#sasha and her being a ships cat :( man

[harriertail]

the things you escaped

[puppsworld]

Like 5 people said yes to mcd rewrite, so I think I'll go through the characters I've got drawn on my pc, starting with Laurence!! W/ some lore ofc. (lore beneath the cut)

In my rewrite Laurence meets Aphmau (renamed Phoebe/Penelope [which i will be using for the rest of the post]) kind of similarly to how he meets her in the original story BUT the whole crazy cat lady thing and the chicken shaman are cut - Cadenza is still missing though, and it seems like everyone's super upset about it EXCEPT for Kenmur (who was pretty known from moving on from Sasha's death so quickly to get with Cadenza), so Laurence asks for Penelope to help look for his sister in return for a ride to Scaleswind on his wyvern.

They go search the woods and find Cadenza and her "kidnapper", Sasha - Who had faked her kidnapping to prove to Cadenza that Kenmur *sucks* and doesn't care about her. (A girls helping girls moment, as my friend had called it). Originally Sasha had been sent to keep an eye on Penelope by Gene (who's shockingly worse actually), but after being away from Gene's influence for a long period of time she decides to jump ship in regards to her allegiance to Gene.

Unfortunately, when Penelope returns on her way back to Phoenix Drop, Gene had kidnapped Sasha to brainwash her back into wanting to be his right hand man - leaving Penelope and Laurence to go into the Nether to save her (Which ends up about the same with Laurence becoming a shadowknight).

Some time after Donna and Logan's wedding, Laurence's wyvern saves him from the Nether (and DOESN'T die from crossing the realm barrier... because that was so unesscessary.)

It goes about the same from there on except that Laurence's vision never really improves and he's left legally blind. He still ends up being one of Penelope's guards, and maybe sorta kinda romancing Garroth (they both think they're GREAT at gay chicken).

Bonus Laurence from his first appearance.

[vdragon-creations]

Meet Fortnite Sasha!

She's here!

Now, before we get started, i wanna make this very clear. I don't know the slightest thing about Fortnite Lore or Gameplay wise. and i don't care! This is just an excuse for me to draw Sasha with Fortnite Donnie and nothing else! (Tho it is fun to try and put another spin on my cheeb again.)

But without further delay, allow me to introduce...

Fortnite Sasha!

Design:

Like the Fortnite Turtles, this Sasha is a mix of some of the other versions! (I believe they where modeled after 2003, Bayverse, and 2007. With maybe a dash of 87 in there given the belt buckles with the letters on them. So i pulled from 2003, 2007, Bayverse and 87 myself)

Abilities:

This version of Sasha comes from a race of cat aliens who use a mixture of Technology and Magic. So this Sasha has access to mystical powers as well as being incredibly skilled with machines. And while she's not a Soldier, she's still pretty skilled in combat, thanks to her training as a Hunter! She also has a Multi Weapon Tool that has 5 settings! Dagger, Sword, Whip, Spear, and Bow!

Most of her mystical abilities are pretty tame, as a Hunter, she's no Master Spellcaster. She can levitate small objects, heal minor injuries, and teleaport over short distances. She can also spawn mystical arrows for her Bow and create small smoke bombs that can cause a target to see things. Her weapons and armor also have mystical properties to them, her mask in particular allows her to see body heat and can even help her track targets and aim more efficiently with her Bow!

Occupation:

Sasha is a Hunter, and it's exactly what it sounds like. Hunters are sent to live their lives out in the wilderness away from civilization. They provide the food thier people feed off of to survive and are highly trained in the art of The Hunt. Each lady is chosen for very specific reasons, Sasha in particular was chosen as she was a subspecies known for thier speed and ability to adapt to different climates easily. It's a very important job, but very hard and restrictive with how one gets to live thier life.

It's a ladies only position, and they are forbidden from Marriage or Starting Families. (Can't quite hunt while pregnant after all.) However, they are still allowed to have romantic relationships, so long as it's with other hunters. Meaning most hunters, Sasha included, are more often then not, Bi, Pan, or Lesbian.

Story:

Sasha was born a very small but far away planet inhabited by a race of cat aliens. This race was known for having the unique abilities to use mystical powers as well as access to powerful technology. Because of this reputation, her people were currently at war with a similar race of reptilian aliens who wanted to force them to give up thier secrets.

This conflict never really bothered Sasha much, spending her days hunting for pray among the brush of the desert plains or the treetops of the lush jungles she called home. That was untill, she and her fellow hunters were attacked by a squad of these Reptiles.

In an attempt to escape, she and her other hunter friends loaded into some emergency pods that would shoot them straight to the nearest city for help. But...she never made it to the city.

Her pod was attacked by an enemy ship and sent far far of course. Knocking her pod out into open space, and straight into a collision course with another planet. Earth to be precise.

Apon landing, Sasha was knocked unconscious thanks to the impact. When she finally came to, she found herself being pulled out of her pod by a tall reptile man. He was fairly built for one who seemed not much older then she was. He was a terrapin wearing a purple mask, and he wasn't alone. Three more just like him seemed to be standing by, looking at her with concern by wery expressions.

Thinking they were part of the squad that attacked her people, she quickly kicked out of the grasp of the purple cladded terrapin and assumed the position to defend herself. She quickly realized her Lingua (an implanted device her people give at birth that translates all languages) had been damaged during the crash. She couldn't understand them and it was clear they couldn't understand her either.

It took some time, but after a bit of persuasion, she calmed down. They weren't going to hurt her, at least not now. And they didn't exactly seem like the same Reptiles she was familiar with. They seemed almost....nice. The one that saved her offered it seemed to make a device for her to wear that would translate for her, at least till her Lingua could be fixed. He showed her kindness and seemed to really be intrigued by her people's technology. He also seemed to take and intrest in her too, and...Sasha could help but think the same. He was pretty cute, in a turtlely way.

[needlepine]

#14 for the ask game, please and thank you.

14. Top 3 underrated ships/characters

I’m not huge on shipping so I’ll just focus on individual characters!

My first pick is Goldenflower. While we got Sasha’s perspective on her relationship with Tigerstar, we never get to see Goldenflower’s. She was his mate and she grew up with him. There is SO MUCH POTENTIAL for AUs and headcanons surrounding Goldenflower (personally, I’m squarely in the Brambleflower camp). That being said. I do not want a canon novella, I am sick of first arc retcons 😪

Speaking of Sasha, I also like her a lot! I started drawing cats off of her manga back when I was like 10, and I’ve always had a soft spot for her. I think the reasoning they gave her for ditching her kits in the manga is really dumb and overall I just feel like she was wasted potential. She coulda joined ShadowClan with Russetfur or joined RiverClan with Feathertaillllll both are great. I just wish we coulda seen her reaction to Hawkfrost’s whole deal

My last pick is actually two cats: Stick and Red from SkyClan’s Destiny. I think SkyClan’s Destiny as a whole gets overlooked. Ik it’s probably bc it’s so removed from the main series goings-on, but I like the change of pace that comes with anything gorge-era SkyClan. Stick is a terrible man and I will admit I am only drawn to these two bc I saw an animatic of them to a Repo! song a decade ago and it became a Formative Warriors Memory lmfao

[blimbo-buddy]

Some DarkStripe headcanons and a few MonkeyStar & Sasha ones because i love them all so much: - DarkStripe was bffs with MouseFur and RunningWind up until he left ThunderClan, they were all apprentices together in my head. (I know RedTail's book proved that wrong but fuck canon idc) - On top of that, I think him and RunningWind being bitter exes is also funny as fuck. - Super patchy fur from stress grooming. - Big fan of plants and crafting, I think he'd really love to craft little necklaces and bracelets out of pretty flowers and whatever else. - So gay, so transmasc. - Sasha so definitely went back to live on that ship when she left RiverClan. - That kitten she saved was also definitely her adoptive son, I won't take criticism on this. He reminds her a lot of Tadpole. - World's most transhet cat. - Speaking of, I think MonkeyStar would be great friends with ancient old woman Sasha and her adoptive son. - I think this is a pretty common one to have but MonkeyStar being Princess's granddaughter makes me really happy. - she is also so t4t lesbians with BugEater. Sorry for the super long ask, I have so many thoughts about these guys. <3

Don't be sorry for the long ask I don't mind it at all! I really love the idea of DarkStripe and RunningWind having some kind of friendship in the past even if -like you said- canon disproved the idea of them all being apprentices together. Also them being bitter exes is funny as fuck you're right and the patchy fur from stress grooming is so good too, I always imagined DarkStripe as being stressed out 24/7 so this one gets extra bonus points from me. ALSO YES YEAH YEAH DARKSTRIPE GARDENING AND CRAFTING STUFF IS SO GOOD, he's the one cat you wouldn't expect to do that sorta stuff but HE DOES AND HE'S GREAT AT IT! Loving all of these headcanons where Sasha goes back to live on the ship. Also holy shit you have a point with Patch reminding Sasha of Tadpole, wait a minute wait a minute. AND the fact that Sasha saved Patch from drowning (Well, technically it was the captain but she alerted him) but couldn't save Tadpole from drowning later down the line? GODDAMN! I'm always a sucker for any kind of headcanon where MonkeyStar is friends with an older age/arc cat (Smudge, Princess, Sasha, etc.) it's so sweet to me. YES DUDE FUCK YEAH MAN T4T BUGMONKEY!

[screenviolense]

all my ship tags as of now (romantic and otherwise) they are not alphabetized

✦ ZATANNA & JOHN        *    no grave can hold my body down; i’ll come home to her

✦ MILLIE & ROSAL        *    she lit a fire and now she’s in my every thought

✦ KINSEY & FLOYD        *    you left a note in your perfect script: stay as long as you want. and i haven't left your bed since

✦ LIZA & JASON        *    i hope you die. i hope we both die

✦ SASHA & TIM        *    as if i am alive only because i remember you

✦ ANAIS & MAHANON        *    you and i are not the polite people who live in poems

✦ JEAN & DILUC        *    is this the place we used to love? is this the place that i've been dreaming of?

