#however stone without the doctor... yeah that's dangerous

[technically-human]

Hear me out. Father son relationship between shadow and stone AND shadow hates Robotnik for dating stone 😦

This is my truth

[insomniacwithoutpurpose]

Talk to Me

NineRose Day 3: "We need to talk about this"

(I finally finished it!!! It's also on AO3 under SeraphinaVerena, if you want to check it out)

Rose was hiding deep inside the TARDIS, avoiding the Doctor. Despite the futility of it, Rose hoped that the TARDIS would keep her hidden. She knew that the ship, while sentient in some form, however, would always favor the Doctor even if she sometimes left little presents on her nightstand in the morning. Still, she hoped. 

They had been in London that day, Rose dropped by Jackie’s to get her clothes washed—no matter that the TARDIS could do that herself, too. But Rose enjoyed being able to come home, giving her something that grounded her to Earth, because all that she’d seen with the Dcotor, Rose was sure that she could get lost if it weren’t for Jackie. But today had been different. 

Rose, saddled with her clean laundry after saying goodbye to her mom, was walking across the Powell Estate courtyard back to the TARDIS. The Doctor had refused to come up with her, not after the last time when Jackie had slapped him, claiming to have to do “important repairs, Rose. The TARDIS can’t fly without ‘em.” She’d smiled and let him get away with the lie, not really in the mood to break up their bickering anyway. However, when a horrifyingly familiar voice called her name, Rose wished like hell the Doctor had come with her. 

At first, Rose froze, unsure if she was hearing things, but when she heard the voice call for her again, Rose continued to the TARDIS, walking faster than before. She was nearly to the TARDIS when someone grabbed her arm. 

“Thought that was you, Rose,” he said, causing a shiver to run down Rose’s spine. “Ignorin’ me now, are we?” Every muscle in her body tensed, but she forced herself to face him. 

“Hi, Jimmy,” Rose said tightly, grimacing slightly. His grip on her arm wasn’t painful, but she didn’t any part of him touching her. Carefully, she turned her body so Jimmy would have to let go to remain civil or risk being too aggressive--a line he knew how to dance on well. 

“Haven’t seen you around for a while, Rose. Heard you were ‘traveling.’” The smirk on Jimmy’s face told her how likely he thought that was. “I just figured you’d found some bloke to shack up with and didn’t want to fess up to your mum.”

Rose narrowed her eyes, edging further away from him. Once, she had found his bleach blond hair and dark eyes alluring—everything her mum would’ve hated, but now every part of her skin itched just to be around him. She knew better; she was better. 

“What do you want, Jimmy?” Rose asked through gritted teeth, trying desperately to not let her nerves show. Jimmy got off on that--on her fear and, from that, her compliance. Logically, Rose knew she shouldn’t be afraid of Jimmy. Of all the things she’d seen in the last few months, Jimmy was nothing. He was a spider on the wall or a weird shadow in the corner of her room. He was the past, and Rose Tyler had seen the end of the world and Jimmy Stone was just a bad memory. 

Unfortunately, it seemed Rose’s body wasn’t agreeing with the logic. Her hands were shaking and her grip tightened around her laundry bag. Her gaze kept skirting along the edges of the courtyard, looking for an escape, and her feet itched to run back to the TARDIS, slamming the door behind her. 

Instead, she was frozen to the spot, Jimmy’s dark eyes and cruel sneer trapping her in broad daylight when she should be better than this. 

Jimmy quirked an eyebrow—a dangerous sign that Rose still knew the meaning of even after all this time—at her tone, and took a step closer to her. She backed up another foot, but he just followed her. “Wow, he must be some guy, yeah? You coming back here and acting like you’re better than me just cuz some well-doing bloke thinks you’re a decent shag.” Rose’s face flushed red and her hand balled into a fist. 

“Shove off, Jimmy,” Rose hissed, turning on her heel and stomping to the TARDIS. 

“Oh, c’mon, Rose!” Jimmy hassled, following right behind her. She could feel his presence crawling up her back like a swarm of ants. “I just wanna catch up. Maybe we could go down to the pub and get a drink together. Remember how good we were together?” 

Jimmy’s question made Rose freeze mid-step. She spun around to face Jimmy, his face smug and victorious. “You’re jokin’,” she deadpanned. “You can’t be serious. ‘Good together?’“

“‘Course I am,” Jimmy said with an infuriating shrug, stepping even closer to Rose. This time she didn’t back away, anger planting her to the spot this time, instead of fear. 

“We weren’t good together, Jimmy,” Rouse grounded out through clenched teeth. “‘Nd you’re delusional if you think that we were.” 

Jimmy just rolled his eyes. “Oh, come on, Rose. It wasn’t all that bad.” 

Rose opened her mouth, her face red with indignation, to refute him, but no words came out. She huffed and tried again, all the horrible times they had--every scathing word he’d said, every time he’d gotten drunk and yelled at her, every time he pushed her around or did worse, and the thousands of pounds of debt he left her with--playing on repeat in her head like a bad pop song. It was tuneless, painful, and bound to give her a headache, and she never wanted to think about again. 

Seeing as words had failed her, Rose did the next best thing. She slapped him. Hard. 

Jimmy’s head whipped to the side, hair falling in front of his face. Just like she had imagined a hundred times before by the time their relationship ended. For a moment, she was euphoric, the feeling slightly overturning the fury. Then she felt the sting of her palm and the desire to hit him again, this time with a fist. And then, when Jimmy lifted his head, Rose was reacquainted with the special kind of fear reserved just for him. 

“You bitch,” he snarled, striding forward. Rose jumped backwards as he reached for her, but Jimmy moved quicker and snatched the wrist of the hand that she’d struck him with. Rose glanced over at her shoulder at the TARDIS, only ten meters away. She wondered if she broke Jimmy’s grip, if she’d be fast enough to make it. 

A sharp jerk of her arm forced Rose to face Jimmy again. His eyes were livid, a sneer painted on his lips. “I think whatever rich bloke you’ve been warming the bed of has made you forget that you’re just a useless chav whore,” he snarled, leaning into Rose’s space even as she screwed up her face and leaned away. 

“Go to hell, Jimmy,” Rose hissed, ignoring the stining in her eyes. 

Anger flashed in his eyes, and he lifted his free hand—

“Oi!” A sharp, furious shout came from behind Rose. There was a series of sharp, heavy footsteps on the concrete behind Rose as he approached. Jimmy’s eyes lifted to look at the man behind her, but Rose didn’t turn. She wasn’t sure what she’d find in the Doctor’s eyes. 

The Doctor came to stand just behind Rose. “Get your hands off her,” he growled, no doubt staring Jimmy down. After a moment of hesitation, Jimmy released Rose’s wrist, and she immediately stepped back until she could feel the Doctor’s arm brushing up against her back. 

“This him, then,” Jimmy asked, giving the Doctor an appraising look. “Bit old for you, no? Or do you not care who you—”

The Doctor cut him off by striding forward, in front of Rose. “I’d be careful about what you say. Never know who might hear you.” The threat was clear in his voice, and while Jimmy was far from the brightest person on the estate, Rose knew he was good at surviving. Jimmy stepped backwards, hands up in surrender. 

“Meant nothin’ by it, mate. Rose’s just an old friend; right, Rose?” Jimmy looked at her, those god-awful brown eyes boring into her. 

“Go away, Jimmy,” she said, averting her eyes and hating herself for how quiet her voice was. 

When Jimmy hesitated, the Doctor glared at him. “You ‘eard ‘er,” he drawled dangerously. 

Wisely, Jimmy said nothing, the look in the Doctor’s eyes enough to tell him off. He turned around and headed off with a mumbled farewell in Rose’s direction that was less than genuine. 

Rose didn’t wait to see Jimmy scurry across the courtyard before turning around and high-tailing it to the TARDIS. The Doctor caught up to her just as she was opening the doors and stepping inside. 

“You wanna tell me what that was about?” he asked as Rose as she tried to escape the console room. 

“It was nothing,” she said over her shoulder, not bothering to stop. 

“Didn’t look like nothing.” 

Rose simply shrugged, hesitating only for a moment, her heart still racing in her chest as she tried to keep her composure in front of him. Sure, they’d been through a lot together, but that didn’t mean he needed to know about Jimmy and the hundreds of stupid things she’d done before they’d met that night in Hendrick’s. 

“Well, it was,” was all she offered before disappearing into the depths of the TARDIS. 

After Rose dropped her clothes off in her room, she wandered down the TARDIS’s halls, further than she’d ever gone before, to find this strange room of knick knacks and screwed up physics—chairs hung to the walls with no obvious bolts or screws, a chain-linked lamp stood erect in the middle of the floor despite their being no support for it to do so, and the fire in the fireplace seemed to move horizontally, though Rose wasn’t sure about that one. She’d been here ever since, exploring the hidden corners and oddities that were scattered around the room, distracting herself from the memories and shame that were bubbling up from her encounter with Jimmy. 

It was the sound of an opening door that let Rose know that the TARDIS wasn’t on her side. Muttering about meddlesome ships and glaring up at the ceiling—decorated with a gaudy shag rug—while listening to the Doctor’s approaching footsteps. 

He appeared around the corner of a fallen bookcase—or an upright one, depending on where you stood in the room—and when he caught sight of Rose, he stopped at the end of the bookcase. He placed his hands in the pockets of his jacket, his expression unreadable. When it didn’t seem like he was going to speak first, Rose broke the silence. 

“I haven’t seen this room before,” she said, making a show of looking around the room. “Not sure what it’s for, but I like it.” Rose nodded appreciatively, ignoring the growing sense of discomfort. 

“Are you gonna stop lying to me now and tell me what really happened today?” The Doctor asked with a raised eyebrow. “Or are we just gonna pretend that everything’s normal?” 

Rose raised a hand to her mouth, biting at the nail on her thumb. “Pretend everything is normal?” Rose said with a weak smile, but it came out as a question. 

The Doctor leveled her with a look. “C’mon, Rose. Talk to me.” It was a request, not a demand, and the unusually soft expression on his face, his eyes pleading with her to open up, made her want to do just that. 

Rose sighed, the tension draining from her shoulders. “His name’s Jimmy,” she stated lamely, realizing belatedly he’d probably heard her call him Jimmy already. “We dated—a long time ago. Before Mickey, obviously. Met him while I was still in school.” She shifted awkwardly on her feet, the words she wanted to stay stuck in her throat. She saw a couple of chairs—an orange armchair and a tall beige ottoman-type thing—over by a tall plant in the corner and walked over, plopping down in the armchair. The Doctor followed her, sitting down on the ottoman. She wrapped her arms around herself, turning to face the Doctor. His striking blue eyes soft, but intense. 

“You don’t have to tell me, Rose, if you don’t want to,” he said kindly. “But I want you to know that you can.” 

Rose nodded, emotion struggling to strangle her. “I know, I know. ‘Nd I do want to tell you, I just don’t like thinking about it.” 

“Then just tell me the basics. Don’t need to go into detail,” the Doctor offered. Rose drew in a breath. The basics—she could do that. She let the breath out and started to talk. 

“I met Jimmy when I was 14. He was 18 and the lead singer in the band. He dropped out of school to become a musician with his friends. When I was 15, he asked me out, and we started dating. At first, it was really good. He was kind and sweet, took me on really great dates, but. . . well, it didn’t last.” 

Rose sighed and drew her feet up onto the chair to wrap her arms around them, risking a glance over at the Doctor. He nodded at her slightly, encouraging her to continue. 

“When I was sixteen, Jimmy said that I should drop out and get a job—told me I was wasting my time with school and all. I believed him and the next thing I know we’re livin’ together in this dank bedsit, working at a corner store, and I’ve stopped talking to mum.” Tears sting Rose’s eyes, but she sniffs and refuses to let them fall. “We had such a big fight that night,” she says, more to herself than to the Doctor.

“It was a couple months after that happened that things started to get bad between us. Jimmy, he’d come home drunk and yelling, and when he had a gig, it’d be worse.” Rose remembered when he’d swan off with some girl, acting like it meant nothing and wasn’t tearing Rose up inside. “It only got worse when money got tight. I started working two jobs, and since I wasn’t around as much, the apartment just got dirtier and dirtier cuz Jimmy wasn’t cleanin’. He was just drinking with his mates and pretendin’ he had any chance at making it as a musician.” Rose scoffed, tears burning her throat and her eyes, remembering how stupid she’d been. 

“Did he hit you?” the Doctor asked softly. She turned her head to look at him. Slowly, she nodded.

“Not often,” she whispered. “But. . .sometimes—sometimes he’d just get so angry, and I didn’t know what to do, and whatever I did do seemed to only make him angrier.” Her voice shook, and the tears started to fall from her eyes. Rose buried her head in her arms, crying softly. 

She heard as the Doctor stood from the ottoman, and stepped in front of her. Felt his hands as he placed them on her shoulders and kneeled down. Rose looked up from her lap, his face only a few inches away from her own. 

“Want me to throw him into a sun?” the Doctor offered. “‘Cause I can think of a couple of good ones—temperature low enough he might feel something before it kills him.” Rose couldn’t help the laugh that burst from her. 

“Nah,” she shook her head, a watery smile on her face. “Cuz then he’d say ‘It’s bigger on the inside’ and he doesn’t deserve that.” The Doctor smiled softly, bringing a hand to her cheek. His touch was tender and warm, despite the body temperature difference. 

“No, he doesn’t,” he agreed. “But if he ever comes near you again, I’m going to shoot him with my laser eyes.”

Rose snorted. “You don’t have laser eyes.” 

“Mickey thought I did.” 

[sami32e]

Modern Eggette Concept Art

DeviantArt Mirror

So hey, remember that one Sonic OC that was born out of a misinterpreted upside-down Eggman sprite in Sonic Mania? Remember when she basically took the fandom by storm for a few months and then most people slowly forgot about her? Well...

I never forgot

Continuing my trend of showcasing not-widely-known to downright obscure characters and adding them to this Sonic AU I'm slowly developing, here's Eggette. I love her, I've always loved her since 2017. I don't care that she might be a Bowser Jr. clone, I still love her.

So, I've made a modern design for her!! It took me a good while but I'm very proud of it. I know her main color is supposed to be black, but I'd argue there's still plenty of it.

Her design has a lot of inspirations from other creators, and I mean A LOT. But to name a few there's JamoART, ArsworldS, UnamusedYams, Blazyneko (Maria AU design), WaitoChan, Heroart111, and the CEO of Eggette herself: MightyMilkyWay.

Anyways, enjoy this, actual character info is under the cut. And I know I wrote it in the art itself, but this design is free to use (even for Sonic things unrelated to my AU), only condition is giving credit.

Agatha Elaina Robotnik, better known as Eggette, is the niece of the infamous Dr. Eggman and one of the highest ranking people in the Eggman Empire, only overshadowed by others with equal ranking (Even though she was here first!!) and, of course, her dear uncle.

She can be as bombastic, loud, egotistical and cruel as Eggman, with and intelligence worthy of the Robotnik family name. However, though she's not without her fair share of pettyness and anger, she can be... weirdly alright?? Like, when she's not busy conquering your home in the name of the Eggman Empire, she can be pretty chill to hang out with, barring her low-key terrible social skills.

That's not to say she isn't dangerous, oh no, she is still very much aligned with her uncle's goals and ideals, but generally speaking she's not one to start torturing people just because she feels like it... Usually. She certaintly can admit when she has respect for her enemies, unlike her uncle. When she's all business, however, she's probably the most feared person in the empire outside of The Doctor or Metal Sonic.

She usually isn't front-and-center in her uncle's big plots, other than the ocassional boss battle, but she does help make sure everything goes smoothly(ish) and she also helps with designing schematics for new creations with her beloved uncle (something that both of them genuinely enjoy more for the fact that they're spending time together over any actual work they may produce).

As for her age... It's complicated. So apparently according to SEGA only a year has passed from Sonic 1 all the way up to Frontiers?? That feels impossible in so many levels, specially if you account Forces' 6 month timeskip. And yeah, I know this is my AU and can do whatever I want for it, and while I'll ultimately will, the backbone of it is supossed to be the games. Still, this'll have to be something I'll ignore for the AU.

So I imagine she'd be around 10-11 during Mania... So let's say this modern version is between 12 and 14 years old (depents on the game you're in).

Extra Factoids :)

Loves bugs and spiders a lot, specially spiders.

Finds Grimer creepy and avoids him unless she's required to interact with him.

Has an alright relationship with her father despite everything. Her sister, however, she does not like at all (gonna let you guess who she is >:])

Can be a jerk most of the time sometimes, but she also loves intimidating and torturing other jerks within the Empire. She has a less harsh treatment of those who joined out of necessity or for sympathetic reasons, so long as they exhibit loyalty to her and her uncle, of course.

Has a relatively small interest in music. Takes DJ lessons from Stone from time to time.

She's got the Toy Line of robots (Toy Sonic, Toy Amy) as personal assistants, which she created herself.

Has destroyed her uncle at videogames on more than one ocassion.

Definitely does not sneak out once a month to meet up with Snively in The Groovy Train café to catch up. No siree, it's totally a recon mission to gather intel on G.U.N. no her uncle doesn't know about these missions but that's not important, what's with all these baseless accusations.

[9worldstales]

MCU Loki: Why I fear they failed to deliver what they promised

At this point I’m kind of confused by who the “Loki” series is trying to reach or which is the goal/message they’re trying to pass along.

They had tried to intrigue assorted audience but, if you ask me, the series has often failed to deliver what it seemed to promise.

Of course I might be wrong. Or maybe I'm not seeing another type of audience the series aimed and managed to reach.

When the series started I wanted to keep a positive mentality and hope whatever seemed not to work would be fixed along the way or have a reason for existing that I just wasn't seeing because I hadn't seen the full story yet.

However, after 5 episodes I'm starting to lose hope the series will make a genuine effort to reach the fans at whom it seemed to aim.

PART 1 – “LOKI” IS NOT FOR THE OLD FANS WHO PRODUCED META SHOWING HOW HIS TRAUMA DAMAGED HIM

"I think it's the struggle with identity, who you are, who you want to be. I'm really drawn to characters who are fighting for control. Certainly you see that with Loki over the first 10 years of movies, he's out of control at pivotal parts of his life, he was adopted and everything and that manifest itself through anger and spite towards his family." [Loki's Struggle With His Identity Confirmed To Be A Focus Of His Disney+ Series]

What was it about Loki as a character that attracted you? He’s just fun, for one. He has a very playful sense of humor about him. I like how he never quite lets you know what he’s thinking. Beyond that, what I connect to about him is the same thing the legions of fans do, which is his humanity and his vulnerability. This is a guy who—yes, on the one hand, he was the prince of Asgard, seems like a nice life—but his father, in fact, killed his actual birth father, adopted him, lied to him about his heritage and parentage his entire life, he was forced to live in the shadow of his oafish older brother who was born to be king. He’s experienced a lot of trauma, and I think that what he’s looking for is just a little bit of control over his life. Which he feels like maybe he’s never quite had. That’s something I think we can all relate with. [From Loki to Doctor Strange and Star Wars, Michael Waldron Is the New Franchise Whisperer]

Let’s be honest, the audience for the “Loki” series is not really meant to be Marvel movies old time fans who enjoyed “Thor” and “The Avengers”, made countless Meta analyzing Loki’s behaviour and who wanted answers about what happened to Loki prior to “The Avengers” or wanted to see Loki’s family terrible dynamics be discussed, or at least to see explored the wrong dynamics of Loki’s interracial adoption (he’s taken away from his planet, the truth is hidden from him, his look is changed to disguise him as an Asgardian, nothing is done against the racial hate for the Jotuns at which Loki is exposed, even witnessing it from his brother) or talk how much in control of himself Loki was during “The Avengers” (okay, the web said the sceptre manipulated Loki, but what about acknowledging that in his own series? It doesn’t have to come from Loki who had no idea he was manipulated but someone could mention ‘think yourself lucky here the stones don’t work, they’ve the nasty tendency to manipulate people’).

The series has avoided digging into all that as much as they could.

Even when Loki talks with Sylvie, the most we get is a small big about how Frigga was awesome in his eyes and taught him magic, but this isn’t meant to explain any of the issues Loki had with his family, it just make Sylvie feel bad because she can’t remember her adoptive mother, as for the D.B. Cooper born out of a bet with Thor, yeah, fun but completely random. What’s meant to be the message about family dynamics here, that it was the bets between Thor and Loki that caused Loki to decide to conquer Earth? Or what about the Sif loop? Is it there to push on Loki the blame of his poor relation with Sif?

No, clearly not.

In regard to Loki the Frigga flashback is there to remark he had a loving and supportive family while the other two are there to have Loki admit he is ‘a mischievous scamp’, ‘a horrible person’ and ‘a narcissist’.

To put it in Classic Loki’s words: ‘Damn it! Animals, animals! We lie and we cheat, we cut the throat of every person who trusts us, and for what? Power. Glorious power. Glorious purpose! We cannot change. We're broken, every version of us. Forever. And whenever one of us dares try to fix themselves, they're sent here to die.’

In short it’s all Loki’s fault if he does bad, nothing happened to him that could have messed him up, he’s just a horrible person… however…

PART 2 – “LOKI” IS NOT FOR THE OLD AND NEW FANS WHO BELIEVED LOKI TO BE A DANGEROUS, EVIL, PSYCHOPATH VILLAIN EITHER

"Loki is an a**, and that makes my life as a writer, easy." ... "Due to the trauma in Loki’s life, I would even [accept a story] in which he is committed to being all bad." [Michael Waldron on Loki: He’s an a**. That makes things easy]

Considering the series is trying to pin SOLELY on Loki his wrongdoing, completely skipping the toxic way in which he was raised you might think they want to paint him as an evil, psychopath who was just born bad.

But no, that’s not the intention, we see it from the start.

Loki is given a quick briefing on how his beloved family loved him despite him hurting them, a briefing that contains false information which would work if we accept the briefing as manipulative but, at this point I’m not so sure that was the author’s intent. The Doylist purpose of the briefing is clearly to show the audience how Loki cares for his family, how he still has feelings, feels pain at the idea Frigga and Odin died and wish to make up with his brother.

It’s not just they loved him and did nothing wrong toward him, it’s also he who loved them and didn’t mean to harm them. That’s why we’re fed that damn discourse about Loki sending the Dark Elves to kill Frigga, because the series wants to remark that no, Loki didn’t want to kill his family, he loved them.

Tom Hiddleston used to say what Loki is came from a place of pain but the series didn’t explore that place of pain… it just gave him more pain and not just in episode 1. Episode 2 has him discovering Asgard is destroyed, episode 3 has him remembering Frigga, episode 4 shows him believing Sylvie die and watching Mobius being pruned. He doesn’t cry in Ep 5, episode 5 wants us to truly feel bad for Sylvie, not for him, but there’s a lot of bitterness from Classic Loki who commits a heroic suicide so you might say we get a sad Loki anyway.

And this also works as a shock to make him change his mind about his ‘glorious purposes’. Sorta, with Thor reminding us he’s not so bad and Loki explaining his behaviour as “I don't enjoy hurting people. I... I don't enjoy it. I do it because I have to, because I've had to. Because it's part of the illusion. It's the cruel, elaborate trick conjured by the weak to inspire fear.”

Plot-wise, this is completely useless.

The show will prove Sylvie is not Loki and has completely different motivations and Mobius, being an expert in Variants, should know.

What’s more why would Mobius care if Loki enjoys hurting people or not?

His goal is to capture Sylvie with Loki’s help. The most he should care about is how to keep Loki loyal to him, not if Loki has fun hurting people or not which, in fact, is a knowledge that won’t be used in his investigation.

No, this is here for the viewers, to tell them Loki isn’t a sadistic, evil villain, he’s someone weak who tries to scare others so as not to look weak. As Mobius will put in ‘a scared little boy, shivering in the cold’ who has an ‘insecure need for validation’.

What’s more?

The show will try his hardest to establish he’s not even competent.

Let’s talk of him as a fighter.

In the movies Loki is a competent fighter and side material establish he’s pretty strong, definitely much more than a human.

In “The Avengers” we see Captain America needs Iron Man’s help to beat him and, anyway, Loki’s plan was to be captured. Loki manages to walk away on his feet when Coulson hits him with that superspecial weapon and it’ll take him to be Hulk smashed after a fight with Thor and a meeting with an explosive arrow of Hawkeye before he can’t fight any longer.

This doesn’t happen in the “Loki” series.

Loki gets beaten up by various people in 4 episodes, preferably women (B-15, the people possessed by Sylvie, the guards on the train, Sif). You might say in episode 5 he’s not but actually Classic Loki is the one who gets swallowed by Alioth and our Loki instead survives because he has Sylvie supporting him as, on his own he couldn’t even distract Alioth.

Let’s talk of him as a wizard.

He can use magic, impressive magic but… it serves him mostly nothing. In the TVA his magic doesn’t work. Outside of it is mostly useless. It doesn’t help win fights. The Tempad he caused to disappear gets broken. To beat Alioth they needs enchantment, not his own magic. What’s more, when they’ve to go on the train his disguise wouldn’t have worked without Sylvie’s enchantment and, if this wasn’t enough, he got drunk, removed the disguise and wasn’t even able to make tickets appear.

Classic Loki too, with his impressive illusions is ultimately a distraction. Alioth tears easily through his illusions which aren’t even solid.

Let’s talk of him as a planner.

All Loki will accomplish is to escape from the Time theatre for a brief period in episode 1 and figure out Sylvie hides in apocalypses in episode 2. The rest of his plans fails or are not plan or are mocked over and not even put into practice.

Let’s talk about him as a manipulator with a silver tongue.

He can’t even persuade Mobius when he’s telling him the truth, Mobius dismisses it as a lie due to ‘cockroach's survival mechanism’.

And psychologically?

He’s just someone who crave attention because he’s a narcissist scared of being alone. Not a psychopath.

Loki is not meant to be a dangerous, evil, psychopath villain in this series, he’s a not serious man, a clown, a scared little boy in need of attention, a narcissist who needs to be loved.

Welcome to cartoon villain Loki, this Loki isn’t the Variant of “The Avengers” Loki, he’s the Variant of “Avengers Assemble”Loki… only he’s even less competent than him.

PART 3 – “LOKI” IS NOT EVEN HERE FOR GENERAL MARVEL MOVIE FANS

"That's a lot of Infinity Stones. That's true but they are useless there in the TVA, so I don't know. Is that gun loaded or not? We'll see..." [Loki Writer Comments On Whether TVA’s Infinity Stones Will Return In MCU]

“We had to create an insane institutional knowledge of how time travel would work within the TVA so the audience never has to think about it again. It was a lot of drawings of squiggly timelines.” Marvel already made its case for how time travel works in Avengers: Endgame, but that, Waldron points out, “is the way the Avengers understand it.” With a TV show it’s a little different. “I was always very acutely aware of the fact that there’s a week between each of our episodes and these fans are going to do exactly what I would do, which is pick this apart. We wanted to create a time-travel logic that was so airtight it could sustain over six hours. There’s some time-travel sci-fi concepts here that I’m eager for my Rick and Morty colleagues to see.” [How the Man Behind LokiIs Shaping Marvel’s Phase 4 and Beyond]

BC: The TVA is there to clean everybody up? MW: Yeah, Avengers: Endgame… that's how The Avengers understand time travel. 'Loki,' episode one, is how the TVA explains time travel to Loki and we're certainly building on what's come before us. [Loki: Michael Waldron On Gender Fluidity, Mephisto, Time Travel & More]

It’s true “Loki” is focusing on a new corner of the MCU but it interconnects very poorly with the movies before it.

Although Loki escaped with the Tesseract... it just dismisses completely the Infinity Stones.

Despite talking a lot about timelines and creating branching realities it waved away the whole plot of "Avengers: Endgame" as apparently supposed to happen even though it should have created branching realities.

We see Renslayer wave away how the Avengers went in the past causing the Tesseract to end up in Loki’s hands... and all the other things the Avengers did that affected the past goes unmentioned.

Bruce meeting the Ancient, Thor meeting his mother and taking away Thor’s hammer, Rocket being seen as he steals the reality stone from Jane, Tony stealing a suitcase and damaging the place in which the Tesseract was kept then meeting Howard Stark, 4 flacons of Pyn particles missing, an alarm given to the military bases, how Steve managed to bring back the sceptre if that timeline was pruned, how a timeline handled being without Thanos and Co as they went in the future or how they clearly didn’t bring the orb back the second they took it as Nebula remained unconscious there and nobody came and when she woke up Thanos could get her. It didn’t even explain why Steve remaining with Peggy didn’t change anything.

It's not that the audience has all explained... it's that they were told to dismiss it as 'meant to happen' and that was it.

What's more, the TVA apparently didn't list a finger to stop 2014 Thanos from going in the future and causing Tony Stark's death.

As if this wasn't enough, “Loki” just skips any possible connection with the movies, even hands Loki false information about them (he lead the Dark Elves to his mother when Loki had no idea the Kurse was a Dark Elf and they would have found her anyway as they were searching for the Aether which Malekith could sense, he’s born solely to cause pain and suffering and death, overlooks how he saved Jane twice or helped the Asgardian escape Hela) and never discusses them again.

