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cottage-babe · 4 years

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Burning Scars part VII

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not me studying ATLA maps when i should be studying for school oml

Summary: Y/n, a werewolf from a hidden village, comes across Zuko and Iroh after being exiled. How has fate intertwined the wolf into the avatar’s destiny?

MENTIONS OF BLOOD

*****this chapter takes place at Season 2 Episode 12*****

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Oh boy... this is so rough.

It was quite crazy how everything could tumble down hill so quickly.

After the teen’s fight at the Misty Palms Oasis, Y/n and Zuko refused to talk to one another. It was a constant, petty competition between them; waiting to see who would crack first. It was astonishing how Iroh managed to keep himself collected when the two children he looked over were in a silent battle.

Iroh’s club had (thankfully) fetched the trio’s Ostrich-Horses from the stables and collected all of their things. After saying their thanks to the White Lotus, they hopped onto the saddles of their rides and set off toward their next town; Ba Sing Se.

Y/n refused to share seats with Zuko as she had previously and tried to convince Iroh to see her point of view. The uncle had shut-down her idea at first, but when noticing her ‘persistence,’ he agreed and let her ride on the back of his saddle. ‘Persistence,’ of course, being her threats of walking beside them and slowing down their estimated week-long trip. Ahh, the power of time.

They had wanted to go straight through the desert to save the days that it would take them to go around it, but the citizens of the desert advised against it. The Wi Shong Desert was impossible to cross. It would be unbearably hot, their water would disappear quickly, and it was easy to get lost when your surrounded by identical mounds of sand. Not wanting to take a chance, the trio followed the directions and traveled the edge of the taunting desert.

This new path was preferred by Y/n, as she didn’t have the appropriate coverings for the heat like the two men did. They were returning to the same terrain that they were in before, the foresty-rocky one. The werewolf was definitely more comfortable with this change.

The days passed slowly.

Iroh and Y/n talked a bit, but not as much as they had before. Of course, it wasn’t like they were mad at each other or anything, it was just that the tension between the two teens were still present and it made things... awkward. The werewolf didn’t want Zuko to hear her talk about things because it might give him the impression that she grew comfortable with him again when she 100% was not. Zuko never talked much, but now there was an ever-present scowl embedded on his face. It wasn’t a pretty sight.

When night came, the tension was even worse. They would sit, eat, drink, all in silence. Iroh, being the wonderful person that he was, tried to chisel at the quiet, but either neither would answer or one would release a snarky comment.

After the first couple of days, Y/n’s anger and annoyance had eased slightly. She wasn’t even mad at him anymore for what he had done, the only thing that continued to irk her was the fact that he never apologized. He never admitted that he was wrong or that he understood her reaction. Zuko just continued on with the trip acting like she was in the wrong.

There was one night in particular that set her off once again.

They were unpacking the food that they had; the supply was dwindling. Of course, the trio had enough to last them the entire trip, but the sight of their food becoming so minimal was affecting their morals. At least, it was for Zuko.

The boy made it his very job to complain about their supply almost every second. Iroh and Y/n learned to tune out his whines and pouts, but then he said something that triggered her anger.

The werewolf couldn’t even fully remember the words that he said, but the idea still lingered in her mind.

“Maybe we should quit wasting our food on dead-weight like Y/n.”

She honestly could’ve just let it go like she had done with everything else he had said. Perhaps it was the traveling that lowered her tolerance, but those words set her off the edge.

Y/n had stood up from her seated position around the campfire and glared at Zuko. Then, she simply turned around and left. No words exited her mouth, no reassurance that she was coming back, absolutely nothing. Iroh had jumped up from his seat and asked her where she was going, but he didn’t receive an answer. Just the silent crunching of her feet on the dirt path and her silhouette disappearing into the trees.

It wasn’t until twenty minutes later that the girl returned.

Her appearance was shaggy; her clothes were obviously put on lazily and her hair was slightly messed up. The one thing that was most prominent, however, was the very dead rabbit resting in her grip.

Blood was leaking from it into her hands and some of it was smeared on her face. She was still irritated as she skinned and cooked the animal across the fire; her glare piercing through the top of the flames straight into Zuko’s eyes. Y/n shared the meat with Iroh that night and he seemed glad to have some real food for once.

She felt as though she earned some respect after that night.

For the rest of the trip, Zuko didn’t complain as much. He didn’t say things that would purposely get on her nerves, he just remained silent. Not one word left him again.

His silence really helped Y/n get the time she needed to think. She thought about those feeling that she had for him in the flower shop, but she couldn’t see herself as that person anymore; as that love-sick teenager. It’s not who she is, it never was. It must’ve been the vulnerability that Zuko offered her; she fell for the soft side of him, a side that isn’t Zuko. They both had let down their guard and look where it got them; not even on speaking terms.

It was relieving when they made it to the boarding docks that would bring them to the gates of Ba Sing Se. They were at an underground place, a cave from the looks of it. There were many people formed in lines or waiting with their baggage beside them. All the way across the cove, there was a large wall stretched to each side. Y/n assumed that there was water hiding behind it.

Before they entered the docks (Full Moon Bay, as Iroh had called it), the trio tied their Ostrich-Horses to some stables and gathered their things. While the boys put on their bags and such, Y/n stood in front of their rides.

“Thank you,” she whispered and smoothed back both of their feathers. “You’ve done so much for us, I wish we could repay you.”

Their two steeds looked down at her with a look that showed their understanding of her words. But their expressions revealed something else too; like their was something she could do. She honestly didn’t know what it was, not until they began walking away from the stables.

“So, are we going to be coming back? What’s gonna happen to the Ostrich-horses?” Y/n asked just as her eyes saw the interior of Full Moon Bay.

Iroh shrugged his shoulders. “They will possibly be handed over to other travelers. We don’t have a use for them anymore; when someone goes to Ba Sing Se, they hardly ever leave.”

Y/n stopped walking as the words hit her. Quickly, she turned around and shouted to the duo about forgetting to get something. It wasn’t a great excuse, but she needed to do one last thing before she started her new life here.

She had talked to Iroh privately before they started on their trip to Ba Sing Se. He told her how Zuko and him were planning to stay there for a long time or at least until everything died down. Iroh gave her permission to leave whenever she wanted, but said that he and Zuko would love it if she stayed with them. Y/n, at the time, almost considered leaving because of the situation with the other teen in the group. She had spent a couple days thinking about it; about the pros and cons, the risks that she would be taking, etc. In the end, she decided that staying in the boy’s company could benefit her, especially if Ba Sing Se was as wonderful as everyone else made it out to be. If anything, she could leave their group when they made it inside the walls; if she really wanted to.

But she still needed to do this one thing first.

Y/n ran back to the stables and looked for their animals. There were quite a few there, but she quickly found the ones that she had been riding for the last week. They seemed happy to see her and she felt the same toward them; she finally understood what they needed from her.

The werewolf untied their straps and removed the saddles from their backs.

Then, she brought them to the edge of the forest, away from traveler’s eyes. Without a word, Y/n let them go out into the wilderness, free of the restricting fabrics that the humans had put on them. They almost didn’t run at first, just staring at her with large eyes, but after a moment they walked into the trees and their silhouettes blended with the shadows.

Y/n let out a sigh. She felt really good.

Quickly, she ran back to the entrance of the Bay and met up with Iroh and Zuko. The uncle greeted her while the boy just ignored her presence and continued walking. They followed Iroh to one of the lines and waited, explaining that they needed to get their passports checked first.

Y/n was pouting the entire time. She wasn’t used to waiting in long human lines; she didn’t see the point of it. Why didn’t they just get more people to look at their documents so everything would go by faster?

Both her travel buddies were silent the entire wait and she was fine with it. Y/n spent her time people-watching; something that she found herself doing quite often. She excused herself by saying that she needed to ‘study the human culture,’ but in reality she just found it interesting. There were so many types of people around; some with large amounts of luggage, big families, even a group of bald people wearing yellow and holding a stick! There were so many interesting characters here.

Finally, they made it to the front of the line.

A woman checked their passports, then handed them three tickets with a stamp. They each took one of the papers and headed over to the large wall that towered over the people.

There was a man there that asked for their tickets and directed them toward a very large boat. It marveled Y/n. She had heard stories of these large things that could float on water, but seeing it in person was something else.

How can this hold a bunch of people?

The werewolf had paused in her spot to think this and Zuko, who was walking behind her, shoved her shoulder as he pushed passed her.

“Watch it, you’re in the way.”

She huffed and crossed her arms. Iroh placed a hand on her should for comfort before he kept walking to catch up with his nephew. Y/n was getting a little sick of all this.

They walked across a board and entered the ferry. They were told to stay on the top deck until they landed at the boarders of Ba Sing Se. Y/n trailed behind the boys as they looked for a spot empty enough for them to rest; eventually settling near a railing on the side of the boat.

A kind lady went around the ship passing bowls of food to each passenger; the trio being included. Before Y/n took a sip, however, she looked over the edge into the the deep blue water. They were very high up.

“We’re going really fast.” She thought aloud.

Iroh joined her on the railing and looked at the water, ignoring her random words. “Who would have thought after all these years, I'd return to the scene of my greatest military disgrace,” he shut his eyes as he paused. “As a tourist!”

Y/n let out a small laugh at the old man’s silly words. But then, of course, Zuko had to come and ruin it.

“Look around. We're not tourists, we're refugees.” He said as he move to stand on her other side.

“Lighten up, Zuko.” Y/n replied while her eyes stayed on lake in front of her. Maybe she’d be able to see a fish jump out!

She could feel the boy glaring at the side of her head, but she chose to ignore it, just like she did when he would complain before. She heard Zuko take a sip of his bowl before spitting it out dramatically. “Ugh! I'm sick of eating rotten food, sleeping in the dirt. I'm tired of living like this!”

The werewolf rolled her eyes, but set the bowl down on the deck, taking his reaction to the food into consideration. I think I can wait until we make it to the city.

“Aren't we all?”

The trio turned around from their positions on the rail and saw three teens, all about the same age as Y/n and Zuko. One stood closer to the front, a boy, about the same height as Zuko, but with shaggier hair. He had a smirk etched across his face and a plant stuck out from between his teeth.

“My name's Jet,” The boy explained as he walked out from the covers that the Ferry had set up. He extended his hand behind him. “And these are my Freedom Fighters, Smellerbee and Longshot.”

Behind him, the two teens let out a greeting. Well, the shorter one did, but the tall, mysterious guy just nodded his head. Zuko let out a small "hello" while Y/n waved politely. This was the first time she personally met another set of human teens.

The first boy, Jet, began to walk up to Zuko as he spoke. "Here's the deal. I hear the captain's eating like a king while the refugees have to feed off his scraps. Doesn't seem fair, does it?"

Zuko wasn't answering the kid, wasn't even looking at him anymore, so Y/n almost did all of them a favor and declined the boy's advances for her travel buddies, but Iroh spoke before she could.

"What sort of king is he eating like?" The uncle asked. Y/n rolled her eyes; that's not what she expected him to say.

"The fat, happy kind." He smirked at Iroh before turning his attention back to Zuko. "Want to help us 'liberate' some food?"

The werewolf tugged on Iroh's sleeve. "I really don't think this is a good idea."

Trust her, if her instincts were telling them not to, then they really shouldn't. She knew all about stealing food (especially from the humans), but something was off about Jet. She didn't want her group getting mixed up with the "freedom fighters" if they didn't have to. All they had to do was wait until the next morning to buy food from the city.

Y/n looked at Zuko and met his eyes. She was pleading silently, don't.

But the boy didn't listen to her. He threw his bowl out into the water and turned toward the group of teens.

"I'm in."

Y/n placed her hand on her forehead in exasperation. Of course he would do his own thing. She decided to settle for glaring at Jet's welcoming smile.

The strange boy seemed to feel her eyes and turned to look at her.

"Don't worry, princess, we'll bring your boyfriend back in one piece." Jet spoke once Zuko made his way over to the group.

Y/n and Zuko both scoffed at his words. Jet looked between them quickly while his smirk grew.

"Ohh… I see." The boy took a step toward her. "Why don't you come too? I could use another lookout."

Y/n crossed her arms. Lookout?

Just as she was about to voice her opinion, Zuko stopped Jet's advancements with a stuck-out hand.

"She's not coming with us." Zuko looked at her sternly. "Stay here and watch my Uncle."

Y/n was about to let out a sarcastic comment, or even something slightly mean to say that he can't control her, but there was something about his eyes that made her rethink it. He seemed… cautious? Maybe he can see how shady these teens really are.

"Fine, but if you get caught, don't expect us to come and save you."

With that, she turned on her heel and faced the lake once again, hearing the four receding footsteps as they walked away.

The werewolf folded her arms and placed her head on them with a sigh. She really shouldn't be worried about Zuko, especially since they weren't on the best terms at the moment, but her heart couldn't help it. They had made it so far and it could all be ruined with this act of rebellion. Not to mention, if he let her go with him, Y/n could protect him if he needs it. Zuko has his bending, but that could only get him so far. She was trained for fighting.

"You look as though you have a lot on your mind."

She lifted her head and looked to where the voice came from. Iroh was sitting on the floor, his bowl of rotten food resting in his palms while his eyes shined the colors of the setting sun. The girl took the spot next to him and followed his line of sight.

The sunset was beautiful. The sky was a mixture of pinks and oranges all the way down to the giant ball of fire that glowed. Beams of light shined passed the small clouds that littered the sky, showing the power of the rays of sun. It was so pretty that she wished she could paint it to remember this moment.

“So much has been happening recently; it’s just a lot to handle.” Y/n whispered.

Iroh nodded his head in agreement. “I can understand that. You’ve gone through a lot at such a young age.” He paused for a moment. “And I’m sorry that my nephew has added on to your stress.”

“It’s not you that I need an apology from, it’s Zuko.” She shook her head dejectedly. “And what is up with him?! One minute he’s all friendly, like he cares, and then the next he’s just so... infuriating.”

The sun finally made it’s way past the tips of the mountains and fell out of sight. The orange took a deeper tone, but the view still left her awestruck. Iroh placed a hand on the wolf’s shoulder.

“I think there are some things that you need to learn about my nephew,” He began. “Zuko didn’t have many friends when he was a child, he was reserved and only ever talked to his sister and mother. And then after his incident when he was thirteen, he had taught himself to put up barriers, ones that not even I could break. But you must remember; Zuko is a child, just as you are. He may act cold-hearted, but underneath it all, he has a good spirit.”

Thirteen? He’s been out on his father’s mission for at least three years?

“So, what you’re saying is that him being rude is actually his way of showing he cares? That doesn’t make any sense.”

Iroh laughed a hearty laugh. Y/n joined in slightly, but couldn’t see what was so funny.

“I suppose that is a good way of putting it.” His laughter died down to a serious tone. “I just want you to know, Y/n, that although this does explain his personality, it does not excuse it. If you are having issues with him, then talk to him and let him know.”

Y/n sighed as the sky finally receded into darkness. Maybe he is right, she’s had plenty of time to think about everything, so the next step would just be to talk. The werewolf decided to point the topic in a different direction.

“So, Zuko told me about the four nations and what bending was. He thinks I’m part of the Earth Kingdom.” She smiled at the older man. “Do you think I can bend?”

Iroh shrugged his shoulders with the same laugh as before. “Maybe. If you’d like, I can teach you some techniques that I know.”

Y/n’s eyes widened. Wait, I might be able to bend?

“But I thought you could only bend one element? You can do two?”

“No, no, no.” He waved his hand out. “I just studied their techniques and memorized some. I can’t say that I can help you fully, but I can try my best.”

That was honestly good for her. After Zuko had told her last time that it probably wasn’t possible, she had felt dejected. But maybe there’s hope now?

Suddenly, she saw something moving around in the sky. It was hard to focus her eyes in the dark, but the sight of a large animal flying over head caught the duos attention.

“Uhh, what is that?” Y/n eyes with her eyes squinting.

It flew off past their boat and into the opposite direction of Ba Sing Se.

Iroh shrugged his shoulders. “I’ve only seen one like that before...” Then he looked at the girl next to him. “Don’t tell Zuko that you saw that. He... is scared of flying animals.”

She raised an eyebrow at his obvious lie, but promised to not tell the other boy. It was then that a smell hit her.

It smelled so warm and delicious that her mouth almost watered the second it hit her nostrils. She looked around until she saw the source of the aroma.

Zuko, Jet, and his two freedom fighters were back with two large bags. They were reaching into the sacks and pulling out bowls, passing them to the refugees on the ship.

When they were finished, they made their way back to Iroh and Y/n with their bowls in hand. Zuko had given a bowl to Iroh and completely ignored Y/n, so she had to get her food from Jet.

“Thank you, Jet.” She said with a smile as the sight of the food made her happy. Maybe the freedom fighters won’t so bad.

Iroh and Y/n shifted their seating arrangement until they formed a circle with the four other teens. Jet was going to take the seat beside the werewolf, but Zuko beat him to it, claiming that his bag was there, so it’s his seat.

They began to eat, Y/n almost scarfing down her entire bowl with one bite. She couldn’t deny it, she was hungry. They were surviving off of food that barely filled her, so now that she had the opportunity to eat, she wasn’t going to miss it.

Y/n was so invested in her bowl of food that she couldn’t even process the conversation going on around her, all she knew was that Smellerbee had stormed off and Longshot had gone after her. All that was left was her two traveling friends and Jet. She decided that now was the time to tune into the banter that was happening.

“From what I heard, people eat like this every night in Ba Sing Se. I can't wait to set my eyes on that giant wall.” Jet said as he leaned back into his arms.

Iroh nodded his head. “It’s a magnificent sight.”

“So, you’ve been there before?”

Y/n slowly lowered her bowl with wide eyes. Was he going to tell him about his life of a war general?

Instead, Iroh settled for a solemn look on his face. “Once, when I was a... different man.”

Surprisingly, Jet didn’t pry the way she expected him to. “I've done some things in my past that I'm not proud of, but that's why I'm going to Ba Sing Se: for a new beginning. A second chance.”

A new beginning? Is that what I need?

It hadn’t hit her until then, but this new life that she strove for, a life away from her pack, away from her shame, was something that she already had. The boys had given her this opportunity the moment they asked her to join their trip.

Ba Sing Se was this refuge for people who wanted what she had. It was a refuge for Iroh and Zuko, too. Did I really consider leaving them? It made her feel a bit of shame, she can’t just leave when things get tough.

“Hey, Zuko?” Y/n asked as she set her bowl on the ground in front of her.

The boy just hummed in response, not quite looking at her as he continued to eat.

“Do you think we could talk? Soon?”

Zuko stopped his chewing and looked at her questioningly. He set down his half eaten bowl and stood up. “Let’s go.”

She followed him to a separate area of the ferry. Most people were around the front of the ship, either eating the remains of the food or sleeping against the hardwood floor. There were some families around them at the back of the ship, but most weren’t paying attention. The duo stopped at the railings at the end of the boat.

They were silent for a second, Zuko waiting for the girl to say something while Y/n was trying to regain her thoughts. C’mon brain, you can do this.

“So, I guess I should start off with a ‘sorry’? I shouldn’t have gotten mad at you, especially since what you did was an accident.” She paused to let him talk, but he just continued to stare with a bored look on his face. “Uhh... I’m also sorry for insulting you. I was mad and didn’t think about my words. Everything else I said after that, though, I completely meant. You were a jerk to me.”

The corners of Zuko’s mouth lifted slightly at her words as he soaked them in. She didn’t really have much else to say, she hadn’t done much wrong. Y/n could only hope that the boy understood that.

He sighed and looked off to the side. “I guess... you not at total fault here.”

Y/n almost scoffed, almost, but held it back. This was what Iroh was talking about; Zuko had walls and this might be the best apology that she’d get out of him for now. She didn’t really know what else to say, so she was happy when he started to speak again.

“I-uh-maybe shouldn’t have gotten mad when you called me out. Should’ve just accepted it and moved on, but-uh-I’m still learning.”

Ok, this is going way better than I expected.

She half expected him to reject her apology and stomp off angrily, continuing to hate her for the rest of his life. She was glad that it’s going in the opposite direction.

Y/n couldn’t help the giddiness that she felt rise within her and wrapped her arms around the boy’s stomach. He didn’t hug her back at first, but when he realized that she wouldn’t let go, he awkwardly settled his arms around her shoulders. She could tell that he was slightly uncomfortable with the affection, so she eased herself off of him with a grin on her face.

They began their walk back to the group with much less tension than when they came.

“You know, Iroh told me that he’d teach me some earthbending to see if I was a bender.” Y/n spoke smugly.

“Really? He shouldn’t, it’d be a waste of time.” The boy replied as she pouted in response. “I hope you know that I had to tell Uncle to make sure you would stay during the travel to Full Moon Bay. Don’t make me regret asking him.”

Y/n smiled. So, that was why Iroh brought up her leaving? She was kind of confused on why he would mention it if he wanted her to stay, but not it make sense. His approach was wrong, but it made sense.

“So what I’m hearing is... you’d miss me if I left?”

Zuko just groaned out and sped up his pace, leaving her behind as their group came into view. For the rest of the night, the random cluster of six talked and joked around, the anger no longer being apparent between each teen.

It was finally back to the way it used to be; only ten times better.

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There’s something so fulfilling abt writing a long chapter, I love it

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dailyaudiobible · 3 years

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03/17/2021 DAB Transcript

Numbers 26:1-51, Luke 2:36-52, Psalms 60:1-12, Proverbs 11:15

Today is the 17th day of March welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I'm Brian it's great to be here with you today as we move through the center of our week right here at the center of our month. It’s been quite a week. We’re in the gospel of Luke. And, so, this week we read of the coming of John the Baptist. we read of the birth of Jesus. And in the book of Numbers, we have read the story of Balaam and Balak and have applied that to our lives. So, let's take the next step forward. We’re reading from the God's Word translation this week. Numbers chapter 26 versus 1 through 51.

Commentary:

Okay. I think it was the day before yesterday in the gospel of Luke that we read of John the Baptist or John the one that would grow to be John the Baptist of the story surrounding his birth. And we did that in the context of saying like John didn't just show up magically at the Jordan River and everybody just went down to see the crazy man walking in out of the desert, that there was a story surrounding his life that people would have known and watched as he grew up. And then even as he went into the wilderness, when he came back out of the wilderness to the Jordan River calling people to repentance there was a story around him. Everybody was looking to see what would become of him and then they realized he was a prophet of God. We have similar things with Jesus. Obviously, the angelic visitations letting the shepherds know and then the following of the star. Like all of those things would announce the arrival of the Savior, certainly. So, like with the shepherds, you can only imagine how many people they told of what they had seen. Whether they were believed or not, the story began to spread. You can only imagine the wise men making their journey and then returning back after having seen the child and spreading the word. Like, the story is beginning to get out. And then Mary and Joseph take Jesus to the temple to dedicate Him to God and offer the appropriate sacrifices and there's prophetic utterances over Him. This is happening in the temple complex. People would see this, wonder about it, talk about it. Maybe it wouldn't spread all over the nation to every far-reach, but it will be something that was talked about. And, so, Jesus with his family, they would make an annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem. So, Jesus was familiar enough with the temple. And, so, it wouldn't be like a terrible stretch into the realm of fantasy, and believe me, plenty in the realm of fantasy around Jesus Christ. But it wouldn't be here in the realm of fantasy to say, okay annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem for Passover was a part of the story of Jesus upbringing. We get that from the Gospels. So, if you were visiting the temple complex on an annual basis it's not a stretch that some of the people who were around Him as an infant, would begin to see Him become a toddler, would begin to see Him growing up and know who He was. But then we have this episode where Jesus is 12 years old, and we read this today where they've done exactly that. They've gone to Jerusalem for the Passover and then they've left. And that's 90 miles roughly on foot from Jerusalem back to the Galilee near…near Nazareth. So, they would travel in caravans for safety, but also, it's a long way. So, they would travel in caravans. And, so, they assume Jesus was among them when He wasn't. That right there, like that part of the story if we enter into it as a parent, that’s a terrifying to thing, that’s a terrifying thing to think that you’ve lost your kid in a major metropolitan world center. And, you know, you discover this when you're a day’s journey just to get back, just to start looking. So, they are several days removed from Jesus, at least five days removed from Jesus when they end up finding Him because they traveled a day away from Jerusalem and they travel a day back to Jerusalem and it took them three more days to find Jesus in the temple. So, you know, they’ve gotta be freaking out. Nevertheless, they find Jesus in the temple complex and He's learning and He's being taught and He's asking questions and He's answering questions and He is amazing. Like He is absolutely getting the attention of the rabbis who are there in Jerusalem. This would be the elite leaders and teachers who work in the temple of God and He's answering them adequately to the point that they’re stunned by Him. Of course, as the story goes when Jesus’ parents find Him, they ask Him why He did this to them. And He says I must be about my father's business, but the next thing you know, He submits to them, they go back to Nazareth. This is not the kind of thing that would be forgotten. Like, if a…a kid is speaking among the scholars and speaking coherently and asking important questions and…and giving answers and perspectives in a way that is amazing or stunning to the elite leaders, to the scholars of the Torah, then this is not something that is gonna just be forgotten. This is something that they would’ve been talking about for days after the fact and wondering similar things as they were wondering about John. What's gonna become of this kid? Something special is happening. My point here isn’t like a theological point or something that we gotta hold up and apply to our lives. It's the context here. It's just having some sense of a back story. When Jesus began His ministry and began to speak with authority the Scriptures tell the people found that to be amazing, that He was amazing, that He was stunning, that what He said was not like what anybody else was saying. He spoke with authority. He spoke as if He knew what He was talking about. So, when the word spread that there was this rabbi up in Galilee, this person doing this kind of teaching, eventually word would've been like, what…what's His name? Well, His name was Jesus. Dots would've been connecting. That's that kid. That’s that kid that was up here in the temple when His parents left Him in Jerusalem. That’s that kid. And we get clues about this from the…the other gospel narratives, that Jesus began His ministry and was beginning to make waves. Rabbis, people traveled all the way from Jerusalem. Again, they walked 90 miles to hear Him. And we can see through the Gospels that the people who were making that kind of trek, like the scholars, like the elite, they were not antagonistic toward Jesus at first. It…it wasn’t a situation where right from the get-go they wanted Him dead. They were coming to check Him out. It took a while for that enmity to grow, and it mostly came out of Jesus calling the truth, exposing the darkness, especially among the religious. That definitely got Jesus on the wrong side…well…on the wrong side of the law, you might say. Because in the end He was condemned as a blasphemer, a lawbreaker. So, let’s just understand that. Jesus wasn't born, and then He disappeared and then He just reappeared like some kind of magical apparition with magical powers and then people flocked to Him and nobody knew what was going on. This was an ongoing thing. And to look into this and just have a little bit of a context, this is kind of the only way that we get a bit of context about Jesus early life. There's very…just very, very little in the Gospels between His birth and the beginning of His ministry. So, for example, this account of…well…everything that we've read here about Jesus in the temple when He’s an infant and then…then they go back to Nazareth. That is in the gospel of Luke, whereas in the Gospel of Matthew that also has an emphasis, an infancy narrative. They…they end up fleeing to Egypt for a season. And, so, when you think about some of the stuff, you’re like, “well man that would be so cool to…like what was that story? Like, what happened there?” And we don't have all of that. There are ancient writings about it that date way back. These are the infancy Gospels. These are apocryphal writings that were not canonized. They are not part of Scripture. They’re just part of the early early stories in the church. And, so, obviously the story of Jesus going to Egypt is important to the…like those who are in the Coptic church, which is largely Egyptian. So there…there are definitely writings with stories in them about Jesus early life and His journey to Egypt and really, really interesting fanciful things but not contained in the canon of Scripture. I say all that just to simply say that, yeah, we get Jesus birth then we kind of skip to Jesus adulthood and that's where the focus is and we wonder, “what was it like for Him to grow up?” And, so, we look into the Gospels and like, well here's kinda what we can say, here’s what we can see from the gospel narratives that would allow us to…to understand that Jesus’ development wouldn't have been completely unknown any more than John's development would've been completely unknown. But also, that there's a lot that we don't know. But there's a lot that we do. And isn’t that our desire, isn’t that our hearts’ desire, to know more. Not just to know more about, but to no more with.