✦ JEAN & KAEYA        *    meet me at our spot. they can't find us there

✦ ARRI & CULLEN        *    you put your hand in mine and pulled me back from things divine

✦ ANYA & ANDI        *    i walked with you once upon a dream

✦ CAROLINE & RICK        *    we’re gonna die and maybe it’s gonna be alone

✦ IMELDA & HECTOR        *    i remember that feeling. when my husband would play and i would sing and nothing else mattered

✦ SOPHIE & HOWL        *    i know how to help you now. find me in the future

✦ BECKETT & CASTLE        *    stop and stare: i think i'm moving but i go nowhere

✦ ELENA & NATHAN        *    we were strangers starting out on a journey

✦ ROBIN & CHROM        *    you are the wind at my back and the sword at my side

✦ ROSEMARY & JACK        *    and at least in this lifetime we're sticking together

✦ CAMILA & JOSE        *    i'd suffer hell if you'd tell me what you'd do to me tonight

✦ REBECCA & JEROME        *    for if i am not their shepherd then i must be the wolf

✦ SARAH & DEACON        *    but i’ll walk beside you love. anywhere the wind blows

✦ JULIET & SHAWN        *    since i met you i've been thinking about getting a car

✦ CAT & VINCENT        *    do you know what loneliness does to a man?

✦ ROSE & MELISSA        *    can i dream for a few months more?

✦ PENNY & ALEX        *    woke up in a safe house singing let’s get married

✦ PENNY & HALEY        *    go ahead let your hair down

✦ JULIET & LASSIE        *    i’ll be going to get my partner now

✦ CINDY & ZIGGY        *    i won’t let anything pull us apart again

✦ ALBERT & AMELIA        *    me and mrs. jones we got a thing going on

✦ RUTHERFORD FAMILY        *    to be cut off from one’s family is its own very special sort of loneliness

✦ MORTIE & KEATS        *    you don't hear me saying anything crazy about their weird little relationship!

✦ BARBARA & DICK        *    does it ever drive you crazy just how fast the night changes?

✦ GUSTAV & JACQUELYN        *    i’m sorry i had nothing to say that night

✦ BENEDICT & SOPHIE        *    in her heart she longed for this man; dreamed of a life that could never be

✦ KATE & ANTHONY        *    you are the bane of my existence and the object of all my desires

✦ TAYLOR & LESLIE        *    i knew you were the one

✦ DANI & JAMIE        *    you said it was a ghost story. it isn’t. it’s a love story

✦ CASSIE & NATHAN        *    treasure hunting runs in the family

✦ JOYCE & HOPPER        *    watchin' in slow motion as you turn my way and say take my breath away

✦ LAURA & MAX        *    can we go home now?

✦ LAURA & TRAVIS        *    you think this is over? this isn’t over

✦ KINSEY & AARON        *    everything's growing in our garden. you don't have to know that it's haunted

✦ MILLIE & JOHN        *    our whole lives have been wasted just staring across the church

✦ BILLY & TRAVIS        *    i dream most every night that i never left you

✦ VERONICA & TRAVIS        *    but i never lost this feeling or this pounding in my chest

✦ SNOW & BIGBY        *    you are the moon that breaks the night for which i have to howl

✦ LEIA & HAN        *    captain; being held by you isn’t quite enough to get me excited

✦ GARCIA & LUKE        *    maybe there was a slight chink in your fluffy armor

✦ LEIA & FLOYD        *    i read the graffiti in the bathroom stall

✦ KINSEY & LUKE        *    damn i wish i was your lover

✦ KINSEY & DC        *    i never did believe in miracles but i've a feeling it's time to try

✦ NANA & HAURCHEFANT        *    i would rather break the world than lose you

✦ AUSTIN & SPENCER        *    i never did believe in the ways of magic but i'm beginning to wonder why

✦ LOIS & CLARK        *    here i am like a kid out of school. holding hands with a god

[whatsurfavbook-yes]

Amphibia & Owl House Swap AU

After Marcy's parents tell her that she's moving away, Marcy suggests they get the portal door from a thrift shop for Anne's birthday. Anne, Sasha, and Marcy open the door and get transported to the Boiling Isles. Anne wakes up in Bonesbourough, meeting a human avacado enthusist, Hopediah "Hop Pop the Frog Man" Plantar, and his Hexside student grandkids, Polly (construction track) and Sprig (bard track), along with Bessie, the queen of demons (actually the titan). Anne enrolls in Hexside, meeting Ivy (maybe the beastkeeping and/or illusion track) and Maddie (potions track), forming a close friendship between the five. Anne learns glyph magic and earns a black-and-white cat palisman, while going on adventures with her new friends/family. Sasha is sent to the Emporer's castle, where she becomes a high ranking coven scout. She looks up to Grimothy, the head of the emporor's coven (and secret childhood best friend to Hop Pop). Sasha and Anne reunite when the coven scouts take Hop Pop captive for petrification. When Anne and the Plantars escape, Sasha and Grime are exiled for failing the mission. Marcy also lands in the castle (but somehow doesn't know Sasha is there too) and gets on Emporer Andrias's good side, and becomes a Golden Guard, not realizing how wrong Andrias and his day of unity and covens and whatnot are. Anne and Marcy reunite when Marcy goes undercover at Hexside. Marcy tells Anne about her adventures in a way that doesn't let Anne know she's the Golden Guard (maybe lying, maybe unintentional). They quickly become friends again. They go to the coven convention together and run into Sasha and Grime (who were looking to join a coven after being kicked out of the emporer's). Anne is hesitant, but Marcy and Sasha hit it off. Eventually, Anne trusts Sasha again. Marcy finally reveals to the girls that she is the Golden Guard, and convinces Anne and Sasha to come back to the castle with her because they have the portal. Once they arrive, Andrias recognizes Anne and Sasha and is infuriated at Marcy for allowing them into the castle. As Marcy is helping Anne into the portal, she is impaled by Andrias using an ice glyph, and Anne and the Plantars are shipped off back to the human realm and live with the Boonchuy family. Sasha and Grime go to Hexside and are supported by Maddie, Ivy, and other Hexside students and teachers (Ms. Croaker, Wallie, Toadstool, Toadie, Stumpy, etc), creating the resistance against the Emporer. When Plantars eventually return to Demon Realm, the Day of Unity is happening. They join forces with Sasha and the resistance to try to stop the draining spell. Meanwhile, Yunaan and Olivia (coven heads) attempted to rescue Marcy, who became possessed by the Core, (becoming Darcy), child of the stars. Anne faces off against Andrias as he uses the portal to return to the human realm while Sasha battles Darcy. Once Andrias and Darcy are "defeated" the trio and army return to Bonesbourough, until noticing that the Titan's head is rapidly expanding, soon to consume all of Bonesbourogh. Using magic or something (haven't decided yet) they defeat the Core (who was why the skull was growing), Anne sacrifices herself but comes back, tearful goodbye, humans go home, timeskip, statues, everything is like og amphibia.

Luz is at the bookstore, looking for another copy of The Good Witch Azura (Camilla threw out old one) when she finds a book about the Calamity Box. Later that day, Luz sees a strange frog hopping towards an old shack. Following it, she sees the frog open up the music box and is sucked into Wartwood, Amphibia. She meets Edalyn "Eda", King, and Croaky (instead of Hooty) Clawthorne. Eda runs a market selling trinkets found around the swamp. King discovers Luz in the woods and takes her home. In Wartwood, Luz meets Willow and Gus, becoming very good friends. Mayor Bump, initially corrupt and money loving, starts to show a soft side. Over at Toad Tower, Captain Lilith Clawthorne and Lieutenant Amity Blight prepare to capture Eda for treasonous messages. Luz and Amity face off, but as Amity is starting to fall off the tower, Luz's kindness shines through and tries to save the mean toad. The Clawthornes and Luz journey to Newtopia, where they run into a grumpy ranger named Hunter, who eventually is won over by Luz's persistent friendliness. Hunter introduces the Clawthornes to King Belos, who acts nice and offers to help Luz research a way to get back home using the music box. As Hunter, Luz, Willow, Gus, and the Clawthornes search to find the temples, they run into Lilith and Amity, homeless after the destruction of toad tower, who realize how bad they have been and become better people. (Amity and Luz don't get together romantically, because Amity is a toad and Luz is a human and that seems weird to me (idk why, since even in TOH they are also different species.)) The group recharges the gems, with Luz receiving the power of the empathy stone, Hunter the intellect powers, and Amity the strength powers, and return to Newtopia. Belos is revealed to want to use the box to invade Earth. Hunter attempts to stop Belos, who reveals Hunter's Grimhopper origins. Luz and friends aren't faring well in the battle until King accidentally unleashes the Collector, a collection of Amphibia's greatest minds, and apparently a holder of a huge grudge against Belos. The Collector destroys Belos and wants to play with King, who uses his ultimate slingshot to throw Luz, Eda, Amity, Hunter, Willow, and Gus through the box's portal and back to Earth. The portal disappears, leaving King stuck with the Collector. (I will probably write more once season three of TOH comes out!) If you liked this, keep an eye out for some drawings that I'm making to go along with this AU! I'll post them here and on my Instagram account, tylers._drawings

If you didn't like this, why are you still reading, and judging me? This is my first ever fanfic and I put a lot of thought into it!

[youngster-monster]

An act of love and mercy

In the wake of Sasha’s death, Sam finds himself at a loss for what to do. Grief, he finds, makes him restless. Or rather the avoidance of grief. For himself to be busy enough not to be sad, he needs something to be busy with. And there’s not much that a newly ghostless Guardian can do around here. He doesn’t have that many marketable skills, after all. Especially since he still hasn’t gotten used to his new lack of depth perception, which skews his aim something fierce.

He ends up calling in every favor owed to him by fellow Hunters until one of them can present him with a bounty fit for his new limited abilities. He has no qualms about leveraging the death of his ghost to get it for himself.

