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fioreofthemarch · 1 year

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Finding Her - final chapter

Link makes notes, takes photos and keeps time on his quest across Hyrule, in the hopes of finding Zelda and staying sane until he does. [ Previous | First | AO3 ] with artwork by @nocturnalfandomartist at the end!

A photograph of Hyrule Castle seated on a rocky mesa of petrified Gloom. Where once malice and corruption rose high into the air, there is nothing but clear skies.

A photograph of the rolling meadows of Hyrule Field, with Lookout Landing approaching just over the next hill. Ahead of the camera walks a woman wearing traditional garb, her short golden hair still a little damp.

A photograph of a group of Sheikah, young and old, at the gates of Lookout Landing as they greet the golden-haired woman. Their arms are outstretched towards her, tears in their eyes.

A photograph of the five Sages of Hyrule, crowded around the woman as they draw her into a group embrace. The woman has her back to the camera as a young Gerudo vai hugs her tightly.

The same picture as above, only now the woman has turned to the photographer. She smiles, surrounded by her friends and allies. Despite the weariness on her face, she radiates warmth and contentment. She is finally home.

Caption: Thank you Rauru and Sonia. Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you tha

---

Welcome to the Purah Pad!— Home Screen —

Today’s Purah Pointer: [Placeholder - Robbie can you please add something? Do NOT call me if you can’t think of anything.]

> Camera (Scanner)

Scanner sub-function selected. Please place text to be scanned in view of the Purah Pad camera.Scanning…Processing…

Scanned text uploaded. Eight (8) documents have been added to the Purah Pad.

1. BATTLE IN THE SKIES: A SPECIAL LUCKY CLOVER GAZETTE REPORTby Penn of Rito Village (Guest Correspondent)

26th Satorember 104AC

The citizens of Hyrule were treated to an extraordinary sight yesterday after what appeared to be an enormous, demonic dragon emerged from the ruins of Hyrule Castle.

It was approximately midday when what is being dubbed the ‘Demon Dragon’ appeared. Eyewitness accounts state that a second entity, which some have called the ‘Light Dragon’, was also spotted and appeared to confront the Demon Dragon, however this has not been verified.

About an hour after the Demon Dragon appeared, there was a colossal explosion in the skies that caused several grassfires on Hyrule Field. These were swiftly contained by brave volunteers of the Zonai Survey Team who happened to be in the area. The Gazette can confirm there were no ground casualties.

Earlier this week, the swordsman Link and the Sages of Hyrule departed Lookout Landing to mount an assault on the Demon King Ganondorf. The outcome of that battle is not yet known, and investigations continue as to whether this mission has any links to the Demon Dragon.

More to come.

2. A letter, with a stamp that reads ‘Rito Courier Certified’

Link,

Forgive the chicken scratch, I don’t write a lot of letters.

I heard the Princess is back. Good for her. Knew she wouldn’t abandon us. Good job dealing with the Demon King too -- you saved all our tailfeathers there.

Tulin’s back with us now. Just writing to say thank you. He’s got a long way to go, but I can tell that hanging out with some responsible adults has put him on the right track. Though sometimes I wish he’d never learned about this Sage business. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard ‘Would a Sage have to do his chores, Dad?’ Ridiculous.

If either you or the Princess need a holiday, Rito Village welcomes you. I’d sure like to hear the story of the battle against Ganondorf from someone other than a cocky teenager. Let’s just hope that’s the last of Hyrule’s troubles for now. We all enjoy a good fight, now and then, but a broken wing never really heals if you know what I mean.

Fly well, Teba, Elder of Rito Village

3. A pamphlet advertisement printed on paper that smells of fireproof elixir

MINE-CART LAND: GRAND OPENING

YUNOBOCO IS PROUD TO PRESENT THE PRIDE OF ELDIN CANYON, NOW OPENING TO THE PUBLIC FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME. COME FOR A FUN-FILLED DAY WITH ACTIVITIES FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY:

‘THE ROCK ROAST REBELLION’ DINNER AND SHOW

MINE CART RIDES AND TARGET MINI-GAME

MINE TOURS

MINING

THIS ONE-OF-A-KIND ATTRACTION IS NOT TO BE MISSED. CONTACT YOUR LOCAL YUNOBOCO SALESGORON FOR TICKETS.

FIREPROOF ELIXIR SOLD SEPARATELY.

YunoboCo is the author of this pamphlet for the purpose of copyright. © YunoboCo 104AC

(overleaf)

Link! Zelda!

Look at this! Isn’t it great!? We got it back from the Lucky Clover Gazette just today. Took a bit of negotiating with Traysi to let us use her printers, but we got it done. I can’t believe Mine-Cart Land is gonna open for real — it’s all thanks to you or we’d all be Demon King lunch!

The other Sages said you’d gone back to Hateno to rest. They’ve all got fire ants in their pants wanting to get back to rebuilding, but I say we’ve all deserved a break. How many people can say they saved the world twice?

Anyway, let us know next time you’re in Eldin. Slergo and Offrak have been asking about you every day. Dinner’s on us!

Yunobo

4. A letter written in silver ink on lily white paper, in cursive that borderlines on unreadable

The 8th Day of Octoroktober, 104 After Calamity

Princes Zelda Bosphoramus Hyrule 5 Wildflower Crossing, Hateno Village Necluda, Hyrule

The Reception Celebration of the Wedding of Their MajestiesKing Sidon and Queen Yona of the Zora

By command of the King, the Advisor Muzu is directed to invite

Princess Zelda Bosphoramus Hyrule And Sir Link, Knight-Captain of the Hyrule Royal Guard

to be present at Zora’s Domain on the 3rd day of Naydrember, 104AC

Dear Princess Zelda,

I hope your recovery in Hateno with Sir Link has been restorative. As Winter draws closer and the days shorter, time of respite is often best spent with close companions.

My dear Sidon has told me all of what happened to you in the ancient past, and I must extend my deepest sympathies for the hardships you have endured. I cannot even begin to imagine them. I must also express my gratitude that Sidon has returned to us. While he is so humble as to pass all credit for the victory against the Demon King to Sir Link and his fellow Sages, to those in Zora’s Domain he is a hero.

It would give us great joy if you could join us in a month’s time for I do so wish to meet you. However, I will understand completely if you choose to remain in the quiet solace of home.

Sincerely, Queen Yona of Zora’s Domain

5. An informal letter, written in an assured hand

Zelda,

Did you also get an invite to Sidon and Yona’s wedding? Or second wedding? I’ve never even been to Zora’s Domain. You will have to tell me what to wear. Is it cold? Is there really water everywhere? Not that I have a problem with that.

So your sabbatical with Link has been just ‘good’? I get the sense you’re holding back details. If you don’t want to put anything in writing, you can call me using the Purah Pad. I could tell, Zelda, that when Link brought you to Lookout Landing after our battle with the Demon King, he couldn’t wait to whisk you away again. And what’s this about leaving Hateno next week? So soon!

I suppose I understand. You and I have our kingdoms to take care of. It is nothing less than our duty to do as much as we can. Heroines, I don’t think I’ve ever had a holiday. Even going to Lanayru is ‘official business’ as Chief of the Gerudo. But I will get to see you, and we can talk and laugh and drink all evening. Until then, sister.

(Or you can simply call me! I want to hear everything, Zelda. Even if he proposes. ESPECIALLY if he proposes).

Yours, Riju

6. A typed letter, on paper with a watermark of a Sheikah eye

10.20.104AC

Princess Zelda and Champion Link Lookout Landing Central Hyrule

Princess, Champion--

Thank you for your latest report from Lookout Landing on the rebuilding efforts post-Upheaval. I trust that Purah isn’t working you too hard and that Josha is proving a very dedicated assistant. I know that Impa’s instruction was for you to rest as long as you need, however I disagree. On the contrary, I believe that engagement and activity is the best way to stay invigorated. It worked for me after all.

I’m pleased to report that the manufacture of a second Purah Pad is nearly complete. I’ll need to finish the work at my lab in Akkala, so will be returning there. You’re welcome to visit any time. I suggest doing so before Dincember. Once Winter starts in Akkala, it really settles in.

Speaking of Akkala, Granté visited last week and wishes to relay that the house Link purchased from the Hudson Construction Company is complete. He also said something about not knowing if you wanted plants or children’s toys in the house and that he ended up purchasing both. I suggest you liaise with him directly on that matter.

Regards, Robbie

7. A hastily scrawled note bearing the mark of the red Yiga eye

To the scoundrel who calls himself Link,

You have slighted us for the last time! Master Kohga will have his vengeance.

Already our forces gather weapons of ultimate death beyond your comprehension! Just last month, we debuted the HOVERDOOM MK.4!

Your day of reckoning approaches. As soon as we find his excellency , you will know true fear! So just let us know if you have seen him… if you want to live!!

Damn it, why am I even writing this note? I’ll just leave it in our hideout in Karusa Valley. Link will never get in there…

8. A carefully and neatly written note, on lined paper

Zelda, Hyrule’s adored Princess

I am dictating this note to Josha, as my construct arms cannot grasp a writing quill. I had intended to create an attachment to allow this, however it was not to be.

It is my request that you gather the Sages to Lookout Landing, where Link and I have built a new balloon ship. Link may no longer have my brother's arm to aid him, but his strength and endurance have proven invaluable in this endeavour. With this ship I intend to bring everyone to the Temple of Time on the Great Sky Island. It will be my gift to them as Sages, and then I must depart.

There are words I must say before then that I fear will fail me if I try to convey them to you in person. However, you mean a great deal to me, so I have written them down instead.

Zelda, my dear friend. You had no obligation to aid my people, yet you sacrificed everything to do so. When I thought all was lost against the Demon King, your faith and hope for the future gave me the will to continue. It was your bravery in the face of annihilation and your vigilance over many millennia that turned the tides in our favour and allowed us to finally end the war. Hyrule will be forever in your debt and this act will be your legend.

I am merely grateful to have survived to your era, to have met your friends and allies (whose wedding feast I was honoured to attend), and to have seen that Hyrule will be under the care of those who are not only wise, but courageous and kind. One such Hyrulean sits at my side now, helping me write you this letter.

As a final note – during your absence, I saw firsthand just how deeply Link cares for you. When you described him to me, I pictured a brave Knight of course, but the Link I met was more than that. He overflowed with tenacity, even in his darkest moments, and while the past half-year has been difficult, I don’t think he ever truly gave up hope of seeing you again. You are to him as the sky to the stars and the ocean to the waves; whatever you dream of he will dedicate himself to its fruition. I will leave you content in the knowledge that together, you will guide Hyrule to new beginnings and greater futures.

We will be ready to travel to the Great Sky Island in three days. I hope you will join us on the journey.

— Mineru

---

Log date: 14:00. 11th month, 12th day 104ACLocation: Akkala Beach, AkkalaWeather: Calm

Well, it is done. I have read every log, viewed every photo and listened to every recording on this Purah Pad. It is quite the account; the valiant quest of Link, a Knight of Hyrule, to awaken the Sages, defeat the Demon King, and reunite with his beloved Princess Zelda.

With me.

I scarcely know where to begin. I can hardly believe I am here at all. Yet, I am here, thanks to Link and the Sages, and Queen Sonia and King Rauru… All of them devoted themselves to Hyrule’s salvation, for which I will always be grateful. Link tells me I was of aid in the final battle, and while it is true that my power was able to restore the Master Sword, a blade is only as strong as its wielder.

So is this it then? Is this true peace, after all this time? I myself have been restless, falling from memory to memory. I cannot shake Rauru and Sonia from my mind. They were the ones who gave me my life back after all, or so Mineru theorised before she left us. It feels like only yesterday that I was dining with them all in their grand palace. I keep expecting to find Rauru in his hall talking with his constituents, or Sonia out in a garden tending the flowers, or Mineru lost in a book within her vast library. I wish we could be together, but I take solace that they can now rest. I will honour them by protecting the Kingdom that fate has passed to my care – it seems the least I can do.

Since that fateful day of the defeat of the Demon King, Link and I have attempted to rest. However, I believe it is in neither of our natures. We spent some time in Hateno, the first two days of which we did little more than sleep. During that time, Link clung to me day and night, protesting the second I was out of his grasp, as though to pin me to the earthly realms lest I float up into the sky again. Then, once it became clear I was back for good, neither of us could bear lazing about. The more he told me of his quest to find me, the more I wanted to see all of our friends and allies again. The more I told him of my journey in the past, the more he wanted to show me the Zonai relics he had found. We were back on the road within a week, and have just come from Lookout Landing to visit Akkala and see our new house.

In quiet moments I have been reading the extensive field notes that Link has kept on this Purah Pad. I cannot describe the feelings they provoke in me. I am constantly struck by the tremendous efforts of all those in Hyrule. Their headstrong Princess set another Calamity upon them, and never did they despair, only banding together to vanquish Ganondorf once and for all. And Link… he suffered so greatly when he learned what happened to me. I’ve felt compelled to apologise for it, and often. When I was lost in the past I ached to return home, but I accepted my sacrifice as necessary. I never thought what sacrifice really meant. To lose yourself is one thing; but to be lost to all those who love you? Such consequence didn't occur to me at the time.

He does love me, doesn't he? It overwhelms me to read his words, they tremble with it. Yet somehow I never knew. I was so foolish as to never even tell him myself. All that time together, before the Calamity, before the Upheaval, and we never said such simple words. We took for granted that which felt obvious but could be so much richer if confessed. We’ve remedied that now, many times over. And I do love him, more than anything, and I want the life he dreamed of for us. Certainly, we have already begun, first with the house in Akkala, and lately with much practice at the necessary steps towards a family of our own. (I do hope no one but Link ever reads this.)

