#i got my TWO main muses done ! yay !

[buckyscrystalqueen]

Winter Wolf: Part 14

Pairings: Bucky x Reader

Warnings: Swearing, fluff, angst

Word Count: 3,523

A/N: Finally got the muse to finish this story! YAY!

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6 / Part 7 / Part 8 / Part 9 / Part 10 / Part 11 / Part 12 / Part 13

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

“Who’s the cutest little princess in the whole wide world?” Bucky cooed from your bathroom as he gave Anastasia a bath, while you caught your notebook up on the last two years of your life. You smirked to yourself as your daughter giggled away and splashed in the water in her blow up bath tub in the shower. “You are! Yes, you are!”

“Thought I was the cutest in the world.” You called out, playfully as you leaned to the side the slightest bit to see your husband with your eyebrow cocked.

“Not anymore!” He cooed, teasingly with barely a glance over at you. “Ana wins that, hands down now. You didn’t age so well in the dinosaur years.”

“You’re rude!” You laughed as you chucked a pillow at him, easily hitting him in the side to which he completely overreacted to make Ana laugh harder.

“What was that?!” He asked her as he shook his head and pushed himself off where he had purposely fallen to his hip. “Did Mommy just hit me, go boom?! Oh, yes she did, and Daddy’s gunna remember that shit later tonight, too. Yes he will.”

“Are you receiving company?” Tony asked as he knocked gently on your open bedroom door. You froze the slightest bit and closed your notebook as you looked over at him in shock.

“Umm... yes? How am I supposed to answer that, Tony.”

“I know I ruined your birthday.” He started as he opened up his tablet and held it out to you. “And I also didn’t get you a wedding gift. But I figured I’d at least try to kill three birds with one stone with this as a way of apologizing for what I put you through, after everything you have done for the world.” You nodded and scooted across the bed to take the tablet as Bucky did his best to get his daughter out of the bath peacefully for bed so he could see what was going on. You looked at the screen and almost instantly felt the scalding heat you felt the day you watched your home burn to the ground.

“My plantation.” You whispered as you looked at the charred remains. “It’s still there?!”

“It’s technically a historical site.” Tony said as he glanced over at Bucky as he leaned on your door frame. “You owned the biggest plantation in Georgia during the Civil War. It was on the market for a while back in the late 1800’s, early 1900’s but then was taken off...”

“When I moved to London to go to school.” You said with a nod. “I was a doctor... my Lord.” You whispered with a shake of your head.

“Well the property went to the government some time in the 1920’s, and was deemed historical. So they maintained the property and the other houses and stables. But they never rebuilt the main house...”

“There’s an old willow tree a ways to the right of the house.” You said as you closed your eyes and tried to look past the last day you were there in your mind. “It was nearly as tall as the house and I could see if from my bedroom window. Is it still there?” You opened your eyes and looked over at Tony, who slowly shook his head and shrugged.

“I’m not sure. It took me a while to track this place down, because no one knew who the owner was after the war, and I haven’t been down to look yet. Figured you’d want to go first.” You nodded your head and looked back down at the photo as Bucky sat down on the bed beside you with Ana.

“It had a huge wrap around porch.” You told him as you showed him the photo with a small smile as more memories flooded your mind. “John made us rocking chairs that sat right here so we could watch the sun set. Mine had a hole in the right arm from when I stabbed it with my knitting needle after a disagreement one night. And it had these big white columns in front that held up the roof and the small porch up there. Look, baby... this is where Mommy lived.” You said to Ana as you traded Bucky her for the tablet when she tried to get away from her dad.

“We can leave in the morning if you’d like.” Tony said as he pushed off the door frame. “Jet’s ready. Just let me know when you are, whenever you are.”

“Tony.” You called out before he could walk away as your daughter used you as a jungle gym. “Thank you.” He gave you a tight nod and a small smile before he turned and walked away, leaving you to catch up on your memories with your husband.

“So you owned a plantation?” Bucky said, because it was partially news to both of you.

“I inherited it when John passed.” You said with a nod as you wrangled your toddler into your lap. “It’s strange, until I saw that photo, all I could remember of that place was the day I was shot and left. But now, I’m seeing the giant wood burning stove in the kitchen, and the stone fireplace in the parlor. I can see the staircase that ran up the right side of the main hall, that led all the way to the back with this... oh, God it was the most hideous carpet in the world, but it belonged to John’s mother and he loved it.” You scoffed and shook your head as you got up to put Ana in her jammies. “I am not sorry to see that carpet burned down. I wonder if the fire went all the way down to the basement.” You said as you paused at Ana’s dresser and turned around with your brow furrowed. “There’s... there’s something in the basement... I can’t remember...”

“Well, do you want to go look tomorrow?” He asked, pulling you from your thoughts so you could get your daughter dressed. “I mean, I wouldn’t mind seeing this ‘biggest plantation in Georgia’ that my wife owns.”

“It was a big plantation.” You agreed with a huff. “Pain in my rear to work and hotter than all get out most days.”

“Oh, and we’re turning Southern with it.” He laughed as he scooted up on the bed to relax in his spot. “You worked the fields?”

“I did.” You said with a slow nod as you picked up your clothed daughter and walked over to the bed so she could have her night time bottle before bed. “I was a woman before my time back then, and still a Yankee at heart you could say. When John and I married, I convinced him to free our slaves, and made sure they all worked for pay. He was very well off, he could afford it, and they all worked even harder if at all possible once the overseer was let go. But when the war happened, money got a little tight, and we lost quite a few hands to typhoid but the work still needed to be done. So yes, I worked my fields until the war was dropped on my doorstep one night.”

“You know, you get more and more impressive every single day.” He said as he set Tony’s tablet aside to lay down beside Ana so he could look at you. “I am so honored to get to call you my wife, doll.”

“Even though my memories come in snippets and I’m dinosaur old?” You teased as you picked up your notebook to update some past notes.

“Absolutely.” He laughed as he reached across the pillows to rub your back. “Makes you mysterious.”

“OK, we’ll go with that.” You laughed as you handed him the remote so he could put on the ‘Good Night Moon’ show Ana loved before bed while you wrote. You hummed and shook your head as you opened your notebook and clicked on the plantation memories page. “Mysterious, he says. Crazy I say.”

“Go write your notes!”

——

You were glad to see that the massive live oaks lining your driveway were still just as gorgeous as ever, but it absolutely disgusted you to see that your front lawn had been turned into a giant gravel parking lot. A deep growl rolled from your chest, and Steve gently reached over the front seat to grab your wrists, while Bucky put his hand on your knee and gave it a gentle squeeze.

“We can fix it, sweetheart.” Your husband said softly as Happy, Pepper’s assistant, parked his rental car beside the one Tony, Pepper, and their lawyers were in, since parking the jet on your property was apparently not an option. Your growl turned into grumbling as you got out of the car, but turned right back into a much deeper growl when you turned to see a six foot tall, chain link fence around your old home. But all noises simply stopped when you saw your willow tree.

“I’m gunna fucking kill someone.” You said as you ripped away from Bucky and Steve and stormed over to your tree, where a young couple was carving their initials amongst the decades of others, including your and John’s original carvings. “Back the fuck up!” You roared as you let your claws fly just as Steve wrapped his arm around your upper torso and yanked you back.

“Just back away from the tree.” He said quickly to the terrified kids with a shake of his head. “Go on.” The second they were clear, he set you down, and you retracted your claws to walk over and run your fingers over the destroyed wood.

“No...” You said with a shake of your head with tears in your eyes as you looked around until you found the faint, misshapen heart that was almost gone with age, and distorted letters carved by your late husband.

“We’ll see if we can fix it, baby.” Bucky said softly as he touched the small of your back. “Look, the older ones are already fading.” You nodded your head slowly and looked up at the higher names, that were a little less distorted than yours, but were fading as well.

“You must be Mr. Stark.” A peppy older woman in period clothes said as she headed over to the group. “My name is Abigail, I’ll be your guide of the Jackson Plantation...”

“I’m sorry, the what?!” You said as you whipped around to look at her with rage in your eyes, which made Tony step between the pair of you with a tight ‘all business’ smile.

“You’re gunna want to clear the property.” He said evenly with a nod. “Now. For everyone’s safety.”

“Oh! Oh, I’m afraid I can’t do that...” Abigail said as you stormed away from the group to look at a metal plaque on your side of the fence around your house.

“Oh, this is not good.” Bucky said with a shake of his head as you read the lies someone had made up about your house, before you simply ripped it off the post and easily crumbled it in a ball before Steve could get to you.

“Wait, you can’t do that!” Abigail shrieked as you ripped the fence open with more grumbling and headed up to your house with Steve, and Bucky right behind you.

“I’m warning you once more.” Tony said as he simply watched your guide’s horrified expression. “Clear the premises...”

“I’m calling the police!” She cried as she pulled her cell phone from the pocket of her dress.

“I am the fucking police here!” You roared from the front steps as you rounded and glared at her. “This is my fucking land! You are trespassing here!”

“This is property of the National Parks Services...” She tried with shaky hands, which made the Wolf rear her ugly head at the woman’s weakness as a sinister darkness filled your eyes.

“And that’s where you’re fucking wrong.” You said as you slowly walked back down the steps toward her. “This land belonged to my first husband, John William Scott, who was a confederate soldier that died in the war. The plantation, which was named Green Pebble Hill by his aunt, Cecelia Ann Scott MacDonald when she was a child because of the moss covered pebbles in the stream in the back fields by the way, was left to me, (Y/N) (Y/M/N) (Y/L/N) Scott, his sole heir because I’m not able to bear children due to my mutation. Find his will, I know he had one. It’s dated May 16th, 1864, the day before he left to join ranks before the war even started.

The house was burned down by Yankee soldiers in July of 1865, four days after I got a letter saying my husband was killed, not by looters in 1868 like your historically inaccurate sign claims. Burned down by men who were instructed to kill me when they found that I was helping both their soldiers and ones of the confederacy. I was shot in the left lung for helping wounded men, no matter what color their coat was, because that is what good people do. But thanks to my mutation, I can’t fucking die! My body just rejected the musket ball as they burned my home to cinders. Now, get these people off my fucking property immediately or you will learn all about the hell I’ve been through the past one hundred and twenty four years since I first learned how horrible people could be just for the fucking sake of it!” She nodded her head frantically as you turned on your heel to head back up to your house, grumbling under your breath. “Stevie, help me with this.” You said as you carefully walked up on the porch again. “There’s a safe in the basement. It has that letter... I think the will...”

“Babe, be careful.” Bucky said as you grabbed a long, charred, weather warn piece of wood that made up part of the wall of your first floor and lifted it up so that your best friend could see a similar piece of wood that was attached to it on the far side of the house.

“OK, I see it.” He said as he jumped down and ran to the other side as tourists began to flood toward the parking lot to leave.

“(Y/N), we can get a construction crew...” Pepper tried, but Bucky quickly looked back and shook his head at her.

“Just leave her. She’s being buried by new memories, and she’s battling the Wolf. No one can stop her right now.” 

“Get ahold of your boss.” Tony said as you and Steve chucked the wood away from the building. “I want contact information to whomever believes they own this land. We’ll be taking it back from them now.” Abigail nodded her head again and continued making phone calls as you and Steve made a path down to the basement that seemed relatively untouched thanks to it’s all stone frame.

“It’s...” You said as you jumped down into the basement after twenty minutes of clearing the rubble of your upper two floors and hesitated. You closed your eyes and tried to picture yourself putting the letter in the safe as Steve jumped down in front of you to help. You turned around in your spot and went through the motions of the memory, before your head shot up and to your left. “Over here. Under some flour sacks.”

“I need a light!” Steve called out as you took a step in that direction but stumbled the slightest bit over a small pile of stones. “Wait, (Y/N). We’re getting a light.”

“Here, Tony said just put it on.” Bucky said as he carefully leaned over the edge and dropped Tony’s Ironman helmet down to Steve. Your best friend held it out to you and you squeezed it on to your head before squinting at the bright screen that popped up in front of you.

“Man, what did I do with only lanterns down here?” You asked yourself as you awkwardly stepped over the stones, around whatever had started to grow in the dark space, and over to the sacks of flour that was your safe’s cover with the help of the night vision from Tony’s suit. Once they were thrown to the side, you picked up the three by three cast iron safe with a grunt, and carried it back over to Steve.

“Alright, hold on. Let me get out first.”

“How do I get this thing off... Oh.” You gasped as the mask opened and shrunk down to sit like a thick necklace. “That works.”

“You find it?” Bucky asked as Steve found solid ground and kneeled down to help. You passed it up to him and climbed out yourself as Tony, Pepper, and his lawyers talked to the cops that came to deal with the ‘disturbance’ with Abigail, her boss, and a pair of local representatives from the National Park Services.

“OK, wait just set it here.” You said as you pointed to the ground by the back steps as you kneeled down beside it. “Shit. When is his birthday? Or was it the day we met.”

“Don’t think of it that way.” Bucky said as he came around to the back of the house to see what was inside this little mystery box. “That’s not gunna help here like it doesn’t help you find your cell phone at home, remember? Walk through the last time you used it like you did in the basement. Picture yourself with the letter in your hand.” You nodded your head and closed your eyes as you held out your hand with the letter in it. “Down the stairs, to the left. You moved those bags and kneeled down. You reached out and turned the dial to...”

“Thirty-two.” You said as you opened your eyes and leaned forward. “Seventeen. Nine. His birthday backwards.” A smile spread across your face as the locked popped open, and the metal door creaked as you pulled it open. “Thank you baby. I never would have remembered that. See, the letter.” You said as you carefully pulled it out and unfolded the telegram. You looked over the slightly faded ink with a small sigh, before wiping off the top of the safe and setting it down. “Oh, look. His will. I didn’t know I had the original. Oh, look at this.” You laughed as you pulled out an old photograph of you on your wedding day. “I made that dress by hand. And this picture took forever to take. Cameras weren’t what they are back then.”

“God, you haven't change a bit.” Bucky said as he sat down beside you to look, as Steve crouched down on your other side.

“I aged like a fine wine.” You teased as you added the photo to the stack. “Oh, and this is John. Oh, sweetheart.” You sighed as you slowly shook your head with a fond smile. “Bless his heart, that man couldn’t grow a beard to save his life.”

“He’s... a lot older than I expected.” Bucky said as he took the photo from your hands, delicately.

“Ten years senior.” You said with a nod as Steve excused himself softly to let Tony know you had the original will. “That was normal back then. I married him when I had just turned seventeen so we were together... like seven years before he passed.”

“Wow.” He breathed as he handed you back the photo.

“What else do we have? Confederate bonds. What’s this? Oh, gold. Could have used that. Oh, my jewelry...” The pair of you sat for another twenty minutes or so, going through old memories and things you had kept safe when John left. You were ecstatic to find the deed to the property along with his father’s will and a couple other documents related to his family.

“OK, I have to say this is blowing my mind a little bit.” Bucky said as you pulled out a pistol wrapped in an old t-shirt to make sure there was nothing left underneath it. “Like... this is your stuff. Not your relatives, yours. You actually touched these documents before today.”

“Gives being older than dinosaurs a whole new meaning, doesn’t it?” You laughed as you started carefully putting everything back in the safe.

“And you own this land.” He said as he looked up at the massive, 2000 acre property in front of him.

“I do.” You said with a nod as you closed the door of the safe. “Legally and soon, officially.”

“Damn.” He said with a shake of his head. “Yea, we’re raising Anastasia here.”

“I’m absolutely OK with that, my love.” You said as you stood up and picked up the safe. “I just have to prove who I am to the US government after spending nearly one hundred years trying to avoid doing just that. That’s gunna be the real fun.”

Part 15

[cheyla-v]

February Round-Up

I was going to post this last weekend, but then I figured that it would make more sense to wait until the end of the month because I missed three of the four weeks already. Oops? 

All in all, February was a very productive month. I think I’ve got my insomnia to thank for that, because I was awake during what are apparently my peak writing hours. So, here goes.

Writing

My original monthly goal was 15k and I wrote over 21k, so yay! Then again, I really shouldn’t be surprised because there were several days that I was awake between 1am and 5am and was cranking out to 2-3k in that time period.

My main focus of the month was to finish my YOI Big Bang project, since submissions are due in March for that. I’m close, y’all! Close! 9k currently (it’s going to definitely be over my 10k estimation though...)

Soul’s Scream updates - Chapter 18 is at 5.5k right now, so progress! I also wrote a scene that’s currently 1.5k (and will probably end up a lot longer, because Gheyos!) for one of the Friday/Introduction day chapters, as well as a 4k scene that’ll take place at some point in the fic introducing Kai and some of Brishen’s backstory.

I wrote 3 fics for the YOI Olympics - Beijing 2022 event. I was going to write more, and I actually started a 4th fic, but then Olympic figure skating just became so emotionally draining. It’s gotten to the point where I don’t want to work on anything YOI related, unfortunately, which really sucks, because that fandom was what broke my 3-year writing hiatus and saved me during the pandemic and my last year of law school. 

I also wrote 3 drabbles for the February Ficlet Challenge. I wanted to write more because there were some great prompts, I just didn’t have the right muse at the time. I might do some late additions for when muse does strike if I can. 

Because my normal muse and WIP list isn’t enough, I signed up for the HP Next Gen Fest. 😅Super excited for the prompt though! Also considering joining another fest, but that’s currently TBD right now, since the prompts haven’t been released yet. Prompts are out in a few days, so I’ll know fairly soon. 

Reading 

I needed fluffy and I needed funny during this month, and luckily I found plenty of both. I think I’m officially a MXTX fan now as well, considering for three of the four books I read by her, I didn’t go to bed until 2 or 3am and for two of the three series, I promptly watched the animated series that same day or the following day (it would have been all three, but watching The Untamed and Mo Dao Zu Shi is what got me started down this path in the first place 😂).

Finished:

At First Bloom by Chera Carmichael

Call to Water by Chera Carmichael

Under the Water by Chera Carmichael

Mo Dao Zu Shi/Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, Vol. 1 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

Tian Guan Ci Fu/Heaven Official’s Blessing, Vol. 1 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

Tian Guan Ci Fu/Heaven Official’s Blessing Vol. 2 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong/The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

(Also Idan and Minh are totally not loosely based on the personalities of Xie Lian and Hua Cheng or Lan Wanji and Wei Wuxian... 😅)

Other Projects

Here’s the long awaited photo of what I was working on in January! I got it done in time to qualify as a late Christmas/early birthday gift. Book colors of course, because I’d never live it down if I used movie colors, lol.

It took a few weeks, but I’ve decided what my next big project is going to be and I took a trip to the craft store for yarn. Since this next project will be something for personal use, I can actually post progress photos. I’m five rows in currently and oh my stars, there’s so much yarn switching. I can’t tell if I’m weaving or crocheting half the time.

I’m proud to say that I also FINALLY bought a coffee table. It only took ... six months? 😅But I’m happy, because it means I can unpack a few more boxes, can use my lap desk for its actual purpose again, and my cats are happy because a) it gives them a new surface to explore/lay on and b) they’re no longer getting squirted by the spray bottle for climbing on the boxes I was using as a makeshift coffee table these past few months (one was a very determined little bugger when it came to doing that and it was a whole hour-long morning ritual for several weeks, which didn’t help the whole insomnia thing...). I also bought and built a bookcase this week, so my arms and wrists are currently hating me and my tendinitis is flaring up... Next on my list of furniture to get are a nest-couch and side tables. Might take another six months for me to get them though, lol.

[venusofthehardsells]

No Rest for the Wicked [Dea ex Machina part one]

John ConstantinexAngel!Reader Summary: You travel to a remote island to put a murderous spirit to rest, but things get complicated when you run into one John Constantine. Warnings: swearing, mentions of mental illness, blood, smoking, ghosts, pining, is slowburn a warning? A/N: My first Constantine fic on tumblr, yay! This was originally written for a challenge aaages ago, but it got away from me and I couldn’t meet the deadline. I had so much fun with this though, Constantine is a great character to write for! There will definitely be more stories about him and this particular angelic reader in the future ♥

I’ve mixed elements from both the Vertigo comics and the NBC TV series, as well as from the general DC Universe, so don’t expect accuracy when it comes to canon. A special thanks to @nellblazer​​ for support and linguistic aid, you’re the best! ♥ Let me know what you think and if you want to be tagged ~

Contrary to common belief, there had never actually been any ravens on Raven’s Rock. The tiny, windswept fleck of land in the North Sea had been named a few hundred years ago by a fool of a sailor, who hadn’t been able to tell a raven from a severely lost and consequently very confused Scandinavian pigeon. Said sailor had regrettably also been of some importance in his homeland at the time, meaning no one had bothered to correct the unfortunate mistake for fear of losing a head. Even though everyone who since came upon the island only ever managed to find gulls and puffins and various other seabirds, it had still kept its misleading English name.

The Celts, who by rights had been on the island long before the British, had chosen to play it safe and completely forego the bird names (although it had been suggested several times in later centuries to change it to the Gaelic word for seagull, or even pigeon, as a taunt). Instead, they had most likely looked to the ancient ruins that specked the island, jutting up from the rocks like broken teeth and, all things considered, had endured well beyond memory and history and legend. Or perhaps they had still been reeling from the mad determination that had brought them and their wooden ships so far from home. Whichever the case, they had called the stubborn, little rock Innis Seasmhach, “the steadfast island”.

That was its official name to this day, though most people, especially those who didn’t speak Gaelic (which in all fairness are not very many), still referred to it as Raven’s Rock.

The locals shrugged and simply called it “the island”.

There was only one village on the entire island, whose population on a good day might reach a hundred and thirty people. That usually only happened a few times during summer when the ferries from Stavanger and Aberdeen docked at the same time. The tourists came to see the ruins, buy a souvenir fridge magnet of a raven or a puffin, complain about the frightfully bleak weather and leave again on one of the ferries that departed before evenfall, secretly happy they didn’t have to spend any more time on the island.

On the day you arrived, the population on the isle of Raven’s Rock, was an astounding one hundred and forty four, which was quite unheard of in the middle of October.

What was even more unheard of, however, was the reason for all these untimely appearances.

A night ago, a pair of fishermen had discovered the body of a man in a small, secluded cove on the north side of the island. The body was placed so that it could only be seen from sea, unless one were to venture down a rocky and extremely narrow trail into the cove itself. It wasn’t hard to imagine someone slipping and ending up on the stony beach below. That kind of unfortunate death was of course tragic, but it hardly warranted the wide array of policemen and journalists the death had attracted. No, the reason for the sudden interest was the gruesome way the body had been displayed.

The dead man had been stripped bare and splayed out on the rocks like a cross with his arms stretched away from his torso. His skin was almost completely covered in symbols and writing no one could make sense of, though one expert, when consulted by the mystified and slightly desperate police, vaguely suggested it was possibly a rare pre-Arthurian dialect.

The more macabre specifics had so far been kept out of the press.

One was that the writings on the body had been done in blood, the corpse’s own, and another was that it came from where the head had been crudely severed from the rest of the flesh and spiked close by on a piece of driftwood.

Even hypnotised, the young sergeant who had told you, had looked slightly green when he related the information. You had padded him sympathetically on the shoulder before moving on. He wouldn’t remember revealing the details to you, but the information itself was seared into his mind forever.

His, along with the rest of the islanders’, you mused as you continued from the harbour and on into the village.

The locals called it “town”, but in truth it wasn’t really big enough to warrant that title.

It had one store that sold a little bit of everything depending on the weather, a church, a pub, a repair shop (it wasn’t specified what exactly you could get repaired there) and a public building, functioning as city hall, police station, post office, library and school in one. All the police reinforcements from Aberdeen had been moved into the city hall, seeing as the only two policemen permanently stationed on the island had never handled a murder case before. Meanwhile, the reporters and TV crews covering the case were taking up the pub’s five tiny bedrooms, both B&Bs and every single rental cottage Raven’s Rock could boast (nine in total if you counted the back room in the garage of the repair shop). Because you had left for the airport in a hurry and jumped onto the first plane to Norway, you hadn’t had time to secure a place to sleep on the island. You had pondered it on the ferry, but when it came down to it, you didn’t want to stick around longer than a day. If you worked fast, you could probably be on your way back to the mainland in the morning and wouldn’t need to worry about finding a bed. You had spotted a bench down by the harbour; it would have to do.

Besides, you didn’t have any time to waste as long as the murder case was unsolved. You could still hear Madame Xanadu’s words in your head like some annoying ominous echo.

A restless darkness will carry its evil across the water to be unleashed upon the twice-named rocks. The steadfast land will drink the blood of the laughing magician.

Fate was a menace when you had to deal with it like this, grounded and fumbling through the world with nothing but scraps to guide you. Not like in the old days when you had all of Heaven at your disposal… Being a proper angel had really had its advantages. You scoffed and walked faster. At least this prophecy had been pretty straightforward, which was far from what you were usually given to work with, you thought sourly, folding your arms around yourself against the wind.

A malevolent spirit that should have passed on, but hadn’t was easy enough to figure out; it happened all the time and you could deal with that. The location of the spirit had also been a walk in the park with so many hints to go on.

What really worried you was the second part of Madame Xanadu’s little mystic insight.

The steadfast land will drink the blood of the laughing magician.

Blood drinking was never a good omen in prophecies. It hardly ever meant vampires, usually just death. And the laughing magician, well, that one was always the same. The reason Madame Xanadu had called upon you to restore the balance in this place.

John Constantine.

Whenever one of her foresights indicated that the blonde warlock was walking into something he couldn’t handle himself, she sent you after him or, in this case, ahead to clear his path for him. Most times, he didn’t even know you had been there and you preferred it that way.

Like now.

The last you had heard of John was that he was in the States. Sufficiently far away, you thought. Even if someone had alerted him to the murder on Raven’s Rock, it would be at least another day before he could reach the windswept little island and by then you hoped to be long gone. It was best if you two didn’t meet at all.

You chewed on your lip as you thought of him. It wasn’t that you didn’t want to see him, it was just… easier if you didn’t. The things you did, the jobs you took were simply too dangerous if your focus wasn’t a hundred per cent on the task in front of you. And with John around, your newly mortal heart had a tendency to make your better judgement evaporate.

You passed a phonebox on the main (and only) street that looked as though it had seen better days and a small tourist information office/part time bakery with its doors and windows shut for the night, before you reached the seemingly only building in town with light and, admittedly subdued, noise streaming out of it: the pub. Apart from the city hall, you reckoned it must be the oldest building around, but also by far the one in best repair. The wooden sign above the heavy green door was, unsurprisingly, in the shape of a very sinister looking gull and it swayed in the wind with an ominous creak that made a shiver run down your spine, as if trying to dissuade you from entering.

Well, it wasn’t very likely that you would get any information elsewhere. With determination in your steps, you walked the last few cobbled steps to the door and went inside.

Your eyes quickly scanned the room, the patrons, the energies... and you froze on the threshold.

On a stool by the bar sat the very man you had hoped to avoid. He had taken off his signature trench coat and his back was towards you, but it didn't matter; you would recognise him blindfolded. He was so thoroughly cloaked and shrouded in magical protections of all sorts that the space he occupied was practically a vacuum. It was damn near impossible to locate him by magic, you knew. If one weren't looking directly at him, like you were now, no sixth sense or intricate spell would reveal his whereabouts. But his was a vacuum you had come to know very well. So well in fact, that by now you could pin him down by his apparent lack of magic, rather than by his well-hidden magical signature, and yet, there he was, sitting only half a room away from you with a drink in one hand and one of his ghastly Silk Cuts resting between the fingers of the other. And you hadn't noticed. You hadn't even done a quick scan to see if there were other magical presences on the island when you arrived. Worse, you hadn't cloaked yourself as thoroughly as you normally would have done and your own signature reached him before you could even think to try and prevent it.

From the way he straightened his back and immediately snuffed out the cigarette in an ashtray as if someone had shouted at him to show some care, you could tell he knew you were there. He shifted ever so slightly as if making room for you and you sighed. There was no getting out of this one.

Getting rid of your raincoat, you went over and crawled onto the empty stool next to him.

You were met with that wicked smirk of his that made your heart stutter and stumble in your chest.

"Now, there's a pleasant surprise to brighten this hellhole," he greeted, raising his glass at you. "Must confess, I never guessed I'd be running into you on this godforsaken rock, luv."

"Hello John." You did with a nod, trying to keep your voice even. "Can't say I expected this to be your sort of retreat either."

The warm light in the pub shone in John Constantine's dark eyes and his smirk grew into a grin.

"It's good to see you, luv. I've missed that disapproving pout o' yours. The fact that I never know when I'll see it again makes it so much sweeter."

You rolled your eyes at him, but didn't attempt to hide your burning cheeks. The bastard couldn’t possibly know exactly how brightly your torch for him was burning, but he always acted accordingly.

"So, what are you doing here then? Odd place for playing tourist, innit?"

He leaned on the counter, his hand moving closer to where yours was resting and there was that little, dark gleam of hope in his eyes that always appeared when he looked at you. As if there was somehow some other reasonable purpose you could have to be in a place like this, at a time like this.

You shrugged, biting down a smile.

"I find the climate rather agreeable."

John threw his head back and laughed at that. Even the barkeep, who had overheard your words, snorted. You caught his gaze before he turned back around and ordered a sparkling water.

"Right. And I just happened by to see the sights, eh?"

"Well, what do you think of them then?"

You raised an eyebrow at him and took a sip of the fizzy water the barkeep placed in front of you. John grinned and gave you an obvious once-over. Your dirty boots and high-neck jumper didn't seem to put him off.