She meant for it to be a relaxing, low-stakes job in-between bigger expeditions. That means it’s a little too dangerous for a guy with only one working eye. Fortunately Sam is used to fighting without Light by virtue of spending most of his active duty career in the farthest, darkest corner of the system. He’s never run a mission with no light or backup before, but he makes up for the difference with a little bit of a death wish.

The mission is simple at least. A Fallen ketch crashed near the Cosmodrome for unknown reasons, and he’s supposed to go investigate and get rid of any hostiles.

Easy enough.

He must have jinxed it though, because the first thing he finds when he shimmies in through an exhaust vent and into the ship proper is a Fallen corpse, half-buried in the disgusting organic growth tell-tale of the Hive.

And where there’s Hive, there’s usually troubles.

You should call for back-up, the ghost (hah) of Sasha’s voice whispers in his mind.

He’s heard these exact words in her voice thousands of times before, and has never listened to them. Why would he start now?

-

The advantage of a bow is that it’s quiet enough that even when you’re trying to remain undetected you can afford to miss. Since his shots tend to only hit their mark one time out of five nowadays, Sam is thankful for that much.

In the close quarters of the ketch he ends up using his arrows as melee weapons more than projectiles anyway.

He’s only found a handful of thralls so far, which he dispatched quietly, although he can hear the distant roar of a more substantial force deeper in the bowels of the ship. They’re far outnumbered by the bodies. Everywhere he looks he finds the chitinous plates of Fallen, what little isn’t buried under Hive growth covered in their blood. Few of them wear armor, he notices.

He’s starting to get the disquieting feeling that this might have been a civilian ship.

But what would it do near Earth of all places? He has yet to find a House banner; impossible to tell if they were fleeing something or lost the trail of their fleet.

He checks every room, hoping to find an answer. Records of their last communications, perhaps, or of their trajectory. If Hive is infesting Fallen ships — if Fallen are bringing their civilians near the City — then surely the Vanguard needs to know.

What he finds instead is a nursery.

The place is… A nightmare. There was an attempt to retreat here, he assumes from the numerous bodies piled in the same place, some so small he feels bile rise to his throat. He has no love for the Fallen, certainly not now. But children are children no matter how many eyes they possess. Any man with a heart would be upset by such a sight.

His fingers twitch around his bow as a high-pitched chitter breaks the deathly hush of the room. Nothing moves. He’d think he has imagined it if his senses weren’t so well attuned to danger; he’d think it came from some distant threat, echoing through the walls, if it wasn’t followed by the slightest shift in the shadows as four small lights blink in unison.

Staying low to the ground, feet light against the metal flooring, Sam sneaks towards the source of the faint glow. Again that chattering noise. Like cicadas in the summer, only… diminutive, somehow. One single cicada.

Or, it turns out, one single Fallen, buried beneath its dead brethrens.

Sam freezes at the unexpected sight. It’s… Small. The size of a large cat, maybe, though it’s hard to tell when it’s curled on itself like a pillbug.

A hatchling. It stares up at him, then opens its mouth filled with rows of needle-sharp teeth, and lets out the same clicking sound. He gives the surroundings a brief once-over, expecting more to come crawling out, but nothing echoes its call. It’s all alone, saved from the slaughter of its kin by a miracle or the body of its caregiver collapsed over its small body. Easily overlooked if not for the sound it persists in making.

The first thought that comes to his head is, it must be hungry. It’s only logical. Children cry when they’re hungry; why wouldn’t a Fallen hatchling do the same. Quickly following in its steps comes the much more disquieting, it doesn’t know it’s going to die.

The idea chills him. He’s not sure why it bothers him so much — he’s certainly killed his fair share of Fallen — only that it does.

Probably because it’s so small. Vulnerable, with a soft, translucent shell that’s nothing like the hard exoskeleton of the older specimens and about as likely to protect it as a paper umbrella. It doesn’t look old enough to walk. Not that he knows at what age the Fallen learn to move about on their own. But it looks reasonably toddler-like that he’s willing to make a few assumptions.

(Not that he knows what age a toddler starts actually walking, either.)

He lifts a hand to his quiver and finds it shaking. It can’t leave the ship on its own; even if it managed that feat, how would it feed itself? What does a Fallen even eat, at that age? It would be merciful to put an end to its life before it can starve to death, or be found by the Hive. Really, he’s being pragmatic.

The shaking doesn’t abate.

(Sam Fletcher sneaks out of the ship with the hatchling bundled up in the torn fabric of one of its dead brethrens, held tightly against his chest with one hand even as it makes climbing out the way he came more bothersome. Let someone else clean the place; a true Guardian, maybe.

He’s always had too much of a soft heart.)

-

Sam hesitates on his way to the City, and ends up making a detour through the European Dead Zone. His jumpship needs fuel, is his excuse; but the truth is that he’s not sure he could enter the City with a Fallen hatchling and leave it with both of them alive.

He’s already gotten a little attached, although he’ll blame that on the sunk cost fallacy born from the effort it took to get the bug out of the ship undetected. He feeds it bits of jerky while he lands his ship near Devrim Kay’s church. He doesn’t know the man overseeing the region personally, but he has it on good authority that he’s… nice. Nice people don’t shoot babies on sight.

And indeed Devrim does not shoot either of them on sight, although he does stare for a very long time before politely asking, “And what… Do you have here?”

Sam shrugs. The hatchling, clinging to the fur ruff of his cloak, shifts with the movement. He summarizes in a few words the events that led to him finding a baby Fallen and keeping it; Devrim is nice enough to keep any comment he might have to himself. And when Sam says that he has no idea what to do with it, he says,

“The Awoken of the Reef have opened their ports to Guardians. Maybe you could find one willing to ferry the little one along to one of the… less hostile houses.”

It’s a decent idea. Perhaps even a good one. Sam considers it for a little while. Of course that would require finding a Guardian who can be trusted with the life of a newborn, but that can be arranged. He knows people. Mostly Hunters, so no one he would trust with the life of a human child, let alone an alien one, but he’ll manage.

“Why did they open their borders?” He asks, because it’s been a while since he’s been aware of any Guardian business.

Devrim scratches his beard. “There’s been talks of a Fallen uprising,” he says wryly.

Ah.

That does complicate things a bit.

-

While trying to find a way to get the hatchling back to its people, Sam tries to find it a nickname. It’s a little awkward calling it ‘the hatchling’ all the time, is all. He’s not getting attached.

(Devrim stares evenly at him and wisely doesn’t say anything to that.)

But getting rid of it seems less likely by the day as the Wolves rebel against their Awoken sovereign. What Fallen would agree to meet with a human peacefully, let alone take in a child that does not belong to them? Perhaps one of those living on the Shattered Coast, but the place is a den of smugglers and Sam knows what happens to small, vulnerable individuals there.

(He’s dealt with the Spider once. Never again.)

It chitters quietly in his ears from its perch in his fur collar.

“Sounds a bit like a cicada, doesn’t it?” He says idly. He’s perched next to Devrim, helping keep an eye on the surrounding area even though he’s mostly looking at the baby Fallen.

The other man offers no commentary beyond the slightly amused tone of his wordless hum. Sam reaches back and plucks the Fallen from his shoulder, holding it in front of his face and examining it closely.

“Yeah. Cicada,” he says resolutely. “That fits.”

-

By the time the situation in the Reef has calmed down somewhat, Cicada has gotten downright clingy, and the House of Wolves — the only House friendly enough to meet with — has all but disappeared.

Sam stares at his small charge and thinks that this might be a more long-term commitment than he previously assumed.

He’s been running around helping Devrim, but that’s becoming more difficult as Cicada grows and becomes impossible to hide in his cloak anymore. He’s alright with bringing his own mortal ass to a gunfight; a child, not so much.

“There’s a farm not far from here,” Devrim says, “They could probably find you something to do in exchange for room and board.”

“Oh, I’m sure. The Fallen stowaway might be a dealbreaker though.”

“I’ll send them a word. Suraya isn’t the biggest fan of Guardians, but for a kid I’m sure she can make an exception.”

Sam doesn’t ask how Devrim came to know someone who’d like a Fallen better than a Guardian. He’s just glad for the offer. He can live rough and risk his life all he wants, but the kid hasn’t asked to be brought along. He can’t do that to it.

-

Sometimes, kinderguardians will stumble to the Farm, lost and confused despite the guidance of their Ghost.

Against Hawthorne’s complaints — those are mostly for show anyway — Sam insists on feeding them before sending them on their way to the City. Most of them have never gotten a real meal in their life before ending up here, and he’s already cooking for two anyway. Why not more?

And if they don’t look too weirdly at the small Fallen clinging to his shoulders or trailing after him, running on all six limbs to keep up with his stride, he might even give them a few pointers. They’re hopeless, all of them, and he might no longer be the sharpshooter he used to be, but he’s still a veteran. If it keeps them from getting themselves killed stupidly, he’ll take it.

Sometimes they come back. For more help, or just to say thank you. He appreciates it, even if it’s weird as hell to have people thank him for so little.

One of them comes back with ether as a gift. He stares at the little canisters, dumbstruck. He figured Cicada would need some of the substance, since Fallen seem to depend on it, and getting his hands on it has been a hell and a half. They guard it ferociously and there’s only so much a single, mortal Guardian can do.

“I thought I would help,” the Guardian explains. “Like you helped me, even when I had nothing to offer in return. So when I found these on my last mission, I thought…”

“It’s appreciated.” Then, because it feels rude to only say thanks, “Do you want to stay for dinner?”

-

They keep coming after that — Sam has gotten pretty good at cooking, and he guesses most Guardians don’t learn to do it for themselves. He certainly didn’t.

And because they seem to think there’s an ether fee to pay for the privilege of homemade food, he ends up with quite the stock. He’s not sure how much a growing Fallen needs, so he just… gives Cicada as much as she demands. Which ends up to be a lot.

At least she’ll grow healthy. He hopes.

-

The first time Cicada speaks — the word food warbled through her many teeth and alien mouth — Sam nearly has a heart attack.

The second time, he grabs the nearest Guardian and asks if they could find him an Eliksni language dictionary.

