raced over to the nearest archangel to excitedly show them their progress, like a little kid with their first art project. And the archangel in question, regardless of which one, would nod encouragingly and smile as the cupid in question babbled about the tiny, tiny lungs this fish had, or the beginnings of feet at the ends of its fins. Even Lucifer, who would also add the additional suggestion to try and give the next one more teeth.

Additionally, not everyone looked at the way that Lucifer was able to just insert himself into Sam’s head from inside the cage, and considered how Azazel needed to visit a specific geographic location to communicate with Lucifer, and even then was only just barely able to do so, and thus came to the conclusion that clearly Michael and Lucifer must have come to an agreement to pool their powers to project Luci’s image into Sam’s head. Which explains why Sam’s special link disappears right after leaving the cage, and also why Michael didn’t interfere when Lucifer was freed, even though season 15 makes it clear that Luci did not sneak quietly out the backdoor. Michael was fully aware who was responsible for the jailbreak, thus leading us to consider that perhaps Lucifer was supposed to turn around and free Michael and Adam in turn, but did not. Thus leading us to imagine Michael spending roughly a year (Earth time) tapping his foot in the cage, until . . .

“He’s not coming back for us, is he?”

And Adam, cracking open a molecule-flavored soda (manifested courtesy of Michael), snickers. “Nope. Told you not to trust him.”

“Right. . .” Michael exhales, looks around for a moment, settles on side-eyeing Adam. Then, with an air of ‘fuck it’ says, “Want to make out?”

And Adam promptly chokes on his soda.

And not everyone heard Metatron specifically say that he personally tattooed the names of every prophet of the Lord ever on the inner eyelids of every angel, and immediately had the thought, “Poor Michael” spring to mind. Because of course Michael was the first one on the proverbial chopping block, trying his best not to flinch as his little brother gradually figured out how to handle the needle. (To this day, Michael is still not sure if the prophet after Chuck Shurley is named Kevin Tran or Rovim Frun). And all the while, Michael was probably also trying his best not to worry about how things were going on Earth while he was busy getting his eyes stabbed.

After all, Lucifer was God’s second eldest son, barely younger than Michael in the grand scheme of things. He could handle watching over their younger siblings for a little while. And Raphael and Gabriel were there to help. Everything would be fine.

However, Michael isn’t aware that about five minutes after being left in charge, Lucifer yelled, “HEY EVERYONE, CHECK THIS OUT!” And then promptly threw his grace into the body of a nearby pterodactyl. Possession being a new ability that Chuck had recently invented, the surrounding angels were mystified as Lucifer piloted the prehistoric reptile through a series of dizzying loop-de-loops that saw the poor creature—not suited to containing angel grace—explode midway through, leaving Lucifer gleefully giggling in the sky.

About half of the angels looking on gaped in horror.

Gabriel whispered to Raphael, “We’re still beta testing that, right?”

The other half of the gathered angels, however, like the impressionable young followers that they are, start grinning, because Lucifer is grinning, and he’s their cool older brother, and as Lucifer—relishing the attention—makes a beeline toward the earth’s one continent, Pangea, and an unsuspecting herd of ornithopods, these younger angels eagerly follow.

Soon, Earth is full of the anguished cries of cupids, watching their hard work blown to bits again and again. Swept up in the crowd, are Castiel and Balthazar. They watch Uriel and Zachariah excitedly throw their armored dinosaur bodies against one another in the moments before both vessels combust, after which Uriel and Zachariah excitedly dart off to take on new ones.

“Are we sure this is. . .okay?”

“Well, Lucifer is in charge. We’re supposed to follow his lead. . .aren’t we?”

Meanwhile, Raphael is frantically trying to stem the carnage. Several dinosaurs are levitating in mid-air, as Raphael tries to simultaneously keep them from exploding while also ordering the angels possessing them to vacate the vessels immediately. But none of them have ever taken a vessel before, and do not know how to get out of them without tearing them apart. Raphael keeps expanding their powers to more and more creatures as their young siblings continue to follow Lucifer’s example.

“GABRIEL, DO SOMETHING!”

“RIGHT!” Gabriel looks around, locates Lucifer running amuck in an apatosaurus that he’s forcing to walk on its hind legs, and fires off a lightning bolt to startle him out.

The lightning bolt misses its target in spectacular fashion, and several trees catch on fire.

Gabriel throws another lightning bolt.

“GABRIEL, THAT IS NOT HELPING!”

“RIGHT!”

Gabriel then grabs a giant meteor from outer space and begins trying to smother the flames by whacking it against the continent, to Raphael’s horror. More cupids begin to cry. Thick clouds of dust fly up, choking out natural light on the planet’s surface—now only illuminated by flames, as well as the magma that rises up out of the cracks that form in Pangea, as Gabe unintentionally creates the first tectonic plates from the sheer force of his assault on the planet.

Trees fall over. Fire continues to spread.

Lucifer is still in the apatosaurus, but he’s fallen onto his side, laughing hysterically.

“WATER, GABRIEL! USE WATER!”

“OH! RIGHT!”

Gabriel throws the meteor into a nearby sea, creating a tsunami.

It is at this point that Raphael abandons the dinosaurs to their sad fate, forgetting their solemn oath to not reveal any secrets regarding evolution and God’s plan, to broadly yell out to any and all of their angelic siblings who are listening, “QUICKLY, SAVE THE MAMMALS!”

And it is at this point, that Michael returns. Samandriel, clutching a dozen or so rodents in his wings, is the first one to spot him. All of Michael’s eyes are red and puffy from abuse. The cupids are sobbing, the Earth is battered, flooded, and scorched. Angels are getting into fist fights with reapers as they dart back and forth, trying to ferry as many warm-blooded creatures as they can find from the site of the catastrophe to the relative safety on the other side of the mountain range Gabriel accidently made when he bashed a crater into the planet—relative, as it turns out some of those new mountains are in fact volcanoes, and it took some trial and error to figure out how far away from an active volcano could be considered “safe.”

Nearby, Castiel and Balthazar are somehow both stuck inside the same mosasaur, beached from the tsunami, and loudly panicking as they struggle to de-possess it before it explodes. There’s a snapping sound, and then suddenly all of the angels still trapped (or willfully frolicking) inside vessels are ejected, at the same time that the fire goes out and the volcanoes cease erupting.

Consequently, everyone goes very still as Michael scans the damage and his bedraggled siblings. With humans not yet existing, the art of facepalming is not yet a thing. But looking at Michael, one might just expect him to invent the practice right then and there.

When Michael gets to Lucifer, he’s greeted with, “What? Pop’s 86-ing the lizard kingdom anyway!”

Michael promptly drags Lucifer off to Heaven.               

The next day, it was made an official rule, written into the very fabric of angelkind: vessels could only be taken after obtaining explicit consent.

Additionally, everyone agreed to never, ever mention the existence of the dinosaurs or how they ended ever again. And, rather than fixing the damage to the Earth’s surface, the tectonic plate situation was just sort of left to do as it would.

Many, many years later, Adam was shocked by Michael’s reaction when the cage door suddenly swung open in Hell. Adam had immediately surged to his feet in excitement, ready to leave and never come back.

Michael, however, remained stationary on the floor, squinting at the doorway, wondering what dystopian nightmare must be waiting on Earth after leaving his siblings unsupervised for a solid decade.

“Michael? You okay?”

“Adam, before we go back to Earth, I think I need to tell you a story. . .”

[tsukihoshino]

Super long Sasori post

I’m going to begin this by saying everyone is entitled to their view on Sasori and how to characterize him within the parameters set up by canon or whatever AU/Bent Timeline a person has inserted him into but I do believe there are certain things about him that remain the same no matter what situation you put him in-- otherwise he’s just no longer Sasori (IMO.) So much of his character is about hyper analyzing his words and actions, and what others have said about him through a microscope because the fact of the matter is for such an interesting character he really had such little time.

I was originally not going to bring shipping into this but as I was writing Sasosaku kinda slipped in there, mostly because it felt like it provided a good contrast to what we get of Sasori in canon and how it can translate into fanon.

(All of these opinions are based on the Manga and the Akatsuki formation because OP cannot be assed with novels and filler for the most part...Making an exception for Komushi.)

1. He’s highly manipulative. He’s a puppet master and he has a spy ring. He gathers information so he can use it against people, he manipulates the corpses of what used to be people--or things that LOOK, very often like people. That says a lot about who he is as a person.

And when you first see his real face, when he reveals himself to Chiyo this is the face you get; 

I don’t get the impression that he’s actually happy to see her given the events that follow, its largely about trying to put his grandmother off center and BOTHER her. Sasori is perfectly capable of acting to get to a desired result--which makes a lot of sense to me because while Bunraku is largely about the Narrator's words there is also the performance element to it via the puppets.

2. He’s all about control. Control of himself, of others, of events. It's really an offshoot of manipulation but I don’t think Sasori blinks without putting thought into the action. ( I mean technically, lmao given his unique anatomy in canon that might be 100% accurate.)

3. He’s not only an artist. The guy is the very definition of being a mad scientist. He sits at a place where Art and Science meet and become something more. It's not one or the other when it comes to Sasori, there is something almost Frankenstein like in the way that he creates his human puppets, the 3rd and himself. Think about the knowledge that had to go into that from basic human anatomy to the chakra system as a whole. I mean we never get a play by play on HOW he did it but we know he’s the only one who ever did and then repeated a similar, much more complicated process on himself.

Then there is his poison, we know he’s primarily relied on the infamous one because it was sooo effective (until it wasn’t, thanks Sakura.) But we have to assume given how he is Sasori makes ART out of deadly concoctions and methods of murder.

To him synthesizing that poison was probably no different than an artist trying to get that perfect shade of red.

The weird thing about Sasori ( and I guess it's just ONE of the many weird things) Is that for an Artist he is very...clinical. When we think about people in the arts we often imagine passionate people like Deidara--bombastic and flamboyant free spirits. 

4. Logical and likely to the extreme.

He’s not a sore loser. When he loses and it's fair he accepts it. He's not bitter about the end of his fight with Sakura and Chiyo, he’s not pissy with Konan--he respects it because to Sasori the weak die and the strong survive, losers don’t have a right to complain when they shoulda got gud to begin with.

I don’t doubt that in Sasori’s logical mind he came to the conclusion that his parents died because they were weak. Ergo unlike Chiyo he’s just completely unaffected by seeing Kakashi, the world just followed its natural order in the death of his parents.

He’s got a reptile brain and he just sort of views people as animals because it's probably simpler--except for himself. He thinks he’s above that, to himself he is a god.

The thing with Komushi...I perceive it as largely an accident but in Sasori’s “perfectly” logical mind he was just like well: it’s sort of Komushi’s own fault and never let a tragedy go to waste because again, hyper logical. Not only that but he was BEGGED to do something for Komushi and there really was nothing to be done for him at that point other than make something useful out of his death.

The problem with being TOO logical is that it is just as detrimental as being too emotional. If we all just went around doing what was logical we’d be no different than animals or machines. Logic dictates we do whatever it takes to survive and come out on top even at the expense of others but because we are balanced by emotion most people don’t live like that.

On the flipside because he’s logical he can be convinced by compelling arguments without ego getting in the way. In this same vein he finds it very difficult to feel sorry about things he’s done in the past but when able to recognize it was wrong he can accept it and simply resolve not to do it in the future--he doesn’t have the capacity to agonize over feelings of guilt.

5. He hates being lied to and he’s impatient. Sasori will lie to everyone around him and even to himself if he can manage it but if he finds out He’s the one being lied to? Intense hate. See points 1&2.

6. He’s blunt and often rude when acting as his natural self. I don’t find the need to explain this one much.

7. Sasori is largely self-focused. He thinks he has a perfect handle on himself and understands exactly why he is the way he is--but it couldn’t be further from the truth. He really doesn’t understand his own feelings much less those of others and what he does understand he often doesn’t care about. This can be changed if a person is able to get through to him.

This is the guy who thought that by removing his concious from a human body and sticking it into what's basically a decorative vase all his problems would MAGICALLY vanish. Because as smart as he is, he was also desperate to escape his own feelings not realizing that when you pour the water in one glass into another glass the contents remain the same.

No matter how hard he tries he cannot escape the problem plaguing him; himself.

8. Sasori does not value life, not his own and certainly not others. Unless you are like that ONE person who is able to get through to him. He has what I would call a “Very narrow heart.”  which simply does not have a lot of space for people. To him it's probably Sasori and “That Person” VS the world.

9. He likes things that last, sculptures and paintings, classical music and literature, things that have been around for ages and withstood the trials of time.

10. He does not do well on his own. He thinks he does but he really doesn’t, when he is by himself he is destructive. When he feels alone he is at his most dangerous. Sasori is very much a person who NEEDS someone to essentially be his emotional center otherwise we get him turning himself into a puppet in what amounted to a one longass theatrical suicide.

11. Sasori was probably always a little...different even as a kid but environment and events certainly played a role. His parents died at an early age and he was essentially lied to and given false hope. (hence the impatience and hatred of lies.) Throw into that an intellect seldom seen in a time of war where child soldiers are the norm. He killed his first person at 8, he earned himself a title denoting that he was so good at killing he soaked the sands in blood. Imagine what that's like at 8, getting a pat on the head everytime you kill someone?

Of course you would become conditioned to believe that killing is right and good when you’re being congratulated and rewarded for being proficient at it.

Its assumption on my part but I do believe Sasori lays somewhere on the Antisocial Personality Disorder spectrum.

12. He’s vain AF. Look at him. He made sure to replicate himself in his prime to perfect detail in the places that were most visible, his face and his hands. He could have made himself look like anything but in the end he still chose that form.

13. When he wants something he makes a plan and gets it done. Doesn’t matter how long or what he has to do to get to point A to point B he’s going to do it.

14. He has three main expressions; blank, smug and insane.

15: His power levels are again, insane. He is a master of multiple trades. The guy ganked a Kage at 15 the strongest one Sand ever had by that point, ( Orochimaru was waay older and came out way more damaged as far as we know when he fought Sarutobi.) toppled a nation, made himself a new body with mysterious methods.

It's time for the Sasosaku bit:

Part of the reason why I think the two of them fit so well together is that they are opposites and yet complimentary. Sakura is an antidote and Sasori is the poison, but sometimes a medicine can become a poison and a poison can be used as medicine. Sakura is a close range combatant and Sasori is long but they have this odd intersection of skill sets and interest. They both deal in the human body and the manipulation of it, Sakura’s focus is to maintain it as it is and improve its condition if needed and Sasori’s is to both destroy and create it anew all at once.

If they weren’t trying to kill one another in canon they would have had tons to talk about.

Ultimately Sakura gets gut stabbed not because he was aiming for her but because she got LITERALLY in the way of a family feud. He was going for Chiyo and you can assume that's because he thought his grandma was the bigger threat or because he was still bitter about the past on some subconscious level and was gunning for her--i mean he goes in for Chiyo a second time after he disconnects from the arm Sakura was death gripping. But Sakura’s selfless action is something that viscerally shocks him: 

And it only gets worse when Chiyo starts feeding her life force into Sakura--a second selfless act on the part of someone he hates and feels wronged by.

Sakura values life and Sasori doesn’t because he doesn’t understand it. He was raised his whole life to think that people like them--Shinobi had no value other than to kill or to be killed. He’s visibly shocked when she starts yelling after socking him in the face about Human lives and family bonds. Like no one had ever mentioned that to him before and forget about risking your life to save someone else's, that goes against his logical lizard brain.

At that point he’s already beaten, he’s already impressed with her. It’s right after her punching him that Sasori gives what amounts to an odd marriage proposal IMO. It was completely pointless of him to even bring it up but you can tell by the “Glint” in his eye that he meant it.

Sasori: Want to become like me? You’ll get what I mean. An undecaying body, Unfettered by a mortal lifespan, capable of being rebuilt over and over again. ( if you were immortal would you offer immortality to someone you had no interest in? Not me. I wouldn’t want to have them around for virtually “forever” in any shape or form. And Sasori is not talking about making Sakura into just some controllable puppet, he’s talking about being JUST like him, sentient thought and movement.)

Sasori: I can make as many people as I want out of puppets….-Looks dead at Sakura- If I want them...but my collection isn’t just about quantity. Quality is important too.

That whole conversation is like A CREEPY FLIRTATION from him because we know what he considers “True beauty” to be. Eternal.

And then it comes to a head where he gives her a “sentimental reward” in the information she wanted. Now I’m not saying Sakura was interested or anything but it seems like he was in some shape or form.

In my opinion when you put someone like Sakura--who is brilliant and logical but also heavily swayed by her emotions with someone like Sasori, brilliant, logical and emotionally repressed. A person who values life with someone who neither values their own life or others what you get is agitation.

Agitation is not a bad thing, it breaks stagnation--which is what, imo drives Sasori to his death. It is the lack of change, he’s made it so he cannot feel physically and he has tried his hardest and for the most part succeeded in numbing his inner feelings.

Part of me is convinced that what ultimately kills him is complacency. He gets so used to being at the top that when he is confronted with someone who neutralizes his life’s work and destroys his collection and keeps confronting and beating him with all the qualities he deems useless and pointless it just drives home the point that everything he has ever done or thought was in vain and on some level wrong. There is no point in winning against them because everything is already destroyed. There is no going back to what he was before, therefore death is preferable.

Through Sakura, in Au’s or alt timelines, or w/e she is able to reach him through their similarities but change him due to the fundamental differences in their nature. 

As to what Sakura gets from Sasori; Someone who clearly respects her skills and understands her interests because his own align--and therefore would be supportive and present. The two of them actually have things in common and therefore shit to talk about.

 In that same vein Sasori seems like the type of person who if he were to fall in love it is to the point of obsession, for someone who was repressed and held themselves apart from others I see him in a lot of ways as almost touch, and certainly affection starved. It becomes addictive to him. (Which is probably why when I write him he’s handsy.) 

We know how Sakura likes to take care of people--we see it with Naruto, Sasuke and Sai. In some of these cases it is often to the detriment of her own well being and Sasori, the selfish person that he is, can reign that in and pull it back so that it isn’t so all consuming. (mostly because the only person she should be worried about is herself and him.)

In the end, If Sasori is the logic and Sakura is the emotion, what you end up with is something more balanced. In the same way that if you were to mix a Poison with an Antidote you would end up with a neutralization.

These are just my personal opinions and thoughts on the matter.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Also I headcanon that Sasori is basically Sakura-sexual so -cough- there. I guess that's a topic for another time...

Look at all these conceited Sasori faces: 

[exofilialovercat]

Azrael (Draconian boy) x Gabriela (human girl) Ch 2!

Enjoy ch 2!

Gaby spent a good part of the next day choosing what to wear. All seemed too much or too less. What to wear when you want to forget your ex… and try to not crush on someone at the same time?

She messaged the draconian: ‘Hi! See you in the shopping? We can shop and drink coffee! You like cake? :3 ‘

‘See you there Gaby! I can’t wait! Coffee and cake sounds wonderful.’

Ozzie was a nervous wreck the following morning. After going through his entire wardrobe half a dozen times, he settled on a pair of black slacks and a nice shirt with a vest. The layers helped hide where he had to cut holes for his wings. “Well, Casanova you may not be, but you pass muster.” He tried to reassure himself as he left, picking up a single rose from the flower shop on the corner as he left to meet Gaby.

Gaby picked a cute long shirt and some good leggings. Enough to don’t feel she was trying too hard. She brought a bag with the shirt he borrowed from him and a sticky note with a cartoon of her saying ‘thank you ‘ . This is not a date, Gabrielle. Hold your horses. She found him easily in the shopping , he looked very handsome. Damm... Why is this not a date-date? “Ozzie! I’m here! “

Azrael jumped slightly at the sudden call of his name, but brightened when he turned to see Gaby. “Hey Ga-oh wow, you look great! This is for you...” He offered her the rose, heart pounding.

“You look good too. Even if the waiter uniform has its charm. Aw, you shouldn’t have “ she grabbed the rose and gave him the bag “ This is yours “ she smelled the faint perfume of the flower

“Thank you.” He smiled, taking a moment to enjoy Gabriela’s company before offering her his arm. “shall we?”

“ Of course “ she accepted his arm and started walking. Well, it looks like a date.

“Did you want to stop for coffee first, or to look for some cute clothes and get coffee after? “ He asked, practically floating as they walked.

“ Well, i could use some fuel . What about you? “

Ozzie chuckled and nodded. “I’ve been surviving on caffeine lately. Do you have a place you could show me with good bakery as well?”

“ We are the same... Freelance artists are 90% coffee and 10% genius “ she patted his arm “ Lets go to a small bar I know, it’s not usually super crowded and the cake is extremely good. “  She guided him .

“You’re an artist?  I’m a little jealous. I can sew a bit, but that’s about the extent of my artistic ability.” He admitted sheepishly, happily letting Gaby take him where she wanted.

“ Haha , I play the cards I got . I always liked art and make comics and illustrations. I can survive doing it so I consider myself lucky . I bet you have your own talents “ she takes him to a bar that was indeed a little small. It had a menu with a nice selection of cakes . “The  Triple chocolate one is to die for, it’s my favorite, ” she pointed to the menu.

“What comics do you make? Anything I might have seen?” He asked, genuinely curious. As they made their way to the little cafe, Ozzie couldn’t help but smile at how Gaby’s face lit up with excitement. She really was adorable.

“Should we share a piece then with our drinks, or would that be too forward?”

“ Oh, i don’t think so... I took part in some compilations. When I do comics, it’s always a small portion of the job. The rest it’s mostly children’s books. “ She said “ It wouldn’t be too forward , but I warn you we will need to order more “ she grinned “ This body doesn’t maintain with salad “ she joked .

