#when you get KANE to snap you are gonna LISTEN because he does not get pissed easily

[sunnibits]

top ten scenes that contributed to my dilf awakening

[dindjarinandlysakane]

The Sweetest Taste | Chapter 47 - The Bridge

When Din Djarin meets a beautiful cake seller from Nevarro, do you think he’s just going to stand back and let her suffer at the hands of her abusive boyfriend? After a lifetime of heartache and pain, Lysa Kane realises she’s not on her own any more and finds an unlikely friend in the Mandalorian. And Din Djarin does not like men who treat women like that, not one tiny bit. Friendship/comfort and maybe something more…

Masterlist

Chapter 47 - The Bridge

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Din stood on the bridge, fingers tensed around his blaster, and his other hand clenched into a tight fist, still holding onto the torn piece of Lysa’s bloody dress.

He watched now as Ran glanced at the doorway behind him for a brief moment, before letting out a long sigh.

“You know, it was actually because of you leavin’ that we even met Crix,” said Ran conversationally, turning back to face Din now. “That day you decided to leave…go your own way…we all decided to drown our sorrows in some force-forsaken cantina and got talkin’ to this guy. Turned out to be one hell of a rallier and we ended up invitin’ him along with us for a while.”

Ran gave a chuckle now, as Din growled under his breath.

He didn't have time to hear these pointless stories. 

He was here for one thing and one thing only.

“I’m not here to listen to you reminisce…” said Din in a low, deadly voice.

“Cool your jets, Mando,” snapped Ran, gesturing with the cannon he held between both hands viciously. “I was tellin’ a story.”

He cleared his throat, and continued.

“Crix travelled with us for a while. Course’ he was no replacement for you, but he could talk the talk when he wanted to. Then after a couple of years or so, we fell into a little trouble with the New Republic. Had to lay low for a while. Disband the group. And, well, we all ended up here. In Nar Shaddaa. Ready to go our separate ways…” Ran said with a knowing grin.

“...An’ the last we saw of ol’ Crix, was him at a bar here, talkin’ to some blonde gal. The same gal we’ve got locked up inside,�� said Ran gesturing back towards the hanger with a nod of his head. “Kinda poetic really. ‘Cause when you think about it, in a way, if it weren't for you leavin’, we’d have never met Crix. An’ in turn, Crix would never have met her.”

Beneath his beskar, Din gave a sudden hard swallow.

All those years that Lysa had suffered at Crix’s hand….was all because of Din?

He thought of the bruises now, the broken ribs and the dislocated jaw she had spoken of casually, as though they were a drop in the ocean compared to the rest of the horrors Crix had put her through, time and time again.

Was all of that, in a way, all down to Din himself?

If he had just stayed with the gang of mercenaries, Lysa could have lived a happy life, out there, free. Not under the rule of Crix Val’shif and his cruel words and his violent fists for years on end.

But Ran merely let out a hollow laugh now, taking Din’s silence for realisation.

“Listen…brother,” said Ran. “In all seriousness, whatever issue Val’shif has with you….that’s his business. But I don't want any of this to get messy. Your gal doesn’t need to get hurt in all this-”

“Then let her go,” uttered Din darkly.

“I will,” Ran nodded firmly. “...I will. But first….you’ve got to do something for me.”

Din lifted his chin, eyeing Ran. Whatever the bearded man was trying to bargain for, Din knew that it couldn't be good.

“There’s a ship I want. I’m hoping its gonna be my next base after you got my last one destroyed,” said Ran, in a voice tinged with bitterness. “You’re the best I know, Mando. So I want you to get onto that base an’ help me take it over. In exchange, you get your girl back safe and sound…then we’re even.”

Din clenched his jaw hard.

“And what about Crix?” Din asked in a low voice through his modulator. “He agree to those terms too?”

Din wasn't stupid. There was no way Crix and Ran wanted the same thing.

Crix was here for one thing and one thing only… 

Revenge.

“Screw Crix,” said Ran quickly, his face twisted up into a grimace, as he opened his mouth, likely to curse some more.

But Din’s attention was suddenly drawn by the door behind Ran opening again.

But to Din’s dismay, neither Lysa nor Crix appeared through the doorway. 

Instead it was another figure Din had hoped to never see again as long as he lived.

“Well, well, well…” came the high-pitched voice of Xi’an, the purple skinned Twi’lek and Din’s old comrade. As she stepped out onto the bridge beside Ran, her eyes fixed to Din. “...if it isn't Mando.”

“I sprung Xi’an from a prison transport ship,” explained Ran with a grin. “Good to have the old team back together, aint it?”

Din very much doubted that was true. Knowing that the last time they had all been together Din had gotten Xi’an’s brother killed.

“I’ve been spending some time with your girl, Mando,” taunted Xi’an, taking a couple of steps forwards. Her words ruffling Din slightly. His new life with Lysa colliding with his old sorry existence. Two worlds he never wanted to see meet. “And I can understand what you see in her. She’s veeeery pretty-”

“If you’ve laid one finger on her, Xi’an-” uttered Din in a dangerous tone.

But Xi’an let out a cackle, obviously enjoying herself.

“Oh I’ve done more than that,” uttered the Twi’lek in a sickly tone, flexing her long fingers. “I’ve had a taste…”

Din’s grip on the blaster in his hand tightened as he gave an angry growl beneath his breath.

“I have no problem killing you, Xi’an-” said Din in a deadly voice, staring at the woman he had once had more than just a complicated relationship with, with dark furious eyes.

During his younger years, with less to lose. Din had been far less picky about the types of women he enjoyed. And after a job well done on a couple of occasions, Din and Xi’an had gotten more than a little hot and heavy with one another after a late night session in the cantina.

But there had been no feelings there, not on Din’s part at least. And not once had he chosen to remove his helmet, having reserved that in his lifetime for Lysa and Lysa alone. His feelings for her, far stronger than anything else he had felt for another he had been intimate with, as long as he lived.

The Twi’lek stepped forward a few paces, crossing the bridge towards Din.

“Aw it’s just like old times isnt it?” she cackled suddenly, pulling a two knives from either side of her belt with a flourish, her sharp teeth bared like an animal. “But no more flirting. I’m here to kill you, Mando…”

Din readied himself for a fight, readjusting his grip on his blaster and calmly shifting his weight from foot to foot.

“...for what you did to my brother!”

“Hold your equinoid there, Xi’an,” said Ran suddenly in a loud commanding tone, as Xi’an suddenly stopped in her tracks, giving a hiss of anger in Ran’s direction, looking utterly frustrated and angry at her reigns being pulled.

She made to open her mouth to protest, when from behind the pair of them, the door opened and out stepped two figures.

Though it was the first figure, and the first figure alone, that was all that Din cared about.

Lysa.

She walked out of the rusty metal door with hands bound and mouth gagged, looking mightily unsteady on her feet, being led from behind by Crix Val’shif who looked as vicious as ever, one hand on Lysa, and a blaster in the other.

Din’s eyes widened in horror behind his beskar helmet now, as he took in every single imperfection that littered her form.

The long blue tunic he had seen her dress herself in when she had risen for work the previous day was now dirty and tattered and ripped at the shoulder. Which revealed a nasty-looking blaster wound covered in blood, that looked like it had been hastily sealed over with a bacta spray.

But it was obvious now that all was not well, with both the wound and with Lysa. The blonde woman looking like she had suffered a large amount of blood loss, perspiration beading on almost every inch of skin that Din could see.

Lysa’s face was deathly pale and bore the marks of a purple bruise blossoming over her cheekbone and three red scratches down the side of her face, with Din knowing these were likely the marks of Xi’an’s fingernails which she had so boastfully presented to him not even a minute ago.

Lysa seemed to wobble slightly on her feet as she was shoved forwards, towards the far right side of the bridge, her green, tearful eyes meeting with Din’s.

And despite Lysa not being able to utter a word to him, with the dirty rag tied around her mouth. Din could see in her gaze the utter hopelessness that poured from her.

As though already having resigned herself to death ten times over. 

There was no relief in seeing him at all. Only tears and fear in her eyes now.

Din’s heart ached, just wanting to hold her close. To tell her that everything would be ok. To never have her leave his side again.

But Din knew how volatile this group were. And despite how confident Din was in his ability to win almost any fight. It was now not just him in jeopardy. But Lysa as well.

And he wasn't going to lose her now, a fury building inside him.

“Can we kill her now?” said Xi’an suddenly, tilting her head and pouting over at Lysa before turning back Din and offering him a sickening grin.

Din noted that Crix, at Lysa’s side, holding onto Lysa’s upper arm firmly, didn't say a word. But the look on his face really did say it all. Looking back at Xi’an with a smug, gleeful smirk plastered over his features.

After how loyal Lysa had been to him for so many years, it was hard to come to terms with the fact that this was really the fate he wanted for the woman that had loved him. Torture and death. 

All to get one over on Din. On a Mandlaorian who he felt had taken something that belonged to him. With Crix considering Lysa as no more than a mere possession now, no more important to him than a speeder bike or a set of sabaac cards perhaps.

It broke Din’s heart to think on how Lysa must be feeling now, his eyes not able to catch hers, seeing that her gaze was now on the floor, visibly trembling now as she stood there…waiting…

“Not so fast, Xi’an,” came Ran’s sudden voice, smoothly. “There’s been a change of plan.”

The Twi’lek and Crix turned their heads suddenly to look at the bearded man. Their expressions turned to sudden confusion.

“Mando is going to help me out on a mission,” he said, glancing first at Din, before looking back towards his two comrades. “The gang back together for one last job. An’ prividin’ all goes well we can see about him gettin’ his girl back…safe and sound.”

Ran looked back to Din once more as he uttered the final three words directly to him.

“So what do you think, brother?” Ran said with a serious nod. “Do we have a deal?”

But before Din could say a word in response, Crix had cut over him, his face suddenly a picture of anger.

“This wasn't the plan!” said Crix suddenly, his face now red and his eyes wide and furious as he glared at the bearded leader of the mercenaries. “I dont give a kriff about your base! I want him and her to pay for what they did to me!”

Xi’an gave another hiss.

“And my brother!” she snarled, flashing her sharp teeth his way, as she raised the knives in her hands threateningly. “Ughhh…he always was your favourite, wasn't he?”

And with that she gave a feline roar and launched herself towards Ran, brandishing her blades in both hands.

But as she leapt towards the bearded Ran, as quick as a flash he let go of the cannon with one hand, as pulled a blaster from his belt…

…firing it directly at Twi-lek who immediately hit the ground with a sickening thud.

Din raised the blaster in his own hand.

But Crix somehow got there first. And, in seeing Xi’an hit the ground, he let go of Lysa and  fired his own gun in angry retaliation at Ran. Who dropped instantly like a stone near to the base of the hanger. The cannon rolling from his hand.

In that moment Din saw his chance, running suddenly forwards, towards Crix and within a second, Din had knocked him off balance…knocking Crix’s blaster from his hand as he did so.

Din was furious.

Now this close to Crix Val’shif there was no way he was going to let him go unpunished for what he had done to Lysa…what he was still doing to her.

Pinning Crix down, Din quickly landed a hard punch across the thug’s cheekbone.

But before Din could hit him again, he heard Lysa give a loud cry from behind her gag…drawing his head around, only to see that her eyes were no longer on him, but instead on another figure behind him, who had gotten to her feet.

Din gave an instantly loud grunt of pain as he felt the impact of a sharp knife colliding with an exposed portion of his ribs, just above his kidneys.

He arched his back in pain, as Crix took that as his opportunity to lift his leg and kick Din directly in the stomach.

His thick leather vest took most of the impact, but even so Din couldn't help but stagger backwards a little, crouching down on one knee, clutching at his side and removing Xi’an’s knife from his ribs with a groan.

“You're getting slow in your old age, Mando,” came the voice of the purple Twi-lek as Din looked up to see her advancing on him once more, the bleeding blaster wound at her side, seemingly slowing her down a little as she lopped towards him determinedly.

In amongst all the chaos, none of them, bar Lysa, seemed to notice a ship flying overhead, looking to land on the far end of the bridge behind them all.

Din staggered to his feet, managing to get upright as Xi’an reached him, jabbing at him with her other knife.

She was fast. And even despite her injury, her blade scraped across his beskar armour twice, before he was able to shoot at her with his blaster.

The shot missed, just as Xi’an kicked her leg up, knocking the gun from Din’s hand.

Din grunted out again, feeling the blood at his ribs begin to ooze out at quite a rate, as he ducked and dodged Xi’an’s blows.

A moment later, Crix was there two, his fist landing a punch in the space between Din’s shoulder and head where there was no beskar to cover it.

Din threw a punch of his own in return. It landing squarely with Crix’s jaw, knocking him off balance.

Now Din could turn his attention back to Xi’an, who had launched herself towards him.

But using his flamethrower, he managed to create enough space between him and the Twi’lek for him to compose himself once more.

Din chanced a glance over at Lysa who was stood at the edge of the bridge, staring wide-eyed as the three of them fought, her long blood stained hair tangling around her with the wind at this height.

But the Mandalorian’s attention was soon drawn back by Xi’an. As Din advanced on her now, crossing the metal bridge to where she stood, knife brandished, looking like she wanted nothing more than to end Din’s life here and now.

“Come on, Mando, what are you waiting for?” she cackled, blood from her abdomen dripping to the ground beside her. She ran her long tongue over her pointed teeth. “I know you want me…”

He could tell she was trying hard to goad him into a reaction, but Din wasn't prepared to risk everything now, trying to remain as cool as he could. Waiting for his moment.

Despite having dropped his blaster, Din still had his own knife and a dagger at his belt. His whistling birds, fibercord whip and flamethrower at his wrists.

But he wanted this done.

And so pacing over towards Xi’an, Din saw her give a sudden hiss before she lunged his way, jabbing at him violently.

She was quick…

…but on this occasion, Din was quicker. Suddenly igniting his Z-6 jetpack and putting on a spurt of flight, which launched Din around eight feet off the ground.

He kicked out with both of his legs quickly, his feet making contact with Xi’an’s shoulders…

…sending her toppling suddenly backwards and over the edge of the bridge.

He heard her give a shriek as she disappeared from sight.

Hurriedly, Din landed on the edge of the bridge and peered over, only to see Xi’an’s body lying on a second bridge, horizontal to the one he was on, about fifty feet down.

He watched for a moment and was almost certain he saw her stir slightly….

But his attention was drawn suddenly by a whistle behind him.

Din turned instantly,  his cloak whipping around his as went,....

….to see Crix stood around fifteen or so feet away, pointing a blaster directly at Din. Din’s own blaster to be precise.

“Don’t kriffing move,” spat Crix, his lip curling as he spoke.

From here, all Din could see was Crix. With his long, tanned features, and, normally-slicked back greasy hair, now hanging around his face untidily.

He looked ruffled but relatively unscathed as he stood there, squat legs wide apart and leather vest now torn at the sleeve.

Din knew that the chances of a blaster shot getting past his beskar were slim , but Din would bide his time until he found an opportune moment to strike. The vibro-knife at his belt would do the job of cutting Crix’s throat easily enough.

He could see Lysa behind Crix now, trembling hard as she gazed at the two men, as pale as anything, almost swaying on the spot as she stood there.

And it was in that moment that Din could truly see all the pain and suffering that Crix had put Lysa through.

The woman who had lit up Din’s world from the moment she had arrived in it. Like a perfect ray of sunlight, warming him for what felt like the first time in years.

And to know she had gone home each night and suffered through endless beatings, verbal abuse and control….that ignited something in Din now.

A pure fury building inside him as he stared at Crix Val’shif.

“Don't worry,” said Crix with a sneer, almost reading Din’s previous thoughts and taking a step to the right so that he was stood directly between Din and Lysa. Blocking her from the Mandalorian’s view. “If I don't get through that armour of yours, I’ll just put another blaster hole in her instead.”

And with that, he gestured backwards with his head, giving a sneer.

Din clenched down on his teeth so hard, he was sure they would break under the strain, his brown eyes boring angrily into Crix’s.

“I know what she probably told you about me,” said Crix giving a hard uncaring sniff. “But just so you know, she likes it rough. Down on her knees, mouth open…crying…”

“One more word and I’ll gut you like a burra fish-” muttered Din, in a low and dangerous voice.

Din gave a growl, his gloved hand extracting his dagger from his belt.

“What?!” continued Crix gleefully. “You think you know her or something? After what? A couple of weeks? You really have no idea what she’s like to live with. How much whining I put up with over the years. The days I had to sit there and watch her come home in those dowdy clothes of hers, and what? Pretend I was attracted to that shit? Y’know, anything I did- she drove me to.”

By now Din could feel himself almost trembling with a burning fury.

Free hand clenched so tight, he could hear the creak of his leather gloves as he did so.

“So you really think I was just gonna let her go…an’ what? Live a happy little life with you?” said Crix, giving a hollow laugh, shaking his head.

And with that he clicked off the safety on Din’s blaster, taking aim.

 ‘Cause she’s mine. And she’s gonne die being mine. Because at the end of the day… I’d rather her dead, than let anyone else have her…”

Suddenly, and before Din could do anything, a blaster shot cut through the air loudly.

Din sucked in a breath, blinking once and glancing down quickly…

…only to find himself unscathed.

He lifted his eyes once more…

 to be met with the frowning face of Crix Val’shif…

…and the smoking blaster hole that had appeared through his chest.

Din parted his lips, his eyes becoming wide, watching as Crix staggered around on the spot, dropping the blaster from his grasp, and turning to face Lysa, who was standing directly behind him. Crix’s own blaster clutched between her bound and trembling hands.

Her gag was now off and her face awash with angry tears. That frown line of hers now deep between her eyebrows.

“I’m not yours,” said Lysa in a shaky voice, staring at him with a pure loathing etched upon her perfect features. “Not anymore.”

So many years of torture and worry and pain just suddenly washed away by those words. The pure strength of her pouring out of her right at this very second- astounding.

Crix stumbled towards her, sucking in an audibly ragged breath, as he clutched at his gaping middle.

He was done for. There was no going back now.

His death coming from Lysa’s own hand. Poetic in its origin. A catharsis of sorts.

Crix staggered forwards again, suddenly making it to Lysa’s side before Din could even realise what was happening….

…and before anyone could do a thing to stop him, Din watched as he muttered something into Lysa’s ear and clutched her arm suddenly…before hurling himself from the small bridge…

…dragging Lysa over the edge with him.

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

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[the-whumpening]

The Freed Tiger | (Ash's Recovery Arc, Part 7)

Prev | Masterpost | Next

CW: self-loathing, metaphor about teeth, alcohol mention, blood mention

—————————————————————

(Evius’ POV)

“Dammit.” Evius slumps forward, letting his head drop into his hands.

How could he be so careless? So callous? He knew Ash was struggling—couldn’t his stupid curiosity have waited just a little longer?

He won’t go after Ash.

He just needs some time, Evius reasons. Time without me butting in and making everything worse.

Guilt gnaws at his gut, an aching sensation that only grows with each mistake. If only they’d gotten to him faster, if only he’d never made an enemy of Ozmund, if only . . . if only he’d never roped Ash into any of this.

Ash could’ve been happy, back in Solmar with Kane and Elias, with his rescued siblings, even—Evius’ heart squeezes at the thought—with Uma. They could’ve married, made little tiger-orc babies, had a safe and loving life together.

Why did he have to ruin it all?

“Are . . . you alright?”

The bony hand on his shoulder snaps him out of his spiraling thoughts. Mouse offers a concerned smile, her eyes sweeping the room.

“Where’s Ash?”

Evius huffs out a heavy sigh and rubs his face with his hands. “He left.”

Mouse’s grip on his shoulder tightens, her petite bone-fingers digging into his muscle. “He what now?” She shakes Evius until he spins around to face her; only then does she notice the hollowness of his eyes. “Why aren’t you going after him? What’s the matter with you?!”

“It’s my fault, Mouse!” he snaps, but a swell of shame pulls him back down just as quickly. “I doubt he’d want me chasing after him, not while he’s raged and scared like that. He’s safe here, anyway; he’ll blow off his steam and come back when he’s ready.”

In his spiral of self-hate, he barely notices as Mouse heads to the doorway until she shouts down the hall, “KRUMGUS! WE GOT BEER FOR YOU!” Evius squints in confusion, but it takes only a moment before the heavy, thudding steps of the dwarf race into the kitchen.

“Did someone say something about beer?” he asks through panting breaths. “Oh—hey, Evius. Was that Ash running out of the house a minute ago?”

“You knew?!” Mouse screeched. “What is wrong with you two?! Ash is your friend! He needs you! And you’re just gonna let him storm off alone, after all this?” Nostrils flaring and eyes crazed, she forces herself to sit down at the table. “Somebody better give me a good explanation, or else I’m kicking both your asses.”

Krumgus hovers closer, touching his fingertips together. “So, like, is that a ‘no’ on the beer, or . . . ?”

Ignoring Krumgus, Evius collects himself and addresses Mouse.

“Look, Mouse, it’s . . . complicated,” he sighs. It feels like pulling his own teeth to wrench the truth out of himself; he’d do anything for it all to just go back to normal, when Ash was his happy, sweet self again—and when Evius wasn’t drowning in his own guilt.

Mouse crosses her arms. “I’m listening.”

I guess telling the truth is “anything,” isn’t it, he laments. Evius ties the string to his rotted tooth, and—pushing past the burning shame—yanks.

“Fine.” His sickle-shaped tail flicks anxiously beneath his chair. “When Ash got hurt the other day, you and I both saw those burns, right? And it seemed like they were older than they should have been.”

“I remember. All his injuries seemed old.”

“Right. Well, that’s because . . . They are. We experienced him being gone as just a few weeks. But for Ash . . .” The words feel stuck in his throat, but he keeps tugging. “He said it was nearly a year. I suspect Ozmund altered his sense of time, or maybe kept him on some demi-plane where time passes differently.”

“Can he—can he do that? Like, is he that powerful?” A sliver of fear sneaks into Mouse’s voice.

Evius nods solemnly. “He’s older and more powerful than you can even imagine. The only thing holding him back is the fact that the Fae Queen owns his soul. That’s why he tried to pawn me off—to get out of his deal with her, trade my soul for his. Listen”—he reaches out a shaky hand to her—“Ozmund is completely without mercy, without conscience. Whatever he did to Ash . . .”

He shakes his head, the dimples in his cheeks pulling tight with his grimace.

“I shouldn’t have pressed,” he continues. “I should’ve given him more time—let him talk about it when he was ready. It was too much, too soon.” His fingers instinctively wind around his own curls, twisting and untwisting with nervous energy.

“I mean, I do think we needed to know that—there’s a pretty huge difference between a few weeks and a whole year,” Mouse admits. “So . . . don’t be too hard on yourself for that. But I also think there might be more to this you’re not sharing. Did he say anything else?”

It takes all of Evius’ will to sit under her stare, to not turn invisible and skulk away.

Yank, yank, yank

He sighs. “Okay. Yeah. There is.” Yank. He can almost taste the blood in his mouth. “He said . . . He gave up. That Ozmund broke him. Ozmund made him think that, that we . . . that we’d never come for him.” His throat is thick, his voice warbling and halting. “And why wouldn’t he believe it, you know? In his mind, he’d been left there for months, in pain and suffering. Alone, while Ozmund burned him—”

Across the table, a heavy wooden chair scrapes the ground. Krumgus hops to his feet and slings his axe over his shoulder.

“Where are you going?” Evius chokes.

“Well, it sounds to me like we’ve got a missing tiger to hunt. I mean, he’s alone out there right now, isn’t he?” Krumgus replies easily.

Mouse pushes back from the table as well, offering a hand to Evius. “He’s right. If we don’t go after him now, when he’s scared and alone again, aren’t we just doing what Ozmund said would happen? We couldn’t save him fast enough last time—but now we can. Come on.”

[wherethehellismysupersuit]

Hi! I really enjoyed the last post you made of Ren it was so cute ahhh!

Since you asked for prompts I thought of one: Ren gets jealous after seeing reader spending more time with MJ or Kavin than him even though they’re usually attached by the hip.

Hi anon! Thanks for the kind words and prompt. It turned out a bit long and i can only hope i've interpreted it correctly, lol. Enjoy! (might be a lil ooc tho, depending on how you see him)

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Ren is definitely not a jealous person.

He’s more of a passive side character, in the words of Kavin. Calm and collected is basically synonymous with Renrawin Aira.

So why the hell is he irritated?

“Your face is gonna get stuck if you keep scowling like that,” Thyme says, snacking on his usual yoghurt cup.

“Don’t you have something better to do? Go bother Gorya. And for the love of god, wipe your chin. You’re making a mess.”

