#then the crew disbands. it’s just you and your friend now. and then your captain is arrested.

[the-obnoxious-sibling]

Do you think there’s w reason shanks doesn’t want to met luffy or does he actually believe in that stupid promise from years ago 😭 And why is he always so melancholic

the thing about shanks is that he prioritizes other peoples’ desires over his own. to an unhealthy extent. like, to the extent that he may have sacrificed his own dreams in order to fulfill a final request from his captain.

so, if luffy says the next time he sees shanks, he’s going to be the captain of his own crew, and a crew much better than shanks’ at that? shanks will do whatever he can to make that happen, even if all he can do is delay their next meeting.

if oden says he doesn’t want shanks involved in saving wano, shanks will stay uninvolved. once wano’s been saved, though, he’s free to interfere—if just to keep the navy from interfering.

if buggy leaves, saying they’ll be enemies the next time they see each other… well, probably best not to see each other, then, if shanks doesn’t want to treat buggy as an enemy.

i think it’s pretty clear shanks doesn’t want to do any of this. he wants to see luffy, he wants to see buggy, he wants to help wano and see momo and hiyori… but what he wants doesn’t matter to him.

[cottagedreamy]

Sometimes, i think how beautiful is the love between all the strawhats. I'm not talking about the romantic one, but the platonical. Besides i believe that any names could describe how their relationship works.

Oh, they just love so much each other. They LIVE, they keep going for them. They watch their backs, they fight GOD for them, they would burn, drown, kill, loose limbs for keep their nakamas safe.

It's so cute the fact that they do everything together. If they bath, they bath together. If they're gonna eat? They eat together! They're gonna sleep, they sleep together. One of them got a fever, they'll gonna look after them while asleep. Someone is sleeping without an blanket? Someone will bring one for them. One of them is working? There's always someone to make them company.

They tease each other, they hit their asses, they gonna fight for the insignificant things, they gonna argue, they gonna disturb each other, they will call you dumb and hit you, they can be mean for fun, and never say "i love you", because they just gonna show their love in different ways that doesn't need words.

It's funny to think they're so close, even they spent more time apart than together. But the dedication they have for each other, I feel like it was in the stars that they would meet, and at the moment when they needed it most, they appeared in each other's lives like sacred angels and bringing good company and shaping their bonds. unique characters that make it feel more like a family than a simple pirate crew. They are far from the conventional pirates we are familiar with in fiction. Because that ship became more than a shelter, it became a home.

And one day, this crew will be disbanded, and they will be able to go on with their lives peacefully. Travel, study, maybe get married, manage somewhere... And then, will their hearts sometimes go back to the sea and think "I miss those crazy days, with those people and with my captain..."? Everything will be just memories in the very distant future, but they will always carry a part of themselves in each other. They changed their nakama's lives forever.

But they've never got a chance to say "i think you're my family. And i love you", but like i said, they don't need to say. Their actions do it for themselves. They have so much love to give.

Oh, to be loved by your friends. To be cared by them. To call the sea your home, having a place to came back, but risk your life for some people that you've meet for a little time in your life, because you learned you can love, and now you have someone to share this love. Oh, they are destined to meet, they're all made for eachother. They're soulmates.

[healingfairy000000001]

So close yet too late. One piece x Ex member of the Roger pirates.

Type: Regret, angst, funural, spoilers.

-------------------------------------------------

Thud! When Y/N's hand finally gave up on her kids and hit the ground, Ace bit his lower lip and covered his eyes with his bloody hands in an attempt to stop him from sobbing. Nevertheless, Luffy gave a bloodcurdling scream to alert everyone to her passing.

Seeing an opportunity to kill the two, Akainu tried to attack them but Marco stopped him.

.

.

.

.

"Need help?" a woman asked from behind me. "No, need I-I-I got this," Marco said, attempting to sound confident but failing, "well I am helping anyway." She sat next to me and gently cared for my wounds, "Raylight did a number on you, but you held up well." After finishing her work, she looked at me with those warm eyes full of care and love... "gee, looks like you have a fever as well, your face is red!" Oh god, let me see." With a worried expression, she touched my forehead, checking for a fever. How clueless can one be?

.

.

.

With Ace and luffy being carried away by jimbe, Marco had to back away for whitebeard to take action......"you dare hurt my friend..!"

.

.

.

"Edward...hey I brought sake.." She sounded depressed, avoiding eye contact while holding a barrel of sake. "Y/N, what happened? Why aren't you with Roger crew?" Whitebeard inquired with concern, but when Roger was mentioned, she burst into tears: "He disbanded the crew." She was crying for the first time in a long time, but Whitebeard was hearing those news for the first time.

After calming down, White Beard began the conversation: "Do you want to join my crew? I would love to have you here." a gentle tone and caring eyes fitting of a father, and to sweeten the deal Marco suggested help in the infirmary, but she declined, "I can not really join the crew of my old captain frenemy....plus I see you more as a friend than a father," she apologised before teasing him a bit....."GURARARARARAR!!!" laughed Newgate, as did she...

.

.

.

Buggy, though a little far away, was barely holding himself together....how can he call himself a strong pirate if he can not protect anyone? She is gone, and he could not do anything but watch her save that straw hat idiot and his dumb brother. Why could not he move? He was there, he could have done something! But he didn't...because deep down he is still weak.

Silence filled the battlefield thanks to an unexpected guest The Red Haired Pirates.

Ending the war with just their presence shanks made his way to one of his guiders...still on her knees a calm smile engraved on her lifeless face shanks couldn't help but cry......again he stood by and did nothing....first Roger and now her....why can't the ones he love stay even buggy doesn't want anything to do with him mihak as well....why couldn't he have come sooner....

"Captain snap out of it, at least not here" benn said putting his hand on his captains shoulder, shanks thanking him took of his coat and wrapped it around her corps picking her up, "I will be taking both White beard and Y/N bodies"

.

.

.

[tifa1991]

Trafalgar Law and Reader Part 4.

“My...heart...you have my heart. I want to know why, but first I want it back right now" you still sounded weak but your voice had emphasis.

"I can't, at least not now" the blackhaired man said in a cold tone.

"Are you kidding me?" you got back up, ignoring the dizziness and trying not to sound too weak.

"You can't do that".

"I already did" he wandered over to a wardrobe where his long coat and a special belt hung, which he grabbed and placed on your duvet. You took it straight away, your two short swords were still there as was your small bag full of Berry. But one important thing was missing.

"Are you looking for this?" Law held a small dendenmushi in his hand, it wore small aviator sunglasses on its case and had a red scar under each eye. You were already worried he would have it.

"Why don't you tell me why you're really on Punk Hazard?"

"Because I don't know if I can trust you. I've last seen you two years ago and now you attacked me and stole my heart, while at the same time you took care of me. Maybe you should tell me what's going on first" you said in a calm, still weakened tone.

"Look, we know each other, our crews are not enemies"

"-but not friends either" he said serious, "but I understand what you're getting at. We won't get any further if we don't tell each other something" he said and you nodded.

"Is it safe here? Can I talk to you here without anyone hearing us?" He looked at you for a moment saying nothing. “Come on, Law. You’re definitely not alone in this huge thing and I’m not talking about your crew.” He closed his eyes briefly and thought about whether it would be right to reveal part of his plans. Sure, you were right, you knew each other. A little over two years ago, he and his crew landed on a winter island at the same time as you and your crew on one of the routes to the Sabaody Archipel, shortly before heading to the Sabaody Archipel itself. It turned out that parts of your crew had to work together and as chaotic and exhausting as your stubborn captain was, Trafalgar Law had to admit that he was more than capable of leading his crew and could fight. You and he proved the same when you had to fight Pacifista together with him and Eustess Kidd on the Sabaody Archipel. You four were a good team.

"It's safe in this room, wouldn't say that for other rooms," he finally said. "Okay then, for now, I suggest we start again from the beginning. I'll tell you something you want to know and then you tell me" your voice was hoarse and your throat slowly started to hurt due to being dry despite the glass of water. Law sighed and turned the chair in front of him, his right arm resting on the back and your dendensnail in his left, he looked at you with a piercing gaze. "Fine. I'll start. As I said, why are you really here on Punk Hazard and how did you find it?"

"Our Captain send three of us on a mission to find out if a dangerous rumor is true. We heard about Punk Hazard which we only knew a the Island where Akainu and Aokiji fought, that it still had a factory going on with bizarre experiments. Knowing it couldn't be found with a logport we found out what islands would be nearby and docked at yellowhealth a small trading port near dressrosa."

"So the rumors about your crew disbanding or disappearing aren't true?"

"No, only to a limited extent. We haven't disbanded, we've just gone into hiding and are operating in the background. Somehow we got deeper and deeper into the underworld of bad pirates, marines, bounty hunters, bandits and even some pretty rich people. And the name of something in particular appeared more and more often, which is said to have its origins in Punk Hazard".

Law grinned, "I understand, then you are responsible for the fact that some of the most evil pirates and criminals were gradually handed over to the Marine. I've heard some rumors myself about a group of unknown people causing turmoil in the underground, and the leader fit the description of the Captain of the Spirapirates very well. There was also talk of a woman who looked like a demon, and by then it was clear to me that you had something to do with it". "

Oh then you remember our navigator?"

"Sure, she was a Kryptid-Zoanfruituser Type Gargoyle".

You nooded. "This means she is able to sense the magnetic poles of the islands, which are not too far away. This also applies to islands that the logport cannot record, such as Punk Hazard. Normally the three of us were supposed to enter the island but the group around our captain had figured out other things. We had made quite a few enemies in the underworld and should therefore not follow this lead alone and come back to better analyze the situation from our hiding place".

[arachcobra]

So I just got done with the game Viewfinder and I feel like venting about it. Will be spoiling things, so be warned.

So the game left me in a rather sour mood. When I say got done, I don't mean finished. I got to a point where I just didn't want to keep playing.

Which is a shame. Up until then, I was enjoying myself. Would even have recommended the game. But with the way things turn out, no, I wouldn't anymore.

So if you don't know, the game is a puzzle game with a focus on perspective and using photographs to overlay the level to your advantage. I saw the trailer, thought it looked cool and added it to my wishlist. Early reviews said it was good but short. I waited for it to go on sale and then bought it.

And the game had a lot of positive. Gorgeous visuals. Nice music. So what's my problem? What pissed me off to the degree that I wish I could refund the game?

Well, that's a bit of a longer story. First off, the trailer that I saw focused on the colorful abstract world and the photo mechanics. But soon after entering the game, I was informed of something.

This colourful game world? It was an illusion. A simulation. A game within a game, if you will. I feel that's the first misstep, small but crucial to later problems.

On a sidenote, what's with puzzle games and taking place in a simulations? Viewfinder, Superliminal, The Witness and others. Is this just to explain why the world is puzzle focused? I mean, some games use it to their advantage, but I'd be okay visiting worlds that just are weird.

Anyway, once you find out about the simulation, you also find out about the voice cast. And... Look, I'm sure they did their best, but between several Captain Obvious lines, performances that sounds like they just read the script aloud and some awkward attempts at the funnies, I felt less like I was listening to people and more a recording from a first session with the armatur theatre club.

So you soon after find out that the world is fucked and you've gone into the simulation to find some sort of schematics for a weather machine that can fix climate change. Hurrah. Yeah, sure, I bought this cute-looking puzzle game because I wanted to be reminded of the news. Thanks. Next carbon footprint I leave will be my boot kissing your ass.

But okay, so there is some morale aspect to the game. And it's not subtle about it. Beyond an environmental one, the games also heavy-handedly warns about the follies of perfect solutions through a series of audio logs left behind by the four man crew that made the puzzle world.

On another side note, why did they divide their world up into several puzzles? Wouldn't that just make getting around awkward? "Ah shit, I left my notes in world 2-3. Better start hauling batteries and use my magical camera to duplicate bridges."

Anyway, so then you meet CAIT, a digital cat who was also featured in the trailer. And, it turns out, an A.I. With the best voice acting in the game, to boot. Cait follows you around, makes actual funny commentary, fills you in on backstory and is genuinely a delight. This is also the part where your friend on the outside gets a reduced role. So, a definite improvement in my humble opinion.

So, at a climatic moment, you find out that the weather machine, the intended perfect solution by one of the scientists, failed to actually work. The group disbanded over some arguments and the virtual world was abandoned. However, by now you're so far in the digital world that your friend can't get you out.

Now hold on a second. Can't get me out? An earlier sequence showed that this VR simulation is created by surrounding my physical body with screens inside a giant globe. I'm not hooked into the fucking Matrix here, okay? I'm not a brain in a jar. I'm inside a giant television.

But okay, somehow I'm stuck there. And the solution? Go deeper into the simulation and erase it, so that an emergency feature will kick me out back into reality.

So I'm thinking that there's gotta be more to this, as I solve the final puzzles. Maybe a choice to make or a secret ending or... You know, something. This was marketed as a fun and creative puzzle game. I bought it to relax and destress. Surely, this is not what we're ending on. Surely, we're just upping the stakes as we approach the climax.

But no. There is only one ending, short of just quitting the game as I did. Destroy the simulated world. Kill Cait. Erase everything.

Fucking really?

So yeah, sure, make me invested in everything, just so you can make me pull the plug. You had something cute, beautiful and creative here, and you have me smash it to pieces so you can moralize at me about there not being perfect solutions.

But oh, there's a ray of hope. Somehow, you bring a small green sprout out of the digital world and that's a ray of hope in the neding.

Are you taking the piss? I saw how the world looked outside. It looked like fifty shades of Mordor. The sky was reddish orange and raining ash. My friend was surprised at what a tree looked like, so those are apparently just fucking gone. And you want me to look at this tiny plant as a possible solution. Watch out, global warming, I have a fucking bean sprout. Should just chop that up into the worlds last, most expensive salad. Would probably do more good that way. I'm so glad I killed Cait for a fucking potted plant. With this, we will surely push back the dark.

Should just have stayed in the simulator.

So yeah, that left me in a sour mood and it made me want to rant. As my monolith of grumpiness here can attest to. If you liked the game and the ending, fine, peace be with you. I detest most tragedies, but some people are into that and who am I to judge. But I didn't care for it. I was lured in with what looked like a good time, only to get socked in the jaw outta nowhere. And that's not fun for me.

Rant over.

[avengerscompound]

Running to a Standstill - 17

Running to a Standstill: A Captain America Fanfic

Masterlist PREVIOUS //

Buy me a ☕ Character Pairing:  Bucky Barnes x Steve Rogers x F!Reader

Word Count:  2050

Rating:  E

Warnings: Canon typical violence

Synopsis: While on the run from an unknown organization trying to take your son, you meet two super-soldiers.  While they try to help you get to the bottom of who is hunting you and your son, feelings come out and admissions are made that make your personal life even more tricky.