Even with Classic Loki, who’s a Variant of “Avengers: Infinity War” Loki, they don’t talk about what happened after Loki’s supposed dead, apparently hinting it was better if he died, nor explain how Loki knew Thor survived.

PART 4 – “LOKI” IS NOT REALLY OFFERING A GOOD REPRESENTATION FOR FEMALES EVEN THOUGH IT CLEARLY AIMS AT FEMALE AUDIENCE

Let’s make a quick experiment.

Everyone, let’s name all the characters we remember which appeared in more than 1 episode of “Loki” for more than one minute.

We’ve, of course, Loki, Mobius, B-15, Renslayer, Sylvie, C-20 and Miss Minute.

5 females versus 2 males.

What’s more, females are not sexualized, they remains completely dressed, they’re clearly not there to attract male gazes, they’re represented as strong, dangerous, in control, something archived often by showing them beating males either physically or intellectually or in rank.

It seems promising. At first.

Is there someone who’s sexualized?

The “Loki” series takes care to offer us Tom Hiddleston naked.

So since there’s an abundance of females in the cast and Tom Hiddleston is shown naked is it aiming at a female audience?

Very, very likely but… but how’s then handled all this?

When Loki is seen undressed he’s not in a situation of power, like Thor who’s twice shows half naked in his movies but because he’s changing/washing and perfectly comfortable in showing his body and once in a situation which could be a male forbidden fantasy, to have many women massage your naked body, no, he’s shown as he’s powerless while being stripped by a machine. Clearly not a male power fantasy, more like a male nightmare.

And, in a totally not surprising way, pictures of this scene were spread by many female fans because it was aimed at them… though a part of them, was also honestly appalled at seeing this scene in contest, finding the forced stripping humiliating and degrading.

Sure, a naked Tom Hiddleston makes a nice eye-candy but this wasn’t how Loki’s many fans wanted to see Loki naked.

But let’s talk of female representation here, since the show seems to be interested in female audience… only who even though this was the representation women wanted doesn’t understand much of women representation in the first place.

Why?

For start because women here are all the same type of woman.

Strong fighters who’re in control and confident, with no real characterization beyond this to speak of despite the large amount of screen time.

Renslayer is an ex-hunter who can fight one on one against Sylvie and who clearly has the position of power she has because she was good as a hunter and shows her abilities in fighting after that Sylvie had beaten 2 guards at the same time. B-15 is introduced by beating Loki and is the commander of a squad. C-20 is another commander and, albeit possessed, can dispose of a part of her squad members.

Do I need to spend words on how Sylvie is depicted as this awesome fighter who has learnt to fight by herself, can keep at bay more than 1 Minuteman, can use a sword, has learnt enchantment on her own and is feared by all the TVA? Do I?

And it’s awesome to have women who are strong fighters in positions of command/power/control… but why women has to be represented as just that?

Even when they add a female as an one episode cameo, it's Sif, beating the hell out of Loki. And what about the Lady in Lamentis 1 who was too old to be strong but managed to blast away both Loki and Sylvie seeing through their deceptions?

Even the harmless Miss Minute can avoid being hit by Loki and gets she has to pretend to do researches to stall Sylvie and save Renslayer.

Women kick asses here… but that’s all they’re good for.

And so we get to Sylvie, who is the superior Loki Variant… because she’s female.

Kid Loki: You're different. Why? Loki: No, I'm not, you see? I'm the same, really. I'm the same as all of you. Have any of you met a woman Variant of us? Classic Loki: Sounds terrifying. Loki: Oh, she is. But that's kind of what's great about her. She's different. She's not trying to take over the TVA, she's trying to take it down. And she needs me. Now, you said Alioth is what keeps us here. You said it's a living thing. You said it's a shark. Well, if it lives, it dies. So I'm gonna kill the shark. I'm gonna kill Alioth, and I could use all the help I can get.

That’s what Loki preaches to his fellow Lokis who think a woman Loki would be terrific.

I mean, they’ve an alligator Loki, a POC Loki, but the one who has to be different is the female Loki. Because being female is a character trait.

Mobius: Okay. I feel like I'm always looking up to you. I like it. It's appropriate. [Ep 1]

Basically females in the “Loki” series are all representation of the Action girl trope and aren’t even different representation of said trope. I mean, “The Avengers” have 5 actions boy who’re clearly as different as they could be. Girls can be represented as different too, if they really aim at young audience they can take good old “Sailor Moon” as an example. 5 action girls who are strong and determinate AND DIFFERENT, more than just someone who kicks the adversary away.

And it’s not like they don’t know how to characterize people in a different way.

Mobius is an analyst who shows sympathetic traits toward the Variants and a certain level or intelligence. U-92 and D-90 are hunters who are shown to held Variants in little regard (U-92 wanted to attack the boy they found in the church, D-90 mistreated the scared people in the shelter). Casey is an harmless and naïve guy who had never seen a fish. The guy who made Loki sign the papers about what he said seemed emotionless but he clearly loved cats as not only he had one but on his cup there was also the image of a cat. Martin is clearly a bossy daddy’s son, who think too high of himself to the point he can’t respect rules. The boy in the church, despite thinking Sylvie was a demon, accepted and ate food she gave him and remained in the place despite the crime. He’s clearly more brave than he looked like but he’s also naïve as he easily trusted ‘the demon’ and Mobius.

What’s C-20 character trait when she gets described by Sylvie?

Sylvie: Yeah. She was just a regular person on Earth. Loki: A regular person? Sylvie: Loved margaritas.

She’s a regular person who loves margaritas. Liking a drink is not a character trait!

There’s a more diverse female representation in “Thor” than in “Loki”.

In “Thor” we’ve Frigga, queen of Asgard, loving mother and wife who’s powerless to erase Thor’s banishment. We’ve Sif, a dangerous and loyal warrior. We’ve Jane, the amazing scientist with a lot of enthusiasm. We’ve Darcy, who’s funny and who seems focused mostly on herself but who, when the city is attacked, worried to save all the animals at the pet store.

But maybe the one who gets the worst treatment is the supposed heroine, Sylvie, because the poor girl is turned into a Mary Sue.

In case someone isn’t familiar with the term:

“The prototypical Mary Sue is an original female character in a fanfic who obviously serves as an idealized version of the author mainly for the purpose of Wish Fulfillment. She's exotically beautiful, often having an unusual hair or eye colour, and has a similarly cool and exotic name. She's exceptionally talented in an implausibly wide variety of areas, and may possess skills that are rare or nonexistent in the canon setting. She also lacks any realistic, or at least story-relevant, character flaws — either that or her "flaws" are obviously meant to be endearing. She has an unusual and dramatic Back Story. The canon protagonists are all overwhelmed with admiration for her beauty, wit, courage and other virtues, and are quick to adopt her as one of their True Companions, even characters who are usually antisocial and untrusting; if any character doesn't love her, that character gets an extremely unsympathetic portrayal. She has some sort of especially close relationship to the author's favourite canon character — their love interest, illegitimate child, never-before-mentioned sister, etc. Other than that, the canon characters are quickly reduced to awestruck cheerleaders, watching from the sidelines as Mary Sue outstrips them in their areas of expertise and solves problems that have stymied them for the entire series.” [tvtropes.org]

So let’s see how she fits this checklist:

1) She's exotically beautiful, often having an unusual hair or eye colour: Sylvie painted her hair blonde even though the Lokis are supposed to be black haired

2) has a similarly cool and exotic name: She is the only Loki Variant who has changed her name from Loki to Sylvie.

3) She's exceptionally talented in an implausibly wide variety of areas, and may possess skills that are rare or nonexistent in the canon setting: Awesome at fighting she can enchant people, an ability the Lokis don’t posses, that she magically learnt on her own and that is necessary in the story. Also she figured out how a Tempad worked BEFOREseeing it in action.

4) She also lacks any realistic, or at least story-relevant, character flaws — either that or her "flaws" are obviously meant to be endearing: No flaws, all her plans involve fighting and brute force is no substitute for diplomacy and guile, which could be a flaw… if it wasn’t for the fact that the series will prove Sylvie can plan just fine without using fighting and brute strength and also be successful at it.

5) She has an unusual and dramatic Back Story: She was taken by the TVA when she was younger than Kid Loki but managed to escape them and had to live alone and on the run till then.

6) The canon protagonists are all overwhelmed with admiration for her beauty, wit, courage and other virtues, and are quick to adopt her as one of their True Companions, even characters who are usually antisocial and untrusting: Loki, who has never loved anyone, falls for her, Mobius saves her and apologizes to her, B-15, who used to look down at Variants, basically asks her what should they do and is shown admiring her, the Lokis don’t criticize her plan, Classic Loki dies to save her, everyone views her as the superior Loki Variant.

7) if any character doesn't love her, that character gets an extremely unsympathetic portrayal: Renslayer, the hunter who has arrested her, is currently playing the part of the antagonist who’s fascist and believes in a murderous, lying cult.

8) She has some sort of especially close relationship to the author's favourite canon character — their love interest, illegitimate child, never-before-mentioned sister, etc.: She’s the Variant and love interest of the titular character.

9) Other than that, the canon characters are quickly reduced to awestruck cheerleaders, watching from the sidelines as Mary Sue outstrips them in their areas of expertise and solves problems that have stymied them for the entire series: Loki, the title character, has conveniently been turned into someone who’s a weak fighter and incapable of planning which Sylvie has to save by enchanting guards or giving him her sword or pruning herself or teaching him how to enchant and coming up with all the plans.

Now all she needs in order to be a perfect Mary Sue is to know how to sing well as Mary Sue usually do this as well, though I’m sure she can do it because Loki could so she surely can.

Sylvie is amazing, Loki himself said so:

Loki: No. We may lose. Sometimes painfully. But we don't die. We survive. I mean, you did. You were just a child when the TVA took you, but you nearly took down the organization that claims to govern the order of time. You did it on your own. You ran rings around them. You're amazing!

There’s nothing inherently wrong in having a new female character who’s competent, for whom the hero falls and who changes him… if all this is built around a solid plot.

Think at “Iron Man”.

Tony Stark is, to quote Tony Stark himself a “genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist”.

It’s amazing, isn’t it? But the movie shows us why he’s that.

It spends time setting up his pedigree, how he inherited the money and intelligence from his father, how he was supported as he grew and studied becoming always a greater genius. Tony shows himself to be charming before seducing his first woman onscreen so that when he does it makes sense. His philanthropic activities are, at first, just mentioned but seems rooted in how his father was a hero who helped fighting Nazi and then they became his mission. He felt guilty he was a merchant of death and tried to make up for it.

Sylvie too could have a solid plot behind herself.

Instead than magically knowing what a TemPad does and how it works and managing to escape with it, she could have escaped with, let’s say, a hunter that discovered the truth and decided to rebel to the TVA or just had pity of her. Maybe another Mobius Variant who used to work at the TVA prior to Mobius and that, instead than an analyst was a hunter. She might have learnt fighting from him and then he too died and she was left alone.

Enchantment might have been an ability she might have learnt coming in contact with a mind stone. It could have been an occasion also to talk how mind stones can influence people negatively. Or it could have been taught to her by Frigga who, with a female daughter, decided to teach her a different type of magic than Loki.

Her past could have been explored more instead than being tragic for the sake of tragic. We might have seen her fall in love and either be betrayed or have to say goodbye to her loved one because that reality got pruned. We might have seen her being interested in males and females alike as she’s supposed to be interested in both.

She could have had discussions with Loki that weren’t just about Frigga or about how the TVA kidnapped her from Asgard, she escaped and from that point on she was always on the run, or about how love didn’t feel real, but more about how they were, how they felt, what hurt them and what made them happy, what they liked and what they disliked, their ideals and their fears, things that can built up a relation.

Loki basically fall for her because she’s on a mission for revenge instead than power and seems confident. That’s his reasoning.

She falls for Loki… because apparently he’s the person who spend time with her who praised her. That’s not a solid love story, that’s desperation.

SYlvie could have flaws, she could have learnt diplomacy or persuasion from Loki or could have something she lacks and Loki has so that they would complete each other.

And since the purpose was to have Sylvie and Loki fall for each other… they could have let Loki have characteristics that can motivate the exceptional heroine to fall in love for him PRIOR to him falling in love for her. He might be shown good at something, instead than just a clown.

Even if we say the real purpose of this series was to turn Sylvie into the protagonist, the heroine, a good Loki character was still needed to explain why this awesome girl would fall for him.

So okay, there will surely still be women who can see themselves in Sylvie and imagine they got Loki… and it’s not bad really… but I think we deserved more.

Long story short, yes, “Loki” has many females in its cast and this is meant to draw the female audience… but the representation is poor as almost all of the females have no character traits and Sylvie is just a Mary Sue with no realistic characterization.

A good female representation is diverse and solid. Women don't need to be born irrealistically perfect out of nothing to be good, they can inherith and grow and learn to be as such like any human being.

Last but not least…

PART 5 – DOES “LOKI” REALLY OFFERS REPRESENTATION TO THE LGBT COMMUNITY?

BC: There is a lot of talk on social media about Loki being gender fluid. Wouldn't that actually be a natural fit for the character? MW: Yeah, I guess as, with all questions pertaining to that stuff, I think those answers, truly, are best experienced in the watching of the show, as opposed to me trying to answer them. Because it's just watching it and the way that's addressed and everything will just be more fulfilling. BC: Why do you think it's important that Loki is gender fluid? MW: I think that Loki is a character that a lot of fans see representation in. People that haven't felt represented before, and they see themselves in Loki and everything. So we want to do justice to the character, to who the character is in the comics and in Norse mythology as well. And you also … you know you want folks to feel represented, and everything. That's why it's important. It always has been. It comes from everybody on the creative team. [Loki: Michael Waldron On Gender Fluidity, Mephisto, Time Travel & More]

The series hugely spread the info that this Loki would be fluid and Bisexual. The news were welcomed with delight and it’s awesome how the series didn’t hesitate to put it on paper.

Loki being fluid was written for everyone to see, and Loki having male and female interests was spelled out for everyone to hear.

IT’S A GREAT THING!

However…

It’s all we got.

It had no relevance into the plot whatsoever, it’s just a random info we’re given.

Him being fluid was on a paper along with his other data like eye colour and birth planet.

Him being interested in males and females seems to be put there just to imply he tried a large amount of people before deciding love didn’t feel real.

Assuming the other Lokis too were fluid, they actually found terrific the idea of a woman Loki in a not positive way. They weren’t interested or asking for clarifications about what Loki meant.

Loki’s bisexuality doesn’t even get a side story, them sending Fandral to beat Loki instead than Sif because Loki cheated on him or something. I’m not upset Loki ended up with a female, this is one of the possibilities of a Bisexual person. I’m upset that this was used merely to attract the audience but then wasn’t explored. They could have said Asgard was open minded with it, or disapproved it so Loki had to keep it hidden, or it could have been Sylvie who discussed some experience in that regard.

We were told over and over it was a show about identity. We expected it to be explored instead we were just told ‘ah, by the way, Loki is bisexual, let’s move on.’ And that was all.

Having representation from an important Marvel character is always important, especially considering the shortage of representation. But honestly I expected more.

PART 7 – TO SUM IT UP

Many of the people who worked in “Loki” are fantastic actors. They worked hard for this series, I can see they tried their best.

The premises for the “Loki” series are interesting.

We get a Loki who hadn’t experienced most of what happened in the movies yet, we make him confront with someone who knows his life, the one he lived and the one he was meant to live and we also make him confront with Variations of himself.

Loki has the Tesseract and the TVA has plenty of infinity stones, we could explore them.

The TVA itself have a fascist organization that dictates people’s lives and murders whoever tries to do differently, that goes so far as to brainwash the people working in it, which mistreats and belittle the Variants and establish a manipulative cult around the Time-Keeper with elements of police brutality which could be very actual.

Time travelling was the plot of "Avengers: Endgame" they could have tied the movie to the series, esplore the why some time travels were allowed and some weren't or their effects.

There were references to plenty of awesome comics they could take inspiration from.

But unless it redeems itself with the last episode… well, so far it’s failing to deliver what it promised due to a really poor plot which doesn’t give the characters a chance to be themselves or to be characterized as they’ve no real story nor real differences to speak of.

They’re given more time than a movie as they’re a series… but that’s no good excuse for wasting said time.

I’m still hoping the last episode will be spectacular, that it’ll manage to erase the messes of the other 5… but, as of now I’m disappointed.

I’ll just keep my fingers crossed and hope they’ll surprise me.

[barbatos-devotee]

Fight For You

Genshin x Reader

Character: Xiao

Gender: Female

A/N: Sorry I didn’t get this out sooner! I’ve been writing and drawing some other things because I didn’t entirely know how I was gonna wrote this one lmao.. but now I do! Enjoy!

You were an adventurer, popular in the guild for your strength and your personality. You were no five-star, but you had enough confidence in your skills and ability that you got practically every job you’d ever done handled with ease. Hilichurls with a Mitachurl leader? No biggie. The group of Fatui barring entrance to Guili Plains? No sweat. A group of bandits trying to steal treasure from the scholars? Why, you could beat them with your eyes closed. You and your Pyro Vision were a threat to anyone who’d encountered you, and the giant claymore you carried on your back made sure no one with ill intent bothered you. Not to mention, you were sort of dating the adeptus that resided in Wangshu Inn, so that gave you a sort of invincibility as well. Your strength was second only to the Traveller, and you were very proud of your ability to handle anything.

Well, that was until you got a certain commission.

The job was to take out a Lawrachurl hanging out by some ruins. The difficulty was a little higher for you, you had to admit. Usually a party would go with you to handle the giant, geo-attuned things, but you’d decided to go on your own, confident in your ability to beat it. It had been a piece of cake so far, the shield was down and you were certain that the thing’s health was on its last legs. And just as you got in your final hit, the one that turned it to dust, something you weren’t expecting surprised you. And launched you across the ruins, really. You cried out in pain as you hit the stone wall, realizing you’d been hit by a rocket. Your (e/c) eyes turned to look at what had attacked you, and they subsequently widened when you spotted a Ruin Hunter climbing out from the rubble. The Lawrachurl’s attacks had unearthed and awoken it.

Well, shit. You weren’t too good at fighting Ruin Guards, Ruin Hunters, or even Ruin Graders! The things were far too dangerous, and it took you a whole party of strong vision users to even bring it down. And you were, at the moment, alone. Struggling to your feet, holding your side in pain, you just barely had enough time to leap out of the way of the mechanical monstrosity as it lunched for you, it’s bladed arm impaling the wall where you once stood. You clenched your teeth, glaring at the thing. Flames crackled around your form as you readied your claymore, but your balance was slightly off due to the wound on your side. But that didn’t matter, you had to take this thing down. You gave a battle cry as you rushed towards it, smacking it with your weapon as it had converted into it’s vulnerable form. You know, the one where it rained bombs on you from the sky from a safe distance? Yeah, that one. It stuttered and went down, and you proceeded to smack it with as much force and flame as you could muster. You stood back as it rose back up, and you fled to the side as it tried lunging for you again. You weren’t quick enough, however, and it’s blade slashed your side.

Hm.. maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all. You clenched your sides, both injured now, and fought back tears of pain as you remembered what Xiao had told you. “There’s no shame in running.” That’s really good advice, you reasoned, you were going to follow it. And so, you ran. The Ruin Hunter followed and attacked you for a few miles, before you could finally hide from it’s sight and lose it. Shuddering from your position inside of a small ruin, you sighed, and looked down at your body. You should try and fix this before you continued, or else you’d bleed out in the plains.

Xiao sat on the balcony of Wangshu Inn, looking out over the land as he usually did. His eyes scanned the ground as he watched citizens, Millieth and merchants wandering around, all interacting with each other. He looked for your form amongst them, wondering if you would be visiting today. You usually did, you always made time to see him, no matter how long it took you to do your commissions. You’d even arrive in the middle of the night sometimes, so waiting was nothing new to him, but today.. you said you’d be done with your work early. What was taking you so long? And Xiao couldn’t help but have this dreadful feeling in his gut, like something was wrong.. His golden eyes flicked to the side at the sight of movement, and then they widened. There; on the ground, stumbling in from the plains, walked your bruised and bloodied body. Your clothes were ripped, and you were missing a large portion of your pants fabric, which had been torn off and tied around your torso as makeshift bandages. The people around you were panicked, worrying for you as they tried to get you help. You just gave a tired smile, as though it was no big deal. Somehow, that hurt Xiao the most. He jumped down from his spot on the balcony, pushing someone aside as he reached out to catch your falling form.

“(Y/n)?! What happened?! Why are you so hurt? Who did this-?!” Xiao cried, his eyes filled with fear and worry as he picked you up bridal style and rushed you towards the Inn. You gave a weak chuckle, shrugging your shoulders.

“That Ruin Hunter wasn’t playing around. It scraped me up a bit. Then some hilichurls decided to hit me on my way back. Kinda sucked not gonna lie.” Xiao glared at you, astonished that you could joke at a time like this. You were taken to a doctor to help stabilize you and give you some pre-medication help, but they couldn’t do much. It took a while to bring you to Liyue, where you were then given to QiQi to help with your healing. As you rested in the bed, Xiao sat next to you, having been with you the entire time, absolutely refusing to let you go.

“You idiot.. why would you go in there by yourself..? You could have died... stupid.” Xiao pressed his hands to his eyes, wiping away the tears that began to form in them. “You’re only mortal. If you die, what- what will I do without you?” A hand came up to meet his face, and Xiao looked down, his eyes wide. You were smiling at him, your (e/c) eyes sparkling with affection.

“It’s okay Xiao. I’m going to be okay. But you’re right, it was a bit too much for me.”

“Of course it was! You should have taken a party, or.. or you could have asked me for help! You know I would have come with you, I’d be willing to fight for you!” Xiao exclaimed, his face a mix of anger and sadness. The tears he tried to hold back before began falling down his cheeks, and he angrily wiped at them.

“I know.. I know. But you’re meant to protect Liyue. What if something happened if you’d left with me? I couldn’t pull you away from your duty for that.” You explained, using your thumb to wipe away your boyfriend’s tears. He guided your hand back down to the bed, not wanting you to hurt yourself, but not letting go.

“What good is it to protect Liyue, if I can’t even protect you? You can be more selfish with me, especially when it comes to dangerous things like this...” Xiao leaned down, pressing his forehead to yours, the both of you closing your eyes in tearful content. “I would be devastated if I lost you.. please, be more careful.” You nodded, pressing a kiss to the adeptus’ cheek.

“I will. I promise. I love you, Xiao.”

“I love you too, (Y/N).”

The two of you sat in content silence, just enjoying each other’s presence. Adventuring will come at a later time, it’d take a while for you to get better, but at least now you knew. No matter what, Xiao would always be there to fight for you. To love you and just be there for you.

And that was all you needed.

[theultimateultimateweapon]

Kirby: Meta Knight and the Knight of Hades (Chapter 5)

“Meta Knight is on another rampage!”

“Another one!?”

“Popular restaurants are being destroyed, one after another!”

“Don’t forgive Meta Knight at all! We should be angry!”

Such news ran through the galaxy in a blink of an eye. Captain Vul and the Meta Knights knew the confusion was inevitable. Of course, it was Beryl that was rampaging, but not everyone knew this.

After all, he was wielding the Galaxia pretending to be Meta Knight. He was even running around politely saying, “I’m Meta Knight! Remember it!”

“Damn…! Beryl!”

Captain Vul paced in the lobby and shook.

Javelin Knight said, “He’s going to ruin Meta Knight’s reputation and become the number one swordfighter in the galaxy. He’s doing a pretty good job at it too!”

“I won’t let him do that!” Captain Vul shouted.

“Well, the real Meta Knight will get better… I’m sure… I’m sure…” Captain Vul had a dark look.

Meta Knight was being treated with great care by well-known doctors. However, he still hadn’t regained consciousness. Thanks to the treatment he is stable, but if his condition continues for a long time it won’t matter.

“Yeah… let’s see what Kirby is doing!”

Captain Vul stomped and shouted. “Axe Knight! Contact Kirby!”

He ordered Axe Knight in the communications seat.

Axe Knight sighed. “Are you sure? We can’t do anything with Kirby and the others because we don’t know where the enemy will appear.”

“Yeah… I know! I know…!” He couldn’t help sitting by doing nothing.

Therefore, Captain Vul contacted Kirby and the others many times day and night to complain to them.

Axe Knight turned to the communication equipment.

Meanwhile, Kirby’s team was doing their best.

No matter how desperately they chased Beryl, their opponent was quick to escape. Even if they rushed to the news of Meta Knight’s rampage, he had already escaped. They couldn’t stop it.

What’s more, Kirby and his friends would arrive at the scenes and see restaurants with broken windows and destroyed towns. All they could hear were furious grudges against Meta Knight.

Even if Kirby and his friends told them “It’s a fake that’s rampaging!” no one cared.

People would even shout at them “Aren’t you a member of the Meta Knight!?”

“Sigh… I’m sorry!” Blade Knight kicked the stones at his feet.

King Dedede said with a moody face. “Why do we have to do this, it’s all because of Meta Knight!”

“Hey, shut your mouth!” Sword Knight and Blade Knight roared at King Dedede in unison.

“It’s not Meta Knight’s fault!”

“Yeah, it’s the fake doing these bad things!”

“Tch… I know that…” King Dedede sounded defeated.

Sword Knight’s child-like communication device started ringing.

King Dedede said with a disgusted face, “Well, it’s Captain Vul! Calling to complain all day instead of listening to what we’re going through…!”

It’s as he says, the captain has made millions of small calls throughout the day. Kirby and the others were fed up with it.

Sword Knight had no choice but to respond to the call. “Yes… this is Sword Knight…”

“This is Captain Vul,” came an annoyed voice. “How is the situation? Did you get any clues about Beryl?”

“No, it’s not good. He moves too fast… is there any new information on your end?”

“Umm… no.”

“How is Meta Knight?”

Unfortunately, Captain Vul gave a heavy answer. “He hasn’t woken up yet.”

“...Is that so…”

“The doctors are doing their best. Chase Beryl with all your might! We might catch him soon!”

“Of course.”

Sword Knight cut off communication.

Then…

“He...hello…”

Someone approached Kirby.

It was a little boy. Looking around Kirby and his friends, he spoke in a frightened manner. “You guys are chasing Meta Knight, right?”

“Yeah? What of it?”

When Blade Knight asked, the boy weakly replied.

“My town was attacked by Meta Knight. The flowers I cherished were also trampled…”

Tears came to the boy’s eyes.

“Please don’t give up. Defeat Meta Knight.”

Blade Knight said sullenly, “That’s a misunderstanding. It’s not Meta Knight who is rampaging. It’s a fake disguised as Meta Knight!”

“...Eh? But he was calling himself Meta Knight…?”

“It’s a lie. It’s a bad guy who’s disguised as Meta Knight, his real name is Beryl.”

“Is that so? I’m not sure… this…” The boy presented a piece of paper. “The man who attacked our town, dropped this paper.”

“What!?”

“I thought it might be a clue…”

“Show me!”

Blade Knight tried to grab the paper, but King Dedede snatched it from the side.

Immediately, King Dedede’s complexion changed. “This is…!”

“What’s on there!?”

“It’s a list of towns.” King Dedede showed the paper to everyone.

On the paper, the names of the towns that Beryl had attacked so far were written in order.

Sword Knight said, “This is… no way, Beryl’s plan…!?”

“Uhuh!” King Dedede snorted and nodded.

Blade Knight shouted with excitement. “In other words, we know the next town that he will attack!”

“Yes. At the end of the memo is ‘Planet Charm - Ancient Temple’!”

“He’s gonna attack that next!” Kirby jumped and shouted. “Let’s go! Let’s defeat Beryl!”

The boy who brought the note was relieved. “Good! Now you can get rid of Meta Knight.”

Sword Knight and Blade Knight screamed in anger. “Not Meta Knight!” “It’s a fake!”

“I-i’m sorry! Anyways, please defeat the bad guy, please!” The boy bowed down.

Waddle Dee called to the boy but he started to run. “Oh, wait. That…” However, he ran off without turning around.

Waddle Dee tried to chase after him, but the boy disappeared in the blink of an eye.

“I know… that kid… somehow…” Waddle Dee thought.

Regardless of what Waddle Dee thought, Kirby and the others knew what they had to do next.

Sword Knight shouted in a brave voice, “We’ve done it! This time we can get him!”

King Dedede nodded. “Uh, hurry up! Planet Charm!”

“Oh yeah, I have to tell Captain Vul.”

While Sword Knight was speaking to the communication device, Waddle Dee spoke up to King Dedede.

“Great King, I’m worried about something.”

“Oh? What?”

“That memo… is it real?” Waddle Dee looked worried.

“What?” King Dedede was stubborn.

“I think it’s suspicious.” Waddle Dee opened his arms and shouted. “Beryl is a very cautious and evil guy. How could he accidentally drop a note?”

