#but what do you mean we can't pick up the supply crates??

[starwrighter]

I am not a baby!! (Yes you are,)

(Prompt) (Previous part) (Next) (Masterpost) (Ao3)

(Part four peoples!!!)

Either something went wrong with that transmission or he was going to be stuck on this planet for 99,999 hours. Both options didn't bode well for him but one was clearly better than the other.

Ancient's how long was 99,999 hours? With a number that big he was looking at spending around ten years waiting for a rescue team to show up and help them. If everyone wasn't dead by that point they'd probably have built a super cool society with Deepsea bases and nuclear power that they'd have to give up. In ten years he would've figured out what the heck was going on with him and brought them home himself. Though, ten years would give him an excuse for why he was still around the same age he was when he left. Wipe the PDA's data beyond recovery, blame the most annoying creature or plant as what shrank him, and refuse to elaborate any further.

A transmission error was more likely than his brilliant hypothetical scenario. When a spaceship as big as the aurora crashed there was bound to be some interference. Whether that interference be artificial or not was still unclear much to his dismay.

At least he had a scanner, that was a big step for him in his progression. A lot of the actually helpful blueprints were corrupted in the crash and supposedly the scanner could help recover them. Scanning fragments of salvaged tech would be the quickest way of recovery all things considered. Destroyed beacons, singed seaglides, and trashcans were scattered all throughout the shallows, pollution likely reaching farther than what he'd explored. With a crash, this big damage likely extended much farther than what was visible to him.

Not only did their ship crush who knows how many creatures and plants, the regular and radioactive pollution would screw over future generations of fish! It was the intergalactic equivalent of a catastrophic oil spill and he was an unwilling participant in it. Something deep inside him ached at the thought of him being a participant in a planet's destruction.

Chunks of broken spaceship were bad enough for the environment on its own. Batteries, trash, fuel, and hundreds of pounds of manmade resources that'd take hundreds if not thousands of years to decompose. Every scrap of metal, every piece of plastic trash no matter the size was something to poison, choke or kill the local wildlife. Sam would be furious, this wasn't a case of natural food shortages or extreme weather, this could very well be an extinction event! Nuclear power was the default for Alterra's larger ships, and if it wasn't already, the aurora was soon to start leaking radiation all over the place!

This was one of the few life-bearing planets humanity discovered! Hundreds upon hundreds of planets have been discovered within humanity's years of space exploration but life existing without human intervention was still rare. Metal, rock, and gas were what were all that were usually brought back in the beginning. As humanity's technology advanced, they went farther into space, with more habitable planets being discovered and an uptick in thriving alien life. There was always a continuous stream of new discoveries in their universe, alien floras and fauna being discovered as often as they went extinct. Even so, it'd be a cold day in hell before he shared responsibility for any aliens going extinct.

Genetic mutations, Birth defects, and massive amounts of death were the first things that came to mind when radiation was brought into the picture. Radiation was the biggest issue so far, the melted spaceship could be recycled, no matter what Alterra's stupid rules told him he could and couldn't do. Trusting a corporation to clean up their own messes was like asking a toddler to clean up their toys; it would only lead to a conniption fit and a half-assed job. It was unclear how long he was going to be here and if when he met up with the other survivors, the need for materials would only increase as time went on.

Scanning and salvaging would have to wait until the next morning. Darkness shrouded the ocean outside his life pod, making it twice as dangerous to be out there tearing wrecks apart. Bioluminescence wasn't a skill he could put on his resume just yet nor was any kind of night vision. It would be both dangerous and annoying to swim around aimlessly in the dark when he had a perfectly good life pod he could relax in.

Standing in the safety of his lifepod, Danny ran the scanner up and down his body, the tech lighting him up a brilliant blue.

"Performing self-scan. Vital signs follow continuous pattern; no adverse effects identified. Detecting tracing amounts of foreign bacteria. Continuing to monitor,"

The PDA chimed and if Danny were an actual infant like the stupid tablet insisted he was he wouldn't have understood a word of those sentences. But since he wasn't a baby he could properly understand that there were alien germs in his body that really shouldn't be there.

Yeah, That seemed like a problem but it wasn't the reason his powers were short-circuiting. Before they even entered the atmosphere his powers were going wonky. Everything felt the same as it did before he came in contact with this "Foreign bacteria" There were no physical symptoms to complain about so maybe it was just his PDA's way of warning him he was coming down with an alien cold?

Whatever it was, Danny bet fifty bucks the metal muncher was what gave it to him. The creature had a face that screamed "Hey! look at me, I have all the diseases!" Now he was no marine biologist but scrap metal and electrical wire didn't exactly seem like the healthiest snack to chew on. Although, with the resemblance it had to crocodiles back home, one could only wonder if it swallowed metal to help with digestion?

Jagged teeth like the ones on the metal muncher weren't exactly suitable for grinding up food. Finding out the Metal muncher's stomach was full of rocks would be the least surprising thing that's happened today. Metal salvage from the Aurora was way too big to work as a stomach stone so it was more likely the creature just liked chewing on metal. It seemed just as interested in the titanium deposits as it was with the salvage so maybe it was a natural way to file down or sharpen their teeth? Hopefully, the metal munchers were smart enough to avoid chewing on wires that were actively sparking.

Opening a note function on his PDA, Danny began scribbling down everything he'd learned from his encounter with the metal muncher. Easily distracted, aggressive, territorial? Deciding everything he’d seen today was their normal everyday behavior would be stupid. There were new variables in the creature’s environment that could impact its behavior. Continued observation would be helpful as would scanning the animal in the morning. If Danny was going to be stranded on an alien planet you bet your ass he’s going to be studying the local wildlife while he’s here.

“A proper sleep schedule is imperative to the physical and phycological development of young children, " A chime played on his PDA closing the notes app without any warning. A repetitive string of Z’s overtook his screen making it impossible for him to navigate through the applications. Cheeks burning Danny turned the thing off and on again stomping with a huff when the same thing happened when it booted up again.

Taking a deep breath Danny sulked over to the storage unit. It was the only flat surface in this Lifepod he could lay down on and one could only pray to the ancients that the lid wouldn’t cave underneath him. Sleeping on the floor was out of the question. biohazardous goo coated the floor, still liquid enough to slosh around with the erythematic motion of the sea. Naturally, due to preferences, Danny decided to curl up on a surface that didn't have his melted organs on it.

________

Slithering through a barren seabed that once flourished as well as one could in a dying ocean. Mourning the lives that were lost today, he'd failed all over again. His youngest had been the one to see the precursors building raise into the sky this time. A blast strong enough to shake the island that it was built on shot out into the sky. They'd expected something to crash into the water soon after but what they hadn't expected was the size of what hit the waters.

Miles of the seafloor was torn up, and thousands of animals were dead. Jason said it was ironic, even after the precursors wiped themselves out they still found ways to destroy the planet. Bruce thought it was just cruel. It was by sheer stroke of luck that none of his kids had been close to the reaper's breeding ground at the time of impact. All of them managed to remain relatively unharmed when flames and giant pieces of rubble fell from the sky.

Surviving reapers flocked to the sight of the impact, shielded, unseen through the cloud of upturned sand and rubble. It wasn't until they caught a reaper with a familiar-looking creature locked in its mandibles, red blood spilling into the waters as it once had a decade ago that they realized it was happening again.

Nearly all who they'd found near the impact site had been unresponsive, charred, or mangled with their organs strewn out through the sea. In the clutches of the predators now circling the site dying in their arms no matter how quickly or carefully they managed to pry them from the brutal maw of the reapers. Within minutes of the impact, they'd already had a death count in the dozens. It was horrific, little bodies so much like his and his children's more vulnerable forms, dulled claws of younglings that had not yet grown old enough to hunt for themselves. Worst of all was looking into their dying eyes and seeing the agony and confusion of a sentient creature facing a brutal death just as their lives had begun. But that was the death count before the others landed.

Eggs with metallic shells and odd patterning landed all throughout the crater some even landing in the cold darkness of the void where they couldn't be retrieved. Their landings had been much gentler than the initial impact. Immediately the little ones began crawling out of their shells, confused and scared, physically weak. It wasn't uncommon for the precursors to deform the unborn, kidnaping and experimenting on children who lived and died in agony. Malformities ran rampant in this batch of younglings. Instead of soft faces and the vibrant, expressive eyes, they'd come to associate with these children, there were pitch-black, featureless heads smoother than sandstone but solid as titanium. There were points when a child that looked perfectly healthy would go limp for seemingly no reason and never move again. A sped-up gestation period was known to cause problems, let alone a hatching that was induced by precursor technology. As much as it killed him to admit, these younglings, while more abundant were sicklier than the small batch of three that'd fallen years ago.

Most if not all the healthier young ones died from the elements before they could reach them. It was devastating for Dick to find the youngling he'd been guarding in his territory, covered in the luminescent cysts that foreshadowed a certain death. The children got scared when they tried to protect them and when these children got scared they had a tendency to die from it.

Every single death felt like a personal failure. It's like nothing they could do would ever stop the hurt that the precursors continued to cause a thousand years after their extinction.

"Hey... B?" Dick's voice echoed in his mind a reassuring reminder that his son was safe and close enough to contact them. However, the emotions that came in with his son's words were anything but reassuring. Stomach filling with dread he settled on the sea bed just preparing himself for devastating news.

"We've searched the entire crater- none of them survived," A wave of grief hit him like a tsunami when Dicks words sunk in.

"Not the entire crater, there's still the one that landed in the shallows," Tim chimed in.

"We watched that egg for three hours and nothing crawled out of it," Steph groaned and Bruce could almost hear the dramatic way his daughter threw herself into the sand.

"Plus it was smoking and smelled of rot," Duke added somberly, slowly gliding through the impact site by his side.

"Geez, none of them even survived long enough to start building this time!" Dick exclaimed a mournful edge to his usual cheerful tone.

"Tch, pitiful," Damian finally decided to chime in, disappointment clear in the juveniles voice

" Who's pitiful? The babies who died today or the precursors who set them up for death?" Jason questioned, a dangerous edge seeping into the bond.

"I think it's obvious who I was talking about Todd," Damian spat.

"Considering how obsessed you are with what the last group created no, it's not obvious demon spawn," Jason sneered.

"Guys!" Dick snapped. "Arguing with each other isn't help and it sure as the lava zone is hot isn't going to make you feel better for long," Murmurs of agreement rang throughout the bond.

" One of us should still keep an eye on the egg in the shallows," Bruce clutched a piece of metal in pitch-black claws, gills flaring as he swam underneath an egg floating upside-down on the ocean's surface. "Maybe they're just late bloomers?"

"...Maybe?"

"I guess it's possible,"

"Not likely,"

"Tch, if it's already rotten getting our hopes up is pointless," Damian added to the chorus of replies.

"Try saying that when we have new baby siblings swimming around," Dick beamed.

"I will not because it isn't going to happen," His youngest argued pointedly.

"Awwwww, someone's worried they won't be the guppy of the family anymore!" Dick cooed much to Damian's dismay and everyone else's entertainment.

"I am not!" Damian snapped his voice louder than Dick's despite him being the farthest from the impact zone. "If anything I'd be glad someone else would be the victim of you people's constant smothering!" Damian spat, his words lacking any true venom.

"Whatever you say kiddo,"

"Shut up Grayson!" Laughter rang out through the bond followed by teasing and cooing. A reminder that despite everything Bruce still had living children and he hoped it would stay that way long after he passed.

( @avelnfear @meira-3919 @thought-u-said-dragon-queen @hugsandchaos @blep-23 @zeldomnyo @bytheoldwillowtree @justwannabecat @shepherdsheart @starlightcat04 @stargazing-bookwyrm @pupstim )

#I always hated how we can't salvage all of the wrecks #I understand it in the “It's a video game you can't destroy the map” sense #but what do you mean we can't pick up the supply crates?? #What do you mean we have to leave who knows how much plastic and man made materials in the ocean??? #We can turn fish into fuel #Turn a battery a wiring kit and a single piece of titanium into something that can warp gravity #I refuse to believe recycling is where the line of possibility ends #dpxdc #DPXDC #dcxdp #I don't know who still want's to be tagged? #tw character death #minor character death #subnautica au

[howlingday]

Eccentric man: Ahh, if it isn't my unconventional friends, are you enjoying zhe convention?

Ruby and Jaune just sighed, cringing at what monstrosity of a weapon this man would conjur up this time.

Eccentric man: Don't look so morose! I've kept your dear girlfriend's vords in mind and have gotten you two more weapons that are both tactical and practical as well!

The man pulled out yet another case. This one was considerably smaller than his last weapons opening up said case the man let out a creepy giggle before turning it around to both Ruby and Jaune, who peered in before looking at each other confused.

Ruby: It's a pistol...

Jaune: And a doll...strapped to dynamite?

Eccentric man: Not just any doll, this here is the Monkey Bomb, created by zomeone who is still VEXING ME TO ZHIS VERY DAY! ahem...uh it's really quite simple, wind up the monkey, toss it to your allies who are surrounded, and the monkey will attract all Grimm nearby and once they are within range...BOOM!

The man laughed as Jaune reached in and picked up the monkeybomb, feeling slightly disturbed at how a child's toy had been twisted into a Grimm killing device.

Eccentric man: It also does a little jingle, and its explosion rivals one of the explosive shells from your orange hair bomber friend, although I do ask you to refrain from tossing into fire.

Ruby: That is oddly specific...

Eccentric man: zhe monkey doesn't like fire...

Jaune sets the monkey back down before pointing to the pistol next to it.

Jaune: And what pray tell is this?

Eccentric man: Zhat, my dear boy, is called 'Conversion Ready-Binary Repeater-Standard,' or CRBRS, Cerberus, for zhort. Zhis little pistol fires concentrate Lazer energy and only use small amounts of lightning dust combined with regular .45acp!

Jaune picks up the gun and aims it before suddenly a ball pops out of its of the weapons center as if began floating around Jaune.

Eccentric man: It also has a copy-cat ai companion that shoots out extra shots at NO cost to your own ammo supply, I zhink it makes its own internally, and the AI can talk, but who it chooses to voice is completely up to it.

The copycat companion still floated around Jaune as he just looked the gun over and handed it too, Ruby.

Jaune: What do you think?

