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devnny · 5 years

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CHAPTER NINE.

JTRM — THE “R” STANDS FOR RECOVERING!

PREVIOUSLY.

this was too fun to write knowing what comes next, PLEASE ENJOY

Tenna leaned her cheek against her hand with a smile, swaying the leg that she had slung over her knee as she sat across the table from her unexpected guest. It was a mischievous, evil smile, Devi thought.

“So,” She tittered a little. “how’s your househusband?”

“Please, do NOT call him that.” Devi begged, eyes rolling firmly backwards in her skull.

Tenna continued her snickering.

“That what he is, isn’t it?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Oh come on.” Tenna scoffed, her mug scooting across the table as she extended her hands out. “How many times has he made dinner this week?”

“That has NOTHING to do with ANYTHING.” Devi pointed at her defensively. “He should be cooking for me – it’s not like he pays rent! That’s just him earning his keep.”

“Uh-huhhh…” Tenna nodded as if she was humoring the denials. Devi gurgled her irritation in the back of throat.

“But he is behaving himself, like a good little hubby might?”

“Tenna…” Devi gritted her molars, and Tenna belted out another set of laughs.

“WELL, IS HE?”

“YES, he is behaving fine. Like a dog might.” She answered, more comfortable comparing Johnny to a mostly-domesticated creature than even conceptualizing the joke of him being a spouse to anyone, especially her. Tenna bobbed her head along again. Devi settled back into her chair, hoping to relax.

“He’s been asleep all day.” She complained. “I want to wake his ass up so I can paint, because I can’t be blasting music in there if he’s sleeping on his desk, but he probably needs the rest. He supposedly hadn’t slept in ‘months’ before this.”

Tenna’s tongue poked out from behind her smile, followed by a sharp squeak from somewhere out of Devi’s line of sight.

“That’s so considerate of you, Devi—!”

“DO NOT even TRY to construe any decency I have as acts of kindness for him.” Devi cut her off with a squint.

Two more squeaks.

“Why are you so defensive about this? It’s okay to enjoy the company of your roommate.” Tenna teased again. Devi grumbled.

Tenna hadn’t let up on this topic since she found out that Johnny was officially moved into the apartment. At this point, laying on the couch aimlessly with a sleeping Johnny in the adjacent room was more appealing than sitting here and getting ridiculed for her wrongly-assumed-nice choices.

“Forget it. I’m going to go check—” Devi started as she stood, but cut herself off as her friend flittered another smile toward her.

“…go check on him.” She finished unhappily, then left before Tenna could mock her again.

TWO FLOORS ABOVE:

“No…!” Devi’s voice was waning, and he laughed.

“No, Johnny, no, don’t—”

Johnny dug the knife into her chest again, and felt a rush of satisfaction that she was helpless to stop him. He never held the control between the two of them, but this time she would be answering to him! She hardly even tried to push him away, only calling out with a voice that was growing softer with each gasp she worked to swallow.

She deserved this for being so rude to him! Awful woman – she had such biting words before, but now she had to reserve her fangs for biting back the blood that sputtered out past her lips. It made him laugh.

“Nny…” Devi croaked out.

He felt a sudden emptiness in his chest, and his arms chilled, startling him with the stark contrast of how hot his skin had felt just a moment ago, burning with the pleasure of revenge.

There was no pleasure in this.

She was dying.

Johnny’s body spasmed and he whacked his elbows against his desk as he awoke with a guttural gasp. He scrambled into a sitting position in his chair, slapping his palms on the surface of his drafting table like a scurrying animal. As he got his bearings, his head swiveled around frantically, until he was certain that he knew where he was – which was sitting in Devi’s art room.

A breath shuddered out of him through his panting, and he gulped as best he could past the dry lump in his throat.

Just another fucking dream. He had fallen asleep. GOD, he hated sleeping. The last thing he remembered was finishing the project that he had been working so madly on. He must have laid his head down on his desk afterwards and opened himself up to the horrors of his fervid mind.

He didn’t want to disclose it to Devi, but this was not the first dream he had about killing her since her intervention into his life. The first was the night after their tutoring sessions restarted, after their minor falling out due to him attacking her with a pen.

That week Johnny had cried his guts sore, then rode wave after wave of anxiety about meeting Devi again and attempting to apologize, then nearly combusted with joy that she actually forgave him. He must have burned himself out, he had figured, with the last of his drawing attempts the night following that, then had passed out when he got home.

Stupid emotions, so tiring.

He sneered and roughly rubbed his uneven hair, then turned his attention to his sketchbook that laid closed in front of him. He opened it to check his work, partly to distract himself from the lingering tendrils of his nightmare, and partly out of rampant curiosity of what the final result was.

His lower eyelid wiggled uncomfortably at the figure that greeted him.

DEVI? He had been drawing Devi this entire time?

Jeezus, how was he supposed to share this with her? He hadn’t meant to put a week’s worth of effort into a portrait of… her, but he had, and now he would need to hide it away to ensure she didn’t think he was a total creep and throw him out of her house on his ass.

Johnny pouted; it was the nicest thing he’d made in years, too. He really liked the lines, and how it was layered through multiple pages. He sighed and settled the cover closed again.

“So, you’re finally up, huh?” Devi stood in the doorway, previously obscured by the sketchbook he held up. Johnny screamed.

“AH—OH, UH, DEVI…!” He blathered, clutching the book close to his chest. Devi chuckled.

“It’s weird seeing you sleeping.” She commented as she walked the short way to his desk. “You snore a little bit, by the way.”

Johnny’s nose crinkled, unaware that he snored. Strange.

“I saw your little project.” She said, and his heart toppled into the hopeless abyss of his stomach. Devi laughed again at the terrified look on his face. She hated to admit that she felt more relaxed around Johnny than Tenna these days, but that could just be her pride talking.

“DEVI, I…” He gasped, then swallowed and tried again. “I-I promise, it’s, it’s really not as… uhm, intimate, as it seems—”

“Oh please don’t use that word for it.” Devi scoffed casually.

Johnny lowered nervously, partially hiding behind his sketchbook.

“Just promise me it’s not like, a testament to your undying love for me, and I won’t have to club you to death.” She teased, and Johnny’s eyes went wide in embarrassment.

“NO, NOT AT ALL.” He stood. “I just, I—I didn’t even realize this is what I was making until it… was done! Honest!”

Devi blinked at him skeptically.

“You… didn’t know what you were making?”

“Yes! It was like I was compelled to make that!”

She squinted at him with some suspicion.

“Do you think… Meat influenced you to create it, then?” She asked.

Johnny’s panic dissolved at the question.

“Oh…” His eyes wandered down to the sketchbook, but he was not worried about the idea of Meat’s interference with that. “No, I don’t think so.”

But with the mention of it, he was suddenly very suspicious that his parasite was the cause of his horrible dreams. He couldn’t understand what the Reverend would want as a result from tormenting him with bloody, anguished Devi’s, but Johnny was confident at least that the motive was part of the voice’s ‘plan’ for him. Against his better judgement, he kept those thoughts from Devi for the time being.

“What makes you so sure?” Devi crossed her arms loosely. “I mean, I guess it is creating, so the likelihood is low, but it’s still… me-related.”

Johnny shook his head and inched a ways closer to her.

“A lot of things right now are you-related.” He replied, almost a little smug, and Devi scoffed a smile again.

“Whatever.” She waved him off.

Devi returned to the living room, and Johnny trailed after her, stopping short when he saw her shrugging her jacket on. She had just wanted to paint today, but there was a more pressing issue on the agenda now.

“Hope you’re up for an outing,” She turned to him and gave him an annoyed look. “because we have to go to the store, seeing as you ate all my food.”

Johnny’s upper lip dropped low in surprise, then tightened back up into a guilty smile as he laced his hands behind his back. It was strange having so much food available to eat; he couldn’t recall his own cupboards and fridge ever having such variety. He had allowed himself to get a little carried away with his snacking while Devi was asleep – he still remembered, with some lingering pain, his whining and belly-aching after eating until he was far beyond full for the first time in maybe a year. Devi had shown little sympathy for him.

“Ah – of course!” Johnny shrugged happily, eager to sooth any irritation she had with him with dutiful agreements. Devi huffed a little and hitched her backpack securely onto her shoulders, then lead the pair out of the apartment.

AT A NEARBY GROCERY STORE:

Usually, Devi was content with shopping at convenience stores for her groceries, but the small-sized portions and limited selections at a 24/7 or a Grab n’ Go weren’t very good for restocking her entire food supply, so she begrudgingly parked her car in the lot of an actual grocery store. She and Johnny watched from the safety of Devi’s car as a mother wheeled a cart past them that was half full of food, and half full of wailing toddlers. Devi turned to give him a bitter expression, as if he had intentionally eaten her out of house and home and forced her to come here. Johnny offered a nervous smile as reply.

“At least it’s getting late?” He chuckled just as nervously. “So, maybe less screaming babies?”

Devi muttered her complaints under her breath and opened her door to get out, followed hurriedly by Johnny.

They walked briskly to the store’s front, with Devi ignoring all the annoying things she saw in the parking lot to the best of her ability, and with Johnny eyeing every unpleasant and rude act he saw with the shifting eyes of a predator. Neither of them enjoyed being among the masses even on a good day, but Johnny felt particularly on edge being near so many irritating things after such little recent exposure. If Devi wasn’t beside him, he was certain he would have snapped before even getting to the entrance.

He kept close to her side while she wheeled a shopping cart from aisle to aisle, and mused to himself how odd the action was. He never went to places where you’d even be offered the luxury of a shopping cart – not that he was ever buying enough things to require one, what with his meager funds and all. Devi dropped seemingly random things into it, and Johnny, rather than even attempt to suggest anything that he might want to eat too, only eyed the options that she chose inquisitively, settled in the idea that whatever she chose was all that would be available to him anyway.

Johnny had no complains about Devi’s taste in cereals or cheap instant food, and shortly found himself uninterested with their current errand. While Devi checked a carton of eggs for any broken shells, his eyes wandered around the length of the back aisle they were on, and a disruption on the opposite side of the store drew his attention.

When Devi turned back to ask him something, she was horrified to find him missing.

“JOHNNY!” She called out immediately, stricken with both concern and anger.

She got no response, and abandoned her cart to look for him, hoping that he was just a few rows away and got distracted by something shiny or sugary.

Two aisles, nothing.

Four aisles, nothing.

Devi’s anxiety rose the longer it took for her to find him, and after two failed sweeps of the store, it reached a fevered pitch. She had absolutely no concern for his safety, of course, but rather for the safety of every asshole in the proximity of the building. That thought spurred her to go check the parking lot, and she rushed to the front of the store again.

Her boots clanked on the sidewalk as she paced from one end of the parking lot to the other. It irritated a man soliciting near the entrance, but when he went to confront her about her annoying actions, Devi shoved him to the side and out of her way as she sped by. She opened her mouth to call for Johnny again, when a sickeningly damp, whacking sound hit her left ear, and she turned her focus to the alleyway that lead to the back of the grocery.

“Oh, no.” She winced. “Please, Christ.”

With all of her urgency to find him only seconds ago, the speed that she crept to the alley felt achingly slow. Devi hurried the last few steps, and whipped around the wall, convinced that Johnny is what she would see.

She wasn’t disappointed in that regard, at least.

Johnny stood some yards away with his back to her, his slender frame barely visible with the dark backdrop of the alleyway, but unmistakable to Devi. Some poor soul lay at his feet, and Johnny’s arm pulled back, revealing he was equipped with a pipe of some sort. Devi’s mouth hung open in dismay.

“JOHNNY C.” Her voice roared out of her, and Johnny’s body tensed instinctually.

His hand popped open like a talon, letting his weapon of opportunity fall to the badly maintained asphalt with a chorus of metallic clanking. He turned to look at Devi fearfully, and her stare only grew angrier from the clear view of the blood spatter that reached up to his elbows on both arms. Johnny’s face stretched uncomfortably as he forced an anxious smile onto it.

“D… DEVI.” He tried to laugh out. “I, UH… I can explain!”

One of his muddied hands swung back to gesture at the man laying beaten behind him. The man groaned incoherently, then went quiet again. Johnny grimaced, and jolted where he stood as Devi began to approach him with quickening speed.

“YOU—”

“NO, WAIT.” Johnny evaded her a moment by circling around her, suddenly worried about getting cornered just as he had his victim. His arms jutted out to the man on the floor again. “He was calling his girlfriend all sorts of degrading things! In public!”

“Johnny…!” She growled.

A bead of sweat slid down his temple.

“I swear I was going to let him live!” He insisted. “It wasn’t going to be a murder, just a little head bashing, that’s all!”

“OH, THAT’S “ALL”!?” Devi yelled at him, and slipped an arm free from the straps of her backpack. Both hands gripped the other strap, and she propelled it forward in an aggressive swing, tagging Johnny somewhere near his collar. The power behind the hit knocked him to the floor, and Devi stood over him with her knees bent to continue beating him with her bag.

“YOU IDIOT!” She hissed between swings. “I CAN’T TAKE YOU ANYWHERE!”

Johnny pleaded with her through fearful shrieks and all manner of breathless grunts from being struck, but nothing would stop Devi until her rage had run its course. All he could do was shield his face with his forearms until she decided his punishment was over.

At least her bag didn’t have much in it, from what he could feel. He was more concerned that she would abandon it in favor of her much more deadly clenched fists, or maybe the pipe that he had so mercilessly battered that jerk with, which was still laying nearby.

“Ugh!” Devi exclaimed with one final smack of her backpack on his chest.

She stepped over his form and readjusted her bag onto her shoulders, unconcerned about if the contents inside were broken or not. Johnny peeked an eye open at her from the ground, and watched her fix her frazzled hair a moment before scampering upright again. Devi scowled at him, and he replied with a sheepish smile, happy despite himself that she hadn’t cracked his skull open like an egg.

Devi’s nose crinkled, and she lowered her eyes down to his arms and hands, which still had patches of dirty blood on them. His fingers wiggled at his sides, as if in response to her staring, and she glowered.

This was not good. Even when she was right next to him, Johnny, the slippery little fucker, had absconded to commit some violent act – and she wasn’t sure she bought his claims that it wouldn’t have turned fatal, instead suspecting it only didn’t because of her timely appearance. Shit!

“What more do you expect me to do, Johnny?” Devi asked through bared teeth, and his smile dropped into an ashamed pout.

“I… uh, well, nothing.” He replied with a single scuff of his boot on the floor. He was more remorseful for upsetting her than he was for indulging in his desire for carnage, what with her doing so much to help him and all. She shouldn’t need to do anything more – it was just so difficult to control himself with bastards like that populating the city! Such hard choices…

“You need to clean up. You can’t go back into the store with blood all over you.” Devi snipped, and Johnny perked up, hopeful his answer would calm her.

“I’ll just wash off in the bathroom – no one ever notices the blood, anyway.”

“No, of course they wouldn’t.” Devi closed her eyes in annoyance. The universe just liked to hand Johnny free passes for getting away with dastardly deeds, didn’t it?

She started to walk out of the alley, and Johnny paid his latest victim a quick glance – he was still twitching, that was good! – before he followed Devi back into the store.

A myriad of low-spoken curse words ghosted past Devi’s lips as she waited for him outside the men’s bathroom door, and her bitter mood continued when Johnny popped back out to display his now-clean palms to her.

She was disappointed, again, and hated herself for getting comfortable, again. Why did she always fall into the same trap of overconfidence when it came to her ability to control this lunatic? Even with Johnny acting fairly normal and domestic with her at home, he was still like a volatile chemical, and mixing him with anything besides his routine could make him explode.

They returned to the cart that Devi had left near the dairy section, and she felt a tiny bit of relief that it was still sitting there untouched. After grabbing a couple more things, they went through a check stand, paid for their crap, and Devi glared at nothing, one bag in her arms, while Johnny gathered up the other two from the end of the counter.

Amongst her brooding, a blip of color in her peripheral caught her attention, and she looked to the woman that had been behind them in line. She was standing, talking cheerfully with the cashier, while her toddler daughter tried to rush over to the attractive, cheap toy and candy dispensers on the front wall. The poor thing couldn’t get far however, with her brilliantly colored monkey toddler harness and leash springing her backwards onto her butt every time she tried to charge ahead.

Devi blinked, her curiosity peaked, and she looked back up to the mother, who continued on with what she was doing, unbothered by her hyperactive child, unworried about having to watch her, with the pink handle of the leash held firmly in her hand reassuring her that her daughter was right where she expected her to be.

“What?” Johnny asked in regard to Devi’s thinking face.

“Hmm…” Devi looked off thoughtfully.

That might work.

NEXT.

#got some good old fashioned gore this time so whatchout #jthm #jtrm #mine #devnny #im howling lets go alreadyyyyyyy #chapter

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whiskeyworen · 5 years

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Aspect V : Of Confusion and Identification

Events were starting to roll together, to cascade and collide with each other. It was inevitable; I could not hope to keep things isolated, keep my tracks covered. Not that I wanted or needed to try very hard. But there was no way I could keep these events secret for much longer. Event 1: Cyrus frowned as he looked at the data pad concerning supplies and resources being shipped through the Forsaken Aspect's cargo Asura gate. The gate itself was intrinsically tied to the Home Base, and the autofactory there, and only ever transported finished goods or accepted other goods to be used in the construction of finished product. One of which, according to the datapad...was incorrect. "What the hell?... Deldrimor Steel ingots? Corrogen filament bundles? Liquid crystal in suspension fluid?... why are these numbers wrong?" He scrolled back up the list, frowning further. The numbers weren't dramatically wrong, but for the last few weeks apparently, one item would have more than the usual amount shipped into the holds. But the sell-rates indicated the standard amount was being sold on market. "Every time, we're shipping in 120% of the amount we need...but we're just selling the regular amount. Where's that 20% going?" He checked the logs, and raised an eyebrow. There's no way she'd make a mistake like this...unless, is she skimming from the top? No... It couldn't be.

Cyrus set out to find Verula. If she was actually involved in this, it would mean she was lying to him. And that had not happened before.

Event 2:

In another part of the ship, Verula was noticing something too. It wasn't the incoming shipping invoice versus the outgoing. But it was the fact that the missing resources were being diverted to a different hold on the ship. Again, it was a little bit at a time, and never more than one kind of resource at a time.

"Hrmm... Was it a transportation error?" She grumbled, running a claw down the bridge of her nose in frustration. The one thing she hated doing was going into the program code for the transport golems and Watchworks that normally did things semi-autonomously. An error in item transportation might be the first symptom of either a program failure... or of the Watchworks beginning to truly think for themselves. Neither was a good outcome.

"At least I know where it's all going." She sighed and began to head from the weapons bay towards the massive cargo holds. Verula consulted her own datapad, and shrugged. "I'll have to ask Cyrus why he's authorizing it though. If he just wanted to spare some stuff as a supply dump, or for a nestegg or something, we could have easily made the adjustment. There's no reason for him to be sneaky about it."

"...why ship it to Cargo bay 4 though?" The thought perplexed her.

Event 3:

Tenna couldn't really understand what was going on. She'd just been passing through the ship's corridors, thinking about one thing or another, when she realized she'd wandered by the cavernous cargo bays that lined the belly of the Forsaken Aspect. It still amazed her how big the ship really was, and delighted her how surprised the rest of the world would be if they ever revealed it, but the cargo bays were downright massive on their own! She almost felt they were so big they could have their own weather systems!

But here she was at Cargo 4...and she couldn't get in.

It wasn't a case of the bay doors being locked or anything. Well, they WERE; she could see the door indicator glowing red. But it was the two nine-foot tall Watchwork Knights standing guard on either side of the door with their almost-as-huge energy halberds crossed like a big X in front of those doors that confused her. Why were Watchworks guarding the doors?

"Watchwork Knights. User Code: Gamma-Three-Tenna-Solar." She intoned in a commanding voice, hands on her hips. "Acknowledge."

Both Knights turned their gazes towards her, their optics glittering green. Both spoke at the same time, in the same chippy monotone Watchworks used when they didn't have their mimic fields on. "User Acknowledged. Tenna Danae Acknowledged. How can this unit help?"

"Why are there two Watchknights guarding this bay? If I try to proceed, will you attempt to stop me?" Tenna queried, looking from one to the other.

"This unit was assigned to prohibit entrance to Cargo Bay 4 until further notice. Attempt to gain entry to Cargo Bay 4 will be met by escalating resistance." It replied simply.

Tenna knew what 'escalating resistance' meant. If she tried to push past, they would at first pick her up and move her back to 'safe distance' before returning to their posts. If she continued to try, they would increase their aggressiveness. First would come a gentle tap with the handle of the halberd. Then maybe a harder hit. Then a jab with the energy-tipped end. If she pushed really far and kept trying, they would revert to their Nightmare forms which were FAR more capable of bodily harm, with their grab-bag of horrifying weapons that were normally kept neutral in their simulacrum form.

"Who ordered you to guard this bay?" Tenna was now curious and irritated. There had to be something on the other side someone didn't want anyone to see. Depending on what name was spoken, it would say a lot about that person.

"This unit was ordered by Cyrus Sigismund to stand guard." The automaton replied, its voice fuzzing for a second.

Tenna stared at it. Was that a glitch? I almost caught something there. It said Cyrus's name, but... was that some distortion in it?

