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clan-sayeed-fic · 3 years

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Business (Kamilah Sayeed & MC)

Previous chapters: 1, 2, 3

Book: Bloodbound (property of Pixelberry Studios)

Pairing: Kamilah Sayeed & MC: Amy (I do not own those characters, they’re the property of Pixelberry Studios as well)

Warnings: angst, strong language, illustrative descriptions of situations full of violence and brutality, might cause distress

Rating: Mature

Author’s note: I’m not a native English speaker, I’m sorry for any mistakes (feel free to correct me).

It's been a month or so since I've posted the previous chapter. From what I remember, we've ended the last part on Kamilah and Amy having an intimate moment. At one point, the girl got second thoughts and left Kamilah's penthouse.

So, here we are, in chapter 4th, right after the situation. I hope you'll enjoy the continuation of the story 💕

Also, I'd like to thank Anons that have been asking me about the fic, and @saratustra4 for asking me about the next chapter 💕 For some reason, it helped me come back to the writing. Also, if I fail my study because of that, I know who to blame hahah *kidding* 😂😂

~2300 words

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Chapter 4

"Fuck..."

Harsh tone flew all the way to smooth surface of the car window, hitting it hard, only to bounce off the reflection of green eyes trapped inside.

Amy brushed stubborn hair away from her blushing face. Blonde strands left marks behind as if they had burned her skin permanently. Her lips were red and hot after the kiss she had shared only a few moments before.

The kiss to which she agreed so foolishly.

What were you thinking, she cursed herself in thoughts, letting anger rage inside her veins. She was slowly losing control over her body as a small spark dared to shine inside her irises.

The girl closed her eyes, leaning against something that felt like a block of ice, rather than her car. Coldness reached nerves under her skin, easing the tension, helping collect thoughts on what she should do next.

Because it didn't seem like fate was on her side that day. Amy forgot to grab her purse from the dresser at Kamilah's penthouse, so she didn't have keys to her car and phone to call for a lift.

But most of all,

she had no courage to come back and face the woman.

What if she suspected anything? Question screamed inside her mind, forcing her to move away from the car. Fear pulled her closer into the embrace of a much greater danger, fooling her judgement.

It tricked her mind enough to make her forget about the threat waiting in the darkness.

***

New York City was resting after a full day of events. It was then that Amy found herself alone in the street, left in the company of her loud thoughts.

The girl considered asking someone for help, but the idea seemed almost equally risky as walking on her own at this hour. It would only call unnecessary attention, not mentioning what could happen if she came across people who wished harm to her family.

Being one of the Paines had its consequences.

Amy moved toward the dark alley. She finally got out of the sight of warm light peeking outside from apartments. It seemed to watch her every move, trying to hunt her down at all costs.

One of the girl's hands moved to her mouth. Fingers subtly traced over her lower lip as to remind themselves of the previous desire. The desire that made Amy feel things she never expected to experience.

Not when it went to vampires.

Her body should have reacted differently. It shouldn't have let her fall for tricks of these beasts. She was supposed to be better than that. Too smart to get fooled by their attractiveness. Too powerful to get fed with their poisonous words.

So what happened this time? What made her give in to Kamilah's touch? What was responsible for this feeling inside, this...

Suddenly Amy heard a noise coming from behind. The urge to turn around and follow the sound was tempting, but she managed to fight it. She had been through the training before, so she knew the most important rule.

Never rely on your sight.

The girl closed her eyes, focusing on the feeling overwhelming her body. Listening to her accelerated heartbeat, accompanied by the growing tension in her muscles as her body sensed attackers.

They were passing through the alley like a shadow desperately seeking for the opportunity to escape the moonlight. To finally creep up on both sides, cutting off only ways of escape. It was too late, and at once, too soon to react, so Amy stood in place patiently, preparing herself for what was to come.

"Who do we have here?" shudders travelled down her spine.

As soon as the voice pierced through her ears, all of the colours vanished from the world around. Values of the surroundings became muted as if they were just a useless distraction for her eyes. Instead, everything took the tones of grey, leaving the earth on its own in the fight between light and darkness.

"She looks familiar, huh?" her eyes moved, following the second voice.

Only to catch a spark of crimson in the man's stare. No one else but vampires could make her body react this way. Their presence heightened her senses, changing them into something inhuman.

The girl raised her hands, showing an act of surrender. She needed to buy herself more time because they still didn't come close enough.

The adrenaline was not high enough.

"Look, guys, I am not looking for trouble," calm tone of her voice hid fear growing inside her chest.

But both men ignored her words, continuing getting closer. It was clear that they didn't realize how big of a mistake it was. Because with each of their step, she was getting better access to thoughts inside their heads.

"Oh, I got this," the one behind her spoke again. "Blonde hair, sweet voice, and even sweeter smell of blood. It must be Paine's daughter."

"I guess we found her without company," the one in front of her tilted his head slightly. "Our master will be so pleased to meet you."

Amy turned her body to the side enough to have a clear view of both of them.

"One more step," the girl growled, feeling every muscle in her body tense.

But it only made them more amused.

"Uuu, I feel threatened," a sarcastic tone challenged her nerves.

It came from the one on her right, a total blabbermouth. Amy squinted her eyes and gazed into his, spotting this characteristic glow inside them, a remnant of humanity. That was a clue to recognize a newly turned vampire.

"You should be," a tiny smile danced in the corner of her mouth.

She turned away from him, focusing all her attention on his friend instead.

And the game began.

Sounds of vampires' talk faded away into the darkness, blending with shadows. As the world around her calmed down significantly, moving in slow motion from then on. The wind on her shoulder became barely noticeable as coldness lost all its intensity in the air. Amy's heartbeat was steady and loud, drumming inside her head, not giving peace. Her blood seemed to stop running inside her veins, replaced by the adrenaline instead.

The same adrenaline that made her green eyes shine with gold, creating a bridge of connection between her and the man. Giving her a sense of his principal thoughts. How badly he wanted to..., kidnap her.

Her mind raced on the wires of his thoughts as she slowly lost herself in the labyrinth of memories. But she stayed there, travelling through his life until she reached the part with his weaknesses. Amy grabbed them with her mind, ready to manipulate his fears. There was only a hint of hesitation before she twisted the most painful memory inside his head, playing with it like a toy.

Until he had no other choice left, but to surrender.

His stare lacked previous confidence, showing unsureness that she planted all over his chest. The roots of anxiety grew deep inside him, almost reaching his dead heart.

That's how the hunter became her prey.

"I am not," Amy whispered, putting the idea inside his head.

"She's not," words left his mouth emotionless.

"I am not your target," her breathing got sharp and unstable, her body was getting weaker one second after another.

"We've made a mistake," he spoke aloud, staring emptily at the darkness.

"What?" the other man's high pitched tone reached them from behind. "What the hell are you talking about, man?"

Amy almost had him wrapped around her little finger, locking the idea inside his mind. Making him realize that she was not the person they had been looking for, that they should let her go free.

But then something interrupted her.

Wires of his mind twisted unexpectedly, pulling her out of this part of the brain. Instead, she witnessed a different memory, finding herself in front of a stranger hidden under a black cloak. A deep shadow covered the person's face, keeping all the features unrecognizable.

But something about the scene seemed so wrong.

"It's not a memory," she spoke, forgetting about attackers. "It's a vision."

She had no control over things appearing before her eyes. Amy wanted to leave the scene, but it was holding her tight in its claws, draining too much energy from her body. The pressure inside her head was growing as the bridge between her, and the vampire was falling apart.

But then the vision deformed, drawing her attention to the figure's movements. Black fabric flew in the air, dancing and twisting in front of her, increasing dizziness. Presence of the mysterious person brought back coldness on Amy's body, stabbing her deep under the skin.

She looked at the stranger one last time to spot a smirk dancing on their pale lips, a smile of victory and pride. But then the vision went blurry, filling her head with unbearable pain.

And at the same time, breaking her connection with the vampire.

"You...you are..." the man stuttered, waking up from the trance. And as soon as he fully realized the threat, his eyes flashed red. "Get her!"

His partner jumped toward Amy immediately, using his vampire speed, leaving her no time to react. So before she even thought about avoiding the attack, he was already there, pushing her away. The force of the hit sent her body high in the air until it met a hard surface of the wall before finally landing on the ground.

Blonde strands of hair changed into light red, dyed by the liquid running down from the wound on her temple. It leaked on her cheek, leaving a mark before her shaky hand wiped it away from the skin. A hiss of pain accompanied by fear escaped her mouth when she realized what happened.

As those green eyes stared emptily at her fingers covered in blood.

"That explains why you're so valuable," the vampire spoke aloud, freed from her influence.

In a flash, both men were standing next to her, tempted by the smell. The flavour of iron tortured their throats, begging to satisfy the thirst.

The leading vampire grabbed her throat, lifting her body against the wall with no mercy. Amy's feet were hanging above the ground, desperately searching for balance. The growing pressure around her trachea caused her to choke in a last-ditch attempt to catch a breath.

"I need to taste it," the younger one licked his lips hungrily, hypnotized by the path of blood on her neck.

Go ahead, Amy's thoughts screamed, challenging, drink, and it's going to be the last thing you ever taste.

"We will deliver her to our master first," the older one interrupted harshly. "That was the plan."

Against these words, his temptation was not any weaker. The desire to dip fangs into the girl's neck was messing with years of training. But at that moment, nothing mattered more than the idea of blood running down his throat as he drinks every single drop from her mortal body.

If only both vampires weren't so distracted, they would have noticed a stranger emerging from shadows.

"I'll take it from here," an icy tone sounded behind their back, drawing attention.

But it was too late.

In one moment, both of them were pushed far away from the girl who fell on the ground heavily, unable to keep balance.

As soon as the grip around Amy's throat loosened up, her lungs began screaming for help. She was desperately searching for air, but it seemed to avoid her chest, leaving her breathless and weak instead. All she saw were blurred figures moving with impossible speed before her eyes. There was no way to guess which ones were her attackers and which one the saviour, no way to figure out who was on the winning side.

But there was no point of knowing that, no hope left for her.

Amy's eyes filled with tears because of the lack of air until she shut them down completely. That's when noises of cracking bones flew through the alley before leaving it alone with silence.

The fight was over.

Hers was over too.

"Amy, I need you to calm down," a familiar voice echoed inside her head followed by a soft hand on her arm. "I need you to focus on my breathing. With me, in..." the woman took a breath, and let it out with the other words," and out."

Amy opened her eyes, but there was nothing else than darkness in front of her. The soothing touch on her shoulder eased her anxiety, helping to follow the advice. Her first attempt failed but soon after the air filled her lungs, giving long-awaited peace.

"Take it easy," Kamilah said when the girl tried to move too rapidly.

"How did you..." her voice was shaky, lacking its previous sweetness.

She looked through the alley nervously, but bodies of vampires were nowhere to find. There was no sign left after the situation that had put her life at risk.

"You forgot your purse," Kamilah interrupted with an explanation as her eyes travelled through Amy's body, searching for injuries. At least other than the obvious one. "I saw your car in the garage, so I knew I have to track you down" she swallowed hard. "Your bleeding made it much easier."

It made Amy realize that she still had her temple and hair covered in blood. Her eyes stared at Kamilah with mistrust, watching her moves.

"Let me take care of it," Kamilah pulled a handkerchief out of the pocket and carefully placed it on the injury.

Amy's hand moved there hurriedly, taking the cloth from her. But as soon as their hands touched, some spark of electricity ran through both women's bodies. Their eyes connected again, gazing deeply into one another with a sudden understanding.

"Apply pressure right here," Kamilah whispered, moving away.

"Let's take you home, shall we?"

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Next chapter: 5

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tag list: @evexofxtime @kamilah-is-queen @scarletheart @helpconfusedpersonhere @ayushixo @nydeiri @vonda-b-real

#choices fanfiction #bloodbound fic #kamilah sayeed #kamilah sayeed fic #bloodbound kamilah #bb mc #bb kamilah #vampires #business fic #angst #choices stories you play #bloodbound choices #bloodkeeper

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realityhelixcreates · 3 years

Text

Lasabrjotr Chapter 79: The Rites of Blood and Knowledge

Chapters: 79/?

Fandom: Thor (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe

Rating: pg 13(Blood)

Relationships: Loki x Reader

Characters: Loki (Marvel),Thor(Marvel) Wanda Maximoff, vision, Bruce Banner

Additional Tags: Post-Endgame: Best Possible Ending (Canon-Divergent), Party Time, In Reference To Blood Mixing Mentioned In The Eddas

Summary: The great ceremonies begin.

The dreams were powerful that night, whisking you off to far away places, off to the increasingly familiar form of the gargantuan space artist. There was a strange nostalgia out here that you were slowly coming to recognize as being not your own. How could it be? You had never physically been here, only visited in dreams.

With green and blue sparkling at your right and left, you drifted along in their orbit, yet another asteroid in a primordial star system.

First Wielder.

The concept filtered through your mind, trailing a warm and wistful longing behind it.

Peace. Eternity. Creation.

Before battle. Before separation. Before imprisonment.

Before all.

The star system was strange: every time you came here, the sun was a little different. A variable star, its brightness oscillating, it was still young and new.

There was only one planet in this system, located fairly close to the star. The presence of the colossal giant perturbed the asteroids and gas around the star, but their great mass prevented them from coalescing.

Comets formed in great numbers from the gas and ice beyond them, whizzing past them, inspiring new drawings. Asteroids clumped up against them; a brush of their great hand sent them flying, to collide into one another, to spin away from their unstable orbit, and join the comets on their cross-system journey, to crash into the singular planet.

The colossus watched with the patience of true immortality, as the planet burned and erupted, filled up with water, and clouds, and sky.

Thoughtfully, they regarded an asteroid they held in one hand, then, with their color-stained fingers, they began to draw.

The wistfulness and regret reached their peak, and you woke up in the empty bathtub, with a thought ringing in your head.

The Wielders always came to a bad end.

******

Loki was somewhat disgruntled to discover that you'd been having these dreams without him. He didn't scold, but his concern was clear. You described them in as much detail as you could, but, to your dismay, he didn't have any explanation for what you'd been seeing while you slept.

It would just have to remain a mystery. The upcoming day was going to be far too busy to dwell on it.

Both you and Loki had dressed in your absolute finest, your armor polished bright, your skirt covered in embroidery, your chest and neck festooned in beads of carved gold and pearl. You still felt a little bit like you were so buried in finery that you became invisible, but you tried to carry it with pride. All of this had been put together especially for you, and that hard work deserved to be shown off.

Loki was so magnificent in his fur-trimmed cloak, and elaborate helmet, you had to firmly tell yourself not to spend the whole day just staring at him all moon-eyed.

Maybe just a few hours.

Today, the Second Feast, was really the main event, as far as this Buridag was concerned. At noon, you would participate in the Blood Taking ceremony, wherin you would 'mingle blood' with the royal brothers, in order to be formally adopted into Asgardian high society. This would cement your status as high enough to advise Loki as one of the most important members of his personal entourage. And before the evening feast, you would perform the ritual that would confirm you as an official Seidkona.

But before that, you would have the time to run around and enjoy the festival.

It was set up like a combination job fair and reenactment fest. Stalls lined the streets and filled courtyards, peopled by the crafters of Asgard. Smiths, armorers, and carpenters, goldsmiths, lapidaries, scrimshanders, and glassblowers. Weavers, spinners, leatherworkers, and dyemakers, artists, musicians, chefs, academics, mages, stonemasons, construction workers, scribes, dancers, and cheesemongers. All the sights, and sounds, and scents, and flavors that made up Asgard were being demonstrated and celebrated.

Your Father and Tara joined you in the streets, and Loki reluctantly released you into their care, having some preparation left to do.

Tara, flouncing around in an apron dress and domed brooches very much like your usual style, gushed over how beautiful you looked, and your father, rather sheepishly dressed in an Asgardian greatcoat and cowl, agreed openly.

“You look like a princess.” he said. “A real one. You...You walk different now. Talk different. You look so strong.”

“Is it me, or are all these people following us?” Tara asked, not very quietly. A few chagrined people in the crowd that flowed in your wake down the street peeled away, and wandered in different directions. The rest either had less shame, or had orders to keep watch over you.

You spared the group a glance. There appeared to be a solid mix of Asgardians and humans, several of which had their phones out. You surmised there would be a new wave of photos of you on the internet over the next few days.

“Keep your cowl up dad.” You advised.

“Want me to run them off?” he offered.

“Nah. I don't really mind if they take pictures of me. Can't really hurt anything.”

“Wasn't so great last time.” Tara pointed out. “I spent a lot of time stanning for you.”

“Well, last time was sensationalized bullcrap. This time is a nice festival. I mean, check out that guy!”

That Guy was a glassblower in his stall, spinning a huge, bubble thin amphora of rose pink glass. You had seen its like before, but never seen one made.

“Oh, they age crystal mead in those! The pink lets in the right wavelengths of light that give it it's shimmering quality.”

“What's crystal mead?” your father asked.

“Don't try more than a few sips, if anyone offers.” you warned. “Asgardians have iron guts. Their booze is way too strong.”

“Yeah, they warned us about that on the plane.” Tara said. “And yesterday, it looked like they had everything divided up by species, so no one got the wrong thing.”

You took them around to various demonstrations: spinners spinning yarn, brewers preparing several of Asgards many alcoholic beverages, apothecaries showing how basic medicines were made, a cobbler putting together a nice pair of boots.

“So, Asgard's really advanced, right?” Tara asked. “Why is everything like Ye Olden Times?”

“Asgard's never had that big a population, even at it height. There just isn't that much demand for mass production. Most things are bespoke, or self-made. Quality depends entirely on the maker, so that, of course, becomes a competition. And that, in turn, becomes a matter of cultural pride. Also, they have thousands of years to get good at what they do, so Asgardian made goods are super high quality, and they judge personal worth by that. I don't think they'll ever automate; it would go against a lot of what they stand for.”

You snagged the three of you a traditional Asgardian snack; fat sausages, wrapped in savory pastry. You thought it might be good to have something else in your stomach before the first ceremony.

Tara called them Asgardian corn dogs, which you couldn't wait to share with Loki, if only to watch his nose wrinkle with disdain over the undignified term.

“So when do we have to let you go?” Tara asked.

You checked your phone for the time, stuffing the last of your sausage into your mouth.

“Eh, I've got a few minutes left. Better start heading over though.”

Your winding path through the courtyards took you past minstrels, impromptu dances, and games, to a large, tall dais that had been put together as a temporary mirror to the throne room. It towered over the City Hall courtyard like a ziggurat. You'd be up there soon enough, but currently...

“Who's that?” your father asked, pointing at a man standing at the top. “Doesn't look like Thor.”

You squinted up at the figure, his bright armor shining in the rarefied sunlight.

“Ah, That's Heimdall. He's the Guardian of Asgard, and god of...uh, sight? I think? Vigilance? It's not quite that neat and simple, you know? The whole 'God Of' thing is a bit more complicated than that.”

“So that's a god?” your father asked. “How can you tell? Are they all gods? What does that even mean?”

“All good questions. Mostly because they are very hard to answer.”

Your father and Tara jerked at the sudden new voice, and, not for the first time, you found yourself amazed at how easily a man of the sheer size and importance as the king of Asgard could sneak up on people.

“Your Majesty.” you said calmly, inclining your head. Your father and Tara dipped into awkward bows, a little awed by the mythical figure before them. Thor didn't necessarily demand obeisance, but he didn't exactly discourage it either; he let people act as they felt appropriate.

“Not every Asgardian is a god.” Thor explained. “Those that are go by the term 'Aesir', a common name through most of the realms for beings of that type. You are born Aesir; you cannot become one by outside influences. However, Aesir nature doesn't always become apparent at birth, it often doesn't manifest until adolescence. As for what it means to be Aesir...that doesn't have so straightforward an answer. I leave it to the philosophers, who, incidentally, are in booth seventy-eight.

Anyway, I have come to collect your daughter for the ceremony. There isn't much time left, so we'd all better get in place. If you go through those two poles there right now, you can get very good seats.”

“This could get a bit weird.” You warned. “It's a ceremony more ancient than any recorded human practices, so it's probably going to seem archaic.”

“Oh, it's not so bad.” Thor said. “It's been updated and refined over all those years. For instance, everyone remains clothed now, and there are at least seventy percent fewer entrails used.”

Your father coughed, and you rolled your eyes. Thor's sense of humor was difficult for you to understand, considering how serious he was about everything. The thing about Thor's jokes was that he might have been joking about something that had really happened, or he might have been joking about something he'd completely made up, but he would never specify which.

“On that note, I've got to go.” you said. “Entrails to sort, and all that.”

Your father coughed again, Tara patting him compassionately on the back.

“Good luck!” she called to your receding back.

******

“Now, you've been fully briefed on what will happen during this ceremony, correct?” Thor asked, as the two of you loitered near the back stairs of the temporary dais. People were filtering in to seats and standing room around the courtyard, waiting for things to start.

“I think so.” you said. “If I've got this right, there's going to be a special dance-”

“The Alignment of the Celestial and Worldly bodies, yes.” Thor said. “It symbolizes everything that must come together to bring the 'adoptee' to the greater 'family'. In this case, it will tell the story of how you came here to join our family.”

A soft warmth crept up your neck, and heated your ears beneath your helmet. You knew it was all socio-symbolism, but the notion of 'joining the family' hit differently now that you were on intimate terms with Loki.

“And then all the braziers will have some kind of incense thrown in, and in the smoke, we'll all go up the stairs like we're magically appearing. Honestly, it sounds like it'll look really cool.”

“All ceremonies contain a bit of theatrics.” Thor agreed. “Perhaps that is the most important part. Or that's the part that makes it important. I wish we still had some of the traditional ceremonial incense, but we just don't have access to the materials anymore. You would have liked it; it was much more floral than most of what you have here. We did manage to get some lavender though. That should be nice.”

“Maybe one day, when the Bifrost is more stable.” You said. It did sound very nice. “Loki said that you, and he, and Heimdall will sing a blessing song?”

“Yes, a divine blessing from a trio of Aesir. It's got to be three. And then...”

“Yeah. And then.” Loki had told you about the bloodletting. He had been very frank about it. “I know. I'm nervous, but not afraid.”

Thor nodded. “Sometimes there are unforeseen effects, but never anything bad. You'll be perfectly safe.”

“I know. The nervousness just comes from knowing it'll hurt. Even if just for a short time.”

You buckled under Thor's hand when it came down on your shoulder, enveloping the whole thing.

“Loki would rather slice out his own guts than draw your blood, trust me. He's been trying to figure out how to get around it for weeks. Unfortunately, the blood is the most important part of the magic. It carries all of the power. It's very old magic: according to him, this is practically the only part of the ritual that has remained unchanged from the beginning.”

“Did there really used to be entrails and naked people, or was that a joke?”

“Ehhh, well, yes and no. This ceremony originated with the Vanir, and they are not opposed to nakedness under certain circumstances. In this case, everyone who attended was expected to leave the clothes they came in at the door, and wear a special loincloth instead. This was actually to prevent violence, by barring hidden weaponry from being brought to ceremony grounds. So rather than pure nudity, everyone was dressed as scantily as was possible.

As for entrails...unfortunately yes, that was also a part of it. A seer would perform a divination using the entrails of a slaughtered animal. That practice was going out of fashion, even before the war, and I don't think anyone today even remembers how it was done.”

You shuddered. Yes, it was a different culture, and a long time ago, but it still grossed you out.

“I'll have to remember to thank Loki for trying to get me out of it, even if he wasn't successful.” You said. He really did put in a lot of effort behind the scenes. If only he were more open about some of that effort, so you could appreciate it more.