“That sounds like a lovely line of work. You like children, then?” He asked while searching the menu. “Let’s each get some and share then. Variety is the spice of life, after all!”

Ozzie took her joke about her body as a chance to let his eyes sweep down across Gaby’s figure. To him she might as well have been a goddess. perfect curves and a gorgeous face that he had to stop himself from leaning in to kiss. ‘Slow down, Romeo’ he scolded himself.

“ I do, maybe one day I will have one myself... If i found the right person. Not like Mister Perfect “ she made a face .

Gaby ordered some coffee and some pieces of cakes “Strawberry cheese and triple chocolate please. Any preference Ozzie? “

Azrael made a face at the mention of her ex. “He couldn’t be very perfect if he couldn’t see a true treasure right in front of him. You and your hypothetical future child deserve nothing less than a devoted husband and father.” He said without thinking what his words might be interpreted to mean.

Looking through the menu, Ozzie noted a few of his favorite flavors. “I think I’ll go with the Italian lemon cake and red velvet.”

The waiter took the order and walked away.

“ You are an adulator!” She patted his shoulder. She was visibly blushing . “ Yeah... I actually feel better now I’m not with him anymore. The things were pretty bad already between us. I guess the faster I can move from him, the  better” she winked “ At least I have a coffee with a handsome man “ ‘What the hell Gaby... Stop your mouth’.

Azrael couldn’t blush through his scales, but his tail wagged happily when Gaby’s adorable freckled cheeks blushed pink after her compliment. “Is not flattery if it is true.” He laughed, “Just enjoy yourself, Gaby dear. No pressure.”

The order finally came, the coffee was in generous cups and the cake seemed fresh . “ Please, don’t mind me , take from mine if you want, “ Gaby offered and went for a piece of the strawberry one humming pleased “ So good “.

“Only if you do the same.” Ozzie smiled, taking a long sip of his coffee before taking a bite of his lemon cake.

“ I really wanted to ask you... I hope it’s okay. Can you really spit fire? Or is it a full dragon thing? “ She hoped it was okay to ask  about draconian nature .

“Fire? Ah, right… I was smoking last night, wasn’t I?” He ran a hand back through his horns, a little embarrassed. “It is harder for a half-breed like me to breathe flames than a full dragon. Normally it can only happen when I am very angry or upset.” He explained with an apologetic smile. “Hopefully that is not too much a disappointment?”

“ Oh , no! I just was curious... Like how much human or dragon you are... I don’t really know a big deal about real dragons. Like if you need to warm in the sun? Or if you have a reptile tongue? Or do you have dietary restrictions like some reptiles? Oh! I  hope I’m not being rude... “ she covered her mouth suddenly.

Ozzie couldn’t help but laugh. So many people were too afraid to ask these kinds of questions, so Gaby’s curiosity was refreshing. “No rudeness at all. I am happy to sate your curiosity. Full dragons come in three varieties, depending on if they are from Europe, like my mom, Asia, or South America. In my case I am warm-blooded like humans, no dietary restrictions (though a preference for spicy and savory flavors outside of desserts) and...” he looked around to make sure they weren’t being watched before letting his 30cm long forked tongue slide out between his lips for a moment before pulling it back in with a grin.

“ Holly -! “ She felt her mind going to some non very innocent places “ Thats.... Wow “ she sipped her coffee and tried to clear her head . “ Humans feel a little boring in comparison. Would you let me draw you one day? “ She tried to change the subject a little .

“Oh, don’t sell humans short. Human passion and creativity are a marvel compared to just about any other species. That is a great gift indeed.” He said with a reassuring smile. Gaby’s request to draw him was a surprise, though a welcome one. “I would love to pose for you!” He said happily before stealing a bite of her chocolate cake and letting a purr resonate in his chest. “That IS good!”

“ Told ya’ “ she smiled. “And if you need a personalized draw, you can always call me . Like a present for a loved one, your significant other, you just ask “

“Oh, no girlfriend.” Azrael said, before taking a sip of his coffee. Was she trying to see if he was single? “Dragons and most draconians partner for life, so dating is an important matter once it becomes serious.” Hopefully that wasn’t reading too far into Gaby’s words.

“ Oh “ Gavi did a mental happy dance , maybe Ozzy liked her a little? And he was single. That was a relief, at least I can crush in someone that I can have a chance with. ”And how do you scare ladies away? You have the whole package, “ she said playfully .

Azrael’s tail began to happily thump against the cafe floor when Gabi flirted with him. His heart never had fluttered this way for someone before. “Normally the scales and tail do the scaring for me. You are about the first woman to talk to me like a normal person outside of work or family.” He admitted, trying to hide his embarrassment at his own inexperience behind another few bites of cake.

“ No way! “ She said offended “ They obviously never gave you a chance, you are a total sweetie. And everybody it’s different! My mom always told me to not judge people for the way they look , she is latina, my dad is white. That always gets nasty looks . People are just stupid. “ she stole a piece of his lemon cake .

“It is a shame more people can’t be as open-minded as you are, Gaby. The world would be a better place.” Azrael said with a wistful smile, taking her hand without really thinking and kissing the back.

“They deal with bigotry even as a human-human couple. I worry what it will be like when the one who decides she wants me has to go through the same nastiness.”

She felt her cheeks warm “ Any girl would be lucky to have you Ozzie. If people cannot see that, it’s their problem. Hey, let’s better move to a desert island and fund our own country.” She tried to light up a bit.

Ozzie nearly choked on his coffee when Gaby’s surprise joke made him laugh. “Careful, mi amor. That sounds suspiciously like a proposal. Doesn’t that usually require at least three dates?” He teased, trying not to get too lost in the idea of the two of them relaxing on a tropical beach together.

“And thank you for the compliment, Gabriela. You truly are a treasure.”

“ Well... If you need a couple of actual dates, I will not say no. They tell me I make a pretty decent spicy chicken , if you give me the chance to treat you, “ she said, almost purring . Please say yes...

“I would be delighted, so long as I can take you out in return.” Ozzie swore that he could fly at that very moment. Gaby had asked him out!

“ Then it’s settled! “ She asked for the bill and payed “ And i can wear the replacement shirt you will buy me “ she winked “ I hope the cake was at your level Ozzie “

“I was hoping you would let me get you a few outfits, to be honest.” He said with a shy smile, not daring to admit he would prefer to see her in much less clothing rather than more. “And the cake was excellent. Definitely worth using for the wedding.” He added with what he hoped was a joking tone. ‘Don’t get too carried away. You’ll scare her off.’

“ Oh, you are impossible! “ she playfully pushed him “ No need to shower me in presents, mister smooth “ she said and started walking “ I like to give them back “

“What can I say? It is my nature to want to treat my girlfriend well. I’m sure we can find a way to reciprocate.” He laughed, playing like she had pushed him much harder than she had before joining her, his arm draping around her waist as they walked together.

Gaby felt herself too into the draconian man. Her stomach twisted and her heart pounded in her chest. She tried to distract herself by looking at the cloth stores . The mission was to end the day with a smile... And maybe steal a kiss from Ozzie .

“Let me know if you see a store you want to shop in.” It was nice, this little shopping date, but Azrael had to keep reminding himself to not push too fast. He was falling hard for Gabriela, but she had just gotten out of a bad relationship and it would be wrong to pressure her into too much.

Gaby entered in one store and tried a couple of tops, she ignored the white and pink ones for obvious reasons . She even asked Ozzies opinion on the ones she tried . Let’s just go slow Gabriela , let’s enjoy some time together. Yep, just that.

Ozzie couldn’t help but enjoy himself while Gaby modeled her outfits for him. There were several tops that looked very good on her, but one in particular, sapphire blue with a somewhat lower-cut neckline than the others really caught his attention. “It is hard to say, since you are gorgeous in all of them, but the last one is my personal favorite. It shows you off in just the right way.”

“Then I take it! You know how to sell to a lady, ” she happily said and saved the new top for her .

Now the date was almost over and she needed a bit of courage to give one small last step . If she could really do it, a proper date will be a success.

After he had paid the shop clerk for their purchase, Azrael hesitated for a moment. “I know this was supposed to be just a casual thing today, but I really don’t want for our date to end.” He admitted sheepishly, his tail curling around Gaby as they took a moment to rest before continuing on to the end of their date. He had been having such a good time that he dreaded it being over.

She fell on the tail surrounding her. “ Me too, Azrael . It has been too much fun. But I have to go.  Will you call me ? “ She caressed his cheek.

“Of course, Gabriela. It’s a promise... but first, please permit a greedy dragon one last indulgence before his princess escapes.” Before he could second guess himself, Azrael tilted her chin upward with a fingertip and pressed his lips to hers in a tender, longing kiss.

Gaby even surrounded his waist. His kiss was sweet, and she was practically seeing stars . Okay, I’m sold. First real date, here we go. She let herself be putty in his hands, “Ozzie... “ She whispered once the kiss ended. She smiled from ear to ear and got a little distance . “ Now you really better call me! “ She said and waved at him to go “ I’m going to be waiting!”

Gaby went home giggling like a schoolgirl

“Definitely. Today was... incredible. Too good to just be a onetime thing, no?” He purred, dreamily watching Gaby go toward her home.

Ozzie was walking on air for the rest of the day. He didn’t even mind the jokes at his expense at work. Their next date couldn’t come soon enough!

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #303

“if i can’t be loved, then i’ll be hated”

What color are your glasses, if applicable? Black. Candy corn or conversation hearts? They're both gross, don't make me pick between garbage. Do you own a lot of earrings? Not really after I weeded them out before moving. What did your backpack in high school look like? I dare say I had the dopest backpack of them all. It looked like a massive Ouija board, and the zipper was the planchet (sp?). Have you ever been to a rave? Nah. What is your favorite art medium? I have a particular fondness of oil paintings. They tend to look so smooth, and you can achieve incredible realism with them. How far away is the nearest hospital from you? Not even five minutes, I think. Who was the last person you visited in a hospital? My mom. What is your favorite car color? Pink, duh. How did you learn to type? We actually had a class specifically for typing in middle school. What style of wedding dress do you want? I don't have that set in stone yet, but I really do love ballgown dresses with long trains as well as a-lines with a moderate train. I love a lot, except really for mermaid dresses. Do you fit into any stereotype, or are you non-stereotypical? I don't know if I fit perfectly into any and really don't care. Would you want your first child to have your hair color? ???? I don't care about their hair lol?????? It would depend on the hypothetical father, in which case I'd probably find it cute, but this is so, so unimportant. Do you enjoy writing in cursive? Yeah, it just feels good and flowy to me. What is your favorite hair color? Natural? Probably blonde with natural darker undertones throughout. I like blonde hair because it's far easier to dye, haha. Now, if we're including DYED hair, rose gold or pastel pink is *chefs kiss* What is your favorite eye color? Sapphire blue, probz. Would you put your birthday on a different day if you could? Nah, it's fine where it is. What holiday is your birthday closest to? Valentine's. Do you vent on social media a lot? NOOOOOOOO. I barely post ANYTHING about myself on social media because I feel like I'm being annoying, self-absorbed, find anything I do actually interesting, or don't want people to think I'm a whiner. All I ever really do on social media is share or reblog funny shit, things I love, stuff I find relatable or inspirational, educational, important for whatever reason, etc... Do you have abusive parents? I am very thankful to say no. Is your house haunted? Doesn't seem like it. What's your favorite thing to watch on YouTube? I'm in a real WoW-related phase lately... Watching my favorite streamers, gold farming guides, and other various aspects of the game. What are five health problems that you have? I talk about the mental issues enough, so I guess I'll talk about physical stuff here. Uhhh I have very low blood pressure (it's a med side effect), I have extremely weak legs following muscle atrophy, I have bad tremors, especially in my hands (amplified by medication once again), maybe TMI but we're adults here and it's a legit issue that I have chronic and severe conspitation, aaaand then of course I have hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating) to a fucking outrageous and also humiliating degree. Ooooonce again as a prescription side effect. This answer made meds sound kinda bad, I know, but really, I'd rather have the will to live and just have to deal with these than want to die everyday and not. Do you have surgery coming up? No, let's keep it that way until I lose enough weight and when I am 110% getting loose skin removal. Which family member(s) do you look the most like? My sisters, ig. People say my mom also, but I honestly don't see it. Have you ever cried while watching a YouTube video? Yeah, usually just in let's plays, but it's happened for other reasons. Are you missing a website that just shut down? Nah, none that I know of. NO. FUCKING WAIT. So, when my laptop was fixed, a LOT of shit was wiped from it, and that included all of my goddamn Lightroom editing presets. The site they were from no longer exists, so I had to use a different, pretty sub-par one to install at least a few because it helps me get a start on editing the photograph and leaning towards the "vibe" I want before spending like 15+ minutes tuning it myself. Would you be a barefoot bride? No. Which would you rather name your daughter: Eliana, Echo, Emerald, or Ellery? Ohhh, I like these. I think I prefer "Eliana," but "Echo" is a close second. "Ellery" is nice, but it sounds too much like "celery" to name my kid that lmao. Which would you rather name your son: Maverick, Matthew, or Moses? Ugh, none, honestly. But "Matthew" wins. When was the last time you gave a speech? Like a *legit" speech? Probably not since uhhh... I guess when I argued my disability case at court? Does that even count? Have you ever been in a stampede? Well, never seen this'n in a survey before, so good job, lol. No. If you were a fairy, what color would you like your wings to be? It would depend on what I wore, really. And my hair. But probably light pink. Would you rather name your son Storm, Skylar, Sorin, or Solomon? "Sorin." "Skylar" is SO Southern, and "Solomon" sounds like the creepy kid all his classmates avoid and I ain't putting my kid through that. Did you read a devotional this morning? Not my jam. Would you rather be named Arizona, Alaska, Cali, or Georgia? Hm... "Alaska" is actually kinda cool???? And I'm white as fuck so lol????? I wouldn't mind to nickname of "Ally," anyway. Are you repulsed by ugly reptiles? lololol bro get out Did all your friends know about your first crush or was it a secret? I was definitely secretive and shy about it when I first started getting crushes. Do you ever feel insecure about going out without makeup? I feel insecure either way, so... How many different natural hair colors are there in your immediate family? So, this is a hard question to answer. My mom was born with brown hair, but it darkened to almost black; only her daughter Katie inherited that. By some genetic magic, Dad had blond hair as a kid, but it also turned black. Like... how?????? I was born with dirty blonde hair like him, and mine turned an average brown with age. My immediate sisters have always had brown hair. What is your favorite online game? World of Warcraft is ballin'. Would you ever want to be famous and sign autographs? Ha, the idea of signing autographs is awful... I can't physically write very long without my carpal tunnel flaring up. Do you like your shirt to be loose or tight? LOOSE. Especially as a bigger person, tight shirts are just really uncomfortable. What is your favorite Spanish name? I don't know nearly enough to answer this. Would you rather visit Asia or Europe? I think Asia is, in general, more interesting and prettier as a whole, but I guess I'm drawn to European culture being more like my own and there are specific locations I'm interested in, like Germany or Scotland. So to answer the question, I guess Europe wins. Are there any Asians in your family? I don't believe so. Have you ever had colored braces? Haha yeah, I did that when I had them. Do you take birth control pills? Yes, just for period cramps. Without them, they can be immobilizing for me. If you live in the USA: do you feel free and safe? Ha, no. Well, not *entirely*. Have you ever been sick on your birthday? I was recovering from the stomach virus, if that counts. As in I still got sick the day before and felt iffy on my actual bday. 17th, I think? Is talking about your past painful for you? Yes. Are you a member of any support groups online? I'm a member of The Mighty site, if that counts. When I'm feeling very, very sound of mind and helpful without all the negativity being a detriment to myself, I do like going on there and trying to help or comfort people. Have you ever called a suicide hotline? Yes, and the line was busy, and that's when I decided I was a goner. Do you ever fantasize about revenge? I uhhhhh... sometimes. What's a movie you would recommend to someone who never watches movies? Ohhh, that's hard. I don't really watch movies either, and I'm trying to think of one that essentially anyone would like, so hm. Oh, Coco is absolutely a possibility. That movie touched me so, so deeply and is high on my favorites list. It's impossible to not feel the emotions. Do you want to have grandkids? Hell, I don't want kids. Do you want to be an aunt or uncle? I already am one, and I love being an aunt. Who was your favorite Spice Girl? I don't remember their names or characters in general. Did you make a lot of home videos growing up? I mean *I* didn't, but Mom filmed quite a few. Do you enjoy babysitting? NO. What's an unpopular opinion that you have? Avoiding some political ones, uhhhh. OH. HERE'S ONE. THE SCENE AESTHETIC IS FUCKING CUTE AND NOT CRINGEY AND YOU CAN FIGHT ME ABOUT IT. Are you attracted to the opposite gender, same gender, or both? Both are A+. Was your first crush on someone of the same gender or opposite? Opposite. As a kid, I didn't even fathom the concept that women could date women. What is something you'll never eat again? Why? Brussel sprouts. Fucking disgusting. What is currently happening that is scaring you? Besides the very obvious answer of "Covid," I worry about my mom a lot. She's so weakened after all the chemo and meds and can do literally less than I can without heavily breathing and sweating. I just worry a lot that cancer will return sooner than we hope; I don't want it to EVER come back, but doctors say it is very, very likely at one point or another because she was so very close to Stage 4. What would be your personal hell? Being completely and entirely isolated forever while somewhere hot and humid, lol. And play one of my trigger songs on repeat eternally. What made the "weird kid" at your school weird? There was this poor guy named Alfred that was VERY clearly depressed out of his mind, and I heard him speak maybe once through all of high school, and the entire class couldn't believe it. He always sat way in the back and never smiled. I wonder how he is nowadays. What is a word you personally find offensive? "Retarded" personally offends me the most when misused and spoken as an insult. What instantly puts you to sleep? Now that is HARD to do; I have a ridiculously hard time going to sleep. The easiest way though would probably be me being drained from an emotional breakdown. That is so exhausting that I'm capable of crashing pretty fast and hard. What song is in a language you don't speak, but you love it anyway? I adore Rammstein, so there's plenty. I'll probably say "Donaukinder" is their best. What is something you would like to do if you weren’t judged for doing it? I keep that I RP a complete secret in my "real" life for this reason unless it's like, pried out of me. What's a movie you think everyone should watch? Why that one? Johnny Got His Gun. See how goddamn disgusting war is. What was the most unexpected good thing that's ever happened to you? Ha, realizing I was bisexual after once being homophobic. What is the funniest fact you know? Oh man, I know a lot of random trivia shit, really, so it's hard to say. Maybe that quokkas throw their offspring at predators to distract and escape from them... As awful as that is, c'mon, you gotta admit it's funny and shocking with just how adorable they are. What was your 'mic drop' moment? Oh, I don't know. Possibly when I publicly came out as bi on Facebook and made it abundantly clear that I gave no shits about some homophobic friends and family & I was beyond willing to let anyone's ass go over it. What's the kindest way a stranger has treated you? I remember as a kid at McDonald's, the woman in front of our car paid for our food; apparently seeing a mom, dad, and three kids in a van was enough that she wanted to just be kind and give us a smile. We have no idea who she was, never saw her face or anything, she was just a sweet woman. What is the biggest design flaw of your body? Okay, I'm going to let go of all hatred for my body weight-wise and just think of this as from a strictly natural design perspective, in which case I'd say my toes are too small. What age are you afraid of turning and why? 30, because I'm terrified of getting there and seeing I've possibly gone nowhere. What is the strangest thing you have ever felt? I'm keeping this question in just because I think there could be some interesting answers for others, but I'm witholding my answer because nobody wants or needs to know lmao. What makes someone immediately unlikable? Acting better than others and belittling. Who's a villain you sympathize with and why? D A R K I P L I E R because of his origins and overall purpose and just simply existing. What is something you regret to NOT have done? I have this oddly weird regret of not going like, all-all the way with He Who Shall Not Be Named????? Idk why though????? Considering I loved him way too much and I was a reckless and impulsive person who probably at some point would have wound up accidentally pregs????? What a fuckin trip that woulda been. What movie changed your life for the better? None have really "changed my life." What book you think should be directed as a film? Oh, idk. Most I can think of have been. Of all the decades you've lived in, which one have you liked best? The 2000s, probably. A carefree kid. How are you doing today? I'm exhausted. While out with Mom and my sisters yesterday, we got behind a van whose driver was obviously drunk or high off his goddamn ass, and he was swerving EVERYWHERE, nearly shoving so many cars off the road. Mom called 911 to get in contact with highway patrol to report his dumb fucking ass in. I was having an absolute panic attack and cried quietly like the entire 45 or so minute drive home. I was just so, so upset because this is why I don't fucking drive, and I felt like I'd made my sister (who was driving) mad because she had to firmly tell me I had to calm down (I was hyperventilating and talking to myself to try to calm down) if she was going to focus and keep us safe. She later ensured me she wasn't mad, but I still wasn't the same the entire rest of the day. Anyway, I slept hard last night but had two nightmares, so I'm still really tired today. I'm trying to keep myself really distracted. What's something your relatives don't know about you? A whole lot really, considering beyond my very immediate family, I see almost nobody because they live many states away. What's something your parents did, which you have sworn never to do? Mom would spank us or slap an arm pretty hard if my sisters or I misbehaved or "disrespected" her by "talking back." I'm not having kids, but I would never, ever, ever, put my hands on them in any way that isn't loving. You do not teach children via inflicting fear. I also have this probably overly strong aversion to beer because that's what Dad always drank as an alcoholic. I'll probably never try it, not that I really want to because it smells awful. What's the most annoying thing your pet does? I feel like "annoying" is the wrong word for this, but Roman (my cat) can be incredibly demanding of attention and to lie on me when I'm on the laptop in bed, and sometimes I just want space and be able to clearly see the screen, haha. He will legit meow like a baby and gently swat my arm sometimes if I try to keep him back. Heeee usually gets his way. As for Venus (snek), she does nothing "annoying" either, but rather a bit concerning to a snake mom: she is usually very slow to find and strike her food. I feed her frozen/thawed mice, and she will first slither around her entire cage, tongue flicking and clearly looking for her food, even though I always place it atop the same spot on her hide, and she can have her head RIGHT beside it and still do nothing. She ultimately generally eats (as a ball python though, she's a picky eater and will occasionally reject a meal), but I of course wonder why she's odd about dinnertime... As a champagne, she does have the notorious "spider gene" in her, which can cause neurological issues, but idk if something like this could be related.