Ruby: it seems nice, but I was thinking more of a bigger gun for you...

Eccentric man: Ah gut, Zhen, you vill be pleased to know this veapon comes with a modification you can attach to turn this pistol into a rifle with more supreme firepower.

The man hands Jaune a mod kit labels 'Blazer Mod Kit'.

Eccentric man: This kit can be assembled on the fly, and it vill keeps you in zhe fight as well as still using the same ammo type!

Jaune just nodded as Ruby handed him back the gun.

Ruby: Well, I mean, it seems perfect, Pistol that can turn into an AR as well as having a little Ai copy cat that also fires back at Grimm.

Jaune with the floating AI next to him.

Jaune: it does sound pretty go-

CopyCat AI: Hello Again~

Jaune: ...

Jaune: What the hell...?

Ruby: W... Was that Pyrrha?!

Eccentric Man: Vell, I did say it vould be random.

Jaune: I... I don't...

Copycat AI: Keep going forward.

Jaune: I... (Sets pistol down) I can't.

Eccentric Man: Oh? Vhat do you mean?

Jaune: I... I just...

Ruby: Jaune and Pyrrha were really close, and this weapon is... kind of opening up old wounds.

Eccentric Man: Ah, yes... Zomezing along ze lines of sehnsucht und weltschmerz, ja? Zay no more. I will refrain from any furzer, er, voices from occurring. But ze Monkey Bomb is ztill sehr gut, ja?

Ruby: It would be, but uh, the thing is that our teammate uses a LOT of fire, so catching it would be-

Eccentric Man: Ah, of course. Very vell. (Loads up crate) Until we meet again. I must say you kinder are quite picky vith your veapons, but zen again, zo am I. (Leaves)

Ruby: Jaune?

Jaune: I'm fine. I just... I wouldn't have come here if I knew I was going to hear her again.

Ruby: I know.

#rwby #jaune arc #ruby rose #call of duty #pyrrha nikos #ru ja gun con #ru ja gun con au

[reneethegreatandpowerful]

My Sister for a Horse

Fire Emblem Siblings Week Day 5- Duty/Horses

Length: Probably about 3000.

Rating: E for everyone.

Marcia stretched her arms out and twisted back and forth. Pretty soon, it would be time to break camp and head out. She was happy to get going. It sure beat waiting around for that golden army to attack.

She was doing her warmups, getting ready to go, but then she remembered that there was someone who might not be so ready on time. She picked up her bags, put them on her pegasus, and gave it a little kiss on the snout. Then she picked up her lance and went a few tents down, bouncing on every step. She saw Geoffrey who was taking down the men's tent, and Kieran who was supposed to be helping him but was talking loudly to Oscar, and even saw Danved, who was strapping on his armor and humming a wandery tune, but there was one male member of the Crimean Knights that was nowhere to be seen.

"Hey, Captain," she said. Geoffrey looked at her and she waved, coming over. "Seen that useless jelly brain anywhere?"

Geoffrey shook his head. "Not since yesterday evening. He didn't even come to the tent to sleep last night."

"Ugh, so he passed out somewhere." She looked around at the camp. Some of the tents were being taken down, but even so, it was an utterly sprawling encampment. A great place for a fainted idiot to disappear.

"Well, thanks anyway," she said. She walked off, swinging her lance. "Where'd you go, you doofus..."

"Excuse me," said someone. She looked up. It was that Gallian captain, Ranulf.

"Oh, hey," she said. "You need something?"

"No," he said. "But I thought I overheard you asking about your brother. Last time I saw him, he was over there amongst the supplies, looking- well, a bit odd."

"Rats, he's drunk," said Marcia. "Thanks, Mister, I'm going to go pound him." She hurried to the place he had indicated. There were lots of bags and crates there, and lots of people, too. She wandered about a bit, looking here and there but not seeing him. Wondering if a higher vantage point would help, she clambered onto a stack of wooden crates and stood up, looking out over the supplies and workers. There wasn't a sign of pink hair anywhere. She huffed and sat down. "Where are you, sponge brain..."

"M-Marcia?" came Makalov's voice from behind her.

She looked down the back of the crates. Makalov was sitting there in the shadows, looking up at her with guilty eyes.

"Busted," she growled, and dropped off the crates, landing on her feet next to him. "We are in the middle of a war here. A war that could change the whole world. Did'ja think about that at all before drinking yourself silly?"

"There's barely a drop in me, Marcia," said Makalov, "I swear." There were voices from the supply area, and he looked that way nervously.

"Well, what's got you all worked up, then?" Obviously he wasn't hiding from her, though he hadn't looked happy to see her, either.

"Are you hiding from Lucia?"

"Huh? No..."

"Geoffrey?"

He jumped. "Shh! Marcia, you don't know what a pickle I'm in. I can't let Geoffrey know, but- oh, I don't know what to do. I hate to lie to the guy, but..."

"Okay, so what pickle are you in? And more importantly, why were you dumb enough to get yourself into it?"

Makalov rubbed his hands against each other. "You don't understand, Marcia, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. I had to."

"Okay, well, I'm sure Geoffrey won't mind. I mean, he'll mind, but he hasn't fired you yet, has he? Now hurry up and quit mopin'. Where's your horse?"

Makalov gave her a tragic look. "That's the problem, Marcia, I lost her. I lost Lightning. Geoffrey's going to kill me."

"Lost?" said Marcia. She looked around. "Well, there's still time to find her before we have to move, right? How could you lose a whole honkin' horse? They're kinda big, y'know."

"I know," he said, shaking his hands in agitation.

"Well it's no wonder you haven't found her if you've been sitting here this whole time." She hauled him up by the arm. "Come on."

"No, Marcia, I- I know where she is."

Marcia squinted at him. "Okay," she said, crossing her arms. "I don't get it."

He still looked rather upset, but was now nervously chuckling. "I know exactly where she is, too. It's just, ah. It's just, um..."

She took hold of the front of his armor. "Uh-huh?"

He let out another nervous chuckle. "I uh...well, like I said, who could pass a chance like that...I mean, that much money on the table..."

She released him and took a step back, looking at him with sharply narrowed eyes. "You...you bet her off?" His sheepish expression confirmed it. "You bet off Lightning!" She grabbed him and shook him. "That horse is probably the only reason you're even still in the army! And you bet it off! We are in a war! You are a paladin! You need Lightning!"

"Marcia, if we had that money, we could-"

"Don't lie to me! There is no 'we' where money is involved! You'd blow it in a week!"

"C'mon, you know I'd share..."

"It doesn't matter if you'd share or not, because you lost the bet, Makalov. No horse, no money, no nothing!" She released him. "I'm going to tell Geoffrey to beat you with a tent pole."

"No, please!" He clasped his hands together. "Don't tell him, Marcia! Pretty please!"

She put her hands on her hips. "You deserve everything you're going to get. I'm completely embarrassed to be related to you."

He leaned his head against the crate. "So you're going to tell him. He's gonna be furious. He's going to kill me, Marcia. You're right, that horse...I won't be the same without her. And she's practically a Ridell family heirloom. This'll get me kicked out of the knights for sure. And then what'll I do?"

Marcia wasn't sure Makalov could become anymore of a disgrace than he already was, but this could be an all time low. What would happen to him if he got fired? What about her? What would she do? She didn't want to have to quit and go after him.

She looked at Makalov, who looked back at her with pathetic eyes.

"Look, Marcia, I'm sorry, truly," he said. "But I can't get her back now."

Marcia let out a very loud, very long, sigh of frustration. "Well, maybe we can. Somehow. This guy who has the horse. If he was betting like you, he can't be that smart. Ugh," she groaned, "I can't believe I'm helping you." She wandered around in a circle, thinking. "Hmm. I know, we can scare him and say that Queen Elincia will come for him if he doesn't cooperate. Yeah, I like that!"

"Uh, Marcia?"

"What?"

"Well, um, the guy who has Lightning..."

"Yes?"

"It's, uh. It's King Kilvas."

"That greasy guy? Well, I bet he's still scared of Elincia."

"I bet he's not."

"Well, we've got a horse on the table," said Marcia, "So I better be right."

Makalov led her across the camp, ducking around and sneaking so badly that Geoffrey would have been less likely to notice him if he had been grandly strolling past his tent.

Marcia wasn't sure how likely she was to get that horse back, but she was prepared to try. They came around a tent.

"Look," said Makalov, pointing. Marcia saw he was pointing at Lightning, who was calmly eating grass.

King Naesala was calmly sitting on top of her.

He was scratching away in a little book, but looked up when they approached, Marcia in front and Makalov shuffling along behind her, his arm firmly stuck in her grasp.

Marcia gulped. This close, Naesala seemed very big. Especially since he was on a horse. But she wasn't going to give up yet. She cleared her throat. "Greetings, King Kilvas," she said, grandly waving a hand. "My name is Marcia, of the Crimean Royal Knights, and I- I- I have a request to make of you."

"He's not going to listen," said Makalov. Marcia glared at him, and then turned back to Naesala. "A request involving that fine steed on which you rest. Oh, great king." She curtsied.

Naesala raised his eyebrows. He slapped the little book shut. "If the request is that I return it to Sir Makalov, who is so bravely hiding behind you, then I'm not obligated to comply. You see, I won it from him in an honest game."

"Well- well," Marcia had completely forgotten the Elincia plan. "You're the raven king, so you probably cheated!"

Naesala smiled, raising his eyebrows even further. "Cheated? What an accusation. Care to produce evidence?" He looked at Makalov, who cringed, but stepped out enough from behind Marcia to say, "You- you had a sneaky look when you played those last rounds."

"I think it's called a poker face," said Naesala. "Well, if you don't have any solid evidence to produce, I guess you'll have to admit that this horse really is mine. That means it's mine to give as I please. And I don't."

"Okay, well, is there anything we can trade for it?" said Marcia.

Naesala smiled again, looking even more amused. "Not even a heron could trace your tactics, Lady Marcia. Why strain yourself so much on account of this fellow? Was this horse dear to you?"

"No, but he needs it!"

"If he really needed it, he wouldn't have played around with it. And if he did need it, the fact that he played anyway tells me he didn't deserve it. And before you ask again, I don't think there is anything you own that could pique my interest. Unless you happen to have antique paintings? Or perhaps two thousand pieces of gold?" He scoffed. "From what I can tell, all you have is stale rations and the armor on your back. Forget it."

"I told you this would happen," said Makalov hopelessly. Marcia watched him as he began walking away.

She turned back to Naesala. "Look, Mister- King Naesala. My brother is...he's...irresponsible. But if he tells his boss what happened, he could get fired, and I don't know what's going to happen then. If he goes away, I'll probably have to go, too, and I like my job. Could you please, please, please, please reconsider? I don't have a lot of money, but I'll give you everything I've got. I promise."

"Hmm," said Naesala. "I need you to sweeten the deal. Not just money. Give me something else. Something a little more interesting."

"Interesting? Uh...okay, um...I have, um...uh... Oh, come on, my brother is an idiot, but somewhere deep down, I think he wants to be a good guy. He's just stupid. Please, won't you change your mind?"

Naesala leaned closer to her. "Like I said. I'll give the horse back if you sweeten the deal. And I mean, seriously sweeten it. Don't you realize how much it's worth? I know, since you obviously can't repay me in money, I have a different offer, something I know you can give me."

Marcia scratched her nose. "What? I am not giving you my pegasus."

"Oh, no, I don't want you to. You'll need it."

"Well, now we're getting somewhere! What do you want me to get for you?"

Naesala blinked. "You."

"Wh- huh? Me?" Her expression was blank.

"Yes, you. Is that so strange? You're in the queen's royal guard, so obviously of some military quality, and you have a pegasus, so you could keep up with me and my people. Your brother's horse is worth more gold than you will be able to gather in twelve years. Is a few years of servitude under me so unfair?"

"Servitude! For my stupid brother!"

"Don't you care about him?" said Naesala. "It sounds like you don't."

"Well, I do, but..."

Naesala raised his eyebrows.

Marcia's jaw was tight, her feet nervously twitching. "I do, but that sounds terrible."

"Well, it's either three years in Kilvas or your brother loses everything. Your choice. That's my offer." He leaned back.

"Well, I- I'll..." She tapped her foot on the ground. "I can't watch over him if I do that...But..."

Naesala just watched her, smiling.

"Ugh," said Marcia. She held out her hand. "King Naesala, you are a nasty sleazeball, but I acc-"

"Nooooo!"

Makalov leapt in front of her before they could shake hands. "Marcia, no, don't do that! He's a monster!"

"I'm trying to help you, you bozo!"

Makalov looked at her. "Kilvas is a cold, dark, wasteland, and he lives in it! You can't go there, I won't let you! Listen to me!"

"Well, maybe I can do whatever I want! Besides, this is the only way."

He stared at her. "You would really do this, just for me and my old Lightning?"

"Yeah, now out of my way, cheese-fingers, before I change my mind."

Makalov kept staring at her, his gaze gradually growing in intensity. Unusually, it looked like thoughts were forming behind his brow. He pushed Marcia gently out of hand shaking reach, and then turned to Naesala.

"So Marcia is worth the same as the horse, huh?" he said.

Naesala shrugged. "No, but a good soldier complete with pegasus is the only thing she has to offer."

Makalov rubbed his hands together. "And you're set on this, Marcia?"

"Yep," said Marcia uncertainly.

Makalov gave her a hard look, a look that was uncharacteristically serious. "Are. You. Sure?" he said.

"Yes!"

"Okay," he said. "Well, I propose something then. I propose you and I have one more game, Mr. Naesala." He pulled a silver necklace out of his clothes. "If I win, I get to keep Marcia and the horse, and you get this necklace. If you win, you get the necklace and Marcia."

Naesala raised his eyebrows. "A necklace?"

"It's very expensive," said Makalov.

"I don't know," said Naesala. "Seems awfully advantageous for you and not really for me. Let me see that."

Makalov held the necklace out in the most alluring way he could. Naesala cocked his head back and forth, studying it.

"Hm," he said, leaning back. "I'd like to know where you stole that from. It must have cost a fortune originally."

"I didn't steal it," said Makalov. He puffed out his chest. "And I won't let you steal my sister."

"Makalov," Marcia hissed. "Astrid gave you that."