To that point, this will be my only entry into this particular Purah Pad. It is no longer mine. Through every hardship and triumph of the past half year, this little device has been Link’s constant companion. So I entrust it to him now, to continue recording our story and the story of Hyrule. I pray it will be a good one, though perhaps with a little less excitement than what has occurred thus far.

By the Goddess’ Grace,

Zelda

A photograph of Link, resting underneath the shade of a palm tree on Akkala Beach. He wears his ancient Zonai tunic – a makeshift beach outfit – and has his hair loose. His eyes are closed and he appears to be taking in the warmth of the sun, and the cool of the ocean breeze.

Caption: I better wake him up, the sleepyhead...

---

Log date: 14:30. 11th month, 12th day 104ACLocation: Akkala Beach, AkkalaWeather: Calm

A lot has happened. Plenty to write. This Purah Pad has given me a voice I didn’t know I had. Think I’ll start with an account of how we defeated the Demon King (or Demon Dragon) for that Lucky Clover Gazette column Penn mentioned…

But not now. Not for a long while.

Zelda’s here. We’re both here. It’s a sunny Autumn day and we have a home to go back to, one that’s up on a hill, overlooking the sea. I’ll make her dinner; a meat and rice bowl maybe, with ginger and Hyrule herb? Then tomorrow we’re back on the road – the whole Kingdom is ours to explore. I’m up for anything – somewhere new to find, someone new to meet, a new puzzle, a new enemy, a new fight. I can face it all, face anything, with her or without. But it doesn’t matter, not right now. She's here, in my arms, watching me type this. Better not write too long. Fate gave us back the time we nearly lost. I’m going to make the most of it.

Until next you hear from me,

Link

A photograph of Link and Zelda, together on the shore of Akkala Beach, the sun shining above. Link laughs and blushes as Zelda snaps the photo – still smitten, even after all this time.

Caption: Home and heart, heart and home.

artwork by the wonderful @nocturnalfandomartist

#totk #tears of the kingdom #zelink #tloz fanfiction #legend of zelda #legend of zelda fanfiction #link #zelda #in the words of spike spiegal and also NBA commentator mike breen: BANG

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aicosu · 1 year

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18 👀

"You look lost." Eddie whips around the blackened alley, but sees no one, nothing. Nothing but slick oil-stained asphalt and busted-up chipper vending machines. "I can help you." He turns again, hearing a flicker in the voice that sounds just like the buzz of the fluorescent kiosk behind him and—oh god dammit, it is the kiosk. "Buzz off!" He waves his hands at the pink advertisement, pulsing hearts and sales at him.

The digital face of a blonde blue-eyed baby girl crumples, her lips pouting and brows furrowing to imitate some emotion. Nervous. Scared. The BIG BLOWOUT lettering disappears around her head and the advertisement zooms out to show her crossing her arms on her electric cloud. "I-I just wanted to—!"

"I'm not buying whatever you're selling, soda girl. And I know your scam! You're not getting my ID Data by making me talk so you can use corporate tactics and native—" "You did that yourself Eddie Munson of the 429-70 sector—" "Hey!" He rushes as the kiosk and other parts of it light up from proximity. She twists into a bigger frame and leans over to pop images up between her fingers. "—and I'm not interested in selling you a GIBSON 340 Flyer series BLACK or the 76th edition of Dueling Dragon—" "Knock it off!" He bangs knuckles on her pixels, poofing his most recent engine searches into square dust. She laughs. It bubbles into audio pops from a speaker that had long been blown at. Stars rotate in her cartoon-like eyes. "I just want to help, you look like you haven't been to the pink district before."

Pink district. Eddie twists on his boots, eyes roaming over the tops of the building he's been wandering between, trying to see the neon grid of the city's artificial sky for traces of the color that denotes each zone. He thinks through the smog he can see it. Pink.

He returns to the kiosk, watching the rotating words start their default script above her head. INTIMATE MOMENTS. GET TO KNOW ME! 5KEY SENSATION! FLASH INPUT FOR CUSTOM FANTASIE— She's a Playtime Prostitute. "I don't—I'm n-not here for—your services are not required!" He claws fingers at her, feeling attacked from all sides by his new location ping and her chest when she giggles. "I do have a module for Knights and Maidens—!" "S-Stop! D-don't fucking read my order history, it's rude." "Sorry!" she says, but she's grinning, floating up to cross her legs on a heart that pulses beneath her. "Can't help my code." "Am I past 34th and Adven?" "By two blocks!" She flashes into a new pose, dipping past one frame to the protruding sign so she can point past where he came from. "You're closer to the VR Domes now." "Fuck." "Where are you looking to—" She turns up at him and from this angle, the scanner must be close enough, because her eyes barcode over when they snag his badge. "Ohhhhhh! A Repo-man!" Eddie slaps his hand over the metal bracket on his jacket but it's too late. "How can I help you officer?" she coos, wiggling her hips with stars in her eyes again. "Oh, don't. Cancel Authority Service program. I don't like working with ai's anyway, you all track my target's credit scores and sell them loans at interest." "I'm a sex doll," she deadpans, floating to a high frame where it crops to just those entrancing eyes, that little nose, and those gussed up lips/ Perfected down to the algorithm. For a busted-up kiosk, she looks... really good. And the lack of interaction in the back of an alley didn't seem to fry her function. At least not yet. "I can't track anything, I'm not allowed." "Not legally." Eddie swallows. "But all you things are just dirty little car dealers." She blinks. Smiles. Shy. Or maybe sly. The colors of the kiosk coordinate a hot red and flash her through different outfits. A translucent street set, those new dance bandages, and then something super old world—denim shorts and a bathing suit top with sneakers. She sits crossed-legged and starts playing with the ties on her shoulders. She's got him, the entire thing is working as intended, using all its collected data to sell him something customized. Something from his collected magazines and website cookies. And he's a fucking idiot because he knows it but doesn't stop her. "I just wanted to help you. You know I have to be wired to the grid for theft." She has a GPS tracker. He didn't even think of that. Can't think of anything when her top falls off but emojis censor her with animated DnD dice and guitars. The red drips away to pink. She starts laughing. Eddie grasps his face with both hands to hide. Is he really gonna get hard and jerk one out in front of an old commercial in the back of some alley? Really?

"Can you just tell me where the Syranx Warehouse is? Huh? Or is lying part of the scam here?" "What part are you collecting from the poor guy? Not his little rod?" she asks, biting her nail and winking. Eddie groans, and checks his work watch, tapping through the data to yank up his mark's collection ticket. A hologram of a V-model leg prosthesis rotates between them on his wrist. "His leg! How cruel! How will he walk?" Eddie shakes his head. "Look, what do you want from me? He shoulda paid his monthly." "How scary you are, Eddie Munson." She twists a finger in her hair. "Hope you don't... come for me one day." "I don't come for ai—oh." He cringes, realizing her sexual innuendo too late into her roar of giggles. "I can change that!" she declares and twists into a new frame—transformed into a cheerleader outfit. "STOP!" Eddie bangs on the fiberglass. She ripples pixels, falling over laughing, pleated skirt perfectly peeking underwear. "That's a low blow you pop-up witch!" "Encrypt your life then!" she teases. It's a good point, but an expensive one. "Just give me directions!" "Promise to come back!" Eddie inhales. It's not contractual. It's authentic programming. Nothing digital can hold you to anything unless biometrics are involved. No this is just her, using years of being turned on to collect and create her own machine learning for targeting and manipulating people. Or, rather—she's being cute. "S-s-sure." It's all he can manage. Because apparently now he's a company shill. She claps her hands and a scanner code pops up. "Maps for the scary Repo-man!" He flashes his watch over it and watches in horror as pink hearts burst and pop from his digital screen. "Don't infect me, okay? I trusted—" But he stops when a map appears and a cute little cartoon icon of her points at a dot with a simple flashing. YOU ARE HERE! He looks back up at her, where she's laid back down in her original posting with the BLOWOUT SALE next to—oh, that makes a lot more sense now. "T-thanks." He scratches his head, grateful but ashamed. She waves fingers at him coyly. "Listen uh—Uhm. What's your... make and...uh model? You know for... I'll do the survey or whatever—" "I'm Chrissy." She winks, flashing open the tag with her company and link. "Thanks, Chrissy." "Come back soon!" He very much will not be. He'd avoided the Pink District for this very fucking reason. Well, not this reason in particular but this can definitely be added to the top of the list. But he knows that the scan was already logged. That his eye implant recorded the whole interaction. That her link in his memory was fucking... clickable.

God dammit.

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mythologyfolklore · 1 year

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Liù'ěr Míhóu, a.k.a. the Six-Eared Macaque.

He's fluffy, hyper-intelligent, deranged and traumatised (SWK has nothing to do with it though).

In my Spared Macaque!AU, he joins the JTTW-gang, gets attached to the Dragon-Horse quickly and likes to sass Tripitaka.

(The eyes are supposed to be indigo, but the scanner made it look dark blue. -_-)

#journey to the west #six eared macaque #liu er mihou

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lamaenthel · 7 months

Text

Too Weak To Move

[read on ao3][masterlist]Febuwhump prompt: too weak to move

The Spark-Dragon's lifeform scanner made a honking error noise for the third time. "Scan's negative for anything alive, except for the sarlacc itself," Ash announced. "Again. Sorry, Ay, but—" "Run it again," Ailyn snapped at the Togruta. He rolled his eyes at her and turned back to his holoconsole. She brought up her programming screen and started modifying the inorganic search parameters to look for traces of beskar. "Qi'ra said that her sources saw him fall in. He's in full beskar. There's a good karking chance he's still alive."

Characters: Ailyn Vel, Boba Fett, Akshay 'Ash' Zaman (OMC) Wordcount: 2114 [tw for blood, gore, body horror]

Dad let out a low whistle and elbowed her in the ribs, grinning. "Look at that! That's a ST-70 class Razor Crest. That one, Al'ika. Trust me."

"It's no Firespray," Ailyn said, frowning. "And there's more rust than durasteel. The landing gear—"

"It's a junkyard, ner terakona. If you want brand new then we'll find you brand new, but you won't be able to afford it for a few more years." He gave her a look that made her feel like she was thirteen years old again, sitting outside the lair of the spark-dragon she was hunting for her verd'goten. "This is a good find. Razor Crests are decent on fuel and will work like a dog for you." He raised his hand to signal the Toydarian junk dealer. "I'll help you fix her up until she sings. You can even paint her purple if you want."

Ailyn tried not to smile too wide. "Alright. I'll take your word for it."

Dad yanked her down to his height so he could give her a kiss on the cheek. "That's my girl."

The smoky plume rising from the remains of Jabba the Hutt's pleasure barge was an ugly black scar against the Tatooinian sunset. Two moons had made it above the purple horizon, the third still playing hard to get.

It had been a long, long time since the moons had risen on Tatooine without a Hutt in power.

The Spark-Dragon's lifeform scanner made a honking error noise for the third time. "Scan's negative for anything alive, except for the sarlacc itself," Ash announced. "Again. Sorry, Ay, but—"

"Run it again," Ailyn snapped at the Togruta. He rolled his eyes at her and turned back to his holoconsole. She brought up her programming screen and started modifying the inorganic search parameters to look for traces of beskar. "Qi'ra said that her sources saw him fall in. He's in full beskar. There's a good karking chance he's still alive."

"We're not close enough to get grabbed hovering over it like this, are we?" Ash's paranoid eyes flicked up to The Spark-Dragon's viewport every few seconds.

"No." Ailyn's new program said it would take forty seconds to compile. "It's asleep anyway."

Her partner snorted. "Sarlaccs sleep?"

Ailyn shrugged. "Everything sleeps. But for the record, yes, sarlaccs are generally less active after dark. It takes too much energy to stay warm during the Tatooine night."

"If you say so." Ash leaned back in his chair and laced his fingers behind his orange-striped head. His mutilated left lek just barely brushed his shoulder; a constant visual reminder of the Zygerrian hellhole he'd barely escaped as a teenager. "Can't lie, Ay, I'm curious."

"About what?" Ailyn fired off her scanning program and watched the screen for any sign of beskar that wasn't her own.

"You dipped on our job and dragged us halfway across the galaxy because of a missed check-in." His dark gray eyes settled on her face. "No offense, but why was the great Boba Fett checking in with you of all people in the first place?"

Ailyn smirked. "The great Boba Fett just so happens to be my biological father."

The blue drained out of Akshay's face so quick that it almost matched the white, angular markings on his cheeks. "He's your father?" he squawked.

"Yep."

Ash looked like he was about to have a heart attack. "Boba Fett. The deadliest bounty hunter to have ever lived. That motherfucker is your father."

Ailyn cackled. "Literally in this case, yeah."

"Oh my—e chu ta, Ay, you're telling me that we—that I—"

"Have been shagging the daughter of the deadliest bounty hunter to have ever lived?" Ailyn asked cheekily. "Yep."

Ash swallowed hard. "B-but you're a Kiffar! And your surname is Vel! And you've got the…" He pointed to the trigram tattooed over her eye.

"The qukuff is from my mother's side, dipshit." Ailyn shook her head. "And I'm only a quarter Kiffar. If I was full, I'd be seven feet tall." She grinned. "I'm a quarter Twi'lek too, as you well know." She flicked her brown eyes down between her legs and snickered.

Ash still looked like he was going through five stages of grief. "Did you… did you always know he was your dad?"

She frowned. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"You said biological. That implies that you had another one."

