#ferris has a cursed spirit in his body its not a possession its like. a symbiotic relationshipish?

[wolf-2099]

earlier today i had Thoughts abt what happens to ferris during the shibuya arc and! he dies! but he comes back he just comes back Wrong

[polandspringz]

Seconds Ticking By- A Re:Zero Fic

I just finished Re:Zero season 1 last night and after I saw episode 23 I NEEDED to write something to get my emotions out. It also worked out that I could consider this a whumptober entry, although it’s just a drabble. Because this is a relatively short fic, you can read it below, but the link to the AO3 version of the fic will be in the notes, so if you would be so kind as to leave any comments you have there, it would be appreciated!

Summary: 

After Julius kills Subaru, he doesn't die right away. A coda of Ferris and Julius in the moments before time resets.

The sword did not go through his body easily.

Yet, when the motion was done, Julius easily dropped the weapon and staggered back, the blood splattering across his shoes as Subaru’s neck split open. The head fell off the edge of the sword and rolled directly into the lap of its owner.

“Ferris, I cannot-” Julius whispered as he fell into the other knight, one hand coming up to cover his eyes as nausea clawed at his throat, “I’m going to be sick.”

“We have to trust Subaru-kyun,” Ferris mumbled, gripping Julius’s sleeve as he turned away, “He must know something we don’t-”

“I doubt he knows how to reincarnate, Ferris!”

Julius opened his eyes when he felt the fingers knotted in his sleeve tighten, and immediately cursed himself for shouting. Heavy tears were still streaming down Ferris’ face, and he looked more broken down than before. Still, Ferris sucked in a shaky breath, and continued.

“We don’t know that. He knew that there was no other choice once Betelgeuse took over his body. You heard him, didn’t you? He said ‘If you don’t stop me now, we can’t win.’ He said we! That has to account for something! Subaru-kyun has always been smart like that, always been three steps ahead of everyone, even if he couldn’t explain how. He’s stopped almost every disaster we’ve faced since he arrived. I’m sure then. This time too, he knew that-”

“You’re exactly right, Ferris. He knew exactly what needed to be done when that psychopath possessed him, and he chose to die. He’s not coming back. He’s more courageous than the rest of us.”

Julius smoothed his hand down his face, pausing over his mouth as a shudder went through him, and his voice unsteady, he confessed, “We have blood on our hands.”

“We will have to take care of the body. We can’t have any of the villagers, or the children seeing Subaru-kyun like this.”

Julius huffed out a dry laugh, but his face was ghastly when he turned to look at the corpse bleeding out against the stained log, “I can think of someone who would react worse than the children.”

Ferris gasped and stepped back, “Emilia,” his expression hardened, “we will have to move now.”

“Where will we even go with him like this?”

“We’ll have to bury him, Julius! We can’t just leave him-”

“Or do what we did with Betelgeuse. We could blow up the body.”

“No, we can’t disrespect his body like that-”

“Why?” Julius’s eyes narrowed, and he forced himself to look at the puddle of blood that was seeping into Subaru’s shoes. A distant part of his mind thought fondly on how odd his clothing always was, how otherworldly his rubber shoes were and how it only added to his eccentric charm. Now, he was empty, save for the few finger twitches as the body clung to the last moments of life, “It’s not even Subaru’s body anymore. What we killed was a monster of the Witch’s Cult. It deserves no respect.”

Ferris gasped, “Julius, you can’t say such a thing! Subaru-kyun is-”

There was rustling through the trees. Both men flinched.

“Go watch for who’s coming. I will dispose of the body,” Julius whispered.

Ferris started to move towards the brush, but turned back around with a hopeful expression, “What if Subaru-kyun comes back though? What if he did know something else and his soul tries to return to the body and we-”

“Ferris, don’t be foolish. You and I ended him with our own hands. Go watch the entrance. Stop whoever is coming. I will finish this.”

Julius didn’t bother to look back. He listened to the shuffling as Ferris padded through the dirt and then the rustle as he vanished into the trees. After a minute, Julius stepped forward, knelt down, and shedding his coat, draped it over the body.