"You're worth more," he whispered back. He smiled sadly.

"Well, your offer is a bit feeble," said Naesala. "But I accept." He and Makalov shook on it.

"I can't believe you're betting with me like I'm money," said Marcia, as Naesala pulled up a low table. "This is so weird. This is a disaster."

"Well you were just going to give yourself away for nothing," said Makalov. "And you say I'm rash."

"I was giving myself away for you!" said Marcia, grabbing his arms. "Stop being dense!"

"Excuse me," said Naesala. They looked up at him. He waved the deck of cards. "A deal's a deal, Sir Makalov."

"Right," he said. He sat down on a small barrel, his expression steely. "You can't beat me, Naesala, I've got the power of passion on my side."

"Okay," Naesala said, his mouth curling into a tiny smile. "Hide it behind a good poker face and maybe you have a chance."

Marcia sat beside Makalov and watched the game. She watched as Makalov's brow got more and more wrinkled with consternation. This was one of the strangest things to ever happen to her. The raven king and her brother were playing cards for her? What had she been thinking? And Makalov always, always lost at gambling.

She sighed through her nose and kept watching. Naesala's poker face was the same as his normal face. Makalov's was screwed up with concentration when it was Naesala's turn, but completely changed when it was his. He wiped his face blank and stared as steadily as he could into Naesala's eyes as he took his card. Marcia couldn't tell what he was thinking. She almost wondered if he had a chance.

At last, after watching a dull, anxiety filled game of cards, during which a small audience had gathered, and Marcia was regretting her offer more and more, the final play came. Makalov inhaled deeply, then lay his hand down. The numbers on his cards were low, a good thing. Marcia looked nervously up at Naesala, daring to hope her brother could win. Naesala gave a small smile, and lay his own hand down.

"Well done," he said.

He had lost.

Makalov and Marcia screamed, and hugged each other. "You did it!" Marcia shrieked, bouncing. "You actually won! I don't believe it!"

Makalov laughed hysterically and picked her up off her feet. "We're free! We're free! We're freeee!"

They both scream laughed and jumped up and down, shouting in celebration. After a few minutes they stopped. Makalov patted Marcia on the head. "Thanks, sis. I owe you one-hundred."

"You better believe it," said Marcia, punching him in the arm. "Now get your horse and let's get going, we've got some ridin' to do."

Makalov took Lightning's reins and turned to Naesala. He handed him the necklace. "Good game, Your Majesty." He gave him a toothy grin.

"Good game yourself. Don't you have some knights to get back to?"

"Yep. Come on, Marcia." Marcia linked arms with him and they went off with the horse, giggling and arguing.

Naesala sat on his stool and watched them leave. Leanne, who had been one of the observers, came and stood beside him.

"He was pretty lucky to be able to win against you," she said.

Naesala shrugged. "He had the power of passion on his side." He reached into his sleeve and pulled out his low cards. He smiled, then frowned. "Now what do I do with this cheap necklace?"

#Fire Emblem #Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn #Tellius #Makalov #Marcia #Naesala #FE10 #My Writing #Fanfiction #Fire Emblem Siblings Week #Fire Emblem Siblings Week 2023 #Duty because siblingly duty #Naesala is a member of “Trolls for Charity.”

[ramblingsofafanatic]

I Want You - Part 1

Please see the series Masterlist for more details!

Chapter Word Count: 1,221

"Zeffo?" Hera asks.

"I thought that place was abandoned?" Kallus asks, he read about it once in a file back when he was still ISB, but hadn't expected to hear about it again.

"Yes, the Empire went hoping to find powerful Zeffo artifacts, there's a temple there, but they have since largely abandoned it. There's only a skeleton crew left to protect the Empire's technology." Rieekan replies.

"Should be easy pickings then." Zeb says, with a grin. Kallus sends him a warning glare.

"Let's not get too cocky," Kanan says and Kallus relaxes a bit. At least someone has some common sense around here. Rieekan takes this as his queue to call the official meeting to an end and leaves with a passing call of 'good luck'. Kallus doesn't blame him for not wanting to stick around, the Ghost crew's idea of planning finer details involves more bickering than actual planning.

"Kallus, you'll be joining us?" Hera asks.

"Yes,"

"What?" Zeb says, ear flattening a bit. Kallus rolls his eyes, he told Zeb this morning, but apparently he wasn't listening.

"I'll be heading to the main control room to gather data as the rest of you load the Ghost with supplies." Kallus explains.

"And the temple, the artifacts?" Ezra asks hopefully.

"Kanan isn't joining us on this one, he's on Jacen duty. So we are not doing any Jedi stuff." Hera says, and Ezra pouts. 

"We can always go again later if it proves to be as deserted as advertised" Hera amends, but it doesn't seem to improve Ezra's mood too much.

After ironing out a few more details they're dismissed to go get ready for the mission.

"Why didn't you tell me you were on this mission before the briefing?" Zeb asks as they split off from the rest of the group to head to their room to pack.

"I did." Kallus replies.

"What? When?" Zeb asks.

"This morning, after breakfast." Kallus reminds him.

"That's not fair, I was distracted." Zeb grumbles.

"I noticed. You were trying to get me distracted as well." Kallus says as he tosses Zeb a smile over his shoulder before punching in the code to their room.

"Well I can't be held accountable for my actions when you tasted like the syrup you stole from my plate."

"Yes, you can."

"Yea? You gonna hold me accountable?" Zeb says with a grin as the door closes behind them. Kallus rolls his eyes and makes his way to his crate in their room, intending to pull his grab bag out. Zeb grabs him from behind before he can get there though and pulls him down onto the bed. Kallus falls on top of the lasat, facing up at the ceiling and sighs.

"This is counterproductive to what we're supposed to be doing." Kallus points out, although he knows it's futile.

"We're already packed," Zeb says as he manhandles Kallus to turn him around.

"And I'd like to double check that everything we need is still packed." Kallus says as he comes face to face with Zeb.

"In a minute," Zeb says before pulling Kallus down into a kiss. He keeps it chaste at least, a quick peck before pulling back to rub their cheeks together, purring slightly.

They stay like that for a minute or two before their comms ping. It's Hera telling them that the Ghost should be ready for take off in an hour and for them to be ready to leave at the same time. They respond saying they'll be there and Zeb finally lets Kallus get up and double check their bags. 

"I'll go grab more ration bars, your packs getting low, almost as if someone keeps forgetting that they're not meant for meal substitutes when they're on base." 

"I thought we agreed a ration bar is better than nothing." Kallus says. 

"Yea, but better doesn't mean good." Zeb argues back before heading out. Kallus doesn't bother with a response. They both know Zeb's vigorous goodbyes have been the reason Kallus couldn't walk down to the mess for a meal on numerous occasions. Not that Kallus is complaining.

-

Zeb however, has found quite a bit to complain about as they make their way to Zeffo.

"Ezra you will go with Kallus to collect the data, Zeb and Sabine you'll be with me collecting supplies, Chopper, you watch the ship and be prepared to run interference or a distraction if needed." Hera explains as they're looking at a projected map of the Zeffo tunnel systems. It's many years out of date, but should be accurate enough for their purposes.

Zeb wants to argue, to say that he'll go with Kal to the control room, but he also knows it'd be unnecessary. So he bites his tongue and reminds himself that Kallus is more than competent enough to do this whole mission alone. Plus Kal won't even be going alone, Ezra will have his back. 

Zeb knows he's just being over protective. However, knowing that doesn't stop him from having a bad feeling about all of this. It also doesn't stop him from pulling Kallus to their bunk and scenting him thoroughly after Hera dismisses them and heads back to the cockpit.

-

Kallus knows something is wrong as soon as Ezra pauses and stiffens slightly as they make their way down a darkened tunnel. Would one mission going to plan really be too much to ask for?

"Bridger?" Kallus asks slowly, as the kid closes his eyes. 

"I sense the temple, it's like it's calling to me" Ezra explains after a second. 

"And you wanna go check it out?" Kallus sighs, he doesn't know how any of this force stuff works, so he can never tell what's actually true and what Ezra's making up to get away with chasing his own curiosity. However, he does know that the kid won't drop it anytime soon.

"Well yea, but-."

"Fine, go." 

"Really? But, Hera-" Ezra perks up. 

"Like you guys ever listen to each other, just don't get killed." Kallus says. Kallus can handle the one or two troopers he may encounter between here and the control room if Ezra wants to go explore some Jedi thing. It actually may be nicer to complete his tasks in silence instead of listening to the kid complain of boredom.

"Sweet, meet you back at the ship." Ezra says with a grin, before running off. Kallus sighs and continues onwards. 

Kallus makes it to the control room with no issues. He transfers the files onto the datastick with no issues. The lack of issues is starting to put him on edge. He knows that Ezra going off on his own wasn't an actual Spectre level plan-deviation, and he can't help but feel like he's waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I was right to feel that way, he thinks as a patrol of stormtroopers find him on his way out. He manages to take them all down, and he thinks that will be the end of it. Except, of course, for the creature that decides to jump out of a hole at that exact moment and knock Kallus off the short hill and onto what appears to be an ice slope. 

Kallus doesn't remember much after that as he hits his head on the way down and loses consciousness.

#kalluzeb #i know you 'verse

[philtstone]

I know you've done a few Bucky and the spider-kids, so maybe Sam and the spider-kids? (for the 3-sentence, I mean)

continuation of the convoluted “sam and bucky open up an underground bar and accidentally adopt a bunch of teen superheroes” post-apocalyptic au that i may never properly write but sure am having fun thinking incoherently about

Peter swings by later in the afternoon. He's here to pick up the AP bio workbook Joaquin dug out of an abandoned Barnes and Noble in the lower city, and to talk shop with Sam.

"Can't figure it out," says Peter. "Just something off. Me and Miles went on a scouting trip topside, got nothing. I think aliens are attacking."

Peter's a steadier twenty-year-old than he was a teenager, with the quiet emotional intelligence to match. He was high-strung and fidgety when he first ran into them, about two weeks after shit hit the fan. Still can't sit still for longer than a second -- Sam's seen that bottle flip about twelve times in the last five minutes -- but when he talks, he talks with a tired, belligerent thread of compassion that Sam understands, someplace deep in his heart.

"That'll be just what we need," Sam says. He digs an ancient bottle of one of those Costco Starbucks Frap things out of the desk and hands it to him. His mom always had a policy -- someone comes over, you give 'em something sweet to drink. They're out of Sarah's limited supply of sweet tea, so this is the next best thing.

Running low on fossilized Frap though, too.

"How's it lookin' up there?"

"Aw. You know. Same-old-same-old."

"Enforcers everywhere, huh?"

"We followed a few of them down here," Peter says, leaning against the window frame and flipping the bottle over in one hand. The dirty neon of the undercity outside the window filters in and colours his dull blue hoodie. He doesn't wear his suit anymore -- just like Sam's hidden the Shield away under the cellar door, behind that big crate of expired Guinness -- but Sam can see the remnants of it in the fingerless gloves covering his knuckles, and the combination of old athletic tights with tougher cargo short material. "This place is crazy to navigate, for the record. No idea whose idea it was pattern it after frickin' LA. But don't worry, nothing about you guys yet. I think all the nice people like you too much to talk and the jerks are a little scared of you."

"We're not scary," Sam says. It's not really a lie. Their vibe is more, do not fuck with us, which wasn't so much a conscientious effort as it was a natural extension of Sam's weariness and Bucky's nonchalant ability to bend Kevlar-plated car doors in half.

"Sam's a little scary," Bucky says. He's on the futon across the room, looking over AJ's spelling worksheet -- a task Sam delegated to Sarah, which Sarah apparently delegated to him. Sam thinks she's upstairs, talking to Ms. Trudy from next door about the old engine parts she brought around for them to fix.

"How's Miles?" Sam asks, instead of acknowledging the continued baseline misery of their situation.

"I mean, he's good."

"He figured out how to reach his parents?"

"Yeah," says Peter. "Found bits of an old Quinjet topside last week. Managed to rig it by the Boonies near Mr. Boyega's place. The thing's so ancient it literally can't get tracked."

"He better be playin' it safe, with all these comings and goings."

"Aw, c'mon, Cap. Miles knows what he's doing."

"Of course he does," Bucky says, from the futon. "He's from Brooklyn."

Sam says, looking over,

"You figured out how many es aqueous has yet?"

"Fuck off, Sam, I ask you for help one time."

He turns back to Peter. "Your folks okay?"

"You know how it is," Peter says.

Sam leans back in his efforts to unearth the AP textbook -- it's for Miles -- and says,

"Yeah? You're still seein' that girlfriend of yours though, right?"

"MJ," Bucky offers from the couch. "Keeper."

"Thank you, people whose opinion on this I definitely wanted."

The kid's blushing. Good, Sam thinks. Getting the shit embarrassed out of you by adults is a healthy, normal activity.

They need more of that around here.

"You gonna take her someplace nice this weekend?"

"Sure," Peter says, rolling his eyes. "The shady drug deal happening at the end of our street by the millionth neon sign. Maybe the creepy Cold War-esque water plant by the bridge."

"You could use the back room here," Sam says. "Like a hotel." He turns to Bucky. "They could use the back room."

"Good room. Nice bed," Bucky agrees, solemn-faced.

"It'll be real romantic. We got Sam Cooke on Kamala's old laptop."

Peter groans. He swings upside down so that his hoodie flops over his arms.

"You know, I really didn't think my twenties would involve living in a military dystopia and getting dating advice from like, the local weird uncles."

"Get your feet off our nice clean ceiling," Sam says. "And uncles makes me sound old."

"You are old," Bucky says.

"You are a literal historical artifact."

He hands Peter the textbook.

"Go do something fun," Sam insists.

He thinks Peter notices the shift in tone. They're all a littler desperate, here, but it's not desperation, not exactly. Sam watches as Peter ducks his head down, and he does nod, once, before swinging back out.

#im sure this is not quite what the prompt intended but here we are #my writing #3 sentence prompt meme #LMAO this is not 3 sentences #the falcon and the winter soldier #sam wilson #peter parker #bucky barnes #peter x michelle #implied but there #sam x bucky #marvel #fatws #so maybe this is an arcane au. i dont wanna talk about it

[rainofaugustsith]

Rain Plays SWTOR: Spirit of Vengeance Survival Walkthrough

As we head toward 7.0, I thought it would be a good idea to check in with a Spirit of Vengeance Survival Guide, 2.0. I have my own feelings about SoV - namely that it's boring, tedious and was tuned way too high for a main story solo flashpoint - but let's move on to the actual guide. 