“He was adamant about the bull.” Thor said. “Demanded a private ritual the night before. Put your helmet up on the pillar, then sacrificed and butchered the beast himself. Insisted on it. Did our ancestors proud, but you know he knows his way around a knife.”

“I wish he'd told me. I was really stressed about that whole thing. I'm glad, in the end, that he was thinking of me, but I really wish I'd known. I wouldn't have lost so much sleep!”

“It was a little last minute.” Thor admitted. “I approved it the instant he explained, but we had to do it pretty much immediately afterwards. He really should have told you, but I fear my brother is usually more invested in the making of plans, rather than what to do once they come to fruition. I feel you will be a positive influence on him, though.”

Even though he was wearing his eyepatch, rather than the mismatched prosthetic, his one blue eye was open and sincere.

“I think so too.” you said. You already were influencing each other. It was impossible to live so close, to sleep in the same bed, without doing so. But Loki did have a bad habit of assuming things, a by-product of his upbringing as a leader, you supposed. You would simply have to speak up more.

Perhaps you had gotten too comfortable. But perhaps you wanted to be too comfortable. It might be a holdover from your year of struggle, but having someone who wanted to do so much for you was very tempting. You knew it would be better to strive for a balance, but you also knew that, unless Loki somehow diminished himself severely, the two of you would never truly be equals.

But you admired that greatness, and somehow, those all too common flaws in him made him easier for you to love. They made him so real.

An ambling drum beat started up, accompanied by the brassy ting of zills, and a flute. Loki joined you and Thor in peeking out around the dais, just as a group of dancers spread out around the courtyard.

You'd been told that the dancers represented personages from history and legend. You were pretty sure that the three women who orbited the dance stage equidistant from one another must be the Norns, and you assumed the cluster of people standing beneath a glittering tree branch and clanging their zills were probably meant to be the ancestors of the royal family.

The dance told a story of a woman dressed like you, and a man dressed like Loki, wearing silver bells at their wrists and ankles that jingled with every step. They made everything look so much more graceful and sensual than it really had been: Holding hands like the rune branding had been on purpose, dancing circles with each other, like everything had been friendly and not at all awkward from the very beginning. How elegantly 'you' swooned into 'his' arms, while the assassin was caught. How triumphantly 'you' defended 'him' against the Huldra. And how beautifully 'he' clasped 'you' in a romantic, yet properly chaste embrace.

There was none of the blood, none of the fear, or anger, or petulance, or confusion. No loss, or loneliness, or uncertainty.

But that was how it worked, wasn't it? None of those things could be shown to the general public. This was ceremony. This was spectacle! This was what would be remembered.

The pair danced away, out of sight, the ancestors retreated, and the Norns raised their arms in unison. All around the courtyard, attendants dumped incense into the torches and braziers, sending thick smoke and mysterious perfume wafting over the entire area.

“Show's on, darling.” Loki said, grasping your shoulders, and leading you up the stairs. A new wave of anxiety washed over you as you rose above the sweet smelling clouds like a legend. Heimdall stepped aside to let you pass, Loki and Thor leading you right up to the edge of the elevated platform, where waited a podium, upon which rested a brass bowl. An unfamiliar rune was stamped on its bottom. So that was where the magic would happen.

Thor held his hand out over an unlit brazier just in front of the podium and concentrated. Scarcely a moment later sparks danced between his fingers and jumped to ignite the fuel. The light illuminated the clouds of incense, obscuring the audience. Cut off thus from every other person out there, you didn't flinch as the trio of gods each placed a hand on you, and began to sing.

You couldn't help but wonder if they had done this before. It was a complex song, with rising and falling harmonies, parts layered over one another, something that couldn't have been easy to learn. As their voices dipped and flowed, you felt the power rising, just like out in the camp, months ago. Why could you sense divine power? Was it because of your magic? Was there anyone out in the crowd that could feel it too?

Thor's good eye had begun to sparkle with crackling white energy, the power of the blessing he was singing into you. You assumed Heimdall, behind you, was lighting up orange, and when you turned your head to glance at Loki, you were suffused with the gentle glow of the blue light from your dreams.

All of the anxiety drained out of you at the touch of that light, your arms dropping to your sides as relaxation took over.

Everything was all right. Loki was right beside you. Thor and Heimdall were with you, their voices reverberating through you, their blessing upon you. The rare winter sun filtered down over you like a blanket, as the last notes of the Aesir's song filled your head.

Loki gently took your hand, gazing earnestly into your face as the calming light faded from his eyes.

“Forgive me, my love.” he whispered.

A sudden, painful jab, ripped you out of your cocoon of sunny calm. With a sharp cry, you turned to stare at your fingertip, pierced deeply by the tip of one of Loki's knives.

Loki held your hand over the brass bowl, letting the blood drip, enough to cover the rune at the bottom. Then he tenderly bandaged the tiny wound, lines of regret around his eyes. Thor held his hand out for a slash, and then Loki turned the blade on himself. Blood slowly filled the little bowl, as a light throbbing started in your head. Every drop that rippled its surface was like a giant heartbeat within you.

Once it was full, Thor and Loki began singing again, lifting the small bowl between them. They held it up to the sun, and then poured it onto the burning brazier. The fire sputtered, sizzling, sending a huge cloud of smoke directly into your face. You gagged on the scent of burning blood, practically bathed in it, a layer of death-scent on your skin. The song cut through it, thrumming in your ears, an echoing promise of cherishment and fidelity.

The blood burned down into nothing, the smoke slowly clearing. All of the people in the courtyard came back into view, the upturned faces solemn. The dancers below picked up the chorus.

And you understood them.

Loki took your hand and lifted it up, flourishing to the crowd. They cheered, while you stood there, stunned. You understood what they were saying, their enthusiastic calls, their songs. The blood smell lingered in your nose, the throbbing swiftly receding from your head.

He led you to the stairs down as you wobbled, but you never made it all the way down. Dizziness overcame you, and you collapsed into Loki's arms.

#lasabrjotr #loki (marvel)#loki x reader

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nataliejoyart · 4 years

Text

Good Ending: Cliffside Benches and Mellohai Sunsets

I wrote a “Good Ending” to the dSMP storyline where Tommy and Tubbo run away from it all. This is actually a bit of something where I’m considering taking on the huge project of writing the entire dSMP storyline into story form, follow the obvious main character: Tommyinnit.

This story is longer than I thought it’d be and the first half contains a lot of probably unnecessary storytelling, but I had a lot of run writing it. Feedback is always welcome, and I hope you enjoy!

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“I know, I can see it in your eyes, I can hear it in your voice,” Wilbur chuckled, pulling Tommy closer so he could hiss in his ear, “Tommyinnit, you’re scared.”

Eyes tearing and wide, Tommy backed away from his older brother’s grip, tripping over the loose gravel and falling to Pogtopia’s floor. “No,” he protested weakly, “No! Wilbur-”

“I understand you’re scared, Tommy,” Wilbur went on, coat sweeping out behind him, casting longer shadows than Tommy remembered it had before. Somewhere on one of the upper levels, Tommy was aware of Technoblade lurking, watching the scene play out below him, “And it’s scary, it’s scary Tommy! But do you know what?”

Tommy wanted to know what had caused Wilbur to snap. He wanted to know why Techno wasn’t interjecting. He wanted everything to just go back to normal-

“In a time like this when a man has nothing to lose, do you know what that means?” Pogtopia’s unstable leader glanced wickedly over his shoulder, “It means we can do what we want.”

Wilbur exclaimed without hesitation, “This is a new era! We burn the place to the ground-”

“Wilbur!” Tommy interrupted, reaching a shaking hand out towards his brother, praying he could find the words. Any words. Just… something to reason with, “I-it’s… it’s not too far gone, alright?. There’s a reason-” There really wasn’t one. Except Schlatt, but Tommy knew if he mentioned the goat’s name now, Wilbur would be dead-set on his decision to detonate L’Manberg. And now he was stumbling over his words, “It isn’t too far gone!” he insisted, “Y-y-you keep on talking about it like…”

Wilbur gave his younger brother a moment to try and grasp for any meaning. But after finding none, he asked dryly, “What’s the point? More blood would be shed, and we would be the illegitimate rulers of a nation-”

“You’re being reckless, Wilbur!” Tommy cried, the desperation fluttering in his chest becoming more and more suffocating as he could see the light fading from his brother’s eyes. Glancing towards Techno, he hoped the king would step in soon. “The reason we made L’Manberg in the first place was to get away from it.” Wilbur gave Tommy a dissatisfied glare before marching away, “Because we needed L’Manberg. And if there isn’t L’Manberg-” Tommy lurched forward, yanking at Wilbur’s coat and putting on his bravest face as his brother was jerked to a stop, “then what was the point in all this?!”

Tommy remembered the morning he left the Antarctic Empire. Techno’s Empire, where he had been safe and… well, not particularly warm, but he had certainly been loved. He and Tubbo had stepped through the portal into a new, open land with only the clothes on their backs, swords at their hips, and three disks and a jukebox to play into the sunsets. After years of watching his brothers succeed, Tommy was certainly determined to carve out his own slice of history at only nine years old.

Now, seven years later, Tommy regretted having ever walked into Dream’s realm. If he hadn’t convinced Tubbo to run away with him that morning to go on some stupid kid’s adventure, they could have still been together. Tommy could have sparred with Dream during MC Championships instead of on crimson battlefields. Wilbur wouldn’t have come looking for the boys, only to turn a squabble over some disks into an all-out war.

But... there wouldn’t have been L’Manberg, and the exhilaration of hard-won victory. No perfecting of sword skills or lightheartedly teasing masked men.

There would have been no cliff-side benches and Mellohai sunsets.

So perhaps… Tommy didn’t entirely regret running away seven years ago on a stupid kid’s adventure. But he wished he could have his country back. His friends back. His family…

Techno shifted above them. Tommy released the breath he hadn’t realised he’d been holding, hope brimming in his reddening eyes. But the man merely slunk deeper into Pogtopia’s walls, leaving Tommy entirely alone to deal with their deranged brother. What was Techno thinking, letting things slide completely out of control like this? Was he really going to let Wilbur get away with this? Or was he just unable to listen to his brother spiral out of control and needed some fresh air?

He had to vainly convince himself it was the latter in order to not completely break down as Wilbur brushed past Tommy, seemingly unmoved by his brief speech.

“Tommy, why not?” Wilbur asked in an even tone, dragging a hand across a chest thoughtfully as unseen plans danced across his hundred-yard stare, “Why not? Our nation’s gone. Our nation’s far behind us, Tommy.” The man’s chestnut brown eyes snapped up to meet his younger brother’s. But they were manic and cold, not an ounce of the warmth that they’d once held existing in their tired depths. “Let’s blow that festival to smithereens.”

Tommy opened his mouth to retort again, but Wilbur was spiraling.

“That guy Tubbo?” he scoffed, before adding softly, “Love Tubbo… But, let’s be honest, he’s not on our side-”

Neck prickling, Tommy’s breath hitched. What could Wilbur possibly mean by that? Tubbo fed Pogtopia information almost every evening about Manberg. Sure, the brown-haired boy said a few excited things about Schlatt or the new buildings, but when it came down to it, Tubbo was loyal. Tommy knew Tubbo was loyal.

“Everyone who’s claiming to be on our side,” Wilbur went on, wild grin spreading across his face as he grabbed the side of his head, “they’re lying to us! Tubbo? He’s lying to you man!”

“No,” Tommy protested, forcefully swallowing the lump forming in his throat, “No!”

“He would drop us at the second he realises we’re not in the lead anymore,” Wilbur spat, gaze boring into Tommy.

“No, stop it!” Tommy finally shouted, unable to listen any more. Just not Tubbo.

Suddenly, Wilbur’s gaze softened, and he cooed, “You’re trying to sound like you know what you’re doing so that you can prove me wrong.” Laughing breathily, he shook his head, “Tommy, none of us know what we’re doing. We’re screwed. We were screwed the moment we were thrown out!”

Stepping on top of a stack of chests to tower over his younger brother, Wilbur threw his arms out wide, “We blow up the entire nation to kingdom come! I want no survivors. God help whoever’s caught in the crossfire!”

That was it. That was the moment Tommy knew it - Wilbur was too far gone.

As Wilbur broke into a broken chuckling, staring into his hands as though everything in his world suddenly made absolute sense, Tommy heard someone’s footsteps from above. They were too light to be Technoblades, though, but not light enough to be Tubbo’s. Someone else was in Pogtopia.

Drawing his sword, Tommy twisted around with a grimace to face whatever threat he certainly wasn’t rested for.

It was Dream.

The man himself, coming down in his green hoodie, enchanted porcelain mask hiding the face Tommy had never fully seen. There was a suspiciously lumpy sack thrown over the ruler’s shoulders, and Tommy almost missed the flicker of a red cloak above him. Had Techno done this? Had he brought Dream in hopes the man could set Wilbur straight?

Before Tommy could confront Dream, however, Wilbur was rushing past him.

“Dream! Hello!”

Stepping down into Pogtopia’s depths, Tommy found it curious that Dream wasn’t staring around the ravine. His masked focus was solely on Wilbur. The boy couldn’t help but wonder if Dream had already made trips to Pogtopia. Whether by invitation or on his own, it didn’t matter now.

“Have you heard that Schlatt’s having a festival?” Wilbur asked slyly, his frantic pacing becoming more and more obvious as he swept around Pogtopia’s base, hands seeming to speak more that his actual mouth.

“Oh…” Dream began casually, letting the sack rest at his feet as he brushed a piece of dirty blonde hair out of his face, “I have been out all day, so I did not hear that.”

“Well,” Wilbur chuckled, “He’s putting on a big festival to celebrate democracy and Manberg’s new ‘Era of Peace’. They’re supposed to have games and everything! Tubbo’s even got a speech he’s writing.”

Dream scoffed. It was amazing how much emotion the mysterious ruler could convey behind that simple, cold smile painted onto his mask.

“It got me thinking-” Wilbur continued, “You’d enjoy a little chaos, wouldn’t you? A little conflict between Pogtopia and Manberg?”

For a moment, Dream seemed hesitant, shoulders arching as he grunted the beginnings of an answer.

Wilbur wasn’t prepared to listen, so convinced he was right. “I understand you have a lot of TNT - a lot of that good ol’ trinitrotoluene in your possession, don’t you.”

“I, uh…” Dream admitted, foot absently nudging that odd sack closer, “I do…”

Twirling around to face the masked man, Wilbur reached out and grasped Dream’s hands, “Dream. Let me be your vassal.”

There was a moment of taken-aback silence. Wilbur’s eyes sparked into a raging fire of derangement. “I want to set something up for the festival - I want to rig the city.”

Tommy’s heart dropped. The idea was bad enough, but at least before it had been only that. Pogtopia had no TNT. Not even the items to craft some. Now, a man stood in their midsts who was known for his elaborate, destructive capabilities. And Techno… had brought him here…

Dream was silent for a long moment.

Tommy took his chance, “No, no Dream-” he said, stumbling forward and pushing his brother aside. A shiver ran down his spine. Dream may be a “neutral” party right now, but Tommy would never forget the horrors this man had brought down upon him. “Don’t give it to him.”

The mask shifted ever so slightly. Those painted black dots - that eery smile. It was too chilling. Tommy stood several inches taller than Dream now, but he felt so, so small under that quiet gaze.

“I have to.”

Tommy shrunk back. “What…?”

All hope was lost. Dream had seemed to be here at first to settle Wilbur, but of course Wilbur knew exactly what to wave in front of the green man’s nose to get him to cave - chaos. Chaos had been what Tommy and Dream bonded over when he and Tubbo had first stumbled into this man’s land. Teasing and prodding and sparring and good-natured chaos.

Wilbur let out a chilling chuckle. “The thing you’re not understanding, Tommy, is that Dream wants both Pogtopia and Manberg to be weak. That’s it! And I’m here to help you!” Wilbur mentioned, drawing Dream’s attention back to himself, “I’m hear to weaken both of us. So much.

“Manberg and Pogtopia… will be nothing more.”

“But this isn’t right!” Tommy shouted, completely confused how everything had turned so wrong. “This isn’t the moral thing to do! Dream, how… how could you agree to this?”

That was a ridiculous question. Tommy knew it as soon as the words escaped his mouth. Dream had declared war on the two brothers not very long ago. Of course he’d do anything to drag them down further.

Turning to face Tommy, Dream said, “I do want Pogtopia and Manberg to be nothing more.” Reaching out and placing hid hands on Tommy’s shoulders, the green man continued, “But I want L’Manberg to be something.”

Shoving Dream away, Tommy stumbled back a few steps. “Why do you want L’Manberg to be something? Your the reason we had to make L’Manberg!”

With a deep sigh, Dream explained slowly, taking time to pick his words carefully, “Schlatt is… ambitious. And that’s a bad thing. He wants power, he wants land, he wants to expand. You guys having your own little space where you… frolicked around in the flowers… That’s fine by me. I don’t care. But-”

He was cut off by Wilbur’s maniacal chuckling. “Dream, this has made me ambitious!” he declared, “Dream, if I’m taking power again, I will be ambitious! So let me blow it up! Let me destroy it all!”

Dream took one last look at the unhinged ex-president in front of him before shoving the sack froward with one foot. It fell open, revealing carefully-crafted sticks of TNT. “If you plan on taking out the entire nation, you’ll need more than this,” he explained simply. They were speaking like someone was planning a wedding, not terrorism, “I’ll have enough to you for the job by morning.”

“Wilbur,” Tommy pleaded, watching as Wilbur took a stick from the bag with a wide smile, inspecting it admiringly, “this isn’t right.” The boy made a move to take hold of the sack, but was stopped but a glimmering diamond axe. Dream lifted his chin ever so slightly. Tommy knew that expressionless expression - he’d lose a hand if he tried anything.

Scoffing, Wilbur scooped the sack from the floor and started towards his room, “Tommy, you were never in charge. And if you’re not going to side with me, you might as well leave.” Apparently the older brother didn’t realise just how hard those words hurt, because he turned right back to Dream, “Thank you, Dream. I promise I won’t let you down.”

Beginning towards the surface, Dream offered, “If you need any help, just let me know,” as he slipped quietly up Pogtopia’s stone staircases.

“Oh, and Dream?” Wilbur called before both men completely disappeared, “When Tubbo starts doing his speech, you may want to leave-”

Tommy froze.

“-because that’s when I’m going to detonate the whole place.”

But then that meant…

You can’t exactly give a speech in the middle of a rigged festival and expect to be safe from a TNT blast.

Tommy whirled around so quickly to race up the stone staircase that he skidded in the dirt and crashed into the first step, chin painfully connecting with the slab. The adrenaline pumping through his system was so overwhelming he completely ignored the pain and stumbled up the steps. A lump was forming in his throat as he climbed, tears he’d been holding back now for too long welling to the surface.

Just before the final climb, Tommy found his path blocked. Technoblade was seated quietly, polishing his jeweled crown with a clean rag. His brother looked up from his job calmly, piercing red eyes emotionless as he looked over his distraught baby brother.

Unable to choke out all the words of anger and disappointment tumbling through Tommy’s mind, the boy shoved his brother aside as the first tears fell and raced up to the surface. He didn’t notice as he passed Dream, sobbing fitfully as he sprinted towards Manberg’s unmarked border.

The green ruler watched him go, chest aching with guilt. Dream still remembered the day he’d found Tommy and Tubbo wandering the winter woods like it was yesterday. He still remembered how jealous he’d been when he found out Tommy and Tubbo already had adoptive families in some other land that the boys were completely enveloped in. He still remembered pushing aside his jealousy as he helped them both to perfect their skills. Whatever family they had come from didn’t matter to Dream. They were his younger brothers. Though he’d never say it out loud. Especially not to Tommy.

Not a single monster interrupted Tommy’s race to Manberg. That, or he was too blinded in his rush to reach Tubbo that he never noticed the monsters hiding under bushes and around tree trunks.

Tommy normally hesitated and fluttered around Manberg’s borders. Schlatt’s threats to kill Pogtopians on-site weren’t empty. But that evening, Tommy ran right over the invisible line, scrambling to reach L’Manberg’s wooden path in the distance. The all-too familiar buildings that began to flash by him made his heart ache. The idea of them all disappearing into piles of rubble made his head spin. How had it all gone so wrong?

It was incredible, the unspoken connection between Tommy and Tubbo. Neither had to say or do anything and yet the pair were always in perfect tandem with each other.

Tubbo was already at the cliff’s edge outside Tommy’s L’Manberg base, staring out into the open landscape with melancholic, sea-blue eyes. He kicked his legs gently, ignoring how he was scuffing his shined dress shoes. There were likely grass stains forming on his dress pants, and he had thrown aside the suit jacket and tie, but still managed to look stuffy in his white button-up and suspenders. There was already a jukebox next to him, softly echoing an all-too-familiar tune Tubbo had taken from one of Tommy’s chests across the cliffside.

As soon as he caught sight of his friend - his right-hand man - Tommy faltered, unable to think of what would happen if he lost Tubbo. All the more desperate to be with Tubbo, Tommy let out a strangled cry and clawed his way up to the path. Tubbo was standing there, waiting when Tommy appeared. The brown-haired boy’s head was cocked to one side curiously.

“Tommy?” he called, watching as a very disgruntled Tommyinnit stood some twenty feet away, gasping for air, “What are you doing here-”

Tommy stomped forward, wrapping Tubbo in a tight embrace. He held on like he’d never let go. Like this was the last chance he’d ever get to hold on to Tubbo.

Laughing nervously, Tubbo carefully returned the embrace, glancing around to make sure no Manberg citizens were watching. “Hey, man, what’s up? Everything… everything alright?”

Tommy squeezed Tubbo a little tighter, saying nothing. His friend’s chocolate brown hair was soft and clean, and his shirt smelled of the poppies that flourished in L’Manberg’s walls. Here, everything was alright. With Tubbo, it didn’t matter if Manberg and Pogtopia were scuffling. Because all that matter was that they were together.

After breathing in the moment until his tears dried, Tommy stepped out of the embrace, holding Tubbo by his shoulders and staring deep into his friend’s soft blue eyes.

“What’s going on?” Tubbo asked quietly with a nervous smile. He didn’t often see his overly-cheerful friend in such a ruffled state.

Tommy glanced over to their spot on the cliffside. Their oak bench was quietly waiting, and the first clouds were beginning to turn brilliant shades of coral. “Come sit with me.”

And so they sat. The idea of Manberg and Pogtopia dissipated as the sun began to set, and the pair were content, staring out over the world as Mellohai drifted on the subtle breeze.

This, Tommy thought to himself, taking a deep breath, this is how it’s meant to be.

“Tubbo,” Tommy finally began while Tubbo waited patiently, “Tubbo, Wilbur… Wilbur’s lost it.”

“What makes you say that?” Tubbo asked innocently, assuming Tommy was about to exaggerate a petty argument he’d just had with his older brother.

“He wants-” Tommy began instinctively before stopping himself. How was Tommy supposed to explain to Tubbo what Wilbur had planned for Manberg? Could Tommy even tell Tubbo? Letting gout a sigh, Tommy said, “Tubbo, I can’t tell you, but… I just… The festival’s just not going to be a good day. And he… I don’t… He wants to get rid of L’Manberg. And I don’t want that.”

Tubbo frowned gently, still peacefully watching as the sun continued to set, setting the entire sky on fire. “How would he do that? The festival’s gonna be great! I’m actually planning-”

“Because he’s lost his mind, Tubbo!” Tommy burst, shooting up from the bench as all his muscles tensed, “He wants you blown up! He doesn’t believe that-”

Tommy stopped, scowling as he turned around to rip Mellohai from the jukebox, gripping his disk in his hand so tight it could break. The blonde was on the verge of tears again as he burst out, “He doesn’t believe that you’re here to help, alright? He doesn’t even think that I’m here to help! Wilbur’s just… Wilbur’s just too far gone. He thinks this is the end of our era.”