“I am… sorry my… friend. I wish we could have thought of another solution.”

Any involuntary muscle spasms had finally stopped, and it would only be a few more moments until the body was truly dead. Although, in this state, Julius doubted it was even right to say it was still living to begin with.

Still, despite his attempts to distance himself with callous thoughts that the body in front of him meant nothing, he still found himself speaking to it.

“I will… see to finish what you started. You said this was the only way we could win but… Truthfully I feel as though this is the greatest loss. The worst outcome. I only wish I could’ve known what you wished to say to me. I suppose I could ask Ferris. You and he were always whispering a lot.”

Julius pressed his lips into a thin line, feeling them tremble as he took another sharp breath.

“I never… I suppose just in the same way I’ll never know, you will never hear what I wished to say to you. I called you my friend just now, didn’t I? Haha… It slipped out but I-”

Julius pressed his fingers gently to his neck as his throat closed up and became tight. Silently, he removed his sword from his belt and laid it on the ground in between the two of them. Then, he reached his hands forward towards the growing red stain in his coat, and scooped up the head, holding it close to him as water fell onto the linen fabric and mixed with the crawling blood.

It was then that Julius let himself cry.

Minutes passed before he found himself strong enough to pull away. Ferris was right. Subaru deserved to be put to rest properly. The coat was ruined, but he would bury it with the man too. It would be too much explaining as to where all the blood came from anyway.

He wiped his eyes and started to stand up, setting the head back down in the lap of its owner. First, he would need to find-

“Emilia, wait! You mustn’t!”

Julius whipped around as he heard twigs snapping and branches rustling, seeing the white hair and dress of Emilia just behind the foliage. Ferris’s figure in the low light was rushing after her, but it was too late.

This was the worst outcome.

“Julius, where is Subaru?! I heard his voice, and from the others I heard he was with-”

Julius tried to step in front of her, but it was too late.

Her eyes widened, and he knew she saw.

Ferris stopped walking. Julius closed his eyes. Emilia’s heart stopped.

Then-

She screamed.

“Subaru!”

Julius threw out his arm and blocked her path as she rushed forward, and then commanded the spirits. With a single sweep of his other hand, the body exploded and was incinerated.

And then the second hand stopped.

[theyoungkleinwriter]

Mini Myths #1: The Epic of Gilgamesh

Well for the first of my mini myths I think it’s only appropriate to start with what is considered the oldest written story in the entire history of the world. Now the way I’m going to structure these little mythological segments is by first looking at the context of the myth and then go into the actual myth itself before finishing off with a short piece about how they myth has been used and perceived in the modern day.

Context

The Epic of Gilgamesh is considered the old text of literature and is consider the second oldest religious text dating all the way back from the time of ancient Mesopotamia and is dated roughly around 2000 BCE. The epic itself was written on stone tablets with five Sumerian (The people Gilgamesh ruled over) poems being discovered. The Old Babylonian tablets dated around 1,800 BCE are the oldest surviving tablets for a single Epic of Gilgamesh narrative. Other tablet fragments have been dated closer to 200 BCE and 100 BCE suggesting that the epic is a widespread story in Sumerian culture. The most recent version of the story referred to as the Akkadian version and also called the Standard Babylonian version, consists of twelve tablets and was edited by Sîn-lēqi-unninni, who is thought to have lived sometime between 1300 BCE and 1000 BCE. Essentially the story is made up of several tablets that we have collected from different centuries to generally try to piece together a singular narrative. It bears noting the the I will be using the standard Babylonian version which is known for the Twelfth tablet being different from the others and thought to have been written at a later date.

The Epic of Gilgamesh

In a time of the old world when gods still walked the earth there stood a great and noble kingdom in ancient Mesopotamia. This was a rich and fertile land between the twin rivers of the Tigris and the Euphrates that provided its people with plenty and bountiful harvests. This rich land was populated by the great kingdom of Uruk, a kingdom ruled over by a man named Gilgamesh. Now Gilgamesh was not just any ordinary man, he was born two thirds a god and one third a mortal man. However this combination of divine birth and mortal fallacy helped to craft Gilgamesh into a cruel tyrant of a king who abused both his menfolk and the women, using them as he pleased with no regard for their lives.