Chapter 17

“This is an act of war, Captain!”

Ophelia Sarkissian stood behind a small army.  Steve wasn’t too concerned, he had his own, and he’d already taken out more HYDRA than was remaining just getting to the self-proclaimed Queen of Madripoor.  She had no true claim to the throne, except that she decided to use her position as Madame HYDRA to take it.  She had also broken several international laws outside of the fact that she was leading a criminal organization that was officially disbanded under orders of the UN after world war two.  Not to mention the crimes of unauthorized human experimentation, human trafficking, and kidnapping.  This was a sanctioned mission.  There would be some time spent in international courts after this was through, but Viper as she liked to be called, was going to the Raft and she would stay there until the day she died.

Carol landed beside him and gave a short nod.  “Sarkissian,” Steve shouted.  “Give yourself up.  This has gone far enough.  You know you haven’t got a leg to stand on.”

“Madripoor doesn’t recognize your authority Captain,” Sarkissian snarled.  “Leave now.”

“I don’t know about you, Cap,” Carol said.  “But I think she talks a little too much.”

“I think you’re right, Captain,” Steve said. “Time to finish this.”

Carol took flight and barrelled into the group of HYDRA soldiers.  They went flying like pins in an alley.  “Stop them, you idiots!”  Sarkissian screamed as she shot a photon blast at Carol.

The soldiers that hadn’t been sent sprawling by carol had all quickly tossed back some pills.  Almost instantaneously the room erupted in chaos.  Carol and Viper were taking turns firing on each other.  The soldiers were changing.  Some bulking up.  Some grew tentacles or horns.  One on the far east side seemed to sprout wings from his back.  Steve threw his shield into the mass and began to fight.  He knew his agents were with him.  They began engaging in combat and he was very glad he’d taken the extra time to train his people to fight against enhanced soldiers.

He called his shield back and began fighting through the group to get to Viper.  Something sticky wrapped around his leg as he punched a guy who seemed to have had a crustacean-like shell form around him hard enough to crack the shell down the middle.  He slammed the shield down without looking and whatever grabbed him.  It let go and he vaulted over two more soldiers that seemed to have started growing fur.  He knew this battle wasn’t going to be a long one.  The drugs started to overload the soldier’s systems too fast and their bodies would start shutting down.  They were just trying to finish it first.  With Carol there, he did not doubt at all they’d be able to do it.  The problem was, Steve wanted to take them all alive.

He tossed his shield again, clearing a path to Viper who was now trying to escape through a secret door behind her throne.  Carol blasted the wall and Steve vaulted, first over two HYDRA agents and then the throne, catching his shield and slamming into Viper, knocking her sideways.  She caught herself before she fell and attacked him.  Carol began to circle the room taking out the mutated agents as Steve fought Viper one-on-one.  She wasn’t strong, but she was agile and highly trained.

“Do you think this will protect your beloved?”  Viper sneered as she parried with him.  “Or the child?  This is HYDRA, cut off one head…”

“And two more grow in its place,” Steve said in a bored voice, aiming a series of blows to her side.  “Save it.  I’ve heard it before.”

She flipped forward, aiming to put him in a thigh lock.  Steve reacted quickly, stepping to the side and using his shield to slam her straight down into the ground.  Steve used the back of his shield to hold her down.  “Ophelia Sarkissian, I take you into custody on behalf of the United Nations for crimes against humanity,” he said.  “And while you’re mulling things over on the Raft, you might want to let any of your colleagues that we don’t collect up today that Geo is not worth it.  Whatever you think that little boy can unlock, you’d have to go through the Avengers to get it, and this is what will come from it.”

Viper’s tongue pushed inside her cheek.  “Hail -”

He knew what was happening before he even realized he knew.  He quickly shoved his hand into her mouth, and she bit down into the glove, hard enough that if he was anyone else, she might have broken his fingers.  Carol landed beside him and raised her eyebrow.

“That’s a weird fighting technique, Steve,” she said.  “They teach you that in the army?”

Steve smirked as he grabbed the cyanide capsule between his pointer and middle finger and pulled it out of Viper’s mouth.  “Taught me to notice things.  Sorry to hear the Airforce was lacking in that department.”

Carol bit back an obvious laugh and looked around the room.   “I think we got them all. We might want to call in the cleanup crew.”

Steve nodded and let out a sigh of relief.  You would be safe now.  At least for a while. He just hoped you would be there when he got back.

The clean up took a long time.  Normally Steve was okay with that.  He never wanted to rush things when it came to cleaning up after a mission.  He wanted to make sure all the injured were treated, any dead were taken to a morgue, anyone arrested was processed and locked up.  All the I’s needed to be dotted and all the T’s crossed.  He had to make sure that what he had just fought to do, didn’t get immediately undone like had happened in the past.

This time he was antsy.  He needed to make sure everything was above board.  They had just taken a dictator out.  The power reshuffle could end up being dangerous.  He had to make sure every single person who was arrested today stayed locked up.  Particularly Viper.  He had to make sure all the drugs that were seized were processed and then destroyed and none ended up being taken and sold on the black market or worse, in the hands of yet another government agency hoping to recreate the super-soldier program.  He had to make sure that any data about the program that led to the creation of the drugs in the first place was locked up and kept out of the hands of any government agency.

Most importantly of all though, he had to make sure all names, including yours and Geo’s, were expunged from all data seized.  He had to protect you and anyone else that this had happened to, from ever being hunted again.

However, while he was supervising medics, and prisoner containment, and signing paperwork, and speaking with various authorities, he couldn’t stop thinking of you and Bucky.  He knew Bucky was okay.  He’d heard from every one of the other groups and knew they’d all been successful.  He knew that he was supervising the clean up in the same way Steve was.  He also knew exactly how Bucky got when he was on a mission.  He knew the dark place his lover went to.  He knew how long it took for Bucky to shake it off again.  Every time in the past Steve had wanted to hold him and tell him it was going to be okay.  That Steve had him and he always would.  But back then they were just friends and he wasn’t sure where the line was that would be okay.  Now he could do it and his mind kept flicking back to how he wanted to check on Bucky.  To hold him if he needed it.  Or to run a bath and wash the battle out of his hair.

More than that, he kept worrying about you.  Now he was on his way home he knew Bucky would be there.  He wasn’t as sure about you.  He was worried that you’d have run and that if you did run, that you’d have run straight into the arms of HYDRA.

Usually when the jet came into land at the Avengers Tower Steve was exhausted and ready to finish paperwork, debrief, and then sleep.  As the jet came into land, he was as tightly wound as he was when the mission started.

He was off the jet first, heading for the elevator before Hill managed to cut him off.  He rode it directly down to his floor and had to hold himself back from breaking into a run as he made his way to his apartment.  He threw the door open and looked around.  The only sound was the hum of the refrigerator and air conditioning.  Geo’s Lego was on the coffee table, but that meant nothing.  If you’d run you’d have taken the go-bag and little else.  He called out your name and moved into the room.  He knew you weren’t here even as your name left his lips, but he hoped that maybe he was wrong and you and Geo were just napping.

He tried to find some signs of what happened.  A note that might let him know where you went.  The signs of a scuffle would even be good because then it meant you hadn’t chosen to leave him.  There was nothing out of order.  The kitchen was clean.  He went into Geo’s room and looked around. The bed was made, but there were a lot of Geo’s toys around.  The teddy bear he slept with was on the bed.  He hoped that was something to say you hadn’t run, but the fact he couldn’t see Geo’s tablet anywhere was making his heart hammer in his chest.

The door opened and he spun around and practically launched himself back through the door to see who it was.  Bucky stepped through the door and Steve sagged.

“Wow, thought you’d be happy to see me,” Bucky said, a playful lilt in his tone.

Despite the tone, Steve felt bad.  He’d hoped it would be you and while he was of course happy to see Bucky back safe and sound, and even happier that he could be as playfully teasing as he was, it didn’t change the fact you weren’t here.  “It’s just…”

“Steeb!”

Geo’s voice reached him before you appeared behind Bucky holding the little boy.  Steve rushed to you, pulling up when he reached you and cradling your jaw.  “Oh my god,” he said. “I thought you’d left.”

You furrowed your brow and looked up at him, Geo was tugging on Steve’s armor, and he took the boy from you without even realizing he was doing it.  “You told me not to go out.”

“Where were you?”  He asked.

“FRIDAY said your jet had landed and I went up to meet you,” you explained. “And then Hill said you’d come down here, but then Bucky’s jet landed so we waited for him to come down here.  I’m sorry if I scared you.”

Steve shook his head.  “I should have trusted that you’d be here.”

“It’s okay,” you said softly, leaning in a little, so the breath you exhaled teased his lips. “I’m glad you’re both safe.”

He brought his lips to yours and as you kissed him softly but deeply he felt his muscles relax.  There would be work to do still. He had to make sure that Viper went to the Raft and everything he had done to protect you had worked, but this was the start of things.  You were safe and here with Bucky.  The three of you could have a life together.

You pulled back slowly and caressed his cheek.  “You both look like shit.  You want to take a shower and sleep?”

“God damn yes,” Bucky said.

“We’re going to need to head down to the armory and then debrief.  Steve said.  “You’ll be here won’t you?”

“Yes, Steve,” you teased, giving him a gentle push.  “Go.  Do what you need to do and I’ll make sure there’s dinner here for when you both get back.  I promise I’m not going anywhere.”

// NEXT

[victorie552onepiecespeedrun]

Reading One Piece pt 259: Backstory

Chapter 506

Thoughts:

- Fpos/cs: “Discharged from the hospital” I can’t be mad at them when they’re so happy :) Who got Lucci that shirt

- Law, his bear mate (Bepo) and rest of his crew are still marine trashing on their way home

- Oh, they got to Kid and Kuma

- (Seeing Kuma is a shock every time)

- “Trafalgar Law!” “You know my name!” I’m surprised too! I’m sorry Law but your name is kind of hard to pronounce, at least for me 

- (Google tells me there’s Cape Trafalgar in Spain and that Napoleon fought there once. The more you know)

- Honestly, is it me or is Kuma overpowered. We know his DF power, he shouldn’t also have lasers, apparently teleporting into places of plot relevance and whatever it is that just went “BOOM”. I don’t care he’s a cyborg, like come on man

- Kid and Law really, and I mean REALLY, don’t want to meet an Admiral. Makes me kinda wonder what Kizaru’s power is. I mean, we met Aokiji and he is GOAT OP but like no more than Kuma is right now for me. Sike, what did we get ourselves into

- Somewhere else

- Duval, please, for the love of god, stop trying to wink, it’s getting worse every time

- Bye Duval

- Now Straw Hat party is in Rip-Off Bar :D

- “Oh, Ray. Welcome back. That was fast. I’m surprised Monkey and the others found you.” Wow, thanks a lot, Shakky

- Haha! Luffy was told Rayleigh was King Roger’s first mate :D Everyone is SHOCKED, I tell you, SHOCKED

- (Except Robin, lol. She knew :D)

- Seriously, you all failed Pirate History so hard

- Or maybe not! They DID hear of him! Damn, he’s really famous

- Except… Brook?

- (holy shit you guys. I just realized Brook’s times were pretty much BEFORE King Roger. And he didn’t get any news for the last 50 years. He may not even know what a Pirate King IS, I just ajskhdjfjdjdasfk)

- “I think there was a rookie by the name of Gold Roger. Or maybe not” AJDSHSDGHJADHKJS

- “Why are you such friends with an octopus?” backstory!

- He saved my life 20 years ago. After that, we were close until he joined the Sun Pirates” “Don’t you mean Arlong?” Does he mean Arlong? Weird

- “Gold Roger was executed 22 years ago…” yet his crew wasn’t. True, what’s up with that

- “We didn’t get captured… Roger turned yourself in” WHAT

- I MEAN WHAT

- “Why!?” yeah, why

- “We knew that our travels were ending” …

- “Four years before the day of his execution… Roger was afflicted with a terminal illness.” !!!!!!!!!

- Crocus (the lighthouse keeper, with Laboon. Damn, he really knows everyone) eased the pain but Roger’s illness was incurable

- “Three years later… we did the impossible… and conquered all of the Grand Line”

- (Crocus became a pirate cause he wanted to look for Rumba® Pirates! Which also means Brook! Goddammit, that stupid manga. I refuse to cry over that but DAMMIT)

- “So what happened after you conquered the oceans?” “After that, the entire world started calling Roger the Pirate King.” So he was a King for like a year?

- “Titles are meaningless for a dying man. But Roger was overjoyed.” Damn it

- “He had no future but was happy.” DAMN IT

- So Roger’s Pirates disbanded. Everyone went their own way and there’s no contact. Nothing you wouldn’t expect.

- …

- I just hope it will go better for Straw Hats

- “And about one year after we disbanded… Roger turned himself in. And it was announced that he would be publicly executed in Rogue Town, in the East Blue, where he was born. On that day, young pirates who are now famous all lined up to watch. The entire world was watching as the Pirate King was executed. I didn’t go.” We knew it all already, and yet. It’s just different when you hear it from Rayleigh

- And thus was a story of how Navy’s plans backfired spectacularly and right in their face. Instead of destroying the threat, they’ve started The Great Age Of Pirates

- “My treasure? You can have it if you want it. Go find it! I left all the riches of the world there.” …so. I’m pretty sure One Piece will be experiences and friends we found along the way. And I’M GLAD, GODDAMMIT

- “There was no other day I laughed as much as that day! There was no other way I cried as much… or drank as much!” ;_;

- “So he intentionally created the Age of Pirates!” “Those who create the times are always those who are living in the present!” well said

- Hah, Straw Hats know now that Shanks and Buggy were trainees of Roger  

- Seriously, what a walk down memory lane

- Rayleigh met Shanks ten years ago, just after Shanks lost his arm

- “When I asked him about it, he talked about you with the biggest smile on his face!” awwww

- “Mr. Rayleigh, I was so surprised! In the East Blue, there’s a kid saying the exact same thing as Captain Roger! The very same words the Captain said!” awwww again

- And we’re cutting to somewhere else. Eh

- Grove 27. Kizaru is here.

- …he’s riding on a cannon ball  

- …Alright then. Let me rephrase

- KIZARU IS HERE EVERYBODY RUN

Showtime.

rOP 258  rOP 260

[brynnmclean]

For the record, I am deeply interested in your Akallabêth campaign stuff... it's a fascinating concept and such an interesting time period... is very cool that you are running this for people, I hope this run goes well!

Thanks!  Yeah, I have (had?) two main gaming groups, one local to me (now since disbanded mostly due to a recording situation and two players leaving) and then another that has a bunch of us old college friends in different states (luckily our timezones aren’t so far apart!).  The first campaign was with my local crew and then this reboot is with that second group of friends.