Thyme sighs longingly, looking at the direction where his girlfriend sits with Kaning and Kavin, the former’s head buried in a textbook while the latter two make sappy faces at each other. “She told me she’d kill me if I interrupted her.” A dreamy smile graces his face. “I love her.”

“Great.” Ren mumbles distractedly, and Thyme finally snaps out of his Gorya induced stupor to observe what exactly is bothering Ren so much.

The scene in question is you and MJ studying together, heads bent down, occasionally leaning closer to highlight something on each other’s respective book. You’ve graciously shared your earbuds after finding out that he pretty much has the same music taste as you (Unlike Ren, who only listens to obscure artists no one’s ever heard of because he’s cool).

Ren’s jaw clenches as he watches MJ do a dramatic hair flip and your stifled laughter as you try and mess his hair up.

“They look pretty cozy, don’t they?” notes Thyme, glancing at Ren. Seeing his face look annoyed, the boy brightens, already sensing an opportunity to further annoy him.

“Her and MJ look pretty cute together, don’t you think?” Thyme says nonchalantly.

“No they don’t,” Ren says, voice unusually loud and eyes still fixed on you. He and you had become friends out of necessity, when your respective friends coupled up and MJ was somewhere getting piss drunk. Both of you enjoyed riling each other up, whether it was him taking away the books he knew you wanted to read from the library, or you stealing his pens when he was being melancholy because he usually had all the best stationery.

You usually hung out with him. So why were you randomly hanging out with MJ? And sharing earbuds with him? And playing with his hair?

“Earth to Ren,” Thyme singsongs, waving a hand in front of his face.

“How does Gorya even stand you without wanting to punch you in the face?” Ren finally snaps, glaring at Thyme, who just shrugs in a you-tell-me manner.

“Hey guys,” your voice sounds and he turns away from Thyme to look at you. MJ’s arm is casually slung across your shoulder as he checks his phone.

“Did you actually study or just fool around?” Ren asks acerbically, while Thyme snorts.

“We actually finished a lot!” you reply, genuinely happy and oblivious enough to not notice his tone. “MJ, you gotta be my study buddy again. We almost finished half our portions today!”

The man shoots you a thumbs up and you reply in kind when his phone rings. “Shoot, I have to take this. See you tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow,” you confirm, and Ren watches MJ leave with a slight frown on his face.

“I’m gonna go annoy Gorya,” Thyme announces, striding away to where she sits.

Ren’s frown merely deepens, when a cool hand is placed on his forehead, smoothing out the wrinkle in his brow. He flushes faintly.

"Wouldn’t want to ruin that million baht face by getting frown lines early, hmm?” You smirk, removing your hand and collapsing onto the seat Thyme vacated.

Ren already misses the touch.

“So what’s the deal with you and MJ?” he asks, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible.

“We’ve agreed to study together,” you say, eyes closed as you enjoy the breeze. “I can bounce all my concepts and theories off him, and in return he gets tutored. A win for both of us.”

“you could’ve asked me,” Ren mumbles.

“What?”

“Nothing,” he says, but of course you’re the most persistent person he’s ever met.

You pester him until he snaps.

“You could’ve asked me, okay?”

Silence reigns upon the two of you. “…What?”

“You could’ve asked me!” He explodes, looking slightly frazzled. “You don’t have to study with him, he’s never present in any class!”

“Ren-”

“And what was with the sharing earbuds and playing with his hair?” He continues, clearly worked up. “I’ve known you the longest and yet you’ve never shared so much as your playlist nor touched my hair-”

“Cause I thought you’d make fun of my music taste because it’s basic! And don’t you usually take an hour to get your hair to make that swoop? You glared at that girl who tried to touch your hair-”

“Oh my god, shut up!” Gorya shouts from across, brows drawn together in an exasperated furrow. “You both like each other, you idiots.”

Another stunned silence reigns, with the exception of Thyme, Kavin and Kaning making a series of oohs.

“You like me?” both of you ask at the same time, and laugh awkwardly when it’s simultaneous.

“Um, well…” you fumble, not looking Ren in the eye in the hopes that he wouldn’t see your flushed face. “Do you want to maybe go out on a date? Tomorrow?”

Ren looks slightly taken aback, but pleased. “Aren’t I supposed to ask you that?”

“It’s the twenty-first century,” Kaning says sagely. “With that being said, drop by the flower shop, Ren. I’m sure Uncle Gawao can give you a discount.”

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

lmk what you think of it!

[femmeharringrove]

so niki has two dads. so what?

if you say anything about it, she'll kick you. and if principal kane wants to meet with her fathers, then so be it.

that only happens twice - first with steve, who walks in with sunglasses high on his face, a cup of coffee in hand, and a stance that makes the shorter man in front of him admittedly uncomfortable. niki is almost gleeful as she watches her dad stare blankly at the principal, then tug his glasses down to eye him more critically. not a word is spoken, there isn't a sound outside of the gentle swishing caused by niki's feet kicking back and forth. when the silence is broken, it's by steve, voice bored and uncaring.

"what's the problem, mister kane?" principal kane looks a little intimidated by the man in front of him - as he should be, niki knows.

"uh - well, uh, you see, nikita got in another fight again with a student, and -"

his words come to a halt when steve's hand comes up to stop them, the other hand perched comfortably on his hip. his head turns to face his daughter, and while his face is deadly serious she sees the sparkle in his eye and knows she's in no trouble here.

"nikita," he drawls, "did you get into a fight today?"

"yeah," she replies, without an ounce of remorse.

"do you want to tell me why?" he pushes, and she does, so she tells him.

"joey carter said that nobody wants to be my friend because i have two dads and that's wrong." joey is full of shit, as uncle dustin likes to say. she has plenty of friends, and all her friends love her papa and her dad. because steve always makes them the best snacks and takes them on all sorts of trips and takes the time to get to know the kids. and billy lets them do his makeup and carries them around the house while they squeal in delight. their parents might have been unsure at first, but steve and billy have made friends with most of niki's friends' parents. but the carters are gross people and their son is no exception as far as the eight-year-old is concerned.

"thank you," steve hums, before turning back to principal kane. the hand he'd held up to stop his talking lowers again and he places it on his other hip. "principal kane, where is joey?"

"why, he's in class," the ruddy man replies. steve's eyebrow arches in the way it does when papa says something dumb, or when niki tries hiding something from him.

"and why is that?" he presses. "are we just allowing students to verbally harass other students now?" principal kane gulps.

"well, you know how children are -"

"i do," steve cuts in sharply. "i'm raising one. do you know how long it took me to teach her not to say fuck because it's not a nice word?" nikita stifles a giggle at the offended look that crosses her principal's face. "picked it up from her aunt," steve continues. "kids just soak these things up, you know." steve pauses to sip on his coffee, hand raising to stop the man from speaking, and then he continues. "joey's parents are bigots, i know that very well, and i'm not surprised joey's picked up on it. but if nikita here said fuck in class, you'd reprimand her for foul language, yes?" he peers through his sunglasses while principal kane nods vigorously.

"of course we would." steve nods his approval.

"i take comfort in that." the glasses come off after that, and steve leans forward to meet the shorter man's gaze. "now, if one of your students says hateful comments towards another, would you do the same thing, mister kane?" niki grins at the way her principal shifts uncomfortably.

"I - I suppose, yes," he stammers.

"you suppose," steve repeats, mean and critical. "well, in that case, if you suppose, i suggest you get to calling the carters. nikita and i are going to leave you to it." principal kane tries speaking up, but steve's already got his sunglasses back on and he holds his hand out to the smaller brunette in the room. "let's go, honey. say goodbye to principal kane." nikita hops off the chair and waves a cheery goodbye before happily walking out with her hand in her dad's.

later that night, he's reading her a story and she snuggles against his side, enjoying the gentle brush of his fingers through her curly hair, and she can't help herself.

"hey, dad?" steve stops reading, sets the book down to look down at her.

"yes, baby?" and now nikita huffs, because she doesn't know what she wants to ask. they've talked about this before, both about gender and sex, and sexuality. she knows some people think something's wrong with her dads, but she doesn't hear it often. it shakes her a little when she does.

"why are people so mean?" she settles on. steve's face falters a little.

because there's no easy answer to that, is there? he and billy have been raising her for eight years, they've been together for five of those years and have only been open about it for three. they've been talking about getting married, about having one more kid together, about moving and settling somewhere new, but he knows no matter where they go or what they do there are always going to be instances like this, people like the carters and this kane asshole. and as much as he aches to protect his baby from that, he can't.

so he and billy have taught her the importance of kindness and understanding and respect. and at just eight, she has such an understanding of those concepts. she's absolutely brilliant, and beautiful, and more precious than steve will ever be able to put into words. he studies the face that peers up at him, brushes her bangs from her face, and holds her close so he can rest his chin on her head with a sigh.

"well, kita, sometimes people are scared," he tries. "remember when papa gave you seaweed that one time we went to california?" he doesn't have to be looking to know her entire face scrunches up in disgust.

"yeah, but that was gross," she points out, making the same face steve makes when he eats something he doesn't like, trying to get the taste off her tongue. steve laughs softly.

"to you and me, yeah, but not to papa. he grew up out there so he was already used to it, but for you and me it's scary. green stuff from the sea? icky, right?" nikita nods against his chest. "well, some people haven't seen gay people before, not like papa and i and our kid living like other families. and that's new and scary. and sometimes, when people get scared, they act a certain way." steve tries thinking for another example. "like when papa brought that beetle inside and scared me, remember that?"

nikita will never forget the way her dad scrambled over the couch trying to escape the bug. she'd laughed until the beetle took flight because that really was scary. the pair had screamed around the house and steve had absolutely refused all of billy's apologies the rest of the night, huffing and pouting while nikita giggled at the sight.

"you hit him," she recalls. it hadn't been hard, just a couple of swats on the shoulder while scolding the blonde man. steve nods.

"yeah, which was mean," he agrees. "but sometimes, people get mean when they're scared. obviously, something like having two dads or liking another guy or gal isn't the same as bringing in a beetle, it's much bigger than that. and when people get mean about the bigger things, it's more than just a little hit on the shoulder."

she gets that too, as much as she doesn't like it.

nikita sighs and wraps her little arms tight around steve's waist.

"i don't want people to be mean to you," she decides, and steve knows she loves him, of course he knows, but it warms his heart to hear a reminder of it.

"i know," he sighs. "but we can't make other people be kind. we can only be kind ourselves, yeah?" the girl nods and smiles up at her father.

"you're the most kindest" she announces, and then niki rests her head against his chest again. he doesn't start reading right away, but his voice sounds a little wobbly to her when he does.

the second time principal kane has to meet with one of her dads, it's over a father's day event in class and professor kane specifically requests billy instead of steve. he shows up a little greasy from work, looks from the principal to a mother and her son, to his teary-eyed little girl, and knows there's about to be trouble.

nikita doesn't know if it's hurt tears or angry tears, but misses hartwell's words sting and she can't get them out of her head. her son jeremy's words had hurt even more, and so a now ten-year-old nikita had punched him right in the face.

"something has to be done, mister hargrove," the principal says. amy hartwell scoffs.

"something indeed. we'll be pressing charges, that's what will be done." billy fixes her with a glare.

"you're gonna press charges against a kid?" he questions incredulously. "i know my girl, she doesn't do that unless he messed up big time."

"my son would never do any -" the woman begins, but nikita has no time for this. she doesn't want to sit here and listen to them act like jeremy is innocent.

"he said i can't bring my dad to school because i don't have one!" she snaps, and billy almost snaps too.

"well, it's true!" jeremy shoots back from the safety of his mother's side. "tell her, mom." now amy looks usure, and principal kane shifts uncomfortably as billy's cold glare flashes to the woman.

"yeah, tell her," he repeats, low and threatening. "better yet, tell me." amy shifts her weight and steps back.

"well, everyone in town knows her mother got pregnant in some indianapolis bar," she has the audacity to say. "the girl's never met her real father." nikita opens her mouth ready to protest and hurl insults, but billy speaks first.

"nikita doesn't have a mother," he growls. "her father gave birth to her, and i raised her. we're her dads, and she can have either of us at this little party, got it?"

"it's not healthy to feed her lies like that," amy argues, "you're poisoning her mind, it's dangerous -"

"- no," niki's dad cuts in. "what's dangerous is saying all of that within three feet of me. what's fucking dangerous is teaching your kid how to be as fucking disgusting as you."

"mister hargrove!" principal kane cuts in sharply. "i will not have you threatening misses hartwell like that!" billy turns on the man with an aggression nikita has never seen from her pa, a wild gleam in his glare and his lips set in a snarl. the principal shrinks back.

"what a time to grow a spine," he bites. "you've let her walk all over my boyfriend and i, i'll say whatever the hell i want." principal kane looks a little scared, backs down pretty quickly. but billy is on a roll. "i know how this works. you think steve and i don't know what assholes like you say behind our backs? huh? well, we do. and it's fucking ridiculous. steve has more balls than you-" an accusatory finger gets thrown in principal kane's face - "and more class than anyone in this stupid hick town is capable of. and you know what? i get it, we can't stop you from being ignorant dicks. but what i can do, and what i will do, is step in when someone brings this shit to my little girl. do you get that?" billy's yelling stops and both adults look at him wide-eyed with shock. jeremy looks scared, and niki thinks he should be. with a decisive nod, billy ends the conversation, he scoops niki up after that and she can feel him shaking as she hides in the safety of the crook of his neck. "you wanna sue us? sue us. we'll return the goddamn favor, trust me." and he stomps out to his car and just stands out there for a little while, clinging to nikita until she stops sniffling.

they don't really talk on the way home, and when they both enter the house steve looks a little confused.

"aren't you both supposed to be places?" he asks, but the little tease in his expression fades into worry as he gets a better look at them. billy leans in and kisses niki's forehead chaste and soft.

"go get changed," he mutters, which she knows is actually code for when he doesn't want her listening to their conversation. she obliges and disappears up the stairs she's known her whole life, right up to her room where she gets more comfortable clothes. she hears steve yell, "she what?" at some point, but mostly the pair are quiet. when nikita does tiptoe down the stairs eventually, they're in the kitchen, her papa's face buried against her dad's neck while they whisper to each other. it looks like billy's shaking again, but she can't tell.

steve catches her after a minute and kisses the top of billy's head before calling her over and holding her tight. "i'm sorry you had to deal with that stuff today," he offers, mumbled partially into her her hair. she remembers the things he said about mean people and clutches onto him a little tighter.

that night, aunt max and uncle dustin come by for dinner and take her out for ice cream, and when she comes home steve gives her a bubble bath with extra bubbles. she doesn't love letting him bathe her all the time, but sometimes it's fun, especially when he does extra bubbles. he finishes and dries her off and takes his time with her hair, and before long she's just about ready for bed.

her parents work her through the nightly routine, and they tuck her in to bed together like they do every night one of them isn't working late. but after steve plants his pattern of kisses on her face and leaves, billy stays. he sits on the edge of her bed and looks a little unsure, which is strange because as far as niki knows, he always knows what to do.

"honey," he starts. "you know what they said today isn't true, right?" nikita nods easily.

"yeah. dad's my dad and you're my pops." nikita knows, to some degree, how she came to be. she knows steve didn't have her with billy like that. but never once has she ever had to doubt her family, and no one's dared do it to her face. not before today.

"okay, good." billy nods, reaching a hand out and rubbing her shoulder. "people like misses hartwell and her kid, they don't - they don't get it. and i'm so sorry that you had to hear it, and that you had to hear me yell like that."

"and say all those words dad tells you not to?" she adds quietly. billy breathes out a laugh.

"and hear me say all those words dad tells me not to say," he agrees. it gets a laugh out of nikita, much to billy's relief, and he leans forward to hold her by both her shoulders now. "i'm serious, babycakes. i don't care what people like that say. you're my baby, you hear me? always mine."

"always yours," she echoes, leaning forward and throwing her arms around him in a hug. billy plants as many kisses as he can manage on her head and face, before laying her back down and adjusting her covers.

"i love you, green bean," he tells her, and she murmurs in kind before watching him move to the door. he pauses when he gets there, then turns to her sheepishly.

"hey, about the bad words," he hums. "i won't say anything about it to dad if you won't. deal?" nikita makes a thoughtful face.

"can i have ice cream and a kitten?" he snorts at that.

"you have several kittens, baby. but ice cream is doable."

and when amy hartwell knocks on the door the next afternoon talking about billy's offensive language, he only gets a claim of innocence from his boyfriend and a confused look from his daughter who doesn't recall a single bad word from the meeting. steve looks back at the woman and misses the grin nikita shares with billy as she chomps on a bite of ice cream.

[piratekenway]

3 with shake off your blues boy?

cracks knuckles.

I'd direct the big key scene where Steve sacrifices his Captain America body for Natasha, is the thing! I'd put unconscious Red Skull kind of comically knocked out, over there, with a broken nose. front and center tho, are Gamora and Steve: Steve is pacing wildly, trying to figure out how to get Natasha back too, Gamora is sitting down so she can recover from the shock of coming back - I'll tell the actress, pretend you're waking up from a long sleep and your limbs feel a little funny bc you haven't moved them in a bit. this is not a somber scene, this is a serious scene like in TWS where Steve looks at a hundred-foot drop through glass and is just like, yeah, this is gonna suck, but I'm gonna do it anyway, so the mood is determined but worried. there is a chance this will not work.

obviously if I was directing this I would also have completely rewritten Steve's Endgame arc. I would've, from the start, placed equal focus on Bucky's dog tags and Peggy's picture in the compass, with a dash more focus on the people Steve has lost - make him not the therapist for the support group, but instead the person speaking about trying to go on a date with a nice fellow and then stopping and trying to hold it back. (I would also have had him snap at Tony that he left him a fucking phone and he could've called, at any point, and Steve would've come.) he has not moved on! he refuses to! it feels like he's given up on them! and part of that is the fact that he hasn't moved on from Peggy either, not totally.

then - he has hope, and he considers going back to the past and staying there. you see him watching Peggy, almost putting his hand on the door to say hello. and then you see Peggy's husband, a brunette with a quicksilver smile, come inside, and say hello, and they talk about their kids, and they laugh. they're in love. Peggy's office has pictures of her family. Peggy has lived her life, and Steve - Steve is realizing, perhaps for the first time, that he should live his. he kisses the compass one last time. "goodbye, Peggy." puts the compass on the drawer. back to the heist.

back to my fic and how I'd direct it. put focus now on Steve's dog tags, the way he looks at them with love. he tucks them into his shirt - he's not letting them go. he won't sacrifice Gamora either. have him pace, talking with Gamora, and a beat after he says "but it would be so satisfying" about tossing Schmidt off the cliff, he stops. here I'd tell the actor this: you are not considering killing yourself. you are considering killing the best, most powerful version of yourself, to save your friend. remember, you used to be sick, you were scrawny and color-blind, people would not listen to you, you could not stop bullies. in this body, you are strong, you can afford to be brave, you can stop bullies from hurting other people.

now think about your friend. this is the woman who has stuck by you, who helped you find Bucky, who hugged you when Peggy died. she once told you that she wanted to watch the Maltese Falcon. a week ago you guys had plans to watch a noir film festival. once you fell asleep on her while you were watching Citizen Kane, and when you woke up you were under a blanket, and a cup of cocoa, long cold, was sitting on the table. you trust her, you love her, she's one of your best and closest friends. there is no question: she is worth the sacrifice.

the gravity of this scene is sold through the face. Steve's face goes from fear and doubt, to pain (because he loves this body, he really does, he could do so much in this body that he couldn't before), to resignation, to grim determination. then he gives Gamora his shield, and takes off his dog tags - focus on them once more, the way his fingers linger over them one last time before letting go. he isn't planning to die, does not want to, but that's a real possibility here.

have Gamora reaching for him, trying to yank him back, but he's already gone. she has no weapons, she can't do like Clint and Nat and stop him, and she does not know Nat. her sacrifice wouldn't count. Steve's would.

when he dives, play flashbacks. brief images flash onto the screen like yellowed film - Coney Island, Bucky, the beaches of Normandy, the shield flying through the air, Dr. Erskine pouring schnapps. flash cut to Steve closing his eyes before he hits the ground.

have the ground suddenly break like ice, with cold water below. the Soul Stone has a voice - it sounds like Erskine, like Ma, like the Commandos. the voice shifts from line to line. the scene briefly turns terrifying, as hands reach from the depths to grab hold of Steve's ankles and drag him down as he instinctively kicks toward the surface. then the voice tells him that it's original thinking, and that it will honor the deal he's made.

just before Steve blacks out, a hand reaches for him, wrist encircled with Widow Stings. he passes out, then wakes up on the ground, skinny again, and Natasha is alive in front of him.

(post-credits scene: Natasha goes to see Yelena. she whistles a long note. waits ten seconds, then Yelena whistles back, and all but slams into her to hug her.)

[livelivefastfree]

Love your cyborg!Chuck fic!! Wondering about a thing that didn't get addressed much: Julie obviously knew? the whole time? and Chuck, presumably, also knew about her, and obviously they had a mutual secret-keeping pact...but is Mike ever going to wonder what was up with that? Or are we supposed to assume he's figured out, post-finale, that Julie is Kane's daughter? And any chance of a prologue of Kane presenting Chuck to Julie like (I imagine), "Happy birthday, Julie-bear! Have this cyborg"?

This has been in my inbox since I published my first cyborg Chuck fic ever, so like...(*checks the release date on Override 0*) four years, lord.  And the drabble has been sitting in my documents for almost as long lol.  Hopefully this gives some explanation as to how a valuable cyborg full of experimental KaneCo tech ended up slipping out from under Kane’s nose, lol.

--

"I got you something," says her dad, and Julie thinks--oh, another stuffed kitten plush, maybe, or maybe even another level of security clearance if she's lucky--

She's not lucky.

"Dad," she says, with brittle sweetness, because she really really hopes she's misunderstanding this situation.  “What...exactly...is the present?"

Her dad snaps his fingers.  The boy standing behind him jitters, tries to step forward, almost crumples over, stands again.  He's twitching and shivering like he's got some kind of tic, but his eyes are the part that really freak Julie out.  Lit up and flickering from the inside, but weirdly unfocused and too wide.  He's staring into nothing, and he looks like he should be swaying, like he should be unsteady on his feet, but now that he's standing he's just...still.  Barely breathing, hardly blinking.  

"I've seen that you've been doing some programming," her dad starts, and Julie makes a tiny, involuntary noise, trying to hold in a slightly hysterical giggle.  Her dad either doesn't hear or doesn't bother to be concerned.  "--This was a failed experiment from research and development, but if you want to try to learn to code..."

"What do you mean, a 'failed experiment'?" says Julie.  "Is he--  Are you--?"  

The boy doesn't seem to hear her talking to him.  Julie's dad laughs, indulgent.  "A cyborg," he finishes for her.  "A failed one.  He's harmless."  A wry twist of his lips and an edge to his voice--Julie can almost hear "...unfortunately".  "...But his programming is extensive.  Plenty to experiment with.  He should be able to tell you what you're doing as you do it, he was a fairly acceptable technician before he fried his brain."  

He gives the boy's shoulder a shove, and he staggers forward toward her, still staring at nothing.  His lips are moving minutely, Julie can see now--he's murmuring almost silently.  

"Transfer registration holder," says her dad, bored and authoritative, and for the first time the boy shudders and speaks.

"...Define registration holder," he says, in a high, young voice that almost makes Julie jump.  Julie's dad looks at her expectantly.  "Full name and credentials."

"Julie," says Julie numbly.  "Julie...Kapulsky.  Executive intern?"  The old family name is a complete unknown in Deluxe at this point, and it's the one on Julie's citizenship record.  It's the safer option, as strange as it feels to say the name out loud.

"Confirmed registration holder transfer," says the cyborg, "Julie Kapulsky."  And then he goes silent and still again, staring dead-eyed into nothing.  

Julie stands there for a second, and just kind of...internally screams.  Okay.  Okay.  So...this is a cyborg, this is a human guy who looks not much older than Julie, with computer parts shoved in his skull, and her dad is...giving her this boy.  To practice on.  

"He should have enough brain left to take care of himself," her dad is saying, somewhere on the other end of a long tunnel, "If he's more trouble than he's worth, we can find...other uses for him."

On the one hand, if Julie accepts this, she's going to own another human being.  Which is...wow, no.  But on the other hand, if she doesn't, her dad is going to take him back, and find something else to do with him.  And Julie doesn't honestly trust him not to do something awful and unconscionable with this guy, especially considering the way he sneered when he said "harmless".  

He's smiling at her now.  Horribly, Julie realizes he's waiting for Julie to thank him.