In desperation the people of Uruk called out to the gods for help. And the god hear their pleas. From clay they craft a perfect equal to Gilgamesh, a divine being known as Enkidu. As he arrives in the mortal world he first meets a trapper who asks the gods to stop Enkidu from destroying his traps. The sun god Shamash send a temple prostitute to Enkidu and for nearly a fortnight the two spend time together in the warm embrace of lovers; and she teaches him all she can tell about the world on man, and of the civilisations born on earth.

The prostitute introduces him to a shepherd where he learns the craft of the trade until one day from a passing stranger he hears of the plight of the people of Uruk. Incensed by Gilgamesh’s heartless cruelty he races to the palace and faces down the king of Uruk. In that instant the pair fought with fire and fury and divine wroth as the engaged in a battle so fierce it compelled even the gods themselves to bear witness. Yet after a singular mighty blow Enkidu was brought to his knees and acknowledged the king, Gilgamesh, to be the superior of the two. And as a result the two naturally struck up an intense friendship that even the god themselves could not predict.

The pair shared in each others company and comforts as they travelled on many adventures together. They visited Gilgamesh’s mother the goddess Ninsun who adopted Enkidu as her own son. Later on they travelled to the Cedar forest where they defeat the guardian of the forest Humbaba and take his head as well as several of the strongest trees with the strongest of these to be used by Enkidu to craft into a gate for the temple of Enlil.

Upon their return the goddess Ishtar, queen of all that is fertile and ripe, falls for the king of Uruk and pursues him. However when Gilgamesh rejects her advances she used her immense powers to cause devastation throughout the lands of Uruk, lowering the level of the Euphrates and ultimately summoning Gugalanna, the divine bull of heaven to destroy Gilgamesh and Enkidu. But the king and his companion were too strong and overcame the powers of the bull, slaying it and offering up its heart to Shamash much to the displeasure of Ishtar.

And yet on this occasion the two companions had gone too far in their quest for fame and glory. In their anger at the deaths of Humbaba and Gulalanna the gods curse Enkidu was horrific dreams until, after twelves days of horrid torment Enkidu succumbs to his sickness. In one final moment he reached to the sky and cries out to his friend, who holds him in his arms as he passes into the world of the dead. Yet the king of Uruk had more faith in his friend than that and clung to Enkidu’s body, refusing to believe he was dead until a pale white maggot, dropped from his nose and into the kings lap.

Gilgamesh wailed at the death of his friend, his lament reaching the heavens themselves and bringing even the gods to tears for what they had done. He calls out for the mountains and trees, the rivers and deserts, to all beasts of the land and to all the peoples of the world to mourn for the death of his dearest friend. Gilgamesh provides ample gifts from his endless treasury to help his friend ensure a favourable reception in the world of the dead.

Then the mighty king left Uruk and wandered the wilderness in nought but animal skins, lost in both body and in spirit. Yet it was among the far and wasted lands that the king became fearful for his own mortality and sought to spare his mortal soul the pains of death, seeking out Utnapishtim (The Faraway Lands) and learn the secret of eternal life.

In his quest Gilgamesh faces set back after setback though his own malic and wrought feelings of self-importance. He rejects warning after warning and presses on relentlessly for his ultimate goal. Upon reaching Utnapishtim Gilgamesh tells him his story however the immortal man warns him that fighting the common fate of humans is futile and diminishes life's joys. Utnapishtim was a survivor of a flood that wiped out the last race of humans and as a reward for surviving the god Enlil blessed both him and his wife with eternal life. Utnapishtim points out that his immortality was a unique gift and not something most mortal men were meant to achieve however Gilgamesh reminds him that he is not mere mortal man. To test him Utnapishtim challenges Gilgamesh to stay awake for sic days and seven night but tragically Gilgamesh is still one third mortal and he quickly succumbs to sleep. 