I’ve deeply loved Númenor as a setting for years and when I was trying to come up with the concept of the new campaign, I picked the Akallabêth era because it’s so contained?  There’s a good window of events + a stretch of years that could be filled in with stuff the group wanted to do.  

Some rambling under the cut because I got excited... 

I thought a good canon(-ish) adventure would be aiding Isildur in rescuing the fruit of the White Tree in Armenelos (I know canonically he does it alone, but this is a TTRPG, so why not have him and his good, trusted friends go?), so that was going to be a milestone event in the overall campaign.  Before we went on hiatus, I revised my plan and marked it down as the soft finale of that first campaign.  It felt like it would have been a happier note to end on than the actual Downfall!

The main mission that the campaign ended up centering around though was set a year prior to the Rescue-- I started out the whole thing with what I called the Meeting of the Venturers at Eämbar, essentially a secret meeting of Faithful captains and quartermasters in the wreck of a huge, culturally significant ship that the King’s Men grounded on Tol Uinen in the Bay of Rómenna (that is all a MOUTHFUL of namedropping, lol, can you tell I had fun).  Lord Amandil made a speech that gave my players a few overall paths: (1) delivering a letter from “Elentir of Armenelos” (read: Tar-Míriel) to Gil-galad asking for aid and a renewal of the alliance between Faithful Númenóreans and the Elves of Lindon, (2) exploratory mission(s) for refugee settlements on or near the Continent for Faithful trying to leave Númenor but who maybe didn’t want to all pile into Pelargir, and (3) violence and disruption of trade routes to Umbar if the group wanted to just... have a campaign full of fighting and piracy.

The letter delivery won for the Big Mission, but the campaign unfortunately ended just when the group reached Lindon.  

There was a lot of stuff that happened on the way, particularly with a set of players!  The quartermaster was an agent of the King’s Men for the grand majority of the campaign, planning and orchestrating a mutiny that he was injured during to keep his cover intact.  He actually was brought back from the brink of death and had a vision of the Halls of Mandos that then sowed MASSIVE amounts of doubt in his King’s Men loyalty.  He eventually confessed his deception to the rest of the crew and they held a trial for him (they all wrote speeches!  They came up with questions!  I sat back and witnessed one of the best sessions of my TTRPG GM life!) and sentenced him to death by drowning.

There was another character (romantic interest of the Quartermaster which was also fun to witness!) who was having visions of the Valar throughout the campaign.  It started out because that player picked Foresight as an ability, but then I started thinking about how I could give this player who deeply missed spellcasting some kind of Middle-earth flavored magic... That plan didn’t come to fruition, but I was eventually going to lead the group to the island remnants of Beleriand (Tol Himling, Tol Fuin, and Tol Morwen) and have him meet with Nienna who would give him certain spells off a very specific list I had compiled.

I’m very sad that that plotline isn’t going to happen also because it was going to bring back the Dead Quartermaster as a spirit atoning for his past sins by working for Nienna and leading his almost-boyfriend to his destiny.  I had other plans for other players later on down the road when they got back to Númenor, but I was also trying not to plan too far ahead.

The Reboot Campaign is probably going to start with a fairly similar Venturers’ meeting, but I really don’t know what’s going to happen after that!  Different players, different characters, no secret traitor in our midst or anyone playing Captain Isildur... who knows what will happen!  

I’m still mourning the abrupt end of the first campaign, but cannot tell you how excited I am for a fresh start, too.

Anyway, if you’ve read this far, bless you. <3 I’m always happy to talk about this campaign setting and to offer up ideas/resources if anyone else wants to have a go at running something similar for a gaming group!

[star-captain]

Pirate Attack- Part Two

I was really excited to finish this story, the climax was really fun to write. Hopefully my next piece should be the official start of ‘Wandering Stars’, a story arc of Red, Avon, And Ecto. It’ll include adventure, mysterious enemies, and the infinity portal to hermitcraft!

Anyways, here’s Pirate Attack- Part Two. Red and the hermits are planning their assault on Xisuma’s guardian farm, but it’s not without dangers to dismantle a massacre. 

Red is @theguardiansofredland​ ‘s gremlin.

Red has seen ships before, but never has he seen one that’s still afloat. At least, not one as big as the Juggernaut. It’s busy, crewmembers shifting past him like fish through a coral reef. The other hermits are impressed by the ship and it’s crew. At the helm, Cleo looks like the captain everyone knows she is. Her burning orange hair waves in the wind that fills the sails. She is the pirate queen. 

The galleon sails away from Sahara’s shores, off towards the deep ocean where Xisuma’s farm resides. Mumbo and Iskall start planning intricate redstone devices to take out the machine, and Cleo is hard at work ordering her ship and plotting the course. Red can’t help but clamber onto the bowsprit, the wood beam jutting out over the water. It’s dangerous to be out there, where one slip could mean plunging into the ocean. Even though Red can’t drown, the Juggernaut could hit her, and barnacles are sharp. 

She can’t help but watch the water as the ship cuts through the waves. Water parting ways and cradling the hull. It curls upward, before peaking and turning to whitecaps that escape in the wake. Red can feel the seaspray on her face, cool water cleansing her of negative thoughts and feelings. The ocean changes color depending on the depth, starting at a light blue among the shallow coral, deepening into a forest green, before navy blue takes precedence over the deep ocean. Yet each wave, each ripple is a different shade of the whole mosaic. It’s art, the ocean, and the ship is a paintbrush mixing colors across the canvas. 

“The others are talking about things way over my head, and I honestly just wanna be out of Cleo’s way. Mind if I join ya?” Red looks over their shoulder, seeing Grian standing precariously on the bowsprit. Red nods, and he takes a seat next to them. “We’ve met before. You scared the life out of me. I didn’t really hear anything you said, I just knew you were not happy to see me.” 

“Do you blame me? You were about to take a pickaxe to my home.” Red chuckles. 

“Iskall explained things to me. I feel really bad for that now. No hard feelings?” 

Red pauses, thinking for a moment. “Nah, hopefully things can be smooth sailing from now on.” Just as they say that, the boat hits a large wave. Grian clasps onto the wood for dear life, while Red grabs hold of line connected to the sails. “Though now that I know where you live, you might have trouble on your hands if you mess with my stuff.” 

“I don’t mind trouble. I’m usually the start of it as well.” The two look up to the distance, able to see Xisuma’s farm. The massive, star shaped angles float in the sky, like shards of glass floating down from the heavens. Grian can’t help but look at the build in awe. Red can’t help but growl with disgust. Xisuma’s massacre machine is simple, and powerful. And because of it’s simplicity, it’s almost impossible for Red to break it for long. 

“I always forget how incredible this all is. Just out here, in the middle of nowhere.” Mumbo states. The entire ship is quiet, observing the structure. 

“And you’re sure Xisuma is alright with us destroying the farm?” Cleo asks, leaning on the wheel to get a better view beyond the sails. 

“Well, we aren’t going to aim for all that.” Iskall points out. He looks to Red. “I think you know more about this than any of us. How is his farm built?” 

Grian and Red slide off the bowsprit, though they all look over the starboard side into the water. Red points below the surface. “All those walls are the...farm.” She frowns at calling it such a thing. She doesn’t think it’s like a farm. It doesn’t raise things, just kills what’s already there. It’s a butcher shop. “I’ve tried to destroy it before, but...uhh...it’s quite a hot project.” She shivers remembering the lava that would sometimes spill out, nearly catching her fins on fire. 

“I think Mumbo and I can mess with the redstone inside.” Iskall offers. Mumbo smiles, holding up a repeater board and vials of redstone dust. 

“I can fire on the outer walls, knock it down and hopefully stop the farm from running.” Cleo saunters to the group, nodding her head at the cannons all lined up and ready to fire. 

“And from there, Red and I can go in and make sure it stays off for good.” Grian finalizes.

“Hopefully we can save the guardians while we’re there.” Red adds.

“Won’t they fire their bubble lasers at us?” Grian makes a little noise for effect. 

“The ‘bubble lasers’ are the least of your worries.” Red states with a chuckle, clambering onto the side of the ship. Ready to get to work. “I’d be more worried about the lava if I were you.” 

The group disbands. Iskall and Mumbo take a headstart, rowing off in a shared boat into the entrance of Xisuma’s base. The two boys are giddy, feeling like real pirates infiltrating an enemy fortress. From the ship, Cleo can see the two disappear into the prismarine structure as she hangs from the rigging way up high. Below her, her crew scrambles to fill each and every cannon with gunpowder and a cannonball. They’re broadside with the base, and plan on making multiple trips around. Firing on the defenseless structure as low as possible. And on the stern of the ship, waiting for the signal, is the pair of troublemakers. Grian holds an assortment of material to keep from drowning, whether it’s a respiration enchanted turtle helmet or a few bottles of water breathing. Mother Cleo is not letting any crew perish on this trip, there will only be one zombie. 

A whistle cracks through the air, followed by a bright yellow burst of the firework high above sea level. Mumbo and Iskall are in, and getting to work together reconfiguring the redstone to leave a surprise. The Juggernaut fires with such force the boat recoils backwards, cannonballs flying into the water and busting through the sand. The sails fill and the ship begins to move again. But Grian and Red aren’t onboard anymore. 

They’ve jumped ship, swimming towards the destroyed sand wall that the Juggernaut leaves behind. Grian is painfully slow compared to Red, but they do manage to get to the remnants. Grian removes blocks that Cleo’s cannons didn’t break, before swimming lower to block out the dangerous lava below. He can’t help but wave to his fellow architechs through the glass. He’s not sure if they’re laughing or arguing, covered in redstone dust and making a terrifying machine of madness. Higher up, Red rips apart the stone that traps her guardian friends. The fish struggle against the current of the moving water, but Red manages to pull them free. 

That becomes the system. Cleo bombards the farm, Grian moves in to clean up, and Red frees the guardians from an untimely death. About halfway through, the pirates hear noteblocks going off. At first at irregular and changing times and tones. But as they continue, the music begins to become recognizable.

Dunnnn na. Dunnn na Dunna dunna duna dunadunadunadunadunaduna. Grian nearly spits out his water breathing potion while hearing the song. Onboard the Juggernaut, Cleo laughs. “We’re gonna need a bigger boat!” 

The music stops after awhile, Iskall and Mumbo making their escape back to the ship. Cleo has also made a full circle of the base, raising the sails. The only people left in the attack are Grian and Red. Grian eventually swims back as well, taking a look at the pair’s work. “I think I have all the lava blocked off. No fish is getting cooked anymore.” 

“I want to do a lap, make sure no one is still stuck.” Red advises. Grian looks up at the surface, then nods and starts to rise. Red swims along the destruction, observing the pirate attack’s results. The current of the moving water is strong, but nothing she can’t handle. Every part of the sand wall has been removed, and repurposed to cover the lava below. No guardians are stuck in the remnants of the farm- except one. 

It’s a young guardian, still gaining the strength to swim. It’s little, about the size of a salmon. The guppy can’t escape the torrent of water. Red swims over, reaching out to tug the guardian to freedom. “It’s okay, sometimes you just gotta keep swimming. With a little help.” 

She pulls it to freedom, only to trade places. The current is strong, almost as strong as a magma block. Despite Red swimming up with all her strength, she’s losing ground. But what does it matter? Grian got all the lava, she can just let it push her to the bottom and swim out there. 

Except when Red looks down, it’s not sand below. Grian missed a few blocks here. The water starts to get hotter. Red attempts to surface as fast as he can, but it’s not match. This water was built for death, and he’s stuck in it. 

On the Juggernaut, the hermits have gone quiet. Grian thought Red was right behind him. There didn’t seem to be anymore guardians, so he should be back by now. Cleo is starting to go into her motherly mode. “Someone should check on him.”  

“I don’t have any more water breathing. Only my helmet.” Grian tugs the turtle shell off his head, blond hair flattened by the helmet. 

“I’ll look.” Iskall swipes the piece of armor, and clambers down the ladder to the water. The boat is still moving, so he grips the ropes tight and ducks his head under. At first he sees nothing, no sign of the kipling. Maybe he just left? But then Iskall spots him. Red is struggling, losing strength and a battle against the water current pushing him down. 

Down towards an uncovered patch of lava.  There are only two or three of those, sources that Grian didn’t realize existed. It’s separated from the water, so falling in is a death sentence. It was built to kill. Iskall gasps as he resurfaces, scrambling up the side of the ship to the deck. “Red’s stuck, being pulled into a part of the farm still active.” 

“We need to save them.” Cleo demands. She starts to clamber over the railing, but Iskall pulls her back to the deck. 

“Red can’t manage to swim through that on their own, how are we supposed to be able to? We need a different plan.” Iskall observes the deck. Mumbo pulls out his remaining stock of redstone, Grian shifts through stacks of sand. They don’t have much time. But it’s Grian’s clever little mind that comes up with an idea. 

Below the water, Red is getting exhausted. No matter how hard she swims, she can’t escape. A part of her is glad that she was the one to get caught, because a human could not withstand such a current. At least her new friends aren’t trapped here. The lava below is getting closer, and Red’s muscles scream for her to give up, to let go. To stop postponing what seems inevitable now. Of all the ways for Red to perish, she never expected to die in these damned guardian farms. 

She can’t fight any longer. She can’t get her arms to push, her legs to kick. Red becomes dead weight, and the current pulls her faster towards the seafloor. Towards the lava. She can see the surface, the sunlight refracting the light above her into broken shafts. The water at her back keeps getting warmer, closer and closer to her demise. And in all of this? She accepts her fate. She saved her family, other guardians by tearing this down. She closes her eyes, letting the water sweep her away. 

An explosion can be heard, muffled from above the surface. The sound of water splashing, pushed out of the way of some solid. Red collides into the seafloor, the jolt snapping her eyes open. She slips out of the water current, pushed along the seafloor. Away from where lava was. Was. Now it’s filled with sand, and the flowing water harmlessly pushes her out of the way. 

She’s alive. Red breathes in, not thinking she’d have the chance to do that again. All she can do right now is lay on the sand and breathe in the water. She watches as an anchor is lowered down, and crawls onto the heavy metal. Red holds on with what little strength she has left, practically collapsing onto the wooden deck as soon as she can. Whatever the hermits are saying, she can’t hear them. She just needs to breathe, and remind herself that she’s still alive. 

“Wha-what did you do?” Red finally manages to ask. Cleo wraps a blanket around him, and hands off a cup of tea. 

“Iskall saw you were having trouble, so we devised a plan.” Cleo states. “Or, well, Grian did.” 

“We pooled our resources together. Iskall and Mumbo took one of Cleo’s cannons and modified it to shoot sand blocks that I had.” Grian nods his head over to the contraption. Redstone is all over the deck in a haphazard way, in no way compact or pretty. 

“You did all that for me?” Red questions. 

“We weren’t just going to let you die. Hermits stick together. I’m sorry we couldn’t put it together faster.” 