Prayer:

Jesus, we invite You into that. It is deeply interesting and fascinating to learn of You because we’re learning what it looks like to be truly human. When we look at You, we’re looking at what it looks like for the most-high God to be willing to become one of His creation to identify with us so that we could understand. And the truth is we've missed so much of it but we’re so deeply grateful that we have this life to get to know You, deeply, from the Scriptures and deeply because we’re in relationship. And. so, Jesus, help us to learn of You, what we need to learn of You. We pray in Your precious name. Amen.

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Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are resources that we stocked in there for this journey specifically, whether that be just fun stuff to kind of carry around. Like, I have things that I take with me and remind me of this community no matter where I go. Just put mt hand in my pocket. Got this little coin that we have, the Global Campfire coin just as a touch point. Like everywhere I go I want to be reminded of the community that I get to be a part of. And, so, there’s all kinds of Global Campfire stuff there. But there are…are writings to go to deeper. There…there’s a journal there that we've developed along with wonderful things to write with, to write your story in your own hand. Just check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop.

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And that's it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning DAB family I hope you’re all having a blessed blessed Sunday. I just thank God for all your lives and also thank you to the Hardin family for this amazing ministry. May God continue to add many many more years to this amazing ministry. In the UK today is Mother's Day and I just wanted to say happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful mothers and carers to young children. I lost my mother on the 23rd of October 2016. She was a woman of faith. She really loved God. She was my rock, the most loving, softest mother I could have ever asked for. So, a day like this normally makes me feel quite sad, quite low, quite lonely. And also, sometimes it feels as if people around me forget my pain and how a day like this makes me really feel. But my reassurance is that I know that my mother is in heaven where is, you know, that is a place that's filled with laughter and praise to the Almighty. You'll probably hear this later, but I just want to ask for prayers for God's comfort for me during this time. I also want to say a prayer for all those who have lost mothers, for the Lord to give you strength. May He comfort you especially a day filled with mixed emotions. May His love provide you with confirmation that God will never leave you nor forsake you. Amen. And this is Sarah from London. God bless you all. Stay blessed.

Hello this is Charlene from Akron OH first time caller. I had started listening to DAB a couple years ago and just each year I would get distracted, and I would just fall away, and I just wouldn't see it through, but this year so far has been going so much better and I just really want to stick with it. I was calling to reach out to D from Pennsylvania whose son is moving to California just let her know that I had a son that went to school and hasn't been home since he's 18 he's down 26 and he lives in Texas. And while it's getting easier there's always that longing to have him home, but it does get better, and they do learn to live and be on their own and…but I just want to let you know you'll be in my prayers. And I also wanted to ask for prayer for my oldest one period his wife. She is facing a hysterectomy on April 9th and I just want to pray that this is really the right thing. They do not have any children and obviously this would make it permanent not to be able to have any children of their own. I know adoption is an option. This is also my first born and he was saved when he was five years old and had stayed with his faith all the way through college, taught Bible studies, and all kinds of stuff. And then just a little bit before he moved out of the house, he was just sharing how he was just doubting things how he’s letting it ride out. And he's never fully committed to coming back and he's very respectful, loves family. And I just want prayer for them. And I don't know if this is something that maybe God is using to bring him and his wife to Him and make their relationship with Him the strongest it could be. Well, I'm out of time. Thank you so much.

Hello everyone, this is Rachel from Oregon. I'm actually going to change my name to Redeemed Rachel. I just wanna ask for a couple prayers. First of all, the pastor and…and his wife of our church are being called to be missionaries in Norway and it's just such an amazing thing that God has called them to do and they are being obedient in it, but they are also super amazing people who have really stewarded our church so well and taught so many people how to walk in line with the word of God and just what God's love really looks like. And I've never grown more than being at this church with them as pastors. So, I know a lot of people are having a hard time with it in my church and I just ask that you pray, that God will bring along the next right person and bring our body over here peace through this time of transition and adjusting to whoever does come along. And also, I ask prayer for my family because we are making a cross country move, totally uprooting. I have to say a lot of goodbyes over here which is going to be really hard and I'm going to a place I've never been to and don't know much about but I am…I'm really excited about it but it is very nerve wracking. I have a couple months to get rid of all this stuff in our apartment and pack up we're taking and clean up our apartment and just get everything in…in order and I'm also nervous about finding a good church over there because until the one I'm at right now I've only been in bad churches. So, just please pray for my family and bring us peace and let us stay in God's will. Thank you.

Hi everyone, this is Jeanette from Denmark. I'm calling for prayer against a tumor which has developed in the left stump of my arm under the elbow. I've had cancer before about 16 years ago and it came back under the stress of covid. And I am so blessed right now to be able to speak the language here where I live and to participate in the local church. And I thank God so much for what He's taught me through this walk of a totally different life of where I come from in the states. I bless his name because he has blessed me with a dependent…a sense of dependency upon Him. And I know that He has much more in store. I want to share about healing and about the love of Father God here and help the church to grow here. And I thank him for blessing my family with peace of mind in this time and inspiring us with what to do and holding us tight in these days. And I pray He does the same for so many of you. Thank you for the DAB and the time we spend together every day. And [singing starts] may the Lord bless you and keep you and make His face to shine upon you because He loves you, He is your Father He is a wonderful Father [singing stops]. Amen. Thank you.

Hello DABbers, it's your girl Val here in Vegas. Oh my gosh y'all. This makes one year. Whoo…i got to get through this call! It's been one year since I called in and asked for help. I was sitting alone in the hospital in a zero-gravity room believing the lies of the enemy that God was mad at me with double pneumonia. You guys prayed me…well…you prayed me out of that situation, but man you did so much more than that. I'm literally about to celebrate on April 6th a year at my dream job. My health is literally better than it's been in quite some time. I can't even name in the two minutes that I have all the blessings in this last year. I've grown closer to my family. I've been more prayerful. I understand now that God wasn't mad at me then and he's not mad at me now. And I say all this to say to anybody that is just at that edge where you feel like you want to give up, don't! Please don't. Stand strong. Call in. Know that this family is praying for you. We believe in you. We are people that love the Lord. We want to pray for you, and we want you to call in and we want to hear your words of encouragement. Those praise reports warm my heart. I love you guys. Please hold on.

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flyswhumpcenter · 4 years

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Bad Things Happen Bingo! The event where you send me requests according to this marvelous card! (Red cross is the completed prompt, character headshots are prompts I’ve already filled. Green deltas are for requested prompts.)

Choo choo, the Sickfic Express has just arrived in Galar, straight from Oreburgh City!

First fic of 2020 is a sickfic oneshot. How rivetting. I've very recently beaten Pokémon Sword and loved it! I found myself really loving the characters, what they are and what they've already become in my mind, so I couldn't help myself but type what I know best... A sickfic. Also, this fandom needs more of this stuff, so here. I'm providing. Is this story OOC? Chances they are. Was it absolutely a blast to write? You bet. I'm probably gonna look back on it later down the lane and be uncomfortable with how I depicted the characters; but you do need to discover the characters first, and what better opportunity for that than a little sickfic with some angst and pre-rel dramatic tension? Anyway, I hope you'll like this lil' thing I busted out in literally a couple hours. I forgot how fun it was to write without worrying yourself over continuity or already established elements like in Earth Never Stops... Btw, this fic was originally requested to me as a FE3H fill for Hubert, so I decided I'd most likely use another square on my card for him. Sorry Nonnie for this, my inspiration got the best of me yet again!

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Candles in the Rain

Summary: Is feverishly staggering through the damp streets of Hammerlocke under the rain with very little hope to feel warmth again and even less sense of direction a fitting end for a former Champion now that he's been defeated once? Scratch that: he doesn't have the time or brain power remaining to process such a question. Or: Leon witnesses a miracle in the form of a little dog and a childhood friend.

Fandom: Pokémon Sword and Shield (post-canon/game: beware for spoilers) Relationships: Pre-relationship Leon/Sonia

Wordcount: 3.1K words

Event hosted by @badthingshappenbingo

AO3 version available here.

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The streets of Hammerlocke are covered by a thick layer of rainwater, typical early winter in Galar. Nobody dares going against the terrible weather, which isn’t unlike the flooding that almost ate Kabu’s region of origin, or rather how he once described it based on bedtime stories, a couple thousand years ago. Honestly, after what Galar just went through, he can believe the tale to have been real all along, no issue there…

As always, he’s lost in the grand city of his main rival, and that frustrates him. He’s cold from the water having filled his shoes and wet his hair for hours and hours on end, not even the fire of the camp being able to make him feel warmer. If it wasn’t for his partners’ demands, urging him to stop camping in the wilderness and find a Centre already, he’d have surely stayed in the Wild Area and biked to a better spot. Ah, he misses Postwick, now. At least, he can’t get lost in Postwick, there’d be Hop and his now-Champion best friend, if not Sonia paying them all a visit, and there’d be the warmth of his childhood home… Gods, perhaps he does miss the peaceful life of a ten-year-old whose only contact to the Gym Challenge is dreams of grandeur.

Ah, if it didn’t rain so badly, Charizard could be warming the both of them as he tried to make his way to the nearest Centre.

Despite his best efforts to remain proud and confident, he ends up having to lean against a wall to stop a coughing fit from suddenly urging itself out of there. He must look pathetic and he does wish, deep down, that someone would get out of their house for a reason or another, recognize him like literally everybody in Galar; but his pride and brand would be on the line, and nobody is fighting against the terrible, terrible weather today. He’s all alone in the streets of the city, pushing himself from the wall with wobbly arms, trying his hardest to remember where to go with slow, hazy thoughts…

Even if he was cold merely moments before, his head now burns. He feels too hot under clothes that are wildly unfitting of such a muddy season, despite the hair rising on what is exposed of his arms. A Cramorant stole his jacket when he was training, a Linoone tried to steal his stuff, and he ended up having a Pokemon knocked out and losing most of his healing items in the kerfuffle. It really hasn’t been his day, lately…

His chest hurts. Not from the outside, as if he had injured himself in one of the falls he endured trying to feel from the Wild Area with no Pokemon to battle with and the slippery grass constantly trying to get the best of him, but from the inside. He doesn’t doubt the possible existence of bruises under the shirt that sticks to his limbs like a second, drenched skin; but this isn’t it. It intensifies when he coughs and it rattles strangely. When he tries to ignore the excruciating weather wishing for his demise, he hears the strange sounds his breathing now makes. He doesn’t know them so, in a moment of out-of-character lack of reason, he gets scared of them and vaguely wonders about worst-case scenarios.

It isn’t just his chest either. It’s his throat, it’s his mouth, it’s his feet, it’s his legs. Everything in his body is tired and screaming for rest, but he cannot provide it for any of his own self at the moment, stuck trying to navigate with what little he can distinguish with almost-closed eyes from how much he has to squint. His eyes can’t focus anymore, this much he realizes with a bitter sense of resignation, so everything he sees is blurry, including the weird gooey stuff he keeps coughing out whenever he can’t breathe anymore and has to stop for who knows how long.

He trips over his own unmade shoe tie, losing in one fell swoop what was left of his balance, and falls right into the rainwater that has accumulated on the ground. It sounds and looks and feels like it’s the end, that this is where his journey ends: in some damp street of a city that he has never been able to find his way in, alone, cold and hot at the same time, rain burying him with the rest of the pavement. Not that he even thinks he has the energy to go on… Not like that. Not when his strength, the only thing he thought he had left, has all but given up on him too. Truly alone in a time where, sitting against a giant wall, he realizes what has been going on and poisoning his breath. Hah, ironic.

Still, this isn’t how he should admit defeat. He’s been won over now, and recently at that, and it’d be more than a shame for him to all but give up now. He needs to bring his team to the Centre, he can’t not try taking his revenge on the new Champion, he can’t not at least prove his superior battle skills to Raihan yet again, he just can’t leave Hop, and Sonia, and everyone else like that…

So he rises up once again, on weak arms and unsteady legs, almost tripping over himself, shoulder stuck against the wall. He won’t let this be the end of him.

Even with a new resolve, it still doesn’t make it much better for him. Unless there’s a miracle happening right before him, he’s stuck with his heavily weakened state trying to find a place whose location he has no idea. His phone doesn’t seem to be able to show a map, its signal disturbed after whatever happened to it while he was looking or doing the polar opposite, so he’s stuck with his truly inefficient sense of orientation.

But it’ll be okay. It’ll have to be okay, because he needs to see Hop become a Professor, to buy Sonia’s new book, to rematch the Champion and his Leader friends, to give his team at least one more chance to shine. It’ll be okay, surely it’ll be okay, of course it’ll be okay… It’ll be okay, because this is all a terrible nightmare he’s going to wake up from, where he isn’t stuck in the torrential rain with a fainted party and very little hope of finding way out.

It’ll be okay, oh so okay…

He tumbles and falls over again, this time hitting the ground with no grace whatsoever, most likely scratching elbows and knees in the process. Even rising his head up as not to cough in water when a fit claws at his throat again takes most of the energy he has left, only for his blurry sight and cottoned-down hearing to spot the first good thing in who knows many hours: a familiar yelp and vague brown-and-yellow figure rushing towards him.

With a trembling and feeble hand, he tries reaching out to the Yamper who has guided him so many times out of dangerous situations, only for an oh so familiar voice to yell in his direction. Still, it’s hard to know if it’s real or just his imagination. Ah, well; he’ll have to see when he’ll have woken up. If he even wakes up from the darkness starting to invade his vision…

“Yamper, where in the world are you running like that?!” This creature never stops running, doesn’t it? “Yamper, wait for me!”

If she’s used to her trusty furry assistant running around everywhere it goes and pursuing it, Sonia has to notice there’s something odd in the air. Yamper never goes this fast, especially not in a city where it could smash muzzle first into people. There’s an urgent feeling to its yelps as it runs in one precise direction.

As suddenly as Yamper started running when she had just gone out of the vault to investigate a little bit more into the Galar mythos she had become a specialist of, it stops right in its tracks in a little street she’s frankly never seen nor noticed before. With how much it’s raining and how unlikely it is to stop pouring soon, she doesn’t want the both of them out for much longer than needed.

She stops to regain her breath, hands on her knees as she folds in two, wet red hair hanging from her head. Yamper stays in place, running around her in circles, then disappearing from her view into the old, little street covered in rain and shadows. It doesn’t seem to have any intent on leaving soon.

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“Why did you… bring me here…? Seriously, it’s raining Growlithes and Purrloins…!”

Still, Sonia gets herself together and goes on to follow her “assistant”. There’s dread building in her chest and stomach that she can hardly ignore… She’s seen enough movies as a teenager to know where this is going. She’s going to end up tangled into some messed-up situation, isn’t she…?

Her heart skips a beat when she notices a very familiar person lying face down on the pavement, drenched to the bone. A person who hasn’t given her any response or sign of life for a few days.

Someone who’s gotten lost in Hammerlocke again.

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When he wakes up, everything feels different than the last time he’s been awake. It’s all white, dry and soft. He stills feels too hot and too cold, breathing remains a chore and he wishes he wasn’t there anyway; but he supposes he’s now safe and, honestly, he can’t think of anything much worse than treading through the torrential rain with little strength left.

Now, if he knew what the thing on his face was, he’d be doing a bit better, but his arms feel like they’re made out of lead and he lacks the energy to rise them to his mouth and at least touch it…

“Leon?”

The voice, even if it’s muffled, is undoubtedly Sonia’s. He can’t quite put a finger on why exactly, yet he feels like this confirms something. If his chest didn’t feel so heavy and full, he’d have sighed in relief. That doesn’t prevent him from coughing again when trying to respond to his own name.

“Let me do the talking, okay? I’m sure you have a metric ton of questions to ask, but for the love of Galar, spare your voice unless necessary.”

Now that his vision is focusing again, he notices both the pipe inserted in his wrist and the frown on her face. She seems less than content with something. What, he doesn’t quite know, and thinking hurts his head even further than it already bothers him, heavy on his neck despite resting on a pillow. Speaking of which, where is his stuff? His clothes?

“Hey, hey, hey,” Sonia rises from her chair and puts her hands on his chest, putting him back into his mattress. “You stay here and don’t cause anyone any worry more than you’ve already done!”

He’s confused as to why she’s so adamant on him not doing anything. No speaking, no moving… If he didn’t feel this drained and lethargic, he’d absolutely get back at her with playfulness. Well, that does kind of answer his own question, doesn’t it? Or, at least, it seems to make sense to his brain which has troubles keeping up with the situation…

Yet, he sees a small smirk contrast with her frowned eyebrows. She seems… pained. Pained by what, or who, he doesn’t know; he’s most likely at least partially responsible for it, because she wouldn’t be there otherwise.

“I don’t know how you’ve ended up in that situation exactly, Leon, but you’ve managed to surpass yourself in terms of putting yourself in harm’s way. You’ve scared us before, but not to that extent!”

“I…” His voice sounds hoarse and it absolutely feels that way. “It’s complicated…”

“Your entire party was fainted, safe for Charizard who was about to follow; you somehow bricked your phone in the process and ended up catching more than a death of cold. Where were you during all that time?!”

Sonia sounds a bit too scared for someone who’s facing her childhood friend stuck in a bed.

“The Wild Area…”

“That’d explain why you were soaked to the bone when I found you lying in a puddle… You’ll have to excuse me for using that crude language, you scared everyone on that one!”

It’s his turn to ask a little question, even if the state of his body makes him want to remain quiet. Still, no matter how intelligent she is, Sonia doesn’t read minds, so he’s somewhat forced to go through with it if he wants his answers.

“Where are we?”

“A clinic in Hammerlocke. I forgot to add you also scared the ER staff with how bad your breathing was.” Has to be that irritating wheezing sound he’s hearing since he’s woken up. “By the way, since I know you’re going to ask me about that, your team is safe and doing much better now. They’re all gently resting in their balls while you recover.”

He misses Charizard and everyone else already. He owes them a big apology, that’s for sure, but he’s also certain his brain can’t process much right now. Sometimes, you just need to admit yourself to have been defeated… even if it bothers you to no end.

Sonia paces around for a little bit before sitting down on the chair next to the bed, arms still crossed. She sounds more than frustrated, and, well… He can’t really hold it against her, can he? He already can barely hold anything against her to begin with, considering how much they’ve lived through together; it’s not today, in these circumstances, that he’ll try finding a reason for her not to be frustrated. Who knows how long he’s been gone without giving news: he frankly, forgot how quickly or slowly time was passing while he was wandering through the Wild Area.

“At least, you’re still here and breathing with us. Just, if you could not do that ever again, it’d be better, you know? I can’t always be there worrying after you when I’m now a Prof! Arceus, I don’t even imagine what sequence of events has thrown you into such a state. You looked absolutely pitiful when Yamper found you.”

He tries to puff at himself to ease the tension he feels rising, but all he ends up doing is coughing. And coughing. And coughing.

“What did I say about sparing your voice? Tch, you’ll never change, will you? You’ve always stubborn, after all, so there’s no reason that’ll change now. That’s part of your charm, I suppose.” She shrugs before suddenly darting her eyes away from him. “But you’re right, I shouldn’t have to worry! You were the Champion of Galar for more than ten years, why would I be afraid of you? That makes very little sense, haha!”

“S-Sonia…”

He only now spots the dark rings under her eyes and the hair pulling out of her ponytail, one strand at a time. How long was he out for, and for how much of that time was she there, exactly? (Hey, he does work fairly well, for someone who can’t stop sweating and whose entire frame is shaken up by chills at irregular intervals!). Too many questions, too little available brain space, he guesses…

“Go for it, make fun of your good old friend who still hasn’t gotten the memo. I should have been like Hop and blindly believed you’d come back to us, as you’ve always done…”

Oh, right, Hop! How is he doing, has he advanced in his research, does he still worry for him? Well, sadly, it’s not the time to think about his brother: his childhood friend seems to have a meltdown right in front of him.

“Why?”

Sonia stares at him, completely silent, eyes wide. Seems like she doesn’t have an answer to her own interrogation, until pain comes back on her face like the wave crashing on the shore.

“You don’t… think it’s ridiculous?”

“What?” His throat doesn’t take kindly to his attempts at having a conversation.

“Everything! We swore we’d trust each other, but look at me, worrying over you as if we were still kids running in the fields with the Wooloos… And I’m telling you all that while you’re cooking on the inside! Really, isn’t that ridiculous?”

Gathering his breath and his strength, he rises up with shaky arms against the bedhead, pillow still preventing his head from entirely lulling over his shoulder from how heavy it is. Whatever he’s caught, it’s one hell of an affliction he’s found himself with. Still, if it’s for Sonia, if she’s this distraught over the situation (he did almost pass away), he can put up with the migraine, the difficult breathing, the mask over his mouth, the lethargy, the chills…

“I’m sorry, Sonia.”

He does cough immediately after apologizing, as expected. For once, she doesn’t reply immediately, doesn’t make a witty remark; instead, she looks confused and maybe embarrassed, considering the red he can see with the eyes that still refuse to entirely focus for more than a few seconds.

“Sorry for what? And, again, spare your voice, you…”

“For all of this.”

Her expression softens, eyebrows drooping and eyes shining brighter. Even if it’s slight and his eyes almost miss it, she finally smiles.

“How long…?” He’s interrupted by a fit.

“How long you’ve been out?” He nods, still trying to calm his chest down. “Around half a day. You did wake up at some point but immediately passed out again. No wonder why you don’t remember that.”

He now points at her with an unsteady finger. “Why are you… Oh, how long I’ve been here?” He nods again. “Most of that time, I’d say. I’d also say I fell asleep at some point too…”

She crosses her arms again, just as his vision starts weakening again. It’s back to sleep, right?

“I think we both need our rest. I’m also certain Hop is waiting at the door, so you’ll even have a guardian angel watching over you, isn’t that super cool? And if you attempt rising from that bed, you’re sure to be put back into it in mere seconds!”

He’d try laughing if it didn’t trigger such a massive reaction from his lungs, so he decides to just nod instead.

“See you later, Leon. Goodnight.”

He waves at her, the lethargy still reflecting in his slow and sloppy gestures, but that’s fine enough for now. Her smile is worth it, isn’t it?

Absolutely worth trekking through the rain with full lungs and little energy left…

#pokemon #pokemon sword and shield #pokemon leon #pokemon sonia #lionheartshipping #sickfic #hurt comfort #pre-relationship #pneumonia #bad things happen bingo #bthb 2 #leon (pokemon)#sonia (pokemon)#otp: watchful eyes of gold

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littlemisssquiggles · 5 years

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RWBY Musings #80: Trust in Love: How far will Ruby’s deception go and how much will it affect her bond with Oscar?

miki-13 asked “ I remember you making a headcanon or two of Ruby getting a wolf-faunus boyfriend and well... Marrow is based on Boy who Cried Wolf, he has green hair and eyes and he wears white clothes, all which contrast Ruby's red/black hair and outfit. Not to mention the distance Ruby's lying put between her and Oscar, and possibly her team... maybe Ruby will try to find someone outside of her circle for comfort?”

explodingcarr0t asked “ From what I’ve seen of screenshots and gifs of the newest episode, it seems like Oscar is sad/disappointed when Ruby lies to Ironwood and when Ironwood gives her the relic back. I really he calls her out on that especially since Qrow told her “we’re better than that”. Part of me wants it for Rose Garden stuff and (more importantly) that team RWBYJNRO for once don’t all agree on something.”

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Squiggles Answers:

@miki-13 @explodingcarr0t

‘Sup Miki-chan! ‘Sup Carrot! Sorry for the delay in answering both of you, fam. I decided to turn my responses to your questions into a new musing post for this week since I was considering discussing my thoughts and theories on a certain moment we all know of from V7CH2 and you guys provided me more incentive to talk about it. So without further ado, let’s get into it, shall we?

[Spoilers Ahead! Nuff said!]

One thing this squiggle meister is very curious about with Ruby’s arc for V7 is just how far are the CRWBY Writers going to have her continue to be dishonest to Ironwood and his inner circle of confidantes for the sake of covering her tracks.

Because the thing about lies and half-truths is that, while they may start off small and harmless at first, eventually they start to build up after some point the more times you do it. You tell one lie to cover up the first one and then you tell another to cover up the last one and so on and so forth until before you know it, you’re sitting on a mountain of lies where you’re left unclear of what’s actually the truth anymore. And essentially you end up lying even to yourself so you wouldn’t have to deal with the guilt of your own deceit or worse, the potential emotional impact your duplicity has on the people you deceived. This is my concern for Ruby.

Are the lies just going to stop at her not disclosing the truth about Oz and the Relic of Knowledge to Ironwood or will there be more to come from that?

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Down, Down the Rabbit Hole

Because already Ruby has told two very significant lies. The first untruth was about Ozpin’s sudden disappearance while the second one was regarding the true status of the Relic of Knowledge in order to plug up the holes in the first lie.

As an audience member, I understood Ruby’s motives for choosing to not disclose the whole truth to the General. On one end, she probably did it out of her own slight mistrust of Ironwood given how he and the military initially treated the heroes upon their arrival in Atlas; not to mention all the odd stuff she’s heard about him regarding his disregard of the plight of the People of Mantle under his leadership.

I recognize that Ruby probably felt it best to not reveal everything they learnt back in Argus to Ironwood ---at least not yet, maybe---considering he might not be in the best frame of mind to absorb said new info especially the part about Salem’s invulnerability due to her immortality curse. I also wish to believe that another reason as to why Ruby was quick to lie about Ozpin’s sudden disappearance was due in part to her, once again, looking out for Oscar’s well-being. Ruby must’ve acknowledged Oscar’s anxiety after the General approached him and started probing him about Oz.

Not to mention that let’s not forget that the last time someone heard the truth about Salem, it didn’t exactly end very well on Oscar’s part. Qrow straight up socked Ozpin in the jaw with little regard for the physical repercussions it might have on Oscar afterwards. Same for Jaune who downright slammed Oscar against the wall at the Cotta-Arc residence spitting accusations about Ozpin in the poor kid’s face. Thus far, apart from becoming his successor, Oscar has additionally become the proverbial punching bag for all of Ozpin’s past mistakes.

So one could only imagine how Ironwood might react to the news; especially in light of his current paranoia, according to what Pietro pointed out in the first episode.

So yeah, given all that, I would say that Ruby had a solid good rationale to lie. That still doesn’t stop me from disliking it as much as the next viewer given the potential circumstances that can come from it. And that’s the point of my unease. I’m worried that Ruby may have low-key written herself into the same trap Oz once placed himself in. Sure she may have told one half-truth and one little white lie, repeating Ozpin, but who’s to say that it’ll stop just there?

As I said, once you’ve told one lie, it’s very easy for it to spin into a web of lies especially when your previous lie starts to crack and leave glaring holes in your last alibi leading to you telling more lies to cover up it up before it stirs more problems for you. This is the danger of the predicament Ruby has placed herself and the heroes in with Ironwood.

Ruby told Ironwood that Oz disappeared after the Argus train crash, correct? So at this moment, James must assume that Oscar’s problem with Oz must have something to do with his soul or something. As evidenced by the V7 Opening, Oscar is expected to be training, possibly privately with Ironwood, for this season. Ironwood also promised to work with Oscar on bringing Ozpin back.

Who’s to say that Ironwood wouldn’t start probing Oscar with questions on his predicament, hoping to hear a proper explanation from his mouth?

