#Crossing the Bridge (Crossover) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

genshinluvr · 1 year

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Beyond the Stars

Pairings: Various Genshin Men x Isekai'd!Reader x Various HSR Men [a Genshin Impact x Honkai Star Rail crossover]

Summary: You were having a relaxing day at Yaoguang Shoal all alone, decompressing from the grueling week that is finals week at the Akademiya. Just when you thought you'll be able to relax and unwind, eight outlanders decided to ruin that all because they were searching for you.

Note: No tags for the Honkai Star Rail men since I don't have any space to put the tags anyway 🥲 To be really honest, I didn't think I would make a crossover between Genshin and HSR, but here I am! I know the HSR men are a tad bit out of character, but it's mainly because I'm not as familiar with them as I am with the Genshin men. So, hopefully, the more I play HSR, the more I'll get a perfect grasp of their personalities. Of course, not all of the HSR male characters are in it; only about eight of them are in this crossover fic. I don't post anywhere else but on Tumblr (Genshinluvr) and on AO3 (Aaliah_exo).

Warnings: Bad portrayal of HSR men's personalities because I am not as familiar with the characters as I am with the Genshin men [hopefully it'll improve in the future]

Word Count: 8.5k

You’re sitting on a beach chair off the coast of Yaoguang Shoal, sitting under the shade while reading a book Al Haitham let you borrow. This is the first time you’re in Teyvat alone without your boyfriends accompanying you. You made sure to stay at least five feet from the Serenitea Pot in case anything happened. While reading the book Al Haitham has lent you, you hear someone approaching where you’re sitting.

“Gumdrops? Is that you?” An unfamiliar voice breaks the silence.

You look up from your book and at the small group of unfamiliar men approaching you. They all wear clothes and armor you have never seen before. You have explored many regions in Teyvat with your boyfriends. Yet, you never come across anyone wearing something like that. You blink and look around, searching to see if this strange man is talking to someone else. But alas, it’s just you and those men on the beach of Yaoguang Shoal. You close your book (technically, the book belongs to Al Haitham) and place it in front of you on the beach chair.

“I’m sorry, I think you’ve mistaken me for someone else,” you say, adjusting your sun hat and pushing your sunglasses up on the bridge of your nose.

The black-haired man looks at you with shock. “Do you not remember us?” He whispers.

You press your lips into a thin line and shake your head. “I’ve never met any of you before. How could I remember someone I never met?” You ask, taking your sunglasses and sun hat off.

The silver-haired man runs his hands through his hair and lets out a sharp breath. “Yeah, it seems like they don’t remember us at all. This is a problem,” he mutters, propping his hands on his hips.

The temperature suddenly drops, making you shiver. The blond man in armor looks away and sighs, shaking his head while chewing on the inside of his cheek. You have never seen these men before, and quite frankly, they look like outlanders themselves. Handsome outlanders, but that doesn’t matter right now! What matters is they, supposedly, know who you are, and yet you have no recollection of who these men are.

The man with glasses exhales sharply through his nostrils, pushing his glasses up. “This is worse than we thought. We traveled through many universes to search for them, only to find them, and they have no recollection of who we are.”

Huh. So you’re correct. They’re not from Teyvat. They’re outlanders like Lumine, Aether, and yourself.

The blond man walks toward you, stopping in front of your beach bench. He stares at you with his icy-blue eyes. Even though it’s nice and warm at Yaoguang Shoal, the look he’s giving you sends chills down your spine, making goosebumps appear on your body and the hairs on your arm stand up.

“Are you messing with us? You’re joking, right?” The armored blond man demands, crossing his arms over his chest.

Dear Archons, this man looks like he’s getting ready to go into battle. He’s wearing an armored suit. It makes him almost as intimidating as the man with long dark hair and red eyes. With the way he’s looking at you, you’re surprised you’re still alive. If looks can kill…. The man with long blond hair looks at the man with red eyes and nudges him.

“You’re going to scare them off if you continue to look at them like that,” he whispers.

The man with long, dark hair and red eyes huffs and looks away. You look at the armored blond man before you and give him a wary smile while he continues to stare you down, waiting for you to reply to his question.

You clear your throat and scratch the back of your neck. “I’m not joking. If I knew who all of you were, I wouldn’t be acting like how I am right now, would I?”

“They have a point.” The man with long silver hair says, brushing his fringe away from his eyes.

The man with long, dark hair lets out another huff of breath like a petulant child. You tilt your head to the side and give the other men a questioning look. They all shrug their shoulders in response while the man continues not to make eye contact with you. Which, you’re kind of glad because the way he was looking at you was giving you the heebie-jeebies.

“Do you have something to say, sir?” You ask, raising your eyebrows at the moody dark-haired man.

His red eyes land on you, making you visibly flinch when the two of you make eye contact. He narrows his eyes at you and slowly makes his way in your direction. The way he is walking to you reminds you of a predator stalking toward its prey, ready to strike at any moment. You would run, but judging by his and the other’s appearance, they’re most likely faster than you are. You can’t outrun them even if the Serenitea pot is close by.

“You running away is the most careless thing you could do, [Y/N]. We finally found you after searching for you, and here you are, relaxing on the beach in another universe, pretending you don’t know us?!” The long dark-haired man demands.

You do a double take and look at him with wide eyes, dumbstruck. “How do you know my name when I don’t know any of you!?” You demand, getting up from the bench and backing away from them.

The brown-haired man sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Great, you scared them, Blade.”

The man with short silver hair puts his hands in front of him as if he’s trying to console you. “Please don’t freak out! We’re not here to hurt you. We promise! We’ve been searching for you for so long, ever since you fled the Astral Express after your argument with Blade,” said the silver-haired man.

You shake your head, taking another step back. “I don’t know who you people are, nor do I know what the Astral Express is. Please, leave me alone,” you plead.

Before any man could say anything, an arrow flew past the armored blond man’s head. Everyone looks in the direction where the arrow had come from, only to see twenty-five men approaching where you’re standing. A massive wave of relief washes over you. Childe glares at the eight men before you, drawing another arrow.

“I would back away if I were you. Unless you want to be a target practice of mine,” Childe says nonchalantly.

Zhongli runs over to where you stand and wraps his arms around you, standing between you and the strange men. “Are you alright, dearest? You’re not hurt, are you?” Zhongli asks, cupping your face in his hands while examining you from head to toe for any injury.

You shake your head. “I’m okay, Zhongli. I’m just glad you’re all here,” you breathed, wrapping your arms around Zhongli’s waist.

Zhongli wraps his arms around your shoulder and walks you over to where the other twenty-four men are standing. Every man has their weapons drawn out. Once you and Zhongli are with the others, Pantalone and Baizhu stand in front of you, glaring at the eight outlanders.

“We’re not going to harm them. Relax. We’re only here to take them back to the Astral Express with us.” says the black-haired man.

“Take them back? They have never been to the Astral Express before.” Xiao glowers, tightening his grip on his polearm.

Pierro chuckles darkly and shakes his head. “What makes you think we’ll let you take [Y/N] back to the Astral Express? Like the Yaksha said, they’ve never been to the Astral Express, and last time I checked, they’re not from your world.”

The tension between the men continues to rise, causing you to shrink in Zhongli’s arms. Sure, you may have the “power” to stop this… tension between the men, but you don’t think the eight outlanders would go down without a fight. The blond in armor looks fired up; his weapon is drawn out. Speaking of his weapon, that is the strangest weapon you’ve ever seen.

You point at the man. “His weapon looks like a cello case,” you whisper to Zhongli, looking up at the former Geo Archon.

Zhongli cracks a smile and pulls you to his chest, kissing the top of your head. “Indeed, it does.”

Baizhu clears his throat and gives the eight strange men a smile. “How about we talk about this back at the abode? I have a feeling a fight isn’t going to settle this down until one of us gets to keep [Y/N],” Baizhu says, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

You roll your eyes and tilt your head back against Zhongli’s chest. “Can we not treat me like I’m an object? If any of you view me as an object or anything that isn’t human, I will not hesitate to whack any of you,” you threaten.

“Yeah! Why not have a conversation about this? Quite frankly, I’m tired of needless battles,” Venti sighs dramatically, draping his arms around your shoulders and smacking Zhongli away from you.

Zhongli rolls his eyes and unwraps his arms around you, standing beside you, while the Anemo Archon keeps his arms around your shoulders. The eight men look at each other before huddling in a circle, whispering to one another. You and your twenty-five boyfriends look at each other from the corner of your eyes, unsure of what to say.

The man with long, silver hair looks at your group and nods. “We accept your offer. And I agree with the short one standing beside [Y/N]. There’s no need for needless battles over [Y/N]... even though they belong to us, but let’s have a civil conversation about this,” he says, crossing his arms over his chest.

You sneer and look away, steam practically coming out from your ears. “Don’t act like I can’t hear any of you! Maybe this is one of the reasons why the other me ran away from all of you and the Astral Express.” You grumble, grabbing onto the nearest person and dragging them to the Serenitea pot. You and Thoma disappear into the Serenitea pot, making the eight men visibly do a double-take.

“Before entering the Serenitea pot, please make sure not to touch things you don’t know of unless you want to lose a finger,” Aether says nonchalantly, walking toward the floating teapot.

Diluc interjects, “And please do not lay a hand on [Y/N] or get close within five feet of them. It’s not like we don’t want you to— well, it is, but [Y/N]’s not comfortable with strangers getting near them.” Diluc crosses his arms over his chest.

The indigo-haired man makes a face and crosses his arms over his chest. “We’re not strangers to them! They know us!” He huffs, glaring at the redhead tycoon.

Dainsleif rolls his eyes and walks to the Serenitea pot. “Let’s go to the Serenitea pot and continue the conversation there. Time is being wasted,” Dainsleif states.

Everyone soon enters the Serenitea pot, keeping their distance from each other. The eight men are between the twenty-four men. Twelve men are standing in front of the eight outlanders, and the other twelve men are standing behind them. Standing at the entrance of the estate is you and Thoma, distracted by the conversation and not noticing the group walking up to where you and Thoma are standing.

“If they’re hungry, I can make something for them to eat! But, uh, to be honest, I think they’re more focused on bringing you back to this ‘Astral Express’ than their hunger,” Thoma shrugs his shoulders while rubbing the back of his neck.

“Well, whatever it is, I still don’t know who they are. There’s no sense of familiarity when I see them.” You sigh.

“Which is why we need to have a chat with them about their relationship with you. Well, that’s if there are any connections and relationships between you and the visitors,” Al Haitham says, crossing his arms over his chest.

You and the rest of the men enter the estate. You can’t help but feel very tense now that there are eight strangers in the abode. They can roam aimlessly around the estate and perhaps destroy things in their paths. Seeing them analyze their surroundings makes you feel nervous. They’re strangers to you, and yet you worry about what their thoughts are on the abode and the interior design of the estate.

“Now that we’re in the abode, let’s start introducing ourselves, shall we?” Kaveh says, turning to look at the visitors with an expectant look on his face.

You purse your lips. “This is going to take a while,” you mutter.

You quickly excused yourself and walked to the kitchen to grab drinks for the guests. Even though you’re a little bit anxious to be around the guests, you don’t want to be seen as rude and not get them any drink while they’re visiting the abode. You begin filling the glass cup with cold water from the pitcher you pulled out from the refrigerator, placing the cups on the tray, and mentally preparing yourself to return to where the others are.

Dear Archons, you’re going to be in one room with thirty-three men! Thirty-three! That is more than what a classroom has! Heck, you think that’s more than the number of students in your lab class at the Akademiya. You put the pitcher back in the refrigerator, grab the tray of water and take a deep breath.

“I can do this.” You whisper, gnawing on your lower lip before walking back to the living area where the other men are.

“Okay! So, now that we have introduced ourselves to each other, please state your business.” Heizou says, giving them a polite yet fake smile.

Cyno holds his hand up, stopping the others before they can speak. “They may have introduced themselves to us, but they haven’t introduced themselves to [Y/N],” Cyno says, propping his hands on his hips.

You stop in your tracks and look at the men like a startled desert fox— eyes wide and frozen to the spot where you’re standing. The men turn toward your direction, their eyes locking in on your frozen form. You give them an awkward smile and clear your throat before continuing to make your way further into the living area.

Albedo smiles and crosses his arms over his chest. “Oh? It looks like [Y/N] brought drinks for our guests. How nice of you,” Albedo says, nodding his head.

You give Albedo a fake smile and put the tray on the coffee table. “I can’t help but feel like I’m forgetting something.” You muttered, furrowing your eyebrows while trying to remember what it was.

“Why don’t the eight of you introduce yourselves to [Y/N]? You may know who they are, but they don’t know any of your names.” Kazuha says.

Each man starts to introduce themselves to you. Some smiled at you, while others did not. The tension is so thick you want to hole yourself in your bedroom. Your sweet, sweet bedroom. Your bedroom is your sanctuary, and not being able to be in your room makes you feel almost naked.

“Now that we got the introductions out of the way, let’s continue where we left off,” Tighnari says, gesturing for the eight guests to have a seat.

Dottore crosses his arms over his chest and stares at the eight visitors behind his mask. “Please explain to us how you all know [Y/N]. They have never traveled anywhere outside of Teyvat on their own, nor are they from your world.”

Gepard, the blond man in armor, raises his eyebrows at Dottore. “We know they’re not from our world. They’re not from your world either, so I don’t understand why you’re acting like they belong to your world too.”

“If you know that [Y/N] isn’t from your world, why are you all so adamant about bringing them back to the Astral Express?” Scaramouche demands, taking a step forward.

Blade, the man with long, dark hair, narrows his eyes at Scaramouche. “If you know they’re not from your world, then why are you all so adamant about keeping them in your world?” Blade hisses.

You can almost hear Capitano roll his eyes under his helmet. “Just answer the question.”

Luocha, the man with long, blond hair, explains to everyone why they wanted to bring you back to the Astral Express. Apparently, a while back, you somehow mysteriously ended up on the Astral Express with no recollection of your memories. You spent months at the Astral Express with them, exploring the universe with them and other people they passively mention.

Before your disappearance, you and Blade have gotten into an argument that led to you storming out of the Astral Express, telling them not to follow you. That was the last time they heard from you, and it has been months since your sudden disappearance. The eight men have tried searching the universe for you, only to come to a dead end.

After Luocha’s explanation, you and the men sit there in silence. The supposed argument happened a few months ago, but you have never left Teyvat. It was impossible for you to physically leave Teyvat because there aren’t any spaceships or portals that allow you to teleport from planet to planet.

“It’s not that we don’t believe you all, but it’s hard to believe because [Y/N] has never traveled outside of Teyvat. Even if they wanted to, there’s no way for them to do it because there aren’t any portals or waypoints that let them do that.” Ayato says.

You nod. “Plus, I’ve been in Teyvat for, I believe, a year now. I have not stepped foot outside of Teyvat, ever. Before I arrived at their,” you gestured to your twenty-five boyfriends, “universe, I was in my universe. It’s unlikely that I was in your universe. Plus, as I’ve said previously, I don’t know who you guys are. Even when all of you have introduced yourselves to me, none of your names clicked in my head.” You sigh, shrugging your shoulders.

Itto wraps his arms around you and nuzzles his face into your neck. “My onikabuto booboo bear would never travel to another universe without telling us! Let alone a universe where there are monsters roaming around,” Itto huffs, planting a big kiss on the side of your head.

Gorou laughs nervously and clears his throat. “There are monsters roaming around Teyvat too, Itto,” Gorou whispers to the Oni.

Sampo snickers and leans in his seat with his legs crossed. “Onikabuto booboo bear? That’s the most ridiculous nickname I’ve ever heard. It’s nowhere as cute as gumdrop,” Sampo comments, flicking his fringe from his face.

Kaeya looks at the eight men with interest. “Gumdrop, you say? What are your relations with our precious [Y/N]? Giving them an endearing nickname is something friends don’t do, from what I’m assuming,” Kaeya says, sipping on his cup of wine.

When did he get that wine, and how did you not see him wander off to pour himself a glass of wine? Hearing Kaeya’s comment made Pantalone want to burst out laughing. How does one have relations with a person without ever meeting them? Pantalone crosses his arms over his chest and looks over at you, who’s busy being smothered by Itto’s affections.