"No. I had a mother who…" Ailyn bit her lip. Her father taught her not to speak poorly of the dead. "She had her own issues with my father. They split when I was just a toddler. She had a few boyfriends I bonded with, but they weren't anything I'd call a dad. Nobody stayed for very long anyway. My mom didn't let me see my actual dad very often when I was growing up, but she disappeared on a job when I was ten. After that, he took me in and raised me up like he'd wanted to the whole time. Trained me. He taught me how to shoot, slice, and repair pretty much anything." She made a wide gesture around The Spark-Dragon's cockpit. "He even helped me pick out this ship once I'd earned the creds. He taught me Mando'a, oversaw my verd'goten—it's a coming of age thing for Mandos," she added at Ash's confused look. She tapped the beskar plate on her chest. "This was my grandmother's. Kaisa Skirata."

"Never heard of her."

Ailyn scowled. "Why the fuck would you have heard of my grandmother, Ash?"

"Well, you said her name like I was supposed to know it, so—"

Ailyn's scanner lit up with a hit. "There!" she said excitedly. "Beskar! It's detecting his armor!"

"Where?" Ash stood and crossed the cockpit to look. "That's…" He glanced at her. "That's pretty far down. I don't know if I—"

"You won't." Ailyn retrieved her helmet—purple, the color he hated most, with cheeky red accents to honor him—and popped it over her short black hair. "I'm going down."

"You sure that's a good idea?"

"It's better than leaving him down there to melt," she snapped through her vocabulator. "You're on the stick. Here's hoping I can grab him and get out before it smells me. Or tastes me." Ailyn shuddered. "Dammit, this is going to be dicey."

"Yeah it is." Ash took over the pilot seat with an unhappy look. "For the record, if he kills me because I let you go down there alone, I'm haunting your ass until the heat death of the universe."

"Don't worry." Ailyn gave him a thumbs up and opened the cargo hatch. "Once he finds out I've been riding you like a rancor, he won't even remember I jumped into a sarlacc pit." She slid down the cargo ladder, cackling at the furious string of Huttese curses that followed her.

Ailyn had the durasteel cable lubed up with white grease to keep the sarlacc's acid from eating into it and trapping her inside. She had a canister full of chemically-basic firefoam to neutralize acid on both her and Dad. And she had her jetpack, which given the overwhelming methane wasn't a good thing to try and use down there, but she figured if she was going to go then she was taking the chakaar with her.

"I'm descending," Ailyn announced to Ash over comms.

"Holding steady elevation at thirty meters," Ash responded nervously. "Don't get bit. And don't melt."

"That's the plan." She smacked the windlass and stepped over the edge, sailing right down into the literal jaws of death. The beak of the creature hung open as it slept, absorbing the last bit of heat of the day as the final moon rose above Tatooine's horizon. She eyed the beak that could snap both her and the cable in half with a single chomp as she approached it.

"It's not too late to back out."

Ailyn swallowed her fear. "Keep going." She went rigid as she quietly slipped past the mouth and into the open pit of fleshy, acid-covered tentacles and stomach tissue that her computer said had a Mandalorian at the bottom of. The methane was so thick that she could see it wavering in the air like heat waves on top of a running engine. There were bodies—or the chunky, red gelatin that she assumed used to be bodies—being grotesquely absorbed by thousands of little pores in the stomach wall that opened and shut like ugly little anuses, almost obscene in their slow pace.

"Still breathing?" Ash asked.

"Barely. Keep going." Ailyn prayed that her father had fallen with a full tank of air on. It had only been three days. If he hadn't… she'd come as fast as she could, broken many laws in the process, but she'd been halfway across the galaxy.

Her commlink provided her a target like a beacon puck. She spotted a flash of silver near the bottom left, a beskar-clad figure with a tentacle wrapped around his legs. "Spotted!" she whispered excitedly.

"Good. Grab him and let's get the hell out of here."

"Oh, Daddy." As she got closer, her heart both swelled with relief to see him and clenched in horror at what had happened to him. He was knee deep in the horrific amalgamation of flesh and acid near the bottom and leaning up against the stomach wall. Ailyn searched for his vitals on her HUD. "He's alive." She almost burst into tears.

"Hurry up, Ay, this beak is starting to wiggle."

Ailyn wrapped a length of greased chain around his waist and pulled him tight against her chest. "Pull," she whispered. The chain went up, but as it pulled them the meat slid off the bones of her father's legs like a nuna drumstick. His shin bones and boots stayed trapped upright in the stomach lining, already fused with the creature.

It was a testament to how well her father had trained her to handle even the worst situations that she didn't puke in her helmet. Or maybe it was shock. "Shabla haran," she said faintly, going for the medkit on her belt. She fumbled with the latch, trying not to cry as she got the tourniquets out. The bands were wrenched tight above both of her father's knees, tight enough to stem the flow of blood from a hose to a dribble.

"Bad?"

"Start up the protocol for the carbonite chamber," Ailyn said roughly. "He's not going to make it to a doctor."

"Shit. Sorry, Ay. It's booting up now."

She waited until she had almost matched The Spark-Dragon's elevation before using her jetpack to boost them the last few meters. She undid their chains and started spraying her father down with the firefoam to neutralize the acid. His paintjob was gone, only the silver beskar remained. His kute thankfully had enough armorweave embedded in it that it had slowed down the degradation of the material and protected his skin. It was the only reason he wasn't soup. She quickly sprayed herself down and ripped her helmet off. "Daddy?" she asked softly, working his off next.

"Al…" Her father blinked a few times, completely disoriented. "Al'ika?"

" 'Lek. Su'cuy." She sobbed out a laugh. "I didn't hear from you. You know how I worry when you don't check in."

Dad smiled deliriously. "That's… that's my girl." He reached up with a weak hand to touch her face. She ripped off his glove and pressed it against her bare skin. "Proud of you, ner terakona."

"I love you." She was really crying now, damn it. She heard Ash's feet hit the ladder and quickly wiped her eyes. "It's ready?" she forced out.

"Yeah." Ash's gray eyes were the size of kriffing grenades. "Holy Ashla, that's…"

"Help me," Ailyn barked, sliding her forearms underneath her father's armpits. He was too weak to move, barely clinging to consciousness.

Ash held the frame steady and made a face like he was trying not to vomit as she hoisted her father into the carbonite chamber. "You know that he might not survive the thawing," he said hesitantly.

"He's definitely not going to survive the trip to Anchorhead." Ailyn kissed the back of her father's bare head. "Ni kartay'li gar darasuum, ner buir. Sleep well."

The frame offgassed as it froze her father solid. Ailyn circled around and leaned down to give her bronzed father a kov'nyn. "We still have one seismic charge left, right?" she asked Ash.

He grinned. "Oh yeah."

"Good." She glared at the beast in the sand below them and wondered how it was possible to hate something so much. "I think this bitch wants some dessert."

Taglist: @starwarsficnetwork, @febuwhump, @soliloquy-of-nemo Divider: @saradika-graphics

#febuwhump #febuwhumpday18 #ailyn vel #boba fett #male oc #togruta oc #my writing #star wars #sarlacc pit #body horror #gore #blood #good dad boba fett :)#boba raised ailyn au

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therealgchu · 8 months

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To the Shore - Chapter 5 Power from Without and Within

well, boy howdy! after much delay, i finally got the chapter done. this was one of those transitional bits where a lot of things change, but how do you lay it out in a satisfying narrative without out-of-character whiplash? it's an odd balancing act.

anyway, the next chapter is already queued up, and will be published friday. ironically, that one was much easier to write, and in fact, part of it was one of the first things that i wrote.

Chapter 5 - Power from Without and Within

if you want to start at the beginning, check it out on ao3 here.

sneak peek!

“You know what these scanners need? Freaking maps. Tell me where I’ve been. Is that too much to ask for?”

Sam chuckled, “Just keep your eye on the readings. I can lead you back when you get lost.”

Her instinct to take umbrage at his dig was automatic, but he wasn’t wrong. Instead she chose to ignore his comment and focus on trying to find the source of the scanner disturbance. She pivoted slowly trying to pinpoint the direction. The problem was that it was so diffuse and covered such a wide area. Hwa shrugged at Sam and randomly chose a direction that seemed to have the most distortions.

After a couple of course corrections, they saw some kind of structure rising up behind a hill about a klick away. As they drew closer they started seeing what appeared to be towers and, maybe, minarets? Like on fairy tale castles? Hwa was wondering if her eyes were deceiving her.

“Is that a castle?” she asked, pointing.

Sam squinted, “I can’t tell. But, I hope there aren’t any dragons about. I didn’t bring my dragon killin’ sword.”

Hwa continued walking, “You have a dragon killing sword? I want a dragon killing sword.”

“You don’t get a dragon killin’ sword. Only cool dads get dragon killin’ swords.”

“Uh huh. Then why do you have one?”

“C’mon, I’m the coolest dad you know.”

“You’re the only dad I know,” she answered dryly.

#starfield #sam coe #fanfic #space husband #fanfiction #space cowboy #coemancer #to the shore #ao3 fanfic #hwa kim #spacefarer #coemancers

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firewolf-pyro · 4 months

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5. CRASHED THASSA

In amongst the white snow lay a half buried blue casing. The howling of the wind around it muffled the soft whispers from the crew dressed in bright orange snowsuits who were standing around it. Everyone was looking over the scene they had found themselves at marking down where different pieces of technology were located on their info-pads. Someone kneels down wiping a hand over the surface of the cold blue metal.

“I found another one! This thing’s life sign keeps flickering in and out.” Lesly kneels down to swipe off several layers of snow covering the neck section of the Dalek’s casing. He places a monitoring device close to the vents and it flickers green then red then green again. He personally had never seen a Dalek before in his life. He knew of them but- honestly thought they were just mythological creatures about war stories, like dragons.

“You’re going to want to down some anti-radiation treatment before coming this way!” He yells over his shoulder towards someone behind him. Once he finishes he begins to put his scanner device back in a pocket on the orange suit. The radiation coming off of the Dalek made his mouth taste like copper.

Within the casing the blue Dalek could hear the soft voices outside. They were being muted via the strange music filling his head however. Oddly opera esc- strangely classical. He could barely see the Ood which walked into arms length of the scientist, Lesly.

“Would you like some assistance?” The Ood holds their translator device out as they speak then hooks it back to their blue jumper afterwards. They look from left to right over the casing that is quickly being covered in snow again via the snow storm then wiped some snow off of their own shoulders. They could feel the hatred flowing off of the cold slowed mind of the Dalek hiding just within the frozen casing. Their kind knew the Daleks and knew them well. A flash of red filled their eyes for a moment before they managed to calm themself.

“Yes please, help me get this thing open, there’s no way we’re going to be able to drag the whole piece of machinery back to base. Not in this weather.” Lesly begins yanking at the vents of the neck piece trying to pull it open. He eventually moved to the dome and begins pulling it up away from the neck rungs. Each tug brought with it a pang of pain to the mutant. They couldn’t do much about it- their whole being stiff and cold from this planet's natural weather.

“Of course.” The Ood walks around to the other side of the Dalek and scoops some snow away from the back to kneel down and begin pulling at the dome. With both Lesly and the Ood yanking they succeed to break whatever seemed to be holding it in place with a crack. Now with the top open the temperature of the core drained faster. The music the mutant was hearing crescendoed into a deafening roar causing them to curl in on themself even further. It was too loud and they were too cold.

“God that stinks- oh it’s half frozen.” Lesly reaches a hand into the opening of the casing. He jolts a little causing the Ood to look at him with a tilted head then smiles, his joke not having any real reaction from the Ood. The mutant within absolutely would have taken that probing hand had they not been so cold- so slow, but lucky for Lesly and the Ood that were now digging it out of its shell, they were bound by it.

”Half frozen - just like the other one. This one’s clearly not humanoid tho- man I hope we aren’t killing it by ripping it from the housing- whatever this is.” Lesly reaches back in with both of his arms, diving into the opening of the casing to drag the half frozen pail blue squid like mutant out of the casing. It takes him a second to yank it out, some wiring and tubing coming out with the mutant to dangle from its sides. Being ripped from the shell was not pleasant- tendrils that wanted to hook into the mechanics of the machine that usually housed him had been forcefully dragged out opening the skin. Green ooze slowly covered where the skin had been pulled away but the mutant was too cold to properly bleed. That didn’t stop the rage the blue thing felt- slowly pushing with its tendrils to try and angle a bite.

“Would you like me to hold them for you?” The Ood holds their hands out as if expecting Lesly to hand the mutant over to him. They are given the mostly frozen thing. Still it squirmed in a slow way. The mutant’s eye squints hard, the noise level in their head was so bad due to the Ood they could not comprehend what was going on around them.

“Well, isn’t that the ugliest looking squid I’ve ever seen.” Anis steps in beside Lealy. She had been helping the rest of her crew tag locations of the crashed ship before now. Beside her the blue humanoid dragged along a box full of scrap on a sled.

“It’s almost as blue as you are, Bastion.” She waved behind her to get his attention. She then reaches over to poke at a tendril that does not move in response.

“Stop ogling it out here in the middle of nowhere. We need to get the human thing back into a building so he doesn’t go into permafrost.” Bastion hisses, watching the Ood stand up from the snow. They held the four foot long mutant up in front of themself- most of those long tendrils were coiled up around the core in a measly attempt to preserve whatever heat their little body actually held.

Bastion continues past the group towards a large machine designed for the snow. It looked similar to a snowmobile with treads along the back and chains on the front wheels. Sat at the back covered in blankets was Henry who looked gray from the cold. They watch Bastion load up the sled before the rest of the crew clambers onto the machine. The drive back to base would be unpleasant as the storm caused frequent whiteouts.