This is a guide specifically for those of you who just want to get this flashpoint over with so you can move on. 

I personally would advise trying to knock this flashpoint out of your story progression BEFORE 7.0. We have no idea how hard content is going to be once you lose some of your abilities and utilities, so if you have any characters who are planned to continue with the main story, I'd take them through now while you have all of the tools in your toolbox and are familiar with them.

After literally months of complaints the devs finally toned down this flashpoint to a more manageable level, but there are still a lot of mobs that hit hard, and it's still really long. When I went through with canon Viri and Lana at level 50, with Viri fully geared toward 306, I moved right along through the flashpoint without difficulty or deaths. It still took almost exactly an hour. It's even longer when you're contending with Rass Ordo and a lot of cut scenes. 

You will want to gear as well as you can for this - you should not have to since this is a story/solo flashpoint in the main story, but it will help you here. Remember you DO NOT have to group to get good gear. There are numerous solo missions that will give you gear up to 306 - the Mek-Sha Tradehouse missions, Personal Conquest each week, solo flashpoints, including the Onderon weekly and daily missions. Other suggestions: 

1. Buy and use the Supplied Kyrprax Command Stim, available at any medical droid in the flashpoint, including the one when you first land on Ship #1. If you're doing this as part of the main story, you unfortunately still have Rass Ordo as your companion. Rass Ordo, despite being influence level 25, still has the AI of a cardboard box. You'd be better off bringing along a Jawagram as your companion. This stim will up your presence for an hour and make him slightly less incompetent. 

2. If you can, equip yourself with the Life Warden tactical. This tactical drops fairly frequently from personal conquest and other gold gear boxes. It essentially gives you an extra heal in a tight situation and can come in handy. 

3. Medpac on your abilities bar. You hopefully won't need this, but have it handy just in case. You may want to invest in the Supplied Kyprax Med Unit medpac, which will heal you AND your companion. 

Within the flashpoint, some general caveats. You're looking at quantity, not quality here. It's just a lot of NPCs piling in on you. 

1. KILL THE HEALERS FIRST. KILL THE HEALERS FIRST. KILL THE HEALERS FIRST. Just about every mob here has healers. They have different names on each ship: 

- Varad Churl

- Darmanda Medic

- Ashade Lorekeeper 

If you don't kill the medics first the fights will be even more interminable. Get rid of them. 

2. Remember there are kolto stations in a lot of the rooms, not just the boss areas. 

3. Be very careful because there are a lot of mob groups close together. Watch where you are blasting/Force-whatevering because you don't want to pull more than one group at once. 

4. Get your gear repaired as often as you can. If you've fought a tough mob and there's a medical droid nearby, go to it and patch up, even if it means you have to backtrack. 

5. Get really familiar with any AOE (area of effect) skills you have. Know where they are on your abilities bar and how to use them. Given the mobs in this flashpoint, anything you have that can clobber several NPCs at once is welcome.

Now, here we go.

SHIP #1: 

Banquet room: after you fight the first mob and take the elevator, you will find yourself in a large "banquet room" with a lot of mobs. Pick a straight line and go forward, taking care not to veer too far to the sides. If you wander, you'll invariably pull the mobs on the sides of the room. 

The rest of this ship is pretty straightforward; it's just a lot of mob NPCs converging on you at once, over and over again. 

Gorga Brak: Straightforward; stay out of the red circles. Be aware that Rass Ordo will helpfully stand in these circles and let Gorga set him on fire, so don't expect any help during the fight. 

SHIP #2: 

More of the same: lots of mobs, now with Dar'manda nameplates. The Dar'manda medics try to hide more than the healers on the other ships, sometimes even going behind crates or other barriers, so keep your eyes peeled for them. 

First thing of concern here: after a few rooms of mobs, you will arrive at the notorious jumping puzzle. Just stay on the right side of the room and walk along the beam. There are a few jumps up onto pieces of metal but they are not hard, ambitious jumps. Otherwise you just have two places where you have to make sure your character drops down onto the beam and not into the flames. Angle your camera overhead so you can see what you are doing. 

Now it's time to go through the notorious Room After The Kitchen. As the name would suggest, you will know this is coming when you go through the kitchen. All the NPCs in the kitchen are neutral; leave them alone and keep going. The next room is a ballroom and you will find a lot of mobs. 

You can get through this room by fighting only two mobs IF you watch where you are fighting and blasting. I like to try to get the first mob up onto the stairs so there's less of a chance that anyone else in the room will be disturbed. Kill the medics first. Then go straight foward - right through the fountain - and up the stairs to the second mob. I again like to try to fight them in their alcove up the stairs so I don't pull the other NPCs in the room. 

You will now go down some corridors with more mobs - the space is tight, which in a way is good because you can't aggro more than one mob unless you really try. If you are going for bonus missions there are some rooms here to visit off the main path. If you're just trying to get this damned flashpoint over, continue straight down the hall toward that green arrow. 

After taking the elevator you'll get to the tether room, and a yellow message will flash onscreen about it. There will be a very large mob here with a lot of Dar'manda Commander silver NPCs. If Rass Ordo decides to up and die on you, it may be here. Remember there's a kolto station to the immediate right of where you walked into the room. 

Click the blue box to release the tether. Do NOT get too close to the rancor in the cage, Goldie. Back when SoV was first released, she'd aggro on you even from in her cage, and you couldn't kill her or get out of combat. They seem to have fixed that bug, but you know how that goes. 

Bask Sunn: Kill. The. Medics. First. After that, Bask Sunn has a wicked knockback, but he can't knock you *out* of the ship anymore. Remember Bask Sunn leaves a crate with your loot (look on the bridge), it's not on his person. 

SHIP #3: 

Your first challenge here will be another room with a lot of intense mobs. Take care not to pull more than one mob at once. Rass may decide to try to die here. 

You will quickly reach the sniper room. It's a long room with two snipers by the far doorway, shooting at you. Don't try to engage them; just keep running forward. As you cross this room, you will drop through the floor. It's a long fall but you won't take any damage; it's what the game wants you to do. 

Rass will not fall with you, and you will have a room of tentacles to fight on your own. Hit Unity and Heroic Moment BEFORE you fall, when you are still in the sniper room with Rass. You can use your HM abilities against the tentacles. If you really  have trouble with them, try to get out of the garbage pit; you will find a kolto station at the top of the small ramp. 

Now we come to...oh look, another room with a lot of mobs. They're so creative here. Do your best not to pull more than one at once, kill the medics, you know the drill by now. 

Troya Ajak: No special tricks. Stay out of the red circles. Her songbird volley is nasty, but she's perhaps the easiest boss in this flashpoint. 

FOURTH SHIP (The Spirit of Vengeance, I think?) 

Thankfully this is almost a straight shot to the final boss encounter, and there's a medical droid just before it. You may wish to wait for your Heroic Moment to cool down if you have recently used it. 

The silver NPC in the small mob right outside Heta Kol's area sometimes does not die. If you find that they keep recharging to full health, walk past them, put Rass on passive, and wait by the medical droid.  They should eventually give up and go back to their original spots and you can go on. 

Heta Kol: This fight has mercifully been toned down. There are two stages: 

You'll fight Heta Kol straight on. She has a serious knockback, but there aren't any special tricks here. 

1. Stage One: fight Heta. 

2. Heta disappears and a mob appears at the bottom of the stairs. There are two medics, and the Commanders will have knockbacks to keep you from killing the healers. 

3. After all the mob NPCs are defeated, Heta will return. Keep trying to hit her. 

4. Heta disappears. This time there's a mob with two gold Varad NPCs and two weaker ones at the stairs, plus two silver Dar'manda snipers on the platform. If you have any AOE skills, make sure they are available here so you can take out as many as possible at once. You may wish to consider saving Heroic Moment for this point so you can use Orbital Strike if you have it. Rass Ordo loves to die at this point so be mindful of where your kolto stations are. You might need the kolto for him, even if you don't need it for you. 

5. Heta Kol returns with a much more serious knockback and red circles of doom that increase in size and are hard to avoid. You're going to get thrown around a lot. ETA with thanks to @vespertine-legacy: The circles can be interrupted, which may make this fight easier.

And...you're done. Thank the stars. 

#swtor #rain plays swtor #flashpoints #solo swtor #spirit of vengeance

[all-hallows-evie]

Chapter 1: Marooned

Rating: T, for language, Canon Typical Violence/Action. Honestly, this chapter isn't that bad, the T rating is just in case I forgot about something lol

Wordcount: 3,776

Warnings: Canon typical violence and adventure, female OC with name × Tech slowburn, but not too slow lol, NOT BETA'D, because if I have to stare at this first chapter again I'm not going to post it.

A/N: HAPPY TECH TUESDAY, LOOK I'M FINALLY POSTING SOMETHING, WHEEEEEEEEEEE

There were bad ideas, really bad ideas and then there was this.

The ship hums under her feet as it trudges through the far corner of the mid rim, chugging along on it’s route without any sign of trouble or disruption from it’s preplanned course.

It should have been a routine pillaging, something she had placed firmly in the ‘great ideas’ list but instead it had turned into a routine mutiny and finished the day as a routine marooning. She sighs as she lays her head back against the seamless panel behind her.

Fucking pirates. 

She has been stranded on the old freighter for at least two moons, but it was hard to say with certainty. The droids that man the ship have no need to eat so more often than not they forget to pass along anything to keep her mounting hunger at bay, adding along to the lack of any kind of panel to the outside world, getting her bearings is proving to be more difficult than usual. 

She hisses a swear to drown out the low growl of her belly and focuses her gaze on the far corner of the room. Another day, another chance to count the diamond shaped tiles above her cell, she swears the number changes every other time she counts. She doesn’t get farther than eighteen when the door of the maintenance room blows open. 

The dust fills the room, hiding everything under its grimy shadow. The grit in the air crackles as it’s pushed against the red of the electron walls that keep her prisoner with the ships cooling coils and a water filtration unit that has calcified and has never been fixed.  

"Well look at that, we found it! Lucky break!"

"Luck had nothing to do with it, if you had studied the schematics of this cruiser like I had asked-"

"Yeah yeah yeah." The first figure, a hulking shadow in the doorway brushes off the smaller one as he stomps into the suddenly too tiny room.

"The memory core should be at the end of the-" the smaller of the two figures stops in front of her cell as the big one charges towards the end of the room without stopping. They launch themselves into the piles of junk thrown haphazardly inside, "That's concerning."

"Concerning? You see someone in a cage and you go with ‘concerning’?" She replies as she pulls herself up to standing. She takes in his armor, modified clone armor from the looks of it painted pale with a bright red stripe down his chest, his eyes slightly magnified by the goggles on his face, the rest hidden by the elongated helmet.

"According to the intel we were provided there weren't supposed to be life forms aboard." He seems irritated to see her.

"Good old Republic intel, still living up to its reputation."

The other clone approaches, he rips open the metal box in his hands and yanks out the core as if the casing was made of thick flimsy and nothing more, "I've got the thing, time to go!"

She watches, dumbstruck for a moment as her ticket out starts to head for the gaping maw that used to be a door, "Wait, you're taking the old database?" The two of them stop and turn, "It's not complete! It's missing pieces of the coordinates!" Firefek she didn't want to sound desperate but she was.

"Likely story-" The big one chuckles.

"I was trying to steal it too, I almost got all of it before my crew turned on me!"

"A mercenary or a pirate? No matter, I trust you even less now."

She had never wanted to punch anyone's face as hard as she wanted to punch his, "Check the core Goggles, I swear to you! It's missing pieces!" He hesitates and in that baited pause she knows she has him, "Please, just let me out and drop me off wherever you dock next. You can have my data chip. No harm, no foul, just get me out."

The one with the goggles glares at her, the yellow tinted transparisteel of his visor snapping downl before he turns to the bigger man. Klaxons ring all around as he scans the core with a handheld device, but it's taking up time they do not have.

The two clones share a look, silently deciding her fate.

The bigger one caves first, "Aww c'mon Tech, we can't leave her! You saw what's on this ship, she'll be a goner on some mining planet!"

"Under normal circumstances I might agree but she's caged for a purpose, and I'm disinclined to put any trust in her."

"How much damage can she do? She’s smaller than you are!" 

Tech, the one in the goggles, sighs before he turns back around to face her, "If we spring you, you play by our rules. You follow our orders, no complaints, no rebuttals and if you put one toe out of line-"

"Out the airlock, understood." She nods furiously, hands pressed against the panel as she watches Tech short out the electron wall holding her hostage, the panel shudders and then it spews sparks on to the ground as the red fades and she's finally able to step through. 

"Lets go shortie!" 

"Wait, let me just grab-" She scrambles to the other side of the wall, trying to pull at something from the top of a shelf. The bigger clone reaches over and tosses the crate to the floor. She throws open the top and snatches out a bantha leather bag and a helmet.

"Run!"

Tech doesn't have to tell her twice, the three of them bolt out of the door and into the corridor, the lights above flash in time with the klaxons. There is a low rumble that joins the hum of the hyperspace engine, as whatever security droids are on board begin to activate.

"Back to the ship, short stuff!" 

The three of them book it down the darkened halls, ducking behind walls and crates as the first cluster of security droids pass through.

She tosses her bag across her shoulder, slinging it against one side of her hip, clipping it into place with snaps sewn into her jacket. They watch three more droids pass them by before she speaks again, "My name's Nox, by the way." 

"Doesn't sound like a girl's name." The big one chuckles, so deep and rumbling it almost feels like a growl.

"Well it's the only name I've got. My parents named me a bit of a mouthful, Nox just works better."

"Clear." Tech calls out and they continue on their way heading to the service hangar where their ship hopefully was waiting for them.

"How'd you end up out here?" The big one asks, with every flash of light above them she can see more of the large scary face painted roughly on his helmet, lines thrown on haphazardly only to be scraped away by carbon scoring.

She is about to answer when she is shoved back into a corner by Tech. He slaps a hand over her mouth before she can yelp, the leather slightly singed, it smells of electricity and grease.