“Yes, what are your relations with [Y/N]? We’re curious,” Pantalone says, the corners of his lips twitching.

Dan Heng stares at Pantalone, his eyes flickering over in your direction. Dan Heng clenches and unclenches his jaws. “They’re my significant other. Need me to say more?” Dan Heng asks, raising an eyebrow at the men.

Caelus looks at Dan Heng in disbelief. “Your significant other? The last time I checked, all of us collectively agreed to share them,” Caelus says, leaning in his seat.

“Significant other? All of you are dating our significant other?!” Aether exclaims, looking at the eight outlanders with wide eyes.

You stare at them blankly and slowly remove Itto’s arms from around you. You pursed your lips and debated whether you should make a run for it or not. Then again, even if you were to make a run for it, you don’t want it to be a “repeat” of what happened in the other eight men’s universe. That would be awkward and make things even worse than it already is.

Pierro sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose while Pantalone gives the visitors a fake smile.

“This is taking an interesting turn,” Pierro mutters.

Pantalone hums in agreement. “Indeed it is, Pierro.”

Childe runs up to you, looking at you with an over-exaggerated pout. “Snookums! Please tell me it’s not true that you have other lovers from another universe!” Childe pleads, cupping your face in his hands.

Before you can respond, Childe pulls you to his chest, pressing your face up against his chest while swaying you side to side. You grumble and continue to let Childe suffocate you against his chest while mumbling and pleading for you to disprove the eight Outlanders’ claims. You push Childe off you and lightly whack him in the chest with a huff of breath. Childe pouts and sniffles dramatically before grabbing your hand.

Dainsleif looks at the eight men before him and narrows his eyes. “How can they be your significant other when they never met any of you?” Dainsleif demands.

A realization suddenly hits you like a sumpter beast. You gasp and smack your forehead, startling everyone in the room. Oh, fuck. You look at Al Haitham and make a face while he stares at you quizzically.

“What’s wrong?” Al Haitham asks, approaching where you stand.

You make a face again and press your forehead against Al Haitham’s chest when he stands in front of you. “I left your book back at Yaoguang Shoal,” you reply, looking up at Al Haitham with despair. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go back to Yaoguang Shoal and look for Al Haitham’s book that I borrowed.”

You walk over to the door and begin putting your shoes on to return to Yaoguang Shoal before anyone can stop you. When you return to the area where you were sitting at the shoreline, you didn’t find the beach chair or Al Haitham’s book. It was nowhere in sight. Damn, do you have to search along the shorelines to find it? You’re sure you’re in the right spot because you see the mark left by the beach chair, but the chair isn’t there, nor is Al Haitham’s book.

“Huh. That’s strange. I thought it was here,” you said, propping your hands on your hip. “Al Haitham is going to kill me.” You run your fingers through your hair with a shaky breath.

“That’s because someone brought it back to the abode already,” Diluc comments, startling you.

You turn to see Diluc, Kaveh, Xiao, and Albedo walk toward you. You press your hand against your chest and let out a deep sigh. Archons, did they follow you out to Yaoguang Shoal the entire time? Wait, why are you asking the obvious? You smack your forehead again and close your eyes.

Xiao grabs your hand and looks at you worriedly, rubbing your stinging forehead with his gloved thumb. “Don’t hurt yourself. This is the second time you’ve done it today,” Xiao mutters, giving you a disapproving look.

Kaveh huffs loudly, scanning the surroundings of Yaoguang Shoal with his arms crossed over his chest. Today would’ve been a nice day if those eight outlanders didn’t show up to ruin everything. You were supposed to have a nice day for yourself at the beach to decompress from finals week, but that had to be ruined by the eight outlanders who claimed to be your boyfriends in their universe. The audacity for them to step on Teyvat and want to take you to the Astral Express or whatever the heck it is.

“What’s on your mind, Kaveh?” You murmur.

Kaveh looks at you and clears his throat, waddling over to you with a pout. Kaveh wraps his arms around your shoulders and closes his eyes, resting his chin on your shoulders. “I don’t like how they claim you’re their significant other. You’re ours. You’ve always been ours, and you were never theirs.” Kaveh grouses, burying his face into the crook of your neck.

“Do you want to continue to hang out at the beach a little longer, or do you want to return to the adobe?” Albedo asks, digging his feet into the warm sand.

“Let’s return to the abode. As much as I would love to stay on the beach, it’s best we return before everyone starts searching for us,” you say.

The day comes to an end way quicker than you think it would. When you, Xiao, Diluc, Kaveh, and Albedo returned to the abode, everyone was sitting at the dining table with food sitting in the center for everyone to help themself with.

“Oh, I didn’t know we were having guests for dinner,” you say, taking your shoes off at the entrance.

“Oh? Did you not want us to stay?” Blade asks, raising an eyebrow at you.

Your eyes widen, and you shake your head. “No, no, it’s just that I didn’t know you guys were going to stay for this long. I assumed you all would leave after I went to Yaoguang Shoal.”

“Speaking of Yaoguang Shoal, did you find the book?” Heizou asks, turning around in his seat to look in your direction.

You press your lips into a thin line and shake your head. “No, it’s not there. Diluc told me someone brought the book and beach chair back to the abode,” you sigh, collapsing on the nearest chair. You look at Al Haitham and wave to get his attention. “Whoever brought the book back, did they at least return it to you?”

Tighnari points at the shelf behind you before waving you over. “The book is over on the shelf. Now, sit down and get something to eat. It’s been a long day today, and I bet you’re hungry,” says Tighnari.

You stretch in your seat before getting up, raising your index finger. “I will, but let me take a shower really quickly because, you know, I was at Yaoguang Shoal today, and I smell like the ocean,” you said.

You run upstairs and to your bedroom to take a quick shower. As much as you would love to take a long shower like usual, since there are guests who claim to be your boyfriends, you don’t think it’s a good idea to be gone for long with your twenty-five boyfriends and eight guests in one room.

While you’re in the shower, the dining area is consumed by silence. The sounds of cutlery clinking against the plates fill the silence. No one was talking to each other. They only eat and look at every person sitting at the dining table, waiting for you to return from your shower.

“Do you think [Y/N] is going to go with them?” Venti mutters to Baizhu, reaching for his cup of wine and sipping from it without taking his eyes off the other men’s faces.

Baizhu chuckles and shakes his head. “They won’t leave with them. [Y/N] doesn’t know the eight of the Outlanders. It’s very unlikely they’ll board the Astral Express,” Baizhu replies.

Thoma scoots his seat closer to Venti and Baizhu before leaning toward Baizhu and Venti, his eyes focusing on the plate in front of him. “Even if [Y/N] doesn’t go with them, do you think they will leave Teyvat without [Y/N]? That’s their only ‘mission’ on Teyvat, and that is to return to the Astral Express with [Y/N].”

“What are you three whispering over there?” Jing Yuan asks, breaking the silence in the dining room.

Thoma, Venti, and Baizhu freeze in their seats before looking at the long, silver-haired man sitting across from them. The four exchange looks with one another for a moment before Jing Yuan breaks eye contact.

“I have a question,” Cyno speaks up, propping his arms on the table, “after today, will the eight of you return to the Astral Express without [Y/N]?”

The corner of Luocha’s lips quirks up, forming an amused smirk. “What makes you think we’ll return without them? If we have to stay on Teyvat a little longer, we will do that. We won’t return to the Astral Express until [Y/N] agrees to go with us,” Luocha replies, leaning back in his seat with his arms over his chest.

Kaeya chuckles, tapping his index finger against his cheek. “How bold of you to assume we would allow you to step out of the estate with [Y/N],” Kaeya mutters, the smile slipping off his face.

Scaramouche rolls his eyes and leans forward on the table, making sure to lock eyes with the eight Outlanders. “If you need a reminder, there are twenty-five of us and eight of you. You’re outnumbered. The chances of you being successful are low. Therefore, I wouldn’t do anything stupid if I were you.”

Gepard glares at Scaramouche and clenches his jaws. Gepard opens his mouth to retort, but your footsteps coming down the stairs silences him. You enter the dining room wearing your pajamas, a rabbit headband, your face dewy and glowing from your moisturizer, and undereye patches.

You hold up a bottle of foaming cleanser. “Who does this belong to? Someone left this in my bathroom,” you said, looking at the men at the dining table.

Itto raises his hand. “Oh! That’s mine, but you can keep it in there because I want to do skin care with you,” Itto says, getting up from his seat and walking toward you.

You look at Itto with surprise. “Oh! Why didn’t you tell me sooner? I’m about to be finished with my skincare routine,” you sigh in defeat, letting your hand fall at your side.

“I forgot,” Itto laughs sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck, “but hey! We can start the night routine tomorrow!”

You nod and begin to walk back up the stairs, but Itto grabs you by your biceps and turns you around. You look at Itto with a questioning gaze before he presses his lips against your forehead and steps back with a big smile. You smile and peck his cheek before walking back to your room. Itto and the other men in the room watch you leave. Itto turns to the others with a smug smirk on his face before returning to his seat with a pep in his walk.

“Oh, would you look at that! Isn’t it sweet how Itto and [Y/N] are going to start doing night routines with each other?” Ayato asks, sipping on his tea nonchalantly while smirking behind his cup.

Kazuha chuckles. “It seems like a subtle way to let you all know that they’re not leaving any time soon.” Kazuha comments.

Gorou turns to look at the men, specifically Blade, with curiosity. “Let’s say that it’s true [Y/N] did spend time at the Astral Express with the eight of you and the people you have mentioned,” Gorou begins, clasping his hands together.

“Why are you saying it like it's a theory when it’s true?” Welt interrupts, glaring at Gorou with a deep frown on his face.

Capitano shrugs his shoulders. “It may be true for the rest of you, but for us, it’s a theory that has yet to be proven true,” Capitano retorts.

Gorou rolls his eyes, “Anyway! As I was saying, what did the two of you get into an argument about? It wouldn’t be a small argument if it caused [Y/N] to storm off the Astral Express and disappear without a trace.”

Blade stares at Gorou before continuing to eat his food without responding to Gorou’s question. Gorou frowns and lets out a huff, grabbing his cup and gulping down the water. The men continue to eat in silence, the sound of the cutlery clinking against the plates and bowls filling the tense silence between the thirty-three of them.

A few minutes later, you enter the dining room and sit between Xiao and Blade. You cursed to yourself about the seating arrangements. Why did you have to sit between Xiao and Blade? You don’t mind sitting beside Xiao! However, what you do mind is sitting beside Blade since you supposedly had this argument with the dark, long-haired man on the Astral Express before disappearing without a trace.

You tried your best to act natural— as if nothing strange had happened or been revealed. You subconsciously scoot closer to Xiao to the point where your biceps are brushing against Xiao’s biceps. Xiao didn’t make a comment about your strange behavior and continued to eat his food in silence.

Dottore clears his throat, grabbing everyone’s attention. “We didn’t get to ask you, but how was the beach today? Were you able to relax like you wanted?” Dottore asks.

You make a so-so gesture with your hand. “Kind of! The weather was nice, and the waters were surprisingly warm. It’s nice to have a break after a grueling week of finals,” You reply, tucking your hair behind your ears.

Welt perks up at your response. “You’re going to school right now?” Welt asks, looking at you curiously.

You shrug your shoulders. “I’ve always been going to school. Before I arrived at Teyvat, I was a university student in my world. Technically, I still am, but since I’m not physically there right now, I might as well continue my education at the Akademiya.”

Kaveh smiles and rests his elbow on the table. “[Y/N] is an excellent student; we’re incredibly proud of them. They’re at the top of their classes, and their GPA is over 4.0. They’re involved in many research papers with the Akademiya, and they’ve been granted many scholarships,” Kaveh boasts, his eyes forming into crescents when he smiles in your direction.

“Hehe, it’s, uh, no big deal, really,” you say, rubbing the back of your neck, “plus, the Akademiya is a prestigious institute. I must put my all into my schoolwork for the Akademiya, or else it’ll be a waste.”

Sampo visibly deflates and rests his chin on the palm of his hand. “I’m assuming you’re not going to return to the Astral Express with us, Gumdrop?” Sampo asks, smiling at you sadly.

You shake your head in response. The eight men sigh, and trade looks with each other without saying a word. It’s like they’re communicating with each other telepathically. As much as you want to know what’s going on in their heads, you know it has something to do with you.

After all, they’re only in Teyvat because of you. It’s strange how you supposedly have a life outside your main universe and your twenty-five boyfriends’ universe. There are so many questions that are left unanswered, and you don’t think anyone can answer them because everyone is probably just as clueless as you are about this stuff. Heck, not even someone as refined as Welt, Albedo, Dottore, and Dainsleif would know the answers.

Caelus leans to Jing Yuan, whispering, “Nanook isn’t going to be happy when he hears about this.”

“As long as he doesn’t find out, we’ll be okay,” Jing Yuan replies.

Zhongli raises his eyebrows at Caelus and Jing Yuan. “Who is this Nanook you speak of? And why would he be unhappy when he hears about this?” Zhongli asks, sipping his tea.

Dan Heng sighs and looks away. “Just someone who holds [Y/N] near and dear close to his heart. Then again, we all hold [Y/N] near and dear to our hearts as well,” Dan Heng murmurs, looking over at you from the corner of his eyes.

You and Dan Heng’s eyes meet from across the table. Heat rushes to your face and down your neck, causing you to clear your throat and reach for the cup of water in front of you. You break eye contact and gulp down the water, hoping it’ll extinguish the heat rushing to your face and the tip of your ears. The way Dan Heng looks at you reminds you of how your boyfriends would look at you— you can’t help but feel shy, almost awkward in a way.

“We’ll be staying here for a while. We won’t be leaving until [Y/N] agrees to return to the Astral Express with us,” Blade states, his red eyes flickering in your direction.

You nearly choke on your water and look away, ducking your head while trying to hold back your cough. Xiao glares at Blade and pats your back, moving closer to you. You clear your throat and lean into Xiao’s touch, ignoring the looks the other men are giving you and Xiao.

Scaramouche rolls his eyes. “Might as well make yourselves a home here because we’re not letting them leave with any of you any time soon.”

Scaramouche was being sarcastic at first, but that is what the eight outlanders ended up doing. They made a home at the abode and decided to learn and adapt to a new environment. At first, they wanted to live under the same roof as you and the other men, but of course, the others opposed it and offered to make a small temporary house for the eight visitors.

Everyone is doing their own thing in the estate. Some are sparring with each other, others are having tea, reading books, playing TCG, and many more. From a distance, you’re giving an extensive detailed tour of the estate so the eight visitors can be familiar with their new environment rather than the main island the estates are sitting on.

“And the abode keeps getting bigger and bigger,” Ayato chuckles, sipping his tea on the pavilion, looking out at the view of the abode.

Zhongli chuckles and nods. “Soon enough, every land in the abode will be occupied by many estates.” Zhongli comments, blowing on the hot cup of tea in his hands.

Al Haitham sighs and keeps his eyes on his book. “You would think they would give up and leave already, but instead, they’ve been treating this place like their second home,” Al Haitham mutters, looking at the eight men from a distance.

“Scaramouche did tell them they can make themselves a home at the abode because we refuse to hand [Y/N] over to them,” Cyno mutters, placing the TCG card down on the table.

Itto groans and slams his head on the table. “Dammit, Cyno! This is the third time you beat me!” Itto grumbles, lifting his head to glare at the Mahamatra.

Cyno smirks at Itto before looking at the cards in his hands. Meanwhile, you stand in front of the eight men with your hands propping on your hips while tapping your feet on the ground. The eight men before you looked like anxious puppies. It was adorable, but what they did was not something you’re going to be tolerating. Especially since it keeps happening.

“It’s not nice to poke Tubby and Chubby! I get they’re cute, and all of you have never seen something like Tubby and Chubby before, but please refrain from poking them,” you sigh, pinching the bridge of your nose. “You guys don’t see me stepping foot on the Astral Express and snatching Pom-Pom up and throwing them around, now, do you?” You raise your eyebrows.

The eight men shake their heads in response, their heads hanging down while Welt has his eyes closed, his glasses in one hand while rubbing his temples with the other. Childe and Diluc stroll up to the nine of you, covered in dirt and sweat from their spar.

“Did those hooligans disobey you, snookums?” Childe asks, placing his hand on your waist and pulling you toward his chest.