"Wow!" she says, and manages an almost convincing smile.  "That's really something, d--  M-mister Kane!"

"You don't have to do that, Julie-bear," says her dad reassuringly, and gives the cyborg another push in her direction.  "Your old man's not bad at coding, himself."  He flashes her that strange, warm smile he does sometimes, so at odds with the words that come out of his mouth, the things he does.  "...Anything he hears about who you are, he'll scrub out of his memory automatically.  As far as he knows, you're just an exceptional intern."

"Thanks dad!" says Julie, with tight, manic brightness.  "Cool!  Really neat!  I'll go and, and practice, now!  Try him out!"  She takes the boy's arm, pulling; he follows her lead, eyes still focused on nowhere and nothing.  "Looks like a ton of fun, thanks!"

"You're welcome, sweetheart," says her dad, and pats her shoulder affectionately.  "I'll see you for dinner tomorrow night.  Don't be late."

"I won't!" says Julie, barely listening now.  "I'll, yeah!  See you!  Thanks dad!  Bye!"

She can't close the door fast enough.  

--

"Can you hear me?"

It takes a second for him to respond; he stirs, blinking, and then his eyes re-focus just a little and he says "...Confirmed."

Geez, that's so weird.  Julie holds his eyes for a brief second, looking for any sign of consciousness or comprehension--she doesn't see any.  The cyborg stares at the floor for a second, then his eyes slowly slide out of focus again.

"Kane's gone," she tries, and she can't tell if the faint twitch of his features is recognition of what she said or just the automatic reaction to his registration holder speaking to him.  "You can come back now."

"Invalid request," he murmurs.

"Do you..."  Julie drags a hand through her hair, groans.  She really doesn't want to dig into this guy's programming, doesn't want to have her hands on something that intimate when he hasn't given her permission--doesn't even seem to register she's there half the time, and can't imagine saying "no" to her when he does.  "Do you have a rollback protocol?"

There's a moment of silence, and then the cyborg blinks.  "...Confirmed," he says.

"Really?"  Julie's heart leaps.  "Okay, well--okay!  Run rollback protocol!"

"One executive exception noted," he says, "Authorization; Abraham Kane."

"Can you roll back everything else?"

Blink.  "Confirmed."

"Okay!" says Julie, with more confidence than she's really feeling right now.  "So--  Do that."

"Confirmed."  He looks around, eyes wandering, and then walks slowly to the nearest corner and leans against the wall.  Slides down it, holding his knees, leans his head back against the wall and goes still.  Occasionally, his eyes flicker again.  Other than that, he's motionless.

He sits there for at least five minutes.  Julie watches him for the first two or three, then goes and settles down on his bed, pulling up a screen and flicking cautiously through a few shopping catalogues.  The flickering of his eyes catches her peripheral vision; first few and infrequent, then faster and faster until it's an almost-constant glow, dim through his eyelashes.  And then he gives a sharp gasp, a jerk, and doubles forward, head resting on his pulled-up knees, making sharp little noises of unmistakable distress.

"Hey!" says Julie, and pushes herself up, hurrying across the room toward him.  "Hey, are you okay?"  And then, with a little more authority, "--you're okay.  You're safe now, you're okay."

"Where--?!"  The cyborg stares around, eyes round and panicky. "Kane, where--  They'll take, they'll make me--  Don't make me--"

"Whoa!" Julie says, and grabs his wrist, snags the other one, pulling his attention back to her.  "Hey, look at me.  You're safe.”

Slowly, he stops struggling, staring at her.  His face is really pale, ashy with fear, and he's breathing too hard and too fast, like a cornered animal.  "I'm," he says, and swallows hard, sniffs, turns his hands so he can grip her wrists.  His hands are big and long-fingered, cold, trembling.  "I, he said he'd--  They're not gonna?"

"No," says Julie, because god, she doesn't know what her dad said to this guy but thank god he handed him over to Julie instead.  "No, nobody's going to hurt you or--or anything."  It's dumb, it's--she doesn't own him, no matter what her dad says, but she still feels responsible, and he's huddling into the corner, he looks so scared.  Julie reaches out, slow and careful as he flinches from her, and rubs his shoulders, squeezes his arms as he shakes.  "He's gone," she says, slow and clear.  "He's not going to hurt you, you're safe.” 

The boy stares at her for another second, taking fast, panicky breaths, and then--oh, no.  His chin crumples and his cheeks go red and blotchy and he just--collapses forward and clings to her, shaking all over, making awful little muffled noises into her shoulder.  Julie holds him, dumbfounded and profoundly uncomfortable, and does her best to make comforting noises.  

"Who?" he manages, finally, in a shaky little gasp, "Who, are, where am I?  What happened?"

"I'm Julie," says Julie, and rubs one scarred forearm in a way she hopes is comforting. 

"Chuck," says the cyborg, like a reflex, and scrubs at his nose with one hand, staring around her pod.  "I'm, I'm Chuck?  I'm Chuck."  And then, wavering again, small with fear, "...why am I here?  What's he gonna do with me?"

Oh.  Shit.  Well, it's a reasonable question, as much as she hates to give an answer.  "He's not going to do anything with you," Julie says.  "Kane uh.  Gave you to me.  Like, as a present?  I'm sorry."

"Why would he give me...to you," says Chuck.  There's a weird, focused look on his face, like he's struggling to work something out.  "I'm, I, he trashed me, but, I'm a significant, I'm, expensive?  Why you?"

Well, shit.  Alright.  There's no way Julie's going to keep him with her, up here, so she's going to have to pull some illegal stuff to get him free anyway...  Julie licks her lips, hesitates, and then decides to take the plunge.

"My name is Julie...Kane," she says, and sees Chuck's eyes flash suddenly blazing blue, blinding.  "I'm his daughter."

Chuck stares at her for a long, long second.  Then a little longer, then, just, keeps staring.  

"...Chuck?" says Julie.

"Huh?" says Chuck.  "Sorry, I--uh, I, what did you say?  I spaced out."

"I said, I'm Kane's daughter."

Again, a weird, silent moment.  Then Chuck smiles vaguely and goes "Ha, sorry, what were we, uh..." foggy-eyed and distracted, and Julie's heart sinks.  One executive exception noted.    If her dad was going to make one thing permanent, of course it would be the protocol to keep Julie's identity secret.  Chuck is starting to look pale, too, dizzy and bleary and strained.  Julie shakes her head, shakes the thought off.

"You look like you could use some food," she says instead.  "C’mon."

Chuck stares at her, blinking vaguely, and then nods a second late.  "Sure," he says.  "Yeah, uh...I...yeah.  What were we...talking about?"

"It's not important," says Julie, and Chuck's eyes flash once, twice, and then go dim again.  He nods.  

"Okay," he says, and shakes his head, dismissing whatever he was thinking about.  "Yeah.  Yeah, I thought--  It's...not important."

[viceprints]

TITLE: Let’s Talk About Love SUMMARY: Ji and Kane answer questions about idols dating life on their podcast “Vice After Dark”. They almost let some information slip about one of the members having a relationship with their photographer... GENRE: comedy(?), friendship. PAIRING: Platonic! Kane + Ji WORD COUNT: 1.7k WARNINGS: none

FEBRUARY, 2014

"Honey, I’m home!” Ji cheered into the air, reclining his chair back so his body angled towards the ceiling. He snapped himself forward, adjusting his headphones. “It’s been too long since our last Vice After Dark episode.”

“I’ve missed our Virtues and listeners. I felt so disconnected from them during After Dark’s hiatus.” Kane added, adjusting his microphone stand.

“But we’ve been connecting with them a lot lately, huh?” Ji grinned. “Because of our promotions, we see Virtues nearly everyday. When do you think they’ll get sick of us?”  Kane pretended to think the question over. “Hm... I give it two more days. Once they’ve seen Minho’s abs once, they’ve seen them a thousand times.”  “Yeah... I feel that...” Ji sighed, looking down at his less-chiseled abdomen. Kane laughed, clapping his hands together. 

“Anyways, I’m Ji,” Ji introduced himself to the camera. “And I’m Kane.” Kane waved. “And this is episode 31 of Vice After Dark!” Ji cheered, pressing a firecracker sound affect on his soundboard, following by clapping, a car revving, and a clip of Minho yelling ‘booyah’. 

“I forgot you had that soundboard.” Kane frowned, shaking his head slightly in disapproval.  “Oh you did? Does this setting jog your memory?” Ji smirked before pressing a button, prompting a clip of Kane saying “oh my god” with a major voice crack at the word “god”. Kane shook his head with a small smile on his face all while, giving Ji an seething look.  “No? Let me try again.” Ji pressed the button one more time. Then he pressed it again. And again. And again until Kane finally kicked his group mate under the table. 

“Ouch!” Ji scooted his chair back. While Ji was distracted, Kane took over the direction of the episode. 

“Anyways, Virtues better want to hang out for a little more, because tonight's topics are...” Kane inhaled through his teeth. “Well they’re pretty saucy.”  “Oooh, tell ‘em how saucy, Kangdae.” Ji played along. “Let’s just say... We are very lucky that this is a night-time airing, otherwise this whole episode would be censored.” Kane grinned mischievously.  “Woah, woah,” Ji put his hands up as he laughed. “It’s not that vulgar, don’t be a tease.”

“Alright, alright, it’s not that saucy, but maybe one day, who knows.” Kane shrugged. Ji shook his head and rolled his eyes.   “The day we have a saucy podcast episode, you’re getting replaced with Geonwu.” Ji said. Kane’s jaw dropped in offense. “What? Why?” The younger demanded. “Because what stories are you gonna tell? You’re gonna tell the audience about all the times you’ve made accidental eye contact with people at the airport?” Ji taunted. Kane glanced at the clock. “We’ve been recording for ten minutes and you already are causing problems...”

Ji laughed, amused at how annoyed Kane looked. “You know, I could say some really exposing things about you and your personal life.” Kane threatened, pointing a finger at Ji accusingly. “I have seen some things, Joongji.” “Nah, man, save those stories for another time. I’m not ready to be kicked out of Vice just yet.” Ji shook his head. Kane’s smile widened as he shook his head, returning to his notes. 

“Anyways, I have done some research and I managed to find a collection of questions that fans have about idols dating. I thought it would be interesting if the two of us answered them. At least, to the best of our abilities.” Kane suggested. “In other words, I’ll be the one answering the questions and you’ll pretend like you have experiences to reflect on.” Ji said. Kane pushed back his seat and stood up quickly, pretending like he was going to attack Ji. Unfortunately, Kane’s headphones were still plugged in, and his cord yanked him back towards the microphone, causing Kane’s whole set up to skew. Ji started laughing hysterically as Kane struggled to adjust his equipment. When the idol was finally settled, he sighed heavily into the microphone.  “Let’s just start the segment already.” 

“Question 1: Is it hard to plan dates when you’re an idol?” Kane posed. 

“Yes and no.” Ji answered. Kane nodded in agreement.  “Like... If the two of us want to go out to eat somewhere, you have to be really careful. I’ve actually heard of some idols like... Renting out a part of the restaurant so they could have some privacy.”  “By ‘some idols’, do you mean yourself?” Kane teased. Ji chuckled. “Nah, I’d never dropped that much money on a date unless if she was like... my wife or something.”   “’Your wife or something’. Lovely wording.” Kane teased. “Who knew you were such a romantic?” “Shut up, you know what I meant. Like a long-term girlfriend. Someone special.” Ji defended himself. “Can I ask how much you have spent on a date?” Kane asked. “Uh...” Ji pivoted his chair back and forth, thinking deeply. “Probably almost 900,000 won?”  “Jesus.” Kane blinked in shock. “I think I’ve spent probably like... almost 300,000 won on a date.” “Wasn’t that what our bill came out to for dinner the other night?” Ji teased. Kane threw his head back and chuckled. “How many times do I have to tell you, Kangdae? Taking the group out for a meal doesn’t count as a date!” Ji slammed his fist onto the table, followed by him pressing a button that signaled a sound affect of someone yelling “Loser!”, which sent Kane into a fit of laughter. 

“We didn’t even fully answer the question,” Kane reeled the conversation back in. “My answer is it’s only hard if you want to go somewhere popular.” Ji finalized. “You have to do a little extra planning if you go that route. Otherwise, at-home dates or dates to unpopular places are pretty easy and can be really fun.”  “I think going to places like the beach or hiking is really simple and easy to plan.” Kane offered.   “Ooh, how sentimental.” Ji said in a high-pitched, teasing voice. 

“Question 2: Do idols actually use Inkigayo sandwiches to flirt?” Ji read the question. 

“Yes.” Kane nodded. “They do.” “Gotten any sandwiches this promotional period, Kangdae?” Ji teased. Kane shook his head. “Unfortunately not.” Kane sighed in disappointment.  “There’s always next comeback. You know,” Ji smirked. “When your trims not so clapped.”  “I hate you.” Kane laughed, smoothing down his bangs. “I really do.” 

“Maybe you should be the sandwich giver.” Ji suggested. “You can be like-” He pressed a button and the sound board, which played a slow, sensual instrumental track.  “Hey girl...” Ji dropped his voice into a greasy drawl, getting close to the microphone. Kane pressed a hand over his eyes in embarrassment, letting out a whiny laugh. “It’s me...” Ji continued. “Bowlcut Boy. Just give me a chance girl, I know level 1 English, and you are, how you say.. Beautiful.”  “Okay, enough, enough! We’re moving on!” Kane said, miming closing a directors slate. 

“Question 3: Have you ever made a move on an idol that you’ve labeled as your ideal type?” Kane read.

“See,” Ji shifted in his seat. “Idols have celebrity crushes in the way that everyone else has celebrity crushes. I think Tiffany Young is beautiful and talented, but I probably would never ask her out.”  “You’d be lucky if Tiffany even looked at you, let alone talk to you.” Kane teased, looking satisfied that he was able to drag his friend after all the heat he’s endured this episode. Ji’s tongue poked his cheek as he nodded and leaned back from the microphone, feigning offense.

“But, no, I think it’s important to highlight to fans that when an idol has an ‘ideal type’, it doesn’t mean that the person or the attributes that they list aren’t like... The be-all-end-all.” Kane stated seriously. Ji nodded in agreement, dropping his act. 

“Right. Ideal types are garbage and don’t mean jack-” Ji used a censor sound effect to punctuate his statement, looking quite pleased with himself.

“Yes, thank you for that, Joongji.” Kane shook his head, reaching for another question. 

“Question 4: How hard is it to meet people as an idol?” Kane asked.

Ji shrugged. “I mean like... Idols meet people everywhere. ISAC is usually the time people start exchanging contact information. Or at like music shows and award ceremonies. Anywhere. Even in our own company. Like makeup artists, stylists, stage crew...” Ji gave Kane a quick, knowing glance. “Photographers-”  “Oop.” Kane’s eyes went wide.  The two of them stared at each other, their lips pressed together in thin lines to prevent themselves from laughing out loud. “Uh, anyway...” Ji tried to carry on, but Kane was laughing too hard. Across from him, the maknae removed his headphones and turned down his microphone volume so he could laugh without ruining the audio.

When Kane came back, he immediately started doing some damage control.  “Sorry, sorry, it’s an inside joke. We’re not attracted to any of our staff members,”  Now it was Ji’s turn to laugh loudly. He started flailing his feet at the huge hint that Kane just gave, knowing damn well that it would soar over their listeners heads. Woodam was going to kill the both of them if he ever played this episode back. 

“Not that we don’t think our staff members aren’t desirable!” Kane joked. “HBH has the best looking staff ever.”  “Alright, this is just getting weird.” Ji shook his hand under his chin, indicating that it was time to wrap things up. “I say we sign off for now.” 

“Vice After Dark will go back to normal airing schedule this week, so be sure to tune in next week when we invite our friend Sunmi on to talk about her upcoming album.” Kane said the usual outro, smiling at the camera.

“Until next week,” Ji raised his hand in farewell. “I’m Ji,” “And I’m Kane,”  “And this has been another episode of Vice After Dark.” Ji concluded the episode. Ji pressed play on his soundboard and their title track played through the speakers as the episode closed out. 

Once they finished recording, Kane gave Ji an anxious look.  “Do you think I should tell Woodam that I almost exposed his relationship or...?” Kane asked. Ji shook his head. “Nah dude. We covered ourselves up decently. No one’s gonna suspect a thing.” 

[geekgemsspooksandtoons]

My thoughts on Bioshock 1

I just wanna put this out there. It’s 12:01 am and I find it nice that I finished it before Sunday popped up. This post is gonna have major spoilers. I’ll post the screenshots in a different post. I don’t know if I should call this a review. But yeah I didn’t wanna make this quickly. Took time making some popcorn(two bags for a bowl) and getting a Diet Dr. Pepper.

But my thoughts on the game itself. A game that gamers have considered one of the greatest video games ever made.

I want you all to know. The reason I went back to playing it because I was looking up the terrible voice acting of the original RE game. That it got me to wanting to play a older game...which is the first Bioshock on my main computer. 

But in a nutshell I thought it was a pretty nice game. The gameplay is pretty stellar. Especially the combat. But I will admit, the game didn’t really scare me. Because it was considered horror by some folks. But the way I was playing I think a way how you would describe....something out of the Doom series. 

Yet this is because I was playing on easy mode. Because I wanted to experience the story. Especially when I upgraded my weapons. I was basically a walking powerhouse. Along with the fact I didn’t use my plasmids a whole lot. But I did use them when they seem needed or when I wanted to try them out. I was mainly a weapons guy. 

But yeah upgraded weapons made the journey easier. Even during the final boss with Frank. 

The story is pretty alright. Even though some of the audio diaries I decided not to listen to except for some. Especially when the big reveal was coming. 

I will admit and I think people may know of this. But I knew of the big twist and read stuff about how Jack was basically controlled through most of the game. Where the phrase, “Would You Kindly” Atlas was saying to control him. Where this becomes more clear when you enter a room that has, “Would You Kindly’ on the wall and...those diaries crap....a dog getting it’s neck snapped....to be honest I feel like the moment Jack see’s that. I feel like he was probably confused or just wondering, “What the fuck?”.

But basically where Andrew Ryan exposes this by saying the phrase a couple of times, and asking Jack to kill him with the golf club. Gonna admit to watch that twist in motion, for some reason I wasn’t expecting it to be that dramatic. Because I was expecting it to be simply casual with Andrew explaining what Jack is actually. Where Jack realizes when Andrew asks Jack to kill him, he was telling the truth. Yet I strangely like it how Andrew was trying to showcase more that using the phrase a few time to really showcase Jack was never in control. 

Yet it was nice to finally see the scene in full motion in the original game. Since I’m not playing the remastered version.

To be honest I think the most shocking thing was the fact when I went on the Bioshock wiki. That Jack is literally 4 years old. 0_0 Just....I actually found that to be the most surprising.

Including just the whole set up of why Jack is there isn’t by chance. Honestly despite the dimension hopping that surprised me a lot. Just Jack growing up and all that...surprised me the most. 

But I find it nice how Andrew during the game as you get closer to him. He’s alluding to the fact that it seems like such a coincidence that Jack crashed near that lighthouse above Rapture. As if it was some sort of miracle. 

I’ll stop talking about the twist sorry. So I was right, Atlas who is Frank didn’t really have a family. I will admit Frank’s a pretty damn good actor. Because I feel like people who first played this and if I didn’t look into certain stuff. It would of been more of a surprise. Because I find it amazing he can change his voice. 

Including the fact when you get closer to him. He’s just talking about you and him tricking you. Including why are you even still trying to get him. When Jack doesn’t have a family. I guess I can say he didn’t disappoint me as a villain. 

Again the gameplay is wonderful, Rapture was a interesting place. Both to look at and I guess to explore. I will admit I sometimes couldn’t find some stuff right away. Such as a Big Daddy helmet after a while.

The Splicer are cool and have some variety, the Big Daddies are pretty nice too. Yet what I’m amazed by and I’m glad I couldn’t find that Big Daddy helmet right away because the last two Little Sisters that were with Big Daddies were near by. 

I actually got all the Little Sisters that I recall. Basically rescuing all of them. Meaning I got the best and what I know canon ending. Gonna admit that last scene and just watching that cutscene. Despite it’s actually very quick. I can’t believe I had tears or so....despite I don’t seem to build a connection with these girls.

There is just something beautiful about that ending. Including to see they offered Jack the key to Rapture but he denies it. 

Also there is something of just seeing all these Little Sisters just literally murder Frank and I got a shot of that actually. I saw that in a video once and it’s just intriguing. It seems kind of ridiculous but once you play the game, you understand how they are overpowering him. 

The soundtrack....I’ll be honest I didn’t think about it much. Mainly because I was so focused on gameplay and getting through the game. Also weird thing this didn’t happen a lot. But I remember one time one of Franks line was up and he wasn’t talking. 

Listen to any fans of Bioshock, sorry that I’m rambling. But I’m sorry I’m not praising it to the heavens. But I felt like I did myself a favor because this is a very loved game. It was nice to finally play it and finish it. I think it’s because I’m still processing some stuff. Including during a time in my life I thought gameplay is more important than story. Which was a thought I started having when I became a fan of Doom. But then loving Resident Evil again got me to realize liking video game stories. Considering before the gameplay thing, I would always prefer a single player over multiplayer. 

But now I like both. It’s just I was I guess annoyed by how much praised Bioshock gets and it makes it seem like 2 and Infinite are hated on a lot. Including it just...bothered me and that I’d felt rebellious to not play the original. Because people made it seem like what I like to call it, “The Citizen Kane Of Gaming”. It was a game changer and I should understand that.

Yet you can thank my good bro and buddy @pikablob for being the reason why I got into this series more. All because I was wondering why does Elizabeth in Burial At Sea look so young but in the timeline she would be 66. Until he explained to me things about dimension hopping and after my surprise and shock of what he told me. That got me basically be like, “Okay I need to play these games because holy shit”. Even though I’ve played 2 before and finished Infinite and Burial At Sea episode 1 before. 

It was just so insane to learn that I needed to experience these games myself as I’m older now. 

I feel like overtime I’ll like Bioshock more. Because I had predicted this could become one of my all time favorites. But I don’t think so right now. Maybe when I ever replay it again and maybe even the remastered version. I may love it more. But I felt like compared to games like the original Doom, Doom 2016, Halo Combat Evolved(Because I recall from my experience that game is a classic), and even the Call Of Duty Modern Warfare trilogy. Especially 1 and 2, with 3 being a fitting conclusion to it. I got more out of those games.

Which I sound stupid for mentioning. Bioshock is a whole different beast. I’m talking about a game where someone like Andrew Ryan literally made a city underwater that wouldn’t be affected by what he considered, “Petty morality” and look where Rapture ended up as....a fucking shit hole. 

That I recall I don’t feel terrible seeing Andrew Ryan die. Yet it’s probably because he wants to die and he accepts it. Including his final words and the way the scene went. Yet I was surprised that golf club got stuck in his head when Jack did the final blow. 

But I think that’s just my mind set. Including on a silly note and I’m finally gonna say something I’ve had in my head. I just miss Elizabeth. Again I may enjoy it more as time goes all. Because it is a excellent game. 

Because even though I haven’t played the remastered versions of Bioshock 1 and 2. I feel like if you want to. I’d recommend checking out the original Bioshock if you want to. It’s a well made game and I hope I think it’s genius about the fact The Bioshock Collection exists and it’s on 8th gen consoles now(Especially it got released on Nintendo Switch last month) and for PC’s if you want remastered versions of the first 2.

Basically was looking at trailers for the collection. I think it’s genius because that package seems perfect for any new fan who wants to experience the complete saga as of now. 

I think I’ve said enough on my piece on the original Bioshock.

Anyway during the making of this post. I was listening to this kick ass rap. I find it awesome I finished the game and got to experience it for my own. Here’s JT Music’s Bioshock 1 rap, “Rapture Rising”. Been listening to this when making this. Warning in case even though I talked about spoilers in here, you have spoilers in this rap. Again well done rap.

[turning-dreams-into-chaos]

Banished (Part 3)

*Not My Gif*

Part 1 Part 2

Requested: Nope! (Send some in if you want!)

Paring: Bellamy Blake X Reader, The 100 X Reader

Word count: 3,400

Post Date: 5-18-19

Summary: When the 100 was sent to the ground, Y/N Y/L/N was one of them. Having been locked up for almost 8 years, how will she react to surviving on Earth? Especially when she gets banished...