"Much improved since this morning. At this rate, I can't wait to see how they'll look in the night."

"Oh, I ought to slap that smirk off your smug face, wizard," you sighed, feeling how your stomach was practically fluttering at his suggestive tone.

"Is that a promise, luv?"

"You're insufferable."

"Aye, that I am, luv, but you keep coming back for more. Must be doing something right, eh?"

You bit your lip and looked down; he suddenly felt too close. And the general level of noise inside the pub from people chattering wasn't as high as you had hoped. It would be easy for others to overhear anything you said. Given the island-wide unrest over the murder, you were sure ears were perked more than usual and you didn't want to draw any attention to yourself, or John. You would have to gather more information some other way.

"I missed you, too," you confessed, staring at the bottles lining the wall behind the bar as if they were all of a sudden exceedingly interesting. "But I... I thought you were helping out a certain green vigilante overseas these days."

John visibly tensed up.

"Who told you that?"

You shrugged, still not looking directly at him. The truth was that he couldn't really hide from you, not even in your current state. If he found out though, you didn't doubt for a second that his heated flirting would be switched for a literal knife in the back before you could even think the word "portal". Well, perhaps not literal, but you had no doubt the outcome would be fatal for you anyway.

"Who told you to come here?," you countered, raising an eyebrow and John scoffed.

"If you must know, I got a call from an old friend. Looks like she's been scrying on her own and this little spit of land kept drawing all her energy. Didn't seem like something I could ignore."

"You should've," you mumbled, taking a large slurp of your water and doing your best to ignore the persistent little spark of envy starting to gnaw away at you at his choice of words. What old friend? It had to be someone he had slept with, it always was with him. Why couldn't you just not care? "Take my advice, John, leave. Go home and lay low. I'll handle this island."

"Is that concern for old Johnny I hear, luv?," he asked with mock-surprise.

"Maybe. Don't let it get to your head, your ego won't be able to fit into that coat of yours."

He chuckled, but the tension was still there and you didn't know how to break it without giving him the truth, or at least something close.

"Your turn, pretty bird. I don't believe in coincidences like this, so tell me. How'd you know to come here?"

Lying to John Constantine was out of the question. As was being honest with him.

You chewed on your lip a bit, weighing your options. It wasn't like him to accept any kind of help unless he was downright desperate and that was still a long way off. If you challenged him though, he was most likely to flee, that much you knew. But you didn't want to get on his bad side unless you had absolutely no other choice.

"Leave," you repeated. "This one's out of your league, John. Let me take care of it, please."

The way your eyes were pleading with him made him frown and you realised you might have shown too much of your hand.

"I'm not going anywhere, luv." His hand was on top of yours on the bar before you could move it. To anyone looking, it seemed like an affectionate gesture, but he was effectively pinning you in place. "Not until you give me a bloody good reason not to give you the same treatment as whatever beast it is we're dealing with on this island."

"Let go of me."

Your voice wasn't very loud, but you knew he could hear you. He answered by pressing down harder on your hand and you winced.

"Why is it so hard for you to believe I just want to keep you safe?," you all but hissed at him, emptying your drink with a sour expression.

"Oh, I trust you just about as far as I can throw you, luv. Every time I see your pretty little face it means there's trouble brewing just around the corner."

"I saved your life in Tennessee. And in Derry," you tried, but his hold didn't loosen. If anything, John was now gripping your hand so hard no blood could possibly flow to your fingers. "I am trying to do your stubborn Scouse arse a bloody favour, why can't you just for once in your damn life listen to me?"

"Tell me your name then and maybe I will."

Fuck. Somehow it always came down to that.

"Xanadu," you snapped through gritted teeth, eyeing John with what you hoped was an appropriate amount of ire. "Xanadu contacted me and told me about this place. Happy? Obviously, she wasn't going to tell you now, was she?"

John withdrew his hand from you as though you'd burned him. It felt about as pleasant as a punch to the teeth, but you tried not to let it show on your face.

"I suppose you're right...," he admitted. "What did she tell you then? Her usual cryptic nonsense I reckon?"

"For someone in your line of work, you're not at all keen on prophecy reading, are you?," you sighed, forcing a bit of humour into your words.

There was no love lost between John Constantine and Madame Xanadu, that much had been clear to you from the beginning. But even though she couldn't stand the sight of him, she believed John was instrumental in keeping the world safe and had begrudgingly agreed to help you protect him when she could.

"Not really my style. I prefer things more tangible, to the point. Besides, I don't need to worry about divination when I have you."

"You rarely do."

"Not by my choice, luv."

Your eyes flickered back to the empty glass in front of you and you had to take a very slow breath to try and steady yourself. His effect on you was too strong for you to be safe around him. Your job required a clear head - for both your sakes.

"A restless darkness will carry its evil across the water to be unleashed upon the twice-named rocks," you recited, steeling your voice as you averted his unspoken question the way you always did. "It wasn't that cryptic at all for once."

He didn't need to hear the other part. You could feel his eyes roaming your face, trying to figure you out, looking for something without fully knowing what. It was at times like these you missed your wings. Keeping secrets in a human body full of emotions and urges and reactions beyond your immediate control was frustrating at best. It was another reason you were better off keeping your distance.

After a while of searching your features, John sighed and gave up.

"Alright. So it's probably some kind of malevolent spirit then, wreaking havoc. Don't see why you're so worried luv, sounds like any other Tuesday to me."

The barkeep was close enough for you to signal for a refill to you both. He grunted something unintelligible, obviously not too keen on all the Brits suddenly hanging out in his pub. You made sure to send him a grateful smile as he filled your glasses, yours with sparkling water, John's with whisky.

"My weeks are all Mondays," you said and raised the glass to your lips; just as you had hoped, John did the same. "Did you get here in time to see the body?"

"Only after they moved it. Wasn't pretty..." He took another swig while staring at the wall with a distant glaze clouding his eyes that told you he wasn't seeing the wall at all. "Pathologist told me the man had been alive when 'is head was severed. The, er... the inscriptions..." John looked just as sickly green as the constable had done and very gently you put your hand on his shoulder. A small gesture of reassurance. "I'm tired," he whispered suddenly. He turned his head to look at you and your heart ached when you realised how glassy his eyes had become. "I am just so bloody tired. Demons, vampires, curses, spirits, the lot. No matter where I go, there're always more and people die, it never stops. Innocent people, good people... I just want a fucking break, but if I don't stop the darkness from spreading, who will?"

His voice was thin and on the verge of breaking entirely. You wanted nothing more than to lean forwards on the stool and put your arms around him, somehow make him know he wasn't alone, but the risk was too great. You were in too deep already.

"Sometimes I wonder whether it's all worth it..."

"Of course it's worth it, John," you said quietly, clenching his shoulder. "We do what we have to so they...," you gestured discreetly towards the patrons, ”they can go on living their lives and not... not know and see the things we do..."

"I know, luv, I know. I just... I want..." The gloom that was always lurking just below the surface of his existence was spilling into his eyes. He was weary to the bone, deep into his very soul. For a moment, you thought he was going to let the tears burst. "I risk my life every day and it's never bloody enough, is it? A man got his head carved off by some wretched spirit who should have been resting in peace. Fuckin’ Hell..."

He rubbed his eyes hard and you decided then what to do. You didn't like it one bit, but seeing John this worn down, well, you liked that even less. It meant you had been sleeping on the job.

As subtly as you could, you put your hand in your pocket and found the tiny zip-bag with a pinch of purple powder in it. It wasn't something you used often and it had never been meant for John, but you couldn't in good conscience let him go after a rogue spirit in his current state. While he emptied his glass again, you drizzled the powder into your hand and braced yourself.

"John, look at me. It's going to be alright. You are John Constantine and without you this world would have ended twelve times in the last decade, maybe more. And right now you are going to save this island, because that is what you do. So get off your sulking arse and stop feeling sorry for yourself. We have a job here. You're going to find that spirit and put it out of its misery before it hurts someone else, got it?"

He huffed, but even so raised his head and managed a small grateful smile at the reprimand.

"Yes. You're right. Thank you, luv. You always know what to say..." His eyes darted to your lips and for half a heartbeat, you did nothing, just sat there and waited for him to lean in the rest of the way and kiss you. It was far from the first time it had happened, but you still felt at war with yourself. There wasn't a single atom left in you anymore that didn't crave his affection. He was drunk and emotional and between the way he looked at you and the way there suddenly seemed to be less and less space separating your bodies, there was no doubt about his intention. It would be so easy just to finally give in and let it happen.

"Don't thank me."

Before he could lean back or ask you what you meant, you blew the purple powder straight into his face.

His eyes widened in shock, but his body immediately began to turn relaxed and pliant.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me...," he mumbled, but his gaze was already unfocused.

"I'm so sorry, John," you whispered, gently guiding his torso onto the bar.

He tried to say something more, but his words were slurred and within a few seconds, he was gone.

You had gotten the sleeping powder from a dealer in New Orleans, who had told you the effects would last at least four hours. They always oversold their stuff, but hopefully John would be out long enough for you to deal with the entire affair if you hurried up and took a few shortcuts. It was a messy solution, but then again, you hadn't planned on him being here. Desperate times and all that.

"He gonna be lying there all night?," the barkeep grumbled with a raised eyebrow at John when you hopped down from your stool. You put on the best smile you could manage under the circumstances and slid 50 quid across the counter.

"He'll come ‘round soon enough. If not, I'll be back for him in a few."

You practically fled the pub before he could ask you any more questions.

The road outside was deserted and you hoped no one was watching as you marched to the lonely phone box you had spotted earlier. It didn't look like anyone had used it in several years, but when you picked up the receiver the dial tone was there alright.

You took out a stained, battered playing card from the depths of one of your pockets (the seven of diamonds) and slid it into the credit card slot. You didn't own a mobile phone and neither did most of your acquaintances, but still you had memorised the few numbers you occasionally needed.

"Hey Chas, it's me," you said when the answering machine finally picked up. "I'm at the island with John and I haven't got much time. I don’t want to get John involved in this so I need to work fast. There's no need to worry, really, I've got it under control, but... just in case something unforeseen happens, uhm... if I don't call back in let's say ten hours, will you let John know where to find my body? He can't track me in his usual ways, so he'll need your help."

You took a deep breath and closed your eyes. What you were about to do was risky, maybe even reckless.

"I'm going to the beach where they found the dead man and work my way from there. If... if I don't succeed..." It was as if your throat was suddenly full of gravel. "Chas, please, just make sure John isn't the one to take on that spirit. He is not ready for that." Too late, you held the receiver away from your face while you tried to suppress a sniffle. So much for convincing Chas Chandler that you had things under control. Forcing your voice to even out, you continued. "I have to go. Just help him if I can’t, okay? And don’t worry too much. I’ll probably see you in a couple of days.”

Before you could say anything even more stupid, you hung up and slid your helpful seven of diamonds back into your coat. Handy little thing to have on you.

You left the phone box in the last light of day and made your way down to the beach. It took you twenty minutes to reach the cove and less than one to sneak under the police tape unseen. There were just two constables standing guard at the scene and they only looked when you wanted them to. For an active crime scene, the site was unusually quiet, but you attributed your luck to the dusk that made searching for clues almost impossible.

Of course, that went for you as well, you thought sourly as you carefully stepped around the little plastic numbers the police forensics had put up all over the little stretch of beach. You could make out the bloody piece of driftwood and the large dark spatter running down the stones where the corpse had lain, but nothing smaller than those. Even if the place was rather secluded, you didn’t dare light a torch with the uniforms standing idly guard so close by.

Sighing, you closed your eyes and concentrated.

The place was tingling with dark energy and it became clearer the more you felt around, using your own magic.

A spirit, just like you had anticipated. A lost soul preying on the living for… revenge? Yes, the bloody traces sang with the mad desire for vengeance that so often kept the dead from their rest. 

Bloodshed, the thirst temporarily quenched. Then what?

The movements of the spirit became blurry after that no matter how hard you tried to focus. The leftover energy had been disturbed and mixed with the signatures of all the people who had been to the crime scene since the discovery of the body and it was impossible to make out without assistance, even for someone as experienced as you.

If you couldn’t locate the soul, you couldn’t send it packing. 

Luring it via séance required more people and it was too risky for everyone involved anyway. Without its name, summoning it was out of the question as well.

You groaned when you realised what you had to do.

Making sure for the last time you couldn’t be seen from the line of police tape above you, you took off your backpack and dark raincoat and shoved both of them under the nearest rock. Next, you loosened your boots and sat them next to the backpack, then your thick scarf and woollen jumper. With short, angry movements, you rolled your trousers down and folded them hastily, ripped off your socks and wriggled out of your top.

“You’re so bloody lucky I love you, John,” you mumbled through clenched teeth that were starting to rattle in your skull. With fingers already numb from the cold, you unclasped your bra and slid down your underwear before you could change your mind, and with a deep breath, you stepped into the waves.

Even before you went into the sea, your body had been covered in goosebumps from the chilly October air, but the surfs rising around your legs now made you heave for breath with every step forward. The rocks under your feet were dull compared to the sharpness of the water. When it reached you mid-thigh you had to stop and wait for the pain to subside enough so that you could get further out. You were too close to the beach and the water was still too shallow for your purpose.

A tangle of seaweed drifted past your ankle, or at least you hoped it was just seaweed. It was hard to tell for sure in the dark.

Your submerged muscles were screaming as you forced yourself out until the water reached your ribs. If only that wretched spirit hadn’t chosen the middle of the bleeding autumn to throw its tantrum.

“Sacred Nanuet, your humble servant speaks to you,” you intoned through gritted teeth and held out your hands on either side of you so the gentle waves touched the palms of your hands. “She beseeches you; allow her the honour of sharing in your wisdom. Blessed goddess, lend her your sight and expand her understanding, your humble servant begs of you, great Nanuet…”

The ancient language you muttered your request in felt strange on your tongue as always, but your flattery worked. You could feel the magic start to sing under your hands and so you took a deep breath and lowered yourself completely into the sea.

The stranglehold of the freezing water somehow got pushed into the background of your conscience and within a beat of your heart your mind was alight with images. Through the water, you could see most of the world, but you focused on Raven’s Rock and the little beach behind you. The water had seen it all. From the depths of the ocean, it rolled onto the sand and sneaked its way under the island’s rocks, seeped into the soil and was drunk by the hungry roots of The Green, stretching into the light above ground…

It wasn’t long before you managed to zero in on the exact event you needed. The Sight of Nanuet allowed your mind to access the memory of the watery abyss, which included as good as all water on Earth and not a lot of people mastered navigating it anymore. You had been forced to use a lot of wordly magic since you lost your wings and so had learned to find what you needed relatively easy.

Through the Sight, you saw the murder of the man on the beach, how the spirit severed his head and lapped at the blood before turning away from the scene. It lost some of its shape then, but through the dewy grass above the cove and the moist air, you managed to follow it away from the beach and across the land.

The spirit held its physical form, or at least the overall contours of it, and it made it easier to trail. From what you could tell, it definitely had been human when it had been alive. Poor thing. If only it hadn’t gone and murdered someone, maybe you could have sent it to rest. 

But would you even be there if it hadn’t?

When the spirit finally settled, you had followed it to an old, abandoned stone house with no windows and a door rotting away on the hinges. The place must have been a farm. There were several small outhouses scattered around the main building and indents in the earth marking former animal pens. The roof had been a thatched one, but now it was more moss than straw and what still remained beneath the heavy green patches had long since turned mouldy and dark. A few shards of glass jutted from some of the window frames like crude, predatory teeth waiting to chew up whoever was unfortunate or foolish enough to get close.

You went after the spirit through the remnants of the front door.

A voice in the back of your head told you it was enough, you should get out of the house and the Sight and the water. You had what you needed for now.

But the way the spirit slumped through the dark rooms and up a ramshackle staircase, as if it had done it a hundred times before, as if it belonged there in that house, intrigued you. It didn't match your original theory, the reason you didn't want John involved.

Curiosity piqued, you followed the lonely ghost up the stairs, where it turned left and went into a room with what had been two alcoves in the wall but were now mostly caved in. The room didn't have any windows and it was hard to make out the details, but the flimsy shape of the spirit trudged towards one of the beds and with motions as if the bedding had still been intact, it lay down and pulled the memory of a blanket over itself.

You slowly got closer, unsure of what to do. The visible shape of the ghost was gone now that it was no longer in motion and the general gloom of the empty house made it near impossible for you to see anything clearly. But the person the ghost had been once seemed so at home here. You couldn't feel any hostility from it at all, not even a trace. Only peace, comfort. Quiet.

This had been its home once when it had lived, you were almost certain of it.

But the desolate little stone house, out of the way even for the island's standard, must have stood abandoned for several decades, maybe even a century or two. If the ghost had lived here it was much older than you had initially thought.

Which meant you might have knocked John out for nothing.

Fuck.

You had to find out more and fast, but it was unlikely the memory of the house before your closed eyes would yield anything further. Even if it was dark and late in the evening, you would have to go there physically. The chances of finding something would be higher, and besides, you couldn't stay in the water forever. You were almost human, after all.

The thought had barely crossed your mind before the reflex to breathe kicked in and you could feel the freezing seawater rush down your throat. One inhale was all it took for your lungs to feel heavy as a pair of burning bricks. A fleeting realisation, that drowning was one of the most unpleasant sensations you’d had the misfortune of experiencing since losing your wings, faintly made it to the front of your perception before the back of your head hit the sand on the ocean floor. Then the only thing you could focus on was the pressure of the water and the way your body grew ever more numb…

The room still flickered before your eyes, slowly losing definition as you lost consciousness. Strange, you mused with your last bit of coherence, that an angel from Heaven should die looking up at it from so far below, in the cold embrace of the sea. It wasn't even painful anymore, the water, but oddly comforting, lulling you to rest, holding you tight.

The only regret you had was leaving John…

The last thing you saw before your eyes fell shut was his face above yours and a faint smile moved your lips. How very considerate of your mind to conjure up his image as the last thing you would ever see.

You could feel his arms around you even, fingers digging into your skin, his body pressed down against your own…

“Bloody fucking Hell, let her go!” The words didn’t make sense to you and they sounded so awfully far away. “She isn’t yours, you stupid paegan relic, let go of her! Let go!”

But you were, you were letting go, there was nothing more you could do.

“Christ, luv, which heathen tosspot did you enlist to drown you?! Yam, Ægir? Tiamat? Nanuet? Nanuet, isn’t it?” At the invocation of her name, you could feel the ancient goddess slacken her hold on you, as if in surprise, and you vaguely realised that the embrace you felt didn’t belong to her or the water, but to John. “Oh, you always were a fickle tart. Let go of this servant or so help me God, I, John Constantine, will destroy you and every last shrine still bearing your blasted name! Let her go!”

With a cry you weren’t sure was even coming from you, your face broke the surface of the waves. You violently coughed up seawater and if it weren’t for John’s arms, you would have fallen right back down into the deep. Your head was spinning. The numbness gave way to a cold so freezing you might as well have been rolling in needles. Everything hurt. Your legs felt unsteady, no, your entire body felt as if someone had replaced your bones with straw and your muscles with jelly.

“J-John…,” you coughed, but he shushed you, keeping you close to him in the water.

“I know, luv, it’s a bloody miracle you aren’t dead, you’re welcome for that. Now let’s get you out of the water, yeah?”

He was really there, drenched in the North Sea in the middle of October at what might as well have been the edge of the Earth, just to save you from drowning. His white shirt and black trousers clung to his frame like film and from what you could make out in the light from the moon, he was shuddering from the cold, too. You had never wanted to kiss him so badly before.

“I c-can’t m-m-move,” you got out through teeth rattling painfully in your skull, suddenly all too aware of your proximity and your own state of undress. As much as you wanted to cling to him for warmth, for closeness, the logical part of your muddled brain was screaming at you to keep your distance. That was what you did, wasn’t it?

“‘Course you can’t. How long were you under for, anyway? Completely off your rocker summoning a paegan goddess alone at night in the middle of the bloody ocean! What were you thinking?”

“I-I saw the g-ghost,” you weakly tried stammering through your clattering teeth. “Saw h-how it killed-ungh!”

You let out a groan as John swiftly picked you up and started carrying you towards shore. Your severely tested heart felt as though it might give out entirely. Never had you been reckless enough to let him touch you like this before, to let him hold you, as if you were a lover who would readily indulge in such intimacy. If it weren’t for the fact that you were very likely about to freeze to death, your cheeks would have been on fire. Every inch of your skin would have been scorching.

As it were, you were too cold and too exhausted for your body to produce that kind of heat. Surrendering to the fatigue in your bones, you allowed your head to rest against him and closed your eyes. He could carry you to shore or to Hell on his hands. You weren’t going to argue. For the first time in all your human life, you completely let your guard down.

[ageekyreader]

I had slowly started getting back into my hobbies this summer with my bead work. I’m finally at the place where I can start to do that again, despite being in the middle of moving, and this time it’s slowly getting back into ALL my main hobbies. I’ve got a scarf I’m knitting but I also lost one of the knitting needles the other night so I have to figure out how where that magically went to lol I’ve been working on cooking all along (yay!) and cooked my first meal of Jewish food for the Candy Man on Sunday. I’ve started blogging again (obviously). I’ve got my tarot cards accessible again and am starting to do quick readings for myself to get back into the flow of it. I’ve pulled out my drawing notebook but not done much yet. Annnnnd I’m picking up my writing again! It’s been long enough since I really spent time writing that I have a bunch of WIP’s and I had left everything a bit disorganized because life was chaotic. Two days ago I went through and organized things a bunch. There is still more to do but I go the things done that absolutely needed to be done in order to feel like I could move forward. Yesterday I started talking to my Muse @merigreenleaf about some details I need solid for a fanfic of her not yet published book that I had started plus worked on some notes for the two other fics that I have as my current priority. I’m also thinking I’m about to start putting fic up on Ao3 which I’ve never done before and is SCARY. Unfortunately most of my fanfic I’ve written is specifically for an unpublished yet series, but I have a few things to put up and some ideas to work on XD

[yikestripes]

School’s Out for Summer: Bill Denbrough x Fem!Reader

Here’s my first IT lil writing blurb! I’m so excited to get back into writing and stuff, especially since I got yeeted into the IT fandom headfirst just 2 weeks ago, and haven’t gotten anything about it off my mind since then but we livin. Anyway, here’s young bill x fem!reader!

Warnings: cursing, kissing, the like.

The summer had barely gotten started, when things around your hometown were getting a little weird. Derry, Maine was never the most particularly normal town, but usually it was nowhere near this... eerie, all the time.

Nevertheless, you were still ready to plunge into the quarry the first day of summer.

Suddenly, a flash of black and red flew in and out of your vision, whipping passed you like you weren’t even there.

It was Richie Tozier, the king of impatience.

“Beep beep, Richie!” You say, smirking.

Richie rolls his eyes and tries to hide the small smile that crossed his lips.

“I don’t usually do slow, but you know what, ANYTHING for you baby!” Richie replied, looking you up and down thirstily.

You just shake your head. Before you get the chance to say something back, your childhood best friend disappeared among the crowd of kids pushing their way out of the school in a mass, ready to start their summer adventures.

Suddenly, a hand fell on your shoulder.

You whipped around, ready to rip away from whoever was touching you, but it was just Bill.

Bill Denbrough.

The love of your life.

Your neighbor.

Your childhood best friend.

Your loser.

“Hey, r-r-ready to g-g-get your ass dunked at the q-quarry?” He stuttered, grinning from ear to ear.

“Me, get MY ass dunked? Please!” You lightly nudged his shoulder as you walked through the crowded hallway.

“P-please what? Don’t w-wanna get your hair w-w-wet?” He ruffled your hair as you tried to swat his hand away.

Bill was, at best, a head or two taller than you; swatting his hands away every time he tried to put his hand near your hair was difficult, and most of the time useless, since Stan would usually tag team it, and get your nicely done hair frizzy anyway.

“Bill stop!” You whined.

Bill laughed and let his arm come to rest on your shoulder, making heat rise in your cheeks. This isn’t the first time he’s done this, and most certainly not the last, but it sure made you wonder.

“Puh-LEASE! He’s so obviously in love with you!” Beverly said, running a hand through her messy hair.

“I don’t know Bev, have you SEEN the way he looks at you?” You let your mind wander to all the times you’ve caught Bill staring at Bev, especially when he thought neither of you were looking.

Little did you know, he was always staring at you. The way your hair fell and framed your face, the way your whole face lit up when you were talking about something you’re passionate about, or even when you showed all the boys up at the quarry, the first day they brought you.

He had been in love with you since the day he met you. But he couldn’t ever find the words to tell you.

A voice to your left took you out of your thoughts; it was Ben, going on and on about some new fact he read about in his latest musings in the library.

You were half paying attention, still slightly preoccupied by Bill’s arm that had since deserted your shoulder.

His hand was so close to yours, that in a single move you could reach out and grab it, and never let go. You played with the idea for a minute, had it gone poorly, you could’ve found some convenient excuse. You didn’t mean to, you weren’t paying attention, you thought he was grabbing yours, the possibilities were endless.

Of course Bill would believe you, he would believe anything you said, just because you said it.

Unbeknownst to you, he wanted more than anything to just reach out and take your hand in his, and finally tell you how he felt.

The idea made him more sick than the time Richie made the loser’s ride “The Vomit Comet” 6 times in a day.

Bill absentmindedly smiled at the memory.

You had brought your new camera you had just gotten for your birthday, which you were celebrating at the theme park, and took pictures of every possible moment.

Eddie lecturing the Losers on how unhealthy the food was and how questionable the rides were, Richie making some snarky comment to Eddie about doing it with his mom, Eddie and Richie bickering.

There were also some really nice photos; Bev had taken the camera when you weren’t paying attention, and snapped a few really cute candids of you and Bill laughing, smiling, and looking at each other the way only two childhood sweethearts could.

You got shots of Bev playing games and smacking Richie in the back of the head, then Richie giving you both the finger.

“HAPPY SUMMER LOSERS!” Bev yells, jumping on your back.

“Talley ho and pip pip my good fellows! We must be on our way!” Richie said, causing Eddie to roll his eyes.

“I hate when you do that accent!” He muttered, fiddling with his fanny pack.

“What’s that, Eddie? I can’t hear you over the sound of me fucking your mom!”

The bickering ensued for the entire walk to the quarry.

“Will they ever stop?” You wondered out loud, only half serious.

“N-nope. Not even w-w-when we’re adults,” Bill replied with a shrug. “They’ll g-go on this way f-f-forever.”

“Do you think we’ll all still be friends when we’re adults? Like, our parents ages?” Stanley asked, sounding worried.

Bev slung her arm across Stan’s shoulders and ran a hand through his messy curls.

“Of course we will, kid!” Stan shook her off, trying to contain his smile despite his worry.

The brief walk from school to the Quarry came to an abrupt end, when you all prepared for the next step. Conquering the cliff for the first time that summer.

“YIPPEE KI-YAY MOTHERFUCKERS!” You screamed at the top of your lungs, flinging yourself off the edge of the jumping cliff, into the cool water below.

You immerse yourself in the water, allowing it to swallow you entirely for a brief moment.

You resurface, and come face to face with Bill, who’s looking up to the sky, trying to convince Ben to jump.

“Come on, New Kid! You can do it!” Beverly encouraged.

“Let’s go Ben! We don’t have all day!” Richie chimed in, impatient.

You catch Bill’s eyes darting towards the other Losers, then at you, making you a bit nervous.

You raise an eyebrow at him; “what?”

“This.” He smirked, and pulled you under.

Once he pulled you down, you opened your eyes and looked around, only to sense a small tap on your shoulder. You whip around to see Bill, a closed mouth smile permeating his face, waving at you.

You grin as he just looks at you, as if you were the only person in the entire world.

For just a moment, you were.

You swim up and break the surface, to see the other Loser’s have already crossed the pond, preoccupied with picking teams for chicken fights.

Bill begins swimming towards them, when you grab his hand underwater.

He looks back at you with his eyebrows raised, speaking without words.

You pull him close to you and wrap your arms around his neck, your eyes darting back and forth between his eyes, and his lips.

He grins, and closes the gap between you two, pulling you into the sweetest kiss you’d ever had.

A kiss that was worth the wait, and then some.

You both pull away and hear the cheers and cries of the Losers from across the Quarry.

“It’s about damn time!”

“FINALLY!”

“I told you so!”

“You owe my 5 bucks!”

Bill grabs your hand and spins you around, smiling at you like you were the only thing on his mind.

You were.

You pulled him close, and kissed him again.

This was going to be the most interesting summer of your life.

And it all started with Bill Denbrough.

[phoebe-rune]

A Sign of Life

Hello everyone!

Believe it or not, it’s me, I’m here, alive and well!

And I know it’s been almost an entire year since I last posted something here that I wrote myself. And let me tell you, a lot has happened in that time - I also got some writing done, don’t you worry.

A short insight in that might be good, so here we go:

The fall semester I mentioned at the end of my last update went down relatively uneventful, to be honest - so much so, that I forgot I had writing I could do, oops! But well, then things started happening, there’s still this pandemic going on that has, of course, been affecting me as well. But before that, I got to spend the end of 2019 (and beginning of 2020) in Denmark with my family in a little holiday home in the dunes, which was utterly beautiful. Oh, and the way these holiday homes lay there in between the dunes is just perfect, so, if I could, I would live there to be a writer.