[voidselfshipp]

Depth Strider

Summary: the team fortress mercs gain the attention of an unlikely diety

Pt2:

Chapter 1:

Depht strider

/~~~~~~\

Was she really going to do it?

She sits there on her motorcycle, as the sun sets, looking at the water that rocked softly against the cliff.

Was she really going to intervene?

She tugs at the hem of the fluffy jackets neck, she was running out of time to make a decision.

Of course she was going to.

She takes off the jacket and stretches taking a run to the water, diving head first with her clothes all draped in water.

The bubbles from her breath Rise up to the waters surface.

The tides come to life as a roar expands in the water like a soundwave.

Her pupils contracts, Forming a reptile like appereance with her emerald eyes, shining softly unbothered by the water.

Her soft thin hands are now deep dark red coloured scaly claws.

Her legs seem of an animal as she strides through the water feeling her wings impulsing her through the dephts of australians ocean.

Oh no, the submarine is already there.

She headbutts it making a dent in the carcass.

Her nose,that became smaller,Like a snout, sniffs something.

Blood.

--Oh fuck!--her voice is distorted, thanks to the water.

She swims under the submarine trying to find a way to claw her way in.

Its a miracle that she hasnt been detected yet.

Her claws dig into the metal exterior holding for dear life as the big submarine impulses through the Ocean.

She can barely hear whats going on.

She needs to find a way in.

Jerico sighs ,when was the last time she attempted this?.

A small jellyfish seems to casually swim towards her, and sticks close to her.

And then the submarine trembles as a huge wave cracked, then the weather Turned badly.

A storm fell on the sea without mercy.

A friendly orca casually helps jerico to jump to an Open hatch.

And as soon as she gets in a mist of evaporated water envolves the room shes in, drying her.

The place is still rocky, her aunt and sister knew how to put up a show.

Everybody in there was freaking out,a perfect moment for her to sneak in the ventilation system.

She needs to Freed them first.

/~~~~~~~\

Hot summer wind hit teufort hard.

That same day,the team of mercenaries disbanded, as their employers died misteriously.

They all went their separate ways, apparently.

Before that however everyone decided to have one last beer togheter

Yes, even spy.

They were being loud, acting as if they all cared for eachother,they did, just they didnt show it to the others.

There,in the corner of a bar, a woman,Drank from her beer while looking at the men in the bar, one of them failed once again to flirt with the female barista.

Jerico felt bad for that guy.

So, she stood up, and Walked over the barista.

Okay jerico, you dads dorky charm needs to work on this Lady.

She cracks her knuckles,leaning over the bar.

The same female barista approaches her.

Jerico returns the smile--Hey,I was just sitting over there--she points with her gaze back at the corner she was sitting-- and couldnt help but just, look at you, I really like how you styled your hair today!

The baristas cheeks turn bright Pink,sttutering over her words-- o oh th thank you!you you also look very cute today!

Jeri giggles, well, im sure youve got more work to do, but how about you give this guy a chance,or if you dont want to, maybe give a chance to me ~

And what do you know?, the barista took some minutes off to talk to the guy sitting with the other men.

--Not only that girl Is a miracle worker but a saint-- a french Man said.

The guy looks at him, and scowls--Go to hell spy...

Jer looks at the men interact from afar,toying with the piece of paper the barista gave her with her number on it.

The old von terra charm never gets old!.

Its now around five pm, and she hears curses from outside the bar as she exists

That same Group of men seem to have some troubles with their car.

--Need help folks?--She asks, hands holding her motorcycle helmet.

--Im sorry --That same guy she acted as a wingman back at the bar said-- I dont see how a Lady like you can know about cars.

'Spy' slaps his arm--scout,thats no way to talk to a Lady

'Lady my ass' she thinks.

--But we'd appreciate the help--the french Man says.

Jerico smiles,that radiant smile of hers is enough to make some of them flustered--Great lemme see--She shoves her helmet to Scouts hands--hold this for me sweet-talker.

She goes under the car, and makes a tiny exclamation sound, then they hear a tiny clicking sound.

--Okay try it now

Spy gears up the car,it sounds as beautiful as it did before

--Mon dieu-- he says under his breath

By that time jer was already standing besides him--Merci mon chéri --the Man kisses the back of her hand while holding it.

Yet he sees nothing but a sweet kind smile, and somehow no blush.

--No need to thank me

She then moves on to the other Mans van.

--mundy is a bit stingy with his van, treat her like a baby -- a Man with a Texas accent said as he opened the vans hood.

--I Will, my dad was a mechanic, so I know what cars can mean to people, altough im alright if he wants to guide me through it, I mean it seems like its very personal so,I dont want to screw thing up

Jerico was indeed a miracle worker because for once Mundy, aka,sniper talked to another human being without sounding awkward

Scout just mouthes 'what the fuck' as the rest of the mercenaries watch their awkward teammate becoming a chatterbox with the misterious Lady helping them.

After ten minutes its all done, and they are good to go

--oi, thanks Sheila--mundy says, scratching the back of his neck.

--Dont mention it--jeri smiles.

--i dont want to sound weird but,whats your name?

--Jerico, jerico von terra

--Thanks jerico--the Man blushes, thank the god that his texan friend decided to help him.

--Come on we gon be late!

--Im coming Dell im coming!

And so the aussie Man, walks to the van and they drive off.

Jer puts on her helmet and drives just behind them,without them noticing.

They peeked her interest.

And what a rowdy bunch they were.

And so for the past months she has been following the other in each corner they went.

Scout,never shuts up.

Spy is a bit too classy.

The texan Man, Dell is very Smart and sweet.

Sniper, seemed awkward, and he was, but while he was on a supply shopping spree she saw the tiniest hint of his good heart.

But then there was this other Man, a cheeky German doctor, who liked to play god.

She remembers when was the first time they actually spoke.

He was still in América, going to a café by himself one day.

She decided to follow him, asking herself if he found it,would he find her creepy?

But as she was, the goddess of willpower, had low tolerance for people who berrated someone or made fun of other people.

She didnt like bullies at all.

The german Man had odd manners and behaviour , jerico wasnt weirded out, after what her family has got going on nothing surprises her.

That day at the café however , her temperamento got the best of her.

A Man taller than the german doctor,who his teammates reffered to him as 'Medic' , pushed Him--You should look where youre stepping, freak

Medic could fend off for himself, but jerico was faster than him.

--How about you say sorry for bumping into him?

Jeri came behind medic with her arms crossed.

--What is he?your boyfriend?--the Bully asked

She chuckles and looks at the german Man with a Sly smile--Hes very handsome, he could be my boyfriend, but you,poor you Will die alone with that assholness of yours

The Man didnt seem to take that too Kindly,he tried to slap her but her hand catched her wrist.

--i May be using a skirt but trust me boy I can kick your ass in more ways than you can imagine,lets make this easy shall we?

Yet the Man didnt want to make nice, he tried to hit her, to break free.

--Ill take that as a no

Medic was too amused so he sat back with a huge grin on his face.

And low and behold jerico did kick the bullies ass.

She twisted his wrist,the german doctor swore he could hear cracking as she did so, quickly positioning behind the Man and hitting behind his knees making him fall, jer still had a strong grip around his wrist,her foot stomped on his back , keeping him down.

--Leave.

Her voice is strong and firm,she lets go and the Man runs away, tripping in the main road.

Medic laughs trying to seem somewhat sane.

--May I repay you zhe favour my dear?

And so they stayed over, sitting in a quiet corner and chatting.

He was very charming,And actually got some giggles out of her.

But of course not everything can be fun and happy.

[the-voltage-diaries]

Hey twinnie🌝❤ What shows do you think the KoP guys would watch?

Wassup, Moon Twin?

Ooh, that took me a while to think of, for sure. But, here you go:

1. Taki Kozaki

Of course, Taki would definitely watch shows centered around renovations and complete make-overs of properties, but I’ll be honest, I’m not very knowledgable about those. Also, my guess is that these are some shows he would watch apart from his usual renovation-based shows.

- Blue Bloods

For some reason, I definitely see Taki as the kind of guy who would watch a lot of crime-based series. It seems like something he would be up for. Blue Bloods is a drama about a family in which almost every person is into some field related to crime, like a lawyer, a detective, a police officer, a police commissioner, et cetera. My deduction is that Taki would enjoy this one, because not only does it have a lot of serious plots, logical deductions, and thrilling cases, but it also has it’s fair share of family moments and sweet scenes. I think he would enjoy the blend of the two, for sure.

- Elementary

As I said, I see Taki as the kind of guy who would watch a lot of crime-based series. This one’s a kind of a crime-based thriller. Elementary is its own form of a spinoff of Sherlock Holmes and Watson. It does have a lot of dry humor and a couple of sweet moments of platonic relationships, but overall it’s largely analytical than humorous. Dry comedy and sarcasm is something I feel Taki would enjoy, and this one would give him just that, combined with really good plots, some amazing deductive reasoning, and a great thrill.

- River Monsters

Taki loves animals, for sure. I mean, he has a pet crocodile, so to speak. I wouldn’t put it past him to sit down and enjoy some animal/wildlife documentaries on channels like National Geographic, Discovery, Animal Planet, BBC, et cetera. Although, he would prefer the reptile-based, or crocodile-based, documentaries more since he has always loved reptiles since he was a kid. River monsters would not only look at crocodiles or reptiles, but also at a variety of other animals who are predators at their core, and I feel like Taki would watch some of that stuff.

2. Yosuke Sagara

- Shark Tank

Yosuke is literally an investor. Like, literally. I don’t see a reason why he wouldn’t watch this one. In this show, basically, aspiring entrepreneurs from around the world pitch their business models to a panel of investors and persuade them to invest money in their idea, which I think is something Yosuke would be interested to watch. He’d get new ideas for what kind of projects he’d like to invest his money into, and he’d be able to keep up with the trends; mainly what kind of products would really work well in the market. It’s kind of a win-win for him.

- The Purge

He would, okay? He just would. This one is like, right up his alley. Yosuke seems like the type of guy who might have a little bit of a sadistic streak and would like watching horror/sort-of-gory shows. The Purge is a mix of horror and psychological thriller, and Yosuke’s personality makes me believe he would like those genres, specifically psychological thriller. I can definitely see him smirking to himself as he starts watching another episode of this one, thinking of all the destruction that the people would cause when the sirens go off. I think he would maybe even watch it for the thrill of it if you know what I mean. The adrenaline he gets out of this would definitely be his thing.

- Succession

Again, all for the thrill of it. And, the satire, too. Yosuke has a wicked sense of humor, and I would like to believe that he would enjoy this one. The show is said to by cynical, dark, greedy, but is also a little funny and whimsical at the same time. I honestly think Yosuke would enjoy such a show where practically all characters seem “evil” and rotten to the core, and where the plot is also a slow burn. There seems to be a metaphorical battle occurring in the show, one without any weapons or blood or gore; basically, purely strategized mind games. Succession is also a largely psychological thriller, or “psychologically abusive,” as some might say. Honestly, it does seem like a show that’d be right up Yosuke’s list of “Must Watches”.

3. Kiyohito Shirakami

I do believe Kiyohito wouldn’t watch shows about modeling, in particular. I’m pretty sure Kiyohito would watch shows about health and fitness, and even fashion, but not modeling. As with Taki, I’m not very knowledgable about health and fitness and fashion-based shows, so this list is basically about what I think he would watch apart from them.

- Dexter

The main protagonist of the series is described as someone who is unemotional. Hmm, that reminds me of someone: Kiyohito. I think Kiyohito would have his thrill of watching Dexter, considering this show is called creepy, yet fascinating. Dexter is again a psychological thriller, and something makes me believe that all of the Pandora guys, particularly Yosuke and Kiyohito, would be into psychological thrillers. So, yeah. Dexter would be one series that Kiyohito would start watching just for the heck of it, but then would be gripped in by the drama, the plot and the plot twists. It seems like his kind of show. Welp.

- The Big Bang Theory

This might come out as surprising, but I do believe Kiyohito would watch The Big Bang Theory. Kiyohito is honestly one of the best KoP guys when it comes to being sarcastic and having a dry sense of humor, and that is basically what this show is; dry humor. Kiyohito would watch this to maybe pass the time and have some fun while doing it, but he would definitely crack at least a smile at the most random punchlines of the show. It seems kinda out of character for him, but if you look at Kiyohito’s sense of humor and his personality, I do believe he would have a good time watching this.

- The Exorcist

I wonder why I think Kiyohito would actually be chill with horror stuff? Maybe because he is anyway so indifferent to a lot of things, haha. Kiyohito would be pretty okay with watching horror stuff, and most of his time would be spent on criticizing the actors’ makeup, I believe. I think Kiyohito would start watching this show with nothing really in mind and would end up having a neutral attitude towards it. Though yes, he may or may not use this show to scare Yosuke off when the latter gets too annoying. It’s a win-win.

4. Shun Randoh

Now, Shun being a director himself makes me think he would be pretty choosy about his shows. He would watch shows which have good direction and cinematography, mainly. Although he would watch a few comedies here or there, mostly it would be well-directed shows. Only the best for the brilliant director.

- Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones is known for its cinematography and writing, it’s plots and plot twists, and this is a show that Shun would definitely go for. Apart from the great storyline, I also think of Shun as a guy who would watch fantasy/action-based shows. Shun is also a highly seductive person, and he isn’t afraid to hide his sensuality, which is why I think he would also appreciate the rather erotic scenes of the show too. This show, for him, would be entertainment and professionalism combined in one, in a sense. While he would enjoy the scenes, particularly the erotic or sexual ones, he would also be looking at the show’s script and direction with a keen eye.

- Chernobyl

Again, a show known for its cinematography and storyline. I don’t think Shun would mind watching something on the darker side of the spectrum, and considering how well this show has been taken by the audience and people in general, he would be keen on trying it. The dramatization of the horrors and the domino effect of the incident unfolding one by one would have him on the edge of his seat, waiting for more. He wouldn’t mind watching something which is a historical-drama in my opinion and would actually, genuinely appreciate the level of detail put into this show.

- The Witcher

The Witcher is another show known for its writing and direction. Shun, in my opinion, wouldn’t mind watching some gore and blood and would take a liking to this show. He would particularly appreciate the combat scenes, the sword fights, and the slight touch of magical effects. Apart from that, he would definitely like the writing of the show, considering it is one of the show’s strongest factors. He would appreciate the beauty of this show, and even though he would like Game of Thrones a little better, he still wouldn’t miss out on this one.

Phew. That was a long one. Of course, these shows are just my opinion on what they would watch. But, I hope I met your expectations, nonetheless. Thanks for the ask!

[ladylb]

To Cry

Chapter 18  The Date You Weren't Expecting

This chapter can be found here on AO3

To start at the beginning, chapter 1 is here on AO3 or here on tumblr

Summary: Time jump. A few months later and team Miraculous are defeating akumatized victims faster than ever.Still, there is that question that no one had been addressing, is Marinette, err, Ladybug, ready to start dating?

...

Ladybug and Chat Noir and their new team had made some adjustments over the next few months...

Viperion and Pegasus were almost instantly permanent back up heroes. Of course, they only came to the akuma battles when they were contacted by either Ladybug or Chat Noir.

They also only patrolled at night and when it was dark, just to get a feel for the city and to hide their permanent status of holding their own miraculous from Hawkmoth for as long as possible. Thus far, only the main team knew that they could possibly carry their miraculous with them.

Chloe and Kagami were brought on almost immediately as the go to back up part time wielders as well. The team came up with a way to contact them through secret phones as well and to be met up with by Ladybug or occasionally Chat Noir with the help of Pegasus to deliver their Miraculous to avoid any traps that might have been set up by Hawkmoth. Having Pegasus around and the use of the secret phones worked remarkably well for that.

Eventually, Rena Rouge and Carapace were trusted part timers again as well. Carapace was granted the use of the Turtle miraculous first and two weeks later Rena Rouge was called upon after being benched for six weeks. (After severe changes to how the Ladyblog was run, several retractions and apologies, and several interviews that gave false information that was removed, of course.)

The team was growing stronger and the battles were also shorter, which really helped out Adrien and Marinette with their personal lives as well.

Marinette being Marinette of course forgave all of her friends eventually, but it took time. The trust took a little longer, but she gave it once more when she was ready to.

It was a nice bonus that Marinette’s friendship with Adrien grew stronger than ever.

Unfortunately for Adrien, well, he found himself feeling guilty about being far more attracted to his really good friend than he was comfortable with, especially since he still felt devoted to his Lady and it seemed like she and Luka were growing closer. He felt both guilt and jealousy, but he couldn’t explain why.

Adrien was almost to the point when he thought that he should ask Ladybug about it, or maybe even Viperion, after all, he found that the older boy was pretty good about advice and he had forgiven him for being so close to the girl that they both loved. Not that Ladybug was dating either of them after two months, but even Chat Noir began to feel like the passage of time was important somehow.

Viperion himself had also gone above and beyond in trying to make sure that everything ran smoothly between himself, Chat Noir and Ladybug. Ladybug tried to be more trusting and kinder with Chat Noir, asking his opinion and such and only hid from him what the Guardian insisted that she should hide from him. Chat Noir in turn learned to pun and flirt less during the main battle, but tried to respect her boundaries as well.

Viperion avoided flirting with Ladybug in front of Chat Noir after the first couple of weeks as well once the team noticed that that was a thing that seemed to come to the snake naturally, not that he did it very it often. He obviously still cared for her and he still was able to get her to blush a bit faster than the cat, which made teamwork difficult between all of them, thus the need for them both to tone down the flirting competitions with their Lady and respect Ladybug’s right to choose her own suitor. As a result, the team had been working better than ever .

Still, as time grew closer for Marinette to finish her self-imposed abstinence from dating or allowing herself to fall for someone, Luka knew that they needed to have a conversation about the Cat.

…

“My sweet Melody,” Viperion hesitantly asked Ladybug on one of their few patrol nights together, without Chat having joined them yet that is, “can I ask you a favor?”

Smiling and thankful for the darkness of night and her mask to hide her blush, Marinette replied, “yes, my hot-blooded reptile?”

Viperion blushed and his heart pounded as she slid up next to him, taking his breath away. Which happened every time she used her new nick name for him that she had come up with all on her own a couple of weeks ago that she only used when they were in private like this after all.

He cleared his throat as her flirtatious behavior made something come alive in his heart song as he thought, Marinette is successfully driving me insane.

She had been trying to weaken his wish to give her some time to herself after giving up on Adrien after all, and he knew that she was probably ready to move on for real now, it had been more than enough time after all. Still, they were hesitant to cross that bridge.

Viperion couldn’t help thinking, my Melody is a persistent one. I’ll give her that.

Luka sighed and then brushed a stray hair out of her face for her as he struggled to suggest perhaps the craziest idea that he’d ever had, but he needed to put it out there. “Ladybug, I think there is something important that needs to be done before we can even consider dating.”

“Oh, Ladybug is it now?” She stepped back and put her hands on her hips authoritatively as she addressed him, “sounds like this is a professional conversation.”

He nodded, “in a way, it is. I think…” he took a breath finding it harder to say than he thought it would be, “I-I think that you need to give the Cat a chance.”

“WHAT?!” She looked at him in surprise and shock before she managed to reply as she weakly pointed from him to herself, “but… but I thought that y-you and… and I?”

Then she began to frown, obviously feeling a bit rejected.

Oh, Ma-Ma-Marinette I didn’t mean to hurt you!

He immediately held out his hands to placate her, “wait, no, please don’t think like that my Melody. I’m not denying that I want to date you, as myself, and I will take you out, I promise you that.”

She finally calmed down and he swallowed before telling her, “after you’ve given him a chance, that is, if you’ll still have me....”

“But, but, why?!” She demanded but then sighed and closed in on herself as she hugged herself as she added quietly, “I thought that you liked me.”

Luka drew her close and hugged her before he kissed the top of her head, wishing that he’d never caused her to doubt his love. “Don’t take this the wrong way, please.” He tried to reassure her as he rubbed her arm reassuringly, still surprised at how easily touch came to them when they were suited up, “I care about you My Melody, more than you know. I just think that it would be good for you both to have some closure like this. You’ll never know if you don’t give him a chance for him to show you both why it either will or won’t work like this.”

She shook her head, “how can I date him if I can’t even know who he is though? Have you thought of that? And what about us?”

Viperion nodded as he looked pained as he patted her shoulder as he admitted, “I do want to explore what there could be between us. I-I understand, in theory anyway, why you can’t date Chat Noir as Ladybug, but I really don’t think that he does and well, I also think that it would be good for you both to at least make an attempt. For the team and for your partnership. It’s another thing that you need to wrap up before you move on without considering him. That way, there is closure there, for both of you.”