After all, Ruby was the one who answered on Oscar’s behalf for a problem relating to his soul. I’m sure this is going to lead into Ironwood prompting Oscar with the same said question and more in order to have Oscar’s answers correlate with what Ruby first told him.

I doubt Ruby is going to be in the same room as Oscar all the time to answer for him. I mean, she can try. Like imagine how awfully suspicious it’s going to look if Ruby always accompanied Oscar on his training lessons with Ironwood; for proclaimed morale support; only each time Ironwood asks Oscar regarding Ozpin, he’d either stammer or Ruby will jump up immediately to answer for him again.

After all, if Oscar answers incorrectly, it could potentially poke holes in Ruby’s lie which can lead to Ironwood becoming suspicious of the two and the heroes---especially in his current paranoid state. With Oscar sharing moments alone with the General, this could potentially lead to the farm boy also sharing moments with Ruby---not really for the sake of them bonding but more so that the two can correlate stories and Ruby can ensure that whatever Oscar says doesn’t contradict anything she said.

Because that’s another thing about lies, right? They have all the durability of a severed ball of yarn left to roll aimlessly on the floor. At some point, the lies will start to fall apart and unravel with the threat of the truth being exposed. We saw that clearly with what transpired back during the aftermath of Argus Limited train crash with Ozpin.

If things unravelled so quickly and heavily back then, it’s going to happen again with possibly far worse consequences for the hero team especially depending on how long they continue to withhold the truth from Ironwood. And here in lies another great concern I have going forward into the season--- how will Ruby’s deception affect her budding friendship with Oscar and how much will it dampen his overall trust in her?

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Love and Lies

Alrighty! Time to finally tackle the Mammoth Grimm in the room. Oscar was clearly NOT happy with Ruby lying to Ironwood.

Some Pineheads claimed he appeared annoyed with Ruby in that moment; hence her sort of guilty glance at him as he looked away from her.

Others said he was disappointed. For me, while I can’t exactly put a name to what Oscar’s expression meant; I’d say it’s more disappointment with a tinge of gloom rather than annoyance, in my opinion.

As a matter of fact, Oscar’s face in V7CH2 reminded me of the same depressed look me made back in V6CH4, after he had commented to Ruby about him being ‘just another one of his---meaning Ozma or Ozpin’s---lives’ only for Ruby to respond reassuringly that he was his own person. Only for the comforting moment to then be ruined by Qrow commenting dryly:

“…Don’t lie to him, Ruby. We’re better than that.”

It’s the same face. By Oscar’s impression of her, Ruby is supposed to be a better person than this. Someone who is above lies and keeping secrets from their allies, especially following their last adventure in Argus. May I remind everyone that the events of V6 took place over the course of four days with the finale and first two episodes of V7 relatively being the same day.

So technically, in terms of the RWBY timeline, it was only two days ago when Ozpin disappeared into Oscar’s mind and left the group on their own in the wilderness of Anima’s Northern coastline, eventually leading to them taking temporary refuge on Brunswick Farms.

Two days ago, the whole truth came out and the heroes were understandably very displeased with Ozpin for withholding such important information from them for so long especially the part about Salem being indestructible and Ozpin not having an actual plan to stop her; not even after all these centuries and lifetimes of fighting to keep her at bay.

Two days ago, the heroes were rightfully upset with Ozpin for keeping secrets from them especially since they were supposed to be on the same side, fighting for the same cause. What was it that Yang told Ozpin back in V6CH2?

“…Look we’re supposed to be in this together. You can trust us. We’re not going to turn on backs on you…”

…This was later followed up by the heroes turning their backs on Ozpin after the truth was forced out.

Two days ago, the heroes fed Ozpin to the dogs for choosing secrecy over trust despite the fact that they were all supposedly allies and now here were are, two days later with our gaggle of heroes pulling the same stunt that Ozpin pulled with them.

Ironwood and his Inner Circle---Penny 2.0, Winter and the Ace Ops---are allies to our heroes. It’s like what Ace Ops member: Marrow Amin said to them in the same episode.

“…We’re on the same team now…”

They’re on the same team yet one side still chose to withhold not one, but two important pieces of information from the other. The same side that just the other day called out their previous leader for pulling the same stunt they’re doing now. The same stunt that ultimately caused his isolation and placed him in the doghouse with his own team of huntsmen and huntresses.

Do you see why this is problematic?

Don’t get me wrong; narratively I’m enjoying this direction that the CRWBY Writers chose to take Ruby and Ozpin’s hero team. I’m anticipating that it will lead into the group finally understanding why Oz chose to handle things the way he did in the first place by letting them stand in his shoes for a few more episodes; eventually culminating with our heroes properly reconciling with Oz on better terms. While it doesn’t erase or excuse the prolonged impacts of his past actions and mistakes, at least this rounds the group will have a better understanding for why Oz is the way he is; y’know what I’m saying?

After all, Ozpin did explain back in V6 that the basis for his conduct was backed by experience and those experiences---good, bad and/or indifferent---moulded him into the very wise and heavily cautious man he came to be.

“…Do you really think Leo was the first? That he didn’t say those exact same words to me? I’m sorry but you have to understand that my behaviours are backed by experience. I’m not saying that I have reason to think you will betray me, I’m saying that I have reasons for the things that I do, the secrets I keep…”

And I’d like to think that by the end of V6, the heroes come to have a better relationship with Oz having gone through a somewhat similar experience that lead to them adopting the same mind-set as Oz. So story-wise, this is great as a future plot development.

However; on the flipside to this; morally---this move also makes Ruby and the heroes look like a bunch of hypocrites; sadly to point out.

It looks bad any way you spin it.

You didn’t hesitate to call out Ozpin for his deceit and put him and Oscar through the ringer because of it but here you are casually doing the exact same thing. I hope for the love of Oum that Ruby doesn’t believe that what she did was the right call.

As a matter of fact, this squiggle meister is very interested in hearing what Ruby’s validation for choosing to lie to Ironwood and their Atlesian allies is going to be; meaning that I’m curious to hear what she tells Oscar in the aftermath of V7CH2.

I think we can all assume that Oscar is definitely going to pull Ruby aside and confront her on her actions in Ironwood’s office. He’s not going to roughly accost her or anything. Like I said, I don’t think Oscar is as mad at Ruby as people believe. If anything, I’m expecting Oscar to approach Ruby very calmly about this subject and granted that she’s able to explain her reasons, he’ll be quite understandable.

This is also where I expect Ruby’s quote from the V7 Trailer to come in:

“…I’m trying to do what I think it’s best but I really can’t tell if what’s best is what’s right…”

She’ll probably say this during a talk with Oscar to help him understand where she was coming from with her decision; which Oscar will most likely respect. Like I said, if Ruby is able to help Oscar understand then he most likely will since he trusts Ruby and trusts her judgement.

Hooooooooooweeevvvvvevr…

That doesn’t meant that Oscar is going to be 100% okay with Ruby lying to the General. He’ll probably let it slide the first time on the grounds that the truth must come out at some point. Possibly before the completion of Amity Tower before it’s hauled into space and before Ironwood could make his global broadcast to all of Remnant.

The truth has to come out. Right now, Ironwood is operating only on the belief that he thinks Salem can still be stopped. He still believes there’s a chance.

I mean what’s Ironwood gonna think telling the rest of Remnant about the existence Salem is going to achieve? Does he believe it’ll rally the People of Remnant against Salem by decreasing her chances of wooing others to her side if they knew of her presence? I mean sure, that’s not a bad thought. However Ironwood is missing the major miscalculation in his plan.

Right now, as far we know, the rest of Remnant hates Atlas. Let’s not forget what Cordovin said back in V6:

“…You’re just like the rest of these Argus ingrates! This city wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for our Atlesian ancestors and what do we get in return? The entire world is ready to put a knife to our throats!”

“The General is no coward. Atlas is strong! If all the kingdoms plan to make us our enemy then so be it! Atlas will prevail!”

If that wasn’t a huge red flag and a mega foreshadow for the spark of a second Great War with the remaining kingdoms turning heels and deciding to wage war against Atlas then I don’t know what is.

If Atlas reveals the truth about Salem to all of Remnant, not only will it cause the whole world to descend into chaos bringing forth the Grimm but it’ll also make Atlas appear even more treacherous to the remaining three kingdoms.

“So that’s why you withdrew your troops. To handle the panic that will break out in Atlas.” “Yes. Panic is inevitable and panic brings Grimm. But I believe we are ready. Once Atlas has comes to grips with the fight ahead, I’ll use Amity Tower to spread the message to all of Remnant. “

“But everything will fall apart. Grimm will be everywhere!”

“You’re right. But Atlas is willing and prepared to assist.”

“Trying to hide the truth from the world will eventually kill us all.”

… And suddenly dropping the truth on the world will only serve to quicken the process of humanity’s destruction.

At least hiding the truth brought you some time to try and figure out a better alternative with possibly less chaos; which I’m assuming is what Ozma and the rest of the Wizards have been trying to do wisely for many, many, years.

Bold of Winter to assume that the rest of the world will be willing to cooperate with Atlas against the Grimm once this word gets out. Also foolish of Ironwood to not consider that this might just be want the enemy wants. What Salem and her forces are expecting and banking on. As a matter of fact, that’s the game plan, isn’t it?

What Ironwood said in V7CH2 is starting to make sense of breadcrumbs left behind from V6 regarding Salem and her schemes. Once upon a time, I made a hunch where I gave my impression of what I believe might be Salem’s ultimate goal.

Do you remember what the God of Light told Ozma in the Lost Fable?

“…We have chosen to depart this world, but in our absence, I would like to offer you the chance to return to it.”

“I…don’t understand.”

“Mankind is no more yet your world remains; and in time, your kind will grow to walk its face again. However, without our presence, they will be but a fraction of what they once were.

Creation, destruction, choice and knowledge were the ideals upon which humanity was made. Now I leave them behind with the hope that you may learn to remake yourselves.

If brought together, these four Relics will summon my brother and I back to your world and humanity will be judged.

If your kind has learned to live in harmony with one another and set aside their differences, then we shall once again live among you and humanity will be made whole again.

But if your kind is unchanged, if you demand our blessings while still fighting amongst yourselves, then man will be found irredeemable and your world will be wiped from existence. Until your task is complete, you will reincarnate but in a manner that ensures that you are never alone…”

Salem wants to bring about both mankind and Remnant’s destruction. She wants the world to fall to chaos and war so that by the time, she and her minions successfully gather all four Relics and summon the Brother Gods back to Remnant, the Brothers will have no choice but to wipe both man and Remnant from existence as they said they would after arriving to find it going through yet another Great War.

This is what will happen if Ironwood goes forward with his plan and this is exactly what Salem wants. Don’t you see? Now a lot of details are starting to add up. This is why Watts and Tyrian were sent to Atlas for. Not just to stir problems for its military but to ensure that Ironwood goes forward with Amity Tower.

This is also why Ruby needs to come clean to Ironwood before construction on Amity Tower is complete.

But she doesn’t have to do it alone. Oscar also has his own part in stopping Ironwood too by figuring out a way to bring Ozpin back.

This isn’t just about burying the hatchet anymore. The heroes need Oz because, according to Watts in V6, Ozpin is the only person who can talk sense into Ironwood and make him see the astronomical sized flaw in his master plan (supposedly).

If Oz returns, he’ll be able to level with Ironwood and persuade him from moving forward with the broadcast. Ironwood is clearly forgetting that his plan for Amity Tower is nothing but a rehash of the Vytal Festival on a much global scale.

Last time, Ironwood wanted to bring his army to Vale for the Vytal Festival but Oz was heavily against this plan out of fear that the Military’s presence may spark uncertainty and anxiety within the public bringing forth negative emotions which will then bring forth the Grimm.

Following the Attack in Central Vale, Ironwood then went behind Ozpin’s back to the Council of Vale and got them to side with him, forcing Ozpin’s hand in the matter. Against his friend’s better judgement and advice, Ironwood got his way and his forces were brought to Vale; thus playing right into the villain’s hand.

And how did that go? It brought forth pandemonium because Arthur Watts hacked their security code, took over the entire Atlesian Army and contributed to the calamity that resulted in the Fall of Beacon.

Ironwood is pulling the exact same plan he pulled in Vale. Only this time, instead of being isolated to one kingdom, it’s going to affect the rest of the world.

How much do you want to bet that Watts’ will hack into Amity Tower and rig Ironwood’s first broadcast to Atlas so that the rest of the world is audience to what he reveals firstly to his kingdom?

How much do you want to bet that Watts will spin this in a way that once again humiliates Ironwood and the so-called strength of his kingdom and army? How much do you want to bet that Watts is going to spin this in a way that once again make Atlas look like traitors to the rest of Remnant?

After all, isn’t Watts not Atlesian and currently working with Salem? What’s stopping him from spinning it to look like Atlas has sided with Salem and has been working alongside her to cause war and trouble in the other kingdoms? Think about that.

Finally, what’s stopping Watts from taking full control of Amity Tower and rigging it to fall out of the sky and plummet towards Remnant with Vacuo as its targeted crash site? Thus making it appear as if Atlas has now waged an attack on Vacuo, all the while the rest of the world observes with baited breath?

I say Vacuo could be the next target for this staged attack by Atlas because of something Tyrian said back in V6CH9. Remember what he told Emerald and Mercury before his and Watts’ departure?

“…There’s been a change in plans. Your grace must act swiftly if we are to prevail. If General Ironwood comes to senses and calls upon aid from Vacuo, all may be lost for us. So the Good Doctor and I are being sent to Atlas to prepare…”

Last season, I shared a musing post where I depicted the possibility of the villains manipulating Ironwood to have Atlas wage war against Vacuo. Now looking at evidence provided by this season, I think I might’ve been onto something back then. Atlas is going to wage an attack on Vacuo…at least, that’s what the villains plan on making it look like.

Right now, Atlas already has two strikes against it. One for what transpired in Vale for the Vytal Festival and two for what happened in Argus with Caroline Cordovin and the awakening of the Leviathan.

There is no doubt in my mind that that event isn’t going to have severe repercussions for Atlas with the Mistral Council. Though they’ve been less of a vocal presence as the Council of Vale back in V2, it wouldn’t surprise me if word got back to them about what happened in their northern city.

And while our heroes left Argus with Cordovin and her military forces handling the remaining army of Manticore and Sphinx, mind you we never got to learn the aftermath of that; both with the People of Argus and the rest of Mistral.

As I’ve said many times before---Cordovin’s stunt in Atlas---with her bringing out the mechazord and proclaiming to all of Argus about the awesome might of Atlas and to consider her stunt of reminder of that---that’s definitely going to come back and it’s going to bite Atlas so hard in their metal behinds.

I can probably sit here and predict the events to come for the remainder of the Atlas Arc but I’m not gonna---that will probably be its own separate post.

Bottom-line, shit is going to hit the fan if the truth doesn’t come out and Ironwood isn’t brought to his senses. But before all of that can come to pass, let’s get back on track with what I was saying about the Rosebud friendship.

I feel like Ruby’s little white lie can potentially spell some emotionally heavy discourse between her and Oscar. One scenario that I’m hoping doesn’t happen but at the same time am worried could happen, is the truth being threatened to be forced out.

It’s like what Ironwood said. Panic is inevitable. Trying to avoid it may prolong the process but at the same time it only makes things worse in the long run. It’s no different than this.

Imagine you’re a kid in kindergarten on the school playground. You do something wrong but rather than tell your teacher the truth, you tell a lie. However unbeknownst to you, another student saw you do the bad thing.

Which do you think would have the worse ramification? If you were upfront with your teacher about the mistake you made and were at least shown to be honest in letting them hear the truth from your mouth…or…have someone else tattle on you making your actions appear twice as bad because on top of doing something wrong, you also lied about it.

With Ozpin, the truth was practically forced out of him because he basically brought himself to that point. I may have been one of the population of Ozpinheads who defended him last season and while I still stand in Oz’s court, I’m not going to deny the fact that Oz did put himself in that horrible position in V6CH2.

That I will admit here since, let’s be fair, Oz had several opportunities between Mistral and Argus (at least three chances from the time he and Oscar first reunited with Qrow at the bar) to come clean to the team and tell them everything which, at the end of the day, is all they wanted. No more lies and half-truths, right?

Instead of being upfront from the get-go and confronting the negative results of his actions from the truth then and there with his team, Oz chose to prolong it ---prolong the evitable panic like Ironwood said---which in turn made the situation look far worse for himself when the truth is brought out. Not through Oz but through Jinn because Ruby asked her to tell the truth since Oz wouldn’t. .

I’m not saying that things would’ve been different if Oz had just come clean. Anger and alarm probably would’ve happened either way.

I’m more saying things might’ve had a much better outcome if the truth had come from Oz instead of Jinn. Instead of having Ruby using Jinn, imagine how it would’ve been if Oz had revealed, by his own words, that Salem can’t be killed and that he’s been searching for years to find a way to stop her but to no avail thus far.

Imagine if Oz had just straight up said that the only thing he’s been successful in doing is keeping Salem at bay and preventing the world from falling into chaos again because he knows that’s what Salem wants because she wishes to gather the Relics to summon the Gods who would’ve then wiped humanity from existence because of the chaos.

Imagine if Oz had just told the team all of this new-news and then backed it all up by then summoning Jinn himself from the lamp and having her show the group everything from the time Ozma first met Salem to when he first learnt that she couldn’t be killed in his lifetime as Norman.

The Lost Fable made sense of so many actions and so-called mistakes that Oz had taken to prevent Salem from harming humanity. The terrible part was that the only way the team could’ve learnt this is by having Jinn reveal it. Not Oz. Like I said, the truth was forced out and we saw how bad that looked.

This is my concern for Ruby and Oscar. I’m worried that Ruby will desire to prolong revealing the truth to Ironwood for her own reasons backed by her experiences on the matter whereas Oscar will wish to come clean since it’ll be better for the comradery of everyone if they were just straight with each other from the start. No more lies, no more half-truths---just pure trust because trusting in each other will help them work better together to find a proper solution---or at least a better one than having the world fall to ruin.

Do you know what would be so funny but ironic? If Ruby is the one who ends up becoming more like Ozpin in this scenario whereas Oscar becomes more like her and Ruby ultimately sees more of herself in Oscar than Ozpin.

That can actually be potentially great for Oscar and Ruby’s friendship. Having that complete role reversal right there. This way it can help Ruby understand Ozpin (and thus use that spark of hers to get the others to understand Ozpin as well) while simultaneously strengthening the bond and growing trust she shares with Oscar.

So on one hand, I do want this kind of development to happen. But on the other hand, I fear it eventually happening because I know it will lead into a moment where Ruby and Oscar constantly butt heads on their differing ideologies and choices, leading to one big fight that could potentially destroy their bond.

It doesn’t though, obviously but it does hurt them both especially Oscar’s perception of Ruby since he’s seeing her become like Ozpin---telling the same lies he told, making the same mistakes he made--- and he knows fully well, more than anyone, that that’s a crooked path that doesn’t end well.

I can see Oscar having a potential Iroh moment with Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender. The small farm boy turned little barn prince isn’t mad at his rose. He’s more scared that she might lose her way and deviate from the person he knows her to be. Just as how Oz deviated from the man he once was given his past experience with Salem.

“…What Professor Lionheart did was reprehensible; I am not here to argue differently. But does one lapse in judgement truly negate all of his good? Do we not all have regrets? You may met Professor Lionheart, but you never met the man he was before Salem found him…”

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The Little Prince and his Rose

My fear is as this season progresses, Ruby will continue to tell more lies that deceive Ironwood and withhold the truth about Salem from him and his forces, similar to how Ozpin did with the heroes.

This in turn will cause her and Oscar to often clash. My hunch is that since Oscar will be training with Ironwood while simultaneously working to figure out a way to bring Ozpin back, this interaction will cause Oscar to chum up to Ironwood, built a sense of trust between them that feels genuine to his eyes. This will then lead to Oscar desiring more and more to reveal the truth to Ironwood but he doesn’t wish to do that since it will mean breaking his trust with Ruby.

So instead Oscar tries more and more to convince Ruby to tell the truth herself since this all started with her and it would be better that the truth come from her instead of anyone else.

My theory is that Ruby will make promises to Oscar to tell the truth to their Atlesian allies but over their time in Atlas, those promises will be broken to the point that Ruby even starts to lie to Oscar.

…Or at least she tries to. But as we know, Oscar will see right through Ruby’s deceit---as evidenced by V5CH5 in the Dojo scene where Ruby tried to hide the truth about her repressed grief over the Fall of Beacon and the loss of her friends only for Oscar to call her out on it.

I fear that this will happen again. Ruby will continue to follow the same path as Ozpin, even to the point of lying to Oscar---one of her closest allies (as Oz did with Qrow and essentially Ironwood) and just like in the Dojo Scene, he’s going to call her out on it.

This could then potentially lead into Ruby and Oscar having a big fight. And do you know what would be interesting?

What if…Ruby and Oscar have a big fight over their disagreements of trusting their Atlesian allies only for Oscar to threaten Ruby with taking the Relic of Knowledge from her and using the last question to force the truth to come out in the same fashion as what happened with Ozpin.

I’m not saying this could potentially happen. But I am askinh what if it did?

Imagine if…this even leads to a moment where Oscar leaves and our heroes return to discover that he was gone again.

Like let’s say Oscar has been rooming with JNR in their dorm room for the majority of V7 only to disappear later with all his belongings cleared out of the JNR dorm. Not because Oscar ran away like in Argus but left to go maybe stay with Ironwood wherever he lives up in Atlas.

Like imagine JNR_RWBY freaking out about Oscar disappearing on them a second time---doubt he went shopping this time, am I right?---only for Atlas Academy Employee of the Month Penny 2.0 to jubilantly inform them that Oscar has gone to stay with the General at his quarters, much to everyone’s shock especially Ruby’s.

In the Little Prince story, the Prince eventually left his home planet because of the Rose. I believe the story was that the Prince grew tired of the Rose not reciprocating his feelings despite all that he did for her (because she was naïve and vain) so he left her to explore the rest of cosmos.

Picture…something like that with the Rosebuds where Oscar, tired of Ruby’s continued deceit and mistrust of their Atlesian allies and even him, loses trust in Ruby all together and leaves the hero team to side with Ironwood?

That could be an interesting plot point for V7, right? Similar to how the Rose from the Little Prince didn’t realize she loved him until he left, it can be a similar scenario for Ruby with Oscar only substitute love for trust. Or see it as one in the same if you will. Trust in love, right?

You can even say that trust and love go hand in hand. Because trust enables the heart to open up and it is only with the heart, that one can see rightly what essentially is invisible to the eye. Love. See what I did there, right?

What if… similar to her counterpart from the Little Prince, Ruby doesn’t realize how much she trusts Oscar and valued his trust in her until he eventually left her out of fear that he couldn’t trust her anymore and the belief that she doesn’t trust him entirely.

Technically the idea is that Ozpin isn’t trusted anymore by the team. Ozpin is a part of Oscar and the narrative belief is that Oscar is meant to become Ozpin. The team trusts Oscar. Ruby trusts Oscar. However Ozpin is the other half of Oscar. The team can’t trust Oscar and not Ozpin. They can’t trust only half of him because what happens when Oscar and Ozpin become one whole person.

Will the group retain their trust in Oscar or remain distrustful of Ozpin? Basically I think it’s going to boil down to Oscar thinking that he isn’t trusted entirely by the group, particularly Ruby (as the proclaimed leader of the rag-tag) due to Ozpin.

I think this is what will also lead to Oscar’s departure. His fight with Ruby could potentially lead to Ruby dropping the ball that she’s still distrustful of Oz, which, by Oscar’s understanding means she doesn’t trust him either.

She might as well be saying that she doesn’t trust Oscar since technically; she can’t trust half of him, right?

I can see this as an opportune moment for Oscar to show his support of Oz by saying Oz is a part of him just as much as he is a part of Oz.

Oz’s responsibilities are his responsibilities. His burdens are Oscar’s burdens. His past mistakes and all the consequences of them are Oscar’s and it’s his duty to rectify them in a sense. Thus justifying my theory of Oscar challenging Ruby on deceiving their Atlesian allies as well as my Pinehead headcanon of Oscar wishing to mend the bond between Oz and the heroes.

Oscar and Oz may be two minds in one body but at their core, they are one man (and that man’s name was Ozma---ESPECIALLY if my other Pinehead headcanon about Oscar being the one true Ozma as the younger reincarnated version of his original body in Modern Day Remnant is true).

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The Wolf Who Helped the Rose

Before I conclude my Rosebuds theory, let me just deviate to touch base on your question about Marrow and Ruby @miki-13.

While I still like my Ruby’s Big Bad Boyfriend Lil Red headcanon (and thank you so much for remembering it), I don't think I can actually pair Marrow up with Ruby. At least, I don’t think so? Let me double check.

Well, I'm assuming that Aces are all graduates from Atlas Academy, right? Clover did address our hero team as students which gave me the impression that he and his own rag-tag of teammates have already finished school since they’re currently working with the military and it was stated in the Atlas Academy ad that graduates from the academy eventually go onto join the military with a chance of joining their special operatives division.

It was also mentioned briefly by Ozpin back in V1 that upcoming huntsmen train in the academies for four years from the age of 17 before graduating to become certified huntsman and huntresses who go on to serve their kingdoms. That being said, if I had to guess the ages of the Ace Op members, I’m assuming they’re all in their 20s since they would’ve been at least 21 years old by the time they finished the academy, right?

So right now, it’s safe to assume that Marrow is probably at least four years senior to Ruby. He doesn’t look a day over 21 (unless he lies about his age, eyyy!)

A 21-year-old working graduate dating a 17-year-old student technically in her second year of huntsmen training? People already crucify Rosegarden for the measly two year age difference between Ruby and Oscar. Imagine how much trouble a potential Big Bad (Ruby x Marrow) ship could stir?

Nevertheless, I do like the concept of Marrow having a kind of flirtatious exchange with Ruby. Since my key Marrow ship is Bunny Bites with him and Harriet, I can totally picture Marrow pulling a Neptune and kind of flirting with Ruby but only to make Harriet jealous because that’s their thing. Like I can picture Marrow secretly having the biggest crush on Harriet (which is reciprocated by her interest in him) but due to Harriet’s competitive nature with him on the battlefield and Marrow’s habit of lying, Marrow often pretends he doesn’t like Harriet that way by flirting with other girls in front of her.

It’s like Marrow totally likes Harriet a lot but doesn’t want her to know that he likes her that way; y’know what I’m saying? So basically he’s a big ole tsundere. Still a good boy though.

Anyways, in terms of Ruby turning to Marrow for comfort when her relationship with Oscar goes sour, you actually might be onto something there, Miki.

Imagine…Ruby being depressed after Oscar left home to stay with Ironwood (going back to my theory). She goes for a walk alone to clear her head and bumps into who else but Marrow, of all people. Imagine Ruby confiding in him about hurting Oscar with the whole lying thing and in a surprising twist, Marrow helps her out and actually offers some good advice.

Imagine how ironic it would sound if the Boy Who Cried Wolf taught Ruby about the consequences of lying too often. As a matter of fact, that could be the morale that Marrow imparts on Ruby in relation to the lesson that was the basis of the original Aesop Fable he’s based on.

That’s actually pretty brilliant when you think about it. So it fits excellently especially when I add it to the events of my Rosegardening Rosebuds headcanon:

Ruby lies to Ironwood. Continues to lie and keep secrets from the Atlas Crew following in Oz’s footsteps (maybe it might even make Ruby think back to the lesson that Oz imparted on her with the burden of leadership from V1). Her continued deceit hurts her friendship with Oscar leading to them fighting and Oscar leaving his home with their team.

Ruby grows sad because of this. Meets a Good Boy (Marrow) who imparts an important lesson onto her by probably telling her a story---a fable if you will---inspired by his life.