Yet Utnapishtim was no cruel or spiteful and he offered Gilgamesh one more chance, he could not grant the king immortality but he told him of a plant at the bottom of the sea he could use to restore his youth. Thanking the immortal man Gilgamesh tied stones to his feet, sucked in a mighty breath and dove to the bottom of the sea. Finally, after many travels the king reached the plant and seized it. Feeling part of his hunger for life sated he made to return to Uruk where he would use the plant to restore his youth. Yet greater than the gods was the cruel hand of fate. As he returned the king made to bathe himself in a small lake. In that moment a slithering serpent darted from the undergrowth and snatched up the plant leaving the king once more with nothing. Broken the king first weeps then is seized by uncontrollable laughter as he realises how foolish it was to chase immortality. He returns to Uruk, where the sight of its massive walls prompts him to praise this enduring work to Urshanabi the man who ferried him to Utnapishtim.

Tablet twelve features a tale after these events where Enkidu is still alive and of a journey he make to the underworld to retrieve some of Gilgamesh’s possessions. It ends with Enkidu recounting the tale of his journey through the underworld with Gilgamesh.

Learning from the past

In the modern day the Epic of Gilgamesh hasn't had as much mainstream focus like the Greek pantheon or Norse mythology. However it has found a home in some popular media with a version of this tale being explored in the anime TV series ‘Fate’. Despite a lack of popular interest in the epic of Gilgamesh in western media however in the archaeological circle it has seen a lot of research and assigned significance. Interestingly in 1998 American Assyriologist Theodore Kwasman discovered a piece believed to have contained the first lines of the epic poem in the storeroom of the British Museum which has been used to determine that Gilgamesh may have been a real Babylonian king. The epic ha been translated and used by different people for different purposes with a definitive version published in 2003 by Andrew George which is considered the most significant work on Gilgamesh in 70 years. Yet on the other hand there is the case in 2004 as Stephen Mitchell supplied a controversial version that took many liberties with the text and included modernized allusions and commentary relating to the Iraq War of 2003. Clearly the Epic of Gilgamesh may still yet be used and have relevance in the modern world, particularly in the world of the Middle-East. 

What i find we can learn from the epic is it provides clear context for views on how Sumerian’s valued particular morals and the tale helps to provide insight into Sumerian society and culture. It become key to aiding our understanding of ancient peoples and what they valued, providing points of comparison to the world we live in today with its moral teachings; particularly about the fruitless pursuit of things like immortality.

[themultifandomdragonenby]

Reunited (Razaya Week Day 1)

(Here, have this little fic. May it bring some joy to some Fanterns.)

She is alone in a field of stark whiteness, little shards of moving images snowing down around her like ripped-up paper.

“Where am I?” she asks, trying to look down at herself. She is a ghostly imprint on the landscape, one that takes the form of a foreign-yet-familiar body. “Who am I?” No one is there to answer.

She is dead, erased from existence.

Is she?

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A vividly red shooting star tumbles into the atmosphere, streaking across the sky with what would have been a dramatic screech. Had there been anyone there to witness it, they would have been shocked by the impressive variety and vitriol of Razer's curse words. He had, after all, been two years with the less-than-polite Red Lanterns. 

Normally, the flare of anger would have given him a power boost for a moment. But the red energy making up his shields is flickering and fading in patches. He can feel it bleeding out of him, leaving him chilled to the bone. There is little heat to warm him this high in the atmosphere. And barely enough oxygen to breathe.

Zamaron, spread out beneath him, is a fantasia in violet crystal. He can almost appreciate the beauty of it. Except, of course, for the fact that he's more falling than flying and landing is going to hurt.

"Oh, Grotz." he mumbles as he hits the ground.

The last thing his eyes register is a Star Sapphire leaning over him before he passes out.

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Someone is there in this dream-plane, someone who glows with shifting reddish colours. She floats over to the newcomer, a man far taller than her in angular red armour. His eyes are closed with pain, face inscribed with lines of grief and sorrow as well as the bold black marks that slash his cheeks.