Your face pinches up with disgust, and you take a step back. “Childe, as much as I love being in your arms, now is not a good time because you’re sweaty and covered in dirt.”

Gepard looks at Diluc and Childe, his arms over his chest, his eyebrows furrowing with concentration and curiosity. “How often do all of you spar? Is it a routine?” Gepard asks, his icy-blue eyes remaining on Childe and Diluc’s faces.

Diluc sighs and takes the hair tie out before retying his long red hair into a high ponytail. “It’s not routine for us to spar, but when we do, we do it on our own time. Either alone or with someone that volunteers to help,” Diluc replies.

“You wouldn’t mind us joining on, would you?” Sampo asks, adjusting his gloves while smirking at Diluc and Childe.

You look at the men, chewing on the inside of your cheek. You don’t think it’s a good idea for your men to spar with the eight outlanders. Knowing Childe and Gepard, there will be a competition of some sort. Technically, Childe will make it a competition with all of the outlanders, and you don’t want to see how it turns out.

Before Childe and Diluc can respond, you shake your head. “No, no! No sparring! I don’t think it’s a good idea because you guys will turn it into a competition and hurt each other. No.” You deadpan.

“Then how are we supposed to entertain ourselves and bond? I think knowing each other’s skills in combat is a great way of bonding!” Aether says, propping his arm on your shoulders from behind.

You brush off Aether’s question. “There’s plenty of ways to entertain yourselves and bond without having to draw weapons!” You reply.

“And what are you suggesting other than sparring?” Heizou asks, raising an eyebrow at you.

You smile at the men innocently. Before any of them know it, you’re all at Yaoguang Shoal wearing sun hats and sunglasses. You turn to look at your boyfriends and your guests from beyond the stars with a big smile while bouncing on the balls of your feet with excitement.

“The beach? Weren’t you at Yaoguang Shoal not too long ago?” Thoma asks, slathering sunscreen on his arms.

You nod. “Yes, but my moment of relaxation was ruined when our guests from beyond the stars popped up in front of me!” You say, propping your hands on your hips. “Now! You all can go and chase each other around the beach, and I am going to continue where I left off with my reading!”

Al Haitham hands you the book you borrowed from him not long ago before placing a beach chair down. Everyone scatters around the beach, staying within the vicinity. While you’re reading Al Haitham’s book under the shade, someone sits beside you on the sand. You look away from your book to see Blade sitting beside you, refusing to make eye contact with you. Ever since your first encounter with the long, dark-haired man, you have been keeping your distance from him mainly because he looks intimidating. You have a small feeling that he was still upset with “you” after the argument you two didn’t have.

“So! Are you going to finally tell me what the argument was about?” You ask, putting the book face down and pulling your knees to your chest.

Blade doesn’t answer. Instead, he didn’t even look in your direction. You mumble to yourself and turn to the side, getting up from the beach chair and dusting the sand off your legs.

“Alright, you don’t have to answer me. I’m sure the other [Y/N] would’ve done something else to get you to respond to them, but I’m not them.” You say before walking away from where Blade is sitting.

You quickly stopped in your tracks and turned around to grab Al Haitham’s book you were reading before continuing your walk to where Kaeya and Venti were hanging out. Venti and Kaeya wave at you the closer you get before patting the space between them for you to sit. You plop down between Kaeya and Venti, letting out an exasperated sigh.

“What’s with the exasperated sigh? You were so excited to go to the beach!” Venti says, sipping his drink.

Kaeya turns his head to look over where you were sitting previously, locking eyes with Blade. Blade quickly looks away with a deep frown. Kaeya chuckles under his breath and looks at you while you dig your feet into the sand, feeling the warm sand between your toes.

Kaeya points at Blade with his thumb. “I’m assuming it has something to do with him,” Kaeya comments, leaning back on one hand.

Your expression sours. “When is it not Blade? He’s refusing to tell me what the argument was! It’s like he expects me to know what it is when I was never there to experience it!” You groused. “I hope the other me is doing okay. Given the fact that they’re supposedly dating Blade and the other seven, or was it nine, men.” You stroke your chin.

Footsteps approach where you, Kaeya, and Venti are sitting. “Oh, I’m doing okay! Other than having to traverse many universes to find my way back to the Astral Express, only to find this universe and run into the other me surrounded by a lot of men.”

Your, Kaeya, and Venti’s head snaps toward where the voice comes from, only to see another version of yourself standing there. Everyone around you stops what they’re doing and looks at you and the other you with eyes the size of saucers. You scramble to your feet and point at your other self, trying to find the words to say while they stare at you with a sheepish smile on their face.

“These men weren’t causing you any trouble, were they?” They ask, looking at the eight outlanders that are approaching you and the other you.

You glare at the other you, propping your hands on your hips. “Where were you!? You made your eight boyfriends worried to the point where they have to travel beyond the stars to search for you!”

The other you laugh sheepishly, rubbing the back of their neck. “To be fair, I got lost after I stormed out of the Astral Express, and I couldn’t find my way back.” The other you sigh in defeat, letting their head hang low.

Tighnari raises his eyebrows at the other you. “Have you tried asking for directions?” Tighnari asks.

“Gumdrop is a great fighter but terrible with directions.” Sampo snorts before skipping happily to the other you, wrapping his arms around their waist and snuggling against them.

You watch Blade approach the other you, his arms crossed over his chest. The other you give Blade a fake smile before looking away from the long, dark-haired man. You clear your throat and look away. Man, this somehow got awkward.

“You two have some talking to do! I’m not sure if you,” you look at your other self, “remember the argument the two of you had before your disappearance. Still, please talk it out because I somehow got caught in between!”

Your other self drags out a sigh, resting their head on Sampo’s shoulders. “Ah, right! How could I forget about that? I was so busy trying to find my way back that I completely forgot about the argument Blade and I had before storming out,” your other self says.

“I didn’t think there would be another [Y/N], but here we are,” Dainsleif murmurs, trying to find the difference between you and the other you.

Appearance-wise, the other you are wearing clothes from Jing Yuan’s world. The other you have streaks of red and purple in your hair, and you look a little rougher around the edges. Sampo presses a sloppy kiss on your clone’s cheek— yes, that is what you will be calling them from now on. Your clone snuggles up against Sampo’s chest and holds your (their?) hands out to the other eight outlanders.

“Now that the other [Y/N] have found the eight of you, will you all return to the Astral Express now?” Gorou asks, gazing at the nine people curiously.

Your clone nods their head in response. “Yes, we will be heading back to the Astral Express now. That means Blade, and I will need to speak about what happened before my disappearance,” your clone sighs, looking at Blade.

Blade gives your clone a weak smile and grabs your clone’s hand, gently squeezing them. Your clone smiles at Blade and pulls him close to them. Blade and Sampo give each other a small glare while clinging to your clone’s side while the other six men stand around the three of them.

You squint your eyes at your clone, tilting your head to the side. “How do you handle dating nine men?” You ask.

Your clone snorts and rolls their eyes. “I can ask you the same thing, [Y/N]. Really, [Y/N]? Twenty-five men? That’s more than what I have,” They raise their eyebrows at you, the corners of their lips twitching.

“You know what, fair enough,” you mutter, looking away from your clone with a sour look.

As much as you would love to talk to your clone about the other universe, you didn’t want to deal with them matching the sassiness with you. That and because they do have to return to the Astral Express soon to patch things up. You and your twenty-five boyfriends watch your clone and their boyfriends walk far before disappearing into small orbs of light, ascending to the stars.

“I did not think that there was another [Y/N] out there,” Kazuha comments.

You sigh in relief and lean on Venti. “Me neither! But I’m glad they showed up because I don’t think I can handle Blade’s attitude any longer! The man acts like I remember this so-called argument!” You sigh, running your hands through your hair.

“On the bright side, you won’t have to deal with any more men entering the relationship,” Baizhu says, clapping his hands once.

Albedo chuckles, shaking his head. “You’d never know. There may be twenty-five of us today, but there can be forty tomorrow,” Albedo comments.

Xiao rolls his eyes, sighing. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves now, shall we?” Xiao mutters.

Pantalone snorts. “What makes you think we’ll share [Y/N] with more people? I believe twenty-five people is enough,” Pantalone says nonchalantly.

Kaeya drapes his arms around your shoulders, leans down, and kisses your cheek. You wrap your arms around Kaeya’s slim waist and kiss his cheek in return. Albedo isn’t wrong, though. There might be more people in the next few days or maybe even weeks. All you know is that you’re glad you’re not in your clone’s spot because what is up with Blade and his attitude? He intimidates you, and you don’t know what your clone sees in that man other than his looks.

Note: Midterms week starts on Monday, and I am not looking forward to it. If next week's fic is short, it's because I have been occupied with my studies and haven't been able to type out as much as I would hope ;v; This week has been a long week for me, but it will definitely not be as long as midterm week and finals week (which is coming in hot). To my new and/or returning readers, please keep in mind that I ONLY post on my Tumblr (Genshinluvr) and my AO3 (Aaliah_exo)! Nowhere else except Tumblr and AO3!

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porcelainseashore · 8 days

Text

Into the Ether (3)

(Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, ...)

Pairing: Vampire! Toreador! Leon Kennedy x Fem! Reader

Summary: At the all-night events cafe you run, you’ve become acquainted with an elusive patron, Leon, though you can never remember the last moments of your interactions together. After a harrowing encounter, a love-hate relationship develops between the two of you as you grapple with your newfound status in a world of darkness and investigate the reasons behind the untimely attacks.

Content & Warnings: 18+ Resident Evil x Vampire: The Masquerade crossover, horror, mystery, romance, slow burn, strangers to enemies to lovers, angst, fluff, eventual smut, swearing, smoking, non consensual blood drinking, blood bond, vampire turning, violence, injury, mild gore, torture, religious themes, minor character death, RE characters (Chris, Claire, Ada, Wesker, Jill, Sherry, Hunnigan, Rebecca, Baker Family, Merchant, Patrick, Luis), VtM concepts (Camarilla, Anarch, Sabbat, Second Inquisition, Toreador, Ventrue, Brujah, Gangrel, Nosferatu, Malkavian, Tremere, Ghouls).

Authors' Note: Suggestive themes, violence and mild gore ahead.

Taglist: @admirxation @xoxostarlet @miss-oranje-disco-dancer ❤️‍🔥

AO3 Link

Chapter 3: Fires of Rebellion

“So, talk,” you demanded, crossing your arms as you kept yourself at a suitable distance from Leon.

Both of you were currently walking up north along Good Street towards the City College. The plan had been to take a left at some point and head over to the park by Warren Street, where hopefully there would be some benches for you to relax on. It was still early enough in the night for your surroundings to be relatively bustling with people, so you weren’t too worried that the man beside you would try anything risky or stupid. In any case, you knew where you kept your pepper spray at hand if things went south.

“You’d already sensed it from the beginning,” he stated, swallowing thickly. How was it this hard to tell you who he really was? If he could sweat blood, he’d fill a whole bucket’s worth. Pig’s blood. A cop in pig’s blood. He knew plenty of people who’d pay to see him drenched in the vermillion fluid. “That I’m not exactly normal.” That was what he settled with.

“What, you mean like a serial killer or something?” you scoffed, shaking your head in mild vexation.

“No.” His voice was solemn but firm as he glanced at you briefly, making eye contact. “I didn’t… assault you, not in the way you think.” He pressed his lips together into a thin line. “I just— I do things… that aren’t exactly normal.”

Great, Leon. You just made yourself sound like a fucking magician. Sighing, he pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers and paused his footsteps. “This is going well.”

You almost felt sorry for the guy. He seemed to be having such a difficult time articulating what he wanted to say. Was it some sort of kink he was talking about? The logical part of your mind berated you, insisting that this could go down far worse than you imagined, but you pushed it aside.

“Like what?” you asked, your morbid curiosity getting the better of you.

His jaw tightened as he shifted his weight uncomfortably from side to side.

Before he could respond, you took the initiative, positioning yourself in front of him as a form of challenge. “Show me,” you requested.

His head darted in every direction, scanning the area with an animalistic instinctiveness and you thought you saw his eyes illuminate in a different color. However, when you blinked a second later, it had returned to its original pale shade of blue. “Too many people,” he muttered. “I’ll do as you ask, but we need to head somewhere quieter.”

You should’ve ran off after he said that, but your legs stayed rooted to the ground. Your lack of self-preservation was alarming. “The park, then?” you suggested.

He nodded in compromise. “I could work with that.”

The rest of the walk there took place in awkward silence, as you dwelled on what he would do and whether you were walking into one big, fat trap. Well, at least Patrick had his business card. And PIs, they had a registered license, didn’t they? It was too late to back out now, you’d gone this far and you wanted to see it through.

When you had found a secluded bench at one of the shaded corners of the park, he spoke up again. “Do you remember the first night we met? When—”

“You offered me cigarettes in exchange for coffee,” you finished the sentence for him.

“Yes,” he said with a wistful smile, as if reminiscing about a day he’d cherished but had long since passed. “You felt it, didn’t you? Compelled to stay, but with no reason why.”

Despite your reluctance, you had to agree with him. That moment between standing by his table and sitting with him to share in a smoke had been like entering the twilight zone. You were you, but yet, at the same time, weren’t.

“I can do it again here, if you want,” he murmured, his eyes burning with an intensity that seemed to bore right into you.

It wasn’t the first time you had leaped before looking. You’d always been known to be a little more reckless than your peers, but it seemed like you never really learnt your lesson well. “Be my guest,” you gestured melodramatically, as your hand swept across in one grand motion.

“Now, you’re just mocking me,” he chided, though a ghost of a smile still lingered on his lips.

This time, there was a tingling sensation in your body, like an invisible warm light gradually enveloping you, except it seemed to exude from him. You were entranced by his stature, the minute details of his face, everything about what he was, to the point where you couldn’t tear yourself away from his gaze.

“Sit,” he directed gently, placing his hand along the back of the wooden bench.

You felt nothing but desire. Desire to do anything he wanted you to. Without a word, you sank onto the bench like a doll, still giving him that doe-eyed expression one would normally reserve for a celebrity they were starstruck by.

Taking his seat beside you, he urged, “Come closer.”

Obediently, you shuffled up along the bench towards him, except it wasn’t out of fear of punishment, but a strange, radiant love that emanated from within you. When you were just inches away from his face, he slowly revealed the tips of his canine teeth, which were pointier than usual, and seemed to grow with each passing minute. As his features eased up, you could feel the uncanny warmth dissipate from your core, and though you were still captivated by him, his face seemed to lack the same lustrous sheen it held moments ago. Like a wandering spirit, you had arrived back into your own body. You were you again.

His eyes latched onto you, waiting, watching, biding his time, to see what you would do. Though he remained poised and composed, the unsteadiness of his breathing and the flicker of trepidation across his irises gave him away. He was afraid that you would leave him, for good. And after what he had given to have the right to Embrace you, he wouldn’t know how he would live with himself if he were rejected.

It felt like hours had gone by until one of you spoke up. “Do you hate what you see?”

“No,” you answered, almost too quickly, cupping his cold cheek in the palm of your hand. He closed his eyes and sighed blissfully into it, releasing a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. It felt moist and heated against your skin.

You surprised yourself with how well you were taking all of this in. This shouldn’t have been possible and nothing about what he had shown you made sense. You blamed your tolerance on the late, sleepless nights and hanging around with the offbeat characters who frequented your cafe.

What if monsters did exist? you humored. Maybe not in the literal sense of vampires, but someone who relished the flavor of blood, and who’d learnt a few tricks of hypnotism. You tried to rationalize it as much as you could, but there were still so many missing pieces you did not fully understand.

“How many times?” you asked. “Did you force me… each night?”

He lowered his gaze, marred by shame, while looking to his hands nestled in his lap. “It was just that once,” he whispered. “I wanted you to stay with me.”

He pursed his lips. “The rest, later on… was you.”

“Did you—”

“Yes.”

You didn’t even need to continue your sentence for him to know what you meant. Yes, he tasted your blood. Yes, he enjoyed it. Yes, he came back for more. And more.

“I’m sorry,” his voice cracked.

You didn’t acknowledge his apology, allowing even more time to slip through your fingers. A while later, you ran them along his cheek towards his lips, where his teeth which now looked more like fangs lurked. Right, how would you explain that away?