This inspires Ruby to make things right with everyone. So on the day Amity Arena is complete, with Ironwood possibly planning to make the broadcast later that same day---Ruby comes clean. All the right people are already present---Ironwood, Winter, Penny, Qrow, the Ace Ops, JNR_WBY and of course Oscar.

Ruby takes the floor and goes into making the big reveal. But before she does that, she gives a heartfelt speech where she apologizes to everyone for lying to them---including Oscar but she does it in a manner where she doesn’t outright come out and apologize to Oscar (cause she’s giving her big ole trademark Ruby speech) but it is heavily implied in her words and subtle glances in Oscar’s direction.

So Ruby drops the ball that Salem can’t be destroyed. Naturally, the Atlesians react in shock and immediate disbelief of this. So to further emphasize her point, Ruby summons Jinn before their very eyes.

Since Ruby told Ironwood that the lamp has already been used up, I think Ruby summoning Jinn could be a nice way to get her point across. I also considered the idea of Ruby using the last question to have Jinn show the truth of Ozma’s past and everything the heroes saw back in Argus to Ironwood and his forces.

I can see that as another way to further get the point across. But at the same time, it wouldn’t surprise me if the lamp isn’t used for V7 just in case the CRWBY Writers planned on savouring the last question for later.

But overall, my point is that in the end Ruby pulls herself from making the same mistake as Oz did. However this experience also helps Ruby to better understand Oz as well which leads to her apologizing to him just as much as Oscar.

So Ruby’s trust in Oz is renewed and the same can be said for her trust in Oscar. I can see a potential plot development like this being used to strengthen Ruby and Oscar’s bond through strengthening their trust in each other.

Though they may have had their fair share of doubts, especially about the other beforehand, by the end, there is no more reservations. Only trust in its purest of forms thus opening the door to love.

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So to conclude…

Trust love. Trust in love. Love and trust, you can say it whatever way you’d like, it means the same in the end.

These two sentiments often go hand in hand and it wouldn’t surprise me if our pair of Rosegardening Rosebuds learning to completely trust one another essentially opens the door for them to fall in love with each other. Who knows? It could happen for this season given the breadcrumbs dropped by these last two episodes.

As always, these are only my thoughts and theories and as expected, my assumptions could be wrong in the end. But either way, I would actually love to see some of the headcanons I shared in this post come to fruition in the canon. Particular the one where Ruby’s continued deception of Ironwood and their Atlesian allies causes her and Oscar to ‘break up’ and Oscar leaves the team because of it. I like it since it harkens back to the Little Prince and you guys know much this squiggle meister loves seeing those fairytale parallels, however big or small, within the RWBY canon.

Besides, sometimes things need to fall apart just so they could be brought back together stronger than ever. I can see this happening for Ruby and Oscar’s arc for this season. If I’m correct in V7 being the closest we’ve ever seen these two together along with the hunches I’ve shared in this musing post then brace yourself fellow Pineheads, Rosegardeners and Rosegardening Pineheads, we may be in for a wild ride with these two smaller, more honest souls for this season. But we shall see.

In the meantime, I hope you all enjoyed the new musing. As for Miki and Carrot, I hope I best answered your questions. Let me know what you guys think about my theories shared here if you can.

Until then, I’ll see you all in the next RWBY Musing. Cheerios FNDM fam!

More Squiggles’ RWBY Content

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)

#miki-13 #squiggles answers: rwby #oscar pine #ruby rose #oscar and ruby #rwby rosegarden #rwby theories #rwby volume 7 theories #rwby volume 7 spoilers #rwby volume 7 #rwby musings

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neverwatchedonepiece · 5 years

Text

638-639: "A Deadly Blow! The Astonishing King Punch!" and "The Fighting Fish Strike! Across the Deadly Iron Bridge!"

Franky offers to wipe Sol’s internet history.

I knew there was something up with that toy.

Never thought he’d be part of the Resistance, though. (May the force be with you, Sol.)

Once Block B’s Battle Royale concluded (more on that later), the action cut to Franky and Sol the Toy. Sol was suspicious and alarmed by Franky’s willingness to ask any random person he met about destroying a top secret local weapons factory. But Franky was unmoved. He needed intel. He followed Sol out into the stairwell.

At first, it seemed Sol wouldn’t talk. Franky threatened to leave and find someone else. “I said I need to beat up a Donquixote Family member and find out how to destroy the Smile factory!”

But Sol’s caginess stemmed from the fact that he was already involved in a similar plot! (Very cool.) “You keep talking about this radical plan, but why do you want to do such a thing? It seems like you know things ordinary people don’t. What is your true purpose?”

Franky kept his mouth shut. He’s streetwise enough to know not to let any old random in on the Strawheart Alliance’s Yonkou Stompin Plan.

But he was also smart enough to spot a potential ally. “Then you too!” he said. “Where is the factory? Tell me right now and I’ll destroy it.”

Sol refused. He was not against destroying the factory but first, “we want to save the workers.” The use of ‘we’ was a definite giveaway. Sol is not acting alone. He mentioned Rebecca earlier. Maybe she’s part of the Resistance too? I am also suspicious about this Ricky character. He also hates Doflamingo. I have a funny feeling he might be connected to Kyros too (maybe he is Kyros). After all, no one remembers seeing him fight, he just disappeared and it was only twenty years ago this happened.

Another issue Sol raised was that the fall of the factory could lead to the downfall of Dressrosa itself. (Hence Franky shouting about the factory in public not being a good idea.) Okay, I thought. That makes sense. It’d trash the local economy and bring upon the island the wrath of Kaidou. But in that case, why would Sol want that to happen? Well, maybe not *want* it to happen. It’s more like, why would Sol rather have Kaidou wreck the place rather than let the status quo run its course?

I felt like Sol almost gave it away when he said to Franky, “If you have the nerve and are determined to go against Doflamingo, I’m going to tell you everything about this tragic kingdom of Dressrosa!”

Yes, please! Please do tell us all about the tragic kingdom of Dressrosa!

But I was blueballed. The credits rolled and the plot hasn’t circled back to Sol and Franky.

I’ll make a mad prediction while I wait. I’m thinking all these invisible fairies hanging about might be the original inhabitants of Dressrosa and the Donquixote Family have enslaved them or are forcing them to work in the factory for practically nothing.

And the Winner Is...?

Meanwhile, in the Colosseum, Block B’s battle was about to conclude.

The twists and turns here were great. I guessed Bartolomeo would emerge the victor (laws of shounen: the fighter who is totally relaxed and barely lifts a finger always ends up winning (this only applies to battles that aren’t vital to the plot)). But how the fight played out was really entertaining and I never imagined it ending that way.

The mystery of Bartolomeo’s Devil Fruit power was kept until the very end of the fight. Even Bellamy’s speed and power couldn’t break Bartolomeo’s strange, deflective powers. At first I thought it was a rebound power. This was only because Bartolomeo seemed surprised by one of Bellamy’s attacks (like the power seemed to happen automatically - not controlled by Bartolomeo). Now I know Bartolomeo must have had his fingers crossed while Bellamy was attacking. The only thing that planted a seed of doubt? Bellamy did manage to grab Bartolomeo. How had that worked?

The scene of multiple betrayals was fun. Dagama urged the fodder fighters to regroup, muster their strength and focus attacks on Blue Gilly - only for Dagama to cut them down when their backs were turned and reveal he had really teamed up with Blue Gilly all along! That was a fun twist in itself. Then, when Gilly double-crossed Dagama.... ooooh, the intrigue! The fact the fodders were probably coerced into fighting because Dagama had poisoned them only upped the scumbag stakes.

I love that Dagama had the cheek to complain Blue Gilly double-crossed him. It’s like Gilly said, “Can’t believe people would trust a dubious guy like him in the first place!”

While everyone was double-crossing each other, Elizabello shadow-boxed and sweat-dropped. A bunch of chuckling, vengeful thugs surrounded him. Gilly decided to gloat. Called him a “helpless king without a court” who couldn’t do anything without Dagama.

When Liz ceased so shadow box... that should have been everyone’s clue to take him out. Instead, the other idiots in the ring let Liz power up. The guy stood there red-faced, yelling and popping veins like he was locked in the bathroom suffering through a difficult poop.

Even the audience knew something was wrong before they did. A group of worried randoms figured out their section of the Colosseum would be wrecked if they didn’t scarper.

By the time Gilly and the other fighters noticed something was seriously wrong, Gilly’s attempt to take Liz out was too late. KABOOM! Liz threw the King Punch. It was pretty spectacular. A golden-tinged impact that would have done Caesar proud. It took out almost everyone. Bellamy, Gilly, everyone who had been knocked out, was blown away into the moat.

Only a single-person remained in the ring.

IT WAS ME, DIO BARTOLOMEO!

Yes, it was Bartolomeo! And the trick he had been using to job the entire fight was revealed by Liz’s King Punch.

Bellamy was right: Bartolomeo was a Devil Fruit user. He has eaten the Barrier Barrier Fruit, which enables him to protect himself from (any?) attacks if he crosses his fingers. He also unwittingly used his powers to save a large section of the Colosseum and the crowd who would have been obliterated by the blast. Not sure if he’d like that. But a win was a win, right?

Interestingly, Bartolomeo also has a reason for fighting. After he told the audience to go to hell, he declared he would win the Mera Mera Fruit and dedicate it to “That Person.”

As yet, I have absolutely no clue who it could be.

But Bartolomeo’s reaction to finding out Strawhat Luffy was in the mix was intriguing. Was that fear I saw on his face? I’m trying to remember if I’ve ever seen Bartolomeo before but am drawing a complete blank. The weirdest thing was that there was no confrontation between Luffy and Bartolomeo. Looking forward to seeing what is up with this guy later on.

Luffy cheering on Bellamy was a good twist too. Actually, it’s not really a twist. When it comes to most people Luffy doesn’t care much about the past (Teach and Akainu are probably on the shit list for good). If he can forgive you, then all is forgotten. Of course, Bellamy felt embarrassed being cheered on by the old enemy who gave him a pasting. Doubly so, since he has failed again and Luffy has become so much stronger (able to use Conqueror’s haki - like Doflamingo, I guess).

Now the focus is on Block C. The competitors here seem a bit fodderish, with the exception of Don Chinjao. We have Sai, Boo, Brutal Bull (lmao), Hajrudin a Giant pirate mercenary from Elbaf, some fighting champ called Ideo, the Funk Brothers (lmao) and some guy called Jean the Bandit. Rebecca should clean up here. Then, when Block D comes around, it’ll be Luffy vs Cabbage.

Unpopular Opinion Time

I am beginning to like Caesar.

There must be something wrong with me.

Oda, I can’t believe you’ve done this. It is entirely your fault.

The action cut from Bartolomeo’s horrified Luffy realisation to the Caesar Handover Team out on the bridge.

My prediction that it would take them ages to cross the bridge was shot down in glorious flames. Thanks to Caesar, it didn’t even take them half an episode! Thank you, Oda.

It turned out the solid-looking iron bridge praised by Usopp was not especially robust. I think Caesar jinxed it, though. He was the one who said, “We’ll be fine if the fish don’t strike.”

Then a bubbling rumble in the depths announced itself. I lol’d heartily when a Vast Horned Abomination slammed itself into the barrier and stared at them with a grin stretched across its face and a look of murder in its mad, red eyes that said, “There will not be a second smash.” (I liked their design, by the way. The fighting fish look awesome.)

As Law wanted to reserve most of his strength for the return journey, he left Robin and Usopp to smack down the fighting fish (literally in Robin’s case). They were doing a fine job, but when Law asked Usopp to uncuff Caesar so he could fight...

Holy moly, Caesar is actually pretty strong. I keep forgetting, since he acts like such a highly-strung goofball diva a lot of the time, but damn... those Gastille beams fried those fish like it was cookout season!

Still, there were a lot of fish. And the bridge had collapsed in the middle. With nowhere to run, Law almost used Room, but the offending fish was speared, netted and dragged away along the other half of the bridge by freaked out, invisible people. (Interesting.)

Once Caesar was convinced to fly them all over the broken bridge (Caesar is basically Law’s bitch now his heart’s in a box. He is hilariously bitter about it,) they discovered the netted fish drag marks led straight to Green Bit.

It’s a strange place, is Green Bit. It is supposedly deserted and is therefore overgrown, wild, full of animal life. Ships lie wrecked all round the coast. A single, huge rose towers over everything else (hence the name Dressrosa?) Usopp should be fine here. He’s used to hostile wilderness terrain. Unless the invisible fairy people attack them. Then all bets are off.

KNEW IT.

I totally knew Sanji was being played.

Still, I’m glad the dumb charade has finally run its course. At least it only lasted for a couple of minutes each episode. I was getting tired of Sanji dropping all his Strawhat responsibilities for a random.

Got to admit, though, the brief skirmish with the thugs in the warehouse was cool. Sanji was so fast, the guy never knew what hit him. Sanji is always so stylish when he fights.

And look at what it’s got him into. Cuffed and likely hauled off to who-knows-what fate. Sanji’s reaction to Violet was interesting. It was almost like he recognised her face. (Either that or realisation hit that he was being played the entire time.) Whatever the case, this plot line has just become ten times more interesting and I’m looking forward to seeing where it leads.

If I can make another mad prediction? Violet is a member of CP0. Absolutely no basis for this other than she looks pretty dead behind the eyes, is kinda scary and her working with CP0 would tie them into the main plot nicely.

“Excuse me, do you have a moment to talk about our lord and saviour, Donquixote Doflamingo?”

#one piece #neverwatchedonepiece #nwop #never watched one piece #monkey d. luffy #bartolomeo #bellamy the hyena #caesar clown #trafalgar law #franky #nico robin #usopp #sanji #violet #elizabello #sol the toy #blue gilly #dagama #cp0

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solivar · 5 years

Text

WIP Ghost Stories On Route 66

In which there is an unexpected and troubling revelation.

“Team Tokki, report.”

“On station, sorry for the delay.” Hana replied a nerve-wracking ten minutes later. “Took us a minute to get all our cables in order but Kozy Kot Motor Inn Basecamp is now online.”

The topographic holomap hanging over the dining room table rippled gently as she proved it, pulsing their location in the scrubby desert flatlands between Mesa Prieta and the ruins of Albuquerque, turning their basecamp icon electric pink-and-green.

“In an amusing sidenote,” Hana continued on breezily, “You know those MiBs -- the TALON guys? Their base may be in Albuquerque Sunport but they’ve got mobile units all over the place in the immediate vicinity and some kind of stationary observation post up on the mesa itself. So yes this is me formally blaming my tardiness on avoiding the notice of scary goons who may or may not be employees of the federal government.”

“Mesa Prieta is an archaeological preserve -- it has been for decades, the petroglyphs there are thousands of years old.” Ana, seated at the opposite end of the table with stacks of airtight herb containers, a mortar and pestle, and a digital scale, observed carefully, pausing in her work. “Ownership yielded back to the Federated Southwest Tribal Government after the Crisis.”

“Meaning?” Hanzo asked, inclining a questioning brow.

“Meaning,” Ana gave the contents of her pestle another thoughtful turn, “that either the FST is acting in direct cooperation with TALON or else their actual employers kissed considerable quantities of ass to access that site for reasons other than advancing the cause of cultural preservation.”

Hanzo blinked at her. “That feels extraordinarily bad.”

“It is what it is, my young friend. Until we have better intel, we can only take matters as they come.” She spooned the contents of her pestle into a little tin container.

“I’m not so sure I like Team Tokki’s proximity to a potentially hostile unknown quantity,” Hot Vampire Jack’s tone was significantly less philosophical. “Maybe you should relocate?”

“Their base doesn’t directly overlook ours -- it’s on the far northern point of the mesa, closer to the Chamisa Wilderness Area than to us.” Jesse replied, calm and even. “We can set a drone on stealth observation if you want, but hauling off and moving again might get us seen by one of their mobile units. They’re putting up those pylon things they’ve got on the UNM campus all over out here.”

“I tried getting a look at one of those the other day but campus security waved me off.” Hana added, aggrieved.

“Whatever else they are, they’ve got a pretty hefty sensor and communications package on them -- I can see their output on our own passive monitors.” Lucio added, and the map rippled as he pushed data, added clusters of red-white-black pinpricks representing the pylons’ locations, easily a few dozen spread across the desert basin between Albuquerque and the mesa, many of them concentrated just above the Red Line along old Route 40. “I can try hacking one of their transceiver modules and skimming the data to see what they’re monitoring but that might attract some attention if they’ve got any kind of intrusion detection capabilities onboard.”

“No unnecessary risks. The pylons likely aren’t going anywhere and they’re extraneous to our own mission.” Terrifying Smoke Gabe rasped, his voice on the comms a weirdly metallic echo. “We can always try that if we can’t get intelligence from other sources.”

“Speaking of which,” Zenyatta interjected smoothly, “Team Tattoo reporting perimeter secure at Four Daughters Basecamp -- we are about to begin deploying our sensor and visual observation drones and begin transmitting.”

“El Malpais Basecamp likewise secure and ready to begin deployment.” Jamie added. “Team Helicopter Parents on perimeter patrol.”

“God, I hate that name,” Jack muttered.

“Who gave the lecture about appropriate comm discipline last night?” Gabe asked sweetly.

“Oh, shut up.”

Actual comm discipline immediately dissolved in jokes and back-and-forth smacktalk, a release of tension that even Jack recognized as necessary before any real work could get done, especially since they were waiting for Team Tokki to get up to speed. Hanzo, recognizing at as well, went and fetched tea and cakes and fussy little finger sandwiches for himself and Ana and, eventually, Reinhardt when he came in off his own perimeter patrol with the members of the pack left on guard duty. She accepted the cup he poured and the plate he delivered with a gracious smile, setting aside her work for the moment, while in the background nearly everyone they loved pretended not to be afraid.

Four days they’d been in the field -- four days of hunting the monster haunting him, four nights of sleeping rough, fanning out from Cerrillos in a gradually expanding search pattern enabled by Jesse’s practical maintenance of multiple gasoline-powered vehicles and Jamie’s purpose-built technology. Hana had dropped her presentation and then bagged the rest of her classes to assist in the physical construction of the drones, displaying a level of mechanical skill that Hanzo at least had never suspected. (“When I was a kid, my cousins and my friend Dae-hyun and I built hovertech for competition before I got into gaming -- seriously, aniki, it’s like falling off a bike, you never really forget once you know how to do it.”) Genji and Lucio had done likewise with the programming, following Jamie and Roadie’s careful instructions, working late into the night on stress-testing up until the day before their departure. Hanzo, relegated to a support role, had helped prepare the supplies and the vehicles for departure, packing MATILDA and the largest of Jesse’s off-road capable Jeeps with military surplus rations and bottled water, three fully stocked first aid kits, the heavily warded four-season tents and camping gear going with Team Helicopter Parents and Team Tokki, and extra warm clothing for everyone. He forced cardigans and sweatshirts on all of them at breakfast the morning they departed, a meal he crawled out of Jesse’s warm embrace to make for them and to which he returned before he allowed them to leave.

Jesse had taken his face between his hands, his kiss sweet and soft, and Hanzo had exercised enormous restraint by making only a few rude gestures at his brother and friends as they whistled and shouted suggestions and encouragements ranging from the mildly obscene to the outright pornographic. Jesse’s husky laughter had warmed him almost more than the kiss as he drew them together and murmured against his ear, “I’ll bring Hana and Lu back safe and sound, I promise, and Roadie won’t let anything happen to Genji and Zen.”

“I know.” Hanzo replied, soft and low against his shoulder. “I just wish...I wish I could do more.”

“You’ll have plenty to do when we find this thing. For now, you’re our lifeline. Don’t forget that.” Jesse pressed a last kiss to his forehead. “We’ll be back before you know it, darlin’. Never fear.”

But fear he did, despite Jesse’s assurances, despite his knowledge of all their skill and ability and competence, because he also knew the cruelty and viciousness and above all else cunning of the thing that they hunted, a cunning that had concealed what he had become from their entire clan, from the sister raised at his side, from the Dragon of the South Wind himself. That concealed him now, still, even as they found the telltale traces of his passage through the world, marked on the holomap in a particularly vile shade of bilious yellow, twisting tracks that appeared and disappeared without apparent pattern, growing gradually denser as the search teams moved west. Fear moved him to carry an inflatable camping mattress down to the dining room, where the communications nerve center was set up by virtue of adequate work-and-table space, and built a nest where he slept, light and restless, alert to the slightest twitch of sound on the comms, the tiniest hint of distress, which mostly came in the form of bodies shifting in their sleep and a terrifyingly vast assortment of snores.

“Drones airborne and headed to optimal scan radius,” Hana reported. “You want me to send one of our spares up to keep an eye on the MiBs?”

“Couldn’t hurt to gather a little intel at this stage of the proceedings.” Jesse opined.

“It could if your drone is detected.” Terrifying Smoke Gabe pointed out. “If you send one up, I recommend passive visual observation only.”

“Doable. Lu, you wanna handle that while I get these puppies where they need to go?” A clattering of equipment on the line as Hana and Lucio moved about in their working shelter.

“Gotcha. Temporarily disabling the drone’s sensor package just to be on the safe side.” Lucio came on the line for the first time that day. “You want me to stream footage back to HQ?”

Hanzo glanced at Ana who nodded slightly and murmured, “If they can detect our drone sensor data streams, a video stream will hardly make matters worse, and if they cannot, we will have fresh information of our own.”

“True.” Hanzo replied as his stomach tried gamely to twist itself into a Lemarchand cube of pure dread. “Go ahead, Lucio.” He clicked his own comm off and looked back to Ana, meditatively sipping her tea. “If they -- if TALON -- detects our data streams, could they trace them here, to Cerrillos?”

“Theoretically? Yes. In practice, Jack and Gabriel and Jesse have all exerted considerable effort to make this place as difficult to find as possible for outsiders.” Ana smiled dryly. “And, in any case, they may be the least of our concerns at this juncture.”

“Point.” Hanzo muttered and clicked the comm back on, applying himself to his own tea in an effort to wring some calm out of his digestive tract.

“Team Tokki’s drones on station, optimal positioning.” Hana sang.

“Team Helicopter Parents, ready to begin scanning.” Jamie replied.

“Team Tattoo, likewise prepared.” Zen added tranquilly.

All three Basecamp icons flashed and Hanzo set the countdown timer. “Ten second timer.”

At ten, the holomap blossomed as the drones’ sensor packages and associated data streams came online, populating it with a picture of local reality that overlaid and intertwined with the topography in ways that would make a cartographer’s eyes bleed. In the corner, a secondary pane opened with Lucio’s camera drone feed as it climbed out of basecamp, view panning out across the remains of the Kozy Kot Motor Inn and its eight identical “log cabin” cottages plus the motel office, set around an inner courtyard that had once contained picnic tables and grills and now held two four-season tents linked by a vestibule, a camp sanitary structure, and a warmed, weatherproof work tent, where they also ate their meals. As Hanzo watched, Jesse made is way between two of the cottages and looked up, waved for the camera as Lucio panned and zoomed away, over the cracked and crumbling remnants of a paved road, through the remains of the little tourist town that had sprung up around the motel, as fully abandoned as it was, and into the desert beyond.

There the ground was rucked up and rugged, split by arroyos and tumbled spits of dark, jagged stone, blanketed in tough, autumn-browned grasses and scrubby, wind-tortured trees and shrubs, elevation rising steadily until the drone was climbing vertically along the wall of the mesa. The top of the mesa itself was so flat the TALON installation was clearly visible miles off, a crescent of four dun-colored prefab structures clustered together, their communications uplink arrays pointed skyward, the rest of their camp’s perimeter delineated in those pylons, spaced neatly exact distances apart. Lucio dropped the drone to a few inches above the mesa hardpack and brought it in behind the largest of the structures, up the back avoiding the windows, and settled it into place on the edge of structure’s roof, cameras trained down into the camp itself.

Ana moved to join Hanzo, teacup in hand, and settled to watch. Within the relatively compact confines of the camp, technicians in khaki jumpsuits were working with obvious care among the basalt-black rocks, scanning the petroglyphs with handheld devices, taking photographs and video, neither moving nor touching anything if they could avoid it.

“I’ll be damned,” Lucio muttered. “Maybe they are doing archaeological preservation work?”

“You have to admit, we’ve seen stranger things.” Genji remarked dryly.

“But if that’s the case, why are they crawling all over the school? And why’d they interrogate Hanzo about Professor Flakes-a-Lot? And what’s the deal with those pylons? And --” Hana’s stream of questions was cut off by the sound of smashing crockery and Hanzo’s involuntary yelp of pain as Ana gripped his arm with unexpectedly fierce strength.

“Pan back,” Ana snapped over his comm.

Lucio did so and Ana’s grip tightened another degree. “Jack, Gabriel...are you seeing this?”

The pair standing together before one of the largest single petroglyph displays in the camp were not dressed like technicians. One, scrawny and unshaven and bespectacled, dark hair going gray at the temples, wore an honest-to-gods white lab coat over his cable knit sweater and gray cargo pants, hands doing as much talking as his mouth as he conversed with his companion. That companion was a solid two, maybe as much as three, heads shorter, clad in rust red coveralls and heavy hiking boots and more toolbelts and their associated attachments than seemed possible, his hugely muscled and heavily tattooed shoulders uncovered and most of his face obscured by a genuinely impressive mass of thick blonde beard and mustaches.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Jack breathed over the comm, his quiet carrying the relative force of an explosion.

“Torbjörn?” Terrifying Smoke Gabe sounded frankly stunned. “But...he and Ingrid retired years ago.”

“Apparently not,” Jack replied, grimly.

“This...changes the complexion of many things.” Reinhardt said, heavily, from the door and came to lay an enormous hand on his wife’s shoulder.

“It does?” Hanzo asked. “How? Why? What does this mean?”

“Too soon to tell on some of those, kid.” Jack said into the silence that followed. “But as to what it means? That little Viking wrench-slinger there is Torbjörn Lindholm and, once upon a time, he was a member of the same UN-sponsored special ops unit as Gabe and I -- Rein and Ana, Yanaba and Nate, too. Helped us save the world a time or six. And, if he’s involved with this bunch, TALON? That likely means nothing good and we should probably figure out what it is sooner rather than later.”

#WIP Ghost Stories On Route 66

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not-close-to-straight · 6 years

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Spideypool Dragon!Au

MASTERPOST AND ADDITIONAL CHAPTERS HERE

********************

“Are you leaving again so soon?” May peeked her head into Peter’s room and sighed when she saw him packing. “You’ve only been home for a few days! What are you doing out there in the woods, building a house?”

“I wish.” Peter smiled up at her from the floor. “As much time as I’ve spent out there, a roof over my head would be nice.”

“What are you--” May hesitated, then closed the door and crossed the room to kneel next to him. “Peter, what are you doing out there? At first you said you were just hiking, then it was camping, then it was exploring and now you don’t even tell me that. You come home whenever you want and then are racing back off as soon as you can-- I know you aren’t comfortable in the village during mating season, but that ended almost six weeks ago and you are still leaving all the time. What are you doing out there?”

“You uh--” Peter took a deep breath. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“Try me!” she challenged, raising her eyebrows. “You’ve been my boy since you were seven, there isn’t anything you could say that would shock me, Peter. Go on. Tell me the truth.”

“There’s a dragon shifter in the hills.” Peter said slowly. “His name is Wade and he’s been stuck in his shifted form for almost three hundred years. He’s the dragon the history books talk about during the war, the one who shifted and burned an entire army to their bones before flying off and disappearing. He landed in the hills here and I ran into him this spring.”

May’s mouth dropped and Peter rushed on, “He can camouflage himself, and fly and breathe fire and see for miles and he’s massive. He’s got these big golden eyes and claws sharp enough to shred pretty much anything, and he can project his voice into my head, his voice and pictures and he showed me what he’d looked like before shifting and he was gorgeous and I might be the tiniest bit in love with him, but since he’s full dragon and I’m...not... we just spend the days exploring and talking because he’s super lonely and I’m super lonely and its nice to not feel like alone anymore.”