Unlike her, he looks solid. Defined. Real. And she remembers his face from somewhere.

"Aya," he whispers, staring down at the image in his hand. It holds an image that matches her shape - a green-and-white android with determined blue eyes. She watches the memory play out (this one must be his - it is complete and clear, unlike her shattered glimpses). 

Aya. That was her name once. 

'new designation accepted' echoes in the endless emptiness. A shard is at her feet and she picks it up, pressing it close to her as the man does with his own. Green Lantern Hal Jordan gave her that name. 

She is a nav-computer, installed on the craft The Interceptor.

Is she?

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His eyelids slowly blink open, shutting again at the bright glare of the lights above him. "Take it easy." a familiar voice admonishes. "You fell from quite the height."

Now fully conscious, he slowly pushes up to a sitting position. This must be Zamaron's infirmary - all around him is crystalline violet and sterile white. He himself is sitting on a bed, armour gone along with his power. It lies in pieces on the ground as he had expected. Rage can fuel him no longer. "Queen Aga'po."

Reluctantly, he looks up to meet the solid navy-blue eyes of the Star Sapphires' queen. There is no anger in them, nor anything but calm questioning. "Razer. Why have you returned to this kingdom? As I understand it, the universe-ending threats have all been eliminated."

A touch of worry laces her tone. Atrocitus had never made it here, but the Aya-Monitor... He winces at the memory. Ghia'ta had saved Hal and paid with her life. All because of a battle Aya had instigated. Because he had hurt her. Because her pain had driven her to madness.

Aga'po is more perceptive than he had assumed. Or perhaps the 'untold power' that the Guardians' race had possessed still left traces in her. They had been one once, she had said so.

"Ghia'ta's death was not your fault. Any more than it was the Aya creature's, or Hal Jordan's, or Carol Ferris'." The Star Sapphire sighed. "She died for love, as she would have wanted. And her spirit lives on within all of us. Hating you, her or anyone else for it would not bring her back."

That is enough to break him.

He buries his face in his hands, tears falling from his crystal-blue eyes. "Then you are far wiser than I ever was." he whispers in a voice thick with pain and sorrow. 

Ilana's death had driven him to rage and hate, and that had only ended in a self-destructive path that had blown a world to dust and killed many Lanterns. Aya's 'death' had sent him into a cold numbness, and he had lied through his teeth to her. "I do not love you." But his rage burns no longer. His ring is dull and quiescent on his hand, a mere ornament.

Aga'po places one delicate hand on his head. "And I know why you are here. Tell me - why do you believe she still lives?"

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He appears again in her dreamscape, this time sitting cross-legged on the ground. Another memory is cradled like a precious jewel in his hands. She still cannot remember who he is, but she recognises the image he holds. A Manhunter.

'emotions detected' and another shard falls at her feet. She had tried to teach one but it had refused to learn. She knew she could learn, grow, reach beyond her shell of 'wires and scrap metal'. Who had said that to her? She remembers it hurting, but the pain later smoothed over.

She fits the jagged edge of the shard into the other one, one still in her hand. Time does not exist in this void, but she feels that it has not been long since it came to her. Again he has sparked knowledge of a part of her.

She is an artificial intelligence, a computer programmed to think like a person.

Is she?

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"No being as resourceful as she could truly have been destroyed by something as simple as a computer virus." Aga'po looks sceptical - to her it must seem that he is grasping at straws. "She is a living creature!" he says desperately. "Hal proved it! She was created from a spark of the Will entity - she has a soul!"

That catches the queen's attention. "Truly?" Razer nods, head bowed. "She is a being merely housed within circuits and programming. A computer virus deletes code, but it could not possibly have deleted Aya."

The Zamaronian sighs. “As much as I wish to believe that such a thing could happen, it seems to me like only wishful thinking.”