It doesn’t seem right to keep her from her own language. And if he has to learn how to make the weird sound with his own very human mouth, well. He’ll try. Even if it’s really cute when she tries to beg scraps from him with her odd, scratchy voice approximating human syllables.

-

One day — years later, when Sam has gotten a little more grey in his hair and a lot steadier in his one-eyed aim — Cicada, now much bigger, will point at one of the picture hanging over his bed and ask,

“Who’s this?”

And he will look at the picture of him and his Ghost and feel only the soft, blunt ache of an old scarred wound. It’ll be a small surprise to find himself, if not healed, at least over the hurt. And he’ll pick up his kid, even though she’s much too big for him to do that easily nowadays, and say,

“That’s Sasha. She was my family, before I found you...”

[thehopefulsnowflake]

And again here are more theories and opinions about the magnus archives from my brother

The corruption is one of the "four horsemen"

War and conquest are the military ghosts, and the desolation

Famine and pestilence is the buggy bois

Death is the end, duh

The corruption is colonisation basically

Elias is against having a cat, because they are too powerful, he was very serious about this

Centipedes have a masochistic foot fetish, millipedes have a normal one, don't ask

The woman in Dead Woman Walking is just a Zombie

Is the Woman a victim of the Book of Death from MAG 70

Georgie is a ghosty hunty person

Georgie and Melanie don't seem to be afraid of anything

The Italian mountain troops would have known they were being fucked with

More undead

Reminded him sort of the Meat Men

Also reminded him of the buried on the London underground

The mysterious firing squad intrigued him, did all the men that went up the mountain come back to kill him?

Basira is Drax from gotg

She'll randomly appear and no one will know she's there until she speaks

The chuckle brothers origin story, he means Breekon and Hope

Didn't think the circus had anything to do with the stranger

Breekon and Hope are taxidermy

So they're with the stranger

The Stranger is just everything that doesn't fall under something else

The circus was it's own thing

The cult of the lightless flame is it's own thing

The people's Church of the devine host is it's own thing

The circus is just full of people who you don't know, if you do know them that's sad... He was kinda rambling at this point

Is Sarah Baldwin capable of being bored

Why was she working with Melanie?

Do you just take a liking to ghost people

Did you take them over before of after they were eaten.

The Buried is called The London underground

Is it the Fairchild's? Thinks they're about isolation

Thinks it might be a book

The pit could be an Antlion

Thought that the young woman who was eaten by the pit turned into Gertrude

The young man could be, Gerry, Martin, Salesa, young Jon, Elias.

Thinks The stranger is vanilla in terms of gods and monsters.

The stranger is the least interesting.

Thinks all the Stranger wants to do is just summon a god

For some reason he thinks the Dark should be doing more to stop them, because Rayner wouldn't want that to happen

Martin will rap battle the archive to victory, via poetry from Leitners books

The stranger could just be Lego

He's horny for Rayner, his words not mine

Mr. Sandman brought him a dream

Thinks that the Dark at least can get to their gods dimension but choose not to.

If you make everywhere dark does their god appear?

He asked what would happen if two factions tried to summon their god at the same time what would happen

Thinks that all the Avatars /Entities do the same thing.

Breekon and hope have never killed anyone

Maxwell Rayner is a time travelling shadow demon

Mr sandman is like an angry sandy from Rotg

He made this episode unnecessarily kinky

They're just summoning gods

The stranger is remarkably being left alone

Thinks there is no fighting between factions

If anything they're aided

Is the Fairchild's entity already here

Are they working with the other factions

Says he knows whats going to happen because he "knows how these things go"

The Beholding is already on this side and if another God is summoned then it will be booted

Elias killed Gertrude because she was trying to defeat the Beholding and if it was defeated he would turn into the same thing as below the Library in Alexandria

There were three versions of the unknowing that he thought of

Destroying the concept of identity, the unknowing destroys the concept of personality, individuality, and identity. Turning them into Stranger worshipping entities

The angler fish was the thing in the basement at the Taxidermy shop

Stranger just means it couldn't get any stranger

Or it's deliberate parodies of humans

Breekon and Hope were normal people

Salesa, the chuckle brothers, the meat man, the skin walkers, the taxidermist, the manquien, Not-Sasha, the architects, the circus and to some extent the witches are part of the stranger

Magnus is a stranger that took over Elias

He also thinks Elias is just Magnus who found out how to stick around for a while

But Elias isn't the archive god like he first thought

The twisted detergent is Michael's new entity

Michael is like Loki if he didn't have a brother

The stranger is the big bad

Jon is an idiot, he's a bit slow

His second theory for the unknowing is that It's just going to destroy all knowledge revolving the Elder gods, hence the unknowing, the one he thought the least likely

And third, It somehow increases their powers so that the few people that would recognise them, no longer do. Levelling up in short. Thinks it would work for every entity

Doesn't think The Unknowing would be that big of a shift

The circus and the stranger were different because the Circus dealt with the "Freak show"

Thinks Rayner isn't dead

Dust devils

Dirt zombies

Has only made the connection between the Underground, the pit and the dust storm

Was the kid in the car Michael

Was Michael always the Spiral but just really liked working with Gertrude

Michael is the Spiral, he doesn't worship anything

Elias took Gertrude from him, now he's after revenge

Jon should go chill with everyone at the Archive

Jon should have a sword

While you were busy not having a paranoid breakdown I studied the blade

Michael has a crush on Gertrude

He has a granny kink, he is obsessed with making it all kink related

Michael originally gave his powers away to be with Gertrude

Michael took on this form because he could blend in or brag

He's a monster with a thing for Gertrude

Michael wasn't the same Michael as in the tape

Just trying to trick everyone

Lynne Hammond was lying, goes in line with the church of the lightless flame but it didn't happen

Maybe she heard something similar but it didn't actually happen to her, she was just trying to get some money

He actually feels bad for Tim

Tim should run

John Smith was half telling the truth.

People are in the tunnel's but it's not a government conspiracy

Tim doesn't deserve this

You can tell Basira is used to dealing with idiots

Liked that it cut out when Robin Lennox said let me start again, it's like the archive was trying to make it stop

Thinks the archive doesn't care what is being read to it, someone should read it the Lord of the Ringd

The archive is recording the tape recorders not Elias

Get the dog out

Michael was the crying man, he wanted the dog out

He doesn't want to hurt the dog

"Gertrude why did you leave me? I'll get you one day Elias" based on his Michael granny kink theory

Brian Finlinson was the most coherent in terms of links

Thinks that the spiders were actually there, hiding whenever anyone came around

Lynne is lying, John Smith is half telling the truth, Robin Lennox saw Michael having a breakdown, Brian Finlinson was telling the truth

He didn't remember Peter Lukas ever being mentioned before

Already shipping Peter and Elias

Michael is very sensitive

The Fairchild's and the Lukas' are working together

They don't seem to have an interest in the conflict going on between everyone else

The Fairchild's were in aerospace and Lukas was the ships

Still cthulhu

Even space had a cthulhu vibe

The depth of the ocean or the isolation of space

The Lukas and the archive are working together

There are some of these guys that don't want the entities on this side

Likes the power, doesn't want the full on entities here

The Lukas and the Fairchild's are the cthulhus

They're somewhat working with the archive/the beholding

Is Elias actually a Lukas? Decided yes because he and Peter are married

How much do the Lukas have to do with the Beholding

What sort of arrangement do they have?

Nikola was supposed to be part of the circus but there is a difference between the facimalies and the circus

Thinks that the archive burning down would have no downsides for the Beholding.

They'll summon a god and gazing upon it will kill everyone, everyone dies.

As he was now halfway through the series he explained who he thought was in each of these factions

The beholding, Elias, Martin, Tim, basira, daisy, sims, melanie, sasha, Rosie, Gertrude, leitner. Sasha is caught in a time loop...

The stranger, everyone, has no limits, The maniquein, the taxidermy, the circus, skin walkers, grifters bone, breekon and Hope,  angler fish

The desolation, the cult of the lightless flame, Jims pims aka Jude Perry, Agnes,

People's Church of the divine host, Rayner, Rayner have something to do with the German crypt, Rayner Is also not dead

The diggy boys, the buried, Maggie and Gordon from the dump, dig dude from Dig, whatever was going on with the pit, and the dust storm.

Meat, no recurring. The haans that's it.

Buggy boys, spiders, Jane prentiss

Michael, the twisting deceit, the twisting deceit just is Michael, didn't exist before him

The leitners, the witches are using the books, Gérard, Mike crew,

Cthulhu collective, the lukas', the Fairchild's. Both are just isolation, the Fairchild's are all about being alone, the only time the Lukas have turned up are being alone either in space or at sea

The witches, Mary Keay, puzzle witch, have big crossover with the Leitners, they just have some of leitners books

Trevor is his own entity, is he part of the desease and corruption group

The architects, smirke, smirkes apprentice.

Jared is his own thing. Just found a self help book

It's a giant celestial orgy!

Also Came up with a random spinoff comedy again

Slowly the archive collects strange people

Michael, who is mourning Gertrude... Loudly

They found a worm in the tunnel left over from Prentiss

The worm loves gooseberries

That's Elias, we're not sure what he is

Thats the Admiral, it is a cat.... It runs the place

Rayner is sat in the corner giggling

Leitner started a microbrewery in the basement

Serves bud leitner, you can't get leitner than this

[ivyontheholodeck]

Am I gonna make individual asks for every character? Yes. Absolutely. Please Dark Ivy give me the secret opinions on Mick Mercury

How I feel about this character:

You know Kabert are incredible writers because they managed to make the token straight guy my favorite. I freaking ADORE Bartholomew “Mickolas” Mercury. Juno, Mick, and Benten shoplifted a single brain cell together when they were eight and they’ve been passing it around ever since. Juno needs it for the detective work most days, so Mick goes around as the physical embodiment of “no thoughts, head empty” except he’s actually deeply wise and noble?? Plus he’s a renowned author, and he’s won the hearts of Juno Steel and Sasha Wire, two of the biggest badasses in Hyperion City. He’s also won “Sexiest Man on Mars” twice to Juno’s vocal dismay - it’s not that Juno doesn’t know his friend is handsome, it’s just that the idea of Mick being sexy is horrifying. And no, Juno certainly never had a crush on Mick. Shut up. He was ten, he didn’t know any better, and if you breathe a WORD of this, well, he’s friends with this scary assassin lady so just keep that in mind.