…

Ladybug looked up at him as she wondered, how does he know that I’ve been fighting an attraction to Chat?

Ladybug pouted and drew closer to Viperion to hug him briefly as she whispered, “while I like Chat Noir as a friend and partner Viperion,” she took a breath before admitting, “I don’t see how it would work. I mean, I know he’s kind of attractive in his own way, but it… it just can’t work with the need to keep our identities secret from each other. I can’t risk everyone for a what if or even when there is a reveal.”

She stepped away from him as she explained again, “this is a dangerous job Viperion and I have to work closely with Chat, I don’t see how I could do it if… if I had more than friendly feelings for him.”

Then she swallowed, “it’s hard enough working with you, but at least I know who you are and I can separate our two lives and focus on the battle when we fight together. That’s not possible with Chat.”

“Still, I think for your partnership to keep working, he would appreciate the gesture.” Viperion nodded as he thoughtfully added, “I know that it’s not the same as with us Ladybug, but like I said, I don’t think that Chat Noir knows or understands that.”

It’s tempting though, Ladybug thought as she took another step away from Viperion, putting a respectable distance between them for a moment. Not that I’ll admit to it.

Landing silently nearby, having overheard the last part of their conversation Chat Noir asked teasingly, “that Chat knows what pray tell? Speaking badly about me behind my back purr-haps Viperion?”

Ladybug scoffed softly, “like he’d ever do that Chaton.”

Viperion chuckled, “Chat knows that, he’s just teasing us, mostly anyway.”

Chat Noir nodded, “Purr-cisely. Our Lady ought to know that I was just teasing you by now, but seriously, what’s up? What don’t I know?”

Ladybug rolled her eyes and held one hand up to her head as if she was developing a headache as she waved at Viperion as she forced herself to admit, “he’s trying to convince me to let you take me out on a date.”

Heaven help me.

“REALLY?” Chat Noir brightened with glee, before calming down and coughing once, “I mean, really? Sounds great! How’s next Saturday?”

Ladybug gave Viperion the evil eye, and thus the negotiations began…

…

Eventually, despite it being difficult for him, Viperion negotiated some terms between Chat Noir and Ladybug over the course of three patrols. Viperion had to privately promise a date between Luka and Marinette the next weekend after her date with the Cat for a whole Saturday if she’d just go and see what it might be like to date the cat.

They came up with four main rules or terms.

The date with Chat would not last longer than half a day.

Handholding only, and especially no kisses on the lips.

No revealing of identities.

Have an open mind.

Most of them were Ladybug’s conditions of course, Chat’s was only that she come and give him a chance, which was the last condition basically.

Ladybug went, reluctantly, especially after the bribery.

Chat Noir was a bit, shall we say eager and enthusiastic about it, much to her surprise.

They were exceptionally lucky that no akumas showed up for their date, but that meant that it had to be just that, a date.

The black cat made it a somewhat public and over the top date... at first. She was shocked at all the thought that he put into it, the end result being almost four dates rolled up into one.

They started with a lavish boat ride and lunch on a floating restaurant along the Seine with a small orchestra playing in the back ground. Ladybug was almost overwhelmed when she found out that Chat had somehow rented out the whole floating restaurant on their private boat tour as they ate their four-star rated meal. The paparazzi when they returned to shore was easy enough to avoid thanks to his baton, but still, it was a bit unnerving.

After lunch, they donned very poor disguises to catch the afternoon matinee, where they shared a popcorn together, and then they took a walk in one of the lesser known public gardens together. Then they finished their date with a small picnic on the top of the Eiffel tower.

Ladybug had to admit that she was impressed, but confused afterwards.

…

As they were finishing their dessert under a full moon on a picnic blanket laid out on the top of the Eiffel Tower, Ladybug had to ask her Kitty, “Chat, while I appreciate all of the effort that you put into this, uh, date? I have to admit that I’m kind of confused. I mean, why did you pick the fancy boat ride and orchestra to start with?”

Chat Noir put down his plate, setting it aside so he could scoot closer to her and take her hand. “Ladybug, Milady, I know that you don’t want to reveal our identities, but I wanted you to know that I’m not exactly a poor alley cat.” She was about to protest this little bit of information but he held up his other hand to stop her.

“My Lady, someday, when we finally discover each other’s identities, you’ll understand. I know the media was buzzing about us while we were there on deck on that boat, but frankly, I get a dose of that kind of attention everyday in my daily life.” He looked sad all of a sudden.

“Chat, I thought we said we wouldn’t reveal ourselves…” She lightly scolded him anyway.

Chat Noir shook his head, “I’m not. I would feel like I was lying to you if I didn’t tell you about some of the major aspects of my life, or to have at least shown you or have warned you about it somehow. I know I don’t live a normal life. It’s a bit much, well, stifling sometimes.”

He cleared his throat, “Chat Noir is more of the real me. I don’t have to hide my personality or be the perfect, well, whatever.”

He waved his hand, “so instead of telling you who I am, I showed you a bit of what my life is like today. It may seem like a glamorous life, but it’s pretty lonely and I have to be careful of what I’m saying or doing at all times just so that I don’t ruin the image of my family or my,” he coughs, “my parents’ business. I didn’t think that it would be fair of me to court you without you knowing that.”

Chat Noir then patted her hand to reassure her, “I know that civilian me is not as free as you know the Chat side of me is and frankly, it’s not the best life if you ask me. Being Chat Noir allows me to be free from that restrictive lifestyle, but when I uh, become myself, it’s still waiting there for me. Waiting for me to try to hide parts of myself from the world, not just the heroic identity we both have and well, I can’t escape it, no matter how much I try. Not completely anyway.”

She nodded, “oh.”

She’d never really thought about it, but if Chat was as wealthy as Adrien, it would make sense if he had a similar lifestyle as a civilian. She never thought much about how restrictive it was, but she had to give her Kitty some credit because Chat had a good point.

So she had to admit, “honestly, I kind of suspected that you were, well, wealthy.”

He snickered, “you could say that.”

“Well, I hope you know that doesn’t matter to me.” She tried to reassure him.

“I know you well enough My Lady that it wouldn’t, but still, I thought that it might be a good thing to warn you about. I haven’t met many girls that are genuinely interested in the real me, but only in my name and what I represent. It’s exhausting not knowing who to fully trust.”

“Well, I appreciate you telling me, although that’s honestly not an issue for me.”

“I kind of thought it wouldn’t be, but still, I wanted to give you a glimpse into that world.”

“Oh, well, thank you?” Ladybug looked away for a moment before she nodded to herself as she bit her lip for a moment before she hesitantly asked, “what about the rest?”

Her Kitty gave her one of his crooked smiles, “well, the reason why the matinee was low key was because the most fun that I’ve ever had was with a friend when we kind of did the same thing.” He looked away as he nervously rubbed the back of his neck, as a slight blush peeking out from underneath his mask, “we didn’t get to see all of it, well, most of the movie anyway because of an akuma attack, but I thought that you might enjoy it too.”

Ladybug blinked at him as she pondered, this sounds kind of familiar…

She tried to ignore her suspicions as she tried not to think about it as she tried to move on, “SOooo, explain to me where a picnic on the top of the Eiffel tower comes in.”

“Well, we are superheroes and I thought that it might be romantic?” Chat Noir told her with a shrug.

“Uh, huh. What did you do, take out a poll with your friends about what would be more romantic?” She asked him with a raised eyebrow jokingly as she thought about how Adrien had been asking their friends what kind of romantic date Ladybug and Chat Noir would have if they went on a date together, as if the idea was stressing him out somehow...

Don’t go there Marinette…

Alya of course had turned it into a poll on the Ladyblog and surprisingly, here they were using the top pick, something that Alya had only shared with her, Nino and a certain someone else. The official results would be announced tomorrow in one of Alya’s articles.

That’s when she noticed that Chat Noir was sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck and grinned at her in a VERY familiar way…

Her mental processes betrayed her as she thought as she came to the logical conclusion, OH NO…

------

Dun Dun Dun!  Sorry about the delayed update, I had a really bad cold and forgot to update tumblr. I hope to have the last two chapters up soon. 

[hopeymchope]

The DangitGrandpa cast have a big Mortal Kombat tournament, who mains who?

How did you even know I’d have a deep knowledge of Mortal Kombat characters and lore??

Well, I DO.

Here are a few choice selections:

Makoto Naegi - Liu Kang. He gets some crap for playing the “generic protagonist,” but disagrees with this assessment. “He’s won the tournament multiple times,” he insists. “So he’s clearly a valuable character. And now he’s even a zombie-ghost or whatever - th-that’s not generic!”

Leon Kuwata - Johnny Cage. “The man’s got style, that’s all I’m saying.”

Sakura Ogami - Li Mei. A martial artist who is attractive and feminine in design yet very strong and willing to defend what she thinks is right with that strength whenever necessary, Li Mei speaks to both Sakura’s aspirations and interests in a lot of ways.

Mukuro Ikusaba - Sonya Blade. Of course. No explanation necessary. (Secretly wishes that Naegi played as Johnny Cage, though.)

Chiaki Nanami - Sure, she could wreck shop with anybody, but her favorite is Kitana. Chiaki is typically one to prefer heroic/noble characters, and she also is girly enough to like princesses - most especially strong ones. (She also thinks Mokap is endearing and funny despite being sort of embarrassed to say so.)

Gundam Tanaka - Started maining Reptile as soon as he was available and has never looked back. “Few humanoids possess the discipline necessary to become an expert of herpetology, and fewer still can live the cold-blooded lifestyle of a reptile every single day. Indeed, only the Overlord of Ice can claim mastery over such a being… a being of two worlds. A being both humanoid and reptilian. A being born of darkness, yet destined to bask in the light!”

Peko Pekoyama - Ashrah. Not only does she enjoy playing a woman who wields a sword, she also relates to both the character’s struggle to do good despite some less-than-noble origins as well as how her initial circumstances conflict with her personal desires.

Great Gozu - A rare fan of Hsu Hao due to his intimidating appearance, his focus on wrestling moves, and his dedication to a specific code of conduct.

Tsumugi Shirogane - Shang Tsung. OBVIOUSLY. He’s the would-be mastermind who actually is reporting to a higher, greater evil and who can shift his appearance to anyone else. I mean. COME ON.

Kokichi Ouma - Havik. He claims it hasn’t been the same since his main chaos-loving wildcard left the roster. Of course, he also claims he’s generally uninterested in the game without Havik and that it’s a dumb waste of time now - only to later prove that he’s been spending hours practicing as soon as he picks up a controller…

Keebo - Esoterically, his favorite is Cyber Sub-Zero. ”He remains an iconic character in any form! Moreover, regardless of his form, no one questions whether he is human.” (Keebo is disappointed when Cyber Sub-Zero is unavailable, often choosing Smoke as his backup.)

Gonta Gokuhara - Finds the game “mean” and doesn’t like to play. Known to cover his eyes in horror a lot when his friends are playing the game; nevertheless, he sort of likes it when D’Vorah is on-screen. I mean, how could he not?

Miu Iruma - Mileena. She likes the sexiness of the character, sure, but also mostly enjoys making jokes about various types of oral sex whenever her horrific mouth comes into play. (*Mileena chews someone’s head off* “Not the way you like gettin’ head, right fellas?! HAHAHA!”)

Ted Chikatilo - Blaze :PPP

[darkmindsotome]

Risque Rouge pt6

Tagging: @umbralaperture​ @otome-smut-queen @silver-fox-of-azuchi @tsundere-mitsuhide @jennacat84

General warnings for the whole fic: Angst, some fluff, Mental health issues, emotional things, trauma, blood, death and possible triggers. Please read responsibly. 

Darkmindsotome Masterlist

---

Chapter 6

When he arrived at the performing house, he could already sense something was terribly wrong. The building was as silent as the grave which felt like part of his ominous premonition from before had manifested itself. His body propelled through the building at high speed, his coat billowing behind him as he ran. His keen senses could smell the same scent in the air as back at that building and he felt his stomach and heart lurch.

Emotions were still a deciding factor for life, even for the immortal. It could make a smart man dumb or the bravest turn coward. He could get angry and vengeful to the point where the fury he had inside him could be felt rolling off his calm exterior in waves. Very few had seen Comte in righteous indignation and the ones that had, no longer spoke of it. The cool calm gentleman transformed into a biblical judgement as he struck down opponents without breaking his stride.

Still, in all the centuries of his life, he was always reminded of how powerless he was in the face of fear. It made him feel slightly ridiculous. In truth, there was little for a pure blood to be scared off. They were at the pinnacle of the predatory evolutionary scale. Death would be a release if it should even find them. Injury was temporary, fleeting like the life of a human in the expanse of eternity. Naturally, should the injury result in loss of limb they were no reptile or creature capable of regrowth. Even the frozen stasis of their bodies had limitations. Fear, however, that was a universal thing affecting all be it human, animal or vampire.

Stubbornly creeping up his spine, that familiar sense of dread probably had a much better name for itself. It was a cool chill coursing through his veins, a desire for answers and also a wish to remain ignorant. Fear really was a strange force to conjure with. Even with centuries of experience to draw on, it still knew how to give a good fight.

Repressing a curse under his breath he pulled back the curtain revealing the truth. It was a nightmare that would have fitted perfectly in the scriptures of any horror novel. Raven black hair curled in a tangled curtain covering in part some of the sight. The scent of blood filling the air had his mind reeling and as he pushed back against his own instincts, he noted the debris on the ground. The medicine destroyed and it was then he noticed the identity of the figure in the Princess’s arms. Le Comte was not a stupid man he could make an educated guess as to what happened and his own blood boiled thinking of how differently the events might have played out.

“Evie?” The young woman’s head moved, detaching herself as she looked towards him with a sound crossed between a groan and moan emitted from her. The clarity of those eyes made even him gasp, their pinpoint focus and depth were disarming.

It was true he had known what she was, although it had taken a couple of visits to confirm his suspicions. The same instinct that had drawn him to Leo when he discovered him in Italy, was playing a part here as well. The only difference was Leo knew exactly what he was and this woman didn’t seem to have even that basic knowledge. He felt guilty for his selfishness as he looked at the scene of the horrific tableau. He had avoided telling her, questioning and second-guessing his own decision, not wishing to cause her distress. He had soothed his worries with a promise he would make a more appropriate time to discuss such matters and focused on simply discovering more about her as a person. Nothing in his wildest dreams could have produced the vision in front of him.

The feral predator, both as deadly as it was beautiful. Her elegant fingers coated in dark glistening blood and her lips stained in the same. The demure and delicate poised figure from before had become a reflection in a black mirror and her capabilities were on full display. There was a low grumble that might as well have been from the pits of hell, neither of them moving.

"Are you alright ma Cherie?" His voice was as tender as ever. No judgement, no hatred as he patiently waited to see if she would manage to regain herself. They remained in a stalemate as they each regarded each other, two predators alone in the night. Hunger could do some terrible things and bloodlust was not something easy to fight. It drove the vampire to the brink of madness and threw them weakened into the abyss. Comte was worried for the girl as she had been weakened for so long, but her strength of mind was sound enough that he believed she could recover from this. He hoped she would recover.

“C- Comte?” The soft frail voice that answered him made his chest hurt. The angular shape of her body wrapped around her pray relaxed along with her expression as the predatory mask fell away. He felt himself give a small sigh of relief and some of the tension of his own body evaporated as well. Evie looked down at the weight leaning on her and yelped, hurriedly pushing the figure off her and scurrying backwards on her knees. “What have I done?”

She looked down at her hands in horror at the red painting her skin, the smears of it up her arms. The more she examined herself the deeper she felt herself slip into stunned terror. The cream coloured nightgown that clung to her sweat-soaked skin was ruined with torn buttons and fabric dyed in blood. She ran the tip of her tongue tentatively over her lip, finding more of it, her mind went blank realising what she had done. Her body started to shake violently and all the tears she had failed to shed before came out like a burst dam.

“It can’t--, I… I’ve never done something like that be-before.” Her voice was so quiet as if she was speaking only to herself but Comte heard every word uttered and felt the weight of grief in each one. He slowly stepped over the corpse on the floor and crouched down next to the young woman. Her face looked up at his, blood-stained and wet with tears. Her twin emeralds shimmering under a lake of moisture as she sobbed. She brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, rocking in place as she tried to reconnect with her own sanity. “What is wrong with me? I’m a monster, aren’t I?” She averted her gaze and looked at the bloodied mess she had created. It was everything she didn’t wish to see again but knew she would always remember.

“Shh… My dear sweet girl. Hush ma petite.” He gave little care for the crimson that might also paint him in the same shade as her. Comte wrapped her small frame in his arms, easily moving her with him as he carried her to her bed and sat with her there on his lap. Her arms latched on to him like he was the only solid thing in her world. Stroking one hand soothing up and down her back as he cradled her head against his chest. He felt her trembling and the dampness of her tears as they soaked through his shirt. Once more his chest gave a painful pinch as he held the trembling girl in his arms silently trying to calm her.

---

Time lost all concept while he held the trembling woman in his arms. Seconds turned to minutes, that bled into hours, and the only thing he was aware of was that when she finally stopped shaking the sky outside was painted in ribbons of sunlight and muted dawn shades.

She felt the exhaustion in every part of her body as it stilled and her tears finally stopped. Her eyes travelled back to the elephant in the room unable to place the feeling she had inside her now. It was a form of uncomfortable acceptance that made her feel guilty as sin for the apparent numbness she now felt. Was it a form of shock or had something else come to fill the gap in her mind to prevent her from delving headfirst into madness?

“Mon pauvre petit. Ca va?” The warmth from the man she had clung on to, in what was left of the night, brought her mind back to his presence. His large hands rubbed up and down her back once more as if trying to chase away the thoughts that would drag her back into herself. He still sounded so comforting as he enquired after her which presented new problems.

They were in a room with a dead man, covered in blood and the performing house would soon see the return of its people. It was a situation that failed to show how any of this could end well for either of them as they sat on her bed. She believed she deserved whatever fate she would be given to atone for her actions but what of the caring Comte?

He was innocent in this. No doubt someone would argue a case for his complicit assistance. He had failed to raise an alarm or attempt to stop her. There really did seem to be no end to the consequences of her cruel actions. Her heart sank at the thought of him doomed to be tarred with the same brush that would have her locked behind bars for life. When his only crime was being kind enough to care for her.

“Your kindness may be your undoing. I don’t scare you?” She muttered not daring to make eye contact for fear of what she might see reflected there. The sight of her flinching in his arms softened his expression more. She was like a scared little animal and it was almost unbearably endearing.

“Why would I be scared of you, ma Cherie?” She gasped and looked at the man still holding her to him in his arms. Did he not notice the dead body? The blood staining him where it transferred from her? He couldn’t have missed the fact that she was the one to do something so horrific. How could he be so calm? Stunned and at a complete loss of words she looked at him in complete disbelief. “You did not answer me. Are you alright Princess?” He made no attempt to pull away as he rephrased his question, pressing for an answer.

“I think so?” She nodded still dumbfounded and he patted her head, moving her off from his lap as he stood up gracefully.

“Mm, well that will do for now.” He walked over to the horrific diorama and gave a light tap to the dead man’s foot with his own. The warm toffee brown eyes were glazed over with a look similar to cataracts, the spark of life they once held gone. The lingering warmth she felt from him near her seemed a million miles away as she watched him now acting in such a detached manner. “I don’t suppose you would have a measure of rope in here?”

“Rope?” She became curious enough that she slipped from her bed and used objects around her to aid her attempt to walk. Every part of her body felt alien to her as she attempted to stand, stumbling like a newly born deer to his side. The marks she knew were on the body caused by her mouth had faded into obscurity, little more than bruising on the flesh. The sickening look of rapturous euphoria on the dead doctor’s face had her feeling queasy. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen…” Death was a concept she was familiar with but never had she been this close to it. Her words trailed off as she stole a glance at le Comte and guiltily clamped her mouth shut.

“You are still young. If you have no rope then we have to make other arrangements.” Saying this he gave her a reassuring smile and moved over to one of the windows. His calm and collected behaviour had her tipping a balance between awe and curiosity. Was he so used to such things that this was nothing to him? After opening the window to check for casual pedestrians he tied a scarf around it and used his elbow to punch out the glass.

“What on earth are you doing!?” Evie cried out rushing to his side in time to see him remove the scarf and scattering its contents on the sill and her bed.

“Hush now, Cherie.” Comte put a finger to her lips before raising it to give a small bop on the tip of her nose and continued to do whatever he was doing in her room. “If we cannot remove the evidence, we have to find a way to explain it. I might not be a great detective or an impossibly brilliant inventor but I have learnt a few things in my long life. At least enough for this.” He paused in his actions and glanced back over his shoulder at her. “You might want to freshen up a little.”

She looked at her reflection, the ornate frame of the dresser mirror surrounded her image like a terrible painting. Her face had tear-stained rivers through darkened dry blood and puffy red eyes. Bringing her hands to her face as if she couldn’t believe the reflection was her own, she wondered how she had not noticed the aftermath of the night clinging to her till now? She dashed to the basin and tipped some freshwater into the bowl. Dipping a cloth in she began to scrub and dab away the rotten mess. With a last douse of clear water, she felt a bit better and turned to find the macabre scene from before had changed.

If she hadn’t known better, she might have said it now looked like more of a struggle had taken place. Furniture had been tipped over and the doctor had been moved so his body was now face down pointing towards the door. With the addition of the broken glass and window, some more of her clothes had been removed from their hangers and now lay haphazardly around adding to the disorder.

