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aurora-teez · 4 years

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|Chapter 4 | Utopia~ An Ateez Fanfic Story~

Poseidon. God of the Seas. Keeper of the Trident. Founder of Atlantis. Keeper of all the secrets of the Seas. Why did he tell me that I am the only one to find the Island and the Chest. I do not understand at all. Why is this happening to me? For so many years, no one has spoken of the island or even had the courage to search for it. Now that I am, I am told that it was my...Destiny. What did he mean that my father never told me about who I am? Is he implying that I am somehow connected to the Sea? My father must have known something. Why would he leave me so many clues to the island?

“Did you just say Poseidon?”, Violet asks me, helping me up into my chair putting a blanket over me.

“Yes Violet. As soon as I sat down, I looked up at the stars and the moon and then a huge pulsing headache started and then I started shaking and having like a seizure or something. Then, I passed out and my consciousness woke up and I was on an Island surrounded by water. Then, Poseidon told me that all my life, I was drawn to the sea because of something my father did not tell me and how I can unleash power that no one has from the Sea and find the chest”, I tell them holding my head.

“That is really scary and yeah...did he say anything else?”, Seonghwa asks me.

“Well...he did say he would “visit me again” when I see the Northern Constellation in the sky better known as Cygnus and he will reveal something else to me”, I say to them.

“Ok so now it seems that we are going north but nothing has show up in the sky yet so how about we all just rest here until we see it?”, Violet suggests smiling.

“Good idea, bring blankets and pillow from the laundry room up here please”

“We got it”, Jongho and Seonghwa say going to get them from their side where the room is.

I go to the kitchen and boil some milk and grab a platter and put 10 metal mugs on it. Whenever I would have a nightmare or something, my mother would always give me hot chocolate. I open the cabinet and see a whole carton of chocolate. Ahh the King knew how much I love chocolate. I take 2 chocolate bars and melt it into the milk and add some cinnamon. Then I pour them into each mug and carefully carry them up to the deck. I walk upstairs and see them all wrapped in blankets and pillows comfortably on the deck and Jongho set up a place for me next to him. Aww that is so sweet.

“Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Oh I made hot chocolate for everyone.”, I pass each of them a cup.

“Yay!!! You know how much I love when you make it”, Violet says almost bouncing up and down like a happy bunny.

“My mother would make me hot chocolate whenever I was sad or had a nightmare or simply because it was cold and I wanted to give you guys some. I know that we started on the wrong foot but I really appreciate you all being here. I think going on a journey with only me and Violet would not have been this eventful lol. Also, it seems like you all are not so cruel well not yet but anyways yeah”, I say and sit down next to Jongho.

I noticed that he put an extra blanket underneath on the floor so I would have cushion. Aww he is so sweet. I swear.

“So while we are waiting to see the constellations, I was thinking I could teach you something if you’d like?”, Jongho says giving me a lock and a hairclip and a sharp pin from the handle of a sword .

“Sure, why not?”, I look at the items in my hands.

“One of my skill sets are lockpicking. I can get into almost anywhere and anything. Locked doors, locked chests, 4 digit code locks, ciphers, you name it.”

“Interesting, That is actually very resourceful.”

“So i would like to teach you how to pick a lock with simple items, you may not always find a key so you may have a hair pin and the pin from the handle of your sword which you already know you can remove and put back in.”, Jongho says laughing.

San’s POV

I do not understand what she sees in him. I mean Jongho is my friend and basically my younger brother and I care for him, yes. But I mean wouldn’t she want more of a man seeing that she is such a strong, sexy woman. I just feel so jealous inside. Most people fall at my feet, none I ever wanted because they were just too desperate. Emerald is very different, but I like that about her. Hmm.. I wonder what I should do.

Back to Emerald’s POV

“Ok so you want me to do this blindfolded?”, I ask Jongho raising my eyebrow.

“Yes, You have opened it successfully but it may be dark in a room you are in or you are tied up or something. So just try it”, He says and takes off his scarf from his wrist that he wears as a bracelet and puts in over my eyes not too tight but just right.

“Ok..”, I focus on where the lock hole is and I push the pin through it to hold it open and i use the thin pin to twist it and it unlocks.

“Oh my gosh you did it!”, Jongho yells and hugs me.

I am a bit surprised at first but I hug him back. He is super sweet. I have never felt this way about a man before. All of them before have tried so hard to gain my attention but he didn’t. He got my attention by being himself.

“Thank you for teaching me”, I say smiling and I feel my cheeks get pink.

“Guys, look. Isn’t that a constellation?”, Mingi exclaims pointing to the sky.

I look up at the sky and I see the Cygnus Constellation in a sky full of stars. Me and Violet both studied astronomy and star navigation as children. She is much better than me. I see her and Seonghwa looking at the star maps trying to point out the names of the stars to check if it is the constellation.

Violet’s POV

I am really surprised at how much Seonghwa knows about the stars and navigation. He also is a very funny person. He reminds me of those tiny little hummingbirds. Very cute but also dangerous. He is dangerously handsome..Wow. Anyways back to the stars. We both are looking at the map.

“So the top star is Deneb on the tip”, I say looking at Seonghwa.

“Then the bottom star is Eta and the far right is..”, He says squinting his eyes.

“Vega”, We both say at the same time. We both gasp and run over to Emerald.

“Hey Em. That’s the constellation, Cygnus”

Jongho’s Pov

Oh my goodness, I wonder if she will have another seizure and headache. I hope not. I do not like seeing her in so much pain. I have never felt this feeling before. I mean yes, the boys are like my older brothers but she is different. I feel like it is my obligation or my destiny to protect her. To me, she is the only Green Emerald in the world that shines bright in a sea full of diamonds.

“Well I guess now we just wait..”, Emerald says and she holds her head in her hands and suddenly, something emerges from the water shining and lands on the deck.

Is that a stick? Trident? Oh my gosh...she was right. It is Poseidon!

“Can all of you see him?”, I ask looking at him in shock.

“Please do not be frightened. I told Emerald I would visit her but I meant all of you as well. Sorry for the headache, part of seeing beings I guess”, He laughs.

“Well it’s ok. So what is it you would like to tell me? Well... us?”, She asks him.

“Well now that you see the Cygnus Constellation in the sky is a clue of some sorts. You are going in the right direction but there is something you need to remember for finding the chest. TO RELEASE THE POWER, ALL MUST BE DIVIDED.”

“Divided? What in the world does that mean?”, She asks him.

Emerald's POV

“You will know when the time is right. You may not know it yet but the Sea will speak to you. You will know eventually. But may I speak with you alone for a moment before I go?”, He asks me quietly waving his hand to motion to the other side of the side.

I walk over to the right side of the deck and sit down. I notice his eyes are a greenish blue. Very bright but dark at the same time.

“What is it?”, I ask him with my eyes narrowed.

“Well It is about Jongho actually”, He says.

“Jongho? What about him?”, I ask nervously.

“Well I mentioned before that your father never told you something about who you are. You have a strong connection to the Sea, stronger than even a fish who was born there and well most creatures with sea connection have mates or soulmates as you humans call it”

“Ok.. so...” “So I am saying that I sense that he is yours. Your connection and great knowledge of the sea gave you a bond with him. It is real rare. I have not seen this in all my years as God of the Seas”

“Wait... I knew there had to be a reason. I have feelings that never happened before until him and we seem to both love the sea”

“Yes dear Emerald but I will leave you with this- You always need your soulmate. Both of you are one in heart and soul. You may feel that it is strange to feel so much for him but it is not. It is Destiny”

“Thank you, Um...Will you visit again?”

“Maybe. I will try to relive the headache but you can always speak to me and I will answer in your mind”, He says and smiles.

“Thank you”

“You’re Welcome. Goodbye All”, He plunges himself back into the water being carried by a wave and sinking down.

Well that was certainly interesting and insightful. I walk over to Jongho. I feel that I should just confront this now before something bad happens.

"Jongho, could you please walk with me? I need your help with something."

"Sure." he followed closely behind me to the kitchen, listening to me talk on the way.

I suspect that Jongho may have taken a liking to me, but he hasn't seemed to show any interest. But... Poseidon said that he is my soulmate. How is that when he hasn't even showed a sliver of interest? I couldn't figure it out.

"Could you help me reach that thing up there? I need it to mix the batter for dessert tonight." I asked.

"Emerald, I'm not much taller than you, how am I going to reach that?" he laughed, looking at me as I blushed.

"Well, I figured you could give me a boost up there so that I could reach it myself." I said softly.

There were very few times in my life where I had been shy and flustered, but now was definitely one of them. I couldn't get the words of Poseidon out of my head. "Soulmate."

"Are you blushing?" he chuckled. My eyes looked up at him and I straightened my posture.

"No. I would never do something so silly and childish."

"Really? Then why are your cheeks red and why are you smiling every time you look at me?" he asked, smiling at me as he looked down at me.

"I-... Help me get the damn mixer please. I didn't bring you in here to be mister knight in shining armor and make me flustered." I said quickly, pushing his shoulders down so that I could get on them. He held me tightly and stood back up so that I could get the mixer.

"Got it!" I exclaimed, slowly being lowered back down to the floor by him.

"Is that all?" he asked, straightening his jacket. "If you want to stay and keep me company, I would not say no." I flirted lightly, giving him a pleading look.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were flirting with me Captain." he smirked, sitting down in the chair at the dining table.

"Jongho, I still have the ability to throw you off my ship. Don't push it." I sassed.

"Calm down. I didn't mean anything by it. I'm just playing with you." he chuckled, glancing over at me as he played with his fingers.

We both made small talk for a few moments before silence fell over the room. Jongho could tell something was on my mind, but he never said anything. Only stayed in thought as he watched me cook.

Jongho's POV

Something was up with her, but I couldn't tell what. Should I kiss her yet? No, it's too soon. I haven't even made a move yet. She would kill me even if I did. She is so strong willed, independent, and confident. So am I, but I've never met a woman in my entire life that is as strong and confident as she is. And sexy too. She's very attractive to me - her eyes being her most noticeable and beautiful feature. She almost hypnotizes me every time she looks at me, and I can't help but just be amazed by her. But does she feel the same way? I may never know.

"Hey, is something bothering you Emerald?" I asked, noticing how her eyebrows were scrunched as he continued to make the batter.

"Gosh, is it that obvious?" she laughed.

"Yeah it is. What's going on? You can talk to me about anything you know." She looked at me and I could see a sliver of trust build in her eyes as she inhaled to speak.

"When Poseidon came to this ship and spoke to us, none of you saw it but he pulled me to the side and talked with me." she explained, pausing for a moment.

"And? What did he say? Does he have a map for us to follow to find out what happened to your father?" I asked.

"No... He told me that... Oh my god I don't know why I'm so flustered right now. This is so embarrassing." she blushed.

"Hey, it's okay. Take your time."

"He said that we're meant to be soulmates. You and me Jongho." she looked at me to gauge my response.

"Did he?"

"Yes. And I don't know how to take that because I don't know how you feel about me. I know how I feel about you, but that means nothing if you don't feel the same." she rambled on shyly.

I could tell that she was uncomfortable and shy revealing her feelings to me, but I didn't care. She was confirming what I had assumed all along - she liked me as much as I liked her.

"Yes. And I don't know how to take that because I don't know how you feel about me. I know how I feel about you, but that means nothing if you don't feel the same." she rambled on shyly.

I could tell that she was uncomfortable and shy revealing her feelings to me, but I didn't care. She was confirming what I had assumed all along - she liked me as much as I liked her. I got up from my spot on my chair and started walking towards her.

Emerald's POV

He was walking towards me. Why? Was he mad because I revealed how I felt about him? How stupid of me...

"Jongho, what are y-" soft lips were pressed against mine and I stopped what I was doing. He backed me up against the counter and held my face in his calloused hands, tilting his head and deepening the kiss briefly. He pulled away.

"Are you telling me that you've had feelings for me this entire time? And now we're destined to be soulmates by the god of the sea?" he asked breathing heavily.

"That is exactly what I'm saying." I giggled, looking into his eyes and smiling.

"It's about damn time." he smirked, going back in and kissing me harshly. His hands snaked their way down to my hips and rested there, squeezing every now and then when I nibbled at his bottom lip. This kiss held so much passion in it - days and days of pent up emotions being let out in one simple action.

He groaned when my hands traced down his front and ghosted over his crotch, his hands coming under my thighs to hoist me up effortlessly and walk me to the chair he was sitting in.

"You have no idea how long I've waited to do this." he breathed, smirking as he went down to kiss my neck, a feather light moan coming out of my throat.

I took his face in my hands and straddled him as he sat back down, sticking my tongue back in his mouth as his hands rested on my ass, squeezing it possessively.

"Jongho, we need you on deck. There's som-" I heard a voice in the hallway and looked up to see San standing in the doorway. I quickly got off of Jongho's lap, wiping my lips of his saliva as he smirked up at me with his back to San.

"There's something Seonghwa needs help with. Now." San said sternly, looking at me with sadness and almost a hint of anger in his eyes.

"I'm coming." Jongho popped out of his chair and straigtened his pants before walking out of the door.

"Thanks for that mental image." San told me, clenching his jaw as he walked away.

"San wait! I-"

"Don't even worry about it. I got that message loud and clear." he brushed me off quickly, clenching his fists as he walked with Jongho down the hallway.

Now what? Talk about a rock and a hard place...

“Oh my goodness...what in the world?”, I blink my eyes and touch my lips blushing thinking of how good of a kisser Jongho is. I mean I have never kissed anyone before and I mean..Wow. Glad to see he feels the same way as me. I have never been so happy.

But what was San so upset about? I mean I was apologizing for the scene he saw but what message did I give him? I should ask but that is for another day.I have to finish cooking dinner and dessert.

Gosh Jongho... what are you doing to me?...

Jongho’s POV

Well that was really interesting.Her lips are as soft as cotton and sweet as honey. The way her lips are perfectly pink matching her light brown melanin skin. Looking into her Emerald gems makes her even more beautiful. Hmm... I do wonder what is up with San. He look as if fume were coming out of his ears.

Emerald’s POV

Now I am cooking dinner, I noticed that Seonghwa and Violet are doing some star navigation so I wanted to give her a break. I am thinking about what Poseidon meant by “TO RELEASE THE POWER, ALL MUST BE DIVIDED”. Is it a person? Thing? Place? or Analogy for something else?

I have no idea...

Author’s Note: Hi there!! Thank you all again to those who have discovered my story and have supported it. I want to give a very huge shout out to my dearest friend, @hwaseongatiny who is the character portrayal of Violet in my story. She wrote the kissing scene between Emerald (Character portrayal of me) and Jongho. She is such an amazing writer and I can tell she loves expressing herself through writing. Thank you for helping and supporting my writing. Love you!😁💕

#ateez fanfic #ateez #ateez fic #kim hongjoong #park seonghwa #choi san #choi jongho #song mingi #kang yeosang #jung wooyoung #jeong yunho #wonderland #utopia #pirate king #pirate #trident #sea #soulmates

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chaosintheavenue · 4 years

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Chaos's Fallout OC Timeline: Part 1

As promised, here's a brief (haha) and incomplete timeline of my OCs' lives! It got extremely long already, and a lot starts to happen in one go once we hit 2281, so I'm going to make a Part 2 sometime soon.

For brevity's sake, I'm going to assume some awareness of the storylines of Van Buren and New Vegas. I'll be including some canon stuff that either is particularly relevant or has been altered. Also, as a little disclaimer...

All major details of the New Plague content were finalised in 2019. I know it’s very unfortunately-timed, but it took zero inspiration from the current situation.

The 'later Legion' thing was one of my first ever headcanons, but I have absolutely no idea why I decided on it! Still, it's pretty firmly stuck in my brain now, so it stays.

Warning: Contains many mentions of illness, death (including child death), suicide, violence, and generally unpleasant Caesar's Legion stuff

Early 2050s

Ezra is born

The New Plague emerges for the first time in Denver and quickly spreads

2077

The third major New Plague outbreak is underway

October 23rd- The Great War finally comes. Ezra and his pregnant wife enter Vault 70

2190

Vault 70 opens, and its inhabitants settle in the ruins of Salt Lake City. Among them are two children who will one day become James's parents

2210s

James is born

2220

Tibbs is born (as Nathan)

2220s or early 2230s

Grace is born and abandoned

Two years later, Grace is taken in by a group of similarly abandoned kids and teens, who raise her

2235

The settlement in SLC is destroyed over accusations that the residents are hoarding food and supplies. Survivors regroup and settle in the ruins of Ogden, forming New Canaan

Late 2240s

Sid is born

Grace meets a New Canaanite named Jacob during her travels and eventually decides to settle down in his town with him

2242

James Jr. (JJ) is born

2240s and 2250s

Tibbs heads out into the world and finds sporadic work as a caravan guard

2250s

Sid is almost killed in a grenade explosion. His physical recovery is rapid, but he permanently loses most of his hearing

2252

Violet is born

Tibbs's family's farm has a record poor harvest and their animals die from disease. Out of desperation, he secretly begins to steal from NCR supply caches (the locations of which he learned whilst travelling with caravans) and sell the goods on to ensure that his parents and himself can eat

2253

Tibbs gets caught red-handed by the NCR and is sentenced to jail time

Victor Presper releases samples of Limit 115 (which causes the New Plague) into the wasteland as part of his grand scheme

Two months into his sentence, Tibbs is working on the railways, a la the Powder Gangers. He manages to become infected with a dormant form of the New Plague

Victor Presper rounds up those infected with the Plague using CODE mind control technology, and leads them to the Tibbets prison facility. The details of how exactly he found Tibbs and got him out of his original prison haven't been sorted yet!

Presper then stages an attack on the facility, allowing some of the infected prisoners to escape. Tibbs is obviously one of them. Following his lucky escape, he takes the name 'Tibbs', after the prison itself

2254

Ashlen is born

After getting himself far from NCR territory and the Tibbets prison facility, Tibbs isn't sure what to do with himself now. The 'blank slate' situation he finds himself in reminds him of his childhood heroes, the Vault Dweller and Chosen One. He convinces himself that the universe has chosen him to follow in their footsteps, and he keeps himself busy by travelling from settlement to settlement offering assistance. Over time, he develops a reputation as a wasteland hero

2255

Reports of a mysterious, usually fatal illness appear in the Four Corners area. Tibbs becomes aware, and promises to look into it

2256

Tibbs makes some progress, having discovered that the illness is a resurgence of the pre-war New Plague. He spends a lot of time travelling from town to town looking for leads. The Plague always seems to be right on his heels, and he thanks his lucky stars that he manages to avoid it

2257

Tibbs becomes aware (details of how are undecided) that he is an asymptomatic carrier of the New Plague. This is a severe blow to him, and he spends a while living almost as a recluse whilst considering his next move

2258

Tibbs learns about a pre-war science facility known as the Boulder Dome, and decides to head there looking for leads on Victor Presper, the Plague, or both. He doesn't know that area at all, so he is forced to travel with a caravan heading to Denver. He tries to avoid passing anything on to the people around him by wearing face coverings, eye goggles and gloves, and burning any personal objects he has used

September 30th- Tibbs's caravan stops in New Canaan to trade. JJ, who is now fifteen, is helping out on 'gate duty' that day. He is awe-inspired to meet Tibbs thanks to his celebrity-like status. Being recognised in such a manner takes Tibbs back to the 'glory days' before he learned of his predicament, and in a moment of lapsed judgement he shakes the boy's hand straight after rubbing his eyes. The caravan trades uneventfully and leaves town the next day

October 8th- New Plague: JJ suddenly falls ill at home. A very dramatic time ensures, but his life is ultimately saved. Still, he remains weakened by his ordeal. By sheer luck, nobody else in town has been infected

November- Tibbs arrives at the Boulder Dome, has his first run-in with Victor Presper himself, and learns that everyone living there is also infected with the Plague after a lab accident. He stays there for a while assisting with research, relishing the opportunity to live 'normally' again without fear of killing those he interacts with, and ends up becoming close to one of the scientists, Xian

2260

Tibbs and the rest of the Boulder Dome folks discover a treatment of sorts for the New Plague. As long as they take it regularly, they will not experience symptoms and will be far less likely to pass it on. They turn their attention to whatever the hell Presper is up to this time, and begin to venture outside the Dome more regularly without protective equipment

2261

A group of Boulder Dome peeps, led by Tibbs, arrives in New Canaan to trade and ask around for information on Presper. One unspecified member of the group (NOT Tibbs) has forgotten to take their treatment that day. Ashlen excitedly approaches the group, as she does with all newcomers, and Tibbs is all too happy to indulge her fascination with them. Again, Tibbs leaves town just before the sh!t hits the fan

Around a week later, Ash becomes ill. Long story short, she doesn't make it...

Upon the loss of her favourite child, Grace 'snaps'. She becomes highly erratic and swears vengeance on Tibbs (she has realised that he was a common factor between JJ and Ashlen becoming ill, and remembers seeing him masked and gloved up, which makes her believe that he's knowingly spreading the illness)

After her behaviour pushes her relationship with what remains of her family to the point of no return, Grace leaves New Canaan, hellbent on revenge

After about a month, she catches up with the group. They recognise her as the mother of the curious kid from the town, but are unaware of what transpired after their visit. Grace tags along with the group for a while, but her behaviour seems unnatural, and they are secretly suspicious that she has ulterior motives, or may be in league with Presper somehow

Concerned, they get in touch with their only contact in New Canaan- Doc Angela. She informs them of Ashlen's fate, and warns them that Grace is a lot more combat-proficient that she may seem, fled the town in an utterly unhinged state, and is likely out for blood

The next morning, Tibbs removes the bullets from Grace's gun as she sleeps, then wakes her up with a question about why she's so travelled far from her children. She loses her false composure completely at the reminder and pulls her gun on him, screaming that he's a murderer and 'shooting' him many times, too swept up in rage to realise that nothing is happening. With proof in hand, he has no issue with shooting her dead where she stands (or rather, sits) in the heat of the moment, but this situation haunts him relentlessly for the rest of his life and deeply changes his attitude

2262

Brutus is born (as Benjamin)

The Boulder Dome group finally learns of Presper's plan: to cleanse the world using nuclear missiles on board a satellite (B.O.M.B.-001), which has already been armed by the New Plague fiasco. Tibbs confronts him aboard B.O.M.B.-001 and convinces his minions to turn on him and kill him, but the damage is done. Tibbs manages to prevent the missiles from launching, but can't stop the detonation or use an escape pod. B.O.M.B.-001 explodes without survivors

2265

It's time for JJ to serve on a mission, as all young New Canaanite men do, but there are some doubts over whether he is healthy enough. He's not really into the religious side of it all (and secretly doesn't fully buy it himself), but he IS extremely excited to explore more of the world, so he fights tooth and nail to build up his fitness in time to be allowed to go- and is successful

2266

JJ is called to serve a mission in the Grand Canyon. His mission companion is a certain Joshua Graham, and they are scheduled to work alongside a Followers expedition

I think we all know how that turned out...