All the people I ship romantically with this character:

Nova Zolatovna. Mick meets her at a reception for a prestigious writing award he’s won, though he confesses to Nova that he’s been thinking he might quit the writing business and go into designing alarm clocks that set your house on fire to motivate you to get out of bed. Nova thinks this is the best idea she’s ever heard and offers to be his funding source. 

Juno chokes on his bagel when Rita shoves the headline about the Solar System’s newest power couple under his nose at breakfast.

My non-romantic OTP OT3 for this character: 

Mick, Sasha, and Juno. The triumvirate. Damaged, working on it. Definitely going to be screwed over by the end of this season and I am not even remotely prepared for the emotional fallout.

My unpopular opinion about this character:

He’s the biggest himbo in the Junoverse. Yes, even more so than Jet Siquliak. Jet might be convinced that aliens are real, but Mick Mercury got arrested for trying to remake Cats (2019) and it’s canon and no I’m still not even close to being over that.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

I want him to join the Aurinko Crime Family!! Can you imagine him and Peter deciding that they won’t listen to Buddy’s orders to stay out of the kitchen, how hard can it be to make macaroni anyway, and then having to evacuate the ship? Can you imagine Vespa grumbling angrily as she patched Mick up after he managed to stab his foot with a fork? Can you imagine Mick trying to play wingman to Juno Steel? 

[bare1ythere]

for the character ask I gotta do Martin, and also Georgie while you're at it!

HELL YEAH thanks for the ask!!

MARTIN

Sexuality Headcanon: Asexual and homoromantic!! I love the idea of Martin being ace too (and that might be 100% self projection but WHO’S STOPPING ME!)

Gender Headcanon: I have an entire TAG specifically for Trans Martin!! it’s my favourite headcanon (with, surprisingly, even some canon that might suggest it!!) and I’m so glad that it’s popular because it makes me stronger every time I see it. Sometimes I’ll be reading fic where its clear that he’s not written as trans and I’ll forget that its not 100% canon? And some folks don’t see him as trans?? Its so wild to me I love this headcanon so much

A ship I have with said character: JONMARTIN!!!!! I love jonmartin SO much it’s my favourite ship from any media ever. So incredibly well written and they’re just so GOOD together. The way jonmartin progresses from season to season is just so fun and interesting I love it!!

A BROTP I have with said character: Martin x Any friends at all is the one true BROTP. I wish he had a better relationship with Sasha and Tim (and that Tim was more open to letting him be there for him in s3 :( ) because they could’ve had a really fun dynamic (And S1 archival assistant shenanigans in fic Delight me to no end). ALSO Martin and Daisy is pretty fun!! IIRC they interacted like twice in season 4 but the first time was really nice!! (before Martin kicked her out for lonely reasons)

A NOTP I have with said character: Im not a Huge fan of Martim but im also not opposed? Its more that I don’t like splitting canon ships apart, so I do really like jonmartim!! For 100% NOTP, Martin/Peter is uh. Very bad. I’d rather not see it ever please.

A random headcanon: ok this is a weird one and again more self projection but I Feel Like Martin would’ve read at least the first warrior cats series (into the wild through the darkest hour). I just checked and the books came out in 2003 so he would’ve been 16 at the time but I really feel like he was a warrior cats kid. IDK!! (Jon’s read Tallstar’s revenge but he only reads one book per author so never continued with the main series)

General Opinion over said character: Martin is one of my favourite characters of all time!!!! He’s so well written, being soft and warm but not always letting people walk over him and even being /mean/ sometimes. I relate to him a lot (re: self project) and seeing him commonly portrayed as a fat trans man brings me so much joy. Talk to me about martin blackwood at any time.

GEORGIE

Sexuality Headcanon: Bisexual!! Canon multi-spec babey!!!! 

Gender Headcanon: I’ve been thinking a lot about Georgie’s gender lately!! I feel like she’s genderqueer (partially because her voice actor Sasha themself is genderqueer) and is also fine with any pronouns! (I’ll talk a bit more about this in a sec!)

A ship I have with said character: WTGFs is VERY good. I really hope we get to see Georgie and Melanie interact more in S5 because we only saw them Physically Together once. Their whole vibe is very soft and domestic and Healing I love them so much.

A BROTP I have with said character: PLATONIC JONGEORGIE LET IT HAPPEN!! I Loved their dynamic in s3 and Id love for them to make up in s5 qwq ALSO AU Georgie meeting Sasha... could you imagine

A NOTP I have with said character: Again, anything that splits up wtgfs I’m not really into. Specifically romantic post-university jongeorgie isn’t great imo for that reason (splitting up TWO canon relationships). Other than that I can’t think of anything I’ve seen that I didn’t vibe with.

A random headcanon: HERE WE GO. Continuing from gender headcanons, I feel like Jon (stay with me here) was really quiet and closed off (like s1 but less Rude-To-Impress-His-Boss) but Georgie helped him open up a lot and introduced him to a more alt sub-cultures (Being raised by ur grandma doesn’t leave a lot of room for experimenting I’d guess). I don’t know specifically what alt-style Georgie would dress but definitely Very funky. I feel like after she learnt Jon could Sing she introduced him to the band she was already in (BAND JON AND GEORGIE LETS GO) and probably played either the bass, guitar, or Drums???? Leaning more towards bass ghdskjfhds

General Opinion over said character: I really like Georgie!! She was really fun in S3 and I can’t wait to see her in s5!! I am not. Completely jazzed with how she treated Jon in S4 but literally no one treated Jon nicely in S4 so its not a dealbreaker for me enjoying her character gdhsjkfds

[parad0xm0th]

Jon, Martin and Basira for character asks??

MARTIN YOU’RE ENABLING ME

Whoops this got long

Jonathan Sims

Sexuality Headcanon: acesexual(ofc) and kinda sex-repulsed in the “please let’s not talk about this unless you are very specifically my partner at a very specific time anything else is a no-no” (can you tell I’m projecting yet) and I also hc him as pan-romantic (I bet you can tell now) also because the experience of being ace and pan go hand in hand more than you might think!

Gender Headcanon: Trans non-binary/agender! I like to think during Uni he really got to thinking about gender? But when he started at the institute he got self conscious and started presenting heavily as male but as Shit Went Down he started going back to being less gender conforming and seriously went like guy???? Girl???? No. (I personally like to use they/them pronouns for Jon farther into like season 4 in my brain where everything is OK)

A ship I have with said character:EVERYONE JK BUT SOMETIMES IT FEELS LIKE IT, if you’ve heard me rant on discord u know I’ve got a soft spot for poly archives so really my favorite pairings with him are Martin(this one is fueled by the power of CANON) Tim(bc past friendship Hurts and I want them to make up) sasha (deserved better mostly fueled by hc) Gerry(thank tumblr user @/gerrydelano) Oliver(mostly for shits and giggles)

A BROTP I have with said character: Georgie and Jon COULD HAVE BEEN GREAT BUT NOOOO(they’re great in every AU) and Daisy (thanks season 4)

A NOTP I have with said character: *claps hands* I 👏 see 👏 the nasty 👏 pedo 👏 fics on AO3 👏 where y’all 👏 literally 👏 make Jon a teen 👏 then pair him 👏 with a grown ass👏 Elias also don’t like Jon////Elias////Peter in general they are old creepy men and Jon can do better

A random headcanon: as the drama club President I say Jon was a theatre kid and that is final (HOWEVER I will also say he did not do theatre until Georgie pressured him to do it in uni)

General Opinion over said character: y’all know I’m kinnie for this guy, he got me out of my year long writing funk And I’m actually Talking to people again

Martin K.(issable, ickass) Blackwood

Sexuality Headcanon: Martin is what is know as a Home-o-sexual, but more specifically I hc him as grey-ace homoromantic

Gender Headcanon: Martin’s trans he told me himself! Look he’s got the trans flag tied like a cape around his neck look at him go!

A ship I have with said character: JON but also I like him in JonMarTim and JonGerryMartin (why is Jon at the front of all the ship names???)

A BROTP I have with said character: I’m once again wishing for Sasha to have gotten better but he and Sasha were bros! Let them have this

A NOTP I have with said character: *repeates what I said for Jon but I don’t wanna type all the clapping again* Bitchard and Lufuck were straight up terrible to him he can do better also Fairchild litterally looks like a 100 year old man

A random headcanon: scritches for the archivist said Martin can sew and that’s something I just take as cannon now, he’s polish and can sew

General Opinion over said character: I love his arc it really hurt! He’s such a warm character and for him to be aligned with the lonely just struck such a cord for me

Basira Hussain

Sexuality Headcanon: she’s a Lesbian but she’s also aromantic she hasn’t “dated” anyone in years but she’s fine with that, she has “better things to do”

Gender Headcanon: she’s cis, and she identifies as a woman but doesn’t have any strong feelings about it

A ship I have with said character: there was a thing in the past with Daisy, but life got very complicated

A BROTP I have with said character: *shakes ur shoulders* JON AND BASIRA WERE FRIENDS IN SEASON 2 IT WAS NEW AND UNSTABLE BUT THEY GENUINELY LIKE EACHOTHER

A NOTP I have with said character: 👏she👏wouldn’t 👏date👏a dude(jk this is just a hc do what u want)

A random headcanon: read every single warriors cats book, all the way up to present, however no one has found out yet bc the moment she finishes (within 2 hours) she burns the book so there’s no evidence

General Opinion over said character: she didn’t get enough attention in the show! It might be my lack of a memory (cough cough binged 160 ep in 5 days cough cough) but I felt like we didn’t hear enough from her! She’s not perfect but she is kick ass as hell and was the only “survivor” of the unknowing bc she REASONED HERSELF OUT

[juno-but-not-steel]

How Tim Got His Reputation

Fandom: The Magnus Archives

Ship: None

Characters: Tim Stoker, Jon Sims, Sasha James, Gres the Intern

Description: Based on a post by @titanfalling! How Tim got his rep for seducing information!