“That should be enough.” Comte nodded and looked over to her giving her a reassuring smile before they were disturbed by a familiar figure tunelessly whistling as they entered carrying a tray of food.

It was a thing of perfect comedic timing had the situation been less grim. The small black eyes of the owner moved between Evie and le Comte, questions clearly forming in his mind before they dropped to the floor and his hands released the tray with a clatter.

“Oh My Lord! What in the --?” The owner cried out as his voice trailed off. His jaw hung open mystified as he tried to process the scene. His face drained of colour as he failed to remove his gaze from the scene he had just walked into. A corpse in the room, blood spatters and broken glass, the whole place was a complete mess.

“There was an incident last night.” Comte answered calmly with a slightly apologetic look on his face.

“I can see that.” The owner answered automatically, the way someone does when spoken too as they are lost in their own thoughts while he continued to look around the room. His eyes landed on the girl and finally seemed to take in her appearance. “Ah! Evie are you alright?”

Practically tripping over his own feet, and the tray, the owner rushed towards her bundling her up in his arms whilst trying to look her over from head to foot. The strength of his grip had her unable to breathe properly or reply. His eyes were full of concern and the guilt she had inside bubbled up again. Her eyes prickled as she tried to avoid the tears, she had thought to be all dried up and gave an awkward smile with a nod in reply.

“I’m afraid I returned after hours.” Comte spoke a bit louder than needed as he began walking closer to the entwined pair. “I remembered something I had to tell the Princess and stumbled upon… well.”

As she peeked out from the crushing embrace Comte’s golden eyes met hers with a silent request to let him handle this. The owner shifted his body so he too could see the approaching man and when the two men made eye contact, she could have sworn she saw those same golden orbs glow. The tight grip surrounding her seemed to slacken and the probing look on Uncle’s face melted, replaced with a look of relief. It was only for a fraction of a second but time felt slower as what she convinced herself to be a trick of the light made Comte’s eyes even more magnetic.

“Oh, dear Sir! Thank you. I mean naturally, I am not happy that you should think to return with it being so late, but thank the Lord in heaven that you did.” Uncle was acting like he was a little drunk, his focus was clear enough but there was something about his movements that just made him feel different. The owner pulled her tight to him once more placing a kiss on the crown of her head before pulling back and trying to smooth out her hair as if she were still a child. It made her feel embarrassed but in the back of her mind, she just couldn’t seem to ignore the sensation of something being off.

“I was actually about to summon a constable.” Comte continued to speak as he took up a blanket and draped it over Evie, effectively placing a barrier between her and the rest of the world.

“The police! Yes, excellent idea. I er…” The Owner suddenly looked very uncomfortable as he looked once more towards the dead man in the room.

“You would prefer not to involve the authorities?” Comte raised his brow in query a knowing look settling on his face.

“Ah, no it isn’t that.” The man muttered worriedly and looked once more at the young woman. It wasn’t just le Comte that was worried about dangers being brought to their house.

For Comte, it was a fear of a secret existence being revealed and the resulting chaos that would swallow all he knew and held dear. For the owner, he was already operating in a grey area of society, while the libertine lifestyle came with a certain level of romanticism it also held a rather low level of security against the cruelty of the world.

Yes, the desire to protect your household and family can take many forms and sometimes the actions taken to do so came from some questionably moral avenues. The consequences of such things would directly affect more than a couple of others and it was a matter of moving in the right manner to minimise the damage. A simple fact that le Comte was all too familiar with.

“I can appreciate the issue.” Comte nodded perceptively and moved closer, placing a hand on Evie’s shoulder. “Would you agree to place the Princess in my care? I could provide rooms and distractions until this unsettling matter is cleaned up. It would, after all, be nothing if not fulfilling my duty as her sponsor.” The words tumbled from him as naturally as water flowed downhill which did make her feel like this was a prearranged performance. She couldn’t shift the idea that everything could have been a lot more complicated, should have been a lot harder. The memory of his eyes came back to her, the glow.

“My good Sir that would be a weight off my mind.” The owner sighed with sparkling eyes. If a look could be more inappropriate given the situation she struggled hard to think of it. The jump from one extreme of mood to another made her head spin, it was as if someone had suddenly turned on the sun.

Comte’s large hand resting on her shoulder remained in place, his gently grip flexing slightly. Evie couldn’t tell if it was meant as a gesture to tell her to relax or a subconscious movement. The owner took both her hands in his, looking her straight in the eyes.

“I’m sure you had a terrible shock and it pains me I was not here to protect you. I should reconsider relocating my room to somewhere closer…”

“Uncle?” Evie softly called to him. The sight of his kind heart being so fully on display had that gnawing seed of guilt sprouting up inside her again. Struggling to find words she simply squeezed his hands. Even in his rambling state where he could become so flustered, she wondered how he had not succumbed to ill health relating to his nervous disposition. The man in front of her had never once shown her anything but care and kindness.

“Oh, pay no mind to this old fool Princess.” The owner gave a lopsided smile bringing one hand up to her face to smooth out the signs of concern she had there. Releasing her once more he turned away from her again, as if looking at her too long would hurt him after making his choice to send her away. “Still, the police will be here stomping around for a while and we will have to close for a time no doubt. I shall have to redecorate this room as well…” He was running his hand through his slick hair, causing it to become a temporary mess before being corrected once more. His mind clearly running through a to-do list that she had no doubt was growing by the second thanks to his worry.

“Uncle please. You—” Tears she tried to hold back were now running again. Her heart was hurting and she felt like someone was placing bricks steadily one by one on top of her. Everything was her fault and she hated it. All she had ever wanted to do was try to repay him and the others in the performing house for everything they had done for her.

“Ah! No little Princess no need to cry.” Beady black eyes went saucer round when the owner saw her crying. “It’s nothing to worry yourself over but I would like for you to accept the kind offer until this is all in order.” He moved swiftly back to her before realising the coating of pomade on his hands and rubbed them on his trousers before collecting her hands again. “Would you?” He was stooping to try to get a better look through the tears at her face.

The hand of Comte gave a gentle squeeze, and she nodded pushing back down the words she might have said. She was acutely aware of the warmth from both men and their concern for her. Evie resigned herself to do as was requested if it would bring any form of comfort to her fretting guardian. Seeing her attempt to give a weak smile the owner gave a small sigh pulling his face into a blended expression that landed somewhere between apologetic and grateful.

“Excellent! I shall leave my dear child in your care Monsieur. Pardon, I must go and find an officer and you simply must both not be here upon my return. Don’t worry I shall take care of everything. A beintot little Princess, Au revoir Monsieur!” With those few words of advice, the animated man gave a wave and scurried out of the room.

The silence that filled the room afterwards felt oppressive. Everything was like a terrible dream except the smell in the air and the way her bloodstained nightdress was clinging to her told her it was all real.

“We should be leaving.” Comte prompted gently releasing his grip on her shoulder and instantly moving into a perfectly elegant swooping motion to collect her, as the strength in her legs gave out.  She hadn’t noticed that just one single hand of his had somehow been applying support to her whole body, denying it’s failing sooner. “Careful now.” His voice was so close it seemed to shock the tears right out of her. She looked up and gave a very small noise realising how close his face was to hers. “You might want to hold on until we can reach the road and hail a carriage. I promise I won’t drop you, but I cannot guarantee smooth sailing through these halls.”

“You intend to carry me out?” The look of disbelief on her face as she asked her question amused him. Her pale skin of the most delicate porcelain that had been stained with tears and blood now shone with a dusty rose tint courtesy of her freshly acknowledged embarrassment.

“I don’t believe you are in a fit state to argue differently.” His voice came out with a stifled chuckle and a rather ungentlemanly urge to tease her swelled in him seeing her innocent face. “I cannot force you to do as I’ve requested though.”

“Ah!” She cried out and clung on to him as he made a sudden movement to begin walking out the room. His body lurched uncharacteristically for one so graceful and Evie found she was forced to throw her arms around his neck in order to prevent herself from tumbling. “You did that on purpose!”

She wanted to be upset with him. How could an elegant gentleman do such a thing? When she looked up and saw how he laughed she found she couldn’t bring herself to do it. The shame and guilt, all of the emotions she couldn’t begin to name were still surging through her like a roaring tide. She buried her face in his chest, her hands draped around him as he carried her in his arms, wondering if she was allowed to feel this kind of warmth and safety.

---

[waywardxson]

What I’ve Done

Who: Rory & @sshardassanderson ft. Skull, Dagger (NPCs)

What: Two Ghoulies try to take some revenge on Rory for betraying them. Grace gets away and gets Dare, who saves him. 

When: Dec 22, Late Afternoon through Dec 23, Evening

Where: Rory’s trailer, Fox Forest, Sweetwater River, Dare’s trailer

Notes: This para starts Sunday and ends Monday

Triggers: Violence, blood, broken bones, drowning, life-saving measures, suggested violence against a child, painkillers - if I forgot any, let me know so I can update, please and thank you!

Ghoulies

Derek had issued orders weeks again regarding Rory’s betrayal. But it wasn’t said much since then, and some were left taking matters into their own hands. That’s what Skull and Dagger were doing there tonight, wearing clothes in all black and face masks with an etching of their namesake. They were big burly meatheads who liked to spend their time destroying, and in order to move up in the ranks, a dead former ghoulie turned snake trash would surely aid in the endeavor. They arrived at Sunnyside in a pickup with a tarp over the back, their headlights kept off to prevent the other snakes from noticing their arrival. They needed to keep a low profile until they could get Rory into Fox Forest. 

“What do we do if the brat is home?” Skull asked bitterly, grabbing a tire iron by his feet. 

“Kill her of course. Boss didn’t say we had to leave anyone alive.” 

“You got the stones to kill a kid?” 

“Hey. She’s a snake.” 

“Right...” 

The two left the engine idling but the car parked as they descended upon the trailer they knew to be Rory’s after watching him come and go out of it. What they didn’t know was that this particular trailer was right beside Darius’. Creeping up upon the trailer, Skull quickly knocked in a window and reached for the lock to open it.

Rory

"I think he's getting it, daddy!" Grace chirped as she picked up her turtle from the terrarium on her dresser and pet the hard shell like he was a puppy. Grace had always been a little different. She never asked for normal pets, or normal toys, or normal anything. She was constantly surprising Rory with how wonderfully unique she was. A blur of blonde ran into the kitchen where Rory had just set down a bowl of tomato soup and a cheap grilled cheese he'd toasted the bread of before adding cheese and popping it in the microwave. He looked up as she held up the reptile who looked at him with glassy eyes. 

"What did he almost do, baby?" Rory asked. 

"Karate!" 

"Well good job there, Donut," he said as he gave the turtle a similar pet on his shell and then messed up his daughter's hair, earning him a giggle from the girl's gleeful face. "Dinner's ready, babe. Why don't you go let Donut get some rest after his martial arts training, hmm?" 

Grace looked at the table, considered and then said, "But daddy, mutant ninja turtles eat pizza." 

He pointed towards her room, "Then I guess we'll have some pizza tomorrow. Go ahead and wash your hands." But no sooner had she taken a few steps before a low shatter of glass made them both jump. Rory didn't know who but when he saw an arm flip the lock, he yelled in his daughter's direction. "Bedroom, now. Lock the door!" 

All he could do was hope she had listened to him. The moment the door opened and he saw the masks, the insignia, Rory knew. He didn't think, just acted. Running at the figure, Rory took him around the waist and tackled him out of the door frame, falling with him to the ground on the cold ground. He threw a punch but he hadn't known there was a second guy. He should have known.

Ghoulies

Skull hadn’t even gotten through the damn window before he was being slammed into the ground with an angry grunt. He swung blindly with the tire iron and it hit something but he couldn’t have even imagined what. Dagger came through moments later and grabbed at Rory’s hair, dragging him violently off of Skull while simultaneously trying to stuff a gag into his mouth. “Fucking tie him up a—“

Rory

Everything was happening on instinct. He hit the ground with a grunt and started to throw punches. Rory hadn't fought ever since he left the Ghoulies but that didn't mean he didn't remember how to do it, and since he was outnumbered, he needed to be on the offensive. The hit came from the side and Rory only just saw the swing of metal before it hit the side of his head. The sound rang in his head, cold burning against his ear, stilling his next punch long enough that he was pulled off by the back of his head. 

Rory tried to pull the person forward but when he realized he had no momentum, he pushed instead, taking them both backwards against the side of the house. Then he threw his head back, colliding with what he hoped was the guy's nose. His grip loosened enough that Rory turned to start throwing punches but only managed one when he felt a hit against his ribs steal all the breath out of his body. He turned to go for the second attacker but as he did, he took the tire iron against the side of his face and it knocked him off of his feet. Blood spat from his mouth as he landed on hands and knees in the icy ground.

Ghoulies

Dagger had the previous pleasure of seeing a handful of Rory’s underground fights. The guy was skilled, smooth, and aggressive. He’d fight tooth and nail to protect his little brat, and fought like his every match was expected to be his last. Tonight’s would be. They were here to make sure of that. The tire iron swung out again and after catching him in the ribs, Dagger was certain he���d be going down. He used the second chance that the former ghoulie was winded to bash him on the side of his face, and down he went. Deep down he knew it was pathetic to go at him with weapons but had the man had the chance, he’d of taken one too. Dagger sharply kicked into Rory’s wounded side and forced him down, his foot putting pressure on his head. 

“Get up you idiot.” He busses to Skull. “Find the kid and get her in the truck.”

“You didn’t say he was—!” 

“It’s like you didn’t ever see him fight. You’re an idiot.” 

“You’re...the idiot...” Skull mumbled irritably as he got up off the floor and started kicking in door, murmuring “little girl, little girl, where are yooouuu...” Pressing the tire iron into the the back of his neck, Dagger leaned in close to Rory. “Now you have two options. One, put your hands behind your back willingly, or when we find your kid, I’ll peel her skin off in front of you.”

Rory

Rory struggled to take in his breath, the hit having knocked all memory of how to breathe out of his chest. His body rattled, lungs trying to expand and take in the air that his chest burned to fill. He pushed at the ground, immediately pushing up until he felt the kick to the same battered spot and it flashed stars. The pressure on his head dug his ear against the ground, small cold rocks pressing into his face but all thought of his own well-being was gone when he heard the first guy mention his daughter. 

"Fuck you," he growled through bloody lips, coughing and spewing the bright red spit. He heard the sound of someone going after Grace, and all he could do was yell her name, and one simple order. Run. Dear God, please fucking run. He tried to put it in his head. She had a window. She could have slipped out. There were plenty of Serpents around and they were all good with her. His eyes turned towards Dare's place and he wondered if they were home. He should have known. Then he felt the tire iron push down and his neck ached. 

Though Rory was hardly in a position to make any kind of orders, he hissed with a deep voice, "Leave my kid alone and I'll go without a fight," he said, hoping that was something he would agree with. Grace was all that mattered. His Grace. Just leave her alone. "Even tied up you know I can kick your mother fucking ass."

Ghoulies

“I don’t think you understand fully how this works, Del Monico. You don’t get to negotiate terms.” Dagger hissed in his ear, pressing the tire iron harder against the back of Rory’s neck. “You’re a traitor. And the fact that I’m even offering you a choice is a courtesy. But since you’re not having it.” Dagger lifted the tire iron and slammed it like a bartering ram into what was assuredly some already broken ribs, crushing bone until it pushed as hard as it could internally. With that he twisted Rory’s arms behind his back and secured them with thin, flexible chicken wire, the sharpness digging into Rory’s wrists and drawing a thin trickle of blood. Dagger straightened up as Skull came back into the room, shrugging. 

“She ran off. I dunno where she gone.” Dagger sighed. “Great. Now we have to hustle before she gets help. Let’s move.” The pair grabbed a blanket from one of the rooms and draped it over their hostage, hauling him up off his feet with one person gripping the top and the other the bottom. With their two man team, they hauled Rory into the back of the pickup, adding two more restraints of chicken wire to the wrists and above the knees before spinning him around and shoving a dirty shoe rag into his mouth and pulling the tarp over him.

Rory

Rory knew it had been a long shot but he'd hoped maybe at least one of them had the good sense to give into it. He had fought through pain before. Fought through broken bones and bruised body parts. Fought through blood in his eyes and open wounds. But he felt less than useless when the bar strained the back of his neck, the bones struggling against the pressure that kept the fighter stuck to the ground. When he finally gave a little, Rory started to get up but barely made it anywhere before the bar cracked against against his side. 

The pain erupted so intensely that all he could do was make a gutteral groan before he was down again. Something was broken in his, crushed, and it made taking a breath almost impossible. Rory barely fought the wire going around his wrists and it was done before he'd even remotely started to come back and could hear past the ringing in his ears. He saw the second guy come back but didn't see Grace with him and though he spoke to his friend, Rory only hoped he said he couldn't find Grace. 

Not that he'd--- 

If Grace died-- 

Without getting any full breaths, Rory felt dizzy, his head full of static and nothing, and he either didn't - or couldn't - fight back. He choked on the rag, the cold cutting like glass against his skin and his vision doubled with every attempt to take a deep breath. Shallow pants were all he could manage, blood soaking the dirty rag shoved in his mouth. It was agony. Every movement of the truck, the sharp turns, the bumps in the road. 

Rory closed his eyes as the pain radiated inside him, furious and unrelenting, and he begged to pass out for any kind of relief he could find. He shivered in the cold, aching down to his broken bones, and even when they finally came to stop, all he could think was if Grace was dead, he'd want to be dead too. And if she wasn't.. they would be.

Dare

Dare had been out cold on his couch when there was thundering, frantic knocks and a panicked voice pleading for help that had him up and on his feet in an instant. He had hardly finished the second lock before little Grace threw herself into his trailer. She spun a frantic, desperate reiteration of the events that unfolded in Rory’s trailer and how she’d hidden in the muck until the bad guys were gone, with her Daddy hidden in the trunk. Dare safely tucked her into his bedroom, promising her that she would be safely there if she hid and stayed quiet, and that he’d bring back her Daddy safe and sound. Rushing outside, Dare hopped onto his motorcycle and followed the tire tracks in the mud to try and find Rory before it was too late. 

Ghoulies

Dagger and Skull drove the truck deep into fox forest where not a single sound would carry to the public before they stopped driving, parking between some brush before they headed back to the rear of the pickup. Dagger seized Rory by his underarms and dragged him off the flatbed, dumping him carelessly onto the half-snow covered ground. Skull grunted and looked around. 

“So what, are we supposed to bring the body back?” 

“I think we definitely could. Derek will know what to do with the corpse.” 

Dagger scooped Rory back up and they headed through the throng of trees, arriving at the Sweetwater riverbed. Skull reached over and broke away the thin ice closest to the shore. Dagger sighed as he looked down at Rory. “I think he needs a wake up call.” 

“Make me do all the hard work...” Skull muttered, though he grabbed Rory by the shoulders and shoved his head under the water.

Rory

For the first little while of the drive, Rory had tried to think of where they were. Right turns, left turns, right again, flat stretch.. but the pain that rocketed through him made it difficult to remember any of it, until he completely forget which way they'd turn. Fuck. Looks like as soon as he could get out, he was going to have to just run and hope he found something familiar. It wasn't ideal, but it was all he could do. The bright wash of light almost blinded him when the tarp was taken and he was yanked out of the bed of the truck, unceremoniously dropped onto the ground. Rory tried to look around, determine where he was, but all he saw were frost topped trees and his own shallow breath coming in quick, short gasps. 

The pain in his chest was almost unbearable and he wondered for a moment what it would feel like if his lung had been punctured. Then he seriously considered with the sharp pain he got when he tried a deeper breath. He shouted from behind the rag, obscenities raging on his tongue and in his eyes. The words still came until he was shoved face first into water so cold he couldn't keep from gasping and taking a whole mouthful into his lungs. 

Rory struggled through the pain, jerking his head every which way and trying to pull free. The cold cut like razors against his face and everything inside of him screamed. The wire at his wrists dug in as his hands turned to fists and just as he was sure he was lost to the river, a rough tug pulled him up. He coughed so hard the rag came free from his mouth, plopping in the water. His stomach clenched and he felt like he'd vomit from the coughing but as soon as he managed a full, painful breath, he growled, "Fuck you, motherfuc-" 

And was suddenly plunged back into the water.

Ghoulies

Skull brought Rory up after a moment beneath the force of the icy cold water before he started to curse them out, forcibly shoving his head back under again, Skull’s arm going like an iron bar against his back to keep him submerged. “What are you doing?” Dagger demanded irritably lighting a cigarette. 

“We need information from him first.” 

“Just trying to clear his head.” Skull replied with an annoyed shrug, still keeping his weight on Rory’s back as he thrashed beneath the surface. 

“Why do we even need to bring a body back?” 

“I assume because Derek wants to set him up like a corpse statue. Let him up for fucks sake.” 

Skull pushed him just a bit harder before he jerked Rory upright by his wrist restraints and tossed him back onto the snowy ground. “Dunno what the fuck you think he’s going to tell us. He’s new to the role of traitorous scum.” Dagger rolled his eyes and shoved Skull out of the way, bending down on the ground over Rory’s face. 

“Hey. Look. I know you think that these serpent guys are all your buddies. But uh...no ones here. No one cares about you since you left the ghoulies. You’re a pawn they use to get information about us. So now is your last chance to turn it around. When do the Serpents meet at the Wyrm?”