Tubbo took in a sharp breath, pointing out, “Well, but, we have the upper hand-”

“I know we do, Tubbo!” Tommy cried, “But Wilbur’s….” Tommy scoffed, running a hand through his hair, “Wilbur’s not the man he used to be! This war, man-”

“How do I,” Tubbo suddenly interjected, standing slowly from his seat at the bench. He took a step back, face etched with concern and fear that Tommy didn’t understand, “How do I know you’re not just saying this?”

Tommy couldn’t breathe. He felt like he was drowning. Off all the people to give him that look… the same look Tommy was sure he’d given Wilbur… Why did it have to be Tubbo? Why now…?

Taking in a shaking half breath, Tommy bowed his head, staring down at the thick grass under his feet. His boots were caked with mud and had become too small for his feet. His pants had holes in them, and his hands were so calloused from long, hard days that they felt like sandpaper. This was all too much to bear.

Realising how tight he was gripping Mellohai, Tommy sighed.

“Tubbo, I’m going to trust you with something,” Tommy said calmly, staring at his ragged reflection in Mellohai’s surface. Holding the disk out to his friend, Tommy said, “One of three disks. Don’t tell anyone you have it. But just… so that you know I’m not crazy.”

After a brief moment of hesitation, Tubbo stepped forward and took the disk. Once he had, Tommy turned to drink in the last moments of the sunset.

“Someday, Tubbo,” Tommy proclaimed, “I’m going to get all three disks back. And then we can go off and have our little slice of the world that we dreamed about when we first came to this land. But whatever happens, we can only trust each other, alright?”

“Uh-” Tubbo suddenly choked, making Tommy turn around. Was someone there? Had they been discovered?

Tubbo was staring into Mellohai’s surface with wide eyes, shoulders dropped in astonishment.

“Tubbo?” Tommy asked, cautiously peering into his friend’s round face.

In something of a trance, Tubbo wandered back towards Tommy’s base where there were still chests and stoves and beds. Tommy followed, memories flooding back as he stepped up to the doorway of his L’Manberg home. He watched as Tubbo approached the Ender chest tucked in one corner and opened it. Tommy was sure he would just place Mellohai carefully inside, but Tubbo starting taking things out.

Mellohai had distinct purple and white stripes around the center. Tubbo pulled two other disks from his Ender chest - one had a red center, and the other a green. Blocks and Cat.

“Ehm, what?” Tommy asked, walking forward to where Tubbo was standing, “No, that’s not right. This can’t be Cat. Dream has cat. No, wait - BadBoyHalo has Cat.”

Tubbo held out the three disks, hands beginning to shake, “Except that I may or may not have wormed my way into a trade with BadBoyHalo for Cat. And you gave me Blocks all those months ago once you first got it back. With the addition of Mellohai… Now… now I have all three disks, Tommy.”

The pair looked at each other, mouths agape. This… this was Tommy’s everything. His world. Right there, standing in front of him. Tubbo, Mellohai, Blocks, and Cat.

“Tubbo…” Tommy breathed, “Right now, we could just run away from here.”

“We could just start a new life,” Tubbo agreed excitedly.

Tommy broke into the first genuine smile he’d worn in weeks, “We’d have all we ever wanted.”

Tubbo was beaming at this point, “We’d have all we ever cared about!”

The sun dipped past the horizon, giving full reign to a shimmering half-moon. Everything was peaceful. Hushed. Not even the groan of a monster broke that perfect moment.

But Tommy faltered. What about Wilbur? And Techno? And L’Manberg? Was he… was he just about to leave all that behind? Run away again like he did seven years ago?

And if you’re not going to side with me, Wilbur’s words rang in Tommy’s ears, then you might as well leave.

Tommy made the decision there and then. Before he could second-guess himself, he raced around the base, gathering supplies. He wasn’t the stupid kid from seven years ago. He may not have a plan or even a dream right now, but that didn’t matter.

Grabbing Tubbo’s hand, Tommy dragged his friend across Manberg until he found someone’s horse tied up next to a tree. Helping Tubbo onto the horse, Tommy swung up with a bag full of supplies and a netherite sword on his hip. Glancing over his shoulder, there were no questions asked - the resolution was brimming in Tubbo’s eyes as he clutched the three disks and a jukebox.

They rode off into the night. Out of Manberg, past Dream’s Community House, and off into the unknown without even so much of a goodbye. With both of them gone, everyone was likely to understand what had happened easily. And if they didn’t… well then, they didn’t really understand Tommyinnit or Tubbo very well at all.

Somewhere far from the wars and the chaos and the foul taste of soot and gunpowder that hung in the air, Tommy and Tubbo built themselves a little cabin on a cliff that overlooked the sea. Every evening was just as it should be.

Nothing but Cliffside Benches and Mellohai Sunsets.

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Wow, that’s absurdly long. This wasn’t proof-read or anything, so I hope there weren’t too many mistakes. I know it’s not exact to the story line, so no hate.

Tell me if you think I should write the entire dSMP into one long story (broken into many chapters, of course). Reblogs (not reposts) are always welcome!

#this took so long #i should be sleeping right now #props to you if you read all the way to the end #did this make you cry at all?#tommyinnit #technoblade #wilbur #wilbursoot #tubbo #dsmp #dream #tnt #manberg #lmanberg #writing #dreamteam #sleepybois

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hermannsthumb · 4 years

Note

"newt isn’t sleazy and is also too busy wrestling with the ethics of hitting on his hot TA if the guy is 5 months older than him to even notice" pleeeease write this

Anonymous asked: "When I Kissed the Teacher" AU ft professor newt and his hot 5-month-older TA hermann

and coincidentally, this older one

Anonymous asked: i just rewatched mamma mia 2 and was wondering if i could request a "when i kissed the teacher" newmann fic?? love your writing!!!!!!

Ask And Ye Shall Receive. sorry ive been MIA 😔 concept from this post I made earlier this month. idk what class newt teaches that hermann would be qualified to TA for but just like, decide for yourselves

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Newt’s never been a list-making kind of guy, or--for that matter--even really a planning ahead kind of guy, but certain circumstances have thrown his life more out of wack than usual lately, and he kind of needs the stability the like of things like lists offer. Desperate times and everything. Or, at the very least, Newt is desperate.

So Newt plans, and plots, and deliberates, and he even agonizes a little, but most of all, he makes a list.

On one half of the page, he writes pros. On the other, he writes cons. On top, he writes--what else?--Hermann.

The problem started in late August. Newt knew for months he was going to be assigned a teaching assistant come that semester--it was him, after all, who’d suggested it to the dean in the first place--but the Hermann Gottlieb of extensive, impressive, overachieving CV and overly-former cover letter was a far cry from Hermann Gottlieb in the flesh. Newt expected a dork, frankly. Someone too socially awkward to feel brave enough to thank someone for holding a door open for him. He expected a PhD student so eager to please he’d cater to Newt’s every whim, whether it was grading horrendous freshman lab reports or fetching him a sandwich from the commissary between class sections.

They met for the first time at the campus coffee shop. Hermann was dressed in an oversized pair of slacks, a threadbare green sweatervest, and honest-to-God saddle shoes; the buttons of his Oxford were done up all the way, from the collar to the cuffs, and an ornate cane was settled against his thigh. His haircut was tragic. “Dr. Geiszler,” he said, all clipped and English, and held his hand out to Newt. “Hermann Gottlieb. It is a great pleasure to meet you. I’m an admirer of your work.”

"Sup,” Newt said, and tried to bump their fists together.

Newt knew he was in deep shit then. It wasn’t just because Hermann was gorgeous (which he was, in a sort of weird, frumpy, ripped-outta-1945 way), or that the scowl he proceeded to level Newt with made his soul wither and his heart race a little bit too fast, but both of those things in conjunction with a big one: Newt was, and is, so fucking love-starved. It’s an unfortunate byproduct of being made a professor when he was as young as he was and completing a PhD before he completed puberty. His early twenties should’ve been spent dyeing his hair terrible colors and adding to his already impressive tattoo collection and having questionable hookups with other young twentysomethings; unfortunately, the only young twentysomethings Newt ever seems to come across are his students, and he has a very strict code of ethics. Not to mention it wasn’t like he was getting any action before that as a weird, gangly teenager with peers several years his senior. He was bound to latch onto the first genius hottie who crossed his path who wasn’t trying to flirt their way into bumping that B- to a B+. And better yet, Hermann is five whole months his senior!

The shit only got deeper when the semester started. No, Hermann was not the sort to fetch Newt sandwiches, or coffee, or Aspirin from his office, nor was he the sort to handle the dreaded lab reports (at least not unless Newt handled them with him), and he definitely wasn’t eager to please. Newt, anyway. If anything the opposite was true: he seemed to actively derive enjoyment from undermining Newt at every turn.

“Wrong,” he’d mutter during class if Newt screwed something up in a lecture, or “No, Geiszler, you’re doing it wrong again,” or “How in the blazes did you get three bloody PhDs when you can’t even do simple addition?” and snatch Newt’s dry erase marker away to scrawl his own answers on the whiteboard. It was less like having a TA and more like having...well, a bitchy, annoying co-teacher. Or, God help Newt, a colleague. And boy, did he wave those five months over Newt’s head like a fucking flag. Newt was immature; inexperienced; clearly not as serious about his studies--his completed studies--as Hermann. Meanwhile Newt’s class (bright young twenty somethings, taller than Newt, cooler than Newt, with more friends than Newt) would giggle and snicker, and Hermann would look smug.

It drove Newt fucking batty.

It also made him, like, super turned on.

The two can co-exist. Apparently. Hermann Gottlieb is already helping Newt discover new and existing concepts; what a fucking excellent TA he is. Someone give that man a raise.

So Newt draws up a list, and he writes Pros, and he writes Cons, and he writes Hermann. The pros are regrettably easy to come up with, because Hermann is Hermann, and (bitchiness and undermining of Newt aside) it’s unfair how many he has. Hot. Stupid sexy accent. Stupidly smart. This is crossed out and replaced with so smart he makes me feel stupid (in a good way), because it seems like an important distinction. Glasses on chain. Mysterious. (In a tall, dark, and handsome way. Sort of. Average height--which is tall to Newt, pale, and handsome. He still scowls more than he talks, which makes him feel mysterious. In a Bronte sort of way. Newt can picture Hermann drawing a billowing cloak around his shoulders and stalking some desolate moor in the moonlight, though in this case maybe’s more of a puffy parka than a cloak.) In tiniest font of all is makes me laugh, because Hermann does, goddamn it, with his snide asides and cutting remarks and sarcasm, often not even directed at Newt when it’s just the two of them alone in Newt’s office at night.

The placement of “is my TA” on the chart is acting as a particular annoyance to Newt, entirely on account of the fact that he can think of several pros and cons for that as well, and he’s not sure whether to nestle it between dark eyelashes and once called me a moron in front of my class and I got a hard-on or beneath sweaters smell like sweat and mothballs, has annoying tic of clearing throat when lost in thought, and the dick wins 86% of our arguments. Sexy forbidden fling. Abuse of power. Is older than me so it's not as weird as it could be? I’m his boss. The school’s paying Hermann though, not Newt, and it’s not like he’s going to scurry off to the dean and demand Hermann’s funding slashed if Hermann turns him down (which he’d most likely do). But it still feels like a breach of ethics.

On the other hand, Hermann is exactly the sort of guy he’d try to pick up at a bar if he still did things like that. (Tenure, rather than giving Newt breathing space to kick back and relax a little, has only increased his obsession with his work, and now when he gets a Friday night free to himself he mostly switches crap on the TV and falls asleep with his cat on the couch.) It’s about the experience, the impossible task of seducing someone who--by all accounts--is too straight-laced and tight-buttoned to indulge in something that debase. They were always the best in bed. Tension, Newt knows, has to snap at some point.

He’d like to wrap Hermann’s personal piano wire around his thumb and bang away at the keys until it snaps, too. Ethics, Newt thinks (folding up the list and stuffing it out of sight), his ass.

Newt sacrifices a Friday night with his cat and Unsolved Mysteries in favor of working on a solution to his Hermann Problem. Swamped with work, he tells Hermann over the phone, it fucking sucks, dude, I could really use your help in my office, and Hermann grumbles, and snaps that Newt should learn to be better prepared for his own damn classes, but declares he’ll be on campus in half an hour and that Newt will be ordering him takeaway for dinner as an apology.

The door swings open at half past five. Hermann is bundled in that heavy parka and scarf (which, even for a Boston November, still looks a little too warm), and his hair is damp. “Is it raining?” Newt says, perhaps stupidly, because there’s not a single droplet of water anywhere else on Hermann’s body.

Hermann makes a face at him and pushes the door shut with his cane. “No,” he says, tersely.

“Then why...” Newt touches his own hair.

“I was taking a bloody bath,” Hermann snaps. “I don’t work on Fridays, as you well know, Newton.”

The use of his full first name stings Newt oddly even as the notion of Hermann luxuriating in a bathtub excites him. “That’s Dr. Geiszler,” Newt snaps back, because goddamn it, he’s Hermann’s boss, he deserves respect, and then mentally adds a small, depressing tally to the Cons half of the board. Ethics, ethics.

“Oh, I’m terribly sorry, Dr. Geiszler,” Hermann says. He throws his scarf and coat viciously at the small couch in the corner of Newt’s office, then takes his usual seat across from Newt. “Well? Where are those papers it’s so crucial we grade?”

Hermann in a bathtub, Newt thinks. Hermann naked. Papers, Newt thinks. “Papers,” Newt says, and he shoves a stack at Hermann with twice as much force as he means to, causing several to flutter to the ground. “We need...to grade them,” he says. Hermann naked, in a bathtub, maybe some candles lit around him, some nice music on, daydreaming about that wretched professor he works for. Damn it. “I have a pen,” he says. “To grade.”

“What on earth are you saying?” Hermann says. “Be quiet. I can’t concentrate with your abominable prattling on.” Then he mumbles something that sounds like incessant, rips the top paper off the stack, and begins to slash at it in red ink. He doesn’t bother gathering the two from the ground.

Why did Newt invite him here, again?

Oh, right. He pushes his glasses up his nose and feigns casualness, pulling out another paper for himself to grade. “A bath,” he says. “Just to, uh, relax? Or...?”

Hermann narrows his eyes. “Or?”

Newt shrugs. “It’s Friday. Were you getting ready for a date or something?”

This time, Hermann’s mouth twists down into a frown. Almost suspicious. “Why do you care?” he says.

“I don’t,” Newt says quickly. “Just making small talk.” God, he could picture some stud of a computer science PhD candidate winning Hermann over with techno babble--or maybe one of his fellow students, ugh, maybe they made a study group together that meets Friday nights, and Hermann was getting all gussied up, goddamn handsome astrophysics grad students--

“I was relaxing,” Hermann says. “You must be aware at this point you cause me a great deal of stress, Dr. Geiszler, on a daily basis.”

“Oh,” Newt says.

He gives up on the small talk after that. Hermann’s promised takeout arrives--a small carton of pad thai--as does Newt’s--a large carton of the spiciest thing they had on the menu--and they eat in silence. They have about three-quarters of the papers to go when Hermann suddenly sits back in his seat with a groan and rubs at his eyes under his granny glasses. “Bugger,” he says. “I can’t fathom this one for the life of me. I’m too tired.”

“It’s getting kinda late,” Newt agrees. “Maybe we should--”

“It’s not that,” Hermann says. “I had a glass of wine earlier, and--oh, it doesn’t matter. Your students need to learn how to write in a way that’s actually bloody legible--it’s like chicken scratch.”

Newt hops up and leans over his shoulder, squinting down at the page. Hermann’s hair smells nice, like something floral, and his skin has a small hint of what could almost be cologne. Why is Hermann wearing cologne? “Okay, let me see it,” Newt says, struggling to keep from getting lightheaded at the close proximity to Hermann. “I’m used to that kind of shit.”

“No,” Hermann says, drawing the paper close to his chest. “I am perfectly capable of managing it on my own.”

“Dude,” Newt says, “let me look at it, seriously. Hermann--”

He manages to tug it away from him. The handwriting is pretty bad, but the math seems to be worse. “Didn’t they do the readings?” Newt mutters under his breath. “That’s not even the right equation for the diameter. I gave them a cheat sheet, man.” They’re junior year engineering students--they should know this shit.

“I know what the equation is,” Hermann snaps. “I can grade it on my own. Give it back.”

“I didn’t say you didn’t know,” Newt says, “I said this kid--”

“It’s the radius squared--”

“Hermann, dude,” Newt says, “I know you’re--”

And that’s when Hermann grabs him by his skinny tie and kisses him, hard.

They stare at each other afterwards. Hermann’s eyes are as wide as saucers; his mouth is hanging open. Newt’s tie slips from his fingers, which then fall limp to his lap. “Holy shit,” Newt squeaks.

Hermann is gone with a swish of his parka and a loud clack of his cane. And with a stack of papers Newt still has to somehow get through. Figures.

Their next few classes together are subdued. Hermann doesn’t interject any of his biting commentary or corrections, or even offer critiques of Newt’s lack of professionalism (when in the past his skinny jeans were such an easy target), and when the period is over, he practically sprints from the classroom before he and Newt can be alone together for even a second. It’s fine by Newt. Whatever. Maybe Hermann can get over it over Thanksgiving break, and Newt can try to get over the memory of Hermann’s strong fingers tugging him down, Hermann’s floral shampoo, Hermann’s chapped, wide lips against his, the little grunt of shock Hermann made as he did it, like he couldn’t believe his own audacity...

It’s not likely.

It’s December, the last week before finals, and Newt’s in his office bundled up in a sweatshirt (because the heat never seems to fucking work in here), revising a draft of an exam, and dreading the thought of trudging home in the snow, when there’s suddenly a knock at his door. Anticipating some overeager freshman here outside of office hours, he doesn’t look up as he says “Come in.”

A familiar clearing of a throat.

Newt shoots straight up to his feet. He knocks a mug of coffee to the floor in the process. “Hermann,” he says. “Uh. Hi. What--what are you doing here?”

Hermann shuts the door behind him, then takes a careful step forward. He’s back in his big dumb coat and big long scarf. “I thought I ought to tell you myself first,” he says, primly. “I’ve submitted a request to the dean to be reassigned to another professor next semester. Our research interests are far more in line, and I don’t imagine our personalities shall clash as much.”

“Oh,” Newt says, pretending his heart isn't sinking in his chest like a hunk of lead. Was he that bad of a kisser? He feels like he deserves a second shot at it--he wasn’t ready last time, you know, he bets he’d really wow Hermann if he had a fair heads up. “Are.. are those the only reasons why?”

“No,” Hermann admits. “They’re not.”

He crosses the room, and corners Newt against his desk before Newt even realizes what’s happening. “They’re not,” he says again, then adds in a murmur (lifting one hand to brush his fingers against Newt’s hair), “Dr. Geiszler.”

Neither of them talk much, after that.

#newmann #maria's fanfiction tag #thxstral

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willadisastercry · 3 years

Text

Retrieval mission gone horribly wrong: nearly everyone is whumped...

tw: discussion of blood, breathing difficulties, impalement, loss of conciousness, discussion of the aftermath of an explosion

The mission should’ve been simple. All they had to do was blend in, which meant no armor, only concealed bayards. Everybody knew the deal, Pidge has the tablet that tracts the artifact, the rest follow and protect Pidge who retrieves said artifact. They were supposed to get in and out quickly, to not leave time to dawdle, or room for error. And most importantly, not get caught. But the entire team was off that day, leaving little that went according to plan and multiple members of the group badly injured and in need of tending. It didn’t matter if it was a lack of focus or proper intel... but who was left to save them?

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3

Hunk had refused to enter the crudely lit corridor and watched in horror as his teammates were enveloped into darkness aside from the shrinking green and red and grey glows of their bayards.

The vibes were just off, he’d argued in protest since the power hadn’t wavered once when they combed the previous floor. We don’t have our suits and cannot afford to blindly walk into an ambush with only our bayards. Not to mention, there is not a single guard around—absolutely nothing to protect this artifact located down a dark and mysterious hallway, does not mean go and check it out anyway?!

But Pidge’s radar confirmed the signal was emitting from just a couples yards ahead and the other boys couldn’t argue with that.

“You don’t have to come with us, bud.”

“Yea, don’t sweat it...”

“...we gotta get moving.”

They were already running short on time for the estimated window of opportunity to retrieve the artifact they were tracking before the security system rebooted. They just couldn’t pass up the chance, but Hunk also just wasn’t going to be caught dead following them down there.

“I guess I’ll cover you on this end...”

There was nothing on his end though. Not a single thing.

He relished in the steady influx of their voices discussing what they saw over the coms. Nothing for a while, Lance stepping on Pidge’s heel, Keith bonking his bayard on the wall accidentally and it scaring them, Pidge saying they were closing in on the artifact. But immediately after they started closing in the clear stream became crackled and unintelligible.

Hunk wanted to throw up, he knew something had gone really really wrong when their coms went down completely but Shiro and Allura could still be heard urging everyone to move faster, that they wouldn’t be able to hold the attention of their defense fleet much longer.

They had drawn the patrol fleets’ fire and were serving as a distraction for nearly thirty dobashes now, their lions had taken a substantial amount of damage and wouldn’t hold up much longer.

“Guys?! Pidge, come in! Lance? Keith? ANYONE?!”

“Yelling! In my ear! Why are we yelling?”

“Shit—yeah, hi Shiro. So... Keith, Lance and Pidge followed the signal down this sketchy hallway, but I didn’t go because it looks like the type of hallway you get murdered in—I shouldn’t say that, but it looks like that. It’s pitch black, zero visibility, I can’t see them at all. Man it felt so wrong down there! I knew something was up, I felt bad about not going with them but I couldn’t, I couldn’t go, something wasn’t right!”

“Hunk! Focus! I need you to calm down and tell me you’re exact location, better yet send it to me.”

“Gosh—okay, yeah, I can focus. I can—“

But Shiro never got to calm Hunk down enough to have him even describe where he was because his end of the coms went out and was replaced with a similar static.

“Crap, Allura I’ve got to go in and help them,” Shiro stated as he sprayed the battle ships with a hail of fire before stealing the castle away.

“I’m coming, guys,” Shiro assured even though they likely couldn’t hear him.

Allura stayed back to draw base’s defensive fighters away and then get them off her tail while Coran cloaked the castle. Once they were out of range, Shiro used their last drop ship to bypass the planets defenses while they were still distracted and landed on the base near Pidge’s green lion.

Shiro had no idea what he’d be walking into when he tracked the artifact on the server Pidge created to identify quintessence.

He sure didn’t think he’d first find a passed out Hunk at the beginning of said sketchy hallway with a heavy plume of smoke billowing from it. His forehead bleeding pretty significantly and he didn’t stir when Shiro shook him.

“Fuck,” he breathed as he lugged the larger boy up by his arms and draped him over his back, using their combined momentum to keep them both upright as he trudged into the thick smoke and dense darkness of the sketchy hallway.

It was so dark he couldn’t see five feet in front of him, but it wouldn’t have mattered with the smoke anyway, the only reason he remembered it was there was how it filled and sat heavy in his lungs.

He called out hoarsely. But nothing for the longest time until he followed the blinking light from the server and turned the corner.

The first thing he heard was heavy breathing. He called out, but no one responded. His glowing hand casting a vague purple sheen that illuminated his path slightly and allowed him just enough visibility to not to eat shit over the debris that littered the floor.

There had been an explosion.