“Wait.”

"I'm getting tired of all this sneaking around, I say we blow our way outta here!" The big one growls.

"We’re almost there Wrecker, it would be pointless to try now."

She shoves Tech's Hand away, "Blow your way out of here, are you insane? With the amount of baby on board you'd blow us into the next dimension!"

There are a few beats of silence before both helmets turn towards her.

"Baby?" Wrecker repeats but is shushed by Tech.

"You don't mean baradium-"

"Bisulfate? I absolutely do! There were containers of the stuff in the holding bay."

"This Imperial ship is headed somewhere to mine thorilide?" He repeats, tone stressed over every syllable in the word ‘Imperial’.

"That or some unlucky planet is about to be wiped from existence."

"The location of the Republic thorilide mines have been kept under the utmost security for ages, not even the Jedi Council was ever advised of its location."

"Can’t say I blame them, I barely trust them with those glowy sticks of death." She murmurs, making lightsaber sounds with her mouth as Wrecker snickers.

"Stop that. Do you know where this ship was heading? Do you have a copy of the manifest?"

"What, your amazing Republic recce didn't get you that information shiny?" He glares back at her, brows pinching together behind the dark frames of his goggles, "Maker! Did those cloners take your sense of humor? Yes, I know where this ship is going."

"Bet Cid’s contact would pay more for that bit of info." Wrecker’s grin can be heard even through the plastoid of his helmet.

Tech meanwhile has typed something to a com on his wrist, "Hunter, there's been a complication."

"What kind of complication?"

"There is more on board this ship than just the republic database-"

"What do you mean?"

"This ship is a mining vessel, out to mine thorilide."

Tech’s wrist comm goes silent, just quiet static while the voice on the other line thinks, "Ordinance?"

Both clones look at her, she nods emphatically, "Ordinance, med supplies, if there was coaxium on board I wouldn't be surprised, this place is the motherlode."

"Quite a bit of supplies on board, it would seem."

The comm goes quiet again for a few moments, "We don't have time for this, it's only a matter of time before they realize that your cruiser is stolen. Grab what you went in for and leave."

Tech shakes his head, it's so tiny and quick that if she wasn't looking at him in that moment she would have missed it, "Where is it being kept?" 

"Up, five or so floors unless I've miscounted."

"Tech, Wrecker, Get out of there, now!" The voice on the other end grows more and more irritable as they stand around in silence.

"We'll be out as soon as possible." Tech replies curtly as he cuts the comm. He makes it sound so easy like they were stopping by the nearest market to pick up fruit, instead of about to hijack high quality explosives from Imperial custody, "Lead the way."

"What? Just like that?"

"Are there, or are there not these items on board?"

"Yes." 

"You swear?" Wrecker leans in close, hovering over her.

"Yeah."

Tech nods, "Vital signs are stable, no signs of heightened stress-"

"What if I'm just a really good liar?"

"You can try all you want my dear, but the data doesn't lie."

"Does he do this to you too? I'm finding it a bit creepy-" She asks Wrecker as her eyebrow raises.

"You get used to it."

"Weird, so weird…" she mutters to herself as she turns and peeks around the corner. She looks around for anything that is familiar, when she sees a maintenance lift at the very end of the hall to the right. She motions them forward, and silently they sneak their way closer to the lift. She turns her attention to her side as she digs in her bag, her fingers grasp at the odd collection of junk in her pockets until her hand finally wraps around the cool metal of her code cylinder and she can finally stop holding her breath.

Tech's hand on her shoulder pulls her back to the task on hand as he drags her back a few steps. The catwalk above them from here to the lift is no more than a shoddy looking set of grates that creak as a group of security droids march along their patrol, oblivious to the three of them below. 

“The maintenance lift?" Tech sniffs as they come to a stop at its doors. He raises hand to push his goggles back into place, "Perhaps you have failed to notice but none of us are maintenance droids, the moment you try to access that panel they will -”

“They’ll what?” She asks as she jams the cylinder into the port, the lift clicks open silently and she steps inside. 

“The alarms-”

“What alarms? According to this," she snaps her code cylinder from the panel and drops it back into her bag, lost again to the chaos of the random junk held within, "I'm a maintenance droid doing routine inspections. How stupid do you think I am?”

"Hey hey, this one's pretty smart huh Tech?!" Wrecker is thrilled.

"Pirate." She reminds, "You don't see many my age that aren't intelligent and I'll give you one guess as to why."

The doors silently click open and before they can step out a team of at least half a dozen well armed sentry droids roll past. 

They all leap from the inside of the lift and fall into a crouch behind a stack of supply crates. They wait for a few moments before Tech quickly peeks over, "They don't seem to have spotted us."

"Fuck, there weren't this many when we tried this the first time." She swears a few more times under her breath.

"We should do this my way." Wrecker offers.

"What's that mean, what does he mean?!" Nox looks nervously over to Tech, "He doesn't mean-?"

"Explosives and violence? He absolutely does," Tech sighs, “ and I'm afraid we are running low on options and even lower on time. Wrecker, what does your ordinance look like?"

“But you said I couldn't bring any?”

“Yes, and when was the last time you actually listened?”

Wrecker, the fun if not absolutely homicidal one, pulls out a couple of detonators, a roll of plastic tape, a half dozen hand grenades and three droid poppers.

“Great, nice to know you could have turned us into a small sun if I hadn't told you about the baby on board.”

"Everything save for the poppers is far too dangerous to use around those crates." Tech hisses, "Any more of those brilliant pirate ideas floating around in your head?"

She chews on her lip for a moment, wracking her brain for anything else that might be useful as she ignores Tech's sarcastic tone. Apart from the crates on this floor littered with treasure, there didn't seem to be anything of any use...except for the busted water filter. “How big of a distraction do you think it would take to get all those sentries away from the haul?”

“It would need to be something quite large or destructive enough to threaten the integrity of the ship.”

“The water filtration system on board is completely calcified, I don't think it was ever fixed since there are only droids on board. If you could flood that with enough pressure the entire pipe should burst-”

“And flood the entire floor, along with the engine room, that might just do it.” He’s on his data pad before the words are even out of his mouth, he scans the room all around and matches it with the wireframe schematics on his screen. He stalks his way backwards until he finds the panel he is looking for. He pops it open easily and then begins to slice into the mainframe of the ship, “On my count, take Wrecker to wherever the baby is, let him handle it. You get your hands on as much of the medical supplies as you can, the security onboard is a little tighter than I would have preferred so I will have to stay here and continue to flood the filter.”

“Oh, easy.”

“Think you can handle all that tiny?” Wrecker’s thundering chuckle threatens to give away their location even with the steady moan of the alarms overhead.

She grins, Wrecker is back to being the fun one, “Try and keep up.”

There is a sound of roaring water all around them as tech funnels every liquid on the ship into the filter, then a sound like an explosion a couple of feet below them rocks the ship like a lightning strike. 

The sound of the alarm overhead changes as every droid on the floor turns away and heads to a lowering platform, all instructed to assist with the burst pipe.

“That’s our cue!” 

She shoves Wrecker forward playfully before they both break into a sprint toward the storage rooms where their bounty is being held. She points to one of the rooms as they approach, "This one's your big boy!"

The door is sealed shut, but not for long. Wrecker doesn't slow, instead he hunches low, bringing his shoulders down and tucking his chin into the collar of his armor before he barrels straight through, punching a hole through the doors with enough force to make even her teeth rattle.

She dips into the storage room across the hall, thanking the stars that her haul wasn't locked away like his was. She rips open any crate within arms reach, tossing open the tops and letting them scatter around the room wherever they land. She snatches bacta patches and hypos by the handful and packs the crate as full as she can, slamming her entire body weight against it to get it to close. She drags it out into the hall, placing it by the door before she bolts into the room right beside the one Wrecker is standing in. 

Wrecker watches her disappear into the room, the four small crates of explosives tucked carefully under his arms, “Wait, where are you-”

His question is answered as another crate hits the floor beside him. She comes running out of the room, grabbing this second crate by the handle and yanking it along, “Perfect! Not a single explosion! Love that for me!”

Wrecker bends down to offer her a hand but she has already snatched up the first trunk and is flying down the hall with them. She's faster than Wrecker would have believed she would be capable of with the two crates almost her height. She almost trips over herself as she stops and with a swift kick, the second crate lands at Tech's feet, “Come on 20/20, cut her loose, let's go!”

“What’s in that- I specifically ordered you to only carry medical supplies.”

“Yeah well, it sounds like you are used to not being listened to so, ship. Now!”

Wrecker races past, hopping off of the side and down to the level below, the halls are empty as all hands are called to help with the floor that is flooding. 

Nox peeks over the side, she watches as Wrecker sets the small boxes of baby down beside him, "Toss your crate!" He calls up. She nods and yanks the crates handle, flipping it up and off of the edge with a nudge from Tech. 

She helps him in turn, as they gingerly haul the crate full of ordinance over the edge before tossing it below. 

Wrecker sets the crates to one side before turning back to catch Nox, but she's already climbing down. Her fingers dig into spots on the wall where she should not be able to have any grip. She finds her own way down and with a little hop, lands right beside Wrecker as Tech lands beside her. The clang of his boots echoes down the empty hallway. "We'll need to make our way through the flooded floor of the ship in order to get back to the hangar." Tech types away at his data pad again before picking up the side of his crate.

Nox follows close beside the two clones, tossing the crate up onto her back to avoid making any unnecessary scraping sounds as they get closer to the flooded area, the sound of pouring water gets louder and louder with every floor. The next floor they walk through has the water barely deep enough to wash over the toes of their boots, but it rises rapidly after that. By the time they are on the same floor as the hangar, the water has risen up to their knees and Nox has a harder time trying to distract her mind from where all of this stagnant water has been hiding this whole time.

“Holding out ok over there tiny?” Wrecker chuckles. 

She turns to answer, when everything becomes...not alright. Her next step slips out from under her and she goes flying forward, crashing face first into the dark disgusting water, the crate on her back keeping her under the surface as she struggles to pull herself back up to standing. 

A hand at the back of her collar pulls her back up into fresh air, slimy water pours from her mouth and nose as she gags. She doesn't need to clear the water from her eyes to know what the dark figures that are starting to line the hallway are. Tech and Wrecker are on either side of her, blasters raised as the sentry droids file in.   

“I'm hoping you can fight better than you can swim.” Tech calls over as Wrecker leaps over them both and charges straight into one of the sentries.  Tech keeps a few of the others at bay, clipping them with bright bolts from his twin deecees, but it's not enough. She rubs the slime from her face and charges right behind Wrecker, using her entire body to check a droid in her path, she grabs the blaster from its hands as it goes tumbling backwards and into the water. Techs shots ring out around her as he stays behind, watching over the crates behind him. Wrecker tears through any droids that get within reach, sparks flying on to the water before they sizzle and die. She concentrates her fire on any droids Tech misses until the hall is clear.

"There'll be a second platoon on their way, we better get a move on." Tech calls back to them, she tosses the almost empty blaster into the water beside her.

"Are you always just, you know?" She makes growling and ripping sounds at Wrecker.

He laughs, "Not often enough." 

She stifles her laughter behind her hand as she walks back to where Tech is to retrieve the case of medical supplies, for a brief moment the last couple of days are forgotten and even the slime on her skin is the last thing on her mind. For a brief moment she was back with her men, waiting for that score of a lifetime, but when she grabs the handle of the crate and looks back it’s the clone armor that reminds her she is in fact alone. The sudden quiet of sadness doesnt last long as the doors behind them open and a new series of drods begin their march towards them. 

“Incoming!”

-----

Tag list: @themarvelbunch @agentwhiskeysdarlin @pascalisthepunkest @ashotofspotchka

#tbb #tech #the bad batch #Tech Tuesday #the bad batch x oc #the bad batch fic #tech x oc #evie struggles with writing #star wars fanfiction #tbb tech

[fangirl-ramblings]

Pairing: Charles Smith x Female Readee

Word Count: 3222

Summary: Love is in the air around camp, but has Cupid's arrow somehow missed you and Charles?

Notes: The fluffiest of fluff, Reader POV / Charles POV

This @rdr-secret-cupid gift is for one of my favourite people - @12timetraveler. My sincere apologies for this Valentine's / birthday present being so late, but hopefully it's well worth the wait 😘

~* Tumblr Masterlist | Stories on AO3 *~

Cupid's Arrow

Reader's POV

14th Feb 1899

You looked around to see Dutch sitting in his tent, whispering sweet nothings to Miss O'Shea while Sean was trying his hardest to win over Karen, whose icy demeanour was starting to thaw with each passing drink he was plying her with. Hell, even John had had a little too much to drink and summoned the courage to pick a small posy of flowers and present them to Abigail as a small Valentine's gift. 

You liked seeing the camp happy like this, all relaxed in each other's company; the likes of Javier and Tilly sitting next to each other as the former strummed on his guitar and filled the air with a sweet melody, or young Mary-Beth, enjoying the latest romance novel she acquired, only to tear her eyes away from the page to gaze lovingly towards an oblivious Arthur before continuing her story.

And while Micah's grumbling about it "not bein' right, someone like him talkin' to a fiiinnnne woman like her," as he watched young Lenny saying something to make Jenny giggle from across the way, was enough to for everybody to tell him to shut up, it certainly wasn't enough to dampen the mood around the place.

It was even nice to see Miss Grimshaw laugh and smile as she joined the older camp members in their reminiscences about previous Valentine's days with their own past loves, soon followed by raucous singing of filthy songs but as you took your makeshift seat of a crate at the poker table, you couldn’t but help feel Cupid’s arrow had struck everyone and somehow bypassed you. 

You had secretly hoped that Charles would have joined in with the party, but the minute Dutch wound up his gramophone Charles had disappeared into the woods to take his position on guard duty.

While you'd taken many opportunities to try to make conversation and try to get to know him better over the last few months, you still found him to be a man of few words - but you liked that about him. The camp was full enough of loud-mouthed characters like Sean and Uncle that any moment you found yourself sitting in a comfortable silence with Mr. Smith was bliss.

As the night drew on and more and more alcohol was heartly consumed by all, you felt your eyes growing heavy and couldn’t summon the energy to sing along with the lyrics of “The Louisville Maid”.