“No, no. Don’t be.” Red looks at them all, and smiles. “I’m just glad to not be a fried fish.” 

The whole crew stares for a second, before realizing it’s a joke. Grian laughs first, bubbling up into a throaty laugh. Mumbo and Cleo realize soon after, and Iskall breathes out his laugh last. “Let’s get back to shore,” Mumbo states. “I don’t want to be here when Xisuma arrives and starts hearing the Jaws music but doesn’t know where it’s coming from. And every other surprise we left.”

[the-obnoxious-sibling]

You just become one of my favourite tumblr accounts. Please share more shuggy headcanons

I also adore your translations nitpicking. My favourite moments are when you ask for original panels. I could read them over and over. Sorry for being creepy.

aw, thank you! that’s not creepy at all, it’s very sweet. (and i’m glad somebody enjoys my nitpicking! i’d do it regardless but still—)

here’s a couple headcanons for you, since you asked so nicely—but below the cut because, as often happens, i got wordy:

in the au where shanks gets buggy to stay with his crew, the incident that got shanks his first bounty and the incident that caused items #4 and #5 to be added to that list are the same incident. (a member of his crew getting arrested was a bit of a trigger for shanks at the time, never mind that the marines had no idea who it was they’d arrested. it’s fine, they manage to repair the building eventually. well, repair… rebuild… same difference.)

i am a “the chapter 581 cover image is a canon event” truther, even though the timing is tricky to make work. in my mind, while shanks is waiting to hear back about acquiring some land in sphinx and buggy is waiting to hear back from alvida et al about where to meet up, shanks convinces buggy to come with him into town on the island where the red force and a couple whitebeard ships that survived marineford have docked. (the impel down guys think this is for a private, elite, captain-to-captain conversation; galdino is mildly concerned buggy won't be coming back alive.) they spot the oden restaurant and its tourist-bait gift shop and buy a couple shirts and the lunch special on a nostalgic whim, and spend the afternoon getting lightly buzzed, reminiscing about the old days, and speculating about how things are going in wano. it’s nice. it’s the nicest it’s been between them in at least twenty-two years. (probably twenty-three. that last year, after the crew disbanded, was… hard, on both of them.) neither of them ever speaks of that afternoon or that meal to anyone, but when the news of shogun momonosuke comes out they each spend a subdued day thinking about it and getting a little more than buzzed.

i could be real self-indulgent and tell you about the kidfic i am doing my damnedest not to write, but i won't. unless…

in a future where the one piece is not meant for either of them and retirement, such as it is, is both possible and desired, shanks and buggy do a lot of traveling together. they visit wano and see momo and hiyori (who don’t really remember them) and meet yamato (who recognizes them instantly from oden’s journal). they visit skypeia and buggy nearly convinces someone that he’s very good friends with that monkey d luffy guy and will definitely give him that big ol’ golden pillar of yours… thankfully (?) shanks is there to stop this. they visit the north and south poles and settle that argument once and for all (though buggy will always insist shanks cheated somehow). they visit a dozen other islands they remember fondly. they visit rayleigh and get absolutely wasted together, and maybe rayleigh gives them a few leads on other surviving roger pirates and they visit them too. and once they’ve visited all of them, they visit roger’s grave—the real one, not whatever propagandist tomb the navy set up to further defame him in death. the things they say to him are best left between the three of them. and then they acquire a good map, circle every island on it they don’t recognize by name, and start visiting those. making new memories together, now that they’re done chasing down old ones.

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Action Without Order Pt 2

 You will need to read part one before you read part 2 for the full effect :)

https://starr-fall-knight-rise.tumblr.com/post/183563901235/humans-are-space-orcs-action-without-order  

Love all the support you guys have given me. A ton of you wanted a part 2, so here it is, and I hope you like it

The entire room had gone into absolute uproar, absolutely deafening. The joyous cheering of a ravenous crew and the gasping shock of the unrelated. The room was so loud the floor shook and the windows rattled. Sunny was stunned by the roaring of the humans, she had once heard that humans were capable of using their voices as sonic weapons…. She hadn’t believed it.

At the head of the semi-circular table, the main human was slamming a strange wooden object against his desk. The noise was loud, but it wasn’t nearly enough to quell the roaring of the room.

Sunny’s head was swimming, and overwhelmed by the noise she lurched to her feet and let off a horribly blood chilling screech, the battle cry of the Drev. It reverberated with enough power to shake the windows even harder than the humans had managed. The desk rattled.

The entire room went dead silent hundreds of eyes stared at her from the stands, and  she slowly sat herself back down on the witness stand and turned to look at the judge. He was leaning back in his seat staring at her. She turned to look at Captain Vir standing at the center of the court still brandishing the prosthetic leg in his defense looking at her with wide eyes. She was momentarily worried that the man would fall into some PTSD induced panic, but the man stood straight then, on the leg she had given, and nodded encouragingly.

Since she had given it to him, he hadn’t worn it once. She assumed he hadn’t even kept it. It wouldn’t have been personal if he didn’t, she understood, but seeing him wear it now was…. Was surprisingly….

No, she didn’t have a word to describe what it meant. Why the human would fight for her like that made no real sense, filled her inside with an odd warmth, like consuming heated water, not unpleasant but not necessarily comfortable either.

“Objection your honor!” The prosecutor called, “The Dawson V Cybercorp case was not intended for this means as we all well know. Yes the prosthetic is part of his body, but that does not establish a genetic link to another group of people, or aliens for that matter. Additionally the Galactic Assembly does NOT recognize Drev cultural law.”

“That is untrue your honor!” The defense argued, “Adoption doesn’t connect someone by DNA either, and yet the Galactic Assembly has chosen to accept our human custom.” He raised his hand to cut off the other lawyer as he forced his way through, “Captain Vir, as a member of the Galactic Alliance has chosen to adopt Sunny’s clan and ONLY Sunny’s clan. Those are the Drev cultural rules. Her gesture does not speak to her entire race, but simply her immediate family. Additionally, Captain Vir’s action has not broken any of the clauses under the Drev Action of Surrender Treatise. IN ADDITION!” He raised his voice over the calling of the prosecutor, “Captain Vir’s orders were to ‘foster good will with the galactic community’ NOT ‘foster good will with members of the Galactic Alliance only.”

The room grew loud once again, and the judge was hammering his wooden mallet against the desk. Sunny remained where she sat in silence watching as the humans rolled and boiled around her.

The defense wrestled control back before the prosecutor could continue. It was like watching two men wrestle each other with words beating each other down into submission so they could continue speaking, “Looking at it through the sphere of his orders, ‘to foster good will in the galactic community’ I wonder why anyone would be displeased with him. The Drev are a dangerous race, as dangerous as some have argued humans are. It seems that the best option would be to make friends with a potentially dangerous enemy, it shocks me that no one else has though of this, and it took a man who had been directly involved in the war to finally put aside that prejudice.”

The judge raised his hand for silence glowering at the prosecutor as he turned to Vir, ‘Is that true?”

Vir paused glancing over at the defense as if he wasn’t supposed to speak.

“Is it true that by befriending this Drev ad brining her onto the ship, you wished to promote galactic prosperity?”

The defense nodded to Vir, and the look they shared was one of caution. Vir took his place behind the desk looking up at the judge, “Not in so many words your honor…... but, I have never wanted to make an enemy in my work. I never hoped for war, and I never hoped to put Earth in danger. Sunny came to me looking for understanding after her race was disbanded, and fighting with my own better judgement, I took her in. I have thought everything that you have thought, but since being aboard the ship, Sunny has done nothing to indicate that she is a threat the Galactic Assembly or Earth. She has been an invaluable asset. He motioned down to the leg which now glittered in the light above. I consider her one of mine. It has taken me a while to make this decision, but I will not be dissuaded, and I continue to plead not guilty to all the charges that have been brought against me.”

“Permission to speak now, your honor.” The prosecutor growled receiving the angry eye from the judge, but he waved a hand and let him go on.

“Perhaps this is a touching sentiment, but the fact remains, she was not a member of the alliance until he put on that leg. So the question remains, how long has he been wearing the leg?” It seemed as if the entire room hand turned to look at the captain. It seemed as if the man was rocking back and forth from normal to corpse pale. Wide green eyes horridly glanced at the defense attorney. The man remained tall, he was a good actor, and you wouldn’t have been able to tell if he was suffering from nerves.

“In expressing caution, he had not worn the leg till now. To take such a gift from another race immediately would have been impulsive and imprudent. Additionally, he was, originally very cautions of the Drev, and rightly so. Some.” He glanced pointedly at the prosecutor, “Would think that wearing of the leg is required for it to be deemed part of the body by Dawson V Cybercorp, however we know that most who use prosthetics take them off during times of sleep. Dawson V Cybercorp simply stated that prosthesis were part of the body in all circumstances when meant to be worn. Once that leg came into his possession, it would have been legally considered part of his body.”

The room was about to erupt again, but the judge stood immediately, “The next person that disrupts this case will be escorted from the premises immediately….” He paused, “Do either of you have anything else to say in regards to this case that we haven’t already heard? If we go much further we will go in circles.”

The prosecutor made a few more feeble points before the judge seemed to have had enough and dismissed the court for deliberation. The entire room stood up with a mummer and headed towards the doors. Captain Vir was pulled out a side door by a pair of two MPs in the company of his defense attorney.

Sunny, Krill and the others were pulled into another side chamber, away from the crew, where they would not be influenced by the opinions of others were they to be called back to the stand.

***

Back in the deliberation chamber, the admirals, commanders, and representatives from the Galactic Assembly had seated themselves at a large conference table. A soft murmur rose into the air as members of the assembly sat with the human disciplinarians, and another small group of unbiased officers brought in for the purpose of trial. They were from lower departments, specifically picked for their lack of knowledge regarding Captain Vir and his crew. Of course, lack of knowledge was a relative term, everyone knew about the man who had made first contact, now it was just a matter of being unbiased.

…. A rule that already seemed to have been broken.

A young commander, with a strict haircut and a straight posture stood as the first willing to speak his mind, “We cannot let his behavior continue. This is the army not a pirate ship, while we must acknowledge his service, I question his methods.”

A member of the galactic assembly stood as well, A Rundi representative, “Your human Captain is invaluable to the Galactic Assembly, if you were to remove him we would hire him, so this changes nothing. If you were to imprison him, the Galactic Assembly would be very displeased”

“Aren’t you the ones who were worried about humans entering into talks with the Drev?” Asked the admiral, from the head of the table.

“Yes, we were worried about it, but we would much rather have the Drev with us than against us. Unlike you humans, we understand the meaning of compromise.”

The room burst into uproar for a moment. A hand slammed down on the table, “This is not about his value, this is about his guilt or his innocence. I for one think he is guilty, allowing an enemy agent aboard the ship, and so close to classified information….. it’s unacceptable. Not to mention he went and brought the thing to Earth with him.”

Another representative from the GA took to their feet, ‘I am ever more appalled by your human’s sense of justice. Clearly he was called hear under bias and assumption. The ENTIRE Galactic Assembly knows the location of earth, it is no great secret, however, no one has yet been willing to visit accept that Vrul and that Drev. Additionally I take offence to calling her that THING, what am I to you human a THING as well?”

Voices rose to a crescendo fought back by more table slamming and more deliberation. Finally a younger officer stood. He wasn’t nearly to the level of his other compatriots. “SILENCE!” He barked, standing his ground as his superiors, commanders, and politicians turned to look at him some of their eyes narrowed that he would dare challenge them, “This is ridiculous, a political load of shit. That man out there is a hero, a hero for Earth. He served in the Drev war, and not once did he show a preference for them over humans. It would be popular political suicide to put him in prison or to discharge him. He’s a folk hero, the people wouldn’t let it happen. Not to mention he’s a hero on every planet from here to Andromeda. I’m not saying the guy is perfect, he’s an impulsive idiot at the best of times, but he gets the work done, and he’s the most loyal man you have. And he managed to outsmart the prosecution which, I have a feeling, was set up based on political agenda. Someone wants that man out of power. The military is becoming worried about his power of influence over the people and the galactic Assembly. However, if you get rid of him, he takes most of that crew with him, and what if he stars freelancing? Than he isn’t under your control anymore, and he can do whatever the hell he wants. He’s too important to allow him free reign like that.”

The room was quiet as the men contemplated.

“And what of a medical discharge, it said in his file that the loss of his eye also caused minor brain damage.”

A head shake, “He was vetted for duty by the Vrul, who, may I remind everyone is ranked in the top 10% of medical professionals in the galaxy, and as a Vrul has barely any concept other than logic, he wouldn’t have vetted him if he didn’t think he could perform, so stop trying to find excuses. The question should be weather we are willing to consider the acceptance of the Drev’s gift as an acceptance of the leg as part of his body, that’s the important part.”

“Damn judicial loopholes someone muttered.”

“We should put this up to a vote, Finish this thing once and for all.”

***

They filed back into the court room, a hushed mass of bodies staring towards the front of the room waiting for what was to be the moment of truth. Captain Vir was one of the last to step out of the box. Not many noticed form the back, but from where she sat at the front, Sunny watched his hands white knuckle against the desk. His non-prosthetic leg was shaking a little despite the look on his face. He rubbed at his fake eye.

The judges took their seat, and everyone else followed suit. The marine who had been removed for his outburst earlier was back in the court room eyed on either side by military MPs.

At the front of the room, one of the admirals shuffled the papers on his desk before standing slowly adjusting the cap atop his head, “Captain Adam Vir of the United Nations Space Corpse, this court finds you…..”

The entire room sat poised on the edges of their seats, not a cough broke the silence.

“Not guilty of all charges.”

This time, the judges were unable to calm the roaring which seemed to shake the entire building. Captain Vir Slumped against the desk in absolute relief as the crowd roared behind. Sunny felt all of her insides unclench. Over to her right, Krill had fallen to the floor, incapacitated by the sheer volume of the humans’ pleasure. One of the Marines set caution to the wind and vaulted over the railing running over to slap his Captain on the back. When Vir finally stood his face had gone from white to flushed with exhilaration as the rest of the room broke down into chaos.

It took over an hour for things to calm down. Sunny was as relieved, but unable to approach the captain for the rest of the time as the other crew members made it to him first.

***

When she finally met him outside of the court room, he was looking exhausted but pleased surrounded on all sides by crew members and marines who seemed intent on beating anyone who had the audacity to accuse him again. Sunny liked the marines, they were a lot like her.

Captain Vir Grinned as she walked up stopping a few feet away. There was silence for a moment.

“You accepted.” She said simply looking down to where the metallic blue of the foot was peeking out from under his uniform.