Event 4:

Sonnya headed down the airdock after using the service elevator. It had taken her a while to make it through the bustling morass that was the Lion's Arch aerodrome, but she finally found the docks she had been invited to.

It was an out-of-the-way dock, on the backside of the Aerodrome, with no other docks nearby. She could see just from looking that the reason it was alone on this side was because of the mountains that flanked Lion's Arch on the southern edge, the ridges before BloodTide Coast began. Oh, she could see another handful of docks sticking out of the upper reaches of the aerodrome on this side, far up the sheer walls of the building, but this one was the only one down near the rocks. Parking any kind of ship here must be anxiety-inducing and aggravating, as a mere wind could blow a ship off course and into the jagged peaks.

Yet sure enough, there was a modern Airship parked at the end of the dock, the protective energy walls of its main deck and the band that held the airship's floatation bag certainly marking it as a post-Scarlet design.

As she got nearer, she could see there was a crewman standing by the hatch, apparently on guard, or waiting for her. He was non-descript as they come; if you looked up 'Standard human' in a library, this man could be on the page as 'Example'.

"Hi, I'm Sonnya Danae? I was invited to board the Forsaken Aspect at dock 43?" She asked him, unsure if she had the right ship. She hadn't seen the moniker written on the side or on the energy bands anywhere. Was this the right ship?

The crewman looked her over once, a blank expression on his face, and nodded. "Sonnya Danae. Please follow me. You are expected in Cargo Bay 4." He gestured inside, and followed her in, securing the hatch behind them. As the door secured, Sonnya stumbled slightly. Something was off. Immediately her in-eye HUD lit up, searching for threats, and she did a quick scan of her environment.

What the?... It had to be a mistake. This was a Pact-standard airship! She knew the dimensions of a ship of this class! Even the hall itself didn't look like a standard Pact ship. The deck was solid and smooth, not rivetted metal, and the walls were clean and seamless. It was like it wasn't constructed in the same shipyards as the Fleet at all. So then why were her sensors reporting that, rather than stepping onto the bridge from that hatch, that she had stepped into some long corridor in a much larger vessel? Why was her HUD filled with such distortion? In trying to compare where she was to the diagram of a Pact ship, her mapper was fuzzing out and asking to be shut off due to error!

"What...what kind of ship is this?" She asked breathlessly, as the crewman walked slowly and smoothly down the hall. He turned back slightly to consider her, before repeating. "You are expected at Cargo Bay 4. Please follow me."

Unable to understand, and wide-eyed with amazement, Sonnya could only follow.

Event 1 + 2 = Collision

"Verula. There you are." Cyrus's voice was slightly harsher than he would have liked. It hadn't taken him long to cross paths with the Charr soldier, even on a ship the size of the Forsaken Aspect. He waved the datapad at her idly. "I think we need to talk."

"Indeed we do." Verula replied, holding up her own slate and indicating the offending lines. "Just why are you diverting goods to Cargo Bay 4? Or is this a glitch in the inventory systems?"

Cyrus frowned, and handed her his slate, while taking hers. His frown deepened. "What in the hell? I never authorized this! Wait.... these items..."

His gaze shot up as Verula grunted, skimming the slate he'd given her. "Yeah. These are the items that are got redirected. So it's a system glitch." Her eyes narrowed suddenly. "What... Wait a moment. Why is MY authorization on this? I would never do this.... Is someone trying to set me up?!"

"So...you're not bringing in 120% of the usual goods and skimming 20% off for yourself?" Cyrus asked slowly.

She just looked at him, hurt. Then she countered. "Well, are you taking that 20% and sending it to Bay 4? And if I was skimming, then why were you authorizing the skimming by moving the product there?"

They were both silent, staring at each other, before glancing at the slates. "... We need to get to Bay 4. I got a bad feeling about this."

Event 1+2 x 3 = Cascade

Sonnya didn't know where she was on the ship, but near an intersection deep in the hull, she and the crewmember ran into two rather recognizable people. The moment she saw them, her suit's database brought up snapshots for her vision. That's that Cyrus Sigismund! And... Verula Faithbreaker? What are they doing here?

In surprise she'd simply stopped walking, staring at them as they approached at a rather brisk pace. They seemed to be in a bit of a hurry.

Cyrus looked up from the slate he was consulting, noticing the asura and crewman standing in the corridor intersection. His troubled expression settled into a perplexed frown, as he flicked his gaze from Sonnya to the crewman and back. It might have been just an illusion caused by reflected lights, but she swore she could see a faint purple glow behind his left pupil. "....Verula, do you have any idea why there's a stranger walking the decks of my ship?" He asked not-so-quietly. "... Or why there's a Watchwork Knight with its Illusion Matrix on, to look like some kind of ship's crew?"

A growl escaped the Charr warrior, and she reached for her sword and axe. "I do not."

"Watchwork Knight??" Sonnya's fear was sudden and abrupt. It wasn't that she couldn't take something like that these days; it was the fact that there was one close enough to her that it was an actual danger that made her jump. That's when she realized he'd been talking about the crewman, so she turned to look at him, wonderingly.

The crewman was looking at her with that same, calm, almost blank expression -- right before the 'Illusion Matrix' deactivated, revealling a kind of WatchKnight she'd never seen before. It wasn't one of Scarlet's designs, with exposed gearing and slapped-together parts. It wasn't even like the Queen's new Watchknight 2.0s that had been revealled at the last Queen's Jubilee. Those had been sleeker, more refined, but still had a distinctly machined appearance.

This Watchknight had smooth, rounded panels, more akin to a human frame than a puppet, with silvered filigree etched into its golden frame. Its mouth was still a simple hinge affair, which she now could see open and shut as a monotone, female voice came from it. "You are expected in Cargo Bay 4. Please come with me."

That got Cyrus's attention. He stepped up to Sonnya and the Watchknight, looking from one to the other. "Wait a moment. What do you mean she's expected at Bay 4? What is a non-crew member doing onboard my ship."

"I was invited!" Sonnya protested. "One of your crew invited me on board last week, for some reason."

"How? We were in Elona back then. How could anyone invite you?" Verula asked, sidling up beside Cyrus and crossing her arms. "Who would invite you? HOW would they invite you? A letter? They'd have to have some pretty good timing!"

The charr's cynicism irritated Sonnya, so she pulled a device off her belt and tossed it less-than-nicely to her. "I got this via mail over a week ago. I don't recognize the design, but's a damned comm, furball."

Verula took one look at the unit in her hand and her eyes widened. "Cyrus... this is one of OUR comms. But I only made four of those. I don't... this isn't one of mine."

"This just keeps getting more and more mysterious." Cyrus muttered, scratching his chin. "It still begs the question; if someone DID make another comm and send it to... What's your name?"

"Sonnya. Sonnya Danae." She replied smartly. She felt a bit more relaxed now that the pressure was off her. But now this human and charr both flinched away from her at the mention of her name.

"She's a Danae?" Verula asked carefully.

"Apparently so." He considered Sonnya as if for the first time, taking in her features. "Yeah, I can see it now. The shape of the chin, the eyes, the markings. You are her sister aren't you?" He paused, thinking back almost six months. "Wait a moment... I ran into you back in Hoelbrak during Dragonbash!"

Sonnya paled, before blushing heavily. Oh god, it was him wasn't it. That nice person who found me blitzed out of my head and made sure I slept it off was him. Why did it have to be him? She shook her head, groaning mentally as she remembered. It was the first time she'd drank alchohol since she had her implants fully installed, the first time since the incident with the Shatterer. Things had not gone as planned; instead of dulling down drunkness, the implants had worked overtime and done the exact opposite. She'd ended up badly drunk in public after only a few drinks, wandering the thoroughfares in a blissful, hiccup-ridden stupor until she'd bumped into someone.

That someone had helped her get to an inn room, and stuck around just long enough to make sure she'd started sobering up before they left. She'd always thought it was just some human, but she didn't realize just who she'd run into. "I...uh, yeah. That was me. Sorry about the... Dragonbash thing. I didn't get to thank you for making sure I didn't hurt myself. Or anyone else, for that matter."

He smiled a little bit, waving her thanks aside. "Eh, it was nothing. I couldn't just walk away from someone that out of it. I didn't know you were a Danae sister though."

Sonnya nodded "Now that I think about it, I remember seeing you before that time too. You came to get my little sister after she met me and my other little sister for drinks." Her expression clouded at the memory. "She... wasn't happy. With me I think."

"Little sister?... Do you mean...?"

Event (1+2 x 3) / 4 = Cascade

Tenna was still puzzling over the guardian Watchknights when she heard voices behind her in the hallway. One of them sounded like a very irritated Verula, another Cyrus's voice. Maybe they'd be able to shed some light on what was happening in Cargo Bay 4.

As she approached, she called out. "Hey Cyrus! There's something weird going on."

"Tenna?..." A familiar voice asked tenatively as she approached the cluster of people in the intersection. "Is... Is that you?"

She skidded to a stop, unprepared to hear the sound of her older sibling here, on board. "S-Sonnya? W-what are you..." She took a breath and collected herself. "What are you doing here??" Sonnya reluctantly thumbed at the very patient Watchknight standing beside her, still staring down at her. In response, the Watchknight repeated its directions. "You are expected at Cargo Bay 4. Please come with me."

Tenna shook her head and gaped. That was exactly why she was here. What the hell was going on? She looked at Cyrus, who was obviously trying to puzzle things out. She knew that look on his face; he was trying to fit all the pieces together, and whatever he was thinking, it wasn't something he liked. "Cyrus, what the hell is going on? Cargo Bay 4 is under lock-down and guard apparently on your orders. You and Verula both look like you've been eating lemons, and apparently my sister's been invited on board by someone??"

Cyrus's hand was cupping his chin while he thought, but he idly flexed a few fingers in a dismissive fashion. "Seems to be the jist of it yet. Well, you didn't know about the resource allocation, or the fact that it's been going into that bay as well...apparently under me and Verula's alternating authority."

"What?!"

He sighed, took a deep breath and started walking towards the bay. Already he could see the nine-foot tall guardians watching him carefully. Behind him, he could hear every one following him. The pitter-patter of the Asura's little legs. The heavy clunk of Verula's armored gait. And the calculated tink tink tink of the Watchknight escorting Sonnya.

At the locked bay, he stopped, staring at the guardians for a moment. They stared back, halberds still crossed over the path.

"... Aspect, just what the hell is going on." He called out. "I know you're the one behind all this, now that we've gotten all the pieces. Was it you that invited Miss Sonnya here as well?"

Sonnya looked at him perplexed. "Uh... I wasn't invited by someone named Aspect. I was invited by--"

"I suppose I had better confess." A voice came from a wall mount. The familiar golem-eye extended, looking at everyone. "I knew I couldn't keep it completely secret, but I had hoped for a bit more time before this event. I will just have to work with what I have then."

Cyrus looked at the eye sadly. "Aspect, what have you done?"

The asuran Guardian gaped at the wall unit, recognizing the voice coming from it. "Hey! Wait, that voice! I know that voice! You're the one who invited me! But you called yourself--"

With that, the doors to the bay unlocked with a loud clank and began to trundle open. Both of the guardian Watchknights pulled back from their posts and knelt, heads down, mirroring each other across the passage. A thick fog began to spill from inside as the doors opened; it was warm, like the breath of a hotspring.

As the fog spilled out, it began to thin, and everyone there could make out a figure standing in the doorway. It wasn't a Watchknight, or any other kind of construct. It looked...human.

Stepping out from inside, into the light of the corridor, a slim, pale woman opened her eyes and looked at them all. A small smile touched her lips, and she shrugged slightly.

"You can call me... Alice."

Event (1+2 x 3) / 4 = Null.

I am here. I have no need to hide anymore.

#gw2 fanfiction #My characters #Cyrus Sigismund #Verula Faithbreaker #Sonnya Danae #Tenna Danae #Watchknight #Forsaken Aspect #Ship AI #Confusion #Deception #Evolution #Alice Spekt #tyrias-library

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tearinglight · 5 years

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Sharing a Connection

A/N: Don’t like, don’t read. Antis, don’t interact. You see the tags, you know what you’re reading. This is an AU to my previous works, Zim and Dib are both 19 in this (in Earth years). I do not own any of these characters, JV does and he probably doesn’t give a crap. So on with the show!:

She didn’t remember quite how or why she had ended up talking to him. Devi assumed it was because he looked very small sitting at the cafe table all alone but what did she know? He could’ve been waiting for someone.Yet when Tenna left, after an hour of chatting, he was still in the corner table alone and small and she had to go and talk to him. He looked like he needed a friend. (Even though that was how she met a certain raccoon rat of hers, but we know how well that turned out for the first time.)

Turns out, he was quite the animated thing once you started talking to him. He reminded her of Nny, all large eyes with smiles that seemed broken when they were faked but really tiny when they really smiled. Like, you would know when they liked you because their itty bitty smiles would be hidden under hair or a sleeve because they didn’t want you knowing that you had made them smile. Which was why it felt so great when you found out. Then their ringed eyes would widen with shock before one would hide while the other seemed to like to retreat toward denial.

The picture she looked at right now was a good indication of that type of smile, one that was pointing towards the camera held out for him. However, the boy pointed her attention to the one beside him in the picture. A tall, thin acne ridden teen who was staring not at the camera, but at the boy with relaxed brows, half-lidded eyes and a large, whacked with a hammer grin that she could place on another certain acne-ridden, thin dork made when he looked at her.

(We have the same type), Devi mused to herself.

“Cute,” She cooed, clicking her tongue at the love-sick expression in the photo. “What did you say his name was?” “Dib…” Besides being abnormally loud, Zim was abnormally green, which probably should’ve concerned her had she not already met Pepito.

“So you’re waiting for him, huh?”

Zim nodded, fiddling with his gloved hands. She felt instant sympathy for him, something that she suspected wouldn’t have happened had she not started taking care of Squee. He looked upset, his eyes betraying how hurt he was that he was here alone. Damn, his boyfriend better have had a good reason to leave him alone like this or else Devi might just decide to punch his lights out and blame it on divine intervention. Zim was annoying, she could tell that much, but he wasn’t trying to be. He still didn’t deserve to be left alone in a cafe where he was obviously uncomfortable. Just like someone else she kn-

Goddamn it, she needed to stop comparing the two.

“...are you mated?” She had a feeling that English was either not his first language or he was an alien. Either way, it was a better fate then a dinner date with a zombie. Coffee with an alien. Huh…

The artist assumed what he was asking about was the snake ring coiled around her finger. Johnny had actually gotten it for her (shocking, she knew) for Christmas, placing it on her pillow before disappearing. Or, at least, he’d tried to disappear but Tenna had caught him trying to leave and had pestered him back up the stairs. So she had a grinchy Nny in a stupid sweater and a Santa hat for Christmas which was better than a ring but she still wore it.

“Um...I...guess?” She didn’t really know how to label her relationship with the maniac, only that they had kissed (which took a lot) but they hadn’t ever said ‘girlfriend’ or ‘boyfriend’ in public (which would take more). Yet they had already faked being married on more than one occasion, so sure! Why not keep the ruse going?

“Ah-ha! So it does mean being mated! Zim knew the Dib LIED!” The green boy tugged a ring out from his high collar, one that was secured by a golden chain around his neck. “Stupid, filthy, LYING Dib…”

Then there were grumbly mutters as he showed her his golden ring, which had tiny characters etched into it. A secret alien language, probably. Devi choked back the laugh when she thought of how that poor boy had to explain what he wanted on that ring. Surely though, someone who would’ve gone through all of that trouble wouldn’t just abandon his boyfriend in a cafe, right?

“It’s very pretty. Do you have any idea where your boyfriend might b-”

The door to the cafe swung open so hard it slammed into the wall with a bang. Devi and Zim’s heads shot up to see two very familiar dark figures looming in the doorway. Two black-loving, gothic boys, both tired-looking and pencil thin, stepped into the cafe soaking wet. They looked like they’d been in a fight, Nny leaning against the doorframe with his one hand covering a black eye. The other boy’s glasses were broken with one coat sleeve torn from his shoulder. Neither of them looked very happy.

“What the hell happened to you?!” Zim asked the other boy, who Devi assumed was Dib, at the exact same time Nny waved to her with a, “Hi, Devi! I fought the Jersey Devil today!”

Everyone else in the cafe either started toward the exit or stood in shocked silence at this display. Meanwhile, Dib ignored everyone if favor of briskly walking to Zim to flop bonelessly against him, a sobbing sound tearing from his throat.

“I try so hard…”

“Yes, yes, Zim knows you do,” The tiny alien patted his boyfriend on the head, which Devi might have left them to if a sudden weight against her side hadn’t stopped her from getting up. “Now have a cookie Dib-thing and meet Devi-human.”

“Can I have a cookie?”

Devi sighed, “Yes, Nny. Now let me see your eye and what exactly you did to it this time…”

#zadr #devnny #dazf? devi and zim friendship!

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desdemonafictional · 6 years

Text

The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (pt 2)

A continuation of my fic of Choko’s “October People” fic

pt 3

Time doesn’t pass in the October world the way it passes elsewhere. Edgar is analytical by nature, but even for him it is difficult to keep track of the hours. Maybe it’s more difficult, because he is so analytical. Before he came here, he lived his life by a series of planners and alarms.

On an early night, when Edgar was still fresh and woefully confused by it all—the murky passage of time and the ghostly shapes that haunted the stalls, the way he could stare at his reflection for so long that he ceased almost to recognize it entirely—Johnny Sea came to visit him.

Edgar caught the soft sound of a breath sighing out and turned to find him at the edge of the vanity, craning his neck up to observe the ceiling. The antique silver chains that hung from the poles of the ceiling swayed in some unseen wind, or some deep insidious tide. Each of their glass-tipped ends glowed in the candle light.

“It suits you,” Nny said, reverently touching a single glowing shard. “It’s exquisite. Like you are.”

A pang of something almost painfully sweet knocked the breath out of Edgar, hard and intense. For a moment he was certain that anything he might have sold to be here was worth it, just to bear that feeling one more time. But then the feeling faded, and Edgar was cold again in the candlelight.

“That’s kind of you to say,” he replied, but distantly.

“Jimmy tells me you’re settling in,” Nny said. “Well actually, what he tells me is a lot of shit that I didn’t ask to hear, the devil knows why I didn’t install a mute function on that degenerate when I signed him on, but you were in there somewhere. Did you like the tour?”

Jimmy? Edgar thought, and then shook the thought away.

“What did you mean,” Edgar said, “when you said Tess and I made different deals?”

Nny crossed his arms in front of himself. “Oh, you know Tess. She tried to get clever with me there in the middle. We had a lot of fun that day! Me trying to lure her to her untimely death, her trying desperately to maintain her life and sanity, taffy, kettle corn….”

Edgar thought for a moment of the lonely sounds of chains in that dark hollow beneath the starless sky, of Tess’s ragged tearful breathing. It occured to him that what he regrets now isn’t so much his decision to take Nny’s hand as his inability to do anything for the only other human being in this monstrous underworld.

(Edgar has gone back to see her a number of times since that first night, and it has never once ended well.)

Nny flicked his wrist, shattering the memory. “Clever Tess! She caught on just in time. Fast talker, that one. You know she wanted to save me too. Well, at first…” He pursed his thin lips. “I don’t suppose she’s forgiven me yet. But you know how it goes with scorpions and frogs. We can’t help our nature.”

“And me?” Edgar asked.

Nny paused. He uncrossed his arms, thoughtfully, and came towards the cot, the striped silk of his coat lining flickering in the dim light. “You could have been free,” he said, “and you knew it. That means something. For your freedom, Edgar-Edgar-Vargas, with your hot little twitching heart, you could buy any prize.”

And then, as Edgar held his breath in something almost fear, almost longing, Nny settled onto his knees at Edgar’s feet. His lighthouse eyes looked up at Edgar, expressionless and alien, as he lifted his fleshless fingers up to Edgar’s cheek. The tips of his ivory digits hovered just above the skin.

“You wanted a home,” he said. “I’ve given you mine.”

The crowds come at night, smelling of smog and fast food grease, whole and human and carefree. Edgar watches them sometimes, how they move in herds through the carnival as the hungry machine picks off the weak and the careless and siphons them away into its dark stomach—rough and reckless boys eager to impress their uneasy dates, third wheels, precocious children.

This is their busiest season. Well that’s no surprise—the season of death, blood on the stones, the dying daylight. In this world it’s always October, so how he’ll know when the calendar truly changes is anybody’s guess.

It was on an evening as he was avoiding Tenna, who was friendly in the absolute most disconcerting way and kept asking him if he’d be willing to part with a finger or two, for purposes no doubt nefarious and perhaps cannibalistic, that Edgar finally found himself drawn into the mechanics of the monster.

There was a hollow thump on the crate below him, at which point Edgar looked down to find Sharktooth in full death-paint, sneering up at him.

“What are you,” he said, “the new lightning rod? Hell’s bells, we’re sure getting our money’s worth out of you.”

“It’s good to see you too,” Edgar sighed. He wasn’t being entirely sarcastic. For all that the showman never seemed pleased to see him, he was at the very least a familiar face in this unpredictable world.

“If you’re not doing anything up there,” Sharktooth said, “maybe you wanna come down here and make yourself useful.”

A frission of interest caught Edgar by surprise. He considered the twilight for a moment, the damp wood beneath his hands, and then leapt down to the earth. He found the idea of spending any time with this strange creature as intriguing as the midnight call of a lamp-lit street, a mystery and an omen all in one.