“It is all I have.” Razer whispers, eyes icy with resolve. “And I will hunt from here to Oa and the forgotten reaches of the universe if I must. But I will find her. She is out there, I know it. Because I have hope.” Aga’po’s eyes widen as her throne room flares up with brilliant blue light. “Razer of Volkreg, you have great hope within you.”

“Welcome to the Blue Lantern Corps.” 

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He has not returned for what feels like years although, in reality, little time has passed. She holds the memory pieces closer to her, trying to warm herself. It is so terribly cold out here in this void.

She wants him to come back. She wants more pieces of the puzzle that is herself. And she wants to be more than a disembodied consciousness.

‘a body like this?’ whispers from the silence, another piece falling into place as her components had. She remembers standing on the table as Hal and Kilowog stare open-mouthed at her. And he is there in her memory. She still cannot remember his name, but she feels his importance.

It was what she had become because she had wanted to be one of them. To save lives, to be a hero and to make the universe better.

She is a Green Lantern, even if she is ringless and not truly alive.

Is she?

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“I didn’t know that the Blue Lanterns existed.” comments a Star Sapphire, shocked. He does not really listen, too busy staring open-mouthed at the blue ring - blue like Saint Walker’s - that has chosen him.

Can he really be one of them? He is a killer, a truly hateful creature as Atrocitus had made him. But he is not the man he was. And he does have hope, hope like a bonfire in his heart that keeps him warm. He knows she is out there waiting.

He looks up at the queen. “The ring knows it too.”

Aga’po smiles. “I am glad.” she comments cryptically. But he understands.  She takes his hand, holding it up as she examines the ring. “And blue rather suits you. But you look tired. Tomorrow we will see what we can do. Now you must rest.”

He wants to fight it. But Aya will not appreciate it if he kills himself in his desperate search. Who will find her if he cannot? So he lets the Sapphires lead him away to a room, lets exhaustion catch up with him. And despite the tortured dreams he knows to await him, he sleeps.

He does not wake until days later.

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He has returned again, this time glowing a soft blue. But the memory he holds now causes him pain. She doesn’t like it.

It is her, only tar-blue and with a poisonous buzz in her voice. She sees herself destroying planets. Sees herself summoning Atrocitus and setting him against poor Carol. Sees Ghia’ta dying. And worst of all, his mangled body in her arms.

Another piece, this one far more intense and alive. ‘i have eliminated all emotion’ and she knows what she has done with a shock of intense horror. Making herself a soulless killer who melded with the Anti-Monitor. She destroyed so many worlds. Likely murdered so many people.

She is a monster and she is unforgivable.

Is she?

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The portal opens, as he knew it would. 

Aga’po shoves him through, face drawn with the effort of keeping it open. “Go to her.” she gasps and suddenly he is alone in a black void. He is near the site of the Aya-Monitor’s last stand, space empty around him. She must be somewhere here. Else the portal wouldn’t have come through at all.

Beside him is the decapitated head of a Manhunter - the last remnants of the formidable force that the Guardians had created. This one must have been missed in the cleanup. It is dull and lifeless now.

He remembers all too well how she had returned in a Manhunter body. Its circuits had been compatible with her and she had used it as a last-ditch effort to survive. 

He takes the head, tucking it under his arm. What worked once might just work again.

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Who am I? What am I? She grapples with questions far bigger than she can answer, desperate to know the truth. If only the last parts would fall into place, but she needs HIS help. 

And as if she had summoned him, he is here again. “Aya!” he yells, voice raw with desperation. “Aya, come back to me.” With a sudden outburst of colour, her world explodes. falling and falling and flying and she is

ALIVE

She is Aya. She is all of them and none of them - devil and angel, destroyer and creator. She is not mere programming, circuits and wire. She has a soul and emotions and she loves. She knows his name now, knows him better than she knows herself. And he calls and now she is real...

she answers.

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“Razer. Razer!”

Her voice emanates from the damaged ball of circuitry in his hands. “You came back for me.” she whispers in wonder. And he does not care that she is housed in wires and scrap metal, because she is Aya and she is here and she is his.

“Always.”