#it was actually meant to be shorter but then i remembered the screaming in sky meme and couldnt resist lol

[darqx]

I am trying to sleep.

[two-white-butterflies]

i want your heart | am. targaryen

Description: A vampire falls in love with a woman of science. The people of town burn her at the stake after a world-changing breakthrough.

Warning: Teen [mild angst]

Pairing: vampire!aemond-targaryen/doctor!reader

Author's Note: A bit inspired by @shruie and Castlevania (i haven't watched the series, just clips on tiktok)

(February 22, 1692.)

"Magic and medicine have always worked side-by-side," you cooed, combing through his platinum hair with adoration. He has loved you shorter than he's been alive - yet he swears that he cannot remember life before you.

"- but sleep and work have never happened side-by-side," he reminded, removing the book from your slender fingers. The light of the candle seems to illuminate his face perfectly. "You don't hear me complaining when you are engrossed in those novels," you pout - attempting to take the book off his hands.

"And mayhaps you should care more too." he raised an eyebrow, placing the book flatly on the table beside him. "I do! But I respect your use of time," you argue, hovering over him and reaching for the book on his side. He pulls your body down - lips merely centimeters away from each other.

A groan escapes his mouth - utterly enamored by your beauty. No other human or vampire has ever made him feel the same. You were different - you made him feel alive. "I propose something," he breathed - trailing his finger up your back.

"What?" you raise an eyebrow.

"A proper use of our time." he smiled - pulling your face closer and bridging your lips together.

To him - survival was never staying in the same place. Survival was roaming the world without end, shaking the hunters off his scent - and finally returning to his proper home. You.

"How long will you be gone this time?" you inquire, tracing your fingers on his bare chest. "A few months," he answered - placing a soft kiss to your forehead. "- I will long for you." he added, burying his face on your lavender scented hair.

"I can leave with you," you offer, pulling away from the embrace - and staring deep into his lavender eyes. "No. It will be too difficult." he asserted firmly - not wanting any harm to befall his beloved.

"As everything is meant to be." you smile, holding onto his forearm. "Not for you," he responded - placing another kiss at the top of your head. Fearing that it would be the last time you'd see each other.

"I love you then," you profess. "I love you most." he answers, lifting his cloak and whispering his final goodbyes.

If only you knew what was about to happen.

You yawn slowly - wiping the beads of sweat away from your forehead. "Holy fuck," you curse.

You've been working on this medicine for your entire life - everything you did was utterly dedicated to it.

And everything was making sense.

It was the light in the end of the tunnel.

The cure to peripneumonia - delivered to you on a silver plate.

When the village learnt about your discovery - they were quick to dismiss you - to call you names such as harlot and witch. But when the cure began to actually work - they called you the whore of satan.

A girl given by the devil to deliver others into evil.

"Burn the witch!" they screamed while tying you to a post. A tear trickles down your face - creating a soft line on your cheeks. "Burn the Bride of Satan!" the people you saved screamed - igniting the flames of your doom. "Don't," you whispered - shaking your head and staring at the sky.

Do not blame them father.

One of the priests began praying for your soul - holding his hands over the pyre as the scalding heat began to melt your skin.

What was Aemond going to do without you?

He always prided himself in being able to feel you - no matter how far you were - but for the past months he hasn't been able to.

"Welcome back, my lord." the man greeted, holding his boat steady as he began to dock.

He looked coldly at the fields in front of him. "Where is she?" he questioned - eyes searching for yours. The man lowers his head - removing his cap slowly. "S-she was punished, my lord. She is a witch." the man cursed - believing the words to be true.

He clenches his jaw.

Anger floods through his veins - he raises his hand, slowly draining the life out of the lowly servant.

How dare they.

(June 19, 2023)

Vampires were cursed to live forever - to walk as empty shells of who they previously were - never allowed to die. Only creatures with souls can die - and vampires didn't have that. Aemond raises his hood - prepared to fight against a monster hunter.

How long has it been since he's felt alive?

Three hundred and thirty one years since he's seen you.

He raged hellfire upon the town that killed you - slaying each and every one of the citizens - not caring if they were young or old, women or men, human or not. Their ignorance has led them to doom - and he was more than willing to execute them. He reaches for the lighter on the side, placing it loudly on the counter.

"Is that all?" you chew your gum, and he freezes at the familiar voice. "(Your Name)?" he hummed, lifting his hood slowly and gazing upon your face. "Yes, is that all?" you type on the keypad - assuming that he was reading your nameplate. "Y-yes." he answered.

A ghost of a smile is painted on his face.

He was finally alive again.

@nyctophilic0vitnir @bellstwd @pearlstiare @glame @bellaisasleep @yentroucnagol

[le-poor-writer]

Serve at First Sight (Kageyama Tobio x F!Reader)

"I bet I can..." Hinata mumbled and narrowed his eyes at him.

"Hah?" Kageyama glared back. "What did you just say?"

"I'm not good at setting. BUT I BET I CAN HIT THE LONGEST AND FASTEST SERVE!"

"IS THAT A CHALLENGE?"

"YOU WANNA GO NOW?"

"Uh... Kageyama, Hinata, Stop messing around or else you'll get an earful from Daichi-san." Yamaguchi tries to mediate the situation. The last time the idiotic duo did something stupid, all the first years had to run extra laps. And he was not up for that today.

"No use talking to idiots Yamaguchi." Tsukki sneered. "They have an IQ capacity of a teaspoon."

Hinata stood at the line of the court, deciding to go first. Throwing the ball into the air, he jumped as high as he could. As if he were a crow that leaped into the sky. His ball managed to land a good one meter away from line of the opposite side. A loud bang resonating the court and he beamed smugly at his tall opponent. Kageyama had a ball ready in hands as he took Hinata's place. Itching to outperformed the record set by the orange-head. Closing his eyes, he briefly replayed Oikawa's diabolical jump serve from their previous practice match. He knew he was a hundred years too early to be able to do that. Doesn't mean he won't try his luck though.

With a deep exhale, he took flight. Blocking out all sounds surrounding him, save that of his squeaking shoes and the volleyball as he slapped it forward. The stinging sensation felt on his hand causing him to grin. Not quite like Oikawa's, but still powerful. This is it, it will definitely plunge further than Hinata's. And it did. The ball flew pass that one meter mark. And hit a person. Kageyama's eyes blinked twice before the situation finally seeped through his thick skull. He had hit someone's head! Suddenly he could hear his surroundings again. Hinata panicked scream. Yamaguchi running towards the unfortunate human being who fell to the ground. Tsukki trying not to laugh at this slapstick comedy.

Kageyama sprinted towards the person. A hundred thoughts running through his mind. Is the person alright? Is he going to get in trouble with Daichi for this? Where are the third years anyway? Most importantly, when was that person there? How is it he did not notice them? What were they doing there in the first place? Surely no one would actually collapsed from that hit, right? He stood behind Yamaguchi who was trying to communicate with the seemingly unconscious person. And that was when Kageyama noticed, the person was a girl. A petite girl. He kneeled beside Yamaguchi. She seemed to be a little pale.

"Hello?" Yamaguchi tapping her shoulder. "Excuse me, can you hear me?"

No reply.

"KAGEYAMA KILLED SOMEONE!" Hinata hollered.

"What are you going to do now Kageyama?" Despite knowing that she only passed out, Tsukki decided to humour Hinata.

"I'll take her to the nurse's office." Immediately he carried her and jogged out of the court. Hoping not to run into anyone. Especially Daichi.

He couldn't help but glance at her face every three seconds. Wondering if she will wake up midway. But she didn't and that worried him more. If it weren't for her soft faint breaths he would have thought that he actually committed manslaughter with his jump serve. Besides, she has such a small frame. He was afraid if he really did break her. Kageyama held her closer to his body. Noticing how she fit snugly in his arms. And when looked closely, she's actually really cute. A blush spread quickly all over his face. What was he thinking? He doesn't even know her.

~~~~~~~~~~

(Y/n) blinked slowly. Feeling slightly dazed.

She woke up late today, all because of that stupid extra Japanese literature homework that had to be submitted during first period. And because she woke up late, she skipped breakfast. She wanted to get something during lunch, but had to drop by the school library to return some books that were due today. Well what do you know, apparently everyone needed to return their books today. If she had known she would've asked her friends to at least get her melon bread. She had about 10 minutes left before lunch ended, but she ran into her senior and was reminded to submit the club activities report today.

It was so hard to focus on classes for the rest of the afternoon. She drank lots of water in hopes to delay the impending dizziness. It was somewhat working. She only needed to wait until clubs and activities time. She'll get a sugary drink from the vending machine, then tell the club leader that she's going to head home early. But karma really had to be a bitch today. Her wallet was not in her bag. (Y/n) dreaded the fact that she might have dropped it somewhere. Searching for her wallet with this now nasty migraine is really going to be such a pain. That is until she suddenly remembered she left it in her drawer at home. She had forgotten about it amidst the rush.

(Y/n) crouched in front of the vending machine. What are the gods playing at exactly. Is it really so hard to get a single bite? Is this karma for denying Mr. Snuggles his treat last week? Well it was not her fault that he knocked over her pudding off the table! She was on the verge of tears when she heard the sound of volleyballs. Oh right, the vending machine was sort of close to the volleyball court... Didn't Yachi say she was recently the co-manager for Karasuno's volleyball club along with that beautiful senior Kiyoko. There is hope. She only needed a little money to get that small carton of drink.

She stood up quickly and regretted it. God, this migraine is killing her. With every ounce of determination she had left, she dragged her feet towards the court. Swaying a little every now and then. The sounds were getting louder, The ball hitting the court, shoes squeaking and people yelling? This is a good thing, it meant that she was getting closer. This is also a bad thing, because it's splitting her skull. Everything around her blurred as she entered the hall. Shit, where is Yachi? She took a few more steps before she felt a hard impact on her head. Dear lord that hurts like hell. And she lost all control of her body before everything went black.

"Oi." a gruff voice distracted her thoughts.

She sat up immediately. Hitting her head on the bed post in the process. She has realized by now that she must have passed out and someone from the volleyball club took her to the nurses office. It must have been this boy sitting beside her. But that still didn't mean she wouldn't be caught off guard. She has always been somewhat intimidated by the male species. Especially those tall towering ones that had to bend a little to talk to her. It's one of the unfortunate things one has to endure being 4'10 and having a small frame. People often joked that she could fit in a suitcase. Though seeing her other shorter friends did brought her pleasure, it still doesn't change the fact that a lot of people around her were giants.

"Idiot."

"Excuse me?" she glared. What's the big idea calling her an idiot out of nowhere. He was the one who surprised her. Sitting on a stool at her bedside, ain't that too close for a stranger, sir?  Who is he again? The volleyball club is pretty popular here in Karasuno after they managed to get into the finals of Inter high recently. It was unfortunate that they lost to Aoba Johsai, but everyone acknowledged what a monster the school was. Yachi said everyone felt down but it didn't dampened their spirit, for their next chance will be the Spring Tournament.

"S-sorry." the guy replied.

Dark eyes darting away from her face. She could make out an intimidating look on his face. Eyebrows furrowing sternly. Lips set on a grim line. Yet his cheeks flushed. Or was it because of the orange hue from the setting sun (she couldn't really tell), which also made his black hair glow. It dawned upon (y/n) that if he could just smooth away his frown, he would be handsome (she thinks). And if only he weren't being gruffy. Wait a minute. Tall volleyball player, black hair, intimidating frowning face but yet somehow still good looking?

"I'm Kageyama Tobio-"

"I know."

Silence... Well that was awkward.

She cleared her throat. "I'm (L/n) (Y/n). From Class 5. Um, Yachi's friend."

"Oh." Shoot. He didn't know she was Yachi's friend. What will the manager say about this. "I'm sorry. That my jump serve knocked you out."

"No no no! I was actually a little hypoglycemic. So your uh, jump serve was just the final nail in the coffin." Damn, she knew that getting hit by any ball was going to hurt. But the ball just now, it felt like it could tear her head off. Or maybe that's just an exaggeration of being starved the whole day. She realized his expression went from frowning to horrifying. "N-not that it will literally be the final nail to my coffin! It was just an expression. Maybe not a good one. Sorry I'm just bad with words when it comes to strangers. I mean not that you're an absolute stranger. It's just that- I'm sorry, I'm blabbering too much."

"Not at all!" he yelled. Ah, he got too animated. He didn't understand why. But he just thought everything about this girl is cute. From her petite stature that makes him want to shield her from the wind. To her way of talking that showed just how shy and awkward she was as how it is with him. Trying to reassure him that it was fine. He couldn't understand this sudden grip in his heart and the tingling sensation at his fingertips. Though maybe it was because he hasn't touch the volleyball for a few hours now.

Another awkward silence ensues.

"Anyways," (Y/n) was still a bit shy. She was after all talking to one of the most popular boys at school. But seeing as how he is now, she thought she could loosen up her guard a bit. "Have you seen my glasses?"

"You wear glasses?"

They rushed back together to the volleyball court. Yachi attacked her with a hug as she lamented about the news she heard from her fellow peers. Daichi scolding him to be careful next time whilst Tanaka giving him his infamous gangster glare. Hinata coming forward with his head down as he presented (Y/n)'s broken glasses. He accidently stepped on them when he was panicking, though he only realised it when she was sent to the nurse's office. Her glasses must have fallen off her head when she got hit. That hard huh. Really God, you want to test her that much today. Fine, she'll apologize to Mr. Snuggles when she gets home.

Unbeknownst to her, Kageyama felt even worse than earlier. His ball caused her to knocked out, and now it even knocked off the glasses from her head and broke it. Stuttering on his words, he apologized again. Hands balled into a tight fist. He just felt so bad. Suga noticed how dejected he sounded. But he also noticed how pink his ears were. Oh? Well even if it wasn't what he thought, there was no harm in... light teasing. Besides, they'd looked adorable together, no?

"If you really feel guilty. Then you should walk her home today." slinging his arm over Kageyama's shoulder, Suga tried to keep a neutral expression. Well there was a slight smirk, but he tried. "What if she falls down on her way home? Or run into a pole?"

"I am short-sighted Sugawara-senpai. Not blind." (Y/n) said through gritted teeth. Really these eyesight jokes should be old by now. "Besides, I will need to stop by the optic shop to have new ones made."

"All the more for him to accompany you. It will get dark soon. Might be dangerous to be walking alone with such bad eyesight."

"Oh no, I wouldn't want to burden-"

"Let's go." Kageyama interrupted. And when she declined again, he argued back. "Stop being a stubborn idiot. You still haven't eaten, you can't see well and you're so light that people can just easily carry you away."

Did he just called her an idiot for the second time in the short the period they have known each other. How rude! Not that his points were invalid. He was right. But boy does this person lack delicacy. In the end, she agreed to let him accompany her. He bought two cartons of milk from the vending machine. One for each of them, and they set off on their merry way.

~~~~~~~~~~

"No- Okay. Once again. Osmosis only works with solvents. Simple diffusion, both solvents and solutes. So in osmosis, solvents will move from low solute concentration-" (Y/n) stopped explaining when she noticed how Kageyama's brows were almost touching. His lips formed a small pout. "You know what, we have been revising for more than an hour. Let's take 5. Then continue for another hour. It's getting late and although my mum likes you, my dad wouldn't like you being in my room for too long."

Ever since that day where he sent her home, she began hanging out more with Yachi and the volleyball club. Not that she never hung out with her close friend, it's just that (y/n) felt out of place when she mingles with unfamiliar crowds. But now that every member knew her as the girl who got hit by Kageyama's jump serve, that became the basis of her acquaintanceship with the club and she got to hang out with Yachi more. And before she realized it, Kageyama has just been around her circle. Always there. Heck he has been walking her home more often now that even her mother likes him. Then they became just friends. Or she hoped it stayed that way, because she noticed her emotions began crossing unknown territories.

(Y/n) has come to learn a few things about Kageyama Tobio over the course of their friendship. One, he is an obsessed volleyball freak. A prodigy people say. But what (Y/n) sees is a person consumed by passion for the things he loves. And that isn't necessarily bad. Two, he can be quite childish. He fails to control his frustration which later comes off the wrong way whenever he expresses them. But really he means no harm, because when he is happy, he expresses them genuinely. And three, he is quite sensitive. He may want to show that he didn't care, but he actually takes things to heart. He may feel down about a comment, but he will learn to improve from it.

"Sorry."

"What for?"

"For having to teach an idiot like me."

"Oh stop it. Everyone is good and bad at something. We can't all be the perfect prodigy. That's just how things are. You may be bad at studying, but with your volleyball skills I bet you can represent Japan one day." noticing his eyes lit up, she continued. "So in order for you to attend your camp. Let's just try our best okay?"

Kageyama nodded. It was a little embarrassing to have her comforting him like this. But at the same time it brings him immense joy. When he first met her, he would get flutters looking at her cute appearance. Now, he just feels all warm and fuzzy whenever she talks to him. He liked that she didn't judge him or anyone she's ever met. She would scold him sometimes, but at the same time explained her reasoning. And he really appreciated that, how patient she was with him. It does make him guilty, but at the same time he wants to start behaving better. Is this what Suga meant when he said he has a crush on (Y/n)? Kageyama doesn't really know. He will need time to analyze everything.

"(L/n), do you have time during our Spring Tournament?" he tried looking anywhere else but her face.

"You want me to cheer on the club? Sure thing."

"Yes." Hearing her reply made him smile. With a steady gaze he stared straight into her eyes. "Watch me play, (y/n). I'll show you a really strong serve."

(Y/n) could only smile back as she felt butterflies in her stomach. "Then we better get back to studying."

[tossawary]

I need to know more about “SVSSS - Baby Brother Liu Qingge” bc I love tiny and very deadly baby LQG

I have a 3k-ish Shang Qinghua POV that was supposed to be the introduction to this fic concept! So... ah... baby Liu Qingge does not appear in this, but you can see the setup for how an 8yo-ish Liu Qingge was supposed to be introduced. My hope is that this will someday become a "Shang Qinghua and Shen Jiu go on a mission with Baby Brother Liu Qingge" one shot.

-cut-

Shang Qinghua didn't really have the words to describe what it was like having Proud Immortal Demon Way's characters finally come into his second life.

He didn't have the words to describe a lot of his transmigration experience, honestly! His words had described a lot of this world already, haha, hadn't they? Sometimes a person just had to put up with it and keep going.

And then excuse himself later to go scream into a pillow! Many times!

At first, life was just him in a body that didn't fit and strange memories that slipped between his fingers like sand. His memories of a past life had settled eventually, the System finally came fully online, and his relationship with his second family was fully fucked forever. That was fine, though! That was fine! With some unsolicited prodding from his System, he left to go seek his fortune soon enough and he never had to talk to his character's birth parents or siblings again.

But Airplane Shooting Towards The Sky had never said much of anything about Shang Qinghua’s family or home village, besides saying that the man had dreamed of more than his mediocre origins, so everything had been unfamiliar and original and real. Getting to Cang Qiong Mountain Sect, which he had described in great detail, was a real headfuck. There were no words for the experience of recognizing things that he’d written in another life.

He saw the glistening rainbow bridge and the intimidating sect entrance and the majestic meeting hall on Qiong Ding, and he nearly screamed. He definitely squawked. His vision got really fuzzy for a minute there and he had to sit down on the ground before he fell over. What the fuck?! What the fuck?! He’d made a world! The System had really made a world out of his web-novel! He was really stuck in Proud Immortal Demon Way!

There were upsides and downsides to joining Cang Qiong Mountain Sect. Downsides included: the hard training, the harder workload, the dangerous missions, the disrespect towards An Ding Peak, and being surrounded by arrogant and foolish teenagers looking to look down on someone. It was really something else to look some of them in the eye and think, "Bro, I don’t know your name, but you kind of owe your existence to me. Could you stop being such a fucking asshole about leaving your chores for me to do?! Respect your father!"

Upsides included: actually becoming a cultivator (pretty cool, even though the work of cultivation sucked more often than not), better living accommodations and food, and actually getting to see some of the cooler places, plants, monsters, and magic that were a part of his world. Sure, carting a monster corpse brought in by Bai Zhan Peak to Xi Jiao Peak for butchering was smelly and heavy and altogether miserable, but seeing an impossible animal was still kind of incredible. If this unwilling Shang Qinghua could stop being pushed around and stepped on long enough to appreciate the upsides, he’d really appreciate it!

It was interesting and infuriating to log the differences between what he’d imagined, what he’d written, and what the System had created. What sort of author described every single object in every single room? Who had time for that? Who wanted to read that? The System had filled in all the living details of An Ding Peak - the Leisure Houses, the training grounds, the storehouses, the warehouses, the kitchens, the lesson halls, the leisure gardens, the farming fields, the livestock fields, the stables, the cart lot, the water supply, the sewage systems, and so on - so that people could actually live here. Airplane Shooting Towards The Sky as an author had done many things worthy of complaint and criticism, but wasting his readers’ time with sewage systems was not one of them!

The System had also filled in all the little details and decorations - the paintings on the walls of sect history, the detailing on the rooftops supposedly offering protections from dream demons, the chipped and faded paint of old storehouses that disciples would be tasked with replacing, the statues in the fields to scare off scavengers, the carvings on the doors meant to reduce resentful energy, the childish etchings of bored students the surface of the lesson hall desks, the old bench where the An Ding Peak Lord liked to sit and eat flatcakes - so that it really seemed like people had built this place and maintained it and added to it for generations.

Shang Qinghua had his quibbles here and there. Sometimes the System had made choices that he objected to! He would have done it differently if it had asked him, the author, to contribute. He really felt as though the System should have asked him to clarify the plot holes and the gaps in detail, instead of choosing precedence randomly or building off random implications taken way too literally.