The moment Edgar touched the ground, Sharktooth turned away from him, flipping up the wool edges of his collar. “I got a new toy for the show,” he said, “I need a warm body to test it out on.”

An odd anticipation prickled through Edgar’s guts. “What kind of toy are we talking about?” he said.

“Easier to just show you,” Sharktooth said, crooking a finger over his shoulder.

They picked their way through a maze of construction, under hollow-eyed strongmen lifting fresh signs for new exhibits, around the swollen footage of the freakshow. Edgar followed close on the showman’s heels, thinking a thousand curious thoughts. When he pulled back the tent flap to allow Edgar entrance, the single brief moment of passing underneath his shoulder filled Edgar with another wash of that strange anticipation.

It was dim here, the only light radiating up from below, from the set that sprawled sullenly across the ground. Edgar froze at the entrance, terrified by the shadow in the glowing murk. At the center of the ring was a clear tank more than twice the height of a man, in which something moved like living thunder. He jolted when sharp tipped fingers closed down on either of his shoulders, sucking in a shock of air, hairs prickling down the back of his neck.

“How about that?” Sharktooth said, a smirk twisting the edges of his voice. “You like swimming in the shark tank, don’t you, Vargas? You wanna take a dip?”

“I’m not dressed for swimming,” Edgar said, mentally swearing at himself even as he said it.

The creature behind him let out a snarl of laughter, squeezing and then discarding him. “Then you’re not gonna like the box,” he said, making his way lazily across the stage.

With a snap of his fingers, limelight splintered the darkness. On a platform below the tank, there was a box full almost to the top with luminous water, strung with chains. Inside its depth, open manacles drifted heavily. Sharktooth stopped in front of it and rapped it with his knuckles, baring his teeth.

“Daring escapes!” he said, “Miraculous revivals! A damsel in the jaws of death!”

Above him, strung in lights like a theater marquee, the words JAWS OF DEATH flashed and faded.

“Here,” he said, shaking out his wrists, “it goes like this.”

And then he threw out his arm towards the audience, to a ghostly swell of applause. “You, yes, any one of you!” he called out, passing his hand over the empty seats. “Any one of you may suddenly find yourself helpless in the jaws of death! To survive, ladies and gentlemen, you must surrender to the peril! Let your body succumb to the unknown, let it taste you—let it know you!”

His passage over the dark arena broke over Edgar, his gaze pausing as it lit there. For the first time, there was no irritation or impatience in his blacked out eyes, nothing save pure and sultry invitation. His open hand, thrown out before him, curled into a gesture of summoning. Edgar felt his throat going hot.

“You there,” he purred, “won’t you come up to the stage? The abyss is hungry to know you—it’s calling your name, pretty thing.”

Hot and dizzy with the pressure of that unbroken gaze, Edgar felt himself take an automatic step forward. His toe scuffed the sawdust. But before he could more than begin to move, Sharktooth flicked his fingers and cut the magic.

“Of course it would be a girl for the real thing,” he said, shooting the rows of the audience a dismissive sneer. “That’s all these troglodytes wanna see, a wet pair of tits. Give the people what they want, more flies with honey, yadda yadda.”

As he turned his attention back to Edgar, Sharktooth narrowed his eyes. “Hold on, Vargas,” he said, “—were you about to come up here?” At Edgar’s mortified silence, he clutched his hair, caught somewhere between fury and laughter. “Fuck me, you are the easiest goddamn mark I’ve ever seen.”

Edgar flushed. He bent down and, to avoid making further eye contact, brushed imaginary wrinkles out of his lightweight pants. After a moment, the wheeze of furious laughter died away.

“Anyway, the box is new,” Sharktooth carried on, righting himself. “I’m not sure what the effect in action is gonna be. You’ll be alright for a practice dummy.”

“I feel like you’re being unnecessarily insulting,” Edgar said, “for someone who apparently needs my help.”

“I don’t need your help,” Sharktooth corrected him. “You just happen to be the only person not doing anything useful right now.”

“So ask Tenna,” Edgar said. “I know for a fact she’s slacking off. She’s been after my fingers for hours.”

“Uhhhhggh, no,” Sharktooth said, addressing his complaint to the ceiling. “Fine, I’ll be like. The minimum of nice to you if you’ll just help me with this death trap.”

“Alright,” Edgar said, and made his way up the steps.

“What,” Sharktooth said, “just like that?”

Edgar shrugged off his jacket and set it down in a neat roll beside the box. “Honestly, I want to see the rest of the act. Anyway, I’m already bought and sold, there’s not much you can do to me now.”

Sharktooth cocked his hip, a grin slowly twisting the corner of his mouth. “Nah… I can’t take your soul,” he said, “you’re right about that. But what’s gonna stop me from taking your life?”

And then he snapped his fingers.

The world went cloudy and green tinted, in the very moment that Edgar’s heart screamed into panic in his chest. The cool weight of water closed and held him—glass bumped his fingertips—the loose fabric his white clothing went translucent as it dragged against him, drifted in the crushing space. Through the glass he could make out nothing except the shape of a man, one finger tapping a place just above Edgar’s head.

Air. The first thing he needed was air. He had seen a thin empty space at the top of the box—this thing was not actually designed to kill him, just shake him up a bit. As he kicked up, his toes bumped glass. He reached through the water and wrapped a length of chain around his wrist, lifting himself up to the surface, where he coughed and glared blearily down at the laughing figure below him.

“You could at least have let me take off my glasses first,” he said.

The hand clapped to muffle Sharktooth’s laughter was smudged with white greasepaint. “Gotta keep on your toes,” he managed.

Edgar blew out a wet puff of air as Sharktooth pulled himself together and stepped back, giving the tank a thorough look over. He held his hands up in the shape of a picture frame.

“Okay,” he said, after a moment, “that’s not bad. It’ll look better with the cuffs.”

Edgar eyed the open ends of the manacles. “Fool me once, shame on me,” he said. “Fool me twice, I don’t think so.”

Sharktooth scoffed. “Look,” he said, “there’s a whole routine here, I’m not actually gonna kill you. Johnny’d turn my gills inside out for one thing.”

Edgar considered him for a moment, measuring the likelihood of that thought. Although he was wary of this place—of the interest of cats in mice—something in his gut told him that there was too much left undone for this to be the end of the line. The nature of this fairy tale was beginning to come clear in the back of his head. “Yeah?”

Sharktooth grinned up at him. “Yeah.”

“Alright.”

The grin faltered. “Seriously? Seriously? You’re not even gonna make me fight for it?”

Edgar untangled himself from the length of chain, ready to let go as directed. “You know how it is with scorpions and frogs,” he said, with a wry smile. “I guess we just don’t get tired of being stung.”

For a moment, through the wetness of his glasses and the glare of the stage lights, Edgar could not make out the exact nature of the expression on the face below him. And then there was a blur of motion, the movement of a hand, and matter shifted in the depths below him. A heavy tightness pulled his ankles, dragging him down below the surface once and for all.

It was a slow process of sinking, the buoyancy of his lungs fighting against the weight dragging him down. His wrists, secured behind his back, left him little to struggle with. Although his body rippled with the panic of a drowning thing, his mind was oddly calm. He could see the shape of his captor through the glass, motionless, and understood that he was being watched with rapt fascination.

Surrender, the memory of that showman’s pitch played again in his mind, succumb—

In the depth that drew him down, his clothing translucent against his thighs, Edgar allowed himself to settle at the bottom of the tank, his knees parting until they met glass on either side. The pressure in his lungs burned hot. Under the green swirl he was dreamily aware of the weight on his body, lovely and dire. He lifted his chin and breathed out a stream of bubbles, thinking—well, in for a penny…

There was no use in fighting his nature. It was becoming clear that he would eat the apple again and again, given half the chance to damn himself.

The sound of the snap rang through the tank like the crack of lightning. All at once the clarity of thin air opened up around Edgar—light burst over him—and he stumbled over the ground, falling against Sharktooth’s chest. Wool scratched the peaks of his bare nipples, hard from the chill.

Sharktooth startled, his hands coming up and closing automatically against Edgar’s shoulders. His skin was strangely cold, despite the fact that Edgar was dripping wet and just about anything ought to be warm by comparison. Goosebumps prickled under the sharp grip.

“Holy hell,” Sharktooth muttered, “forget the wet tits, that’s a show.”

In between heaving gasps, Edgar managed to reply, “—Thanks.”

Sharktooth stiffened. He pried Edgar off of himself, but his grip was tight—for all that he was pushing Edgar away, he didn’t seem quite able to let go. “You’re a reckless son of a bitch,” he said.

“Well,” Edgar said. “I obviously didn’t get where I am by being measured and reasonable.”

The showman’s gaze drifted down, over the length of Edgar’s prickling skin, to the sodden cling of the white fabric against his hips. Edgar suddenly did not feel particularly cold anymore.

Sharktooth let go as if burned. “Fucking hell, next time put some clothes on,” he said, jerking the skewed lapels of his coat back into place. Buttons flashing, blackened lips twisted into a scowl, he snatched up Edgar’s jacket and shoved it into his hands.

Edgar accepted the bundle, but made no move to redress. “I appreciate you not murdering me,” he said.

“You better stop tempting me,” the showman muttered, and stomped away into the darkness beyond the stage, until the curtains swallowed him and even the sound of his boots was no longer audible.

Edgar pulled on his jacket, one wet arm at a time. “I think that went well,” he informed the leviathan in the tank, who had nothing to contribute at that time.

#jthm #mmygar #etc

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courage-a-word-of-justice · 6 years

Text

Golden Kamuy 1 | Butlers x Battlers 1 | Mahou Shoujo Ore 2 | Idolish7 15

Golden Kamuy 1

It’s time to go all in for gore and action!

If there was enough to scar his face, he’s definitely not immortal. I tell you that about Sugimoto.

Monme is a term used for weighing pearls, apparently.

A kan was mentioned in the link I provided last dotpoint as 30 monmes…Yikes…

The realistic fire actually throws me off somewhat.

Souns like the One Piece, only…more obviously Japanese.

Ezo. I knew I’d read this name somewhere – it was in a Crunchyroll article about this show!

Am I dreaming or is that bear a littttttle too realistic-looking? Last time a bear was in an anime was Armed Girls’ Machiavellianism, and I didn’t like that so much…

Normally the symbol for Russia is a bear (even today, just look at Vladimir Putin fight them bears!) so (strangely) I’m not surprised Sugimoto made a connection between monster bears and Russians.

Hokkaido winter. Must be nasty, eh?

There’s something strange about watching a CGI bear and wolf fight, y’know? Especially when the blood of the bear is 2D.

Postcredits scene. Keep watching…

Ooh, this show’s definitely a keeper!

Butlers x Battlers 1

After being swayed by Cactus Matt to give this show a chance, I am doing just that…very hesitantly…

Eye blink animation? Okay, I think anime just went over the cliff for “too much info we didn’t need”. It works for a VN, but not an actual first-person scene in an anime.

What is the opposite of “touchable” anyways (by using a prefix)?

I feel sorry for the owl that gets held up by one of the boys…

OLDCODEX? They did an OP for Servamp. They must be pretty perfect for a show like this, then.

About the ep title: Toki is literally “time”, there is a specific word for “moment” in Japanese y’know…

“High-spec” is not a word I would ever want to hear in relation to a student council. I’d like to hear it for a computer, though.

Both “Jinguji” and “Koma” look like last names at first glance…

Ohh! Pretty! Ren’s name means “lotus” (often the white variety is shown for that kind of flower, right?), aside from the obvious callout to the colour white in his surname.

I half-expect every new character intro to have a sparkly introduction thing with it. For this sort of show, which hasn’t done anything with the sister(?) from the beginning moments, it seems kind of…inundating the series with characters for characters’ sake. That’s bad, y’know.

Couldn’t you show and not tell this “your grades are high” bit?

Wait. So that was a transition (when J walked in and it just suddenly moved to Tenna)? Sure didn’t look like one.

If Ren’s colour is white, then why is Dracula white???

“Fast river”…? Eh? Update: Yeah, J’s right…

At first I thought the comedic timing on this show was great, but the girls’ owl gag didn’t work for me…

Oh man. I’ll never remember this amount of characters if they’re doing all the namecards in the first episode! Adding a mystery to an already packed show is not going to help matters at all. Holmes looks like a Diabolik Lovers reject, to make matters worse…

Akira reminds me of the owner from Ameiro Cocoa for some reason. Getting an Ameiro Cocoa reference is definitely not a good thing for this show…

The letter transition was better than the last one, at least.

Kageyama Hikari? That sounds extremely counterintuitive for a name… (Note: kage = shadow, hikari = light)

J didn’t even get his drink, did he? I would’ve liked some bishie sparkle to make this look a bit better. The prettiness of the still visuals really got downgraded through the animation process.

“You and I are both Butlers!” – Uh, no they’re not. One’s a café attendant and the other’s a student (LOL).

What even is a Blood Spirit??? You can’t even see the birth mark when it’s pointed out (you just get a blue light), so there’s something mighty fishy about that…

So…this is a time travel show??? Wut? Post-credits scene though, keep watching…

What are those characters under the episode title? I can’t tell.

There are enough bits of interesting stuff to keep me watching, but I anticipate this’ll be like Tsukigakirei (as in, I keep complaining about the bad parts, even if I enjoy the show in general). That’s why it’s going on hold. By the way, I thought about Nil Admirari and that’s been dropped, but I’ll reevaluate it if I need something that fits its niche sometime in the future.

Mahou Shoujo Ore 2

I’ve signed up for a collab on this series, so it seems like it’ll be sticking around for a while.

The cutesy voices of the monsters really sells this show, eh?

This joke (“I’m me”)…there was a similar one in Cute x Boy (“I’m just Jun”/ “Tada[ ]no Jun”), which really brings me back…ahh, nostalgia.

If you’re talking about what pronouns people use, the manager uses “ore” as well, which is a tad confusing (LOL).

This love for Saki’s male form…it must be genetic! (LOL)

Wow, real photos really sold this gag. They’re certainly gonna run it into the ground real quick as this rate, though…

How did they manage the upside-down…oh wait, Spanish subtitles. Rightttttttttttttttt…

Oh no. Don’t do the fanservice. It’s disturbing on a ma-oh, never mind. It happened. Let it go.

The deep voice they chose for Sakuyo’s male form definitely sold that. Excecution is key, remember?

The Sailor Moon parody line in the preview, that was absolutely fabulous! Oh, but the word used is “fueta” (increased) and technically it’s not “Another” in most senses of the term…or any senses, in fact.

Idolish7 15

This show’s going on a 1 month hiatus…which is really sabotaging my schedule, but what can you do about it? Nothing, aside from wait.

Wait, that end bit was definitely different. Normally everyone raises their hands at this stage and the plane goes off into the distance. This time everyone brings their hands out from under Riku’s and no plane is in the sky…things are really getting serious. Is it wrong that this show sometimes makes me a bit anxious?

Sometimes it’s hard to believe Riku and Iori are brothers…

What’s with the fish-eye lens on Tsumugi and the van?

The point of fans is to be in tune with their idols and vice versa. That’s the power of idols and their fans!

I noticed Gaku is wearing a cross necklace. That certainly wouldn’t fly on American TV, would it?

I got kinda anxious with the last lot of episodes that concerned the song theft, so that explains why I’m feeling kind of anxious now as well…

I think I understand the use of the fish-eye lens now. This one particularly gives an idea of invasion and creepiness. It’s probably more spot on than Junji Ito Collection, and that’s saying something!

It’s interesting that Sougo takes on the role of the surrogate mother here for Tamaki…

“We can’t shoot a show like this!”

If Gaku hits his dad, that’s a lot of dad-punching for one series…two hits in a row…

It’s in times of desperation that Tenn looks like his brother.

Whoa! Those leopard eyes signal some major danger on the horizon! If only the show weren’t going on hiatus…

Post-credits scene! Keep watching.

Even the titlecard is grey, and Otoharu’s opening his eyes. Stuff really is getting serious around here! Yikes!

Okay, here’s details on the hiatus. Until then, I’ll be taking on more spring shows. See you then…

#simulcast commentary #butlers x battlers #intouchable butlers #butlers chitose momotose monogatari #idolish7 #golden kamuy #mahou shoujo ore #Chesarka watches Idolish7 #Chesarka watches MSO

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mannentilminkardemomme · 7 years

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To Tenna @prinsenimittliv

“i really want you to write a prompt with jealous even in s1, like what if they were together in s1 and those gifs are from evens pov, i mean, look at isak flirting like he doesn’t have a bf”

Fucking Julian Dahl.

Even never normally let the jealousy take charge of him and his mood, but this was the last straw. It had to be the last straw, since Isak was his. Not Julian’s. His.

He had been lenient with Julian ever since Isak introduced him to Even as a childhood friend a couple of weeks ago. Even couldn’t help but let the slight jealousy go a little at the time given how happy and relaxed Isak was around his old friends. Keeping Isak’s mood high and his mind off of what was currently happening at home with his parents was Even’s main priority, so seeing his little moody teenager being free and happy for a change, be it even with fucking Julian Dahl was more than enough. The two boys had started talking again when they found out that they shared a couple of classes with each other at Nissen, since their friendship was abruptly interrupted when the summer holiday started and everything went to shit at Isak’s home. Even was comfortable with all the small talk and the inside jokes between the two younger boys of course, but Isak was ever so slightly starting to share with Julian his special smile, his special laugh and everything that Even thought was only shown between him and Isak. Yes, Isak was only in his first year of Nissen. And yes, it was important that he had a stable friendship group.

But in the heat of the moment Even decided that this had gone too far.

The tall boy stood there on the opposite side of the school grounds circled by his classmates from the previous lesson, perfectly placed in relation to Isak so that he could tactically zone out of the immature mumblings from those around him and dream about his golden boy for twenty minutes like he usually did. But Even had lost control over his jealousy and decided that today it had gone too far.

He clenched his fists ever so slightly, staring at Isak so intensely that his eyes might as well have had been lasers and walked over in Isak’s direction with one thing on his mind: he’s mine.

As he neared his small smiling sunshine, he made sure to gently bump into Julian with enough force to make him realise that Even was now dominating this space. He came round to Isak’s side, perched on the bench with him, wrapped his arm around his waist and sneakily pulled him into his side.

“Hey, baby.” Even smiled to Isak, stealing his attention away from Julian.

“Hey! Even!” He smiled even wider back, “You remember Julian, my old friend from Grefsen-”

“Yes, you’ve mentioned him before.” Even nodded politely to Julian with a forced nice-guy smile on his lips, trying his best to make sure that Julian finally got the message to just back off already.

Julian quickly noticed the game that was being played here, “Hi, Even! So good to see you again. You know, Isak was just mentioning about how we should all go out one night and have pre-drinks together.” What the hell? That’s not for you to join in on. Get your own group of friends.

Even winced at the thought of being near Julian anywhere outside of school, and immediately knew what he was doing. He knew how he was taking a slight advantage of Isak’s fragile state. Sneaky little bugger.

“Oh my word, yes! That would be so great. Us three and the boys all together, like in the old days. Well, not exactly like that but, you know. Jonas would enjoy spending time time with you again, we all would.” Isak responded with a little too much excitement in his voice than Even could handle. Why am I letting Julian get to me like this.

“Oh cool. I heard that some first year girls were having a party with the ‘97 guys this Friday, so we could do it then.” Julian responded, a smug smile spreading over his lips accompanied by confidence in his voice. You’re not getting away from this easily, Julian.

“We can go to that one, can’t we, Even?” Isak nudged him slightly, suddenly turning Even’s attention back to his sunshine boy. Oh how wonderful and sweet he could be in innocent moments like these.

“Yeah, sure.”

“Great, so it’s a date.” Julian confidently told them before walking away with his hands in his pockets and a smile on his face. What’s that guy’s problem? Can’t he see that he doesn’t stand a chance here?

Even hadn’t dropped his dead-pan face of no remorse until Isak gently stroked away the frowns that were collecting on his forehead. “What’s on your mind?”

Fucking Julian Dahl.

“You, of course, like always.” Even still didn’t feel confident enough to expose Isak with a kiss in front of all his classmates at school, so he just lent down to his ear and whispered “I’ve just really fallen for you.”

He could feel Isak blush from under his hold around his waist, even just from those couple of words. So he tightened his grip a little more and pulled him in closer, “Fy faen, you look so good with your hair like that.”

Little did it take for Isak to melt from the inside in response to Even’s words, so he tried to hide his shy smile and red face from him by looking at the ground, his eyes looking for an object to focus on, but finding none.

“Look at me.” Even brought his hand to Isak’s chin and softly tilted it upwards so that they were now facing each other at a slight angle. “You, Isak Valtersen, are a beautiful boy. Don’t let anyone else other than me say so, okay?” His big blue eyes now catching Isak’s attention.

“Okay.”

Even pressed their foreheads together and for a second, or two, it was just a beautiful boy and a caring boy that were uncomfortably perched on a bench in the middle of the day, in the middle of Oslo, and to them it felt like being in the centre of the universe.