He didn’t stop you when you traced one of their edges, as if trying to figure out if they were real. He let you press the tip of your finger against its peak, purposely pricking yourself in some kind of deluded masochistic fantasy. The rush you felt from it was indescribable, like a spike of venom flowing into your veins, though it wasn’t as intense as the previous times to truly immobilize you. Grasping onto the back of the bench, you steadied yourself from the dizzying sensation.

A dark, ruby bead blossomed at the site of the puncture. His mouth lay open as he inhaled sharply, gripping the trousers on his thighs, and there was a wild look in his bloodshot eyes. However, he remained motionless, restraining himself somehow, as if awaiting your instruction.

“You like this?” A mixture of bewilderment and arousal seeped into your tone, as you brought your bleeding finger to rest just at the entrance of his mouth.

All at once, his veneer of calmness shattered. He swirled his tongue against your fingertip, causing you to gasp as it made hot laps around the miniscule droplet of blood you had to offer him. Dipping his head, he took the rest of your digit into his mouth, eventually sucking on it whole as he emitted a low groan in pleasure. When he finally let it go, a slick string of saliva connected to it from his lips, wet and hungry with need.

“I, um—” you shuddered, at a loss for words, as you retracted your finger, folding it into your hand.

Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he straightened up in his seat, adjusting his attire and hair, as if he had come back to his senses once again. “You don’t have to decide on this right now,” he assured you.

“Okay.” You nodded shakily, your mind spinning from all the events that had just transpired. “Could we take another short walk before I head home?”

It would probably help to cool off a little, you thought.

“Anything you need,” he asserted, getting up as he took another glance around the park, before extending his hand to you.

You stared at it, contemplating further. “Just don’t—” you hesitated, pausing to rephrase your words. “I want to trust you, Leon.”

“I’ll earn it back,” he promised. “However long it takes.”

That was all you needed to hear from him. Perhaps you were naive to a fault, but you took his hand anyway, allowing him to lead you out of the park, and to whatever else fate had in store for you that night.

━━━━━━━━━━━

Over the course of the evening, a thin fog had developed, shrouding the sky and enveloping the moon and stars in a blurry veil, casting a muted light over the city. You and Leon had taken a short detour towards the more touristy part of town, where the landmark Saint Michael Clock Tower overlooked the grand waterway.

The ornate, Gothic structure loomed intimidatingly ahead, its roof cloaked in a wispy gray mist, though you could still make out the time on its huge clock face. Ten minutes past midnight. It was getting late, and although you were accustomed to working until the wee hours of the morning, you preferred to get some sleep on your nights off when possible. However, right now, a part of you wished that the night would last longer.

There wasn’t such a wide distance between you and Leon as before. In fact, your fingers were nearly touching, but neither of you had taken it further to close the final gap. Even in complete silence, punctuated only by the sounds of the city’s buzzing nightlife, both of you had somehow agreed on which pathways to take, falling in sync with each other’s footsteps, pauses and turns, like an unspoken dance. It was nice like this, having no expectations of the other person, just walking and feeling the thread of connection that bound the two of you.

Every now and then, he peered at you inquisitively, and you wondered if he had something to say, but when you looked his way, he turned his gaze back to the street in front of him. Coming to the entrance of a tunnel arbor near the clocktower, you paused to admire the sight of the vines and flowers that were wound around the metallic arches, interspersed with marigold fairy lights. There were still a decent number of stragglers in the vicinity. Probably the remaining tourists for the day who didn’t quite want to wrap up yet, some of whom were posing for pictures near the picaresque arbors.

“Cat caught your tongue?” Always the instigator and taking the confrontational approach. That was what you were known for.

“Hm?” he deflected, yet smiled at you knowingly.

“Just looked like you had something to say.” You shrugged, placing your hands on your hips.

“Nothing escapes you, huh?”

He was teasing you again; you were certain of it. Though this appeared to be twofold, where the second part was meant as a misdirection to hide a secret from you.

“It should be obvious that I like you,” he stated plainly.

Obvious to the point where he couldn’t afford to have one of those obnoxious Anarchs stake their claim over you, just for a bit of territory. You were worth so much more to him than that. Surely, it would be the lesser of two evils for him to be the one to Embrace you? It was all he could think about when he made that deal with Ada. Always justifying and compromising. That was what he was known for.

You couldn't fathom the sheer astonishment and joy that overcame him when Ada returned with the news a few weeks later:

“The Prince granted your wish,” she mentioned with an indifferent wave of her hand.

“How?” he choked in disbelief. “It usually takes years!”

“You underestimate me,” she scoffed. “Have you forgotten that I’m the voice of society?”

“No, of course not.” He hung his head in disgrace, as if he had just been told off by a parent.

“Anyway, I don’t have to tell you twice that you should thank him in person.”

Lifting a bejeweled chalice to her lips, she tasted its contents, allowing it to linger on the palate before letting it wash down her throat. “And by ‘thank’, I mean ‘grovel’.”

“Yes, sire.” He bent down on his knee and kissed the back of her hand in respect.

A shadow of annoyance flickered across her face, morphing into a frown. “You do know this makes you look weak?” she questioned rhetorically. “Being unable to convince the Prince yourself?”

He knew better than to respond when Ada was in such a mood.

“Don’t embarrass me.”

Her warning rang loud and clear in his ears.

“Who is it obvious to?” you challenged, pulling him out of his reverie. Maybe you had an undeniable urge to see him lose control over you again.

At this, he drew closer towards you, his eyes ablaze like a blue flame, as he snaked his arms around your waist. That was it — the thrill, the feeling you missed. It rippled through your body, leaving goosebumps in its wake. But before he could go any further, a sudden force tore him from his hold on you, hauling him violently backwards. He was flung in the air across a couple of yards, landing against the wall of a building with a sickening crack.

In the background, you heard screams coming from all directions, alongside whooshing sounds, followed by loud thuds. One soon popped up behind you and in an instant you found yourself smacked to the ground. There was a shrill ringing in your ears, your eyes watered, and your vision blurred as you started seeing double in front of you. You felt the back of your head. Wet. Sticky. Flowing. Your fingers were red and the concussion you suffered induced a dizzying spell.

A grizzly face appeared before you, but you couldn’t quite make out any distinguishable features, except for the familiar shape of long fangs that glistened under the arbor lights. There was no time to put up a fight or even cry out for help, as you began to sink deeper and deeper into unconsciousness.

Leon had watched the entire scene unfurl before him like a twisted snuff film coming to life. The attack had taken him by surprise, but he quickly got up from his fall, resetting his bones and shaking it off like nothing had happened. The whole place was awash in scarlet. Blood streaked the city streets, trickling into every gap and crack, as the victims were messily drained of their lifesource. Whoever was behind this wanted the world to know. And that was when he witnessed the first of them turn.

A Mass Embrace? These Kindred definitely reeked of the Sabbat, and if not, they weren’t anyone who had been presented before the Prince; he would know. There wasn’t a second left to spare — he had to find you immediately. In his line of sight, he saw one of the culprits feeding on you greedily, and the primal rage he felt within him almost caused his Beast to take over. He hunched over and growled ferociously. His features transformed into something monstrous and his eyes were crazed as globs of saliva dribbled down his mouth.

It was fanning the flames of a Frenzy, one where he would slaughter every being in his path regardless of who they were, tearing them from limb to limb, and eviscerating their carcasses for what they had done to you. But his concern for your well-being won him over. Mustering up his willpower, he resisted the Beast as much as he could, and though he was still enraged, he needed to think straight and prioritize getting you to safety. That was all that mattered.

In the bat of an eye, he zipped across, yanking the other vampire away from your limp body, as they traded rapid blows. Another aggressor joined in the fight, as Leon dodged their swift counterattacks with deceptive ease, before connecting his right fist to one of their jaws and dealing a precise uppercut with his left to the other’s ribs, catching both of them off-guard.

Everything seemed to pass by in quicktime as he moved with an unnatural grace, spinning mid-air over one of their backs, only to grab the other from behind and slam him to the ground savagely. Gathering the rest of his strength, he took advantage of the momentum to stomp on the vampire’s head with the heel of his shoe. There was a nauseating crunch as his skull caved in from the blunt force trauma, splintering and sending blood splashing across the pavement, driving him straight into torpor. One down, one more to go.

The brutality of the violence he had displayed unnerved him, yet fuelled his excitement as adrenaline coursed through his veins. He attributed it to being partially influenced by the Beast the moment those bastards had put your life in danger. At least he had not fully succumbed to it. That was what he tried to tell himself while putting a lid on his unquenchable thirst for more. More violence. More bloodshed. They deserve it…

A cacophony of ghastly howls erupted from a distance, bringing him back to reality. Jill, it had to be, Leon realized. The Sheriff was coming to subdue this severe breach of the Masquerade. As the other vampire lunged at him, Leon’s reflexes took over, timing it such that he skirted the edge of the assault unscathed. Instead, he circled around, placing the attacker in an unyielding headlock. The vampire struggled vigorously, attempting to kick and claw his way out of Leon’s grip.

It was then that he heard Jill’s gruff yells in the vicinity, as the pack of dogs under her control barked and gnashed their teeth viciously at the remaining offenders, clamping down on their legs to prevent them from escaping. The Hound, a group of Kindred who reported to her, had arrived in tow, twirling wooden shafts in their hands, each sharpened at one end. Grinning menacingly, they struck at the assailants, staking them immobile before dragging them away.

“You need this one?” Leon called out. He might as well play by their rules where he got the chance, even if the Prince himself had decreed a perpetual Blood Hunt on the Sabbat. Anything to be in the former’s good graces. It was all for show, anyway.

Jill turned sharply, her mouth contorting into a wicked smirk, as she stalked towards him. “Leon… always at the right place, right time, huh?” Her voice was more akin to brutish snarl, but he knew when she meant her threats and when she didn’t. At this point, she was on his side.

“We have our hands full of the rebellious trash.” She jerked her thumb back to her crew, who were skulking around in the dark with their catch. “Kill this motherfucker.”

Without hesitation, Leon snapped the vampire’s neck clean, ripping his head off in the process as his lifeless body fell to the ground in a heap. Letting out a huff from the effort, he tossed the head aside, feeling nothing for the wretched being that lay at his feet. Or did he? He chose not to dwell on it any further, finding something else to distract himself with as he glanced down at his clothes, frowning when he noticed they were smeared with all sorts of fluids and innards. Dry cleaning was gonna be a bitch.

Jill signaled towards your body with her chin. “This one’s barely alive.”

“She’s mine.” A deep-seated possessiveness surged through him as he stepped between you and Jill, unwilling to let you be snatched away from his grasp again. Swooping down, he lifted you into his arms, ready to cart you off from this gruesome site. “Please, I don’t have much time.”

Narrowing her eyes, she tilted her head and a low rumble reverberated from her chest. “Alright, pretty boy. You’re answerable to the Prince though,” she warned.

“Understood,” he replied snippily, cringing at the nickname she often used to wind him up.

Directing her attention once again to her Hound, she commanded, “Torch the rest!”

The poor, newly created vampires never stood a chance, dealing with both the life-changing alterations to their bodies and the molotov cocktails now lobbed at them. They had no idea what was happening as they were set aflame in the towering bonfire, screeching and wailing until they were reduced to nothing but ashes. The smell of singed skin and flesh hung in the air.

Tightening his grip on you, Leon recoiled involuntarily in fear as he fled from the raging inferno. “Hang in there for me,” he whispered, praying to a long-forgotten god that he wouldn’t be too late this time.

Racing like his life depended on it, he kept to the shadows, using the cover of darkness to navigate through the maze of Raccoon City towards his haven.

#leon kennedy x reader #leon kennedy x you #leon kennedy #leon kennedy smut #leon kennedy angst #leon kennedy fluff #resident evil #vampire au #vampire the masquerade #vtm #crossover #porcelainscribbles

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lizardsfromspace · 5 months

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For all that it never would've happened due to a gazillion different reasons, I wish Russell T Davies had gotten his wish for a Doctor Who/Star Trek crossover where the TARDIS materializes on the bridge of the Enterprise. Both bc that'd be cool and it'd be funny if Doctor Who had crossed over with Enterprise, specifically, and not any more famous incarnation

According to RTD they really did discuss this during the production of the first series of revived Doctor Who, which is a weird reminder that Doctor Who's revival and the final season of Enterprise were being made/aired at the same time

(which is probably obvious to anyone who didn't discover it when it aired in the US like a year late)

#doctor who

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kaidatheghostdragon · 2 months

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So i decided to rewatch static shock and now i have Ideas(tm)

IDEA 1

Amity and dakota are neighboring and/or sister cities, and virgil and danny are the same age or one is only a few years older than the other.

A few things about dakota's location:

It has miles of waterfront on its east side to Lake Dakota, which has ocean access. The lake has a golden gate sized bridge over it, but the other side is never shown. An extremely large artificial lake from a dammed up river that leads to the atlantic makes the most sense to me. A fictional Great Lake is also entirely possible. Either option probably still limits Dakota to east of (or connected to?) the mississippi, especially when combined with the point below.

Its implied to be close enough to gotham for virgil to signal batman in the sky, and to quickly fly over. There's still plenty of room for reinterpretation, though.

Its large enough to have 'miles' of waterfront, and to have stadiums hosting major sports events, so its safely larger than amity park.

I was looking at a map and thought it would be great if dakota was between or encompassed toledo and detroit (i got the impression it was an expy of chicago or detroit anyways), with lake eerie and lake st clair on its east. Lake st clair would be renamed dakota lake and lake erie is the lake eerie that danny and his dad visit. Amity park is in ohio instead of illinois (which is fanon anyways).

(Also, hilariously, dakota has a poorer neighborhood called the fenton projects. Do with that what you will.)

So basically, dakota is the closest "big city" to amity park, so theres a lot of cross travel. Both cities get their vigilantes at the same time and bond over the mutual weirdness, and team phantom and team shock are close allies that constantly fly over to help each other out.

OR, one of the origin stories happened 2-5 years after the other, and whichever one is younger goes to the other for vigilante advise and training.

IDEA 2

The chemical that caused the big bang is some form of ecto, and all the bang babies are liminal. In this idea, i imagined team phantom closer to batman's age instead of static's. The (adult) team is investigating ecto-shipments in dakota when or shortly after the big bang event happens, connect alva to vlad and/or the giw, and discover a conspiracy to deliberately create liminals 'for science' (ie the chemicals were purposefully placed at the docks and a gang war deliberately incited).

Team phantom set up a bang baby outreach program at the community center with virgil's dad and quickly identify virgil as static. They train virgil (and eventually richie) and cover their patrols under the excuse that the two are extremely involved in the outreach program (which they are - static recommends the program to all of his rogues).

Danny's team is able to help the various bang babies develop and control their powers, has the resources to help anyone who doesnt want to be associated with ebon's gang, and has a way to safely subdue and contain the bang babies that refuse any help and continue to be a danger to others. And they can show up in a mask if they want to hide their identity while learning to control their powers (not that it would actually stop the team from being able to identify them). The team is also monitoring the bang baby population to make sure the giw or anyone else arent disappearing them.

The team would also take great offense to how the cure was ethically handled at the end of the series, especially if retconning the bang babies as liminals means that 'curing' them would actually hurt them.

Anyways, more danny phantom x static shock crossovers, please.

#dpxdc #dp x dc #static shock

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avastrasposts · 10 months

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The Pilot and his Girl - ch. 15

Sorry about the last chapter, I don't think this one is any easier, we're moving through some heavy angst territory here. But it is a crossover with The Last of Us and I did warn you 😋

Warnings have their own post and contain spoilers. Please read them if you know you might have a bad reaction to a sensitive topic.

Word count: 7.8 k

Series Master List

You’re honestly not sure how you keep him alive for the next few months. Frankie is with you, but he’s not with you. He doesn’t eat if you don’t put food in front of him. He doesn’t drink unless you give him your water bottle and tell him to. He doesn’t sleep, his nightmares are worse than ever. Not a night goes by without him waking up in a panicked cold sweat. More often than not he wakes up screaming too, waking you when the pain cuts through his subconscious. His screams are almost inhuman, ripping like a desperate wail from his throat, leaving it raw and ragged the next day. But you don’t hear his voice much now, he barely speaks, just a silent presence next to you as you go about your daily routine to keep you both alive for as long as possible. For what you're staying alive, you’re not really sure of any more.