2267

Oh, but first, at some point prior to everything falling apart, Edward Sallow spent some private time with a Blackfoot girl...

Very long story short, Edward has all members of the expedition apart from himself, Joshua and Bill Calhoun executed :(

The young woman that Edward... shared a tent with, let's say, is pregnant. He initially refuses to acknowledge this until Joshua points out that it might be wise to have heirs lined up

Sid is scheduled to be executed for his 'weakness' (his hearing). He personally proves his unique 'talents' to Caesar by extracting information from captives, and is accepted as a scout and informer

The Legion grows rapidly, and takes Flagstaff as its capital. Many of its former residents are killed, but most children (Brutus included) are taken in for training as Legionaries

Things quickly become a lot more official now that the Legion has a city to call its own. As part of this, Sid is given the title of 'Frumentarius'

October 23rd- The Blackfoot woman gives birth to twin girls prematurely, and their survival cannot be guaranteed. Upon learning that his 'heir' is two sickly daughters, Edward denounces and disowns the twins- but not before he insists on naming them Charlotte and Chelcie

2260s to 2270s

Brutus completes his training and is placed under a certain Centurion Silus

A select few individuals appear over the years with talents and abilities similar to Sid's. At Caesar's discretion, he is allowed to train some of these as Frumentarii too

Charlie and Chel are raised by their mother and many other slave women. Joshua has developed a soft spot for them and offers some input too. Caesar does not

2270s

James and his wife Catherine both die from radiation poisoning when Marshall the Glowing One turns feral and collapses outside of their house. They never found out what happened to their son :(

2277

Brutus, Charlie, Chel and Sid are uprooted from Flagstaff, their main home up until now, and sent to Fortification Hill in preparation for war

November 21st- Sid is captured whilst scouting out Boulder City prior to the Legion assault on the Dam. He realises that his situation is hopeless, and he takes lethal poison rather than be tortured and interrogated for information

November 22nd- First Battle of Hoover Dam

Brutus fights at the Dam. He survives relatively unharmed by luck alone

Brutus, Charlie and Chel are among the crowd that directly witness the execution of the disgraced Malpais Legate. All of the three hold him in higher regard than Caesar and are sickened

Disgusted by what they have seen over the years and more acutely afraid for their own safety (since they are known to disapprove of Caesar on a personal level and were close associates of Joshua), Charlie and Chel flee across the Colorado River in the dead of night, and attempt to carve out a life for themselves with little more than the clothes on their back in the unfamiliar Mojave Wasteland

2278

Charlie and Chel stop briefly in various places around the Mojave, still struggling to provide for themselves. They mainly spend their time gathering scrap to sell, which leads them to explore many new places

2279

November 12th- Charlie and Chel explore REPCONN HQ in search of salvage. Chel is abruptly shot in the head by a Sentry bot, and dies instantly. She’s buried in Goodsprings Cemetery

Charlie is utterly stunned following the loss of her 'other half'. Completely lost on her own, she returns defeated to the only home she knows- Fortification Hill

And there you have it! Please let me know if you find any issues (typos, inconsistencies, etc), or if you have any more questions other than ‘What happens next?‘

Part 2 is here

#oc cast #illness tw #pandemic tw #death tw #child death tw #violence tw #gun tw #suicide tw #slavery mention #new plague #ask to tag

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holidaywishes · 5 years

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i think i might love you

Requested: 👍

Summary/Request: can you do something with t segs about him being best friends with a small shy nerdy, not your typical blonde hair bombshell type girl and him realizing he’s in love with her💗

Warning: fluff, maybe some swearing

masterlist

“Why are you so awful at this?!” you yelled to Tyler while the two of you played NHL 19, “isn’t this like your thing?”

“No, actually, it’s not!” he laughed, “they’re very different things. I’m not on the ice!”

“Whatever, you still suck”

“Maybe I’m just letting you win...”

“Yeah right!” you scoffed as you scored another goal before celebrating, “HA! BOOM! I win. I always win! What do I get this time?”

“Who said you get anything?” he said as he got up to walk into the kitchen

“We made a bet, sourpuss,” you followed Tyler into the kitchen, “so...?”

“I’ll pay for your dinner” he said, rolling his eyes dramatically

“Wow, what a treat” you teased and pushed him out of the way so you could grab a glass from his cabinet.

“You’re damn right it’s a treat” he returned

“How about something a little more... out of the ordinary...” Tyler gave you a confused glare and you waited in silence for him to say something, “it’s not like you’ve never paid for my dinner before. If all I get for beating your ass is a lousy dinner than I’m gonna have to stop wasting my time around here”

“What is it you want then?” he asked curiously

“Hmm.. well there’s a world of possibilities Seguin,” you mused, “how about... helicopter tour? concert in Vegas? introduce me to Captain America?”

“I met Chris Evans once, we’re not exactly buddy buddy...”

“Call in a favour”

“Sorry can’t do that”

“Okay.. well.. I don’t know.. OH WAIT! Take me to a Pens game!”

“A Pens game? why?”

“Uhm to watch them win... duh”

“Aren’t you supposed to be cheering for me? and my team?”

“Yeah sure.. only when you’re playing. But I grew up watching Pittsburgh,” you pouted and whined in your best baby voice, “please, Ty...”

“Ugh fine,” he groaned, “grab the schedule”

“YES!” you yelled, running to your bag to grab the pocket season schedule your Mom got you in October, “okay so there’s one this weekend it looks like... and it’s perfect because you’re not playing!”

“You know I still have practice though...” he laughed and you smiled

“Not this day you don’t!”

“Fine. I guess I’ll see you in Pittsburgh”

“See you in Pittsburgh!” you hopped past him back toward the couch, a big grin still plastered on your face. You pushed your oversized, butterfly shaped glasses up the bridge of your nose before grabbing the controller and continuing the play as Tyler sat down next yo you; you could feel his gaze on you, so you chirped him, “take a picture, it’ll last longer”

“You’re really using that gem?”

“You’re really gonna sit there and pretend like you’re not staring at me?”

“I wasn’t staring...”

“Mhm..” you hummed before pausing the game, “what?”

“What do you mean?” he said, dumbfounded, “I wasn’t staring... I just.. I don’t get it...”

“Oh god.. what does that mean?”

“Why did you go to school in New York?” he said, gesturing to your Columbia sweatshirt, “I mean why couldn’t you just stay in Toronto...?”

“Uhm, maybe because I got a scholarship to one of the top ranked Universities in the world, you ass,” you teased, “and it’s New York City. I wasn’t going to pass that up”

“But I never saw you”

“That has nothing to do with Columbia. That has to do with you and Boston and then Dallas. Don’t blame it on me...”

“I’m not blaming,” he defended, “I’m just saying. Before Boston, we did everything together and then we just kinda... didn’t”

“We still got together Ty...” you brought your legs up onto the couch, “look, I’m here now. We’re hanging out... we’re going to a hockey game on Saturday. We’re still friends, do you not think we’re friends anymore?”

“What? no of course not! Don’t panic,” he tried, “I just kinda miss you sometimes...”

“Awww!” you cooed, pushing his shoulder teasingly, “I miss you too, Tyler.” You leaned in to give him a tight hug because it seemed like he needed it, but you needed it just as much as he did; you pulled him a little closer and caught the scent on his hair, breathing it in before you pulled away slowly. Your eyes caught his for just a second and you tried to hide the way your breathing increased by moving back on the couch -- further away from Tyler, when you heard him call for the dogs.

“Marsh, Cash, Gerry,” he whistled, “where are you guys?” With that the three labs came rushing to the couch, jumping up instantly and licking your faces frantically.

“My god, you’d think they hadn’t seen us in weeks...” you laughed and tried to move your face away from the dogs. Catching Tyler staring at you one last time before you cleared you throat and focused your eyes back on the brightly lit screen.

Tyler’s P.O.V

Why did she seem so new to you? You had known her for so long and she had always just been... (Y/N)... So why was she suddenly making you nervous? You watched her as the dogs licked her face before she trained her eyes on the screen. She caught your eyes once but whipped back to the T.V. and didn’t look at you for the majority of the night until she finally got up to go to bed.

“So you’re gonna sleep on the couch yeah?” she smiled at you and you felt a small wave of heat flood your cheeks

“What? why would I do that?”

“Because I’m taking your bed. It’s the comfiest in the house so...”

“Ahh no,” you laughed, “who said you could take my bed?”

“Me!” she giggled as you stood up, noticing her prepare to run to your room

“I don’t think so” you approached her slowly, eyes narrowing

“Tyler...”

“(Y/N)...” she stood in front of you, playing with the hem of her Columbia sweatshirt, watching how you moved to decide what her next step would be. When you lunged forward to grab her, she dodged your hand and let out a squeal; something you normally would find annoying but for some reason, you thought it was adorable. You smiled and continued to chase her through your house, letting her run ahead of you to let her think she had the upper hand before you made two large strides and wrapped your arm around her stomach and carried her through the hallway.

“See, your problem is that you get too cocky” you laughed

“TYLER!” she yelled, squirming under your grip, her glasses falling to the floor, “let me go!” You didn’t listen, instead you carried her to the guest room and threw her onto the mattress abruptly, staring at her briefly before walking out of the room. When you came back she had a confused look on her face which you attributed to the fact that she probably couldn’t see, so you walked over to the bed and slid her glasses on her face

“I think you dropped these...” you said lowly as her brilliant (Y/E/C) eyes hypnotized you as they danced between yours

“You mean you knocked them off me” she finally said before sitting up to adjust her position.

“Well I should let you get some sleep...” you muttered before she could speak, leaving her mouth to gape as you walked away

“Okay...” she whispered, confusion clearly present in her voice. You started to walk to your bedroom, shaking your head to clear out whatever had just happened but it was still there; you leaned up against the wall and took a second to look back at everything but all you saw was her. All you heard was her. All you smelled was her. Now, all you wanted was her.

What the hell was that? You thought to yourself. It couldn’t have just been you that noticed the weirdness. This wasn’t unusual for you and Ty, to play wrestle like this but there was something different tonight. Some kind of tension that had never been there before and it freaked you out; you couldn’t help think that something was wrong. Sitting against the pillows for 20 minutes contemplating what it all meant only made it worse, so you decided to confront him about it.

“Tyler...?” you whispered to him after opening his door but he didn’t answer, “Ty, you awake?” When he still didn’t answer, you sighed and closed the door before heading back to the guest room. When you woke up the next morning, you prepared yourself for just as awkward of a situation as last night but you were thankful when everything seemed to be back to normal

“Morning sleepy head!” Tyler greeted as you came into the kitchen

“Morning dork” you teased, before lifting your arms above your head in a big stretch

“So, I thought we’d go meet Chubbs for lunch” he said as you sat down at the kitchen table

“Sounds good to me..” you said, still half-asleep, “hey, can we talk about last night?”

“Hmm? What about last night?” he asked, his back to you

“Ty, can you just come here,” you said, “sit down and talk to me...” He turned around and slowly walked toward you, sitting down in front of you.

“What’s up?”

“What happened last night? Why were you acting so strange?”

“I wasn’t acting strange...” he shrugged, “I don’t know what you mean. We were doing what we always do...”

“Yeah but something was... different,” you tried, “wasn’t it?”

“I don’t think so...” You could tell that he wasn’t going to address it, whatever it was, so you ended the conversation and went on with the morning; running a few errands before you and Tyler left to meet Jamie for lunch. It felt like it had been ages since you had seen Jamie and you were excited to hear what was going on with him and whether or not he’d fallen in love yet. But the ride to the restaurant took much longer than you anticipated, and it was almost completely silent, making you irritated by the time you got there. You looked over at Tyler a few times, waiting for him to say or do something but he just stared out the windshield at the road in silence.

“Okay,” you finally said to break the silence, “what the fuck is going on?!”

“What?” he questioned

“Tyler, why are you not talking to me? Or teasing me? Or singing to dumb rap songs on the radio to drive me insane? Why are we just sitting in uncomfortable silence?”

“I didn’t know it was an uncomfortable silence...”

“Tyler!!”

“What? It’s not like you said anything either!”

“Fair but still. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing...”

“You’re lying to me!!” you yelled, a small laugh on the statement

“No I’m not. Nothing is wrong. I promise. Look we’re here...”

“This isn’t over, Seguin,” you said pointing your finger at him before getting out of the car, following him with your eyes as he walked in front of the car to meet you at the sidewalk, “not by a long shot...”

Tyler’s P.O.V.

“Hey Jamie!!” (Y/N) greeted when she saw him, wrapping her arms around his waist to give him a tight squeeze

“There she is! The short little one I like so much!” he teased, hugging her close

“Hey bud” you greeted him with a nod and a quick high five, noticing (Y/N) roll her eyes

“Ty...” Jamie joked in a serious tone, “alright so what’s going on with you (Y/N)?”

“Nothing really.. school’s good. Work’s... a lot. I’ve got this week to do absolutely nothing which is why I’m here...” (Y/N) said, her laugh ringing through the air, finding its way into your ear like a song you wanted to play on repeat

“Sounds like you came here at the perfect time” Jamie smiled at her

“She’s also forcing me to go to a Pens game this weekend...” you added, raising your eyebrows

“We’re playing the Pens like next week...” Jamie asked confused

“Ah yes, but you’re not this weekend. In fact you’re not playing at all...” (Y/N) answered

“It’s one game, I figured I’d let her have it,” you joked, “better to let her win than argue about something like this...” You and Jamie laughed while (Y/N) scrunched her nose at the two of you. The rest of lunch went by about the way that you figured it would, nothing out of the ordinary, until (Y/N) left the table and Jamie started asking questions

“What’s going on here?” he started

“We’re having lunch, Chubbs...” you joked

“I mean with you and (Y/N). I see the way you’re looking at her. The way you blush whenever she laughs, the way you scoot closer to her forcing your arms to touch. I saw you watch her get up... and walk away...”

“Stop it”

“Seggy come on, tell me”

“Nothing is happening. Nothing is going on. She’s still (Y/N), we’re still friends. Best Friends,” you emphasized, “but --”

“But...” Jamie said with a big grin on his face, leaving you to roll your eyes at him

“But maybe there’s something there. At least on my end. She doesn’t feel that way...”

“Why don’t you ask her?”

“So I can embarrass myself? Or get rejected and lose my friendship? No thanks”

“Oh please,” he huffed, “you’re not gonna get rejected. If I know anything, it’s that that girl has been in love with you for as long as you’ve known each other but you’ve been too busy with the Blondes of Dallas to pay attention”

“She’s not in love with me...” you whispered, defeated, “and she’s blonde too”

“She’s not Texas Blonde. She’s Girl-Next-Door Blonde,” he started and you gave him a confused look before he could continue, “her hair is like spun gold. The Texas Blondes are bottled and bleached. And yes, she is in love with you, if you’d taken a second to pay attention...”

“Chubbs... be serious okay. Maybe you’re like projecting or whatever. Maybe you’re in love with her and that’s why you’re talking about her hair that’s ‘spun like gold’” you teased just as (Y/N) came back to the table and you tried to switch the conversation, “I think I’m right... and you’re very very wrong”

“Oooh what’s Tyler wrong about?” (Y/N) chimed in, making Jamie laugh

“HEY! I said I was right and he was wrong”

“Yes, which means that he’s probably right and you’re definitely wrong”

“She was obviously listening to our conversation because she knows” Jamie said knowingly, tilting his glass to her

“She’s wrong. You’re wrong” you said to the both of them

“I’m bored,” (Y/N) said abruptly, “let’s go find something to do. Head to Main Street or Bishop...? Or go see a movie. I can’t sit at this table all day, Ty, I need to do... something. Jamie?”

“I can’t, sorry kid,” he replied and she tilted her head at him, “I gotta go meet Katie...”

“Fine. Tell her I say hi...” she said, standing up to give Jamie a hug goodbye

“Will do” he said, wrapping her in a tight hug and nodding to you; trying to get you to admit your feelings and you rolled your eyes

“Okay, into the car we go” you joked

“What? No let’s just walk. Where are you planning to take me?” she laughed

“I thought we were going to Bishop?”

“Yeah, which isn’t far. We can just walk,” she glanced up at you, “or are you getting lazy?”

“Fine, we’ll walk,” you agreed, scowling at her once before saying goodbye to Jamie, “later Chubbs”

“Tell her” he whispered to you when (Y/N) was out of earshot and you shot him a glare. When you turned the corner, you saw her waiting for you and you saw what Jamie was talking about. The sun hit (Y/N) in such a way that her hair looked like a halo around her, making her glow as her long strands fell across her shoulder. Her porcelain skin shimmering in the light and the smile that she gave you when she finally saw you only seemed to make everything brighter.

“Took you long enough” she teased, bringing you back to her

“Nah nah nah, you ran out of the restaurant, I wasn’t slow”

“Whatever, slowpoke, let’s go...” She turned to walk away, the fabric of her skirt effortlessly dancing in the wind and you ran toward her, draping your arm over her shoulder when you reached her, “well look who just got a sudden burst of energy!” She giggled, looking up at you and your knees went weak, making you take your arm away from her.

“So, what are we doing?” you cleared your throat and looked ahead, “playing some kind of game?”

“What?” she said, still looking up at you, confusion covering her features

“You know, like normal,” you replied, “are we pretending to be injured to see who will help us? Pretending that we’re being chased by the cops to freak some people out? Pretending to be a couple, desperately in love, on their way to a chapel on the other side of the city?“ You laughed awkwardly at your last words, looking down at her and seeing her eyes grow wide before she looked ahead of her

“Uhm,” she hesitated, “I don’t know.. what do you think?”

“We haven’t done the couple thing in a while...” you said, putting your hands in your pockets as you continued to walk

“That’s true but it’s always a little more entertaining to run from the cops”

“Yeah but it’s not really believable...”

“Neither is us being a couple,” she said under her breath and you stopped walking, “Ty?”

“Why isn’t it believable?”

“What?”

“Us being a couple. Why isn’t it believable?”

“Because it’s not...” she moved toward you, “I’m not really your type and people notice that”

“How do they know what my type is?!”

“Why are you getting so upset? It’s just a game,” she said defensively, “and a game only we know we’re playing...”

“It doesn’t have to be a game...” you whispered, rubbing your neck sheepishly as you tried to avoid her gaze; knowing that her eyes would ruin any anger bumbling inside of you

“What does that mean?” she said gently, lifting her hand to rest it on your forearm and you finally looked at her; heartbeat in your ears, breathing uncontrolled and everything in you telling you just to kiss her

“Do you want it to mean something?” was all you said, forcing her to step back and no words escaped her lips, the two of you standing across from each other in silence.

You had no idea what to do now. He had been back and forth between normal and odd since last night and now this. Do you want it to mean something? No. Maybe. Why would it even mean something? You weren’t the girl he wanted, you were just something available and your friendship with him was more important than what his lips would feel like against yours. You stood in front of him, eyes trained on his, and waited for him to say something, to clear up his question, but he never did, so you turned on your heels and darted up the pathway.

“(Y/N)... Wait!” he called after you and you tried to escape him, your cheeks still flustered while your mind raced, “Stop!” You turned sharply, making him run into you

“OW..” the two of you said at the same time as you rubbed your head

“What are you doing?” you asked, raising your voice unintentionally

“You’re the one who stopped!”

“Not that,” you sighed, “why are you messing with my head?”

“Messing with your head? I’m not..”

“You are! What am I supposed to say to ‘do you want it to mean something?’ what am I supposed to think is happening when you’re fine one second and the next you won’t look at me?”

“I don’t know!”

“Then why can’t you just act like you?!”

“(Y/N)...”

“What Tyler?”

“Maybe I want us to be more than friends...”

“No you don’t...” You looked at him as a million thoughts ran through your head. You met Tyler when you were five years old and were immediately charmed by him. The way he smiled, the way his eyes were like honey in the sunlight, the way he could make you laugh at absolutely everything. As you got older, you realized your feelings were more romantic than his probably were and, by the time you were 13, you were hopelessly in love with him. While he worked to become the Hockey Superstar that the world knew, you worked toward Columbia University because you knew that the only way to escape your feelings was to get away from him for a bit. It didn’t matter though. You were still there for his first NHL game in Boston surrounded by his family. Your heart still fluttered every time he smiled -- at you or anyone else. But he was always with someone. Some girl who looked nothing like you, but exactly like the rest, and you realized that you’d never be the girl he wanted. He’d never see you the way you wanted him to. So, you tried to let him go but he never let you go too far. When you realized you had been standing in front of him without saying a word for too long, you tried to mutter something to express how you were feeling, “I don’t...”

“You don’t want us to be more than friends?” he repeated

“I never said that...”

“What do you want then?”

“I want us to be friends... like we always have,” you answered, “I don’t want to ruin that or lose it Tyler. I’m not this Blonde Bombshell type that’s all over Dallas. Sooner or later, you’d realize that and move on; friendships don’t survive that, T”

“That wouldn’t happen...”

“You don’t know that”

“No, actually I do,” he said suddenly, leaving you standing there speechless for a while, waiting for him to continue, “I know what would happen. I know how our relationship would be. I would wake up to the smell of your coconut conditioner and watch as you slowly opened your eyes, looking up at me and smiling that smile that makes me melt. We’d walk through Uptown Dallas and Downtown Dallas and we’d become everyone’s favourite couple because even the smallest kisses between us would show everyone how we feel for each other. I would protect you from ever being in pain, you’d comfort me when I needed it after a loss. I can picture us, holding hands and walking through this park, mocking each other like we always do. I can see us in Paris or Greece or Vegas, sharing kisses at all your favourite spots. I can see you walking the stage when you graduate Columbia with me hollering for you from the stands. I can see you doing the same during the playoffs. I can see all of this. Our friendship wouldn’t change, it would be the same...”

“Tyler, that’s...” you tried to think of the words that would save your heart, “that sounds so amazing. But it doesn’t sound like us. We’re not a couple. We’ve never been a couple. We’re jus--”

“I think I’m in love with you” he blurted out, interrupting you and making the people around you stare.

“You’re what?”

“I think I might love you, that I might be in love with you...”

“No..”

“I can’t stop thinking about you. I can’t wait until the next moment I get to see you again. Your voice is permanently ingrained in my mind and your smile is the best part of my day. I don’t know who I’d be without you and I don’t want to find out because I’m pretty sure I’m in love with you,” Your eyes danced between his as your mouth gaped open; you had no words. This was all you had wanted for so long but it felt like a dream and you were having a hard time believing it, “can you say something?”

“I.. I’ve been in love with you from the second I met you...” you noticed a smile creep on his face, but your eyebrows had unfurrowed, “I don’t want to get hurt, Tyler.” He stepped close to you, almost completely closing the gap between the two of you as onlookers stayed to see how it would end

“The last thing I want to do is hurt you” he said, sweeping his thumb across your cheek

“You promise?”