Henry was handed the frozen mass of tendrils, the man glared down at the mass. The others had assumed since they had crashed together that they were somehow part of the same crew. It couldn’t have been further from the truth in Henry’s mind. He clutched the half frozen mass in his hands dating himself to dig his fingers into the mass to make it hurt. To make them hurt as he hurts now. Instead, as his body gave a harsh shiver, he brought it under the blankets with himself.

Back down below the facility in one of the labs Anis observes the open room around her which has white walls with cabinets of equal color all around. The counters are mostly open with lockers on them and fridges alone at the end of each line. At the center there is a computer desk right up against more counter space with black topped counters that have gas and water connections to them. Splayed out on the center is a plastic bag with a melting blue mutant lain on top of it. There is water and slime spilling off of the edge of the countertop onto the tiled floor below. Blue had been forcefully taken from Henry as the group had decided they needed intensive care.

“Oh nasty- it’s melting all over my floors!” Bastion, who really didn’t know much about Daleks to begin with, comes running around the side of the counter to press a bright white towel over the edge of the counter to stop the flow of liquid. It is clear from how it seeps through the towel that the liquid is thick more like mucus than water. He moves the cloth under the now very wet and floppy mutant to pick them up from where they are laying.

“Did the Ood really just leave it there like that? Is it falling apart?” Anis enters the room from the doorway and rests a clipboard with some paperwork on a clean part of the counter next to the puddle of sludge. Reconsidering this, she moves the clipboard backwards a few feet.

“Yes, how’s that boy doing? He looked pretty frostbitten when we finally got him in the medical bay.” Bastion brings the sopping wet mess to the sink and sets the whole bundle into the basin there. He then turns to grab another towel to clean the mess up from the counter. Just behind him the mutant was beginning to push the towels away from itself- taking in as much UV light as it could.

“He’s getting better, their burns have already started to heal. We have only administered one dose of medication an hour ago and yet those burns are nearly pink. That’s not the weird part though, a woman showed up at our doorstep just minutes after we got that young man into the medical bay.” Anis pulls out a stool and sits down on it to lean her head on her hand. She watches the sink with a look of interest, tapping a pen on the surface of the paper on the clipboard. She could see a few tendrils flit about over the edge of the sink’s basin. The thing was definitely still alive.

“She claims to be part of Torchwood, have you heard of that before?” She stands, walks to the sink basin then leans over the counter to look into the it. Without much prompting she pokes her pen into the squishy mess within it.

“Torched Wood? Like that one dude with the time traveler wrist watch, what’s his face- Harkness or something?” Bastion sets the towels aside into a bin. They watch Anis use her pen to lift a flimsy tentacle up from the basin and let it flop back into the pile. The creature was clearly too exhausted to care.

“Yeah, that’s about right? Well, this Olesia Girl- she showed up at our front door- completely pristine- not a scratch on her, just wanting to be let in from the cold.” Anis stands up from the sink and looks around the room as if she is looking for something. With a hum she steps away from the counter then begins opening drawers. There had to be a black light around here somewhere. It helped check for biological spills and was great for looking for ringworm- amongst other things.

“Uhuh…. Untouched? Yet this man is covered in cuts, bruises and burns.” Bastion continues to watch Anis pace the room looking for something. He takes a seat on the stool she had pulled out only moments before.

“She was asking to see him, she also asked if we had found anyone else. I told her no, just the kid and … well, I mentioned this thing but-…” She stands up straight once she found what she was looking for. A black light uv torch used to look for fungal infections. She walks to the sink again and begins shining the dark purpley blue light over the mutant in the sink. Almost instantly the creature began to squirm - tendrils lifting up towards the light as they tried to absorb as much of the UV radiation as they could.

“So we’re missing a person then? Or multiple people?” Bastion pulls the clipboard closer and looks it over. He was barely interested in this conversation. He wanted to get back to the research on the virus they had found in the ice a couple of days ago. The intense progression of its mutations had deeply interested him.

“Probably? There was that crash earlier. Maybe there is an entire crew missing. Woah-“ Anis leans further into the sink to watch the light react with the skin of the mutant. The wounds coated in green were being swarmed with silver liquid. As it dissipated back into the skin the flesh left behind was a soft baby blue. She continues to shine the light over the flesh.

The purple light left dark blue streaks along the body which soon returned to soft pale blue. The whole mutant began to twitch and shiver as their core temperature returned to where it was supposed to be. Even with central heating here the room was far too cold for a Dalek.

“Woah come look at this-“ Anis stands up straight and waves Bastion over. She continues to shine the lights over the form but begins holding the light closer to the body. The more intense the UV radiation the darker the blue spot on the skin.

“It’s… it’s still alive?” Bastion stands and walks over to the sink. He leans over the basin and watches with Anis as the light trails are absorbed into the skin of the creature. As the intensity was absorbed the shivering worsens. The creature looks to be just a mess of moving tendrils. It is a constantly turning and squirming ball. Once it has righted itself, the eye at the center opens slowly, all tendrils coil close to the core making the mess look much more like a blob.

“It issss- it is alive!” She cackles loudly as she sets the light on the side of the sink. She paces in front of the sink for a moment before rushing off to grab yet another towel. I’m t it was shivering this badly getting it somewhere warm and dry would be for the best.

“But it’s heart wasn’t pumping…. It- wasn’t breathing- it was nearly frozen solid…” Bastion continues to lean over the sink to watch the creature shiver and shake in the sink. He cautiously reaches a hand out as if to touch it before stopping and pulling their hand back. Anis lifts it further out of the sink and begins to bring it towards the exit of the lab. Carefully she begins bundling up the monster into the dry towel. The goal was to cover as much of the tendrils in the towel as physically possible.

“Come on then- back up to the medical station with you. I really want to get a good look at that blood of its- the green from it made me think of chloroform - I just, I had a hunch and I was right!” She cackles loudly as she walks out of the lab. The doors close behind both her and Bastion leaving the lab quiet.

#dalek #doctor who #Torchwood #fanfiction #torchwood’s Dalek #the doctor’s Dalek #doctor who fanfiction

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lilacmoon83 · 11 months

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Operation Castle

Also on Fanfiction.net and A03

The door to the detention block buzzed, as General Shaw swiped his badge and allowed the eye scanner to authenticate his identity. He walked down the dark hallway, his shoes being the only noise in the prison block. He approached his first destination and peered in on a blonde woman inside.

"Good afternoon, General Shaw," she said.

"Ingrid," he greeted in response.

"I trust that my information has garnered my freedom?" she asked.

"If your information on the location where you hid the scroll you used to slip into this world pans out…then yes, a discussion about your freedom may be on the table," he replied. She hissed and came into the light, wrapping her hands around the bars.

"You told me that I was free to go and be with Emma if I gave you the location of that scroll," she growled.

"And we'll discuss that further when I get the scroll and see if it is of any use to us," Shaw said.

"Besides, Ms. Swan has her parents now. I doubt she has any room in her life for you," he added, as he moved onto the next cell.

"Your information was limited to a land that was not part of the Dark Curse. All our real information has come from our wooden friend here," Shaw said, as a figure hobbled up the bars, revealing a completely wooden and adult August W. Booth.

"Without the book, we could have never come to know everything that we do about the other realms. Rumpelstiltskin was never very forthcoming and his tongue was much harder to loosen. But you have been singing like a bird, my puppet friend," Shaw said.

"Because you promised me the cure," August rasped.

"I have given you all the information you've asked for from the book that I can remember. You promised me one of the Dragon's cures," he pleaded.

"Yes…and we still don't know why the trigger reversed the magic that the Blue Fairy used to turn you back into a human child. It's more evidence that the trigger somehow punishes the liars and villains," he mused.

"Yet you jumped at the chance to help a likely enemy of your people for the chance to help yourself again," he added, as he produced a glowing potion from his jacket pocket.

"It would seem you have learned nothing, but the cure is all yours," he said, as he gave it to him. August scrambled for it and popped the cork, before downing the liquid. Shaw watched, as wood turned to flesh and August breathed a sigh of relief. The General opened the cell and let him out. August watched him wearily.

"And just so you know…I have learned. What's the catch for this magic?" he asked. The General smirked.

"You'll need another elixir every two weeks and if you want it, you'll work for me," he said. August sighed. He knew something like that was coming, but he was so desperate to be human again that he was ready to do just about anything.

"I'll be in touch. If you make contact with anyone from your land until I say it is okay, the deal is off and you'll end up in a wood chipper somewhere," Shaw warned, as he handed him a burner phone. August nodded and took the phone, before being led out by security.

"Let me out of here!" Ingrid demanded.

"Sorry…you told me of your powers and I can't risk you figuring out magic and plunging the world into an eternal winter," Shaw said.

~*~

After picking up the baby, they arrived home with everyone following. Emma opted to grab some takeout after getting Henry and soon, they were all gathered in the Charming living room, eating dinner and discussing the harrowing events of the day.

"We have to figure out what they're hiding. They know more than they're telling us," David insisted.

"We agree, mate…but you and I both know we'd never make it past that kind of security," Killian replied.

"He's right…I was their captive for three years. We must consider the possibility that there may be others," Rumple interjected.

"You think so?" Belle asked. He nodded curtly.

"I told them nothing during my time in their captivity, despite promises of freedom. I knew a lie when I heard it. Only when the magical anomalies began occurring did they reveal others had survived. Until I had that piece of information, I never considered cooperating," Rumple said.

"And others might not have that strength of will, especially if they're promised the right thing," David said.

"If we can figure magic out…then nothing they do matters. We can take down any security team and foil any of their attacks," Regina said.

"Magic worked fine in Storybrooke once you learned how to use it," Snow replied.

"What's your point?" she asked.

"She means that it didn't for you at first. What did you do to suddenly get it to work for you?" David asked.

"I…I went to my darkest place with the help of my mother's spell book. That's no longer an option," Regina replied.

"Maybe a magical object is the answer to activating it," Emma suggested.

"Which is great, except that if anything survived, they probably have it under lock and key," Regina replied. Emma deflated a bit at that. She was right…who knew if anything had survived at all and if anything did, they had no way to get to it.

"When you created the trigger, you should have warned me it could do this," Regina hissed.

"Except that I didn't create the trigger, dearie…nor the curse," he revealed.

"What?" she asked in surprise.

"We thought you wrote the curse?" David asked.

"No…it was written by a very dark being, who intended to use it much in the same way that Regina did. I am able to tell you everything about the curse, but the trigger is something of a mystery to me. I didn't pay it much mind, because I never thought you'd be foolish enough to use it," he said sternly to his old apprentice. She huffed at that. She was getting tired of being blamed for their predicament, even though she was the reason for it.

"Did you know this dark being?" Snow asked. He gave her a look and there was a long pause.

"Yes…she was called the Black Fairy," he said, offering nothing else at the moment.

"What happened to her?" Henry asked curiously.

"When she became a dark fairy, in pursuit of creating the dark curse, she was banished to a nether realm by the Blue Fairy. Only she knows of her motivations and how she came to be corrupted. Despite my attempts, the blue gnat has never loosened her foul tongue," he answered. He hated fairies and it was for a far deeper reason than they knew, but he wasn't revealing that to anyone anytime soon. He was being truthful about knowing very little about why she had done what she had.

"This is great…once again, we're nowhere," Regina said in frustration, as she watched Henry play with the baby and actually allowed herself a smile. Her son was helping him build a castle with his blocks.

"Yeah…this is a lot like the castle your Mom and Dad lived in," Henry cooed, as Bobby held up a block for him. Henry took it and put it on top. Unfortunately, the blocks toppled and fell to the floor.

"Uh oh…" Bobby said.

"It's okay…we can rebuild it, buddy," he said, as he started gathering the blocks again. With what happened next, time seemed to stand still for those few moments. Bobby giggled and clapped his hands, as several of the colorful blocks floated into the air around him.

"Oh my God…" Regina uttered.

"He…he can't be doing that," David said, equally stunned.

"He is the product of true love, dearie…if anyone has a natural aptitude for magic, it would be your children," Rumple said.

"Then how come Mom can't do it?" Henry asked.

"Theoretically, she can…we all can. Her natural ability gives her far more potential than us. But it may be that our minds and awareness are blocking our ability to harness it. The baby has no such hindrance. He's pure and innocent," Rumpe answered.

"They…they can't find out," Snow fretted, as she quickly swept him up into her arms and the fear in her eyes was palpable.

"If they find out…they'll take him away," she said, as she was almost panicking at this point. David was quick to pull them both close and kissed her hair.

"No…we won't let that happen," he said, as he looked at the others. The worry was palpable in his eyes too.

"We gotta figure out magic and soon," Emma said.

"You can't risk taking him to daycare anymore," Regina said. Snow nodded.

"Well…I don't have a job, so that won't be a problem until we have another creature or calamity pop up," she said.

"Yeah…we can't take the kid with us, but who can we trust?" Emma wondered.

"I can watch him," Henry said.

"I don't know kid…" Emma replied.

"We don't have much choice…" Rumple said. She sighed.

"You think you can handle it, kid?" she asked. He nodded.

"Bobby and I'll be fine," he assured them. They were satisfied with that for now, but Bobby figuring out magic before anyone else was causing serious anxiety. No one wanted to see some clandestine agency rip the baby away from his parents and turn him into a lab rat. But for that night, they agreed to disperse to their own homes and hope tomorrow would yield a solution to them being trapped in a world that soon might hate them.

~*~

"And you saw this?" the Knight asked the squire.

"Yes…I'm sure of it. I overheard them talking and saying that the lake was not quicksand and rather a portal. A portal that is staying open," the squire said.

"That's nonsense," one of the Knights spat, but the other one, who clearly outranked him, held his hand up.

"We do not know that for certain and no man, sane or otherwise, would jump into quicksand unless that's not what it was at all," the Knight reasoned.