You’d managed to drive the truck all the way back to the cabin, finding a detour past the blocked bridge, avoiding any towns, crossing over open fields when you could. Frankie had been in the passenger seat next to you, his eyes on the blood on his hands, rubbing it into his skin as he tried to wipe it off, his hands never stilling. As you pulled up to the cabin, your hands shaking in relief as you let go of the steering wheel, he wrenched the door open and strode down to the lake. You grabbed your gun and the rifle and ran after him. He walked straight into the water, stopping only when it came to his chest, washing his hands, scrubbing them together frantically. He ripped his shirt off and then his t-shirt, letting them fall into the water, as he scrubbed his arms, his chest, clawing at the skin.

“Frankie!” you called out to him, you longed to go to him but he was deep in the water and you didn’t even know if there was someone at the cabin yet. You held your gun by your side as you glanced back towards the dark house.

Frankie turned and looked at you for the first time since she’d died. His face was unreadable, as if you didn’t even recognise the man as he stared at you without saying anything.

“Frankie,” you said softly, calling out to him with a plea in your voice. He moved then, wading slowly through the deep water, back towards the shore, then he stumbled and fell to his knees, hands in the water, his head dropped down between his shoulders as they began to shake, sobs racking through his body.

“I can’t! I can’t!” he heaved, as you ran to him, holstering your gun and kneeling down in front of him, your arms wrapping around his shoulders as he grabbed onto you. Water seeped into your boots as your pants got soaked but Frankie’s hands dug into your back, his sobs making your body shake under him as he clung to you. You pushed your hands into his damp hair, raking your fingers through the curls, as he buckled around you.

“I can’t,” he sobbed, “I can’t. I can’t.”

You lost track of time that evening, you don’t know how long you sat with him on the shoreline, the chill went into your bones, your body shivering underneath him as you held him up in the water. Eventually, you both went numb.

And he stayed numb.

There was no one at the cabin when you came back that night. And no one came as the days slipped into weeks, months even. In the beginning you looked out the window almost all the time, listening for someone approaching when you went down to the lake for water, always on guard, but also always hopeful. But as time passed you stopped, it became too painful to hope that anyone of your friends had made it. And the worst thing was that you didn’t even know what had happened to them.

You grieved for Lucía too, going down to the jetty where she’d been fishing with Pope in July, putting the last wild flowers of the summer in a glass jar and then, when they wilted, the bright fall leaves. Frankie watched you pick the flowers and the leaves, but he never went down to the jetty. He just watched you from the steps of the patio, you'd usually find him there in the morning, the rifle across his knees.

When he couldn’t sleep, after waking from another nightmare, he’d go outside when you’d fallen back into an uneasy slumber, and watch the silent night slip away while he guarded the house. Guarding the one person that he still needed to keep safe.

He didn’t tell you, but often he thought about walking into the lake and swim in the cold water until he couldn’t keep himself afloat anymore, just let himself disappear. But then there would be no one left to keep you safe, so that was his mission, for now. Keep you safe.

You’d wake up and find the bed empty, and the first time you came running out, looking for him in a panic. So he tried to stay in bed. But the walls closed in on him in the dark room, the small bed where she’d slept only a few feet away. His mind pushed him out of the bed and he’d tuck you back in, pull his boots on, and go sit on the porch with the rifle across his knees. After a while you got used to it. If you woke up you’d wrap yourself in a quilt and sit next to him as the dawn broke. Sometimes you’d fall asleep again, leaning against his shoulder, needing to be next to him as much as he needed to be under the open sky to not suffocate when something inside him threatened to cut off his breathing.

During the days he forces his mind to just be numb, using bad tactics he’d learned in the military, compartmentalizing all the pain, all the fear. If he’d had coke on hand, he knows he would’ve been deep back into his old habit. He works himself into a stupor every day and crashes into bed at night. But it doesn’t help, at night, at night he can’t shut it out. You wrap yourself around him, after setting up the alarms around the house, and tuck your nose into the crook of his neck. He holds you, tangles his legs in yours, hangs onto you like you’re a life buoy, but it’s not enough at night. You fall asleep and then he lays awake, seeing the tendrils creep under her skin, the brown eyes that look so much like his own, broken in her perfect face.

He feels himself grow distant from you, he still needs you close, still needs to keep you safe, but his mind has nothing to say, nothing to give to you. You still put your arms around him, kiss his cheeks, his lips, the top of his head, lightly scratch his scalp, dragging your fingers through his hair in that way that used to make him melt into you. It still feels nice, it eases some of the tension in his body, but he’s still just numb. He doesn’t remember the last time he kissed you back, he doesn’t chase your lips the way he used to. He wraps himself around you at night but his body doesn’t respond, he just needs you close. And he knows you feel how unresponsive his body is, you never try to deepen your kisses or caress him the way you used to. Sometimes he wakes up, not from a nightmare, but with his cock hard, pressed up against your back. But as soon as he thinks he wants to wake you up, the heavy weight in his mind catches up with his body and everything goes dark inside him again.

He wonders how long you’ll put up with him in this state. Sooner or later you both have to leave the cabin and then, perhaps, he’ll find somewhere safer and then you can leave him. Or he’ll just walk away, save you the pain of having to put up with his broken shell. Because he is broken, now more than ever. If he thought he was messed up before, he knows it’s nothing to what he is now. He can’t give you anything anymore, nothing of all the things he knows you deserve. So he vows to keep you safe until you no longer need it, then he can take himself away and let you find a better life without him. He keeps the photo of you, him and Lucía in the front pocket of his flannel, he can’t bring himself to look at it, but feeling the stiff paper of the print as he moves, reminds him of the little trinity he used to belong to. And how he failed to keep it safe.

The leaves fall from the trees, heralding cooler weather and gray days. Your supply of food is running low, Denny kept the cabin well stocked but it’s not endless. You’ve been rationing it since you got back but now you’re down to about two weeks worth of food, three if you go hungry. Sitting back on your heels in front of the pantry you decide that Frankie and you need to leave the safety of the cabin and find more supplies. You’re also desperate to find out what’s happening in the world. Sometimes you nurture a small hope that things have gone back to normal, or at least less horrifying.

You find Frankie out back, chopping wood from the generous supply Denny had stored behind the garage. He’s stripped down to just a flannel shirt even though it’s nearly below freezing outside, sweat pouring down his face under the cap, and you can see steam rise from his body as he bends to pick up another log, placing it on the chopping block. He chops wood almost every day, the exertion and precision needed fits his mood, he can chop for hours and not have to think about anything but splitting the log in front of him. The first weeks he had blisters on his hands and his body screamed in protest from the exertion of swinging the heavy ax into the logs. Now his hands have healed, rough calluses on his palms, and his muscles don’t ache the same way, instead it craves the hard work, the exhaustion it brings at the end of the day.

“Frankie,” you say, to stop him before he lifts the ax again. He straightens up and turns to you, a questioning look on his face. Your heart aches as you see him, every time you speak to him now you’re reminded of the loss and what it’s done to him. Before he would’ve turned to you with a smile, his warm brown eyes would’ve crinkled at the corners, welcoming the interruption as he put his hand out to you, beckoning you in for a kiss before you even had a chance to tell him why you called his name.

Now his eyes are just black, dark circles under them, and no trace of a smile. He wipes the sweat off his brow with the back of his hand as you come closer. The rifle is propped up against a log next to him.

“I’ve been counting our supplies, the cans and the dry food,” you say, handing him a water canteen that he takes with a low grunt. “We have two weeks left at the rate we’re eating now, three if we stretch it. I think we need to see if we can find more supplies, and maybe find out what’s going on with the infection.”

Frankie nods and takes a long drink from the canteen, wiping his mouth before he drops his chin to his chest, thinking. You wait, looking at him as his fingers drum on the canteen.

“We take the truck and head towards Franklin,” he says finally, handing the canteen back to you. “There are small towns on the way, we can stop there and see what’s going on.” He bends and picks up the ax and as you step back he lifts it over his head and brings it down in a powerful swing, cleaving the log in two neat parts.

The next morning you don’t find Frankie out on the patio, instead he’s in the kitchen with your backpacks, packing them with necessary supplies, first aid kits and ammo. He’s got the truck loaded with extra supplies, treating it as a mobile camp for you both. The rest of the supplies he’s already hidden behind the big log pile in the shed, under a tarp. He reckons anyone desperate enough is going to find it if they come looking, but hopefully not at first glance.

You’ve got nerves swirling around the pit of your belly as you eat a can of chicken soup for breakfast, watching Frankie eat mouthfuls between restless checks of the packing. Triple checking your gun, putting into the leg holster, and making sure it’s tight, you grab your bag and bring it out to the truck. Frankie’s already put his in the back and as he locks up the cabin, you put yours there too. You wait for him by the front of the truck, testing something, and when he comes round and opens the passenger side door for you, you can’t help but smile. It’s like a small piece of the old Frankie is still there at least. He takes your hand and gives you a hand up the step and you squeeze it.

“Still not gonna let me touch that door are you, Frankie?” you smile at him and you see his eyes soften just a little as his lips curl up.

“Never, cariño,” he says, giving your hand a squeeze back, before he closes the door and rounds the truck. It’s tiny, but you’ll take it.

The truck is deafening when it rumbles to life, the quiet of the cabin and the forest has been all you’ve heard for the past few months. It’s strange not being able to hear your surroundings anymore and it makes you feel uneasy. You’re both on high alert as you scan the trees around you. Frankie makes the turn towards Franklin, aiming for the first small town a few miles away and you start hoping for cars, normal cars with families just driving along. But as Frankie drives, you meet no one. Whatever is going on in the country, it’s not back to normal. You pass by a few abandoned farms, you can see broken windows, some boarded up, and, in one farm yard, a charred pile of bodies. You quickly look away, looking over at Frankie instead. By the look on his face you can tell he saw it too and he reaches out and takes your hand, giving it a light squeeze.

“Don’t look, just keep your eyes on the road,” he says in a low voice.

The truck rolls through a small town, just a collection of houses on either side of the road, and there’s no one around as far as you can see. Frankie slows down as you leave the town behind and pulls in on a side road, turning off the truck.

“We’re gonna see if anything is moving” he says as he rolls down the windows, letting the cold winter air in. The first few houses of the town are just a few hundred yards away and you both watch them in silence. Twenty minutes pass and nothing stirs, no people, no infected and no cars. Frankie starts up the truck again and slowly drives back into the small collection of houses and pulls up next to the small gas station. Leaving the truck running, and you in the driver’s seat, he gets out and carefully steps through the broken door. You wait, anxiously looking around the truck, while you hear Frankie rummaging round the shop. It doesn’t take him long to come back with a handful of items, some candy, a couple of tubes of toothpaste and two cans of peaches.

“I’m gonna siphon some gas,” he says, putting the things in the back, and pulls out the rubber hose. Nothing stirs as he fills two spare gas canisters and the truck and after a quick stop at a small convenience store that’s been thoroughly looted you leave the small town behind you.

“The next town is bigger, hopefully we’ll find something there, I don’t want to have to go too far,” Frankie says as you pass him a chocolate bar and grab one for yourself. The chocolate is overly sweet after so long without any candy, Denny didn’t have a sweet tooth and despite there being a generous stash of potato chips at the cabin, there had been no chocolate, not even cocoa powder.

“If we find more chocolate I’ll be very happy,” you say, savoring the flavor, “didn’t think I’d miss it as much as I have.” You lick your sticky fingers as the next small town rolls into view.

“Gonna do the same again, drive through and then we wait to see if anything moves,” Frankie says and glances over at you, “And then I’ll find you some more chocolate,” his smile is small but you see it and you have time to think that this was maybe what Frankie needed to distract himself, a mission, something concrete to do, when the car suddenly jerks to the side and you feel the seatbelt dig into your chest.

“Fuck!” Frankie shouts and you see him tug at the wheel, outside the car several men have appeared out of nowhere and thrown several spike strips over the road in front of the truck. Frankie’s turning shapely to avoid them and twists in his seat, checking behind him but strips have been thrown out behind them too.

“Hold on,” he grits, gripping the steering wheel with both hands and flooring the truck, careening over the spikes, the truck jerks as the tyres blow but Frankie manages to hold it steady until a school bus suddenly rolls out from a side street. Frankie swerves to avoid it, the bus scrapes the back of the truck, making it skid sideways but Frankie parries and gets the truck back on track, speeding up, glancing behind him. He sees the men running after the truck and he pushes the truck faster, the rubber from the broken tyres flapping and bumping underneath. You look up ahead and see the main road barricaded at the end of town and as you gasp, Frankie curses next to you. The metal of the rims screech across the asphalt when he hits the break and makes a sharp turn onto the side street, the truck nearly topples but Frankie gets it back down again, slamming the breaks as you’re met by another barricade.

“Get out!” Frankie yells and yanks out your backpacks as you unclip the seat belt and throw open the door. He grabs your hand as you hear shouts go up from the main street and without turning he kicks in the door of the first house, pulling you into it. Holding on to him so hard it hurts, you run behind him, through the house, out into a backyard and across a small alley. Frankie stops for a second, scanning for the best way out, before he tugs your hand again and heads into a second house. Coming out on the other side he turns the corner into the next alley and before you have time to react a baseball flies up and hits him across the side of his head. His grip on your hand goes limp immediately as he crumples to the ground and you stumble, still holding on to him. A sharp pain shoots through your head and everything goes black.

The floor smacks the air out of you as you’re thrown into an unknown room and you cough, trying to catch your breath, as your muddled mind tries to shake the tendrils of unconsciousness. Before you can peel your eyes open, you’re yanked up off the floor and thrown on to a bed and someone tugs your arms together behind your back, and the sharp bite of restraints cut into your wrists. You force your eyes open and in the dim light you see a man bending over you as he grabs your ankles and pulls out a cable tie, securing it around your legs. He’s dressed in what looks like army surplus fatigues and biker gang gear, a revolver in a holster around his bulging waist, and greasy looking blonde hair in a ponytail. Your head is pounding, your vision seems misty, but as the man steps away from the bed you struggle to sit up, wincing in pain. He gives you a sneering grin as he notices that you’re regained consciousness.

“How’s the head, sweetheart?” he smirks, “You should’ve just stopped running, ya know?” He steps back towards the bed and watches you struggle to sit up against the headboard, your arms painfully pinned behind your back.

“Why..” you croak out, “why did you attack us?”

This makes him chuckle, “Because we can, sweetheart, and we want your shit.” He grabs your chin between his thumb and fingers, gripping it so hard it makes you wince, and fear pools in the pit of your belly. Forcing your face up towards his, he bends closer, “Incase you didn’t notice, the world’s gone to shit and it’s survival of the fittest, and we take what we want. Including you, sweetheart.” He pinches your face harder and you grit your teeth at the pain in your jaw. That seems to amuse him, a grin creeping across his ruddy face. His other hand suddenly shoots out and palms your breasts through your flannel shirt, squeezing hard as you kick your bound legs up to get away from him. His grip on your jaw is so hard you can’t get any sound out but in the back of your throat you growl, bucking your body away from him, and he laughs, sending chills through your bones.

“I like when they put up a fight, sweetheart, I’m gonna have fun to breaking you in,” he gives your jaw another sharp tug, forcing you to look at him as he starts working his way into your shirt, cold sweat breaking out on your back as you feel the rancid smell coming off him. “Yeah, we’re gonna have some real fun, you and me,” he leers as he bends closer to your face, “you’re gonna take my cock so well, might not even need to lube you up.” You feel yourself freeze up with fright as he roughly grabs your breast over your bra, giving it a painful squeeze and he cackles, leaning in as if to kiss you.

“Hey, Larry! Stop fucking the girl and come down here already, we need to deal with the guy first.” A second man has put his head around the door and is looking at the scene with impatience.

“She’s feisty this one, she’s gonna be a lot of fun,” the first guy, Larry, says, grinning back at the man at the door. But he does let go of your jaw and stands up, giving your shoulder a sharp shove so that you topple over on the bed, before he leaves the room, throwing you a final predatory look before the door is closed and locked.