“I’ll bet the season on it,” he smiled, continuing to close the gap and you smiled back up at him, “there it is. The best part of my day.” He smiled and pulled you up to capture your lips in a kiss you’d never forget as the crowd of people around you began to applaud and cheer, leaving you to blush at the sudden realization that you were kissing in public.

“Maybe we should do this somewhere else” you whispered

“Maybe you’re right” he agreed, swinging his arm over your shoulder and kissing the top of your head as the two of you went on your way.

#Tyler Seguin #Tyler Seguin fluff #Tyler Seguin imagine #NHL imagine #requested #request #Tyler Seguin Request #masterlist

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nikkalia · 5 years

Text

Gotta Get It Right: Chapter 15

CHAPTER SUMMARY: Everyone settles in for the evening.

PAIRING: Loki/OFC

RATING: Mature NOTES/WARNINGS: Descriptions of torture

Tumblr masterlist (I’ll update it eventually.) Also on Ao3 https://archiveofourown.org/works/15409323/chapters/43756231

Feedback is always appreciated (just being an attention whore screaming for comments/reblogs)

Tags: @christy-winchester @hovianwookie86-captainxev @wolfsmom1 @fadingcoast @fandom-and-feminism @igotloki @mischievousbellerina @odinsonsobsessed @mrshiddleston-uk

OMG...I posted! Yeah, I know, I’m slower than molasses in winter. But hey, it’s something, right? Go read!

“This is a guest room?”

“There are larger suites if that would better suit your needs,” Ingun stated as she placed a tray of food on the side table as Aleksa looked around the space. While considerably smaller than Loki’s suite, the space was massive compared to her home on Earth.

“Oh, gods, no! This is plenty.” Aleksa answered, stepping into the en suite. “Vegas has nothing on this place,” she muttered to herself.

“M’lady?”

“Nothing, sorry.”

“As you wish.” Ingun stood in the center of the reading area until Aleksa returned. “Two handmaidens and a steward will be assigned to you in the morning. His Majesty has also commanded that you are to be escorted in the palace at all times. A guard will be stationed outside your door.”

“Doesn’t sound prison-like at all.”

“It is for your own safety, as well as ours.”

“Naturally.” The sarcasm in Aleksa’s voice went unnoticed.

“One of the Seider novices will come in the afternoon to escort you to the academy. A seamstress will arrive in the morning to measure you for the appropriate attire.”

“What attire?”

“Training robes, daily wear, sleep clothes, and court gowns.”

“I need gowns?”

Ingun’s face showed no emotion. “His Majesty will invite you to any formal events that occur during your stay. You will want to be properly dressed.”

“I don’t do dresses.”

“Unfortunately, m’lady, you will not be given an option.” The snark in Ingun’s voice wasn’t lost on Aleksa.

“Of course not.”

“If there is nothing else, m’lady, I will withdraw.”

“No. Thank you, Ingun.” The maid curtsied and left. Aleksa blew out a sigh, rubbing her wrists. The skin underneath itched from the energy flowing around the bracelets. She wondered if she’d ever be rid of them. Or Loki.

Following a more thorough examination of her quarters, she prepared a small plate of food and moved out to the balcony. She sat down, finally allowing herself to relax enough to eat, looking out over the city Modir had described a hundred times.

“What is Asgard like?” a young Aleksa asked, her mouth full of food.

“Much like Earth, in many ways. A sun that rises and sets, summer fades into winter. Breezes blow, rains fall, creatures live and die.” Modir smiled at the child that devoured everything in front of her.

“How is ‘iffern?”

“Aleksa, slow down. No one will take it from you.” She sighed, thinking about her home. “Earth does not possess the sheer power contained within the soil of Asgard. Or the majesty. The royal city is massive and the palace is truly a sight to behold. But the most wondrous vision is the bridge between the Bifrost and the city. It’s transparent, laced with magic that shimmers in all colors of the rainbow, and sings when you step upon it.” She took a drink before adding, “Of course, the creatures and people there live far longer than they do here.”

The child’s eyes grew wide. “Does that mean we’ll die young?”

“No, little one. Those born of Asgard who have taken the Apple’s essence will live their full term.” Aleksa swallowed. “And you, my darling mixed blood, will live as long as you should. As we all do. I rather imagine that you will find a long and fruitful life here.” Modir took a bite of food.

“Do you think you’ll ever be allowed to go back?” Modir shook her head no. “Why? Is it because the Jotuns were sending raiding parties?”

“Of course not. “

“Doesn’t he care that Asgardians are dying on this planet?”

“The Allfather has many realms to concern himself with. A band of exiles is surely not at the top of that list.”

“But why not?”

“Aleksa, before he became the Allfather, Odin was a warmonger. He and his daughter invaded realm after realm, forcing them to bend a knee to his throne while his armies plundered their resources. I and the group of Asgardians who founded this village made a decision to come here when we could no longer stand by and watch other innocents be slaughtered. We confronted Odin and he, in the first show of mercy seen by any realm, offered us a choice: exile or death. We chose exile and came here with the understanding that we were on our own, never to return.”

Aleksa sat in silence, contemplating her mother’s words, for the rest of the meal. She worked through the evening’s chores and readied herself for bed. Modir entered her room, lowering the light of the lamp and kissing the child on the forehead.

“Modir?”

“Yes, child?”

“Do you think I’ll ever get to see Asgard?”

Modir smiled, pulling the blanket around the girl’s neck. “Yes, Aleksa, I believe if anyone were to return to Asgard, it would be you. But, you may not find it to be your home.”

“Right as always, Modir,” Aleksa whispered as she stood. “It definitely doesn’t feel like home.”

Loki watched her walk inside from a balcony above.

------

Aleksa stepped out of the en suite, drying the last drops of water in her hair. She felt a little more like herself after the long shower that followed her meal. As she tossed the towel into a nearby chair, she suddenly became aware of another presence in the room. She turned slowly, summoning what little power she could to defend herself.

A petite woman dressed in handmaidens clothing sat on the edge of the footstool, staring into the distance. Braided blonde hair was loosely piled on top of her head, revealing a simple pair of gold earrings complimenting a soft, pretty face.

“Can I help you?” Aleksa asked, relaxing slightly. The woman jumped to her feet only to curtsey.

“Forgive me, my lady. I did not hear you enter the room.”

“Same, which is what bothers me. What do you want?”

“I...” the woman fumbled for the words, “I am your handmaiden for the night.”

Aleksa’s head dropped, shaking. “I don’t need anything. Go do whatever it is you do.”

The maiden moved to one side, gathering up the towel before moving into the bath. She appeared soon after, Aleksa’s discarded clothes in her hand.

“That’s the only set of clothing I have at the moment,” she said, reaching for them.

“And they’ll be back before you wake.” The woman smiled, her violet eyes sparkling. “As will more clothing.”

“But Ingun said that...” The pile landed on the footstool as the maiden moved to the bed, turning down the covers.

“It’s all been arranged, my lady. The King has commanded that you are to wait for nothing.” She stood, gesturing to the bed. “Is there anything you require to aid you in sleep? Tea, or perhaps a stronger beverage? A story? Something,” she reached for Aleksa’s hand, “more relaxing?”

“No,” Aleksa said firmly, folding her arms. “I’m fine, thank you.”

“I can be...”

“Listen, I don’t need all this. It’s all very nice, but very weird. I don’t need anything except to be left alone.” The maiden’s face fell, sending a wave of regret washing over Aleksa. “I’m sorry,” she offered quietly. “I’m rather self-sufficient and this is a bit unusual for me. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“As you wish, my lady.” The maiden gathered the laundry to her chest, refusing to look up. “If there is anything you might require later, the guard can send for me.”

“There is one thing.”

The maiden perked up. “My lady?”

“Your name.”

“Oh,” the maiden blushed. “It’s Syr.”

“Thank you, Syr. Good night.”

The maiden curtsied again and left. Aleksa watched with curiosity, unable to shake the feeling that she’d met this girl before.

-----

Hot.

It’s too hot.

I can’t breathe.

Why...

Loki struggled against the restraints, conjuring every magic he had only to fail. The harder he fought, the higher the temperature rose. He could feel the blood boiling in his veins, but couldn’t bring himself to scream. It’s what they wanted, these Children of Thanos. Whoever that was.

“Enough,” came a deep, booming voice. “He’ll die before we have what we need.”

Even as the heat subsided, Loki’s body continued to shake. Two massive boots stepped in front of him and giant fingers wove into his hair. A new kind of pain racked his senses when his head was lifted to face the Titan.

“Greetings, Prince of Asgard. I am Thanos. I hope our hospitality has met with your satisfaction.”

Loki wanted to spit out a retort but couldn’t find the words. An infuriated glare - at least that’s what he hoped it was - was all he could muster.

“Maw tells me that you are in possession of something I seek. Something very precious.”

“And what,” Loki stuttered, “would that be?”

Thanos leaned in close. “Knowledge.”

“I know a lot of things,” he quipped, shocked to hear the sarcasm in his own voice. “Was there anything specific you had in...”

Pain tore through his body again. He groaned, growled, made every noise under the stars to keep from screaming. Thanos watched him carefully, never easing his grip.

“Misdirection won’t work in your favor this time, trickster.” The pain stopped with a nod. “Tell me what you know of the Tesseract.”

Loki wasn’t sure of his own name at that moment, much less the lore surrounding the Tesseract.

“I may know where it is,” he lied, sensing Thanos’ impatience for a response.

“Tell me.”

“I...” Loki grunted, fighting to stay conscious. “I think...it’s...Midgard.” He dared to look his captor in the face and saw confusion. “Earth.”

“You think or you know?” Thanos growled, tightening his grip on Loki’s skull.

“It’s a legend, lost there...before I was...born.”

“Are. You. Sure?”

“No...maybe...”

“You should’ve been sure.”

Thanos released him and walked away. Loki began to protest, proclaiming his confidence in the knowledge as the heat and pain returned, growing more unbearable until

He screamed, landing on the floor with a thud. The stone tiles cooled his sweat coated skin while his eyes quickly adjusted to the darkened room. The cone of silence he cast over his suite each night guaranteed his privacy...and prevented anyone’s intervention in his nightmares.

Loki pulled himself back onto the bed, panting. When he was sure he could walk, he moved into the en suite shower, throwing the cold water open as far as the faucet would allow. He slid down the wall to the floor and spent another night half asleep under the freezing water.

#loki #Loki Laufeyson #Loki Friggason #Loki/OFC #gotta get it right #loki fanfic #avengers fanfic

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psyga315 · 5 years

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Rewriting Pooh’s Adventures

With everyone getting obsessed with rewriting, I decided to rewrite myself. However, I’m going with an old topic I used to touch up upon: Pooh’s Adventures.

Basic gist: Take a movie, insert clips of Winnie the Pooh, done. However, Pooh’s Adventures ends up having such a huge meta-plot involving villains having apprentices or the reasons behind the team ups that I can’t help but see some sort of nugget worth salvaging. So that’s what I’m gonna do. Rewrite Pooh’s Adventures to be a more streamlined story.

First off, some guidelines:

1. It won’t be in video format. While Pooh’s Adventures is mainly shown through video, I feel like it would most benefit from something like written prose or comic format. Unless Sony Vegas suddenly becomes cheaper to access, the most people will have is a defunct application and a scramble to find an application that isn’t a free trial or overtly complex.

2. No crapton of characters. I made a parody of Pooh’s Adventures where Pooh had 100 people that followed him, only for the number to get quickly decimated to about twenty or so. I’m not exaggerating the number at all. I remember at least one Adventure where a character outright states the absurd number of 78. As in “It’ll be just the 78 of us”. And that number grows with each character added. So, obviously we’re gonna stick to a low number, especially starting out.

3. The Adventures in question are multi-chaptered “Episodes” of a long season. Not sure the approximate length, but 12 episodes seems like a good guideline.

With that out of the way, let’s begin:

This is a long post so...

PROLOGUE

It’ll be simple: Pooh and his friends at the 100 Acre Woods sans Christopher Robin. The set up might be a re-telling of Pooh’s Grand Adventure, but during their trip to Skull, they find Bowser there and he captures them, establishing his connection to Pooh.

EPISODE 1

Bowser then sells them to Queen Grimhilde who has them work alongside Snow White. Grimhilde has Ratigan and Fidget who keep tabs on her for Bowser. Prince Charming ends up getting replaced by Ash Ketchum, who had been separated from his friends as they faced a “legendary Pokemon”. And this inevitably gets to crossover shipping between Ash Ketchum and Snow White as she slowly realizes that Ash is the person she’s been wishing for, though Ash has cold feet about committing to a relationship, especially when he still wants to go on journeys.

Pooh is, for the most part, that kind of spectator protagonist, as are his friends. They witness the journey rather than partake in it. Of course, sometimes the characters take a course of action, like Tigger who Grimhilde easily manipulates into hunting down Snow White in trade for freeing him and his friends. This drives an already huge wedge in between Tigger and Rabbit and makes a conflict for Pooh on whether to trust one of his closest friends. Pooh, while not taking an active role, is going to be the most affected by these adventures.

The episode ends as usual, with Grimhilde dying, albeit the lighting bolt that broke the cliff is from Pikachu’s Thunder attack. Ash has a guilt trip over murdering someone in the heat of the moment (he realized he does love Snow White, but was too late to save her, at first) that he shut himself away. It’s here that he encounters newly appointed Conscience, Jiminy Cricket, who serves as Ash’s companion for his B-plots. Yeah, Ash is the deuteragonist for the story, at least for this first season. And yes, I do mean season.

Bowser, for now at least, is this overarching villain who always enters Pooh’s life in one way or another. Mostly through his associates or allies. As foreshadowing to his eventual final fight, Ratigan gets slightly angry, only for Fidget to calm him down and the two retreat. Upon hearing that Grimhilde is dead, Bowser mourns a bit for her before he mutters: “He won’t be happy to hear this”…

EPISODE 2

With Pooh and friends now freed from Grimhilde’s grasp, they go on a journey to find home. This lands them in France where they grab the interest of an inventor named Maurice, who instantly adores and wants to help them. They soon meet his daughter Belle who gripes about this man named Gaston and you know where this is going.

Ash, meanwhile, upon the advice from Jiminy, seeks to try and find someone to regain his strength. He finds Gaston and, upon hearing how he’s a hero to the town, effectively becomes a second LeFou and hangs on his every word. Though it isn’t until Ash eavesdrop on a conversation between Gaston and an old judge named Frollo that not only is Gaston a dick, but that Frollo, like Ratigan, is working under Bowser.

Gaston quips about how Frollo supposedly died at Notre Dame, only for him to chuckle and go “the reports of my death are greatly exaggerated”, all while he seemingly holds onto a wooden talisman. Ash tries to confront Gaston, only for him to beat him up and leave him for dead in the snow. There he’s taken in by the Enchantress and healed up. Jiminy recognizes her as a fey, akin to the Blue Fairy. She warns Ash that what he did against Grimhilde stained his heart with darkness and that it would take an act of equal value to cleanse it. In other words, Ash must revive or otherwise save someone’s life, even indirectly. She also warns him that dark hearts will attract other dark hearts, even if they are slightly tainted. In other words, Ash is gonna find himself bumping into villains more than Pooh will.

Speaking of, the experience at Beast’s Castle helps Pooh to better trust Tigger. There may also be a nod to the Christmas Special where they joke about that time a piano tried to kill them (may be in feature length though) and after Gaston is killed, Ash and Pooh reunite and go off on their next journey. Maurice helps Pooh out by inventing a means for easier transport. “I call it the Wah-gon.”

EPISODE 3

There, they go to Agrabah where we get a little more insight as to the villains as Jafar has a brief chat with a dark fey named Maleficent about Bowser’s plan to get revenge over Grimhilde’s death, with a brief aside that Bowser plans in involving him into the matters.

Meanwhile, Ash and Pooh are easily separated. Ash ends up with Aladdin and is concerned about his thieving considering the Enchantress’s warnings about dark hearts attracting dark hearts. However, he eases up as Aladdin hands a spare piece of bread to a child. Pooh ends up in Jasmine’s palace, where, like before, her father ends up being enamoured with the stuffed animals. Jafar easily spells trouble for Pooh and friends, especially after he mentions someone named Bowser Jr. as a potential suitor for Jasmine.

Details are rough here, but I do want to see a scene where Jasmine initially gets interested in Ash over Prince!Aladdin, if only to hammer in the point that Jasmine loved Aladdin for himself and not for his riches. There’s also a bit where Jafar, after getting the lamp and becoming a sorcerer, gloats to Maleficent about obtaining more power than her. They have a brief clash to which Bowser interferes and tells the two to knock it off. Maleficent merely glares at Jafar and leaves, telling him that pride comes before the fall. Jafar is soon defeated and with a free Genie, he decides to tag along with Pooh, just for a bit while he stretches his legs.

EPISODE 4

There’s a rather light-hearted episode about them encountering Alice and going to Wonderland. For the most part, it’s just a silly episode to break away from the more serious stories. Even a funny bit where Ratigan tries to recruit the Queen of Hearts, only to find she’s off her rocker and goes “okay, screw this, I’m outta here”. Because Wonderland is meant to be wacky. That said, there’s two important bits of information: one, Alice recognizes Pooh as Christopher Robin’s toy and explains about how he’s been busy with school but that he’ll always have Pooh in his heart. And two, Ratigan mutters that he’ll try “the other Queen of Hearts.”

EPISODE 5

Another light-hearted, but more serious story involves Cinderella. Having been through this before, Ash and Pooh resolve to beat up Tremaine, only for the Fairy Godmother to interfere and tell them that by doing so, they’ll increase the dark stain in Ash’s heart. For Tremaine to truly be defeated, they must instead help Cinderella. The group take her advice and leave to help her. The Godmother is happy at this change and waits to help Cinderella in her time of need…

Only for Maleficent to find the Fairy Godmother and kill her, taking her wand. Genie is the one that replaces her in the “Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo” sequence (citing he can’t stand to see a pretty woman cry) and stays out of helping her because he knows Pooh and Ash have it handled.

Ratigan is seen “helping” the mice, only to instead tip off Tremaine and her sisters about Cinderella. Pooh and Ash see Ratigan during the “break Cinderella out” scene and confront him, only for him to obtain control of Lucifer through a magical bell given to him by Maleficent. He uses Lucifer to nom at least some of the lesser important mice before being forced to retreat after Ash sics Pikachu at them. Ash still feels a little shook given how the last time he used Pikachu, he murdered someone, but Pooh reassures him that he’s helping Cinderella.

A dark idea I have that might not be featured because this is involving way too much than what is necessary is that Maleficent comes in Cinderella’s time of need and offers her power in trade for her allegiance to Bowser. In a moment of weakness, she accepts and burns the Tremaines, her hair turning blackish brown from the ashes. She goes full coocoo for coco puffs and embraces the teasing nickname she is given, renaming herself Cinder Fall. You can see why I’m not so keen on the idea, though if it sounds like a fun idea to you guys, I might include it.

Instead, Ash confronts Prince Charming (who ends up being the same Prince Charming that would have saved Snow White) about Cinderella and the two trade opinions. Ash tells Prince Charming that if he truly loves Cinderella, he has to be the hero and save her, while Prince Charming tells Ash about how he feels like marriage is an obligation, especially after his father passed away and it was made imperative that he married. Tempted to go further with this, go all Once Upon A Time, and reveal that he’s really the Pauper to the real Prince.

Tremaine also confronts Ash and tells her the backstory she had from the 2015 remake, where she had married Cinderella’s father and tried to make it better for them, only to realize that she had lived in the shadows of both the deceased mother and of Ella herself. She merely wanted to bring joy to their lives only to get slapped in the face and be indirectly told that she’ll never be significant in their lives. Ash shoots her down by pointing to the depressed Cinderella and telling her that rather than bring joy, she brought misery and despair and says how she will merely become a shadow that haunts Cinderella’s dreams.

So, after the glass slipper breaks, rather than bring out the spare, Prince Charming decides to go with his gut and accept Cinderella as the woman he fell in love with. Tremaine has one last talk with Cinderella where she breaks down and apologizes, only for Cinderella to forgive her. However, Tremaine is so wrecked with guilt that she feels like she can’t be forgiven, and goes into exile. Ash realizes how, like him, she too has a dark sliver in her heart that must be overtaken with an act of equal value. He goes off to follow her as Genie parts ways with Pooh to travel the globe.

EPISODE 6

This is a turning point as it’s a two-parter.

Pooh, following on a letter given to him by Alice, goes to the Darling estate, close to where Christopher Robin lives. However, they get a detour when Tinkerbell accidently puts pixie dust on Pooh and the happy thoughts of reuniting with him end up making him fly. Meanwhile, Ash finds Ratigan about to manipulate Tremaine to the dark side and confronts him. Ratigan ambushes them though and takes them to Captain Hook’s ship where they’ll be taken to Bowser to complete their corruption.

Thankfully, Hook has a one-mind track named Peter Pan and is busy fighting him instead of transporting them to Bowser. Once he gets more serious about killing Peter Pan, Ash believes it’s because he lost his hand to him and confronts him on it, only to be told that he lost more than that: Peter Pan killed his wife. Ash, having met him at some point during the battles between him and Hook, doesn’t believe him and that there has to be more to the story than that. Tremaine proves to be an effective lady on the ship and puts the pirates in line, helping Ash escape in the huge climax.

During said climax, rather than getting chased by Tick Tock like in the original, Hook tries to get Peter Pan to admit his murder. Maleficent appears and tells Hook to hurry up. The way she enters via green fiery entrance causes Hook to notice something off and remembers how his wife died: green fire. He asks Maleficent if she killed her. Maleficent gloats about it, telling him that she did kill his wife and blamed Peter Pan for it, if only to ensure that he’d side with Bowser. She reminds him that he’s only Bowser’s lapdog and that he should do as told if it’s good for him. Hook takes out a sword and swears revenge…

And then Maleficent explodes him with magic a la Watchmen. She groans and as Ash tries to fight her, she goes “ENOUGH OF THIS!” and uses the Fairy Godmother’s wand.

EPISODE 7

Ash wakes up in another timeline where Hook survives, never knowing of Maleficent’s actions, but Peter Pan has grown old and has kids. He tries to tell Hook the truth, only for him to refute Ash. He has gone on too long without revenge and the fact that Peter Pan gets to have a happy life and not him drives him to the deep end. Tremaine, meanwhile, tries to get through to Peter’s son, who has grown upset with his negligence, something she feels like she has done to Cinderella.

Pooh, meanwhile, is on another timeline where it’s Wendy who grew old and had kids. Basically the plots for both Hook and Return to Neverland happen side by side. However, Pooh is able to get through to Hook a lot easier than Ash by simply being dumb enough to let Hook come to the conclusion that Maleficent killed his wife himself. He swears vengeance on them, gives up fighting Peter Pan, and takes them back to London just as Ash returns from his version of Neverland. When the wand is used, it split the realm into two timelines, hence why London is the same. Ratigan is there to try and capture them all right here and now.