A/N: ok Part 3! I know it’s been a few days since I posted something but yeah sorry! Anyways, many people wanted another so here you go! If you want a part 4 comment or send me something so I know y’all are liking this series. Be sure to like, comment, reblog and REQUEST! I live on your feedback so share your thoughts! Enjoy! (Also tell me if I made mistakes cause I didn’t really edit it well enough 😂 )

- Ria

~Master List~

~Open Requests~

*Based on episodes 1X03 of the 100 “Earth Kills”

You left the drop ship after spending a few days trying to save Jasper, exhausted as you made your way to your tent. You weren’t much help in he medical area, but Jasper was your friend and you weren’t about to let your friend die. Octavia and you had grown closer since the night you came back with Jasper, both of you showing how much you care for the boy, although you suspect Octavia might care for him a little different than you do. When you get to your tent you pull back the flap before hearing a girl scream. Clarke had just came out of the drop ship and giving her a confused look you both look around camp for the girl. Clarke managed to find her first and gently shaking her she made sure she was okay.

“It’s… my parents. They were floated and they… and I see it in my dreams and I just…” She begins, her voice broken from the sobbing. You grab the girls hand, gently rubbing the back of it with your fingers. She looks up at you and you give her a meek smile as she returns it. You start to zone out a little as Clarke and her share their stories of family, thinking back on yours. You loved your family…but they didn’t love you enough. You felt your throat go dry as you thought back on to your time on the ark. Back to when living wasn’t just surviving but actually enjoying life. Back to when your parents were your parents and not just people who gave birth to you. Your hand continued to rub hers as her eyes closed, the conversation with Clarke having ended.

“You staying here?” Clarke whispered, drawing your attention up to her. You nodded your head giving her a lazy smile as you pull you knees up into your chest, resting your head on them. You closed you eyes as Clarke walked back into the drop ship. Memories of the ark playing in your mind, memories you wished you’d forgotten.

“Daddy! Mommy! Where are you! I want to show you what I learned!” you say as you walked into the kitchen area, looking around for your parents. You start to panic a little, your parents were never gone when you got home. When you walked into your room you notice an envelope on your bed, with your name on it. Jumping onto your bed you began to read the letter.

Our Dearest Y/N.

You are the best thing in our life, you make our bleak lives brighter with your smile and your laughter. You are our everything. But it isn’t enough. We love you Y/N, we truly do, but we’ve had enough of this life. Of not being able to provide for you the way we should, of not being the best parents we could’ve been, of not being enough for you, and you not being enough to help in our life. Y/N you made us happy, but we were still lost. We’ve given up and can’t do it anymore. We love you and we are so sorry, Y/N. We are floating ourselves. Tonight. Goodbye Y/N.

- Mom and Dad

Tears began streaming down your face. ‘not enough’ you thought ‘how am I not enough!’. You clenched the now tear stained letter in your hand as you dashed out of your room towards the one person you knew could help you; Marcus Kane. He has been best friends with your parents since they were younger and was your godfather. You knew that he could help you, you knew that he could save your parents. You dashed through the ark, ignoring the constant remarks and murmurs of the people you passed. When finally found him, you were out of breath, quickly shoving the letter into his hands as the tears continued to pour out. As he looked at your disheveled appearance and read the wet wrinkled paper, water started to pool in the corner of his eyes as he picked you up, throwing you over his shoulder as he raced you to where your parents were, or were supposed to be.

You saw them. Kane managed to get there mere seconds before the door was opened, allowing you to get one final look at the parents who abandoned you, who promised you the world only to say you weren’t enough, who you later found out paid a guard to let them float themselves. You collapsed on the ground, you, only 8 years old, are now an orphan, and while your parents felt lost in their life you are beginning to learn what it felt like to be lost. And you didn’t want to ever feel like this again. Kane watched from afar as you cried, unable to take his eyes off you when Jaha and some guards came through the door and Kane explained what happened.

“Kane, she’s your goddaughter. She’s your responsibility now. Can you do it?” Jaha asked, Kane just stared at you, looking at the daughter of his two best friends, his two dead best friends, and all he could see is their faces. He couldn’t watch you, you would just be a constant reminder of them, and he couldn’t take it. He couldn’t tell you that though, you wouldn’t be able to take the fact that he couldn’t do it because of you. He turned to Jaha, finally making eye contact as a tear finally slipped past his eyes.

“No…” he whispered before turning and walking out of the room.

You jumped awake, the dream causing your breath to increase rapidly as your hands shook from how hard you gripped them. Your shoulder had began to ache at the movement, causing you to groan at how weak you could be. You got off the ground brushing the dirt off your pants before noticing the sunlight, Charlotte was no where to be seen meaning you probably slept longer than you wanted but you didn’t care. You made your way over to the drop ship to check on Jasper and have Clarke check on your bandages.

“Morning Sunshine.” Bellamy says as he joins your walk. You roll your eyes as you shove him a little, both of you falling into a silence as Jaspers moans flood the camp. Your head shoots to the point of the sound as your pace quicken, hoping you’re able to help his pain.

As you climb up the ladder the sound of Clarke’s bossing everyone around and Octavia and Finn’s arguments flood the air as you join the group, wiping away some sweat off the boy.

“She’s trying to save his life.”

“She can’t” Bellamy deadpans, looking at Finn. Your head shoots up, drawing his attention to you.

“Why the hell would you say that? He’s gonna survive whether you like it or not Blake. We won’t give up on him.” You say as you make your way up to him, you chest almost touching his as your eyes bore into his. Just like when you first arrived on the ground Wells butted into the tense moment, causing your rage to fill you up even more. Your fists become clenched once again as turn your attention onto Wells.

“Back off” he says to Bellamy, who is watching you with alerted eyes, ready to try and calm your anger if it expels from you. Octavia had noticed Bellamy’s gaze and then your fists, a little bloody but still clasped hard. Her hand falls onto your shoulder, careful not to touch your injury, as she pulls your attention. Both Blakes are now watching you intently for your next move, but Bellamy decides to let his sister handle you right now as he has a battle to fight with the privileged. After your breath had calmed down you released your grip, wincing as your nails retracted from your skin. You look up at Octavia’s cautious expression as you mumble a thanks and make your way back down the ladder to the wash basin to clean your cuts, once again.

Grabbing a rag and gently watching as the blood cascades off your fingers into the ground, you don’t notice another person quietly walking up behind you. You’re still scrubbing your hands until you feel their hands gently land on your shoulders. Flinching, you turn around only to let your guard down when you saw the 12-year-old girl standing in front of you, watching as you try to calm your breathing.

“Are you okay?” She asks, breaking the silence that surrounded you two.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just a little on edge I guess.” You mumble as you look her up and down. “What’s your name kid?”

“Charlotte. Yours?”

“Y/N.” As soon as you said your name her eyes furrowed. You give her a confused look as her eyes then got wide.

“Y/N Y/L/N? I heard about you, one of the guards that locked me up said I was just like you when you were locked up.” She said, causing your jaw to stiffen and your gaze to fall to the ground. “Wait, you were with Clarke last night. I woke up this morning and you were still there. You looked so peaceful I didn’t want to wake you.” A smile never left her face as she looked at you. But you only stared at her with wide eyes. ‘Just like me?’ you thought.

“I wasn’t listening last night… What’d you do to get locked up?” you say giving her an apologetic smile at your inability to pay attention. She hesitantly began to recount the story of how she attacked a guard after her parents death, asking if you’re paying attention every few minutes, causing you to smile at her.

“So, how does it feel to you to no longer be in the skybox?” you asked her when her story had ended. You could see the light in her eye grow bigger as her smile did the same.

“It’s amazing down here.” Was all she said before looking towards the gate. At that motion you realized she probably hasn’t even left the camp.

“You want out?” you say a smirk appearing on your face. Her head snaps back yours as she sees your expression. Beginning to jump up and down at your words.

“Really?! You mean that?! Bellamy said I wasn’t allowed to!” She says as she grabs your arm like a kid, making you chuckle at her behavior.

“Well Bellamy’s not in charge of me, now is he?” you say as you throw the rag you were using back into the basin, putting an arm around her shoulder as you lead her out of the camp. She never stopped looking around, taking in all of her new surroundings exactly like you had. You made sure not to stray to far from camp, but you wanted her to get the full experience, not to just be locked up in a camp exactly like she was on the ark. After a few hours of walking, you heard some noise and sharing a look with Charlotte she knew to be careful. You jumped behind a tree, pulling her with you as the noise grew closer. That’s when you realized it was just some kids from the camp, not grounders, not a real threat. Your body relaxed as Charlotte had taken some steps away. But when you heard a thud your body tensed up again.

“Who the hell are you?” a voice, you immediately realized was Bellamy’s, asked. You made yourself known after Charlotte had spoken. When Bellamy’s eyes caught yours, you gave him another one of your smirks as you threw your am around Charlotte, the girl smiling as she felt it.

“Of course, you’re the reason why she out here. There are grounders out here and it isn’t safe for either of you to be here.” Bellamy says. You roll your eye at the comment and make your way over to him, standing away but close enough where everyone could feel the tension between the two of you.

“Oh, come on Blake. You and I both know that I can protect myself. And that I probably wouldn’t have listened to you if you told me that earlier.” The raise your brows to challenge him when a horn sounds through the trees. Your eyes lifted, watching the birds and bugs around you scurry away as you grabbed Charlotte’s hand.

“Run!” Bellamy yells as he reaches out and grasps your hand, pulling both of you with him towards the caves.

“Atom!” you yell as you see him hit the ground, engulfed by the mysterious yellow fog. You push Charlotte and Bellamy into the cave as you turn around to help him, your skin starting to burn as the fog crawled up your arm. Bellamy once again grabs you, but this time he has you by your waist pulling you into his body as your cries of pain cause his stomach to churn. When you get into the cave, you rip your jacket off, looking at blood seeping down your arm, causing your shirt to get stuck onto the burning skin. Your groans had stopped, turning into grunts at the pain. Bellamy and Charlotte watched as you pulled the top off, careful not to expose yourself but needing to get the skin away from the shirt. Bellamy couldn’t help but stare at your unaware, practically shirtless figure, Charlotte just worried about you. You managed to find a way to wrap your arm with the shirt so it wasn’t hurting but you were no longer bleeding. You shrugged your jacket back on to keep you warm, finally slowing your movements for the first time since you started running. When Bellamy’s stares caught your eye you glanced up as his played off the awkward situation by coughing, like it didn’t make it more obvious. You gave a slight chuckle as you relaxed on the floor, closing your eyes and trying to drown out the pain of not being able to save Atom. Of not being able to save anyone.

“How’d you get locked up?” Bellamy asked when Charlotte feel asleep, your eyes opened staring at the ceiling of the cave. Turning your head to him, you thought about telling him. Of letting him know everything.

“You really want to know?” you asked, already knowing his answer. He gave you an interested nod.

“Indulge me.”

“Wanted a change of scenery. One day I was bored, three douche guards were annoying me, so I thought why not try and teach them a lesson. So, I killed two of them, beat the third nearly to death. Quite fast for a 10-year-old might I add.” You reply as the amusement left his face and appeared in yours. You turned your body to face the wall, letting his stare remain on you but not letting him see your expression.

“Oh…” was all he said. You pulled your knees up against you as you had done night before, hand trembling as you tried to sleep. ‘You had to lie. You had to’ You thought as you fell into a silent slumber.

Charlotte stirrings had awoken you from you sleep as you and Bellamy both made your ways to her.

“Charlotte! Hey Charlotte.” Bellamy spoke, shaking her gently to wake her. She shot up in a panic until she saw you and Bellamy huddled around her.

“I’m sorry.” She whispers as you grab her hand once again, calming her down.

“Does it happen a lot?” Bellamy asks seeing your hand tangled with hers. Charlotte gives him a slight nod as she lays her body into yours, you moved so she could do so more comfortably. “What are you scared of? You know what? It doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is what you do about it” Charlotte gave him a confused look before turning to you. You gave her a small smile before turning to the boy, catching his gaze on you. You listened and watched as Bellamy taught her how to face her demons, giving her a knife to sleep with. When you found her asleep you released her hand and made your way back to your spot, curling up into yourself as you scumbled to sleep.

“Anybody out there! Jones!” Bellamy yells into the forest. You yawn and close your eyes for a second, not noticing Charlotte walking away until it’s to late.

“Charlotte?” you ask looking down next to you. Bellamy turns around to see what you’re confused about and as soon as he does a scream echoed from the forest, looking at each other in fear before running to find Charlotte.

“Charlotte!” you yell as you pull her into a hug, not seeing the bloody body on the ground until Bellamy points it out. “Oh my god. Bellamy…” you whisper as you kneel down to Atom, carefully placing a hand on his head. You stare down at the boy as Clarke, Finn, and Wells come running up. Bellamy demands that everyone go back to camp, and soon it’s just Clarke, you, and Bellamy.

Clarke has joined you and Bellamy on the ground next to Atom, trying to remain strong as Atom begs for death. Your throat had gone dry as you looked upon his body, unable to form any thoughts. Clarke had taken the knife from Bellamy, who couldn’t manage to kill Atom when he asked.

“I’m gonna help you, alright?” Clarke whispered as she stroked Atoms cheek, wiping away tears and blood caked on his skin. She held the knife to his neck, her hand wavering slightly but enough to let you see the tears in her eyes and the reluctance in her motions. You carefully place your hand on hers, slowly pulling the knife out of her grasp. Her tired eyes moved to yours, giving you a slight nod before you looked back at Atom.

“It’s gonna be ok Atom. I promise it will be ok…” You whisper, your voice barely able to be heard but he did. You pushed the knife deep into his throat as Clarke hummed a tune, Bellamy watching the side of your face with wide eyes as you stared at Atom’s bloody features. The only noise filling the air was Clarke’s hums as Charlotte watched from a distance.

Getting back from the camp you made your way over to the other graves, shovel in hand. You hadn’t said a word since you spoke to Atom, and Bellamy noticed. He watched you as you dug, each time the shovel hit the ground with more force, your hands gripping the tool harder. When it was done you stared at the hole, not moving a muscle. Bellamy started towards you but stopped when he saw Wells come up to your side.

“Clarke told me what happened Y/N. I’m sorry you had to do that.” He said as put a hand on your good shoulder. You turned your face towards his and he frowned when he saw the dark circles surrounding your eyes and the broken smile you possessed.

“That’s life Wells. People die and others suffer. What are you going to do about it.” You say shrugging as you toss the shovel to the ground. Wells took a step back at your statement, unsure of how to continue this conversation.

“Look, I know we haven’t had the best meeting or gotten along all that great… but what do you say we start over? This time on the right foot.” His hand shot out as if to shake yours and after a moment he drops it when you don’t shake.

“I don’t like starting over Wells. We know what happened and we move on. Let bygones be bygones.” You say turning to him one more time, only this time it’s you who stuck your hand out. “Bygones?”

“Bygones.” He repeats as he shakes on it, walking you back to the camp. “I’m on watch. I’ll see you around Y/L/N.” You give him a nod as you make your way back to your camp, your sadness seeming to dissipate. You look around camp one last time before retiring for the night, thinking back on the demons you’ve faced throughout the day, unaware of the 12 year old facing hers right now.

Part 4

FEEDBACK IS WELCOMED! LET ME KNOW IF YOU WANT TO BE TAGGED!

[helloalycia]

photoshoot // brie larson

summary: you're working at your uncle's studio as his personal assistant, when Brie Larson is the next celebrity to stop by for a photoshoot

warning/s: none, except second hand embarrassment maybe 😂

author's note: I cringed writing this, that's all am saying lmao. But seriously, Brie can run me over with her car and I'd thank her.

masterlist

          "Think you can grab me a coffee, Y/N?" my uncle asked, messing around with his camera.

         I saluted before going to the snacks area to pour him a coffee. I was at yet another photoshoot with my uncle since I was his personal assistant. I was at a time in my life where I wasn't sure what I wanted to do – I had dropped out of university and didn't have any plans, so my parents encouraged me to work as my uncle's personal assistant at his photography agency.

         Of course, they 'encouraged' me, which meant I had no choice, but I didn't mind since I got paid for it and I pretty much got to meet celebrities every now and then. Yeah, he was a celebrity photographer.

         I had to do mediocre tasks like get coffee for him, make sure his phone would always be answered if he couldn't answer it himself, fetch his lenses when he left them in the car. It wasn't too bad and he wasn't annoying about it. Plus how could I say no to decent pay and meeting celebrities?

         So, here I was in the midst of preparation for yet another celebrity to be photographed. It was some actress – Brie Larson – who I wasn't familiar with nor seen much of, but apparently she was quite the star. I just wasn't that much into movies, I guess.

         "She's going to be huge," I heard one of the tech guys saying as I poured my uncle a coffee. "Did you know she's going to be Captain Marvel?"

         I smiled to myself, finding the excitement around set really cute. I put a lid on the coffee before going back to my uncle to give it him.

         "For you," I said, handing it him with a smile. "Anything else I can do?"

         He thanked me and took a sip before looking around. "Not for me at the moment. Miss Larson is currently in hair and makeup, so I guess you can just hang around until she's ready."

         I chuckled. "Sounds cool, but I still don't see why it's necessary to call her 'Miss'. I mean, Miss Larson, Miss Kane, Miss Cabello, Mr Mendes, Mr Horan – they have names."

         My uncle gave me an amused smile. "Fine. Brie is in hair and makeup. Happy now?"

         I grinned. "Ecstatic."

         He rolled his eyes playfully. "You're a handful, you know that?"

         "Yeah, but you love me."

         He sighed, resisting the urge to smile. "Mhm."

         I walked away with the satisfaction of knowing I had bugged him, before going to find a friend I'd made whilst working here. Her name was Yaz and she was one of the caterers. It may be a little obvious why we became friends...

         "Surprised you haven't devoured the food spread," she said when she saw me approaching her.

         I glared at her playfully. "I've eaten already, thank you very much."

         She laughed. "Of course, my bad... so, you excited to meet Brie Larson?"

         I sat in the seat beside her that looked out onto the set built for the photoshoot. "Er, I guess? I don't really know who she is if I'm being honest."

         Yaz raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? She just got announced as Marvel's new superhero."

         "Captain Marvel," I repeated what I'd heard earlier, not knowing what the big deal was.

         Yaz stared at me like I'd grown a second head. "Uh, duh! Do you know how big she's gonna be? Like, Chris Evans big. Robert Downey Jr. big. Scarlett Johansson big."

         "So, big," I agreed, snickering now.

         Yaz sighed dramatically. "You're not listening."

         I laughed. "I am! I just never got into those superhero films. Iron Man, Captain America, Superman."

         "Superman is from DC, not Marvel," Yaz corrected.

         "Exactly my point," I stated, giving her a knowing look. "I mean, congrats to Brie for becoming big. But like, what's the big deal?"

***

         "You didn't say she was literally the most beautiful human being ever," I said to Yaz, jaw dropped as I watched my uncle snap pics of the blonde goddess before us.

         Yaz chuckled quietly. "You're so gay."

         I smacked her arm lightly. "Do you not see it? She's literally stunning!"

         Yaz nodded in agreement. "I can agree to that..."

         Brie was finally being photographed for the first costume change of the photoshoot and Yaz and I, not being needed at the moment, were sat with a clear view of the shoot.

         I was used to seeing stunning celebrities being photographed all the time. Did it make me feel like a peasant? Yes. Did I always want to marry them on sight? Of course! But this was different. She was like, totally hot. And I could say that, right? I mean, I'd never see her again. No biggie.

         "When does her movie come out again?" I mumbled to Yaz, still stuck on the wonder before me. Damn, she had a good jawline.

         "It's not been announced," Yaz said, laughing at me. "Thought you didn't like superhero films."

         I cleared my throat. "If she's the lead, I'll watch anything."

         Yaz laughed at my response, but once again, I was simply admiring the blonde as she laughed it up during her photoshoot.

         Eventually, a break was called and the first thing I did was drag Yaz to the snacks table as if I was the one who'd been hard at work.

         "These mozzarella puffs are amazing," I complimented Yaz, before stuffing three more in my mouth.

         "You've told me a million times," she said, watching me with amusement.

         "And I'll tell you a million more," I retorted, grinning at her. "Never stop making them please."

         Yaz laughed and filled her plate with some food. "Glad to hear, I won't... we've got another hour to go yet. You might wanna stop stuffing yourself."

         I sighed, glancing over my shoulder to see Brie and my uncle reviewing the photos he'd taken.

         "I don't think I can watch this for a whole other hour," I said, looking back to Yaz. "I mean, I'm used to celebrities rocking up here and looking like Gods amongst us mere mortals, but–"

         "Y/N." Yaz laughed, shaking her head.

         "What? It's true!" I said, putting my plate down on the table so I could make a point. "It's like Hollywood doesn't hire ugly actors ever! They're all hot pieces of ass, ready to be served to the world through my uncle's lens! And now we've got the hottest piece of ass of all in studio!"

         "Y/N–"

         "No, Yaz, seriously, think about it," I continued, on a roll now. "The last time everyone was this excited was when Shawn Mendes was here. Yeah, he was pretty cute, but damn, Brie Larson? She looks like she could bench press everyone in this room without breaking a sweat. She makes Shawn Mendes look like a worm."

          “Y/N, seriously, just–"

         "Okay, okay, I'm done," I said, picking up my plate again. "All I'm saying is Brie Larson is hot."

         As I put another mozzarella puff into my mouth, I noticed Yaz smiling awkwardly. I was about to question her, but then I heard someone clear their throat from behind me, making me turn around.

         "Oh, shit," I mumbled, my mouth full of cheese.

         Out of all of the people who could have been stood behind me, it just had to be Brie Larson herself.

         "Hi, erm, I just wanted to ask if you guys knew where I could get some more water?" she asked, a faint pink blush on her cheeks.

         I was speechless, unable to do anything other than stare. I'd just said all of that. And she heard. Everything. Everything.

         "Yeah, I'll go get some more," Yaz mumbled politely, before leaving Brie and I alone.

         I came back to my senses after thirty more seconds of silence. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" I blurted, eyes wide with embarrassment.

         "It's, erm, it's okay," she got out, obviously a little embarrassed herself. "Technically you didn't say anything insulting, so, I guess, thanks...?"

         I scrunched my face up with awkwardness. "I called you a hot piece of ass and I'm very sorry. I'm not trying to objectify you or anything. I mean, I'm not saying you aren't a hot piece of ass, because you are, but like, you're probably more." I widened my eyes when I realised how offensive that sounded. "I mean, of course you're more! I don't know because I don't know you, but yeah, you're, erm, hot, but like, other things too, y'know?"

         Brie suppressed the urge to laugh which made me feel a little better. Maybe she wasn't offended after all.

         "Thank you," she said, her eyes meeting mine which made my heart have wild palpitations. Shit, why did she have to have such kind eyes?

         I forgot how to breathe as I said, "No problem."

         "Here you go, Miss Larson," Yaz said, returning with several bottles of water. She set them down on the table before handing Brie one. "Sorry about that."

         Brie shook her head. "No worries. Thank you."

         I smiled awkwardly as she walked away, slightly confused. I released a breath before looking to Yaz with wide eyes.

         "Why didn't you tell me she was stood right behind me?!" I whisper-shouted.

         "Are you kidding me?!" she countered, also whisper-shouting. "I tried several times!"

         I face-palmed. "Oh my god, I just called Brie Larson a hot piece of ass several times. To her face."

         "At least you don't have to see her again, like, face to face," Yaz reasoned, shrugging.

         I nodded with relief. "True. Very true."

         "Y/N?"

         I sighed as I heard my uncle call for me. I waved goodbye to Yaz before going to my uncle, who was stood on set with–

         "Oh, shit."

         "Brie, I would like to introduce you to my niece, Y/N Y/L/N," my uncle said, a proud smile on his lips.

         I smiled awkwardly, stopping by my uncle's side. Brie looked to me with a friendly smile before pursing her lips, suppressing a grin, when she saw who it was.

         "She's my personal assistant here," my uncle continued, not sensing what was going on here. "She's been here for a while now and I'm sure she appreciates you being here as much as–"

         "She knows what I think," I cut my uncle off, rubbing my temples as I felt a headache coming on. "Right, Brie?"

         Brie laughed. "Lovely to meet you again." She looked to my uncle, who was confused. "I met her no more than a minute ago. Literally." She looked back to me, an amused glint in her eyes. "Nice to put a name to a face."

         I felt my stomach turn as I grew embarrassed all over again.

         "Well," my uncle concluded, a confused smile on his face. He looked to me. "I guess I don't need to introduce Brie then. She's an actress and a–"

         "Hot piece off ass?" Brie filled in, enjoying watching me squirm apparently.

         "Huh?" My uncle was definitely confused now.