He smiled, “Yes, I did….. and I don’t regret my decision.” They stood for another long moment. The Captain cleared his throat, “Besides, I’m going to have to wear it from now on if I intend on keeping the ruling in our favor.” Speaking of which, he turned to the side after a moment one hand covering his face as he removed the false eye.

“That’s just wrong.” One of the marines muttered.

Vir pulled the eyepatch from his pocket, and slipped it on quickly before standing back up, “Lord that thing is itchy as hell.” He tossed the now removed false eye at one of the marines who fumbled it for a few seconds, nearly dropping it before standing there while holding it with a rather disturbed look on his face, “mind me asking why you wore it in the first place?”

The captain raised an eyebrow at him, “Look marine, I have a fake leg, and an eye patch, I’m one Arg away from being a space pirate, not something the court needed to see.” He started walking towards the doors, “Now come on boys, let’s go home.”

  One of you suggested that I should add my master post to the end of every story, so that the new people can read the entire series in order with ease, so I included that as well 

https://starr-fall-knight-rise.tumblr.com/post/182501791735/master-post

[tonystarkissist]

IronDad Bingo Fic #1

So, y’all I did a thing!

Trope: Protective Peter Parker

Quick Disclaimer: Not TeamCap friendly. I love the Captain, I do, but I just made a thing... and I love the idea of Peter setting these guys straight. 

Mr. Stark was a good person. That's all there was to it. He was kind, caring, guilt-ridden, and just an all-around good, good person. It was easy for any sane or reasonable person to see it. It was painfully obvious, no matter how much the man tried to deny it.

Then, sometimes there is just a person in your life that make you laugh a little louder, smile a little bigger and live just a bit better and Tony Stark was that person for Peter Parker.

So when the idiotic, self-righteous, recently pardoned Avengers just-just freaking WALKED IN THE COMPOUND… They accused  Mr. Stark as if he were the one that had committed the wrong, like he was the one to blame. No sir. Nope. Peter wasn't about to put up with crap like that. Nobody should ever treat such a person as Mr. Stark the way they treated him.

Tony Stark was the literal definition of rising above the flames. He suffered through trauma, and-and he suffered through loss after loss and betrayal after betrayal over and over again, and Peter was there to witness the resulting panic and anxiety stemming from it. The man would just give and give, and the world would just take and take. And it made Peter's blood boil when the man's supposed friends just showed up expecting to take even more from the man that had already given them so much.

“Bet you’re not too happy to see us either Stark.”

And, really, Peter wasn't supposed to be listening to the conversation… Mr. Stark had left a few minutes ago, instructing Peter to stay put and finish his homework as he went to greet his returning team members. He could hear the entire conversation, listening in without an ounce of guilt, and it took all his willpower to keep himself from marching straight in there and punching those idiots in the face as he listened to his mentor take each verbal blow without even trying to defend himself. Which, by the way, was such a Tony Stark thing for him to do.

“You aren’t gonna lock us in this time around are ya?”

Peter could already estimate the recovery time to be several weeks before he, Pepper and Rhodey are able to convince the genius that he wasn't at all what those ungrateful people had accused him of being.

“Tony, you can't just drop all of your superhero duties to an inexperienced vigilante. You're just encouraging him, and people are going to get hurt. You need to take more responsibility and step in, especially when the people need you. Just because the team had disbanded for a while, doesn't mean you can just take a break from protecting the people.”

That right there. That was the Last straw. Peter marched angrily out of the lab and into the common area where the group was assembled.

It was worse than he had pictured…

There stood Mr. Stark, all alone, standing off to face a group of disappointed Avengers with a blank stare. His chin was held high, but his mouth didn't move. He was stiff, and Peter was just barely able to notice him grabbing ahold of his left wrist, which was already shaking violently.

“How dare you,” Peter seethed, anger in his eyes as he surged onward towards the group.

Steve's eyes widen in surprise when he sees Peter storming into the room. Then he turns back to Tony.

“Tony, who’s this?”

“That's none of your goddamn business, Steven.” Peter snapped, squaring his shoulders as he came to stand next to his mentor.

Tony's eyes had widened in both surprise and anger when Peter stormed into the room. He looked just about ready to reprimand him for disobeying his direct orders, but Peter had a few things to say before he was sent back to the lab.

“Now I want you to listen, and listen closely you pricks,” he seethed. “You have no right to walk into this building and start accusing Mr. Stark like that. Unlike you, he spends his whole day working on trying to fix people's lives, to make them better. And, again, unlike you he gives a crap about the world and the people when they all collectively admit to the group they trust that they're scared. It is completely normal for people to want rules to know that they're being protected in a safe and controlled way! But no! Oh high and mighty Captain America skips along deciding the world is better protected in his own hands! ‘Screw these scared people begging for proper protection. They don't know what they're talking about, but I DO! I wanna do things my own way. Nobody gets to tell me what to do cuz I'm an awesome superhero that helped America when the War. Yippee.’” Peter waved his hands dramatically with a crazed look on his face.

He felt Mr. Stark's hand land on his shoulder and squeeze hard. Peter knew that meant to quit it. He knew the man was getting angry, but he wasn't finished.

“Yeah, nope. You decided to be an arrogant bastard. Then, you, along with the rest of your jolly crew, decide that it's not your own fault when the world and government turns against you for doing something they had explicitly explained they felt was wrong. Instead, you accuse the most innocent and pure man, who only wanted to keep you and the rest of the world safe… He tried to help you! And when things started to look bad, you tucked your tail between your legs and ran! Leaving all the responsibility on this guy! Then! Oh goodness,” Peter laughed humorlessly, “then you have the audacity to waltz in here after being in hiding for almost a year and accuse this man of being irresponsible? Really? Are you that stupid?” The hand on his shoulder squeezes harder.

“Peter,” his mentor warns, voice laced with gritted frustration.

“I'm not finished Mr. Stark,” Peter responds curtly, glancing quickly at him with a stern expression before turning back to the others.

“Back in Siberia? Yeah, you remember that? Yeah, well, Iron Man could have layed you out no problem, just in case you were wondering. Nope. He was the bigger man even when he found out your friend here killed his parents. And, yeah, I'll admit, Mr. Stark could have handled it better, I get that. But he had every goddamn right to feel betrayed and attacked in that bunker. He trusted you, and you lied to him. Then? Oh goodness, this is where it gets really good! You beat the crap out of him! You and you're buddy right there. I can't believe it. I just- wow. Worst friend of the year award- OW!” Peter's head cocks sideways when he feels a painful tug on his right ear.

“That's enough,” Tony responds vehemently, without relinquishing his tight hold on the spiderling’s ear.

“Owowow Mr. Stark,” Peter whined.

“I want you to apologize right now.”

“What?? No! Are you kidd- OwOwOw!”

Mr. Stark released his ear with a small tug and gave a tired sigh.

“You can't attack out of anger Peter. I've told you this. While some of what you said may be true, what they're saying is true too. Now, I want you to apologize and go back to lab where I told you to stay put.”

Peter glares, but, of course, Tony Stark's glare beat him out.

Peter hated how little Mr. Stark believed in himself. There was no need for the man to listen to the lies these people were feeding him. But, Mr. Stark was Mr. Stark, and goodness knows he wouldn't disobey him again.

He turns to look at the group of shell shocked heroes. “I just want you to know… I'm only apologizing because Mr. Stark is an amazing human being that none of you deserve.” His glare hardened and he risked a quick glance to the genius waiting expectantly beside him.

A mischievous grin grew onto his face. “I'm sorry for hurting you're insecure ego Mr. Captain America sir. And I'm only saying that because my dad told me to, not because I wanted to.”

Then, with that, he races out the room before any response could be given. No need to face the wrath of Iron Man before he had to.

Mr. Stark was the best, and he'd spend the rest of his life trying to make him believe it. 

Not beta-d so sorry if it sucks

I’m so excited to try out this irondad bingo thing. Uber excited. We’ll see how it turns out I guess lol. Thank you so much @irondadbingo for making me my bingo card. I encourage you all to try it out!

[crqstalite]

SHADOW OF THE SITH, Ch.14

bit of filler so no one thinks khaak has actually been Kidnapped.

-

BA'SHIRA._ZIOST.

This was going so well, only about forty eight hours ago here on Ziost. Almost two days. For two whole days, she could say that it really was going her way for once. The first time Ba'shira had been with any sort of real family in literal years, and this was how it was going to end? Really? Cooped up in an old apartment and praying that Mako would pick up her holocom and she didn't know, maybe answer after she'd pinged her sixteen thousand times? A cheap apartment on the west side of New Adasta was not supposed to be her tomb, and no Sith was taking her down that easily. She'd taken quite a few in the past, century-old Emperor or otherwise it really shouldn't have been that different or difficult.

Except apparently she wasn't the sole target this time around, which made things way more complicated than they should've been. Not like her typical visit to Nar Shaddaa or Hutta with plenty of headhunters on her tail hoping to capitalize on a bounty that was years old at this point. Instead, the entire planet was going down with her in rakghoul-like glee. Yippee...

It wasn't nearly as fun as it should've been, really. Not as fun as her mind had made her think it was going to be, at least. Hyping up the trip to the Imperial homeworld was the only way to get her mind off of everything (well that made it sound like she was actively being hunted -- which was always). Torian was on a hunt with some of his friends from another clan, and not wanting to be the clinging wife she despised watching on holodramas, she'd decided to visit some of her own friends without making a fuss about it. Mako was gone, off with her boyfriend of a few months (a certain Cathar that she didn't trust as far as she could throw him) and Gault was out being Gault (what that entailed, she wasn't sure and definitely didn't want to know). So she decided that she just had to find a distraction of her own somewhere, with someone else preferably.

That being past Captain J'nell Wryen of their small party of then bounty hunters and smugglers (Thara had always preferred the term 'free traders' while they were travelling but Ba'shira would always call them what they were), and she'd come to pay the aging woman a visit. Well, aging was a strong word, the woman still looked like she was maybe thirty instead of nearing forty-five, but that was beyond the point. Beside drinking together and sharing stories of old and new jobs, it was a comforting time for Ba'shira to be around. Life day was coming up rather soon too, so the other goal was to find something for the crew in the marketplace if she could. If Torian was reconnecting with old friends, well there was no reason his cyar'ika couldn't do the same. Still fuming he didn't invite her along to begin with, but she digressed. By blood, she wasn't Mandalorian (apparently they didn't tend to care as long as you didn't break their code of honor, it still bothered her sometimes, feeling inferior and whatnot), so maybe it was a sort of thing you didn't invite your non-Mandalorian wife to. She'd never know, pride and all getting the better of her.

Didn't mean she wasn't frustrated, their anniversary and yes, the Wookie holiday were both coming up and she'd wanted to spend the days leading up to it with him, but she figured she would be as bad as those women in the holodramas if she begged him to stay back all for her. She knew just how happy and ecstatic he was when he brought things back for her, and another fur rug was never a bad thing in their home. Knowing her cyare had brought it back for her made it all the more sweeter.

She was much overdue for a little me time anyways. How long it had been since she'd laid back, knowing she wasn't on the run and no one was looking for her or needing her with a glass of Corellian whiskey in one hand and a holocom in the other...she did not know. That would have to be remedied more often, the warm feeling that spread through her body as she chuckled and hiccuped with the woman was something she hadn't experienced in what felt like forever. No talk of running anywhere, just them and learning about what the other had been up to in the years past. The woman had been here for years after she'd left their little smuggling crew, hoping to find the twin infant girls she'd spoken so highly of for so long. It'd been a fruitless journey, one that J'nell was still on apparently.

Ba'shira didn't have the heart to tell her that after nearly twenty five years, that it was probably worth giving up the search. As cold-hearted as it sounded, if she and Torian ever had a child (and that was a very big maybe that she had stuck a pin in since they'd been married) and they disappeared for two decades and then some years, it felt right to just let the path go cold. Holding onto things when it was healthy anymore -- to say the least she had some experience in that field. Maybe it was because she wasn't a mother, so maybe she wouldn't understand the grief just yet, but she still didn't want to help J'nell do anything regarding Mellena and Mivonie. Too emotionally draining, and it was taking up a lot of the two days that they'd spent together before everything went to shit. She was here to relax, not get caught up in a conspiracy that had been apparently active for more years than she'd been alive. Not even to mention that they surely had their own lives by now, maybe they didn't want to be found. A look around the apartment didn't immediately say 'welcoming mother' either. As much as J'nell had raised her, circumstances changed, and she couldn't imagine any kid really being happy in a repair shop of all places.

Still, what holorecordings J'nell had left after their birth, Ba'shira could begin to understand why she was so upset. One of them had been around until she was a toddler, and the little voice that she could hear over the botched audio surely struck a chord within her everytime she heard it. The kid had energy, and was surely a bright light in the dim evening years. Poor girl, Ba'shira found herself wondering what she ever got up to. Or if she was even still alive. That part she didn't tell J'nell. She may have had her doubts about everything she was doing but she wasn't a total asshole. But for some reason sitting silent on the couch as the woman ran herself ragged, talking offhandedly about the same subjects over and over again with pieces of armor, tools and whatnot surrounding her, well she felt worse about that. Not much she could do other than just twiddle her thumbs either.

They'd be older than she was by now. Two years, nearly three. Both force sensitive, both just as blonde as the Sith in the holocom that a very drunk J'nell showed her, tears streaming down her face as she cursed the man multiple times and recounted every single horrible thing he ever did to her. Had the man not already been dead (it was galactic news for a while after everything with the Sith went down, and the Wrath had taken one of the better bounties right out from underneath her; would've netted the crew of the Orchid enough credits to trick out the ship again) he might as well be now. If not for the credits, then just for plain revenge on what he'd done to her friend. Why J'nell was only just telling her all of this now in such a fuzzy state was anyone's guess. While they'd been together when she was little more than a lanky teenager with a penchant for fire on the Clarity, she'd never known the full story. In fact, J'nell had been much less willing to even tell the whole thing in the first place, yet here she was now, clutching the holocom in her hands and sobbing that Xalzon hadn't ever treated her right.

Ba'shira could've told her that, but if she wanted support through all of this, that's what she got. Least the woman was a talented armorsmith, she'd be leaving Ziost with her beskar repaired and ready for whatever battle took place next. The repair shop had been the one level-headed idea that J'nell had in all those years, though she shut it down shortly before joining the crew on the Clarity for some reason or the other. A spunky, thirteen year old Ba'shira with a love for the color pink and flames probably would've been able to tell someone, but tired and sleep-deprived twenty two year old Ba'shira couldn't even remember to eat some days, much less remember any of the finer details about her old captain. She picked the business up again a couple years ago, and that's what they were above as she thought now. Didn't see too many customers in the current climate, but it brought in enough credits for her to have a nice place in the city.