Sometimes he found out that the System had built things out of throwaway lines that Shang Qinghua himself had completely forgotten about. It turned out that Ku Xing Peak made a lot of purification tools and containment vessels because Airplane had offhandedly mentioned that this was their specialty, and now Shang Qinghua had to cart around delicate ceramics to be sold to city merchants or other cultivation sects. He never would have dared to write that if he’d known that it would one day in another life be his job to do things like take inventory and chase down signatures for successful deliveries.

Places, items, and creatures were one thing, but logging the differences between the people he met and the characters he’d created was something else. At first it was okay, because he was surrounded by nameless An Ding Peak nobodies - his fellow disciples, their teachers, the hardworking managers and merchants, even the peak lord - none of them had ever mattered in Proud Immortal Demon Way. If Airplane had been the one to name any of them, he didn’t recognize the names or remember them.

Then he met Yue Qingyuan.

Wow, it was a worse headfuck than first arriving at Cang Qiong Mountain Sect, when Shang Qinghua finally realized that this was the young version of one of his actual characters. It took him a minute. As a lowly outer disciple, Shang Qinghua hadn’t received “Qinghua” as a name yet (his name was Houhua, not that anyone ever used it) and the future Yue Qingyuan was still called Yue Qi.

Shang Qinghua was fourteen at the time. Yue Qingyuan must have been around the same age, so he didn’t strike the tall and handsome figure of the sect leader Airplane had described. The boy was broad, but actually a little short. He had freckles. He had acne.

But he also had a warm smile that seemed to go all the way to his eyes when he offered to give Shang Qinghua directions to the right office on Qiong Ding. He had a steady hand when he helped Shang Qinghua up, after the An Ding disciple had suddenly tripped over nothing upon being introduced. Yue Qingyuan - Yue Qi - walked him to the right office and did his best to make small talk, friendly and kind even though Shang Qinghua was having difficulty stringing more than a few words together in his shock.

Even then, it was obvious that the boy was developing the calm surety and the social charm that would make him a greatly admired sect leader someday! It was all Shang Qinghua could do not to blurt out: “Holy shit, you’re REAL?!” Which would be closely followed by: “Hey, is Shen Qingqiu really real too?!” And then maybe closely followed by: “FUCK!!!”

As the years went by, Shang Qinghua met more of Proud Immortal Demon Way’s characters, and it was weird every time. None of them were exactly like he was expecting. He kept expecting… well… he kept expecting them to look like the fanart, like flawless character models, more or less. Instead, he kept getting… people.

Wei Qingwei, head disciple of the sword-focused Wan Jian Peak, was also shorter than he was expecting, kind of stout, with a wide face and a wider smile. Airplane Shooting Towards The Sky had apparently had the man crack a few jokes upon his rare appearances in the web-novel, usually during tense situations, as he was reminded by the System upon thinking to himself: “Why is this guy LIKE THIS?!” So, because of just a few lines, the real Wei Qingwei had a relentless sense of humor and loved telling jokes.

Upon their first meeting, when Shang Qinghua was fifteen and had been sent over to help renovate some Wan Jian dormitories, fifteen-year-old Wei Qingwei had pretended to fumble a sword and, using a packet of dye and a sleight of hand, made it look like he’d accidentally cut off his own hand at the wrist. Of course Shang Qinghua had screamed and panicked! Anyone would panic! But Wei Qingwei had laughed at him and said, “Got you! Shang-Shidi, the sword wasn’t even unsheathed!” Asshole!

Qi Qingqi, the head disciple of Xian Shu Peak, was much taller than he was expecting. Apparently Airplane had once described a group of some of the peak lords by saying something like: “Each one of them was like a giant to young Luo Binghe.” That group had included Qi Qingqi. The System apparently had taken that to mean that Qi Qingqi was of a height with the likes of Yue Qingyuan and Shen Qingqiu. Shang Qinghua discovered this adaptational choice when he was almost sixteen, when this giraffe-like girl came to An Ding Peak to complain about an order someone along the pipeline had dropped completely, and he accidentally found himself (still waiting on a really good growth spurt) eye-level with Qi Qingqi’s chest.

Airplane had apparently once said in Proud Immortal Demon Way that Qian Cao Peak Lord Mu Qingfang appeared a little older than his colleagues, by which he’d probably meant that the man was just tired or something, but this head disciple Mu Qingfang appeared to have ten years on all the other head disciples. Which was good! Shang Qinghua approved of their future head healer not being a teenager and having more training!

On the bad side of things, Airplane had also once said in Proud Immortal Demon Way that the Zui Xian Peak Lord Zhang Qingyan liked his drink too much. This was the peak specializing in alcohol, so it had seemed to make sense! It was supposed to be funny, if anything! Well, at sixteen, Shang Qinghua found out that the System had focused too much on the “too much” part of that statement and now the head disciple of Zui Xian Peak was pretty clearly a budding alcoholic. (Sometimes a cultivator’s constitution and ability to “cure” themselves just… made a person drink more. A lot more.) Which was… not good.

At seventeen, Shang Qinghua met Mobei-Jun.

He didn’t know where to get started with Mobei-Jun.

Somehow he’d… forgotten that Mobei-Jun had been originally based on Airplane’s idea of “the perfect man” and not the super pretty, muscular but slim-waisted protagonist type? The real Mobei-Jun was… tall… and big… and thick. Mobei-Jun’s intimidating features were… more striking than pretty. The first time Shang Qinghua had come back to his Leisure House and found this spoiled brat of an ice demon napping shirtless on his bed, and gotten an eyeful of all that heavy muscle and chest hair, he’d nearly knocked himself out on the doorframe trying to turn away before he had a heart attack.

Mobei-Jun really was going to be the death of him, holy shit.

Especially because this ice demon really was a spoiled brat! Airplane had described this character as being arrogant and apathetic, so now Shang Qinghua had to deal with a Mobei-Jun who took long baths and then carelessly dripped water all over the floor and all over fresh sheets! Who ate all of Shang Qinghua’s cooking and ungratefully only demanded more food, sprawled over furniture not really fit for someone of his size, and then watched Shang Qinghua like a fat tiger! Ahhh, this demon really was lucky he was handsome!

Mobei-Jun was also kind of violent, and mean, which was… well, it sucked.

Back to the sect that Shang Qinghua was now actively betraying, however, as far as he could see, there was still one future peak lord missing.

It wasn’t Shen Qingqiu, who Shang Qinghua had thought would be the last one to show up. Shen Qingqiu had shown up and had been advancing through the ranks of Qing Jing Peak before Shang Qinghua had even met Mobei-Jun, which meant that Yue Qingyuan had finally stopped looking like someone had torn out his soul. (Shang Qinghua had been forced to grit his teeth every time that someone mentioned how privileged that Yue Qingyuan was to have been granted that year of secluded cultivation in the Lingxi Caves at such a young age.)

No, of all the peak lords, it was Liu Qingge who Shang Qinghua had yet to meet.

After meeting Mobei-Jun and becoming an inner disciple, the System had given Shang Qinghua three years to make it to head disciple, probably because the deadline for a new generation of peak lords to ascend was fast approaching. He was working hard to achieve that! Not only did he have to sabotage the current favorite, but he had to make sure all his own training, missions, work, and research were as close to flawless as he could get it! All while keeping an intruding ice demon happy! He wasn’t totally sure that he was going to make it at this rate, even though he’d been here for years.

So it was a little concerning that Liu Qingge hadn't shown up yet. There was so much left to do. A world-state that had yet to be established. Liu Qingge had work to do here!

Liu Qingge and Shen Qingqiu still had to develop a hatred for each other as disciples that would extend to everyone believing that Shen Qingqiu had murdered Liu Qingge as peak lords, after all. Granted, all Liu Qingge really had to do was beat everyone else on Bai Zhan Peak up to obtain the position, and it wasn’t exactly hard to get Shen Qingqiu to develop a lifelong grudge, but the guy was still cutting it pretty close.

It was possible that Liu Qingge was already on Bai Zhan Peak and making good progress, but that he was just so solitary and focused on searching out the next big battle that Shang Qinghua had just never had the opportunity to meet him. Shang Qinghua did his best to avoid Bai Zhan Peak most of the time, honestly! He was curious about where Liu Qingge was, about what the man looked like, but he didn’t let himself sweat at not seeing the future war god, when he already had so many things to sweat about. The System had taken care of bringing in everyone else, so Shang Qinghua was sure that Liu Qingge would follow sooner or later.

Shang Qinghua’s first sign that something was wrong was that, on the day that Liu Qingge finally announced his existence by beating up everyone on Bai Zhan Peak, everyone was saying things like, “I can’t believe some kid managed to topple all of Bai Zhan like that!”

He… may or may not have ignored this sign.

To be fair to this poor writer-turned-disciple, though, he’d been up all night finishing some paperwork catastrophe the An Ding Peak Lord had thrown at him to fix, as some kind of “test” of his logistics skills. Upon hearing the latest gossip, Shang Qinghua thought, “Oh, finally?” And then his overtired brain collapsed from the effort of thinking two words together in a sentence, and all he could manage from there was to feel the intense need to go to bed at a maximum, static-y volume. No words. No more thinky thoughts. Just the need for speedy sleep.

He stumbled through the rest of his day and then passed out for 18 hours straight. In hindsight, this would have been the time when the gossip was at its hottest. He missed all of it.

When he woke up, everyone was still dealing with the aftermath of what had happened on Bai Zhan Peak, but the conversation had shifted more towards replacing Qian Cao Peak’s depleted supplies and the repairs to Bai Zhan’s training grounds. Liu Qingge was the name on everyone’s lips, still, but everyone knew the basic information now. Now, everyone was just exclaiming over and over again how unbelievably young (and pretty) he was to have bested every other disciple on the sect battle-focused peak. This didn't seem too strange.

The System probably would have based the War God's appearance on his sister, Liu Mingyan, a strong contender for the most beautiful woman in all of Proud Immortal Demon Way. Liu Qingge apparently being a very pretty boy fell neatly into line with all the other character design surprises that Shang Qinghua had gotten smacked with so far.

If Airplane had known that he'd be transmigrating into his novel, maybe there would have been even more handsome men! And everyone would have lived happily ever after and nothing bad would have happened ever, probably, but also there might be more sexy guys too.

-

TBC

[mcwriting]

Lost in Rome

hello, friends! Ever since "La Vita Dolce," I've wanted to write something else involving Italy and at least one Italian phrase, and so this lil story was born! Hope you all enjoy!

Ship: Tom Holland x Reader

Word Count: 1488

Warnings: mentions of drinking, vv slight language

★

You had been walking around Rome for what felt like an eternity.

(It had only been like 30 minutes)

You knew the bar was right near Piazza Navona, but you'd only been to that part of the city one other time, having been staying south on the other side of the river in Trastevere.

You felt embarrassed knowing you were dragging your friends around the city without much of a guide, but you were too stubborn to admit that you were actually lost.

"Maybe we should've gone to Bar San Calisto again. It was cheap and close but noooo. I just had to look up a 'best bars in Rome' list" you thought as you continued to trudge on.

Not only were you lost, but you also didn't have the ability to look up where you were going, since you'd decided to go cheap and not buy an international plan or a vpn, choosing to only using wifi so you'd "stay in the moment."

That moment seemed stupid now that every marble wall and cobblestone street started to meld together in your brain as it continued to darken.

A trip to Rome was something you'd been wanting to do for years, so when your university offered up the chance to go study abroad for 4 weeks, you immediately began scrounging up the funds to go, even scoring a scholarship based on the fact that you'd taken Italian classes in school.

You'd only been there a week but thankfully had bonded with your roommate before even going, having struck up a conversation at the informational meeting the semester before. Since then, you had also bonded with those in the room next door, them sticking to you as their translator.

Finally, you couldn't take it anymore, stopping.

"Okay, look, guys. I'm really sorry but I literally have no idea where we are," you admitted, feeling guilty. Everyone else smiled.

"That's okay! This place is beautiful! I'm sure we'll find it eventually," your roommate, Olivia, said.

"Yeah. Didn't you say it was at Piazza Navona?" Aaron, one of your neighbors, asked. You nodded. "Well as long as we can find that, then we're basically there!"

After some wandering, your group found itself in the square in front of the Pantheon, which was a step in the right direction, but you were determined to actually find the right place.

There was a hotel right there, so you quickly stepped in to ask the desk worker to point you towards the Piazza, who explained that it was only a couple streets East of where you were.

Relieved, you and your friends quickly walked that way, breathing out a collective sigh when you walked into the giant open square, looking around at the familiar structures from the second day of class when you'd toured the area.

"Sooo... where's this bar?" Aaron's roommate Joseph asked.

You all circled the square from the inside and out a couple times, not seeing any signs with the name "Bar del Fico Roma" anywhere.

Dread started to wash over you as you realized the website must not have meant the bar was actually on the square, but was somewhere nearby. You felt stupid for not screenshotting the website page or, you know, actually looking it up first.

"Fine, that's it! I'm marching up to the next person I see and asking where this darn place is. We've made it this far!" you said, exasperated.

The first thing that caught your eye was a group of people who looked close to your age, talking in a small group. They were pretty well dressed, typical of a young Italian, so you immediately started over towards them, expecting them to be the most helpful in giving directions.

"Wait, y/n!" Olivia protested, but you ignored her, walking between a shorter boy and taller girl.

You couldn't help but sigh out the words as you started speaking, placing a light hand on the boy's arm.

“Scusa, potresti dirme dov’è la-" "Excuse me, could you tell me where the-"

"Sorry! I don't speak Italian!" the boy answered in a British accent, turning to face you with hands in surrender.

You both seemed taken aback when your eyes met.

Tom Holland?

"Um, oh what was the word for sorry in Italian again?" the actor in front of you asked, looking to one of his many Spider-man costars around you. Before one could answer, you blurted out one for him.

"It's 'mi dispiace' or 'perdonami,' depending on how you want to say it," you started, realizing how stupid you probably sounded to be teaching a world famous actor Italian words after accidentally infiltrating his conversation.

However, Tom was more shocked by your American accent. Your eyes still widened as you realized what was actually going on.

"Oh my gosh, what am I saying, um. I- I'm so sorry. We're just trying to find this bar and got lost and-"

"Which bar?" he asked in return. You furrowed your brows and looked at him funny, wondering why he would care. He seemed to take notice. "It's just that, we're also headed to a bar and can't seem to find it, either."

You chuckled at the situation, baffled.

"Well, um, it's called 'Bar del Fico Roma.'"

Tom's eyes widened.

"Hey, that's where we're headed!" Jacob Batalon cut in, making you look at him and the rest of the actors in surprise. You could see your own friends shock from your peripheral.

"No way! Really?" Joseph said for you. The group nodded.

"I just got it pulled up on maps," Zendaya said, holding up her phone. Realization suddenly hit that she of all people was the one who you had been standing next to this whole time.

You and your friends all gasped incredulously, amazed at your luck after spending all that time lost.

"If you want, we can show you the way," Tom offered.

"What? No, no we couldn't impose like that," you began, knowing your friends were probably internally screaming at you.

"Oh come on," Tom responded. "We're all going to the same place anyways, not like we won't see you there. It's barely a five minute's walk."

"Seriously, y/n. Do you really want to go around asking more locals for help when we've got it right here?" Olivia asked, raising a good point.

"Alright, fine," you started, rolling your eyes. You turned back to Tom. "You know what they say, 'when in Rome.' Seriously, thank you. All of you. You're definitely saving our asses."

He chuckled as Zendaya began leading the way. Though the sun had set, lights throughout the roads and emanating from various shops lit the way.

Without meaning to, you fell into step with Tom, easily matching his gait as you crossed through the bustling piazza.

"So what brings you to Italy?" He asked. "You don't quite sound like a local."

"We're studying abroad through our university. Unfortunately for me, these goons keep following me 'cause I speak the language," you joked, causing Olivia to slap the back of her hand to your shoulder.

"Ah, I see. I was definitely confused when you went from Italian to American in an instant. Y/n, was it?"

"Yes! Yeah, that's me. And you're obviously Tom Holland."

"You better remember that later, he tends to forget his own name after a few drinks," Zendaya called back to you, causing the group to laugh.

"Hey! That was one time!" Tom defended himself. "Not my fault I was going through a breakup!"

He turned back to you.

"Don't listen to them. I'm quite fun to drink with. You should see for yourself."

"Is that some sort of offer..?" you questioned playfully, tucking your hair behind your ear.

"If everyone's alright with it, I figured you all would join us at the lounge. I'm more than happy to pay for a round or two," he winked.

The group was approaching the bar, and any anxiety you'd had about finding it finally quelled when you could see people outside laughing and drinking as they enjoyed the summer night.

"Hmm... I don't know..." you sing-songed, looking up at the sky.

"Dude are you crazy?" Aaron exclaimed, causing the others to argue in agreement with him.

"Okay, okay. Of course we would be happy to join you for a drink. Thank you."

Both groups cheered in approval.

"The only thing I ask in return is a little lesson in Italian and, if all goes well, a pretty lady's number at the end of the night," he said smoothly, giving you a look.

The others looked between you with wide eyes, surprised at his open flirting. You couldn't help but smile and blush before replying.

"I think that's something I can manage. Now come on, your first lesson will be in ordering drinks," you said, grabbing his hand to lead him in what was about to be the best night of his life.

And yours.

★

A/N: Okay fun fact I thought up this concept immediately after publishing La Vita Dolce and just... never wrote it? The entire work was actually written around the one Italian phrase I used haha.

Anyways... Hope you all enjoyed as per usual and feel free to hmu anytime about anything :)

Send a message or ask if you’d like to be added to my permanent or series taglists so I can verify you’ve been added!

@jackiehollanderr, @one-big-fangirl, @agentnataliahofferson, @spider-babe, @justafangirlduh

[krisiverse]

Staring at the Sun [Link/Tetra]

Rating: T (for swearing)

Word Count: 2246

Summary: Link is so in love with Tetra it hurts, both figuratively and literally. But she only seems concerned when it starts interfering with his work on the ship. He has to figure out how to get a grip on his feelings, or else lose himself in them entirely.

Read on AO3

–––

There was a storm on the way.

Already the clouds blotted out the sun overhead, and thunder rolled in the distance. The winds were still, but Link could feel they wouldn't be for long.

He was in the middle of reefing the mainsail, making sure it couldn't be caught in the strong winds of the storm— captain's orders. And though he didn't quite see the point of it if he could direct the wind, he trusted her experience and judgement.

And speaking of the captain… there she was, like the sun through the clouds herself. Forgetting his work, Link watched as Tetra walked about the deck, checking over the crew's work and making adjustments where necessary. She was so sure in the way she carried herself, and that went double when she was working on the ship. The sheer strength she showed in pulling the line taut, the confidence of her practiced movements tying it secure in little more than a moment… It was nothing short of breathtaking.

While Link was distracted, a sharp gust caught the sail he was supposed to be tying up, and it snatched the rope clean from his hand. He lost his balance, falling to the deck where he lay in an undignified sprawl.

He could hear Tetra walking towards him. He wasn't sure if that made things better or worse.

"Link?"

"Mmn?"

"You alright?"

"Mmyeah," he mumbled into the deck. His pride was more hurt than anything, really.

"That's good. Get up," she told him, and he did, rubbing his arm that had taken most of the impact.

Tetra was silent for a bit, as if struggling to figure out what to say. After a moment she spoke.

"Look, Link. I've seen how you look at me, and I'm flattered, really— but you can't let this distract you from your job. You have to focus on the task at hand, before you or someone else gets seriously hurt. Understand?"

"Yes, Captain."

"I don't want to do this, but if this keeps up I'm going to have to move you to second watch so you can concentrate."

Link's breath caught in his chest. It felt as if someone had reached in to grab his heart and squeeze it as tightly as they could. Working second watch would mean he'd never be off at the same time as anyone from the first watch. That meant everyone in the crew he was familiar with. That meant Tetra.

"Do you understand, Link?"

"Yes, Captain."

"Is that what you want?"

He hung his head. "No, Captain."

"I'm sorry it has to be this way, Link. But we can't afford distractions. You have a job to do, and so do I."

"I understand," said Link, and he did. "…With all due respect, miss, it would have hurt less if you'd thrown me overboard."

Tetra laughed at that. It was a beautiful sound, honest and unafraid and sweeter than honey. "You'll be fine, loverboy, you've made it through worse. Now get back up there and finish what you started, alright?"

"…Yeah."

As she walked away, Link stole one last glance after her, before sighing and turning back to the mast. The winds were picking up, and the unsecured side of the sail he was supposed to tie up was flapping in the breeze.

It took a long moment for him to gather the strength to pull himself back up and continue with his work.

–––

It had been two weeks since Link had gotten distracted and fallen from the mast. Two weeks since Tetra had called him out for staring at her so much, two weeks he avoided looking at her whenever he could, because he knew if he did it'd be next to impossible to tear his gaze away. No one else had gotten hurt since then; at least, not physically, but there was an ache in Link's chest that wouldn't go away. Now, he and Tetra were working together to tar the lines, which left them far too close together and gave him far too much time to think about it.

To distract himself from his thoughts, he asked, "How much longer do you think we'll be out here?"

"There's really no way of knowing. It could be a few days, or we could keep sailing the rest of our lives without finding anything."

"Oh, is it that simple? Let me mark my calendar," Link snapped. He felt Tetra shift next to him, and when he glanced up, she was looking at him with concern. "…What? What is it?"

"That wasn't like you at all, Link. What's wrong?"

"What's wrong?" Link echoed. "What's wrong is— is I don't know what's wrong. I should be happy, right? We're on an adventure, sailing across the ocean to find new land, just like I've dreamed about ever since I can remember. There are so many amazing things in store for us, it's new, it's exciting, but instead I'm feeling shitty and awful for no damn reason."