He blurted it all out and sucked in a deep breath at the end, knotting his fingers and waiting for May to say something.

“Well.” she remarked after several minutes of stunned silence. “I had imagined several different answers to my question, but I can confirm that you secretly meeting a centuries old dragon shifter was not long my list.”

“Told you.” Peter muttered.

“i mean, I thought maybe you were trying to find the wizard that supposedly lives in the hills to see if he could change you so you could shift!” May threw up her hands. “You’ve been cavorting with a dragon?!”

“A wizard?” He wrinkled his nose. “That seems a little far fetched, don’t you think?”

“And you stumbling upon a dragon is perfectly rational.” She rolled her eyes at him. “Peter Benjamin Parker, why couldn’t you be meditating and growing your hair long like everyone else who sojourns into the woods? Only you could find that last remaining dragon shifter that was supposed to die about two hundred years ago!”

“You aren’t mad?” he asked meekly.

“Well, I’m understandably shocked!” May’s tiger stripes rippled across her skin, eyes flicking gold for a second as her shift moved forward in agitation. “Peter, you could be really hurt doing this!”

“I think if Wade was going to eat me, he’d have done it by now.” Peter went back to packing. “And if he was trying to get rid of me, he would have done it by now. He likes me, May. And I like him.”

“Oh.” Her voice dropped. “Oh I see. You like him.”

“Don’t worry., I know he’s a dragon.” He grinned. “Well aware that there’s no possible way for anything to work while he’s in that form.”

“Oh thank god.” May covered her mouth. “I was afraid we were going to have another sex talk just so you’d understand that there is no way possible for you to--”

“LA LA LA LA LA LA!!!!” Peter shouted, covering his ears. “Please god do not finish that sentence!!!”

“I just had to make sure!” May defended herself. “I’ve been around boys before Peter, I know you will stick yourself in anything with a hole so--”

“LALALALALALALALALALALALA!!!!!” Peter shrieked. “STOP TALKING NOW!”

“Oh cut that out.” She was laughing now, pulling his hands form his ears. “I won’t finish the sentence as long as you can assure me that you aren’t trying anything stupid.”

“Uh, not stupid like that.” he griped. “I told you. We spend alot of time talking and when I hike he goes with me and--”

“--And it’s nice to spend time with someone who doesn’t care that you can’t shift.” May finished. “Because he can’t shift either, so it doesn’t matter.”

“...Right.”

“Something to think about.” May started folding his shirts and handing them to him to pack. “There have been dozens and dozens of cases of people who can’t shift at all mating a strong shifter and taking on their characteristics, sometimes to the point of giving them a partial shift like their mates.”

Peter froze. “What do you mean by that?”

“I mean, that if your dragon ever manages to shift down to human long enough for you to bond, you might end up developing a partial dragon shift.”

“A p-p-partial dragon shift??” Peter’s voice went high and squeaky. “Are you serious?”

“It only happens with the wilder shifts.” May kept talking as if Peter was starting to freak out. “Bears, wolves, that sort of thing. I’d imagine a dragon shifter has so much power in their shift that it would be almost impossible not to share that with their mate, especially if their mate has no shift of their own.”

“I could dragon shift?”

“Partially, at least.” She handed him another shirt. “But only if he could shift down to human first.”

“Oh my god.”

“Try to come home sooner this time, I miss you when you aren’t around.” May leaned over and kissed his cheek. “Have fun in the woods, darling.”

#dragon au #spideypool #shifter!fic #shifter verse

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itsclydebitches · 5 years

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RWBY Recaps: Volume 6. Argus Limited

This is a re-posting from Oct. 27th, 2018 in an effort to get all my recaps fully on tumblr. Thanks!

Volume Six is here, folks! I am so very, stupidly excited for this season. Heartfelt thanks go out to my friend who was all, “lol yeah sure” when I begged to use their FIRST account to watch. There are heroes in this world and they’re one of them.

A quick note about recaps from here on out: they will (my productivity willing) be uploaded sometime on Thursday or Friday proceeding the new episode. This is partly so that I’m not scrambling to post immediately afterwards—stress and bad writing all around—and partly so that, you know, we can actually recap stuff before the next episode airs. So yeah, that’s the goal.

Let’s do it!

We open on a gorgeous, snowy scene with ROOSTER TEETH PRESENTS smack dab in the middle. You know that feeling you get when you hear the Harry Potter theme at the beginning of a new film and the whole theater loses their shit? Same with Doctor Who and Star Wars? Whatever your preferred fandom, the point is I get the same chills when RWBY comes back and it’s excellent.

The animation really is gorgeous though and I sigh happily whenever I see it, thinking back to the days when cookies disappeared directly into Ruby’s mouth. There’s nostalgia, sure, but it doesn’t beat this detail.

We hear the distant sound of a train and then we’re thrown into exactly what we’ve wanted for literal years now: Team RWBY back together again, fighting not creepy adults but just some good, old fashioned grimm. They’re chimeras and… griffins? Ngl I’m not entirely sure, but they’re big, flying, fire-breathing nasties, so that’s really all we need to know. Luckily everyone falls back into old habits, easily supporting one another and executing perfect attacks (a contrast to the residual tension we’ll see in just a bit). Ruby is so busy posing after a successful kill that she misses the grimm coming at her from behind. Weiss saves her ass with a cheeky, “Thank me later!” At the end of the fight we get a reversal wherein a hit nearly sends Weiss tumbling off the side of the train, though Ruby grabs her at the last second with her own, “Thank me later!” It’s a fun little exchange made better when we think back to the Vytal Tournament. Weiss still “had her back” then too, but was more resistant to Ruby’s proclamation that they’re BFFs. Now the teasing is on both ends.

Notably, Ruby saves Weiss by taking her into her semblance, creating a cloud of rose petals that are half red, half white. Now combined with the old team-ups and some shots in the new opening, this has led a number of fans (myself included) to wonder if a WhiteRose pairing is in our future. Which also means that the ship wars are in full swing. Needless to say I’m not about that nonsense and I’ll only point out here what I said episodes back: if it’s a queer relationship with one of our main girls, and not a random side character who was previously out to murder a whole family? I’m on board.

Back in the fight though. The rest of team RNJR appears with Nora exclaiming, “Why is it always something?” God that’s a mood. Welcome to adulthood, kid. It’s just one crisis after another—except in your case the crises are objectively more dangerous. Sorry about that. We get to see Jaune’s improved reflexes as he fends off all the fireballs with his shield while Ren and Nora team up to knock some of the monsters out.

Honestly, I love this trope in action stories. Where—as Nora does here—a character just shouts out a friend’s name to get their attention and they immediately know what kind of move they’re about to pull off. It’s made more hilarious to me given that RWBY once had attack names and Jaune at least made the attempt with JNPR...but apparently they're not needed anymore. So unrealistic, yet so very cool when used.

So yeah, things are going pretty smoothly… up until Oscar yells out “Tunnel!” Ruby saves Weiss from falling, they manage to get over or between the cars, and in the sudden darkness we transition to what we only realize later is a flashback. At least, I didn’t realize it until later. Totally thought we’d had a time skip and they were just hopping another train…

My stupidity aside, before we hit the train station we actually see a familiar hallway filled with angry voices discussing the disaster at Haven—one of which is Adam’s. I really enjoyed this technique, wherein we slowly pan across the room as the voices grow more frantic and the sounds of fighting break out, the camera revealing bodies scattered across the floor. By the time we reach the throne—and Adam on it— we realize that the fight occurred prior to this moment, something that Adam is now remembering. He goes all skyward scream on us as he howls menacingly. Okay, dude. Compared to Cinder and Salem you’re really not all that.

Now we’re at the train station where Qrow is narrating a letter to Ironwood. Hell yes, please bring back the badass, protective Ironwood who defended the students at Beacon and stood up for Weiss. I’d be very pleased if he joins the RWBY gang by the Volume’s end. Qrow’s optimistic about the trip—they’ve plans to reach Ironwood before the letter does, which says either good things about Remnant’s transportation or bad things about its mail—though of course we as the audience know it’s not going to be nearly that simple. We learn that only two weeks have passed since the battle, but people are still reeling from all the implications. Lionheart tragically lost his life defending the school and oh, some students coincidentally were there and did some stuff. Excellent choice in showing us the mindless crowds while we hear this, the naive masses who, yes, would absolutely believe a story like this.

It’s easy to criticize no one supposedly noticing Salem, magic, the finger Ozpin has in every pie, etc. but ultimately people believe what they’re told—especially when it’s much easier to swallow than the truth.

Enough of the doom and gloom though. Ruby is having the time of her life.

Qrow: “What’s with the running?”

Ruby: “What’s with the standing?!”

I love this girl so very much and it’s wonderful when we get to see her acting like the kid she is. She uses her semblance with abandon because yeah, if I could turn into rose petals I’d be doing that all the time too. Ruby teases Yang with something from the gift shop and I really hope we get to see what that is. Yes, we end the episode with everyone left stranded in the wilderness, but if Yang’s bike can survive then so can Ruby’s souvenirs.

(Seriously though they presumably lost all their luggage that sucks.)

Everyone else is in top, feel-good form too. Nora daydreams about hitting the beach, complete with a thought bubble of topless Ren and a beachball. Weiss quips about how she spent all last Volume getting out of Atlas, thanks, but Ruby reassures her that at least she’s back with the team now. When two jokers arrive boasting about how they’ll be the ones keeping the train safe from grimm, Ruby and Yang act exactly as nieces should when your cool uncle is telling them off. AKA, making fun of them behind his back.

God they must have been terrors as toddlers. I mean we already know Yang carted Ruby off into the woods one day so yeah, I’m pretty confident in expressing my surprise that Tai doesn’t have a full head of gray hair.

The two Nice Guys go on to specify that they’ll provide extra protection for a “generous tip,” which—while essentially a throwaway line—reminds us how most of the world functions outside of our close-knit cast. Money, and more specifically Schnee money, quite literally dictates who lives and who dies. Not everything about RWBY is fantasy oriented…

We learn that everyone is just waiting on Blake— “as usual”—and we cut to her with Ilia as the two of them say their goodbyes. Ilia will be helping Ghira lead the Faunus in a “new movement” and is supposedly 100% on the straight and narrow now. Cool? I guess? To be honest I’m fine with her taking a back seat for this Volume. There’s a moment where we get a shot of Ilia and Blake’s feet, the former’s angled forward in a classic kiss pose, and I was super glad to see that they were just sharing a hug. I really don’t want the first LGBTQIA kiss on RWBY to be iffy on consent, considering that Ilia knows Blake isn’t interested. Hug though? That was super sweet.

Sun and Neptune show up to say their goodbyes too. They’re heading to Vacuo to meet up with the rest of their team because, in Sun’s words, he’s the “worst leader” ever. You kinda are, dude? I loved Sun up until they had him following Blake without her permission and continuing to do so after she asked for space, all in the name of the guy supposedly knowing what the girl really needs. The reminder that Sun abandoned his team to do this just reinforces how much I dislike that plot-line.

Sun gets the kiss—on the cheek—and after leaving Neptune lectures him on “letting [Blake] go.” Except it’s not about you? Blake is off to quite literally save the world and the fact that these guys view that as a threat to any potential relationship is… icky. Ugh. Oh well. They’re presumably gonna be offscreen for a while.

The train finally arrives and everyone piles in. We’re back to bunk beds! And of course Team RWBY is situated exactly as they were in Beacon’s dorms. Weiss gets annoyed with Ruby’s cloak hanging down over the side. Blake has a book in her lap. Ruby challenges Yang to a video game. Cue nostalgia. I fully expect fluffy AU fics where they ride the train all the way to Atlas and treat the trip as one giant, dramatic sleepover. This is non-negotiable.

Tension seeps back in though when Yang moves to pull her luggage from the rack and Blake immediately hops up to help her. In a super guilty “I know I fucked up and now I’m gonna smother you” way. Really excellent voice acting here. Yang ends up reassuring her. No, things aren’t perfect between them yet… but they’re definitely improving.

While short, for me this scene was perfectly balanced between acknowledging the girls’ complicated relationship without totally undermining the happy mood. Nicely done.

Then Qrow shows up with a drink. A drink with a slice of orange on the side. I have never enjoyed a moment more and I was so surprised I didn't take a screenshot of it. Clearly I was too distracted and am I too lazy to go back for one now? You betcha. The point is everything is fine, dandy, and filled with alcohol.

So of course RT goes and ruins it for me. Something hits the train and in a split second everyone is on high alert. A quick peek out the window reveals grimm and Blake mutters darkly that it’s “just my luck.”

Qrow: “Not yours.”

Are they gonna leave the safety of the train to those bozos from before? Hell no. Especially when one guy is grabbed right when the fight starts. I mean, poor dude, but he also kinda sucked as a Huntsmen. He wouldn’t have even made it past Beacon’s initiation, let alone graduated.

…I guess he’s kind of like early Jaune? Useless, wannabe hero who acts more confident than he actually is? Aw, now I really do feel bad.

He’s grimm food though. Gotta move on with our lives.

The other dude isn’t doing too well either, though RWBY and NJR + Oscar quickly show up, coming full circle to where we began the episode. Oscar insists that he’s got this fight under control which tells me (hopefully) that in the past two weeks they’ve had serious conversations about if and when Ozpin gets to have control. That’s super great, though I do wish we could have seen it. Flashbacks, maybe?

As the fight begins Ruby announces that the plan amounts to “don’t let anyone else die.” Uh...Ruby? Buddy. Pal. This is why people die. Because they didn’t have plans! Pyrrha—god rest her reckless soul—went off after a freaking Maiden by herself. Jaune got Amber killed because he didn’t obey the plan of watching the door. Lionheart frantically calls Salem with no real plan for what he’s going to offer her in exchange for his life! Plans are important, Ruby. You’re the team strategist. It was a badass line, I grant you, but please do not.

Luckily, no one (else) dies. That would have been pretty brutal for a premier. +1 point for world building where we see that trains like this have built in defenses to fight off grimm. -2 points for how useless it ends up being. As Qrow quickly points out, the turrets are drawing all the grimm to the front of the train where the passengers are. So, not good. Oscar is charged with telling the surviving goon to knock it off already while Qrow faces off against the super fierce chimera grimm. Not gonna lie though, when its tail first started up I thought Qrow was getting attacked by a dove…

This time when we hit the tunnel everyone makes it back safely inside with the exception of Goon #2 who gets his arm injured in the scramble. He’s literally crying on the ground when, in a pretty harsh move, Qrow drags him up and demands to know what the hell all that was. Civility and benefit of the doubt? Not Qrow’s strong points. It allows Ruby to take control of the situation though. How do you make sure that your cast of kids is continually calling the shots? A) isolate them and B) when you can’t do that have the adults act like children instead. We see that a fair bit in RWBY.

Jaune steps in to heal the guy’s arm, which is an unexpected surprise. I honestly thought we'd get a whole Volume’s worth of him figuring out how to access and control his semblance, though I suppose once it manifests you’ve got the basics down. We’ve seen that semblances can be improved upon—Ruby turning other people she carries into petals; Ren dampening the emotions of a whole train—so presumably Jaune will be able to heal more complex and life-threatening things in the future. We also hear in the ensuing conversation that he can amplify someone else’s aura…to be decided what exactly that means, how it connects to healing, and what the limits of the skill is.

During some theorizing about the attack Ozpin brings up that grimm are attracted to the relic they’re carrying and… oh boy. Here we go. Is it tradition that every recap the fandom goes for Ozpin’s throat while I stand here defending him? Might be. Let’s create a (semi) comprehensive list:

This might have been less of a secret and more of a slip. The guy is thousands of years old and the forces they’re dealing with are stupidly complicated. He can’t info dump every detail of a multi-century war in one sitting. So—

He might have thought this was one of those innocuous things that shouldn’t take precedent right now. Not the sort of thing he needs to worry them with. He claims in the promo that he didn't lie to the group and he quite possibly didn't. There's a big difference between lying and not telling someone every single possible thing that might be pertinent. Especially when—

We know that grimm are already attracted to people/negative emotion and they’re sequestered within a whole train full of presumably stressed travelers. There’s no reason to think the artifact would put them in more danger than they already are and therefore isn't at the top of the list of revelations to dole out. Especially with—

Qrow and his bad luck semblance. He literally just implied that the grimm were there because of him. There’s a reason he didn’t want Ruby near him during the fight with Tyrian and now they’re all stuck together in close quarters. The grimm were coming anyway. Even if we didn't have Qrow's semblance and big crowds we can also assume as much because of—

Those turrets. They weren’t there for a fashion statement. The whole train was crazy armored. They’re clearly very used to getting attacked on this route. It's a normal thing.

All of which is to say that the relic is one of MANY reasons why they might have gotten a buttload of grimm on their tail. Ozpin mentions this as one possibility in a very “Here’s something else to consider” way and everyone (characters and fandom alike) jump on him like he’s solely responsible for this predicament. Besides, what would they have done differently? Not carry the relic? That’s not an option. Be more on guard? They’re already constantly on guard. None of their actions would have changed had they known.

Really though, it’s the keeping of secrets that people are mad about, not necessarily what the secret is. So if we ignore the possibility above that Ozpin legit didn’t think this was worth mentioning/even forgot about it, we have a) he withheld the information because it might have made them wary about traveling with others, but they need to get to Atlas as fast as possible and the train is the best way to do that. So yeah, that’s a possible change, though I agree with Ozpin’s theoretical logic here. It was worth the risk.

b) he didn’t tell them because—again—worry is a negative emotion and that might have just doubled their problem. Awful as it is, knowing you're carrying a thing that might attract more grimm is one of the best ways to make sure that you do, in fact, attract them. Knowing what the relic does is dangerous.

c) he doesn’t trust them with all the information about these super powerful relics that are going to decide the fate of their world. Which honestly? Kind of fair. Yeah, I know he promised them no more secrets, but this is a centuries old, god-like entity making a promise to a child. It’s not even really a matter of trust anymore. We’ve got a core group of nine here and everyone has someone else they’re close to. Ruby isn’t going to keep secrets from Tai. Blake will probably fill Sun in when she sees him again. Weiss is close to her sister. Etc. In short, as soon as this many people know a secret it isn't a secret anymore. Ozpin is no doubt aware that anything he tells to their now massive group is fair game and he has to carefully consider what he wants to risk going public/landing in Salem's hands. A general doesn't tell every lieutenant the details of every plan. That's a good way to lose the war. Fate of the world vs. a promise made to Yang? C’mon. There are priorities here.

d) finally, we’ve seen evidence—particularly after the iconic food fight—that Ozpin desperately wants his students to be kids as long as they can. He might keep information to himself simply because he doesn’t want to burden them. And given all the reasons listed above for why they'd be dealing with grimm anyway, what's the harm in giving them what little peace he can? It's not perfect reasoning and if this is the case the others have a right to be annoyed, but it's understandable. It certainly doesn't make Ozpin the monster I see countless posts painting him as.

Plus, Yang? I’m not sure you have the right to get indignant about keeping secrets right now. Granted, there’s some ambiguity surrounding whether she’s mentioned Raven as the Spring Maiden, but regardless we haven’t seen any evidence that she’s told the group the details of what happened down in the vault. That’s a pretty big thing to be keeping to yourself.

A lot bigger than, “Oh yeah this relic attracts the thing we’re attracting anyway. My bad.”

Why the relic attracts grimm is another question. Because it’s connected to the original brothers? Just because Salem wants it and she seems to be the grimms’ creator? We’ll have to see.

Ruby interrupts everyone’s fury to point out that they have bigger issues at the moment and Ozpin’s expression kind of kills me? He looks so shocked to have anyone standing up for him, even if it’s a defense of practicality instead of his actions. I wonder if this Volume is going to have the team starting to lose a little faith in Ruby. Given the clear divide here (angry Ren, Nora, Weiss, Yang, and Blake on one side; Ruby, Oscar, Ozpin on the other) this might be a major theme moving forward. It would make a lot of sense too given Ruby's past relationship with Ozpin. To Yang he's just her headmaster; to Ruby he's the headmaster that let her into her dream school early. To Blake he's someone who wanted information from her before she was ready to give it; to Ruby he's the adult who gave her advice at the dance and was emotionally open with her about committing more mistakes "than any man, woman, or child." No matter how far she's come, they'll always be a part of Weiss that sees Ozpin as the teacher who didn't give her the leadership position she thought she deserved; to Ruby he's the man that has put a staggering amount of trust in her: by letting her into his school, giving her a team, sending her to Mountain Glenn, etc.

Now, it might be time for Ruby to put her trust in Ozpin.

Fight temporarily averted, they decide to separate the teams… which felt a little forced to me. I mean I get it. As said, giant group. It’s hard to write and keep track of that many, so let’s knock three offstage for a while. Jaune, Ren, and Nora will see the people to safety while Ruby and the rest of the gang eventually catch up. We get a glimpse of Maria—the old lady with awesome glasses—clearly plotting something and then everyone heads back to the roof to finish the fight with the grimm.

Blake has a quick vision of Adam; the last time she separated a train car. Excellent touch there. Ruby tells Ren to use his semblance through the scroll, but we also get a glimpse of their signals getting weaker. Another nice touch considering how important we know the scrolls are throughout the RWBY universe: how the team keeps in contact during the Volume Four short, the damage that the fall of the CCT tower has caused, etc.

We get a final, epic showdown with a massive grimm where everyone’s teamwork proves to be some top tier stuff. Blake and Yang capture it using Blake’s ribbon. Weiss freezes off its wings. Then—in a fantastic split screen—Ruby and Qrow both use their scythes to cut the creature in two. I’m here for the power family moves.

Only problem is that a final fireball from the grimm hits the train, derailing their section. Weiss keeps them all from dying an awful death, but now they’re kind of stranded.

I mean, they already were stranded before, but I guess the hope was the back of the train would have carried them farther down the tracks before losing momentum?

In the final scene we have an unexpected voice happily proclaiming that they’re still alive but boy, that was a close one! Maria hobbles out, having clearly planned to be with this group when they went their own way.

My personal theory? She knows (and to some extent recognizes) Ozpin. I can’t believe he wasn’t involved in a conflict like the Great War. Hell, he was probably at the center of it and Maria looks very old by RWBY standards. We have no concept of how long people in this world can live so I don’t think it’s a stretch to put her in her 90s or well over 100—old enough to have fought in the War and potentially recognize one of the central figures, even in a new reincarnation depending on her instincts, knowledge, and semblance. Her name lends a bit of credence to her age, if nothing else. As far as I know “Maria” doesn’t mean/isn’t evocative of a color… though I’m far from an expert. Could totally be wrong about that.

Regardless, we’ll see. More info arrives next week!

Other Details of Note

The grimm are at a distance when we first spot them and they actually look a lot like crows. The same motif we’ve seen with Raven and Qrow’s entrances but, you know, bad.

I really liked Qrow’s line to Ironwood about how they’re bringing “more than bad news.” It’s appropriately vague—can’t go admitting that Oz is back with the group—and at the same time quite up-lifting.

I personally take Ozpin’s “I hope they’re not from Beacon” as more of a joke than a true worry. If you’re telling me that this old as balls control freak doesn’t remember every student that’s ever passed through those doors… I don’t believe you.

When Blake is saying goodbye to Ilia and Sun we have lots of animation for her ears, helping to express her emotions. It says a lot about her character development that she hasn’t re-adopted the bow in such a crowded, human packed space.

Neptune is pursuing the “wrong tree” okay lol that was good.

When Neptune and Sun discuss re-uniting the team we briefly hear the soundtrack from their Vytal Festival match. Excellent.

Interestingly, Oscar gives Ozpin control immediately during the conversation about the relic, almost like he already knew what was going to be revealed and understood that it was important… I wonder how much they’re sharing thoughts now, two weeks later.

Here, have a beach Ren and happy birb. Yes, I went back for the screenshots...

#rwby #rwby spoilers #mymetas #RWBY Recaps

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millennial-medusa · 6 years

Text

Help Me Piece It All Together, Darling

This was just supposed to be a little Jasiper drabble for my Baseball AU, but I love these two so much and it got away from me and, well...here’s 11k words of them being idiots and honestly barely any baseball. It is absolutely as cheesy as it sounds.

This is set their sophomore year, so earlier than the other fics I’ve written for this au.

Jason x Piper, rated T, read on ao3

Jason Grace might just be the death of her.

She’d thought he was attractive as soon as she’d started going to baseball games last year and spotted him from the stands. She’d thought he was gorgeous when she’d approached him at that bar a few months ago, the couple drinks in her system giving her the courage to toss her hair and tease him a little, the resulting blush across his cheeks and the electric blue of his eyes weakening her knees.

But now, sitting in the library watching him help Leo through a research paper with all the patience and kindness and—yes, she’d admit it, grace, no pun intended—of a seasoned kindergarten teacher, she was positive he was the most beautiful person she’d ever met.

And this was a problem.

It was a problem because Piper, despite being a decent flirt when she wanted to be, had absolutely zero skills in terms of getting a guy to date her. She’d had her fair share of one night stands and casual hookups, but those were easy; the kind of guys that were willing to do one night stands were willing to do them with anyone decently attractive and emotionally detached. Piper checked those boxes pretty well, minimal work required.

But Jason wasn’t one of those guys. The more time she spent with him, the more obvious it was that he was the kind of guy to hold open doors and only kiss on the third date and ask for a lady’s favor before going to fight a dragon for her hand because he was literally a knight in shining armor, and it sucked because Piper was pretty sure she was the scullery maid in that scenario. Or the evil step-sister. Or the dragon.

(Okay, she reasoned, she wasn’t that bad. She wasn’t evil. Just hopeless and delusional. One of the nameless court ladies who swooned at a glance from the knight, but was overlooked in favor of the lovely and virtuous princess he would live happily ever after with.)

So a crush on Jason was a terrible, awful, absolutely horrendous idea, but for some reason her heart didn’t get the message her brain was so desperately signaling to it with red flags and emergency flares, because it kept picking up speed with every blindingly white smile he sent her from across the table.

(What had she just been saying about swooning?)

“But I say right there what it’s about,” Leo was complaining, gesturing to his laptop screen.

“No, that’s your topic sentence for that paragraph,” Jason explained. He ran a hand through his already mussed hair.

Piper wanted to run her own hands through it, tugging on the blonde locks while her tongue explored his mouth.

“Isn’t that what a topic sentence is supposed to do?”

“Yes, but you don’t have a thesis. Or an introduction.”

“Why would I need one of those when you made me write that abstract thing that explained the whole paper anyway? I still maintain that invalidates even needing to write a paper, by the way.”

“Leo, have you ever written an essay in your life?”

Leo’s eyes darted to Piper’s, and twin smiles stretched slowly across their faces.

“Oh yeah,” Leo answered, turning back to Jason. “I’ve written tons, and they were fantastic. Totally winners.”

Piper bit back a laugh. “Honestly, Leo’s written some of the finest essays of our generation. I’m incredibly proud of my—ah, of his work,” she added.

Jason’s brow furrowed—in a non-totally adorable and distracting way, of course—as he glanced back and forth between the two of them.

“Leo,” he repeated slowly, fixing him with a stern gaze, “have you ever written an essay in your life?”

“Define ‘written.’”

“Are you serious?” Jason’s eyebrows hit his hairline, and Piper didn’t bother to hold back her laughter. “How did you get through high school? How did you get through all of last year?”

Leo grinned over at him. “Wilderness school didn’t assign too many essays, and when they did, they didn’t read them closely enough to realize the similarities in Piper’s and my writing styles.”

Jason’s eyes widened before landing on Piper. “You—you wrote his essays for him? For all of high school?”

Piper shrugged. “Like he said, there weren’t that many to write. Besides, I can knock out a three page paper in less than an hour, and Leo did lots of my math assignments to pay me back.”