Thanks to @beanievaltersen for beta'ing! You da bomb.com🌟

Find it on ao3 here!! :D

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ladyyatexel · 7 years

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Chapters: 28/28 Fandom: Johnny the Homicidal Maniac Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Johnny "Nny" C./Edgar Vargas, Devi D./Tenna Characters: Edgar Vargas, Devi D., Jimmy "Mmy", Johnny "Nny" C., Tenna Additional Tags: Songfic, AU, Rewrite, Asexual Character, Asexuality Summary:

"Reincarnation is complicated and apparently not a refined system. When the lines between lives are blurry at best, and memories seep in from the person you were, do you stay the person you are? Who do you want to be, and do you want to be seen?"

Sharing a bit of a personal experiment in rewriting 'Song Without A Name', a fanfic I began writing in 2004. You absolutely don't need to the read the original to read this, and I'd actually prefer if you didn't! If you do decide to track it down, please just keep in mind things have changed in over ten years, even if I'm still using the same summary!

Even more excessive notes inside~! Updates on the 10th of the month. Complete.

The End.

I’m done, and I feel kind of sick about it. I’m putting it up a day early because I’ll be at work tomorrow an unable to orchestrate everything I need to do. Thank you for reading this thing that was my world for so long. Please, please enjoy it. It is my thing. More long winded talk under here:

I'm still feeling a bit lost and confused after having finished this thing. As of this writing, it's not as bad as the first time for several reasons, but it is certainly having an impact.

The first time, I didn't know ISH existed because I hadn't thought it up yet, so ending SWAN felt like I was saying goodbye forever to these people I loved very much and who had been a constant part of my life for many years. They'd been with me through some critical points in my life and with the story ended I felt like people had died and was appropriately mourning for a few weeks. This time, thanks not only to knowing there is more, but to knowing that I told the story more completely this time around, I don't feel so much like I'm cutting off a critical connection. Giving a better picture of their world this time for some reason makes it easier for them not to be a constant part of mine. I felt both times writing this story like these kids were real people, like strange friends I knew deeply, and as long as I had more story to tell, they were actively laced into my life. Still, even though I know there is more, I feel like I will miss them being there with me as part of my daily routine until I'm ready to commit to another one of these. It's weird in that it feels like I have to give up these kids in order to share them with you. They can't be with me daily if they're finished, and they can't be shared with others and finished if they're being worked on daily. I feel a bit like I'm surrendering something.

This effect was enhanced this time around because the last 12 chapters of reSWAN were published monthly. I'm honestly incredibly proud of myself for doing so on a 'I can commit to a schedule' level, and that schedule is what really made these kids feel like part of my daily life. I used working on this story to drag myself through the winter, the worst part of the year for me mentally. I managed to update every month even with busy holidays and other obligations. I wrote on every break I had from work, amounting to an hour and a half during the work day alone if I was dedicated and not distracted during those times. Even after that, I'd work on it at home, and I'd use most of the weekend writing too.

Almost every day and certainly every week. For an entire year. I saw more of the Homicides than I did most real people.

So yeah. A break is probably a good idea. There are a lot of things about ISH I haven't decided yet, but I want to give myself time to do other things for a bit before I throw myself into another project that requires this level of dedication to get through. I loved doing this, and I fully intend to do this even more soon, but a break from it being constantly in the back of my mind that I need to meet a deadline will be refreshing. I also didn't paint as much while I was writing reSWAN because I had to be so feverishly dedicated to the writing. My default state is drawing, so the writing required extra time and focus to accomplish. Hilariously, all the art projects I'm thinking of doing in between this and ISH are related to it. So maybe it won't look like a break, haha.

Anyway, now that I've said a lot of words about how much time I spent with this thing, I want to thank you guys for sticking around through it, where ever you came in.

Gu in particular, who has been here since the literal start of reSWAN, and so sat through two years of my nonsense consistently interested and engaged with it (to the point of art and cosplay and song), which just thrills the fuck out of me.

Those of you who decided to start reading (and keep reading!) without knowing the canon material just because I talked about it so much on Tumblr, like Indigo and Melissa! I still am just blown away that you guys became so dedicated to this thing I made from some source material you have never consumed and probably never will. Your enthusiasm gave me incredible confidence in what I was doing and was often the strongest motivator to get things done by the tenth!

Those of you I met and just text all the time because of this! Visi and Crystal!

Everyone who made fanart or cosplayed or wrote fan-fanfic! I'm so touched to have made something good enough to not spend your time reading, but also to spend time and effort creating for. It doesn't matter how many times it happened, I love it anew every time.

Everyone who left a comment on AO3, thank you, you are my fuel and confirmation that I wasn't screaming into the void.

I said in the end comments of the story itself that I know it's kinda dumb to be so 'and here's the grand thank you page/epilogue' on something that is such a non-event in the rest of the world, but this is deeply important to me, and even if it's just me and like 20 people, then cool, I hope it was important to me and 20 people.

I'm glad you were all here with me. For those times when writing just for me wasn't motivating enough, knowing that some of you were out there waiting for it pushed me onward. And now it's done! This thing I thought I was going to do one chapter of! 28 chapters and a whole story double the length of the first one! I'm delighted. Thanks for reading this, thanks for letting me show you my precious garbage and glitter children~

You are all my weird SWAN siblings now. Come scream at me about this if you so desire, for I would be Delighted by it. Nothing makes me happier than excuses to stay in this world rather than the real one.

I'll see you when it's time for these guys to go out on the road again!

– <3 Lady

#johnny the homicidal maniac #jthm #nny #edgar vargas #swanish #reswan #fanfic

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starrypawz · 7 years

Text

Operation Hewett

You thought smuggling the kid out of Imp space was the hard part?

@karanan @daraasum

Although if she was being poetic, or If she was drunk or both Axi would have said something about ‘Born with the stars in my blood’ she had to admit that as the Sky Queen came into the docking bay the thought that she wouldn’t have to fly anywhere for a while was quite inviting.

But then considering the distance covered, and the whole ‘needed to get into the heart of Imperial space and back out of it’ elements not to mention ‘transporting a baby’ she was pretty sure no one could blame her for that.

“Nearly home!” Zeva beamed as they walked through the spaceport, “Feels good!”

“Mhmm,” Axi looked around, plenty of people came through Dantooine and this was one of the main ports but it seemed they had managed to come in on a quiet point, the port largely empty, which may or may not work in their favour, “How’s she holding up?”

Jona stopped walking for a few moments and looked down at the bundle in his arms, “She’s fine,” Jona paused, “She seems to have fallen asleep again,”

“Well hopefully that’s a good sign for when we get to the ranch,” Axi smiled warmly, talking a step or two back to find that yes their ‘precious cargo’ was sleeping blissfully unaware of what was going on, “This will be one hell of a story to tell her when she’s a bit bigger,” Axi gently reached out to brush over a dark curl, the corner of Axi’s mouth twitching upwards slightly as Hewett shifted at her touch, “Hey kid, we took you half way across the galaxy and you slept through most of it,”

“My folks know we’re coming, I commed them a little while ago,” Zeva offered up, “Probably take us about an hour to get there from here,”

“You hear that…” Jona sighed, “Just hold out for another hour,”

“You talking to her or yourself?” Zeva asked.

Jona shrugged carefully so as not to jostle the baby, “Both?” He offered up with a weak smile.

“Hey,” Zeva dropped his voice, “You sure going through this way was a good option? cause we got,” Zeva gestured in the direction of the customs officers and then to Hewett.

“I think what Captain Revel is intending is that we hide in plain sight,” Offered up the Chiss who accompanied them, who out of all of them would’ve been the most likely to get stared at and draw suspicion no matter if the port had been busy or not.

“Something like that,” Axi replied, “Generally most these folks just want to get the job done quickly unless they’re like really new to the job so…” She reached for Gev’s hand and gave it a slight squeeze a gesture almost unnoticeable to the others unless they were paying attention, Gev squeezed back. “And it’s quiet so they’re probably bored out of their skulls and not paying attention anyway…”

“Lead the way,” Gev slipped an arm around her shoulder, something everyone did notice as they continued on their way through the port.

Axi was quiet for a few moments as she stood in front of the customs officer and then grinned to herself, “Oh hello,” she greeted the customs official and she thanked her lucky stars the zabrak on the counter didn’t appear to be an ‘overly eager new recruit’ that should’ve made things easier. He seemed more ‘I would quit but if I did the entire place would probably fall down around my ears so I’m stuck here,”

“Docking bay?” He didn’t look up.

“Xesh Five Oh,” She paused, “Freighter, Sky Queen uh I can find my registration…”

“No need,” A few taps were performed on a console, “Registered to Axi Revel, I assume you are Axi Revel?”

“The one and only,” She smiled, he did not seem impressed by the smile, “Been a while since I’ve had a chance to get down here, it’s so pretty this time of year!”

They grunted before looking up, “Pass,”

“Oh, hey…” She turned to Gev, “You’ve got those haven’t you sweetie?”

Gev nodded and handed her the card, and pulled her a bit closer to him.

“Two for one deal,” Axi chuckled, “He’s better at keeping track of these things than I am,”

The official didn’t seem to pay attention to this and scanned the passes, “Gev Var,”

“Yeah that’s me,” He smiled, “Travelling with my lovely partner here,” He planted a kiss on the top of her head for emphasis.

Axi chuckled, “Aww you’re such a sweetie,” She turned to Gev and lightly touched his chin and grinned at him, “I bet you have someone just as sweet waiting at home?”

The zabrak didn’t respond.

Axi stole a look back slightly to witness a rather nervous looking Jona although she couldn’t blame him and an extraordinarily calm looking Cesearch, the Chiss standing as if he had every right to be coming through a Dantooine ship port with no questions asked.

“Oh wait my turn!” Zeva grinned, handing over his pass. “Least I found it straight off this time!”

“Yeah and they don’t like the ‘It was in my other pants’ excuse,” Axi laughed, although yet again it didn’t seem to do much to move the custom’s official as he scanned the pass and confirmed Zeva’s identity.

“You two at the back,” He gestured at Jona and Cesarch, patience clearly wearing thin.

“Ah, right this is where things might get a bit complicated terribly sorry,” Axi leant forward, “See… they don’t really have passes,”

“They…”

“Well you see, I picked up a bit of work, old friend works in like all that charity stuff, and I wonder why cause I mean not much money in it but it’s good for the common people I guess?” “And well I’m a helpful person and so when they say could you help me with some refugees…”

“Refugees?”

“Yeah, from some like… outpost type place? You know things are getting bad out there lots of people getting caught up in the middle, ordinary people like you and me and it’s a real crying shame so gotta do what we can…”

“So you are saying these individuals have no documentation what so ever?”

“No my good man,”

“And you’ve got nothing from any sort of organisation, you? You with the Peace Brigade? United Relief Front? People’s Front of Courscant or that Courscant People’s Front” Something about the way he said the last two implied ‘and as I found out they are not the same people and they do not appreciate being compared’

Axi shook her head, “Oh man those guys, bless them are swamped right now, backlogged to hell and so been a few well-meaning people like my good friend stepping in and lending a hand, and I mean this was dire like ‘We need to leave now’ so these two and the sweet little baby, she’s a real doll don’t really have much between them…”

The official sighed and Axi for a few tense moments had to wonder if he was going to call in someone higher up.

“Right,” The console was tapped a few times, “I will issue your companions an emergency authorisation, this will be valid for a month and then you must report to the local branch of the Dantooine Identity Office to be officially processed…”

“Oh that is just swell, thank you good sir!” Zeva grinned, “Hear that we’ll be at your new home sooner than we think!”

“Sorry about him, he’s just eager to help out, friend of mine being very generous and letting them stay at his folks’ place, it’s nice plenty of room…”

“You two back there,” He gestured, “I need names, start with you, the blue one,”

Cesarch stepped forward, his stance still full of confidence Axi had noticed the ‘bristle’ when he had been referred to as ‘the blue one’ but it seemed either he let it slide or was pretending to do so for the sake of cover.

“Name,”

“Well do you want my full name or we tend to have…” Axi noticed he still sounded quite formal but a little bit less ‘Incredibly posh butler probably from a holo about some rich guy living a double life as a vigilante’ than from when she’d first met him.

“I need a name”

“Oh ok just checking because people sometimes have a problem with…”

“Name,”

“Cesarch,”

“And you are…” He gestured at him.

“I am a Chiss, I know, we’ve only recently started venturing out of our part of the galaxy so we’re a bit of an… unusual sight… but I have to say it’s an interesting galaxy and I hope I get to see more…”

The custom’s official ‘hmpfed’ and tapped at the console “You…” He gestured at Jona.

Jona swallowed and stepped forward,

“Name,”

“Jonathon Tenna, uh Tenna with two n’s and an a on the end”

“Right… Johna…”

“Uh no, I mean I don’t want to cause a problem but it’s Jonathon, sorry”

He sighed, “Right then Jonathon,” managing to make Jona’s name sound like a swear word, “And the infant… they are…”

“Are?”

“Baby girl? baby boy?” He sighed.

“Girl, well I mean that’s what the doctors say but when she gets a bit…”

He sighed.

“Sorry, it’s been a long journey,” Jona found himself thanking… someone or something about the fact his accent didn’t seem to arouse suspicion. But then it was believable enough right? Refugees, some poor working-class stock Imperials stuck on an outpost somewhere… he almost believed it himself what did he do? Probably worked in admin, something boring and safe?

“Name?”

He smiled down at Hewett who had decided finally to wake up and was looking at him with blue eyes, and he was pretty sure she was thinking…

“Hewett,” He looked back up with a smile, “Her name is Hewett, she’s named after…”

He sighed again, “Ok so… That is Jonathon,” (this time it sounded less like a swearword) “And Hewett Tenna,”

Jona felt something inside him seize at that statement, his mind starting to run through ‘Actually I’m not… well you see… it’s a long story, I’m just…’

“Sir?”

“Sorry,” Jona’s voice probably touch too high, “Yeah, yeah that’s us, Jonathon and Hewett Tenna,” He felt something in his throat and looked back down at Hewett who had started to gurgle, he let out a sigh he didn’t realise he’d been holding.

Gev placed a hand on Jona’s shoulder.

“Thank you for your help,” Gev smiled, Jona sighed feeling himself calm slightly but it didn’t feel like he was calming down more something had been placed on him that was gently nudging him in an attempt to relax him, “It’s been a long journey and I think we all just want to get home and rest…”

“So that is in addition to three authorised persons one… chiss adult male, one adult human male and a female human infant,” He didn’t pause long enough to let anyone confirm this before he let out another ‘hmpf’ “To clarify you three are being allowed in on an emergency authorisation, this is a temporary measure and report to the Dantooine Identity Office in one month to receive official documentation,”

“Yeah got that, I’ll make sure it happens,” Axi smiled, a little too much almost like an overeager stewardess and clapped her hands together, “Thanks again for all your help! C’mon guys let’s get you settled in at your new place! The owners of the house are the nicest people and can’t wait to meet you!”

She smiled at the customs official, “Have a nice day!”

#starry writes stuff #axi revel #the ranch fam #gev var

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snappedsky · 7 years

Text

Fanatics 48

This was an idea given to me by a very supportive fan on Deviantart. Previous! Next!

New Hobbies

“Coming in!” Devi announces as she and Tenna burst through the door of house number 777. But it’s completely empty; nobody’s around.

“Huh. They must be out,” Tenna says, “should we come back?”

“Nah. Let’s just hang out,” Devi replies.

They flop down on the couch, turn on the TV, and make themselves at home.

Nobody shows up for about an hour. And then suddenly the basement door swings open and Johnny walks out, blood dripping from his clothes and face. He spots Devi and Tenna and nearly jumps out of his skin.

“What the hell are you doing?” he exclaims.

“Forget us. What happened to you?” Tenna asks.

“What, this?” he questions as he gestures to the blood. “None of its mine.”

“Then whose is it?” she asks.

“Don’t answer that,” Devi says quickly, “what’s wrong with you?”

“Hey, don’t shout at me,” Johnny snaps, “you two are always barging in here without knocking. You were bound to see something you didn’t want to eventually.”

He wipes some blood off his cheek. “I’m gonna go clean up. The two of you should take this time to think of what lessons you can get from this.”

He goes down the hall to the bathroom. The girls stare after him for a second before Devi sighs with aggravation.

“He’s so disgusting,” she comments.

“You know what we should do?” Tenna asks.

“Well, we could turn him into the police but I don’t think Squee would be very happy about that,” Devi replies.

“No. I was going to say we should help him find a new hobby,” she says.

“What?” she questions.

“He just needs a better way to spend his time and energy,” Tenna explains, “we can help him find it.”

Devi shrugs. “Well, he did use to like drawing.”

“And City University offers all kinds of community classes,” she adds, “we should sign ourselves up.” “Yeah,” Devi smiles, “let’s go.”

They leave quickly to put their plan into action.

A few minutes later, Johnny finishes showering and changing and goes into the living room. He looks around with surprise when he notices the girls are gone then smiles, pleased.

“Much better,” he sighs as he lies down on the couch.

The only reason Johnny leaves the couch is to drive Squee to Skool the next day. Afterwards, he returns to it and enjoys a couple quiet hours to himself.

And then Devi and Tenna burst through the front door, smiling excitedly.

“Ugh,” Johnny groans with blatant disgust. “You two never learn.”

“Come on,” Tenna orders, “we’re going on a field trip.”

“Huh?” he grunts.

“We signed ourselves up for a bunch of community classes at CU,” Devi explains, “we’re gonna help you find a new hobby.”

“Why?” Johnny asks.

“You need one,” Tenna insists, “honestly, how else do you spend your time other than watching TV?”

“Well, yesterday I spent a couple hours drilling into-.”

“Ah, we don’t need to know,” Devi says quickly, cutting him off.

“Just come on,” Tenna orders.

Before he can argue anymore, they grab Johnny’s arms and drag him out the door and into Devi’s car.

“Fuck,” he huffs as he pouts in the backseat. “What sort of classes?”

“Sketching, painting, and pottery,” Devi replies.

“Those all sound awful,” he comments.

“What, even sketching?” Tenna questions, “we chose that one just for you.”

“If I could still draw, then I would,” he points out, “some pretentious stranger trying to teach me shit isn’t gonna help.” “How do you know they’re pretentious?” Devi asks.

“Why else would they be a community class teacher than to showcase their skills to people of all ages?”

“Jeez, you’re so negative,” Tenna scoffs, “some people do it because they’re desperate for money or have given up on their dreams.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Nny shrugs.

An hour or so later they arrive at City University, the biggest, most prestigious advanced educations school in the city. They enter through the front gates and head through the campus to the main building.

“I thought about coming to CU for an arts degree,” Devi says, “but the second I mentioned it to my parents they started bringing up all kinds of other classes they thought I should take instead and they ruined it for me.”

They enter the main building and follow a map to their class. As they’re heading through the halls, they spot two familiar people sitting on a nearby bench although it takes them a second because they’re normally wearing face paint.

“Hey, Nny, Devi, Tenna,” one of the Doughboys waves happily. It’s difficult to tell which one but it’s probably Mr. Fuck.

“Wow, you two are eerily identical without makeup on,” Tenna comments.

“Don’t remind me,” Psycho Doughboy groans.

“Which raises the question, why don’t you have your makeup on?” Devi asks, “and what are you doing here?”

“Aron goes to CU and he sneaks us into the communal showers once in a while,” Eff explains, “we just finished up. Now we’re waiting for Sickness and Reverend Meat.” “They take so long,” D-boy comments.

“What are you guys doing here?” Eff asks.

“Taking some community classes,” Tenna replies, “we’re gonna find Johnny a new hobby.”

The Doughboys stare at her for a second before bursting into loud, boisterous laughter. They literally hold their sides and double over as their laughter bounces off the walls.

“We’re serious,” Devi growls.

“That just makes it funnier,” Eff guffaws.

“Oh, man,” D-boy sighs as he wipes his eyes. “I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard.”

“What’s so funny?” Tenna snaps.

“Nny can’t do hobbies,” Eff says, “the Nightmare drained him dry.”

“But I thought Johnny had endless imagination or something,” Devi points out.

“Well, sure but what good is imagination if all your creativity and originality is gone?” Eff questions as he stands up next to Nny. “Look at him. He’s completely hollow.”

To prove his point, he knocks a couple times on his head. Johnny immediately punches him in the face. Eff cries out in pain as he falls to the floor.

“Well, I think you’re wrong,” Devi states, “if he still has imagination then he can still use it.”

“Alright, believe what you want,” Eff grunts as he rubs his nose. “But trust us; we were there the entire time the Nightmare was feeding off him. He’s got nothing.”

The girls both huff as they grab Johnny and lead him away.

They find their classroom and let themselves in. There are easels with large sketch paper and different pencils, erasers, and sharpeners lined up throughout the room. A few of the easels are already taken, mostly by young adults like them. They pick three easels next to each other in the middle of the room and wait for the class to begin.

The teacher comes in a few minutes later. He’s dressed in a black, semi-formal suit. He stands at the front of the room and examines the class.

“Welcome to sketching class,” he says, “here I will attempt to teach you the most basic form of drawing but I can’t guarantee anything. Not everyone is born with a natural talent for art, like I was.”

“Pretentious and arrogant,” Johnny mumble, “a double threat.”

“The best way to get better at anything is practice, but that will only get you so far,” the teacher continues, “so to begin I want you all to sketch this bowl of fruit.”

He goes into a nearby closet and produces a bowl of apples, oranges, and bananas, which he rests on the front desk.

“I will be going around critiquing your work but don’t let that pressure you,” he says, “remember if you’re not good it’s not your fault. You just weren’t born with the proper skills.”