"Maybe it's just stress from sailing for so long," Tetra suggested. "It can get to even the most seasoned sailors."

Link considered that for a moment. He knew it could be that simple, but… "That doesn't feel right. I think it's something else."

Tetra didn't get the chance to say anything to that before the bell rang out eight times, marking the end of their watch. She stood and stretched while Link finished up what they were doing, then he followed suit.

"Is it just me, or are those getting shorter?" He asked.

"It's just you. You're getting more used to working with us on the ship, loverboy."

Link tensed. He knew the nickname was supposed to be affectionate (—wasn't it? maybe he was misinterpreting things—) but at the moment, it felt more patronizing than anything. He fixed his gaze on the deck and said nothing. He knew he could look at her, but somehow it felt like he wasn't allowed.

"Still not feeling great, huh?" Tetra asked, a note of sympathy —that was sympathy, right?— in her voice. "Let's head to my quarters, we can talk more there."

Link's brain practically stopped working at that. He had to forcibly remind himself that it didn't mean anything, that he had to stop thinking about Tetra that way. She just said she wanted to talk, that's all, it wasn't her fault he wanted to kiss her more than he wanted anything else in the world.

"Yeah," he said, though it came out somewhat strained. "Let's do that."

She led the way to her cabin and Link followed behind, his brain too busy to do much else. Once they were there, she sat on the bed and left him to just stand and look around. This was only the second time he'd been in here, the first time being only a quick peek long ago when he'd snuck onto the ship to steal bombs and his curiosity had gotten the better of him. Now that he had the chance to look around properly, and now that he knew Tetra better, it made him ache. It was all just… so her.

"Link… Are you upset with me?"

"What?" He blinked in complete shock. Where did that come from? "No, of course not. What gave you that idea?"

"You haven't been looking at me recently… I thought it was because I was too hard on you the other day. I'm sorry about that."

"No, that's not it. It's because you told me not to let myself get distracted, so, I've been trying hard not to."

"There's nothing here to be distracted from."

"Except breathing."

She let out a laugh; even her voice was so beautiful, he couldn't escape. "Link, come on."

He took a breath, like he was about to dive underwater, and lifted his gaze to meet hers. Her eyes were blue like the ocean, like sapphires, like the summer sky on the day they'd met; her skin, a sun-kissed golden brown dotted with countless scars and freckles. He wanted so badly to run his fingers along them, to trace constellations between and navigate by the stars of her sky. She was smiling at him, softly, and he longed to find out if her lips were as soft as they looked…

"You're so beautiful," he breathed, because looking at her how could he say anything else?

"You really think so?"

"Of course I do. You..." He struggled to find the words to describe just what he saw in her. "You—you're like the sun and the stars to me, you shine so bright and so beautiful and when you're around I can hardly think about anything else. It's just… too much for me, I'm too hopelessly in love."

She laughed again, but this time, Link felt some part of him splinter and break. "You're so cute—"

"It's not a joke, Tetra!"

The smile vanished from her face. He hadn't meant to yell so loud, but he couldn't find it in himself to regret it. Tears pricked at the corner of his eyes, and his hands shook.

"I love you so much it hurts. And you know how I feel about you, and you keep treating it like— like the world's biggest fucking joke. I tell you how I feel and you laugh in my face. " He took a shuddering breath. He could tell Tetra was staring at him, but he couldn't make out her expression, he was crying too hard. "And— and you keep teasing me, and leading me on, you keep acting like you, like you have feelings for me, too, but then you always back off and leave and I just… just tell me! Quit playing with my feelings and just tell me you don't like me back so I can stop wasting my fucking time!"

Link dissolved into a coughing fit, punctuated by sobs. His chest and throat hurt so much from screaming like that— but worse was that he'd probably just ruined his friendship with Tetra for good. It was selfish of him to expect her to feel the same way he did, wasn't it? And yelling at her over it was even worse.

He was so ready for her to kick him out of her cabin, to tell him she didn't owe him anything, to drop him off in his little sailboat and leave him all on his own. He wasn't ready for what she did instead, which was to take his hand and gently brush the tears from his face.

"It's okay, Link… It's okay," she assured him. But then before he had the chance to recover, she added, "But I do actually like you back."

"What," he said flatly. Then, at a higher pitch, "Why the fuck would you say something like that?"

"What??"

"You can't just— you can't just say that and make it all better!"

"Link, I—"

"If anything this is worse! Because if you really felt the same way about me then why—"

"Link." She interrupted him, clearly exasperated. "Can you please just listen for a moment?"

Link fell silent. Tetra tugged at his hand, guiding him to sit on the bed beside her.

"I do return your feelings," she said. "But we can't be in a relationship, not while I'm captain of this ship. There's no way for it to be balanced while I'm still the boss of you, and I can't give you the time and attention you deserve when I have this to worry about. It wouldn't be fair to you."

"Okay." Now that he was hearing the actual explanation, that made a lot of sense.

"But, I didn't realize I was already being unfair to you by leading you on. I'm really sorry for that… I promise I'll stop teasing you from now on."

"The teasing is fine! It's… it's already a lot better just knowing where you're coming from with that, you know?"

"Alright, I'll stay the course, then." She smiled. "And as for seriously being together… We can discuss that more once we find land, alright?"

"Yeah." He rested his head against her shoulder for just a moment, before he thought of something. "Though if it could be years before we find it, like you said… How about a kiss to tide me over 'til then?"

"You really are a bold son of a bitch, aren't you?" Tetra chuckled and shook her head. "Alright. One kiss, that's all you get. Better make it count."

When Link didn't act, she did instead, cupping his face in her hand and leaning in to press her lips to his and gods it was everything he'd imagined and more, it felt soft and warm and right like sunlight made solid and he never wanted this moment to end. He wrapped his arm around her back to pull her in closer and kiss her as deeply as he could. He couldn't care less that he didn't know how to kiss someone, because all that mattered was her with him right here and now.

It ended too soon —but really even if it never ended it would've been too soon— and he flopped backwards onto the bed. There he simply lay and stared at the ceiling, totally starstruck.

"You good there, loverboy?"

"I think I can die happy now."

"You better not!" Tetra objected and jabbed him in the side. Link burst out laughing, and then Tetra did, too; and in that moment, everything was perfect.

[rubykgrant]

I’m gonna write out little high-lights of my RVB Monster AU for Halloween reasons~ Things happen in a mostly normal-world modern setting, but obviously with monsters/fantasy creatures and such. Things plot-related happen almost the same way, but some stuff is earlier/later, shuffled around to work for my own purposes (so some of the key moments still happen, but occasionally in a different order). Here is the beginning, which as always, starts with two morons asking a big question-

“Hey?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you ever wonder why we’re here?”

“Well, that’s one of life’s great mysteries, isn’t it?”

The two men were standing on the rooftop of an old warehouse. The building had gone through several owners, being used as a storage facility, a garage for fixing up cars and various vehicles, a shipping business, a veterinary clinic for large animals and livestock, a recycling center… and possibly some kind of drug lab at one point. It was none of these now, but if a stranger saw the inside, they would assume the new owner was a combination a mechanic/pet doctor, using the left-behind equipment (and considering how shady everything appeared, a stranger would also probably assume this was a front for yet another drug lab). It was still none of these things. In truth, it was much stranger.

One man stood slouching with the late-afternoon sun on his back. The other was leaning against a vent that came out of the roof, in the shadows. He had a red long-sleeved button-up shirt on (despite the hot temperature), and black jeans. His shirt was neatly tucked-in, and his matching red hair was trimmed short in what was decidedly a “going to a job interview” style. His eyes were two different colors. Once, they had both been a soft brown, but now one was glass, the color of the iris some kind of magenta… or maroon. The other eye (the one that was still organic) was a golden-yellow. He looked like somebody who had gone through a growth-spurt some years back, and still hadn’t settled into himself; too lanky and gawky for his own good.

His companion in the sun was a little shorter, and considerably larger, but completely at ease with his shape and his weight. His skin was mostly a warm copper brown… but he had several patches of mis-matched skin tones on his left side; around his eye, his chest, his arm, his leg. Each area also showed several scars, signifying that it was the result of surgery and skin-grafts. His dark brown hair was parted in the center, falling down around his shoulders in long curls, and stubble on his chin. His eyes were so dark, they almost looked black. He wore an old faded baseball shirt (once white with orange on the collar and short sleeves, now a dingy-peachy color), and loose gray jeans that were worn-out at the knees. They were quite the odd pair, opposites in many ways that were obvious (and more that were evident in their interactions), yet it was clear they were used to each other’s company.

“Why ARE we here?” the man in the sun continued, answering the question from his friend in the shadows. “I mean, are we the product of some cosmic coincidence, or is there really a god watching everything? You know, with a plan for us and stuff. I don't know man, but it keeps me up at night…”

“WHAT?” the other man stood up a little straighter, but remained behind the vent. “I meant why are we out HERE, in broad daylight? Sarge KNOWS it’ll burn me, and there’s not even anything for us to do! The only reason he sends us out to keep watch is because there’s that building over there he thinks is haunted, but we can’t see anything from here… and if there WAS anything going on over there, like ghosts or whatever, they could definitely see US! We don’t have any cover on the roof, but whoever might be over THERE is hidden behind the windows!”

“Oh… uh, yeah…”

“What was all that stuff about god?”

“Nothing,”

“You sure?”

“Yeah,”

They both decided to just skip it, and move on.

“But seriously, why ARE we out here, and why does Sarge care about that building so much?” the taller man waved his arm, gesturing to the building in question.

“I guess he wants to try catching ghosts next, or something?” the shorter man shrugged.

“Then we should just GO OVER THERE, right?”

“Pfff… nah, are you kidding? Just standing around, looking at a building? This is the easiest job I ever had,” he sighed, shoving his hands into his pockets.

“Grif, you- OK, first of all! This isn’t a JOB, we aren’t getting paid! Second, you don’t even remember most of your life before a few months ago, you have no basis of comparison!”

“Fair point, but come on Simmons… seriously? What job could I have possibly had that would be easier than this?”

From his spot in the shadows, Simmons looked away for a moment, thinking.

“Hmm… well, I remember reading about people being paid to take part in sleep studies. You just nap and keep a dream journal, or whatever…”

“Oh man, are you kidding!? I WISH that was my life!” Grif kicked at an old rusty can, causing it to fall off the roof. “Instead, here I am, stuck in this stupid building, in this stupid town, in this stupid canyon-”

“Where we have to look at a potentially haunted building, at random intervals, day and night…” Simmons added.

“All because Scruffy the Vampire Slayer is paranoid!”

Despite himself, this caused Simmons to snort laughter. Grif grinned, pleased that his pun was appreciated.

“Even if that building IS haunted… it doesn’t seem like something bad, you know? I never see anybody running out of there screaming bloody murder. If we just ignored it, what would happen? Nothing. It would just be a boring building with boring ghosts, and we’d just be another boring building with boring… whatever we are,” Simmons leaned once more on the vent, glaring up at the sky that was still dangerously bright.

“I think monsters sums us up pretty good,” Griff suggested.

“Right, monsters who don’t do anything. Over there are ghosts who don’t do anything. Whoopty-fucking-doo…”

“You gonna actually SAY that to Sarge? Hmm? Gonna finally stand up to him, use your big-boy voice, and tell the crazy old man you don’t wanna follow orders anymore? Is this beginning of your rebellious phase?” Grif reached over, shoving Simmons lightly on the arm.

“Well… no… but! I’m gonna remind him that me being outside in the day is a bad idea! YOU should get the day shift, and I should get the night shift. It just makes sense,”

“Aww, but Simmons… then we wouldn’t get to spend quality time together, having all these deep and meaningful conversations!” Grif gave him a look of fake-concern, like he was hurt and might start crying.

“Oh, right. I forgot. We’re philosophers discussing the secrets of the universe, life’s great mysteries, right?” Simmons smirked.

“Exactly… like, if you could only taste one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be? No matter what you ate, it has the same flavor?” Grif asked.

“That’s a stupid question for a vampire, man. Everything I eat DOES have the same flavor now. It all tastes like blood, because guess what? I have to drink blood. Because I’m a VAMPIRE,” Simmons shook his head.

“No, but I mean, if you could magically taste something ELSE, whether you were drinking blood or eating a salad, or whatever, what would you pick?” Grif pressed on. “I’d want everything to taste like chocolate. Milk chocolate. That’s my favorite, and I’d never get sick of it…”

“Jeez… it would’ve been impossible to get you to chill out if you tasted chocolate every time you tried to eat a person!” Simmons replied, remembering how it had been with Grif when they first found him.

“Yeah, I don’t know what those other zombies were on about… brains and human flesh is GROSS. Chocolate, though? MMM, I could do the zombie-shuffle-walk for days to get some good chocolate,”

“Uh-huh, and  that’s EXACTLY how we caught you!” Simmons almost reached out to return the arm-punch, but managed to hesitate and stop in time… Grif was still in direct sunlight, and Simmons would get scorched if he left his little patch of shadow. Grif seemed to realize this, in that quiet and easy way that caused both of them to somehow pick-up each other’s habits. Grif leaned over to nudge Simmons with his shoulder, and they both laughed together.

[thechangeling]

Out of our heads Out of our minds

So evil writer brain decided to cook up and incredibly toxic kitty fic because apparently I'm a terrible person lol. Blame @ilikebooks8 for letting this see the light of day.

The title is based on the song Out of this world by Bush.

Cw: slightly nsfw, violence, cheating, incredibly toxic behavior, beloved characters making bad choices, and implied sex.

Kit returns.

He returns to Ty with the same dazzling smile and charming witt, only now he seems to have grown even more impossibly beautiful as time has passed.

Now he's all hard lines and defined muscles and piercing sinful blue eyes that make Ty so angry he could scream.

Kit laughs and Ty wants to tear his insides out. Wants to rip Kit's heart right out if his chest just like he did to Ty. The painful gnawing rage of a betrayal that still stings after all this time. And yet still, Ty heard Kit was in danger and he came running like a man obsessed.

Ty knows deep down now matter how angry he is, he could never let anything happen to Kit. Nothing permanent anyways. Sometimes when the ache becomes to difficult to bare, Ty imagines punching that stupid smirk right off of his face. Or choking him hard enough to leave bruises. Of course Ty would never actually do such a thing. The sight of Kit in pain, any sort of pain is just too unbearable.

And that's the worst part. No matter how angry Ty gets he knows it can't last. And no matter how painful it is to be near Kit again, he still feels this unexplainable pull. This whispering in his ear to get closer and closer. To reach out and touch.

But it's stupid, and it's wrong anyways because Ty already has someone. Anush who was by his side the whole time at the scholomance and has never betrayed him. Anush who is sweet and thoughtful and gorgeous. Ty should be happy. After all, wasn't this what he always wanted? Someone to be there for him?

So he tried to distract himself from Kit by throwing himself into spending time with Anush and working the case. That's all Kit was now, just the latest problem to solve. A supernatural disaster. They would save him and stop the oncoming war and everything would be fine.

And then Kit would be gone. Blind panic teared at Ty's insides at the thought. There were these moments with Kit where they would make eye contact, or they would bump into each other in the kitchen and their fingers would brush and Ty would just desperately want to wrap Kit in his arms again.

He wanted to ask if Kit had really meant what he said that day on the beach. Sometimes when Kit stared at him with that soft sad smile on his face Ty wondered if they were going through similar things. Sometimes Ty wanted to tell him that he wished he had never met Kit either.

Kit Herondale was dangerous and unpredictable and loving him was like holding a live wire. But funnily enough the same could probably be said about Ty. Especially lately.

He felt like he was constantly in pain. Like his body ached with invisible wounds that made it impossible to breathe. The world was brutal and unforgiving, berating him with constant noise and blinding lights jabbing hot pokers into his brain. And the people with their sickly sweet smiles as they demanded he bare his soul.

But what if there was nothing left anymore? What if his soul had died with Livvy? Ty tried to cling onto the things that made him feel better. He hid away in his favorite spot, listening to his favorite music and pouring over Sherlock. Repeating the words to himself over and over again like they could pull him out of this tailspin. Ty distracted himself with Anush's sweet kisses and wandering hands as he tried to turn his brain off for once in his life.

But his soul was screaming out for another person to be the one touching him. He wanted Kit and that was infuriating. It made no logical sense. Not only was Kit responsible for breaking his heart but he also was notorious for playing fast and loose with his own life. Ty couldn't spend all his time constantly feeling like his heart was living outside of his body. Constantly in danger of being ripped open by some dark and evil thing.

Ty had everything he thought he wanted. But it still wasnt enough.

During another sleepless night, Ty found himself wandering the institutes halls. At this point he was simply just overtired. Too many nights spent worrying or studying or reading instead of sleeping. Now his body doesn't remember how to rest. Ty was far too exhausted to operate on logic or reason so he found himself standing outside of Kit's door, wondering absentmindedly how he got there.

Ty placed his hand against the door, fighting the urge to open it and walk through. He can remember the first time he waited outside of Kit's door, just like it was yesterday. He had no idea at the time why he was so drawn to the mysterious boy who had shown up at the institute after Ty had threatened him with a knife. The boy who turned out to be a lost Herondale. And honestly after all of this time Ty still couldn't explain it.

This is a bad idea, He thought to himself as he slowly turned the doorknob. This is a terrible idea. Ty, driven by pure need like fire under his skin, pushed the door open.

Kit was awake as Ty suspected he would be, sitting by the window and staring out into the night sky. Under the moonlight he was glowing. He turned around to stare at Ty, first with a look of shock, and then that same hallow desperation Ty had been seeing on Kit's face lately.

He also looked angry.

"What the hell are you doing in here Ty?" He sounded exhausted. Ty almost felt guilty in a sense. He stared at Kit for a moment, unsure of what to say.

"I don't know," he whispered, staring at the ground. "I suppose I was compelled." Ty let his gaze slowly rise up Kit's body, drinking it in.

Kit scoffed harshly. "Compelled? By what exactly, Tiberius?"

Ty looked up at Kit's face in surprise. He rarely called Ty by his full name. Ty really didn't like how it felt. Cold and distant. Ty sighed, pushing his fingertips against his collarbone and tracing it slightly.

"I don't know. I guess I just needed to know. I need to know why you left me." Ty tried not to let himself sound desperate or weak, but he had become worn down by this point. He couldn't keep up his defenses much longer.

"Why didn't you want me?" He muttered. "Why wasn't I good enough?"

And there it was. The painful truth that Ty had been avoiding. The fact that Kit had tossed him aside just like so many had before. Like Paige. Like his father. He had always tried so hard to make people happy. To live up to their expectations. But in the end it didn't matter how hard he tried, sometimes there was just no pleasing certain people.

Sometimes it seemed like there was no point in being good and following the rules if nothing ever changed. If Ty always ended up in the same place. If people always saw him as a problem or an inconvenience or worse, then he could just live up to their expectations. Be selfish and cold and cruel because no amount of begging and smiling was going to earn him respect.

Kit glared at him in shock. "Who the hell do you think you are? Coming in here to play mind games with me?" Before Ty could register what was happening, Kit was storming towards him and shoving him up against the wall with a loud thunk.

The feeling of Kit touching him again after all this time was dizzying. Kit was shorter then him so he needed to crane his neck a little to look up at Ty, which meant that his throat was completely exposed for Ty to stare at.

"I told you how I felt and you did nothing! You ignored me!" Kit cried. "I wanted you more then I've ever wanted anything Ty! I still do!" Tears were streaming down his face. Ty stared at Kit, completely frozen. His wrists were pinned to the wall by Kit's hands and their faces were inches apart.

Ty struggled to collect himself. "I didn't know what was going on," he gasped out shakily. "I was a mess Kit. I just had to get her back. But-." He cut himself off. It was all for nothing. Ty had lost Livvy in the end and he had lost Kit as well.

Ty shook his head. "Does this mean that you love me?" His voice sounded so far away. Like the words were being pulled from some unexpected place within him. Kit let out a soft gasp and squeezed his eyes shut before fixing his expression into a blank slate. He leaned forward slightly so that their lips were just barely touching, then gently trailed his mouth across Ty's cheek to his ear.

Ty felt him smirk slightly before Kit whispered in his ear. "Go to sleep Ty. Go back to your boyfriend."

And before Ty had time to think, he was lashing out. He shoved Kit backwards as hard as he could with a snarl. Kit went flying across the room and slammed into the opposite wall. If Kit had been human it probably would have knocked him out. Ty stared in horror at what he had done as Kit clutched his ribs and groaned.

"You seriously have some anger management issues!" Kit snapped at him, glaring pointedly. Ty knew that. When he was younger he used to have fits of uncontrollable rage all the time. Words didnt come easily to him so he would hit, scratch, bite or throw whatever was closest to make people realize he was in pain. When he wanted to say "don't touch me" or "you hurt my feelings" but he just could make the words form properly, he would get angry. And then he would lash out.

Ty thought he had been getting better at managing his emotions and communicating. But there was something about Kit Herondale that just evaporated every last bit of logic and reason he had until all that was left was the urge to scream.

Ty gaped in shock, searching for the right thing to say. "By the angel Kit, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to do that I swear!" He pleaded. His fingers were beginning to shake and flutter at his sides. He tapped desperately against his thigh, scratching at the material of his sweatpants to try and calm himself down.

Kit just shook his head and laughed humourlessly. "Honestly Ty, we should just tell the Seelie Queen not to worry. And Janus, and all the other people who want the first heir dead. You'll destroy me just fine on your own." He gaze was piercing and ruthless.

Ty's breathing was frantic and erratic as he shook in agony. He could feel he was on the urge of a meltdown.

Kit pulled himself to his feet. He stared at Ty longingly and then smiled slightly. A genuine smile. "But honestly what a way to go. Does that answer your question sweetheart?"