Then, in the semester break between winter and summer term, I actually managed a couple days of writing for at least an hour every day and got some work done. I still procrastinated on the two chapters that are actually supposed to make up the main action of the story (so when shit’s really going down), simply because I’m struggling with the time frame around it. And to be quite honest with you, I’m still procrastinating on them, well...

With the start of this year’s summer semester the pandemic was in full swing, so it had to take place online. That wasn’t exactly the problem, the problem came a little while later, if you ignore my anxiety kicking in at the beginning of the lockdown. Because, amidst all of this Covid stuff going on, I had to get my gall bladder removed for it was stuffed with stones - great! But, no worries, the surgery went well and I was back home quickly. But then I had weeks on end with my stomach being the drama queen I know it to be so I was pretty much occupied with that and the online semester. And got no writing done, how else should it be.

Fast forward to the end of this summer term: All my exams are done, I relaxed for a couple weeks and enjoyed my stomach functioning normally again, got a new laptop and then I got my ass up and managed two weeks of writing at least an hour per day - yay me!

And now, here we are, I caught a nasty flu and didn’t write a thing for almost two weeks now. But, fear not, I promised myself that I get back to writing this week. Starting with this ‘little’ update because I had wanted to post on here for a while now - with my only excuse for postponing that being that I first wanted to see how well I would do with my writing time this semester break.

So, now you now where I’m at - I already finished two chapters and now I’m writing on the next one - and what to (possibly) expect. Maybe I’ll even do better keeping you all updated on my social media and maybe (very big maybe) I’ll also do better studying and writing parallelly and maybe maybe I’ll introduce you to my muse (or some other characters from the book) soon.

That’s it for now, you’ve made it to the end of this post, yay you!

Thanks for your patience with me and my ramblings and lots of love from me,

Phoebe

[per-ineptia-ad-astra]

Star Trek Episode 1.4: The Naked Time

AKA: Everyone Has A Real Bad Day Except For Sulu

CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains an onscreen suicide in which a man stabs himself in the stomach and dies later in surgery. No blood or gore or details of the surgery are seen. This recap covers the first scene but does not contain any images of it. There is one screencap of the surgery scene, which does not show the body, and is only there to point out a particularly ridiculous prop.

Here's a story about The Naked Time for you: one year when I was in college I had a Star Trek wall calendar. Each month had a picture from an episode on the top half, with the name of the episode underneath it, and then some trivia about it on the bottom half. The picture for February was shirtless Sulu posing on the bridge, naturally captioned The Naked Time. So one day a friend of mine who didn't watch Star Trek was over hanging out when she saw my calendar, and I wound up having to explain to her that yes, that was an actual Star Trek episode, no it was not a porn parody of Star Trek, yes it was really called The Naked Time, no, no one actually got naked in it. Which was quite the conversation. You try explaining shirtless Sulu with that caption completely out of context.

February was a good month that year.

Our episode begins with the Enterprise orbiting a planet called Psi 2000, because 2000 is the coolest number (except for 3000). Psi 2000 is an old planet, now little more than an arctic wasteland, which is near the end of its life. So near, in fact, that it's about to fall apart completely, and the Enterprise is there to watch (for science). Before they do that, though, they've got to pick up a research team that's been stationed down on the planet surface.

But all is not well, for we soon see that the inside of the research lab is just as much of an arctic wasteland as the outside, complete with a dead person sprawled over a console. Spock and some dude beam down wearing snazzy orange bubble wrap suits and Spock examines the stiff with his Pringles can gun.

[ID: Spock and another man wearing textured orange hazmat suits, faces only barely visible, standing in a room covered with dubiously realistic snow and ice. A body is slumped over the table in front of them, also covered in snow. Spock is pointing a cylindrical device at it.]

The two of them split up, the dude to check out the life support systems and Spock to examine the horrible scene of a shop window mannequin half-buried in snow. His Pringles can tells him that she's been strangled. The dude comes back and reports that all life support systems are off and there are four more dead people, including the engineer frozen apathetically at his post and another man taking a shower fully-clothed. Well, maybe his clothes were dirty too.

As Spock goes to check out this spectacle for himself, the dude wanders back into the main room and gets out a device of some sort that makes whirring sounds. But then his face itches, so, like the competent Starfleet officer he is, he carries on and ignores this. Ha ha, no, I'm just kidding. He takes his glove off, puts it on the dead guy's head, then sticks his bare hand up his helmet to scratch himself. As if that wasn't bad enough, he then leaves the glove off while he messes around on the floor. When he puts his hand on the side of the desk, we see an ominous red spot in the ice. To give the guy the very little credit he deserves, he doesn't put his hand directly on the red spot, but this doesn't matter much because some of the liquid crawls upward and splatters onto his hand anyway. And he obviously notices this, because he shakes his hand, sticks it back into his helmet to sniff it, then puts his glove back on like nothing happened.

Immediately afterward, Spock comes back and tells him to be certain they expose themselves to nothing. Well, have I got some bad news for you.

Spock calls up to the Enterprise to tell them what's going on, and when Kirk asks what caused all this, Spock says it's like nothing they've dealt with before. The drama of this is a bit undermined by two things: one, everything they deal with is like nothing they've dealt with before, and two, Spock says this in a complete and utter deadpan, even by Spock standards.

After the titles, Kirk recaps what just happened, and says that despite it all they're still going to hang out and watch the planet implode because hey, why waste a trip. Spock and the dude—whose name is now revealed as Tormolen—beam aboard and Scotty decontaminates them by making the transporter lights flash on and off for a few seconds. Then they go over to Sickbay to get checked out just to be double sure. This consists of a brief examination which I don't think is going to be much good for revealing any contaminants they might have picked up, but at least we get to see the cool Sickbay examining tables that flip up and down.

Here's an interesting point: in this scene both Spock and Tormolen are wearing black t-shirts instead of their usual colored tunics. We saw this earlier with McCoy wearing the same kind of shirt when he was chilling back in The Man Trap, and he also seems to be wearing one under his short-sleeved blue shirt, which suggests that it's a standard uniform undershirt (especially since Spock and Tormolen put their blue shirts back on over them after they get done with the examination). So...where the hell is Kirk's? Because we're going to see Kirk with his shirt ripped or off many, many, many....many, many times throughout this series, and he's never wearing anything under it. So what gives? Are these not part of the uniform and these three random people just enjoy wearing them? Are they part of the uniform for everyone but goldshirts? Is Kirk exercising some kind of captain's privilege to not have to wear an undershirt? I don't know, man. Star Trek uniforms have never made any sense to me. Also, I’m sorry I introduced that as interesting. I don’t know why I did that.

Anyway, Spock and McCoy snark at each other a bit, but on a less cheerful note we see that Tormolen is rubbing his forearm anxiously. Which presumably means more in this context than it does when I do that about thirty times a day. Kirk comes in to see what's up, and Tormolen mournfully describes how terrible the scene was. That leads to this bit of dialogue from him and Kirk: “I keep wondering--” “You keep wondering if man was meant to be out here. You keep wondering, you keep signing on.” So either Kirk is a mind reader, or this sentiment is old ground for Tormolen.

Spock says he has no idea what happened down there, but maybe they could find something on the record tapes. Kirk tells Tormolen to go get some rest since he keeps going on about how many dead people there were down there, and he and Spock go off to check those tapes. We see Chapel (yay!) and Tormolen looking at his hand while a sinister rattling sound plays (not yay).

In the briefing room, everyone's looking over the tapes. Spock identifies one as a spectro-analysis tape, but it turns out to just be a slow pan of the room where they beamed down. I would say that's not what spectro-analysis is, but spectro-analysis (as opposed to spectral analysis) isn't a thing, so I guess you can have it mean whatever you want. Kirk muses over how bizarre and macabre this situation is, with everyone just frozen and uncaring, and asks for theories. McCoy says it couldn't be drugs or intoxication since the bio-analysis tapes, which were apparently more useful than the spectro-analysis tapes, rule that out. Spock suggests it may be some new form of space madness, which is like regular madness but in space, but he doesn't know what could have caused it since they didn't pick up anything unusual on their sensors. Scotty points out that that just means they didn't pick up anything unusual that they were designed to pick up, so this could still be something entirely new.

Kirk's main concern is this: they have to get the best readings they can of Psi 2000's breakup, and to do that means maintaining a really precise orbit, so they need absolute efficiency and no one getting space madness and randomly dying. He asks if there's any chance that what happened to the science team could affect the crew of the Enterprise. There's a conspicuous lack of any answer to this, which annoys Kirk, but hey, if they don't know what happened, how can they know what effects it's going to have? Anyway, the bridge calls in to report that the expected erratic changes are beginning to happen to the planet, and the meeting ends on that note.

In the rec room, or whatever, some people are playing space checkers (like regular checkers, but in space) and Tormolen is getting some food. He's still staring at his hand and rubbing it against his shirt like there's something on there he can't scrub off. Which I guess there is.

Sulu and friend come in to get some coffee, chatting about Sulu's latest passion: fencing. His friend complains that Sulu has a habit of picking up intense interests every week or so, which I guess is kind of thrown in there as a justification for why Sulu was in the botany lab a couple weeks ago but never shows up there again. The two of them sit down next to Tormolen and Sulu, noticing his buddy's new compulsion, asks if everything is alright, causing Tormolen to snap at him violently.

The two goldshirts get called to the bridge, but Sulu makes one last effort to check on Tormolen before they go. This really sets Tormolen off, making him jump up, knock his chair over, and go on an impassioned rant about how mankind doesn't belong in space. When his friends try to calm him down, he grabs the knife from his plate and points it first at them, then at himself. They get into a tussle, trying to take the knife from Tormolen, while everyone else in the room watches dispassionately. Thanks, guys.

Sulu and his pal aren't successful getting the knife away and all three of them take a tumble to the floor, and as they get up it's revealed that Tormolen stabbed himself in the stomach. I'm...not sure how he managed to do that with a butter knife. Sulu's friend runs over to the intercom and yells that they need medics. Then we hear another sinister rattle and he starts rubbing at his hands like Tormolen did.

After the break, Kirk gives a log saying that unbeknownst to them, a new disease has been brought on board. But this one's not in the past tense, so it just kind of makes it sound like Kirk has precognition. On the bridge, Sulu and his friend—who we finally learn is called Riley—are keeping the Enterprise steady around the rapidly condensing planet. Spock waxes on a bit about how they may be seeing Earth's own future, since before its sun went dark Psi 2000 was very similar to Earth. I dunno what we're going to do with that information, but hey, science!

Everything seems to be going alright so far, except that both Sulu and Riley have caught that bad case of Out, Damn Spot that's been going around, complete with sinister rattling. Kirk can't hear the soundtrack, though, so he doesn't notice anything off. He goes over to talk to Spock about the strange case of Tormolen. Spock thinks Tormolen was too confused to be actively trying to kill himself, but he notes that the man's capacity for self-doubt has always been high and wonders what caused it to suddenly come to the surface like that.

In Sickbay, Chapel and McCoy are operating on Tormolen, but it's not going well, even when McCoy blowtorches Tormolen's wound shut.

[Image description: McCoy and Chapel, dressed in blue Sickbay scrubs, doing surgery on a draped body at a Sickbay table. McCoy is saying, “Closing,” while pointing a device at the patient. The device looks remarkably like a completely undisguised blowtorch. ]

We briefly cut away to the bridge, where there's been a sudden increase in gravity that causes the orbit to go all wonky. Riley's too busy looking at his hands to do his job, causing Kirk to have to do it while Riley sits there and sweats heavily. Back in Sickbay, Tormolen's vitals are inexplicably dropping, and despite McCoy and Chapel's best efforts, he dies. This really freaks McCoy out because Tormolen's wounds shouldn't have been fatal. He calls Kirk to Sickbay, and after taking a moment for a bit of exposition, Kirk heads down.

Sulu and Riley talk about how much they're both sweating, then Sulu abruptly suggests they head down to the gym for a bit of a workout to calm their nerves. Riley is understandably perplexed about this, but that doesn't stop Sulu from sneaking off the bridge unnoticed (somehow), leaving poor Riley with no idea what to do about it.

In Sickbay, McCoy is explaining to Kirk that Tormolen's wounds were not severe enough to kill him, and says that the only reason he died was because he didn't want to live. Um. I don't think you can will yourself to death. Especially not while you're unconscious. But McCoy can't come up with anything else, and he's especially baffled because he says that men like Tormolen don't give up. They can't be trusted to investigate inexplicable deaths without contaminating themselves and they're incredibly susceptible to ennui, but they don't give up.

Kirk wonders if this is a coincidence, with Tormolen dying after having been down on the planet where all those other people died. McCoy can't see how, since they checked everything they could and did everything that was possible. Kirk tells him to check the impossible too. What the hell does that mean? “Check if he was a vampire! See if he died from Kryptonite poisoning! Try sprinkling fairy dust on him!”

On the bridge, the orbit goes out of whack, causing Spock to finally notice that one of the helmsmen is mysteriously absent. He runs over and sets things straight, recruiting a guy called Rand (no relation) to take Sulu's place and demanding to know why Sulu isn't there. Riley is...not very helpful.

[Image description: Riley, a white goldshirt with brown hair and a very drunk look on his face, sitting at the helm on the bridge and proclaiming, “Have no fear, Riley's here!”]

Spock relieves Riley, replacing him with Uhura. That's right, Uhura can run communications and fly the ship. Uhura can do anything.

Spock sends Riley to Sickbay, and Riley goes happily enough, sauntering off through the corridors and opening the Sickbay doors by blowing on them. He goes in and pesters Chapel, first mournfully asking her what happened to Tormolen, then, without skipping a beat, starts hitting on her, causing more sinister rattling when he touches her chin. Then he says that Tormolen's mistake was that he wasn't born an Irishman. Because as we all know, Irish people are immortal. Then he leaves. Well, to be fair, Spock just said to report to Sickbay, he didn't say anything about what to do when Riley got there.

Riley's pretty quickly overshadowed though, because immediately afterwards we see Sulu burst through a door, shirtless, laughing, waving a rapier, and having the time of his life.

[ID: Sulu, wearing only his uniform pants and boots, standing in the middle of an Enterprise corridor, grinning and striking a duelist’s pose with a rapier. The subtitle reads [Music]. ]

Legend has it that the original script was undecided about whether Sulu was using a rapier or a samurai sword, and that the choice was up to Takei, who went with the rapier because he felt that the samurai sword was much too stereotypical for a Japanese character, something he really wanted to break away from because in the 60s it was really goddamn hard for an Asian actor to get any role that wasn't a pile of stereotypes. Legend—and by legend, I mean, George Takei—also has it that Takei spent the time up until the shoot frantically doing push-ups in his dressing room to prepare for his shirtless scenes. He really enjoyed this episode, and boy howdy can you tell by watching him.

Sulu encounters a couple of crewmen walking the other way, who have an astounding lack of reaction to being spontaneously menaced by a really sweaty guy with a sword. At least, up until he charges them, at which point they turn tail and run away. Sulu only finds greater amusement in this, calling them cowards as he climbs up a nearby ladder.

Meanwhile, Spock gets a guy to relieve Uhura, and Kirk comes on the bridge to discuss the strange case of the missing helmsmen. He tells Uhura to send a security team out to locate and confine the two of them, and Uhura responds with a report about Sulu's antics.

Spock proposes a pattern of hidden personality traits suddenly surfacing: Tormolen's self-doubt, Sulu's desire to be a swashbuckler, and Riley...being really proud of being Irish. I guess that's a personality trait.

Before they can go any farther with this theory, there's another disturbance from the planet, only this time the helmsmen can't compensate because their controls aren't working. Kirk decides enough's enough and orders them to warp out of there, but the warp drive also isn't responding. Neither are the impulse engines.

Kirk heads off to see what's up with this, but he's interrupted by Sulu bursting in on the bridge, waving his sword around wildly, and I don't think Shatner's expression as the rapier gets shoved in his face had much to do with acting. Uhura tries to get the sword away, but Sulu grabs her to his side, declaring, “I'll protect you, fair maiden!” To which she responds, “Sorry, neither.” Wow. Censors were asleep that day, huh.

A triple attack by Kirk, Spock and Uhura gets Sulu a Vulcan nerve pinch for his trouble, and Spock has him hauled off to Sickbay, with a surprisingly snarky comment from Spock about “D'Artagnan here.” Kirk goes back to trying to raise Scotty about that engine trouble...but it's not Scotty that replies. It's Riley. He says that he's relieved Scotty of his duties and also that he's the captain now. Apparently they can't shut him off, either, because he goes on to demand double portions of ice cream for dinner and then starts singing “I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen.” Kirk's face says it all.

[ID: Kirk, standing on the bridge next to the lift doors with one hand to his forehead, looking extremely frustrated, while Riley sings, “I’ll take you home again Kathleen...” over the intercom.]

Kirk's having a really bad day.

With nineteen minutes to go before they swandive into the collapsing planet, Kirk finally reaches Engineering, where Scotty is doing his best to get in. He says that Riley told everyone that Kirk wanted them on the bridge, then locked the door behind them. Wow. It is really easy to take over Engineering. Not only that, but Riley's hooked everything up to the main panel in Engineering, so they can't use auxiliary control. The only way they can get back into Engineering is to literally burn a hole through the wall, which is going to be tricky because the wall is full of stuff that you really don't want to burn through.

Riley's still singing, and I would comment on the quality of his singing, but that would be very hypocritical of me, so I won't. Besides, everyone else in the episode will do it for me. Uhura reports to Spock that various incidents among the crew are increasing, either because of the sickness or because they're all just worried they're gonna die, so Spock orders her to have the main sections sealed off so they can hopefully slow down the spread of this thing. But Uhura's alert is cut off by Riley, who's also overridden the alert channels. You can do anything from Engineering. Riley tells Uhura that she won't get ice cream since she interrupted his song. Awwww. He also says there will be a dance in the bowling alley later. Hang on, they have a bowling alley? Of all the things you could have installed for entertainment on your starship, you picked a bowling alley? No wonder they're so desperate for shore leave all the time.

Uhura says she can't do anything to cut Riley off, so Spock goes over and presses a bunch of buttons to confirm this. I've noticed a running theme in this show is that no one believes Uhura when she says she can't do something or something's not working. Then again, that happens to Scotty a lot too.

Just then, there's a big jolt, and everyone dutifully flings themselves across the set. My favorite part of this is the brief cutaway to Sickbay where we see McCoy doing a belly flop across Sulu's legs.

[ID: Sickbay tilting to the side, causing Chapel to fall backward onto a bed and McCoy to wind up horizontal on top of a passed-out Sulu.]

He calls up to the bridge to complain about this (apparently Riley didn't bother cutting that particular channel) and says that they're running tests on Sulu but haven't found anything yet. Kirk asks if there's anything he can do about Riley, but McCoy's got nuthin. Not even some tranquilizer gas to pump in there or anything. You're falling down on the job, there, Bones. Literally and metaphorically.

Riley calls in again to give the female crewmembers orders on how to look (thanks dude), including telling them not to wear too much makeup. You don't want too much makeup on this ship, Riley, you better take that up with Mr. Spock and his eyeshadow.

Then he starts singing “I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen” one more time. Which I guess is the only song he knows. You couldn't mix it up a bit there, Riley? Rocky Road To Dublin? Galway Bay? Thousands Are Sailing? No?

Scotty does something that gives the bridge enough power to keep the ship stabilized, but that's not that much help since their orbit is still decaying and they're now sixteen minutes away from faceplanting into the planet (faceplaneting). Kirk takes a moment to sign a PADD for a crewman. Kirk. Kirk, the ship is crashing. You can do paperwork later. He sends Spock down to help McCoy, but tells him to stop on the way to harangue Scotty to go faster.

On his way, Spock encounters a maniacally laughing man who's painted 'love mankind' on the wall, and a goldshirt harassing Rand, because harassing Rand is the main pastime on the Enterprise. Spock tells him to stop that, and he does...until Spock leaves, whereupon he immediately starts again. Helpful.

Spock finds Scotty, who says he's doing the best he can, dammit, and he can't cut through the bulkhead safely any faster, but Spock tells him they don't have time to be safe. This clearly perturbs Scotty deep in his engineer's soul. Not much anyone can do about it now, though.

In Sickbay, McCoy is yelling at the biopsy lab, but they're not responding, so he goes over to yell at them in person. Chapel is left behind with Sulu, who's coming out of the tranquilizer (we can tell because he's thrashing his head around and grunting). Unfortunately Chapel has the contagion from where Riley touched her, and she wanders off.

Things aren't going well on the bridge. Riley is still singing, various people are having to be shoved out of their chairs as they succumb to the contagion, and Kirk is about to lose it. He snaps at Uhura to cut Riley off, and she snaps back at him that she sure as hell would if she could. Kirk has the good grace to apologize, but it's understandable; I think anyone would lose it after that many renditions of “I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen.”

Spock finally makes it to Sickbay, where he encounters Chapel, who starts rubbing his hand and talking about how the men from Vulcan treat their women. Keep in mind that's the Vulcan equivalent of passionately making out, so Spock is understandably pretty perturbed by this, especially when she starts saying she loves him. Spock finally manages to disentangle himself, but it's too late: he's been infected too. He wanders out into the corridor, ignoring Uhura's attempts to get a hold of him, and starts sniffling, which is the Spock equivalent of attacking people with a sword.

Kirk stomps down to Engineering with some security guys in tow, where Scotty is finishing up cutting a Tetris block-shaped piece out of the wall. He reaches his hand right in the still-smoking hole (badass) and opens the door, letting Kirk and the redshirts rush in and apprehend Riley. Riley's a graceful loser, though; he just says, “No dance tonight,” and gets thrown into the redshirts while Kirk and Scotty desperately start pushing buttons.

Meanwhile, Spock finds an empty room to duck into, and tries desperately to get control of himself, collapsing into a chair and muttering some math as he breaks into sobs. This is an interesting scene, because it wasn't originally in the script; Spock was supposed to have a much more light-hearted encounter where he burst into tears after getting a mustache drawn on him by the mad graffiti artist. Nimoy objected, feeling that this was out of character for Spock and missing a great opportunity, so he pushed for the scene to be changed. He had to keep pushing, because the scriptwriter didn't initially want to do it, and then it came in at the end of the shooting day and no one thought they could get it done in time, but Nimoy persevered and did the whole thing in one take right under the wire.

The result is something special: a rare scene showing Spock in a moment of true, open vulnerability, confessing to the feelings he insists he doesn't have, the struggle to keep himself restrained and logical to the point that he can't confess feelings like love and friendship even to himself. It also stands out from the rest of the episode, as aside from Tormolen—whose arc, while tragic, is rather flat--most of the results of the affliction are much more Wacky Hijinks than anything seriously emotional.

There's bad news in Engineering: Scotty's found out that Riley turned the engines off completely, and it would take thirty minutes to start them up again. This is bad, since they're now starting to burn up in the planet's atmosphere and have got about eight minutes left...leading to one of Scotty's most famous lines: “I cannot change the laws of physics. I got to have thirty minutes!”

Well, Kirk isn't going to take the immutable laws of physics as an excuse. He suggests a controlled implosion of the engines, but Scotty says that's only a theory and has never been done. They'd need a row of computers working weeks to find the right formula. Speaking of which, where is Spock?

In Sickbay, Sulu has finally come round, which for some reason involves screaming at the top of his lungs while McCoy watches dispassionately.

[ID: Sulu sitting up in Sickbay and screaming, while McCoy watches him with a hypospray in his hand.]

When he's done screaming, Sulu seems back to normal and apparently doesn't remember anything since he left the bridge. That's enough for McCoy, who shoves Chapel out of her chair (there's a lot of shoving people out of their chairs in this episode) and calls the lab to tell them they've finally isolated the problem. He says that somehow on Psi 2000 water has changed to a complex chain of molecules (it what now) that's passed through perspiration and acts like alcohol once it's in the bloodstream. Except it doesn't cause anyone to lose coordination, or slur their speech, or throw up, or pass out, or have difficulty thinking, or have any effect aside from soul-baring and a lot of sweating. So...maybe not a whole lot like alcohol. McCoy tries to tell all this to the lab, but they just laugh hysterically at him, so he goes off to do it himself.

Kirk finds Spock (...somehow) and demands to know why he's crying in a side room while the ship is crashing. Spock starts talking about his mother and how he could never tell her he loved her. It's very moving, but we've only got five minutes before no one on the ship is going to be telling anyone anything ever again, so Kirk's got no time to listen. Not even when Spock says that he feels ashamed when he feels friendship for Kirk, a touching admission which is somewhat undercut by the fact that Kirk is currently expressing that friendship by smacking Spock repeatedly across the face.

Eventually Spock gets tired of this and backhands Kirk in return, sending him tumbling over the nearby table with such force I'm surprised Spock didn't break his jaw in the process. Kirk starts ranting about the about implosion process and then smacks the nearby console when Uhura tries to contact him, from which he intuits that he's got the infection. Then he starts going on about how the Enterprise consumes everything in his life and he can't have normal relationships. Now, when Tormolen, Sulu and Riley were affected it took considerable time for substantial behavior changes to occur, but Kirk has to one-up everyone so he managed it in about five seconds. Meanwhile, Spock calms down and starts talking about the intermix formula, because...I guess he just got over this by himself. Also, I'm pretty sure five minutes have passed by now.

Scotty comes in to try and get something useful out of somebody, and he and Spock go off to work on the intermix formula, leaving Kirk to angstily make his way up to the bridge. As he steps out of the turbolift, McCoy is waiting to give him the antidote, which he does by ripping Kirk's sleeve open. Even though hyposprays can go through clothing. And Kirk's exposed neck is right there. And a gentle tug at the fabric would have been more than sufficient. Look, McCoy's had a long day, alright, he needs to take it out on somebody.

[ID: Kirk standing in front of the bridge lift doors looking tired and annoyed while McCoy injects a hypospray into the bare skin on his arm exposed by Kirk’s uniform shirt sleeve being ripped open almost down to the elbow.]

While we're at it, the question must be asked: how did McCoy manage to not get infected this whole time? He was in ample contact with lots of people who were infected, while wearing a short-sleeved shirt, and somehow never once had the slightest bit of skin-to-skin contact with any of them? The only thing I can come up with is that he was infected but it was impossible to tell any difference.

On the screen, the planet is rushing past closer and closer while everyone stares silently. In Engineering, Spock and Scotty are cutting even more corners to get the intermix to work in time. They do...something, and the lights go dim on the bridge while everyone reacts dramatically; Kirk goes full throttle by throwing his head back in a silent scream, while McCoy is content to rub his ear and squint a bit.

Then it's all over: the lights come back up and instead of a rapidly approaching planet on the viewscreen there's an open starfield. Spock comes up to say that they were successful, obviously, but with a bit of a hitch: they overloaded the engines and now they're traveling faster than possible. Not only that, but the ship chronometer is now running backward. They're going backward in time! Why is this happening? Who knows. Maybe they just went so fast they came back around again the other way.

They hit the brakes, but not before traveling three days back in time. Well, could've been worse. Spock points out that this is all very intriguing, having, you know, access to time travel now, but Kirk isn't interested in repeating this experiment anytime soon. He tells Sulu to take them on to their next destination. Um. Are you sure it's a good idea to head to your next destination before you've technically departed your last one? You're gonna get some questions from Starfleet about why you're not on the mission you're supposed to be on.

Anyway, the episode ends there, leaving the whole time travel thing a bizarre non-sequitor that comes out of nowhere, adds nothing whatsoever to the episode, and is never mentioned again. This is because this episode was originally supposed to be a two-parter leading into Tomorrow Is Yesterday, which is a proper full-fledged time travel episode. For whatever reason that didn't happen, though, so we just have this weird little endcap that it's probably best not to think about too much.

TREK TROPE TALLY: Crew death count for this episode is one blueshirt (Tormolen), bringing us up to seventeen. We also have our first case of Space Diseases with the Emotions Virus, our first case of a Time Trek, albeit an extremely mild one with the Enterprise getting thrown back three days into the past, and our second case of Uniforms Unformed with Kirk’s tissue-paper sleeve being mercilessly destroyed by McCoy. Next time, we'll be looking at a tale of doppelganger woe in The Enemy Within.

[quinquinis]

Years after bn6, Roll gets a upgrade and emails Lan a chip containing a copy of her updated data so Megaman's Roll soul won't get stale. Megaman uses the soul again in battle and notices he now has... high heels? and can use a nicely stylized whip?

Enjoy (I wanted to write something short for this one):

“Lan, you have mail,” Megaman’s voice interrupted. Lan glared at his navi, who had previously been present in the corner of his vision. Megaman smiled up at him from the PET. “It’s from Mayl.”Lan saved his work. This project on compressing data for quick transport across the internet could wait.  It had been ages since he had spoken to Mayl. “What does it say?”“Hmm, let’s see. ‘Hi Lan, I hope your project is going well. It would be nice if you could visit soon, I don’t live that far away you know. Here’s a new Roll chip as incentive to come visit. She recently received an update and I’m sure Megaman will enjoy it.’” Megaman downloaded the chip data when he was done reading. It looked just like all the other Roll chips they had received over the years. Although this one would have been updated to work with the latest operating systems. “I wonder if Roll’s grown,” Megaman mused. He had grown a little taller over the years and, although he was still short for a navi, pixel to cm conversions put him at the same height as Lan. “I’m sure she has. Mayl once mentioned that she liked having Roll around the same size as her. And I know Roll likes being similar in size to you as well.”Megaman’s face flushed a little at the comparison. Lan examined the chip, a thought coming to mind. He had been working hard lately and getting really absorbed in the problems his professors were assigning him. Maybe it was time to take a long break.“Want to go bust some viruses together?” he asked Megaman. Megaman cheered. “I’m sure if we kept at this any longer I would be seeing code even when I close my eyes.”“You’re made of code.”“That doesn’t mean I have to see it all the time,” Megaman responded, sticking his tongue out at his operator. They were almost adults in the eyes of the law and this was how they chose to behave. It was better than being boring, Megaman figured.