“Mmm…? What do you mean?”

“The boy may have been Beryl in disguise.”

“...What!?” King Dedede was stunned.

Kirby, who was listening on the side, was surprised and shouted. “No way! He was a kind boy. He was totally different from Beryl!”

“It sure seemed so!” King Dedede laughed away. “No way, Waddle Dee. No matter how much, Beryl can’t turn into such a weak child!”

“Beryl is a master of disguise.” Waddle Dee became more and more anxious. “He can change his appearance and voice as he likes. If he can disguise himself as Meta Knight or Captain Vul, it must be easy to masquerade as a young boy.”

“Um… um… if you ask me…”

King Dedede thought with his arms folded.

Waddle Dee continued.

“And it’s weird that the last place written is an ancient temple, even though Beryl has only hit populated towns so far.”

“Yes, that’s right. There’s no reason to attack an unpopulated place like an ancient temple…” King Dedede nodded loudly. “That’s a good point, Waddle Dee. Now that I think of it, the speed of that escape was similar to Beryl’s. He could have disguised himself as a boy and handed us this memo to lure us in. That creep!”

At that time, Sword Knight finished his call.

“I told Captain Vul what was happening. The battleship Halberd is urgently heading to planet Charm.”

“Don’t go to Charm.” King Dedede told him what Waddle Dee had noticed.

“I see… I see.” Sword Knight heard the whole story and nodded. “Beryl tried to lure us out with that memo.”

Blade Knight also spoke up. “In other words, the ancient temple must have a trap like that pit. In that case, we should avoid it!”

“I have to tell Captain Vul. The trip to Charm must be cancelled.” Sword Knight got out his communication device.

However, Kirby shouted. “Yeah! Let’s go to planet Charm!”

“Kirby?” Blade Knight said, amazed. “Did you not hear the story? This is a trap.”

“I know, but if Beryl will be there, then we have to go.” Kirby’s eyes gleamed with power. “We’re chasing after Beryl. We finally have a clue, but if we don’t go after him, then we’ll be back to square one!”

King Dedede looked at the others.

Sword Knight pondered, and Blade Knight roamed around.

Usually, they agree to go with Kirby without hesitation. However, they’ve seen the horrors of Beryl’s traps. The last trap left Meta Knight wandering between the border of life and death. It’s too dangerous to walk right into a place they knew would be trapped…

It was King Dedede who opened his mouth first. “...Hmm. I know the situation is rough, but it’s exactly as Kirby says.”

Sword Knight and Blade Knight raised their faces.

King Dedede laughed bluntly and raised his fist. “Whether it’s a trap or whatever, we can’t afford to miss the chance! Let’s go to the planet Charm!”

Sword Knight and Blade Knight hesitated and nodded.

“...Oh, oh. Alright then.”

“We have to catch him as soon as possible.”

“Let’s go, and of course, be careful of his traps.”

Sword Knight and Blade Knight, as if they had decided together, put their hands on the handles of their swords and squeezed them tightly.

It was Kirby who blew away the heavy air. “Then, let’s go let’s go~! Before that, I want a snack!”

“A, a snack?”

Both knights looked at him as if he was crazy.

“Hey, Kirby!”

“Don’t play around!”

“Play? What are you talking about!” Kirby replied with a serious look. “We’re going to beat Beryl! We’ll be in trouble if we go on an empty stomach!”

“I’m telling you, you guys!”

“Be serious!”

“I am serious!” Kirby looked up at the sky and shouted. “Seriously, we’ll need some snacks! Cookies, chocolate, candy! If we only have sweets we’ll get bored, so rice crackers and popcorn too!”

“Not so fast, Kirby!” King Dedede slammed Kirby with a harsh voice. 

Waddle Dee looked up at him with respect.

The great king turned around and said, “You really think that’ll feed you? If you’re like me you’ll need a huge shortcake and 100 large rice cakes!”

“...Your majesty…” Waddle Dee gave us his respect and dropped his face.

Kirby’s eyes shined. “Yes! Then, 100 meat buns and 100 steamed buns!”

“We’ll also need a drink. Maybe strawberry juice, cream soda…”

“And apple juice and orange juice! And coffee, milk, cocoa, and…!”

If they kept going, it seemed like they would go on forever.

“Okay, okay. You can buy as many snacks as you want. We need to go!”

(Chapter 4 - Table of Contents - Chapter 6)

[thisisarcanereverie]

Should’ve Known Chapter 7

DISCLAIMER: I don’t own Wanda or Steve they are owned by Marvel, I don’t own the gif either I just got it from Pinterest,

WARNINGS:Angst, Swearing, the stages of grief, loss, dark themes, 18 + from here on out. Also mentions of potential abortions.

WORDS : 2,329

SUMMARY: You are detained and questioned by S.W.O.R.D. Wanda reality is breaking and Vision is acting differently than she remembers.  

In case you missed last chapter

series masterlist 

ULTIMATE MASTERLIST 

You stared at the plain and depressing wall in front of you. If anyone saw you they would say you were staring into dead space but that wasn’t true. 

Your thoughts were consumed of Wanda and the baby. 

You didn’t plan on giving up on Wanda, she had woken up, it wasn’t long until her reality came crashing down on her and you needed to be there for her. You needed to help her with the pieces that were going to be left behind. 

Your hand rested on top of your stomach, gently brushing a thumb over the shirt. You didn’t know what the doctors did to you while you were unconscious, but you were certain that eventually they would find out if they hadn’t already. You still had mixed feelings about this pregnancy. You knew deep down it was likely the only time you will be pregnant and you can’t lie, already you felt a connection with the child even though at this point they were only a little clump of cells. 

This kid would be special, you felt it oddly enough. You immediately wanted to apologize even though it couldn’t hear you. You wanted to apologize for the life that they might have to live if that were the case. 

You remembered all the somber nights at the Avengers Tower and Compound. All the nights Steve told you he sort of missed being that boy from Brooklyn who always picked a fight he couldn’t win. He told you if he had known what would happen when he accepted the role of Captain America. He probably still would have done it, but still live on to regret it. 

Wanda had told you that she could never truly let go, she can never fully release all the emotions she kept bottled up. That people got hurt. That if she could go back and never sign up for HYDRA’s experiments, she would.

None of them wanted the life that they were forced into. Yeah some of them had volunteered like Wanda and Steve, but they didn’t fully realize the consequences of such actions then. 

Nat and Bucky never wanted this life, never signed on for it. 

Your child would be forced to the same fate if you allowed the pregnancy. 

You considered aborting the fetus, maybe it was better for it to never live than be born into this world. 

Were you even ready to be a mom? You had money saved up but that was for rent and the last of Steve’s avenging money that he had left behind. 

Steve. 

The kid would never know their father. Steve would always be that blank figure to them. That blank figure would be filled with so many questions and doubts. Everything but him. 

You didn’t want your kid to look at that blank spot and only think of what might have been or hate. You didn’t want them to think their dad left them because they didn’t love them. 

You thought back to the chair splintering under your hand when you remembered the pregnancy. 

You could easily hurt them and the thought alone terrified you. 

There were so many reasons on why you shouldn’t keep it, how maybe it was better this way. 

On the other hand you wanted to keep it. 

You wanted to be a mom. Or at least give it a shot, at least for this kid. Maybe you would break the cycle of abuse that either your parents or grandparents started. 

There was no maybe about it. 

You would. 

You had to. 

Rationally you knew you wouldn’t be a perfect mom and the kid wouldn’t have that perfect life you always wanted, but that didn’t matter. This kid would have their own life to live, their own adventures, their own highs and falls. This kid would have something that you didn’t receive and that alone would make all the difference. 

They’ll have their mother.

-

-

-

Wanda didn’t know when all of this started. The endless pit of nothingness consumed her and that was it. She remembers everything thus far, the black and white changing into colors. You support her through it all just as you did before. 

She wished she didn’t have to send you away but she had no other choice. You brought her back, made her remember that none of this was real. 

Wanda made a different version of you, it was simple enough, it was a simple illusion. You were there, but not there. 

This version of you was happy all the time, was her closest confidant, all the things she wanted you to be. Like how you used to be before Steve had left. 

Steve did a number on you just like Vision did with her. Steve left you in a different manner than Vision left her but the emotional toll it took was very much the same. 

Steve left you on his own terms, he was selfish and left everyone who was counting on him to return. For that Wanda would never trust Steve, real or not real, again. 

Vision didn’t have a choice, Thanos had taken that choice away from him. 

Wanda could feel her blood begin to boil at the thought of Thanos, wishing that she could have finished what she had started on that battlefield then. 

Avenging Vision. 

Wanda recalls the nightmares she had when she came back, the image of Vision's eyes turning milky white and the stone being ripped from his head and the way his head caved in. You would always hold her, you would always assure her that you were fine and that she hadn’t hurt you during the nightmares. She knew you lied but the thought that you cared enough that you didn’t mind her or getting hurt in the process helped a lot more than you would ever know. 

After the funeral Wanda didn’t know she was going to bring you back to her apartment. She didn’t know how more precious you would become to her after living with her. Wanda came to depend on you a lot more than she intended. At first she wanted to be kind, she knew the pain you were going through and didn’t want you to be alone. You didn’t deserve to be alone. 

Then you began to heal together, you sat with her while she was on the other end of the phone lines waiting for answers and filling out paperwork she needed to sign to legally locate Vision. You hugged her during her nightmares, even though her powers had more than once flown something dangerously close to your head. 

Wanda had held your hand when she helped you move out of the apartment you and Steve shared. She was simply there when you needed her to be. 

Wanda grew curious easily, after the first few nights she was tempted to look into your mind. She had mastered the art of doing it without anyone knowing. However, she wanted you to tell her, she promised herself to never use her powers on your mind. 

Now she had broken that promise and made you play your part in this reality, the best friend. Wanda didn’t read your mind but she had played with it. She had played with something so fragile and even when you woke up from her illusions you didn’t care about that. You had only cared about comforting her, about bringing her back from the waves. 

Wanda had no idea what she could possibly have done to deserve someone as loyal as you were in her life. 

But now she’s sent you away, like she did with Garladine. 

She walked into her home that she shared with Vision, her heart filled with something so bitter and so sweet when she looked at him. Like she was seeing the sun after a whole week of only rain and snow but knowing tomorrow there would only be more rain and snow. 

Vision turned around upon hearing the door close, Wanda was expecting to see him with that light and lovely look in his eyes just as he’s always done. She nearly stopped in her tracks when she saw instead nervousness and caution. He didn’t look at her the way Vision had always looked at her, or hell even how you looked at her. 

He looked at her the way that everyone else has looked at her before. 

Like she was going to hurt him. 

“Vision,” she called her voice as sweet as honey, “is everything alright.” Her husband flinched back when she tried to reach for him as though her touch had become poisonous. 

“I spoke to Norm,” He said his arms were crossed over his chest. His face contorted into a neutral state. Wanda felt unsettled, she felt him become reserved. 

“Oh?” she said not knowing what about talking to Norm would make him act this way. 

“I unearthed the man’s suppressed personality and I spoke to him free of your oversight.” 

-

-

-

“Hello Miss. (L/n),” You didn’t bother looking away from the wall, already whoever came in here was on your nerves. 

‘Miss. (L/n) we need you to answer some questions about the Hex.” You looked over and saw a man with the most punchable face you’ve ever laid eyes on. His tone may be nice but you met enough men like him to know how to spot them a mile away. 

“Only if you answer a few of my own.” You retort, you saw how the man stiffened. 

“I don’t think you're in a position to be demanding anything Miss. (L/n)” 

“You wouldn’t have come to ask me anything personally if you didn’t need to. Unless there was something that I may or may not know that could benefit you and even then you wouldn’t have come yourself, men like you have people get the answers for you, no you would only come yourself if it was something vital. Something that no one else on this base knows about.” You cock your head to the side and smile, feeling empowered as you see his hands tighten into a fit at his side. You apparently hit the nail right on the head. 

“So I feel like an exchange is in order,” You say standing up from your sitting position. The guards on either side of the man raised their guns at you. The man told them to stand down. 

“I answer 5 of your questions and you answer 6 of mine.” You held out your hand. 

“Miss. (L/n) why do you get to have more answers than I do?”

“Simple, you want something from me and me alone. I can ask any other agents around here my questions and not make a deal with you at all.” 

His hands flex and ball themselves back into fists and his jaw clenched in anger. You really were getting on his nerves. 

“I agree,” he reaches for your hand and shakes briefly. 

“I’ll go first,” he says. 

“How long were you in the Hex?”

“I’m not too sure of that but it’s safe to assume that I was there since it happened.” you responded, memories of the Hex were confusing and the memories of that day were blacked out almost completely. 

“My turn,” you say. 

“Who are you?” 

“I’m Director Tyler Hayward of S.W.O.R.D.” 

“My turn,” he says in a slight mocking tone.

“How did Wanda create the Hex?”

“Wanda’s powers are tied to her emotions; it's probably connected to that” You state. “What is S.W.O.R.D.” 

“Sentient Worlds Observation and Response Department.” He responds. 

“Someone really wanted your divisions to be named Sword and Shield really badly didn’t they.” 

“Yes,” he said, “How long were you aware of the Hex while in it?”

“I was subconsciously aware the entire time, although I wasn’t completely aware until the Hex was in color and a hag gave me a notebook.”

His expression was puzzled but he dismissed it. 

“What did my lab results come back with?” 

“Why do you think we took blood from you while you were unconscious?”

“You're a powerful man who set up a meeting with me in secret to ask me a question you don’t want anyone else hearing. It’s not beyond you to secretly steal some blood to run secret tests on it.” 

“Touche,” he admitted, “however badly I would want that Agent Rambeau interrupted me before I could give the order.” 

Finally he reached the last question, the question he wanted to ask all along. 

“How did Wanda reboot the Vision?” 

Vision, he was after Vision. Somehow this made you uneasy, why would he care how Vision for rebooted unless...

“You have Visions body don’t you.” It wasn’t a question, his body gave him away. For a man who was running a semi secret organization he wasn’t that good at hiding his body language. 

“I believe you didn’t answer my question Miss. (L/n), “ he pointed out, “I guess that means one less answer for you.”

You rolled your eyes, you would let him have that. 

“I don’t know how she rebooted Vision, much less without a body, I don’t remember much of the day it happened.” His eyes hardened, upset that he had hit another dead end he went to leave. 

“I still have one more question Haybitch!” You called out, his feet stilled and he turned to you, eyes wide and offended at the nickname. 

“What are you planning on doing to Wanda?” That was the question you wanted to ask. His eyes crinkled as he gave you a sarcastic smile. 

“I don’t know,” he said, “I don’t remember much of that meeting when it happened.”

He then left you to wallow in your own thoughts. 

You knew he had a secret he didn’t want anyone else finding out. 

You knew Wanda knew it. 

You knew he wasn’t going to let her talk. 

You knew whatever his plan was involved her not being able to speak again.

[watchyourbluesturngolden]

cats and babies

This is the first piece I’ve ever written so if anyone sees this be nice pls and thank u

There could be typos/ weird formatting, this was typed entirely on my phone

I also feel the need to say all of my medical knowledge is from Grey’s anatomy and googling things I saw on grey’s anatomy so this is probably not that accurate ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  

Word count: 6,160

Warnings: Car accidents, blood, angst (but with a v happy ending ofc bc sad endings are Not For Me), hospitals/medical stuff, again a very happy ending, I would like to emphasize the happy ending so no one gets scared away from reading this, did I mention there’s a happy ending?

"So, what'd'ya say? Chinese?"

They were deciding where to go for dinner after a long day of touring their favorite art museums. Harry and Y/N had been dating about two years now, and (cheesy as it sounds) they loved each other more and more every day. 

"Chinese sounds great," Y/N smiled, glancing over at Harry. The golden sun reflected off his curls, making him look absolutely angelic. 

He smiled, which turned into a chuckle, which turned into full blown laughter. She was confused. "What is it?" What's so hilariou- eyes on the road!!" 

"Sorry, sorry," he laughed. "Nothing, just- do you-" he breathed slowly, calming down a bit. "Do you remember the first time we had Chinese food? She blushed, laughing with him at the memory. 

Their first date had been... disastrous, to say the least. They had both been nervous, but both trying to act confident. They had decided on a nice, fancy, black tie restaurant, and Y/N was excited. When he picked her up in a limousine, she was hardly unable to contain herself.

However, their plan fell apart almost from the beginning. When they got to the place, a big red sign read "CLOSED FOR REPAIRS"

"Ooook... that's... weird," Y/N had grimaced. "What should we do now?" 

"Uh... we could... try the one a few blocks over? Yeah, that's a good place too, I know the owner. He always has a table for me. That'll work!"

Y/N hasn't quite cared about the wrench thrown into their plans. She really liked Harry so far, and she though he liked her too. So she chirped "Sure! Sounds great."

She hadn't noticed how embarrassed he looked when he opened the car door for her. He couldn't believe his luck! He was finally on a date with a girl he really liked, really wanted to impress, and the best restaurant in town closed with no notice? How could this happen? But he shook it off, climbing in after her and alerting the driver of their change of plans. 

When they got to the next place, Harry immediately got worried. It looked very crowded, and while the owner usually held a table for Harry, it didn't seem so tonight. 

He pulled out his phone.

"Hey, Luke! Yeah, I'm great! Listen, do you by any chance have a table-" He paused, and then his face fell. His voice kept its happy tone, though. "No, no problem at all, I understand. Yeah, for sure, a different night. Thank you!" He hung up, looking more than a little dejected. 

Y/N put a hand on his arm. "It's ok, I promise. I swear I didn't just agree to go out with you for the fancy food. We can go anywhere, 'Im really not upset!" 

"Agh, thank you. You're very sweet. But really, you deserve a fancy place. Only it seems everyone in the world is determined to make sure we don't get to do that," He huffed. "Maybe..." And he pulled out his phone again. He glanced at her curious face. "How do you feel about Chinese?" He asked sheepishly.

  Y/N beamed. "I love it," and there was no trace of insincerity on her face. 

"Right then, Chinese it is!" he found the closest place on his phone, telling the driver the address.

After a few minutes of eating, Y/N looked around the table for a fork. She could handle big foods, like the chicken, with the chopsticks, but definitely not the rice. 

Harry asked what she needed. She was a bit embarrassed to tell him she wasn't good enough with chopsticks to eat her rice, but he was kind about it. He helped show her how to use them without making too big of a mess. Still, she dropped half her plate on a napkin in her lap. 

At the end of their meal, Y/N burst out laughing when she picked up her napkin. Harry looked at her, confused, until she placed what was basically a full serving of rice on the table. He was also unable to contain his laughter, to which Y/N responded by throwing a few grains of rice at him. 

He threw a balled up napkin at her, and she blew a straw wrapper in his face. This escalated until she splashed what was left of her water glass on him. There was stunned silence for a moment, and Y/N thought she went too far. Then he looked at her and burst into laughter. She sighed in relief, laughing with him. "I'm sorry, that was too much," but she couldn't keep the smile off her face at the sight of the water dripping down his face.

"A little water never hurt anyone," he said, his eyes twinkling as he splashed her with his own water. 

Y/N was pulled from the happy memory of their first date when the car skidded on the ice. 

"Careful... if I'd known it was this slippery we'd have found a closer place," she said nervously.

"Nah, we've talked about this, the only good place is the one two towns over. I understand you love Minnesota and all but it is NOT the best place to find good Chinese food," he smirked.

"I will not have this Minnesota slander, not in this house. Maybe you're the issue, with your sophisticated taste and all," Y/N said, laughing at his disgruntled look. "Sophisticated? I took you for Chinese food on our first date. Nothing about that screams "sophisticated" to me." 

"Yeah, but we were dressed VERY fancy. That counts," Y/N laughed. 

"Oh really? that's what makes me sophisticated? alright then, you're right, I'm, extremely-" 

The car slid just a little too far for Y/N's liking. 

"Harry, are you sure it's safe to be driving on this? I think it's getting worse, and- look, it's starting to rain." She checked the weather on her phone. "Yeah, it's at that weird temperature where it's halfway freezing. The road will be worse on the way back." 

"I think we're ok," He reassured her. "The car has 4 wheel drive, and I'll go slow. I think the biggest danger is us not getting our Chinese food," he smiled at her. "Uh, no," Y/N said, rolling her eyes. "I'd say the biggest danger is crashing and dying in a firey car wreck." 

"Always so negative, Y/N," Harry laughed. "We're perfectly fine-" he spoke too soon, because right then the car slid again. A lot, this time. They almost slid right through a stop sign. 

Y/N clutched the armrest. 

"We're almost there, you better not kill me before I get my Chinese food, Styles. I finally know how to eat rice with chopsticks without..." She stopped halfway through her sentence because she was laughing so hard. "Without... dropping all of it on my lap." 

They dissolved into giggles, especially when Harry said, "got any more water to throw at me?" 

The car slid once more, and Y/N felt her pocket nervously. She had bought a ring for Harry. It was nothing too special, but it was the one year anniversary of the first time they had gone to an art museum together. She wanted to commemorate that with something special, so she had gone to the museum gift shop and found the perfect ring. It had a silver band, a little thinner than the rest of his, and a labradorite stone set into it. She thought it would complement his other jewelry nicely. 

She kept her hand on the little box in her pocket, careful not to make Harry suspicious. 

He wasn't looking at her, though; he was completely focused on the road. His hands gripped the wheel hard enough to turn his knuckles white. Y/N felt a little more nervous seeing this. Harry was an excellent driver, and he usually had one hand on the wheel and the other holding hers. He only gripped the wheel this tightly when he felt unsafe driving. 

Y/N looked out at the darkening sky. She was not a fan of storms, especially ones that make the roads icy. Like a true Minnesotan, she knew that under the right circumstances, a bit of rain could make it nearly impossible to drive.

A car sped past them, almost veering into their lane when it went over a particularly icy patch. 

"Harry, really, I don't know if we should keep going," Y/N said nervously.

"I know, but I'm not sure what we should do. I think it's safer to just keep going and hope the rain stops. We're about 10 minutes away, but if we turn around it's almost a 2 hour drive." 

"Yeah... you're right. It's better to just keep going. Just... go slow," Y/N said, biting the inside of her cheek. 

"Stop doing that," Harry chided in a singsong voice. 

"How can you even tell? you weren't even looking at me," Y/N laughed. 

"I know how you are when you're nervous, Y/N. Biting your cheek won't do anything but hurt." 

Y/N smiled. She had never had someone care this much about her. Someone who knew her this well, almost better than she knew herself. She was so hopelessly in love... 

She was so busy thinking about what she would say when she gave him the ring that she didn't hear the horn blaring. She looked up just in time to see the truck driving straight down the middle of the road towards them. 

She could tell instantly the driver of the truck couldn't do anything. He was sliding on the ice like they had before. Harry jerked the wheel to the right, moving the car out of the way. 

It wasn't enough.

Y/N heard a horribly loud crashing noise, and then there was nothing. 

Y/N shot straight up out of the bed she was in, gasping. Someone put their hands on her shoulders, trying to soothe her and get her to lay back down. She pushed the hands away as her vision came into focus. She was in a room filled with people and noise and 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦.

She panicked for a minute before she realized where she was. Clearly an Emergency Room. There were 4 doctors and nurses around her, checking her eyes, ears, reflexes, pulse, breathing. She threw her arms out to try and get some space. One of the nurses caught her hand, holding it in both of hers. 

"Y/N, you're alright. You're in the hospital. You were in a car accident. Do you have any pain? Whe-"

"Harry! Where's Harry?? I need to see him, I have to, I have to go-" She stuttered as she pushed the doctors away from her, trying to get up again.

  The same nurse held her back.

"Y/N, we need to make sure you're ok before you can get up. If you let us help, you'll be able to see Harry sooner. Can you lay back? Do you have any pain?"

  "No, no I'm fine, I'm ok! I need to see Harry, I need to know if he's ok! Please!" Y/N looked frantically around at the doctors, hoping one of them knew something. 

The doctor who appeared to be in charge ordered, "Someone go get an update on the guy they brought in with her. See how he's doing." 

"Thank you, thank you so much," Y/N breathed, finally laying back. 

"There we go. Do you have any pain Y/N?" The nurse asked again. 

"No, I'm totally fine. I'm- " Y/N brushed her hair out of her face. When are brought her arm down, she saw that her hand was covered in blood. "I'm bleeding!" She cried, panicking. 

"It's ok, it's not too bad," one of the doctors said, examining her head. "It looks like it'll need maybe 5 or 6 stitches. We can fix that up right away." 

Y/N closed her eyes. How had this happened? Harry moved the wheel, she knew he did. How had they crashed this badly? 

The doctor who had been sent to check on Harry came back into the room. Y/N snapped her eyes open, looking at her expectantly.

"He is stable. That's the important thing right now. However, he's been pretty badly injured. He broke his femur and clavicle. He has a small brain bleed, and he is covered in cuts from the glass. He's also pretty bruised from the airbag and seatbelt. He is intubated, because he was having some trouble breathing. He might need surgery to repair the brain bleed, but right now they're waiting and hoping it will get better on it's own." 

Y/N exhaled. "But... he's ok? I mean... he's alive?" 

The doctor smiled. "Yes. He's doing ok." 

Y/N finally allowed herself to breathe. She noticed she was crying but she didn't do anything to wipe her tears away. 

"Ok, Y/N," said the doctor stitching up her face. "I'm finished here. You need to stay here for a little while longer so we can monitor you. There is an IV in your arm to keep you hydrated. If you need anything, call for a nurse. Also, and this is important, don't get out of this bed without someone helping you. You've been through a lot today, but the adrenaline is wearing off, which might make you feel shaky. Do you need anything right now?" 

"No, I'm... I'm fine. Thank you," Y/N said, wiping her eyes. 

After he left her bed, she felt her pocket. She breathed a sigh of relief when she felt the ring still there. Then she mentally kicked herself for being worried about a silly ring when Harry was... no. She wouldn't let herself think that. Harry was 𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦. They were both alive, and they were both ok.

About an hour later, a nurse came in. After confirming that she felt totally fine, Y/N anxiously asked when she could see Harry. 

"I'm sorry, the ICU is family only," The nurse said. She really did look sorry, but this did nothing to make Y/N feel better. 

"I- I'm his wife!" Y/N said quickly, not even thinking. She most definitely was 𝘯𝘰𝘵 his wife. She wasn't even his fiancee. She slipped the ring from her pocket onto her finger, then held up her hand to the nurse. 

The nurse pretended not to notice the fact that the ring hadn't been there before, and that the ring was easily a size too big. "Oh! Then of course you can see him," She said, helping Y/N off the bed slowly. "I'll take you to his room." 

"Thank you so much," Y/N said, taking her first few steps slowly. 

"Careful- you're still attached to this IV pole," The nurse said, adjusting the tubing so it wasn't in her way. "You can hold onto it for support- yes, just like that." 

Y/N got more nervous with every step towards Harry's room. What would he look like? Would he be in pain? Would he know who she was? Would he... be mad at her? 

When she walked into his room, she almost started crying all over again. He looked, well, awful. He was covered in cuts and bruises. He had several tubes and wires connected to him, as well as a large tube taped in his mouth. He had a cast on his leg and a sling on his arm.

Y/N looked at the nurse who was taking his vitals. 

"How is he?" She asked in a small voice. 

"He's ok for now. He is stable, which is very good. He's unconscious, but we hope to see him wake up soon. You can sit with him, hold his hand, talk to him. If you need anything, just press the call button." 

She left, leaving Y/N and Harry alone. This time, she really did start crying. This was awful, and it was all her fault. She was the one who wanted to go for Chinese food. She was the one who picked today, the first wintery stormy day of the year to go for a long drive. And now.. 

"Harry... Harry I'm so sorry," Y/N said, sniffling. She held onto his hand, the one that wasn't attached to a broken collarbone.  "This is all my fault, and now you're... and I got off with nothing but a cut on my forehead, and it's not fair and I'm so sorry," She let out a sob. 

She continued on like this, crying and talking and crying some more, for a few hours, before she fell asleep in the chair next to him. She woke up around 9 the next morning with a stiff next and puffy eyes. She looked at his face, still covered in bruises, and kissed his hand. The nurse came in to check on him and told Y/N to go get some breakfast, reminding her that she couldn't care for Harry if she didn't care for herself. Y/N reluctantly agreed, going as fast as she could. The nurse had disconnected her IV sometime in the night, and she could move much faster without it. 

She got back to the room with her bagel and resumed her position in the chair right next to Harry. She talked to him as if he was awake, imagining she heard his beautiful voice responding to her. 

She had managed to keep the crying to a minimum today. She kept telling herself that if- no, 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 Harry woke up, she didn't want to look like a monster with red eyes. 

Her phone had been found by some paramedics, so she found Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone online and began to read to him. It was a little weird, but Harry loved these books, especially when he was sick.

Y/N was used to just imagining she heard his voice with her in the room, but suddenly she heard something that wasn't her. She gasped. 

"He's choking!! Nurse!!" She yelled for help, frantically pushing the call button. "Help!" 