Ty gasped soundlessly, his hands shaking at his sides. He fought to get a hold of himself. Kit studied Ty for a moment, then slowly began to approach him.

"Why are you here Ty? Why did you come here exactly?" Kit was speaking in a soft lulling voice as if he was trying to hypnotize Ty.

"I'm here because I miss you," Ty admitted. "It's confusing. Because I'm still mad at you. But I can't stop thinking about you." Ty felt as though he was close to crying, which was concerning because he rarely ever cried.

Only for Kit.

Kit scowled at him slightly. "You're with someone else, remember?"

Guilt instantly pierced through Ty's chest. "Yeah I know, I'm a terrible person," he said bitterly. He didn't want to admit to himself that he had been trying this whole time to distract himself from Kit. That he was using Anush. But that was technically true. Ty saw the opportunity to lose himself in a pretty boy with an honest smile who loved him wholeheartedly.

Ty thought he could forget but then here he was. All roads led to Kit Herondale.

Kit sighed and reached for Ty, wrapping his arms around him and pulling him close. "You arent terrible. You're spiraling. And you come to me like I can save you from yourself? Please," Kit chuckled. "I can barely save myself."

"I don't need you to save me."

Kit stared at him with an expression that was hard to place. Then he smiled, but it wasnt a kind smile. It was a satisfied, knowing smirk. Kit traced his thumb under Ty's chin then back up to his lips, forcing them to part slightly.

"You think I don't know why you're here love?" He cooed in a voice that was both soothing and alluring. You think I don't know what you're after?" Kit sighed, sounding a little worn down. "If I was a better person, a stronger person. I would tell you to leave." He dipped his hands down underneath Ty's shirt.

Ty shivered at the cold feeling against his skin. He dropped his forhead down to lean against Kit's, revealing in the contact. "Lucky for you," Kit whispered against his lips, "I'm not."

Ty felt the last string of his self control snap as he kissed Kit roughly, grabbing onto his torso and pulling him closer. Kit responded to the kiss eagerly, parting his lips for Ty and laughing deliriously as their lips met again and again.

Kit was tearing off Ty's shirt as he walked him backwards, closer to the bed. As soon as he had slid it off if Ty's body, Kit tossed the shirt aside and went back to kissing him. Ty felt his knees hit the bed frame and he fell backwards onto the soft welcoming mattress, pulling Kit down with him.

Kit kissed a line down Ty's neck to his pulse point and Ty groaned, burying his fingers in Kit's curls. He was lost in a sea of pure desperation.

"Tell me to stop," Kit whispered between kisses. Ty froze for a moment. Then he understood.

Kit was giving him an out.

Ty responded by pulling Kit even closer and letting his head fall back against the pillows.

He closed his eyes and let Kit Herondale ruin him.

The morning after was the hardest. Ty pulled himself from Kit's arms and forced himself not to look back.

And that was when he finally cried.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

WHAT THE HELL FAE! WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS OMG 😭

[alouispo]

nondescript

“Phil‌ ‌this‌ ‌really‌ ‌doesn’t‌ ‌seem‌ ‌to‌ ‌be‌ ‌a‌ ‌good‌ ‌idea.”‌ ‌ ‌

“It’ll‌ ‌be‌ ‌fine,‌ ‌mate,‌ ‌just‌ ‌gotta‌ ‌not‌ ‌get‌ ‌caught‌ ‌and‌ ‌we’ll‌ ‌be‌ ‌good.”‌ ‌ ‌

Techno‌ ‌rolled‌ ‌his‌ ‌eyes,‌ ‌biting‌ ‌into‌ ‌an‌ ‌apple‌ ‌and‌ ‌leaning‌ ‌against‌ ‌the‌ ‌stone‌ ‌wall‌ ‌of‌ ‌the‌ ‌Syndicate.‌ ‌He‌ ‌had‌ ‌warned‌ ‌Philza‌ ‌of‌ ‌what‌ ‌was‌ ‌going‌ ‌to‌ ‌happen‌ ‌if‌ ‌he‌ ‌attempted‌ ‌to‌ ‌experiment‌ ‌on‌ ‌the‌ ‌table‌ ‌pieces,‌ ‌but‌ ‌for‌ ‌once‌, the elder man ‌wouldn’t‌ ‌listen‌ ‌to‌ ‌him.‌ ‌ ‌

Phil‌ ‌had‌ ‌always‌ ‌been‌ ‌someone ‌of‌ ‌knowledge,‌ ‌and‌ ‌the‌ ‌opportunity‌ ‌to‌ ‌find‌ ‌out‌ ‌more‌ ‌about‌ ‌the‌ ‌ancients‌ ‌was‌ ‌too‌ ‌good‌ ‌to‌ ‌pass‌ ‌up.‌ ‌The‌ ‌piglin‌ ‌hybrid‌ ‌was‌ ‌sure‌ ‌that‌ ‌they‌ ‌were‌ ‌going‌ ‌to‌ ‌get‌ ‌into‌ ‌some‌ ‌deep‌ ‌trouble‌ ‌with‌ ‌Dream‌ ‌XD.‌ ‌He‌ ‌wasn’t‌ ‌sure‌ ‌that‌ ‌the‌ ‌foretold‌ ‌God‌ ‌of‌ ‌this‌ ‌server‌ ‌was‌ ‌actually‌ ‌real,‌ ‌but‌ ‌the‌ ‌stuff‌ ‌he‌ ‌learned‌ ‌from‌ ‌meeting‌ ‌Drista‌ ‌and‌ ‌her‌ ‌hold‌ ‌on‌ ‌the‌ ‌members‌ ‌of‌ ‌the‌ ‌SMP‌ ‌was‌ ‌enough‌ ‌to‌ ‌convince‌ ‌him‌ ‌that‌ ‌he‌ ‌did‌ ‌exist.‌ ‌ ‌

Now‌ ‌that‌ ‌Techno‌ ‌thought‌ ‌about‌ ‌it,‌ ‌how‌ ‌did‌ ‌Drista‌ ‌manage‌ ‌to‌ ‌get‌ ‌onto‌ ‌the‌ ‌server?‌ ‌He‌ ‌was‌ ‌sure‌ ‌that‌ ‌Tommy‌ ‌hadn’t‌ ‌summoned‌ ‌her‌ ‌or‌ ‌anything.‌ ‌The‌ ‌kid�� ‌wasn’t‌ ‌smart‌ ‌enough‌ ‌for‌ ‌that.‌ ‌Had‌ ‌she‌ ‌just‌ ‌magically‌ ‌appeared‌ ‌at‌ ‌one‌ ‌point‌ ‌out‌ ‌of‌ ‌nowhere?‌ ‌ 

He‌ ‌frowned‌ ‌and‌ ‌shook‌ ‌his‌ ‌head.‌ ‌Not‌ ‌important‌ ‌to‌ ‌think‌ ‌about‌ ‌right‌ ‌now.‌

‌Technoblade‌ ‌watched‌ ‌as‌ ‌Phil‌ ‌examined‌ ‌the‌ ‌table,‌ ‌putting‌ ‌a‌ ‌bunch‌ ‌of‌ ‌items‌ ‌into‌ ‌the‌ ‌holes‌ ‌of‌ ‌what‌ ‌looked‌ ‌like‌ ‌sandstone‌ ‌blocks‌ ‌with‌ ‌green‌ ‌on‌ ‌it.‌ ‌He‌ ‌blinked‌ ‌as‌ ‌the‌ ‌blaze‌ ‌dust‌ ‌Phil‌ ‌placed‌ ‌into‌ ‌the‌ ‌whole‌ ‌evaporated‌ ‌the‌ ‌moment‌ ‌it‌ ‌touched‌ ‌the‌ ‌center.‌ ‌ ‌

“It’s‌ ‌so‌ ‌strange‌ ‌isn’t‌ ‌it‌ ‌Tech?‌ ‌I‌ ‌don’t‌ ‌think‌ ‌in‌ ‌any‌ ‌of‌ ‌my‌ ‌long‌ ‌years‌ ‌of‌ ‌living‌ ‌have‌ ‌I‌ ‌ever‌ ‌seen‌ ‌anything‌ ‌like‌ ‌this,”‌ ‌Phil‌ ‌said,‌ ‌crossing‌ ‌his‌ ‌arms‌ ‌and‌ ‌slouching‌ ‌backward.‌ ‌

“I‌ ‌would‌ ‌say‌ ‌so.‌ ‌I’ve‌ ‌never‌ ‌seen‌ ‌anything‌ ‌like‌ ‌this‌ ‌either,”‌ ‌he‌ ‌replied,‌ ‌finishing‌ ‌his‌ ‌apple‌ ‌and‌ ‌going‌ ‌over‌ ‌to‌ ‌his‌ ‌oldest‌ ‌friend.‌ ‌“Cshat‌ ‌keeps‌ ‌saying‌ ‌that‌ ‌it’s‌ ‌some‌ ‌sort‌ ‌of‌ ‌portal,‌ ‌although‌ ‌I‌ ‌don’t‌ ‌know‌ ‌what‌ ‌they‌ ‌mean‌ ‌by‌ ‌that.”‌ ‌

“It‌ ‌could‌ ‌be‌ ‌a‌ ‌portal,‌ ‌but‌ ‌we‌ ‌would‌ ‌need‌ ‌something‌ ‌to‌ ‌activate‌ ‌it‌ ‌and‌ ‌I‌ ‌don’t‌ ‌think‌ ‌that‌ ‌we‌ ‌have‌ ‌anything.‌ ‌For‌ ‌all‌ ‌we‌ ‌know‌ ‌all‌ ‌the‌ ‌materials‌ ‌to‌ ‌activate‌ ‌it‌ ‌has‌ ‌disappeared‌ ‌along‌ ‌with‌ ‌the‌ ‌ancients,”‌ ‌the‌ ‌formerly‌ ‌winged‌ ‌man‌ ‌paused,‌ ‌tapping‌ ‌his‌ ‌cheek‌ ‌lightly‌ ‌as‌ ‌he‌ ‌thought.‌ ‌ ‌

“What‌ ‌are‌ ‌you‌ ‌thinking?”‌ ‌ ‌

“What‌ ‌if‌ ‌we‌ ‌tried‌ ‌something‌ ‌like‌ ‌pearls?”‌ ‌As‌ ‌if‌ ‌on‌ ‌cue,‌ ‌a‌ ‌rumble‌ ‌emanated‌ ‌from‌ ‌under‌ ‌the‌ ‌Syndicate‌ ‌room,‌ ‌making‌ ‌both‌ ‌Phil‌ ‌and‌ ‌Techno‌ ‌jump.‌ ‌They‌ ‌pulled‌ ‌out‌ ‌their‌ ‌weapons‌ ‌in‌ ‌sync,‌ ‌looking‌ ‌around‌ ‌frantically‌ ‌to‌ ‌find‌ ‌the‌ ‌source.‌ ‌ ‌

“I‌ ‌think‌ ‌it’s‌ ‌an‌ ‌earthquake!”‌ ‌Phil‌ ‌called,‌ ‌pointing‌ ‌towards‌ ‌the‌ ‌stone‌ ‌door.‌ ‌They‌ ‌were‌ ‌underground‌ ‌so‌ ‌it’s‌ ‌potentially‌ ‌more‌ ‌dangerous‌ ‌for‌ ‌them‌ ‌to‌ ‌get‌ ‌caught‌ ‌by‌ ‌rubble.‌ ‌ ‌

Both‌ ‌hybrids‌ ‌ran‌ ‌towards‌ ‌the‌ ‌door,‌ ‌only‌ ‌to‌ ‌be‌ ‌flung‌ ‌back‌ ‌to‌ ‌the‌ ‌other‌ ‌edge‌ ‌of‌ ‌the‌ ‌meeting‌ ‌room.‌ ‌Techno‌ ‌groaned‌ ‌and‌ ‌grabbed‌ ‌his‌ ‌head,‌ ‌the‌ ‌voices‌ ‌starting‌ ‌to‌ ‌scream‌ ‌too‌ ‌many‌ ‌things‌ ‌at‌ ‌once.‌ ‌ ‌

 ‌

“Danger!‌ ‌Danger!‌ ‌Danger!”‌ ‌ ‌

 ‌

“Run!‌ ‌Get‌ ‌out‌ ‌of‌ ‌there!”‌ ‌ ‌

 ‌

“Blood‌ ‌for‌ ‌the‌ ‌Blood‌ ‌God!”‌ ‌ ‌

 ‌

“It’s‌ ‌him!‌ ‌We’re‌ ‌screwed!”‌ ‌ ‌

 ‌

“Phil,‌ ‌what’s‌ ‌going‌ ‌on?”‌ ‌Techno‌ ‌questioned‌ ‌as‌ ‌the‌ ‌shaking‌ ‌stopped,‌ ‌giving‌ ‌the‌ ‌piglin‌ ‌hybrid‌ ‌leisure‌ ‌way‌ ‌to‌ ‌stand‌ ‌and‌ ‌eye‌ ‌the‌ ‌culprit.‌ ‌He‌ ‌blinked‌ ‌at‌ ‌a‌ ‌similarly-looking‌ ‌mask‌ ‌to‌ ‌the‌ ‌one‌ ‌that‌ ‌an‌ ‌old‌ ‌partner‌ ‌would‌ ‌wear,‌ ‌except‌ ‌it‌ ‌was‌ ‌sideways‌ ‌in‌ ‌the‌ ‌symbol‌ ‌of‌ ‌“XD.”‌ ‌ ‌

‘There‌ ‌is‌ ‌no‌ ‌way‌ ‌that’s‌ ‌him,’‌ ‌Techno‌ ‌thought,‌ ‌trying‌ ‌subconsciously‌ ‌to‌ ‌drown‌ ‌out‌ ‌the‌ ‌voices‌ ‌in‌ ‌order‌ ‌to‌ ‌think‌ ‌straight.‌ ‌ ‌

“‌You‌ ‌aren’t‌ ‌supposed‌ ‌to‌ ‌be‌ ‌doing‌ ‌that‌,”‌ ‌a‌ ‌voice‌ ‌he‌ ‌didn’t‌ ‌recognize‌ ‌said,‌ ‌making‌ ‌him‌ ‌wince‌ ‌as‌ ‌Cshat‌ ‌started‌ ‌shouting‌ ‌at‌ ‌him‌ ‌incoherent‌ ‌phrases.‌ ‌The‌ ‌hybrid‌ ‌glared‌ ‌at‌ ‌the‌ ‌new‌ ‌being‌ ‌eyes‌ ‌widening‌ ‌when‌ ‌he‌ ‌realized‌ ‌the‌ ‌guy‌ ‌was‌ ‌floating.‌ ‌ ‌

“Heh?”‌ ‌he‌ ‌replied,‌ ‌tilting‌ ‌his‌ ‌head‌ ‌to‌ ‌the‌ ‌side‌ ‌in‌ ‌confusion.‌ ‌ ‌

“Tech-‌ ‌Uh-‌ ‌A‌ ‌little‌ ‌help‌ ‌here‌ ‌mate?”‌ ‌he‌ ‌heard‌ ‌Phil‌ ‌call,‌ ‌making‌ ‌him‌ ‌realized‌ ‌that‌ ‌in‌ ‌fact,‌ ‌the‌ ‌new‌ ‌guy‌ ‌was‌ ‌holding‌ ‌Philza‌ ‌in‌ ‌his‌ ‌hand‌ ‌above‌ ‌the‌ ‌floor.‌ ‌

“‌THere‌ ‌are‌ ‌few‌ ‌rules‌ ‌that‌ ‌I‌ ‌enforce‌ ‌on‌ ‌this‌ ‌server‌,”‌ ‌The‌ ‌floating‌ ‌man‌ ‌said,‌ ‌going‌ ‌towards‌ ‌Technoblade‌ ‌while‌ ‌Phil‌ ‌struggled‌ ‌in‌ ‌his‌ ‌hands.‌ ‌ ‌

“‌No‌ ‌breeding‌ ‌the‌ ‌natural‌ ‌residents,‌ ‌No‌ ‌creating‌ ‌farms‌ ‌that‌ ‌can‌ ‌give‌ ‌you‌ ‌items‌ ‌without‌ ‌manual‌ ‌labor,‌ ‌and‌ ‌No‌ ‌messing‌ ‌with‌ ‌the‌ ‌things‌ ‌that‌ ‌are‌ ‌from‌ ‌places‌ ‌like‌ ‌this.‌ ‌You‌ ‌have‌ ‌both‌ ‌broken‌ ‌one‌ ‌of‌ ‌the‌ ‌rules‌ ‌that‌ ‌I‌ ‌have‌ ‌in‌ ‌place‌ ‌to‌ ‌keep‌ ‌the‌ ‌functionality‌ ‌of‌ ‌the‌ ‌SMP‌,”‌ ‌Techno‌ ‌gripped‌ ‌his‌ ‌pickaxe‌ ‌and‌ ‌prepared‌ ‌to‌ ‌fight,‌ ‌trying‌ ‌to‌ ‌think‌ ‌of‌ ‌what‌ ‌to‌ ‌do‌ ‌in‌ ‌order‌ ‌to‌ ‌save‌ ‌his‌ ‌friend.‌ ‌ ‌

“Let‌ ‌me‌ ‌go‌ ‌you‌ ‌oversized,‌ ‌blanket-wearing‌ ‌piece‌ ‌of‌ ‌shit!”‌ ‌Phil‌ ‌shouted,‌ ‌kicking‌ ‌the‌ ‌man‌ ‌-if‌ ‌you‌ ‌could‌ ‌even‌ ‌say‌ ‌that-‌ ‌in‌ ‌the‌ ‌side.‌ ‌Techno‌ ‌winced;‌ ‌he‌ ‌knew‌ ‌that‌ ‌the‌ ‌Angel‌ ‌packed‌ ‌a‌ ‌huge‌ ‌punch‌ ‌when‌ ‌it‌ ‌came‌ ‌to‌ ‌kicking.‌ ‌You‌ ‌could‌ ‌say‌ ‌it‌ ‌was‌ ‌from‌ ‌his‌ ‌bird‌ ‌genetics‌ ‌but‌ ‌still.‌ ‌ 

The‌ ‌God‌ ‌didn’t‌ ‌even‌ ‌seem‌ ‌phased.‌ ‌Just‌ ‌annoyed.‌ ‌He‌ ‌scoffed‌ ‌and‌ ‌half-heartedly‌ ‌tossed‌ ‌the‌ ‌bird‌ ‌hybrid‌ ‌towards‌ ‌the‌ ‌piglin,‌ ‌both‌ ‌of‌ ‌them‌ ‌crashing‌ ‌into‌ ‌each‌ ‌other‌ ‌harsher‌ ‌than‌ ‌expected‌ ‌before‌ ‌falling.‌ ‌ ‌

Wait,‌ ‌falling?‌ ‌

Techno‌ ‌made‌ ‌a‌ ‌shout‌ ‌of‌ ‌confusion‌ ‌as‌ ‌he‌ ‌was‌ ‌suddenly‌ ‌enveloped‌ ‌in‌ ‌black,‌ ‌accidentally‌ ‌letting‌ ‌go‌ ‌of‌ ‌Phil‌ ‌as‌ ‌they‌ ‌fell‌ ‌at‌ ‌a‌ ‌faster‌ ‌than‌ ‌normal‌ ‌speed in the dark abyss.‌ ‌How‌ ‌were‌ ‌they‌ ‌even‌ ‌falling‌ ‌in‌ ‌the‌ ‌first‌ ‌place?‌ ‌Wait,‌ ‌of‌ ‌course.‌ ‌They‌ ‌were‌ ‌facing‌ ‌what‌ ‌appeared‌ ‌to‌ ‌be‌ ‌Dream‌ ‌XD.‌ ‌Practically‌ ‌the‌ ‌God‌ ‌of‌ ‌the‌ ‌SMP.‌ ‌It‌ ‌was‌ ‌called‌ ‌the‌ ‌Dream‌ ‌SMP‌ ‌for‌ ‌a‌ ‌reason.‌ ‌ ‌

He‌ ‌whipped‌ ‌his‌ ‌head‌ ‌to‌ ‌the‌ ‌right‌ ‌of‌ ‌him,‌ ‌sensing‌ ‌the‌ ‌God’s‌ ‌presence‌ ‌once‌ ‌again.‌ ‌Instinctually,‌ ‌he‌ ‌reached‌ ‌out‌ ‌to‌ ‌Phil,‌ ‌grabbing‌ ‌the‌ ‌man’s‌ ‌sleeve‌ ‌in‌ ‌case‌ ‌he‌ ‌got‌ ‌grabbed‌ ‌again.‌ ‌ ‌

“‌You‌ ‌are‌ ‌now‌ ‌banished‌ ‌from‌ ‌the‌ ‌SMP‌ ‌temporarily,‌ ‌as‌ ‌punishment‌ ‌for‌ ‌breaking‌ ‌the‌ ‌rules‌ ‌that‌ ‌you‌ ‌are‌ ‌very‌ ‌aware‌ ‌of‌,”‌ ‌the‌ ‌God‌ ‌floated‌ ‌next‌ ‌to‌ ‌them‌ ‌leisurely,‌ ‌not‌ ‌affected‌ ‌at‌ ‌all‌ ‌by‌ ‌the‌ ‌massive‌ ‌wind‌ ‌pushing‌ ‌past‌ ‌them.‌ ‌ ‌