“Yes, she drove a hard bargain, but every equation was worth it to not have to analyze Jane Eyre," Leo sighed.

“What can I say? The rates are high, but I provide excellent customer service.”

“Absolutely. I’d give you four stars on yelp.”

“Only four? That rhetorical analysis of Mark Antony’s speech got you a 98!”

“Sure, the quality is great, but your options are limited. You’re not writing this essay, for example.”

“You’re right, the uses of obscure elements is a little out of my scope of provided services. That’s what you get for taking chemistry.”

“What good are you comm majors if you can’t even write my essays for me?”

“You committed plagiarism for four years and got away with it?” Jason interrupted with a harsh whisper.

“Relax, Sparky, the teachers didn’t care what we did as long as we sat quietly,” Piper laughed.

“Which, naturally, we always did,” Leo added. “We’re both known for our ability to sit in silence and behave just like we should.”

Jason shook his head. “I have no idea how I ended up with the two of you for friends.”

“Aww c’mon, you know you love us,” Leo crooned.

Jason chuckled and adjusted his glasses. “You’re lucky I do. I would not risk having ‘aiding and abetting criminals’ on my record for anybody else.”

With that, the air shifted. Piper felt her stomach drop, and her eyes met Leo’s again, but this time the knowledge that passed between them was not of an inside joke. The laughter had disappeared from their expressions, and Jason noticed.

“Guys?” he asked tentatively, glancing between the two of them nervously before landing on Piper. “Is everything okay? Did I say someth—”

“So I don’t have a thesis,” Leo interrupted, “what is that, exactly?”

Jason was still studying Piper, who was avoiding his gaze. She could feel his eyes, all too perceptive, roaming over her drawn face and tensed shoulders, but she focused resolutely on the textbook in front of her.

“Your thesis statement sums up your argument and the key points you’re using to prove it,” she spoke up, her gaze trained on Leo now. “It’s like, a shortened version of the back of a book. Or a highlights reel. Or a movie trailer.”

Leo looked back at her blankly. “So…another thing that sums up the whole paper. Why do I have to write the whole paper if I can prove it in one sentence?”

Piper rolled her eyes, but, to his credit, Jason managed a small smile. “It doesn’t prove your claim, it just gives a little preview of how you’re going to prove it. It gives the reader an idea of what to expect,” he explained, far more patiently than Piper ever could have. She was good with words, but even Leo exceeded her patience at times like these.

Jason was just so good. Piper couldn’t think of anybody deserving of him, especially not herself.

Her heart ached.

Over the past three months, Jason had fit seamlessly into Leo and Piper’s lives, clicking instantly. She and Jason were easy friends in their own right, getting pizza together or hanging out in the apartment when Leo was out. Of course, she’d befriended Percy, Annabeth, and many of the other team members and their assorted friends in the same amount of time, but her connection to Jason was just…different, somehow. And not just because she was perilously close to falling in love with him already.

Leo would always be Piper’s best friend—they’d been through so much together that losing him wasn’t even a possibility to Piper, they were stuck with each other for life—but Jason, even after only three months, was already a close second. After their initial meeting of tipsy flirting, they’d bonded quickly over their shared love of baseball and Disney movies.

So now Piper knew just how kind and genuine of a person he really was. She also knew how much of a disaster she was, and how much he didn’t deserve to have to put up with that.

So she suffered in silence, hoping her little crush would go away painlessly and soon. The way her stomach flipped when Jason glanced over at her again, his eyes still slightly apprehensive, seemed to insist she would not be getting an easy out.

When she tuned back into the boys’ conversation, Jason was asking Leo when the paper was due.

“Tomorrow?” he yelped at Leo’s answer. “And you waited until now to ask for my help? Leo, you have six more pages to write, we’re gonna be here all night!”

“Nice rhyme, Dr. Seuss,” Leo teased, but at the look Jason gave him, he ducked his head guiltily. “I know, honestly I didn’t think writing a dumb essay would take that long,” he mumbled. “You guys can go home if you want, it’s pretty late and finals are in a few days and I’m sure I can figure this out—”

Piper just snorted. “Not going anywhere, Valdez. We’re a team.”

“She’s right,” Jason chimed in, patting Leo lightly on the shoulder. “I meant it when I said I’d help. If we have to stay until the paper is due, then that’s what we’re gonna do.”

Leo smiled at both of them, and they went back to work.

—

Three hours later, Piper felt her eyelids drooping. It was only 10 PM, but she'd had gotten up early and worked all day, so she could already tell staying up with Leo was gonna be rough. The boys, she noted, were looking a little frazzled too, so she stood and told them she was going on a coffee run.

Jason frowned. “It’s late, Pipes, are you sure you should be walking across campus alone?”

Warmth spread through her at his concern, but she shrugged it off and her jacket on. “I’m a tough girl, I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

Jason opened his mouth to protest, but Leo cut him off. “Just go with her, Jason, I need some time alone anyway.”

Piper nodded at Jason’s questioning glance, but she glared daggers at Leo when Jason turned to grab his coat. Leo just gave her a shit eating grin; he’d picked up on Piper’s crush early on and frequently found excuses to leave them alone together.

A few moments later, Piper and Jason were walking out into a wall of freezing December air that had Piper tugging her coat around her and wishing she could cuddle up to Jason. Strictly to conserve heat, naturally.

They chatted easily as they walked to a small coffee shop about five minutes away, the only one on campus open 24 hours.

“Are your finals bad?” Jason asked, his words a puff of steam in the frigid air.

Piper shook her head and buried her hands deeper in her pockets. “Nah. My media law final is the only one I’m really worried about, but I think I’ll do okay. What about yours? Is that political theory stuff still giving you trouble?”

“I’ve been studying for it, so I think I’ll be okay,” he shrugged.

“I wish I had the self discipline to already be studying for finals,” Piper grumbled. “I can’t get myself to study before the last minute.”

Jason laughed at her sullen expression. “You just need the right motivation, like a reward or a study buddy.”

“You offering?” She caught his eye and smirked; Jason blushed a pretty shade of pink that spread down his neck and disappeared beneath the collar of his peacoat. Piper found herself wishing she could see just how far down that blush travelled.

“Yeah—I mean, if you wanted,” Jason stammered, looking hurriedly away from her.

Piper cringed inwardly; she hadn’t meant to embarrass or pressure him. But she had to admit, having someone to make her study would be helpful—Leo was no help at all and Annabeth had her hands full with Percy—and she couldn’t bring herself to say no to spending time with Jason, even if she should for her own sake.

“I’d like that,” she found herself saying, and his resulting smile was so bright she forgot all about the awkwardness of the previous moment. His teeth were so perfect and straight, he could’ve done toothpaste commercials, she noted. And his lips—well, Piper had spent plenty of time thinking about them already; they were a little thin and a little chapped, but they were so frequently pulled into a smile and looked so inviting she knew she wouldn’t mind the roughness if they were working with her own. She wanted to bite the scar on his upper lip—where had it come from? She’d have to ask him sometime.

Her eyes traveled upward then, following the gentle slope of his nose to his bright blue eyes. Piper usually preferred brown, like her own, but Jason’s were so genuinely captivating, fringed with long, blonde lashes, that she longed to drown herself in them.

That thought snapped her out of her haze: she wasn’t this much of a fucking sap, and she couldn’t afford to be thinking things that sounded like they were written by a lovesick thirteen year old. She couldn’t take her eyes off his, though, and she noted the way they dropped to her mouth as her tongue darted out to wet her lips.

He was looking at her mouth. And his eyes were different somehow—darker? Or maybe that was just the shadowy lighting, but either way he was definitely staring at her mouth and either he was going to stop and kiss her or she had something stuck in her teeth. She really hoped it was the former, because they’d gotten so close their arms were touching as they walked and his eyes were flitting up to her own and back down again, and Piper prayed, oh she prayed that she was right because she was leaning forward now so there was no going back and—

Unfortunately, staring prolongedly at a boy who probably wasn’t even into her meant that Piper didn’t notice the patch of ice she was walking towards.

She shrieked as her feet slid out from under her, the dark pavement suddenly racing towards her. She braced for impact, but instead of freezing concrete to the nose, she felt a pair of strong arms wrapped around her waist and hauling her back to her feet.

Before she could fully process what was happening she found herself pressed entirely up against Jason’s front, his arms securely around her waist and his wide eyes blinking down at her from behind his glasses. Her hands settled on his chest as they stared at each other, and then slid down to grip his forearms. Neither his hands nor his gaze shifted.

Piper swallowed hard before noting just how nice his arms felt, even through his coat. All those workouts and baseball practices had really paid off.

Jason’s cheeks were stained crimson again—he blushed a lot, and Piper adored it—but he started laughing.

“Yeah, uh, I guess they have,” he said. Suddenly his eyes went wide. “Not—not that you’re heavy, or anything. Because you aren’t. I mean, you’re like, average weight I assume? For a girl your height? I don’t really know, I haven’t caught very many people—”

Piper was mortified her comment had been spoken aloud, but thankfully Jason’s own stammering had shifted the focus off of her.

“What?” she asked, cutting him off with a raised eyebrow. “You mean to tell me you don’t regularly swoop in and catch people? And here I thought you were some kind of blonde Superman. It’s kind of a let down that you don’t save the day all the time.”

Jason grinned, a little sheepishly, but without most of the previous nervousness. “Haven’t noticed too many people falling.”

Piper’s heart hammered in her chest, and surely he could feel it with the way they were still pressed together. Then you must be blind, she wanted to say.

Instead, she stepped back, letting his arms fall away from her. She instantly felt the chill seep into her as though she weren’t even wearing a coat.

“Guess it’s just me, then,” she quipped, tossing him a smile as they headed toward the coffee shop again. They were nearly there. “Figures, I’m pretty clumsy.”

A small smile appeared on Jason’s face at that. Piper saw him attempt to subtlety lengthen his strides—attempt being the key word, because it wasn’t subtle at all—and reached the door first, just in time to open it for her, ever the perfect gentleman. “Hey, every princess needs a little saving now and then,” he said.

This time, Piper was the one blushing.

—

Piper McLean was going to be the death of him, he was sure of it.

Jason had never been great with girls. He knew there had been girls who’d liked him in the past, definitely more than a few who’d flirted with him, but he never had much interest. The only relationship he’d ever had was with Reyna in high school, and that had been short lived; Jason cared about her deeply but not romantically, and Reyna…well. Reyna had ended up dating his older sister.

Where was he going with that? Oh, he was bad with girls. Right.

So when he’d seen Piper across that bar in September, he’d nearly panicked. She was gorgeous, looking him up and down with eyes that were shifting color, and she seemed to approve of what she saw, but Jason couldn’t flirt to save his life when he was sober, let alone several drinks in. Luckily she’d been about as drunk as he had, so she hadn’t minded his inability to keep up with her.

Since that night, Jason couldn’t get her out of his head. She was beautiful and brilliant and funny, and they just matched. The more time he spent with her, the harder he fell, and he knew it would end badly because she was clearly out of his league—but that didn’t stop him.

Being around her and knowing she would never be interested in him was torture, but if it meant he could make her laugh and watch her re-braid her hair and listen to the little songs she made up under her breath when she thought he couldn’t hear, then he’d gladly suffer every day of his life.

They’d gotten the coffee and headed back to the library after the rather embarrassing incident outside the shop (he wanted to die a little remembering how he’d basically called her heavy, and that he’d stood there and not let her go like some kind of clingy creeper. It was worth it to get to hold her like that—it just felt right—but still. And had he really called her a princess in need of saving? As if Piper needed him to save her. Piper was more like a badass queen who slew her own dragons, so Jason really had no idea what had possessed him to make that comment).

In any case, they’d made it through the rest of the night without any more awkward moments, and now, at nearly 4 AM, Leo was finishing up his paper. Jason’s eyelids had been drooping for the past hour even with the enormous amount of coffee he drank, and Piper had slumped forward and fell asleep on her arms some time ago. Leo, however, somehow managed to maintain his ridiculously high energy levels, which struck Jason as a little concerning. Did he ever sleep?

“Okay,” he was saying now, his fingers flitting frantically over the keyboard, “what if I shifted this quote down here, and I could add something up here about the chemical bonding process?”

Jason shook his head to wake himself up. It didn’t work. “Uh, yeah, if you’ve got more to say about…about uh, chemical bonding, I say go for it, man.”

He looked over at Piper. One of her arms was extended across the table in front of her, and the other was bent next to it. Her head rested on them at an angle that didn’t look comfortable to Jason, but either didn’t bother Piper or the discomfort was outweighed by her exhaustion. Her hair was a mess, thrown across her shoulders and sticking to her face. Jason’s fingers twitched on the table, wanting to brush it back.

Even when she was messy and undone and practically drooling onto her oversized flannel, Piper still made Jason’s heart skip a beat. It wasn’t that she was traditionally beautiful at all times (because that was just unrealistic), but she was her own kind of beautiful, and it was the most breathtaking kind Jason had ever seen.

He must have been staring, because Leo nudged his shoulder and shot him a knowing grin that heated Jason’s cheeks. “I’ve got this covered here, if you wanna take Piper to bed.”

Jason’s face went full red at that. “What? I-I wouldn’t—she’s, I mean that’s not really—”

And then Leo was laughing, laughing way too loudly for four in the morning. “Relax, Grace, I just meant take her back to our place. This is basically all written, but I’ll probably stay a couple more hours to finish editing and then print it and turn it in while I’m up, so I’m not gonna be able to take her back. And I don’t…I don’t like her walking alone at night, even if she says she can,” he added quietly, suddenly more serious. Jason nodded in agreement. The idea of Piper going out alone at night on a college campus made his stomach turn. He knew how a lot of guys their age could be and wouldn’t put it past them to try something, as horrible as that was.

And the thought of one of them trying something with Piper made him want to punch someone’s teeth out.

“You sure you’re okay here?” he asked. “I can stay if you need more help.”

Leo shook his head. “I’m good now. But listen…thanks. I know this isn’t your ideal Saturday night, so, um, thank you.” He kept his gaze down, fiddling with his fingers like he always did, but this time it seemed more…agitated?

Nervous, Jason realized.

He gripped Leo’s shoulder tightly until the other boy met his gaze. “Remember what Piper said about us being a team? That includes me now, and I’ve always got your back, Leo.”

A grin lit up Leo’s face, and he shoved the hand off his shoulder playfully. “Welcome to Team Valdez and the Crew, then!”

“That name needs a little work.”

“What are you talking about? It’s perfect!”

“I somehow doubt Piper signed off on it, and I may be late to the game but I know I hold some kind of veto power.”

“Fine, we can workshop it. Later. Right now you need to get the beauty queen home, because if she stays like that any longer I’m pretty sure her arm is gonna lose blood flow.”

Jason chuckled and moved to Piper, trying to gently wake her. It took a few tries—wow, she was a deep sleeper—but eventually she stirred.

“Hmm? Jason?” Her eyes blinked in the fluorescent lights of the library, and closed again.

“Yeah, Pipes, it’s me,” he reassured quietly. “Come on, let’s get your coat on.”

“Coat?”

“Yep, I’m gonna get you home.”

“Oh. ‘S cold outside.” Jason had to keep himself from laughing at her slurred words. Half awake was as good as he was going to get, he supposed, but damn, it was too adorable for him to mind.

“Yep, that’s what the coat’s for.”

“Where’s—” she yawned dramatically— “where’s m’purse?”

“On your shoulder.”

“…oh. Hmm.”

Piper’s eyes were barely open, and he honestly didn’t trust her to not walk into a wall or something, so Jason hesitantly wrapped his arm behind her waist, gripping her hip to keep her pressed to his side. She immediately nuzzled into the crook of his shoulder and sighed, and Jason’s brain sort of broke for a moment. He stared down at the top of her head, his heart pounding.

That doesn’t mean anything, he told himself. Pull it together, man. She’s basically asleep. She doesn’t know what she’s doing.

So he shook his head in an attempt to clear it and started to steer her to the exit.

“Grace!”

Jason turned back a little to half face Leo. “Yeah?”

“Be careful with her. She’s more fragile than she looks.” The normal teasing lilt to his voice was there, but his eyes were serious, piercing into his own with purpose.

Jason nodded solemnly. He knew Leo meant more than just to be careful tonight, though he wasn’t sure exactly what he intended beyond that. What Jason did know is that he would never hurt Piper.

Besides, his own heart seemed much more at risk than hers.

—

Jason was living in a dorm this year and didn’t have a car, but luckily Piper and Leo’s apartment was only a short walk from campus. Plus, the longer they walked, the longer Piper was wrapped up in his arm, pressed against his side and nuzzling into him like a kitten.

By the time they reached her apartment building, the chill and the walk had woken Piper up some, and she was a bit more conscious of what was going on, but Jason noted giddily that she made no attempt to move away from him. In fact, she may have even pushed closer, but that could have been his imagination. Besides, it was probably just because it was below freezing and she wasn’t completely awake.

(He really didn’t mind.)

Finally he had to release her so she could kick off her shoes and shrug her coat off and fall into bed. He felt colder without her, and almost…hollow, like something was missing where she had been? But that was just silly. They were just friends, and he was fine with that. He had to be.

“Okay, well if you’re good I’m gonna—” he gestured towards her door, starting to leave, but her soft voice calling his name stopped him in his tracks.

“Just crash here,” she said sleepily, her eyes barely open. “It’s late.”

“Only if you don’t mind,” he said, but he was praying she would insist because it was freezing, and his dorm was on the other side of campus, and he was almost as exhausted as she was.

“‘Course not.” She yawned again, and her eyes drifted shut. “C’mere.”

Jason blinked, confused. “Um, I’ll just sleep on the couch, Pipes,” he tried to explain, but even in her mostly-asleep state she was pushy.

“Couch is lumpy and I want you to stay here,” she insisted, though her slurred words made her a little less intimidating than usual.

Still, Jason hesitated. She was so tired she was practically drunk, she could not be thinking straight. She’d probably wake up tomorrow and wonder what was wrong with him that he didn’t ignore her.

“C’mon, Sparky, I’m cold,” she pleaded, and when he glanced back at her, her eyes were open and clear. “Please?”

As Jason toed off his sneakers, draped his coat over her desk chair, set his glasses carefully aside, and crawled into bed beside her, he was cursing himself for being so weak for this woman. He knew he’d regret it tomorrow, but, well…he just couldn’t say no to her.

—

Piper woke suddenly. She sat up and glanced around blearily, trying to find what had woken her up. Her eyes landed on her clock. It was 7:28 on a Sunday morning, why the hell—

A noise came from beside her, a kind of strangled yelp, and she jumped. Jason was lying in her bed—Jason was lying in her bed, oh, God—Jason was lying in her bed—and he was shaking, a thin sheen of sweat glistening on his frowning forehead. His chest was heaving, and Piper realized with a clench of her heart that he was having a nightmare.

She placed a hand on his chest, feeling his erratic heartbeat beneath her fingers. Then she shook him gently, trying to wake him up.

“Jason,” she whispered, repeating it louder when he didn’t stir.

Suddenly he jolted awake, gasping, his eyes glancing about the room frantically before landing on her face and softening.

“Piper?” he croaked.

“Yeah, Jason, it’s me,” she answered softly, unthinkingly combing his hair back from his forehead. He leaned into her touch and her heart nearly stopped. What was she doing? It had been stupid of her to ask him to stay; he would’ve been fine on the couch.

He seemed to notice something was off, and he coughed awkwardly as he sat up. “I should go,” he muttered, not meeting her eyes. “I-I shouldn’t have stayed, I’m sorry, you were basically asleep, you—”

“I asked you to stay, and I meant it,” she insisted. It was the truth, even if she was kicking herself now for practically forcing herself on him. He paused and wiped the sweat from his brow. Together, they waited in silence for something Piper couldn’t name.

“What was it about?” she asked hesitantly. Her voice was small and cautious. “The dream.”

Jason’s head lifted and their eyes met, sparks lighting up Piper’s spine. Her nickname for him was more accurate than he realized.

But he hesitated, and Piper rushed to add, “If you don’t wanna talk about it that’s fine, I shouldn’t have pried, I just thought maybe—”

“My mom,” he answered quietly. “My real mom. She—well, she was an alcoholic, so Thalia and I got taken away from her when I was really little. I barely remember her, just bits of memories here and there. I was only two, so...I found out later my dad is some politician, barely even knew we existed, and his wife hated us so she made sure they didn’t have to take us. We were put into foster care, different families. Took us years to find each other again.”

His gaze hadn’t wavered from hers, and Piper could see the pain in his eyes. She hadn’t meant to make him relive something that hurt so much, she hadn’t realized.

“Jason,” she breathed, her hand finding his. He gripped it hard.

“She died,” he said, his eyes finally dropping from hers to settle on their hands. “Went sort of crazy and drank herself to death a couple years after we were taken away. I only found out years later, when Thalia told me. I never…I didn’t get to see her again.”

His hand was shaking in hers, so Piper squeezed harder. Minutes ticked by in silence, and she wasn’t sure how else to comfort him. There was nothing she could think to say to make him feel better, and it didn’t feel right to try to brush past what he’d just admitted to her. He’d opened up a huge part of himself to her.

Maybe that called for her to do the same.

“I never knew my mom,” she said finally. Jason glanced up at her earnestly, questioningly. She took a shaky breath and continued, “My dad’s a movie star and all so I guess it could be pretty much anyone, but he never talks about her and shuts down when I ask, so I gave up on trying a long time ago. He was never really around either though, with his film schedule and press stuff. He tried, for a while anyway, when I was little. He used to come home more often and take me to the beach, but I was always a difficult kid and pretty soon it was visits for a day every couple weeks when he could make the time to fly out and see me. Pretty sure he didn’t even want a kid, but he was stuck with me.”

Jason was watching her, studying her face openly, but she couldn’t meet his gaze. Instead she focused on their entwined hands, as he had done. Her fingers played with his as she talked, and she took comfort in the fact that he let her.

“Anyway, Leo and I met in middle school and he got me through it. His mom was really sweet to me, way nicer than the nanny my dad hired to watch me most of the time. That’s around the time I…I started acting out? You know, doing stupid stuff to get my dad to pay attention to me, even if it was just to scold me or whatever. Leo was happy to help, and after his mom died and he got stuck with his awful relatives it just got worse, and we probably spent most of our time in detention. It wasn’t enough for me, though, and it kept escalating, and I—I was in a really bad place, but my sophomore year I got caught shoplifting some clothes.”

She paused to look up at him, expecting to see judgement written across his face, but she found only the same earnest expression as before.

“It was dumb, and my dad’s lawyers got me off without anything on my record somehow, but I finally got my dad’s full attention. He flew all the way home just to chew me out.” She laughed a little at the absurdity. “It was really bad, and the next week I was at wilderness school, which was like this boarding school for troubled kids out in the middle of some bumblefuck Nevada desert.”

“Shit, Piper,” Jason said, “I’m sorry.”

Piper waved him off. “Please, even the racial slurs those kids threw at me is nothing compared to what you just told me, and Leo acted up enough to end up out there with me, so it wasn’t the end of the world. I just thought I should be honest.”

Jason frowned. “You don’t owe me anything. I told you that stuff because I wanted to, Pipes. I trust you.”

“I know. I trust you too,” she answered, squeezing his hand. “So now that we’ve agreed that parents are shitty, wanna go back to sleep for a few hours?” She forced a smile and hoped he would miss the tension behind it.

He studied her a moment longer, but finally relented with a nod. Together they lay back down in Piper’s bed and drifted back into sleep.

Piper smiled to herself at the realization that they were still holding hands.

—

The second time Jason woke that morning was not to Piper’s voice calling him out of a nightmare, but to her hair in his mouth and Leo’s loud laughter, which was somewhat less pleasant.

Apparently they had shifted over the last few hours so they were no longer holding hands; rather, Piper was stretched out face down on top of him, one leg slung over his hips and her head nestled on his chest, hence the aforementioned hair in his mouth. Jason had instinctually wrapped his arms around her, and he thanked every deity he could think of that there was no morning…issue to deal with. The situation was embarrassing enough without it.

He stared down at her as she came to, blinking confusedly in the morning light before meeting his eyes. She seemed to realize where she was then and shot up, Jason’s arms jerking back immediately.

Leo laughed again from the doorway, wiping tears from his eyes. “Jason, man, I told you I didn’t mean it literally when I said take her to bed!” he was giggling, and Jason felt his face flush brightly.

He was gonna kill him.

“Leo, get out of my room before I murder you,” Piper snapped from behind her hands covering her face.

Never mind, Piper had it handled.

Leo did as she asked, but not before blowing them each a kiss and winking at Jason.

The pause that followed was tense, unsurprisingly.

“Piper,” he started, but she interrupted him.

“I’m sorry, I was asleep so obviously I didn’t really know what I was doing,” she rushed, sliding out of bed and hurrying around her room, searching the clutter until she found a hair tie to braid her hair back with as she talked. “I wouldn’t have—I mean, I shouldn’t have made you stay. Sorry.”

Jason grit his teeth. There was the rejection he’d been anticipating since last night. It hurt more than he'd expected, but it was his own fault. He'd known the risks. He should’ve just slept on the couch. He should’ve kept quiet about his mom. He should’ve stopped her, told her he wasn’t trying to pressure her into talking, into anything.

He should’ve known better.

“No, I’m sorry,” he muttered, trying to mask the hurt on his face and bending to put his shoes on. “I appreciate you letting me stay. I’m gonna head out.”

She may have nodded, or maybe she didn’t answer, or maybe she watched him go. He wasn’t sure, he walked out and didn’t look back.

—

Piper didn’t hear from him for the next several days, and kicked herself every time she checked her phone hoping to see a message from him. Of course he isn’t gonna text you, she chided, you basically told him you regretted letting him stay over right after he poured his heart out to you, and you were cuddling with him when he woke up. You’ll be lucky if he talks to you again.

So Piper went to Annabeth, the only person she’d actually told about her feelings for Jason, unsure of what exactly she was hoping for.

What she got was a frown over the carton of ice cream they were sharing.

“You’re taking all the cookie dough chunks,” Annabeth complained.

“No I’m not. Focus on the real issue here!”

“The issue of you not telling Jason how you feel? Because that’s the real issue.”

Piper rolled her eyes; they’d had this exact conversation about a million times already. “There’s no reason to ruin the friendship we’ve got because my stupid feelings got in the way.”

“You seem to think you’ve already ruined it,” Annabeth pointed out, nudging Piper’s spoon away from another chunk of cookie dough.

“It’s been three days, what am I supposed to think?”

“Maybe he got busy?” Annabeth suggested. “Maybe his phone got broken or lost, maybe he thought you didn’t want to hear from him. Have you tried texting him?”

Piper bit her lip and focused very hard on getting a decent spoonful of ice cream.

“You haven’t even tried texting him. Of course not. Piper, I thought you were good with guys!”

“I am!” she insisted. “Guys that I wanna sleep with and then never see again, or that I want to flirt with and not have to worry about their feelings. But Jason is all perfect and handsome and sweet and suddenly my brain feels like it’s been zapped by lightning.”

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. “Well he probably thinks you don’t want to hear from him and is agonizing over why you haven’t texted him.”

Piper perked up a little at that. “You think so?”

“I don’t know, Percy said he was really off Monday but seems mostly fine now, just distracted. Sounds like it could have something to do with why he hasn’t said anything.”

Piper chewed on her lower lip, mulling the possibilities over. Either he was distracted by what had happened Sunday—though she hoped that wasn’t the case—or something else had happened and that was keeping him preoccupied. She just had to figure out what was bothering him, and then maybe things could go back to normal.

“So you think I should text him?”

Annabeth sighed. “Honestly? I think you should both wake up and realize you’re obviously head over heels for each other. But since neither of you is going to admit it apparently, yes, I think you should text him before it gets weird.”