Jon’s POV:

Jon and Tim sat together in the dingy waiting room of the Metropolitan Police Station. Jon grimaced as he nursed a cup of gritty black coffee, bitter even by his standards. He was sat in a saging old armchair, obviously decades old, and wondered pointedly where all his tax money was going. Tim was sitting next to him in an equally old chair, but curled like a cat with his back against the armrest, reading a book on the architecture of Robert Smirke. Jon snorted. Tim never had been able to sit properly for as long as they had known each other. Once, Jon had asked him about it, and Tim had something about it being “gay culture” to sit odly, although Jon was able to sit perfectly normally, thank you very much.

They both looked up as Sasha came out of the back room, shaking her head in defeat. “They won’t give up any information freely, something about a Section 31 that interferes with the transparency act or something. Guess I’ll have to hack it out of them, then.” She said that last part as a conspiratorial whisper, grinning mischievously. She picked up her bag and Jon got up as they prepared to go to the cafe across the street, so Sasha had a decreased chance of being caught than if she was on the actual premises. Tim stopped them, however.

“No need to do anything illegal, my dear Sasha.” Tim grinned, showing teeth with a wolfish quality. “Just sit back and let Tim Stoker work his magic.” He wiggled his eyebrows up and down comically, and Jon and Sasha snorted in disbelief.

“Tim, you can’t sleep your way into evidence storage,” Jon protested, but Tim was already walking towards the back room, unbuttoning his shirt a bit and mussing his hair roguishly. He turned back to his colleagues with an expression that could only be described as a smolder, before he entered the back room the police station and closed the door behind him.

Jon and Sasha stared at each other in disbelief. They couldn’t very well leave Tim at the station, so they sat back down, wondering what on Earth could be happening in the back room.

Tim’s POV:

Tim rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, and ran his hand through his hand again for good measure. It probably would have been a good idea of who to “ask” for the file. He probably should have gathered that information before infiltrating the enemy base.

After a few seconds of looking around, Tim decided to make his move on the figgity young man in the corner, as he would probably be the easiest to crack. Luckily for Tim, the young man wasn’t that bad looking either. He was tall, though not as tall as Tim, and had dark brown hair and eyes. He had ever so slight curves, and dressed way to nicely for a man of his paygrade. Tim bit his lips slightly to bring colour to them (not unlike a Victorian lady) and walked over to the lad. He was leaning against a self with his head turned when Tim approached.

“Come here often?” Tim said cheekily, while also leaning against the shelf, close enough to admonish any ideas of professionalism, but not so close as to make the young man uncomfortable.

The man looked up, surprised. “I work here,” he said, stuttering a tad from the surprise. “How did you get in here?”

“Well obviously,” Tim said with a grin, ignoring the question and pointing to the badge hanging around the man’s neck. “What’s your name?”

“Greg,” he managed. “What’s yours? And why are you here?”

“Well, Greg,” Tim said, leaning closer. “My name’s Tim, and I need something from you.”

Greg frowned and leaned back a little. “What would that be, Tim?”

Tim chuckled, letting his gaze flick artfully to Greg’s lips and back to his eyes. “Just a little information, nothing too troublesome.”

“On a case? I can’t! It’s illegal!” Greg said unsteadily. “And if your having to resort to this, I’m guessing it’s a sectioned file. I could get fired, or worse, sectioned myself!”

“Oh, come now Greg,” said Tim, adjusting his position so that the smaller man now had to tilt his head up to look at him. “Just one file. Make a quick photocopy and give it to me. I’ll make it worth your while.”

He laughed inwardly as the young man considered this, obviously flustered. “Well, I suppose one file couldn’t hurt…”

“Thank you so much,” Tim breathed. “Would you like to collect your payment now, or after?”

“Now’s good.” Greg was stammering again.

Tim grinned and leaned closer, but let Greg close the space between them. In these situations, he always let the other person kiss first, as he was a firm believer in the importance of consent. He would never force himself on anyone. He smiled as Greg messed his hair up even more. This would be fun.

Jon’s POV:

Tim had been gone for nearly an hour, and Jon was fed up. Whatever Tim was doing in there clearly wasn’t working, and they had best be on their way because there were other things that they could be doing at the Institute. He was just about to march back there and drag Tim out by the ear before he got them all arrested, when someone, looking very disheveled, walked out of the back room of the police station, holding a manilla folder close to his chest.

Lo and behold, it was Tim. Both Sasha and Jon gasped, and Tim grinned.

“What the hell happened?” Sasha demanded. “Why do you look like you just rolled out of bed?”

Tim waggled his eyebrows again. “Take a wild guess.”

“Oh no you did not!” Sasha whisper shouted. “You SLEPT with a police officer in order to obtain evidence.”

“No!” Tim pouted. Sasha looked momentarily relieved. “He was an intern.”

“Christ, Tim!” Jon exclaimed, shaken out of his stupor. “That’s almost as illegal as hacking!”

“Is it, though?” Tim squinted. He handed the file to Sasha and finished buttoning up his shirt.

Jon rolled his eyes. “C’mon, we’d better leave before a senior officer finds the poor intern you had your way with.”

Tim frowned. “I didn’t ‘have my way with him’, Jon. I may have just used him to obtain evidence, but it was entirely consensual.”

“Glad to hear you haven’t completely lost your mind,” Jon grumbled. “But, in all honesty, we need to go.”

As they left the precinct, even though Jon was mildly disturbed, he couldn’t shake the feeling that this newly discovered skill would come in handy in the future.

Hope you guys liked it! Let me know what you think! Thanks to @titanfalling for the great idea!!

[goodluckdetective]

A PROPER SLEEPOVER

Post Magnus Archives 159. Written entirely on my phone so forgive my formatting mess. Sometimes a girl has to write soft stuff.

Ship: Jon/Martin.

Rating: PG-13 for mentions of blood and past spooks

Summary: In a world where there is a calm before the storm, the Archives team has a moment to rest. And talk. Just a little.

A PROPER SLEEPOVER

In a different world, one where Elias is not waiting for them outside the Lonely but biding his time to seize his crown, Jon and Martin end up in Panopticon.

Magnus is still there, the all seeing eye, but Martin pulls Jon’s hand away from his side as he reaches for the pocket knife he keeps in his belt.

“If you kill him, you become him,” Martin whispers. It isn’t due to a fear of being overheard. The Lonely takes your voice over time, making you smaller, less intrusive. Martin isn’t sure he could scream even if he tried. Jon stares at the body of Magnus and then back at Martin.

“Later,” Jon says to Magnus, an empty shell of many eyes. He looks back to Martin. His gaze is piercing, unsettling, but somehow Martin finds it a comfort. He’d rather be seen than invisible. “Let’s go upstairs.”

They do. The offices are a mess but Not!Sasha is gone and so are Julia and her fellow hunter. There are no bodies but plenty of blood, and Martin feels a pang of concern that he hasn’t let himself feel in months. They run through the halls, Martin following Jon who somehow knows the way. When they get to the end, Basira and Daisy are there. Alive.

But not well, Martin realizes with a start. Basira is covered in blood but not hurt. In her arms is Daisy, who also looks mostly uninjured. But Daisy is different. Her nails are now claws that scrape against the floor. As she breathes heavily on her hands and knees, Martin can see her teeth are now pointed. When she looks up her eyes are that of a cat. 

Martin watches Daisy’s gaze go right to Jon’s throat and he steps in front of him without thinking. Basira grabs Daisy’s elbow, whispering in her ear. Daisy’s blood soaked hair drips droplets onto the floor.

“Looks like we’re both monsters now, Archivist.” There is a growl to Daisy’s words but Martin is relieved to find her no longer looking at Jon’s throat. Jon moves in front of Martin, his hand on Martin’s shoulder.

“Maybe for now,” Jon says. “But perhaps not forever. If we're lucky.” 

Daisy looks at him for a long moment then makes a noise that could almost be close to a laugh. Basira pulls her close and that same noise morphs into something loosely resembling a sob. 

After that, after checking that all current threats aren’t at their doorstep still, they mobilize. They don’t bother to clean up the blood, but Basira and Daisy head to the bathroom to at least wash it off themselves. Martin begins to head to his own office but he is stopped by Jon seizing his wrist with a strength that’s surprisingly strong from such a lean man. When Martin turns back to look at him, his gesture loosens but he doesn’t let go. 

“I-um,” Jon says. For a man who knows so much, he never seems to know what to say, Martin realizes with a start. “Sorry, but if you are heading somewhere, can I come with? Probably not best to be alone.” 

Martin realizes with a start that he’s probably right. He’s so used to being alone at this point that it’s almost his default state, the comforting blanket of loneliness a shield. That shield won’t protect him if the hunters decide to come back.

If he’s not careful that shield may smother him too. That’s what Jon is worried of, Martin thinks, given his almost frantic expression. 

“He actually missed me,” Martin thinks. And isn’t that a revelation through all the static still in his head. 

He lets Jon come with him and he collects some of his things. His business cards say “Assistant to Peter Lukas” and Martin doesn’t miss Jon picking one up, scowling and then throwing them all in the recycle. After he has his files about the Extinction and his favorite poetry journal, he looks up to find Jon texting. 

“Basira says we should all sleep in the same room tonight,” Jon says without looking up. “Safer. So we can keep an eye out for intruders and also each other.”

“So we’re having a proper sleepover then?”

Jon scoffs. “Technically we’ve been having a proper one for months.” 

They pick one of the conference rooms for the “sleepover” though when Martin calls it in front of Daisy, she gives him a look that makes him almost vanish on instinct. They do a little planning, but everyone is exhausted and Martin soon finds himself drifting off. The Lonely, he thinks, takes a lot out of a person. Perhaps it is because exhaustion is something that so easily isolated people.