“Alright, activate Roll Soul!” Lan said, slotting the chip in and selecting the option for double soul. Megaman’s frame glowed as the program activated and changed. When it was done, he was pink instead of blue. His helmet had morphed out with two yellow ribbons like Roll’s and he would have access to Roll’s healing and Roll arrow. Megaman stumbled as his frame changed. The alterations to his shoes caused his height to increase as high heels grew out from his heels. “Okay, that’s going to take some getting used to,” he commented, his program already compensating for the change in centre of gravity. He kicked a Mettaur away, ignoring the yellow bouncing helmet in the distance for the more immediate threats. He aimed a buster, ready for the Roll arrow to appear. “Roll… whip?” his program informed him moments before the whip appeared before his outstretched arm. He reflexively grabbed it. “What’s going on?” he questioned. He was standing there in high heels and holding a dark whip in his hands. Lan had no clue, although he did take a screenshot to laugh at when this was all over. “I have no clue. Do you think something’s happened to Roll?”“I hope not,” Megaman said before lashing out with the whip against the viruses. He took them all out easily, the double soul effect vanishing as the battle was concluded. “What now?”“Mayl did mention going to see her,” Lan mused.

While Lan still lived with his parents, Mayl had moved out into her own apartment once she had a job. It was near Yai’s apartment in the city so Lan had to take a bus to go see them. The whole way, Megaman fretted. It was annoying enough that Lan turned the volume on his PET right down. When the reached the apartment complex, Lan realised that he really hadn’t been here since the housewarming party. He went up the vaguely familiar stairs and knocked on the door to Mayl’s small apartment. Mayl greeted him happily, throwing her arms around him in a hug. “What’s with the visit? I thought you would be busy at university?”“I’m ahead in all of my work for once so I thought I’d visit.”“He means he’s ahead in all the practical stuff and he’ll catch up on the readings the night before an exam, like usual,” Megaman countered.“I don’t think they heard you,” Roll’s voice said from behind him. Her breath tickled his neck and Megaman’s danger sense went off, causing him to jump forward. Lan had turned the volume down! He wouldn’t be able to hear him if he called out! Megaman turned around to face his girlfriend. Roll was smiling innocently down at him.“You’re… taller?” he questioned. There was a light height difference.“Yep!” Roll chirped. She spun around, showing off her new heels. “Mayl got me modified with some high heels. Aren’t they nice?”“I don’t suppose she modded your main weapon too?”“How did you guess?” Roll questioned in surprise. “We went with a whip because it’s very versatile and I appear to be very good at using it.” A whip appeared in her hands and she cracked it a couple of times. Megaman sighed. It had been a false alarm. Nothing bad had happened, Roll was just trying new things. Too bad he couldn’t inform Lan of that. Lan had been brought to the couch in the apartment and Mayl was feeding him biscuits that she had made while telling him about her latest musical live event. Even if Megaman reached out to turn up the PET volume, telling Lan wouldn’t change anything. “So, what have you been up to?” he asked Roll, pulling her down to sit with him. They needed to remember to hang out with friends more often in the future. Before stuff like this gives them a heart attack.

[daddyzanchez]

Let's test mod's writing

My first fic, yay! I hope my writing gets approved, I’d love feedback because I’ve never done a Rick and Morty fic.

1600 words - erotica - F/M - oral sex, rough sex, slight name calling and just smut without plot

Here is a link for the same story but on AO3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/13044258

Honey, I’m Home

You knew the sound of a portal opening in your sleep, could recognise it in a crowd and it made you giddy. Rick being home after a long adventure with Morty meant that he was short on a dose of you, making him a little rougher than usual, and you loved it. It had been a week, a damn week they had been gone and Beth had been complaining into a phone which Rick had provided so they could stay in touch in form of what you would characterise as a next level long-distance phone call. On top of it all, a week also meant that you were short on a dose of him, and you decided to do something special for him; so now you were kneeling on the concrete floor of the garage, waiting like a dog who had just heard the door in the main hall be opened.

It was cold on your skin as you had decided not to wear a thing for him, only one of his chokers from when he had been in that band. He never talked about it or played you any of their music but somehow, you could sense that he missed it and so a little reminder would not hurt. The choker suited you, you had to admit and you couldn’t wait to see his face when he would see you totally in the nude with only a 90s trend around your neck. On top of it, you had struggled for good ten minutes with tying your wrists together in front of your body, a red ribbon from Beth’s box of gift wrapping stuff cuffing your arms together.

With no one home, except Morty who had most likely locked himself in his room with his laptop, you had the whole house to yourself and that also meant that you could be a little louder than normally. It was the perfect opportunity for a “Welcome Home”-fuck.

Rick finally entered the garage and his reaction was absolutely perfect, just what you wanted; his jaw dropping so his mouth fell open. You tensed at his stare, smiling up at him after a moment of silence, “Aren’t you going to say anything?”

“D-d-don’t you look pretty?” Rick said as soon as he had collected himself again, and the praise sent a shiver down your spine, “Like a pre-present for me to unwrap.”

“Do you like the choker?” You asked.

“It suits you b-better than me,” Rick admitted, walking up to you to stick two fingers under it and turn the piece of fabric around your neck a few times.

“I disagree.”

“I thought you might.”

“I’ve missed you,” you smiled, licking your lips to signal exactly what you wanted, “Well, not you exactly but let’s say a certain part of you.”

“Cheeky,” he laughed quietly, gripping your chin, “Can’t keep that tongue of yours in your mouth, can you? Bet you wan-wanna use it.”

Without replying, you simply let your mouth fall open and on his face, a wide smirk spread. Rick let go of you to reach for his belt, unbuckling it and unzipping his trousers to reveal his half-hard cock. He took hold of himself, helping you to guide the almost flaccid cock into your mouth, “You know what to do, honey. Get me hard.”

It was true, you knew exactly what to do, sucking his cock being one of your favourite things to do. Every little movement of your mouth and tongue weren’t coincidences; it was you knowing which buttons to push. As he guided the head of his cock past your lips, you ran the tip of your tongue around it in small and swift circles, going under the ridge of it as well as over the top. A hand slid into your hair and as you felt Rick swell in your mouth, you felt him push your head down further as well, forcing the shaft into your mouth till you let out a moan.

“Th-that’s it, get me ni-ni-nice and hard so I can fuck you,” Rick mumbled above you, fully hard by now as he watched you enthusiastically sucking him off. You bobbed your head, moving your body forward, whilst still making sure not to lose balance, so you could take him all the way into your mouth. He felt so good and heavy on your tongue, tasting like nothing but Rick and salty precome.

“Mhm,” you hummed in reply, the sounds from your voice sending sweet vibrations throughout his cock to the rest of his body and you finally got what you wanted. He took hold of your hair with both his hands, starting to thrust into your mouth, fucking your mouth as he would fuck you in a moment.

Your knees were absolutely killing you by now but you didn’t care, the mere fact that Rick was facefucking you, to use an honest term, was distracting you from the pain. Your stomach was doing flips instead, your pussy wetting at the thought of what was about to come and what was happening right now. He had you, was in control of you and you loved it.

“Get up,” Rick commanded suddenly and pulled his cock out of your mouth, pulling you by the shoulders to help you stand. You stumbled slightly, feeling a bit lightheaded as you had only been able to breathe through your nose for quite a while now, “Bend over my work bench.”

Excitement pooled in your lower stomach as you lay over the bench, not able to do anything else but press the side of your face into the metal surface with your arms underneath your body. Rick wasn’t doing anything yet, simply admiring your body and how invitingly wet you were.

In the next moment, you felt two fingers run through your wet folds, between the lips of your pussy and spreading you open, “Mine.”

The simply word meant so much and you clenched involuntarily at the hotness of it. You wanted to say something meaningful because you were truly his, every part of you, psychologically as well as physically was his, but nothing but a simple word could describe it better than anything else, “Yours.”

Slowly, you felt the fingers being removed and replaced with the tip of his cock. He ran it through the wetness that was seeping from you before planting a hand on the counter to thrust into you.

“Fuck,” you gasped, “Don’t hold back.”

“I-I wasn’t go-going to, darling,” he replied as he settled inside of you. It took both of you a moment to adjust, a week being quite a while for both of you when the two of you were practically rabbits normally.

Finally, you thought to yourself as Rick pulled back and then thrust into you again. It was a quickie without any romance, it was desperate and animalistic as he grabbed you by the hair and snapped his hips forwards again - and again and again and again. Both of you were moaning messes, and just for a moment, you send a thought of sympathy in Morty’s way who was probably traumatised by now. Not that you cared, it was a pity to stay quiet when one was feeling as good as you were right now. With every thrust, he became rougher and you became louder, the force of his hips slamming against your ass shoving you harder forwards on the table only to be pulled back again.

“Kinky little slut,” Rick smirked after a groan, nails scraping down your back until he could grip your hips to hold you still so the thrusting became more intense, “H-how long did you wa-wait for me on the floor?”

“Two hours,” you cried out, his cock angled perfectly to hit your g-spot.

“Where did I find such an amazing thing like you?” Rick mused as he picked up the pace, the sound of skin slapping against skin becoming more prominent in the room. You didn’t answer him but instead started pushing back against him as he fucked into you, desperately searching for more pleasure so you could finally get sweet release.

Fact was that you hadn’t even touched yourself all week, wanting to wait for him to make you come and it was soon, the familiar tightening in your lower stomach was building and would soon end it the climax you had dreamed about for days.

“I’m close,” you gasped, surprised that you hadn’t even needed a hand between your legs too.

“A-already? My God, you re-really have missed me, huh?” He sped up even further, fucking you till the point where it ached.

“Almost, oh God, Rick!” You squeezed your eyes shut, “I’m- oh.” The tightening released into sweet spasms, your orgasm washing over you like a wave and nearly making you tear up as Rick didn’t stop thrusting into you. It was perfect, intense and just what you needed.

Behind you, Rick was groaning loudly and you felt him spill into your pussy, hips stuttering as he came. Greedily, you swirled your hips to earn another moan from an over sensitive Rick. It was painful when he slipped out of you, leaving you empty and sore, “You’re making me ache.”

A hand slapped your behind, “You sound sur-surprised. Did I give a signal that that w-wasn’t my intention or?”

“Shut up,” you slowly straightening and felt your back crack as you turned to face him, “Oh jeez.”

Rick leaned down for a slow kiss, not too affectionate, “Honey, I’m home.”

“Oh, are you? I had no idea,” you teased. Fuck, you had missed him.

[scriveyner]

shining like the stars, p99

“So,” Hunk said, his face coming up on the screen to Lance’s left. “Who wants to say it? I don’t want to be the one who says it, I always say it and then you all make fun of me.”

Read on AO3 or continue after the jump:

“Hunk,” Shiro said firmly through the comm. Lance smirked a little, because it was the slightly-exasperated tone of voice that he knew all too well and for once it wasn’t directed at him. “No one needs to say anything.”

“Really? Because I’m really feeling it.”

“Hunk, buddy,” Lance said. “It’s fine. Things are cool.” He leaned forward in his chair, hands resting on the controls of the Blue Lion, and things felt … normal. So normal … well, as normal as things could be when you were flying a giant, frighteningly sentient ancient alien weapon through relatively uncharted waters in the hopes of luring out the Galra cruiser that had jumped into system six hours ago and had yet to engage. It was refreshing to be back in action, just him and Blue - okay, and everyone else, too.

“Still no transmissions from the cruiser?” Shiro asked, and Allura’s voice came through the comm.

“Nothing. They’re sitting just beyond the planetisimal cloud.” Allura sounded just barely worried. They had lain in wait for two days, not moving from the system of their initial wormhole jump based on Shiro’s gut feeling that they were being followed. It did seem strange that the Galra hadn’t pursued them immediately, but they had wormholed out of the system, and apparently caused a great deal of damage to the cruisers, and the frigate’s core engine block. “I can barely get a reading on the ship at all.”

“And this isn’t worrying anyone else?” Hunk said. “Because I’ve got a bad feeling, man…”

Pidge, Lance and Matt managed to make a chorus of groans that liberally drowned out the rest of whatever Hunk was saying. “Don’t say that,” Matt’s voice was slightly broken up, coming from the Castleship, while Pidge said at the same time; “Hunk, if you fucking jinxed us…”

Shiro let the banter go on for a few moments longer, clearly working something out or just speaking on a private comm channel to Keith, who had been uncharacteristically silent. Not that he dug into Hunk as much as Lance and Pidge did, but he usually offered some input, even if it was just a grunt of disgust. Lance flipped over his system to Blue’s private comm channel and drew up alongside the Red Lion, who he was flying in loose formation with anyway. “You okay, bud? You’re awfully quiet.”

“Yeah, I’m good,” Keith said. His reply was curt and to the point, which wasn’t entirely out of line for him when they were flying into a potential threat. After a moment though, there was a sigh through the open line and Keith’s voice sounded more open. “Thanks for checking on me, Lance.”

“No problemo, my man,” Lance flipped back to the main comm line in time to hear Shiro say, with intense exasperation, “Matt.”

“What?” Matt sounded like he was playing intentionally innocent.

Dammit, sounded like he missed something potentially hilarious. Lance made a mental note to ask Matt later what he had said, as Coran spoke up. “It appears that the Galra cruiser has warped out of system.”

There was a brief moment of stunned, surprised silence, and then Hunk said with total and legitimate enthusiasm, “yay!”

“Okay…” Keith said. “That’s really weird. Why would they hang out at the edge of the system, not engage, and then bolt?”

“They probably got a read on their sensors for all five Lions,” Pidge said. “Maybe they left some snooping satellites or something, we should totally make a pass through the planetisimals just to be on the safe side.” Pidge sounded far too enthused about flying through what amounted to a larger, slower asteroid field so she definitely had some form of ulterior motive. Lance wasn’t going to lose sleep over what that could be, though, because there was honestly no telling.

“I’ll go with Pidge,” Keith said. “Our Lions are the fastest, we can do a quick pass and scan for anomalies and see if the Galra cruiser left us any presents behind.”

Shiro radioed his assent, and Lance watched as the Red and Green Lions, the arms of Voltron, shot across space and were nothing but mere dots on his screen in a heartbeat. The Lions could move stunningly fast, and they would be to the edge of the star system in minutes. Lance glanced at his sensors and realized that Hunk was already flying back toward the Castleship. “And where are you going?”

“Uh…” Hunk didn’t bother popping on visual this time. “Well, if the cruiser’s gone there’s no need to form Voltron, right? No need for all of us to just, um, hang around and burn fuel.”

“Yeah, uh-huh,” Lance said, leaning forward in his seat and grinning. The Yellow Lion hung in space unmoving, waiting for pronouncement at being caught shirking. “And I bet this has absolutely nothing to do with your hot Altean girlfriend waiting for you, right?”

“Lance!” Hunk’s voice gained an octave. “She is not my girlfriend!”

“Oh, I’m not?” Illianya’s voice came through the comm, sounding amused, and Lance saw the Yellow Lion roll completely over, as if dead. They were still on the public comm channel, Lance hadn’t bothered to switch over to private. Oh well, if his buddy wanted to air his private laundry all over the open channels, who was he to stop him, after all?

“Can we not use the public channel for this?” Keith asked, and Pidge snickered. Shiro just sighed.

“It’s okay,” Lance said. “I think Hunk has died of embarrassment anyway.” He flew Blue around Yellow once, in a loop. Yellow was still belly-up, although that was relative, in space.

“Enough,” Shiro said, and Lance obediently resumed formation with the Black Lion. After a minute or so to recover, Hunk joined them. “Pidge, Keith,” Shiro said. “See anything?”

“Just … planetisimals,” Pidge said, sounding disappointed for some reason. “No calling cards. Do you really think that they popped into system, saw all of the Lions, and noped out? I can’t tell if that’s awesome or disappointing.”

“I think it’s awesome,” Hunk said. “Let’s let our reputation do more of the heavy lifting. Save our backs. Voltron’s back. Whatever.”

“I don’t trust it,” Allura mused.

“Think it’s a trap?” Shiro said. “We could always follow the exit vector.”

“That is definitely a trap,” Keith said, and Lance agreed although he was quite sure that they could handle anything the Galra decided to throw at them … together, at least. Keith sounded profoundly disappointed in Shiro, though. “They’re probably waiting one system over with particle canons and tractor beams to disable us and capture Voltron.”

“That seems a bit on the nose, don’t you think?” Lance said.

“The Galra don’t have to do clever, they just flatten down any resistance with the full force of their army’s resources,” Matt said. “They’ve been ruling for literally thousands of years with minimal resistance, if brute force doesn’t solve the issue some of those cruiser commanders are out of their depths.”

“Hm,” Shiro said, clearly considering it. “Princess?”

“No,” Allura said. “I don’t feel the need to risk Voltron for just one measly Galra cruiser. Everyone, return to the ship. We’ll wormhole from here - if they tracked us this far, we’ll see if they track us any farther.”

“Copy that,” Lance said, twitching Blue back around toward the Castleship. He heard the others acknowledge as well; and, not surprisingly, the Yellow Lion beat them all back to the ship despite having the slowest overall speed. Lance made another mental note, this time to definitely give Hunk a hard time about that, as he brought Blue home.

#

They wormholed four times before Coran put a stop to it, citing both wear and tear on the teludav and, more importantly, on Allura. “We’re halfway across the galaxy from Eaphus,” Coran said busily, his hands on Allura’s shoulders to steer her off the bridge. “There is no need for you to wear yourself to the point of exhaustion!”

“So, now what?” Lance asked, slumped back in his flight couch and arms crossed. “We’ve done four jumps, there’s no way that they’re still tracking us through that, especially since that second one was so…” he gestured his hand in the air for illustrative purposes.

“Haphazard?” Pidge suggested.

“Aren’t there like, navigation charts that are supposed to be consulted before she does that? What if she dumps us out into the center of a star or something?”

Keith sat forward in his seat, leaned slightly to the left. Shiro hadn’t gotten up from his seat yet either, and still had several of the holographic displays open in front of him. “So what is the plan?” he asked, primarily directing the question at Shiro.

“I vote nachos,” Lance said, ticking off the options on his fingers. “Then, popcorn… and finally, movie night. In that order, or course.”

“I don’t know if I can make goo popcorn,” Hunk mused, doing a mental inventory of the Castleship’s larders.

“Please don’t use goo as a modifier for real food,” Matt said.

“Popgoo?” Hunk suggested.

“Okay, no, that’s worse,” Matt said, as Pidge cackled from her seat. “That’s much, much worse.” He had moved to Coran’s station when the elder Altean had escorted Allura off the bridge; and while he hadn’t actually touched any of the controls he was snooping all over them very thoroughly.

Keith got up and actually walked to Shiro’s seat, since his voice had been absent the entire conversation. He was staring intently at his screen, which was scrolling Altean characters very quickly; and it had opened a condensed star map of the local systems in a separate window. “What’s wrong?” Keith asked.

Shiro glanced to him. “Nothing’s wrong,” he said, tapping his fingers against his arm in a certain pattern that Keith remembered all too well. Shiro’s most notable tell. One of these days he’d have to let Lance in on that particular tick, but … not today. Keith put his hand on Shiro’s shoulder and leaned forward, smiling thinly.

“You can’t fool me,” he said, his voice low, and Shiro sighed in a slightly melodramatic fashion, and then squinted at Keith suspiciously.

“The half-breed thing doesn’t lend itself to telepathy or anything, right? You’d tell me if you could read minds.”

Keith cocked an eyebrow at him instead of answering, and Shiro shifted in his seat, unfolding his arms and pointing to the star chart. “This system,” he said, and when his finger brushed the system in question it lit bright on Shiro’s screen, showing the size of it. Keith frowned at the display, the system was labeled “Darpen” and nothing else.

“What about it?” he said, as Shiro folded his arms again, a look of concentration on his face.

“It’s familiar,” he said, and the irritation was clear in his voice that he couldn’t, for the life of him, figure out why.

“Hey,” Pidge said, from Shiro’s other side. They both glanced to her. “Lance has convinced Hunk to make space nachos. Unless you need us?”

Shiro shook his head. “We’re clear for now, and Matt-” Matt froze, halfway up the bridge, “has so generously offered to take bridge duty while Coran is assisting Allura.” Matt’s shoulders slumped comically, although he shuffled back toward Coran’s workstation without a word of complaint.

“I’ll bring you some nachos later,” Pidge said, with a wave to her brother before bouncing off. Shiro sighed and sat forward, dismissing the holographic displays but not rising from his seat immediately. He looked to Keith, and Keith returned his gaze, level and unaffected.

“I think I’m going to stay here for a little while longer,” Shiro said, and stood. He headed for the control station where Allura usually stood; which would allow him to use the larger star maps. “Figure out our next course of action.” He placed his right hand absently on the console, remembered what he was doing, and switched to his left hand.

“I’ll help,” Keith said, moving to stand at the edge of the holographic field as Shiro brought it up. Matt turned around, leaning back against Coran’s station, and watched them. Keith’s attention was on Shiro though, whose face had settled into a perplexed expression. “Unless you want to do this alone, although I really don’t know why you’d want to.”

Shiro gave a dismissive little shake of the head. “No, that’s fine,” he said. Another moment’s frustration and then he turned, looking down at Matt. “Does the Darpen system mean anything to you?” he asked, and Matt shook his head negatively.

“Never heard of it,” he said. He inclined his head toward the star-map, which highlighted both their present location and the system in question. “It’s only two systems over, right? Want to check it out?”

Shiro glanced over to Keith and Keith didn’t know what he was looking for, so he nodded his head. They weren’t being pursued - as far as they could tell, at least - and they were just going to drift until the new course of action had been plotted. Shiro nodded his head in response to Keith, then looked to Matt. “Yes,” he said. “Set a course for Darpen. Let’s see what we can see.”

Turned out, the Darpen system seemed like a whole lot of nothing. A dying star that hadn’t yet collapsed sat in the center of a system with few orbital bodies. “All scans report nothing of import,” Matt said. Keith had returned to his flight couch, looking at his own diagnostic displays. Shiro still had that unsettled look on his face, like he was waiting for a jump scare that would never arrive. “No habitable planets here.”

“No signs of life at all?” Keith said.

“No atmosphere detected on any of the rocks,” Matt said. He’d angled the Castleship to do a wide pass of the star, not wanting to get close enough to fight with the expanding gravity well. Something beeped, and Matt made an interesting noise. “I stand corrected.”

Keith sat up straighter, as Matt tossed some information up on the viewscreen. It was a planet … once. More than half the sphere was missing, and there was a planet-sized debris field spanning out from the remaining chunk. “What is that?” Keith said, as Matt threw more images up on the screen, one after another. At the farthest edges of the debris field there were ships. Not easily identifiable as Galra, though; they lacked the sleek lines and particular coloration that the flagships of the Galra Empire wore. No, these were junk ships, trader vessels, the remains of military ships whose rebellions were long since quashed. All scuttled in the graveyard of a planet. “What is this place?” Keith said, his voice a little strangled.

“Incoming transmission,” Matt reported.

“Incoming-?” Shiro said, and then looked to the main screen, where Matt had already thrown the relevant information. “The ship scan didn’t pick up any live vessels, right?”

“Incoming vessel,” the voice was rough, and set the little hairs on the back of Keith’s neck aloft. “Identiy yourself or be destroyed.”

Shiro’s voice was firm and commanding, the voice of a leader. “This is Takashi Shirogane, a Paladin of Voltron. We mean you and your people no harm. Are you in need of assistance?”

There was a long pause and Keith kept his attention on the ship’s sensors, listening for the whistle of a target lock. He’d raised the particle barried the moment they had been hailed as a precaution, but he could deploy his drone to help deflect incoming fire away from the shielding system if it came to that. Then, the audio window displayed on the viewscreen slid apart, opening to a video screen displaying a squat gray alien with three eyes and a shaggy brown beard shot through with silver. The alien was leaned in too close to the camera, distorting it slightly, but clearly trying to peer down its length to the other side. “Shiro?” the alien said, and Shiro’s expression was baffled.

“Yes?” he responded, his commanding voice slipping more back into his regular tone with confusion. “I mean, that’s me. I’m Shiro.”

Two heads popped behind the first alien; different aliens, Keith hoped, but sometimes it was hard to tell. There was a general background noise now, and one of the two additional heads said, slightly awed, “he came back!”

Shiro’s attention was wholly on the viewscreen, so Matt and Keith exchanged puzzled expressions. “I’m sorry, do you … know me?” Shiro said, his arms folded and brow furrowed.

“We weren’t expecting you to come back, we must celebrate this momentous occasion,” the alien said, and there was joy in its voice. “And with Voltron, nonetheless! Fantastic!” It leaned in even closer to the camera, obscuring the aliens behind it. “We have cleared an approach vector, avoid the Graveyard if you can.” With that, the transmission abruptly ended.

“We’re getting approach coordinates,” Matt said, staring down at the workstation. “It’s, uh…” he looked up at the viewscreen again. This time the image flickered, to beyond the debris field where one of the two oblong satellite moons sat in crooked orbit with the dead planet. Between the moon and the planet there were the familiar magenta-violet running lights of a Galra cruiser. “That.”

Keith was on his feet in an instant. “That is a Galra cruiser,” he said, as if that little fact had escaped the everyone else on the bridge.

“And it’s where the message definitely originated from.” Matt glanced to Shiro. “You got something you want to tell us, Shiro?”

Shiro shook his head, truly perplexed. “I have no idea what’s going on.”

#

“That,” Rian said, leaning against the wall behind the long, curved couch in the ready room, “is a fucking stupid plan.”

“Okay,” Lance called. “Who taught him how to use fuck?” Pidge raised her hand and Matt smacked it, so she grudgingly lowered her hand.

“I agree with Rian,” Allura said, and Rian looked smug. “But I also do not see any alternative.” She was seated on the couch, at the far end and holding a tablet, frowning at the readout. “It’s not transmitting any Galra code?”

“None,” Matt said. “It’s not transmitting anything at all. No active energy signatures, no IF/F beacons, nothing. The only active comm blasts were our direct communication with it and the coordinates to safely navigate the Graveyard to the moon’s location.” He rubbed his arm with one hand, thinking out loud. “The engines don’t appear to be active at all, and if you look at the live shots only half the running lights are on. I think the ship’s dead in the water… so to speak.”

“Only running life support systems, then?” Illianya asked.

“Despite the threats to fire on us. That would be my guess.”

“And none of them seemed to be Galra,” Keith pointed out. “Outwardly, at least.”

“Remember that talk we had about traps?” Hunk said. “This feels, I don’t know, like a trap.”

“If we worry about every little thing being a trap we’ll just get paranoid,” Lance said. He leaned his elbow on the back of the couch and propped his head against his hand, raising his other arm. “I’m in, by the way. Not that anything good ever happens on a Galra ship.”

“You’re not in,” Keith said. “I’m going with Shiro, you can stay here with the ship.”

Storm clouds gathered on Lance’s face, and he sat forward. “Shiro,” he protested, and Shiro, standing at the open end of the long couch put his hands on his hips and sighed.

“I don’t like this plan any more than the rest of you,” he said. “But I don’t think Keith is enough on his own - that’s not a reflection on you, Keith, but I don’t know what it is we’re walking into.” Lance pumped his arm in victory and hissed a small yes through his teeth. “We’ll all go in one Lion, though. I don’t want to leave multiple Lions unattended.”

“Where do you want us then, Shiro?” Hunk asked.

“Ready to scramble,” Shiro said. He glanced at Lance and Keith. “Suit up. We’re going to see what this is all about.”

#

There might have been a small disagreement about whose Lion to take in the locker room that Shiro pointedly ignored because it was resolved with a game of rock-paper-scissors and he liked to pretend that his teammates had more mature ways to come to a decision. Keith won (“how are you so good at that game? I had to teach it to you!”) and the Red Lion left the Castle of Lions in the usual fashion

It was unnerving flying up on a Galra cruiser that was half-operational, even more so than the one they had found previously scuttled. Shiro kept expecting all the lights to flare up as it powered on and grabbed them in a tractor beam with no way to get free; but instead the Red Lion flew alongside the ship until they located the open loading bay door and landed with little fanfare.

There was no atmosphere in the loading bay. When they stepped off the ramp from the Red Lion, Shiro glanced around the nearly empty hangar. “Lance,” he said, “stay with Red.”

“...what?” Lance’s mouth fell open. “You brought me along to babysit the Lion?”

Keith held his fist to his face as if he were using a cough to smother a smile, which was real effective in a full helmet.

“If we need to make a quick escape, I would want my best set of eyes waiting to pick off any pursuit,” Shiro said.

Lance’s mouth closed and he straightened, chin tucked down and arms folded. He was clearly still upset, but that had slightly mollified him. “I’m running my playlist through Red’s speakers,” he announced, turning on the ball of his foot and marching right back up the loading ramp.

“Good luck with that,” Keith called after him, knowing full well that Red would spit Lance out as soon as they’d left the hangar.