The students pick up their pencils and start drawing on the easels. The teacher walks down the rows, quietly looking over everyone’s shoulders. Occasionally he’ll make some sort of noise, like a sigh or a snort that sound derisive.

Johnny tries to ignore him and focuses on drawing. It’s been a while since he drew something other than loudmouth stick figures. It’s a little difficult but he doesn’t hate it.

The teacher comes by and glances at his work. He lets out a small scoff and a bolt of fury shoots up Johnny’s spine.

“I see some talent here,” the teacher says as he walks up to the front of the room. “But mostly I just see false hope. You poor souls enter this class thinking you can just learn talent. I hate to tell you this, but art isn’t for everybody. Better you quit now before you really fail.”

Johnny growls and squeezes his pencil.

“Not everybody can be as skilled as I am.”

The pencil snaps in half.

“That’s it!” Johnny barks as he throws aside his easel and stomps up to the front of the room. “You arrogant, pretentious, annoying asshole! I’m gonna cut out your irritating vocal chords with my pencil and hang you with them!”

The teacher cowers before Johnny’s booming voice and terrifying scowl while Devi and Tenna race over and hold him back.

“Okay, time to go,” Tenna says as they start pushing him to the door.

“Let go of me! That annoying thing doesn’t deserve to live!” Johnny shouts.

They successfully get him out into the hallway, where everyone is staring. After a few seconds, Johnny gives up. He drops his broken pencil and trudges down the hall. Devi and Tenna follow close behind.

“Well, that was a disaster,” Devi comments.

“Maybe tomorrow will be better,” Tenna shrugs.

The next day they have their painting class. They drive to the school and head to the classroom.

“You think you can behave yourself today?” Devi asks, “we’re lucky nobody called the cops after your little episode yesterday.”

“That douche had it coming,” Johnny growls.

They let themselves in and pick their easels. Each one has a canvas and some painting supplies. The teacher is already there. She’s built like a cute dwarf and is dressed in really bright clothes.

“Welcome to painting class, everyone,” she chirps, “here I’m gonna teach you the basics of painting. But remember: the most important rule is to have fun.”

“Is this teacher better than yesterday’s?” Tenna whispers, “at least she’s not arrogant.”

“Her giddiness makes me sick,” Johnny mutters.

“Yeah, me too,” Devi agrees.

“Now painting isn’t just about using colours to draw an object,” the teacher explains, “it should be about expressing your feelings and putting those onto your canvas. Paint what you feel. So to start off, I want everyone to paint something that makes them happy.”

“Happy?” Johnny questions.

“Just paint Squee,” Devi shrugs, “he makes you happy, right?”

Johnny groans in reply as he picks up his paintbrush. He stares at the colours and then at the canvas and back at the colours. How does he even begin? He dips the brush in black paint and starts dragging it somewhat absentmindedly across the canvas. Squee has black hair. He could try painting that.

After a few minutes he’s somewhat successfully painted a rather messy looking portrait of Squee. He’s not really sure how to feel about it. This whole assignment makes him…uncomfortable.

The teacher comes by and examines his work.

“Okay, that’s a very nice portrait,” she says, “but I want you to paint how this person makes you feel.”

“How the hell do I do that?” Johnny asks.

“Be creative. Use different colours and brushstrokes. Think about how you feel when you’re with this person and paint it. Use your imagination and visualize your feelings.”

He just stares at her with a blank, somewhat irritated expression.

“You... do have feelings, don’t you?” she asks.

Johnny growls with annoyance and squeezes his paintbrush. Then he catches Devi watching him from the corner of her eye.

He can’t do anything here. If he tries, he’ll miss his shot just like yesterday.

He huffs, drops his paintbrush, and stomps away. “I’m done.”

The next day is pottery class. It seems like an odd choice to Johnny until Tenna says that she’s always wanted to try it.

The teacher seems tolerable at first. He sticks to the basics as he explains how to make pottery.

“The most important thing is to be gentle,” he says sternly, “you don’t wanna squeeze the clay too hard or you won’t be able to shape anything.”

The students get to work on making their pottery. Devi and Tenna enjoy themselves. Playing with the clay is messy and fun. But the second Johnny puts his hand on it, clay splatters all over his shirt and the floor.

“I told you, you got to be gentle,” the teacher snaps as he comes over. “Try it again and this time control your strength.” Johnny tries again with the same result, except this time clay also splatters all over the teacher.

“Ugh, what did I just say?” he barks, “you need to be more careful! Can’t you be the least bit gentle? Pottery is a delicate art!”

He constantly scolds Johnny like a child while his anger slowly rises. Devi and Tenna watch wearily, knowing it’s only a matter of time now.

He snaps quickly. He grabs the teacher by the back of his head, slams his face into the clay, and stomps out of the classroom.

Devi and Tenna sigh with defeat. They apologize to the teacher, help him clean up, and leave.

“This was a total failure,” Devi groans as they leave the school.

“Yeah, but in hindsight I guess we should’ve known it wouldn’t end well,” Tenna points out.

Johnny is leaning against their car when they arrive, tapping his fingers angrily on his arms as he waits.

“I knew this would all be a waste of time,” he scoffs with annoyance.

“Yeah and you were right,” Devi snaps, “sorry for taking an interest in your personal life.”

“You should be,” he retorts, “it’s not like I ever ask for it.”

He gets off the car and goes into the backseat.

“Why do we even try to be friends with him?” Devi growls.

“Well…we like being around Squee,” Tenna shrugs.

They get into the car and drive away.

Later that evening, after Johnny has picked up Squee from Skool, the two of them laze about on the couch and watch TV.

“So the hobby search didn’t work out,” Squee states.

“No,” Johnny growls, “I guess the Doughboys were right. I really am hollow.”

“Well, hey, you draw Happy Noodle Boy sometimes,” Squee points out in an attempt to make him feel better.

“That doesn’t require imagination,” Johnny scoffs.

“No, I guess not,” he sighs.

“Oh, well,” he grunts, “it doesn’t matter anymore. I lost that part of myself so long ago I don’t even remember it.”

“Maybe you’ll reinvent it someday,” Squee suggests, “like how you’ve been reinventing yourself for the past couple years.”

He shrugs. “Yeah. Maybe.”

Later that night, after Squee’s gone to bed, Johnny goes downstairs into his underground floors. He goes down a couple levels and goes into a room with dim light and lots of tables holding multiple sharp objects. In the middle of the room, three familiar people are tied to bolted-down chairs: the teachers for each of his community classes.

“Maybe I am hollow,” Johnny says, “I’m no longer creative and I can’t use my imagination. I see things I had drawn in the past but I don’t remember drawing them or what I felt at the time.”

“You three are art teachers. I assume you must be very imaginative and creative, although I haven’t seen evidence to support that theory. All you guys did was lord your creativity over everyone like some arrogant wannabe god,” he rambles as he picks up a three-bladed knife with serrated edges.

“Still, teachers are meant to help their students,” he says as he faces them. “So do any of you have any advice for me as to how I can be creative again?”

They only whimper and sob fearfully in response.

Johnny glares at them with disappointment then sighs, “ah, well. I’ll reinvent myself some other day.”

He lifts his knife and slices through their chests simultaneously.

#Johnny the Homicidal Maniac #Johnny the Homicidal Maniac fanfiction #JtHM #JtHM fanfiction #IZ JtHM crossover #my art #my ocs

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fangirlinglikeabus · 4 years

Text

holidaying (doctor who)

summary: Team TARDIS attempts to take a holiday. It goes wrong. Ben and Polly work out a few things along the way. (M/F, F/F, rated T)

ao3 ff.net

Ben picked up the drink in front of him, sniffed it, and made a face.

"Come on," Polly said to him. "Drink up."

"Pol, it's bright pink."

"Why does that matter?"

"It's got bits in it."

Polly set down her own drink and sighed. "Look if you didn't want to come here with me you could've just said so. I'm sure Jamie and the Doctor wouldn't have minded an extra person coming with them to explore the marketplace - and anyway, I can look after myself," she added, anticipating his objection.

"Yeah, but what if something goes wrong?" Ben asked. "I don't want to leave you on your own then , do I?"

"Nothing will go wrong."

"Something always goes wrong," Ben observed gloomily. Polly didn't reply to that.

He stole another glance at the drink. It didn't look more appealing a second time round. He could've sworn the bits he'd spotted before were moving about under their own steam.

The pub was fairly empty. They'd been told, coming in, that this was because at midday most of the local people were haggling for prices in the market which opened at twelve, or else taking advantage of the quiet in other parts of the city to have a siesta. The pub only didn't shut about now because of tourist interest. (The proprietor noted this smugly, as though he thought himself particularly skilled for observing that visitors often liked to eat at the exact time most of his competitors were out of action. He didn't seem to mind the loss of a nap, and he had a boy to buy things for him.) Good for them - or at least for Polly - that it hadn't, though. And if Polly wanted to go and taste the local beverages in an effort to 'experience the culture' then it sort of made sense for Ben to go off with her while Jamie and the Doctor wandered down to the marketplace together, with the agreement that they'd meet up back at the TARDIS later on.

"You know, you really should try this, Ben," Polly said. She'd almost finished her drink already. Ben watched her carefully in case there were any sudden and unpleasant side effects. Although they'd told the bartender that they were humans ("oh yes, we have lots of those around here nowadays"), he still wasn't sure he trusted the man to have given them something safe for their species to drink. Polly caught him looking and laughed.

"Oh come on, Ben," she said. "I'm not going to explode after drinking it."

Ben looked away, feeling suddenly self-conscious and out of place. So maybe he did worry about Polly too much. It wasn't his fault that she threw herself into everything like this. And anyway, travelling with the Doctor could be pretty dangerous to begin with. Was it wrong of him to be cautious?

Well, if she didn't like it -

It wasn't really any of his business. She'd probably tell him to stop acting like an overprotective boyfriend if he brought it up, which wasn't true - he knew there wasn't anything between them. Friends maybe, and even that would've been unsure, if they hadn't ended up hopping on board the TARDIS together. Polly had made it clear enough that she wasn't interested in anything else - especially recently, when she'd started avoiding or shutting down every attempt he'd made to express his own feelings.

Ben looked at the drink, muttered, "To hell with it," held his nose, and tipped it back in almost one gulp.

After a few seconds, and when he was certain that he wasn't about to start dying, he allowed himself to relax.

"See, that wasn't so bad," Polly said smugly.

Maybe it was relief that made Ben smile so easily. But Polly was looking in another direction now, her attention caught by a woman sitting near the opposite wall. Ben's smile faded. He stared at the now visible bottom of his glass, feeling stupid for even taking notice. He recognised that look of hers; it was obvious Polly had her own preferences. And even though she was his friend, and he was determined not to think any the worse of her, that didn't mean he liked to see her giving the eyes to somebody else.

"What's the matter?" Polly, turning back to him, had noticed his sudden drop in mood. She rested her head on the table so she could look up and meet his eyes.

Ben turned away. "Nothing."

"Oh, nothing," Polly said, imitating his tone. She passed around to his other side. Ben turned away again. "I'm serious, Ben. What's the problem?"

"Look, Pol, don't worry about me. Go on over to that alien bird if you want. I don't mind." He tried to sound supportive, but he must have been too vague about it because Polly just looked confused. "Well you fancy her, don't you? I don't have anything against it; I'll just head back to the TARDIS and let you two talk."

"You think -" Polly stared at him. Then she shook her head. "Oh, no, Ben, I'm not like that. It's men all the way for me."

Ben scowled. If Polly thought he couldn't tell when… It wasn't exactly the same expression that his mates in the navy got when they saw a girl they liked the look of, but it wasn't far off. And this wasn't the first time he'd spotted it on her face either. Not as though she was hiding it. But now she was pretending like -

Well, okay, so maybe she didn't want to tell him yet. That was fine, he told himself firmly, even if it stung a little. A lot. He was about to say something else when he saw that the woman they'd been talking about was walking over to join them both.

"Hello," she said. "Are you holidaying here?"

"Yes," Polly answered, jumping in before Ben could say anything. "Sort of, anyway. We're just here for the day."

"And you're spending it in a bar?" she asked in mock disapproval. "That's no way to do things. You need to spice things up a bit. Bring some excitement into your trip."

We've got enough excitement in our lives already, thanks very much, Ben thought.

"We didn't exactly know where to look," Polly said. "We're complete strangers here."

"But surely you planned your visit beforehand?"

"One of our other friends got us here," Ben told her. He was starting to feel like an afterthought to the conversation. "He's a bit of a rubbish driver."

"Oh, I see," the woman said, although it was obvious she didn't. "So you don't know what to expect from Tenna at all."

Is that what this place's called, Ben thought. He was a bit embarrassed not to have known, although it wasn't really his fault. Not like the Doctor had told them. Or ever told them, for that matter.

"I can show you around if you want me to. I'm a native; I know all the places they won't show you on the official tourist brochures." She leaned in conspiratorially as she spoke.

No, actually, we're fine, Ben wanted to say, but Polly came out with,

"Oh yes, we'd love that - wouldn't we, Ben?"

- before he could get a word in edgeways.

"Don't you think we should wait for the Doctor and Jamie to get back before we go off God knows where?" he asked. He was wary of going any further away from the TARDIS than they were at the moment, knowing from bitter experience how easy it was to become separated from it.

"You don't have to come along with us if you don't want to," Polly shot back.

Ben's eyes moved between her and the other woman. He was tempted - part of him really was tempted to just go back to the TARDIS on his own and wait, or else try track down Jamie and the Doctor in the marketplace. He wondered if that was what Polly wanted him to do. But he didn't like the idea of none of them - none of the three of them - knowing properly where Polly was. He'd developed a healthy distrust of wandering off alone on alien planets.

"No, I'll come with you," he said reluctantly.

"There's no need to sound so enthusiastic," Polly said sarcastically.

"Look, I just -" Ben broke off.

"What?"

"Never mind." He held out his hand to the woman. "I'm Ben and this is Polly." Then it occurred to him that they might not greet people the same way on this planet and let his hand fall to his side.

"You needn't worry about that," she said. "I've run into a lot of humans in my time. I'm Alea. It's very nice to meet you." And she took his hand, but - Ben was certain - she was looking at Polly, not him, when she smiled.

"Look, Duchess," Ben said once they'd stepped out of the bar, pulling her aside. "Are you sure this's a good idea?"

Polly gave him an exasperated look. "Ben, honestly. We're not about to be mobbed just because we go a little further away from the TARDIS."

"I just don't want to -"

"We'll be fine."

"We don't even know this woman!" Ben exclaimed, struggling to keep his voice low. Polly stared at him, confused. Then comprehension came into her eyes.

"Is this about what you said earlier?" she asked. "I've already told you that I'm not like that. I wish you'd believe me." Ben opened his mouth to say something, perhaps to protest that he wasn't jealous, just worried, but Polly didn't stop to let him answer. Instead she began to walk towards Alea, who was waiting for them a little distance away. But the idea must have still been bothering her because she turned back to him again and said,

"Anyway, I don't know why you're acting jealous about it. It's not as though you even like girls."

"What -" Ben was interrupted by the sound of a commotion.

All three of them stopped to listen.

"There's something going on in the marketplace," Alea said nervously. "We should leave before it gets serious."

"But that's where Jamie and the Doctor went!" exclaimed Polly.

"Yeah, I know," Ben said. He frowned, made a decision. "You wait here." And with that he sprinted down the street towards the noise.

Polly harrumphed. "Well," she said. "How do you like that?" She began to walk after him.

"Where are you going?" Alea asked her. She took a few steps down the path towards Polly.

"After Ben. I'm not going to let him have all the fun. And to think he was just talking about how dangerous it was to run off!"

"That's not a good idea," Alea said.

Polly turned back to her, ready to argue. She was startled by how frightened the other woman looked.

"What's the matter?" Polly asked.

Alea gave her a thin-lipped smile, an obvious attempt to hide her fear. "Oh, nothing. But don't you think your friend will be able to handle himself just fine on his own? He seemed pretty capable." She took Polly's arm. "Why don't the two of us go on a little further without him? I'd like to spend some time getting to know you. Maybe without your friend tagging along. Just the two of us." She blushed, aware of how awkward she seemed. "Of course, if you're…"

Her meaning didn't immediately sink in. Polly frowned, trying to work out what she meant. Then her brow cleared.

"Oh," she said. "I see. Ben was right. He thought - I'm very sorry, Alea, but I think you must have misunderstood me. I wasn't trying to flirt; I was only being friendly."

Alea's face fell.

"You and Ben -" she began, but she was cut off by the sound of thundering feet.

The next moment Ben, Jamie, and the Doctor came haring around the corner.

"RUN!" Ben roared. He grabbed Polly by the arm as he sprinted past her and the two of them ran down the street together. Alea had broken away and was already ahead of them; she signalled that they should follow her.

"What happened?" Polly asked - gasped out, because they were moving faster now, and she could hear something behind her that didn't make her want to look back.

"I don't know!" Ben yelled back. He had to yell now, over the noise. "One minute it was just a few blokes giving Jamie some trouble and the next minute the whole bleedin' square was after us!"

"But the TARDIS is in the other direction!"

"I know!"

Alea rounded the corner ahead of them. A few seconds later they turned it as well and she was back in sight again, holding a door open for them. They raced through and she shut it after them, blocking the crowd as they had almost reached it. Then she barricaded it, grabbing anything with some sort of weight which might prevent people from getting in. There were a fair number of items that fitted the description, and Polly wondered if she had experience with this sort of thing.

"Thank you," the Doctor said once he'd got his breath back, "Miss, uh -"

"Alea," she said. "Did you not read the signs at the space port?"

"We - ah - we came by a slightly different route," the Doctor told her. "Tell me - what did these signs say?"

"They were warning you," Alea said exasperatedly, "to make sure you picked up a psychic blocker before you stepped out onto the planet. The people here are very sensitive to emotional states! If one of you was feeling argumentative or angry in any way, then that would've had a knock on effect. With that many people in one place it could increase the emotion ten times over."

"Why didn't it affect you, then?" Polly asked. "You're from this planet as well, aren't you?"

Alea didn't reply. Instead she told them,

"It'll probably take some time for them to go away and calm down. You might not want to leave for a while after that either, just in case the effect hasn't faded completely."

"We’re very grateful for your help," the Doctor said, shaking her hand enthusiastically. "Aren't we?"

"Oh, aye."

"Yes, definitely."

"Yeah," Ben said. "Thanks." He looked slightly shamefaced, and glanced about the place to hide it. "Uh - what about the windows?"

"Reinforced," Alea said. "They won't be able to get in that way either."

"If they're so out of control won't they hurt each other?" Polly asked.

"Oh, no. There's no need to worry about that. As the instigators, the only thing they'll be focused on is your friends here."

"Well, then." The Doctor clapped his hands together and beamed. "That's all settled. All we need to do now is find some way of occupying ourselves while we wait all this out."

Ben's eyes travelled between Polly and Alea, but he looked away before they could notice.

"I'm very sorry that we've descended on you like this," Polly said to Alea. Ben, Jamie and the Doctor had managed to discover some alien board game and were in the process of deciphering the instructions for it, but when Polly had seen Alea sitting on her own she'd excused herself from the group and gone to join her.

"Don't worry about it," Alea said. "Believe me, you're not the first. And at least the four of you have some sort of excuse. I've had people before who've said they didn't bother with a blocker because they didn't think it was necessary, that they could regulate their emotions perfectly well. The government's thinking of putting in a law against that kind of thing but it's very hard to check every single person to make sure they've got one on, and it's only really noticeably a problem when it's a strong emotion that can disrupt the day to day workings of things. In this case, anger."

"Look, Jamie," Ben's voice came from behind them, "you can't just do something like that, it's cheating."

"Is that right? An' who are you to say what I can and cannae do?"

"It's not me, it says right in the instruction booklet!"

"You never told me why you weren't affected," Polly pointed out.

"Oh. Didn't I?"

"No."

"Huh." Alea was lost in thought for a while. Then she said, carefully,

"I'm sorry for - misreading you, earlier. I have some difficulty distinguishing other people's emotions from my own," she hurried on before Polly could reply. "You see, I'm - underdeveloped, I suppose. I don't know things in the same way. I can feel what other people are feeling, but not as strongly, and I can get confused."

"I don't see that that's such a problem today," Polly said. "I mean, without your help we would've been stuck." So Alea had been flirting with her. She'd wondered briefly if the other woman had only been trying to find a method of surreptitiously leading her away from the marketplace, and felt strangely relieved to find that it hadn't just been some desperate act.

"Why don't we all try to stay calm?" the Doctor was saying. "You know what happens if you get too frustrated here."

"That's easy for you to say, Doctor," Ben replied. "You're way behind. Me and Jamie are neck and neck."

"Your friend," Alea said. "Ben. I was going to ask before. Are you -"

"Oh, no." Polly stole a glance over her shoulder to make sure Ben wasn't listening, but he was still absorbed in the game. "I did think - but I suppose I misread him. He's not - interested - in women. But now for some reason he's got it into his head that I am. Which I'm not, of course."

"Why 'of course'?" Alea asked.

Polly remembered that it hadn't been obvious for her, and she was probably still a little embarrassed about misinterpreting Polly's interest.