“‌You’re‌ ‌welcome‌ ‌to‌ ‌come‌ ‌back‌ ‌to‌ ‌the‌ ‌Dream‌ ‌SMP,‌ ‌that‌ ‌is,‌ ‌if‌ ‌you‌ ‌find‌ ‌a‌ ‌way‌ ‌to‌ ‌get‌ ‌back‌ ‌in‌ ‌the‌ ‌first‌ ‌place‌,”‌ ‌Before‌ ‌Techno‌ ‌could‌ ‌even‌ ‌comprehend‌ ‌what‌ ‌that‌ ‌meant,‌ ‌he‌ ‌was‌ ‌suddenly‌ ‌flashed‌ ‌with‌ ‌a‌ ‌bright‌ ‌light‌ ‌and‌ ‌a‌ ‌blue‌ ‌sky.‌ ‌ 

“Shit,‌ ‌shit,‌ ‌shit,‌ ‌shit,‌ ‌shit!”‌ ‌he‌ ‌heard‌ ‌Phil‌ ‌shout,‌ ‌although‌ ‌just‌ ‌barely‌ ‌since‌ ‌the‌ ‌wind‌ ‌was‌ ‌whistling‌ ‌past‌ ‌his‌ ‌ears‌ ‌too‌ ‌loudly‌ ‌to‌ ‌understand‌ ‌anything‌ ‌else‌ ‌that‌ ‌he‌ ‌said.‌ ‌ ‌

Red‌ ‌eyes‌ ‌looked‌ ‌behind‌ ‌him,‌ ‌towards‌ ‌the‌ ‌rapidly‌ ‌approaching‌ ‌floor.‌ ‌Techno‌ ‌winced‌ ‌as‌ ‌they‌ ‌burst‌ ‌through‌ ‌the‌ ‌clouds,‌ ‌grabbing‌ ‌Phil‌ ‌and‌ ‌pulling‌ ‌him‌ ‌closer‌ ‌as‌ ‌to‌ ‌shield‌ ‌him‌ ‌from‌ ‌the‌ ‌impending‌ ‌crash‌ ‌they‌ ‌were‌ ‌about‌ ‌to‌ ‌endure.‌ ‌He‌ ‌watched‌ ‌as‌ ‌Philza‌ ‌searched‌ ‌through‌ ‌his‌ ‌inventory,‌ ‌looking‌ ‌to‌ ‌find‌ ‌a‌ ‌water‌ ‌bucket‌ ‌or‌ ‌a‌ ‌boat‌ ‌that‌ ‌they‌ ‌could‌ ‌use‌ ‌to‌ ‌ease‌ ‌the‌ ‌fall.‌ ‌ ‌

They‌ ‌would‌ ‌surely‌ ‌die‌ ‌if‌ ‌they‌ ‌hit‌ ‌the‌ ‌ground‌ ‌from‌ ‌that‌ ‌height‌ ‌in‌ ‌the‌ ‌air.‌ ‌Techno‌ ‌would‌ ‌be‌ ‌fine‌ ‌since‌ ‌he‌ ‌had‌ ‌extra‌ ‌lives‌ ‌to‌ ‌spare,‌ ‌but‌ ‌Phil‌ ‌wouldn’t.‌ ‌He‌ ‌was‌ ‌certain‌ ‌that‌ ‌the‌ ‌older‌ ‌man‌ ‌had‌ ‌something‌ ‌called‌ ‌Hardcore,‌ ‌which‌ ‌meant‌ ‌that‌ ‌he‌ ‌was‌ ‌only‌ ‌born‌ ‌with‌ ‌one‌ ‌life‌ ‌and‌ ‌after‌ ‌he‌ ‌lost‌ ‌it,‌ ‌that‌ ‌was‌ ‌the‌ ‌end.‌ ‌ ‌

“I‌ ‌can’t‌ ‌find‌ ‌a‌ ‌water‌ ‌bucket!”‌ ‌Phil‌ ‌shouted,‌ ‌closing‌ ‌his‌ ‌inventory‌ ‌and‌ ‌involuntarily‌ ‌flaring‌ ‌out‌ ‌his‌ ‌wings.‌ ‌Techno‌ ‌couldn’t‌ ‌help‌ ‌but‌ ‌feel‌ ‌bad‌ ‌every‌ ‌time‌ ‌he‌ ‌looked‌ ‌at‌ ‌them,‌ ‌remembering‌ ‌how‌ ‌nice‌ ‌they‌ ‌used‌ ‌to‌ ‌be‌ ‌before‌ ‌Phil‌ ‌joined‌ ‌the‌ ‌Dream‌ ‌SMP.‌ ‌

“Techno‌ ‌you‌ ‌have‌ ‌to‌ ‌check‌ ‌your‌ ‌stuff‌ ‌for‌ ‌it!”‌ ‌He‌ ‌shouted,‌ ‌gripping‌ ‌onto‌ ‌the‌ ‌piglins‌ ‌cape.‌ ‌ ‌

 ‌Muttering‌ ‌swears‌ ‌under‌ ‌his‌ ‌breath,‌ ‌Techno‌ ‌released‌ ‌one‌ ‌hand‌ ‌off‌ ‌of‌ ‌Phil‌ ‌and‌ ‌looked‌ ‌through‌ ‌his‌ ‌inventory,‌ ‌immediately‌ ‌finding‌ ‌a‌ ‌water‌ ‌bucket‌ ‌and‌ ‌tossing‌ ‌it‌ ‌to‌ ‌the‌ ‌bird‌ ‌hybrid.‌ ‌Techno‌ ‌was‌ ‌admittedly‌ ‌not‌ ‌as‌ ‌good‌ ‌at‌ ‌clutches‌ ‌as‌ ‌Phil‌ ‌was,‌ ‌mainly‌ ‌because‌ ‌of‌ ‌his‌ ‌lack‌ ‌of‌ ‌needing‌ ‌to‌ ‌do‌ ‌any.‌ ‌He‌ ‌could‌ ‌only‌ ‌hope‌ ‌that‌ ‌Phil‌ ‌was‌ ‌able‌ ‌to‌ ‌make‌ ‌it.‌ ‌Techno‌ ‌stared‌ ‌at‌ ‌the‌ ‌ground‌ ‌that‌ ‌was‌ ‌getting‌ ‌ever‌ ‌so‌ ‌closer,‌ ‌feeling‌ ‌his‌ ‌old‌ ‌friend‌ ‌tense‌ ‌up‌ ‌as‌ ‌he‌ ‌waited‌ ‌to‌ ‌place‌ ‌the‌ ‌water.‌ ‌ ‌ 

The‌ ‌piglin‌ ‌hybrid‌ ‌closed‌ ‌his‌ ‌eyes‌ ‌and‌ ‌gripped‌ ‌tightly‌ ‌onto‌ ‌Phil,‌ ‌trusting‌ ‌that‌ ‌the‌ ‌winged‌ ‌hybrid‌ ‌would‌ ‌be‌ ‌able‌ ‌to‌ ‌save the both of them from the fall. 

    When he opened his eyes again, he was lying on the grass of a forest floor, drenched in water with Phil shaking him awake. 

“Techno! Techno wake up!” he shouted, shaking him a lot harder than necessary. 

“I’m up, I’m up,” he groaned groggily, sitting up and shaking his head to get the water out of his hair and adjust his crown. 

Red eyes scanned the area, not recognizing where they were. It was strange not recognizing the terrain of where you were, Techno was exceptional at memorizing the entire area of where he was, even if it wasn’t for battle purposes. He wasn’t exactly sure when he started doing it, but it was useful so he really didn’t mind. 

“Do you have any idea of where we are? I don’t recognize this place at all,” Phil said, holding out his hand to help the taller hybrid up on his feet. 

“No clue. And you know it’s not good when I don’t recognize where I am,” Techno replied. 

“Yeah, yeah, you and your whole human compass shabiz,” Phil said, looking up to the sky. 

“That’s not a word Phil.” 

“Whatever mate,” he laughed, giving the piglin back the water bucket. 

They both went silent, listening to the sounds of the wildlife and examining the trees. 

“We must be really far from the SMP for this place to be completely untouched,” Techno noted, pulling out his communicator and opening coordinates. 

“You’re right about that. I wonder if we could come back here to live one day,” Phil muttered to himself, crossing his arms and hiding his damaged wings back under his cloak. Techno paused as his head filled up with multiple ‘Aww’s’ making him unsure whether or not to reply back or cringe indefinitely. 

“Uh, Phil?” Techno said, electing to ignore what Phil said and focus on getting back. “Let’s go, the comms say that spawn is over this way,” the bird hybrid nodded, both of them going towards the spawn area. 

   As they continued walking, Techno couldn’t help but feel that something is off. He glanced back at the coords, realizing that they were only two thousand blocks away from spawn. 

“Phil?” Techno asked, pausing as his brow furrowed in confusion. 

“Yeah mate?” his friend replied, pausing at the same time. “What’s wrong?” 

“The communicator says that we are only two-thousand blocks away from spawn,” he said, looking around at the still very unfamiliar terrain. 

“There’s no way. This looks nothing like the area around spawn. It’s not even the same biome!” Phil exclaimed, gesturing around the area wildly, making the obvious even more obvious.

“Come on, lets get to zero, zero quickly, I think some things really off Phil,” Techno decided, pushing through the trees with Phil trailing right behind him. 

“What do you think is happening?” the shorter male called, catching up so they were running side by side. 

“I don’t know,” he called back, frowning and checking to make sure they were still going in the right direction. “I think it has something to do with Dream XD and us falling through that weird black abyss thing,” he added. 

“Do you think we could be in a completely different server?” Phil huffed, holding his hat on the top of his head as it threatened to fall off. 

‘It’s unlikely, but still possible. I don’t think Dream XD would have the power to send people to other servers. Especially if they need a whitelist to be able to get into it,” Techno replied, taking out his axe and breaking off a branch that got in his way. 

Techno watched as the biome changed into a flower forest, making him slow down a bit as the gap between them and spawn closed exceptionally. 

“What if there are people here mate? What do we do then?” Phil asked, adjusting his tunic under his cloak. 

“Since when did I have to answer all of the questions?” the piglin joked, switching his axe for his battle pickaxe. 

The older man laughed,” That’s a good point Techno, you know, maybe I should start-”

He trailed off, confusing Techno as he tried to see what Phil was looking at. When he looked up he noticed something in the sky. 

“Is that a flying island?”

part one :D

[m3kuroshirt]

GrimmIchi Prompt: Sun and Moon kingdoms

Words: 1176

Warnings: amputation/dismemberment

prompt suggested by @kuroosden and @backwardshirt

Fic under the cut

Grimmjow paced back and forth, as he had been for the past hour. The grass beneath his feet was flattened into an oval pattern. The sky above was an inky blue, mixed with the colours that bled across the barrier from the Kingdom of Light. Pinks and oranges and purples swirled in the sky above him, until they were swallowed by the darkness of the Kingdom of Night. In front of him, the air shimmered and shifted, as if a thin veil hung between the two kingdoms. It wasn’t so. The shimmer was a barrier, one that not even the foliage dare crossed, that divided the kingdoms; cursed to forever be apart because of one man’s foolishness…or something like that. Grimmjow twisted his mouth as he paced. He really couldn’t remember why the barrier was there, hadn’t thought it was that important of a lesson growing up. He could ask Ichigo. Maybe. If the idiot would even show up.

Grimmjow ran a frustrated hand through his blue hair. It had been a bad day all around. He’d had to listen to complaint after complaint, and yeah, being King meant he was supposed to solve issues and guide his people, but he’d much rather…not. Then, whatever the hell his chef had concocted disagreed so thoroughly with his stomach he thought he was dying. He was pretty sure Ulquiorra had tried to poison him…and his apothecary hadn’t been much better. Szayel had given him a potion that made him heave up half his stomach. Grimmjow paused and narrowed his eyes. Were both of them trying to kill him?

He shook his head and resumed pacing. Harribel would have been on to them if they were. And there was another thing. Harribel. Or, as Grimmjow liked to call her, Horrible. ‘Sit up straight, Your Highness’, ‘Try not to look bored’, ‘these are your people, you need to show them you care’, ‘have some dignity’. Her nagging voice echoed in his head and he growled and shook it vigorously to clear it.

Footsteps interrupted his thoughts and Grimmjow’s head snapped around to see Ichigo come into view, on the other side of the barrier. The Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Light, Ichigo painted quite the handsome picture with his startling orange hair, warm brown eyes, tall and strong frame, and brilliant smile. Grimmjow couldn’t help but feel the tension ease out of his shoulders, and he even let a smile steal onto his face.

“Hi,” Ichigo greeted him, his voice gentle and warm and content. Grimmjow stepped closer to the barrier, careful not to touch it. They were right in front of each other now. Grimmjow couldn’t think of what to say, so he did what he always did around Ichigo, and let his mouth just say whatever happened to flow out of it.

“I worried you weren’t coming,” he mumbled. A look of endearment flashed in Ichigo’s eyes.

“Ah, sorry about that. My father kept me later than usual after dinner,” he replied, his voice still soft. Grimmjow could curl up in that voice and sleep surrounded by its lovely warm tones. He tilted his head a little, as if trying to lean it on Grimmjow’s shoulder, but neither of them dared to actually touch. “I missed you.”

Grimmjow’s smile widened at that. “It’s been a day,” he reminded the prince. Ichigo huffed.

“Mmm, so? Don’t pretend you didn’t miss me also,” he retorted, but he smiled as he spoke and the words lost any bite they may have had.

Grimmjow didn’t answer, just continued looking at Ichigo – his Ichigo, if only the gods would let them hold one another. He held up a hand, just in front of the barrier, and Ichigo mirrored him. If only they could touch one another.

There came a rustle from the trees behind Ichigo and Grimmjow’s smile faded a bit. “Were you followed?” he asked. That could be bad. People were forbidden from going to the barrier, for their own safety. It wouldn’t look good at all if they found two members of royalty meeting there to chat. And aside from that, there were any number of other dangers: hunters mistaking them for wildlife, assassins, people who might try to kidnap and extort them. Grimmjow was confident he could take anyone on, thanks to the rough training he endured as the Kingdom of Night’s Prince and now King. But Ichigo’s kingdom didn’t rely on such brutal methods of training. Ichigo’s first instinct wasn’t to protect himself. It was trust. That was part of what had drawn Grimmjow to him, long ago when they first met.

Ichigo blinked and turned to look over his shoulder. “I…I don’t think so…”

The bushes rustled again and a large man with flaming red hair and dark tattoos encircling his upper body and arms in enticing lines stepped out of it. “Prince Ichigo,” he greeted, his eyes flicking to Grimmjow and narrowing. Behind the man was a much shorter, but no less fierce-looking, woman with dark hair cut short. They both wore the crest of the soldiers of the Kingdom of Light.

Clearly startled, Ichigo moved to back up. And that wouldn’t have been a problem, except the barrier was right there. And Grimmjow couldn’t watch that. He didn’t speak, didn’t even think, but reached out and shoved. He felt fine cloth beneath his hand, a warm, solid shoulder, but only for a moment.

Searing pain shot up Grimmjow’s arm as Ichigo stumbled forward. He screamed and pulled back his arm…or what was left of it. The rest lay in a pile of grey ashes on the other side of the barrier. With a pained growl he gripped at the remains of his arm. It wasn’t even bleeding, the end cauterized by whatever the barrier was made of.

The instant Ichigo hit the ground he turned around. The two soldiers were upon him instantly, dragging him back even as he protested. “Grimmjow! GRIMM!” he shouted and thrashed against their arms, but they held him fast. Grimmjow couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, could barely breathe from the pain. The smell of burnt flesh filled his nose and he coughed and gagged, dropping to his knees, tears sliding down his face, though whether they were from the pain, the smell, or seeing Ichigo be dragged away, he couldn’t tell.

He closed his eyes, cradling his arm close to himself, still shouting and crying out in pain. The only other sound he heard were the answering cries of Ichigo, calling out to Grimmjow, begging him to be ok even as he was dragged away from the King. Grimmjow fell to his side, in too much pain to bother trying to stay upright.

He lay there, shouting until his voice was hoarse and his lungs burned. His eyes stung from the tears, but he couldn’t stop them. He was cold, he was tired, but all he could focus on was the burning pain where his left arm used to be, and the fear in Ichigo’s eyes as he was carried off.

[cousinwingding97]

Silver Memories

Chapter Three: Him

Warning: description of panic attack and some violence. I don’t even know how many words since I forgot to type this up in another format first, so my bad. It is a little shorter though. Enjoy!

“Your blaster’s safety is on.”

The words rang through your head, bouncing around before exiting while you just stared into the void of his visor trying to process the words. When you realized what those words meant your whole body went cold, “You would say that to save your skin.” You had no clue if he was lying to throw you off, but you also truly didn’t know. You hadn’t thought of the safety being on, quite honestly, you didn’t know there was a safety. But you didn’t dare take your eyes off of where you thought his were to check.

The air was heavy with tension. The silent dare to call his bluff weighed on your mind. The blaster was still against his chest. He didn’t move, just stood there waiting for you to make a move while staring you down through the visor. Even with a helmet blocking his face, you could still feel the weight of his eyes on you.

You were struggling to breathe normally. You didn’t want him to know how scared you actually were.

“Either try shooting me or put it down,” he finally commanded. You flinched at the lack of emotion and power he put into his voice. This was a man used to getting his way no matter what.

You slowly lowered the blaster trying to hide the shaking in your hands.

The Mandalorian held his hand out to silently ask for the blaster. Again, you conceded to his wishes.

Surprisingly, he took the blaster and aimed it above his head and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. He hadn’t been lying to you.

“Now what? You turn that blaster’s safety off and shoot me?” You demanded.

His helmet tilted to the side with what looked like curiosity, “What makes you think I’m here to kill you?” he asks in a soft voice that almost tricks you into thinking he’s concerned.

“You’re a bounty hunter, right? You threatened everyone on that ship just for harboring me when they didn’t even realize I was on board. I’ve ran twice from you now. Stands to reason I’m either dead, or in a lot of trouble.” You don’t know why you let all your fears loose. This man was a murderer, judging from what Captain Roxy said, but you were tired, hungry and emotionally drained. There were only questions upon questions in your mind. You needed answers now and you didn’t care how you got them.

He seemed surprised by your outburst and actually huffed as he started walking towards the edge of the docks, expecting you to follow, “I’m not going to kill you. I’m just taking you back to Pollis Massa.” He looked behind to see if you followed and held out his hand when you hadn’t, “Now, come on, we need to go. We’ve already wasted enough time.”

The lack of violence and cruelty from him sent a spark of courage through you, “No, Mandalorian,” you spat the title out like it tasted bad on your tongue just to say it, “I am not going with some man that threatens people to get what he wants. I may not know who I am or what’ve I done to deserve a bounty hunter chasing me, but this surely is not the kind thing to do. Just taking people against their will!” Your cheeks were flush by the end of your rant. You were tired of the constant chase and just wanted to relax while searching for answers.

Apparently the only thing the Mandalorian got from your speech was one thing, “You don’t know who you are?”

You sigh in defeat, rubbing your head to relieve the headache throbbing in your skull. “No. I don’t know you, I don’t know this place, I don’t know the people from before, I don’t know anything!”

He gently walks towards you, no longer the predator hunting you. He was quiet and slow, as if you would bolt at any second.

“You don’t know me? You don’t remember anything? Even a feeling? A hint of something?” He continues to push you with questions you have no answer to. “Just try. Try to focus and think back. Calm your breathing and just try,” he says with a hint of pleading.

You rolled your eyes, but gave in. You tried to focus on the man in front of you within your mind’s eye: His voice, his friends and his helmet along with all the information you now had at your disposal. You tried to quiet all the burning questions in your mind but there was so much noise. All the craziness and escapades from the last few days, if it had been days or not, had too many unresolved emotions and had brought even more questions.

You squinted your eyes open to see what Mando was doing. He waited patiently. Still not moving.

You tried again. Is this man a friend or foe? You reached out into the darkness of thought within your brain, desperately hoping for an answer. Nothing came back in a definite answer.

You were about to give up when a feeling of peace that related to this man settled onto your bones. A safety that slowly overtook your panic and confusion that associated with this man. No memories surfaced along with this feeling, but it was something. This man had meant safety to you at one point.

You opened your eyes fully. He shifted on his feet, uneasily. You didn’t feel rising panic or a flood of unease while looking at him. There was violence and a basic fear but more from reputation now than what you had thought.

“I don’t know you more than a basic feeling of possible allies. I don’t have memories of you, but I’m guessing you know me more than you’re telling.”

He loosens a breath and looks down like he’s contemplating. He nods quickly like he’s decided something then looks back up at you, “Yes, I do. We had an alliance and helped each other. I don’t know much about you though. You always kept most of your background to yourself,” he relayed to you.

Disappointment welled in your chest to the point of aching. You cursed your former self for being so stingy with people.

“Do you at least know my name?”

He said a word. The word was unfamiliar, like another language. You could repeat it but it held no meaning to you. You recognized it as the word they had spoken when releasing you from your cell, but nothing else.

“Do you remember that? You never gave us a last name, just that.”

You shook your head vehemently, “No. I don’t know it. It has no meaning to me or value.” Tears welled in your eyes. The only thing that you could claim as yours and truly yours left nothing but an empty void in your heart with no sense of belonging.

Mando seemed to know you were upset. He ever so gently reached out and put a hand on your shoulder, “It may mean nothing now, but I’m sure it will eventually. Come on, we’ll take you back to Pollis Massa and maybe they can help you.”

“What if it doesn’t work? What are you going to do with me?”

He must’ve sensed your hesitation, “I swear to you, on my word as a Mandalorian, no harm will come to you by my hand. I will not give you over to those that may wish to harm you.”

“Are the words of a Mandalorian trustworthy?”

He scoffed in exasperation and put his hands on his hips. You could tell he was trying to figure out how best to earn your trust without losing his temper.

“Look, I get that you don’t know me. I get you don’t remember. I get that this is all new and must be terrifying, but you aren’t going to find any answers here or without me. So, are you coming or am I going to have to drag you back for your own good?”