There had been no one waiting in the hangar bay to greet them. There were still some Galra starfighters scattered about, but they looked different than the ones Shiro had grown familiar with. There weren’t nearly as many of the craft loaded up to launch, and several were lying on the hangar floor, cracked open and cannibalized for parts. Keith said nothing as they passed the wreckage, and it was a long walk to the end of the bay where they found the airlock and cycled through it.

Keith left his helmet on, although the bottom portion opened up once the suit diagnostics confirmed a breathable atmosphere in the ship. Shiro took his helmet off altogether, holding it in his left hand. “You okay?” Keith asked, and Shiro knew that was going to be a common theme on this mission.

Was he okay? That was a loaded question with a loaded answer, so instead Shiro simply nodded and they set off down the corridor. They had barely gotten to the T-junction when they both heard the clatter of many sets of feet and Shiro clenched his right hand, feeling the servos begin to heat. Keith had his bayard out, but untransformed.

Abruptly, eight or nine different aliens in a mixture of ragged clothing and Galran armor ran straight across their path, down the other hallway. Shiro and Keith held their positions for a moment, confused, before they moved quickly to the end of the hallway and looked down the path that the aliens had gone. The cluster had turned about and was heading right back for them so Shiro took a step back as the aliens slowed and finally stopped before them.

Not one of these aliens were taller than Shiro, or Keith for that matter. He recognized the species of two of them, one of the many-armed centipedal aliens and a shark-like alien who had fins that framed its ace. The rest were completely foreign to him, but that was all right because they clearly recognized him.

“The Champion,” a spindly alien that looked like its skin was made from tree bark said, in a distinctly feminine voice.

Ah. Things were starting to make a little bit more sense.

Keith hadn’t put down his bayard yet, but that didn’t surprise Shiro. He held his hand out still holding the helmet, in a stand-down gesture, and after a moment Keith relaxed his posture and dropped his weapon to his side. “You know me?” Shiro said, and the aliens chorused an affirmative. “What is this place?”

“It is the Graveyard,” the first one who had spoken said, raising its hand. It wore the helm and helmet of the Galra armor, but underneath that were the achingly familiar rags that all prisoners of the Empire wore. They gestured. “Come, Jan is impatient to see you, so that the ceremony can begin!”

#

The moment that Lance sat down in the pilot’s chair all of Red’s screens went dark. “Oh, come on,” Lance complained. “I’m not trying to fly you, honest. Don’t go blind out of spite.” He held up the orange rectangle that was his phone, he’d discovered that it fit well in one of his Paladin armor’s compartments. “I just want to listen to some tunes, you’re a good kitty, you like music, right?”

The viewscreens didn’t even so much as flicker. Lance sighed and slumped in the chair. “You’re so dramatic,” he complained. “Keith isn’t this dramatic.” He stood up and shuffled behind the pilot’s seat. The viewscreens turned back on and Lance stuck his tongue out at them. As much as he wanted to just sit there and observe, it did him no good if Red was going to be a horse’s ass about it and shut off all the surveillance without notice or cause. Instead of exiting the Lion down the ramp, Lance popped the exit on the head and climbed out that way, seating himself comfortably on the head of the Red Lion and giving himself a nice view of the entire abandoned hangar bay.

There was very little to look at, and Lance got bored of this very quickly. He put his hands on his ankles and leaned forward, squinting at the far end of the hangar bay. The comm traffic from Shiro and Keith was minimal at best; Shiro had clearly taken his helmet off and Keith had switched his off, the fucker. So Lance couldn’t eavesdrop on what was going on, he would just have to wait here until someone opened an active line to alert him that trouble was headed his way.

It was nice that Keith seemed to be very much himself again, he had been surprised how much he missed it. Lance tilted his head and without thinking about it laid his hand on the side of his neck, over the now-faded bruise where Keith had bit him. He’d bit hard, too, but the wound was all but healed, the flesh mended while he was in the cryo replenisher. Shiro’s claim mark had almost immediately scarred over, but Keith’s, the open wound, was nearly gone. Omegas can’t claim a partner.

He rubbed his neck again and then put his hand down. Sitting up here perched on the head of a Lion reminded him a little of an ocean of stars, and why he was making that connection he didn’t have any idea. “Wonder if I can connect with Blue,” Lance mused aloud, in part so that Red could hear him because without Keith to needle he could at least annoy his Lion by proxy. “I mean, she came running when I was in distress in the memory core, and we are like super in tune.”

“Lance, are you talking to yourself?” Keith’s voice came through the communicator, and Lance jumped despite himself.

“No,” he said. “I’m talking to Red. It’s a very private conversation, I’ll have you know.” He stuck both his legs out straight and folded his arms. “We’re going to be best buddies by the time you get back here.”

“Yeah, right,” Keith sounded slightly stressed, but more amused than Lance expected. “We’re gonna need backup, do you have a lock on my position in the ship?”

Lance touched his forearm plate, and it brought up a display that, after a brief moment of questionable interference, scanned the ship and determined the location of the nearest sets of Paladin armor. It painted a pair of dots on a level not terribly far from Lance, although the display jumped a few times. “Trouble?” Lance asked, standing up and realizing that Red had closed the top hatch of the Lion behind him.

“Not exactly. You’ll understand when you get here, though.” There was a pause, and a clunk, and some chattering voices distant in the background of the feed. “Please hurry.”

#

The hallways of the Galra ship started out very normal, but the farther that Lance got from the hangar, the more that changed. At first it was small patches of green and pale blue on the dark obsidian walls; Lance assumed it was paint until deeper into the ship where the green and blue had organically spread and … blossomed, in places; producing tiny violet and emerald-colored buds. Vines began appearing underfoot, which Lance only took notice of when he nearly wiped out. Keith had said it wasn’t trouble, but Lance had his bayard out and in blaster form just to be on the safe side.

Finally, when the corridor started to look less like a military hallway and more like Alice’s most radical entrance to Wonderland, two small aliens clad in rather creative clothing ran up to him. One was carrying a staff nearly as tall as Lance, it had to be three times the alien’s height; and the other was simply waving its short, stubby arms. “Uh,” Lance said, drawing up short and pointing the muzzle of his blaster at the ceiling.

“Paladin!” the one waving its arms said; it kinda reminded Lance a little of the Arusians but it lacked horns on its head. “I require your aid!”

“Um,” Lance looked up and down the hallway, and then down at the map hovering just slightly over his arm. He wasn’t far from the others. “What sort of aid?”

It waves its arms again in what on Earth would be described as a ‘pick me up’ gesture. Lance held his bayard down by his thigh, the armor automatically stored the weapon digitally when he did that. Then, with no regard to cultural differences or diplomacy, he picked the tiny alien up.

Its eyes went wide and Lance had the momentary worry of, oh shit what have I done when it wiggled out of his hands and somehow flipped itself, managing to climb onto Lance’s shoulders and set its hands atop the helmet on Lance’s head. “Grizalt!” the alien announced, and slapped Lance’s helmet twice.

“Hey, what-” Lance yelped, and the other alien pounded the butt of its weapon against the floor. “Grizalt!”

The alien who had hitched a ride on Lance promptly vaulted to the floor and took off down the hallway, chanting the same word rapidly. The second alien clumsily bowed to Lance and almost whacked him with their oversized stick, and then followed their companion down the hall.

“What the hell?” Lance said, completely baffled, as he turned a corner and found what used to be blast doors that were propped permanently open by a lavender-hued trunk. Lance sighed and proceeded to climb over the thick alien wood, and to his surprise that put him on a platform in a very large, open space.

It might have once been a training deck or a cafeteria, or even some kind of great hall where a lot of people were meant to gather together. However the high ceiling was completely obliterated. As Lance craned his head back, he could see that several floors above had been removed, all to make way for the growth of a large tree. It was a lighter color lavender than the trunk he’d just clambered over, and its branches had grown into the broken chunks of the old ceiling.

There was a carpet of planet life thick enough that the original floor was no longer visible; and aliens of all shapes and sizes flitted about. It looked like a gathering spot and as Lance scanned the levels he could see what must be living quarters constructed around the rims of the broken floors, the farther up it went there were ramshackle bridges and wires run across and between the levels.

“Lance!” Keith yelled, and Lance turned to see Keith one level higher than him, waving a hand over his head to catch Lance’s attention. Several o what must be thick vines or even possibly roots ran up to the second level and Lance picked his way higher, finding Keith standing at the edge with his hands on his hips and looking faintly amused.

“What the fuck is this?” Lance said, awed.

“A bunch of prisoners took over a ship,” Keith said. “And prospered, apparently.” He glanced down, looking at the bottom level where there were quite a few aliens at work, clustered around near the base of the tree.

“Where’s Shiro?” Lance asked, and Keith tilted his head, clearly trying not to look as amused as he was. Lance looked back over in the direction that Keith was indicating with his head to see Shiro practically swarmed with tiny aliens identical to the ones he’d had an encounter with in the hall and looking utterly harassed.

Lance turned his head back quickly and smothered his laugh with his hand. “He’s popular,” Lance managed after a moment. Keith nodded his head sagely, and Shiro apparently spotted Lance, because he extracted one arm to wave it above his head like a drowning man.

“Lance, help,” Shiro called plaintively. Lance looked at Keith, who shrugged.

“Seems kinda cruel to leave him like that,” Lance said. “Keith, I’m surprised at you.”

Keith cocked an eyebrow at Lance, missing the ironic sarcasm by a mile. Lance rolled his eyes and marched over to Shiro, which caused several of the small aliens to scatter and at least one to leap from a slightly higher elevation and land on Lance’s shoulders. “Yeah yeah,” Lance said. “Grizalt, I know.”

Abruptly, all the tiny aliens ceased swarming on Shiro, freezing in place. Lance stopped too. “Uh-oh,” he said just before the aliens all yelled “grizalt!” and swarmed him.

Shiro still looked harassed, but now he wasn’t covered in small aliens. Keith started laughing now, as Lance tried to claw his way upright. He pointed at Keith and tried grizalt on him but it didn’t seem to work that way. “That’s what you get for repeating things kids say to you,” Keith said, and Lance wasn’t entirely sure if that was aimed at him or Shiro. Probably both.

Suddenly, there was a loud cracking noise and the small aliens scattered. Lance finally flailed himself into an upright, if seated, position. “Can someone tell me what just happened?” he asked, but then realized what looked like the boss or an elder or something was coming down a staircase made from plant matter stretched along the wall behind Shiro. Shiro stood up, and Keith offered his arm to Lance, helping pull him to his feet.

The squat alien shuffled slowly until he stopped in front of Shiro with a frown, holding a long piece of metal that must have come from one of the support struts. It had been worn smooth and there were berries and flowers tied in a cluster at one end. When they blinked, all three eyes blinked out of sync. “It is you,” the alien said, and shook their staff. “Our Champion has returned to us, at last!”

They hadn’t noticed the hush that had fallen over the present aliens until their leader spoke, and when he shook his staff everyone cheered. Lance and Keith both looked out behind them, to see aliens of every size and shape clambering up to be on the same level that they were. There had to be at least two hundred of them.

“I’m sorry,” Shiro said stiffly. “I really don’t remember …. I’ve been here, before?”

The alien paused, and then pointed to themself. “You do not remember me, Jan?” Shiro shook his head in the negative, and the alien’s expression seemed to grow darker. “You do not remember leading us?”

Keith’s eyebrow raised as Shiro shook his head again, sharper this time. “I’m sorry, no I don’t. I…” he gestured helplessly, and then looked back at Keith and Lance. Then he touched the side of his head. “My memories are all mixed up,” he said. “I’m missing a lot of them. The Galra…”

When he spoke the word Galra, a hissing sound rose among the crowd, and Jan waved his staff again. “Say no more,” he said magnanimously. “You and your friends are quite welcome here. Come, come, we have much to discuss.”

#

Pidge wandered onto the bridge, eating a plate of crispy, semi-translucent chips that Hunk had fried up. She wasn’t entirely sure how he was making food translucent and her desire to know the exact chemicals that the alien ingredients contained was at war with her ability to sleep peacefully at night, so the best distraction for that was other projects. She’d been looking for Matt and finally found him sitting at the Green Lion’s workstation on the bridge.

“What are you doing,” Pidge asked, holding a translucent chip between her brother’s gaze and the holographic display.

Matt blinked a few times, refocused on the item and took the chip, popping it into his mouth without even verifying that it was actually food going down his gullet. “Decrypting the information Keith sent back from the Red Lion,” he said. “The Galra ship’s not broadcasting credentials, of course, but it uploaded details when the Red Lion landed in its hangar bay. So I’m taking a look to see what we’re dealing with.”

“And?” Pidge asked, leaning over his shoulder and squinting at the display.

“I just got the IF/F and I’ve pinged it through the database of known Galra craft. It’s a prison ship that was decommissioned and scuttled.” He gestured at the display. “About five years ago, relatively speaking.”

“Weird that they scuttled it, instead of strip-mining the useful bits,” Pidge ate a handful of chips and crunched intentionally loud by Matt’s ear.

“They’re not desperate for resources,” Matt said, and pushed Pidge’s head away. “There really isn’t anything else useful in it, and when Keith radioed things seemed … all right. They’re not in danger, at least.”

“But,” Pidge prompted.

“But,” Matt said with a sigh. “Their leader knew Shiro.”

“Yeah, we heard,” Pidge said, as if the entire crew hadn’t been present for the briefing. She crunched for a moment more. “Wait. If the ship’s been there for five years, how does a presumably-shipwrecked crew of prisoners even know who Shiro is?”

Mattt nodded his head. “The time’s relative, though … worm-holing around could be messing with my calculations.”

“It’s still fishy,” Pidge said. She leaned forward and touched the call button on the console. “Hey, Allura? You might want to get up here, Matt’s found something you should see…”

#

Jan had an entire level to himself; the opening in the floor here was much smaller and only the very top bits of the canopy poked through. Along the edges of the hole in the floor, a fair bit of patchwork electronics were slaved into the main circuitry of the ship, and several of the consoles in the wall had been cleared of growth and were lit active, providing a dull magenta illumination or the room. “How are you keeping a tree alive in a spaceship?” Lance wondered, but his question was ignored by the alien.

“I admit, I am a bit disappointed that you don’t remember me,” the alien said, his voice gruff and distant. He stamped his staff against the floor in displeasure. “Damn those Galra beasts.”

“You said I helped you,” Shiro said slowly, looking around the room. It had clearly once been a high-ranking Galra soldier’s quarters, but aside from the inset consoles the remainder of the room’s fixtures had been completely cannibalized. “Helped you, how?”

“We escaped the prison ship together,” Jan said as he sat himself against a low table, holding his staff in both hands. “You helped a great deal of the prisoners get free, and instead of fleeing the ship into deep space and what was certain death, we took the ship for ourselves.” Jan looked quite pleased at this, but Shiro’s expression was mostly unreadable. Lance had slipped around the tree and was poking around the other side of the room, being nosy, but Keith stayed by Shiro’s side. “Sadly, the last act of some desperate engineers scuttled the ship’s system after our warp jump and destroyed the long-range communications array, leaving us to drift aimlessly until we were caught by the planet’s gravity well and pulled into orbit.”

“So you’ve been here, in orbit with this dead planet?” Keith said. “For how long, that tree is massive!”

“That it is,” Jan said, sounding slightly proud. “It is a kapili tree, and it provides us all the sustenance we require for such a small price.”

“And you say I helped with all this?” Shiro asked, quietly.

“Yes indeed,” Jan nodded firmly. “You took the last working shuttle on board, in the hopes of getting out of the system and finding us aid; and that you would return as quickly as you could!” He looked Shiro up and down, and there was something about the way he was looking at Shiro that left Keith feeling vaguely unsettled. Like he was a piece of meat. Jan smiled, but it was a thin, pained smile. “At last you have returned, but now … now I think it is better that we stay.”

“You’d rather stay on a dead ship?” Keith was incredulous to this idea. “Why? We can figure out how to get the warp drive running again, and get you out of the system in no time. Don’t you have families you wish to get back to?”

Keith’s thought was interrupted by the clatter of Lance stumbling over something in the background. Keith half-turned his head, irritated, while Lance hustled back over to them, looking as unsettled as Keith felt. “Lance.”

“It suits us here,” Jan said, unmoved by Keith’s words. “But,” he turned his attention back to Shiro, “it is good to see that you survived, Shiro. It warms my heart so. Perhaps you and your friends shall stay with us for the final grizalt?”

Shiro’s stoic expression twitched, just slightly; he’d clearly had all of grizalt that he could stomach. “It would be our honor,” he said. “But, Keith is right. I doubt our ship is large enough to accommodate everyone here, but we might be able to get this ship running again, at least enough to get you out of system. Are you certain you want to stay?”

Lance touched Keith’s arm and he looked over to Lance, still slightly irritated. However, Lance’s face was unusually serious. He shook his head negatively, and Keith lifted an eyebrow. “Hey, Shiro,” Keith said idly. “If we’re going to stay for this thing, I’m going to head back to Red to shoot off a message to the ship, let the others know we might be a little longer than originally planned.”

“Oh, that’s not necessary at all,” Jan said, in a tone that was beginning to make Keith twitch. “Grizalt does not … take very long.”

The strange pause was not lost on Keith, but Lance waved his hand in the air. “Nah, it’s fine,” Lance said. “We just gotta update them, last thing you want is some very angry Lions coming to check on their missing Paladins, blowing holes through walls and whatnot.”

That put the elder alien at an impasse, and with a frown he nodded his head. “Agreed,” he said, shortly. “We will wait for your return to begin the ceremony.”

Keith started down the stairs made of plant matter, but Lance lingered in place, staring at Shiro with a strange expression until Keith grabbed Lance by his shoulder and yanked him after.

#

“All right,” Keith said, once they were in the halls headed back toward the hangar bay and away from the aliens that inhabited the converted Galra cruiser. “What has gotten into you?”

“We have to get Shiro off this ship,” Lance said, and stopped walking. It took Keith two strides to realize Lance wasn’t keeping up with him, and he whirled on his heel and backtracked. “Right now.” Lance had half-turned like he was contemplating going back right now but he stopped himself and folded his arms instead.

“What? Why?” Keith asked, and put his hand on Lance’s arm to draw his attention back to Keith. “Lance, what are you talking about?”

“Everything about this place is wrong,” Lance said. “Wrong with a capital W Wrong.”  He shivered. “We should ask that creepy alien what happened to the rest of the original crew, Keith. I bet he won’t have a good answer.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Keith said.

“A ship this size? Yeah, there are the drone soldiers for combat but,” Lance was thinking out loud and only half-paying attention to Keith. “What about the rest of the crew? The engineers, the personnel. Where did they go?”

“Lance,” Keith folded his own arms, aping Lance’s posture without thinking about it. “You’re reading too much into it. It’s weird, yeah, but these guys have been scraping out survival against the odds in a half-dead starship.”

“There were pelts, and bones stacked in piles on the other side of his room,” Lance said quietly. “With armor.”

Keith stared at Lance, and Lance shuddered again. “Am I seriously the only one getting like a, Wicker man vibe from all this? You don’t know Earth movies,” Lance continued that thought without stopping. “Have you ever watched a scary movie in your life?”

Very drolly, Keith said, “my life is a scary movie.”

“...that’s fair,” Lance didn’t unfold his arms; if anything it seemed like he kept trying to curl in on himself tighter. “Let’s just get Shiro out of here before this grizalt-whatever is going to happen because and I hate to be so cliche but my Bad Feeling About This has reached critical mass.”

Keith studied Lance’s face for a long moment, and then he nodded his head once. “All right,” he said. “I’ll trust your gut on this, Lance.” He started to open the comm channel but hesitated, and they both knew that Shiro was carrying his helmet and not wearing it. Keith and Lance exchanged a look and Keith said, “I’ll head back and think of some excuse to get Shiro out of there.”

“Yeah, and what am I supposed to do, stand around and look pretty?” Lance looked somewhat peeved. “It seemed weird that Jan didn’t want us to go back to Red, maybe you should check and make sure no one’s tried to fuck with her and I’ll grab Shiro and we can book it.”

Keith scowled and opened his mouth to fight Lance on this, then paused. “Red wouldn’t let you near her without me,” he said, and Lance grumbled a “no shit,” to his complete lack of surprise. “All right. Keep your comm open, it’s bad enough we can’t communicate with Shiro, if I lose track of you I’m sending Red through the side of the ship looking for you two.”

“My hero,” Lance said, dripping in sarcasm but Keith put his hand on Lance’s shoulder and they looked at each other, then tilted their helmets together so they clunked together softly. “Yeah, okay,” Lance said softly, and then they parted; Lance’s bayard appearing in his hand as he set off down the corridor at a brisk pace without looking back.

Keith watched him go, and when he hit the T-junction Keith turned and headed for the hangar.

#

When Lance got back to the main part of the ship he found Shiro now on the lower level and patiently entertaining the same herd of small aliens who seemed to think yelling ‘grizalt’ and tackling people was a game. Lance wasn’t quite certain that they were actually children, now, despite their diminutive size; but Shiro was playing with them nonetheless. He looked up when Lance approached and his expression seemed a little strange to Lance. “Where’s Keith?”

“With Red,” Lance said. He looked around for Jan, but while there were a plethora of milling aliens busily at work their leader was not obviously present. Lance kept his tone low anyway. “We need to leave, Shiro. Now.”

Shiro stared at him for a long moment, lips pursed. Then he shook his head. “That would be rude,” he said, flatly. “We’re not in any danger here, Lance. These are … my friends, I guess.”

“And I’m your mate,” Lance said. “Something’s not right, here.”

Shiro put his hand up, palm out, toward Lance. “That’s an order,” he said firmly. Lance’s shoulders stiffened and his bro furrowed, because Shiro’s voice carried with it a casual authority that prickled at his skin and he recognized the way the command sat with him; Shiro was the head and leader of Voltron, yes, but there was something dismissive of Lance there in the mix as well. Instead of being compelled by the order, though, it just made Lance angry.

He didn’t have a moment to express that anger, though, as the small aliens clustered around Shiro scattered quickly when the ambient lighting in the air changed. “Grizalt!” one of them yelled as they abandoned Shiro and hurried toward the base of the large tree that framed the entire space. Shiro stood and gave Lance a Look which, hoo boy they were going to have a Talk about later, and then followed the aliens.

Shiro stopped dead in his tracks, not far from where the floor dipped down, caved in under the weight of it all. There were thick lavender roots here, crawling up from the floor below, and many of the aliens used these roots to climb down beyond the lip of the collapsed floor. When Lance caught up to him, he saw exactly why Shiro had stopped in place, and without conscious thought Lance’s bayard manifested in his hands, already in rifle form. Shiro said quietly, “god dammit.”

There was a makeshift altar between two of the largest roots, with all sorts of indentations cast into the metal surface that lead right back to the kapili tree. Lance lifted his left arm slightly, the butt of his rifle cradled against his elbow. “Well, that looks a little too Temple of Doom for my tastes,” he said. “I suppose now’s not the best time to tell you that Jan had an extensive pelt-and-bone collection just, chilling in his room.”

The smaller aliens had all trickled through the crowd toward the front, already chanting the only word that they seemed to know. Two guards had entered at the far end of the room, dressed ridiculously in remnants of Galra armor that was far too big for them - however the weapons they had trained on the two prisoners between them were very real. The two prisoners were chained together, clad only in the traditional prisoner attire of the Galra Empire and wearing bags over their head. Lance’s attention went to them immediately, he flipped his blaster rifle up to his shoulder and used the scope to magnify his sight, but Shiro put his hand on Lance’s shoulder, causing him to drop position.

“To honor our friends,” Jan’s voice cut over the low chant of grizalt, and Lance and Shiro both looked to the altar. Jan had appeared there in a change of clothes, now wearing a dark hooded cloak paired with his staff. He gestured the staff toward Shiro. “And to honor our Champion!”

The aliens cheered. Shiro took a step forward, to the very edge of the lip before the indented floor sank toward the roots of the tree. “Whatever this is,” Shiro called, “you don’t need to perform it, on our behalf.”

“The tree needs its nutrients!” one of the aliens shouted from the crowd, and several more took up the chant. “The tree, the tree-!”

“We honor you with the last of our sacrifices,” Jan said. “We have waited long for your return.” One of the two prisoners was jabbed forward, the chain between them longer than Lance had realized.

“Shiro?” Lance said, rifle on his shoulder.

“What’s going on?” Keith’s voice buzzed in his ear. Shiro still hadn’t put his helmet on, but it was in both hands, now.

“I’ll explain later, you might want to prep Red for a quick exit,” Lance said, as Jan gestured at the crowd, hyping them up with the hypnotic waving of his staff.

“Yeah, no shit,” Keith said. “We’re ready to go. What’s happening there?”

“Jan,” Shiro’s voice cut through the noise. “Stop this. This isn’t necessary. Let these people go, and we’ll talk-” as he was speaking Jan reached up and grabbed the hood on the first prisoner’s head, yanking it off. A mottled purple and black head was revealed, with familiar glowing golden eyes. A Galra prisoner. Shiro’s voice didn’t even hesitate. “Jan.”

“These are the last of our oppressors!” Jan called back, the Galra’s hood held bunched in one fist. Their head was mostly titled forward, they didn’t lift it - and Lance realized how gaunt the frames of the two prisoners were and how tired this one looked. Lance shifted slightly, his finger on the trigger and waiting on Shiro’s orders when the alien moved forward quickly, grabbing the Galra by the back of its head and in one motion, slit its neck.

Lance didn’t hesitate, he immediately sprayed a blast of plasma energy down toward Jan and the guards holding the second prisoner. He wasn’t shooting to kill, not yet, but it was enough to cause the crowd to lose its mind. Shiro didn’t say anything but leaped down into the pit, slamming his helmet on his head with his left hand, his right already glowing violet with kinetic energy.

The mass of aliens didn’t think to actually charge either Lance or Shiro - these were civilians, albeit greatly warped ones - and their first and only priority was to save their own skins. Lance didn’t even have to move, being naturally taller than most of the stampeding aliens - and he only shifted his position slightly as he laid down a pattern of cover fire for Shiro. He didn’t want to kill any of the aliens, not yet … he was more concerned with getting out of here, but Shiro had other ideas, apparently.

Shiro wasn’t charging the altar, which surprised Lance. He instead went straight for the guards with the other prisoner, although there was only one guard left standing by now. Shiro ripped the chain off the prisoner and pulled the hood from his head and this Galra recoiled, clearly anticipating being killed as well. Shiro didn’t pay him any mind once he was freed and then finally turned toward the altar. Jan stood atop it, one clawed, grayish foot on the back of the dead Galra. He held out his knife, pointing it at Shiro. “I should have known,” he said. “You are not our Champion.”

Shiro stood his ground, staring up at the alien who had called him a friend. “You said these two were the last of your sacrifices?”

“No Champion would free the enemy!” Jan’s voice had gone high-pitched as he screamed. “Kill them, kill them! The kapili tree demands blood!”

“I’ve got a clean shot,” Lance said calmly.

“What are you waiting for?” Keith asked, but Lance stayed silent, his cross hairs on the alien and waiting for Shiro’s go-ahead.

“No,” Shiro said, and Lance wasn’t certain if he was the one being addressed, or Jan. “Not like this, Jan.”

The Galra, taller than Lance but not by much, scrambled weakly up over the lip of the floor near where Lance stood. It was easy to see him as the aliens all parted around him like water around oil. Some were beginning to accumulate crude weapons and, well, Lance was in no mood to get beaten to death by tiny cannibals. The Galra looked back at the altar and let out a choked noise; and then fell to his hands and knees, pressing his forehead to the floor. The aliens immediately advanced on him and Lance fired a few shots into the air, well above their heads. It was enough to scatter them and allow Lance to get close.

He wasn’t mistaking it from the distance, the Galra was skin and bone; his fur mottled dark blue and violet with a crest of hair? Fur? Whatever it was, it started above his brow and continued down his back, vanishing under the collar of the rags he wore like a mane. He didn’t lift his head when Lance stopped beside him, and his tail brushed the floor, unmoving.

Shiro followed the Galra up over the lip, and there was a splash of discolored dark matter washed over the front of his armor. Lance didn’t even bat an eye. “He’s too weak to walk, we can’t leave him here,” Lance said, and without a word Shiro crouched down and hoisted the Galra over his shoulders like he weighed nothing at all.

Lance would be more impressed by that display of strength if they weren’t surrounded on all sides by a growing hostile crowd. An alien from behind them screamed, higher-pitched than any human voice, and Shiro said matter of factly, “time to go.”

“Yup,” Lance said, and started firing into the crowd.

#

“This is a problem,” Lance said, as Shiro unslung the Galra from his shoulder. They’d made it to the airlock, but there was no atmosphere between the airlock and the Red Lion … and their new friend wasn’t exactly in a vacuum-friendly outfit.

“Go,” the Galra croaked, his voice nothing but air and gravel. “I will only hold you back. You have at least allowed me to meet my end honorably.”

“None of that now,” Lance chided, while Shiro frowned at the airlock, and then looked up and down the hall. Lance had blown one of the blast doors at the T-junction, which kept the pursuing aliens at bay for the time being, but who knew how long that would hold.

“What’s the hold up?” Keith said, and Shiro looked back to the airlock.

“We have a prisoner who doesn’t have a jump suit,” Lance said. “No way to get him to you.”

“He’ll be hitting up the cryo replenisher when we get back to the Castleship, right? Just slap a helmet on him, I’ll get Red right next to the airlock.” They both felt the ship shake as the Red Lion moved about the hangar bay, and Lance and Shiro exchanged glances.