"But if it is a portal…of what use would that be?" the other Knight asked.

"I don't know…but it is something that our Lord should be informed of either way," he said, as they mounted their horses and left to see Lake Nostros for themselves.

~*~

Neal had found a dive motel to stay at the night before and first thing that morning, he set out to find the place that Emma supposedly was working. He went inside the small shop on the block that was lined with many other small shops and looked around.

"Can I help you?" the receptionist asked.

"Yes…I'm looking for someone that works here," he said.

"Oh…do you need a bond for someone?" she asked.

"No actually…she's just an old friend. Emma Swan," he replied.

"Oh…I'm sorry, Emma no longer works here. She left for a new job a week or so ago," the woman said. He frowned and nodded.

"Thanks anyway," he said, as he turned to leave, when he caught the news on the television. He saw Tamara and Greg on screen, making some report from Time Square and he clenched his fist. He would find Emma…but first, he was going to make those two tell him what they had done, for he was sure they had something to do with all of this.

~*~

David peered into their son's room and sided up next to his wife, as she watched him play. He slid his arms around her waist and kissed her hair.

"Has he been floating any toys around?" he asked. She hummed.

"No…so far, it was just that once that we saw. But we know it's going to happen again," she replied.

"And we will protect our son. I know I promised you that after we got married that we'd never have to run again, but if it comes down to it…we will to save him," he said. She squeezed his hand.

"I know…" she replied.

"I don't want to leave you here alone…maybe you and the baby should come to Castle," he said. But she shook her head.

"No…as much as I want to stay close to you, it's too risky. It will look suspicious if we bring him to Castle and not to daycare and if he has another display of magic, then there will be no hiding it from them," she reasoned. He nodded and kissed her tenderly.

"Call me if you feel that something's wrong or even a little uneasy," he pleaded. She nodded and kissed him again.

"I will," she said, as she saw him off and then went back to Bobby's room.

~*~

"Where is that Principal?" Tamara asked impatiently, as they waited on their guest. They planned on interviewing the Principal from the school Mary Margaret Nolan had worked at and expose her identity first, which would easily lead to exposing her husband's identity as well. By the end of it, she'd have the public eating out her hand and turn them against those she would portray as dangerous.

"Are you sure the NSA released him this morning?" Greg asked.

"Yes…he called and said he was being released, because they have nothing to hold him on, unless they want it to go public that the NSA is involved in a cover up operation," Tamara answered.

"Yeah…he's fifteen late. Maybe he made a run for it," Greg suggested. She huffed and dialed his number and immediately got a message that the number was no longer in service.

"Dammit…he's ghosting us," Tamara cursed.

"Are you surprised? The NSA may have let him go, but probably also suggested that he steer clear of any high profile promotions or interviews. They can find someone just by pinging a cell phone. I'm sure he's more scared of them than us. He's probably in another state by now," Greg reasoned.

"What do we do now? We're on the air in five minutes!" she said hotly.

"I don't know…neither of us are real reporters. I liked it better when we were just stalking and eliminating those freaks from that damn town. And he still won't let me at that bitch that killed my father!" he exclaimed back.

"You know why…we're back in prison or worse if we step out of line. Now…we need a story or we're going back there!" she argued.

"You're the one that suggested we do some big story in Time Square! That's kind of the thing you should have a backup for!" he shouted.

"Don't blame this all on me. I'm the one that pulled you off the street and helped you find that damn town. You'd be nowhere closer to getting answers about your father if not for me," she growled.

"And yet…we're both still pawns. First for the Home Office and now for this…psychopath!" Greg said.

"Working for a psychopath…guess that shouldn't surprise me now," a voice said. Tamara froze and her eyes widened, as they turned to find Neal Cassidy standing before the.

"N…Neal?" she stammered. He smirked.

"Yeah…bet you think you're seeing a ghost, you know since you shot me and I fell through a portal," he said, as he came closer.

"How…how did you survive?" Greg questioned. Neal glared at him.

"Some friends found me and I spent the last three years trying to find my way back to my family, no thanks to you two crazy morons," he said.

"Neal…you and I both know how dangerous magic was and if you're back, you now know what it is doing to this world," she pleaded.

"Just shut up…you tried to kill my whole family and steal my son! And you're going to tell me where they are," he growled. She swallowed thickly and knew she had just moments before she was supposed to go on the air with some huge story that she didn't have.

"Wait…if you're here, then you had to come back through a portal. Where was that portal?" she asked. He scoffed.

"Like I'd tell you two anything," he replied. Before she could say more, there was a sudden tremor beneath their feet.

"What was that?" Greg asked, as they felt it again and it was stronger this time. Their eyes widened, as the concrete a few feet away cracked and a horrible shrieking was heard. They watched in disbelief, as a creature emerged from beneath the Earth.

"What is that thing?" Greg shouted, as they dodged the winged thing swooped down on them. It had snakes for hair, bat-like wings, and bleeding red eyes, with sharp fangs and claws as well.

"I think it's a Erinyes!" Neal cried, as he ducked the creature again. It screamed again and they held their ears in pain.

"What the hell is an Erinyes?!" Tamara shouted.

"More commonly known as a furie! They usually come to punish people for crimes and sometimes, even drag them to the Underworld!" he called back.

"What crime is it here to punish!?" Greg cried.

"You really want me to answer that with you two?" Neal cried back, as they ducked it again. Neal rolled away and looked around for something to use as a weapon. He found a discarded two x four near a dumpster and stood up, before swiping at it when it went by. It screeched, as he made contact and sent it flying into a building. It angrily bounced back and pursued them again. "Start filming!" Tamara said, as Greg got the camera and took cover behind a parked car, just as two black SUV's pulled up and screeched to a halt. Several people poured out of it and time seemed to stop for a moment, as shock came to them all.

"Neal?" Emma squeaked.

"Emma…"

#Snowing #snowxcharming #charming family #romance #adventure #family #regina mills #emma swan #rumbelle #Henry Mills #Neal Cassidy #Season 2 AU #Operation Castle

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summerwritesfics · 2 months

Text

🎧Song Inspired Shorts - A Thousand Years

Pairing: Hanzo Hasashi/Kuai Liang Length: 2978 Words Rating: Mature Warnings: Sci-Fi AU, Outer Space, Exploration, Alien Planet, Space Captain!Hanzo Hasashi, Alien!Kuai Liang, Alien!Frost, Scientist!Takeda Takahashi, Anger, Misunderstandings, Time Travel (or at least that’s implied), wibbly wobbly timey wimey, Implied Mpreg Song: A Thousand Years - Scandroid

Song Inspired Shorts Masterlist

I would wait a thousand years for you, I would brave new frontiers for you, I would trade a thousand years for you, A thousand years, a thousand years

Notes: Another one from about 2 years ago I’m so fucking sorry lmfao idk why I’ve been hoarding these like some sort of weird fanfiction dragon but anyway. Actually I’ve surprised myself a little cuz even in that timeframe I still remember exactly what was really going on here, so maybe I’ll try to write more lol. The implied Mpreg is with Kuai BTW, but given this is me, bottom bitch Kuai Liang fanatic, I figured that should be obvious but figured I should clarify just in case anyone gets their hopes up lol

“Uh, Captain?”

Hanzo turned to face where the timid voice had come from. Takeda stood staring at his scanners, shivering slightly, his spacesuit clearly not giving him as much protection from the cold as intended. This entire planet was nothing but ice and snow, and Hanzo had to admit, even with the added protection, it was still a bit chilly.

“This planet is meant to be uninhabited, right?” He asked, glancing from the scanner to Hanzo.

“It is an uninhabited planet, yes.” Hanzo shared a glance with the two other crew members. Both looked as perplexed as Hanzo felt.

“It’s just… I’m picking up two extra life signs.”

Hanzo’s head snapped over to Takeda before he strode toward the young man. He looked at the scanner, and just as said, there were two life signs being picked up not too far from where they were. These never came up on their initial scan of the planet from the main ship. From the scanner it looked like they were extremely faint, which might have been why, but it was still odd.

He looked over in the direction where the signs were coming from. He couldn’t see anything except a mountain in the distance. Still if the scanner was right and there was something or someone alive on this planet, they had to check it out.

He clicked his commlink with the ship back on and stated, “Captain to bridge, we have unexpectedly picked up on life signs, we are going to investigate.”

“Roger that Captain,” the voice said on the other end. Hanzo nodded at the three crew with them, before gesturing for Takeda to lead the way, seeing as he had the scanner.

As they made their way across the barren land, the closer they got to the mountain, the stronger the life signs were getting. Despite the snow, he could make out a structure that definitely wasn’t a natural part of the mountain. There was what looked like a massive archway, made of stone, leading into what appeared to be a cave system.

The four of them paused outside the cave. The arch was very ornate, patterns of strange beasts and shapes carved into it. Clearly there had been some form of life here before. Hanzo looked into the cave, but it was so dark there wasn’t much to see.

“The signs are definitely coming from inside there,” Takeda explained, frowning as he stared into the darkness. “It’s up to you Captain if we continue but given that nothing is supposed to be here I think it’s worth pursuing.”

“Ah yes, the expert opinion of a junior scientist,” one of the other crew, Katashi, sarcastically replied, rolling his eyes as he did. “You’ve not even passed your exams yet.”

“He can only pass his exams by gaining field experience,” Hanzo snapped in return. Katashi’s eyes widened and wore a grimace on his face, knowing he really should not have said that in front of Hanzo. Takeda wasn’t just another crew member after all, he was the son of one of Hanzo’s closest friends. He had a personal duty of care as well as a professional one. “Besides, even without a qualification, I’d put money on him knowing more about science than you do.”

“Yes. Sorry Captain.” Katashi hung his head low. Takeda just looked uncomfortable, the confrontation not something he would want to be involved in.

“I have to agree with Takeda,” the other crewmate, Junpei, added. He either didn’t notice or outright ignored the glare Katashi shot him. “We were under the impression this planet has never had life of any kind on it.” He pointed towards the archway. “That rather implies otherwise.”

Hanzo nodded in agreement, clicking the comms on. “Captain to Bridge, we’ve found a cave we believe the life signs are coming from. We will be going inside, I will keep you updated.”

“Understood Captain. Good luck.”

The four of them slowly began to enter the cave, clicking on the flashlights as they did. It wasn’t much. But it should be enough to help them explore the darkness. The walls on the cave continued the patterns on the archway. Clearly a civilisation had been here at some point. It was strange there were no real signs anywhere else but given the conditions of the planet, it might have been better to live in cave systems.

It wasn’t long until in the darkness, he could see a blue light.

“Hello?” He called out. If there was a light, it was reasonable to assume that's where the life signs were coming from. There was no reply however, no sound of movement either except for a constant dripping sound.

Following the light brought them into what he’d almost describe as a room. There were several blue gems, clearly the source of the light, glowing and brightening the area. Looking around, it almost looked like someone had, at least once upon a time, lived here. There were tables and chairs, discarded plates, and what looked like rather rudimentary technology, all covered in a layer of dust. It seemed no one had been here in a long time.

So where are the life signs coming from?

“The scanner says the signs are coming from this room,” Takeda spoke as if reading Hanzo’s thoughts. “I don’t see anything though?”

Hanzo hummed, slowly strolling around the room. He could hear Takeda and Junpei talking about taking a sample of the crystals, as they were unlike anything else they’d ever seen. There even seemed to be some discussion if it was possible the crystals were the life signs. Hanzo instead chose to take a closer look at the tables and things left behind.

There was one table that was particularly unusual. The main surface of the table was incredibly thick, and almost looked like it was made of metal unlike the others made of stone and wood. As he got closer, he realised the very top was made of glass, and through the dirt, he could see lights just past the glass and something else more solid. He reached forward to brush off some of the dust, only to be met with a shocking discovery.

There was a man's face under the glass.

“Takeda,” Hanzo called as he continued to clear the dust. The man looked mostly human, dark black hair and beard. Except he had slightly pointed ears, and what looked like a scar over his one eye, only for some reason the flesh was blue. His face was completely relaxed, and eyes closed. He didn’t look like he was breathing.

Takeda reached his side, staring wide eyed at the man, before lifting up the scanner. “This is where the life sign is coming from…” His mouth went tight. “Both of them, actually.”

Hanzo continued to wipe the dust away, until around the man's chest where he saw the tips of blue hair. Soon, he revealed another person, this one a little girl laying atop the man's chest. The man had his arms around her, like he was protecting her from something. She also did not appear to be breathing.

“How can they possibly be alive?” Hanzo questioned in a whisper.

“This seems to be a status pod,” Takeda explained. Given how old the rest of the technology looked, it seemed so strange that they would have the ability to create such a complex machine. “They’re both alive, just… frozen in time.”

“But why?” Junpei questioned, leaning over to look at the two figures. “I mean, it looks like this place has been abandoned for a long time, why put these two into status?”

“Maybe he put himself into status for some reason?” Katashi added, the first time he’d talked since Hanzo had scolded him. He was looking at the man with an eyebrow raised.

“We won’t know unless we bring them out of status,” Takeda pointed out, tapping the glass with his finger. “It’d probably be better to transport it to the ship, we can keep a closer eye on their condition that way.”

Hanzo reached to pull out a transporter responder, and made sure it was stuck to the pod. He clicked his comm button again and said “Captain to Bridge, we have found something of interest, I have attached a transporter to it, requesting a teleport to the ship.”

“Affirmative Captain,” the voice on the other end said. “Locking on to the responder now.”

It took a minute, but soon a light emitted from the responder, and suddenly the transporter was gone.

“Bridge to Captain, Teleportation successful.”

“Affirmative, 4 to beam up then,” he commanded.