Hunk had been right. There was no one guarding the suspicious hallway with the precious artifact because the guard was the spooky hallway itself.

Shiro slowed and began scanning the entire width of the hallway as he moved, looking for the first sign of life or anything that looked like it would set off a bomb, but wasn’t too worried about that since his team had obviously made it that far without...

He forced any thought about what he might stumble upon when he found them out of his head. All he needed to focus on was finding them in the first place, which got a little tricky when the hallway forked. The server wasn’t precise enough to pinpoint the difference of fifteen feet accurately. So he stopped altogether now and called out again.

He heard nothing for second, but then he heard wheezing, the strangled rattle of someone’s chest working and darted down the right most corridor.

Before he turned down the next corridor he was stopped dead in his tracks when his purple hand illuminated a shaggy haired form crumpled around the corner of the wall. Keith.

He knelt down and grabbed the shuddering boy’s shoulders. His raspy breathing was what he’d been hearing. He refrained from rolling him onto his back to check for further damage because it was peppered with shards of metal, so instead he assured him that he was safe now and that he’d come back for him once he checked on everyone else. Keith only grunted.

Shiro let Hunk down next to Keith and activated his hand once more to begin scouring the hallway.

He called out again, and this time someone responded. Shiro took off on a weary trot as he followed the weak response, he told them to keep talking as he scanned the floor, very aware of each skinny twist of metal that looked remotely like an arm or a leg until he actually saw a leg attached to one. Lance.

Lance was on his side, his shoulder tucked unnaturally under him, with the tip of a jagged wrench of metal sticking into the fleshy part of his thigh.

“I’m okay,” he huffed as Shiro eyed him worriedly, “I just can’t get up. My shoulder is done for but the bleeding on my leg has sort of stopped or slowed at least, it’s not even that deep it’s just very securely in there.”

“Okay, do you think you can stand?”

Lance laughed dubiously, but extended his uninjured arm out to Shiro anyway.

“That was not at all convincing, but I guess we’ll find out... hook your arm around my neck, yeah just like that, now I’m going to brace your bad arm against your side so nothing moves weird and you’re going to put weight on your good leg... on three, one—three!”

As soon as Shiro hoisted Lance up he nearly topppled back over with the wave of excruciating pain that washed over him, he yelped and writhed as he breathed through it, his legs wobbling while he gripped Shiro’s shirt to keep himself upright.

From what Shiro could tell as he carefully manuevered his arms around Lance’s waist and good arm to keep him from falling, his shoulder appeared to be very much dislocated. But it was now safely clutched against his side, so any jostling of it would be awful, but no further damage would be made.

Lance took a shakey breath and stepped back, giving himself a second to sus out if he could make do with his bad leg. A fresh gush of dark red welled around the shard protruding from his thigh and dribbled slowly down his leg. He grimaced, but it carried his weight.

Shiro’s heart sank. An explosion like this wouldn’t have hurt his team as badly if they were wearing their armor, not just the under suit. It was his order, to be discreet. This was his fault.

“Hey, I’ll live. Pidge was father down, she was closer to this explosion,” Lance mused as he leaned heavily on the wall while he made his way forward.

“There were like several. Keith got the brunt of the first one, is he okay?”

“Uh, ish. I had Hunk with me, he’s out so I left him with Keith.”

“Shit...”

“I know, usually takes a lot more to take out the big—“

“No, look.”

Lance pointed to Pidge with the light of his bayard. She was slumped against the wall and looked like she was mostly okay asides from being unconscious, that is if you didn’t mention the glistening pool of blood below her.

Shiro rushed forward and his stomach turned. Only when he got close did he realize that the entire right side of her body was torn up by metal debris.

A lot were minor knicks, but there was one particularly jagged gash in her side that was likely the source of all the blood.

“Pidge? Hey, you with us?!”

The smaller teammate hummed when Shiro shook them.

“I’m gonna get you out of here, okay? This probably won’t feel good, I’m sorry.”

Shiro lifted up Pidge’s limp form effortlessly, ignoring her pained cries as he held her against his chest so that her head rested on his shoulder, one arm clutching the back of her thighs and the other free to help Lance limp back to the rest of the team.

Hunk was responding by the time they got back. A large hand pressed firmly on Keith’s arm as his chest worked, his breath ragged and his lungs wheezing while he breathed through the thick smoke. Shiro made a mental note that he probably had some other injuries to his chest that were making him so susceptible to the effects of smoke inhalation.

“Okay, Hunk how you doing? Can you walk?”

“I ‘on know,” he slurred, “pro’ly.”

“I can help him. You get the mullet, he’s not looking too hot.”

Lance hefted a dazed Hunk to his feet with his uninjured arm. He swayed, but Lance steadied him.

Shiro knelt beside Keith, balancing Pidge on one side while he probbed his stomach.

“Anything hurt over here?”

“No, agh! Not really, mostly my chest... and my back,” he groaned through labored breaths.

“Good, hold on to me,” he postured before pressing the boys hips against his own and bringing him up with him.

Keith’s breath hitched as he adjusted to the new orientation, but he got his feet under him and clutched Shiro’s shoulder before doubling over. He was almost retching like he was going to be sick, but he just couldn’t breathe.

Hunk who was hanging on Lance held out his arm for him to grasp and he did, grateful for the extra support while he struggled to fill his lungs.

“Easy, Keith. Just relax. I know it hurts, but we have to get back to the Castle. We’ll fix you up soon you just gotta work with us for now,” Shiro soothed, dragging him along sluggishly.

“Shi— o— iro— Shiro? Shiro can you hear me?”

As they moved farther and farther away from the artifact, the coms grew clearer until they could hear Allura’s voice distinct and worried.

“We’re here Princess, we’re all here,” Lance answered.

They heard Allura let out a sigh she tried to repress, she didn’t even know she was holding her breath.

“Are the paladins alright?”

“Uh...”

“Ish.”

“Should I patch Coran in and tell him to prepare a pod?”

Pidge let out a particularly pointed whine as Shiro shifted her so she wouldn’t slip lower, his moving also tweaked something for Keith who moaned a very deep and crackly ‘ouch’.

Shiro eyed the darkened expanse of Lance’s thigh, Hunk’s wavering balance.

“Have him prepare a few... just to be safe.”

“Oh dear, alright.”

They had to move quickly but carefully. Shiro had never tread so lightly during an escape except for now when he was toting two very injured and in pain paladins. He moved even quicker when he realized that Keith had gone from only clutching at his shoulder to leaning entirely into his side, his feet at times merely dragging along. Shiro’s grip on his hip pressing it against his own was uncomfortable for them both but there was no other area untouched on his upper body for him to lug him by.

Lance and Hunk made their own way together, swaying and stumbling the entire time. Lance’s leg had pretty much stopped bleeding, the metal protruding from it effectively staunching it for now, but the damage around it grew more and more apparent. His muscles felt both excruciatingly taut and achingly loose as they squelched around the piercing metal.

It would altogether buckle beneath him every now and again, leaving Hunk mostly holding up Lance but relying on him to reorient himself when his head ached so bad that his vision blurred. Hunk was always careful of his shoulder when he’d stop and hang on him, Lance’s bad arm remaining clutched tightly against his side and out of the way anyway.

“We’re almost to Green, come on buddy,” he said as he urged the larger boy forward, practically hoping now.

No one really knew how they made it out without getting stopped, but the robotic foot soliders seemed to only take into account that the perpetrators who set off the explosions would be running, not hobbling.

Green’s whines were present in everyone’s head with Pidge’s conciousness wavering, the jaws of the smaller lion opening up as soon as they neared.

My paladin! Green lion save paladin! Green lion fly paladin to castle!

“We’ve got her, Green. You just get us back and we’ll do the rest,” Shiro assured, settling down on the ground of the cockpit with Pidge between his legs, her back against his chest so he could put pressure on the gash in her side.

He had guided Keith to his knees where he then practically pitched forward onto his stomach.

Looking at the wounds on his back with some of the metal bits still sticking out in better lighting made Shiro want to hurl.

Then again holding Pidge’s insides in place also made him want to hurl but that was why she was positioned the way she was, so he didn’t have to see it.

Her breathing was fast but it was better than Keith’s. Every now and then she’d make a pained sound and he would just whisper in her ear that she was safe and she would calm down soon after.

And then he’d take her pulse. It had gotten slightly weaker but he could still feel it.

Lance had lowered himself to the ground slowly but his good leg was tired and cramping from the effort of getting out of there and so the descent down was anything less than smooth, his legs giving and his back hitting against the wall. It jarred his shoulder so badly he was wailing.

Hunk held his hands against his ears when Lance screamed out, he hated the fact that his friend was in pain but the shrillness of his cries sent stabbing pains into his skull where a pulsing welt had been growing. There had been an explosion at every key checkpoint on the way to the artifact, including the entrance he was supposed to be covering.

When the wave of nausea and blinding pain subsided, Hunk placed his hand on top of Lance’s who didn’t have the energy to tighten around it while he clenched his teeth together, hissing as every movement Green made only hurt him further.

Keith could sympathize.

The only option was for him was to lay on his stomach, shifting his weight to the side of his ribs that hurt less was all he could do. He could feel every one of Green’s movements reverberating in his chest, riling up every bit of hurt that was now present and dialing it to well past ten.

He just wheezed through most of it, the smoke from the explosion still thick and heavy in his throat, but when his lungs ached so bad he couldn’t help but cough it made his bruised and broken ribs hit the ground and his vision whited out several times.

It wasn’t until one fit racked his body so badly he coughed up a bit of blood that hands were on him pulling him to his knees and putting his head between his legs so he could calm down enough to breathe.

“Hey, Green? Please hurry...”

#voltron fic #vld #voltron whump #whump scenario #keith whump #vld lance #pidge whump #hunk vld #takashi shirogane #space dad #whump for everyone #whump fic #explosion #injuries

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sxveme-2 · 3 years

Text

hidden // din djarin

description: the life of nobility wasn't one for everyone. some would rather duck under the shadows around them, especially after a great betrayal to the name of a planet but despite being hidden, not everyone can avoid the blinding lights of danger. whether it be those after those who had escaped, or the poor bounty hunter who ended up picking her up. both with a large bounty on their heads. follow Cloak as she lives the days as an escaped noble, hiding from the eyes of serenno after the fall of count dooku, shacking up with one of the most sought after child and the mandalorian unfortunate enough to have a big heart.

chapter three: the one with a sister

warnings: violence, fight scenes

word count: 3323

"what do you think you're doing, leta?" she hissed, stalking forward and ripping the dress from the young girls hands, "why are you in my closet?" she snapped, hugging the aged fabric closer to her chest as she glared down at the raven haired girl.

"looking at which dresses of yours I can burn." the twelve year old smirked, reaching for another one of her most sacred possessions.

"no. not happening." she scoffed, tugging at the small girls arm, dragging her away from the dresses, "you know you're not allowed in my chambers. if I find you in here again I'll send you out to the forest beasts."

she didn't actually know if their were beasts in the forest. she assumed there was. there had been many nights where she'd snuck out from the castle and wandered through the expanse forest line. she'd encountered small creatures, but never anything murderous or grand. she mostly just said this to scare her younger half-sister into leaving her alone. leta never wanted to hang out with her or spend time, no, she only ever antagonized and ridiculed her. but the idea of the young princess getting ahold of her mothers dresses sent a strike of venom through her, and her tone came out harsh and aggressive. that of which was her mothers held a sacred place in her heart, and she'd be damned if a twerp like leta would get in the way of that.

"you'd be executed for treason of the highest order!" the younger royal exclaimed, turning and stamping her foot as she stared down the elder princess.

"then my wish would finally come true. even five minutes without you would make my life complete." she smiled tightly, shutting the large double doors of her chambers in leta's face.

that little girl was as vile as they came. one more than one occasion, she had woken up with paint in her hair and leta and her friends giggling outside. she'd draw on her favourite gowns, hide her crown. it didn't matter. and it wasn't just her who got the brute end of the stick, the little girl terrorized the entire kingdom. from stomping on guards feet to defacing the throne room. but never once did she face punishment. her mother was just as evil and vile, so she paid no mind to her daughters antics. but her father? well, she expected something out of him. but instead, he said nothing. allowing and encouraging these antagonistic acts.

for a little girl whose name meant joyful or gladly, she sure made everyone miserable.

sliding down onto the soft cushion of her closets couch, she placed her face into the fabric of the dress leta had been holding. it had been twelve years since her mother had died, but not a day goes by without something reminding her of the woman. today, it was the dresses. the ones that she had managed to keep and place carefully on hangers in a, what she had believed to be, locked display case. for no one to touch. alongside the delicate crown and memory of the kind woman. one of grace and dignity. not of malice and corruption. but she supposed that was where her parents marriage failed. her father was a coldhearted king with no regard to the wellbeing of his people. while her mother was believed to be an angel to the people. a saving grace to provide a sense of understanding. after the fall of dooku, her father had ceased his political standing to rewrite the entirety of the planets government.

creating that of a king, and that of a queen. whom shall only be succeeded by kin of their own. leaving the pressure on her shoulders. she didn't want it.

-----

"a job?" she questioned, "what on earth could be going on on a planet like this that would require a mandalorian?"

"a violent group of outlaws are planning on raiding the village here tonight." he stated quietly, "you are responsible for the kid. this is a test. if even a scratch finds itself on the kids head I swe- "

"I got it. no one will go near the kid." she interrupted, looking down at the green guy, "we'll be alright, eh buddy?" she cooed, bouncing him gently, "do you know anything else about these supposed outlaws? are they like escaped criminals."

"no idea. apparently they came in a foreign ship a few days ago." he shrugged, looking down at the beaming child she was holding, who was grabbing at the girls shirt.

"mind if I come with to take a look? I've worked with peli for five years, I can help you identify the ships origins." she shrugged.

while that wasn't a lie, it wasn't why she would have known the ships origins. she had bounced from planet to planet for a while when she first ran from her past. coming into contact with a variety of ships and different makers. her knowledge on spaceships reached much further than being able to repair them. each planet seemed to have it's own unique touch to its native ships, and not only had she been a planet hopper for a while, her past gave her the wear and tear of visiting the vast galaxy. and being able to learn about these different things through her privilege's of her blood.

"why not, more eyes the better." the man that mando had been talking to boomed as he approached, giving a warm smile to her, "now who's this mando? new special friend?"

"no." the two stated in unison, grim tones evident in their words.

"she's the kids new caretaker," cara chuckled, "they share zero romantic feelings. they barely even share friendly feelings." she explained, placing her hand on her waist.

"he doesn't exactly give much of an opportunity for someone to like him." she chided, sending a glance to the side at the tall man, "bit of a jerk."

"you talk too much." his robot like voice muttered as the two in front of them let out a soft chuckle at the interactions. earning a gentle coo from the small child in her arms.

-----

"you're telling me I could have just put him in this thing?" she stated, gesturing to the silver egg that was following mando close behind, "and you failed to mention this?"

they had all decided collectively that going by foot to the landing sight would be less obvious than flying over there, and they could sneak up on whoever these outlaws were before they managed an attack. if they could figure out who they were exactly up against, the fight itself would present itself as much less difficult. and if the threat was small, they could terminate it where they stood. but first and foremost, they had to identify the craft. karga had said the ship was fairly ornate yet still had a rustic and fighter like fade to it. he hadn't seen anyone around it when he had managed a glimpse the day that it had landed. but he explained that it was quite large, and that worried him. for there could be a large group on it.

"I wanted to see if you'd figure it out." mando's modulated voice muttered with a tinge of sarcasm to it, "and you didn't, so. clearly you're not as smart as peli said."

"I knew it was a thing, I just didn't realize you could make it follow you." she snapped back, readjusting the sack on her shoulder, "y'know, I should probably have one of those things. as his new caretaker and all."

"we'll get one made for you, Cloak." cara piped in, patting the girls back as she fell into stride with her, "you know, I've had this feeling since you arrived. do I know you?"

tilting her head to the side, she watched the ex-shock trooper with furrowed eyebrows. so it hadn't just been her. the entire time they had been there she hadn't been able to exactly place why she found cara to be so familiar. stormtroopers never removed their helmets at her castle, but perhaps it was the aura of cara that was familiar. she had seen a few shock troopers in her life, and she was sure the other woman had seen quite a few cloaked mystery people in her days. but it was almost unsettling that both seemed to recognized one another without actually knowing who the other was. she was worried that if cara figured it out, and knew her identity somehow, that the entire past five years would have been a complete waste for her.

"mm, don't think so." she stated simply, picking up her pace subtly to catch up with the flying hatch that the kid was in.

"we're coming up on it." karga called, and the small group ducked behind a large magma rock a bit of a ways away.

she pulled the goggles she wore off of her eyes and rested them on her forehead in an attempt to somehow get a better view. but she couldn't. they moved quietly a bit closer to where the figure seemed much large. voices were hushed, and they ducked once more. leaning over a large crevice in the rock, she squinted her eyes at the ship. glancing over the ridges and the different features, her heart began to pick up speed. every time she identified a distinct feature, her stomach dropped further and further closer to her ass. the entire design was something a little to familiar for her liking. and she knew exactly where it came from. for she was there, when the ship was made.

on serenno.

-----

"what do you mean that's a serennian ship?" mando scoffed as they walked into a cantina in the town, sliding into a booth, "why would a serennian ship be here?"

her leg bounced rapidly as she held the child on her lap. her breathing had yet to settle and her chest continued to grow tighter the more she was questioned. the cantina around them was still loud and thriving, meaning that it was fairly safe for them to be talking about the topic. but she was worried that this would somehow link the two pieces of her identity together. that her quick knowledge on the ship would give away all that she had worked for over the past half of a decade. she didn't want to talk about it. she didn't even want to think about it. if there were serennians here...she didn't know what she would do.

"damn it Cloak," cara muttered, "are you sure?"

nodding, she cleared her throat. finally regaining her composure, "yes I'm positive." she stated simply, slowing her leg down to feed grogu a piece of food.

"how can you be so sure?" greef karga asked, leaning forward across the table, "if they're serennian- "

"I never said they would be from serenno." she stated simply, placing down the bowl of food, looking up at the others, "it is a serennian ship. I know them well. if there are serennian soldiers on the ship I'm afraid you may need more than a single mandalorian." she explained, allowing the child to grip onto her finger.

the conversation grew quiet after her final statement. everyone stared at her, wondering just how she had this knowledge. she had stories she'd told before about her knowledge of serenno, saying it was one of the planets she had stayed at for a bit before ending up on tatooine. she could easily say she had a run in with a guard and barely got away with her wits. but she knew she had spoken too much. but she hadn't lied, if the ship was full of serennian soldiers, than she wasn't sure if simply a mandalorian could take them on. she knew how to fight those types of soldiers, she had a tendency to sneak into their training and watch. find their weakness. the kinks in their armour. but she didn't want to leave any more possible crumbs for someone to follow and find out exactly who she was.

"well then we'll need reinforcements." mando stated calmly, sneaking a glance towards the cloaked girl who continued peacefully feeding the child. and clearly avoiding eye contact. though she had put her goggles back on, she wasn't sure they could even see her eyes.

after the awkward meeting, greef karga and cara went off to find a few more backup fighters. people who would help the fight. leaving mando, her, and the child alone in the cantina. a tense aura evident among the group, and silence only broken by the small noises from the kid. he continued to tug gently at her pointer finger, becoming entertained with the shifting of her glove. she didn't dare speak, worried that mando would launch into a million questions. she prayed to the maker he didn't. she didn't need anyone finding out who she was or where she was from.

"so you really were a mechanic?" he asked, breaking the silence with a question that had caught her off guard originally.

she nodded, looking up, "yes. I wasn't just a leech who used Peli for her kindness and resources. I'm a good mechanic, I'm a good healer. and apparently I'm good with kids."

"you ever been to serenno?"

she bit her lip underneath her mask, "yes. before I ended up on tatooine, I tried to find the place that fit. serenno wasn't good for me."

"where are you originally from?" he questioned, leaning further across the table. she could feel his piercing gaze underneath the thick beskar helmet.

"jakku." she lied, keeping her eyes trailed on his in order to seem somewhat put together. in an attempt to keep the facade she was the farthest from serennian.

"...can you fight?"

"why? trying to get your beskar covered ass kicked?"

"perfect. you've got double duty tonight. ensuring the kid is safe, and fighting some serennians. got it?"

"do I have a choice?"

-----

the answer was no. she didn't have a choice. no matter if she fought it or not, there was no decision making here on her end. her main priority would be taking care of the child, but she supposed the ragtag group of fighters could use any advantage or support they could get. the only combat she knew was the top tier of serennian guards, after managing to charm the captain to teacher her the ways. so she supposed they may have a bit of an edge up on the others...but still, her main priority was hiding her own identity. not saving the stupid village.

"kid if you try and move out of this thing I'll string you up by your toes." she cooed, clicking the hatch shut and turning back towards where the others stood, making her way over.

cara had one of the remotes made for her so that the hatch would follow her as well when she needed. making her job much easier. instead of caring around a child in her arms the entirety of their stay. plus, it would just be safer for the child. being able to stay hidden as well as her being able to keep tabs on him the entire time if need be. seeing as his survival probably equated to her own. as much as she had come to despise the mandalorian quickly, she knew he was dangerous, and could overpower her easily. and she didn't enjoy the idea of being killed because she failed at the one task she had.

"here they come." mando's voice called as everyone ducked behind magma rocks, waiting to launch a surprise attack on the raiders.

glancing around the rock, she lowered her eyes to try and figure out if their guess was right. and it was. a group of about 20 serennian soldiers were marching forward towards the village. she wasn't sure what they wanted, but her main guess was her father trying to take over another planet. whenever he attempted when she was back home, it never worked. and merely wasted men and supplies. but no one dared attempt to oppose him, for the power he did hold was immense. and his government had shown to be impenetrable. however, what she didn't recognize at first, was the sole person with no helmet on walking forward. dark hair waved in the hot wind of nevarrol, creating a cloak like effect as she and the group walked forward. it was when they got closer, when she realized just who she was dealing with.

"you okay?" cara whispered from beside her as she slumped her back down against the rock.

her mouth ran dry and hands grew sweaty in her gloves. suddenly, her mask became suffocating and everything around her seemed to close in on her, despite being in an open area. her stomach twisted and eyes grew hot and wet as she listened to the footsteps grow closer. she knew who was leading the attack. someone that was as vile and cruel as they come. selfishness coursing through her veins. a greed and hatred towards what seemed like the entirety of the galaxy fueling antagonistic acts. but never, did she expect to see her leading a raid on a peaceful village on a burnt planet.

"well, been better." she admitted. but before cara could reply, mando gave the cue to begin the attack on the group.

planting her palm on the dark rock behind her, she launched herself into a backflip over the large piece of earth. landing gracefully on her feet, the shooting began. the plan seemed to work, catching the group off guard. but it didn't take long for the group of twenty soldiers to regain their composure and begin to retaliate. she pushed herself off of the ground and wrapped her legs tightly around the neck of a soldier, squeezing tightly as she leaned backwards and wrapped her arms around another's. twisting her body, she tossed the first soldier backwards and heard the sick crack of his neck echo in her ears. launching herself around onto the second soldiers back, the click of her blaster sent her and the now deceased soldier flying.

catching herself on her hand, she pushed upwards and landed on her feet once more. glancing back towards the hatch, she saw that one of the soldiers was heading it's way. no doubt believing it to be a bomb of some sort. leaping into action, she planted a foot on the top of a magma rock and launched forward once more, flattening her body so her feet came into contact with the back of the armour, sending them forward against another rock. she opened the hatch to ensure the kid was fine, before closing it and shooting the soldier directly between where his protective helmet met the bodes of their armour. except it went directly through the small gap between the two pieces.