         "I'm gonna be over there," I pointed over my shoulder with my thumb, feeling my cheeks heat up. I looked to Brie, who was most definitely enjoying watching me squirm. "Nice to meet you... Brie...bye..."

         I walked away as fast I could, hearing her laugh from behind me.

         God damn it. Why did she have to be so hot?

[bxcketbarnes]

The Innocent Girl // Part Thirty-One: Traps and Blockades // Bellamy Blake

gif is not mine; can’t find source unfortunately

Words: 4300+

Warnings: Betrayal? Them thinking it’s a betrayal. A hint of fluff!

Author’s Note: We’re are super duper close to the end of season 3. My god. I honestly can’t believe it. I wanna believe it’s taking me so long to write this season is because one; I haven’t been able to write a lot because I mentally don’t feel like it and two; this is like my least favorite season. Season 4 is a favorite of mine, so I’m hoping to get caught up in writing this that it’ll be out faster than y’all can snap your fingers. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this. Thanks to the lovely, @lovefilledtragedy for reading this over and helping me with it! Much appreciated xox

Octavia and I manage to sneak our way back into camp without anyone finding out. She’s more dangerous being here than I am, but if they see me with her I’ll lose their trust immediately. We get into the position we were told to get in, waiting for Harper’s signal.

“Package is on the move. I repeat the package is on the move. We are a go,” her voice comes through the radio, static following behind her as O holds the radio up to her lips. “Okay, S, is your team in position?”

“Roger that. We’re in position and ready to intercept,” she replies.

Octavia and I pry open the floor paneling, getting into it as we can hear the footsteps of the guards and prisoners coming closer. I can hear the distinct chatter of Pike ordering his team around before the door to the room opens. The two of us wait for a little bit before revealing ourselves, telling them to get in the floor while O and I drug the two guards standing outside the door.

After completing part of the mission, we get back into the floor just in time to hear footsteps running down the hall. The door bursts open as I kept my eyes on the floor paneling above us, my breathing becoming slightly heavier as it was way too small in this confined space. A loud bang was heard as Pike yelled, “damn.”

“The guys are fine, sir. They must’ve drugged them,” someone tells him.

“We did what they wanted us to do,” Pike says and pauses for a few moments as footsteps were heard once more. “That won’t happen again.” All the footsteps grow farther away before Octavia stands up, removing the paneling.

She climbs out, grabbing the rifles and Kane follows after her, grunting a bit. “It’s a bit tight in there,” he mentions as Sinclair and Lincoln follow suit.

“Try doing it for sixteen years,” Octavia tells him as I get out, placing the paneling back as she unlocks everyone’s restraints. She crouches down in front of Lincoln as I grab one of the rifle’s, throwing the strap over my shoulder. “Hey, we’ll come back for Danae and the others… I promise.”

Abby comes into the room, along with Miller and Bryan as the radio goes off, Harper’s voice coming through the radio. “Okay, S, come in.”

“What is it?” Lincoln asks as Octavia quickly grabs the radio off of her hip.

“This wasn’t the plan,” O mutters before continuing, “we used their frequencies so they could hear us. Go ahead!”

“Stay where you are,” she whispers into the radio, “repeat stay where you are. The exit is not clear.”

I curse quietly, running my hands through my hair. “How many guards?” Octavia asks quickly.

“Too many. Stay put.”

We wait for Harper’s signal before Monty’s voice comes over the radio, my eyes widening at what he says. “Calling all guards. The prisoners are heading for the main gate. I repeat the prisoners are heading for the main gate, over!”

“That was Monty,” Octavia breathes and a smile comes to my lips, knowing he’d come through eventually.

“Guess he’s with us after all,” Miller mutters.

“I could find out,” Kane mentions.

“We don’t know that,” Abby states in a hushed whisper. “What we do know is that we have to move.”

The eight of us begin to make our way towards the secret area we use to get in and out of camp, keeping a close eye out for any guards lingering around. We get there rather quickly without causing any attention before we begin to file into the small opening.

“Go, go, go,” Kane mutters to me and Harper as we crawl through.

“Attention all citizens. Emergency lockdown is in effect. Return to your quarters immediately.”

Sinclair crawls through as Kane whispers to Abby to get in and she tells him she’s not going, mentioning that people need her to get them out of the dark. She started to ramble on about it when Kane places a hand around the back of her neck, connecting his lips with hers. My eyes widen, not expecting that one bit. It’s cute though.

“I have a message for the traitors in this camp,” Pike’s voice comes through the radio, having all of us halt our movements to listen. “There will be an execution today. Either turn yourselves in or the other grounder prisoners will die in your place.”

“Let’s go,” Octavia mutters, pushing Lincoln towards the opening but he doesn’t move, just stares down at her before he moves around her and she grabs his arm in a slight panic. “No, wait.”

“I can’t let them die because of me,” he tells her.

“Lincoln, please,” she begs, “we’re almost out.”

Kane takes a step towards Lincoln, placing a hand onto his arm. “I know what you’re feeling, but they’re searching the station. We need to go now.”

“You should,” Lincoln mumbles while nodding his head.

“Fine,” O starts, “I’m going with you. We fight together.”

My heart falls into my stomach as I lean half of my body out. “Octavia, no. They’ll kill you, please,” I beg, feeling my eyes begin to water at the situation at hand.

Lincoln nods his head slowly, softly smiling down at her as he got closer to her. “I love you,” he whispers before leaning down to place a kiss to her lips. I bite my lip, watching as he grabs something before sticking it into her neck.

“No,” she whispers before passing out. He picks her up and gives her to Kane, telling him to get her out of here before he walks out of the room. I help Kane get Octavia through the opening as he climbed in himself, beginning to make out way out of the station.

-

Kane drapes Octavia over her horse, leading him as we walk through the woods. She slowly begins to waken as I heard her whisper Lincoln’s name before she falls off Helios. I quickly move towards her, helping her up as we walk through a small clearing. The two of us see everyone outside, Lincoln slowly falling to his knees.

“No,” O and I whisper at the same time and I grip her hand in mine, my vision becoming blurry from the tears. My body shakes as the gun goes off, Lincoln falling to the ground while a couple of sobs leave my lips. May we meet again, Lincoln.

We start to make our way towards the cave again, eerie silence filling the group. It takes us about twenty minutes before we reach the cave, everyone else walking into the cave first. I set my hands onto my hips before taking a deep breath, trying to process what had just happened.

“Where’s Lincoln?” Bellamy asks once his eyes met mine, noticing no one else coming in afterward.

“Pike put a bullet in his brain,” O bluntly states and I swallow thickly, knowing this isn’t gonna end well.

Bellamy’s eyes met her figure, a look of sadness on his face. “O… I’m so sorry,” he mumbles as she takes off her jacket before punching him in the face.

She threw a couple more punches and I wince before looking away, not being able to see the man I love get the shit kicked out of him… even if he deserved it. “Octavia, that’s enough,” Kane calmly tells her.

“Kane, stay out of this,” Bellamy states, hearing Octavia throw another punch. The beating continues as I turn slightly to see him on his knees, face full of blood and she knees him straight in the face.

“Alright, that’s enough,” Miller mutters and tries to stop her as she sobs, pushing him away from her.

“Miller, back off,” Bellamy pants.

I can’t stop my hands from shaking, everything that’s happening becoming too much for me as I quietly whimper out his nickname. “Freckles…” The curly-haired man’s eyes met mine as a few tears roll down my cheeks before his gaze moves back to O’s.

She lets out a scream, continuing to punch him over and over until he falls to the floor. “You’re dead to me,” she tells him before walking away.

Miller and Bryan begin to start a fire, everyone sitting around it about ten feet away from Bellamy. I stood near Kane, biting my nails as they talked about putting people on guard duty. My eyes stay on Bellamy as he leans his head against the rock wall, sniffling a bit before letting out a deep breath.

I mutter that I’ll be right back, heading towards the beaten and chained up man, not hearing anyone telling me to stop which is good. His brown eyes look at me as I walk over, kneeling down in front of him before sitting down completely.

We sat in silence for a good minute, hearing the group behind me chatter about what we’re going to do when I begin to speak up. “How’s your face? Does it hurt?” I ask quietly, afraid my voice will crack if I go any louder.

Bellamy shakes his head, giving me a half-smile before grabbing my hands. “No, not really. Bet I look terrible though,” he jokes and I chuckle a bit. The smile quickly turns into a frown, his thumbs rubbing the back of my hands softly. “I’m so sorry, Angel. God, I’m so sorry for everything.”

I scoot closer to him, trying not to tear up as I gently place a hand to his cheek. “It’s okay,” I whisper before my hand drops to his chest. “You were doing what you thought was right. I understand. We’re human. We make mistakes.”

“I love you. I wish things were different,” he mumbles while intertwining our fingers. I nod my head, swallowing the lump in my throat before moving beside him, resting my head against his shoulder.

“She’ll come around,” I reassure him while my eyes are planted on Octavia’s back.

“I’m not so sure about that, Angel.”

There’s a quick silence throughout everyone after Kane had asked how we can get back to being the thirteenth clan and killing Pike when the radio goes off. “Bellamy, come in,” Monty’s voice echoes off the walls in the cave, everyone’s eyes moving towards the device. “It’s Monty, I’m in trouble. Please say you still have your radio.”

Sinclair grabs it, holding his hand out as Kane tries to grab it. “If we respond and Pike’s listening-”

“We go to channel seven,” Bellamy cuts him off, Kane and Sinclair’s eyes darting towards us. ““Please say you still have your radio,” that’s seven words after the word trouble. It’s code, go to seven.”

Kane glances between Bellamy and Sinclair before he gives him the go-ahead. The mechanic turns it to channel seven before handing it over to the ex-Chancellor. “Bellamy, are you there?” Monty’s voice asks.

“Monty, it’s Kane,” the older man starts, his eyes staying on Bellamy and I. “What’s wrong?” He asks and we wait for Monty to respond.

“Pike knows that I helped you get out,” he tells us and I fiddle around with Bellamy’s guard jacket, worried about one of my best friends. God, I left Audrey there… and Jasper, but Jasper isn’t… Jasper anymore.

“Can you get to the dropship?” Kane questions before taking his finger off the button on the walkie.

“I think so,” Monty answers.

“Good. Go there, I’ll bring you in,” he informs the teen and Kane’s gaze moves to Bellamy’s once more. “Stay off the radio. Over and out.”

We all sat in silence for a few moments when Bell nudges me. I lift myself off his chest, glancing up at him as he just sighs before nodding his head towards the rest of the crew. “Go sit with them, alright?” He mentions to me and I furrow my eyebrows together. Before I can even get a word in, Bellamy leans down to press a quick kiss to my forehead. “Don’t question me, just go.”

I nod my head, listening to the older Blake and I stand up from my spot, walking over before planting myself down by Octavia. The brunette glances over at me and I give her a small smile. I’m surprised that she returns it even though it’s barely a smile, but something. I pat her leg sympathetically as Harper speaks up.

“Hold on, what if it’s a trap and Pike’s waiting?”

“That’s why I’m going alone,” Kane mutters and stands up. Oh hell no. Sinclair, Octavia, and I all stand up simultaneously.

“Like hell you are.”

“I don’t think so.”

Octavia and I say at the same time, her machete tightly grasped in her hand.

“I’m with them,” Miller starts and drapes the strap to his rifle over his shoulder. “Monty saved our lives. I’m going, too.”

“No you’re not,” Kane mutters and looks towards Miller and Bryan. “If it is a trap, I’m not marching our entire insurgency into it.”

Octavia finishes putting her jacket on when she pipes in. “To stop me, you’re gonna have to kill me.”

“She hopes it’s a trap,” Bellamy informs us as O and I glance back at him, his gaze directed right at his younger sister.

“He’s coming, too,” she says and my lips part.

“Wait Octav-”

“We need a hostage to trade for Monty,” she cuts me off as her eyes are planted on me. I quickly shut my mouth, nodding my head before looking back towards Bellamy.

Kane nods his head, glancing at everyone. “That’s a good plan. He stays chained, gag him,” he orders and I head over to my stuff, grabbing my rifle and machete, attaching the melee weapon to my jeans.

“Sir, with all due respect-”

“He’s the enemy,” Kane cuts Miller off and I close my eyes, letting out a deep breath. Christ, this is hard. I wish I was still angry at him for choosing Pike’s side so this wasn’t so difficult. “Do what I said.”

-

The four of us arrive at the dropship and flashbacks of memories flowing through my mind as Octavia and Kane have a hold on Bellamy who’s walking in front of them. I aim my gun behind us, making sure our six is clear as we begin to make our way through the opening.

“Monty?!” Kane calls out and I turn around, moving to stand beside Octavia as silence fills the air. “We got here first,” he mutters and begins to make our way further into the old camp.

“No we didn’t,” Octavia growls and roughly grabs a hold of her brother.

“What are you doing?” Kane asks as the younger Blake holds her sword inches from her brother's neck, continuing forward.

“Get outside!” She yells loudly, her eyes trained on the opening of the dropship. “Now!”

The flap moves as Monty steps out, his hands bound together as Kane and I had our guns aimed at the door. A gun peak out from behind him as Pike holds it against the teen’s head.

“They followed me. I’m sorry,” he apologizes.

I thickly swallow, standing guard as I look through the reticle, training it onto Pike’s head. “Let him go, Pike,” Kane yells out.

“Can’t do that,” the Chancellor notifies us. The older man brings a radio up to his lips, muttering something into it before a gunshot goes off fairly close to us. I jump slightly, aiming my gun in the direction the bullet came from as Kane kept his trained on Pike. “It’s over. Put down your weapons.”

“Shoot him,” O whispers at Kane, narrowing her eyes at the Chancellor.

“Monty’s in the shot,” Kane whispers back as another gunshot goes off, the bullet colliding with my shin.

A scream leaves my lips as I fall to the ground, clenching my teeth. “Motherfucker,” I painfully grunt and look up at Octavia to see her eyes locked on me. Bellamy shifts in her grasp, his eyes wide with fear swimming in them as she manages to keep a hold on him.

You okay? She mouths to me and I painfully nod my head, looking down at my wound to see it was a through and through.

“I promised Monty’s mother that I’d bring him home alive,” Pike continues as I take part of my shirt, ripping the bottom of it before tying it around the wound to try and stop it from bleeding. “Don’t make me a liar.”

I slowly get back up, grabbing my rifle as a scowl sets on my lips, aiming the gun at Pike. We stand still in silence a few more moments before Kane lowers his gun.

“Kane, no,” Octavia mutters, sounding defeated as she looks back at him. He raises his hands, taking his rifle and sets it on the ground about a foot away from him.

“Now you two,” Pike orders Octavia and I. I glare at the man before moving my gaze to O, seeing her doing the same. She begins to pull away before changing her stance, holding the blade of her sword against Bellamy’s neck.

“What are you doing?” Kane and I whisper-yell to her at the same time, seriously worried about Bell’s safety.

Pike brings up his walkie and speaks into it. “One in the girl’s leg… both of them,” he orders and I quickly move from my spot as Bellamy takes Octavia’s arm and twists it, having her slowly fall to her knees. “Britt, come on now. Drop the gun. I don’t want to have to kill you.”

Bellamy looks back at me, his brown eyes pleading with me and I let out a defeated sigh before shrugging the strap of my rifle off, throwing it away from me. Pike then lets out a whistle as guards come out from every direction. Kane, Octavia, and I get handcuffed and Bellamy removes the gag from his mouth as Pike walks over to us, taking the sword O had.

“Now you don’t look so good,” Pike tells Bellamy.

“I’m fine,” Bell rasps out while looking towards us.

“You got about five seconds to make me believe that you’re still with me.”

“All the others are in a cave not far from here,” Bellamy tells him and a gasp leaves my lips.

Anger coursed through my veins at the betrayal as Octavia screams at her brother. “You son of a bitch!” She begins to run towards him when she gets stunned with a shock baton, falling to the ground as grunts leave her lips. I keep my eyes on her as hers eventually roll back into her head, passing out from the shock.

“Give me the coordinates,” Pike orders.

“I don’t have the coordinates, but I can take you there,” Bellamy tells him as I narrow my eyes at the fool, trying to figure him out. I thought for sure that he was with us…

We all move through the woods, gags being put into each of our mouths. Octavia was awake by now as she walks in front of me. I keep my eyes on Bellamy’s back as him and Pike lead us.

“Sure about the route? We’re getting close to the blockade line,” the Chancellor mutters to Bellamy as I eavesdrop on the conversation.

“That’s why Kane set up out here. He didn’t think we’d risk it.”

“Well, he was wrong.”

Hm. Is what I think is happening, happening? Is Bellamy leading him to the blockade? Is he actually on our side?

“What’s gonna happen to my sister and Britt? I know they have to answer for their crimes, but-”

“I’ll tell you what,” Pike interrupts, looking towards the elder Blake, “I’ll make you the same promise I made to Monty’s mother. Immunity from all past actions, but if they screw up again-”

“Oh, they won’t. I’ll make sure of it,” he mutters deeply and looks back at us. “My sister, my responsibility and the same goes for Angel now too.”

Pike looks over at him, not saying a word as I quicken my steps, walking beside Octavia and she looks towards me. I nudge her arm, motioning my head towards her brother with a nod, kinda signaling that I know what’s happening and she just looks at me confused. I let out a groan, choking a bit on the gag before a muffled cough leaves my lips.

We all begin to walk over a hill after another ten minutes of silence. “Hold on,” Pike halts, looking towards Bellamy.

“The cave’s just on the other side,” he tells him and begins to descend down the hill. Kane and I glance towards each other as he gives me a confused look. Pike orders the guards to keep an eye out as we all follow after Bellamy, slowly going down the hill.

A horn goes off and I jump, my heart pounding in my chest as everyone with guns begins to take their aim. “The blockade,” Pike calls out as they begin to panic and honestly, so do I. “Anybody got eyes?”

“I got nothing,” one of the guards answers as I stand closely by Octavia, whipping my head around while getting into a fighting stance… just in case.

“Back to higher ground!” Pike utters out and Bellamy grabs the handgun that’s attached to the older man’s thigh, holding it to his head.

“Drop your weapon,” he orders and I internally cheer.

“What the hell are you doing?!” Pike growls.

Bellamy moves a bit closer, yelling at the Chancellor. “Drop your weapon!!” Octavia makes her move and takes down two of the guards. I quickly move and grab their guns, grabbing one for myself and tosses the other one behind me. “We bring your Chancellor Pike of the Sky People. O, translate,” Bell calls out for the grounders to hear as I try my best to aim my gun at the other guards.

The brunette takes the gag out from her mouth. “We bring you Chancellor Pike of Skaikru,” she yells out in trigedasleng. 

“You’ve killed us all,” Pike barks at Bellamy as he just stares at the shorter gentlemen.

“Take him. Lift this blockade,” Bellamy speaks and waits for his sister to translate. She yells the translation, her eyes trained on Pike as well.

Arrows fly through the sky and take out the three remaining guards while grounders begin to come out from their hiding places, yelling and screaming. They all take their aim with various weapons and I can’t help but drop the rifle I had, quickly moving to kneel beside O. She looks around and grabs a dagger from one of the dead guards, making her move to kill Pike when Kane steps in front of her, stopping her from doing so.

“Hey, no,” he mutters, removing the gag from his mouth. “The grounders are gonna need him alive. They didn’t get justice for Finn. We won’t get away with that again.”

She calms down slightly as Pike looks back towards Bellamy who still had a gun trained on him. “In that case,” he starts and charges towards the young adult when an arrow flies straight into his shoulder, sending him to the ground. A couple of the grounder kick him while he’s down, grunts leaving the Chancellor’s lips as he grows unconscious.

They pick him up, beginning to walk away when Kane pipes up. “Where are you taking him?” He asks and the grounder turns back to look at the older man.

“To the new commander.”

“May I join you?” Kane questions and pulls up the sleeve to his shirt, revealing the brand on his arm. “We’re the thirteenth clan.”

“Don’t slow us down,” the grounder growls quickly before turning around to continue his path to the city.

I stood a couple feet from everyone, trying to come to with everything that just happened as my chest heaves heavily. “Are you sure?” Monty asks Kane as Octavia removes her restraints. “We know nothing about the new commander.”

“I’m sure. Go home. Tell our people what happened here,” he tells us and Bellamy turns around to see my still gagged and chained. He holds his hand out to Octavia, motioning for the blade in her hands and she reluctantly gives it to him.

The curly-haired man steps up to me, looking into my eyes for a few moments. “You good?” He asks quietly while removing the restraints from my hands.

I nod my head, moving my hands up to remove the gag from my mouth. “Yeah, I’m alright. The bullet hurts a little, but nothing I can’t handle,” I tell him with a small grin. Bellamy gives me a small smile about to say something when Kane calls out his name.

He makes his way back towards Kane as the ex-Chancellor was all up in his face. “Did you do this for your sister and Britt? Or because it was the right thing to do?” He asks and Bellamy stays quiet as both O and I watch from where we stood.

“You’re welcome,” Bellamy mutters, beginning to walk away when Kane grabs onto his arm.

“It matters. Until you see that, you’ll still be lost.”

Kane walks away from Bell as he turns around, his gaze planted on me for a moment before he walks over to Monty.

“My mother turned me in,” Monty mutters and I frown slightly, not being able to believe that Hannah would do such a thing.

“You’re family,” he tells the teen. “We’ll work it out.” Bellamy pats Monty on the shoulder as I watch Octavia look towards her brother who turned to face her.

One of the guards began to groan, lifting his head as O jumps up, letting out a scream before digging the dagger into his shoulder, finishing him off. “Blood must have blood,” she mutters in trigedasleng, her eyes glaring at Bellamy the entire time.

Well… this is awkward.

-

Taglist: @writing-in-riverdale @cutie-potatox3 @lovefilledtragedy @triscuitcracker @kaylinfayezink @1happygir1 @simplisticwriting @panda-pops701 @twd-rocks-blog @jodiereedus22 @literallyhelpme @divadinag (i’m so sorry I haven’t been tagging you after i told you i would)

[apparitionism]

Mercury 10

Here’s some more Mercury. I’ll keep this short: there were previous parts—nine of them, in fact!—and they are easily findable on my tumblr. In the story so far, stuff happened, and people said words. Obviously I lied about part 9 being the penultimate part, as you’ll see from the “TBC” at the end of this one. Turns out I wanted people (in particular, two people) to say more words (mostly to each other) than I had originally planned. What a surprise.

Mercury 10

“This is very very bad,” Pete reaffirmed. “The thing works! So why didn’t neutralizing it do anything? People believe what you say through it, so it’s obviously artifacty, and it got that way because people believed what Orson Welles said through it. Right? What’s the problem?”

Helena’s eyes widened, her shoulders fell, and she tilted her head—clearly struck by something consequential. She drew in a huge breath, and her exhale was “But Pete!” Myka had never heard her say his name with that much enthusiasm. “They didn’t believe it. They didn’t. The press exaggerated—even, one might say, invented—the supposed panic. Charles said it, that in England no one imagined that the Americans would be so foolish as to fall for such a thing, and haven’t they ever heard of Halloween, because people know there isn’t a ghost. They believe it, but only for fun.”

Myka couldn’t hold back an eye-widened head-tilt of her own. “Wait—Charles said it?”

“I may have...” Helena cleared her throat. “I may have done a bit of research. Regarding myself.” She flicked her gaze to Ida, who closed her eyes and whispered “laudanum.” Helena cleared her throat again. “Myself, who of course was not myself as myself, but rather myself as represented by Charles. In this salient case, during a radio interview in which he participated with Mr. Orson Welles. “

“Egomaniac!” Pete coughed.

“My ego notwithstanding, he is—was—my brother. Hearing his voice. Ghosts... for some reason, I didn’t expect ‘H.G. Wells’ to sound like him, yet... it was Charles.” She shook herself. “But listen to me, Pete: the microphone works as it does, with whatever downside it has, but there must be another component. Most people didn’t believe in the invasion. But they believed that others believed in the invasion.”

“You’re making my head hurt,” he complained.

“I read about that,” Myka said. “There really couldn’t have been any kind of huge panic, because almost everybody in the country was listening to the Chase and Sanborn Hour that night, not the Mercury Theatre.”

“About which I’m somewhat offended,” Helena said, but her tone was warm.

Myka smiled.  “You would be. Anyway, right, there was a lot of sensationalist newspaper coverage of the supposed panic, but it was really just a good story.”

“Oh, now you think it’s a good story?” Still warm. Affectionate.

“The story of the panic, not aliens with the flu,” Myka said, and that she could respond to that tone with these familiar teases was also movement in the right direction. “People like it when other people get overexcited. It makes them feel superior. ‘I didn’t panic, but the gullible people did.’”