When he wakes, it is dark inside the conference room. Basira and Daisy are curled up next to one another, holding hands tight. Both of their weapons are at their respective sides. The Guardian and the Hunter, both taking respite where they can. 

Martin himself is asleep next to Jon, his head next to Jon’s thigh. There is a hand softly brushing through his hair and Martin doesn’t have to look up to know who’s hand it is. Months ago, the thought of this situation would have turned Martin into a stuttering, embarrassed, mess. Now, he is too tired to feel anything but content. 

John is reading through his files from the sound of the papers ruffling, his phone’s flashlight providing the sole illumination. Martin closes his eyes as he hears Jon turn another page. Like this, he can almost pretend it is like the old days when he thought of the Archives as a quiet place where papers were filed and statements were taken. Not the world where you cannot remember your co-worker’s true face or your boss rips out the worst truth you’ve ever suspected and read it to you out loud.

“My notes are on the back of each folder,” Martin says. Jon doesn’t seem surprised by his voice; he likely already knew Martin was awake.

“I saw them. They’re comprehensive.”

“Not bad for a fake master’s degree.”

“Quite.”

There is more silence. It isn’t like the silence of the lonely, the sound of paper and the other’s breathing filling up the small space. Martin can still hear static but it is faint, held at bay by friends and a warm hand in his hair.

“Martin,” Jon says, his voice soft like it was in the Lonely. “I thought you might be lost ,” he had said to Martin within that endless fog. And in many ways, Martin was. Lost upon a journey he had chosen but lost none-the-less. “Peter said something to me in the Lonely.”

The static in Martin’s ears grows louder.

“He said we barely knew each other,” Jon continues. “And I…I would like to prove him wrong.”

The static lessens. “Hm?” 

“I am a monster,” Jon says, voice a different kind of soft now. The kind of soft when one feels all too human. “I crave other’s terror, I haunt others' dreams, and I am worried I will keep getting worse until I stop caring about getting worse. But-“ There is a deep breath. “I don’t want to be. A monster that is. Not forever.”

Martin turns now to look up at Jon. He’s looking down at him, his eyes lined with dark circles, his expression pinched with anxiety. Martin wants to wipe it all away. He knows he can't, he is not an idiot, but he still wants to try. “And?”

Jon closes his eyes. When he opens them, they seem to lack the weight of the Beholding, if only for a second. They look...soft. “I’d like to try. To be someone worth knowing. Worth...loving. If you’d still like me to be.”

Martin processes that. The words, the inflection, the meaning underneath. Even with the weight of the Lonely fresh, he can feel longing and hope and love bubble up in his chest. Maybe enough to make him smile for the first time in weeks.

“Yeah,” Martin says, throat dry. “I think I would.” 

The smile that appears on Jon’s face is soft and relieved and excited all at the same time. Martin wonders how long it will take him to get back to holding all those emotions at once again.

“I’ll need time,” Martin says. “To remember what it’s like to be-“ To be what? Around people? To express feelings? To stop pretending he is nothing but lonely? He can't find the words so he waves his hand, hoping Jon’s knowing powers get the point across. Given Jon’s nod, they seem to.

“I can wait. Sleep. You’re tired.”

Martin does. As he drifts off, Jon’s hand still in his hair, he hears him speak one more time. Jon's voice is quiet but firm.

“I love you as well. Don’t vanish on me.”

“I won’t,” is the last thing Martin says before he drifts off to a static-free slumber.

[qweenfurby67]

GoldenflowerxSasha

OKAY I MIGHT GET HATE FOR THIS BUT IDC 

I adore this ship. Sasha is a big lesbian in my opinion. Russetfur made her realize that uwu. She’s bi but leans towards she-cats a lot more. Goldenflower is a pan mami. 

Sasha is already a big ass gay girl for Russetfur and Leopardstar. I propose a new ship, both babies were with Tigerstar. Goldenflower is broken because she didn't know her mate was a monster. But she is no baby. Goldenflower remains strong for her kits. So she's kind of just lost and wandering around the forest, trying to clear her mind. Walking around the woods is really her only stress reliever. She can also get all her feels out there. She spots the beauty that is Sasha up on a fence, who sees how sad she is and tries her best to cheer her up. They become friends and Goldenflower opens up about Tigerclaw. Sasha is very angry and sympathizes with Goldenflower. Few moons later, Sasha runs into the woods. Goldenflower is upset because she wants her bestie to remain in the safety of a two-leg nest. Sasha. Is. Not. Having. It. They break out into an argument and Sasha storms off, leaving Goldenflower hurt. Sasha was like her right hand man. Time skip and Sasha had met Tigerstar and fell in love with his charisma. She kind of had forgotten what Goldenflower had told her, since it was quite a while ago. Uh oh, fluffy wife Goldenflower finds them and scolds Sasha. Goldenflower leaves in rage. Not at Sasha, but at Tigerstar instead. She doesn’t care about the impact he had on her. She cares about Sasha more. So yeah, it’s not so well so far. BUT, Sasha runs into Thunderclan camp looking for her big golden wife. Sasha requests to see Goldenflower, Firestar reluctantly lets her. She tells her that she’s expecting kits and they’re Tigerstar’s ( they’re alone in the nursery btw ). Sasha breaks down and confesses her love for Goldenflower and how much she missed her, mainly being with Tigerstar to try and forget her. Goldenflower is hesitant but confesses her undying love for the she-cat back. So they actually leave Thunderclan and become rogues together. Brambleclaw let’s his mom go because she would be much more happier traveling with her girlfriend. Annnnd yeah, they become traveling lesbians with kits. They also take in stray kits they find and raise them :3 Tadpole lives too. Hawkfrost and Mothwing go to Riverclan by themselves when they were old enough. 

[katiebug445]

A Soldier’s Wish

Jearmin Week day 5 - Historical  Word Count: 2893 Rating: M to be safe. Mentions of war related injuries. 

He’d made it through Normandy and Utah beach on the first day. He’d managed to survive the second, third, and fourth days, and nearly six additional months on the front lines of battle. 

Jean couldn’t believe it. Nearly his entire platoon had been taken out, but somehow, he’d survived with only a shot in the ass. His injury had earned him a purple heart, which he promptly stuck in a comrade’s jacket pocket before they could take what remained of him away. Jean doubted he’d ever forget seeing him step on a mine and go sky high. The memory made him sick to his stomach. 

Connie had been discharged after being shot in the thigh - his time here was over, now, and Jean was happy for him. He’d be going home to his sweetheart: a girl named Sasha that he never shut up about. Marco was the same. He’d lost an arm thanks to a grenade, but he was still alive and going back home to a friend of his named Patrick. 

Thomas, Marlowe, Eld, Gelgar, Olou, and even Commander Smith hadn’t been so lucky. 

The only ones still on the front line from his platoon were himself, and two giant guys from the south - Reiner and Bertholdt. They were decent guys; Jean liked them well enough in boot camp, but Reiner had come through and saved his ass on a number of occasions after they landed. 

Replacements came in fresh from boot camps all around the country; young, wide-eyed rookies that they’d be replacing again within a month. Jean didn’t bother learning any of their names, or try to pay too much attention to their faces. Best not to get attached to them. That tactic worked well, until he saw one of the new recruits that he recognized. 

Jean had been on patrol with Bertholdt, shooting the shit and trying their hardest not to think about how any second, any wrong move, and they could be joining their friends in a coffin back home. Bertholdt had pointed at a small cluster of men, and Jean was immediately drawn to a smaller man with close-cropped blond hair, the same shade as--

The small man turned, feeling eyes on his back, and Jean’s mouth went dry. The hair, the build, the eyes, his nose. All of it was almost exactly how Jean remembered it: the way that silky blond hair felt under his fingers, the way those blue eyes shone in the moonlight when they would sneak off, how he would blush or giggle when he’d kiss his nose…

 It was him. It was Armin. 

He opened his mouth to speak, to say anything to him, but Bertholdt’s nudge to his arm called him back. 

“You okay, Jean?” He asked, looking down at him worriedly. 

“Fine.” Jean insisted, shooting one more quick look back at Armin, sitting around a small fire with some others. God, what was he doing here? “One of those guys reminded me of someone, is all.” Bertholdt just nodded and said no more. 

The next chance Jean had to speak to him was the following evening, huddled around another fire. Armin was getting ready to do patrol, and Jean jumped up to follow him. “I’ll go.” He said, volunteering himself. “It’ll be safer to have someone experienced along, right?” 

They set off in silence, not wanting to say too much while they were still in earshot, but Jean was burning with thousands of questions he wanted to ask. How had Armin ended up here? Why wasn’t he still in school? Where… Where was Eren? 

“Armin, how--” 

“I couldn’t stand being home anymore.” Armin interrupted, keeping his voice low. “It was maddening.” 

“I thought you were still in school? Why would you leave?” 

Armin inhaled, his grip on his gun tightening enough that Jean could hear the wood creak just a little, and his eyes became sad. “News comes in every day about how many men are dying. About how badly soldiers are needed here and in the Pacific. Almost everyone we know is gone. Either still here, or there fighting, or…” He paused, his eyes closing for a moment while he stopped the tears rising in his eyes, and took a breath. “There’s been so much death, and nobody knew if you were alive or dead. Your mom, she-- Every time the news reports would come in, she’d be at my place, holding my hand, terrified out of her mind. I was, too.” 

Jean stopped in his tracks for just a moment at the mention of his mother, his face screwed up in a homesick look. His mother. She’d written to him several times since he’d been shipped out, but he hadn’t written back. Mostly because he had no idea what to tell her. How could you explain to your mother the things you’d seen in a war, and expect her to sleep at night? They’d all been left unanswered, but he kept them all in his breast pocket, as close to his heart as he could keep them. 

“I couldn’t - I couldn’t take it anymore.” Armin continued, his voice thin. “Men came and took Mikasa and her family, Eren - Eren took off after them. And you were gone, and I missed you and--” 

“Armin,” Jean started, his heart twisting painfully in his chest. “I missed you, too. I- I wanted to write you back, I know you’ve written letters, it’s just… hard. There’s so much I want to tell you, but… if someone found out, if someone read them… I’d be discharged.” 