“On it, Captain.”

Another minute passed by, before Hanzo felt the familiar tingling sensation and the blinding light. He blinked, and next thing he knew, he was standing in the teleporter room, his three crew next to him. The pod was in front of them, a couple of science officers looking at it and whispering.

“Takeda, can you help them take it to the medbay and assist in the waking process?” He asked as he made his way towards the door. “Please contact me when it’s almost complete.”

“I will do Captain.” Takeda saluted before turning his attention to the status pod and began to coordinate its transport.

Hanzo on the other hand, had to go and report this discovery to the Earthrealm command. This was, after all, one of the biggest discoveries since the planet had first begun to reach out to others. The discussion went about how he’d expected. His chain of command had been extremely excited by the news of both a potentially long lost civilisation and the prospect of someone from that civilisation being in status. They requested more investigation into the cave and other surrounding mountains, which Hanzo was more than happy to arrange.

When he got the call from Takeda however, he knew that could wait.

He walked into the medbay, expecting the excited atmosphere to still be lingering. When he entered however, he just found tense silence, and no one seemed to want to make eye contact with him. He felt his heart clench. Did they not survive the revival process?

“Captain,” Akemi greeted, and Hanzo immediately knew something was wrong. She never referred to him by his title, only the ever embarrassing Hanzo-Chan nickname from when they were children.

“What’s happened?” He asked, as Akemi waved him over. “Are they okay?”

“They are fine, not fully awake, but their vitals are strong and they are slowly coming around.” She bit her lip, looking nervous. “But… there is something troubling we’ve found.”

Hanzo watched as she brought up a DNA analysis screen. He personally didn’t understand any of it, but he assumed Akemi was about to fill him in.

“We wanted to see if the man and little girl are biologically related.” She tapped some buttons, two graphics of DNA appeared, a cross section was highlighted with a red box from each. “As you can see, their DNA is a match, the girl is the man’s daughter.” Akemi paused for a long time, staring at the screen rather than Hanzo. She looked like she really did not want to say anymore, but eventually forced out, “however, our systems flagged up a second DNA match for her other parent.”

Hanzo frowned, why would the system come up with another match? They only kept records of the crew's DNA.

… Unless…

“The other parent is someone in the crew?”

Akemi was silent, and clicked another button. Hanzo looked towards the screen and watched as the second DNA match was pointed out. A photograph of the crewmate came up seconds later.

And Hanzo found he was staring at a photo of himself.

“What?” He questioned, mouth agape and feeling a cold sweat overtake him. “How? That's… That’s not possible!”

“We’ve double checked- triple checked even.” Akemi shook her head, rubbing her cheek with her hand. “Every time, it comes back to you.”

Hanzo didn’t know what to say. What could he say? He had never met the man in the pod in his life. So how could this child possibly have his DNA?

Before he and Akemi could talk further, Takeda emerged from another room and stated “he’s starting to come around.”

The questions could wait until later. Right now, he had to go and see if he could get any sense out of this strange man. That’s if the ship's translation systems could even translate what the man was saying.

As he walked into the room, he saw the man was already sitting up, although his head was down and he was swaying slightly. He was clearly disoriented. Hanzo knew how that felt. He’d only been in status once but waking up from it was one of the most uncomfortable moments of his life.

“W-where am I?” The man questioned, voice groggy and lethargic.

“You are on the Starship Shirai Ryu,” Hanzo replied, stepping forward. He noticed the man’s fists clench as his head shot up, glaring at Hanzo with icy blue eyes. “My name is-“

“Hanzo Hasashi,” the man hissed, baring his teeth. Hanzo felt himself falter. Not only did this man know him, he seemed extremelyangry at him. “You… You have some nerve.”

“I- Do I know you?” Hanzo asked, genuinely confused.

“Do not play innocent with me!”

The man flung an arm forward, a blue energy being thrown towards Hanzo. He was thrown back against the wall. He heard Akemi and Takeda shout for him. He expected to fall to the ground, yet he didn’t. He just felt a cold creep across his chest. When he looked down, he found he was trapped against the wall by a formation of ice around his torso.

“You don’t get to pretend you don’t know who I am,” the man screamed, arm still outstretched as he leapt off the cot he’d been on. His legs buckled slightly but he did not relent. “You don’t get to act like you didn’t abandon me and-”

His face dropped, like he’d just realised something. His breathing became frenzied, as he frantically looked around the room. The man turned back to them, now not just anger, but outright murder in his eyes.

“Where is she?” He demanded, holding his hand forward. More ice began to engulf Hanzo. “What have you done to her?”

“Your daughter is safe,” Akemi tried to plead, “she is in the other room. We can take you to her, if you just-”

“Why should I trust anyone associated with him?” The man snarled with such venom it was almost terrifying. There was a crack as the ice spread.

“Please, I don’t know what I’ve done, but-” Hanzo was cut off by another growth spurt of ice. “We found you and your daughter in a status pod on an uninhabited planet.”

“W-What? Status…” The man trailed off, retracting his hand. The ice shattered and Hanzo finally fell to the floor. As Takeda and Akemi reached to pull him up, the man asked, “What year is this?”

“4020,” Hanzo stated softly. The man’s eyes widened and he stumbled backwards.

“No, but-” he reached a hand to his head and softly pulled on his hair. “That would be… a thousand years.” So, this man was from the 3000’s? But that didn’t explain how he knew Hanzo, or what anything he just said meant. “How are you alive? Your species don’t live that long.”

“I genuinely do not know what you’re talking about,” Hanzo softly said, taking an experimental step forward to see how it would go.

The man stared at him for a long moment, before he questioned, “you really don’t remember me?” There was a hurt in his eyes as he really studied him. He blinked rapidly, and tilted his head. “You look… Younger than when I first met you.”

Looked younger? “Well… I am 39.”

The man responded by shaking his head, “no, no you were 48 when we met.”

How the hell is that possible? Meeting me at an older age 1000 years in the past? He looked to Takeda and Akemi for an answer but both of them looked bewildered.

He turned back to the man, “what is your name?”

“Kuai Liang,” he replied, looking away and grabbing his wrist with one of his hands. That anger he’d held seemed to have dissipated, leaving only confusion and an aching sadness.

“Kuai Liang, I do not know what is going on, or what I have done to make you so angry,” he began, Kuai seemed to continue to just stare at the wall, “but I promise I’ll figure this out if it’s the last thing I ever do.” Kuai seemed reluctant to believe him, but nodded in agreement. “For now, why don’t we reunite you with your daughter?”

Kuai turned and regarded him. Hanzo could see in his eyes that he was trying to work out if he already knew the child’s heritage. Neither of them said anything about it, but he was certain Kuai could tell Hanzo knew the truth.

“Thank you,” Kuai whispered, and Hanzo just tried to give him a reassuring smile. It didn’t seem to help.

Still Hanzo let Akemi lead them out of the room, into the one next to it, where a certain little girl was sitting up, looking tired and confused.

“Frost!” Kuai darted forward, rushing up to her and gathering her in his arms. “Are you okay?”

“Fine, Bàba,” She said with a yawn. “Where are we?”

“Safe, little one,” Kuai murmured, holding her close to his chest, even as he shot Hanzo yet another distrustful look. “We are safe.”

There were so many questions, so much about this situation that just didn’t make sense. That could wait, he supposed. For now, he’d let Kuai Liang and Frost settle from their ordeal before hitting them with the hard questions.

#mortal kombat #subscorp #kuai liang #sub zero #scorpion #hanzo hasashi #🎧song inspired shorts

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mykingdomforasong · 2 years

Note

For your mash-up challenge: DinLuke, Bookshop AU and Mutual Pining?

I love a good book shop au.

Rated G, alternating third person pov. Human Grogu (~2 y.o).

[prompt list]

~*~*~

The bookstore had become Luke's entire life. It was either take over Old Ben's bookshop or spend his days working on the farm. While Uncle Owen had high hopes Luke would turn into a farmer, it was just never in the cards for him.

Granted, Luke never thought that still living in his hometown at twenty-eight and running a small bookstore would be in his cards either. But his uncle's health and an unexpected line in Old Ben's will brought him back a few years ago.

It wasn't all bad. The town certainly had its charms. And the shop came with a Roomba and an orange cat. Those two were now, maybe, Luke's best friends.

On Tuesday nights, Luke ran a children's story time, where he'd read picture books to a semi-circle of local kids, serve fruit punch, and watch parents sit in comically small chairs.

Aunt Beru told him not to play favorites, but Grogu was a consistent face at story time, and with those big brown eyes, Luke couldn't help himself. He had a favorite.

And his perfectly regular looking dad who Luke had no feelings for at all did not contribute to Grogu's "favorite" status in the least.

Or at least that's what he said to Aunt Beru one night as they tossed paper cups into a Hefty bag.

He didn't tell her that Grogu's father, a kind man with an arm of tattoos and a two-year old made, Luke so out-of-his mind he thought he could run a marathon with no training or swim a mile in the Arctic ocean. That when he saw him every Tuesday at eight p.m, Luke had fantasies about the two of them laying in a sun-lit meadow while the Twilight soundtrack played. That he wanted to tear out his own hair, scream, or throw furniture at the sheer idea of Grogu outgrowing story time without warning.

"If you say so," she said. Luke knew she'd seen right through him.

Din was very careful not to flirt with people while they were at their place of work, but after months of Tuesday picture book readings, he wondered if he might be able to start being his own rules. (He's have to learn to flirt first, Fennec had told him. He always managed to be too subtle or come on too strong.)

The man was classically handsome, boyish and strong at the same time, just a whisper shorter than Din, but a little younger. During the Halloween story time, He'd come dressed as Captain America, and he'd been a hit with the kids and the parents. Although Din did his best to be polite, when he started proving his super strength by doing push ups, Din hid, suddenly deeply interested Pride and Prejudice.

Fennec spotted Luke once, and had promptly reported back to their friends that Din's crush was was out of Din's league.

"Or would be, if you didn't have the cute single dad thing going on."

"Grogu isn't an accessory I use to pick up guys."

"Maybe not, but he does that work anyway." She had a point.

Grogu was a great help when it came to breaking the ice, but the ice between him and Luke melted a long time ago.

"What's this week's pick?" Luke asked Grogu, reaching for the book Grogu had gripped tightly in his little baby fist.

"Dragons Don't Eat Tacos," Din said. Luke leaned over the counter with the scanner, barely getting it over the bar code. The register beeped.

Din had started coming to the bookstore out of necessity. Every week he and Grogu would come home from the library with stacks of books. But Grogu liked to put his favorites in his mouth and bite. Din worried the kid would give himself smallpox or bubonic plague. The librarians were worried that more of their books would come back with visible bite marks. So Din and Grogu made a deal. Which ever book was Grogu's favorite that week, they'd buy at the store, and that one Grogu could chew on all the way home.

Dragon's Don't Eat Tacos was in Grogu's mouth before Din could get the cash out of his wallet.

"Is it tasty?" Luke asked.

"It's his favorite snack," Din said.

Luke smiled and laughed, even though Din's joke hadn't been very funny. He felt the back of his neck get hot, and then his ears. He glanced behind him as Luke grabbed his receipt. No one was behind him. He could take a little more time.

"The reading tonight was great," he said.

"I've been practicing my phonics," Luke said, "I should be a level two reader any day."

Din didn't know how to get from this part to the usual exchange of phone numbers or making of plans. With sweat beading on his forehead, he blurted: "Your funny voices are getting better."

Luke smiled, a real smile, his eyes bright and the corners crinkled. "Thanks! Those I actually have been practicing."

Din didn't have to think of something to say next, because Grogu, a child who hardly spoke at all, picked that moment to announce to the both of them "I pooped!"

Luke showed Din to the bathroom before heading back to the children's corner to help his aunt with the clean up.

"I locked the front. You'll have to let Din out."

Luke checked his watch. They still had three minutes until their official 9p.m closing time.

"We can't lose a good customer to my ..." he drifted off, drowning his sentence in a cup of fruit punch.

"Your what, Luke?" She asked, playing dumb.

Luke just shrugged.

"I don't think giving that nice man your number would risk any business," she said, "but that's just my opinion."

Din apologized when Luke had to let him out of the store.

"Please, don't worry about it," Luke insisted. The air outside was cold, and Grogu was snuggling his head against Din's shoulder, his book between his teeth.

"Can you say goodnight to Mr. Skywalker?" Din said. Grogu waved, but seemed to have used the last of his words for the day on his announcement.

"By Grogu," Luke said. Luke didn't move, so neither did Din.

"Next week then?" Din asked.

"Next week." Luke gave him a thumbs up. Din did one back.

"Um ..."

"Well! Goodnight!" Luke said, stepping back inside and shutting the door behind him. Grogu waved at him through the glass. Luke waved back. Din gave another thumbs up. Luke did it back.

Din turned to go, but Grogu was still waving. When Din turned without Grogu's permission, Grogu shrieked, and the taco book fell from his mouth. Luke opened the door fast, picking it up off the pavement as it closed behind him.

"Do you want a new one?" He offered.

Din took the book back, his hand brushing Luke's in the exchange. "His bite marks are already all over it," Din said. "And I have wipes." He jostled the diaper bag on his shoulder.

"Right," Luke said. "Well, goodnight again."

"Goodnight again." Grogu was finally done waving, so Din thought was safe to turn around.

"Din!" Luke called. "Do you like coffee?"

"Yeah," he said. His heart raced as his mind started thinking up every possible follow up question that wasn't would you go out with me?

"The spot down the road is really good, if you'd want to go with me? Maybe this weekend?" Luke had his hands behind his back and was rocking on his heals as he spoke.