Frankie comes to, as he’s dragged across a dirt floor, the toes of his boots catching on the threshold of a building, jolting him awake. His shoulders are protesting at the harsh angle as two men hold him up by the elbows, his hands tied tight, sharp cable ties cutting off his circulation. The side of his head is throbbing and he can feel sticky blood in his ear and on his cheek, it’s dripping down onto the floor. Gingerly he lifts his head and catches a glimpse of what looks like the inside of a barn before he’s hauled onto a chair and a ratchet strap is put around his torso, tightening until he can just about draw breath. He scans the room, looking for her, but she’s nowhere to be seen and he bites back the panic in his throat, bracing as a blonde man in army surplus clothes steps in front of him.

“Looking for your girl, huh?” he leers, giving Frankie a smug smile, “yeah, we got her too, don’t worry. We’re gonna deal with you first though.”

He gives Frankie a sharp back handed slap, stinging across the cheek, jolting his head to the side. Frankie draws a deep breath, willing his mind to calm, this he knows, this he was trained for. If they’re after the supplies then they will beat him up a bit first, then start asking questions, threaten him, ask again, beat him up and then continue the circle. He lifts his head and assesses the three men in the barn, all in surplus army fatigues and biker gang gear from the looks of it. Whatever they have planned, he’s pretty sure he can withstand it a lot longer than they realize. The question is how long she can, if they start beating her up, he hopes you just give them the information they need. There’s nothing at the cabin worth protecting, at least not with your life.

As if on cue the blonde man steps up and backhands him across his cheek again, following up with a clumsy punch to his gut. The slap stings but the punch is just a dull thud, bouncing off Frankie’s flexed core. As long as he has time to prepare for the punches, those weak hits won’t do any damage there. The punch is followed by another punch to the face, closed fist this time, but Frankie almost grins as he sees the man wince when he pulls back his hand. Hitting someone’s jaw bone with knuckles is a lot more painful than people think.

The man steps back and growls at Frankie, trying to intimidate him, but Frankie keeps his face impassive.

“You had a lot of good supplies on that truck, where’s the rest?” A man behind the blonde man steps forward, Frankie’s rifle in his hand.

“That’s all we had, we ran out, we were looking for more food,” Frankie says, “but you’re not gonna believe me so just get on with it.”

The blonde man grabs his gun and wacks Frankie over the cheek with the butt of it and Frankie feels the iron taste of blood in his mouth as something splits.

“You’re right, we don’t believe you,” he snarls, throwing another punch to Frankie’s belly. Frankie coughs, firming up his core just in time as the fist connects.

“Get his girl down here, he’ll talk if we hurt her,” the man with Frankie’s rifle thumbs in the direction of the barn door.

“Maybe, but I’d like to keep her unharmed for now,” the blonde man says, locking eyes with Frankie, “I don’t want her bleeding all over me when I fuck her later.” Frankie fights to keep his face impassive but he knows he fails, the blind rage that bubbles up inside him is clear on his face and the man opposite him sees it and grins. “Yeah, that got to you, didn’t it?” he cackles. “Why don’t you sit here and think about all the ways I’m gonna fuck that pretty girl of yours, and then maybe you can tell us where the rest of your supplies are.” He steps closer to Frankie, leans down, and Frankie can smell the unwashed body under the army surplus jacket, “I hope your girl’s a fighter, I like it when I have to pin them down. But I’ve already got her trussed up like a turkey, so maybe I’ll just flip her over and fuck her from behind, does she like it in the ass?” he leers. When Frankie tries to fight off the restraints the man cackles again and stands up, “Oh yeah, pal, you’ll talk soon enough.”

“I’m gonna fucking kill you in the slowest possible way just for talking about her.” Frankie spits out, venom thick in his low voice.

The man flinches as he sees the rage in Frankie’s eyes and takes a couple of steps back, Frankie grins without a trace of mirth at the man’s reaction as the barn door opens up and a fourth man steps over the threshold.

“We need the space, gonna divvy up the loot,” he calls at the three men, “the boss says to secure the guy in the back room for now.”

“Alright, we’ll get him in there,” the man with the rifle calls back and steps behind Frankie. “Come on, enough messing around,” he says to the blonde man, he’s still standing a few steps in front of Frankie, “we’ve got shit to do.”

The ratchet band around Frankie’s torso is loosened before he’s dragged, his hands and feet still tied together, to a small room off to the back of the barn. It has no windows and looks like it used to be a storage space, there’s a heavy iron bar in front of the door, locked with a large padlock. The men unceremoniously toss Frankie onto the floor and he hears the bar come down with a clank before the lock clicks. He quickly scans the room and rolls over to the wall, using it for balance as he stands up. His hands are tied in front of him with cable ties so with his mouth he tightens them as much as he can, before bringing his arms over his head and slamming them back down onto his hips, the cable tie snapping clean off his wrists. The impact smarts through his wrists but he wastes no time in working his way out of the ones around his ankles too, they come off easier. Quickly he tries the door, it’s locked tight, of course. He leans against the wall next to the door, waiting for an opportunity.

There’s noise outside as he hears a truck being driven into the barn and several men talking while unloading it. After about an hour the truck is driven away and the barn goes silent for a while until two pairs of heavy footsteps approach the door to the storage room. A key clinks in the padlock and as the heavy iron bar is lifted from the door Frankie presses himself to the wall next to the door, he’s only got one shot at this. The door swings open and the first man steps in, looking round for Frankie, the second man right behind him. Before he has a chance to react, Frankie grabs the second man's head and neck and twists violently, dropping the man as his body goes limp. The first man spins around at the sound but Frankie is already on him, grabbing the hand holding a gun and twisting it behind his back as his other hand covers the man’s mouth. The gun clatters to the ground and with a sharp crack, the neck is broken and the man drops to the ground too.

Frankie picks up the gun, getting a second one from the other man, and checks the both for extra ammo, slipping a vicious looking hunting knife from the first man’s belt. Waiting a beat to check if the scuffle attracted any attention, he stands pressed against the wall next to the door again, but the barn is silent. Quickly looking out through the door he scans the area but all he can see are a couple of oil lanterns hanging on the wall by the chair where they’d had him tied earlier. Moving silently through the dimly lit barn, it must be night out already, Frankie grabs a lantern and throws it against one of the wooden walls. The flames almost immediately start licking up the structure, the fire catching fast in the old wood. Frankie slips out through the barn door and into a dark farmyard, there’s no electric light, just a dim light from some of the windows of the main building on the other side. Skirting around the edges of the yard he hides behind one of the cars parked to the side of a tall fence. Soon a shout goes up from the house and he sees four men rushing out, running for the barn that’s now ablaze, casting a bright orange light over the surrounding area.

As the men are distracted by the fire, Frankie slips round to the house and finds the back door. With a swift kick he manages to break it open, the noise hidden by the flames and the shouting men. He moves quickly through the house, checking rooms for other people, working his way upstairs. The house is fairly large but at the end of the landing he finds a locked door that he quickly kicks in. You’re propped up against the headboard on the bed and as the door flies open you flinch, your fear giving way to intense relief as you see Frankie. You can only gasp out his name, tears welling up in your eyes as he moves across the room.

“Are you hurt?” he whispers, kneeling by the bed and pulling out the hunting knife, making quick work of your restraints, “Did they hurt you?” You shake your head and choke back a whimper as he frees your poor wrists, blood flows back into your arms and hands as you can finally move them again. Pulling you in for a quick hug, Frankie’s big hand clasps the back of your head, pressing you against him, before he pulls back.

“There are four men outside, I set fire to the barn so they are distracted, but I need to take them out. Stay up here, hide in the closet. I’ll come get you.”

“Frankie, you’re bleeding!” you choke out, your hand going up to his temple where his hair is clumped together, dark blood on his cheek and jaw.

“I’ll deal with it later, we don’t have time, I need you to hide now.” His voice is firm, pulling you to your feet, “do you understand?”

With wet eyes you give him a shaky nod and you let him lead you over to the big closet at the back of the room, handing you one of the guns.

“Be careful, Frankie,” you whisper, squeezing his hand before he lets go.

“Don’t worry,” he gives you a grim smile, “these hillbillies fucks are a piece of cake.” He gently shuts the door and you back into a corner of the closet, the gun tight in your hands. You hear his footsteps retreat from the room and out into the hallway, after that you can’t make them out anymore. Straining your ears you listen for any movements for several minutes, until sudden gunshots make you jump and grip the gun tighter. More shots ring out, there’s shouting and you can hear people running, more gunshots and then a man howls in pain. There’s another gunshot and the man shrieks and wails for a few seconds before another shot rings, seemingly drawing fresh shouts of pain from the unknown man. Lastly, a final gunshot rings out and the man falls silent, cut off in the middle of a scream. After that everything is quiet and you sit and wait, not daring to move from your spot. It feels like an eternity has passed when you finally hear footsteps coming down the hallway and into the room. You recognise Frankie’s steps and lower the gun as he opens the door to the closet.

“You ok?” he asks, holding out his hand for you, and you gratefully take it, stepping into his arms as he pulls you close. You nod against his chest, grabbing hold of his shirt as he presses his lips to the top of your head.

“We need to get going, cariño,” he mumbles, stepping back and pulling you out of the closet. Together you make your way down through the house, it’s lit with the eerie light of the flames engulfing the barn on the other side of the yard and you can see it spreading to the other service buildings. Frankie leads you to the backdoor and out into the yard in the back, he’s got his gun up, alert, as he moves you to a couple of cars parked to the side of the yard.

“Check this one for keys,” he says, pointing to the closest one, “I’ll check these two.”

You quickly move to the sedan and pull at the door, it’s locked, and so is the passenger side door. Frankie’s had no luck with the second sedan but calls you over when he checks the third one, the door is open and under the sunshield he finds the keys.

“Get in,” he calls to you, and you hurry over.

“What about our things?” you ask, “Did you see our bags anywhere?”

“No, and we don’t have time to look. This fire is bound to attract attention either from infected or other people. I took out the guys I saw but I don’t know if there are others nearby.” He’s started the car and is hastily reversing out, turning the car towards the gate in the wire fence. “Hang on,” he says and accelerates. The small car jolts from the force when it hits the gate but the lock snaps and the car shoots through the opening, onto the dark road. Frankie holds the car steady as it wobbles, keeping it on the road and floors it. You glance behind you, the barn is swallowed by the fire as the flames move towards the main building. Turning back to Frankie you exhale slowly and lean back against the car seat.

“How are you doing, cariño?” he asks, his hand finding yours and squeezing it tightly. “Are you sure you’re not hurt?”

You tilt your head to look at his profile as he keeps his eyes on the road, “I’m ok,” you draw a shaky breath, “but I was so scared.” You feel fresh tears well up in your eyes as you try to not think about the blonde man and the way his hands grabbed you. Frankie glances over at you and his eyebrows knit together as he sees your tears.

“Talk to me,” he demands, gently squeezing your hand again.

“Not now, later,” you say, dragging the back of your hand across your eyes, “did you kill them all? A blonde guy with a ponytail?”

“Yeah, him I got for sure,” Frankie growls, “what did he do to you?”

You just shake your head, “As long as he’s dead I’m good, Frankie.”

He takes his eyes off the road long enough to study your tear stained face as your jaw clenches and his grip on your hand tightens.

“He died painfully, I made sure of it,” he says, looking back at the road and you nod, pushing back the memory of his groping hands to the back of your mind.

You sit up straighter and look over at Frankie, suddenly remembering his blood stained face. “What about you, are you ok?”, you ask, inspecting the side of his head. In the dim interior light you can make out much except that his hair looks wet and sticky. “Shit, Frankie, we need to clean your head and your face!” you wince as you realize he has several fresh cuts on his cheek and jaw too, moving in your seat you try to see more of his face but he keeps his eyes on the road.

“We have no supplies, no first aid kit and no extra ammo,” he says, his tone defeated, “I’m taking you to Franklin, to the quarantine zone.” His grip on the steering wheel is hard, white knuckled. “I can’t keep you safe, I was an idiot for thinking I could keep you safe out here.”

“Don’t say that, Frankie, you’ve saved my life so many times, you’ve kept me safe at the cabin for months.” You put your hand on his leg and you can feel how tight his muscles are as you look over at him, trying to catch his eyes, at least for a second.

He sighs, biting back the anger inside him, anger at himself for not being able to keep you safe for even a day away from the cabin. The memory of what the blonde man had said he wanted to do to you, fresh in his mind. “It’s the truth, I can’t keep you safe, not while trying to keep us both alive out here.” He rubs a hand gingerly over his bruised jaw, feeling the tenderness, “I should’ve taken you to Franklin months ago, let you be safe there, be protected, I can’t do it out here. I’ll get you to Franklin and then you’ll be safe. The military must have some sort of safe zone setup, once you’re through quarantine.”

“Why are you talking like you’re only taking me there, Frankie?” you ask, frowning at him, “I am not leaving you, you are not allowed to leave me behind, you hear me?” You’ve turned yourself fully towards him but he’s refusing to take his eyes off the road.

“Frankie?” you say again, a sharper tone to your voice.

“I can’t keep you safe, I couldn’t keep Lucía safe and I can’t keep you safe,” he says, his jaw clenching around the words. It’s the first time he’s said her name out loud since that day. “It’s the only way.”

“No!” you shout, the sound jolts around the confines of the small car, “That is not an option. You are the only person who can keep me safe, you are the only person I want with me in this shithole of a world now. If you’re not with me, then why the fuck would I even bother?!” You stare at him but he remains silent, gritting his teeth, you see the muscle in his jaw working under his blood stained skin and scruffy beard.

“Frankie!” you blurt out, wanting to grab him and shake him, force him to react, but all he does is grip the steering wheel with white knuckles and stare at the road.

“You proposed to me, even after the world went to shit, you proposed to me and gave me a ring and said you wanted to spend the rest of your life with me. Does that not mean anything to you anymore?!” Tears are welling up in your eyes again, spilling over your cheeks and your voice breaks, “You said- you said, you wanted to spend every day trying to be the man I deserve and now- and now you’re bailing on me?” Your breath catches in your throat as you feel a thick lump threaten to cut off your windpipe as you gasp for breath between the words and your tears. Frankie shoves his hand through his hair and inhales sharply, squeezing his eyes shut for a second before looking over at your tear stained face.

“Frankie…” you plead, “you can’t leave me, I don’t want you to leave me and I don’t want to survive if you’re not with me.”

Frankie pulls in a loud, shuddering breath, his eyes back on the road and then pulls the car over to the side of the road, turning to you before the engine even quietens down. His hands are on your shoulders, pulling you across the center console and wrapping his arms around you, his hand grabs the back of your head, his fingers tangling in your hair as he buries his face in the crook of your neck. You pull him in, your arms around him and he’s shaking under you, his shoulders heaving as the first cracked sob breaks from his throat. His grip is as hard on you as it was when he first clung to you in the lake the night Lucía died, his body is shaking, racking with strangled sobs as he holds you as tight as he can.

You can feel his tears soak through your flannel shirt, your own dripping hot onto the skin of his neck, and he gasps for air as the sobs force their way up through his body, his large shoulders convulsing under your firm grip. You move your hand up, tangling your fingers in his hair and caressing his scalp, he shudders under your arms, inhaling as if he’s coming up for air as his fingers dig into your flesh, sobs wrenching their way out of his chest in a fresh wave.

You hold him, never letting him go. You’re never going to let him go, no matter what he says.

It passes slowly, Frankie’s sobs quieten down and he falls silent. You can feel his hot breath against your neck, his wet eyelashes are brushing over your skin and his lips press against it. With a long exhale he pulls himself away from you and loosens his grip on your body. You look up at him, cupping his cheeks with your hands, rubbing thumbs over his wet beard and he inhales deeply, a sigh escaping as he drops his eyes, looking down at your lap.

“I don’t want to leave you,” he mumbles, his eyes still downcast. “I don’t want to survive if you’re not with me either. But I don’t know how to keep you safe.” He jaw clenches under your palms, grinding down on something, biting back words or a sob.

“Frankie,” you say softly, trying to stop fresh tears from spilling over, “I don’t know how to keep myself safe, and I don’t know how to keep you safe either.” You pull his head up so that you can look into his red rimmed eyes, still so soft and warm after all they’ve been through. “All I know is that I have to be with you, and you have to be with me, or there is no point in even trying to stay safe.” You lean in and gently press your lips to his, tasting the salt of his tears and iron from his cut, “I love you Frankie, stay with me,” you whisper as his hand finds your cheek and cups it, stroking his thumb over your skin as he sighs, exhaling slowly.