"I'm sorry," she told Alea. "I didn't mean that in a negative way. Ben and I - where we're from it's not so acceptable. It's illegal between men, actually. But I don't -" She stopped. "Oh dear. I'm explaining it in all the wrong way. I only wanted to say that I suppose I'm still getting used to the idea of it being expressed so openly. A lot of people on my - world - would take it as an insult if someone thought they might be - well - and so I'm used to people never even thinking I would -" She ground to an awkward halt, looking slightly pink. "I'm sorry. I don't usually get this embarrassed. I can't think what's come over me."

"I didn't realise there were any human colonies where same gender relations were outlawed," Alea said.

"We come from a very long way away."

"I see," Alea said. "I'm sorry. It must be a terrible place to live."

"Oh, it's not so -" Polly began, and then stopped. It was a strange thing to say, it's not so bad, when she'd just told Alea that male homosexuality was illegal where she came from.

"See, Jamie," Ben's voice, smugly triumphant, drifted over. "I was right."

Alea peered out through the window.

"They seem to have gone away," she said. "But I can still feel something in this area - I'm not sure exactly what. It's probably best if you stay the night. I have some mattresses I can put out in the front room."

"What, all of us together?" Ben asked. He glanced over at Polly nervously.

"Yes, it's rather like a sleepover, isn't it?" the Doctor said with a smile, clapping his hands together.

"Oh, aye," said Jamie, who didn't know what the Doctor was talking about.

"Well I'm not sleeping with the boys," Polly said indignantly. "Isn't there anywhere else I could stay?"

"Not really," Alea told her, sounding a little guilty.

"I mean, couldn't I share your room with you or something?"

Ben cleared his throat awkwardly.

"If it's alright," Polly added. She ignored Ben's reaction.

Alea debated this with herself.

"Alright," she said at last. "Only I -"

"That's wonderful," Polly said, and Alea didn’t get to finish what she was going to say.

Polly woke up. At first she couldn't figure out why - had she heard a noise? But after a few seconds her mind began to work properly, and she realised that the room, which should've been pitch black, was lit by a faint glow.

She sat up, her eyes casting around to find the source of the light. Spotting it, she blinked and rubbed her eyes in an effort to shake the last of sleep off.

"Oh," she said quietly.

Alea shifted slightly in the bed and the pattern of the glow changed. Polly couldn't take her eyes off her. It was one of the most beautiful sights she'd ever seen.

Alea shifted again and opened her eyes. She saw Polly looking.

"I'm sorry," she said. "Did I wake you?"

"Yes," Polly admitted. "But I don't mind."

Alea sat up properly, closed her eyes and began to breath heavily. After a few seconds the glow faded.

"There," she said, embarrassed. "Now you can go back to sleep. I'm sorry I didn't warn you about that, but then you interrupted me and I thought, well, maybe it won't show up tonight and I won't have to tell her. It doesn't, not every night. It used to much more when I was a child, but I can control it a bit better now." She gave a short, self-conscious laugh. "I'm sorry, I'm rambling."

"Can everyone on this planet do that?" Polly asked. She wanted to ask Alea to turn the glow back on, but she was worried she'd come off as rude.

"No, it's, um -" Alea started to glow again, very faintly, and she had to stop to calm herself down a second time. "It's part of my - regulation problems. The ones I told you about. Luckily now it really only happens at night. Most people here think it's weird. You see, we're supposed to shift colour based on our own individual emotion, which is helpful when you're usually dealing with the feelings of multiple people in the same area. But I just - do weird things instead."

"You're kidding!" Polly exclaimed. "That's not weird at all. I think it's fab."

"Fab?"

"Oh, I mean it's sort of…impressive. You'd be the life of any party with a trick like that where I'm from."

"Oh." Alea pulled her legs up close to her. "We don't like calling that sort of attention to ourselves so much here. It's seen as…embarrassing. Unattractive."

"Well that's obviously rubbish," Polly said indignantly. For some reason she couldn't help thinking of the conversation she'd had with Ben earlier. Well you fancy her, don't you? It was probably because she was tired, or something.

But Alea was very beautiful. Not that that meant anything. There were plenty of beautiful women out there, many that Polly had noted herself, but that didn't mean she wanted to -

It was ridiculous that she was justifying herself to Ben even when he wasn't there, she thought to herself angrily. Anyway, he hadn't meant any harm by it; he'd just misunderstood. So she didn't need to explain herself or her opinions to anyone.

"I think you're very attractive," she heard herself saying. She couldn't believe that anyone would look at this woman and decide that, because she lit up at night sometimes, she was ugly.

"Thank you," Alea said eventually, after a silence so long that Polly began to think she'd said something wrong.

"And you're definitely not embarrassing," Polly continued firmly. "Anyone who tells you that isn't worth listening to."

"I appreciate your support," Alea replied, a little amused. "I'm sorry again for waking you like that."

"Oh, that's alright," Polly said. "I don't mind. I like talking to you." She was feeling strange; even though she was still tired from the day, she was sure now that she wouldn't be able to get back to sleep. She was agitated, excited without an apparent source for it. Her mind was on Ben; what Ben had said to her was going around and around in her head.

Polly moved closer to the bed.

The image of Alea, shining, felt like it would stay in her thoughts forever, nestled among her dearest memories.

"You said you - misread - me," she said haltingly. "Earlier, I mean."

"Yes," Alea replied. "I…confused my own feelings for yours. That was my mistake."

"So, you…"

"I find you attractive," Alea said frankly.

And Polly, buoyed up on adrenaline and the intimacy of the night and the idea that Ben had planted in her head with his words, crossed the final gap between them and kissed her.

Ben was feeling restless. He almost went to see Polly in her room but something held him back; he told himself that it was because he didn't want to wake her up. Maybe that was part of the reason.

Instead he walked into Alea's front room and began to pace. It didn't help much. This was something much deeper down than a simple need to move, or even a desire to return to the TARDIS.

He hadn't had a chance to speak to Polly, not in a proper, one on one way, since before the disturbance in the marketplace had happened. Now he puzzled over her words.

It's not like you're interested in me.

He was reminded of back home. Not that it had ever been really bad, he reassured himself, but he'd always been conscious of a slight difference in his relationships with women compared to the other boys his age. It hadn't ever crossed his mind that he might be gay as a kid, if he'd even been aware of that as a possibility outside of the vaguest ideas about odd, outcast boys. But he knew there were certain things expected of him, as a man, and he'd been fine pretending a bit. He'd grown used to it. It wasn't like he was completely un-attracted to women, anyway. Maybe all blokes acted some of it, the physical bit, to keep up appearances or to show off.

Although she'd got the wrong idea from it, Polly was the first woman he'd been serious about to really pick up on everything. He should've expected that; after all, by necessity they spent a lot more time together, on and off the TARDIS, than any other woman he'd been with.

Except he wasn't 'with' Polly. He was interested in her and she wasn't interested back, simple as that.

He turned again and almost ran into a shadowy figure. He began to cry out, but then the figure said,

"It's alright, Ben; it's only me."

"Bloody hell, Doctor! Warn a man next time, won't you?"

"I'm sorry, I thought you'd seen me."

"Yeah, well obviously not. What's the matter?"

"Does there need to be something the matter?" The Doctor reached to his right to switch the light on. Ben blinked, his eyes adjusting.

"I don’t need much sleep, Ben," the Doctor continued. He settled himself down on the sofa. "And Jamie has begun to snore rather loudly. So I thought I would get up and stretch my legs." He caught Ben's expression. "Is something wrong?"

"It's nothing," Ben said, and then a second later, "I think I've upset Polly."

The Doctor patted the space beside him. "Why don't you tell me all about it?" He beamed good-naturedly. Ben was reminded, vaguely, of a storybook character - a kindly uncle or grandfather, the sort of person you'd always be able to confide in.

So he did. He sat down on the sofa next to the Doctor and told him exactly what had happened, from his point of view.

Once he'd finished the Doctor said,

"I'm sure if the two of you talk to each other then it will work itself out."

"But I tried that!" Ben said. "I told her, look Duchess, I honestly don't mind it if you've got a preference for the ladies. I mean, it's not like this is the first time I've noticed it. I just wanted her to know that it was fine by me."

"Ah," the Doctor said sagely, "but you must realise, Ben, that Polly might not be ready to tell you something like that yet."

"Yeah, but I don't get why not. She knows she can trust me, doesn't she? And I told her I wouldn't mind."

"Yes, but it's not always as simple as that." The Doctor shifted so that he was facing Ben more fully. "It can be difficult to tell someone a secret you've been holding onto for a long time, especially when you come from a culture as frequently closeminded as yours and Polly's."

"Closeminded?"

"Well, you have to admit, Ben -"

"Yeah, yeah, alright. I get it."

"Besides, she might not know herself. Not everyone realises that sort of thing at a very young age."

"So what do you reckon I should do?"

"Don't push her. Wait until she comes to you with this. In the meantime, since it's worrying you so much, I suggest you try to explain some of your own feelings to her before this miscommunication between the two of you gets too serious."

Ben was silent.

"It will work itself out in the end, Ben," the Doctor told him gently. "These things usually do."

"Yeah, alright," Ben said. "Maybe." He stood up. "I'm going back to bed. Night, Doctor. Thanks."

"Goodnight, Ben," the Doctor said. "And please, try not to let this bother you too much."

The next time Ben opened his eyes it was morning. From the noise he could tell that the Doctor was already up and about - or perhaps he'd never gone back to sleep. Ben did wonder, sometimes.

Alea was awake as well from the sound of it, and as she moved about in the kitchen she was answering the questions the Doctor threw at her.

Ben glanced over at Jamie. Still fast asleep. He resisted the urge to prod him awake; he'd tried it once before and had immediately regretted it.

The door to Alea's room was shut and Ben took this to mean that Polly hadn't woken up yet either. He stood up and made his way into the kitchen. The Doctor looked over at him and smiled.

"Ah, you're awake!" he exclaimed. "Very good. Alea here was just answering a few questions I had about the culture here. It's one thing to read about it, quite another to speak with someone native to the society." He looked delighted. Well at least someone was happy.

Ben turned towards Alea. "We're good to go then now?" he asked. He half expected her to say no, that something else had gone wrong. It came as a relief when she nodded.

"Oh yes," she said. "I just thought I'd make you some breakfast first. As a way to send you off."

"Right." Ben continued to stand there, slightly awkwardly. He felt like he should say something. "Look - thanks for taking us in like this. I'm sorry for being rude yesterday." It came out stilted, as though he was reading from a script. Ben had to make an effort not to wince.

"Were you?" she asked, glancing up from whatever it was she was doing. "I hadn't noticed, really."

"Oh." He could think of nothing else to say. At that moment Polly walked into the kitchen.

"Good morning," she said cheerfully, beaming at Alea. Then she noticed Ben was there as well.

"Morning," he said.

She blushed slightly, but recovered herself quickly. "Did you sleep well?" she asked.

"Fine, thanks." He didn't mention his conversation with the Doctor, but he was thinking about it the whole time. "Pol -"

But just then Jamie walked in, complaining that no-one had bothered to wake him up, and Ben couldn't finish his sentence.

Polly held onto Alea for as long as she could, taking in the scent and feel of her.

"Goodbye," she said again. "I'll miss you."

"You could stay here for a little longer," Alea suggested, pulling out of the embrace to look Polly in the face. "I wouldn't mind."

"Oh no, we'd better be getting on," Polly said. "The Doctor will be impatient to leave. And since he's my ticket home - eventually, I hope - I should make sure I get on board with him."

"Of course, I understand," Alea said, sounding a little disappointed. She quickly recovered. "Maybe I'll see you again sometime."

"Maybe," Polly replied, feeling awkward. "Look - even if we don't meet you have to promise to be a little kinder to yourself. Just think: if you'd been like everyone else you wouldn't have been able to help us yesterday."

Alea smiled. "I'll try," she said. "The Doctor told me he thinks change is coming just around the corner for us here, but he might just be saying that."

"He could also be right," Polly said. "He often is, surprisingly."

"Here's hoping." Alea leaned forwards to kiss Polly on the cheek. "Goodbye. I'm glad I met you, whether I see you again or not."

The TARDIS dematerialised. Ben sat on his bed and stretched his limbs. It was good to be - well, maybe not home, but the closest thing any of them had to it at the moment. Somewhere familiar and away from danger, at least.

There was a knock at the door. Polly.

"Can I come in?" she asked.

Ben tried to ignore the feeling of uncomfortable self-consciousness that stole over him when she asked that. "Go ahead," he said.

There was a chair tucked under the dressing table on one side of the room. Ben pulled it out so that Polly could sit on it. He perched on the edge of the bed, unable to ignore the greater sensation of intimacy that talking there brought with it.

"I'm sorry -" they both said at the same time. Polly laughed.

"You go first," she said.

"I'm sorry for being so nosy yesterday, Pol," Ben said. "And for being so suspicious around Alea."

"I'm sorry too," Polly replied. "For - making assumptions about you, if that offended you, and for getting so defensive about…well, about you thinking I fancied Alea, which was really why I said that to you." She cleared her throat awkwardly, not looking at him. "But you might have been - I mean you were right about that, only I didn't realise it at the time."

Ben quashed his feeling of disappointment. That didn't matter. Now was the time to be a friend to Polly.

"You know I'm fine about that sort of thing, right?" he asked. "I told you before."

"Oh, I know," Polly said. "Thank you, Ben. But - I do like men, as well. Really. That was part of the reason I didn't realise until last night -"

Ben raised his eyebrows. "You mean you -"

"Yes," Polly said quickly. Almost defiantly, as if to say, well why shouldn't I? It's nothing to be ashamed of.

"Oh."

"Mm."

"So how was it?" Ben asked cheerfully.

"Ben…"

"Okay, okay, I won't ask. Look, I have something to tell you as well." He paused. He'd never tried to put this into words before; he'd never had the opportunity for it, or even to dwell on it too much.

"Ben, I -"

"Look, I'm not - I'm not gay, alright? I just - I'm not really a physical kind of bloke." He winced. Not the best way of describing it. "Okay, so if you looked at a guy - or a girl - and you thought they looked nice…well I don't. I mean I don't look at anyone like that."

"You don't fancy anyone?"

"I fancy girls! Only not like that." It was hard to look tough while sitting on a bed, but he did his best anyway; his own turn to be defiant. "Not from their looks, you know?"

"So," Polly said slowly as this sunk in, leaning forward, "you are interested?"

She smiled at him. Ben, looking at her, was overcome. He was glad that he'd told her - he couldn't imagine why he'd held it back so long. It wasn't a problem at all; she understood just what he was trying to say.

"Yeah, I'm interested," he told her. Then, to preserve some sense of his own dignity, "I mean - if you are."

Polly's smile widened.

"Ben," she said. "Of course I am."

#doctor who #classic who #ben jackson #polly wright #ben/polly #second doctor #two #jamie mccrimmon #i really hope ben doesn't come across like a jerk in this cos that was one of my biggest worries lol #anyway i'm probably gonna be nitpicky about this but actually. i'm really happy with the characterisation i did.#being positive!#writing fanfiction like a bus #also can you believe. classic who fan for 4 years and the FIRST dr whomst fic i post is. ben and polly #i'm being mean...i've always liked them and they've actually grown on me as i rewatch their stories but i would Not have predicted writing #fic for them #alright i'm gonna stop rambling and hit post

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knightsoflight · 7 years

Text

Chapter 3: Return From The Past

Three young people must fight the darkness to survive. Warning: Fowl language and intense/uncomfortable moments. DO NOT REPOST!

Eric? Devi wondered But how can that be?

"Stay out of my way!" Johnny yelled. "This is not your business!"

"Yeah, not going to happen." Eric told him. "If you're trying to kill someone close to me, along with innocent people, then yeah it is my business!" Eric jumped down off the tree to face him.

"You asked for it pretty boy!" Johnny said as he forced his energy out into a sword.

Eric actually started doing the same thing, he too could force his energy into a sword, except his energy was pitch black. This surprised both Tenna and especially Devi. Johnny charged at Eric who blocked his attack with his sword. Eric was very strong being he was able to hold off Johnny's sword and then blasted him off, enough to push Johnny away a little bit.

Before Johnny could strike again, Eric leaped up over him, what was on his back stretched out and unfolded. Devi and Tenna looked up at him amazement as Eric hovered upon the air behind Johnny.

"Up here, genius!" Eric said and as soon as Johnny moved, Eric blasted him with a surprise mix of his energy and a smoke bomb. Johnny looked up to see Eric had large bat wings. Johnny charged up and tried striking Eric but he flew higher.

Eric chuckled and said "Missed me!" He shot out a couple more small bombs made from his energy again. Johnny kept reaching out to strike him but to no avail.

"What's the matter?" Eric said teasingly like a child bullying someone shorter then him. "Can't reach?"

This made Johnny furious in rage as his power shot out and he managed to turn his sword of energy into a whip, that struck at Eric in the rib cage. Eric cringed at his injury and said "Okay, enough fooling around. Time to get serious..."

He held his hands to his chest like he was in a coffin. Then he shouted as he threw out his hands in two fists "Earth's Eternal Slumber!" With that two large blasts came out and shot Johnny, who went flying and tumbling to the ground.

Before Eric could blast him again, Johnny disappeared suddenly. Eric flew down and folded his wings on his back again.

"Hmph..." Eric replied "Looks like he ran off to coward somewhere..."

Then he walked over to Devi as if everything was normal and reached out his hand to help her up.

Devi looked at him for a moment. "Let me help you up." Eric said politely and then after a moment Devi asked "Who are you?"

"It's me..." Eric said "Eric Vanheart. You know from the club back then!"

"How can that be?" Devi said in shock.

'But it can't be!" Tenna said "Devi, you said Eric was..."

"Dead..." Devi said quietly "I was right there, I watched you die..."

Eric chuckled and as he took her hand to help her up he said "I thought I was dead too...When I passed out I thought I had died as well, but as it turns out, I still had some life in me. Lucky for me, some one knew I was alive and was willing to help me out."

*flashback*

Eric laid on the ground, breathing heavily in pain and fading in and out of consciousness.

"Is my life...really gonna end like this...?"

His life as a human was over, but little did he knew someone was gonna offer him a new life. He felt a hand on his shoulder, he had a manage muster enough strength to lift his head an inch off the ground and whisper "Devi?"

"Easy, dear lad..." Said a voice that sounded like an old English gentlemen. This surprised Eric a little bit. "You're about an inch away from death, child, so don't try to talk or move just yet." The man that was kneeling beside him was very tall. He had along face . He wore what appeared to be long black, gothic like robe, styled elegantly with detailed silk and the sleeves were shredded at the end to complete a gothic look. His faded black hair was tied in a ponytail and he had weird cat like eyes. As he opened his mouth you could see sharp long fangs.

"I've watched you save that girl, young lad." Said the odd man. "And I say I'm quite impressed with your efforts in saving her, so therefore, I've come to make an offering. To start a new life as daring and elegant prince of the night."

"You're a vampire?..." Eric manage to say.

"Now, easy there..." The man said and nodded "I told you not to speak or move. Yes, I am but I'm not here to take any of your blood." He quickly took his long inch nails and stabbed his own hand with them. Gathering the blood in this hand, he lifted Eric's head and let some of it drip into his mouth.

"With this you will gain a long lasting youth and will be able to live much longer than most living things. Along with powers beyond your own dreams." The vampire said

Eric felt a strange pulsing through his body. He felt pain in his heart as he curled over and held his chest. He let out a yell and gasp of pain. He felt almost worse then before but at the same time, he wasn't weakening but getting a bit stronger.

"Pain will subside soon..." The elderly vampire said.

His ears became slightly longer and tearing through his shirt were two medium length wings, that spread about three feet. This also hurt as he felt like something was cutting out his back from the inside. His nails became longer and almost claw like.

Eric then felt held his chest where his heart was. He twinged and shiver from the pain once felt. It was finally easing down.

"Must it hurt so much?" Eric replied in a whimpering kinda tone, still breathing a bit exhaustively.

"Such a great gift of power and life comes with a price." Said the vampire.

He got up slowly and felt a weird tingling in his mouth which made him finally said "Woah! I've got fangs! Real fangs!" He looked at his now even more pale skin and long nails. "This is real! I'm really a vampire!" Then he notice his shirt torn from his wings and said with slight disappointment "Aw man...That was my favorite shirt."

"You will be able to get another one, dear lad." Said the vampire.

Eric then notice his heart was beating as he put his hand over his mouth to feel his breaths. "Wait...How am I a vampire? I'm still breathing...I thought vampires had no breath."

"The undead has no breath." The vampire said. "Those books and movies delude our kind's existence. We're that of mystical creatures like that of dark elves or sirens, not the undead. The undead are mindless creatures. Unless resurrected with a soul, they're just a bunch of dead cells powered by energy. We are different. We were once demons, reborn into a living creature of the night, that harnesses and controls the dark magic that remained within us. But that magic comes with a price. That is why we still feed on blood."

"I see..." Eric replied a bit surprised by what he just heard. "Thanks...for saving me..."

"No need to thank. I just couldn't leave you lying there especially after your sacrifice for another." The vampire said smugly. "Unfortunately, those silly books exaggerate on our kind living forever. We don't live forever. Just longer than most creatures, so don't get your hopes up on that. "

"So you live extra long instead of forever?" Eric asked a bit surprised. "How long do vampires live?"