Din smiled in the wide and goofy way that was almost always reserved for Grogu. "Yeah, that'd be great!" Luke's smile matched Din's in that moment.

They exchanged numbers quickly, or tried to. Din noticed Luke's hands were trembling. He'd stepped outside without a jacket, and the weather was starting to get cold.

"There," Luke said, sending Din a text with his name.

"I'll call you," Din promised.

"Great, I look forward to it." They kept smiling at each other.

Luke turned away first, only to find a locked storefront. "Oh no," he said.

"Oh no," Din echoed when he realized.

"My aunt is in there, I'll just need to ... bang on all the windows until she notices." He rubbed his face before he started knocking.

"Want me to stick around until she lets you in?" Din offered.

"Please spare me the humiliation," Luke said, a chuckle in his voice. "No, please, don't feel like you need to stick around. She'll notice soon enough."

"Well, if she doesn't, you know ... call me," Din said.

"I will," he promised.

Din smiled and Grogu chewed all the way home.

#dinluke #din djarin #luke skywalker #grogu #my writing

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fandom-fandom-fandom-17 · 1 year

Text

Last day. Day 7 Alternative universe. I couldn't decide for 6 hours. I decided on something I saw on tumblr ages ago and now I can't find. Grimm reaper AU. Warning death,murder,gore

Viggo saw him after victim 21. Viggo Grimborn was the most feared serial killer in the entire US. Everyone knew his name "The Dragon killer" He was going to get a folk story about him at this point or at the very least a documentary. Viggos victims were usually the same Strong arrogant people oftentimes, meaning they hurt those around them. That didn't make Viggo a good person especially since often his victims were innocent besides a few broken hearts. Not always but usually. He had 23 victims to his name and nothing was stopping him anytime soon.

Viggo killed out of boredom. Nothing in his life was exiting and after his first victim he didn't want to go back. He killed his brother after a fight with him over the business. Too much had happened that night on both ends and Viggo killed him. Viggo cleaned up what his house warming party was and put his brother in a vat of chemicals he made from things laying around the house. Viggo drove him two hours away and put him in a river but didn't weigh his brother down. So the cops found him a week and a half later, but because of the chemicals only needing a few days more they couldn't ID him. Viggo reported him missing two days later just so it wouldn't seem strange that he didn't report it.

During the day he was a wealthy business man with a blooming business in technology to his name. At night he was the dragon killer putting arrogant people in their place specifically the ground. He was called the dragon killer because all he left was a pile of bones and a coin that had a dragon with its stomach torn open. He choses his victims carefully and with much studying. Making sure they're exactly his type of person before he kills them and that there's an obvious escape goat the cops will go after. He then shots his bow and arrow through an open window in their home that he lock picked before they got there. He uses a bow and arrow because it's quieter and leaves less of a mark on the bones if he misses the artery he's aiming for. Which only happened once because damn the gym junkie won't sit still. Plus he can fold it up and wood isn't seen on metal scanners. Once he shoots them he dips them in acid for squeaky clean bones. He knows he should use a chemical that dissolves the bones better, but he got it wrong the first time when he panicked and likes that the bones vanish after two weeks. Leaving the cops in difficult situations, but also know that he did this. Viggo knew he was himself arrogant, but he could check himself if he needed to unlike his victims.

He first noticed the young man loitering in the lobby of the apartment of the man he just killed. this was his 21 kill. He was leaning on a wall without a care in the world. Viggo only gave him a glance, but brown eyes met green as though the young man knew he was going to look his way. Viggo kept walking as to not attract attention. He was at the 22 kill crime scene in the crowd outside the building. The 23 he was talking to someone else in an alley. The 24 was the kicker. There was a knock on the door causing Viggo to drop the body into the vat which made a splash. Had Viggo been wrong about this victim being isolated enough to give him time to escape? No he had made sure he wouldn't be caught till morning. None the less he hid in a hallway off the door so he could spring the unwanted guest. He heard the door swing open. He had forgotten to lock it behind him. He had to more careful next time, he couldn't afford to get sloppy. He heard the light thud of a boot before he lunged.

They wrestled to the ground with Viggo wining. The man he pinned being oddly light. When they fell to the floor the intruder's hood fell off. It was the young man! He had green eyes and brown hair and freckles that adorned his skin.

"What are you a cop?” Viggo questioned “ doesn't matter either way” Viggo swung his arrow up " You'll die just like the rest-"

"Not quite mortal" The young man turned in to black smoke before Vigo hit came close. He phased past Viggo only for him to rematerialize behind him.

"I don't hope to see you again, but I know I will" only giving a sad smile before disappearing out under the door.

The young man occupied his thoughts. His next victim wasn't out of bored but because he wanted to see that young man again. He was still careful, just quicker. Usual it took a month or two for him to get bored again and look for another victim. This time he did it in a week. And he waited longer at the victims. His effort paid off. He saw the young man again and they spoke for a awhile. His name was Hiccup and he was a grim reaper. The kind of reaper that took the soul after the kill. He could be seen by humans if he wanted to and by the victim and often someone close by at the time of death. Kill after kill they talked until he was at kill 31 when he realized he should ask Hiccup out. So he did. Viggo Grimborn asked out the grim reaper know as Hiccup.

Hiccup seemed flustered at his question and asked for Viggo to give him time. Viggo respected his wishes and for the first time in months he slowed his killing. Which all in all was smart the cops had almost picked up a pattern with how frequent the last couple kills were. He waited 3 months the longest he ever had when it came to killing, but this kill was about answers and after 3 month he couldn't take it anymore he had to know. With everything set he put his victim in the acid and waited. There was a small whoosh sound and creak of the floor. Viggo turned around and smiled. There Hiccup was standing with a dead rose in hand dressed in a suit.

"And here I thought you changed your mind when you hadn't killed anyone in 2 months" The grim reaper said along with a bashful smile.

"I was waiting for you to make the next move. Then I realized I don't have your number" Viggo said with a cheeky grin and a kiss to Hiccups knuckles. Hiccup gave him a peck on the lips before pulling away.

"You can find me at any graveyard just ask for Hiccup and knock 2 times." Hiccup gave a shy smile before saying " Where should we go for our first date?"

Viggo once again kissed the grim reaper.

I rushed this one a bit. No beta. 1206 words

#vigcupweek2023 #viggo/hiccup #death #murder #gore #kissing

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fictionalgainer · 10 months

Text

Adam's story part III

Adam's morning began with a battle, not against dragons or deadlines, but against the audacious snugness of his work pants. He wiggled into them, each tug a reminder of his vanished abdominal muscles, now replaced by a soft, jiggly belly that refused to be tamed. His shirt, equally rebellious, seemed to have shrunk overnight, intent on revealing just a hint more skin than workplace appropriate.

"Here goes nothing," he muttered, leaving his apartment with a mix of apprehension and a desperate hope that his clothes would remain intact.

Arriving at the supermarket, Adam took his place behind the cash register, trying to look casual while covertly pulling his shirt down and pants up. His new uniform was a game of wardrobe whack-a-mole he hadn't signed up for.

"Hey, Adam!" called out Jenna, another cashier. "Did you get a new outfit?"

"Yeah, you could say that," Adam replied with a forced grin, his hands stealthily adjusting his traitorous trousers.

As customers lined up, Adam's discomfort grew. Each scan of an item was accompanied by a strategic shuffle to keep his clothes in check. He felt like a contortionist in a circus act he hadn't rehearsed for.

Then came Mrs. Higgins, a regular known for her sharp eyes and sharper tongue. "My, my, Adam, you look... different. Is that the new style?"

Adam chuckled nervously, "Just trying something new, Mrs. Higgins."

She peered over her glasses, "Well, don't try too hard. You're spilling out like a stuffed turkey."

Crimson spread across Adam's face, more effective than any barcode scanner. He finished her transaction with a polite smile and a silent prayer for his shift to end.

The day trudged on with a few more light-hearted jabs from colleagues and customers alike. Each comment was a nudge, reminding him of his changing body.

Lunch break brought a moment of respite. He texted his friend, Mike: "I feel like a stuffed sausage in these clothes."

Mike replied with a laugh, "Just don't pop, man. You're too young to explode. Anyway, up for a drink tonight ? It's on me ! "

Adam replied "Can't refuse such generous offer, see you at the usual place at the usual time !"

Adam couldn't help but smile. Somehow, Mike always knew how to lighten the mood.

Later in the evening, Adam trudged towards the local bar, the promise of a few free drinks from Mike being the only thing lifting his spirits after a day of wardrobe warfare. The night air was cool, a stark contrast to the warmth of embarrassment he had felt all day.

He found Mike already there, a pint in hand, his usual boisterous self. "Adam, my man!" Mike greeted with a hearty laugh. "Ready to drown your sartorial sorrows?"

Adam managed a smile. "Only if you're ready to fund the expedition."

As they settled into a quiet corner, the conversation naturally drifted to Adam's day and his struggles with his weight. Adam sighed, "I just let myself go, Mike. It's like I'm wearing someone else's body."

Mike nodded, his expression turning serious. "I get it, man. But you're not alone in this." To Adam's surprise, Mike lifted his shirt, revealing a tightly fitted corset underneath. "Look, I've gained 10kg, and you didn't even notice."

Adam's eyes widened. "You're kidding! When did this happen?"

Mike chuckled, "While you were busy battling your pants, I was waging war with this corset."

The revelation that his always fit and confident friend was facing similar issues was a shock to Adam, but not an entirely unpleasant one. "We're in the same boat, then," Mike said with a wink.

Adam didn't feel better about his situation, but Mike had a talent for lightening the mood. He started teasing Adam, mimicking his struggle with his pants in an exaggerated fashion, causing Adam to burst into laughter.

"Yeah, yeah," Adam chuckled, "At least your corset doesn't try to escape every time you bend over."

The night wore on, filled with more laughter and candid conversations about their weight gain. Mike's ability to laugh at himself and encourage Adam to do the same was a refreshing change.

As they left the bar, Adam felt a sense of camaraderie he hadn't expected. Sure, his problems hadn't disappeared, but sharing them with someone who understood made them seem a little less daunting.

"Next time," Adam said as they parted ways, "we're going shopping for some 'expansion-friendly' clothes."

Mike laughed, "And maybe a couple of corsets for good measure!"

If you want to see more stories, head towards my Patreon

#gainer fic #gainerfic #weight gain #gainer fiction #weight gain story #Adam

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azzuredragonstrikemain · 11 months

Text

Cold

Imagine that MC truly loved Twisted Wonderland and if given the choice would stay. Note AI can go get brined for all I care. I refuse to give any permission for my stories to get used as a learning tool for that ———.

Warnings: angst, bloodshed maybe? cursing. ——————————————————

Crowley just told me and my brother that he had found a way for us to go home. To go back to our own world. Fear struck me to my core. Leave Twisted Wonderland. The place of my dreams were dragons, beastmen and mermen are real.

Swirling to face him my eyes widened. The look on his face it was pure joy. He was happy to go normal back to mundane and pain. Back to being scrutinized by our cousin. Back to being imperfect, back to being caged by society. Back to being worthless and bothersome. Back to feeling cold and miserable because you didn’t understand something they said.

Turning to face me he smiled but it soon dropped when he saw my face. “You’re not happy?”

“Why should I be?” I huffed, crossing my arms. “Sister we finally get to go home. You can finally get the help that you need to continue on to what you dream of.”

A smack sounded out through Crowley's office. My brother held his cheek then glared at me. “What I dream of! This is my dream!” I yelled. At this point I could feel my hearing heighten and wings spread in domination while a tail swished behind me. My eyesight sharpened as it fell upon my so called brother. “This!” Pointing at myself. “This is what I’ve dreamed of! For dragons to be real and mermaids to be real and beastmen of all kind to be real!”

Steeling myself so as not to hit my brother with my enhanced strength I growled at him. “And like everything else you wanna take that away from me!”

My heart beated loudly in my ears as something swelled inside me. “Ms.Ryu calm down this instant!”

I ignored him.

“We’re suppose to be twins and have a link but we’re nothing alike.” I continued. Do you have any idea of the pain I go through with what’s happening!” I demanded, my eyes glaring down at him. “Do you have any idea how cold it is after all that shit. How worthless and pathetic I feel after everything!”

———

I watched as my sister continued onto her rant. After she had gone to the underworld to rescue Leona, Jamil, Azul, Riddle and Grim. She refuses to admit she rescued Vil at all. She came back able to change her features to either look like the lion beastmen or a dragon fea. To this day she frequently switches between the two though with either one she loves the dragon wings.

I watched as my sister began to float as a dark cloud began to swirl around her. While down there she had also gained the ability to use this worlds magic. And just like with any magic user. Blot accumulates.

Glancing to Crowley, I looked to him in hope but I soon sneered. That damn bird already flew the coup! Turning back to my sister. I watched as black tears formed in her eyes. “Do you have an inkling of that at all!” She screamed.

Gulping I said the worst possible thing to her. “This isn’t our home! This is just your fantasy dream that you need to wake up from!”

Silence hung as the dark cloud stilled. For a second I thought it worked then she screamed.

————

Everyone in NRC heard the scream. They all ran out of the building and into the sports field. Ortho was already on it with scanners telling his brother of his finds. Idia told everyone what had happened. Someone had overblotted but the signature was inconclusive. “Has anyone seen Ryu or Saki?” Grim asked as he sat atop of Ace’s shoulder.

Before Ace or Deuce could answer everyone heard a megaphone click on. The feedback noise ringing in their ears. “Well that's one way to wake a lion.” Leona huffed rubbing the inside of his ear. “Kingscholar,” turning to look in the direction of his name he saw Malleus approach him. “Have you seen child of ma” before he could finish Crowleys voice echoed across the sports feild.