“Para siempre, mi amor, forever, I promise.”

Chapter 16

Taglist: @pimosworld @i-own-loki @casa-boiardi @littlenosoul @stormseyer @mxtokko @javicstories

#frankie morales #frankie morales x reader #frankie morales x you #frankie morales fanfiction #frankie morales fluff #pedro pascal character fanfiction #frankie morales fanfic #the last of us #the last of us fanfic #frankie morales angst #the last of us fanfiction

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dornish-queen · 1 month

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The Rainbow🌈Bridge

By the edge of a wood, at the foot of a hill is a lush green meadow where time stands still. Where the friends of men and women do run. When their time on earth is over and done.

Here, between this world and the next is a place where each of our beloved creatures find rest. On this golden land, they wait and they play...till the rainbow bridge they cross over one day.

No more do they suffer in pain and in sadness because here they are whole....their lives filled with gladness. Their limbs are restored...their health renewed, their bodies have healed with strength imbued.

They romp through the grass without even a care until one day they stop and sniff at the air. All ears perk up, eyes dart front and back, then all of a sudden they break from the pack.

For just at that instant...their eyes have met; together again both person and pets. They run to each other...these friends from long past. The time of their parting is over at last.

The sadness they felt while they were apart has turned into joy once more in each heart. They embrace with a love that will last forever and then side-by-side they crossover together.

In loving memory to our fur babies and for everyone that had a pet who left their mark on your heart... RIP sweet babies...cya soon.

#for Jonny

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void-ink-studios · 5 months

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Unexpected Guests on an Impromptu Vacation

It's time for some Fionna and Cake!

It's my first time writing these characters, so be gentle with me comments!

What's up next? No idea. But I'll cross that bridge tomorrow. Enjoy y'all!

Word Count: 2,400

Fionna felt like today was a good one. She had the energy to actually attempt to clean her apartment, even do some laundry! Maybe, if she was lucky, she'd get to the dishes. Ah, what a dream.

Cake was chilling on the couch, napping in a sunbeam, living her best cat life.

Things had definitely been picking up, for the both of them. For everyone! Even Simon was keeping in touch!

But, she did wonder a bit what happened to Prismo.

He seemed just so... tired. She had definitely been there, was probably still there when they met. She couldn't imagine being a state like that in a place like the Time Room. As cool as that whole thing was, she couldn't think of herself... living there. As a shadow. Forever.

She hoped he was okay... Last she saw was him getting shattered against a wall by that creep, Scarab.

She sometimes wondered what happened to him as well. He was a creep, he tried to tear down her world in a temper tantrum, tried to kill her and Cake and Simon multiple times, spoke to them with that sickly smug attitude, but... Something was off. Kind of reminded her of Marshall when the two first met.

He was something desperate. Desperate for approval, and decided to make it everyone else's problem.

Fionna didn't know how junk like that was handled by gods, but boy would she have liked to been a fly on that wall.

As she dumped another stack of take-out boxes into a garbage bag, her thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door.

Cake groaned, lifting her head up to stare at the door like it offended her.

"You invite anybody over" she whined.

"Uhhh... No? And Marshall doesn't knock. You didn't order more take out, right?"

"Not ever since you changed your phone password."

"You know that was for your own good." Fionna shook her head. "Okay, so, then, who's at the door?"

"Open it and find out, girl. See if it's one of those girl scouts! I wanna try their cookies."

There was another knock on the door. More persistent than before.

"Fine, fine, hold on."

She ran a hand through her hair as she let the door swing open, leaning on the doorknob.

"How can I hel-AAAAAH!"

"Afternoon, Crossovers."

He definitely looked different, not even looking like his human disguise in that weird Post-Apocalypse Farm World. But there was no questioning that red hair, those large eyes, that voice. Standing in her doorway, casually leaning on a cane, just as stoic as ever was Scarab.

"IT'S SCARAB-" Fionna took a few steps back, reaching for anything she could use as a weapon, hand eventually settling on a broom. Cake sprung to her side, hissing ferociously, hand morphed to be much bigger, claws to match.

"What, you here for a rematch, creep?! We beat the stuffing out of you the first time, don't think we won't do it again! Boy, I will punt you to the moon if you don't-"

"Woah, woah, hey, no punting needed" a new voice chimed in. A dark brown hand tapped at Scarab's waist, to which the Auditor stepped slightly to the side.

An old man peered into the doorway. He radiated the energy of a burn out uncle, the fun one you hang out with at family reunions who might smell vaguely of weed. He had long, curly gray hair tied into a loose pony tail, and a beard to match. He was dressed somewhere between sleepwear and beach bum.

"Scrabs, we talked about calling them Crossovers."

Wait a second. That voice... Those eyes...

"PRISMO!" the two girls cheered together.

"Man, I thought you died or something" Cake blurted out.

Prismo laughed with his whole chest. "Nah, it'd take more than a wall to bring me down. I just got boxed is all. Although someone did leave me at the bottom of my hot tub the whole time."

Scarab rolled his eyes, but some color bloomed on his cheeks. Was he... embarrassed...?

"I thought I had already apologized for that."

"You did, I was just teasing. But, anyway, yeah, not dead! Quite the opposite actually." He hit Fionna with a smile that made her want to have smores and sit by the fire with him.

"Wait, why are you so... tiny? You were massive back in the Time Room!"

"Yeah, well, you saw my actual body when you were escaping. I'm just a little old man. Somehow getting hairier and balder at the same time. Someone explain that why don't ya."

"As much as I'm sure this is fascinating for you, may we please come in and sit down a moment...? This body is not quite agreeing with me."

Cake leveled Scarab with a harsh glare.

"And why should we let you in? Prismo, is he after you again?" She stretched her face very close to the Wishmaster. "Blink twice if you're a hostage" she whisper-shouted.

Prismo raised a hand to give her forehead a small scratch as he laughed a little. "Guys, calm down, he's with me. I'm not a hostage, he's not after me, no one is."

Fionna saw Prismo give Scarab's upper arm a squeeze as he directed a very pointed "Ahem" at the Auditor.

Scarab had the decency to look... meek almost as he tucked his head a bit closer to his shoulders.

"I am... I am sorry for my actions against you, Fionna and Cake... I apologize for my pursuit of you, and my rampage in your world. It was... it was destructive and cruel, and you did not deserve it..."

Prismo grinned, giving Scarab a small pat on the shoulder.

Fionna blinked dumbly, looking at Cake for a second. The cat seemed equally confused and shrugged.

"Uhh... Thanks I guess....? Uh... Prismo, can we talk for a second...?"

"Yeah man, sure. Wait here Scrabs, I'll be back."

Scarab nodded, leaning a bit more on the cane.

"Cake, watch him."

"Oh, I wasn't about to leave. You talk, girl."

Fionna took Prismo by the shoulder, guiding him inside. She cringed at the still remaining mess, wishing she had a bit more time to tidy up. Not every day the creator of your universe drops by to say howdy. But, the Wishmaster didn't seem to mind. Quite the opposite, actually, looking at every little thing with a degree of wonder.

"Prismo?"

"Yeah? What'd you need to talk about?"

"...Pris, why did you bring him here? Didn't he, like, wanna kill you or something?"

"No, no, it wasn't like that... He was... in a difficult position at work. Got into some major trouble over what happened here, but I stuck up for him. He got put under my management, and he's been... chilling out. A lot."

"Dude, he tried to erase my universe. He chased me, Cake, and Simon across the multiverse. What kind of 'difficult position' makes that okay?"

"It wasn't okay. He knows that. His apology was a genuine one. But, it was his job, assigned to him by the Boss, to remove what he perceived as a threat to the multiverse. It wasn't okay that he tried to destroy it after it was canonized, and he's atoning for that. But it was his job as an Auditor to track you down."

Fionna didn't look very convinced. Prismo ran fingers through his hair as he thought.

"Look... You guys have, like, the IRS, right? They take your money. No one likes that they take your money, but it wasn't the agent's personal choice to take your money. They might get some glee if they took money from someone they don't like, but it's not the agent's choice to take money."

Fionna frowned, thinking of her own taxes.

"Scarab is that IRS agent. But on a cosmic scale. It wasn't his choice to come after me, it was his job that he was assigned to. He had grudges, so it was more personal than normal, but it was still his job. If he ignored it, he'd be in trouble. Like, major trouble. Getting fired isn't really an option for entities like us. Trust me, his manager was a real piece of work. It was either you or him. But he's sorry he took it as far as he did. He really is. Can you just... give it a chance...? Please?"

Prismo's eyes were big. Puppy like. Ugh...

"...I mean..." she sighed. "...Okay. Fine. Cake, let him in."

She looked at her cat, who was giving her a scrutinizing look. The two had a wordless conversation before she nodded, stepping aside.

She watched in mild fascination and confusion and Scarab... teetered in. That's how she could describe him moving. Teetering. He made a beeline for the couch, sitting down and holding his head. Prismo came to his side, putting steady hands on his shoulder, whispering something.

"What's going on, girl" Cake whispered as they watched the two gods on her couch.

"I dunno. Prismo's vouching for him. Something about a shitty manager, but like, for gods?"

"For real? Man, you'd think they'd be above junk like that."

"Guess not. Could you imagine Queenie or Butterscotch with god powers?" Fionna shuddered even thinking about it. Slowly, she made her way to settle on the bed nearby.

"Right, sorry, we just kind popped up" Prismo said sheepishly. "I... I got permission from one of the Higher Ups to have a corporeal body for a bit."

"Approximately 120 Time Waves" Scarab murmured, sounding a little dazed.

There was a pause of confusion.

"It's about five days, I think" Prismo corrected. "We both got bodies for five days, and I wanted to... well I wanted to see the universe I made. I only ever get to watch junk from a screen, so I wanted to live like... well, like you guys! It's been like, hundreds of thousands of years since I've had to live like a human. I thought it'd be a fun vacation or something."

Fionna snorted. "Bro, you have a sad idea of a vacation if you think my life is a break from god junk."

Prismo laughed with them. "Look, normalcy is a treat compared to the lives we live. When you see everything, it's a break to not know what's happening."

Scarab nodded in agreement.

"...Hey, is he okay" Cake interjected.

Prismo looked at Scarab, gently wrapping an arm around his shoulders.

"He'll be okay. His corporeal body's got some... issues. Putting it in a human shape is making him a little woozy sometimes. He'll recover, give him some time."

"Yes, I'll be... okay. It has been a while since I had a physical form and felt like this." Scarab seemed to be becoming a bit more lucid.

As Fionna looked at him, she did start noticing a few extra details. The cane he had rested across his legs was more... practical that the crystal one he was carrying around on the manhunt. He was dressed much more casually than she remembered. Still formal, but more in a "smart business casual" way, with red accents.

Fiona remembered, in the doorway, how he was leaning on the cane so heavily...

"Waaaait a second. You were chasing us halfway across the multiverse and your cane was... You, like, needed it? It wasn't just for show?"

Scarab made a... cricket sound? His cheeks flushed a little, looking away. "...Yes, I needed the cane. What, are you going to laugh?"

"No no, wasn't laughing dude! It's just... you were doing all these crazy back flips and combat poses and shit! If it wasn't so terrifying, I'd say it was flipping awesome!"

Scarab blinked, kinda like an owl, like he wasn't used to being complimented. Prismo gave him a grin, nudging him with an elbow.

"I-I... Thank you... If it means anything, you three were one of my... better chases."

"Uh... Thanks, I think? It's just... wild you're sitting here. And you're so..."

"Non psychotic?"

"Cake!"

"What, it's true."

Fionna blundered her way to an apology before Scarab held up a hand.

"No, she's right... I was not acting in a way that was... anywhere close to acceptable. But... Well, my time with Prismo has allowed me to... find something about myself. Something I had... forgotten, having been in my line of work for so long. It was a breaking point, and I'm sorry that it was your world that got caught in the crossfire."

"Hey man, I've... I've been there. I dropped my pants in front of a boss once. I'm glad Prismo's been... good for you?"

She pointedly ignored the look Cake was shooting her. A look that said "We're talking about this later."

"I... I can't say I expected you to relate but... Thank you. I hope you've found a healthy place as well." Scarab rubbed the back of his head, chittering awkwardly.

"Soooo.... Five days, huh? You guys have like, a place to crash or...?"

Scarab made an exacerbated sigh. "Don't get Prismo started on that Glob forsaken rust bucket he's conjured."

"I got us an RV!"

Fionna nearly choked on her soda at the truly defeated look Scarab was wearing.

"Prismo, that vehicle is terrible, and it smells like pickle brine."

"It's great, you're just cranky, Lovebug."

"Lovebug" Cake whispered, which Fionna shushed.

"We're gonna be camping out outside of town in the RV. So, if you wanna like, come hang out for a cookout or whatever, you're welcome to!"

Fionna smiled at the kind of infectious enthusiasm from Prismo. It was kinda childlike, but in an endearing way.

"Well, if you're looking for stuff to do, we'd be happy to give the grand tour. It's a nice place, when you're not trying to erase it from reality."

Scarab had the decency to avert his gaze but gave an amused smile. "That sounds like an acceptable plan. I'd personally like to know where there's a good place to eat, if for no reason than to veto Prismo's pickle for dinner idea."

"I was winning you over, you gotta admit."

"I will do no such thing, Prismo, it was a terrible idea."

"Aw man... Well, let's get out of here then! C'mon! Lets see the sights!"

"Let's go then, honey" Cake encouraged. "Maybe we could go thrifting and get him into something without buttons" she added as she pointed at Scarab.

Prismo squealed in excitement as he shot up, bounded out of the apartment, nearly dragging Scarab along behind him with a less than dignified yelp, barely enough time to get his cane back under him.

Fionna looked at Cake. Then back at the open door.

"Sooo... They're, like, bon-"

"Oh, they're fucking."

#prohibitedwish #scarab x prismo #scarab the god auditor #prismo the wishmaster #fionna and cake #fionna campbell #fionna the human #cake the cat #prohibitedwish fanfic #wrath of the wishmaster

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faislittlewhiteraven · 9 days

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Undertale/ISaT crossover thoughts 3

(aka the 'Sif and family explore The Island' edition)

Had a lot of Undertale/ISaT crossover thoughts (here's the post for how I'm crossing them over in general, and here's the post for an overview of each of the three major plot lines) but most of my actual thinking has been about Sif and family exploring The island so I'm gonna go into some depth for once rather than overview and hope this is useful for ideas for anyone writing any sort of 'Sif and family go to Sif's homeland' fic rather than the Undertale crossover centric stuff most of the other posts have been.

Side note: Location names in my notes is very minimal at this point as I generally look up names last when plotting anything. But er, working name of the Island is The Isle of Chara (because Undertale's Chara is kind of a big deal in this actually and good odds the final name will probably have Chara in it) so please keep that in mind in case I somehow end up typing that somewhere here in my notes.

---

Start:

Sif and family's plot starts with the return of colours and memories (caused by the breaking of the Barrier by the monsters). A day is spent kind of just 'emotionally reacting' to all that (Sif's kind of overwhelmed and in tears) but next day the group actually sit down and discuss whether it's worth them going or not because, yes they are the Saviours of Vauguard and yes they're right next to Bambooche but well, who knows what state the Island is in right now and if it turns out to be... Unpleasant, it is definitely going to hit Sif hard.

Siffrin, naturally does want to go, but am definitely having Sif mentally going over all the potential horrors of the situation (everyone just... Vanished without a trace leaving empty streets and homes? Piles of skeletons because everyone died in an instant? His parents completely untouched by the passage of time wondering why he, an adult stranger covered in scars is claiming to be their missing child?) before confirming with the others he's up for this and that they'll need his Island language skills in case of survivors and for reading signs and records anyway.

How do they get there:

At first the think of taking a boat but well, turns out the Island wasn't the only thing erased from memory and as they reach Bambooche it becomes apparent that- Oh! That 'spooky hill everyone just avoids' is actually a really big and complete with steel, concrete and 'our world modern' tar road bridge, that goes all the way out over the ocean and clearly extends towards the Island.