"you're quite the acrobat." a sickly familiar voice cooed behind her, "I believe none of my soldiers are agile enough to handle someone of your stature."

turning slowly, she came face to face with that same estranged and villainous face that she did not miss. the dark curtains of hair flowing freely over her shoulders. her olive skin glistened from sweat of the battle, and head tilted as she observed. she had grown up exponentially over the past five years. and she felt a knife twist in her gut as the two made eye contact. luckily, every little piece of her was covered. from the hairs on her head to the bottoms of her feet. unless she had become more observant, she shouldn't be able to know who it was.

but she did. she knew who this woman was. the leader of the army. she knew exactly who she was, and what she was as a child.

a sister.

#din djarin #din djarin fanfic #the mandalorian #mandalorian fanfic #the mandalorian spoilers #mandalorian fanfiction #the mandalorian fanfic #pedro pascal #pedro pascal fanfic #baby yoda #grogu #enemies to lovers #star wars #star wars fanfic #angst

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nataliedanovelist · 4 years

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GF - Beauty Within the Fallen ch.II

Summary: Two misfit twins come across an enchanted castle, home of a mysterious beast, and slowly begin to form a strong bond that just might survive through anything. Even evil demons.

AU and artwork belong to the beautiful and very talented @artsycrapfromsai. Go give her some love, guys!!!