Ash retaliates by having Pikachu fight him. The fight is where Ratigan loses his temper and goes all out. The two are evenly matched until Pikachu steals the bell from Ratigan and causes him to fall off of Big Ben (with a little help from Peter Pan, who ends up getting synchronized between Hook!Peter and RTN!Peter thanks to returning to London.) Ash, not wanting to have any more blood on his hands, uses Pooh and his friends as makeshift cushions to save Ratigan and tells him to run. He does… then finds Maleficent who monologued about using the wand for her own purposes. Thinking she wants to overthrow Bowser thanks in part to his anger, he tries to fight Maleficent… only for her to step on him and call him vermin.

Oh, and at one point during this two parter, there’s a nod to Ash never aging from Peter Pan and possibly an implication that Ho-Oh gave him that immortality. And also the words “all of this has happened before and all of it will happen again” becomes a pretty relevant phrase throughout the two-parter and throughout the next couple of episodes.

EPISODE 8

Wendy informs Pooh that Christopher Robin has gone on a field trip to the amazons, so that’s where Pooh and his friends go with the help of Hook’s ship. This is where Hook departs, telling them that if they ever need a lift to simply call him with a repurposed communicator device that Bowser originally gave him. There, Pooh meets Jane, Christopher Robin’s aunt, who is out wanting to research for gorillas. There, he also meets Clayton and Injun Joe. Having met the Neverland Injuns, Pooh assumes both Clayton and Joe are friendly. Spoilers: they’re not.

This time, Ash is with the heroes and Pooh is with the villains. The reason is that Ash sympathizes with Tarzan as he had encountered someone like him before (The Kangaskhan Kid) and also how Tarzan’s savagery had him confused that he’s the one he should be worried about, not Clayton. Meanwhile, Pooh gets friendly with Clayton, while Rabbit and Tigger’s schism gets to its boiling point, causing the two to split. Tigger encounters Ash and finds the gorillas. He then goes to Clayton and tells them the location of the gorillas. This causes Clayton’s true nature to be revealed, to which Rabbit and Tigger just grow further apart.

There’s a brief war between man and gorilla, though in the moment of this, Maleficent appears before Clayton and Injun Joe and tells them to accomplish their gorilla hunting mission for Bowser. To help, Maleficent uses the Fairy Godmother’s wand to turn the in Injun Joe’s heart to turn him into a vicious Beast named Injurin’ Joe. Yes, I’m going with that. However, Joe’s new powers get to him and rather than Clayton hanging himself, as soon as he’s defeated, Joe kills and eats Clayton. Ash fights him, only for Pikachu to come in and save him with a Thunderbolt to the chest, killing Joe. Ash’s flashbacks are triggered and he shakes. Keep in mind that he’s a ten-year-old and had not only witnessed death, but also murdered two people at this point. Needless to say, Ash isn’t all right in the head, but Tremaine comforts Ash. By this point, she’s become the mother of the group, much to Rabbit’s dismay.

Jane informs Pooh that Christopher Robin sadly was lost at sea during a storm. The group is devastated. Too devastated to even move on…

EPISODE 9

A group of sailors hired by Professor Porter escort the group home on the ship, only for the storm to kick up again. Jiminy, in the midst of this, recognizes a whale that attacks them as Monstro, the very same whale that ate Geppetto and Pinocchio. With no time to react, the group is nommed by Monstro and this becomes our Belly of the Whale episode. With the very real fate of being digested by Monstro, Pooh and the others must make do with the fact that Christopher Robin may have died.

Pooh is depressed knowing his journey is for naught, Piglet is upset that Tigger and Rabbit are fighting amongst themselves, Eeyore is depressed because he’s Eeyore, Ash is convinced he’s doomed to be a villain, Tremaine is confronting her cruelty over Cinderella, and overall everyone’s bummed out. That’s when they hear a familiar voice. It’s Christopher Robin! Turns out he isn’t dead, but rather saved by Monstro. Jiminy wonders how that makes sense since the last time he met him, he wasn’t so nice…

Turns out he wasn’t. He expels them out before the newly crowned Queen of the Sea: Ursula.

EPISODE 10

Ursula, after granting the group the ability to breathe out of pity, tells them about how Bowser wanted them alive. Pooh & friends to once again be Bowser’s slave and Ash & Tremaine to become fully corrupted. Ash is tempted to use Pikachu to thundershock her, but that’s when Ursula stops him, pointing out that with each kill he racks up, it’s another stain on his heart. When it becomes fully tainted, he’ll be one with the darkness.

She locks them up and gets ready to meet Bowser. However, Ariel, in the process of trying to nab the trident from Ursula, finds Pooh and his friends, then breaks them out. Ariel ends up being fascinated with Ash and Tremaine given they’re humans while Pooh goes over and takes the Trident from Ursula. The group fight Ursula and manage to defeat her, only for Maleficent to appear and attempt to capture Pooh and his friends… Then Pooh uses Triton’s trident and causes a disruption with the Fairy Godmother’s wand, splitting the group including Maleficent. They split across time once more…

EPISODE 11

Ash awakens in the Fairy Realm where the Enchantress finds Ash. Her not knowing who Ash is confirms he’s in the distant past of Sleeping Beauty. Pooh and the others end up in a cottage where three kindly old ladies and a growing girl take them in, the present time of Sleeping Beauty (the past). And lastly, Maleficent and Tremaine end up at her broken castle in the future (the present).

Let’s break this down:

Ash and the Enchantress come across a beautiful fairy with hawk-like wings. To his surprise, she is Maleficent. Yes. I’m. Going. There. Anyways, this is the eve where Stefan goes to kill Maleficent to be crowned king. However, he can’t go through with it and so cuts off her wings. Ash confronts Stefan about this to which Stefan comments how he is willing to do anything to be king, but killing the one he loves is a line he couldn’t cross. He says that Ash should be grateful that Maleficent was spared and goes off into the night.

Pooh learn about the situation from the fairies and realize how much of a dick Maleficent is. The fairies conveniently leave out the bit where she used to be good until Stefan screwed her over. Prince Phillip is revealed to be a cousin of Prince Charming. The plot goes pretty much like Sleeping Beauty/Maleficent, except without Stefan going crazy-go-nuts in-between scenes.

Tremaine and Maleficent discuss about what Maleficent wants, as she recognizes the wand from the tales she used to read Cinderella. A wand with infinite powers, even reviving the dead if need be. She asks why she holds such a power to which she tells her about Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother. Or rather, she tells her about how she held so much power and yet did nothing when Cinderella suffered under her heel or even before Tremaine entered her life.

Tremaine is both upset and angry at this, but this time not to herself, but at the Godmother. Maleficent rubs this in by telling her about the Enchantress and how she turned a prince into a beast, with the servants being turned into items just to spite them. She gives her the revelation that fairies used to be nice and good, hearts of pure light. Then man intruded on their lands and turned them rotten. Now they wish to exact revenge on humanity, with Bowser giving them the means to do so. What she left out was that the fairies only do so to rotten humans. Those with black hearts. Prince Adam was selfish and so turned into the Beast. Injun Joe was cruel and so turned into Injurin’ Joe. Only to those who are pure of hearts or have a chance at redemption do the fairies intervene and help them.

And that’s what the Blue Fairy does: intervene. And boy is she pissed. Maleficent murdered her own kin for power. Maleficent calls her out by showing the wand. What kind of all-powerful being just sits there and does nothing while people suffer? With the wand’s power, she will save everyone, starting with herself. Before the Blue Fairy can do anything, she casts the spell and goes back in time.

Ash, due to the time travel on Maleficent’s part, ends up getting warped back to the point where Stefan is about to cut off Maleficent’s wings, only for Maleficent, the Blue Fairy, and Tremaine to appear. Maleficent tries to kill Stefan before he can do the deed, but Ash stops her and shows her how he couldn’t go through with killing her in the past. That, deep inside, he truly loved her enough to spare her. Maleficent, however, is far too gone to reconsider and before she can attack Stefan, the Blue Fairy rams into Maleficent and forces her to the present.

By this point, Pooh & friends are at the scene where Phillip is captured and the fairies go to break him out. It’s revealed that this is before Maleficent has teamed up with Bowser, let alone team up with him. Pooh and Christopher Robin break Phillip out while Rabbit and Tigger, finally finding a common ground, beat up the goblins while Piglet and Eeyore get the wagon ready for the group to ride out on. Soon, Ash’s group emerge and the two Maleficents, as they share the same time now, merge and the result is a more powerful dragon, the likes of which not even the fairies can stop. The Blue Fairy, however, summons Charizard and Ash hops on him to fight Maleficent in a sky battle while Pooh and the others figure out how to defeat Maleficent. The fairies enchant Phillip’s sword, but it can’t pierce the scales. Pooh, however, figures out a weakness and as soon as Maleficent roosts, he climbs on her. She can’t feel Pooh because he’s stuffed with fluff and during the battle, Pooh slowly and surely starts to rip apart her scales, eventually leaving a piece of flesh where Phillip can impale her. For added cool points, this is right after Ash’s Charizard does that “fly around the world” Seismic Toss he’s known for.

With Maleficent dead, Ash looks at the remains of her: the Fairy Godmother’s wand. He frowns and mutters that she’s the one whose darkness overtook her heart. He picked up the wand and with that resolve in mind, he goes to Stefan and tells her about Maleficent, only for him to break down into tears and realize the consequences of his actions. Tremaine notices this and reconciles with Stefan, telling him that what’s done is done and that they can only work towards a brighter future. She announces her intent to stay with Stefan and Aurora. Blue Fairy takes everyone back to present time where Ash finds that Tremaine had lived a good life with Stefan and Aurora, having found her one true place and redemption.

It seems like the happy ending is achieved since Pooh is reunited with Christopher Robin and Ash seems to have resolved his inner conflict, buuuut there’s one more obstacle that comes in and attacks Pooh and Ash: the same legendary Pokemon that split Ash from his friends. It descends and transforms into a warlock, who declares that Ash killed his sister, Queen Grimhilde.

EPISODE 12

The man introduces himself as Maliss and wants revenge on Ash. Ash steps forwards and tells him to kill him if it satisfies him. To which he does… Only for Pikachu to take the bullet. Cue that scene where Pikachu talks and everyone freaks out. Thankfully, Pikachu is spared thanks to the Blue Fairy’s intervention, but she ends up weakened from it. She reveals the reason fairies only intervene for good humans and punish bad ones. The pureness of someone’s heart fuels the magic. If the magic is to benefit a cruel person, then the fairy is punished for it by giving their life force. Same goes if they punish a kind person. It was put in place by Mother Nature herself to keep the Fairies in balance. There’s also one other problem, one that explains why the Fairy Godmother didn’t just bring Cinderella’s mother back: life must be paid with life. Essentially, Pikachu’s wounds transferred over to the Blue Fairy.

As the Blue Fairy dies, she tells them to seek out a wizard named Merlin. Before Maliss can continue his onslaught, Mewtwo intervenes and teleports them to his hideout: Skull, the same place Bowser was at. It turns out that the reason Bowser was there to begin with was to try and strike an alliance with Mewtwo, only for him to rebuff. Ash tries to talk to Mewtwo, given how he met him, but he tells Ash that he doesn’t remember Ash. The only human he does remember his is creator, someone named Dr. Spengler.

He explains that, like the previous Mewtwo, he escaped, but was without purpose. That’s when the Blue Fairy came and told him to prepare for a battle against the forces of Darkness. He basically gets Pooh up to speed about how Bowser is this evil dude who has legions of villains and he won’t stop until the world’s in his grasps. Ash feels guilty over what happened and goes to sulk. The Blue Fairy’s wand activates with the Fairy Godmother’s wand and sends him to an alternate universe entirely for a brief moment. There, he meets an adult Snow White who is happily married, not to him, but rather the Prince Charming that was meant to marry Cinderella. Snow White finds Ash familiar, but can’t seem to put her finger on it. Ash wants to tell Snow White how sorry he is for not reciprocating her love, but realizes that she might not even know what he’s talking about, so he words it as a “I have a friend” situation. She tells Ash not to lose hope and that true love can break any curse.

Ash flashes back and, with that resolve in mind, he goes off to revive Snow White with love’s first kiss. Snow White wakes up and they have a touching reunion. Maliss comes by to crash the party, but Pooh, with the help of Mewtwo, stop him. Bowser then arrives, fed up with Pooh’s constant interference and how each of his allies fell to him. He attacks Pooh while Ash fights Maliss. It’s a pretty climatic showdown, but Pooh is shown to be on the ropes despite putting up a good “fight” (read: running from Bowser). That is until Aladdin shows up on Carpet and slashes Bowser with a scimitar. Then Tarzan throws a spear at Bowser. Peter Pan flies in with his knife. I’d add more returning characters, but Adam’s no longer the Beast, Wonderland is explicitly a dreamish realm with no desire to interfere with this war, Ash is pulling double duty for Prince Charming, Ariel can’t walk on land yet, and Phillip died of old age.

But the point still stands, Pooh may not have strength, but he has something Bowser can never have: friends. This is made poignant when Christopher Robin, the friend that kickstarted his adventure in the process, being the one to defeat Bowser by tipping him and having him on his back. Bowser retorts by saying how his circle of mages are his friends and that he will come back with many more. Before the group can finish him off, a large owl flies in and carries Bowser off, telling him that his father wishes to speak to him.

Ash, meanwhile, utilizes a weakness of Maliss: he uses a cape that turns people into stone. Ash grabs the cape and uses it on Maliss, turning him to stone. He falls down and gravity finishes him off. Ash feels guilty at first, but doesn’t have the same twinge of malice he had when he killed Grimhilde nor the fear when he killed Injurin’ Joe. He feels Snow White hugging his back and realizes why. He wasn’t fighting for revenge or in the heat of the moment. He was fighting to protect the people he loves.

With everything neatly wrapped up, Ash leaves with Snow White to find his friends, Mewtwo stays in Skull while petting a wolf he calls Aisling, and Pooh and Christopher Robin have a heart-to-heart about school and how Christopher Robin tells Pooh that while he won’t always be around, he’ll still have a place in Pooh’s heart. Roll credits, everyone lives happily ever after, right?

WRONG!

EPILOGUE

Bowser is brought to a world of darkness by the Grand Duke of Owls. There, he is brought face to face with a robed man he calls “father”. The man demands to know why some of Bowser’s strongest wizards have been put out of commission, to which Bowser tells him of Pooh. He is intrigued by the notion that Bowser was defeated by a fluffy teddy bear, but also embarrassed. He declares that Bowser’s son, Bowser Jr., will depart to far-east Asia to prepare for the oncoming storm. Bowser tries to protest, grabbing the man by the collar. The hood falls off, revealing a skeleton.

The skeletal man reassures Bowser. He’s training with a powerful empire and that when he returns with his betrothed, he will be the most powerful Koopa in the land. Bowser is pissed, but acknowledges what needs to be done. “I know… I must avenge Mother….” The skeleton then tells the Grand Duke of Owls to fetch him a potato sack. Confused, the DGoO obliges and goes over to fetch a sack. The skeleton then summon forth bugs to go over and infest the bag, eating the potatoes and eventually making the sack its home. It then rises and stands straight up before contorting the bag to make arms and legs, and finally, a head.

“What brings me to your service, oh Wiseman?” Oogie Boogie asks.

----

And yeah, that’s basically how I’d rewrite Pooh’s Adventures. Took about a good 6 hours to write up the first season. What do you guys think?

#Pooh's Adventures #Winnie the Pooh #Fanfic #Crossover

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natasha-cole · 6 years

Text

What Happens in Vegas Part 21

Rob Benedict x Reader

Chapter Summary: Now that they have been honest about their feelings for each other, Reader and Rob are just trying to navigate their new relationship the best they can. They are still keeping secrets from each other, and one of those secrets is about to be noticed.

Word Count: 3875

Warnings: swearing probably, fluff, illness

Notes: Thanks to @rblstrash and @riversong-sam for offering feedback on this chapter. I hope I fixed all of the mistakes and made things flow better. Again, this chapter is a bit all over the place, but it was the best I had.

Catch Up: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16 Part 17 Part 18 Part 19 Part 20

Reader’s POV

After the session, you decided to go with Rob back to his place. You had been away from each other for weeks, and quite frankly, there was a lot to talk about still. Mostly, you just missed him.

You had every intention of bringing up the thing that you wanted to discuss with him, but you barely had a moment to breathe as he pulled you into the house and immediately pressed you against the wall.

He kissed you hard. As if he had been starved for it. In a way, he had been; and so had you. You kissed him back as you suddenly began to work at removing his shirt. It was just a normal reaction for you.

“I love you,” you murmured in between kisses. “I love you and it’s so fucking scary to say it, but it’s true.”

“I love you too,” Rob replied. “I know I said I wouldn’t say that, but I mean it. I’m just as freaked out by this as you are.”

“Are we really doing this?” you asked. “Everything that you said, was it true?”

“Yes, it’s true,” he replied. “I know it’s crazy, and this entire thing is a mess; but I meant it all.”

“Okay, but you have to promise me that you’re in this for real. One hundred percent. Because I’m scared, and I can’t handle being lied to.”

“I would never lie to you,” he promised.

He crashed his lips against yours desperately, almost as if he were afraid that you’d change your mind any second.

You wanted to ease his mind, and you wanted to hear him say that he meant everything he had said. The two of you had spent far too much time denying your feelings in an attempt to save face. Somehow, you had managed to fall into this marriage, trying to convince people that you were in love; all while actually being in love but denying it to the people closest to you. You had both made a mess of things, and the impending reality of the set date of your divorce was still nagging at you. You hadn’t addressed that yet, and you certainly hadn’t talked about how to handle it now that you had both admitted your feelings for each other.

There was something else more important that was also bothering you, and you knew you had to tell him.

“Rob,” you whispered as he pressed his body against yours. He groaned against your mouth, letting his hands wander until he gripped onto your hips.

“I need to tell you something,” you breathed out as he focused his lips against your neck.

“Can it wait?” he asked as he pulled back to look at you. “I want you right now. We can talk about it later?”

You considered this, even if you knew it was something important. The fact that you wanted him just as badly right now won though.

“Okay,” you said, nodding your agreement, allowing him to continue with what he had been doing.

This time, the two of you made love for real. Neither of you denied each other’s feelings anymore, and more importantly, you allowed yourselves to feel your own feelings for one another.

Rob’s POV

He had noticed the way she had held back during their therapy session when Stephanie touched on specific things. He had been so busy trying to hide the things that he knew he should say though, so he didn’t bother bringing it up.

The night after the session, she had been very set on telling him something, possibly the thing she had avoided during the session. He had stupidly convinced her not to bring it up yet though, and the next morning, she was avoiding it completely.

He had asked what it was that she wanted to tell him, but she insisted that maybe wasn’t that important.

“It’s nothing,” she replied as they sat together at the table, having breakfast.

“It sounded important,” he argued. “We can talk about it now.”

She smiled at him and reached over to brush her hand against his cheek.

“Really, it’s nothing. Let’s just enjoy the day.”

“You know you can talk to me about anything, right?”

“I know,” she laughed, shaking her head at his insistence. “Trust me, it’s fine. It doesn’t matter right now.”

He nodded his understanding, not wanting to push her into talking about whatever it was if she didn’t want to just yet. Perhaps it was selfish really. Because there was one thing that he needed to tell her that he didn’t know if he was ready to put out there just yet either.

He was certain that it wouldn’t completely destroy what they had, not after they had finally come to terms with their feelings for each other. But, it was something pretty big. In truth, he had no idea how she would even react to it. So maybe it wasn’t a bad idea for the two of them to just go on for a while longer holding back on some things.

Things were good for the rest of the week at least. Ever since they had decided to be completely honest with each other about their feelings, they seemed to be better than ever. They spent a lot of time together, just talking and making decisions together on where this relationship would go.

Rob had almost completely forgotten about Y/N’s strange behavior and the way that she seemed to be avoiding something. For now, he wanted nothing more than to focus on their developing relationship.

Friday

When they left home for yet another convention, the only worry on Rob’s mind was how they were going to deal with how their friends would react when they found out that they were actually serious about this.

That opportunity to find out had arrived sooner than he expected when they were instantly reminded of the stupid bet that everyone had going on concerning the time in which their marriage would last.

“So, you two have roughly a month or so left for this marriage, right?” Briana asked suddenly.

“Uh, yeah, why?” Rob asked.

“Just checking,” she beamed. “I’ve got money riding on the fact that I think you’ll make it all the way to the end.”

“Thanks? I think…”

“You really haven’t dropped the bet?” Y/N sighed as she eyed Stephen.

“Nope,” he grinned. “Almost everyone has lost. It’s mostly between Briana, Mike, and Jared now. They both think very highly of your marriage.”

“What happens if we make it past the set date?” Y/N asked.

Rob turned to her, wondering if she had meant to say that out loud.

Stephen gave her a confused look, leaning toward her as if to challenge her.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean,what will happen if we stick it out for a little longer than what we decided on?”

“Why would you do that?” Briana cut in. “You had a deal.”

“I’m just wondering why Rob and I haven’t gotten in on this. It is our marriage after all. Maybe it’s time we joined in.”

“That wouldn’t be fair,” Stephen pointed out. “You both had a set date, there’s no going back on that.”

“You wouldn’t be that stupid,” Briana added. “You’re both so desperate to get out of this, don’t even joke.”

“We are?” She asked, looking puzzled.

“What’s going on?” Briana asked slowly. She glared at the two of them as if she knew something was up, but she just wasn’t sure what it was.

“Y/N,” Rob scolded as he put his arm around her. He very suddenly caught on to the fact that Y/N was no longer planning to be inconspicuous about this. She obviously thought it would be more fun to mess with them instead. “You shouldn’t tease our friends.”

Rob gave her a pleased look and she leaned in to him, placing a firm kiss to his lips. He really enjoyed that you could be open about kissing now, even if the people around them might still think it was an act.

“You know, I’d like to know what’s going on as well,” Rich cut in as he stepped toward them. “I’ve seen the two of you be grossly affectionate, but I have to say, I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen you kiss like that.”

“Relax,” Rob chuckled. “Y/N and I actually like each other.”

“Yes, we’ve established that,” Rich said. “Well, you actually denied that you had feelings for her, but we understood that you were at least getting along.”

“Rob and I have recently confronted the fact that we have feelings for each other,” Y/N added.

Rob felt himself grin like an idiot as she spoke.

“Really?” Rich asked, looking confused.

“What can I say?” Rob smirked. “Your therapy suggestion worked a lot better than expected.”

“Really?” He said again. “You had a few sessions and now what? You’re in love with each other?”

“Well, I think- no, I know that there was always something more there,” Rob explained as he looked at Y/N lovingly. “We just… never admitted to it because of the situation.”