Several nurses rushed in. One ushered Y/N back and out of the room, telling her to give them space to work. 

"What's- What's happening? What are they doing??" Y/N tried to go back in, but the nurse held her shoulders. 

"He's trying to breathe over the tube, Y/N. That's a very good sign. It means he's breathing on his own," The nurse said, trying to keep Y/N calm. 

"Does- does that mean he's waking up?" Y/N asked, not wanting to get her hopes up. 

"Not for sure, but it's a very good sign."

After a few minutes, the nurses came out of Harry's room, looking excited. "Y/N, he's awake! He's very groggy and can't speak yet, but he is definitely awake. You can go in and sit with him again if you'd like. We gave him some more medicine for the pain, so you have about 15 minutes to talk before he starts going a little..." She made a swirling motion next to her head. 

Y/N didn't care if he was high on morphine. She just cared that he was alive and awake and didn't... hate her. 

Harry was laying in the bed, looking at her with great concern in his tired eyes. He opened his mouth to speak, but no noise came out. Y/N rushed over to take his hand. 

"It's ok, they said you might not be able to talk for a little while yet. It's ok, I'm here, it's ok," Y/N said, smoothing his hair. 

Harry cleared his throat, coughing. He gestured toward the water cup on his side table. 

"Oh, of course." Y/N picked up the pitcher and poured him a glass, setting it in his good hand. 

He raised the straw shakily to his lips as   Y/N watched carefully to make sure he didn't spill. She gently lifted the cup out of his hands when he held it up to her.

His small smile was enough to make Y/N cry all over again.

"Oh, Harry," She cried, holding her head in her hands. "It's all my fault. I'm so sorry this happened, I did this to you- you almost died!" 

"W-what?"

Y/N whipped her head up. "You can talk?" She said, overjoyed.

Harry coughed and spoke again. "Of course I can talk." 

His voice was rough and it sounded like it hurt everytime he spoke, but it was the most beautiful thing Y/N had ever heard. 

"What are you talking about, it's all your fault?" He rasped, looking utterly confused. "What even happened?" 

With tears leaking from her eyes, Y/N explained all she knew, which still wasn't much. Harry remembered everything as she told him, both their eyes watering as her voice shook.

"Why... why're you crying? Does your forehead hurt? I can call the nurse..." He reached for the call button.

"No, no, I'm ok," She took his hand in hers. "I'm just so sorry, because it honestly is my fault, I'm the one who wanted Chinese food and picked 𝘵𝘰𝘥𝘢𝘺 of all days to drive 2 hours away and-" 

He cut her off by raising his finger to her lips. 

"It's not your fault... it's mine. I'm the one who convinced you the only good Chinese food is so far away and I'm the one who was driving. I couldn't keep you safe..." 

Harry had never looked so sad. 

"No!" Y/N exclaimed. "Do you not see me right now? I'm absolutely fine, you did keep me safe. You swerved out of the way... wait a minute," She paused, realization hitting her. "You didn't think we could avoid the truck at all, did you? You knew it would hit us either way, but you made sure it would hit as far from me as possible." 

Harry looked down. "I figured you're more important than me, I had to do what I could."

"Harry Styles!" Y/N whisper-yelled. "If you weren't so 𝘪𝘯𝘫𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘥 I would 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘤𝘬 you right now! How could you do that? How could you put yourself in 𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳 like that?" 

"Oh, that's actually why I got so injured, because I knew you'd try to hit me for this," He smiled charmingly at Y/N. She just scowled. 

"Did you really expect me to just say, "oh well, guess she's a goner! bye Y/N! nice knowin' ya!" No, of course not. Of course I'd put myself in danger for you. Always." 

Y/N's lip trembled. "Why do you have to be so romantic after you do such stupid things? it makes it really hard to stay mad at you," She said, wiping her eyes. 

"Yeah, that was the goal there," He laughed. 

Then he caught sight of the ring on her finger.

"That's pretty, when did you get that?" He mock gasped. "Did you get engaged while I was in a coma?" 

“No," Y/N laughed. "It's funny actually. I bought it from the museum gift shop. I wanted to give it to you as a present, for the anniversary of the first time we went there together. I was going to give it to you over Chinese food, and it was going to be 𝘢𝘸𝘦𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 and 𝘯𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘨𝘪𝘤 and 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭." 

Harry smiled. "That's lovely of you, darling. Why... why's it on your finger though?" 

"Oh! right." Y/N sheepishly pulled the ring off her finger. "They wouldn't let me see you because I'm not family, so I threw it on and said we were married," She said, blushing furiously. "Sorry about that." 

Harry smiled. "Why are you sorry?" 

"Um... we're 𝘯𝘰𝘵 married... so... I don't know, I just thought you might think it's weird, or, something..."  Y/N finished lamely. She held the ring out to him. 

"Happy anniversary." 

"Why don't you keep it?" 

"Right, of course, you don't need a reminder of this day," Y/N slipped the ring back into her pocket, on the verge of tears because she messed up 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯.

"No, that's not... I meant, why don't you keep it... on your finger?" 

She pulled the ring out of her pocket again, looking confused. "Why?" 

Harry plucked it out of her hand, holding it up to her. "Because I want you to marry me," He said, slipping it onto her finger with the sweetest smile she had ever seen. 

Y/N smiled at him. "It's ok, Harry, you're very high on all the painkillers right now. I won't hold you to anything you say," She laughed a little. 

"I'm not... why would I be on painkiller... oh yeah," Harry grinned, looking around. "I remember why I'm high right now." 

"Riiight." 

"I might be high, but I still want to marry you," he said is a singsong voice. 

Y/N laughed. "Harry, why don't we talk about this when you're sober, ok?"

Harry pouted. "Please? Please marry me? I love you, and you're so pretty, and you're so nice to animals..." He started crying, apparently at how nice Y/N was to animals. "And... a cat! We can get a cat together!" 

"Harry, baby, don't cry, of course we can get a cat," She gently wiped the tears from his bruised face. 

"I won't stop crying until you say you'll marry me," Harry said defiantly, gripping    Y/N's arm. "Pleeeaaase?" 

"Ok, Harry, yes, I will marry you. Sure. You can stop crying now, ok?" 

"That's good, I'm glad, because you're my favorite person, and I looooove you, and you're my baaaaby..." 

At this point Harry was just singing random words, usually circling back to "baaaaby" and "looooove youuuu". 

Y/N felt happy for the first time in what felt like years, while really it had been less than 24 hours. 

Eventually, he wanted to see the ring again. Y/N held up her hand and he gasped. 

"It's so beautiful! I'll buy you a real one though, a real ring for our real wedding. Then we'll get a real house and have real babies, and a real cat," He said, with the dopiest grin Y/N had ever seen. 

"Oh? We'll have babies, huh? How many babies will we have?" 

"3," He answered quickly. "Two girls and a boy. No... 4. Two of each. That way they won't team up one of them." 

"Oh, sounds like you've thought about this a lot," Y/N laughed.

  "Every single day since we started dating, you know why?" 

"Why?" 

He motioned for her to lean closer.

  "Because I looooove you," He sang in her ear.

She pulled back, kissing his swollen cheek. 

"You're a sweetheart," She said affectionately. 

"So're you," He smiled. 

"I kind of like drugged Harry," Y/N laughed. "He's very cute." 

"Drugged Harry also likes drugged Harry, he feels like he's floating." 

"Oh, so drugged Harry talks about himself in the third person?" 

"He does now!" Harry smiled at her again. "Drugged Harry is tired... he's just going to..." 

Then the monitors started beeping rapidly. Several nurses ran in, bustling around and shouting various medical terminology. Another nurse ushered Y/N out of Harry's room for the second time that day. 

"No! No, I need to stay with him! I can't-"

"Shh... it's alright. They're going to do everything they can to help him. You have to let them help him. Why don't we go to the waiting room?"

Y/N exhaled shakily. If she couldn't stay with Harry, she might as well sit instead of hovering around the corner. 

"Yes, let's go to the waiting room," She said, after a few deep breaths. 

Y/N had been sitting on the waiting room for what felt like an eternity, but a glance at her phone told her it had only been 45 minutes. 

A woman in a surgical gown approached her, and Y/N stood up quickly. "What happened?" She asked immediately.

"Unfortunately, your husband's brain bleed did not resolve itself like we had hoped. He is in surgery, and for right now he's doing well," the surgeon said, looking sympathetic. 

"Ok... why did the monitors freak out? Did his heart stop? Is he going to wake up from surgery?" 

"The monitors went off because his heart was having trouble, but they were able to resuscitate him through CPR and defibrillation. It's too soon to know if he will wake up, but the surgeon is hopeful. I will come back to update you as soon as I can."

"Ok, thank you," Y/N said, sinking back into her chair.

  She felt a pain in her chest, like real, actual pain. What would she do without Harry? How would she live with herself, knowing he died trying to save her? 

She caught a glimpse of the ring on her finger and choked back a sob. Would she tell people she was engaged? No, of course not. Harry had been completely out of his mind when he'd asked her. 

She slumped down in her chair, wanting to curl up and cry. Instead, she called her mom. Through her tears, she explained everything that happened. 

"Oh, honey," Her mom sighed. "I'm so sorry. I'm on my way. I'll be there in about 7 hours, I'm sorry it'll take so long. Do you want to stay on the phone with me?"

  "No, I can't," Y/N sniffled. "I have to call Harry's family."

  "Do you want me to do that? I wouldn't mind, they're-"

"No, mom, thank you, but I should. I- I'm going to go. Love you," Y/N said, hanging up the phone. 

Checking her phone, Y/N realized it was the middle of the night in London where Harry's family lived. She didn't think she should wait, so she called Anne without another thought. 

"Oh, Y/N, I'm so sorry. We're getting the soonest flight. We won't be there until tomorrow morning. Will you be alright alone? Is your mother coming?" 

"Yes, my mom's on her way. I'm ok, thank you," Y/N said, rubbing her eyes. 

After she hung up the phone, it set in just how exhausted she was. She had slept poorly the night before, because of the awkwardness of sleeping in a chair and because she was so, so, worried for Harry.

She drifted into a fitful sleep where she dreamed of cars crashing, rings flying around, and Harry standing just out of her reach. He was like a rainbow, the closer she got to him, the more he faded. 

She startled awake and realized there were tears on her face. She checked her phone, seeing that it had only been 3 hours.  

She saw the same woman from before approaching her, this time wearing just scrubs. 

Y/ N stood to meet her. 

"Harry is out of surgery and doing well. We were able to repair the brain bleed. His heart stopped on the table," Y/N gasped at this, "But we were able to get him back. His ribs will be very sore and possibly even broken. All that aside, he is doing well, Mrs. Styles, and you can see him now," She said, Leading Y/N to the elevator. 

Her breath trembled as they walked towards his room. 

Harry was laying in his bed, looking like a fragile child. Even though he was so much bigger than her, right now he seemed so... small. 

Y/N looked at the nurse, asking to sit with him. She nodded and explained that two of his ribs were fractured and his collarbone would hurt him a lot when he woke up. 

Y/N held his hand with a featherlight touch, unwilling to jostle him even the smallest bit. 

After about an hour of her reading to him, she felt a small movement, barely even noticeable. Was it...?

She felt another movement. This time she was sure of it. He was squeezing her hand.

"I'm here Harry, I'm right here," She soothed,  moving her chair closer to him.

  He groaned sleepily before opening his emerald eyes and looking at her.

  "Hi," he smiled, squeezing her hand again. 

"Hi," Y/N said, crying more than a little bit. 

"What... did... are you ok?" Harry's brow furrowed. He seemed to have a hundred questions, but he settled on asking how she was. 

"Yes, Harry, I'm ok. How do you feel?" 

"Hurts," he said, closing his eyes. "But if you're ok, so am I." 

Y/N kissed his hand. "I see drugged Harry is still here? The one that is 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 cute and sweet?" 

"No, he's not. This is just regular Harry. I can tell because everything 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 hurts," He said with a small grimace.

"Oh, I'll get the nurse. They'll give you something," Y/N started to get up, but Harry's grip on her hand tightened. 

"Wait," he said pulling her back to him. "Before they make me go all loopy, I just want to say-" He paused, looking at the ring on her finger. "I love you, to my fiancee. I think it counts more when I'm not high." 

"Your- your fiancee? Harry, I told you I wouldn't hold you to anything you said before. You weren't in your right mind at all, I didn't even think you'd remember saying all that." 

"Yeah, but I remember asking you to marry me and you said yes. You might not be holding me to anything I said, but I'm holding you to that," He grinned. "You really want to deny a dying man his last... dying... wish?" 

Harry flopped his good arm dramatically over his forehead, wincing at the motion. Y/N helped him slowly lower it again. 

"First of all, you're not dying. Secondly, I don't want you to go through with this because you feel obligated, or because you think I'll be upset if you aren't ready to propose. It's totally fine, I promise, but why don't we talk about this when you're feeling better?" 

"No, I feel fine," He insisted.

Y/N gave him a look. "Really? You do? Aren’t you the one who just needed help moving your arm?" 

"Irrelevant. I feel fine, like, mentally. If you don't think you're ready to be engaged to me, that's ok. But don't say no because you think I didn't mean it. I did, with every part of me. I love you, and I want you to be my wife." 

"...Really?" Y/N asked, cheeks heating up.

"Really," Harry smiled. 

"And according to drugged Harry, you want to have a cat and 4 children." 

Harry laughed, wincing immediately.

"Don't make me laugh, my chest really hurts," He said, still holding her hand. 

"Sorry, sorry, they said you have some broken ribs. Also your collarbone. Also your femur. Geez, Styles, you're kind of a mess," You laughed. 

"Yeah, really," He smiled. "But seriously, will you? Will you be my wife?" 

"Of course I will, Harry. I love you so much, of course I will," Y/N said, gently kissing his cheek. 

"Great," Harry beamed at her. "Now that we've worked that out, can you get the nurse? Drugged Harry is ready to make a comeback." 

"Oh, right, sorry," Y/N said, reaching over for the call button. 

The nurse came in, giving Harry more medicine. 

"You'll start to have some relief within a few minutes," She said, leaving them alone again.  

"One more thing Y/N," Harry said. She could already tell he was a little more relaxed. "I have to get you a ring!" 

Y/N smiled, holding up her hand. "I already have one, remember?" 

Harry waved her hand away. "No, no, a bride can't buy her own ring! What kind of... chivalrous... gentleman... would I be if I didn't buy you a beautiful ring?" 

"Ok, Harry, as soon as you get out of here, we'll go ring shopping," Y/N promised. 

"And... to the cat shelter? You said we could get a cat... a kitty, a cat, a little kitty cat..." 

Harry had started singing mumbled words about cats and love and babies. Y/N knew it was going to be a long night. Still, she had never been happier.

[yourmcu]

Wish You Were Here (ii)

Pairings: Tony Stark x daughter!reader, Peter Parker x Stark!reader (platonic)

Summary:

an Infinity War/Endgame AU where Tony Stark’s daughter (you) is one of half the population that vanishes in the snap, Tony finds out later on when he arrives back to Earth, devastated, then you come back like the others to help fight Thanos.

Word count: 3,115

A/n: (moved to the end of the fic!)

Warnings: angst, death, swearing, Morgan’s a cutie! and no seriously I miss him so much

read it on ao3!

Part 1

gif not mine! credits to the owner^^

Just like the others, you were brought back when the Avengers succeeded in retrieving all the infinity stones.

You're laying on the ground at the same place you were last time: Wakanda. Once you gain consciousness you struggle to get up, your legs wobbly.

“Hello?” You call out, but you're alone, can’t even contact anyone since your suit is out of power. You have no clear memory of what happened, just that you had an anxiety attack while Natasha held you, then you blacked out and - that’s it.

You felt a strong breeze and footsteps behind you.

“[Y/N] Stark,” a man’s voice says. “Come with me.”

The man is ancient looking, had a cape and his facial hair weirdly reminds you of Tony’s. “Who are you? And how long was I out?” You look at a sparking yellow portal far behind him, “did you do that?”

“Stick together and stick with Wong,” the man calls out before the portal closes. You have no idea who he was talking to since they already got in. “Doctor Stephen Strange. We need to find Pepper Potts and... get you suited.”

“I already am suited it’s just - no juice. What’s going on?”

“It’s been five years. It’s time, your father and the others need our help to defeat Thanos,” Doctor Strange opens up another portal to an unfamiliar cabin. Your eyes light up at the mention of Tony. “Quickly. We do not have much time.”

Five years? Unbelievable. That’s just insane. You like sleeping a lot but you couldn’t imagine being asleep for five long years.

“Are - are you sure we’re in the right pla - okay, sorry, don’t have much time, yeah,” you knock on the door when Doctor Strange gives you a stern and impatient look. It gets answered right away.

“[Y/N]? Oh my god,” Pepper says breathlessly. You could feel her sobbing while she hugs you tightly.

“Hey, you guys didn’t tell me you moved,” you frown. “Is all my stuff here? Mr. Strange wants me to get ready and this isn’t the only suit I have-”

“Doctor Strange.”

“It’s upstairs, last room on the left,” Pepper smiles as she wipes her tears. You nod and went up the stairs as the magic doctor told her everything.

All your stuff were in boxes and your spare iron suit was standing in a corner. You wiped away the dust off and checked if it was in good condition. It was ready to go.

You quickly charged the weapons and blasters on the suit, and you still needed to-

You hear a small gasp from behind the door.

Confused, you turn around to see a girl with an amazed smile on her face. “Y/N!”

You cautiously walk over to the small girl, “yeah, I’m Y/N, what’s your name?”

“Morgan,” she replies, then her eyes widen as she hides something behind her back. “Daddy said I can borrow your stuff as long as I put it back. They all look really cool.”

You still aren’t sure, but you start to put the pieces together in your mind: you were ‘gone’ for five years, this girl is living with Pepper, and if you guessed right, ‘daddy’ is Tony.

She’s your sister.

“It’s okay, and thanks,” she gives you a small hug which you return slightly, you feel a smile growing on your face since you find her really precious. “It’s nice to meet you, Morgan.

“Hey, so, there’s this weirdo man downstairs and he wants me and Pep - mom to do an errand for him,” you say to her once you remember you have to go. Morgan nods understandingly, “we can play and catch up when I get back, okay? That’s a promise.”

She runs back to her room and you get suited up, power at its maximum.

“Welcome back, Ms. Stark.”

“Glad to be. I missed you - actually, how Dad’s doing? Is he alright?”

“Mr. Stark had a concussion earlier, but as of now he is waking up again.”

“Oh,” you exhale and start worrying about him a bit. “Okay. That’s fine, I guess,”

Once you go back down a portal was already open and a nanny by the door (you assumed for Morgan). You fly right in before it closed up.

“Holy shit.”

There's armies coming out of many different portals, from people to aircrafts, to mutants. You all gather at the Avengers compound, or what used to be the compound.

“I forgot to mention,” you point out and Pepper turns to you, “That’s a pretty badass suit.”

You could feel Pepper roll her eyes from inside her suit. You follow her as she flies all the way to the front.

Your eyes dart everywhere to look for Tony. And there he is, getting up from the ground and flying back to the Avengers. He looks worn out, ragged, tired; you notice before his iron head covered him up. There’s so many people that you doubt he even saw you. God, you miss him so much.

Cap, Thor, Rhodey, Clint, Peter, Wanda, Bucky, Sam, Bruce - or Hulk, everyone was there, but where’s Natasha?

“Avengers!” Cap shouts, a hand extended as he catches Mjolnir without stumbling - whoa, what? - “assemble.”

That’s it. The battle begins.

It's your first time using your backup suit, you obviously didn’t have the time to test it out first. Good thing it works fine.

You're flying around, shooting enemies whenever they get in your way and helping anyone on your side who needed it.

What got you confused (not that you were complaining) was how the other Avengers were a bit too happy to see you than they normally should. You brushed it off though, they probably just love you so much like you love them.

“Aye, mind if you launch me? I need to be over there,” a raccoon holding a gun states and pointed to the direction. You recognize him immediately.

"Sure thing, bud,” you obliged, grabbing him, levitating off the ground and to thrust your iron arm forward like a cannon.

After a while the battle died down a bit and you saw Tony embracing Peter in a distance.

You smile sadly. Peter’s your best friend, but you really wish that it’s you who Tony was hugging.

Your jealousy fades when one of those giant flying Chitauri makes its way to their direction, ready to attack.

“Friday, activate the mega blaster,” you fly closer to the pair.

“Which one?” For fuck’s sake, Friday,

“The biggest one, please, now!” Once the blaster's out, you aim at the monster who's literally meters away from Tony and Peter and fire. When it crashes to the ground lifeless, you land beside them.

“Sorry, that was,” you pant, opening up your iron helmet. “It was literally going to eat you guys, so, uh, sorry for ruining the moment.”

Peter smiles, nodding and Tony looks at you as if he couldn’t believe his eyes.

He hadn’t seen you in so long that your sudden presence fucking took his breath away. You're here, alive and back. If you guys weren’t in such a situation he’d go on and tell you about all the things you missed.

“I’m probably in trouble, right? I mean.. look Dad, I’m in a battlefield,” you laugh nervously, shooting a creature from the corner of your eye. “In my defense, Doctor Strange was the one who came to me, I didn’t-”

You're cut off when Tony wraps his arms around you. Right now he didn’t care about your excuses as to why you were here. But if Tony from five years ago could see you now he’d definitely ground you for life and take away your lab privileges.

“You’re doing great.” his voice slightly muffled from the hug. You let out a squeak, not expecting that from him at all. Tony smiles and plants a kiss to your forehead. “I love you, kid.”

“I love you too, Dad.”

The battle carries on and you're being swarmed by more enemies. You got really beaten up as it went on - what really knocked you out was when Thanos’ spaceship rained fire.

Unable to get shelter, you try your best to dodge everything that came out of the ship. You could barely see anymore because of the chaos and the clouds of dust everywhere.

“Ms. Stark, you need to get somewhere safe! Your heart rate is also increasing dangerously fast.”

“Not - not helping, Fri-” you get cut off when one of the blue fires hit you on the head, sending you to the ground unconscious.

----

“[Y/N], come on buddy, you need to get up,” Peter. He found your body a while after he handed the gauntlet to Captain Marvel. The battle's still ongoing, but he’s focusing on keeping you away from it while he waits for you to wake up.

You quickly sit up and gasp for air, looking at your best friend. “Did we win? Did we - wait, Peter, look out!” You push him out of the way when a group of monsters make their way to both of you. They turn into dust before they could lunge forward, however.

“...what the..?”

He helps you up and the both of you run to where Rhodey and Tony are at. You nearly break down when you see the state he's in.

“Mr. Stark? Hey - Mr. Stark? It’s Peter... and look, Y/N’s here- she’s okay, sir-” While Peter tries to talk to him you kneel down beside him, placing a hand on his arm while you do your best not to cry.

Then he looks at you, mouthing it’s okay.

But you know it isn’t. On your part, anyway. It seems really selfish but you don’t know what you’d do without him. Tony has always been there for you, he always kept you going.

Pepper kneels beside you, gave you a reassuring look before looking at her husband. “Friday?”

“Life functions critical.” That makes you whimper, pulling yourself closer to Tony.

“Tony, look at me. We’re going to be okay. You can rest now.”

You nod, sniffling, resting your head on his shoulder lightly. “I love you. I’ll take good care of Morgan, dad. Don’t worry.”

When the light of his arc reactor goes out, that’s when both you and Pepper break down, comforting each other around Tony’s lifeless body.

----

Dresses really weren’t your thing. So were skirts and shorts. But you wore a short, black dress for Tony’s funeral. You didn’t care if you weren’t comfortable, it was for him. You’d do anything for him.

You barely got any sleep since the battle, you couldn’t now that he was gone. It didn’t feel right. You had no idea how to cope, how you could move on from this.

What made things worse is when Steve and Thor told you about what happened to Natasha, that’s why you didn’t see her in the battle. She gave her own life just to get everybody else back.

You must’ve zoned out again because Rhodey and Pepper are now setting something up in the living room. An Iron Man helmet.

“S’that going to be new decoration?” You force out a chuckle, sniffling afterwards, sitting down on the sofa behind them.

Iron Man’s eyes light up when Rhodey presses a button. You couldn’t believe what you were seeing. Tony sitting on a chair, a hologram.

He turns it off before hologram Tony could say a word. “That’s,” he sighs, “that’s for later.”

“I can’t do this,” you get up, running a hand through your hair. “I can’t. I’ll - I’ll break down, I know I will. Can I take a walk? Please?”

“Take your time.” Steve gives you a comforting smile.

Pepper nods. “Some air would do you good. Be back when it’s time, okay?”

You take longer calming yourself down in the woods near the cabin. You cried, you mumbled to yourself, paced back and forth,

Cause a picture is all that I have, To remind me that you're never coming back  If I picture it now it just makes me sad And right now I just wish you were here.

You stop when you heard leaves crunching. Peter just arrived, along with his aunt.

“Hey,” Peter silently greets, pulling you into a hug. It's obvious he isn’t getting any sleep either. “Are you okay?”

“Of course not,” you murmur, pulling away. “I should probably head back inside.”

“I’ll see you in a bit.”

You slowly walk to the porch, stopping when you hear Tony’s voice inside. You decide to just wait outside the door, you definitely don’t want to see his face, not right now, it'd be too painful.

“If we pull this thing off, and get everyone back,” Tony pauses. “Tell [Y/N] I left something in her room, yeah?”

Then he does the secret rhythm to a clap only the both of you memorized and knew.

You assume he’s done, since you don’t hear his voice anymore after that. Everyone goes out of the house and you hold Morgan’s hand as all of you walk to the lake for one last goodbye.

After that you talked to everybody who came for a while. Bruce, Steve, Clint and Thor tried to get you to look at the bright side, which you appreciated, you met the rest of the guardians who came, Doctor Strange who gave you a sympathetic look and apologized for your loss, and the guy you remembered Tony told you about, the one who helped him when his suit powered down and got stranded years ago. You made a mental note to ask him to hang out with you and Peter sometime.

“Hey... I’m heading to bed now,” you inform Pepper, Happy and Rhodey (both men were staying at the cabin for a few days) who're in the living room staring at the fireplace.

Before you go to your own room you check up on Morgan, who’s fast asleep. She's wearing her little Iron Man glove, pressed to her chest. She doesn’t deserve this.

Your room is still unpacked and they just sort of removed your bed from the compound and moved it here. You sit on the bed, already thinking of ways to move on that you know wouldn’t work anyway.

You remember your father claimed he had something for you here, so taking a deep breath, you clap the secret rhythm,

“Dad... you’ve gotta be kidding me,” you whine, covering your face with both palms.

Another hologram.

“Hey legacy,” Tony chuckles, looking at you. You shake your head at the ridiculous nickname, also avoiding his eyes, which you’re sure would make you cry if you did look. “I... uh, this is just a little video. For you. Sure you won’t see this but... I like to pretend I could still talk to you. I miss you, a lot.”

You fiddle with your hands, still not looking at him but you listen to him talk.

“But we’ll see. We’ll figure something out. I hope to see you soon, [Y/N]. I love you.”

He has both hands in his pockets as he looked at you with a warm smile, before disappearing.

But he reappears a second after.

“We’re doing it tomorrow. The... uh, time travel thing.”

The stress in his voice make you look up at him, but this time he isn’t looking at you. It seems like he was pacing while he recorded it.

“I just finished doing one of these for, well, in case I somehow die while we attempt to do it. If you think about it, it’s highly likely. Going back in time, yada yada, possibilities are endless,” he sighs. “But I figured I owe my firstborn a final message if that happens, right?”

“Honestly I feel,” he makes motions with his hands. “Bit anxious... right now. We were the only ones helping each other out when one of us felt this way but... seeing as you’re not here, I just have to deal with it.”

“[Y/N], look at me,” Tony crouches down to be in level with you, like he knew you were actually here watching this, like he was actually there, the one talking to you. But it’s how he programmed it. “You wanna know what my best decision in life was?”

“Yeah?”

“Taking you in,” he smiles. “When we fight you always bring up that I had the choice not to, and you were right. But guess what? I have no regrets.”

You smile, blinking back tears.

“You mean the world to me, I just feel like I don’t say it enough,” Tony cocks his head slightly, still looking at you. “We both have no idea what the afterlife’s like but that won’t matter, I’ll always look after you girls.”

“Speaking of which, your sister reminded me so much of you when she was first born, god, I still wish you were around for that. I know you’ll love her, she’s just brilliant. Take care of her for me, yeah?”

“Maybe there’s a way to get you back,” Tony sighs at your words, already knowing that it’s not going to work out. “I - I just need some time. I can bring you back, Dad-”

He places a hand on your shoulder. You couldn’t feel it, but you did feel a light breeze. “The deed’s already done, honey. Don’t worry about me. Come on, don’t cry,” he kneels in front of you as you let yourself go, crying hard into your palms.

Don't say everything's meant to be, Cause you know it's not what I believe  Can't help but think that it should've been me In the end, I just wish you were here.