That reminded her, wondering about the fates of Zhonani, her partner Aethreen, Thara, her young son Axis and even Khaak, as many differences as they had.  After leaving once the crew was disbanded at absolutely horrid teen age of sixteen, to say that she was -- that she felt alone was an understatement. She had missed her found family dearly in the years past (and had to return to Rwenne and La'anthra saying that they had been right about her needing to stay around), but after she'd been swept up into the Great Hunt at Braden's request two years later, that had become the furthest thing from her mind. Now they were entire mysteries to her. J'nell had been a lucky find, as she'd still had her old com code and it still worked to her surprise. Beyond that, she was grabbing at straws and hoping they were the right ones.

She missed her found family. Much as she loved the crew of the Orchid, it wouldn't ever be the same and she knew it. Still, the little victories would have to do for now. Such as these moments she was able to spend with her. No one ever knew when they'd die, and for someone like J'nell, that could be just about any day now with her drinking problem and how bad it had gotten over the last couple of years.

Also, because fate was a total dick, at least to her. All of this had really started two days ago, give or take in the middle of the night. At least, it'd finally hit their part of New Adasta.

The middle of her damned beauty sleep. The Emperor really had the nerve, huh?

First the screams had woken her up into a panic, startling her into thinking she was back on Hutta or something. Thinking someone had broken into the apartment, had already killed J'nell and they were then coming for her too. Sleepily reaching for her blaster and taking a shot at who she then discovered to be J'nell in the kitchen because she had been so spooked, she had managed to calm down when a return shot nearly hit her in the darkness of the apartment, knocking a holophoto behind her off-kilter from it's place on the wall, crashing to the ground with sound of it falling apart on impact just behind her. That was a moment that she'd bury in the corner of her mind until the day she died, as J'nell flicked on a light with her dilated blue eyes with fear wavering out of them.

Well, the years surely hadn't taken their toll on J'nell's aim. That was a welcome surprise. Well, it would've been if it didn't nearly take her out in cold blood.

So the scream hadn't be the older blonde woman's. That was a relief in itself as she apologized to the woman hurriedly and dashed out onto the balcony with J'nell on her heels as another one rang out in the night. At first Ba'shira can't see anything, and is convinced that maybe it was part of a dream or hallucination. Still, with how shrill it had sounded she didn't want to give up on it that quickly, afraid it meant something worse. How close it had been to her own mother's scream that was etched into her memories from her childhood years spooked her. Scanning the area, the darkness of the night cycle keeps her from really taking in most of the situation before she sees a blue lightsaber light. The plasma's light is enough to illuminate the situation, and she covers her mouth with a hand in horror as someone's body is stabbed through with the lightsaber. J'nell's hand finds her shoulder in the darkness, attempting to gently yank her back from the balcony and back inside. At first, Ba'shira stays, held in place by fear as the lightsaber wielding person continues on, slashing through the rest of the person's party with unadulterated rage.

Weren't Jedi supposed to be the hypocrite good guys? Why would they just be tearing through people like little more than fodder for their lightsabers? Not that Ba'shira ever wanted to support them, she didn't care for force-wielding matters but it was odd. Scary even. Unusual, wrong and downright weird.

They turn upwards once they've finished with who is before them, maybe looking directly up at where she was standing. Ba'shira couldn't see where their gaze landed, but J'nell just knows. J'nell yanks her backwards with some sort of motherly strength back into the apartment and just far enough away that when the lightsaber makes an arc through where the bounty hunter had just been standing, Ba'shira watches in wide-eyed horror to where her corpse would've laid on the ground. Hurriedly J'nell makes for the curtains, shuttering them closed over the balcony's windows.

Her eyes are bloodshot. Maybe she's been at this longer than Ba'shira has, awake longer than she has been. Reacted to the screaming far faster than she had. Hopefully not kept up by nightmares or the buzz of caff, but the cups that litter the table and the datapad that's still glowing dimly on the table say otherwise. They'd talk about her obsession with finding Mellena and Mivonie at another date, but the only words out of her mouth are a pure, condensed few words to tell exactly what's bouncing around in her head, "What the fuck was that, J'nell? Not sure I'm liking your part of town as much anymore."

She runs a hand through her hair, flickering the lights back off one by one until Ba'shira can only see the woman's silhouette with the dim office lights shining onto much of anything. Ba'shira isn't put anymore at ease in the silence, all except for the buzzing of the holoterminal nearby, "I don't know, Shira. I really don't. Blazes, if I would know any better I'd say that was a Jedi out there. Jedi aren't ever on Ziost...Ziost is Imperial territory."

"You think they are now?" Ba'shira asks, picking herself up tenderly from where she'd been thrown onto the ground. She wants to walk back up to the window, look back outside, let her curiousity take the better of her. But the stricken expression on J'nell's face keeps her from doing otherwise as the woman sits delicately on the couch. Too delicately. Any other day she'd flop down on the worn thing but now...now she sits there with her head in her hands. Wound up probably, but as she leans back her eyes that she can just barely see gives her entire story away, "'Nell, you know something, don't you?" Ba'shira asks, concerned.

"No...not much more than just rumors. And rumors can't ever be trusted, right?" J'nell asks tiredly, pulling a half empty bottle of whiskey out from under the table, unscrewing the top to take a swig before Ba'shira rips the bottle away from her. The look of pure betrayal, of need is evident on her face as she swipes for it with a tired arm. Usually her reflexes are better, but her arm is also shakier than usual, "Shira."

"No more. This," She gestures to the bottle, "and this," she gestures to the datapad and everything else that covers the table. A picture of a blonde toddler looks up at her with surely bright blue eyes just like her mother, and Ba'shira can't help but roll her eyes, "All this goes away until you give me an answer. You always have an in, 'Nell. You always have, and I know that look in your eyes. You know something I don't."

"There have been...rumors that the Republic is planning to invade. Made it down the vine the last couple of days. All that stuff that went down on Yavin with the Pubs? Chances are that won't last very long. Treaty of Coruscant is already in shambles because people can't sit still anymore, the Republic is already starting their push on Balmorra again. Only seems fitting they'd attack here next, especially as some big fancy show of power. Can see galactic headlines now, 'Republic takes the Gateway to The Empire'. Can I have my whiskey back now?" J'nell says, quickly and longwinded before she tries to take the bottle back again, standing this time. Ba'shira has no height on the other woman, so she gives up and hands it back, "Why I'm like this, kid? I ain't got anything left anywhere. After the Clarity, you think things got better? No. This has been my home for years, and to just see someone die out there? Hell, it just might be my time." J'nell shakes her head, slowly sipping at the liquid with disappointment in her eyes.

"Does the Empire know? Not that I'm interested in helping them, but I don't want the Republic paying my bills." Ba'shira deadpans. Not much else she can do on that front, she and J'nell know loss like an old friend who's always there for the rainy days and nights that nothing else matters. She shakes her head after she takes in what J'nell had just admitted to, "Do we need to get out of here? Is there a chance there are more Jedi like that one crawling over Ziost with all their weird Force powers?"

"Hey, I'm not military or Intelligence. Take that up with Miss Beniko, new head of Intelligence last I heard." J'nell responds, looking moreso at the now half empty glass bottle than her company, "Just rumors. It'll probably clear up within the next couple of days. As you'll learn about us Ziostian folk, we don't exactly let our friends and neighbors just die on us without a fight."

As she goes back to bed, Ba'shira wants to believe that. There are plenty more screams that night, she knows because she can't go back to sleep. That's a horrifying sight, even though she has seen plenty other Sith go about their business. Mierrio comes to mind, their time on Makeb flickering through her memories. But those were pirates, pirates who were horrible people and killed folks for their own gain. The person who'd just died down there...maybe they had a family. Friends. People who cared about them.

And they'd just died.

It doesn't improve into the wee hours of the morning when she's considering finding her own bottle of alcohol to help her sleep as she hears three more screams over the next few hours into when the sun rises over the planet. She gets three hours of sleep within that first day, and that day is the day when everything goes to shit. The screams get louder. She goes out for J'nell to the market and just barely makes it back with her life and a week worth of food. It logically doesn't make any sense, and it wasn't just Jedi -- in fact she didn't see another one until a week later. Common people, the military, hell even Sith had lost their minds and took out whoever walked in their path. If It wasn't for J'nell's extensive knowledge of not only the underworld and back roads in New Adasta as she was literally running to survive the next few minutes, there was no way she would've made it to the apartment without suffering a few injuries or even losing her life. The first time she employed a grappling hook in her entire life was that day, and while exhilarating to watch the world pass by underneath her, it was also terrifying in a way she didn't want to experience ever again. The red mist that seemed to evaporate off the people who were going mad...it was so unnatural, and that was coming from Ba'shira, who had definitely seen some shit while working for Sith in the Citadel. She'd never seen this before.

Com connections started to waver halfway through that day. When she'd gone to contact the Orchid and arrange a pick up for later that night, nothing had gone through as it should've. Static, some basic communication but no visual. Almost no audio. She and J'nell discovered it was due to some communications tower being down nearby, entirely destroyed earlier in the day. It explained the explosions that had jarred her throughout the entire experience, at the very least. And with just about every civil brain cell down in the city, there surely wouldn't be any repair crew coming in.

Ba'shira was not having any fun, now that much was clear as day, as redundant as the phrase got she was sticking by it. Stuck in an apartment with an alcoholic widow with people screaming throughout the night? Please. This was supposed to be an outing she was supposed to enjoy. If this was all some elaborate plan by the Imperial government to flush her out of hiding (wasn't unheard of, it'd nearly worked on Alderaan just before Gault smelled something off about the whole thing and subsequently got them off the planet before she was thrown into the slammer for any arbitrary amount of time), it was not going to work. She'd probably blow herself up tinkering with the holoterminal before that happened. Intelligence was a slippery bunch, but considering how many times she'd carried out operations (bounties with a much higher price on them) for the secretive branch of Imperial government, she'd like to say she could sleep with one eye open instead of both when she was on Imperial-sanctioned soil.

Except now both are open. Closing them seems like way too much of a security risk right now. And that isn't a chance she should really be taking.

Just the night before she'd been sleep in the room J'nell had provided for her, unconsciously tossing and turning between being halfway awake and her eyes closing on her. Finally a few 'just passed out in my clothes' instead of actual sleep hours, before yet another attack happened. This time she was slower getting up, quieter grabbing her blaster out of it's holster on her thigh and slipping out of her room. J'nell must've still been out cold, because she faces this threat by herself. No sounds of entry on her first scan of the room, nothing had been touched. Picking her way across the room, something glints out of the corner of her eye. Whirling around, she takes aim before realizing it's just stray piece of durasteel armor. Imperial, the red and black staring at her ominously.

Pushing the curtains aside, all she sees is black at first, before stepping backwards and looking up. She stifles a scream before they hit the window hard with the butt of their rifle, a male Imperial soldier now that she looks properly. He tilts his head sarcastically, a red Zabrak with cuts all over his face and his eyes the color of white bantha milk. A smile that is much too stretched, too forced to be anywhere near natural. Without his helmet too, meaning he'd lost it at some point before this and the Emperor hadn't bothered to retrieve it. He bangs against the window again, this time with more force and she reminds herself immediately that she was not here to gawk in awe. Cocking the blaster, she wonders how he even managed to get up so high, considering J'nell lived on the twentieth floor of the apartment building.

Stars, if they can fly now, she thinks sarcastically, deciding to observe the situation as long as it warranted. What was the rule of thumb again? No quick movements? That worked with rakghouls about one out of four times, that one time being when she'd first met Torian and she was covered in their entrails. Her hand hesitates over the door handle, considering. She can't shoot him through the transparisteel, that would shatter it and probably get her kicked to the curb. Not to mention if he got up here, that meant plenty of others could as well. And that would leave J'nell with a biting breeze through the apartment.

He bangs against the transparisteel again, and she backs up. If she closes the blinds maybe he'll leave, she thinks stupidly. She sees a hairline crack in the material, and she knows she has to make a decision fast and now before he does it for her. With one fluid motion, she throws open the transparisteel window. He's too slow to take aim for her, and when he does, she's already moved and he's shot J'nell's holoterminal.

Well, she'd pay for it later. Not like the shop didn't bring in any credits to get her a brand new one.

Ba'shira prided herself on being a quick draw artist, and it came in handy as she makes quick work of the situation, shooting him quick in the thigh of his armor. Distracted by it for just a moment with the sheer force of the blaster and being in such close quarters, she manages to slip around and knock him backwards in quick succession. Leaning against the guardrail, she figures he'll have one hell of a headache in the morning before he kicks him over with a final thrust of her leg into his chest. Brutal, yes, but the job is done. The spookiest thing is that she can't hear him scream if he does. Other than the whistle of cool wind playing with her hair, it's quiet. Much too quiet. For a planet dying, she figures there should be way more noise.

There isn't even a loud thump she can hear. A part of her hopes he hit a snowbank or something. Looking around, she finds that the balcony has a small bridge connecting it to another apartment. She curses, finding another one on the opposite side. They'd have to watch for invaders from that direction too.

There is some sound though, about twenty minutes later as she tries to explain to J'nell how her holoterminal had gotten shot in between the fifteen minutes of sleep she'd gotten. The sound of gunshots picks back up in their direction, fires raging below them. Today isn't a day to go out then, especially with Jedi and now Republic troops wandering around in an Emperor-fueled acid trip. Republic forces had arrived that night, and other than the occasional gossip and naysayers from the neighbors of the small apartment, there weren't very many answers to find. No one knew why they were here just yet, or even when most of them got here exactly. Under the cover of darkness, anything could happen, and it seemed that the Republic rightfully took advantage of the confusion and sent them down here. Her bet with an older Togruta next door was ramping up to one hundred credits that the oh so wonderful Chancellor Saresh had something to do with it all.

Ba'shira intended to win. And with everything going on that side of the galaxy, it seemed like in the worst way, she was right yet again.

Then, she and J'nell wake the third day after the chaos started. Ba'shira intends to finally sleep, it's quiet enough to and she's just snuggled into bed when she hears the window open again. Of course, it's open. There was a crash not that long ago, and J'nell is getting overly curious about them all. To report back, of course, to compare it with other crashes they'd witnessed earlier in the week. She's just dozing off into nap land when the window opens again and something hits the ground hard. Not even bothering to pop up all that quickly, she prays it isn't a dead body that the woman has brought home this time. Worse, that it isn't J'nell's body that's hit the floor.

In her sleep clothes, she picks up her now well-used blaster (she'd just bought it a month beforehand, and now she knew it like the back of her hand with all the action she was seeing in a residential area) and slips outside her room. Scanning the area, J'nell is thankfully still standing, though has the grappling hook gun in her hand again. Stars, that means she'd taken a trip down to the streets without telling her again. She has her outside clothes on, with her electrostaff and other various weapons on her back and in her holsters. Ba'shira had told her earlier in her trip that against folks with blasters, she wouldn't stand a chance but the older woman stood her ground on the purchase, claiming that Xalzon had taught her a few techniques before he'd left. It probably helped that electricity was one of the functions. It did malfunction at times, but apparently nothing the mechanic couldn't handle. Ba'shira wonders just how many times she'd been shocked to hell and back and wasn't telling her.