Pete said, “I don’t feel superior right now. I thought I had it. I mean, I believe that you believe that there’s another part to the thing, but what would it be?”

“Something press-related?” Helena tried. “Newspaper-related? The papers sold the story to the public.”

Now Pete was the one with widening eyes. “Wait. Really? Press, newspapers, Orson Welles. Seriously?”

“I’m speculating, but yes, I’m serious—”

“Ohmygodohmygod!” he exclaimed, then yelped at Ida, “Tell me, tell me, tell me! It’s gotta be here. I’ll bet a zillion dollars that it’s here. And I’m right, so don’t take that bet!”

“Don’t take what bet? What’s here?” Ida asked.

“Imagine me in a snow globe.” Then he said, low and slow, “Rosebud.”

“Oh,” Ida said. “I see. And that’s ironic, what with all that not-seeing, earlier.”

“Spielberg loaned it to ya, didn’t he? For the centennial, didn’t he? Good old Orson’s hundredth birthday. Rosebud!” His face was barely wide enough for his grin, and it occurred to Myka that this really was close to being Pete’s dream case. All it needed now was a few comic books and a stripper... a Pete-voice in her head said, “That’s what every case needs.”

Outside Myka’s head, Helena said a confused, “A flower?”

“No,” Pete said, “no, no no!” His clear glee at being able to make this reveal stopped Myka from jumping it to do it. “Not a flower. A sled!” Helena’s expression indicated that she didn’t find the reveal very revealing. “Citizen Kane, Hearst, newspapers!” he shouted. “You’re five thousand percent right! Ida, what’s the key to everything in the movie?”

Ida nodded. “Rosebud.”

“Unlocking some next-level microphone mojo, I bet,” Pete said, and Myka had to admit that it made a certain amount of sense, at least from the usual inside-out-pretzel perspective demanded by artifacts, which, if he was right, really did get together for canasta parties, or their equally-arcane-rules-equivalent, after all. “That’s what we gotta bag,” he said. “Do you know where it is?”

“Of course I do,” Ida said. “The Welles exhibit at the museum.”

“Then off we go!” He was gesturing with the Farnsworth, waving his other arm too, a windmill of excitement—obviously he wanted to see the prop even more than he wanted to bag it in any sort of artifactual sense.

Helena caught his flailing Farnsworth hand. “Wait. Before we do. As there’s been this... delay. I must ask a favor. Disconnect the Farnsworth.”

“That’s a favor to me too,” Claudia said from it, “because I’m getting seasick from the view.”

Pete said, “I was gonna hang up anyway, but if you want it to be as a favor, I—”

“That is not the favor,” Helena said, and she’d lost all her animation of moments before. She’d also formalized her voice, and that difference make Myka’s hands and feet chill with worry, even as fight-or-flight agitation heated her gut.

Pete closed the Farnsworth and raised his eyebrows at Helena. “So what’s the favor?”

“You used the artifact,” she said, and Pete gave her his “duh” head-shake. “Thus the first use does not result in some desperate desire to disappear.”

“Here’s looking at me, kid,” Pete agreed, and Helena gave him her... well, whatever the opposite of a “duh” head-shake was. “Sign you up for a seminar on everything Hollywood, check. So?”

“So,” Helena said, “I would like to. Also. Myself. Use it.”

Of all the things Myka might have expected to hear... “Use it?” she asked. “Why?”

Helena kept her eyes on Pete. “To resolve. A situation.”

“A situation...” he began, but then he snapped his fingers. “Got it. The bad kind of leading-ladies tension.”

“I refuse to let anybody say anything else to me through that thing,” Myka declared.

Now Helena did slide her gaze at Myka. “I don’t want to use it on you. I want to use it on her.”

“Me?” Ida said. It was the first time Myka had heard her sound genuinely alarmed. “Is it because I asked for the leading-lady distraction? I didn’t mean—”

“No, no,” Pete said. “Another her. I get it for real now. It’s an ex-girlfriend thing. Sort of. Somebody else’s girlfriend, when you really think about—”

“Not for personal gain,” Myka muttered, but that wasn’t even true. Pete played with artifacts all the time, and if that wasn’t—

“Now you don’t get it,” Pete said. “I’m pretty sure this is H.G. trying to be a standup guy, letting her down easy.”

“Seems like that would be for Helena’s benefit too.” Now Myka was the one actively not looking at Helena.

Pete said, “It really isn’t. Or if it is, the Warehouse probably knows it owes her. Owes them both.” What about what it owes me, Myka wanted to say, but Pete was busy telling Helena, “My only problem with doing you this favor, which really isn’t even a favor, is the logistics. We don’t even know if she’s here at the fair anymore.”

“Or we do,” Helena said, with an apologetic wince at Myka.

The wince gave Myka impetus: “No matter what the Warehouse owes anybody, it isn’t ethical and you know it. You’d be doing to her exactly what they did to you.”

“It is in no way what they did to me. This would be to give her peace, not to punish her.”

“It’s you taking away her agency. Thinking you know what’s best for her. If that’s okay, why shouldn’t I use it on you instead?” That earned her the opposite-of-duh head-shake. “To give you peace. Turn you back into pure, sainted Emily Lake, because that would make both of them, Emily Lake and her girlfriend, feel a lot more peaceful. And you could go and be her. You wanted us to kill you anyway, and let her live.”

She shouldn’t have said that, and she knew it, viscerally, when Helena’s jaw froze. “You acquiesced to that plan,” she said, at her most cold, “and with only a token protest. Don’t blame me for that.”

And Myka hadn’t known how ready she was, how she had for some time been so very ready, to say cutting words about martyrdom and people who melodramatically wanted the last thing they saw to be the sky, but Pete broke her train of thought with a musing, “We do convince people that they did mushrooms all the time. We think we know that’s what’s best for them.”

“She deserves peace,” Helena pressed, her jaw still tense. “The punishment was never meant to be hers. It was mine.”

“Ours,” Myka threw, thinking of the sky and the martyrdom and what had and hadn’t seemed possible. Only a token protest... Helena wasn’t wrong. Myka had let herself be persuaded, and the memory of it haunted her, as did the thought that she’d given in as she had because Helena had been only a hologram. Only an idea. But that wasn’t good enough, because people took drastic steps to protect ideas all the time. Why hadn’t she taken such steps instead of offering her token protest? Burning down a library with a friend inside... as if the library were just as important as the friend... as if her use of the mealy, insufficient word “friend” hadn’t itself been cowardly.

“Ours,” Helena echoed, looking remarkably like her ready-to-be-martyred self. With that same nod, same set of lip, she continued, “I could eliminate your punishment as well. Make you forget anything you’ve ever felt for me. The ultimate pardon.”

“I don’t deserve it.” I believed in you and I was right, she had insisted, but she was a hypocrite. I believed in you until I couldn’t touch you anymore. Only a token protest. As if ghosts—all of them—weren’t real. “And what is it you’d tell me to make all that forgetting happen? What would I have to believe? What do you intend to tell her?”

“I intend to tell her what she would have, given the chance. The chance she was not given.”

“You don’t know what Emily Lake would have told her.” And then Myka braced herself for another apologetic wince from Helena, an admission of “Or I do.” It didn’t come. Myka, hugely relieved, said, “Besides, what if it wears off? And remember, Ida figured out the rabbits weren’t real. We don’t know how the coin really worked, and we don’t know how this does either. So it’s the easy, and maybe even temporary, way out: for her heart, but also for your conscience.”

Helena stiffened again at the word “conscience.” “My feelings are not material. How was she to know what she was letting herself in for, falling for a Wyoming schoolteacher, one so... unpolluted? One who nevertheless looked like me?”

“How’s anybody supposed to know?” Myka asked. A rhetorical question if ever there was one... “We fall how we fall, we get from that what we get; sometimes we keep it, sometimes we don’t. I didn’t think I’d ever get you back.”

“That’s the question, then: if you hadn’t, would you have wanted to remember it differently? Or, better, not at all?”

That wasn’t rhetorical, so Myka said the most explanatory thing that came to her: “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind made me literally ill.”

Helena’s face relaxed into puzzlement, and she began a slight smile, as if being baffled represented a reprieve. “I can make no sense of that utterance other than I know it ends with you in fact retching, because you are careful with language.”

“It’s a movie,” Pete said. “Myka’s talking about a movie.”

“There’s no need to be condescending. How was I to know that?” Helena asked.

“I’m not condescending to you, I’m condescending to her.”

“I have talked about movies before,” Myka told him.

“Never when I could hear you.”

“Our tastes don’t align, Pete.” She turned to Helena. “It’s about erasing memories. Felt like a twisted horror-movie version of the way my brain works—or I guess I mean the horror I’d feel if my brain ever stopped working the way it does. The idea that I might volunteer for it? I didn’t sleep for three days because I was terrified I’d dream about it and wake up screaming.”

Pete tapped her shoulder. When she looked at him, he crossed his eyes. “It’s about love, you dope. Toldya you didn’t know the difference between horror movies and soap operas.”

“Anyway,” she said, and she was tempted to cross her eyes back at him, but her father had always said that was dangerous, and now that she thought about it, maybe he’d been talking through the Welles microphone at her since she was born, “how was I supposed to know it was some kind of nightmarish foreshadowing instead.”

“Retching included?” Helena asked. Rueful: now her tone said We should not be fighting; we had stopped fighting, but here we are again, where we should not be.

“I don’t want to find out. Don’t make me.” And Myka hoped her own tone said You’re right. She tried to keep it that way as she continued, “How did you leave it with her yesterday? Never mind the artifact; you clearly aren’t done.”

“I don’t know what ‘done’ could mean in such a context. I listened far more than I spoke, and I left it, we both left it, as a situation of not knowing. One with an unknowable outcome.”

“Well, that sounds familiar.”

“Are you forbidding me to use the microphone?”

“Like that’d work. What I’m saying is I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“Do you have a better one? I could simply disappear, as she did.”

Yes please, was Myka’s immediate thought. But she said, “That seems like cheating. Also mean. And you’re a lot of things, but I don’t think you’re mean.”

“Then what do you want me to do?”

“I want you to fix everything with a wave of your hand,” Myka said. “Because honestly, I’m human.”

Helena smiled: large, calm. “I did ask,” she said. “All right, what do you think I should do? Because, also honestly, I’m every ounce as human as you are, and this is about the two of us as well.”

What did Myka think H.G. Wells should do, in an impossible situation? She resisted a slightly hysterical urge to joke, Come down with a case of the flu. “I think you should tell her you’re sorry,” she said first, and slowly, “because I think that’s true—I think you regret that something you did helped to create the whole situation. I think you also should apologize for the cat being imposed on her.” That was edging the wrong way. She stopped, regrouped. “But I think you should do all of it as you, because you are you, and you shouldn’t presume to speak for Emily Lake. Because no matter how much you look like her, Emily Lake isn’t here.” She wanted to get this part right, and she probably wasn’t going to, but: “Everybody else’s body makes them who they are. They can rely on that; it’s basic and real. But the Warehouse stole that reality from you. Twice. First with bronzing, then with the coin. I think you should take it back and be yourself. That’s what I think you should do.”

Helena’s calm smile had dissolved as Myka spoke, replaced by an even softer aspect. Her eyes usually glittered like cut gems, their sparkle crafted, if not calculated. In this minute, however, they offered the random, gentle glints of sunlight on water. “All right,” she said.

And so Myka found herself—accompanied by Pete and Ida, because Pete had proclaimed, “If we don’t go with you, you’ll lurk,” and he was probably wrong, but the sliver of doubt Myka herself felt made him just enough right—delivering Helena into the company of Emily Lake’s girlfriend. Girlfriend, or more? Myka was still desperate to know the specifics, even though at the same time she did, in fact, feel the appeal of Eternal-Sunshining, or Welles-microphoning, herself free of the very idea of her, of them, of all of it. Hypocrite, she accused herself again.

She and Helena spotted the girlfriend, still some distance from them, at the same time. The girlfriend then spotted them, and she raised her hand—a vague gesture, but clearly intended for Helena. Not for Emily: in that case, the wave would have been surer. Like the chin-poke, Myka thought, shaking jealous salt into her wounds, even while knowing it for a stupid self-provocation.

Helena touched Myka’s arm and said, “Do you want to kiss me?”

Was Helena reading her covetous mind? “What? Why? Didn’t you get your PDA fix at the pie palace?” Pushing the covetousness onto Helena. Nice, Bering.

“To demonstrate ownership,” Helena said. She was matter-of-fact.

Myka tried to match her: “I’m not demonstrative.”

“But I am,” Helena said, and now there was something else there, something Myka couldn’t quite get her hands around.

“You’re the one who wanted to unpunish her,” Myka said. “Don’t twist the knife instead.” But then a possible “something else” hit her: “Unless this is like the hotel room last night? Something you need? Something it would be selfish of me not to let you have?”

“I meant it for you. Because she knows that I am—no, that she was. Demonstrative. So if I can demonstrate, in front of her, in this circumstance, that I would direct at you the same, or rather, more—”

“That isn’t what I need,” Myka said, and she meant it. Whoever Emily Lake’s girlfriend was, she wasn’t someone Myka needed to perform for, or to make Helena perform for. Yesterday, maybe; probably even this morning. Not now. “I’ll tell you what I need. Or I’ll try to.”

“So will I?” That was easy for Myka to get her hands around: it meant I did try, and it didn’t work.

“I’ll try to listen better when you do,” Myka said. “I promise. Now go be a standup guy.”

Helena gave her that soft sunlight gaze again. Then she walked away, toward Emily Lake’s girlfriend... toward a past, regardless of bodies, that was not her own.

Pete knuckled Myka between the shoulderblades. A big-brother gesture.

Ida didn’t touch Myka. But she did say, “I don’t understand exactly what’s happening, and I understand that I shouldn’t understand. But I do know you shouldn’t let it distract you. I lost my husband three years ago.”

A jolt. “I’m so sorry,” Myka said.

“We weren’t like Paul and Ginny—we had friction. Strife. I think you might know what I mean.”

“I apologize for not being able to keep it to ourselves. Our... strife.”

“I think I would have known anyway. Or maybe I’ve just convinced myself that I’m observant.”

That was either an obvious request for praise or totally unjustified self-deprecation. It didn’t matter which; Myka said, “You’re so observant that if I could personally offer you a job, I would.”

“I’m happily retired,” Ida said. But she smiled, practically Pete-wide.

“Someday I hope I get to say those words,” Myka told her. “Sincerely. Because right now, nothing makes anything else any easier.”

“Would you accept a piece of advice?”

“Faster than Pete would accept a piece of pie.”

“Doubtful,” Pete said.

“It’s really just another observation. The temptation to say you’ve had enough... it’s tempting.”

Myka nodded. “It is. I try to, but it doesn’t take.” She sighed. “In fact I keep volunteering for more instead.”

Ida sighed too, a lovely, knowing sound. “That’s my show,” she said. Now she did touch Myka: she took her by the shoulders and turned her so that she faced away from Helena and Emily Lake’s girlfriend. Myka couldn’t help smiling, but Ida then turned businesslike.  “I have to leave you two for a little while—putting my own judge hat on.”

This perked Pete up. “Really? Is it something exciting? Something like food?”

“Something exactly like food. Fruit spreads: jams, jellies, marmalades, preserves, conserves, and butters.”

“I could be very helpful with that,” Pete told her. “If you needed any help.”

“Tell me the difference between preserves and conserves,” Ida challenged him.

He thought for a moment, then said, “One starts with pre-, and one starts with con-,” with a flourish, like he’d just solved the Riddle of the Sphinx.

When Ida didn’t respond immediately, Myka said, “You have to give it to him, on some level. He isn’t wrong.”

“I don’t think the spread-makers would appreciate that level,” Ida said. “But because of the spreads, I can’t take you to the museum now. You won’t go without me?”

“No way,” Pete assured her. “I don’t know why I thought we could just up and go; we gotta be sneaky. Wait till they close.”

“That won’t be till much later. Can you restrain tall, dark, and less-broody-than-she-was-this-morning by yourself for a few hours?”

Pete said, cheerfully, “Not a prayer. But I think she’s good. You good?”

“Define ‘good,’” Myka said. She kicked a rock, mostly for show.

Pete nodded. “She’s good.”

Once Ida had gone, Pete said to Myka, “So what’s the difference?”

“Preserves and conserves? How am I supposed to know? And don’t say ‘because you’re a girl,’ or I’ll—”

“I was gonna say ‘because you know everything’”—at that, Myka snorted—”but fine, I’ll look it up,” he said, and to Myka’s astonishment, he was in an instant reading aloud from his phone: “Conserves are a combination of fruits, usually citrus fruits and nuts, and sometimes raisins or coconut, with a consistency like jam. Traditional fruit preserves consist of small, whole fruits and uniformly sized pieces of larger fruits in a very thick sugar syrup and slightly jellied juice. Very thin slices of lemon or lemon juice may have been added.”

“I didn’t know any of that,” Myka admitted.

“Then this has been a really educational trip for both of us.”

“I wish that could’ve been the only thing we learned.”

“Don’t get all broody again!” he commanded. “It’s like you keep forgetting we’re at a fair! And don’t say you wish you could forget we’re at a fair, because you can’t, so let’s do some fair stuff. Besides, all that reading was hard work. It made me hungry. Also it was about fruit, so I’m even hungrier.”

So they did fair stuff. Or rather, Pete did fair stuff while Myka watched: primarily, he bought food and ate it, but he also dared Myka to get her face painted “so H.G.’ll call you a savage.” She declined. A while later, he dragged her to a booth that featured a game in which players shot water guns at ducks to drive them around a twisted river of a track; he challenged her with, “If you win, I’ll lay off you and H.G. for, like, a week.” Myka said a flat no, and he wheedled, “I’ll even make sure Claudia knows I’m supposed to give you a really easy time,” which was a slightly attractive kicker, so she asked him what he would win, in the unlikely event that he did. It took him a minute to come up with a decent forfeit, but he settled on, “If I win, you and H.G. have to come with me to the demo derby before we go to the museum!”

She reluctantly took him up on it, not because she really believed he’d knock off the grief even for a day, let alone a week, but because of marksmanship, and hers being objectively better, and she did like to prove it.

An hour later, she was still grumbling that both her water gun and her duck were clearly defective, given that she had never lost a shooting contest in her life, and certainly never to Pete, given that she practiced, unlike some people, such as Helena but also Pete. “It’s a fair,” he said placidly. “Nobody ever said anything about the games being fair.”

“We shouldn’t have to go to the thing with you, though,” Myka said, “if the game wasn’t fair.”

“The bet was fair,” he told her. Then he whooped, “Look! Up in the sky!”

“It’s a bird, it’s a plane. Right?”

Pete took another slurp of a concoction that had been billed as an “Elvis milkshake” as he answered, “Iss th’pocalypse!” He pointed, and Myka looked up. She blinked. Blinked again. Couldn’t think of anything to say. “What?” he demanded. “I’ve always been pretty sure H.G.’s one of your fancy horsemen, plus she’s on the Ferris wheel, eating a corn dog. If that doesn’t say ‘end of the world,’ I don’t know what does.”

Myka sighed. “You have clearly not spent enough time with her when she’s hungry. The things she’ll eat...”

“Do you listen to yourself ever?”

“I gave that up. Nobody else listens to me, so why should I?”

“I’m pretty sure some ex-supervillain just went and did a thing she really didn’t want to do. On your say-so.”

“I can’t make any sense of that,” Myka admitted, her eyes on Helena. “Of anything, really.” The ex-supervillain who inexplicably did things on Myka’s say-so was gazing contemplatively into the distance, over the fairgrounds, as her open cabin crested and then began to descend the wheel’s arc. She was eating a corn dog as if she had never had a nefarious thought in her life. She could have been Emily Lake; she could have been the historical H.G. Wells. At a fair. On a ride. Eating food.

They waited for her—waited for the ride to end—and Myka didn’t really know what to make of the fact that this was what Helena had done, after whatever conversation she had had with Emily Lake’s girlfriend: bought a corn dog and gone for a ride on the Ferris wheel. Myka did, however, find herself absurdly comforted by both the fact and the sight. Discomfited, a little, yet comforted.

Helena disembarked, discarded the corn dog’s stick. Saw Pete. Then saw Myka, whereupon her face lit up... but not fully. “I apologize,” she said.

“For what?” Myka asked, embarrassed at not being able to hide her slight panic at the restraint in Helena’s eyes.

Helena smiled. “I should have waited until you could join me,” she said, and just like that, Myka’s panic dissolved.

Pete mumbled, “Gotta throw this cup away and I think I better walk a little while to a place where they’ve got trash cans that isn’t here.”

Myka watched him jog-trot through the crowd, and she counted the trash cans he passed. She was up to eight when Helena said, “I should have contacted you, and I should have waited.”

“It’s okay,” Myka said. “I’m not a huge fan of corn dogs.”

“That wouldn’t have been my first choice, but I needed sustenance. In a physical sense, hence the food on a stick. But also... something from the distant past. My own basic and real past, much of which is distant.”

“Something like pie judging?”

“Mr. Ferris’s wheel was always similarly slow. Measured.” Helena paused, gave that light-up smile again. “But if I had waited, you could have sat beside me and held my hand. So I should have waited.”

If they had been in private, Myka would have kissed her. Leaned forward, taken that reward. Instead, she let her face relax into what she suspected was a light-up smile of her own. “Okay,” she said.

“And speaking of shoulds,” Helena said, with a set of jaw that wasn’t forbidding but nevertheless conveyed I feel compelled to say this, “I should never have taunted you in the hotel room this morning.”

As if it had been her fault. Myka said, “I deserved it. I should never have acted like you betrayed me. Like you wanted to.”

“Why not? It’s what I do,” Helena said, with a shrug that was not the yes I was a supervillain dismissal she often threw at Pete; this one was more a shouldering of guilt. This one, she offered to Pete only when Kelly was his subtext.

“Not like that,” Myka told her, because even though she’d flung “slept with someone else” at Helena, that was entirely undeserved. “And besides, it’s not what you do, it’s what you did. We shouldn’t forget the past, but it doesn’t have to force us into anything. What happens next isn’t inevitable.” Well. Except. She sighed; she did have to say it sooner or later, and maybe it would help. “Except for we have to go watch cars hit each other in a little while.”

It did help: Helena laughed. “We have to?”

“I lost a bet,” Myka said. Helena grinned, and Myka went on, “But you know you want to.”

“I suspect you want to as well.”

“Maybe a little,” Myka admitted, and for that second, the tuning between them was crystal-clear.

When Pete rejoined them, he asked her a surprisingly quiet, “Better now?”

“Better now,” she agreed. And she knuckled him between his shoulderblades.

TBC

I’m putting minimal tags on this part, in hopes that Tumblr won’t decide to make me invisible again. But what I would want to convey in a tag essay this time around has something to do with the version(s) of history we receive and accept: e.g., the alien-invasion panic ostensibly caused by the Mercury Theatre’s War of the Worlds broadcast. I recommend A. Brad Schwartz’s Broadcast Hysteria: Orson Welles's War of the Worlds and the Art of Fake News for, first, his exhaustive research into the actual-fact contours of the situation, but second, his analysis of the broadcast and the spectrum of responses to it as part of the culture’s way of working out the possibilities, and perceived dangers, of radio as a mass medium. This debate of course recurs with each new information-delivery system... does television have too much power? Are we overly susceptible to the lures and lies of social media?

Obviously, history is intricate, with competing stories and versions of stories and purposes for versions of stories. But I think we’re obligated to work to deepen, rather than to obscure, that complexity.

Also Orson Welles really liked that the supposed panic added to his notoriety and made him seem like even more of a genius. Cui bono? That’s a useful question to ask in a lot of contexts.

P.S. If you want a link to the Welles/Wells radio interview, feel free to message me, but it’s pretty findable on YouTube.

[ourfanfictiongalore-blog]

Game of Survival - Prologue

lil’ note: This was written really fast and not necessarily edited so fair warning if its terrible, but enjoy the fruits of my labor!! lol.

                  “Excuse me, Kane? I went down to the skybox to visit Monty and they said it was quarantined off? What’s wrong? Are they all ok?” The man in question turns to her slowly and gives her a long look.

        “So your the half-sister…” He puts emphasis on half as if the hyphenation is the only thing keeping him from shooting her into space like unwanted trash.

  “Yes. I’m Arden the half-sister of Monty green and I want to know what the hell is going on with my brother” she says as if daring him to do something considering he isn’t actually chancellor. Jaha was in recovery. He keeps a neutral expression on his face before sighing and answering.