“I’d like to see you try to drag me back,” your lips curled back in a smile that had nothing to do with amusement. This man had some nerve you had to admit. He wants me to trust him and then threatens that? He’d never.

He did. He grabbed you around the waist, told you to hold on and before you could protest, the ground left your feet and you were shooting into the sky. You screamed in terror not understanding what was happening nor how he could do this until you realized Mando had a jetpack on his back. You dug your nails into his arm while burying your face into his chest in order to block out how far up you were.

You opened your eyes again once you felt a jolt from what you assumed was a landing. You pushed off the Mandalorian, immediately chewing him out, “What was that? You want me to trust you and then you just fly off with me?”

You were back on the landing platform from earlier. The Serpent was gone, but the ship from earlier that Mando had landed with was still there. The crowd was gone and it was just you and him on the platform.

Mando didn’t raise his voice back to you. He just started walking towards the ship, “We can either argue or we can start your journey to get your memories back as soon as possible. I just sped up the process a little.” He didn’t even look back at you as he entered the ship.

You followed purely out of annoyance and desire to yell at him some more for the stunt he pulled. You swiftly clambered into the ship’s main hold where Mando was waiting for you.

“Look, I don’t appreciate the lie of trying to get my trust and then stealing me away without my permission!”

Before you could lay into him even more, the hatch closed and you heard the sound of engines firing up. The inner hold seemed to shift and turn in order to compensate for the change in orientation. He just tricked me again.

Now, you had reached your boiling point that you didn’t know you even had. You raised a finger to start pouring out a fury that you should’ve withheld, had you been more levelheaded and aware of your position, but you were stopped before you could do anything you would regret by someone climbing down a ladder from above and behind Mando. To your displeasure, he looked a lot like Mando only in green. Great. Now there are two of them.

“So, this is what the little one has been reduced to? An angry female ruled by emotions?” The voice coming from the green one dripped with haughtiness. This man was not afraid to ruffle feathers.

Mando cut a look to him in reprimand, but you beat him to it.

“I don’t know who any of you people are with your stupid helmets and armor, or who you are trying to scare, but I just want to be left alone. I don’t even know what to feel about anything except the current emotion since I have nothing else.”

“You’re just mad that you ate up anything he told you to get you here because you are so desperate for the truth. Well, here’s a truth: don’t trust anyone until you get your memories back. Don’t let your current emotions get in the way. We have a job to do, and that’s what we do. Our jobs. You don’t have to like it.” The green armored one was really starting to piss you off. You tried to rein in your anger, but what else was there? You had nothing but your emotions, a vague feeling of security from Mando that may not even be true, and two men in front of you that were keen on getting you into the ship.

Mando seemed more inclined to be helpful. He held up his hands between the two of you like he was trying to keep the two of you from going at each other, “Boba Fett means well. He knew you would be hesitant and in order to truly help you, we had to get you on this ship. He’s dealt with people who have had no memories before and warned me that if I told you too much, it could cause more damage to you than good. Like he said though, you may not like it, but it’s for your own good.”

Admitting that a part of what they both said rung true, was not something you wanted to do right now. No matter how much you wanted to be mad, it has lessened with Mando’s explanation.

“So, what does a mind wiped person do?” You finally asked after moments of silence to contemplate your current state of things.

“She shuts up and listens while we try to do what we can. You can also start with using the fresher. You’re filthy.” Without another word, Boba climbs back up the ladder and leaves you with Mando.

“I promise, he is helpful. He’s just short with everyone,” Mando says guessing your new line of angry thoughts. “If you want to use the fresher it’s right over there,” he points to your right where the outline of a door is, “You’re free to do whatever you want though.”

“Can I ask questions about who you are and what you know?”

“Would you believe me if I told you anything?” He counters.

You shrug. You don’t know what to think. Except that the one called Boba Fett annoys you. “Maybe,” you answer instead.

“I don’t know what I can tell you without overloading you, but why don’t you freshen up and get some rest first. We have time.” He walks off towards the ladder and ascends without another word.

Well, I do feel kinda gross. You looked around at the ship, taking in the lack of personal touches and cold feelings that reflected the man piloting the ship. You were still damp from your earlier escapades and the lack of comfort seen inside really had you craving some sort of warmth. So, you walked into the fresher, peeling off your clothes once you had the door shut and finally locked. Movement to your left had you swiftly turning towards it; surprisingly, you saw a naked woman staring back at you. You opened your mouth to apologize, but saw the woman doing the same. That’s when you realized something that had you grabbing your head in a feeble attempt to relieve the bow throbbing pain in your skull: that woman was you.

With every throb of your hearbeat, your vision pulsed and blackened like you would pass out. Hot tears of pain filled your eyes. Your mind was screaming over and over, that’s me that’s me that’s me that’s me. You did not know that face. You did not know; yet, you did. Your mind knew this was a mirror. Simple, shiny mirror with no fingerprints except now your own as you leaned over the polished silver sink. The mirror was cold under your fingers, but steady. A lifeline. A reminder that you were here, in this place and alive, but also a reminder that “you” held no meaning. Lifting your head to face your reflection brought nothing but more pain as you panted in front of your reflection. Your reflection panted back like a mockery to you. Two selves. You, who had awoken to nothing and felt only an aching, throbbing pain of nothingness; and the reflection. The one who had been born, who had lived and grown. Had only changed in appearance, but never shown any internal change that now plagued you. This was the one that Mando, Carra, Boba and whoever else knew. The current you was just as much a stranger to them as you were to yourself. Why bother telling you anything when you might be a wholly new being?

Those thoughts grounded you long enough to truly look at who stared back. It was a way to get to know yourself at this point. The throbbing left you now as you held onto that thought, understanding that you were once this person staring back at you.

The eyes unnerved you the most. They were empty, sad things. Like they had seen some things that had made the old you, but were now lost. Your hair was matted and was damp. You made faces in the mirror to see what expressions made you look like. Overall, your face was still just a face. It was your body that really struck you, though. Your eyes held hints of a story, but your body was practically screaming at you with stories in each pore. There were callouses on your hands, chipped nails, muscles in your arms and legs, and most of all: scars and tattoos.

The tattoos on your body were small and strewn throughout. Again, none meant anything to you. Some looked like writing that you didn’t recognize, but one looked like a skull. Eyes hollowed out, bone black as night and horns wrapping around the sides of its face. It was right on the side of your left breast, so hidden, but no ideas as to why.

The scars? They terrified you. There were small ones that anyone probably had just from living. Crescent shaped ones, straight lines. Tiny, insignificant things. The ones that were larger, spoke of trauma and pain. Thick angry ones on your abdomen, thighs, arms. It was like looking at a broken window, full of cracks. The one that scared you the most? Three long, thick, angry white and pink ones running down your back. From what you could see, they started at the base of your neck and went all the way down your spine to the start of your bottom.

Gingerly, you reached up to touch them. The pads of your fingers just barely hovered over them. Something in you told you not to, but for that reason alone, you knew you should for the sake of knowing something about yourself.

Before you could talk yourself out of it, you pressed your fingers down onto them. Bright light flooded your eyes and you could no longer see the mirror, instead you saw a sandy floor. Your face pressed against a wooden post and your hands were tucked underneath your head. They were bound to the post. Your whole body was aching and throbbing, but now along your back instead of your head.

It felt like fire had burned your back and water was dripping down it. No, not water. Blood! Blood was starting to soak your pant legs as it pooled at your knees.

Behind you, a voice laughed with malicious delight, but was cut short as another voice suddenly joined, “Your turn.” And Maker were you terrified as that voice rang through you with recognition of a silver armored terror: Mando.

The memory left you at that realization. Your breathing came short and rushed. Your heart was practically clawing it’s way up your throat and out of your mouth. Your stomach tossed and turn with waves of nausea that had you falling to the floor, no longer able to stay standing. You clutched the cloak you stole close to you, desperately trying to cling to something, anything that might release you from the brink of this absolute horror.

You vaguely were aware of footsteps running towards the door, but you still couldn’t move. Only your chest heaved with each pant of fear and panic. The was a metallic clanging on the door that skyrocketed your heartbeat even further.

The name that was supposedly yours kept sounding from outside the door. The voice coder did nothing to hide the fear behind it as well that almost matched your own. You whimpered in response.

The door slid open and Mando barreled in without waiting your response. He immediately beheld you naked and clinging to the cloak. Your pathetic form curled up on the floor, sobbing must have short wired his brain. He stood above you for a second before dropping to his knees and grabbing you to him.

Survival instincts roared through your veins as you screamed for him to let you be. Your heart still beating like footsteps in a chase.

He didn’t listen. He firmly grasped you, pulling you towards him. The cold metal bit into your body, but gave you enough of a jump that your breath caught for a second. That was all he needed to start rocking you as he gently whispered words in a language unknown to you.

With no strength left to fight him as your heart still tried to calm its racing beats, you merely whispered, “Did you whip me?”

He froze. His helmet tilted to look at the scars on your back. His gloved hands gently traced one part of them in a circle, as if out of habit and unbeknownst to him. He pulled you away from his chest and his gaze burned into your tearful one, “I didn’t. I would never whip yo... someone just for pleasure.”

“But you were there,” you insisted, “I heard you.”

He shook his helmet that didn’t leave room for arguement, “No, no, runi, I would never. I was there to save you. I swear.”

You couldn’t argue anymore. Your body was shaking from exertion and cold. He wrapped you closer to himself and brought his helmet to your head and whispered again, “I would never.”

[hyperpsychomaniac]

The Woodchuck Leader Assessment - Chapter 2

DT17 Fanfiction

Summary: When Launchpad’s ability to supervise children is called into question, Dewey tags along on a Junior Woodchuck trip to support his best friend.

Chapter 1

Also cross-posted on fanfiction.net.

***

Launchpad gulped at the lump which had lodged in his throat. "What, what are you doing back in the Woodchucks? You…" Got kicked out. Because of me.

Mr Russell smiled and Launchpad momentarily wondered if he'd, as often happened, accidentally spoken that last part of his thought out loud. "You can't hold the mistakes of a man's past against him forever, Launchpad. The Woodchucks are pretty fair in that regard. Yeah, I'm back. But you're an adult now. You can call me Jack, you know."

Launchpad turned to face the bus. His throat felt dry. "Ah, kids. This is … Jack. He… he used to be my Junior Woodchuck leader. "

"Jack to you…" Jack waved a paw dismissively in Launchpad's direction.

Launchpad flinched back and the metal back of the driver's seat banged into his spine.

"…but that's still Mr Russell to you kids," he continued, as he turned to address the bus. "I'm afraid I'm a little old school, but don't worry," and he threw this back in Launchpad's direction. "Not as much as I used to be. And it's nothing you kids need to worry about. After all, I'm only here to assess Launchpad. He can lead you to his heart's content, without any input from me, and, well… I guess the whole point of this is to see how that pans out."

"I think you'll find our Woodchuck leader more than capable," said Violet confidently.

"Yeah, go LP!" said Huey, and the rest of the Woodchucks joined in.

Dewey was the last to pick up on the cue. His heartfelt: "Yeeeeaah LP..." carried on a good few seconds longer than the rest of the bus.

The cheers of his Woodchucks, and his best friend, broke through the swirling thoughts that clamored for attention in his head. His Woodchucks had his back. The last time he'd seen Mr Russell, sure it was something he didn't want to remember, and hadn't thought about in years, but, no, he would focus on the assessment.

Mr Russell was shorter than he remembered too. Well, of course, because he had grown! And maybe he wouldn't be so scary now he was an adult. Launchpad squared his shoulders. "Alright. Er, first we grab the gear and hike to the camping spot."

Doofus groaned loudly.

"A short hike," Launchpad clarified, and felt his chest swell as he launched into the easy familiarity of directing his Woodchucks in a task he'd instructed dozens of times. "Woodchucks, start unpacking the camping gear. Make sure you help our potential new recruits. I need to talk to… Mr Russell."

Violet and Huey shuffled everyone off, taking more care than they normally did that everyone exited in an orderly manner. Mr Russell waited until the last kid filed off. Launchpad slipped off past him, behind the kids. Somehow, he felt a little more confident facing the man who had made almost a year of his time as a Junior Woodchuck an absolute hell outside in the fresh air.

Mr Russell followed him down, and Launchpad waited until he was out before bursting out: ""Look, Mr Russell, I don't understand…" As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he felt his beak flush. You didn't admit you didn't understand something to Mr Russell! You knew you'd get chewed out for it, and… he wasn't a kid anymore. "I don't understand why they would've picked you to assess me. Or that you would've agreed surely you don't want to see me, or…" The realisation slowly sunk into his brain. "Wait, is that why you're here? You had to resign because of me, and…"

Mr Russell held up a paw. It was hardly the gruff reprimand Launchpad remembered whenever he'd questioning him as a child, and it gave him pause. "Launchpad, I'm not here for payback. The Woodchucks won't hold my past failures against me, well, I'm not going to hold yours against you either. The last time we saw each other? That whole…. mess is not relevant. And I don't think either of us wants to think about it."

"Mess?" Launchpad said thinly. That's what he chose to call it?

"Yes, I rejoined the Woodchucks a few years ago. Heard you were still around, but I thought it best I stay out of your way. But since then I've heard there've been a number of complaints about you. Not that I find that surprising. You were always headstrong and foolhardy and you just didn't know when to quit. Everything is so damn slack these days, they practically hand badges out like candy, which I can deal with. But when it comes to the safety of the kids, that's another matter. I fully intend to give you a fair go, but I'm not giving any handouts. There's no failure badges for this one. If I don't think you can keep these kids safe, that's what I'm putting in my report. And then you're out of here."

***

Down at the campsite, the more senior Woodchucks had already started helping the new kids set up their tents. Violet must have begun implementing her protocols, and Launchpad didn't need to know exactly what those were to be grateful. He breathed deep the forest air, and huffed it out with a sigh of relief. The sky was clear, and he could hear the roar of the river a short distance down from the camp. "Come on, LP. Just do what you always do. Be a good Woodchuck leader! Your kids know you are, and Mr Russell will see that and…" He gulped. But just like every other time he'd had an assessor following him about, he couldn't let him be a distraction. He had to concentrate on the kids and making this trip as fun for them as possible, whatever his own fears might be.

"Hey, Launchpad," said Dewey with an enthusiastic wave. "Can you help me set up my tent?"

Launchpad frowned. Dewey knew how to set up a tent. Violet and Huey had the other kids all under control though, so he wandered over to his friend. "Sure. What do you need help wi…"

Dewey grabbed Launchpad by the collar and dragged him down to his level, then shoved a tent pole in his face. "Where does this go?" he said loudly, then dropped his voice. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah… why…"

"You went white as a sheet when Mr Russell came onto the bus. Was he that bad? I mean, I've had some pretty annoying teachers…"

"He wasn't annoying. He…" Mr Russell wandered about, hands clasped behind his back, watching the Woodchucks put up their tents. And not lifting a finger to help, which hardly surprised Launchpad. His eyes drilled into their backs as he watched every little thing they did. At least he wasn't here to judge them, and the kids were all so engrossed talking to each other and with the task they hardly seemed to notice. "He just didn't think I was a very good Woodchuck, okay? What if he doesn't think I'm a good leader either?"

"LP, look at these nerds. They know what their doing. And you taught them all of that."

"I'm not sure I had that much to do with it. I just give them an activity and they all seem to pick it up really quick. Other than that, I just make sure we bring enough food and water, and, you know, distract angry mother bears."

Dewey squeezed his shoulder. "Hey, you're good at this, LP. You'll be fine."

Launchpad smiled faintly. "Thanks. Thanks for coming too. You're right, I…" But it wasn't just the memory of how Mr Russell had treated him as a kid. It was the last time they'd seen each other… and Mr Russell had said that was the past, but that still didn't stop the memory stirring. Dewey, most of his Woodchucks actually, they would be the same age as Calvin had been. And that thought brought an ache to Launchpad's chest.

"Thanks LP, of course it goes here," Dewey screamed into his ear, and rammed the tent pole into its slot.

Mr Russel appeared at his shoulder. "Well, this one seems to get it. Most of your Woodchuck's seem to know what they're doing actually."

"Are you surprised?" Launchpad said as he got to his feet. It was getting easier to talk to his old leader like an adult, but being crouched down at kid level was not helping.

Mr Russell would've snapped at him for talking to him like that. Had, on more than one occasion, which somehow coincided with him getting stuck with the worst chores. LP couldn't be sure if it was because he'd grown up, or maybe Mr Russell had mellowed, because the old dog just raised an eyebrow. "A little." He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. "This one though. Not cut out for this."

Doofus Drake sat in the middle of his unfurled tent. He'd dragged it around and over his head, so only his pouting face stuck out.

Huey stalked past. "I tried showing him. He won't listen to me." He went over to help one of the other kids.

"You know he's new, right?" said Launchpad.

Mr Russel lowered his brows, that same condescending look Launchpad remembered. "Yeah, Launchpad. I know. That's why he's not wearing a uniform."

"I meant… how do you know when he's barely had a chance to try or…"

Someone let out a faint shriek, and a tent toppled over. Mr Russell folded his arms and snorted out a laugh. And just stood there.

"Maybe you could help Doofus?" One good thing had always come of having the assessor along for a trip: Launchpad didn't need to take care of up to a dozen kids all by himself. Ever since the other leaders had left they'd been unable find replacements, and it wasn't just because of how Launchpad drove the bus. No one seemed interested. And that's what made the assessments so stressful. It would suck if an assessor finally failed him, and he could no longer give back to the organisation that had helped him so much as a kid. But it would suck even more if the kids here didn't have Woodchucks at all because their branch got shut down.

At least the other assessors had slipped into leader mode themselves, and actually helped. But Mr Russell just stood there and raised an eyebrow. "Oh no. this is your show, son. Like I said, I don't give handouts."

The toppled tent righted itself as the unfortunate girl finally found her way out of the heap of canvas.

"We've got this, Launchpad," said Huey as both he and Violet and even some of the other new kids who had already got their tents up went over to help.

Launchpad gritted his teeth. Handouts. What the hell did he think his job as Woodchuck leader had been anyway?

And that just left Doofus. Launchpad went over to the boy, Mr Russell trailing behind him. He picked up a tent pole. "You know, I think you're supposed to use this to hold up the tent. Not your head."

"I want to go home!" Doofus disappeared underneath the canvas.

Mr Russell huffed. "Kids these days are just so damn soft. Even you weren't this bad. I told you he wasn't cut out for it."

"Mr Russell, will you just…"

Mr Russell squared his shoulders. "Yeah?"

Launchpad gulped. "Nothing." He poked the pole into a gap in the canvas and lifted it. Forget the assessment. Forget Mr Russell. Forget the memories he hadn't thought about in years, churning up in his gut. If he'd been here on his own, he'd be helping this kid. Because despite the attitude, he'd seen that brief moment of tears in his eyes. He wouldn't be the first kid who'd been sent by his parents when he didn't want to go and that certainly didn't mean he 'wasn't cut out for it'. Or that his parents shouldn't have sent him. He didn't need some overbearing leader, which was something Mr Russell would never understand. He just needed a friend.

"There we go," Launchpad crawled inside and propped up the canvas with the pole. "We're half done now."

Doofus glared at him from other corner of the tent. "That's not where the pole goes."

"So you do know how to build a tent?"

"It's not building! I can figure it out. But I shouldn't have to! I have… PEOPLE… to do these things for me."

"Yeah, but not always."

"What?"

"What about when you don't have people?"

"You can put the tent up for me!" Doofus folded his arms with a huff.

Launchpad winced. "Actually," he said, lowering his voice. "This is one of the new tents. I haven't figured out how to do this one yet. I was going to get Violet to show me."

Doofus' jaw dropped. "But, who's going to put up my tent? I don't want to sleep out here in the rain."

"Pft. It's not going to rain. Violet can help you."

"I…" Doofus slumped down, arms folded over his knees. "I already told her she was stinky and had weird hair; I don't think she'll help me."

"Well, at least its not going to rain?"

"I…" Doofus threw back his head. "Urgh! Give me that." He snatched back the pole, and rammed it into a corner of the tent, threading it through a canvas sleeve in the tent's side. He snatched up a second and did the same.

Launchpad watched him work. "Huh… that makes sense." He grabbed the last pole and copied what Doofus had done, shoving it into the remaining canvas sleeve. The whole tent popped out, crisp and straight and complete.

Doofus glared at him. "You said you wouldn't help!"

"I said I didn't know how to put it up yet. There you see? That was easy. " They slipped out of the tent flap.

Doofus turned back and looked at his tent. "I… built a tent?"

"Yeah. Look at that. At least now you know you can do it if you ever don't have… people."

Doofus eyed him warily. "Well, I at least hope someone is going to cook my dinner." And with that, he stalked off.

"It's not going to help him if you do it for him."

"He put half that tent up himself!"

"Because you got chummy with him? You're not going to teach these kids the skills they need in life by being their friends. They need discipline."

"Yeah, well, I've been on the receiving end of your discipline." Launchpad snorted.

Mr Russell swallowed hard. "One time, Launchpad. That was only ever one time."

It wasn't what Launchpad had been referring to. Not that one incident, but the usual bullying and the tearing strips off of the kids in front of each other, and slapping failure badges into their open hands like it was something they should have been ashamed of. Launchpad shook himself and went over to check through the food supplies. Mr Russell didn't follow him.