“Why do I feel like this is a terrible idea?” Shiro said.

“Do you have any better ones?” Lance asked, tucking his fingers under his helmet to pull it off. Shiro held out his hand and slid his own helmet off. “Shiro,” Lance said, concerned, as Shiro placed the helmet on the Galra’s head as carefully as he could, minding the large ears. “You sure?”

“You’ll be quick,” Shiro said, tapping the helmet and watching it seal around the Galra’s face. He smiled at Lance. “I’m sorry I didn’t trust you before.”

Lance’s own helmet hadn’t sealed yet, which allowed him to give Shiro a brief kiss. They smiled at each other, then Keith was in Lance’s ear. “Okay, if you follow the path of air that gets expelled from the airlock’s cycle, you should make it straight to Red’s mouth.”

“C’mon,” Lance said, getting the Galra’s arm over his shoulder. “You got a name? We’re getting you out of here.”

“Verus,” the Galra said, voice muffled by the helmet. He wasn’t on comm, since the helmet wasn’t connected to Shiro’s Paladin armor currently.

“Okay, Verus,” Lance said as the airlock closed behind them. “This is gonna suck, a lot, but we’re gonna make it work. I need you to stay with me as long as you can.”

The airlock’s cycle was quick, and sure enough when the doors opened all the remaining atmosphere in the airlock whooshed into the vacuum. Lance was as ready as he could be and as soon as the doors opened he was half-sprinting, half-dragging the Galra prisoner with him. Red was right there, just as Keith had said and Verus stiffened and tried to pull away but Lance had a good grip on him.

There was still gravity to contend with, and while Lance’s jet pack was enough to get him going easily both him and Verus changed his calculations a bit and they collided inside the Red Lion’s mouth, slamming into one side as Keith had the Lion close its jaws, sealing them in and restoring atmosphere.

Lance half-carried, half-dragged Verus into the cockpit proper. “Don’t freak,” he told Keith, who hadn’t turned around. Lance touched along the jaw of the now-unconscious Verus, found the seal of Shiro’s helmet, and removed it. That was the point where Keith glanced back at the, and did what would have been a hilarious double-take in other circumstances.

“That’s a…” he started to say.

“Yup.”

“Do I even-?”

“Nope.”

Keith shook his head. “Go get Shiro,” he said, “and we can get out of here.”

“Already on it,” Lance said, and the doors to Red’s cockpit closed behind him.

It was much easier getting down than it was getting up; but the entire hangar bay shook again. Lance stumbled as his boots hit the floor and then bounced right off; the artificial gravity had been disabled. Shit. “Lance, go,” Keith yelled in his ear and Lance was moving, the thrusters on his jet pack taking him right to the airlock and jumping inside it so it could cycle immediately. It was a quick cycle, the Galra were nothing if efficient, and Shiro was waiting right there for him, floating just outside the airlock and none the worse for wear. Lance tossed him his helmet, and the entire area shook again, just as the power went out.

“Fuck,” Lance said, as the interior lights on their helmets lit up and made a dark corridor slightly lighter.

“Stand back,” Keith said. “I’ll use Red to get through the walls.” As he spoke, they both heard the chatter of the small aliens, but when Lance scanned down the hallway he didn’t see them, floating in the darkness. Okay, that was unnerving as hell.

“Negative that, Keith,” Shiro said. “There are people on this side without jump suits. We’ll head toward the next airlock.”

“You do realize that you’re protecting the same people who are actively trying to kill us, right?” Lance said, his bayard in hand. Shiro gave him a Look, and Lance shrugged. “Just saying.”

The problem was, there was no next airlock. They were able to divert down another corridor, Shiro using his Galra hand to override what operating systems the ship had and close blast doors behind them, but that was taking them away from the hangar. “There’s got to be another way off this ship,” Lance said in frustration, one hand on the wall to keep from floating into it as Shiro shut another door behind him. “Why can’t we use your hand to cycle the airlock?”

“No point of contact within the airlock to keep it running,” Shiro said. “Although I could cycle you through, somehow I don’t think you’d be too keen on that plan.”

“Damn straight,” Lance huffed. “I’m not leaving you alone here. We’re not, right Keith?”

“Shiro, you okay?” Keith asked, and Lance looked at Shiro as they flew down the corridor. Maneuvering the thrusters on the jet packs wasn’t very difficult, but even then Lance could sense he was lagging a bit. “Your suit’s biometrics are reading low.”

“Just tired,” Shiro said, his voice clipped.

This part of the ship was completely dark, no emergency running lights at all and no additional power sources, so it was literally taking Shiro’s arm to power the blast doors open and closed again. No wonder he sounded so tired, draining his prosthetic arm’s energy had to be sapping his own reserves, and Lance had a disquieting flashback to a different escape. “Where are we headed?” Lance said.

“The escape pods,” Shiro said. “We’re headed to the escape pods, Keith, do you copy that?”

“I copy,” Keith’s voice was thick with static. “What do you want me to do?”

“Stand by,” Shiro said. “When we eject, you’ll need to be on it right away.”

“That is, presuming there are any escape pods left,” Lance muttered.

“There won’t be,” Shiro said. “We’ll just use the airlock to eject ourselves into space. Keith will pick us up.”

“Great plan,” Lance said. “Excellent plan. We’re going to die.”

Though Shiro’s voice was still tired, there was a smile in it. “How many times has Keith done something similar, and he’s still with us.”

“That is not a metric I want to be measured against,” Lance said. “Keith is like, a space-cat ninja.”

He heard Keith make a funny, static-filled sound through the comm. “Yeah yeah, yak it up, Captain Fuzzypants.” Keith’s reply was too cut through with static to be distinguishable. Lance tapped the side of his helmet a few times. “Uh,” he said, as if Shiro wasn’t on the same comm channel. “What’s causing the interference?”

“If I had to guess,” Shiro said, “it would be the tree.”

“So how is Keith going to know where to find us?”

“We just have to trust him,” Shiro said, and continued on.

“Great,” Lance muttered quietly. “This just keeps getting better and better.”

#

There was nothing at all on the comm from Lance or Shiro.

Keith flew Red the breadth of the hangar, trying to pick up some scraps of audio, but nothing came through the system, not even static. Frustrated, he flew out the bay door and looped the Galra vessel - there were far less running lights on it now, primarily located in the main body of the ship where the tree was. He wasn’t exactly sure where the escape pods were on this particular ship, and when he pulled a ship schematic from the Red Lion’s memory banks it showed twelve different escape pod locations. Keith rubbed his face with one hand, and tried the sensors instead.

There was a weak cough from behind him, and Keith glanced over his shoulder to see that his newest passenger had rolled onto his back. This was a full-blooded Galra, though on the smaller end of the scale. He looked like he hadn’t eaten in weeks, emaciated as he was, and the dark blue fur that trailed from between his ears and down his back was lank and limp.

Lance had dragged a Galra onto his Lion, and Keith really didn’t know what the fuck he was supposed to do with that. But, that was for later, once he’d retrieved Lance and Shiro and they figured out what the heck to do next. This whole thing had gone belly-up on them, and Keith hovered his hand over the open comm switch to the Castleship. If he switched bands, he might miss Lance or Shiro’s transmission.

“... should have died,” the Galra behind him croaked, and based on that voice alone it sounded like he had.

“Well, you didn’t,” Keith said, all business. After a brief query he pulled up Red’s sensors and started scanning the ship. Maybe if they couldn’t talk, he could at least find his friends that way. After a few frustrating minutes finally a pair of colored dots appeared on the map; black and blue. Keith let out a relieved noise and angled Red away from the ship, looping around to one of the dark sides and hanging out there, watching the dots as they slowly progressed toward what must be an escape pod bay. He glanced back over his shoulder at the Galra when he realized no other noise had come his way, and the Galra was lying motionless on his back. “You’re not dead yet, right?”

There was no response from his passenger, and Keith frowned, glancing back and forth from the display to his unconscious cargo. “Look, Lance and Shiro will both be pissed if they stuck their necks out for you and you expired in my cockpit so can you at least hang on until we’ve gotten you into a replenisher?”

The Galra opened its eyes and breathed out a rattling breath. “You stink of half-breed,” he said, and Keith rolled his eyes.

“I am sure glad we didn’t meet you a month ago,” he muttered, and turned his attention back to piloting.

#

They made it to an escape pod bay fortunately without any further complication. It was eerily dark as they floated along the corridor, one hand on the corridor wall to keep their bearings, the only light reflected from their Paladin armor. Shiro was flagging fast, having to use his arm as a sole power source for so long seemed to have drained nearly all of his energy, and Lance kept one hand on his shoulder, letting him lead but also there to keep him on the right path.

Once they had crossed over into the part of the ship that had been mostly destroyed by the initial uprising, they had found no more closed doors. They’d also found a couple of bodies - Lance was not ashamed of how quickly he had shot two before he realized that they weren’t under attack.

The escape pods were, as guessed, all jettisoned. Lance put one hand on the airlock that once led to an escape pod; now it just led into a dark, empty tunnel. “We’re really doing this, huh?” Lance asked, hoping that he’d get some response from Keith now that they’d traversed the ship and were hopefully out of range of the fucking kapili tree, but no luck there.

“Unless you’ve made your peace with being eaten by aliens,” Shiro said, and Lance shuddered.

“Well,” he said after a moment, tapping the chin of his helmet thoughtfully as Shiro tried to figure out how to force the sealed airlock open. “Keith counts, right?”

“I walked right into that one,” Shiro muttered as his hand lit violet again, although the light was very dim compared to what Lance was used to. “We’re not talking about Keith eating your ass, okay? We’re just not.” He placed his hand on the control and then tilted back a little - without the gravity, he wasn’t going to hit the floor but Lance pushed off and caught him anyway, before he floated back too far.

“Man, Shiro, don’t do this,” Lance said, and took his hand, placing it on the controls and holding it there. “I know this is taking a lot out of you, but we’re almost there. You get us out of here and I’ll eat your ass, promise.”

Shiro pushed forward as his arm lit brighter for a moment, and the airlock slid open. There was no burst of pressurized atmosphere venting, and Lance had a bad feeling that there was a closed bay door at the end of the long, dark tunnel - but he had a blaster rifle and they would burn that bridge when they got to it. “Gonna hold you to that,” Shiro muttered, but managed somehow not to pass out. Shiro hooked his arm over Lance’s shoulders and Lance navigated them into the long, dark tunnel that led to the launch point of the escape pod.

As he’d suspected, the tunnel ended in a heavy, shielded door. Lance propped one foot against the wall and Shiro the other wall, bracing him so that when he fired his weapon the rebound wouldn’t send them both halfway back the way they’d come. The plasma beams were dazzlingly bright, and it took three sprays of blaster fire before the door popped, and thank goodness when it breached it got sucked out into space first because Lance wagered that going through a hole the size of a few blaster shots wouldn’t be particularly fun.

The venting atmosphere sent Lance and Shiro tumbling out, spinning in different directions with no regard for where they were headed. Lance flailed, spinning head over heels as he tried to engage the thrusters on his jetpack to level off and get a lock on which direction Shiro went, all the while yelling into his comm at the same time. “KEITH!”

There was a split-second of silence; just Lance and the uncaring vastness of space. He saw out of the corner of his eye the shape of a Lion and he turned quickly, tracking its movement. His first thought was Blue; connecting to her and he remembered how she came to rescue him on Eaphus without him even realizing it; but the flash of a figure flying toward him, toward them wasn’t Blue, and it wasn’t Red….

It was the Black Lion.

“Shiro!” Lance yelled through his comm and this time saw the distant teal of a jet pack engaged; he knew that had to be Shiro moving toward the Black Lion. Keith still hadn’t responded so Lance followed Shiro and a few seconds later the Red Lion looped the Galra cruiser and Keith’s voice exploded over Lance’s ears.

“What the fuck,” Keith bellowed, and Lance laughed, giddy with relief as he caught up to Shiro. Shiro reached out to him, gripped him tight by his forearm, and maneuvered them both into the open mouth of the imposing Black Lion.

[healing-hanyou]

Ace Attorney, Danganronpa, Love Live for the ask meme

STRAP YOURSELVES IN, KIDDOS. THIS IS A FUCKING ESSAY RIGHT HERE.

Ace Attorney:

Favorite Male Character: Miles Edgeworth. Shi-Long Lang is great as well. I also have a soft spot for Klavier, Sebastian and Apollo. And, naturally, my space son, Clay Terran.

Favorite Female Character: Kay Faraday!! Props also go to Mia Fey and Trucy Wright, as well as Athena and Jinxie.

Favorite Het Ship: Farabeste (Sebastian/Kay). Cykesquill as well, but I’m very specific about how and when I like it...like, ridiculously specific. Diego/Mia is good as well. For something more ridiculous that I think would be fun, Clay and Athena could have had a great dynamic. Maybe even Clay and Jinxie, if we go out and be totally wild.

Favorite Slash Ship (both M/M and F/F): Klapollo, Langworth, Nahyuta/Simon. Vera/Trucy, lady Cykesquill, Robin/Myriam and Athena/Juniper for the ladies. 

Least Favorite Male Character: how to I condense the list of the bastards? Kristoph is evil, but I cannot deny he had charm as a character - he’s terrifying, but fascinating, so I cannot name him as my least favourite. I think I’ll go with either von Karma or Blaze Debeste. They’re responsible for so much misery, and they don’t have any tragic reasons for being the way they are.

Least Favorite Female Character: Ma//ya Fe//y. I know the reasons people have for liking her, and I can forgive some flaws in writing, but she simply has too many of them. I know she is a courageous girl who ultimately wishes to do good, but the way she acts, especially in the first two games... just make me go ‘hmmmm’. Honestly, my favourite games in the series are those where I don’t get to see her. Young Pearl is also very low down on the list, and she was my least favourite for a long while, but her teenage years made me soften up to her, she’s pretty great in DD.

Least Favorite Het Ship: anything that encourages abuse, like Grant/Lana? Why would you do this? Also, I’m not fond of Athena/Apollo or Juniper/Apollo. Apollo is far too gay in my eyes to ever be together with a girl. Phoenix/Maya is another one I dislike.

Least Favorite Slash Ship (both M/M and F/F): same rule as above applies. Aside from those, I... don’t have many slash ships I actively dislike, surprisingly? My main one would be Wri//ght//wor//th, since, in my opinion, it’s very overhyped, and I cannot turn around in this fandom without seeing it, but even that is mostly just...annoyance.

Dirty Little Secret: I haven’t forgotten about my dumbass theory. I’m just...really fucking slow.

Headcanon(s): this will need to be answered in its own separate asks. I have headcanons for everyone. For now, though - Jinxie Tenma is a Fey.

Unpopular Opinion(s): I like Gyakuten Kenji far more than the original games. In general, games with a protag that’s not Phoenix and newer games in the series I tend to like more. Not to imply that the original trilogy was bad or anything, but... Edgeworth is far more solid as a protagonist, not only because his side was relatively unexplored, but because his investigation methods were so much more sensible. Phoenix has this ‘wing it’ approach, which works fine, until you see past it. When you see past it, the tension build-up it tries to pull fails massively, and you just get annoyed by Phoenix never thinking ahead for anything, or being oblivious. With Edgeworth, when there are moments of tension, they appear because of something genuinely unexpected, or because Edgeworth made a miscalculation (which allows character growth). Even when Edgeworth has to pull dumb or crazy shit, it feels like it makes sense, because he thinks, even when he panics. Also, Phoenix is tied down by the worst accompanying duo of Maya and Pearl all the time, while Edgeworth acquires an absolutely amazing set of sidekicks (and he not only gets fun new ones, like Kay and Lang, but there’s so much detail in his interactions with Gumshoe, Franziska and Larry as well? It was great to see the Edgeworth/Larry dynamic of the friendship). Plus, I like the Logic Chess things, the soundtrack is my favourite (how exactly COULD you even attempt to top Shi-Long Lang’s theme???), at least if we’re not counting PLvsAA as a part of this universe, and I like the visuals of it much better. In short, everybody should play these fucking games right fucking now, and storm Capcom offices so they actually port GK2 for the Western market.

A lot of the same criteria apply for the newer games, too. While DD was a comeback for Phoenix, it was a game with mixed protagonists, and it was a new Phoenix as well. Apollo probably has my second favourite supporting character crew after Edgeworth, and, at the time, his Perceive mechanic was refreshing to see after being stuck to the same gimmick for 3 games. Same with Athena. She differs dractically from both Phoenix and Apollo, and brings a new mechanic and a new set of associated people. In other words? I’m happy this series is trying new things, and exploring extra protagonists where it can. It has improved a whole bunch as a result.

Danganronpa:

Favorite Male Character: Byakuya Togami, Kiyotaka Ishimaru. Nagisa Shingetsu. Gundham Tanaka, Hajime Hinata, Kuzuryuu Fuyuhiko, Nagito Komaeda. Shuuichi Saihara, Ouma Kokichi, Rantarou Amami.

Favorite Female Character: Aoi Asahina, Celes, Touko Fukawa. Sonia Nevermind, Peko Pekoyama, Akane Owari, Ibuki Mioda. Angie Yonaga, Kirumi Toujou, Maki Harukawa, Tenko Chabashira. 

Favorite Het Ship: Togami/Asahina, Ishimaru/Asahina, Hinata/Ibuki, Tanaka/Pekoyama (I’m especially fond of this one, also titled Soft Animals Edge Duo). Sonia/Kuzuryuu is also great, though that is a platonic ship, as I headcanon Sonia as aro.

Favorite Slash Ship (both M/M and F/F): Naegi/Ishimaru, Naegi/Togami. KomaNaegi is quite pure, but a friend also got me into KomaSouda as a complimentary ship to TanaPeko. A crackship, but still a favourite is Izuru/Ryouta. And, of course, the ultimate fave - Saiouma. (A nice shoutout also goes to Oumota and Amamota). As for the ladies, Kirizono and Celesgiri, and all gay Asahina ships are good, SoniAkane & Pekobuki. In V3, Tenko is mega gay, so there’s a chance for every gay ship, however, my favourite one is Tenko/Maki. If we’re talking non-Tenko ships, Angie/Maki sounds fun.

Least Favorite Male Character: in DR1, surprisingly, none. Well, Hagakure can get on my nerves, but I like just alright all of them. In SDR2, Nidai, in my opinion, didn’t have that great of a development, so I guess him. Though I also have plenty of issues with Souda. In V3, Gon//ta Go//ku//ha//ra.

Least Favorite Female Character: All DR1 girls are good, and even if they aren’t, they’re at least interesting or entertaining. But if I have to pick, Junko, if we’re judging morality. In SDR2, Mi//kan Tsu//mi//ki and Hi//yo//ko Sai//onji,in terms of morality and/or being dicks. In terms of rather poor writing (despite having a good idea), Chi//a//ki Na//na//mi. In V3, H//i//m//i//k//o Y//u//m//e//n//o and K//a//e//d//e A//k//a//m//a//t//s//u. The final one is also my least favourite in the entirety of the series as a whole.

Least Favorite Het Ship: Jun//ko//ma//e//da. In general, any Junko ship is not very good for plenty of reasons. Na//e//gi//ri. In SDR2, Souda/Sonia (she’s clearly not comfortable with him), Nidai/Akane, Hi//na//na//mi.. Not sure if should be mentioned here, but romantic Kuzupeko? Mostly because I cannot picture it as a thing. I do, however, like them platonically, they do care about each other a whole bunch. In V3, Sa//i//ma//tsu (never make me look at it). 

Least Favorite Slash Ship (both M/M and F/F): Chi//hi//mon//do. Even if I do like Mondo okay, it’s not healthy. Ka//mu//ko//ma. Son//dam. Jun//ko//mi//kan? Mahiru/Peko for sure. Kiib//ou//ma, too.

And the one I guarantee I’ll receive anon hate over - Te//n//hi//mi.

Dirty Little Secret: this series somehow manages to combine the good with the ridiculous in such a way that I can accept.

Unpopular Opinion(s): I am the literal embodiment of unpopular opinions in this franchise. I think V3 is the best game of the series, and it had a brilliant twist (both the start one and the final one). I don’t really ship the most popular ships, the obvious exception being Saiouma (and, to an extent, SoniAkane? It’s a popular Akane ship, at least). I think Saihara is a far better protag choice than the other option that was presented, since the story and its structure was made to fit him. I’m the unpopular opinion and rarepair central in this fucking thing. (Please help me.)

Love Live!:

Favorite Male Character: yay for not having prominent males, which means I get to skip 2 more questions here.

Favorite Female Character: In Muse’s, my top 3 is Hanayo, Eli and Maki. In Aquors, my top 3 is You, Kanan and Dia (though Mari and Chika are also very lovable).

Favorite Slash Ship (both M/M and F/F): Makipana! It’s very very cute. I also quite like HonoEli. HonoMaki is also quite nice. In Aquors, YouKanan or DiaKanan. 

Least Favorite Female Character: Not unpopular by any means, but Ni//co Ya//za//wa. In terms of singing voice, Kotori. In Aquors, R//i//k//o S//a//k//u//r//a//u//c//h//i. 

Least Favorite Slash Ship (both M/M and F/F): Ni//co//ma//ki??? I will never understand why people like it. In Aquors, Chi//ka//ri//ko and You//ri//ko. 

Dirty Little Secret: I quite like A-RISE. Every song they’ve ever done is an absolute banger, as the youth says.

Unpopular Opinion(s): would you look at that. Another fandom where I’m the monarch of rarepairs.

[rosesnvines]

The Empousa

Leo just sat and sketched, letting the designs flow from his head and through his hand onto the paper. He had been up since five just designing whatever came into his head, but he wasn’t tired, and a soft smile played on his lips. He liked being Firebird, it gave him a chance to interact more with the gorgeous Susan Pevensie, the one girl he always claimed was his Muse. How could he not? Hearing her voice, seeing her smile, it just seemed to help the ideas flow much more freely. He couldn’t really explain it, nor did he really want to since he was just glad it was someone as lovely as Susan, but it certainly made for some interesting scenes with the Pevensies, considering her brother Edmund was one of his closest friends. Yeah, they ended up brawling a lot, but that was the whole fun of their little competition to one up each other. They just enjoyed throwing snarky, sassy comments at each other. Sometimes one of the other guys would chime in, though it was usually either Corin or Percy Jackson and when they got started, it usually took both Jason and Peter to stop it. A full-blown impish grin had grown on his face, oh yeah, good times. Not that those times were that far back in the past, but, now that he was a superhero and all, it seemed to be becoming somewhat distant. That, and becoming a superhero had caused Leo to rethink a few things. One of those was his relationship with Susan, and with the way he flirted with just about every girl he met. Could that be the main reason why she didn’t seem to care? Here he was, claiming to love only her, and yet he would openly flirt with the next girl that crossed his path. That realization might have been a long time coming, but it took a mask to help him see it clearly. Maybe it was time to change tactics, and focus only on Susan all the time.

“What ya thinking?” asked the miniature Phoenix as he landed on Leo’s shoulder.

“About growing up and giving my love to only one woman,” replied Leo with a smile.

“What? Already? It’s only been a few days since I turned you into a superhero!” blurted Phoenix.

Leo let out a laugh before replying with, “Yeah, but, thanks to that mask, I can now see what I’ve been doing wrong to Susan. She deserves better than what I’ve been giving her.” He picked up the drawing as he finished speaking, satisfied with the result.

“Whoa, you drew that?” exclaimed Phoenix.

“Oh yeah. Susan’s always been my muse. Whenever I see her, or hear her voice, I . . .” Leo set the piece of paper down on top of the others on the desk and laid his head on his arms.

“Wow, you really like her alot,” Phoenix muttered gently, impressed.

“Yeah, I do, and I haven’t been treating her right. Well, I’m going to change that, I have to, starting today, I’m going to treat her like the queen she is, the queen of my heart.”

“Yay!” cheered Phoenix. At that moment, an alarm blared throughout the cabin. “Oh, it’s already time for everyone to get up and get ready for school.”

Leo stretched, “Yup, I just hope today’s going to be as quiet as the last two days have been, or that the monster doesn’t show up until after I’ve given this to Susan.”

Phoenix chuckled, “Good luck with that, we have no control over when the monsters how up.”

“I know, so I’d better get to work as soon as I can on this.” Voices and footsteps resounded throughout the cabin, everyone heading towards the kitchen. “Sounds like everyone else is up, let’s get you some breakfast.”

“Alright!” Phoenix jumped into Leo’s pocket, and Leo walked out of his room. With the general disorder in the kitchen, Leo could count on getting something for Phoenix without anyone noticing, and this morning was no different. The two quickly ate their meal before Leo dashed back to his room, gathered his things, and set out for school. The school day went on like any other, with Alecto’s boring history class, Dionysus’ much more fun home ec class, Mr. Tumnus’ casual language and literature class, Mr. Tavros’ hysterical arts and crafts class, Mr. Oreius’ much more serious science class, Miss Tulmei’s vibrant math class, and Miss Luflia’s lively music class. But Leo was itching to get to the Hephaestus’ Forge club room and get working on his project. In the meantime, he would glance every now and then at Susan, a soft smile spread across his face. He hoped that she would like it, and really couldn’t wait to give it to her, which got him thinking about hurrying it up and making it.

Finally, the school bell rung, marking the end of the day, and Leo dashed off to the club room. It was the largest club room, complete with a forge and everything. The club itself was comprised mainly of children of Hephaestus, but it was open to all who wanted to be blacksmiths, jewelers, or anything like that. Leo burst through the door, the forge was just about finished heating up, he could tell by the heat, and Charles Beckendorf was just sitting back in his club captain chair and relaxing.

“Oh, hey Leo, you’re . . .”

“Hi Chuck, I need the forge. Thanks!”

“. . . early.” Charles blinked as Leo dashed off towards the back wall, gathering metals, jewels, and tools. He set everything by the forge, took out his drawing, and went to work. He melted, he hammered, he polished, he pushed and pulled, he twisted and turned, until he was satisfied with the result. He wiped his arm across his sweaty forehead before letting out a breath of relief.

“Whew! It’s done! Now, to get it to . . .” Leo turned, and paused, a small crowd had gathered around, watching in rapt surprise.

“Dude! That’s a nice piece!”

“It’s so beautiful! Who’s it for?”

“Where did you come up with that?”

“So pretty!”

“Um . . .”

“So I leave for five minutes, and everyone’s left their station?” Charles’ voice echoed throughout the room. Leo’s little crowd scattered and rushed back to their stations. “Leo, hurry it up with the forge, will you? There’s more than one person waiting in line. Oh, and nice necklace.” Leo grinned as Charles winked before cleaning up his mess, grabbing his backpack, and rushing out the door.

“I’m done now, thanks!” he blurted before he slammed the door shut behind him. He dashed down the halls in search of Susan. Eventually, he found Edmund and Lucy all decked out in suits for their monthly televised talks with Chiron, Jesse Aarons, and the Archenland twins. “Hi Ed, hey Lu, um, where’s Susan?”

“She should be on her way back from the cabin with Peter. Why?” asked Edmund.

“Oh, um, I, uh, wanted to give her this.” He showed them the necklace.

“Why Leo, it’s exquisite! She’ll adore it!” exclaimed Lucy, her eyes sparkling.

“Wow, great job, man! You really outdid yourself this time!” exclaimed Edmund as he patted Leo on his back.

“Thanks! Now, I’ve just got to give it to her.”

“You know, if you hurry, you could still catch them before they get here and give it her then. We’ve still got a few minutes to spare,” said Edmund with a grin and a wink.

“Great! I’ll do that! I won’t keep them for long!” Leo shouted as he began to run away.

“You’d better not, it only starts in a few minutes!” Edmund shouted back as Leo disappeared down the hall. Leo laughed right before he turned the corner and bolted for the front entrance of the school. When he didn’t meet them at the halfway point between their cabin and the school, Leo kept on going, thinking that Susan was putting on some final touches to her make-up or something. He grinned, well, here was another thing to add to those last-minute touch-ups. As he got closer, a sudden dread seemed to creep over him. He knew that feeling, and it urged him on even faster. He almost stopped in his tracks when he caught sight of the cabin, the door was ajar, and he knew the Pevensies never left their front door open. Instead, he put on a burst of a speed, reaching the door in a couple of seconds. He entered a messy scene, curtains were torn, tables and chairs were overturned, a couple of Susan’s potted plants had exploded on the ground, and there were quite a few claw marks. Whoever attacked them soon realized that these were not easy prey.

“Susan! Peter! Are you here? Are you alright? Susan! Peter! ” he called out frantically. A low moan answered him from behind the table. “Pete! Are you alright?” asked Leo as he pulled debris off the eldest Pevensie.

“Susan . . . must get . . . Susan . . .” he mumbled. He tried to rise, but would have fallen over if Leo hadn’t caught him.

“Hey man, you’re not doing so hot yourself. Where is she? I’ll go get her.”

“Another . . . monster . . . empousa? Female vampire,” slurred Peter as he showed the bite marks on his neck. “She took . . . her.” Rage filled Leo like a roaring furnace, but he had to calm himself down or else he’d burn down the cabin.