   "Well as fun as this is, I'm gonna call it a night," you announced to your campmates, knowing full well that nobody was really listening. You sighed as they were caught up in their merriment and headed towards your tent… only to walk straight into Charles.

   "Whoa, careful there," he told you, giving you a small smile as he placed those big, strong hands of his upon your arms to help stop you from falling over on the spot.

Your face burned as you felt your face grow redder and with each passing second as you enjoyed his gentle but firm touch, causing you to look away to avoid staring into those beautiful, deep brown eyes of his. You hoped that he thought your flushed appearance was a result of all the alcohol running through your veins and not the thought currently running  through your mind; what it would be like if he suddenly dipped and kissed you with a fervent passion?

   "Sorry Charles, I… I… I hadn't realised you'd finished your shift already. Want a drink?"

    "I'm okay, thank you, I was gonna try and get some sleep… and I think you should too - big day tomorrow isn't it?" Your brow furrowed as you tried to rack your brain. Had you arranged to go on a job and completely forgot? Charles watched you, with a confused look. "Oh, I thought you'd mentioned the other day that it was your birthday? Maybe I got it wrong?" 

   "Oh my word, yes it is," you gasped in wonderment, "I can't believe you remembered."

   "Guess I just have a good memory for special occasions," he grinned, brushing a loose hair from your face without thinking, making you weak at the knees.

He cleared his throat and moved his hand away. "Well we best both go get some shut eye before the sun comes up. Good night and sweet dreams." 

You watched him walk to his tent, before heading to your own. Still smiling to yourself, you drew the flaps shut and fell on the cot, relieving that brief moment you just had with Charles over and over as you closed your eyes and let sleep wash over you.

15th Feb 1899

As the sun beamed through the gaps of your tent, you woke up to a very different camp atmosphere compared to the night before. It was eerily quiet; with everybody still in bed, sleeping off the hangovers they'd given themselves at the party.

Deciding to make the most of having a quiet camp all to yourself, you sat yourself up and stretched - your muscles and joints aching in a way that made you laugh. Another year older today and your body was certainly reminding you of that fact with all the aches and pains you suddenly started feeling. 

A part of you doubted anybody else would be able to remember that today was your birthday but you smiled as you saw Mary-Beth hadn't forgotten; she'd wrapped a romance novel with one of her ribbons and left it on your trunk. Next to it was a little handwritten note from her, wishing you a very happy birthday and how "the way the heroine in this story reminds me of how you act around Charles, maybe if you read it you'll end up with your true love too. x"

You playfully rolled your eyes; ever the romantic, Mary-Beth had seen you gazing at Charles one day and decided you were destined to be together.

Pulling on some fresh clothes, you stepped outside and made your way towards the coffee pot, presuming nobody would have thought to wash it out and prepare it ready for the morning. Yet, to your surprise, you lifted it up to find it freshly brewed and still piping hot.

   “I figured everybody would be wanting some when they woke up,” Charles chuckled, walking behind you carrying some logs for the campfire.

   “I’d say; seems they all had a lot to celebrate,” you laughed, pouring yourself a cup. “You want one?” you asked, offering Charles the filled mug currently in your hand.

   “I’m okay thanks, I had one before I made a start on tidying the place up.” 

   “Oh trust me, I wouldn’t worry too much about that today - Grimshaw will have such a headache, she'll be far more focused on getting all the quieter jobs done," you giggled knowing from previous experience how badly Susan seemed to suffer from next morning hangovers.

He carefully placed the chopped wood next to the campfire before turning his attention back to you. "Oh I bet," he grinned, his eyes twinkling. "Actually, I have an idea that might help keep camp running smoothly and stop people grumbling.'

   "Oh?" Curiosity had gotten the best of you and you were intrigued to know what he was thinking.

   "I saw supplies were running low and was thinking of doing some hunting later… a good hearty stew might be what the others need to recover," rushing his words out before casting his eyes to the ground. "I, erm… I was wondering if you wanted to join me?"

   "What? Because I'm the only other person sober enough to safely use a weapon right now?" you teased. 

   "That's one reason, but I'd also like some good company." 

You stood gobsmacked as he turned away from you, quickly making his way over to Taima, pulling something from her saddle.

   "I… I'd like to spend time with you too, but I'm afraid my pistol is no good for hunting." You hung your head in disappointment, mentally kicking yourself that this could be your one chance to be alone with the man you'd admired for all these months - and you've lost it because you never took the time to invest in decent hunting equipment.

   "I can help you with that," Charles told you, pulling out an ornate looking bow and handing it to you. "I made it… for your birthday."

   "For me?" Shocked by his act of kindness, you traced your fingers over each of the detail engravings that ran along each of the limbs, tears starting to cloud your vision. "This is beautiful, but are you sure you mean to give this to me?"

   "Of course… a beautiful bow for a beautiful lady.” A sudden flash of fear crossed Charles’ eyes as he realised what he had just said, his body tensing.

   "You… think I'm beautiful?" Your eyes looking deep into his, searching for the truth.

He nodded. "The most beautiful creature I have ever laid eyes on… I'm sorry, I didn't mean to put you on the spot like that. If it's too awkward, we can just forget the hunting…"

He stopped mid-sentence as you kissed his cheek, his body relaxing as he realised he hadn't made a mistake in telling you.

   "It's not awkward at all, I've liked you for a long time but I could never work out if the feeling is mutual." You gently thumbed his cheek, "Let's go on this hunting trip and talk about this in private shall we?" You suggested as you signaled for Charles to see what you could see. 

Stood behind him was a small audience of John and Mary-Beth, both of whom were grinning over to you both. 

Charles playfully rolled his eyes and walked  you away from their gaze. 

   "Sounds like a good idea, wanna head out now?"

   "Lead the way Mr. Smith." You held out your hand and he gladly took hold.

   "Oh wait, you'll need some of these too" he reached back into his saddle to hand you a bunch of arrows… only to be confused as he heard you laughing.

    "What's so funny?" Charles asked, trying to read your expression.

   "Nothing… just looks like Cupid's arrows found me after all."

Charles' POV

14th Feb 1899

   “I’ll take over here if you want,” John grumbled, clutching his face as he approached where Charles was currently taking up guard duty in the wooded area on the outskirts of camp. “I reckon my Valentine's night is as good as over.”

Charles turned to face his campmate, the moonlight showing a fresh red looking handprint across John's cheek. "You blew it with Abigail then?"

   "Yep, I pushed my luck just a little too much," John chuckled lightly, "But I'm sure I'll  survive. Go on, you go enjoy yourself… I saw [y/n] looking all lonesome up there, she could probably do with some company."

John waggled his eyebrows as Charles pretended to scowl; alcohol had given him loose lips one night and he had ended up confiding in Arthur and John about his feelings about the camp lady he'd taken a shine to. But he couldn’t hold the expression for long as a smile crept over his lips he thought about you.

   "I'll probably just get some shut-eye instead, but I have been busy making this for her." He lifted up a beautiful bow that was resting against a nearby trunk. "It's her birthday tomorrow and she mentioned once she'd be interested in learning to hunt properly."

   "You're a big old softie, ain't you Charles Smith?" John chuckled. "Well, I'm sure she'll appreciate the thought."

   “Don’t you go ruining my reputation, John,” he laughed, making his way to the clearing where all the gang's horses grazed peacefully.

Taima looked up, nickering as she saw her owner nearby.

   “Just a passing visit for now girl, but we can go out on a ride tomorrow,” he whispered to her, stroking her neck as she nuzzled against him. “In the meantime, I want you to keep this safe for me.” Charles lifted his saddle onto the hitching post that Taima was attached to, and carefully placed the bow into the holster on it. She watched her owner with curiosity, her ears pricking up as heard Charles rummaging in his saddlebag to retrieve an apple to reward his trusted Appaloosa for her loyalty. 

The music was still playing as he walked back into camp, only this time it was Pearson’s accordion and Uncle’s banjo that filled the air as Miss Grimshaw sang a bawdy song. It was clear that the party wasn't ending anytime soon, but that wasn't going to stop Charles from trying to get some sleep. Heading towards his tent, he found himself looking around for a quick glance of his heart's desire, only for you to crash straight into him.

   "Whoa, careful there," he told you, gently placing his hands upon your arms to help stop you from falling over on the spot. He could have swore he felt a jolt of electricity flowing through his veins as his skin touched yours.

   "Sorry Charles, I… I… I hadn't realised you'd finished your shift already. Want a drink?"

    "I'm okay thank you, I was gonna try and get some sleep… and I think you should too - big day tomorrow isn't it?" A flash of confusion crossed your face and Charles began to doubt himself. "Oh, I thought you'd mentioned the other day that it was your birthday? Maybe I got it wrong?" 

   "Oh my word, yes it is," you gasped in wonderment. "I can't believe you remembered."

   "Guess I just have a good memory for special occasions," he grinned, brushing a loose hair from your face without thinking, before catching himself and moving his hand away.

Not really wanting the moment to be over but knowing he must tear himself away lest he stay admiring you all night, he cleared his throat. 

   "Well we best both go get some shut eye before the sun comes up. Good night and sweet dreams." 

Making the short walk back to his own tent,  his heart soared as he thought back over your reaction to him remembering your birthday. Now he couldn’t wait to see how you would react to your present.

Settling on his bed roll, he watched you draw your tent closed before allowing himself finally sleep and dream of you.

Charles found himself waking at the crack of dawn, just as the last few stragglers were stumbling towards their bedrolls . Realising he could effectively have the tranquillity of camp to himself,  he gladly jumped up and set about getting ready for a new day.

Firstly he made his way over to Pearson’s wagon to grab a few coffee beans and started brewing a fresh pot. Noticing the meat supplies were running dangerously low, Charles made a mental note to go out hunting later and wondered if this could be the ideal opportunity to ask the birthday girl to join him.

While he waited for that certain someone to wake up, he had already  stoked the fires back to life and disposed of the empty bottles that were scattered all around camp before finally enjoying a short break with a fresh cup of coffee.

It wasn't until he had made a start on chopping wood he had heard footsteps behind him and smiled to himself as he looked over to see [y/n] making her way over to the coffee pot.

   “I figured everybody would be wanting some when they woke up,” Charles chuckled, walking up to her with an armful of logs for the campfire.

   “I’d say; seems they all had a lot to celebrate,” she laughed in that sweet way that made Charles’ feel all warm inside as she poured a cup. “You want one?” asking as she offered the mug in her hand towards him.

   “I’m okay thanks, I had one before I made a start on tidying the place up," he explained, walking over towards where the chopped wood was to be stored.

   “Oh trust me, I wouldn’t worry too much about that today - Grimshaw will have such a headache, she'll be far more focused on getting all the quieter jobs done,"

Charles chuckled as he carefully placed the firewood down before realising this was his chance and turned his attention back to you.

   "Oh I bet," grinning with a twinkle in his eyes. "Actually, I have an idea that might help keep camp running smoothly and stop people grumbling.'

   "Oh?" you asked, tilting your head with curiosity.

He had noticed in the past that each time you asked a question about something that had piqued your interest, you would often tilt your head in this way and found it utterly adorable.

   "I was thinking of doing some hunting later… a good hearty stew might be what the others need to recover," Charles rushed his words out before looking away bashfully. "I, erm… I was wondering if you wanted to join me?"

   "What? Because I'm the only other person sober enough to safely use a weapon right now?" she smirked, and he felt his insides flip-flop. She was so damn beautiful.

   "That's one reason, but I'd also like some good company," he told her, quickly turning to go fetch the bow from Taima’s saddle.

    "I… I'd like to enjoy your company too, but I'm afraid my pistol is no good for hunting." She lowered her head in what seemed to be disappointment.

   "I can help you with that," Charles told her, carefully placing the bow in her hands. "I made it….for your birthday."

   "For me?" He watched as she traced her fingers over the engravings he spent so much time on, hoping the tears brimming in her eyes were because she was overjoyed. "This is beautiful… but are you sure it's for me?"

   "Of course… a beautiful bow for a beautiful lady.” He kicked himself inwardly for saying it aloud, 

   "You… think I'm beautiful?" Your eyes looking deep into his, searching for the truth.

He nodded. "The most beautiful creature I have ever laid eyes on… I'm sorry, I didn't mean to put you on the spot like that. If it's too awkward, we can just forget the hunting…"

He stopped mid-sentence as you kissed his cheek. The feeling of embarrassment replaced by one feeling like he could soar into the sky right now.

   "It's not awkward at all, I've liked you for a long time but I could never work out if the feeling is mutual." Gently thumbing his cheek, you suggested, "Let's go on this hunting trip and talk about this in private shall we?"

He followed your gaze to see Mary-Beth and John grinning at you both as they stood by their tents. 

Playfully rolling his eyes, Charles guided you away from their gaze. 

   "Sounds like a good idea, wanna head out now?"

   "Lead the way Mr. Smith." You held out your hand and he gladly took hold.

   "Oh wait, you'll need some of these too" he reached back into his saddle to hand you a bunch of arrows… only to be confused as he heard you laughing.

    "What's so funny?" Charles asked, hoping thewhole entire moment wasn't a set up so camp could make fun of him

   "Nothing… just looks like Cupid's arrows found me after all"

#fangirl writes #charles smith x f!reader #charles smith x female reader #rdr2 fanfic #rdr secret cupid 2021 #fluff

[lostinthewiind]

Brave Heart: Chapter Seven

Attack on Titan

Rating: Mature

Warnings: sexual themes, death, gore, mature themes, extreme violence, body horror, blood, weapons, major character death, age-gap relationship

Head peaking out from the giant hole in the wall, Vera watched the Abnormal Titan intently as it ruthlessly cut down the remaining Titans surrounding headquarters.

"Look at him go." Connie chuckled, completely baffled. "This guy makes the others look like total weaklings. They're not gonna take this building. Not with him on a rampage out there."

Reiner nodded. "That's all well and good, but what's to keep him from turning on use once he's done?"

Connie thought for a moment before shrugging, making it clear he didn't really have an answer for that. "Guess we'll worry about that when we're safe."

"One thing at a time." Vera looked over her shoulder at the others. "If we worry about too much at once, it'll come back to bite us in the ass."

"Yeah, you're right." Reiner agreed. "At least he's buying us a little time."