Rory

Rory at least had a chance to get a breath before going under the second time. Even though his chest was on fire between his aching lungs and throbbing side, he took it and did his best to struggle against the drowning. Thoughts of his girl alone kept him fighting until he was finally given a break and yanked out. Water beaded down his body as he was tossed back onto the ground, the rough landing stealing his breath. As he lay there, he looked up at the sky and tried to manage together a plan. If he could get his wrists free... that's what he needed. He could at least have his arms. He could punch. He could get the tire iron away from them. He'd take them hand to hand. 

Still coughing up water and blood, Rory started to tug at his binds, letting them dig harder into his wrists. He just needed a little room. The wire dug deeper gashes into his skin but he didn't stop as they asked their question, face in his. He knew what they were doing. He'd seen it before. Frankly, even if the Serpents didn't have his back, Dare had. Dare saved his kid and he owed him. 

"Alright," he gasped through a breath. "I'll tell you..." He cleared his throat, looking between the two men, and he said, "as soon as you suck my fucking dick." Rory didn't expect them to take it well, and he knew it would hurt, but like fucking hell was he turning on the only person, the only people, who actually helped him when they could have told him to go to hell.

Dare

Dare managed to find the truck in the distance, killing his engine a good mile or so away from it and hopping off his bike. He removed his jacket and rolled up his long sleeves, leaving his phone behind as well. They were near the river (because of fucking course they were), and if Rory needed him, he’d go in. He approached the truck quickly, searching for anything that he could use to get it going later. He grabbed a screwdriver from the passenger seat and started to approach the riverbank. If nothing else, he’d at least take some guys down for going after his friend. 

Ghoulies

Dagger sighed again, kicking Rory sharply in his hurt side again. “Man fuck you. We came out here hoping that you could clear a name for yourself again. Derek might’ve actually let ya come back in if you weren’t so god damn stubborn. But you know what? Fine. You’d rather suck Anderson’s dick than work with us? It’s your funeral and your kid’s funeral.” 

“So now what?” Skull demanded. 

“You really think he’s gonna give up anything?” 

“He might’ve if you’d of found the damn kid like you were supposed to.” 

“Oh so it’s my fault your terrible plan went to shit?” 

“Forget it. Just throw him in the damn lake.” 

“Why don’t you throw him in the damn lake?” Skull shot back with a scowl. “Or better yet-“ Skull removed a gun from his back pocket and fired without hesitation, the bullet going straight through Dagger’s right eye/nose cavity, blood splattering across the trees. “Now who’s the idiot?” Skull asked of the corpse that collapsed in a heap on the ground. “Take care of that in a minute. Now I don’t give a shit about what Derek wants. You’re a fucking traitor. So I hope you can swim fuckface.” He grabbed Rory’s ankles and began to drag him toward the ice.

Rory

Rory was busy tugging at the wire that he hadn't even noticed the gun being furnished. But the moment a stream of light caught the metal of the weapon, he had enough time to think *'this is it. this is the end.' But when the shot went off and he flinched at the loud echoing sound that sent birds flying, the large body that fell to the ground wasn't his own. "Jesus, fuck. You're fucking psychotic," but he knew the Ghoulies well enough to know most of them would take that as a compliment. "Fuck you." 

His voice hissed as Skull grabbed his bound legs and dragged him, dirt and mud and rocks scraping against his back as his shirt rose up with every step. He struggled but the added wired around his knees kept him from doing much. The ice on the river burned red lines into his bare back, cutting into his arms, with every step further from the shore. "You're fucking dead when I get out of this," Rory hissed, spitting the threat like venom. "You couldn't even find a little fucking kid, could you? How fucking embarrassing. No wonder you're trying to do this.. go suck the fuck up to Derek, hmm?" 

It was a vague thought in his mind that this was the end. If he was dropped in that water, bound and hurt like this, alone, he would die. This was the end and he couldn't stop the words that fell. "Don't worry, asshole. I'm sure Daddy will give you his cock in good time. Fucking piece of shit. Couldn't take me hand to hand like a fucking man, could you? Fucking pussy."

Ghoulies

Skull wanted nothing more than to throttle every ounce of life out of Rory with every insult hurled in his face. He thought of dragging out his suffering until the weasel was actually begging for death. But with portions of the river frozen over and only a partial path available, he’d unfortunately be taken under with it if this were the case. Kicking Rory over onto some thicker, more sturdy ice, he took a brief break to punch him directly in the face. 

“SHUT THE FUCK UP! YOU’RE THE MOTHERFUCKER DYING TONIGHT! And when I’m finished, I’m gonna find your bring her here and go ice fishing for your corpse!” He only managed to begin a light push of Rory’s bound body toward the broken ice patches when he felt something suddenly jam into his shoulder, straight into bone before it was withdrawn and then smacking him in the back of his neck, missing his spine by inches. 

Dare

Dare shoved the man aside and he collapsed hard on the ice, sending a sharp lightning like crack through what remained of it. Pulling out his switchblade, Dare dropped quickly to Rory’s side and cut through the wires around his ankles and knees as quickly as possible before he was violently tackled at his side, the switchblade spinning from his grasp and landing near Rory’s bound hands. “FUCK YOU, ANDERSON! YOUR OLD MAN—“ 

 “—I’M NOT MY OLD MAN!” Dare interrupted, kicking Skull repeatedly in the groin to try and get him off as they grappled with the gun. 

“YOU’RE NO FUCKING DIFFERENT! HE BURNED DOWN MY HOME! HE KILLED MY LITTLE BROTHER! EVERYTHING I’VE LOST IS ALL—“ He punctuated his rage with a shot that blasted into the ice around them. “YOUR—“ The second shot clipped the ice near Rory’s feet. “FA—“

A thunderous crack beneath them interrupted the tirade, and Skull seemed damn determined that even if he had to go down too, at least they’d all go in. He grabbed Dare around the neck but was jabbed in his forearm with that same fucking screwdriver, forcing Skull to drop it and send it spinning into the icy water. 

“Rory she’s safe!” Dare managed, wiggling out from underneath Skull and trying to get to Rory. “She’s—“ The moment he stood he realized his mistake, the ice giving way all around him and dropping him waist down in the frozen water. The cold was like a thousand tiny knives wiggling under his skin and stabbing his bones, and he clawed up, trying to get purchase on anything to pull him out. “We all know the Snake leader is a little afraid of the water!” Skull called out tauntingly. “But—“ 

The ice gave way beneath Skull and the man completely disappeared, Dare spinning around as the ice continued to crack and give. “Del Monico listen to me, just go, get yourself out of—“ Before he could answer, a violent tug on his ankles dragged him under the water, the ghoulie determined to take them down with him.

Rory

Rory had a half a second recognition before Skull was letting out a shriek and he knew that he was right not to even consider what they were saying earlier. Even if Rory had been out here alone, he wouldn't have given them shit about the Serpents. Dare had said it when he was first offered to join. They were a family and while every family Rory had been involved in, he'd been kicked out of, he found something special here, something that was worth fighting for. 

"Dare," he said in almost surprise when the man was cutting at the wires. "You crazy ass son of a bitch. How did you--?" But before he could finish asking his question, he saw Skull recover and he hissed, "Your left!” 

But Dare was tackled down and as the fighting happened, Rory felt useless until the blade was close. He threw himself backwards, struggling for the blade that kept slipping out of his reach from the slick ice. Rory ignored it. He ignored the pain and the cutting. He ignored everything, even the gunshot, and as soon as he had the blade in hand, he turned it so he could start to cut at the binding the best that he could. He looked over at Dare, half in the water, and he cut harder, the edge of the blade digging into skin as he recklessly cut, trying to get free so he could help. 

"Dare!" He shook his head, blood dripping down his hands, and then everything broke. The cracking made the ice collapse underneath and then Darius was gone under the water. "No!" He yelled, kicking frantically towards the cracks as the blinds slowly started to loosen. 

He had to get free. He had to get Dare. He couldn't let him die here.

Rory

But as his body hit back against the ice, Rory felt it give before his body was plunged in. The ice cold water was so intense, he couldn't even think, body going completely still as the current under the water tried to pull him away. Grace, he thought. Then he remembered Dare's words. Rory, she's safe. He should have known. Dare had always kept her safe, saved her life. He would keep her safe now. It felt like needles bearing into his eyeballs when he opened them, seeing the two forms sinking low beneath him. 

Rory cut and dug, leaving long gashes until the wire finally, blessedly, gave in. With his arms free, Rory started to swim. The current helped, taking him in that direction. He fought through the screaming muscles and cracking flesh as he worked to get closer to Dare, fighting through the pain. He wouldn't let him go. He swam hard, lungs aching and begging for air, until he was close enough to grab the collar of Dare's shirt. 

All he could do was point to the crack in the ice where they'd gone in and hope that was good enough. Rory gave Dare a tug and pushed. They would have to fight to survive this, and with the way Rory's vision was darkening, he wasn't even sure that was going to be enough.

Dare

Of all things, Darius was sick of the Sweetwater River. He wanted to move to a place that had nothing but desert, so he’d never have to feel the cold sting of the only place that any villain in this town felt it appropriate to dump bodies. He twisted against the hold that Skull had on his ankles, a bubbled cry of pain escaping him as the Ghoulie’s knife went through his leg. The harder he pulled, the further they were dragged away from the surface and beneath more solid, sturdy ice. 

He’d only barely managed to keep hold of the screwdriver as they sank to the bottom of the river, violently jerked around by the undercurrent and sending them both tumbling and twisting. They were nothing more than a gaggle of limbs before Dare was seized by his collar and jerked free from the Ghoulie’s hold, Rory swimming half-consciously beside him and trying to push him toward the opening a good yard away. It was evident that Rory would lose consciousness soon, and Dare shook his head, gesturing for Rory to go before Skull was on him again, Dare barely managing to get his frigid, frozen limbs to respond in time to catch the knife from going into his chest. 

Even to the untrained eye, it was clear Dare struggled to find balance in the water. The current jerked his arms and legs around and out from under him, so much that he scissor kicked like a frantic toddler and snorted out more of his air. The Ghoulie took the opportunity to turn on Rory, but his chest started spasming, bubbles shooting out his nose as he swung haphazardly, still landing a hard punch into Rory’s injured side.Though the current had pulled him back, Dare clawed his way back over, a river rock clutched in his hand. 

Though it’d cost Rory, Dare managed to sneak back behind the distracted Ghoulie and clocked him impossibly hard in the back of his skull. An eruption of bubbles burst from the Ghoulie’s mouth as he screamed, and all he could do with numb fucking fingers was pound the rock into his skull again, and again, until the water began to dark into an impossible reddish hue.

Chest aching with the desire to gasp for breath, Dare searched for Rory.

Rory

If he could talk, he would have told Dare there was no chance in hell he was leaving him. That wasn't how this worked. It wouldn't be how he worked. Rory had long since wanted to be a better person than he had been. Even than he'd been when he was a Northsider. Not leaving someone who had your back, who came for you, who didn't tell you to fuck off.. that's how you become a better person. The water made him slow and awkward so his punch missed but Skull's was right on and as it landed, Rory unwittingly took a large inhale that filled his lungs with salty, dirty water. 

His body ached and the cold water cut but as it started to hurt just a little less, he knew it was a bad sign. His leg gave a quick kick, trying to motion towards the surface but the strength he needed to get there was leaking out of him the way blood left Skull's body. He wanted to fight, tried to fight, but managed only to float away, giving into the current. His only real comfort was knowing that no matter what, Grace would be taken care of. 

And then nothing hurt anymore.

Dare

Floating lifelessly and being carried by the stream away from him was Rory, and Dare quickly pocketed the screwdriver and pulled himself after him, just barely managed to catch the back of Rory’s shirt before he got away. His new friend was lifeless and unmoving, limbs floating around him in the under current and the water making him appear gray. 

Though he was struggling himself, Dare grabbed Rory’s face and pressed their mouths together, expelling a quick, small breath out and into Rory’s waterlogged lungs. Using the riverbed bottom, Dare pushed off and up for the surface, hitting the ice with an impossibly hard thud that stole the last of his breath away. Gritting his lips together tightly, Dare fumbled weakly for his pocket, digging the screwdriver out. The ice was weak due to the abnormally (yet ironically) warm weather, so the screwdriver went straight through. 

Keeping a hold on Rory as best as he could, he used the screwdriver like a pic, pulling them closer and closer to the large break until finally, just as the edges of his vision began to darken and dim, his head broke the surface. Sinking the screwdriver into the surface of the ice, Dare coughed and hacked, trembling violently as water clawed up his throat and spewed out like bile. 

“R-Rory...” He croaked, lightly jerking his friend as he struggled to hold on. “R-Rory b-breathe m-man...” But his friend remained still and silent, Dare bringing his head over to lay on his shoulder and cursing weakly under his breath. The ice had broken and formed a deus ex machina pathway out of the water and toward the shore, so continuing to use his screwdriver as his pic, he dragged them across the water until they reached the shore. 

Just before he climbed out, Dare heard a sickening THUMP, and nearly vomited at the sight of the Ghoulie corpse pressed against the frozen surface. Vacant, dead eyes stared at him, before the body was swept away by the current and dragged out of sight. Shaking off the cobwebs threatening to surround his mind, Dare shakily dragged himself and Rory onto shore and coughed some more before turning to his friend. Checking his neck, he felt around for a pulse, not finding one with numb as hell fingers. 

“Fuck me...c’mon man you can’t f-fucking die.” He turned Rory flat onto his back and despite the pain and murder shakes, despite what was obviously broken ribs, Dare started chest compressions. Unsure of what he was doing, he counted to some obscure interval of five and then pinched Rory’s nose shut and tilted his chin back. He’d seen mouth-to-mouth performed on enough movies and shows to have a general idea of how it needed to be done. After a minute or so, he still wasn’t seeing any sign of life from his new friend. 

“Cmon a-asshole...I g-got enough kid problems...”He compressed harder on the frail chest and then bent down again, exhaling as much of his frigid air into Rory’s lungs. Again. And again. And again he repeated the process. 

“DUDE!” He barked. “TAKE IN SOME FUCKING AIR!” He tilted Rory’s head back further, breathing another puff of air into his mouth until he saw Rory’s chest rise and fall in a breathing motion. “Yes! Fuck! Cmon!” He did it again, greeted suddenly by a splash of that cold ass water against his face, and suddenly Rory was coughing, Dare rolling him onto his side and hammering lightly on his upper back. 

“Good job, breathe, I got you. I...fuck man, I’m s-sorry.” He grabbed Rory’s arm and wrapped it around his neck, shakily getting onto his feet like baby god damn Bambi, and walked over to the Ghoulie scum’s truck. The interior was still mildly warm, and he carefully hoisted Rory into the passenger seat, the keys sitting on the dashboard. These guys clearly hadn’t anticipated being interrupted. His bike could wait. 

With Rory secure in the passenger seat, Dare drove back to the trailer park, getting Rory immediately into the bathroom before Grace’s tiny head poked out and saw her father in terrible condition. He turned on the warm water tap to give Rory’s body some time to adjust and laid him down with the shower head pouring over him. He quickly shot out a text on his burner to his medic friend to come over ASAP.

Rory

Rory had heard people talk about what happened when you died. There were things people in church said, when they talked about a warm, bright light that brought you into the arms of salvation. He'd also heard that you were welcomed into the arms of fire and brimstone depending on what kind of person you were. Rory couldn't be sure which way he was going in the afterlife but when he stopped feeling pain, he didn't feel either of those things. 

No warmth, no cold, no light. It was just empty. Empty and never-ending. 

There were moments of pain as he lay in that nothingness, moments when his chest hurt so hard he was in too much agony to even scream. Sometimes when he couldn't stop screaming. He didn't know where he was or what was happening to him, but he supposed maybe this was the price for all of his wrong-doings, all of his mistakes, all of the people he hurt. 

This was his punishment. 

But even punishment doesn't last forever. Or maybe it does but it just changes. Rory slowly started to blink eyes that felt far too heavy. Everything around him was dark at first, and then light, then dark again. By the time his vision started to adjust, he was in a room he didn't recognize, laying shirtless in a bed that wasn't his. 

He went to sit up and the immense pain in his chest tore a slew of cuss words from his mouth as his arm crossed over the bandages compressed across his chest and sides. Slamming his hand back against the headboard, Rory tried to breathe through the pain but every breath, no matter how small, brought with it just a little more pain. His brain was cloudy, memories foggy, and when the door to the room opened, Rory breathlessly looked at the man standing there. 

Curiosity filled his eyes as he said, "Dare? Where the fuck am I?"

Dare

Over the next day or so, Dare had a lot of cleaning up to do, and a pain in the ass cold to try and prevent him from doing it. He lugged his ass around as normal, taking care of Grace, keeping in touch with Charlie. His friend assured him that Rory would be in pain, but Dare’s quick thinking is what saved his life. That and the cold of the water preventing permanent fucking brain damage. There was also no current repercussion from the Ghoulie side regarding the two missing bodies (the other that’d been killed there Dare had also disposed of in Sweetwater when he went to fetch his bike). 

His ankle had been stitched and bandaged and he shouldered the other injuries carelessly when it came to lending a hand with Grace. He assured her Dad was fine, he had an accident, he’d be okay, yes Donut can stay here too. After checking up on Rory mid-afternoon the following day, he had a sneaking suspicion he’d regain consciousness. He twisted in his sleep and gripped Dare’s sheets in white knuckles fists, so Dare urged Grace to watch some tv while he headed back into the bedroom to leave some prescription painkillers and some water. 

But by the time the door opened, Rory was sitting upright, chest heaving, eyes wide and looking somehow hazy and alert at the same time. “Hey man. Welcome back to the land of the living. Got some super awesome pain meds for that shattered rib cage.” He crossed the room and handed over the two pills and water. 

“You’re in my room. Your kid is out there watching Tangled and wants to see you when you’re feeling up to it.” Dare sat on the edge of the bed, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’m sorry. I should’ve insisted you stay here until this shit with Derek blew over. I didn’t think they’d have the balls to cross into our territory. They almost killed you this time.”

Rory

Even with the pain raking through him, seeing Dare started to shake off the icicles from his brain. Had they been at Sweetwater? He started to think about it but a headache almost instantly formed so he took the pills without a second thought. They could have been anything in that moment. The prospect of any kind of release was all he really needed. Normally he would have straight swallowed them but his throat was dry so he tried to chug but each swallow sent more pain in his chest. He swallowed much slower and then tried to catch his breath when he finished half of the bottle. 

Grace. 

But instead of insisting on getting right up, Rory decided to wait for the pills to kick in. At least to try. He wanted to see her but she would be scared seeing him in a lot of pain. He watched Dare sit down and then shook his head when he spoke. 

"What are you talking about?" He put the water down on the table beside the bed and then cupped his hand along his side, trying to force his brain to remember how he ended up like this. "Who-- What happened?"

Dare

Hoping he wouldn’t have had to repeat the story seemed to be just a hope, nothing more. But Rory was owed all of the information. Dare rubbed at the fading bruising around his neck from his recent suicide attempt and sighed a little. He wasn’t going to let his mind drift back there again. No matter what. 

“Hoping you can fill in some of the blanks. But Grace came here saying you told her to run and she heard you yelling. And that some people put you in a truck. She also spent ten minutes reiterating to me how much she hated laying in mud.” Dare turned to face him. “I got to the Fox Forest when you were getting dragged into the river. The one dude shot the other dude because they were fighting I guess? Then that guy was gonna shove you in tied up. We fought, all three of us went into the river. You...drowned, Rory. Fuck face punched you in the side and you...” Dare cleared his throat, speaking quietly. 

“I killed him. Smashed his head in with a rock. I’m not much of a swimmer but I got us out, did CPR, got you breathing, and then took their truck back here to keep you warm. I put you in the shower and warmed you up until my doc friend came. Hence the Vicodin.” 

Dropping his hand from his neck, Dare tried to look as stern as possible. “I’m not gonna let them fuck you up like that again. I promise.”

Rory

It was strange the way that his memories came back. Rory went from not remembering anything, to suddenly remembering it all as soon as the words were spoken. It was like watching a movie and realizing with every new frame that while you didn't know what came next, you remembered seeing it before. He suddenly remembered the cold, and the water. He remembered the fighting, and he remembered letting go, letting the water take him, and fuck, he thought it was over. He thought everything had ended but the pain he felt now told him that nothing was over. 

"Jesus, fuck," Rory grumbled, rubbing his hand over his head. He was lost in those memories, lost in the water still. Maybe part of him was still underneath the surface of the river. Maybe part of him didn't come out. His body felt heavy and he leaned his head back on the pillow, trying to ignore the aching in his body and praying that the pain meds kicked in soon. "They broke in. One of 'em, broke in the window. I tackled him, told her to lock her door." 

But there was a warmth in his heart at the idea of Grace complaining about the mud. She'd likely taken many baths since then. "That's not the first time you saved my life," Rory said, his attention suddenly drawn to the way that Dare wrung his hand along his neck. 

"I betrayed them," he said. "I'm surprised they didn't try sooner. How many Ghoulies turn Serpent and live to tell the tale? I'm alive, Dare. Because of you."

Dare

Fighting back the gut instinct to argue with Rory proved difficult, but not impossible. He wanted to dissuade the former Ghoulie from thinking that was anything but a walking disaster from turning Bruce, but he consciously became aware at the bruising around his neck and stopped what he was doing. He needed to be the leader that they needed, and not try to focus all his energy on proving that he was anti-Bruce. Wallowing in a pool of self-flagellation and denial wouldn’t make him effective for anyone.  