Cue Party stopping by Bambooche's harbour and the local House of Change to get an idea of options: The House also wants to send people to Vauguard's new/old neighbours (in general all the Houses in Vauguard are very curious and there's a ton of messengers and 'Message Craft' going back and forth everywhere right now) and they promise to get the word out to everywhere (including the press) that the Saviours of Vauguard are investigating so no one has any reason to worry. Cue awkward/nervous Mirabelle laughing and trying not to freak out at the pressure of being so important... Again! While many local sailors are willing to make the trip but well, prepping the ships for an unknown landing will take a while and everyone is nervous about the 'was apparently always there' giant bridge looming overhead (what if bits of it fall?).

So after a bit of back and forth the party go for the bridge. It needs people to check it for structural damage and Sadnesses anyway and the party have people capable of handling both (gives Nille construction analysis skills) so welp!

Bridge:

Actually approaching the bridge the party spy some weird 'metal lumps' that as they approach several members of the group (not just Sif) recognise as long abandoned cars. Which are everywhere, to the point its genuinely hard to get around them, and the group realise the 'little building next to the bridge' is actually the entrance for an underground car park. Cue the group finding a 'building' built into the base of the bridge; sadly the door is locked and despite Isabeau and Nille's best efforts they can't smash it open, but Sif's pretty sure it's probably the door to a train station judging by the glass and metal tube they can see running from the side of the building base all the way under the bridge.

Cue talk on what the crab a train even is as they make their way back onto the actual bridge and start climbing and hopping over the sea of cars (Odile wants everyone to know she hates all this jumping btw), but the silly vibes stop dead when the groups starts seeing the remains of car wrecks and some never buried corpses left at the wheel/caught between two lots of crumpled metal (it's been like 18 years so they're pretty much all picked clean skeletons but yeah, Bonnie is definitely having their eyes covered by Mira). ...Isabeau points out that all the cars and remains here very definitely indicate that the people of the Island were not instakilled/frozen in time by whatever happened and, most likely, they were hit by the memory erasure effect and those who could remember how tried to flee the Island for places less detrimental to their psyches but... It's honestly kind of amazing that there aren't more crash wrecks and bodies given how mentally distressed everyone driving must have been.

It doesn't help cheer anyone up but the observation is noted (Sif keeps getting shoulder pats from everyone since well, this isn't the worst case scenerio but it's pretty bad), and the group continue walking until finally they reach a 'Craft' Station (think gas station but like, magic wish stuff for fuel or something. Thinking there's a favor tree 'tank' next to the building and everything) where they find a few scribbled notes in Vauguardian from the last worker there (bilingial type, lived on the island, trying and failing to remember the island and 'something, someone?' important they left there, decided to head for Vauguard but only after noting down everything they can and making sure all the 'time preserving seals' on the food storage containers are working properly. Just in case someone needs them) and a whole heap of fridges and 'glass cases' with somehow still fresh food inside them. Sadly the cooking implements in the building weren't nearly as resistant to the flow of time but the group decides they'd rather spend the night outside in their tents anyway so they set up camp, Sif shares more of what they do and don't know about all this weird stuff they keep encountering (some but not a lot; Sif recognises the appliances and roads but their coastal hometown was much more 'traditional' and they don't have a clue how all these high tech craft machines actually work outside of making sure they're set up right and flicking a switch) and have a nice dinner before going to sleep.

Next day is walking, with a side order of more walking. Mood is a bit better after talks and rest, but most of this gets skipped (during which the precipitation that collected on the bridge during the cold night evaporates into a thick fog, and then starts slowly clearing up under what looks like strong sunlight) until the group finally see the actual island itself for the first time and- Oh wow. That's an actual city (for an idea of the visuals please imagine the city in the background of the Undertale credits scene where Papyrus is driving along a bridge in a car). Group are blown away because, damn, somehow they weren't expecting that (this is waaay too big a place for them alone to explore, thank goodness the Houses will be sending teams in soon) except for Siffrin who promptly recognises the place as something of a tourist/heavily Vauguardian influenced city that he used to visit on rare occasions with his parents: Usually for big events like going to see a big theatre production on his birthday or to attend the Island's biggest Change festival (brought over by the large Vauguardian immigrant population) which his mom's family always loved attending.

The City:

Takes the group another hour or two to actually reach the city itself (walking takes time alas) but when they get there, yep there sure are a lot of signs in Vauguardian and little Change God statues everywhere. ...Also a lot of signs of looting and unchecked plant growth and 'feral' animals everywhere but most of the buildings look pretty good (Odile is still instantly 'none of us are entering going up or down any floors past ground level in any of these without good reason before Nille/other professionals can check them over for instability' though), and though it takes a bit of awkwardly trying to read a rotting signpost map, Sif is able to guide everyone to the central train station...

Which still has its automated trains working!!! (Sif takes a moment to brag about how 'of course they're still fine! All public transport systems are safe guarded by the best protections applied Wish craft can manage' before wondering why they feel so proud of that something their dad used to say a lot?) Cue party quickly finding the 'Vauguard line' which, yes is working and is just waiting for passengers, and (before proper discussion of 'do we take the train back to Vauguard and unblock the station doors on the other end' can be had) a trainline that stops by Siffrin's home town down by the Island's Southern coast.

...Needless to say, they go for Sif's hometown first (they're 100% planning on unblocking the Vauguard station's door at the nearest possible opportunity afterwards though).

Cue silly scenes of everyone boarding the train, comments being made of the silly 'mascot' figures in black and white everywhere (thinking I may cameo Ingo and Emmet in setting), Odile mentioning that she remembers riding trains -much less sleak and automatic than these ones- in Ka Bue during her youth (presumably their use being associated enough with the Island they were forgotten about when the Event happened), Isabeau turning out to be majorly freaked out by the closing doors and general nice vibes before whooosh they're off to Sif's hometown.

Siffrin's hometown:

Party get a nice scenic view of the coast and a lot of 'old fashioned if fancy' looking coastal buildings as the train zips along and pulls into an elegant if overgrown looking station (I'm thinking greek column/smooth plain stone everywhere vibes and IDK why).

One side of the station leads away from the coast in the direction of what looks an actual town, while the other goes towards the coast and in general seems like a much quieter 'district', with lots of more old fashioned looking buildings (some clearly more damaged by the years without care than others), lots of trees, boat houses and cobbled pathways.

Naturally Sif immediately heads in the direction of the coast, at first slow then running ahead as he recognises the streets and houses before finally stopping at a house in very good condition. Party catch up and yeah... This is Sif's home. That tree had a swing, the marks on the door are from when Siffrin got it into his head to try carving 'stars' on everything for 'good luck', that over there is the 'public door' to Dad's observatory he left open to the public because all Islanders deserve to have unrestricted access to the stars but just as often people from town would just walk right through the house to get there because Mom loved having so many guests and their 'private family rooms' all had locks so letting people freely wander their home was fine and-!

...Yeah Siffrin is terrified of going in alone but fortunately their family of choice is there and well, in they go.

Everything inside is in equally good nick (the place itself is simple and homey but also clearly high quality stuff everywhere) and somehow only very barely dusty, though the group are quick to notice that all the cupboards are bare, there's clear signs of someone searching and packing away things (books all over, things left open, scattered things like bowls and cups -someone trying to decide what to take?) and well. There's a bunch of notes, written in Vauguardian on the kitchen table. Odile reads it out:

The writer cannot remember her name, or where she is, her family which she knows she must have because there's three plates here, just as there are three bedrooms and one of each is for a child she can't remember she can't remember but. She can think enough to write things down, to check on her neighbours and get them to eat. ...No one can stay here. She remembers Vauguard so it must be safe, and... There's a boat, in the warehouse, she and others can take. She and the friendly boulanger she can't remember he's her friend but she can't remember know how to rig and sail it and they're more coherent than most everyone else so... If they head there, maybe things will be fine? She's always liked Vauguard and the Change religion, always thought about changing herself a little even if he likes her as she is She can't read that last line and Changing would be nice, she thinks. ...though, if the family she must have are looking for her, she'll need to keep some things the same. Darkless kinky hair is unusual isn't it? Especially with the darker skin she inherited from her Vauguardian mother so she'll keep those, but... Oh what if she makes herself really stand out in other ways? Then. Then maybe they'll notice and be drawn to her even if they can't remember any better than she does! She lists the things she does remember about herself once more, where she plans to lead everyone (Dormont is a nice place. The quiet slow pace there might help the others adjust), all the supplies she plans on taking (a porcaline doll. Her 's favorite. Hugs it constantly even though it feels awful), a few complaints about people who absolutely refuse to leave even though they're every bit as mindblanked as the rest of them and leaves an end note inviting anyone who reads this account to please enjoy their rest in her home but to please, please please not damage anything because- Someone else might not want it damaged and. She can't remember, can't handle even entering some of these rooms it hurts too much but. Please. She wants everything here to remain where it is, until the people who belong here can return.

...

So um. Yeah.

Big group hug and tears are had but Sif being Sif tries to push on quicker than they should, group reluctantly accept that he might just need some time to process and with Sif's blanket permission ("It's my family house. You're my family, so you can go wherever you want") most split into smaller groups inspecting all the rooms and things, with Odile and Isa checking out Sif's dad's study, Bonnie immediately poking their nose into Sif's childhood room dragging Sif along to tell them all about everything in there (Sif is having like all the nostalgia, heart ache and 'genuinely wanting to show Bonnie all the cool things, oh! The toy aeroplane that actually flies =D' moods right now), and Nille and Mira giving the more rummaged areas a quick look over since well. Good odds they may be here a while and knowing where stuff is might be handy.

During this period thinking Mirabelle should have something of a mild freakout for many reasons over the thought that Euphrasie -her mother/mentor figure- could possibly be Siffrin's mindwhammied birth mother because Dormont was mentioned, and the Head Housemaiden never really talks about her past and she knew of Wish Craft, and has that genuinely really rare darkless kinky hair and the hand writing on the note seemed familiar and aaaaaaa!!!! Cue giving Nille a scene of trying to help calm Mira down' mostly by pointing out there's no way they could possibly know the truth right now, pointing out that post the return of colours they can't really be sure what 'darkless' they're even talking about here, and Sif still flinches whenever Euphrasie is mentioned due to how much he associates her with the loops so if they ARE related... It's probably going to be a good long while before they can even consider reconnecting anyway so Mira has plenty of time to sort through her feelings on this, talk to the related parties to confirm if her suspicions have anything to them, and Euphrasie would probably need even more time to process it all than Sif and Mira will put together (good odds she'd currently be going through a massive breakdown/freakout back in Dormont over realising she has a kid she has no idea the identity, well being or anything of).

Mostly out of direct 'scene to scene' stuff at this point but thinking the group end up spending the night in the Observatory, which is MASSIVE and Siffrin sort of manages to awkwardly get across that observatories not directly used for study are always like that because they're basically public churches for Islanders since viewing the guiding light of the stars with others is a holy/community kinda thing but... Also Sif's family on their Dad's side have owned this observatory/the 'star viewing area' on these cliffs for generations and it IS totally normal to spend every other night stargazing with random strangers and to be given near constant lessons on stars and proper behaviour by your Dad so all the other families know you're being properly pious and- Cue everyone being like: 'hey Sif, I think your family might've be a little less 'humble coastal folk' and more 'stupid rich' than you might've realised from the perspective of being a 13 year old, also the notes and diaries in your Dad's study scream political work and someone who arranges a lot of religious stuff' and Siffrin trying to wrap their brain around essentially being the Island's version of Mira but with like, a lot of money on top of that.

Other:

They 100% find the body of someone who killed themselves recently when looking around... Somewhere. (too many days ago for them to have possibly stopped this person but definite confirmation that survivors of the Island might've been hit hard by suddenly remembering and having no support)

Probably meet Undine on the rail system while looking for pockets of survivors still on the island - Undine is doing the same on behalf of the monsters trying to set up a new government so um. Yay happy first contact?

Once Sif's group has met up with the Undertale characters there' definitely gonna be some Sif and Frisk friendship stuff, though probably not before Frisk and Bonnie (and MK?) friendship causes mild craziness.

(...Must have Sif, Isa, Toriel and Sans pun off. I can't write for beans but I MUST! For the PUNS!!!!)

Scene where Siffrin learns the Elder guy who's been looking after all the kids in the Village by Mt Ebott (main area the monsters have set up shop so it'll probably be renamed by Asgore 'Home Town' soon), is their grandfather on their mother's side and a bit of family history. - namely that Sif's mother was half Vauguardian (grandma was sickly and died before Sif was even born), that travelling to other countries and marrying 'outside the island' was seen as something very odd (slight xenophobic attitudes to outsiders?) back in Grampa's day, and a lot of little tidbits about Sif's parents like how his mom loved fishheads so so much, it was Sif's dad who cooked amazing Malanga Fritters with green peppers, the two of them had something of a whirlwind romance bonding over making enchanted things together (dad better at ritual work while mom could just boom! Make things off the cuff without thinking too hard about it) and... yeah. Just... Sif finding one living relative who never, ever expected to see any of his relatives again to boot (also Elder immediately being all 'introduce me to your family- Ah so just like your mother you favor big handsome men! Oh and your little one Bonnie is precious!' the second he gets over the weepy 'I cannot believe it' awkwardness because dang it, Sif deserves to find some additional family on this otherwise incredibly heavy trip)

The exploration into the space warped and Sadness filled Island Capital eventially leads to a lot of weird/heavy revelations about the Island for Sif:

Sif on his dad's side is basically the heir to one of THE big families of the Island (they don't like royalty but the Asterion and Chara families were arguably that in all but name).

His dad was very concerned about the heir of Chara because they were never really seen in public despite the Chara family living in/basically owning the Capital.

There was a genuine fear of the Monsters returning and waging war for the sins committed against their ancestors and a union between the Asterion and Chara families was seen by many as 'Universe ordained' protection against this (Cue Sif having a lot of 'trying not to wonder if my country practiced arranged marriage' squick and really appreciating their parents' choice to keep them well away from the Capital/the really religious types here...)

The Chara family was apparently in charge of protecting and aiding any Monsters found outside Mt Ebott (of which there were actually quite a few!) but according to the official paperwork all of them requested to join the rest of the Monsters under Mt Ebott? (All monsters helping the party point blank state that no one, monster or human, entered the Underground from the Surface before Chara fell)

...Notes on how Monster dust is raw Wish Craft in physical form in the Chara house...

Notes in the Chara house on how the Chara heir wasn't particularly liked, to the point they weren't being given a personal name until they did something to earn it.

Horror lab eventually found in the Chara house. Lots of dusty cages, notes on how people injected with monster dust react to it, etc.

Chara's room. Bare and empty aside from a few potted golden flower plants, a few letters and pictures stuck up on the wall (cue Sif doing a double take recognising their childhood name on some of them -Chara was that penpal of theirs that never responded?), and a few loose floor boards which underneath have scribbled escape plans, very expired food rations, carefully drawn and folded pictures of non human figures crying in cages, and bandages.

--- And... yeah. That last part is very much the 'Chara plotline' stuff kicking in hard but trying to think of little puzzle pieces for Sif and Co to find and slowly piece together into a big old ball of 'Wow, I DO understand why this otherwise very nice and did not deserve this country got accidentally ERASED by this kid actually' hints so um yeah.

Hope you like all the world building/stuff before it gets all 'period horror/drama' at the end there and do feel free to use any of this/give feedback as well. I've spent too long typing this out, my brain is pudding and I'm done on this thinky think train for now XD

#isat #in stars and time #undertale #ut #undertale spoilers #isat spoilers #fais fanfic rambles #post game #fusion fic #writing stuff about the island #fanfiction #worldbuilding #having too much fun with the 'what else did everyone forget' thing #islander euphrasia theory brought up in universe (and set aside because yikes that's heavy given the circumstances)#Siffrin is not having a great time (learning a lot though)#Lotta horror aaaa stuff in the last part for Chara backstory #cw suicide mention #...I need stuff for the non Sif parts of the team to do. Outside of Sif I mean #Like Bonnie running off and uncovering 'kid secrets' with Frisk is easy #but still brain blank on the others mostly #eh got nothing for the undertale cast and loop either so later I guess #for now i sleep #oh apologies if bambooche is misspelt. forgot to look it up and too tired to edit it now so hopefully you all know what I'm on about anyway #cw car accident #cw mention of death #cw implied abuse

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