“So… what is this?” Rich asked, looking confused. “Are you saying you’re an actual couple now?”

“Yeah,” Rob replied with a smile. “We are.”

“Am I the only one who remembers that you accidentally got married?” He argued. “How does this happen?”

“Well, you did warn me that I’d fall for her,” Rob laughed. “You were right.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t think she’d be dumb enough to fall for you.”

“Hey!” Rob exclaimed, looking hurt by his friends words. “I’m a great husband.”

“The best,” Y/N confirmed with a smile.

It hadn’t required a lot of explanation to convince everyone that the two of you were serious. In fact, most of them apparently knew that both of you would come to your senses sooner rather than later.

“See!” Billy shouted at Rob. “I told you that you should get to know your wife. I so didn’t want to see the two of you fail.”

“I’m not even surprised,” Briana had explained. “The two of you spent more time avoiding the fact that you loved each other than you actually spent trying to convince people that you did.”

“I still don’t understand how you talked her into this,” Rich had said.

Not that it mattered to either of them what their opinions were, but they had both relaxed just knowing that it was out in the open and everyone seemed okay with it. Any anxiety that either of them felt over that part of the weekend had disappeared.

Reader’s POV

Later that day, you were patiently waiting backstage for your panel to start. You listened to Rob and Rich’s banter, mostly thinking about other things. You had a lot on your mind and you only hoped that you could forget about it all for a just a bit while you got through this panel.

“Are you okay?”

You jumped, startled as someone placed a hand on your shoulder. You turned to find Briana standing behind you.

“I'm fine,” you replied. “Why does everyone keep asking?”

“You're not regretting this, are you?” She asked bluntly as she stepped beside you.

“There are a lot of things that I regret, but this thing between Rob and I is certainly not one of those things.”

“You seem… different is all.”

“How so?”

“You're just not yourself this weekend.”

“I'm just tired,” you replied, turning away from her to avoid her stare. The last thing you wanted was for anyone to notice that it was something more than that.

It wasn’t a complete lie. You were exhausted for a lot of reasons. The fact that you were still holding on to a secret that was eating at you constantly didn’t help. You lost a lot of sleep over it and the thoughts of how Rob could react scared you. You were keeping it to yourself for now, and it was only building up.

“You sure?” She asked sympathetically.

“I’m sure,” you lied. “I’m just tired.”

“If you say so,” she sighed, obviously not convinced that something else wasn’t going on.

You looked at her, now wondering how good of a friend she might really be as you considered letting her in on a little something. Truthfully, you had been wanting to talk to someone for some time, but no moment ever felt right. Surely you couldn’t tell her anything without having talked to Rob first, but maybe you could find a sense of relief in letting some vague thoughts out.

“Can I ask you something?” You asked.

“Sure.”

“If you were keeping a secret,” you began, “something kind of big that you know you need to tell your significant other about, how would you tell him?”

“I guess that depends on the secret.”

“I mean, if you’ve only technically known that significant other for a few months, and the secret was… life changing… would you just come right out and say it?”

“What’s going on?”

“Asking for a friend,” you joked.

You avoided eye contact, knowing that she was looking right at you and judging you.

“Like I said, it depends on the seriousness of the secret, and the seriousness of the relationship.”

“What if the previously mentioned relationship is a difficult one?”

She studied you quietly for a minute as you pretended to listen to what was going on onstage. You didn’t want to show that you were freaking out on the inside, but you really wanted some sort of comfort from someone that things would be alright.

“Y/N, are you and Rob okay?”

“We’re fine,” you replied, trying your best to look as if her question had been insulting.

“Are you having second thoughts about your decision to try an actual relationship with him? Because, if you are; you have to tell him. It’s going to destroy him either way, but you can’t do something that you don’t really want to do.”

“I’m not having second thoughts,” you replied. “Just- it doesn’t matter. Pretend I never said anything.”

“Okay,” she said, looking concerned as she studied you. “To answer your question though, I’m a firm believer in being honest about everything with your partner; no matter how difficult the relationship is, and no matter how serious the secret is. You can’t build a relationship by keeping things from each other. You should let your friend know that.”

“I will,” you replied. “Thanks.”

Before she could say much else, and more importantly, before she could press you for more information, you were being introduced on stage.

You put on a fake smile, knowing that you had to forget about the things that were bothering you for a bit. You had made it this far with lying to everyone and tricking them into believing that you were happy, you could do it for a bit longer.

Later, after the work day had ended, you joined everyone else for dinner nearby, just as you usually did.

In truth, you were exhausted. The day had taken a lot out of you and you had worked hard at not seeming too off about things. Rob was in high spirits, and you figured it was best to keep up appearances along with him. It would look really bad if he seemed excited about your decision and you spent the weekend looking stressed.

Things seemed lighter among your friends at least. The focus that was usually on you and Rob and your mistake had shifted. Now, everyone talked among each other, ignoring the possibility that you and Rob were perhaps moving into things to quickly.

You politely turned down drinks as everyone else indulged, wondering if that right there would wave a red flag to anyone. Your stomach was turning; and you weren’t sure if it was from the anxiety that you were feeling or if it was from the general smells of the restaurant.

You tried to focus; smiling at people as they spoke to you, trying to engage in overall conversation, and acknowledging Rob each time he affectionately leaned in for a kiss.

‘I can get through this,’ you kept telling yourself. Still, you felt as if you were forcing back the need to cry or get sick.

It was when everyone’s meals arrived that you thought your cover had been blown. You tried to be easy on yourself, ordering a bland chicken dinner in hopes that you could keep it down. For some reason though, Rob had decided on the salmon. The instant the waiter placed the dish down next to you, you knew you couldn’t avoid your queasiness any longer. As soon as you could smell it, you had to make a quick exit while still trying to remain calm.

“Excuse me,” you said softly as you stood up.

“Are you okay?” Rob asked, a hint of concern on his face.

He reached for your hand and you quickly pulled away, not wanting to linger for fear that you would embarrass yourself in front of the entire restaurant.

“I’m fine,” you replied, trying hard to hold back the need to throw up. “I just need to use the ladies room.”

You rushed off, trying not to make it obvious that you weren’t feeling well.

Once you had emptied your stomach, you stood up and took a moment to steady yourself. You wiped the tears from your face and took a deep breath before exiting the stall.

“Jesus!’ You shouted when you stepped out and was greeted by Briana. You didn’t even hear anyone else come into the restroom, and the suddenness of seeing her caused your heart to race.

“You scared the crap out of me,” you mumbled as you pushed past her to get to the sink. You breathed in and out, trying to steady your heart rate now.

“What’s going on?” Briana asked. She narrowed her eyes at you as you washed your hands and subsequently rinsed your mouth with water.

“Nothing is wrong,” you replied. “I’m just not feeling well. It’s no big deal.”

“You were fine all day until we got here. In fact, you were fine until food arrived.”

You shrugged, not wanting to make a big deal out of it.

Almost as soon as she had said it, a sudden look of realization came over her. Her eyes widened, mouth dropping open as she grabbed your arm excitedly.

“Oh my god!’ She screeched. “You’re pregnant!”

“Shut up, I am not.”

“You turned down drinks,” she pointed out. “You’ve turned down drinks all day.”

“Forgive me if I don’t drink all day long,” you said, rolling your eyes.

“You looked at Rob as if he had insulted you by ordering fish.”

“The smell…” you trailed off, swallowing back the need to throw up again just by the thought of it.

“Oh my god,” she reiterated. “Y/N!”

“Okay,” you sighed. “Please, don’t make a big deal out of this. I haven’t said anything to him yet.”

“How? Why? How?” Briana sputtered. She seemed to be more shocked than you had been when you first found out.

“I’ve known for a little while, I just haven’t had the chance to bring it up to him.”

“How far along are you?” She asked, looking you up and down. “You’ve been with Rob, what, a few months? You look great considering.”

“I did not get pregnant that night,” you argued. “By my estimation, I’m probably five weeks by now.”

“Wow, I had no idea that you were sleeping with your husband.”

“It’s not funny.”

“I didn’t mean that. I just didn’t realize…”

You didn’t say anything else, you couldn’t. You were suddenly overcome with guilt now that she knew and you hadn’t even mentioned it to Rob.

“You know, I stand by what I said when we discussed your friend today,” Briana added, offering you a smile. “He loves you. You’ve gone through a lot together, you can get through this.”

“You’re right,” you chuckled, trying to convince yourself. “He’ll be okay with it. I mean, what’s one more accident between us?”

“That’s the spirit... I think.”

“Can you just... keep this between us?” you asked. “I’m going to tell him. I’m just waiting for the right time.”

“My lips are sealed,” she smiled.

“Thank you,” you mumbled. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to try to make it through dinner without making this too obvious.”

Rob’s POV

Y/N was hiding something. He realized it rather quickly.

It was obvious by her behavior before they left L.A., and it was obvious now.

This weekend, things still seemed different. She was not herself. Most of the time, she seemed in a daze, as if she was constantly lost in her own thoughts.

He’d check in on her occasionally, making sure to let her know that he was there and in this with her completely.

He didn’t want to admit it, but he felt as if she was having second thoughts about everything.

After a conversation among the group, mostly concerning Rob and Y/N’s choice to see if they could make a real relationship out of this whole thing, Rob became even more concerned. She mostly sat back as everyone added their two cents. Rob felt as if he was on his own this weekend. Y/N was unusually quiet, an sort of sad.

Every time he’d ask if she was okay, she’d brush him off with a smile and a kiss.

“I’m fine.”

Those were the only words he really heard from her.

On Saturday, not much had changed. No matter how badly Rob wanted to know what was going on, he still couldn’t bring himself to pressure her to speak to him.

“She’s acting strange, right?” Rob asked Rich when Y/N was out of sight and he could safely express his concerns to someone without hurting her feelings.

“Well, yeah,” Rich replied. “You should both be acting strange.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I mean, this whole thing is crazy. Aren’t you freaking out even a little?”

“Sure, but I’m also relieved that we’ve gotten to this point. Do you know how long I’ve gone knowing that I love her but being too freaked out to do anything about it? This whole situation is fucked, but we’re actually together in the end.”

“You sure she’s on board?”

“Yeah, I really do. We really care about each other. Which is why I’m concerned with the way she’s been acting.”

“Maybe she’s just, trying to let it all sink in. It’s pretty heavy stuff.”

“I don’t want to lose her. At all. I just, wish I knew what was going on.”

“You think she’s having second thoughts?”

“Not that I want to admit it, but yes.”

“Talk to her,” Rich urged. “That’s all you can do.”

“I’ve tried. She said she had something important to tell me at one point. I blew her off and she’s avoided it ever since. I feel like whatever it was that she wanted to tell me is what’s making her act so weird.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have blown her off in the first place then,” he replied.

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#what happens in vegas #rob benedict x reader #rob benedict rpf

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olicitysecretsanta · 6 years

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Olicity Secret Santa submission 2017 - On the run for @feilcityqueen

Hi Ava (from Hungry) @feilcityqueen

I am so happy to gift you this (not so short about 12k words) story as your Olicity Secret Santa gift.

When I signed up for this I hadn’t published anything in quite some time (I have a lot of WIPs, but nothing ready for publishing). You motivated me to finish a story.

This is a fluff AU - I hope you enjoy it.

Alison (from New Zealand) @sadfangirl05

On the run

Felicity Smoak needs to disappear quickly as she’s been hunted by rogue agents of ARGUS. Agent Oliver Queen is assigned to protect her.

Oliver Queen lay staring at the person standing over him, not quite believing his ears. He’d returned home from assignment late the night before and had only slept a few hours, falling asleep on his couch, before he was woken by his boss.

“You want me to do what?” he asked incredulously, sitting up.

Lyla Michaels, his handler at ARGUS sighed before she repeated “I need you to hide someone for me. Disappear with the subject and not surface until you know it’s safe.”

“That’s not what I do Lyla,” Oliver told her. “My job is to infiltrate and extract intel. It’s not to babysit someone…I mean…”

“Oliver” Lyla interrupted. “It has to be you. Right now you are one of the few agents I can trust. You’ve been out on assignment for nearly a year, so I know you’re not involved. ARGUS has been infiltrated.” “What do you mean?” Oliver hesitated.

“In the last few months, we’ve had some breaches. We almost lost some agents, but got to them in time.” Lyla stated, lowering her voice in sadness. “I need you to keep safe our last line of defense until we find out who’s doing this and what the hell is going on. Also, I’ve not told them you’re back so they won’t look for you.”

Oliver looked down at the file Lyla had just handed him and read quickly.

“Where do we start?” Oliver asked.

***

Felicity sat with her friend, John Diggle, waiting in the van outside Oliver’s apartment.

“If I need protection, and I don’t think I do, why can’t it be you?” she enquired.

“You know why Felicity. I have to stay here. If we both disappear they’ll be tipped off that we’re on to them. That puts Lyla and the entire agency at risk. Queen has been away for months, and no-one knows he’s back yet. If it’s just you that’s gone they’ll, hopefully, think you’ve flaked. Or that you’ve decided to run away again without talking to anyone. It will help us in the long run. I promise.”

“Why did I have to be so good at my job.” Felicity lamented, as John smiled.

“Thank goodness you are. I think you might have saved a lot of lives. So, what’s your plan?”

“Sorry John, if you’re not coming I think I should keep that to myself. It’s not that I don’t trust you, or Lyla, but we don’t know just how far they’ll go to find and stop me, before their endgame - which we don’t know either. So it’s better if you both don’t know where I am and what I’m doing, just yet.” Felicity cautioned. “So, tell me, what can I expect from Agent Queen.”

***

Oliver followed Lyla into the van and nodded to John Diggle, who was sitting with a small young woman. So this was Felicity Smoak, supposed tech genius, who he was to babysit for the foreseeable future.

He introduced himself, eyeing the young woman who was dressed all in black, with long black and purple hair hiding a lot of her face. She smiled, much warmer than he’d expected.

“So, what happens next?” Oliver asked.

“Nice to meet you too, Agent Queen, and for the moment it’s need to know and you don’t need to know.” Felicity said firmly.

“Excuse me” Oliver barked.

“Agent Queen” Felicity broke in “No offense, but you’re not the brains of this operation. You’re the muscle.” Then she winked at him.

Both John and Lyla looked at each other, trying not to laugh.

“I am a very good agent Ms. Smoak” Oliver spat, but Felicity waved her hand at him.

“I know you are. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have agreed to you accompanying me on the run. However, I have an IQ of over 170 and am probably one of the smartest people in the world. So I make the plans.”

Oliver fumed and looked over at Lyla. “She’s not lying,” Lyla said, trying not to laugh. “Trust her Oliver. I do.”

“As do I” John confirmed.

Oliver knew he was beaten, so he resigned himself to what was going to happen next.

Felicity smiled, gesturing him to get out of the van.

“You know the signal?” Felicity asked, to reassure herself.

“Yes,” both Lyla and John said in unity.

“Keep safe.” John told his young friend, then turning to Oliver he said firmly “I’m trusting you here Oliver, don’t let me down.”

“I won’t” Oliver confirmed.

Felicity grabbed a large backpack from the floor of the van, and gestured Oliver to pick up a black box that was next to her. They said their goodbyes and watched the van leave. Felicity walked over to a nondescript blue car parked across the street and opened the back door.

“Put the box in here,” she told him “And then, we need to get you ready.”

Oliver just looked at Felicity, puzzlement on his face.

She smiled, asking “So where’s your apartment?”

Felicity had told Oliver not to talk just yet as they entered his apartment. So he watched as Felicity sat on his sofa, pulling what could only be described as gadgets and gizmos out of the backpack. She finally found what she was looking for and put the items she didn’t need back in their place.

She then picked up a small black box and flicked a switch on it.

“Now we can talk” she smiled. “I’m sorry about that, but I don’t know who’s listening and I needed the jammer before I briefed you. I also didn’t want to talk in front of John and Lyla, the less they know the better.”

Oliver stared at Felicity, he was still feeling groggy from being woken up suddenly, looking at his clock he realized it had been less than half an hour ago.

“What did Lyla tell you?” Felicity wondered.

“Not much,” Oliver told her, shaking himself out of his stupor. “She told me there’s a leak and that you’re the last line of defense. She showed me a file, but it didn’t say much.”

“I’ll give you a quick summary now, but I’d rather wait and fill you in on all the detail when we get to our secure location. Do you know who I am?”

Oliver shook his head, “Just that your name’s Felicity, but apart from that, no.”

“Here’s the quick summary. Felicity Smoak, 26 years old, born in Las Vegas, computer genius, and consultant for ARGUS. I run my own software company and created a lot of the toys that keep ARGUS agents like yourself safe. A few months ago I noticed that some of the firewall code had been changed. I didn’t think anything of it because the internal developers are always making tweaks. Then a few days ago I realized it was a deliberate attempt to destabilize the entire system. I took it to Lyla and we started to investigate. Any breach in security would put a lot of lives in danger and give our enemies access to everything.

I was at ARGUS tonight, looking into the system changes. John was keeping an eye out and managed to stop someone who we think was sent kill me. We have no information on my would-be assassin and who let him in. He killed himself before he could be questioned and we can’t find him on any system. That’s why I now need to disappear. The only way to find what’s really going on is for me to stay safe until we can work out who’s doing this.”

Oliver took a deep breath, steadied himself and asked: “So how do we disappear?”

“First, put this on,” Felicity told him, handing Oliver a large watch, “and next, tell me your clothes and shoe size.”

***

Oliver was surprised when Felicity pulled the car she was driving into the large mall at the outskirts of town. She’d told him not to pack, but he’d put a few things into a bag. She’d glared at him but said nothing.

She drove around in the almost empty parking structure, looking for something. She passed a lot of empty spaces, as the mall had just opened, then finally stopped next to an older fully-loaded truck.

“Why have we stopped here?” Oliver asked.

“I’ll answer your questions later, Agent Queen” Felicity acknowledged Oliver’s reluctance, but they had people to meet. “Please put this on your collar” she continued, handing him what looked like a small badge.

Looking at Oliver,’s face, Felicity realized she’d have to give him something “This disrupts facial recognition software, so we won’t be identified if we’re picked up on camera.”

“That’s not possible” Oliver countered.

“It is” she said slyly “I just haven’t told ARGUS about it yet.”

Oliver shook his head. This young woman was something else. She was a mixture of infuriating, adorable and stubborn. It was driving him half insane already.

“No badge for you Ms. Smoak?” Oliver wondered as they exited the car.

“Not yet,” she told him, walking towards the door. “Right now, I need to be seen on camera. I’m starting a fake trail to see who follows. Don’t look so worried, Agent Queen, I’ve got this.”

Oliver followed Felicity into a small computer repair shop. After getting a nod from the young man behind the desk she closed and locked the door, putting a “back in 10 minutes sign up. She pulled out her jamming device again and turned it on.

The young man at the desk said “In the back” as he got up and gestured them both forward.

Felicity’s demeanor changed instantly. She was all business as she started issuing instructions to the 3 people waiting for them. Before he could get a good look she turned to him.

“Agent Queen, go in here. There are clothes there for you. I need you to take everything off you’re currently wearing, including underwear, except the watch…I’ll explain later…Put everything, including your wallet and phone into the box that’s there. Once you’re done put the badge back on your collar. You have 5 minutes. Go…” She pushed him into the bathroom and closed the door on him.

As Oliver quickly changed he could hear murmuring outside the door and a lot of things being moved around. He put all of his belongings into the large box and walked outside.

He was confronted by the strangest sight. In front of him was a young man, about his height and build, wearing exactly the same clothes he’d had on. Beside him stood a young woman, who looked almost identical to Felicity, again dressed exactly like her. Even from a small distance, you’d never tell the young women apart.

Felicity walked out of another small room. At least he thought it was Felicity. Gone was the black and purple hair. Now she had shoulder length blond hair, that she’d put up into a ponytail. She was wearing square glasses and a pretty green dress.

He also noticed she was now wearing a watch similar to his and had a small badge on her collar.

“How long do we have?” she asked the fake Felicity.

“About 4 minutes. I’ve switched up the nanite tracker signal and they’re now on us. Everything you need is in here.” Fake Felicity told them. She handed Felicity a fancy handbag and began to move out of the room, with fake Oliver behind her.

“We’ll give them a couple of minutes to get a head start on us.” Felicity turned to Oliver, who was still a bit speechless, she was really pretty, in a nerdy way.

“Do you like the new look Agent Queen?” she asked him, smiling.

“You look very different Ms. Smoak” Oliver began, but seeing her start to pout he continued “And yes, I like it, it suits you. But how did you change your hair so quickly?”

“Wig” Felicity replied “I’ve been wearing a wig around ARGUS for a couple of years now. I’ve always had a plan in place to disappear. But, again, we’ll talk more once we’re safe.”

They walked out of the back room into the store. The employee was bagging up what looked like a tablet for them, along with her jammer device which he switched off. Felicity nodded, winked at him and then turned to Oliver.

“Time to go. I need you to take my hand so we look like a normal couple shopping.”

Oliver reached for her hand, it was soft and warm and fit perfectly. Their fingers intertwined as they exited the shop.

“Where too?” he asked.

“Coffee, then shopping,” she replied. “We have to get some supplies and give the fake us time to get a head start.”

***

Oliver followed Felicity back to the parking lot, both carrying quite a few bags. He’d been initially surprised that she’d handed him a wallet, full of cash, and then encouraged him to buy ‘whatever he needed’, reminding him that they wouldn’t have a lot of opportunities to shop for clothes and other necessities over the next few weeks.

As they reached where their car was parked, or should have been parked, he was perplexed to see their car wasn’t where they’d left it.

Before he could say anything, Felicity opened the driver’s door of the older truck, parked next to the empty space, saying “Get in.”

Oliver looked at her for a moment, waiting for her to say something else, but she just got into the driver’s seat and put the bags she was carrying onto the floor next to the passenger seat.

Oliver sighed because for the first time in many years he was completely unsure what was happening. And Felicity wasn’t telling him anything yet. Anytime he’d asked, she’d shut him down, telling him they’d talk later.

Oliver waited a moment, to see if Felicity would say something, but she had put on her seatbelt and started the truck. Realising she wasn’t going to answer any of his questions he got in the truck and sat down. He put his bags over hers and found himself cramped in.

She still wasn’t paying attention. She just started the truck.

Felicity then navigated them out of the parking structure and into the street. When he tried to speak she waved her hand and said almost teasing “I’ll explain everything, please be patient Agent Queen.”

He wasn’t sure how much of this she was taking seriously. He’d never met anyone who had got under his skin so quickly before.

***

Oliver kept alert as they drove, making sure they weren’t being followed. Rather than heading towards the highway as he expected, she seemed to be moving further into the city. They’d only been driving about 15 minutes when Felicity pulled into the parking structure under a very large apartment complex. She keyed in a number and the doors opened, then she drove in, knowing exactly where she was going.