“And I’d do it again, too.” He finally responded after a moment of silence. “Prospect or not, I’ve got your back. You’re gonna live here for a bit. Hopefully this shit storm with Derek will die down and we can get you back in your place. I’m gonna have some new security put in place too.” Dare stood slowly and walked alongside the bed as a million and one different thoughts ran through his head. Neither of them should’ve survived last night. But here they were, both alive and relatively unscathed considering the circumstances. 

“I’ve been fighting with myself,” He admitted slowly. “About some of the things I’ve done. You haven’t had the pleasure of meeting my old man, but he’s why Derek is so fuckin angry. When Bruce was a kid, he was a medically diagnosed psychopath. He feels nothing. And when I killed that Ghoulie, I felt vengeful. Disgusted too. But I know I’d do it again in a heartbeat.” He stopped pacing and gave Rory a firm look. 

“You are my brother and I’d do it a thousand times more to keep you safe. That’s what separates me from Bruce. And that’s how I’ll lead. You and your kid are important. You deserve a shot at being safe and happy, Rory.”

Rory

"I thought you can't swim," Rory said, rather than asked, not really looking for an answer. He didn't mean to feel the overwhelming rush of emotion but even hearing those words assured him that this was exactly where he wanted to be. This was his family in ways that nothing ever had been before, even the blood relations he had. Rory knew better than to argue with Dare in that moment, and maybe part of him wanted to stay too. He'd been practically dead twice as it was, one from Derek, and one in the river, and if staying here took away that prospect - at least for a little while - he was going to do it. 

"Thanks, man," he said with a nod. "I just wanted to know Grace was safe. I didn't think anyone knew where I'd be." But Dare did, and Rory knew that he'd have done the exact same thing. The memory came back to him, the question that the Ghoulies asked him when they finished dunking his head in the water. "They wanted to know when the Serpents meet at the Wyrm. They might be planning something there. There should be extra security there." 

He couldn't be sure if that was just between Skull and Dagger, or all of the Ghoulies, but it wasn't worth risking. Then he listened, nodding as Dare told him these things that he felt like the other male had been struggling with. 

"You're right," Rory said when Dare finished talking. "You aren't your old man. I doubt he'd have helped me when I knocked on your door for help getting Grace back, let alone fought to bring my ass back to life. I'm glad you can see it, Dare." He was right, Rory didn't know Bruce, but he knew the stories and he knew plenty of people like him. 

"I know you told me not to say it but.. thank you. For everything. I'd-- literally be dead if it weren't for you. I don't know how to pay you back for that but I hope you know that I won't stop trying."

[gayerluke]

so i’ve been meaning to write about this for almost a week now since it happened early tuesday morning, but i’ve been burying myself in hyperfixation hell to distract from the utter shock & devastation of it. but i owe my friends on main to talk about it bc i know you guys care about me & my little family.

tw for animal death

my rat patrick passed away extremely suddenly & unexpectedly in the middle of the night between monday & tuesday. he was euthanized at the ER & went peacefully. i wasn’t with him during the actual moment (protocol with small animals is different because they use a different method) but i gave him a lot of love right before they took him back.

both rats were completely FINE early monday. they were active & behaving normally, like little scamps. i came in late that night to check them before bed. david was his normal self, climbing up the cage bars to come see me. patrick, however, was curled up in a little ball, fur all puffed out, eyes squinted: classic sick rat pose. i picked him up & he was awake & responsive, but didn’t squirm like he normally would. his breathing was extremely labored. to me it seemed like an upper respiratory infection, but it’s unusual for them to come on so suddenly -- usually you’ll see mild symptoms building up over the course of maybe a week before it gets this bad (i would’ve definitely begun treatment well before he had reached the state he was in). URIs can usually be treated with simple antibiotics/anti-inflammatories, which needs to be supplemented with a probiotic bc rats are hindgut fermentors who need the beneficial bacteria to digest. but i knew this was bad enough that he needed to go to the ER bc he needed oxygen.

took both rats with me to help reduce the stress for them. this was about 3am. the person who opened the door for me was someone i know from school, of course, bc there’s literally nowhere in town i can go without someone i know working there. it’s fine though bc she was kind of a calming presence & also they can tell the doctor im a tech so they dont dumb it down for me. they took him back right away & took vitals; breathing was labored like i said but he was also hypothermic with a temp of 96; normal is 100-102.5, same as a dog or cat. they put him in an incubator with heat & oxygen. took x-rays, found fluid in the lungs but also AROUND the lungs, known as pleural effusion.

it was at this point that i knew it was not a simple URI but something really really bad. i associate pleural effusion with heart disease; fluid builds up in the institial spaces when blood isn’t being pumped properly. the dr said the fluid could either be pus from infection, blood from trauma, or free fluid (water basically) from a cardiac abnormality, likely congenital given his age. the only way to know for sure was a thoracentesis (chest tap) for $2,000, which didn’t guarantee anything except diagnosis of the type of fluid, & could also cause further damage. just sending him home on antibiotics wasn’t going to work unless we knew it was an infection & could jeopardize his health even further. she also revealed that she didn’t want to do outpatient bc she really didn’t think he’d survive very long outside of the oxygen cage. i was there for several hours just trying to come to a decision. ultimately i chose to let him go. he was only 3 months old.

i elected to have a necropsy performed on site free of charge (as opposed to sending it out to the big lab for more precise diagnosis). i had to call the vet 4 times to finally get ahold of the attending doctor to get the report; the 4th time i called i sobbed on the phone to the receptionist. waiting was the worst fucking part. finally got to talk to her yesterday. the ER vet’s best guess was a congenital heart defect; however the vet who did the necropsy found that it was in fact a severe infection. i can’t help blaming myself & wondering if he could’ve been saved if i’d just taken him home on the antibiotic meds, or if it could’ve been prevented if i’d taken better care of him.

i’ve been a complete wreck since then, breaking down in sobs a lot. i didn’t sleep for 4 days. but the absolute worst part of all this is david. rats are social animals; they CANNOT live alone. human companionship isn’t enough. now i put him in his carrier & set it out on the couch or bed with a towel down so he can hang out with me for 6-8 hours a day. but he’s too nervous to come out of the carrier (patrick was always the investigative one who’d let david know when it was safe). he mostly sleeps all day. he is not eating much if anything & i’m trying to keep track of any weight loss, though he does seem to eat a bit with the emergency nutrical smeared on his kibble.

so now i’m at a crossroads: i either get another rat, which i’m not totally sure i want to do, or re-home him. the necropsy results help me determine that, because they’re most likely littermates so if patrick had a heart defect david could too.

again, i’ve been in stasis the last 5 days but now i have to make a tangible plan. at this point i’m leaning towards getting a second rat; david & i have bonded so much over this experience that i don’t want to give him away & really, 2 rats aren’t much more work than one. i might go back to the reptile store where they’re from to see if the owner (who i know) will just give me another one with good temperament.

but first david needs a vet appointment to see if he has any evidence of infection setting in, or if he should have prophylactic antibiotics. the cage & room need a deep clean. technically i could get a new rat right now since i’d want to quarantine both of them for 2 weeks, but unfortch i’m flying to fucking portland again next friday. i need to find where to board him.

sorry this is so long but i’ve really been Processing it all. i’ve spent all week in shock. for the first 2 days i couldn’t look at david without breaking down in full-on sobs. patrick was only 3 months. he was doing so well & becoming a big boy. i’m heartbroken. but i’m determined to still give david a good life.

[elizabethgoldlokidottir]

Something Precious Act I Ch.2-The Seer

ACT I, CHAPTER 2 THE SEER "Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering."-Yoda, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace It was autumn in the enchanted forest and near the province of Dunbroch. Of all the lands in Vanaheim, the Enchanted Forest(or Misthaven depending on which class of person you came across) tended to have the most beautiful and cold fall weather. In this land, the very air itself was filled with magic. It existed within proximity of every being in this land, whether or not magic was within them or whether it surrounded them. Like a spirit, it lived within every plant and animal, for it permeated all things. This constant flow of magical energy created the beauty of the forest. It gave the falling leaves on the trees their beautiful hues, bright and neon shades of red, yellow and orange, glowing within the wintering trees like fire. There were certain plants that were magical within themselves whose leaves gave a faint glow like the morning sun as they became ready to fall upon the ground. The birds became ready to migrate to warmer parts of the land, warmer kingdoms. The sound of wildlife verberated through the forest just like the magic within it. The usual quarry, the deer, rabbits, wolves and all the small creatures who lived within the forest were looking for places to hibernate or moving towards more bountiful hunting grounds. The magical creatures were no different. Dragons had already found the caverns where they would bed down for the winter. Herds of unicorns followed their migration paths in order to avoid their wild equine cousins in the cinmarron. Winter was coming. As a hush flowed over the forest and mist began to cover the trees, a quiet padding of high heeled boots fell upon the forest floor. Out into the woods, a figure stepped. Of all of the strange creatures roaming these wilds, he was perhaps the strangest of all. He took the shape of a man, but his appearance was not of a normal man. His most outstanding feature was his skin. Where the pale skin of the Scotsman should have been, there was instead glittering golden scales that sparkled in the light. The small glittering scales covered his body just as they covered the body of a reptile. He had unusual amber eyes that glowed within his eyes like smoking embers, grey and yellow all at once. In the place of fingernails, this man had claws. The talons extended half an inch above his fingertip and were a sort of greenish brown, like the woods that surrounded him. Whenever he would come across an obstacle, he would sneer, showing that his canines were just a hint sharper than the average human being. He kept his red cloak wrapped tightly around him as if to ward off the imaginary cold that had not yet settled in. A mop of brown hair existed upon his head that extended nearly to his shoulder. For all of this inhuman appearance, there was some humanity within him, for it could be seen in the raw rubbing underneath his eyes and the few despairing sighs that he let loose now and then. This so called beast, so feared by all of the land, was grieving. He moved out into a clearing. It had been a campsite. He walked over to the fire that had once been set up. Moving closer to inspect it, he had found that it was still smoldering. A litter of dirty blankets and pillows had been stacked near a pathetic looking patchwork tent. He smirked to himself. She was around here somewhere. “Show yourself, dearie.” He spoke in a high pitch voice laced with a Scottish accent. Out of the woods came another figure, another strange creature. This one looked to be a human young woman, with shocking red hair. Yet when one searched out her eyes, only stitches remained. They were stitched closed, almost as if her eyes had been taken out. Instead, she held up her hands and out from each of them a glowing blue eye looked out. This strange creature was cloaked in peasant clothing. She spoke in an almost echoing voice, her voice reverberating through the air like waves through the mist. “Rumplestiltskin. I’ve been expecting you. As you see all that I have told you has come to pass.” The imp smirked as he circled around the seer like a lion stalking around his prey. “Ah...yes...it all came to pass…” His voice grew with intensity as he circled her, his amber eyes settled upon her. Whenever he spoke, he used his hands in animated gestures. The madness within his grieving and jumbled mind had led to certain unstable behavior, or was it just that he no longer cared about his appearance? “You spoke that my actions on the battlefield would leave my son fatherless. And like an imbecile I chose to follow you. So...in fear that I might die, I hobbled myself…” he gestured to the leg on which he used to limp before his powers had come to him. “I returned home to a wife who couldn’t stand the sight of me because of cowardice. She ran off with the damn pirate. Oh...and then to save my son from the wars I became the dark one. Because of them I let my son go to the land without magic and being the coward I am...I didn’t follow. So yes...because of my actions on the battlefield my child did become fatherless. But….” he came closer to her and snarled, his voice holding the edge of sarcasm. “It would have been nice to know all the pesky details!” He tried to tell himself not to be harsh with the woman, for if Baelfire was here with him that wouldn’t be what he wanted. After he swallowed his anger deep down, producing an unpleasant taste akin to bile in his throat, he gave her an intense stare. “I want you to tell me one last thing. I have one last question for you. And seeing as you ruined my life I should think you owe me at least this one.” He stood there, his small figure compared to ordinary men still carrying the power of the darkness coursing through his veins. “Will I find my son?” and for a moment, there was the desperation of a father in his voice, for it shook and trembled as the true grief and devastation threatened to show. The seer held up her hands, not to see into the future but to stop his speech. “Wait. There is one price you must pay.” She held out her hands. “Take this burden from me.” He stood there, comprehending it for a moment. After all, if she wanted this gift taken from her, surely it must have been painful. Yet he knew he had no choice. To get his son back he would do whatever it took. Seeing into the future just might point him to where he needed to be to find him. He could finally see what fate awaited him. Future was the specter that all men feared, and he would be able to tear off his black robe and look into the phantom’s eyes. “Erm...alright.” he said in his high pitched, almost playful voice as he grabbed her hands. Out of the fog and the mist, a bright light burst forth from the two figures, as power flowed from one to the other. The female screamed in pain as the magical energy flowed from her to the imp who had taken a hold of her hands. The surrounding animals ran away in fright, both the predatory creatures and their prey. Rumplestiltskin stared into the air in front of him, his eyes giving him the appearance of being in a trance. He looked around frantically as if he was trying to find a figure in front of him, as if he had suddenly become blind. “It’s all a jumble!” he said in alarm. “I can’t make it out!” “Focus…” the seer hissed, her voice becoming weaker and weaker as the imp in front of her began to rapidly breathe, the panic ensuing within him. “Over time, and practice, the pieces will fall into place.” all the sudden the all powerful dark one felt weak...vulnerable...like a beginner just learning how to work his magic. That was not desirable for him. For even though he still had much to learn about the dark arts he would never admit it. Yet he listened...in desperation to find his son, he swallowed his pride and accepted the seer’s teachings. He focused himself like one would focus their vision. There was only one vague vision that presented itself. He was in the same wood that he was now, but it was eerie and dark. He could smell blood. A paddock remained nearby as well as a series of shacks. In the middle of the clearing, a work horse was tied up, latched to a post. The creature was mangy, the equine covered in old wounds that had tattered it’s fur. The poor horse’s eyes were wide in panic, and he could see tears within them. There was a bloody bandage around it’s right hind leg, extending down to the fetlock from the cannon bone. The pack animal shook from fear and crossed it’s legs now and then as it struggled to gain it’s footing, having little to no coordination. Rumplestiltskin, having always had a sympathy towards animals(far more than he did for people), felt his heart breaking towards the creature. He knew what it was like to be lame, to be friendless. Out of the smokehouse came the drunk owner, filthy, dressed in peasant clothes and obese, he came staggering out towards the mare that was tied up. There was a whip in his hand, and the mare was trying to release herself from the post. The equine neighed in fear and tried to strike out with her hooves, but she could not rear up on her hind legs. She backed away, limping harshly as she did so. As the brute came closer and closer with the whip, Rumplestiltskin held out his hands to try to choke him with his dark magic, but it wasn’t working. As the abuser approached, the horse looked right at the imp, her eyes wide in panic. And then...she spoke within his mind. “FATHER! HELP ME!!” As he woke up from the vision in a sheer panic, he quickly let go of the seer’s hands, staggering backwards. “A dirty trick!!” he snarled. “You only wanted to release yourself from this torment! And that vision! It is wrong! First of all, how the hell would I give birth to a horse! Second of all, I only have one child and he is a male! Do you actually think that any woman would lay with me long enough to produce another?! Me?! The monster?!” Well! Explain yourself!” he tried to look to the seer’s stitched face, but instead she now lay as a lump on the ground. The transfer had taken too much out of her. Her breathing was shallow and harsh. The young woman was dying. He had to get his bargain before she passed away. He leaned over her. “Now I have taken this burden from you. If you cannot explain what I saw...fine. I will find out for myself. But I wish to know one thing, and I pray you do not make me wait. I cannot spend years trying to focus my vision when there could be a way to find him once more. Now tell me…” his voice was dangerously low, a hint of an animalistic growl within it. “Do I find my son..” The seer, speaking in a weak and gasping voice answered him. “Yes…” At that simple answer, a wave of relief broke over him as well as excitement. His boy...he knew that he was somewhere out there. His features for once grew soft, as he thought of the day that he was born..and that he would once more hold his darling son within his arms. “How.” he stated with some impatience...and excitement..as he looked to her. “You will form a curse that will lead you to him...but you will not cast the curse…” a ragged breath came from her as her hands shook. “Someone else will. And you will not break the curse...someone else will…” at this point, she struggled to breathe. “Yes, yes!” his voice grew impatient. “Go on!” “A young boy will lead you to him. But be warned...the boy will be your undoing. And yet there will be another who can save you from this fate. There will be the young boy, but there will also be a young girl. The girl will be your salvation…” She could not hold her breath anymore. She gave a sharp exhale and then fell back upon the ground, her body growing limp. As she passed away, the dark one leaned in to inspect her. He placed his finger to her throat. No pulse. He sighed to himself, running his clawed fingers through his brunette hair. “Rubbish..” the imp growled under his throat. “Absolute rubbish.” But there was a part of him that knew she was right deep down. But about that child...now that had to be ridiculous. No one could ever love him. Or could they?

[emperorsfoot]

Another Hordak chapter. 

More flashbacks to his early life. 

This one with an art lesson from Hode! 

...

True to her word, Catra ordered two of her henchmen to babysit Hordak and keep him on task. They followed him when he went to the galley to retrieve more ration packets. They lurked in the doorway when he took off his exo-suit in the infirmary.

A reptilian and a satyr.

They were afraid of Hordak at first. All of the gang from the Crimson Waste was. Hordak was less of a person and more of a cryptid to them. A living shadow with glowing eyes that lurked within the bowels of the crashed ship. New-Kyle and Four-Arms said that he was something Boss Catra brought with her back from the Fright Zone. But to spite this very clear origin story, the rest of the gang still spread wild tales that he was a monster that had dwelled in the crashed ship for centuries –people did believe the ship was haunted, after all. That he was woken from his slumber by Huntara and She-Ra, and hungered for fresh blood and living flesh.

But after watching Hordak for the past couple of days, the pair decided maybe he wasn’t an immortal revenant from the bowels of a crashed vessel.

He did not crave living flesh or fresh blood. The only thing they ever saw the creature eat was the brown goop that came out of foil wrapped ration packets he found in the galley. On the off chance that he did eat fresh meat, he complained about the flavor, and remarked loudly that ‘naturally formed’ beings were obsessed with seasoning at the expense of nutrition.

He was not nearly as intimidating out of the shadows, in the light of the sickbay. He was not a living shadow. In fact, without that armor on, he was very thin. Far too thin for his height. Almost skeletal. With portions of flesh and matter all together missing from his forearms.

By the third day, Hordak’s two guards couldn’t believe they had ever been afraid of him to begin with. By the third day, Hordak’s guards had become comfortable enough with their charge to become bored with their task.

“I am Mara, She-Ra of Etheria, and I am gone.”

The reptile guard groaned loudly, frustrated and annoyed. “Gawd! Can’t you shut her up?”

From his position under the bridge console, Hordak gave a growl of frustration. The sound rumbling up from the back of his throat. It used to be such a sound would terrify any Etherian who heard it. It was dark and rolling, like distant thunder warning an approaching storm. Since being defeated by the Princesses and taken by Catra into the Crimson Waste, the sound had diminished in effect until all it earned him from the pair of Etherians in the room was an impatient glance.

“I feel like if turning her off was something he could do, he would have done it by now.” Suggested the satyr. “I mean, if she’s just starting to irritate us just imagine how irritated Tall-Dark-and-Creepy must be.”

Hordak let out another growl of frustration. He missed the days when the ignorant natives of this backwater rock feared him enough to respect him –at least while in his presence. He knew his soldiers back in the Fright Zone must have said all manner of things behind his back. Scuttlebutt was a staple of military life. But none would ever have had the gall to talk about him as if he weren’t in the room when he was very much present and in a position to hear. He did not appreciate being referred to as ‘Tall-Dark-and-Creepy’. His name was ‘Hordak’. It was the name he chose for himself upon his promotion to the Emperor’s cabinet. It was a name blessed by Prime himself when he was elevated to the highest position a clone could hold. It wasn’t just a name, it was an acknowledgment of his skills, all his hard work, of his… value to the Empire. To call him by anything else was an insult!

“If either of you sandworms think you can perform this task better than I, I’ll welcome you to try.” He snapped, not bothering to slide out from under the console. Hordak already knew they couldn’t. Prior to a few weeks ago, the denizens of this desert thought the hologram’s recorded voice were the whispers of ghosts.

There was a beat of silence in which the satyr and the reptilian just glanced at one another. They knew the were ill-suited to mechanical work just as well as Tall-Dark-and-Creepy did.

“Just make sure you are performing that task.” The reptilian reminded him. He was a little unsure of what the task was –exactly- he just knew it had something to do with repairing the ship’s main bridge computer so that Boss Catra could hear an old recording. “Otherwise it’ll be all three of us that get in trouble if Boss Catra gets mad.”

“Had my eyes but tear-ducts, I would weep for you.” Hordak scoffed, unmoved. What did he care if his guards shared the catwoman’s ire? He never wanted them hanging around him in the first place. He wanted to be left alone to tinker at his task and wallow in feelings he didn’t quite know names for.

“Hey, man, we’re just doing what we were told!” Snapped the reptilian. “I don’t see why we should get in trouble for following orders when you’re the dead-weight that can’t seem to get this act together.”

“That is because you lack discipline.” Hordak informed him. None of his brothers would ever have an attitude like that. If you were a guard, and you allowed your charge to disobey or not perform a task they were given, then you were not doing your job. It was as simple as that. If you were a Territory Captain, and your planet rebelled, then you were not doing your job.

A good soldier did his job.

A good soldier followed orders.

…

“Do you know how to hold a planet, Zero-Zero-Three?” Hode asked.