"Depends. There's no exact number of how long we live." The old vampire replied. "I, myself, is almost a thousand years old, but some of the ones I turned into only lasted a hundred or a couple hundred years after their transformation. You may live longer or shorter. Vampires gave up their eternal life for a soul that outlives the body. We did so because if there are things that can kill us like hunters and sunlight, isn't much of an eternal life, if your soul is tied to a body that can be destroyed. That is, if we had an eternal life to begin with. Some believe, we've always had just an extended life and humans just thought we live forever. I'm sorry that I might have disappointed you with that..."

"Wow...." Eric replied in an interested tone, which sorta surprised the old vampire. He was use to ones that didn't want to hear all that crap. He would explain to them anyway just to give fair warning to his pupils.

Eric then went on and said "Well, living to a thousand or a hundred years is better than dying now." Eric replied with an upbeat tone.

"Hmm, you say that now." The vampire replied "But one day, you may regret it." This guy was serious. He hardly any sense of humor unless it was a slightly sarcastic one.

"Well..." Eric replied a bit uncertain and then boldly replied "Well, then I'll have to just see for myself. I'm thankful for you of saving me at least. Um, is there anything you want me to do in return? After all, you saved me and well, I always thought of me being a vampire so..."

"No." The vampire said. "Now, go on and find that girl you sacrificed your human life for. I believe in the future, she will need your help."

"What do you mean?" Eric asked but the old vampire just eyed him, as if he wasn't gonna tell. This caused Eric to back away little nervously as he said "Okay, never mind then...Will I ever see you again?"

"I will check up on you from time to time." Said the vampire. "Might guide you if you are ever in a sticky situation. I do this with a lot pupils, oh and one thing, about your wings, they kinda fold into the slits that are now in your back. The bones in the wings aren't really bones, just substance that hardens in when needing to fly. You can fold them up tightly to where it won't interfere with clothing, least not that much. You might want to wear tops slightly bigger than what you are use to, because people may see two odd lumps, if the outfit is too tight. You can't make them fully disappear and I suggest you put in holes in the back of each of your tops, in case you do need to take flight." He said this and showed his long wings which were much longer than Eric's.

"How do you fly, anyway?" Eric said as he struggled a bit with his wings.

"Simple." He said "Just focus on where you want to go and focus a little on your back. If needed, move your shoulders a bit, especially when flying in one place. Just think of your wings as sort of an extension of your arms. Eventually, your body will take in the new wings as extra pair of limbs and will eventually be automatic to your body's nervous system."

"Oh, right..." Eric said happily again and then he bowed to him slightly as introduced himself. "By the way, my name is Eric Vanheart. Nice to meet you and thanks again!"

"What a polite young man." Smirked the vampire impressively and told him "You may call me, Magnus."

With that Magnus took off the other direction before Eric could say anything. Eric then realized he should be going too and flew off as well.

*End of Flashback*

Eric put his hands behind his head and with a bright smile said "So, that's what happen!"

Devi and Tenna looked with their jaws open and their eyes were wide.

"So, you're really are a vampire..." Tenna said in shock and kinda excited.

"As real as the night sky." Eric simply put it.

Devi couldn't help but be overwhelmed with emotion. She couldn't help but cry a bit. First, she see's this weird doll like creature in her mind, talking to her about some "darkness" and "light" in her heart. Then two guys from her past showed up. One tried to kill her and might come back to kill her, and one she thought died trying to protect her, shows up again to protect her.

"Devi?" Eric asked in concern. "Are you alright?"

With that she went up to Eric and hugged him. Eric was surprised at first but then hugged her back. "I thought you were dead this whole time..." Devi said "And I always thought it was my fault..."

"Hey..." Eric said as he made her face him and gently touched her nose.. "I thought I made you promise not to blame things that aren't in your control. I tried to look for you after the incident, but they said you quit school after that.I still kept trying to find you but no luck."

Devi just looked down and said "Yeah, I did after that. I went through therapy and left town after a bit and found a job else where. What happened traumatized me so much I just wanted to get away from everything. I feel cowardly but I didn't want to especially face your friends after that.... I eventually came back to town, once I had put it all behind me."

"Devi, you can't keep running and hiding every time things get like this." Tenna told her.

"Well, what I am suppose to do?" Devi said annoyedly "I got some psycho dude from my past after me! It's already bad enough I keep hearing a voice in my head and seeing things! The reason why I lock myself away, is because crazy things like this happen! And I don't want to be a part of it!"

She sighed and said "Well, nice to see you again Eric. I'm glad you're alright. Now if you excuse me, I'm going to go be by myself."

"Devi!" Tenna shouted.

"Relax, I'm not going home just yet!" Devi said "I'm just gonna go on a walk for a little bit... I need to clear my head."

"Devi!" Eric called out but before he catch up to her, Tenna grabbed his hand.

"Leave her alone for a little bit." Tenna told him.

Tenna and Eric talked for a bit as they walked around. Tenna explained to Eric what had happen in the past, including what happen between Johnny and Devi. Eric was surprised upon listening to what had happen to her.

"So that's why she's like the way she is..." Eric said. He felt bad about it. He felt like he should have found her sooner, then maybe she would have had a different life. She would never met Johnny nor get into a situation like that, but what was done had been done. Eric knew thinking of what could have been was not the answer to the problem.

"Devi..." Eric mutter sadly.

"She has been like this for a while." Tenna told Eric. "She keeps talking about a voice she can hear and see's this little doll."

"Really?" Eric said even more worried.

"Yes..." Tenna said "She thinks she's going insane but she's really a mage and I think the voice and doll she keeps seeing is her familiar."

"Her familiar?" Eric asked.

"Yes, mages and witches and such sometimes get doll like familiars." Tenna explained. "They turn into weapons and are suppose to be great companions." With that Mr. Spooky jumped on Tenna's shoulder. "Like me and Mr. Spooky!" Tenna added.

"Mr.Spooky?" Eric asked as he noticed the doll on her shoulder.

"Yes, he's my familiar." Tenna said. "We're best friends and are never separate from each other!"

Eric smiled and said "Well, its a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Spooky." This made Mr. Spooky jump on Eric's shoulder. Eric chuckled at it and pet the little doll on the head gently.

"Aww, I think he likes you!" Tenna giggled. "Course, he likes everyone, but if he jumps on your shoulder or your head that means he really likes you."

"Spooky!" Mr. Spooky replied

"Well, pleasure to make your acquaintance." Eric said as he shook Spooky's little hand with his finger.Then Spooky jumped back onto Tenna's shoulder.

"But if Devi's a mage, you're a mage and Johnny is a mage," Eric stated with a pondering expression. "that's kinda odd for such mystical powered beings to be together, along with why and how you got your powers?"

"It just suddenly happened." Tenna said. "I heard a legend that people are sometimes chosen to have powers, depending on one's heart. That is just a part of fate and can be a gift or a curse, depending on how you take it."

"Hmm..." Eric replied. "But why is Johnny trying to kill her?"

"Beats me." Tenna said "I think it has to do with Devi and her powers developing. Well actually, she did blast him when he was trying to kill her on one date, but why he wanted to kill her in the first place before, that is a mystery even to her."

"I see..." Eric replied as he looked down.

"Hey, Eric?" Tenna asked

"Hmm?" Eric responded as he looked up at her.

"What was Devi like when you two met?" Tenna asked

"Well, she was a lot cheerful..." Eric told her then smiled as he remembered. "She seemed so happy, mature and down to earth. Kinda funny."

"Really?" Tenna asked in surprised.

"Yeah..." Eric replied "I'm guessing she changed a lot when you met her?"

"Well, kinda..." Tenna said "We met when she was half way to isolating herself for good. I asked her for a cup a sugar once and well decided to use her kitchen to make brownies, despite she kept trying to throw me out. But I could tell she wanted me around inside, so I used my super ninja skills to stick around and help her out! Eventually it worked cause she stopped trying to throw me out and ignore me!"

Eric looked at her as if she was a maniac and said "Um...okay..."

Tenna then got a little serious "You can tell she tries to cheer up so that no one will worry about her, but lately she just has been stressing out. I mean sometimes she does try to lighten up, you can tell she's still got it in her. She's just scared and I guess who can blame her... That's why I won't give up on her."

"Yeah, you seem like a good friend." Eric replied warmly as he clutched his fist to his chest. "I won't give up on her either..."

Tenna notice this and said in a tease "You must really like her, don't you!?"

"Um!" Eric replied nervously and said "Yeah...Well, it's been years...So I wouldn't go that far...."

"Well you must, cause you've been searching for her all this time!" Tenna laughed

"Not all this time..." Eric replied. " I had to leave my old life since it would have been too difficult. I tried searching for her for a bit but then decided to move on for a little bit. I still hoped to find her one day. I wanted to find her to let her know that I was alright and wanted to know if she was alright...I guess I was wrong."

"Yeah.." Tenna said sadly and explained "When I first met her, she wasn't as solitude as this. Course I met her before she dated Johnny. "

"How long were they together?" Eric asked

"Not that long." Tenna explained. "A couple weeks but she didn't talk to me much about him. All she said was she felt connected with him. Like he understood what she had been feeling and such. Then he attacked her as she described it and locked herself away for weeks. She did an online job and only time she came out was to do grocery shopping at night. Eventually she slowly got out of it, but still was more confined to solitude."

"So she developed her powers during that time?" Eric asked

Tenna explained "Yes, in fact the moment she fought against Johnny when he tried to kill her, was the moment she awaken her powers. She totally flipped out when she found out and when she found out, not too long ago after that, that I had powers too. But the only reason why she still talked to me was I guess, I had something she could relate too and help her out."

"I see...." Eric said with concern in his tone along with anger, anger towards Johnny and a little anger towards himself for not finding her sooner. "No wonder she's like this..."

"But hey, don't worry!" Tenna said cheerfully. "With us beside her, we'll protect her and makes sure she's okay!"

Eric looked at her in surprised and cheered up as he said "Yeah!"

"Anyway, where do you live?" Tenna asked.

"Um..." Eric replied "Anywhere, where I can find a decent place to sleep and shower."

"Huh?" Tenna replied "You mean you don't have a home?"

"Well, not a permanent place." Eric said. "After I became a vampire I struck out on my own. I'd kinda do the robin hood thing where I steal from robbers, after catching them. I'd return most of the stuff they stole but keep some stuff for me to survive. Like enough money to rent shelter and buy food. It's kinda hard making it as a vampire, being I have to work at night, cover my wings and well being I dropped out of school too, yeah, hard to keep a job with that status..."

"Oh..." Tenna replied "You can stay at my place! I live in a two bedroom apartment that's right over Devi's! Its how I know what's going on with her or when she needs my help."

"Um, you really wouldn't mind me living there?" Eric asked. Kinda odd for a girl asking a guy to live with them, but then again Tenna was as odd as she was kind.

"Yeah!" Tenna said "I can tell you're a good person, so I trust you! And don't worry, Mr. Spooky doesn't take up much space!"

"I guess that would be nice." Eric replied "I don't take up much space either, especially during the day. Thank you."

"No problem!" Tenna replied. Though she wondered "especially during the day". She'd find out in the morning.

Meanwhile, Devi couldn’t stop gathering up with just happened.

He was alive this whole time? Devi thought to herself.

“I was mad, I would admit. Why didn’t Eric come during the time after? Was it really that hard for him to find me? But then again, they questioned me and when I had a mental break down, I was taken in for therapy and everything. During that time I was in my thoughts, I had wish he had died that night, because I went through all that hell after that. Though, I would never admit of this to him, especially when I would later learn of his past and what he went through. Besides, it wasn’t his fault. I was kept in high security and therapy. It wasn’t like I was easy to get to.

Funny how we all seem to hate and let our anger get the best of us. Letting us say things we normally wouldn’t say. I guess that’s just how fucked up humans are.”

Devi then thought about Johnny and kept looking around, as if he would pop up. She realized how stupid it was for her to be all alone.

Maybe, I should just have let him kill me...Devi thought to herself. She heard the little doll go

“Do you honestly think that?”

Devi frustratingly looked up at the sky as tears gathered in her eyes and shouted “Why does this happen to me! Why!? What did I do to do deserve all this shit!?”

She cried as no answer came to her.

****

Tenna's apartment complex was of a decent size. The moment you entered the door, to the right was Tenna's room and to the left was the bathroom. When you walked in further, there was a kitchen on the left and the living room on the right and then the second room for guests. Tenna kept it as a guest room in case a family member or someone was visiting.

"This is nice." Eric said as he enter the guest room in which he would sleep until he got his own place, that is if he ever could. The guest room was small with a window over the bed and brownish-red carpet but it had a decent, warm, clean bed and a closet to put his stuff in. To Eric, that's all that mattered. Shoot, Eric was just glad he was finally gonna keep a roof over his head for a while.

"Not much..." Tenna replied

"It's fine." Eric replied gratefully "This is a lot better than the places I've slept in, believe me."

"Well, its no coffin..." Tenna replied and joked "Hey, you won't bite me right? I mean you are a vampire."

"No, I don't bite people often." Eric replied. "It's only when I'm desperate and I especially don't bite those who help me."

"Where do you get blood from then?" Tenna asked

"Hmm, well sometimes I go to the store to buy meat packages." Eric replied embarrassed by the thought, being it wasn't exactly a topic he felt comfortable discussing. "Though occasionally I need human blood, so I tend to go to a pharmacy or hospital to get a blood pack there."

"That in some ways is kinda wrong..." Tenna replied about the pharmacy. "But then again a vampire needs survive too."

"I'm not all proud of it..." Eric replied with a sigh." I mean even though a bite from a vampire is rarely fatal, I don't want hurt someone. Less of course I have to. Besides, I don't need to drink every day nor do I need all that much. In fact, sometimes I can go more than a week without drinking blood, but it makes me weak and its kinda risky."

"I guess whatever you need to do to survive. " Tenna replied. "After all, if you tell someone you're a vampire, doubt they will help you."

"Exactly!" Eric replied "Why I quit school and such...Not that it was the brightest choice but after becoming a vampire, things just became more complicated for me."

"I guess you understand the whole 'be careful what you wish for thing' now." Tenna replied as she sat down on the bed with Eric.

"Oh, boy yes..." Eric replied but then he cheered up "But I have no regrets. If I didn't become a vampire, I wouldn't be here today and never would have met Devi again, despite she's not what she use to be. And hey, meeting you and Mr. Spooky came as an extra bonus."

"Really?" Tenna said as she chuckled with Spooky jumping on her shoulder.

Eric chuckled and nodded "Yeah!"

"Aww, ha!" Tenna replied as she slapped him on the back, making him nearly fall over. "You're a good man! Err, vampire, whatever!"

They heard a door slam underneath them.

"Sounds like Devi's home!" Tenna replied cheerfully. Then she went to the phone and called her.

"Hey Devi, you home?" Tenna replied "Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine..." Devi replied inexhaustibly "Remind me to kill you tomorrow..."

"Hehehe, yay!" Tenna replied cheerfully.

"I'm going to bed..." Devi replied.

"Okay, good night Devi." Tenna replied as she hung up.

Eric yawned as stretched out. "Yeah, its been a long night. The sun will rise pretty soon anyway."

"I'm guessing you sleep most of the day or all day?" Tenna asked

"I do go out and about and stay awake during the day." Eric explained "Sun doesn't hurt me, but it does make me feel sleepy. In fact, you might say I feel shrunk or light headed, so I try and take it easy during the day."

"Okay..." Tenna replied curiously. "Well I'm gonna hit the hay. You're welcome to watch TV or whatever, just try to keep it down."

"Alright" Eric replied "I'm probably just gonna go to bed anyway. Dawn will be soon approaching and its been along night..." With that they went to their rooms for the night.

#jhonen vasquez #invader zim #i feel sick #johnny the homicidal maniac #fanfic #goth

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devnny · 5 years

Text

CHAPTER EIGHT.

JTRM — THE “R” STANDS FOR RECOVERING!

PREVIOUSLY.

lots of plot development in this chapter blaugh, i hope it’s not too fast. oh well. ONWARD TO DOMESTIC BLISS!

[•/•/•• :

This is… stupid. This is so, so stupid. What am I doing?

Johnny’s still killing people. And here I thought we were making progress in ridding him of that fourth voice of his.

He doesn’t tell me much about ‘Reverend Meat’. I hoped that had meant it was quieting down, but I bet it’s fucking not. Nny just hides things from me that he knows will piss me off. BASTARD.

I brought up him… moving in. To the apartment. With me.

I have to be going insane again. I’m not AFRAID of him anymore, but does that mean I want him living in my house? No.

But I don’t know how else to control him. He said they were spur of the moment attacks, so does that mean I have to constantly keep tabs on him? I have to know everywhere he goes, and what he’s doing there, and when he’s going, and when he’ll be back? I don’t CARE about any of that.

…Well, I guess I do. But only because I’m trying to keep him from getting crazier. Fuck, this sucks.

I haven’t lived with someone else since community college…]

The dry, patchy grass crumpled under Johnny’s shoes while he strode across his lawn, only the dull light of the lopsided moon available to guild him through the dark. He didn’t mind – after all, his eyes were fairly well-adjusted to lurking around at night. He came to a stop at the first story window of his next-door neighbor’s house, and climbed up onto the windowsill. He used that as a makeshift stepstool, and settled himself down before springing up the additional six feet or so, his thin fingers quickly latching onto the window directly above it. Johnny pushed the pane open as he crawled upwards, propping himself up and half-inside the home as he moved forward.

“Hey Squee!” His teeth gleamed in the dark. The little lump in the bed to his right stirred, and a pair of eyes peeked out at him.

“Oh, hello.” Todd mumbled. He wasn’t having any luck sleeping as it was, and his scary neighbor man never made that any easier.

“How’ve you been? It’s been a busy couple of months for me – I’m home now, by the way. Sorry, I forgot to stop in. One of my old friends is, er, back in my life, for the time being.” Johnny admitted, and hauled himself up over the sill to lay more easily on his ribs.

Todd’s curiosity was peaked from that comment, and he pushed his comforter down to properly greet his uninvited visitor. He wiggled down off the rather steep drop that his bed had for a Squee-sized child, and moved cautiously toward the window, Schmee hugged close to his collar.

“A friend?” His lower lip tucked out. “Is he living with you? Is he… scary?”

Johnny blanched, and quickly chuckled the comments away with some embarrassment.

“No, she’s not at the house with me.” He said, then paused. The talk he had with Devi the previous day about potentially moving into her apartment was still very much on his mind. It was one of the reasons he had stopped by tonight, having felt the need to disclose that to Todd, since that would mean he would again be unavailable if the boy needed help.

“Err, I might be… living with her soon, though. It’s kinda up in the air right now.” He confessed. Todd’s mouth opened slightly in surprise, but he only continued to stare at Johnny, unwilling to pry.

Johnny felt some heat crawl up from his cheeks to his forehead as he watched Todd’s inquisitive, almost accusatory, face. He was a little kid! He didn’t want to be a bad example – children should have good examples from the adults in their lives, especially Todd, who was severely lacking upstanding role models with his parents being such lousy people.

From what he gathered, most children had the understanding that a man and woman lived together when they were, well, married! The situation happening otherwise was booed by old people as being devious in nature – he shivered a little.

“Don’t worry – we’re just friends. Promise.” Johnny squeezed an anxious smile out. “It’d just be a roommates sort of situation.”

Todd looked surprised that Johnny had guessed what his curiosity was about, and thinned his mouth into a flat line, tiny teeth poking out while he tried to find something else to look at besides the man flopped over his windowsill.

“ANYWAYS.” Johnny cut in. “She’s been helping me with drawing stuff, and uh, some… other stuff. So I won’t be cramming anymore corpses in the tunnel between our houses. Shouldn’t take more than a couple years for the ones in there to either degrade into bones, or mummify. It is kinda musty down there…”

He failed to notice Todd’s horrified expression.

“—They’re probably already halfway there. It has been almost six months since I was last down there… maybe I’ll go check it out.” Johnny mused with a set of scratches to his jaw. “Aw well, point is, if I do move out, you could use the passage to sneak out at night! Wouldn’t that be cool?”

Todd only continued to stare in shock.

“I’ll keep ya updated. Things are changing so fast these days.” Johnny smiled, then adjusted to slither back out the window. Before he dropped down, he offered a blaring, “GOODNIGHT, SQUEE!”, only startling Todd further.

Todd hurried back to bed and burrowed into his sheets, trying with all his might to unimagine the spooky images of mummies living below his house.

WITHIN THE WEEK:

A trial run, that’s what this was.

She and Johnny talked it over, and then she talked it over again with Tenna, and then once more with much more yelling, and then cursed God with every foul word she knew, and then yielded to her hideous fate.

Johnny would stay at her apartment, for now.

Just until he didn’t need to be monitored like the horrible, man-baby he was, Devi told herself.

Her neck lowered further and further, until the crown of her head was almost level with her shoulders. She hated this so much.

Johnny was only going to take two boxes worth of clothes and crap with him, seeing as his new living situation was temporary, but he needed her slightly larger car for the only piece of furniture he intended to bring to her apartment with him; his drafting table.

The desk was old-fashioned, mostly metal, with a heavy wooden surface, and was very, very difficult to lift. Devi leaned against her car door and watched with a sour expression as Johnny attempted to move the table down the driveway with little success, swearing all the way. She grumbled a sigh, and made her way over to help him.

With much less difficulty, the two wobbled down his driveway, screeching the desk’s metal legs along the concrete every so often when their grip slacked too much. They heaved it up over bumper of Devi’s sedan, and the car shuddered under the added weight as the table thudded into its trunk.