She eventually parked the truck in a space that he knew would be hard to find if you didn’t know it was there. It was round some corners and deep in the back. He also noticed that there was an elevator right next to the parking spot.

“Time to go Agent Queen,” Felicity said brightly.

“Here?” Oliver asked.

“Let’s get things unpacked and I’ll tell you everything.” she smiled.

Oliver let Felicity lead. She pressed the elevator button, and when it arrived, she swiped a small fob over a panel, locking it into place. She then directed him to help her unpack everything from the truck and put it into the elevator. He could see boxes and bags of groceries, more than enough to keep them going for weeks and some electronic equipment that he’d never seen before, as well as her box and backpack. She then locked up the truck and pressed 4 on the control panel.

Arriving at the fourth floor, Felicity pressed the fob again as the door opened, seemingly locking the elevator into place. She then walked over to the apartment door in front of them and opened it.

“Let’s get everything inside before we unpack” Felicity instructed as she started moving things into the apartment.

After everything was in the apartment Felicity released the elevator. She then closed the door, locking it and sighed. Finally, she felt safe.

“Ms. Smoak” Oliver said firmly “Are you going to tell me what the hell is going on?”

Felicity just walked to the kitchen area, the little knowing smile he had seen a lot on her face. She turned to a panel in the wall and pressed some buttons. The lights flashed twice and she then put her thumbprint onto a small sensor. Oliver watched as a steel wall came down from above covering the apartment door and the entire wall.

“Oh, shit,” he said, mainly to himself.

“That’s better” Felicity beamed. “Now, we can talk as we unpack these supplies.”

Oliver stood staring at the security wall, wondering what other surprises Felicity had up her sleeve.

***

“You must have a lot of questions Agent Queen, ask away.” Felicity said as they moved the groceries to the kitchen area.

“What is this place?” he asked in awe.

“I’ve anticipated for some time that I’d need a bolt-hole. So I set this place up about 5 years ago. I’ve added security and new features since then.”

“How? Why?” Oliver puzzled.

“I think I’m going to have to tell you the entire story and I’d rather do that after we unpack and have some lunch. Is that OK with you Agent Queen?”

Oliver nodded and began to help, as Felicity directed him where to put their supplies.

***

The sat on opposite sides of the dining table, tucking into sandwiches that Felicity had purchased in the mall. Oliver stayed silent, waiting for Felicity to start talking.

“I built my first computer when I was 7” Felicity began, “I got into MIT at 16, and graduated at 19. Safe to say, I’m a genius. While I was at MIT I started my business, Smoak Technologies, which provides security services and software to individuals and businesses. I also dabbled in hacking. Just before graduation Amanda Waller, head of ARGUS came to see me. She’d decided that I should work for her. At first, I was able to keep my company going, arguing that it worked well as a cover, but Waller wanted more and more of my time. She got me to rebuild the ARGUS security net, saying I could leave when I was done. But I didn’t trust her, never have, so I did something she didn’t anticipate. I built myself a way out. So, after 18 months, and her delight at all that I have done, I gave her an ultimatum. Either let me leave ARGUS and go back to running my company or I’d blow up their security net. My offer was simple, I get my life back and I’ll be a consultant for them, charging them very large fees; and if she tried to kill me or lock me up the entire network would implode. Lyla told me later that Waller admired my balls. But I know Waller, and that’s why I built this place. A place to go if someone at ARGUS decided I needed to be gone.”

“That was you?” Oliver said in awe. “I heard that someone had got one over on her. Well done.”

“Anyway,” Felicity continued “I’ve also developed a lot of the other gadgets you agents use. I created that system, and I could see that someone was messing with it. And they’re good. That’s why I’ve not caught them yet. The people that helped us today I’ve employed over the years, who owe me. I’ve got most of them out of messy situations and given them a place to turn their lives around. They won’t talk. I just knew this day would come, that someone would come for me, happy that I was so prepared.”

“So how do you catch them?” Oliver questioned.

“Let me give you the tour and I’ll show you.”

***

“I own the building” Felicity stated “I bought it and did a full renovation. That’s how I was able to modify this part to my exact specifications. As different parts were done by different contractors, no-one but I could see the full picture. This is the fourth floor, the living area. The windows let you see out, but no-one can see in. And they’re bulletproof.”

She gestured him to follow where down a small hallway.

“On the left is my bedroom, on the right, yours.”

Oliver opened the door, seeing a large, welcoming room with an en-suite bathroom. It had a large double bed and a TV and games console on one of the walls.

She then walked to the end of the hall and pressed what looked like a light switch.

A door slid opened and he could see stairs in the space.

“Come” she instructed.

At the next level down she pressed another light switch and another door opened. Oliver walked in behind a beaming Felicity.

“This is my playground.” she beamed.

Oliver looked around. It was just a massive space, with more computer equipment than he’d ever seen in his life. It looked like something out of a sci-fi movie. There were monitors and TVs with lots of numbers, text, and video showing on screens.

Felicity walked over to one of the screens, looking at the numbers flying past.

“I’ll be spending a lot of time down here in the next few weeks. This is where I’ll monitor ARGUS and the search for us. I’ll also need you to help me with surveillance if that’s OK.”

“That’s my job Ms. Smoak” Oliver replied.

“Can you please call me Felicity. Ms. Smoak is my mother.”

“Only if you call me Oliver.”

“I can do that Oliver. Can you give me a few minutes to run some checks and then we’ll continue the tour?”

Oliver sat in one of the chairs, watching Felicity work. He had no idea what she was doing, but it almost looked like a dance as she checked monitors and typed commands into the computers.

Finally, she stopped and gestured him to follow.

They walked down the stairs again, to what he assumed was the second floor.

“This floor was done in anticipation of being here a while,” Felicity explained. “They nag me to take exercise, and I hate it, but my doctor and my mother, and Lyla all say sitting in front of a computer too long is bad for me. However, I don’t even know where to start.”

Oliver smiled. In front of him was a state of the art gym. He had been concerned how he was going to keep up his fitness levels, he didn’t have to worry now.

“This is great,” he told Felicity. “And I’ll train you if you want. One of my many covers in the past was as a fitness instructor.” Looking at the horror on Felicity’s face he continued “just the basics, don’t worry. I’ll not try to kill you.”

“I’ll think about it, Oliver.”

“What’s next?” Oliver asked.

Felicity led the way down to the first floor. It was just an empty space with a couple of sofas.

“This can double as a panic room.” She told him. “I can seal it up with steel walls, floor, and ceiling. It will even keep out fire. But I’d hope never to have to do that. The staircase leads right down to the garage and takes us out near the truck. But it’s good to have a backup if we can’t get away.”

“Do you have any weapons?” Oliver asked seriously. Felicity hadn’t allowed him to bring anything of his own and he felt bare without being armed. She smiled and gestured to a cabinet. He opened it to find a wide selection of guns, knives and other fighting equipment. The drawer under the cabinet contained bullets.

“Got you covered,” Felicity told him.

“Can I take some of these with me upstairs? I feel better when I’m armed” Oliver enquired.

Felicity nodded. “If you must, but trust me, no-one is getting in here. I made sure of it.”

***

As they walked back upstairs Oliver announced he was going to take a shower, but Felicity asked him to come to the computer room.

“We need to remove something first,” she told him. “What do you know about ARGUS tracking nanites?”

“What?” Oliver coughed.

“Every ARGUS agent and person of interest has them.” Felicity commented.

“I don’t even know what a nanite is.” Oliver shrugged.

“Oh, save me from luddites.” Felicity sighed.

Oliver raised his eyebrow, but let her continue.

“Nanites are teenie tiny robots. They are put into agents bloodstreams, so that they can be located at any time. One of Waller’s pet projects.”

Oliver looked worried and started to speak, but Felicity continued quickly “Don’t worry, she can’t track us, no-one can. That’s why I gave you that watch this morning. It masks your signal. If anyone checks you’re still on your last assignment and my last reading was heading out of the city.”

“So I need to keep this watch on at all times?” Oliver enquired.

“Nope, I’m going to disable them” Felicity boasted. “I led the team that built and coded them. I built in a failsafe, I always do. And we can fool the system anytime we want to get them to search for me far away from here.”

“Clever” Oliver mused.

“That I am Agent Queen.” Oliver gave Felicity a look as she said that, raising his eyebrow again, but this time with a little smile, “Oliver. Can you please step into this box and it won’t take but a moment. It shouldn’t hurt too much.”

Oliver was a little reluctant to step into the box, which looked like a shower cubical, but knew it had to be done. He watched as Felicity shut the door and walked over to a control panel. A few seconds later there was a flash of light. As his eyesight adjusted he saw Felicity gesturing him to come out. She had a wand type thing in her hand and she ran it over Oliver’s arm.

“All gone” she beamed. “Now, you’ll need to do me.”

Oliver followed her over to the consul and pointed to a button. “When I close the door, just press this button,” she told him.

She walked to the box, shut the door and he did what he was told.

After getting out and checking herself, she smiled. “Nanite free.” she declared. “Now, I think showers for both of us, then comfortable clothing as it’s time to get to work.

****

Oliver and Felicity quickly settled into a routine. They spent most of their day in the computer lab, monitoring ARGUS. Felicity spent hours putting booby traps into ARGUS code, waiting for someone to try and access something they shouldn’t. She also spent a good portion of her time shoring up ARGUS defenses. Oliver helped the best he could, watching and listening to surveillance and helping Felicity strategize their next move. They found they laughed a lot together, making jokes about the people they were watching.

They’d relax over dinner at night, where they both learned more about each other. They were becoming friends.

One night during dinner, when she asked, Oliver found himself opening up to Felicity, something he hadn’t done in forever. She was the first person he had trusted in a long time.

“I joined the Marines when I was 18” Oliver confessed. “I was a screw up at the time. There was an accident.”

He stopped to compose himself, then looked at Felicity, who had nothing but compassion in her eyes.

“I was at a graduation party, with my best friend Tommy. I hooked up with a random girl and disappeared into one of the bedrooms. Tommy wanted food and decided to go without me. I was…. I was supposed to be the designated driver. So Tommy drove drunk.”

Felicity let the silence wash over them as she waited for Oliver to continue. She took his hand in hers and gently rubbed her thumb against his.

“He crashed” Oliver choked “Tommy was badly injured, and one of the girls in the car with him didn’t make it.”

“Oh Oliver” Felicity whispered, with tears in her eyes.

“It was my fault. It didn’t matter how many people told me it wasn’t, I blamed myself. I wanted to run away so I went down to the recruitment office and joined up. I served for 5 years, then was recruited to ARGUS. I cut ties with everyone, it was better that way.”

“So you’ve no family?” Felicity asked quietly.

“I have a sister… Thea.” he smiled. “She was so angry with me for leaving her. Our parents didn’t care, too busy with their lives and careers so it was just us against the world growing up. We were closer to the staff than to our parents. She came to see me at basic training to tell me how she felt. I tried to explain that it was better not to be around me, as she’d just get hurt like Tommy had, but she didn’t see it that way. She told me I was hurting her more by leaving her, that she’d never forgive me. I’ve not seen or heard from her since.”

“You miss her, don’t you?” Felicity enquired.

“Every day. Like I miss Tommy every day. But I couldn’t face them. I ruined their lives.”

“I’m so sorry Oliver. But this wasn’t your fault. You were young, horny and irresponsible, like most 18 year olds. You didn’t get into the car and drive, Tommy did that. You behaved like every 18 year old boy I’ve ever met. Distracted by a pretty girl. By the time I was 18 I was a notorious hacker and should have been in jail.”

Oliver tried to smile. He’d buried this stuff so far down it was almost a relief to finally tell someone about it. Felicity didn’t look at him like he was a monster. She looked at him like she cared.

She let go of his hand, quickly standing up and going to get her tablet.

“Where did you live?” Felicity asked.

“Here, Star City” Oliver replied.

Felicity started quickly typing into her tablet. She pressed a button and the screen changed on the television, bringing up the picture of a young woman.

“Is this your sister?” Felicity enquired.

Oliver nodded, unable to speak. On the screen was his baby sister, all grown up.

“This is Thea Queen Harper. She is a successful nightclub owner and is heavily involved with community outreach. She’s married to a Roy Harper and they have one child, a little boy.”

Felicity pressed some more buttons and more pictures appeared. Thea was holding a little boy, who was around a year old.

“He’s beautiful,” Oliver commented, almost to himself.

“Yes he is, Jonas Robert Harper is a very cute kid.”

“Jonas?” Oliver gasped.

Felicity looked at him, waiting for him to gather his thoughts.

“My middle name is Jonas,” he said in wonder.

“Well, maybe your sister doesn’t hate you so much after all,” Felicity concluded.

Oliver spent a minute or so composing himself, he didn’t expect this.

“Can you find Tommy?” Oliver asked hesitantly.

“Can you give me a bit more information, like his surname?”

“Tommy Merlyn. He’s my age, just turned 30.”

Felicity laughed. “I know Tommy Merlyn. His wife and I are in the same book group, we’re friends. Well, it’s not really a book club, we just call it that. It’s more a wine and gossip club.”

“You’re kidding!”

Felicity brought up a lot of pictures, of Tommy with a beautiful young woman beside him, looking very happy.

“Tommy Merlyn is a much-loved son of Star City. After a serious accident when he was a teenager” Felicity stopped, looking over her glasses at Oliver before she continued, “He devoted himself to getting better and learning to walk again. Using his father’s resources they invented a chip that lets him walk. The technology has revolutionized a lot of peoples’ lives. He then started a foundation to help people like himself. One day he was interviewed by a young, up-and-coming journalist by the name of Iris West. I don’t think Iris has left his side since the day they met. They’re a wonderful pair.

Oliver, without Tommy’s accident he wouldn’t be the person he is today. He does so much good in the world, and he’s so happy with Iris. I don’t think he would ever blame you.”

Oliver was still trying to process everything he’d been told. He’d refused to ever check how his sister and best friend were doing. His heart filled with joy at their lives.

“Maybe” Felicity coxed “After this is all over, you should go and see them. I can get you an in with Tommy and Thea’s easy to find.”

“I don’t know.” Oliver shrugged.

“Well, you don’t have to decide yet,” Felicity said cheerfully. “Now, it’s time to check our searches before bed.”

****

There was one aspect of their routine where Felicity was not happy with Oliver at all. At 11am every day he insisted that they both stop what they were doing, go down to the gym level and exercise for an hour. He told her it would be good for her, both physically and mentally. And even though she’d never admit it to him, she did feel a little better.

Oliver really enjoyed training Felicity. It amused him when she would pout her lips and shake her head when he told her what to do next.

“No Oliver.” she would cry as he increased the weights he was making her lift “I can’t do it.”

“Yes you can” he’d smile with all the encouragement he could muster.

“No.” she’d pout.

“Yes,” he’d instruct.

And so it went on every day. Felicity would complain, but eventually, do what she’d been asked to do and Oliver would laugh and smile.

It was a respite from being hunched over a computer all day.

“Why do I have to run on the treadmill” Felicity asked. “If I need to go somewhere I just take my car or my truck.”

“Because one day, we might have to run and I’d like to make sure you can keep up so I don’t have to carry you.”

Felicity smiled “That might be fun” she teased.

Oliver just glared at her, trying not to laugh.

Oliver was serious about making sure she could keep up. Even though he trusted the security they’d put in place he still worried. He knew that nowhere was 100% safe so he was making sure she could run if she needed to.

****

“Oh shit” Felicity gasped staring at something on her computer.

“What is it?” Oliver asked, “Have you found something?”

“No, it’s the date” she gasped “It’s 14 December, that means The Last Jedi is out tomorrow.”

“What’s The Last Jedi?” Oliver queried.

“Oliver Queen, tell me you’re joking” Felicity snorted.

“Jedi, isn’t that to do with Star Trek or something?”

“I thought we were becoming friends, Oliver. But how can I be friends with someone who doesn’t love Star Wars.” she lamented.

“Felicity, I’m teasing you. Of course, I know what Star Wars is. I’m just hoping that we don’t get spoiled until we can see the movie.”

“What do you mean ‘spoiled until we can see the movie’? We’ll be seeing it tomorrow.” Felicity stated, her tone brooking no argument.

“I hate to break it to you, but we’re currently in hiding, from people who want to kill you and we have no idea who they are. We can’t risk going outside. Unless you’re planning on hacking somewhere and finding the movie so we can watch it here.”

“That’s sacrilege” Felicity gasped. “Each new Star Wars film must be viewed with other die-hard fans. In a cinema. With popcorn and red vines. No arguments.”

“Can’t be done. Too risky.” Oliver sighed.

“I’m going.” Felicity snapped.

“No, you’re not” Oliver exasperated. “Too risky. And I will physically restrain you if you try to leave this apartment.”

Felicity thought for a moment. “Even though that might be fun, what if,” she countered “I came up with a plan that reduced the risk, and might give us some clues as to who we’re after.”

“I’d consider it” Oliver warned, “But it will need to be a really good plan.”

***

Felicity got Oliver’s attention 2 hours later. She asked him to join her at her big monitor. She liked her plan, she actually thought it was really good.

“So?” he shrugged.

Felicity was beaming, “The people we’re looking for know my profile well enough to know that I’ll see the new Star Wars film within the first 24 hours. But they don’t know where I am or what I look like now. I’ve found a flag in ARGUS’s facial recognition software looking for me. I’m still trying to chase up who the alert goes to, as it looks like a burner phone. Anyway, that programme will get a partial match with my face tonight, at a midnight showing of the movie in Boston. They’ll get another partial match, 3 hours later, in Austin Texas. These will only be partial matches. Also, my nanites will send out a signal for around 3 seconds in Austin an hour later. This will prompt a search, I think.

“It’s cold here in Star City. That means we can put hats and scarfs on to cover our faces. We’ll also be wearing the jammers so the facial recognition software can’t identify us.

Come on Oliver, the cinema is 2 blocks down the street. I’ve got us tickets for the first showing in the morning. And you can bring your gun.

“We’ll be able to see what reaction the partial matches get, and we might even add another nanite signal to see who reacts.”

Oliver pondered for a moment. It actually could work, and it could produce new leads that they desperately needed. They’d been holed up for 3 weeks and so far had found virtually no clues.

“And I can run fast now” Felicity interjected with a small smile on her face.

“You’re going to keep hawking me until I say yes, aren’t you?” Oliver groaned.

“You bet I am.”

“It’s a good start” Oliver conceded “But I think with a little work we can make it better.”

****

It didn’t matter that they’d not had much sleep. They’d stayed up to watch what would happen when the partial facial recognition alerts were sent. And they’d learned a lot. They’d watched one of the maintenance staff receive a text to his phone, leave his equipment and go and talk to Isabel Rochev, one of Waller’s deputies. Felicity remarked that she always thought Isobel was a bit of an ice queen and that there was no way that these people would know each other. As the next alert was sent Isobel contacted a lot more people. Suddenly they had targets, people they could investigate.

Felicity had left a whole lot of searches running, and various other things that Oliver didn’t understand. So off to the movies they went.

It felt good to be outside. The air was crisp and a snow was starting to fall. Oliver had taken Felicity’s hand through her glove, so they would look like the other couples walking towards the cinema. Visibility was poor because of the snow, just the right sort of weather to stay hidden in.

Felicity showed her excitement by squeezing his hand as they got closer to their destination. And even though he was being hyper-vigilant, he couldn’t help but revel in her joy.

***

“That was amazing” Felicity beamed at Oliver as they walked back to their building. “Thank you again.”

“I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it” Oliver smiled. “But it’s back to work now. Do you think your searches will have finished?”

“Work, work work, is that all you ever do? I can’t complain too much, we missed our gym session today.”

“Oh, that will be later” Oliver joked.

He couldn’t really see Felicity’s face through the snow, but just knew she’d be pouting.

“Or not” he corrected himself.

He heard her laughter as he guided them back to their refuge.

“Can we get coffee on the way back” Felicity pleaded. “It’s so long since I’ve had real coffee, we could get cake too?”

Before he could answer Felicity dragged him into a cafe that he hadn’t noticed, due to the snow.

Felicity quickly procured them both coffees and a selection of cakes and savory snacks. She told him it was for lunch and dinner, whispering “We’ll be busy, won’t have time to cook.”

Oliver was getting nervous. He didn’t like being out in the open like this, but Felicity didn’t seem bothered. She’d checked her phone a few times, and knew Rochev and her co-conspirators were currently on a wild-goose chance half-way across the country, but she also knew that Oliver wouldn’t feel totally safe until they were back in the building.

***

Felicity stripped off her coat, hat, and gloves and locked down the apartment. Oliver walked over to the window, looking out at the snow, deep in thought.

“Are you OK?” Felicity asked Oliver.

“Today was nice” he commented, almost to himself.

“It was” Felicity agreed. “Maybe when this is all over, we could do it again, as friends.”

“I don’t really do that.”

“Do what Oliver, go out with friends, something else?”

“I don’t have any friends.” Oliver said sadly “I’ve lost touch with everyone. I’ve told you about Tommy and I didn’t keep in touch with my army buddies when I joined ARGUS. I spend most of my time undercover, no time to make friends.”

Felicity walked over to stand beside him at the window. She put her hand on his arm, squeezing it a little. “Well, you have a friend now, in me. And, if you want, I’ll help you connect with Tommy again.”

“I don’t know how,” he whispered.

“I’ll help, I promise. But now, coat off, get the coffee and cakes. It’s time to see what we’ve uncovered.”

****

It took them hours to finally see the entire picture. Felicity’s searches had opened up an entire avenue of enquires and they began to see what they were up against.

Isobel Rochev was secretly working with a group called Hive. They’d been playing the long game, placing her in ARGUS over 10 years ago. All of Isobel’s crew also seemed to have come from Hive. They’d been hard to trace, but after nearly 36 hours of intense hacking, Felicity had finally found what she was looking for.

She woke Oliver up, who had been sleeping in a chair, and directed him to sit beside her.

“I’ve found something, which I think explains what’s going on. This interview was recorded about a year ago by British intelligence. Right around the time Rochev started actively sabotaging ARGUS.”

Felicity pressed play on the video and they both watched in silence.

“My name is Nora Dhark. My father is Damien Dhark and he’s the leader of Hive. I was raised to believe that the world was evil and that it needed to be destroyed. My father has worked for decades to do this, placing people all over the world to help him when the time came. He decided to let me study medicine, as we’ll need doctors in the new future, he said. So I went to University, here at Oxford, to learn how to be a doctor.

“I’d never gotten to know people outside Hive. I’d never had friends before, my parents kept me away from other children. I’d been taught that most humans are weak and do not deserve compassion. He told me I was just there to learn how to fix the physical body.

“Away from my father’s influence, I learned he was wrong. I made friends and even met someone, who I truly cared about.

“But my father found out. He saw me loving someone like Danny as a flaw. Because Danny was good and kind and would never have condoned anything my father wants to do.