The older clone insisted on taking a shuttle down from the Vinyl Hood to the planet’s surface. Lord Hode always liked to tour the planets whenever he was away from Capitol Core. He had a keen interest in the diversity of the universe, something that couldn’t be found among the Horde where everyone looked identical to himself, thought identical to himself, believed the same dogma, held the same values. Hode said such things became monotonous and boring. Stagnant. Unmoving.

The clones of Horde Prime had no far-reaching histories, no legendary heroes or god-like idols –save for Horde Prime himself. The clones of Horde Prime had no past. Most of them, didn’t even have concepts for a ‘future’. Only one, single, unifying present. As a race, and as a culture, they were not going anywhere. They were not moving towards anything. They were fixed. Stuck.

Aliens were not like that.

Aliens had histories reaching back as far as there was intelligent life on their planets. Aliens had legends and heroes. Myths, and monsters. Stories, and illustrations, music, and dances, poetry, sculpture, fashion, architecture. Art. Aliens had art. And Hode was obsessed with it.

They walked down the wet and bloody street. The bodies had been cleared away, but puddles of blood still gathered and congealed in the gutters or on the sidewalks. The avenue stank of urine and feces, all beings voided their bowels and bladders when they died. Clearing away the bodies did not clear away the smell. In the heat of the day, the stench of blood mingled with piss and shit hung in the air, rank and thick. Zero-Zero-Three fought the impulse to cover his nasal cavity with a hand. In the heat and rush of a battle, the smell of blood and shit was exhilarating. The scent of prey. After the battle, when a soldier has stepped back from the killing edge, when they were just a normal clone again, the odor was foul and offensive.

Reaching the courtyard outside the capital building Hode stopped them, looking at the sculpture in the center of a bloody fountain.

“What do you suppose this is supposed to be, Zeor-Zero-Three?” Asked the older clone, eyes focused on the carved marble and not looking at his Force Captain.

Zero-Zero-Three glanced at his Lord. Really, he wanted to stop and examine a hunk of rock that was shaped into… “I believe it is meant to be a group of their own kind, my Lord.”

Indeed, that was what the statue looked like. Two full sized alien natives with their tentacles for arms and multiple legs. Raised, almost bubble-like ocular organs. Oral orifices stretched wide in what he assumed were supposed to be expressions of enjoyment for their kind. Below the two full-sized aliens were a group of smaller ones, their bodies not as proportional as the larger figures, their limbs shorter and thicker. Almost like how immature clones looked before they reached full maturity and were allowed out of the tank. Child aliens.

“Clearly.” Nodded Hode, not exactly annoyed with his subordinate’s superficial and obvious view of the statue. Of course, it was a group of their own kind. Species rarely put up statues of creatures not themselves outside their central governing buildings. “But what genre of group? A mating pair and their offspring.”

Clapping his arms behind his back, Zero-Zero-Three relaxed into a parade rest. Lord Hode could take hours when ‘appreciating’ aliens’ art. The Force Captain settled in for a great deal of standing, staring at nothing important, and being asked for opinions on a thing he had no opinions of.

“This would imply that they’re a binary species.” Hode continued.

“Binary, my Lord?” Like, ones and zeroes? Like the coding he used when reprograming his personal datapad and console?

“Yes, binary.” Repeated the Lord as if this explained things. “A species divided into two different sexes.”

“What would be the purpose of that?” Zero-Zero-Three found himself asking before he realized that he really didn’t care. A single species being divided sounded… problematic to him. The Horde did not have divisions –apart from those of military rank, obviously. All Horde were made the same and hatched the same. The divisions came later, after individuals were given opportunities to distinguish themselves from their brothers. When they performed well on missions, in combat, serving their superior officers. And there were levels to these divisions. Clone trooper, sub-Commander, Territory Captain, Force Captain, and Lord. There was no one-or-the-other.

“For procreation.” Hode elaborated. “Races that do not have our cloning technology must procreate by natural means, male and female combining to create a new being. Some species the mating pair only comes together for that explicit purpose and then separates soon after.” He turned his attention back to the statue. “This depiction seems to imply that these creatures do not separate after mating and raise their offspring together as a single unit. The fact that they’ve placed this statue outside their central governing building implies that their offspring and the family unit are a central object in their society.”

Zero-Zero-Three looked back at the statue again. The adults –the parents- attention focused on the younger ones –their children. “No wonder we defeated them so easily.” He scoffed. “If they waste their time with these smiling younglings instead of developing their military. One has to wonder how they managed to overthrow Captain Eight-Two-Seven at all.”

Hode glanced at him, a little surprised. “Have you never had to fight a creature defending its offspring before, Zero-Zero-Three?”

“Not that I’ve been aware of.” The younger clone shook his head.

The older clone looked legitimately surprised by that. “Parent organisms are particularly formidable when protecting their offspring. They become irrationally vicious. Societies that place a central emphasis on their offspring and the family unit are easy to conquer, but more difficult to hold.”

“Are you excusing Captain Eight-Two-Seven, my Lord?” Asked Zero-Zero-Three. Should he not have killed the other clone? He thought his Lord’s intensions were very clear. The Territory Captain couldn’t do his job, he served no purpose, he had to be discarded.

“No.” Hode assured the younger man. “Merely commenting that he did not understand the natives of the planet he was assigned to hold. Let’s go inside, Zero-Zero-Three.”

Obediently, the Force Captain lead his Lord into the building. There were still guards posted at the entrance, and the main lift. The blood that had been fresh earlier was thick and congealed now, covering the lobby in a dark green goo that squished under their boots and made uncomfortable suction sounds when they lifted their feet.

One of the clone troopers set as guard pressed the button to summon the elevator for their Lord and their Force Captain, then double checked to make sure the lift cabin was empty before the Lord and officer stepped inside. The building had already been emptied of alien natives, there shouldn’t be anyone in the lifts except for Horde clones. But Zero-Zero-Three demanded vigilance and diligence from his subordinates, and that was what they gave him. No one wanted to be the idiot who let their superior officer, or their Lord get assassinated after the battle had already been won.

Zero-Zero-Three pressed the button for the floor that held the governor’s office.

Every other window on the floor was pained in stained glass. Each one showing a different scene.

Lord Hode insisted on stopping at every one.

Every. One.

Right out the lift, was a stained glass window flanked on either side by two indoor plants –all of them splattered with dry green blood. Hode ripped a couple of leaves off the plants and used them to wipe the window clean. Then stood back to study the full picture.

The lead of the pains cut bold dark lines through the whole image, drawing even more contrast between the vibrant colors. Primary yellows, jewel-tone blues, deep crimson reds, violets, emerald hues, and energetic oranges. This one showed one of the aliens seated on what might have been the wall of a primitive castle or fortress of some kind. A sword lay on the wall next to them, but the subject’s back was to it. In the alien’s tentacles were instead a branch and a chalice.

“I suppose this one is meant to tell us these creatures prefer eating leaves and getting drunk, while neglecting warrior training.” Zero-Zero-Three announced his best guess at an interpretation before his Lord could ask. Because Hode always asked. The older clone seemed determined to make everyone else who worked under him think about art as much as he did.

Hode gave a small but nasal snort. He found the Force Captain’s interpretation amusing. “Possibly. Art is always open to the meaning of the beholder. But, I have found in many cultures, that plants have symbolic meanings beyond the physical and tangible. The branch could be an offering of peace on this world. The book, a symbol for knowledge –or the sharing of knowledge since the written word is how information is passed. The presence of a discarded weapon could indicate that these creatures believe violence should be set aside in favor of communication and peaceful exchange.”

“Pathetic.” Grumbled the younger clone. No wonder his troops defeated them so easily. It was a wonder they managed to take back their planet at all.

At each and every window, Zero-Zero-Three gave his interpretation. If he became tired of the art and remained silent, his Lord would ask for it. Then disagree with it. Lord Hode disagreed with each and every one of Zero-Zero-Three’s interpretations of the images they were examining. He looked at them through the eyes of a Horde clone. Read the colors, and subjects, and objects as a soldier would read them. He did not try and think why an alien might feel it important to depict that specific thing in that specific way.

One featured one of the natives, holding a sword in every tentacle, facing off some kind of large creature rising up out of the ocean. It was the first image Zero-Zero-Three saw of one of the natives that he felt appropriate applying the word ‘warrior’ to. Any being that looked willing and ready to take down a monster four times its size was no pathetic pacifist.

“You see, Zero-Zero-Three, no culture is without its heroes and its legends.” Hode’s tone was almost joking when he followed that stament up with, “Almost makes you wonder why we don’t have any.”

“My Lord?”

But the older clone did not elaborate.

Then they came to the broken windows. The ones Zero-Zero-Three and his troopers burse through when they infiltrated the building from the roof next door.

“A pity.” Hode lamented. The broken ones were the only windows the Lord did not pause to study.

Finally, they reached the governor’s office.

The carpet was still thick with the aliens’ blood and it squished loudly with every step they took, still wet fluid oozing up from under the mostly-dry top layer of green.

Ignoring the sound his boots made, Hode strode through the office, taking note of the frames on the walls. The art in here was strikingly different from the stained glass in the corridor, or the statue in the courtyard. Those were clearly definable as depictions of the aliens themselves. Family units, or figures from their histories or their folktales. But the paintings in the office were more abstract. Fewer colors, cooler colors, and simpler lines. Some even nothing more than geometric shapes.

Hode looked back at his subordinate.

“I don’t know, my Lord.” Admitted the Force Captain before the older clone could ask. “My abilities stop at the identifiable.”

“Simpler art is less distracting in a work environment.” The Lord explained. “The less complicated décor allows the mind to focus on tasks, and the cooler colors –blues, grays, and greens- stimulate more efficient thought. Much more appropriate for a governor’s office than the loud and heavily contrasted stained glass outside wouldn’t you say.”

That was not a question.

“Why even have art at all?” That was a question. Zero-Zero-Three did not understand its importance. It was impractical, probably time consuming to create, and did nothing but sit around taking up space. In his mind, art served no purpose. It should be discarded.

“In a clerical office setting like this, art would make them feel less pinned in.” Hode sounded very patient with his Force Captain. The kind of patience that seemed into his voice when he was losing patience. Sometimes the other clones’ lack of interest in the things that interested him were frustrating. To have such a keen interest in a subject, but have no one with which to share that interest with. Hode was quite possibly the oldest clone still living, and yet in all his years he had found no other Horde soldier he could call kindred.

Leaving the paintings on the walls, Hode strode to the desk and Zero-Zero-Three dared to hope that the Lord might actually begin the work of selecting a new Territory Captain so that they could get the heck off this Host forsaken rock and get back to the main fleet in Capital Core. The cloning crèches were in Capital Core, and they held the best medical technology in the known universe. Horde Prime reserved nothing but the best for his clones. Zero-Zero-Three felt more at ease knowing such resources were close at hand. His condition required him to be hyper-aware of his medical needs.

Hode did not sit down at the desk or boot up the terminal. Instead, he picked up a frame on the desk that had been knocked over during the battle. The image on it was blissfully free of green blood spatter. Hode held it up for his Force Captain to see.

“What do you make of this, Zero-Zero-Three?”

It looked like a simple piece of paper. Mass produced and of poor quality. Scribbled on the paper in a medium that looked like it might have been sticks of soft wax –like crayons- were messy stick figures. At least, Zero-Zero-Three assumed they were figures. One, drawn in green crayon appeared to have the four legs and tentacles for arms that the natives had. They were holding a sideways L-shaped line in one tentacle that may or may not be a representation of a burst pistol, and it was pointed at a tall and skinny figure rendered in black crayon. Two arms, two legs, a single line for a body, triangles added to the sides of the head that might have been pointed ears, and red wings framing the center line of the body. Even in the primitive and simplistic rendering, Zero-Zero-Three recognized the image of a clone trooper.

The younger man scoffed. “A crude representation of their victory over Eight-Two-Seven.”

“I child’s representation.” Hode corrected. “Probably the leader’s child, since they kept the drawing here on this desk.”

“Pathetic.” Zero-Zero-Three muttered with distain.

Hode made a non-committal noise and placed the frame back on the desk, standing upright. “Judging by the drawing, the child is probably very young. Too young to have participated in the battle. But children have a tendency to grow up, and the child of a rebel leader usually grows up to become a rebel leader themselves.” The older clone informed him. “You will need to find this child and kill them before that happens.”

“My Lord?” Asked Zero-Zero-Three, confused by the order. How could he search this planet for one small child from his Lord’s side all the way back in Capital Core? That didn’t make sense.

“You know, you never answered my question, Zero-Zero-Three.” Said the older clone by way of explanation. “Do you know how to hold a planet?”

A small stone of dread sank into the younger clone’s stomach and Zero-Zero-Three fought the urge to swallow the nerves that suddenly welled up in his throat. “That is a Territory Captain’s job, my Lord. A Force Captain’s job is to lead the troops and command the military in his Lord’s name.”

“You are a clone of our great Emperor, Horde Prime, and your job is to do what you’re told.” Hode reminded him. The words coming out in a snap that neither of them were going to call ‘frustration’. “And I am telling you to remain here and hold this planet for our Emperor.”

That was a demotion. Territory Captain was a rank below Force Captain.

“My Lord, have I displeased you in some way?” Demanded Zero-Zero-Three, desperate to understand why his Lord –whom he had tried to serve diligently and attentively- was basically banishing him to a nothing of a planet far from the capitol. Half way to Old Revena, the original Horde World.

“My pleasure was immaterial in this decision.” Hode assured him. “I am simply placing the best person I know of in a strategic position.”

“What strategy is there in demoting me to a planet sitter!?” Snarled the younger clone, more of his anger seeping into his voice than he meant. He heard it in his tone, and his volume and regretted it immediately. One did not last long by questioning their Lord and talking back. Zero-Zero-Three instantly demurred. Bowing low to the older clone. “Forgive me, my Lord, but this is very sudden and I don’t understand why.”

Was it- was it because of his defects…?

Hode pulled out the chair from the desk. A wide, flat base meant for creatures with more than just two legs. It had a tall back, but no armrests. “Sit down, Zero-Zero-Three.”

He did as he was told. Sitting awkwardly. His narrow posterior barely taking up any space in the over-wide alien chair. It made the younger clone feel small. Less, somehow.

Hode didn’t so much sit on the desk as he did lean against it, his arms crossed over his chest. “Whom do you serve?”

“The Empire.” He supplied as if this should have been obvious.

“What is the Empire?” Pressed the older clone, as if the original answer was not an answer at all.

“The Horde Empire.” Zero-Zero-Three corrected. Then paused. Remembering all their conversations about art. ‘What do you suppose this is supposed to be?’ What was the Horde Empire? Really? A collection of genetically identical soldiers, willing to lay down their lives for their Brother. The greatest technological military the universe has ever seen, all at the command of their Brother. A sweeping force of nature that conquered everything it touched in the name of their Brother. Their Brother. At the center of it all was Horde Prime. Emperor of the Known Universe. The heart of the Empire. He was the Empire. “Horde Prime, our Big Brother is the Empire. I serve Horde Prime.”

It was hard to see Hode’s expression from under his hood, but by the folds of the fabric, it looked like the older clone’s ears drooped just a little bit. Was he displeased by Zero-Zero-Three’s answer? Could Zero-Zero-Three do nothing right?

“That is the correct answer.” Hode announced. There was no displeasure in his voice. Perhaps the ear-droop was imagined. It was hard to tell with that hood up. “You will continue to serve our Emperor and Brother from here. By holding this world for him and making sure it does not fall back out of our hands.”

Now it was Zero-Zero-Three’s turn for his ears to droop.

“Don’t look so sad, Zero-Zero-Three.” Hode reached out and grabbed his chin, forcing the younger man’s face up to look at him. The red glow of his eyes the only thing illuminating the inside of his hood. It made Hode’s expression impossible to read. “You are a slow learner, but you do learn. Preform your duties here well, and you just might find yourself elevated above a Force Captain.”

Zero-Zero-Three’s eyes went wide, disbelieving. Then narrowed again with skepticism. “But the only rank above a Force Captain is a cabinet Lord.” Hode’s position. “For me to be promoted, you would have to die.”

“All clones must die.” Hode reminded him. “And all clones must serve.” A pause. “Have you never dreamed of climbing to the cabinet, Zero-Zero-Three?”

Pulling his face out of the older man’s hand, the younger clone looked down and away. He did not want to meet his Lord’s eyes when he admitted. “I never thought I’d live that long.”

Because of his defects…

“Remind me again, Zero-Zero-Three, what is your batch number?” Hode commanded.

“Sixty-six thousand six-hundred and ninety-four, my Lord.” He supplied dutifully. “From crèche number forty-two, tank number three.”

66694-42-003

“Sixty-six thousand six-hundred and ninety-four.” Repeated the older man. “You never expected to live this long, yet here you are eleven years old and still preforming admirably.”

Zero-Zero-Three flushed at the complement, the skin of his cheeks and ears coloring a vivid purple.

“Who’s to say what will happen to you before your number is called up and you go to join the All High Host? Preform your duties well and your superiors will take note of you.” Hode reminded him. “You were a sub-Commander serving under me for less than a year when I took note of you.”

The younger man flushed again. “I was so sure you were going to kill me, my Lord.” He admitted. “In hind sight, you should have killed me. I questioned you in front of the other Captains.”

“You did not question me, Zero-Zero-Three, you asked a question. There is a difference. A very significant one.” Hode was very firm in that reminder. “And it was that act that drew you to my attention. Allowed me to see that you were not just a mindless drone like so many of our other brothers.”

His ears drooped more at the reminder that he was not like the rest of their brothers. He was different. Atypical. Anomalous. “Perhaps that was my… defects manifesting early.”

“Perhaps.” Hode admitted and Zero-Zero-Three was not prepared for how such an easy agreement –without hesitation- that his defects might have been influencing him even back then. “That does not change the fact that you’re different. Ears up, Zero-Zero-Three, that is not an insult. It is a statement of fact. Of every other sub-Commander and Force Captain in that room, you were the only one who though to ask me ‘why’. That struck a chord with me.”

“Actually, I asked what the relevance was, my Lord.” Corrected the younger man without thinking. One did not usually correct a cabinet Lord of they wanted to remain happy, healthy, and alive. Zero-Zero-Three looked up into his Lord’s darkened hood, concerned that he might have just insulted his superior. But, as was usual, Hode’s expression was unreadable. Zero-Zero-Three looked away again. “Why are we speaking about our first meeting.”

“Because I’m old and I like to reminisce.” The other clone scoffed, as if this answer should have been obvious.

He stood from the desk, scooping the child’s drawing back up as he did so. He opened up the back of the frame and pulled out the paper, folded it and slipped it into a pouch of his belt. Another piece for Lord Hode’s always growing art collection. The old man did not offer an explanation and Zero-Zero-Three did not comment. Hode always took at least one –sometimes more than one- cultural artifact from every planet he visited. It was at the point now that an entire deck of the Vinyl Hood was devoted to the Lord’s art collection.

Cultural clutter.

Zero-Zero-Three did not stand. His Lord had not given him leave to.

But he did look back up at the older clone. Crimson eyes pleading, ears drooping so low they were almost brushing his shoulders. “Are you really leaving me here, my Lord?” He asked, sounding very much like a freshly hatched cadet in that moment. Like a hatchling being pushed out of the crèche. “I thought you said it would be inconvenient for you if you lost me?”

“I said it would be inconvenient if you died.” Hode corrected the younger clone. “So, don’t die. I will be very annoyed if you do.”

He moved to leave.

Zero-Zero-Three catapulted to his feet. He opened his mouth to shout at his Lord’s back, then realized he had no idea what he wanted to say.

“I do not know how to hold a planet!” He blurted out. Three times Lord Hode asked him if he knew how to hold a planet and each time Zero-Zero-Three avoided answering. Because he didn’t know how. Because he was a Force Captain, not a Territory Captain. It was not a Force Captain’s job to hold a planet, it was a Territory Captain’s job.

Hode looked back at him, the turn of his neck pulling on the fabric of his hood so that Zero-Zero-Three could see the lower half of his face. A square chin identical of his own, and thin lips pulled back in a humorless grin, displaying crimson teeth. “Then learn. You are a slow learner, Zero-Zero-Three, but you do learn.”

The younger clone chewed on the inside of his cheek. He wanted to try and convince his Lord not to demote him like this. To find someone else to stay and planet sit, so that he could remain at his Lord’s side.

“Learn about art, Zero-Zero-Three.” His Lord suggested. “When you understand a species' art, you understand that species. And if you understand a species, you can control them. It is always easier to hold a planet when the native population is under your control.”

Zero-Zero-Three looked to the side, his eyes finding an abstract painting on the wall. A background of pale cream swirls, behind a series of unevenly spaced cubes in hues of teal, and shaded in umber. He had no idea what it was supposed to be. The Horde did not make art. The clone troopers of the Imperial Horde spent their spare time on more practical hobbies.

“Alter your uniform to hide how thin you’ve become.” Hode reminded him. “And be sure to eat plenty of protein. Do not allow yourself to become any thinner.”

“You’re really leaving me here?” Why did Zero-Zero-Three feel like he was being abandoned? His Lord had given him a task, he should carry it out without question.

“Yes, Zero-Zero-Three. I am.” Hode exited the office.

Zero-Zero-Three slumped back into the alien chair that was too big for his tall but narrow body. He put his head in his hands. He was given a task. A new mission. He had his orders. He might not like them. They might have come with a demotion. But Zero-Zero-Three would preform his task as best he could.

He was a soldier, and a good soldier followed orders.