ch. I - ch.III

~~~~~~~~~~

Fiddleford finished his cup of sweet tea and smiled proudly at his… his friend’s kids. Oh, what the heck. They were as good as his kids. He smiled proudly at his kids as they worked together to help prepare for their journey. Normally, when Fiddleford had to go to Paris to sell his music boxes and clocks, he had Lazy Susan stay with them for a weekend, but the children had begged for a chance to see Paris, a chance to be grown-ups for a bit and help with the work, and Fiddleford decided that the twelve-year-olds could handle the travel and he was actually looking forward to having their company. Mabel was packing plenty of food and Dipper had just finished checking his pack to make sure he was set for the journey. When the time came, Fiddleford put on his old soldier's hat and said, “Alright, youngins, let’s hitch up Gompers.”

Dipper and Mabel, grinning excitedly, helped pack up the wagon full of clocks and music boxes, all safely snug inside wooden boxes. Fiddleford hitched the goat, Gompers, to the wagon and fed him a carrot before hopping up and picking up the kids and letting them sit on either side of him, with the boy at his left hand and the girl at his right. “Everybody say ‘bye, house’.” Fiddleford chuckled. “Bye house!” Mabel cheered and waved the little shack away. Dipper wiggled his fingers with a shrug, playing along. “Onward, Gompers.” Fiddleford commanded gently and flicked the reins. Gompers pulled them forward and their journey began. Dipper and Mabel had never left the village before, so every tree and bush and squirrel and bird was exciting to them. They pulled out pieces of parchment and began to draw what they saw while Fiddleford drove. About mid-day, however, Mabel was surprised when a drop of water fell on her drawing of a blue bird. She looked up at the clouds to find dark ones pushing the white ones away. She sat up on her knees, having been on her stomach, and held a hand out, catching a raindrop. “Aw, donkey spittle.” Fiddleford swore. “It’s okay.” Mabel said optimistically, then she stuck out her tongue and caught a raindrop. “Look! Free water! Ahh!” Dipper pocketed the parchment in his vest and asked Fiddleford, “Should we stop and make shelter?” The old man toyed with his options and slowly said, “Naw, let’s press on n’ see if it’s only a drizzle.” Fiddleford squinted through the soft autumn rain. Now it was no longer cool but chilly. Fiddleford rubbed his hands together as the rain came down. Mabel curled up against his side to help him get warm and Dipper did the same. Fiddleford smiled; what on God’s green Earth did he do to deserve these kids? A flash of lightning and a roll of thunder disturbed his thoughts. He pressed forward and began to hum a tune. Mabel smiled and sang when she recognized the song. “Come along with me, with the butterflies and bees. We can wander through these woods free, and do so when we please.” She stopped and called, “C’mon, Dip-Dip!” “I don’t sing.” He insisted. “Don’t be a party-pooper! Sing! Sing! Sing!” She chanted. Dipper rolled his eyes and sang off-key, “Come along with me, to a bank under a tree, We can gaze upon the water with our everlasting dreams.” Fiddleford jumped in and together the three sang through the rain. “All of my dear dreams, I'll share them all with you. Maybe by next summer…” “Dipper will be in tune!” Mabel sang loudly. “HEY!” Fiddleford laughed and led on the song, everyone in harmony. “Come along with me, where we’ll be a family. And we’ll always be together, together and merrily.” A low growl disturbed them. Fiddleford stopped, pulling on the reins and making Gompers halt. Their senses heightened like frightened animals. Mabel clung to Fiddleford’s arm and Dipper stood in the wagon to get a better look around them. Maybe it was the rain or a fallen branch. The old man resumed their journey in a hurry, now having Gompers pick up speed. “C’mon, Gompers, let’s get where we’re goin.” “Fidds, was that a…” “I dunno, sweetie.” Fiddleford said. “Let's not jump to any conclusions.” He looked to his left and right to see flashes of a dangerous animal. He broke Gompers into a run. The wolves were planning to surround the wagon. Dipper fell into the back of the wagon and crawled to be behind Mabel, holding her shoulders to protect her. Fiddleford’s heart was hammering so hard it ached in his chest, but he tried to stay calm for the children. Some wolves were directly behind them and snapped their teeth at the wagon. Dipper yelled with fear and Fiddleford pushed Gompers to go as fast as he could, but one little goat could only do so much. A sudden drop in the ground caused the wagon to fall and scatter the little family. Dipper held on tightly to his sister as they yelled and tumbled in the woods, rolling down a hill of some sort. He ignored the scratches he was getting and focused on keeping Mabel safe. Finally, they fell still and staggeringly got up, holding their spinning heads and groaning. “Ugh, Mabel, you okay?” “Yeah, I’m… Fiddleford? Fiddleford!” Mabel called out. The kids looked around to find themselves alone in the cold rain, sticks and wet leaves in their hair and on their skin. Mabel looked at her brother and gasped. “Dipper! You’re hurt!” Dipper looked down at his exposed arms and found them to be covered in scratches from sticks and rocks. His limbs burned in pain, but Dipper did his best to ignore it. “Forget it, I’m fine.” Mabel gently took his hands and kissed each arm gently to try to help with the pain. “Don’t worry, Fiddleford has that smart hurt-kit, remember? We just have to find him and everything will be okay.” The growling came again. The twins held each other protectively, keeping an eye out. Yellow eyes caught their attention and a long howl rang through. They broke into a run in the opposite direction and prayed that they wouldn’t become dinner. Mabel was slightly ahead and tried to find somewhere to run to. Her eyes caught sight of a stone wall when lightning struck and she led the way to it. The brave girl threw the gate open and let her brother through before slamming it shut. The kids were inches away from sharp teeth and glowing yellow eyes. They backed away from the gate and turned to the building protected by the walls as the wolves gave up and left. A massive manor, a glorious castle stood before the children. With statues of devils and angels sprinkled through the land and dead-looking plants everywhere, the castle had a haunting look to it. Dipper was hesitant, but Mabel took his hand and walked them to the huge doors decorated with rusted gold. The girl knocked and almost at once, it opened. They entered and looked for whomever had let them in, but they were both surprised to be alone. “Hello? Anyone?” Dipper called, rubbing his soaked, hurt arms gently to try to get warm. The castle, though old and dusty and dark, didn’t feel quite abandoned. Lamps were lit. Perhaps only one person lived in this humongous home. “Why…?” “They need help.” “Shh!” The kids looked around. They saw the main stairwell before him and the two rooms on either side of him, but no humans were to be found. “Is someone there?” Mabel called timidly, pulling on her wet hair to try to get it dry. “I’m sorry, but please. My brother’s hurt and we’re lost. Can you help us?” “Wendy, please…” “SHH!” Dipper and Mabel decided the voices were coming from the left room, and so they entered. They smiled to find a large fireplace and comfy chairs and couches, no doubt for hosting, and hurried to the fire to dry from the rain. Mabel saw something under the couch and got on her knees. She grinned and pulled it out. “Look, Dipper! Bandages! Sit down, I’ll fix you up.” “Thanks, Mabel.” And Dipper sat on his knees in front of the fire. Mabel took one of his hands and used a piece of cloth and the rain water to wipe his arm clean before wrapping it up. Faint whispers could be heard from outside the room, sending goosebumps to the children’s skins. “Mabel, I don’t think this place is safe.” Dipper hissed. “Where else can we go?” Mabel asked. “We can’t stay long, anyway, we need to find Fiddleford.” A shiver ran down her spine and she looked up at her brother with wide brown eyes. “Dipper, he’s okay, isn’t he?” The truth was that he didn’t know for sure. Dipper didn’t think it was likely, but he wasn’t going to tell his sister that. He tried to be more like Mabel, more optimistic and quick to look at the bright side, so he said, “The wagon’s probably a goner and Fiddleford’s still out there. Still, he’s super smart and traveled in the woods before, remember? He probably climbed a tree and when the wolves are gone he’ll look for us. Or maybe somehow the wagon survived and he got away with Gompers.” “Yeah!” Mabel agreed and moved onto the next arm. A low growl froze them both. They looked to the creaked open door they came through, scared beyond measure. Did a wolf somehow get into the castle? Or something worse than a wolf? Dipper stood in front of his sister and held his arms out on either side of him to shield Mabel. She stood and peered ahead. The growling got louder and closer. A claw then touched the side of the door and pushed it open. The kids stared with round, trembling brown eyes. It was a terrifying beast, with fangs and horns and claws. Gray fur covered it’s face and big ears. The beast was huge, much bigger than the two children, possibly ten feet tall and very strong. It wore a torn white shirt, dark pants, and a red cloak clipped with gold by it’s beefy neck. The eyes were brown, matching the horns, and narrowed at the guests coldly. Dipper scowled, choosing to push his fear aside to focus on protecting Mabel. He tried to be brave and stand strong, like a man. Mabel, on the other hand, smiled timidly. She loved animals and immediately saw his brown eyes and thought that his beast was good; Fiddleford said that she was insightful. Mabel stepped out from behind her brother, despite his frightened look that told her not to do so, and she waved and said cheerfully, “Hi! I’m Mabel! This is Dipper! I’m twelve and own a pig! What’s your favorite color? Do you have a sweet tooth?” “Mabel,” Dipper hissed warningly. The beast peered down at the children and growled, “What are you two gremlins doing here?” “Oh, right, I'm sorry. See, we got lost in the rain and separated from our friend. We’re lost and my brother got hurt and we didn’t wanna be eaten by wolves, so we came here. Thanks for letting us in earlier! Why didn’t you say hello before? Do you like sweet or sour things? Do you have a favorite song?” “Enough!” The beast snarled and shook his head; the girl had asked all this in rapid speed. “Geez, kid, you ever slow down?” Mabel grinned proudly. “Nope!” The beast crossed his arms over his chest. He seemed to be doing some quick thinking, deciding if the children were worth keeping in his castle. “You said you lost your friend?” Mabel nodded. “He’s been taking care of us.” There was a short pause. “Hey, runt, your arms still hurt?” Dipper braced himself and continued to stand strong. “I’m fine.” The beast snorted. Mabel took her brother’s hand and smiled kindly at the master of the castle. He approached them and Dipper gripped his sister’s hand, ready to be thrown out, but the beast sat in an armchair and grunted, “Listen, you knuckleheads. If you’re gonna stay here, you’re gonna have to work for me.” Dipper was even more surprised now than when he first saw the creature. “Stay…” “You can’t go out there by yourselves.” The beast said dryly. “You’ll get eaten alive. You’ll just have to stay until your friend finds you, but until then you’re gonna have to work for me. Unless you can pay up.” “We don’t have any money.” Mabel informed. “Then you’ll have to do some chores around here.” The beast jabbed a thumb to the door and said, “Go upstairs and ask for Soos. He’s the groundskeeper and handyman and he’ll give you a room.” “A room?” Mabel repeated. “In a castle?” “And don’t expect…” “THANK YOU!” Mabel cheered and punched the air joyfully. “Thank you very much! You’re so nice!” The beast only growled and pointed to the door. “Just go! And don’t break anything!” Dipper pulled her sister towards the door. Get thrown out into the woods to be eaten by wolves or work for a beast? As much as Dipper hated it, he had to do what he was told. Mabel, however, was excited, confident that Fiddleford would find them soon and that she could make a new friend out of this unluckiness. She stopped them at the doorway and said, “Wait! You never told us your name.” The beast did not look back at the children, facing the fire. But a low voice rumbled through the air. “Just call me Stan, kids.” Mabel smiled. “Okay, Monsieur Stan. Thanks again for letting us stay.” And the children were gone. Stan watched the fire dance on the logs, lost in thought. So lost he nearly missed the fact that his top maid and woodsman had entered the lounge, hopping towards the pile of logs by the fire. She stabbed one and tossed it onto the fire. “Stan?” The axe spoke. “Beat it, Wendy.” “Fine.” The axe snapped and hopped towards the door, but she did not miss the order the boss had for her. “Keep an eye on those two.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Author’s Note: In this world, Mabel invented sweet tea and Fiddleford LOVES it. It’s her Mabel Juice.

Also, yes yes, this is different than the original storyline, bear with me for a sec. I ALMOST went with Fiddleford going alone, getting lost, and being imprisoned in the castle; it’s perfectly lined with Stan’s character to lock someone away that trespasses (still can’t believe we all just glossed over what he did in Little Gift Shop of Horrors). BUT, this story I feel better parallels the GF canon story.

Hear me out, Dipper and Mabel are sent to live with their Grunkle Stan for a summer for some “fresh air”; we don’t know exactly the nature of their relationship before the show, but considering how little the kids knew about him and how Dipper talks about him in the first episode, I suspect they had little to nothing to do with Stan before that summer. So, by having the kids lost and find the castle, BOTH stories tell of two kids getting to know a grumpy old man, AND the kids are safe; in neither situation, the kids were only forced to stay where they were for their safety. That’s my personal reason for having the story go this way, and if this bothers you, i apologize halfheartedly.

Moving on, some fun Disney references is when Dipper and Mabel say goodbye to the house, that’s a nod to Toy Story and when Andy and his mom say goodbye to the house they’re moving out of. Dipper’s refusal to sing, while realistic and in-character, is a reference to Flynn Rider. And finally, this isn’t a Disney reference, but the song Fiddleford and the kids sing is a clear homage to Adventure Time’s Come Along With Me. Can’t give a good reason why except it gives a lot of good foreshadowing.

Thank you so much for reading, and I hope y’all enjoy it!

#GF #gravity falls #beauty within the fallen #batb au #stan pines #dipper pines #mabel pines #fiddleford mcgucket #wolves #woods #oh boy #here we go

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zedpercyfan · 4 years

Text

The Sirens of Cerulean | Part One

A City in the Fog

A thick fog was out one cold late afternoon along the Cerulean coast; it hung and swirled. One of Cerulean City’s oldest structures, an ancient white lighthouse, stood atop a cliff, standing as a guardian to guide ships away from the perils of the rocks below.

Tracey Sketchit was the lighthouse’s current keeper, the original one having retired some years back, leaving the position open. Tracey had been without much of a consistent job and took it since the pay was so good, plus it came with housing attached. There was also plenty of Pokémon that passed, and the occasional wandering Trainer that could keep him company or let him draw them and their Pokémon, a favorite pastime of his.

The black-haired man sighed, it was afternoon and he was bored as he finished sipping his tea. He grabbed his sketchbook, wandered upstairs and went outside to the balcony – the wind rustled his clothes and hair as he stood. “Right, anything that wants to be drawn…?” he thought aloud. Some migrating Wingull roosted nearby amongst the usual coast residents of Pidgeys, its evolutions, and the local Corsolas, Poliwags, and others that lived there. Tracey smiled, and began to scribble away as his Marill joined alongside him.

He continued his penmanship until a low, soft, feminine voice was heard, a kind of singing. Tracey’s hand stopped, and rested the thick book against the wet, rusted railing. He scratched his chin thoughtfully whilst Marill blinked in wonderment, her mouth agape. He pointed a finger toward the ocean. “Y’know,” said Tracey. “I really do think that they’re out there.” Marill looked over, eyebrow raised. “Well, you know what I mean.” He leaned in and whispered. “Come on…I know that you can feel their presence as well…”

He did not get an answer, as Marill was looking out towards the fog covered ocean where the voice could be heard. Tracey looked down, only to see that down below, the Pokémon looked the exact same way. The man blinked but said nothing. He just followed their gaze and remained silent as they all peered into the wispy soup.

OoOoO

Later that afternoon, a young man of about his mid-twenties came slowly trudging along the dirt path from the nearby forest. With a Pikachu resting on his shoulder, the man walked with a carefree nature, his black shirt and pants were simple, but what was most strange of all was that he had a dark blue coat – almost like a cape – on him for warmth.

He seemed to wander aimlessly till he heard a sultry sound, it carried along the breeze. It was delicate yet packed a pleasant spine chilling evocation with it. “Wow, that’s some voice,” he said, mildly awed. He looked to his Pikachu. “What do you say, buddy? Shall we follow this strange but alluring voice?”

“Pi Pikachu!” squeaked the mouse in agreement. Ash hummed in agreement.

He followed against the sea breeze till he reached the water – his feet stopping as soon as he felt rock beneath him. He looked out across the rocks where the sea met land. “So this is Cerulean City?” he said. “Well, the air is salty enough for it.” He shivered in the breeze and began to notice that the light was fading. “Almost nightfall…can’t stay out here. Brr…” Pikachu whimpered and buried himself in his Master’s cloak. He looked around and saw the giant lighthouse to his left, behind it stood the city itself. Slowly and carefully, he began to trudge toward it.

A short walk later he reached the city and found his way to an inn. A rather shabby looking place built out of grey stone. The raven haired man wandered in and tapped the bell for service. “Coming!” a voice yelled. A girl who looked barely past nineteen came sprinting from a room behind the counter before she nearly impaled herself on the wooden desk; her hands saved her as they reached out to stop her from the accident. She had dark blue hair which flowed all over her face from the inertia.

“Careful,” chuckled the traveler. “It’s not a race.”

“Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind,” said the girl as she pushed her hair back into place behind her ears. “Right…welcome to the Cerulean Playhouse Inn, I’m your host, Dawn Berlitz! How may I help you today?”

“Cerulean…P-playhouse…Inn…? Eh?”

“Pi pika…”

“Cerulean Playhouse Inn,” repeated Dawn. “This was once the site of an old theater, some of the old framework was used to create this place a hundred years ago. As a gesture of hospitality, I love to entertain the guests daily with a Pokémon performance. You know, like a Pokémon Contest.”

“Ah, I see, sounds great,” the man said.

“Good to hear!” chirped Dawn with a sway of her head. “Anyways, what’s your need here?”

“I’d like a room, stay time indeterminate,” he said. “I’m Ash by the way, Ash Ketchum.”

“Ash Ketchum,” repeated Dawn as she scribbled his name down. “Um, why ‘indeterminate’?” Ash flinched.

“Just trust me. I’m a little in the dark on the matter myself.”

“I think I get it…” said Dawn with a nervous chuckle. They continued the paperwork and Dawn soon finished up. “Right,” she said, holding a hand out to the doorway on her left, “if you’ll just follow me sir, we’ll be at your room.”

Ash followed her, but just as Dawn began to go up the stairs, a man with blond hair suddenly stomped into view on the upstairs landing and looked down at Ash grimly. “Hey, what’s the big idea?!” he shouted. Dawn pinched the bridge of her nose in annoyance.

“Barry, he’s a customer, he’s not here to steal your glory as a Pokémon trainer or…”

“Oh yeah!? Well, if he is after my glory then I’m tripling his fine!”

Ash blinked. “Triple my fine? I’m broke enough as it is…”

“Oh no, Mr. Black Hair show off! You’re not stealing any of my glory. Me and Empoleon shall crush you, and—”

“Barry!” shouted Dawn. “As if anything like that has to do with anything!”

“Oh yes it does!” replied Barry with an accusatory finger. He slammed the railing with both of his hands, fumes practically roaring from his nostrils. “You listen here, tough guy! This establishment has tons of trainers staying here overnight every day! They’re in, they’re out. Take the hint! We don’t have the room to house some dude who says he doesn’t know how long he’ll be here! Honestly…!” And he stormed off.

Dawn gritted her teeth. “Ignore him,” she said as looked back at him. Ash could only grimace at her unsubtle twitching eyebrow. He could only imagine that what that ‘Barry’ had said wasn’t close to the tip of Dawn’s iceberg.

“R-right…”

Dawn said no more on the matter and lead – with noticeable irritation – Ash into his assigned room. She was about to leave when…

“Excuse, Dawn?” began Ash. “But may I ask a question of you?”

“Sure thing – what do you need to know?”

“Well, to start. How long have you been here?”

“For over half of my life,” replied Dawn. “My Mother and I moved here from the Sinnoh region to have a fresher start.”

“I see. Then tell me – what do you know of the Cerulean Sirens?”

Dawn’s originally polite countenance fell to an uncertain one. “The Sirens…?” she muttered. “Not sure in all honesty. But every time a major fog comes rolling in we hear these strange sounds coming from the ocean. There have been rumors, you see, about how the Sirens use the fog to sneak about and intermingle with us humans once we’ve gone and lost ourselves in the soup.”

“Yeah, it would seem right for them given their descriptions,” said Ash. “But, tell me, do you believe they exist?”

The bluenette tapped her chin in thought. “I guess. Though I’d much rather meet one than go on believing simple fishermen’s tales.”

Ash nodded. “Just curious,” he added, by way of deflecting any questions about why he had asked. “Good night.”

“Good night,” said Dawn with a bow. She turned back and closed his door. Once Ash was sure she was out of earshot, he walked to the window and opened it. For the second time that evening, a strange melody filled the air – soft yet powerful, calming yet unnerving.

OoOoO

It won’t lift for anytime soon it seems, thought Tracey as he stared in boredom out of the observation window the tune the only thing keeping him amused – he then blew the foghorn once again before stepping out to the balcony. When he did he heard strange splashing sounds from below. He scanned the area but saw nothing. Must be a Pokémon…

It was only the fog that covered the mysterious singer…

Beneath the fog and cold waves a few figures swam up to the surface and looked around. Soon enough they heard the same low song that Ash and Tracey were listening to, they nodded to each other before diving back under the water.

Deep in the water some few miles away from Cerulean they approached a strange civilization made of stone bricks. The two figures swam towards the largest building, protected by two other figures holding tridents, one of whom gave the scouts a stern look before nodding. Inside, the scouts approached a brown-haired figure whose tail flicked back and forth, arms crossed in front of his chest in impatience.

“We overheard the enemy singing out again,” said one, “and as usual, it was directed toward the ape primitives.”

The brown hair figure’s frown deepened. “Ever the persistent ones, those harpies,” he sneered. “I swear, when we’re done we won’t ever have to hear our vocals ever directed at those despicable apes ever again!”

OoOoO

“ ‘Well why shouldn’t we?!’ is what we’re obviously yelling to them,” huffed a pink-haired figure. She was talking to another one with blue hair, who was sitting next to one with orange hair. “They deserve it, the bratty troublemakers.”

“It’s all changed since our old ruler passed away,” the orange head said with a sigh. “Speaking on the topic of ‘why shouldn’t we’ – where’s Daisy?”

“You called?” said the woman in question. A beautiful blond woman swam elegantly in, her appearance above all else being even more beautiful than her three sisters’. But to call them just humans would be inaccurate – they were Sirens, or to put more simply with terms associated with fantasy, mermaids.

“Yes actually,” put in Lily, the pink-haired one. “We were actually wondering where in you’d gone.”

Daisy swam up the table they were sitting around and grabbed a piece of coral and took a bite out of it. “Just out singing,” she said nonchalantly.

“Singing where?” asked Violet, the blue-haired one.

“Y’know, out on the ocean,” replied Daisy as she avoided eye contact. She began chewing more on her food, this time far more aggressively.

“You were out singing for that lighthouse guy, weren’t you?” said Lily finally. Daisy choked on a piece of the coral fruit. “Knew it!” she sang victoriously, pumping a fist into the water.

“That’s dangerous, you know,” said Misty, the orange-haired, and youngest of the four sisters. “You’re lucky the fogs about. Why do you risk yourself so much just to sing for a guy?”

Daisy recovered from her cough. “You wouldn’t understand, Misty,” she said.

“I think I understand that we’re in enough hot water as it is with the rest of our kind!”

“But,” said Violet pointedly, “you did join us willingly in our stand against Rudy when he became ruler.”

“Y-yes, I did,” said Misty. She looked to Daisy. “I’m just worried about your safety. Not because of the humans but just in case any of Rudy’s thugs goes and finds you.”

“Ha ha! Misty, you worry too much,” said Daisy. “Those silly Sirens wouldn’t go near the human’s settlement unless they were ordered to, and we’re settled too close to them to make threatening us an impossible reality.”

“The pure amount of phobia they have is as sensible as staring into the sun,” Misty muttered. She then yawned. “Well, I’m tired, so I’ll be going to sleep. Come along, Goldeen. Night all.” Her Pokémon partner opened her eyes and quickly swam after her short-haired mistress. Daisy watched her disappear into the cave.

“I think,” she said to no one in particularly, “that that girl could do with something new in her life.”

OoOoO

“It’s quite easy, Dawn,” grumbled Barry as they walked through the hallways. “Just go up to him, say ‘Thank you for your partro-patro…PATRONAGE, at Cerulean Playhouse Inn, but we only do one-night stays, so please have yourself a good stay in this city, and get out!’ It’s easy!”

“Oh cool off,” sneered Dawn. “What’s the harm in him staying for more than one night?”

“It’s the principle,” said Barry pompously. “We serve travelers, not tourists.”

“Ash is hardly a tourist,” said Dawn evenly.

“Oh, taking his side now are we?”

“Not even close. I just don’t think that there is any harm in letting him stay. Besides, it’s hardly written down that we only serve for one night here.”

Barry didn’t immediately reply, he stuffed his hands into his pockets and turned towards another corridor. He huffed heavily. “You’re the one defending him.”

“Only because he’s a nice man, unlike you! Your antagonism to him last night was hardly warranted.”

“Oh just do what you want,” sighed Barry, walking away.

“Honestly,” said Dawn aside before looking in Barry’s direction. “I swear, I could make a living out of dealing with stubborn men like you!”

Just up above, Ash had finished getting ready for his day, in his hand was a strange book, the condition of its binding suggested it was of elderly age. With the book safely in his arms, and Pikachu on the opposite shoulder, he arrived at the top of the second floor landing in time to hear the last part of Dawn and Barry’s spat.

“Ugh!” shouted Dawn in frustration. “Stubborn brat, he should be thankful I even give him as many chances to keep working here as I do!”

“Hah!” said Ash suddenly. Dawn blinked in surprise and whirled round to see Ash beginning to go down the stairs. “Tell us how you really feel.”

Dawn sighed. “He’s only in it for the money, and his work effort is subpar, but he’s a decent hustle in the case of ruffians showing up.” She paused and noticed the strange book. “Oh, what’s that about?”

“This? Ah, just some research I plan on looking into.”

“Is it to do with Sirens?”

“Um – er – well…” Ash slowly crept up to Dawn and leaned in. “Well, yes, it does actually.”

“Wow! Really?! Or are you just pulling an elaborate prank because you think of me as someone who’d believe anything?!”

“What? No, no, no, not at all!” cried Ash in alarm as he stepped back.

Dawn quickly calmed down. Ash could only marvel at the wonder of a woman’s mood swings. “All right then – prove you’re actually on to something.”

Ash sighed and beckoned her closer. He then held out a hand and it began to glow in a blue color in a shape that Dawn could only describe as a ball, then, he made it disappear. Before she could speak, he spoke up. “I’m an Aura user,” he said in a hushed tone. “The society I belong to recently has felt some strange spikes and stagnations coming from this area. However, we really don’t know what’s causing them since those signals are coming from way out on the ocean. What we suspect is that the rumors going around about the actual existence of the Sirens might just be true.”

“So…they might actually exist?”

“Might is an accurate word for this situation,” he replied. “The legends spoke of them being able to harness a great power and channel it through various methods with their advanced technology that’s incomparable to our very own. But…” he added with uncertainty, “again, we just don’t have any confirmation.”

Dawn mulled the situation over, all of the info she got was quite shocking to her and she was struggling to comprehend it all, but he said it all with such conviction that she fully believed it. “So, what you’re saying is, is that there appears to be trouble, but it’s only a theory?”

“Yeah, it’s only an idea. I have no idea until I finally know what’s happening.”

“Wait though!” said Dawn as realization came to her. “If we’re in danger, shouldn’t the citizens know about it…?”

“Shh! Shh!” said Ash sharply. He brought a finger to Dawn’s lips. “As I said, it’s just an idea. No one else can know why I’m here, at least not until I know exactly what’s going on here. Dawn,” he added quietly. “Can I trust you to not say a word about this anyone else? Extra people knowing what’s happening might cause more trouble than necessary.” Dawn’s eyes widened, Ash didn’t seem to be playing light anymore, his look was extremely serious – whatever it was that he was looking into, it wasn’t a dead end. She nodded affirmatively. “Good.” Ash smiled, and then quickly took his leave into the misty city.

OoOoO

“…Wake up! Wake up!” came a prattling voice on the other end of her seaweed curtain. Misty groaned and got up from the shell that was her bed.

“What do you need, Daisy?” she asked sleepily.

“It’s already eight o’clock actually!” said Daisy cheerily. “So, like, it’s you who should’ve been up a while ago missy. Anyways…!” Daisy then invited herself into her sister’s room. “I was, like, thinking that you could do with a routine change, so come with me!”

“Go with you where…?”

“Oh, just around the reef. It’s been too long since we’ve spent time together – you really got to wonder where time flies.”

“That time took flight as a result of you disappearing of somewhere quite regularly recently…” said Misty sarcastically.

“Oh lighten up,” sang Daisy, and swam off with Misty reluctantly following.

Along the waves, Daisy saw a male Siren swimming a few yards away from where she and Misty were travelling. The male frowned when he saw the two approaching. “And just where are you two ladies off to at this hour?” he asked cautiously.

“Morning to you too, Sean,” replied Daisy crisply.

“You’ve got some nerve being snippy,” grumbled Sean. “You’re the ones who went and defected – your pitiful resistance group lives pathetically. Honestly, your opinions are all insane.”

“I don’t recall asking for your opinions at all,” answered Daisy. “I’ll ask when I want an idiot’s position.” And she quickly swam off.

“Nicely handled,” praised Misty when they were out of earshot.

“You get used to it when you’re on the defending side,” said Daisy with a smile. “Anyways, this is your surprise.” She pointed towards the surface of the ocean, though the light looked more fractured than usual.

“Huh, a storm might be passing by,” observed Misty.

“Yeah, I felt it in the waves,” added Daisy. “But all the same, you’ll really like what I’m about to show you.” Before Misty could voice an opinion, Daisy grabbed her by the wrist and pull her up to the surface, the area they were was covered with rocks, one of which the blond rested herself against.

“Ugh! The surface?” coughed Misty. “What is it from here that you’d want me to see?”

“Take a look.” The orange head opened her eyes and gazed upwards to what Daisy had been pointing to and gasped. It was the lighthouse, standing tall and somewhat menacingly over the washed clifftops and swirling fog.

“The lighthouse?!” she spluttered. “Wait a minute, what are you showing me a human structure for?”

“One – I think it’s beautiful, two – you’ve never seen it yourself before, and three – take a look up there…” said Daisy, whose tone went surprisingly soft on her third statement.

“What am I looking for?”

Her older sister pointed a finger at the male figure with black hair atop the balcony. “Him,” she said dreamily. “Oh…what a looker that one is. His name is Tracey. I’ve been observing his movements for a while recently.”

“So this is where you’ve been off to all this time?”

“Yeah, it’s quite out of the way from Rudy and his goons, and no one else really passes through here except for Pokémon, so I can observe him in peace.” Misty blinked, clearly not understanding. “I think he’s sweet,” went on Daisy. “You know what he does aside from keeping that light going? He watches the Pokémon, closely at that, he even draws them in that weird book of his…”

“Draws?”

“Yes. He talks often to that Marill of his, they seem awfully close. He calls himself a Pokémon Watcher, which I think has to do with that drawing habit of his. Whatever drawing means, it seems similar to our photos back home. So I think it’s just an archaic version of that – even if it does seem like a lot of work for something we could do in seconds. So primitive! Although…I wish I could get the chance to see his work up close, just to know what it’s like.”