She was talking to someone in a hushed voice. Great, now they had another roommate to look after. Or another intruder, but J'nell would've shot by now. Half dead then, is the idea she has about this new person.

"Nice place you've got here." A voice says, deeply feminine from in the lounge. Definitely doesn't have the same deep grizzle as the Emperor did, so she isn't on such high alert anymore. No one that's being actively controlled then. J'nell responds with something she can't hear, a grin on her face as the Twi'lek picks herself up off the ground.

"Welcome to the end of a world, kid." J'nell answers, before Ba'shira lowers her blaster. A friend from somewhere else in the city maybe, and she steps into the lounge to get a better look at the Twi'lek. She's tall, but not too much taller than Ba'shira is, and is wearing a ripped jacket, leathris pants and knee high boots. She hadn't seen many female Twi'lek without a headdress before, but this one collapses onto the couch in a heap with it in pieces in her pocket. Her eyes tighten closed, and blood dribbles out of many cuts along her face and lekku. She must've just managed to just barely escape the warfare down below with J'nell, because a few look nearly fatal and a bump is growing on her forehead.

"Shira, you probably heard me come in, huh?" J'nell asks, turning her attention from the woman for a moment, "So I know what I said--"

"No more people, please. How do you know the Emperor didn't take control of her too?" She asks in a hushed voice, "Everyone's vulnerable, he just hasn't turned his attention to us yet."

"Crashed outside in a shuttle, by the way. Your friend Cadera here saved me from certain death." A groan from the couch makes it evident that yes, the woman had heard her. She wheezes in another breath, and Ba'shira realizes that there's a lot more blood than she'd first thought (after she realizes that J'nell has yet again given her maiden last name to a stranger). The stains are growing on her jacket and cloth armor, a crimson red that Ba'shira isn't sure she wants to know just how much it's soaked up from her injuries. Surely she was punctured in a few places due to hitting the ground at such a high speed in a durasteel death trap, and one of the holsters is missing a blaster. A crash in a shuttle? Wouldn't she know not to be flying through this area, especially with the anti-air canons being the way they were? Better yet, Ba'shira's curious how she's even managed a shuttle to begin with. She shifts positions, pushing her lekku over her shoulder, "Can you turn the lights down? Like, all the way down?"

"The lights are down, Beniko." J'nell responds, making for one of her cabinets and rummaging around inside. Probably to find a kolto patch. Ba'shira wants to tell her that anything short of a kolto bath probably is going to do little more than just knock her out for a couple hours and make her wake up with one hell of a bodyache, "Just try to relax, yeah? Don't aggravate any of those wounds."

"Beniko? Like the new Minister?" Ba'shira asks, leaning against a wall and placing her blaster on a nearby end table before sliding into the lounge couch across from her, "You're definitely not the new one, are you?"

"Nope. That would be my wife." She responds, trying to open her eyes again. Ba'shira flickers the light over the lounge off, and pressing a button the console of the holoterminal to illuminate the small space. Bathed in the blue light, the woman has the brightest blue eyes she's ever seen once she's able to register what's going on, "Beyond the fact that I just lost her more than half a million credits in that ship, Lana is going to kill me herself for nearly dying."

"If your injuries don't first." J'nell says sarcastically, returning with her meager box of medical supplies, "I've got kolto patches, raw kolto, and painkillers. Take your pick."

"Thanks for that, Cadera." The Twi'lek responds, a gentle smile on her face as she reaches across for something. She strains herself too far trying to shuffle her jacket off, as she bites her lip and rubs the green sticky material over one of the cuts on her arm. Ba'shira doesn't usually shy away from serious injuries, in fact she had plenty over the course of her life, but Beniko's are a kind that she winces at, feels vicariously through the barely bitten back yelps of pain, "Ya'll have been living through all of this? Intelligence just came in today."

"We noticed." Ba'shira deadpans, flickering up a map of New Adasta onto the holoterminal, "I don't live here. I just got stuck here on a very unfortunate sleepaway trip two days ago."

"Got a name?" She asks. Ba'shira raises an eyebrow, considering whether or not to give it to her. Complete stranger (as far as she knows), wife to the Minister of Imperial Intelligence, the same Intelligence that keeps trying to hunt her down time after time for breaking a lot of laws in the past year alone...hard pass, "Hey, no offense at all. Can't keep calling you stranger though." She says after Ba'shira crosses her arms in defiance.

"I'd rather not give you my name, but you can call me Shira." She proposes, instead, deflecting the question entirely as news headlines scroll along the bottom of the map in a dizzying array of aurebesh, "What about you?"

"If we're all going by codenames," She stops to focus on managing a patch on her shoulder and a sigh of relief escapes her once it sticks, "Call me Captain."

"Her name is Khaak. You've been in a lot of tabloids lately, Captain. I was just reading about you before you crashed," J'nell responds, somehow managing a datapad in that amount of time. Ba'shira's attention has been piqued, swiveling her head at the pink Twi'lek in surprise, "Old article, but I can't believe I didn't realize it before when you first told me who you were."

"Article? Which one? The one from what, two years ago?" Khaak questions, leaning over the blonde woman's shoulder, "Oh yeah that is definitely old. I'll admit though, I looked pretty damn good in that tux that day."

"Khaak!?" Ba'shira can't keep her tone down, throwing her hands out in surprise, "'Nell, you're not more concerned that she's here?"

"You weren't aware? I've known where she was for years," J'nell responds, shrugging her shoulders, "The part about being married to a Sith Lord, that part is only relatively new, only maybe two or three years old."

"Who are you, anyway?" Khaak's attention diverts back to her, pushing a hand up to her head with a smile on her face. Nursing a headache then, "Shira?"

"Don't patronize me." She responds at the tone given. Sarcasm then, but she's beginning to put together the memories the two of them had before the Clarity's crew fell apart. She's gotten a lot older, though not old enough to have any visible wrinkles apparently. How long has it been? Nearly six years since she'd last seen her or anyone else for that matter. Now that she really thought about it, she had seen Khaak's picture with the blonde Minister a few times in some holomags while flickering around for good deals.

"Still spunky little Ba'shira, eh?" Khaak asks, chuckling before she doubles over actually coughing, or choking. Once she recovers, she still has that smile on her face that Ba'shira swore to wipe off her snarky face all those years ago after she'd been denied the ability to fly the freighter ship. And all the times the older woman had bullied her into accepting less than fair pay until she got smart about it, "You got somebody waitin' for you back home now, Ione? Figure you're a real catch these days."

"Yes." Ba'shira deadpans, grimacing at the use of her birth name. She'd changed it after joining the crew for a reason, and thankfully no one other than Khaak knew it. But it was also horrible because no one other than Khaak knew it, and could use it against her, like now, "And before you ask, no you can't have his name."

"Just trying to make peace, not war. 'Nough of that going around right now," Khaak holds up both hands, the same shit-eating grin that she immediately ties back to their last heist as a crew. Her expression falls after a moment though, "Any of ya'll got a ship out of here? I don't know when or if Lana can send anyone to come get me."

"If I did, we wouldn't be here." J'nell responds tiredly, putting her head in her hands and pulling the grappling hook out of her holster and down on the holoterminal as she looks over the Twi'lek, "Well, I would. Shira wouldn't."

"Damn straight," She interrupts angrily, "I ain't here by choice right now. Last couple of days haven't exactly been the best days of my life either."

"I figure. If it makes you feel any better, Imperial Intelligence is doing their best to clamp down on what's going wrong." Khaak says, pausing as she picks up her jacket again from the ground and rummaging around in the pockets for her holocom, surely. She swears under her breath, "J'nell, you didn't pick up my com by any chance, did you?"

J'nell averts her eyes, a clear answer of no. The Twi'lek groans, leaning forward with her elbows on her knees before immediately having to lie back again, "You think you can go back down there and grab it?"

"Pub patrols are probably coming through this area again. I don't know if they're shooting on sight, but I'm not taking my chances." J'nell responds, running a hand through her hair. She's right, patrols of Republic forces have quickly become more frequent and more routine in the last twenty four hours. Controlled or not, they are't friendly and probably would be willing to kill if given the chance or provoked in such a manner, "Give it another couple hours, then I'll go down for a quick moment and see if it's still there."

"I can't wait a couple hours." Khaak complains, putting a hand over her eyes to surely block out the light above her, "Lana's going to be looking for me, and if she can't on her own, I'm afraid she's going to tear through a city block to find me without a regard for who she hurts."

"Who let her be Minister then?" Ba'shira counters, twirling a strand of hair around her finger, "Isn't that like rule one of every major position with power? That you don't let your personal life get in with you business life?"

"If anything can't she put out an alert? Sure she can bypass any comm towers." J'nell gives her a warning look with her grey eyes, and Ba'shira rolls her own, "If not that, you're definitely staying put. At least until you can walk six feet without looking like you just threw back a liter."

"But--" J'nell's look yet again shuts another person down, and she crosses her arms. Not even a moment later, she makes another decision and it happens to at least be a good one, "Fine then. Intelligence has intel that the reason there are so many Republic forces on planet, including Havoc and Mayhem squad, is because a certain Theron Shan brought the Sixth Line of Jedi on planet a few days ago. Blah blah blah, Vitiate, or the Emperor, is rising again but instead of a force sensitive planet, he plans to kill everyone here so he has enough energy to start terrorizing the rest of the galaxy again."

"Sixth Line?" J'nell asks, crossing one leg over the other, blowing a hair out of her face and slipping the scarf off from around her neck, "I thought there was just the Green Jedi and the Order itself?"

"I don't know much more than you do, honestly. All this is just stuff Lana's brought home lately," Khaak confirms what she'd seen the other day with the Jedi outside. Then there were Jedi here, even if no one knew particularly why. Who even was Theron Shan? Shan sounded familiar, though she couldn't figure why right then, "I was supposed to be searching for him somewhere in New Adasta, but obviously I got shot down first. Did you guys see a ship coming down in the last couple of days?"

"There are ships and speeders and just about everything crashing these days. Not much to differentiate them all from each other, can't exactly smell Pub from here," J'nell says, scratching the back of her neck, "Plus, I'm sure Shan was on the run anyways, wouldn't be much evidence to find. This is Imperial territory anyway. Isn't like his type to be here."

"Of course, yeah. But it'd still be good to find him, he is essentially the ringleader of this mess." Khaak responds, "Not that we're friends at all, pretty sure they intend to just find him to get details on why the Sixth Line is here to begin with. If you two can help me get off Ziost and could help me dig up some dirt, I'm sure I could get you on priority evac."

Ba'shira perks up at the offer, shooting a look at J'nell that isn't reciprocated, "Priority evac, you say? What exactly would I need to do, bring him in cold or warm?"

"What do you mean, warm or cold? We need him alive to answer questions, Ione." Khaak says in that tone she despises, the one that makes her feel like she's thirteen again, "This is not a bounty by any means at all."

"Fine then." She huffs, and Khaak moves to tinker with the holoterminal, "Hey, what're you doing with that?"

"Seeing if I can connect it to anyone's com code. Lana's is encrypted, so chances are she wouldn't answer anything from here, but if I can get the Wrath's, she could probably lead me back to her," Khaak says, rushing forward again. She holds a hand to her head from the quick movement, blood spilling out of her nose in a red river. She wipes it away with the back of her hand and opens a panel on the opposite side of the machine.

"The Wrath?" J'nell's eyes widen at the title as if it's the most important thing she's heard all day, "As in the Empire's Wrath, number one on Imperial's World holomag as one of the most beautiful women in the galaxy?"

"You read a lot of tabloids," Khaak sounds mildly interested at this, though she's terribly stuffed up now as she holds a hand up to her nostrils, "But yes. Same Sith, for now five years in a row. Got one hell of a temper from what I hear."

"No wonder, with a title like 'Wrath'." Ba'shira commented as she gets up to circle the holoterminal and watches as the Twi'lek goes about her work. If there was anything to appreciate about Khaak, it was her nimble hands and how well she not only piloted, but also sliced things. Not nearly as good as Zhonani or Thara, but the skill was still there, "You're really about to go bothering one of the most influential people in the Empire?"

"If she wouldn't hurt Lana, she wouldn't hurt me. Don't worry so much, Ione." Khaak reiterates, "Besides, I don't know Nine's com code and not entirely sure I want to try hacking into that. Ain't lookin' to lose my head today or any other day for that matter."

"You've come to the wrong place if you're looking to hunker down and live, but I won't stop you." J'nell responds, pushing herself up off the couch and stretching, "It's nearly time for dinner. You hungry?"

"I could eat, yeah." Khaak nods, before stilling her head. She's got to have a pounding headache, and the look at her exposed back as Ba'shira tilts her head to take in the rest of the damage makes her wince. As mean as she wanted to be, Khaak had probably nearly died down on the streets from that crash. No sympathy was usually warranted for spacers, but Ba'shira's waning on that rule.

Still hurts, but she's yanked from memory lane as Khaak starts talking, "What was that?"

"Who's the kid? 'Nell's?" One of the holocoms with Mellena's earliest and only photo has flickered back on when Khaak had jostled it.

"Definitely ain't mine. Yeah, 'Nell's daughter Mellena. Why?" Ba'shira asks as Khaak lifts her hand from the sparking wires until she can connect them again.

"Looks a lot like the Wrath. Not much to go off of, obviously, but can't you see the likeness? It's in the nose and the lips, not to mention the eyes." She dives back into her rewiring, essentially leaving the conversation. For a moment, Ba'shira wants to scoff at the assumption. There was no way J'nell was the mother to the Empire's entire hope and future. Mellena had been taken by red Sith shortly before her six month birthday apparently, and then not a word after that as far as Ba'shira was concerned. The Wrath had never spoken of her parents to the public, but it didn't ever seem like the Amarillis' or the Quinns were red Sith. Not that she cared, of course, but it was a weird connection to make.

Ba'shira is ready to call Khaak out, maybe as just a joke, but under closer inspection of the wavering picture, she can unfortunately see what her previous Captain saw. She still doubts it, but even the implication hangs over her for the rest of the day.

After she was off Ziost, she could wonder about that. But for now, Theron Shan was her meal ticket off a dying world. He'd better watch his back.

[deathrattlebeat]

By Shade of Night: Chapter One

Written by: DeathRattleBeat Written for: Zeragii, because she likes angsty stories with Sans and Undyne interacting (as do i)  and, like, none exist dammit! Warnings for this chapter: Swearing, Blood, Injury, Undyne POV

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Undyne should have known it would happen eventually.