***

Dewey kept his eye on Launchpad the whole afternoon. As they set up the food, the campsite, and collected firewood, his friend was clearly becoming more and more frustrated with his so-called assessor. I mean, he had plenty reason to be. Mr Russell hovered around, making snarky comments, both at LP and about the kids to LP, and he didn't help with anything. But this was Launchpad. He liked everyone. Launchpad had simply said Mr Russell hadn't thought he'd been a good Woodchuck. But that couldn't be all of it. It all made Dewey want to grab his friend by the shirt sleeve and make him tell him exactly what the guy had done that had him so on edge. He'd tried once, but Launchpad had just smiled at him faintly, which was something at least, and then asked him to go help collect firewood. Dewey would have argued, but Mr Russell had been right there and he hadn't wanted to make Launchpad look bad.

Now, the camp was set up, the sky was darkening, and everyone had settled down to eat dinner around the campfire. Nothing bad had happened that Dewey could tell, apart from the tent falling over. Hopefully that meant, so far, Mr Russell would have nothing negative to report on.

Once the meal was finished, Launchpad stood up and pulled out a set of prompt cards. "Oookay everybody. Now because some of you are new we're going to show you some of the stuff we do as Woodchucks. Then, if you want, we can talk about you becoming one too, if you're interested."

Russell snorted. "Or are capable."

Launchpad shot a glare behind him and a prompt card fluttered into the fire. "Er. Where was I?"

"Maybe you can tell our new recruits what we're doing tomorrow?" Huey suggested.

"Um, right," Launchpad shuffled his cards, then shook his head and shoved them back into this sash. "Well, the swimming hole is only a little way upstream. So, in the morning we're going to hike up there. Assuming the weather holds, we'll be doing some swimming. And the…"

"Do you even have your swimming badge yet?" Mr Russell said.

Launchpad flinched and clutched a hand to his sash.

Dewey couldn't tell if he'd covered a blank spot or not, but there were a hell of a lot of badges, spread all across Launchpad's broad chest. So, of course there was a swimming badge. I mean, everyone know how to swim, right? It was time to Dew what he'd come here for. "Launchpad knows how to swim!"

"I wasn't talking to you, boy," Russel snapped.

The scared look fell from Launchpad's face. "Hey!" he said, a growl creeping into his voice, "don't talk to my Woodchucks like that."

"Well, you're not doing anything about it. You're just going to let them interrupt you?"

"You're the one who interrupted, Launchpad," Huey pointed out. "My brother was just…"

"That's enough out of both of you. If you don't want to be digging toilets…"

"We have to dig toilets?!" Doofus groaned.

"There's a block up the hill," said Violet. "That was supposed to be part of the induction. Unfortunately Launchpad was interrupted before he could get to that section of his prompt cards."

"Seriously?" Mr Russell fixed his glare on each of the Woodchucks in turn. "This is what you let them get away with? No wonder they're such a pitiful…"

"Mr…." Launchpad bit himself off, then steadied his hands into fists down by his sides. "Jack, that's enough. I had to put up with this when I was a kid; I'm not going to let you talk them like that. They're going to do fine. And if some of them take a little longer to get their badges, or even if they don't want to be Woodchucks, that's fine too. But you're not in charge here. So you can… you can sit down, shut up, and put whatever the hell you like in your report. But if you're going to behave like this, you can leave."

"Oh, snap…" Dewey said, as quietly as he could manage. Okay, so he'd never seen Launchpad get mad enough to take someone down a notch, so Mr Russell had to be getting to him, but, at the same time, Launchpad was standing up to him. Good for him! And Mr Russell deserved it too.

Mr Russell glared at Launchpad for a long moment. Then he shrugged. "Well, the way you're going, you're not going to be in charge for much longer." He took a step up to him, and the two men stood chest to chest. Launchpad didn't back down. Not that he should have, because he was clearly that much bigger, and Russell just ended up pretty much staring into his chest.

"Yeah," Russell finally drawled. "Didn't think so. Still haven't got that swimming badge, I see. And I know there's at least one pretty big failure hiding behind where that one should be."

Launchpad's stance drooped. He said, barely audibly: "I thought you said you weren't going to bring that up."

Huey's guidebook snapped closed sharply, and everyone jumped. "There's nothing to say he can't give out a badge he doesn't have. Plenty of our other leaders didn't have all their badges either."

"You mean the leaders you had before Launchpad scared them all away? I've heard the stories. Part of the reason why I made sure I got this assignment; I had to make sure he was taking care of you. And, you know, I wasn't going to say anything in front of you kids," and he turned back to Launchpad. "But seeing as you're being so disrespectful to me, which isn't surprising, I'm not going to feel bad about it.

"I've seen nothing that tells me you should be looking after these kids all by yourself. A couple seem to be pretty self-sufficient, if belligerent, but if anything they've been doing all the leading here. You can't control them, I can't see that you're actually teaching them anything, and I'm just glad nothing has happened except a few fallen tents, because I'm not sure you've got what it takes to handle all this."

"I haven't had the chance to teach them anything yet. This was your problem, Jack, you never gave anyone a chance, the slightest mistake and you'd already pegged them."

"And I was usually right! I was right about you, wasn't I? You're dangerous!"

Violet shot up a hand. "My understanding of the assessment procedure," she said, not stopping to get permission to speak, "is that you assess Launchpad on his ability to keep us safe. Not on how you view his leadership style."

"Leadership style. That's a fancy way to put it, miss."

"Her name's Violet," said Launchpad. "You realise I'm doing this all by myself, right? If you could just help, for once, instead of standing around judging…"

"Judging you is literally my job here," said Mr Russell. He spread his paws wide. "Look, kids, I get it. You all think I'm the bad guy here. But the girl is right; this is about your kids' safety. I just don't want to see Launchpad get himself in the position I found myself in, where I couldn't control the kids I was responsible for…"

The firelight threw sharp shadows across Launchpad's lowered brows. "Jack, don't."

"I got kicked out of the Woodchucks for years, and they had every right to do it. You want to know what happened? A kid drowned on my watch. Come on, Launchpad, you don't want to be responsible for something like that, do you?"

Launchpad stared at Mr Russell for a long time, saying nothing, chest heaving. Then he turned on his heel and stalked out of the campsite.

What the heck? Dewey shot to his feet. "You're a jerk, you know that? Launchpad, LP…" He headed out into the darkness after his friend.

***

Authors note: I wanted to write something that put Launchpad in a position where he would have to 'adult'. I also wasn't sure how well I would write the DT17 version of Launchpad, as I'm honestly more comfortable writing say Violet and Huey, so yeah, I made it challenging for myself and he has to adult as well. Lol. I also did want to see a little bit more of Launchpad being a Woodchuck leader in the series (which, yes, I think he would be good at, in his own way.) I imagine its something he's put a lot of effort into. Its a setting where he'd have to be the one being the adult, but still being Launchpad… especially when things start to go wrong, so hopefully I have achieved that. Please leave me any comments. I do like hearing what people think and will usually try to respond.

***

Chapter 3

[godkilller]

@izzabizz139

I wanna hear you rant about the Gin vs Hitsugaya anime fight bc I love seeing your pov and you clearly write better than whoever extended that scene :) pretty please

          out of character.  DON’T ENABLE ME SO MUCH !!  No but I cackled when I first saw this ask because oh my god, clearly you saw a taste of my annoyance about the anime adaptation -- no, adaptation implies it was accurate, I’ll say the anime’s take was “inspired by” the manga’s quick run-in. I’ll start by saying this moment is supposed to be a bit important considering, via the audience’s point of view, THIS IS THE FIRST WE SEE OF TWO CAPTAIN-RANKED SHINIGAMI CLASHING. The only other captain-involved fight we’ve seen thus far in the manga is Kenpachi  ( who is an outlier and should not be counted... no, I joke... but, still, Ichigo was not an equal to him, his sword was sliced through like butter. )  The whole reason I enjoyed this encounter between Toshiro and Gin was simply this; it wasn’t some fancy multi-chaptered fight. IN THE MANGA, THERE ARE ONLY TWO BLOWS MADE. One, by Toshiro, to begin the fight. The second, to end it, is Gin’s strike.

          I want you to know that I’ve rewatched this specifically to answer this ask, and only due to this, as I wouldn’t have ever sought it out otherwise. HONOR MY SACRIFICE.

          Read more for length. I’m merciful.

          In the anime, they monologue at each other, and it’s mostly a combination of Toshiro making three separate death threats  ( he starts this off by saying “I’ll kill you before Hinamori arrives” and then goes on rewording it each time, and then also repeats the death-threat he gave Gin prior to this conflict about “I’ll kill you if Hinamori bleeds” )  and then also Gin and Izuru talking about how truly powerful and amazing Toshiro is -- no, this isn’t me being bitter or petty, I literally shit you not, Gin has a line that is legit “AS EXPECTED FROM HITSUGAYA TOSHIRO, CAPTAIN OF THE TENTH DIVISION, A CHILD PRODIGY OF TH' SORT THAT ONLY COMES ALONG ONLY ONCE EVERY FEW CENTURIES. HOW VEEEERY DANGEROUS. YOU’RE SERIOUS, AIN’T YA?” like don’t get me wrong, love a good sarcastic little shit comment like that, but the amount of times the anime pumps Toshiro up like he’s their shinest new cash cow ( and he is, at this point, it is not even 50 episodes into the series and they’ve realized everyone likes him and he’s jumped to high ranks in popularity polls... earning him filler spotlights, and eventually his very own non-canon movie )  so everything coming out of Gin’s mouth feels like more bullshit than necessary. Izuru’s already literally monologued, internally, how powerful and amazing Toshiro is anyways. Why this ?

          Not to mention that, prior to saying that long-winded shit, Gin’s haori changed length three times  ( and once it was longer than his entire body by several feet, and no not in a ‘to show motion’ way )  and most importantly Shinso was drawn, consistently, at katana-length for the duration of their little spat where the following, too, happened: Gin frog-leaps after doing a backflip, Toshiro gives Gin two (2) haircuts, Gin ruins some floorboards and gives Toshiro at least one splinter in his arm, Toshiro whilst wearing socks lands on Shinso’s blunt edge and pushes the sword down with his footsie because that’s how that works, there’s another backflip somewhere in there that Gin doesn’t need to be doing, twirl, twirl, and ballet, Gin’s face elongates until his chin is bigger than his face, Gin spends ten+ seconds purely dodging very close strikes to his face as Toshiro is the only one making breathy growly and ‘tsuuaaah’ sounds, there is a brief moment of no gravity as Toshiro keeps hacking at Gin midair and Gin blocks it over and over again but they still stay in the air but they’re not standing or jumping or using reiatsu they’re just like, momentum-locked I don’t fucking know, Gin frowny faces as he blocks because like somehow this kid who doesn’t even have more reiatsu than him, whose arm strength should not be an issue, is like. making him nervous?? as sword sparks fly. if you know me at all you know I hate when they fuckin’ firework sparkler-ify swords clashing.

          Anyways, all of this happens whilst Shinso is the wrong length and Gin’s hair is getting purpler by the second and this entire thing is somehow a big jack-off to Toshiro’s immense strength even though he’s screaming and wailing at Gin like a child and Gin’s just a vessel at this point to Enhance Toshiro, which, fine, okay, but at least be more accurate with it god damn. ANYWAYS,

          THEY JOUST. They literally run at each other, swords centered, and run past / to the side of one another. Jousting. “Cause that’s how that works. No slashes, no cutting motion. Just swords centered, because the animators were like “no worries guys I know swordfighting basics that’s a legit pose” yeah it is WHEN STATIONARY. Not rUNNING IT DOWN.

          And then Gin’s sleeve is cut, somehow, from the Jousting, because wow Toshiro wow wow wowowowow, and then Toshiro comes back and starts wailing at Gin again and Gin blocks it, again, and it’s all very annoyingly repetitive, and Gin’s frowning and sparks are flying and Gin’s using Shinso, the katana-length wakizashi I guess, with two hands because like I said, the animators knew basics and basics are “katana are used two-handed” like. Okay, you’re not wrong, but I cannot stress this enough: SHINSO IS NOT A KATANA. It’s shorter and meant to be used single-handed!!!! sTop!!! So then Gin rips off the tattered part of his sleeve and throws it at Toshiro, who swipes it away from his face using his Zanpakuto because that’s intelligent and a piece of cloth was definitely threatening enough to use your sword to bat it away  ( btw, Hitsugaya wasn’t holding his sword with two hands at this precise moment, so he could have just... used his other hand )  and then Gin goes in for the classic “stabby stabby rapidly at you while the animation gets a little breather because we repeat this cycle a few times with flashy bgs and phew money made” ... WE ARE FOUR MINUTES AND THIRTY SECONDS INTO THIS FIGHT BY THE WAY. Gin does this for seventeen (17) agonizing seconds straight. Yes, I counted. That was sixteen and a half too many seconds for me, personally.

          Toshiro somehow lassos Shinso whilst Gin is stabby stabby-ing with Hyourinmaru’s chain component. I say component like it’s somehow some type of beauty guru’s lipstick holder, but really am I that wrong ? When else has he ever used this feature ? Anyways, he lassos Shinso because yeehaw I guess, god I’m falling apart at this point can y’all tell????? I need a drink.

          and so, because now Toshiro has Gin’s sword somehow trapped with chain even though it’s just looped around it, he backflips over Gin for a cool trickshot, no blow issued, just vibes, and Gin uses a big brain moment to tug Shinso and the chains slide off. okay now what. We’re past five minutes into this fight, nonstop.

          SOUNDS LIKE A GOOD TIME FOR GIN TO PAUSE AND APPRECIATE TOSHIRO AGAIN! “I see, I shouldn’t have underestimated you, HItsugaya Toshiro” I’m starting to have a feeling Gin’s VA was told to just wing these lines because the amount of times he fills silences / Gin’s mouth movements with Toshiro’s long-ass name is astounding, he’s definitely drawing blanks here but he sure as hell knows one thing: that damn ice-boy’s name. He continues by saying “I suppose I’ll end up regretting it afterwards.”

          Toshiro says that’s not enough, and it’s really dramatic and cool. His eyes even glow all icy and blue and pretty, like his flowy reiatsu. Aesthetic points were gifted entirely to Toshiro’s animations in this scene. Gin was finished in MS Paint and each new scene they had to draw Shinso from memory and try to remember what hue of purple his hair was at gunpoint. Toshiro lets off a big wave of reiatsu and then it vanishes, and he jumps up reaaaally high. like this guy’s flying. his eyes arent glowing anymore that’s sad. Bring Back Glowing Eyes For Strong Shinigami 2k21.

          Toshiro releases his Shikai, and it’s badass, the sky darkens, Izuru looks distinctly more worried than usual, and Gin’s frowning with his teeth out like Bugs Bunny’s having a bad day, all is right in the world. Toshiro and his released Shikai have a nice moment for the Pics, and a big epic freeze frame blur moment happens with it all coiled and swirling around him. Wrow!  ( click the ‘wrow’ it’s a link to my exact reaction )  Izuru narrates for the third time about how powerful Toshiro is, his reiatsu, his Zanpakuto being a deity who is only unlocked every few centuries. The strongest ice-type sword. Pardon the pun, but that’s... you could say, so cool.

          It can even control the weather. So hey, next time it’s rainy, cold, icy, or snowing and you’re unhappy, it’s time to direct a big fuck you at Toshiro.

          Gin dodges the first dragon, and blocks the second with Shinso because blocking water and ice with a sword makes sense right? This actually takes a solid amount of seconds as Gin cuts through the entire length of this ice dragon noodle. Things dissipate, and pause, too, to really drag this out. Surprisingly, this reveals that Gin’s made a boo-boo, his left arm’s frozen, which doesn’t even mean anything because Gin is right-handed, and Toshiro teleports himself behind Gin in true fighty fashion.

          We have arrived at seven minutes and just under twenty seconds of this fight, and Gin turns, DOES THE UNTHINKABLE, gasp! He opens his eyes. His red, dull, evil, gray-eyebrowed with purple hair eyes, and shoots Shinso through its hideout spot behind his haori. This nearly takes off Toshiro’s eye and upwards of his head, but the little guy dives down fast. The rest happens in slow motion, supposedly, because it takes an eternity and people talk entire full sentences in its span of time.

          Gin asks Toshiro if he’s sure he’d like to dodge that  ( it’s a little late for that ) and says that Momo’ll die if he does. SHINSO SCRAPING ALONG AGAINST HYOURINMARU STRANGELY MAKES NOT A SINGLE SOUND. Mute. Even though before they had no problem animating and adding sounds to them smacking blades earlier. There are soundless sparks though, so there’s that. Yay. Can you tell how exhausted this’s made me? I need a nap.

          Shinso is already more than halfway towards Momo, still unconscious, she most definitely has a serious concussion via Toshiro backhanding her midair consider she’s been unconscious for longer than ten minutes. Toshiro has time to get up off the floor where he dropped to dodge, realize with a shocked gasp, turn, shout her name, and watch as Rangiku arrives in a random glow of gold which never happens ever again and blocks the attack with Haineko. Haineko almost cracks on the impact, and continues growing in damage as Rangiku holds Shinso there, implying that she’s stopped it from reaching one-hundred sword’s lengths to pierce Momo. Yes I’m including that implication / note in here because we love to see Rangiku succeeding in life and being Not-Helpless, all while potentially damaging Haineko severely if it wasn’t able to hold him off. Yikes, Gin!

          Rangiku threatens to join the fight if he doesn’t withdraw his sword. Gin smiles, withdraws it, and then Shunpos away.

          Whatta mess. Oh, and the anime fight was pretty fucked up, too.

          This is a long post, but here’s the manga version:

Toshiro leaps into the air,

This is where the fight actually starts between them:

And end. 

Five pages. Two blows. Does not equate to ten minutes of non-stop fighting and monologues. Sometimes, and I mean this in the most unbiased way possible, less is more.

[prettyflyshyguy]

Ok here’s Chapter 2!!! its unfinished but I have to go to bed but you can have it anyway!! Like last time if you have critique please hit me with it. I am not a writer. I am simply a fool with two wolves inside me, one craves comedic relief while the other is grabbing a knife from the kitchen. (Chapter 1 if you missed it)

Here’s an indication:

The night air was still, in the distance the sound of helicopters and sirens blaring was the only thing to disturb this empty side of the city, evacuation of all citizens long passed. The orange haze of distant lights and fires lit up the otherwise cloudy dark sky. The crack of crystalline and resin structure splitting broke the silence atop the Research Centre. A cocoon spilled out of the split in the hardened shell, flowing and bulging and wriggling out as something churned and shifted beneath the surface. Rapidly the form of a figure started to appear, breaking free, reaching upwards towards the sky until it slipped and fell backwards. It flopped onto the concrete with the grace of a beached whale, and slid a few meters back.

His lungs kicked into overdrive, gulping deep breaths of air to combat the fear, disorientation and adrenaline that shot through his body. Everything was dark, his eyelids felt glued shut. He was hot, too hot, why was he so hot. 

Crudely wiping whatever was gunking up his eyes, he began to take stock of the situation. He quickly scanned the area, he was alone.

Except for the cocoon.

‘Shit-’

He instinctively tried calling out but a faint rasp was the most he could muster as he scrambled away still on the ground. He reached for his sidearm holster.

Except it wasn't there.

He felt cold concrete on his back, he pushed into it. It was the only thing he knew was real. It was tangible. He looked back towards the cocoon, a trail of viscous liquid stretched between it and himself. He sat there, frozen. Eyes fixed on the cocoon. Tracing its outline, the way it looked like a figure reaching forward. Forward towards something small that reflected the light, sitting just out of reach of the cocoon on the ground. The huge, gaping split down the back that the trail of fluid lead away from. 

Perhaps if he was able to sit completely still he wouldn't be able to feel any of it. The fluid dripping down his hair, into his eyes. The way his arms felt too long. The way his skin felt too tough. The way he felt wrong.

Except he hadn’t forgotten what happened. It was his cocoon. 

His heart rate shot up, he started breathing faster shorter breaths. 

Leon wasn't particularly afraid of much. He tackled any new situation he was thrust into pretty well, actually. Like his brief time as a cop back in Racoon City when the first outbreak of the T-virus happened. Evicting the ‘monster under the bed’ when he’d babysit Sherry when she was younger. Being injected with a parasite egg by a twisted cult in Europe. Accepting Claire’s challenge of who could eat the most hot cross buns last Easter.

The cocoon in front of him made him afraid.

He focused on his breathing, slowing them down, taking in more air in each breath. His pulse began to calm.

A minute or two had gone by before he realised it was getting cold. The exothermic reaction of the cocoon process had ended quite some time ago and he was no longer receiving the benefits. If you could even call them that.

He thought about it again.

‘Ah. That’s right. The cocoon process.’

His memories were intact up until a point, he remembered the flames and how he tried to scream. He remembered the sensation of his skin boiling. He remembered his joints seizing up and everything going dark. The only person he’s seen come out of a cocoon looking ‘normal’ was Ada, but she must be different. Some kind of twisted facsimile that Simmons cooked up. The Ada Wong that infected him was surely not the real deal, at least he hoped.

Ultimately there were only two choices in his current situation. Continue to stare in abject horror at the cocoon or instead, stare in abject horror at whatever it did to him.

Sharply inhaling, he slowly let his gaze fall from the cocoon to his feet. 

At least the assumption was that they were his feet. They looked more structurally like primates but with thick leathery scales or plating running along down from his legs. Not to mention the claws.

‘Ok. Could be worse.’

‘Time to try standing up.’ he thought.

He shuffled into a kneeling position and placed his hands out in front of him on a bare patch of concrete that wasn't covered in goop. Thankfully they still resembled human hands. Just with more scales and claws. 

‘Could be worse.’

Very slowly, with plenty of weight on his hands, he attempted to figure out how to stand up. He quickly realised his feet were more comfortable with weight being fully placed on the toes. Like a dinosaur. Maybe he could get a job as a monster in the next Jurassic Park film. In trying to find a silver lining the brief mental distraction meant he almost toppled over, as his legs were quite shaky. Using the wall behind him for stability, he found he was able to stand comfortably if he bent his knees slightly more than he was used to. 