         “It’s a medical issue take it up with Abby Griffin,” He says waving her off and walking away. Abby? So they were really sick? She makes her way to the medical wing as fear fills her mind thinking of Monty and Jasper being hurt. Upon arriving she sees Raven get there as well and she looks angry

      “Abby what’s going on with the sky box?” Raven confronts her loudly.

  “Yeah that’s what I came here to find out,” Arden says while crossing her arms. Abby hesitates before looking at the girls.

       “A sickness spread and were trying to contain it” She says shortly while both girls give each other looks of non-belief.

  “I was going to visit my boyfriend when they told me about the sickness, but I saw an open air duct why would it be open?” Raven asks as Jackson comes to stand beside abbey.

    “The sickness isn’t airborne that’s why the ariduct is open” Abby says as her eyes momentarily shift to the ground making Arden grow suspicious and cross her arms at abbey. Her eyes fix on Jackson and she notices him staring at abbey as if he’s waiting for her to say something she shouldn’t.

    “Alright well can you at least tell me if he’s ok?”

       “Us. If there ok?” Arden corrects coming to stand even closer beside raven to back her up.

  “No I can’t I’m sorry” Abby says to turn and walk away.

       “No your not” Raven mumbles under her breath but abbey heard it and started to turn back to the two girls now standing frustrated in diffusive stances as if there body language would help intimidate into giving them some answers.

       “First the drop ship now this. The councils hiding something.” Raven exclaims in irritation.

  “And were gonna find out what it is.” Arden exclaims as both girls turn to leave. Ravens walking briskly a bit ahead of her and Arden runs to catch up. Ravens only about an inch taller than her but man can she walk fast.

    “So how are we going to go about this?” She asks and raven barely spares her a glance as she replies.

  “We aren’t doing anything I don’t need your help.” Arden grabs onto her arm making both girls come to a halt in the middle of the bleak grey hallway of the Ark.

    “Look I get it if that’s how you do things normally. But you're not the only one with people that you care about in there, ok? And I’m gonna find out what’s going on to. So whether you like it or not looks like a mechanic and an engineer are gonna have to get along for once in history. Because it would be ridiculous to do it separately.” She states with conviction. A small impressed smirk appears on ravens face as she stared at the determined girl in front of her a moment.

    “Does anyone have a choice when it comes to you barging into their lives?” She asks with a teasing tone to her voice. Arden smiles’ knowing this was Ravens way of agreeing.

     “Nope.” She says making raven roll her eyes in exasperation before turning.

   “Ok. Follow me.” and they were off to brainstorm on how to figure out what was wrong with the prisoners in the skybox.                                                                                

****************

           “Abbey we have to stop, the council votes in thirty minutes” Jackson says as Abby types away on a computer. Arden couldn’t see much Atlas not with raven infant of her where she was spying at the two in the main computer haul.

         “What are they doing?” She whispers to raven who quickly shhh’s her. The girls had decided the best way to get answers wasn’t to ask questions but to listen in on the conversation. So far it wasn’t working the best but it was all they got.

         “Then we have thirty minutes” She hears Abby say in protest. Thirty minutes for what? What was the council planning? Did it have anything to do with Monty and Jasper…Even Finn? Was everyone in skybox ok?

         “They have every single person from sky box’s vital signs on the monitor next to a picture and there name” Raven whispers to her from behind making Arden want to push closer to look through the grate at what the other girl was seeing.

          ‘Why would they need that?’ Arden thinks to her self.

    “According to Sinclair even if we sent a signal down the wristbands weren’t designed to receive, so the kids wouldn’t even her it” She picks up Jacksons voice What are they talking about wristbands? Is that how there monitoring who the sick and not sick were in skybox? She thought doctors were most effective when they actually examined them. Not when she looked at here health through wristbands on a screen. There was so many ways that that could go wrong.

      “There has to be something we missed” Abby says as she sees her turn to Jackson over Ravens shoulder and through the grate. This was a Lot harder than she first had thought. Just then she could feel her foot slipping in her crouched position. ‘No no no’ it makes a squeak sound and she’s pausing holding her breath Raven side eyes her incredulously. But its not her fault that her foot fell asleep because they’d been crouched in such a small spot. Raven instantly climbs the latter that had gotten them own to where they were but before Arden could even grab on to the bottom Handle the door was being unlocked and abbey was barging in

     “Hey! Hey!” and dragging them both (to the best of her ability) into the room.

    “I’ll call security,” Jackson says planning to leave.

        “There not dying” Raven says as the all turn to her. What was she talking about? Had Raven figured something out that she hadn’t yet?

    “What are you talking about?” Her and Abbey ask at the same time then turning to each other in surprise.

  “All that’s being sent from the ground?” Raven asks.

      “What? The ground? that’s not possible its not surpassed to be survivable for another 100 years” Arden say’s the second part more to herself trying to wrap her head around the fact her brother was no longer safe on the ark even if it was in jail. How could the council be so heartless? There all just kids? Abby hesitantly grabs a medal band that was open and raven takes a holed of it.

    “Transmitted by these” Abby says And Arden eyes snap to her just as Abby gives her a guilty look

  “How could you even take that risk, your own daughter is one of them?” She asks incredulously.

      “We didn’t have a choice,” Abby says lowly as she looks towards raven who closed the band and gave all three of them a smirk

     “They’re taking them off,” She says while handing it to Arden to look at. She ran her finger over the sharp silver spikes that were built into it imagining how much it hurt Monty and jasper. Hell all of the kids when they put on them. Not wanting to look at it any longer she throws it towards Abby lightly who catches it.

    “Why would they do something so reckless?” Jackson asks making all the girls turn to him before setting there gaze back on all the screens.

    “Because we told them not too” Abby says with an astonished smirk on her face. Arden comes to stand beside her at the control panel and crosses her arms.

    “Lets also not forget that their rebellious teenagers with a criminal background… so to say”

*****************

             Walking into her family’s apartment Arden's mind was a jumbled mess. Her brother had been sent to the ground because the ark is dying and his life was disposable? For taking some weed out of farm stations rations? Why the hell did the Ark even have weed if not to use it? Her and Raven had promptly been told about there circumstances and all the little details up until the very moment when they’d caught the end of Abby and Jackson’s conversation and honestly that is a lot of information to take in in less than 3 hours time. Her father exiting from his room interrupted her train of thought.

    “Oh hey star shine how was your day?” Well that was a loaded question. She was practically bursting at the seems to tell him all the information shed acquired even the fact that Monty and jasper had been sent to the ground because life support is low and if the 100 didn’t make it at least the ark bought themselves more time because ya know who care about the lives of kids who already feel alone and unwanted in the world because the council could be selfish dicks.

     “Ya know, just the usual. Checking to see if all of the arks systems are operational making sure we have enough fuel” ‘we don’t' She says nonchalantly. She knew if she told her father she would end up exactly like Abby’s husband (who was really doing the right thing). And she had no idea what they would do to her father for knowing the information- oh wait they’d shoot him into space sucking all the air out of his lungs…just… like… Abby’s husband. She loved space, but she hates the Ark. Her father gave her a suspicious look when she didn’t make eye contact with him and fidgeted with her fingers. Truth was she didn’t know how to lie to her father. They’d been open with each other about everything since day one. Even things most kids would be flustered and embarrassed about being honest with the parents about.

      “Star shine is everything alright? You know you can tell me if anything’s wrong. Like with work or anything?” ‘I can’t dad not really, not when this time it could cost you your life’ she thinks to herself. She heaves a sigh and looks at him giving him a small smile.

     “Honestly no I’m just a bit stressed, but it will be. It’s gonna be alright” He gives her a wide smile one she’s known since she was a child and she couldn’t help but think Monty had his smile.

     “That’s my star shine. But if it gets to much you can tell Me.” her smile widens at that. She always thought she had the greatest dad in the world

     “Yeah dad I know” He goes into the kitchen and grabs an apple and takes a bite walking back towards her. He swallows leans down and kisses her on the head and walking to the door.

     “Well star shine I’m headed to work, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” He says with a wink knowing he’s never done anything bad in his life.

     “No promises,” She calls out before the door closes. She always felt more calm around her family, but now wasn’t the time to be calm she needed to find Raven and Abby and figure out a way to help her brother and Jasper.

***************

       She met up with Raven not long after knowing that the council was going to meet up shortly to discuss what was going to happen on the ark and with all the kids on the ground. Why was she not surprised that Marcus Kane was more than happy with the idea of killing 300 people from the Ark? His tyrannical dream of being chancellor and doing anything to get it was getting real old to Arden real fast. Walking in to the main mechanics room she sees Sinclair, he looks up and notices her with Raven and they share a smile.

     “Well I never thought id see the day were my Raven was willingly hanging out with an engineer,” Raven rolled her eyes as Sinclair comes to hug Arden.

     “Ha. Ha very funny.” Raven retorts back to him as they all began talking and passing time till they could figure out there next move for how they could help the 100 and the Ark as a whole. Not 20 minutes later and Sinclair got a call on the walkie apparently someone needed a mechanic and engineer pronto Arden just wanted to know who messed up so royal that they needed both of them.

      Walking down the hall to the address Sinclair told them to go to the girls approach a closed door. They give each other a confused look while taking in their surroundings, they were in the lower leaves of the go-sci ring and personally Arden couldn’t remember if she’d ever actually been down here. Raven holds a comm button down before speaking into it

   “Did someone call for a mechanic and engineer?’” She asked hesitantly still not knowing why they were needed way down here. Both girls are shocked when the door unlocks and slides open revealing Abbey griffin. At this point in the day should they really be surprised?

   “Your the one who called in the work order?” Raven asks Abby.

   “Should we really be surprised Rave?” Arden directs at her using the new nickname she gave her only 20 minutes ago as Raven shoots her a side eye. She knew it wasn’t ravens favorite, which was all the more reason for her to use it.

    “Girls we need to talk’” Abby says ignoring both of the girls previous comments. She side steps letting he girls walk in one after the other. Arden thought it smelt a bit like what blood taste like after you split your lip, Pure medal with a copper burn in the back of the nostrils. Looking around it was no surprise. Just guts of wires hanging from exposed areas were medal was peeled back. This room had to have been ignored since the Ark was formed. And wow did a 100 years of neglect really run a place down.

   “Look we told you we weren’t going to say anything ok?” Raven try’s to assure Abbey not really knowing why she wanted them here. Arden just kept assessing her surroundings.

   “I believe you and neither of you are in trouble. Follow me.” Abby claims. That got Arden’s attention and she curiously followed close behind Abbey as Raven hesitantly only followed because Arden went after so fast. 'Who knows what dangers she could get herself into she’s not wary of people for shit’ Raven thought

    “Not in trouble yet you mean.” She mumbles to herself

   “This levels off limits for people like us’” She exclaims glancing at Arden while crossing her arms, still suspicious of Abbey’s intentions.

     “Oh Rave, where’s your since of adventure?” Arden teases while standing next to Abbey still excited about whatever griffin wanted to show them. Abby smiles at Arden before turning to Raven

   “Not anymore. You both know that we sent the 100 to the ground, what you don’t know is why. The Ark is dying girls life support is on its last legs… I have ten days to prove that Earth is survivable or there gonna start reducing population. 320 innocent people would be killed.” The words that pass through Abbey’s lips make Arden feel light headed. So here she thought Monty was the one in danger. When all along the Ark was coming to an end and he got out (more or less) she leaned against the wall not even caring when some of the wire pocked into her hand.

     “I don’t get it. Why are you telling us this?” Raven questions as Arden sucks in a deep breath to control her emotions. She could freak about this later but not now.

   “Because I looked up your files, Very impressive. Raven you’re the youngest zero-G mechanic in over 50 years. And Arden you your the first Aerospace engineer to ever graduate early and at the top the class.”

   “52 but… so what?” Raven asks

  “So…” Abby begins to pull a tarp down from cover an object making Arden push off the wall and come stand beside Raven. Once its down they notice its an old pod from the first Space station to form the Ark.

   “You have 9 days to get this ready so I can survive a drop.” Arden honestly didn’t know how much more top secret info she could panel today. And she was sure this was extremely illegal looks like the joke she made with her dad was going to come true. Both girls approached the ship to examine it. ‘Boy is this a piece of work’ Arden thinks as Raven hits it a few times.

    “God what a piece of junk.” Raven exclaims mostly to herself but Arden hears it.

  “Ill say,” Arden agrees.

      “They must have found this thing when they salvaged MIR-3 in 2102.” ‘God this is going to take a miracle’ Arden thinks

    “Which is ancient’” She exclaims out loud after ravens comment about the pods age.

        “You want us to get a 130 year old escape pod ready to stand up to the inferno of reentry in nine days?” Raven says looking from the pod to abbey who had a determined look on her face.

    “Can you do it or not?” She asks the girls.

  “Hell yes we can but Abby if your going to Earth I’m going with you. You’re not the only one with someone you love on the ground’” Raven says when Abbey goes to protest.

    “Like hell I’m letting either one of you go alone, you’ll need help and my brothers down there.” Arden says speaking up determinedly making the others stare at her. Raven then turns back to Abby.

   “Those are our terms.” “Take it or leave it,” both girls say staring the older Griffin down. After a long bout of silence as abbey thinks about what the said she speaks up.

   “Alright you can come with me.” She says with only a sliver of uncertainty in her tone.

  “Looks like you got yourself a mechanic.” Raven smiles.

    “One Aerospace engineer at your service.” Arden says as both girls start looking at the craft and deciding what they needed to get started on fixing it. After all they only have 9 days.

[foxfyrez]

Chapter 9: Confessions

The Duke had called Silent down for a little get together so they could chat for a bit before he had to go do his own things. He sat on his throne, watching some video feeds from various cameras he put on different gangs in Motorcity. He smirked as he stopped on the Electroblades to notice that there seemed to be a fight happening at their base.

It was just between Crater and the redhead that Silent hung out with. It seemed rather violent between the two of them as they both were raising their weapons at one another, shouting things at each other. It wasn't odd that gangs sometimes had squabbles now and then, but Crater looked extremely pissed off.

"Oh, I wonder what caused this little spat among friends."

The screen flickered before showing a segment where Crater grabbed the redhead by the collar of his jersey, raising his fist at him. It looked like words were being exchanged, but the Duke couldn't hear it fully so he strained his hearing to understand. "You can't like her. She's—" It cut to the redhead yelling back at Crater. "She's not a—" the voice garbled, making the Duke wish he spent more money on a better listening device. And suddenly Crater threw the kid onto the ground, raising his hockey blade high into the air and slamming straight down onto the redhead.

The Duke winced, "Ouch that's gotta hurt." Whatever the reason for them fighting was beyond the Duke's knowledge. It did interest him a tad bit when they mentioned a 'her'. He already probably knew who they were referring to.

"Hey, what did you want?" Silent's voice startled him.

The Duke jumped in his seat, quickly turning off the video screens so Silent wouldn't see them. "God, you scared me!" He put his hand on his chest. Hopefully, she didn't see the screens because he wanted her to see the redhead himself when they hung out tomorrow if he was even still alive by then.

Silent crossed her arms, looking unamused.

"Ok, I needed you for a little chat. Just like sit down and talk to me about what ails you and other random nonsense." He replied, looking down at her.

She tilted her head to the side, "Ok?"

"Come sit down here." He snapped his fingers and one of his other goons quickly placed a chair next to his throne. He patted the seat, smiling widely when she sat down. "So, I want to know the details of your past and friendships. You've gotten to know Motorcity pretty well by this point, there's gotta be some juicy information you wanna share with someone?"

"Uh..." Silent never really shared her personal life with anyone because it was never brought up or asked. She had no idea what to say to him.

"Come on, it can't be that bad!"

"Well, I was sent to Motorcity to hunt down some really nasty monsters. I have a tracker on my phone which I use to well, ya know, track their location when they pop up. There haven't been any sightings of them recently so I haven't been looking for them." Silent started to explain to the Duke. "While searching for them in Motorcity, I got chased by those Houndbots. That's how I found you, and you hired me as a bodyguard."

The Duke nodded his head.

"I haven't seen a lot of them around lately, but I guess the dude in Deluxe? Uh, I think Junior said his name is Kane? I think he's gotten a hold of some of them and now is letting them loose in Motorcity to cause havoc."

"What makes you say that?"

"I encountered one of the monsters I was supposed to hunt at the racing event you held." Silent looked to the side. "It had his emblem etched on a piece of armor that the creature had with it."

"Hmm.. how dangerous are they?" The Duke asked while flipping through his camera feeds from the race's event. He found a camera that recorded the whole incident and watched it quietly, noticing what Silent was talking about.

"It ranges from low to extremely lethal. They come in various shapes and sizes. I haven't picked up any big signals lately so I don't think there's any reason to worry about the big ones." She shrugged her shoulders. "But if they do show up, I promise you I can take them out. It's what I was made to do."

The Duke tapped his cane on his knee softly as he closed the video screens once more. "Well, I do find that you're certainly interesting. Where did you learn to fight like you do?"

Silent shifted in her seat, "I was trained by my guardian. I originally was made to be a secret weapon for an army where I live, but my creator felt bad and raised me like I was his own daughter. I know most of my fighting from training with him although I learned new things on my own."

"Wait, you were born to become a weapon for an army?" He gave an incredulous look towards Silent. "I'm sorry but that's fucked up beyond belief. Sure you might be powerful, but I don't see you as a crazy killing machine."

Silent hummed thoughtfully, "I'm stronger than I look ya know. You know the phrase 'appearances can be deceiving'? It fits me well because I'm always looked over. After all, I look like a weakling." She turned to look at him, moving her mask to the side of her face so one eye was shown. "You understand why I have this mask on, correct?"

The Duke flinched. "Yes, and I believe I said you needed to keep it on at all times when I'm around."

Silent chuckled, moving it back into place. "Glad to know you understand. Anything else you want to know?"

The Duke decided to get back on topic, "You made any new friends? Any potential love interests?" He wiggled his eyebrows at her.

"Well, I've made friends with a few people here and there. They're mainly at Antonio's restaurant." Silent replied, choosing to ignore the Duke's question about love. "Maybe one or two people from different gangs."

"Anyone I know?"

"Uh you've met three of them, and it wasn't on good terms when you met. Like it's Casey, Chad, and Junior."

"Who's Casey?" The Duke asked, trying to recall if he ever met someone named Casey.

"Oh wait, he goes by the nickname of 'Wormy' in the Electroblades."

"Hang on, you mean to tell me that you've befriended someone from the Electroblades? The same gang that Crater bosses around? The guy who tried to kill you numerous times?" The Duke lowered his shades, staring at her in surprise.

"Yes?"

"He must be someone who doesn't hate you that much."

"I don't know about that. He might still hate me, but he's gotten along for now because his little brother wants to be my friend." Silent shrugged. "Wormys not that bad to be honest."

"I still don't know who Wormy is, all you've told me is his name. What's he look like?"

"He's the lanky redhead who tried to hurt you the first time I fought the Electroblades and Mama's Boys. That's who I'm talking about."

"Oh.." Now the Duke knew who she was talking about. It had to be the redhead from before that was fighting with Crater. "What do you think about him?"

"Uh, he's nice I guess. He looks like a punk skater. He paints his nails black, and he's got a really nice voice." Silent started listing off the things she liked about him. It was heading into some deep territory though, and she didn't realize it. "If he took off his mask, he'd probably look h—" She stopped talking just in time.

"I didn't catch that, care to repeat it?" The Duke smirked.

"Sorry lost my train of thought. Let's talk about something else! Ok, so there's also Chad and Junior from the Mama's Boys. You remember them, right?" Silent nervously laughed.

The Duke narrowed his eyes at her. He would find out eventually. "I know your loverboy Junior, but I don't know a Chad."

"He's not my loverboy! Stop saying that!" Silent groaned. "Chads the one with the bandage on his nose with the brown hair."

It took the Duke a moment to remember him, "I think I recall now. I know you're quite fond of Junior. What do you think about him?" He started recording this moment with his hidden cambot that was on the throne. "Any feelings?"

Silent's mask became light pink. "Uh, no. What do you mean?" She twiddled her fingers.

"Oh, you know what I'm talking about. Do you have a crush on him? Does your heart soar when you're near him? You get weak in the knees whenever he speaks to you? That sort of stuff!" He laughed at her expressions. She couldn't hide her feelings very well. "Like how you were talking about the redhead from the Electroblades."

"I did not!" She yelled, crossing her arms over her chest. "All I said was that he was nice." Yeah no, Silent knew damn well what she said.

"You were gonna call him hot if took his mask off."

Silent looked away from him, "so what if I was? That doesn't mean a thing!" She felt the Duke's gaze on her. "Ok yeah, I admit he's not a bad guy. I like his voice, and I wanna see what his face looks like underneath the mask." Her face was burning in shame. "There I said it, happy now?"

The Duke clapped his hands. "Finally we're getting somewhere! It's getting frustrating watching you skirt around your obvious feelings! How about your feelings for Junior? Are you finally gonna admit you like him?" The Duke held his cane up to his face and sang a little melody.

Silent glared at him.

"Aww, come on, don't be like that Sil. I know you know your own feelings. Just admit it. It's not gonna hurt anyone." He stared expectantly at her with big eyes.

Silent took a deep breath and nodded, "Fine but don't tell anyone else or I'll kill you." She threatened him.

"You have my word." He smiled.

"I think I have a crush on Junior, I mean it's a small one. I usually get random crushes here and there when I'm out on my hunting missions. I guess Wormy and Junior happened to be it this time." Silent grumbled, "They usually go away so don't worry about it." They never went away. She always had them. Her feelings for both of them were getting bigger each day she spent time with them. She just had to push it down so it would never arise.

"See? That wasn't so hard now was it?" He said, turning off the recorder. "Now you may go back to whatever you were doing before I called you down here. I've got something big coming up, and I need to prepare for it."

Silent tilted her head in confusion but went back to her room anyway.

The Duke stared at the newly recorded footage. His grin became malicious, "This will be a fun event indeed."

[fenweak]

Below the cut are 91 fics that feature Jonny and Patrick as creatures that lurk and prey (and snuggle) in the night. From wolfverses to fluffy animal transformations to love/sex magic. I've had such a great time re-reading all of these, as this pairing has been graced by so many amazing authors. Happy reading and happy Halloween!

★ are personal faves

Demons

a dainty dish to set before the king by mockturtletale ★ - demon!Kaner

But then the clocks strike midnight - clocks plural - and that’s weird as fuck, because the year is 2013 and Jonathan Toews doesn’t own any clocks that make that noise. He doesn’t own any clocks that make noise period.

Crossroad Blues by activevirtues- demon!Kaner

In which the demon Patrick Kane gives Jonathan Toews everything he's ever wanted.

Feathers by MJBadger - demon!Kaner, angel!Jonny

Not that Patrick has been snagging many souls or causing much in the way of mischief, lately. He supposes he should go out at some point and play a bit of catch-up. He assumes Jonny's been hanging out on park benches and saving jackasses left and right.

In which Jonny is an angel, and Patrick is a lazy demon.

Sweet and Tender Hooligan (or the post-apocalyptic au) by jezziejay - demon!Kaner

In which Kaner is a daemon of chaos, and Jonny is just trying to hold onto his city. Dystopian universe. Dark. Dark characterisation. A little TW, a litte GoT, and a little Patrick Ness. 

Together Burning Bright - demon!Jonny

Four times Jonny tried to eat Patrick's soul, and the one time he couldn't.

The Creek by mullsandmutts - demon!Kaner, angel!Jonny

Jonathan is a literal angel. Patrick is a literal demon (but with a sweet and kind heart -- it's complicated, okay?). They meet where their worlds are divided and existence might never be the same

Going West - not gonna spoil it but i love it

Jonathan finds the boy along the outskirts of a town market, chained to a post. There's a bronze armband clasped tightly on his forearm, winding around it like a snake, and he stares sullenly at the ground, heedless of Jonathan's gaze, while his toe traces patterns in the dust.

"I want him," Jonathan says to the vendor, pointing.

That's a lie.

Constant as a Northern Star - demon-hunter!Jonny, Pat is his safekeeper

The term "preux" was first used in the scripture that would become known as the Treaty of Avignon [signed in 1156, copies of the original - which was destroyed in the Siege of Harfleur in 1418 - are stored in Prague and Trondheim], marking not only the beginning of the working relationship between vampires and preux but also the use of a term to distinguish the preux from ordinary hunters.

(Or: Jonathan is a good fighter (it doesn't get more AU than this), Patrick waits for him,hates it and is a BAMF no matter the circumstances. Sharpy knows everything but doesn'tbetray anyone's secrets. He's a vampire, he has morals.)

Soulless by ice_hot_13 - demon!Jonny

Jonny used to have a soul.