Piper grinned and snagged a hunk of dough before pulling out her phone.

hey, she typed. Very eloquent. Definitely summed up the “please talk to me I’m really sorry and I miss you also I might be falling in love with you” sentiment she was going for.

But, having nothing else she could think to say, Piper pressed send and waited.

She didn’t have to wait long. Less than a minute later, her phone buzzed with an answering, Hey!! from him. Piper grinned, just as another message followed: What’s up?

“He answer?” Annabeth asked around the spoon in her mouth.

Piper nodded as her fingers flew across the keyboard. just haven’t heard from you in a few days, everything ok?

Yeah everything is fine, I’ve just been busy. he answered. Piper smiled at his perfect grammar. She’d tried to explain to him once that he didn’t need to worry about that with her, but he’d furrowed his brow and asked why she wouldn’t want the same consideration he gave to everyone else. She’d laughed at his seriousness and let the issue drop. She glanced down when her phone buzzed again. Are you still in need of a study buddy?

Only if it’s you, she shot back. It was a little risky, but she figured it was just a casual friendly remark. No hidden truths to be found anywhere.

Her anxiety mounted a little when the three dots showed up at the bottom of the screen and then disappeared. Was that the wrong thing to say? Had that sent her crashing through the thin ice she’d been standing on with him and right into hot water?

But no, his answer was simply, Tomorrow, 7 PM at the library? and she breathed a sigh of relief.

make it the coffee shop and you’ve got a deal

Sounds good. See you then.

Piper grinned giddily down at the screen. Everything was okay, and their friendship was intact.

She looked up to see Annabeth smirking at her from the other side of the couch.

“Shut up,” Piper muttered. Annabeth only shrugged and returned to the ice cream.

—

The “study date”, as Percy and Leo insisted on calling it, went smoothly, much to Jason’s relief. He’d panicked after not hearing from Piper for so long, thinking that either his storming out or the waking up cuddling incident had upset her, so getting a text from her was a huge weight off his shoulders. He focused on everything, including baseball, a little better when he was on good terms with her. It was dangerous, he knew; he couldn’t afford to let every disagreement with a girl he’d only known a few months throw him off his game, but he couldn’t exactly help it. He’d just have to settle for keeping her happy. (Luckily for him, keeping Piper happy was becoming a top priority at an alarming rate. Or…perhaps that was unluckily.)

Things had just about returned to normal between the two of them, and they hung like nothing had changed. Which, Jason reminded himself, was true. Nothing had changed. He just knew for certain that she wasn’t interested in him the way he wanted her to be. But he’d known that before. So.

Jason was just reflecting on this when Leo caught up to him, leaving the locker room after the last practice of the semester.

“You missed an easy shot at the end there, you sure you don’t need a little more practice?”

Jason raised an eyebrow at him. “What’s your average again?”

“Point taken. When are you headed home?”

“I’ve got one more final tomorrow and then I’m out. What about you?”

Leo looked down, his fingers tapping out an agitated rhythm on the shoulder strap of his bag. “I’m staying here, actually. Lotta money to fly to Houston, and I’ve got lots of stuff to work on here, so.” He shrugged.

“You’re from Houston?” Jason frowned. “I thought you and Piper went to school together.”

“We did. Piper lived at her dad’s little ranch house thing even while he was filming, supposedly so she didn’t ‘get sucked into the Hollywood stuff.’ Really it was because he didn’t want to deal with her.” Suddenly Leo glanced at him, eyes wide. “Shit, don’t tell her I said anything, yeah? I probably shouldn’t have told you that.”

Jason waved him off. “I won’t, but it’s fine, she already told me about her dad.”

This seemed to interest Leo. “She did?” A small smile appeared on his face at Jason’s nod, which seemed…odd, for such a serious subject. “Anyway yeah, we knew each other in Texas before we both got banished to the desert.”

“So she’s going home to Texas?”

“Nah, her dad sold the property as soon as she went to college. He didn’t use it, so no point in keeping it if you don’t need somewhere to stash a kid, I guess.” Leo’s tone was bitter, and Jason got the impression Leo felt about the same way toward Tristan McLean as his daughter did. “Besides, Piper’s only going to L.A. for Christmas because she has to, and then she’ll be back. We spend every New Year’s together. It’s tradition.”

“You’re lucky,” Jason commented drily, “my foster mom is great and all, but she’s a little…I don’t know, militant? Makes holidays kind of stressful.”

Leo grabbed his shoulders and pulled him so they were facing each other in the middle of the sidewalk. “Come back for New Year’s.”

“What?”

“I’m serious, you can stay in the apartment until the spring semester starts. You’ll still have Christmas with your mom, but you can have a little fun with us for the new year!”

Jason frowned, thinking it over. “I don’t know, Leo…”

“Piper will be there, too.” Leo wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, and Jason blushed.

“Are you sure she wouldn’t mind me staying for a couple weeks?”

Leo snorted and released his shoulders so they could walk again. “Please, Piper would love having you there.”

Jason started to ask what that meant, but before he could, Leo slapped him on the back.

“Great! Glad that’s settled. You’re gonna see Piper before you leave, right?”

“Um, I was planning on it, but Leo—”

“Smart man. Have a good break! See you at the end of the month!”

And then Leo was gone, leaving Jason with plans for the holidays and several questions.

—

“He what?”

Jason winced. He knew he shouldn’t have agreed without asking Piper first, but then again, Leo hadn’t left much room for debate.

“Yeah,” he answered once he’d swallowed the bite of pizza he’d been working on. “He kind of insisted, so now I guess I’m spending New Year's and the following couple weeks with you guys? I mean, if that’s okay with you. I can always tell him no,” he added, watching her chew her lip and resisting the urge to reach over and soothe it with his thumb.

“No!” she yelped, and immediately blushed. Probably remembering what had happened the last time he’d stayed with her, he figured. This plan was seeming worse with every passing minute. “It’s fine,” she amended more quietly, “I just wasn’t expecting it.”

“I’ll be sleeping on the couch, obviously,” he said with a dry smile. He’d hoped to reassure her, but her face seemed to fall, almost like…disappointment? But that didn’t seem right, unless she really didn’t want him there.

Her expression shifted almost immediately to one of excitement, though, and he didn’t have time to overthink anymore. “Right. It’ll be fun!” she was saying. “You can join in all our New Year’s Eve traditions, like drinking.”

Jason waited a moment for her to continue. She didn’t. “Oh, I thought you were listing things.”

Piper nodded, taking a sip of her soda. “I was.”

“So…?”

“That was the whole list.”

Jason laughed. “Of course. Well, it’s more traditions than I’ve got, so I’d be happy to join in.”

Piper’s answering smile lit up her whole face, and Jason had to swallow hard to keep his heart from jumping into his mouth. She was so beautiful it was just unfair.

—

As soon as Piper walked into their apartment on December 29th, she felt at ease again. Her Christmas had been stressful—which is completely unfair, by the way, it’s Christmas—because yeah, he was her dad, and he was trying and she got that, really she did, but she always felt a little on edge around him because, frankly, they didn’t know each other very well. It was easy for constant filming to get in the way of visiting your kid when you didn’t really want it in the first place.

So coming back to Leo, who always wanted her around and never made her feel awkward in the slightest, was an enormous relief.

“Hey, Beauty Queen, how’s it hanging?” he called from the kitchen.

“I’m sorry,” she laughed, “but I don’t think anyone has used the phrase ‘how’s it hanging’ since, like, the seventies.”

Leo only shrugged, abandoning his bowl of cereal to grab her suitcase and carry it to her room. “I’m bringing it back. The seventies had some great trends.”

“Such as?”

“Well, for starters, I could rock a pair of bell bottomed pants and one of those shiny disco shirts.”

Piper laughed and wrapped him in a tight hug, which he returned enthusiastically. “I missed you, Valdez.”

“Don’t be such a sap. You were gone for like a week and a half.”

“I know, don’t remind me.”

“That bad, huh?” He pulled back to examine her face. “You guys fight?”

Piper shook her head and started unpacking. “I’m just always on edge when I’m there. I hate L.A.”

Leo nodded in solidarity. “Wanna order pizza?”

“Obviously.”

Leo grinned and pulled out his phone.

—

As soon as Jason walked through the door on December 31st, he was treated to the sight of Piper wearing a blue bra, a beanie, jeans, and a single sock. It was in interesting look, but Leo was enough to distract him in socks, boxer shorts, a glove, and a top hat.

Jason was more than a little confused, but had the presence of mind to be grateful that Leo’s outfit was weird enough to take his attention from Piper in just a bra. That thought had the unfortunate effect, however, of directing his attention right back to her though, because Piper was in just a bra and Jason’s brain was sort of short circuiting because holy shit Piper was in just a bra.

(And the pants or whatever, but who could be bothered to look that low when Piper. Was. In. Just. A. Bra.)

Focus on something else, he told himself. Don’t be a creep. That’s super weird and predator-y and you’re not even dating. Yes, Leo’s top hat. Stare at that. Just focus on the top hat. He mentally patted himself on the back for pulling that off.

“Hey,” Leo and Piper called in unison, not even glancing up from the cards in their hands.

“Um, hey,” he answered, pausing to allow one of them to jump in and explain just what exactly was happening. Neither did. “What’s, uh…what’s going on?”

“Strip or sip poker,” Leo answered, laying a card down with incredible focus.

“Sorry?”

“It’s like strip poker, but you have the option of taking a drink instead of losing an article of clothing,” Piper explained, finally looking up at him. “It’s, um…”

Jason could swear her cheeks got redder when their eyes met; he knew his certainly did. Her loss of words made him feel a little better about his own at her state of undress as well.

“It’s our New Year’s Eve tradition,” she finished finally, looking back down at her cards. “Shit, Leo!”

Leo laughed triumphantly at whatever had just happened in the game.

“I thought your tradition was just drinking,” Jason commented, removing his coat and wheeling his suitcase farther into the living room.

“Didn’t you hear the drinking part of the rules?” Leo asked, grinning up at him from his seat on the floor. “Come on, I’ll deal you in as soon as this round’s over, which should be soon with the way Piper’s playing.”

Piper flashed her middle finger at him.

“You guys don’t think it’s weird that you play strip poker together every year?” Jason asked, running a hand through his hair.

“Why would it be weird?” Leo asked.

“You’re playing a game favored by couples and horny groups of teenagers because the purpose is to get naked.’’

“The purpose is to have fun and get drunk,” Piper countered. “Besides, we only strip until we reach our underwear. Then you have to forfeit or chug your drink.”

“I don’t know if I can keep up with these rules,” Jason laughed.

“Well you’re gonna have to learn quick,” she said, smirking. “Hurry up, Grace, it’s only two hours ’til midnight and I’m not even tipsy!"

“Alright, alright, but someone’s gonna have to explain how poker works because I haven’t played it in years.”

Leo and Piper groaned in unison, and Jason grinned as he took a seat where they’d left room for him beside the table. It was good to be back, even if he knew he was about to end up either drunk or naked very quickly.

—

As it turned out, it was a combination of the two.

By the time 11:59 rolled around, Piper had lost her beanie and her other sock, Leo was down to his boxers and top hat, and Jason was left with just his underwear (purple briefs, one of his nicer pairs which he was now thanking himself from this morning for picking out) because, as he’d expected, he lost horribly. He wasn’t nearly as drunk as the other two, however, as he’d had more items of clothing to lose and had to drink less to keep up.

He was exceedingly thankful for that as well, because he had no idea what drunk Jason would say to a half naked Piper and he certainly didn’t want to find out.

There were 60 seconds until midnight, and Leo was trying to get the other two to come out on the fire escape with him, insisting it was the best spot to watch the fireworks. Piper was laughing, definitely drunk but lucid enough to know it was way too cold for that. Jason was insisting Leo get back inside, that it was below freezing and Leo was going to catch a cold out there in just his underwear.

(Leo countered this by explaining he was also wearing a hat.)

There were 45 seconds until midnight, and Leo was attempting to translate Auld Lang Syne into Spanish. Piper was singing the English lyrics, since she didn’t know much Spanish to begin with and translating that was just too difficult. Jason was listening to Piper sing, because she had the most beautiful voice he’d ever heard, which was unfair because everything else about her was beautiful too, and it was keeping him rooted in place, just staring at her.

(Piper caught his eye more than once and her skin took on a pretty deep pink tinge, but Jason figured it was probably just the alcohol.)

There were 15 seconds until midnight, and Leo was beginning to count down, watching his phone to keep track of the seconds as they disappeared into the ether. Piper was warning him to be careful, that he was too drunk to be waving his phone around out there, that he was going to drop it. Jason was watching her inch closer to him, each second vanishing along with an inch of space between them until she was pressed fully to his side and his heart rate was skyrocketing.

(Jason was pressing closer to her too, he realized.)

Three, Leo was shouting over the railing.

Two, Piper was looking up at him expectantly through her eyelashes.

One, Jason panicked.

“Happy New Year!” the three of them yelled together, and Jason bent down, and Piper’s eyes fluttered shut, and he pressed his lips to her cheek, softly, so softly.

He pulled back to see Piper frown, looking almost disappointed. Maybe he wasn’t misreading signals then, maybe Piper really did want him to kiss her, and he’d majorly screwed up. But he wouldn’t let their first (and maybe last, if he really was just tipsy and she wasn’t into him at all) kiss be a drunken fumbling one for the sake of the holiday with Leo jumping around in his underwear. His brain was cloudy and he wanted so badly to press Piper up against a wall and hear her sigh his name, but he knew that she deserved better than anything that would happen tonight.

So together, shivering, they pulled Leo back inside and, after a bit of celebrating and watching whatever fireworks they could see, pushed him in the direction of his room. They all needed to get some sleep.

Jason found himself standing with Piper outside her bedroom door, which was across from Leo’s. She was studying his face, and had the same look in her eyes she’d had at midnight. It had Jason’s breath quickening, and his hands ached to brush her hair behind her ear or find her waist and pull her against him.

“What’s your resolution?” Piper asked, catching him off guard. Her words were only the slightest bit slurred, and her eyes were bright, the color seeming to change in the dim light.

“Haven’t really thought about it,” he answered truthfully.

Piper nodded solemnly, eyes still locked on his. Her voice was gentle, and soothed him even as the heat passing between them riled him up. “Wanna know mine?”

Jason nodded.

“It’s to go after the things I want,” she said, just a whisper, nearly drowned out by the sounds of partying and fireworks from outside.

“I like it,” Jason said. “Does it apply to anything in particular?”

Piper smiled coyly, and Jason couldn’t quite catch his breath. “Mm hm. But I think what I want can wait for another night, when I’m a little more sober.”

Unable to formulate a response to that, Jason nodded mutely again.

She turned and opened her bedroom door. “Goodnight, Sparky.”

“Happy New Year, Pipes.”

Her eyes sparkled at him, and then the door shut and he was left alone in the hallway.

—

Piper spent the first half of the next day hungover and hoping she wasn’t as obvious last night as she thought she’d been, and the second half regretting ever having made that ridiculous resolution because Jason fit so well with her and Leo and she really wasn’t looking forward to the awkwardness that would surely follow his rejection of her, but there was always a chance the heat in his eyes and the tenderness of his kiss last night hadn’t been a drunken hallucination, and besides, Piper had committed to going after what she wanted. What she wanted was him, and every time she thought about backing out she reminded herself that mama didn’t raise no bitch.

(You know, metaphorically, because she had no idea who her mother was and her father certainly didn’t raise her and the nanny didn’t put in much effort, so really it was more like…Piper didn’t raise herself to be no bitch. But that was too complicated, so she stuck with the original phrase.)

Actually telling Jason how she felt was a little more challenging with Leo hanging about—yeah, he lived there, but that was hardly an excuse—so before she knew it they were going to bed and she was lying awake, and then sneaking past a sleeping Jason to sit out on the fire escape, bundled in a hoodie and a blanket.

It was freezing, but the cold air helped her think, so she didn’t mind it too much. It was still pretty early for her, only a quarter past midnight, but the stars blinking down at her made it feel later than it was. A car honked in the distance. Someone in another building was blasting music.

“Jeez, Pipes, it’s freezing out here.”

And then Jason was sitting next to her, and it didn’t feel quite as cold as it had before.

She unwrapped one side of the blanket and held it open for him, letting him scoot closer and wrap the blanket around himself.

“It’s a good system,” she said, looking back up at the stars. “We can share a blanket and body heat.”

She hoped he couldn’t feel her heart pounding.

They sat in silence for what felt like hours, just drinking in each other’s presence and watching their breath turn to steam in the air, curling and entwining before vanishing into the night. Finally, it was Jason who broke the spell.

“Piper?”

Just her name, but it was enough to knock the wind out of her. “Yeah?”

“How drunk were you last night?”

She kept her eyes on the sky above them. “Not drunk enough to say anything I didn’t mean.”

He was silent then, but she could feel his eyes on the side of her face, watching her. She wondered what he saw.

“Piper?” he asked again.

“Yeah?”

“I came up with a resolution.”

She turned to look at him, and suddenly his lips were pressed to hers and the blanket was sliding down because his hands were on her waist, hot even through her hoodie, pulling her closer and closer and closer and somehow it still wasn’t enough, so Piper pressed back, one hand bunched in his shirt and the other finding his cheek. She needed air so desperately but she couldn’t pull back, not when his tongue was sliding against hers and she finally felt like she could breathe, and her hand slid up to wrap his hair around her fingers like she’d always wanted to.

She was practically in his lap now, nipping at the little scar on his lip, and she still didn’t know where he’d gotten it but she didn’t really care at the moment. His hands slid up, one around her back to hold her against his front and the other to her hair where it tugged on her braid, making her moan into his mouth. He must’ve liked that because he kissed her harder and his tongue dipped deeper and Piper had just about lost all presence of mind when she suddenly put her hands on his chest and shoved herself back.

She stared at him, panting, and he stared at her right back with his cheeks flushed gorgeously and his eyes wide. He opened his mouth and she knew he was about to apologize, he was going to think she stopped him because she didn’t want him to kiss her, and of course that couldn’t be farther from the truth, so—

“Jason Grace, how dare you have the audacity to kiss me,” she took a brief pause to catch her breath, not long enough for him to start to apologize but enough to scare him a little (she couldn’t resist messing with him just a tiny bit when he looked so adorably shocked), “when you knew it was my resolution to go after what I want, which is obviously you!”

Jason’s mouth opened and closed several times, but no sound came out. He blinked and frowned, and, “Um…what?”

“I was going to make the first move,” she sniffed. “I’d made a resolution and worked up the balls and even had a speech prepared. And backup speeches for different scenarios! I can’t believe you just ruined all those plans.”

Jason blinked several times, but a shadow of a smile had appeared on his face. “I’m sorry, I had no idea.”

“I basically told you last night.”

“I didn’t realize you were preparing speeches, though. I figured I’d save you the trouble with a resolution of my own.”

“You stole my resolution, too. Who’s committing plagiarism now?”

“Not true. Your resolution was to go after what you want. Mine was much simpler.”

“Oh yeah?” she challenged, picking up the fallen blanket to ward off the chill seeping back through her clothes. “What was it?”

“‘Kiss Piper.’”

She brushed back a piece of hair that had come loose from her braid—probably when Jason’s hand had tangled in it and pulled, she realized, the memory causing heat to pool low in her belly—to cover her smile. “Well that’s just…boring. Where’s the pizzazz?”

When she turned to look at him again, his face was much closer than it had been, his warm breath ghosting over her lips in a way that made them tingle deliciously. “I thought there was plenty of pizzazz. You need a refresher?” he teased.

Piper sucked in a breath. She had been far less prepared for confident, sexy, teasing, ready-to-kiss-her-stupid Jason than she’d thought, and it might just kill her. Trying to regain some control of the situation, she raised an eyebrow and said, “It still doesn’t make up for all the work I put in. Now I’ll never get to fulfill my New Year’s Resolution. I’m a failure.”

“Would it make you feel better to give me one of the speeches you prepared?”

“No, I don’t have one for this scenario.”

“You prepared for multiple scenarios but none of them included me kissing you?”

“I thought it would be at least another month before you made a move on me, Sparky, so no.”

“That stings.”

Piper laughed and nuzzled her nose against his, her eyes fluttering shut for a moment. “Can you blame me?”

“No,” he sighed, “I’m still pretty amazed I got it together long enough to kiss you. I’m sorry you didn’t get to give your speeches, though. You sure you can’t tell me one anyway?”

“I’m afraid that’s impossible, you’ll never know what I was going to say.”

Jason laughed. “You are a cruel woman, Piper McLean.”

She just shrugged, a smirk spreading across her face. “That’s what you get for stealing my moment.”

“How about I make it up to you?” His eyes were dark now, his nose brushing along hers and his voice deep. Piper shivered, and it wasn’t from the January air.

“I think we can work something out,” she whispered, and their mouths met in the middle as they reached for each other.

—

The first game of the season, Jason was third up to bat, and he was nervous as hell.

It was normal, especially for him. His nerves would decrease as the game went on, but that didn’t stop the shaking of his hands as he stepped up to the plate and took a couple warm up swings.

The first pitch veered to the left, just out of the strike zone.

The second was a fastball, and he was half a second too late.

He adjusted the straps on his gloves and tried to steady his breathing. This is normal, he told himself. You just need to pull it together and get your head in the game.

Great. Now I’m quoting High School Musical.

This, naturally, got I Don’t Dance stuck in his head, which wouldn’t even be an issue if Piper hadn’t made him watch the movies last week and sung that song at him constantly. (Not that he really minded; Piper’s singing voice was one of his favorite things in the world to listen to, even when accompanied by cheesy choreography.)

He glanced at the stands to his left, where he knew she was sitting with Annabeth, Grover, Hazel, and Percy’s family. He found her quickly, and she waved. His heart rate slowed, and the haze in his brain seemed to clear as he stepped back to the plate.

It probably wasn’t great to rely on her to keep him relaxed at bat. If they broke up, or fought, or even if she just missed seeing him play, he couldn’t afford to be off his game. He’d never had an issue working through his nerves before; he was sure he could do it without her, but it was so much easier to take one look at her and feel himself relax.

When he hit the ball way out to left field and made it to first with plenty of time to spare, he figured he didn’t mind relying on Piper so much. Watching her jump up and down, cheering in the stands, he got the feeling she wasn’t going anywhere.

#here it is #finally #jasiper #baseball au #otp: if i fall you're catching me #jason grace #piper mclean #fanfic #my writing #pjo #hoo

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whoslaurapalmer · 6 years

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hot takes on ihoso, rife with spoilers, this is a lot of words

in general (a little less spoilery?)

-to me, I think the book is the most fun when it tries to function like the unauthorized autobiography – like, the page of the book about the paltryville fire, part of fernald’s job resume, the full article about the anwhistle aquatics fire, the stuff like that, I loved reading them and it reminded me so much of being like ten years old and reading unauto for the first time, it was a damn delight

-behind the scenes stuff was really interesting, and it was pretty much just, mostly, behind the scenes stuff, which just makes it weird combined with the parts that are more reminiscent of unauto

-but, good behind the scenes content.

-a lot more like, explicit s3 content than I was expecting. we really did pay for a trailer, didn’t we

-although it was kind of nice because I can sometimes hate reading information about things i’ve already seen, I almost missed one of the coded letters at the bottom of a page cause I was like ‘why the fuck do you want me to reread the timeline for an episode i’ve already fucking seen and know from the books?????’ so seeing new content was still………….nice, I guess

-i will give it this. the cover is very nice. book has a nice weight to it. like, you could probably kill a man with it.

notes I made while reading (incredibly spoilery)

-endlessly amused that nph has under his signature ‘actor and count olaf’s legal representative’ -like, what would that be like??????

- “ – and the show’s version of fiona widdershins echoes another morally ambiguous girl searching for her missing father (see: ellington feint, pg 89)” NO I DO NOT WANT TO SEE ELLINGTON FEINT, PG 89 but also I never…….considered fiona and ellington to be similar, but, I mean, I guess??? I mean actually yeah I can sort of see it

-awww booooooooo they cut out a mention of the word hangfire in the wide window

- “but he once had a selfless heroic side, and he feels very loving and protective towards the baudelaires. they’re all he has left in the world, these children that aren’t even his, and I think he wants to see them in a safe place.” patrick warburton you’re breaking my heart -oh he also got the tattoo!!!!! top notch bro

-WOW THE PIC OF LEMONY AND BEA IS JUST SMACK-DAB IN THE BEGINNING OF THE BOOK WITH ALL THE DEDICATIONS AROUND IT, artsy -although honestly I think from behind she looks more like jacquelyn but that could just be the black and white -also, there’s the wonder taxi again….

-oh, the full page of the paltryville fire book -i always give bea more of the inventing vibes than bertrand although he probably has them too (says a girl who once wrote a scene (and then scrapped it) where bertrand can’t figure out how a radiator works, but that’s neither here nor there) and the idea that he ‘repurposed a large cowbell, a hammer, and a ten-foot pole to create a makeshift fire alarm’ is a DELIGHT -and the lumbermill photo…. -wow larry is really credited as ‘mr. your-waiter’ - ‘not pictured: dr. orwell’s flamethrower’ good job

-aunt josephine’s ‘chance of survival’ is listed as ‘cloudy’ -aasif mandvi describes playing monty as “a little bit of a cross between a swashbuckler like errol flynn and gene wilder as willy wonka” and you know what???? that’s the most delightful thing i’ve heard in my whole life cause that’s on point

-OH I’M SORRY DID YOU JUST CONFIRM JACQUELYN AS R????? IS THAT WHAT I’M SEEING, PG 42??????????????? -that has honestly been my least favorite theory and I hate it with all my heart and you’ll never get me to accept jacquelyn as ramona, light of my life -also larry is listed as ‘last seen….missing!’ gustav is ‘last seen….DEAD’ which is just, hilarious, and…….yeah whatev re: jacquelyn -although this does make me no longer the only person out there shipping r/olivia considering all the jacquelyn/olivia stuff but i’m. still not happy about it. as previously expressed.

- “kit is a fearless volunteer, a trusted friend, and currently, a very pregnant woman” next to a picture of allison williams looking barely pregnant if at all -ALLISON WILLIAMS JUST SHOOTING OFF DETAILS ABOUT KIT’S OPENING SCENE LIKE WE’VE ALREADY SEEN SLIPPERY SLOPE YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO -although kit straight-up diving off a mountain while pregnant is still…….pretty kit - “leaping off a mountain may not be a typical activity for an expectant mother, but kit snicket pulls it off with bravery and style.” bravery? yes! style? no

me: hey mom can I ask you a question mom: sure me: would you say this picture of this woman looks very pregnant mom: yep me: you would???? I mean like she looks a little obviously pregnant but – mom: she does, but….maybe not very pregnant me: I didn’t think very pregnant. mom: i’d say she’s…….six months???? mom: six months. me: thank you for that assessment.

- “dashing and heroic, adventurous and charming” have never been words I have used to describe jacques snicket in my entire life, I have never cringed so hard before -in case anyone was wondering, i’ve based my entire characterization of jacques on basically one single line – “principal predicament: wondering if it’s the right time to step in”

- “while the book’s version of olivia is a veteran agent of dubious morality, the show reinvents her as a noble school librarian struggling against institutional corruption.” because apparently ‘veteran agent of dubious morality’ wasn’t good enough for you, I GUESS

-oh my they have the rhetorical building marked on the ‘admittedly stylish but how many eyes can you really incorporate into geography before lulu vandelay starts to think you’re overplaying this’ city map -also some of these streets are………..very tiny, but they’re all labeled (and named mostly after people involved in the production) but i’m gonna need like a goddamn magnifying glass for this, what the hell -or well there are numbered places on the side but besides the longitude/latitude markings there are, no numbers -but I am dying to know where they’re placing the grotto on this map wtf personally i just imagined........a bigger landscape, especially once they reach the ocean, as perhaps illogical as that truly is

-okay i’m gonna give them this, the explanation about the trolley/underground tunnel system was, actually, intriguing and fairly on-point. I am, distressingly, impressed.