“Danny disappeared, I’m sure my father was responsible.

“That’s how my father operates. He’s boasted for years that he can kill people and not leave a trace.

“I don’t know exactly how my father plans to destroy the world, but I know he’s in the final phase. They’ve already built “arks” for Hive members in cities across the world. I’ve told you where the ones I know about are, but there are more.

“So, as we agreed, I will return to my father and Hive, spying for you to find out what they are planning to do, and trying to slow it down the best I can.”

The video cut off.

“What do we know about Nora Dhark?” Oliver puzzled.

Felicity worked quickly, “The Oxford stuff checks out. She was studying medicine there, graduated around 18 months ago. There was a Daniel in her class who disappeared a few months later.”

“Is there anything else?”

“I’ll keep looking, but I think we have all we need to blow this open.”

Oliver felt his heart sink, if they had everything they needed, they’d have to leave their hiding place. He’d grown used to having Felicity around and didn’t like the prospect of leaving at all.

“But before that” Felicity was adamant “We both need showers, food, and some sleep. We’ve been at this for nearly two days and I’m exhausted.”

“Agreed. We’ll make a better plan after.”

***

“Oliver” Felicity screamed.

Oliver jumped quickly, not sure of how long he’d been asleep, and ran into Felicity’s room. “What is it?” he fretted.

“They’re coming.” she almost whispered as she motioned him to follow her.

“How?”

“Later, but right now we have to shut all our monitoring equipment down. We only have a few minutes.”

They sprinted downstairs to the computer room.

“What do we do?” Oliver pleaded.

“That grey box on the other wall, open it,” Felicity ordered, as she pointed to one of the two boxes, as she walked towards the other.

“We have to do this at the same time or all the equipment will be fried, that’s why it’s got to be both of us. Grab the green handle and push it up in 3, 2, 1 go.”

Oliver did as he was told “Anything else?” he asked as he heard the buzz of their equipment quieten.

“Just a second. Once we hear beeping we need to press the red button. It takes about a minute.”

They waited in silence, both breathing heavily. Then they heard beeping.

“3, 2, 1, Go” Felicity called as they both pressed the red button.

The room plunged into darkness for a moment, then soft low-lighting kicked in.

Felicity breathed deeply and let out a sigh of relief, sinking to the floor.

Oliver walked over and slid down beside her. “You want to tell me what’s happening?” Oliver asked.

“I could tell you a lot of technical jargon, but you’d get lost. Don’t look at me like that, you know you would. But what you need to know is that Hive now suspect we’re still in Star City. They’ve realized I’ve been shoring up ARGUS defenses and know I’d need serious equipment to do that. In about a minute they’re going to cause a city-wide power outage and look for anywhere that still has power. Because they know I’ll have a backup generator.”

“And do you?”

“Yes. If I hadn’t known about the shutdown, my batteries would have kicked in. And with the right equipment, which they probably have, they’d see that my equipment is still up and running. I can only disguise so many heat signatures.”

“Now we wait?” Oliver wondered.

“It’s going to get cold, so we better wrap up” Felicity smiled, noticing that Oliver was just wearing boxer briefs. She eyed him up for a moment, impressed at his very fit body. Then she noticed that Oliver was looking at her the same way, and she realized her sleepwear was almost as skimpy as his, shorts and a tight tank top.

“Torches are under my main desk,” Felicity said quickly as she stood up, changing the subject.

Oliver watched her, appreciatively, walk over, bend down and grab 2 torches.

He smiled, even in low-light, he couldn’t not admire her curves. He stood up, took one of the torches from her and followed her up the dark stairs.

***

Oliver, now dressed in sweatpants and a t-shirt, stood by the window looking out at the dark city. He could see small pockets of light, probably cars, against the darkness. He heard Felicity’s bedroom door open and her soft footfalls as she walked over to join him.

“How long do you think the lights will be out?” Oliver asked.

“Not too long I think,” Felicity replied. “They’ll be sweeping the city now, probably using one of the ARGUS satellites. That was the first alert I got, someone positioning the satellite over Star City when they shouldn’t have been. Luckily for us, they’re a bit sloppy so I was able to quickly work out what they were up to.”

“You should have woken me,” Oliver told her.

“Between alert and action was around 2 minutes. Sorry, but it would have taken me longer to explain,” she told him.

“You know you’re remarkable Felicity Smoak”

“Thank you for remarking on it.”

Felicity opened the window as she wanted to hear what was going on outside. They could hear police cars and people shouting, voices carrying in the darkness.

“Do you think they’ll find us?” Oliver worried.

“I don’t think so. But it doesn’t matter. As soon as the lights come back on I think we need to leave.” Felicity concluded.

Oliver felt his stomach dip. He didn’t want this to be over, just yet. He’d grown so close to Felicity in just a few short weeks. She had quickly become the most important person in his life. He couldn’t imagine his life without her.

Felicity interrupted Oliver’s silence, “It’s time to bring others into the loop. We’ll get Lyla and John, then alert Waller. Then it’s up to them to deal with this..”

She turned and looked at him, seeing something on his face she’d never seen before “Don’t worry” she smiled “I’ll be out of your hair by dinner.”

Oliver stared at Felicity, even in torchlight she seemed to shine. “I don’t know if I like that,” Oliver confessed.

“Good” Felicity beamed. She rubbed his upper arm for a few seconds, smiling at him.

Then the lights came back on, interrupting the moment.

“Give me a minute,” Felicity said, changing her tone to more business-like. “I need to grab a few things.”

Oliver walked to his own room, put on his shoes and grabbed his coat.

He was waiting for her at the stairs when she reemerged from her room, carrying her black backpack. She walked into the kitchen and pressed a few buttons on the security console.

“That will release in one hour, we’ll be long-gone by then,” she told him. “Let’s go”.

They walked silently down the stairs, both lost in thought.

Arriving at the truck, Felicity handed Oliver the keys “Can you drive?” she asked.

“No problem, where are we going?”

“John and Lyla’s.” she said “But I want to park the truck up first, just around the corner. Do you know where they live?”

Oliver nodded.

As he drove, Felicity worked on the tablet she’d brought with her. She murmured to herself, lost in her work.

It didn’t take long to get to their destination. He was surprised to see John and Lyla waiting at the door for them.

Lyla led them into the townhouse and Felicity activated her jammer.

Before anyone else could speak Felicity asked: “Is Waller coming?”

“Yes,” Lyla replied “she’s a few minutes out.”

“Good, because I don’t want to go over this multiple times.”

***

Amanda Waller entered the room like she owned it. She looked a little disgruntled that she’d been summoned, but her eyes widened when she saw Felicity and Oliver.

“Ms. Smoak” Waller commanded “And Agent Queen. Quite the pair we have here this morning.”

“Director Waller” Oliver nodded.

“Amanda” Felicity smirked.

“Why am I here?” Waller demanded.

Felicity took charge. “John, can you get everyone some coffee and I’ll fill you all in.”

***

Waller made no effort to hide her anger. She felt betrayed. She’d trusted Isobel Rochev, mentored and promoted her.

After Felicity had finished briefing anyone, they sat in silence for a moment. Felicity and Oliver looked at each other, waiting for the reaction.

Then Waller stood up, ran her hands down her jacket, smoothing away non-existent creases and said firmly “We have work to do.”

***

It was the day before Christmas Eve when Oliver finally returned to his apartment. It had taken almost a week to take down Hive. He’d slept on the plane, returning from his assignment, so wasn’t tired.

When he entered the room he saw a large box sitting in the middle of his sofa. Opening it warily he saw the stuff he’d left at the mall, weeks ago, along with his things from the hideout apartment. On top of the pile was his phone.

He clicked the phone on and saw a notification which said ‘Thea Queen Harper’ with a phone number. He smiled to himself, knowing only one person who would do this. There was a note under the phone, which just said ‘Thanks for everything, F’.

He stared at the phone for a while, pondering what to do. He wished he could talk to Felicity but he had no way to contact her, they’d never exchanged phone numbers or emails. But the message she was sending was clear, call your sister.

Oliver pressed the button before he could overthink things.

“Hello,” said a tentative voice at the other end of the line.

“Thea,” Oliver asked.

“This number is showing on my phone as Oliver Queen, is this some sort of joke.”

Oliver smiled, he knew of only one person that could do this. “No Thea” he smiled “It’s Ollie…”

There was a gasp then silence at the other end of the line, waiting was torture, but it was up to Thea to speak soon.

“Ollie” Thea sniffed. “Is it really you?”

“I’m so sorry Thea, sorry I shut you out, can you forgive me?” Oliver interrupted. He had to let his sister know how sorry he was.

“I forgave you a long time ago Ollie” Thea told her brother, “I think it’s more you need to forgive yourself.”

“I’ve missed you, Thea.”

“Where are you, right now?” Thea demanded.

“Star City”.

“Good. That means you can come and see me right now.”

“Right now.”

“I want to see my brother right now, I’d come to you but it’s a little hard to get away.”

Oliver could hear a child shouting in the background, demanding his mothers’ attention.

“Is that…Is that your son?” Oliver asked his sister.

“Yes, how did you know?”

“My friend showed me your Instagram, he’s beautiful.”

“Jonas is a little terror. Like his Uncle Oliver.” Thea laughed. “Now are you coming to see us?”

“Give me your address, I’ll be there in an hour,” Oliver confirmed.

****

He’d let Thea berate him for staying away so long because he knew he deserved it. But then, once she’d gotten everything out of her system, they talked and re-bonded. And Oliver promised he’d never lose touch again.

He’d fallen in love with Jonas, and the young boy had taken to his uncle instantly. It had been a very good day. Thea had also demanded that Oliver be at her house on Christmas morning, telling him in no uncertain terms that he would be spending the day with the Queen-Harpers.

Oliver just wished he could tell Felicity about it. He actually wanted to tell Felicity about a lot of things, especially how much he missed her.

He’d only seen her once after they left John and Lyla’s house to go to ARGUS. And that had been a fleeting hello in the corridor as they both had to be somewhere else.

They’d quickly apprehended Isobel and her co-conspirators, but finding and taking down Hive had taken a lot longer. Oliver had no idea how Waller got Isobel to talk, but she had, giving ARGUS and other security agencies what they needed to stop Hive in their tracks.

Oliver had been part of the team that had taken down the Hive cell in Star City, and then had gone to Washington to take down their ark and help them purge the Hive operatives from the government. He’d been delighted to find that one of the prisoners they held was Nora Dhark’s Danny. He’d even met the young woman briefly as she was reunited with her boyfriend.

Now, lying in bed, he remembered their evenings chatting and watching whatever took Felicity’s fancy. She calmed him and made him want more than just the next assignment from Amanda Waller. Closing his eyes, chasing sleep, his last thought was of Felicity’s smile.

***

Oliver arrived at ARGUS early on Christmas Eve. He had things to do before he hit the mall to get presents for his family. He liked that thought, he had a family again. First stop was Amanda Waller’s office.

“Agent Queen” she greeted him, gesturing him to sit down at her desk, “Are you here for your next assignment already? I thought I told everyone to take a few days off.”

“No, Director Waller, I’m here to tender my resignation, effective immediately.”

“I’m not sure I can accept that Queen. You’re one of my best agents.”

“My contract is up on the first of the year, and I won’t be extending it. I want to do something else with my life,” explained Oliver.

“I’m not happy about this Agent Queen,” Waller grumbled. “What about a promotion, a pay increase? Would that encourage you to stay?”

“It was never about that with me Director. I was running away from my life and I don’t want to do that anymore. I just wanted to tell you in person, not via email.”

“Ms. Smoak does that,” Waller stated.

“What?” Oliver was puzzled.

“She exudes life and draws people into her orbit.” Waller acknowledged, “She changes people. And you spent almost a month with her…”

“She’s my friend. A friend who encouraged me to stop running away from my past.”

Waller looked at Oliver and smiled. She picked up a post-it note from her desk and wrote something down “She’ll be here. This is the address of her company. She’ll be catching up as we’ve monopolized her for a while.”

“Thank you” Oliver began.

“No need” Waller interrupted. “Good luck, Mr. Queen. I’m sure we’ll meet again. Someone will be in touch in the new-year to arrange to pick up all your ARGUS equipment.”

Oliver nodded, knowing he’d been dismissed, got up and left.

***

Even though Oliver felt as though he’d grown close to Felicity, he was shocked when he arrived at the address Waller had given him. Felicity had talked about her company a lot, but he didn’t realize how big it was.

He’d expected Smoak Technologies to take up a few floors of a large building, he didn’t expect that it took up an entire skyscraper. So he stood, looking up at goodness knows how many floors of the Smoak Technologies building.

He walked to the reception desk. Could he just walk in and ask to see their founder, but it was the only option he had right now. At least he could leave her a message.

“Can I help you?” the chirpy receptionist asked.

“I’m here to see Felicity Smoak,” he said with more confidence than he was feeling.

“Do you have an appointment?”

“Not exactly” Oliver divulged “But I’m an old friend, and I’m sure if you asked, she’d see me.”

“Name,” the receptionist said, with a little more contempt. Didn’t this man realize she got this ten times a day?

“Oliver Queen.”

The receptionist’s face changed instantly “Oh, Mr. Queen. Let me get you a pass, you can go right up.”

“Was I expected?” he asked.

“All I know is your name was left here and we were told to send you right up.”

“Up where?” he smiled.

“32nd floor. Go over to the first elevator, swipe this pass and it will take you to the executive floor.”

***

The elevator doors opened and before Oliver could even walk out he heard Felicity’s voice shouting “Gerry, where is the Applied Sciences monthly report.”

He walked out, towards the voice, as she walked towards the desk.

“Gerry” she shouted, then stopped and looked around. “You’re not Gerry” she realized “Oliver.”

“Hi,” Oliver said, suddenly realizing he had no idea what he was going to say to her, only that he wanted to see her.

“Oliver,” she said again “what are you doing here, not that I mind.”

“I would have texted or called first” he admitted “but I didn’t have a number or email for you. So I thought I’d drop in. Nice place you’ve got here.”

“Oh my goodness” she said, slapping her hand to her head “Didn’t I put my number into your phone when I added Thea’s.”

“Nope. I did look.”

“Sorry. Give me your phone and I’ll do it now.”

Oliver watched as she keyed her number in.

“My assistant seems to have disappeared” Felicity clarified “Do you want a coffee or something?”

“I’m fine. I just…”

“Came by for my phone number?”

“I just wanted to let you know I called Thea. Thank you. We’ve reconnected. I spent yesterday with her family.”

Felicity’s smile left her face for a moment, but she recovered quickly “Oliver that’s wonderful. I’m so happy for you all.”

“Also,” Oliver said hesitantly “I need a favor.”

“Well, I do owe you one. You did risk a lot by letting me go to Star Wars and looking out for me this past month. What do you need?”

“I need to go to the mall to get Jonas some presents.” Oliver admitted, “I was going to ask you to come with me, but if you’re too busy here, I’ll understand.”

“I’m not busy, that’s the problem” Felicity confessed “It seems my staff can run this company just fine without me. I expected to come back to chaos, but everything’s running smoothly. I feel a little useless. Maybe helping you shop will make me feel useful again.”

“And after we could, if you don’t have plans or anything, we could go to dinner?” Oliver stammered.

“I would love….Oh no, I can’t. I’ve got a holiday party. Wait a minute, I can bring a date, do you have a tux?”

“Yes, Felicity, I have a tux. And I would love to be your date to your holiday party.”

Felicity beamed. She had grown to like Oliver far too much while in hiding, and was itching to spend time with him doing normal things.

***

After only waiting half an hour for Felicity to finish in her office and send her staff home for the holiday, she led him down to the garage to pick up her car.

“Can we stop at my house first?” Felicity asked “I want to get changed. This outfit is fine for work, but these heels will not do for walking.”

Oliver nodded, appreciating that even though her legs looked spectacular in those heels and the short grey dress she was wearing, she was right.

Oliver half expected Felicity to drive them to the apartment they’d shared, so was initially surprised when she drove under one of the most up-market apartment blocks in the city.

“It’s a little nicer than the last place we stayed” she commented.

“I liked that place, it was pretty great.” Oliver argued.

“It was OK. But trust me, this place is so much nicer.”

Oliver’s jaw almost hit the floor as they walked into Felicity’s penthouse. There was a large living space with couches that could seat 20 people, the largest television he’d ever seen and even a pool table. There was a kitchen area and a large dining table that was currently covered with a more than a few computers, in different stages of rebuilding. There was floor to ceiling windows instead of one wall, with a spectacular view of the city. The other walls, painted in shades of light blue, were covered in pictures, some funny, some personal, even some press articles, all of which reflected Felicity’s personality. The place was inviting and warm.

“Do you like it?” Felicity beamed.

“I do.” Oliver said happily “It’s very you.”

“Make yourself at home,” she told him as she rushed to get changed.

Oliver wondered around, looking at the pictures on the wall. They almost told a story. He could see the beginnings of her company and the first employees she had. He even recognized a few of the faces as the people who acted as decoys for them. A few of the newspaper cuttings told of her company’s rise. He started to feel a little intimidated.

But this was Felicity, he told himself. This was the woman who pouted when he made her lift heavy weights and who mixed red vines in with her popcorn when she went to the movies. She was his friend, and he hoped, would be something more.

Felicity walked back into the room wearing tight black jeans and a purple top. Her hair was down, framed around her face and there was a glint in her eye behind her square glasses. The bag she was carrying matched her sneakers, bright red.

Oliver couldn’t stop himself from staring at her, she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.

“Felicity I….”

Before he could say more, Felicity put her finger over his lip.

“I know Oliver. We have this chemistry, and I do like you, but I think we should just be friends.”

“What! Why?” Oliver implored.

“I like you, I like you a lot. But you’ll disappear on mission again and I won’t see or hear from you for months. I can’t live like that.” Felicity told him.

“I resigned” Oliver stated.

Before Felicity could stop herself she reached up on her tiptoes and kissed him. At first, the kiss was tentative, but as they began to explore each other’s mouths they got more passionate.

Finally, Felicity broke the kiss. They just stared at each other for a moment, smiling.

“So that happened,” Felicity told him.

“Yes, it did” Oliver beamed. “Can we do it again?”

“I would love that Oliver. I would love to spend the rest of the day here, hold up with you, making out. But we have things to do and you have presents to buy. But I promise we’ll continue this later.”

“It’s a date.”

****

Oliver walked to the car that Felicity had sent to pick him up in his tux. They’d spent a fun afternoon shopping and he couldn’t remember a time when he’d enjoyed himself as much. The crowds and noise didn’t bother him, as Felicity didn’t let go of his hand once. He could get used to it.

He opened the back door of the car and saw Felicity sitting there, looking amazing in black cocktail dress. She was typing into her phone which she quickly put into her bag as he sat beside her. Throwing caution to the winds he leaned in and kissed her.

Felicity smiled.

“Are you doing anything tomorrow?” Oliver enquired.

“Not really.” Felicity replied “I’m Jewish, so I’m just planning on catching up on Netflix and having Chinese food. Want to come over?”

“I’m going to my sister’s. But I was wondering, do you want to come too?”

“Oliver, I…”

“You’re going to say no, aren’t you. But please think about it. I know we’ve only been dating about 5 minutes but I’ve already told her about you and she wants to meet you.”

“What did you tell her?” Felicity glared.

“That you’re my friend, the one who encouraged me to get back in touch with her, and that we’ve recently got together. At that point, she just about ordered me to bring you along as she wants to meet you and thank you.”

“I don’t know.” Felicity pondered.

“Promise me you’ll think about it.” Oliver pleaded and Felicity nodded her head as the car pulled to a stop.

Oliver exited first, going around and opening Felicity’s door. She told the driver she’d call the service when they were ready to leave and led the way into a very nice Star City restraint. Felicity walked in first, Oliver right behind and he saw her wave at someone, shouting “Iris”.

Suddenly she stopped “Oh shit” she exclaimed. “Oh Oliver, I’m so so sorry. I didn’t think. It went completely out of my head. We can leave right now if you want.”

Oliver was confused. He looked at the woman she was waving at, and standing right beside her, was Tommy Merlyn.

Oliver froze. He could see from the look on Felicity’s face that she felt terrible about putting him in this position. They’d been so caught up in their happiness that she hadn’t made the connection that Tommy would be there.

Tommy stared in recognition. He almost couldn’t believe his eyes. In front of him was the friend he hadn’t seen in over 10 years. He moved towards Oliver quickly.

And hugged him.

“Oliver” he cried with tears in his eyes. “Is it really you?”

“Hi Tommy,” Oliver said tentatively.

“I can’t believe it.” Tommy beamed. “We’ve been trying to find you for years.”

“I’m so sorry” Oliver apologized “I shouldn’t have… well, everything really.”

“There’s nothing to forgive. We were all young and stupid and I came to terms with that years ago.” Tommy insisted. “I’ve missed you so much, so has Thea… Thea, does she know you’re back?”

“Yes, Thea knows. I caught up with her yesterday. She pretty much had the same reaction you did”

Tommy then looked around and saw Felicity standing there “Do you two know each other?” Tommy asked.

Felicity shrugged “Sort of. We met through work. We’re sort of dating.”

“Oh, that’s even better. Oliver,“ Tommy concluded “you and me, we can catch up while they’re at their book club.”

“Come on Tommy” Felicity laughed “You know we don’t read books.”

***

6 months later.

Oliver looked around the large crowded room. He could see his sister and Felicity cooing over Jonas, who was in a high chair. Beside them stood Lyla and John, John looking longingly at the young boy. He then whispered something in Lyla’s ear, and she smiled.

Oliver’s life had changed drastically in the last six months. Instead of going from mission to mission he’d put down roots. He was close again with his sister, and his re-ignited friendship with Tommy had helped him forgive himself. But he was most grateful for Felicity. She brought nothing but joy into his life, helping him find a new way to live. She’d encouraged him to find something he loved to do and then do it. It had taken a while and a lot of soul-searching, but he realized he wanted to stop young people making the same mistakes he had made and helped them make something of their lives.

Tommy had suggested he went to work in the Glades, the worst part of Star City, in the youth centre that Tommy’s foundation ran. It was a place that gave young people a place to work out, do homework and participate in the arts. Oliver had been working there part-time as a fitness instructor, while he went back to university to study to be a social worker.

Today they were having a fundraiser, which Oliver had organized, to help pay for college tuition for some of the students that attended the centre.

Oliver and Tommy had hoped that they’d raise enough to pay for 5 young people to go to college, but after Felicity, and a few others (who Felicity had strategically invited) made donations they had raised over $5 million dollars. There were a couple of students he couldn’t wait to tell they were going to college.

Felicity walked over to him and put her arm around his waist. “It’s going well, I think” she beamed.

“Thank you for inviting all your rich friends.” He said as he kissed her forehead.

She pouted slightly as he added “And thank you for your very generous donation.”