Vampires

where the wild things are series by liketheroad - twilight AU

Seeing Johnny skate, Patrick realizes two things at the same time. One, Johnny is an incredibly gifted, terrifying hockey player, and two, Patrick is completely and irredeemably gay for him. Also, he’s definitely a vampire, but whatever, Patrick doesn’t really give a shit about that part. (Twilight AU)

Provenance by fourfreedoms ★ - vampire!Jonny  | sorta sequel here

“I uh, didn’t think it would be done so fast,” Patrick said when he arrived. Jonathan stared at him. “Done? You insult me. A good suit, at a lackluster slapdash minimum, needs three-fittings. You’ll be in here for four, I assure you.”

true blood chatfic by doctor_denmark - vampire!Jonny | not fic but still cute

So, sometimes hockey blogs say that Jonathan Toews's playoff fail-beard makes him look like a "victorian era vampire" (repeatedly), and when this happens, I start telling myself about the True Blood au, where Toews is the first vampire to play in the NHL, and Patrick Kane is the deeply closeted hockey player who falls in love with him. Then horrible enablers let me chat-fic at them for hours, and I end up with about 8,000 words, which is 9 times more than i managed on my thesis today.

I'm putting it here, because the world needs to witness my folly.

nature of the immortal being by Mayhem10 - vampire!Kaner

“Wait,” interrupts Jonathan, finally registering Patrick’s rant. “What exactly are you allergic to?”

Patrick waves dismissively. “You know, the usual.”

(In which Patrick is the worst vampire ever and Jonathan grows his own garlic.)

Sealed With A Kiss - (butt)vampire!Kaner

Five minutes after Coach Q explains to his new team that Patrick is indeed a supernatural creature of the night, he’s hustled into the corridor by his cute as hell new captain.

“An ass-eating vampire?” Jonathan asks.

“It’s not like I had a choice,” Patrick says, defensively.

bloodlust - vampire!Kaner 

One Time Patrick Kane Didn’t Drink From Jonathan Toews and Five Times He Did (also known as Vampire Kaner)

so say, what are you waiting for? by nuuclears - vamp!Jonny

“But are you even into this?” Patrick asks, biting his lip at how vulnerable it comes out.

Jonny straightens up fully and stares at him, hands full of gatorade bottles forgotten at his sides. “Kaner, it’s blood,” Jonny tells him incredulously, and ok, a valid point, Patrick does have some idea of how vampires get about blood, but still. It’s not like they’re just drinking from everyone either.

“And,” Jonny says, and blows out a harsh breath of air that he doesn’t even need. “And it’s you,” he admits, like it costs him something.

vampire!kaner AU by allthebros

He comes back to himself with Jonny’s blood in his mouth.

Werewolves 

All Practise and No Play by james - were!Kaner

Sometimes Tazer thinks it's like herding puppies. Actually, no, he thinks that all the time.

by the throat by liketheroad

The one where they're werewolves growing up in Manitoba.

Catalyst - were!Jonny

Full moon’s coming.

It’s about a week out, but even if they didn’t all keep a careful calendar of it, Patrick would know it just by looking at Johnny. Patrick’s known a few werewolves before, some distant family, and Johnny’s got all the hypervigilant aggression he’s used to seeing from them, but what they direct at others—bristling when people get too close, snapping when they’re provoked, showing teeth—Johnny turns inward.

fight or run, you're just getting older (podfic available by AshesandGhost) - were!Kaner 

Contrary to popular belief, weres don't actually need alphas. Patrick never had one, since he's the only person in his family with the gene, and his parents didn't push him into finding one. Alphas make their betas better; they keep them calm and level, they support them, they guide them. Without an alpha, betas are perfectly fine. They're just better with one.

Instincts (podfic available by exmanhater)

They don’t talk about what happens during the moon; and they don’t talk about how Patrick drives over sometimes to curl up on the couch and put his head in Johnny’s lap, jittery all over until he gets the anchoring weight of Johnny’s hand on the back of his neck; and they don’t talk about how Johnny calls him some nights and says, “Come over,” and Patrick does, because Johnny’s head is pounding with the need to get Patrick where he can see him, breathe in the scent of him, know he’s there and well. If they don’t talk about it they can just keep having whatever they need from each other; and that’s what they’ll do, because Johnny is Patrick’s alpha and Patrick needs him to be that for him.

For Johnny, it’s always been more.

I've Got A Feeling (I Hope You're Feeling It Too) by aohatsu - highschool werewolves AU!

When Patrick met Jonny for the first time, it was because they'd both just been picked for the same hockey team. When Patrick netted his first goal during practice, Jonny skated over to give him a congratulatory hug and, well, it's not like he didn't sometimes shift on accident, when he was excited or happy, but it hadn't happened at practice in ages.

Not Passive but Aggressive by reserve

Patrick Kane is a shitty werewolf; Jonathan Toews loves him anyway.

sun sweet berries of the earth series by gasmsinc -  were!jonny, forest spirit!kaner

There is a spirit living in Patrick State Park.

“Listen,” says Jonny. “I didn’t mean to step on your crown.”

The spirit’s bottom lip wobbles.

What If The Storm Ends ★

Here’s how it goes: Pat was out at a club, got bitten by a wolf—wtf?—got yelled at by Abby Sharp, woke up naked on her kitchen table, spent the day hiding in an IHOP, played the most aggressive game of hockey in his career and got mob-bossed off the ice by Sidney Crosby who, for the record, was surprisingly terrifying.

That was Tuesday.

wolf like me by gasmsinc ★ - were!Jonny

When Patrick had imagined his eighteenth birth year celebrations, he hadn’t imagined them taking place in a fortress a thousand miles away from home, surrounded by a people who were only his by marriage, while sitting next to a husband he barely knew.

He had imagined celebrating in Paelford Castle, right there in the great hall where his family had held every celebration, surrounded by the servants and nobles he had known his entire life, his parents and sisters on either side of him. He hadn’t imagined celebrating his eighteenth birth year on his wedding day, either.

Wolfverse by linsky - were!Patrick

Patrick has two goals for himself when he comes to Chicago: Win the Stanley Cup. And don’t let anyone find out he’s a wolf.

Ghost

Transcendence by ice_hot_13 - ghost!Jonny

Jonny shows up at midnight to play at the rink, and Patrick doesn't know who he is, what he's doing, or how the hell he even gets into the building, but Patrick still can't stay away.

If You Like It, Then You Should've Put A Ring On It - stepquietly

Tazer haunts Patrick through his TV and keeps threatening to kill him. And Kaner makes jokes about how Tazer lives at the bottom of a well and still uses a VCR. (The Ring AU crack!fic)

feel your heart beating as clearly as my own - ghost!Jonny

[He still doesn't get enough sleep most nights, and even though Jonny's there, he's notreally there, and he spends a lot of time sitting on the couch staring out the window,Jonny's hand clenched around his, like he's not sure what else to do.]

Jonny dies. Then he starts bothering Patrick.

the ghost & mr. kane - ghost!Jonny

"Uh," he starts. "You--if you're robbing me, you're not doing a great job of it."

"I'm not--I live here!"

"No you don't," says Patrick, dumb. "I live here."

"Yeah, I'm--I'm--I do too."

It snaps together for Patrick, suddenly--the guy's weird muttonchops, his suit, the way he disappeared and reappeared. "You're my ghost?" he asks. Just for confirmation, you know.

"Yes," his ghost says, glowering and still rusty-voiced.

as the ominous others

defrost, debauch, destroy by psocoptera (podfic by exmanhater)  ★ - ???

Beneath the ice, dread things lie dreaming. Or listening to One Direction, whatever.

thy hair soft-lifed by the winnowng wind by forochel ★ - leprechaun!Kaner

He made sure to lay out two saucers, one of spiked milk and one of pure whisky, that night; it was the closest to an apology he could think of.

Anatomy of a Hybrid series by maccabird_23 (abandoned WIP) - magical hybrid AU

Professional sports were chock-full of wolf and dragon hybrids; littered with adept humans but lean on the fairer hybrid. Most elves stayed to the more delicate athletics. Ballet and figure skating being the few sports they excelled at. Elves definitely didn’t play hockey. + Pat was many things but dumb wasn’t one of them. He knew how his teammates looked at him when he got worked up or even worst, turned on. He felt it deep in his gut and couldn’t control as the excitement, anger or arousal blossomed on his skin. Sparks of red and blue taking off from the tips of his pointy ears when he was happy. Deep reds gathering like coal along his scales when he was upset. His lips turning blistering silver before settling on frostbite red whenever he looked at Jonny.

bare those teeth to me please, man-eater - selkie!Jonny

 the one where johnny is a selkie, and patrick is the fisherman's son who loves him.

1988 selkie AU by allthebros - selkie!Jonny

They never give their skin willingly, his grandpa told him. You gotta either steal it and hide it away where they can’t find it, cause, believe it, first chance they got, they’re gone–doesn’t matter if they love you or if they have kids, they love and want the sea more. Or you gotta let them have their skin and let them go once the tryst is over. They don’t stay land-locked by choice, though they can still be happy and love like we do.

Patrick’s grandpa was a wise man, which is why it takes him more than a moment to understand what Jonathan is saying. “Take it, Patrick,” he repeats, his seal-skin all folded up between his strong hands. “I wanna stay.”

But You're So Magnetic by forochel - veela!Kaner 

Kaner comes into his veela heritage on his 24th birthday. Shenanigans and surprise feelings ensue.

call it magic by thundersquall ★ - faerie!Patrick

“It’s the faerie blood in me,” Patrick explains.

Jonny is just not equipped to deal with this shit.

OR, on March 17, Patrick turns into a faerie.

(Can't Help) Faun'in in Love by Miss_Psychotic - faun!Kaner 

When Jonathan is 12, he meets a boy named Kaner.

Crest and Break by hatrickane - mer!Kaner

 Kaner’s life in the deep is more than fulfilling - even despite his fascination with the fisherman who floats on the surface. He knows he has to keep his obsession a secret from the other Merfolk - but no banishment, magic, or legend is going keep him from getting closer to those kind eyes.

Friend Like Me by hatrickane ★ - genie!Jonny

 It wasn’t as beautiful as most oil lamps, Patrick surmised. It was a little stained, the ceramic chipped in places, but a meticulously crafted leaf sat nestled at the open mouth and Kaner dragged his fingertips over it.

It was warm, and he wanted it. Even without knowing what was inside.

First Frost by SimoneClouseau ★ - faerie (unseelie!Jonny)  

When he makes it to the party they ask him where he disappeared to an hour ago and Patrick stares back at them.

“What do you mean an hour?” he says. “It’s been ten minutes.”

Sharpy starts laughing. “Fine, don’t tell us.”

Patrick thinks maybe, just maybe, he’s going insane.

Patrick ends up somewhere he shouldn't be, and Jonathan is forced to claim him to save his life.

I want to meet the kind of folks I've never met by pistol_red - mer!Jonny

In which Johnny is tangled in a net and Patrick is the merman who saves him.

kiss the boy by gasmsinc - mer!kaner

The fish’s head is submerged completely under water. The only thing sticking out is the curve of its back, but Jonny can finally see why it’s stuck: there’s a fishing net hooked on a part of the rock.

It’s then that the fish decides to move again. Its tail thrashes back and forth wildly, and in its panic the fish bangs its broken fin right into the rock. A series of air bubbles pop up to Jonny’s right, but he doesn’t have time to acknowledge how weird that is, because three seconds after the bubbles, a boy’s head pops out of the water.

Jonny yells.

My Heart's in the Sea - Samantha_Holmes - mer!Jonny

When a mermaid named Jonathan saves a prince named Patrick from drowning, little did they know that their lives would be intertwined forever.

Animal Transformations

After Forever After by hockeyhawk ★ - angry frog!Jonny

One moment there was a captain. Next moment there was a frog. Someone has to step up, apparently it's Kaner.

The Hedgehog Can Never Be Buggered At All by forochel - hedgehog kaner

It’s a little known fact that the Kane family are in possession of a genetic quirk — an x-linked recessive gene — that basically boils down to this: Kaner turns into a hedgehog one day and gets stuck.

An Experiment In Hedgehog Physics by exmanhater - hedgehog!Kaner

Hedgehog!Kaner has the best ideas.

Hedgehog!Kaner series by altri_uccelli ★  - hedgehog!Kaner

Uhhhh, hedgehog Kaner in Switzerland.

+

Jon brings him up to his neck, cuddling him against the skin of his throat. He’s always done that, way back before everything. Even though it prickles, even though it gives him a light rash sometimes, he just likes Kaner there.

“Been awhile,” he whispers again.

+ A collection of ficlets and tagfic in the hedgehog!Kaner 'verse.

Better Off With You by tictactoews - hedgehog!Jonny 

Tazer has always seemed prickly on the outside, but he takes it to a whole new level when he turns into an actual hedgehog and becomes dependent on Patrick's care.

Changing on the Fly by mermaid - pitbull!Kaner

"Where's Kaner?" Jonny asks. "Where did this pit bull come from?" Duncs chews on his lip. "Uh, see, there's actually only one answer to both those questions."

Still muzzy with sleep, Jonny blinks at the guys. "So, like – Kaner got me a dog? And sent you two here to deliver it?"

"No," Sharpy says. "No, Kaner is the dog."

Duck Tales - duck!Jonny

“I think he needs floaties.”

Patrick resists the strong urge he gets to slam his head against the wall. “Kaner. He’s aduck; I don’t think they make floaties for them. What kind of duck can’t swim?”

“The kind that are magically transformed hockey players?” Kaner suggests and damn it, hehas a point.

Gone to the Dogs - puppy!Jonny

Jonathan Toews turns into a puppy. Then some other stuff happens.

Hooked on a Feeling (podfic available by exmanhater) - pug!Jonny

The one where Patrick is not exactly Bella Swan and Jonathan is definitely not Sparkly Whatshisname.

OR, THE WERE-PUG AU.

Into Each Life Some Rain Will Fall Like Cat Piss on Your Shoes by james - cat!Kaner

Johnny is waiting for Patrick to get home from Switzerland. What he gets is a surprise.

Slip the Jesses, My Love by flitterflutterfly - literally a hawk!Jonny

Jonny’s gets turned into a hawk and the only one he lets hold him is Patrick

The Cat Crept In by Celly1995 - kitten!kaner

Jonny's not entirely sure why he needed to get back to Chicago so urgently, because he *definitely* doesn't want to admit to himself that he's missing Patrick. But it's just as well he did come home, because Patrick's... not himself.

the skies are not cloudy - buffalo!Jonny

In which Jonathan Toews can turn into a buffalo, and Patrick Kane is the idiot in love with him.

Through the Looking Glass - puppy!Jonny, kitten!Kaner

The fic where Tazer becomes a puppy and Kaner turns into a kitten, but Sharpy still doesn't see any difference in how they behave.

To push a frozen rope - kitten!Kaner

It's just another day in the Blackhawks locker room when Patrick Kane decides to turn into a puppy.

you come around and the armor falls by altri_uccelli - puppy!Jonny

Patrick's in bed when he hears it, and at first it sounds like a peep that a phone might make, but then it happens again, elongated like a whine. His only theory is that it's a mouse, caught somewhere, and if Jonny's going to make a nuisance of himself by staying when he's not invited, he can damn well take care of this.

Bonus: IGAL 'verse by svmadelyn has an amazing tumblr tag that has ficlets and tag!fics with puppy!Tazer and doggo kids. Warning cuteness overload

Love & Sex & Magic

#1 Crush - sex magic

Patrick shows up at his and Jonny's hotel room under the influence of sex magic. 5000 words of porn ensues.

caring is creepy by liketheroad ★ - truth magic

When he gets out of the shower Johnny stares at him like Kaner’s the best thing he’s ever seen, which weirds Kaner out even more than the rest of this situation, because what, not even Johnny’s eyes can lie, now? This is some fucked up shit. Fucking Canucks fans, seriously.

 In which Tazer is truth whammied by a Canucks fan and it turns out he has a lot of feelings. Mostly about Kaner. But also about bacon.

Changing the Rules of the Game by Herwhereabouts - magic powers

Tazer has a concussion and is desperate to get better, while Kaner has healing powers he is unaware he possesses. Much drama ensues.

still into you by altri_uccelli - gender transformation

It's not even 12 hours after Jonny discovers he's a girl that he's sprawled on an itchy sofa, biting on his fist and being eaten out by Patrick Kane. He can't believe that a day exists in which having oral sex with Kaner, his oldest friend on the team and frequently a pain in his ass, is not the weirdest thing to happen.

A Handy Guide To Making You Feel Good by fourfreedoms and joyfulseeker - gender transformation

When it had first happened, body melting into this new form right there in front of all the guys, he’d demanded an answer from Jonny. “Did you see this coming?” A five first times fic.

+ “Um…” Patrick says, staring at the water beading down over the curve of one breast and along his taut stomach.

“What?” Jonny asks, furrowing his brows.

Patrick finally gets the chance to lend a helping hand.

Hanging on a Moment of Truth - sex magic

As it turns out, the weird sex magic is the least of Kaner's problems.

i mingle with divinity by mockturtletale - lucky sex magic

“Hey,” Patrick says, putting his hand on Jonny’s thigh, feeling giving, “It’s totally us. You and me, we’re golden when our boners touch. It’s just what happens after that’s unnatural or whatever.”

roving eye ravenous by toomanyhometowns ★ - possession

He opened his mouth to start talking and blinked.

So Deep in My Heart (That You're Really a Part of Me) by kiwoa - bodyswap

"No way," Jonny says, and he slowly turns his - Kaner's - head from side to side, watching the muscles in his face and neck shift. He licks his lips; it tastes wrong. His left wrist feels too stiff and his legs and stomach look too skinny and his hair still itches, damnit. Jonny scratches the back of his neck with nails that are too long and uncomfortably ragged.

"Okay," he says slowly. "Okay, this is not good."

Symptomatic by snapple_jax - sex magic

“What, like it’s hard?” Jonny parrots along with Elle Woods. He side-eyes Patrick, fully prepared for the gleeful chirp about how he knew Jonny loved this movie all along.

Only Pat’s turned an alarming shade of red before scurrying to the bathroom, blanket trailing behind since he couldn’t untangle himself fast enough.

the gift of obedience - obedience magic

Patrick will be fine without Jonny. Really. All he has to do is track down Lucinda and get her to break the spell. He doesn’t even have to liberate an oppressed magical species or find true love along the way.

The Hug Offensive by ingenius - magic powers

When he's five, Patrick figures out that he has a super power. He thinks it's awesome.

under your skin by hazel - bodyswap

Patrick goes to bed that night in Tazer’s guest room. It’s not the first time he’s slept there, but it’s the first time he’s tried to sleep in Tazer’s body. His legs want to kick out weirdly into the corners of the bed, and his head can’t find a comfortable position on the pillow. He drops off eventually anyway, worn from the current of rage he’s been carrying around all day and the constant slow rhythm of Tazer’s heartbeat, drumming in his chest like a cage.

yours and/or mine by demotu - bodyswap

Jonny shows Patrick how it works. And by "it", I mean his dick. Jonny's, but temporarily Patrick's.

love is a contact sport by hazel and mermaid ★ - soul bond

"And the tragic reality of Patrick's life is that even though they broke up over a year ago, he and Johnny still play beautiful hockey together."

A high school AU, featuring dream-fish, bad movie dates, and a little bit of magic.

glory days by liketheroad - soul bond

He never expected his destiny to involve anything but hockey, never thought it would show up in flip flops, but when Patrick smiles at him across the locker room, quick and surprised, Johnny lets his priorities shift and change without a hint of reluctance or regret.

22 by aohatsu ★- soulmate

There’s no other explanation. His soulmate must have turned twenty-two yesterday.

more magical Realism and fantasy

say it with flowers by hazel ★

GOOD WORK, YOUNG HAWK, the oak tree outside his building booms once the season’s over, and Patrick smiles sleepily in its direction.

He's never been sure how the trees of Chicago know about hockey—trees hear a lot, but it's not like he's ever stopped in a public park to ask one about it.

The Purity Myth by downjune ★

Patrick Kane is a unicorn—the ferocious, foul-mouthed, man-hating kind.

these are the fables on my street by Fahye ★

Patrick makes a fucking superhuman effort, sweeps up the mess of his emotions, and stashes his incipient freakout about all of this somewhere in the back of his mind where he can have it later. When Jonny's back in the driver's seat, and Patrick's had a chance to bring up the whole blowjobs-and-beach-walks issue. Focused on the win, that's Patrick Kane.

Custos by hatrickane

The legend goes as this: The Sorcerer of Mount Custos, the guardian, serves as the protector of the farmfolk.

Patrick thinks it's bullshit.

I have as much soul as you (and full as much heart) by Mayhem10

Jonathan Toews was born with only half a heart. He didn't know that the other half existed, let alone that it was held by some irritating American named Patrick Kane.

A Magical Realism AU

May your past be the sound by elareine

After that, Jonny set some rules for himself.

1. No using his power for himself. That just looked like a slippery slope to him. Helping others was fine, though. 2. Consequently, no manipulating the outcome of a game, no matter how badly he wished to change the way he’d played. That would be unfair and undermine any victories. 3. No relationships with teammates. Not related to the time travel thing, but important enough to include in this list. Just because he could turn back time didn’t mean he had to create any more opportunities for a giant clusterfuck than necessary.

(Five times Jonny travelled back in time, one time he couldn't, and one time he chose not to.)

Like a Leaf That's Caught In the Tide by Frosting50

For more than 200 years the Toews men have been blamed for everything that’s ever gone wrong in the town of Pumpkin Hollow. Or the Practical Magic AU no one asked for.

bring it if you really want it by staraflur

It starts like this:

Well, okay, Patrick has no idea how it actually starts. But as pertains to him (in other words, the important part), it goes a little something like so: America, being a nation composed in large part of a melting pot of immigrants who may or may not have taken over land already owned by others using less-than-savory means, doesn’t have much of a magical national identity. Much less a magical continental identity. There’s no grand heritage going back thousands of years. Magical families home-schooled all their kids until, like, the 1800’s, and tough for the muggle-born, apparently. Hopefully you got noticed by someone who knew what to do with you before you got burned at the stake. Since you probably can’t control your powers, sport.

forget met (not) by hippietoews

“You're remembering him, aren't you?" Pat asks. Jon hums quietly.

After the battle with Pitch, Jon never talked about his memories. He didn't share anything about his previous life with the other Guardians. He knows that they have memories of their own previous lives, but they seem so unattached to them now.

Who they are now is what matters.

Long Way Home by tictactoews

Jonathan Toews is a young heir to the Winnipeg castle and estate, but this comfortable and sheltered life is not what he really wants. When circumstances force him to join a group of Grey Wardens - warriors dedicated to defend the world against monstrous enemies - Jonathan finds a new life and new friends, including two runaways from the neighboring country of Orlais, an old friend who's now back in his life, and a rogue elf who will come to mean more to Jonathan than he ever expected anyone could.

Dragon Age AU. No prior knowledge of the game necessary to read this story.Spoilers (if any) for Origins and Awakening.No spoilers for Inquisition.

the times i spent with you

"Pat plays Quidditch because not playing feels like dying. It's just that simple." Quidditch AU

through the mirrored maze

Jonathan's relationship with his daemon is different from anyone else's.

together again for the very first time by draftingletters

Like, seriously, this is the great fucking irony of Kaner’s life. You’d think it’d be pretty awesome, having powers of prophecy and all that, but all the dreams that end up coming true are so hideously fucking boring. It’s the perfectly natural normal dreams his brain spits out that are fucked up. The kind where he plays for the Ducks, or is a professional florist, or a neon green elephant. Or banging Tazer.

the walls kept tumbling down (in the city that we loved) series by altri_uccelli 

“Patrick wonders idly what Toews' daemon is; something like a python, maybe, or a bird of prey. It would just figure if it were a hawk, Patrick thinks in disgust; he's already starting to hate Toews a little so he tries to dial it back. Then he notices a big cat—some kind of, like, mountain lion—sitting well apart from the other daemons. It's watching the ice intently, and if Patrick had anyone to bet with, he knows where he'd put his money.”

+ fighting dragon remix ★ by altri_uccelli

A month ago, Jon thinks: a month ago he hadn't even heard of daemons, hadn't yet had his life turned upside down by a talking otter and a boy with dimples and the smoothest skin he'd ever touched and secrets held close behind long-lashed blue eyes.

world enough and time

The effect is instantaneous: Jonathan jerks forwards, gasping, and over the white-noise screaming his eyes are wide and frightened and fiercely alive. In that instant Patrick thinks, clear as a bell, god, he’s gorgeous. Fuck. (A Pushing Daisies AU.)

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