-thank you, pg 48, for immediately pulling me back to reality by listing the kids as ‘klaus, violet, and sunny’ that was unnecessary and uncalled for, have a hearty fuck you!

-why…….look, “i’d rather eat a bowl of vampire bats than spend an hour with carmelita spats” isn’t from ‘poet unknown.’ isadora wrote that. why put????? ‘poet unknown’????????? cause she’s not!!!! unknown!!!! THIS IS VERY, VERY CLEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- “there are few things more dangerous than a person armed with a slingshot and a poorly oriented moral compass” thank you for forcing me to relive the memory of stew mitchum while reading about carmelita

-fernald’s education listed as ‘degrees in marine biology and theatre arts’ good on you for keeping that in

- ohhhhhhhhhh re: white faced women “heimlich hospital announces birth of world’s first conjoined triplets” good on you for hopefully not taking away third sibling backstory!!! hadn’t considered them as triplets, though, but I hadn’t considered them as twins, either, so whatever

-awww I wish they’d found a way to keep in the cut song from the end of s2 it looked delightful

-olaf as “alias: DAD” in s3…………….oh boy -“the voice is reminiscent of eugene levy” oh man but i’m here for that

-re: barry sonnenfeld “in the grim grotto he plays the vital role of the missing captain widdershins” well that sentence is like six kinds of whiplash -he makes a good…….sea captain picture though.

-hmmmmm the lil sugar bowl section seems to lean towards the horseradish as the contents…….?

- “the props department created two sugar bowls, including a rubber version that could be dropped for a critical scene in season three.” oh really. oh. really. that better just be someone flinging it out the damn window in the mountains

-the masked ball invitation saying “a safe place that we hope will be much more difficult to burn” right on

-as someone who has frequently wondered how they really use movies for codes considering information can change while making the movie and how would you even decode it anyway, the explanation of pulling a message from existing subtitles based on a changing code number makes sense, but probably still won’t change how I view them making a considerable number of movies on the fly -does remind me, though, of how I put in beatrice the idea of picking up certain props, something that can be easily changed, in order to convey information

-bo welch saying “so I asked barry, ‘this house in season one that olaf lives in, where did he get that?’ and in talking with him, we decided that he probably married or moved in with some wealthy old dowager and then when she died, he kept the house, and of course, he didn’t have the resources and it went to seed.” well that’s…………………...uh………………….one way to think about it I prefer the theory that it’s the remains of his family’s house

-WHO WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR WRITING ‘AND, FUCK YEAH, OTTOMANS’ IN THE SCRIPT ABOUT JUSTICE STRAUSS’S LIBRARY THAT’S FUCKING AMAZING

-okay all the little jokes they have in the scripts are. GREAT

-nathan fillion re: jacques “he’s goodhearted. he’s kind. he’s capable. and he’s dead.”

-wow uh just straight-up revealing the opening theme rhymes for s3. gutsy of you

-you know, I really am sad they cut out widdershins, because i really liked him, and fiona aggressively adopting his mannerisms once he disappears, and i LOVE the scene here she tells the kids why widdershins didn’t go after the kids and how much fiona herself doesn’t know, but, i......guess they could still????? keep that in????? if he said that before he disappeared??? depends on when they have him disappearing, i guess

i just????? widdershins is the whole reason they don’t show up until they do so how this works out now idk, unless they’re gonna have just fiona actively trying to find the kids (if they go that route, unless they just like, bump into each other?) as a KID trying to save kids does put an interesting spin on it

-THE WHOLE POINT IS THE SECRECY, THOUGH!!! FIONA IS BASICALLY STILL RAISED IN VFD AND SHE HAS NO DAMN CLUE ABOUT IT AT ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! augggggggggggggg

-the anwhistle aquatics article talking about gregor and ike not getting along?????? intriguing - “there are secrets in this world to terrible for decent people to know.” I read that and immediately thought of “mrs. palmer, there are things dark and heinous in this world. things too horrible to tell our children.” but that could just be because my mind pulls up peaks quotes for literally everything

-you know as much as I liked the imagined red vibe of penultimate peril, i’m really digging these set pieces even if they are green

- “several key scenes in the penultimate peril take place in an opulent opera house” are you gonna full flashback to the opera house??????????????? because hmmmmmmmmmm I never wanted to see the whole thing but I HAVE always imagined them as. barely adults when the opera happens, so?? at least there’s that

-still VERY nervous at the idea of the beatrice letters being at the end of the end. no damn clue what i’m nervous about. I already had my say about how I think the beatrice letters goes down. in almost 20,000 words. it shouldn’t matter to me. but. regardless. ……….still nervous……….

-based on the allusions page it looks like this be the verse and the blind men and the elephant will show up?????? they’d BETTER (and if I had to pick, this be the verse.) (my brit lit professor in college took great, great thrill in reading that poem out loud, so much so that when we were studying it, she read it out loud twice. she was a delightful woman.) (but re: the elephant poem that’s just, such a sweet, delightful memory of bertrand ‘sweetest man alive’ baudelaire, and considering all the memories of bea and bertrand they’ve really cut out, I just really, really want that one to stay in…….)

-hey, that final image of the eye-shaped island????? legitimately one of the most terrifying things i’ve ever seen in my life. I hope you’re happy.

-so, missed two words in the telegram code so I did look up what it was, and I was incredibly disappointed that that was all it was

(HOLY FUCK WAIT A SECOND as i’m rereading the beginning of my notes here, the see: ellington feint, that’s the only reference to ellington and she’s not even mentioned on the referenced page because it’s one of the code pages, but if that’s supposed to somehow imply ellington is in the two sets of people the telegram code refers to i’m. not gonna be happy) (unless it was just a reference to how the picture of barry sonnenfeld in austere academy is as the founder of the school, last name feint, and…….they’re just doing something with that, how the hell should I know) well I was disappointed until I got UNNECESSARILY TERRIFIED BY PROBABLY OVER-THINKING IT, gonna forget that ever happened at all, completely anyway, besides that, it’s still………….nothing that really???? doesn’t already go without saying?????? like THAT’S the code you decided to put in this book????? and how does that have any relevance to ‘don’t decode it until after s3’

#spoilers #that's my story and i'm sticking to it.#lulu talks about the sad lemon man

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ecoamerica · 2 months

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youtube

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

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coffeefueledauthor · 6 years

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Fanfiction Ideas: Which do You Like?

Here is a list of all of my current story ideas that I plan on writing. As you know, my plot lines are generally kind of crazy. >w< But I will be sure to include more grounded, normal stories as well.

PLEASE BE SURE TO LET ME KNOW WHICH IDEAS ARE INTERESTING TO YOU.

I will be writing the first chapter of all those that people show interest in. And if you REALLY like what you read and want to be REALLY awesome, please be sure to donate to my patreon. Because I will only be able to write all these tales if I can gather enough patrons to make this my full time job. Patrons will recieve plenty of exclusive bonuses and early access.

Title: Out of Place Fandom: Inside Out Style: Full novel Description: A young girl feels like her mind has been numbed, and she begins to blame it on the mysterious figures appearing around the house. Join Riley as she attempts to help these tiny creatures, who claim to be her own emotions, back home. But with cats, exterminators, and her own nosy cousin, the task may be harder than she thinks. Notes: This story is already posted up to chapter 44. Find it on fanfiction.net

Title: Always By My Side Fandom: Inside Out Style: Full novel Description: Delve into the mind of Riley's mother during her pregnancy. For while she is carrying the developing infant in her womb, her emotions are busy raising the childs five infant emotions. They have only 9 months to prepare the youngsters for life inside their new host with the pressure of their inevitable separation weighing heavily on their thoughts. Notes: This story has been plotted out for over a year. A sneak peek is available on Fanfiction.net

Title: Infected Fandom: Super Mario Style: Full Novel Description: Luigi could tell something was wrong. Mario never acted this way before. But he never could have predicted just how destructive this mysterious affliction would become. Luigi desperately attempts to find answers before his brothers entire mind is consumed by this horrible infection. Notes: Lots of crazy stuff happenning. This story already has 10 chapters. They will be posted to Fanfiction.net in the coming days.

Title: Wrong Place, Worse Time Fandom: MST3K Style: full novel Description: After a string of freak accidents, the Satellite of Love is forced to crash land on a far off alien planet. The bots attempt to relocate one another so they can repair thier ship and blast off again. But they happened to arrive during an all out alien war, and the invaders have taken Joel prisoner. To save their creator, they'll have to work alongside the planet's natives and win a war that they had nothing to do with. Notes: Originally The MST3K Manga, now rewritten as a novel. A mix of comedy and adventure as the bots bumble their way through a planet at war.

Title: Death Can Change in a Single Night Fandom: Grim Fandango Style: Oneshot Description: It had been a long day for both of them. They had only met earlier that day, and both had lost their jobs and found themselves setting off on some grand adventure. Glottis finds himself lost in his thoughts during their first night away from the department of death; deep in the Petrified Forest. As Manny rests, the demon wonders what might lie on that long road ahead. Notes: Just a wordless little story of Manny and Glottis after they find each other in the petrified forest and decide to travel together.

Title: Demons Don't Have Queens Fandom: Grim Fandango Style: full novel Description: A huge, unique, and powerful demon appears in the Land of the Dead claiming to be the Ancient Demon Queen. She rallies all the demons of the world, leading them in a violent uprising against their human soul 'oppressors'. Manny remains unconvinced, and Glottis loyally stays by his side. But when the demons assume control, it's up to Manny and Glottis to find a way to dethrone this ancient queen. But as they dig deeper into this demons backstory, things only get more complicated. Especially when they discover that, unlike bee's, Demons don't have Queens. Notes: A really wild adventure full of Manny's dry wit and tons of crazy plot elements. Takes place after the game, but I guess before Manny leaves.

Title: The Lost Testimony Fandom: Phoenix Wright Style: Full Novel Description: Shortly before he is to testify in a mysterious murder case, renowned Forensic Medical Examiner Dr. M. Balmer goes missing. Phoenix, the defense attorney for the case, takes it upon himself to locate the missing witness. But during his search, Phoenix is attacked and falls victim to the same fate as the disappearing doctor. Now a prisoner in what feels like the other end of the world, Phoenix must unravel the mystery behind this black market trade he's become involved in if he ever hopes to return to his normal life. Notes: Part of my suuuuuper old For the Birds AU. All characters are different species of bird, with Phoenix as (obviously) a phoenix. Weird AU, but interesting story with a crazy mystery and bittersweet ending.

Title: Not Our First Abduction Fandom: South Park Style: Full Novel Description: Alien activity isn't exactly unheard of in the lonely mountain town. In fact, Stan barely bats an eye when he and nearly a dozen other children find themselves forced aboard a rouge spaceship and taken to a far off planet. But things turn drastic when, in their grand escape attempt, one child fails to break free of the alien clutches. Finding help on the home planet of their captors seems impossible, but they'll have to try. With assistance, they'll be able to bust out their buddy and fly their stolen spaceship back home. Otherwise, they'll be forced to attempt to fly the alien ship themselves, leaving an imprisoned Kyle stranded on the floating rock forever. Notes: Though dotted with darker notes, a lot of effort is used to keep an element of humor to the story. Lots of craziness, but none beyond what we get from the actual show itself.

Title: END TRANSMISSION Fandom: Pikmin Style: Oneshot Description: While out on a mission to catalog the native plants of the nearby worlds, Hocotation Botanist Gotto ends up stranded with no fuel and only 30 days of life support. But by day 15, its clear that fuel is nowhere to be found. Accepting his fate, Gotto spends his last days doing what he loves; cataloging the beautiful foliage of the world that will be his grave. As his thirtieth day draws to a close, Gotto logs one last transmission to his 'blackbox', explaining his fate to anyone who stumbles upon the crash site and offering a final farewell to those he had loved. Notes: One of a slim few stories I have involving an OC. But I wasn't about to kill off Olimar, heh. Definitely one of my sadder stories.

Title: It's Only a Game Fandom: Psychonauts Style: Short story Description: A mans slow decent into madness as his repeated failure to win a simple board game breaks his fragile psyche and takes him from an insane asylum orderly to an inmate. Notes: I bet someone has already written this, but I wanted to take a crack at it, since he was always my favorite.

Title: Digimon: Of Chaos and Time Fandom: Digimon Style: Full novel Description: Just as before, eight humans are transported to the Digital World and paired with unique Digimon Partners. They are instructed by the sage Salvusmon to locate the digital Time God to save the Digital World from being consumed by the rapidly growing Chaos World. Though they start in high spirits on their journey, things begin to look bleak when they realize they arent the first Digidestineds to attempt this same feat. Notes: Much like its own season, this follows unique humans and Digimon of my own design. This is a story I have been working on since I was 10. A lot may have changed, but the heart of the tale never did.

Title: Asterisk Fandom: Oddworld Style: Short story/full novel Description: Abe never really saw himself as a hero. But now the role of 'savior' has been thrust upon him. Wandering through the Scrabania and Paramonia wilderness to recieve his Shrykull scars, he muses to himself about the way history will remember him after his no doubt unavoidable failure. The word Savior, he figures, will be marked with an asterisk. And the beings following him in silence are forced to agree. Notes: Depending on how crazy I'm willing to make it, this could either be much longer or much shorter. I haven't decided yet.

Title: Escape from Dimension Q! Fandom: Iz and Auggie: Escape from Dimension Q! Style: Video Game Novelization Description: Teenager Iz and robot Auggie are bandmates that find themselves with one shot at recieving a record contract from the biggest name in the business. But for reasons neither of them can explain, their instruments had refused to play their song, and they failed their audition miserably. They have little time to grieve, however. When two agents in black send them on a mission into an alternate dimension, Iz and Auggie realize that losing the contract was the least of their concerns. Notes: A direct novelization of a computer game by Headbone Interactive. Two chapters are already finished, and will be posted in the coming days.

Thats all the ideas I can remember right now. But I have way more to come! Let me know which ones sound interesting! Or let me know which fandoms I should think of more ideas for!

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luci-in-trenchcoats · 7 years

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Bad Moon Rising (Part 1)

Summary: Jensen and the reader are doing some filming out in the Canadian wilderness when they decide to take a short hike during a break. The only problem is they don’t show up for their scene later that day...

Masterlist

Pairing: Jensen x reader

Word Count: 3,000ish

Warnings: language, mild injury

A/N: Enjoy!...

“Alright, that’s lunch,” said the director after you’d finished filming for the morning. You weren’t scheduled for another scene for a few hours and were glad for the break after having to argue with Dean Winchester for the past four.

“Hey, Y/N,” you heard Jensen say when you grabbed your bag to go get some food. “That was really good, don’t you think?”

“Yeah,” you said. “Still not the biggest fan of yelling at you, even if it’s pretend.”

“Remember the beginning of the season? You’ve gotten a lot better at letting it go,” he said, walking with you over to the food trailer. You’d spent all day filming out in the woods, fighting rain showers and that classic Canadian drizzle that never seemed to disappear. “You don’t bring it home with you anymore.”

“True but I’ll still be all blah. Turn on something mindless and pass out on the couch probably,” you said. Jensen shrugged and bumped his shoulder into yours.

“Want to come over after work? Be blah together?” he asked. You smiled and bumped him back. It was always pretty easy hanging out with him after work, especially since you were on the same floor of your complex. Not to mention he had a habit of dropping by most nights to see how you were.

“You got it. I hope they got something warm to eat today. It’s all..ugh out,” you said, feeling the hood on your rain coat be thrown up before you could do it yourself. “Jay.”

“What? We got to stand in line. It might rain,” he said. You threw it down, knowing it was supposed to start clearing up the later half of the day but soon felt a hand ruffling the top your head.

“Jensen! Hair is going to kill you if you keep doing that,” you said, trying to skip away from him, the smile on your face giving away that you really didn’t mind.

“Nah, they don’t stand a chance against you,” he said. “You’d defend me wouldn’t you?”

“Maybe,” you said, spotting the back of the line as you headed over.

“Maybe? I got to find a new best friend if that’s how it’s gonna be,” he said, resting his elbow on top of your head. You glanced up and he was biting back a laugh.

“Shut up loser,” you said, reaching under his exposed arm to tickle him. He squirmed away from you but you kept it up until he was laughing and holding up his hands in surrender.

“Oh my God would you two just get together already!” you heard Jared shout from farther up the line. You stopped and knew there was a slight blush on your face, a light one on Jensen’s as well as you contained yourselves. The entire cast and crew teased the two of you about it all the time. You fell into a fast friendship and spent most of your time together over the course of the season. Your character and Dean’s were supposed to finally get together in the season finale when you started filming it in the next few days. They wondered, and a few like Jared hoped, that you’d actually become a real life thing.

“Y/N? You can move up,” said Jensen, putting his hand on the small of your back as you saw the gap in the line, your thoughts distracting you. You grabbed lunch and joined Jensen in his trailer to eat it, neither one of you having to go back for a while. “Hey, since the rain moved through and everything, want to go for a quick hike? We got the time to kill and there’s no reception out here to do anything else.”

“Uh,” you said glancing down at your feet. It wasn’t like your character was a Winchester and was always in a pair of boots. You were pretty much barefoot if it was the bunker, sneakers or heels on occasion, boots the rest. “I should grab my hiking boots.”

“You got sneakers on. We won’t go that far, promise,” said Jensen, itching to go already it seemed like.

“Alright, let’s go then,” you said, hopping up and heading out of his trailer.

“Hey, Y/N, Gen said she left her sweatshirt in your trailer. Mind if I pop in and grab it?” asked Jared, catching you as you and Jensen started heading off towards a short trail.

“Go ahead. We’ll be back soon,” you said, waving him off.

“Going to go make out like a couple of teenagers?” teased Jared, looking between the two of you with a smirk.

“Hiking doofus. We’d invite you but some of us don’t have scenes right now,” said Jensen. Jared couldn’t even retort before someone was calling for him.

“Don’t get lost,” said Jared, walking away and dashing over to your trailer fast.

Jensen took the lead, walking the two of you away from set until it was quiet and you could really hear the forest. It was nice and you knew where you were actually, remembering they mentioned there was a trail nearby in case someone wandered off.

“You ever...get annoyed with all of them? The teasing,” he said, putting his hands in his pockets.

“A little. It’s like, we’re really good friends and everyone assumes-”

“That we want to bang or make out or shit like that. It’s gotta be because of the characters and everyone knew that’s why you came on this year,” he said.

“I thought I came on to be some sort of badass, not Dean Winchester’s girlfriend,” you said. “Which I won’t even be until next season.”

“Sorry that came out kind of bad. I mean, I really like what you’ve done with the character. Fans love her more than Dean,” he said. You couldn’t help but laugh. Sure you knew you had a positive reaction which was an amazing feeling. But you knew perfectly well that Sam and Dean would always be on top.

“Let’s just hope so after the two of them...” you said. “It’s going to be different. Doing kissing scenes, sex scenes, stuff like that next year.”

“It’s sure to be wonderfully awkward all around. We’ll get through it. I mean, you get forehead kisses all the time from me,” he said. You rolled your eyes. Yeah, those were nice and made you feel good but there was a big difference between a friend kiss and actual lips touching. “You’re not...worried or-”

“No, no. Just it’s different than what we’ve done the past year. It’ll be fun to play that,” you said. You were quiet as you walked, knowing you were getting farther away from other people now.

“You going to come visit me on summer break?” he asked after a few minutes.

“Of course. Now that’s really going to be weird, not seeing your face everyday,” you said. You’d gone some time without being around him or Jared during the holidays but even then, it was only two weeks before you went down to spend New Years with them.

“I know I’ve only offered like a gajillion times but if you want to come stay with me for the summer, you’re more than welcome. My house is kind of lonely,” he said. He wasn’t as good at the puppy dog thing as Jared but that didn’t mean it wasn’t effective.

“I’m not going to crash at your house for three months dude. What if you bring a girl home?” you said. “I’m not ruining your game.”

“You really want to stay up here all by yourself while Jared and Gen and me are hanging out and having all kinds of fun?” he said, tilting his head.

“Ah, don’t put it like that,” you said. He smiled, finally landing a chip in your armor.

“Please? I’ve got a pool. You can go swimming. We can have barbeques and campfires and do all the stuff we do up here with no work in the way. You know you want to,” he said, slowing down his pace to throw his arms over your shoulders.

“Jensen...” you groaned, his arms squeezing around you tightly and twisting you around.

“Don’t make me beg,” he said, resting his head on top of yours. You sighed and he chuckled. “Is that a yes?”

“If there are any bugs in my room, you’re killing them. You better keep your hands off my ice cream too,” you said, feeling his hug get a little tighter for a second before he released you. He was happy, really happy and you were too in a way. You’d love to spend the summer with your friends but you were always afraid of overstepping your bounds. Jensen was always good at helping you get out of your comfort zone.

“Awesome,” he said. “Maybe you can come down with me this weekend and setup some stuff, figure out what you need.”

“Yeah, we can try to get me on the same flight tonight,” you said.

“Perfect.”

Three Hours Later

“Anyone seen oblivious and more oblivious? They’re late and those two are never late,” said the director. Jared looked up from his phone from where he was waiting for them to set up for the next scene.

“They said they were going on a short hike. Looked like they were on that trail around here,” said Jared, slightly concerned at the sight of the empty chairs beside him.

“That’s a twenty minute hike max. How long ago was that?” someone asked.

“Three, three and half hours ago maybe,” said Jared. “I’m sure they’re just in their trailers or-”

“We’ve looked fucking everywhere for them. Trailers included. Their bags were in Jensen’s. You’re sure they were on the trail?” the director asked again.

“Yes I’m sure. It’s...maybe they skipped work or had to leave and didn’t tell anyone-”

“Jared. Both of them have been sicker than dogs and showed up to film. There’s no way out of here without one of the driver’s knowing about it. You’re saying we don’t have any clue where two of our actors are?” the director asked. Jared nodded, wishing he had a better answer. “Someone go check that trail. Now.”

A few different people did, going in both directions, meeting back up at set fifteen minutes later.

“Well?” asked Jared, seeing worried looks on their faces.

“We found...we found this,” said one of the PA’s, fishing a piece of navy raincoat out of her pocket. “It was on a branch near the edge of the trail, like it got torn.”

“That’s Y/N’s. She must have gone off the path for some reason,” said Jared, knowing that a certain tall, blonde friend would be the only reason she would go out somewhere she didn’t know. “There was nothing else?”

“Well where we found it, it was near a hill, like a big slope down. Down to the river. You can’t really tell from all the leaves and crap but...” she said, Jared shutting his eyes.

“If one of them fell, the other would have gone after them,” said Jared.

“Somebody call for search and rescue. We’ve got two people who don’t have a clue how to survive in the wilderness that just vanished into a river with class five rapids. They both know how to swim right?” asked the director, someone already pulling out a radio.

“Yeah. You don’t think...” said Jared, unable to say the rest of his thought.

“They’re both strong and smart. Let’s just think on the positive side, alright?”

If you ever caught sight of that stupid fucking wolf you were going to murder it. It’d appeared on the trail off to the side, making both you and Jensen jump. Only Jensen jumped a little farther than you, pushing the both of you straight off the trail and down the steep incline, rocks and branches bruising everything they could find. You tried to stop but you were going too fast and you hit the cold water hard, knocking the wind out of you.

You were vaguely aware of another shift in the water, Jensen pulling you up and above the water. The river was too fast and two violent for the two of you to stay together, the current ripping you apart. You kicked and managed to just barely avoid a boulder, ramming back into him. For what seemed like forever you both did your best to avoid slamming into things, getting caught in powerful pools, anything to just keep your heads above water.

Finally, finally it slowed, almost all of your energy gone when the river dropped out, a small waterfall appearing and making you hit your back on something hard. When you were throughly frozen, the water calmed for a short stretch, Jensen grabbing you and pulling you with him over to the side with everything he had left, getting the two of you out just before the next batch of awfulness occurred.

He got the two of you to just inside the tree line where it’d be warmer, shivering and breathing hard. You’d never been more exhausted in your life but you were aware of the hands on you trying to take your shirt off.

“W-What the f-fuck are you d-d-doing?” you asked, a shaking hand resting over his.

“W-We’re going to freeze t-to death if-f-f we don’t warm up. T-Take off your w-wet clothes,” he said. You pushed his hand back, trying to get him to take care of himself first before you. You’d done plenty of scenes with him, even one in a bathing suit but for some reason you felt self-conscious stripping down to your bra and underwear, even if you absolutely had to. When you glanced up his back was to you. “I w-won’t look.”

“T-Thanks,” you said, feeling a little better without the damp items on. He was shivering as he sat there in nothing more than his boxers, his arms wrapping around himself. Screw it, this was serious and you didn’t have time for thinking you weren’t skinny enough today. “T-turn around.”

He spun around so fast, unwrapping his arms as you slid over his lap, pressing yourself up against him, feeling him do the same. That felt better, a sliver of actual warmth penetrating the cold now.

“N-not how I imagined seeing you in your underwear,” joked Jensen. You laughed until your mind started working. He’d imagined seeing you in your underwear.

“Me either,” you said, hoping he’d interpret that in a work type of way and not the way you’d sometimes found yourself thinking about him like that and knew you really shouldn’t. He was your best friend. A best friend who happened to look ridiculously hot.

“You’re hurt,” he said, moving his hand away, pulling back a bloody palm. You winced and groaned at the loss of his heat when he moved away. Quickly he came back and you sighed into him. “Looks like a cut on your lower back-k.”

“I’ll s-survive,” you said, moving your arms up and down his own, trying to warm him up. You felt something wet and pulled your hand away. Quickly you sat up and peered over his shoulder. “I think that same rock got you too.”

“Great. Who needs friendship bracelets when you got matching scars?” he joked again. As the heat and warmth returned to your body, you slowly felt the warm trickle down your back stop, your wound finally clotting. But now you were exhausted and wanted to fall asleep more than anything.

“Jensen,” you said, resting your head on his shoulder. “We’re...”

“We’re on the wrong side of the river. I know,” he said, resting his cheek against your head. “God knows where we even are.”

“Supposed to stay near a river when you find one,” you said. “Follow them.”

“Well we certainly can’t go the way we came,” he said, shifting you off his lap so you could turn and see. It was a sheer cliff as far as you could see. That little waterfall hadn’t been so little after all.

“That way sucks too,” you said, pointing farther down the river where it went to a valley and some kind of underwater system. “Can’t go across if we don’t want to drown.”

“We stay right here then,” he said, both of you glancing the only way you could go and the one way you definitely didn’t want to. The complete opposite one. You nodded in agreement, but looked across the river. It was a small spot, a really small spot that could easily be overlooked by someone looking for you.

Jensen sighed and you knew he saw the same exact thing. You’d stay there until you were forced to go.

When it was dark and you were back in damp clothes, sitting silently against a tree, no one saying a word in hours and too nervous to sleep, you heard it. Not the sound of people or a helicopter.

A snarl. Then another one before something cried out and you heard the water being kicked around, way too close for comfort. Jensen was pulling you to your feet and walking the two of you quietly back and away from the river, a roar breaking the night air that made you both freeze.

Oh great, there was a bear in addition to whatever was attacking each other out there. You realized how stupid you were to stay there. It was the one easy water source for any animals around, a perfect hunting ground. You stayed close by Jensen’s side until he pulled a little harder, telling you to start jogging. You moved for what seemed like forever, until the sound of critters faded away and you thought you were somewhere safe again.

Only now you really had no clue where you were, or even how to get back to the river. When you finally stopped, you made out a tree in the darkness, tucking yourself into the crook of it, dragging him down next to you. You both caught your breath back, still too nervous to actually speak.

If you weren’t lost before, you definitely were now.

A/N: Read Part 2 here!

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