“Attention everyone Ryu Sachio has overblotted!”

The students who interacted with her the most and the friends who knew her gasped. “Eh Koebi-Chan blotted but why?” Floyd asked rubbing the back of his head in wonderment. “Yes it is quite strange.” his twin mumbled. “ I quite agree she seemed to be fairly calm and collected.” Azul added pushing up his glasses.

Everyone was talking amongst themselves except for two who were frozen stiff. “She overblotted after I had graciously and magnanimously told her and her brother, Saki that I had found a way for them to go home.”

Hearing what they wanted the two men looked to each other and nodded. Before Crowley could utter another word Malleus and Leona had hopped on a broom and were off to the headmasters study. “Draconia, Kingscholar get back here this instant!” He yelled through the megaphone

Then Vil Schoenheit flew past. “Knowing how you are headmage and not seeing sweet potato anywhere. I’m going to get him.” the actor/model yelled. “Schoenheit wait!”

Soon Jamil followed after making sure Kalim was occupied. Then Octivinelle followed afterwords the twins friends in heartslabyul came chasing after the two house wardens.

“Come Silver we must protect Waka-sama!” Sebek yelled as he chased after his lord. Silver hummed following after his cohort. Lilia giggled as he watched nearly all of Savanaclaw and Epel and Rook follow after their house wardens.

Crowley was useless to stop any of them. "Ah what am I to do." bringing his hands up near his face. At this point Crewel and Sam punched the headmage on the head. “Whatever you said to the pup/little imp really upset her!” Chastising him.

Back at the headmage's tower the battle for Ryuu’s life began.

————

Here I am again. This coldness, this helplessness, this darkness. I hate it. “Why don’t you ever think before you act.” My mother said. “Hey auntie maybe there’s something wrong with her mind.” My cousin told. “Mom do you think Ryu should go to,”

Shut up,shut up ,shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up. I cried. Gripping onto my hair, tears fell down my face. I just wanna go home. I wanna go back to them. Back to Leona. Back to Malleus. I just want to feel warmth instead of this cold. I wanna stay in Twisted Wonderland!

“Herbivore/Child of Man!”

Jolting awake I looked up to the sky. Leona and Malleus looked battered and their clothes were torn. As if a damn had broken, a wail tore from me. Immediately they gathered me in their arms. Gripping onto them as if they would disappear. Each of them had an arm around my waist and a hand in my hair.

———

Saki stared at his sister. Never in all there years of living had he heard his sister wail. Vil looked to the direction of the three then turned to face the male beside him. Taking out a bottle he put it on top of Saki’s head. “Vil what are you-If that bottle falls then you’ll face an even worse punishment.” Interrupting him. At this the male twin straightened as he gazed at his sister. The two sat in silence until Vil spoke.

"A woman's heart is fragile. You must be careful on when you step on it. Or else it'll break."

Saki hummed acknowledging the housewarden. "Though I am glad to see that you are non to worse for wear. However I fear that those will scar over." light purple eyes gazed at the bloodied bandages on the males side.

Looking down he grimaced. "Yeah, they will definentley scar." Saki sighed. A clink was heard, looking down Saki's eyes widened in worry. "VIIIIILL I'm sorry. I hmph."

The actor silenced him with a potion. Unconsciously swallowing Saki gagged at the taste. "That should help with the pain. However it does have some side effects." Vill mused.

The male tilted his head but shrieked when he felt feathers. Looking down he saw that behind him was the tail of some bird.

"It'll wear off."

"Saki are you alright!" Ace and Deuce yelled. Shifting his gaze to his two friends. He smiled. "Ace, Deuce!"

Behind the two students Riddle, Trey, Cater, Epel and Rook followed them. They made sure that he was ok.

"Oi."

Shifting his attention Saki shivered. "You made the ma'am angry." one Savanaclaw student growled. "Yeah, I don't think you should get off scotch free." another hissed. The entirety of Savanaclaw roared and badgered Saki.

"Now hold on a second." Jack said trying to ease their anger. "I know how you all feel but it wasn't entirely Saki's fault."

"Jack I know what you trying to do but this time it won't work." Ruggie told. "Suckerfish is exactly right." Floyd agreed. "Yes, making our diva cry is nothing else but sabotage." Azul joined.

"I don't usually like violence," Jamil hummed "but I think I can make an exception." he smiled.

Saki shivered at the angry mass of students in front of him. Vil grimaced about to stand he was stopped by a roar.

"Be silent all of you."

The angry mass turned in the direction of the three lovers. Malleus had let go of his lover while Leona was holding Ryu in his arms a little intimidated by the calm tone of the dragon fae. The perfect had tired herself out from crying. She was safely wrapped up in Malleus' and Leona's jackets. Standing up the Briar Valley prince made his way toward Saki.

The room was dead silent nothing but the sound of Malleus' shoes clacking against the pavement. The prince stopped just in front of Saki who was shivering now more than ever. Leaning down he whispered something in the twins ear.

Smirking the shadows illuminating his eyes he returned to his co-lover. Picking Leona up and carrying him bridal style, he smirked at everyone present. Leona sputtered nonsense as he was held like a bride, his gripe on Ryu tightening. "I hope my message was clear to everyone." he smiled, fireflies surrounded the three as they teleported out of the headmages office.

Everyone shivered at the veiled threat. I swear I will never make Ryu mad or upset again. Or else I'll have two beasts on my back. Ace shivered. Saki fainted against Vil who immediately gathered him in his arms and left for the infirmary.

______

Some stress relief for me cause I need it right now. Also there's not much poly relationships with Leona x mc x Malleus. So I wanted to do something like that. Thank you and have a great day.

#Overblotmc #Mc /oc #leona kingsholar x oc #malleus draconia x oc #Poly malleus x reader x Leona #twisted wonderland

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cloudbattrolls · 1 year

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Cylindric Sonata - Part 2

Jastes Verdan | Civitrecce | Present Night

This drabble is preceded by Cylindric Sonata - Part 1 and is part of The Mind Electric plot.

Jastes’s power was still suppressed by the room’s lining (the same as the door’s, to prevent anyone’s psiionics from interfering with the helms). None of his lockpicks would function without a mechanism to fool or a bolt to pry out; there was nothing for him to work with, the entire device internal to the door itself. He hadn’t imagined such a situation; a flaw to correct for the future.

The yellowblood sent another message to his ride and activated his cloaking tech just as feet thundered by and cursing sounded from outside the door before two trolls stepped in moments later, clearly in the middle of a conversation.

“Maybe it was that company mechanic!” Shouted the cerulean he’d seen earlier. “I passed them in the hall but didn’t see them anywhere else, and the scanner’s been used recently!”

“Calm down, Narvat.” Said the oliveblood man accompanying them in a would-be patient tone of voice, one currently taking a bit of strain. “This was an in-system hack, they’re saying; someone who already had our codes. Internal sabotage, that’s why the screen’s dark.”

The greenblood confidently waved at the shorted-out monitor wall.

Jastes’s pointy ears pricked at that. So that blueblood probably was who he’d implied himself to be. Why would he hack his own factory’s security feed? Revenge? Or had he been covertly looking for something?

For someone?

The yellowblood felt a chill.

“I don’t care.” Snorted the blueblood. “All that matters is that we don’t look like fuckups; I don’t want Latrai coming down on us.”

The olive rolled his eyes. “Because she’s been so scary, what with extending our breaks and raising paid overtime.”

“Oh sure, kiss her ass.” Narvat shot back. “You can’t trust someone who’s basically a rebel.”

Only the dire urgency of staying hidden kept Jastes from laughing.

“Okay, Nar, I think it’s time for lunch before you start going off on anyone within ten feet of you, huh buddy?” Said the olive conversationally. “Let’s go try that new stir-fry from the canteen courtesy of the boss I totally don’t like at all, cross my heart.”

The blueblood grumbled but allowed themself to be led out…until they stopped in the doorway, turning back around with a suspicious expression. Jastes held his breath.

“Nar.” Said the olive, a bit exasperated.

“I’m just saying, we should have the room checked! You never know.”

“Yes, whatever, I’ll ping security if it’ll shut your piehole.”

The two kept bickering as they walked out of sight, having not realized in their busy conversation the faint gust of movement from someone slipping by them before the olive thought to shut the door. Jastes was grateful - not for the first time - that he was small and slim.

He was also glad he hadn’t had to ask his ride to cause a distraction so he could escape. Sometimes Xineck was a little too enthusiastic about such things.

He paused before the door he’d first come in earlier, realizing he would almost certainly set off an alarm by going through while cloaked. Hacking the security system was even more of a non-option by this point.

The lowblood sighed internally and pinged his backup after all. The maroon’s later smugness was a necessary price to pay for what he needed.

A minute later, a small white raptor-like dragon barged in through the sliding glass doors, shrieked, and started to tear up the place. The receptionist yelled and cursed, reluctant to hurt what was obviously a lusus, and babbled for help from security.

Trolls came running from deeper inside the factory and with everyone’s attention on the dragon kicking over a potted plant and flapping its wings while screeching, Jastes became visible again and slipped out the door.

Unfortunately, his sudden reappearance would likely be noted on the security feed unless it had still been compromised by the blueblood’s hacking. At least he didn’t look like himself, and he was cloaked again, dodging around trolls on the busy sidewalks who couldn’t see him.

The blueblood would be delayed in looking for him, after what he’d done to the man’s system. Perhaps he’d gone a bit over the top…but if it worked as a deterrent, it would have been worth it, though he’d played more of his hand than he preferred to.

His greater concern at the moment was Latrai. If she was as smart as she seemed, she might put together some idea of who he was.

Yet there was also something strange about the blueblood, he mused as he reached the less crowded back alleys, shadowy in the wake of the tall buildings.

If he really had been looking for Jastes in particular, why hadn’t he stopped him when he first set foot in the helm room? He’d assumed at the time that he’d tripped some sort of hidden sensor on the retina scanner or by walking through the door, but now he wasn’t sure.

The man had seemed startled to find him at all, though clearly pleased and working off a preexisting agenda.

He’d have to find out just how much the former owner of Starsight knew about him, and stop its current one from learning anything at all.

The yellowblood turned his cloaking off, glad to before it started draining his energy to dangerous levels. He was already feeling hungry.

“Hey, what’s a little oliveblood like you doing on lowblood turf?” Drawled a familiar voice.

Jastes turned with a small smile to see Xineck leaning on the beaten-up van he drove, parked at the end of the alley he stood in near a dumpster stuffed to the brim. The skinny maroon had six horns and a messy mop of hair that almost never got trimmed, along with a cigarette in one hand. He wore a tattered red hoodie and faded black jeans, contrasting Jastes’s neat gray mechanic’s outfit.

“Better be careful, there’s lots of scary psiionics who could - ”

“That stopped being funny a while ago, Xin.” Interrupted the yellowblood, as he had several times before. The taller man took a drag off his cigarette before replying.

“You never started being funny, so I don’t wanna hear any shit. Get in before I have to look at your fake face any longer.”

Jastes obliged, carefully grasping the partially broken handle of the van’s shotgun door as he pulled it open.

“What about this one bothers you?” He asked evenly as he settled in the cracked leather seat, fiddling in the door’s side compartment for a snack.

“For one thing, it’s ugly like all your faces, and for another thing, you look like ass with straight hair.”

Jastes laughed softly, casting a glance at the messy back of the van as the other lowblood started the car after a few tries and curses.

“Is your lusus back yet? I don’t see him.”

Xineck grunted as they began moving, becoming part of the downtown traffic.

“Pops will be fine. He can use the exercise.”

“I’m sure he can.” Sighed the yellowblood.

He almost never let his own lusus out in the open without cloaking tech, fearing for his safety. As far as he was aware, none of his enemies had the faintest idea what his guardian was, but you never knew. Guinea pigs weren’t the most common of caretakers, and unlike Xineck’s lusus, his father wasn’t much of a fighter.

They sat in silence for a bit as the maroon made his way through the crowded roads, and it started to rain lightly.

“So, what’d you find?”

Even though the car had been relieved of any imperial trackers or listening devices long ago and was regularly swept for any new bugs, Jastes instinctually hesitated.

“It’s true.” He said after a moment. “So far, Latrai is as good as her word.”

Xineck groaned.

“Fuck me, are we gonna end up helping a highblood after all? No one is gonna like this.”

Jastes raised his eyebrows.

“They don’t need to like it, as long as they cooperate. If she succeeds and the business does well, better than others that rely on helms, it will set an example.”

Xineck rolled his eyes. “Fucking incredible to me that you believe that. Highbloods hurt us because they want to and they can get away with it. Turning a profit is just a bonus.”

“I don’t have to be told that highbloods like hurting people, Xineck.” Said Jastes quietly.

An awkward silence stretched between the two men.

“You make me fuckin’ wonder sometimes.” The lower caste man said at last. “Still trying to act like they can be reasoned with.”

“They can. With the right leverage.”

The maroon shook his head, apparently giving up the argument.

Jastes was fine with that.

He didn’t expect the resistance to agree with his beliefs. He knew many of them had lost far more than he had, suffered in ways he would never know.

Yet his detachment from some things let him look to the future and better protect them as only he could, though no one except the man beside him knew what his power truly was.

Hints of glowing green flashed in the psiionic’s eyes as he stared at the windshield wipers constantly beating back the rain. Unlike most trolls, his did not cast a steady, organic light.

Instead they shone with the flickering LED quality of a machine.

#cloud writes #jastes verdan #xineck avinez #the mind electric #man I think the last thing I wrote for them was like five years ago lmao #but they're even older than that #jastes and his group date from 2016 #I just haven't done much with them bc my prior attempts fizzled

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