They had been above ground for nearly four years now, four wonderful, beautiful years. The sun was a god-sent, a presence that warmed the very air they breathed. It had been fantastic when they were first freed, and it hadn’t lost its wonder since. Frisk was a teen by now, wrapped up in the legal mumbo-jumbo that was supposed to make all their lives easier. They were doing a fairly good job too, all things considered, and life had fallen into a gentle shamble of experience and self discovery.

But with every bit of good the surface world above had to offer, there had been just as much bad. Humans were arrogant assholes who prided themselves on being racially enlightened, but were just as accepting as they had been all those years ago, when their mages had sealed monster-kind beneath the mountain. Groups had formed, hate groups that stalked the night and threw threatening messages tied to bricks through windows. They left piles of dust on porches and steps - imitations of death meant to scare and frightened.

They were the main reason Undyne had refused to disband the Royal Guard. Humanity couldn’t take away their only source of law enforcement, their only source of safety and comfort. Dudes who could show up at the scene and encourage and protect, where no human piss-ant would.

Undyne was fueled by rage and fear. Rage brought on by the times she had been too late; when she had arrived at a scene and found only dust and children crying over thier lost parent in wails. Fear brought on by the unimaginable circumstance that someone Undyne knew and cared for might end up hurt, or worse. It drove her like a fire in her soul, and for those four years she nearly worked herself into the ground over it all.

But her hard work had always paid off. Her closest friends, her family - they had always stayed safe by her efforts.

She should have known it wouldn’t last.

Undyne should have known it would happen eventually.

It was a Thursday night, a full orange-ish moon casting light through the livingroom window of their apartment complex. Undyne and Alphys had retired for the evening, inasmuch as they had huddled down to watch anime, clothed in soft, fuzzy pants and spaghetti strap shirts. Alphys had a blanket spread over the two of them, snuggled deep into Undyne’s side. Despite the exciting thrill of warrior women in scanty outfits warring on their screen, the lure of sleep was taking its toll, the two female monsters slowly slipping into unconsciousness.

It was then that everything went to hell.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Undyne’s eye shot open at the sound of a fist slamming against the wood of their apartment door. It was sharp and violent, the kind of knocking she was prone to, but this seemed more urgent. Desperate.

Alphys sat up straighter, rubbing at an eye beneath the rim of her glasses. “W-Who could that b-be?” she murmured sleepily.

“I don’t know,” Undyne replied, bouncing herself out of the sinkhole in the sofa she had sunk into. “But I’m about to find the hell out.”

Undyne moved her way stiffly through the rest of the livingroom and into the kitchenette, where the door to the hall was located. This close, she could now make out the muffled voice coming from the other side.

BANG! BANG! “Undyne! Undyne, please!”

“Frisk?!” Undyne grabbed the doorknob and yanked the door open.

It was indeed Frisk. The teen looked haggard, eyes wide and hair unkempt and wild. They were breathing hard, panic in their gaze.They were dressed in their pajamas, shorts and a blue top, too big for them but cozy.

The shirt was splattered in something that looked like blood.

“Frisk what the HELL-”

“It’s not mine,” Frisk gasped, and Undyne could only assume they meant the blood. “You have to hurry, he’s hurt and-”

“W-Who’s hurt?” Alphys cut in. She had wandered in behind Undyne, her eyes widening to three times their size when she saw the thirteen-year-old beyond the doorway. “F-Frisk?! What’s-”

“Please, we need you! Hurry, please-!” 

Frisk lurched forward, grabbing Undyne’s hand and pulling. On any normal day, Undyne would have been as firm and steadfast as solid stone, but her head was reeling. She half stumbled out the door, Frisk’s words just barely registering before she shouted back to Alphys.

“Get the med kit!”

Undyne witnessed the yellow blur of Alphys racing off toward the bathroom cabinet, and then the rush of air was in her long red hair as Frisk led her down the long, dimly lit hall of the complex, fourth floor.

There were monster apartments dotted all over Ebott City, most of them closer to the mountain, but a fair number were scattered further east. Undyne’s apartment complex was in the very center, and housed many of the more...important monsters. Those involved closest to Frisk’s work as ambassador. Which, had grown to be quite a numerous crew. Frisk lived with Toriel on the top floor, safer because it was so high - even the fire escapes didn’t reach that high on the old building. Asgore shared the same floor, though Toriel had ensured he was on the furthest hall from her own apartment.

As Frisk rushed her into the elevator and slammed a hand on the third floor button, Undyne’s stomach turned cold. That was the floor Papyrus and Sans lived.

Frisk had hunched into themself, their hands clenched tight over their chest as they trembled, tears in their eyes.

The punk was a good kid, a kind soul; the kind that would cry over anyone being hurt. But the harrowed, haunted in their eyes told Undyne all. This was someone close to Frisk. Close to Undyne.

Papyrus?

Or...

“Frisk.” Undyne’s voice was hoarse, and she didn’t know why. “Frisk, who’s hurt?”

The teen shuddered, the tears falling down their cheeks. “I-It’s Sans, Undyne. He’s...Someone hurt h-him...really bad.”

“Shit. Shit shit shit!” The elevator was going way too slow. Undyne glared up at the floor indicator. It was just one floor between them! Why the hell was it taking so long! Undyne felt herself shift into full captain mode. “Who’s with him?”

“M-Mom. She’s trying to help him.”

Undyne’s eye trailed down to the blood on Frisk’s shirt. “Injuries?”

Frisk shook their head, overwhelmed.

“Shit. Okay, alright.” She remembered that she had asked Alphys to get the med kit, but hadn’t told her where to meet them. “Dammit. Frisk, listen. Once we get to the brothers’ apartment, go fetch Alphys. Got that, punk?”

Frisk nodded, sniffling.

The elevator slid to a halt, the doors opening. Undyne didn’t even wait for them to open all the way, slipping through and hitting the fourth floor button on her way out. The last glance of Frisk she got before the doors re-closed was of their pale, frightened face.

The skelebro’s apartment was only around the corner from the elevator, and Undyne took it at a speed worthy of a monster with wings. As she neared, she almost ran into a crowd of monsters huddled around the brothers’ door, onlookers silent and anxious.

“Stand back!” Undyne barked, and they all jumped out of her way. “Give us room! Go back to your apartments unless you can help!”

She shouldered her way into the living room of Sans and Papyrus’s abode...

And froze.

Toriel was kneeling just left of the brothers’ old, mottled couch, between the furiture and the small space before the wall, where the glass coffee table usually stood. Though, now it was little more than crystalline shards scattered across the carpet. The apartment was in shambles, things knocked over and papers and dishes thrown around like a tornado had come through. A distinctly copper-ish smell lingered in the air, hot and humid, like the AC had been turned off for a while now. In fact, on closer inspection, Undyne might have noticed that the machine was gone from the nearby window entirely. But as startling as all that was, it was nothing compared to the small, crumpled form Toriel was leaning over, her hands aglow with desperate attempt to heal.

Swallowing back some unfamiliar emotion, Undyne stepped forward, slowly. “...Toriel?”

The boss monster lifted her head, and there were tears streaming down her furred cheeks. Even then she didn’t stop trying to heal the bloodied, mangled body beneath her hands.

Sans had been attacked.

And while he wasn’t dust, he was the closest to it Undyne had ever seen anyone in her life.

Next Chapter

[soft-butch-cassidy]

Can you tell us about your hunters cute shy marauder girlfriend?

her name is mikris! aurora-11, my hunter, met her during the red war. mikris was a marauder who was stealing supplies (the thief of thieves adventure) on titan, but when she saw who the humans sent to retrieve the tools, mikris gave it back to avoid dying. aurora’s ghost helped translate between them.

mikris didn’t really care much for the war, felt more neutral about humans. she was a king before dusk happened, but the captain she and her little sister got put under was a devil splicer and his crew. he was an asshole. mikris lost a bunch of supplies one time because she was trying to flee from hive, and the captain thought she stole and hid them, so he and his loyal former devils tortured her sister trying to make mikris tell them where they were, and her sister died from it. but mikris couldnt do anything about it but seethe and mourn for months.

and then this one guardian shows up, doesnt kill her, and is willing to talk, so mikris asks aurora to kill her captain and his crew, and in return she’ll let aurora take a bunch of other stolen supplies and equipment and stuff back for the humans. she tells aurora about her sister and aurora is like “ill fuck him up” and then she does. and then they get stuck in a storm and have to hide out together for a while, and mikris asks aurora to teach her the human language.

aurora already knew a little eliksni and was really sympathetic to them. so after becoming friends with mikris, she helped her back to the rest of the fallen and kept in contact with her, mostly just little encrypted messages every few days or so. mikris was then put under mithrax’s crew, not that aurora knew that when she spared mithrax to get the reactor. she found out later when mikris told her the story her captain said happened to him on titan. she met up with mikris again pretty soon after that and things got gay and they started a semi-ldr, meeting up when they could.

and then even more later on, as the house of dusk got more chaotic and disorganized with the whole uldren thing, mikris’ crew just sort of disbanded from the main house to do their own thing, which boiled down to “why are we fighting the humans we should just be friends ffs.” so mikris is now living on the tangled shore with a bunch of other friendly fallen while mithrax is working on making this new house of ally fallen with his own guardian fireteam. 

as for mikris herself, she’s pretty jumpy and easily started. she’s shy and anxious enough that she gets bowled over pretty often, but sometimes when she has enough support, she’ll stand up for herself. she’s very curious and likes to learn anything and everything she can, and when she’s comfortable she can get really bouncy and chatty, which is good, bc aurora’s the exact same way, so they’ll sit together and just chatter away in eliknsi and english so fast no one else can keep up.

mikris also helped make aurora’s fallen-like armor! aurora dresses like an eliksni in house of dusk colors bc she can blend in pretty convincingly from a distance and avoid being shot. aurora also just likes the aesthetic of it lol

[inazuma-eleven-translations]

IE ARES OFFICIAL NOVEL BOOK 1

Inazuma Ares no Tenbin Official Novel Book One

Chapter One - Setting Sail towards Tomorrow!

Read the previous part here.

Part 5

Asuto sat in the corner of the schoolyard, Norika gently pressing a handkerchief against his bruises.

‘Disbanding the soccer club is unacceptable, but to be this reckless…’

‘Well, are you okay with this Norika? Not being able to play soccer?’

‘O-of course I’m not okay with this…’

Mansaku and Michinari joined the conversation.

‘You might have been able to temporarily set back the demolition crew, but in the long run it wouldn’t have changed anything.’

‘Exactly. We’ve got to think of some way to keep playing soccer.’

‘I won’t give up on soccer! I would never give up on soccer!’ Asuto clutched the handkerchief in his palm.

Suddenly Hiura dashed over to them. ‘Asuto, it’s awful! Your Mom…’ He panted.

I don’t want to believe it. I don’t want to believe it. Asuto barged into the hospital room.

‘Mom!’

‘Asuto… Your face, what happened?’

‘It’s nothing. More importantly, what’s going on here Mom? You’re-’

‘I’m sorry, Asuto. It looks like I won’t be able to stay by your side.’

‘What are you saying? That - that’s not true! It’s always been the two of us! And it will be still-’

‘No, Asuto. People will always have to part ways some day. But our bond will never truly be broken. We will always be connected…’ Asuto understood what his mother was trying to say. But he didn’t want to hear it.

‘No… Don’t die...Mom… Soccer is already disappearing right in front of me - I can’t lose you too!’ He lamented.

‘Asuto… Soccer won’t disappear. Soccer will always be there as long as you need it.’ Asuto’s mother reached out to gently stroke his cheek and wipe away his tears.

‘Asuto… there will always be tomorrow…’ His mother’s touch felt warm against his cheek. But after her words trailed off, her hand slowly slipped weakly from his face.

---

Asuto dashed to the highest cliff in the middle of the island and there he stayed and cried until the sun set. When he returned home to his apartment by himself, he continued to cry until he had no more tears left.

Asuto ended up falling asleep in a huddle in the corner of his apartment, still clutching his soccer ball. As light streamed in from the window, he realized morning had come. He heard a loud thumping come from the front of his apartment, but it took him awhile to realize it was someone banging on his door.

‘Asuto, wake up!’ It was Mansaku.

Asuto followed his friend to the principal’s office, where the other members of their soccer club were already gathered.

‘Everyone, I have an announcement to make. There is a way to avoid disbanding the soccer club.’

Everyone took a deep breath. However, Asuto’s expression remained dark.

‘Huh? So, we’re not going to be disbanded?’ Norika asked, sounding relieved.

‘Someone has appeared who is willing to become your sponsor under one condition.’

‘And what’s that condition?’ Michinari asked cautiously. The other club members held their breath in anticipation as Fuyukai turned around to face them and spoke.

‘Take part in the Football Frontier and win one match.’

‘You mean, the soccer tournament that decides the number one team in Japan? That Football Frontier?’ Hiura sounded both anxious and dejected.

‘Precisely. Since it sounds completely impossible I’ve already thought about refusing the offer.’ Fuyukai threw his hands up in the air as if to say ‘it’s hopeless’.

‘Just thinking about it is a waste of time.’

‘Hey, wait a sec!’ Goujin rebutted after Fuyukai’s last remark, realizing he didn’t actually know what was so great about this tournament. ‘Would it really be that difficult?’

‘Well, yeah…’

‘We only have to win once, right?’

‘To just take part in that tournament you already need to be incredibly strong. Never mind actually winning a match…’ At Goujin’s rather naive question, both the team’s analyst Okuiri Hiro, and the Captain Michinari, responded dejectedly. This seemed to crush any hope for any remaining team member that believed they still had a chance.

All except for one person…

‘I’ll do it! I’ll win one match at the Football Frontier!’ Asuto, who had been silent up until now, raised his head and declared firmly.

‘Don’t say it like it’s that simple. We don’t even have the right qualifications to take part.’ Michinari immediately warned Asuto.

‘I have your qualifications right here.’ Fuyukai suddenly announced. ‘You have been given the opportunity to enroll in Raimon Junior, a veteran soccer school in Tokyo. As a member of the Raimon soccer club, you will earn the right to take part in the Football Frontier.’

‘Raimon? You mean, that Raimon?’ Okuiri asked in shock. Raimon were last year’s winners of the Football Frontier.

But why that Raimon…? Puzzlement still lingering in their minds, Fuyukai continued.

‘I thought some of you might say something reckless like you’ll actually go along with this. So I’ve already made the necessary arrangements.’

‘In other words, we’d have to leave this island and go to Tokyo’

‘Yes, exactly. That is your only way to continue soccer. Well, regardless of whatever your decision is, your chances of victory are virtually zero.’

When he heard this, Asuto raised his head and took one step forward.

‘Thank you! I’ve already made up my mind - I’ll do it! In order to continue soccer, I’ll take part in the Football Frontier!’

Read the next part here.