“Explain.”
“It’s complicated.”
“Summarise, then.”
“Bea, easy,” Ava says, reaching for her. The three of them stand on the shoulder of the road with the hood of the jeep between them, a compromise reached after Miguel – Michael – refused to continue the conversation with a knife to his throat and Bea remained unwilling to release him while he was within reaching distance of Ava.
Bea’s shoulder is tight with tension under Ava’s hand, though she does relax, very slightly, when Ava rubs her thumb in tiny, soothing arcs. Bea has had her Sister Beatrice nun mask on since the moment she pulled her knife out, and she has yet to re-sheath it, but it’s loose in her hand instead of displayed as a threat, so Ava is calling it progress.
“It’s not—it’s complicated,” Michael says, leaning forward to brace his hands against the car. The cut on his neck was either not very deep, or healed incredibly quickly, now no more than a thin line against his skin and almost invisible in the moonlight.
“But you are Michael? Jillian’s son?” Ava asks, and Michael drops his head with a sigh before nodding. “You went through the Ark.”
Camila had filled them in a few days after they’d arrived in Switzerland, describing how they’d returned to Arq-Tech to find Jillian collapsed on the floor of her lab, crying silently and staring at the Ark, and Kristian’s hasty explanation as he’d ushered them out.
“Yes,” Michael says.
Ava waits for him to elaborate, but he doesn’t. “And?”
“And what?” He’s being deliberately obtuse now. He must be.
“And how are you here?” Ava says, throwing her hands up in frustration. “Why are you here? Where did you go? You were a kid two months ago, how are you all grown up now?” Ava doesn’t realise she’s pacing towards him until Bea’s free hand catches her wrist and pulls her back. Ava lets the touch ground her, clings onto the connection to stop the world spinning around her. She hasn’t felt this out of control since the early days of her resurrection, when she’d had the Halo and nothing else, but having Bea here, steady and protective and solid at her back, helps more than she’s expecting.
“It’s—”
“If you say ‘complicated’ again we’re leaving, and it will be the last time you see either of us,” Bea warns, tightening her fingers around Ava’s arm until it’s almost painful. It’s not an empty threat – Ava knows that the remainder of their time in the Alps hinges on the rest of this conversation. “Try.”
continue on ao3
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Happy birthday to Spartan Ash-G099!
Today is his -515th birthday!
Ash was orphaned during the Human-Covenant war after the Covenant glassed his home planet of Alluvion. He was recruited by ONI into the SPARTAN-III program, and began his training under Kurt Ambrose on the shield world Onyx. Ash was assigned to Gamma Company and the leader of Team Saber, which became one of the Spartan-III's best fireteams. After the devastating losses in Alpha Company, Ambrose decided to do things differently with the Gammas. Determined not to suffer the same losses, he secretly had the Gammas treated with a cocktail of illegal performance-enhancing drugs. While this made the Gammas faster and stronger, it also made them more mentally unstable. The Gammas, including Ash, required the use of "smoothers", drugs which would counteract the mental imbalance.
After the first activation of the Halo array, Sentinels on Onyx entered a standby state. When the Sentinels reactivated, they approached Ash. When Ash was unable to satisfactorily prove that he was a "Reclaimer", the Sentinels became hostile.
At the same time, Fleet Master Voro Nar 'Mantakree began his assault on Onyx. Team Saber was joined by Spartan-II Blue Team who helped stage a defense against the assault. Two of Saber's members, Dante and Holly, died during the assault. After 'Mantakree's fleet was destroyed, Ash and the surviving members of Team Saber remained attached to Blue Team.
Blue Team was deployed to Gao to investigate the presence of a Foreunner ancilla. The ancilla was attempting to brew tension between the already-distrustful Gaos and the UNSC by killing Gao citizens, who suspected the UNSC of the murders. Gao Special Inspector Veta Lopis was sent to investigate the murders, accompanied by Blue Team. Like the other Gaos, she suspected the UNSC of the murders, and in particular, Gamma member Mark-G313.