You open your eyes when you hear a beep, even Tony turns around. The recording had ten seconds left. “The recording’s about to end, [Y/N],”

“I love you tons,” you whisper, looking up at him.

Tony smiles, caressing your cheek. “I love you 3,000.”

Yeah, they say you're in a better place, Either way I still wish you were here ‘Cause they say you're in a better place  In the end, I just wish you were here.

----

so here’s part 2. I miss him y’all, it’s missing-Tony-so-much hours for me

just like the first part, I got the title from this amazing song by Neck Deep which you can listen to here.

[taglist: @creation-magician​ (which I would like to personally thank for wanting to be tagged)]

[sserpente]

Pastel Blue (Chapter 5)

Synopsis: After his lucky escape, the Tesseract takes Loki on new adventures–but unfortunately, his journeys through space do not go unnoticed and he soon ends up on TVA’s radar. Working for them, albeit reluctantly, he keeps finding himself in the company of a young woman, Jess, who works in the linguistics department and who has a truly strange effect on him. Smitten by her confidence and smugness, he seeks her presence like a bee hunting for honey and lets her wreak havoc in his heart without really knowing why. But he is determined to find out. He means to escape this godforsaken place anyway.  

Find all chapters on my masterlist! (Unfortunately, Tumblr will not display my recent posts if I add a link.)

It almost felt like no time at all. Had one whole week really passed already since Loki had accommodated himself in her unit? In the books, the characters who had to share a room usually fell in love by the end of the story or, even better, they had some mind-blowing sex and then ended up together, and yet all she had done was play with her vibrator like it would be taken away from her the next morning for good.

But unlike any of the mischief and the chaos she had expected, Loki was a rather pleasant roommate. He was respectful, calm, tidy… and she doubted he had ever entered her room without her permission. Unless, of course, he had done so in her absence.

Jess gnashed her teeth, her eyes fixed on her brown hair in the mirror. Ariana had found this lovely youth magazine in the nineties yesterday, one that had already been thrown in the bin. The only reason she had taken it was because the cover showed a blue phone booth with Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor on the cover. Jess had spent all morning skimming through it, reading the headline article as well as chuckling about the gossip and the ads—even though some of them were rather sexist.

At some point, she found a double page on fancy hairstyles for women and now struggled to copy one of the elegant braids to spice up her own hair. Thus far, she had been failing miserably, flinching with a grunt when Loki opened the bathroom door. He tilted his head upon seeing her sitting on the edge of her bathtub with her tongue sticking out a little and her fingers entangled in her brown hair.

“Yes?”

“I meant to get washed but clearly, you are occupied in here.”

Jess huffed, flinging the hair tie into the sink. “I’ve been trying to braid my hair. Like this, look!” She pointed at the magazine. The woman in the picture looked like it had taken her five minutes to create this look, and they’d had the audacity to rate this style ‘quick and easy’.

Loki chuckled. “You look like a scarecrow.”

“Why, thank you.” She rolled her eyes. “You can take your shower, I give up on this.” She said.

His sigh surprised her. “Allow me.”

“What?” Jess’ reply was all but a chirp but Loki had already approached her and fetched the hair tie from the sink. The braid was indeed a simple one, and as he stood behind her to part her hair for her, he had to refrain from letting her know just how soft it felt.

He had often braided his mother’s hair as a child. It was an activity that had calmed him down whenever Thor and his friends had made fun of how fond he was of books and preferred to use his mind and tricks rather than raw strength in play fights. The hand movements he was so familiar with that he had no need to look. Instead, he met Jess’ eyes in the mirror. She swallowed, and for a brief moment, he found himself remembering the whimpers coming from her bedroom at night.

Quickly, he averted his gaze again, parting her hair to reveal the earrings dangling down her earlobes. They shimmered in the artificial light of the bathroom. He had never seen her without them, come to think of it.

“They are moonstones.” She said when she noticed his glance. His finger brushed against her left earring once more, making it swing a little. “M got them for me on my birthday. The stone is said to soothe emotional instability and stress, and to stabilise emotions.” After all, her own parents were unlikely to buy her birthday presents anymore. “He asked me to always wear them… that they would protect me from evil.”

Loki hummed. He was familiar with the healing properties of moonstones. They were rather common on Asgard too. Only it made him wonder why Mobius would be so keen on her keeping them on at all times.

“Do you truly believe that?”

She shrugged. “I choose to.”

His fingertips brushed against the soft skin of her neck and he sucked in a deep breath. Jess’ lips parted. She was indeed a beautiful woman, was she not? Loki pondered if she was aware of just how alluring she was. How delectable she sounded when she came undone, believing so naïvely that he was unable to hear the fun she had with herself.

Lust flared up in his blue eyes, his fingers caressing her neck once more, and him braiding her hair all of a sudden turning into a subtle excuse to touch her over and over, to explore what their physical connection meant to him. Then it hit him. The inexplicable tension between them was indeed sexual too.

It was perfect, was it not? If Jess desired him, in whatever way she imagined to… then perhaps he could make use of her attraction, especially as this meant that he too would get to blatantly act on those carnal needs simmering right beneath the surface of his very core. He could not possibly trust her beyond that.

“There.” He announced, finishing up the braid by tying the loose ends together with her hair tie. She looked exactly like the model in the magazine now—only Loki had done an even better job. Jess swallowed once more, wishing, subconsciously, that he would touch her one last time. When he stepped away from her instead, she came to suppress a disappointed whimper.

“M is, um… you’ll be sent to a different unit next week.” She said, breaking the oddly peaceful but palpable silence between them.

“Am I?”

“Yeah. Reese recovered well, I mean, that’s what M told me. He will take over after the party.”

“What party?”

Jess stood, clutching the sink behind her for support—Loki did not fail to notice how flustered she was now, almost as if him braiding her hair had intensified whatever it was she felt for him. It had been a long time since he had last had to think this way upon meeting someone of the opposite sex, let alone a mortal woman.

“Dave is celebrating his anniversary this weekend. It’s a big deal here at the TVA, much more important than birthdays. M didn’t tell you about it, then.” She concluded.

Loki shook his head slowly and decided to give her a smirk. Her reaction, blood biting at her cheeks, pleased him. “I’d dare say I am not invited to your silly festivities.”

“M is thinking about it. About inviting you, I mean. And I guess you could… use a break from all… this. Besides, apart from security, everyone will be drunk by midnight. Lots of snacking and dancing…”

Loki rolled his eyes. He had already hated these kinds of parties back on Asgard. Fandral would shamelessly flirt with three women at once, Volstagg would stuff himself into a coma and Thor would brag with his hammer on the dance floor, making the women believe they could lift it as they danced with him.

If anything, however, this absurd anniversary was the perfect opportunity for him to let his charm play and gain her trust. Jess sighed, prompting him to look up and meet her eyes. She stood, approaching him with the hint of a smile both scornful and compassionate at the same time… and then wrapped her arms around him.

Loki tensed up, his arms hanging by his side motionlessly. Physical affection was the last thing he had expected in a place like this, even from Jess. Perhaps, gaining her trust would be easier than he thought it would be, and still, part of him was unable to deny how much he enjoyed knowing that someone at least pretended to care, as peculiar as she was. Her touch felt like someone had set his entire body ablaze.

“Listen, I know you’ve been through shit and I know you hate everyone right now, including me. M may or may not have red on his ledger but you’re a part of the team now. You’re one of us. If we don’t stand up for each other, then who will?”

“I never agreed on becoming a part of the team.” Loki responded darkly.

Jess moved away from him a little, her smile faltering. “Me neither.”

~*~

“You’ll have to explain that to me one more time. When your father, I mean, Odin, fell into the Odinsleep—whatever the hell that means—your mother gave you the throne?”

Loki hummed. That was the part of the story Thor had left out upon telling S.H.I.E.L.D. and all the other silly secret organisations run by mortals how dangerous and menacing his adoptive brother was.

Jess was flicking through one of the thickest books he had ever seen. It was a collection of astronomical anomalies written down in a language not even Loki could decipher and it was so big she had to stand upright rather than sit at her desk to read the top of the pages. She gazed at him from the corner of her eyes.

“Thor was no longer on Asgard and Mother refused to leave Odin’s side. I was the only one left fit to rule—only Thor’s idiotic friends did not accept me as their king.”

“Let me guess… they pretended you were the villain so you became the villain?” Nibbling on her candy necklace, she bit off a pearl with a loud crack. Loki flinched a little. It was short of a miracle she had not chipped any of her teeth yet.

“I saw my chance,” he said. “So I took it. I never saw myself as the villain. And I never lied. I was the rightful king of Asgard.”

Jess bent over to read the small print. She was still wearing the plait Loki had braided into her hair. It swayed from side to side a bit as it fell over her shoulder, revealing her neck. Her scent was almost unnerving—unnerving in a most ferocious and desirable way. Intoxicating. He had sensed it when she had hugged him already and now, part of him was greedy to press her close to him once more and feel her body against his. He suppressed a growl. He should be enjoying his quest to tiptoe nearer and nearer to getting this ridiculous collar off his neck and make this mortal woman swoon over him—not the other way around. He was the one in control. He had to be.

So he stepped closer, his tread so quiet Jess never heard him approach her.

“So you came to like it. The power of the throne?” She said without looking up. Loki nodded, oblivious to the fact she could not see him. She cursed under her breath when his arm brushed against hers, eliciting a barely noticeable smirk from him. It was amusing how quickly he could read her reactions to him now.

The Trickster swallowed. “I meant to prove myself to the man who never saw me as a potential heir in the first place.”

“How did Thanos find you?” Jess choked out when he moved in closer, demanding all of her attention to himself. It almost scared him how fast she forgot about the massive book on her desk, her eyes fixed on his face as if it bore the answer to all of her questions. Loki’s expression hardened nonetheless, regardless of how much the urge to taste her lips rose within him.

“How much do you know?”

“I know what M told me… that you were his ally and he helped you take over Earth in exchange for the Tesseract.”

Loki narrowed his eyes at her. “Then you know nothing.” Her glance found his lips now too. He was standing close enough for his warm breath to ghost over her mouth, her heart beating more rapidly with every passing second.

Fuck. Her office was being monitored. Sucking in a deep breath, she moved away from him and closed the thick book on her desk shut. “It’s late. We should head to the party.” She cleared her throat. “You can, um… wait for me here so I can get changed. Give me five.”

Loki nodded, taken by surprise until he noticed her glancing at the chunky surveillance camera in the corner of the room. Ah… there it was. The fear or shame or both to be caught being involved with him. Loki gnashed his teeth when she rushed past him, fleeing from the scene. That, at least, was something he was familiar with.

He remained in the office, almost as if glued to the spot, for a while longer before he made his way towards the cafeteria where the festivities would take place. Jess would catch up—besides, so he had to admit, he was indeed looking forward to seeing their faces when he joined the ridiculous little party and what it might give him to work with.

“Really, that’s all? That’s almost a little disappointing.” He heard Dave say in the distance, presumably a few yards away from him, his voice ricocheting through the dark hallway.

Loki stopped dead in his tracks. As silent as a mouse, he leaned against the wall, melted into it almost, and slowed down his breathing.

“Yes…” Another voice that Loki identified as Mobius’, replied. “We did take a risk with them but I must admit, I too almost expected a little… more. I thought one of them might… feel something, you know—a connection or recognition, maybe.” Loki could hear his suit ruffle as he shrugged. “Well, timelines can be unpredictable. We do know that better than anyone else.”

Connection. Recognition? For some peculiar reason, he was certain the pair were speaking about him. Him and… Jess? Who else could they possibly mean? His gut feeling, however, told him that he should, seidr or not, get rid of the security footage in Jess’ office as soon as possible. Whatever it was Mobius wanted to see unfolding between them, he was not going to grant him the satisfaction of presenting it to him on a silver platter.

Fortunately enough, they were too far away to hear him, he realised that once more when Jess’ footsteps echoed through the hallway. He knew it was her without even looking behind himself and yet, found his heart skipping a beat when she touched his arm.

“Ready? You know they might give you suspicious looks as soon as you… what are you doing?”

Loki gave her a disarming smile. “Nothing. Shall we?”

~*~

A/N: Put your swords up, put ‘em up; it’s going down.

[lo-55]

Lightning In A Bottle Ch. 2

Nanohana wasn’t changed much, to the point that Nao was beginning to wonder how long she had been inside her crystal prison. She had no idea how much time had passed, but if the boy who had broken her out of the rock hadn’t recognized her or her flag it had to have been a while. 

And that hat…

It had to be a duplicate, surely.

Nao tucked her hands into the pockets of her pants. Her high leather boots kept the sand out of her socks, at least, and when Luffy managed to burn whole sacks of Raindance powder her cape kept her dry. At her side, Odenta and Mikazuki hung as heavy comforts in their sheaths. They didn’t garner nearly as much attention in the city as Nao and the Gem’s had when they had arrived however long ago that was. Back there the city had emptied out as soon as they stepped foot in the sand covered streets of the Alabastan port. 

No, no one even looked twice at them, there were so many people going through the city. 

Not her, or Luffy in his hat. 

How peculiar. 

Nao made a mental note to get a hold of a newspaper as soon as she could, or maybe visit Ohara. They would have the best records about what she’d missed. 

It would have to wait. Ohara was a long ways from Alabasta, and it would be hard to sail Blood Stone without someone else helping her. The ship was just a little felucca, hardly big enough for fifteen people, but she was tough as nails and made for the roughest waters in the world. All the same, it wasn’t safe to sail alone in the Grand Line, where the weather might change without warning, when there wasn’t someone to stay awake and keep watch. Not to mention Marine’s, other pirates, and all sorts of other dangers. Sea Kings probably hadn’t gone extinct since she went under. She’d rather not deal with them. 

Nao was so busy contemplating her ship that she nearly walked right by the restaurant that Luffy went shooting into. 

She had to backtrack to poke her head inside. A crowd had gathered, and Luffy was ignoring it entirely in face of ordering lunch. A pair of unconscious bodies lay through several broken walls. 

Nao cocked her head. Had Luffy done that when hed stretched out and launched himself like a demented rubberband? She knew it had to be a Devil Fruit, but she didn’t expect him to go causing that much destruction mindlessly.  

What a weird kid. 

Ah well. Pirate.

Nao took a seat next to Luffy while the chef frantically started cooking. Whoever had been in before them had eaten a lot, with dirty plates stacked nearly to the ceiling. Now he was feeding Luffy, and her too. 

Nao made a mental note to tip him well. 

She casually elbowed Luffy’s face out of the way and stole a whole chicken to rip into. 

“Hey!” he shouted around a mouthful of food. His head stretched unnaturally away on his neck. “That’s mine!” 

“Finders keepers,” she said succinctly, and shoveled it into her face as fast as she could. Time hadn’t passed for her at all inside the stone. Her injuries from the battle weren’t healed, and she didn’t feel well rested. She was famished, but not starving like she’d spent months unconscious. 

Nevertheless, she’d always been a big eater. She needed the energy to keep up with her lifestyle, and to keep herself strong enough to fight. She wouldn't let her broad shoulders shrivel or her powerful legs grow weak if she could help it. It was a death sentence.  

She nearly bit Luffy’s hand inhaling spicy noodles next, and a hank of lamb. The chef was sweating and out of breath but he kept putting food on the counter and they kept eating. Luffy was chatting with the locals while he ate. 

“Why’s there a hole in the wall? Is that some weird hobby of yours?”

“YOU’RE THE ONE WHO PUT THE HOLE IN THE WALL!” 

She knew it. 

Nao was in the middle of a plate of roasted peppers when one of the formerly-unconscious men climbed out of the hole in the wall. She watched him get slammed back down by a man in a fur coat, and the next thing she knew she was getting dragged through the streets of Nanohara by Luffy. 

Why are we running? That guy isn’t even that strong...

“Tashigi!” the man chasing them shouted, “Stop them!” 

Nao looked forwards to see a girl with a sword. 

“I’ll handle her,” she offered Luffy, who nodded and let go so he could go bouncing up onto the rooftops like a ninja or something. In one smooth move Nao drew Odenta from her side and lifted it to block a blow from the other girl, Tashigi. 

“Nice sword,” Nao grinned sharply at the girl over their locked blades. Her form was good, but she wasn’t very strong. Too bad. 

“Yours is too. It’s a shame it’s being used by pirate scum!” 

“Xeshishishi, tell you what, if you can beat me you can have her.” 

 The man who’d been smashed into the floor landed next to the two. An orange hat rested on his head and he had a bad slung over one shoulder. Black hair fell in soft waves to frame his cheeks, which were covered with freckles. 

There was something familiar about him… 

“Excuse me, ladies,” he said politely, startling both of them into looking away from their crossed blades to him instead. He tipped his hat towards them, then the building that Luffy had jumped up onto. He was blocked from it by their swords. “I have to catch up with my brother now.” 

“Uh, sure,” said the marine girl. They pulled their blades away to make a path for him. 

“Why are you telling us this…?” the redhead countered, looking confused. She faltered when she got a good look at his face, recognition shooting through her. Nao sucked in a breath. He looked like- 

“Hey, hold on-!” 

“Sorry, I can’t,” Portgas waved to them and shot over the rooftops, after his brother and the marine. Nao shook her head. She would see him again, if he was chasing Luffy. 

Nao drew back and slashed again easily. Each move was economic and graceful. She spared no energy, partially because she simply didn’t have any. Tashigi blocked, but the force pushed her back a few feet. 

Nao parried her next attack and side stepped to smack her on the back of the neck with Odenta, sending her careening to the ground.  

Someone screamed, but no blood came from the fallen marine. 

She touched the back of her neck in confusion. “Wha-?”

Nao didn’t answer. 

She was already gone. 

Nao ducked around a corner and ran after Luffy, following his Haki until she caught up with him and a group of colorful people. Hadn’t he said he was a pirate? Or he was going to be King of the Pirates. That was what he’d said. Well, to be king of them you needed to be a pirate in the first place, right? 

That sounded right. 

So these people were probably his crew. 

When he saw her he grinned and threw his hand out. It stretched far enough to grab her by the wrist and yank her forwards. 

“Hey! You made it past the sword lady!” 

“Well yeah,” Nao landed beside him running. Her leg was starting to ache where a cut had caught her over the knee.  

“Who are you supposed to be?” A curly haired young man with a long nose demanded, eying her. 

“She’s a rock person I found,” Luffy said cheerfully.  

“That. About sums it up,” Nao felt herself smile involuntarily. “I’m Roche Nao,” she said for the second time that day. She really hoped they stopped running soon. Her leg was seriously starting to ache. 

“So Luffy picked up someone else weird,” an orange haired girl looked exasperated more than anything else. Nao felt like she should have been offended, but she just shrugged. She was too tired to be upset with people who hadn’t actually done anything to her.

Besides, she wasn’t wrong. 

They came upon a pretty caraval, with a sweet looking figure head. A sheep. Nao felt herself smile. It was cute and light hearted, like this crew seemed to be. Nothing at all like the swift, devil faced Blood Stone. Her eyes were two carved rubies, and a pair of snakes twined around her in a macabre necklace that matched the one that hung beneath Nao’s own shirt. 

“Permission to come aboard?” she asked Luffy lightly. The boy beamed at her and tipped the brim of his hat. 

“Granted!” 

They scampered onto the ship and in a whirlwind of motion they set sail. The caravel carried them away from the port. The pirate flag flapped in the wind, showing off a skull wearing a straw hat. 

Seriously, what was up with that hat? 

Had that up-and-coming volcano really given it to some upstart?

...actually. That sounded exactly like something he would do.

She realized that their little pet (a raccoon?) was staring at her only when he shouted suddenly. 

“Ah! You’re bleeding!” 

It was a testement to how tired she was that she hadn’t noticed that he was a mink, and not just a weird animal. 

“Hah? Where?” 

“Your leg! Quick, take off your pants and I’ll- ouch!” 

The orange haired girl smacked him over the head. “Don’t ask it like that!” she scolded. 

“But I need to see how bad it is! She might need a doctor!” 

“You’re the doctor!” 

Ah. Nao would have preferred they didn’t know she was actually injured, or weak, but there was nothing to be done about it. They seemed like good people anyhow, as far as pirates went. 

“Well then, mister doctor, where’s your office?” 

“A-ah! I don’t have a real office yet. We’ve been using the bathroom.” 

“Then lead the way.” 

The doctor, Tony Tony Chopper, guided her down to the bathroom. The Caravel was small without being cramped. Nao took off her boots and pants, now stained with blood, so he could clean and stitch her leg. He treated her smaller scrapes and bruises as well, and stuck bandaids across her cuts. 

He left so she could clean herself properly, wash her hair and get the blood off of her. She watched the pink water wash down the drain and wondered where her crew was. What had happened to Elba, Talisa, Adrien and Pearl? Were Rize and Hinami still injured? Had the marine’s tended to their wounds? Tier had escaped into the sea before a blast from a marine flagship had sent them hurtling out of the little cove they’d been hiding in and beached their ship. Had she made it back to fishman island? 

She needed to find out. She owed it to her crew after she  had failed them all.  

There was a knock on the door.  

She cracked it open to find the blond man standing outside, holding a bundle of clothes in his arms. Her red hair dripped across her shoulders, but in a few minutes it would be dry and wildly curly again. 

“I bought an extra outfit for Nami or Vivi, but now I see it was destiny that I have it ready for you!” 

He had literal hearts in her eyes when he presented them to her. 

Nao took them carefully. The clothes were lightweight and soft, so soft that they caught on the sword-callouses on her fingers. 

“Thank you?” Her clothes weren’t ruined, by any means. Did she really need a new outfit? 

“If you need any help changing I-” 

She shut the door on his face. “Nope.” 

They definitely didn’t recognize her. No one who did was stupid enough to flirt with her. Her dad would kill them. 

Nao changed into the clothes and was disappointed to find that they were dancers clothes. 

Yeah. No. 

She couldn’t fight in that! 

Instead she cleaned her pants as best as she could, used a small sewing kit she kept in her cape to fix the cut in them, and redressed. 

She'll have to find a hair tie eventually. 

When she came back up to deck the other man they’d run into was crouched on the outer rail. With his back partially to her while he chatted with someone else Nao caught a glimpse of a tattoo on his back. 

It was familiar, too. He nodded to Nao when she came to stand beside the green haired man. Solo? 

Most of his attention was on Luffy, not her. 

“Luffy. Will you come join the Whitebeard Pirate Crew? With your friends, too, of course.”

Whitebeard pirates. Whitebeard. Edward Newgate. 

Nao could feel a headache starting to throb behind her eyes. 

“No way!” 

The man laughed. “Just thought I'd ask! Whitebeard is the greatest pirate I've ever known. I want to make him the pirate king. Not you, Luffy.” 

Nao internally winced. Brutal. They were obviously close. Childhood friends? 

“That's okay! I'll just fight him.” 

Nao blinked at Luffy’s back. Was he stupid? Or just crazy? 

Either way, Nao liked him. 

She couldn’t start her hunt for her crew yet. She didn’t know how long she was trapped, and she didn’t know where everyone had gone. She also wasn’t in any shape to go rushing off and finding out. Her mother would have killed her for doing something as impulsive as grabbing the nearest Marine and demanding to know where her crew had been taken. And her dad… 

Her heart twisted in her chest. Nao shook her head. She wouldn't let herself have a breakdown yet. Not here. Not yet. 

“Hey, Luffy.” 

He turned his head to look at her. Nao offered him a half bow. “Sorry but, I’m going to have to take advantage of your hospitality for now. Until I can get in contact with my own crew.” 

Luffy shot her cheerful grin. “Sure, okay. You can hang out with us for a while.” 

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” the blue girl stepped forwards. Nao really needed to figure out everyone’s names. She only knew Luffy and Chopper. “We’re not here for tourism. Where we’ll be going is bound to be dangerous.”

Nao cocked her head. Yeah. “I appreciate you worrying. But I’m a pirate as much as anyone else. I won’t change my mind just because it’s dangerous.” 

Besides, they were going to Yuba, where Nao was supposed to meet with her crew. 

Molly should have already gotten there and set up shop. 

“Wait for us, Moll. We’ll get there, even if it takes a while.”

Molly pursed her black-painted lips. “I don’t like it, captain. This splitting up stuff. You already sent Harry and Monty back to Zou. We’re stronger together.” 

“I know we are. But with dad-”  

“Don’t worry,” Nao looked the girl in the eye and lay her hand on Odenta’s hilt. “I won’t ask any of you to be responsible for me.”

“I am my own captain, after all.” 

[hnybnny]

properly introducing my main fanservants!!!

LOTS OF PHOTOS/ART AND SUCH UNDER THE CUT BUT LIKE,,,, THIS IS JUST. A QUICK INTRODUCTION. TO MY PRIMARY SERVANT BASTARD CHILDREN- (in order of appearance; Sebastian Moran, John Watson, Enola Holmes, Columbia, Thomas Edison (True), Nicolas Flamel, Captain Stormalong, Edgar Allan Poe)

Feel free to hop in my ask box if you wanna talk about them or have any questions!!! Thank you for reading ily- 

Colonel Sebastian Moran (Assassin)

My primary servant OC by far! Professor James Moriarty’s chief-of-staff and right hand man- the second most dangerous man in London, after the Napoleon of Crime himself. Nicknamed ‘Basher’ or ‘Tiger Jack’, among others..

Moran is- or was- the most skilled marksman in the British Army, before he was dishonorably discharged. There are only a handful of men on the face of the continent able to shoot as well as he. As well as being an unnaturally skilled shot, he is a devoted sportsman and big-game hunter, and has notoriously tangled with tigers by himself in India- a predator that rather aptly describes the man himself. He authored two books, and his feats are still legendary in India, where his record 'bag of tigers' still goes unmatched. Although his outwards appearance was that of a respectable London gentleman and honorable military veteran, he gained a reputation in the evil underworld and was recruited by James Moriarty, serving as his 'chief of staff' of his criminal empire as well as his personal assassin for jobs that required his peculiar skill with a rifle.

The man is, as one Chaldean staff member puts it, a 'stone-cold badass'. He has a nerve of iron, and is vehemently loyal to both Professor Moriarty and his Master. He lives for danger, and the thrill that comes with 'kill or be killed' situations. Moran is also extremely easy and obvious to read- smiling 'like an idiot' when happy, and 'frowning like thunder' when angry. He does rather enjoy killing people, and is overall a man of few morals (although still having more than the Professor)- which, paired together, is what led to his leave from the military as he's practically a walking example of the 'Colonel Kilgore' trope. The more challenging the kill, the more enjoyment he gets out of it. As a strange upside, Moran has no illusions of how he's a right bastard.

"Ask anyone who knew me in the army, and you'll hear the same things about Basher: tiger in the field, bounder in the mess; a good man to have your back, but a bad man to show your back to; trust him with a fight, but not your sister, your wallet, or a deck of cards."

His Noble Phantasm, which represents his unmatched skill with a rifle, is called  BEBR DER KHANH KHALI - Persian for ‘the tiger in the empty house’. 

The bullet shot is, unlike others, a specially-made expanding revolver bullet which makes Moran unable to be likely linked to the kill. Much like a ghost or a tiger stalking its prey, he is completely silent in his attack, and the target can never see him coming before they're already dead- and just as quickly he is gone, seemingly disappearing into thin air without a trace.

No matter the conditions or distance, as long as Moran can see his target in some way- whether by the naked eye or through his scope, or perhaps in some other manner- his shot is guaranteed to hit its mark with deadly accuracy.

Also, if you find him not wearing his coat, it’s probably because he gave it to Jack. He loves knife child. They deserve proper clothes.

(source: amon-sheep on twitter)

(source: manalmmune on twitter)

[[LINK TO HIS CHAPTER IN MY FANSERVANT FIC]]

--

Doctor John Watson (Caster)

The famed Boswell and best friend of the great detective himself. Aman who is most like his traditional origin, as opposed to the heavyset comedic figure modern media tends to make him out to be- aka the Watson that is described by Doyle as a former rugby player, an army man, and popular among the fairer sex due to his handsomeness, intelligence, and charm. 

He quickly becomes a proper ‘fatherly’ figure in Chaldea and especially to Master, due to his big dad energies, despite never having the chance to be a father in his life. Chaldea also appreciates finally having a proper doctor that isn’t a Berserker or... whatever’s going on with Ascelpius. Watson is Holmes’s life compass, the loyal companion always by his side who balances the detective out. 

Although he’s a caster, he also wields his trusty wartime revolver, and is curious in that, unlike most casters, he has one offensive Noble Phantasm- it’s his secondary, and his primary ‘Conductor of Light’ crystallizes Watson's role as a 'whetstone' for Sherlock Holmes's mind and unmatched stimulator of his famous flatmate's genius. As Holmes himself summarizes, “It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but that you are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it.” This Noble Phantasm is purely supportive, serving to bring out the absolute best in an ally- whether it be manifested in power, magic, or inspiration- and temporarily unlocking a vast wealth of potential that they might not have even known they had. The exact limitations or bounds of it is not known, as it can seemingly extend in purpose as far as Watson or his Master might need it to in a given situation- able to provide buffs, grant moments of unmatched mental clarity or courage, and even unlock hidden abilities and Noble Phantasms if the moment is dire enough. His secondary NP is one he rarely uses, and hates to do so, because of the bad memories it dredges up- called ‘The Reichenbach Solution’, it creates a reality marble recreation of Reichenbach, with the roaring waters and a single shot from Watson himself sending the enemy tumbling off the falls to their demise. 