“Ugh! Come on, I can’t leave you here like this. The faster we get to the nurse’s office, the faster I can go after Susan, alright?” Peter nodded sluggishly, and let Leo lead him out of the cabin and back to the school. Surprisingly, the two made good time, and Leo knew it, as he counted the seconds as they walked. “Help! I need a doctor, a nurse, child of Apollo, anybody!” called out Leo as they entered the nurse’s office. Will Solace stepped out from behind one of the curtains, his face pale from some kind of shock, and it got paler upon seeing the two of them. “Well, you going to help your king or not?” snapped Leo as he brought Peter closer. He really didn’t have time for this, Susan was still missing! In reply, Will only pulled back the curtain to reveal a TV, and Leo’s knees just about gave under him. On the TV screen was the room where the Pevensies were supposed to meet with Chiron, Jesse Aarons, and the Archenland twins, but the roof had caved in and a pile of debris was stacked in front of the door. Sitting on the chair was a bound and gagged Susan while an ugly monster that Leo quickly recognized as one of the female vampires, the creature known as Empousa, was glaring into the camera.

“If your so-called superheroes do not meet my demands, I will give your pretty queen to the pirate Chrysaor. I’ll repeat it one last time for you puny, forgetful mortals, your superheroes must give themselves up to me in exchange for the pretty queen and reveal their true identities. I shall be waiting where the river meets the sea. You have until the sun sets.”

Leo didn’t wait to hear more. He practically pushed Peter into Will, shouted, “Take care of him!” and was out the door, booking it to the anchor room. By the time he got there, Edmund was leading an attempt break down the door, but wasn’t having any luck. “Let me try!” shouted Leo, his hands bursting into flame. Edmund nodded and made everyone back up.

“What took you so long?” called out Edmund so Leo could hear him over the sizzling door.

“I was getting Peter to the nurse’s office!” Leo shouted his reply, his hands melting through every obstacle. But when they finally got through, the Empousa and Susan were already gone. Leo simply turned and rushed out the door, he had to turn into Firebird, now.

“Leo! Where are you going?” shouted Lucy. At that moment, the shadows parted and Ghost Hound stepped into the hall.

“I caught the tail end of the announcements. Where did the monster take Queen Susan?”

“Where the river meets the sea,” growled Leo. “And we have until sunset.”

“We?” asked Ghost Hound, his eyebrow raised in confusion.

“I promised to save her!”

“No, leave this to us superheroes, we’re the ones she wants anyway. If you see Lioness and Firebird, relay this message to them, please. I’ll meet them by the ruins of Cair Paravel . . .”

“They’re not ruins anymore,” blurted Lucy.

“OK, fine, just tell them to meet me at Cair Paravel, we don’t have much time.”

“No kidding,” scoffed Leo. Ghost Hound glanced at Leo as he backed up slowly.

“You’re right, this is no joking matter, hence why I expect you fully cooperate with me to get our queen back.”

“Our queen?” asked Lucy. Ghost Hound merely glanced at her before stepping back into the shadows and disappeared from view. Leo took that as a cue, and bolted down the halls to get outside. As soon as he hide behind the first spot he could find, Phoenix came out of his jacket pocket.

“Alright Phoenix, power up!” Phoenix flew into the belt and Leo was changed into his Firebird suit. He took off to the sky, grateful that he could fly. He soared over the river, following it to where it met the sea, and Cair Paravel. He swooped into Cair Paravel, finding Ghost Hound fairly easily, hiding in the biggest shadow.

“Good, you’re here. Lioness will, unfortunately take the longest.”

“Why don’t you use the shadows to go find her and bring her here?” asked Leo, a bit of annoyance in his voice.

“And leave you alone to do something stupid?”

“What are you so worried about?” spat Leo.

“That you could do something to jeopardize this mission and put Queen Susan in even greater risk than she is now. I know you like her a lot, but don’t let your anger cause you to do something that could lead to her death.” Leo clamped his mouth shut, had Ghost Hound figured out who he was? Maybe Hades was right in not having them reveal their secret identities to each other just yet. And if Ghost Hound could figure it out, who else could?

“I see. I won’t do anything until you return, I promise.”

“How can I trust you?”

“I promise on Susan’s life, and my mother’s grave, that I will not leave Cair Paravel until you return.” Ghost Hound’s eyes seemed to widen at that statement, but he regained his composure, nodded, and disappeared into the shadows, again. True to his word, though his heart ached, Leo only observed the encampment on the other side of the river. For the most part, the Empousa merely paced back and forth, and was probably spilling every kind of scenario she could think of to destroy the superheroes to Susan. Leo really did wish he could march over there, beat up the Empousa and fly off with Susan into the sunset, but he gave his word, on her life. He just wished that Ghost Hound and Lioness would hurry it up. Sure, they still had two hours before sunset, but Leo wanted them to hurry simply because he wasn’t sure how much longer he could stand watching the Empousa brag about how she was going to win anyway or leaving Susan in her grasp. Though it felt like forever since Ghost Hound left, it was really only a few minutes when he returned with Lioness. Leo let out a soft squeak. “You’re back!” he whispered.

“Well, yeah, it wasn’t too long.”

“Really? Felt like ages ago.”

“If it was, you’d have started attacking Empousa because the sun was setting,” Ghost Hound quipped drily. Leo grinned sheepishly.

“So, what are we going to do?” asked Lioness. Ghost Hound led them to a spot where they could just make out Empousa and Susan without giving themselves away.

“Someone’s going to have to go in as bait,” began Ghost Hound.

“Wait, what?” asked Leo.

“Listen, this is a completely different set-up than our first two, alright? The Empousa is cunning and maybe something of a strategist, more so than either the Hydra or the minotaur, both of which just attacked without thinking. This one, she’s got a plan, and we don’t quite know it yet.”

“I don’t think she does either,” mumbled Leo. Ghost Hound glanced at him questioningly. “She’s been going on and on about what she’s going to do when we give ourselves up.”

“She thinks we’re going to give up without a fight?” asked Lioness incredulously. Ghost Hound began to smirk, and Leo shivered.

“So, hubris is our ally today,” muttered Ghost Hound. “Listen, I’ll go in as the decoy . . .”

“What? No! We need you to turn her into a stone,” hissed Lioness. “I’ll do it.”

“But I need you to come in on Susan’s side in order to protect her!” blurted Ghost Hound. Leo sighed, had they forgotten already? “And Firebird can shoot flames at her from behind, it’s not like I have to reveal myself.” Ghost Hound glanced at Leo. “That is, if you don’t make it up there in time.”

“Uh, I will, but, um, why not let me go as decoy?”

“Didn’t you just hear me? You can fly and shoot flames. Lioness can get around to Susan and protect her from them.”

“What about you?”

“I can shadow away, or get behind Lioness’ shield. Either way, you’ll get the first attack on her.” Leo began to grin as he realized what Ghost Hound’s plan really meant.

“Sounds like a deal to me.”

“Good. I’ll shadow Lioness to the other side while you fly low and get behind Empousa. Don’t attack until I’ve said, ‘OK, if you insist’. Alright?”

“Right,” chorused Leo and Lioness.

“Good, let’s go.” Ghost Hound grabbed Lioness’ hand and the two shadowed away. Leo waited a second to make sure Empousa’s back was turned before he flew towards the beachfront. Keeping as low as possible, he turned and made his way towards where Empousa was waiting. So far, his approach went unnoticed, but he didn’t let out a breath of relief until he was situated behind the largest rock closest to Empousa’s camp. A loud snap startled all three as their eyes went towards the treeline. Ghost Hound walked out from beneath the trees.

“Ah, so you’ve made it, good. Took you long enough. Where are the other two?”

“That’s why I was late, I was searching for them. They might not know what’s happened yet. But I did leave word that if anyone were to see them, that they are relayed the news.”

“I see,” the Empousa replied in a soft hiss. “Well, since you are here, and you’re the most important of the three, I guess this will do. Take off your mask.”

“Why? I’m here, I’m giving myself up. Isn’t that enough?”

“Oh no, you’re the smartest of the three, that I know.”

“We’ve only faced two monsters, how could you know that?” Empousa clamped her mouth shut. “So, does Gaia actually know who we are?” asked Ghost Hound, his voice becoming low and deadly as he took a couple of steps forward.

“Not another step, or, or I’ll kill your queen!” Ghost Hound did pause, though Leo knew it had nothing to do with the threat. It was a pretty weak threat, Empousa was further away from Susan than Ghost Hound was, if he really wanted to, Ghost Hound could just simply grab Susan and shadow her to safety. But he was certainly right, hubris was an unlooked for, yet very welcome ally. “Alright, I’m the one in charge here, superhero, so you’re going to do as I say! Take a seat next to your queen!” Leo couldn’t see him very well, but he knew Ghost Hound was raising his eyebrow in surprised pleasure, this was going a little better than planned.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, just, sit!”

Ghost Hound did as he was told, but, he had to ask, “But I thought you wanted to reveal myself. With the way you’re talking, it sounds like you already know who I am.”

“No, we don’t, at least, I don’t. Maybe Gaia does know, but, she hasn’t said a word. But we do know that you’re the smartest, the Nemean Lion is the strongest, even though he should have been on our side, and that the Phoenix is the fastest.”

“You do know that it’s a girl who’s working with the Nemean Lion, and we call her Lioness? I’m Ghost Hound, and the fellow working with the Phoenix is Firebird.”

“Oh, shut up and take off your mask!” shrieked the Empousa.

“Are you sure . . .”

“Just do it, or I’ll kill her!”

“Say what?” said Ghost Hound in a very low, very dangerous voice. The Empousa involuntarily stepped back a bit. That’s when Leo noticed Lioness behind one of the trees, she was ready to jump in front of Ghost Hound and Susan.

“J-just, just do it!”

“OK, if you insist,” replied Ghost Hound with a shrug. But he made no move to take off his mask, because at that moment, Leo was flying towards the Empousa, his hands yielding flames, and Lioness bounded from behind the trees and planted herself in front of Ghost Hound and Susan. “Now!” shouted Ghost Hound. Lioness put up her shield, and Leo let loose the flames. The Empousa shrieked as the flames licked around her.

“You cheaters!” she shrieked as she battled the flames.

“Firebird, again!” called out Ghost Hound. Leo sent the flames at his adversary yet again. “Lioness, the stone is in her right arm!”

“Right!” Lioness’ claws gleamed in the fading sunlight as she charged and slashed at the Empousa’s right arm. The armour fell off in pieces, and Ghost Hound attacked, bringing his scythes down hard. The Empousa screamed as the stone activated and began sucking in her essence.

“We’re not finished! You may have won this battle, but Gaia has an army! She will destroy you all! And that other one will rule Narnia!” The next thing they knew a bloodstone was sitting at their feet, but their faces were pale.

“So . . . that one she’s referring to . . .” began Lioness.

“Is the White Witch,” growled Ghost Hound.

“Gaia did bring her back,” muttered Leo as he went to Susan and freed her.  

“Of course, the two made a deal, neither like mortals, so this works for the both of them,” stated Susan. Ghost Hound reached down and picked up the bloodstone, putting it in his pocket.

“Can you make sure she gets back safely, Firebird?” he asked.

Leo grinned, “With pleasure.” He turned to Susan and gave her a bow. “Your majesty, if I may.”

“Well, I guess so, but first.” She hugged Lioness and planted a kiss on Ghost Hound’s cheek before planting a kiss on Leo’s cheek. “Thank you all for saving me.”

“Hey, we’re superheroes, it’s what we do,” replied Leo with a grin. He picked up Susan and held her close. “Hold on tight,” he told her with a wink. He glanced at Lioness, “Hey, need a ride?”

“Well, actually, I was wondering if Ghost Hound could give me a ride before he goes to Hades. I’d like to get back quickly.”

“Of course,” replied Ghost Hound, the two stepping into the shadows. Leo flew off through the sky, a huge grin across his face, he was flying into the sunset with Susan, as he had hoped to. The two chatted a bit during the trip, but it was over far too soon, at least for Leo it was. He landed at the front of the school, where everyone had gathered. Peter was looking much better now, but he was still leaning on Edmund.

“Susan!” called out Lucy as she rushed in to hug her sister. Then the rest of the crowd rushed in to make sure their queen was alright. Peter and Edmund approached Leo, Peter extending his hand.

“Thank you so much for looking after her.”

“No problem, but it was a team effort,” replied Leo as he shook Peter’s hand. “Well, if you’re no longer in need of my services, I’ll be off, I’m tired.”

Peter let out a laugh, “Of course, you’ve deserved it.”

“Thanks, see you around, your majesties.” He shot them a grin and a wink before flying off to a safe spot to detransform. He waited a few minutes before rushing out to join the crowd. “Susan, you’re alright!” He wrapped her up in a hug.

“Leo! Where have you been man? I’ve been looking all over for you!” berated Edmund.

“Just wanted to see if the superheroes needed my help, guess they didn’t need it after all.”

“You were going to help save me? Oh Leo,” stated Susan as she gave Leo a big kiss on the lips. Leo couldn’t help it, though he was blushing as red as a tomato, he was grinning like a Calchester squirrel.

“Oh, right, um, I was going to give this to you,” said Leo as he pulled out the necklace.

“Oh Leo, it’s beautiful!” she gasped as she fingered the golden sun set with jeweled flowers. “Can you put it on?”

“Of course!” Leo quickly obliged, the golden necklace a welcome addition to Susan’ already graceful beauty.

“It looks good on you Susan!” exclaimed Lucy.

“Of course it does, Leo knows me way too well,” replied Susan with a beam at Leo.

“Well, now that we have our queen back, I can announce that we will postpone the meeting until next week, along with all school activities. Until we can get our school fixed up,” announced Chiron. Cheers went up all around, no school for a whole week! Maybe having monsters around wasn’t half bad. “And now that the excitement is all over, I expect everyone to their cabins! We’ll figure out something else for you to do with your time.” Everyone else groaned. Leo merely chuckled, he didn’t mind, as long as he could turn each outing into a date with Susan, he’d be happier than a satyr in spring.

[pop-rocks-and-skittles]

Shipper meme! 5, 11, 18, 31, 32, 39!

Yay! I got one! I feel so loved :P

5. Do you have any poly ships?

I don’t, I actually did not know what that was until just now. So far all of my ships are pairings and I have yet to find a poly ship.

11. Talk about your favorite first kiss

Now this one is hard mostly because my ships are either non-canon, so they haven’t actually kissed or they are technically canon but haven’t kissed properly/at all yet. But from the ships that are canon and have actually kissed, I have to say Erik/Christine from Phantom of the Opera, the 2004 film. I loved that scene because it was very well done, there was so much emotion going into the scene and the kiss that i fell in love with the ship and I was obsessed with the fandom for about two years before my obsession moved on to Once Upon a Time. 

18. Talk about a moment which made you question an entire ship 

The only thing i can think of is the moment when i fully realized how messed up the entire Fifty Shades of Grey series is. I hate the entire series, but i won’t lie, i initially liked it. However, the more i read the series, the more i started to hate it because of how poorly written it is and the nature of the main character’s relationship together, as it just plain abuse no matter how much others try to justify it. I still question to this day, how people can still read those books and watch those movies and think they are romantic. 

31. Talk about one of your favorite headcanons for a ship you love.

Oh, I have so many! My current favorite is a Newtina one. 

32. Share five must-read fics. 

I have so many ships in so many fandoms, it’s like asking a mother who her favorite child is. But if i must: (1). The Proposal from @deviousdiggy . This is amazing fic and i love all of Diggy’s fics. She always has amazing ideas right up her sleeve. (2). Burnt Flowers Fallen  @katiehavok . This is an amazing AU fic, I have no words other then perfection. It is complete, but still being updated weekly. Katie also takes prompts and creates amazing fics that are taken a level up compared to the initial prompts as her muse has a mind of their own! (3). My Scars, They are Your Scars by @nyxetoile . It is an amazing Bucky Barnes/OC fic. It is also the first fic in her series called Tales of the Tower written with @olivesawl . (4.) Journey’s Beginning by Hawkerin on AO3. This is an amazing AU fic for Doctor Who. It’s a Rose/Tenth fic, however it rewrites everything after series 4, changing key elements, such as making Rose pregnant, but keeping to the spirit of the show. It’s really magnificent and its the first fic to her series Family Timelines. (5). Siren of the Sea by FantomPhan33 on Fanfiction.net. It is an amazing Phantom of the Opera fic that rewrites The Phantom as a pirate captain and Christine as a doctor’s daughter who hides her female identity from pirates who initally capture her before being saved by the Phantom. If you like Pirates of the Cariabbean, you’ll love this fic. 

39. Is there a fictional relationship you’d really want for yourself?

Does wanting a relationship in general count? But to be honest, pretty much to have a boyfriend who is like a best friend. Or to have Newt Scamander as a boyfriend. That’d be cool too :)

P.S. If anyone is interested (though probably not) i can make a master list of all my favorite fics as i have many from a lot of fandoms. 

[themurphyzone]

Mayor Murphy Ch 3

This story is also being posted under the crossover section under Milo Murphy’s Law/Animal Crossing on FFN.

Ch 3- Nook’s Homes

The buildings surrounding Nook’s Homes were boarded up, falling apart from disrepair. Even the shops that were open looked small and crammed together. They found Nook’s Homes to the left of the post office. The exterior shone a crisp blue and white, in stark contrast to the rest of the street. 

A bell fell on Milo’s head as he pushed open the door, rolling across the floor until stopping at a raccoon’s feet. “Ah, hello! Welcome, welcome! You’re the new mayor, correct?” he said. 

“I guess? Are you Digby? Isabelle said he designed the penpal program and that we should go speak to him if we have any questions. Which we do,” Milo said.

“No, no!” the raccoon laughed jovially. “I’m Tom Nook, the owner of Nook’s Homes! I was once a humble shopkeeper who generously provided a selection of items for our villagers to peruse, but then I decided to think bigger! So I established Nook’s Homes, for all our real estate needs! Oh, and who are your friends?” 

“This is Sara, my older sister! And my best friends, Melissa and Zack,” Milo pointed to the others. “And my name is Milo!” 

Tom Nook nodded. “I see, I see. Well, I suppose helping you scout out a location for your new home can wait for a bit. Digby is currently at the main office, so we can handle your business there. Feel free to look around the shop while you wait. I need to call the main office to let them know we’re coming.”

He disappeared around the back, whistling cheerfully. Melissa examined a model of a purple roof, her eyes falling on the price tag. “I think those Bells everyone keeps mentioning are the currency here. Do you think they have a currency exchange somewhere?” 

“Hey, guys!” Milo pointed at a scaled down model of a mansion, a train similar to the one that brought them to Fortuna chugging in between the windows. “Look at this train!”

“Milo, maybe you shouldn’t-” Too late. The entire model crumbled into plaster as Milo picked the train up to show off to his friends. “-touch it.” Sara finished lamely. 

Milo carefully set the train down. “Oops.”

“Yes, yes! I have the keys so let’s-GREAT AXES OF SERENA!” Nook’s face changed from disbelieving to mortified to fury in the span of ten seconds. “I leave you kids alone for less than five minutes and you break a very important model!”

“Sorry, Mr. Nook,” Milo apologized. “These kinds of things tend to happen a lot.” 

Nook sighed. “Fine, fine. Those models aren’t exactly cheap though. But, as I understand, it was purely an accident. Because I’m a generous raccoon with the heart of a two bedroom, two story duplex, I’ll let this little incident pass.” 

“That’s a relief,” Melissa murmured. 

Nook led the group towards a back street, where a long set of stairs rested on the brick road. “This entire road is called Main Street,” he explained. “Up these stairs is what we call Central, the point where the entire time stream in Crossing Valley meets and animals can go in and out as they please. It used to be just a grassland, but thanks to my grand designs and hard-working employees, we are constantly developing the place to suit all our needs.” 

They passed through a translucent wall at the top of the stairs, and the air rippled around them, shimmering until they were deposited on a brick road. 

“I thought you said you were developing the place?” Melissa asked, taking in the various empty lots that were roped off to outsiders. 

“It’s a recent idea. We’ve mostly been dealing with building villager homes, and let me just say, some of them have-ah-very curious ideas for their places of residence,” Nook grimaced. 

“How curious?” Sara asked. 

Nook gave her a funny look. “Egbert wanted to be surrounded by even numbers.” 

“Well, it makes dividing a lot easier,” Milo mused.

“Yes, yes, moving on now. Here is the main branch of Nook’s Homes!” Nook opened the door, revealing a ton of smiling employees. “Everybody, I’d like to present Fortuna’s new mayor, Milo! And his sister and friends!”

“Bang! Great to meet ya, new mayor!” an elderly otter grinned, reminding Milo of a very shrewd door to door salesman. “Name’s Lyle! Just talk to your new uncle if ya ever need anything!” 

A pink otter frowned. “Aw, I’m supposed to be your favorite, Uncle!” 

“Of course you are, Lottie!” Lyle chuckled. “No one could ever replace you!” 

“Yay!” she grinned. 

A brown and white dog smiled. “Yeah, you’re one of the best we’ve got.” 

Lottie’s throat seized in what appeared to be a high pitched squeal, but she quickly stopped herself, blushing. “Thanks, Digby.”

“Digby, these young folk have some questions about the penpal program you’ve done an excellent job managing,” Nook said.

“Let’s start with the basics,” Melissa suggested. “What is this program about?”

“It started when Tortimer retired, you see,” Digby said. “It triggered a disruption in the time stream, splitting into a new branch of towns where humans can become mayor and decorate the town as they please. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of towns at different points in time. For example, there are towns in which Tortimer is still the mayor and Mr. Nook was still a small time shopkeeper. And where Isabelle and I don’t exist.”

“As fascinating as learning more about the time stream is, you still haven’t explained the penpal stuff,” Sara responded. 

“I’m getting there. As more towns popped into existence, the amount of villagers exploded. There were many arguments over who got to move where, so in order to help I began thinking of ways to increase the maximum amount of animals that could live in one town.”

“And the final result was the penpal program?” Zack asked. 

Digby nodded. “You guys sure catch on fast! The penpal program is just one part of it though. It gave us a way to exchange letters and make new friends without being limited to just a single town! Rover was instrumental in delivering letters to humans. He’s something of an anomaly, you know. For some reason, he’s able to go out in the human world when the rest of us are limited to Crossing Valley.” 

Sara excitedly bounced in place. “What if we solved the mystery of the time stream for you? Milo and I have nearly an encyclopedic knowledge of Dr. Zone and all things time travel. We could help!” 

“Dr. Zone? What is she talking about?” Lottie asked. 

“Just a show they like,” Melissa answered, listening to Milo gush about the symbolism of different clocks within the series. “Digby, you said the penpal program was one part. What’s the other?”

“With instincts as sharp as yours, you’d be a good addition to the team!” Digby said. “The other part is what I like to call Roomies. If two animals shared a home, then the amount of villagers that could move in will double! And that would definitely make things a lot more interesting! It took some adjusting, but we’ve managed to adapt our homemaking styles to accommodate two animals.”

“And this leads us to assigning roommates,” Nook added. “I trust you’re somewhat acquainted with your pen pals, yes? Because with the exception of the mayor, you will be rooming with them.” 

“Wait, why does Milo get his own house? What about the rest of us?” Zack complained. 

Nook folded his stubby arms. “I’m throwing away a good business opportunity, but the mayor gets certain privileges, which includes his own home. However, he will have to pay for the home mortgage just like everyone else.”

Sara poked a finger at him accusingly. “You are not giving my little brother a debt he needs to pay off. For goodness sake, he’s not in college yet!” 

Nook shoved her finger away, bewildered. “No, no! You misunderstand me! The mortgage can be paid off at your own pace. No deadlines at all.”

“You have a very strange society,” Melissa said. 

“I kind of like it,” Milo shrugged. 

“Bam! Is that not how it works for ya humans?” Lyle asked. 

Zack shook his head. “You pay, get evicted, or suffer horrible consequences. That’s the way we do it.” 

Lottie gasped. “That sounds awful!”

“Getting back on topic,” Nook cleared his throat. “Melissa, you’ll be assigned to Diana. Sara, you’re with Cesar. Zack, you’ll be with Del. They’re all aware that you’ll be rooming with them for a while. As for Milo, you need to scout out a location for your new home.” 

“Pick a location? I wouldn’t know where to begin!” Milo exclaimed. 

“Don’t pick anywhere near a cliff,” Sara advised. “Or where there’s potential for falling rocks. Or near trees.” 

“There’s plenty of nice, open spaces,” Zack added. “Look, if you can’t decide, we’ll help you out.” 

“Yeah, come on,” Melissa said, nudging Milo. “And we’ll cover for the cost of any damages that will inevitably occur.” 

“Well, it was nice to meet you!” Lottie indicated a pile of luggage stacked by the door. Milo hadn’t even noticed their belongings. “Sorry, I knew we should have left a note. By the way, who had the black bag with the hearts? I love the design.” 

“That would be mine,” Melissa slung the bag across her shoulder. “It was on sale.”

“Even the Able Sisters don’t sell that sort of thing!” Lottie exclaimed. “Come back and visit me when you’ve settled in!” 

“Don’t forget about ol’ Lyle! Bang!” Lyle smirked, adjusting his glasses. 

“If you have any more questions, please come by anytime!” Digby waved. 

After the round of goodbyes, they made their way back to Fortuna and immediately began scouting for a location. Milo ruled out the northeastern portion of town due to Diana and Coco’s homes being set up next to a peach tree orchard. He didn’t want their houses crushed by those lovely trees. 

“What about over here?” Melissa suggested, standing in an open spot next to a large gray boulder. “You get a clear view of the river!”

Zack flinched. “Or you could just not choose a house next to the river! What if man-eating fish came to kidnap you in the middle of the night? Have you seen dead mackerel eyes? Cause I sure have! These things stick with you!” 

“Did you have a bad experience at a fish market?” Melissa asked. 

“No, but one day we’ll wind up being in one. Just you wait,” Zack retorted. 

“Being in a fish market could be fun,” Milo said. “I mean, what’s not to love about fresh seafood? Unless you’re allergic, or have crippling ichthyophobia, or seagulls trying to steal whatever you buy....” 

Melissa placed her hand over his mouth. “I don’t think you’re helping your case.”

“Young man,” Nook interrupted. “Fishing is a favorite hobby of many in Crossing Valley. It’s also a reliable Bell-making method.”

“Well, fish all you want. I just don’t want them near me,” Zack shuddered. 

Taking out a meter stick, Sara measured the distance between the river and Milo’s position. She laid it down five times, then stopped when the stick lined up with his heels. “I’m not sure if I like this area. The scenery’s great, but you’d be at risk for flooding.” 

Milo nodded. “We’ll keep trying.”

Finding no satisfactory locations north of the river, they crossed the remaining bridge and found a location near Town Hall that seemed perfect. Far away from falling rocks, the river, and not near any trees. Marshal’s house was close enough by in case Milo needed any help too. 

“Yes, yes!” Nook exclaimed. “So is this where you’d like to build your new home?”

“Yup! Final decision!” Milo replied. 

Nook set up a rope that blocked off the area, only for the material to slip off the stakes. He tried again, and three of the stakes toppled over. He frowned. “That’s peculiar. I’ve never had this much trouble before with setting these up before. My Junior Tanuki skills must be rusty.”

“May I?” Sara offered. Nook decided to take a much needed break. “Milo, the adhesive please.” 

He tossed a package of heavy duty duct tape to her, and she applied nearly the entire roll to all the knots. “There, that should hold it down.” 

“I’m just going to let you handle the tent as well,” Nook said, fanning himself. “Would one of you mind getting me a peach? I can’t conduct proper business on an empty stomach.” 

“A tent? I thought you were building a house?” Sara glared. “Don’t scam us, you trash-rooting, greedy little fluffbutt.” 

Nook gasped, steam pouring out of his pointy ears. “How dare you compare me to common raccoons! My family hasn’t rooted people’s trash in generations. Besides, I need time to calculate the total cost for the land, materials, and building costs. If you swing by my office tomorrow, I can tell you the amount you’ll owe so we can get started on your house.”

“That’s not reassuring,” Melissa muttered. 

“Yes, yes. Well, you still need a place to live,” Nook dismissed their concerns with a wave of his hand. “Hence the tent. Oh, and I almost forgot.” He pulled a wooden mailbox out of nowhere and set it up near the front. “You can also start receiving mail now! As for the rest of you, there are mailboxes set up in front of the animal’s house you’re rooming in. Though this would make it harder on Pete. Poor guy can never deliver letters and packages right.”

Isabelle came running as soon as Sara and Milo finished setting up the tent. To everyone’s surprise, the tent only collapsed twice. “Mayor!” she shouted, panting heavily. “I see you’ve found somewhere to live now! That’s great! Oh, and Mr. Nook too? You rarely come into the main part of Fortuna.”

“A special occasion, Isabelle,” Nook replied. 

“Yes, of course!” Isabelle yipped. “Speaking of occasions, I completely forgot to mention there’s a big party being set up in the Plaza as we speak. And K.K Slider’s there too!” 

“What’s the party for?” Zack asked. 

“A big celebration in honor of our new mayor! There’ll be food, music, but the big finish is planting the tree in the middle of the Plaza! Oh, and it’s a great way to meet the villagers! You’ve glimpsed them before, but you don’t really know them that well yet, do you?” Isabelle was talking so quickly all her words almost slurred together. 

“A party sounds great!” Milo cheered. “Best welcoming gift ever!” 

“Yes, yes. Well, I need to finish up at the office,” Nook shook Milo’s hand. “Nook’s Homes opens at 10 sharp tomorrow. Stop by so we can discuss your total cost, hmm?” Humming lightly, he plucked a peach off a nearby tree and snacked on it as he headed back to Main Street. 

Sara balled her fists. “I’m going with you tomorrow, Milo. Just so that sneaky raccoon can learn a lesson or two.”