Misty gulped. “You wouldn’t risk approaching him, would you?”

“What, are you suddenly as afraid of the humans as the rest of those ‘Magikarp’ we call our kind as well?”

“N-no…” said Misty quietly as she sunk under the water, her sister following. “I’m just scared for your sakes.”

Daisy smiled gently at her little sister. “Don’t worry, Misty, I’ve been careful, and if my observations are anything to go by, he’s curious about us as well. Well,” she added with a mischievous snicker, “mostly in me, that is. I am the one who has been singing for him recently. Ooh! I know, I could sing right now actually.” Daisy immediately popped her head out the water. Misty didn’t know why, but in reflex she dove further down into the water.

She watched as Daisy began to sing. They were both so preoccupied that failed to notice that Misty’s Goldeen was beginning to panic. The nearby weeds were swaying furiously, and the Pokémon began to scatter – the girls were oblivious to it.

OoOoO

Ash made his way through the fog, all the areas closest to the water in town was packed with people either at market or fishing. He wanted to begin his search by investigating places where he had heard the strange song being sung the night before. The book told him that often with Sirens the first sign of them being about would be fog. Deducing from that, he decided to head back to the lighthouse where the fog had first begun to appear and where the voice originated.

He stepped cautiously through before stepping up to the door and rapped loudly. “Ahoy! Ahoy, Keeper! Anybody home?!” he yelled.

Tracey was just putting some finishing touches on a drawing of his when Ash’s loud knocks disturbed him, luckily, he didn’t ruin his own work. “Who the devil could that be?” he said in surprise.

“Marill, mar?”

Tracey didn’t give in a second thought and hurried downstairs where he found Ash. Tracey couldn’t help but of him as a strange man.

“Ah, hello Keeper,” said Ash as he let himself into the building. “Hope you don’t mind; could do with getting out of the winds.”

“Mm, those winds are bit fierce,” said Tracey. “But anyways, who are you and what do you want? Almost no one from Cerulean visits the lighthouse, except Mrs. Meyers to deliver me bread.”

“Well, I’m not from around here, I’m a traveler,” said Ash as he aired out his coat. “I’m Ash, Ash Ketchum.”

“Sketchit, Tracey Sketchit.”

“A pleasure, Tracey, and sorry for the intrusion but I’ve come to ask something of you.”

Tracey raised an eyebrow. “About what?”

“Heard any…strange songs lately?”

“Oh, well yes I have,” said Tracey, shocked yet pleased at having someone aside from his Pokémon to talk to about the strange occurrences. “It happens almost every day actually. Just…comes randomly, fog or not. Whoever she is, she has a fantastic voice.”

“I can imagine,” said Ash grinning. “I overheard the tune when I passed by last night. Tell me, do you think it’s a Siren?”

Tracey was astonished! “Y-you believe they exist?”

“Well, do you?” asked Ash. “You’re the one hearing these miraculous songs.”

“I know, and I do believe in them,” answered Tracey confidently. “Well, see I want to. Thing is though, I’ve never seen one.”

“Mmm,” muttered Ash in agreement. Just then the two men both heard a familiar, and spine-chillingly, but calming, female voice – it was the mysterious singer.

“Speak of the Devil…” said Tracey.

“Yeah,” replied Ash. “Think it’s a Siren?”

Tracey seemed unsure, he shook his head to get the doubt out before a more confident looked came to him. “What else is there to explain why those songs keep coming from the ocean?” he said

His visitor only shrugged, before a sight from the window caught his eye. “Well, who knows? Perhaps it’s just our minds playing tricks on us. But oh man, look at that.”

Coming in from the sea were huge rolling waves. “Uh oh,” said Tracey, though he sounded calmer than he should have. “Better keep an eye out – there could be fishermen out on the bay, I only hope they aren’t getting caught in that, or our singer!” Before Ash could speak, Tracey dashed back upstairs. Ash grimaced as he heard the waves.

“Come on,” he said to Pikachu, and dashed out the door. A freak wind passed through, blowing up sea water and tiny pebbles, the waves crashing fiercely against the rocks. Ash heard a high-pitched scream suddenly and followed it. “Don’t worry! I’m coming!”

OoOoO

Misty was panicked as the icy water swirled around her – she couldn’t navigate through all the confusion. Suddenly, she hit a rock face; she thought for a moment that it was a cliff and that she was safe. She held Goldeen and breathed a sigh of relief, then suddenly a large wave came and Misty shrieked as the force hit her and pushed her up the slick rock, she dragged over the jagged structure, her nerves firing off as the feeling of pain coursed through her. She landed tail first into the hard rock surface on the other side. “Ow!” she wailed loudly.

She took in her surroundings as soon as the chaos stopped – there was only enough water to submerge her bottom half, leaving her torso exposed to the earth. “Oh no,” she gasped. She had been forced into a tiny cove, the rock she fell in from being too big to climb. Her tail was bruised and she saw it was beginning to swell – she winced at the sight. She was worried – she was stranded!

Her heart rate began to go up. She was trapped, alone, in plain sight and with Daisy nowhere in sight. “Oh Goldeen,” she whispered in fright. “What if a human finds me…?” She had heard rumors that humans destroyed what they knew nothing about.

Ash jogged as quickly and as safely as he could over the dangerous terrain, whoever was in trouble needed to get out of the storm and fast. Wind and rain buffeted him. He hurried around the stones before halting with a loud screech of his heels.

Splashing before him in a pool of water was a figure that looked like a girl in a swimsuit, her hair orange went only as far as her shoulders. But most shocking for him of all was…

“A…tail?” he said aloud. It was large, green, made of scales, and pretty.

Misty squirmed round and stared in fright, any cry for help was lost in her throat like a cornered Pokémon.

Ash found his voice. “You…” he began. “You’re a Siren, right?”

#Pokemon #zedpercyfan #Pokeshipping #pokeani #SatoKasu #the sirens of cerulean

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elisaphoenix13 · 5 years

Text

Braving The Cold

Happy wasn't there.

Okay. No big deal. He could walk home. It wasn't the first time, and it definitely wouldn't be the last. Except it was the middle of winter and he was not properly dressed to make the walk back home. He could always call Stephen, but he didn't want to bother him about something as trivial as a walk in the cold. The man had more important things to worry about.

So he set off towards the subway. That was only a five minute walk, and the ride itself would be another five but at least he would be out of the elements. From the subway to the tower would be ten minutes. Fifteen at most.

Peter jumps into the train just before the door closes and vigorously rubs his hands together and breathes on them. Shit. He was already shivering. He didn't think it was that cold outside.

The teen jumps out at his stop, zips his sweater all the way up, and throws his hood on after putting his earphones in. Hopefully the music would distract him from the cold. It did for a little while, until about halfway to the tower when he began to shiver so violently, it hurt. Just a little farther, he thought. Then he could curl up on the couch with a heavy blanket and maybe even Levi, and ask Dad to make him some hot chocolate.

Oh good. He wasn't shivering anymore.

Some part of his brain screamed at him saying no, this was very bad. That he needed to find help. Well...the tower was in view so he would have help soon enough.

Peter stumbles inside and toward the private elevator, makes a few attempts to press the button for the family floor, and then tilts his head back against the wall when the correct button lights up. His vision swam now that he was standing still, and he had to lift one if his arms up just to be sure he was still wearing clothes because he was so cold. As soon as the elevator doors open, he staggers out and slowly makes his way to the kitchen where he finds Tony sitting at the table with coffee and a Starkpad. His father looks up upon his arrival and the smile he had quickly turns into one of horror when Peter decided to get friendly with the floor.

"Peter!" Tony scrambles out of his seat and drops to his knees, and Peter nuzzles his face into the engineer's hand when he touches it. "You're ice cold! FRIDAY, tell Stephen to get here right the fuck now!"

Peter wasn't really aware of what happened after that, but he did feel himself being carried at one point, and then he was against something warm and it was heaven. He used whatever strength he had left to press himself against the heat as he felt himself being cocooned. His senses gradually came back after what seemed like forever and the first thing he smelt was tea leaves and incense. He knew that scent belonged to somebody but he couldn't quite put his finger on it yet. The first thing he heard was yelling and it sounded both angry and worried and that upset him so he returned his focus to the smell.

Tea leaves and incense. Tea leaves and incense...

Stephen.

Peter slowly opens his eyes to find himself pressed against the sorcerer's bare chest and his nose buried in his collarbone. Okay. He solved that mystery, but it wasn't Stephen who was yelling. In fact, the man was silent as he rubbed soothing circles onto the teen's bare back where Levi was gently resting. So the cloak was the cocoon.

That only left the obvious answer that Tony must be the one yelling. It took a couple more seconds of focus for his sense of hearing to come back and Peter cringes at the sudden onslaught of noise.

"There was no text Happy! I checked his phone! Next time you sit outside the gates if you can't wait in your usual spot! I never want to see my kid take a nose dive to the floor like that again!" Tony mumbles incoherently when, Peter assumes, he hangs up the phone. "How's he doing Mama Bear?"

"He's coming back. He could probably handle something warm to drink now."

"Hot chocolate for the baby. I'll be right back."

Even if Peter could speak, he wouldn't try to deny being called a baby. He probably looked like one curled up against Stephen, and it felt too nice for him to care. Although when he did manage to croak out some semblance of a word it was, "Mum." How British of him.

Stephen's chest vibrates with his chuckles. "Feeling better Spiderling?"

"Hnn." Because really, that's how he felt and that's all he could muster.

A collection of relieved sighs reaches Peter's ears and he attempts to lift his impossibly heavy head to see who else was them. The sorcerer pushes his head back down to his collarbone and Peter miraculously doesn't fight him. The warm swathe Stephen had him trapped in was too nice anyway.

"I wouldn't do that."

Peter would recognize that Russian lilt anywhere. Natasha was talking to someone. Someone who apparently didn't take her warning seriously because Stephen's magic crackles around them before pushing away whoever got too close. That someone curses when they hit the floor and others in the room laugh at their misfortune.

Rhodey was the next to speak. "That's not Mom Mode Barton. Strange is in full-on Mama Bear Mode. Only Tones is getting close."

Peter felt Stephen's grumble before he heard it. "Please stop talking about me like I'm not here."

"Man, I was just worried about the kid. You didn't need to throw me across the room!"

The Avengers ignore him and go back to their separate activities, and Peter soon feels himself being extracted from his cocoon to which he whines pathetically. He was comfortable!

"I know Underoos...but I brought hot chocolate. Drink this then you can snuggle with Mama Bear all you want."

Peter wasn't about to argue with that, so he accepts the mug of chocolate and slowly drinks the contents with Levi still wrapped around his shoulders. He ignores the concerned glances from their teammates because he was beginning to suspect that he passed out in front of them, and that was embarrassing. Not including the cuddle fest he had with Stephen, but that was something they were used to seeing.

"What happened?" Peter asks quietly and vaguely registers the sorcerer putting his shirt back on.

Tony and Stephen look at each other and the billionaire sighs. "You shaved about ten years of my life."

"We think your spider DNA keeps you from thermoregulating." The sorcerer finally answers.

Tony snorts. "Yeah. So let's not have a repeat of today. If Happy isn't there, you call someone alright?"

Peter nods numbly. "Yeah. Okay."

He places his empty mug on the coffee table, his body pleasantly warm and fuzzy, and then practically falls back over onto Stephen and nuzzles his shoulder. Levi wiggles away and floats behind the couch as Tony replaces the cloak with a heavy blanket and then briefly moves the pair's feet to sit on the couch. He moves their feet back onto his lap, places his own on the coffee table, and then glances around at the full living room.

"Why do I bother giving you guys your own floors if you keep taking over mine?"

Steve smiles but doesn't look up from his notepad. "I'm just up here for that snuggle burrito over there."

"I'll pretend you're drawing fluffy kittens if you give me a copy of that."

"Deal."

Soft snores draw the attention of every single person in the room and Tony had to cover his mouth to hide the fond smile that broke to the surface. The snores not only came from Peter, but also from Stephen whose cheek was resting on top of the teen's head. Brown curls were all that anyone could see since the blanket was pulled up to Peter's nose and the rest of his face was hidden in the sorcerer's neck.

"Strange officially has his cub." Nat whispers affectionately.

Everyone, including Tony, chokes on their laughter.

#tony stark #peter parker #the avengers #mama bear stephen strange #ironstrange #ironstrange family #supremefamily

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spoonqueenus · 4 years

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Re-Imagine creative writing challenge

For this challenge I had to write one of my favourite fairytales from the point of view of the villain. I really enjoyed Rapunzel as a child and Tangled is one of my favourite films. So I haven’t used the Brothers Grimm version which is soo much darker. I enjoy the character of Mother Gothel so I chose to write Tangled from Mother Gothel’s point of view.

So here we go enjoy, or don’t.

Let me know what you guys think.

Mother Gothel

She was dying, she knew it, she looked at her pale wrinkled skin and grimaced pulling her sleeve up as far as it would go to cover the abomination that was now her hand. She knew it had been coming to the end of her life for some time now. Gothel hobbled along the path unsure which way home was at this point. She had heard a prophecy that a new kind of magic could be discovered that would keep one young and beautiful and more importantly alive forever. She knew it was to good to be true, she pulled her hood up and fiddled with her sleeve again determined not to have to look at her wrinkled skin. A flower that could make you young and beautiful forever, it was a brilliant joke very humorous. She took another step and slipped, and landed face down in the mud. She lay there exhausted and defeated. She closed her eyes and then she saw a beam of golden light. Her eyes shot open, and there it was, a golden flower that looked like a Lily. She could barely contain her joy she found a strangely youthful burst of energy as she approached the flower. Suddenly she heard a song inside her head, “Flower gleam and glow, let your power shine, let the clocks reverse bring back what once was mine, what once was mine.” She began to sing along with the song, and grabbed the flower” to her amazement her skin became youthful and soft again, her Grey thinning hair returned to the luscious black hair she had in her youth. She stood taller now, no longer hunched over. Hundreds of years passed and Gothel returned to the flower whenever she began to age. She became addicted to the power. She did not attempt to replicate the flower, despite being a particularly gifted witch. She hid the flower and kept the power for herself.

Before long a kingdom called Corona thrived. Gothel decided to travel to the kingdom she marvelled at the tall buildings and the bustle of people, this kingdom seemed like a place she would like to live. For a few years Gothel did just that, she lived in a modest little cottage on the edge of town for a few years. Gothel saw couples walking in pairs holding hands, she placed her hand in hers and decided that she wanted that. She had met a suitor while sailing boats out in the harbour and fell in love. Discovering this new found love Gothel decided to stop using the flower. She no longer cared to be young and beautiful because she loved her husband. Gothel eventually told her husband that she wanted to have a child. The husband however did not want a child. Soon the husband grew cold and distant towards Gothel. After months of suspecting Gothel caught her husband kissing another woman. In a rage she took her dagger and killed the woman before turning on her husband. Using her gifts as a witch she used magic to dispose of them. Gothel vowed from that day on that she would live alone just her and the flower. However news of the queens mysterious illness had traveled and guards had heard of the infamous flower that had healing properties.

When Gothel returned to the flower she used it to restore her youth. Before she could dig up the flower guards stormed the hill where the flower resided. Gothel hid behind a nearby rock so she could overhear the guards. “WE'VE FOUND IT!” shouted one of the guards as he stumbled up the hill. The Guards dug up the flower and took it to the queen who was gravely ill and pregnant. Gothel returned to her cottage and acted as usual and waited to hear news of the queens recovery she would trick the queen into letting her work as a servant. The flower worked it healed the queen and she gave birth to a healthy baby girl, she was named princess Rapunzel. News of the birth travelled fast. Gothel prepared a hideout in a large tower far away from Corona. Gothel broke into the castle she grabbed the small child’s golden locks and began to sing just as she had done to the flower. The tiny infants hair began to glow. Gothel took her dagger and sliced a few strands to keep for herself. As she pulled the locks away they turned brown and lost their power Gothel's hand aged, she screamed in frustration. In that moment she looked at the sleeping child, picking up the small infant she whispered “Don't worry little flower, Mother Gothel will keep you safe where no one will bother you.”

Mother Gothel as she now called herself, raised the small child as her own, the child's name was Rapunzel, and as she grew her hair grew along with her, longer and longer until it fell to her feet. She kept the girl in a tower far from Corona. Mother Gothel cared for the child for years.

One day while she was still very young and easier to convince, Rapunzel plucked up the courage to ask “Can I go out there?” Rapunzel asked her mother pointing to the only window of the tower. As Mother Gothel had been brushing Rapunzels long golden locks before she stopped suddenly taking time to craft her lie. “The world is a dangerous place little flower, you must stay here where it is safe.”“Yes mummy” Rapunzel replied sulkily kicking her legs out.

As the years went by Rapunzel asked more and more if she could go outside of the tower. Each time Mother Gothel grew more and more anxious as Rapunzel got older she had already begun asking difficult questions, especially about the lights on her birthday. Mother Gothel knew she couldn't risk the child being recognised. On the day of her eighteenth birthday Rapunzel asked again. Mother Gothel shut her down throwing every reason possible to persuade Rapunzel to stay home. She had seemed to accept things after Mother Gothel had agreed to go and collect white shells to make a paint for Rapunzel, a trip that would take her three days.

Mother Gothel was almost trampled by a giant white horse. She noticed a sun shaped mark on the saddle. “Oh, a palace horse, wheres your rider?” the horse rans off into the trees. “Rapunzel! Let down your haair!”, “Rapunzel, RAPUNZEL!” Mother Gothel in a blind fury tore through a pile of bricks hiding a secret passage into the tower. She destroys the tower searching for any sign of Rapunzel, instead she discovers a satchel containing a crown and a wanted poster for a man named Flynn Ryder.

While searching the forest Mother Gothel discovers Rapunzel in a tavern nearby, she hides behind a window listening. She discovers that Rapunzel plans to see the lights she sees every year on her birthday. The tavern is raided by guards, “Where's Ryder, where is he? I know he's here somewhere, turn this place upside down.” The captain of the guard gestures at his men, and they begin searching the tavern. A strange man with a hook for a hand opens a secret tunnel “Go live your dream” Rapunzel and a Flynn escape through the tunnel. The guards follow the guard captains horse Maximus down the tunnel. Mother Gothel approaches a small man with a white beard drunkenly singing to himself “I gotta dream, I got some dream” he notices Mother Gothel. “Ohhh, somebody get me a glass, cause I just found me, a tall drink of water.” Mother Gothel uses this chance to gain information from this strange small man “Oh, stop it you big lug.” She points her dagger at him. “Wheres that tunnel lead?” the man cowers “Knife!”

Mother Gothel notices two bandits looking for a fight. “I'll kill him that Ryder, best to kill him, let's go get that crown.” “Oh boys, perhaps you want to stop acting like wild dogs chasing their tails, and think for a moment. The bandits draw swords pointing them directly at her. “Oh, please there's no need for that.” she throws the satchel. The two bandits begin playing tug of war with the satchels. Mother Gothel, turns to leave. “Well if that's all you desire, then be on your way. I was going to offer you something worth one thousand crowns, would have made you rich beyond belief. And that wasn't even the best part. Oh well, C'est la vie. Enjoy your crown.” The two men stop to look at Mother Gothel. “What's the best part?” Mother Gothel turns holding the poster of Flynn. “It comes with revenge, on Flynn Ryder.” She says in a sing song voice.

As Flynn heads off into the woods, Mother Gothel uses this chance to speak to Rapunzel alone. “I thought he'd never leave.” Rapunzel turns looking stunned to see her Mother.

“Mother?, how did you find me?”“It wasn't difficult, I just followed the sound of betrayal”.

“Come on Rapunzel we're leaving now!”

“No, you don't understand, I've been on the most incredible journey, I even met someone.”

Mother Gothel laughed, it was a horrible spiteful sound. “Ah, yes the thief, I'm so proud.” Rapunzel scowled at Mother Gothel in a similar way she had when she was a small child. “Let's go.” Mother Gothel tried to pull Rapunzel by the arm. “Wait, I think he likes me.” Rapunzel stammered while pulling her arm from Mother Gothel. Mother Gothel looked at Rapunzel briefly shocked that she had dared to retort.“Likes you?, Rapunzel that's demented, This whole romance you've invented just proves you're too naive to be here. Come on now let's just go home, I'm here now...”

“NO!” Rapunzel screamed.

“No? Oh I see how it is, because you're so clever, you know best, well then if he's so special why not give him this.” Mother Gothel holds the satchel between two wrinkling fingers. Rapunzels face registered shock before returning to scowling at Mother Gothel. “How could you...”

“Give it to him and you'll see.”Mother Gothel interrupted.

“I trust him.” Mother Gothel turned her back on Rapunzel.

“If he's lying don't come crying, I won't say I told you so.” She swung her cloak and vanished into the night.

The bandits move restlessly hidden behind the trees, watching Mother Gothel as she watches Rapunzel patiently. “Patience boys” she almost sang, with a hint of enjoyment in her tone. She watched as Rapunzel headed for the boats with Flynn. Once Flynn wanders off alone she sends in the bandits catch up with him, he struggles as they tie him to the wheel of a boat and send it towards the town of Corona. Rapunzel approaches one of the bandits “I was starting to think you'd taken the crown and left.”

“He did” snarled the bandit revealing his gruff face. Rapunzel staggered backward, eyes wide with fear as the bandit stalked toward her. “Fair trade, the crown for a girl with magical hair, how much do you think someone will pay to stay young and healthy forever?”

“No, no please?” Rapunzel begged.

“RAPUNZEL!” Mother Gothel lunged forward hitting the bandit in the head, knocking him unconscious.

“Mother?”

“Thank goodness you're safe, I followed you and saw them attack, quickly lets go before they come to.” The two ran off toward the tower.

“There, it never happened, we can put this whole thing behind us now that everything is back in its proper place.” Mother Gothel cleaned as she talked with a sense of accomplishment, she had done it, no one would take her flower away from her now. Flynn was on his way to the guillotine to die for his crimes and the bandits had no idea how to find the tower. Rapunzel slowly made her way up to her room head down feet dragging, completely defeated. Mother Gothel hears a crash up stairs. “Rapunzel? Whats going on up there?” there was panic in her voice now, what if one of the bandits had followed them and taken her. Rapunzel ran down her stairs looking crazed. “I'm the lost princess”

“Rapunzel, please don't mumble.”

“I'm the lost princess, aren't I, did I mumble mother or should I even call you that?”

Mother Gothel laughs “You really have lost it, do you hear yourself?”

“It was you all along”

“Everything I've done was to protect you...” Mother Gothel places her hand on Rapunzels shoulder.

Rapunzel violently shoves Mother Gothel’s hand away and advanced on her. “I've spent my whole life hiding from people, when I should have been hiding from YOU!” Mother Gothel took a step back momentarily shocked that Rapunzel had dared to question her. “He won't be there for you” She snaps back at the accusation. “What have you done?”

“That criminal is to be hanged for his crimes.”

“NO!”

“I WILL NEVER LET YOU USE MY HAIR AGAIN!”

Mother Gothel grabbed chains and bound them around Rapunzel as she turned to leave. “You want me to be the bad guy, find I'm the bad guy.”

Flynn bursts in through the tower and attacks Mother Gothel, during the scuffle, she stabs Flynn in the back. “Now look what you've done Rapunzel, it's ok our secret will die with him, stop fighting me!”

“No, I'll never stop fighting you or trying to get away from you!” Rapunzels words stung, Mother Gothel had cared for this child and raised her as much as she told herself she didn't care, deep down she did.

“If you let me save him, I'll go with you.”

“No” Flynn groaned.

Rapunzel thrust her hair in Flynn's hand.

“I can't let you do this.”

Flynn took the dagger from his chest and sliced Rapunzels hair before it could heal him.

Gothel crawls towards the couple her skin begins to wrinkle. “NO, Noo, What have you done?” she pulls her self up unsteadily leaning against the window, she couldn't stand any longer and tripped, falling out of the window. She was dying and this time for good. She felt nothing, her body turned to ash as she fell.

#creative writing #writing practice #writing #story reimagined

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dukereviewsmovies · 4 years

Text

Duke Reviews: Doctor Strange

Hello, I'm Andrew Leduc And Welcome To Duke Reviews Where We Continue Our Look At The Marvel Cinematic Universe...

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By Talking About Marvel's First Dive Into The Realm Of Magic, With Doctor Strange...

This Film Introduces The Talented Neurosurgeon Doctor Stephen Strange, Who After A Tragic Car Accident Must Put His Ego Aside To Learn The Secrets Of A Hidden World Of Mysticism And Alternate Dimensions. Once Learned Strange Realizes He Must Use His New Powers To Protect The World From A Deadly Enemy Who Is Out To Destroy It...

Will Strange Stop This New Enemy With The Help Of His New Allies?

Let's Find Out As We Watch Doctor Strange...

The Film Starts In Kathmandu As The Sorcerer Kaecilius (Played By Not My Hannibal Lecter) Enter The Secret Compound Of Kamar Taj And Behead It's Librarian So They Can Steal A Few Pages From An Ancient Mythical Text That Belongs To The Ancient One (Played By Tilda Swinton)...

Who Finds Kaecilius Inside Of The Library And Warns Him That The Ritual He Carries Will Only Bring Him Sorrow But Trying To Escape It Leads To A Short Fight With Kaecilius And His Followers Against The Ancient One...

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(Start At 2:12, End At 3:44)

We Then Meet Doctor Stephen Strange (Played By Benedict Cumberbatch) Who Is An Arrogant, Wealthy And Acclaimed Neurosurgeon. However, After A Car Accident Severely Injures His Hands To The Point That He Can't Operate Anymore, Fellow Surgeon And Possible Ex-Girlfriend, Christine Palmer (Played By Rachel McAdams) Tries To Help Strange Move On With His Life As He Does Physical Therapy...

But Unable To Accept His New Reality, Strange Pursues Experimental Surgeries To Try To Heal His Hands And Nearly Bankrupts Himself In The Process. However, When He Hears About A Man Named Jonathan Pangborn (Played By Benjamin Bratt)...

Who's Probably Glad He's Not In A Comic Book Movie Involving Cats...

Anyway, Pangborn Is A Paraplegic Who Mysteriously Regained The Use Of His Legs And Despite Hating Strange For Not Helping Him When He Came To Him For Help, He Decides To Help Him By Telling Him About Kamar Taj, But Warns Him That The Price For What He Seeks Is High...

Travelling To Kathmandu To Find Kamar Taj, Strange Eventually Meets Mordo (Played By Scar From The Remake Of The Lion King)

And Yes, I Know I Forgot To Mention In My Civil War Review That Rafiki Is Black Panther's Father But I'll Probably Mention It Again In My Eventual Review Of Black Panther That Will Happen Sooner Than I Think It Will Be...

Anyway, Strange Meets Mordo Who Takes Him To Kamar Taj To Meet The Ancient One Who (After A Bit Of Riddicule From Strange) Demonstrates Her Power Before Him Which In Itself Is One Big Acid Trip...

Though She Refuses At First To Train Strange Because She's Worried That He Is Too Much Like Kaecilius, The Ancient One Eventually Decides To Train Him At Mordo's Insistence That Kamar Taj Could Use A Man Like Strange...

And So The Training Begins...Cue Training Montage!

After Months Of Training With The Ancient One And Mordo And Borrowing Books From The Library That's Guarded By Master Wong (Played By Benedict Wong) Strange Reaches An Advanced Level, So Advanced That He Secretly Reads From The Text That Kaecilius Stole Pages From And Learning To Bend Time With The Eye Of Agamotto...

Caught By Wong And Mordo, They Warn Strange Against Breaking The Laws Of Nature, Asking How He Did That, Strange Tells Them That He Has A Photographic Memory Which Allowed Him To Get His M.D. And Ph.D At The Same Time...

Realizing That Strange Was Born For The Mystic Arts, They Decide To Tell Him The Truth, That While Heroes Like The Avengers Protect The World From Physical Dangers, They Protect Earth From More Magical Threats...

Well, If That's True Where Were You Guys During The Avengers Battle Of New York? Is Loki Not Magical?

Strange Also Learns That The Ancient One Is The Latest In A Long Line Of Sorcerer Supremes That Take Care Of 3 Buildings That Are Called Sanctums That Are In New York, London And Hong Kong Which Are All Accessible Through Kamar Taj That Act As A Shield To Protect Earth From Other Dimensional Threats...

And They In Turn Protect The Sanctums, However As They Talk The Door To The London Sanctum Opens As The Protector Enters For Them To See Him Be Killed By Kaecilius, Who During Strange's Training Has Enacted The Spell And Gained The Powers From The Dark Dimension, The Home Of Dormammu...

Ok, I Realize That Some Of This Sounds Confusing But Dormammu Is The Ruler Of The Dark Dimension, A Being Of Infinite Power And Endless Hunger Who Is On A Quest To Invade Every Universe And Bring Them To The Dark Dimension...

Seeing Kaecilius, Strange, Mordo And Wong Are Unable To Stop Him From Destroying The London Sanctum But The Explosion Is So Powerful It Knocks Strange Into The New York Sanctum, While There He Looks Around Only To Eventually See Kaecilius And His Minions Enter The New York Sanctum To Kill It's Protector...

Fighting Them With The Help of His New Powers And The Help Of An Artifact There Known As The Cloak Of Levitation, Strange Manages To Capture Galen Erso For A Second So He Can Ask Him Some Questions And He Does Discover Kaecilius' Plan Which Is To Send The Earth To The Dark Dimension To Save It From The Greatest Enemy In The World, Time...

But As He Discovers This, Strange Also Learns A That The Ancient One Uses The More Powerful Magics For Herself To Keep Herself Young But As Kaecilius Continues Talking One Of His Henchmen, Stabs Strange In The Gut To The Point That He Has To Transport Himself To The Hospital To Ask Christine To Save Him...

But While She's Operating On Strange, He Passes Out But Defibrillating Him Gets Strange Out Of His Body And Into The Astral Plane So He Can Help Christine Save Him. But Followed By The Same Henchmen Who Stabbed Him In His Astral Form Leads To An Astral Battle Between Strange And The Henchmen...

Eventually Defeating The Henchmen With Christine's Help, Strange Goes Back Into His Body So Christine Can Finish Healing Him As He Explains Everything To Her. But Eventually Returning To The New York Sanctum, Strange Reunites With Mordo And The Ancient One Where Strange Reveals Everything That Kaecilius Told Him About The Ancient One...

Despite The Ancient One Denying This And Mordo Knowing The Responsibility That Rests Upon The Ancient One's Shoulders, Kaecilius And His Minions Return To Try To Destroy The New York Sanctum..

But When Strange Sends Them All To The Mirror Dimension, It Leads To A Scene With Great Inception Level Effects As A Fight Scene With Strange, Mordo And The Ancient One Against Kaecilius And His Minions Happens While Also Throwing In Our Stan Lee Cameo For This Movie...

Stan Lee Cameo!

As Mordo Discovers That The Ancient One Does Draw Power From The Dark Dimension, Kaecilius Stabs Her During Their Fight Which Forces Strange To Take Her Into The Hospital But As She Is Being Operated On, Strange Goes Into The Astral Plane To See The Ancient One Leaving Her Body And Headed Outside Of The Hospital...