Watson was old friends with Moran in the army, and reconnect during their time in Chaldea (despite Holmes and Moriarty’s protests), and he also joins the ‘author squad’ and spends much time with them. He is a rational man and sturdy as they come, always there when needed; whether it be to patch up wounds, help solve mysteries, or to help Master deal with all the mental trauma from their adventures (because holy shit they need HELP-). Also Also he probably just straight up adopts Mash, he and Holmes are her new gay dads.

(source: gomooink on twitter)

--

Enola Holmes (Ruler)

If Sherlock is the representation of all great detectives, then the teenage Enola Holmes is the representation of all female sleuths. Originally far too weak to be a servant- her source material being extremely modern (Enola Holmes series by Nancy Springer), she contains the essence of the great detectives of the fairer sex, but most importantly of two Divine spirits- Athena and Persephone (not Ma’at, despite what the image says-), both Greek goddesses. Athena is the dominant of the two, and a maternal figure to Enola, while Persephone is content just to sit back and enjoy the ride.

The younger sister of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes (and sometimes, the mysterious elder sibling Sherrinford), Enola is much like her more famous brother- similar in lanky stature and physical features, including the prominent hawk-like nose. She is plain in appearance but behind bright eyes hides an intelligent, clever mind, albeit a stubborn and hard-headed one. She is a rebel at heart, resisting the efforts of society to shove her into the mold of a perfect subservient Victorian woman. Enola often uses being underestimated due to her sex and age to her advantage, and, like Sherlock, is quite adept at the art of disguise. With her Spirit Origin also containing figures like Nancy Drew and Miss Marple, Enola is a talented private investigator with a knack for seeing things from angles that other’s can’t- like that of a woman.

Also yeah, she gay. Keep scrolling. She would like to hold hands with Mash very much. 

(enola w/ her brother mycroft; source, dewa-chan)

(concepts for her ascensions, mostly cemented, again courtesy of dewa-chan who i owe my life to always and forever-)

--

Columbia (Ruler)

The Divine Servant calling herself Columbia is a complex individual. At face value, she is the personification of the United States of America, often visualized as a goddess; a quasi-mythical figure first written about by the enslaved poet Phillis Wheatley during the Revolutionary War in her work To His Excellency, George Washington. Columbia is, in fact, an amalgamation of two lesser Divine Spirits. One of them is the Roman goddess of liberty, Libertas. The majority of personifications of liberty are merely aspects and appearances of her, including the Statue of Liberty and the unidentified woman in the painting Liberty Leading the People, leading to Libertas having a more powerful- if rather confusing- Spirit Origin compared to most other minor Roman deities. The other is Columbia herself; a goddess first encountered by Chaldea during the odd adventures with Paul Bunyan. She is the symbol of America, and although she is technically a goddess, she is not worshiped- instead existing as an anthropomorphic personification akin to Uncle Sam. She is a goddess crafted by humankind, a manifestation of the thirst for freedom and equality that resides in the heart of man.

However, her existence is still closely intertwined with Libertas, having come from her 'lineage'; Columbia explains that if other personifications of liberty were to manifest, such as Marianne- the French icon of liberty, they would have to have Libertas accompanying their own Spirit Origin to be anything more than a Phantom. Columbia is not only linked to the nation carrying the name America, but to the land itself- in her earliest incarnations she served as a representation of the Americas- both South and North- to those across the Atlantic. She protects all who walk across the great frontier, and all those who have walked it before. Geronimo often voices his hopes that she is the same goddess that brought the first peoples of the yet-unnamed land delicious maize in abundance; Columbia only ever gives a knowing wink, always keeping the answer to herself.

Columbia tries to speak like a newscaster- that is, without an accent- to hide that fact that her true accent as a Servant is the thickest fucking New York brogue you can imagine. AYYYY, SHE’S WALKIN’ ‘EEEEERE!!!!

She has two Noble Phantasms- a support one, her main, called ‘ TORCH OF THE NEW COLOSSUS: THE DREAM OF A NATION ‘, and an offensive albeit rarely used NP called ‘ STRIKE FOR FREEDOM: DO NOT WEEP, FOR WAR IS KIND ‘ that has anti-Country parameters /because it straight up fuckin’ manifests the american military from all across its history-/

Columbia is just... a big country mom. who can grow to the size of the statue of liberty. whoops. 

[[LINK TO HER INTRO CHAPTER IN MY FANSERVANT FIC]]

--

Thomas Edison (True) (Caster(?))

BASTARD MAN. BASTARD. This Thomas Edison, though being initially called an Alter, is actually the True manifestation of the ‘Wizard of Menlo Park’ without the influence of so many presidential heroic spirits. To match Tesla, he’s a 5*. I have him as Caster but... that’s still up in the air, tbh. 

He will steal your Noble Phantasm and claim it as his own. It’s actually one of his Skills- ‘Intellectual Copyright’. It blocks an enemy's ability to use their Noble Phantasm, sealing it for a length of time, while also buffing Edison in return- the strength of the buff received is proportionate to the strength of the sealed Noble Phantasm. This embodies Edison's habit of taking other people's ideas for his own, and while he often improved upon them, he still claimed them as solely his creations. He can copy the abilities of others and shape them to his own needs, always at the ready with a lawsuit in hand if anyone dare complain!

He is not allowed around Ivan or Ganesha due to his history with elephants and electrocution.

His Noble Phantasm (he may have more than one, he gets VERY shifty when asked) is a manifestation of his most terrible and deadly creation- the electric chair. He can also create a reality marble of a fantastical Menlo Park, a thriving center of innovation and invention, using his Territory Creation. 

Did I mention he’s a bastard? God, he’s a bastard. He’s incredibly intelligent BUT HE IS A BASTARD. He’s Evil alignment (arguably, may be Chaotic Netural-). It pains Tesla to admit that he actually likes normal Edison (furry man) much more. 

Ask him what he did to Louie Le Prince and he’ll sock you in the jaw and take off running (and also not answer). 

--

Nicolas Flamel (Caster)

The Alchemist, the great and immortal Nicolas Flamel himself. He’s a sad old lanky Frenchman DILF dad who misses his wife a lot, and is always ready to throw hands with Merlin and/or Paracelsus. He’s a potential candidate for the Grand Caster class, but is behind Solomon and Merlin in ‘line’.  Flamel was a successful French scribe who would gain a reputation as an alchemist after his death in 1418- or at least, his presumed death. He was rumored to have been successful in his creation of the Philosopher's Stone, an artifact with the ability to transmute base metals, and with it was able to create a way to achieve immortality. This Stone was his magnum opus, and he was the first to successfully create it- a fact he makes sure that Paracelsus is aware of at all times.

Also, much like Merlin, he’s not a true Servant. This is THE Nicolas Flamel. But... what happened to Perenelle, his wife? He does not like to talk about it.

He enjoys peace and quiet, educated debate, and reading. Flamel gets on quite well with his fellow Frenchman Dantes, as well as with Waver/El Meloi. 

THE DRAGONS OF FLAMEL (Skill): Flamel summons a staff of Cadeceus. Carried by the Greek god Hermes in mythology, it is said "...wake the sleeping and send the awake to sleep. If applied to the dying, their death was gentle; if applied to the dead, they returned to life". In the hands of Flamel, it can stun an enemy or counteract the effects of a stun-inducing skill upon an ally. As well as that, it can channel the effects of its corresponding god-named element mercury, able to dissolve many metals like silver and gold at will. However, like mercury, this skill is extremely volatile and prone to backfiring violently on Flamel if overused.

ELIXER OF LIFE (Skill): The ultimate alchemical creation- the solution, part of Flamel's legend, that granted he and his wife immortality. He keeps a small flask of the elixer on him at all times, and can be used in a pinch to heal all of Flamel's physical wounds, or that of a singular ally. However, it is not enough to grant an ally immortality, nor is it enough to heal multiple mortal wounds. The substance takes exactly one week, given the right materials, for Flamel to remake and refill his flask with some of the elixer.

He has two Noble Phantasms, one being ‘The Stone of the Philosphers’, and the other being ‘The Book of Abra-Melin the Mage’.

[[LINK TO HIS INTRO CHAPTER IN MY FANSERVANT FIC ALSO THERES A LATER CHAPTER WHERE HE ATTEMPTS TO THROW HANDS W/ PARACELSUS]]

--

Captain Alfred Bulltop Stormalong (Rider)

Captain Alfred Bulltop Stormalong is, plainly put, pretty much a nautical version of Paul Bunyan. Like Bunyan, he can change his size at will, growing to huge proportions. His giant ship was said to have hinged masts so as not to catch them on the moon, and had a stable of Arabian horses on board for his crew to get from one end of the ship to the other! Stormalong is said to have had a lifelong rivalry with the fabled Kraken- but unfortunately for the legendary sea beast, it got summoned alongside Stormalong and has begrudgingly taken up residence in his hat in a somewhat smaller form.

His main weapon (not drawn) is a ship's anchor he wields like a flail. His pipe is really just for the aesthetic as he can't use it to smoke, but it does blow bubbles! His Noble Phantasm is The Courser and the Kraken (Massive all-enemy damage + stun).

He’s a good boy who loves boats, the water, and clam chowder. 

--

Edgar Allan Poe (Foreigner)

The alcoholic author himself, Edgar Allan Poe is a Foreigner-class servant, being linked with the King in Yellow- Hastur the Unspeakable.

Sometimes you can find him locked in a tiny pitch-black closet with Dantes and Sherlock, all three of them puffing away in utter silence on their tobacco. Hastur most often takes the form of a multi-eyed raven chillin’ on his shoulder, and is capable of speech- if prodded, he will shit-talk the patrons of Poe’s fellow foreigners. He really doesn’t like Cthulhu and Yog, even if Poe has psuedo-adopted Abby, WHOOPS. Hastur, to his credit, is the least malevolent Elder God/patron in Chaldea- though if he is seen chatting with Moriarty by any servants or staff, Master must be alerted immediately.

True to form, he’s very macabre, with a unique dramatic way of speaking much like his writings. He’s unsettling and creepy, but has impeccable manners and likes to chat (he’s very lonely-). He enjoys a good mystery, and is prepared to find Arthur Conan Doyle if he be a heroic spirit and beating the snot out of him for treating Holmes so poorly- Poe was the inventor of the detective fiction genre, after all. Most of skills manifest visually as references to his most famous works. His NP is ‘ A DREAM WITHIN A DREAM : THE CRY OF THE YELLOW RAVEN, NEVERMORE ‘ 

He doesn’t know what a ‘Hot Topic’ is, but it sounds intriguing!

And no, he doesn’t know what the hell was up with his death either. Weird shit happens in Boston.

[worryinglyinnocent]

Fic: Forged Through Fire (10/13)

Summary: Amestris. Once democratic, now a military dictatorship. Prohibition is strict; personal freedoms curtailed. All alchemists must be state-licensed or face imprisonment. Foreigners are met with suspicion. It’s a grim place and a grim time, but there are some people able to bring a little light to the world. Behind an innocent-looking bookshop, speakeasy proprietor Chris Mustang has formed an unlikely alliance with unlicensed alchemist Van Hohenheim to provide alcohol to those who want it and medical care to those who need it. When Riza’s newly complete tattoo becomes infected, Roy brings her into this underworld, little knowing the way it will change their lives in the future – uncovering the secrets of the mythical Philosopher’s Stone and the schemes of a Fuhrer hell-bent on achieving immortality, all whilst navigating what they mean to each other.

===

Rated: T

[One] [Two] [Three] [Four] [Five] [Six] [Seven] [Eight] [Nine] [AO3]

===

Forged Through Fire

Ten

Roy had absolutely no idea where he was when he woke up, which was alarming since he woke up by falling off a couch to the soundtrack of someone knocking on the door. 

“Riza?” It was Hughes’ voice. “Riza, everyone’s back apart from Roy, we’re starting to make plans. Falman and Fuery have news.”

Oh, right. He was in Riza’s apartment above the shop. 

Riza came out of her bedroom, fully-dressed and ready for the day, and she passed a mug of coffee to Roy as he got off the rug and grabbed his boots. He must have really been out of it if she’d managed to come in and make coffee around him without him noticing.

She opened the door. 

“Hi Maes. Roy’s here and we’ll be down in a minute; I’m just going to take Hayate out.”

“Oh.” Hughes peered into the apartment past Riza and raised an eyebrow at Roy. 

“Nothing happened,” he muttered, feeling his face begin to flush bright red. 

“No, from the state of the couch and the state of you I can see that,” Hughes said. “But we think we’ve got a breakthrough, so come down once your head’s screwed on straight. Gracia brought breakfast for everyone.”

However much Hughes might exaggerate when talking about Gracia, his summation of her cooking skills was spot on, and Roy’s stomach growled. He finally succeeded in jamming his boots back on his feet and grabbed his jacket, following Riza and Hayate out of the apartment and down into the bar, to be met with the mouthwatering smell of pancakes and syrup.

Hughes wasn’t kidding about everyone being there; Havoc and Rebecca had brought Trisha back as well as Gracia coming along. The only person missing was Breda, who was monitoring the radio in the office. Everyone looked to be in various worse for wear states having had so little sleep the night before, and Roy was glad that he wasn’t the only person dishevelled and still in yesterday’s clothes. 

With everyone eventually settled around the table with pancakes (and a plate delivered to Breda), the discussion began. 

“Hohenheim’s been taken to the Fifth Laboratory,” Fuery said. “We picked up on the car movements early this morning.”

Hughes gave Roy a pointed look. The Fifth Laboratory definitely existed then, and Roy had indeed been a fool to think it hadn’t.

“We think that Bradley’s there too, as he hasn’t been seen in any of the other places where he would normally be and we know from the security guard’s logs that he didn’t go home last night,” Falman added. “Also, if the guards know where he is then they’ve been instructed not to say; Mrs Bradley was getting worried about him and asked if they knew his whereabouts.”

“Right. Do we know where the Fifth Lab actually is?”

“Not yet,” Falman said. “I need to go back this morning and pick up all the reports from this morning’s early shift, they won’t have been filed yet. There’s nothing on record about it. Or rather, everything that’s on record about it has been redacted, but it all ties in with what Hughes has already found out about Project Xerxes. That’s where they’ve been doing most of the groundwork for it.”

“Right.” Roy looked down at the map that was spread out over the table. The city had been built up along circular lines and he traced the limits, marking the four existing laboratories with pencil.

“The alchemist in me wants to say It’s here,” he said, moving Rebecca’s plate and circling a couple of blocks. “Put all those points together and you get a basic transmutation circle, although I dread to think what a city-wide transmutation circle would do. Would you agree, Armstrong? Armstrong? Alex?”

Armstrong jerked out of whatever thought he’d been in and looked at the map. 

“Yes. I’d agree. But I think there’s an easier way for us to find out where the Fifth Laboratory is.”

Roy handed him the pencil. “I’m all ears.”

“Yeah, anything to avoid getting the evil eye from the secret police record keeper.” Falman shuddered. 

“Tim Marcoh used to be the head of research for Project Xerxes. He’d know where the lab is.”

“That’s great, but Tim Marcoh died three years ago,” Havoc pointed out. “Or he’s in Xing, according to Hughes.”

“Oh, he’s not in Xing, but he did fake his death,” Armstrong said, completely matter of fact. 

“What? How come you’ve never mentioned this before? How do you even know this?”

“I only found out by accident and I swore to keep the secret, especially since he thought I’d been sent to kill him. I was taking my mother to a sheep festival in the East…”

“The Resembool sheep festival?” Trisha asked. 

“Yes.”

Trisha laughed, although it was the hollow laugh of someone who didn’t think they’d ever laugh properly again. “That’s my hometown. I met Van there. Sorry. Go on.”

“The train stopped for repairs before we arrived in Resembool and I met Dr Marcoh in a small village. Obviously he’d changed his name, but he’s been living out a quiet existence as a local doctor having sworn off alchemy for life.”

Roy just stared at him. 

“How far away is this village? If we commandeer a car, how long would it take you to get there and back with Marcoh?”

“It could be done within the day, as long as we could persuade Marcoh to return to Central.”

“Even if you can’t get him in person, you can at least get the location of the lab,” Falman said. 

“I think it would be better to get him in person.” A plan was beginning to form in the back of Roy’s mind. It was probably the worst plan in existence, but it was the only plan he had. 

X

“You’re absolutely crackers, but I can’t think of anything better, so I’m in.” 

Breda managed to succinctly summarise everyone else’s thoughts towards Roy’s plan in that one sentence. Fuery had gone back to manning the radios for any updates as to Hohenheim’s status, and Armstrong and Falman had left to go and forge the papers for commandeering a car and then to drive said car to find Marcoh. There was so much being left to chance and Roy himself was beginning to doubt his own sanity.

“You’re all crackers if you think I’m letting you just run out of here following Roy on this madcap scheme.” Chris was standing at the head of the table with her arms folded, and Roy was about to protest when she spoke again. “Hughes, you’ve only just recovered from being shot, the military is still looking for you, and this time you don’t have Hohenheim to pull you back from the brink. The same goes for all of you; this is ridiculously, stupidly dangerous and you can’t fall back on Hohenheim to patch you up like you’ve done before.”

Hughes looked suitably chastened, and Chris continued. “Trisha, I know how worried you are about him, and I know you want to help, but you don’t have the military experience that these ones have and Hohenheim will actually murder me if I let you go on rescue missions in your condition. You and Hughes are staying here at mission control. Riza, Rebecca…” Chris sighed. “You’re not military, but I know you girls both know how to shoot, so I guess I can’t stop you. But all of you remember that you need more of a plan than this. I’m not saying not to go along with this plan, but you need more of a plan. It’s you lot against the entire military. They have access to all the trained soldiers, all the weaponry, all the licensed alchemists, all of the secret police and their bag of tricks. You’re going up against Bradley himself. You are going to need more support. You can’t take down the entire military on your own.”

She paused. “Roy, you are brilliant and you’ve already taken control of this situation better than I ever could. But the scope of this is incredible. This affects the entirety of Amestris. This isn’t just a simple jailbreak. There’s no easy way out of this.”

The speech was a harsh truth, and hard for Roy to swallow, but something in Chris’s words echoed through his mind, and a thought came to him.

“Yes.”

“Yes?”

“This affects the entirety of Amestris. We can’t take down the entire military on our own, but maybe we can get the military to take itself down. Project Xerxes, the Fuhrer’s plans to become immortal… They are secret plans, we only found out about them by accident. What if we take them public? What if all of Amestris knows what’s going on? What would the military do then?”

Rebecca grinned. “They’d have to start scrambling to perform damage control. I know just the paper to break the story, and we can get it all over the radio as well.”

“Even if we don’t have any tangible proof, they’ll have to go into overdrive in case people start asking too many questions, because they know that it’s true and they’ll need to find out how everything got out. I mean, even the rest of the military don’t know what’s going on in the Fifth Laboratory,” Hughes pointed out. “There’s only so many people in the know, and they can’t take down the entirety of Central Command and all the civilians. We could cause one hell of a scene.”

Roy felt Chris pat his shoulder, and heard her whisper in his ear. “I told you that you were brilliant.”

X

Ten hours later, Central Command was in complete chaos. 

The Central Herald’s office had been raided, but all the staff had barricaded themselves in the printing press shed and were continuing to churn out publications that were flying off the shelves almost as fast as the runners could get them through the underground network. Rebecca had cheerfully reported over the radio that they had plenty of food and they were only going to stop once they ran out of press paper. 

Since Fuery’s access to the Central Command radio rooms had opened up with the daylight hours, he had set up shop in there, quietly settling down in one corner to keep an ear on everything and reporting in anything that could be of use, leaving Chris’s radio equipment free for Hughes and Gracia to cause merry hell on the airwaves in conjunction with Rebecca’s paper. 

Roy got the impression that Hughes was enjoying himself far too much. 

A phone call from Falman had reported that Marcoh had been tracked down and although it had taken a lot of persuasion, he was on his way back to Central with them for the crux of the plan. For a moment Roy wondered if they’d simply knocked him out and kidnapped him, but that hit far too close to home considering what had happened to Hohenheim and he pushed the thought away, knowing that it would have hit far too close to home for Falman and Armstrong as well. 

Riza, Chris and Trisha were holding the fort back at the bar; there wasn’t much Riza could do to assist in this stage of the plan, but she was ready to help explain everything to Marcoh if he arrived before Roy did. 

Roy, Breda and Havoc were on their way to the armoury, albeit rather later than they’d expected to be infiltrating it. No one was paying them any mind at all as they made their way through the corridors of Central Command, walking with enough purpose to convince everyone that they had orders to be somewhere, but not fast enough to be suspicious. 

They passed the war room where the top brass were trying to perform damage limitation. Bradley was nowhere to be seen, and hadn’t been all day, and the generals were going frantic trying to contact him. Roy smiled to himself as they passed. That was a problem when your secret plan for immortality was so secret that not even the most trusted subordinates knew its full scope. 

“I don’t know why you’re grinning, Mustang,” Breda muttered. “We’re not out of the woods yet.”

That was unfortunately true, and raiding the armoury was only the next step in a set of many more before they were out of the woods. 

Like most of the other more volatile areas of Central Command, the armoury had been locked down as soon as everything had started to happen, and the armoury clerk was nowhere to be found. The door was double locked and padlock-bolted from the outside, but Havoc could always be guaranteed to have lockpicks on him. Breda set up to keep watch at the end of the corridor as Havoc got to work, and Roy flexed his fingers, feeling horribly exposed without his gloves. Potentially creating sparks in a place crammed full of ammunition wasn’t something he wanted to risk, but at the same time, he was on edge with the fear of discovery. 

“OK, we’re in. You’d think they’d use better locks on the guns, but hey.” Havoc pushed the door open, and Breda and Roy followed him inside. 

“We can’t take too much, only what won’t look suspicious, but we should be able to get enough for everyone if we count Riza’s pistols and the Madam’s rifle as well.”

They moved quickly through the racks of guns, selecting easily concealable pistols and stuffing them into the kit bag that Breda had brought. Havoc had unlocked the ammunition cabinets and started clearing them out; they could have as many guns as they liked but they’d be useless if they didn’t have anything to fire. 

“Come on, that should be enough, let’s get out of here.” 

The armoury door swung closed with a bang, and the sound sent a jarring rush of ice all along Roy’s nerves. 

“Why am I not surprised that it’s you, Mustang? I mean, you were there the night that Hughes was shot, after all.”

Roy turned to see Kimblee standing inside the doorway, arms folded and a sinister smile on his face. 

“And Havoc, of course, we can’t forget that your latest squeeze works at the Herald and is currently prepared to go down with her printing press.” He looked at Breda. “No idea who you are, but welcome to the party.”

Roy could almost feel his skin beginning to crawl. He was aware of Kimblee as a fellow alchemist, and knew him as the kind of man who would have joined the military solely for the thrill of the carnage that inevitably came with it. 

There was a click behind him, and Roy glanced to the side to see that Breda was aiming at Kimblee. Roy sighed. Might as well go all in, since Kimblee definitely knew that they weren’t in here with any kind of innocent intentions.

Kimblee just grinned that terrible grin and clapped his hands together, the alchemy sparking off his gloves. The time bomb was ticking and the next thing he put his palms on would explode.

“Now, now. Let’s not do anything rash.”

“You’d really try that in here, with all this ammo?” Even as he said it, Roy knew what the answer would be. Kimblee had never been what one might call fully sane. 

“If I go down, I’m taking you with me.”

“And half of Central Command,” Breda muttered, but he lowered his gun nonetheless.

Roy realised something, and he kicked himself for not realising it before.

Trisha had said that the alchemist from the secret police who had bagged Hohenheim was an explosives specialist. Kimblee was an explosives specialist. 

He also looked like he’d had a recently broken nose that had been fixed up with medical alchemy. 

Roy had only ever seen Kimblee in uniform like he was now. He had never realised that he might be part of the secret police when he wasn’t in Central Command. 

“Don’t think I don’t know it’s Hughes causing mayhem on the radio, either,” Kimblee continued. “Where’ve you been hiding him, then? No matter, I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough. I have to say that I’m impressed, though. All this chaos just to spring one alchemic freakshow?”

Very carefully, he pulled something out of his breast pocket, and Roy recognised Hohenheim’s glasses. 

“Don’t worry. I’m sure the good doctor will give back whatever’s left when he’s finished with him.”

Roy’s first instinct was to ball up his fists and break Kimblee’s nose for the second time in as many days, and he would have done it if it hadn’t been for the explosive arrays on his gloves still glowing, the time bomb still ticking. Kimblee just grinned. 

“Now, gentlemen. Shall we?”

Roy was about to respond – not that he had a pithy response ready, but he had to say something to wipe the smirk off Kimblee’s face – when three things happened almost simultaneously. He heard the reinforced glass of the armoury window shatter. He felt something fly past his cheek. He saw Kimblee bend double and start swearing as blood began dribbling from his hand. 

It was a shot in a million and it could only have been Riza. 

“What the hell?” Breda began, but a second shot cut him off, ripping through Kimblee’s other hand as he reached out towards the wall, ready to blow them all without a second thought.

Now that there was no danger of the room exploding around them, Roy gave into impulse and brought his fist squarely into contact with Kimblee’s face, breaking his nose with a crunch and sending his head smacking back against the heavy door. He gave a groan and slumped down.

“Don’t question it, just be grateful and let’s get out of here.” Havoc grabbed the bag of guns and ammo as Roy and Breda dragged the unconscious Kimblee to the now-empty ammo cabinet and shoved him inside, re-padlocking the door on him. 

Roy grabbed Hohenheim’s glasses from where Kimblee had dropped them and followed Breda and Havoc out of the armoury. For all they were trying to act casual and like they had every right to be there, someone would have seen Kimblee come along this way and someone would notice his absence pretty soon. They had to get out of there as soon as they could, and Roy did not fancy trying to get them all out of the front door with their loot. 

Sneaking out of the men’s room window wasn’t exactly what he’d had in mind when he’d first been planning the raid on the armoury, but needs must, and it was only once they were safely out of Central Command and trying to put as much distance between them and the building as possible that Roy could think about perhaps breathing easy again. 

They’d passed the point of no return now; there was definitely no coming back from that, and Roy could only hope that after all the dust settled, they would be able to think up a reasonable excuse for everything that had happened. 

None of the civilians paid them any mind as they fled; there had been soldiers running around the city all day, and the few people who were out in the streets and not holed up in their own homes for fear of being caught in the crossfire were all too concerned with what was playing out on the larger scale to pay much attention to three men pelting hell for leather away from Central Command and towards an unknown destination.

They reached the meeting point that they’d agreed to fall back to if they got separated, and Roy saw Riza coming out of the shadows towards them, holdall over her shoulder. 

“Hawkeye by name and nature.” Havoc gave her an impressed nod.

“Yeah, you got us out of a jam there, thanks,” Breda agreed.

Riza shrugged. “I figured you might need some backup. Hughes told me which window to go for. Looked like I got there just in time.”

Roy took advantage of the shadows to find Riza’s hand and squeeze it. 

“Thanks for having my back.”

[imjeralee]

Comfort in Despair: Chapter 28 - The Nightmare

Leon x F!Reader

Disclaimer: Do not own Pokemon

Summary:

Galar is rich in folklore and tales of the supernatural.

As a Pokemon Researcher who specialises in ghost types, this is a great opportunity for you to investigate and learn more about the paranormal.

Along the way, you meet Leon (in the most awkward way possible) who becomes embroiled in your adventures.

^ Basically this story is about ghosts :/

Rating: General/Teen

@marydragneell​ here is the latest update

THE NIGHTMARE

…

…

[Waking up to see your bed shaking is a bad sign.]

…

…

Ezra hasn’t woken up.

Pacing up and down the empty corridor, your downtrodden gaze is pinned to the pristine, sterile white floor of the hospital and Leon watches you from his seat before he calls out to you, asking you to sit down with him.

A set of double doors that can only be opened from your side keep the clamouring paparazzi at bay, muffling the noise they’re making and muting the flashes of their cameras.

Leon is only able to stay with you for a short while before he must return to work so you make the most of your shared time together.

The paparazzi are eventually shooed away by the security staff of the hospital and you’re allowed to breathe, knowing that you and Leon are truly alone. Almost immediately, you and the Champion weave your hands firmly together and he loops an arm around your shoulder, murmuring soothing words for you to hear.

You sit and wait for what appears to be an eternity until the door to Ezra’s room opens and the doctor steps out, summoning yourself and the Champion to stand.

The doctor goes through some formalities with you before he explains that Ezra’s cancer has spread, he is in dire shape and he will need to go through an operation soon, if not now.