Felicity smiled “I’m sure you can find a way to make it up to me later.”

Oliver raised his eyebrow, then winked at her “I’ll see what I can do. But the thing is, I’m moving in with a young woman this weekend and she can’t keep her hands off me, I’ll need to ask her.”

Felicity hit his chest and started laughing. “Oh, I’m sure she won’t mind” she giggled.

They walked over to Thea, John and Lyla, not breaking apart until they reached Jonas, who started jumping up and down in his seat, gesturing for Oliver to lift him up.

“Unc Ollie” Jonas cried. “Up, up”. Oliver couldn’t resist.

Felicity’s heart melted a little as she saw Jonas in Oliver’s arms. “I want one” she exclaimed “Oh no, did I say that out loud.”

“I’ll see what I can do, tonight maybe” Oliver said, amused at his girlfriend’s outburst.

“Not right now” Felicity said, trying to dig herself out of her hole “But one day maybe?”

“Yes, Felicity, one day, hopefully not too far away.” Oliver leaned down and kissed her.

“I love you Oliver Queen.” she told him as they broke the kiss.

“I love you, Felicity Smoak. Thank you, for making me run away with you. It gave me a home.”

#arrow #olicity #olicity secret santa 2017 #olicity fic #olicity fanfic #submission

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ayearofpike · 6 years

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Final Friends, Book 3: The Graduation

Pocket Books, 1989 238 pages, 25 chapters + epilogue, 10-page introduction ISBN 0-671-73680-9 LOC: CPB Box no. 1779 vol. 23 OCLC: 670303406 Released December 10, 1988 (per B&N)

When we last left our friends, they were all going their separate ways in the wake of the tragic accident that paralyzed the homecoming queen. Now, six months later, they’re brought back together for Tabb High’s graduation ceremony, and the after-party cruise to Catalina. It creates a deadline by which the kids need to find Alice’s killer before they’re apart for good. This last party is the end of all possibility – an end made more pressing by someone’s goal to make sure the ship never reaches the island.

I think I was more confused by this than was actually warranted when I read it at 13 or whatever I was, because the very idea of familial death, the anxiety and personal blame that someone might go through in the wake of it, and treatment by electroshock and its effects were just not something I could relate to or even try to empathize with. Because –

Well, let’s just tell the damn story in reverse: it was Polly. She accidentally distracted Alice into falling off a ladder at the party, and the blow to the head killed her. But Polly had shocked herself trying to change a light bulb earlier, and presumably the shock manifested some of the guilt over the death of her parents that her previous ECT had helped her suppress. Yes, Polly was in the car that went off the cliff, and was distracting her father right before the accident! So to keep herself from being blamed for Alice’s death (maybe more to herself than to anyone else) she staged a suicide: posed her sister with the gun in her mouth, muffled the gunshot so that it would look real, then went outside and fired a shotgun blast near the bedroom window so the final revelers would hear it and think it was Alice.

What about Maria’s fall from the parade float? That was Polly too. See, she expected Jessica to win homecoming queen, but also subconsciously blamed her for the party happening in the first place and thereby Alice’s death. So she compromised the queen’s platform, expecting Jessica to climb up there, break it, and break herself. Because Maria was so much smaller, it took a second ascension for the boards to finally give. She also stole Sara’s homecoming dance money to keep it safe, because she was worried Sara would do just what she did and leave her purse somewhere and lose it. Oh, and she chopped down the varsity tree, maybe because Russ wanted to but also because she wanted to punish Bill and Clair and The Rock and the other pretty people who’d started the fight at the party that preceded Alice’s death.

The thing is, she wasn’t even fully aware she was doing these things. Just before something terrible happened, Polly would see Clark, who would offer hints and threats against her classmates. We slowly learn that she’s been imagining him: his strangeness and his closeness to her pushed him into the role, in her mind, of her angry avenging side, one that she didn’t always have total control over. She tells Michael and Jessica both that Clark is somehow responsible for these things, even though they know on some level that he can’t be. Like, here Polly swears up and down that Clark is on the boat, but a) Michael went to his house right before coming on board and didn’t encounter Clark on the way, and b) Jessica was one of the first three people on the ship, with Polly being another, and she knows that Polly came aboard alone. Plus, there aren’t many places for this weirdo to hide; all the staterooms save three (for the first three girls) are locked, and Michael inspects the whole rest of the ship to no avail.

He starts to suspect that Polly isn’t telling the whole truth (actually, while he’s at Clark’s house), but doesn’t confront her with it until the whole group is gathered below decks in the engine room to try to smoke out the real killer. Maria’s on board with this too. She’s been in a rehab facility since her accident – lots of time to think about Michael’s perspective and realize that if Alice was killed, it was probably the same person who tampered with the float and left her paralyzed from the waist down. So she pretty much uses Nick to scare everyone into showing up for the gathering.

Now, I understood a lot more about how the Final Friends got to this point on this reread, but that doesn’t mean that I necessarily agreed with how it went down. Like, Michael pretty much stern-voiced the mental illness out of Polly. He barked at her about what he suspected had happened and how she was making Clark up in her mind, and that “his” malicious anger at the group was coming from somewhere inside Polly. And, ta-da, she suddenly remembered everything and had clarity. Which, like ... that’s not how it works. I feel like we’re all aware in 2018 that you can’t just decide to not be crazy, to say nothing of whether someone else can do it in seconds. And, sure, the ECT she underwent as a child might have contributed to this mental state in some way, but the procedure typically stems from the fact that mental issues are there in the first place. (See also Carrie Fisher’s defense of her own experience with it.)

It doesn’t really matter, though. Not only does Polly remember doing this stuff, she takes ownership of it and is prepared to follow through. So the bomb “Clark” planted in a locker against the hull? Yeah, literally a bomb! Well, construction explosive from Polly’s company, set to blow at 2 am when everyone was asleep and maximize casualties on the sinking ship. She protects it with the shotgun that “Clark” strategically planted for her to find. So it blows up and the ship starts sinking, but the friends get off the boat and into a lifeboat. But then Polly produces another bomb from her jacket! She’s already gone from blaming the others to blaming herself, and she’s ready to put an end to it. So everyone bails. Except Jessica.

Sure, this is partly because Jessica can’t swim and has a broken arm besides and there are no life vests left. But, realistically, if she’d said so, someone else would have given theirs up. The truth is Jessica knows, somewhere deep down, that she’s the only one who can help Polly right now. Michael’s just yelling and unsympathetic; Jessica’s known Polly her whole life, and she knows Polly didn’t try to kill her parents, and she knows Polly didn’t try to kill Alice. Polly also knows Jessica can’t swim (which was part of the rationale behind “Clark” sinking the ship), but as they talk Polly starts to realize that someone does care about her, and that she’s not beyond help. So at the last second she throws the bomb overboard.

So everybody’s alive! And has a happy ending? Let’s wrap up the loose ends.

Did Michael and Jessica end up together? Yes, finally. But not before Jessica all but gave up on him and tried to seduce Bill, who ran away and called her a slut. Apparently, he did the same thing to Clair at the party, and that plus his defense of The Rock and his attempts to hang with Michael outside of school lead them to draw the conclusion that Bill is gay. I mean, there are more explanations for what happened, and I’m not totally sure Pike did justice to homosexuality in this book, but remember, 1989. We can build more nuance into our understanding because we’re more empathetic to this stuff now.

What about Clair? Did she really have an abortion? She did, in fact. But wait! If she didn’t fuck Bill, whose was it? No surprise, if you were paying attention: it was Bubba, somehow. Yeah, the repulsive little troll managed to weasel his way into her panties, and when trouble arose he took care of it – and pretty much instantly regretted it. So the experience brought him and Clair closer together, and when they get back to the mainland they’re going to drive to Vegas and get married. WHAT. Just one more example in fiction of gross-ass weirdos getting girls way beyond their means.

Did Nick and The Rock ever bury the hatchet? That actually happened in Book 2. Nick realized that The Rock had mistaken him for a dealer in his old hood, took him to meet the dude, then saved his life when The Rock tried to flex and almost got got. The experience taught The Rock to know his role and shut his mouth, otherwise someone might lay the smack down on his roody-poo candy ass.

But Maria’s stuck paralyzed, right? No, actually. She’s been in the rehab facility learning to walk again. But she didn’t tell anybody because her plan was to gather the gang together, stand up and walk across the room, and see who looked most guilty or upset to figure out who’d sabotaged the float. Turned out that she was at least able to get the gun from Polly, but by then her plan was already tits-up. Also: she��s going to marry Nick at the same time Bubba and Clair get married, so she doesn’t get deported! Yay immigration laws!

What about Sara and Russ? They’re working through their bullshit. It seems that even though Sara is totally head over heels for this dude, she can’t ever just say so, and takes it for granted that he wants her too and understands her snark. Which he doesn’t! I mean, he does want her, but when she’s jokingly mean to him he takes it at face value and assumes he’s off her short list. They finally manage to have a conversation about it, but us adults know we can’t magically fix everything by talking once.

Was anybody actually hurt by the bomb? Well, Jessica broke her arm in the explosion, and The Rock was trapped in the engine room but managed to swim out the hole and get to safety. Otherwise, everyone was fine, thanks to (get this) Kats. This wasn’t entirely altruistic, though; he was going to prank everyone into the lifeboats by setting smoke bombs and making them think the ship was going down. Fortunately (?), this happened just before Polly’s big badaboom, so Kats comes out a hero.

Wait a sec – if Sara lost the money in Book 2, how did they pay for all this shit? Gambling! Bubba is a lifelong Lakers fan, and the night of the party is also Game 7 of the NBA finals. He put a bet on the game that would be big enough to cover the student government’s debts for the entire year, including this cruise. Alas, the Lakers lose on a desperation 3-pointer that clangs off the rim. It’s a good thing Bubba bet on the Celtics.

And with that, we’re through Pike’s first multi-book series. Confusing? Convoluted? Not really – more like a soap opera where you have to keep track of multiple storylines to get the whole picture. It’s got its problems, but it continues to do that Pike thing of reaching for something more than most teen books gave us at the time, and so I’m going to keep on reading.

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shirlleycoyle · 5 years

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At Cannabis Shops, Face Recognition Is Already a Thing

Mason Marks is a law professor at Gonzaga University and a Research Scholar at NYU Law School’s Information Law Institute. Find him on Twitter @MasonMarksMD

Imagine you are a medical marijuana patient driving to a cannabis dispensary. As you pull into the parking lot, surveillance cameras record your license plate number. You step out of the car, and walk toward the entrance.

A sign above the door reads “please look up for entry.” You crane your neck and gaze into a camera paired with artificial intelligence that analyzes your face. A red light suddenly turns green, and the door slides open. You enter the store and bypass a line of customers waiting at the register, opting instead for a self-service kiosk.

As you approach the machine, in-store cameras feed images to algorithms that analyze your appearance to determine if you might be carrying a weapon, and compare your face to millions of photos in a law enforcement database. When you finally reach the kiosk, it scans your face, identifies you as a returning customer, and greets you with a coupon for your favorite cannabis product.

This may sound like a scene from a sci-fi movie, but these tools are employed in cannabis dispensaries today. The cannabis industry is embracing new technologies like facial recognition and advanced video analytics throughout the supply chain—from grow rooms and processing facilities to distribution centers and retail dispensaries. The companies behind the technology say it benefits cannabis businesses, employees, and consumers. But in an industry marred by decades of mass-incarceration that has discriminated against communities of color, face surveillance poses serious privacy risks, and can easily be used for targeted harassment.

“It is hard, if not impossible, to find an example of a surveillance technology that has not been turned against groups that are already vulnerable in our structurally inequitable system,” said Shankar Narayan, Director of the Technology and Liberty Project at the ACLU of Washington, in an interview with Motherboard. Although legal for medical or recreational use in 33 states, cannabis remains illegal under federal law. Because it occupies a legal grey area, banks are hesitant to touch the industry, making it primarily an all-cash business and an attractive target for thieves. In Denver, Colorado, alone, there were 34 reported dispensary robberies in the first half of 2019.

Some tech companies see the risk of theft as an opportunity to sell facial recognition systems. Don Deason, VP of Sales for Blue Line Technology, claims his company’s platform has significantly reduced cannabis robberies. It works like this: When customers approach the front door of a dispensary, audiovisual cues prompt them to look up at a camera. If they comply, the system records an image of their faces, and the front door opens. If they decline or their faces are obscured, by a mask for example, then access is denied.

The system is also used to deter robberies and mass shootings in convenience stores, schools, and office buildings.

A facial recognition system from Blue Line Technology hangs above the entrance to a convenience store. Courtesy of Blue Line Technology

Deason told Motherboard that as long as customers don’t shoplift or cause a disturbance, “their information is deleted after 48 hours.” However, if a store’s management believes customers are misbehaving, they can tag each face with a unique number, and the system retains that information indefinitely. If tagged customers later return to the store, the system recognizes them and alerts employees of their arrival by email or text message. Deason said Blue Line encourages dispensaries not to confront tagged customers, but ultimately “store owners set the store security policy and procedures,” and, “the security response varies based upon store policy.”

Blue Line’s platform also controls access to restricted areas of cannabis businesses such as grow houses, cutting rooms, and safes, serving as a replacement for keys and access cards. When paired with other devices such as RFID tags, which are affixed to cannabis products, face recognition systems can track cannabis as it changes hands from one employee to the next.

“Many cannabis robberies are inside jobs,” said Matthew Heyl of Helix Security, a Denver company that provides surveillance products and services to cannabis businesses. He claimed video analytics and biometric access controls establish a chain-of-custody and deter diversion of legal cannabis to illicit markets.

For those reasons, government agencies that enforce cannabis laws are interested in facial recognition, said Steve Owens, the CEO of Adherence Compliance, a Denver consulting firm that has partnered with Blue Line. “This topic is really resonating with the regulators,” Owens told Motherboard. “When we mention it to Alameda County, they get it right away, because it helps them with their investigations.”

In addition to tracking employees and controlling access, facial recognition is used in dispensaries at the point of sale for age-verification. A Las Vegas based company called 420 Cyber markets its Badass Budtender kiosk as a replacement for human “budtenders” who check ID at the register. The kiosks can be equipped with facial recognition to ensure customers are of legal age.

Inside dispensaries, facial recognition can do far more. 420 Cyber markets what it calls “Video Active Security Monitoring” (VASM), which it says can determine whether customers carry concealed weapons, if there are warrants for their arrest, and whether their appearance matches “be on the lookout” (BOLO) alerts issued by police. It can reportedly recognize A-list celebrities if they happen to visit your store.

Consumers using 420 Cyber’s kiosks can also opt-in to personalization services: The units can scan and identify people’s faces, interpret their emotional responses to products, and help dispensaries learn which brands they prefer. 420 Cyber’s website says this data can be used to deliver targeted content “designed for individual viewing based on age, race, gender, location and daypart [the time of day a customer visits the store].”

Despite what vendors say, face recognition technology remains problematic and controversial. Algorithmic systems naturally adopt the objectives and values of their creators, and research shows that systems trained on insufficiently diverse datasets are often inaccurate and sometimes discriminate against women, racial minorities, and members of the LGBTQ community.

Even if the system is working as designed, face recognition can easily be adapted to target immigrants, activists, and other marginalized groups with little or no oversight. Citing those risks, at least three cities including San Francisco, Oakland, and Somerville, Massachusetts have banned municipal use of the technology. In June, the leading supplier of police body cameras, Axon, removed facial recognition from its services after an ethics board concluded it was “not yet reliable enough to justify its use.”

“Despite what developers may say, facial recognition technology has the potential to reinforce the racist and classist policies of prohibition”

“Technology makes a lot of promises, but there’s no guarantee they can deliver,” wrote Kamani Jefferson and Tyler McFadden in an email interview with Motherboard. The pair founded North Star Liberty Group, a DC-based government relations firm that advocates for ending cannabis prohibition while promoting racial and economic equality.

Jefferson previously served as President of the Massachusetts Recreational Consumer Council, where he helped push for a state-run social equity program that helps groups disproportionately impacted by the War on Drugs participate in the cannabis industry through professional training and mentoring. In July, Michigan announced its own social equity initiative. California created one last year, and San Francisco, Sacramento, and Los Angeles have local programs.

“Despite what developers may say, facial recognition technology has the potential to reinforce the racist and classist policies of prohibition,” Jefferson said. “It’s a classic case of a slippery slope, and until there’s a guarantee that not one innocent person will be thrown in jail due to the faults of this technology, I wouldn’t recommend cannabis facilities waste their money.”

Grayce Bentley is the Social Equity Coordinator for Cannabis Advising Partners in Long Beach, CA. In a phone interview, she told Motherboard: “I don’t think this is right at all, especially if facial recognition has been shown to be biased based on race, gender, et cetera.” Moreover, Bentley said most dispensaries serve a clientele consisting of both medical and recreational cannabis consumers, and “facial recognition should not be used in businesses where medical patients could be present.” She argued that collecting face data could violate federal health privacy laws such as the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

Data breaches will likely be a growing problem for the cannabis industry as well. In 2017, a company called MJ Freeway, a major provider of software to cannabis businesses, suffered multiple hacking attempts. In one incident, hackers obtained consumers’ date of birth, contact information, and other unspecified data. If the company had also kept images of customers’ faces, the breach could have been more disastrous.

All the companies Motherboard spoke with said they make efforts to protect face recognition data through encryption. “But encryption is not a panacea,” said Ido Kilovaty, a law professor at the University of Tulsa who specializes in cybersecurity. “Hackers can launch brute-force attacks or look for other vulnerabilities, and there is always a risk of insider threats.”

“It doesn’t matter if the developers ‘don’t see race’ when their algorithm and security staff undoubtedly do.”

Even if impenetrable cybersecurity was achievable, it wouldn’t protect consumers from discrimination based on facial recognition. In recent years, there has been a rash of troubling AI systems that attempt to make assumptions about peoples’ sexuality and potential criminality based solely on their facial features. Tech ethicists have warned that the trend threatens to revive long-disproven pseudoscience practices like physiognomy, which have historically been used to justify racism and discrimination.

Shankar Narayan said he’s concerned about mission creep—when technologies implemented for a specific purpose are shifted to another application. A cannabis business might start out using facial recognition to analyze people’s emotional responses to different products, “but you can take that further, and start analyzing people’s propensity for violence,” said Narayan. Since facial recognition may be biased against vulnerable communities, it could disproportionately mischaracterize members of those groups as dangerous.

Narayan also noted that private surveillance systems can easily be repurposed for use by law enforcement and federal agencies. One example is police use of Amazon’s Ring doorbell cameras, which was recently reported on by Motherboard. “While being operated by an individual entity, it’s a private camera, and it need not conform to any rules around surveillance that apply to government cameras. But the company may turn the data over to the government,” Narayan said. “And then for all intents and purposes, it’s functioning as a government camera.”

Some companies marketing facial recognition to the cannabis industry have deep ties to law enforcement. Blue Line was founded by Joseph Spiess, Tom Sawyer, and Marcos Silva. Spiess is Chief of Police for the St. Louis suburb of Brentwood, Missouri. Sawyer, a retired St. Louis detective and DEA agent, built his career investigating drug crimes. Silva, an Army veteran who served in the Iraq War, is a St. Louis police detective who designed, implemented, and oversees the city’s real-time crime center (RTCC).

Michael Kwet, a fellow at Yale Law School’s Information Society Project who researches surveillance technology, expressed concerns: “For years, these officers locked people away for possession and sale of marijuana, with devastating effects on communities of color. Now they’re cashing in to protect the legal marijuana industry with facial recognition, while people previously persecuted languish behind bars.”

According to its website, the RTCC operated by Blue Line’s Silva “is focused on monitoring, deterring and evaluating criminal activity in real-time with the help of the advanced technology in the center,” which includes license plate readers, gunshot spotters, and crime analysis software. In 2015, former Police Chief Sam Dotson told St. Louis Public Radio the RTCC would tap into surveillance cameras owned by private companies and use “new software that would allow the analysts to better predict crime.”

Blue Line told Motherboard it does not have access to the face recognition databases of the cannabis businesses it serves, and therefore, it cannot share that data with law enforcement. However, because its clients set their own security policies and responses, store owners are free to turn facial recognition data over to police. Through this kind of sharing between private and public surveillance networks, police could gain access to face data stored by dispensaries even in cities where facial recognition is banned for government use.

Prior to his current role at the ACLU of Washington, Shankar Narayan was the organization’s Legislative Director, and he worked on Initiative 502, Washington State’s recreational marijuana bill. Before that, he worked on medical marijuana legislation.

“In the context of that medical marijuana law, we went through a lot of these same issues, and there was intense concern over patient privacy. Coming off of that very intense discussion, there’s some deep irony that in the name of security, entities that sell cannabis are now installing these highly invasive surveillance mechanisms. That is really the opposite of the spirit in which we had the discussions around medical marijuana dispensaries, and I think we should be deeply concerned about privacy in that context.”

Addressing concerns about bias, Don Deason told Motherboard that Blue Line’s face recognition system “recognizes everyone equally,” and that the company is “not tracking age, gender, race, or what products people buy.” He said the system sorts faces into only three categories: “known, unknown, or threat,” and people are categorized as threats based solely on their behavior inside a cannabis business, not on their physical traits or facial expressions.

Os Keyes, a doctoral researcher at the University of Washington who studies human-computer interaction, told Motherboard that Blue Line “has an incredibly shallow understanding of the concerns about bias in facial recognition.” They noted that whether security guards or police stop and search customers or accuse them of shoplifting may be influenced by personal prejudices.

“Whether someone is accurately matched by facial recognition is, similarly, something that we know has racial and gender biases,” said Keyes. “It doesn’t matter if the developers ‘don’t see race’ when their algorithm and security staff undoubtedly do.”

Despite tech company efforts to protect face recognition data and reduce bias, many cannabis industry experts remain uncomfortable with the technology.

Kamani Jefferson and Tyler McFadden implied it is unnecessary. They referenced statistics suggesting crime has decreased in states and neighborhoods with licensed cannabis dispensaries.

“There’s no reason to believe that trend won’t continue,” they added.

Griffen Thorne, an attorney with the law firm Harris Bricken, expressed doubt that adopting facial recognition technology would help businesses comply with state and local cannabis laws. “In California, cannabis businesses must have a security plan. They must have video recording, and doors that lock,” he said. “Beyond those basics, you don’t need to use fingerprint scanners or facial recognition technology.”

Shankar Narayan asked, “How can we be a free society with this level of surveillance? It kills free speech, it chills constitutional activity, it disproportionately impacts communities of color, it’s subject to abuse, [and] there’s not a lot of checks and balances here.”

One thing seems certain: legislators, government agencies, and the cannabis industry itself, should involve potentially affected communities in deciding how facial recognition should be implemented in the industry, and whether it should be used at all.

At Cannabis Shops, Face Recognition Is Already a Thing syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

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