When the truth about the ancilla Intrepid Eye was revealed and the Gao government turned on Lopis, she dropped her suspicions and joined forces with the UNSC. However, ONI was concerned with the risk the Gammas presented when they did not have a steady supply of smoothers. To keep them out of the public eye, the Gammas were trained to be part of an ONI operative team called the Ferrets with Veta Lopis as their leader.
The Ferrets went into deep cover within the Keepers of the One Freedom--a Covenant splinter group--posing as Lopis' children. Through this, they were able to follow the Keepers to the Ark. There, they learned that the Keepers intended on using the Ark to fire the Halo array with the help of San’Shyuum Prelate Dhas Bhasvod. The Ferrets broke cover to stop them, with Lopis allowing herself to he captured with the intention of guiding the UNSC to initiate an orbital bombardment to prevent the Halo arrays from firing. Mark, who began to unravel due to a prolonged period without his smoothers, suffered significant injuries by the time the Ferrets were rescued by Red Team. As they retreated, Mark was killed by Bhasvod. The Ferrets joined the crew of the UNSC Spirit of Fire, who held a funeral in his honor. Ash was deeply shaken by the loss of his teammate, believing himself responsible for Mark's death.
In canon (~2560), he is turning 21!
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So how exactly did Caper manage to ask Sparrows out? Did he just like...google cheesy pick up lines and somehow it worked?
dammit dude, serious lore question, i can't funny along with you on this- nah, this man scared her shitless
even though Euros was always interested in the concept of romance, he didn't really.. know how to do it. he only knew that it was a form of dedication, closeness and love between individuals and the place He got those things from the most was worship. so he defaulted to Those questions
Sparrows was open to the concept a little (strangely not all that surprised by it, they first grew very close as friends before all of this), but first she demanded that if they are to be closer than friends and work partners, they Have to treat each other as equals. she was already pretty nonchalant while interacting with him beforehand so she had that checked off already, but he still had some things to figure out. of course, she helped him learn when he needed it
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FRIENDS I HAVE BEEN PLAYING WITH SOME OF THE QSMP MODS AND I AM FROTHING AT THE MOUTH
BEHOLD THESE THREE PARTICULAR BLOCKS FROM THE FRAMEDBLOCKS MOD!!!!! FROM LEFT TO RIGHT, THE "FRAMED SECRET STORAGE", THE "FRAMED DOOR", AND THE "FRAMED ONE-WAY WINDOW"
FRAMED SECRET STORAGE, A BLOCK WITH SOME STORAGE THAT CAN BE CAMOUFLAGED TO LOOK LIKE WHATEVER BLOCK YOU DESIRE!!!! WANT TO BUILD YOUR WHOLE HOUSE OUT OF CHESTS AND STILL MAINTAIN AESTHETIC?? GO FOR IT!! HAVE SECRET CONTRABAND BUT NEED EASY ACCESS? HIDE IT RIGHT IN YOUR WALLS!!!
THE FRAMED DOOR, ABLE TO BE CUSTOMIZED TO LOOK LIKE A WALL!! THE TOP AND BOTTOM CAN BE ASSIGNED BLOCKS INDEPENDENTLY!!
SECRET TUNNEL!!!!!!!!!
THE FRAMED ONE-WAY WINDOW!! ANY ONE SIDE OF THIS BLOCK CAN BE MADE TRANSPARENT, INCLUDING THE TOP AND BOTTOM!!! the transparency can also be REMOVED, so if your friend forgets to look at the name of the block their crosshair is on, YOU CAN TOTALLY PRETEND IT'S A TOTALLY NORMAL SOLID BLOCK AND ADD THE TRANSPARENCY ONLY WHEN NECESSARY >:D
NEEDLESS TO SAY, I AM SO EXCITED FOR WHEN THE PARANOID MEMBERS WITH MANY SECRETS AND MANY THINGS TO HIDE DISCOVER THESE BLOCKS HEHEHEHEHEHE. AS SOMEONE WHO LOVES AND CHAMPIONS ESPIONAGE THIS CONSTITUTES AN ABSOLUTE WIN
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