"We've been trying to contact a..." The doctor leaves his sentence trailing to read off a form on his clipboard. "A Mr Ambrose, but he hasn't responded to our phonecalls."

"Ambrose?"

"It says here he's the patient's next of kin," says the doctor, "we need this form signed."

You ponder slightly then ask, "Is it okay if I sign it instead?"

He nods after checking his list where you are also put down as a next of kin, and you are promptly handed a form which you read over before signing and hand it back to the doctor. Ezra’s fate is sealed; he will not be able to leave the hospital for a long time.

You’re on your own.

“Also,” the doctor says before he takes his leave, “we found the patient holding onto this.”

He hands you a folded letter, pressing it into your palm. It’s addressed to you and as the doctor and nurse leave, their footsteps echoing in the distance, Leon stands close to you as you unfold it, revealing Ezra’s handwriting:

[If you’re reading this, it means I’m dead.  

I was very proud to have you as my student. You learned things quickly and held great respect for everyone you came across. Now I know you have a lot on your plate already, but I am afraid there are two things I must ask of you: number one, Greyson’s cemetery will be formally under your care after my passing as per my will, and two, please take care of Cassie, ie, Absol.

She’s forgetting herself as the years go by, and I would not want her to be alone. She will also take great care of you in return.]

“…Oh, Ezra,” you murmur, before you exhale loudly and shake your head. He was dealing with so much yet he never bothered you with his problems, and he would always go out of his way to assist you in any manner.

“Let’s go in,” Leon says, and you nod; you slip his will into your pocket and Leon offers you his hand once again.

Together, you enter the room; your mentor lies on the bed, his eyes closed. It pains you to see him like this, looking so fragile and weak. Absol lays curled up on the floor by his bed, opening one eye before rising upon your arrival.

She slinks up to you and you pet her on the head affectionately before you sit down by Ezra’s side.

“Ezra,” you murmur, “we did it. We stopped Spiritomb. He’s been captured but he’s so dangerous, he’s been taken away by the authorities. I’m not sure what they’ll do to him. And I wanted to tell you that I’ve started to understand Gengar and I can hear what he says. I can even hear Cassie. I know what you mean now. I can hear them.”

His chest rises steadily under the sheet but from his noisy wheezes and deep, raspy breaths, you can tell he’s struggling with breathing. The amount of machines surrounding him, all the tubes hooked to his arms and wrist do not alleviate your worries. Leon plants a hand on your shoulder as you throw your limp gaze to the floor, your lip wobbling.

“Look,” Leon suddenly murmurs, and you glance up.

Your mentor has slowly opened his eyes into a tiny slit, and to your utmost amazement, his fingers begin twitching, his wrist rolling. His fingers curl and his wrist trembles delicately.

“He wants to write something,” you say determinedly, “do you see any pen and paper lying around?”

Leon searches your surroundings before he spots a hospital’s patient leaflet with enough white space for clear writing. You grab the pen from the clipboard that’s attached to the front of the bed and you slide the pen into his hand, and hold up the paper for him.

Ezra scribbles before his eyes close and his hand goes limp, unmoving. He’s fully unconscious now, and Absol emits a saddened yowl.

Glimpsing at the paper to discern what he had written, there is only word in bold, capital letters: DEIMOS.

“Deimos?” Leon mutters. “What does that mean?”

You contemplate briefly with a hand under your chin, “…Well, if my memory serves me right, Deimos is the name of one of the natural satellites of Mars. The second is Phobos. They’re named after ancient gods and the personification of dread and terror. Phobos and Deimos were twin brothers,” you reply.

Leon looks impressed with your trivial knowledge and crosses his arms with his eyes closed as though in deep thought as you fold the paper up.

Easing yourself off the seat, you lower yourself to Absol’s level, crouching before her. “Cassie, I need your help. Who are Deimos and Ambrose?”

She regards you intensely with her bright blue eyes before she lifts up a paw and licks it for a second. She says, "My dad mentioned Deimos once but I didn't understand what he was talking about. Ambrose....he's from dad's church. You could try asking him."

Cassie doesn't have sufficient knowledge on 'Deimos', you realise, so you say, “And what about Gossamer Cave? Can you take me there? It’s real, right?”

"It is very real, but I can’t take you there," she replies, "I’m sorry. It doesn't reveal itself to everyone, such as myself. If I were to guide you, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to find it at all."

As you nod, Leon observes your interaction with the disaster pokemon.

“Okay. I understand. Thank you so much.” you reply.

You kiss her on the top of the horn and she purrs; you want to ask her how she became a Pokemon but she emits a loud yawn, exposing her jaws and sharp fangs, then she stretches on her frontal paws and curls up to sleep.

“She’s gone,” you murmur with a helpless sigh, rising to stand with a cloudy expression on your face.

“Are you okay?” he asks.

“...I think so.”

It’s time to visit Graves, who is in better condition than Ezra and has been given a separate room not too far away albeit in a different ward.

The journey is spent holding hands with Leon as you stroll down the corridor, your mind laden with weary thoughts. Leon periodically throws worried glances at you, noticing your quiet demeanour and squeezing your hand affectionately.

Graves’ room is up ahead and as you open the door to enter, Magnolia and Sonia are present, and another doctor and nurse are tending to your unconscious godfather right now. You head over silently and the women hug you tightly; the doctor makes his final assessments and you stand as he explains Graves’ condition to your group.

It’s good news; Graves will make a full recovery but the doctor isn’t sure when he will wake up.

“Don’t worry, dear, the doctor says Inspector Graves will be alright,” Magnolia mutters, patting you gently on the shoulder.

“Yeah, he’ll wake up soon.” Sonia pipes up.

With a nod, you head over to Graves’ side and plop yourself down on the seat closest to him. Similar to Ezra’s situation, it’s odd seeing your godfather so vulnerable like this. However, his expression is not one of pain but instead, an idyllic, tranquil one. He looks peaceful and undisturbed.

“I’m sorry, Uncle Chris,” you murmur.

After the visit, Leon leaves the hospital first; he’s immediately bombarded with the awaiting and impatient paparazzi outside before he takes off on Charizard, having answered minimally to their probing questions with a polite grin. Leon will meet you later after he’s finished up.

You take a Corviknight taxi to Circhester, a town you have never properly visited before for there was no reason for you to go there. The only known attractions you’re aware of are the baths which are an immensely popular tourist attraction, but you pass the structure quickly, making a beeline for the Church, a massive, stone-white building with gothic architecture that stands to the north, its large spire poking out from the horizon. You can also hear the faint ring of the bell.

It’s larger than you had thought, with a massive wooden door held wide open by huge stones placed strategically and as you stand before the wondrous, centuries-old building, you look up and all the way to the spiralling and huge archways and the flying buttresses, marvelling the genius design and intricate sculptures of saints and pokemon which encompasses an Articuno and Arceus that are situated on the east and west segments of the building respectively.

Without further ado, you step in, your footsteps echoing loudly as you enter the nave. The cathedral is alit with smoke from incense and the litany of quiet prayer, and it has also been outfitted to cater for tourists, with several signs indicating the fire exit and even the ‘gift shop’ to the right.

It’s busy today, with several groups of tourists being led by a guide, they are taking photos of the statues and impressive paintings on the walls and ceiling whilst a few, undisturbed locals are praying as they sit in random spots in the aisles.

A few clergymen dressed in the traditional black and white garb stroll up and down but they don’t pay any attention to you and you glance around, wondering how you will find Ambrose.

The clergymen are possibly the ex-coworkers of your mentor and it seems none of them are aware of who you are. It’s best to ask around and so you make your way towards the altar at the end of the chapel where you spot an old man at the altar dressed in the traditional white and gold garb.

A pair of half-moon, gold-rimmed reading glasses perch precariously over the length of his long nose and a few tufts of silvery grey hair poke out underneath his black hat. Beside him, a Mightyena sits on its haunches as it scans the area and as you approach, it emits a growl and the old priest looks up from his book and squints his eyes at you.

“May I help you, young lady?” he asks.

“I’m looking for someone called 'Ambrose'. I was informed I would find him here.”

“And who might you be?”

“I’m a disciple of Ezra’s.”

He blinks sluggishly for a moment before his thick eyebrows scrunch together and he pushes his glasses further up his nose, peering at you for a closer look. “Disciple?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Confusion sweeps the old man’s face for a second before he says, “I am Ambrose.”

“He’s in hospital right now. Will you go see him?” you ask. Stunned, Ambrose hesitates for a brief moment and you're quick to add, “He has cancer.”

Ambrose blinks widely behind his glasses before he shakes his head. "Oh, Ezra. How unfortunate."

“He mentioned ‘Deimos’. Does that mean anything to you?”

Your response is an alarmed hiss of “Shh, not so loud,” before the old man closes the book he was reading with a slam and hops off the altar; he grabs his walking stick and Mightyena’s leash which is fixed with a collar and the pokemon guides him down the stairs carefully. “Let's speak over here.”

He beckons you to follow him to an empty pew at the front where he ushers you to sit down before plopping himself down.

“Ezra should not have mentioned its name to you," he utters.

“Why?”

“Do you know what Ezra has done?"

"What?"

"I mean the reason why he was thrown out of the church?”

You think it would be wise to hear what he has to say so you merely stare, and he sighs exasperatedly once more.

“Many years ago, a boy was brought to us from the orphanage who claimed that he had been conversing with a creature of unknown origin. It taught him things."

"What kind of things? What kind of creature was it? A pokemon?"

"No. Not a pokemon."

"Then...a demon?"

Ambrose appears conflicted as he grips his cane tightly.

"Unfortunately, he was never inclined to share those details with us," he replies. "Everyone thought the boy was delusional but he affirmed its existence and that it was real, and so we called it the unspeakable horror. Ezra was worshipping this false god, so he was sent to us to be rinsed and cleansed, to save his soul. Gradually over the years, he improved and he learned our teachings instead…and he stopped speaking to this thing and when he was old enough, he took on a wife and had a child. I thought he would be fine but then I was told a demon had targeted him and his family and he allegedly invoked the unspeakable horror he had known since childhood, which resulted in the death of his loved ones. It was a bad time. The church received a great deal of backlash and he was banished from the order. Ezra has lost favour with God, and you should do the same and renounce him and his teachings now, before it’s too late.”

Ezra has never told you about any of this; however, you do know one thing:

“Ezra isn’t evil," you retort, "he’s my mentor and he’s been helping me this whole time. He taught me everything. He’s been helping tonnes of people since you kicked him out.”

“He’s been teaching you forbidden, dark magic. Ezra is a condemned heretic and his methods are unorthodox. We do not speak of him here.”

"Does this mean you can't help me?"

"You may speak to me to absolve your sins."

You sigh heavily. “If you can’t help me, that’s fine,” you reply. “I’ll deal with this myself.”

Ambrose shifts uncomfortably in his seat before he says, “May God guide you along the way.”

…

You leave the church, back to square one and having hit a dead end.

Returning to Wedgehurst, you grab your rucksack and begin to pack some essentials, namely your radio, journal, some talismans and a few snacks. Graves' photo of your parents drop out of the journal which you pick up and scan intently for a few moments, before you carefully return it safely in between the pages of the journal. You leave the bag propped up beside your bed for later.

Afterwards, you make your way to the lab to conduct desk-based research. Unable to shake off the feeling that something bad is going to happen, you head to the bookshelves and begin rifling through any titles that may be of interest and settle them on the floor near your desk.

Once you’ve amassed a few anthologies, you pick up the first book off your pile and flip to the first page. You will be going through every book in an attempt to unearth more information on Gossamer Cave.

You also try to find out more information on the shiny Lucario you had seen several years ago. When nothing fruitful comes from the books, you rifle through papers and journals you have only to come to the same conclusion. Next, you sift through various maps of Galar, tourists leaflets and articles about Galar’s history, legends and folklore.

There is no mention of the cave anywhere.

Once you’ve gone through the majority of the hard copies, surrounded by mountainous stacks and piles of old and itchy books, magazines and other miscellaneous documents, you move online and conduct various searches, scrolling through page after page until your eyes hurt.

You extend your search to include all possible regions – Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Kalos, Alola… unfortunately, having factored in major regions meant it would not be possible to complete your findings in one night.

Despite this shortcoming, you can only find legends on ancient, mythical pokemon and their ties to the distinct regions. There is nothing on Galar, the legendary pokemon and any relations to Gossamer Cave.

Perhaps you’re looking at this wrong, you think, so you attempt to find any information you can on Deimos - whether its nature is demonic or not - but all you come across are basic information on the moon and the mythos.

You grab your cup for a sip of your drink but it’s empty - you’ve run out of coffee – grumbling, you rise from your seat, stretch and head to the coffee machine only to see that you’ve run out of coffee beans and coffee sachets. The next alternative is tea but all the Eldegoss tea is gone too. You're out of everything.

Sighing, you return to your desk, yawning; exhaustion has made you weary and your temples are throbbing. You close your eyes, resting your head on your elbows for a quick lie down and you find yourself drifting off to a dreamless sleep.

However, something soft and weighty is propped over your shoulders and flops over your back and you reopen your eyes to see Leon sitting on the spare seat beside you, trying to tuck his cape over you.

“Leon!” you exclaim, eyes wide.

“Hey,” he murmurs, smoothing his large hand over your hair. "Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."

“It's fine. I shouldn't be sleeping anyway,” you reply, before you fling your gaze to the clock on the wall. "You're early."

“Yep,” he says with a grin. “I can stay with you for the rest of the evening.”

“Really!?”

“Yeah,” he says, before he quickly pulls you into his embrace; you’ve grown accustomed to his hugs, how he envelopes you with his arms and pulls you against him as tightly as possible.

“Thank you,” you mumble into his chest as you snuggle against him. Admittedly, you were feeling very alone today and his presence is very reassuring. You almost want to ask him not to leave your side.

He chuckles as you bury your nose into his neck, inhaling his musky scent and rubbing your cheek against him as affectionately as you can. He rubs your shoulder soothingly before you pull away, nudging your head to the sofa with a smile and you both rise from your seats, wandering to the couch where you both seat yourselves side by side with the cape draped over the two of you, the cape keeping you close together and very warm.

“Any updates on Inspector Graves and your mentor?” he murmurs as your shoulders knock together, your thighs touching.

“No update, but they’re doing okay.”

“I hope they wake up soon.”

“Me too,” you reply with a sigh, closing your eyes as he weaves an arm around your shoulder.

“How did you get on with your research?”

You shake your head. “Nothing substantial. I met and spoke to Ambrose but he can’t help me.”

“What did he say?”

“Just told me a bunch of bad stuff about Ezra. Urgh, I need a break.”

“Yes, it’s very important to take breaks every now and then,” he replies, and you chuckle.

“I think so too; I need a distraction. You’ll do nicely.”

As you rest your head on his shoulder, Leon picks your hand up and in turn, you rub your fingers over his callused skin; it’s from years of pokemon training and battling, and as you gently smooth your fingertips over his thumb, Leon folds his hand over yours and your hands enclose together tightly.

You smile and he carefully observes your reaction; since you’re so close to him, you can hear his heart pounding a little harder and louder than before as his cheeks grow red and warm. Deciding to fan the flames, you huddle even closer to him and then shift to place your hand over his thigh; he tenses up immediately.

“Leon?” you murmur absentmindedly, stroking his thigh before you use two fingers to run up and down his leg.

Leon stares at your action before shifting his glance to you, unconsciously swallowing down. “Y-yes?”

“If my parents were still around, they would have loved to have met you…would’ve loved you in general,” you mutter as you gaze at the tranquil scenery outside. “And Rosie too. You would’ve gotten on so well with them.”

He nods, his eyes glued to your wandering hand. “Hop loves meeting new people and making new friends, I’m sure he would’ve loved meeting Rosie. They would get along like a house on fire.”

You nod, patting him on the knee before you gently squeeze the sculpted muscle of his outer thigh and he tenses up for a second time. “Everything would have been so different.”

“Mm-hm,” he makes a weak noise from the back of his throat as you lean against him comfortably with a sigh.

"I just want them back."

A brief silence spawns, and Leon observes you carefully.

"Do you think I'm...fooling myself?"

"What do you mean?"

"....Every time Graves or anybody else would say that they were dead, I'd...well, I'd tell them off. I'd rebuff them. I'd say my family were still alive and that's it, end of discussion...but I think a part of me deep down knows they're dead. And that they have been, for a long time," you whisper, "there's no way to bring them back, and I can't deal with it because I never knew how. I don't want to accept it because I...it's...well...I-I..."

As you struggle for words, inhaling shaky breaths, Leon wraps his arms around you and pulls you into his chest.

"I can't deal with it, Leon."

Whilst he ponders the best way to reply, you're quick to spring back to your usual self, hastily wiping away your tears and giving him a wide smile.

"Oh gosh, look at me. I...I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to dump that on you-"

"No, wait."

Before you attempt to wriggle free from his embrace, he plants his hands on your shoulders, effectively stopping you and you look up, your gazes meeting. Leon's smile has completely vanished, replaced with a solemn expression.

"You've never had the chance to talk about it, have you?"

You're surprised he's so blunt with you on this occasion and his words make you double-take. "I'm fine, honestly! I made a mistake, I didn't mean to say that-"

He squeezes your shoulders firmly, "Listen. It's okay. You can tell me."

His eyes never leaving yours, you let out a weak laugh from the back of your throat, trying to smile albeit failing miserably and you shake your head, just a little, casually flinging your gaze to the side, then to the ceiling, then back to him. Leon's gaze doesn't shift. You're no longer able to fool him and your mouth falls open a tad, as though you were trying to speak though no words come out.

"I..." you croak out, your voice weak and dry all of a sudden.

When the first tear leaks out from the corner of your eye, you quickly wipe it away.

"Leon," you mutter, inhaling a breath.

He waits.

"...I need to go back to work."

You can tell he is disappointed by your answer, but he nods regardless and says, “I’ll help," before he throws a glance to himself, at his Champion gear. “Let me get changed out of these clothes first.”

He departs from the lab and returns in half hour or so donned in a black hoodie and sweatpants; the change from Champion to lounge bum is so drastic, and upon his return, you've gone back to normal, to your usual self, as though the conversation that had taken place had vanished completely, and you giggle to yourself whilst Leon grins at you timidly.

“What do you need help with?” he asks, and you shift your gaze to two bookshelves in the corner.

“….I haven’t gone through those yet….”

Leon looks undeterred despite your despondent tone, and rolls his sleeves up and takes out the first book from the top shelf. They’re large and old, resembling tomes, with their sleek gold lining. Leon prevents himself from sneezing from the muskiness of the pages and though you’re concerned, he joins you at the desk where you’re going through two books at the same time.

He watches anxiously but you don’t notice, going through page after page, holding a magnifying glass occasionally when the text is too small. Leon settles his book on the desk, sitting opposite you and flips to the first page.

The text is tiny. The words are archaic. It was probably written fifty or seventy years ago, complete with hand-drawn illustrations of strange-looking creatures. He checks the cover where the fine print reveals it's a book on demons.

Looking up, you’ve already covered a third of the books that are propped up in front of you.

He watches you pour through the research wordlessly, completely absorbed.

You’re one of the most hard-working people he’s ever met.

“Did you find anything?” you ask, looking up from your book.

Leon glances at his own book. He had barely passed the first page. “Uh, no, sorry.”

“That's okay, take your time.”

It’s back to reading and as you flip through pages and pages, Leon continuously tosses you worried glances. In a few or minutes, you’ve gone through the first book and shut the cover, rubbing your temples as you close your eyes and you shake your head. No Deimos, no Gossamer Cave.

You reach for the second book and begin to plough through, and Leon has only passed the first chapter of his anthology. He stares as you go through the pages one by one, your eyes glued to the book, scanning the thin pages, fingers blurred with black ink.

“There must be something here,” he hears you utter under your breath, “Anything! Even just one word will do. There must be something that will help me…Come on!”

As you groan aloud with frustration, slumping in your chair with defeat, Leon puts his book down and grabs his chair, carrying it over to your side before he drops it by your side, facing you.

“Hey,” he says, and you cast him a tired glance.

Leon stares at you intently for a while before he gently pulls you into his embrace once again, giving you an affectionate squeeze.

The tension in your shoulders disappears immediately, the mounting frustration, agony and exhaustion slowly ebbing away as he embraces you tightly; with a shuddering sigh, you close your eyes and sweep your arms around him, murmuring a quiet but grateful ‘Thank you’ in his ear before you press your lips gently over his cheek.

...

As the night wears on, Leon returns to Postwick; he asked if you wanted to stay overnight at his (he has a spare bedroom for you) but you declined; you had desperately wanted to, but recent events have made you more cautious than you should be and you don’t want to endanger him or his family.

At home, you have dinner with Sonia and Magnolia, watch some late night TV together then take a shower. It’s been a long time since you’ve spent the night at home, and you and Sonia spend the remainder of the evening chatting until it’s time for bed although the entire duration of your light conversation, a feeling of dread was growing in your gut as the hours passed.

"It's so nice that you're home!" she gushes, "we can go and get our nails done together and go to the beauty salon!"

She continues going on about other tasks you can accomplish together but you mutter, "Hey Sonia?" as you lie on your bed, staring at the bland ceiling of your shared room.

"Yeah?" She's at the vanity table, brushing her hair.

"If anything happens to me, can you look after my pokemon?"

She puts her brush down and turns to you with a huff, hands on her hips. "Of course! But why are you saying something like that anyway? Nothing's going to happen to you." She chastises you with a shake of her head.

"...I feel awful," you murmur, "In fact, I've been feeling awful all day. It won't go away."

"Well, your godfather and Ezra are in hospital, of course you feel awful."

You nod in agreement. That could be it.

"And you're probably tired and not used to being so active during the day." She sighs as she climbs on her bed and stretches in her comfy pyjamas, grinning, “It’s been such a long time since you’ve actually slept at the same time as me, too. This is so nice! You should stay at home more often.”

You nod again and she rolls over to reach for the lamp.

“I’m switching the lights off now.”

“Okay.”

“Night!”

“Goodnight, Sonnie.”

The bedroom is encompassed in darkness at the flip of the switch, and you hear Sonia rolling over to lie on her side with a sigh whilst you lay sprawled on your back under the covers, eyes closed.

Taking deep breaths in and out, it takes a while for your mind to gently ease into soothing, dark oblivion, and you begin to nod off. You listen to the wind howling gently outside, Sonia’s clock ticking on the wall. You think about Jace, Volkner, your mentor, Graves and finally, Leon.

At the mere thought of the Champion, you smile to yourself as you wonder what exciting things you will do with him tomorrow when he finishes work. Maybe you will have the double date with his friend Raihan and his girlfriend? Maybe you will go camping with him in the Wild Area once more?

With happy thoughts in mind, you roll to your side in a bid to get comfortable and soon, sleep overtakes you.

Your eyes close and as your body grows limp and weightless, your mind ventures away from the bedroom and into the deepest depths and the pit of the abyss, and as you drift to sleep, you dream of a long stretch of road that lies ahead of you, surrounded by two-storey houses with long driveways and huge gardens.

This is your old neighbourhood in Kalos.

“Huh?” you utter to yourself, “why am I here?”

It’s night and it’s raining heavily, wind battering your form. You’re standing in the middle of the road for some inexplicable reason, freezing and trembling from the frigid chilly air; you hug yourself and cautiously glance at your surroundings.

A familiar house lies up ahead.

Stunned, you make your way over and up to the front porch, looking up and around. All the lights are switched off. Everything’s as you remember; mum’s porcelain Politoed garden set are put on display in the lawn. The hedges have been trimmed, courtesy of your father. Rosie’s scooter hasn’t been collected in and lies by the gate.

Dad placed a spare key for any accidents, so you grab it from underneath a Cottonee ornament by a plant pot and you slot the key into the door, twisting it.

The door opens and you step inside your home, closing the door behind you.

Although you have not returned for years, it does not feel that way; you venture into the lounge and peek inside; the sofas, the mantelpiece, the TV…the two leather recliners where dad and Graves used to sit when watching the games…it’s all there.

“I’m home,” you murmur under your breath, before you throw your glance to the stairs.

Sucking in a shaky breath, you head up as quietly as you can and find your old bedroom door, opening it.

The two beds are there, and there are two individuals sleeping inside.

There’s Rosie, who lies on her side, facing you. And then there’s a lump under the covers in the other bed, which you assume is yourself.

Eyes widening, you realise why you have come home, at this time.

“Rosie!” you whisper in shock, before you tiptoe over to her side, “Rosie, wake up.”

She groans and opens her eyes weakly as you shake her shoulder. “….Sissy?”

“Yes, it’s me! Oh god, this is…this is it, I know why I’m here! Come with me. Come with me now,” you hurry inside the room and scoop her out of the bed, into your arms.

Cautiously throwing a glance to the lump in the bed, you breathe a sigh of relief when it does not move, so you quickly leave the room as silently as you can and trek down the stairs.

At the front door, you set Rosie down and she looks around in the dark before she clutches her little hands together and looks up at you, her lip wobbling. She says, “Sissy, I’m scared.”

“It’s okay, Rosie, everything’s gonna be okay,” you reply, pulling open the door for her and ushering her outside into the stormy night with you.

“Mum!! Dad!!” a familiar voice suddenly yells, “Rosie, no!!”

It’s your voice.

Looking up, you see ‘yourself’ standing at the top of the banister, ashen-faced and petrified.

Everything is surreal, and a slither of guilt slides into your gut but as she runs downs the stairs towards you, you pull the door shut in her face and jam the key inside the lock, holding onto the handle as tightly as you can.

You can hear her screaming and fighting with the doorknob, trying to get it open.

Aware she’ll call your parents next, you leave the key in the lock, grab Rosie and begin to hop down the steps of the front porch, heading for the street.

“Sissy, what are you doing?” Rosie exclaims, “Where are we going??”

“Everything’s gonna be okay, Rosie,” you utter as you adjust your grip on her. She is so warm, this cannot be just a dream. This must be real. And if this is real, you’re determined to do one thing: “I’m here to save you.”

Angry footsteps pound after you; you toss a glimpse over your shoulder to see your father rushing towards your direction. He’s too quick, and whilst you’re ecstatic to see your father alive in the flesh once again, his gaze sweeps through you, as though you’re naught a shadow in a thick fog, and he seizes hold of Rosie, pulling her out of your grip. He looks confused.

“Who’s there? Who are you??” he demands.

There’s no time for explanation, you struggle with your little sister as your dad fights back, pulling Rosie as far as away from you as much as possible.

“Dad!! Let go! Let go of her!!!” you scream angrily, but he’s wildly flailing his arms into space as though fighting an invisible assailant which forces you to duck and retreat on several occasions.

Grabbing onto the back of Rosie’s shirt, you cling on as much as possible until the fabric tears and your nails furiously rake against her back.

She emits a startled shriek as she’s finally back in dad’s arms and you topple backwards, staring at your hands in shock. Your father glances left and right, his terrified gaze missing you completely, before he turns and disappears towards the direction of your house.

Looking up, your father has vanished with Rosie.

“Dad, wait!!!”

Scrambling to rise, your feet do not move on their own accord and you’re forcibly pulled away from the ground, your body thrown backwards with malicious force until you collide with a hard surface.

Confused, you’re left to rub your aching head as you pick yourself back up; the scenery has changed, shifting from the street outside your house to the basement, specifically your father’s lab.

You attempt to take one step forwards only to be met with a thick glass, revealing that you’re in a container of some sort.

Throwing your gaze down to yourself, your body has become engorged, clunky and ungainly and it doesn’t take too long for you to realise yes, something is definitely not right.

You try to speak, to say a word but all that emits is a rather low and horrific, demonic screech. Lifting your hands to eye level only to see two large and awkward-looking, grey-skinned palms. In fact, you are not even certain this is ‘skin’ and overall, it is not belonging to a human but a pokemon.

Dusknoir.

Cheerful, muffled humming captures your attention and you glimpse over to see Rosie playing with her dolls at the foot of the staircase.

“Rosie!” you yell, thumping your strange, massive hands against the glass, “Rosie, it’s me!”

She looks up and turns to your direction, cocking her head to one side. “Dusky-nor?”

“Rosie, let me out.”

Instead of replying, she picks up her two pokedolls and forces them to kiss, whacking them together again and again.

You try hard to grab her to pay attention.

“Rosie, let me out. You wanna play, right? I’ll play with you. Let’s play.”

To your chagrin, she does not bat an eyelid and as you glance around the lab anxiously, it’s then you see your father’s poster of morse code taped to the wall. That must be it: Rosie cannot understand what you’re saying.

Tapping on the glass with one of your fingers, you spell out a message, occasionally drawing a dash. Rosie eventually looks up and glances at your direction once more.

“Play?” she says, having understood.

“Yes, let’s play a game. Find a way to let me out,” you spell out in morse code.

She juts her bottom lip out and shakes her head. “That doesn’t sound very fun, Dusky-nor. Why don’t we play tea party instead?”

Before you can reply, the door to the basement opens and a girl enters. It’s ‘you’, again. “Rosie, what are you doing here?” your past self says with a huff. “Don’t come down here on your own.”