“He’s always like this on business,” Isabelle said. “I know he seems like he just wants your money, but without him we wouldn’t have all our public buildings to make life a little more enjoyable. Sable would vouch for him. She’s one of his biggest supporters.”

“Okay, I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt,” Sara growled. “For now. If he charges anything outrageous, then I don’t know what I’m gonna do, but I promise it won’t be anything good.”

“Sara, it’s fine,” Milo said. “Don’t worry about me! I mean, if you still want to come, that’s all right.” 

“He’s fair,” Isabelle added. “For now, come with me! We need to officially make you mayor!” 

“It’s a good thing we packed those party hats,” Melissa stuck a blue party hat on Zack’s head. 

Zack retaliated with a party popper to Melissa’s face. “Aside from the fish, this place is growing on me.” 

Sara is like one of those people who claim Nook is evil.

Isabelle, you’re adorable and I love you but you need to tell them important things okay?

Zack’s ichthyophobia rears its head.

Some of the Happy Home Designer requests are weird as heck. 

[mosdrabblebabbles]

A Turn in Time Pt. 5

A/n: Yay, the next part! I just wanna thank you guys again for all the support you have given this fic. My phone has been blowing up all day with tumblr notifications, and you literally could not be happier. I love you guys so much. Enjoy!

-Mo

~

Once all of the animals were fed, you and Newt walked back to the hut to eat yourselves. There was no real way to tell time in the case, as any time piece brought into it seemed to stop working. But you knew it was lunch time based on the noises currently coming from your stomach. Upon reaching the hut, you grabbed your journal. Newt set about making lunch (you were still a little hesitant to do anything yourself), and you opened up to a new, clean page.

You had only been sketching for a few moments when Newt walked over and set down a plate before you. You looked up and smiled at him.

“Thank you.” You pulled the plate over and started eating. Newt sat down across from you, and things were silent until he finally let his curiosity get the best of him.

“May I see it?” he asked, gesturing to the journal. You pushed it over to him, wondering how he would like it. For some reason, you cared about his opinion on the subject. You supposed it might have something to do with him being your idol. He carefully opened the journal to the first page. He didn’t say anything at first, he just looked at the drawing of the Crup. It was such a simple little thing, it being the very first magical creature you had ever drew and learned about. It was little more than a crude sketch. He started to flip through more and more pages, looking at the progression of your art work and the detail of your notes. A smile started to bloom on his face, and by the time he got to the very last drawing, the one of the Doxies, he was full on grinning.

“These are bloody brilliant, (Y/n)!” he exclaimed looking back down at the Doxy drawings flitting about the pages. Your notes were written on the margins and edges, creating a frame around the hairy creature. A pile of eggs (in the actual size), were drawn in the corner along with a nest.

“Thank you.” You could feel a blush creeping up your face and you ducked your head to hide it.

“So this is what you do for the Ministry?” he asked, looking through the journal again. He stopped at the page with the Hippogriffs. Once again, the creature moved, though this time it bent down to nuzzle the baby standing next to it. You smiled at it, remembering the day you had drew it.

“Yes.” You answered Newt, and he looked back up at you.

“This is amazing. Anyone who didn’t think so was just jealous. Have you ever thought about making a book?” he asked, and you were surprised.

“I had actually. A children’s book. It would the ‘cooler’ creatures, like Hippogriffs, Unicorns, the Phoenix. Stuff like that.” Newt nodded, a smile once again on his face.

“You could add in the Crup and even dragons! I can see it now, your beautiful, colourful drawings in a real published book for wizard children all over the world! It would be amazing!” his excitement had a way of spreading. You could see it too, the creatures moving about the pages like they did in your journal, their facts simplified so the children could read it easier. You thought about it some more, and as you looked at the excitement on Newts face, you got a wonderful idea.

“What if we did it together?” you asked, and he suddenly looked up at you.

“Are you serious?” his hand was splayed on the pages of your journal, and the fairy on it kept ‘bumping’ against it.

“I’m completely serious. I know next to nothing about writing a book, and you’re already writing one that we know becomes famous. So why not? My drawings paired with your knowledge, we could be unstoppable.” You joked, though still completely serious. Newt looked back down at the drawing, saw the fairy flying around his hand and moved it, muttering a soft ‘sorry’ to the two dimensional creature.

“I… I supposed we could do that. Though we’d have to wait till after Fantastic Beasts is finished.” He commented, and you stood up with a squeal.

“Oh really? You’d really help with it?” you asked, clasping your hands together and looking him. He gave you his signature little smirk, nodding in reply. Overwhelming happiness coursed through you and you jumped over to his side of the table and drew him up in a bone crushing hug. He hesitantly patted you on the back, and realizing his discomfort, you pulled away.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean…” you started, but he shook his head.

“No, no. You’re fine, don’t worry about it.” He gave you a pat on the shoulder and gathered the plates before taking them to the wash basin. This time, you walked over and helped him clean up.

“Thank you Newt. For everything you’ve done for me. It really means a lot.” you told him, wanting to make sure that he knew just how much you appreciated all that he’s done for you. Newt gave that half smile again and handed a clean plate for you to dry and put away.

 ~

Later that night, you found yourself wandering around the case, trying to decide what you wanted to draw next. You had so many ideas fluttering through your brain it was difficult to choose what to start with. You were walking by the Bowtruckles when you spied Newt sitting at the table in his hut. He was poring over papers strewn all over the flat surface. If you had to take a guess as to what he was working on, you would say it was his book. With your mind stuck on art, you could suddenly see little details you hadn’t noticed before. Like how he stuck the very tip of his tongue out of the corner of his mouth as he wrote. Or the way his eyebrows scrunched together as he thought. Seeing the opportunity, you sat down where you were and grabbed your pencils.

You flipped to a clean page and set to work. You took care to make sure that everything was perfect. The way Newt sat hunched over his papers, the thoughtful look on his face as he outlined certain lines and rewrote others. You captured the way his hair hung down and covered his eyes, and how he used his wand to fill and refill his cup of tea. An hour later you had multiple little sketches of Newt in various poses. One where he was scuffling his papers around, another where he was stretching and had his quill pointed high in the air. You even had one of him holding onto his wand with his mouth.        

You had moved on to adding color to the sketches when Newt stood and gathered everything up. You breathed a sigh of relief that he hadn’t done that sooner. Moving back to the sketches, you became completely immersed in the work that you didn’t even notice Newt walk over.

“Is that me?” he asked suddenly, and you jumped. You clutched at your racing heart as you looked up him. He looked so much taller than normal, but then again you were sitting on the ground.

“Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you.” He said, voice lower than it had been seconds before. He took a seat next to you, crossing his legs like a pretzel. You shift your arm to let him look at the drawings. You had no qualms in letting him see, nor any embarrassment in him finding out you had been watching him.

“I feel like I keep saying this but, these are amazing.” He ran his finger over the main picture, the one of him leaning over the papers. He had a delighted smile on his face, from what you didn’t really know, but his expression was just too good to pass up.

“They aren’t moving.” He observed and you nodded. You took the book back and finished the last bit of colouring before grabbing your wand. You murmured a series of charms, and soon the new sketches started to move. Newt, flipping his hair out of his eyes. Newt, stretching with his quill pointed in the air. Newt, his face changing from a look of intense concentration to pure delight at something in those papers. It was beautiful, pure magic. You grinned, thinking to yourself that it was the best one yet.

You risked a glance, and looked to your left at the man who had been your muse. He had a look of wonder on his face, and you could feel your heart stutter a moment.

“Amazing.” He just whispered. The two of you sat there for a moment before deciding to head to bed. Newt helped you up, and you walked arm in arm to the hut, before climbing out of the case. You took a quick shower before changing and climbing into bed. Newt was already under the covers of his bed, and once again you found yourself laying in darkness. You were just about to nod off when you heard Newt whisper into the silence like you had done the night before.

“Thank you, (Y/n), for showing me your drawings today. And… and for drawing me. No one’s ever taken the time to do something like that for me. So thank you.” You felt your heart flutter again at his words and you smiled even though he couldn’t see it.

“You’re welcome Newt.” You whispered back. Merlin’s Beard was this going to be interesting.  

[supernarnians]

Empousa

Leo just sat and sketched, letting the designs flow from his head and through his hand onto the paper. He had been up since five just designing whatever came into his head, but he wasn’t tired, and a soft smile played on his lips. He liked being Firebird, it gave him a chance to interact more with the gorgeous Susan Pevensie, the one girl he always claimed was his Muse. How could he not? Hearing her voice, seeing her smile, it just seemed to help the ideas flow much more freely. He couldn’t really explain it, nor did he really want to since he was just glad it was someone as lovely as Susan, but it certainly made for some interesting scenes with the Pevensies, considering her brother Edmund was one of his closest friends. Yeah, they ended up brawling a lot, but that was the whole fun of their little competition to one up each other. They just enjoyed throwing snarky, sassy comments at each other. Sometimes one of the other guys would chime in, though it was usually either Corin or Percy Jackson and when they got started, it usually took both Jason and Peter to stop it. A full-blown impish grin had grown on his face, oh yeah, good times. Not that those times were that far back in the past, but, now that he was a superhero and all, it seemed to be becoming somewhat distant. That, and becoming a superhero had caused Leo to rethink a few things. One of those was his relationship with Susan, and with the way he flirted with just about every girl he met. Could that be the main reason why she didn’t seem to care? Here he was, claiming to love only her, and yet he would openly flirt with the next girl that crossed his path. That realization might have been a long time coming, but it took a mask to help him see it clearly. Maybe it was time to change tactics, and focus only on Susan all the time.

“What ya thinking?” asked the miniature Phoenix as he landed on Leo’s shoulder.

“About growing up and giving my love to only one woman,” replied Leo with a smile.

“What? Already? It’s only been a few days since I turned you into a superhero!” blurted Phoenix.

Leo let out a laugh before replying with, “Yeah, but, thanks to that mask, I can now see what I’ve been doing wrong to Susan. She deserves better than what I’ve been giving her.” He picked up the drawing as he finished speaking, satisfied with the result.

“Whoa, you drew that?” exclaimed Phoenix.

“Oh yeah. Susan’s always been my muse. Whenever I see her, or hear her voice, I . . .” Leo set the piece of paper down on top of the others on the desk and laid his head on his arms.

“Wow, you really like her alot,” Phoenix muttered gently, impressed.

“Yeah, I do, and I haven’t been treating her right. Well, I’m going to change that, I have to, starting today, I’m going to treat her like the queen she is, the queen of my heart.”

“Yay!” cheered Phoenix. At that moment, an alarm blared throughout the cabin. “Oh, it’s already time for everyone to get up and get ready for school.”

Leo stretched, “Yup, I just hope today’s going to be as quiet as the last two days have been, or that the monster doesn’t show up until after I’ve given this to Susan.”

Phoenix chuckled, “Good luck with that, we have no control over when the monsters how up.”

“I know, so I’d better get to work as soon as I can on this.” Voices and footsteps resounded throughout the cabin, everyone heading towards the kitchen. “Sounds like everyone else is up, let’s get you some breakfast.”

“Alright!” Phoenix jumped into Leo’s pocket, and Leo walked out of his room. With the general disorder in the kitchen, Leo could count on getting something for Phoenix without anyone noticing, and this morning was no different. The two quickly ate their meal before Leo dashed back to his room, gathered his things, and set out for school. The school day went on like any other, with Alecto’s boring history class, Dionysus’ much more fun home ec class, Mr. Tumnus’ casual language and literature class, Mr. Tavros’ hysterical arts and crafts class, Mr. Oreius’ much more serious science class, Miss Tulmei’s vibrant math class, and Miss Luflia’s lively music class. But Leo was itching to get to the Hephaestus’ Forge club room and get working on his project. In the meantime, he would glance every now and then at Susan, a soft smile spread across his face. He hoped that she would like it, and really couldn’t wait to give it to her, which got him thinking about hurrying it up and making it.

Finally, the school bell rung, marking the end of the day, and Leo dashed off to the club room. It was the largest club room, complete with a forge and everything. The club itself was comprised mainly of children of Hephaestus, but it was open to all who wanted to be blacksmiths, jewelers, or anything like that. Leo burst through the door, the forge was just about finished heating up, he could tell by the heat, and Charles Beckendorf was just sitting back in his club captain chair and relaxing.

“Oh, hey Leo, you’re . . .”

“Hi Chuck, I need the forge. Thanks!”

“. . . early.” Charles blinked as Leo dashed off towards the back wall, gathering metals, jewels, and tools. He set everything by the forge, took out his drawing, and went to work. He melted, he hammered, he polished, he pushed and pulled, he twisted and turned, until he was satisfied with the result. He wiped his arm across his sweaty forehead before letting out a breath of relief.

“Whew! It’s done! Now, to get it to . . .” Leo turned, and paused, a small crowd had gathered around, watching in rapt surprise.

“Dude! That’s a nice piece!”

“It’s so beautiful! Who’s it for?”

“Where did you come up with that?”

“So pretty!”

“Um . . .”

“So I leave for five minutes, and everyone’s left their station?” Charles’ voice echoed throughout the room. Leo’s little crowd scattered and rushed back to their stations. “Leo, hurry it up with the forge, will you? There’s more than one person waiting in line. Oh, and nice necklace.” Leo grinned as Charles winked before cleaning up his mess, grabbing his backpack, and rushing out the door.

“I’m done now, thanks!” he blurted before he slammed the door shut behind him. He dashed down the halls in search of Susan. Eventually, he found Edmund and Lucy all decked out in suits for their monthly televised talks with Chiron, Jesse Aarons, and the Archenland twins. “Hi Ed, hey Lu, um, where’s Susan?”

“She should be on her way back from the cabin with Peter. Why?” asked Edmund.

“Oh, um, I, uh, wanted to give her this.” He showed them the necklace.

“Why Leo, it’s exquisite! She’ll adore it!” exclaimed Lucy, her eyes sparkling.

“Wow, great job, man! You really outdid yourself this time!” exclaimed Edmund as he patted Leo on his back.

“Thanks! Now, I’ve just got to give it to her.”

“You know, if you hurry, you could still catch them before they get here and give it her then. We’ve still got a few minutes to spare,” said Edmund with a grin and a wink.

“Great! I’ll do that! I won’t keep them for long!” Leo shouted as he began to run away.

“You’d better not, it only starts in a few minutes!” Edmund shouted back as Leo disappeared down the hall. Leo laughed right before he turned the corner and bolted for the front entrance of the school. When he didn’t meet them at the halfway point between their cabin and the school, Leo kept on going, thinking that Susan was putting on some final touches to her make-up or something. He grinned, well, here was another thing to add to those last-minute touch-ups. As he got closer, a sudden dread seemed to creep over him. He knew that feeling, and it urged him on even faster. He almost stopped in his tracks when he caught sight of the cabin, the door was ajar, and he knew the Pevensies never left their front door open. Instead, he put on a burst of a speed, reaching the door in a couple of seconds. He entered a messy scene, curtains were torn, tables and chairs were overturned, a couple of Susan’s potted plants had exploded on the ground, and there were quite a few claw marks. Whoever attacked them soon realized that these were not easy prey.

“Susan! Peter! Are you here? Are you alright? Susan! Peter! ” he called out frantically. A low moan answered him from behind the table. “Pete! Are you alright?” asked Leo as he pulled debris off the eldest Pevensie.

“Susan . . . must get . . . Susan . . .” he mumbled. He tried to rise, but would have fallen over if Leo hadn’t caught him.

“Hey man, you’re not doing so hot yourself. Where is she? I’ll go get her.”

“Another . . . monster . . . empousa? Female vampire,” slurred Peter as he showed the bite marks on his neck. “She took . . . her.” Rage filled Leo like a roaring furnace, but he had to calm himself down or else he’d burn down the cabin.

“Ugh! Come on, I can’t leave you here like this. The faster we get to the nurse’s office, the faster I can go after Susan, alright?” Peter nodded sluggishly, and let Leo lead him out of the cabin and back to the school. Surprisingly, the two made good time, and Leo knew it, as he counted the seconds as they walked. “Help! I need a doctor, a nurse, child of Apollo, anybody!” called out Leo as they entered the nurse’s office. Will Solace stepped out from behind one of the curtains, his face pale from some kind of shock, and it got paler upon seeing the two of them. “Well, you going to help your king or not?” snapped Leo as he brought Peter closer. He really didn’t have time for this, Susan was still missing! In reply, Will only pulled back the curtain to reveal a TV, and Leo’s knees just about gave under him. On the TV screen was the room where the Pevensies were supposed to meet with Chiron, Jesse Aarons, and the Archenland twins, but the roof had caved in and a pile of debris was stacked in front of the door. Sitting on the chair was a bound and gagged Susan while an ugly monster that Leo quickly recognized as one of the female vampires, the creature known as Empousa, was glaring into the camera.

“If your so-called superheroes do not meet my demands, I will give your pretty queen to the pirate Chrysaor. I’ll repeat it one last time for you puny, forgetful mortals, your superheroes must give themselves up to me in exchange for the pretty queen and reveal their true identities. I shall be waiting where the river meets the sea. You have until the sun sets.”

Leo didn’t wait to hear more. He practically pushed Peter into Will, shouted, “Take care of him!” and was out the door, booking it to the anchor room. By the time he got there, Edmund was leading an attempt break down the door, but wasn’t having any luck. “Let me try!” shouted Leo, his hands bursting into flame. Edmund nodded and made everyone back up.

“What took you so long?” called out Edmund so Leo could hear him over the sizzling door.

“I was getting Peter to the nurse’s office!” Leo shouted his reply, his hands melting through every obstacle. But when they finally got through, the Empousa and Susan were already gone. Leo simply turned and rushed out the door, he had to turn into Firebird, now.

“Leo! Where are you going?” shouted Lucy. At that moment, the shadows parted and Ghost Hound stepped into the hall.

“I caught the tail end of the announcements. Where did the monster take Queen Susan?”

“Where the river meets the sea,” growled Leo. “And we have until sunset.”

“We?” asked Ghost Hound, his eyebrow raised in confusion.

“I promised to save her!”

“No, leave this to us superheroes, we’re the ones she wants anyway. If you see Lioness and Firebird, relay this message to them, please. I’ll meet them by the ruins of Cair Paravel . . .”

“They’re not ruins anymore,” blurted Lucy.

“OK, fine, just tell them to meet me at Cair Paravel, we don’t have much time.”

“No kidding,” scoffed Leo. Ghost Hound glanced at Leo as he backed up slowly.

“You’re right, this is no joking matter, hence why I expect you fully cooperate with me to get our queen back.”

“Our queen?” asked Lucy. Ghost Hound merely glanced at her before stepping back into the shadows and disappeared from view. Leo took that as a cue, and bolted down the halls to get outside. As soon as he hide behind the first spot he could find, Phoenix came out of his jacket pocket.

“Alright Phoenix, power up!” Phoenix flew into the belt and Leo was changed into his Firebird suit. He took off to the sky, grateful that he could fly. He soared over the river, following it to where it met the sea, and Cair Paravel. He swooped into Cair Paravel, finding Ghost Hound fairly easily, hiding in the biggest shadow.

“Good, you’re here. Lioness will, unfortunately take the longest.”

“Why don’t you use the shadows to go find her and bring her here?” asked Leo, a bit of annoyance in his voice.

“And leave you alone to do something stupid?”

“What are you so worried about?” spat Leo.

“That you could do something to jeopardize this mission and put Queen Susan in even greater risk than she is now. I know you like her a lot, but don’t let your anger cause you to do something that could lead to her death.” Leo clamped his mouth shut, had Ghost Hound figured out who he was? Maybe Hades was right in not having them reveal their secret identities to each other just yet. And if Ghost Hound could figure it out, who else could?

“I see. I won’t do anything until you return, I promise.”

“How can I trust you?”

“I promise on Susan’s life, and my mother’s grave, that I will not leave Cair Paravel until you return.” Ghost Hound’s eyes seemed to widen at that statement, but he regained his composure, nodded, and disappeared into the shadows, again. True to his word, though his heart ached, Leo only observed the encampment on the other side of the river. For the most part, the Empousa merely paced back and forth, and was probably spilling every kind of scenario she could think of to destroy the superheroes to Susan. Leo really did wish he could march over there, beat up the Empousa and fly off with Susan into the sunset, but he gave his word, on her life. He just wished that Ghost Hound and Lioness would hurry it up. Sure, they still had two hours before sunset, but Leo wanted them to hurry simply because he wasn’t sure how much longer he could stand watching the Empousa brag about how she was going to win anyway or leaving Susan in her grasp. Though it felt like forever since Ghost Hound left, it was really only a few minutes when he returned with Lioness. Leo let out a soft squeak. “You’re back!” he whispered.

“Well, yeah, it wasn’t too long.”

“Really? Felt like ages ago.”

“If it was, you’d have started attacking Empousa because the sun was setting,” Ghost Hound quipped drily. Leo grinned sheepishly.

“So, what are we going to do?” asked Lioness. Ghost Hound led them to a spot where they could just make out Empousa and Susan without giving themselves away.

“Someone’s going to have to go in as bait,” began Ghost Hound.

“Wait, what?” asked Leo.

“Listen, this is a completely different set-up than our first two, alright? The Empousa is cunning and maybe something of a strategist, more so than either the Hydra or the minotaur, both of which just attacked without thinking. This one, she’s got a plan, and we don’t quite know it yet.”

“I don’t think she does either,” mumbled Leo. Ghost Hound glanced at him questioningly. “She’s been going on and on about what she’s going to do when we give ourselves up.”

“She thinks we’re going to give up without a fight?” asked Lioness incredulously. Ghost Hound began to smirk, and Leo shivered.

“So, hubris is our ally today,” muttered Ghost Hound. “Listen, I’ll go in as the decoy . . .”

“What? No! We need you to turn her into a stone,” hissed Lioness. “I’ll do it.”

“But I need you to come in on Susan’s side in order to protect her!” blurted Ghost Hound. Leo sighed, had they forgotten already? “And Firebird can shoot flames at her from behind, it’s not like I have to reveal myself.” Ghost Hound glanced at Leo. “That is, if you don’t make it up there in time.”

“Uh, I will, but, um, why not let me go as decoy?”

“Didn’t you just hear me? You can fly and shoot flames. Lioness can get around to Susan and protect her from them.”

“What about you?”

“I can shadow away, or get behind Lioness’ shield. Either way, you’ll get the first attack on her.” Leo began to grin as he realized what Ghost Hound’s plan really meant.

“Sounds like a deal to me.”

“Good. I’ll shadow Lioness to the other side while you fly low and get behind Empousa. Don’t attack until I’ve said, ‘OK, if you insist’. Alright?”

“Right,” chorused Leo and Lioness.

“Good, let’s go.” Ghost Hound grabbed Lioness’ hand and the two shadowed away. Leo waited a second to make sure Empousa’s back was turned before he flew towards the beachfront. Keeping as low as possible, he turned and made his way towards where Empousa was waiting. So far, his approach went unnoticed, but he didn’t let out a breath of relief until he was situated behind the largest rock closest to Empousa’s camp. A loud snap startled all three as their eyes went towards the treeline. Ghost Hound walked out from beneath the trees.

“Ah, so you’ve made it, good. Took you long enough. Where are the other two?”

“That’s why I was late, I was searching for them. They might not know what’s happened yet. But I did leave word that if anyone were to see them, that they are relayed the news.”

“I see,” the Empousa replied in a soft hiss. “Well, since you are here, and you’re the most important of the three, I guess this will do. Take off your mask.”

“Why? I’m here, I’m giving myself up. Isn’t that enough?”

“Oh no, you’re the smartest of the three, that I know.”

“We’ve only faced two monsters, how could you know that?” Empousa clamped her mouth shut. “So, does Gaia actually know who we are?” asked Ghost Hound, his voice becoming low and deadly as he took a couple of steps forward.

“Not another step, or, or I’ll kill your queen!” Ghost Hound did pause, though Leo knew it had nothing to do with the threat. It was a pretty weak threat, Empousa was further away from Susan than Ghost Hound was, if he really wanted to, Ghost Hound could just simply grab Susan and shadow her to safety. But he was certainly right, hubris was an unlooked for, yet very welcome ally. “Alright, I’m the one in charge here, superhero, so you’re going to do as I say! Take a seat next to your queen!” Leo couldn’t see him very well, but he knew Ghost Hound was raising his eyebrow in surprised pleasure, this was going a little better than planned.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, just, sit!”

Ghost Hound did as he was told, but, he had to ask, “But I thought you wanted to reveal myself. With the way you’re talking, it sounds like you already know who I am.”

“No, we don’t, at least, I don’t. Maybe Gaia does know, but, she hasn’t said a word. But we do know that you’re the smartest, the Nemean Lion is the strongest, even though he should have been on our side, and that the Phoenix is the fastest.”

“You do know that it’s a girl who’s working with the Nemean Lion, and we call her Lioness? I’m Ghost Hound, and the fellow working with the Phoenix is Firebird.”

“Oh, shut up and take off your mask!” shrieked the Empousa.

“Are you sure . . .”

“Just do it, or I’ll kill her!”

“Say what?” said Ghost Hound in a very low, very dangerous voice. The Empousa involuntarily stepped back a bit. That’s when Leo noticed Lioness behind one of the trees, she was ready to jump in front of Ghost Hound and Susan.

“J-just, just do it!”

“OK, if you insist,” replied Ghost Hound with a shrug. But he made no move to take off his mask, because at that moment, Leo was flying towards the Empousa, his hands yielding flames, and Lioness bounded from behind the trees and planted herself in front of Ghost Hound and Susan. “Now!” shouted Ghost Hound. Lioness put up her shield, and Leo let loose the flames. The Empousa shrieked as the flames licked around her.

“You cheaters!” she shrieked as she battled the flames.

“Firebird, again!” called out Ghost Hound. Leo sent the flames at his adversary yet again. “Lioness, the stone is in her right arm!”

“Right!” Lioness’ claws gleamed in the fading sunlight as she charged and slashed at the Empousa’s right arm. The armour fell off in pieces, and Ghost Hound attacked, bringing his scythes down hard. The Empousa screamed as the stone activated and began sucking in her essence.

“We’re not finished! You may have won this battle, but Gaia has an army! She will destroy you all! And that other one will rule Narnia!” The next thing they knew a bloodstone was sitting at their feet, but their faces were pale.

“So . . . that one she’s referring to . . .” began Lioness.

“Is the White Witch,” growled Ghost Hound.

“Gaia did bring her back,” muttered Leo as he went to Susan and freed her.  

“Of course, the two made a deal, neither like mortals, so this works for the both of them,” stated Susan. Ghost Hound reached down and picked up the bloodstone, putting it in his pocket.

“Can you make sure she gets back safely, Firebird?” he asked.

Leo grinned, “With pleasure.” He turned to Susan and gave her a bow. “Your majesty, if I may.”

“Well, I guess so, but first.” She hugged Lioness and planted a kiss on Ghost Hound’s cheek before planting a kiss on Leo’s cheek. “Thank you all for saving me.”

“Hey, we’re superheroes, it’s what we do,” replied Leo with a grin. He picked up Susan and held her close. “Hold on tight,” he told her with a wink. He glanced at Lioness, “Hey, need a ride?”

“Well, actually, I was wondering if Ghost Hound could give me a ride before he goes to Hades. I’d like to get back quickly.”

“Of course,” replied Ghost Hound, the two stepping into the shadows. Leo flew off through the sky, a huge grin across his face, he was flying into the sunset with Susan, as he had hoped to. The two chatted a bit during the trip, but it was over far too soon, at least for Leo it was. He landed at the front of the school, where everyone had gathered. Peter was looking much better now, but he was still leaning on Edmund.

“Susan!” called out Lucy as she rushed in to hug her sister. Then the rest of the crowd rushed in to make sure their queen was alright. Peter and Edmund approached Leo, Peter extending his hand.

“Thank you so much for looking after her.”

“No problem, but it was a team effort,” replied Leo as he shook Peter’s hand. “Well, if you’re no longer in need of my services, I’ll be off, I’m tired.”

Peter let out a laugh, “Of course, you’ve deserved it.”

“Thanks, see you around, your majesties.” He shot them a grin and a wink before flying off to a safe spot to detransform. He waited a few minutes before rushing out to join the crowd. “Susan, you’re alright!” He wrapped her up in a hug.

“Leo! Where have you been man? I’ve been looking all over for you!” berated Edmund.

“Just wanted to see if the superheroes needed my help, guess they didn’t need it after all.”

“You were going to help save me? Oh Leo,” stated Susan as she gave Leo a big kiss on the lips. Leo couldn’t help it, though he was blushing as red as a tomato, he was grinning like a Calchester squirrel.

“Oh, right, um, I was going to give this to you,” said Leo as he pulled out the necklace.

“Oh Leo, it’s beautiful!” she gasped as she fingered the golden sun set with jeweled flowers. “Can you put it on?”

“Of course!” Leo quickly obliged, the golden necklace a welcome addition to Susan’ already graceful beauty.

“It looks good on you Susan!” exclaimed Lucy.

“Of course it does, Leo knows me way too well,” replied Susan with a beam at Leo.

“Well, now that we have our queen back, I can announce that we will postpone the meeting until next week, along with all school activities. Until we can get our school fixed up,” announced Chiron. Cheers went up all around, no school for a whole week! Maybe having monsters around wasn’t half bad. “And now that the excitement is all over, I expect everyone to their cabins! We’ll figure out something else for you to do with your time.” Everyone else groaned. Leo merely chuckled, he didn’t mind, as long as he could turn each outing into a date with Susan, he’d be happier than a satyr in spring.