"Good news!" Jean announced as he and some of the other cadets returned with long wooden crates in their arms. "Courtesy of the Military Police. And covered with a layer of dust."

Leaving her lookout position from the wall, Vera helped Jean and the others pry the crates open to reveal old guns that had been sitting in storage for who knows how long.

"Are you absolutely sure buckshot is the way to go?" Jean eyed the out-of-fashion weapons suspiciously. "Seems like we might as well throw spitwads. I mean, come on, guys. Are guns even effective?"

"Better than spitwads, anyway." Vera picked up one of the guns for herself and inspected it.

Wandering over with a ratty old grid map that he had managed to locate, Armin laid the sheet of paper out on the floor and motioned for everyone to gather around. After collecting some reconnaissance on the situation surrounding and within HQ, he was ready to lay out the plan he had devised.

"We're looking at eight Titans in the supply room, of the four-meters-tall variety," Armin began, the room falling silent while everyone listened. "If we time this perfectly, this much ammo ought to be enough to do the trick. Step one, we lower a group into the area via lift to get the Titans' attention. Step two, when the Titans come within range, the group fires in all four directions simultaneously, blinding them. Then the hard part. The moment of truth, as it were. Before the Titans have time to recover, eight of us swoop down from the ceiling and strike their vital regions. That's it. That's the plan. It puts all our lives on the line. We screw up, we're dead. That's a hell of a risk for one attack but it's our only chance. Eight people have to slay eight Titans in one blow, at the same time. We're gonna need the best of you. The eight soldiers most physically gifted and adept with their paring blades. You'll be the difference between life and death for the rest of us."

Crossing her arms over her chest, Vera nodded. "No pressure."

"I'm sorry. That's how it is." Armin sighed.

"Seems like a sound plan," Reiner assured him.

Annie nodded in agreement. "When you get right down to it, the risk is the same for everyone. Doesn't really matter who goes."

"Look, I'm willing to be talked out of this," Armin said. "One half-baked strategy can't be our only option, right?"

"Hey, don't be so hard on yourself," Marco told him, always one to encourage others when they needed it most. "Come on, with what we're looking at? 'Cause for our only option, it's pretty well thought out. If we give it our all, we might just pull this off!"

"It'll be fine," Mikasa insisted. "You just have to be confident. You're a better strategist than you give yourself credit for. I'm serious. That mind's saved Eren and me more than once."

Armin's expression was one of pure confusion. "When did I ever save you? That's not-"

Before Armin could finish his sentence, one of the cadets had finished preparing the lift and had opened the gate to let the others in. "All right, the lift's ready to go!" he announced. "Guns are loaded to the stocks. Let's go kill some Titans!"

As everyone got ready to head out, Vera followed the other seven that had been chosen to duel out the killing blows to the Titans. As she thought more about what was expected of her, she became unsure about her own ability to actually carry out the task; not because she thought she lacked skill—she had graduated within the top ten of her class for a reason—but because she was worried her aching muscles and tired body might just give out at any second. Vera knew this wasn't a valid excuse, however, because everyone was tired, both mentally and physically. So, she stuffed her doubts down, drew in a deep breath, and got ready to perform.

"Okay, I'm going to ask the obvious question," Connie spoke up. "Can we do this without ODM gear?"

"No problem," Reiner answered. "These guys are only four meters tall. Their weak spots are not too far above eye level."

"He's right." Jean joined the discussion, deciding to throw in his own two cents. "Size won't be an issue. The spot is still only one meter high and ten centimetres across."

Vera exhaled slowly as she pulled her blades out and rechecked their connection to their handles. "Back of the head to the nape of the neck," she muttered.

"Worst comes to worst, you can always just shove one of these up their ass." Reiner lifted his blade high enough for everyone to see. "That's the other weak spot."

"Are you serious?" Connie gasped. "That's news to me."

"Did I miss a day of training or something?" Sasha asked.

Jean groaned. "Come on. Knock it off, Riener. You want your final words to be an ass joke?"

Reiner chuckled as he turned to Vera, hoping to catch a glint of amusement in her eyes. What he saw instead, however, worried him. "Hey." He nudged her with his elbow. "You good?"

Snapping out of her thoughts, which were consumed mostly by her convincing herself that she was okay over and over again, Vera forced a smile. "Yeah, all good," she replied before throwing his own words back at him. "You almost sound as if you're worried. You're not going soft on me, are you?"

Reiner shook his head. "Not yet."

"Good." She nodded. "I'm fine. Just worry about keeping yourself alive."

With that, Vera and the other eight cadets she was with climbed into the rafters of the supply room, careful not to attract the attention of the Titans lurking below and blow their cover. Not long after they had gotten into position, the faint mechanical sound of the lift being lowered down could be heard, indicating that the plan was underway and there was no backing out now.

As the lift slowed to a stop about six meters above the ground, low enough for the Titans to notice but just high enough so the cadets couldn't be snatched out of the lift with ease, everyone waited for the eight Titans to approach.

All at once, the cadets cocked their guns and pointed them over the edge of the lift. Vera could hear hushed whispers from below as she watched from the beam she was crouching on, but she couldn't make out what they were saying to one another. If she had to guess, she would say they were probably whispering words of encouragement to each other so no one lost their nerve and ended up getting everyone killed.

The supply room was dead silent as the Titans gathered around the lift, their beady eyes locked onto the many tasty snacks laid out right in front of them.

"Don't lose your cool!" Marco ordered when one of the Titans got a little too close for comfort. "Fire only when they're all within range!"

Vera could hear her heart beating in her ears and feel it pounding harshly against her chest. Wiping her sweaty hands on her pants, she adjusted her grip on her blades and waited for the signal.

"Fire!" Marco shouted, and in an instant, approximately thirty different guns went off.

Flashes of light filled the room, and as smoke began to accumulate in the air, Vera and the others dropped from above before their visibility was compromised.

Pushing hard off of the wooden beam with her foot, Vera rose her blades and got ready to swing down hard when she reached her Titan. With one swift slice, she hit the Titan right in the weak spot before landing hard on the ground, the Titan collapsing beside her.

The ground shook as Titans fell one by one, but when all was said and done, Sasha and Connie had missed their targets and two Titans had been left standing.

"Sasha and Connie missed!" Bertholdt yelled.

As Sasha's Titan lunged for her, she jumped out of the way, her blades tumbling out of her hands in the process. Before any real damage could be done, however, Mikasa and Annie swooped in and put an end to the remaining Titans.

"Mikasa!" Sasha screeched, throwing her arms around her saviour. "You saved my life!"

"Are you okay?" Mikasa asked.

Tears running down her cheeks, Sasha nodded. "Because of you, I am!"

"Then get off me!" Mikasa huffed.

Face flushing with relief, Connie flashed a smile of appreciation at Annie. "I owe you one."

Annie just brushed the gratitude off. "No worries."

"Wow," Reiner commented. "By the skin of your teeth. You're damn lucky you didn't end up worse off."

Annie didn't say a word in response and, instead, just walked away.

"They're all dead!" one of the cadets from the lift announced. "Start loading up supplies!"

"It worked!" Armin cheered, half glad and half surprised that his plan had turned out as a success.

From there, the tension lifted significantly. Everyone was able to refill their gas canisters, allowing the ODM gear to be used once more and giving the cadets the ability to get back over the wall.

"I kept myself alive." Reiner appeared by Vera's side as she was refuelling. "As did you, I see."

Vera just nodded and continued to focus on the task at hand. Lately, she wasn't quite sure how to respond to Reiner. For the past three years, Reiner had been the closest thing to a friend Vera had ever had; and sure, maybe it was due to her inexperience with relationships of any kind, but it seemed as though he was acting weird all of a sudden. Ever since graduation, he was always checking in on her and staying by her side, and although she didn't necessarily hate it, she wasn't sure how to deal with it either.

There was no doubt that Reiner was special to Vera, if only because he seemed to genuinely care about her in his own way, but she wasn't able to decipher just what it all meant. Had the spark of warmth she had felt when she had found out he was still alive simply been a normal feeling of relief? What about when he had protected her from the panicked mob? Was that a normal reaction as well?

Vera didn't know, and, frankly, she wasn't sure how to find out either.

Once everyone had refilled their canisters, the cadets exited HQ in waves, ready to rendezvous with the main unit. As Vera exited the building, she noticed Mikasa and Armin standing on one of the rooftops and, with her curiosity getting the better of her, went to see what they were looking at.

Reaching the peak of the roof, Vera spotted the scene that had caught the attention of her comrades. Below, in the street, the Abnormal Titan that had been buying the cadets time was being eaten alive by the other Titans.

"Cannibalism?" Armin questioned, perplexed. "Can he not regenerate like the others?"

"This may sound stupid, but I was hoping he'd be the key for us." Mikasa couldn't take her eyes off of the scene unfolding before her. "That he'd help mankind break the cycle. Turn the tide just long enough to give us a little ray of hope."

"She's right," Reiner added as he, Bertholdt, Annie, and Jean joined to watch as well. "He's too valuable to just let die. There's too much we can learn from him. I think it's perfectly clear our priority should be to ward the scavengers off him. He's no good to us picked apart."

Jean's mouth dropped open. "Are you out of your mind?!" he exclaimed. "We've got a path out of this nightmare and you want to stay?"

"Think about it." Annie attempted to convince him. "Having an Abnormal as an ally would be an incredible advantage, right? A canon's got nothing on a Titan who likes to rip apart his own kind."

"You . . ." Jean was physically taken aback. "Do you hear yourself? He's not like a new friend!"

Vera tilted her head and sighed. "You don't have to stay if you don't want to, Jean," she told him. "You were never very good at making new friends anyway."

Jean's eyebrows knotted together, but before he could bite back a retort, Armin interrupted. "Oh, no!" Armin pointed to another approaching Titan. "It's the one that ate Thomas!"

Upon spotting the newly arrived Titan, the Abnormal quickly shoved all other Titans off of himself before charging forward, hatred visible in its bright eyes. With a screech, the Abnormal charged toward the other Abnormal, not even stopping when both of its arms had been torn off.

In complete shock, Vera watched as the Abnormal sunk its teeth into the back of the other's neck and lifted it into the air with pure strength; and even though its exposed ribs were visibly cracking under the pressure, this didn't stop the Abnormal from using its entire body to whip the other into the cement before throwing it into a nearby building.

Both arms missing and steam billowing from the exposed flesh, the Abnormal let out a shrill shriek before dropping to its knees and collapsing.

"What was that you were saying?" Jean eyed the Titan, internally praying it wouldn't get back up again. "'Cause I think it's a moot point now. All right, enough of this! Let's leave while we can. We're lucky the ugly bastard didn't get bored. We'd have been next on the menu."

Despite Jean's ramblings, no one was able to tear their eyes away from the Abnormal. Excluding Jean, an air of pure disbelief and impressed bewilderment had spread through each cadet.

"Look, a Titan's a Titan." Jean tried one more to convince everyone to leave, but even he stopped talking when he caught a glimpse of what everyone was staring at.

From the back of the Abnormal's neck, the flesh that made up the weak spot had split, allowing steam to pour out. When the steam had subsided enough for visibility to return, everyone watched, dumbfounded, as a boy emerged from the Titan's neck, partially fused with the bright red muscles inside.

And it wasn't just any boy. It was Eren.

As soon as Eren's identity had been confirmed by sight, Mikasa threw herself off of the roof and rushed to his side. Steam emitting from all around her and Eren, she scooped the unconscious boy into her arms and wailed. It wasn't a wail of despair, however, but instead one of relief.

Descending after Mikasa, Armin was quick to help bring Eren up to safety. He was limp and completely motionless, but the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest was evidence enough that he was still breathing. Not only this, but the leg and arm that Vera had clearly watched be torn off with her very own eyes were there again, not a single scratch or bruise on them.

"Okay, so, uh . . ." Jean turned back to look at the pile of Titan corpses the Abnormal had left behind in its wake. "Eren did all this?"

It was unclear just how Eren had escaped the belly of a Titan, or even how he had managed to cause so much destruction. But one thing was for certain, and that was that somehow, someway, Eren Jaeger was still alive.

#lostinthewiind #attack on titan #brave heart #fanfiction #AoT #OC #original character #eren jaeger #mikasa ackerman #armin arlert #levi ackerman #erwin smith #story #titans #tumblr fic #wattpad #jean kirstein #historia reiss #annie leonhart #reiner braun #hange zoe #bertholdt hoover #connie springer #vera kline #sasha braus #ymir fritz #reiner braun x oc #levi ackerman x oc

[artsyxloner]

Not Just a Monster

Warning: None

15. Running out of supplies

We were running out of water, that's what Eun-Hyuk told me, there was a small Secret group meeting We had. I was Currently in the Storage room packing and dividing the rations.

With Ji-Su, Jae-Heon, Eun-Hyuk's and Hyun-Su he was finally able to come out and Socialize with others. I was happy he didn't have to stay Cooped up in that small room.

Coming out from the closet I saw Ji-Soo carrying a pack of water bottles it must have been heavy because she looked like she was in pain. And her face was more Paler now than before.

Going over I picked them up for her, this time I asked, I was getting concerned. " are you okay?" I whispered, laying the water down. She was caught off guard by the question.

" Pardon?"

I stopped at what I was doing, " I know there something wrong you should tell someone." We packed food and other Essentials, putting them in small crates and boxes. " I'm fine plus if there was something wrong no one will be able to help-"

She was interrupted when someone busted in through the door. It was Seung-wan he started to yell, getting angry. " Stop!" We all looked up at him.  Has he gone nuts already?

" did you think I wouldn't notice if you guys, ran away?"  I raised an eyebrow, we aren't Secretly running away, where did he hear this from?

Eun-Hyuk and came in, as did the other guys. " give me my share!" He ran towards Jae-Heon grabbing the food he was holding. Trying to take it away from him. " Fuck I can't trust anyone anymore!"

He screamed out like a mad man, Jae-Heon grabbed him trying to calm him down. " clam down, let's talk!" But Seung-Wan pushed him against the glass Freezer. " don't touch me!!" He pulled out a box cutter knife pointing it Jae-Heon's neck.

My eyes widened thinking he was going to cut him. " I'm not going to die here like this! I'm going to leave here by myself!" He then pointed it at Eun-Hyuk I started to walk forward but Hyun-Su grabbed my hand and shook his head.