She picks your little sister up and off the ground and you watch them converse before the dolls are collected and the two sisters glance at you.

Goddamnit, you weren’t quick enough.

You growl and slam your hands over the glass repeatedly with frustration as they scurry off in a panic in response to your display of anger.

“Wait!” you yell.

The lights are turned off, bathing you in darkness, doom and gloom.

You are alone.

Curling into a ball, you wonder how you got yourself into this sticky situation and how you are going to get yourself out of it. Hell, why are you in the body of a Dusknoir anyway? How did this even happen? Though there are horrific true stories of kids waking up and discovering that they had turned into Abras...

Even though your family are here and you are in the sanctity of your own home, you cannot help but feel very scared and isolated. You can’t be locked up here forever.

Unsure how long you have been stuck here, you begin to feel not quite yourself. Your enlarged stomach is empty of food and your mouth hungers for something to eat. A mere scrap or morsel will do. Perhaps you should attempt to escape, somehow. It wouldn’t hurt to try.

Lifting your hand, you might as well try and carry out one of Dusknoir's attacks, perhaps a simple Shadow Ball would do the trick. To your amazement, a ball of sweeping dark energy automatically begins to manifest and gather from the base of your palm as soon as the thoughts of escaping your confinement arises in your mind and from it, an uncontrollable, powerful blast shoots at the glass container which shatters it entirely.

The action was not without consequence though, and your father suddenly goes flying away from the contraption from the sheer force, smacking into the wall as shards of sharp glass rain over his body.

It appears he had been standing nearby doing some late night research but you weren’t even aware of his presence and now that you've attacked him by accident, you're rooted in your spot with shock.

Time must have passed since you were left on your own and everything has been fast forwarded to a particular crucial moment of your past which must be the event where your father and sister went missing.

Freed from the glass container, you rise into the air.

Dusknoir’s power is impressive; you feel its power surging through your body, the strength it possesses. You could do anything you willed, such as saving your father and Rosie before the incident happens.

Your father groans audibly with pain as you attempt to reach him, but his Sableye and Haunter spring out and begin attacking you to protect their trainer; you did not know that they were also here that night.

“I’m trying to save them!” you growl at the pokemon as you avoid their troublesome attacks. “Stop getting in my way!”

You manage to sweep them up and into your hands, unsure how to deal with them.

The answer lies when a short distance away, the papers lying on your father’s desk gently slide an inch or so from their usual places before they’re completely tossed into the air; a strong wind has whipped up from out of nowhere in the small space of the basement, causing chilly air to spread throughout the entire area. A shimmering, horizontal line appears in the darkness and a gaping hole opens up leading to a swirling vortex of deep purple.

As Sableye and Haunter continue to thoroughly resist, getting on your nerves and ruining everything, you proceed to throw them inside the portal. They are immediately sucked inside and vanish in seconds, their helpless cries drowned out by the blowing winds.

Turning round, your next course of action is to take your father and sister with you; a dim white light hovers from your father’s unmoving body, an inch above his head, shining under the gloomy light of the basement.

You make your way towards him and a little, frightened wail can be heard.

It’s Rosie, but you do not see her, just another light identical to your father's - except hers is a beautiful and bright, shining white light. It's incredibly powerful, and you are immediately drawn to it like a Venomoth to a flame, overwhelmed with the most haunting desire to devour it.

You gingerly pick her up with your massive palm though she flails and struggles.

“Rosie!” you exclaim, “I’m going to save you.”

“No! Let me go!” she kicks and screams for your parents and as your father begins to stir, you also pluck him up effortlessly off the ground.

With your father and sister in your grasp, your breathing begins to grow laboured and your vision grows blurry; your insides squirm and grows hot and you emit a yell as your stomach opens up, your ribs and skin stretching until they snap and tear apart.

It’s Dusknoir’s mouth, and you let out a choked rasp of pain whilst your human hostages continue to struggle.

“What…?” you whimper out, before your hands begin moving on their own accord.

You are not in charge anymore; Dusknoir is back in control and it’s hungry.

“Wait, stop!”

As you tremble and gasp, Dusknoir’s hands continue to move beyond your control.

“Stop!” you yelp, hot tears prickling the corner of your eyes. “NO!”

You begin to feed your father and sister inside your belly, watching them wriggle and flail, their screams muffled before everything goes silent as Dusknoir’s mouth seals shut.

You’re no longer hungry.

…

“Oh god! It was me!” you cry out, “It was me!”

Tossing and turning, you sit up in the darkness with tears staining your face, hands clawing at the sides of your head.

A crumbling static noise captures your attention and you look up; your radio lies a distance from you and whilst you wonder what it is doing here from out of the blue, you head over, bending down to pick it up.

It feels cold and heavy in your hands, and the dial is turned wrong.

Out of habit, you switch it to eighteen ninety eight hertz where the static grows louder and finally, a scratchy voice can be heard:

“-a pocket full of posies, a-tishoo, a-tishoo, we all fall down. Ring around the rosie, a pocket full of posies...”

The voice is unfamiliar to you.

“Hello?” you say, though your rule of thumb is not to respond no matter what you hear. “Who’s this?”

“This is Rosie.”

“No, it’s not.”

“Then it’s me, your father.”

“You’re not my father.”

“Yes, I am. And then on some days...I’m your mother.”

Dropping the radio with fright, you watch it clatter to the ground and the antenna breaks and the screen shatters upon impact, but the voice from within begins to chuckle.

“I’m coming for you."

…and you wake up by a slight tremor underneath your body and a weight pressing down on your chest and legs.

Your eyes open in a snap at the unfamiliar sensation and you discover you're in bed, soaked to the bone with cold sweat.

Inhaling shaky breaths as you come to grips that you are now fully awake and the temperature of the entire room has plummeted, the weight on your body grows heavier and heavier and initially, you're paralysed, numb from the horrific nightmare...but there's something in your bed and you promptly lift the covers up.

A pair of red, glowing orbs dance around in strange circles, weaving and bobbing between the small gap for a split second before you realise they are not circles of light but in fact eyes, and these eyes had been watching you until you had woken up - and the weight disappears in a split second, retreating. The duvet follows its movements, a bump zooming all the way to the edge of the bed before it drops off and the duvet goes flat.

You kick the blanket off yourself entirely, scrabbling to sit up in alarm at what you had just witnessed.

The clock beeps loudly and you whip your head round; the LED screen reads three am precisely.

The tremor returns and you hold your breath, before a second and far more violent quake flings you to one side of the bed.

The bed shakes again and you finally cry out as you glance around yourself in shock and confusion; the bed rocks angrily to and fro, the legs scraping loudly against the floor. The noise is deafening.

In the darkness, your eyes dart left and right frantically as the bed continuously shakes and Sonia stirs, grumbling and groaning from the deafening noise.

You climb out, dropping to the floor and crawling backwards on your elbows. Sonia, now wide awake, rubs her eyes and flips on the switch of the lamp before she emits a gasp of shock at the sight of your shaking bed.

“What’s going on?!” she shrieks with fright before she lets out a loud cry of, “GRAN!!”

As she wails, a dark shadow suddenly flits from underneath your bed and to the ceiling of the room, clinging to one corner.

You daren't peel your eyes off it, your entire body shaking all over with fear as this shadow - initially appearing as a blob, begins to take on the shape of a man - and it springs towards you in a matter of seconds, leaving you no room to retaliate.

Sonia had been gawping at your bed in astonishment whilst you hurriedly evade the incoming attack and roll over to your rucksack, pulling out your khira dagger from within. You plunge the dagger into the body of the shadow as quickly as you can and it writhes for a few seconds or so.

It's too early to call it a victory, as the dagger wavers under your grip before the blade promptly scatters into fragments and the shadow slips away.

Stunned, you gawk at the broken dagger as the humanoid silhouette rises, towering over you. You stare up at this unknown being, your breathing growing laboured before it slams a dark appendage towards your direction. You narrowly escape by making a frantic dash for the door but the floorboards cave in from the assault and Sonia lets out a cry of fright from the alarming sound.

The shadow pursues you furiously, crawling over the wall and over the stairs.

And you yell, "Gengar!"

The pokemon appears, gathering dark energy in his hands before firing a powerful Shadow Ball, yet the attack passes through it completely and the pokemon is left bewildered as the shadow continues in its pursuit. Gengar is quick to react however, and he sinks into the shadows once more.

You throw a casual glimpse over your shoulder, grabbing several talismans from your bag which you had enchanted earlier. Tossing them at its direction, you're dismayed to see that they do little to stop it and the shadow charges through them completely, rampaging down the stairs in its wake.

Nothing's working, and downstairs, you see Cutiefly and Sunkern at the last step before they spot you - and the shadow.

You want to tell them to run away but Cutiefly flaps his little wings, sending a bustling gust of fairy wind towards your attacker's direction whilst Sunken squeaks and throws a barrage of Razor Leaves at it - to your horror, the attacks pass through much like Gengar's, and the shadow lunges at them.

It happened so quickly; their little bodies are juggled in mid-air as the shadow rips through them. Sunkern drops to the ground first, his eyes wide and glossy, the leaves ripped off his head. Cutiefly's fuzzy body follows suit, bouncing over the floor and coming to a rolling stop. A deep puddle of red seeps out from their motionless, mangled bodies, staining the pristine floor.

The sight of your beloved pokemon torn in half in front of your very eyes sends you into shock; your mouth contorts before you unleash an ear-splitting shriek of horror from the back of your throat.

Two weak balls of light rise from their bodies; before you can take a step forwards, the shadow pounces on one and swallows it up and the remaining light, in an effort to escape, darts to the side but is also quickly chased, caught and devoured by the shadow.

It's preoccupied which might give you an opportunity to attack, but a harsh tug on your arm stops you from doing otherwise: it's Gengar, and he's unlocked the front door for you.

"We need to go!" he exclaims.

Sonia arrives at the banister and spotting the bodies, emits a scream. You don't have time to react, and you certainly have no choice but to leave.

Sparing one last glance at the mangled bodies of your pokemon, you leave with Gengar, sprinting out of the house and down the path as quickly as you can.

...

That night, the ghost Pokemon Researcher of Wedgehurst did not return home.

[shawtygonemad]

What Is This Feeling: Chapter 7

Fem!9th Doctor x Male!Rose Tyler

WITF Masterlist

Through time and space once more, our extraordinary duo was off to have another adventure. The TARDIS sped through the time vortex.

"Where are we going?" Ross asked.

"The planet Panera. They have fantastic bread," the Doctor grinned at her companion.

The TARDIS suddenly switched course and jolted in the opposite direction. The Doctor examined the screen and tried to figure out what was going on. The ship finally materialized. The Doctor and Ross stepped out. It was a dimly lit area with carpeting and display cases. It looked like a museum.

"So, what is it? What's wrong," Ross instantly began to ask.

"Don't know. Some kind of signal drawing the TARDIS off course," the Doctor spoke as she looked around.

"Where are we?"

"Earth. Utah, North America. About half a mile underground," the Time Lord deduced.

"And when are we?"

"2012," she informed her friend as she began to inspect a case.

"God, that's so close. So I should be 26."

The Doctor found the light switch and flipped it on. The room and cases suddenly lit up.

"Blimey. It's a great big museum."

"An alien museum," she looked at the exhibits as she walked forward. "Someone's got a hobby." She shook her head.

"They must have spent a fortune on this. Chunks of meteorites, moon dust. That's the milometer from Roswell spaceship." She furrowed her eyebrows, confused.

"That's a bit of Slitheen!" Ross pointed to a Slitheen arm in one of the glass cases. "That's a Slitheen's arm. It's been stuffed."

The Doctor stopped in front of one of the cases. "Oh, look at you."

Ross walked behind the Doctor and looked over her shoulder. "What is it?"

'Delete…' she heard an echo in her mind.

"An old friend of mine. Well, enemy. Stuff of nightmares reduced to an exhibit. I'm getting old." She internally groaned.

"Is that where the signal's coming from," Ross asked.

"No, it's stone dead. The signal's alive, calling out for help."

The Doctor reached out her fingers, and lightly brushed the glass. Alarms suddenly blared from all around. The pair slightly jumped at the sudden noise. The Time Lord mentally kicked herself. She should have been more careful. Before they could make it to the TARDIS they were cut off and surrounded by guards. The guards were armed and aiming at them.

"If someone's collecting aliens, that makes you exhibit A," Ross nervously joked.

The two of them were escorted by the armed guards up many levels, and throughout the complex. The journey was mostly silent. Ross stayed close by her side, however. Finally they were led into their destination. An office full of over confident Americans.

The man sitting at the desk seemed to be the one behind the complex. He was being showed their recent purchase. It was a musical instrument. They did not know it, and looked completely daft whilst holding it.

"You really wouldn't hold it like that," she almost laughed at how stupid he looked.

"Shut it," she was yelled at.

"Really though, it's wrong," she insisted.

"Is it dangerous?" A girl around Ross's age asked.

"No, it just looks silly," the Doctor smirked.

She reached for the item. Firing bolts clicked all around her. She stopped. The man behind the desk curiously looked at her, and handed over the curved palm sized object.

"You just need to be-"she stroked the instrument softly, and out rang a beautiful sound. "Delicate." To prove her point, she played several different notes.

"It's a musical instrument," the man said, fascinated.

"And it's a long way from home," the Doctor commented.

"Here, let me," the man took the instrument from her hands.

She raised her eyebrows. That was rude. The man proceeded to touch it harder, causing no noise to come out.

"I did say delicate. It reacts to the smallest fingerprint. It needs precision," she once again informed him.

Once he finally got the hang of it and produced music, she smiled.

"Very good. Quite the expert," she complimented.

"As are you," he said before tossing the object on the floor.

The Doctor's jaw dropped. That was almost two hundred years old! It was used to entertain kings and queens, and he just threw it away?! Who is this man?!

"Who are you, exactly?"

"I'm the Doctor. And you are?"

"Like you don't know. We're hidden away with the most valuable collection of extra-terrestrial artifacts in the world, and you just stumbled in by mistake?"

The Doctor laughed. "Pretty much sums me up, yeah."

The man slowly walked around his desk, and got closer to the Doctor.

"The question is, how did you get in? Fifty three floors down, with your cat burglar accomplice. You're quite an artifact yourself, being rather pretty."

"The cat burglar accomplice is going to smack you if you don't give the 'artifact' personal space," Ross shot off angrily. It shocked the Doctor a bit. It was the first time he was ever verbally protective of her.

"Oh, he's English too! Hey, little lady Fauntleroy. Got you a boyfriend."

"This is Mister Henry Van Statten," the girl introduced. She was the only English person, besides Ross, at the complex.

"Who is he at home?" Ross snidely remarked.

"Mister Van Statten owns the internet," she added.

"Don't be stupid. No one owns the internet," he jabbed again.

"And let's just keep letting the world think that, right kids," Van Statten remarked, smug.

"So you're just an expert in everything except the things in your museum. Anything you don't understand, you lock it up."

"And you claim greater knowledge?" Van Statten challenged.

"I don't need to make claims. I know how good I am," she shot back.

"And yet, I captured you. Right next to the cage. What were you doing down there?" He asked.

The Doctor placed her hands on her hips. "You tell me," she sassed.

"The cage contains my one living specimen."

"And what's that?"

"Like you don't know," Van Statten scoffed.

"Show me."

"You want to see it?" Van Statten once again challenged the Doctor.

"Blimey, do I need to separate you two?" Ross remarked, annoyed.

"Goddard, inform the cage we're heading down. You, English. Look after the boy. Go and canoodle or spoon or whatever it is you British do. And you, Doctor with no name, come and see my pet."

Van Statten stood in the elevator with a smirk on his face. The Doctor gave Ross a reassuring look before stepping on the lift next to the American. The ride down was quick and silent. Once they stepped out of the lift, the Doctor was led over toward a large metal door. Van Statten spoke as he unlocked and opened the large door.

"We've tried everything. The creature has shielded itself but there's a definite sign of life inside."

"Inside? Inside what?" The Doctor asked, curiously.

A man in an orange hazard suit walked over to Van Statten.

"Welcome back, Sir. I've had to take the power down. The Metaltron is resting."

"Metaltron?"

'What kind of dumb name is that?' She thought.

"I thought of it myself," Van Statten stated proudly.

'Of course.'

"Although I'd much to prefer to find out its real name."

"Here, you'd better put these on," the man in the hazard offered her rubber gloves. "The last guy that touched it burst into flames."

"I won't touch it then," she said like it was most obvious.

"Go on, Doctor. Impress me," Van Statten grinned at her.

The Doctor narrowed her eyes at him before strutting past, into the cage. It was very dark as she looked around. She jumped slightly as the door slammed shut behind her.

The Time Lord continued to investigate. She found a small table with drills, and other torture tools. Her heart instantly went out to the creature. She turned to where she assumed the 'Metaltron' was. She couldn't make it out. The room was too dark.

"Look, I'm sorry about this. Mister Van Statten might think he's clever, but never mind him. I've come to help. I'm the Doctor."

A few seconds of silence passed before a blue light was seen. When the Metaltron spoke, two white lights flashed with its words.

"Doc-tor?"

The Doctor's eyes widened, and her hearts stopped. No! This can't happen. It's-

"Impossible," she managed to breathe out.

"The Doc-tor?" The Metaltron spoke with more confidence this time.

The lights came up to reveal a Dalek. The Doctor's worst enemy. And it was chained to the floor. This didn't stop the Doctor from crying out in fear.

"Ex-ter-min-ate! Ex-ter-min-ate!"

The Time Lord flung herself onto the door and started to pound her fists.

"Let me out," she practically screamed.

"Ex-ter-min-ate!"

The door wouldn't open. The Doctor took a step back and just stared at the monstrosity. Her entire body was quivering. Her hearts were pounding hard into her chest.

"You are an en-e-my of the Da-leks! You must be des-troyed!"

The Doctor closed her eyes and awaited death. This was it. This was how she would finally die after nine hundred years. Maybe it was her time. Suddenly she accepted her fate. She never realized until now that she was ready to go.

After a few seconds without pain, she opened her eyes. She was alive! Yet a small part inside of her was disappointed. That part was overshadowed by the sickening joy she suddenly felt over her enemy.

"It's not working." She started to laugh like she's gone mad. "Fantastic! Oh, Fantastic! Powerless! Look at you. The great space dustbin. How does it feel?"

The Dalek tried to roll backwards, but was stopped by the chains.

"Keep back!" It demanded.

"What for?" She launched herself forward and became face to eyestock with the Dalek. "What're you going to do to me?" She challenged.

The Doctor, bottled with rage, began to circle the creature. Like a lion hunting its prey. She wanted to intimidate it.

"If you can't kill, then what are you good for, Dalek? What's the point of you? You're nothing!"

The Gallifreyan finally stopped back in front of the Dalek.

"What the hell are you here for?"

"I am a-wait-ing or-ders!" It responded to her.

"What does that mean?"

"I am a sold-ier. I was bred to rec-ieve or-ders."

"Well you're never going to get any. Your race is dead!" She yelled at it. "You all burnt, all of you. Ten million ships on fire. The entire race wiped out in one second."

"You lie!"

"I watched it happen. I made it happen," she spoke maliciously.

"You des-troyed us?" It asked, almost sounding heartbroken.

The alien stopped and calmed down a bit. She turned away from the Dalek in guilt. Their race wasn't the only one she destroyed that day.

"I had no choice," she responded quietly.

"And what of the Ti-me Lo-rds?"

"Dead." She managed to choke out. "They burned with you. The end of the last great Time War. Everyone lost."

"And the coward survived."

This fueled her rage once more. However, she managed to keep it under control.

"Oh, and I caught your little signal. Help me. Poor little thing. But there's no one else coming 'cause there's no one else left."

"I am a-lone in the un-i-verse," it almost sounded defeated.

"Yep."

"So are you. We are the same."

The Doctor spun around, no longer able to hold her anger.

"We're not the same! I'm not-"she paused as a cruel thought crossed her mind. "No, wait. Maybe we are. You're right. Yeah, okay. You've got a point. 'Cause I know what to do. I know what should happen. I know what you deserve." She grinned sickeningly.

"Exterminate."

With that the Doctor pulled a lever on a nearby console. The Dalek lit up with electricity. It began to scream, and she just watched.

"Have pity!" It cried out.

"Why should I? You never did." She pulled another lever, and increased the electricity.

"Help me!"

Suddenly the door opened and guards flooded in. She launched herself towards the last lever. No! This was her only chance to kill it! She was suddenly yanked away from the panel and was practically carried out of the cage.

"No! You've got to destroy it!" She yelled.

The Doctor ripped herself away from the guards once outside the cage. She frowned deeply as she waited for Van Statten to leave the cage. She was very cross with the American man. Once he left the cage they were guided towards the lift.

"The metal's just an armor. The real Dalek creature's inside," she explained to Van Statten.

"What's it look like?" he asked.

"A nightmare. It's a mutation. The Dalek race was genetically engineered. Every single emotion was removed except hate," she tried to explain to them. These stupid little apes weren't getting the big picture!

"Genetically engineered," he spoke as if it were Christmas. "By whom?"

"By a genius, Van Statten," she was starting to get stressed out. "By a man who was king of his own little world. You'd like him."

Van Statten's assistant Goddard decided to butt herself in.

"It's been on Earth for over fifty years. Sold at private auction, moving from one collection to another. Why would it be a threat now?" she asked.

"Because I'm here." How many times does she have to explain it? "How did it get to Earth? Does anyone know?"

"The records say it came from the sky like a meteorite. It fell on Earth on the Ascension Islands. Burnt in its crater for three days before anyone could get near it and all that time it was screaming. It must have gone insane," Goddard spoke in a superior tone.

The Doctor stood for a moment and thought. "It must of fallen through time. The only survivor."

"You talked about war," the human female asked.

"The Time War. The final battle between my people and the Dalek race."

"But you survived, too," Van Statten said with a devilish smile on his face.

"Not by choice," The Doctor added grimly.

"This means the Dalek isn't the only alien on Earth. Doctor, there's you. The only one of your kind in existence."

Just as the doors opened, the Doctor was once again grabbed. She struggled against their grip as they led her into her own cage.

"Any type of exposed metal is going to affect the laser scanner," Van Statten smiled.

The Doctor ended up having to shed her boots, jacket, and top. She was able to keep her bra on because Van Statten claimed he was a 'gentleman'. So now that the Doctor was stripped, she got chained spread eagle in front of the scanner.

"Now, smile!" Van Statten said, cheerfully.

The Doctor bit her lip as a painful shock ran through her body from the laser.

"Two hearts! Binary Vascular System. Oh, I am so going to patent this," Van Statten said.

The Doctor glared at the man. "So that's your secret. You don't just collect this stuff, you scavenge it."

She shook her head in anger as Van Statten went on to say how he cured the common cold and was going to sell cures for every disease. The Doctor was getting frustrated.

"Do you know what a Dalek is, Van Statten? A Dalek is honest. That creature in your dungeon is better than you."

"In that case, I'll be true to myself and continue," Van Statten frowned.

"Listen to me! That thing downstairs is going to kill every last one of us!" She tried to get through to him.

"Nothing can escape the cage."

Van Statten turned the laser up a Koch and blasted the Doctor. She bit her lip harder as she tried to endure the pain. Once the laser stopped, she attempted to catch her breath and speak.

"But it's woken up! It knows I'm here. It's going to get out. Van Statten, I swear, no one in this base is safe. No one on this planet!"

He turned the laser to its highest setting. It once again blasted the Doctor. This time around wasn't for informational purposes. He just wanted to hear her scream. And he did.

[a-trying-writer]

[the story of no-no II. gdi, ive been dealing with writer’s block, so i basiclaly churned this out from an idea that i struggled with writing. so im sorry about how badly paced and written it is, it just feels as if i had to do this in a very basic approach compared to before, but never was content with. so yeah. ugh. i just want to wriiiite again!]

“From what I’ve been told, nothing is wrong with you physically,” said a doctor that picked me from the rest of my villagers. “However, you’re a curious case mentally speaking.”

I stared at her in silence, unsure on what to say. I also took that time to notice how striking her features are, from her strong shaped jaw, to her dark brown almond eyes, fair skin, and long black hair, kept in a ponytail. Despite how short the chair she had was, her posture was straight, making her shoulders seem rather broad. I suppose it was the pads underneath her long coat -- a common garb that doctors often wear, no matter their actual occupation, be it scientific or medical.

Her lips curled into a smile, but I couldn’t help but notice how they didn’t reach her eyes. “You don’t have to say anything, Mx. No-No. To be quite honest with you, your case is why I wanted to speak to you alone.” The doctor’s eyes darted around my room, perhaps taking in what little I had in here.

It’s strange, but for once, I felt as if my privacy was being invaded. I couldn’t help but frown at that, even though she couldn’t see my expression through my mask.

A soft, brief laugh escaped from her when she laid her eyes on me again. “The Elder told me a bit about your history. That you arrived to the village as a child with no parents. You never spoke to anyone, not even children your own age, for a few years, until you made a... well, let’s say ‘friend’, though I assume that word is not the exact definition to describe your relationship with this person. Anyway, since he was persistent in trying to get to know you, you decided enough was enough at one point, and shouted at him. Since that moment, the villagers noticed that not only could you actually speak, but that you were rather emotionally distant as time went by, and the friend never left your side, despite how often you say you’d rather be alone.”

I bit my lip. What is she trying to say, I wonder. And what’s the point in this meeting?

“It must be weird that I’m saying all this, isn’t it?” she asked, but I didn’t bother responding. “This is your personal history, anyway, and though I know of it, it’s actually none of my business.” She paused. “But, it is, you see. Well, for me anyway.”

“What do you mean?” I said out loud, without meaning to. I quickly bit my tongue, but I noticed that the doctor wasn’t exactly surprised. Instead, she crossed one of her legs over the other, as she took in a deep breath.

“The world is big and complex,” she answered. “You lived in this village for almost all your life, but the only contact of the outside world is from people like me that come and go. You never really cared about them, did you? Well, ‘care’ isn’t exactly the word for it, but for now, I’ll use it for the lack of a better term.” The doctor leaned forward a bit, with that smile still on her face. “With that in mind, I assume you don’t know the history of daemons and humans. It seems that the rest of the village isn’t aware of them either, so it might be possible for a daemon to be living among them without knowing. However, there is... something about this place that actually repels them.”

The doctor brushed her hair over her shoulder while keeping her eyes on me. I wasn’t sure what to say, except, “Continue.”

Another short laugh. “This entire village is located on a cave inside a mountain. It’s difficult to travel up here, which is why only a few selected doctors come and go from various countries, all specialized in something. Psychology, physical health, et cetera... but I’m one of the few that actually studies something a bit more... special, you could say.”

“Special?”

“Yes. Artifacts, ruins, ancient technology, and the likes. Basically, places and things that have existed for over one thousand years, that are quite mysterious, as they are dangerous.” She paused to take in another deep breath. “You work with the dead, don’t you?”

“I don’t work with them, aside from preparing the chamber for their body to be burned,” I answered, almost immediately. I don’t know what this doctor is asking about it for, but with all the things she said, I might as well poke her for information as well in return. “Why do you ask?”

For a brief second, I noticed a glimmer her eyes. Is she... happy that I spoke up?

“It’s because I noticed the words ingrained in those stone walls are similar to the ones I’ve been studying for the longest time. As I said, there is something about this place that repels daemons from this village, and I believe, if I have the proper help, I can look into this place further... and if I’m correct, you are the only one who can help me.”

“And why is that?” I asked.

The doctor’s lips parted slightly as she got up from the chair. “You and I are the same. We are apathetic people.”

I blinked. “Apathetic...?”

“There are many, many studies of humanity and our emotions, some that have been dated far before daemons came into our world. However, it’s become rather difficult to describe ourselves one way or another, so these terms have no longer been used, so we need new ones for the sake of helping people. Apathetic, cheerful, melancholy are just a few words that we choose to apply to ourselves, if we wanted to. But, of course, it doesn’t always work that way for some people, say, a violent person that kills. Given that we live among daemons however, and they can often disguise themselves as humans, it’s difficult to really say if a person is a ‘serial killer’, or just a daemon out for blood. Humans also tend to suffer under mental ailments and the likes, which is why professionals study as hard as they can to help them. But again, it tends to conflict with daemons that take on human appearances. Do you understand?”

I paused to think it over. “No... Not really. In fact, I think you confused me so much so, that I developed a headache.”

The doctor let out another laugh before shrugging. “I expected that would happen. To be honest, I’m not a doctor that specializes in those areas, so I might as well be wrong, if not a little bit incorrect. Anyway, Mx. No-No, I have things to take care of during my stay here, but I’ll definitely need to talk to you about something important in the upcoming days. I shall see you around.”

“Very well,” I simply replied. “You didn’t give me your name, by the way.”

“I did? Oh, well, pardon me, my name is Dr. Xiao Wei, but of course, Dr. Wei is the proper way to call me.”

“Of course, Doctor. Thank you.”

Dr. Wei then gave me a firm nod before she left my home through the curtains. “Enjoy your day, Mx.”