“I know.” Armin replied, finally looking up at him. “Why do you think mine are so short?” 

Jean allowed himself a tiny smile and looked around to make sure they were really by themselves before leaning in and brushing a strand of hair from Armin’s face, just like he used to when they were alone. 

Armin’s eyes slipped shut and he leaned into Jean’s touch, a smile of his own tugging at his lips. “Do you have any idea how much I’ve missed you?” He asked. 

“You didn’t have to come all the way to France to tell me.” Jean retorted. “Believe me, the feeling’s mutual.” 

“You know I’m a romantic.” Armin joked, glancing up at him. “I wanted to come, Jean. I hated being stuck at home, just.. Waiting for that letter. Or waiting to hear that something happened to Eren. I couldn’t stand sitting there anymore. I wanted to feel useful.”

“You are useful. With that brain of yours, you belong somewhere behind a desk, planning out our next moves, not here. You belong anywhere but here.” 

Armin just shook his head, taking Jean’s hand before he could pull it away, and pressed a gentle kiss to the palm. “I’m here now. This is where they want me.” 

Jean said nothing in response to that, just nodded, and walked beside Armin while they finished their patrol. 

~

It came in the middle of the night. 

Jean was sitting at the fire with Reiner and Bertholdt, the rest of the men sleeping or on patrol, and talking about life back home. The two of them had the whole rest of their lives planned out, by the sounds of things: Reiner was going to go home and play basketball at Georgia State, and Bertholdt was planning on studying to be a vet. Bertholdt’s father had an apartment lined up and waiting for them, because, as they said, it would be easier to be roommates with someone who got it, rather than explain themselves to a stranger. 

Jean understood it, but he couldn’t help but wonder if there wasn’t another reason under all of that. 

“Maybe we’ll get a cat!” Reiner joked, slapping Bertholdt on the back. “Go ahead and do all the domestic shit while we’re at it!” 

“You say that, but by the time we get home, my uncle’s barn cats will be having kittens.” Bertholdt retorted, giving Reiner a little smile. “I might end up sneaking one home.” 

“And you’ll be taking care of it, too.” Reiner chuckled, returning the look with a smirk. 

Bertholdt just rolled his eyes and smiled a little bigger, drifting off into his own thoughts of his future with Reiner. 

“Well, you two seem to have a long discussion ahead of you.” Jean replied, getting to his feet. “I’m gonna try getting some sleep. See ya.” 

After a quick goodnight, Jean headed off to his foxhole and climbed in, leaning his head back against the dirt and closing his eyes. 

And then a tree exploded three feet away from him. Jean jumped nearly all the way out of his hole, his eyes wide and his breath caught in his throat, wondering what in the hell just happened. A shell whizzed right by his head a second later, hitting a - thankfully empty - foxhole to his left, and the ground exploded and shook around him. “HIT THE DECK!” He screamed, watching the other men scramble for cover. 

Reiner hurried and got himself into a foxhole, while Bertholdt gathered up their guns and a few other things he didn’t want destroyed. Others scrambled for cover as shells went off all around them, hitting the trees and ground around them. 

Jean’s eyes darted around at all of the faces coming towards him as they ducked into their holes, looking for one in particular. His heart hammered in his ribs when he didn’t see him, wondering if he was out on patrol, or if he’d been hit, or--

Armin was scrambling. He went for a foxhole close to him, but a shell exploded inside of it, blood and dirt flying up and hitting him in the face. He fell to the ground, and Jean could hear another scream from a shell as it came closer. “ARMIN!” he screamed, pulling himself up out of the ground to grab him. “HERE!” 

The blond looked up, and shakily got to his feet, running with every bit of strength he had left. Jean could have cried when he safely dropped into the hole next to him, for just a moment not caring who could see them. He threw his arms around Armin, squeezing him tight and silently letting the tears fall. “Don’t scare me like that, you hear?!” He exclaimed, looking at him with wide eyes. “The hell’s your problem, giving me a heart attack?” 

“Sorry.” Armin replied, every bit as breathless. 

Jean went to say more, when he heard Reiner screaming. He popped his head back up, seeing the large man half out of his foxhole, his hand reaching for Bertholdt. “BERT, COME ON!” He screamed, terror in his eyes as the other man ran for him. 

A shell went off nearby to where Bertholdt had been standing, and Jean could feel his heart stop. No, no, not Bertholdt, he’d just been talking to him ten minutes ago! He couldn’t be, gone could he? Not that fast.

As the dust began to settle, they could make out the form of the large man face down in the dirt. Jean felt his heart stop as he watched, praying to any god or angel that was listening for him to move, or say something. Just give any sign that he was still alive. 

Reiner was frozen, still half out of his hole, his arm outstretched for someone that wouldn’t come. His eyes were wide, his mouth open, and his chest heaving for air. For a moment, Jean expected him to fall over dead himself, but Reiner stood, his hand beginning to shake. “Bert?” He called softly, his eyes on the man on the ground. “Bert, hurry.” 

Finally, Jean got a good look at the state Bertholdt was left in. Blood pooled around his legs, bits of boot and uniform scattered around his legs. Even if he was alive, he wouldn’t be for long, like that. 

Armin began to poke his head up, but Jean forced him down, having to look away himself for a minute. “Don’t-” he choked, closing his eyes. “Don’t look.” Another shell whizzed by overhead, and more screams were heard as they landed on someone else. Jean hunkered down farther in his hole, feeling his lungs begin screaming for air. He couldn’t see, his hands were shaking, his throat was closing up. He glanced up blurrily at Armin, desperate for something - anything - to distract himself with. 

Armin crouched down next to Jean, sliding his hand around his shoulders, and squeezed him as tightly as he could. “We’re gonna get through this.” He promised, breathless. “We’re not gonna be hit.” 

“HELP!” 

That was Reiner. There was no denying the accent. Jean looked up, and the big man had finally moved, crawling his way towards Bertholdt, his eyes half crazed. Jean’s heart slammed in his chest once again, knowing that this wouldn’t end well for either of them. He could hear Reiner mumbling to himself as he made his way to his fallen friend, and Jean’s stomach rolled. 

He couldn’t blame Reiner for it. If it were Armin, he would do the same thing. 

And he’d want help. 

“Fuck!” Jean exclaimed, turning away from them for a moment. He focused instead on Armin, fear bright in his hazel eyes. “I’ve gotta help him.” He said breathily, his head screaming at him to stay put. This went against everything he’d learned. “I can’t - I can’t leave him there.” He met Armin’s eyes, hoping they would convey what he was unable to say on the battlefield, and, quickly, brought his hand to his lips and kissed it - the most he could do right now - before scurrying out of the hole and running over to his friends. 

“REINER!” He screamed, using what bit of strength he had left to help the big man to his feet, and they hurried their way over to Bertholdt. 

Weak moans were falling from his mouth, and what bit of muscle and skin was left of his legs was twitching almost painfully. Jean’s stomach rolled again, and he had to close his eyes, trying to ignore the panic in Reiner’s voice as he tried to talk to Bertholdt, to get him to say anything. 

“I have to get up.” Bertholdt said eventually. 

“Not right now you’re not.” Jean grunted, helping Reiner carry him over to his foxhole. Both men barely fit in it, and Reiner was slowly covered in his friend’s blood. Jean handed him his first aid kit, praying that he wouldn’t need it before the night was over, and wished Reiner luck in helping keep Bertholdt alive until the medics were safe to come in. 

A shell whizzed overhead, and Jean felt panic seize hold of him once again. He sprinted as fast as he could back to his own hole, diving back inside just as the ground where he’d been standing not ten seconds before went up, causing the ground to shake once again. “Shit.” Jean breathed, feeling sick.

Panic was beginning to take him again as he realized just how close to death he’d come, and sunk down into his hole again, Armin at his side. “Y-You know, if I - I knew you wanted to come to France so bad… W-We should have come before this.” 

Armin just squeezed him tighter, his own heart beating like a jackhammer in his chest, and scooted over until he was flush against Jean. “Maybe we’ll come back someday. You and me. When things are better. We’ll get a house on the coast, and I’ll write books and you…” 

“I’ll get a job on a farm or something.” 

“That’ll work.” Armin breathed, a small laugh falling from his lips. “You’ll work on a farm, I’ll write, and we’ll be happy here. We’ll bring your mom with us.” 

“We’ll bring Mom.” Jean repeated, slipping his own arm around Armin. “Maybe get a dog.” 

“If that’s what you want, of course.” Armin said, leaning in and pressing a kiss to Jean’s cheek. “But we have to get through today. Just through today, and we’ll be one day closer to living in France. Maybe we’ll even go to Paris someday and spend a few weeks.” 

Jean, despite himself, was beginning to feel a little calmer, imagining life with Armin, away from all of this, in a little house with his mother, happy to just enjoy their lives in peace. It sounded too good to be true, in the heat of all of this, when he could still hear Bertholdt’s cries and Reiner’s shouts for a medic. 

He didn’t want that to be them. He couldn’t handle it if it was. He slipped his own arm around Armin’s slender waist, and held onto him as tight as he could. “I love you.” He mumbled quietly, his hands shaking. “I love you so much.” 

Armin froze beside him, his body tensing up under Jean’s hand, and turned to him with tears in his eyes. “Me too.” He replied, nervous. “I always have.” He leaned in, tilting Jean’s head just a little, and pressed a kiss to his lips. “I love you more than anything in the world.” He breathed, kissing him again. 

Shells continued to whiz by, striking trees and the ground farther away from them all, and through the whole assault, Jean held tightly to Armin, and the blond held back, praying that they’d made it through to the end of it. 

A/N: WOOF. that was a long one! thanks to everyone who stuck around to the end. Just to give some reassurance: Bertholdt, Reiner, Jean and Armin all make it out alive and happily go about their lives after the war, just as they all talked about <3 please read Capture