"  give me the car keys." He pushed something pasted him it hitting the wall getting closer to Eun-Hyuk with the knife. " Give me the car keys you asshole! Give me the car keys you son of a-" he screamed, his hand shaking with the knife.

He was about to get cut Eun-Hyuk but was stopped by Sang-Woo. He pulled him away and punched him straight in the face. He fell, groaning in pain, but he grabbed him pulling the mad man up.

Dragging him away, I should have been shocked by what I just saw but in this world it was normal I wasn't Surprised but we humans shouldn't act like this towards each other, we should at least have some common courtesy.

Following them Seung-Wan was on the floor. " why don't you go out there then?" Sang-Wook Insisted, Seung-wan started to scream like crazy. " you don't know how it feels. To have your life and someone else's hands!!"

" what are you doing?" Gil-Seob came in to view. " do you want the kids seeing this?" He questioned, I turned my head to them. " Who cares what the kids see you're not? We're all going to die anyway!!" It all got quiet for a moment.

We all were staring at him until Gil-Seob began to walk towards him. " No... not all of us will." He crouches down to Seung-Wan level. " people who act stupid As you do. Just because they're afraid are the ones who die first!"

He then slapped his knee, " get a grip, and more importantly Take care of your own life." He told him the guy looked like he was about to cry. After that, it was silent and very awkward.

Like the air was on thin ice if you stepped on it, it could break at any given moment. Everyone then began to leave because of it. But before I went, I hadn't realized I was holding Hyu-Su's hand the entire time.

It was Firmly gripped in mine. Did Hyun-Su know we were holding hands? I mean it's not that hard to Acknowledge plus he was holding it tight. Taking a glance at him his eyes were peering down at our interlocked fingers.

A blush formed on his cheeks, eyes wide and big. Letting go, I was kinda embarrassed. He looked up my way, but I left before he could say anything. My stomach was feeling queasy like I needed to throw up.

I knew why though I was getting feeling for Hyun-Su and it was too many feelings for my stomach to handle. I said that I should live life but it's hard when you don't know when you're time is up and that you're gonna turn into a monster anytime soon.

Going to the bathroom, I splashed water on my face, trying to calm myself down. I can like him right? Even though we were both infected he just didn't know it yet. Is it worth it though, I would just end up getting my hopes up? 

Why is this so complicated, I grumbled.  Knowing liking someone in this Situation leads to trouble and never turns out good. When I was done having a two-sided conversation with myself I went back into the day-care-Center to clear my head.

But Eun-Hyuk stopped me, " I need to talk it's important." He insisted, Motioning for me to follow him we walked into the office and I saw, Gil-Seob and Du-Sik. What were they doing here?

" We need more supplies," Eun-Hyuk began, " food is running sort so is the water as you know it's Been Contaminated we need to get outside resources." He said this writing it all on a Chalkboard.

" first Mr. An has been scouting out the area to make sure it's safe for the person that goes out, Mr. Han is fixing the car and Reinforcing it. And Lastly Soo-Nico you will go out and get the supplies we need."

He explained as if the others already knew about this and volunteered me for the job. " I'm not doing this to use you Soo-Nico you are the best chance we have out there." He said as if I was the only one to do it.

I guess I was the only one able to do the job since I knew were every monster out there, including their whereabouts, how they kill, and how to escape if necessary.

Thinking it over, it was for everyone's survival including mine. So I agreed to it, not seeing I had a choice either. We all made our way to the Day-Care-Center telling everyone we were having a meeting.

I sat in the left corner of the room on a desk. While everyone piled in, seeing Hyun-Su he sat next to me on a stool. Things were still kinda awkward soon we didn't say anything to each other.

Soon Eun-Hyuk brought in the chalkboard I saw just a few moments before he stood in front of it, " we need to Venture outside, we only have five days' worth of food. We'll search the Convenient store first."

He told us, good for him I know a store that still tons of food. " isn't too dangerous?" Jae-Heon, questioned, well yes it was. " we've been preparing, Mr. An has scouted out the area And Mr. Han is working on the car." He explained.

" Hang on there, four eyes who's going then, I mean are we going to draw straws?" Byeong-ll wondered, wanting to know who will go out.

" it's an important mission only Who is likely to succeed will go and knows what it likes out there." He finished, they didn't have to guess they all knew. " Soo-Nico will go out there with her experience."

Everyone's eyes landed on me, including Hyun-Su. " but didn't she get caught up in that spider web?" Someone I didn't even know the name if asked. Eun-Hyuk nodded, " Yes but she got out on her own."

He defeated me, which I was shocked by. Soon the meeting was over and they all left, telling me good luck. I didn't expect it though. Going back outside, I don't know if I was ready?

" So you're going out there?" Hyun-Su spoke, it Startled me when he did. Getting over my mini heart attack I told him yeah. "I'm the only one so who else?" I laughed

I was expecting him to but he wasn't. His face was blank. " but do you want to?" As if he read my mind a few minutes ago, I didn't but there are some things you have to do. " I wouldn't do it if it wasn't necessary but it is." And it was, but Hyun-Su seemed to understand.

" Just be careful."

I smiled, " sure, whatever you say." I was happy he was genuinely concerned, but he shouldn't be, leaving him alone I walked out but saw Ji-Soo running to the restroom she was sweating badly, and she looked deadly pale.

Clutching her side, I knew something was wrong. Going after her, she was banging on the only working stall door. " hurry up, you're still not done?" She was bending over in pain Groaning.

Eun-Yoo was in the stall. She began to talk but there was a short pause. " –yeah I need more time." She said making her wait on purpose. Shaking my head I went over there.

Grabbing the doorknob I shook it violently. " hey open up she needs to go in there it's urgent!" I demanded, hitting the door. Ji-Soo wasn't looking so good.

" that's too bad for her, she should have come yesterday if it was so urgent." I couldn't believe her words, " Hey, do you have a death wish!!" I threatened, " what I'm using the bathroom to survive, you know." I rolled my eyes she didn't understand the situation.

" Hey, Eun-Yoo hey! Hurry up! Come on." She banged on the door. Leaning against it, like she couldn't keep herself up. I have enough of this bullshit. " Eun-Yoo! Open the door right now, she in pain." I heard her sign from the other side.

" I would be careful how your talking to me don't want a little Secret to get out." She laughed, Just as I said that she fell to the floor.

I let out a scream, moving next to her, " Ji-Soo?! Ji-Soo?!" I shook her trying to get her to wake up. Soon Eun-Yoo came out, staring at her she gazed over letting out a small scream.

She ran over, " Hey, what's wrong? Come on wake up!" Now that she was on the floor pasted out did she care? " are you turning too? Because you couldn't take a shit?"

She shook her harder, " Hey, wake up, Yoon Ji-Soo. W he acts wrong wake up!!" She cried, screaming, I was too tears fell my cheeks not knowing if she was dying or not.

#sweet home #kdramaedit #song kang #cha hyun su #sweethomeedit #sweet home netflix #webcomic #kdrama #kdrama spoilers #netflix kdrama #sweet home series #sweet home webtoon #korean show #koeran #webtoon #monsters #fanfic #kdramaspace #go min shi #lee eunyoo

[musekicker]

Ooooohhhh What about crackbeaks in the Fenton robot au (and mark doesn't know yet) and Fenton's body is glitching up and Mark's with him and fenton cant make a speedy exit without obvious sparks or something (and can't fix himself with mark right there).

Hey there. This took longer then it was going to at first. For the reason that I accidentally lost half of the drabble when I worked on it the first time somehow. And I have almost been done at the time too. That said, here’s the drabble. 

The tech show was to start the next day and team science only had a few hours to lug all the necessary gear and machines for the show to their allotted space on the tech show floor.

Well, two of team science were here. Gyro was attending a sudden meeting with Scrooge. Possibly going over some information to do with the tech presentation. So for a bulk of the invention moving it had been Fenton and Manny working.

Then at some point Manny had taken a "hay break". Fenton suspected that Manny could not actually eat given his head was solid stone and that this was a excuse to get out of double checking all the gear before heading out.

No matter, Fenton could handle it. He was already almost done.

A good thing it turned out as he noticed a issue with his left arm.

It was becoming more and more loose as he moved.  Fenton placed his clipboard down and inspected the loose arm.

"Well, that's not good." he mumbled to himself.

This problem had happened before. Luckily in the safety of his home the first time. So he knew to look out for it. And it wasn't a common problem thankfully. 

At first Fenton wasn't sure what was the cause of it this time. But after thinking more on it he had a good hypothesis. 

Maybe it had been the moving of all the heavy crates that had caused the damage. Or the fact that he had not stopped for a maintenance check after last nights patrol. Said patrol had turned out rough, stopping yet another bank robbery.

Now Fenton was cursing himself for not checking. At least he was alone right now and there was no one around to witness if his arm fell out and exposed his wiring.

"Time to go." Fenton said.

"Talking to yourself, hero?" a voice said.

Fenton frowned, knowing that voice.

Mark Beaks was here. Fenton was very open about showing his disgust at this fact. His great hatred of Mark was not a secret. Especially not from Mark.

That didn't stop Mark from hitting on him constantly and just being a big creep.

This was absolutely the worst time for Mark to be showing up too. 

"What do you want, Beaks?" Fenton asked as he turned just so, carefully keeping his left arm somewhat behind his back. 

Mark was right in the door way, grinning back at Fenton despite Fenton's clear disdain.

"I just heard that you and the head nerd you work with were presenting at this show too. So I thought I pop in and see if I could catch you. And lucky me, I did." Mark said.

Fenton rolled his eyes.

"I really have to go." Fenton said.

"Sure, sure. Just let me say some stuff first." Mark said.

Fenton did not want to know what Mark had to say and could not just wait around to listen. His arm was getting ever looser.

Mark was still blocking the door way too, not showing any signs of moving aside. Fenton had a bad feeling that Mark was not going to move from the doorway anytime soon. Fenton knew that if he tried to ask or demand Mark move out of the doorway Mark would dig in his heels and not move for anything.

"I was thinking that you and I could go to a movie." Mark said.

"I'm thinking not. For so many reasons that you already know." Fenton said. "Now if you don't mind I need to go. I have something much better to do."

Mark kept on talking. Fenton was growing more frustrated. And a bit scared. The arm was so loose now.

Fenton was starting to think maybe he should just shove Mark out of the way and damn the social consequences. But would that action pop out his arm for sure?

In less then a minute it probably would not matter.

Mark stopped talking then, his gaze falling on the very arm that Fenton was trying so hard to keep in it's socket.

"Hey, is something up with you-"

Gyro returned just in time to see Fenton about to lose his arm. So close to revealing his secret to Mark.

Gyro's eyes went wide for a second, realizing the danger here right away.

And Gyro did not waste time in distracting Mark. He walked swiftly in Mark's direction, his gaze appearing to be down at his own clipboard that he had with him. A good prop for pretending to not be paying attention.

Gyro collided with Mark.

Mark yelped and dropped his phone. He instantly moved to pick it up and make sure the screen wasn't cracked or any other sort of damage.  It seemed fine, but he still glared at Gyro with a expression that was two steps below rage.

"Hey! Did you do that on purpose?" Mark cried.

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean." Gyro said. "Though maybe if someone was smart enough to NOT stand in a doorway-"

He did not put much energy into acting or sounding as if he was truly sorry. Mark frowned at Gyro and continued to shout at Gyro. Gyro shouted back, distracting Mark from Fenton for the moment.

Just in time.

Fenton was already on the way out of the room and making a dash for a safe place to repair his arm.

"Sorry." Fenton blurted out to the poor person he nearly knocked over on the way out of the room.

The confused person was too surprised by the sudden duck running by to even notice that Fenton was basically holding his arm up in his socket with his other hand.

He kept on going, running, until he found the right place to take his time and try to do some repairs. 

Fenton found such a place in a supply closet.

He took a shaky breath even if had no need of breathing. Only a action he had picked up being around organic people. It was amazing how the little things like that went a long way in making him appear human.

This place was safe for the moment. Fenton was not sure how long. He was not truly safe until his glitches were fixed. And he realized now the tools he did have on hand would not handle this level of repair needs.

 All he could really do now is wait.

It was about a half hour later when there was a knock on the closet door. Fenton froze before he heard Gyro's voice.

"Fenton? Are you in there?"

"Yes. Can you come in? I need help." Fenton said.

Gyro eased the door open enough that he could slip into the closet. Once inside he looked at Fenton, taking in the sight of one arm on the closet floor.

"Are you okay?" was Gyro's first question.

Fenton nodded.

"Yeah. I can't make any repairs right now. Left arm is off and I don't have-"

"On it." Gyro said.

Having a boyfriend who was a robot and that fact being a secret had made Gyro more careful. And one of those steps in being careful was keeping good tools for quick repairs on hand.

As Gyro went to work, Fenton broke the silence.

"So... Mark must had been pretty mad to keep you arguing that long." Fenton said.

"Oh? Him? Please, I gave him the look. You know, the one you say makes me look like i'm about to murder someone? All I had to do was give him that look and he shut right up and excused himself." Gyro said. "What took so long was that I tried a few other closets before I found you. Who knew this place had so many supply closets." Gyro said.

"Our tax dollars at work." Fenton said.

Gyro let a flicker of a smile on his beak before talking again.

"That was too close." Gyro said.

"Tell me about it. Mark was seconds away from seeing my arm fall off." Fenton said.

"How did this even happen?" Gyro asked.

"My theory is that rough fight I got into last night in the Gizmosuit and then moving all that heavy stuff today. I should had thought of checking to see if I needed any repairs last night. But I wanted to just recharge after last night." Fenton said.

"We need to start a list of repair checks to make after patrols much less after a fight." Gyro said.

Fenton didn't argue.

Eventually, Gyro was able to get the arm attached.

"Now, that's not going to work with the tools we have in here. But it's enough that it won't fall right off and we can get you to the lab where we can completely repair you." Gyro said.

"That'll do for now. Thanks for the save, Gyro." Fenton said.

"Of course. Last thing either of us want is for Beaks to figure you out. Now lets get out of here before he shows up again and I have to deal with the chore of talking to him again." Gyro said.

#ducktales #fenro #crackbeaks #jammieskies