There, The Ancient One Talks With Strange Telling Him That He Has A Great Capacity For Goodness But His Arrogance And Fear Of Failure Prevent Him From Learning The One Lesson He Needs To Learn: That It's Not About Him...

Then Why Is The Movie Called Doctor Strange?

Telling Him About How About How Pangborn Uses His Magic, She Tells Strange Before She Dies That He Will Need To Break The Rules In Order To Stop Kaecilius Even If Mordo Doesn't Like It...

Saying Goodbye To Christine, Strange Travels Back To Kamar Taj To Get Mordo, Who Blames This Entire Incident On The Ancient One, Stating That Because She Drew Energy From The Dark Dimension It Lead To The Creation Of Kaecilius And His Minions Saying That The Bill Comes Due Or In Other Words...

Least That's The Way I Like To Put It...

Asking Mordo To Help Him Fight Them, They Arrive In Hong Kong Too Late, Finding Wong Dead, The Sanctum Destroyed And The Dark Dimension Starting To Engulf Earth, Using The Eye Of Agamotto To Reverse Time And Save Wong, But Realizing He Can't Stop The Inevitable, Strange Decides To Enter The Dark Dimension To Take His Case To Dormammu (Voiced By Oh, What A Surprise, Benedict Cumberbatch)...

Seriously, Benedict Just Starting In This Film Wasn't Enough You Had To Lend Your Smaug Voice To The Bad Guy?

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Keeping To His Promise, Dormammu Sends Kaecilius And His Followers To The Dark Dimension As Strange Breaks The Time Loop, But Comparing Strange To The Ancient One, Mordo Renounces His Sorcerer Ways And Leaves....

Returning The Eye Of Agamotto To Kamar Taj, Strange Decides To Take Residence In The New York Sanctum To Continue His Studies With Wong As Our Movie Ends...

We Get A Mid Credits Scene Where Strange Is Visited By Thor (Played By Chris Hemsworth) Who Strange Questions Why He Is On Earth With His Brother Loki? Which Is When Thor Explains That They Are Looking For Their Father, Odin...

Asking If They Will Leave Earth After, Thor Tells Strange Yes, Which Leads Strange To Offer To Help Them...

We Also Get An End Scene, Where Mordo Confronts Pangborn And Steals The Mystic Energy He Uses To Walk As He Claims That Earth Has Too Many Sorcerers Before He Walks Off...

And That's Doctor Strange And...It's Okay...

The Story Is Confusing At Times But The Effects Are Awesome And The Cast Is Great In Their Roles Especially Cumberbatch And Edjiofor So, I Guess I Say See It...

Till Next Time, This Is Duke, Signing Off...

#doctor strange #benidict cumberbatch #rachel mcadams #chiwetel ejiofor #benjamin bratt #mads mikkelsen #Benidict Wong #Marvel #marvel cinematic universe #tilda swinton

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yourdeepestfathoms · 5 years

Note

👀 i see you like Angelica. how about this for a prompt: someone (probably a student or one of Jacob’s “friends”) tries to poison Jacob at dinner for knowing too much about the Vaults but slips up and poisons Angelica’s drink instead? it’s a little random, but I love what you’ve done with her character and want to see more, so this is what I came up with

anon I’m fucking sobbing this is the kind of submissions I dream of getting sent in oh my god I’m so in love with this idea thank you so much I would DIE for you

Jacob was ranting the moment he sat down at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall. He opened up his current journal (he fills MANY- this was probably the third this school year) and flipped to the page he seemed to have just filled out.

“So,” He started with natural enthusiasm about these kind of things, “I’ve got some new information on the Cursed Vaults.”

Angelica raised an eyebrow at him in intrigue, nodding her head as a way of telling him to go on, since her mouth was full.

“We’re in this a lot deeper than I had been expecting, Angie. Way deep. It’s-it’s incredible- the things I’ve discovered recently.” Jacob said, tripping over his words due to his excitement.

“So that’s why you haven’t been to most classes for the past few days,” Angelica said after she swallowed. “Well? Out with it! Spill! I wanna know what you found.”

Jacob smiled.

“Since you asked...”

While he was explaining, Angelica began to feel very lightheaded. She blinked multiple times because a blizzard was suddenly raging across her line of sight. She tried to rub her eyes, but it didn’t help. In fact, it seemed to make her weird case of vertigo worse. Jacob was too invested in his findings to notice how pale she had gotten in just a few moments.

“Hey guys.”

Angelcia reared her dropping head up at the sound of her best friend’s voice. She smiled at him, and he grinned back, but then frowned for some reason.

“Woah, Angel, are you alright?”

Angelica furrowed her eyebrows at him. Was her dizziness that noticeable?

“What are you talking about?” She asked.

“Your eyes...” Chester answered. He extended a hand to touch, but pulled back and sat down beside her. “Your pupils, I mean. They’re, like, really big.”

Angelica blinked a few times, in confusion and to try and clear the snowstorm again.

“Oh. Well, that’s weird. I feel fine, though.”

A little wooziness wasn’t classified as “not fine” in her book, so she was technically telling the truth. Chester would still probably fret over her if she told him, which is why she didn’t, even if her condition was serious.

“Alright...” Chester slowly and then looked at Jacob, “Talking about the Cursed Vaults again? Sorry if I interrupted. You can continue now.”

Jacob nodded.

“No worries! You can hear how amazing this is, too! Seriously, it’s jaw-dropping! Like, I had no idea there were so many Cursed Vaults, but the clues I found said-“ He stops when Angelica started coughing. He looks at her with a confused-concerned look. “Are you alright?”

Angelica waved a hand and then nodded. She cleared her throat.

“Fine,” She said, swallowing thickly, “Just swallowed wrong. Continue!”

“Alright! Anyway, I think there’s one in the library. I’m not sure which one just yet, but I’m sure it’s there and we gotta find it. Could you imagine if we did? We’d show everyone who ever laughed at this! It would be incredi-“

Angelica is coughing again. But it isn’t light or normal, it was...painful. It sounded painful. It was also loud, and other students and professors at their own table turned to look in curiousity.

The Gryffindor raised a hand to try and brush them off, but she couldn’t speak. When she did, a rush of blood, drool, and foam comes from from her mouth. One of Angelica’s now blood-splattered hands smeared against the tabletop as she collapsed to the ground, spasming violently.

The Great Hall erupts in pandemonium.

Chester moves as fast as light. He’s the first to get to Angelica, lifting her head and cradling it above the hard floor. Her jaw is dyed red with blood and she’s still frothing at the lips. Her chest is contracting wildly, desperate for air that she’s just barley able to get into her stinging lungs.

Most students leap away, but Jacob, Felix, and Jane (who were heading over to sit down when this all went down) rushed over. Many professors went to the fallen Gryffindor’s aid as well.

“What the hell is going on?!” Felix exclaimed.

“I don’t know, I don’t know!” Chester replies, his eyes as wide as Angelica’s pupils.

“Poison?” Jacob suddenly said and many heads snap towards him.

“Poison?” Jane echoes.

“Maybe? Who knows!”

Felix starts poking through the food on Angelica’s plate. He runs a nervous hand through his hair.

“Ah, bloody hell, is this coconut? She’s allergic to that, isn’t she?”

“I didn’t have any of that in my food.” Jane put in.

“And I don’t think an allergic reaction would do that,” Jacob motions for the bloody mess being expelled from Angelica’s mouth.

“It can if it’s bad.” Chester said.

Angelica makes a strangled cry of pain, shuddering in Chester’s arms. Her hands raise and she starts to scratch and claw desperately at her throat, like she was trying to open up an airway so she could breathe. Chester sets her head in his lap so he could grab her wrists.

“Don’t do that, Angel,” He chided softly, then raises his head to address everyone gawking, “She has medicine and she needs it now. Someone, I don’t care who, go get it or I swear to Merlin I will kill all of you for being so useless.”

Jacob was the one to jump up and run for the Gryffindor common room. Jane and Felix watched him go before noticing a cloaked student standing near the Great Hall doors. When they noticed them, the student hurried out.

“We’ll be back,” Felix said to Chester before he and Jane both sprinted after the mysterious figure.

Chester didn’t ask about what they were doing because, frankly, he didn’t care. He was too busy trying to soothe his best friend, who was possibly dying in his arms.

Above him, the professors are definitely bouncing theories off of one another, and maybe talking to him, but he ignored them. He didn’t want to dare move Angelica to the Hospital Wing- it could be bad. So, instead, he just decided to keep stroking her hair and telling her she would be okay. She couldn’t respond obviously, but she was still reacting to his words, as her nails curled into his own wrists and her eyes never left his. The fear in those amber irises was similar to that of a wounded lion cub.

“You’re going to be okay, you’re going to be okay,” Chester muttered over and over again, leaning his head down to press his forehead against her own. He closed his eyes and prayed to every celestial being that might be out there for Angelica’s recovery, because he might as well kill himself now if she was just going to die in his arms.

—

The robed wizard hissed softly, swiftly rounding a corner so they could have a moment to catch their breath. Not only did they poison the wrong kid, but they also didn’t add nearly enough nightshade juice to the drink. That child should have been dead in a pool of her own blood and drool by now, but no. She was still struggling to live through the belladonna concoction they had whipped up. Back to the drawing board, they suppose. They had to work fast; that Jacob knew too much, but so did his little friend. Maybe taking her out, too, wouldn’t be such a bad idea.

Manic footsteps and angry yelling echoed down the hallway and the wizard cursed beneath their breath. While they started to run, they couldn’t help but wonder...what asshole planted coconut shavings in that kid’s food?

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scribescribe · 5 years

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Exciting news, guys! You know that infamous Mistworld blooper reel that’s turned up at a couple of cons but seems to be on really tight lockdown until the DVDs come out? Well, they had it at ShiftCon this year, and although they were being really intense about no A/V recording, they didn’t say anything about frantic scribbling...so here’s as good a transcript as I could come up with! I’m sure a missed a bunch of stuff- in the way of blooper reels, there were a LOT of short clips, and I didn’t bother recording things like “everyone making silly faces” because, well, that’s not particularly exciting to read about and also those went by suuuuper fast, but here’s what I have! Enjoy!

Mistworld Bloopers:

-Danai Gurira attempting to dramatically raise the visor on her helmet, but it’s stuck. “On second thought, I prefer to remain mysterious,” she says, as everyone around her cracks up.

-Lupita Nyong'o utterly failing to gracefully draw her very large sword

-Natalie Portman hissing at the camera to show off her vampire fangs

-Karen David, Nicki Minaj, and Sara Bareilles singing a beautifully harmonized “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” for some reason

-Gina Carano and G-Dragon in craft services. G-Dragon says something slowly and exaggeratedly in Korean (subtitles: “please give me a coffee”) [ETA: thanks to the anon in my inbox who gave the Korean: 커피 좀 주세요], then holds up a cup. Gina attempts to repeat it and ends up with something that sounds similar to my ears but the subtitles are “give me a bloody nose” [코피 좀 주세요]. G-Dragon shrugs, puts down the coffee, and instead tries to punch her in the face, but she blocks it, twists his arm around, and punches him showily- he flies off his feet and collapses dramatically on the ground. She looks around guiltily, takes the coffee, and backs out of the frame.

-People milling around setting up for a shot. Someone in a big heavy cloak/coat thing approaches the camera and pulls back their hood to reveal- it’s Dessa. “Guess who’s back!”, she whispers, and winks.

-Montage of Rosario Dawson forgetting that Leila’s horns give her over a foot of extra height and walking into doorframes, tree branches, awnings, etc.

-Jim Rash trying to stand up dramatically in his rowboat and falling over

-G-dragon flailing around trying to get untangled from Alokas’s silks

-A take of the intense conversation between Rai and Nyka outside of a falling Ellsmere on the Ba Sing Se timeline. Santiago Cabrera does the line “...but it was worth it, to see you again,” and Gina Carano nods very seriously and then does the slowwwww lean-in as if to kiss him thing. He immediately catches on and also leans in; they don’t actually get there before someone yells CUT and they break apart laughing, but they get very close. This got an INTENSE scream from the audience, you guys, I’m pretty sure they know what we’re into and are trolling us.

-Rodrigo Santoro concentrating deeply on a magic book. After a very long moment of making a serious doing magic face he says, without ever opening his eyes, “this isn’t a practical effect, is it”. Someone offscreen: “nope!” RS: “you guys are doing it in post”. Offscreen: “yup!” RS: “and everyone’s just waiting for me to get on with this scene” Offscreen: “yeah that’s pretty much it!”

-Tyrese Gibson in the middle of a line addressing Toya, then stopping and going “nope, she’s on the other shoulder, isn’t she. You can just fix that with the CG, right, make her fly around?”

-Montage of the Tymora robot being generally terrible: getting stuck on cracks between floorboards, falling off tables and out of pockets, often followed by laughter, swearing, and apologies off-camera, presumably from the crewmember operating it. A lot of the scene where Rai, Merenith, and Toya “follow” Tymora down the hallways of the mages’ guild in which the robot was apparently having some hard times. Gina Carano has several takes of her monologue to Toya like “I’ve never seen it do anything like this before, it just started walking toward the Mages Guild this morning and it won’t stop….except, uh, now….I see it’s stopped...perhaps the middle of this hallway was very important to Asmun?” or “I’ve never seen it do anything like this before...yes, the slightly eerie twitching and whine of dying batteries is definitely new…”

-everyone who gets caught in the explosion where Rai is possessed by undead!Cord standing around in bathrobes, doing a little dance and chant “Na-ked ep-i-sode! Na-ked ep-i-sode!”

-Tom Hiddleston tripping on his shadowy robes, stumbling, managing to stay upright, and doing jazz hands

-Bex Taylor-Klaus attempting to drink something and having way too much trouble getting figuring out how to get a straw through the dragon prosthetic

-Santiago Cabrera and the double who was standing in for the other Nyka slowly mirroring each other’s movements and then turning to the camera in mock-astonished horror

-Several takes of Rosario Dawson waving her arms dramatically at a monster that presumably will be CGI’d in later and then turning to her companions and declaring: “it’s okay, for the next five minutes it…

-”will think it’s a beagle puppy named Patches”

-”will have to pee really really bad”

-”will sincerely believe that it’s just a tennis ball on a stick”

-”will only want to jam to this beat” (she begins beatboxing)

-”will think Athol is its mommy”

-Manu Bennett dangling from strings in front of a green screen and making dramatic fighter plane noises and he pretends to steer Athol’s glider

-Jim Rash rowing in his boat suspended in the air against a greenscreen, singing sweetly “row row row your boat, gently down the stream...merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily” then turning to look directly into camera and whispering creepily “life is but a dream”

-A montage of fighters dropping their weapons or otherwise messing up their fight choreography, including Lupita Nyong'o whacking Rosario Dawson with her shield, Natalie Portman slicing aggressively with the glaive and accidentally flinging it across the room, Dichen Lachman falling down while trying to heroically charge up a hill, Gina Carano trying to crack her whip and it just flopping around awkwardly, Amandla Stenberg turning the wrong way and dramatically stabbing a place where no one is standing, Manu Bennett throwing an axe and having the head go flying and the handle just plop down at his feet

-Bex Taylor-Klaus pointing at Rodgrigo Santoro and going “and THAT’S a WRAP!” with a cheesy grin, while Rodrigo Santoro shakes his head in extreme judgment.

#mistworld #shiftcon #bloopers #help they're all so cute #I hope I don't get in trouble for posting this #everybody buy the DVDs when they come out

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itsbenedict · 5 years

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Kingdoms and Koopas: Ep. 9

K&K is a Fate Accelerated campaign set in the Mario universe, which I’m running for three players:

Bee @thebeeskneesocks, playing Kandace Koopa

Jovian @jovian12, playing Cozmo Naut

Malky @sleepdepravity, playing Dr. Chevy Chain

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Previously on Kingdoms and Koopas, the gang infiltrated the previously-invisible Orbital Doom Casa of the alien invasion force led by Orbulon, Tatanga the Mysterious Spaceman, and the disembodied head of Sir Grodus. They did a number on Tatanga and rescued Princess Opal, but... they’ve still got to get a hold of the Music Key powering the ship, get out, and do so without causing the now-powerless giant spaceship to fall out of the sky and onto the unsuspecting city below.

Also, an unexpected interloper shows up and has a bad day.

So to kick things off, they’ve got a power core room featuring the power core (which they can’t take without causing the ship they’re on to crash), an unconscious spaceman, and a destroyed mech suit. For reasons I don’t totally understand, they decide their first priority is to hide the evidence of what they’ve done. That means disposing of a ton of huge mech parts- and their search for a mech-parts-sized garbage chute in the power core is fruitless.

So, they call in some assistance from Orbulon. Or, rather, they make use of the codephrase they received from him to command the Space Bunnies at the Bunny Ranch to do their bidding. They head over there, all three of them totally failing their spot checks as they leave.

The Bunny Ranch is incongruous with the rest of the spaceship- the walls are painted sky-blue, there’s astroturf or possibly actual grass on the ground, and all the bunnies are defying gravity and frolicking around. When Chevy speaks the codephrase “time to strike”, they follow her commands. Her commands are to find somewhere to hide the parts of the Pagosu. They don’t say anything to acknowledge this, but they line up and start following the party, so...

When they return to the power core, as they step through the door, they immediately feel the ship lurch, see the lights go out, and notice the consequences of their having failed their spot checks earlier.

What they didn’t notice was a tall figure in a black cloak- you know the tall figure in the black cloak, the one who’s been following them around and apparently trying to steal the Music Keys for Kammy Koopa- slipping into the room as they exited. And what they see on their return is that exact figure, having snatched the Music Key that was keeping the ship afloat, making a break for the elevator to flee.

Thankfully, they rescued Princess Opal earlier. As the princess of the Magic Kingdom, she has magical power to spare- that’s why Tatanga was trying to hypnotize her into serving as the ship’s new power core. She rushes over to do so voluntarily, channeling magic to restore power.

This is heavy work, though, so Kandace decides to help lighten the load- literally. Remember she has that one spell she keeps using on Chevy, the one that makes things lighter- but also softer and rounder? She, uh... attempts to cast this spell on the ship. Yes, the entire ship. No, that shouldn’t have worked. Yes, she rolled pretty well, and I had to give her something.

So the floor and walls of the ship suddenly get- not totally cushiony like the spell does to normal targets, but a little bit softer and springier. The floor is like a trampoline, now.

But meanwhile, the cloaked figure is still getting away! Chevy is in hot pursuit, and accidentally wings one of the central power pylons, but she manages to catch up. Cozmo follows, attempting to, uh...

Well, he’s attempting to ride a firework for speed.

It, uh, doesn’t work exactly as planned. Fireworks aren’t known for being able to support the weight of an entire person, so he sorta eats dirt on account of his aspect Actually Lame. But, hey, there’s a convenient logical consequence of trying to ride a firework: they explode! Even when you’re riding them! Which meant I got to channel Dale Friesen for a sec.

“So, would you like it to explode in your favor, or not in your favor?”

“Oh! Uh, in my favor, please!”

“As you command. The firework explodes in your favor.”

Which means that the force of the explosion is much greater than expected, and Cozmo takes a heavy hit as it explodes underneath him, and... launches him into the elevator, allowing him to catch up to the cloaked figure. Which was his objective, making the roll! Entirely in his favor.

So Cozmo and Chevy manage to get in the elevator with the cloaked figure, and hold the door open for Kandace, not far behind. Opal stays behind to power the ship, and Nauti Naut helps the space bunnies do... something with the Pagosu parts.

Anyway, they roll for initiative and start beating up on this dude as the elevator heads up. They try to snatch the Music Key from his hands, but he has a surprisingly strong grip, and they aren’t having much luck. Plus, he manages to steal Kandace’s broom!

They’re in the middle of this brawl, Chevy having managed to pin him down under his bulk, when the doors to the elevator open- onto the bridge of the ship. They are immediately noticed by X-Naut guards- who recognize Cozmo, and ask what the heck is going on. Entirely truthfully, he tells them that this creepo stole the power core, and they’re trying to get it back so that the ship doesn’t crash. So a couple guards come over to try and join the fight.

Chevy isn’t having any of it- that’d just make all this more complicated. She whips her chain and hits the door close button before they can get inside, and they head back down towards the power core. And they... do a pretty bad job lying about why they did that, making the guards pretty suspicious.

But that’s a problem for later! Back down they go. Chevy finally manages to get the cloaked figure to drop the Music Key by threatening to bite his hand off, and then rolls shockingly well to spit the Music Key back into place as soon as the elevator doors open again.

The cloaked figure, heedless of his assailants, runs to go try and grab it again- but Opal manages to block him, now that the Music Key is in place and she’s not tied up channeling magic. And Kandace follows this up by casting a spell against him.

The spell is a tornado made of fire.

The tornado made of fire behaves erratically, in this round room with two “downs” and no “up”, and begins spinning around the room at high speed. It hits the cloaked figure, lighting up his cloak of magical darkness and burning it to a crisp.

And the true identity of the cloaked figure is...

...some weird tall purple guy with a crooked mustache and a big nose! Sort of an... underwhelming reveal. Kandace thinks maybe she’s seen him before on TV somewhere- like, a sporting event, maybe?

Anyway, they continue trying to down this weirdo. Chevy pops over to the Bunny Ranch to call in the cavalry, while Kandace just goes totally apeshit on him and bites onto his head. Cozmo goes to slap him, and apparently doesn’t know his own strength because it’s a crit that severely wounds the dude, dealing more damage than any single attack the party has ever done. Things continue on in this vein, with Kandace continuing to aggro him, the horde of space bunnies ineffectually pulling at him and impeding his movement, and Cozmo launching him to the ceiling by shoving fireworks up his nose. The whole time, this guy- his name’s “Waluigi”, if you’re wondering- he’s single-mindedly focused on grabbing the Music Key, failing to attack the party.

Having taken him down, the space bunnies disperse and the team is left in... roughly the same situation as before, except instead of a destroyed mech there is an unconscious man with a destroyed nose. The X-Naut guards show up, but their suspicious are quickly dispelled when they see that the party did, in fact, subdue the intruder and return the Music Key to the power core.

(They do worry about Tatanga being unconscious, but the party manages to bluff past their questions- their story is that Tatanga was a traitor who was working with Waluigi to steal the power core.)

Chevy starts patching up Waluigi’s injuries, which Kandace objects to.

Kandace: “Aw, no, why would you do that?! He sucks!”

Chevy: “Hippocratic Oath.”

Kandace: “The Hippocratic Oath doesn’t say anything about having to help people!”

GM: No, it’s mostly about killing hippos.

Jovian: No, that’s the Hippopotamus Oath.

A line that I for some reason found so god damn hilarious that I started laughing uncontrollably and had to spend a couple minutes laboriously regaining my composure. I... couldn’t tell you why; I wasn’t even drunk.

So while Chevy is working on patching up their victim, Kandace works at cross-purposes- drawing a teleportation circle (you know, the kind that teleports stuff specifically to the cloud of one obnoxious Lakitu at the school across the street) underneath Waluigi. Halfway through Chevy’s patch job, she triggers it and banishes his unconscious body. Chevy’s not happy, but what’re you gonna do.

So now they need a plan to actually... take the Music Key. They can’t do it right away, or else the ship falls out of the sky, crushing a bunch of people. They need to get the ship somewhere else first, so that when it crashes it does not cause the kind of carnage typically associated with a spaceship crash.

They’ve got a couple ideas- Chevy heads down the elevator with Opal to investigate Tatanga’s Hypno-Chamber, and Cozmo and Kandace head up the elevator to see if they can convince Grodus to steer the ship somewhere else.

Convincing Grodus... doesn’t go well. He congratulates them for dealing with the intruder, but sees no reason that the ship should land for emergency repairs. They’ve always done their emergency repairs in space, the place they’re from. If they could just land places, they wouldn’t need to go about taking over planets. Duh. So... their rolls to persuade him there don’t go great.

New plan, then: distract Grodus, use the controls while he’s distracted, and land the ship themselves. This is difficult both because the bridge is packed with people who might notice, and also because Grodus is a disembodied head more or less bolted to the control console, and thus is difficult to distract from said controls.

Kandace does her best anyway, though. She puts on a juggling act- with a rotten worm-filled apple she was planning to give to a teacher, a magic crystal, and a Mini-Yux she snags from a nearby and now-unhappy Yux. And... bombs the roll. Grodus is displeased and gives her ten Juggling Demerits, prompting a round of “ooooooooooh”s from the surrounding personnel.

All in all, bad rolls mean their attempts to trick Grodus into flying away end in abject failure. How are Opal and Chevy doing downstairs?

The Hypno-Chamber is pretty sparse- just psychedelic walls, a desk full of miscellaneous hypnosis-related gadgets, and a table to strap people down to. Their investigation, supported by Opal, determines that the transmitter for the wide-cast hypnosis isn’t in the lab- and was probably stored in the Pagosu, which they destroyed and then gave to some mute space bunnies to hide the pieces of, somewhere they can’t tell them because they don’t talk. So Chevy’s Plan A- hypnotize Grodus into getting out of Dodge- is a no-go.

But one thing they do find... is a set of project notes. Including a blueprint for a device, powered by four Music Keys, which would be capable of hypnotizing everyone on the entire planet. And they also contain some diary entries that describe the failure of this project.

Evidently, Tatanga hypnotized someone- some agent, who would be tasked with going to steal the Music Keys from where they were being kept. However, he felt the connection to his hypnotized agent get stolen from him, just as that agent was in the process of stealing the Keys. The agent managed to send him one of the Keys- the blue one now powering the ship- but someone stole the hypnosis and tasked the agent with obtaining the keys for them.

Chevy has a theory- that Kammy Koopa was Tatanga’s agent, and is now working for an unseen master to collect the Music Keys and hypnotize the world.

...Even though, wait, Kammy Koopa supposedly already had the Keys, until something unspecified happened and they all flew away? Hence the mission the party is now on? What exactly is going on behind the scenes, here?

Anyway, Kandace and Cozmo meet up with Chevy and Opal, and they come up with a Plan B. It’s sort of a cross-counter, relying on the existence of two different ways to mind-control people on this ship.

Remember, the X-Production Chamber had a bank of brainwashing machines at the back. Hypnosis victims from Rainbow Road were collected there, all queued up to get more permanently brainwashed by the machines. Tatanga was temporarily hypnotizing people so they wouldn’t resist being placed in those machines and made into honorary X-Nauts.

So... well, they’ve got the unconscious body of Tatanga with them. They have access to brainwashing machines. And Tatanga is a talented hypnotist who can hypnotize people into doing his bidding. So, logically, if they brainwash Tatanga into hypnotizing Grodus, they can get him to steer the ship into, say, the ocean.

It’s a skeezy plan, but, y’know, lives are at stake, and all. Opal agrees to help.

So they lug him down there, and encounter... total chaos. Because... when they knocked out Tatanga, or possibly when they destroyed the mecha broadcasting the hypnotic control signal, all the people lined up to get brainwashed were suddenly less inclined to do that. So there’s just... this massive brawl between the native and brainwashed X-Nauts, and all the unruly prisoners who were in no way restrained except by the now absent hypnosis. It’s total anarchy in there.

They find a group of X-Naut scientists who have taken cover behind a desk, and tell them that hey, they’ve got this traitor here- and he’s the Supreme Hypnotist, so if they can brainwash him, they should be able to get this mess under control with hypnosis again. They’re amenable to this idea, so Chevy and Kandace cross the battlefield over to the brainwashing chairs, while Opal and Cozmo stay behind to watch the scientists operate the computer.

So, the thing about this is that the X-Naut scientists aren’t going to brainwash Tatanga into hypnotizing Grodus. Meaning, they’re going to need to figure out how this brainwashing computer program works, so they can do it themselves. It’s this behemoth of arcane tools, views, and menus that they don’t understand, like the first time you opened Photoshop or an audio editing program or something.

They have mixed results on their rolls to observe, and only figure out how to a) install presets (things like Obey Grodus Unconditionally, Know X-Naut-Fu, Do Space Science, etc.) and futz with the personality sliders.

As they’re trying to figure out more, a Bob-omb goes off and blows away a bunch of the scientists, giving the team an opening to sweep away the rest (literally, in Kandace’s case. Broom.) But now they’ve all got to work together to figure out how to work this crazy thing! There’s a ton of settings and sliders that they have no idea how to use, and they’re going to use them to give Tatanga a fun new personality. It’s time for an episode of Monster Factory: Brain Edition!

Mechanically, this works as follows: You take turns rolling both Clever (to see if you can accomplish what you want to do) and Careful (to see if you avoid terrible side effects). Chevy is good in both, Cozmo is okay in Clever and awful in Careful, and Kandace is high-Clever low-careful.

And then there’s Opal, who has boss-tier Clever, and negative Careful. She’s a mad scientist! Or, magician. She was banned from Mario Kart because her inventions were too unpredictable and dangerous. When it gets to her turn, there will be a problem, guaranteed.

So Chevy, unfortunately, bombs her rolls and accomplishes basically nothing. Cozmo, on his turn, doesn’t manage to accomplish much, and accidentally sets his personality to “incredibly lost and confused”. Kandace manages a little better- she manages to make him devoted to someone, but that someone is Cozmo, not herself.

And then Opal, who rolls high on Clever to make him actually obey Cozmo, and a -3 on Careful. The result- because we were running long and I wanted to hurry things up- was that the brainwashing would wear off very quickly, and they had to act fast.

So they run up to the bridge, towing an extremely-confused Tatanga behind them. When they get there, their plan mostly goes off without a hitch. Tatanga hypnotizes everyone there, they all start chanting “Sir Cozmo”, and Grodus obediently steers the ship into the Enchanted Sea. There is a small glitch in the wording of “gently and carefully” that causes the landing to be less than gentle and careful- but they manage to get it done just before Tatanga’s brainwashing starts wearing off and he starts wondering just why Cozmo is such a good friend when all he’s done is beat him up and then order him around.

So, now what?

Well, they run. They have an escape route, remember- Kandace drew a teleportation circle in the power core, the one she used to banish Waluigi! As Cozmo and the rest handle Grodus upstairs, she nabs the Music Key and shuts down the ship. It starts sinking, so Chevy rolls mondo good on Forcefully smashing through the elevator doors and falling down there and dashing for the power core. They all crowd into the teleportation circle, Kandace triggers it, and they’re outta there!

So, next time... well, next time they’ll be emerging from the cloud of Ted the Storm God again, and who knows what kind of hot water that’s gonna be landing them in?

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#kingdoms and koopas #waluigi

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