Carefully, despite wobbling significantly, he made his way without the aid of a wall towards and around the cocoon, to where he had dropped his communicator after Ada… Fake-Ada, had infected him.

He knelt down and gently picked it up, praying that maybe somehow the flames hadn’t damaged it beyond working. The glass screen was cracked. It was unresponsive. 

‘Fuck.’

He had no way of contacting Helena. No way of telling her that actually he’s ok. He had left her to run after Ada and now she’s out there, alone, up against Simmons and his personal security army after everything-

‘FUCK.’

He was so stupid, he let his personal feelings get in the way when he should have just let Chris handle it-

He froze.

‘Chris was just outside the door when it happened. He probably saw the cocoon-’

His thoughts were interrupted as the glass of the communicator shattered as it hit the ground. His stomach convulsed as he began to throw up. He hadn’t eaten in hours but the acid burned away at his throat nonetheless. Tears started to well up in his eyes. The full gravity of the situation hit, everything he put his friends through, everything that’s happened to him. What would happen if he finds them again? Would they recognise him? Would they shoot him? Would he even find them? What if something else found him first?

Shoving all that aside, he pulled himself back into the moment. There was nothing he could do for either Chris or Helena if he just sat here, and the risk of a military cleanup unit passing overhead and seeing him was not one he was willing to bargain on. 

-

The balcony door, left open, creaked slightly as the ocean breeze drifted through the city. It would have been nice if not for the smoke and the eeriness of the place left cold and empty. It didn’t take Leon long to find an apartment that had an unlocked door or window, long forgotten about. The infection came with its advantages, namely making it much easier for him to traverse buildings vertically which meant he avoided streets with military patrols, Ja’vo or worse. Cautiously searching, in case he wasn't alone, he swept through each room quickly before entering the bathroom. The sludge that was left over from the cocoon had started to try like mud all over him, a shower might help relieve the stress. Closing the door and looking around, he caught a brief glimpse of his full figure in the bathroom mirror. He turned away sharply, not ready to tackle that just yet, instead focusing on the uncomfortable fact he could see very clearly despite not turning the light on yet. Once again trying to find something he could root himself too, he sunk his feet into the softness of the bathmat. The cold of the tiles. 

He leaned with both arms either side of the basin. 

‘Please don’t throw up again.’ he thought.

Without giving himself time to chicken out of it he flicked his head upwards and stared dead on into the mirror.

‘Could be worse.’

His face was still somewhat recognisable, it might have been even more if he didn’t have two mandibles protruding from both his top and bottom jaw each, beginning near his ears and wrapping comfortably around his face. He was able to see them in his peripheral vision so far but preferred to pretend they didn’t exist. Forced to reckon with it now, he toyed around to determine what level of control he had, if any. The top two folded up neatly alongside his cheeks and the clawed tip bent downwards towards his mouth, while the bottom ones extended along his jawline and pointed up at his chin. More concerningly in each corner of his lips there was a line, almost like a split that ran up his cheeks either side. Tentatively he flexed his jaw and opened his mouth slightly he snapped it shut upon seeing canines that were probably a little too long. Among other teeth that probably weren't there before. At least the BSAA had good dental.

Examining the rest, the same plate scales, more like chitin or carapace, ran up his arms, legs and back. Splits down the sides of his arms and legs had more normal softer skin along with his chest, although these including his face were still stricken with splits and scarring in the skin. Much like how Deborah, Helena’s sister, looked after she emerged from her cocoon. At this point he noticed something shifting behind him, twisting slightly revealing in the mirror a set of thin spines that ran down his back. They twitched and shifted higher the more he stared at them, the more his heart rate elevated.

Not bothering to turn on any lights still, he shoved himself into the shower and doused himself in water as once again, he felt his heart rate climb. 

Sinking down to the floor he leant on his knees and pushed his fingers into his hair as the water enveloped him. 

‘It could be worse. It could be worse. It could be worse. It could be worse?? I’m a BOW now I’m a fucking BOW I’m a bio organic weapon I’m a B O W  I’M-’

Pulling his hands down his hair and over his face, he took a deep breath to try and calm himself.

‘Ok this is bad, but you’ve been through worse Leon.’ he considered.

He stared blankly for a moment.

‘Ok maybe you haven't been through worse but at least this time you’re in control of yourself. No mind control parasite cults involved. Look on the bright side.’

He looked down at his feet and the water swirling endlessly into the drain.

‘You’ve traumitised Helena right after the same thing happened to her sister, you have no way of contacting anyone for help, and even if you did, you have no guarantee they won’t just try and kill you.’

He slowly looked up. His entire face, mandibles included, drooped as the water cascaded down.

Pressing his hands into his face and leaning back he let out a deep, long groan while he internally wished he could just scream. God knows if he did, if it would even sound human still. 

Debora’s wails and cries still echoed in his mind. Recognisably human in origin but alien and twisted. Would he sound like that too? Like a monster?

(Hi hello its Editing Shy here, sorry this is all I got. I haven't finished it yet, this is the unfinished bit.)

[kuriboo]

Hugsaku 2021

Crossover | Skipping Dimensions

This year I figured I’d take part in the hugsaku week. In the past with events like these, I’ve seen people take the prompts and turn them into one continuous story, and I ended up wanting to give that a try. I used a combination of prompts from the 2021 list and the 2019 list to write this out, so I hope you enjoy it!

This isn’t any of the day 1 prompts, I know... I ended up taking this prompt and using it to sort of set up the story, so this ended up being slightly out of order. The rest of the prompts should be in order, though. I do have an actual day 1 that will post later today, so there’s that to look forward to.

I’ll be posting this up on ao3 where the whole fic will be titled Dimension Gate. I’ll link the ao3 in the notes of this post. I hope you enjoy!

--

"Where am I? What is this?” 

There was not an area like this anywhere in Link Vrains. Den City definitely looked nothing like this. Yusaku glanced down at himself briefly; okay, he was in the real world. So where was he? 

He had another question: how did he get here? The last thing he could remember was...actually, he couldn't remember the last thing that happened. It wasn't a complete amnesia, he had most of his memories intact, but there was a definite blank before he got to wherever this was. Which left him with no ideas of how to get home. Great. 

While he'd been checking his outfit to check if he was in the real world or Vrains, Yusaku noticed a card on the ground. It wasn't terribly uncommon for someone to accidentally drop a card in Den City. This was a completely blank card, however. Cards usually weren’t completely blank, and people didn’t tend to carry around blank cards, let alone lose them. Curious, he bent down to get a close look. 

“Ai, do you know of any cards that are completely blank being used in Vrains, or why anyone would have one?”

He waited a few moments for Ai to respond, but the next few seconds were filled with nothing but silence.

That meant something was wrong. Ai loved to talk, especially when he knew something Yusaku didn't.

"Ai?” Yusaku tapped the top of his duel disk, but got no reaction. Either something was wrong with Ai, or Ai wasn't here. That worried Yusaku more than he'd like to admit.

His attention was drawn back to the blank card. Maybe his brain was just trying to distract itself from bigger, more terrifying problems with something smaller and more manageable. What was this thing? Maybe if he picked it up and got a closer look... 

“Hey, buddy! you really shouldn't pick up that card!" Whatever the complete stranger who Yusaku couldn't even see was yelling about, it was too late for that. The card was already in Yusaku’s hand. He heard footsteps running behind him and assumed they probably belonged to the person that was yelling. 

Yusaku turned around and, sure enough, someone was running directly at him. He glared at them." I am not your buddy, We are not friends.”

“Okay I get it, we don't know each other. But you shouldn’t keep that card . It's dangerous.”

Yusaku snorted. “Why should I give up this card, especially to a little kid?." He looked down at the card, and saw it was no longer blank. It was an actual card now, and XYZ Monster, and now it was his. There was a dull ache in the back of his head, but he ignored it. "This is exactly what I need to get my revenge, and I’ll never let anyone take that from me." He hadn't been thinking about truly putting it in his deck until he picked it up, but now he felt the strong urge to use it, like the card wanted to be with him. 

“Well, if you're going to be like that, I’m gonna have to duel you for it!" The stranger held a duel disk in front of him and put some sort of eyepiece on his face.

Yusaku heard the word ‘duel’, stared at the eyepiece, and felt something between fear and confusion fill him. What was he doing ? He glanced at the XYZ card. It was like the second be picked it up, he'd been filled with this anger. The same kind of anger that drove his revenge, like the card was Ai and this stranger was a Knight of Hanoi. He hadn’t realized the anger was there until it was gone. Could a card do that outside of Vrains? 

He looked at the stranger. "No duel. I changed my mind, I don't want it." 

That caught the strange off guard." Are you sure?" 

He looked the stranger over this time. This was clearly a kid still in middle school. Was it safe to give them this card if they said it was dangerous? Well this middle schooler knew more about this card than Yusaku did, clearly. He held it out to the kid. “Take it.”

("Yuma, why are you hesitating? Take the card before he charges his mind.”) 

The stranger stared at Yusaku as he slowly took it, as if waiting for Yusaku to change his mind, but he took the card easily. 

The stranger blinked up at Yusaku. “How did you resist the Number's control?"

"Control?" Now that the card was out of Yusaku’s possession, it felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders, but he still didn't understand what that meant. 

"These Numbers belong to my friend Astral. He lost them and they're all over the place, and when most people pick them up, they take control of them. People

start doing bad stuff. I'm trying to get them back for Astral, but I usually have to duel whoever has them to get them back. But I challenged you to a duel, and you just gave it to me?"

Yusaku shrugged." I don't know about this cards controlling people business. I don’t know why I wanted to keep the card at all. You wanted to duel, I don't like dueling. 

The stranger pointed at Yogaki's arm, " You have a duel disk?" 

Yusaku shifted his weight. "Appearances can be deceiving. You don't know anything about me. 

"That's true. I've never seen you before. I don't even know your name. Oops! I'm Yuma.” 

“Yusaku." 

(“Fascinating. Yusaku doesn't seem to know how he did it, but he resisted. I would like to observe him and try to figure out how.”)

"Come on, Astral, don't be creepy," Yuma whispered to the empty air beside him, loud enough for Yusaku to be able to hear easily.

"Uh…”

“Oh. Astral, the friend I mentioned before, he's here, too. But for some reason I'm the only person that can see him. Weird, huh?" 

“So you have an imaginary friend.” If it was really Yuma who owned and lost these cards and Astral was made up to blame someone else for it, Yusaku wouldn't be surprised. Middle schoolers were young enough for imaginary friends, right? He couldn't remember. 

("Yuma, ask him if I can learn more about him.”

“He's not imaginary, I swear -- Astral, stop being weird!" Yuma protested. "Besides, I'm sure Yusaku wants to go home, it's getting dark out!”

Yusaku looked up to the sky. Yuma was right, twilight was hitting the city and he was no closer to figuring out his own predicament. As a night owl, the time and darkness usually didn't bother Yusaku, but in an unfamiliar area like this he was only going to get more lost. "I suppose I should.” The two of them stood in silence, Yuma staring at Yusaku while Yusaku stood in place.

“So, are you going home, then? Or…” Yuma spoke eventually. 

“Oh right,” Yusaku blinked. "I don't know where I am or how I got here. So I have no idea how to do that." 

"I can at least tell you where you are! This is Heartland City!" 

Yusaku shook his head. "Never heard of it." Knowing that didn’t help him at all. He’d have to figure it out from there, somehow.

“I can try to help you figure out how to get back," Yuma offered. "But - oh, my sister's going to be so mad at me if I'm not home soon. You know, there's no school tomorrow, I could help you then. You want to spend the night at my place?" 

Everything about following some kid he barely knew to his house set off extremely loud danger signals in Yusaku’s head. He tried to remind himself he was older now, definitely older than Yuma was, and was more able to take care of himself. 

"It'll be a lot easier for us in the morning," Yuma offered when Yusaku gave no response.

“...I get bad nightmares. I wake up screaming.” 

"That's okay.” Yuma did not waver in his determination to help. 

“Fine." Yusaku definitely had no friends around here, so he didn't have much of a better choice.

"Awesome, it’ll be a sleepover! I can't wait!”

Yuma pulled Yusaku into a surprisingly strong hug for someone shorter than him. Yusaku froze, felt every muscle in his body freeze up. This was about the most uncomfortable thing that could’ve happened.

Once Yuma realized, he released Yusaku and apologized, but his spirits did not seem dampened at all.

"So,Yusaku, do you go to the same school as me?"

(“Yuma, if he's never heard of this city, I highly doubt he goes to school here.”)

“Astral, I didn't ask you."

[iamtheempress]

A Vegeta x OC Fanfiction (part 5) ¤ ¤ ¤

With this holo map lain out in front of them it was time to plan a first attack. A city not 70 miles away was perfect. 

"You remember what i told you right?" Vegeta asks first, exiting the ship, and moving hair from his face. "Yes Vegeta. When does the moon rise?" He beeps the scouter on his face and looks to the ominous twilight sky. "About 3 hours. I wouldn’t suggest you look to the moon seeing as though you haven't changed into a Great Ape yet.. hideous being but it does its job and it does it well." He comments closing up the holo map and strides right past her

 “Cant wait to actually see it!” Vegeta chuckles “That’s depending on the  and crosses his arms over his chest looking at the slightly shorter Saiyan with an uncurled tail. Excited. Ready for action. Her blood was already pumping!

"We go there. Clear the area. Scout for food or signs of lifeforms and return back. This planet is enormous so i don't see this being a problem for you. As long as you follow my orders." His tone of voice really started to grate her nerves… “Lighten up Vegeta! Were going to be fine! I promise ill listen to you.” She punched his shoulder making him look back at her with an almost annoyed look on his face. It really made her feel a little wary, then she did beforehand.. if that were even feasibly possible..

 "Do you plan on turning into your Great Ape form yet?" He rolled his eyes and squinted a bit, deep in thought, taking in some fresh air before doing anything yet. “You'll see.” He watched her tail winding around her tight waist as she adjusted the suit to fit her more comfortably.  Vegeta scoffed. "Can't believe they made you wear that here…" he grumbled beneath his breath tightening his fist as he blasted from the entryway of the ship. Calamatta followed close behind after closing up shop.

It was now that she noticed the way the sun shone through the atmosphere made it perpetually twilight, it was beautiful and picturesque scenery of a brand new landscape giving way to rolling hills and mountains that looked untouched by anything even closely resembling a bipedal intelligent lifeform. A herd of animals ran beneath them as they made their way to this dystopian cityscape, shrouded in fog and lit up in a bright light.

SHe wondered to herself if this is the type of scenery they would see before terraforming a planet, it was romantic even in a sick and twisted sort of way.

The city came into focus and the time was nigh. To lay waste and do a job. Lives, alive or dead….or otherwise meant nothing. Vegeta landed in a city center. Void of life and anything at all. Overturned vehicles and blown out buildings stretched the alien metropolis. Vegeta turned to Calamatta and nodded.

 "Do the honors, Calamatta.. if we get no action soon ill fall asleep standing up." He told her as he crossed his arms and stood close to her.

The small Saiyan smirked and flicked her wrist pointing up at the sky blowing out the city surrounding them in a hellscape beyond measure. This eruption caused the city to crumble into cinders beneath their feet. Flattening it to molten slag… the hiss of the hot ash settling on the ground earned her a slow clap from Vegeta. "Well done." 

"Learned from the best." She bumped him with her hip, playfully. 

All playfulness flew out the window when she locked eyes with the prince staring out at his scouter, beeping rapidly. 

She looked in that direction and saw 6 lanky arms protruding out of the ground and pulling out a large bipedal creature.. mold colored and large eyes staring back at them opened its maw and croaked like a frog. "Oh hell…" Vegeta cursed and shot up into the air out of reach as it lunged like a spider  to Calamatta earning a loud shriek from the saiyan and a panicked ki beam to the face blowing it to meaty chunky smithereens.  Laying the field with snapped bones and limbs. 

"What the hell was that???" She screamed up at Vegeta pointing at what's left of that thing. "Get the hell off the ground and up here before more come! They croak as a way to communicate!" She gasped and started to fly off the ground. Only to be grabbed by skeletal arms beneath her. Gripping her ankle and leg pulling her hard to the ground beneath, Vegetas look of blind shock was brief but he managed to slice these skeletal hands away as quickly as they clamped onto her meaty thigh. The 7 finger like appendages wrapped fully around her ankle and thigh causing a bruise to take its place. "This is worse then i imagined.. we cant remain on the ground! Stay up here woman i dont need you dying already!" He shouted and two more of those things came from behind a scalded rock, Burnt and mangled but still charging for them.

They ascended further and watched them leap aggressively for their legs. The two Saiyans look at eachother and blast these mindless monsters to smithereens. Their entire bodies turning to ash and flying away in the wind. “Those… are the inhabitants?” “What's left of them.. They’re zombified. Its that virus that took them over and reanimated them.” Vegeta warns turning to the perplexed female saiyan, she simply gulped and met the princes eyes.

 “We wont be reaching any form of diplomacy.. Were only going to have to take them out the old fashioned way…” He growls and cracks his knuckles, his scouter beeps and a small smirk spreads on his face.

 “The moon is almost up and I'm becoming already impatient.” He turns directly to her and places a hand on his hip, puffing his chest up. “We need to speed up this extinction event abit. Don't get in my way and watch your prince in action..” With that he blasts in a direction opposite her, she whips around and shouts after him “Hey!” She charges in the direction of the prince, keeping distance and just all over confused, miles upon miles later Vegeta comes to an incredibly large city. A grin growing on his face when he lands upon the highest building, “Calamatta!” He calls out to her though the scouters mic, she looks to the prince silhouetted against the rising moon and questions out of complete confusion and frustration. 

“Vegeta what the hell are you upto! Didnt you just give me the third degree about 3 hours ago about doing anything drastic..?” She nags in his com, only earning a bark of laughter. 

“Silly woman! You are not yet skilled enough to control your Great Ape form! It would be absolutely idiodic of you to do that! So do yourself a favor and relax and watch the best of your race in action.” He barked harshly at her, his words started to sting more and more and goddamn did she hate it. She crossed her arms and kept her distance as Vegeta turned his entire head to the sky and drank in the power of the full moon beaming down upon him. Igniting the great Oozaru that dwells inside of him like a match in a house full of open gas tanks.

He cranes his head back and roars loudly his entire body morphing from his original height into a massive ape. Calamatta was impressed.. terrified even, by the sheer magnitude of an untamable beast.

Upon hearing his roar of the Saiyan Prince made Great Ape came a cacophony of croaks rapidly approaching and thunderously loud approaching of feet, scuttling rapidly. The Ape turned his head and looked upon the small Saiyan pointing a thumb to himself. “Observe, Woman.” Vegeta boasted and turned back to the city scape back handing the sky scraper over, crushing smaller buildings beneath his boot. Devastating crush for smash the buildings came down and these creatures were being crushed like bugs. Scaling his boots only sealed their fates when he would kick buildings. His maw would open and a beam of chi would explode forth devastating everything within its path. He looked like he was having the time of his life. Leveling city block for sky scraper with a thwip of his tail. 

Everything seemed so simple. Like these creatures only needed the touch of some Saiyans to get the job done. With this thought came that cocky demeanor yet again. Calamatta lowered herself to the roof top of a lower building and marveled at the Saiyan princes destructive wake. His roar enraptured her and made her feel alive… Something small within her that made her start to see what being a Saiyan meant. She hoped she could be exactly like him. Maybe stronger. She considered herself just as strong but didnt fully grasp the sheer magnitude of power she has within her little Saiyan body.

Unbeknownst to her and Vegeta she was being crept upon by an even larger zombie, a loud croak spooked her from her  seated position and she was grasped tightly by this creature around her waist. A shout comes from her throat as she fires a beam of ki into his face only angering it as it smashes her against the side of a building, gaining Vegeta’s attention. He snarls and took one solid leap into the air to come down hard onto its back arms and dead legs. 

“Goddammit you cant stay out of trouble cant you?” He snarls at her as he snaps the arm holding onto her like a pencil in his hands. With his free hand he grabs the croaking monster by the face and crushes it hard in his grip, holding the caged saiyan in his other hand. Giving her full attention with a disappointed face. “C-Can you get me out.” She asked him struggling to pull the fingers from her torso and leg. “Youll only cause more trouble if i do so i will keep you like this till we return back to base.” His booming voice reverberated sounding more and more condescending by the second. 

Calamatta pouted and retorted “This isnt remotely fair!” Vegeta snapped, tired of being back talked. “Its not fair i have to watch over you like an unruly infant so remain still in my hand or ill leave you to die and I will do this goddamned planet on my own!” His teeth bare and foam spills forth from his teeth. The prince is fuming, if his bright red eyes had blood vessels they would have been long burst now. 

Calamatta had heard enough. That one sentence struck a chord in her. It stabbed her right to the core. Vegeta just stared at her merciless in his words. He meant that. She knew it. Theres no question.. She took a breath and nodded, only to earn a single growl and a flash of his canines, as he turned back to the city to continue his onslaught. 

Over 3 hours and the city was leveled entirely. Vegeta had been quiet as well as Calamatta. Her eyes remained fixed upon Vegeta as he finishes his onslaught. 

Not a croak for miles. Not a peep from Calamatta’s pretty lips. “Hear that Calamatta…” 

He says flatly in his godlike deep voice. She listens to the wind and raises a brow confused “No i dont hear any-” “Exactly… Silence. Sweet silence… Now i would like to hear it the entire trip back… and ill release you.” “B-But Vegeta!” “Not a word from you.. This is your punishment for being caught, woman.” She goes quiet and slumps into his hand. “Fine…” Her voice cracks and keeps her head turned away from him Quiet. Solemn. Forfeit…

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