“I don’t think we’ll be getting that closed.” Johnny commented, in regard to the trunk door. Devi grunted.

She instructed him to get her some rope, or something, to tie the back shut with, since she outright refused to enter the house herself. Johnny returned with a myriad of different bindings, ranging from thin twine to chains, and Devi did her best not to think too hard about why he had so many options.

“Those are… unused, right?” She pointed to the chains that he was winding around the desk, but got distracted by the rolling sound of plastic wheels a small ways down the sidewalk. A little boy with black hair slowed his trike to a stop beside the car.

“You’re moving after all, Mister Nny?” Todd asked with a wobbly smile. He still didn’t really know how to address Johnny.

“AH.” Johnny stumbled back from the task at hand with an excited smile. “Hey, Squee-gee!”

Devi watched with a befuddled expression as Johnny trotted around her and to the curb. He squatted down to Todd’s eyelevel, still smiling wide.

“Yeah, but I’ll be back in a little while. I’m just staying with Devi until I’m, uh… feeling better!”

“You’re sick?” Todd asked. Johnny looked off and laughed at nothing as a response.

Todd’s mouth squirmed, and he turned his attention to Devi’s towering figure – from the point of view of a little Squee – a few steps away. She had such an intimidating presence, even though she was mostly just staring incredulously at the scene in front of her, but Todd still got the feeling that she was more anchored than his crazy neighbor was.

“You’re Mister Nny’s friend?” He asked. Devi’s mouth slanted; she wasn’t great with children.

“Uh, yes.” She responded as casually as she could. They way this kid said it, Johnny must have mentioned her to him before. She wasn’t sure if that made her uncomfortable or not.

“I’m glad you stopped by, Squeeg’!” Johnny piped up again. “I was going to leave you a note otherwise – I never know what you’re up to during the day.”

He stood up and tucked his hands behind his back politely.

“You be a good Squee while I’m gone, okay?” His sharp shoulders perked up in a shrug. Todd nodded, and Johnny returned to his work of securing his ever-valuable drafting table to Devi’s car.

Devi watched Todd’s smile inch wider, then watched him peddle his tricycle in a circle and back toward his house. He didn’t seem too broken up that Johnny was leaving, she noted, but they certainly seemed to have some kind of relationship – bizarre.

“You’re friends with that little kid?” She asked.

“Yeah, I kinda took him under my wing.” Johnny answered from the bowels of the trunk. “He needs someone to watch out for him – he’s such a scared-y, tiny kind of Squee, and his parents are… uninvolved. That’s putting it nicely.”

Devi’s mouth pinched up into a small frown. The topic of inattentive parents wasn’t unfamiliar to her – not in reference to her dear old dad, of course, but rather to her perpetually absent mother, who never made even the most minute of efforts to stay in contact with Devi after so-kindly giving birth to her. Her titas warmly referred to her as a ‘crackwhore’.

As heavy as that was, Devi hadn’t been bothered by it much after her hormonal pre-teen years passed, but it still left her with a rare soft spot for sad, neglected children. Or maybe it was a hard, angry spot for shitty parents – yeah, that suited her better.

“How uncharacteristically kind of you, Nny.” She teased dryly, and Johnny responded with a tittering set of giggles.

“HEY, I’m kind!” He popped up and set his foot on the edge of the car’s bumper for leverage as he pulled the bindings tight. He tied the rope and chains together with a gnarled looking bow, and inched back to review his handiwork with Devi.

“If this thing falls out while I’m driving, I’m not stopping.” She said.

“That’s fine, it’ll just go through my windshield and I’ll drive it the rest of the way.”

Both burst into a quick fit of hysterical laughter at the image. As it tapered off into chuckling sighs, Devi gave Johnny a jostling shove on the shoulder to urge him into the last leg of today’s endeavor.

“Alright. You ready to go?” She asked, moving to look at the house with him. Johnny regarded his residence of the past four years with a distant expression for a moment, but not nearly long enough to shrug off all its hellish nightmares and everything it represented for him as casually as he did.

“Yep!” He grinned at her. “Let me lock up, and we can leave.”

Devi held in the urge to scowl at the domesticity of it all.

SOME NIGHTS LATER:

It was really starting to hit him that he lives with Devi.

The first night had disoriented that fact, with the majority of the day and evening spent unpacking his things and trying to find places for them to go amongst all of Devi’s things. She was kind enough to empty one section of drawers in her art room as a makeshift dresser for his clothes, which was functional enough for him. He was going to spend most of his time in there anyway, and it wasn’t like he needed a bedroom, and he was not going to ask to mix his clothes in with hers. He had still only been in her bedroom once, and that was because the only bathroom in the apartment was connected to it.

After Johnny had finished unpacking, they drew for a while, and then ate and watched TV, and after that Devi bid him an awkward goodnight. It wasn’t very different from the one night he had spent over before, so it didn’t settle in how different things were going to feel now.

When she got up, and he was… still there, it still felt the same. But then he spent all day watching her paint while he drew, in her art room, which was now sort-of their art room, and he was there every time she left to get a drink or scrounge up something to eat. And he was there when she took breaks, and had dinner, and watched a movie.

Johnny couldn’t remember the last time he had spent a full 24-hours with someone; not even any of the poor bastards he’d strung up in his basement were ‘company’ for him for that long in one sitting.

It was… strange, but nice… so very nice.

Every time Devi left the room they were in, there was a comfortable, unconscious knowledge that she would be back. Whether it was in a few minutes, or in a few hours, he would be in her presence again shortly, and that made him feel a little safer, for whatever reason. There would be no more waiting for days to pass until he could see her in person again, just a mild handful of hours.

And it made him completely manic!

He wanted to draw more now than he ever had in his entire memory of his life. It was compulsive, uncontrollable. Every time Devi left him to sleep, Johnny would take up the same sketchbook and draw, and draw. Fast-paced, frantic swirling and squiggling of ink that dried up his pens and cramped his hands – but he persevered with the kind of persistence he hoped would make Devi proud, ushering forward whatever it was exactly that his brain demanded his fingers create.

So far, it just looked like a mass of churning, scratchy lines, but he was confident that there was a something meaningful there somewhere in-between the rows of indecipherable nonsense. The lines would look wrong here or there, and he would tear away strips of the paper and continue on to the next page, letting the ruined part lay atop it as though they were one singular piece, revealing new and different shapes as the mix-matched directions of the lines tried to work together.

It had been a week’s worth of nights that Johnny had committed to this ‘personal’ project so far, and he felt as if tonight he may actually bring it to its much-desired finish. He was excited about that, seeing as he had so far refused to share any of its progress with Devi – or its existence, for that matter. Each time he would hear her rouse from slumber, he tucked the sketchbook away into one of his designated drawers, and lied about how he’d preoccupied himself while she slept. Devi was not one to be so easily fooled, but she had allowed him to keep whatever he was working on a ‘secret’ from her, curious to see the end result if it was that rigorous of an exercise for him.

ONE SLEEP AFTERWARDS:

Devi rustled her hair with a yawn, still sitting in bed. After a couple of passes with her fingers to ‘comb’ it, she tied it back into one sloppy ponytail. She would do it up in her semi-usual pigtail style after breakfast.

The first few days of waking up and knowing that Johnny was in some unknown part of her apartment was very odd, and a little unnerving, but now she was forlorn to say she was getting used to it. Soon she feared she would be accustomed to sharing a space with him, or God forbid, content with it. The thought made her spine shudder.

She undid the lock on her bedroom door, and poked her head out to survey the area. Usually Johnny was on her couch by this time in the day, eating chips or something. He sure ate a lot of her food for a guy that didn’t ‘eat much’ – fucking freeloader.

This morning, however, he was unusually absent from his preferred sofa cushion. Devi’s mouth curved down suspiciously, and she ventured further out into her apartment. She didn’t hear anything besides the casual passing of cars outside, which only made her more wary. Johnny was very rarely quiet. She moved towards her drawing room, her first guess on where he might be.

Devi was shocked to find him asleep on his drafting table.

She would have sooner thought he was dead, if it wasn’t for the slow rising and falling of his chest, and the intermediate twitching of a finger now and again. Johnny had boasted that he hadn’t slept in months, and she certainly believed it after a week of waking up to find him still up and about.

She stood and watched him a while, unsure of how to approach the situation – it was the same apprehension one might feel in waking a dog that they don’t know the temperament of well, fearful it might snap at them. She had no intention of waking him up, but she was very interested in the tattered looking notebook lying under his forearms.

With a push of stubborn bravery, she grabbed the sketchpad and slid it away from Johnny’s sleeping form, with no resistance on his part. The metaphor about him being akin to a vicious, snoozing guard dog was inaccurate, apparently. Her pilfered goods in hand, Devi retreated to her living room to inspect Johnny’s ‘work’.

From what she could see, it just looked like a torn-up mess. The open page, the one he had assumingly been working on last night, was the only one that wasn’t ripped. The rest all had pieces missing, some of them off to the sides, the other’s random chunks out of the middle. The first one was hollowed out, making it look like the discarded crust of a sandwich.

Devi frowned, uncertain what to make of this massacre of paper and pen marks. Maybe it was just some vent art, and she was expecting some grand project out of this molehill.

She flipped the pages carefully into their ordered places, and began the motion of closing the book’s cover when her eyes caught the vague shape of something amidst the tattered pages. She opened the cover fully again, and pulled one of the dangling pages more to the left. It was eerie how the lines seemed to shift and take form of something different as she did so – kind of cool, she admitted, if it was meant to be an interactive piece. Devi adjusted another loose page, and sucked in a sharp gasp at what she saw.

It was the figure of a person. All of this chaos was made to overlay and frame something, and that something was… Devi, it seemed. The figure showing amongst the damaged and chaotic penwork was her. She could certainly make out her scythe-like pigtails that protruded from the top of the slim subject’s head, however vaguely.

Devi’s chest clenched. There was such an uneasy feeling that came with seeing herself in Johnny’s work. Her brain immediately imagined that this was the result of some unhealthy obsession, maybe infatuation, with her, and that made her nauseous. Johnny couldn’t be living with her and dreaming up weird, neurotic, pseudo-romantic crap about her! Next he’ll be writing her poetry and other delusional bullshit, and that would not be acceptable in the slightest.

She stopped herself, letting the trail of disgusting thoughts leave her for a moment. Perhaps she was being too hasty in assuming that this was a symbol of his desire for her, or something equally gross. Devi wasn’t exactly narcissistic, but she absolutely credited herself and her efforts for guiding Johnny into a better state of being, and she knew Johnny did too. Maybe he put his gratitude toward his creative muse, and this was what popped out.

The shadowed eyes of her paper-self stared at something off the page, unknown to her, and Devi’s mouth twitched at how calm she looked. Sullen, but unbothered by the tumultuous nothingness around her.

Ugh. There better not be some kind of meaning behind this.

Devi closed the sketchbook and returned it to its sleeping owner, who only snorted a bit at having his arm prodded. She chuckled at the response, and shook her head fondly in disbelief of her situation. At least as far as art went, it was a pretty damn good piece from a one, maniacal, Johnny C.

She’d give him an ‘A’ for effort, this time. And maybe interrogate him later about his intentions. Yeah.

NEXT.

#jthm #jtrm #mine #devnny #devi gets a diary starter this time! :]#thank you all for your kind comments and tags on these tbh i live for you #chapter

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whiskeyworen · 5 years

Text

Aspect IV: Of Inspiration and Communication

Inside Vigil Keep, weeks before “Bound By Blood”

"Soldier Sonnya Danae; Package for you." The delivery person looked at his clipboard tiredly, before turning it around with a quill in hand for her. "Sign here please."

"I wasn't expecting any packages." Sonnya pointed out, scrawling her name in Asuran swirls on the line. It didn't matter that the form was written in Krytan; names are names. Besides, she'd seen people just scribble nonsense on the line before.

The delivery person shrugged slowly, and handed her a brown paper wrapped parcel. "I just deliver'm, miss."

As he turned to walk away, Sonnya retreated to her quarters, closing the door and locking it. She barely realized she'd done it; her attention was entirely on the mysterious package in her hand.

She sat down at her desk, placing the package on the table top, just...staring at it. Who could have sent it? There was an address on it from somewhere in Lion's Arch, but that might not mean anything; as long as you put an address from Lion's Arch, no one would bother looking it up. It might not even exist.

"Well, time to find out what's in this thing." Sonnya declared, and ripped the package open. Her eyebrow rose slightly as she pulled out the small, hand-sized comm device. It kind of looked like the standard Pact communicator that unit leaders and commanders had, but it was almost half the size.

The structure and layout were different as well. Instead of an On and Off button being the only keys, there was an entire set of number keys, some symbols she didn't recognize, and a few adjustment dials. Embedded into the top left corner appearred to be a micro-golemite eye. "....the hell?... why would a communicator need to see? Is it a golem or something?" She mumbled quietly, turning the device over in her hands. Satisfied there were no other secrets to it, she flicked the 'On' switch. She expected to hear one or another commander somewhere, talking to their companions; Pact comms were always open to anyone who had a comm, so the idea of private conversations was kind of an illusion.

Instead, there was silence. After a few seconds, the micro-golemite eye raised from its alcove, did a quick scan of everything in front of it (including Sonnya) and settled back into its groove. While the eye turned off, apparently the device finally activated. "Hello? Is this one Sonnya Danae I am speaking to?"

Sonnya waited for the no-doubt dozens of confused responses from others in the commnet, before realizing none were coming. So she hesitantly replied. "Uh, yes. This is Sonnya here. I received this comm unit in the mail?"

"Yes! Then it worked as I had planned! I am very pleased to make your acquaintance!" The voice on the comm was quite enthusiastic, but crystal clear. "I was unsure how to properly reach you, and this seemed most appropriate. I regret we cannot meet in person, but I am...on task in Elona at the moment."

Sonnya gave the comm an odd look. "Oh...kay?... Sorry, but I'm honestly surprised no one else has broken in to ask how I'm comming, or who you are? There's no way everyone turned their comms off."

"Oh, this comm is on a secure channel." The voice replied brightly. "Sadly, Pact comms are pretty basic. They are designed to be used as a single network, with everyone connected. I do not believe any research was ever done into solitary, private commlinks. At least, not until my Father suggested it and the rest of the crew figured it out. I helped of course."

"I'm...sorry, but I'm still really confused." She scratched her ear, placing the comm down on the table top. "So the comm is on its own, private line or something? The only people who can talk and hear are you and me?"

"Unless we cut someone into the signal, or they cut themselves in somehow, yes." There was a thoughtful pause in the line. "Of course, they would have to decrypt about a hundred and forty-four thousand lines of code to even FIND the signal. There's a lot of radio, ley, and Mist spectrum to work with. If we cut them in manually though, it would be a simple matter of dialing their number, provided we knew it, into the comm and then pressing the little button that looks like three dots connected by lines."

"I saw that, but didn't know what it was." Sonnya admitted, before shaking her head. "Wait wait. Okay. Hang on... WHY are we even talking? Why did you send a comm to me?"

"Oh! Right! I was so pleased with having made contact, that I placed the reason for it in the back of my memory!" Sonnya was pretty sure that the person on the other side of the comm was clapping their hands, though she couldn't hear the sound. "I wished to speak to you about the construction of your wonderful powered-armor suit, and your integration of technical devices into your biological structure!"

Her jaw dropped. No one knew, apart from the Warmaster, knew anything about her implants, or her suit. No one...except maybe Tenna. If Tenna even knew. "How... I mean, what makes you think I have anything like that? I don't know what you're talking about."

The person on the other end laughed pleasantly. "Oh please. There were recordings from all angles in the battle against that Shatterer. The Charr Legions were recording because they wanted to see the result of their new weapons. The Priory was recording for archives' sake, and the Order of Whispers and the Vigil were recording for references for future battles! Your little stunt might not be explainable to them, but I assure you, I understand exactly what was going on."

"You...have me at a disadvantage then." Sonnya frowned, crossing her arms. "My...implants won't work with anyone else. I only ever designed them to work with me."

"Oh do not worry about that. I am not interested in that. Not really." There was a smile in the voice. "I am planning something that requires... let us call it a very fine integration of biological and mechanical components. I wished to pick your brain, as it were, for ideas on how to smooth out some of the issues I have encountered in my simulations. Basically, I want you to double-check my ideas, and make sure I have not done something foolish or impossible."

"So, you don't want to steal my tech or anything like that? You just want to ask questions on how to improve your own? Your own tech that is similar to mine, but less refined?"

"Precisely."

"...Well, what did you have in mind then?"

***

Several hours later

"... so the circuitry integrates with the implants directly via surface-to-surface interface." Sonnya explained. "I can't give you the specifications of the implants themselves, but based on the ideas you've thrown at me, this should allow for a faster information rate and a tighter connection."

"I see! Thank you for the insight." The voice on the comm acknowledged. "I believe you're right. While I have no intention of using your implants, or trying to extrapolate them based on available information, I do believe I can manage to decrease reaction times by half at least, and muscle-load by a factor of five! I am sure if I work at it a little more, I can coax even more out. My investigation into magitech-neuromuscular modification is still rudimentary, but I'll soon have a few prototypes to test out."

"Glad to be of service." Sonnya smiled. She took a sip of beer from the bottle she'd gotten from her personal cooler. "Do you have any ideas on what you'll do with it all? I mean, you weren't looking to make a suit at all it seems. Or rather, the powered armor suit is almost a secondary item to whatever you're making."

"Publically, when it all is arranged, I will be setting up the sale of fully-working, personally customized prosethetics. The market will be for those individuals who, through birth or injury, are suffering from lack of limbs. I understand there's a similar market in Rata Sum, but it is small because everything is based off Golem-limb construction. Which, if you ask me, Golems are remarkably...brutish."

Sonnya shrugged. "True. But the refinements in magic circuits and power systems is making them more powerful and intelligent by the day. Shape doesn't really mean much, does it? Just look at that golem that kid in Dragon's Watch had. What was her name again?..."

"Taimi." The voice supplied reluctantly. "And yes, her Scruffy models are aesthetically pleasing, and very unique with their ability to be a conveyence AND a powered mecha suit, as well as a fully functioning autonomous golem...but they are still not the angle I am going for."

That brought a frown to the guardian's face. "I still don't know what you mean. The only other examples of golem-type things I know of are like, the Exalted, which AREN'T golems but kinda look like them, the Jade Constructs which are closer to Elementals in nature... and the Watchwork nightmares."

"Oh yes... the Watchworks. I know them well." The comm replied quietly and cryptically. "Very interesting designs, those."

"Scarlet was a maniac." Sonnya said flatly, frowning before draining her beer. "Her Watchwork creations made Steam creatures look tame by comparison. And we still have to wipe out infestations of THOSE in Lornar's Pass every year! They just keep making more of themselves!"

There was a pause, a silence over the comm. Then, "...Perhaps I should investigate how they replicate? If I can figure it out, it might come in handy for self-repairing prosthetics."

"Be my guest. Just don't come crying to me when a Steam Brain zaps you with lightning for coming too close." She laughed. She could still remember seeing Priory researchers bounding across the ice, backsides singed while an angry Steam Brain chased them, lightning arcing from its central eye, while the entire time it swore at them in machine-language. She assumed it was swearing of course. Wouldn't you, if some know-it-alls tried to shove a stick in your ear? Or whatever a Steam Brain has?

"Duly noted. Thank you again, Miss Sonnya."

"Well, it was my pleasure. It's not often I can talk shop with anyone." Sadly truer than Sonnya would like to admit; most soldiers in the Vigil were more concerned with using things rather than making things.

"....In that case, allow me to make you an offer." There was a nervous note in the voice's tone. Sonnya had the impression that, had someone been present, they would have been talking behind a cupped hand, afraid someone would hear. "In a week's time, my ship will dock in Lion's Arch at airdock 42 in the Aerodrome. If you show up, say, around noon, I will let you see the secret project I have been working on. The one that your information has come in quite handy in its completion."

A clandestine meeting at a secured, out-of-the-way airdock? Sonnya had flown on ships from the Aerodrome before, and remembered how it was laid out; Dock 42 was the furthest out, on the backside of the Aerodrome, facing Bloodtide Coast. It was so far out that merchants refused to park ships there because it would take so long and was so complicated to get things on board. Why would anyone willingly park there? "Uh, sure... A week from now, noon, Lion's Arch, Dock 42. Sure thing."

"Excellent. Perhaps when you see it, you will be able to offer a more hands-on, practical examination. You might see some things that need improvement from the prototype to a production model."

"Alright. Sounds fine to me!"

"Good, good. I must go now. Needs of the ship are building up on my task-list. I need to focus on that for a while."

Sonnya picked up the comm, surprised and a little worried. "Wait, before you sign-off or whatever... When I get to your ship, which ship am I actually looking for? And who should I tell them invited me?"

There was a pause, and then the voice replied, a smiling, almost devious tone to it. "... The ship is called the Forsaken Aspect. You just need to ask to see Alice."

A chuckle rolled from the comm. "I assure you, the person you meet at the dock will know exactly who you need to see, and why. Just trust me."

"Okay... Well, I will see you then... Alice?"

"See you then, Sonnya."

#gw2 fanfiction #short fic #tyrias-library #My Characters #Sonnya Danae #Forsaken Aspect #Female Asura #Asura #Asura Guardian #Talking shop

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